#Freakout/Release

[phantombirds]

Hot Chip - Eleanor • Later with Jools Holland (2022)

[whentherewerebicycles]

the moon looked bigger in real life

[will-you-pick-me]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE CREATOR OF WEATHERING FEELINGS IS HERE TOO

[senorboombastic]

Live Review: Hot Chip at The Warehouse Project in Manchester 03 February 2023

Words: Mark Bowers As a huge fan of Hot Chip for nearly twenty years, the excitement of seeing them for the first time since late 2019 could not be quashed by anything – man nor beast. A train strike? Nah. Overzealous drug spaniel (incorrectly) detaining me on entry because I had a dog treat in my pocket? No sir, tonight I’m going to dance like it’s 1999 and under muted lights I’ll be raving…

[michibap]

cool for the summer ch.1

polytedschlatt

beach house

childhoodbff ted

5k words 💀

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-Ted had been promising you a road trip for forever

-literally since high school.

-And honestly he’s a little scared that if he puts it off any longer, you might actually show up at his front door with a firearm

-So, your post-grad celebration was the perfect excuse to hit the road with you!

-You, and a few other friends (who actually stuck to school while everyone else dropped out to focus on their social media careers) had finally earned their degrees

-So, the gang decided to rent out a house on the east coast for a week to celebrate and finally see each other after having gone basically off the grid for the past couple of months to wrap up finals

-The minute the reservation was confirmed, you were already on the phone with Ted, trying to find plane tickets for the two of you so that you wouldn’t have to brave LAX on your own

-You had the phone pressed between your shoulder and your ear, rapidly scrolling through the website to find a flight that was equally as cheap as it was survivable

-You’d sent him countless clips of public freakouts and doors flying off mid-flight on spirit, but here you were, mouse hovering over the check-out button

“I don’t know dude, it’s literally $45 round trip…” you muttered, anxiously biting the nail of your thumb

 “We will actually fucking die.” 

 “Then we’ll die with dignity. Our final stand against Big Aviation.”

 “Right, of course. Dying by fire is really sticking it to the man.”

-He hears you inhale, about to continue arguing before he finally intervened

- “I was actually wondering if you maybe wanted to drive?”

-The other line goes quiet, and he actually worries for a moment that you’re going to say no

-And then he hears the three beeps signifying the call has been ended

-And his stomach drops to his ass

-ohshitohshitohshitohshitthisissoembarassingfuckshit

-Before he has the chance to spiral too far, the black screen he had been staring at himself in lights up with an incoming facetime

-He quickly swipes and prepares to explain himself but before he has the chance you’re already off on your own tangent

- “Are you actually serious? Because if you’re fucking with me you’re actually sick and twisted.”

-Your face is close to the screen, admittedly looking a little haggard after finals had done you in, hair messy, under eyes dark, and skin pale from not seeing the light of day after basically locking yourself in the campus library for days at a time

-Either way, he couldn’t bite back his smile at the sight of ur cute lil face

- “You’re right, that was mean.” 

-He watches the excitement in your eyes dim and he knows you’re about to hang up-

- “WAITWAITWAIT IM SORRY IM JOKING” he pleads, knowing for a fact that you WILL hang up and possibly even put your phone in airplane mode for remainder of the day

- protecting your peace, as you call it

- luckily, you showed mercy and heard him out

-and very excitedly agreed to him picking you up two days prior to the first day of the reservation so that you could make the 37 hour drive from LA to wherever the fuck the house is (not accounting for stops, of course)

-He was kind of guilty that you guys didn’t have a fun goal or theme for the trip like there have been for others, you assured him you had no problem playing it by ear

-So, before the two of you even knew it, the first day of your expedition rolled around

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-It was the morning of, and Ted was enroute to your place, braving the two hour ride caffeine-free because you had pleaded with him to get a “fun little drink” from a newly opened coffee shop near your house

-He had been griping at the camera set up on his dashboard in the meantime

-content AND a healthy release so he wouldn’t be snappy once he picked you up

-So by the time he finally pulled up to the front of your house (and grumbled a bit about your shitty parking situation), he was only  little cranky

-But when your front door finally opened after he sent the text to let you know he had arrived, all of it was washed away

-You were bright and bushy tailed, looking like life had breathed back into you after finals had drained you of all your whimsy

-You were dressed comfortably, in an old tank and sweatpants that were a bit too big on you, so you rolled the waistband up

-He pointedly ignored how low they hung on your hips

-After a moment he remembered he had to be filming, and whipped out his phone to film you bouncing to the Tacoma with a bright smile, duffle bag slung over your shoulder

-Your roommate was standing in the door with her girlfriend, both of them with a cat in arm, making their little paws wave goodbye

-Ted laughed, zooming in on them for a moment before your face was right up in the camera

- “Good morning.” you greeted, rather formally

- He gave you a strange look, “...Hi.”

-You stepped up on the truck’s running board and stuck your head into the window, looking for the camera you knew would be on the dashboard,

- “Hi.” you greeted the viewers as well

- “Alright, get outta here” He chided, placing his palm on your forehead and pushing you back out the window, ignoring your disturbed “AGH!”

- “Put your shit in the trunk and let’s get this show on the road!”

-After giving you instructions on how to actually open the trunk, he turned to acknowledge the camera while you loaded your bag up

- “Alright, guys, hostage acquired. We’ve got 37+ hours until we-”

-He should have rolled up the goddamn window. 

-Instead of entering through the designated passenger side door

- you decided to hurl yourself through the driver’s window

-There was a moment of chaos as you tried to climb over both him and the center console, a mess of sharp knees and elbows, all that could be heard was incomprehensible bickering, manic laughter, and an occasional “OW”

-Once you were both settled, rather than providing any further explanation, Ted shut off the camera.

- “So where’s this coffee place you wouldn't quit yapping about?”

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-After about fifteen minutes and MORE unpleasant parking situations, you finally found yourselves in a very cute cafe with comfy chairs, lots of plants, and a handwritten menu that neither of you could read

“The Lana Del Rey?” you read excitedly,  having taken a photo of the menu so you could zoom in

“I don’t know…” He hummed, reading over your shoulder, “I think I’m just gonna get a caramel macchiato”

-You booed, getting on his ass for not trying something new

 “I just want something I know I’m gonna like, you know?”

- you only disapprovingly shook your head, clicking your tongue

-You two ordered your drinks along with a couple of fun pastries 

-And much to Ted’s pleasure, you ate your fucking words as the two of you watched the barista make your drinks

-The underpaid teenager crafting a beautiful macchiato for Ted, and for you…

- You watched in horror as they cracked open a can of coke, pouring it over the ice in the cup with your name on it, before topping it off with two shots of espresso. 

 “You’ll have to let me know if it’s good! It’s a new menu item, I’ve been a little scared to try it myself” they laughed, handing you the cup of murky, bubbling liquid.

- You took the cup with an awkward laugh and a thanks before making your way back to the tacoma, biting back giggles at the thought of consuming such a concoction.

-When you get back in the vehicle, Ted turns the camera back on with the explanation that the internet NEEDS a review of the Lana Del Rey flavored beverage. 

“Alright guys, we’ve got our little drinkies for the road, but first I think we need a taste test.” He says with a giddy laugh, he’s always been a sucker for kitchen potions, which is exactly what you ordered

 “Our total was $30 for two drinks and two pastries-” you deadpanned

“Thank you Mr. Biden!” you both sang, before breaking into giggles

“Okay, okay, we actually need to taste these.”

- You decided to try Ted’s first, both of you pleasantly unsurprised that the caramel macchiato was decent

-Then you both took a bite of each pastry, thoughtfully humming before trying to explain what was going on

-Then finally, your drink…

-Ted eagerly watched as you gingerly took a lil sip before flinching back, and watched as your expression shifted from disgust to confusion to surprise then back to confusion

-Once you come back to you give him a bewildered expression before going right back in for another sip and going through the process over again

- “Fuckin gimme that” he snatched the drink out of your hand and took a sip himself and had basically the same exact reaction

- You both take a moment to process before,

- “We can share.”

- “Yes, we can share.”

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-Relative to other trips he’s taken, two days is basically nothing, and goes by in an almost disappointingly quick blur

-He did basically all of the driving the first day, allowing you to relax and enjoy the scenery

-For the first hour you both sang obnoxiously to the playlist you’d been crafting together for years in preparation for your first actual road trip

-Then once your voices got a bit raw the volume was turned down with the intention of having nonverbal time, just for you to go on to yap about basically nothing and also everything (?) for another three hours

-At one point, you get a little cold for a tank top with how cold Ted keeps the truck to keep his sweat at bay, and you unbuckle so you can rummage through the back seat for a sweatshirt, coming back donning a hoodie of Ted’s that he hasn’t seen in weeks. 

-It’s not unusual to see you in  his clothes, but the combination of having gone a while without seeing you and the hoodie reemerging from the abyss left him a little discombobulated

-Definitely does not have to do with how cozy you look, a little flushed from the effort of rummaging in the back seat, your hair tousled from pulling the sweatshirt over your head, and swamped in excess fabric

 “Where the fuck did you find that??”

