#but that is hard when the game is like 80+ hours long

[putellasawfc]

mapi leòn as a girlfriend is the type to …

-

gf!mapi is the type to … ramble on at bedtime, the clock ticking away into the early hours of the morning but she can’t sleep, so she decides you can’t either as she goes on and on about anything and everything. “do you think mermaids exist?” “what if the world is going to end but the government just don’t want us to know?” “should i go blonder?” “we need to book that vacation tomorrow before it’s too late.”

gf!mapi is the type to … beg you to let her tattoo you, she just won’t give up no matter how many times you tell her you’re not looking for a tattoo yet. she assures you she knows what she’s doing, she’s even drawn out a few ideas for you without you knowing. she just really wants to be the one to give you your first tattoo.

gf!mapi is the type to … get clinger, the more exhausted she gets. after a gruelling training session, or an intense match, the woman is hanging off you any way she can. her arms linked with yours, fingers intertwined, hand on the small of your back, arms wrapped around your waist with her chin resting on your shoulder and her favourite of all: getting a piggyback ride back to the changing rooms.

gf!mapi is the type to … be the first person to jump on you to celebrate when you score a goal, whatever type of goal it is. a simple tap in that didn’t take much? she’s all over you. a long range shot that hits the top corner beautifully? she’s cradling your face in her hands with the cheesiest grin on her face. you get the match winner in an important game? her arms are wrapped around you like you might disappear if she doesn’t hug you hard enough.

gf!mapi is the type to … be almost brought to tears when she sees how well you and bagheera bond so quickly. it’s no secret that, that cat means everything to her, and if you didn’t get along it wouldn’t be the end of the world but she’d be upset that her two favourite beings weren’t clicking. but she doesn’t have to worry about that. not when she returns from the store and spots the two of you cuddled up together whilst taking a nap on the sofa.

gf!mapi is the type to … take an excessive amount of pictures of you till her camera roll is 80% you (& bagheera). she’s always snapping photos of you, even if you’re doing something as mundane as folding laundry. she thinks you’re the prettiest girl she’s ever met, and she makes sure to remind you everyday. you cringe at some of the pictures when she shows you, some of them not being the most flattering. but she just playfully swats you away, grumbling under her breath with a frown. ‘stop being mean to yourself before i get it printed out and stick it on the living room wall.’

gf!mapi is the type to … miss you so much when you have to go on international duty. you’re never usually gone for long unless it’s for a big tournament, but she counts down the minutes until you’re back almost the second you leave. phone calls, texts, facetimes and social media interaction’s just aren’t enough for her. she needs to have you back with her in person asap.

gf!mapi is the type to … buy your football shirt and wear it proudly with the most adorable smile on her face. she has every barcelona shirt with your name and number on the back, wearing it whenever she would come to watch the team whilst she was out with injury.

gf!mapi is the type to … talk about the two of you getting married so casually, as if it was inevitable. she’ll randomly suggest places for your honeymoon, ‘venice would be nice wouldn’t it? or would you prefer somewhere colder?’ or she’d point out decorative bits and claim that would look nice on the table during the reception, as if you were already engaged.

gf!mapi is the type to … be annoying at the most inconvenient times. you could be watching a movie that you’ve been dying to see for weeks, and she’ll start fidgeting beside you, which eventually leads to her talking your ear off, and then suddenly she’s tugging on your arm and poking you, and trying to tickle you because she’s unhappy with the lack of attention she’s receiving.

gf!mapi is the type to … comment the stupidest things on your instagram posts. she’ll do it sat beside you, giggling away to herself as if she’s the funniest person in the world. you’ll post a picture of yourself during a training session, and no sooner than five minutes later there’ll be a ‘working hard or hardly working? 😏’ comment appearing. you have to fight the urge to delete it.

gf!mapi is the type to … paint your nails for you when you’re struggling to stay between the lines, especially when you’re using your non dominant hand to paint. she’ll take over for you when you ask, her tongue poking out whilst she concentrates, taking her job very seriously.

gf!mapi is the type to … argue with the ref until she’s red in the face when you get fouled, and the ref decides it was a clean challenge. her arms are thrown around as she tries her best to not raise her voice, absolutely appalled that the ref is letting the player get away with the foul on you with no consequences. she’ll make sure you’re okay, and then target said player for the rest of the game.

gf!mapi is the type to … have you try new skincare products with her. she’ll buy a big package of different lotions and oils and creams, eager to try them out and get her skin gleaming. but she wants you to get in on the action too, the two of you will have plenty of self care nights which include taking stupid selfies with face masks on and a lot of kissing.

gf!mapi is the type to … make sure you know how much she loves you everyday. she’ll make sure your favourite foods are stocked up in the house, she’ll give you a foot massage whilst you watch tv together, she’ll call your name just to say ‘i love you’ every so often, she’ll give you her jumper to wear the second she suspects you’re getting chilly, she’ll randomly message you huge paragraphs about how much you mean to her when she’s feeling a little sentimental. she’ll make sure you never question her feelings towards you.

[jackalhadrurusluvr]

i need to speedrun finishing bg3 so i can be over it but i just had the Big Romance Scene with astarion and i have to log off to combat the nausea (/pos)

[spacedace]

Got inspired by the below tiktok and the idea of the Rogues killing the Joker in revenge for Jason instead of Bruce and had to write about it.

Here, have probably way too many words (with more to come most likely, this really won't leave me alone) of the Rogue's feelings about Jason's death at the Joker's hands and everything that followed.

(also I know the timeline is a bit screwy, shhh just go with it, we're going on vibes with this one lol)

-

Childhood was not held universally sacred in the dark streets of Gotham.

The city was hard and cruel and she didn’t care about the ages of those that were ground up and spit out in her oily black heart.

A kid could slit your throat as easy as a man grown in a place like their fine city, maybe easier even for those who still fell for the ideal of children being incapable of anything but innocence and sweetness. Children learned from the world around them though, they learned from the savagery that filled their world, the hard scrabble desperate attempts to survive. They learned what dark corners to avoid, which ones were safer to skitter down.

It didn’t mean there weren’t still some rules of decency to be honored though.

Most folks, even those in the circle of the Rogues, largely left kids out of the equation. Crossfire happened of course, hitting busy city centers always meant some kind of collateral. But there wasn’t much that they got out of purposefully hurting kids outside a black mark on their name in most levels of the grungy underbelly of the city and one hell of a big target on their back. Both from the Bat and those criminals in the dark with them that took offense to those kinds of things. They were crooks, but with few exceptions they weren’t complete monsters.

Robin had always held an interesting place in their grungy little ecosystem. Anything to do with the Bat was generally ruled as gloves-off, do what you do without hesitation. And Robin - both of ‘em - had no problem hitting hard and being ruthless. The first one in particular had a feral sort of rage to him that was a terrifying thing to be on the business end of.

But they were still kids.

Defending yourself from any kid swinging on you was fair game, a person had the right to defend themselves. Grabbing up Robin to hold hostage or bait Gotham’s local cryptid, that was all fine and dandy. You could even get away with roughing the kid up a little here and there, so long as you made sure not to go too far and always kept hits to where the kid’s armor was the thickest. No hard and fast written rules, mind, but general rules of thumbs. Lines indistinct due to the shaky ground a child dancing through the night as a vigilante left all of them on, but ones clear enough that you knew when you were at risk of going too far.

Besides, the Robins were good kids. Fucking feral little shits, of course, able to leave you bleeding just as easy from a kick as they were a sharp word. But good kids. Even most the Rogues in the Gallery liked em. It was hard not to be at least a little fond of a gutsy little punk like that.

Though they were all maybe a tad less nervous around Robin II than they were the original.

Robin I had a lot of anger burning in him, a lot of anger in him, but he was still a cheerful boy with a bright attitude that was refreshing in a world so bleak and dark as the one they all lived in. It was up in the air which was scarier about the kid: The smiled he gave when he was about to give a hands on demonstration about how much force a tiny ten year old could put into a kick when they had half a dozen spins shoved into a flip to wind up to 80 miles an hour, or the flash of his teeth when he was demonstrating the knife sharp brilliance of his belief that Batman was only as frightening as Robin was hopeful.

They weren’t sure if he realized that sometimes they felt a helluva lot more hope at the sight of the Bat when the little bird was putting the hurt on them, or if he’d simply folded that fact neatly into his core philosophy without issue.

Robin II on the other hand had this kind of quiet shyness to him - even as he was shouting the most inventive swears ever heard by human ear at someone while he kicked them in the balls hard enough to make ‘em see not just the face of their own god but a few dozen besides. He was just as unhinged as the Robin before him - seemed to be a requirement for the job really - but there was a distinct different in how the two birds flitted about the darkened skyline of the city. Where the first Robin’s smile was as much danger as it was dazzle, a fanged declaration of victory against the dark, Robin II’s was a sunny, stubborn declaration of perseverance. Kid was sassy and smart, and never - ever - flinched away from extending a hand to those he thought in need of it.

Even if the folks he offered that hand to were in the middle of an attack on some fancy Gala or Wayne Enterprises or whatever target of the week it was. Even knowing the offered hand was likely to be slapped away and followed by a right hook. Kid still always tried.

They all knew why.

The Bat was big on offering chances, on rehabilitation rather than damnation. Some of Robin II being the way he was came from the broody cryptid he followed around. But Batman couldn’t claim to be the sole reason for Robin II being the way he was, couldn’t even pretend to be the cause of most of it. Nah, they knew why the little bird was the way he was.

That unmistakable thick accent. That frame that was always a little too thin even as he got older and stronger. That unshakable, headstrong spirit.

Robin II was an Alley Kid.

A true child of Gotham.

Her polluted waters in his veins. Her smoggy air in his lungs. Her shadows clinging to his edges less like a beast looking to swallow a small bird up and more like a protective mother hiding her hatchling. He understood the world most of them came from. The one they all lived in. Knew it in a way anyone who hadn’t been swallowed up by the dark never really could.

Everyone had their favorite, but even those that claimed the first Robin as theirs couldn’t deny that Robin II was someone to be respected. Nor could they deny a fondness for the chain smoking, classic lit referencing, perpetually baby-faced little shit. They’d all had knock out drag out fights with the kid and knew how fucking unhinged the puny motherfucker could be in a fight, but he always tempered it with offers of resources, of a listening ear, of understanding.

He visited them after they’d been arrested sometimes. In Arkham, or Blackgate or wherever else they’d been locked up in after being stopped by the Dynamic Duo. The little bird would make the rounds whenever he had a broken wing or was stuck waiting as the Bat interrogated someone else or for any other reason he wasn’t out flitting about the city skyline at night. He’d bring cookies or snacks and even cigarettes from his own secret stash on the rare occasion, mask unable to hide the furtive glances around to check for the living shadow that was the disapproving Bat.

