#twice. twice. in a row. i never get consistent results on this thing

[lokh]

why does this keep happening

[moonbreeze19]

we were too close to the stars i never knew somebody like you, somebody falling just as hard - reflections

alarin tumblr debut?? for tsme week?? i think so i think yes! u can consider this a late day 6 post or day 7 i suppose, whatever u prefer!

(in summary: my oc, rin, and alain, have lived in my head rent free for 3 years now. they mean the world to me. i love them. to me, they are THE it couple <3)

details/about them below the break

rin yukino is a hyper competitive trainer with a (shiny) mega gardevoir, goal focused and independent to the point of flaw. born and raised in kalos, but with family from sinnoh, she had spent much of her childhood fitting into her parent's mold for a perfect daughter. she was a straight-a student, principal violinist, preparing to attend a top university - at 18, she realized that wasn't who she wanted to be anymore. she became a pokemon trainer instead.

(somewhat unimportantly, her usual trainer design consists of teal highlights in her hair, orange earrings shaped like the heart that goes through a mega gardevoir's chest, and a lot of black and gray. she matches diva, her gardevoir, like alain matches his charizard. they're both extra like that.)

she meets alain viard when they're both 22, shortly after the events of TSME act 4. she's on the gym challenge, and he's... alain. they battle, and he wins. twice in a row. then they go from rivals to rivals with benefits, then maybe even friends if they weren't both so emotionally reclusive i mean haha what-

alarin, aka rin "i'm stronger on my own" yukino and alain "i only destroy those around me" viard

even if he's won both times, alain can't help but be attracted one of the few people who can keep up with him, who cares about winning nearly as much as he does, who treats pokemon battling like it's all she has. he knows the feeling. he thinks she might understand him.

she's half of the reason behind both his decision to fill out his team beyond charizard and his decision to challenge the gyms

when they fall apart, just a month before the team flare crisis, i like to think of them like a supernova. short lived but bright and brilliant. doomed from the start.

the details of their falling out are complicated, so we'd be here all day if i tried to explain.

rin fails to stand by him during the fight against lysandre. she doesn't have the courage to. but she does, however, find him in the aftermath. she helps him heal and pick up the broken pieces. that's where 99% of their relationship really comes from.

i filter them into the category titled "couples written by taylor swift's the great war" and if you know you know

because it's important to me, rin gets along great with mairin.

at first she's a bit annoyed by her over-enthusiasm. rin is cold, blunt, realistic, and introverted, mairin is the opposite of all of those things. but once she sees how much mairin means to alain she does a full 180

and mairin's only ever had older brothers (both in her biological family and in alain), so having rin around to show her how to do her hair, her makeup, AND annoy the hell out of alain when appropriate is her favorite thing ever.

they are very good at bullying alain into taking care of himself (because he is very bad at that, as we all know.)

eventually, rin will go on to become one of the kalos elite four, after malva gets arrested (for being Very Fucking Evil).

one of my favorite things ever to think about is how the random internet people would claim "rin is only with alain to try and get famous" (and also make lengthy twitter/x callout threads on how alain is a problematic person because of his team flare involvement, and therefore decently-well-known league challenger rin yukino is also problematic by proxy), only for alain to generally avoid the public spotlight (there are lots of headcanons here. in short, he goes to university) and rin to be hired as elite four. and then she becomes far more famous as a result. and then the internet trolls are like "...oh." and a majority of the general population doesn't even know she and alain are a thing, because it's only obvious if you scrolled intensely through her instagram account.

i don't know why alarin getting stupid hate threads on twitter/x is the funniest thing to me but it really, really is!!

the internet is convinced alarin is a manipulative ploy on rin's end and one day she reads one of the twitter threads making all these claims about what she's done and she just goes "bitch i did what" and finds it absolutely hilarious

ANYWAYS that is all for now!! this post is so long and this is barely scratching the surface?? they mean so much to me i'm so sorry 😭😭

if literally anybody ever wants to hear about them i will share more. i would cry happy tears.

thank you so much for reading this if you did!! i'm so glad i got to share them for tsme week!

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[struttinevilshroom]

Papa's Freezeria Deluxe is the Greatest Game Ever Made (and I'm not joking)

That statement sounds like a joke but I am being 100% serious. I'll say it again, Papa's freezeria deluxe is the greatest game ever made or atleast it's my favorite game ever. You see, I'm not much of a gamer and I'm only discovering the world of video games now that I know piracy and have money to spend on games. The games that I bought as a child were usually second hand and on a console that was slowly being pushed out of the mainstream by the next one in line so games became more difficult to find and I stopped playing. I don't have many games that really stood out to me from my childhood, maybe Cars 2 for the Playstation 3 but I say that in a joking tone. If you were to ask any one of my friends what games from their childhood left an impact on them, they'd have a myriad of answers to give you. My one friend that I've mentioned in the Pikmin 4 review would probably choose every game in the Wii library. For me though, one game stands out and that is Papa's Freezeria, the original one. I think back on that game and that time very fondly. Me, my sister and my cousin were all huddled around my small laptop, taking turns and swapping after every day in game. We played the other Papa Louie titles and those all improved on Papa's Freezeria by adding fancy new features and bells and whistles to make them look superior to their predecessors but no matter how many new aspects they added to the later releases, I always went back to Papa's Freezeria.

When I think about the evolution of the Papa Louie games, I think about something my science teacher usually says "build your science scaffold everyday" this quote is actually seemingly unrelated but my debate coach says that it's always good to use quotes to get a point across and the point that I want to get across is that the Papa Louie games all build on one another. At the core is very stable formula that every game employs but with each title, they build on that like a scaffold, see it wasn't unrelated (it was unrelated but just roll with it) but the thing is my debate coach also mentioned that another good way to get a point across is through reference to stories or anecdotes. What is a scaffold without a good foundation, it's like that story from the Bible about the house on the rocks vs the house on the sand. The house on the sand would inevitably fall no matter how well it is built. No matter how many fancy bells and shiny whistles they add, without a good formula at the core of a Papa Louie title, it will fall. They all have the same formula but I feel that Papa's Freezeria perfected it. Every Papa Louie game has the Order station, the Build station, the Wait station and the Top station. Order station is where customers Order food, the build station is where you build the plate, wait station is where you cook the food which results in the player having to wait a certain amount of time, the top station is where you add finishing touches like decorations. Sounds simple but some games really mess this up by making the wait times too long (Papa's Taco Mia) or the top station too difficult (Papa's Sushiaria) or even too simple (Papa's Burgeria). Papa's Freezeria got this formula right from the get go. The formula is not too complicated but it has nuance, it appears challenging and impossible until you get the hang of it.

Every customer grades you individually on each station and then gives you an average based off of all the stations, you begin to fall into a groove where you get 99% ratings consistently, I've gotten a perfect score twice in a row with the strictest customer. Not that this game is easy, it's a system that you have to find for yourself.

Now, when Papa's Freezeria Deluxe came out, I was ill, I was really feverish and I thought I'd never play a Papa Louie title ever again due to Flash going down but then I saw Jerma play Papa's Freezeria Deluxe on steam and I bought it immediately. By the way if you think that Papa's Freezeria is too easy, watch Jerma play it, I watched this man struggle for 5 hours and like in that one episode of Breaking Bad where they play the full theme song, my ego got the better of me and I got up and had to show this old man how it's done, even in my sick state (it wasn't that bad, I'm jusy trying to craft a scene here). I downloaded the game and me and my sister played for 5 hours straight. I wrote a steam review on the game that quadruples the length of any essay I've written for school.

It was odd though, revisiting something from your childhood and being a completely different person now that you're experiencing it again. When I first played Papa's Freezeria, I must've been 9 years old, my sister 5, my cousin 11. Now revisiting it, I'm 17 years old, thinking about college and university, my sister is 13 years old, wondering how she's gonna adjust to high school, my cousin is 19 years old in her first year of university, just trying to keep herself afloat. As much as things have changed since then, it took me back and even for 5 hours, I was able to feel like a kid again and i didn't have to stress about school or if my marks are good enough for whatever university I had in mind Back then and I could just enjoy the game, it was lovely. I play it to calm myself down, I worry too much, I'm always overthinking every minute detail in everything and I drive myself crazy. Look at this review, it's just a game where you make sundaes but I've extrapolated some profound meaning out of it. My worrying helps me in my reviews a lot and it helps me to be descriptive in my writing but outside of that it's nothing but a bother and I'm sure we all worry too much at times, this game is good for that, you don't have to worry once you get in the groove of it. I also admire the tropical setting of it all, the music which gets repetitive and I usually have other music playing in a YouTube tab.

Man, this game means a lot to me. I love that they made this Deluxe edition and I've heard through the wire that there's another release in November of this year. I recommend it, it's worth every penny. It really does mean a lot to me and I've always known that in the back of my mind but now writing this and actually stating how much it means to me, I finally realize the full extent of what this game means to me. Thank you for reading this one, even if it was about Papa's Freezeria and maybe too pretentious but I've come to terms with the fact that I'm pretentious and that's OK, atleast it gives these reviews some personality. Anyway, I'll catch you later with something else I'm not sure what just yet.

[rhapsodybenny]

Two unfinished spiels about CS.

Thinking about what happens when humans apply themselves to computing problems, in two mostly separate spheres:

1) In games, every human usually comes to a set of rules about how to play the game based on the rules of the game itself. For example, take tic-tac-toe. Nothing *says* you have to block an opponent when they have a two-in-a-row — it just seems obvious. Similarly, if you have an opportunity to form a two-in-a-row, it seems like common sense that you should. But beyond these two rules, uneducated humans might as well play at random. Sure, you might guess correctly that the center and corners hold more power than the sides, but at the end of the day, your moves are random, if weighted. I’m interested in these rule sets — they seem like an excellent path to making accessible AI opponents for anyone in strategy games of skill. Take chess — if you’re like me, you probably haven’t won a single match against a computer. That’s because most chess engines which let you scale down the difficulty still let the AI make the best decision based on the information it’s given — it just doesn’t get very much. And there’s a limit to how “dumb” you can go with this approach — if you give it, say, only one turn of information, it’ll focus *way* too hard on short-term gains, taking any piece it can regardless of the damage. Give it two, and it will accept any trade offered to it. Playing against these sorts of opponents is interesting — you learn how to manipulate your opponent into doing what you want, and it’s *very* fun. But they aren’t good opponents — for any given move, you either know exactly what they’ll do, or have no idea at all. But what if

2) Have you ever tried to sort your Christmas list in order of preference? Because when I do it, I notice that I’m very inconsistent — I commonly find sets of items that are non-transitive when I attempt to compare them. Sorting algorithms run on comparisons, so when I try to use one to sort the list, it usually blows up in my face. “Okay, so I want the Barbie Playhouse more than the Crayola Crayon Melter, the Crayola Crayon Melter more than the Ninja Turtle Van, and the Ninja Turtle Van more than the Barbie... wait, what?!?” There aren’t definite values to everything, and our innate senses of comparison reflect this — “better” is subjective. So in those sets, there’s no particular item to rank highest — all of them have a fair claim. And to use another example, consider sports tournament brackets. Each matchup is essentially a comparison — “Which one of these two is better?” If a bracket were filled with simple numbers, you’d get consistent results every time. And if you run a bracket only once, it’d be self-consistent as well. But run a sufficiently large bracket twice, with anything without innate values — players, teams, Pokémon, whatever — you’ll almost certainly have conflicting information between the two — “Squirtle beat Charmander, and Bulbasaur beat Charmander in the first tournament, but then Charmander beat Bulbasaur in their matchup in the second.” These two are the same problem — trying to sort things by comparing them, when your comparisons are inconsistent, results in disaster. What I really want to solve this is an algorithm — a system of setting up tournaments which will provide the necessary information to sort the competitors. More importantly, however, the tournaments shouldn’t be able to create conflicting information — “If A beat B, and B beat C, C and A should never meet,” and possibly “If A beat C, C should never have the opportunity to fight A again.” The problem is that the tournaments

[maxwell-grant]

Having received your thoughts on Shadow & Co as PCs and players alike, might I please ask which DUNGEONS & DRAGONS setting is your personal favourite? (RAVENLOFT holds my personal interest & affection by being the hybrid of Hammer Horror and Lord of the Rings one never knew I always wanted); also, might I please ask what your own favourite character class happens to be? (They're all intriguing, but my personal favourite is the Old School Paladin - blame my fondness for Matters Arthurian!).

I don't think I've ever actually played any of the Dungeons & Dragons settings, because as far as I recall, and I started playing D&D young so I could be misremembering things, but in all the times I've played D&D, the setting was made-up by the DM, the books were usually just used as a guideline for the players to build their classes and stats and work some of the basic rules. I've only played it among friends and I don't think we ever stuck too closely to any established rules.

I don't actually have much of a favorite class, to be honest. The class for me was generally kind of an afterthought in regards to the character I wanted to create and play, depending on how my stats turned out. The big appeal of D&D for me was always roleplaying. You'd think I'd be into Bards a lot as a result but I've always disliked the Bard stereotype (usually because they are obnoxious to play with) and never really came up with a Bard character I liked enough to play as. I never play the same character twice unless it's an ongoing campaign, and even then I usually get tired of playing the same character multiple times in a row.

If I had to point to my favorite class to play as it would probably be the Techno Mage mad scientist I played as once, but it's not a traditional class. Among the core classes, I tended to consistently play Rogues, Wizards and Barbarians. The most fun I had in combat was definitely with Barbarians, but Wizards and Rogues were the most fun to create characters around.

I usually preferred to play funny/weird characters, and because I never really liked medieval aesthetics and nobody gave a shit about consistency, and also sometimes we dressed the part out of whatever we could find and sometimes made characters based on random bits of costume we could find at home, most of my characters ended up looking like this even when I wasn't consciously trying to be funny.

[clara-licht]

you are enough: first impression

Summary: She was just another face in the crowd, someone you wouldn’t look at twice. He never really noticed her. That is, until the fifth day.

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Word Count: 1.7k+

Warning: burst of anger? should that be a warning?

Timeline: Peter's first school year, pre-spider bite

Note: yay for first story! I wrote this under 3 hours from sudden burst of energy, so if you spot any mistake please let me know! This story is taken directly from my real experience on my fifth day of university. What happened then followed me even until now, but now my friends and I can look back on that day and laugh. Please tell me what you think about this 💜

Series Masterlist | Marvel Masterlist | Main Masterlist

——————————

Peter first noticed her on the fifth day of his first school year. Well, actually everyone in his class noticed her on that fifth day.