 “Back seat.”

 “Huh, I haven’t seen that thing in a while. It’s probably been in the back seat for a solid month at least.”

 “Yeah, that tracks. Smells like it.”

 “Fuck off”. 

-Eventually, the conversation lulls to an end and you’re both left in a comfortable silence

-That is, until he hears five quick clicks from the passenger seat

-You both side eye each other for a moment, before you break out into a sheepish smile and pull the pen out of your pocket, holding it out to him

 “You want?”

 “I’m driving.”

 “That’s not what I asked.”

- He shook his head with a smile, “I will later, we’re gonna have all week to be deviants”

“Also, I’m not smoking and driving, you fucking psycho.”

- You only simpered in response, shrugging as you take a drag and blowing it out the window

-once you’re decently high, you lounge in the passenger seat, head comfortably rested on where you have your arms folded on ledge of the window

-dazedly enjoying the scenery and the wind in your hair and blowing on your face as you hum along to the music on the radio

-and ted just smiles to himself, enjoying your company

-relieved that the two of you were able to fall back into sync easily after going so long without seeing one another or talking much

-not because of bad blood or anything, more-so life just taking the two of you in separate directions

-after high school, you’d moved to the west coast for school

-though as proud of you as he was, and as much fun as he had with his own college experience, he wouldn’t deny that there was a part of him that wishes you’d decided to stay closer

-just because he was able to handle the naturally growing distance between the two of you like a mature adult would, does NOT mean he enjoyed it

-during your time apart, he has met some of his closest friends who he would follow to the ends of the earth [threateningly]

-but no matter how hard he tries, he’s never been able to replicate how at home he felt with you

-while he was building up the courage to ask you to come on this trip with him, part of him was worried that it would be different now

-i mean, both of you were grown

-no longer elementary schoolers fighting with stick swords and having sleepovers, or teenagers bursting into each other’s houses and being asked by teachers where the other was when one of you was absent

-and both of you had developed significantly from then

- it would only make sense for the dynamic to have shifted at least a little bit

-and maybe it has

-but he glances over to where you have your hand dangling out of the window, your cheek comfortably squished against your shoulder as you doze off

-and decides that maybe he doesn’t mind

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-when y’all finally rock up to the motel you’d been planning on spending the night in, you’re both apprehensive

-the bright orange paint smeared on the cement building had become dingy and and brownish, and the office where you checked in had a strange funk to it

-and of COURSE the room only had one bed, which both of you could have tolerated, having done it before without issue 

(you were rated your friend group’s politest sleeper, but ted knew it was only because you sleep like a corpse, dead to the world and unmoving once you’re knocked. but it pairs nicely with ted, who is a notorious sleep talker and tends to toss and turn)

- you anxiously insist (ie FORCE) ted to pull the corner of the mattress up to check for bed bugs (after he had tried to assure you there were none)

-he tries to make you do it, with the excuse that he has to film, but you snag the camera out of his hands and begin filming

-later when he checks the footage, it’s a shaky recording  of him being like “There’s really nothing to worry about, this is clearly a trustworthy establishment” as he waltzes over to the dingiest mattress you have ever seen

-he goes to cockily lean on it, but has he pops his hip and settles a hand on the corner

-a fuckign MOUSE skitters out from under the pillows at the head of the bed, scampering dangerously close past ted’s hand before it hides under the mattress

-resulting in both of you shrieking, ted almost falling as he clumsily stumbles away from the dinky mattress, the camera shaking wildly as it records you leaving him to die and booking it out of the room

-Needless to say, the two of you decide to sleep in the car.

-ted tries to make the best of it, insisting that you guys sleep in the bed of the truck and pretend you’re camping

-he even drives another hour to find a scenic rest stop to settle at

-two find yourselves shoulder to shoulder on the uncomfortably bumpy truck bed, duffel bags for pillows

-after hearing the angry shuffling of your sleeping bag and another huff as you turn over, ted can’t help but open his fat fucking mouth to try and defend the situation

“It’s like we’re old timey pioneer pals, out on the road,” he brings a hand up to reach for the admittedly beautiful night sky (which tracks, seeing the two of you are in BUTTFUCK NOWHERE), 

“camping under the stars, out in nature, reconnecting with-”

-he’s cut off by the not necessarily distant sound of a pack of yipping coyotes

-after the raucous ends, both of you are sitting at attention, nervously looking out at the desolate landscape surrounding you, before looking at each other

-by the end of the night, the two of you end up getting a solid three hours of sleep after you drove another two hours and settled in a walmart parking lot, taking extra precautions by doing all of these strange “lifehacks” you had seen truckers on tiktok using

(the two of you groggily struggled untangling the seatbelts from the sidebars in the morning)

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-needless to say, both of you were a little grumpy the next morning

-ted insists he drives to the first rest station, the both of you agreeing that once you’re fed and caffeinated that you would do a good chunk of the driving today

-the two of you grab bad gas station iced coffees (ted side eyes you as you grab a concerning number of redbulls as well, but decides against making a comment when you glare)

-he settles into the passenger seat as you sync your phone to the car, so you could use your own gps and listen to your music, and ted would be allowed to catch up on all of the iphone time he had missed while he was driving yesterday

-however, he found himself unable to enjoy the internet

-seeing that he has one hand tightly gripping the grab bar (i call it the ‘o shit’ bar but i think that's the proper name), the other shakily reaching across the center console to feed you the donut holes the two of you had decided to share

-though he misses and smudges some of the powdered sugar on your face, too busy anxiously watching as you weave through traffic at what was definitely an illegal speed

“Dude, watch it!” you grumble around a mouthful of dry, cakey gas station donut

-ted pales when the truck swerves as you take one hand off the wheel so you can take a sip of your watery coffee

“How the fuck do you still have your license?”

-you lips curl into an impish grin as you use one hand to once again shift lanes, and the back of the other to wipe your mouth

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

-a couple of hours later, ted catches a few text notifications from a familiar number pop up on your phone where it’s nestled in a phone holder on the dashboard

-he glances over and sees you see it, before shifting in your seat, taking one hand off the wheel to bite at your thumb

-ted hums, an entertained grin spreading across his lips as he watches you squirm under the combined pressure of your itch to answer your phone and ted’s knowing gaze, 

“You gonna answer that?” he teases

AND I AM GOING TO PREFACE THIS BY SAYING:

-maybe it’s a little weird how invested he is in your relationship

-in his defense, it was originally his way of extending an olive branch out to you after an extended period of radio silence on both of your ends

-maybe a girlfriend of his wasn’t a huge fan of you (lord only knows why), and at her request the two of you go your own ways for a while

-which sucked, especially considering that the two of you were HYPED to be living on the same side of the country again

-while it was unfortunate, you respected her wishes (no matter how badly part of him wishes you hadn’t)

-both of you were left with an absurdly large amount of free time that usually would have been spent together

-he pretended it didn’t sting to watch from afar as you easily fill the space, making new connections, picking up new hobbies and brushing up on some old ones, thriving at school and working towards your future career

-so it felt like an obscure crossover when his co-host and dearest friend mentioned your name in passing

-maybe ted had been lowkey tuning him out, smiling and nodding as he prattled on, but it was like everything came to a screeching halt when he heard your name come out of schlatt’s mouth

-after making him repeat himself, he ignored the odd twist in his stomach in turn for smugness

-he had KNOWN the two of you would have some sort of connection when he introduced you to one another a while back, with both of you having an affinity for getting under people’s skin a shared sense of vicious competitiveness

-he really didn’t mean to become as involved in your relationship as he had

-Schlatt being into you seemed like his sign from the universe to reach back out to you, both to break the silence between both of you, and for scheming purposes (duh)

-as a messy bitch who lives for drama, of course he was playing both sides

-eagerly listening to you rant about schlatt before getting on call with him to act coy about knowing something that he doesn’t, and doing it the other way around with you

-MAYBE he got in a little too deep when his own relationship began to get a bit rocky, distracting himself with his new mission of hooking up two of his closest friends

-so it really wasn’t his fault that when he finally broke it off with his ex, it was so easy to fill his newfound free time with the two of you

-whether it be with either of you individually, or the three of you hopping online to play games together

-and besides, 

-it would be much more weird if the two of you didn’t encourage it as much as you did 

“Do it for me?” you ask, glancing over at him

-he grins, picking up his own phone to shoot his friend a quick text about being a “d1 cheeser” and provide some updates about how your travels thus far

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-ted insists that the two of you stop for an early lunch, needing a break from your notoriously bad driving

“I’m not bad, look!” you argue, pointing to the screen, “Could a bad driver shave three hours off of our ETA?”

“That’s insane.”

