#(Dash Commentary - What's on the Menu?)

[altruistic-sunshine]

"You wouldn't believe the food atrocities I've seen been done from my view in the kitchen. Sometimes, you just have to let them face the music, and deal with it themselves. It's the only way they'll learn."

[aventurineswife]

can you do aventurine with a teen!reader and aventurine is the reader's uncle and he takes them on a day out? (shopping for clothes, sushi place), gn!reader please

“Magnificent, But I'll Take 'Nice'”

Summary: Aventurine takes you on a spontaneous adventure through the streets of Penacony. From shopping for a gala outfit to indulging in sushi, his playful antics and theatrical flair create an unforgettable day. Beneath the bravado, however, there’s a surprising depth to Aventurine, as he shares a rare moment of sincerity with you. The day ends with a mix of humor and quiet reflection, leaving you appreciative of your uncle’s unique presence in your life

Tags: Aventurine x Teen!Reader, Family Bond, Adventure, Humor, Sincerity, Lighthearted, Personal Growth.

The sun cast a warm glow over the towering buildings of Penacony as you followed Aventurine’s figure through the bustling streets. Your uncle, ever the picture of elegance and flair, stood out like a peacock among pigeons. His overcoat shimmered faintly in the sunlight, and his earring danced with each step he took.

You weren’t entirely sure why Aventurine had decided today of all days to take you out. Your parents had warned you about his flair for the dramatic and his tendency to turn even mundane outings into high-stakes games, but there was something magnetic about him. When he showed up unannounced at your doorstep, his charismatic smile and smooth pitch for a “day of indulgence” had been impossible to resist.

“So,” Aventurine said, breaking your thoughts as he turned to face you, eyes glinting with mischief. “What’s the first stop, little protégé? Clothes, sushi, or something else entirely? The day’s your oyster, though I might just toss in a pearl or two of my own.”

You chuckled. “Clothes first, I guess. I need something decent to wear for the school gala.”

“Ah, a gala! Perfect. I’ll make sure you’re dressed to outshine even the most ostentatious stars in the room.” He placed a hand over his heart, feigning deep contemplation. “But don’t worry, darling—I’ll keep your budget intact. Probably.”

Stepping into the boutique felt like entering another world. Racks of glittering fabrics, sleek silhouettes, and bold designs stretched endlessly before you. Aventurine clapped his hands together, surveying the store like a commander inspecting his troops.

“Alright, strategy time!” he declared, his tone brimming with theatrical enthusiasm. “The goal: find you something that screams confidence, elegance, and just a dash of rebellion. Something that says, ‘Yes, I’m amazing, but you may approach if you dare.’”

You laughed, rolling your eyes. “I just need something nice, Uncle Aventurine. Don’t overthink it.”

He winked. “Overthinking is my forte, sweetheart. Now, go forth and browse! I’ll be your ever-diligent consultant-slash-devil’s advocate.”

True to his word, Aventurine offered commentary on every piece you picked up. Some of it was genuinely helpful “The tailoring on this one is impeccable”, while other remarks were pure flair “This jacket? Darling, it’s as lifeless as a busted roulette wheel!”.

Eventually, you settled on a sleek, well-fitted ensemble—a blend of classic and modern, understated yet stylish. Aventurine’s grin widened as he inspected your choice.

“Perfect,” he declared. “It’s you. Confident but unassuming. Bold yet refined. I approve.”

“Glad to know I’ve passed your fashion test,” you teased.

“Not just a test, my dear—a triumph.”

Your next stop was a bustling sushi bar tucked away in a side street. The warm aroma of rice and fresh seafood greeted you as you took a seat at the counter. Aventurine leaned back in his chair, glancing over the menu with an expression of mock seriousness.

“Now, the key to sushi,” he began, “is to approach it like a gamble. You never know what you’ll get with some of these exotic options, but isn’t that half the fun?”

You raised an eyebrow. “You mean to tell me you don’t just pick the most expensive thing on the menu?”

He gasped, clutching his chest in mock offense. “How dare you, little protégé? I’ll have you know I pick based on taste and flair.”

In the end, you both opted for a mix of classic rolls and more adventurous options. Aventurine’s charm was in full force as he chatted with the chef, weaving tales of daring exploits and high-stakes deals. You weren’t sure how much of it was true, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

As you shared a plate of dragon rolls, Aventurine leaned closer, his playful demeanor softening slightly.

“You know,” he said, his voice quieter now, “I don’t get to do this sort of thing often. Too busy climbing the ladders, playing the game. But I’m glad I got to spend today with you.”

You blinked, surprised by the sudden sincerity. “Me too, Uncle Aventurine. It’s been... nice.”

His smile turned wistful. “Nice? Darling, it’s been magnificent. But I’ll take ‘nice’ if that’s what you’re offering.”

As the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in shades of pink and orange, you found yourself walking back to your apartment. Aventurine carried your shopping bags with an exaggerated air of nobility, drawing amused glances from passersby.

“You know,” you said, glancing at him, “for someone who’s supposed to be this big-shot strategist, you’re surprisingly good at just... hanging out.”

He smirked, tilting his head. “Why, thank you. It’s all part of the act, of course. But I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

“What’s that?”

He leaned in conspiratorially. “The best strategies aren’t about outsmarting your opponent—they’re about knowing when to just enjoy the moment.”

For once, there was no trace of his usual bravado. Just a quiet honesty that left you with the feeling that, beneath all the flair and theatrics, your uncle Aventurine was someone worth knowing.

As you reached your door, he handed you your bags with a flourish. “Well, my darling protégé, I must bid you adieu. But fear not—this won’t be our last escapade.”

You smiled, watching as he turned to leave, his overcoat billowing dramatically in the evening breeze. “See you soon, Uncle Aventurine.”

And as he disappeared into the night, you couldn’t help but think that, despite all his flaws and theatrics, you were lucky to have him in your life.

[tristepinguino]

Mario Kart World Detail Observations

I'm normal.

There has been more than one instance in which the game's Courses have been shown on the World map. I've only recently learned to count, but it looks like there's 29 of them. An odd number, in more ways than one. But it didn't escape notice that there was no sight or word of Rainbow Road. ...Until the "Direct".

Even so, 30 isn't divisible by 4.

Crown City appears in both the Mushroom Cup and the Shell Cup.

The accompanying thumbnails are different, so they may be different Courses through the same area. The route to Crown City will be different, at least. That said, Crown City may not be the only Course to appear in more than one Cup.

The segment of the Direct hinting at Rainbow Road shows a shot of an object rising into the sky. The position of the camera in this shot seems to be in the opening of the bay south of Peach Stadium, facing south. The rising object in question appears to be a trophy.

In the Support Features segment of the Direct, we get a view of a rather paltry vehicle selection menu. It consists of a single page of 11 vehicles and 1 ? space. Could this be the starting selection? And if so, could the preceding menu be the starting character selection? It seems to consist of 4 pages of 12 characters (at most) and we are only shown the first page. But where are Daisy and Rosalina? Obviously, they could very well be on a subsequent page, but the character order shown here is odd.

This also confirms that vehicles (at the very least) are unlocked by collecting coins again. It's worth mentioning that World features a 20 coin maximum and new coin-focused items.

One thing that has not been very demonstrated is the addition of cosmetic unlockables that have been spotted in gameplay. On the vehicle selection screen, the "+" button can be pressed to, presumably, change this cosmetic. Going forward, I will be referring to these as "decals".

The purpose these serve is unclear, but may simply be a matter of customization. They often appear wherever your character or player information is indicated. Many of the decals seem to be based on the game's diegetic sponsors.

The option to select a decal was not available to those who played a demo of the game. As such, examples of decals other than the default in use are few. In addition, some vehicles do not seem to feature space(s) for a decal (including the Biddybuggy and that blue snowmobile-like vehicle).

When an outfit is obtained via Dash Food for the first time, an accompanying pop-up is displayed. Something similar appears when the player is transformed into a character for the first time via Kamek.

There is a prevailing idea that characters who appear as audience members or course hazards are also likely to become available as playable characters. That said, who might we potentially see join the ranks?

