#also this is totally the result of them just knowing each other and playing games with each other for so long

[osarquivosmagnus]

also since I have qsmp thoughts for brains rught now (and for the past few days as well) lemme put it out there how fucking funny it is that those memes about how cellbit loses all his brain cells whenever he is around felps are SO true. When they had to figure out the puzzle to leave their rooms in the federation and send the sos signal/coordinates to everyone else in the island I couldn't stop laughing for a second. They absolutely do not take themselves serious but it is also so clear they really like and truste each other and carry on with the bits they make up along the way etc. Very sweet, very funny.

[steakout-05]

for months now i have had this little story idea bouncing around in my head for an AU of Jetpack Joyride where Barry is stuck inside a big expermental time loop conducted by Legitimate Research to create an army of randomly selected time-travelling soldiers. the idea is very much still rough and i dunno if and when i'll develop it into a bigger thing, but it's a pretty cool idea and it's a twist on the JJ game that i've never really seen much exploration on.

basically, it focuses on Barry, who is the sort of Patient Zero of an experimental concentrated time-fuckery technology LR is working on. every single day, at exactly the same time, Barry goes out to work his salesman job, discovers the jetpack, breaks into the laboratory, takes it for a joyride, eventually gets hit by an obstacle and dies. the next day, Barry goes out to work his salesman job, discovers the jetpack, breaks into the lab, takes it for a joyride and dies. and he does the same exact thing the next day, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day... he's pretty much stuck in a loop of the exact same events happening repeatedly every single day, and he has absolutely no idea about it. that is, until there's a glitch in the system, and Barry progressively becomes a lot more suspicious and paranoid about the situation he's in. the rest of this post is gonna be REALLY spoilery (like i literally just explain big important chunks of the story for several paragraphs) if i ever make this into a full-fledged fanfic, so i'm gonna put it under a keep reading thingy. also it is... quite long and convoluted lol.

as the story goes on, it focuses more on the mental degredation of Barry as he starts uncovering all these weird clues, slowly trying to piece together what's going on and driving himself insane, because every time a reset occurs, his memory of the previous loop ever happening is completely wiped and everything he did that day goes all the way back to square one. since the malfunctioning of LR's technology though, Barry has been getting little nuggets of deja vu and half-remembered fragments of dying before a reset. this eventually becomes him repeating things to himself, little phrases and codes over and over and over in hopes that it will persist into the next reset. this eventually becomes symbols stuck up on the walls of his room and then progresses to entire rituals to help him remember and little behaviourisms like tics and stims to let him know he's in another loop. he becomes more and more panicked and unsettled, paranoid that someone - or something - is watching him closely. additionally, he keeps having disturbing dreams in the early hours of the morning before he gets up to go to work, ones that are symbolic and prophetic, as if they're trying to warn him about something. i've had concepts of him waking up on top of a pile of millions of mangled carcasses that all look exactly like Barry, and having on them them forcefully grab onto his leg and pull him down with the rest of them. it's kinda like the nightmare Woody has in Toy Story 2, but like, dead guys everywhere, lol.

the backstory of this whole thing is kinda insane. basically, Legitimate Research is a sketchy government funded facility that's doing secret time experiments to create the strongest beings for a purpose that's somewhat similar to Brains' Zomb Bomb plan from AOZ (i haven't fully decided yet). Barry is someone who has been randomly selected for their newest version of the concentrated time loop experiment, where patients will be put under looping tests to extract data about their strength, agility and performance and decide what they need to supplement them with in order to create the perfect soldier.

Barry was 22 years old when he was selected. he was actually a relatively normal local Fish N' Chips vendor living in New South Wales, but one day, when he recieved an exciting letter in the mail about a new ambitious job opportunity, he completely disappeared without a trace and seemed to have been entirely erased from the minds of everyone he had ever known. Barry had actually been kidnapped and ensnared into a mind-experiments facility of the laboratory, where they proceeded to wipe his mind, proof of his existence and his entire personhood up to this point, and replaced all of it with fake memories to fill in the gaps. he was then placed in stasis and to be injected with high doses of strength drugs as they crafted a new life for him behind the scenes. a new house, in a new state, all with new stories and memorabilia meant to be lived out by new person. now, he was Barry Steakfries in Queensland, a rough-around-the-edges guy with a passion for action movies and destruction. he was a revel with a thirst for chaos and freedom, but he just didn't have the means to achieve it yet. it was all according to plan.

a big part of the story i want to tell that involves him is that at some point, Barry tries to break free from the time loop by doing something different. this takes a lot of pre-planning, memory rituals and repeating details to himself, but after he wakes up from a reset and gets out of bed, he hesitates, choosing to go to a different place to sell his gramophones that day. he deliberately tries his best to avoid Legitimate Research's headquarters as much as he can, and while he doesn't completely remember why he's doing it, he has a deep gut feeling that he should stay away from them at all costs. so he does. and at first, it goes well. the day is different, his choices seem to actually matter and for once, the feeling of deja vu isn't tearing him apart... until a crazy freak accident happens that forces Barry to die and reset the time loop again, wiping away everything he had done that day. Legitimate Research is now forcefully trying to stop him from knowing what the hell is going on by forcing him to die with each now discovery he makes, and Barry has to figure out more and more creative solutions to averting their surveillance and trying to get the hell out of the loop.

Craig will also be involved with the story too!! i'm not exactly sure what exactly the events leading up to Barry discovering and meeting him would be, but it'd be kinda halfway-late-ish into the story where Barry manages to cut off LR's surveillance of him, breaks into the laboratory and searches through its archives for anything relating to time. during this raid, he accidentally discovers the true Patient Zero to this time experiment: a broken, decrepit shell of a man who has been hooked up to a set of wires and locked away deep into the laboratory, never meant to be discovered by anyone, only known simply as #000 'Craig'. Craig was the very first human they used to run an early prototype of these experiments, but through malfunctions in the threads of LR's technology, he ended up knowing too much and tried to break free from his time loop, which resulted in him being dragged out of reality and becoming completely detached from his own time, stopping his aging process completely and practically allowing him to exist forever and persistently through every reset unaffected. LR relocated him and considered him a catastrophic failure, locking him away in a cell deep in the bowels of the laboratory before destroying and erasing every archive of him ever having existed in any point in time. and now, the same thing is about to happen to Barry if he doesn't figure out a way to stop what's happening quickly. Barry, outisde of LR, is the only one who is aware of Craig's existence in this timeline. Barry makes a vow to make sure that he will never ever forget Craig, no matter what happens to him, no matter how many times his timeline gets reset, because he is the only other person on the whole world who truly understands what he's going through.

at the very end of the story, when Barry finally escapes the time loop and is about to enter into a new reality where none of this ever happened, he reaches out a hand to Craig and offers he come with him to live. Craig, however, rejects the offer, sadly confessing to Barry that because of his disconect from the threads of time progression itself, Craig must stay behind and be erased along with everything inside this one and let Barry live his life. Barry protests, insisting that his life wouldn't be complete without him and that they've already gone through so much together, but Craig assures him that this is the best for the both of them, and that Barry must leave him soon before the window to escape closes. Barry gives Craig once last goodbye, holding him close and basking in his presence for the final time. he closes his eyes, presses his head against Craig's and whispers "I promise I'll never forget you." before he slowly lets him go, not breaking their locked gaze on each other for even a second as he steps into the portal and ventures into an entirely new reality, never to return.

i want there to be an epilogue part where Barry starts his new life and goes looking for a place to stay, and he comes across the place where LR used to be, which is instead occupied with a big square fence plot and a sign that says "UNDER CONSTRUCTION: NEW RESTAURANT TO BE BUILT". Barry stares at it for a moment and reflects on everything that has happened. all the hellish experiments that were once held inside this very plot of land, all the trauma he went through to get to this point, Craig's sacrifice, everything has lead up to him standing here, in the right place, at the right time, to finally live the life he should've had to begin with. eventually, he turns away, continuing to walk down the street. he should go check that place out sometime.

(insert "what a fucked up dream for a baby to have" ending from 'then what' here)

[enwoso]

Alessia Russo + reporter!gf, where Alessia is nonstop flirting with Reader on national television when you're trying to interview her

LIVE TO ALL — alessia russo

masterlist

you were a sports journalist for itv, travelling up and down the country as well as across the world each week to cover matches as well as try and get some of the players thoughts and opinions on the game.

today was the england lionesses vs sweden at home, at a sold out wembley. the game being tense but the girls pulling out a win by one goal and of course it being scored by non other than the alessia russo who just happened to be on your radar to interview.

normally it would take some convincing from some players to get them to do a quick post match interview, most players after a win wanting to celebrate and after a loss was when it was even harder to get players to interview as they just generally weren’t in the mood, understandably.

however luckily you wouldn’t have to do much convincing to get england’s star girl for an interview as she just so happened to also be your girlfriend. so one little bat of the eyelashes and a flash of the smile and the blonde would be right over.

so as your team handed her a mic as she walked over from the pitch hugging you tight as you sent her a loving smile trying your best to remain professional but the girl just looked so gorgeous even after running around a pitch for ninety minutes, her hair slicked back a few flyaways had came loose above her as well as her cheeks being slightly flushed pink probably from the amount of running she’d done.

“so alessia another sold out wembley for the lionesses, does the feeling ever change walking out and seeing that many people in the stadium?” you began the interview as alessia nodded along with what you were saying, her bottom lip inbetween her teeth as you watched as her eyes roamed your face as she held her eye contact with you instead of the camera like she was supposed to.

there was a slight pause between your question and the blonde starting her answer, “oh um it definitely helps to keep us motivated whilst we are playing- as we love seeing our fans pack out stadiums and creating as much noise as possible!”

“speaking of motivation, what helps to keep you fired up especially when your playing top teams like sweden?” you asked as you seen alessia giggle to herself, you being thankful for the fact that the camera can’t see the look your throwing alessia right now.

“well away from football there’s definitely someone who does that for me-” the blonde making direct eye contact with you as a smirk crept onto her face. you knew exactly what she was insinuating on and while the your relationship wasn’t exactly out there it wasn’t a big secret either fans definitely had their suspicions and alessia right now was definitely adding fuel to that fire.

she carried on, you sending the blonde another stern look that told her to behave, “but the staff at england as well as the girls we all do our part to ensure that’s we can all play to the best of our ability to ensure we get the result that we want as a team and as a nation” she smiled innocently as she finished awaiting your next question.

you began to explain the importance of the goal that alessia scored to start off the lionesses euro qualifying campaign while alessia well she was just staring at you, totally zoned out as she licked her lips. her eyes scanning your outfit as she imagined maybe what it would look like on the floor of your shared bedroom…

“and finally how does it feel to finally get your first goal at wembley especially the one that sealed the win for you guys” you finished with a quick smile, slightly kicking the blonde which wasn’t able to be seen by the camera which shook the blonde from her daydream.

“oh- um, wait i- sorry what was the question?” alessia flushed red with embarrassment as you were the one now with a smirk, knowing by her face she hadn’t been listening and also having a suspicion of why she hadn’t been but nevertheless repeating the question again for her.

“yeah, it’s always a good feeling to score at wembley makes it that little bit special but anything to help the team out”

“well thank you alessia and well done for tonight!” you applauded with a smile as alessia nodded, “thank you babe” alessia said so causally, you quickly spinning around mouth wide open as you eyes widened.

the interview already been finished as your team off-mic’d you both. alessia with a smirk which was widening on her face, you knew she had done that on purpose.

“i love you?” she whispered, as she looked at your less than pleased look on your face.

“your on thin ice miss russo!” you warned narrowing your eyes at the blonde as she slung her arm around your shoulders guiding you both down the tunnel as you knew she was rolling her eyes at your stern tone.

“hey! it’s not my fault the person who was interviewing me happened to be my really sexy, beautiful, gorgeous girlfriend!”

[wing-ed-thing]

Being Dumb and 12-Years-Old with Team 7 Headcanons

Tags/Warnings: No Reader Pronouns, Being 12, Mixed AU

𓆃 Genin are a different breed of insufferable. Because they do such heavy, "adult" work, the times genin get to be kids, they almost double down and have to get a certain amount of thoughtlessness out of their system.

Naruto

𓆃 Naruto is just spending money on useless things. He has no idea how to handle money at all and will pay for things in the lowest coin denomination possible.

𓆃 He's a sucker for "limited-time" snacks, no matter what the flavor, and he's paying for everything with the lowest denomination possible.

𓆃 So you're standing at the cash register with your two "spicy pickle and cream" flavored onigiri while the poor cashier has to count 200 1ryō coins.

𓆃 And even after all of that, Naruto will be short.

𓆃 Naruto will be too loud and laugh too much in public spaces. He can't keep his hands off anything and will get you kicked out of at least one (1) business every few weeks.

𓆃 Will go into a business without buying anything and just sit down and hang out. Has absolutely no social anxiety and will stay completely oblivious to the clear mounting frustration on the employee's face until he's asked to leave.

𓆃 Be prepared to apologize for him a million times or instead you can validate to him that he totally didn't do anything wrong— what was that guy's problem?

𓆃 Then you're going back to his apartment, trying to eat spicy noodles— that were actually far too spicy for either of you but neither of you are admitting that— and getting into scream debates over TV shows until the neighbors are banging on the wall because you're being too loud.

𓆃 He's also showing you the grossest things the internet has to offer and traumatizing you for life.

Sakura

𓆃 You and Sakura think you're such mature little adults, meanwhile, you're getting all anxious about the passive aggressive fights you're getting into with your peers.

𓆃 And in true 12-year-old fashion, no one is beefing with each other to their faces, but you sure as hell are sending each other to talk to other people and then report back to you.

𓆃 You once texted Ino's "ex-boyfriend" just asking, "Is this ___?” He threatened to call the authorities and Sakura and Ino had to calm you down for the rest of the night.

𓆃 You think you're being sneaky using the samples from the beauty store to put make up on, and looking back you're baffled you didn't get an infection.

𓆃 Any underwear outside of standard cotton panties is scandalous and terrifying, and there was definitely a time you all bought a lacy undergarment together and worried for a solid hour how to get them home without your parents knowing.

𓆃 You never wore them. Your parents never found out.

𓆃 Sakura and Ino gave you a make over during a sleepover once, even though their version of make up was just very caked on foundation and boxy eyebrows.