-of course the two of you make all of the fun stops for any interesting attractions, taking photos and recording some of your little side quests

-trying fun local restaurants when u guys drive thru cute lil towns :’)

-but the hours on the road all blend together, and before either of you know it, you’ve made it to the beach house you’ll be staying at

-the house is empty when the two of you walk in

-after checking the designated groupchat you learn it’s because they’d already gone to dinner, not knowing when you guys would show up

-so the two of you decide to unpack before you go and get something for yourselves

-you follow him up a scary spiral staircase, laughing when he hits his head

-he gives you a strange look when you follow him into his room

-he assumes it’s a force of habit, with the two of you having been automatically designated roommates since elementary school

-but it’s replaced with excitement when you open what he thought was a closet door, 

-but it was a fucking CONNECTING DOOR BETWEEN THE TWO OF UR ROOMS

-it’s a good thing the house was empty aside from the two of you, because your cheering definitely would have disturbed anybody else inside

-technically it was a jack and jill bathroom (both bedrooms have access), but it was still exciting nonetheless

-after unpacking, the two of you set out to find dinner, eventually deciding to just get takeout from a random diner

-you two have had the same fool proof order for forever: ted will get a burger and you’ll get a chicken sandwich (you HAVE to make sure you ask for them to be cut down the middle, so you each of you can have half), one large fry and a milkshake to share, and ted will get a rootbeer while you order a cherry coke

-both of you decide to bring the greasy bag back to the house and eat it on the beach, which is accessed through a small path in the backyard

-the two of you settle on a paddleboard that had been left on the sand, brushing shoulders as you eat in a comfortable silence, occasionally passing the milkshake back and forth (it was ted’s turn to choose the flavor, so ofc he chose oreo)

-you stand up when you finish a couple of minutes after him (he’s always been the faster eater), and he looks up at you expectantly, holding out a hand for you to pull him up by

-both of you break into another fit of giggles when you struggle to haul him up, stumbling backwards and planting your ass in the sand when he releases you

-you make your way back to the house, delighted to see that the lights are now on and to hear the sound of music and your friends chattering inside

-eager to join them, the two of you race back to the house, you win, though ted is hot on your heels

-your friends cheer when the two of you burst in through the back door

-you all exchange welcome hugs and congratulations to the few other graduates who were able to come, before settling on the couch

-it’s a bit of a tight squeeze, but you’re happy to squish yourself between ted and niki, going nonverbal as you enjoy the sound of idle chatter and watch the smash bros tournament happening on the TV

-a little spacey after a long day of traveling, but enjoying the company

-as everyone prepares to head to bed, your phone lights up with an incoming facetime call from schlatt

-the crowd regroups, surrounding you as you swipe to answer

-you don’t even get the chance to greet him, interrupted by a chorus of hellos from your friends

-you grin, content to sit back and listen once more, before your attention is drawn back to the phone when jay calls your name, 

“I should be there tomorrow afternoon. Don’t wash.”

-ted groans from where he’s sitting next to you, 

“You two are sick.”

-you only laugh, “I’ll keep it ripe for you, babygirl.”

-ted pretends to retch when schlatt brings the phone close to his face, aggressively ‘sniffing you through the screen’ before throwing his head back with a groan

-with a final giggle, you bid him goodnight before hanging up and heading upstairs

-ted showers first, both of you knowing that he takes less time and won’t use up all of the hot water on you (this was a hard lesson to learn, ted having had to take an unreasonable amount of cold showers before coming to the conclusion that he just had to go first)

-he’s laying in bed, his laptop propped up on his stomach as he edits some of the footage from the drive

-he looks up when he hears the connecting door open, finding you in the doorway in your pajamas with wet hair

-he raises an entertained brow, 

“You’ve washed.”

“Dude, I smelled like an abandoned chuck e cheese.”

-he makes no move to correct you as you crawled onto the bed like you owned the place, settling across from him on your designated side and scrolling on your phone

-both of you are content with parallel play time, but when it hits 1am, he glances over and finds you knocked out, phone resting on your chest as it gently rises and falls

–he grins, taking his phone out to snap a picture, unable to resist an opportunity to catch you lacking

-he goes to send it to schlatt, but pauses, his finger hovering over the send button for a moment

-it is objectively strange to send his best friend (your boyfriend) a picture of you sleeping in his bed

-and if it was anyone else, he was sure he wouldn’t dare

-but if it was anyone else, you wouldn’t be in his bed in the first place

-he decides to send it

-laughing when he receives a text back not even a few seconds later

schlagg: dubious creature

schlagg: i was wondering why she stopped answering

-he places his phone on the bedside table before reaching over and tearing the pillow out from under your head and whacking you with it

-having to thwack you a couple of times to wake you up

-when you do, you slowly sit up, groggily wiping your eyes with the back of your hand

“What is your problem?” you grumble, turning to blearily glare at him

-he really has no clue how your hair manages to become so wild the minute your head touches a pillow

-especially considering that you couldn’t have been sleeping for more than an hour, tops

“You gotta go.”

-you stare dumbly up at him, and he can practically see the cogs in your brain turning as you struggle to wake back up,

“What?”

“Go!” he laughs, bringing the pillow up to whack you again, but this time you block it, “Begone!”

-you stand up on wobbly legs, 

“Jesus, fine. I’m going.” you mutter, shuffling towards the door

-you pause in the doorway, turning to face him, 

“I’m keeping this open.”

-he’s unable to bite back another knowing smile, you’ve always had trouble sleeping in unfamiliar places without somebody by your side

“Fine. Now go on, git!”

-he watches you pad into your own room sending him a pathetic look over your shoulder before crawling under the blankets

-and admittedly, you do look lonely in that big bed

-all by your lonesome

-but before he gets the chance to conjure up any other courses of action, you turn off your light

-ted follows suit before rolling onto his side and falling asleep to the sound of the ocean outside and the faint sound of your even breathing from across the hall

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this may be my peak actually, idek if im gonna write another chapter for this

if i do it wont be out for a while

but it may be out eventually (key word), so if you enjoyed this keep an eye out i suppose

lowkey it was supposed to be my masterwork like i have this shit all planned out, its just a matter of transferring it from my brain to tumblr

also hockeygf smut is coming guys its just so hard bc fucking a man in theory is fine but in practice??? why god PLEASE like where is your coochie what am i supposed to do with this

[lisa-russell]

Off the Hook means something to me.

I was first introduced to Splatoon via a single piece of fanart. It was Octo Expansion, I grew intrigued and looked further on. And was introduced to the world of Splatoon.

I slowly read through all the lovingly written fan stories I came across on the Inkernet. Read the fancomics and lil blurbs people had on their belowved OC and Versions of the N.S.S.

Than I heard the music.

What wonderous and uinque sound the world of Splatoon has. Spawning epic remixes and Original Spatbands/Idol groups, based from these songs and tunes. Splatify and Youtube, led me to finding more than over 400 of these melodies.

I was than was gifted a switch, and a copy of Splatoon 2. I played it and finally understood why so many infish fell in love with this world, why it was such a hit over in japan...i could only watch others play, now I had the key to this world in my hands.

I loved the lore and sometimes silly, sometimes serious and sometimes sad aspects of each games main herostory/DLC. Those where a perfect way of getting to know the world and its Idols, and what profound power music has on its inhabitants.

Or how the Precursors (Humans) still left their mark on the world, in far more startling revelations as we found out from Splatoon 3, from a beloved immortal pyschic cat, to the tragic bonesyards of millions of lost lives and the Precursor Technology left behind by said humans.

I found myself smiling at the antics and downright funny moments of the games.

Than Octo Expansion came out and changed everything.

Giving release, freedom and light to many tragedies. The dark theme and horrifying discoveries found in the metro was a spin far from the colourful streets of Inkoplis or Octarian Territory.

OfftheHook became a bigger role in the game, I legit tried not to cry when the credits rolled...

Well you all know what came after that a few months later. The finalfest came and that victory decided the fate of Splatoons future to a greater degree than Splatoon 1 in certain aspects.

I waited, enjoyed the Splatoon Community until Splatoon 3 was announced and everying lost there clamming heads lol. I saved up from my Birthdays and bought S3.

It had its ups and downs but i cant lie, I am having a lot fun. I was freaking excited when Side Order came out. Bringing with it some much needed answers and closers to Octo Expansion and whatnot. The fact Offthehook was back was just inkcredible. I have a hate/love relationship with Salmonrun/Bigrun.

And now where just being bombarded with new content out of nowhere! And i thought we inkfish went crazy when splatoon 3 came out. Its shucking everywhere now lmao!

Between the recent Nintendo Summer2024 Magizine INTERVIEW, SummerNights Fest...and the sudden Starchfest(lol) the 8.1.0 update and than... a surpise drop Japan did at 12-am, 1 am in the morning. Next day, its spread EVERYWHERE.

Cue the international freakout wave. 😂🤣😂I'll admit i was surfing that wave too. 😅

When I saw the video, a squealed and was also a little sad knowing the end is coming soonish. I saw offthehook and was like thats my team,100%.

I am TEAM PRESENT!