And why stop at Cow? Why not Zebra, Giraffe, Elephant, Ostrich, Camel, Bison, Moose, Armadillo, Dinosaur, etc.?

Miscellaneous

Other little things, some of which I don't have images of, and some of which I have no commentary for:

Binoculars appear, resembling their appearance in Odyssey

The way DK strikes the ? Block item resembles his upward punch in Bananza

Looks like most Yoshi's locations have signage displaying the Dash Food they offer

Tires change visually when driving off-road, increasing in size

The way characters throw Spiny Shells is really funny; Blue Shells are thrown with intent to kill

An item's remaining uses/time is now represented by a "fluid" in your item slot

Landing on another driver grants you a bounce from which you can perform tricks

Getting rear-ended seems to grand you a boost?

Explosions create waves in bodies of water that can tricked off of

The star score/ranking for Cups returns

One aspect of the game I am very excited for is the music, but I wonder how it will work. Courses likely each have their own dedicated music tracks (like in the previous entry), but what about everywhere else? And there's a lot of everywhere else. This might account for the assortment of music heard so far.

I decided against speaking on the Courses others have spotted that have yet to be officially presented (in part 'cuz this post is long enough already). Additional info may be found in image descriptions.

If you have any evidence you'd like to share, please feel free!

[championoftheoppressed]

A Not-So-Brief Guide to Tumblr

For my buds in my Discord server who have asked me many questions! And anyone else who is still figuring out the Tumblr vibe. This is for you.

Change your avatar and your blog description. Tumblr has a serious bot problem, so if you look like a default account, you're liable to be blocked on the spot. You don't have to go nuts! Just make sure it's obvious that you're a person.

Blogs have two versions. Everyone has a dashboard version of their theme, which is what pops up over the dash when you click their username -- this is tumblr.com/yoururl. You can also have a custom theme for viewing your posts on a nice webpage -- this is yoururl.tumblr.com. You don't need to know anything about coding to have a cool theme! Here's Tumblr's overview for customizing your theme.

If you have a custom theme, you can also make pages, if you want. These can be simple like a text post, or fully custom HTML. They'll only be viewable on a desktop. Here's more about that.

You can make a pinned post, if you want. This is a post that will always appear at the top of your blog. This can be an introduction, your favorite gifset, a silly meme, anything! When viewing your blog in the dash version, click the three dots at the top and select Pin.

Your dash can either be reverse chronological or algorithm based. I strongly recommend reverse chronological. It just shows you every post reblogged by the people you follow, in the order that they reblogged them -- that is so rare on social media now, and it's very much one of Tumblr's best features. To do that, go to your settings under Dashboard and turn off: Best Stuff First and Based on Your Likes. Then go to the top of your dashboard and click the settings icon to the right of Following, For You, Your tags. On the menu that opens there, click to pin Following so it's your default. (Or make the default For You. If you want. I'm not your parent.)

Turn on timestamps. For reasons no one can fathom, Tumblr doesn't have post timestamps on by default. You can enable them in settings, under Dashboard.

Reblog! Reblog! Reblog! Reblogs are like retweets. They share someone's post on your blog, and they're the lifeblood of this site. Likes aren't nearly as helpful since most people use the reverse chronological dash. If you enjoy a post, reblog it! Also, never, under any circumstances, download someone's gifset to your own computer and repost it. Just reblog it.

The only times you shouldn't reblog are when...

Reblogs are disabled. You literally won't be able to, the button will be grayed out. You can disable reblogs under the settings when you make a post.

The post is tagged "do not reblog."

It's a roleplay thread. Roleplayers HATE having their threads reblogged by people not involved in them. It actively messes up their ability to keep track of their writings. I'd steer clear of roleplay headcanons, too. Roleplayers can be a bit territorial. (Source: I am a roleplayer.)

Curate your experience. This is very much a platform that works best if you tailor it to your wants and needs. You can filter tags and post content that you don't want to see in your settings, under Account. You can also block anyone you want at any time for any reason. "They're just being a little annoying in the tags, blocking them seems like an overreaction..." No!! If they're annoying you, block them!! You owe them nothing!! Be free!!!

Tags are multipurpose. Adding tags to your own posts lets people find them by searching. Adding tags to a reblog lets you organize your own blog, as well as letting other people blacklist tags they don't want to see. DO NOT tag posts with tons of irrelevant tags to "improve reach" -- you will just get blocked. If you're tagging a content/trigger warning, use something simple and clear without any fancy text -- #tw gore or #cw spiders.

Tags are also for commentary! This might be the most unique part of Tumblr culture. When reblogging a post, if you want to add some commentary, you can put that in the tags rather than the body of the post. It's sort of like whispering it instead of saying it full volume. That's not to say you can't ever add onto the body of a reblog -- if you have something to add, by all means add it. But I'd generally only do that if it's a substantial addition. Something like "omg this is hilarious" is probably best kept in the tags. The longer you're on the site, the more sense this will make. But try not to overthink it! Most people are happy with any engagement at all. Also, if people really like your tags commentary, they might copy/paste it onto a future reblog -- this is sometimes called "peer review."

Don't tag your hate, and don't put hate in tags of your reblogs. Don't like a popular character or ship? Rant about it all you like! Just don't tag it with their names. People going through the tags are generally fans of the thing and don't want to see your negativity. (Tagging well-meaning criticism or a negative review is a sort of gray area, but my rule of thumb is that if it's only negativity without anything constructive, don't tag it.) Also, if you're reblogging a nice gifset/artwork/anything of a character/ship and want to put in the tags how much you hate them... just don't do that. The original poster sees those tags and it makes them so so sad every time. I know this from personal experience.

Don't censor your words. This isn't TikTok. You don't have to say "unalive" or "k!ll" -- just say kill. Censoring actually makes it harder for people to blacklist things.

You can track tags. If I search for "doctor who" and go to the tags tab, I can click follow to track that tag, or any others that show up. You can also go to tumblr.com/tagged/doctor who to view the tag directly.

The best way to find gifsets is through edit tags. This is typically #fandomedit, all as one word -- e.g. #doctorwhoedit or #starwarsedit. If a fandom has a common abbreviation, it might use that instead -- e.g. #trekedit for Star Trek or #lotredit for Lord of the Rings. Poke around and see what tags gifsets are using. There can also be tags for specific ships or characters -- e.g. #cloisedit or #clarkkentedit.

There are two ways to talk to people -- Asks and IMs. Asks are like a virtual mailbox. People can leave things for you to answer (even anonymously if you allow it), and you can do that either publicly or privately. IMs are for direct private chatting. Both of these need to be enabled in your settings.

You can also reply to posts! It's like leaving a comment. It won't appear on your blog, but it will appear in the post notes (the history of interactions).

Drafts are for posts in progress. You can save a post to your drafts to keep working on it later.

The queue is for putting out posts on a schedule. You can add posts to your queue, set how often it posts, and leave your blog running automatically, if you want to.

You can make a sideblog! Sideblogs are secondary accounts attached to your main blog (the very first one you made). They have their own posts, followers, and theme, and they can reblog and reply to posts just like your main blog. However, they can't follow people and don't have their own dashboard. You can have a sideblog for different fandoms, or for a meme account, or for anything else you want. Or just put everything on one blog if you prefer that. Entirely up to you. Here's more info on primary vs. secondary blogs.

Sideblogs can also be group blogs. If you want multiple people to collaborate on a single blog.

You can join a community! These are groups with their own separate, closed dashboards. I think it's sort of like a subreddit? I haven't really used them. Here's more info on that.

Clicking on someone's post on the dash is kinda weird. Clicking their username directly will take you to the top of their blog. Clicking the blank space beside their username will take you to their blog on that specific post.

Use read mores for super long posts. No one wants to scroll through your five page essay or 30k fanfic. If it'll take longer than a couple seconds to scroll past, add a read more after the first couple paragraphs. Like I did for this post! On a new line of your post, it's the icon on the far right.

Use alt text. This means adding a brief description that lets people using screen readers know what the image in your post is. To add alt text, hover over a picture in your post, click the three dots in the bottom right, and click Update image description.