He had seen her a few times in some of his classes that week, but he didn’t really pay attention to her. After all, she was just another classmate. She was also pretty quiet and kept to herself most of the time. He didn’t think he had even heard her speak before.

Always wearing an unzipped jacket over a shirt, pants, a pair of Converse, and with her red Kipling backpack. Sitting on the second row. Earphones are usually on in between classes. As far as Peter was concerned, she was just another face to forget.

Until that fifth day.

He had come into class almost late that morning. It was Friday and Fridays always felt so slow since it’s so close to the weekend. Peter admitted his almost tardiness was the result of being too lazy to wake up on time when all he could think of was having the weekend off after a week of school.

The only seat left was the one behind her, so he just took it. His best friend since childhood, Ned, wasn’t in that class, and he didn’t really know anyone else yet, so no one saved him a “usual spot”.

When the teacher came in, Peter was already prepared to pay attention, hoping that the day would go faster if he was busy.

“We’re going to do a group project starting next week. Each group will take turns presenting their assignment every week, so that’s one group per week.” The teacher, Mrs. Warren, said. “Let’s see… We have 24 people here, so split into 6 groups of 4. I’ll give you 10 minutes to assign your own groups now.”

The classroom immediately erupted into chatter while Mrs. Warren turned her attention to the computer screen on her desk.

Peter felt some kind of dread as his classmates started talking among each other on how to split the class. He had nothing against group projects, but he knew virtually no one in this class and would most probably be left out and joined the “leftovers”. He could only hope that whoever winded up in his group could pull their own weight instead of just dumping their work on others.

Therefore he was pleasantly surprised when the girl at the front seat (“I think her name is Sally?”) turned around and said, “Should we just use our current seating to split the group? That way it’s random and fair.”

There were a few hums of agreement.

The classroom they were in had 8 long desks, 4 on each side of the room, with 3 seats per desk. So taking that into account, the group should consist of one student per desk. Seeing as Peter was sitting right behind her, that meant they would be in the same group.

Peter looked at who would be in his group. Aside from her, there were Sally (“It is Sally, right? Right…?”) and behind him was a guy whose name he couldn’t really recall. (“It’s either Tyler or Abe, I think…?”) Peter could kind of remember them being active in other classes, so that was a sigh of relief for him.

Until another student piped up.

“I don’t want to be in this group!”

Peter glanced at that student. ‘Ah, this one I know,’ he thought with a slight eye roll.

Eugene Thompson, though he insisted to be called Flash. He’d been loud in every class they shared and bragged a lot. One of those rich kids, Peter assumed. Growing up in a modest household, bragging about money was never something he could understand. If you had enough money to brag about, then maybe use them for charities and stuff instead? At least that was Peter’s opinion.

“Then which group do you want to be, uhh, Thompson, was it?” Sally asked.

“Call me Flash,” he answered. “And I don’t know, I just don’t want to be in this group!”

“Why?”

“I just don’t like it.” Flash shrugged nonchalantly.

Peter could see Sally’s eye twitch in annoyance. “It’s just one assignment and you don’t really have a reason.” She tried to say.

“Why would I need a reason? Mrs. Warren said we can choose our own groups, and I don’t want to be in this one. I don’t vibe with it.”

Despite being annoyed himself, Peter decided to just sit back and watch everything unfold. He didn’t need to attract attention to himself. With his big glasses and frail figure, he looked very nerdy and jocks like Flash liked to pick on nerds. He didn’t need that.

The banter between Sally and Flash went on for a while. Peter was sure everyone in the class was pissed but no one said anything, probably because they didn’t know each other and didn’t want to say something wrong accidentally. It was getting very annoying, though. And to make it worse, Mrs. Warren didn’t seem to care.

While listening to Flash, he didn’t notice the girl sitting in front of him glaring heatedly at Flash with clenched fists and gritted teeth.

“I’m just saying, why can’t I-”

SMACK!

Flash’s words were interrupted by a sudden loud smacking noise, causing nearly everyone to flinch.

The girl in front of Peter had smacked her palm on her desk and stood up, pointedly glaring at Flash with a glare so intense it could probably burn him, clearly seething with anger.

“STOP MAKING EVERYTHING DIFFICULT, FOR GOD’S SAKE!” She yelled.

Peter blinked.

Did the quiet reserved girl just… yell?

“What do you think you’re doing, huh?!” She yelled again, this time coming closer to Flash. Flash gulped and took a step back. “You don’t even know anyone in this class! It’s only our FIRST WEEK!”

“But I-”

“ZIP IT!”

Flash shut his mouth so fast Peter could hear his teeth clacking.

“Our teacher is waiting for us right now! If you have any complaints about your group then speak up properly once you KNOW them! SO JUST GO WITH IT FOR NOW AND GET THIS DONE AND OVER WITH!”

The class was silent. She was still glaring at Flash and Flash was cowering in fear.

To be honest, Peter was afraid of her too, but deep inside he was impressed. When no one else spoke up, she did. Maybe with a bit of an overkill, but she still spoke for the rest of them. He’d take that.

“Any more complaints?” She asked through gritted teeth.

Flash quickly shook his head.

“Good.”

She sat back down and looked away as if nothing happened.

No one said anything for a while, still in a bit of a shock.

“Um, well…” Sally cleared her throat, “So are we decided then? With this arrangement?”

A chorus of yes later and Mrs. Warren finally spoke, “Give me your group lists later after class. I trust you can arrange it, Ms. Avril?”

Sally nodded, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay, let’s start our lesson for today.”

As Mrs. Warren started teaching, Peter couldn’t help but stare at the girl in front of him. This was the first time he actually looked at her.

The first thing he noticed, although it may sounded rude, was her… size, so to speak. She was considerably bigger than the rest of the girls in his class. She was clad in plain unisex clothes. From what he had seen earlier, he could find no trace of makeup on her either. She actually looked a little messy, not fitting into that traditional feminine look.

Not that Peter had anything against femininity or even not conforming to said femininity. He was raised by a respectful pair of husband and wife who drilled respect for diversity and people’s choices into him. Aunt May would also have his head if he had even the slightest misogynistic thought. No, he knew better than that.

Around ¾ into the lesson, Mrs. Warren told them to go into their groups and start discussing their projects.

“Let’s start with introduction, I guess?” Sally said once all four of them were together. “I’m Sally Avril, but just call me Sally.”

“I know, I was in your History class.” The girl from before said. Her voice was actually quite soft when she wasn’t yelling. Peter was once again surprised by her.

Sally giggled at her, prompting her to let out a small smile. “I’m (y/n) (l/n). Feel free to call me (y/n).” She said quietly.

“I also know that already. You sat two desks from me, didn’t you?” Sally asked with a smile.

(Y/n) nodded. “Also I apologize for earlier… I just couldn’t stand him.” (Y/n) muttered with narrowed eyes.

“We don’t blame you, honestly,” the other guy in the group said. “Flash was being a dick. I’m actually glad you spoke up against him,” he snickered. “I’m Tyler Corbyn, by the way. People usually just call me Ty.”

“It’s just that no one said anything, so I thought I had to put a stop on it. He was disrespecting our teacher by misusing the time she gave us like that.” (Y/n) scoffed.

“And you?” Sally turned to Peter.

“Oh, um… Peter. Peter Parker.” He mumbled.

“Okay, now that we’re introduced, let’s talk about the assignment, shall we?”

After the discussion, the group agreed to meet up after school on Monday to start their project.

Sometimes Peter would let himself glanced at (y/n). He had to admit, even if he was still a bit scared of her, she didn’t seem that bad. He just needed to not press her buttons or risk her blowing up. She still had a short temper, after all.

He was certain that the rest of his classmates realized this too. They were all afraid of her, for sure.

It was kind of a bummer, but her display of anger that day would follow her for nearly her entire high school days. All the boys in their class feared her, especially Flash, and tried to avoid her. The girls would eventually befriend her once they know more about her.

And Peter? Well… He may thought she was scary for now, but there was respect within him. His Physics class seemed quite interesting now.

——————————

Notes: yes, I did yell in class when the professor was present and yes, she didn’t give a shit about it.

Taglist + Mutuals (let me know if you want me to untag you!)

@marvelexi @lou-la-lou @spiderbibby @hello–zuko-here @everydaymj @galaxystern08​ @allegra-soleil​ @fancyxparker​ @delicatepeterparker @parkerpeter24​ @terrifictomholland​ @quackeroos​ @angel-spidey​ @greenorangevioletgrass​  @awkward-darkness​ @chloecreatesfictions-archive​ @tonguetiedholland​ @peterspideysstuff​ @and-it-burns-like-a-fire​ @geminiparkers @weirdowithnobeardo @perspectiveparker

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[meaningofmotorsport]

Austrian Grand Prix Review

It wasn’t an instant classic, yet this race gave us plenty of battles through the pack, including for the podium positions! It’s just a shame that there wasn’t really a fight for the win, as Verstappen and Red Bull are starting to dominate this season, although there is a long way to go!

The weekend did turn out to be as easy as we thought it would be for Max, as he simply drove away from the others, to comfortably take his 3rd win in a row, and maximise this tripleheader! Not much more to say about the race for him, so looking ahead to Silverstone, it is a good track for them, yet we may also see a resurgence of Mercedes, with Lewis’ home advantage, as well as some upgrades! I think it could have been a 1-2 for Red Bull, as Perez was all over Norris in the first few laps, however he made two risky moves, by trying to go around the outside at Turns 1 and 4, which didn’t end well. If he had instead set Lando up on the exit, it could have been an easy pass, and allowed him to runaway from the Mercedes! As it was though, that mistake dropped him well back, where traffic hampered him, and his anger meant he was rather aggressive with Leclerc, which gave him some penalties in the end! If he can calm down in battles, he has the pace now to really aid the team and Verstappen!

It was not a good day for Mercedes, their race pace was pretty average, which meant they were under pressure from a McLaren the whole race. Then damage for Lewis cost him a podium, and more importantly a 14 point loss in the championship! On the other hand, they got lucky, as if Checo had passed Lando cleanly, and Hamilton had still got the same damage, it could have been 4th and 5th for them, as I doubt Bottas could have passed Norris on track! It has been a humbling few weeks for the team, but they will come back strong, these next two tracks are great ones for Hamilton, so we mustn’t count him out yet!

What a drive by Norris! No one thought he could keep up with the Mercedes today, as he was so far behind them a week ago! We know that this is a better track for them, so don’t expect this for the rest of the year, however, it could crop up every once in a while! The incident with Perez was quite aggressive, yet that is simply hard racing, I have seen so many drivers say that they learn from karting onwards that when you go on the outside, unless you are comfortably ahead, you risk being pushed off track! Therefore, it was a bit of a harsh penalty, but I can see where they are coming from, comparisons to Hamilton’s penalty last year at the same corner can’t really be made, as at the point of contact, Albon was half a car ahead of him! It was still a superb day for him and the team, and gives them confidence going to their home race! Ricciardo was able to salvage a result from the weekend, and get near to where he should be, the fact that he was battling the Ferrari’s should give him hope moving forwards!

Ferrari splitting the strategies worked rather well, as Leclerc stormed through the field early on, although he got stuck behind Ricciardo for most of the race, and without the tussles with Perez could have got passed him, although we will never know! Then with Sainz on the inverse strategy, going long and making great pace in clear air, he could jump straight into the fight with fresh tyres, get past Daniel, and stay within 10 seconds of Perez, to bag 5th, which was the best they could do today! They have lost some more points to McLaren, but the gap is not massive, and if they can get over their qualifying woes at this track, they should still be in the mix to top the mid field!

It was the softs that really hurt Alpha Tauri’s day, although I think that in clear air, Ferrari was faster than them in the race! At least Gasly did all he could, making moves through the field, to get 2 points! Tsunoda continues to make little mistakes every weekend, this time he somehow went outside of the white line twice on pit entry, costing him a shot at the points! If the team can sort out his issues, they can really start to pull away from Alpine and Aston Martin in the championship!

Talking of Alpine, it was Alonso, once again doing all he can, and being rewarded with a point for it. He felt bad for taking that point from Russell, but Fernando is doing a stellar performance in a car which is not where it should be! Ocon wasn’t able to show what he could do yesterday, however I highly doubt it would have been anything to save face for him, after 3 terrible weekends for him!

I cannot believe how close George was to points, a poor first lap hurt his chances, although with the speed of the cars around him, it may not have changed much in the end! Last weekend was the better hope for them it seems to get points, due to the issues for Ricciardo and Gasly! The good thing is that they have pace when the car works, which it hopefully will do again this year, so there is still a chance of points for Williams!

Aston Martin, like Alpha Tauri, were hurt with the soft tyres, and as they were behind Gasly, couldn’t quite reach the top 10 like he did! Vettel was very close, batting for 11th on the last lap, however a clumsy crash by Kimi, sent them both into the gravel, not that it affected them much overall!

I was surprised that the softer tyres didn’t cause as many issues as we thought they would, yes, the softs were a problem, but Mercedes found the medium’s and hard’s a struggle last race, but were fine now it seems, unless it wasn’t damage that caused Hamilton’s tyre wear! Also, the FIA were dishing out penalties everywhere, some more understandable than others, although at least they were consistent!

The F1 circus has a well earnt break now, before 2 standalone races at Silverstone and the Hungaroring, where Mercedes need to win at least 1 of them, to stop the momentum of Red Bull right now!

-M

Thank you very much for reading this article! To keep up to date with when they go out, and to see my reactions to races and other news, follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/MeaningofMotor1

Also, if you want to support me, I have a Patreon Page at: https://www.patreon.com/meaningofmotorsport

[cptsdstudyblr]

I got a new planner!

[Image descriptions are available at the bottom of the post.]

[Image description after text because it is very long.]

This year, I’ve really been struggling with the digital planner system that’s gotten me through the past 4 years of school. Honestly, I think the fact that all I ever do anymore is stare at my laptop has made that planner less practical for me to use. So, today, I was out and about trying to find a specific size of envelope (which I did not find) and I ended up at YP Books (영풍문고), where I found this planner (the Color Point Study Planner). I honestly picked it up just because it was there and it was cute, but when I opened it I was struck by how well-organized this planner was for someone who likes to plan the way I do. To plan, I need a delicate balance of structure and leniency, because if I tip too far one way or the other, I’ll never accomplish anything.

