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sitp-recs · 2 years

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Hidden Gems by @sorrybutblog

Happy happy birthday iota! Today we celebrate two of my favourite fandom people, the power that you guys hold 😌 This list was supposed to be published later on in the series but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to scream again about your wonderful work. It’s been lovely to share this fandom space with you, and to get to know you better in the last few months. I’ve been in love with your fics ever since I read Waiting for that Feeling and now I finally get to share a proper reclist with your hidden gems!

I’ve told you this before but the first word that comes to mind when I think of your writing is “refreshing”. Your characters are a charming mix of open and tentative, a bit bold and a bit shy, and I can never guess what they’re doing or saying next, which is really exciting because it keeps me engaged at all times. I love how your Harry and Draco have such unique and interesting personalities; considering so many authors focus on Draco’s POV, your Harry has quickly become one of the most captivating takes I’ve seen on him lately.

Whenever I’m reading a iota fic I’m surprised by an unexpected joke that makes me snort out loud, or a subtle confession that makes me take a deep breath and go back to reread that line a few times. I love your brand of slice-of-life, light and fun but also contemplative and so so sexy (honestly, I haven’t seen someone make T and M content this sexy in a long time!) with low key angst, clever humor, engaging dialogue and A+ purposeful flirting. Your delicious UST and fab sense of humour got me immediately obsessed with both Heartlines and A Truth - I remember thinking “Wow iota has such a cool VIBE and I love it!”. Being in such a big fandom surrounded by many talented authors, I think it’s impressive that you found a strong, unique voice and are able to come up with original ways to approach these characters and tropes.

I’m always excited when I see you’ve posted a new fic because I know it’s gonna be a lovely treat perfectly crafted to meet my tastes. My picks probably aren’t a surprise to anyone - least of all iota 😂 - as I’ve been praising these gems for a while now. These are my 7 favorites but everyone should also go check her drabble collection. May I suggest Ephemera, Curiosity and Blue as a starting point? You’re welcome. Happy birthday my darling, I wish you all the nicest things and a lovely day! It’s a privilege to share this fandom with you :)

Eavesdrop (2021, T, 1k) - technically a microfic but I like it so much I wanted to include a small review. I love this concept and how iota gives them so much character here, jealous Harry is so hot! They come together nice and easy, and the hopeful ending left me wanting all the 8th year sneaking around (sorry, Michael!)

The walls at the Leaky Cauldron were paper thin. Harry knew this because he could hear Malfoy next door.

Market Saturdays (2021, M, 3.2k) - you know what they say, market romance is peak romance!!! This domestic fluff is everything I didn’t know I needed, I’ve read this fic multiple times and it never fails to make my heart ache with sweet tenderness for them. This gentle short story will cleanse your skin and cure your anxiety, results guaranteed or your money back 👌🏼

In which Harry is an accidental part-time cheesemonger, Draco is an organic farmer and they fall in love. Not an AU.

Waiting for that Feeling (2021, T, 3.8k) - road trip my beloved! This is a breathtaking and immersive friends to lovers tale with light angst, a perfect Ronald Weasley and soft contemplative vibes. It was my very first iota fic and it became an instant fave, I’ll always have a special spot for it inside my heart.

Draco Malfoy has a car and Harry Potter is on the case! Featuring Muggle car repair, a road trip to Cornwall, and falling in love in a Ford Fiesta. Read my rec here.

Postcards From Italy (2021, E, 6k) - the CMBYN AU we deserve! This fic combines delicious summery vibes with the gorgeous Italian aesthetique and a sexy, organic and quite charming acquaintances-to-lovers get together. I wanna live inside this pool party/nightclub/bathtub perfect universe, please and thank!

A pool party, a nightclub, a bathtub. Draco Malfoy is the last person Harry expected to run into the summer before his third year of university, but he's not complaining (at least not anymore).

Not Nineteen Forever (2022, E, 6k) - I still can’t believe this wonderful de-aging goodness was written for Liv day! This is a perfect Auror partners romance with the BEST sassy 19yo Draco, pining Harry, sweet friends to lovers with adorable flirting and a nod to Daddy kink 😳 basically everything I love in one place, sweet and clever and smutty as all lovely things iota creates.

A rogue charm hits on a mission and suddenly, Draco is nineteen again. Harry is still thirty-five and doing his best to look after his de-aged Auror partner (and forget about his long unrequited crush) until St. Mungo’s can brew the antidote. Only, Draco insists on wandering around Harry’s flat wearing nothing but Harry’s pants, flirting like his life depends on it and in the end, Harry’s only human after all. Read my rec here.

A Truth Universally Acknowledged (2021, M, 17k) - the ultimate P&P-inspired Drarry with perfect enemies to fuck buddies to friends (and lovers). Harry’s voice and want for Draco! The urgent sneaking around! The countryside romance! This fic is so so good it left me a bit incoherent, please expect a proper rec as soon as I stop screaming about this.

A year out from the war, Harry agrees to accompany Hermione on a historical walking tour of Pride and Prejudice. Not in the itinerary: running into Draco Malfoy, setting off a summer of stately homes, lavish parties, resentful shagging, and maybe, falling in love.

Heartlines (2022, T, 22k) - my favorite Cluefest this year, excellent and intriguing case fic with sentient Houses, competent Auror!Harry, surprising and brilliant sense of humour, delicious slow burn with clever dialogue and tons of UST! This fic is sexy, mysterious, funny and charming all at once, definitely a must read.

Just as Draco Malfoy's life seems to be getting back on track, the magic at Malfoy Manor is spinning out of control. Auror partners Harry Potter and Angelina Johnson are assigned to the case and quickly find that nothing about the situation is obvious. The flare ups are unpredictable at best, downright dangerous at worst, and why has a Hogwarts first year gone missing at the same time? Read my rec here.

#hidden gems s2 #happy birthday iota!!! 🎉🎉🎉

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akaashisbabygirl · 3 years

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a/n: i kinda rushed this fic while having a headache, so i’m on my way to head to bed now because i’ve things to do tomorrow and i don’t want a headache! i hope that you all enjoy and feel free to send me what you thought of this fic!

words: 1622

pairings: musician!semi x female!reader

warnings: vaginal penetration, dumbification, oral (female receiving), fingering, degradation (like twice), multiple positions, semi recording the readers moans, nipple sucking, stomach bulge, restraining of readers hands with his own, reader is on birth control, no condom use, creampie, mentions of oral (male receiving)

it’s not easy to become the lead member of band. in fact, it’s rather difficult. not everyone was going to like his music, or maybe they would like some but dislike the other. semi eita knew this from the very start, yet he still chose this particular career choice to condone. spending the afternoons of volleyball practice playing his guitar, teaching himself and writing sheet music was something eita enjoyed and something he wanted to pursue as a career choice.

that’s where he was now, stuck in the bed by your side, his guitar in hand, papers of failed music littering the floor as he tried to come up with a new song idea. nothing had seemed to be working - nothing yet in fact. note combinations had already been used in his previous songs or had already been taken by other musicians. eita wasn’t someone who wanted to steal music ideas from others, or take their pathway to success. he knew that right now, in this very moment, he wanted to come up with a song that would completely blow everyone away.

and that’s when an idea popped into his head.

a rather sinister idea seeming idea from the expression he wore on his face, yet, at the same time it just seemed so perfect.

“y/n, could you… help me for a second?” he asked, turning himself to face you.

“yeah! of course. what do you want me to help you with?”

eita pushed his items to the floor, crawling over to you. you blushed as you felt the shirtless man pin you down onto the bed underneath you, pinning your hands softly above your head with his own. it was obvious where this situation was escalating, yet, what eita said next had still shocked you.

“can i record your moans? your moans are so beautiful and soft, i think i could write a song using your moans as a reference,” eita explained as his head dipped to take your earlobe softly between his teeth.

“you can!” you consented, trying your best to hide the fact that you were rather excited for this.

“thank you, angel,” eita mumbles, pressing a kiss onto your lips and slowly moving away, grabbing his phone to open up the voice recorder app.

he set everything up nicely before making his way back to you. his greedy hands started to tug on the oversized blue shirt you were wearing, his shirt actually. throwing onto the floor, eita mumbled a quick, “no bra?” before attaching his lips around your nipple, softly sucking on the soft flesh, his fingers tracing over your hip bone. his actions had you bucking your hips higher for him. hands desperately trying to move as he kept both your smaller hands pinned with his one large one.

you bucked your hips up, feeling his knee rest in the middle of your thighs. groaning softly, you bucked your hips up, clothed cunt brushing slightly against his thigh.

“are you wet angel? i bet you’re getting wet by rubbing your slutty cunt on my thigh,” eita mumbled into your ear, causing you to blush slightly.

his hand made its way into your pants, a small gasp leaving your lips as you felt his warm fingers running along your damp panties.

“you’re so wet, i think we need to get these off,” he smirked, tugging your pants down your legs, wet lace panties following next.

you moaned softly at the feeling of his slim finger running against your wet slit. moans elicited from your mouth as eita pushed two fingers into your tight walls. your walls clenched around his fingers, cries of pleasure falling from your soft, pink lips.

the noises and cries of pleasure that semi was recording.

the same noises and cries of pleasure that he was going to use as reference for his new song.

you weren’t lying to say that the thought of recording your moans wasn’t turning you on.

because it was.

eita curled his long digits inside of you, listening to the soft and beautiful noises which escaped your lips. he removed his hand from yours, letting your arms run free. eita pulled his fingers from your cunt, admiring how your slick covered his digits. your hands rushed to his soft silver coloured hair as he moved his face down to meet with your dripping folds, his tongue slowly moving out of his mouth as his large hands held your thighs open for him.

eita smiled, loving the way you shook whenever his tongue made contact with your sweet spot; he knew just how sensitive you are down there, and he planned to use this knowledge to his advantage.

“i’ve only just started, angel. don’t tell me you’re getting close already,” he chuckled against your thighs.

he moved his head, letting his tongue trail against your entrance, in between your folds, and all the way back up to your clit. he gave your clit a gentle kiss, rerunning his tongue in circles around it, but never actually touching your clit, teasing you yet again. it was all in his plan - tease you so much, that eventually you won’t hold back with the beautiful sounds your mouth makes.

eita’s pace was too slow for you, yet, he knew that. he knew that doing this would only make you want more, so he kept teasing.

slowly running his tongue against your folds, kissing your entrance, eita let you feel his warm breath against your clit. his hands were busy, rubbing the skin of your inner thigh softly, keeping them spread far apart. he kept teasing and teasing, making sure that you got to your limit before he actually made you feel good. minutes passed by quickly, and you grew needier and needier. your legs were shaking, and you couldn’t keep yourself from moving your fingers up to toy with your hardened bud, making soft moans fall from your lips, doing anything you possible good to make yourself feel good.

seeing you play with your own nipples gave eita the signal that this was the right time to get serious. he moved his lips up to your clit, gently poking his tongue at it, rubbing it in circles gently as he sucked, and even nibbled a bit. as time went on, his pace spread up, licking faster and faster, his grip on your thighs tightening as you became unable to move your legs anymore.

at this moment, you knew that you were completely under eita’s control. you moaned and gasped, calling out his name over and over again, getting close to your climax. you gripped onto his silver hair, tugging on it, while arching your back and thrusting your hips, your toes curling up and biting your bottom lip. your eyes were shut tight and your mind was hazy. like a bolt of lightning, pleasure spread from your clit throughout your hole body with force, causing you to cry out as you reached your climax.

“e-eita,” you were pushed onto your stomach, his hands spreading your legs once more as he worked to remove his own sweatpants and boxers.

eita restrained your hands behind your back with his own, hands moving to bend you over the bed as he let his cock run along your entrance, collecting your slit.

you gasped as he entered you, feeling eita’s free hand move to your hair, tugging your hair backwards as he thrusted his hips into yours. cries of his name fell from your lips, almost as if it were a chant. tears welled up in your eyes as you moaned. is this what eita wanted to hear? is this what he wanted to use as inspiration for his new song?

how embarrassed would you be, listening at his live convert to know that this song was inspired by noises you made from him fucking you? very embarrassed - yet, the thought of it still turned you on.

being sensitive from your previous climax, you were ready to cum again. you tried holding it back as soon as possible, but the second you felt the tip of his cock hitting your cervix, you had lost all control. you climax again with another cry of his name.

you felt yourself being pushed onto your back once again, his cock entering you again. you felt full. stuffed full by eita’s cock. your hands gripped the sheets as his hand made its way down to your tummy, pressing down lightly on your small body.

“can you feel where my cock sits? my big cock in your tiny cunt,” semi mumbled against your skin.

eita could feel his own climax building up from the way your walls clenched down tightly around him. he loved the way you had become so obedient for him; so good for him. he loved the way your tight cunt was made for him and only time to fuck.

“gonna cum inside your slutty pussy,” he groaned out, his thrusts getting sloppier as he felt you climax around his cock again.

a cry of your name left his lips as he shot his seed inside of you, panting your walls white. eita pulled out of you, watching how your mixed cum dripped from your hole.

“thank you, angel,” he muttered, kissing your forehead.

the next day, eita got to work. he worked well and hard, listening to the audio over and over again, even having you come and suck him off because the sound of your moans had gotten him hard while he worked.

you stood in the crowd with a giant red blush on your face, hearing eita sing and play the music to a song which was inspired by your moans during sex.

#haikyuu smut #semi smut #nsfw—🎟

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hualianff · 3 years

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Human/Omega

(Minor NSFW)

HC is in the middle of mixing a plethora of drinks for a woman’s birthday party when his phone begins vibrating in his shirt pocket. The bartender pays it no mind as he finishes pouring the drinks into eight flutes. He adds a pinch of mint and slices of limes on the glass rims, then loads them onto a tray for the server to take to the birthday girl’s table.

HC’s phone ceases its silent ringing for only a few seconds before starting up again. He looks around at the several new customers at the bar, deciding his phone can wait. Perhaps the caller can simply leave a message once they realize HC won’t pick up. As one of the two bartenders who work weekend shifts when the bar is typically packed, HC can’t afford to waste time checking his phone, much less taking unnecessary phone calls.

When his phone vibrates for the third time, HC is a bit miffed at this point. He’s just taken orders from two separate groups; one consisting of older businessmen who looked at HC’s tattoos and long hair with disgust and one with younger-looking individuals who already appeared inebriated. HX is busy refilling the ice machine in the back, leaving HC at the front to hold down the fort for the time being.

As HC reaches down to grab a combination of goblet and rocks glasses, he has the peculiar urge to at the very least check the caller ID. Unless it was an emergency, HC would decline the call and go back to his business. HC heads to the back with a handful of glasses in one hand while the other reaches into his pocket and powers on his phone.

Thank god he did. The nameplate “A-Lian” flashes on the screen. HC messily deposits the glasses on the back counter, earning him an annoyed glance from HX who approaches with a tub full of ice.

“Gege!? Are you okay?” HC questions as soon as he answers the call. Anxiousness courses through his veins at the thought that his boyfriend had been attempting to reach him this entire time. XL knows HC’s work schedule, knows HC is incredibly busy at the bar, and HC knows XL wouldn’t call three times in a row unless it was an emergency.

Through the phone, the sound of XL’s ragged breathing nearly makes HC’s heart stop.

“I-I’m okay, San Lang. I just- if it’s not too much of a bother, c-could you come over? Please?” XL weakly asks. Hesitantly, he adds, “I’m in preheat.”

HC’s heart painfully clenches at how noticeably vulnerable his boyfriend sounds. As if he wouldn’t drop everything to come to XL’s aid when he needed it, preheat or not.

But holy shit, his omega is enduring his preheat alone-

“Of course, darling. I’ll be there in twenty,” HC responds, making eye contact with HX. His co-worker nods as he understands the message. He passes HC by with the ice, muttering that he’ll contact YY to come in early.

“Are you in your nest right now?” HC slowly asks, keeping the panic out of his voice, not wanting to freak XL out.

“Yes. I’m nice and warm. I have the fuzzy blanket Feng Xin got me for Christmas. And Mu Qing brought over his heat pack to help with cramps,” XL says.

HC abandons the glasses on the counter and goes to hang up his apron. Reaching for his keys and wallet, the bartender exits through the back door with his phone tightly clutched in his grip.

“I’m glad you’re comfortable, gege. Sit tight and relax. Drink some water and eat something if you feel hungry. I’ll be there soon, okay?” HC tenderly says. He’ll have to make the fastest trip to his apartment to pack for the next few days. Plus, supplies for when they’re both too tired to cook or suddenly fall ill.

On the other end of the line, XL lets out a grateful sigh.

“Thank you so much, San Lang. I love you.” he shakily whispers. “And I miss you.”

“I love and miss you too, darling.”

***

When HC walks through the door, backpack and duffle bag in tow, XL is prepared to leap through the air and glomp onto his human, burying his nose into HC’s neck.

“San Lang!! Hmm, you smell so good,” XL mumbles, muffled from HC’s jacket. “Missed you. Missed you so much.”

Unperturbed by the additional weight of an endearing omega, HC lovingly pets XL’s hair, then kisses the crown of his head.

“What does this San Lang smell like?” HC playfully asks. XL purrs softly, nuzzling against what would be HC’s scent glands. “Gege?”

“Like my mate,” XL answers, shy yet sure. HC chuckles heartily, dropping the bags in favor of scooping his omega up in his arms.

“You’re so perfect,” HC whispers into XL’s ear. He hikes XL up further by his thighs. “Let’s bring you to your nest, how does that sound?”

XL purrs a bit louder.

Without putting the wolf down, HC grabs some snacks and bottled water from his bags, then heads into XL’s room. On his bed is already a pile of different clothes laid out, of various styles and sizes—clearly from multiple people. HC sets the snacks and drinks on the nightstand, XL clinging to him like a koala.

“Gege,” HC coos, combing through XL’s hair. “Do you want help finishing your nest?”

XL shakes his head decisively, saying, “I’m almost done! I just...need to move a couple of things around.”

He wiggles in HC’s arms. HC places the omega down, stepping back, allowing XL space to rearrange some clothes. XL clears one side of the ring, aware of HC tracking his movements. After a long moment, XL side-eyes HC with pursed lips.

“The jacket or the shirt?” HC asks knowingly, already reaching to pull his clothes off.

“Umm...both. Please.”

HC hands both his upper garments to XL, who perks up with a bright smile as he accepts them. XL places the jacket in the hole that he created earlier, smoothing down the wrinkles and making sure none of the sleeves hung off the side of the bed. The omega proceeds to shed his own shirt in favor of shrugging on HC’s larger black shirt.

Watching XL sigh in content as he’s surrounded by the scents that comfort him the most—HC’s scent being the closest—eases HC’s heart. He waits until XL finishes shaping the nest, making sure the padding is just right. The omega carefully crawls into the nest, rolling around in the intimate space. After he deems the nest complete (for now), XL flops onto his back with limbs spread out like a starfish.

“Okay. I’m ready for San Lang’s cuddles,” XL says, lifting his arms out to HC.

“San Lang cuddles coming right up. And because Gege deserves the best, I’ll add in some San Lang kisses too,” HC says, climbing in next to XL’s smaller frame. XL immediately snuggles up to HC, wrapping his arms around HC’s waist and burrowing against HC’s chest.

“Thank you,” XL breathes out. Strong fingers massage his nape while the others delicately strokes along his back. His body finally relaxes now that HC is here with him in the safety of his nest. “I know this was an inconvenient time for you. I would have waited to call you at the end of your shift but-”

“No buts, A-Lian,” HC says seriously. He kisses XL’s forehead, then his cheeks, and finally his soft lips. “You are my number one priority. Should you ever need or want me, just say the word. I will always be there for you. That’s what mates do.”

XL whines shrilly at that, startling HC for a split second. The omega shifts forward to land a flurry of kisses on his human’s face. Forehead, nose, cheeks, lips. XL even gently pecks HC’s hidden eye above the eyepatch he wears, which HC removes as soon as the omega moves on to enthusiastically scent the human’s neck.

“You’re so sly, San Lang. You know that riles me up,” XL growls against HC’s skin.

“Isn’t that what you called me earlier? Said I smell like your mate?” HC teases. XL lifts his head to fake glare at him. HC offers his wrist up for XL to scent to pacify the wolf. XL half-heartedly licks his inner wrist. His pupils further dilate.

“You’re mocking me.”

“I would never mock my omega.”

“Then take care of your omega,” XL demands, curling his upper lip in a snarl.

He pounces on HC, devouring his mouth with greedy kisses and rubbing himself against his human’s abdomen. Though HC cannot tell, XL’s pheromones instantly spike up, permeating the bedroom with the scent of vanilla mixed with honey. What HC can feel is the dampness leaking through XL’s underwear onto his skin.

