#remind me to never create and edit posts on the app again

[imnayeonjaem]

the difference between creating/editing posts on the app and creating/editing posts on desktop is sooo different holy shit

[yamagucji]

some tips for writing blogs, especially those who are just starting out. these are some things that works for me and may or may not work for others.

how to add a read more link on mobile

type :readmore: on a free space, then hit the enter or return button

personally i think they’re very helpful because it lessens the space you take up in your dash, and might encourage more people to rb

+ you can also add this on a spot where it gives a sort of cliffhanger, essentially making people want to ‘read more’

headers, banners, and dividers

though not necessary, it’s good to have a title for your work. make sure it’s bold and doesn’t blend in with your notes (aka pairing, warnings, etc.). this also helps when someone wants to look up one of your works in your search bar

i don’t really make banners or covers for my works. but some good apps that i know of would be picsart and canva. if you’re looking for ideas, i definitely recommend going into canva

wondering how to make those really small, thin dividers? you can make them using picsart! to make a divider hit tools > free crop > brush > size (adjust it to your preference > then draw a line along the edge of your photo > save

using the divider you just saved, go back to picsart and edit it again > draw option > hit rainbow square at the bottom left corner > hit suction/droplet symbol right below the check mark > color in the white spots bc for some reason picsart glitches and makes dividers look white-ish

new blog? just opened an account?

this is gonna sound really frustrating. but... tumblr needs to check if you’re a bot or not. what does this mean? it’s likely that your first few posts won’t show up on the search bar. you may not even get to edit your header/pfp yet ://

this happened to me and there was no visibility on my account at ALL. what helped me get ‘verified’ is that i followed a LOT of accounts, liked a bunch of posts, made some posts here and there. now that lets tumblr know you’re not a bot

visibility

the tumblr tagging system usually only allows the first 5 tags in your post to show up. so, what can do you about this? only use FIVE or less tags in your post. wait about 15 minutes or more until you can add some more tags in your post, and they usually all show up like that

another important thing about using tags is not to generalize! especially if you’re using a popular tag. but also don’t specify it too much where barely anyone looks it up. for example, if you’re writing a gn piece about oikawa, i recommend you use the tags such as: oikawa x reader, haikyuu x reader, oikawa x gn!reader, haikyuu headcanons, etc

a good rule of thumb is to use character x reader tags first, then leave the full name or fandom tag last

FOR NSFW: tumblr doesn’t let any tags with nsfw show up. so, give your nsfw works another tag. maybe #namegetspicy idk, you figure it out

FOR WARNINGS: especially if you’re a dark content creator, i highly encourage you to add tw:xyz tags. if you already have a warning note at the top then that’s great. but even better for readers who prefer to actually block these tags that way they never get to see it

another important thing to note is that people have different timezones. it helps if you rb your work at a different time of the day, in case people missed it! (icymi) i’ve noticed that reblogging helps to make your post show up in the tags

interaction + feedback

first and foremost, you are not obligated to write for your followers, and neither are your followers obligated to interact with you. remember that everyone has their own individual lives, and they have their own things to do— so do you, too.

make friends! become mutuals with other writers, visit their ask box. i know it can be daunting having to initiate these things, but you might just turn out to have fun! you can’t expect people to interact with you if you’re not interacting (back). it’s... kind of a two way thing yk? no need to be afraid to interact with other writers. oh, and rb other writers works!

pspsps join tag games or do ask games. it’s fun and very interactive

it never hurts to ask for feedback. i usually do this in a more subtle way because i don’t really expect a full on analysis on my works. maybe a little, is this okay? or feedback appreciated. sometimes it takes a little bit of coaxing for the silent readers

formatting your posts and blog

i generally put in the title at the top in big, bold letters

then comes the header/divider. helps to make the post more... visually appealing ig?

it’s important to add warnings (if any) and the pairing. the audience is not all female, and it might be a little frustrating for male readers having to find out its an x fem reader piece like halfway through your fic

if you have multiple works posted, it’s really really helpful to have a navigation page!

you can organize the posts you make with tags! for example, if you’re shitposting, you can use a specific tag for that. if you have a nsfw related post (ESPECIALLY when your blog is open to the general audience) please make a tag for it

themes + colors

if you have a color in mind but don’t know which direction to go from there, i recommend looking up color + aesthetic

looking to use the same color? download a name color app that’ll give you a hex code for any color you want to use. then, you can type in that hex code for when you’re choosing a color for your tumblr bio

wondering how to make your header image small like mine? just choose a photo for your header and turn off the stretch image option

want to use a different text color that tumblr doesn’t offer? it’s not as complicated as you think. you’ll have to go on a desktop to do this and do some html (but trust me, it’s not very difficult). look up “HTML noob but trying my best - how to use colored text on desktop”

^^ i don’t have the link for the color text tutorial so you can try looking it up

how to make an aesthetic navi and masterlist

step 1: decide a theme! if you’re stuck, think about a character + color/season/mood or look up “[insert] aesthetic” to find some inspiration. or you can try looking at other blogs too

step 2: find a color scheme! it’s easier if you choose fewer colors. if you want to use the same color for both divider and text, download a color name app in order to get the hex code of that color.

step 3: add categories to your navi! most navigation pages include a link to masterlist, about/byi, and rules. your navi should have a title that indicates that it’s... a navigation page. you can add thin colored dividers with the same color to make it easier for followers to navigate

step 4: you can choose to create a ‘cover’ or a picture for your navigation and masterlist! again, i recommend you use the canva app as a starting point

extra: search up emoticon symbols to spice up your titles!

reminder for you as a writer

you’re not obligated to do any of these things. i’ve noticed that we tend to build pressure on ourselves when it comes to content and interaction. remember, this !! is !! for !! fun !! when you realize that it’s no longer fun, then know that it’s time to take a break. and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of self care.

^^ c/p from this post lol

at the end of the day, follower count and interaction doesn’t define you. again for the love of beings, you’re here on your own accord.

will be adding more if needed/asked.

[vinschalamet]

[ my bad for the length of this ask. i just wanted to make sure i explained it all properly! ]

heyy :)

just a quick reminder that the concept of tagging is not the same on tumblr as it is on other social media. tags exist to make finding content easier, and more importantly, to let tumblr users filter what they do and don’t want to see on here. obviously i can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to, but tumblr has been around for over fifteen years and there have been unwritten ethics created (and followed) since it first launched. again, these unwritten “rules” are to make the use of the app easiest for everyone. it’s what makes tumblr so much different (and so much more peaceful!) then other platforms. while it is normal for people who create content to want to reach a bigger audience, tumblr isn’t (and has never been) the social platform for that, besides when using the proper methods.

that being said: when you write for vinnie, please only use tags that have to do with imagines/writing, and tags like his name. when you re-post his social media posts/pictures, please only use tags like his name, and “repost” — not tags like “vinnie hacker x imagines”, because that isn’t an accurate description of the post contents. & so and so forth, because using unrelated ones just clogs up tags and creates more confusion/difficulty for site users.

this also applies to tagging posts about other influencers with vinnie tags—it makes the whole purpose of tagging useless. if you wrote about jett, or jack, please keep vinnie’s name out of the tags. (just because he’s featured in a piece, doesn’t make it about him, so if he isn’t the main character or focus of your writing, his name doesn’t belong in them.) for reposting, unless the post is from vinnie’s socials, or he is visible in the picture, his name shouldn’t be tagged either.

again, this is just to let some of the newer tumblr users who haven’t learned about the unwritten rules of the platform yet, about how the tumblr community likes to operate! this is a general message that i’m sending to a bunch of different accounts. it isn’t to target anyone specific, or to send hate to anyone—it’s simply to help keep tumblr the great platform it has always been :)

edited: you’re saying it’s not targeted but from i’ve seen within my feed, i’m the only one with this message. i apologise if i come across sensitive or emotional.

i would like to start of with, i’ve been on tumblr since the age of 14. i’m aware of how the tagging system works. i’m just a small blog trying to gain more exposure.

i’m very much confused, i feel like you could of dm’d me and i’d be more than happy to talk and explain myself and my tagging. my question is i’ve been running my blog since november last year why is it all of sudden an issue with what tags i’m using? if you go back you will see i’ve been using those tags since then. so why am i receiving this only now?

my apologies if i have ever flooded the tag as far as i’m aware i have always posted vinnie content within that tag and not posted any other influencers within that tag either.

i apologise with how i am coming across as i try and keep my blog a positive and safe place but this in particular has unsettled myself and i apologise if you are coming across with a good heart, i hope you can understand with how i am feeling right now as i haven’t made any changes in my tagging since i’ve started it.

i will make changes and apologise for whatever i have caused for tagging unnecessary even though i do make moodboards so that’s why i do use that reader tag.

i now see someone else received it but still felt like it’s some what targeted i’ll shut up now.

[satendou]

⟼  inopportunity is key

⍣ clueless chemistry series | previous | next

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⇢  pairing: bokuto kotaro/f!reader/kuroo tetsuro

⇢ au: clueless chem!au, college!au, poly!au

⇢ summary: kuroo has a conference call, but bokuto’s just come home from a week away. you really can’t help yourselves.

⇥  masterlist

⇥  requests are open! | rules

⇢  warnings: established relationship, polyamory, smut, fingering & oral, couch sex, teasing of kuroo, masturbation, voyeurism

⇢  word count: 3.7k

・‥…━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━…‥・

⇢  a/n: this is technically posted the day after it was supposed to be but no one will notice right? thank you as usual to @keijiskitten​ for editing this for me, yk ilysm. uh...thinkin about redoing this header but it’s 3am and i’m not doin it tonight.

“Uh, remind me what this is for again?” you asked, glancing over your shoulder at Kuroo. You were standing at the counter stirring a cup of tea while he fixed his tie in the fridge reflection, mouth twisted into a frown as he fought with it. “That would be easier with a mirror.”

He groaned, glaring at you from the corner of his eye. It had taken him ten minutes to get the tie right the first time, and then Bokuto had kissed him just a few minutes after and screwed it up again. He was frazzled and annoyed. “It’s for a science conference with the rest of the group. We have to discuss the potential impact of praseodymium on the environment if used in industry.”

You hummed thoughtfully even though you had less than no idea what he was talking about. However he always sounded so passionate about it that you didn’t care, trying to be interested even though he always lost you six words into his tirade. You suspected he knew as much because he had started slowing down his explanations, taking the time to explain certain things when your brows furrowed in confusion.

“Just come here, Tetsu. Let me fix it so that you can get started,” you said, waving him over. He sighed in relief and stooped over in front of you, chin tilted up while you fiddled with the knot. After a few moments, you patted his chest. “All done. Go get ‘em, tiger.”

He kissed your forehead, sighing against it. “Thanks, babe.” Then-- “Bokuto.”

The third slice of your trio poked his head around the corner into the kitchen, looking every bit like his name sake. Yellow eyes wide and innocent but sparkling with yet undecided mischief. “Yes, Kuroo?”

You snickered behind your hand and turned back to your cup of tea, now cool enough to drink. Taking a sip, you listened to Kuroo lecture Bokuto, who was now leaning against the doorframe, nodding even though he had clearly spaced out. It was all going in one ear and out the other, his eyes locked on you and a small grin on his face. He had something planned but you couldn’t fathom what.

“...and this is really important so I really need you guys to behave. I know how you get when you get bored, but _____ please try to corral him.”

You put on your best serious face and nodded when Kuroo turned to look at you. But as soon as he turned around, you snickered. He had missed it, but Bokuto had given you a very corny eyebrow wiggle. He was not taking this seriously and you were going to have to find something to occupy him before he actually did interrupt Kuroo’s conference. You loved him, but Bo was all volleyball and that left no space for seriousness.

Kuroo stomped around him and into the living room. You knew his laptop was already set up and open to the chat app the group was going to be using. It had been agreed upon that you and Bokuto could watch TV or hang around in the living room so long* as you-- but mostly Bokuto-- didn’t create a disruption. Kuroo plugged his headphones into the computer and then you heard him talking quietly.

“So, what should we do? Movie?” you asked, moving to stand in front of Bokuto. He towered over you, all broad and rippling muscle and you wondered if you’d actually get through a whole movie. He had only just gotten home from an away game the day before and, after a week away, you had missed him. His arms came around you and you fell willingly into his chest, soaking in the warmth you had been missing for days. Nothing felt right when either of your partners was gone, and you nuzzled into his chest, breathing in the warm smell of fabric softener and your own vanilla body wash because he insisted on using it instead of his own.

“A movie sounds good, so long as you sit in my lap,” he pouted, rubbing his cheek on the top of your head, “I missed you and need cuddles.” It was hard since you were several inches shorter than him, but he wasn’t above bending in half to get affection. Away games sucked, and he had to get by with video chatting, which he demanded every night before the three of you went to bed. He absolutely could not sleep without hearing your voices and seeing your faces.

You led the way into the living room, pulling him along behind you by the wrist. Pausing to kiss Kuroo on the cheek while he chatted, you received a round of waves from the rest of his group and waved back before moving to the couch. Before you could sit, Bokuto caught you up in his arms and fell down, dragging you into his lap just like you promised.

“Alright, alright,” you said, trying your best to stifle your giggles as he peppered your neck and shoulder with kisses. “Tetsu is gonna get mad at us and we won’t be able to watch the movie.”

Bokuto whined in the back of his throat and nipped at your neck, right over your sweet spot, and you squirmed at the heat that it caused. He pulled away, resting his chin on your shoulder and grinning as he picked up the remote. The TV buzzed quietly in the background until he flipped it to Netflix, the familiar sound jarringly loud, and he glanced at Kuroo, who was staring at the two of you with a glare. Bo shrugged, letting a guilty grin slip onto his face as he turned it down in a hurry.

Pushing at him, you guided him to relax against the back of the couch as you got comfortable, sliding off his legs and crossing yours over his thighs. He whined and gave you a pout until you settled in right against his side, and he threw his arm around your shoulders, preening as you snuggled against him. 

He flipped through the movie list, humming in thought at a few until he landed on Terminator 2 and looked at you for confirmation. He knew you weren’t going to be paying attention but the way you laid your head on his shoulder, trying to cuddle closer, made up for it.

Kuroo’s voice covered the sound of the movie, except for a few of the louder sound effects from time to time, but it was as low as it could be without being unable to hear it, and the subtitles were already on. You shifted, crossing your ankles and catching Bokuto’s attention. You were still absorbed in your phone, giggling at something he couldn’t see, and you jumped when you suddenly felt his fingers drift up your calf.

“Ko, stop, that tickles,” you whispered, swatting at his hand half-heartedly, but he only snatched his hand away and did it again, eliciting another giggle. You had set your phone aside and wound one arm around his thick neck, tugging as you tried to pull your legs from his hand. 

He caught your ankle in his grasp and pulled your leg back straight, holding it in his iron grasp and looking down at you. Your face was twisted with amusement, a wry smile on your face as your eyes glittered with happiness. 

“_____, you’re so fuckin’ pretty,” he whispered, and watched the glitter intensify as your eyes widened, pupils blown wide as he let go of your ankle and swept his hand up to your thigh, squeezing it just below your crotch. You weren’t the only one who was pent up, and he had half a mind to take you to the bedroom.

You could immediately tell you were in trouble when Bokuto’s eyes narrowed-- that mischievous glint he always carried increasing tenfold as he asked, “Can you be quiet?”

Throwing a glance over his shoulder, you caught Kuroo looking at you with what might have been a glare, which was overpowered by the interest his eyes held. Something in the chat gathered his attention for a moment as they asked if he was alright. Tugging at his tie, he nodded, glancing at you quickly before trying to focus on his work.

If the two of you really wanted to play, he would be the adult and ignore it. Or so he thought, until another glance at the two of you revealed Ko’s fingers sliding underneath your shorts. Your lips were parted as he whispered something into your ear, your eyes fluttering while you nodded.

“You’re so wet already, baby. Did you miss me that much, _____?” Bokuto breathed, nipping the shell of your ear while your thighs clenched around him. You pulled at his hair, breathing out a shaky moan as one thick finger probed at your slick folds. “I missed you, babygirl. Need my cock in this tight pussy to make up for it, you want that?”

You nodded, a high whine leaving your throat as he crooked his finger, walls clenching around him when his thumb ghosted your clit. It wouldn’t take long for you to come undone; the way his finger thrust in and out of your tight pussy was mind blowing, and when a second finger forced its way in, you lost it. A sharp gasp escaped before you could help it, barely containing a moan and you bit your fingers to stifle anything more.

Kuroo lost track of the conversation again as he watched you come undone all over Bokuto’s fingers. He would never get tired of the flush in your cheeks and the arch of your back, and he already knew there was a mess in your panties.

You squeaked when Bokuto withdrew his fingers, drawing one into his mouth and savoring the taste. There was nothing better, in his opinion, than tasting you after he’d made you cum. It was like a reward for his hard work. “You taste so good, baby. Here, see?”

His other finger still glistening with your juices prodded your lips and you opened obediently, letting it settle on your tongue. He was throbbing as your tongue wrapped around his finger, sucking like you would his cock. He thought that sounded pretty damn good too, but Kuroo was watching, humming along with whatever his group was saying. He was just managing to give them some semblance of an answer to their questions, and Bokuto intended to give him a show.

Smirking at him, he quickly yanked your shorts off your legs and threw them, landing just beside Kuroo’s laptop. 

One of the members ask what that was Kuroo passed it off, saying you had dropped something on the table beside him and glared at Bokuto. He was aggravated that his partner had decided to play this little game, but there was no denying that he was enjoying himself too. Knowing that he had a show to occupy himself while his group sat oblivious, droning on about their work with no one to tease them. He was living the dream and he knew it.

