There’s a lot going on in that little critter’s head right now.
1. Power move.
2. Why do people whisked away to magical worlds just automatically believe the first creature that tells them what side the person needs to help? Where’s my isekai where the MC slowly finds out they got in with like the deranged zealots and are part of the evil faction, and not the plucky rebels?
I think about this comic once per week. It’s funnier then anything I can conceive of. Mastery.
I am asking you to endure it.
a lot of Gregory Berrycones in the notes missing the reference to my twelve note magnum opus from several hours prior in which the narrator silently begs an entity that isn't really God for death and the entity says no
the narrator is operating under the constraint that they can only use words "god" has already spoken, "god" is aware of this and says the 'Time flies' sentence on purpose in order to give the narrator the pieces they need to voice their complaint; "god" has constant access to the narrator's thoughts, and answers them as though they're having a conversation between equals, but clearly absolutely dictates the terms under which the narrator can speak. it becomes obvious as the scene continues that the narrator is silently screaming and that the request being denied may be a request for death, but is at minimum a request for some acute suffering to be stopped
this could be an interaction between a normal person and an evil telepath with some mind control ability pretending to be the voice of a benevolent god. or it could work as a demon lord speaking to a soul they've trapped in a mirror and keep at their side. or it could be an actual god trying to calm down their only believer because they're trapped in the same prison. the concept amused me so kindly forgive the ugliness of the execution
Posts that altered the fabric of the universe
peaceful-fury asked:
cywscross answered:
Here’s a bit from ch4 of Wanderlust (it’s actually the only bit I have written):
“Are you Ji-chan’s old friends?”
Shinji offered a strained smile and a stiff nod before shooting a ‘help!’ look at Kisuke over the girl’s head. He was crap with children; the shopkeeper was the one who had experience with them. He had created Ururu and Jinta after all. Why anyone would voluntarily want to pick up after a couple of kids twenty-four/seven was beyond him but Kisuke had never been the sanest of men, not to mention those two children could actually look after themselves most of the time, and Tessai took care of the rest.
Kisuke just smirked back from behind his fan, the bastard. Much to Shinji’s relief however, the scientist finally crouched down to Keiko’s height to answer her. “Yes we are, Keiko-san. We’ve only just recently found each other again though, which is why we’re intruding on your time with him. I hope you don’t mind too much; we’ll only be staying for another week or so.”
Shinji mentally snorted. Smart. Kisuke didn’t mention that Ichigo would be leaving with them, implying instead that the former Visored would be staying even after they had left. Manipulation and redirection were probably coined with Kisuke in mind.
“Hmm,” Keiko slanted a suspicious look at both of them (mostly at Kisuke, to Shinji’s delight; the girl was clever), and while the baby fat and overall child’s physique offset her features, her eyes were as fierce as her father’s while her aristocratically composed expression was all her mother’s. “You’re not gonna hurt him, right?”
Kisuke’s smile became slightly fixed. Shinji peered down at the girl. “What makes ya say that?”
“I dunno,” Keiko said matter-of-factly. “It’s a gut feeling, and Ji-chan says I should always trust my gut feeling. Ji-chan doesn’t like talking about his life before he met me and Okaa-san and Otou-san very much but I know it makes him sad. You two – and Sarugaki-san – are from his life Before, so I just wanna know that you’re not gonna hurt him.”
She paused, crossed her arms, and gave them both her mother’s cool, hard stare that would’ve sent a chill down Shinji’s spine if it hadn’t been for the fortunate – or unfortunate, depending on how you looked at it – fact that the expression was more cute on the girl than scary.
He bit back a smile, told himself that he should take the kid seriously because upsetting Keiko was a good way to put himself at the very top of Ichigo’s shit list, and then knelt down as well, making sure to look the girl in the eye. “We didn’t treat your godfather very well in the past but we’re doin’ our best ta make up for it now. We’ll never hurt him on purpose again.”