It’s got this really cute monthly page (which can be customized for any month). You do have to write the days yourself, and as you can see by my scribbles, I momentarily forgot that not every month starts on a Sunday. However, this page is super versatile! I write my assignments and exams here and color code those days, and I use the unlabeled checklist at the bottom right to make a brief to-do list for the month. Once I finish something, it gets marked off or highlighted! I think this is a really helpful way to visualize my schedule and make sure I don’t lose track of any due dates.

Each month also comes equipped with daily pages. Once again, you do have to customize these yourself, but that’s part of what I like about it. I can skip days if I need to and I can make sure that the page handles what I need how I need it. These pages are quite complicated, but I’ll give you the basics of how I use them. 

At the top, there are 3 blanks after the date. One is labelled “D-Day,” but I instead use this to label the day of the week as I find that much more useful for me, then I fill out how many hours I plan to study (I do this at the beginning of the day so that it motivates me), then I put my general goal or plan for the day to the right. Below that, in the “Check Point” space, I put the two biggest goals I have for the day task-wise. These are usually my highest-priority tasks.

Obviously, the bulk of the space is used for a checklist, which I use to outline all the tasks I need to do that day, both school and otherwise. To the right, in the schedule space, I plan my day to make sure I can get everything done that I need to get done. There’s also a space at the bottom that I use to write events and extremely important tasks (such as exams and due dates).

Overall, the point of this post is that it’s really important to find an organizational system that works for you, whether it be digital or paper. My personal suggestion for figuring out your best system is just trial and error. Unfortunately, trial and error can be quite expensive, so I’ll include below some tips to find a good system for you without breaking the bank:

Try digital first! Most digital platforms are free (or at least have free trials), so this is a great place to start to save money. It’s also a great way to figure out what elements of different systems work for you - even if digital isn’t your thing, you might realize that you prefer a to-do list over a calendar, or that you work really well with a super structured study schedule. That info can help you find a paper planner that will work well for you.

Go to the store and look at physical planners. Once you have an idea of what you’re looking for in a planner, go to a physical store (or multiple) and spend some time looking through a bunch of planners. Once again, even if you don’t like any of them, this might help give you an idea of what you do and don’t like.

Print out (or draw) planner pages. If you want to test out a style of physical planner without buying it, find an online PDF or create your own and print a few to test out. You can also draw it (just make sure to take a photo in the store so you can do so accurately) in a regular notebook for testing purposes.

Do research. There’s lots of different methods of planning schedules, keeping track of due dates, and journaling besides the typical Google calendar and to-do list or the standard paper planner. A great example is bullet journaling, which allows you to create your own planner and change it up as you want.

Eventually you’ll figure out what planning style works best for you, and you’ll find the perfect paper planner to purchase if that’s what you decide is your best option.

[Image description after the read more:]

[Image description:

Image 1/4: There’s a pink notebook. On the cover are a man and a woman holding smiley face signs over their faces. Below them, text reads “Anything is good if I can do it with you. Whether it’s laughing together, studying together, or playing together, everything is twice as wonderful when you are doing it with me.” In the top left, a blue sticky note covers the user’s name and on it is written “@cptsdstudyblr.”

Image 2/4: This is a two-page notebook spread. The pages are white with a purple outline. The page is titled “How to Use Study Planner.” The two pages detail how each page of the planner is intended to be used, but most of the text is in Korean (transcription note: according to Google, the Korean alphabet would not work with English screen-readers, so I haven’t included this text). There are 7 steps labelled in English for using the planner.

About my goal

Time table

Monthly study plan

Daily study plan

Exam plan & result

Internet lecture check

Mock test record & graph

Transcription note: I’m happy to provide the Korean contents of the page for anyone who is interested, but I don’t want to break everyone’s screen readers.

Image 3/4: This is a two-page monthly calendar spread. The pages are primarily white, with a yellow bar across the top. The number 10 is circled in the top right to indicate that the page is for the 10th month. The days of the week start from Sunday and go to Saturday. The month is labelled from date 1 (a Thursday) to date 31 (a Saturday). Below are listed dates with special notes:

October 4 - Micro HW. This date is highlighted purple, and the text is highlighted yellow to indicate that the assignment is complete.

October 7 - Networks HW. This date is highlighted purple, and the text is highlighted yellow to indicate that the assignment is complete.

October 8 - Critical Thinking Paper. This date is highlighted purple, and the text is highlighted yellow to indicate that the assignment is complete.

October 10 - Korean HW. This date is highlighted purple, and the text is highlighted yellow to indicate that the assignment is complete.

October 11 - Micro HW. This date is highlighted purple, and the text is highlighted yellow to indicate that the assignment is complete.

October 15 - Micro HW. This date is highlighted purple.

October 18 - Micro HW. This date is highlighted purple.

October 22 - Comp Pol Exam. There is a bubble around the words and the date is highlighted pink.

On the far right is a cute, colorful drawing of a woman studying with her dog and the quote “It’s more fun when you study together than alone!” Below that is a checklist with the items “Vote!,” “Student ID,” and “Midterms.”

Image 4/4:

This is a two-page spread consisting of two daily planner pages. The pages are primarily white with a yellow outline. The leftmost page is as follows:

There are two columns on this page. The left column’s top row has three sections - “Date - 12,” “D-Day - Lun,” “Study Hours - 5.” (Transcription note: The “D-Day” blank is used for the day of the week instead of the proper use, and the days of the week are labelled in French rather than English.) The second row of that column is labelled “Check Point” and has two bullet points “catch up on micro” and “be ready to vote.” Below that is a small slot to put a song of the day, which is “SKZ (Transcription note: SKZ stands for Stray Kids) - Slump (Japanese ver.). Below is the checklist for the day. It includes both the priority and the item as follows:

HI - buy envelope

HI - micro lab video

HI - Korean class

MED - micro lecture

LO - micro HW (lecture)

MED - grocery shopping

HI - Korean HW

Below this checklist is a doodle of a woman studying.

The right column of this page starts on its top row with the slot “Goal,” which is filled with the phrase “catch up.” Below that, the user has indicated that they woke up at 11:30 and went to sleep at 1:30. Below that, they have colored 4 water drops out of 5 and given the day a score of 4 stars out of 5. Below that is a timetable for the day, which is filled with “Shop” from 13:00 - 14:30, “Study” from 15:30 - 17:00, 20:00 - 20:30, and 22:00 - 23:30, and “Korean” from 18:00 - 20:00. The right page is as follows:

There are two columns on this page. The left column’s top row has three sections - “Date - 13,” “D-Day - Mar,” “Study Hours - blank.” (Transcription note: The “D-Day” blank is used for the day of the week instead of the proper use, and the days of the week are labelled in French rather than English.) The second row of that column is labelled “Check Point” and has two bullet points “vote” and “micro HW.” Below that is a small slot to put a song of the day, which has been left blank. Below is the checklist for the day. It includes both the priority and the item as follows:

HI - drop off ballot

HI - comp. pol lecture

MED - micro HW (lab)

MED - micro HW (lecture)

HI - Korean HW

LO - religion series plan

Above this checklist is a doodle of a man sleeping.

The right column of this page starts on its top row with the slot “Goal,” which is filled with the phrase “micro HW.” Below that, the user has left the wake time, sleep time, water consumption, and daily score fields blank. Below those is a timetable for the day, which is filled with “Vote” from 9:00 - 11:00, “Study” from 12:00 - 14:00 and 14:00 - 18:00. The bottom of the page has been censored with two blue sticky notes that read “Plans for the day! Censored for safety reasons.”]

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

Hey guys, 

This is the local dog rescue charity that we were carers for, for several years. May do it again in future, but after Debbie (who was rescued by Precious Paws), it feels like we need a break. 

We have had three foster fails, but two puppers came through our home, learned to feel safe and loved, and went on to a perfectly matched new family.

There is always a demand for carers, so if you think you can, have a look at their Carer Info. Or look into the FB page, to keep your eyes open.

The best way to find new carers for animals is having a network of people sharing the Urgent statuses, which flags the attention of new groups of people. No dog will ever be LEFT on death row. They look for carers until the last second, but will absofuckinglutely take the dog anyway and put them in a boarding kennel short-term whilst a carer is located.

No doggo left behind.

It can be a bit confronting, though, so I understand if you cannot. The majority of the dogs have been surrendered to the pound, for various reasons, and the rescues in the region put their hands up for the ones slated for being put down each week. This list constantly refills, so there is always a need.

Some other dogs, like Debbie, are rescued directly from the disgusting human slime of the world who have caused them pain, injury, or attempted to kill them.

Carers open their homes to as many as they can, but there will always be more needed. A dog can be with you for a few months, to a few years, depending on their needs. 

Little Willow was so scared of everything when we got her, it took 5 months to get her to trust men near her due to where she came from. But after nearly a year, she was ready for adoption and went to a new mother; happy, healthy, and confident. She was fast, smart and a very delightful little doggo. I do miss her, sometimes, but her new mother sent us photos of Willow on her first and second adoption anniversaries. 

And little Gemini’s face, when her new family sent a photo from her first meeting with her human brother, was SO BIG!

It is hard to say goodbye, because they are with you for a long time, and you have to work hard with them, so they are an integral part of your life. But it helps to know that their future family is out there, not yet aware that there’s a dog shaped hole waiting to be filled.

As my parental unit says, “In reality, if they were not with us, they’d be dead. Someone without any heart dropped these animals off to be killed, and because of all these rescues, all these dogs and cats get another chance at life.”

Harvey, who we have now, was 9mths (Willow too) when they came to us. BABIES who just were too energetic or too big, so they had to be sent away. It takes a while to rebuild that trust in them.

Not to mention the absolute FUCKS who take their little old dogs, who have known and loved them their WHOLE LIVES to the pound and walk out with a new puppy (or kitten). FUCKS.  Those little doggos are never forgotten, PPARs and the other rescues make sure they have somewhere to go as well! I know of a 16yo bulldog called rosie, who was snappy when she first came and very depressed, who blossomed with her carers into a happy old girl. She was adopted recently!!!

It is important to be aware that these animals are often traumatised and have behaviours that some can consider ‘naughty’. You have to be understanding. Like traumatised kids, the worst thing you can do is yell or hit or whatever, even if they piss on your favourite rug or chew a beloved pair of shoes.

They may snap and snarl. Might shy away from men, or women, or teenagers. Might cower away, or show subservience constantly. Might hide for a few weeks. Might wet themselves or run to hide if something makes a loud noise or there is a specific trigger. They might rip up the couch twice, or hump your pillows. Try to escape the yard (need strong fences). A trigger? One of our kids was terrified of men, the noise of a powertool, and anyone having the hood of their car open. Would sit, shaking, panting in fear if these things were present. Still a bit much for her, but she knows to go to a human, who will keep her safe. Or sit with her sister doggo, who will protect her.

Willow was scared of men, shouting, and would be immediately wet-herself-afraid and show her belly in subservience. My giant bearded mountain of a sibling would lay on the floor with her, and talk gently, let her come over to sniff him. Eventually, she would lay next to him, and finally he could pat her, and it progressed from there. This took months of consistency and care.

I know of another carer couple who had this tiny little dog who was SO SCARED of everything she spent absolute months hiding under their bed or sofa. Too scared to be touched. They fed her and never made a fuss if she had a little accident indoors. And one day, she popped her head out while the male carer was pretending to be occupied... and licked his arm. That was it, went straight back under the bed. But it was a huge step. She can now be held and cuddled, and loves her little life. But it took the time, understanding and patience of these carers to get her there. It’s important to note that carers dont normally have the whole backstory for each dog, but after a while, you tend to get good at figuring it out based on behaviours. Harvey’s behaviours were extremely frantic for attention, he didn’t know how to sit or be still, he was desperate for attention; his behaviours increased when on a lead (which had to be used for the first few weeks and outside time, as this was a New Household Member time).  It was clear that given his age, when we got him, and his behaviours that he’d been an xmas gift puppy that had gotten WAAAAAAY bigger than anticipated. When he was small he’d been the fuss of what we suspect was at least 2 children. After getting too big, he was put on a leash in the yard, and had no real interaction.

Harvey would go BALLISTIC if given even a glance from a human. He NEEDED attention, and it took months of careful work with him to teach sit, stay, look, settle, back back, etc. He’s still a bit ridiculous, sometimes, but he can sleep on a bed with a human and only half drown them in spit (ugh) lmao. 

So consider if you could be a carer.  Or, if that isn’t realistic for you right now... donate.

-------- 

Donate, if you can.

If you’re in Brisbane, you might see them doing sausage sizzles at Bunnings on the weekends to raise needed funds! 

-------

COVID-19 hit all the rescue charities hard. Their normal fundraising was crippled by the lockdowns, but animals are always in need of new homes and protection.

If you can help out your local shelters, they’d appreciate it!

There’s food and supplies that need to be paid for; PPAWs specifically help out pensioners who take on an animal, by providing the food and toys, collar, bedding, etc. There’s desexing, microchipping and all vaccinations to be paid for. Some animals have extreme medical issues that need to be fixed (such as a dog surrendered with a broken hip, or dogs like Debbie, who were starved almost to death. Who need intensive and long-term things; with Debbie, my family put money forwards for her insulin and eye surgeries, etc. bc we could budget for it. Not everyone can, though.

There’s also little emergencies here and there that they jump in for, to assist.  [E.g early on when the caninculin levels were being sorted, Debbie had a random fit, so I rushed her in and they discovered her BSL had hit 1 - very dangerous. PPAWs got on the phone and said, “Any tests, any medication, any fluids, anything that needs to happen for that little girl, you DO IT” and they stabilised her. PPAWs also helped fund the full-day glucose testing and blood panel the next day and an overnight with the vet, that was pretty expensive. To be clear, it is expected that her starvation and new diabetes was likely to experience highs and lows, so we had bought a glucometer, and had squeezy-top bottles of honey all over the house as an emergency-response kit. When Debbie went funny, we filled her mouth full of honey and transported; which was the protocol, as was taking her medication chart (she’d been waaaay high for BSL that morning so this dip was SCARY). It took another incident before the vet decided to use an interstitial fluid monitor, and the results backed up our concerns that Debbie was having completely random highs/lows and spikes with no real pattern. She had the vet recommended food and no treats outside of the ones she was allowed, and at times suggested by the vet. Except on her last day when the vet said she could absolutely have a wholw happy meal, and little Debbie was DELIGHTED. I have the funniest photo of her with it all in her mouth looking excited but not sure where to go from there, but it still makes me cry to look at it because we lost her just three weeks ago. (We did rip it into little mouthfuls for her, though. Just to clarify.) She was placed on a higher dose, after that, and was completely stable from there. It was the testing that initially identified a flaw, though, and we are forever grateful that PPAWs stepped in on that day.