But he was still annoyed.

As Bokuto pulled his shorts down his thighs, you pulled your shirt over your head, pinning Kuroo with a coy smile and cupping your own tits, pinching and pulling at your hardened nipples. As much as you tried to deny it, he knew you enjoyed teasing him just as much as Bokuto-- probably a product of spending too much time with him.

Kuroo almost moaned when Bokuto positioned the two of you so that you were facing him, Bo leaned against the armrest with you sitting just above his leaking cock, your back to his chest. You wrapped a hand around it, pumping a few times and smearing precum across the tip. Bokuto’s head was tipped back, eyes closed while you worked him up, fingers kneading and squeezing your hips.

“Can’t stand it, babygirl. I’m gonna cum if you keep it up and I wanna paint your pretty insides white,” he growled at last, using brute strength to lift you up and settle you over his cock. Your hand was still wrapped around him as you guided him in, your jaw falling slack as his fat dick spread you wide. As always, Bokuto was far too large to handle, but you wanted more, sliding down even as tears rolled down your cheeks at the intense stretch. 

Kuroo had a clear view of your gaping pussy, thighs trembling with a mixture of pain and pleasure and his fingers curled into his palm as he stared. He heard the call of his name and glanced at the screen, finding them waiting for him to answer the previous question still. 

“Um, yeah, three should be fine, but make it five if you can,” he said, knowing he should end the call early, but something kept him rooted to his seat and his mouth firmly shut. Maybe it was the taboo, or maybe he just had a voyeur kink. As much as he wanted to join you, to punish the both of you for your teasing, there was a larger part of him that was getting off on just watching.

A whine tore from your throat when Bokuto thrust his hips up experimentally, burying his cock fully in your tight heat and your eyes rolled back. It felt like he was dragging out of you, your tiny pussy clinging onto him so tight that you could feel every vein rubbing against your walls. 

“Fuckfuck,” you gasped before clapping your hand over your mouth.

In punishment for your slipup, Bokuto reached up and harshly pinched one nipple, his head falling back when you squeezed down around him in response. “So good, baby, so fuckin’ good. Do that again.”

To make you, he pinched your other nipple, hips still moving at a languid pace in and out of you. The slick noises your cunt was making was just barely audible to Kuroo, and he hoped the interference in the video chat prevented his group mates from hearing. They didn’t ask about it, only commenting on his lack of focus and asking if he needed to go. But he shook his head, forcing himself to pay attention for a few moments, watching you bounce from the corner of his eyes.

Your head was tossed back against Bokuto’s shoulder, the veins in his arms standing out as his muscles flexed, pushing and pulling you like you were his own personal fuck toy while you gasped and whined in his ear. In the back of your mind, you really didn’t* want Kuroo to get in trouble, but it was too good to stop and catching his eyes on you made you warm. They were filled with arousal and the promise of payback, and you shivered in Bokuto’s arms.

“Play with your clit, babygirl. Make yourself cum all over my cock while I fuck you,” he whispered, hips curling. He was slamming you down, forcing the breath from you with every thrust, watching Kuroo’s eyes follow his cock disappearing into you. He could feel the mess you were making all over his cock, dripping down his balls and to the couch and he moaned a little louder. Tangling his fingers in your hair, he littered kisses up your shoulder to your neck, and you bucked your hips up when his teeth sunk into your neck before he began to suck, working to leave as large a hickey as he could.

Even from across the room, Kuroo could see the vivid red mark on your skin, slick with saliva and shiny like Bokuto’s lips. His eyes met Bo’s, who was almost feral at that point, eyes wide and wild as he pounded into you. He followed the slide of your hand down to the juncture of your legs, thighs tensing as the first pass over your clit sent jolts of pleasure sparking through you. He wetted his lips at the way your lips parted, wanting to slide his aching cock between them and punish you for torturing him. But it could wait, he decided, discreetly adjusting himself below the view of the camera. He knew you were close, knew your tells. The way your back would arch, your toes would curl, breath leaving you in pants--

You almost shrieked when Bokuto flipped you forward without warning, leaving you empty for just a moment before he was forcing his thick cock back into you. You swallowed him so easily, already fucked open and the head of his cock met your cervix with the new angle. His large hand met the center of your back and pushed, forcing your back to arch and your chest to meet the couch. With your ass up in the air, he wasn’t taking care to keep quiet anymore, his hips pistoning into without mercy and forcing broken moans and whines from your lips.

You were too fuzzy with your looming orgasm to care about Kuroo’s partners hearing, nails scrabbling for purchase on the cushions while Bokuto held you in place with one strong hand.

Kuroo was quick to realize he couldn’t hide it anymore and muted his mic, typing into the supplied chat that he wasn’t feeling well and had to go. It took his computer far too long to register that he had exited the chat and he groaned in relief when it closed, slamming the laptop shut. His belt buckle clanked as he undid it in a hurry before pushing his slacks down to his knees. He was so hard it was painful and he moaned when he wrapped his hand around his weeping cock. There was a wet spot in his boxers where his precum had soaked in, and he had no trouble coaxing more out with a few thrusts, but it wasn’t enough. 

Spitting on his cock, he grunted, squeezing his length tighter and forcing his cock through the tight ring of his fingers. Eyes locked on you, listening to the slick noise of Bokuto fucking your tight cunt and imagining it was him pounding you.

“TetsuTetsuTetsu,” you cried, his name falling like a mantra from your lips and it sent a jolt through him, his hand squeezing his shaft and the dam broke. 

“Fuck, princess,” he snarled, drinking in your fucked out, wide open expression. Focusing on the sensitive spot just underneath his head, he worked himself through his orgasm, drawing it out and splattering cum on his dress shirt. “You’re so pretty, taking his cock. You gonna come for him? He’s treated you so good, it’s the least you could do to cream all over him.”

You whined at his dirty words, watching him slump back and relax, his softening cock rest on his stomach and his arms slung across the back of the couch. His eyes were narrowed and teasing as he stared at you, licking his lips and smirking, looking very much at ease. 

“Gonna cum, Ko, please make me cum. You fuck me so good, baby, I can’t think, can’t think fuck,” you babbled, clenching down on him. A twist of his hips had him rubbing along that one soft spot inside you, head slamming into your cervix and you toppled over the edge with a scream of his name. 

He didn’t stop as he chased his own high, eyes locked onto his glistening cock covered in your cream, groaning as he forced himself into your clenching pussy again. You were whining with overstimulation, still squeezing around and he choked out a curse as he hilted himself inside you and came. He doubled over, resting his forehead on your back as he pumped you full of his cum, hips rocking to jerk himself off with your tight pussy.

“Fuck, babygirl, you’re so amazing,” he whispered, voice hoarse. He swept your hair to the side and pressed open mouth kisses all over the back of your neck and shoulders, tasting the salt on your skin. You shuddered as he pulled out of you, the mess of his cum spilling down your thighs, and he helped you to lay down.

Kuroo was already there with a wet cloth and together they cleaned you and then Bo up, Kuroo’s rough hand gently running the cloth over his soft cock and the mess you had made all over it. Dropping the cloth, his hand trailed up over his abs, watching them twitch and flex until he could cup his chin.

Pressing a kiss to the corner of Bokuto’s lips, he grinned, a feral, manic look in his eyes as he whispered, “You two are in so much trouble. Better rest up now, because when I’m done you won’t be able to walk or practice for days.”

The grin Bokuto gave him screamed mischief, and Kuroo laughed under his breath as he realized his partner had planned this. Carefully, he scooped you up in his arms and you snuggled into his chest, leaving lazy kisses to the underside of his jaw and down his throat. The tie had long been undone and flung somewhere behind the couch, and your nimble fingers plucked open the top buttons of his shirt, your lips blazing a trail on the newly exposed skin.

He could hear Bokuto’s heavy footsteps behind him as he walked down the hall, kicking the bedroom door open with his foot. 

Depositing you on the bed, Bokuto crawled in beside you while Kuroo undressed, watching the two of you cuddle up and whisper together, giggling like co-conspirators and it dawned on him that the conference call was never going to end any other way.

“You two are such little shits, you know that?” he growled, kneeling on the bed and towering over the two of you. “Hope you’re ready, _____. You have to make it up to me.”

Your answering smile was as brilliant as it was devious. “Come and get me then, daddy.”

⇥  return to masterlist

⇥ taglist: @umihami​, @kunimwuah​

[samwisethewitch]

Communicating with Spirits

On this blog, we’ve talked about why witches might want to work with spirits, types of spirits they might work with, and the proper etiquette for establishing a relationship with a spirit. What we haven’t yet talked about is one of the most important, but sometimes most frustrating, elements of spirit work: communication.

There are several methods you can use to communicate with spirits, depending on your skills, preferences, and comfort level.

Signs and Synchronicity

The most organic way to receive messages from spirits is to wait for physical signs in your environment.

The concept of synchronicity was first introduced by Carl Jung. A synchronicity is a “meaningful coincidence” — a seemingly random event that feels meaningful to the individual. For example: crows have a lot of spiritual significance to me, and whenever I see or hear one it has a very specific meaning for me.

Another way a spirit might send you a sign is by surrounding you with physical reminders of them. I’ve most often experienced this with deities. If a new deity is reaching out to me, I’ll see images of them in places I wouldn’t expect to and may hear their name mentioned over and over again around me.

In her book The Angel Code, Chantel Lysette encourages readers to ask for physical signs when they connect with spirits, as a way to confirm that this is a genuine spiritual experience. This is something that has really stuck with me, and has become common practice in my spirit work. It can be very powerful to see signs in your mundane life that validate your spiritual experiences.

Divination

One easy way to communicate with spirits is to use your favorite divination method. (I’ve already done a whole post on divination, so I’m not going to spend much time on it here.) When using divination to communicate with a spirit, address your questions to them by name. From there, proceed as you normally would.

One thing to keep in mind when using divination to communicate with spirits is that the communication will be limited by the divination method you use. If you’re using a pendulum, you can only ask yes or no questions. If you’re using a tarot or oracle deck, the spirit will be limited to the cards in that deck when they’re trying to answer. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to keep in mind.

Automatic Writing or Channeled Writing

This is a little bit different than other divination methods, because in this case you’re actually connecting directly with the spirit in order to write down messages from them. Automatic writing is the act of allowing your hand to write out a message without focusing on the words — the idea is that your hand will be guided by the spirits in order to write down their message for you. Some people believe that you should use your non-dominant hand for automatic writing, as this is your “receptive” hand. Channeled writing is the act of receiving a message through your psychic senses, which you then write down. Automatic writing is a type of channeling, but not all channeling is automatic writing.

I personally prefer channeled writing, simply because I find it more comfortable. Some witches prefer automatic writing because it bypasses your conscious mind, thus making it less likely that you’ll unknowingly “edit” the message. However, automatic writing can be a little bit harder to learn, so I’m going to focus on channeling here.

To channel a message from a spirit, you will need something to write with — a notebook and pen/pencil works, but so does a laptop with a word processor or even the notebook app on a smart phone. You will also need to enter a light trance state (this is the same state of consciousness experienced in meditation), so you might choose to use trance triggers like incense, shamanic drumming, or binaural beats. Begin by creating a protective space around yourself. (This is just to make sure only one spirit comes through at a time.) Invite the spirit you want to receive a message from into your space. Enter a trance and open yourself up to whatever it is they have to say. Don’t think about the words that come to you — simply write them down. You can analyze the message later, after your trance has ended.

Meditation

If you have a specific question you need an answer to, you can receive an answer to that question in a meditation. Likewise, if you want to connect with a certain spirit, you can do so through meditation.

This is fairly straightforward. Prepare for meditation in the way you normally do — light incense or candles and play music if you’d like, and make sure you have a comfortable place to sit or lay down. Before you begin to meditate, speak your intention out loud. This could be as simple as saying, “My intention for this meditation is to connect with [insert spirit’s name],” or “My intention for this meditation is to receive an answer from [insert spirit’s name] about [insert topic here],” or it could be an elaborate prayer.

From there, meditate as you normally would. Focus on the spirit you’re trying to connect with or, if you have a specific question, focus on that question. Whenever I do this, I often receive an answer in a sudden information download — suddenly the answer to my question is clear and obvious.

Pathworking

A pathworking is a specific type of meditation where you go on a psychic journey, usually with a specific goal in mind. I like to think of pathworking as the halfway point between meditation and astral travel. With pathworking, you are still anchored to your physical body, but your consciousness is able to make a journey into the astral world.

There are two important elements to a pathworking: a clear entrance/exit point and a way to retrace your steps. Pathworking journeys are typically cyclical — there is both a journey out and a return where you go back the way you came. This makes it easier to fully return your consciousness to your body, and failing to do so can cause you to feel disoriented upon the return.

A very common entrance/exit point is a door or gate which you use to enter and exit the astral realm. Sometimes it’s more of a home base — for example, my entry point is a rocky beach. I’ve also heard of people using a tree, or even The World Tree, as their entry point. Whatever imagery you choose, make sure you’re able to find your way back to it. If you’re worried about getting lost, author Thea Sabin recommends using “the Theseus trick.” Like in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, you can tie a golden thread or rope to your entry point and the other end to your astral body. If you get lost, you can follow the thread back.

If you want to try pathworking, make a rough “road map” of your journey beforehand. This doesn’t have to be super specific, but it should contain the following: a goal for the pathworking (such as to connect with a certain spirit), an entry/exit point, and a general idea for the route you’re going to take.

Astral Travel/Spirit Flight

Perhaps the most direct route, astral travel (also called “spirit flight,” “soul flight,” or “hedge riding”) involves sending your spirit or consciousness into the astral realm/spirit world. Astral travel is not a beginner technique. This method should only be used by witches who have experience with meditation, pathworking, and other altered states of consciousness. The major advantage of astral travel is that you’re visiting the spirits on their own turf, which means you can communicate with them much more clearly and directly.

I’ll talk about both pathworking and astral travel at length in my next post. In the meantime, know that it is an option but that I only recommend it for intermediate to experienced witches, and even then only after some serious research into how to do it safely.

Some Basic Precautions

No matter which method you use, here are some basic rules to keep you safe and comfortable during your communication.

Cleanse before you begin. The best way to make sure you’re talking to the spirit you want is to clear out any other nasties before you begin. There are lots of ways to cleanse your space, from incense to sound baths to sweeping with a ritual broom. Use your favorite method to energetically tidy up before you try to contact anybody.

Use protection. A few safety precautions never hurt anyone, and they’re a good idea if you’re going to attempt one of the more involved methods of communication, like channeled writing or astral travel. The salt circle is an oldie but a goodie — once you’ve set it up, only spirits you invite can enter the circle. (But please don’t sprinkle salt on the ground outdoors — this hurts plant life! Use another protective substance, like rosemary, to form the circle instead.)

Know who you’re talking to. It may not be in your best interest to chat it up with whoever presents themselves. Not every spirit has good intentions. I speak from experience when I say that opening the lines of communication to whoever is around is not the best idea. Be clear and specific with which spirits you invite into your space, and don’t open the door to spirits who make you uncomfortable. This is part of the reason that having an established relationship with spirits that you know and trust is important.

Don’t take things at face value. Something that doesn’t get brought up enough in the New Age community is the fact that spirits can and do lie. They can also be wrong, and may give you false information in good faith. Just because a spirit tells you something doesn’t make it true. Always do your own fact-checking outside of spirit work.

Don’t be the idiot in a horror movie. Use common sense when working with spirits. Use safety precautions (see previous notes about cleansing and protection). Don’t intentionally contact negative entities — don’t be that guy who buys a Ouija board so he can talk to Jack the Ripper’s ghost. If a spirit gives you bad vibes, tell them politely but firmly to leave. When in doubt ask yourself, “Would a character in a horror movie do this?” If the answer is yes, don’t do it. You’re smarter than that.

