You're welcome.

The current top entry on Apnea's blog is a flickering mishmash of images: Apnea and at least two other models doing various things in tubs and on beds and with an inflatable doll. The pictures go by too quickly for you to get a good look at any of them, but they certainly are tantalizing...at least, until the flickering gives you a migraine.

Thank goodness for Microsoft GIF Animator, a freeware program you can download from CNet, if you're so inclined. I finally got so tired of wondering what was going on that I saved Apnea's animated GIF and took it apart one image at a time. It turned out to have19 pictures total, each separated by an empty black square. Turning them into GIF's had created a little white noise, which I fixed easily enough, and then I decided to turn them over to you for your enjoyment. You're welcome. ;)

Not quite the right kraken apocalypse

Well, I finally got the chance to buy China Mieville's latest, Kraken, over the weekend. I've been devouring it ever since, and I'm about halfway through right now (I'd probably go faster if I weren't still polishing my next EMC story).

Folks, this is a very different kind of Mieville novel. For one thing, it's not what I was expecting, which was a modern spin on H.P. Lovecraft. This isn't a Cthulhu mythos tale at all, although there's been one joking reference to the Elder God so far.

Actually, there are a lot of jokes in this novel, and that surprises me as much as anything else. Who knew China Mieville had a sense of humor? The biggest source of wisecracks is Collingswood, a constable assigned to an under-the-radar paranormal division of the London police. She looks like a blonde Amy Winehouse, dresses like someone posing as a police officer for a costume ball, and has a seriously bad attitude. I love her.

But about the plot (Funny how that's never the first thing I talk about, eh?). It revolves around a stereotypically impossible crime: the theft of a giant squid, still in its case, from the depths of the Natural History Museum. The squid and the museum are real, but I doubt that Billy Harrow, the protagonist of Kraken, was involved in the preservation of the actual beast. Anyway, he's the one who discovers it missing, and for some reason that makes him very important to a bunch of scary and not-so-scary denizens of what Neil Gaiman would call "London Below."

Actually, I see a lot of Gaiman influence in Kraken (mostly from Neverwhere and American Gods) - and a lot of Clive Barker influence, too (mostly Weaveworld). Mieville has come up with some seriously freaky villains so far, and I don't even know who the real squid thief is yet. It might be someone I've already met, or it might not.

All I know right now is that the squid's disappearance seems to herald the end of the world...but not the right end of the world, according to a cult that actually worships giant squids. Thus the quote at the top of this blog entry. Yes, it is a quote. Like I said, who knew China Mieville had a sense of humor?

I have no idea whether that humor will carry through to the end of the novel or not, but I hope it will. And I hope Collingswood survives, too. She could use a novel of her own. ;)

Here be dragons

One of my oldest mind control fantasies involves a woman being MC'ed by a dragon. At first I imagined she'd bent sent to the dragon by her village: a sacrifice to keep it from attacking them (à la that old movie Dragonslayer), but instead it enslaves her and sends her back to take over the village. Later I thought she could be an adventuress who makes a deal with the villagers to kill the dragon, but the same thing happens in the end.

Either way, I'm nowhere close to being able to write that story yet, but it continues to percolate in my mind. I've always been fascinated by the thought of control by something terrifying and alien, like a dragon (or maybe a giant spider). The MC would have to very, very deep to make the victim love it; and that turns me on no end - even before I start thinking about the mechanics of sex with a dragon. ;)

With that in mind, here are a few pictures to stoke your own fantasies. The one above, as well as the first and third below, are by Julie Bell. The middle sketch is by Arantza.

Now three pics by Boris Vallejo. I've shown you the first one before, but it's so hilarious that I can't resist sharing it again. Ol' Boris was having great fun with the phallic symbolism on this one. He must have been laughing the whole time he was painting it.

All three of these artists - and many more - can be found on D4rkw00d.net.

Oh, and if MC-by-dragon turns you on as much as it does me, let me remind you of my previous post on the subject.

Stream of (sub)consciousness

Back when I was a teenager, I read Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. I hardly remember anything about it now, not even the central plotline; but one bit has always stuck with me. There's a character in the book who's writing his own book and has everything planned out ahead of time. Then suddenly one of his characters surprises him, doing something he didn't anticipate (Hmm, or maybe one of Vonnegut's characters surprised him; like I said, I don't remember much about it anymore).

The reason this scene stuck with me is because it rang so true to my own experience. When I'm in the zone, my characters actually do write themselves. Sometimes they even dictate to me. For instance, the MCer in the story I'm working on now is wittier than I'll ever be, but his dialogue came naturally to me (Yes, it's a "him" this time - but the story's not yellow. I wouldn't dare!).

I also wrote most of the rough draft without fully understanding the MCer's methods. That's where the title of this post comes in. I go mostly on instinct, trusting my subconscious to make sense of things I don't consciously understand. Now, my MC'er in this story is pretty capricious, so I assumed he was going on instinct, too...until I slipped in a particular Easter egg. The MCer's subject is making a wild guess about his plans, but after I wrote the guess, I realized it was right! I'm still not sure if the MCer realizes what he's he's doing, though. He hasn't told me.

Anyway, more on all this when I publish the story and post my "Peek Beneath the Duct Tape." For now, I just want to marvel at the things my brain does when I'm not looking.

This is your brain on orgasm

Via

Wow, the EMC possibilities just abound, don't they? :-)

An appropriate entry for a post-rapture Sunday

I wonder what the old hellfire-and-brimstone crowd are thinking this morning, since they didn't get taken up into the skies to be with Jay-sus while the rest of us perished in agony. Maybe, just maybe, a few of them will realize we're all in the same boat. And maybe one or two of them will take a moment to reflect on this article about growing up gay and Christian.

In case you aren't familiar with the writer, he's a CNN anchor who just came out as gay (No, not Anderson Cooper. The other guy.) Here's a brief sample of his story, just to whet your appetite:

It's time for us, especially black people, to stop trying to pray the gay away and to get on our knees and start praying that the discrimination of gay people ends.

What we're doing to our young gay people now is child abuse. It's plain old bigotry and hatred. And if African-Americans don't know what that feels like in America, I don't know who does.

Amen, Don Lemon. Amen.

Let the brainwashing commence!

The theme of this entry should be pretty obvious, so let's just get right to the good stuff, shall we? ;-)

The pic at left came from Gwen Media, as do the middle and right-hand pictures just below. The left-hand one came from Hypnox.

I saved these and all the other pictures in this entry so long ago that I don't remember where I got all of them and don't know how many of them are still available. I'll do my best to point you in the right direction, though.

The next row comes from Latex by Anna (currently inactive), Fetish Live, and Kink Engineering.

Next up are pics from Captive Culture and Fetish Live again.

Lastly, something I've never been able to track to its source, then something that's disappeared into the void.

Vac beds are just so perfect for brainwashing, aren't they? ;-)