And the point of my rambling speech... is that shit happens. Especially with these dogs, cats, horses, and all the other animals they rescue.  Emergencies are often the most expensive to cover for charities.

On the upside! Donations also help with a) transporting animals to carers around the region, and b) on the occasion that an animal’s new furever family is interstate, they can be flown to them!

Lots of stuff.

Think about the mess of words, and consider donating - to PPAWs, or find out the name of your local charity and see if they need help!

[the-observant-frisbeetarian]

Chapter 5 - Up the Ante

Catch Perfect by George deValier

CHAPTER FIVE

UP THE ANTE: To increase the stakes in a game.

"You're what?"

Denmark stared at Berwald incredulously, his brow furrowed in outrage, his hands on his hips, attempting to stand imposingly over him. Berwald just stared back evenly, his impassive expression the result of years of poker table training. "Movin' rooms," he said calmly. If he was staying in this house, he could not stay in the same room as Tino. It was far too distracting. "There's one empty upstairs. I'm takin' it."

Denmark took a step closer until his face was mere inches from Berwald's. "No, you're not."

"Yes. I am."

The room thrummed with the tension of those watching. Greenland reached for a handful of Faeroe's popcorn. Tino stood watching in the kitchen doorway; Iceland leant on the wall next to him, filing his nails. Even Norway, sitting at the front table, looked up occasionally from his Dostoevsky novel. No one said a word.

"That room is not empty," said Denmark coolly. "It is the twister room." Berwald had to give him credit. Most men had trouble meeting his eyes this close, but Denmark did not flinch.

"Ye haven't used it since I moved in. Have ye?"

"No, but that's not the point. The point is..." Denmark paused. His eyes flashed as he seemed to search for a point. "The point is, you can't have it."

Berwald smiled ever so slightly, and slowly held up his trump card. A printed copy of Denmark's rules. Denmark gasped when he noticed what it was.

"Where did you get that?"

Berwald gave an almost imperceptible shrug. "Study."

Denmark blinked his shock away. "Well it doesn't matter anyway because there is nothing in there about..."

Berwald easily caught his bluff. "Rule number th'rty-two." He had been quite surprised by the actual length and detail of Denmark's list of rules. He was not sure what the insane Dane was studying at university, but he now had the slightly disturbing feeling it might be law.

Denmark snatched the list from him, perused it, and began reading aloud. "Rule thirty-two. If a bedroom is vacant for any period of time exceeding one week, any member of the household may lay claim to it if..." His words slowed as he reached the end of the sentence.

"If no one objects," Berwald finished. Denmark stared at the paper, opened and closed his mouth a few times, then looked up furiously. Berwald's expression remained unchanged as he asked, "Well... any objections?"

"No," said Greenland quickly, followed by Faeroe saying "None here," through a mouthful of popcorn.

"No," said Tino. "I mean, if this is what you want, Berwald."

"No," said Iceland. "Keep going, though, this is really hot."

Denmark turned to Norway pleadingly. "Norge!"

"Oh Denmark, honestly," snapped Norway. "The only time you use that twister mat is when you are completely trashed and want an excuse to touch someone up."

"Like that time you groped Fin's ass and Norway wouldn't speak to you for a week," said Iceland.

Denmark, Norway and Tino replied at once. "That never happened."

"Yeah, but it totally did, and Norge got so jealous..."

"Denmark," barked Norway loudly. "Let Sweden have the blasted Twister room."

Denmark took a deep, shaking breath, clutching his chest as though wounded. "I can not believe you would all betray me like this. Not that it matters in the end. You will note, Sweden, that rule thirty-two quite clearly states, 'If no one objects.'" Denmark raised his chin, smiling grimly. "I'm sorry Sweden, but I object to the terms of the agreement."

Berwald had expected that. He allowed himself to smirk as he played his last card. "Rule f'rty-three."

Denmark quickly looked down at the list. "Rule forty-three. In all decisions, disregarding those expressly and explicitly stating otherwise, the majority choice rules." Denmark's smile fell, his fists clenched, and he nodded bitterly. "Well played, Sweden, well played." He crumpled the paper in his hand. "Goddamned Scandinavian democracy. I knew I should have made this a dictatorship."

.

Berwald was still not sure what to make of this street. He had encountered most of its student population the other day at that ridiculous car dragging race, which apparently was not such an odd occurrence here after all. The inhabitants of this street would turn out in droves for any reason at all. The place was like a twenty-four hour street carnival.

Denmark divided the students into groups based on their nationalities and the houses they lived in. He had taken the time to explain it to Berwald one evening, accosting him into taking a seat at the dining room table and standing over him as though delivering a lecture, all while Tino mouthed apologies and the others looked on indifferently. According to Denmark their immediate neighbours consisted of The USSR, the Italo-German Alliance of Across-The-Street, and Those Guys Next Door.

The 'Russians', Berwald had decided, weren't really all that bad. Tino was friends with most of them, and Berwald could not figure out what they were doing living with Ivan.

Those Guys Next Door were worse. Berwald had nearly been assaulted three times by the French guy simply walking to the mailbox. The British guy got incredibly drunk every second night and either ended up bashing on their windows asking if they had any booze or passing out on someone's front lawn until the American rescued him. At least he wasn't usually naked, though, unlike both Feliciano from across the road and the crazy French guy.

Berwald spent the majority of his free time working on the garden. It was the one thing he could control in the insane erratic existence of this house, where day after day things seemed to stay the same and yet be completely unpredictable at the same time. Berwald had yet to see the guys on the couch actually move from it. He had answered the phone three times only to be asked breathily what he was 'into'. He'd had to climb onto the roof one afternoon, in front of a crowd of cheering onlookers, in a bold rescue attempt after Denmark consumed a bottle of tequila mixed with Tabasco sauce and came to the very firm conviction that he was a Mexican gargoyle. And he was still awoken every night by Denmark and Norway's deafening nocturnal activities, even though the next day Norway would swear up, down and sideways that he wouldn't touch the Dane with a sterilised bargepole.

But every morning when Berwald walked into the kitchen, Tino would be waiting, a cup of coffee already made. Every day when he came home Tino would be either sitting at the table in the living room, or at the kitchen bench, or would bump into him in the hallway, every day with those wide, violet eyes and that way he bit his lip and that small, perfect smile. Berwald was convinced he could put up with anything - with Denmark's insanity and Iceland's phone calls and Norway's nightly screaming fits - with absolutely anything, if he could just see that smile every day.

True, Tino was not immune from the insanity of the place. He was, in fact, rather strange, which really only made him more endearing. It was not uncommon to find him staring blankly out the window lost in thought, searching for his sunglasses when they were on his head, or attempting to make any number of strange dessert concoctions containing coffee, rhubarbs, salmiakki, or on one disastrous occasion all three ingredients at once. Berwald had already had to point out twice that Tino was leaving the house with two different shoes on.

But more than anything, Berwald loved early mornings. The household was asleep, the street was quiet for a change, and he could work peacefully in the garden without distractions like that French guy peeking over the fence or random empty cans flying into the yard or that really weird time Denmark had watched from the window all afternoon giving running commentary like he was a presenter on ESPN. Berwald was in the middle of planting a row of Lily of the Valley – the national flower of Finland – when he heard the phone ring. He ignored it - it was probably for Iceland. After the fourteenth ring, he realised no one was going to answer. He tore off his gloves, stomped through the back door, and picked up the kitchen phone. "H'llo?"

"Oh, hi," said a pleasant sounding male voice. "Could I speak to Ice, please?"

"He's not here."

"I'm sorry?"

Berwald sighed. "Not here," he repeated loudly.

"Oh, okay. Look, maybe you can help me out. Ice usually does it but I'm sure you can do it just as well."

Berwald's eyes widened and he nearly dropped the phone. "Um… no… can't help with that sort'f thing," he said, alarmed.

"It won't take long, I'm happy to wait while you get sorted, and of course I'll pay for your time."

Berwald started to panic. "Look, I'm sorry, you've got th'wrong…"

The voice sighed. "Come on buddy, it'll take you like two minutes to fire up the laptop or grab the paper at least - Ice gets it delivered every morning. I just need to know the baseball results."

Berwald's thoughts clicked into place. "Ohh…"

He grabbed that days paper from the bench, read the guy his baseball scores five times until he understood, then finally hung up the phone exhausted. He turned around to find Tino standing in the doorway. Berwald pointed awkwardly at the phone. "He, uh... wanted th'baseball scores."

"There's a guy who calls every day at 6 a.m. for the daily horoscope. Ice just makes it up."

Now Berwald was really confused. "What sort'f phone service does he run?"

"That's kind of hard to say. People call him for anything from sports scores and horoscopes to hacking information to..." Tino blushed and coughed. "Well, um, you know. As long as they deposit the money into his PayPal account, Ice will talk about anything. Which is kind of ironic really because normally he hardly talks at all."

"Thought he was... Ye know. A pr'stit'te." Berwald mumbled.

Tino was usually better than most at understanding Berwald, but this time he looked confused. "I'm sorry?"

"Prostit'te," Berwald repeated, his face burning.

Tino's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh, God, no! I mean, he's pretty good at getting stuff out of guys and he'll say some… uh… risqué sort of stuff on certain phone calls. But he's pretty much all talk. Literally." Tino slowly walked forward, spreading his hands thoughtfully on the counter. "It's funny. On the phone, Ice will talk to anyone about anything. He can be someone completely different, and he can also be totally himself. But in reality… he maintains this façade, you know? He doesn't let anyone in. Well, expect for one guy, but we all know how that ended and oh wow, it's really none of my business to be talking about that, did you want a coffee?"

"Thanks," said Berwald as Tino went to turn on the jug. "I guess I just… assumed. Sorry."

"Well, we all make that mistake sometimes, don't we?" Tino smiled kindly. "And I understand that you'd be a bit confused."

"It just seems a bit, er… really odd, though."

Tino laughed softly. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, everyone here is a little odd. But that's because everyone kind of has to be, you know? It's easier to be odd or crazy or insane than to hurt all the time."

That was something Berwald was quickly learning about Tino. He could be talking about something completely random and nonsensical one moment, then say something the next that made perfect sense.

"Did yer parents really kick y'out 'cause ye kissed yer best friend?" Berwald wasn't sure where that question came from. He just knew that he really needed to know.

Tino stared at the coffee mugs as he placed them on the bench. "I… wanted to see what they would do. I guess I wanted to know straight up how they would react. They kicked me out, and I got my answer."

Berwald nodded. "That makes more sense."

His face flushed, Tino focused on preparing the coffee. "I told you we were all a little odd."

Berwald could not imagine Tino without all the weird, wonderful, charming things that made him a 'little odd.' "That's not a bad thing."

Tino blushed deeper. "So, uh, what will you be doing today?" he asked quickly.

"Workin' in th'garden."

"You don't have to worry about escaping Denmark. On Sundays he doesn't get up until evening."

Berwald shrugged. "I like bein' in th'garden."

Tino paused, spoon hovering over the coffee jar. Then he looked up slowly, eyes bright and a tiny, warm smile on his lips. "You're sort of sweet, really, aren't you?"

Berwald's body flooded with warmth. Tino, however, dropped the spoon and took a step backwards, expression turning quickly dismayed.

"Um, I mean, oh gosh, I really didn't… I'm sorry."

"Why?" asked Berwald. That just made Tino more flustered.

"I have to…" Tino paused. Berwald waited. "… go." Then he rushed from the room.

Berwald's heart sunk as he watched him go. Just when he thought Tino was getting used to him. He sighed to himself and finished making the coffee. Tino would probably never get used to him – no one ever did.

.

The next afternoon things came to a crisis. As Berwald went to place his money in the rent jar, the same as he had done last Monday in accordance with House Rule Number One, he found that the jar was nowhere to be seen. Just as he was checking in the cupboards to see if someone had put it away somewhere, a knock came at the door. Berwald went and answered it warily.

"Good afternoon!" The man at the door stood at an equal height to Berwald and had a fake smile plastered on his broad face. His huge arms bulged against the fabric of a cheap black suit and his stare was an obvious attempt at intimidation. Berwald recognised the threatening stance: a debt collector. "Is there a Mr Køhler I can speak to?"

"A Mr… oh." Berwald remembered the name as the one shouted in the cafeteria the other day. He stared back evenly and invoked rule number fourteen. "He's out'f th'country."

"I see." The collector's smile dropped and he flexed his biceps. Berwald tried not to roll his eyes. "Perhaps, then, you could give this to him when he returns?" The man held out an envelope and Berwald took it. "Final notice. I hope I will not have to visit again. Next time, things shall not go quite so…" He paused in what he probably thought was a dramatic manner. "…pleasantly."

"Sure, yeah." Berwald slammed the door before the man turned away. The collector had chosen the wrong guy if he was looking for someone to intimidate. Berwald tore open the letter, read it quickly, and clenched his hand into a fist.

"Problem?" asked Greenland from behind him.

"Where is Denmark?" Berwald asked the question quietly, trying not to let a hot wave of rage overwhelm him.

"Bedroom," replied Greenland quickly. "Get the popcorn, Faeroe, this oughta be good."

"It was only a matter of time," said Faeroe. "'Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.'"

Berwald stormed up the stairs, slammed open Denmark's bedroom door, and turned on the light. Denmark squeaked and fell off the bed; Norway immediately disappeared under the covers. Berwald held up the crumpled letter. "Someone care t'explain this t'me?"

"Who? Huh? How… What's going on? Are we under attack?"

"What's goin' on is I've just received an eviction notice from a debt collector."

"What?"

"I paid ye three weeks in advance!" Berwald couldn't keep his voice down now. "That was th'only money I had! What th'hell did ye do with it?"

Denmark pulled himself to his feet, brushed himself down, and turned to face Berwald with an attempt at looking dignified. With his Danish flag boxers, flattened hair, and sheet around his ankles, he did not manage to pull it off. "Sweden. You sound as though you have some concerns. Would you like to schedule a house meeting?"