Resources:

The Angel Code by Chantel Lysette

Wicca for Beginners by Thea Sabin

Southern Cunning: Folkloric Witchcraft in the American South by Aaron Oberon

New World Witchery podcast (several episodes, including “Episode 164 — Irish Folklore and Magic,” “Episode 161 — Practicing Safe Hex,” and “Episode 152 — Honoring Ancestors”)

“My Goddesses: How and Why I Work with Mary and Hel” by Kelly-Ann Maddox

[scenics]

what's your favorite thing about wong kar wai's movies? why do you like his movies so much?

wrote this in the notes app at 3am. this got very long. wkw’s one of my fave directors of all time

first of all, i did not like wong kar wai’s movies growing up. my first introduction to wong kar wai was with in the mood for love, and i always hated how slow the movie was—i could not understand the value of two middle aged people walking circles around each other on when i was eight years old. my mother was particularly fascinated with the movie and every few years or so she’d borrow it from the local library just to rewatch it by herself, or with me as an unwilling audience. maybe she just really liked tony leung like everyone else did, or i didn’t understand what she was going through back then. now, she watches it a lot less, but ironically i’m the one who watches it on a regular basis. when i look back, i realize my hatred of in the mood for love stemmed from my rejection of my mother when i was younger, along with anything related to my culture/heritage. it was my way of reconciling the isolation i felt in my new home at a young age—i thought that rejecting any part of my past would allow me to assimilate better (and for the most part it worked until senior year of high school give or take). i can say now that my former hatred/rejection of wong kar wai’s greatest work—his magnum opus—makes me appreciate him a lot more. like my mother taught me, it is best not to hate if you can love one day.

my real love and fascination for wong kar wai started when i was 18. the week after my first week of college finals, i watched his entire filmography (excluding anything post 2046) in one long sitting. i was exhausted from an accumulation of things: college did not go the way i expected and i hated science with a passionate sincerity by the end of the year. that year, i had also not chosen to go home.  regretted not just going back to vietnam a lot and i spent the entire first year of college just missing it. i was mentally emotionally exhausted and homesick so i found immediate comfort and familiarity in wong kar wai’s films. all of wong kar wai’s films are based around the simple theme of connection, each character desires connection with another —whether through strangers like in chungking express or estranged lovers in a foreign city like in happy together. every character is lost in their own world of loneliness, but they’re not consumed by it as they constantly venture out to find a cure for their loneliness. there’s a sort of warm tenderness to their eternal loneliness. wong kar wai’s characters are all very simple, but that just makes them the more normal. he adds an amusing, yet charming aspect to a lot of his characters, which makes them all the more real. at the end of the day, they’re the most ordinary of people, but framed in wong kar wai’s romantic vision of the world. for me, i can see myself in a lot of his characters, especially as i’ve now settled myself into my twenties.

most of all, wong kar wai’s movies remind me of home a lot. more than anything. vietnamese cinema barely exists, and his films of hong kong are one of the only threads of my childhood memories captured in film. in his films, his characters loneliness stems from an urban isolation and a desire to find home. how can one constantly be surrounded by people, yet feel so lonely?  90s hong kong reminds me a lot of early 2000s saigon, right before true modern urbanization began to take foot. the saigon i return to now is not the place i grew up in, everything i once knew with familiarity has become foreign (you could argue the same for hong kong too). like both the main characters in happy together, i’m very much far away from home now, but what makes it worse is i don’t have a home to return to anymore despite it still being there. the isolation i feel here is much less comforting than the familiar isolation of asia, it’s an entirely distinct feeling i’ve come to differentiate. the night version of hong kong in fallen angels reminds me very much of saigon at night when i was little—when i would cling to my aunts back on the motorcycle. even more, hong kong at night is an unmistakable feeling—a true moment of limbo that you can experience nowhere else as the city seems to slow to a stop before starting up again (the dim sum scene in fallen angels reminds me of my uncle taking me with him to smalls shops buried deep in hong kong’s markets. in my opinion, the most crowded, dirty, loud places have the best food).

one of the things i also love the most about wong kar wais films are they are essentially “of an era.” context heavily influences his films, and watchers should understand that his best films are primarily made in the decade of hong kong’s handover from the uk to china.  looking back now, his films are representative of the end of hong kong pop culture culture. they’re the last threads of a former culture powerhouse in asia—hk cantopop, film, and tv throughout the late 70s to 90s had an immense influence on asian pop culture today. everybody knew and loved hong kong, because it was the only true source of quality pop culture in an age of barely any in asia. hong kong was the beginning of everything essentially. kpop even, i would argue, would not be what it is today without cantopop—many idols are modeled after the cantopop idols of the 80s along with western influence. it’s sad to see that hong kong’s impact has been increasingly erased over the past 20 or so years—hong kong is now a shell of it’s former self as it can never return to its former glory. wong kar wai’s greatest films are chungking express, fallen angels, happy together, and in the mood for love. they’re all made in the years predating or after the handover, and you can see the differences in feeling of each film as it nears 1997. happy together, aside from being a somewhat tragic love story, is also the tragedy of hong kong. the handover of 1997 seems to haunt that film as the characters are also far way from hong kong; they’re on the other side of the world. there’s a sense of fear and desperation that runs parallel to the main love story and i feel like people don’t see that the first time without an understanding of historical context. chungking express and fallen angels are two sides of hong kong—hong kong by day and by night—they’re wong kar wai’s love letter to hong kong itself before it disappears in the subsequent years (which it has sadly). both of those movies are time capsules of an era, they capture an atmosphere that is now gone in hong kong. 2046 is an extension of those four movies above—an imagining of how hong kong would be be 99 years after the “end” of hong kong as it is in 1997. and finally, wong kar wai’s greatest work is in the mood for love. it’s his magnum opus, and the true end of an era: for wong kar wai’s creative capacity, for hong kong pop culture, for the actors themselves. wong kar wai has been unable to follow in the mood for love successfully with other directorial features, it’s a masterpiece in itself in its inability for recreation. the movie speaks for itself, even maggie subsequently quit acting shortly afterwards because she felt she could never top that role—it was the end of her acting career in terms of era. everything that wong kar wai put out in the 90s is of an era, it cannot and never be repeated or recreated just as the old hong kong is gone (which is why his attempt to make sequels for those movies with blossoms and the chungking express sequel will be futile. wong kar wai does not realize that that era has indeed passed (and his his break up with christopher doyle has proved to be fatal for both of them).

finally, a small addition about wong kar wai as a director himself. he’s a cancer, very true to his nature, which explains how he can so fluidly translate and portray emotion in his films. they’re almost overflowing with tender emotion, but very much so in an implicit manner. i could never do that in anything i create, it’d end up being very much lynchian in manner, which makes me appreciate his films a lot more. moreover, wong kar wai has a certain way, an intimacy with all his actors. he brings out the best in them for only his movies, and that’s what makes him so special. also, i relate a lot to wong kar wai’s method of working ..the man is one of the worst procrastinators he’s worse than me. he almost never plans or writes scripts for his movies. most of his films especially in the 90s are very much “go with the flow” improvisation (u can see that the characters are very much the actors even it’s hard to distinguish). he was editing in the mood for love up to the last minute before final submission for cannes, that’s just how much of a procrastinator he was and why it’ll take him a million years to release the chungking express sequel. it’s amazing to think how all of these great movies from wong kar wai are technically equivalent to 2000 word essays submitted a minute past the deadline. what i imagine is how different would his work be if he’d planned ahead (how much better would my essays be if i didn’t write them at 3am?). but i guess we can all see how much he’s changed in the release of his criterion collection—-he’s not the person he once was and he can’t recreate the past.

if u read this far i love you thank u for reading my inarticulate nonsense thoughts. i hope u like wong kar wai a lot more than before

[candy-and-writing]

What A Triple Lutz Can Do

Dark! Bucky x Ice Skater! Reader x Dark! Steve

Summary: Steve and Bucky have found each other again, after everything they've been through. When Steve meets you at the Winter Olympics, he decides you're the perfect little doll for their plan.

Warnings: non con/dub con, stalking, drugging, kidnapping, male masturbation, pet names—kitten, oral sex (female and male), fingering, poly relationship (m/m/f), somnophilia, light bondage, more to be added as the story goes on

A/N: This is loosely based off @henchry​ post about Chris Evans dating an ice skater. I read it and instantly had this idea, I’ve just never posted it. I think I unintentionally used bunny by @buckybarney​ as inspiration in making final edits. They also helped me figure out how to make this moodboard, so thank you! Please let me know if you enjoyed this, I had a lot of fun writing this!

I am NOT responsible for your media content consumption. This work is not intended for those under the age of 18 due to explicit sexual content and/or dark themes. By reading this work you agree that you are at least 18 years of age. I do not consent to have my work posted on any third party app or website; if you are seeing this work anywhere other than tumblr and archiveofourown, it has been reposted without my permission.

Before the war, before Bucky had fallen off the train and Steve crashed into the ice, before the Avengers and before and the world made Steve Rogers harder—colder—he liked to call himself a hopeless romantic. He wanted to meet eyes with someone across a diner and feel the fireworks explode in his chest. He wanted to buy a girl flowers, he wanted to walk down the streets of Brooklyn while it was snowing with her hand warming his. He wanted to buy his girl a ring, he wanted to get married, have a family.

He thought he would get that with Peggy, but he missed his chance. When he woke up in another century, he thought for sure he would never get his happily ever after. The women today were so. . . brash. A lady was supposed to be kind, polite, and dutiful. He understood that times were different, but that shouldn't excuse the ungrateful attitudes.

Then he found Bucky again, and the crazy world he had been forced into didn't seem so hopeless anymore. 

Tony had received a call from the International Olympics Committee, formally inviting the Avengers to the Winter Olympics. They were in Italy this year, Milan and Cortina. It was the first Olympic Games to be held in two cities, according to Bruce.

The committee had asked Steve to conduct the medal presentations for ice skating and hockey. They wanted Thor to carry the torch for the opening ceremony, but he was off-world and unavailable.

So here Steve was, sitting in the Mediolanum Forum venue next to Sam so he could watch the ice skating events. He figured if he was going to be giving the winners their medals, he should see why they won.

The committee had given the team access to front row seating, and that's where he was when you came out.

You were the third skater, and the first American representative, to take the ice. Your hair was pulled into a braided braid low on the side of your head with a blue flower pinned above the bun. The little dress you wore was modest—the same shade of blue that matched your flower and a sleeveless neckline that connected to a sheer fabric for sleeves and a higher neck, the little flowy skirt stopping in the middle of your thigh. Lines of little jewels dipped along your bust, beads varying in size. You had makeup on, like all the previous girls, but yours was light and glittery—save for the ruby red lipstick, but even that looked classical on you. It reminded Steve of the makeup women would wear back in the thirties.

He was so focused on you that Sam had to elbow him in the ribs to get his attention. He shut his jaw then, listening to the way your name rolled off the commentator's tongue, the syllables lining and matching each other perfectly.

You were twenty-one, and this was your first time competing in the Olympics. You've competed in other national and international tournaments, and you've done good in them if he was understanding correctly. It made an odd sense of pride swell in his chest. You were skating to Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

You moved to the middle of the rink as the announcer informed the stadium who conducted and performed your piece. You had four quads set in your routine, two in the first half and two in the second. It got quiet in the arena as you raised your arm over your head and arched your back like a ballerina. Steve counted five seconds before the music started and you spun around slowly. You started to move your body and—

Oh. Oh.

Steve was sure his jaw had dropped to the floor. The way you moved was bewitching, beautifully languid yet articulate. It was like the music moved through you, coursing through your veins as you made it entirely your own, bringing something so utterly delicate and ethereal out of the melody. You made it show in your body, in your movements.

The first of your quads were coming up, something called a quadruple lutz. Steve didn't know what it was, but when you threw your leg back and jumped, spinning in the air before landing and the crowd erupted into applause, he figured you did it correctly.

Your feet glided across the ice as you skated backward, your muscles tensing—you were preparing for your next quad. You kicked your leg back and used it as momentum to jump, spinning and landing what the commentator called a quadruple flip. The crowd cheered again.

Your expression—the raw focus and determination hiding behind your eyes—was gorgeous. Your crimson lips were parted slightly, eyelids hooded as you brought your head up. The delicate expression, the way your shoulders tensed as you jumped and spun in the air once, twice, three times before you landed gracefully on your toes had the breath leaving his lungs.

It was art. You were a work of art. So beautiful he wanted to lock you behind a glass cage and put you on display. You commanded the ice as if you controlled it, with such a degree of intricacy that Steve thought if you jumped high enough or spun fast enough you would grow wings and fly away.

You were in your element. You kicked your foot back before bringing it forward, using it to start your jump. You spun in the air and landed on one foot, your other leg spread out and leading the twirl you used to end the jump. The stadium cheered, Sam said something about a triple axel.

Steve wished the song lasted forever, wished he could watch you forever, but soon there was a flute trilling and you slowed, circling back to the center of the rink and just like that—your performance was over. The crowd exploded into cheers, throwing flowers, stuffed toys, anything they had in their pockets.

You broke into a smile, your plump lips parting and bringing out your dimples. Steve swooned as you waved to the crowd, bending to pick up a rose. Your gaze met his, and he swore he felt fireworks erupt in his chest. You smiled at him before skating off the ice, hugging a man sporting a red lightweight jacket with the USA logo embroidered on the sleeve, his dark hair slicked back. Steve watched as you smiled at him, not missing the way he stared at your ass as you turned away.

Then, suddenly, you were in first place. Your eyes went wide and you jumped up, hugging the man in the red jacket—Steve assumed he was your coach. He heard your squeal above the rest of the cheers.

Even from where he was sitting, your eyes were bright, brighter than your smile. Steve was proud of you, pride swelled in his chest as he watched you speak with a reporter. His eyes stayed glued to you as you shook hands with the reporter, your coach walking you to the locker rooms. He watched you until he couldn't anymore.

A strange desire pulled at his heart as he pulled his Stark Pad out, looking you in F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s database.

--

After watching your performance every other skater seemed dull, incomparable, to you. The judges must have thought so, too. You stayed in first place, winning the competition.

According to F.R.I.D.A.Y, you grew up in Chicago, but you moved to Manhattan for college. You got a new coach, Adrian Tucker, who was a gold and silver medalist back in the nineties. You're a junior at NYU, majoring in Art History. You have an Instagram, some sort of social media Peter had been trying to convince him to get, and Steve created an account immediately just to follow you. You had pictures of yourself, of friends, of the rink, even a pair of ballet shoes.

So you did ballet, good to know.

The award ceremony couldn't come soon enough. The idea of being closer to you sent butterflies fluttering through his stomach. Ever since he had gotten him back, Steve and Bucky have been talking about settling down—creating a life with a girl and starting a family. But they haven't found the right partner, but maybe. . . ?

When he stood in front of you, he swore he almost stopped breathing. You were gorgeous. Your hair had been taken out of the bun, cascading down your shoulders in loose waves. Your makeup was still done the same, but he noticed light freckles dotting along the bridge of your nose. Your eyes sparkled up at him—good God, you barely stood past his chest—your painted lips parted in a smile as you took him in. He placed the gold medal around your neck, congratulating you. You whispered a small, "thank you, Captain," and Steve felt a spark of electricity jolt down his groin.

Your voice was light, melodic, quiet. You were respectful, something he valued in people, in women. He could almost imagine you posed as the perfect housewife. With the perfect husband—or husbands—with the white picket fence, the kids. He could imagine your belly swollen, the little children running around calling you 'mama'. You were young, right at that age where women would start becoming wives and mothers back in his day. The thought only made his cock harder as he watched you on the platform, waving to the audience with the biggest smile on your face.

As he sat back down next to Sam, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He pulled up Bucky's contact and sent him a picture from your Instagram.

'I think I found her,' he typed.

--

Bucky remembered the first time he realized he was in love with Steve—he was sixteen. He had danced around with plenty of girls already but none of them ever really seemed to stick. He had saved up enough money to spend Steve's birthday at Coney Island, that was the day he made Steve ride the Cyclone, back when he was still skinny. He had bought Steve a hotdog, which a pelican attacked him over. Bucky was crying from laughter, face red and stomach aching, when he looked over at Steve. Something just clicked then.

The past couple of months, Steve and Bucky had been making plans to add a third partner into life. After all this time, fighting Nazis and being mind-controlled and saving the universe time and time again, they both agreed they deserved it—that they deserved a family. They had both been selfless for so long, was it so wrong to want someone to be selfless for them? To want someone soft that could share their love?

Steve and Bucky were great together—the love of each other's lives, in fact—but they shared an overwhelming need to dominate, to control. On and off the field. When they fucked they were ruthless, full of scraping nails and biting teeth. Fingertips that left bruises that lasted for days. They needed someone else, someone they could focus that control on, someone who could take them so gently and lovingly, a way they rarely took each other.

Then he got Steve's text. You were young, and it wasn't hard to find out almost everything he needed to know about you. Steve helped him use F.R.I.D.A.Y to figure out where you live—a small apartment that was close to your college campus. You could walk to class if the weather permitted it. It also wasn't too far from the ice rink you trained at. It was easy for Bucky to find a building across from your suite where they could watch you. You liked to keep your window open, let the sunlight in.

They took turns sitting on the roof of the neighboring building, looking through a pair of binoculars. They would watch you for hours—watch you do simple things like reading. That was Bucky's favorite, the way your lips moved ever so slightly as you read the words on the page. You enjoyed reading horror novels—Steven King, Mary Downing Hahn, an author named Chuck Palahnuik. A worn copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein sat on your bookshelf. At first glance, Bucky never would have pegged you as a horror kind of girl, you were too sweet and too timid. As he continued to watch you through the cameras Steve had him install, though, he saw that you very much liked psychological thrillers. You would watch a show on YouTube about true crime and haunted locations, a couple of amateurs who didn't quite know what they were doing. They were funny, though. Steve and Bucky would watch you laugh as you stared at your phone, smiling to yourself.

You trained at a ballet studio in lower Manhattan, worked out at a gym a block away from that. They were quick to memorize your routine once they started. You'd wake up at five-thirty every morning and make yourself some breakfast. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's you hit the gym and the studio; you'd go to whatever classes you had that day, grab a coffee at the campus cafe, then head to the skating rink for two hours. Two and a half hours max. You went home, studied, and then you were left to your own devices. Sometimes you read, sometimes you baked and God, Bucky almost couldn't stop drooling at the thought of tasting your cooking. You'd watch television in your small living room and be in bed no later than eleven o'clock every night to start your day again.

One Monday morning, Steve and had followed you to the gym. They'd been doing that the last few weeks. At first, Steve reasoned it was so they could watch over you, in case you got into some trouble. Some mornings they planned on running into you on the sidewalk, pretending it was an accident—there was a flower cart along your route you liked to stop and admire, sometimes buying a bouquet of daisies for your little bachelor pad—but the timing never seemed right. Steve was never wearing the right shirt, or Bucky's hair was always a mess from the wind.