Report bots as spam. Like I said, Tumblr has a serious bot problem. They mainly come in two varieties -- blank blog and blog with tons of NSFW links. Always report them as spam, not NSFW.

XKit Rewritten is worth looking into. Tumblr has had various web extensions over the years to add different features, and the current one is XKit Rewritten.

[the-grim-griever]

WK2: Grief in Death and Taxes

This week I played the demo of Placeholder Gameworks' Death and Taxes, in which the player is the newest Grim Reaper that has to choose who gets to live and die... behind a desk!

I went into this game mostly blind (full disclosure: I had the overview introduced to me when trying to cobble together the list of games for this project but beyond that, I was in the dark) and I decided to play as a Grim with severe catholic guilt in attempt to see how the game responds to my play style.

The game functions as a point, click, scroll and drag kinda game. The way it introduced controls was through images; whimsical classical music plays in the background, giving it a fantasy edge. Said images were typically shown in a hand drawn style and barely in any colour save for important things. Like a bow tie.

But the contrast immediately sets the tone (in contrast to the colourful start menu above) which would be bleak but with dabs of humour throughout, even in the character creation below (yes I went with the 'missing member of MCR' look).

The game functions on the monotonous daily routine of office work but with a guilty twist-- all the player has to do is follow the instructions to the letter. The instructions vary per day-- 2 people have to die, someone young must live or anyone with a medical background must die, etc. The player can interact with other objects like their phone, a fidget spinner, the note with the rules, the profiles and the marker (hovering the skeleton cursor over each object spawns commentary from Grim).

The player is then faxed the detailed profiles of those destined for doom and then decide who lives and dies by marking the appropriate box. The number increases with each day (7 in total for the demo, marked as a evaluation period for the player). Afterwards, the player can interact with Fate (their superior) and can engage in some dialogue trees and comment on their progress over the 7 days of evaluation.

So where does the grief come into play?

Simple. Through subtle pressures.

The 7 day evaluation that determines if you're good enough for the job or for a promotion. The rules conflicting with your own morals. Your phone notification showing news results of those you spare or let die. Fate's evaluations and questions. Payments for following the rules. The number of people having to die everyday and that's not even mentioning the fact that you, the player has to do it everyday.

But here's the interesting part. In my playthrough, I found it EASIER to process the grief as the days progressed... and with each day, the rules got more complicated. The amount of deaths increased as well as the number of people on the chopping block.

How? Because the routine is so repetitive--- do my job at the desk, talk to Fate, go back to the desk, get evaluated by Fate for today's results, etc. etc. Sure, I could vent to Fate (mind you is the only person you can interact with... besides the cat, but not really), but his answers were pragmatic with only a dash of sympathy.

Eventually, I found myself just taking one look at the rules and opted to just following them so I wouldn't have time to grieve over the losses. I just didn't want to think about it, even with the humorous writing. I even put the fidget spinner away under the left desk drawer.

The conditions of the story, the dull environment and mechanics all put pressure on the player to set aside any potential grief they have other the atrocities they've committed. I say potential because not every player is me and may be out for blood.

But I think what Placeholder Gameworks has done here is show not only a grief riddled dilemma, but also provides commentary on how the average office worker may deal with said grief due to their work under, dare I say it, the capitalistic hellscape of our world.

And it presents all of this in a unique way by positioning the reader within the view of a faceless character whom we connect to through character customization and the writing-- the use of first person whenever I hovered over an item on the desk or talking with Fate, it makes it seem more personal when the stakes are so high.

[the-celluloid-correspondent]

Quickie Reviews

The Little Mermaid: Directed by Rob Marshall (2023)

Ariel, daughter of King Triton, longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea. While visiting the surface, she falls for the dashing Prince Eric. To see him again, she makes a deal with the witch, Ursula, which she gives her voice to go to the surface.

I will be forever haunted by the horrors that I witnessed while watching Disney's failed adaptation of The Little Mermaid. This is the latest of the live action Disney adaptations, and by far one of the worst. For one, it was horrifying to watch. The CGI creatures that gazed my eyes were the stuff of nightmare. Furthermore, none of the musical numbers had the soul of the original as they felt artificial and fake. Scuttlebutt was so horrid that it made me wish I was deaf. Disney please hire someone else besides Lin-Manuel Miranda for the new songs. There are other artist who are as equally as talented as he is.

The acting was boring and uninspired. Halle Bailey does has a lovely singing voice, but when she is forced to act, her performance becomes incredibly flat. She lacked the charm and quirks of Ariel. Melissa McCarthy and Jessica Alexander were really the only two who stood out in their respective performances. However, the biggest crime that this movie commits is its complete failure of understanding the original story. What the filmmakers deem to be "improvements" to the story, ultimately undermined the message of the original. They wrote out Prince Eric from the story, thus losing the message to show Triton that not all human are bad. This theme any many others are lost, because the writers thought they could do it better. Can't wait to see the shitshow that will be Snow White.

My Rating: D

*********************************************

Hunger: Directed by Sitisiri Mongkilsiri

A talented young street-food cook pushes herself to the limit after accepting an invitation to train under an infamous and ruthless chef.

Hunger is a strange mashup between Whiplash and The Menu as it tries to tackles the perfectionist cook in the world of elites. However, Hunger fails to understand what made those films so special. In those two is explored the abusive mentors and the toxic relationship of wanting to be perfect. As well as explore wealth inequality in the arts. But Hunger, only explores these themes on the surface level. It feels artificial with its commentary as it is presented in a very black and white manner. As well as none of the emotional moments leading up to the exploration of themes feel shallow and unearned. This is especially evident in the movies final act.

With that stated, Hunger is still at least entertaining. There are many engaging scenes and points where the movie hit its strides. Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying gives a good performances as the aspiring cook. However, Nopachai Jayanama stole the show as Chef Paul. He owns every scene with his intimidating and commanding presence. The cooking sequences were mouthwatering as I could taste the food that was being prepared. Overall, Hunger is an interesting watch that could have been really good, but it never really comes together in the end.

My Rating: C+

*****************************

Red, White & Royal Blue: Directed by Matthew Lopez

After an altercation between the Presidents Son and a British Prince, the two must learn to respect one another for the sake of their own countries relations. However, during their reconciliation, the two slowly begin to bond into more than just friends.

As previously stated, I am not a fan of rom-coms. I find all of them to be the same and harmful as they normalize toxic relationships. So, after hearing all the praise of Red, White & Royal Blue, I decided to check it out. Safe to say that it is your standard rom-com that follows all the tropes beat per beat, but this time through a gay lens. It's a cute movie that will absolutely please the LGBT+ community, but it's just not for me. Both Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galizine do a good job as the star crossed lovers, but their performances do come across as cheesy as points. Overall, if you are a fan of this genre, you are going to adore this movie. If not, then it's better to skip.

My Rating: B-

[lxngfxrgxtten]

{一人で}➺ Slams her head FACE FIRST INTO THE SAND. Om nom.

[fereldanwench]

Hi, I'm Wench! 💙 I'm 36, my pronouns are she/her, and I'm a connoisseur of DILFs, coffee, and nail polish. If you'd like to know more about me, you can check out my about page here, or if you'd like to peruse the stuff I make, you can check out the links below.

🎨 ART | 📚 FIC & VP STORIES | 📸 EDITS & VP | ⚙️ MODS | 🛠️ RESOURCES

Goro Takemura Master Post

Valerie Powell Master Post

Goro + Valerie AU Master Post

Featured Goro x Valerie Content

🔞 NSFW & Adult Content Warning This is not a minor-friendly space, and I strongly discourage anyone under 18 from following me.

📝 What I Post My original posts are mainly about Cyberpunk 2077, specifically Valerie and Goro, with a life update, selfie, or shitpost thrown in for good measure. 😘 Other game series I enjoy and create for include Tomb Raider, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Outer Worlds, Assassin's Creed, Uncharted, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout.

🔁 What I Reblog I reblog a mixture of video games, movies/shows, art, scenery/aesthetic, fandom history/commentary, and meme posts. For a full scope of what you’ll find here, you can check my tag page!