"Yes," Berwald growled. "Now."

.

Denmark sat at the head of the table, the eviction notice in front of him, looking for all the world like a supreme court judge who had been called in to a crucial case after an all night bender. He even had a gavel, which he was currently utilising to its full potential. "House meeting!" he shouted. "Come to order! House…"

"Yes, Denmark, for fuck's sake, you've shouted that six times already," growled Norway, leaning on the table with a copy of Kafka's 'The Trial' in his hand. "We're all here. Get on with it."

Berwald, Tino and Iceland all sat around the table, varying degrees of apprehension on their faces. Even Greenland and Faeroe's couch had been turned to face the table, though Berwald had the feeling they would not be contributing much to the conversation.

"So," began Denmark gravely. "We are all quite aware of the problem with the rent."

Berwald was not aware. "Problem?"

"I can't understand you, Sweden. That's why we roped someone in to try and help us get our costs back up."

"Roped? Costs? What are ye talkin' about?"

"Seriously, Sweden, speak up, I can't understand a word you're saying. Now we all know everything has been going well, we've been paying back our debt slowly..."

"Your debt," said Iceland.

Denmark waved a hand. "Let's not quibble about the particulars. Now, due to unseen circumstances, we lost our last weeks rent. Three weeks. Well, you know, about a months worth."

"And by unforeseen circumstances he means he bet it all on a German tied to a car," said Norway.

"We've what? Can someone 'xplain?"

"Sweden, I swear, you really need to see someone about this speech impediment of yours. Now the big problem here being, of course, that we already owe about three months on top of that. You know, from the last time we lost it."

"You lost it," Iceland interrupted.

"LAST time?" Berwald was baffled.

"Look, things happen, wheels set in motion, you know how these things go, and apparently we had a visit this afternoon from our friendly neighbourhood debt collector to inform us that we now have to pay our de..."

"Your de..."

"DEBT, Iceland, in one transaction. Soon. Immediately. Well, in a week. Or we'll be, you know. Evicted."

A resounding silence fell. No one responded. Eventually Norway stood, walked over to Denmark, and slapped him over the back of the head.

Tino put his head in his hands. "Den. How much do we owe?"

"Well," said Denmark, rubbing his head, "Erm, by now it would be... ten grand."

Tino gasped. "Ten grand? Ten thousand dollars? How is that even possible?"

"Ye couldn't've told us 'bout this before?" Berwald was beyond angry. This was beyond a joke. If it were not for Tino he would be desperate to move out; but now the thought of being evicted almost terrified him. He did not know where Tino might end up moving to, but the thought he might go somewhere Berwald would not see him every day was like a punch in the gut.

"Look, I've got us out of trouble like this before, I can do it again," said Denmark.

Norway scoffed loudly. "You're joking, right?"

"Shush. Now first things first." Denmark steepled his hands, looked up thoughtfully, and leant forward. "Does anybody have any money?"

Norway glared. "Well I have twelve dollars fifty in my bank account, how about the rest of you?"

"I don't have much," said Tino quietly. "I should probably get a part time job. Or I could maybe try to explain to my parents that I need more money for school. I mean, they don't pay me all that much." When Berwald looked at him quizzically, Tino explained, "They give me a weekly allowance, as long as I never attempt to contact them. Which probably means I can't ask for more money after all…"

Denmark slammed a hand on the table. "Parents are bullshit," he spat vehemently. The violence of his tone almost startled Berwald. "Don't you dare ask those assholes for a single thing, Tino."

"He shouldn't have to. Ye lost the money. Ye should get it back." Berwald didn't want to make a scene, but Denmark was really starting to piss him off. It was getting to a point where he was simply not going to take it anymore. Denmark turned to him furiously, but Iceland quickly interjected.

"Well, to be fair..." Iceland trailed off.

"T'be fair?" Berwald prompted.

"To be fair," continued Tino, "We kind of all had something to do with losing the first lot of money. Not yours of course," he added quickly. "That was all Denmark."

"Huh? What d'ye do? How d'ye lose it?"

A long silence, before Tino finally whispered a single word. "Poker."

Berwald felt like the room had turned upside down. They could not be serious. Must it always comeback to this? "Poker?"

"Russia has a poker game every month," explained Denmark. "No big deal."

"No big deal?!" Now Berwald was astounded. "You played 'gainst Ivan? Are ye completely stupid?!"

Another very long silence before Norway spoke. "Sweden, this is Denmark. Have you met?"

"I was due for a win!" moaned Denmark.

Berwald had to stop to think. This was so much more than he expected, and frankly, it was a little terrifying. "No one wins 'gainst Ivan." Especially not an amateur like you, he added silently.

"And how, exactly, do you know this?" Norway's face was as blank as ever, but his tone was uncannily perceptive.

Berwald tried to answer carefully. Denmark might be an idiot, but Norway certainly wasn't. "I've played 'gainst him, too. I lost. He's th'best on th'circuit. He plays against players far more... experienced than you. And he always wins."

Norway leant forward and fixed Berwald with a piercing, suspicious stare. "You almost punched him the other day."

"It's nothin'." Berwald spoke firmly. "Like I said, I play poker. So does he. I'm good. He's better. That's it."

Norway's eyes narrowed. "These poker games. They are more than just... games, aren't they? I mean, they are more than the pathetic little diversions Denmark involves himself with."

Berwald did not know how to answer that. "Well..."

"Ivan called you a criminal the other day. What did he mean by that, Berwald?" Norway had heard that? What the hell else had he heard? Berwald shifted uncomfortably as every set of eyes in the room stared at him.

"t'was nothin'. He just wants t'make trouble."

"He's playing with you." Iceland's voice was both bitter and surprisingly understanding. "I don't know what the deal is with you and Ivan, Sweden. But as far as I'm concerned any enemy of Ivan is a friend of ours."

There was a thoughtful silence before Denmark spoke. "Yes, Russia's a bastard, I think we're all aware of that by now. Unless anyone has extortion plans, which by the way I would totally be in favour of, I hardly think he is relevant to this conversation."

For possibly the first time Berwald found himself in agreement with Denmark. "'kay. Let me get this straight. Ye lost three months rent playin' poker."

Denmark nodded. "Yes."

"Now ye've lost another months rent on some stupid car pullin' contest."

"How the hell did that kraut lose?" moaned Denmark.

"And now we've got a week to pay ten grand."

"Sweden, your powers of observation are outstanding," said Norway flatly.

"Don't be such a bitch, Norway," said Tino.

Berwald was rather impressed. "Seems to me," he said finally, "We need t'find a way t'make ten grand."

"Norway could strip," suggested Denmark. Norway flipped him off. "Hey, baby, it was a compliment, I'd pay to see that…"

"You couldn't afford that," Norway shot back.

"Denmark could rob a bank," offered Iceland.

"No one's asking you Icelander, we all know how good your kind is with financial problems."

"Fuck you, Denmark!"

"We could kill the landlord." Everyone stared at Norway.

Denmark nodded, raising a hand thoughtfully. "So far that's actually the best idea."

"We don't even know who the landlord is," said Tino, frustrated.

"There's always prostitution."

"No one's gonna pay for you, Denmark," said Iceland.

"It's only a few more steps from what you're doing, Ice. We could kick Sweden out of the twister room and set up some sort of pay by the hour boudoir…"

"I hate you so much sometimes."

"But only sometimes, right?"

"Just stop it!" cried Tino. "Don't you understand? If we lose this place, I have nowhere to go. You have nowhere to go. We need to be serious and figure out what we are going to do!"

"Weeell," said Denmark slowly. "At a time like this, there's really only one thing you can do." Berwald braced himself for whatever Denmark would come out with now. Denmark surveyed the table with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "Party?"

Norway tapped his chin thoughtfully then slightly inclined his head. "Party."

Iceland closed his eyes and threw up a hand. "Party!"

Berwald knitted his brows in confusion, Tino put his head in his hands, and Denmark stood, stretched, and grinned manically. "Doll yourselves up, boys, and bust out the fake IDs. We're hitting the town, and we are hitting it hard."

.

Next Chapter

Disclaimer: This story belongs to George deValier. Hetalia belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya. I own nothing.

[signalsandsoundwaves]

Now that I combed through KH3′s plot points again and don’t have to reasonably worry about spoiling anyone, here it is: My gripes w/ Kingdom Hearts 3 (Of Which There Are A Lot):

They showed way too damn much w/ the trailers, they should have at least hid the Final World and Aqua turning into a Darkling. Like, we already knew the whole shit parade with the new organization was going to happen in some capacity along with the fight w/ OG Xehanort, but they forgot the necessity of surprise in a narrative.

The whole deal with the new Princesses of Heart was 

A: mentioned like twice, maybe, and then never expounded upon or brought up again

B: Had no bearing on the overarching narrative. What was the point of bringing it up at all? 

Reintroducing Riku Replica the way they did? Hm. Okay. I can work with that. BUT!

They never showed how he helped Riku out of the Demon Tide. Just poof and he’s out and it’s all fine. Oh and the heartless gave him a nice haircut too for some reason. 

They never showed how Riku Replica was able to fix Way to the Dawn?? AND THEY NEVER SHOWED HOW RIKU PULLED ANOTHER KEYBLADE OUT OF HIS ASS AGAIN.

oh also I fucking hated that the kh1 Ansem!Riku was, in fact, not Ansem!Riku, but a replica of a replica. I’m gonna pretend that’s not the case and instead imagine that’s just an attempt at a joke by Nomura that the series is needlessly complicated and makes no sense anymore (which it is)

Dark Aqua: The fact that it even happened completely invalidates any sort of character significance Blank Points had. That, and her reawakened hope from 2.8′s ending. 

Well, okay, I guess it doesn’t invalidate those events with the way it happened (edit: whoops forgot to put in words), but it still seems super contrived that Aqua’s had all that time and resultant experience in the realm of darkness just so Ansem SoD could come up and kamehameha the crap outta her with some weird ball of darkness. Even if she didn’t have a keyblade. Didn’t she still have her magic?

Why did it have to be Sora that saved her? So he could look cool? Again? Lame. 

it makes much more sense for Riku to save her--not only to give him a significant achievement for this game, but to also make things come full circle nice and neat: She saved him when he had to close the door, he saves her from falling to the darkness she fought for over a decade. 

Nomura...do you know how dumb it is for you to make Aqua say “You’ve seen me too weak for too long” before winning a boss battle against Vanitas, who then in the next cutscene wrecks her shit? The same character who got thrown so hard he was perfectly horizontal to the ground into a child’s bedroom by The Notorious James P. Sullivan?

A PIXAR CHARACTER?? COME ON

I WOULDN’T HAVE MINDED IF YOU AT LEAST KEPT IT CONSISTENT, LIKE MAKE VANITAS A PUNK-ASS PIDDLING BRAT THE WHOLE GAME, BUT YOU GOTTA KEEP SHIT CONSISTENT IF YOU’RE GONNA HAVE CHARACTERS BE POWERFUL OR NOT! THIS ISN’T DRAGON BALL Z!

Actually, now that I think about it more, Aqua in general got fucked over in this game. Ven gets his shit wrecked by Terranort and all Aqua does is stand there, watch, and gasp? No! She Would Not Do That!

What was the point of putting Namine on the cover if she wasn’t going to even show up until the very end of the game

And. Um. I know I’m biased as hell as a Soriku shipper, but it’s more than a little weird to imply any sort of feelings between Riku and Namine (Repliku? Sure, I can roll w/ that. But not OG Riku) when they haven’t even spoken since three games ago and neither has mentioned the other once.

If you’re want your audience to be excited about the end-game ships, actually give them material throughout the series to help build chemistry! Don’t shoehorn it in! And this goes especially for SoKai!

Sora keeps flip-flopping between being his usual dandy self and being a dumbass brat. That scene where he was whining about wanting cool new clothes too was a little awkward to sit through. That and when he was teasing/bothering Hiro at the end of the Big Hero 6 world about taking the extra Baymax along on his own journey

TBH I’d probably do the same thing, since that healing spray came in hella handy and baymax does better than donald

but it’s still a little awkward to do that

I’m not even gonna talk about how they butchered the plot to Frozen. The prerendered cutscenes for Let It Go and the last scene were good tho.

and it was cool for SDG to lean on the fourth wall and wonder where the music was coming from

But did we need Anna to awkwardly sing Do You Wanna Build A Snowman in front of SDG? Nah.

lol why did they make the bug blocks from Re:Coded replace the original movie’s nanobots if it wasn’t going to be brought up or plot relevant at all

Also Sora is back to being dumb as a brick: They find a Riku that is one year younger, with yellow Norted eyes, and wearing an organization 13 coat...and Sora still thinks it’s OG Riku? Goofy had to spell it out for him, that was lame

Look if I were going to talk about Kairi this list would then be 3,000 miles long with my grievances in regards to everything involving her in this game so I’m just gonna put it into the simplest bullet points here:

Nomura’s got some serious hang-ups in regards to women. Full stop. 

You can’t keep saying every fucking game that she’s gonna participate and then never have her meaningfully do so.

And the one time she does have any importance to the plot, it’s as a plot device where she fucking dies in a total Diabolus Ex Machina. Not cool, Nomura.

They clearly put a metric fuck-ton of work into the PotC world but we can’t even go inside the abandoned mansion in twilight town ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

seriously i wanted to swing on the chandeliers

And you Know the only reason why Cutler Beckett was in this game was so Nomura could throw in the scene where the ship goes down while beckett says ‘It’s just good business’

Which makes me think of another thing--Cutler effing Beckett was in this game, but Hans doesn’t even speak in Arendelle? Weird.

Terra and Riku didn’t even speak to each other and I’m so sad about that.

and I was legit pissy that Roxas and Ventus’ only acknowledgement of their nigh-identical appearances was a single weirded out shared glance

You’d think the majority of the cast would know by now not to underestimate Sora but idk whatever I guess

Yeah I’m just gonna pretend Ansem SoD and OG Xehanort didn’t have those heel-face turns and resultant pathetic attempts at sob stories when they died (I don’t give a shit what Xehanort Reports 8+9 say, I’m gonna keep my headcanon that those were attempts to trick Terra and Ven even more)

Not Xemnas, though. I’m actually okay w/ his since it makes sense and was actually built up throughout KH2 without the need for ancillary material (tell but don’t show is so godawful as a storytelling tactic and should only be used in dire measures)

Gee, I love how the only god damn time in this series Kairi is a capable fighter is when she’s turned into a sword-suit-of-armor-thing and fights Sora in a world named after a Led Zeppelin song

Also, Kairi straight up dies and Riku doesn’t really give a shit??