You took a cab, which Steve followed a couple of cars behind on his motorcycle. The air was brisk, the first signs of spring coming into the city. Some of the trees had started growing their leaves again, vibrant greens against the grey winter sky. He parked his bike underneath a plotted tree that had just started to turn, the tips of the leaves a bright green as blossoms began to bloom, pastel pinks against vibrant greens with petals blowing in the wind. He bought a newspaper from a vendor a couple of stores down and sat on a nearby bench, catching up with the world as he counted down the minutes. You would be in there for an hour and fifteen minutes almost exactly.

Steve almost couldn't sit still. He was itching to get his hands on you, to feel you. He and Bucky have been watching you for a long time now, waiting for the right moment to get their hands on you. Steve was growing impatient.

At forty-five minutes, his eyes began to flick up at the building every few minutes. He knew it wasn't time yet, but there was always a chance you got done early.

At an hour, his gaze hovered just above the paper. Ten more minutes, he told himself.

At an hour and twelve minutes, you emerged. Steve watched as you hugged your coat to your chest and began walking. The studio you danced at was only a block away, so you wouldn't have to be out in the cold for long. Still, Steve couldn't help but chastise you for not wearing something warmer. All you had on were a pair of thin leggings—that hugged your ass beautifully, he might add—and a compression tank top under your lightweight sweater.

Steve rushed to his bike, folding the newspaper in his hand and revving up the engine. He drove down the block, parking in front of a cafe across from the ballet studio. He watched you enter the studio and sat at a table, ordering a cup of coffee. He saw you through the floor-to-ceiling windows, your let stretched up over your head. He reached for his sketchbook and pencil, laying it out on the table before him.

The night of the Olympics, the first time after Steve had seen you, he stayed up all night drawing you. He found a video of your performance on the internet, watching it on repeat as he drew you in different positions. The first sketch he did was of you with your arm over your head, just before you started skating. He found he loved drawing the shape of your lips, so the next sketch was a portrait of your face. Your long lashes were hooded, eyes downcast and your lips parted slightly as the pencil scratched against the paper, your plump lips etched in charcoal. The expression Steve caught you in was oddly ethereal, the kind of innocence that Steve found absolutely breathtaking.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Steve sighed, pulling the device out of his jeans. Cursing, he reread the message Sam sent, looking back up across the street. You were still in front of the window, leg propped up on a bar with your upper body reaching for your foot. He sighed, closing his sketchbook as he stomped toward his bike.

--

Steve and Bucky trudged back into the Compound, exhausted and irritated. Not only have they been unable to see you for a week and a half, forced to watch you through the cameras hidden throughout your apartment, but the mission had been a complete bust. They had been sent away to Northern Peru, where Fury had given them intel about a group of HYDRA smugglers shipping illegal weapons into the country. Unfortunately, Steve and Bucky spent twelve days in a cramped, boiling building across from the target's warehouse and managed to find nothing before Fury called them back.

Steve was sweaty, Bucky hadn't taken a shower in a week, and they missed you. Bucky wanted to touch you, he wanted to kiss you until you were breathless. He watched you on his phone when he could, often opting to watch the camera feed than to sleep.

Once they were in their suite, Steve stripped his uniform off, leaving it in a heap on the floor to pick up later. Right now he just wanted to feel clean. He turned the shower on and peeled his boxers off as Bucky undressed, Steve stepping below the showerhead. The warm water felt nice against his taut muscles, his shoulders relaxing under the water pressure. He watched the dirt and grime from the mission get washed away, down the drain in muddy-grey color.

As he massaged shampoo through his hair, his thoughts wandered back to you, fingers itching to run against your skin. The way your lips always looked so soft, how utterly delicious you would look with them wrapped around his cock. The sweet little noises you would make as he forced himself down your throat—you were so small, it wouldn't take much to make you choke on him.

Steve groaned as his fist wrapped around his length. Almost two weeks without imagining you on your knees, imagining your mouth on him and he was oh so sensitive. He cursed, running his thumb over his slit. He pictured your tongue dragging against his girth, your wrecked expression as you struggled to take him deeper, as Bucky struggled to fit himself in behind you. He fisted himself faster, gasping out your name.

"Yeah, baby," he mumbled to himself. "Just like that. Fuck."

He could only imagine how beautiful you would look when you came. Your skin sweaty, hips bucking, your innocent little eyes rolling to the back of your head as you squealed. Oh, you were definitely a squealer. They would make you cum over and over and—

He bit back a moan as he came, hot white spurts coating his stomach as he slowed his movements, nerves on fire. He sighed, rinsing himself off before he turned the water off. He was still hard, he wasn't sure he'd be able to get himself off.

The tips of his fingers buzzed as he redressed himself and Bucky hopped in the shower. Steve didn't know if it was the stress of the mission or the adrenaline you gave him, but he couldn't wait anymore. He didn't have the patience to wait anymore.

He was watching the camera feeds in your apartment when Bucky came out of the bathroom. All it took was one look from Steve—they already had it all planned out, they just had to put it into motion.

--

You struggled to unlock your door, twisting the key in the lock a few times, cursing as you pushed your shoulder against the door, stumbling as the door swung open. You managed to catch yourself before knocking over your vase of daisies, straightening as you waited for your world to stop spinning.

You knew it had been a bad idea when you agreed to go out tonight. You're such a lightweight and after just three shots and half a glass of wine, you're going to have a killer hangover in the morning. God, and it's three a.m. But Annie had begged you to come with them. You haven't hung out with her in so long, you were desperate to see her again. You just wished she hadn't dragged you out to a bar.

You dropped your handbag on your little dining room table, opening the refrigerator to pour yourself a glass of orange juice. You drank half the glass in a couple of gulps, letting out a sigh as you set the glass down. As you moved to pull your phone out of your purse, you heard the floorboards creak, like someone was taking a step.

You froze, looking down the hall. The boards in your bedroom creak like that when you step down on a certain spot, but you've been in the apartment long enough to learn where it is exactly and step around it.

As quietly as you could, you made your way down the hall, checking the bathroom. You've seen enough horror movies in your life to know never to close the shower curtain when you weren't using it, so with a quick glance you knew the room was empty.

Your bedroom was at the end of the hall, the door cracked open. You walked in, carefully looking around. Your closet door was open, the windows were closed, you turned and looked towards your dresser mirror and—

You saw the figure behind you before you could react. Your eyes went wide, their hand coming up to cover your mouth before you could muster a scream. Your hands flew up to the hand, legs kicking out as the intruder dragged you out of your bedroom. You screamed into the hand, thrashing as you felt a sharp prick in your neck.

"It's alright," they cooed. "Shhh, it's okay, doll. You're just gonna go to sleep for a little while, okay?"

You shook your head frantically, tears streaming down your face as you felt your body getting tired. You blinked furiously, trying to fight the sleepy feeling. Your muscles felt like dead weight, you stopped kicking your feet as your grip on the man's cold hand went slack.

"That's a good girl," he crooned. "Just relax, kitten. I'm not gonna hurt you."

Your tongue felt heavy in your mouth. Your vision blurred, and then everything went black.

[maggiecheungs]

2020 ~everything~ wrap

i finally have time to do all of the tag games that people have tagged me in over the past month or so! i cannot for the life of me remember who tagged me in which one, so i’m just putting ~everything~ in one huge post. if i tag you anywhere then consider it a standing invitation to do whichever of these you haven’t done :) in fact, this is me issuing a standing invite to any of my followers who wants to do it :) also, thank you all!

Creator Wrap: Favourite Works

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

this collection of philosophy quotes paired with thai bl series, (and its sequel) which is possibly my favourite thing i’ve ever made. for, uh, nerd reasons.

these gifted text post memes i made still make me laugh sometimes

this fic about green from 2gether, which i wrote in the notes app on my phone and published the same day. not my absolute best writing but i am very fond of it <3

i have a bunch fof friend zone dangerous area edits/shitposts which i like, but i’m particularly fond of my fzda as satire headlines (which now has a sequel!)

i also love my crisgood-walmart-lesbian post. i might send it in to gmmtv to try and convince them to do a crisgood-bffs spin-off

+ bonus: since i wrote this list i made this gifset (my first ever!) of jennie panhan in the shipper and i love her too much not to include her on here

+ extra nerdy bonus: this niche meme about Chinese philosophy, which still makes me crack up whenever I think about it

Favourite Creators/Follow Forever

i’ve completely lost track of who’s following who from which blog, so this is just going to be a haphazard, non-exhaustive list of people who i adore/admire/am vaguely intimidated by, mutuality be damned. maybe we talk all the time! maybe we’ve never interacted! maybe i am constantly there in ur tags... lurking... 👀... but if you’re on this list you have made me smile at least once this year and i love you for that alone <3

@wjmild kylie!! you make gifs of arm & tay & lee (separately or in various combinations) & the shipper & and kapook & random fluke pusit cameos & school rangers so i don’t have to <3 ilysm

@janeramida vianey, you have such impeccable taste in general, but your sizzy gifset in particular is so gorgeous it lives in my mind rent free

@applelapis bri, this post was a callout and i want you to know that it haunts me at night as i lie awake staring at the ceiling :((((( i hope you are happy

@gigiesarocha cata, i love it when you show up on my dash bc you have!! such taste!! also, every time you gif gigie i gain five years of life <3 pls continue doing the Good Work

@pvrrish​ eleni, i remeber legit thinking that this was an official poster when i first saw it, it’s so beautiful

@ahysopae​ juliette your khaithird fic is so good and it literally changed the way i think about khai (not an easy feat)

@kurosawadachi angel, whenever i think about grace’s speech i remember your gifset and get literal chills

@doctorbahnjit alexa, you have no right to be as funny as you are. your friend zone edits give me life

@khaotungthanawat sam, you’re probably sick of getting tagged in these lists by random strangers, but i just had to bc your gifsets are Pure Art

@tanwirapong roa, all your gifsets are so ✨iconic✨

faiza @asianmelodrama and rahul @petekaos! yours were the first two thai drama blogs i followed and for ages i lowkey thought of you as my fandom parents.

and some more blogs that make me happy: @curlykytta / @lee-thanat  / @fck-inspector-m / @pangwave / @tichawongtipkanon / @tawanv @kimmonv (violet istg i have spent more time this year trying to figure out how many blogs you have than i have spent admiring your gifsets. & i spend a lot of time admiring your gifsets) / @taytawan / @1akorn and @yihwas (and your radiant lovechild @lakornladies ofc) / @teh-ohaew / @vihokratanas (mel your gifsets are just so gorgeous) / @tootiredtoosadtooangry / @headcompletelyempty / @demiromanticmickey​ / and there are definitely more but my brain is a sieve so apologies if i’ve forgotten anyone!! i love you all!! 

2020 HIGHLIGHTS ✨

rules: list your top 10 shows (bl or not) you watched in 2020 (doesn’t necessarily have to be shows that came out in 2020 though!)

1. 2GETHER & STILL2GETHER

my first thai drama, and even after all the amazing shows i’ve watched this year, it still has a special place in my heart. watching 2gether was the first time i’d ever seen a queer romcom that just... was. for me, by the simple fact of its being, 2gether was revolutionary. and then still2gether came along and took all the best things about the first season and gave us something beautiful and quiet and lovely and just proved to me, once and for all, that queer happiness doesn’t need to justify its own existence. there can be gay cuddles on the beach for no other reason than that we want them. 

2. UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN

i don’t really have the words for this one but. it makes my heart so very soft.

3. FRIEND ZONE 2: DANGEROUS AREA

season one was mindless fun because everyone was an absolute trashfire and it was hella cathartic to watch, but season 2... wow. i love it for so many reasons: it has messy and authentic queer rep; the characterisation is excellent and i somehow care about all of the characters; amazing women taking centre stage(!); a wlw relationship with lesbian, ace and bipolar rep; multiple interesting plotlines; actual character development; arm weerayut as a chaos gremlin... absolutely one of my favourites of 2020.

4. CHERRY MAGIC

i don’t think i need to explain this one, which is fortunate, because i have no idea how exactly i’d describe the happy-warm-fuzzy-queer-seen-loving-affirmed-profound feeling that rises in my chest whenever i think about it. 

5. THE GIFTED: GRADUATION

confession: i liked season 2 more than season 1 (with the exception of the ending, which we don’t talk about). season 1 was enjoyable and interesting, but for me it was season 2 which made me love this series. it did some incredibly interesting and complicated things (even if it didn’t quite nail the landing): it pushed characters to the breaking point and wove so many layers into the story and questioned its own underlying themes. plus, watching it alongside everyone in the fandom made it 200% better. i love all of you and i love this show. egg girl 5eva.

6. THE SHIPPER

i 100% understand why so many people didn’t like this show, or found it problematic, but through some fluke it absolutely worked for me (even the ending). one day i will write an essay explaining my rationale, but for now i’ll just say that it’s one of my favourite shows about adolescence and queerness and identity and compassion and friendship and love that i’ve ever watched. 

7. YYY

this series is absolutely off its rocker, and it somehow managed to be one of the most affirming shows i’ve watched. it shouldn’t have worked by it did, and i love it so much.

8. 3 WILL BE FREE

absolutely iconic. amazing plot, stunning visuals, great characters, canon polyamory, jennie being incredible... what a series.

9. MANNER OF DEATH

i love the fact that this show exists; i love the mix of crime and romance; i love maxtul’s acting; i love the central relationship; i love bun. i know we’re not even halfway through yet, but this show is doing something special and i’m so grateful that i get to watch it unfold in real time. 

10. CHIHAYAFURU (SEASON 3)

odd one out on my list, but I had to include it. chihayafuru is my all-time favourite anime and it finally got a third season, which is somehow even better than the first two. mashima taichi is one of my favourite characters of all time and his storyline hits me on such a profound level. plus, in the years since i first say this show i’ve fallen in love with classical japanese literature (particularly heian poetry) so i had newfound appreciation for the karuta matches (aka i cried every time someone recited one of my favourite poems)

other favourites: together with me, he’s coming to me, sotus and sotus s, my dear loser: edge of 17, why r u, theory of love, wake up chanee!, gameboys, pearl next door, uta koi (anime), three kingdoms (2010), blood and water (netflix). (itsay would almost certainly be on my list if i’d had time to watch it. same with dark blue kiss, which i had to pause so i could do my assignments)

Final Thoughts

well, it’s been... a year (i don’t think anyone needs a reminder of the details) but writing this post has reminded me of all the amazing shows and people I discovered over the course of it.

thank you to everyone for being so lovely and creative and funny and quirky and kind and passionate. you’re all incredibly awesome people and i wish all of you the very best xx

[shianhygge-imagines]

Sundown 勿忘草 [Reno/Reader]{Final Fantasy VII} Episode 2

AN: Here’s the next part of Sundown Wasurenagusa! I’m sorry that I’ve been slow on posting any new story material! I had a bit of a writers’ block, and I’m still trying to work through it!

I had intended for this to be much longer, but I felt like this part was a good length to post. The first part of this ‘episode’ is going to be formatted weird because I can’t get Tumblr to format a text conversation in the way that I want.

If you like the content I create, please consider donating to my Ko-fi! Please help me feed my tea addiction!

|Masterlist Link|

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

December 12

Reno {07:10}

[Good morning, sleeping beauty]

Me {08:30}

[Morning]

[Do you not need sleep?]

[You probably went to bed late last night]

[And while it truly does make my day to hear from you]

[Why? It’s so early ;.;]

Reno {08:40}

[Can you blame a guy for being eager to talk to you?]

[Lol, Sorry. I didn’t disturb you, did I?]

Me {08:59}

[>///<]

[No, you’re good. I gotta get up to get ready anyways.]

[Flatterer]

Reno {09:34}

[I mean, can you blame me? ;) ]

[So, I was thinking about taking you on a date outside of Midgar, but I realized that I should probably get your opinion on it first]

Me {10:01}

[I mean, that depends? How early do I have to get up on my day off? And how long will it take to get there?]

Reno {10:05}

[Um… well, it’s getting pretty chilly in Midgar, so I was thinking about taking you to Costa del Sol… beach date :P]

Me {10:30}

[…]

[Costa del Sol is pretty far, Reno…]

Reno {10:31}

[And?]

[I’ve got a way]

[Don’t sweat the details]

Me {10:32}

[You’re taking a company helicopter, aren’t you  -.-]

Reno {10:33}

[Ack! You’ve figured out my master plan!]

Me {10:34}

[Are Turks even allowed to take company assets out for joy rides?]

Reno {10:35}

[ TT^TT I told you not to sweat the details!]

Me {10:40}

[I just don’t want you to get into any trouble.]

Reno {10:50}

[Awww, don’t worry about me.]

[You have a party to attend later, so do me a favor and have fun, okay?]

Me {11:03}

[That reminds me…]

Reno {11:05}

[??]

Me {11:11}

[bluedress.jpg sent]

(The image is of you in a sapphire blue dress, the sleeves long and neck high. The dress itself ends just below your knees)

[This dress?]

[reddress.jpg sent]

(The second image is of you in a backless ruby dress that ends just above the knee. There are no sleeves to this dress despite the fact that it has a high neck)

[Or this dress?]

Reno {11:13}

[…]

[Y/N]

Me {11:15}

[Reno]

[???]

Me {12:01}

[If I don’t look good in either of them, just be honest ;.;]

Reno {13:05}

[Gah! Sorry, I got pulled away for something]

[The red one. For sure]

Me {13:06}

[Just because red’s your color… >.>]

[I hope you’re okay, Reno ;.;]

Reno {13:15}

[Hey, first of all, remember what I said about red being your color?]

[I don’t lie, k?]

[But also, yeah. Also because it’s my color, you should wear it ;)]

[Do you have a sixth sense or something?]