𓆃 Every so often, the three of you will pair off and have fights with each other. You and Sakura will have a fight that Ino "mediates." You'll "mediate" a fight between Sakura and Ino... and totally take sides. You'll tell Sakura that Ino's wrong, and Ino that Sakura is wrong.

𓆃 The fights don't last long and usually result in some tears shed and ice cream bought.

Sasuke

𓆃 Sasuke touts himself as a sort of wiz on the piano or perhaps on the guitar, when in reality, he just learned to play three songs really well.

𓆃 He won't outwardly flex, but you can tell he likes to be recognized for it. He'd whip the skill out on days he's feeling particularly down.

𓆃 He'll tell you that you're going to "start a band," but you "won't be like other music groups that just want to get famous". But in reality, when you go over to his place, you'll just end up eating junk food, playing games, and won't ever actually touch an instrument.

𓆃 The closest you'll get is karaoke, but if you ever mention it ever again Sasuke won't talk to you for a week.

𓆃 And he's not immune to sending someone back and forth with messages to you because he's not talking to you. But "not in the way girls do," whatever that means.

𓆃 He’ll also accidentally download something shady from a shady website one night after going down some obscure internet rabbit hole, and Sasuke will say he's not worried about it, but he'll call you when you get home hyperventilating about how worried he is about it.

𓆃 You'll try to learn how to ride the latest form of transportation on wheels together, but the moment Sasuke discovers he's not instantly good at it he'll get mad at you for being better than he is even though it's only been 10 minutes and are you really that better than he is?

𓆃 Only posing for pictures with a scowl and hands clasped in front of you. Bonus points if your head is tilted back. These are photos you and Sasuke hide when you're older.

𓆃 Coming up with nicknames for yourselves and subtly trying to encourage other people to start calling you those nicknames.

Thank you to all who liked, reblogged, followed, and supported. Your support means so much and is greatly appreciated.

Notes: No offense to any 12 year olds in the audience. Being your age is universally a cringe time it's okay it's a right of passage.

[yourmidnightlover]

(You don’t have to do this) Xavier Thorpe x reader

The try not to kiss each other challenge on tiktok

ahh YES! i hope i brought your request to justice

i'm gonna take this as like a lovers to friends to lovers kinda thing bc there isnt enough of that going around with our beloved xavier

i also wanted to let y'all know that i am working through my requests! inspiration strikes at odd hours, and i'm trying to delegate all of my time respectively to all of the fics i'm working on. but i assure you i will work through everything!

tension

paring: xavier thorpe x reader (duh)

summary: after months of flirting, your friends take matters into their own hands and dared you to do a tiktok trend.

warnings: kissing, tons of tension (also duh),they're cuddly? i don't think there's really anything else but let me know if i've missed something!

it had been months and months of flirting between you and xavier thorpe. consistent, unending, raw flirting. this included the batting of eyelashes, shoving of arms, longing stares, buying of gifts... everything. the whole shebang.

and god, were enid, ajax and wednesday tired of it. wednesday constantly wanted to claw her own eyes out when she saw you. enid thought it was cute the first two months, but after that she was only confused as to why you would never make it official. and ajax would just tease the two of you. he voiced his concerns with xavier, occasionally with you, but mostly with xavier. he would mostly talk about how dumb he was to not just ask you out or make it official.

so, as enid was scrolling through tiktok, she stumbled upon a certain video of two friends... or mayabe they were more? either way, they were sitting in front of each other, and each one moved closer to the other. the premise was whoever breaks the tension and kisses the other loses, she guessed?

regardless, there was tension and there was a kiss and that is exactly what needs to happen with you and xavier in order to put everyone out of their misery.

so, she sent the tiktok to ajax and wednesday, the message reading:

weregirl: OMG! we've got to get them to do this! they'd totally admit everything!

middleoftheweek: this is repulsive to watch, but i hope it will be worth it as long as they get whatever they need to out of their system

snakes4hair: if this gives my boy the push he needs to make a move then i'll do basically whatever

and just like that... the game was afoot.

"dude," ajax was laughing at the lunch table. you had thrown your legs over xavier's lap, your head resting on his shoulder as he played with your hair. "there's this new thing i saw online the other day. enid sent it to me, and i doubt you and y/n would be able to do it," ajax chuckled as he looked towards enid.

"oh, definitely not," enid shook her head exaggeratedly. "they'd never be able to do it."

"do what?" xavier spoke up as he took a bite of your sandwich.

"yea, do what?" you perked up at the idea of a chellnege. "we could do it, right?"

"hell yea," xavier nodded as he pat your thigh. "we could 100% do it."

"i don't think you could," wednesday said curtly, sneering at both you and xavier's closeness. "at all."

"yes we could!" xavier removed his hands from your hair, throwing them up dramatically.

"alright," ajax spoke up. "i dare you to complete little challenge. you have to record it though, as proof, and post it."

"deal!" both you and xavier looked at each other, giving each other a high five that only resulted in your hands holding.

later that night, you and xavier had retreated to his shed as he painted before they sent you the video you had to recreate.

"seriously?" you scoffed. "they're just sitting there looking at each other with music playing," you looked at xavier as the video played.

"wait," he pointed at the screen. "they're like inching closer to each other. like one does and then the other."

"but why?" you got your answer less than thirty seconds later. "oh..." you glanced at xavier, who bit his lower lip before glancing at you with a smile.

"i never back down from a dare," xavier shrugged as he looked at you.

you nodded, "neither do i."

after setting up the camera with the video on the three-minute setting, about to start recording. you were sitting on the mattress that you had both smuggled in his shed, the one that used to be rowans before... well. yea. both sitting across from each other, your legs were overlapped with each other's. then, the music started playing.

at first you were both smiling, giggling, even. you inched closer to his face first, around 10 seconds after the music started. your faces seemed closer than they ever were before, and that's when the smiles faded and the tension built.

he reached around you and pulled you on top of his lap for his move. the longer this went on, the more it felt like a game of chess, only physical. you swore you could see every shade of green littering his irises. his cologne somehow radiated around you. you made the mistake of looking at his lips, curiosity getting the better of you. he was gently biting his lower lip. it was almost as if he wanted you to kiss it better.

then, you placed your hand on the lower side of his face, nearer to his neck. you could feel his pulse rate picking up. it was exciting to see what kind of power you had over him. you could now feel the way you affected him. now, you saw as his eyes went to your lips which only made you smirk that much more.

he used both of his hands to bring your face right in front of his. he was everywhere. to your side, you would see his hands. his hands took up nearly your entire face, and you loved the way they felt against your skin. part of you never wanted them to leave. you could nudge his nose with your own if you even slightly moved. you were getting close to losing this whole game. you wouldn't. you couldn't.

you tilted your head to the left, bringing your lips closer to his own but not touching. you were so close you could practically breathe in each other's air. you could feel his pulse pick up once more before you licked your lips, you felt his chuckle radiating around your head. but when you looked in his eyes you felt something totally different. it was heavier. it was more.

then, with a mumble, "screw it," he pulled your face into his own, kissing you with all the tension he had built up over not just the past two minutes, but from the past months of doing nothing.

your hand moved up to his hair, running through it like you had so many times. in this context, though, your hand running through his hair was so, so much different. it was much more intimate.

you let his tongue into your mouth happily, nearly breaking the kiss with how big of a grin you had on your face. one of his hands moved to your waist, wrapping around you like the warmest hug you've ever had. your other hand was holding the hand still on your face. you meant it when you said you never wanted them to leave.

truth be told, you never wanted him to leave. you never wanted to stop kissing him. you've wanted to for months on end, but you were too scared of being rejected. you thought he was joking about all of the flirting sometimes. the touches, everything. but this kiss felt more real than time.

"i think i won," xavier whispered as he went up for air. you shook your head.

"i think ajax won," you chuckled as you both began to laugh. "him or myself, of course," you rolled your eyes.

"we all won," he compromised.

"stupid tension, huh?"

[loonylesbian]

ok i am very much so not a writer, or at least not creatively. but i had this idea and i couldn’t get it out of my head so i decided to write it out. it ended up being 6.1k words so feel free to not finish it cause i’m sure it’s not good. however if you do read the entire thing i hope you like it and don’t clown on me too hard. long story short either you’re welcome for this or i’m sorry for this. there is no inbetween

naked in manhattan // k. martin

10 years ago

“Kate can you believe it! We’re starting high school!!!” you scream, hugging your best friend on the last day of summer. If you were being totally honest, you were nervous never being good at making friends, always relying on Kate for that. Her being so outgoing and friendly, it’s not that you weren’t nice, you really were, if anyone asked Kate would say that you’re the sweetest person she’s ever met, you were just shy. Talking to just about anyone made you nervous, in fact, you had a short list of people who didn’t make you nervous.

“I know! It’s gonna be great, I’m gonna do my best in basketball and volleyball, and you, my little genius, are gonna be the best in every class, and make tons of new friends,” she reassured you as if she could feel the nerves radiating off of you in waves. You were grateful for that, she had always been able to know exactly what you were feeling and how to help, even if you didn’t. It was one of your favorite things about her, sure there were too many things you loved about her to count, but that was one of your absolute favorites.

“I promise I’m gonna do my best to make it to each and every single game of yours,” you told her holding up your pinky while looking up at her, she giggled and interlocked her pinky with yours in a pinky promise, something you have insisted on doing since you met. You swore that it was more real than a regular promise, and made it to where the universe let the promise happen, not just the people involved.

“Well if it’s a pinky promise, I know you're never gonna miss a game,” she replied with a smile reserved just for you.

7 years ago

So far your promise had held, not without some struggle, but you had still attended every game Kate had for both sports she played, and just about every other game she just wanted to watch. There were a few games where you were late because of your job, studying, or other things that had gotten in the way, and the two times where you sat as far away from everyone else as humanly possible because you didn’t want to get them sick but also didn’t want to miss Kate’s game, but for the most part you sat right at the front to cheer on your best friend.

After the game tonight you guys were gonna have a sleepover as tradition for Friday night games, whether it resulted in a win or a loss. Either way, you usually ended up in her arms bringing her comfort, whether that be her knowing that she deserves it because she played well and won to bring her down from that high or wishing she had done things differently to change that loss and you reassuring her that it wasn’t all her fault, because as far as your were concerned basketball was a team sport and a loss couldn’t hang solely on one person's shoulders. After all, you were her number one supporter, never failing to let her know how proud of her you are and how much you love her no matter how she feels. You made everything feel okay for her, but it was the least you could do, afterall she did that and more for you.

when i sing that lana song it makes you cry

On the drive back to her house listening to the radio, she couldn’t help but look at you as much as she could without crashing the car. She couldn't help but feeling like she was was really listening to the song for the first time as you were singing along to “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Ray. She didn’t quite know what it was but when she looked at you and listened to you singing she couldn't help but feel her heart race and her body flush, she swore she could listen to you forever. Had someone told her in that moment she would never get to hear you sing like that, she would swear she’d cry And if anyone asked, she would tell them she liked girls, it wasn’t like it was a secret, and she’s had crushes before, she knows what it feels like. But she never thought she would have a crush on you, purely because you were her best friend, she couldn’t do that, it could ruin your friendship. That wasn't something she was willing, or at least wanted, to risk. A friendship that you've had since kindergarten, although now that she thought about it, it was basically a lesbian right of passage to fall in love with your best friend and-

mean girls we watch every night, and we both have a crush on regina george

“So wanna watch Mean Girls?” you ask abruptly interrupting her thoughts. Truth be told she’s glad that you did, it was probably best that she didn’t dwell on those thoughts for too long. Little did she know she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t having completely friendly thoughts about the other. She was just the only one who wasn’t in total denial about liking girls in the first place.

“Obviously. As if we would watch anything else first,” she replies with a scoff as if it were crazy for you to even ask. Although, to be fair it was crazy of you to ask because that was the first movie you watched anytime you had a sleepover, and it had been that way for years.

“Sorry. Sorry. I forgot you had a crush on Regina George,” you said with a small chuckle, brushing off the twinge of pain you felt at the idea of Kate having a crush on anyone else, even if it was a fictional character from a movie. Because why would you be sad or jealous about that? She was just your best friend, right?

Kate flushed even more red at this comment if that were possible with the combination of the game she had just played and watching you. Even though it was chilly outside and in the car, in that moment it felt like it was 100°. She wasn’t sure if it was nerves or joy that was causing her to feel that way, but she did. In that moment life was perfect, the chill in the air, the rain falling around the car they sat in, the now soft music coming from the speakers, and most importantly you. She wished she could stay in that moment forever, just taking you in, stuck in that perfect moment forever. She let out a slightly nervous chuckle, lightly biting her lip, before she replied, not wanting to break the peace she felt.

“Okay, okay, don’t act like you don’t have a crush on her too. I know you have a thing for blondes.” She finally lets out trying to wave you off and ignore her pounding heartbeat, all while trying to steal another glance at you. What she doesn’t notice, however, is your face flushing or your fists clenching when she says that as if she uncovered a deep dark secret, that you hadn’t told anybody. And to be fair that’s exactly how you felt, you did have a crush on this mean girl and you did have a thing for blondes, but you hadn’t quite come to terms with that yourself, let alone talk to anybody about it. So if anyone asked, the blondes you had a thing for were blonde guys, but you were hoping nobody would ask. Even if that person was Kate, your best friend.

And you didn’t notice her grip on the steering wheel tighten a little bit, waiting for a response. Hoping you would do or say anything to acknowledge what she had said, telling her she was right or wrong, waving her off altogether, laughing. She waited for any acknowledgment of what she had said for the rest of the ride home, but it never came. Instead, you changed the subject all together after sitting in silence for a few minutes. You hoped she didn’t notice that, but she did.

And so you followed your typical Friday night game routine, going to her house, watching Mean Girls, finding yourselves tangled up together but never acknowledging it, and then turning on some other random show or movie before falling asleep. Still in each other's arms. Still, just best friends.

6 years ago

Today was the day, the last full day before your crush best friend was leaving you. Ok well not you per se, but she was leaving. And yes you were also going to leave and go even farther in a few weeks, but that’s beside the point. It still felt like she was leaving you and it just didn’t feel right. You couldn’t exactly put into words how or why you felt so badly about it, but you did. Maybe the fact that you had never been apart for longer than a week played a part in it. Sure, you were both gonna go off and hopefully live your dreams, but it just didn’t feel right to do that away from each other. However, she was going to Iowa and you were going to New York and there's nothing you could do to change that now. And you did genuinely think about going to Iowa instead, but New York was your dream, so when you got into culinary school there you decided to go. You knew you loved it and you knew that New York was a great place to start, not to get started on the fact that it could take you literally anywhere you wanted to go. That didn’t make the decision any less painful though.