So much for cuddles and kisses. XL’s heat is not only nearly two weeks early, but also seems to be taking over quicker than usual. As they lick into each other's mouths, HC rolls them over to hover above his omega.

“San Lang!” XL gasps with an anguished expression. The need to be touched intensifies, a searing sensation piercing his gut. He feels a thumb brush away a tear he didn’t realize had fallen.

“Shh, I’ve got you,” HC promises, joining their foreheads together. “My omega. My mate. My beloved.”

#tgcf #heaven official's blessing #tian guan ci fu #hualian #hualian au #xie lian #hua cheng #cerdrabbles #omega xie lian #human hua cheng #fluff

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i-know-my-value-darling · 4 years

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Supernatural stars reflect on the show's undying legacy

Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins discuss 15 years of fantasy, family, and flannel.

"We only get one shot at this." Sam and Dean Winchester are surrounded. The monster-hunting brothers are standing on the edge of a cliff. They look to Castiel, their brother in arms — or is it wings? — but even he can’t help. One move in the wrong direction could ruin everything. After years of fighting demons, going toe-to- toe with Satan himself, and saving the world multiple times, they once again find themselves in a position of having to perform under pressure. But this situation is unlike anything they’ve ever dealt with before. All eyes are on them as they have one shot…at getting the perfect picture.

It’s a dry, hot August day in Malibu — when people were still allowed to gather outside — as Supernatural stars Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins prepare for the last setup of their final Entertainment Weekly cover shoot. With a bottle of champagne in each of their hands, Ackles once again reminds them they get “one shot” to do this right. But if their characters can shoulder the weight of the world, surely these three can handle a photo. Read the whole story below

The champagne soaking is meant to be a celebration of 15 years, of making television history. Supernatural, the story of two brothers destined to save the world, is the longest-running genre show in the history of American broadcast television. (So old, the first three seasons shot on this thing called film.) What started as an underdog story, living its first few years on the verge of cancellation, has become an institution, a milestone to which other shows aspire. Supernatural not only survived the move from The WB to The CW after its first season — it’s now the final WB show left standing — but became the backbone of the now highly successful CW network. Over the years, the sci-fi series has aired on every weeknight, helping to launch shows including Arrow and The Vampire Diaries. The network moved it one final time, most recently, to Mondays, to help Roswell, New Mexico expand its audience. “Supernatural is a major link to many of the shows that we have successfully built to market,” The CW’s chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz says. “Almost every one of our shows has had it as a lead-out or a lead-in.”

And to think, it all started as a promise to bring horror to television. After Supernatural creator Eric Kripke had finished working with Warner Bros. on 2003’s Tarzan series, he pitched the idea of a reporter who travels around hunting urban legends. As he puts it, it was a Kolchak: The Night Stalker rip-off. But when he realized the story would benefit from having brothers at its core, he started writing. “At the time, The Ring and The Grudge were huge hits in theaters,” Kripke remembers. “We said, ‘We’re going to take that experience and we’re going to put it on TV,’ and the initial goal was to be scary.” After Warner Bros. passed on his first, what he calls “uptight,” draft, Kripke had to reassess the kind of show he was creating. “I canceled all my Christmas plans and wrote that second draft in three weeks,” he says. “That was when the show got its sense of humor, because I was locked alone, over winter break, in my office. I couldn’t do anything fun, so I started entertaining myself.”

The show was still scary, but it was also funny and, over the years, would continue to evolve. Sure, you could say it’s a little bit X-Files — in its early days, the show often used the line “The X-Files meets Route 66” — and there were definite Star Wars influences (Sam and Dean were originally based on Luke Skywalker and Han Solo). But no combination of pop culture is going to perfectly describe Supernatural because the show has managed to do something remarkably rare in the age of peak TV, where audiences are so overwhelmed with content that an original idea seems foreign: It’s created a truly one-of- a-kind experience.

For starters, it’s a show about two flannel-wearing, beer-loving, blue-collar dudes from Kansas who for a good chunk of their lives traveled from cheap motel to cheap motel, paying for gas and greasy diner food with a mix of fake credit cards and money they earned scamming people at the pool table. “Almost all television is about rich people or, at the very least, middle-class people,” co-showrunner Andrew Dabb says. “The fact that we’ve been able to take this Midwestern blue-collar approach to this genre feels like we’re breaking the mold.”

But the mold-breaking didn’t stop there. Supernatural might’ve started out as a horror show with some snarky one-liners, but it evolved into some of the boldest, most experimental (and certainly strangest) stories on the small screen. “We’re a show of big swings,” co-showrunner Robert Singer says. “I used to say, with every idea, ‘This will be a home run or they’ll cancel us,’ but every year we wanted to do something really nuts." And when he says nuts, we’re not just talking about the episode with the talking teddy bear or the murderer targeting imaginary friends. Those are just some standard monsters of the week. We’re talking about the black-and-white episode shot like a classic Hollywood monster movie, or the episode that introduced Chuck (Rob Benedict), a prophet — who’d later reveal himself to be God — who was famous for writing a book series called Supernatural. That, of course, led to Sam and Dean attending a Supernatural fan convention as the show continued to redefine what it meant to inject a series with meta humor. And the swings never stopped. Season 13 featured a Scooby-Doo crossover as an animated Sam, Dean, and Castiel solved a case alongside the Mystery Inc. gang. And in season 14, after giving God a sister a few years prior, the show made the Big Man Himself its final villain. “I don’t think any idea, barring some production concerns, has been viewed as too crazy,” Dabb says. “Because we know that our fans are smart and that they’ll follow these guys anywhere.”

So long as each episode features Sam and Dean — and the occasional heartfelt talk on the hood of the Impala — the show can do just about anything, which is another reason Kripke had to rewrite his first draft of the pilot. Originally, Dean was the only brother who knew about monsters growing up, bringing Sam up to speed later in life. It wasn’t until Kripke figured out that they needed to be in this together that the series snapped into place. Because at the end of it all, they’re two brothers bonded by the loss of their mother and a life spent on the road with an absentee father. (It just so happens that their mother was killed by a demon and their father hunted them.) The familial dynamic — the irrational codependency, as the angel Zachariah (Kurt Fuller) once called it — is the most important part of the show. “The first inkling I had that we had something special was shooting the pilot,” Kripke says. “It was the scene on the bridge when Sam and Dean talk about their mother. It was the first time that you really saw their chemistry and their connection as brothers on full display. Because I’ve always said this show begins and ends with whether you believe that sibling relationship.” But Sam and Dean weren’t just the center of the show. For many years, they were the show.

Supernatural has never been an ensemble drama. For the first 82 hours of the series, Ackles and Padalecki were the only long-running series regulars — Katie Cassidy and Lauren Cohan briefly joined for season 3, appearing in 12 episodes combined. But Sam and Dean weren’t just in every episode; they anchored every episode. (They skipped table reads because there would’ve been only two actors there.) “I had many moments of not only questioning, ‘Can I keep this up?’ but an answer of ‘I cannot keep this up,’ ” Padalecki, 37, who’s been vocal about his struggle in the early seasons, says. “I borrowed strength from Jensen.” But even Ackles, 42, admits it was a tough job. “The 23-episode seasons were nine and a half months of filming,” he adds. “It was a lot of work, but I always came back to: I still enjoy it, I still like telling the story, I still like these characters and the people I work with.”

Not only did the guys stick around, they built a reputation of having created one of the warmest sets in the business, with a number of crew members staying with the production all 15 seasons. It all dates back to a talk Kripke had with his stars during the filming of the series’ second episode. “I said, ‘The show is about your two characters, and with that comes this responsibility,’ ” Kripke says. Padalecki remembers the exact setting of what he calls their “Good Will Hunting moment,” a bench in Stanley Park in Vancouver, where they film. It was a chat both actors took to heart. “We’d both been on other sets,” Ackles says. “We knew we wanted to enjoy it, to have fun with our crew; we wanted them to like us and us to like them and to have fun doing what we do.” It’s an attitude Pedowitz hopes bleeds into other CW shows, an attitude that launched an annual tradition where the CW chairman/CEO takes his new casts out to dinner with the Supernatural guys, a chance for the vets to share advice. “It’s always the most flattering situation,” Padalecki says, recalling a moment he had a few years back with the late Luke Perry, who was a part of the Riverdale cast. “Luke was sitting next to me and he was like, ‘What y’all have done and what we hear about you guys, it’s really cool to be associated with y’all in some way, shape, or form,’” he recalls. “And I’m sitting there pinching myself.”

It’s a behind-the-scenes legacy that’s perhaps just as impressive, if not more so, than the onscreen legacy. Collins, 45, who started as a guest star and the show’s first angel in season 4, has become the show’s third-longest-running series regular, and he still remembers walking onto set his first day. “When you’re coming onto a show as a guest star, it can be a little bit nerve-racking,” Collins says. “Coming to this set, it was an immediately different vibe. Think- ing about working on other shows in the future, that’s something that I aspire to bring with me.”

A similar reputation extends to the fans as well. Not only is the #SPNFamily one of the most dedicated fandoms out there, it’s also known to be a pretty nice one. (Not many fandoms can say they’ve helped launch a crisis support network for their fellow fans.) But their dedication isn’t just about seeing what crazy twist God throws at Team Free Will next. Thanks to fan conventions and social media, the viewers are just as invested in the lives of the actors. Supernatural’s not just about the words on the page, it’s about the actors saying them. “When you’re dealing with the public taste, there’s an alchemy of great writing, a great idea, and the close-up that’s required,” Peter Roth, chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group, says. “You need stars who you want in your living room.” And you need stars who want to be in your living room, and who, even after 15 years, care so deeply that they get emotional while taking photos in Malibu.

"It's going to be a long eight months," Ackles declares. Standing on that same ledge, an hour before the champagne shot, Ackles, Padalecki, and Collins walk away from a group hug after unexpectedly starting to tear up. It might be the setting — looking out over the ocean — or the occasion: their last-ever photo shoot. Or maybe it’s the fact that they’re almost a month into filming their final season.

It had been a question posed to the stars for years: How long will this show continue? How long can it continue? “Even my mom and dad were like, ‘When are you going to be done with this?’” Ackles says with a laugh. It was a decision the network and studio had ultimately put into the actors’ hands, and it was a conversation they’d been having for a while. Back in 2016, Padalecki told EW, “If we don’t make it to [episode] 300, I think Ackles and I will both be truly bummed.” But in season 14, they hit 300…and then kept going. While filming episode 307, they announced the upcoming 15th season would be the end, which will bring them to a total of 327 episodes when all is said and done. “[Jared] and I were always married to the fact that we never wanted to go out with a diet version of what we had,” Ackles says. “We wanted to have enough gas left in the tank to get us racing across the finish line. We didn’t want to limp across.” Padalecki remembers the moment it hit him — not the decision to end it, but rather the opposite. “We had that moment where he and I both realized that we didn’t want it to end,” he says. “It finally got to a point, ironically, where it was like, ‘I never want to leave this. I could do this until the day I die, and then if I get the choice when I’m dead, I’ll re-up!’ But you never want to be the last person at a party. We just knew. That’s not to say there haven’t been vacillations, but we all trust the decision that was made.”

Starting in July 2019, the cast and crew returned to Vancouver to begin filming the final season, but in March 2020, with two episodes left to go, they were sent home. For years, fans had wondered what, if anything, could stop the Winchesters, and now it seems we have the answer: a global pandemic. As sets closed amid social-distancing measures due to the spread of COVID-19, it didn’t take long for fans to start connecting the dots, sharing relevant GIFs from episodes that featured viruses, most notably Chuck telling Dean to hoard toilet paper “like it’s made of gold” before the end of the world in season 5’s “The End.” (Did we mention that Supernatural is also kind of psychic? In a season 6 episode, Dean calls Sam “Walker, Texas Ranger,” which just so happens to be the role Padalecki has lined up after this ends.)

When production paused, it all felt a little like we were living in an episode of the show, just waiting for Sam and Dean to drive up in Baby, open those creaky doors, and save us. They might not be able to do quite that, but the thing with the Winchesters is that they never stay down for long. When Supernatural is able to safely resume production, it will. And though there are only two episodes left to film, fans will enjoy a total of seven unseen hours, including the return of Charlie (Felicia Day) and a mystery woman who visits the bunker and, for some reason, gives Sam and Dean all the holidays they never got to celebrate. “She makes Christmas for them and Thanksgiving, birthday parties, and all that. It’s a very good episode,” Singer says, adding, “I don’t know when it’s going to air.”

That’s the thing—no one knows, not even the guys who took out Yellow Eyes, stopped Leviathans, defeated Death himself, and are supposedly destined to be the messengers of God’s destruction. But Sam and Dean do know the value of a good plan B. “Obviously it’s a horribly unfortunate situation we’re in, but the silver lining is that it gives us an opportunity to recharge,” Ackles says. “We had just finished episode 18, we shot one day of episode 19, and I was reading these two monster scripts thinking, ‘It’s like we’re at the end of a marathon and they want us to sprint for the last two miles.’ I feel like this almost gives us an opportunity to refocus and go into the last two episodes and hit them with everything we got.” Because when they do return to set, shave their quarantine beards, and step back into Sam and Dean’s shoes for the last time, they’ll have one shot at ending this thing…and they’re determined not to miss.

Photos: Peggy Sirota for EW

https://ew.com/tv/supernatural-stars-cover-ew-to-reflect-on-the-shows-undying-legacy/

#supernatural #jensen ackles #jared padalecki #misha collins #last season #season 15 #entertainment weekly #cover story #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #full post #SPN #spn family #new photo #new photos

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30 (Technically 34) Albums We Loved That Happened To Come Out in 2020

So much has already been said and written about this cursed past year, but a few good things came out of it, including the music. Album-wise, like many before it and many to come, it was an embarrassment of riches. But even with so much time on our hands to devour new tunes, it was often old favorites, songs of comfort or familiarity that garnered the heaviest rotation. For many artists, too, it was a year ripe for revisiting or reissues of old material, looking at existing songs with fresh and new perspectives. Simply put, with so much to listen to, new and old, the prospect of ranking a finite number of albums felt not only daunting, but frankly a bit stupid. Maybe we were late to the game, but 2020 taught us that music should and can be appreciated in multiple contexts, not limited to but including when it first came out and when it was heard again and again, even if years later. The records below--listed in alphabetical order--happened to be released in some form in 2020, whether never-before-heard or heard before but in a different format. And the only thing I know is that we’ll be listening to them in 2021 and beyond.

Autechre - SIGN & PLUS (Warp)

The legendary British electronic music duo surprise released SIGN a mere month and a half after its announcement and then PLUS 12 days later. The former was a beatific collection of soundscapes that belied the band’s usual harsh noise, while PLUS embraced that noise right back, drawing you in with the clattering chaotic burbles of opener “DekDre Scap B” and lurching forward. -Jordan Mainzer

Against All Logic - 2017-2019 (Other People)

The perennially chill ambient house artist Nicolas Jaar had a busy 2020, as usual, releasing two albums under his name, Cenizas and Telas. But it was 2017-2019, the follow-up to the debut album from his Against All Logic moniker, that came first and throughout the year helped to illustrate Jaar’s penchant for combining inspired samples with club beats and tape hiss. Take the way the lovelorn vocals of “Fantasy” or soulful coos of “If Loving You Is Wrong” war skittering, scratchy percussion and cool arpeggios, respectively: Jaar is coming into his own as a masterful producer almost a decade after he released his first full-length. Oh, and bonus points for including none other than Lydia Lunch on a banger so blunt it would make Death Grips blush. - JM

Bartees Strange - Live Forever (Memory Music)

Like many, my introduction to Bartees Strange was through Say Goodbye to Pretty Boy, his EP of The National covers. Creativity and shifting perspectives shine through each song’s reimaging, like flipping the coarse, almost manic “Mr. November” into something softer, more meditative. It felt like a mere peek into what was to come on Live Forever. Bartees Strange is a world-builder. Each track on his debut unfolds and welcomes you to a wildly engaging tableau, a fully constructed vision. “Jealousy” opens with soft vocals and birdsong. “In a Cab” is the slick soundtrack to racing through a cityscape in the rain, seeing the blurred lights of the high-rises above as you pass by. “Kelly Rowland” warps wistful pop song feelings. “Flagey God” takes you into a dark, pulsing club while only a few songs later, “Fallen For You” wraps you in echoed vocals and romantic, raw acoustic guitar.

It’s an accomplishment to craft an album of individual songs that stand strongly on their own but still feel cohesive. 2020 wasn’t all bad. It gave us Live Forever, a declaration of an artist’s arrival. - Lauren Lederman

Charli XCX - how i’m feeling now (Atlantic)

Back in the spring, many of us wondered who would put out something great in 2020’s quarantine. It was hard to imagine that the intensity of a global pandemic would really allow for artists to embrace creativity. That thought carries the same eye-roll inducing feeling of “We’ll get some great punk music out of a Trump presidency,” but of course, Charli XCX delivered. Through live workshops with fans and longstanding collaborators, she delivered songs to dance alone to in your bubble. Charli embraces the unknown of the moment but clutches onto what’s familiar. Under the glitch-pop veneer of the album, she digs into the anxieties of not just this moment of time but of the bigger questions we all confront: trajectories of relationships with friends, romantic partners, ourselves. Album standouts “forever” and “i finally understand” embrace that feeling of both looking for control and accepting the lack of it. Charli is a master at balancing this. - LL

Christine and the Queens - La Vita Nuova (Because Music)

Named after a Latin text by Dante Alighieri about missing a woman who has died, Chris’ La Vita Nuova is not about mourning a death but instead about loneliness and isolation, post-relationship or otherwise. It doesn’t bang quite like her previous two albums, but it hits harder than ever.

Read our full review here.

Dogleg - Melee (Triple Crown)

Released on March 13th, right as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Melee was supposed to be supported by three cancelled tours–SXSW, an opening slot for Microwave, and an opening slot for Joyce Manor–and an appearance at this year’s cancelled Pitchfork Music Festival. Listening to the songs on the record, you can only imagine how they translate: the jerky momentum of “Bueno”, build-up of “Prom Hell”, gang vocals of “Fox”, clear-vocal anthem of “Wrist”, and odd groove of “Ender”.

Read “Buckle Up, Motherfucker”, our interview with Dogleg.

Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia & Dua Lipa/The Blessed Madonna: Club Future Nostalgia (Warner)

Where Dua Lipa’s much-anticipated second album Future Nostalgia succeeded was in its disco anthems and retro, club-ready beats, so who better to bring out the best of the record than The Blessed Madonna? The turntablist masterfully curates a mix of heavy hitters of the charts and the underground that not only offers an essential complement to Future Nostalgia but transcends it. Sending the tracks out to various producers and singers for features and then adding her own samples on top, she invites you to peel back the layers, enter a YouTube rabbit hole of sample searching as much as bopping along.

Read our full review here.

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full (Sacred Bones)

Roadburn Festival has long been on my bucket list, and since the pandemic showed me how much live music can be taken away in a flash, when it’s safe again to travel and go to a festival, I may just pull the trigger and go--especially considering it’s the springboard for such fruitful and inspired collaborations as the one between Louisville singer-songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle and Baton Rouge sludge dwellers Thou. Rundle embraces the heavier opportunities on the follow-up to her incredible 2018 record On Dark Horses with the ever-flexible Thou backing her up vocally and instrumentally. Slow-burning opener “Killing Floor” offers a familiar introduction to fans of both--sort of what a Rundle/Thou song would sound like--before grunge chugger “Monolith” introduces huge, catchy riffs and “Out of Existence” a True Widow-esque dirge, newfound inspirations for both artists bringing the best out of each other. - JM

Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters (Epic)

What makes Fetch the Bolt Cutters stand out among Apple’s catalog and music in general is the clarity with which Apple seethes at those who have wronged her, whether ex-boyfriends or patriarchal oppressors, and looks to her relationships with other women for peace of mind.

Read our full review here.

HAIM - Women in Music Pt. III (Columbia)

For HAIM, the title Women in Music Pt. III is suggestive that, more than their previous two records, their third centers around the experiences of being an all-female band in a historically white cis male-dominated scene, at least one that wouldn’t call catchy riffs written by a man “simple” or call attention to the faces a man makes while playing. What it doesn’t let on to is how deeply personal the record is, how, by unabashedly embracing genres and styles of music that they love, HAIM have made far and away their best album. Co-produced by the usual suspects, Danielle Haim, Ariel Rechtshaid, and ex-Vampire Weekender Rostam Batmanglij, it’s instrumentally and aesthetically dynamic and diverse, consistently earnest without devolving into cheese.