Keiko narrowed her eyes at him, considering his choice of words. “…Promise?”
Shinji smiled a little. “Yeah, I promise.”
Keiko arched an imperious eyebrow and pointed at Kisuke, though her gaze remained fixed on Shinji. “Then, tell me what he’s not telling me, and I’ll tell you if it’ll hurt Ichi-ji-chan or not.”
Shinji stared from Keiko’s expectant how-stupid-do-you-think-I-am look – the very same one he’d often seen on Ichigo’s face once upon a time – to Kisuke’s subtly dumbfounded one before releasing a bark of laughter. Oh, he could see why Ichigo loved this girl. She was sharp, quick on the uptake, spoke her mind, and had an attitude to match.
“Ya caught ’im,” Shinji approved, rocking back on his heels with a grin. “It’s nothin’ bad; Ichigo will just be comin’ with us at the end of the week ta visit his family, and then he’ll come back. We won’t try ta keep him away or anythin’.”
A confused frown crinkled the girl’s forehead. “…Me and Okaa-san and Otou-san are his family. And Saya-nee-san. Ichi-ji-chan doesn’t have to go anywhere.”
Shinji sobered, humour fading as he exchanged a glance with Kisuke. “Well, sometimes, a person can have more than one family. Or… a… bigger family than ya first thought.” He hastily hurried on before the glint in Keiko’s eyes can get any more annoyed at Shinji’s non-answers. “Who’s Saya-nee-san anyway? I didn’t know ya had a sister.”
“Saya-nee-san is someone I want you to meet,” A voice behind them interrupted, and Keiko instantly lit up, spinning around and darting over to Ichigo now that the former Visored had returned with Hiyori and the ice-creams they had been buying. Shinji made a face at the former lieutenant when he saw that she was already licking at her triple-scoop chocolate ice-cream. Hiyori scowled right back.
“Hiyori said one but I figured you’d want three too,” Ichigo said dryly as he held out a coffee-flavoured ice-cream for Shinji.
Shinji grinned as he rose to his full height again to accept the cone. “Ya read my mind. Thanks.”
Ichigo just shook his head with a faint smirk before bending down to hand an eager Keiko a strawberry-flavoured one with one scoop. She didn’t seem to mind though so Shinji guessed that the size was her usual portion. Five-year-olds hyped up on a ton of ice-cream wasn’t exactly something he wanted to see anyway.
“Urahara-san,” Ichigo passed a spoon and one of the two plastic containers with the ice-cream shop’s logo embossed on the side over to the shopkeeper who took it with a smile, flipping open the lid and looking thrilled with the green tea ice-cream inside. Ichigo just snickered before opening the lid to his own chocolate ice-cream.
Shinji rolled his eyes at them. Heathens, the both of them, eating from a bowl instead of a cone like all ice-cream should be eaten.
“Are we going to go meet Saya-nee-san now?” Keiko piped up, a smear of pink on her nose as she blinked up at her godfather.
Ichigo quirked a fond smile as he crouched down again with a napkin to wipe the ice-cream off. “Yes we are. You’re looking forward to seeing her?”
Keiko beamed, nodding enthusiastically as they began walking down the street. “Uh-huh! I haven’t seen her in sooo long!”
Ichigo laughed. “Didn’t you just see her over winter break? We were all together for Christmas.”
Keiko pouted, and then dropped the expression in favour of licking at her ice-cream again. “That was months ago. How long will she be staying this time?”
Ichigo tilted his head in consideration before glancing at Shinji and then Kisuke as well as Hiyori. “Well, Urahara-san and Hirako have already told you that I’ll be leaving for a little while at the end of the week, right? If she agrees, I’m planning on taking Saya with me before coming back home again. She’s not taking any classes over the summer so we’ll have plenty of time to spend together. Saya will be travelling with me while you’re still in school, but once the summer holidays start, we’ll come back again, pick up you and your parents, and go on a trip together. How does that sound?”