“I’m gonna miss you so much,” you whispered in Kate’s ear giving her a hug. You honestly don’t know why you’re saying it right now, it’s not like she's leaving right this second, but you still need to say it, and you’ll probably say it about 1,000 more times before you actually have to say goodbye in the morning after your final Friday night sleepover, even if it didn’t follow a game you guys have grown into the habit of doing this almost every Friday night. She squeezes you tighter if possible when she hears this, trying to burn that moment into her memory, knowing she loves you but it’s too late to do anything about it now, at least not anything serious. It wouldn’t be fair to either of you, to admit her feelings for you after years of friendship less than 24 hours before you guys go to different states for college. It would be cruel, and she told herself it would almost be more cruel if you felt the same way about her. She knew that you came to terms with being queer, at least enough to admit it to her and yourself, what she didn’t know is that a big part of that was you coming to terms with being in love with her. But still, it was too late and she had to let that be.

“I’m gonna miss you too,” Kate said with a big sigh before releasing you, muttering a quick “more than you could know,” under her breath, hoping you didn’t hear. Happy when you showed no indication of hearing the last part.

“But we still have a whole afternoon/night to do all of our favorite things together before I leave. And we can go get our favorite breakfast in the morning,” she said with a more upbeat tone, poking your sides slightly, trying to lighten your spirits too. Slightly succeeding when she saw you perk up a little, putting a small smile on her face.

“Okay, okay, so what do you say to popcorn, Mean Girls, and a bunch of candy?” you asked, slightly mimicking her accent. She replies with an eager nod. Grabbing your hand and pulling you to her room after making a pit stop for the snacks, failing to notice the blush that covered your cheeks. You simply follow her rushed pace, happy you decided to wear sweats and a tank top, as opposed to something like jeans to lounge around in.

By the time you were about halfway through the movie, you found yourself wrapped in her arms, like usual. But for some reason not knowing when you’ll see her again after this, and the cheesy high school coming-of-age movie in the background made you a little more confident. Not super confident to where you would outright tell Kate that you’re in love with her, but confident enough to try and hint at something, which is more than you’d ever been willing to do with anyone else. So that’s what you do. Especially after spending years denying your feelings, and almost a whole extra year hiding them.

“You know what sucks,” you start off looking up at her waiting for any kind of acknowledgment. She finally looks down at you with a light “Hmm?”

“I’m about to go to college and I haven’t even had my first kiss,” you say unable to stop your eyes from glancing down to her lips. This statement took her off guard, sure, you had never talked about anyone, guys or girls, but you’re you and she figured you had your first kiss and in your typical shy fashion, you just hadn't wanted to bring it up.

“What? No way!” she says laughing a little only realizing her mistake when she saw your face drop.

“No no no, I didn’t mean it like that. I just don’t get how you of all people haven’t had your first kiss yet!” she exclaims “I mean you’re literally perfect, you’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’re funny, you’re a great cook, I mean you're my favorite person in the world. I just don’t get how no one’s kissed you yet!” she finished off her little rant with a small huff.

“Well no one’s wanted to,” you mumble looking down a little bit, feeling embarrassed all of a sudden.

“That’s not true,” she mumbles quieter now than she had been before, suddenly feeling almost as shy as you while taking you off guard. It was pretty obvious what she meant, no hidden meaning laced in with her words, unable to pick her gaze back up to your eyes once they dropped down to your lips.

“I mean would you?” you question with a little more confidence once you notice where she's looking. You can’t help but follow her lead and look down to her lips, before going back up to her eyes, even though she still wasn’t looking.

touch me baby, put your lips on mine

“It doesn’t have to be weird or anything, it's just you’re my best friend, and I’ve never kissed anyone, and you’re leaving tomorrow and I don’t want to go to college without at least having my first kiss,” you kind of spit out hoping you don’t sound pathetic or desperate, or make her want to kick you out.

“Would you want me to?” she questions back, already knowing your answer but just wanting to ask to know that you were sure.

“Yeah, I’d like that” You rush out in a kind of whisper to her nodding, so she nods back to you. You can both tell that you’re nervous, each for different reasons. All it takes for you to start leaning into each other is locking your eyes again. In that moment she looks like an angel, with the soft glow of the lamp making her hair look even more golden than usual, to the way she was looking at you, not to mention how you felt about the grip she had on you. You barely even had time to actually look at her before her lips crashed onto yours. And that’s exactly what it felt like in that moment, like waves crashing onto cliffs, a completely overwhelming feeling, yet still, it brought you a newfound sense of peace. She pulled you as close to her as possible, knowing that this may be the only time you get to do this, not wanting to be even an inch away from you. At this point you were basically straddling her while she was leaning up against her headboard, both wanting nothing more than to be together, knowing you couldn’t.

You had never kissed anyone before but thought to yourself that in that moment that if this is what it is like you never wanted to stop. Kate had kissed people before, and you knew that, but what you didn’t know was that none of those felt anything like with you. They couldn’t compare. Not by a long shot. If she didn’t know how much she loved you before, she definitely knew now. The only issue is that she knows this, it’s gonna make it even harder to leave you in the morning.

By the time you guys pull away breathless from a mixture of kissing, nerves, and giddiness, you can’t help but feel at peace, resting your foreheads against each other’s. Sure you knew that nothing could come of this, that nothing would come of this, at least not right now. But you were happy. Happy that you got to show her how much you love her in one small way, one new way. Happy that you got to know her, and happy that she felt the same way about you. Even if you guys didn’t necessarily talk about it, or say outright say it, you both knew that was always one of the best things about your friendship, you didn’t have to actually talk in order to communicate and get your point across, and even when you did need words you didn’t need many of them.

So when you guys make eye contact again you come to a silent agreement, you have that night, and the next morning to talk if you want. You know you love each other, but also that there's realistically nothing you can do for you to start a relationship at that moment and have it work out. Not when you were about to be nearly 1,000 miles apart. It wasn’t right to risk it. And you both know that you’re too important to each other to risk your friendship, especially when almost all of the circumstances are pointing to it not working out. So, you have that night, after that, you’re friends again, maybe not even best friends, and if it works out you can be together in the future when you can be closer. But for the time being this is for the best, this is safe.

April 2024 || Present Day

It had been years since you and Kate had last seen each other properly, there were brief passings when you were both in your hometown that resulted in short conversations, but you were both barely there, you less than her, and when you were your family made sure you never went longer than 20 minutes without them other than to let you sleep. You had stuck to being friends, not best friends, just friends. Never talking about that night, your last night together. Not wanting to risk it, not yet. Other than that, you guys have managed to text each other occasionally to check-in. Keeping each other updated on your lives, but not close. It was as if you had both come to the understanding that you should keep a certain level of distance so as not to ruin what you had. Knowing that if you talked more, you would’ve talked about what could have been more. And you just couldn’t risk it.

id love if you knew you were on my mind, constant like cicadas in the summertime

That’s not to say that you didn’t keep an eye on her and her basketball. You had been her #1 fan since day one, and even if you didn’t talk or see each other as much as you used to, you wouldn’t let that change. You still felt the exact same way when you thought about her, even if you tried not to. Even when you knew you shouldn’t. You just couldn’t stop thinking about her. While you obviously couldn’t go to all of her games anymore, you still watched every single one, even when you were at work during them you would try to either watch it on your phone or record it and watch it when you got home later. You even managed to take off work for both the Final Four and the Finals this year to watch her and her team, even if you didn’t make it in person, you still had to watch the games live. And once you heard that she had declared for the WNBA draft you had to get a ticket for that, it was perfect, it was in Brooklyn so you didn’t have to travel more than taking the subway. And this time you told yourself that you would talk to her, not go up to her at the draft but you would text her and let her know that you were gonna be there if she wanted to meet up after, or at any point while she was in town. You would make an effort to see her. You really didn’t know when the next time you’d get the chance to see her again would be, it’s been so long since the last time, partially due to schedule, partially due to nerves, and you were about to move across the country to Las Vegas for a new job. You figured it was now or never, and you really hoped you would get the chance to see her so you could get her out of your mind.

You knew you had to try. Try to talk to her, try to see her, try something. You couldn’t stand it anymore, constantly thinking about her, you needed closure, even if there wasn’t necessarily anything to get closure about. You still had to try. So even though you had grown up a lot in the past six years, you had learned to start a conversation instead of stuttering your way through when someone came up to you, gotten more friends, and most importantly gained confidence and figured out a pretty good idea of who you were. You were nowhere near as shy as you used to be, but still the mere idea of Kate brought back butterflies that made you feel like you were in high school again. Frankly, the feeling had to be classified as something stronger than butterflies. So obviously the idea of calling her went out the window for you, you figured she was so busy anyway that she probably wouldn't answer, and you told yourself that if she chose not to answer a text it would hurt less than not answering a call. And after a lot of thinking and rewriting, you finally sent her the text.

“Hey Kate, I heard you’re gonna be in town for the draft and I know you’re probably busy but I would love to see you. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve been keeping up with your games, I’m so proud of you, still your #1 fan, and can’t wait to see where you go. I’m gonna be at the draft rooting for you, just like I have been every step of the way even when I couldn’t physically be there. So if you wanna meet up after the draft or at any point while you’re in town let me know.”

Once you hit send you waited, and waited, and waited. Once it hit six hours with no response you figured you weren’t going to get one. Now that you had sent it, you realized that it was more nerve-wracking to sit and wait for the possibility of a response than to try and figure out what to say and hit send. Every possible reaction she could have had to your text was running through your head, well not every one, just every bad one. You didn’t know what she was thinking, or how she thought anymore, and that was terrifying to you. The nerves were so bad that to anyone watching you probably looked like a mess, flushed cheeks, sweaty, a little hunched over, and very clearly looking nauseous. But you were fine, it was no big deal.

You lied to yourself, it still hurt that you didn’t get an answer, but still decided to go to the draft anyway. Even if she didn’t want to see you, you still wanted to support her, figuring it was a big event and the chance of you seeing each other let alone talking were slim to none. You could go and didn’t have to talk if she didn’t want to. Plus you didn’t want to waste your money after you already bought the ticket and more than anything you wanted to support her, she was your first friend, your best friend, so far your most important friend, and now she's about to be a professional basketball player. You had to be there to see it come full circle, after spending the better part of ten years being able to count the number of her games you hadn’t seen on one hand, and saying you were her #1 fan, you just couldn’t miss it. Not for you, and certainly not for her.

By the time you had actually gotten to the draft and it started you were so focused on listening for Kate or her name, you couldn’t focus on anything else. You couldn’t hear anything that wasn’t related to her. You were confident that she was going to get drafted, but there was still a “what if” sitting in the back of your mind knowing your heart would break for her if she didn’t, maybe more than hers. Then you heard it, “With the 18th pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, The Las Vegas Aces select Kate Martin, University of Iowa.” you were so focused on her getting on a team that you didn’t think of the city she might end up in. You wish you could hit rewind when you heard it, almost not believing it. She got drafted to the Las Vegas Aces, you would be in the same city for the first time in 6 years. There could be a chance of you guys actually happening. Of course, she still had to go through training camp and make the roster before she was officially on the team, but you have no doubt that that’s going to be the easy part compared to everything else that it took to get to that moment. Not to mention text you back. When you’re finally able to focus again, there have been a few more picks you decide to go on your phone and check Twitter to see what they are saying about the draft. What you didn't expect to see when you opened your phone, however, was a message from Kate.

🏀Kate 🏀

“Hey, sorry I didn’t see your message or get back to you earlier! I’m so happy that my #1 fan came to support me just like you have been all these years. It means the absolute world to me to know that you came here for me tonight because I wasn’t even sure I was gonna make it. I haven’t been on my phone like at all today, but I’d love if you’d come celebrate with me and my friends tonight? It only feels right that you’re there, you’ve been there for pretty much everything else already, you should be there to celebrate now too.”

When you read the text you could’ve sworn your stomach quite literally did flips, while a giddy feeling erupted through your body, even releasing a small, relieved, laugh. At this point, the last thing you were expecting was to get a response, at most expecting to go to a bar close to your apartment for a drink or two, if you were feeling frisky. But upon seeing her text, you decided “Why not?” and decided to respond.

“Yeah of course I’d love to celebrate with you and your friends!! You deserve it after all the hard work you put in to get here. Just send me the time and place and I’ll meet you there.”

You tried to keep your response short and sweet, not trying to read too much into what she said or trying to seem too eager. Although, you were quite excited to actually see her and have the opportunity to talk to her again. You figured it wasn’t guaranteed that you were even going to talk more than a simple greeting, let alone that she would want to talk about what happened the last time you spent any substantial amount of time together. Hell, you weren’t even sure you’d stay longer than half an hour. But before you could dwell on it too long, you got a response, with nothing more than an address and a time.

//

By the time you show up, which is 20 minutes late due to nerves alone, you are sure Kate had forgotten that she had even invited you. What you hadn’t expected was for everyone to automatically know who you were, greeting you excitedly. You thought at most one, maybe two people would vaguely know who you were, but you didn’t expect all of your friends to recognize you and know pretty much everything about you. Including things you were pretty sure you hadn’t told Kate when you would catch up.

But that’s exactly what happened, all of her teammates knew who you were, Jada, Gabbie, and Caitlin, even people she barely knew. Never in a million years did you think that she could possibly talk about you that much. You didn’t think there could possibly be that much for someone to talk about regarding you, let alone that anyone would want to, especially after 6 years of limited communication. Yet it warmed your heart, it made you happier than you had been in a long time, to know that she talked about you, that she cared about you enough to talk about you that much. Jada went as far as to say,

“We finally get to meet you after her nonstop talking about you for I don’t even know how long. We were starting to think Kate made you up,” before giving you a hug in greeting. You could tell from that alone that she was an absolute sweetheart.

new crush, high school love again

By the time you had been able to talk to Kate for any substantial amount of time, it was clear that you both had a few drinks. Neither one of you could help yourselves from embracing each other in a long overdue hug, slightly rocking as she lightly rubbed your back. You couldn’t help but feel like you belong there. You had always felt like you belonged when you were with Kate, fitting together like two puzzle pieces. Like you had wasted time not being there. You never wanted to leave her side again. You didn’t think you could stand it. At that moment, hugging each other again for the first time in you don’t know how long, you both felt like you were in high school again. You knew she still gave you butterflies, but in that moment you could have sworn you fell in love with her all over again.