💌 On Following Back I get very overwhelmed by super active dash, and I am just about at my limit for how many blogs I can keep up with--I can't guarantee I can follow everyone back. I don't follow minors at all, and I typically prefer blogs with at least a basic tagging system, e.g. tagging for a game or character at minimum.

📃 Miscellaneous - I queue or schedule many of my posts, and my queue can be as long as a few weeks out. - Ask box is temporarily closed as of July 2023. DMs are available to mutuals only.

Frequently Asked Questions

Other Accounts

Q: How do you make your Cyberpunk 2077 screenshots? A: The main tool I use is the Appearance Menu Mod, which is used to spawn NPCs, decor, and lighting. I wrote a very detailed guide on how to get started with AMM, available here.

Please note as of December 2022, this guide is somewhat out of date, and I haven't had the time to update it. The method described here still works, but there are other options that are less cumbersome. You can check my CP77 Help tag for more recent information.

I also use Reshade for the Cinematic DOF and Real Long Exposure shaders, and I occasionally use the paid Otis Injectable Camera for hotsampling or if I need to unlock more camera movement. All color editing is done in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.

Q: What mods do you recommend? A: I have a list that I update every few months that links all the publicly available mods I use in my game as well as a more general mod tag for any mods that look interesting/useful.

I’ve also dabbled in making some of my own mods (mostly pose packs), which are available for free at my Ko-fi shop.

Q: Is Valerie's preset/NPV publicly available? A: Nope, I only share Valerie with very close friends who I know will take good care of her.

Q: Is Valerie available for RPing or OC shipping? A: Although I'm very flattered by the interest, she is not. This is not a roleplaying blog, and while I love getting to know about other people's OCs, I'm currently not interested in Valerie having a romantic past with anyone else's characters. However, I am open to plotting non-romantic relationships between Valerie and mutuals' OCs. 💙

Q: Do you take commissions? A: I currently don't take commissions of any kind, although I am sometimes open to art trades with mutuals (art for art, VP for VP, or VP for art). I can't guarantee my schedule will permit it, but if it's something you're interested in, feel free to send me a DM! 💙

I'm fereldanwench in most fandom-oriented spaces. These are my main accounts:

AO3

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I'm not an active participant in any Discord community, but I do lurk in the AMM Community, Cyberpunk 2077 Modding, and Men of Night City servers under the same name.

The banners on this post were created from a combination of my personal virtual photography and Flaticon graphics.

[altruistic-sunshine]

...Anyone want to try err...mulled energon?

Very experimental, but I have been missing it a little and wanted to bring a piece of home to here- very tasty, in my opinion.

[adultswim2021]

Sealab 2021 #38: “Let 'Em Eat Corn” | July 18, 2004 - 11:45 PM | S04E05

I can’t explain why, exactly, but I like this episode. It’s as brainless and dashed-off as anything else this season, but there’s a silliness behind it, and same as Craptastic Voyage, it moves pretty well. In this one, Shanks decides to declare Sealab an independent nation, which has a cascading effect where the other crew members to also declare their individual pods as independent nations. War is declared, they all get warheads, British guys eat corn in the nude... I don’t know, man. Somehow this one just sorta works for me. I don’t laugh out loud at it, but this one is more fun than the others.

I think the fact that it evokes other things I like: The Newfreeland sketch on Mr. Show, the “Bomb” episode of The Young Ones. There’s okay jokes that aren’t terrible. The worst joke in the episode is Debbie wearing a helmet that says BORN TO GET CRABS, which is a really cheap joke. I mean, they’ve made jokes about the fact that the writers fall back on making the attractive blonde woman be a whore for no good reason. Like... honestly? The writers give her some slutty lines and the animators draw her in slutty situations, but I don’t really think the voice performs Debbie as being particularly whoreish. I don’t know how to explain it, but she’s only a whore in the most shallow ways possible.

I don’t want to sound like a huge fa-- I mean, SJdub-- I mean... what’s the least abrasive way to say this? I don’t want people to mistake me as a non-piece-of-shit, because I promise you, I am exactly that, but Debbie’s performance always suggested that she was just a young woman, maybe a little shallow and insensitive, very naturally attracted to the only man in Sealab who isn’t a complete psycho, and the only reason for jokes about her being a whore I can think of is low-hanging misogyny. I really don’t think the writers of Sealab 2021 can actually pull off satire or even just irony (two things that I would gladly defend even though by today’s standards they are LITERALLY VIOLENCE). I’m not being critical of dicey humor. I am often a defender of dicey humor. I’m often a purveyor of dicey humor. But having that character in a helmet that says “BORN TO GET CRABS” isn’t even like, funny on a phonic level. It’s just bad writing. And I’m saying this about an episode I sorta like!

Besides, we were ALL born to get crabs.

EPHEMERA CORNER

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Volume Two (DVD - July 20, 2004)

On the same day Sealab 2021′s first volume came out on DVD, so did Aqua Teen Hunger Force volume two. A brief overview might be difficult for this one, but I’ll try to touch on what’s important: First the design of this volume is so much better than the first DVD set; The menus are beautiful, and there’s copious easter eggs of the various puppet channels as seen in “Universal Remonster”. The only quibble I have is that the episode order is slightly nonsensical. Not strictly in air date or production order, the order seems to compensate for the DVD menu’s art design. My own theory is that “Universal Remonster” is on disc one just because the Easter eggs are tied into that particular episode, and that the selection of episodes on disc two tie into which episodes have audio commentary. There’s nothing truly egregious about watching in this order, but it still doesn’t seem definitive by any stretch of the imagination.

That aside, this is maybe one of my favorite DVD sets I own. There’s a sense of fun when you explore the contents of this disc. Easter eggs aside, there’s also a fun “hunger imagery” intro sequence, which is mostly culled from a sequence shot for Space Ghost Coast to Coast’s Baffler Meal episode (which is also included on this set as an extra, along with the deleted Baffler Meal intro and a commentary. Other stuff on the disc includes what I initially referred to as an “alternate audio” version of “Cybernetic Christmas Ghost From the Future”, but it turns out what they did was make his vocal effects apparent in the 5.1 mix of the episode, so I guess listening in plain stereo kinda squashes the effect. I have personally never owned a fancy surround system myself, so I just don’t know.

Other features include Future Wolf II: Never Cry Wolf: Origin of the Series a fun tongue-in-cheek making-of documentary that also includes a space werewolf, Future Wolf III which is just a montage of stills and production art, and deleted scenes from various episodes. It’s all worthwhile stuff. Fuck HBOMax, get the DVDs.

[mittensmorgul]

The Tumblr Beta Version: an objective analysis

I was tempted to just type “it sucks.” And while that is an objective analysis, it’s not exactly helpful. I’ve sent several requests to @staff and @support to restore my account to the old tumblr dashboard format, and received the same automated reply twice now. I’ll copy/paste it here so everyone is on the same page:

(lol, I had to go back and edit this, because apparently the beta version doesn’t display block quotes on the dash. So I’ve also put the block quotes in italics... hopefully it’ll display properly... note after editing: nope, it doesn’t display italics either... how the heck am I supposed to differentiate quoted text? I’ll start each quoted bit with an asterisk, I guess...)

*Thanks for reaching out about the beta dashboard.

*We're currently testing it out, and your account seems to have been selected to take part in the test. Thanks for your patience while we work on it! At this time there is not a way to opt out of testing. You may see your Tumblr experience return to normal as we continue testing.

WE CAN ONLY HOPE.

*In the meantime, check out some of the new features available only in the beta dashboard:

OKAY TUMBLR, IF YOU INSIST, though I would MUCH rather have back all the functionality I personally invested into this website through xkit... you know... making the site ACTUALLY FUNCTIONAL. Let’s see what this beta version has given me instead of functionality:

*Change Palettes: Go to the person icon, then click "Change Palette." You'll find the classic Tumblr blue, dark mode, and a few other color palettes for your dash.