The Rogues and their Goons always had a soft spot for the Robins. And Robin II made it especially easy to let fondness bleed out of them from time to time. He was a good kid.

But childhood was not held universally sacred in the dark streets of Gotham.

Bad things happened to good kids all the time.

And some of the monsters that lurked in the city’s darkest shadows took the black mark of a kid killer as a point of pride.

Robin II disappeared one day. Just after that piece of shit Garzonas took the fast way down from the top of a tall building. There were a lot of Rogues with doctoral degrees to their names but even those Goons that dropped out of school before they learned to spell their own names could do that math.

The big bad Bat had benched the boy after the fierce little bird had done what any decent member of the criminal underbelly would have. There were those that thought maybe it’d been an accident, that the kid was pulled off duty because of being too upset at unintentionally crossing the heavy line the Bat drew in the sand. Those voices were drowned out pretty quick though.

Sure, Robin II was all about second chances, of doing better, of redemption. But Garzonas had chances to spare and only ever spat in the face of those offering them. Doubled down on being a monster in a way very, very few of the Rogues Gallery would. The kid was a sweetheart, but he wasn’t no push over and there were some things so heinous that there was only one way of handling them. Crime Alley had its own kind of justice system, and when faced with a monster that was beyond even Batman’s jurisdiction, Robin II did what he always did: fell back on his roots.

Or so the rumors said, at least.

That was the thing about Gotham’s seedy underbelly. It was a grimy, wretched nest of vipers and cut-throats, but it was also worse than any beauty parlor when it came to gossip. No one actually knew anything other than that piece of shit motherfucker took a dive while Robin was chasing him and that he’d not been seen on the streets since. But most had a fondness for the kid, and a distaste for the kind of cruelty Garzonas reveled in and there was no proof that Robin hadn’t gone and done the world a favor by drop kicking that barbaric sack of shit off a roof. So as far as most in the Gallery were concerned, the little bird had stepped up and been a hero.

Time passed. Not a lot. But enough. The Bat disappeared too, popping up on an entire other continent in a way that was awfully tempting. Even with other Masks playing baby sitter while the local cryptid was away. Rogues were scrambling to set plans in motion, Goons getting hired en masse, weapons and weird chemicals getting delivered to shady places across Gotham by the truck-full. The criminal underbelly was abuzz with the same excited energy of children the day before a big birthday party.

And then the news came in.

There were people in the dark who made their living finding things out. Knowing things that no one else did or could. Some even specialized, keeping tabs on Batman and Robin better than anyone else in the business were able. And when the information they found wasn’t anything handy to have tucked into a back pocket or a secret they were paid extremely well to keep? They held on to with the same tenacity a sieve clung to water.

Robin II had run off across the globe and ended up in Ethiopia. Something to do with a doctor doing aid work, the same something that had the Bat end up there was the assumption. Kid ran off to handle things himself or was sent on a separate path on purpose for some plan or other the Bat had cooked up on his hunt.

Whatever the reason, the kid crossed paths with the Clown.

Alone.

Childhood was not held universally sacred in the dark streets of Gotham. The city was hard and cruel and she didn’t care about the ages of those that were ground up and spit out in her oily black heart. But Robin II was hers, the child of her heart, an exception to the rule. And besides, most folks - even those in the Rogues Gallery - largely left the purposeful harm of kids out of the equation.

The Joker wasn’t most folks.

And the little bird was a long way away from the protective shadows of his mother city.

The Rogues and their Goons always had a soft spot for the Robins. And Robin II made it especially easy to let fondness bleed out of them from time to time. He was a good kid.

When the news broke, it broke most of them right along with it.

Plans stalled. Schemes ended. Gotham, for an unnervingly quiet stretch of time that neither its civilians or the world at large understood, went still. Crime continued, of course, but the big names weren’t seen. It was only right, by the standards of those that lived their lives in the dark, that they hold off and give the man that fought them all so relentlessly over the past years the time he needed to focus on hunting down the monster that killed his son. He didn’t need the distraction, and they all owed it to Robin II not to interfere while the Bat at last put a final end to the Clown.

And the hellish cryptid would need his full focus on this one. The Joker wasn’t one to take lightly at the best of times, but he’d set himself up neatly in the middle of a nasty bear trap. Ugly and complicated in the way everything with the Clown was. Interference from the CIA, from the UN, from Superman.

Shit went down. People heard about the Bat and the Clown throwing down in a helicopter plummeting from the sky in one hell of a water landing. Big Blue fished Batman out of the drink before he could drown but there’d been no sign of the Joker.

But the Bat would find him.

They all knew the relentless bastard would find him. It was just a matter of time. With the hellish drive of a demon straight from Gotham’s darkest shadows, the Bat would track the grinning, child killing ghoul down and make right the terrible wrong the evil motherfucker had done. Batman would hunt him to the ends of the earth and enact the justice he held up so fiercely. Robin II would have the vengeance the kid so rightly deserved.

It was just a matter of time. So they waited. And waited.

Days.

Weeks.

Months.

The Clown still lived.

The world, impossibly, began to move on. The Bat returned to his lurking in the night, picking off gangs and petty crooks and no-name gangsters as if nothing had happened at all. More vicious, more savage, but failing to turn that rise in brutality into the killing blow against the one figure that so rightly deserved it.

No one knew what was happening. There were rumors and theories, as there always were in the underground. Some thought that it wasn’t the Bat at all back in Gotham but someone else pretending for awhile, looking after his neglected city while he continued his pursuit of the Joker. Other held that it was the Bat but the whole thing was a ploy to draw the Clown out into the open. A pretense at not caring meant to get under the Clown’s skin, make the asshole mad enough to get stupid and sloppy and reveal himself.

That the man simply had given up was beyond comprehension. Beyond what any upstanding Rogue could accept. So it simply couldn’t be true. There was a trick being played. Some brilliant game of 4D chess that none of them had been able to parse out. It’d be revealed in time, and they see the brilliant trap that had been set. The Clown would be lured out, the Bat would put him down for good, and then they’d all at last raise a glass to the little bird that had been shot down far too soon and smoke shitty cigarettes and quote literary masters and mourn the loss one of Gotham’s own true children.

They just had to play along. Stumbling forward back into their usual habits, pretending that it was a choice and not the world just forcibly dragging them along. It’d make sense, eventually. The Bat had a plan. Robin II wasn’t forgotten, his killer not left free to roam and ravage unpunished for what he’d done.

And then one day there was a new bird flitting across the rooftops.

Chasing the Bat’s looming frame like a reverse shadow. Bright flashes of color in contrast to the bleak darkness of Gotham’s grimy nights. Small and thin and young.

Not the first Robin. With his showman bright grin and bloody rage and unwavering belief in the terrifying power of hope. Not the brilliant, vicious little boy that they’d seen grow over the years into the fierce and fearless Nightwing.

Not Robin II either.

Not Gotham’s soft hearted little bruiser with his unshakable belief that people could be better if given the chance, shinning so bright in the dark as he held out a hand that even the Rogues had no choice but to believe right along with him sometimes. Not the tough little songbird they’d never get to see grow up. Unavenged and unhonored. Put in a box and buried in the ground with a name none of them would ever know carved into a stone they’d never be able to visit.

No.

It was a new Robin.

A new child with the R emblazoned upon his chest.

Sharp and quick and young in the way the birds always were when they started flying at the Bat’s side. Every inch of the boy’s tiny frame a tragedy and an insult. One very, very few of Gotham’s vicious underbelly were willing to tolerate.

Childhood was not held universally sacred in the dark streets of Gotham, but there was a damn big difference between holding something sacred and not giving a damn about it at all. There were rules unspoken but understood, a way things were done. Nothing so solid or concrete as a code of conduct, more a collection of time honored traditions. Blood for blood was among the oldest and truest, and the more precious the person taken the more vital and vicious payment was to be made in kind.

The Clown had killed Robin II.

Beaten the kid half to death and then finished the job with a bomb.

Everyone knew he’d done it laughing all the way.

The Bat should have done the same in kind. Done worse. It was justice, it was what was right. You kill a kid you’re marked forever. You kill one so well liked and kill ‘em like that and you’re destined for a cruel and cold death. The Bat had first dibs. It was his kid. It was his right to put an end to that awful laughter and let his son have peace at last.

But he never did.

Nightwing had. For a bit. For a moment.

Robin I, who half the time had scared them all more than the Bat ever could. Dazzling and dizzying and dangerous. Gave back the pain and hurt the Clown had forced upon him with clenched fists and bone shattering hits. They were glad for him, that he was able to beat the monster who had taken his little brother from him to death, that he was able to have such justice.

And then the Bat stepped in.

Revived the fucking Clown.

A slap in the face. The snapping crack of a spine beneath one straw too many. The final, unforgivable insult the man had dared visit upon not just the child taken from him but the entirety of Gotham.

The Rogues and their Goons always had a soft spot for the Robins. Respected their ferocity, admired their moxie, marveled at their ability to keep shining in the dark like they did. Robin II made it especially easy to let fondness bleed out of the city’s dirty criminal underbelly from time to time.

He was a good kid.

He deserved better.

Better than the silence and peace he should be granted in death to be marred by the mad cackles of his killer still running around alive and unpunished. Better than his father giving up, returning to the same old routine as if nothing had happened at all. Better than the Bat snatching up a new bird less than a year later.

Gotham and her Rogues had given the Bat time enough to do what needed to be done.

It was their turn.

[queen-of-reptiles]

𝙿𝙰𝙶𝙴𝚂

description: Lauren runs through the same park everyday, at the same time everyday, but when she is an hour later one day, she finds her routine changing, so she can get one more look at the beauty hidden amongst pages of notes.

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

lauren hemp x female reader

disclaimer: this is all fiction! Do not take any of this seriously

warnings: so much fluff omg, so much fluff, fluffffff

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

y/n just posted

liked by, y/f/n1, y/f/n2, and 388 others

y/n man fuck whoever told me to study law 🤓

view 103 comments

y/f/n1: girl ik, I've just eaten a tub of ice cream, cried and banged out an essay on civil justice in the 80's. 😝

^

y/n: lmao loved the add on of cried 😌

^

y/f/n1: felt like it was needed ☺️

y/f/n2: I don't get how you make everything look so aesthetic??? 😩😩

^

y/n: because I am deffo failing this course so might as well make it look good ! 💙

^

y/f/n3: Didn't you get an A in our last test? 🤨

^

y/f/n4: I am a drama kid, and even I know she's fucking dramatic 😭

^

y/f/n3: Such a drama queen this one!