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #52 — The DJD Once Again Prove to Be an HR Nightmare

Ratchet and Drift, looking fresh as hell in their matching paint jobs, stand on the cliff they made their cool entrance on last issue, as they snipe at each other over whether or not Drift personally knows the DJD. Considering how Tarn and Friends had a space-cocaine induced freakout over seeing Drift on the quantum duplicate Lost Light, they may want to talk a little quieter, especially with the face Helex is making.

You better watch out, Ratchet— this man's going to do Sakamoto-got-all-the-way-to-pencils shit to you!

The Pet takes the opportunity presented by our recently returned newlyweds being too busy flirting to pay attention to the fight at hand, leaping to chew on Ratchet's head. Luckily, Ten is an ally, even when he’s been beat to shit, and punches the shitty little Pomeranian into the air. Kaon, card-carrying freak and dog dad, takes this abject display of animal abuse about as well as he can.

Ratchet, having his gun eaten by the mouth pervert, is beginning to worry that he, his rich boytoy, and a mostly out of commission Ten might be sliiiiiiiiightly outnumbered against a dozen Decepticons, two of whom belong to the Super Murder Death Squad. Drift, after a bit of needling, heelies a dude’s face off, jumps into the air, does a bunch of sick flips, blocks a laser with a sword in such a way that it looks like he got shot in the dick, and then lands, like, 70 feet away to scoop up the Pet and threaten to chop its head off if Helex doesn’t stop trying to vore his boyfriend.

Kaon, #1 dog dad, orders everyone to fall back. Helex, who has Ratchet like 70% inside his smelting chamber by this point, can’t believe that Kaon’s ruining the fun. Helex releases Ratchet, letting him crowd onto Drama Point with Drift and most of Ten, as the Decepticons circle them. Drift, unfortunately, didn’t think past doing sweet flips to show off after his sabbatical from the comic run, and they’re back in the same situation they arrived to, but now one of them is holding a crusty little dog.

Then a platform descends from the sky, and we see what Ravage has been up to.

Grand theft auto!

Yes, it turns out that this cat can drive, and well enough to get the boys up and out of danger, though Ten’s size means that the lovebirds have to dangle off of his remaining arm. Drift still hasn’t put down the Pet. Sure hope that thing’s been socialized to cats.

Oh, who am I kidding? Kaon wouldn’t have bothered.

Speaking of Kaon, he looks like he’s about to cry, because someone’s kidnapped his princess baby angel, and Helex doesn’t even CARE, the heartless bastard, as he orders the other Decepticons to fire on the shuttle. They, of course, hit it, as there’s at least ten of these guys firing, and they’re all decently tall. The shuttle begins to lose altitude, and Ravage, who does not have traditional hands and is currently using his tail to man the control stick, attempts to crash as close to the “fortress” as possible.

Meanwhile, over at Megatron’s plinth, we get back to that whole thing where he surrendered himself to Tarn. Tarn, feeling an excuse to monologue coming on, says that he’s well aware of Megatron’s new schtick, and he’s not a huge fan of it. Megatron clarifies that he wishes to give himself up so that the rest of the Lost Light crew stranded on this planet might live, because this is his fault to begin with. Tarn agrees, reminding him that he paid for Tarn’s plastic surgery. Megatron states that he only brought Tarn to his side to hurt “someone”.

Three guesses who Megatron could have possibly hurting by bringing Tarn over to the Decepticons, and the first two don’t count.

Megatron thinks that by bumming around space on a borderline vacation, he’s returned to who he used to be (maybe he got his teaching license, who knows) and that the war was a waste of time. Tarn gets kind of intense here, because if Megatron wasted his life, what does that make Tarn? Tarn, who has decorated his home with nothing but Decepticon symbols? Tarn, who has had corpses nailed to his wall for the last couple million years? Tarn, who wears a fuckoff stupid mask every single day of his life, even while eating and trying to kill himself with space meth cut with time travel and gas station dick pills? Also, what about all the other guys who died trying to realize Megatron's ideals? What about the little guys, the cogs that made the machine run? What about Steve from accounting, whose husband left him, because he was too busy trying to balance the budget on Megatron's body remodels and Optimus Prime punching bags that also doubled as body pillows to come home? What about Steve, huh?

Megatron basically regrets everything he’s ever done, not that Tarn cares. Megatron then reveals that whole thing where Rewind tried to retroactively kill him as an infant, and how he sort of wished it had worked.

Tarn starts beating the shit out of Megatron before the guy can start going on about how his parents are Brainstorm and Whirl, though Tarn promises that this is just a healthy dose of tough love, as surely the wimp before him isn’t actually who Megatron is. Megatron doesn’t fight back, instead just staring sadly at the Autobot badge Tarn slapped off of him. This is really starting to piss Tarn off, as he was really hoping to beat some of the fire back into his former mentor and idol. This is when he starts trying to choke Megatron, even though their species doesn’t breathe. Still, I’m sure Tarn’s stiletto nails hurt something fierce.

Megatron then recalls his conversation with Velocity, and states that if the fool’s energon DID alter his personality, it was probably for the best, and he wouldn’t want to go back. Tarn, who has based his entire selfhood on the thing that Megatron threw away to live out his probation on a cruise ship, takes this statement with all the tact and level-headedness we’ve come to know him for.

Tarn is just one more double fusion cannon blast to the chest away from smiting Megatron utterly, and he’s fully committed to doing so. However, he gets distracted by the sound of Elton John’s “The Bitch is Back” coming from across the field.

WHO LET THIS MOTHERFUCKER OUT OF HELL

Anyway, it looks like Ravage can, in fact, drive pretty well, as the shuttle did crash pretty close to the “fortress”. Swerve, who still really wants to make up for his shitty boss behaviors and also accidentally dragging Ten into a microcosm of hell, lets Ten know that they saw his floor graffiti, and that it might actually work. Magnus, who still has his arm off, does his best to not kick Swerve across the room as he scurries underfoot, as he drags Ten inside the building.

Skids intercepts Ratchet to welcome him back, and also ask how the hell he knew to come to Necroworld. Apparently he and Drift had received a call from the handy dandy phone that he had given First Aid, who First Aid had then regifted to Velocity, just in case some bullshit happened. Velocity’s introduction to Ratchet is rough, as she manages to call him grumpy, old, and stubborn as a mule in the span of about fifteen seconds. Ratchet is mostly concerned with the fact that the Lost Light replaced him so soon after his return. Nobody tell him about Velocity’s track record with the medical exams, he might just shoot off into space to beat First Aid to a pulp for leaving her by herself.

Over in what might be a closet, Rodimus runs across Drift sitting in the dark and sharpening one of his swords. Drift seems to have used his exile to remember that he does, in fact, have some semblance of self-respect, as he doesn’t immediately forgive Rodimus for throwing him off the ship that he paid for, only to have given himself up as the real culprit behind the Overlordening, like, a week later, thus negating Drift’s sacrifice, and then never coming to find him, despite the fact that they’re supposedly friends, and, again, the ship is in Drift’s name, as was the crew’s allowance money. How the Lost Light has survived financially without Drift is unknown.

Rodimus knows that he sucks and is the worst, but he was really worried that Drift wouldn’t like him anymore, so he’d sort of been kicking the issue of “finding my ex-TIC to tell him he got publicly humiliated for nothing” down the road, to the point where Ratchet had gotten sick of it and went to solve the problem himself.

Of course, the meta reason for Drift not being found was so that Shane McCarthy could have his OC back, as well as Ratchet, for the miniseries Transformers: Drift— Empire of Stone, well known for being sort of silly and introducing the phrase “be shoosh” to Drift’s lexicon. In it, Ratchet found Drift traipsing around the edge of the galaxy being a neutral (in terms of war) hero to organic species affected by Decepticon aggressions, before crashing on a planet where Drift, back when he was “Deadlock”, had found a mystical stone army, one that Gigatron (a dude who totally isn’t anime Megatron) wanted to harness the power of, so that the Decepticons might claim victory over their enemies. Hellbat, Gigatron’s second in command, had gone mad doing nothing but killing over millions of years, and had been modifying the stone army in secret to do his bidding so he could "kill everything". Then the stone army woke up, Hellbat died, Gigatron died, and Ratchet went to take Drift to get detailed, because he looked like he'd been ridden hard and put away wet.

Also, if you think about it, having two former high-ranking Decepticons turning to the Autobot side being on the Lost Light’s high command might have been too many redundancies to make Megatron’s arc stand out. Perhaps, had Megatron not been added to MTMTE’s roster so late in the game, Rodimus WOULD have gone looking for Drift, finding him just in time for the DJD to catch wind that they hadn’t actually super nightmare death murdered Deadlock after all.

Drift, who can’t say no to Rodimus's puppydog face, lets Rodimus sit with him on the floor, as he apologizes for the fact that by coming here, Drift and Ratchet have unwittingly signed up for Tarn’s Political Theory and Dismemberment Slam Poetry Night, but he mega-promises that they’ll come up with something together to get through this. Drift appreciates the sentiment, but knows that Rodimus is just saying this to make him feel better.