So I tried out all the color palettes. In addition to the ones mentioned here, there’s one that’s trying to look like a green screen terminal that gives me flashbacks to the early 80′s. There’s a reason we stopped using green screen terminals... Another one is “canary yellow.” It’s very yellow. The “classic tumblr” isn’t actually classic tumblr... all the post boxes are dark blue with grey type, not white with black type. And all the other colors are the insanely bright fluorescent of the new Dark Blue standard tumblr scheme. Which means links are practically invisible unless I highlight them. It’s migraine inducing. The one theme with a light colored background is called “Concrete” or “Cement” or something like that and even that only works for about half an hour before the migraine aura really kicks in. I just want my Old Blue via xkit back. You know, what tumblr actually used to look like. I don’t want any of these horrible color palettes. None of them work for me.

*The new "meatballs" menu: This is where you can copy the post link, unfollow the Tumblr who made or reblogged the post, or report a violation to our Community Guidelines.

I could do all of this from the user menus with xkit, too. I don’t regularly report violations or have the urge to block people I have chosen to follow. Why on earth would I want to do any of this? And why would I want these features located directly beside the post link copy feature? 

You know what I do miss? I miss the xkit timestamps feature. I didn’t have to hover dangerously close to the KILL IT WITH FIRE meatballs menu in order to see when a post was made, and in this era of disinformation and misinformation spreading around this site faster than Covid-19, being able to see when a post was ORIGINALLY created is a far more useful feature than an easier way to block people. For reference: I currently have three blogs blocked. Two of them are pornbots. One is a nazi. If I don’t want someone’s content on my dash, I don’t follow them. This “feature” is entirely useless to me.

*A quick note: Pagination is not supported in this beta test, but we're collecting feedback to send to our engineers.

THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST. This beta test might actually be tolerable if I wasn’t trapped into endless scrolling. If I could page through my dash, refreshing it every ten posts or so. You know why? Because once I scroll about 30 posts down my dash, tumblr starts overheating my laptop under the load of ALL THOSE POSTS. Things start malfunctioning-- it takes longer and longer to load new posts the farther I scroll. And the keyboard navigation (both page down and hitting J to advance to the next post, and even just using the down arrow to scroll as I read a long post) freeze and stop functioning. One of my laptop fans has actually begun to malfunction.

You know why this wasn’t a problem on the old version? If the data load got to heavy, I could open a post in a new tab, click view on dash with xkit, and voila! Brand new tab! I could close the malfunctioning tab and everything would be refreshed to normal! But without pagination, THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Also, after reblogging a few posts, the beta version of this site breaks, and doesn’t open a post tab to add commentary or even tags. It just... reblogs the untagged post with no warning whatsoever. You know... that’s really really not cool. I tag EVERYTHING. Well, almost everything. The tags are the only way to keep track of the 40k+ posts on my blog. And warn people that I am posting potential spoilers, or other specific content. It’s REALLY inconvenient to have to either immediately go to my blog to edit the post and add tags, or even comments. The alternative is to scroll up to open individual posts I want to reblog in a new tab, and then reblog directly there. Ironically enough, THOSE pages actually open with xkit installed, and everything (surprise!) functions perfectly there.

It’s perfectly reasonable to understand why this specific issue has limited the number of posts I reblog. Reblogging content should not be this much of a hassle. Creators have been complaining for a while that reblogs have drastically slowed down, and I think making it even more annoying and difficult to reblog posts will not help this problem.

Also, with xkit enabled, there’s a function that auto-loads images as you scroll, so the images are always visible BEFORE they appear on screen. I don’t have to look at the colored boxes and wonder if this is a post I’ve already seen or something I should sit and wait for. Don’t even think about watching tumblr videos. Loading priority is given to the ads that you cannot pause or dismiss, so that video loads and plays in choppy two second bursts instead of being given priority. Since that’s the content I am actually here to consume, it kinda makes me want to do the opposite of patronizing anyone who advertises here with graphically intense ads. And then when you scroll away, with xkit, gifs and videos you’ve scrolled past STOP loading and playing, which I think might be contributing to the intensity of the resource hogging that’s literally melting down my laptop.

And for reference, I have a pretty decent little gaming laptop. A blogging platform shouldn’t be driving it to the brink of frying itself. I didn’t realize just how much xkit worked to streamline this and provide basic functionality to this site.

*And lastly, if you're an XKit user, know that the XKit team is working hard to update things on their end to make it compatible with the beta dashboard.

And this doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what I’ve lost without xkit. And this is a really REALLY garbage response to user complaints. “Oh, yeah, sorry we made our site suck even worse, but those nice people who do our jobs for free will surely fix our garbage soon!”

Dear wonderful people at @new-xkit-extension, I love you, and I miss you, and while I wish xkit worked with this beta version I’ve been forced into living with, I truly feel for y’all who are trying to deal with this nonsense on behalf of all of us.

And to the folks at Tumblr... maybe try to just... make your site actually more like xkit. You know, actually functional. None of these special new features are useful or functional to me. I respectfully request for a fourth time to be removed from this inane beta test.

Give us OPTIONS. Let us display ALL THE TAGS without having to click a button. Let me have back my Activity+ that actually allowed me to interact with people from my dash! That showed me real-time inline notifications in a way that I could reply to with a single click! Bring me back to my column of open messaging conversation icons so I have easy access to the people I talk with throughout the day instead of closing them all every time I refresh the page. I already feel socially isolated in freaking quarantine, please stop shutting off all my avenues of communication!

Let us have pagination! I mean, maybe it wasn’t the best idea to force heavy users of this site into a beta version that doesn’t allow us to opt out until your engineers had actually figured out how to make it work in a very basic way.

*Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with!

YES. PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM THIS BETA TEST NOW. I have let you know exactly what I want from this site. I just want it to ACTUALLY WORK. For someone who spends 12+ hours a day on this site, this beta test version is NONFUNCTIONAL. PLEASE ALLOW ME TO OPT OUT. I AM LITERALLY BEGGING YOU. I WILL ACTUALLY PAY YOU CASH MONEY TO ALLOW ME TO OPT OUT OF THIS AND GO BACK TO HAVING A FUNCTIONAL BLOG AGAIN. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!

PLEASE! 

I AM OFFICIALLY AT THE END OF MY PATIENCE FOR ENDURING THIS NIGHTMARE.

(one final quick note... I’ve only been back on my dash long enough to make the parenthetical edits-- i.e. adding italics that don’t display and then adding the asterisks at the beginning of each section of quoted text, and already my laptop is overheating again. For reference, I originally typed this entire post from within my tumblr inbox page-- which still functions normally with xkit-- and spent over an hour on it. My laptop was fine the entire time. Clearly the issue is this beta version of the website. I will never forgive tumblr if y’all fry my literal only portal to the outside world at this time. PUT ME BACK TO NORMAL NOW. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INFURIATING AND ENTIRELY UNACCEPTABLE. Thanks)

(oops apparently i lied... when the asterisks and the previous final note failed to display, I thought that seemed suspicious, and realized that I literally needed to refresh my entire dash in order to see edited changes. Funny how xkit enabled me to do that in real time, which is just another bit of functionality I’ve lost with this beta program. Please guys, this is really, really not working for me at all, just put it back.)

[ckret2]

Brain of Veal

Squeezing in at the LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE, for @symbruary Day 29: "favorite official work". I was telling my roomie I needed to do that last day's prompt which was fave canon work and roomie asked "which work is that" and I said "The Hunger" and then I summarized The Hunger and then I spent uhhhh two and a half hours infodumping about Venom to my roomie.

(P.S.: if you wanna read them, I've got the full Costa run sans the Sleeper miniseries in my room, hit me up. Also can refer you to several guides on how best to back read the good 90s shit.)

I'd also like to personally thank lobac for running this event, it's been a delight to participate in and to check out the great stuff coming out of it, and also a delight to constantly have your Venom meta/commentary on my dash. I've been following you since your duck blog (I don't even read duck comics, I just love your posts about them?? i should probably read duck comics tbh) and I was absolutely over the moon when you started up a blog for one of my latent hyperfixations. Your blog is a gem in this fandom. Thank you.