^

y/n: I hate both of you stfu 🙄

y/bff/n: That's my best friend, she real bad bitch, she don't got no money, cause at law she's shit... 😏

^

y/n: how long did that take you? 🤨

^

y/bff/n: too long honestly...

^

y/n: 😭😭

see more comments...

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

Lauren was running an hour later than usual, they had quite an exhausting game yesterday, so on her day off, she usually slept in until half eight ad was running in the park by nine.

Today it was ten am, and as Lauren jogged through, music pushing her through, she paused in shock. The most beautiful girl she had ever seen was lying on a picnic blanket, basking in the warm summer sun.

Rings littered her thin fingers, as well as several necklaces which hung from her neck and over the notebook she was writing in. Jeans and a sweet flowery top covered her, the mom jeans hanging on her body.

She had wired headphones in, which Lauren found odd, but the girl didn't seem to notice her as she stared, too focused on writing whatever she was writing.

Lauren briefly though about going over, but then she realised she was messy haired, red faced, and sweaty and thought better of it. So instead, she jogged on.

But suddenly Lauren found herself changing her routine, and every day off she had, which changed, she went to the park at 10am, and every time, other than Thursdays and Tuesdays, the girl was there, buried in pages.

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

lauren_hemp just posted on her close friends story

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

lauren_hemp just posted on her close friends story

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

y/n just posted on her story

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

After Lauren's complete fail, the next day off they had, Chloe, Alex and Jill came with her to the park, the four in relaxed outfits and hoping to sit and relax together, as well as help Lauren with this painful crush.

As they got there, the mysterious girl was already there, writing out pages and pages once again, and Jill let out a light whistle, nodding at Lauren in agreement.

The girl was hot. Chloe and Alex both sat down near her, dragging the other two with them, y/n looked up and she waved nicely at Lauren, who waved back with a smile.

Chloe sighed in relief that Lauren had at least reacted normal to that, and as y/n went back to studying the four friends started a conversation as they relaxed in the sun.

Eventually the group got up to play some football, y/n having not moved since the turned up, Chloe had hit the ball slightly hard and Lauren blanched as she ran.

The quick blonde, only manged just to get to y/n, pulling the girl who had stood up to stretch out of the way of the incoming ball the football instead hitting one of her notebooks and sending loose pages everywhere.

"Oh my god." y/n gasps.

"Sorry!" Chloe calls. "I am so sorry!" She adds again, but y/n waves a hand kindly.

"Luckily I have my guardian angel!" y/n calls, smiling at Lauren gratefully, who blushes at the sweet nickname. "Thank you." y/n adds as she bends down to pick at her papers.

Lauren kicks the ball across to Chloe who restarts their game of up, with the other two, but Lauren stays by y/n leaning down to help pick up her scattered papers.

"Oh you don't have to." y/n starts but Lauren smiles and shakes her head.

"I want to." Lauren promises as she hands the girl her papers. "Do you maybe want to get coffee sometime?" Lauren suddenly asks, as if she had been forced to say it.

Truth is, if she hadn't of said it then, she never would have. y/n looked up at her and furrowed her brows slightly, as if trying to figure something out.

"Like a date?" She asks and Lauren nods.

"Unless you don't want to." Lauren adds.

"No I want to, I was just trying to figure out why Lauren Hemp is asking me out." y/n admits and Lauren winces.

"You know who I am?" She asks and y/n shrugs.

"My best friend is a city fan, though I am more partial to Arsenal I must admit." y/n teases and Lauren pretends as she's been shot dragging and heart-breakingly beautiful laugh from the student.

"How could you?" Lauren asks jokingly and y/n laughs again.

"Quite easily, I suppose I will have to make it up to you." y/n hums. "How about a date tomorrow, after coffee today?" She asks and Lauren grins.

"Uh, yeah, yeah that would be great." Lauren smiles, a bright gleam in her eyes.

"Cool, well can I get your number then?" y/n asks and Lauren jerks forward, quickly tapping her number in and sending a message to herself.

"Do you want to go get coffee now?" Lauren asks, y/n sighing in relief and nodding.

"Please, I look at anything else about civil justice proceedings, my brain is going to self-destruct." y/n says and Lauren chuckles and looks up to tell her friends.

However, she finds no one, the three having dispersed with shared grins as Lauren and y/n started talking, finding no reason to interrupt they left.

y/n packed away her notes, throwing her highlighters into her pencil case and standing up, she smoothed out her summer dress, the article stopping just below her knees.

"You're so pretty." Lauren said without thinking, and even though she had just said it aloud, it sounded so calm and meant.

"Charmer." y/n blushed, smiling softly as she held out her hand. "Come on." She smiles and Lauren takes her hand.

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

lauren_hemp just posted on her story

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

y/n just posted on their story

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

lauren_hemp just posted on her story

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

y/n just posted on their story

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

twitter/ X

username1: has anyone seen Lauren's story???? 🤨🤨

^

username2: YES - is she out on a date?

^

username3: it looks like it !!!! 😏😏

username4: Lauren and a girl have been seen out in Manchester!!!

^

username5: She is in my class at school!!! 😱😱

^

username6: her @ is @y/n - She is so pretty! 😊

^

username7: nahhh she's not 🙄🙄

^

username8: yeah what if she is just using Lauren??? 😡

^

username9: stfu it aint our bsuiness! 🖕

see more comments...

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

lauren_hemp just posted

liked by, chloekelly, leahwilliamsonn, and 487, 288 others

tagged y/n

lauren_hemp So proud of you baby <3 you deserve this after all the sleepless night and pages of notes! Also happy one year love - best WAG I could have asked for!

view 13, 711 comments

username1: has it been a year already??? WOah !!

username2: feels like just yesterday we were hunting her down ...

^

username3: who would have guessed how much we would love her too! ☺️☺️

leahwilliamsonn: Well done y/n!!

^

y/n: Thankooooo xxx

y/bff/n: SOOoooooooOO PROUD! 💙

^

y/n: love youuuuuu 💙

y/f/n1: It seems like only yesterday you were crying with dominoes saying you were going to drop out. 🥹

^

y/n: what a time, what a time. 😊

username4: This is all just so cute! 🥹

chloekelly: This happened because of me just so everyone knows 👏👏

^

lauren_hemp: yes lets all thank Chloe for nearly knocking out my girlfriend 🙄

^

y/n: thanks Chloe! Thought she would never come and talk to me. <3

^

lauren_hemp: I would have! 😶

^

chloekelly: nahhhhhh ☺️

^

username5: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 😂

see more comments...

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

END

loved this one as it is just cuteness honestly !!

-

Queenie xx

[one-idea]

Marineford goes from extremely tragic to hilarious if you think of it like a DnD complain.

Ace’s player and Luffy’s player are actual brothers.

Ace started playing in late high school / freshman year of collage his first campaign was with the spade pirates but the group fell apart because the other players got job/ went to different schools / just life.

But Ace loved his character and wanted to keep playing. His friend, who played Masked Deuce, wanted to keep playing as well but wanted his character to be more combated focused. So he created the character of Marcos. (Both doctors and first mates, both friends with Ace) They got some new friends and kept playing in the same world just with a new crew

Whitebeard’s player is definitely Marco’s players actual dad. They need another player and Whitebeard loves his son and was like “I’ll play!” He either knows nothing about the game or has been playing since the 80’s and is the most knowledgeable person at the table. There is no in between.

The DM is probably Shanks or Rayleigh. I like to think it’s Shanks and his level 20 character he’s had for years just pops up occasionally to solve problem that the party needs help with.

Anyhow Luffy has heard Ace talk about DnD for years but he doesn’t have any friends to play with. So when he goes to college it’s like his number one goal.

Make friends,

make friends play DnD.

(We will talk about the Strawhats chaos later)

So everything’s going great. Ace visited Luffy and joined in on a few of their sessions. Still plays Ace, he loves this character, he’s played him for like four years now. But he gets to know Luffy’s friends and joins them for a bit in Alabasta.

He goes back to his campaign and tells the whole group about Luffy (he has been for years but now he can talk about Luffy’s complain) and everyone wants him to bring Luffy around to play with them.

But then tragedy. The whitebeards have to disband, most of them are graduating, Marco’s player is going to med school it’s just going to be a long time before they can all sit down and play again.

So they decided to go out with a bang!

The Dm has Ace get captured and they plan this elaborate jail break for the party. But it just so happens Luffy is going to be on break at the same time as their last few sessions. And wouldn’t it be great if he joined them!

So the Dm (they are Dming both games god bless them) has the strawhats split up (they are all going on break and it’s a fun story reason for why they all won’t be together) then he pulls Luffy aside and is like, how do you feel about playing with your brother’s group? Luffy’s pumped he’s never been so excited.

So Luffy does all of impel down. Ace is there cheering him on and having fun role play at the same time. His friend Jinbei had wanted to try playing for a while so they gave him a character card and him and Luffy escaped Jail together.

But then we get to the actual Marineford season. It last for hours. There’s combat. There’s roll play. What none of the players knew, was that Whitebeard had approached the Dm about his character dying in combat protecting his kids. (He wanted this to be a memorable session for his son and his friends, they all cried, they loved it)

But then Ace get caught up in it all (this was not planed) and ends up getting his character killed. The table is in shock. There is no way that just happened!

Luffy is sobbing. His brother just sacrificed the character he had played for four years to save his character. He knows how much Ace means to his brother. He’s an actual reck. He had loved Ace to.

Ace’s player is upset, he did love that character, but it’s part of the game. It happens. He’s more upset about how hard Luffy’s taking it.

After the session the two brothers are hanging out. Luffy is apologizing for getting Ace killed and his brother, who’s played for years, and wants to make his brother laugh, says no worries want to help me make a new character?

So they spend the break writing a new character and working them into Ace and Luffy’s back story.

Later when the strawhats are all back together (breaking the news to them that Ace’s character had died was wild!) they are playing and making their way to Dressrosa. A new friend, Law, has joined them. And he is being so serious about his character’s serious back story.

Then Ace’s player roles in like “can I join for a session or two?” All the Strawhats are thrilled, they had a great time playing with him during the Alabasta arc. The Dm says sure and asks about his character.

The two brother’s just smirk at each other and the player introduces his new character: Sabo

They explain the back story, this is Luffy’s OTHER big brother. The strawhats are dying. Law is over them, this is serious! The Dm is just exasperated “you don’t have the Mera Mera fruit.” He’s trying to drive home that this is a different character. Ace/Sabo’s player agrees and they start playing.