Back at the worst fan club meetup in the galaxy, Tarn elbows Overlord in the throat and tells him to fuck off. Overlord tells him that he knows Tarn never finished his degree and only acts like an academic for the aesthetic. Tarn transforms to shoot him while reminding Overlord that at least Megatron’s spoken to him in the last few thousand years. The two duke it out with their tank modes, Overlord KRUMPing all over Tarn, before the theatre kid kicks him off and questions why exactly Overlord is even alive, given that he chainsawed his head off last year. No word on if he’s bothered to ask this same question about 75% of the people he’s here to super murder.

Overlord simply states that someone found him floating out in space and fixed him up, because it turns out that they both wanted to go after Megatron and kill his ass dead, because Overlord is sort of sick of not getting the attention he so obviously deserves. When Tarn, ever the opportunist, attempts to make a team up deal, Overlord tells him to shut up.

And then they realize they lost the old man they were fighting over.

Great work, fellas.

Over with the Autobots (and Cyclonus), Rewind’s outside, looking at that memorial to the disappeared and trying to figure out why the Necrobot laid out the names in the way that he did. He’s currently near the top, where you can see most of Roller’s name, someone whose name ends in “gator”, and Dreamwave Production’s smoldering corpse, which makes me wonder if Alex Milne ever did get all the money he was owed from his work with them. Rewind, who last dealt with the DJD not even a year ago, is trying really, really hard to not think about how many needles they’re going to jam into Chromedome’s eyes this go around.

Of course, Nautica, who has come out to find Rewind, doesn’t give a shit about Rewind’s PTSD. She wants relationship advice! She’d ask Chromedome, but apparently he’s taking a nap, still worn out from stabbing Tailgate in the brain after he rainbow-exploded all over the ship. Which happened months ago.

You know, at the rate he’s been going, Chromedome probably wouldn’t have lived too far past sunset anyhow.

Anyway, Nautica wants to know if, on Cybertron, you have to be besties before you can get hitched, because that’s how it works on some of the other colonies. She specifies that this ISN'T how it works on Caminus, which is good, given how problematic that would be, considering you need to be best friends with someone by the time you're five weeks old, and there's no telling if they're cool with platonic polyamory. Rewind informs her that it’s either one or the other on Cybertron, no double-dipping, and god help you if it’s a situationship. Nautica is asking this because she’s realized that she can’t waffle about on committing anymore, seeing as she’s probably going to die in the next hour or so, and she’d rather use that time to enter a queer-platonic partnership than get her face fixed.

Back at the Peaceful Tyranny, Tarn has, in fact, managed to bring Overlord to reason, much to Deathsaurus’s confusion and derision, if his squiggle face is anything to go by. Overlord, smug as fuck, informs Deathsaurus that in exchange for his compliance, Tarn has agreed to let him personally murder Megatron while everyone watches, because surely Tarn couldn’t actually kill his idealogical idol, because he’s a pussy. Tarn is being very brave about this, only letting the spot blacking on his linework show on his face, as his fists shake with rage.

Then Kaon shows up, begging they pull back their forces until the Pet has been returned, and the spot blacking gets a little heavier.

Tarn, who has had a very long day of tactical meetings, phone calls, facing his fallen idol, having a very unsatisfying beatdown with said idol, and dealing with known freak Overlord, handles Kaon’s inability to be a big boy about misplacing his shitty little dog with all of the tact and decorum we’ve come to know him for— he gives Kaon a big, beefy hug, acknowledges just how much Kaon loves that shitty little dog, and then makes sure that Kaon never has to worry about a thing ever again.

That’s a series wrap on Kaon! Let’s give him a hand, folks!

Tarn, who has had just about enough of Overlord in the last half hour, smashes Kaon’s head onto Overlord’s tits, covering him in viscera, as he demands he be treated with respect, because this is HIS house, where HE’S paying the bills and calling the shots, so help him god. Nickel is very displeased that Tarn’s killed one of the Twinksome Twosome. No word on how Deathsaurus feels about this, considering that a big reason he’s working with Tarn is because he refused to kill the rest of the DJD when demanded to do so, thus showing his dedication to his men. Also no word on how the rest of the DJD are going to handle Tarn decapitating their weed man.

Tarn tells everyone to pony up, as they’re about to go over and handle all the silly little bastards hiding out in the Necrobot’s “fortress”.

Speaking of which, it looks like Megatron made it home, despite Tarn blowing his tits clean off with that cannon blast. Rodimus and Ratchet carry him inside, as Magnus is probably too busy not getting his arm put back on to help, and Megatron is using the last of his energy to hold the Autobot badge Tarn slapped off his chest earlier.

Sure hope Ratchet didn’t forget to tell Drift about his old boss being co-captain of the ship, or else this is going to be a very nasty surprise for both of them— we've already seen that Drift loves to freak out and kill sick people.

[gacha-incels]

TBH

Looking at the CN gacha space right now, Situation may get even worse with current “有男不玩” ("If there is men, [I] don't play") movement in CN. They basically want devs to kneel to their demand to get rid of female MCs (only male MCs are allowed for self-insert) and all playable males, so "stinky female dogs" (as they refer to female players) stay away from their games. Also they emphasize, that they are "Number One" paying costumers and don't want their money to be wasted on creating content for female playerbase.

And we kinda see that happening ... I guess? correct me if I'm wrong

My friend told me if this goes on : in the next 1 to 2 years, all gacha will be all female cast aka the female players will flock away while incels stay.

Which for me : I doubt it's permanently but i won't be surprised?

Also Why when it comes to gacha incel I see it's always CN and KR? I tought JP had incels? or they're just the least vocal insufferable?

Edit- here’s some more info thx to @megafreelyfuzzystudentthing-blog ! “mixed toilets” is crazy. this type of misogynist gamer male is everywhere they just freak out about different things, while I think their level of hatred and vitriol towards women remains the same.

in regards to if we are seeing that right now, the majority of these games have been created with a male target market in mind for years and I don’t think there’s been an overwhelming change in the market with regards to that. I think even one game like Genshin being very successful and having multiple male banners in a row and male character designs that the men playing hate while being mixed sex is enough for these guys to think they’re “losing” this no girls allowed gacha playground, so they bug out and act like every gacha now has a feminist mandated fanservice male character they release every other patch for women. but because of the overwhelming success of GI, this shows the greater market it’s worth it to invest in getting female fans, and this is what these men are afraid of. this is also why they specifically use Genshin as the “Genshinification” of gacha, meaning adding male characters that appeal to women and making a mixed sex gacha. So in order to deter this from happening any further, they have to cause a big enough ruckus so that studios think “it’s not worth it to have to deal with all of this,” the end goal being gacha remains a separated boy’s club. this is just a basic read of the situation for anyone who is unfamiliar. It’s disgusting the way they talk about women but I think this is also the reason they emphasize how much more money they have and spend. But the way you write about it, do you see them ramping up tactics significantly? I’m interested.

edit lol I just saw this 💀 I would think things like bot spamming and AI use are going to become much more frequent. the second post talks about this so I added it. It’s kind of just gossipy but it talks about botting and the attitudes there. the hate they have specifically for this character is fucking unbelievable. I looked up this story since these guys were fucking losing their minds and everything seemed so benign. but the thing is he’s still used as a main character in stories and events so this type of freakout doesn’t do shit…and it seems like they’re able to remove the bot comments and mass one star reviews after a while anyway? maybe if the company was smaller. when I check the revenue it still seems to be making a huge amount of money

In the next 1-2 years in terms of tech it looks like the trend will be new 3D gachas and more 2D gacha studios transitioning to 3D. for the companies making the switch to 3D I think it could go fine or it will be like what happened to some actors with the transition from silent films to talkies. designs will depend on how much money has been invested and predicted to be made. From what I’ve seen it kind of looks like more of the same, either all female or all female with a couple male characters. this is typical. jiggle physics when a woman breathes like wuthering waves, “feet quality increase update” like snowbreak or another Arknights game you can say is just different than other gachas (jk). none of this looks like a huge shift in either direction but idk i could be totally wrong and something crazy could happen. let me know if I’m missing anything but this is the kind of thing I’ve been seeing.

in terms of this blog, right now it primarily focuses on the South Korean gacha incel phenomenon, I only started looking into this Chinese incel movement wrt gacha because I was able to find a little more information in English and I was curious but it isn’t a focus or mainstay. I haven’t put much here from Japan because I typically don’t check out their social media that much and like China it isn’t a focus, but off the top of my head I remember the FGO fans going after artists on twitter if they didn’t like the way a character was drawn, like sending congratulations to an artist that his father had died and that he deserved it??? After this he deleted his social media I believe, it was the artist for Parvati. Stuff like that. They have that otaku idol culture and I’m not sure if that bleeds into the gacha scene but I would think that would be the type of crossroads where you would find this gacha incel behavior. I hope this was a helpful answer and not just me rambling lol I’m always worried about this

[teenytinyjimin]

je ne sais pas (j. hoseok)

dans mon esprit tout divague, (in my mind everything goes wild)

je me perds dans tes yeux (i lose myself in your eyes)

je me noie dans la vague de ton regard amoureux (i drown myself in the wave of your loving gaze)

je ne veux que ton âme divaguant sur ma peau (i only want your soul going wild on my skin)

summary: in which two strangers spend an unforgettable day together without actually getting to verbally understand each other.

pairing: hoseok x reader

word count: 2.8k

tags: fluff, language barrier, idol!hoseok, quebecois!reader, strangers to lovers, im bad at this tagging stuff

warnings: none, just enjoy some sweet hoseok fluff <3

author’s note: im really excited about this one yall 😭 i love the idea of language barrier romance because just think about it... u love someone so much that talking to them doesn't matter as much as the memories u create with them.. god ok ill stop speaking please please enjoy!