Read our full review here.

Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You? (International Anthem)

I’ve been captivated by Irreversible Entanglements ever since I first saw them at Pitchfork Music Festival 2018. The radical poetry of Camae Ayewa (aka Moor Mother) is the perfect front for a ramshackle mix of Luke Stewart’s spidery bass, Tcheser Holmes’ weighty drums, and a horn section that concocts tones that range from hopeful to desperate. At their best, Who Sent You? is a shining example of celebratory Afrofuturism and metaphysics that makes the urgency of Ayewa’s more concrete and political words all the more necessary. “No Más”, composed by Panamanian-born trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, is a declaration against imperialist oppression, while the stunning title track flips the switch like a Kara Walker painting, as Ayewa’s the one interrogating the police officer terrorizing her community. “Who sent you?” she repeats, never spiraling, grabbing a hold of the power and never letting go. - JM

Jeff Parker - Suite for Max Brown (International Anthem/Nonesuch)

It’s Jeff Parker’s mom’s turn. After 2016′s The New Breed ended up being a tribute to the guitarist’s father, who passed away during the making of it, Parker decided to pay tribute to Maxine while she was still alive. Suite for Max Brown (Brown is his mother’s maiden name; Max is what people call her) is a genre-bending collection of tracks inspired by Parker’s DJing, juxtapositions of sequenced beats with improvisation that certainly sound like the brainchild of one individual. Indeed, Parker plays the majority of the instruments on it and engineered most of it at home or during his 2018 Headlands Center residency in Sausalito, CA; though all of the players and the vocalist (Jeff’s daughter Ruby Parker) on The New Breed show up, plus a couple trumpeters (piccolo player Rob Mazurek and Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes) and cellist Katinka Kleijn, Suite for Max Brown is a distinctly Jeff Parker record.

Read our preview of Jeff Parker & The New Breed’s set at Dorian’s last year.

Jeff Rosenstock - NO DREAM (Polyvinyl)

Jeff Rosenstock throws us right into the spinning, manic energy of NO DREAM, his latest release from a seemingly endless well of music that never lacks urgency. It’s a reminder that though it’s been a strange year, the issues Rosenstock tackles here aren’t new. There’s no interest in making you feel comfortable here. On the album’s title track, Rosenstock sings, lulling you into a false sense of security, “They were separating families carelessly / Under the guise of protecting you and me.” But reality sets in, and the hazy guitars spin out as he spits, “It’s not a dream!” and, “Fuck violence!”

My image of Jeff Rosenstock in the year 2020 is masked up with “Black Lives Matter” scrawled across the fabric of his mask in Sharpie, performing album highlight “Scram!” on Late Night with Seth Meyers as high energy as ever. It felt like watching someone send out a beacon, both a distress signal and a call to arms. - LL

Jessie Ware - What’s Your Pleasure? (PMR/Friends Keep Secrets/Interscope)

I am not someone who goes to clubs. I don’t “go out dancing,” preferring to let loose in the privacy of my own home or a trusted friend’s house party. But Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? makes me think I could embrace a night out like that, once the world opens up again, of course. The album is filled with syncopated disco beats that feel fresh and classic all at once. The abundant horns and strings on “Step Into My Life” are decadent, like light bouncing off sequins in a dark room. Ware’s voice is slinky and velvety one moment, windswept like her album cover the next. It’s songs like “Save a Kiss” that embrace both, allowing her to show off her range. - LL

Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter (Partisan)

With sparse production, mostly from her but with additions from Ethan Johns and Dom Monks, Marling foregoes the comparative maximalism of the Blake Mills-produced Semper Femina, her last proper full-length, and 2018′s LUMP collaboration. The songs aren’t simple, but they’re succinct, and every element, from Marling’s finger-picked guitars, the occasional slide guitar, and that unmistakably calm voice, sometimes alone and sometimes layered, fits. It’s her most universal set of songs yet, centering around the times when we’re apart from one another but reflecting on when we were together and when we might be together again, with no guarantees.

Read the rest of our review here.

Les Amazones d’Afrique - Amazones Power (Real World Records)

The groovy pan-African collective expands upon their debut Republique Amazone and then some with Amazones Power, a tour-de-force statement of female empowerment in the face of oppression against women throughout the African diaspora. Indeed, the album is more than just songs boldly decrying FGM, though those demands ring heavily. Instead, the group goes further, delving into gender power structures in marriage on “Queens” and selectively finding strength in tradition on “Dreams”. And this time, they include men to stand alongside with them. “Together we must stand / Together we must end this,” sings Guinean musician/dancer/artist Niariu on opener “Heavy” in solidarity with features Douranne (Boy) Fall and Magueye Diouk (Jon Grace) of Paris band Nyoko Bokbae. But perhaps it’s her kiss-off on “Smile” that hits hardest: “I shut up for no one.” - JM

Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas (Nonesuch)

The British singer-songwriter’s much anticipated follow-up to 2015′s Blood was better than I could have ever imagined. A song cycle about life cycles--of nature, of lives, of a relationship--inspired by an actual breakup, Lianne La Havas is a contemporary neo soul masterpiece. Overview opener “Bittersweet” is an instant earworm, La Havas’ coo-turned-belt filling the space between classic and increasingly emotive slabs of piano and guitar. Funky, lovestruck strut “Read My Mind” is the soundtrack for the unbridled confidence of finding new love. Yes, the doubts begin to sow on the fingerpicked melancholy of “Green Papaya” and “Can’t Fight”, and where the album goes from a simple narrative perspective may be predictable: They break up, they don’t get back together, La Havas enjoys her independence. But the depth of the arrangements and assuredness of La Havas’ singing is a product of an artist starting to really show us what she can do. And how many people can pull off a Radiohead cover like that? - JM

Lomelda - Hannah (Double Double Whammy)

What does it mean to title an album after yourself? Lomelda’s latest album is centered around discovering more about yourself while not always having the answers. Despite the lyrical content, the album is self-assured. Hannah Read’s voice feels as steady as ever as it navigates these twisting questions, like the way the world can shift after a kiss. She finds power in softness and reflection throughout the album, like when she explores the mantra-like words of “Wonder” or through a reminder to do no harm in “Hannah Sun”. In a year that allowed for perhaps more reflection than usual, Hannah makes space for the questions that arise out of figuring yourself out, of making sense of the messiness of it all, wrapped in warm guitar, balanced vocals, and steady drums. - LL

Moses Sumney - Grae (Jagjaguwar)

“Am I vital / If my heart is idle? / Am I doomed?” Moses Sumney famously sang on his stunning 2017 debut Aromanticism, an album that saw him developing his acceptance of being alone. grae, his two-part 2nd full-length, and his first since officially moving from L.A. to the Appalachian Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, doubles down on themes of heartbreak, but instead of being sure in his seclusion, he embraces the unknown. The album teeters between interludes of platitudes about isolation and ruminations on failed human connection, and maximally arranged clutches of uncertainty. “When my mind’s clouded and filled with doubt / That’s when I feel the most alive,” Sumney coos over horns and piano on slinky soul song “Cut Me”; it’s an effective mantra for the album.

Read the rest of our review here.

Norah Jones - Pick Me Up Off The Floor (Blue Note)

At the time we previewed Norah Jones’ 7th studio album, she had only released a few tracks from it. Turns out the rest was just as powerful. From the blues stomp of “Flame Twin” to the rolling piano stylings of “Hurts to Be Alone”, Pick Me Up Off The Floor is an album full of jazzy orchestrations and soul and gospel-indebted arrangements, Jones’ silky, yearning voice tying together the simple, yet lush and deep instrumentation. And that other Tweedy feature, that closes the album? It’s a heartbreaking portrait of loneliness, one of many on a record that still manages to celebrate being alive all the while. - JM

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (Dead Oceans)

Phoebe Bridgers is a master of details. Her lyrics shine when they get specific. They range from the mundane to morbid: A superfan’s ghost-like wandering under a drugstore’s fluorescent lights, a skinhead likely buried under a blooming garden, reckoning with the you in “Moon Song”’s lines, “You are sick, and you’re married / And you might be dying.” Bridgers has always been able to set a scene meticulously, and Punisher arrived with 11 songs that expanded that skill, both lyrically and musically, with her dark humor intact and a fuller sound that includes her boygenuis collaborators’ harmonies. - LL

PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love: The Demos & Dry - The Demos (Island)

Yes, revisiting Dry’s demos as a separate entity is still worthwhile. Harvey’s powerhouse vocal performance carries the acoustic strummed “Oh My Lover”, while the comparatively minimal arrangement of “Victory” highlights bluesy riffing, call-and-response harmonies, and layered guitar and vocals. The singles, the slinky and sharp “Dress” and propulsive anthem “Sheela-Na-Gig”, hold up to their ultimate studio versions, too. But it’s the To Bring You My Love material that provides novelty because it’s never been released and more so because it encompasses the greatest aesthetic contrast from the album. From the warbling hues and guitar lines of the title track to the tremolo haze of “Teclo” to the crisp snares of “Working With The Man”, the demos show a continuity and level of cohesiveness with the diversity of Dry and Rid of Me not shown on the studio version of Harvey’s more accessible commercial breakout. (Predictably, the album’s most well-known song, “Down by the Water”, is the closest to its eventual version.) “Long Snake Moan” is simultaneously more spacious and more noisy, its garage blues a total contrast to the lurking “I Think I’m A Mother” and swaying shanty “Send His Love To Me”. And “The Dancer” fully embraces its flamenco influences, hand claps and all.

Porridge Radio - Every Bad (Secretly Canadian)

Is there a better opening line than “I’m bored to death, let’s argue”? That kind of duality is found across all of Every Bad as it grapples with the frustrations and anxiety of trying to figure it all out, whatever that might mean for you. “Maybe I was born confused, but I’m not,” vocalist Dana Margolin repeats throughout the opening track, roping in listeners with the dizzying feeling of trying to make sense of yourself. The band’s guitar and synth sound coupled with Margolin’s howl makes for a dance party filled with dread, rendering Margolin’s already strong, repetitive lyrics even more spiraling. And yet, by the time we get to “Lilacs”, a glimmer of something else shines through as the music gets more manic and Margolin’s voice begins to soar: “I don’t want to get bitter / I want us to get better / I want us to be kinder / To ourselves and to each other.” - LL

Sault - Untitled (Rise) & Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Originals)

Yes, Black Is still pulls plenty of devastating punches. “Eternal Life”, a segue from the gospel boost of “US”, juxtaposes a deliberate drum beat with zooming synths, both ascending like a chorus of angels, as they sing, “I see sadness in your eye / ‘Cause I know you don’t wanna die,” presenting the oppression of Black life at the hands of white supremacy in inarguable terms. Ultimately, though, it’s the anthemic nature of the songs, resistant of platitudes, that shines through. “Nobody cared / This generation cares,” says Laurette Josiah on “This Generation”. Whether she’s talking about young people in general or the latest generation of young Black leaders, the sentiment is reflected on songs like “Black”, wherein over dynamic, sinewy instrumentation, the singers alternate between encouragement, support, and love of the self and others.

Read our full review here.

Shamir - Shamir (self-released)

Shamir’s voice is a bright beacon in a sea of conventional singers. Shamir captures the effervescence of pop music and weaves it together with elements of country, alt rock, and diary confessional lyrics all supported by the emotion and range of his vocals. There’s something for everyone across the album’s 11 shimmering tracks. Lead single and opener “On My Own” feels like a declaration of self and self-sufficiency, an anthem of a breakup song. The almost pop-punk bounce of “Pretty When I’m Sad”, paired perfectly with lines like the angst-ridden, “Let’s fuck around inside each other’s heads,” feels impossible to not bop along to. The twang of “Other Side” would put a country crooner to shame. That’s the power of Shamir. His voice has the ability to smoothly convey joy, resilience, and humor. He uses elements of several genres, not just the dance-pop of his debut, to build a unique album that gives listeners so much to sift through and, of course, dance to. - LL

Songhoy Blues - Optimisme (Fat Possum)

If Songhoy Blues’ second album Resistance lacked “the grit of its predecessor,” it’s clear from the hard rock stomp of the opening track of Malian band’s third album Optimisme that they rediscovered their mojo. More importantly, they couple this maximal brashness with tributes to those who make their world a better place: fighters for freedom, women, the young. It’s perhaps the first Songhoy Blues record to truly combine the celebratory nature of their desert blues with a balanced mixture of idealism and vigor. - JM

Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone (Pure Noise)

How can you find hope in hopelessness, or optimism when every news story points to cruelty? Is it naïve to keep searching for light in the dark? I don’t think so, and I don’t think Spanish Love Songs does, either. I’d like to think we both believe that’s not naivety, but power. It’s the embers you need to really ignite a flame. After all, this is the band with a song titled “Optimism (As a Radical Life Choice)”. It’s a band whose crunching guitars and earnestness insist that despite death and depression and addiction, the instinct to survive shines brightly above all. That relentless hope resurfaces across Brave Faces Everyone’s 10 tracks even as it works through the bleakness of everyday life. - LL

Tashi Dorji - Stateless (Drag City)

The magnum opus from the Asheville-based picker is a group of evocatively titled, disorderly songs about the desolate hellscape of America for outsiders and immigrants. Enigmatic in its nature, not exactly narrative, Stateless combines Dorji’s urgent strumming with moody motifs, captured beautifully in a studio setting for maximum emotional wallop. - JM

Touche Amore - Lament (Epitaph)

Is this what an almost uplifting Touche Amore album sounds like? It’s cathartic in a newer way for the band, especially after the beautifully rendered grief of Stage Four. Lament loses none of the band’s aggression or urgency. “Come Heroine” thrusts listeners into that urgency and introduces a moment of warmth, Jeremy Bolm’s vocals still rasping and insistent: “You brought me in / You took to me / And reversed the atrophy.” The bounciness of “Reminders” may seem close to optimism, but a sharper look at the lyrics uncovers more than blindly looking to the things that bring joy. “I’ll Be Your Host” is reflective, a few years removed from Touche Amore’s previous album and the immediacy of loss, self-aware and growing, but still raw. The album closer, “A Forecast”, takes a turn, a lone voice and piano acting as a confessional before giving way to thrashing guitars and the realization that growth and reckoning with trauma doesn’t mean minimizing it. It means learning to keep moving forward and to stop for help when you may need it. - LL

Waxahatchee - Saint Cloud (Merge)

The best album yet from Katie Crutchfield is inspired by positive personal change (getting sober, dealing with codependency issues, her blossoming love with singer-songwriter Kevin Morby) and reflections on family and friends. Named after the suburb of Orlando where her father’s from, Saint Cloud is a genre-hopping collection of stories and feelings that doesn’t necessarily follow any semblance of narrative. On opener “Oxbow” and country-tinged ditty “Can’t Do Much”, Crutchfield’s increasingly aware of the need to pick your side and your battles, whether in the relationship between two people or between the allure of the bottle and the next-day hangover. Some of the best songs on the album see her finding commonalities with others as a means towards self-love. Gentle strummer “The Eye” refers to her natural creative relationships with Morby and her sister Allison. “War” she wrote for herself and best friend, who is also sober, the title a metaphor for one’s fight to remain substance-free. “Witches” is an ode to her best friends, including Allison and Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan, all equally frustrated by the toxic nature of the music industry and the world at large, ultimately lifting each other up because they simply have each other.

Read our full review here.

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remmushound · 3 years

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Curse of the Clan part 64!

Tags: @scentedcandlecryptid @selfindulgenz

The streets were alive with the presence of yokai, potentially thousands of them, all gathered where there would normally be humans. They didn't seem to be doing much of anything other than simply mulling around at a slow and casual pace, some of them in small groups happily chatting while others were on their own but just as happy. A few had even taken to sunbathing in the streets, sprawling themselves out on the hot asphalt to soak in the sun; the yokai didn't seem to discriminate between road and sidewalk when it came to exploring, treating it all instead as one big walkway.

“What’s going on?” Raphael asked, his lips pulled down in a frown. “Why are all the yokai out?”

Michelangelo was beaming ear to ear, eyes brighter than gemstones, “There’s no humans in the city! Well— except for April and Casey— so the yokai can come up and enjoy the sunshine! It’s a first for a lot of them; actual, warm sunshine!”

Donatello focused his goggles on the streets below, flicking from yokai to yokai to yokai. A mother rabbit trying to coax her four tiny babies out of the shadows they cowered in. An old kappa holding their beak to the sky with their eyes closed under the bliss of sunbeams. Two young avians wrestling, tumbling about in the streets much to the laughing delight of several nearby yokai.

“They seem to be enjoying themselves.” Donatello commented. “The weather is quite nice.”

“Come on!”

Michelangelo once more grabbed his brothers and urged them onward, down into the streets where they melted into the crowd of yokai without a second glance being cast their way, because they were normal in the eyes of all yokai and nothing to judge. The tight, suffocating nature of the crowd quickly thinned when they reached central park, where the yokai were just as plentiful but more spread out. Some of them had split off into tight family or friend groups, while others were wandering around, either going group to group searching for someone to embrace them into their fold or simply wandering to enjoy the day.

All around them wafted the lovely scents of grilling meats and the alluring, fruity temptation of beautifully assembled fruits. Multiple families shared each of the grills, as there wasn’t enough to go around, and mingled together to enjoy the combined meals. Michelangelo was quick to grow frustrated as his family slowed to gawk in awe at the different groups, Raphael practically drooling over the meaty spendor while Leonardo was more interested in trying to identify all the different yokai, and Donatello was furiously taking notes on their behavior and how they interacted.

Eventually they made it through the crowd and to the only grill that wasn’t already surrounded by dozens; this grill only had three people. Cassandra was setting out plating and snacks far too eagerly, fussing around to make sure it was perfect while April and Sunita were together at the grill. Raphael licked his chops to collect slobber that threatened to drip, so overwhelmed with all the different, meaty options that he got dizzy looking between all of them.

April laughed; she was in a beautiful sundress, her hair done up in braids with beads woven in between, tight against her scalp. She picked a shrimp from the pile and tossed it through the air at Raphael, who caught it in his mouth with a great big SNAP!

“That’s all, big guy.” April said, smirking as she pointed the meat fork at him, “Gotta wait for it all to be done.”

Raphael whined like a dog denied a second treat. Leonardo and Donatello both came up on either side of April to take advantage of the wafting aroma, breathing in deeply and then sighing out slow.

“Smells great!” Leonardo beamed, leaning his head on April’s shoulder.

“Damn well better.” April said confidently, “My mama taught me well!”

“She sure did…” Donatello drooled.

April produced two more shrimp and popped them into either of the twins mouths, making both melt with the euphoric juices.

“We saved the damn world!” April spun around, showing off her kiss-the-cook apron, “I’ll be damned if we ain’t gonna enjoy it!”

Leonardo's eyes wandered until they fell upon a familiar lump of gray in the river, drifting lazily by on an inflatable raft; a speck among a sea of visitors swarming the waters.

“Dad?” Leonardo gawked, and upon his realization all his brothers came to realize the same.

The brothers split apart from the girls and cautiously made their way down the rocks to the rivers shore, Raphael reaching out to snag Splinter’s raft so he couldn’t drift away from them. Splinter opened a lazy eye and snorted not unlike a horse disturbed from its slumber.

“Can’t a rat sleep in peace?” He grumbled.

Leonardo’s attention was drawn away from Splinter as motion under the water proved far more interesting. A tilt of his head and a refocus of his eyes brought him to concentrate instead on the beings under the water; aquatic yokai were swimming along under the rafts, creating a lazy-river of sorts for those floating on the top. They didn't seem to mind it at all.

“Where’d you get the raft, pops?” Raphael asked, giving a faint laugh, “Doesn’t look like any of ours.”

“That’s because it’s not.” Splinter said, reaching to tweak Raphael’s hand in such a way that he had no choice but to let go of the raft. The rat sank back into the plastic happily as he started to drift off again. “I traded it in exchange for stories! Yokai are the best!”

Four confused sets of eyes blinked and turned to Sunita for answers.

“Yokai are really big on trade.” Sunita said with a bright smile.

Michelangelo became suddenly aware of a gentle force tugging at his pants and, upon looking down, he was met with a tiny squid yokai. At first he didn't know what to do, but when he recognized the wide-eyes and child-like features, he kneeled to meet the child’s height.

“Hi!” Michelangelo said.

The child said nothing. He shoved something small and sticky into Michelangelo’s hands; a snail. A very small one.

“Ohh… thank you.” Michelangelo said, because he didn't know what else to say. “Domo arigatou.”