[image.jpg]

(Opening up the image file gifts you with a selfie of Reno, looking minorly roughed up and being supported by an infrantryman. He looks like he’s by the old church that Aerith likes to visit. Despite needing to be supported by the infantryman, the red headed Turk’s winking and holding up a peace sign)

[Just a few minor bruises ;P I’ll be fine]

[Unless….]

[You want to kiss me better? ;)]

Me {13:30}

[… Well. I’m sorry for worrying (¬_¬) ]

Reno {13:45}

[Joking, joking! :D]

[All patched up]

Reno {14:07}

[Y/N?]

(´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)

[I’m sorry.]

[Please talk to meeeeeee]

Me {14:00}

[image.jpg]

(It’s a picture of you in the red dress. Your hair is done up with an attractive amount of make up. You’re wearing a sensible set of black flats.)

[The party starts in an hour, so I might be answering my phone too often.]

[And Costa del Sol sounds perfect for tomorrow ;) I’ve got my outfit all picked out]

Reno {14:15}

[Uh, yeah, that’s gonna be your new contact photo]

[I’m picking you up earlier than we agreed so that we can have more time to relax in the sun]

[Duty calls. Have fun tonight, okay?]

Me {14:20}

[And what? My contact photo for you is going to be this?]

[screenshot.jpg]

(It’s a screenshot of your mobile phone screen. There’s an edit with a red arrow pointing directly at the photo icon for Reno’s contact…it’s the photo that he sent earlier except you’ve photoshopped cartoon ‘uwu’ eyes and added pink anime blush to his cheeks)

[And don’t worry, I’ll probably have enough fun for the both of us.]

[We’ll have fun tomorrow, be safe, okay?]

Reno {14:30}

[I’ll try ;) But if not, I’ll have you to take care of me.]

[Also? That picture?]

[P.E.R.F.E.C.T]

Me {18:30}

[Hope you’re safe!]

[Message me after work to let me know you’re okay!]

[image-2.jpg]

(It’s a group photo of you and your friends in silly poses)

Me {19:21}

[image-3.jpg]

(It’s a close up shot of a delicious plate of food)

[I should have brought you with me ;.;]

|You called Reno| 20:58

[Unable to leave voicemail]

December 13 - 08:21

The morning after the confrontation with AVALANCHE at the Sector 7 Pillar, one would expect the medical bay in Shinra HQ to be jam packed full of patients. There should have been a horde of doctors and nurses, running around to treat the injured infantryman and civilian survivors. But there were only two individuals in the med bay, Reno and Rude. When the plate fell, only a handful of infantryman were able to escape the chaos. Many were left behind to fend for themselves.

Despite surviving a helicopter crash and the brawl with Tifa, Barret, and Cloud, Rude only sustained a few bruises and minor bone fractures. He had been assigned bedrest after being treated by the doctors, but the weight of what he and his partner had been tasked to do twelve hours ago felt like an overwhelming burden. Needing something to keep his mind occupied, the taller of the iconic Turk duo simply engrossed himself in a novel that Elena had brought over during her visit.

On the bed beside Rude’s, Reno groaned in pain as he sat up, eyes still not open and alert as he raised a hand to press against his pounding head. “Gah, what the hell.” Reno’s face stung at the cheeks when his face scrunched up at the pain that seemed to come from every part of him. Even the act of sitting up proved too painful due to his newly broken ribs.

Rude watched his partner sink back into the sheets from his own medical bed, sunglasses on as was usual of him. He wondered how long it would take Reno to realize that it had been nearly twelve hours since they had dropped the plate. He also wondered when his sassy partner in crime would realize that he had a date this morning. Of course, Rude didn’t think you’d get angry at Reno for missing a date when he was hospitalized, but the taller of the iconic Turk pair knew that Reno would never forgive himself for skipping out on you.

While Rude watched, Reno allowed his body to collapse back into bed, an exhausted and pained groan escaping his lips as he want, arms flopping onto the bed as he fought to remember what had happened to land him in such a pitiful state.

Oh yeah…Rude and I went to Sector 7’s plate… and we fought blondie’s group of self righteous freedom fighters… and then…I blacked out. Cracking both eyes open, Reno furrowed his brows and turned his head to examine his surroundings. Med bay back at HQ… The red head swiveled in place to stare at Rude, “The mission….” He trailed off with a questioning tone.

His partner merely grunted, “We finished it and escaped.” Lacking in detail, but still straight to the point.

Sighing in relief that his work track record wouldn’t have a stain on it, Reno flopped back down, “Whooo…” The red head cheered sarcastically, pumping a fist without any energy or cheer behind it. Gah, and I promised Y/N that I’d be safe… Reno’s eyes snapped open and he bolted to a seating position with an alarmed cry, “Crap! Y/N! What time is it?” Shit, I gotta message her to let her know that I’m going to be running late! The Turk second in command thought as he pat down his person for his cell phone.

When he couldn’t find it, Reno turned to his partner, who gestured towards the bedside table. “It was damaged during our fight with AVALANCHE, but it should still be working.”

Not paying any attention to the fact that he was now bleeding through the bandages wrapped around his abdomen, Reno grinned, “Whooo boy! Partner, you’re a life saver!”

The sheer amount of relief within Reno voice made Rude stop and stare at his partner. Hmm… maybe Reno’s serious about her after all.

Meanwhile, Reno quickly unlocked his phone screen, ignoring the fact that the glass display seemed shattered beyond repair. When he pulled up the chat room that he shared with Y/N, Reno cursed, “Five missed messages and one missed call.” Quickly reading through the text messages, and smiling at how much fun you were having at the party, Reno tapped out a quick message in reply to you before listening to the voicemail that you had left.

Yesterday

Y/N {19:21}

[image-3.jpg]

(Reno’s mouth watered at the sight of the food in the picture)

[I should have brought you with me ;.;]

|Missed call from Y/N| 20:58

[Click to listen to voicemail]

Today - December 13

Me {08:43}

[Gah, sorry Y/N, I may have bit off more than I could chew yesterday.]

[I just woke up in the med bay at HQ]

[I’m going to be a little late picking you up]

[And I’m a little roughed up]

[But nothing is stopping me from taking you on our date!]

[See you in an hour?]

When Reno lifted his damaged cell phone to listen to the voicemail that you had left him, the only sound that reached his ears was an error notification that the voice recording app had failed. “I’m sorry, but the voicemail recording that you wish to listen to failed to load properly. Please quite all applications before trying again. If the problem still persists, please contact Shinra Mobile’s technical support service to resolve this issue.” The phone recording informed Reno, pleasantly.

Knowing from experience that getting through to technical support at the current hour was next to impossible, Reno merely tapped out another message.

Me {08:47}

[Hey, the voicemail that you sent to me didn’t go through.]

[What was it about?]

Satisfied with the messages that he’d sent out, Reno shifted to get out of bed, an excited grin on his lips. “Welp! Time to get going! Got a wonderful day off with a gorgeous gal!”

Sighing, Rude lowered the novel to look in his partner’s direction. “Your date with Y/N?” When Reno only gave a sassy shrug in reply, Rude shook his head, “Just remember, you’re still injured.”

“Will do, partner!” Reno saluted the older man before dashing out of the med bay, dodging the nurses swiftly as he made his way to the elevators, itching to get back to the Turk dorms to change into something that would help him blend into the slum crowds of Sector 5. On his way to his room, the red headed Turk would raise his phone to check for any new messages, lowering it in disappointment every time there was no response.

“That’s weird, normally she responds by now.” Reno mused, sending out another quick text once he’d changed into dark jeans, a red hoodie, and a dark beige trucker jacket.

Me {09:12}

[I’m on my way to your place now.]

[Are you awake?]

Around twenty minutes later, on the helicopter ride down to the Sector 5 slums, Reno furrowed his brows and bit the inside of his lip when you didn’t respond again.

Me {09:32}

[Y/N?]

[Please answer.]

[I’m on a helicopter down now]

[Message back. I’m getting worried.]

When there is still no response, Reno taps on your contact and brings the phone up to his ear, trying to call you.

“Hey, this is Y/N. I’m probably away from the phone right now, so leave a message, and I’ll call you back as soon as possible.”

Straight to voicemail.

Something wasn’t right, and Reno could feel it in his bones.

When the helicopter started to land in the Shinra barracks, Reno didn’t even wait for the helicopter to fully land before jumping out of the aerial vehicle, landing solidly before taking off in a sprint towards your apartment.

She’s not answer any of the text messages… Did she lose her phone last night? Did she accidentally break it?… Did she find out what I did yesterday? Is she ignoring me?

The worries and thoughts that raced through Reno’s mind became more and more self-depricating as he neared entered the main town area and brushed past the crowds of people gathered in the streets. I know I said it was too late to grow a conscious, but damn it, please don’t let this be the reason she decides that she doesn’t want me around.

All but flying up the metal steps to your apartment, Reno starts to bang on your front door, calling your name in the meanwhile. “Y/N!” Bang bang bang “It’s Reno!” Bang bang bang “You weren’t answering your phone. Are you ready to go?” It took another few minutes of knocking before Reno head a door open below and slow footsteps ascend the metal stairwell.

Turning and expecting to see you standing there, Reno’s shoulders visibly slumped when he came face to face with a tiny old lady. “Oh, uh. Sorry for causing a disturbance.”

“Are you looking for Y/N, young man?” The old woman inquired, tilting her head to look up at Reno through friendly old eyes.

Feeling as if he was being judged by the elderly woman, Reno stood ramrod straight and nodded, clearing his throat, “Uh, yeah. We had plans for today.”

The old woman nodded sagely, “I see, I see. Ah, to be young again. I’m sorry to disappoint you, young man, but Y/N hasn’t been home since yesterday afternoon. I think she’s still at her friend’s home.”

The first traces of alarm flashed through Reno’s head, and suddenly his Turk persona was back, “Do you happen to know where her friend lives, ma’am?”

The old woman shook her head, “I only know that dear Selene doesn’t live in Sector 5. I’m sorry, young man.”

Suddenly jittery, Reno only nods and descends the metal staircase again, “Thanks for the help. I should get going.”

Reno doesn’t hear the old woman’s reply because he’s sprinting back towards the Shinra barracks, ears ringing and vision narrowed as he contacts a friend in Shinra’s tech department for help tracking down your cell phone’s location and retrieving the voicemail you’d left him. And while his friend works on it, Reno decided to change into a clean set of his uniform, mind suddenly kicked into overdrive as he tries to recall where you said your friend’s party was.

Gah, Reno… you pay attention to everything else she says, but you can’t figure out where her friend Selene lives? Some Turk you are! Reno scolds himself as he paces back and forth in Y/N’s office, somehow trying to find comfort in familiar surroundings. Damnit, think! What has she mentioned in the past about her friends. I only remember her talking about living in Sector 7 for a whi- Reno pauses in his steps as dread begins to pool in his stomach. “No.” He doesn’t want to entertain the possibility that you had gone to a party at your childhood sector the same night that he was tasked with dropping the plate on top of hundreds. But the more that Reno thinks about it, the more likely the possibility is, and he sinks to his knees in the middle of your office, eyes wide with horror and denial. “No… I refuse to believe it. Gotta wait for-”

His phone chimes with a notification.

Pulling out his phone as fast as possible without fumbling the already hazardously damaged device, Reno unlocks the screen, only to see that a voice file had been sent to him along with tracking coordinates.

Clicking on the voicemail and tracker, Reno’s frown deepens and his face pales as he stares at the map of Sector 7 Slums with a red dot in the center of it, the sounds of your final message to him playing in the background.

No.

The voice recording loops until Reno regains his bearings, body shaking and eyes burning as his ears pick up the sounds of explosions in the background, of your sobs as you fought to leave a last message for the man who had thoughtlessly killed you, and of your fear and acceptance that you wouldn’t live past that moment. The phone slips from his hands and clatters to the floor as Reno’s fingers go slack. “No… I didn’t… Y/N…” A strangled sob escapes Reno’s lips as he raises a hand to grip onto his hair, trying to maintain his composure, “I didn’t mean to… If I’d known, I would have…” The Turk second in command paused and hunched in on himself, not caring if anyone could see him through the glass walls of your office.

M-maybe she left her phone behind when she ran? But… if she’s not there, then where would she have gone if not home?

There weren’t any excuses or any other reason he could come up with. Reno knew that. If he had known beforehand that you would be in Sector 7 Slums, he would have warned you, but you would have tried to evacuate as many people as possible from that sector, and AVALANCHE might have managed to leave, therefore ending in a failed mission. He would have done everything he could to make sure you stayed away from Sector 7, but in the end, he’d still go through with the mission.

“I killed her.” Reno sobbed in realization, biting his bottom lip so hard that he tasted copper, “Just like I killed all those people.” Shaking his head, inconsolable, Reno could only mourn quietly. “I’m just the worst. This is karma for all the shit things I did in life, isn’t it?”

Eyes dulled and slightly puffy, Reno hastily wiped at his face and sat down with his back against your desk, his phone ringing with notifications as Tseng and Rude sent him requests for ‘status’ updates. And the Turk second in command ignored his colleagues, eyes staring into nothingness as he wreaked his brain for what to do next.

I really was looking forward to the date. Reno’s thoughts trailed off, It’s sappy as hell, but I wanted to ask her to be my girlfriend. Tseng said that relationships for Turks never ended well, citing Veld as an example, but… gah! This is the worst situation for Tseng to be right!

It was only the early afternoon… maybe he could start a search party for survivors… it was probably too late, but Reno knew that he had to do something to look for you. With renewed purpose, Reno got to his feet and marched out of your office, blue eyes burning with fiery determination as he hung onto the faint hope that you might have survived.

December 13 - 12:13

You groaned in pain and shifted your body, eyes cracking open to be met with blinding industrial lights. The pain from the glaring lights startled you into closing your eyes again, turning until your body was facing away from them. For a moment, you wondered why you were laying on some sort of weird metallic floor instead of your soft bed, and then the memories of a falling sky sent your eyes flying back open as you took in your surroundings.

The floor was indeed cold and metallic because it looked as if you’d woken up in a maintenance passage. Despite most maintenance passages usually being dimly lit, the one you found yourself lying in was lit from both of the walls. The ceiling above your face had a hole in it, though it was covered with metal and concrete chunks. You assumed, as you clambered to your feet, that you’d fallen through that hole and rolled a few feet away due to the pile of rubble directly beneath the hole. Wincing slightly, you poked and prodded your person for bruises, broken bones, or fractures. Slightly satisfied with just a few small skin lesions, bruises, and maybe a fractured rib, you patted yourself down for your mobile phone, hoping to call for help. Frowning, you found that you did not have your cell phone on you, nor was it anywhere on the floor near you.

Since you hadn’t expected to live through a plate falling on top of you, you could only look on the bright side of things, turning to walk down the metal tunnel with determination set on your face. I didn’t almost die from a plate falling just to give up in an empty tunnel. Plus, a fond smile appeared on your face, I have a date waiting for me when I get back topside.

It seemed pretty simple to you. You’d falling who knows how far down, but you knew for sure that the way out was up. So the only thing to do was to keep walking until you found a passage up. Easy peasy.

December 13 - 15:35

There’s a fierce snarl on Reno’s face as he stands by several parked helicopters. All around him, emergency responders and Shinra infantrymen scrambled to load up supplies and equipment. The dark look on the normally sassy, easy-going Turk’s face seemed like a literal beacon for anyone not bearing good news to stay the away. Though, if some of the troops were to be honest, Reno had very good reason to be irate. The Turk second in command had called in an emergency rescue operation for survivors trapped among the plate wreckage nearly three and a half hours ago, and they were only just beginning to start the rescue operation.

After Tseng, the Turk commander, had authorized the mission to rescue anyone buried under the rubble, the mission had quickly been side-tracked by Shinra executives Scarlet and Heideggar. Scarlet had protested against the operation simply because of the notion that dogs living in the slums were of no use to Shinra, and therefore, the mission was a waste of resources. Heideggar, meanwhile, had agreed that while in times of disaster, Shinra’s army bore the responsibility of launching operations to rescue civilians affected, the members of AVALANCHE were widely unknown and could easily disguise themselves as regular civilians.

It took nearly two hours of careful negotiations and subtle ego inflating by Tseng and Reeve, before both executives agreed to support the relief effort. Viewing it as a strategic move to improve public opinion of the Shinra Company, President Shinra gave little to no resistance when Tseng forwarded the mission brief to be sanctioned.

Now, an hour after the mission was sanctioned, Reno felt the beginnings of a headache forming as he directed the flow of supplies to each helicopter before making sure that there were rotations of supplies and emergency responders that would journey to and from the wreckage of Sector 7 once he landed with the first round of helicopters.

When he had deemed all in good order to head out, Reno sighed and hopped into the helicopter cockpit, buckling himself in to the pilot’s seat. Plopping the headset on while he waited for the rest of the crew to load up into the helicopter, Reno busied himself with flipping switches to make sure that pre-flight and the ride down to Sector 7 would be as smooth as possible. When his co-pilot buckled himself in and gave Reno the thumbs up, the red headed Turk spoke as clearly and seriously as he could into the mic. “Alright guys and gals in all active units, hope you’re all buckled up with headsets on because I sure as hell will not be repeating this briefing.” After a brief pause, Reno continued to speak while directing the helicopter off the platform. “You all probably heard about what happened yesterday. The official reports from HQ state that AVALANCHE launched an attack to compromise Sector 7’s plate pillar. Despite all efforts directed to stop the terrorist attack, the plate still fell. Our job is to go down to the disaster zone to provide relief to all affected civilians. We will also be launching search and rescue operations for survivors.” Reno paused once more as helicopter gained enough air to safely fly out of the landing zone. “I’m gonna be real with you all. Someone important to me was in Sector 7’s Slums when the plate fell and I’m going to try my damnest to look for her. So if any of you fuck this up… not gonna lie, I’m gonna be pissed.” Nobody replied to Reno’s admittance… not that he really expected much of a reply after he dropped that bomb on them. Having enough of the silence, Reno exhaled, “Alright… good talk.”