Seriously, what?

It makes no sense that any of The Norts™ would be able to set foot onto the Keyblade Graveyard long enough to fuck the crew’s shit up without Lingering Will to blast them into oblivion with his ultima cannon. He was supposed to be right there waiting for them. Why did we need to die and get Namine to tell him what happened? He’d have a front row seat before we even got there the first time.

So if Sora’s gone to The Final World before every time he’s gone to the Station of Awakening, why haven’t we ever seen it before kh3?

I love how the game doesn’t even acknowledge that Chirithy is technically responsible for Sora’s death at the end of KH3

This one isn’t actually a gripe, I just really wanted to point out that an adorable cat plushie was responsible for the death of the series’ protagonist

If it’s a possibility that a keyblade can be broken, why hasn’t it ever come up before?

And finally, my One True Gripe that isn’t a long-held point of contention with the series and is exclusive to KH3...

Nomura took a little too much inspiration from Dead Man’s Chest and it shows (And Naruto, and DBZ, but considering KH has basically been a shonen anime all along I guess I should have expected that)(But I especially hate that he directly mimicked Dead Man’s Chest)

[macaroni-rascal]

I know you detest TSL, but you’d appreciate Dave and Jenny’s commentary after Yuzu’s retirement. Some bullet notes:

Plenty of legendary skaters have retired but didn’t get the response Yuzu did. A lot of “tributes” from skaters are fake and some skaters are doing it for clout but many are afraid of yuzu’s fans. Didn’t want to be the only skaters NOT thanking him and posting about his retirement

Nathan could never be appreciated for his own greatness. Even after Nathan won worlds 3 years in a row. Once Nathan started consistently beating yuzu, the Fanyus kept moving the goal post and yuzu played into it. Like the 4 A. At some point yuzu started making excuses because he couldn’t handle losing to Nathan and it clouded many of Nathan’s moments

Yuzu never publicly told his fans to stop putting other skaters down. He may not have social media, but someone on his team certainly saw what was going on.

Both Nathan and Hanyu have been over-scored. After he lost the 2019 GPF to Nathan, his fans were pissed. The event was held at the site of the 2006 Olympics. His fans defaced olympic property where Olympic champions signed their names. Now it says “fuck the ISU.” He never even competed at those Olympics nor did he deserve winning the 2019 GPF.

Yuzu’s career is great with 2 OLY medals and some real high points. But he’s inconsistent and overrated as an artist. Feels gaslighted by fanyus claiming each yuzu program was different and unique from his other programs. When in reality Yuzu recycled choreography and layout and always looked down

The last quad, with his theatrics, inability to accept loss, and his fans’ delusions and hysteria, clouded his legacy. He and his fans just couldn’t accept that he was chasing something unattainable with the 4A and 3 OGMs

Didn’t go out in a beautiful way like other skaters have (such as Katerina Witt or virtue and Moir).Yuzu’s 2022 Oly season was ridiculous and a circus. We didn’t know if he was doing the team event, he blamed his SP results on the divot, a lot of bullshit with the 4a that most of us knew he wouldn’t land.

Michelle Kwan’s 2022 Olympic season was also a bit of a circus, but she handled it far more gracefully than Yuzu. He lacked accountability. He just didn’t go out in a great way and it isn’t the fault of the ISU. He was entitled and had zero accountability.

A broken clock can be right twice a day and every so often Lizard Man Lease can say very smart, astute, and true things. I completely agree on all points, they really hit ever branch on the way down Yuzu's disappointing behaviour tree.

I've thought Yuzu was overrated for years and in the end he cemented the fact that he's as deluded as his fans are, and just as entitled.

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"Highly recommended. A 10 out of 10 from me." - Widescreen Review

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        The Perfect Fusion of Technology and Passion.    

When designing high performance loudspeakers, even the smallest details have acoustic consequences. Our engineers scrutinize every build material, cabinet angle, engineering process and measurement to achieve a level of audio excellence that is unmistakably SVS.

In this two-part “Understanding Speakers” video series, SVS President Gary Yacoubian explores how an idea becomes an SVS speaker in Part One and offers tips for choosing your perfect speaker in Part Two.

SVS Speaker Design Philosophy

Innovative design, rigorous engineering and world class components

From the first cabinet sketch to the final voicing, every SVS speaker undergoes a painstaking design and engineering process to ensure flawless performance and unmatched build and component quality. Every design element has a sonic purpose.

Accurate, refined performance with immersive, convincing soundstage

Hundreds of hours are spent measuring and listening critically to each speaker in acoustic test chambers, calibrated listening rooms and real world environments. This process captures all the nuances of different content and listening environments to achieve a perfectly balanced speaker.

Elegant styling and world class build quality

Only the finest materials and fabrication techniques are used for cabinets, tweeters, drivers, and crossovers. It only becomes an SVS speaker when all the pieces meld to set a new benchmark audio performance value.

Stunning dynamics and effortless low frequency extension

A blend of smooth, highly-detailed sound enhanced by lively, impactful dynamics, a wide soundstage and effortless power across the frequency spectrum elevate SVS loudspeakers to unmatched levels of performance.

[thesevenseraphs]

Bungie Weekly Update DEVELOPMENT UPDATE- 1/11/18

Game Director Christopher Barrett:

Hey, everyone. At the end of last year, I made a promise that I would update you on our plans for Destiny 2. The team has been hard at work and we’re ready to share where we are headed. We used to wait to talk about game updates until we were certain we could meet our deadlines to avoid letting players down if we changed our plans. No longer. We’re not just listening, we are doing. Please keep in mind that the further out we make promises, the more they are subject to change. With that caveat, here are our plans.

Destiny Content Categories

One thing we want is to set clearer expectations for is which categories of content are available to everyone each Season, and which are exclusive to Destiny 2 Expansions:

Expansions are purchasable updates that typically add new Story, Destinations, and Gear, as well as new Crucible, Strike, and Raid Lair content. Seasons introduce content that is made available to all players of Destiny 2, at no additional cost.

Iron Banner, Faction Rallies, and their rewards will be available to everyone as part of Season 2. Additionally, going forward we are making a change that new Seasonal rewards from Crucible, Strikes, and Trials of the Nine will be available to all players.

Faction Rallies returns on January 16 and Iron Banner will be back in the rotation on January 30.

Eververse

We recognize that the scales are tipped too far towards Tess at the moment, and Eververse was never intended to be a substitute for end game content and rewards. So, we’ll be making three changes for upcoming Seasons:

We’re shifting the balance of new content in favor of activity rewards over Bright Engrams. This includes adding Ghosts, Sparrows, and ships (to date found only in Bright Engrams) to achievement reward pools.

We'll provide a gameplay path to earn Bright Engrams and all contained rewards (including Event Engrams).

We’ll give players more direct purchase options and make adjustments to Bright Engrams to allow players to get the items they want more often.

We’ve begun implementing these changes for the Crimson Days event beginning February 13 (with even more changes on the way in Season 3):

Completing Nightfall, Raid, and Crimson Days milestones during Crimson Days will reward you an exclusive Legendary Emote, Weapon Skin, and Exotic Sparrow, respectively.

Players will earn double engrams at level-up: one Crimson Engram and one Illuminated Engram for the duration of the event.

Crimson Engrams can also drop from completing the Crimson Days match and from completing the Crimson Days milestone on each character.

Each Crimson Engram is very strongly weighted to new rewards when decrypted until all new event items have been obtained.

XP Rates

We are still investigating changes to XP earn rates. Our goal with any updates to XP are transparency and consistent XP gain regardless of your preferred activity. Right now, it’s too slow in general and lopsided towards grinding specific activities (which is not a fun grind) and we want to fix that without making those activities low value to players who aren’t grinding them (fairness is cool). Our first attempt turned out to be unworkably buggy so we’re having to investigate other angles. We will continue to update you as we move forward.

Feature Roadmap

There are three releases that we want to put on your radar right now. Later releases will get more specific dates as they get closer.

The following content and features will be available to all D2 players, regardless of expansion ownership.

January 30 Update

Masterwork Armor

We are expanding the Masterwork system to include armor.

Masterwork Armor provides increased damage reduction while using your Super. 

You can reroll the armor stat type on Masterwork Armor, and similar to Masterwork weapons, you can upgrade a piece of armor to Masterwork by spending Masterwork Cores and Legendary Shards.

Raid Reward Rework

We are updating Raid rewards to make them more unique and interesting. They will now feature mods with Raid-specific perks, and we are adjusting the rewards to ensure a Raid item drops from each major encounter. The Raid vendor will also directly sell Leviathan and Eater of Worlds armor and weapons for purchase with Raid tokens and Legendary Shards.

We are also adding a new Ghost with Raid-specific perks that has a chance to drop from the Leviathan and Eater of Worlds final encounters. We intend to return to creating more Raid and other activity-unique rewards in the future.

February Update

Strike Scoring + High Score Tracking 

Strike Scoring is coming to Nightfall and replacing the current time limit mechanic. The scoring is similar to the Destiny 1 system but with adjustments to emphasize competitive execution of Strike objectives and support for player selectable score modifiers. In February, Nightfall High Scores will be exposed in-game via new emblems and will unlock rewards. We also have plans for Clan and Community High Scores in the works.

Mods 2.0

Work is underway on a full rework of armor and weapon mods. This will focus on reducing redundant mods, more unique theming, and greatly increasing their impact on your power. We are aiming for a February release, but the scope of the rework could push parts or all of it out to early spring. We will be evaluating how Mods play into the Bright Engram economy as a result, because we’re sensitive to pay-to-win outcomes.

Quickplay Improvements

We are adjusting game mode rules to increase the pace of gameplay and power ammo acquisition in Quickplay.

PC Tower Chat

We are adding text chat to the Tower for the PC version of the game.

Exotic Repetition Reduction

This will prevent players from receiving the same Exotic twice in a row. You may still receive duplicates, just not consecutively.

Fireteam Members on Destination Map

You will finally be able to see the other members of your fireteam on the destination map. No more having to ask your fireteam where they went when they fast travel to another landing zone.

Spring 2018

We’re taking the time we need in development of Expansion 2 that will allow us to react to player feedback from Curse of Osiris. In the coming months, we’ll talk to you more about what you can expect to find in Destiny 2’s next story. The team is eager to show you what they’ve been working on. Independent of Expansion 2, the team will deliver a number of new features that will be released before or during Season 3. Every player of Destiny 2 will receive new content in the following categories…

Crucible

We want to give players new reasons to play, more variety, and balance improvements. Spring will bring a number of exciting and long awaited features to the Crucible.

Crucible Rank 

Beginning with Season 3 we will introduce Seasonal Crucible Ranks. There will be two different ranks for players to pursue:

Valor – A progression rank that goes up as you complete matches. Winning helps you move up faster, but there are no loss penalties.

Glory – A progression rank that goes up when you win and down when you lose. Performance is how you move up here.

Private Matches

Private Matches are coming to all players of Destiny 2. Players will be able to invite their friends to play on the map and mode of their choosing.

6v6 Playlist

We’re bringing 6v6 PvP to Destiny 2 in addition to the current 4v4 game modes.

Mayhem Event

Mayhem will return as a limited-time event during Season 3 and going forward.

Additional Fixes

We are making some changes to make quitting less common and behind-the-scenes security improvements to help improve the overall Crucible experience.

Additional Highlights

Weapon and Ability Balance Pass

Sandbox adjustments based on player feedback and data from the live game. The Sandbox team will share specific changes as we lead up to Season 3.

Exotic Weapon and Armor Balance Pass

Exotic weapons and armor are receiving a comprehensive design pass to ensure they stand out from the rest of the gear and offer new, exciting, powerful ways to play.

Seasonal Reputation

Specific vendors will now display a Seasonal ranking. Earning reputation will unlock unique Seasonal rewards and will reset each Season.

Improved Iron Banner and Faction Rallies

In addition to the changes that you will see when Iron Banner and Faction Rallies return this month, we will continue iterating on these to make them unique, exciting experiences that you all look forward to.

Playlist Repetition Reduction

This feature solves the problem of experiencing the same playlist entry multiple times in consecutive or frequent succession for both Crucible and Strikes.

End Game Player Pursuits

We agree with your feedback on the imbalance between Achievement and Bright Engram rewards, and we will be making adjustments to shift more rewards into specific endgame pursuits instead of generic XP grinding for Bright Engrams. We are excited to share the details as soon as we have them worked out.

Multi-Emote

When multi-emote launches, you will be able to choose which emote you have equipped to each of your four emote slots.

Vault space

We are targeting an additional 50 slots to player vaults. We don’t believe just adding more space is a complete solution and are actively working on other changes to reduce load on your vault space.

We are adding an Exotic accessory tab to Vault collections so you will no longer need to spend Vault space on Exotic Ships, Sparrows, and Ghosts.

PC Clan Chat

In addition to the Tower chat that is targeted for February, we are adding clan chat to the PC version of the game.

Heroic Strike Changes

We’ll be introducing modifiers to add more gameplay variety to the experience.

Fall 2018 (or sooner)

We are working on a lot more that we're not quite ready to discuss. Expect more on this small sample of items in the future:

Item Collections and Records

Weapon Slot and Archetype Improvements

Additional Crucible Playlists (e.g. Rumble)

Better Clan Rewards

Masterwork Exotics

Pinnacle Weapon and Gear Improvements

Trials of the Nine improvements

Shaders and dismantling

The Future of Guided Games

Address Solo Vs Fireteam matching

One Final Note

Expect to hear more from us via Bungie.net, Twitch, and social media. We’ll be talking to you more directly, and more often, as promised. We want to thank our community for all the passionate and detailed feedback you provide. It’s critical to our ability to continually improve Destiny, so thank you! Talk to you soon, Christopher Barrett

[dreamca7cher]

Dreamcatcher Dream of US in LA Fanmeet write-up

Hello friends! I have enjoyed reading fanmeet write-ups from others in the past, so I figured that those who weren’t able to go might like to give this a read. *Disclaimer* this is ridiculously long, It was actually about twice as long before I condensed and edited. I’ve had a week now to supplement my memory with the fancams and photos that have been trickling out, but I do apologize if I’ve misremembered or left anything out.