“I’m so proud of you, I knew you could do it,” you whisper while pulling away from the all-too-long hug. Looking up at her, you were filled with an all-new type of butterfly, a bird maybe. Filled with a sense of joy knowing she was happy to see you, and a sense of contentment knowing that you were going to be in the same city again, for the first time in years. Knowing that you know each other, without really knowing each other. In a sense you know each other, you kept each other updated on the big things, relationships you were in when you talked, basic interests, but you didn’t know what really mattered. You didn’t know the little things, the day-to-day, the highs and the lows, and you missed that. You missed knowing the one thing that made her day unbearable, or the one thing that got her through the day. It was always you, to this day. But she wasn’t willing to tell you that yet. She loved you, and you her, and you both knew that, but you only knew that past tense.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” she says into your ear sending a shiver down your spine. You had officially fallen even more in love with her than the last time you saw each other, and you barely talked yet. And just like no time had passed, able to see the change in your demeanor, she grabbed you by the hips before looking into your eyes.

“I’m serious y’know? I really wouldn’t be here without you. You made it all worth it,” she pauses, eyes briefly scanning the room. “Every time I felt like I couldn’t do it, you made sure to tell me that I could. You made it clear that you believed in me, but you weren’t ever gonna push me into something I didn’t want. Even when you weren’t there I still thought of you. Thought of what you would say, how you would make everything better. You got me here baby,” she finishes off. Her eyes found their way back to yours while she talked, the intensity of her gaze alone could melt you.

“Even though I wasn’t there I never missed a game. I watched every single one, even if it was just a recording. I'm still your #1 fan, and I can promise to never miss a game of yours in the WNBA now either. I’ll even be at all the home games,” you smile up at her looking to see if she caught onto your words. You can see her trying to figure out what you meant, her eyebrows scrunching up in confusion as she was thinking before a smile eventually broke out on her face.

“What? Are you moving to Vegas?” she asks, her volume growing with each word. She grabbed you by the shoulders before lightly shaking you in disbelief. As if trying to figure out whether or not this was really happening.

“Yeah, I got a job there and I’m moving at the beginning of May,” you say laughing at her clear excitement. To her it felt like she was about to burst, this is what you had been waiting for, this was a sign. It wasn’t planned and neither one of you had any idea it was going to happen, but you were going to be together again.

the rush of slumber party kissing

“I can’t believe it! Are you joking?” she asks looking down at you for any hint of a lie coming from you, but she found none, so she continued. “Like we’re actually going to live in the same city? This is amazing, I can’t believe it.” and then it slips out, she doesn’t mean to say it, but she does, “We could try. Like we could actually be together, for real-” By the time she realizes what she said she was looking at the floor and couldn’t bear to try and meet your gaze. After all, she basically just confessed that she was still in love with you after 6 years of barely seeing or talking to each other.

“Really? You’d want that?” you ask her, grabbing her face and lifting it to meet your eyes. You couldn’t believe she wanted you, after all this time she still wanted you. So you did something Kate never in a million years thought you would’ve done, you kissed her. She wasn’t sure where your confidence had come from whether it had been her basically admitting that she never moved on from you, or the drinks you had, or just simply you growing up and actually being more confident. But she couldn’t think about that now. Now she had you in her arms, for the first time in years. She had you in a way she thought she had missed out on because she waited. And in that moment she knew she wasn’t going to let you go ever again.

[synthapostate]

My actual thoughts on the Fallout games, for people who are thinking about getting into them:

- Fallout 1 is great! But only if you enjoy that kind of game. Some people can’t get past the interface, and that’s okay.

- Controversial opinion, but Fallout 2 is not for everyone. Starts out a bit frustrating, ramps up to being really good, then turns into a total slog before the cool ending. It’s uneven, but the highs are very high.

- Fallout 3 is the fifth best Fallout game, but it contains my second favorite character. I have played the unskippable prologue many times, but never finished the game. I am willing to complain about this game to anyone who will listen.

- New Vegas is the best if you care about the development of postnuclear society. It’s a much more real and interesting setting than the oddly stagnant Bethesda games, where society is never allowed to progress except as a direct result of the player’s actions (and their all-American prewar vaultie values.) The old world is gone. Wastelanders make their own future. Also, a great set of companions. And Benny.

- Fallout 4 is very enjoyable to play, but I care more about romancing my companions and building settlements than the somewhat lackluster narrative. All the dlc is worth it, even if most of it doesn’t reach its full potential.

- Fallout 76 is certainly a game. (To be fair, it was updated after I quit playing out of boredom, so I don’t know what it became. It’s just hard to be interested in the story when none of your quests matter because everyone is dead, and the MMO element wasn’t worth it because players weren’t bothering to interact with each other. I will never care enough to give the current version a shot, but maybe others will.)

[rockdwarftv]

So, you wanna play a Pokémon TTRPG

But you don't have the time to manage 1K entries in a book? Well, I'm working on the thing for you! PokéD6.

Now that I've show you my character sheet concept, let me break down some of the things on it. The biggest thing anyone will notice right away is the lack any numbered stats. This system converts existing BSTs (Base Stat Totals) into a 6 point grade. Above, each black diamond (✦) represents one point of that stat's grade. And any pre-existing pokemon can have it's BST quickly converted by simply dividing any given stat's total by 36 and rounding up, to a max of 6! Each grade also has an associated number of dice, which are always equal to the grade itself, and an associated modifier. A stat's modifier is equal to it's grade plus it's IVs. IVs, represented by the hollow diamonds (✧), have also been simplified down into a single dice roll per stat. So, whenever you capture a new pokemon, roll 6d6. Like with stat grades, each diamond represents the IVs value. IVs cap out at 3.

But, you may find yourself asking, what do Stat Dice and Stat Modifiers even do?

Currently, they're for combat! While the attack itself determines how much damage it can do, the pokemon's stats determine if the attack hits, it's minimum damage, how hard they are to hit, and even how much they can reduce the damage! When attacking, say with a Physical Move, the attacking pokemon rolls 1d6 + their ATK Modifiers against the defending pokemon's DEF Modifier + 3. If the attack hits, roll the move's Power and add any bonuses given. Such as Same Type Attack Bonus (STAB) or type effectiveness. The defending pokemon rolls their DEF Dice, subtracting their result from the Power roll.

Power has now been converted into d6s, to find a pre-existing move's Power divide it's power by 25 and round up! With the exception of very high damaging moves, most moves deal 1d6 to 6d6 damage.

So a move like Tackle deals 2d6 damage.

I could go on, but for now I want to leave this here and just see what people think! I've enjoyed working on it and am pretty close to being able to do a simple beta of it. So, have a copy of the pdf and lemme know what you think!

EDIT (4/20/24): Yo what if I just suddenly dropped even more rules in this post? Yea? Yea! So here's how trainers work!

Trainers are divided into four Careers; Field Researcher, League Challenger, Contest Coordinator and Pokemon Breeder! These careers determine starting gear, recommend a set of skills (more on those later!!!), and determine how the player can make money. Field Researchers are basically the intern equivalent of a Professor's Aide! They go out, encounter as many new pokemon as possible, and get paid a weekly salary! They can even earn bonuses for finding odd pokemon, such as ones with unusual movesets~! League Challengers are pokemon trainers like in the games! Beat gyms, get badges, take on the champion. Easy as! They get paid based on the trainers they defeat, which can be picked up at a PokeCenter or just given to them immediately. Contest Coordinators focus on training pokemon for Gen 3 style'd Contests! They make money by winning contests, with each rank paying out higher rewards! And lastly, Pokemon Breeders! Like the name says, they make their money by breeding and raising pokemon at the requests of the Pokemon League or other trainers. The more specific the request, the more money they earn for it!

Trainers also have skills! These work a lot like Stat Grades, but they don't have an associated modifier. When making a trainer, a player picks 6 skills out of 12. Players then have 18 points to distribute however they want into those 6 skills, up to a maximum of 5. The other skills are left at 1. The skills available are: Archeology, Cheering, Climbing, Cooking, Fishing, Foraging, Knowledge, Nursing, Riding, Sneaking, Spotting and Swimming!

I'm currently working on reformatting the doc so enjoy the new tidbits for now! See you again when I've finished the doc!

[idontplaytrack]

Regina(big sister of reader) connects the dots and realizes reader has a massive crush on Janis

Some fighting

Good ending 🫡

Crush

Janis ‘Imi’ike x fem! reader(+ older sister Regina)

Warnings: coarse language, reader & Regina quarrel a little

In which Regina steps up and becomes reader’s wingwoman when reader’s crush on a certain someone becomes annoying (in Regina’s terms)

Part two / Part three

(Pictures used are from Pinterest & Auli’i’s IG)

After your Mom and Dad split up, you and your sister’s bond only grew stronger. Individually, you could still love your parents to an extend, and definitely appreciated them for what they’ve given you and Regina. But everything was still tumultuous so you and your sister have learnt over the years to stay away from them as much as possible. As a result, Regina pretty much paid for your food, new clothes and even your phone bill. Heck, she was the one who got you a proper working phone after a four-year old handed down device from your Mom had become absolutely just useless. You never asked for anything unless you needed it, but she would always get you a little something every now and then without telling you anything.

Regina was two years older than you, so when you first started high school, she was already in junior year. And that was the craziest year of all to you. Not just because of the Burn Book wrecking total havoc in her year but also the first time you’ve seen someone in a damn long time. You walked into school with Regina on one of your first morning of freshmen year, eyes curiously observing your surroundings. You had completely stopped in your tracks when your gaze fell on a familiar face. You couldn’t tell who it was, but definitely knew who it was.

Let’s put it this way…your brain couldn’t remember but your heart sure did. “Who are you looking at?” Regina noticed, closing her locker after getting out a book she needed.

“Is that— um, what’s her name? Wasn’t she your best friend?”

“Oh, that’s Janis. Yes, we were friends. Probably why you recognise her because she used to come over a lot and you would always cling onto her like a koala bear or something.”

“Are you still on that?” You grumbled, “I was four.”

“What did you want?”

“I don’t know. Reintroduce myself? I don’t know anyone here except you and Cady.”

“I could help with that.” Regina shrugs, “You…just go up to her and say hello.”

“Uh…no way, Regina.” You scoff, studying your schedule closely, “Where’s room 217?”

“I’ll take you there. Just go say hi.”

“Not doing that, just take me to the classroom.” You sigh.

“Whatever.” Regina smirked, “Let’s go then.”

Being in different years, the sisters obviously did not have any classes together. But, they did run into each other again at lunch since they had their break at the same time-slot. You had no one to sit with, so you just found a table in the corner and settled down to eat while Regina sat with her friends and Cady. “Hey.” You heard a voice walking up behind you. Your back stiffens as you sat up. Hold on…

You turned around and you saw her getting closer to you. “Wow, I thought I saw you earlier.” She says. “Haven’t seen you in forever. y/n, right?”

“Janis.” You chuckled, “Hi.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all, go ahead.” You shrug, trying to keep it cool.

She sits down opposite you, “So…how’s your first day so far?”

“Made a friend, we don’t have lunch together though. My two best friends from middle school got assigned to a different high school, so it kinda sucks a little to have to start all over.”

“Ah, just take it easy and let things happen on its own. Don’t stress yourself out over things that you can’t really control, you’ll meet the right people with time.”

You hummed, shrugging your shoulders as you stabbed the food with your fork and ate some of it.

“You know, I remember when you were probably like— 3 or 4. And you would always cling onto me while me and Regina played board games or cards or something.” Janis mentions.

“Oh, my God— you remember that too? Regina keeps bringing it up to make fun of me.” You sigh, but couldn’t help it and laughed a little anyway.

Janis grins, “I thought it was sweet that you trusted me that much.”

“Is that so?” You guffawed.

“Oh, very much so.” She nods, “I don’t have siblings so having you to dote on the way I did was great.”

Siblings. Well, what a weird feeling you were having in your heart right now. Staring at your tray, you twirled the spaghetti with your fork, avoiding her eyes.

Pushing that feeling aside, you soon continued to chat with Janis for the remainder of lunch, saying bye to her when the two of you went your separate ways to your respective classes.

————

After classes were all done for the day, you made your way to the parking lot to wait for your sister by her Jeep as discussed. You waited just a few minutes before she showed up with Cady. “Hi, y/n!” Cady waved at you cheerfully.

“Hey!” You smiled in return, getting into the car when the both of them did.

“How was your day?” Regina asked casually as she started to drive away from school grounds.

“It was okay, Janis talked to me at lunch, I made a friend in my art class.”

“Good— wait—” Regina nearly gasped but stopped herself, “She did?”

“Almost made a fucking fool of myself.”

“What? It couldn’t be that bad, you guys know each other.”

“The last time I saw her, I was 10. It’s been four years.” You glared at your sister, “You know what the first thing she brought up was? Exactly what you mentioned this morning.”

“Come on, bubs. It was cute.”

“Yes! Because I was four.” You groaned, “Did you remind her?”

“Hey, we’re not close like we used to be. Don’t overestimate either of us.”

“What…what are you guys talking about?” Cady asks, confused.

“She took forever trying to figure out who Janis was this morning. But that’s beside the point, what she’s referring to is, I told her how she used to always basically climb onto Janis and snuggle while I was trying to hang out with my best friend.”

“Oh, enough.”

“y/n, what’s the big —”

“You better watch it.” You warned.

“Ooh.” Regina glances at you with wide eyes, “Moody much. Cramps?”

“Shut up.” You huffed, crossing your arms as you looked outside while she drives.

You got home and just went straight to your room. Regina sighs, “I don’t even wanna know what’s going on.”

“She’s upset.” Cady pointed out, “She clearly didn’t want you to tell people that. You didn’t need to tell me.”

“It’s not a big deal, though. She always laughs at that and suddenly today she has a problem with it?”

“Well, things change?” Cady sat down, Regina does so as well.

“I only told you. I didn’t tell anyone else, so what I don’t get it why she’s so pissed off— oh my God.”