Still, the child said nothing. Instead, he pointed at the paints on Michelangelo’s chest and then at his own chest. It took a second before Michelangelo sucked in a gasp of realization and practically squealed his joy.

“Donald, I require my paints!” Michelangelo held out his snail-free hand out to Donatello.

Leonardo smirked and elbowed Donatello’s side. “He requires his paints.”

Rolling his eyes, Donatello obliged the request and he pulled the emergency paint kit out from his battle shell, passing it over to Michelangelo. The box turtles wasted no time in quickly ushering the yokai child to a nearby bench, a series of excited, high-pitched chirps sounding from him. From there, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello all split apart in search of a venture of their own in the yokai-filled park.

Raphael didn't get far before he heard a voice calling his name, and just as soon he was surrounded by powerful arms that heaved him up with no effort at all. Raphael’s initial instinct was to fend off an attack, but when the scent of the unseen Yokai came to him, he recognized it and began to laugh.

“King!”

King wrapped a massive arm around Raphael’s neck to keep him in a choke hold so he could repeatedly noogie the broad head. Raphael was eventually able to pull free, twirling around and tossing himself at King for a hug.

“I see my blessing worked.” King seemed to be practically glowing under the warmth of the sun, his scales a beautiful and vibrant mix of orange and red instead of the normal brown.

“Y-yeah, yeah!” Raphael nodded, a little breathless. “Yeah. Thanks again for that.”

“Was that your family?” King nodded back to where Raphael and his clan had just been gathered.

“Yeah— that’s my clan! And that’s my dad there on the river— he’s the rat.”

King nodded with a thoughtful hum. “I see your family is just as… colorful as mine. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for them if they’re ever on my side of the Hidden City.”

Raphael nodded an automatic nod with both hands on his hips. “Yeah I uh… thanks. I appreciate that.”

“INCOMING!”

Raphael looked up, confused at the shout and even more confused when he saw a fish falling right at him. King snatched the falling projectile before it could get very far, snaring it in his maw and giving a thankful grunt toward Koya as she flew once more away. King looked down at Raphael and held out the fish to him, which was still thrashing about trying to free itself from the yokai’s relentless grip.

“Oh— no thank you…” said.

King shrugged. He shifted down onto his belly, using his massive hands to pin the fish while he ripped its head clean off and gulped it down. The decapitated fishes body still struggled, which went without a bother from King as he lumbered away and over to Tang Shen who was soaking up the sun. Head bowed, he offered the rest of the fish to her and she accepted, eating it with just as much ferocity as her adoptive son.

Splinter crawled onto shore as his raft came around the bend of the lazy river once more, dragging it along with him as he went to Raphael’s side, staring at the cat and dragon duo with much the same expression as Raphael.

“Are they friends of yours?”

“Uh… that’s King. He gave me my blessing. And uh… that’s his mother Tang Shen.”

“Tang Shen huh?” Splinter eyed the cat curiously as she sucked the flesh from the bone and proceeded to rasp her tongue over the fishes skeleton to lap up any remaining flavor “What. A. Woman.”

#Yokai trade fair!#one chapter left ~

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shyrose57 · 3 years

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Brothers anon, sorry its been like 2 days since I last submitted something! I've been busy and whenever I finally had time to sit down and write this all its like 1 in the morning. I hope its still ok for me to send these.

🌹 anon ima respond to you first, your The Deal au could be the reason why and how Ranboos and Dreams soul got mixed and linked together. But then a problem is how did it pass to Ranbob? In my au, each person has their own soul basically. And while certain attributes like DNA can be passed through bloodlines, souls can't, as their unique to their person.

What left Ranbob vulnerable to Dream is that he was seen as the star student. The apprentice everyone wanted. He always got perfect grades and was seen as the smartest in the City. This did not go well. As Ranbob was put under a ton of pressure to always stay perfect and get everything right. When his grades started to slip and his chosen mentor started to put even more work on him, his mentality started to suffer. With him losing sleep and starting to not care for himself or do the basic necessities like eating or drinking, all in an effort to be "perfect". Its through this need, and weakened state over all, Dream's presence was able to slip in and convince him to let him help.

Benjamin is 30, Isaac 29, Cletus is 24, and Charles is 27.

When Ranbob first told Ran about the Dream mask and how he wasnt himself, Ran did not believe him at all. And kept saying that he needs to stop lying and fess up to what he did and pay for it. Others tried to convince him that his brother really wasn't in control of himself, but was met with strong skepticism, scoffs, and disbelief. With Ran not beliving that was the truth at all.

Watson was very shocked but quickly reorganized himself cause he had to calm Jackie, and its only after Jackie fell asleep he was like "Oh fuck. I really am the dad huh?" Jackie was embarrassed at first but after some prodding did say how he truly saw Watson as a dad figure in his life. And everyone had different reactions to Watson suddenly accepting and fitting into the dad role. Jackie was excited and immediately started calling him dad and asking him awkward dad questions "Dad whats puberty?" "Uhhh-" "Dad where do babies come from?" "Ask your dad about that!" "But you are my dad!" Ran seemed indifferent about it but Watson can tell he's revealed to have someone to talk too, and someone to go to if things get to much. Grievous keeps sating he doesn't need a dad but he's the one that goes to Watson the most for things like hugs, comfort, and advice.

Jackie and Grievous do everything. They rig the battle field so if someone steps in a certain area water will shoot up into their face, Grievous usually taunts and distracts opponents so Jackie can sneak up behind them and just latch onto them and cover their eyes while giggling like a madman as the opponent screams and runs around trying to get him off. Jackie regularly pulls peoples seat out from under them, while Grievous scares them and makes them choke or drop something. But they do know peoples limits. Like for Ran, no water related pranks (there was an incident where Grievous spilled a whole bucket of water on him and Ran got severe burns and had to stay in the hospital ward for a few days), for Watson don't mess with his bow or arrows, he will stab you. And for eachother, Jackie, no pranks that leave him alone for extended periods of time or makes it seems like everyone is gone/left. For Grievous no pranks centered around food or drinks (like putting toothpaste in his sandwich or putting pepper in his beer).

Ran and Jackie have a 50/50 win if that makes sense. They both win and lose pretty often. They play games like Spoons, Go Fish, Dart Throwing (Watson needs to be present for this one), something similar to Cards Against Humanity, Poker (everyone plays during this one), and Tic Tac Toe.

Sometimes Jackie loves being the smallest and other times hates it. He hates it when Ran steals something of his and holds it above his head, he sometimes resorts to aggressively climbing Ran to get it but Ran tends to just pluck him off, and people make fun of him in a mean natured way (he's fine with light teasing). But he loves it when he rides Ran's shoulders or can duck under peoples legs and trip em. Because he's also small and fast he's hard to catch and that definitely comes in handy during fights. No ones particularly protective of eachother (excluding Ran who's protective of everyone), because they know none of them like being babied and they can all hold their own, though they will quickly flock to help eachother if they need it. Ran definitely flaunts it whenever their in a agurement.

There is a area under the fighting arena of the pit where they stay. Theres separate rooms for everyone, training areas, dinning areas, and just chilling areas. Theres even extra rooms meant for often visiting friends (Like Genevieve) and some for storage of weapons which also holds things to sharpen them or get new ones. The Pit itself is in the middle of a gaint city, so there are tons of stores and food areas around. And because of a high salary the King gives them they go out quite often, often eating out and browsing stores when their not training or sleeping.

If by other combinations you mean like Ran-Jackie, Ran-Grievous, Watson-Jackie, and Watson-Grievous then it highly varies. Watson and Jackie are by far the worst team, their styles just don't match and constantly but heads during battles. Watson and Grievous are probably the best out of the 4 teams because Grievous can be serious and works well with Watson as he's much more willing to change his fighting style to accommodate whats needed. Ran and Jackie are like Jackie and Grievous, but they aren't nearly as insane. Rather Ran provides distractions while fighting to give Jackie time to sneak up behind them. Ran also is the only one able to actually throw Jackie, which they sometimes do during battles. And Ran and Grievous work well together, but not as much as Watson and Grievous, its just a few things of both their styles don't match or could potentially cause problems.

He's clumsy flat out, he isn't used to having full control and needs to get used to certain things like walking or talking again. He is also severely dehydrated and malnutritished because Dream didn't care enough to drink or eat. He's also incredibly skittish and scared easily. He and Cletus's relationship isn't solved fast at all, it takes months and the work of everyone to get the two comfortable around eachother. They start by putting Cletus on watching duty, where he watches over Ranbob to make sure he's eating and drinking and resting while not tiring himself out. Then after a month or 2 Isaac, Benjamin, and Charles start purposely leaving the two in a room alone toghere to get them to talk stuff out. It takes 3 months until their comfortable enough with eachother to willingly talk and hang out. Oh the house building attempts went aboustely awful. They sometimes fell on Ranbob! And when they didn't they just collapsed or got blown away by the wind, but Isaac did ofter help a few times and showed him multiple different ways to make sure the walls stay up and keep the cold out.

Ran is very unhappy with Ranbobs haunting, he thinks their kind of like Ranbob in which they've all killed people and considers them a threat at first, but when he sees how his haunting likes and interacts with Ranbob's, he losens up a bit, his group trusts them, so he has to trust them a little bit. But he doesn't trust them or like them nearly as much as he trusts and likes his haunting.

Im guessing you mean who from the two groups get along the easiest. Most of them take a while to get to know eachother, like a few hours. But after that their all really close. Charles and Jackie, Cletus and Grievous, and Benjamin, Isaac, and Watson are the groups that get along really well really fast.

Im honestly probably am going to go for them adventuring outside the City to try to get the brothers to get along again. Mostly cause I thought of the idea that what if Watson, Jackie, and Grievous all lie to Ran, and while they are actually going on an adventure, they lie to him that his brother and his group isn't coming. Then when its much to late for Ran to back out, Watson just goes "Oh yeah! Your brother and his group are traveling with us. And you can't do anything about it." And Ran just sits there shocked.

Ran and Ranbob are both subtle protective of their group. With Ranbob never really getting aggressive or going into overbearing. But for Ran, if someone in his group is injured badly enough or if there's a big enough threat he does get overbearing and extremely aggressive towards whatever/whoever the threat is *cough cough Ranbob cough*. Ranbob tends to be very physical, listening more to a certain instincts that tell him to constantly have a view on or hold his family, as if he doesnt see or touch them for a long time he gets very anxious and panicky, thinking his family is dead and that he's all alone again. His group understands this and so tends to not stray to far away from Ranbob. He will also follow his group like a lost puppy at times. Ran while listens more to the instinct that tells him at random times to make sure his family is ok and to bond with them. The bonding leads to him randomly grabbing them and just sitting down with them, most likely playing games. While the random urge to check on them has led to him waking them up during the middle of the night or interrupting his own conversation or others conversations just to ask if their ok. His took a while to understand why he does it, but now if he wakes them up or drags them somewhere, they know to go along with it and comfort him during those times.

Hybrids are rare! Especially aggressive or netural type mobs like Ran, Ranbob, and Porkius are. Their actually seen as monsters and are chased out or hunted in other city's because people aren't accepting of them. Theres very few city's like Subbin that fully welcome and are even led by hybrids. So there are more hybrids in Subbin, than there is anywhere else.

Sorry this is so long ':)

Asks are always welcome here, and don’t worry about taking a bit or anything. The questions aren’t going anywhere, there’s plenty of time.

Here’s that for you,🌹anon.

--------------------

1: Wow, Ranbob’s really going through it, huh? Does he ever start to fall back on that need to be ‘perfect’ while with the others? If so, how do they deal with that? And how is he with others offering to help him? If he even can really recall falling under Dream’s thrall, by accepting such an offer, how does he react to others doing the same, even if their intentions are far different?

2: So we’ve settled all the ages down, nice. You figure out anything for their backstory yet? And how do their ages affect their relationships with one another? Does Benjamin take the lead a lot? Or is he more of a follower that still has a lot of say? Who met who first?

3: So Ran’s obviously going to be awhile before he believes what went down. Still, I can’t imagine he’d have been as willing to go along with his hauntings little roadtrip plan if he wasn’t swayed at least a bit, since I can’t imagine he wouldn’t have put his foot down if he truly though Ranbob had done what he did. Why exactly does he go along with it? Does some small part of him want to give his brother a chance? Is he just confident he can overpower him, and looking for an opportunity to settle the score? Does he see something that makes him hope a bit? What’s going down there, anon?

4: On one hand, very adorable. One the other hand, poor Watson. Does Jackie actually not know that stuff, or does he do that just to mess with his new father figure? It seems like they all take to it pretty well overall though.

5: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Two people to truly fear. How many people straight up forfeit when faced with this combination? It seems like they’ve had some interesting times, good and bad. How’d those play out? As for those last two, I’m sensing a bit of a backstory. Why does Grievous not like stuff being put into his food? And why’s Jackie not good with being left?

6: So it’s fifty/fifty, huh? Who wins the most at what games? And uh, Watson has to be present for Dart Throwing. What happened there? How’s everyone’s poker faces? Who’s got the best luck in games of chance?

7: A love/hate relationship with height. I feel ya, Jackie. Very funny to imagine though, Jackie just, physically climbing up Ran. How tall even is this guy?? How do they deal with meaner teasing, not just from the gladiators, but from general bullies? Not everybody’s as friendly as some of the Pit fighters, after all. And how do the fishermen react with their fighting skills? Obviously, they must know how to fight somewhat, to have entered the Pit, but the gladiators do this for a living. How much is the difference in skill level? And does the gang ever get to show off just how skilled they are?

8: Their home sounds very nice, honestly, I wished I could live there, minus the people. What’s everyone’s rooms look like? How have they personalized them? Which brings up another question-what kind of interests and hobbies do they have? What kind of things do they do that aren’t fighting and related to such? And they must be pretty well known, to have such high pay. Any of them have an arena title, or some sort of stage name? How many people can recognize the city’s top gladiators on sight? And how do they get around that, when they don’t want to be seen? How do people feel about them in general?

9: All these team ups sound terrifying, and I wouldn’t want to be facing them. How do they deal with it when they get a bad match up? Do they just stay out of each other’s way? Try to take their opponents out quick? Make it one on one? Ran and Jackie have to be my favorite team up, solely for the fact that you’ve said Ran straight up throws him. Like?? Imagine coming to the King’s Pit, a well known, popular place, hoping to prove yourself, and then getting taking out by a flying midget, just tossed at you by a ridiculously tall endermen hybrid. How would you feel??

10: Ranbob is just really going through the ringer here. How many times does he just drop stuff, or trip over his feet? Does he ever get better, or does he still retain a clumsy streak? If so, how does Ran react to that? It’s very good he and Cletus bond! Are they just as close as the others, or is there still a bit of distance? How often does Ranbob forget to eat or drink, or really just take a break? How long does it take to get him to start remembering to do that stuff again?

Does he ever slip up while with the gladiators? Also, in a room? Do the fisherman expand their house more, or do they just leave them in the house? Does Ranbob ever get his own house up? If so, does he use it at all, or is it more for storage? And how many times did he fall asleep out there, get injured, or not realize it was about to rain? How long did it take before Benjamin or Charles put their foot down and make him stay in for a bit?

Has Ranbob ever even dealt with rain before, or a storm above water? If not, how’d he react to it?

11: Oh, boy, Ran. Your concerns are understandable, but definitely going to lead to some angst. Is he just on edge the whole time? How many times does he just glare at them, or straight up steal one of his haunting back a few feet away from Ranbob’s? Are the fishermen ever worried he might hurt them?

12: How do both hybrids deal with their groups bonding? I imagine Ranbob’s pretty happy with it, but how about Ran? As you said, he doesn’t seem to be the biggest fan of these guys.

13: Roadtrip! Gotta love a roadtrip! What kind of places do they head? Any transportation, or is it just walking, enjoying nature? Do they go on an adventure to look for something cool? What’re they getting up to?

14: So Ran and Ranbob both act on their instincts in different ways. How do they feel about seeing how the other acts? What happens if any of the fishermen stray too far, or get separated from Ranbob? Same question to Ran. Ran just...like...picks up members of his haunting? Do people just see him walk around with them dangling in his arms? He must be pretty strong. How often does he do this? How else do their instincts lead to them acting? Cuddle piles, picking up blocks, keeping their groups close together, ect?

15: So Subbin’s pretty much a safe space for hybrids? Interesting. But since the groups are heading out, does this mean they run into some trouble outside of the city? And is there ever trouble within it?

Other questions: Does Karl play any further part in this, or has he already played his role for good? Does the gang ever end up back at Mizu? Do any of the group have a pet or something similar? With there be any sort of connection to other Tales, even if only slightly, or will they be solely focused on these two? Does Ranbob pick up his studies of Ranboo as best he can once he’s free, or does he leave it all behind entirely?

Thanks for the ask, this AU’s become quite interesting. I can’t wait to see where it goes!

#dream smp #Brothers AU #dream smp au #ranbob #ran #jackie #watson #grievous #tales from the smp #isaac #cletus #charles #benjamin

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the-fandom-fuckup · 3 years

Text

A bit more for that modern fantasy au I teased a bit ago

Character designs n stuff are slightly based off the official halloween n fantasy ending arts, plus whatever else I wanted to do, so Kiri is a dragon shifter here, Baku is a werewolf, n Ochako is a witch.

There'll probably be a hint of a/b/o dynamics here for weres n shifters, n the idea of alpha!Kiri n alpha!Baku has stuck to me like glue, so that's a thing here also

There's no real plot for this, just these three being dumb n pining, and everyone around them rolling their eyes n dealing with it lmao

I've thought about jobs n first meetings tho, n came up with this. Kiri's a firefighter (along with Tetsu, who is also a dragon shifter, bc I love him and their bro-bond), bc big fire resistent boy running into fires to help people just makes sense. Also I really like the thought of him in the uniform

Ochako works as a self defense instructor with Gunhead at a small gym in town, probably helping people with magic items n stuff on the side for extra cash or smth, I dunno. She might wanna move into a more magically dominant field one day, but she likes the environment of the gym n the regulars that come in n chat between classes. She's also very good at what she does n has put many assholes in their place after they've scoffed at "the cute little girl you have here".

Baku is a "park ranger", n I use quotations bc that's the only title he could really give himself to have any authority over the land he owns. He gives himself more leeway than what some laws may grant, tho tbh if you're coming into his territory with intent to harm those in it, you're lucky to walk away at all just sayin'

He runs an escape park of sorts for weres n shifters to run around during full moons and other times they need to shed their human skin, personally owned so he can avoid all the bullshit regulations n "safety procedures" found in bigger places that try offering the same thing, but ultimately make the shifting process shittier than it needs to be. And words gets around so it gets super popular super fast, n people of all ages come by

Tbh the thought of a teeny tiny wolf, like 10y/o at most running around Baku n trying to get him to play, nipping at his ankles n calling him the pack alpha is really what settled the debate on whether he should be an alpha or omega. And the added image of Baku rolling his eyes n putting on his toughass act but not really minding it as he gets them moving with a tap on the ass, muttering "Fuckin told ya squirt, I'm not your pack alpha. Now find someone else's ankles to bite at, I'm busy", makes me feel really nice

For some first meetings, tbh Kiribaku probably happens first, n they meet when Kiri n Tetsu accidentally trespass on Baku's territory bc they're new to the area n found a big ass lake to soak in during a flight over town, like dude!! Fuck yea that could fit both of us easy, man I haven't soaked in my big form in forever lets go!

And ofc if the giant shadows overhead hadn't tipped him off the security sensors would've so Baku's like who in the FUCK!! N storms off to confront them bc you don't just come on his land like that. That's how people get fucking hurt you dumb assholes 😤😤

N Kiri n Tetsu are mostly just minding their own business, settling down into the lake like aw yea that's the shit, almost passing out bc they'd just had a long day n the water was so cool n the fish eatting the dead skin n shit off their scales was so relaxing. They don't even realise they'd drifted into a light doze when they hear furious snarling n harsh sniffing coming their way, n barely have enough time to get up before Baku comes tearing shit through the trees

And like. Kiri n Tetsu know that they're big boys. Their full sized dragon forms are huge n there's not much out there that scares them, but nobody likes coming face to face with a snarling werewolf, standing in their territory without any warning that you maybe shouldn't be there

Despite the hostile intro, it doesn't take much for the misunderatanding to be cleared up. There's a lot of apologies from Kiri n Tetsu n a lot of irritated snorts from Baku, but they get straightened out. Baku tells them what kinda show he's running n Kiri inatantly get sparkly eyes like dude!! You do that all by yourself?! That's so manly bro you gotta let us help with that

Baku snorts like you don't have to make empty offers if you wanna use the grounds, I don't refuse people unless they pose an actual threat to the others. You guys aren't dangerous, just stupid. N Kiri goes hey rude, but also it's gotta be a lot dealing with all that on your own. We can at least watch out from above, keep an eye on shit or whatever bc face it man, you may be great but even you can't be in multiple places at once.