December 13 - 16:03

It wasn’t easy peasy. Definitely fucking not.

The chrome walkways and exposed piping-lined maintenance passage that you had fallen into hadn’t been a simple few meters under the surface as you thought. No. It’s was more like several meters down with a layer of minor blocked off passageways right above. And, as if that weren’t terrible already? The maze of pathways that made up the layer above seemed to take joy in bringing you up a level, just to drop you back down a level because some asshole decided to seal off the passages at various points.

Your eye twitched in annoyance when you walked down a metal walkway only to be face to face with another fenced off passage lined with reinforced plating. To your surprise, you could see a man stumble around the corner of the opposite side. When you saw one another, your eyes widened. “Holy shit!” The man gasped, stumbling forward with a noticeable limp and sliced up arm. “I didn’t think there’d be another person down here!”

“This place is like a maze, so I’m not surprised that any survivors had yet to meet up. A-are… are you okay?” The blood leaking from the deep scratches in his left arm seemed to ooze a poisonous purple color.

The stranger bit his bottom lip as he hastily hid his injury, “Yeah… I’ll be fine. Listen, girl, you should watch out while down here. I think the rumors about the underground lab were true after all. There are monsters running around everywhere.” Your expression must have been one of utter dismay and despair because the man coughed and reached into his pocket to roll two materia under the fence. “Uh. Shit. Well, it looks like you could use these then. It’s a Cura and a Fira. Hopefully you won’t need it, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Anyways, I hope you make it out of here, girl. I gotta keep looking for other AVALANCHE survivors.”

When the man made to jog away, you called out to him, “Wait! You said that you’re looking for AVALANCHE members? Are you one of them? Do you know what happened?” You pressed yourself against the fence in order to see the stranger from around the corner.

The stranger turned around to stare at you with a grim expression. “Whatever you’re thinking, AVALANCHE didn’t cause this, okay? We were framed by Shinra.” At your confused expression, the man scoffed, “C’mon, you really think that Shinra was going to let civilians protest and riot against them? They couldn’t figure out who was a member and who wasn’t, so they figured they’d drop the entire plate on top of us to get rid of us all.”

“But that’s such a drastic move!” You protested, wanting to believe that your employers wouldn’t have such blatant disregard for human life. “They wouldn’t just sacrifice thousands to eliminate AVALANCHE!”

“Believe what you want, girl. But the reality is that my friends and I all went to the pillar to stop Shinra from dropping the plate, and it dropped anyways because two Turks were sent to finish the job.” The stranger didn’t allow you to retort as he limped away. Not that you would have responded anyways with how the stranger had said that two Turks had arrived to help ensure that the Sector 7 plate dropped.

Pulling away from the fence, you knelt down to pick up the two orbs of materia, the color of your skin taking on a sickly pale pallor. Two Turks were sent to the pillar to drop the plate on top of all of us. Your mind instantly supplied the first Turk pair that you could think of and you felt like you were going to dry heave. I don’t know Rude too well, but from what I know, he and Reno wouldn’t do something so horrendous. Surely, there must have been another pair of Turks who were sent to do it. But you did work in a different department as them, how did you know that there were more members of the Turks? And with Reno’s position within the group… He could have known what was happening…

You told Reno that you would be hanging out with your best friend… that you guys were having a party. He’s smart enough to deduce that your friends still lived in Sector 7… Did he forget? Or… Your stomach churned violently as you sank to your knees on the cold metal walkway. Did Reno just decide he didn’t care if I survived or not?

The edge of your vision burned with tears threatening to spill down your cheeks. A simple blink sent them trailing down your cheeks as you stood upon shaky legs. “Can’t worry about that now.” You muttered, eyes filled with determination as you gathered the excess fabric of your dress to gird up your loins. “I need to find a way out of here. The tunnels might not be able to hold for long.”

Lifting your arm, you pressed one of the materia into your forearm, like you’d seen a few SOLDIERs do before, marveling at how the orb of power sank into the flesh of your arm. Smiling at how seamless it was to merge flesh with Materia, you pressed the other faintly glowing orb into your other forearm, concentrating for a bit before casting Cura upon yourself.

Newly rejuvenated, you back tracked through the metal corridor to find the ladder leading down. “Welp, there’s no time like the present,” you mumbled to yourself as you descended further into the tunnels below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[genderqueerpositivity]

hey why don’t you ever use the lesbian flag in your posts you generally have gbt but rarely L. also what’s with the “inclusive lesbian” flag the regular pink-orange flag is inclusive because being a lesbian isn’t synonymous with being an exclusionist

I swear that no one who accuses me of never making lesbian content has ever done a search on my blog. I do make lesbian pride and positivity content. Of course, it's an easy mistake to think I don't make those things--the lesbian edits I make usually get like less than 200 notes, while the trans, ace, and queer posts I make get thousands. I make the things, no one shares them, and so no one hardly sees them.

For awhile, folks were referring to the Sappho lesbian flag (the pink/yellow/green/purple) flag as an inclusive lesbian flag, because that is what the flag was designed to be. (There used to a post on medium by the creator, but it appears to have been deleted and I know of no other copy.) Since that flag was explicitly designed to be inclusive, that's just how some of us referred to it to distinguish it from other lesbian flags in post and image descriptions. Over time, and after criticism, no one really calls it that anymore. I just made a post today where I referred to it as just a lesbian flag. I also call it the Sappho lesbian flag, as the creator took their inspiration for the colors from one of Sapphos poems.

The pink and orange flag has a complex history, and not everyone is comfortable with it because of that. Personally, I love the colors; they remind me of summer sunsets and roses and they're wonderful to make moodboards and flag edits with. When compared to other pride flags, the colors are visually unique and easily distinguishable from other pride flags.

But as a genderqueer, trans, and gray aro/ace person that has identified as a lesbian off and on over the past decade (gender and attraction are fucking complicated y'all, I won't lie; it's complicated, confusing, and sometimes anxiety inducing), I'm not fully comfortable with that flag.

The original lipstick lesbian flag has a problematic history that we're all aware of by now--and the pink and orange lesbian flag is just an adaptation of that. The pink and orange flag is literally a blending of the modified lipstick lesbian flag and the butch flag (which was just the lipstick flag without the lipstick mark, but orange). The pink/orange flag is just an adaptation of the original, a blending of the modified versions, and you can't make people ignore or forget that. Also, not everyone in the lesbian community identifies as butch or femme, and so I've seen some folks uncomfortable with the flag for that reason as well.

There is a reason that there have been so many lesbian flag redesigns--not everyone is okay with the history of the pink flag (for example: a lot of trans, nonbinary, aro, ace, and lesbians of color).

It isn't an exclusionist flag, no. But the history of the flag can't be denied. Nor can the present usage.

Seeing the twitter page of the self-proclaimed creator of the 7 stripe pink/orange flag is what has made me the most uncomfortable with that flag. And, in my personal experience, the people who go out of their way to pressure me into using that particular flag over others, are disproportionately exclusionists and/or radical feminists. I won't sugar coat that. I've blocked more TERFs with that flag as their icon than I can count; as a trans person I'm naturally going to be uncomfortable with that association. Being a lesbian is not synonymous with being an exclusionist or a TERF, but there are exclusionists and TERFs in the lesbian community, as with any other.

I don't believe the pink/orange flag is bad, that it shouldn't ever be used, or that every person who prefers it is automatically a TERF. But I also believe that not everyone has to be comfortable with that flag all the time, use it or identify with it for themselves, or create content with it. Trying to pressure every person in the lesbian community (past, present, and/or future) into embracing that flag is kind of shitty. Trying to force queer, trans, aro, ace, or bi/ply/pan people into creating content with that flag when they are uncomfortable with it's history is also shitty. I stand by this.

The real solution here? If there is some sort of content that you'd like to see, you need to either:

Politely request it of someone who is willing to create edits for free (and not be shitty to them if they refuse for personal reasons)

Commission an artist to create it for you, again nicely

Or download a couple of editing apps (I'd be happy to recommend you a few), make a blog, and share the content you want to put out into the world.

When I started this blog, the concept of positivity blogs was still brand new to this website. Content doesn't spontaneously appear overnight, it is created by real people. So many content creators have left this website, not only because of the mismanagement by tumblr staff, but because of the harassment frequently done by other tumblr users. And that really sucks, this website is worse off for it.

[philipholt]

Looking back on Software Development in 2020 and forward to 2021

I think we can all agree 2020 sucked. Hopefully 2021 will be better.

I've been a remote worker for 13 years by choice but in 2020 I HAD TO DO IT because, well, most programmers and tech workers did. I wrote about how Remote work != Quarantine Work while our whole division and then the whole company moved back home! We were a fairly remote-friendly company before but I have to admit I didn't always think my coworkers had really deep empathy for the remote...until they, too, were forced to be remote.

Last week on the podcast, I got to speak with Amanda Silver. She's a CVP in the Microsoft Developer Division who has been coding and thinking deeply about coding for many years. She's leading the creation of tools like Visual Studio, Visual Code, Live Share, Code Spaces, IntelliCode, and other collaborative productivity products. She's always thinking about what coding will look like in 1, 5, and even 10+ years.

We talked about her thoughts on moving the division remote and whether it would slow us down. Would it change how we develop software? What about when everyone comes back? After talking to her about her thoughts on 2020 and where she thinks we're heading, I got to thinking myself and wanted to put those thoughts down.

2020 broke everything, and developers like to fix things

Somewhere in the spring as we started into lockdown, developers started making sites. Sites to track COVID, GitHub projects with scripts to scrape data and analyze it. Javascripters started making D3.js visualizations and codepen users started building on top of them. Bots on twitter would tweet out updates and parse new data.

When there's a problem - especially a scary or untenable one - developers run towards the challenge. Necessity breeds invention and 2020 was definitely a year where we were collectively reminded there was a bunch of stuff that was always possible, but we needed a push. Cameras and mics were upgraded, ring lights were purchased, home networks got fancier, and everyone who could called their ISP and got an upgraded plan. We could have done all this before, but why? Remote work happened for the first time in 2020, and I say that having worked remotely forever.

We HAVE to collaborate remotely now

Back in 2010 I spoke to PhDs at Microsoft Research about how people feel when they are remote and what they can do to be more connected. Ten years! Folks thought it was pretty "out there" but I sure needed my virtual cubicle buddy this year.

2020 accelerated what was possible with remote collaboration. I spent hours coding with Live Share, pushing text and coding context over the wire, not a ridiculous 4k worth of pixels. Having two cursors (mine and my friends) - or even 10! - in one Visual Studio seemed like magic. Even more magic is me pressing F5 and my coworker hitting their localhost and seeing our app running! We needed tech like this more than ever in 2020.

I heard one story where a company sent everyone home but folks had disparate desktops and laptops so they set up 100s of Virtual Desktops over a weekend so everyone was able to log into secure work systems from their home machines.

For us, since we use Github and Azure DevOps here in DeviDiv, our collaboration model is asynchronous and distributed whether we are in the office or not. Can you imagine everyone working remotely while using a locking source control system in 2020? I feel bad for those who are in that predicament.

Can something be BETTER remotely?

Many of us miss being in the same room with co-workers, and we will be together again one day, but are there some things that the constraint of being remote can make better? In the podcast episode Amanda said that our new hire bootcamp was so much better remotely!

She said (paraphrasing a bit):

We have a bootcamp for anybody who's newly started on the team. They actually fly out for two weeks. And the first week is introduction and the second week is our customer driven workshop. And our customer driven workshop is basically this really intense team project where you break up into groups of five to six people, and you're given a business assignment like - how could we double the number of Python developers using Visual Studio Code.

You're basically doing like stickies on the wall the entire week - that's how you collaborate. I've been so amazed that that has transitioned to be remote first. And it's better. It's better. That was a brainstorming process that I thought was only possible in person it's better.

When we moved remote, we had to essentially reboot the way that we thought about our meeting culture to actually make it much more inclusive. And if we go from 40 to 50% of the people participating to just 2 people participating, that's a huge, not only degradation, but you're wasting people's time. Right?

Now if we can actually take six people who've never met each other before and get them to work super collaboratively on a new problem area that they've never worked on before. It's incredible. And the thing that's also really awesome about it is they are forced by nature of the fact that this is remote to actually create it as digital content. Whereas in the beginning they would literally walk us through sticky notes on the wall and they had fantastic ideas, but it was really kind of somewhat unorganized and, and it was hard to be able to see and, and retain and share out afterwards what these incredible ideas were that they came up with.

But when remotely starts with this digital format by necessity because everyone is remote first, we actually now have all of these things archived. We can come back to them, we can go back and actually see, you know, what was the genesis of the thought and, and pursue a lot of these things that we really weren't being able to pursue previously.

Constraints breed innovation!

It was nice to be reminded that People are People

2020 normalized being a person. Having a boss welcome a sad child to sit with them during a meeting reminded me that, what, my boss is a person? With a life and kids? Having meetings while going for walks, talking about treadmill desks, and video called parties with family, and OMG when will this be over is the most horrible team building exercise ever.

It's forced us to rethink our group's culture, how our interpersonal dynamics work, how many meetings we have (let's have less), and it's given everyone the joy of somewhat flexible hours. We talk more now about 'is everyone in this meeting being heard?' than ever before. We use the "hand raising" tool in Teams to make sure all voices get a chance to speak.

If 2020 hadn’t happened, we may not have made these important leaps forward. MAYBE this would have happened by 2025 or 2030 but COVID was the pivot point that forced the issue.

Here's some other blog posts that are both reflecting on our last year and hopeful for the coming year:

Software Development in 2021 and Beyond by Amanda Silver

4 Open Source Lessons for 2021 by Sarah Novotny

Low-code Trends: Why Low-Code Will Be Big In Your 2021 Tech Strategy by Dona Sarkar

PODCAST: Living through 2020 as a Remote Developer

Sponsor: Looking for free secure coding training but don’t know where to turn? Check out Veracode Security Labs Community Edition to start hacking and patching real apps online. Try it today.

© 2020 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.

      Looking back on Software Development in 2020 and forward to 2021 published first on http://7elementswd.tumblr.com/

[bloodydamnit]

Updated Red Rabbits Guide!

***EDITS!***

Hello there! So, we’ve noticed that we’re getting a ton of new readers!!! Since so much time has passed and lots of new things have happened, I thought we should update this for those who are just hopping on the RRP train! 

Everything still stands!! The episodes and audio notes still follow the same format, but there have been a few minichapters in between, and chapters that show insight to Andrew and Neil’s story. The differences are always said in the authors notes, so you never get lost!!!

__________________

Hello everyone! So, I’ve seen a few people lost, confused, or scared to ask about where to start with Red Rabbits! I know it’s a bit confusing to start at first, especially since there’s so much going on. So here is an updated guide! (It looks really long. It’s not, I just ramble. That’s how we got to 20k words in 2 chapters. lol)

Reminder that Red Rabbits spans across several platforms. However, if you prefer to just stick with the fic, you totally can! There will be summaries of the past week from posting during Andrew’s Audio Notes! So no worries. If you do not want to interact with the social medias, you totally don’t have to!

What is Red Rabbits?

Red Rabbits is an investigative journalism!au, in which Andrew Minyard starts a podcast to find out what happened to Mary and Nathaniel Wesninski when they disappeared ‘15′ years ago. Set in current times and after the wildly popular documentary, The Butcher (by Edgar Allen Productions), we follow Andrew on his journey and Neil on his escape, for/from the truth. 

Alright. Here we go :)

Listen to the Theme Song

Chapter 1: Pilot 

Pilot - Official Transcript

Pilot - Edited Transcript

Listen to the [ Redacted ] part of the transcript be read by our voice for Andrew!

Family Portrait

The Butcher Movie Poster

Chapter 2: Audio Notes #1

Andrew’s wall photo

Explore our Tumblr 

Exploring @redrabbitspod​ is fun all on its own. We have a full directory to help readers/listeners find their way on the blog. As well as a fun team page and music player for the theme song (and perhaps in the future, songs that Andrew is interested in).

The website is updated daily and maintained by me (aka Seth)

Explore Andrew’s Twitter!

Chapter 3: Episode 2

Basement Photo

Zillow Ad

^^^^^^^ If I listed all 23 chapters, this post would be even longer than it is. But, every piece of evidence is linked in the chapter either in the authors, or end notes, so they’re easy to find.^^^^^^^^

On the blog and twitter, you will also be kept up to date with all Andrew’s whereabouts, as well as any announcements and updates from the RR team, also ‘evidence’, ‘audio clips’, photographs, art, character sketches (in the future), etc! I make evidence for every chapter! And we post new things throughout the week! This follows directly with the storyline and will be summarized every other week in Andrew’s Audio Notes! Again, you can make it through RR without it! It’s not necessary. But this is just a fun extra step that you can take if you wish :)

Posting:

We post once a week, every Sunday. If there is a delay, we will keep you posted on both Twitter and Tumblr. With that being said, we alternate between Neil and Andrew chapters. Neil’s chapters will always be titled ‘Episode:____’, while Andrew’s will be ‘Audio Notes #____’. 