“What?” Cady asks, panicking a little inside.

“She said she almost made a fool of herself at lunch. Janis was with her.”

“So…”

“Do you think she likes Janis?” Regina gasped, “Like actually, has feelings for her?”

“I mean, it’s a possible explanation as to why she had such a big reaction to something she usually couldn’t care less about.”

“Janis talked to her.” Regina continued, “Janis doesn’t just talk to somebody.”

“She talked to your sister. Someone she knows.” Cady says.

“Not after four years of being practically strangers.” Regina smirks.

“What on Earth are you planning, Regina?” Cady asked nervously.

“Do you think…it’s possible that Janis would go out on a date with y/n?”

“I mean…”

“I’m gonna go talk to y/n. One sec.”

That did not go well, you two ended up yelling at each other and that subject subsequently got dropped. You cried yourself to sleep that night, not because Regina yelled at you, but because you were afraid Regina was right. That she was right about you having a raging crush on Janis. This was what scared you, you didn’t want to admit it because it will make you act more awkward around her. It was as if when she said it, it became real to you. So you freaked out and yelled back at her. Regina screamed back at you, frustrated and you told her to leave you alone so she did.

Fast forward to present day, six months after your first day at North Shore. Things have been okay with you and Regina after like a week, but since then, every time you somehow spent time with Janis(and Damian), you became so hyper aware of your feelings for the girl. And how your cheeks seem to heat up when you saw her, how you could barely look her in the eye when she talked to you. How nervous you felt. It was ridiculous. You felt like a crazy person in her presence. Each school day felt terribly long, and you couldn’t wait to get home every day.

“Okay, y/n. Honestly, you’re being way too stressed out about this.” Regina declared. “Sit down.”

“Like you weren’t this way with Cady.” You shot back. “I remember it, okay?”

“Let me help you.” She continues, unfazed.

“How? You don’t like her, still.”

“Do you have her number?”

“Yes, why?” You eyed her suspiciously.

“I could text her for you. Ask her out?”

“Are you crazy?!” You shrieked.

“Maybe a little.” Regina laughs, amused. “But I can definitely help you out, okay? I get it, you feel insane trying to keep calm. But nothing works— I get that. It’s very frustrating, but once you take that first step, everything just falls into place.”

“You can’t be so sure, Regina.”

“What makes you think that?” She squinted at you.

“She said, and I quote ‘I don’t have siblings so having you to dote on the way I did was great.’ So, Regina…do you still think I have a chance?”

“Yes.” Regina said confidently.

“I can’t— okay? What if I just make an even bigger fool out of myself? What if she rejects me and just cuts me off?”

“Okay, first thing’s first. You need to take some deep breaths and calm the hell down because we didn’t even do anything about the situation yet.” Regina started. “Give me your phone.”

“Must I?”

“Do you want to get your girl or not, y/n?” She spoke through gritted teeth, holding out her hand for you to put your phone in it. You surrendered it to her, “Match my tone, please? That’s all I’m asking.”

“I’m not an amateur, relax, y/n.”

“There. It’s done— didn’t even take her a minute to respond.” Regina smirks, “She asked you where you’d like to hang out.”

“Oka— what?!” You stared at her, stunned, “Really?”

“Yeah— look.” She handed your phone back to you.

“Where do you think—”

“Honey, that’s your choice.” Regina nudged.

You thought about it for a while then decided on just going to the mall. You two could grab a lunch then watch a movie, whatever works best for that day, you guessed.

“Oh, God.” You muttered, “What do I wear?!”

“Oh, you poor thing.” Regina teased, “You just wear whatever you like, be yourself. She’ll love it.”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks.”

————

Well, Friday night you stayed up late texting Janis. You weren’t even sure how it started but you guys were nearly three hours into the conversation.

You were this close to tossing your phone across the room after sending her your response with that emoji. But when she replied, your worries went away, and you get sucked back into the conversation quickly enough. Eventually, she tells you to go to bed.

Were you seeing things? Did she just send you a heart?! Nearly squealing, you rolled over, face down in your pillow to muffle the noise. Needless to say, you went to sleep the happiest you’ve felt, probably ever.

Oh, and…

🏷️ Tag list:

@ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @ludoesartnstuffs @pda128

💭A/N:

Uh so…part 2?

(Yes I gave Janis a Hawaiian name)

[thegingerheed]

How DELTATRAVELER is the funniest UT fangame by complete accident.

Over the course of the past year, I've talked a ton about various UT/DR fan-projects and my thoughts regarding them and their writing. One fan-work I have talked extensively about on various forums and threads being DELTATRAVELLER. For a while, I didn't know exactly how to feel about this game. It felt like an enigma to me. 

The game was enjoyable to play, it was entertaining to read. Yet I could never get myself invested in anything regarding the game's narrative or characters. It was as if the game was unintentionally written to obliterate (pun entirely intended) any and all chances for narrative investment in its story and characters. What the game did have over me was that it had me in histersics for the majority of its runtime. Yet, paradoxically, none of the jokes written to be funny landed for me. For a while I didn't fully know why and how it made me feel about the game as a whole. How can you say you enjoyed  something a lot whilst also laughing at it and acknowledging that under any other circumstance, it wouldn't be something that you'd consider to be good?

Spoiler alert: I found that answer, which I will now be explaining to YOU in weirdly esoteric detail !!!

But before we start, let's start of with the basic premise of DELTATRAVELER for those not in the know. 

What is a "DELTATRAVELER"

DELTATRAVELER is a UT/DR fangame about Kris, Susie and Noelle being isekai'd from a Post-Chapter 2 DELTARUNE into the worlds of various different video games and UNDERTALE on a quest to find a way home. The game was inspired and made off the back of "GOD FUCKING damnit KRIS where the FUCK are we!?" which was a very popular meme at the time of DELTARUNE: Chapter 2's release. 

Like DELTARUNE, the game is divided and released in chapters (dubbed 'sections' by the devs). Each chapter is set in a different world and has the Shit Squad (The objectively best name for the heroes) explore, fight and eventually find that world's "grey door" which serves as the end goal for the chapter as that will take the Shit Squad to the next world after the boss of the chapter is complete. In total the game is slated to have eight total chapters with what they are based on being revealed in advanced:

Chapter 1: UNDERTALE 

Chapter 2: Earthbound

Chapter 3: GG!UNDERFELL

Chapter 4: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Chapter 5: TS!UNDERSWAP

Chapter 6: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Chapter 7: Toontown Online

Chapter 8: The Dark (the game's finale)

Currently as of this post, DELTATRAVELER is still a work in progress with Chapter 3 being released back in December. As a result all discussion of the game of the game will be on Chapters 1-3 as those are what's out right now.

I think I should preface this post with me saying, I don't think DELTATRAVELER is a bad game, quite the opposite, actually! I enjoyed my time with it.

Mechanically, the gameplay is really well done, the physics feel very on point to UT/DR, which is surprisingly rare for a lot of UT fan-games. It felt like I was playing UT/DR and was rewarded for the skills I had gained from the collective hundreds of hours I have played these games. 

Visually, I think it looks very solid and charming. Seeing various locales and characters from other games being translated into UT/DR's iconic, sometimes janky artstyle is always cool to see and it will be very interesting to see how games like A Link to the Past are adapted in future chapters.

Musically, I think the game is fine. The original songs in the OST doesn't have anything I'd point to as "bangers" but also doesn't have anything I thought was particularly hard to listen to (With the outlier maybe being Eye for an Eye. The obligatory Megalo for the Sans fight in the GG!UNDERFELL chapter. But even then, I wouldn't even call the song "bad". I just don't like it too much and that's fine! just how music taste works.)

But to get to the main point. The most intreasting thing about DELTATRAVELER to me, is the way the game is written which has proven to be quite the controversial topic within the broader fandom which is what I'll try to give an in-depth and nuanced disection of but to put a long story short, I don't think this game is written well. Most of the core issues I have with DELTATRAVELER's writing can be attributed to a single, fundamental flaw. That being how the game handles it's "tone"

Explaining Tone

In writing, Tone is a very multi-factor concept, working as the bedrock for a given work. To put it simply and cleanly, tone is basically "the vibes" of a given thing. Tone can come in a lot of different flavours. Whether that be the tone of a given scene, the work itself or even the tone of an entire series. Tone is important as keeping tone consistent with itself is one of the major factors in narrative investment. It essentially tells the audience what they can and can't expect from a work of fiction.

Let's use this as an example:

You're watching a movie, in the movie there's a scene involving the protagonist having an anvil inexplicably dropped on their head by the antagonist.

If this movie was a comedy for children and family, the tone of this scene would ensure that this be as funny a punchline as possible or the set up for a funny punchline. This expectation built by the previous events of the story shields the narrative and characters from anything that might be too ill-fitting for the "comedy for child and family tone" it's trying to go for. At most the protagonist could be expected to suffer from a Loney Toons-like knockout rather than ending in a hospital bed with a shattered skull. Or, at worst, splattered and crushed across the pavement in an intensely gruesome fashion. If that happened, it wouldn't pass the story's "vibe check" which can cause something that I'll be calling "Tonal Whiplash"

If you want an example of "Tonal Whiplash" and the effects it can have on the audience, look no further than Shadow the Hedgehog

This game, to be frank. Is fucking hilarious and this is in part due to the mere concept of the game about Shadow using a gun breaking the tone set series-wide by other Sonic games and media in the past. (Expect Sonic Adventure 2, that has similar issues to a lesser extent)

It takes a series about stopping egg-themed villain from ruling the world to trying to assassinate the president and watching as a innocent girl gets shot in the back by what is basically, the USA military. And it all tries to do this in the Sonic series' iconic, albeit rather corny writing while also intened to appeal to older kids and be "cool". It leaves the game being kinda a clusterfuck even beyond just its tone issue, in a very funny way.

Now, this isn't to say that breaking tone is necessarily a bad thing all the time. Sometimes it's intentional, a way to make a moment hit harder, surprise the audience or all of the above. However, breaking tone is a narrative risk and if it fails you risk hurting the narrative investment your audience has within your work and to top it off once tone has been broken, it can't really be put back together with a story. You'll basically be shifting the tone of the story from that point on.

An easy example of this tonal shift is UT itself with it's Geno Route.

How UNDERTALE handles it's tone

UT's tone is one that acknowledges its nature as a video game with the usage of diegetic game mechanics like SAVING and the battle system.

This has many unique effects, for example means things like death as a concept is something that is treated rather lightly within the game's tone, the game even joking about it on the occasion. It's rather pointless treating death as anything other than a slight inconvenience to the human when you directly acknowledge that they can undo it by simply not wanting to die.

This treatment of death intentionally clashes with how it's treated when you kill monsters in a Geno Route. Papyrus is a shining example of this. Being something of an emotional obstacle for the player. Designed to make the player feel shit. Basically UT's writing is effectively, unapologetically trying to guilt trip you as another test of your determination to see this run to its completion.

The emotional weight of this scene is less carried by the idea of death and more so the fact that you hurt one of your favourite characters and won't see him anymore for the remainder of the run. It's more character focused, if you've already begun to withdraw your narrative investment and attachment to the characters or if you simply just don't give a fuck, it's not gonna make you feel anything. It'd just be another monster to slay, another number to increase.

Now you might find yourself wondering. How can UT be funny and sad without it leading to side effects normally seen by "tonal whiplash"? UT is funny, sure. There's a lot of jokes, each joke told in UT is a joke told by either a character or the world. Each joke means something beyond it being a funny line. But UT can also be heartfelt, like the walk up to Asgore. It all further fleshes these characters out making them feel more deep and layered, it treats it's world and characters not as jokes to be laughed at but as people, people who can be funny, people that can be sad and down even if you and the game both know that deep down, they aren't real. Just bundles of pixels and dialogue for your entertainment which is what makes Geno's clash work.

Your attachment to the characters and world. It's sudden, yes. But that's why it hits. NPCs vanish and their absence is felt, the once lively music replaced with a slowed drone. It all feels empty. It's dark, all because you have killed the things that gave this game its "light". UT's tone is something that . The tone of Pasifist runs reinforce and bring greater impact to Geno runs and that's why it feels less like tonal whiplash to the audience.

Now, let's get to DELTATRAVELER. If we want to establish how DELTATRAVELER establishes a tone for itself what best than analysis the beginning?

How DELTATRAVELER handles it's tone

After an amusing title screen and a quick file selection, we open with Kris and Susie on a bed of flowers, the first room of UT. After a brief moment of the two getting their bearings, they stand up and Susie turns to Kris before saying "God Damnit Kris! Where the hell are we?!!" fit with a silly pose and sound effect. A reference to the meme that inspired the game's creation.

The next scene is in the very next room and it's encounter with Flowey. Here he attempts the same speech he said in UT before Susie cuts him off, gets him to spill the beans that he was actually after Kris' SOUL before getting into a battle. Where they make a joke about DR battles being different from UT battles before Susie bashes her HUD into Kris' creating a unique one that DELTATRAVELER uses before blasting Flowey away with Rude Buster.

Off the cuff, DELTATRAVELER isn't really being serious. So far it's spent the first couple of scenes essentially making jokes around the characters, world and basic premise of the game and the game will continue to do this with inclusion such as Ralsei smoking a blunt, referencing a meme of the same name and Noelle making expressions referencing both a popular SpongeBob and MegaMind memes. On its own, this isn't really a bad thing, sure I may personally find it very unfunny but the game starting off with various memes isn't even a negative in principle, it just indicates that it doesn't want the audience to take it too seriously, which if that was the intention, would be fine. The issue DELTATRAVELER has with it's writing is that it unfortunately does want me to take it seriously.

The game makes an attempt to emulate UT's writing style, attempts to have serious moments sprinkled amongst jokes. However, unlike UT, DELTATRAVELER's brand of humour is basically solely self aware memes. Oftentimes, made at the expense of its own characters and world, leaving the moments where the game actually wants to be taken serious to fall flat.

Things like Kris' nightmare during Chapter 3, where they wonder why they are cursed with our control before lamenting about how much they want to rip their SOUL out and destroy it. Before crying out that they "Don't want to die alone." Doesn't have the impact the game wants it to have, because prior to that point, the game had basically already told the audience not to take the game too seriously, thus hurting any narrative and emotional investment the player could form with this interpretation of Kris as a character leading up to that point.