I basically jumped at the chance to attend kcon as soon as I read that Dreamcatcher would be there. I was lucky to get some good P1 seats with 2 other kpop-loving friends. At first I was a little bummed that DC was billed as a special guest, which meant they would not be doing any official kcon “artist engagement” activities like hi-touch. But then news of their solo LA fan meeting was announced and I was absolutely ecstatic. It just so happened that my flight was scheduled to arrive early enough Friday to make it to the fanmeet venue just in time.  On the day tickets were to go on sale, I barely got anything done at work and watched my computer clock like a hawk, refreshing the site every millisecond, ten seconds before ticket sales opened. Fortunately, I was lucky to secure one of the 125 seated spots. This would be my first in-person experience of any kind concerning kpop, so I was insanely excited and simultaneously nervous af.

I arrived at the venue about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to start and saw a decent line around this real hole-in-the-wall looking place. The people in line said it was for the seated spots, which surprised me. I thought there would be more standing than seated positions, but it turns out there were only maybe 10-15 people standing. It was hot as balls out there, and we were standing directly in the sun so we were all quickly drenched in sweat. I learned later that the girls had actually arrived earlier in a black van in front of the venue. I was probably still in transit at that time, but it must have been nice for the fans already standing in line to get that first glimpse of them! When we finally made it inside, the staff checked our names off a list and we were able to sign a giant American flag that the girls would hold later for a group picture. The fans who did not bring their own album to be signed were given a small poster. It was basically free for all seating, I was on the far right side on the last row but no matter – the venue was small enough to see everything clearly. As soon as I sat down I realized either the A/C wasn’t on.. or there was none at all. There were a few floor fans pointed at the stage, but I felt bad for the girls once they entered and I saw they were wearing sorta heavy looking tops L There was a slightly raised wooden stage in the front and a long table for them to sit at. Two tall speakers flanked the stage, but the music later wasn’t too loud. The crowd was ethnically diverse and probably around a 50%-50% gender split, proving Dreamcatcher’s wide appeal to all sorts of fans. It was however a much older crowd than the average makeup of the kcon attendees, as this was not a boy group.

The girls soon entered, which was such a surreal moment. It was almost like I couldn’t believe they were real people ya know? Having only watched them on video, it’s more like you’re watching a fictional movie sometimes. I know it’s cliché, but they really are sooo much prettier in person. I think they did look a little tired and/or nervous, but their smiles were illuminating and they did little fan service gestures whenever possible. They did their standard introduction with JiU speaking the most as leader, with small remarks like how hot it was and that it was nice to meet all of us. I thought Yoohyeon would speak the most, but she was probably nervous to use her English with us. The event went straight into the fan-signing with rows lining up one by one while the crowd was free to take pictures/videos. There are much better quality videos out there from the front, but I’ll post my crappy phone videos in case anyone wants to see from the right-hand perspective. I apologize for any shaking, as tripods were not allowed. The signing was fairly quick, everyone had just about enough time for each of the girls to sign their album or poster and maybe exchange a sentence or two.

I was one of like the last 4 people to go since I was at the back, and by this point my adrenaline was going crazy. I’ve never fainted before, but if there would be a time to, then that would be it. I didn’t know if this was strictly allowed, but I did see a few fans high five the members. I refrained however because then that would mean I could never wash that hand (j/k I didn’t want any chance of getting kicked out). So I decided to stick to a compliment or two which I had gone over in my head again and again for a few days prior. I wrote down a longer version of what I was going to say on some notes, since that’s all we were allowed to gift the girls. I had also decided to write my notes on origami paper of their favorite colors and fold my notes into paper cranes to stand out, because I am a crazy person. The research (I got their favorite colors from an interview which I’ll post later), the writing, and the folding all took much long than I anticipated which resulted in me only getting 1 hour of sleep Thursday night before my early flight. So this all culminated in a peak state of nervousness. All too soon it was my turn! I won’t go into what exactly I said or what was in my notes, it was just basically a compliment or encouragement. SuA was first, she waved and said hi as I approached. She was consistently the most hyper and playful that day, possibly because it was her birthday. She seemed really genuine too, and seemed the most relaxed I think. Handong was second, she was predictably shy, but was very appreciative of the crane and said it was cute. Her signature is the most unique too. I wrote some really crappy Chinese in my note that I hope she could read haha.. Next was Siyeon, she looked a bit tired, but she was hella pulling off the dark concept look with her black hair and colored contacts. She also spoke a lot of English that day, even if it wasn’t complete sentences like Yoohyeon. I think previous reports are accurate too, she was very quirky with her mannerisms. JiU was in the middle, and was positively glowing  :O she was smiling pretty much the whole time and I think even picked up the crane and flapped it around a little adorably. It was hard not to grin widely as well the whole time. Idk JiU just has this like unlimited energy that shines no matter how hot or tired she was. I pictured her as like a Super Saiyan or something with her positive aura. Yoohyeon was next and also looked a little tired. But she said a few things in English to me, and had an absolutely gorgeous smile. I haven’t 100% settled on a bias yet, but girl makes it hard to not choose her. Gahyeon was 6th and actually was saying a lot of things in English. She also seemed to like the crane a lot and has a really cute smile. Dami was last, and was so cool and reserved. She’s really good at the appreciative head nod, no wonder she seemed to be the most popular that day. I forgot to tell all of them that the cranes were actually notes they could unfold and read, I may have told 2-3 of them but I’m not sure if they understood. Ah well. The whole signing probably only lasted a couple minutes, but seeing them up close and actually chatting with them is something I will never forget. After the staff also got their signatures, they moved the big table so the girls could perform.

First up was You and I, and boy was it a sight to behold in person. Their movements were so sharp and energetic, and it’s probably my favorite choreography of any kpop song. They just lip-synced which is ok, since it let me focus on the dance. Dami’s baton reveal probably got the loudest cheer, it was really awesome to see up close, and she does it so nonchalantly. Siyeon’s scarf throw also got a loud cheer. SuA definitely had the most powerful dancing, as expected.  I didn’t know all the fanchants, but the other InSomnias obliged well. The girls sprinkled in little hearts and waves to the audience throughout the performance. Right after, they performed Full Moon, which was a very nice gift to the American InSomnias  :] The chest pumping part probably had the loudest cheers, as it was the fiercest part of the choreo. During Dami’s solo rap part, she came up real close and waved to everyone, which also brought lots of cheers. The part where SuA and Handong get dragged across the floor was also popular for some reason. I haven’t watched as many fancams of Full Moon, but I really like the choreo, especially Siyeon’s parts. She rules that performance with her movements and expressions.

After the performance, the girls played a question and answer game from a board made up of stick notes that the crowd had written earlier (via translator). The first question I think was for SuA to do a solo funny dance. She asked “no music?” and Siyeon tried to do beatboxing and failed hard hahaha. So Yoohyeon sang to and SuA did a short hilarious dance to Dame Tu Cosita before collapsing in embarrassment. It was so adorable XD the 2nd question was what was the girls favorite Dreamcatcher song. SuA said Mayday, and sang her part a bit. The next question was “what’s it like performing for fans who don’t speak Korean and understand the lyrics?” Handong said that there was nonetheless a connection and that she was surprised and thankful that fans still sing along to the songs. SuA also said we felt like family, sister, brother, mother, father.. lol. The next question was what is your favorite choreography/point move? JiU said she likes the “baby you and I” part of You and I, and Yoohyeon likes the Chase Me part where they grab their hair lol. SuA likes the kiss blowing parts, and Siyeon likes when the members are dragged in Full Moon (probably because it’s not her being dragged haha). Then there was a question about superpowers, and Gahyeon said teleportation and JiU said she never wanted to get tired so she could always meet her fans, like the perfect leader she is. Siyeon said “you already do that” lol. Then Dami was asked how the baton worked, which I’m sure we all have always wondered. It’s basically like a spring-loaded telescoping thing held by a cap. Super cool, and got a resounding applause. Next was one of the more anticipated questions “which member would you marry?” and SuA immediately stood up lol. Siyeon took the mic and said JiU, because she makes really cute noises when she sleeps, revealing her creeper status lolol. Siyeon asked “will you marry me” and JiU said “oooh, yes” lmao. The next question was who has the best legs, to which Yoohyeon crossed her legs expectantly. But then she said she thought Handong has the best legs and asked her to stand up, which she did! Doing some model poses for us, very uncharacteristically ^^ JiU also said Handong has the straightest legs. Then Dami was asked to do some aegyo! Haha poor Dami, she chose to say “hi, nice to meet you, thank you” very adorably. The girls were then asked what songs they listen to in their personal time. SuA is currently obsessed with This is America and did the iconic gun pose lol. Siyeon likes Ariana Grande, and sang some No Tears Left to Cry. They were then asked what artists they want to collaborate with, and Yoohyeon said Day6 which got a big cheer. I also love Day6, and that would be such a match made in heaven! She also beautifully sang a little bit of Letting Go. Siyeon said she wanted to cover Sean Mendes Treat You Better and SuA wanted to do a Taylor Swift song. They were asked about actors they want to meet in LA, and they said the Avengers lol. I think they visited Hollywood Boulevard and said they kinda felt like they met them because there were people dressed up in costumes. Gahyeon also wanted to meet Daniel Henney because he lives in LA. Then JiU said I want to meet my fans with this huge dorky smile lol. The next question was about any future America tour plans, and JiU said of course, and asked us to visit them again next time. They were then asked who their other favorite kpop group was, and JiU said Red Velvet. Yoohyeon asked if she could dance a little bit, so JiU cutely danced to Bad Boy briefly. Siyeon also said KARD. They were asked what their favorite part of LA was, and SuA said she really liked In-N-Out burger and that it was yummy, specifically combo #3 lol. She also wanted to ride rides at Santa Monica and swim, to which Siyeon reminded her that she can’t swim lmao. The last question was about their favorite quotes. Dami’s motto is “in life there are no answers, so do what makes you happy”. JiU said “let’s live happy”, which she definitely exudes all the time ^^. Also that we were all beautiful and smart enough, so to live a happy life. Yoohyeon said that her mom always said to her “if you have a dream, imagine it will happen, and it will be”. Lastly, the girls took a group photo with all three of the sections, holding the American flag we signed earlier. JiU closed out with thanks and a promise they would see us again. SuA said thank you for celebrating my birthday, and Handong said thank you for your passion. Then the staff brought out a birthday cake and we surprised SuA by singing happy birthday. She looked so happy the entire time, and  even did a little moonwalk haha. Dami did one last tour around the crowd waving to everyone, and that was it.

And the rest of the weekend was downhill! J/k the kcon stages were amazing, and I saw them again multiple times at the convention, but the fanmeet was of course the highlight of the trip. As my first in-person kpop experience, this will definitely be hard to top. I vaguely wondered before the fanmeet if finally meeting them in person would diminish my perfect image of them in my head, but actually the opposite is true. Now they feel like real people I know, which just makes me like them even more. I was also very proud of the American InSomnias, everyone was respectful, there were no crazy incidents, no one had to be thrown out by security, it just went as smooth as can be. I also want to thank 7-dreamers for organizing this whole thing, and for the smooth operation. I could talk forever about my experiences, but I will end it here. Maybe I’ll do a write-up of the convention and concert if anyone’s interested? Thanks for reading!

[hinge]

Hinge presents an anthology of love stories almost never told. Read more on https://no-ordinary-love.co

[hanatagami]

Ａ Ｇｕａｒｄｉａｎ Ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒ ｉｓ Ｂ���ｒｎ! (Ch. 1)

Opening his eyes, his ears were greeted with the loud chirping of an alarm clock. This being the source of his awakening, aggravated him slightly but he knew it was important. Uncovering himself from his bed, he moved his legs off the bed and into his slippers. Standing, he muffled a yawn and moved into his bathroom. Looking in the mirror he saw a young pale boy, with snow white hair ruffled from his tossing and turning. His eyes were a bright ruby red, contrasting well with his pale complexion. He started his morning routine, brushing his hair and teeth, putting on deodorant, and walked back into his room. Hung up on the closet was his school uniform.

“Good morning Haruto-kun.” Reo, his guardian character, greeted him. Reo was small, obviously, with messy white hair and red eyes. Headphones were adorned on his head, he had a white shirt, a white and purple coat with a purple bow at the collar. He had black shorts with purple frills over it, and white linings. His shoes were small boots that were white, black soles, and purple linings. “Good morning Reo, another new day.” His soft voice rang out, a little raspy from his sleep. Haruto undressed himself from his sleepwear, slipping on his school uniform afterwards. His uniform consisted of a white button up shirt, blue plaid shorts, calf length black socks, brown slip on shoes, a big, black cardigan, and a blue tie. “You say that, but you only do the same things over and over again! If you’d let me chara change you wouldn’t be so scared to do things.” Reo complained, crossing his arms and giving Haruto a pout.

“I’m trying not to stand out...It’s embarrassing…” He blushed, fiddling with his fingers. The thought of having a whole crowd staring at him terrified him! Since he was usually so quiet in nature, if he were to have a sudden outburst of energy...With a puff, his face turned to a bright red, “It’s too embarrassing!” “How are you supposed to be a voice actor if your afraid of socialising?! You have to actually talk to be a voice actor.” His chara criticized him, before helping help him straighten out his tie and collar. “Well that’s the good thing of being a voice actor, no one will look at me except a couple people. That’s why i’m not just being an actual actor.” He pouted. Reo retreated back into his egg with a sigh, and floated into Haruto’s bag. Haruto looked towards his desk, and took out an earring. It was an earring his mother gave him. It had four hearts in the shape of a four leaf clover. It was small enough to hide behind his hair, so thankfully nobody asked about it. Haruto walked downstairs, the smell of his mom's delicious breakfast wafting through the house. “Good morning Mom.” Haruto greeted his mom. His mother was a youthful looking woman, looking like she was in her twenties when she was actually in her forties. She had waist length white hair, and stunning sapphire eyes. “Good morning dear, can you make sure your sister is awake? You know her.” He hummed a sound of agreement before walking back upstairs. His sister has a habit of just turning off the alarm and getting up, but falling back asleep in the weirdest positions. He assumed it was from how energetic she was through the day. He knocked twice before entering, “Big sis? You awake?” He glanced around the room, his red eyes spotting her quickly. She was face first on the floor, snoring heavily. Her hair was messy and sprawled around her body. Her legs were positioned awkwardly. They were resting on the bed, keeping the lower half of her body raised.