This, for now, is just a fanfiction. Interactive! Yes, but there will not be full audio podcasts. I handle all the audio and art for this project and it’s a lot of work, as well as being demanding for our voice actor! With that being said, if you see photos of the apple podcast app, that is edited! For the purposes of immersion in the fic! So, just keep that in mind that this is a written fic with a lot of other elements. We do have audio clips though! (posted above and found in our directory!) And we hope to continue making them :)

(A timeline and map will be posted soon!)

There are also a ton of fan accounts out there engaging with this world! This page was updated a few days ago and there have been many more made since then, but here is a small list that I hope to update regularly! You can hop on their blogs to see memes, mood boards, extremely detailed timelines and notes for each episode, etc! 

In that same vein, we have a discord for RR! Quick updates, sneak peeks, access to a brief timeline and world directory are on there as well. You can interact with other RR peeps, create your own oc, interact with the world, conspire, come up with theories, etc! It is welcome for everyone! DM me for a link and I would be happy to send you an invite! 

If you don’t want to join the discord, our inbox @redrabbitspod is open for any leads, inquiries, etc. As well as our email, which you can send your ‘leads’ (we’ve already gotten some good ones. omfg) foxholenetwork@gmail.com! Keep in mind that on the RRP blog, we are all in character. So if Andrew is an ass to you, don’t take it personally lol! It’s his job :)

Also! If you choose to engage with the RR world in any way, know that you have the potential to alter the story! This is interactive! You, as a reader/’listener’ play a part! We have a set direction this story goes in with several important events, but a lot of you are altering how we do things! So get creative and have fun! Just remember, you only know what is on the blogs, twitter, and what Andrew explicitly tells you in the chapters. Remember to read the authors notes at the beginning of the chapters to understand what we mean!

I think that’s it for now. This will be updated regularly with each chapter and new content so people can keep up/know where to start!

-The RR Creators/Team @bloodydamnit @jtmann182 @seabearthirteen @fuckyeahdisreputablekibeth​

[noona-clock]

Which One? Ji Soo - Part 5

Genre: Coffee Shop!AU

Pairing: Ji Soo x You

Warnings: None

Prologue, Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Epilogue  | Words: 2,892

Despite the fact you were now more nervous than ever to go to The Mug and see Ji Soo, you actually couldn’t wait to show him all the pictures from yesterday.

You’d spent basically all of yesterday evening looking through each one of them and researching new presets and filters you could use to create a cohesive theme.

Everyone is a nerd for something; you just happened to be a nerd for Instagram themes.

Well, technically, you were a nerd for design in general. But Instagram theming had become your niche au courant. And, in this day and age, you had plenty of opportunities to let your nerd flag fly.

Since you’d told him yesterday you could come over at any time, Ji Soo had sent you a message just after noon asking if you could come around 8 later that night. Apparently, the shop was pretty busy, and he wasn’t sure he would have a chance to leave Joo Hyuk by himself until around closing time.

Of course, you’d assured him that was fine, and he had promised to make you at least two green tea lattes to help keep you awake.

The caffeine would surely help you then... but what about now? What about all the hours you had before 8pm?

It was currently half-past one...

You had six and a half hours to think about everything which could go wrong. All of the embarrassing things you could say. All of the different ways he could tease you.

Great.

So what could you do to distract yourself?

Well, the first thing which came to your mind was... work on your own Instagram. You had just had an engagement photoshoot the other day, and you were about halfway done editing the pictures. Might as well work on one to share with your followers and give the couple a sneak peek.

You chose a picture of the couple on a swingset, each sitting in a swing and holding hands in-between them. It was actually adorable, and even though you didn’t know the couple personally, they had seemed pretty playful and goofy during the two hours you’d spent with them. Taking pictures on a swingset seemed to just work for them.

After selecting the picture, you first opened it up in your computer editing software. You played around with the details since you had more control, sharpening some things and blurring others. You smoothed out the background and added some very subtle light flares.

Once you were satisfied with how everything looked, you transferred it to your phone and imported it into your favorite photography app. You added the preset you had designed for this specific shoot, adjusting the contrast and exposure as needed to get the coloring just right.

All in all, the whole process took you about half an hour, and once you had uploaded the picture and typed out a caption... There were still six hours left until you met up with Ji Soo at the coffee shop.

Seriously?!

You couldn’t just post twelve more pictures on Instagram. That’s overload!

I guess you could finish editing all of the pictures from the shoot and get them ready to give to the couple... you didn’t necessarily want to work on a weekend, but what else could you do?!

The only thing was, you preferred to get out of the house to edit pictures. If you stayed home to edit every single picture you took, you would pretty much never see the outside world.

And one of your favorite places to go to get work done?

A coffee house.

Usually, you went to Starbucks because, as we established earlier, you were basic like that. You liked Starbucks!

But now...?

Should you be that girl and go to The Mug instead? Even though you were going there later to work with Ji Soo?

Let’s be real, though. The question you should be asking was this: Would you be able to get any work done with Ji Soo around? You were already skeptical that the two of you were going to get a good start on The Mug’s Instagram page tonight. Did you really think you could sit in that shop and focus on work when you knew Ji Soo was just a few yards away, taking orders and making drinks?

You knew the answer was ‘no,’ but you decided to get a second opinion.

“Hey, what’s up?” Jane answered after you’d pressed on her name in your contacts and waited for a ring or two.

“Hey...” you replied a bit hesitantly. “I have... a question.”

“I’m all ears.”

“So...” You took a deep breath, deciding to say everything quickly so she wouldn’t interrupt with shouts of glee. “Ji Soo kind of hired me to help with the shop’s Instagram page. I say ‘kind of’ because they’re paying me in free drinks, which is totally fine. I’m happy to do it. You know I love Instagram. And I’m going over there later tonight to show him how to edit the pictures and stuff, but I don’t know what to do until then. I was thinking I would edit the pictures I took the other day, the engagement photoshoot? Would it be too much if I went over there to work? To the coffee shop?”

Jane didn’t answer at first. You could very clearly picture her facial expression right now. It most definitely looked something like this:

And then, almost a full thirty seconds after you’d finished asking your question, she said, “Could you repeat that?”

“Jane!” you chuckled. “Should I go over there to work or would that be too much?”

“Girl! Yes! You! Should! Go! Over! There!”

You bit your lip to keep from smiling like a schoolgirl with a crush, and Jane continued before you had the chance to say anything.

“Are you serious?! Are you going for it?”

“I don’t know!” you admitted, not doing anything to hide your confusion and hesitation. “I don’t know.”

“Wait, has anything happened?! I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me,” Jane scolded.

Well... she wasn’t wrong. You hadn’t told her about yesterday because you knew she would make a big deal out of it, but... 

So you proceeded to tell her about the pictures you’d taken... and the pictures Ji Soo had taken. You didn’t leave off the part where he’d asked to have copies of those pictures, either.

“WOW,” Jane remarked once you’d finished. “First of all, he totally likes you.”

“Really? Do you really think so? He’s not just super friendly and outgoing and charming?” you asked, biting the inside of your cheek anxiously.

“I do think he’s all of those things, but... I mean, come on! He took pictures of you and asked to keep them! He sent a heart eyes emoji when you sent them to him! He, at the very least, thinks you’re gorgeous -- which you are.”

You buried your face in your free hand, unable to say anything back to that. But Jane knew you well enough, and she kept talking.

“Second of all, I think you’re definitely interested, too. Right?”

An anxious sigh fluttered past your lips as you thought about your answer.

Were you interested?

...Wow, okay, was that really a question?

“Yes, of course, I’m interested,” you told her with just a slight whine. “You’ve seen him!”

“But what about his personality?” Jane countered. “Does the inside match the outside?”

“I’ve known him for a few days,” you reminded her.

“What are your first impressions, at least?”

“Well... he teases me like you do.”

“A good start,” Jane said, obviously smirking.

“And there was the whole car thing,” you added. “He took care of everything like it was no big deal.”

“Definitely a plus. I hear it about it for days whenever you have to take your car in for an oil change. Is he nice?”

“I think so.”

“Is he funny?”

“I’ve laughed a fair amount of times at thing he’s said. When I’m not blushing.”

“Y/N, that’s totally enough reason to be interested,” Jane assured you. “You don’t know him that well, yet, but... that’s kind of what dating is all about. Getting to know someone!”

“Dating, Jane?” you snorted. “Don’t you remember I just said we only met on Wednesday? You were there when we met!”

“And don’t you remember I said you’re not going to be single for much longer? Mark my words?”

“Yes, it was actually quite terrifying.”

“Well, mark my words again, my friend. He’s going to ask you out soon. When a guy reacts to pictures of you with a heart eyes emoji...? Yeah, there’s definitely a date on the horizon.”

You weren’t exactly sure about that because you knew Jane was just desperate for you to get a boyfriend so the two of you could go on double dates... but you would humor her, anyway.

“Whatever you say, Jane.”

Ultimately, you decided to wait until after dinner to head over to The Mug, opting to do your laundry and clean up your kitchen while you waited. You figured you might as well do something productive with all of your nervous energy.

You made yourself a sandwich for dinner around 5:30 (making sure to wipe away every stray crumb from your newly cleaned kitchen, of course), and it was just before 6 when you pulled into the parking lot of The Mug with your laptop in tow.

Okay. Here we go.

You slid your laptop off of your passenger seat, clutching it to your chest and making your way up to the front door. Before you even stepped inside, you saw the long line of customers waiting to order.

Good lord, the draw to this place was just incredible.

But then you looked at the two God-like beings behind the front counter and were reminded just why the draw to this place was incredible.

They would probably have to hire more people to help them soon; you couldn’t imagine how hard they must be working right now. How exhausted they must be.

When it was finally your turn to order, you stepped up to the register with a shy, semi-awkward smile.

“Hey,” you greeted Ji Soo.

“Oh, hey,” he grinned, chuckling slightly in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I have some photos to edit for a shoot I did earlier this week, and I figured I needed to get out of the house, so...” you answered with a shrug.

Ji Soo’s grin widened just a little bit (though it was enough to make your heart flutter even more than it already was), and he straightened his posture confidently. “What are you feeling tonight? Another green tea latte or something else?”

“I’m definitely having that latte later, but I think right now... do you have chamomile tea?” Your nerves were kind of in overdrive right now, so you could do with some calming herbal tea.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he nodded. “Go ahead and find a seat, I’ll bring it out to you.”

If Ji Soo wasn’t one of only two people working here, you would think he was giving you special treatment by serving it to you personally...

Although, you were getting it for free. 

Because you were the shop’s official Instagram consultant, and they couldn’t pay you in actual money, but that’s neither here nor there.

You headed back into the shop, managing to find a small table by a window (and an outlet in case you needed to charge your laptop). Within minutes, you had set up shop and had already begun editing away.

“One chamomile tea,” Ji Soo murmured when he brought your cup. “Let me know if you need a refill or anything.”

You nodded, shooting him a quick smile before turning your attention back to your screen.

“I’ll come over when I can so you can show me how to be an Instagram genius like you,” he added, and when you glanced at him again, he threw you a sly wink before heading back up to the register.

Him and that wink! Why was he so good at it?! Why did it make your stomach flip and your heart flutter?!

You waited until he was out of earshot before letting out a deep exhale.

Honestly, why had you even questioned whether or not you could get work done here? Ji Soo just had this powerful effect on you. One wink could send you reeling, for heaven’s sake!

But, still. You had pictures to edit, so you would do your best to buckle down and get as many done as you could.

So, remember how it took you about half an hour to edit that one picture earlier?

You’d arrived here just after 6, and Ji Soo had said the two of you could start working at 8. That gave you two hours.

Theoretically, you should have been able to edit four pictures.

But... how many did you actually get done?

One.

You were currently working on your second, but you had only successfully and completely edited one.

One!

In two hours!

You blamed Ji Soo, of course. He had stopped by your table at least ten times, asking if you wanted a refill or watching you edit over your shoulder or even just making some small talk.

He had thoroughly distracted you, and if that had been his goal for the evening... he’d certainly accomplished it.

When he sat down across from you yet again, letting out a deep, exhausted sigh, you checked the time on your laptop. It was 8:02. Time to start working. ...On your other work, that is.

“Has it been crazy busy today?” you asked, saving the changes you’d made on your picture and closing the lid of your computer so you could see him better.

“Yeah, pretty crazy,” Ji Soo answered as he folded his arms over the table. “You’ve been working pretty hard over here, too.”

...Had you?

Not particularly, but... he didn’t need to know that.

Because he was the reason you hadn’t been working hard.

“Whoever said the weekend was the time to rest didn’t own a coffee shop,” you chuckled.

“Also wasn’t a photographer, I guess,” Ji Soo added.

“So,” you said with a little sigh. “Ready to learn?”

Ji Soo sat up straighter in his seat, the corners of his lips pulling into a very adorable grin. “Yes, I am ready. Teach me everything you know.”

Since you were going to working on your phones, you scooted your chair over to sit next to him, trying to ignore how amazing he smelled. Even after working all day, he smelled heavenly.

You instructed him to pull up one of the pictures you’d sent him last night along with the ones he’d taken of you, a picture of one of the drinks. You’d deemed it your practice picture because it would be pretty simple to edit.

“So, I think with the whole atmosphere of this place, your feed should have more a warm feel to it,” you explained. “Bright but warm. I found a really good preset and made some adjustments to it. You should be able to just use it on any picture, and that should help a lot with creating that theme.”

Ji Soo listened intently, following all of your directions as you walked him through downloading the app he needed as well as the preset you’d created. You showed him how to import the picture, add the preset, and make any tweaks in case the picture didn’t look quite right.

“How did you learn how to do this?” Ji Soo asked after he’d saved the changes on his picture.

Your lower lip jutted out thoughtfully, and you shrugged. “I don’t know. I just kind of... did it. I’ve always loved photography, so I took a lot of classes in school. I also took a lot of web design classes, so I just meshed those two skill sets together, and here we are.”

“Well, I am pretty sure The Mug is going to have the best Instagram of any coffee shop around,” he grinned. “Just as long as you’re always on hand to make sure I did everything right.”

“Yes, of course,” you chuckled. “I’m just a text or phone call away.”

It had taken the two of you over an hour to get that first picture edited, so the shop was now well and truly closed. You stood from your chair, grabbing your laptop and hoisting your bag over your shoulder.

“Here, let me walk you out,” Ji Soo offered, gently resting a hand in-between your shoulders.

You accepted, of course; you were kind of traumatized about going to your car in the dark only to find it wouldn’t start. It would cut out at least five minutes if Ji Soo was already there.

Thankfully, you’d been able to park a bit closer this time, and... Ji Soo was surprisingly quiet the whole walk there.

You’d barely known the guy for four days, but even you knew something was up.

As soon as you approached your car, however, you heard him take a deep breath.

“Hey, so...” he began, his brow furrowed as he somewhat avoided your gaze. “I was wondering... are you -- “

Oh, my.

Was he...?

“Are you busy tomorrow night? I was hoping we could... go out.”

Part 6

[leviathiane]

SHOW US YOUR WROR RAW UNPROCESSED WHOLE GRAIN ORGANIC NOTES

this is going to be a long-ass post i am so sorry to Everyone! i take a lot of notes.