The same can be said with DELTATRAVELER's Geno Route equivalent, dubbed by the devs as The Obliteration Route watching the game in one route go from, "Ralsei Dobbie! No Bitches? Vine boom!" to beating and slaughtering a beloved protagonist and watching the kid bleed out on the ground as the other fights for revenge whilst a cover of (fucking) MEGALOVANIA starts playing in another takes what should be a very climactic and emotional moment and turns it into the single funniest boss fight I have played.

And that isn't counting the various other characterization issues present throughout the route as a whole. Characters like Noelle and Susie have no real reason to help Kris with the run once they notice them seemingly going around looking for people to slaughter. DELTATRAVELER especially when the game then goes out of its way to show the player that both party members have the digetic ability to reject the player's control, to the point where they can refuse to enter battles with Kris entirely.

But they don't, they'll even attack Ness and Paula under a certain percentage of health even after Susie tells explicitly Kris to not kill them. It leads to the game putting the blame on Kris and then The Player for a situation Susie and Noelle also have established agency over. Susie can help and kill a ton of monsters yet still be pissed at Kris for what is, under the game's internal logic, still a choice she chose to follow. The game tries to remedy this via Chapter 3's talk with the trio and it's better, sure. But it still leaves the writing in this strange place of hypocrisy with the characterization to me.

One scene that sticks out to me as particularly odd being after a secret Gaster lore dump cutscene on an Aborted Obliteration run has Noelle say:

"Kris..."

"If you were serious about not having control."

"You would've done it."

Directly implying that she thought Kris should've jumped off the cliff... which is just a strange inclusion, I feel is... Done more so to enlist a reaction in the player rather than creating important moments that respects the world and established characterization.

On the topic of weird characterization, let's talk Sans...

In the GG!UNDERFELL chapter, the main antagonists are Papyrus and Sans. Papyrus, is written, pretty recognisably from his Canon Counterpart. Sans however? Is a mess and a wonderful mess, at that. They take this very edgy, unhinged approach to his character, making him into an insane killer type of character similar to AUs like Dusttale. Throughout the chapter, he tries his damnest to kill Kris and take their SOUL, talking vaugely about a gurdge that doesn't ever get elaborated on. This approach creates a dynamic between Sans and Papyrus, where Sans is basically on Papyrus' metaphorically leash. Reaching a breaking point where he kicks Papyrus off a cliff, rushes at Kris like a feral dog before being being thrown off the bridge, leading to his battle.

His battle... oh my god his battle! It was easily the best part of the game, to the point it had to have its dialogue rewritten, the reason for this being honestly something I cannot begin to accurately describe to you while also doing the scene justice. So here's a clip from Andrew Cunningham's playthrough.

This isn't even the ironic either, this was just how Sans was written. The tone takes itself very seriously, this creates this type of divide where the game has already conditioned you not take it seriously, while trying to take itself completely seriously. It's peak tonal whiplash and it makes the scene, and the fight as a whole, unintentional hilarious.

Final Thoughts

The weirdest part? I don't even care. I've spent the better half of this essay arguing the flaws in DELTATRAVELER's writing, and while I do think they are all valid positions to have, for me? I don't really care about it that much, it's these issues that make me like the game. It's really funny in a very earnest, albeit unintentional way and at the end of the day. It's entertaining to read and there is value there. It's why I am not big on the rewrite of GG!Fell Sans. His issues come from fundemental aspect of his character that couldn't be changed with a simple rewrite, nor should it have it been expected to, as a result however, it doesn't really fix his character for me, it just takes a big part of what I enjoyed from him away. It's sort of a shining example on how when creating, you do not have a choice on how other people see your work. Some jokes you might tell might land and be funny, but also to some, may be brutally annoying and that's just the beauty of the beast. There's always room to analyse, to see if what the creator wanted to convey reads back to the audience. But even if there is critical flaws with the writing, enjoyment of that writing isn't inheritantly attached to author intentions or even the quality of the content, it's a feeling, a subjective one at that. It's why I could say I don't like Sonic the Hedgehog and Kingdom Hearts for being too corny and cheesey but to others, that's exactly what they love about it, and there's a lot of value in that.

There isn't a correct way to have an opinion, a right way to like or dislike something. You like things for the reasons you like them, you dislike you dislike them and that's fine.

However, I do want to take the time in this post to address pretty plevalent fandom issue perpetuated by the wider.

In the past, the UT/DR community was, to be frank rather toxic and elitist, it still is, depending on where you look. Overtime though, there's been a shift, whether be because those types of people moved on to other things or simply grew out of that behaviour, it doesn't matter why just that it has happened. There's a lot more positivity in this community and that is great to see. All healthy communities need such things. However, I do believe that as a result of this, the fandom now is suffering from a "rubber band mentality" where we've pulled too far in the opposite direction, leading to what feels like ironically "toxic positivity".

A lot of people feel very passionate about these fan-projects and that should be celebrated. However a trend I've seen in this fandom, one which has had a net negative effect on this community, is how we as a community react to people voicing opinions/ making jokes or just talking negatively about these beloved works.

You see it a lot with works like UNDERTALE: Yellow, DELTATRAVELER, Inverted Fate, all of the big fandom projects. Everytime a critique or just a joke about a fan-work gets more than like 10K Views on social media, the entire fandom begins to fold into basically damage control, regressing into "can we just not be so negative about the super popular fandom work loved by thousands?" People that voice their opinions on these work, especially negative opinions, get dogpiled, mocked and dismissed because according to them they "don't understand the writing", "hate fan works" or are just being "bitter about works made with passion and love and should simply shouldn't engage", even when said people once taking the time to actually hear them out, provide criticism that's honestly pretty valid.

I'd understand if people were directly going after devs, commenting under their tweets, invading their own communities just to mock and be the answer to a question nobody answered. That is wrong and should be called out. Voicing how funny or even terrible you think certain scenes are on your public social media? Ultimately, that's harmless in the grander scheme of things and I feel like fans and creators should be mindful of how they react to things because at the end of the day. People are allowed to voice their opinions, they are also allowed to make jokes and laugh at the writing, they are allowed to do all of that. People want to treat fan works like works of art and I am right there with them, but if you want to do that, you have to actually start treating them like art and accept it's a completely subjective thing. People will have different thoughts about them and that's okay! The moment you start policing what thoughts should and shouldn't be expressed is when any meaningful discussion dies. This whole mentality that since it took hard work and dedication to make a fan project should be celebrated to the highest order and treated as an object of reverence, absolved from all criticism is a harmful mentality to fall into. A thing can both require hard work and dedication and also be criticised and joked about by people. These two can co-exist. One doesn't somehow counteract and invalidate the other.

For some, analysing and critiquing media is a fun thing to do! It helps you get a better understand of the medium you're analysing, what works and what doesn't. It's legitimately fun to have discussions about. Being negative about works, even if they are works of passion aren't the end of the world, especially when they are just posts made by people just minding their own business. Jokes? Shitposts? They should all be allowed, because that's also how some people enjoy works of fiction. And if you don't want to see it? Valid but there are countless methods available to ensure that that don't involve creating a "good vibes only" type of fandom environment that everyone is forced to adhere to. That helps nobody and only breeds division within this community, I think.

[k-rising]

Pick a card: compatibility between that person and you

DISCLAIMER: readings are used as a guide, but the decisions you want to make for yourself are YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. this is for entertainment purposes only.

☞ choose a pile that draws your attention the most.

☞ you can choose more than one option, but I recommend that you stick with the first one you chose.

☞ readings don't have an expiration date.

⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚

𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟏ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟐ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟑

⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚♡⁎₊✧˚

𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟏

judgment + knight of wands + 3 of swords + knight of swords + 7 of wands + 6 of wands + 8 of swords

You are looking for a mature and stable relationship, where there is a lot of communication. You seek to learn from one another and to love and respect each other. Most of the people who chose this pile may have never been in a relationship or had very few romantic experiences. You want to form healthy bonds where both parties feel comfortable with each other.

However, the other person is not clear about what they really want. I get the feeling that they just want to have someone to keep them company and isn't looking for anything serious. For some of you, this person wants a one time thing (if you know what I mean) and for others, they may be looking for an unconventional relationship, like being in an open relationship or something like that. They also tend to relate impulsively, so they don't usually think twice before making a decision.

The type of relationship that both seek is the result of past experiences that were not very pleasant. Both suffered a lot throughout your lives, especially in love. Specifically you may have suffered rejection, loneliness and even betrayal. I feel like you both had toxic relationships and now you don't want to experience that anymore.

Both parties are very ambitious. However, that ambition can sometimes lead you to do things impulsively and not take into account the consequences that may result from your actions. You both are the type of people that, even if the outlook does not look favorable at all, you keep going even when the best option is to stop trying.

Emotionally speaking, I feel that you are more mature than the other person. As I said before, you are very clear about what you want and you know how to set limits when you consider it necessary. However, the other person is the complete opposite: they are immature and has a tendency to play the victim to get what they want.

Physically speaking, both of you are attracted to each other and, in some cases, they may even meet all the standards of your ideal type and/or the other person's ideal type. Does any of you go to the gym? I feel that one of you takes great care of your body and your health.

Mentally speaking, the two are completely different. Your beliefs and principles are totally different, so you both have a very different vision of how to face life. Do you remember that I told you that the other person loves to play the victim? well, this also plays a very important role when it comes to communicating with each other. That person is going to use that resource to manipulate you and make you think like them in some way. There are a lot of mind games here, so you should be very careful with that!

⸻

𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟐

the emperor + the hermit + 8 of cups (rx) + 4 of swords + 2 of cups + ace of wands + page of swords (rx)

For some of you what you are looking for in a relationship is to be in control and for others, you are looking for your partner to be in control of the relationship. It is very likely that you like men or people with masculine energy who are older than you. I don't know why, but I just heard "daddy issues".

Even though the other person wants to be in a serious relationship, they are not interested in having anything at the moment…or maybe they are not interested in having anything serious with you. It is very likely that they are in a self-discovery period, where they are looking for meaning in their life.

This person is afraid of relationships… this can be for many reasons, for example, they recently got out of a relationship and still haven't gotten over that person, or it could be that they already have a type of bond with you, but they are afraid of taking it elsewhere… as I said, the reasons may vary depending on each particular case.

You both share the fact that you want a serious relationship, therefore, in order to achieve it, we sometimes have to do some self-reflection and prepare ourselves to take the next step. We have to know what we want and if we consider that it is not yet the time to be in a relationship, it is best to wait for the right moment. You also consider it essential to know what we want and what we don't.

Emotionally speaking, the two are compatible. You get along very well and I'm sure you connected right away when you first met. I just heard "twin flames", so I'm sure you both thought that you already know each other from somewhere else several times, even though you have never met before. There is mutual respect here as well.

Physically speaking, there is a lot of will between the two parties. You both look out for each other and I feel like there is a mutual give and take here; the bond is reciprocal.

Although you are quite compatible, I feel that you are the one who is rushing everything and this may make the other person uncomfortable. I feel that you are trying to force this bond too much and things are not being natural.

⸻

𝓟𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝟑

4 of wands + the hermit + 8 of pentacles (rx) + 10 of wands (rx) + the devil (rx) + the wheel + 2 of cups

You seek comfort, harmony and happiness in a relationship. It is very likely that people who chose this pile wants to start a family.

On the other hand, the other person seems to not be interested in having anything at the moment. They are going through a period of self-discovery, where they are looking for the meaning of life.

You both may have a different view regarding job. One of you places great importance on it while the other doesn't. Also, some of you may not be that interested in this person, you are just curious about them. Also, I feel that this reading is more focused on family bonds than something romantic. Going back to work, it is very likely that one of you neglects their routine because of being in a romantic relationship.

You both like to be in control and find it difficult to delegate and work in groups. "I can handle it alone". It is rare for you to ask for help, since you are used to deal with problems on your own. Also, it is difficult for both of you to trust others easily. You tend to think "what if…?". You don't let things flow.

As I said before, I feel that this connection is not romantic, since there are many indicators that this bond is more a matter of fate than of own choice. That is, you had to meet this person because that's how it happened… that's why I'm sure this reading focuses on family matters.

This bond is tense and can sometimes be toxic. Although mentally speaking, you understand each other well, it doesn't happen the same way emotionally and physically speaking. You both may be disappointed on the other, so one of you has made the decision to walk away. The other person, on the other hand, is still betting on this bond and feels that they can remedy everything no matter what, but as hard as it is, I don't see that this bond will ever change.

‧͙⁺˚･༓☾　𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑜 𝑚𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔! 　☽༓･˚⁺‧͙

[anim-ttrpgs]

"All our projects" so there's other ANIM projects in production? anything you're able to talk about?

Yes, we plan to have a long-running career in the TTRPG space, and have several backburnered!

I’m just gonna rapid-fire these off the top of my head. We don’t know exactly which one of these is coming after Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is fully released, because it is actually our patreon subscribers that vote on that.

Mastadon(title pending)

Yes, this is intentionally misspelled though we might change that in the future in case it hinders search results and stuff. This is a world where dark fantasy and 90s retro-futurism collide, literally. Think of knights with machine guns, space marines with enchanted swords, high-calibre rounds leaving dents in mythril breastplates, and men-at-arms on cybernetic horses. In the distant future of 2016, a scientific experiment on a lunar research station opened a portal to another world. At the same time, in a dimension of sorcery and feudalism, a council of wizards opened a portal to another world, and explorers from each land found themselves in the same mysterious place.

Cultures and technologies have clashed and mixed in these mysterious lands since. The PCs are mercenaries, taking odd, usually violent, jobs to get by.

Gameplay-wise it’s largely a combat-focused dungeon crawler emulating retro-FPS combat in TTRPG form, with an emphasis on making every type of gun feel totally unique by tying them to entirely different dice mechanics, which in turn makes warriors using these guns strategize entirely differently.

Bone Grinder

Bone Grinder is a “dumber” game, but still with an emphasis on combat. It has a notably more punk and metal aesthetic. Imagine a rocker with a mohawk and leather jacket killing a demon with an axe guitar that is also actually an axe. One of the core mechanics is that players will “bone” the game master by “throwing the bones” at them, which means literally trying to hit them with dice. A successful hit will add a bonus to whatever dice roll comes up when the thrown die lands. When it is the monsters’ turns, the game master will throw that same die right back at them. So if you throw a D6, that’s a D6 attack coming back at your PC next turn. If you throw a D20, that’s a D20 attack coming back at your character next right, so you better make it count, better kill ‘em in one shot!