‘I can assume she tried to literally drag herself out of bed…’ He walked over and poked her head with his foot. He got a grumble. He crouched down and turned her over and started lightly slapping her face. Her eyes opened slightly, gazing at her brother.

She gave a small yawn, leaning up and stretching along side it. “Good morning, Haruto…” Etsuko was an average height female who sported long thigh-length white hair, pale, skin and had the same ruby colored eyes as him. If he grew a bit taller, people could mistake them as twins. “You better hurry, Mom is almost finished making breakfast, and I won’t hesitate to steal your food Etsuko.” He joked, with a soft smile. Turning on his heel, he walked out of her room. He could hear her scrambling to get dressed. She was a little too passionate about food. Sitting down at the table, he could hear his mom giggling from all the ruckus Etsuko was making. Mom set a plate of sausage, eggs, and a slice of toast.

“Thanks for the food.” He dug into his moms food. It was delicious, per usual. She always made the best food, not that he would say. That’s too embarrassing… “Good morning!” Etsuko said and walked downstairs, wearing a black elbow length shirt, jeans, and black and white sleeveless cardigan. “Did Dad leave already?” Etsuko asked, plopping herself down in her chair.

“Yes, Yuuki has an important business meeting today.” Yuuki was Haruto’s dad. He was a short guy, barely standing at his wife's chest. He had blonde hair, tan skin, and red eyes. Haruto and Etsuko hardly looked anything like him, except for their eyes. People had a tendency to think he was their stepdad.

“You’re presenting you project to your class in college today, right Etsuko?” Their mother questioned, washing her hands at the sink. “Yep! I finished it just in time, all thanks to Haruto!” She wrapped her arm around his shoulders, pulling him in a hug while laughing haughtily. Etsuko wanted to be a fashion designer when she was older, and used Haruto as her model and mannequin.

He stood up abruptly, a small blush adorning his cheeks. “I’m gonna get going, I don’t want to be late.” He picked up his slice of toast, got his bag, slipped his shoes on and left.

~Time skip~

Walking through the school gates, he kept his eyes to the floor. He didn’t want to be noticed, thought it never really worked.

“Look there he is.”

“He’s so cute!” “He looks so frail and fragile, kinda like a doll.”

He blushed as he heard the whispers going around. This always happened. They always talked about him and his looks, but no one ever really tried to talk to him. It was like he was a doll in a glass case with a sign that said ‘Do Not Touch’.

But he wasn’t all that lonely. He had Reo after all.

*THUMP*

Haruto stumbled back.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured looking up. ‘Oh no.’ He had bumped into him. The Prince. His face paled, if even possible.

“No, it’s ok. Just try to watch out from now on, alright?” Hotori smiled, stunning the albino. Hotori actually sparkled. Almost blinded by Hotori’s dazzling face, he stammered out an “E-Excuse me.” Before speed walking towards his classroom. Hotori looked as the boy who scattered away, a worried look on his face.

“Jeez, you’re so embarrassing Haruto.” Reo complained, sitting on his partners head.

Haruto pouted slightly. “What do you expect, Hotori is the King of the guardians. One of the most popular guys in school, how could I not be nervous.” He whispered, so no one could hear him talking to himself.

He took his seat in last row second seat in the front, right in front of the infamous Hinamori. At first it scared him, but Hinamori didn’t really talk to anyone so she never said anything to him. She was probably too annoyed with his shy nature. Thinking about it made him depressed, sighing as he laid his in his arms.

“Did you hear how she stopped those bullies from taking money?”

“Yeah, I did! Hinamori-san’s so cool!”

“It’s like she’s in a class by herself.”

“It feels like you even have to approach her with caution.

“The way she wears her uniform is really cool, too.”

The other students continued to ramble on about how her mom was a famous journalist and her dad was a famous photographer, and about her older foreign boyfriend. He didn’t really believe them, he’s never heard of a Hinamori before her. If they were really that famous, people would already be talking about them.

The bell rings and the students get to their seats, a new day has started.

~Timeu Skipu~

Haruto walked into the school gates and was stopped by a huge crowd of screaming boys and girls. He already knew, The Guardians. “They’re all literally sparkling. Must be a guardian thing.” He mumbled to himself.

They all looked amazing, as usual.

“What’s going on?” Haruto turned his head and is met with Hinamori, frantically shoving something into her bag. It looked like...an egg. She started looking around frantically, holding the bag to her chest.

“Hey, what’s happening?” Before she could run off, Hotori grabbed her shoulder. Haruto looked on in anticipation with the crowd.

“Um you...Are you…” He began, but was cut off by Hinamori slapping his hand off her shoulder.

“Eh!?!’ Almost every shouted in shock.

“Would you mind not touching me like that, shrimp?” She asked, more like demanded, coldly.

“Oh, i’m sorry.” Is all Hotori said. ‘Who could blame him, everyone is shell shocked by that.’

Hinamori walked off, leaving basically half of the school there in shock.

“Hinamori is brave. I would never be able to do that, especially not to Hotori-san…” Haruto said before walking away.

“But Haruto-kun! That thing in her bag!” Reo said, poking his head out of the bag.

“That was definitely a dream egg.”

“You should talk to her!” Reo suggested floating out in the open.

“Are you kidding? She’d make fun of me, i’d probably annoy her. There's no way I could talk to her.” Haruto said, “Not get back in my bag, someone might see you!”

“With that attitude, you’ll never make any friends!” Reo stuck his tongue out, before floating back into bag.

“Hmmm, the shy kid has a shugo chara too? Alright!”

~Skip Time~

We will now begin the Fall Guardians’ Assembly. For our first order of business, I’d like to announce the results of the survey regarding school uniforms.”

‘Here comes another boring assembly. I wish I could of just stayed in the classroom.’ His eyes were wandering from guardian to guardian. He made eye contact. Kukai Souma, the Jack and one of the most popular guys at this school, was looking at him.

‘W-Why is he looking at me? Is there something on me? Is my tie crooked?’ Haruto started slowly playing with his uniform, as to not draw attention. ‘Why didn’t anyone tell me!’  face started turning red, looking up at Kukai who gave you a smirk and a wink.

His neck up to his ears turned completely red. ‘Kukai is too handsome for his own good!’

“Are you ok?” Someone next to him asked. He nodded and said, “I’m just feeling a little light headed.”

“You want me to take you to the nurse?”

“If you would.” The person next to him stuck up their hand, “I’m gonna take Kanade-kun to the nurse, he isn’t feeling well.” Hotori gave them a nod and you got up and they started leading you to the nurses office. “Anything else before we continue?” Hotori asked looking back to the crowd.

“I do! I’m sorry about what I said. The truth is, I like you, Prince!” Haruto looked in shock as Hinamori, the cool and spicy Amu Hinamori, confessed her love to someone she insulted that morning in front of the entire school population. Everyone stared in shock until, “We’re in the middle of an assembly, so please refrain from making unrelated comments. Also, I already like someone. I’m sorry.”

‘Oh my god. She just got rejected in front of the whole student body!’ Amu flew out of seat, and running out the door, bumping into you along the way.

“Ya know, I can go to the nurse myself. Thank you though.” He says before walking.

As soon as the closed he started chasing after her. Why? He didn’t know. What he did know is he couldn’t leave her like that.

He reached the school gates, panting heavily. Grasping his knees he looked to the side and saw her run into a construction site.

“H-Hinamori-san!” He stood back up and ran in after her.

Then he fell into a giant pit. “A-AH!” He shrieked as fell next to a girl, who shrieked in return.

“Ouch, what happened?” Haruto complained as he rubbed his head. He opened his eyes and lord and behold, Hinamori sat there with a shocked expression on her face.

“Kanade-kun? Did you...follow me?” Her eyes went wide and a small blush appeared on her face.

“Y-yeah, sorry if you didn’t want me too! It’s just, I don’t think I could leave someone alone when they were hurt so bad…” He looked down sheepishly.

Hinamori raised an eyebrow at his nervous stuttering, but let a small smile on her face. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, we’re still kind stuck in a hole. Sorry, I shouldn’t have just ran blindly.” He apologized.

“G-geez don’t apologize! It’s not your fault.” She yelled, making him flinch back in fear.

“What are we gonna do?” She stood up, looking at the sky.

“Amu-chan!” She looked at you, “Did you say that?”

Haruto shook his violently and pointed at her bag. She looked and the a pink egg with a big heart on it popped out of her bag. It flew in the air right in front of Hinamori’s face and started cracking.

“W-what?”

*POP*

“What are you doing Amu-chan?!” A small girl with pink in a side pony, wearing a pink tennis dress, pink sneakers, and a pink visor hat with a big heart attached to it yelled.

“Let’s jump!”

“J-jump?”

“Character change: From a girl who can’t jump, to a girl who can!” Amu’s hair clip changed from it’s x to a heart, as wing accessories appeared on her hands and feet.

“Hop! Step! Jump!”

With those three words, Hinamori flew into the air, before safely landing on top of the in-construction-building.

“Reo, can you help me get out of this hole?” Haruto asked as his chara flew out of his bag.

“I sure can!”

“Whisper! Shout! Sing!” With those words, a choker with a crescent moon trinket appeared around his neck, along with two purple ribbons that resembled diamonds appeared in his hair.. Haruto took a deep breathe in, crouched down, and jumped. He flew out of the whole and landed safely on the ground. He looked up at Hinamori, who was now talking to some guy with cat ears and a tail.

“Hmm, it looks like he’s holding something. It looks like...Eggs!” Haruto shouted, his personality more outgoing and energetic due to the character change. Hinamori ran towards the strange boy, reaching out for the eggs. She got em, but she was currently falling from the building.

“Hinamori-san!” Haruto went to jump and catch her but stopped when he saw something rip from Ikuto’s hand to her, and caused a bright light to appear. Haruto looked to the side, watching as Hotori ran up next to him.

“Is…” Haruto said.

“That’s…” Hotori followed.

Hinamori landed to the ground and jumped back up, very high in the sky. She wore a  pink crop top with ruffles at the bottom, a pink skirt with a red ribbon, two pink armbands, pink sneakers with pink leg warmers, a long red ribbon tied at her neck, and a visor hat with a large pink heart attached.

“Character Transformation!” Haruto and Hotori shouted.

“Amazing. She’s already progressed so far.” Hotori looked up in awe, as Hinamori flew down from the sky.

Before she untransformed and started plummeting to the floor.

“Reo, we should-”

“Holy Crown!” Hotori shouted a large yellow crown appeared from a staff he apparently summoned. Hinamori fell into it with a bounce. It faded away and she landed safely into the Prince’s arms.

‘Wait. The Prince.’ Haruto’s ribbons and choker disappeared as his face turned pink and he shuffled away from him.

‘I forgot! I’m supposed to be at the nurse’s office!’ Sweat appeared on his face as the cat boy from earlier landed on a blue bulldozer a little bit away from them.

“You again, little king?” The blue haired cat guy smirked, his tail wagging tauntingly.

“It’s against the rules to go after eggs right after they’re born!” Hotori yelled, setting Hinamori to the floor.

“Not to mention you tried to get your hands on the Humpty Lock. Tsukiyomi Ikuto!”

Hotori shouted to the now named Tsukiyomi.

“I think it’s your fault for leaving it there, nya!” Tsukiyomi’s shugo chara taunted.

“I won’t give you the Embryo!”

“Embryo?” Hinamori asked, looking at Hotori in confusion.

Tsukiyomi clenched his fist and raised it, a giant blue paw appearing. He swiped at us, but in the nick of time Hotori stepped in front of the two and shouted, “Holy Crown!”

The same golden crown from before appeared and absorbed the attack.

The winds from the attack caused Haruto to clench his eyes chut, only opening them when the winds died down.

“They’re gone.” Hinamori said.

“That was scary…” Haruto whimpered, stepping towards the two.

“He’s good at stirring up trouble. I guess he ran away.” Hotori turned around and gave the two of them a smile. He dug in his pockets and pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to Hinamori’s cheek with a charming smile.

“Are you guys okay? You’re not hurt, are you?” Haruto squinted as Hotori resumed to literally sparkle.

“I’m fine.” Hinamori said after a pregnant pause.

Hotori gave his handkerchief to Hinamori and turned to Haruto, “What about you? You were feeling sick earlier weren’t you? Do you want me to take you to the nurse?” Hotori laid his hand on Haruto’s shoulder, causing him to look down with a blush.

“I should be fine.”

“Hotori-kun, we need you back at the Guardians’ Assembly. Everyone’s waiting.” Fujisaki Nadeshiko had suddenly appeared, causing Haruto to flinch. Hotori nodded and looked at Hinamori, “You should go home for the rest of the day. See you.” Hotori started to walk, before stopping and turning to Haruto.

“Kanade-san, why don’t you come with us? We’ll walk you back to the assembly.”

“Oh, um, sure.” Haruto agreed before nervously walking next to Fujisaki.

“U-um.” Hinamori started, catching the attention of them.

“Um, t-this.” She pointed towards the lock at her chest. ‘It looks like…’ Haruto touched the earring on his right ear.

“Why don’t you hold on to it for now, Hinamori Amu-san. With that, you all walked away to leave Amu in her awed state.

“Oh, by the way Kanade-san where did you get that earring? It’s super cute!” Fujisaki complemented giving a smile to him.

“Oh, um, my mother gave it to me. She said she had gotten it from a friend, and wanted to give it to me as a birthday gift.” Haruto lifted his hair up a bit for them to see.

“It looks good on you.” Hotori complimented, and Fujisaki nodded her head along too.

“T-t-thank you very much…” WIth a red face, he looked down. The two of them laughed, “Well we’ll see you sometime soon Kanade-san.”

The walked back in the stadium, leaving him standing there red faced.

“You’re so lame, Haruto-kun.” Reo slightly annoyed at being ignored, insulted.

“H-hey, shut up!” Haruto shouted at his chara who just snickered and flew into his egg.

‘Today was kind of a good day. I wonder, could I call those three my...friends?’

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I hope you liked it! So, i'm not very good at dedicating myself but i'll try to get chapters out weekly?

I LOVE Shugo Chara. It was my childhood, I remember coming from school and immediately sitting down and watching it on my computer nonstop. It sucks not being able to find a lot of fanfiction about, so I thought i'd make one of my own.