Anyway this one's gonna be not a lot, comparatively, because it's less than an hour til midnight here and I wanna get it done TODAY while it's still February, and also I have given all that I can give and I can't give no more. As mentioned, my favorite official symbiote work is "The Hunger"—although "Maximum Carnage," "The Enemy Within," and everything that has ever flowed from Mike Costa's pen come very close—but like, I don't have the time/energy to write something special about "The Hunger," so I'm just gonna go with some "symby wants to eat brains and so Venom finds a solution that doesn't involve forcing Eddie to participate in cannibalism."

###

Eddie closed his menu, to complete the show of pretending he'd ever needed to consult it in the first place, and offered it to the waiter. "We'll have the cervelle de veau aux câpres." He was very careful to pronounce the words right while pretending he didn't need to be careful. The symbiote was barely conscious of Eddie's showmanship. It was practically running up and down Eddie's esophagus and doing loops through his intestines in eagerness.

At the word "we," the waiter glanced at the empty spot across from Eddie at the table, as if to check whether there was a drink set out for a second guest who was currently absent.

Eddie quickly clarified, "Just one order, please." Although the symbiote quickly told him that if it was good, it might want a second one. Eddie gently informed it that they probably couldn't afford a second one.

"Yes, sir." The waiter nodded and departed to give the order to the kitchen.

The symbiote had seen a late-night travelogue on French cuisine a few months ago. Amidst the other foods singled out as particularly enticing or strange had been cervelle de veau, or brain of veal, and the symbiote had promptly woken Eddie out of a deep sleep at four in the morning to demand they try it as soon as possible. It had taken a few months before Eddie they'd set aside enough money in their date night savings jar to cover a trip to a fancy French restaurant to find out what these legally-authorized acceptable-to-eat actually-made-as-food brains tasted like.

Eddie's mouth watered involuntarily when the plate was set down in front of him, with two very easily-identifiable delicately arranged brain hemispheres surrounded artfully with capers; he swallowed quickly, not wanting to give the waiter a chance to notice that his drool was currently green. It was a smaller brain than the symbiote had expected—but then it came from a baby, didn't it? Baby cow. Smaller head. It would be delicious all the same.

To Eddie's surprise, it was delicious—and not just to the the symbiote's overlapped sense of flavor preferences. Well. Here was to trying new foods.

The symbiote, however, found it rather... bland. Unexpectedly so. Disappointingly so. Something important was missing.

Eddie flagged down the waiter. "Excuse me—how is the brain is prepared?"

"I'm sorry, sir, we don't give out our recipes."

"No, no, that's fine, I just want to know—does the process cook out the phenethylamine?"

The waiter blinked. "I... don't know, sir." From the look of it, he didn't have the slightest idea what phenethylamine was. A concerned look crossed his face. "Are you allergic, sir?"

"No, no. Don't worry about it." Inside him, the symbiote wilted.

At least it tasted good, right? Right?

The symbiote draped in disappointment over his ribs.

Well, after the bill and the tip, they should still have a few bucks left over. Eddie reassured it that they could grab a pint of chocolate ice cream on the way home.

###

Crossposted to AO3, link in my description. If you enjoyed, I'd appreciate a reblog or comment! Thanks for celebrating beautiful alien goo for a month with me! My other 28 fics for this event are on my blog under the #symbruary tag.

[prettywordsyouleft]

What A Dream (Trick, No It’s My Treat dare)

@tanithrea​ said:

Dare To Write - (congrats on 4000, you are amazing) write your weirdest or scariest dream but with idols in all the roles.

Pairing: Yoo Kihyun x reader (feat. Monsta X)

Genre: dream au / cheesy fluff

Warnings: This is a dream. It doesn’t make sense. It’s fluffy, it’s stupid, it made me smile when I dreamed it and subsequently criticise it ever since!

A/N: I write my dreams out so often that I didn’t really have many to pick from, admittedly. This is the one I’ve remembered the most vividly, especially since I wrote it out play for play to my best friend after it happened! And it was either this or the dream where my Dad came to life again in his coffin, and I think I’ll save us all from nightmares over that so let’s go with this ridiculous Monsta X one, shall we?

Word count: 3354

“Go ask the ring helper for me,” your friend instructed and you nodded immediately. Emotions were running high and it made sense you go and speak to them first. Your friend, well, she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to talk about the problem calmly.

“Hey, the judge isn’t allowing four horses into the ring, any reason why? Entries have been paid and-”

“Ask the judge,” the less than enthusiastic ring clerk stated before you could finish and you sighed heavily.

“She’s running classes right now, one in which the rider I’m show groom for and three other paid to be in.”

“Well, I can’t do anything about a judge’s ruling.”

“Who do I place a dispute with then?” you asked and the clerk rolled her eyes. “Especially when it comes to your attitude?”

“Looks, like it’s been solved, they’re heading in now.”

You turned and found more chaos happening behind you than you expected. Nothing had been solved; the riders merely took it into their own hands and entered the ring. Cursing, you dashed back to the sidelines and watched on anxiously.

Showing was such a stressful equestrian sport.

“Wasn’t any help, was she?” your friend commented with a smile on her face, untying the unexpected first place ribbon from around her horse’s neck to hand to you. After patting the gelding, she dismounted, pocketing the money she had received for winning the round. You merely shook your head and began to laugh. “Turns out the judge thought he was a coloured because of how high his socks extend. When she saw his branding up close, I think it was love at, well, second sight.”

“The stress was worth it then, huh?”

“Oh, no. I’m still laying a complaint, but first, let’s go have some lunch.”

After untacking her horse and ensuring he was fed and watered, you waited on the rider to reappear in her normal clothes before heading across the field. It was noisy, just like every other agricultural fair, the rides swinging children around, and farmers competing in a range of classes, much like your friend had in her section. She had chosen to do two ridden sections for the day, and you had been up since 4 am getting everything ready for the long morning ahead.

The smell of a waffle stand made your stomach rumble and it was only then when you realised you hadn’t eaten yet in the flurry of events. Your mouth watered at all the smells of the food stands the closer you walked into the corner where food haven existed.

Your friend came to a stop at a particular stand, selling her usual favourite of deep-fried foods. Fries and a hot dog would be a given for her, for sure. You perused the menu more carefully, looking for things you knew you would be safe to eat since you were gluten intolerant. The last thing you wanted, even if you would happily eat it all, was to end your day stuck in a portable toilet.

“Y/N?!”

Whipping around at your name being called, you gasped when you saw four men approaching you, waving and smiling. It didn’t seem to faze you seeing four international superstars walking across the fairgrounds of all places towards you, and when Minhyuk, Kihyun, Changkyun and Hoseok all came to a stop at your side; you were far too excited to really care why they were here. Greetings were made and then everyone fell into discussing the food board in Korean.

“Who are they?” your friend asked, nudging you rapidly and you smiled up at her.

“Friends.”

“Really? Since when were you friends with their kind?” she retorted with a scrunch of her nose and you gave her a quizzical look before being dragged into the conversation by Minhyuk.

“A hot dog is on a stick here? No bun?” he questioned and whilst you were decent in understanding his mother tongue, your broken answer made you blush.

And it caused your friend yank on your arm again. “Y/N, what the hell?! Look, we can get food elsewhere where it’s not so crowded by people. Let’s go.”

Stepping forward, Kihyun slung an arm around your shoulders and you shook off her hand, wondering how you could even consider someone so narrow-minded a friend. “You really shouldn’t be so rude, especially to my friends.”

“Like they’re really your friends,” she bit back, eying them before puffing out her chest. “Whatever, it’s not like they understand me, anyway.”

Smiling, you shrugged. “English is pretty easy to learn when you’ve lived overseas, right Changkyun?”

“Oh yeah, I know some words,” he replied with a chuckle and nudged Hoseok. “We all do.”

“Speak it or understand it, we’re pretty good at it. Want to continue with your commentary, we’ll happily converse back with you,” Kihyun added on and then went up to the counter that was now free, ordering what everyone wanted in perfect English.

You couldn’t help but smile, especially when your “friend” was grumbling incoherently, face crimson with embarrassment.

She narrowed her eyes on you. “Now, Y/N. Let’s go.”

“Oh, she’s staying with us,” Hoseok mentioned, and Changkyun nodded.