(We recommend using plastic dice for this one, no metal dice!)

Death Bed

This is another working title, and it is a very serious attempt to emulate Dark Souls and Dark Souls style combat in a turn-based TTRPG in response to the abysmal Dark Souls: The Role-Playing Game that was just a lazy D&D5e book.

This game will be a bit more OSR-y, with D20 roll-under mechanics like old-school D&D for skill checks, and very simple attack determinants. It will have an emphasis on predicting enemy movement, stamina management, and choice between blocking or dodging attacks. It will also feature a system whereby the PCs are not permanently dead after being killed, but do “hollow” after each death. There are several stages of hollowing, each with downsides and upsides. Fully alive PCs will be more nimble, alert, and powerful, but stand out more to mindless hollow enemies, drawing more aggro. More hollowed PCs will have stat debuffs, but hollows are less likely to attack other hollows, giving them less aggro priority. Of course, if a PC dies too many times without restoring their life force, they will become a mindless hollow themselves, becoming an enemy that the party must slay if they want to recover that PC’s equipment.

Untitled Mushroom Game

A working title of course. This game takes a lot of inspiration from the earlier Paper Mario games, and like Bone Grinder, it will have actual physical things you can do with the dice to gain bonuses to your characters’ attacks, which is meant to emulate the “action commands” from Paper Mario in TTRPG format. One example would be building a larger dice pool for an attack based on how many D6s you can stack into a tower before they fall down, with the tower falling down constituting the rolling of the dice.

Eureka Adventure Modules Vol. 2

(Vol. 1 is the set of adventure modules that are coming with the Kickstarter.) Eureka fully releasing won’t mean we’re done with it. We plan to support all of our games for as long a time as possible with new adventure modules and other supplements. (But expect the other supplements to be very cheap if not outright free. We don’t want to make Eureka a game where you have to buy 15 $50 books just to have the full experience.) This will be a set of 5, 10, maybe more pre-written adventure modules for use with Eureka. For a few teasers, one of our ideas features the PCs getting stranded in the Mojave desert, one of them features the PCs getting trapped in underground drainage tunnels with a mysterious creature stalking them, and more horrifying mysteries.

The Eureka Mobster Manual

Another working title, but it’s pretty catchy. This will act as a “monster manual” for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, featuring prémisse stats and GMing advice mundane NPCs like cops, mafia enforcers, hapless bystanders, etc. and also actual monsters, both human and inhuman. One of the monsters I am most excited about introducing is actual demons. Not just some red guy with horns, in fact they’re likely to be completely invisible. I know this term gets thrown around a lot by people who don’t know what it means, but in Eureka demons will be more “biblically accurate.” Think more The Exorcist and less DOOM. A demon doesn’t want to go “blahrarawa!” and kill you, a demon wants to gradually talk you into killing yourself. This also may feature additional playable monsters, such as the gorgon and dullahan(Kickstarter stretch goals for the main rulebook that I don’t think we’re going to meet unfortunately), plus others if we can come up with more.

Overdose

A working title again. This will be a large collection of “drag-and-drop” tactical combat encounters for Eureka, for when a GM needs a fleshed out and challenging final showdown between the PCs and the bad guy goons. These will feature plenty of cover, alternate routes, and “woo roll elements”(stuff that can get knocked over, exploded, destroyed, etc. by stray bullets, thereby changing the environment in exciting and unexpected ways.). All of this is so that the GM doesn’t have to come up with all the complexities of a good Eureka combat encounter on the fly.

That’s about all I can think of right now. After Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is fully released and the dust is settled, we will hold a vote with out patreon subscribers to find out what the fans most want us to work on next.

However, all of these things that I have mentioned are in a very raw state of completion, or even just in the idea stage. If you want to see all these projects, and more, release in the coming years, then RPG-making needs to be a long-term viable career for us. I, personally, am disabled and have a very hard time finding regular, sustainable work at “real jobs,” so this is especially important for my financial future. It’s about the only (marketable) skill I’m good at, and it’s something I enjoy doing, so I’m making this push now for my future.

The best way you can make this a viable long-term career for us is to support the Eureka Kickstarter (only 24-hours left at the time of posting this), buy our games, and subscribe to our Patreon.

The more successful the Kickstarter is, not only does more art and stuff get added to the Eureka rulebook and adventure modules, but the more buzz it generates, and the more buzz it generates the more journalistic support and more financial support we get. Even if it’s just for charity purposes to help me pay future bills when I can’t hold a normal job, pledging $10 is enough to get your name in the Eureka rulebook, and if you can’t give anything, we totally understand—we’d rather you put food on your table than go broke supporting our dreams. If you can share the Kickstarter to discord servers and the like in the last 24 hours of its crowdfunding window, or just share news of the game with people after the Kickstarter closes, that is a huge huge help on its own.

We, and especially I, am thankful beyond my ability to express in words for how much support the Kickstarter has already gotten, and the patreon subscribers whose support paid for all of our advertising budget to get Eureka as well-known as it is. This is a project of extremely professional scope and calibre, and I’m proud to say that we probably shouldn’t have been able to pull it off with as small a team as we are, we’re just that talented and persistent, but no matter how talented or persistent we are, it is the fans and supporters that make it possible for us to pursue a creative career. Thank you all.

24 hours left on the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Kickstarter, crowdfunding closes at 2:00 PM CST on Friday, May 10th! That’s mid-day tomorrow! Please support it while you still can! If you’re reading this after the Kickstarter has closed, you can support us through ko-fi or patreon, and if you’re a $5 subscriber or more to our patreon, you will get regular PDFs of increasingly finished beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and its adventure modules as we continue to work on finishing it using the Kickstarter money.

You can also help us by checking out our merchandise!

If you just want to play, you don’t have to pay. You can get a beta PDF of the Eureka rulebook plus character sheets and adventure modules FOR FREE from our website or itch.io page.

Join our TTRPG Book Club We nominate, vote on, and split into groups (based on schedule compatibility) differnt indie games, then discuss, just like a book club! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[makeandshift]

Hasan S/O // Streamer!gf

one of my personal faves, so more is probably to come.

Peacefully exists in her own little corner of the internet, think variety, art or wholesome gaming streams.

Has a small but very wholesome and tight community and she works very hard to keep it that was. Zero tollerance for any hate or bullshit.

Meets Hasan through some Twitch related event where a mutual friend introduces them. bestie!Will maybe 👀

She's definitely intimidated by him at first, but once she gets over that they hit it off instantly.

They live really far apart (other side of the country or maybe even a different continent?) so at first it is just a long distance friendship kind of thing.

They are constantly texting or chatting on Discord, even during streams. Either of them has their phone in their hand? The other definitely just texted them.

Once they are actually in a relationship people figure it out so fast because suddenly Hasan is in her city very often and she always stays in L.A. forever whenever there is an event she attends.

Either that or Austin accidentally leaks their relationship on his Instagram or just by mentioning it on stream.

Speaking of Austin, he asks her to appear on any of his shows and she will say yes without even knowing what she is saying yes to. Bonus points if she gets to compete against Hasan.

She tries playing co-op games with Hasan on stream, but it just always results in them yelling at each other or them both getting hella distracted and getting nothing done.

So instead they just make tierlists and look at dumb videos together.

Also IRL streams where they go on little trips together (and sometimes with Kaya as well)!!!!

Totally moves to L.A. to be closer to Hasan, but will deny that and gives a dozen other dumb reasons when people ask: "The weather is way nicer", "All my friends live here", "I really love being stuck in traffic no matter where I am trying to go". The list just gets more and more unhinged.

She does move into Hasan's place like four months later though.

After that she probably is on his stream a lot, "just to hang out with Kaya".

Can totally see her hanging out in his chat waiting for him to notice. Or using clips to communicate with each other.

Weekly 'Reviewing Hasan content' segment on her stream, as previously discussed here.

Totally getting distracted by thirst traps / edits of the other. It goes from "Why did you send me this chat?" to "Okay, but are there more? 🫠"

[gooeyringtown]

cowboy barbie au headcanons

shoutout to @snowangeldotmp3 for building this wonderful imaginary world and being absolutely feral with me for cowboy barbie

+ a special thanks to @kjarlmarx for listening to me blab on and on <33

happy valentine’s day!! ☺️enjoy xo

barbie is from a super small town & her family owns a ranch that she’s set to inherit

she grows up and starts working as a farmhand

her best friends are ken & emma

ken works alongside her, mainly in training and caring for the horses (duh) whereas emma works as a tattoo artist at a parlor in town, though occasionally she does help barbie on weekends with some harvesting or repairs/construction if an extra hand is needed

gloria would be from the city definitely. like queens or something; city girl and very artsy and grounded

she’s introduced because emma tries a semester of art school in new york before deciding it isn’t for her, and it’s through one of her classes that she meets gloria

she invites gloria to her hometown for a couple of weeks in the summer

gloria is immediately smitten with barbie

barbie is INSANELY charming and attractive

she’s tall (5’10 is her canon height in my head in every universe, idc idc), strong, lean, tan, with the softest skin and prettiest hair and eyes

she speaks confidently and her smile is dazzling and swoon-worthy and her voice has this little drawl in it and it all makes her SUCH a heartthrob

not to mention the fact that she’s so polite and such a gentlewoman, doing things like always holding/opening the door, helping to carry others’ groceries (especially the town elders), saying good morning/afternoon/evening to anyone passing by while she walks (and if she’s wearing her cowboy hat, she does that thing where she takes it off or tips it, out of courtesy)

she offers her hand to hold while going down the steps or anything steep around the ranch, as well as pulling the chair out for gloria at dinner, whether it be at barbie’s house or emma’s or ken’s or some restaurant or diner

^ these two things she seems to only do with gloria, though, which has ken and emma definitely giving each other the side eye

the town’s kids adore barbie, and she’s amazing with them. she carries around little stickers or stamps or cool rocks she finds to hand to them, depending on what she knows they collect

also barbie has rock hard abs that gloria literally wants to drool over

barbie calling gloria “city girl” and “little lady”

always in that teasing way, with her accent and that damn smile

emma learning about stick and pokes in art school, which she thinks are so cool because you don’t need much for them and she can totally do them

barbie letting emma practice on her

barbie having a couple of scattered stick and pokes on the muscles of her thighs, as a result of this

barbie, ken, emma and gloria as well as a couple of other friends from town having game nights where they play card games like poker, blackjack, texas hold em, etc.

gloria not understanding at all (real)

barbie teaching her

them sharing a seat and sitting reallyyyyy close + sharing cards so barbie can explain as they go

everyone being like 👀

barbie also teaching gloria how to ride a horse

gloria having her artistic talent recognized and townshop owners commissioning her to paint murals on the side of their buildings

barbie always being in absolute awe of gloria and her work, but even more so when she sees the first mural gloria completes

barbie asking for her parents’ help in preparing gloria’s favorite as a celebratory dinner and also buying gloria a plush of her favorite animal, a card with all their friends’ signatures, a bunch of gloria’s favorite candy/snacks, balloons, a handpicked bouquet from the garden, oh boy it just goes on

gloria’s heart literally skipping like 5 beats at all the effort barbie put in, as well as the fact that barbie gives her the biggest hug and sweeps her off her feet while telling her how proud she is of her, with the biggest smile on her face and her eyes so bright and sparkly and glossy and ohmygoddddd

barbie definitely being a beer or whisky girl

like beer at home but whisky when they go out to the town’s pool hall

gloria being really good at pool and barbie being like hell yeah that’s my city girl!!!

the townspeople referring to barbie as “your cowboy” when speaking to gloria

gloria blushing hard asf and being like “oh no, we’re not—”

barbie butting in at that exact moment from across the pool hall like “gloria look!!” while doing some stupid stunt with ken, all in the name of impressing gloria

(that one was a liv specialty hehe @snowangeldotmp3 !!)

barbie loving the farm animals more than anything and always finding the time to care for them

gloria noticing this and thinking it’s the cutest thing

gloria also noticing a large scar barbie has, running from the line of her abdomen around her side; she doesn’t bring it up though

they dance around each other for the longest time omggg, mainly because gloria thinks barbie is so irresistibly charismatic and appealing that she has tons of people lining up for a chance with her, and gloria has no shot

meanwhile barbie thinks gloria is the most talented and wonderful person she’s ever met, but she believes gloria’s ambitions and how far she will go in life is way bigger and greater than what barbie could offer her right now

they’re so stupid

they never say it out loud (how into each other they are) but at the same time they never pursue anyone else and they do things that are unmistakably more than just friendly

plus everyone can see their chemistry and attraction & it’s so obvious

barbie probably having a record collection she’s really proud of and wanting to show them to gloria

barbie being a fumbling nervous mess scrambling to toss things aside and tidy up as gloria walks into her bedroom for the first time

barbie being like “s-sorry about the mess!” and wiping her hands on her denim jeans awkwardly. saying some endearing thing like “i’m not used to having girls in here… especially such pretty ones.”

gloria, at that exact moment, spotting a vintage playboy magazine on barbie’s bed sdjsksmd

her picking it up and holding it up to barbie being like “you sure about that?”

barbie going bright red, the most gloria has ever seen on a person, before she snatches it away and shoves it under her bed