Except the Dm loves to troll and brings in the Mera Mera fruit. And everyone already knows what’s about to happen.

Sabo eats the fruit and his player yells “thank god” throws Sabo character sheet to the side. And before anyone can ask why he pulls back out Ace’s character sheet crosses off Ace’s name and writes Sabo next to it (he also raises his intelligence stat)

Character name: Ace Sabo

“I’m back baby!”

I just love that anytime he pops in him and Luffy just say the most ridiculous things about their back stories.

“Remember how Ace had a tattoo of his name spelled wrong to show that he’s not book smart. Well that was a lie. He did it to represent Ace, Sabo, Crybaby, and Edward Newgate.” Ace/Sabo’s player says with Luffy nodding aggressively besides him.

Whitebeard player find out. Finds it all hilarious and is flattered Ace/Sabo’s player brought his character into their nonsense.

Every now and then Marco and Ace/Sabo will come play at the same time and Marco always ends up calling Sabo Ace for the whole session.

[fozmeadows]

hey. i think i'm going through a phase of self-hatred and… I don't know, of believing I'm not capable of anything. would you have any tips or books that approach this from an AFAB/trans perspective so I can cope? (it's not that I hate myself for being trans. I just have insecurities, anxieties and I don't know what to do to stop most things from seeming so discouraging, for lack of a better word.)

I'm sorry you're having a hard time! I don't have any book recommendations, and I'm not exactly an expert, but:

Where possible, try to focus on what you enjoy about the process of an action instead of worrying about the end result. A lot of anxiety comes from privileging a hypothetical future version of yourself ahead of the person you are in the moment, and while it's still good to have goals and aspirations for the future, that doesn't render your present self irrelevant, because that's who you have to be to achieve them.

To give a personal example: late last year, I was really disappointed with how little reading I'd managed to get done in 2023 particularly, but also over the pandemic. I'd bought all these awesome books that I really wanted to read, but I never seemed to get around to starting most of them, and meanwhile, I was spending hours of my life mindlessly doomscrolling Twitter and TikTok, which regardless of anything else is a really good way to depress yourself about the state of the world. So I sat down and thought about it, and I realized that the problem was how much pressure I was putting on myself about reading. I wanted so badly to finish books that I was psyching myself out of starting them in the first place, because each choice had to be Perfect, lest I pick the wrong book at the wrong time and waste twenty minutes or an hour or three reading something I might later set aside. And because I'd subconsciously set the stakes for starting a book so much higher than they needed to be, I'd end up dithering and scrolling social media to delay having to make a high-pressure choice at all.

In other words: I'd become so concerned about Future Foz's hypothetical dislike of a book I was yet to start reading that Present Foz would be scared to start it in the first place. I was forever privileging a version of myself that didn't exist and likely never would over the person I was now, and it was making me wildly unhappy, because it felt like I was failing at something I loved.

So my single New Years' Resolution became: to value myself and my time in the moment. If I catch myself scrolling for too long, I ask myself: is there literally anything else I'd rather be doing right now? Could I start a TV show, or a book, or a game, or write something, or message a friend, or have a bath? It doesn't matter if the activity goes anywhere long term; what matters is that I inevitably get more pleasure out of doing something than not. My time now matters, because I matter.

And suddenly, just from that one change? For the first time in I couldn't even say how long, I've read something every single day this year. In the whole of 2023, I read just 67 books; it's now the 30th of March 2024, and I've already finished 33. By giving myself permission to start things without the pressure to finish them, I'm suddenly finishing way more than when I was telling myself I had to finish everything, and I am vastly happier for it.

Is the world still a burning hellscape that daily makes me want to yeet a solid 80% of elected politicians globally into the sun? Yes. Am I still working on self-improvement in other areas of my life? Yes. Is it magically any easier being trans and queer in the current moment? No. But it helps to focus on who I am now, in this hour, in this minute, instead of worrying so much about whether some future version of me will think I spent this time badly that I don't use it for anything at all.

I don't know if this is helpful to your situation, and if it's not, I apologize for rambling. But it's a little change I've made lately that's helped me a lot, and I hope it might help you, too.

[wilwheaton]

You seem like a pretty good dude, Wil. Thanks for taking time to chat with your fans, and thanks for standing up for what is right. I love following you on social media. You've talked about D&D before, and I've been kind of curious about trying it out. I would be nervous though as I have no idea what to do. Any tips for 40-year-old beginners???

Thank you for your kind comments.

D&D! I love it. I love all RPG games (even the ones I don't like to play. I'm just glad they exist).

I've been playing since the early 80s, and I can confidently direct you to the 5e Starter Set. It is the best introduction to the hobby, to the system, to the experience of collaborative storytelling that makes RPGs so much fun and so special. It's a small investment, and a really easy way to find out if D&D is for you.

If you want to make an even smaller investment, this page has TONS of information and resources. You could start here and spend hours without noticing the time pass. Or, at least, I can. YMMV.

I want to share a few warnings with you.

Everyone has their definition of the "right" way to play D&D. You will find yours as you play. Don't let someone else's definition of "right" limit what yours may eventually be. We've worked real hard to kick out the gatekeepers, but they just keep spawning.

The D&D rules system is not the only RPG, or even the only popular one. Pathfinder is beloved by millions of people. FATE Core and GURPS have enormous player bases. Monte Cook's Cypher System is filled with gorgeous lore and character inspirations (but I've never played it, full disclosure). I chose the AGE system for our series Titansgrave, and used a lot of what I learned from running D&D for decades to customize the experience for me and the players. What I'm saying is, RPGs do not begin and end with D&D. It's as good a place as any to start, but it is only one of many systems.

You are going to hear hardcores make impassioned arguments that continue long after you have lost interest about all sort of rules and setting and system crap. Trust me: tune them out. Eventually, you'll know what you care to listen to.

All those non-D&D systems support and encourage playing in different settings, from Science Fiction to Horror to modern warfare combat. The thing that I believe makes D&D VERY special is its singular focus on high fantasy and everything that means in our culture. All those other systems do fantasy very well, but D&D is kind of the canonical "storm the dungeon, kill the monsters, take their stuff" experience.

That's a lot more information than I intended to deliver. I just get excited about this stuff because I love it so much. Whatever you choose, I hope you have fun!

And when it counts, may you roll high.

[stranger224]

    “George you bastard what did you do to me?” Shelly screamed into the phone. “I was at the mall doing some Christmas shopping when I suddenly got an overwhelming urge to drop to my knees and suck someone’s cock. I was presenting my udde- boobi- tits to anyone who wanted to see them and begging them to let me suck them off. It didn't stop until security escorted me out of the store.” Shelly adjusted her shirt and bra, ever since that incident both felt like they were too tight on her. On the other end of the line George was half grinning, half embarrassed. “Shel, Im sorry, I didn't know you were planning on going shopping today, at the mall no less it was supposed to be a surprise for tonight”

    “What did you do to me, and how do I stop it Master? Cause it's like starting up again. My mouth feels so tingly and empty. Oh Master, when are you coming home? I need your cock” Shelly begged into the phone lewdly her jeans felt tight on her ass and thighs all of a sudden maybe she should take them off?”

    George’s voice took on a more authority tone at the word "Master“ Fuckslut. Do you have your headphones?” 

    “Yes Master, Fuckslut has Fucksluts headphones but how will that help Fuckslut get cock?

    George pinched the bridge of his nose Fuckslut was fun but she could be very single minded sometimes “Please put them on”

    “Ok Master” there was a light bit of shuffling “Ok Master they are on”

    “Hit the power button please” Fuckslut did and the world around her became quiet before filling with the sounds of George’s office. A cloud lifted and Shelly felt her mind revert to normal. Her shirt and bra still felt tight however 

    “Ok Im back explain”

    “So you know that silly internet game Wham-a-geddon?”, Well I thought it would be fun to tie your bimbofication triggers to that song, so the more you hear it the more you would bimbofy. I had a whole playlist where the frequency of the song amps up until it plays for 5 hours on loop. I was going to use it on you tonight as a surprise.”

    Now it was Shelly’s turn to pinch her nose “A surprise for me or for you? You know that game was made because it's one of the most frequent songs played on the radio the goal is to try and not hear it”

    “Well I guess for today you are playing on hard mode”. George said sheepishly. “Don’t worry, so long as you keep your headphones on, you should be fine, Now I have to go someone just started to play the song here I’ll see you tonight love you” 

    Shelly checked out the charge on her headphones Only a few minutes of battery left she hadn't been charging them. Pulling one headphone out of her ear she heard the fading voice “I'll give it to someone special” The headphones would charge if they were in the case and the song couldn't loop that often So Shelly decided to risk it. She only had a few more stores to hit. What is the worst that could happen?

    At about 5 o’ clock the employees of Victoria Secret were surprised by the strangest sight Woman walking into the store with the most plastic body any of them had ever seen. She was wearing a pair of pink lucite heels with the tags from Spencer gifts still on them.a pair of soaked panties that were making a buzzing sound and not much else. The tattered remains of a t-shirt and bra were clinging to the tops of her obviously fake breast. While the shredded flaps of her jeans were held up by her waist her ass cheeks were completely on display. A crowd of gawkers were following behind her staring at the bizarre woman. Through a face frozen with botox and lips so inflated drool was dripping from her keyhole pout. The woman was humming a song. It sounded like that old 80’s Christmas song that they played on loop around her. “Can you like help Fuckslut find something yummy for Fuckslut to wear to make Master’s cock hard?”

    One employee walked over to the bimbo and said “right this way maam”, guiding her to the back of the store to distract her while another ran to get security.

    An hour later George bundled the heavily bimbofied Shelly or- Fuckslut as she kept telling the security guard-into his car to take her home. he had forgotten one key feature of that particular christmas song: How easy it was to get stuck in one’s head 

Model is Stephine Michelle Caption by Me 

[amyreads]

I had some questions if that's alright with you.

1. What inspires your characters appearance and sense of fashion? All of your characters have such great character designs.

2. Would you say there's a difference in genre between what you like to read and what you like to write or is it the same?

3. And last but not least, what are your favorite genre of IFs to play? Is there a specific genre or type of ro/trope you enjoy?

Of course! I love these kinds of questions! Long post warning!

1. What inspires your characters appearance and sense of fashion? All of your characters have such great character designs.