“We’re performing here on the stage over there for charity tonight so Y/N is more than capable to hang out with people who are more respectful all day if she wants.”

Suddenly, you saw the stage he was pointing to, amazed that it had been there all along.

“We have my other horses to take care of this afternoon, Y/N. Are you seriously ditching me for these guys?!”

Kihyun returned to your side and you looked up at him, nodding. “Yeah, I believe I am.”

“Good, because I ordered for you as well. And I made sure it was safe for you to eat.”

“Ugh!” your friend screamed, stomping her foot. “Some help you are!”

Once she stormed away, you slumped into Kihyun’s side, who chuckled when he grabbed you. “You did well. Don’t worry about her. We’re not offended.”

“We would have been if you left with her, though,” Minhyuk teased and you rolled your eyes, shaking your head all the same.

“I didn’t know she was like that.”

“People surprise me every day too,” Hoseok lamented, looking down at the food he was holding and then shot Kihyun a look. “I asked for double.”

“You’ve got a mouth, go order some more then, hyung!”

“Hey uh, I just realised something,” you started, cringing a little at your predicament. “My bag’s in her car with my change of clothes. I only have my wallet and phone with me. Not to mention, I probably smell my dirt and have horse hair all over me. The last thing I should do is spend time with you guys like this.”

“Hey, don’t worry, in a couple of hours, we’ll all be smelly and sweaty from soundcheck,” Changkyun mentioned and the other three nodded, Minhyuk, all but dragging you over to where the others were.

He beamed at his team. “We found a Monbebe already!”

“You did, how? Were you recognised right away?”

Hoseok shook his head as he helped you up onto the stage. “Y/N was the one we recognised first.”

“Wow, I never expected to see you here!” Jooheon remarked with a grin and you sat down beside him, nodding lightly as you looked around the countryside.

“Well, of all the places to perform, right?”

Lunch passed by catching up and then staff started to ask the boys to get ready for soundcheck. You were beyond exhausted, and sitting around doing nothing hadn’t helped. Blinking languidly as you yawned, you smiled when Hyunwoo held out a hand for you to take. Getting to your feet, you chuckled. “Sorry, maybe I need a nap.”

“Here, follow me,” he offered, taking you around the back to a large van. He opened the door. “Get some rest in here. I would offer the waiting room, but everyone will be in and out so this will be the quietest place.”

“I doubt I’ll get any sleep when the music starts up, anyway,” you replied, though you slumped over the middle row, curling up. You felt Hyunwoo reach for something over the back and then draped it over you. You realised it was his hoodie.

“If it’s cold when you come out, just put that on.”

“Thanks!”

He slid the door shut and you nestled down, pulling his hoodie up to your face as you humoured the idea of sleep.

Surprisingly, you managed to sleep so well that you were disorientated when you stirred. Blinking as you looked around the foreign vehicle, you glanced down at the garment you had half strewn across you and smiled, realising the events that had occurred today weren’t a dream after all. Slipping it over your head, you then got out of the van and headed back into the venue. Rounding the side so you could go out to where the crowd would be watching from later on, you caught Hyunwoo’s gaze and mouthed him a thank you for the hoodie. He beamed and gave you a thumbs up before stepping into the next movement of the dance, smiling his way through the rest of the song.

When it was over, it was where there would be a talk scheduled and the staff moved back towards the group, discussing the details with them.

Kihyun approached you when he was done and you shifted to the stage’s edge, looking up at him as he crouched down, pouting. “Where did you get that?”

“Hyunwoo gave it to me to wear when I woke up.”

“If only it was mine,” he grumbled and you laughed, shaking your head.

“You and I both know I won’t fit your clothes, I’m too big.”

“I’m jealous hyung gets the glory of this right now,” he admitted and then jumped down to your level, smiling as he reached out for your hair to smooth it down some. “You look really cute from your nap though, Y/N.”

“Is it bad?!” you exclaimed, reaching up to pat it down yourself, and Kihyun smirked, shrugging at you. “Ki!”

“There’s a mirror in the waiting room, go through that door there and ask for Nami. She’ll help you.”

Thanking him as you rushed off, you found the room in question and their stylist in the room. After the initial confusion, she was all too happy to have company as she waited for the seven men to step backstage. And when they did, you proved to be useful, helping Nami with handing her tools she needed and other assorted errands. Before you knew it, everyone was ready for the crowd that was buzzing outside.

Sitting down as the boys grouped around, you smiled, they all looked so cool. Hyungwon frowned, looking over at you and then gestured for you. “What are you doing, get over here!”

“Oh no, I couldn’t-”

“Now, Y/N!” Minhyuk whined and the others started as well until you got up, stepping into their circle.

“We’re totally going to rock tonight because Y/N is here. Put your hand in to give us good luck!”

You did as instructed and seven others piled up on top as they loudly did their pre-performance chant and then pulled back. Changkyun bumped you with his hip and you shot him a look, which he merely chuckled at you over. “Don’t look so annoyed, I know you’re going to enjoy watching us tonight.”

“Just get out there and break a leg!” you called as they started to leave the room, and you cringed. “No, don’t break it but… oh, you know what I mean!”

“If I do, I’ll blame you!” he replied before the door shut and the room returned to a normal level of noise.

And then you noticed the look in Nami’s eye. “What is it?”

“How often do you wear makeup?”

“Hardly ever. I’m useless at applying it,” you told her with a shrug, her lips curling up wickedly. It made you hesitant. “Why?”

“Have the boys seen you with makeup?”

“Uh, I don’t know.”

“Not my makeup anyway. Want to humour me a little? It’s been forever since I’ve had a canvas like yours to work with.”

Before you could protest, Nami had you in the chair in front of the mirror, her beauty weapons of choice ready to attack.

“That’s not me,” you murmured after the woman pulled away to admire her work, turning you to face the mirrors. You were amazed at how different you appeared. “How did you manage to do this so seamlessly?”

She grinned and then shook her head, her eyes narrowing as she took you in. “Now, this face doesn’t suit what you’re wearing.”

Glancing down at your dirty jeans and top since you had taken off Hyunwoo’s hoodie during the makeup process, you cringed. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“I doubt we’re too different in size,” she commented, returning to her trunk across the room and started sifting through the layers until she returned with an outfit for you to wear. She motioned to the changing room and awkwardly, you got up, soon returning in the lace detailed blouse and faux leather jeggings. Nami was more than pleased now.

But you were cold.

“Oh! I have something I was instructed to give you, by the way.” She handed you another garment, this time a zip-up hoodie. You eyed it warily. She grinned. “It’s Kihyun’s, he insisted you come out wearing this.”

“Of course, he did,” you replied, shaking your head softly at his jealousy. Slipping it on, you left it undone and then turned to the door. “Are you coming?”

“I love those boys to death, but I’m not a crowd person. Enjoy it for me!”

Heading out of the attached space to the stage, you moved towards the crowd, surprised by just how full it was for an event so far from the city. A guard helped you around the barrier and you found a space where you weren’t going to bother anyone.

Enjoying the performance was far too easy when you loved the energy of Monsta X as much as you did. Singing along with the others around you, you grinned when Kihyun’s gaze found yours. He blinked and then looked away, trying to focus on the performance, but it wasn’t long until he was staring at you again.

You were certain he was blushing and it wasn’t from the heat of the lights.

When Trespass came to an end, the boys moved together to chat with the audience, wiping themselves with towels and gulping down water. You laughed when Hyungwon had to nudge Kihyun since it was his turn to talk and he visibly flinched, coming out of his daze.

“Uh sorry, it’s just that my girlfriend looks so hot,” he breathed into the microphone, looking right at you again. The crowd began to murmur and it was enough to remind him of his place, gesturing generously at them all. “Right, Monbebe?!”

You snorted. Nice save, Kihyun.

The rest of the performance went without any almost mishaps, and you had calmed down from Kihyun’s sudden announcement. Sure, you were still repeating the sentence now and then in your mind, feeling incredibly giddy about something that you had no confirmation was actually a thing. But it wasn’t all that preoccupied your mind when you were watching one of the best concerts you had ever attended either.