Keiko lit up like the sun, ice-cream momentarily forgotten as she clung to Ichigo’s pant-leg. “You mean it?! Okaa-san said I was too young last year to go for such a long trip since you sometimes hike too but I can really go with you this year?!”
Ichigo chuckled, abandoning his spoon to tousle the girl’s hair. “Yeah, you can, I’ve already talked to your mum and dad and they both agreed that you’re now old enough. We won’t hike as much as Saya and I usually do, or if we do, your daddy and I will take turns giving you piggyback rides.”
“Yay!” Keiko cheered, dancing forward a few steps before twirling around and grinning up at her godfather, eyes glowing with giddy joy. “We’re gonna have so much fun, and I’ll make sure you don’t ever get sad again like yesterday, Ji-chan!”
Shinji almost tripped over his feet. Only Ichigo’s timely intervention by way of a hand on his shoulder to steady him stopped him from pitching face-first into the pavement. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Kisuke’s suddenly blank expression, spoon freezing halfway to his mouth for a fraction of a second before it continued on its route. Hiyori on the other hand was chewing on her cone and staring narrow-eyed between Keiko and Ichigo. She scowled when she caught Shinji’s eye, a clear ‘do something, you dumbass’ message written all over her face before she stalked forward, awkwardly tapped Keiko on the shoulder, and gruffly pointed at a nearby swing set in the park across the street.
Keiko brightened but glanced at Ichigo first, who nodded his permission, and the two females took off for the crosswalk. Under any other circumstances, Shinji would’ve laughed at the borderline terrified expression on Hiyori’s face when Keiko held her hand out expectantly. In the end, the former lieutenant just heaved a sigh before tentatively taking Keiko’s hand into her own, even looking both ways before leading the little girl across the street.
“She didn’t mean it the way you’re thinking,” Ichigo spoke up first as soon as Hiyori and Keiko were out of hearing range.
Shinji side-eyed him carefully. He had thought that Ichigo was okay with everything they had told him, which, thinking back, was kind of stupid of him. After all, who would be okay with hearing how their father had essentially taken away all the things they cared about without even asking for their opinion first?
Shinji had just been so damn relieved that they had caught up to Ichigo at last, and that Ichigo looked to be doing so well for himself, that the issue hadn’t really occurred to him.
“Then,” Kisuke interjected softly, grey eyes shadowed. “What did she mean?”
Ichigo frowned, and for the first time since they had laid eyes on him yesterday afternoon, something much darker, wearier, skulked across his face.
“…Sometimes,” Ichigo said slowly, reluctantly. “Sometimes, just- on occasion, I miss them. A lot.”
It took a moment for Shinji to understand. It took Kisuke even less than that if the brief shuttering of his eyes was any indication.
“Zangetsu?” Shinji asked, not really needing to hear the answer. “And your Hollow?”
Ichigo shrugged, expression clearing again as he began moving forward once more. “I try not to think about it. I’ll probably get them back once I die, and I’ve got quite a few people here to keep me company. I’m in no hurry to skip off to Soul Society the good old-fashioned way just yet. And normally, I don’t have a problem with it anyway but… well, you guys brought up some memories yesterday and I ended up not being able to sleep, so I went down to the bar for some hot chocolate. Keiko must have heard me get up or something ’cause she followed me downstairs, and that girl is perceptive on a bad day.”
He threw Shinji and Kisuke a genuine smile before scooping up another spoonful of ice-cream. “Don’t worry so much. I’m a big boy; I can take care of myself. Honestly, you two are like mother-hens. Stop fussing.”
Shinji shared a look with Kisuke. The shopkeeper shrugged almost helplessly. It wasn’t like there was anything they could do about this issue.
“Now quit wallowing,” Ichigo continued briskly. “We’re going to go pick up a friend of mine today.” He quirked another smile, this one of anticipation. “I think you’ll like her.”