And the only reason Baku ends up agreeing is bc they pester him about it until he's well past irritated, n he's figured out the only way to shut them up was concede. They can't be there fulltime anyway consudering their professions, but they're sure to help when they can

Kirichako meet at the gym. Kiri's buying a membership or smth bc you gotta keep the stength up bro! Can't be slacking when you're the difference between someone living n someong dying y'know? Ochako's either in a class or dealing with some hothead, her furrowed brows n puffed cheeks distracting Kiri n reminding him of a chipmunk before bud says smth he can't hear but has Ochako seeing red. It doesn't take long for him to end up on his ass n Kiri's just stuck watching, jaw dropped n heart eyes as Ochako tells the guy he can either fix his attitude or find somewhere else to go

Kiri turns to Tetsu like dude holy shit did you see that?? N Tetsu's like yea bro everyone saw it, n Ochako comes up to them like sorry about that. We have a no harassment policy here that some people overstep, n it sucks that we get people coming in that need it enforced but unfortunately it's pretty common.

Then, bc she's still a bit sour, she looks them both dead in the eyes with a fire raging behind hers like if that's not smth you think you can handle then you might as well save us all the hassle n leave now. N they're both like no way that was great, totally understandable, just tell us where to sign

And while she came off as kinda aggressive during their initial meet, Kiri's quick to find she has just as much sweetness to match her bite. He watches her between sets sometimes n sees how kind n gentle she can be with the younger classes that come in, how she doesn't single out people who struggle n instead moves to help n provide tips without making a huge deal of it

She's also one of the first people to come running when someone gets hurt, he finds out. He'd admittedly been more focused on her sparring with Gunhead than he'd been on the super heavy equipment he was using for his reps, n managed to look over at the perfect time to get flustered n drop it directly on his foot. The resounding crack was loud enough to catch quite a bit of attention, tho he knows the equipment is more likely to be damaged than his foot

Ochako doesn't even hesitate to run over n levitate him to take the pressure off of his not broken foot, going "oh my god are you okay?? Someone clear that bench please, he needs to get off his feet now!" N Kiri does appreciate the concern, as embarassing as it may be, n tries to tell her it's really not a big deal, thanks for the help but honestly--

N she rounds on him like say that one more time n you'll be dealing with a broken nose instead, now sit your ass down n let me handle this!! Kiri can't even reply with anything other than a quiet okay😳😳 bc he's always thought her determination was super admirable, but being this close n seeing it burn in her eyes so intensely is taking it to a whole new level n he has no clue how to handle it

Kacchako meeting is kind of a hybrid mix of the other two combined lmao. Baku owns a pack house where he lives with Deku, then later with Kiri, Tetsu, Mina, Kami, n Sero, but he's so busy with the park that he's hardly ever home. N since Ochako's kinda embarassed about her tiny ass appartment, they usually hang out at the pack house to talk over magic studies or gossip over whatever's happened recently. At this point Baku n Ochako have heard of each other but never been around at the same time

Which causes a problem one day while Ochako's in the kitchen making tea when Baku comes home. He'd had a stressful day warding off poachers or smth, n his rut's just a few days away now, so when he opens the door n is greeted with a slightly unfamiliar scent it sends him into a daze, where he stalks to the kitchen before he even knows that he's moving

Ochako knows tho, can hear the low growls and deliberately quiet steps creeping behind her, setting her on edge bc ohhhh my god, someone just broke into Deku's place holy shit!! And when it gets close enough to barely feel hot breath on the back of her neck she's flinging herself into action, all muscle memory as she gets a few quick jabs into Baku's gut. It knocks the question outta his lungs, getting out a choked "who the--" before her magic kicks in and she's picking him up n slamming him down with his weight returned for maximum momentum, body slamming the following "fUCK!!" out as well before she placed her weight on him to keep him down. She gets right in his face demanding "who are you?! How did you get in here?!"

And when he can breathe again Baku snaps back like "who tf am I?!? I live here!! Who tf are you?!?!" And like, she's still in fight mode so she's looking him over like hmm, so this is Bakugou. Then she realises wtf she's doing n goes oh my god it's Bakugou!! N she's jumping off him and apologising so fast that she's barely saying words, trying to take his hands n help him back up but getting swatted away bc you've done enough touching don't you think??

And yea, Baku's kinda pissed. Being attacked in your own house does that to anyone, let alone a pre-rut alpha. But also, he's kinda impressed, bc he can count on one hand the amount of people who've gotten the drop on him like that, but he'd rather die than admit it out loud. So he just huffs at her with a final "try that shit again n I'll kill you", n stalks off to his room, having more important things to worry about right then than who's fucking around in his kitchen

((His rut decides to be completely unhelpful that time around, his alpha brain locking in on the faint perfume she'd left on his shirt while tossing him around and how perfectly it mixed with his own scent, as well as the shirt he nabbed from Kiri's laundry basket the night before. He rubs the scents of these strong potential mates all over his den, knots his rut aid with his face plastered to the shirts then uses it to scent the shirts even more, drunk off of how well their scents all mix together. He's rightfully embarassed during the end when he can start thinking properly again n throws both shirts to the back of his closet to be forgotten about--as much as his alpha fights him on it--n moves on to his business like normal.

Tho if he tries to be home more often when he knows Ochako's coming around, n spends more time in Kiri's space, nobody's mean enough to comment on it. At least, not at first.))

Man I have many feelings about this, but I'll leave it here for now bc I could go on forever

#BnHA #Kirikacchako #Bakugou Katsuki #Kirishima Eijirou #Uraraka Ochako #Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu #modern fantasy au #I have a lot of feelings about this like wow #this is barely scratching the surface n it's so fucking long #a/b/o dynamics #at least a little bit

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willddheartt · 4 years

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High | Randall Carpio

Summary: The one where you're trying to forget Randall after breaking up.

Inspired by: Stay High - Tove lo

Warnings: Angst, sad, idk

Word count: 1729

Masterlist

I eat my dinner in my bathtub, then I go to sex clubs Watchin' freaky people gettin' it on It doesn't make me nervous if anything, I'm restless Yeah, I've been around and I've seen it all

Since you left him there hasn’t been one day where you haven’t regretted it. Of course, you were still living in the university’s dorms which made things even harder. No matter what you did it seemed like wherever you went there he was, in our form or another.

There hasn’t been one day in two months where you’d been 100% sober, it was the only way you could stop thinking about him and what you did. You knew it was a problem, but you didn’t care. It didn’t matter to you that out of all the combination of drugs you consumed at any party you could find could one day be deadly, it didn’t bother you because nothing seemed to matter anymore.

I get home, I got the munchies, binge on all my Twinkies Throw up in the tub, then I go to sleep And I drank up all my money, dazed and kinda lonely

It was a loop every night. Once you’ve run out of things to distract you through the day, start pregame drinking as you’re getting ready to go out to the clubs for the night, and lose yourself in the bodies. The odd time you’d come home with a meaningless fling, but mostly you came home alone, and once you’ve run out of things to keep you numb, fall asleep. It felt like everything was just something to take the pain away and then give you some once it was gone, a never-ending cycle. The only constant thing was the endless pain and void you felt in your heart. It was your fault, you knew that but you made a mistake, one you cant now take back and fix.

You're gone and I gotta stay high All the time, to keep you off my mind Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

“Alyssa, please just use that weird dust shit on me, make me forget,” You begged for the millionth time. Her answer was always the same, “No.” “Why not?” You sighed, but you knew, she’d told you every time you asked “Because the pain and hurting will still be there, you just won’t remember the source of it.” “Maybe that’s better," You huffed, leaning back into the couch. “Who hurt you this bad anyway?” Alyssa asked “Who did I hurt is the proper question,” You replied shaking your head as you brought the beer bottle up to your lips. “Who did you hurt?” The blonde asked. She asked you every time you begged her you flick some of that magic dust on you to make you forget, but you haven’t yet told her because to you if you say it out loud and tell another person it makes it too real. “Someone who didn’t deserve me,” You replied

Finally, the alcohol from the frat party started kicking in, and you were granted the false sense that everything was alright and nothing was going to hurt in the morning.

High, all the time, to keep you off my mind Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Spend my days locked in a haze, tryna forget you, babe I fall back down Gotta stay high, all my life, to forget I'm missin' you Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

You’d been through this loop multiple times. Feel like you’re on top of the world with some disposable guy at a party, come home, have the effects of the alcohol wear off feel everything too much, pass out.

That’s how this was supposed to go, but tonight was different. After running into Alyssa as she was passing through the frat party, she refused to let you’re out of her sight. Even now, after she had walked you back to your dorm, she was by your side when you broke down crying and everything came pouring out. “I fucked up big time, Alyssa.” You cried, “And I’ll never be able to fix it or make it right.” “No, you didn’t” She was quick to comfort you, pulling you into a tight hug, “Whatever it was I’m sure there’s a way you can fix it, by regular means or magical,” “You don’t understand,” You shook your head, “I’ll never be able to forgive myself for how I hurt Randall,”

Alyssa froze the grip that was pulling you towards her loosened and she finally understood. You and Randall never told anyone you were together, you liked thinking your relationship was just something for you and him, enjoying the secret of it all. Nobody noticed when you were together but it became very clear that something happened after the split.

“He probably hates me now,” You mumbled, pulling out of her hug and leaning your elbows on your knees. “I know I would,” You scoffed “He could never hate you, you know Randall,” Alyssa said, you shook your head, “Why don’t you try talking to him,” The girl suggested She knew first hand he didn’t have one negative feeling towards you. Sure Randall was going through the normal shit one would after an unexpected breakup, but he could never hate you no matter what you did. The thing he wanted the most was an explanation, why you left and did he do anything to hurt you. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt or make you uncomfortable.

Admittedly, some nights were better than others. You could have all the fun you wanted and not think about the brunette at all. Yet others were the worst where no matter what you did or what substances you consumed, Randall was still the only person on your mind. Tonight was bordering on one of the bad ones.

Pick up daddies at the playground, how I spend my day time Loosen up their frown, make 'em feel alive I make it fast and greasy, I'm numb and way too easy

Another night, another party, another temporary escape. Tonight you were at the party specifically to find a fling. You thought that since drugs and alcohol weren’t doing much anymore, something more could help. At least that was until you saw his face through the crowd. You wondered if he’d spotted you, but from how he didn’t look away, or even pretend to not be staring, you answered your own question.

Finding a getaway in the bathroom you sighed, leaning up against the door. Tonight was supposed to be the night you finally let him go and made yourself move on, but there he was like you weren’t supposed to forget.

Staying in my play pretend, where the fun ain't got no end Oh, can't go home alone again, need someone to numb the pain Oh, staying in my play pretend, where the fun ain't got no end Oh, can't go home alone again, need someone to numb the pain

Going about the rest of the night, dancing with a multitude of strangers yet there was still only one person occupying your thoughts. With each drink, he only became more and more prominent. The nagging inside you to go find the sweet brunette wouldn’t stop and only got louder with each new stranger. You were getting a new drink from the kitchen, and if the timing was perfect, there he was.

“Y/n,” Randall said while the two of you were frozen in the sight of the other. You didn’t know what to say, you were speechless. You knew you owed him an apology, an explanation but in the moment neither of those seemed to come to you. “Randall,” You whispered, eyes immediately tearing up. Before any tears could start streaming down your cheeks, the taller boy pulled you into a tight hug, it took all you had to not completely lose it in his arms. Every ounce of concentration you had gone to trying to make the growing ball in your throat go away.

“I’m sorry,” You whispered, causing him to pull away. “You don’t have to apologize,” Randall shook his head, “Then what can I do?” “Come back,” He looked at you with glassy eyes, tears brimming them.

Without putting another thought into it, as you blinked your tears away once more, you crashed your lips onto his. Your tears mixed in with the kiss but neither of you could notice, with your hands in his hair and his on your hips you pulled one another as close as you could. Pulling away you leaned your forehead against his and closed your eyes, feeling at home in his embrace. He kissed the tip of your nose, making your eyes open again.

“What do you say we get out of here?” Randall whispered with his smirk that you haven’t seen in so long, you nodded letting him lead you out of the crowded house, you’d let him lead you anywhere without a second thought.

You're gone and I gotta stay high All the time, to keep you off my mind Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh High, all the time, to keep you off my mind Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh Spend my days locked in a haze, tryna forget you, babe I fall back down Gotta stay high, all my life, to forget I'm missin' you Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh

You stumbled in your dorm with Randall on your heels, kicking the door shut behind him. The moment the door slammed shut his lips were on yours, you were all over each other, barely even pulling away to breathe. Pulling away just long enough for the both of you to pull your shirts over your head and throw them somewhere in the room. Your knees hit the edge of your bed, sending you falling backwards onto the soft mattress, pulling Randall with you. He hovered over you as your hand came up to cup his cheek, your thumb brushed over his cheekbone and he leaned into your touch.

“I am so sorry,” You whispered “Just don’t leave again,” Randall whispered back, you nodded and he laid down next to you. As you pulled your duvet over the two of you Randall pulled you into his chest. This was something you missed too much.

“I love you,” He whispered, it was just barely audible for you to hear it You kissed his chest and smiled, “I love you too,”

#the order #jack morton #alyssa drake #hamish duke #randall carpio #lilith bathory #the order imagine #jack morton imagine #alyssa drake imagine #hamish duke imagine #randall carpio imagine #lilith bathory imagine #jack morton x reader #alyssa drake x reader #hamish duke x reader #randall carpio x reader #lilith bathory x reader

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katalyna-rose · 3 years

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Kat’s Rat Shopping List

I’ve gotten a few requests for a shopping list of my rat setup (tagging @collapseofthesky because they requested this, specifically, but I’ve had a few others message me), so I thought I’d give it a try and also add a few explanations for why I do some things the way I do. As such, this is going to be a very long post and is therefore under a cut. There will be a basic shopping list without all the explanations at the very end of the post under TL;DR if you don’t care about the rest or whatever.

I had a lot of fun with this and spent way more time on it than I meant to, and might be open to doing more of this kind of thing in the future.

Cage

First up, the cage. Obviously. I’ve said it before but it’s a Double Critter Nation and a Single Critter Nation with the side panels removed and zip tied together. These are sometimes sold in pet stores (the locally owned pet store I prefer has them in stock). I bought mine online because of a really good sale, but you can sometimes get really lucky and find them for resale on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for super cheap. I love this cage because the whole front opens up and that makes it super accessible and easy to clean, decorate, and get to my pets wherever they may be. It’s also huge!

US minimum for rat cages is 2 cubic feet per rat, with a minimum of two rats because rats cannot be housed alone as they are extremely social animals. No, human companionship is not enough, rats need same-age, same-species companionship at all times. Please be aware, as well, that minimums are not the ideal to strive for. Whatever space you intend to dedicate to your rats, fill it! Fill it all up! And if you don’t have enough space for a large cage, don’t get rats. My setup, with the Home Depot/Lowe’s large cement mixing tubs in the bottom, is roughly 45 cubic feet of space. If we’re looking at minimums, this means I could house 22 rats! There’s no way that 22 rats could ever actually be comfortable in my setup. It would be insane, chaotic, and extremely messy. So why would 2 rats be comfortable in 4 cubic feet? They wouldn’t. More space is always better, hard stop.

Also remember that wire cages with bar spacing of no more than an inch for adult rats and no more than half an inch for small or young rats is a must. Tanks are absolutely not recommended for rats due to poor ventilation, which will cause respiratory issues and allow ammonia to build up much faster.

Bedding

This is different from nesting. Yes, it is. Bedding is the substrate used at the bottom of the cage or on shelves to catch errant droppings and urine, and is generally left where it is by the rats because they have no interest in it.

My main bedding is pine wood horse stall pellets. They are as dust free as the alternatives like shavings or paper pellets, and combine the best aspects of both those types of bedding with the ammonia-neutralizing effects of wood shavings and the compact, easy-to-clean nature of pellets. I love them. I also get them super hilariously cheap from Tractor Supply Co, so despite it being a little bit of a drive for me (about an hour round trip) the fact that it’s half the price of the next cheapest option more than makes up for it. I buy a bunch all at once and currently have a few bags left in my trunk because I didn’t have enough closet space for them. It’s great stuff. It crumbles when wet so it helps me keep track of how much and where they’re urinating, and it’s easy to spot clean those areas in between deep cleans.

When choosing a wood, if that’s the route you want to go, remember to check what is safe to use. Pine is only safe when it’s kiln-dried, since it contains fragrant oils that can cause respiratory issues in rats, mice, and hamsters. Some people will advise you to stay away from it entirely, and that’s fine, but since pine is often the cheapest option it’s not always viable. Aspen is a safe wood, but harder to find in pellet form and slightly more expensive as shavings. I use aspen shavings in my litter trays. Cedar wood is NEVER safe, no matter how it’s treated. I don’t think cedar is ever safe no matter what for any animal it’s marketed to, actually. It’ll cause respiratory distress in rats, mice, and hamsters, and guinea pigs and rabbits should never be on shavings regardless though I’m pretty sure they’ll still experience respiratory distress. The oils naturally in the wood are not safe, do not use cedar. Also make sure your bedding is as dust-free as possible, also for respiratory reasons. If you have a small animal, their respiratory system is extremely delicate, and that’s just a fact of pet ownership that you should have learned before getting a pet when you were researching how to care for it.

Since I have two shelves in my cage and they are both shallow to the point of not even having a lip (Critter Nation’s only flaw is the trays that come with the cage), I line my shelves with fleece over an appropriately sized bath mat. Fleece makes a great shelf liner, but I don’t recommend using it in the entire cage because it gets dirty really fast and most rats will chew it up, so you’ll both be changing it every other day and going through it super fast as it is destroyed. However, it makes great shelf liners, especially when very little of the shelf is actually available to the rats like in my setup, where the shelves are mostly covered in other things. Remember that fleece must always be lined with an absorbent layer underneath because the fleece itself allows liquid to pass right through it. That’s the point: the fleece stays relatively clean and dry while the absorbent layer takes all the gross stuff away. Towels are generally not recommended for this because rats can get their nails stuck in the fabric and rip them out, which is painful and distressing for the rat and also you. Anything super absorbent with a really tight weave will do lovely here, hence the low pile bath mats I use. I get them for one or two dollars at Ikea and wash them every week. I keep several around to rotate through. The fleece I use is also a fleece blanket from Ikea for a couple bucks that I cut into four sections because that rendered it the perfect size to tuck around the shelves. This makes my bedding extremely cheap, and that makes me happy because I can spend that money on enrichment instead.

Nesting

This is the material that the rats like to push around, dig in, and sleep in. It’s important to provide soft but preferably absorbent materials for the rats to nest in because it’s enriching, comfortable, and helps them regulate body temperature. Multiple types of nesting are recommended for enrichment purposes. Rats like texture! I use unscented, unlotioned tissues as a main nesting material for within their hides because they’re cheap, safe, absorbent, and soft. I bought 30 boxes of 100 tissues each for super cheap online, but you can also buy dollar store tissues or whatever you have access to. Just make sure they don’t have scents or lotions, because those are not safe for your rats’ delicate respiratory systems. The empty boxes (plastic removed) can also be given for the rats to chew up and play in, or you can save them up to DIY some fun toys later, which is what I’m doing.

I also have two dig boxes, which will also go under the enrichment section. The bins I got for cheap from Target, but obviously you can get bins wherever you want to get bins. Just measure to make sure they fit in your cage properly. The only dig box I want to talk about in this section is the hay box, because the dirt is not actually a nesting material but rather an enriching one. So, hay. My girls love this stuff so much that they drag it all over the cage to shove it into all their sleeping areas. They build actual rat nests in the box, tunnel through it, stash food in it, shred it for fun, and generally spend as much time as possible with the hay. I use oat hay for the seed heads that provide additional enrichment and snacks because the rats have to get to the seeds in order to eat them. If you are feeding a low-quality diet to your rats, do not use oat hay because they’ll fill up on seeds instead of eating their nutritionally-balanced food and that is not good. My rats love their food so much that the seeds are a sometimes snack that I don’t need to regulate because they do it themselves. Any good quality hay will do for a hay box, however, and timothy hay tends to be the cheapest option. Just make sure it’s not super low quality, because low quality hay tends to be dusty. As mentioned previously several times, rats have delicate respiratory systems and dust is bad for them. I buy my hay from Small Pet Select because I like supporting small business, ethical business, and businesses that provide excellent products. They are, however, primarily a rabbit site. I keep hoping they’ll expand the other sections of their shop. Also, make sure your rats aren’t trying to eat the hay. This is highly unlikely because rats are smart and know what’s edible and what isn’t, and hay is not edible for rats. If for some reason your rats are eating hay, do not give them a hay box.