Thank you so much! I worked really hard to get them to fit a vibe that felt perfect for me. I really wanted them to be fashion-forward since a lot of being fame and being visible is being on top of trends. Characters like G have stylists so G is very trendy. The characters are also very expressive not only with their music but their clothes. None of the characters are very shy when it comes to their sense of fashion was is exciting because I love describing outfits. I know some authors find it tedious and 'amateur' which I kinda see why since it's a bit juvenile but I love love love it.

For G, I was inspired by 80s rockstars with long curly hair as well as Cher in the 70s haha I knew I wanted G to have a very prominent detail and it's their long (straight, in their case) black hair. G's tattoos are sort of a mark of their growth as an artist. When they first started, they were essentially 'pure' in the sense that they had no tats and were very young. As they grew older, the tats also grew in number. Touched by fame. SO poetic /j G is very flamboyant and they are very experimental/adventurous with their clothes.

This goes for Victoria. As a model and actress, she's very fashion forward. She prefers dresses over pants and that's kind of her brand haha ! Her red hair and the fact that her stage name ends in Valentine made red her brand, and she takes advantage of that. Branding is very important for her and G, so it helps when you have that *thing* that reminds people of you.

For Seven, the infamous (lol) bandana was something that just came to me. I also wanted Seven to have a "staple" look and I just think it looks cool! Again, it's very reminiscent of the old age rock stars. If Seven were a cartoon character, the outfit they wore at the party (industrial shirt/red and black striped undershirt) would be their "everyday outfit" I think. It really shows their personality; Seven's oversized, messy look reflects them in a way. The fact that it looks deliberately disheveled but Seven worked hours to look good is very telling of who they are. Seven likes to pretend they don't care but we all know that's not the truth!

August has a very calming quality to them. Very grounding. In a story where the ROs are all messes, August's penchant for silence and calm shines. Their colors are a nice brown, green, beige. Very neutral and low-key. They wear a lot of sweaters and cardigans and linen pants because it's comfortable and cozy. Their clothes reflect their personality the most. Kinda reminds me of pajamas in a way!

Orion is pretty self explanatory. While everyone else considers BOTB and everything an outlet for their creativity, Orion sees it for what it is: a job. He dresses professionally to set him apart from the band and everyone else. He's there to work. He's very clean-cut, and very neat so it shines in his clothes.

Seb is well, I wanted Seb to be very unassuming and just normal hahaha. Everyone else dresses really stylishly and I wanted Seb to be really low-key. It's obvious he has no desire to be in the spotlight and that shows with his plain, basic clothing.

2. Would you say there's a difference in genre between what you like to read and what you like to write or is it the same?

Hm, up until recently I used to only read fantasy. I think one of my first if games was Choice of Rebels, among a few others. Writing fantasy is what helped build up my skill. All I've ever wanted to be was a fantasy author until one day...I just started hating it. I hated writing fantasy. I LOVE LOVE reading it, but I hate writing fantasy. I don't know why. I think it's because I fail to convince myself. My suspension of disbelief is very strict when it comes to my own writing, while another writer can convince me of anything in fiction so as long as it makes a lick of sense. It's weird!

I still love fantasy as a reader but I don't think I could ever write it. I do want to try one day though!

I'm more strictly slice-of-life nowadays, aside from Body Double. I think it's easier for me. I love romcoms. I love romance, which hasn't changed. I find it funny that I'm not very romantic in real life but romance is like a baseline requirement for me in stories.

One thing that stays the same is that I love angst. Reading and writing it. I don't like fluff, it makes me cringe. (There will be fluff in Infamous aha). I don't like power fantasies or any of that. Ah, I don't know!

3. And last but not least, what are your favorite genre of IFs to play? Is there a specific genre or type of ro/trope you enjoy?

I'll read anything! I don't have a favorite, I don't think, but I do love urban/modern fantasy. A mixture of slice-of-life and fantasy is the sweet spot for me.

Specific type of RO I like are the emotionally unavailable/closed off ones or the mean ones haha. I do not like easy romances. I like working for it and I think when an RO doesn't want my character it makes it so much more fun and the payoff is so much more satisfying. I need yearning...longing. I need slow burn!

I know there are readers who like playing games where the MC is important loved but I'm not a fan. I like my MC being a regular person that's treated accordingly depending on the character and the story. I don't want my MC to get special treatment or to be powerful just because they're the MC. It has to make sense to me. For me, the ROs should have a greater purpose that goes beyond just romancing the MC.

I get a lot of flak for making the MC an underdog in infamous, but MC is not meant to be the most important person in the room at the start of the story. They need to earn it, which I think feels better.

My favorite RO from any IF game is Nash so <3 I guess that says it all hahah

I hope you liked my answers! This was really fun for me lolol

[loopingpyre]

Yeah, fair enough on the needing more detail point, I sort of wanted to test the waters to see if you'd even care first, cause I wasn't gonna waste time typing out a whole thing if the notion of JRPGs being fundamentally flawed didn't interest you and then you deleted my ask. So I guess I'll now oblige and explain in more detail.

I've been playing a few of the SMT games because my girlfriend really likes them and I, being a good girlfriend (trying to!) want to show that I care about her interests. Prior to this I've only really played Persona 3 and 5 and Yakuza 7. For this, I played Soul Hackers 2, and Devil Survivor 1 and 2 (1 to Yuzu's ending, and 2 to Ronaldo's ending), and about an hour of SMT V, which I found boring, and she, having played the whole game (I'm pretty sure) agrees with me that it's boring, so I decided to not keep playing it (for now at least)

My main issue with most all of these games comes mostly threefold: the amount of time and commitment they take, the difficulty and in particular the manner in which it is imposed, and the heavily formulaic nature of their plots. These are sort of holistic issues, I guess, so I can't really neatly divide them, but I'll try.

First of all: the time commitment. Playing both Devil Survivors to a single ending took me around thirty to forty hours each, going off of my save files. (I was playing the 3DS versions, mind, and listening to all the voice acting, which surely extended the time played.) I understand that it gets faster on NG+, and in itself, this isn't exactly the biggest of deals, because video games in general take a long time (it's the way it is really), but JRPGs just feel like they take way longer than the average video game and this issue compounds when one considers the latter two flaws I've observed.

So, secondarily: The difficulty, and the way it's imposed. Soul Hackers 2 obviously is not a hard game, and there's not that much variance in its content, and it's not the longest of these sorts of games, either, so I wouldn't say it's the greatest offender here (using that term feels wrong...), but with Devil Survivor 1, I felt this the most. About 80 percent of the way through the game, which I'd generally found to be quite unchallenging for the most part, I found myself suddenly struggling against Belial (the fire demon). During a grinding session in which I was trying to level myself up so that I could weather my way through this (to my annoyance, as I found the grinding incessantly tedious, more on that later), my girlfriend looked over my shoulder, and said "why do your stats look like that?"

You see, my stats, at the time, all four, magic, vitality, agility, and uh... What was the fourth one. Strength! Yeah, um they were *all* at exactly 17 (give or take 1.) I explained to her, rather calmly, that I had done this because I couldn't really choose which of the four stats I wanted more of, and thought it would be best if I made all of these numbers perfectly balanced and equal.

This is an approach I almost always take in most any video game that offers any form of upgrade or skill tree: I struggle with overchoice, can't choose a priority to go for, so every time I have resources with which to upgrade, I just upgrade whatever is most recently neglected such that I have a generally well-rounded skill set and can do a bit of everything.

She, an SMT veteran, immediately went like, "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO "

And explained to me that the way I was *supposed* to do this, was to specialize in one area or another, magic or strength or tanking damage with high health, or whatever. To which I said "HOW THE FUCK WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT!" She insisted I should have just known it, I guess? Anyway, I considered this a grievous design flaw that irreparably impaired my enjoyment of the game. As I did not have an old save file with which to revert my statting decisions, and did not wanted to restart the entire game, nor did I want to grind the same fucking goddamned shibuya battle over and over and over and over and over again for god knows how many hours until I somehow corrected my stats

I opted to use my (hacked) 3DS to install an external cheat which inflated my protagonist's level to 99 with all four stats at their maximum of 40. I did this because I had decided I hated how this game was balanced and wanted to finish it and no longer waste my time. I felt pleased with this decision, because I was playing through the bad ending in which the cast brute forces their way out of the lockdown and ruining the world, while myself brute forcing my way out of the game and ruining the game balance. *ahem* I mean, fixing the game balance

My girlfriend said "I'm glad you had fun ruining one of my favorite games :(((" In response, I opined that Devil Survivor would have been better if it were a straightforward visual novel.

While Soul Hackers 2 does not have this specific issue, given that Ringo's stats are all mostly preset by the game and you can only mildly boost them here and there, I did instead take umbrage with the way that the later floors of the Soul Matrix dungeon were organized around teleporters which teleport you from one island of the floor to another, with no clear sense of rhyme or reason to their routing. I considered these teleporters to be arbitrary and stupid, as they were frustrating, and demanded that I have the capacity for rote memorization of the layout and teleporter placement of an entire dungeon whose corners broadly look all the damn same. I called these a blatantly egregious example of "fake difficulty".

She warned me never to touch several of the older SMT games.

I booted up Devil Survivor 2, with my girlfriend's advice about specialization in mind. I enjoyed the game a lot more than Devil Survivor 1, but, for the sake of mitigating gameplay frustration, I pirated the DLC. I quickly realized I would not enjoy the grinding, even with the reduction of grinding that the DLC enables, and cheated to have infinite money so I could have more fun with the game. I went for Ronaldo's ending, because he's sort of a leftist and his voice acting makes him sound like Knuckles the Echidna from Sonic the Hedgehog, and I thought siding with "communist Knuckles the Echidna" was a very funny image

Anyway, across all three of these experiences, I generally wondered, "do I like these? do I like their stories? do I like their gameplay?" and I feel like the answer is broadly sort of... yes, sometimes, but generally no?

I kinda just don't really understand the appeal of being railroaded into repetitive tasks for the sake of increasing numbers that then decide whether or not you win, rather than like, your actual skill, which is just down to pressing the same buttons over and over. I get that part of the appeal is the long-term strategy of building your party, and that's valid and all, but I tend to very quickly get frustrated with it because often times I fail to intuit the correct strategy ahead of time, and the solution turns out to be "rewind the clock back several hours!" and I don't want to do that and have to redo all the work I did up to that point, and then potentially have to rewind again if I do it wrong.

So, the appeal is supposed to be the strategy, I guess, which just takes a lot of dedication that I don't have in me, but if I dial that down to make it easier, then the game's reduced to pressing more buttons, and, just isn't really fun at all in the way it's supposed to be. And that all might be fine if the story was worth the effort, but... is it?