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──

The province of Quebec is often quite peaceful for about 85% of the year, with the exceptions typically being one of two things. First, there's always the typical influx of tourists that happens during peak times of the year like summer, Christmas, things like that. However the second exception is typically related to whatever artist is in Montreal for the Canadian leg of their world tour. It wasn't uncommon for there to be a little bit of buzz around the famous singer in question, however no one seemed to go harder than kpop fans when their group or soloist of choice was coming for a show or two.

You weren't really a fan of kpop in the way that many of your friends were. Sure, you've listened to some songs before, but you never felt the desire to get invested in any of the artists or the lore that came with them. It would be nice to hear your friends babble on about a new song that was released or a new tour that was announced, however you were absolutely not expecting the absolute freakout that was to come when BTS announced that they'd be doing a show in Montreal.

"Can you believe it?" One friend asked you with excitement. Yes, you could. They were famous. Of course they were going to come to Canada for a world tour. It's not that you weren't excited for your friends, who called themselves 'Army', but you just weren't as invested so it didn't mean as much to you. It also didn't help that a lot of their discussions with fellow fans and the things they'd post relating to BTS on their social media profiles were in English.

The majority of Quebecois people were able to communicate in English as well as their native language of French, but for some reason your family lived under a rock and you didn't learn anything beyond basic greetings and conversations in English. You felt rather left out because it felt like you were behind your friends and everyone else around you, however as you grew older you tended to not let it bother you that much. Since French is a prominent language in Quebec, you weren't bothered about language barriers and knew you could get around and live life normally without worry.

Since your friends were much deeper down the Bangtan rabbit hole, they were able to secure floor tickets to their Montreal show and were extremely busy completely overthinking the event and what they wanted to wear. It was now the day before the show and they were last-minute panicking, roaming the stores of downtown Montreal to put together outfits that were both cute and appropriate for the vibe of the concert.

Given that they were rather busy with this, you decided that this would be a weekend to yourself where you could peacefully do whatever you wanted. The quaint cafe you work at full-time decided to close for the weekend given the occasion (apparently the owner was also an Army), so it was a perfect opportunity for you to go down to the local park and do some reading on a bench.

And that's exactly what you did. You found yourself parked on the lawn of Mount Royal Park, right next to the lake. You brought some light reading with you, a small romance novel that involved the typical coffee shop trope, prepared to do some reading but also some people watching in between. It was absolutely perfect, and you couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the weekend. As you peacefully read your cliche novel, cup of iced coffee from a local coffee shop in-hand, you thought the day couldn't get any better. Until it did.

"Hey, excuse me, can you help me?" You looked up from your book to see a boy standing a short distance away from you. He had the warmest smile on his face and his eyes were bright with cheer. You tilted your head slightly, not too sure what he was asking. After a minute of silence, his smile dropped slightly.

"Uh... E-English?" He asked. It was clear that he was struggling with his words as well, even though you didn't speak the language. You shook your head, a slight frown on your face. "Français?" You ask in response, to which he mirrors you and shakes his head in return. The boy looks down for a second, clearly stumped as to what to do at this point. Part of you thought that he was about to walk away, however his feet didn't move from where he was standing.

After a second, he looked back up, his sweet smile once again appearing on his face. With his phone in hand, he pointed at it, then pointed at himself, then pointed at you. Was he asking for your number? Raising an eyebrow, you started to shake your head, however you watched as his smile dropped again and he shook his head rapidly. "No! No!" He said frantically, before mimicking the act of taking a photo, making a little 'click click' noise. He wanted a photo!

Finally understanding what he was saying, you grin and nod, causing him to squeal in delight. He approached you briefly to hand you his phone before backing up toward the lake a little more. You start to turn his phone landscape before he shakes his head and lets out a little yelp, indicating that he wanted the photo to be in portrait mode. You giggle at his antics as he attempts to pose in the way he wants, admiring his efforts to not only have a good photo but also to communicate with you.

Once it seems like he's ready for you to take the photo, you begin clicking the photo button and watch as he begins to move a little bit to hit different styles of poses. And wow, this man was incredible at modeling. You watched in wonder as he effortlessly moved his body in all kinds of directions, going from casual to silly to cute and back to casual. He was absolutely gorgeous, there was no denying that. A ten in a world of fives.

After a couple minutes, he stops posing and giddily bounces back over to you. When he takes his phone back to look at all the photos, he makes a couple of 'woaaahhhh' noises, clearly impressed with your photography skills. You turn away as a blush creeps to your cheeks, flattered that he's happy with the photos. When you look back you watch him slightly bow to you in thanks before pointing to himself. "Hoseok," He says, making sure to enunciate each part of his name in the correct way so that you know how to say it.

You smile and nod, offering your name back to him, to which his smile grows into one of the most beautiful smiles you have ever seen. If it weren't for your impeccable self-control, you probably would have fainted the very first time he smiled at you, given how absolutely charming he was. However, this most recent smile made you a little weak on your feet. You were able to tough it out and stay strong, but God, he was just stunning.

You go to sit back down on your spot in the grass, but before you get the chance to you feel a gentle hand grasp your wrist. Face hot with shyness, you peer back over to him and notice his smile has dropped. You watch as he points toward the exit of the park and into the main city, and gives you a 'come on' motion, indicating that he wanted you to come with him. If this would have happened a few minutes ago when he first approached you, you might not have taken the offer. But now that you've gotten to somewhat know this breathtaking stranger, it was an offer you couldn't turn down. Grabbing your book and iced coffee from off the ground, you decide to follow him out of the park.

As you step back onto the streets of Montreal, walking with this random man, you watch as he turns to you and thinks for a second. You can tell he was trying to figure out how to communicate his next thought, so you remain silent and patient. After a second, he points at his eyes, and then gives this huge gesture with his arms, almost like he's expressing something blowing up. Letting out a soft giggle, you tilt your head slightly, resulting in a laugh coming from his own mouth. His laugh was so loud, sweet, and full of joy, and it was like pure honey dripping from his tongue. He retries his previous charades, now acting like he is looking at something with his hand above both of his eyes. He then goes 'woahh!!' and gives an amazed look, and you realize that he's asking to see some of the highlights of the city. With a soft nod, you take his hand, watching a soft blush creep to his cheeks as you pull him along the street and show him everything he needs to see in your beautiful city.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

After spending hours with Hoseok, showing him about everything in Montreal and taking a picture of him with it, you found yourselves once again back in the park where you first met. It was a rather chaotic day, pulling the boy around and watching his face light up at absolutely everything, but what seemed to be weirder was the fact that multiple times during your tour you guys received a few looks and even whispers. Every time that it happened, Hoseok would indicate to you that he wanted to move on and go to the next spot while also pulling up the light scarf that he had around his neck to cover his mouth and nose. You thought that it was rather bizarre but dismissed it as people being disrespectful since he was a rather loud and excited tourist.

Now, though, it was just you and him, sitting in the grass in front of the lake as you ate a late lunch/early dinner. He asked you to go with him to a local store where he went around and picked out a bunch of ready-made food as well as a bottle of champagne, paying for it all and implying that he wanted to eat it with you back at the park. Considering this stranger was doing more than anyone had ever done for you in the last twenty-something years of your life, you were beyond flattered and at this point you were hardcore swooning for him.

You half expected your meal to be quiet and consist of you guys looking at the lake, looking at each other, and silently eating your meal. But this was Hoseok, the man you had learned was anything but quiet. Even though he couldn't speak your language and you couldn't speak his, he was telling you all kinds of stories through the power of charades and sound effects. For most of the time, he had you in tears, laughing at his impeccable sense of humor and all-around silliness. But he also provided you with moments of peace so you could eat without choking, which was rather respectful of him, you thought.

After a while of fun storytelling, you two fell silent. You gazed over at the lake, watching as the sun made the water shimmer, and let out a sigh. When you looked back over to Hoseok, you caught him staring at you, causing a blush to creep to your cheeks. Raising an eyebrow, you nudged him as a way to ask 'what are you looking at?'. Shaking his head, he hesitantly stretched out his arm to wrap it around your waist. Just by looking at him you could tell he was internally freaking out, his eyes wide with nervousness. You smiled softly and inched your way closer to him, accepting his embrace as you rested your head on his shoulder.