So, as You specifically know (as well as all of my lovely Soggers) I take a LOT of notes. Obsessively. I write fucking everything bc i have very little memory and very much paranoia. This results in literal Piles of notes. Raw planning, on paper, on my phone– doodles of scenes im brainstorming, bulletpoints, entire SCRIPTS– it’s all there but scattered (I’ve got scenes planned in the margins of my goddamn anthropology notes and deciphering it was a NIGHTMARE) 

I won’t even upload all the photos of my writing notebook, because itd be like 50 pages of illegible nonesense. but heres a couple of planning phase pages. (may be hard to read, I dropped this notebook both into some tidepools, into a creek on campus, and accidentally leaked my waterbottle onto it in my backpack :/) 

if you can’t tell already, yes they all look exactly like this. Some are even more illegible, because I wrote them with the notebook half under my actual class notes. Because i wrote most of them in class. During lectures. And pretending very badly that i was not doing exactly that. (pay attention in class please i got away with this bc i was filling up elective units) 

I’m also flat out MISSING a large portion of my notes bc some of it? isnt even in the damn notebook. its on a sheet of binder paper, or on the empty back of an assignment. I’ve now lost most of those notes, but the ones i do still have are just as (even more, actually) indecipherable chicken scratch: 

Wow, how clean and tidy and easy to follow! i am in hell. 

and this doesnt mention the PAGES and PAGES of outlines that are on my laptop, and the pages of outlined scenes that are on the notes app of my phone. if i put them all, you would have entire chapter spoilers up to the very end of the story so i cant post a lot of them– and also theres just a goddamn lot of them. currently i have 16 pages of outlining. There are no spacing breaks. It is a solid 16 page block of text. Looking at it gives me a migraine. 

some assorted notes which i have dredged up from the deleted parts of the main draft google doc go all the way back to when i started Wror in June and they are Barely more readable than my handwriting on sheer account of: articulation is not my strength. These include: 

“Ch 8 plan: sabo gets trained specially, awakens his armament haki, beats ace in a bunch of spars and proves himself to be anything but vulnerable. The boys are like “we fucking recognize that technique ryu taught you before us!!” and goad ryu into finally starting them both on basic haki training, just to awaken it, since sabo already has. Also this is the chapter that ace finally confronts ryu for his devil fruit after ryu confirms that some devil fruit users can’t be hurt without haki and ace immediately catches onto that and tries to slam his pipe through ryus head. It doesn’t work, ryu catches the weapon with a haki covered hand, to avoid turning to flame with hit and ace just gets frustrated and accuses ryu of hiding his devil fruit, because he remembers what he saw in grey terminal and that now that he has seen haki he can distinguish it from what he saw and he’s sure no one could do what ryu did. He calls ryu a hypocrite for coddling them even after telling them to stop coddling sabo and ryu has to sit them down and explain that yes he does have powers and he has been hdiing it and explains his reasoning. However instead of understanding th eboys just get fired up and say they don’t wnt to be scared of fire, especially not when it means ryu isn’t taking them seriously in a spar. Ryu finally agrees to start them on desensitization training for fire trauma. Fire desensitization training happens on the beach, so that they have water nearby in case things get out of hand. At some point ace gives ryu a considering look and is just like “if you have a devil fruit that means you can’t swim either right?” and ryu is basically just like “lmao yeah” and then ace immediately attempts to drown him. Lots of murder attempts in ace’s department toget his older brother to be less of an idiot with little success lol(extra: ace tried to attack ryu earlier both to confirm that ryu has a devil fruit that would force him to use haki to hide it, and because he now knows that he CAN’T hurt ryu without haki and as thus can’t beat him and make him admit he’s awake without being good at haki.)” [chapter 8] 

“Small sabo lost his hat and goggles in the incident and while he doesn’t remember having them future sabo notices he looks uncomfortable and keeps touching his hair and head. Ace yells at him for it thinking he bandaging are bothering him and that he can’t touch them but little sabo just comments that something about it feels wrong. Luffy blurts our that he had a hat, like luffy does, But he doesn’t now ace begrudgingly mentions that they can’t get a new one in town. Future sabo doesn’t even hesitate and just plops his own hat onto his younger selves head. It clearly too big for him, and almost falls over his eyes but he grins up at future sabo and is like “wow!! Thank you! I’ll take care of it till I have one of my own” and creates a paradox like Luffys own hat. The footsteps younger sabo has yet to fill. This HAS to happen AFTER the talk where they explain that future and past sabo are both the same person, to give little sabo that pressure.” [chapter 9]

“(Right after this older sabo takes them down to the ocean so that they can play a little and desensitize themselves and immediately fucks himself over when he goes weak in the water bc he somehow fucking forgot his own devil fruit again and now even younger sabo is on his case about not letting him near the fucking ocean that little goddamn HYPOCRITE—) )” [for chapter 9]

“Ch 9 plan: they finally leave dawn island. Starts with the boys getting a haircut after training and luffy mentions how long it’s been since they’ve last needed a haircut, giving sabo and ace time to point out that it’s been 2 months now since ryu joined them, and that sabo was completely healed by now. The boys are now aware of the basics of haki, and while luffy hasnt awakened either yet ace and sabo both have a little bit of weak armament haki. (sabo won’t awaken observational haki until he gets his memories back) ryu tries to sneak off into the city to steal a boat but his brothers refuse to leave him behind and keep sneaking out after him, not wanting him to go alone and saying that since he’s been training them they’re clearly stronger and he needs to let them do this. Ryu eventually just lets it go because why the fuck not it’s a dream and they make him feel better. They get the boat out on open ocean and finally fucking sail out, cheering loudly, ryu struggling to make them all calm down but also not really trying. He’s happy as shit, and they’re all so excited and happy and sabo dips a hand into the waves and then smiles so fucking wide and tackles ryu so violently they both nearly tip into the water and it’s just very very good. “ [also for ch 9] 

** I flat out dont Have any outlining from before chapter 6, because i only started actually outling chapters after that. i tend to just sit down and Write up until i hit a plot point or writers block and then am forced to actually think it through and plan rather than letting it come naturally. thats also why the quality and editing is better in later chapters despite everything being written within the same time frame. 

besides entire chapter outlines, there are the scene specific phone notes like:

“(ADDED) Right after they leave dawn, when sabo is sure they’ve gotten enough of a head start, he calls Garp. He doesn’t say who he is, but that all of the boys are safe and happy with him and has them all talk into the phone to assure him that they’re fine. Garp is honestly just pissed off he doesn’t know who’s calling and when he asks sabo just laughs and says a disobedient brat before hanging up. “

“(ADDED) TO EXPAND ON CH 3: sabo gets offered the chance to go with dragon, and he hesitates on the offer to go through with his previous life with the family he’s made in the revolutionary again. He almost agrees, because the bought of losing them in this lifetime is near excruciating but reminds himself swiftly that it’s no place for his brothers and not what they’d really want, and he wants selfishly to be with them as long as he Can until he “inevitably” wakes up. The boys are visibly relieved by this, especially ace. (Sabo gets asked who he is by dragon, who wants to know more about the stranger with his son, but dragon has always been quicker to make connections no one guessed and he just smiled knowingly at sabo and tells him he’s sure the other will have no trouble finding them if he’s in need. Sabo in turn warns him to keep Kuma close, and to look for a slave girl named koala.)”

I have…. many of these. I have Many of Everything. 

finally, i have scene doodles. if i hit a bad writers block it usually helps me to sketch scenes or the character designs to regain my grip on what the hell is happening in the plot– Breach of Intention has character design sketches, pakcbond has MANY scene sketches, even some of my nsfw has some sketches. my wror skecthes arent Good of course, I am an art teacher for children and that means i am more often explaining the color wheel and brush techniques over drawing perfect human replicas– and i just dont really make a lot of fanart? ive never drawn sabo before but i sure have a bunch now. i wont include close ups because they genuinely suck but heres an example pic 

So… yeah thats about everything. this is a VERY long post and yet i only included like maybe ¼ or 1/5 of all the notes i have dbskhjgfkjadns lmk if anyone wants more (or notes for my Other stories, which contain NO WHERE the same absurd amount of shit that wror does.)

[audiogrizzly]

Top 5 Games of 2019

It was a little tricky to construct a top 5 for this year, though there have been a couple of surprises.  I wasn’t expecting the year to be a bit crap as we are no w on the cusp once more of a new generation.  But 2012 wasn’t all that bad of a year (PS4 and Xbox One would release in 2013) and at the moment, everyone is doing alright.  PS4 has sold through over 100 million systems, Nintendo are definitely on an “on” generation with Switch, Xbox has been able to get back into peoples good books with things like Game Pass (on both Console and PC, their PC side they seem to really be turning around), there’s even interesting things happening in the mobile space with Apple Arcade.

This won’t be the last year where my top 5 games are full of current gen titles, I am expecting the new systems to drop in around November, last time it was hard to find a top 5 specific to PS4 (as I listed each platform separately back then).  It IS however, another list of mostly AAA tier games.  If you want to know what smaller more “interesting” games I have been playing, check out my honourable mentions at the end.

Also, follow me on Melee.  It’s this new image blogging service from Imgur which you can download now on the IOS App Store (its just on iPhone at the moment) and it has seemingly been built to help people share gaming related clips and images off of places like Twitter and Instagram (and err, here on Tumblr).  I posted a couple of daft clips of me failing in Modern Warfare and Destiny 2 and it didn’t take long for them to amass a few likes and comments.

That sounded like a sponsored advert but ain’t nobody paying me for this.  Let’s get into my top 5

5. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order

I was about to select Gears 5 to be my number 5 until I saw sense and cast my memory back to when I started playing Jedi (all the way back in November.  I was impressed by its intense action, impressive visuals and great characters.  I especially enjoyed the 4 armed pilot who always complains.  I did feel that towards the end I got sick of managing large groups of enemies so I dropped the difficulty to get through it, but I still haven’t achieved 100% of activities on all planets so I can still go back to it one day.

4. Borderlands 3

We all knew this was coming but not even I had any idea that we would have been actually playing it in 2019 way back at the start of the year.  For me, I look at the game.  I don’t care about weird magicians or their insane sounding legal woes, all I’m interested in is the work of a team who deserved better for their last title, but am still glad returned to what they do best, looting and shooting.  I enjoyed rejoining these characters I have followed over the last 10 years, all the referenced to older games, cameos from characters from Tales From the Borderlands and The Pre Sequel and was sad to see some people go.  I still have about a year of extra content to go through and I really appreciate the efforts they have made to make the game last longer than just one playthrough through in the Proving Grounds, Circle of Slaughter and Mayhem modes.  Though I have always tended to stick to Borderlands games and create builds for each and every vault hunter, so I will be doing that.

3. Mortal Kombat 11

It’s been a while since I last put a fighting game into my end of year round up.  And I HAVE fallen off MK11 a little bit, but this entry reminded me of how impressive it is for Nether Realms to pack their fighting games with some many things to do and keep people playing outside of just going into matchmaking and fighting others.  The Vault this year is basically another little adventure full of exploration and puzzle solving and the Towers of Time give you plenty of challenge and direction of many months to come.  You also have to give the developer credit for never backing down on the brutality of the game, they must have all got their heads together after DC Universe vs. and vowed never again to make watered down versions of Fatalities.  It is a game that keeps getting better and better.

2. Call of Duty Modern Warfare

I was debating whether or not to include this years CoD.  I always get the same type of enjoyment out of it each year, people complain that it never changes but I’m glad it sticks to a formula.  Of course they are not identikit games, there are new maps, new modes, new ways of building your loadout and new touches, like how in this year you can snap to edges to stay in cover while you shoot, there’s the new special equipment system where you can drop ammo or reduce your footstep noise.  Having doors you can either peek through or smash open adds another level of strategy, there have been times where I have been able to escape being under fire by closing a door, re-positioning and then wasting whoever just wanders in.

The campaign this year, good to see it back, but whatever, the co-op mode is Spec Ops again, like it was back in MW2 and 3 but on a much larger scale, I have yet to complete one of these btw.  But as always, it’s the multiplayer that does it for me and Modern Warfare deserves credit for being what must be the first AAA game to feature cross platform play, not just launch with it.  I know that games like Fortnite are popular, but I don’t see that as a AAA title, it doesn’t have the full package, it’s just a mode and it started off small.  Call of Duty is expected to be big each year, has a lot riding on it and allowing for cross play is a big step.  I especially appreciate being able to play with a keyboard and mouse on PS4 and being able to matchmake only with people playing with controllers on PC, in fact, I have never really given the game much of a shot on PC before as I know people just fall of it, there has often been low player numbers reported on the PC versions of CoD and it looks like it won’t have that problem this time round due to cross play.

Modern Warfare still has to contend with Destiny 2 and Overwatch for my time as my main multiplayer game but it’s still as fun as ever.

1. Control

Put this down as my main “surprise” game of 2019.  A game which was not on my watch list, though I was aware of it as you can’t ignore a game from the makers of Max Payne (I did skip Alan Wake and didn’t care much for Quantum break though).  Bought it at the last minute before its release, downloaded it and was wowed by the sinister nature of the environment you run around in.  This weird fictitious US government agency which looks into paranormal activity which you seem to have become in charge of because you picked up a mysterious weapon from the deceased Director while searching for your brother.  What then follows is about 12 hours of wacky powers and odd video clips as you unearth what has been going on in this strange ever morphing building.

I especially loved how the game never holds your hand too much, the map of each floor is vague enough that you also have to rely on in-game signposting to move around, as well as a bit of memory work.  There is also great humour involved too in some of the PSA posters on a lot of the walls, the antics of the caretaker and the videos you find of Dr. Darling throughout the game.

I did have a few weird technical issues with the game throughout playing, but still found it to be visually pleasing, there was this weird hitch that used to appear after coming out of the pause screen that always threw me, it would be followed by a few moments of low performance before getting back into the smooth action.  But this didn’t stop me from having a great time with Control.  Perhaps the game that will be the most prominent in my head when I think of 2019.

So there you have it, control is my best game of 2019.  But let’s look at the other new games I played throughout the year in my honourable mentions:

Gears 5

The Outer Worlds

Days Gone

Apex Legends

Far Cry New Dawn

Trover Saves the Universe

Concrete Genie

Devil May Cry 5

Tom Clancy's The Division 2

And also a special mention to these old games that were rereleased/remastered/repackaged etc in 2019:

Borderlands Game of the Year Edition Remastered

Halo Reach

And now, a look at the games I have on my watchlist for 2020:

Cyberpunk 2077

Last of Us Part 2

Ghost of Tsushima

Halo: Infinite

Watch Dogs Legion

Phantasy Star Online 2

Gods & Monsters

Doom Eternal

Overwatch 2

Diablo IV

Minecraft dungeons

Marvel's Avengers

Carrion

Streets of Rage 4

Will they all even come out?  Let’s find out, happy new year!

[thatgirlwhokeepsreading]

I posted 10,557 times in 2021

35 posts created (0%)

10522 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 300.6 posts.

I added 1,046 tags in 2021

#tma - 244 posts

#dnd - 139 posts

#cr - 137 posts

#it friend - 103 posts

#it me - 90 posts

#tazb - 87 posts

#wards - 78 posts

#jesus fandom - 74 posts

#bdg - 48 posts

#pokemon - 46 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#bc people must eventually get like ‘anyone who doesn’t have a lab is faking having a service animal’ (bc they don’t know better) and hassled

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

My grandfather just asked myself and my brother if we thought China was gonna invade Australia and I think we all lost a decade off our lives

6 notes • Posted 2021-01-17 10:15:54 GMT

#4

Me, every time I create another NPC for my campaign: she’s a bitch and I like her so much

6 notes • Posted 2021-09-20 15:43:14 GMT

#3

When you’re trying to develop your DnD world backstory in your head but you keep returning to basically a billion iterations of two interactions: character A and character B are in lesbians, and character X has accidentally adopted character Y because Care For Child Way You Were Not Cared For. And yo if that isn’t a call out post to myself idk what is

7 notes • Posted 2021-08-22 05:47:43 GMT

#2

So some fuckhead I met once because I was head of the social justice club at my school is on the news again huh

(ID under the cut)

[ID: Screenshot of a Word document containing the Jurgen Lietner copypasta, which has been edited to be about Australian politician Peter Dutton.

Text reads:

PETER DUTTON?

STUPID IDIOT MOTHERFUCKING PETER DUTTON GOD DAMN FOOL PRISON BUILDING DUST EATING RAT OLD BASTARD SHITHEAD IDIOT AVATAR OF THE WHORE BIGGEST CLOWN IN THE CIRCUS LAUGHED OUT OF TOWN COWBOY MOTHERFUCKING PETER DUTTON

STOP PINNING ME WHEN I TALK ABOUT PETER DUTTON I HATE HIM SO MUCH WHY DOES HE HAVE SO MANY FUCKED UP POLICIES WHY DID HE DECIDE TO FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT JUST SET THEM LOOSE IS HE DEAD IS HE A BASTARD MAN HAS SUCH A VISCERAL AFFECT ON ME NOT EVEN IN THE ROOM NEVER SEEN THIS MANS FACE SINCE I WAS THIRTEEN AND I KNOW HE HAS THE WORLDS SHINIEST HEAD GET AWAY FROM ME

if i wanted to get into heaven and god said peter dutton waiting inside i would piss on gods feet for the sole purpose of getting sent back down

if i have to deal with peter dutton speaking one word in person on voice in parliament not only will i close the tab i will delete my abc app out of spite and have to rewatch the every question time again for the experience of being able to skip all the times when he is mentioned or alive

i dont even know why i hate him so much. he is an extremely shitty white man but i am just mad because i am angy

he better have some fucked up backstory to explain this if hes just some rich shithead whos a fan of human rights violations and wanted to commit some himself ill go ham

BETTER have had a book make him kill a man cuz if he didnt Im going to make him

paypal.com/IFuckingHatePeterDutton

political scandals not even about him. vaguely mentioned what is supposed to maybe be his opinion and I lost it

where the fuck is peter dutton if hes still alive im going to so deeply wish he wasnt

crusty old man

ill punch dutton and his sad frail old man twig bones will simply flake apart under my epic huge meat fist and he will disintegrate until all thats left is one final book he kept on him at all times simply titled Now You Fucked Up in ancient yiddish

im not breathing im hyperventilating at this point

i hope theres a date given for when peter died or will die so i can make it a reminder on my phone

everyday once a year i will see it and do anything but pay respects to the man who had so many fucked up if true human rights violations

end ID]

9 notes • Posted 2021-04-09 09:21:49 GMT

#1

So I’m White™️ so take this all with a grain of salt but like, with 26th Jan coming up here’s a non-exhaustive list of days that would be better choices for Australia Day

1st Jan- Federation officially began 01/01/1901 so it’s literally our country’s birthday. Also we’d get double public holiday with NYE.

29th March- Day the first Australian General Elections were held. Celebrate democracy and whatnot.

30th March- Apparently General Elections used to take two days to hold. Celebrate democracy and the value of taking your time when doing something important.

8th May- I’m not sure if this was proposed ironically or not, but I guess “May 8” does sound like “mate” if you really swallow your consonants. A bit cringe imho but not as cringe as colonialism and genocide.

25th July- Take over Christmas in July celebrations. Good for all the same reasons Christmas in July is good, but also makes more sense because it’s not like it snows in July either.

19th Aug- Wikipedia tells me that this is the day Deas Thomson moved for a NSW Parliamentary Select Committee on the question of Australian federation. Good if you want to make Australia Day weirdly NSW focused still.

24th Oct- Anniversary of the Tenterfield Oration, which Wikipedia tells me was when a guy made such a moving speech about how the colonies should federate that it only took them twelve more years to do it. Points deducted for the fact that New Zealand was still in the running to be part of Australia at that point, and it makes me sad to even think about us holding them back like that.

31st Oct- My mum hates Halloween for some reason and so she suggests that Australia Day should be moved to the 31st Oct so people will be forced to give up celebrating Halloween. Still a better date choice than 26th Jan.

29 notes • Posted 2021-01-19 11:46:21 GMT

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