Other nesting options I’ve used in the past include cut up bits of fleece, cut up old clothes you might have lying around, and generally just bits of fabric. Just remember to change out/wash them regularly. Ammonia will build up, and once again that’s bad for your rats’ respiratory systems.

Hides and Hammocks

Rats are prey animals. Surprise! As such, they need plenty of places to hide and feel safe. Rats love small, dark places to rest in. Much like many introverted humans, myself included! Make sure to include plenty of hides all over the cage. Variety is excellent here for enrichment reasons. My rats absolutely love Space Pods! Lixit makes the ones I use, but there’s also a brand called Sputnik that’s basically the same thing. I’ve never seen them in stores, but they’re all over the internet. For rats, make sure you get the large size. Honestly I wish it was larger than it is, but oh well. The girls love it anyway. I kept getting sent only the bottom halves, which is why I have two half space pods in my cage. I got a refund or replacement on both because it’s not what I paid for, but, like… I received the usable half, so I’m gonna use it. The girls don’t like to sleep in them without the covers, but they’ll hang out in there and clean themselves, and they climb through them to get from one spot to another.

In addition to the space pods, I also have various other hides. Lixit also makes a pill-shaped plastic hide that I keep on the shelf over the dirt box. They used to use it a lot more than they do now, and I’m not entirely sure why. Even so, they still use it! I also have a woven grass tent that they enjoy, and a cork log. Neither of those are really for sleeping, but they do hide in them sometimes and generally like to hang out there.

Hammocks are great, and also available in wide variety all over the internet and in stores. My favorite banana hammock was just retired, but I intend to get another. The girls loved it and so did I! Hammocks come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and can pull double duty as both a place to sleep and a way to break up the cage so there aren’t any dead drops where your rats can fall from a height and hurt themselves. Fill your cage with hammocks! All the hammocks! Support small creators by buying homemade hammocks! Learn to make them yourself! They’re cheap and easy! Hammocks are great.

Enrichment Part 1: Levels

Rats are climbers. Rats need vertical space as well as horizontal space. Rats are sometimes clumsy idiots who fall off of things. As such, all vertical space must be filled with all kinds of fall breakers. As mentioned before, hammocks are great for this. So are ladders, bridges, ropes, and that Ikea tie hanger I have strung across the back of my cage. If your rat falls from anywhere in the cage, make sure there’s something to catch them!

Also make sure there’s something to do on all the levels of the cage, even if that thing to do is just get from one level to the next. Rats are dexterous and adventurous. Ramps are boring because they’re easy. If you have sick or injured rats, absolutely use ramps! Accessibility matters! If your rats are of sound body, however, make them work for it. Lava ledges and bird perches make great alternatives to ramps. Screw them into the cage walls and watch your rats hop around! They love it. Ladders are also fun, especially if they’re not used the way ladders are meant to be used. Suspend them from things, put them at weird angles, just make sure they’re secure. I get a lot of my levels from the bird aisle at the pet store (or virtual pet store). Be aware that sometimes your rats are going to prefer to climb directly on the bars of the cage. That’s normal! The bars are there, so the rats will climb them. That’s all there is to it!

Climbing frames like the wooden wine rack from Ikea that I have in the bottom of my cage are also good to have. My girls love it, and it does double duty as a chew toy.

Enrichment Part 2: Chewing

Contrary to popular belief and old science, rats do not actually require chews to keep their teeth trimmed. Rats trim their own teeth by bruxing, or grinding their teeth together. This does not, however, negate the need for chews. Rats like to chew! What your rat likes to chew best is entirely subjective. Some rats love wood and sticks, some rats will always chew fabric over anything else, some rats will never chew fabric. Every rat is different! Try as much variety as you can and keep stocked up on the things your rats like best. My rats really like woven grass, and I try to keep at least a couple different kinds around for them. I keep a grass mat on a shelf that they like to pull apart, and the woven grass tent will likely have a short lifespan, as well. There’s a woven grass tunnel thing that they’ve put into the dirt box and are slowly but systematically shredding. My girls also like willow sticks, so I’ve got a couple hanging toys of willow that are very slowly being chewed because there’s so much else to chew. The wooden bridges see a fair bit of chewing, and even the lava ledges get chewed on the edges. My girls also love destroying rattan and wicker balls. I bought a bunch of them for cheap and toss a new one in there about every week or so. They love them. I also got a couple things from Small Pet Select like a pine cone, a bit of natural loofah, and a dried okra pod. So far the okra pod has seen the most action and is shredded halfway to infinity. I think they like that it has seeds inside, but the others get chewed sometimes, too. There’s enough variety in my setup that everything lasts a decently long time. Except the rattan balls.

Enrichment Part 3: Digging

As much as rats like to climb, they also like to dig. That’s why it’s highly recommended to have a dig box. Safe substrate is important here. If you’re going with potting soil, make sure it’s just dirt and doesn’t contain any fertilizer. Personally, I found potting soil to be kind of annoying a little expensive. I prefer coconut soil. I use Exo Terra terrarium soil, which is sold in compacted blocks that you have to hydrate. I use two thirds of the recommended water because my rats don’t need humidity. I use three blocks per dig box, and replace the soil every month because the girls will do their business in it sometimes, leave food in it, leave bits of tissue or hay or various shredded chews. Basically, the dirt gets dirty in bad ways and needs to be replaced sometimes. It can also grow things if left too long because of the humidity (which will be a problem regardless of the type of substrate being used). So every deep clean, both dig boxes get emptied, wiped out, and refilled.

The hay box gets an honorable mention here, since it pulls double duty as both nesting and digging. Triple duty, really, since it’s also a forage toy.

Enrichment Part 4: Misc

Yeah, I didn’t know what category to put this under, so here we are. Litter boxes! No, seriously, this counts as enrichment. Training your rats, whether it’s to do tricks or just poop where you want them to, counts as enrichment. Rats are incredibly smart! They’re at least as trainable as the average dog, especially if they come from an ethical breeder who breeds for health and temperament (let me just slide a reminder not to buy live animals from pet stores that source from highly unethical breeding mills in right here; please support ethical breeders and rescues), and will happily take to any training. Remember that positive reinforcement is the only ethical way to train an animal. Treats are great for this, and your pet will love you even more because every living thing loves food. My rats actually didn’t require much training for their litter trays. Make sure that whatever you’re lining the litter trays with is not the same as their normal bedding. If you’re using aspen shavings in the main cage, use pine in the litter trays, or literally any distinct safe bedding. I use shavings in my litter trays and pellets in my main cage. This helps the rats distinguish the litter trays from the rest of the cage and makes it easier to identify where to do their business versus where not to do so. When you first put the litter trays in, just go in at least once a day and toss any poops you see into the tray. If you see your rats using the litter tray, offer a treat while they’re doing so. Rats are extremely clean animals and they like their mess contained as much as you do. It would not be possible for me to only deep clean once a month if I didn’t have litter trays that I clean out about twice a week (or more, if necessary) to get rid of the majority of the mess and smell. I’d be deep cleaning every two weeks at least without them, so the litter trays are a great investment overall. Your rats will never be perfect about using them, because they’re still rats, but they’ll help a great deal.

Also under this section are forage toys! Do not feed your rats from a simple bowl, it’s boring and encourages stashing, which means you’ll never know when they’ve actually run out of food because they’re just going to pick it up and take it somewhere else and have a great big hoard that you’ll find on deep clean day. You can definitely scatter feed, that’s enriching as well because it makes the rats go looking for their food, but forage toys are the ultimate way to feed your rats, I think. I mostly don’t get my forage toys from the small animal aisle. I do have one that’s small animal specific, a little ball that they roll around the get the food out. I also have some marketed for cats, and some marketed for birds. Having multiple kinds is really helpful. I’ve also noticed that while some stashing still occurs, it’s greatly reduced. I refill the toys as they empty and everyone’s happy.

Food/Water

What you feed your rats is extremely important, obviously. Many commercially available pellet foods marketed for rats are actually extremely not good for rats. The same is true cat and dog food. It is a sad fact that the companies that make these foods tend to be far more interested in their bottom line than the health of your pet. As such, do your research! Always do your research! Know what’s in the food and what your animal should be eating, and try to match those two things up as closely as possible. In the UK rat owners typically will avoid pellet foods and prefer homemade mixes for these reasons, but making your own mix is not always feasible and can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing. Most US rat owners tend toward pellets because it’s a lot harder to mess up the balance of nutrients when it’s done for you. Also, the UK does not have Oxbow, which is one of the most popular brands of healthy rat food. It’s the brand that I use, and my rats adore it. Mazuri is another popular and healthy option, but my rats prefer Oxbow over anything else. I kind of want to try making my own mix at some point, but I’m not sure I ever will. Like with most of my rat supplies, I buy food in bulk because it’s cheaper. A 20 lb bag of Oxbow Essentials Adult Rat food runs me about 40 bucks. Be careful to buy adult rat food, even for baby rats, because any food that says Young Rat and Mouse is not going to have the appropriate balance of fat and protein even for young rats. Adult food will do just fine for babies, too. If you want to add some extra protein to their diet, try a boiled egg or bits of meat every now and then, but it’s probably not necessary as long as they’re getting enough food and some extra fruits and veggies now and then. If you want to try making a mix, do so much research before you try it, and make sure your ingredients are good quality.

Rats should also receive other foods in addition to their pellet or main food. Rats are omnivores and love fresh veggies, fruits, milk, eggs, and meat! Make sure you research safe foods before giving them to your rats, as not everything is safe. If you adopt your rats from an ethical breeder, they should have resources available to you on what’s safe and healthy. If you rescue, you can still reach out to established ethical breeders for tips and tricks, or find lists online as you do your research. Some veggies are only safe cooked, some parts of certain plants are unsafe while others are safe, and some foods are only safe for males or females but not the other sex (citrus and mango are the ones I remember that fall into that category). Just do your research and try to keep processed foods away from your rats. Sodium is also not good for them. Any raw meat or fish should be frozen and then thawed before being fed to your rats to kill any potential contaminants. Like always, do your research first!

Rats obviously require water, as well. Water bottles tend to be the most widely accepted way to give rats water, because they don’t evaporate and are easy to keep clean. I, however, have a terrible time with bottles, and they always leak or break. Thus, I have opted for water bowls instead. The girls love them more than the bottles I’ve used in the past, and they’re a little more enriching, as well. The only downside is that I have to wash them out daily. But since I spot clean daily anyway, I don’t mind at all.

First Aid Kit

Any responsible pet owner should always keep a first aid kit around, no matter what kind of pet they have. Pet owners who have particularly vulnerable pets should especially be careful to make sure they have a well-stocked first aid kit. This should include single-use sterile syringes without needles, gauze pads, vet wrap, infant/toddler ibuprofen or acetaminophen, medical tape, cat nail trimmers, and probiotic powder like Benebac. But most importantly, it should include the phone number and location of a vet that will see and treat rats. Have a vet picked out that you have confirmed will see and treat your pets BEFORE getting pets. If an emergency arises and you’re suddenly scrambling for a vet last second, not only do you waste precious time getting your pet the help they need but you may find out too late that the nearest rat-friendly vet is too far away. That means your pet will suffer unnecessarily and you are an irresponsible pet owner. Hard stop. If there is no vet within reach that will see rats, do not get rats. Rats will require a vet trip at least once in their lives, since all rats are extremely prone to respiratory illness. Sometimes this happens for no reason at all, because all rats possess a bacteria in their respiratory systems called mycoplasma. There’s no way to get rid of it and nothing you can do about it except make sure your rats live in a clean, well-ventilated environment with safe bedding and materials. Even with all this, sometimes your rats will get sick. That’s normal! Just make sure you can take care of them when it happens. As such, make sure you have a vet fund at all times of at least a couple hundred dollars, in addition to a well-stocked first aid kit and the name and location of an appropriate vet.

It’s also beneficial and enriching to syringe train your rats. What this means is putting a liquid treat like baby food, yogurt, or apple sauce into a syringe and giving it to your rats. This teaches the rats that the syringe is a good thing so that if you ever need to give them medicine from the syringe (rat medicine tends to be oral and dissolved in a liquid solution, so those needle-less syringes will be necessary) they’re more likely to take the medicine with minimum complaints.

Storage

Maybe it goes without saying, but you also need places to put all of the things for your rats. Keep your first aid kit in a box to itself so you always know where it is, and organize your supplies appropriately. I really like Ikea bins for my bedding and food and other dry bulk items, and I keep a lot of my smaller stuff on a shelf at the foot of my bed. Work with the space you have, and plan appropriately.

And thus concludes this extremely long explanation of the bare basics of healthy rat living. Really, this is the bare basics and not even remotely comprehensive of the options available. Be creative when shopping, and definitely look outside of the small animal aisle at your local pet store because it will not contain anywhere near all of what you need.

TL;DR: A Basic Shopping List of My Specific Setup

-Double Critter Nation

-Single Critter Nation

-Zip ties

-2 Large sized cement mixing tubs from Home Depot/Lowe’s

-Pine wood horse stall pellets

-Low pile bath mats, enough to rotate while washing

-Fleece blanket, cut in quarters to fit shelves, enough to rotate while washing

-Bins to hold digging substrate

-Oat hay from Small Pet Select or Oxbow

-Exo Terra coconut fiber terrarium soil

-Lixit Critter Space Pods, large

-Lixit Small Animal Hideout

-Woven grass mat

-Woven grass tent

-Woven grass tube

-Rattan/wicker balls, lots

-Willow stick hanging toys

-Natural loofah

-Sanitized (and therefore safe) pine cone

-Dried okra pod

-Dog ropes

-Wooden bendy bridges

-C-clips, both the kind meant for shower curtains and smaller ones marketed for kids, for hanging things

-Hammocks. All the hammocks. From everywhere hammocks are sold.

-3 (sometimes 4) Ware Scatterless Lock-n-Litter Small Animal Litter Pan, Regular

-Ikea tie hanger

-Ikea wine rack

-Ikea storage bins

-Forage toys

-Oxbow Essentials Adult Rat food

-Ceramic (and therefore tip-proof) water bowls, and/or bowls that can be attached to the cage

-Sterile single-use syringes without needles

-Gauze

-Vet wrap

-Medical tape

-Infant/toddler ibuprofen/acetaminophen

-Cat nail trimmer

-Probiotic powder like Benebac

-The phone number and location of a rat-friendly vet

-A vet fund of at least a couple hundred dollars

A final note before the end: Always remember to do your research before getting pets, do not get pets if you cannot provide a good life for them with MORE THAN the bare minimum requirements for safe and healthy pets, do not buy live animals from pet stores unless it’s part of a rescue program, don’t take the word of just one person as law, don’t be afraid to ask questions respectfully, and always seek new ways to improve your pet care. This has been a PSA from your friendly small animal enthusiast.

#fancy rats #pet rats #my rat setup #rat care #rat care advice #pet care #long post

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doctorrookie · 3 years

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A Spicy Surprise

A/N: This is my first ever fic (for Ethan) and boy, am I nervous. It doesn't really have a category, so let's just call it an introductory, smutty, fluffy piece. I was inspired by a Tiktok video and I really hope you like this one. I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote this, just letting all my creative juices flow. Go easy on me.

My MC is a female, named Alexandria Lee. More on her soon.

Word count: 1,921

—

“Ooh, Aly look!” Sienna grabs my wrist and pulls me over to the Bath and Glory stand. A big 50% off sign graces the top shelf.

Sienna and my shift just ended, but neither of us felt too tired, so we decided that we would go out for dinner at the mall nearby. After a sumptuous meal of the heartiest pasta on the face of the earth, we decided to take a stroll around the mall to burn some of it off. Sephora was having a Christmas sale, and we both thought we could go with some new war paint for work. Upon entering, we’re greeted by name brand after name brand etched on stands that are completely wiped out.

We glance at the half-empty Bath and Glory stand, shower gels, bath bombs, skin rejuvenator, whatever that is. Sienna picked up a thin tube of what looks like clear lip gloss.

“Minty Lip Maximiser, perfect for tingly make-out sessions…” Sienna teased, and I can feel my face flush red.

Ethan and I were getting a little… steamy in the supply closet, and Sienna happened to barge in right in the middle of our lip-lock, and let’s just say it’s a miracle his tongue is still in one piece. It’s a hilarious story, but it’s one I’ll share another day.

“Sie, stop it. You’re embarrassing yourself,” I giggle as she starts making kissy faces and sloppy lip-smacking sounds.

“You should totally get this, trust me.”

She zips her lips and gives me a playful wink, a mischievous glint in her other, open eye. There’s something more to this. Something… sinful, perhaps? I just have to know more.

“Is there something more to the equation?”

Sienna pulls me in close, her lips merely an inch away from my ear. Her soft, lilting voice juxtaposes against the content of her whispers. I would have never pegged as someone who would do something like that, but I have been known to be wrong about these things. The corners of my mouth twist into a wicked grin as I formulate a plan in my mind to surprise Ethan, courtesy of Sienna’s mildly disturbing tale.

—

I head to Ethan’s apartment. I spend one or two nights here a week, even though he’s constantly begging for more, but I pay good money for the five-roomer every month, so I have to make sure I get my worth. I slipped the key into the keyhole, just tingling with anticipation to find out his response to my little prank. I scan my eyes around his apartment and find him sitting on the couch, reading (yes, you guessed it) a medical journal. He looks up and beams at me, a smile I absolutely adore.

“Hi, rookie.” He pats the seat next to him, inviting me to join him. I set my bag down on the counter and make my way to his uber comfortable couch. He pulls me in by the waist for a tight hug and I can smell the faint combination of cologne, detergent, and aftershave all over him. The scent is truly intoxicating, and I find myself breathing in deep, revelling in his warmth. He places a soft, tender kiss on my forehead, his light stubble tickling me as I lean into him.

“Hey, Dr Ramsey, how was your day off?”

I turn myself slightly and lean my legs on the rest of the available couch space. I’ve been on them for 10 days straight, being on call and having multiple shifts lined up. I could use about a week’s worth of bed rest. That is, only if he’s right next to me.

“It was fine. Not as good as it could have been…” he closes the journal and places it on the coffee table, giving me his undivided attention.

“Aww, why is that?” I feign ignorance as I run a hand through his soft, dark locks, tousling it in the process.

“I know you just want me to say it’s because you’ve been gone all day.”

“Alright, then say it.”

He sighs lightly, a smirk appearing on his lips.

“Fine. It’s because you, Dr Alexandria Lee, have been away from me for more than 12 hours, and I had to wake up all alone this morning, holding and kissing, mind you, what I thought was my beautiful girlfriend, but turned out to be a pillow that smelled exactly like your hair.”

Ethan Ramsey, whispering sweet nothings in my ear. The sky is falling.

“Well, let’s see what I can do to make up for it then.”

I shift slightly so that my legs were in his lap and lean in close to plant a kiss on his lips, but with one strong move, he pinned my wrists down onto the seat cushions and hovered over me, his breath warm against my neck. He starts attacking my neck with kisses, and they burn into my skin with great passion and desire. He catches me by surprise when he gently nibbles and sucks on the sensitive spot right below my earlobe. My shallow breaths hitch and a soft moan escape me before I could suppress it. All thoughts disperse from my head, like a cloud of smoke. I just need him to do this to me all night long. He pulls away all of a sudden.

“E, what…”

“Let’s save this for later. After all, we’ve got all night. And I have plans for every single minute of it.”

As much as I hate being teased, delicious tingles run up and down my body. We’ve both got a day off tomorrow and I can’t wait to see what shenanigans we’d be up to. Something wholesome, or something a little… dirtier.

“You’re right. I’ll go take a shower.”

I grab my purse, careful to not let him see the sheer, flimsy garment I have hidden in it. I make my way to the en-suite bathroom as I feel his eyes on me.

“Dr Ramsey, don’t you know it’s impolite to stare?” I say without turning back.

“Well, I can’t help it because…” He trails off.

“Because what?” I turn back, and our eyes lock.

“I like you, rookie.”

And with that, he opens up the journal and begins reading again. I sigh contentedly.

“I like you too, doctor.”

I close the bedroom door and scavenge for my towel, which is neatly folded next to his in the bathroom. I find a cute little basket of bottles adorned with jasmines and candy canes. A note sits on top of it.