There was something about this man that was so much different from anyone else that you had ever met. His charisma, his kindness, his energy – all of it was so attractive. It was the fact that he wasn't just a pretty face, he was a pretty human. You could tell he was raised right with a heart of gold and you felt beyond lucky to have ever met him in the first place. For him to have asked you of all the people in Montreal to take a picture of him made you feel extremely lucky, because had he not approached you, the two of you would have never met.

He pulled back a little bit to prompt you to remove your head and look at him. You watched as he pointed at himself, then cleared his throat before singing a little bit of a song. His singing voice was as sweet as can be, and you were about to just sit there and admire him, until you realized that the song he was singing was familiar. You didn't quite know what the name of the song was, and he wasn't singing it in quite the right tone, but you knew it was by BTS. The kpop group that was currently in Montreal and about to perform the following day.

Your mouth gaped open as you realized what was happening. You didn't even realize that you had been spending the entire day with a member of BTS. The people looking and whispering throughout were probably people who recognized him, not people who were judging him. And he was hiding his face because he didn't want to be recognized. He just wanted to spend the day with a beautiful girl and feel like a normal human being. You didn't blame him for not telling you sooner, though. It's not like you're a diehard fan of his group, but you probably wouldn't have looked at him the same way had he told you immediately.

After processing what was happening, you closed your mouth and smiled, giving him a vigorous nod. Once he gave you a smile in return, you went back to resting your head on his shoulder and grabbing your glass of champagne to hold. You wanted to show him that it was cool, everything was fine, and things weren't going to change. You liked him as Hoseok, the boy he introduced himself as when he eagerly asked you for a picture earlier. Not the kpop idol that stands in front of thousands on a stage and performs for them.

As time continued to pass and the sun got to a point where the day started to become sunset, you two sat in blissful silence while enjoying one another's presence. After a while Hoseok once again nudged you, causing you to look up at him. You watched as he once again admired your face, a blush creeping to your cheeks as you became shy from the eye contact. Just as you were about to look away he reached his hand over to brush a strand of hair behind your ear, and then rested that hand against your cheek.

At this point there was no need for charades because all you needed to do was look into his eyes and he told you absolutely everything you needed to know. He dipped his head down slightly as you both pulled each other in for a kiss, his sweet lips meeting yours in absolute harmony. Your stomach did about five thousand backflips as adrenaline coursed through your veins and your brain went fuzzy. Whether you wanted to admit it or not, this was a moment that you were waiting for practically all day. Little did you know, however, this was a moment that he had been anticipating even before he spoke to you for the first time. It all started when he saw you from a distance and his heart almost beat out of his chest because he was so enamored by your beauty.

As you both pulled away from the kiss, you watched as his mouth curled into the sweetest heart smile and he leaned in once again to peck the tip of your nose. You knew that today was going to be absolutely perfect, but your new romance made it about ten times better than perfect if that was even possible.

It's safe to say that the next day you were at barricade at the biggest concert of the year in Montreal, courtesy of BTS' resident rapper and dancer, J-Hope. Or, as you knew him, your smiley Hoseok.

[smilestrawbunny]

Bunny, do you plan on releasing any of the old unused sprites from earlier versions of Berrywitched: The Harvest back when it was in the previous art style? Along with any other content regarding the now cancelled Fairytale Freakout? It'd be nice to see what didn't get used.

Oh yeah! I can definitely do that. I’ll probably release the old harvest stuff as bonus content in an art book maybe or such… Fairytale Freak Out Stuff I already shared all the cgs I made, but I’m happy to share any more sprites of the characters if anyone wants them!

[loiswasadevil]

My life isn't satire. If you think I'm a Fake Family Guy kin Like those around me then you need to think harder because you would be wrong. I wake up and sometimes I make breakfast and I watch Family guy Until i shift (To Spooner street, in Family Guy) And when i come back I watch My favorite Show You guessed it Family Guy Until i go to sleep Or I just shift again. I am the master of this show and I long to be the master of my mind. Family Guy is more than Cartoons and a story It's a different universe and I won't interact with anyone trying to discredit my beliefs. Since i was maybe 2 years Old I have had hazy memories of my life as Lois Griffin That confused and disturbed me, And then as I grew up these memories started to align with my life. When I started watching Family Guy When it released I began to notice something that nobody else noticed, And i confided in my older brother and he believed me; About her Devil's Heart. Lois Griffin was given a Devils Heart from the Hatred of her Family. I have tried to lock away this Devils Heart but It comes out with a Catalyst, Which is most commonly The antics of Peter, and most recently anonymous people on this site. You can notice it in Lois too, Like in the famous Christmas Freakout in Season 3 Episode 16, You can pinpoint the moment the catalyst unlocks her Devils Heart It's easy to see it. The Devils Heart caused by our Parallel trauma in both Universes still exists but I try to lock it deeper every day and gain control of it and its power. If you think I am doing this to be funny or to get a ruse out of people then reflect on yourself and Watch Family Guy and you will understand everything. If you don't believe in reality shifting and universes You are ignorant because there is proof of these things. If you don't believe in Kin and Kin memories then you are ignorant because There are millions with Kin memories all over But I am one of the Only Lois Kins with fully canon memories. If you don't Believe in a Devil's Heart then Watch Family Guy. The numbers of People who see her Devils Heart are growing it's becoming indisputable. I understand it can be hard to notice and I may be naive because I am blessed with a greater understanding of Family Guy than most in this Universe so I think it is easy to see my Devils Heart but the others have given me faith.

[extraordinaryhistories]

#1 – 'We Are What You Say' (A Sun Came, 1998)

The candles are lit. The incense is burning. The choir is in the stalls. The text is on the pulpit, open halfway. The pews are full. The acolytes are hushed. The organ is playing a low E. The bishop is there. His hand is raised. The amber light flickers over his green Michigan t-shirt. He is ready to begin.

---

For those lucky – or foolish – enough to have discovered a copy of A Sun Came in 2000, ‘We Are What You Say’ must have been multiple things all at once. Impressive. Ambitious. Carefully written. Spellbinding, even. But yet also – and this is just undeniable, and Sufjan would probably tell you this himself – the product of standing on the shoulders of giants. ‘We Are What You Say’ has the homespun woodwinds of Celtic folk, the meshing guitars of Nick Drake, the hushed voice of Elliott Smith, the storminess of Fairport Convention, and the ending percussive freakout of early Pink Floyd. It was far from unprecedented. What does make Sufjan unique from the very first song he ever released, however, is that only he would dare bring these influences together at all, let alone convincingly do so. He would develop his own inimitable style very soon; he is not quite there on track one, and that is perfectly fine. ‘We Are What You Say’ is a stunning mélange of Sufjan Stevens’ influences – and arguably the single crowning achievement of A Sun Came. A high bar to clear, that is not. But clear it he does.

And this is all being rather unfair. ‘We Are What You Say’ does carry with it one of the most distinctive Sufjan hallmarks, something that he would develop further across the rest of his career: a radical simplicity. The song is in E minor, and the only chords used (prior to the wild outro, which introduces a seventh and a sixth, elevating the tension slightly) are the first, third and the fifth. Rise, rise, resolve, repeat. Underneath all the trappings of the arrangement, ‘We Are What You Say’ has about as simple of a foundation as one could possibly expect. Much the same with the melodies, dancing around simple scale degrees and resolving neatly on the E (only the double-tracked harmonies, and some of the woodwind lines, provide a degree of uncertainty.) He may be no more than five minutes and twenty-one seconds into his recording career, but there is already an effortless sense of confidence here, of trust in the essentials.

What else do we learn about Sufjan on ‘We Are What You Say’? If anything, we don’t learn so much as we are misled. This song is mysterious, languid, obscure, intimidating. Sufjan is many things, but he is rarely those things. You do not listen to ‘We Are What You Say’ so much as you stumble into it; it is the otherworldly juncture between service and séance, held in a misty church of unclear denomination with a choir dressed in pagan masks. It is a song with weight and heft, with double-tracked vocals and a small orchestra of caterwauling instruments making the constant evocation of the title – its unnamed ‘we’ – feel genuinely mighty. So much of Sufjan’s catalogue finds solace in a delicate, melancholic solitude: not so with ‘We Are What You Say’. We are many, and we have a sermon, and we have a song.

More fitting is the notion that Sufjan’s very first song ever released would directly invoke religion lyrically. It is not just the music itself that sounds cultish – there are mentions of tabernacle choirs and of bishops, of Bibles and of spirits. But this is a distinctly Gothic approach to Christianity, if it is indeed directly referring to any specific faith. The Christianity of ‘We Are What You Say’ is violent, cruel even. The narrator-cum-Sufjan calls his own bishops ‘easy’, ‘wrong’; the faith’s ‘word is a guard and the guard is a cleave’, in an especially well-written line. Sufjan will of course go on to present his religion from the perspective of the Devil’s advocate plenty more times in his career, but nowhere on Seven Swans or on Illinois is God so brutal.

