#...wait-

[of-stars-and-fireflies]

V-Day 10 - Ren Shiranami

“You got me chocolates? You’re not the type who does all this kind of stuff, huh?”

Mina’s body turned to ice. Oh no…she messed up didn’t she? She thought maybe he’d like the little gamer-themed chocolates she managed to find through a long and exhausting search for something that could pique his interest, but in the end…was it for naught?

Her gaze fell to the little cartridge-shaped box. “Ah, sorry…I happened across these, so I thought you’d like them, but…I can just return them. They’ll be good for a while longer anyways.”

His heart plummeted at the sight of her disappointed little smile that desperately tried to hold her emotions at bay. ‘Shit…what did I just do? No, no, Mina, don’t look like that…’ Before she could turn away, he blurted out, “No, it’s fine. You went to the trouble and everything so I’ll take them.

Her eyes, filled with a wary glee, met his, “...Really?”

“Yeah. Hand them over.” As they were passed into his hands, his mind went spinning again. ‘Aagh, I don’t want to entertain this crap, but free chocolate is free chocolate, right? And it’s from Mina…she hand-picked these so it’s fine.’

“If you’re sure…” She paused to watch him analyze the cardboard container. “I hope you like them then.”

‘I mean, the shapes are pretty cool…how the hell did she even find something like this? I guess it really is better not to let it go to waste…’

“...Can I say the thing?”

The crease in his brow deepened. “...Do you have to?” ‘Please don’t say it. That’s harassment.

Well, I don’t know, if Mina says it…it might be kinda…

No, no I really don’t want to hear it. Don’t buy into this consumerist holiday bullcrap, Mina.’

Seeing the opposition swirling in his eyes, she sighed. “Okay, okay…I’m still happy I got those for you though. They only come out around this time of year.”

“Yeah yeah.”

A beat, then she lifted her arms for a hug.

After a moment, he nodded, and she gently brought him into her arms and gave a squeeze. He folded his own around her, a light pink tint dusting his cheeks.

‘...You’re lucky you’re cute.’

[segamascott]

[scribefindegil]

Everyone is so weird about people who cry easily. Fellas, is it evil and manipulative to *checks notes* have an involuntary stress response?

[zelkams-art]

in all timelines in all possibilities only you can show me this

[wishfulsketching]

Girl dad Silco is a source of endless entertainment for me

Extra doodles:

Someone save Sevika, she is in hell

[monstermonger]

~3 months traveling in my wife’s home-country -> 100 journal pages

[izbnart]

Left-handed Ena Dream BBQ fan animation yayyy

[noodles-and-tea]

Haha… yeah… that’d be crazy…

[keferon]

A cat I met in the woods yesterday

[good-to-drive]

My mom kept complaining that all of a sudden the Beatles are back and they're fucking everywhere and they're so obnoxious and were practically having an orgy in her garden under a cucumber leaf and that's when I realized she meant spotted cucumber beetles and not Paul McCartney

[never-quite-buried]

Nope now it’s at the point that i’m shocked that people off tt don’t know what’s going down. I have no reach but i’ll sum it up anyway.

SCOTUS is hearing on the constitutionality of the ban as tiktok and creators are arguing that it is a violation of our first amendment rights to free speech, freedom of the press and freedom to assemble.

SCOTUS: tiktok bad, big security concern because china bad!

Tiktok lawyers: if china is such a concern why are you singling us out? Why not SHEIN or temu which collect far more information and are less transparent with their users?

SCOTUS (out loud): well you see we don’t like how users are communicating with each other, it’s making them more anti-american and china could disseminate pro china propaganda (get it? They literally said they do not like how we Speak or how we Assemble. Independent journalists reach their audience on tt meaning they have Press they want to suppress)

Tiktok users: this is fucking bullshit i don’t want to lose this community what should we do? We don’t want to go to meta or x because they both lobbied congress to ban tiktok (free market capitalism amirite? Paying off your local congressmen to suppress the competition is totally what the free market is about) but nothing else is like TikTok

A few users: what about xiaohongshu? It’s the Chinese version of tiktok (not quite, douyin is the chinese tiktok but it’s primarily for younger users so xiaohongshu was chosen)

16 hours later:

Tiktok as a community has chosen to collectively migrate TO a chinese owned app that is purely in Chinese out of utter spite and contempt for meta/x and the gov that is backing them.

My fyp is a mix of “i would rather mail memes to my friends than ever return to instagram reels” and “i will xerox my data to xi jinping myself i do not care i share my ss# with 5 other people anyway” and “im just getting ready for my day with my chinese made coffee maker and my Chinese made blowdryer and my chinese made clothing and listening to a podcast on my chinese made phone and get in my car running on chinese manufactured microchips but logging into a chinese social media? Too much for our gov!” etc.

So the government was scared that tiktok was creating a sense of class consciousness and tried to kill it but by doing so they sent us all to xiaohongshu. And now? Oh it’s adorable seeing this gov-manufactured divide be crossed in such a way.

This is adorable and so not what they were expecting. Im sure they were expecting a reluctant return to reels and shorts to fill the void but tiktokers said fuck that, we will forge connections across the world. Who you tell me is my enemy i will make my friend. That’s pretty damn cool.

[bookwyrminspiration]

god I would be UNSTOPPABLE if I was capable of consistently initiating tasks. just you wait. you'll be waiting a while but just you wait

[fic-dumpster]

[fortunatelychaoticphantom]

I swear to fucking god. I would claw out OneDrive from my computer if I could. I would burn down their servers if I could. I would run down their stocks to the ground if I could. I hope every single one of their workers gets a better offer from a competitor in the next 24 hours. I hope every single one of their light bulbs explodes at the same time. I hope every single carton of milk in their fridge will always be expired.

Stop backing up my fucking files.

Stop asking me to back up my fucking files.

Stop taking my fucking files off my fucking computer.

I don't want a fucking reminder in three fucking days. Let me fucking say no.

Fuckers.

[brokenclockgears]

while the cameras are turned away