All of these games have very thin narratives which all more or less boil down to "humanity good" vs "humanity bad" vs "humanity bad but sometimes good so it's worth it (sometimes)" ideological conflicts that all end up with killing one or another divine or cosmic entity with omnipotence of one or another variety, and like, cool, I guess, is that worth 50-100 hours of effort? Is that something I'm invested enough in to throw myself into an entire series, hell, an entire genre, of games for? I'm not really sure that it is, to me, so. Weh?

Is that really all that there is to this entire game genre? Like, outside of indie games that mostly have their own issues (they're all very derivatively ripping off Mother 3 and/or Undertale and/or Chrono Trigger and not generally bringing a lot of new mechanical ideas, and even still they just kinda find their way back to the issue of the grind not being that fun most of the time)

And my girlfriend has just argued to most of this that maybe I just don't like the games, and I shouldn't force myself to like them, and she'd like to please stop rehashing this argument with me, and maybe she's right, maybe I just don't enjoy JRPGs, and that's okay, but uh...

I don't know. I want to try and see what she sees in them and find out if I can really care about them the way she does. She has a Jack Frost plushie that I sometimes play with, and it's cute, and I want to care about him more the way she does, not just because he's cute but because I've played these games and had fun and know who he is and definitely don't hate his stupid little face aaahh I love him so much

and I keep inventing fun little lore for Frosty the Jack Frost plushie (she calls him Frosty) about how he sells stuff he stole to the Black Market which is owned by Black Frost, and he's planning to kill King Frost and overthrow the Frost Monarchy, and all that, and she seems to find that cute even though she keeps contradicting it with lore and trivia from the games and I keep going "well I dunno *in the back of my mind: but maybe I want to know*" and like

I'm sorry if this seems like an insane unhinged rant but I just really love my girlfriend and I think it'd hurt a little to have to give up on something she really loves, even if I know, intellectually, that she loves me more, and that that won't change if I don't like SMT, and it's okay if I don't like them.

But I want to like them. I genuinely do. I don't know how to like them and I don't know how to tell her I want to like them and am not trying to start a fight with her over something she loves. I don't know. Am I missing something?

for the record I kind of like a lot of things Soul Hackers 2 does and I think I'd like it a lot more if it was finished but that's a can of worms I maybe shouldn't open....

Holy shit this is so much and thank you so much also for caring enough for my opinion because i have a whole lot to say here, and I adore these games.

Let's break it down point by point.

Belial is fairly challenging, the game is hard. And I think your girlfriend has done you a severe disservice. If she wanted you to min-max your stats in a certain direction, she should have told you about that straight up. I can understand her immediate reaction due to it being uncommon, but how is that your fault? The game is actually designed for it anyway.

You're given party members that focus on different niches, Yuzu and Midori and Keisuke can all perform powerful magic offensive roles, Atsuro is a strong tank, Kaido has powerful offensive stats, and you share a skill pool, so having a less specialised build is really only going to make it that much harder if you try to make your protag the main attacker, which some SMT vets seem to instinctively do in these games. Having a mix means you could play the healer, carry an extra element or phys attack or status condition to cripple a foe.

I personally would have leant towards a code that lets you boost levels faster, but I think her response to cheating was unreasonable. I think the game is balanced well even if you make an even spread but you're trying to have fun and try her thing. Kind of rude to you really, because sometimes you just need to cheat, these games are HARD. Remember that escort mission earlier on? Kind of needlessly tricky.

There's a reason that new versions of these releases have additional easy modes. In some of their PS2 game promotion, Atlus PR famously said 'we get off on your tears'. That mentality has somewhat changed since. Whilst some, like I, say that the difficulty is kind of part of the point, there's only so much you should have to put up with. I actively reccommend cheats in some games as a way to ease you in, when they are so challenging.

(Were you playing the DS version? The Yuzu ending certainly isnt a 'bad ending' on 3ds. The 8th day makes it one of my fave endings. Trying to complete every ending is a fool's endeavor in my opinion, and you should only lean towards what you think is best. Maybe look up an ending guide on the offchance the cool ending you want is hidden in some way so you never have to touch the game again unless you actually want to. The point is about you making Your Choice.)

Moving along, Ronnie my beloved. Love that guy, his route is easily the best. I love Soul Hackers 2 despite it's frustratingly flaws of 'they ripped half the game out and sold it as day 1 dlc' and 'the fucking soul matrix', and a lot of people just dismiss it out of hand based on early dungeon design and miss out on the way it deals with it's cast. Im so glad you can SEE IT.

Within many Shin Megami Tensei games, the stat grinding difficulty is the point insofar as you are fighting a world that is falling apart and wants you dead. And even so, you keep fighting and surviving. These titles can be rather samey as they go over their various aspects of humanity over and over, but thus can they really be made a representative of the JRPG genre? What about Pokemon, which is about adventuring and bonding with your creatures? SMT has a distinct theme they stick to that they repackage in different flavours. Fuck it, play old ones and cheat in them. Load up on macca and buy a gazillion healing items to cut down the grind and overall playtime.

I've noticed a distinct absence of the Persona games too? Which is strange given how they all differ from traditional smt in terms of theming.

My favourite RPGs are 'The World Ends With You' and 'The Caligula Effect 2'. Entirely different from SMT and dont focus on 'humanity' in that way at all and they absolutely aren't representative of more mainstream JRPGs.

(sidenote, what are your favourite RPGs out of curiosity? I can probably help you hunt down some specific titles that you would like more?)

I adore your Jack Frost lore. Why can't that work in canon? Little fairy friend SHOULD overthrow the frost monarchy!

(and that sort of stuff is encouraged in Atlus' other series Etrian Odyssey, which is a dungeon crawler where you make a team of customised guys (you can start anywhere).

I think the only thing you can really do is play more, but i dont think you should push yourself either or you could burn out and appreciate it less. I'm sorry that I don't have magical advice that will solve that conundrum.

Thank you so much for coming to me though, it means a lot and I hope this ramble does anything for you. Im trying to check on my phone that I covered everything in your post and Im so sorry if I missed anything (please point it out if so).

Best of luck?

[gloombeauty]

Lana lost every Grammy she was nominated for. To Taylor, Billie and a stupid band with a stupid name like Boygenius. I guess Lana didn't bribe the Grammy voters committee hard enough. Or didn't buy them $100,000 gifts. She looked so broken trying to fake smile through the whole show. Then Taylor literally dragged her on stage. Lana didn't want that. She looked humiliated and broken up there. Even the way she was dressed looked like she was going to a funeral. I don't think Lana should ever entertain the Grammy's ever again. 💔

Sit down, this will be long.

My love and admiration for Lana Del Rey and Olivia Rodrigo grew even more after what I witnessed at the Grammy's this year.

1 - It's a known fact that the Grammys are trophies that are usually bought by the artists and the labels. They call it "gifts" but it's accurately described as "bribes." That's what it is - bribes. "Gifts" bought for these fucking Grammy committee of voters so that you have a chance to get that Grammy nom and even better - the trophy.

These committees are people straight from the music industry. Usually men. It wasn't so obvious back in the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's or even in the early 2000's - but by 2009, it was obvious how the game went. Many artists back in the day won by merit and talent. Many are criminally ignored. Led Zeppelin never won a Grammy. They got a Lifetime Achievement award from the Grammys in 2005. That shit doesn't count but whatever. They were ignored for over 30 years. Michael Jackson lost to that guy who sang "Don't Worry Be Happy." Jethro Tull won for best Metal Recording over Metallica.

So, you see -

2 - Look at the artists who keep winning every fucking year. Taylor Swift. Beyonce. Billie Eilish. Adele. Do the math. It's not a coincidence. Billie acting all goofy and shocked when she wins is all an act. She's an industry plant who's been in the industry thanks to her parents. That stupid act she pulls every single time she wins is tiresome and old. The same exact way it's an act when Taylor feigns shock that she won yet another award. You two conniving bitches paid for your award wins. Cut the fake shock/surprised act.

3 - Speaking of Taylor Swift, she is a demon within the industry itself. Even her own fans said Midnights wasn't that great, but here she is winning "Album Of The Year" (again!) over Ocean Blvd and Guts. Both albums being miles better then Midnights.

4 - Speaking of, shout out to Lana and Olivia Rodrigo for their class and dignity. Having to fake smile for hours while Taylor and Billie were swiping all those trophies was hard to watch. Even Olivia, who's usually her sweet cheery self, had moments last night where she looked done. Lana was already done by the time she hit the red carpet. She had lost to Boygenius twice by that time. Phoebe Bridgers was already a Grammy sweetheart having been nominated for several Grammys for her solo work in 2020. She knew how to play the Grammy game this time around.

But the first sickening part of the night was when Olivia Rodrigo was performing Vampire and Taylor Swift was the only person standing and dancing - while Olivia performed. What fucking shit was that? Taylor, being a monstrous egotistical narcissist, had to stand up during Olivia's moment to shine. She had to fucking dance to a song that wasn't even a fucking dance song. For what? Just to show the world "look! no hate between me and Olivia! All is good! No beef! I support all women! look at me! look at me!"

Let me repeat:

Taylor Swift was literally the only asshole dancing while everyone respectfully sat and watched Olivia perform. For what? To steal Olivia's moment. Plain and simple. She's a narcissist after all.

The way Olivia carried herself the whole night is commendable. I saw Olivia having to fake smile her way every time Taylor beat her in some of the nominations. The camera would pan right up to Olivia's face. This girl is so much better then me. I would have just sat there drinking my wine, but Olivia is smart. Any other reaction from her would have had the Swifties sending her death threats online. They are already attacking her on X for not clapping harder when Taylor won. The maniacal delusions of the Swifteys. They are worst then the Barbz and the Beehive.

In the end, Taylor got what she wanted. The camera panning at her as Olivia was on stage singing and then beating Olivia in several of the categories she was nominated for.

5 - Another moment of disgust at the Grammys was Taylor Swift obligating Lana to join her on stage. Like, that was fucking soul crushing to watch. It was bad enough Lana lost to Taylor - but the kick to the stomach was dragging Lana on stage. She didn't want to go on stage. She shook her head, said no and pulled away. Taylor wouldn't have any of that. She grabbed Lana's arm and dragged her on stage. And for what? As a favor for Lana? So Lana can feel what it's like to stand on a Grammy stage? What was the point? All those nice things Taylor said about Lana's legacy could have been easily said while Lana sat in her seat in the audience.

Lana standing on that stage looked defeated. She didn't want to be there. It was written all over her face. She's not as good as Olivia when it comes to faking a smile. That poor woman looked sad, broken and defeated.