Facing this, and with the benefit of twenty-four years of hindsight, we might be tempted to do one of two things. We might be tempted to dismiss these words altogether as lacking much real meaning, merely the free-associative poetry of an edgy twenty-something fresh out of a liberal arts college (which Sufjan very much was.) Or we might be tempted to interpret this song as a sharp rebuke to religion, whether in the abstract or regarding a specific sect (the latter seems to be a popular interpretation; one Genius user offers a very interesting reading of ‘We Are What You Say’ that suggests the song is a pointed attack against Mormonism.)

I don’t put too much stock into either view. I fear, specifically, that people are far too quick to confuse honesty with assault. ‘We Are What You Say’ seems to be a just-the-facts account of Sufjan’s faith, in all its gory, violent truth. The Lord is a god of vengeance and of tremendous fury; his acolytes are fallible, sinful beings who are susceptible to temptation. They can be wrong. The spirit is not. The spirit will guide its followers towards providence. ‘We Are What You Say’ is boldly about the violence of religion, non-believers be damned. The title is not an empty declaration – it is a warning.

You can certainly hear violence in the music. You can certainly hear it in the outro, a full-bore, top-volume race to the finish line, tin whistles wailing and oboes stuttering out notes, drum circles beating away, the guitar (ever the anchor) strummed with tremendous ferocity. It is one of the rare times that Sufjan shoots for a big, post-rock-esque wall of sound climax, and is certainly the most effective example this side of ‘All Delighted People’; a genuinely roaring, cathartic moment, full of that sort of Abrahamic rage that Sufjan is so fascinated with. And it doesn’t entirely end, either. The outro is so loaded with kinetic energy that when most of the instruments finally cut out, a few still sputter along, eyes bloodshot and crazed, until the song hard-cuts into ‘A Winner Needs a Wand’, which is in many ways this song’s complement.

Sufjan would soon achieve better, of course. But at this very early stage in his artistic development, ‘We Are What You Say’ is his best. All his ambition, his confidence, and his prodigal sense of melody is proudly on display here. Worth a listen if you don’t know it, worth another if you do.

[silv3rswirls]

You have a rough time with work

♡Seokjin♡

Honestly, Jin has half a mind to go down there and scold your boss himself. He's over your shoulder as you pick at the food he put aside for you, explaining in great detail how he thinks you need to put your foot down and stop doing a job meant for two+ people. “They’re not paying you to do other people’s jobs, they shouldn’t keep pushing their work on you, etc.” He understands that it can be hard to say no, and whatever you decide to do about work, he’ll support you.

♡Yoongi♡

He hates to see you drag yourself to bed after getting home every night. Dead tired with heavy eyes and a beatdown demeanor. He lays with you on those dark evenings, brushing fingers through your hair, quietly talking as you drift in and out of sleep against him. It makes him sad that you seem to push yourself far beyond what you should. He suggests you begin to take steps to view your work with a healthier mindset and take more time to care for yourself. He’s no stranger to overworking, so he wants to ensure you don’t fall too deep into it.

♡Hoseok♡

He tries to hush your frantic tears as you realize your hectic work schedule has caused you to miss yet another award celebration for him. Having already missed his album’s release party, and so many little moments after, you seem more upset than he does. He wears the disappointment well, not wanting to make you feel bad. He does wish you would set firmer boundaries with work. Why should you be denied time off, reasonable hours, etc. while everyone else seems to get what they want? He hugs you and tells you there's always next time, hopefully, you don’t miss out again.

♡Namjoon♡

You had messaged him in advance about how horrible your shift had been. You break down all over again when you get home and start telling him about a customer's freakout towards you. All the yelling and name-calling over a little inconvenience, that really wasn’t even your fault. He apologizes that it happens, letting you vent all you want and brushing away your tears, and assuring you not to worry over things out of your control.

♡Jimin♡

You left work early with tears of disbelief and anger that a customer had had the audacity to throw a fit and throw their drink on you. He’s ready with a fresh comfy set of pajamas and a bubble bath. Honestly, just as shocked as you were over the ordeal. He helps you wash the sticky out of your hair, massages your shoulders, and just good TLC after a rough day. 

♡Taehyung♡

Huffs in annoyance when you tell him that your request for time off was denied yet again. When was the last time you actually got your desired time off? They never gave you a break, even on your days off you were trapped on your phone and worrying about how things were going there. He’s one to take your phone away and demand you take a mental break, they really don’t have any right to pester you all day. 

♡Jungkook♡

Hates when you mention that coworker. He’s weird, tries to push more work on you, blames anything he can on you, etc, etc etc. Jungkook’s never met him, but he loathes him as much as you. He tells you not to let him bother you, to stick your nose up and show him up. After all, your effort and quality of work are better. You vent and talk harmless trash about him together.

[bachirasbodyguard]

I think the interaction between Kaiser and Isagi at the end of chapter 203 is very important and foreshadows how Isagi and Kaiser's (and Ness') relationships will change soon. Especially since Kaiser had to admit that Isagi outplayed him at the end of the BM v MSC game, and Ness' following freakout. Look at this panel of Kaiser holding ness by his hair, essentially making him bow down:

We've seen Kaiser do this on multiple occasions.

When Isagi loses consciousness, there is this (in my opinion) very significant panel of Kaiser simultaneously releasing Ness and grabbing Isagi's hair in the same exact way.

I see it as a sort of crude metaphor for exchange that makes believe think Kaiser will try to replace Ness with Isagi, who has now proven more interesting to Kaiser. Not just to entertain himself or act on any other sort of personal feelings he has towards Isagi, but, most importantly, to put him in his place (the same way Kaiser has Ness under his thumb).

This is idea is further established simply by how the last panel is framed:

Isagi, no matter the circumstance and how you put it, is on his knees in front of Kaiser.

Remember this?

He finally really has. While it happened probably not how Kaiser had envisioned, he still has Isagi kneeling in front of him, proving his superiority as the player who endured.

But Kaiser did have to admit his (small, but nevertheless) defeat, and knowing how prideful he is, that must have been a blow. That makes be believe that he will be working very hard to somehow get Isagi on his side and crush him into submission the same way he has with Ness.

[myladyofmercy]

MID YEAR BOOK FREAKOUT TAG

thank you for tagging me @lazybug16 🥰

this is perfect because I've been reading so fucking much this year 😅

1. Best book you've read so far in 2024

the great believers by rebecca makkai

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2024

the first to die at the end by adam silvera

3. New release you haven't read yet but want to

the temple of fortuna by elodie harper

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

the pairing by casey mcquiston

5. Biggest disappointment

the little friend by donna tartt

6. Biggest surprise

lies we sing to the sea by sarah underwood

7. Favourite new author (debut or new to you)

natalie heynes & jennifer saint

8. Newest fictional crush

henry from maybe in another life by taylor jenkins reid

9. Newest favourite character

orion & valentino from the first to die at the end, kya from where the crawdads sing, yale from the great believers

10. Book that made you cry

the first to die at the end by adam silvera, the great believers by rebecca makkai

11. Book that made you happy

malibu rising by taylor jenkins reid

12. Favourite book to film adaptation that you've seen this year

where the crawdads sing & normal people (tv show but still)

13. Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received)

in like the cover or the story? cover -> lies we sing to the sea by sarah underwood, story -> malibu rising by taylor jenkins reid

14. What books do you need to read by the end of the year

the wolf den trilogy by elodie harper, the pairing by casey mcquiston, graveyard shift by m.l. rio, gentlest of wild things by sarah underwood

15. How many new books have you read so far

61

tagging (without pressure as always) @cantputitintowords @tessabennet @scrapsofinspiration @tooindecisivetopickaurl @its-tea-time-darling @newtness532 @faintedloves @theladyofpaintedstars @hergrandplan

[lizziethereader]

Mid-Year Book Freakout

I know it's way past mid-year, but I only now got around to doing this. Thank you @bookcub and @bibliophilecats (and anyone else who I might have missed) for tagging me!

1.Best Book so far in 2024: I’m splitting this into categories, because I can’t pick an overall favorite. fiction: The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss nonfiction: Unmasking Autism by Devon Price poetry: Devotions by Mary Oliver graphic novel: Saga: Compendium One by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

2.Best Sequel you've read so far in 2024: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

3.New Release you haven't read yet, but want to: Funny Story by Emily Henry

4.Anticipated Release for the second half of the year: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

5.Biggest Disappointment: Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett

6.Biggest Surprise: Unmasking Autism by Devon Price

7.Favorite New Author: Lynn Painter - granted, I’ve only read one book by her so far, but that one was delightful!

8.Newest Fictional Crush: I don’t remember anyone in particular

9.Newest Favorite Character: honestly, all the characters I really liked this year have been in sequels, so I don’t have any new favorite characters to add

10.Book that made you cry: none of them

11.Book that made you happy: Better than the movies by Lynn Painter

12.Most Beautiful Book you've bought/acquired this year: this edition of The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

13.Book you need to read by the end of the year: I still haven’t read 13 out of my “24 books to read in 2024” so all of those!

tagging: anyone whom like me, put this off and now feels like it’s too late - it’s not! let me know about your reading year so far!