Some olfactory stimulation to match how gorgeous you are, both inside and out

- E

This man truly knows his way around my heart. I’ve only mentioned I love jasmine-scented things once in passing. I can’t believe he remembered. And there’s this note. I can’t believe he went to visit my favorite retailer to get this, especially since there aren’t many outlets in Boston.

The sky is truly falling, and so am I.

I untie the ribbon and take a deep sniff of the lovely scent. Mmm… jas-mint. I love it.

—

I step out of the shower, reaching for my fluffy lilac towel. It even smells like him. I wrap it around my shoulders, the thick material providing some warmth on this cold winter day. I hunt around for the blow-dryer and let the heat take away those wet hair shudders. I rummage through my bag and find the little black negligee that I ordered last week. It got here yesterday, just in time for our weekly rendezvous. I slip it on and toss my hair back before checking how everything looks in the mirror.

Perfect.

As if on cue, the little Sephora bag tumbles out of my purse. I almost feel guilty about my little plan, but curiosity has always got the best of me. I unwrap the tube and apply some of the plumper on my lips. It’s got a menthol-cool burn, but nothing I can’t handle. I just hope Ethan has the same tolerance level as I do.

I drop my purse on the bedroom floor and twist the doorknob open, poking my head out to the living room. Ethan’s in the same position, still engrossed in the journal. He doesn’t notice my stroll from the bedroom to the couch, nor did he sense my hovering presence.

I clear my throat. “Ahem, Dr Ramsey.”

He looked up at me, mouth gaping as he took it all in.

“Aly…”

He pulled me down onto his lap, his dilated pupils becoming a tell-tale sign about his positive reaction to my little get-up. Well, one of the signs anyway.

“Mmm?” I try to stimulate a response from him.

“You look amazing.”

“Kiss me,” I whisper in his ear while slipping his glasses off, trying to stifle all signs of my mean-spirited prank. As I say that, a part of me is kicking myself for ruining this moment, and another part of me is bursting with laughter, just awaiting his response. Either way, it’s too late to back out as he’s leaning in steadily, eyes fluttering shut. I reciprocate and we lock lips tenderly. A faint taste of scotch, mixed with the mint from my gloss. Mmm.

Before any one of us could deepen the kiss, he pulls away all of a sudden, eyes wide as saucers.

“Aly, what is that?” He says urgently, breathing in and out from his mouth. “Oh gosh, it burns!”

He yelps and starts fanning his lips. The sight of it makes me burst out in laughter. The usually stoic Dr Ethan J. Ramsey is flapping his hands about and making an involuntary duck face.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME, LEE?” He groans loudly.

I barely managed to catch my breath, and he starts yelping in pain, triggering a second wave of belly laughs. Oh gosh, no one will believe me when I tell this story.

“Lip plumper…” I whimper through my laughs.

“They feel so numb. Are they bigger?” He points to his swollen, red lips. Well, it did say extreme plumping on the packaging.

I nod cautiously because he seems angrier right now than I’ve ever seen him. His eyebrows furrow as he squeezes his eyes tight. I love this.

I walk over to the kitchen to get him a glass of water and he downs it quick. After about a minute, he calms down and regains his composure. I give him a little sideways smirk as I pout my lips slightly and lean in to kiss him again.

“Woah, woah, Lee,” he holds a hand up to cup my mouth. “There’s no way you’re getting near these lips for a week!”

“Aww come on. After so many naughty texts today and that hickie you left on me just now?” I push my hair to the side to reveal the bruise forming beneath my earlobe.

“Fuck…” He groans. I’ve got him hooked.

“How can I be sure that you don’t stab me in my sleep tonight?” He cautiously backs away from me.

“Oh come on, I think you’d be able to see if I have a knife hidden on me right now, right?” I stand up and do a slow twirl for him, making sure to slow down and display the back of my lace thong to him.

He stands up and grabs my wrist, pulling me into the bedroom.

“Fine, we’ll have to work out a punishment for your escapade, but you’re not getting that pretty little mouth anywhere near…”

“We’ll see…”

#ethan ramsey fanfiction #dr ethan ramsey x mc #ethan x mc #playchoices #open heart #ethan ramsey #dr ethan ramsey

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takesomet · 4 years

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The Centerpiece (multiple / f) NSFW

Mistress has been quite insistent about what he needed from her at the party.

'I want all of my friends to enjoy you like I do my love' she had said.

She had nodded in submission. She had felt her lust burn as she did so. She was hers, utterly and completely.

Mistress had kissed her and made her swoon and then went off to pick her dress for the evening.

'What am I wearing tonight mistress?' she had asked.

'My sweet kitten, I think you are perfect just the way you are'

'B-but Mistress…' she had blushed ' I'm naked.'

'Exactly.'

Later on she had led her blushing, beautiful sub down to the dining room. On the great oak table they had bought together sat a large pillow. The subs eyes widened when she saw the newly added hooks and rope on the ceiling above.

Gently, Mistress guided her to the table and helped her get on. Making sure to pat her butt as it passed. She encouraged her to kneel on the pillow and raise her arms in the air. Mistress quickly tied her wrists together and looped them over the hook on the ceiling. Her sub was stretched but comfortable as the pillow saved her knees and she found she could sit her butt on the back of her legs.

Mistress moved in front of her and placed a silk gag around her mouth. Looking deep into her eyes she started to apply a soft blindfold.

'Do you trust me?' she asked.

Her sub nodded and meant every nod.

'I love you.' she said applying the blindfold. The muffled sounds that replied seemed to say 'I love you too.'

It had been the best year of their lives. After finding each other online and trying to take it slow they had moved in after 3 months. The connection was immediate. Loving, tender and kind. The sub had found her perfect Dom. She never had to tell her to do anything, she simply suggested it in such a way the Sub didn't want to resist. As if she could.

And oh the tickles.

Mistress couldn't bare to hurt her and Sub couldn't bare the pain. But through tickling they had found a beautiful mix of sensual connection and torturous domination. Her Mistress had found that she was deliciously feather ticklish. She would spend hours tracing her petite form with the softest feathers she could find and delight in the way her kitten would laugh and moan.

Now the time had come for the next step. She had confessed to Mistress that she liked that idea of having lots of people tickling her. She was scared Mistress would be mad. But the smile she gave her put her fears to rest. Mistress had whispered 'Leave it with me'

She heard mistress go to the door after a brief ring of the doorbell. There were excited noises as people greeted one another, the warmth in their voices told the Sub that they Mistress well. There was laughter and pleasantries. Then Mistress invited them into the dining room.

What seemed like 8 distinct voices made various noises of approval upon seeing the sub. She blushed deeply as her features were complimented on.

Mistress spoke 'Ladies and Gentleman, please take your seats. Dinner is about to be served.'

The sub heard the guests take their seats and she realised they completed surrounded her. She heard them talk to one another as if she was some grand centerpiece, which , when she thought about it, she was.

'Now, thank you all for coming,' Mistress said 'It means a lot to us both that you could come. My beautiful Jessica is tonight's entertainment. As I mentioned earlier she is a delicate thing but she is quite fond of a certain type of attention. If you lift up your napkins you will see what I mean.'

A rush of hands moved around Jessica as the guests laughed and cheered with glee. What Jessica couldn't see was that each guest had been given a beautiful selection of soft feathers.

'Now the rules are simple. Jessica is our entertainment but she is also not allowed to cum without permission, it has been a few days. No hard tickles please. Just tease and torment. Just don't make it too tough for her before dessert at least.' Mistress said laughing.

'Lips are soft.' a male voice said.

'As are tongues' chirped a female guest.

'Correct on both counts' Mistress replied, much to the delight of her guests. 'She is at your leisure friends'.

It didn't happen immediately. Perhaps somebody was waiting for someone else to start. But then it did. And everyone started.

She felt feathers begin to stroke and tickle her bare feet. Up and down her arches and sweeping up the back of her legs. Others begin to tease her tummy. Probing her belly button and kissing her hips. She bounced and thrashed as the sensations overtook her.

Feathers tickled up and down her spine. Soft, fluttering strokes up her back which made her shudder and yelp into her gag. A few caressed her neck and shoulders. She squealed to no avail. She jiggled her upper body clearly to the delight of her Mistresses guests.

Her breasts proved too irresistible a target for some guests as she felt the feathers touch on her skin. Her boobs shook invitingly as the feather tips begin to tease her now aching nipples. She moaned deeply into her gag.

Feathers began to explore her thighs, stroking slowly, teasingly, towards her pussy. She squirmed again, trying to get the feathers to kiss her there.

'Here is your starters everyone.' Said Mistress emerging from the kitchen. As well as being a perfect mistress she was a culinary Goddess. The feathers came to rest as the guests tucked into their soup. Chatter and laughter filled the room as Jess knelt there. She was filled with fire and she could feel her wetness spread to her thighs.

The clatter of spoons suggested that people had finished the first course. Guests began to lazily caress her body with their feathers and she began to giggle and squirm. As more guests finished more feathers came back to tease her. This time they became more bold and they began to slowly tickle her pussy. The soft trendrills caressed her pussy lips and the tips began to tease her clit. She screamed into her gag.

The tickles became faster. Torturing her nipples and having their way with her soft soles. The feathers between her legs moved closer and closer. She felt her breath quicken. She couldn't hold on much longer.

'Dinner time!' Mistress exclaimed. The feathers ceased and Jessica slumped. Feeling the beads of sweat trace down her body. She had been so close. Corks popping made her jump as wine was poured and dinner was enjoyed.

This time some guests would tickle her between bites just to keep her guessing. She was constantly moving and jiggling creating a beautiful erotic sight.

Towards the end of the meal one of the female guests exclaimed 'I'm still thirsty!'. Jessica felt the table move as the guest climbed the table. Before she knew it she felt a head between her legs and a tongue teasing her hole. She screamed. The tongue slid in and out of her effortlessly and with one aim in mind. She was close. So close. And then one final kiss was planted on her clit and she was left on the edge again to much laughter.

Dessert was served soon after the conclusion of dinner. A simple affair of ice cream which some of the guests decided to eat off her soles, making her shriek with laughter at the combination of the cold dessert and the hot mouths.

Good etiquette began to leave the guests as they tickled her again. Feathering her hips and things. She felt a manly hand grab her breasts and begin to suck her nipples. She groaned and moaned deeply. She started to hear the moans and grunts of other guests as they began to pleasure themselves and each other to her torment.

Her pussy was tasted again as well as a feather tickled her ass. She was humping the mouth furiously as she got closer and slower. She was surrounded by tickles and teases. She was in heaven.

And in hell.

She was edged repeatedly as her toes were sucked. Her neck was kissed and caressed. A tongue slid down her spine and she gently tongued to the edge again. She began to scream. She felt her blindfold being removed and she stared straight into the eyes of her beautiful mistress.

'Are you happy my sweet' Mistress asked.

Jessica desperately nodded.

'Do you feel loved my sweet?'

Again she nodded

'Do you want to cum?' Mistress asked as she removed the gag.

'Please Mistress, oh please Mistress. Let me cum please.' she buried her head into Mistresses chest.

Mistress picked her up by her chin. Her free hand snaked down to her pussy and began to tickle her clit.

'Cum for me kitten' she whispered.

And her Kitten dutifully did.

There dinners became the stuff of legend.

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earthstory · 4 years

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Peak Ground Acceleration When you look at a seismogram, a classic one, what are the units on the vertical axis? That’s the earthquake, right? But what are we actually measuring?

A classic seismogram is built based on a pen, held in place by a mass, suspended over a turning drum. During an earthquake, that drum vibrates side to side and the pen records the shaking of the earthquake on it, right? While this simple model does record some details on an earthquake, the real world is much more complicated. Even in this simple case, the pen would be held in place by a mass and its own inertia, right? But if the whole room is shaking, will the mass really stay fixed in position over a long time? Although this isn’t a perfect example, picture the classic “Newton’s cradle” experiment, of balls on strings bouncing back and forth. If you start the balls swinging and they bounce off seemingly elastically, eventually smaller effects build and the balls that were previously stationary will swing from side to side. Inertia only gets you so far if there are lots of different things going on. Trying to record an earthquake is a very complicated problem. If the mass holding our pen in place moves at all, then suddenly the mark on the page doesn’t just show horizontal movement, it is a combination of the horizontal movement of the drum and whatever movement happens to the pen. Even in the case of the best classic seismographs this will be a problem – your pen is never truly fixed, just like the Newton’s cradle is not truly elastic, so the final record doesn’t only show the motion of the ground, it’s instead records a summation of the different motions. This problem actually can get even worse. Earthquakes aren’t just a simple back and forth shaking; they’re a summation of different waves with different frequencies all piled on top of each other. If you try to make your seismograph work so that the pen is fixed for some frequencies, it might shake at others, so the final recorded seismogram depends on which frequencies you measure. It’s kind of like audio speakers – you put low frequencies through a subwoofer and you put other frequencies through standard speakers to produce a more complete sound. If you put two seismographs right next to each other but design them differently, they will produce different records of the same earthquake! Thankfully, we don’t use pen and paper any more to record earthquakes; modern seismographs are electronic. They measure how masses move by converting those motions into electronic signals, which means that we can pull apart these problems if we build an instrument correctly. The instrument needs to respond to different frequencies and getting seismometers to do this has been complicated. It took decades of work by electronic engineers to build seismic instruments that could overcome all of those complexities to produce a standard, regularized signal. During an earthquake, what is actually being measured is the change in electric current associated with motion of a mass inside a seismograph. The instrument will always have some limitations; some frequencies will be filtered or undetectable due to noise within the instrument, but with electronics you can design different systems to capture most of the motion at a variety of different frequencies. That whole discussion finally lets me answer the question I posed at the beginning; what a seismogram is actually showing. A modern seismogram starts off as an electronic response to motion on a mass. In other words, it is directly related to the force the mass experiences. The force on a mass can be directly converted to “acceleration” thanks to Isaac Newton, so for modern seismic instruments, you often see the units presented as “Acceleration”. Plotting acceleration recorded by a seismic instrument versus time gives you a seismogram like this one, recorded during the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake in Japan. Ground acceleration is a useful parameter to measure because it directly relates to the force on an object. During an earthquake there will be lots of different waves with different frequencies passing, the ground will shake in all 3 directions and the shaking will change during the quake due to all the different, complex features of the Earth. However, if you measure the peak ground acceleration, you’re getting a measurement of the maximum force felt by any object during that quake. The peak acceleration on this graph is the point where the absolute value is the largest - where the line gets the farthest away from the center. Peak ground acceleration is a way to take all the complexities of an earthquake, the changes in frequency and intensity, and put a single number on it. In fact, that number can be expressed as a fraction of the acceleration due to gravity a percent of “g” since gravity is roughly constant. If you can get a single number out of an earthquake, that can be really helpful for the public because you can use that as your basic standard for building earthquake-safe buildings. Peak Ground Acceleration is therefore one of the parameters used to develop building safety standards in this country. If you’ve got a building hooked directly to the ground, the Peak Ground Acceleration is the strongest force it will feel during the quake. If you build your building strong enough to survive that moment, then the building could be in good shape. Those are the numbers the U.S. government puts out. The US Geological Survey put out updated seismic hazard maps in 2014 and the most commonly displayed maps showed the probability of feeling an earthquake with a peak acceleration that was a certain fraction of the acceleration of gravity. However, since an earthquake is a complex mixture of waves, designing an earthquake-safe building isn’t quite that simple. Taller buildings sway with different frequencies, so the response of the building is important as well. A building that hits its own resonant frequency during an earthquake could suffer heavy damage even if it survives the peak ground acceleration. The USGS therefore also put out maps of the spectral acceleration for certain frequencies – that’s the maximum acceleration which would be experienced by a structure with a natural vibration frequency in that range. These parameters can be directly related to damage during an earthquake, but that’s not the whole story. Ready for some calculus? We can also integrate acceleration to get “velocity” and plot up “peak ground velocity”. That’s another commonly shown parameter on seismic instruments. If you try to come up with an expression for damage risk during an earthquake, you’ll find that every building has its own properties. Some buildings are most likely damaged during the peak acceleration; some buildings actually are damaged most at the peak velocity. And you know what? It can be even more complicated than that. Some buildings show increases in damage during longer earthquakes even when the peak acceleration or peak velocity doesn’t change – somehow the damage works its way into the structure with multiple passes. To develop a truly quake-safe building code therefore you need to know both the way your structure behaves and the way the Earth behaves. An earthquake is a complicated mix of shaking at different frequencies and over different times. A seismograph can record that in a certain way, but interpreting that data requires a lot of math involving frequencies, wavelengths, travel times, etc. We can convert those complicated functions into single numbers useful in design, but in doing so we lose some constraints on the behavior of the system. Developing earthquake safe buildings therefore isn’t easy. Engineers are constantly testing building designs using large shaketables to see how they hold up for exactly these reasons (http://tmblr.co/Zyv2Js1NJfTeC); the ground can shake in many different ways and some buildings will be strong against one way of shaking and weak against another. These are the kinds of tasks that seismic engineers are faced with in quake-prone areas every day, and they’re not easy puzzles to solve. -JBB Image credit: http://geophysics.eas.gatech.edu/people/zpeng/Japan_20110311/ http://eandt.theiet.org/.../2011/04/basics-of-seismology.cfm Read more: http://www.ipgp.fr/~brunet/Seismometers.pdf

#earthquake #seismometer #seismograph #shaking #wave #science #frequency #math #velocity #acceleration #physics #structural geology #geophysics #geology #the earth story

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lasting-inkpressions · 3 years

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I Put A Spell On You (Because You’re Mine) [4/11]

Summary: Denali is in love with her very much straight best friend, but a break up later and one drunken night together changes everything.

Prefer reading it on AO3?

“Here you go Nali, warmed up your tea for you with two spoons of honey, just the way you like it.” Denali looked down at the cup of tea that Rosé slid in front of her, looked up at the older woman and smiled weakly in return. “Thanks Rosie.” She raised the cup to her lips and blew the surface before taking a tentative sip, sighing at the familiar taste. Rosé settled in the seat next to her at the kitchen island, cradling her own cup of coffee.

After Denali’s break down, Rosé had held her for a long while before Denali had pulled away, embarrassed at being seen in her most vulnerable state. She had tried to apologise to Rosé for ruining her top with her tears, but had promptly been shushed. The older woman had pressed a comforting kiss to her forehead and told her to wash up while she warmed up their breakfast.

An hour later, they were now sitting in the kitchen with a few breakfast pastries laid out on the counter with warm cups in their hands.

Denali wasn’t sure how to approach the situation, unsure of how to talk about everything that had happened so far and instead chose to stir her cup of tea listlessly. Rosé herself was silent as she drank her coffee, and Denali could sense the older woman watching her carefully, as if afraid that she would break down again.

The longer the silence dragged on, the harder it felt for either of them to broach the topic.

Shifting uncomfortably in her seat, Denali reached out for one of the pastries on the counter and for the first time, noticed that her new favourite cinnamon rolls were there.

“You went to Paul’s to get these?” Rosé paused mid drink and smiled softly at Denali.

“Yeah, I walked past it and thought that you’d like them. A good pick me up after-“ Face flushing, Rosé cleared her throat and sipped at her coffee.

Denali’s face warmed too, but she smiled back at Rosé. She reached out to take one and bit into it, letting out a sound of appreciation at the cinnamon sweetness flooding her tastebuds. Swallowing, she leaned against Rosé.

“Thanks Rosie.”

And for now, that was enough.

———————

Rosé was packing her bag, trying to figure out how many sets of clothes she should pack when Denali flopped down onto her bed.

“How many swimsuits do you think I should bring?” Rosé raised a brow at the woman perched on her bed, her hands clutching onto a few swimsuits. The two of them were going to the Muse’s lake house for a short get away with their friends tomorrow. It had been a bit of an impromptu decision after Kandy had proudly told her friends that her family had won a boat in a raffle.

(“What the fuck kind of raffle has a boat as the first prize?”

“I don’t give a shit about that, all that matters is that I got a boat now!”

“Kandy, it’s your parent’s boat, not yours.”

“Shut up Mik, no one asked you.”)

“Nali, we’ll only be there for three days, I don’t think you’ll need that many. And besides, you only have one body.” Rosé said as she looked through the clothes she had set aside. Four sets of clothes sounded like a safe number, and now that she thought about it, maybe two swimsuits. Denali pouted at Rosé ignoring her, nudging her with her toe.

“I know, but I have so many new ones and I just can’t decide which ones to bring! Can you help me pick, Rosie?”

Sighing, Rosé turned to look at Denali as she laid out her swimsuits on the bed. She pulled the older woman closer, and Rosé zoned out a little at Denali’s touch.