(with the rest of her stash LMAO)

barbie eventually telling gloria the story of her scar, which is that when she was young, a lot of the older kids/boys had these amateur gangs and rivalries and all that, where barbie unwittingly got mixed up in some brawl and ended up getting stabbed

she spent a lot of time at home while she recovered, and it was there that she discovered her love for working on the farm, particularly with the animals, who gave her a sense of peace and happiness while she was in a lot of pain

barbie telling this story while she and gloria are laying on some blankets in the back of barbie’s truck, stargazing

their song is “rhythm & blues” by the head and the heart, btw

gloria having her head on barbie’s chest, barbie’s arm around her

barbie in some overalls with no shirt underneath because it’s too hot, making it easy for gloria to slip her hand beneath the denim and trace her fingers across the scar

she also kisses barbie’s cheek and whispers how sorry she is, how strong barbie is and how much she admires it

barbie shivering at the touch and feeling so heard and seen and cared for and loved, her heart racing

they definitely end up realizing how dumb and blind they’re being, and go on their first date not long after that

barbie “dressing up” for it, in her jeans and boots for special occasions, with a sweater and her nicest belt

her leaning her arm against the wall gloria is standing in front of, being like “i clean up pretty nice, don’t you think?” with a little wink and her cheeky smile

gloria rolling her eyes slightly but definitely blushing, swooning, giggling, falling head over heels

gloria wearing an outfit she thought was nice yet casual enough, a long denim skirt with a pretty, thin sweater tucked into it (a look that emma helped style)

barbie being like those cartoon characters whose eyes turn to giant hearts and pop out of their heads and their jaws drop

she’s just a gay mess all the time around gloria tbh

their first date being so so sweet and fun and wholesome and barbie walking gloria to her door (emma’s door, because that’s where gloria is staying) and kissing her cheek and bidding her a good night

she is wearing her cowboy hat (she had only been doing so in her truck, but forgot to take it off this time as she got out)

gloria teasing barbie with “by the way, yes. you do clean up nicely”

barbie smirking “why thank you.” and tipping her hat before saying “i have to start practicing, so this is good.”

gloria tilting her head like “practicing? for what?”

barbie holding gloria’s hands and answering “for when i’m in new york, visiting you.”

it’s the sweetest whisper and she looks so hopeful

gloria reaches out to take the cowboy hat off barbie’s head, and she puts it on her own instead

she’s smiling. “yeah, i guess you do.”

and she hugs around barbie’s neck and kisses her

i adore them so muchhhh 😭 cowboy barbie you are such a loverboy and YOU ARE SO REALLLL

i will say i missed sasha since she wasn’t in this one since they are young but my consolation is that she ends up being their bio child in the future <3

hope you liked!! 🩷🩷

[kenisle]

(free of spoilers until the read more)

i like how deadpool and wolverine was able to work with audiences’ associations of actors + characters.

it’s not something that can really be done with comics, where between changing artists (or just each artist’s evolving style/human inconsistency), so many characters having the same base design (eg how almost all the robins, bruce wayne, and clark kent are just White Guy With Short Black Hair and Strong Jaw), and the same distinctive costume getting passed around to various characters (eg the captains america).

if you want a comic reader to know who a character is, you almost always have to explicitly introduce them, or else it could be damn near anyone under all the layers of ambiguity listed above.

with movies/tv though, aside from a few recasts, actors’ faces aren’t subject to nearly the same degree of variance that a drawn character is, so if an audience member recognizes the actor from a previous film, they automatically know the character on the screen. any explicit introduction of a returning character is for the more casual viewer but usually isn’t necessary as long as the character’s basics are established up front.* the smaller, contained scale of established movie/tv show canon compared to the amorphous behemoth that is comics canon helps a lot as well.

this means reintroductions are short and sweet, if present at all (and in this film can be explained easily by dp’s fellow fanboy enthusiasm when necessary, rather than just the writers blatantly using him as a mouthpiece), and simply the face of a returning actor affords a ton of depth to a character that couldn’t be developed in this installment. it doubles as a way to devote more time to other things in the movie and a way to reward returning viewers.

DP+W SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT

*in dp+w, seasoned viewers recognize pyro from X2, but we also get a refresher of his deal, both new (his allegiance in the void) and old (he has fire powers), so while his trajectory is a bit more clear with the wider context from X2, nothing he does is totally out of left field/unsupported by the text in this film.

so, while previous marvel movies have taken advantage of this shortcut to reduce weighing down the runtime with exposition, dp+w also snatched the golden opportunity to play a prank on the audience with it which i adored.

see, while there have been many cases of the same character being recast with different actors during marvel’s long run, very rarely was there one actor who played two DIFFERENT (major)** characters.***

**looking at you, stan lee.

***the only other example i can think of atm is oscar isaac, but he was basically unrecognizable under all the makeup and costume for apocalypse, so this trick wouldn’t have really worked with him anyway. hence “golden opportunity.”

so when chris evans’s cloaked form strode onscreen, audiences (and deadpool) were already well familiar with the cameo game and reasonably assumed he’d be reprising his more recent, more popular marvel role of steve rogers, only for the rug to be pulled out from underneath them at the fateful “flame on!”

not that there weren’t hints, of course (ie evans’s hair its natural brown rather than rogers’s more blond, the uncharacteristic taunt of “dick-for-brains” that even caught dp a little off guard, not to mention the total lack of signs outside the movie that evans and rogers would be returning to the mcu, or the illogic of doing so in a movie about deadpool and wolverine of all things), but the filmmakers know their audience and their expectations very well, resulting in what i found to be a hilarious and effective bait & switch. it was also, in my opinion, a much better direction to take the movie.

instead of nonsensically reviving such a central character that has already been given a complete arc almost as an aside in this movie that had little to do with him in the first place, they brought back a relic of movies left unfinished, remembered fondly but distantly (if at all) under the barrage of newer, flashier franchises. AND they did this knowing the old fantastic four films would soon be replaced (again), so it’s not like this johnny was ever gonna stick around. this was simply a lovely homage — a bid not to forget that we cared for those movies, too, and they’re still important to us even when the story gets rebooted.

instead of doing the same mcu bullshit we’ve grown tired of, they fed another line back to a central thesis of the movie: dying timelines (old, discontinued films) who have lost their anchor being (popular interest, production, etc.) shouldn’t be cut short (forgotten, discarded, disregarded) just because they’re not the prime timeline; there are still people living there (fans and creators caring about them) and value to be found in them.

and they were able to execute it in such an exciting, funny, and memorable way because of this connection between actors and characters that doesn’t exist in comics.

[sribbles-drabbles]

@sivlynxx asked:

So umm this is my first time requesting something, can you write sfw of the obey me brothers with a really anxious MC? Like an MC who is always anxious? Thank you

——————————————————————————

Sure hon!! As someone who has anxiety themself, I had a lot of fun with this!!

💙Lucifer💙

Honestly I don’t think Lucifer would have much idea what it’s like to feel anxiety, or at least wouldn’t admit it.

He’s the avatar of pride, and thus usually very confident in himself and his decisions.

So when he meets you this meek little human who’s nervous ALL THE TIME he starts to feel protective

In his mind he has enough confidence for the both of you

When you attempt to explain your situation and what it means to have anxiety, he can’t help but think back to Lilith

Thus his protectiveness increases 10 fold

He’s the type to brag about you or tell you that “I chose you because you’re perfect. As the avatar of pride I wouldn’t settle for anything less.”

In other words he attempts to remedy your anxiety by hyping you up. But remind him that it’s part of who you are.

Slowly he’ll start to understand, and see how many things can cause emotional peril for you, and rather than being protective, he becomes your guiding light

He still wants you to have more confidence in yourself, and will still hype you up in his own way, but it more apt to helping you process and work through your anxiety.

“I know it seems utterly terrifying through your eyes. But I promise it’s not scary. And when have I ever lied to you?”

💛Mammon💛

This man GETS IT.

I mean not totally because how can you be terrified of like the future???? It’s not gonna hurt ya?????

But once you sit him down and explain why you’re afraid of things it clicks

And then Mammon probably opens up about his self anxiety caused by years of his brother’s words

You two probably have a nice moment of realizing how much you two bonded over this.

Honestly I think Mammon becomes really good at reading your tells.

Like, he’ll notice little things like you playing with your hair of sleeves and immediately drag you away from whatever it is that seems to be making you anxious.

If you’re the type to apologize 200 times for something minor, Mammon is the type to hug you tight and tell you it’s ok.

It’s something minor, let it go.

Honestly he keeps you grounded, in a very sensitive and emotional way.

That doesn’t mean he’s perfect though, as he often says dumb shit that can make you nervous, or comes back with bruises after an encounter with Lucifer and you worry.

He always feels terrible when he sees you full of fear due to his actions, and tries to get hurt alot less and be more careful with his words.

“O-Oi, I’m ok babe!! Honest!! Please don’t freak…I mean-….you’re not-….Ugh….I’m sorry….just…come here…”

🧡Levi🧡

Another man who understands your struggle on a spiritual level.

Honestly if you have anxiety….maybe don’t date this man…

Your anxiety triggers his anxiety and it’s an endless cycle of “why are you nervous???” “I don’t know, why are YOU nervous???”

But if you DO date this man with your level of anxiety already, you both slowly learn to function together

And honestly you both function a bit better together than apart some days

You both learn each other’s tells and attempt to pull each other away from uncomfortable situations.

Levi teaches you some of the soothing techniques that he picked up over time, and if you have any you like, you’re welcome to teach them to him!

When it’s a really bad day for one of you, you often find comfort in the other, and it more often than not results in wrapping up together in a blanket while playing a video game or watching anime.

He also strikes me ad the type to swim when nervous, and thus will offer you to join him of you’re feeling a lot of anxiety at a given moment.

All in all, it takes practice, but if you two really work together, you end up being a really nice and supportive couple that helps each other function nicely!!

“H-Hey it’s o-okay!! How about we watch some Ruri-Chan instead. I’m r-right here, I promise.”

💚Satan💚

He kinda understands it, but more in like a third person psychiatrist kinda way.

Like he knows what anxiety is and many of the symptoms and habits as he’s done some research on the topic when it comes to Levi and Asmo sometimes.

Thus when you confide in him or when he figures it out and asks you if you have anxiety, he immediately enters “And why do you think that is?” Mode.

Satan is a fixer, not a “we can work with this” person.

Your boyfriend starts acting like a therapist, and as you rant to him about your concerns, he’ll give you logical answers to your concerns or strategies to go about your problems.

If this type of thing helps? Great! Let him play Sherlock Holmes with your brain, it give him something to do and makes him feel happy to help and accomplished when he figures out the advice you need.

If it DOES’NT work and you need more of an emotional approach, tell him that. He’ll be frustrated and probably get angry.

But when he sees how he fell into his sin, and how he scares your already frightened form, something clicks.

This is emotion, something illogical. And he needs to be more sensitive.

He then researches eve more about anxiety, and asks you about your personal experiences on a more personal level.

He’s definitely wary and nervous about his temper now. Or even more than before. He realizes that this is his own anxiety now, and uses this to form more of a solid empathic connection with you.

He really loves you, and while it may take him time to learn how to best live with you, please give him time. He’s trying really hard.

“I’m sorry….that was insensitive…let me rephrase, did you want to talk about it? Or is there anything you want to do to take your mind off of it?”

💕Asmo💕

Another person who I feel like somewhat understands it but also doesn’t…

Like, he doesn’t KNOW that he understands it or that he’s experienced it until you tell him your feelings and he’s like: “THAT’S WHAT THAT WAS???”

Then he’s probably just grappling with the fact that HE has anxiety, and then gets anxious over whether or not that will give him worry lines, and if people know, and if—

He starts spiraling.

You end up having to use some strategies you learned to help him calm himself down.

He thanks you and you both cuddle while talking about the topic more.

Once you both realize you both have anxiety, you bond over it and learn what coping mechanism help the other person so you can effectively help each other!!

To Asmo, mental health is just as important ad physical health, and he makes sure to reminds you of that!! He probably seeks out therapy for the both of you.

He offers to go with you at the same time if it’s too scary.

After all, I don’t think Asmo has social anxiety, but more anxiety about how others perceive his appearance specifically.

It’s definitely caused by his time online, and his modeling career.

Remind him that it’s his personality that people love, not just his appearance.

He’s really good at soothing you with words or physical touch if you prefer and learns all of your tells and favorite coping mechanisms.

He’s a doting and devoted partner, and just as you help him with his anxiety, he helps you with yours!!

“Shhh, shhhh, it’s ok love. Don’t focus on those nasty thoughts. They can’t hurt you…just focus on me, alright?”

❤️Beel❤️

Another baby who understands how hard anxiety can be.

I feel like he developed it really bad after Lilith’s death, and his separation anxiety especially only got worse after Belphie’s imprisonment.

So when he notices you pushing the food around on your plate without taking a single bite one dinner, he worries.

He probably confronts you afterword. If you try to lie tour way out of it, telling him your fine, he’ll let it go but look sad.

Once you do tell him, he feels a bit better, but still worries about the fact that in his mind you live with all this fear, worry, and doubt.

He probably becomes quite a bit more clingy.

Wherever you go, Beel is not to far behind to make you feel loved and safe.

Other demons make you feel nervous? He scares them off. You’re worried about finishing assignments and deadlines? He’ll help you with whatever if is as best he can.

He often invites you to watch his practice after classes so that you can simply watch him play and turn your brain off for a little while.

When your anxiety gets really bad, he’ll probably simply hold you. Beel isn’t the best with words sometimes, so he uses physical touch to often ground you, but always asks if it’s ok if he touches you first.

If you don’t like touch or that makes your anxiety worse, he’ll probably go down to the kitchen and make your favorite food before returning.

He then puts on your favorite movie/show/anime and you two eat together and watch it.

Of you would rather eat and talk about it, he’s more than willing to listen though!!

“Thanks for telling me…that’s gotta be hard…but we’ll eat all your favorite foods until you feel better.”

💜Belphie💜

Belphie understands anxiety, but probably not to the level you have it.

Though he DOES know some great coping mechanisms from helping Beel with his anxiety over Lilith.

So when you first display anxiety in front of Belphie, he’s really good at helping you calm yourself down with breathing and reassurance.

He’s glad he was able to help, but a little frustrated that he did’nt notice it sooner. He thought you were just still jittery about other demons and your surroundings.

Once you talk to him about your anxiety he asks you if your interested in therapy.

Personally I can see Belphie being in therapy for his anger and his grief still over Lilith.

Thus I feel like he’d pitch the idea to you.

If you don’t want to go, he understands. It’s not for everyone, and lots of people have had bad experiences.

Then he simply does what he’s been doing, helping calm you down when you need it.

He’s a great listener and will often pull you into his bed and let you curl into him as you both close your eyes, you listening to his heart and getting sleepy as you tell him all about what’s making you nervous until you forget and your words slur and you sleep.

Your anxiety makes you develop insomnia? He has bottles of melatonin babes.

Belphie is honestly the most apt of the brothers and has the most tips and tricks that not even you knew when it comes to helping with anxiety.

He makes sure you’re comfortable at all times when you’re with him, and won’t let any dark thoughts plague your mind as long as he’s here!

“Come lay down with me. The blanket is soft and we’ll work on breathing and focusing on physical feeling rather than emotion. Kay’?”