I wish kinky sex ed wasn't so stigmatized even among left-leaning "sex positive" circles. Everyone's all "uwu I'm a sub I'll do anything you ask" okay mommy wants you to read The New Bottoming Book so you learn how to sub without hurting yourself since your sex ed up to this point is porn and your ex boyfriend Jared who liked to choke you incorrectly
I’m so glad you asked! Let me list off what I’ve got for you:
- The New Topping Book and The New Bottoming Book, by Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy
If you’re having kinky sex at all, you need to read at least one of these two books. Point blank. They’ll teach you the very basics of negotiating properly (which is critical!), and help you identify what you are and aren’t into.
- Mindfucking Mindfully, by Sir Ezra
Where this book really shines isn’t actually in helping you “mindfuck” people, it’s in taking a close look at how to do so ethically. It’s a great answer to the question “how do I get someone to consent to something and still surprise and shock them with it?”
- Real Service by Raven Kaldera and Joshua Tenpenny
This is a slightly niche pick but there simply isn’t a better book on the subject. It’s written from a 24/7 M/s perspective, which is not what I do, but the book itself is an indispensable guide to giving and receiving service. The phrase “if the Master doesn’t want it, it isn’t service” will be burned into my psyche for quite some time. I love this book a lot. Maybe my favorite out of all of these.
- Enough To Make You Blush: Exploring Erotic Humiliation, by Princess Kali
This one’s high on my reading list; I’ve heard it recommended by a number of people whose opinions on these things I trust.
- Pretty Much Anything Midori Has Ever Done
Midori is a great resource for this stuff - I haven’t personally read much of her work, but she’s a well known sex educator and great at what she does. She’s known for bondage, but has a lot of range beyond that.
- This Negotiations Worksheet from Bex Talks Sex
This is what I default to using a lot of the time for negotiations. Forget BDSMtest, you don’t need that, it’s no good. Just look through this worksheet’s wordbank with your partner. Big fan especially of the “how do you want to feel?” section.
- The Ultimate Guide to Kink, edited by Tristan Taormino
This book is weird. There’s a lot of good info for experienced players, but some of what’s written here skeeves me out. I think if I had a top that thought the way some of the tops in here think, they would not be topping me for long. But there’s some good techniques and so on to pick up that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I liked the distinction one of the authors makes between being sadistic in the sense of inflicting pain and being sadistic in the sense of doing something your sub doesn’t “enjoy.”
- The Ritual of Dominance and Submission, by David English
Man, this book fucking sucks. The writing and editing are garbage, and the fear and protocol play described need way more careful negotiation than he ever lets on, let alone recommends. This is some 50 Shades bullshit. The only time I recommend this book is to tops like me who tend to be very affirming to their partners and need a guide on how to really scare them - when their partner consents and when you negotiate it, which this book sucks at teaching you. Really good content on fear, punishment, and protocol play, really terrible presentation of the topic though. Don’t read this if you don’t already know what you’re doing.
- Paradigms of Power, by Raven Kaldera
I love this book. Great book. Very focused on 24/7 M/s play though, and, being an anthology, some chapters are better than others. If you can’t read something and pick out what is and isn’t for you, don’t bother. But some really great inspiration, and generally pretty well written. Big fan of the discussion of leather throughout the book.
Hope some of these are helpful for people ^-^ for the average person reading this I recommend New Bottoming/Topping, but they’re all important parts of my library and I’ve recommended all of them to friends at some point or another.
May I also suggest Hell on Wheels and Kneeling in Spirit by Raven Kaldera, d/s companion books that address kink with a disability. They're a should read for everyone, imo. You never know when you or a partner are going to have changes in your body that affect what you can physically do. Temporary illness/injury and even just age can affect your sex life.
those first couple weeks after escaping a time loop have gotta be disorienting as all fuck. all those little cues that used to tell you what's about to happen are now triggers that cause you to brace for something that isn't coming. you have to relearn the permanence of death -- hell, you have reacquaint yourself with the entire concept of finality altogether. everything keeps changing but it never changes back and you keep having to remind yourself that this is normal. "it won't reset anymore," you echo to yourself, over and over and over, like a broken record, like you're still trapped in a loop, like someone who escaped the time loop but was doomed to bring it into the future with them
They told you that you were going to lead an army, 10,000 men strong, they didn’t tell you it contained only a single trained soldier, and 9,999 support musicians.