It had been a few days since their second night together, and they still hadn’t addressed it, instead choosing to keep quiet and ignoring the incident once more. Rosé herself wasn’t sure how to feel about everything. She knew without a doubt that she was physically attracted to Denali, and that she cared deeply for her since they were best friends, but anything more than that? That was still up in the air, and until she knew for certain, she wasn’t exactly keen on talking about it. Besides, Denali hadn’t said anything either. Almost nothing had changed between them, except for the occasional moments when Rosé’s touches would linger longer than they should, or whenever she had to struggle against the urge to touch Denali.

Rosé still had her moments of weakness. Her dreams involving Denali were as explicit as ever, but she wasn’t willing to risk anything based on on her lusting after her best friend.

Not when Denali was so important to her.

“So? Which ones should I bring? No wait, how many are you bringing?”

Rosé cleared her throat, trying not to focus too much on the warmth of Denali’s skin. “I’m bringing two for myself. Probably will let the first one dry in the sun or something if I need to.”

Resisting the urge to rip herself away from Denali or pull her closer, Rosé instead chose to focus on the swimsuits laid before her, which caused her to groan internally. Now she was picturing Denali in each skimpy set, and that did nothing to help Rosé.

“Should I try on each of them for you to see? Would that help?”

Her eyes widened at Denali’s innocent suggestion. God did she want to say yes, and maybe she could help Denali take them off too, preferably with her teeth-

“No, it’s fine. It’ll take too long.”

She picked two at random and passed them to Denali without a second glance. “These two.” Rosé said, throat a little hoarse, before turning away and haphazardly shoving her clothes into her bag.

Denali looked at Rosé, confused for a split second at her behaviour before shrugging, oblivious to older woman’s inner turmoil as she returned to her own room to carry on with her own packing.

Maybe she’d bring an extra one, just in case.

———————

It was going to be a long drive from town to the lake house. The group of friends consisted of eight, and they were split between three cars, so thankfully there hadn’t been a problem with space.

Denali had to wake Rosé up at 5.30am to ensure that they’d be on the road by 6.30am, knowing that she would be a difficult one to rouse so early in the morning. The two had shoved their bags into the trunk after having a quick breakfast of granola bars, piled into Denali’s car and driven off, reaching the Pitstop diner mid way through their drive to meet the others at around 10.30am. The pair had arrived just as Kandy was parking, music blaring with Symone and Mik singing off key to the song. They all converged in the middle of the parking lot in hugs and entered the diner together, knowing that Utica, Olivia and Joey were already there, two adjacent booths secured for the eight of them.

Whenever the eight of them were together in one location, it was always an event. As a group they had ordered several plates of pancakes and waffles and other savoury foods, like sausages and hash browns, with tall glasses of different juices and milkshakes. Olivia had voiced concerns about them suffering a sugar crash later on, which was instantly stopped when Utica playfully kissed her on the cheek, the taller girl having been amused by her almost motherly ways.

The group had been split between two tables, with Utica, Olivia, Joey and Kandy at one table and Rosé, Denali, Symone and Mik at the other. Despite the split, they still managed to pass around the various plates and catch snatches of each other’s conversations, essentially being extremely lively in the almost empty diner. The staff had been more entertained than anything else with the life that was injected into the usually empty place.

Denali was having fun, thankful for the distraction from her own thoughts. She had been happily watching the way Kandy was flirting with Joey, who was trying to act indifferent to the Latina girl, despite the quirk at the corner of his lips. It was no secret that Kandy had the biggest crush on the boy, having drunkenly proclaimed it multiple times. Joey on the other hand had at first been perturbed by her advances, but he had soon warmed up to her, having been charmed by her vivaciousness. Denali remembered one night when Joey had confided to her that he might be catching feelings for the brash girl, but didn’t want to let her know just yet.

She remembered how envious she had felt with how their love story was panning out, and wistfully thought of her and Rosé and how theirs was a fairy tale that would never happen.

A forkful of waffle, sausage and hash brown drizzled in syrup came into view and she blinked, looking at the owner of the hand. “Hey Denali, try this!” Symone said, pushing the fork in her direction. Denali stared at the fork, then looked back at the shorter girl.

“No offence Symone, but this looks like a heart attack waiting to happen.”

Symone laughed, encouraging the other girl. “Trust me babe, you’ll love it. You like dipping your fries in your milkshake right? Think of it like that, mixing the salty and the sweet.”

Denali laughed and leaned forward, taking the forkful of food into her mouth and chewed. The sticky mix of savoury and sweet food made her beam and she nodded vigorously. “You’re right, that’s actually pretty good!”

“Yeah, the perfect combination of sweet and salty, just like how you’re the perfect mix of sweet and spicy, babe.” Denali choked a little before laughing at Symone’s line.

“Girl, where did that come from?”

“Just an observation. Anyone with two eyes would be able to appreciate a cute girl like you.” Symone leaned forward and winked at Denali, causing her to blush. Before she could respond, she felt the weight of an arm being draped around her shoulders and turned to look at Rosé, who had a stiff smile on her face.

“Now Symone, calling Denali cute doesn’t really do her justice. I’d say that she’s a beautiful woman, right Mik?” Denali’s eyes widened at the compliment, her heart skipping a beat. Where was this coming from?

“Absolutely Rosé, she’s gorgeous.” Mik winked at Denali, and she laughed, face flushing even redder at the attention she was getting. She shrugged Rosé’s arm off of her and stood up, missing the look of disappointment from the older woman’s face when she did.

“Well, this gorgeous girl is in need of the bathroom before we leave. Kandy girl, let’s go before you forget, and drive Mik and Symone up the wall with your complaints later.”

Fifteen minutes later, the group left the diner, leaving behind a huge tip to the staff for their troubles, and piled into their respective cars for the remaining drive to their destination.

———————

It was about 2pm when they had finally reached their destination, and everyone had practically rolled out of their cars in relief. After settling down and deciding who was sharing rooms with who, with just a little squabble over Kandy not being able to share a room with Joey (“Not appropriate Kandy. You’re both not even together!” “Not yet we aren’t.” “Hey!”), they decided to spend the remaining time relaxing by the shore. That’s when Mik had the idea to try jumping into the lake from the small cliff that wasn’t too far off. Immediately, Denali had been game for it and tried to pull Rosé to join in.

“Come on Rosie, let’s go! It’ll be fun.” She pleaded, trying to tug the other girl to go with her.

Rosé shook her head, not to be deterred from her position on the lounger. “I don’t know Nali, I’m quite comfortable staying here.” Denali rolled her eyes. “You mean you’re comfortable being boring.”

Rosé gasped in mock offence, clutching at her non-existent pearl necklace. “How very dare you! Now, I’m definitely not going.” The younger girl pouted, trying her best to persuade Rosé by widening her eyes and sticking out her lower lip.

“Pretty please, Rosie?”

The older girl faltered at Denali’s face, but still shook her head, laughing as she ruffled the brunette’s hair, who squawked indignantly at her. “Not a chance, baby.”

Denali pouted sulkily, and was about to drop back onto the lounger next to Rosé when Symone pulled her back up. “Girl, come on! You don’t need Rosé to have fun. Let’s go!” Rosé felt a flash of annoyance at the way Symone was touching Denali, and barely registered that she had indirectly called her boring.

Denali hesitated for a second before shrugging and following Symone and Mik as they moved off. She stopped after a few steps and turned back to Rosé.

“Last chance Rosie, come on!”

Rosé bit her lip, staring at Denali’s outstretched hand before finally conceding.

“Fine.”

Denali beamed when Rosé got up and excitedly grasped her hand, pulling the older girl along with her as they trekked up the grassy hill. Denali rambled as the group climbed up, not noticing that the higher they went, the paler Rosé got. Honestly, the older girl hadn’t actually wanted to go jumping off cliffs anytime soon, no matter how small they were, which was the main reason she had said no. She didn’t know why she had said yes in the first place when Denali had asked the second time, though it probably had something to do with Symone convincing Denali to go with her that had irked Rosé.

She didn’t know why it had annoyed her, but it just did.

When they finally reached the top, Rosé’s hands were feeling a little clammy, despite one of them being held tightly in Denali’s. The younger woman hadn’t noticed and was excitedly watching as Mik jumped off the edge and into the clear water below, followed by Symone. Turning to look at Rosé, her smile faded when she saw her nearly white face and finally realised how cold the hand she was holding felt. She took a step closer to Rosé and took hold of her other hand.

“Rosie, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Rosé gulped and shook her head, not wanting to seem weak. “I’m fine. I want to do this.” Denali sighed, gripping her hands tighter in response. “No you don’t, you’re afraid of heights. I’m so sorry I forgot about that. I should have known better.” Looking down at how guilt ridden Denali was, Rosé took a deep breath, her mind made up.

“Well, then it’s a good thing that I have you here with me.” Denali frowned. “Are you sure?” Rosé nodded in response, her mind made up. She knew that if Denali was by her side, she could do anything.

“Yes, but can you hold my hand?”

Denali smiled, nodding, and they moved to the edge together. They stared down at the waters below, Mik and Symone shouting encouragements to them. With Rosé’s hand held tightly in Denali’s, they faced each other and counted to three before jumping together. There was a moment where all Rosé could see was Denali’s smile and dimples, her heart full of warmth instead of fear, before they crashed into the water.

———————

“Hey Nali, do you think we have enough marshmallows?”

Denali walked over to the pile of marshmallows in the large bowl that Olivia had in her hands. “Liv, if we had anymore, you and Utica could make a mini fort to sleep in tonight.” Olivia rolled her eyes at the light ribbing from Denali and tossed one at her. “Very funny coming from the one who brought them in the first place. I’m pretty sure there are still at least six unopened jumbo packs.”

“Well, you can never have too much of a good thing.” Denali shrugged, catching the marshmallow Olivia had tossed at her and popped it into her mouth.

They were preparing the snacks in the kitchen for the campfire while the others were outside attempting to make a fire at the pit. She could hear Kandy and Rosé arguing over what music to play on the boombox and giggled. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence that the two tended to butt heads when it came to music.

She turned back to Olivia and noticed how the other girl was staring at her neck.

“Denali, do you have something to tell me? Like is there a new someone in your life that I don’t know about?”

Denali frowned, confused. “Huh? What do you mean?” Olivia tapped at her neck. “It’s a little faint, but I’m pretty sure that’s a hickey right there.” Denali’s eyes widened, and she instinctively covered up the spot with her hand.

“Errr, it’s an old mosquito bite, that’s all.”

“That must have been one hell of a mosquito then.”

Denali cleared her throat and picked up the bowls of snacks on the counter. “Yeah.”

“Did the same mosquito also bite you all over your body? Or was a it swarm?”

“What?”

“When you took off your shirt earlier at the lake, I saw more of those faint marks all over your chest and stomach.”

Denali cursed under her breath, wishing that Olivia wasn’t so observant. She couldn’t exactly tell her that Rosé was the one who had left all those marks on her now, could she? That would make for an awkward conversation that she was definitely not ready to have with anyone, least of all Olivia. She loved the girl, but Olivia had a knack for giving well meaning advice that people were usually not ready to listen to.

“Just an overeager Tinder date, that’s all.” Olivia’s eyebrows shot up. “Tinder? Since when?”

“Since last month.” Exactly when Rosé and her had first slept together, but she wasn’t about to say that since it was a lie anyways.

“Oh. Good for you then. Just be careful okay? Sometimes you can’t be too careful with people you meet on that app.”

“Right, of course.” Denali smiled at Olivia, feeling a little guilty at having to lie to her close friend as they both balanced the multiple bowls of snacks and went outside.

The campfire was roaring and Kandy had clearly won the argument about what music to play by the sounds of it. They set the bowls down and sat down in the remaining empty seats, Olivia with Utica and Denali next to Rosé. As soon as she sat down, she felt the older girl pulling her to her side. Looking over, she felt her heart clench at Rosé’s warm expression, the fire casting a glow on Rosé’s face. Denali had to restrain herself from reaching out to touch her and instead distracted herself by grabbing a skewer and some marshmallows, intent on toasting them.

She listened to the happy banter around her as she roasted the marshmallows over the fire, basking in the warmth of the crackling fire and the weight of Rosé’s arm wrapped around her waist.

For now, this was enough.

———————

Finally a chapter that's a little lighter and not quite as intense or emotional as the others.

#rosenali #rpdr fic #i put a spell on you fic #inkpression writes

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isaacthedruid · 3 years

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Steven Universe’s Representation and Music: an informal essay

As the first animated Cartoon Network show created entirely by a woman, Steven Universe’s run lasted for five seasons, a movie and a sequel-epilogue series. The show was far from perfect and its fandom wasn’t the best either but there is something so special about a show that followed lesbian space rocks and a young boy saving the world.

More specifically Steven Universe is about a young boy named Steven, who is half-Gem, half-human who protects the town of Beach City from evil. Gems are a kind of alien who take on the form of pastel-coloured women, to better assimilate with the rest of the world.

Rebecca Sugar, the creator, explains her colourful characters in a behind-the-scenes promo:

“I always dreamed of making a show that would have this mix of fantasy and reality. So, I wanted to make these fantasy characters that enjoy being with Steven as much, if not more than they enjoy being fantasy characters. The characters aren’t perfect and that’s what makes them so great.”

Steven’s family are known as the Crystal Gems, a group of rebels who fought against their government thousands of years ago and now live on earth. Steven’s mom, Rose Quartz was at the forefront of the fight, she did extremely terrible things and when she gave up her gem—-so Steven could be born—-she was left unable to form a body ever again. Steven, with only his dad and three alien women, must attempt to fix her messes and deal with the repercussions of his mother’s actions.

One of the main mechanics within the series is known as fusion, in which two or more Gems become a single being who is stronger and more powerful. The fused form takes on the physical, mental and emotional aspects of those who are part of the bond. As mentioned and discussed many times within this blog, fusions are a physical embodiment of different kinds of relationships. And for a show starring a primarily female cast, they do not shy away from using this mechanic to tell queer stories.

So explicitly that in 2018, the show had the first-ever lesbian wedding in a cartoon. Of course, representation wasn’t always as accepted in Steven Universe. Just two years before the big wedding, higher-ups at Cartoon Network told Rebecca Sugar, they not happy with the multiple queer relationships, so much so that they were ready to threaten cancellation.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she expressed:

“If this is going to cost me my show that’s fine because this is a huge injustice and I need to be able to represent myself and my team through this show and anything less would be unfair to my audience.”

Being LGBT herself, identifying as bisexual and non-binary, representation is important to her. For many queer people, especially grown-ups, they hope to see themselves represented in kids’ media today as they never had growing up. They want nothing more for children’s shows to say that being “different” or not fitting in with our heteronormative society is actually normal.

Within Steven Universe, you can find woman-loving-woman relationships, non-binary and intersex characters, woman-loving-non-binary relationships, asexual coded characters and basically every other letter in the acronym.

Rebecca Sugar even acted as the exciting force for LGBT inclusion within Adventure Time, originally working as a writer and storyboard artist before leaving to create her own show. She pushed for making the ex-romantic queer couple to be canonically part of the story and for it to not just coded into the dialogue.

A few years later, she returned to the show, multiple times, to compose over 20 songs that would air over the series 10-year-long run such as, “I’m Just Your Problem” which had lesbian subtext that would be confirmed later.

Some other iconic songs including “Fry Song“, “Remember You“, “Good Little Girl“, “Everything Stays” and even the finale song, “Time Adventure“.

Much like the show as a whole, there is something so special about the music she writes. In total, there were over 160 songs written for the franchise, some being short little tunes, no longer than a minute while others were full-blown musical numbers. No matter, all of them have their place within the show. Often when the character can’t express lines through speech, music is utilized to provide a more raw and poignant portrayal of their emotions.

Why Steven Universe is so widely loved is due to the music, as the overall story is not even close to perfect. Yet, everyone can agree on one thing, the music is unbelievably good. What is interesting is the different styles of melodies and backtracking used in the various songs, even more impressive is that every character has their own instrumental motif.

Steven’s motif is the ukelele as he is often seen playing the instrument himself, performing short little melodies and even writing the in-show version of the theme song. Additionally, Steven’s music uses a large amount of Chiptune synth, electronic music which is created using a programmable sound generator. Both instruments have a very childlike feeling to them, Chiptune especially as it is normally used in video game music like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the main musical inspirations for the show. As Steven is the lead, most of the music has Chiptune somewhere in the score and fun fact, the first song in the show, sung by Steven, “Cookie Cat” was actually written on an old Gameboy.

Amethyst is very loud and fun, her motif is electric drums which is extremely reflective of her character. As she can be angry from convincing herself that she is not good enough to happy and giggling from pranking Steven, her instrument can be used in so many ways as she is not a simple character. No matter what, for the few songs Amethyst has on her own (or in the score), her drums provide such an interesting emotional response to the situation.

Garnet is a fusion, so her motif is actually the combination of two instruments. Ruby is a drumbeat as she is a fiery and loud character, she is chaotic while Sapphire is her opposite. Sapphire is calm and collected, she has ice-related powers and is represented by Synth music. The characters together have a perfect unity, expressed by Garnet’s synth bass sounds, she is the equilibrium of two very contrasting characters. The music associated with Garnet, uses primarily the synth bass but Ruby and Sapphire’s individual instruments can be heard throughout her music. All three instruments are also heavily representative as Garnet’s main dancing style is Hip Hop which clashing with others’ softer dancing styles.

Despite, not being alive during the show, Rose Quartz still has her own musical motif as she plays a large part in Steven’s growth throughout the series. As well as being in many flashbacks, she is represented with strings, more specifically, the violin. Rose’s story is rather sad which quite is visible within her associated music, yet, she was also an extremely powerful character as she led the fight against the Homeworld government. Her strength can be heard with strong uplifts and swells in the music. She is never seen playing an instrument unlike the rest of the main characters but one person who plays hers is Pearl, a character Rose was possibly in love with.

For the complex and beautiful character, Pearl, her motif is classical and swing piano. She is visually represented as a ballerina for a large majority of the series, dressed in a leotard, a small skirt and ballet shoes. Apart from Garnet, she is one of the calmest characters in the show. She is a perfectionist and is knowledgeable on many topics. She has a dark past and her fair share of trauma, all of this is wrapped up in her music. From her traumatic past with Rose Quartz, the violin had been heard throughout her music, yet, when she finally dealt with everything, the violin was lost. Swapped out for a new instrument, a bass guitar which she learned how to play at the end of the series. Pearl is a character who has been through a lot and her music reflects it. As she grew, her music changed with her, becoming her own instead of something built off of Rose’s.

My personal favourite song is “It’s Over Isn’t It?” which is this heartwrenching and emotionally painful ballad sung by a broken woman. Pearl was in love with Steven’s mom. Yet, the feelings were not mutual or at least ended being reciprocated as Rose left her for Greg, Steven’s dad. It hurts because Rose didn’t just leave her, Rose Quartz also passed away. As the song goes:

That they didn’t really matter until you I was fine when you came And we fought like it was all some silly game Over her, who she’d choose After all those years, I never thought I’d lose … You won and she chose you and she loved you and she’s gone It’s over, isn’t it? Why can’t I move on? … Who am I now in this world without her? Petty and dull with the nerve to doubt her What does it matter? It’s already done Now I’ve got to be there for her son

Without Rose, Pearl has lost her place in the world as all she ever knew was her. Yet, now she is left to help raise a half-human baby and go on with her life. It makes it more difficult as this baby is the product of Rose and the man that she left Pearl for.

Pearl doesn’t want to hate Greg, she is angry at him but she doesn’t have hatred towards him. They may not be the best of pals at the start of the series but in the song called “Both of You“ has Steven, finally, begging for Greg and Pearl to just talk to each other.

Why don’t you talk to each other? Why don’t you talk to each other? Just give it a try Why don’t you talk about what happened? … You might not believe it but you got a lot in common, you really do You both love me and I love both of you … I know you both need it Someone who knows what you’re going through

An interesting thing about this song is that Steven is this to them, the person with Rose’s gem is singing to the two people who fought over Rose. It makes me wonder if this could be Rose speaking through Steven to her two loved ones. Whether it is or not, doesn’t really matter to the overall story but it is a fun idea to look at.

Overall, these songs are a literal representation of dealing with ones’ emotions in a healthy way, something that Steven Universe actively tries to teach their younger viewers about.

To say Steven Universe is a good show only for its music would be a false statement, it’s one of the strongest aspects but without the story or the characters, the music would fall flat and not have any of its passion.

#isaac rambles #steven universe #lgbt #steven universe music #cartoons #cartoon network #rebecca sugar #cartoon review

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