Meanwhile, Taylor is up there being a smiley giddy cunt, accepting her award and demanding Lana, Jack and his wife to stand right next to her. That is some insane mindfucking. I have seen some mindfucking in my time, but what Taylor did last night takes the fucking cake.

I'm glad Lana stayed behind and didn't stand next to Taylor. She was holding on to dear life to the guy standing next to her on stage. This was just too cruel and humiliating to watch.

Lana was already heartbroken by the time she hit the red carpet. That thing on stage just broke her even more. Expect in the next few days a revised version of the questioning of the culture. Expect her IG to be deactivated. Expect her to explode, implode and snap. It's coming.

Don't even get me into Taylor completely ignoring Celine Dion. Not a single hug or kiss for our Celine. Nope. Nothing. After everything Celine has been going through this year.

It's telling that Olivia took so many pictures with other artists that were at the Grammys. Not one single picture with Taylor Swift.

Yeah, no beef. Yeah right.

I know Swifteys are like "she was OnLy trying to be NiCe to LaNa you hater!!!" - like, spare me. Pick up a book and learn to observe what is in front of you.

I hope that Lana cut all ties with the Grammys. That she no longer submits albums/songs to their committee. I feel like what happened last night was incredibly cruel and done on purpose. Lana must have pissed off a Grammy voter(s), maybe refusing a date? Perhaps she refused sexual favors? It's not that farfetched. This is the music industry after all - one of the most insidious industries. Just ask Ashanti.

I hope Lana boycotts the Grammys.

I hope she works with a different producer. I'm sick of Jack Antonoff.

I also hope she cut ties with Taylor. That shit she pulled last night was fucked.

That's all I have to say on this subject.

[sirwow]

I have written an essay about why i don't like act 4 (and how i would fix it) and you can read it right here under the cut! Warning its. long again.

Why Act 4 isn’t very good and how I’d fix it. A stupid essay by Wally / SirWow —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DISCLAIMER!This is going to be a bit of an over exaggeration when it comes to how I feel about act 4. I think it’s serviceable and all the music and all* of the gameplay is very well done. (*4-2n has problems but I'll get into that.) This is out of a place of absolute adoration for this game and how much I’ve come to love it in the past few months. Also if you don’t know anything about RD this will make no sense <3 With that out of the way, take it away insane Wally. —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rhythm Doctor’s acts all have a speciality of being completely unique and different from the last. Act 1 is a basic introduction to the tone and feel of the game; Fun, a bit goofy, heartfelt and even dramatic at times. Act 2 feels almost like the start of a slice of life romance. The dumb guy with a coffee addiction and the sarcastic barista that serves him with an energetic secret side. Act 3, what it lacks in one settled idea it makes up in a jam packed and fast story that expands the scope of this at first basic story. Act 5 is the king of acts (as of writing this!) a single focused story on Lucky that doesn’t forget the ones going on around it unlike in say act 2’s hyperfocusing of Cole and Nicole. A grand slam story that pays off its build up with a spectacular final level.

Then there's act 4. The confused and uncertain child of the lot. It’s plot jumping around yet not accomplishing literally any story development, repeating points that have already been made and forgetting the ones it introduces. Not only this but it fails to be what it sets up to be and even sidelines it’s own chapter with a sudden unprompted return to the hospital! So let us go step by step, level by level why act 4 falls behind all the rest.

4-1 & 4-1nNow these two levels are actually great, but understanding what makes them so good is important to understanding why the rest is so bad. 4-1 follows us just now getting on the train with Cole and Hailey and meeting Miner. We’re immediately thrown into action as Miner gets a heart attack on the spot, a classic western jig that is perfectly in keeping with the new held beats mechanic. Sets up the feel of the chapter to be a good ol’ western-esk adventure with a bit of a playful lightheartedness to it. 4-1n takes this up a notch by playing off the idea of western and how it was popularized in the 80’s with a midi jam and level literally called Roller Disco Rumble. The level design is also impeccable for both. 4-1 is purely focused on the held mechanic to warm you up to all its kinks and bits. 4-1n is a difficulty spike but in a good way. Teaching you how helds function with other beats (specifically SVT’s) in a difficult but not hard to understand way. Introducing the helds then the SVT’s then combining them during mid and end of the song. Both are wonderfully done introductions to helds for the rest of the act. Keep this in mind for later. 4-1 gets a 8/10 and 4-1n gets a 9/10

4-2 & 4-2n This is where the problems start rearing their ugly heads. 4-2’s story context is that there's a sandstorm and they’re all having a bad time about it. This is… Fine when it comes to a plot but serves zero plot progression in the chapter. By the end nothing has changed and nothing new was learned, merely serves as filler plot wise and makes for a somewhat forgettable story. Then there's the level itself. For what the gameplay is it’s good! Snappy patterns but somewhat reminiscent of 3-2N’s gameplay. The music works well enough but I could definitely not hum the song off the top of my head after spending a good 2 hours S ranking it and 4-2n. It is a bit strange why Samurai and Logan would be there of all people but from a gameplay point of view I completely understand. Overall, a serviceable but filler and forgettable level. Then there is 4-2n. A CRIME TO LEVELS!!!! 4-2n has the exact same song and plot as 4-2 which is already pretty bad considering both of those are middling at best, but now the plot makes less sense and the song is RUINED by WORSE gameplay!!!!!! Richard’s beat is fine and good for making the song harder but the bird? THE BIRD????? Crime. The bird follows none of the beats of the song, it’s frustrating to learn consistently and is more of a game of tying it to the other beats to know when to hit it. Then there’s an extension of the song and for what? So we can be tortured further by this feathered beast??? 4-2 is a 4/10 and 4-2n is a straight 1/10 4-3 & 4-3n Or as I like to call them- “Wait this is act 4? This feels like act 3!” suppose thats why its the third level but regardless- 4-3 is yet another filler story beat and somehow even worse than the last one. The point of act 4 as we were introduced to it in the pre-act cutscene was we were gonna get away from the hospital for a while and see what it was like outside! But nope! This level pulls you back to the hospital to deal with the birds and Mrs. Stevenson. At least with 4-2 we were still on the train. The music is good and the gameplay fun but that doesn’t excuse the fact that it takes you out of the experience of the train. It also straight up doesn’t have the helds anymore and if you think we will be seeing them again after this filler you are WRONG! There are more levels in act 4 WITHOUT helds then there are with helds. In the chapter that introduces them mind you. My general review of this level is basically identical to 4-3n. There's basically no difference between the levels other than Ian doesn’t take over some of the other lines for you. In isolation both these levels are fine and inoffensive but in context of this being a chapter about getting away from the hospital and containing all stuff that was important in the act prior to this this level would have just been better made the night level of 3-3. 4-3 & 4-3N both get a 4/10

4-4 “Wait, where's 4-4n?” I am splitting these levels apart because they’re extremely different from each other. Now then- 4-4 is basically just continuing the filler trend of no story happening and being pretty ill fitting to what the long forgotten original set up of this chapter was supposed to be. 4-4 follows Cole showing off some of his music to Hailey so she can send it to Logan later. (which is pretty passive aggressive but that's an essay for another day.) Nothing new is realized or discovered in this level, we already knew Hailey was longing for Logan and that Cole makes romantic and heartfelt music. Most you can say about this level is that it establishes Hailey and Cole as friends thanks to what Cole says after the level is completed. The music is again good and gameplay alright but still gets lost in the “This could have just been a act 2 level” fog. It is memorable thanks to it’s distinct song and vfx-es. Speaking of which- absolutely no offense to the vfx in this entire act! It’s fine enough and even really good on 4-1n and the last level. 4-4 gets a 6/10 4-4N This level gives me extremely conflicting feelings. Yes it repeats the same ideas as 4-4 but done with far more grace and introspection to the characters up to this point. Cole and Hailey are chatting again and she asks him about who he wants to play the guitar for. (Which also its kinda silly that she’s surprised he plays the guitar. He had to have carried on the guitar case to have it on the train, she was there during 2-1n, and according to 2-2n, Cole and Samurai blast their music playing throughout the entire hospital. ANywhays.) Cole is hesitant to answer and then we flip back to the hospital with Nicole and Logan. We get massive development with Nicole, her picking back up the guitar because of Cole and wondering if he’d like acoustic when she hasn’t really shown any obvious feelings back to him up until now. The song is also fantastic with great leitmotif call backs and being a calm night level to fizzle off. Despite all of this praise however… I can’t bring myself to ignore the fact that this level still probably shouldn’t have been here. If the rest of the levels had a focus on what the act was established to be about then I’d let this level slide but they’re not. It continues the issue of not using the established chapter mechanics, going over pre-established plot points we already know, and really not serving the already hurt story of this act. It is perfectly fine to have a level to develop side plots like 2-4n or 3-1n, the issue is when the rest of the act is failing to say anything. 4-4n is fantastic in isolation, probably the 2nd best of the act in isolation but this is a broad review of the whole act and I can’t ignore that. 4-4n gets a 7/10, 9/10 were it isolated from this. Intermission talk (not about any level) So this is the 8 levels we get for the act. Half fall under a 5/10 and there is a repeating issue that is found throughout this whole act. The writer's curse of filler plots. Filler in Rhythm Doctor is not something that can be indulged in much- maybe 1-2 filler levels in an act. The reason that filler can’t really be indulged in that much is just due to how all the acts get at most 9 levels, usually more like 7 or 8. As a result of the majority of act 4 being complete filler, the act doesn’t leave any impact. Act 1 I can let slide (somewhat. Maybe I might write an angry act 1 short essay) when it comes to not making an impact because it’s the first levels, we just need a basic foundation. Act 4 not so much seeing as the last two acts left far more of an impact. Also there is a notable lack of any act boss like every other act. “But what aboutttt 1-Xn???????” that don’t even got the 4 in it!!!! So let's get on with the final level of act 4. At least when you first play through the game.