However, you were nervously waiting backstage after it finished, cheeks flaming with colour at the immediate teasing that began.

“My girlfriend looks so hot!”

“I had to hold back a snort, I really did.”

“The crowd was about to go wild, and not in the way they ended up doing so.”

“Poor Y/N’s expression, I had to look at her after he said it and she was so shocked.”

“I’m amazed you didn’t faint, Y/N. Every girl wants to be confessed to like that from the stage!”

“Was that even a confession? And why did she look hot, Kihyun? All you could see from there was your damn hoodie!”

Minhyuk approached you with a grin, placing a hand on his hip and then pointed between you and the final member who walked through the door, now staring at you again. “Tell me, since when is Y/N your girlfriend? Sure, you’ve known each other for a while, but-”

“Since now,” Kihyun announced, ignoring the loud jeering as he came over to hug you, pulling you into his embrace tightly. You were certain you had stopped breathing, and if you hadn’t, it was definitely halted when he whispered into your ear. “You look so beautiful.”

“Hey lovebirds, we need to go back to the hotel!” Jooheon called and you pulled away from Kihyun’s grip, smiling bashfully.

“I better head home.”

“How, we’re your only ride left. We’re not going to the city,” Changkyun mentioned and you glanced up at Kihyun wide-eyed. He rubbed your arms gently and ushered you out of the waiting room.

It wasn’t the pace you had expected when you had only gotten a boyfriend two hours previously. And yet, you had somehow found yourself in Kihyun’s hotel room, grateful that he had swapped with another member to have the solo room.

Not that it eased your heart any.

Standing by the couch, you pointed at it hastily. “I’ll sleep here.”

“It’s too small for the both of us,” he responded with a shake of his head.

“You’re not considering the alternative of us sharing, are you?”

Kihyun stopped lugging his suitcase into the room and returned to your side, giving you a tender smile. “What if I am?”

“But we only just… and we haven’t even kissed yet and-”

His lips slowly found yours and you melted into the embrace, reservations now evaporating with how right this all felt. He pulled away and brushed your hair gently away from your face. “We’ve kissed now so are you able to share with me? It’s just a bed, Y/N. I’m not prepared to move any further than this with you.”

“Really?”

“Unless?” he started with a teasing waggle of his eyebrows and you laughed, pushing him away playfully.

Soon under the covers, with the moon being the only thing lighting up the room, you spent an immeasurable time staring at Kihyun. He was doing the same, a small smile permanently curling up his lips. He then slipped an arm under your neck, drawing you into his side. “Want to know something?”

“Hm?”

“I’ve always wanted to hold you in my arms like this and fall asleep. Seems like a dream right now that I actually am holding you like this.”

You didn’t know how to respond, simply nestling into his side more comfortably and closed your eyes.

Feeling a set of lips brush over your forehead, you stirred, not yet ready to open your eyes and let the morning light in. But you were all too happy to reach out when his lips made their sluggish path towards your mouth, kissing him softly as Kihyun held you to his chest. “If I could wake up with you every day, God, I’d be so happy.”

Opening your eyes, you blinked against the morning light, smiling all too happily from his sentence. And yet, it was a mere whisper hanging in the air, the space beside you now empty.

Looking around frantically, the bitter taste of being fooled that it was all a dream rose in your mouth, causing you to curse out loudly. You didn’t care what the time was, flinging yourself back down onto your pillow and clamped your eyes shut. Pleading with the dream gods to take you back to Kihyun and his beautiful words, even if you knew it was fruitless.

You were now awake.

Confusion settled in as you replayed the events of the dream, chiding yourself for even falling for such a thing. And then you reached out for your phone, opening up the chat conversation with your best friend to type up all the weird and fantastical that happened so you would never forget it.

_________________

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[MONSTA X Masterlist] | [Main Masterlist] | [Request Guidelines]

[lxngfxrgxtten]

{再び行った}➺ “We stabbin’ GOD now? Fuck it, I’m in.”

[grumpyoldsnake]

Edit, because I wasn't paying attention.

This was... it was almost a good update. It was so close to being a maybe-an-improvement update.

The new link hitbox is actually easier to click on, and you're less likely to click on the wrong thing! For example, in my case, I think it will result in following people accidentally much less often once I get used to it. It could have been a genuine improvement.

But considering there is currently almost no indication of this UI feature other than a cursor change and the box changing color slightly when you hover over it, it's still pretty questionable. >_>; If you mouse around it's clear that there's something to click, but there's no indication of what it will do. If I were designing it I would have included hovertext or something.

And then, well, uh. There's the whole, no way to get to the previous reblog thing. Again, if I were designing it, I would have made it so you can click on the box around the person who put it on your dash to go to that post in front of you, a specific icon box or maybe even just an added link in the meatball menu to go to the previous reblog, and the box around OP to go back to the original post. Or some shuffled-around version of that based on user feedback of which functions they use most often.

The mobile app... currently seems to have almost the best of both worlds? I can click on the hitbox to go to OP, or other hitboxes for any poster who's added actual commentary, or I can click on the via-reblog username and go to the previous reblog. But I can't click to go look at the post right in front of me, as that hitbox just takes me to the root blog of the person I follow who reblogged the post.

Loses major points for the fact that, well, on mobile, you aren't going to be mousing around, are you? There's absolutely zero visual UI.

And as far as I can tell, there is just. Straight up no equivalent on mobile browser. If you're on mobile browser you're out of luck on all fronts except going straight to root blogs. Which goes straight past questionable and into "good grief why."

A very, very gentle reminder that "prev tags" is now completely useless, bc you can no longer click back thru the reblog chain and see the prev tags. You can see the reblog in front of you, and you can find the original post - by itself, completely devoid of context - but you can't click thru to the previous reblog. This is apparently intentional, since I literally emailed support about it - being able to click back thru the reblog chain and being able to see the source post in context on op's blog are fundamental parts of the user experience imo and I am pissed - and their response was basically like yeah we meant to do that but if you want to talk about it you can go to our WIP blog, where the ask is literally only open one day a week and we will completely ignore you.

[bryantlibrary]

FINANCIAL NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES AT THE BRYANT LIBRARY

Need help staying up-to-date with rapidly changing financial news? The Bryant Library can help. While the appearance of certain publications, such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) or Barron’s, may be altered from what you see with a personal digital subscription, much of the same content is available to you through the Library’s institutional subscriptions to both publications.

Winner of numerous Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, WSJ is a business-focused daily newspaper that provides national news coverage including politics, government, economy, health care, education and more. To access it, go to the Library’s homepage and click on the Online Databases icon to reach an alphabetical list of databases, including Wall Street Journal. When prompted for your library barcode enter all 14 digits of your library card number (no spaces or dashes). To view articles for the current day, click on the “Advanced Search” tab on the grey bar at the top of the search page, choose the “On this date” option from the drop-down menu next to “Publication date” and enter the month, day and year.

Barron's, a weekly publication, is a leading source of financial news, providing in-depth analysis and commentary on stocks, investments and how markets are moving. Each issue provides a summary of the previous week's market activity as well as news, reports, and an outlook on the week to come. Access Barron’s from the Library’s homepage as described above for the WSJ. Once you are in Barron’s, scroll down to the bottom of the search page where you will find a list of specific issues by date. Just click on the “+” icons until you arrive at a particular issue. Want to see an article the way it appeared in the print version of Barron’s? Just click on the “Full text – PDF” option beneath the article you want to read.

Looking for business and finance magazines? Then checkout RBdigital. From the Library’s homepage click on the Use the Library from Home icon to reach a list of digital resources. Select the RBdigital icon and use the “Genres” drop-down menu at the top of the page to select “Business & Finance.” You are now ready to choose from a selection of magazines including The Economist, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Entrepreneur and more. To checkout a magazine, sign in or create an account using your library card number. RBdigital mobile apps are available for viewing on iOS, Android or Kindle Fire.

Need help with any of this? Click on the Chat with a Librarian link on the left-side of the Library’s homepage any time between 9 AM to 5 PM to ask a librarian for assistance.  

 Article by Reference Library Beth Mezick