Musicians fucking take it
Creepiest monster thing alive: moves like that
this little girl: 😊☺️😄😄☺️😊🤩
This is so cute omg my heart is going vrooom vroroooooom
I understand the "I will die for you" ship dynamic, but what about the "I will not let you die, I will not let myself die- we will, at any cost, survive" kind of couple?
I just want to hibernate through the summer. Wake me up in the Fall
Hibernation is for winter. Aestivation is for summer!
OH. I learned a new word today!
...Do we have a specific word for becoming seasonally nocturnal to avoid the summer heat?
- Ollie Schminkey, My Father.
ID: a poem that can be read three ways, the left side is labeled Alive, the right side is labeled Dead. Reading only Alive gives:
He walks through the trees, the sun sifting through his beard. Here I am, just a kid, a father with his favourite child. He looks so much like a dad. Here we are: birds flying; a pulsing river; a ravenous picnic; and that smile, a mouth wide open, his child, newly awakened, wrapped around his neck like rosary beads clinging to his body. I loved him long before I heard of his body failing, and I held him so. Trusting that my love is enough.
Reading only Dead gives:
My dreams every night turn to spiders that all have his face. There is a campfire burning out, and me, the white dust of only ash in my hands. In the real world, standing next to his bed again– he doesn’t look like a body about to burn to pieces. Dead silence– no voice, only an echo not quite gone yet. The pills are down his throath, the morphine into his stomach, his body only for the disease, the wound across his back becomes filled with blood, and me, standing next to the body. Grief has hands twisted, tightening in prayer: the last breath like a final amen. I could speak the prayer a thousand ways– still, God will answer for only God, never for the living.
And reading them both together gives:
He walks through my dreams every night. The trees turn to spiders that all have his face. There the sun is a campfire burning out, and me, sifting through the white dust of his beard, only ash in my hands. Here in the real world I am standing next to his bed, just a kid again– he doesn’t look like a father with a body about to burn his favourite child to pieces. He looks dead. So much silence– no voice, only an echo, like a dad not quite gone yet. Here we are: the pills are birds flying down his throat; the morphine a pulsing river into his stomach; his body a ravenous picnic only for the disease; and that smile, the wound across his back becomes a mouth wide open, filled with blood; and me, his child, standing next to the body. Newly awakened grief has hands wrapped around his neck, twisted like rosary beads tightening in prayer: clinging to the last breath, his body like a final amen. I loved him long before I could speak. I learned the prayer of his body failing a thousand ways– and I held him, so still, trusting that God will answer for my love. Only, God is never enough for the living.
End ID
lonerofthepack
roach-works
I never really thought about this before but "suffer in silence" is a Christian thing? It's supposed to be a virtue and you're generally criticized for complaining. Even the Pope called complainers "whiners," and said we should suffer in silent endurance (in a homily on May 7th, 2013).
I grew up soaking in that attitude, and I know I've internalized it a great deal. I'm working on recognizing it, but I still catch myself thinking that way all too often.
I'm reading Why Be Jewish? by Edgar Bronfman, and he takes a different view. Complaint is a Jewish pastime, he says, with biblical roots, and he points out that it's both natural and necessary: "...complaint arises from a sense of deep dissatisfaction. Without complaint, there is no criticism, there is no vision of the way things can be. Complaint is the beginning of the vision of a better world. It rejects complacency and it rejects the status quo."
It occurs to me that the social enforcement of "suffering in silence" serves the ends of capitalism quite effectively. I'm going to make a point to complain a little more and a little louder in the service of change.