1-Xn The second case of being very conflicted about a level in this act. Positives first; This is a brilliant way of getting back to the hospital and really getting across the impact Connectifa can cause. The level visuals I don’t even need to tell you are fantastic and letting Insomniac get more than a single appearance is nice. (#justiceforInsomandLucia) However this is where my praise has to end as much as I adore this level in isolation. No level is truly isolated from the rest of the game and the way this level fits into the rest of the story and flow of things is. Not great!!! First off 1-Xn has zero build up to it happening in the story, it just kinda does. This I can let go a little bit since it’s supposed to be a woah! Twist moment but it’s still not great. Then since this is acting as the boss of act 4, it really fumbles that. I harpped on at the start of this essay that 4-1 and 4-1n are fantastic set up to what's supposed to be happening but this is the ultimate showcase of act 4 not knowing what it wants to be. Why are we back at the hospital? We aren’t using the main mechanic we were introduced to at the start of the act and in fact have regressed back to act 1 mechanics purely. There’s no multiple rows, no SVT, not even skip beats,  just the same 7 beat gameplay from the start. This drives me up the wall- I love you Insomniac but this should not have been the act 4 finale. Lastly there's the post stuff after the level is finished for the first time. I don’t know how to sum up my feelings on it much better than it feels hollow, forced and unnecessary. The info and story we get from it feels less like a payoff and more of a forced reminder that the doctors are appreciated and respected n that you are too. I think that's a good thing to say of course! But we already know this like a lot. 3-X was literally to get this point across, Miner thanked you on the train, Insomniac already thanked the doctors once and now he’s doing it again making him continuously flat as a character. Having Insomniac thank them again would be fine but the whole cast doing so is forced. HELL some of the character interactions that actually did give some development to others got CUT from the current version of the game. Things like Logan being scared of the dark n Hailey poking fun at that or Cole looking for a welcome back and just getting it from Samurai. It’s all just… such a fizzle to the end of what I guess is a mid game act. Worst part? Miner doesn’t even show up in his own act ending </3 Whew ok I had a lot more to say about 1-Xn then I thought I did and I feel too negative now so let’s move on to what to do now. —-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fixing Act 4 (The Wally Way) So what have we examined about act 4 up to here? Its; - Unsure to what it wants to be - Filler bloated - Fails to help the player master the helds and as an introduction to Miner - Somewhat forgettable SO let’s try and do a bit of a rewrite here shall we? Or I guess just me I don’t know why I keep saying we, I’m the one writing this. Anyyyyywho!

Story intro, 4-1, 4-1n I won’t be changing any of these, they’re perfect as is. A new 4-2 and 4-2n Now then the first of the rewrites, 4-2 I don’t believe the actual story itself needs to change for this one but I feel it be a good way to start introducing aspects of Miner we see in act 5 here! He’s a caring dude and loves to help out so why not have him help Hailey with not being spooked by the sandstorm before the level starts and maybe a little conversation after the level is done. 4-2n is where the first of the very big changes happens. Throw out the copy paste of the day version level and story and instead we have a level of Miner and Hailey star watching now that the sky is clear. We can still have the beat going on but instead it’s just Hailey and Miner’s- Instead the challenge comes in having an internal rhythm rather than visual as both their bars can’t be completely seen. It’s far more laid back then the hectic day in a sandstorm and focuses more on learning more about these two characters. What would we learn? Idk man I don’t wanna insert my own headcanons if they’re wrong, that's up to the devs to figure out. Unless they hire me /j 4-3 & 4-3n (aka throw it out) That's a nice level you got there. It shouldn’t be there tho. Live by the advice of kill your darlings and kill this level entirely to replace it with a new pair of levels that pays off the setup we were given in the act intro when Hailey said she needed to deliver some things. 4-3 rewrite follows Miner, Hailey and Cole all arriving at the actual town they were heading to and doing town things! In keeping with the silly but heartfelt set up of 4-1, Hailey wanders around town to do things and Miner has to save her from the many dangers of the wild west- cacti, heat, rock slips and snakes. If you want a backing SVT beat or even one in swing then Cole is busy off at another local cafe getting a coffee but having adverse effects because it’s a local brew he did not check the contents of before downing. A story end of Hailey’s ended and potential development for everyone on the train if they so choose to. 4-3n’s rewrite is the gang all done for the day but now stuck at the train station waiting for their train to arrive. Cole starts playing his keyboard bored and Miner n Hailey join in making a little jig! Clapping/stomping from Hailey, Whistling and then a harmonica for helds from Miner. Technically filler but it still gives development to this dynamic and a smooth inbetween to them heading back. 

4-4 & 4-4n Now these levels I’m not actually going to be changing despite my critiques of them. I think they still work in this context- Maybe 4-4 could have a bit more focus that Hailey is getting these anxieties about Logan now that she’s heading back instead of just having them for no definitive reason then she does. 4-4n is still a great level. Maybe add a story reason why Miner isn’t around during this level- perhaps have him say he needs to go check on something and this could be setup for what I have next- 4-X (but for real this time) A final boss level where our chilling cruising state is suddenly thrown off the rails- and literally! I’m a bit indecisive about which I would go with but my two thoughts are both classic western train shenanigans: The train gets derailed somehow and the gang gotta deal with it and hold on. Alternatively, the train gets attacked by bandits and loonytoon-esk fighting ensues. Regardless of which you gotta treat them to make sure they also don’t have a heart attack from the stress. The three can all have their moments and can act as a proper ending to the 4th act. 1-Xn (wait what) We’re not leaving behind 1-Xn though! Seeing as this is still an important level to the story we’re not gonna ditch it. Instead now 4-X acts as a subtle cause to why Insomniac got so bad in this level. Ada got back right as boss level occurred so her, Ian and the intern were all hands on deck when it came to monitoring and treating Cole Hailey and Miner. Besides, if Edega found out they let their patients get injured on a non-approved adventure they’d have their jobs on the line! Unfortunately being hands on deck with the three outside, they ended up missing Insomniac having a Connectifa episode and it got worse. They were just calming down the train gang after the boss level when the power suddenly cut off and cut off the intern’s connection with the train gang. 1-Xn ensues as usual and the situation is handled. The post conversation instead has them all at first checking on Insomniac when the train gang is finally able to arrive at the hospital. Miner gets to be part of the end and properly transferred to his role in the next act as Lucky’s support. Cole and Hailey are able to get their welcome back conversations and they can all still thank the doctors but with a more justified reason now! You just took on boss levels back to back and before they could thank you for the first one they all got cut off. A much more impactful end to Act 4 while still keeping intact a majority of the already existing things set out.

Conclusion and Extra things n doodads So thats my essay on act 4, it kinda sucks and I sound pretty mental at some parts but that's the Wally brand for you! I really love what the rest of Rhythm Doctor has done so far and I know act 4 has potential if it was rewritten. I still hate that fucking bird tho. Uhh now some other stuff i didn’t know where to put: “What about 2-1n’s skips? That's a mechanic not built on like helds!” 1. It’s a night level and 2. It shows up only thrice so far in the entire game and you even get told to go play it if you haven’t yet during act 5. “This sounds like a lot of work to change it to this.” I am well aware. If someone doubts me on this then I can make all the backgrounds and animations myself. I’m no composer admittedly but I can write, sprite, concept and draw! “Wally what even prompted you to write 10 pages about an act you don’t like” I wrote an act 4 fic and got on a tangent about act 4 to Mochii n Jenn and how I'd change it so I decided I'd just go ahead and write it. Nothing better to do (lie he had much better things to be doing like SLEEPING IT'S 1 AM WHEN YOU’RE FINISHING THIS DUDE) And I think that's all? If anyone has any more questions of me then like. Shoot my tumblr with an ask or ping me oke doke? Wally signs off and probably gonna die inside if any dev actually reads this. Hi if you are… I’m more normal than this I swear…

[midnightdevotion]

Ice Water (pt 1)

Rooster x reader (callsign storm)

tag list is open!

Requested: rooster and the reader were best friends who lost touch, the feelings you had never faded, will things end differently this time??? 1.8k

warnings: ummm jealousy, negative self talk? I refuse to paint Phoenix in a negative light tho so she's a queen like always.

a/n: special shout out to @barbiewritesstuff and @purelyfiction for the help writing this one :) Ps this was supposed to be done yesterday but then my bank froze my debit card and i spent an hour on hold instead

You step out of your car and onto the gravel of your favorite place. One that held so many memories, you breathe in the nostalgia and start making your way towards the door. The hard deck usually just a spot for whatever navy personnel are in town and locals, meant a lot more to you than that.

You think back to your college years with a certain sandy haired tree of a man, you two went to UCLA, but regularly came to this bar and stayed with none other than penny benjamin when you did.

Your mind is replaying the memories of the two of you drunkenly falling all over the place, singing along loudly and lets face it terrible to 80's hits. It's bittersweet, because not long after you two graduated college and joined the army together you were separated.

The friendship remained strong for a while, letters, calls and texts sent regularly. It faded though, soon Bradley didn't answer, or didn't bother to call, and one day you decided to stop bothering him because he clearly didn't want to be friends any longer.

You tried not to think about how your heart shattered for months, everyday wishing to hear from him again, just to be disappointed at the end of the day. You knew he was busy, hell so were you, but you really thought you two would be friends forever. You even hid the fact you were in love with him since freshman year in college to keep the friendship.

Shaking your head to clear yourself of the thoughts, you make your way into the bar, beelining for a woman who you always could count on.

"aunt penny!" her head whips over to you so fast you think she might get whiplash.

"what are you doing here honey??" you laugh at that

"what you want me to leave?" she slaps you on the shoulder at that remark.

"Of course not, get over here" so you make your way behind the bar, immediately being squeezed by the brunette. It eases all the tension in your shoulders for the upcoming mission. She always had that effect on you, making all your worries wash away and just be able to enjoy the world around you.

"missed you aunt penny" you mumble into her shoulder, not quite ready to let her go, you knew you had to though the customers weren't gonna be happy waiting forever.

With a promise to come see her and Amelia tomorrow night for dinner, you let her get back to her job, and her flirting with maverick. You wander over to the pool tables where you see pilots wearing the boring beige outfits.

You do a quick scan of everyone there and grin when you notice none other than Robert Floyd.

"bob!" you rush over to him and give him a hug. He hugs back almost as hard as your aunt penny did, and you saw the relief flicker on his face at the idea of a familiar face being here with him. He was your WSO a few years ago, and with his sarcastic one liners you two quickly became friends.

When you separate you quickly get acquainted with everyone else around the pool table, filing away the names and faces as best you can. You quickly settle in to playing pool with phoenix, bob and hangman.

You are about half way through a pool game when you see none other than the man you never got over walk into the bar. Your breath hitches and you hope nobody noticed. He's sauntering in like he's god's gift to this bar, and at this rate you think he very well might be. Phoenix shoved her pool stick into his stomach before turning and grinning at him.

"so this is how you tell me you're stateside?" and for some reason the words leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

"I wanted it to be a surprise" he grins at her. Realistically you know it's been years, he's got new friends, and maybe more than that with Phoenix. Unfortunately that doesn't make the lump in your throat disappear.

"bradshaw as I live and breathe" and you've never been more thankful for the cocky blonde, who you've worked with on a few missions and have a somewhat dysfunctional friendship with.

"Hangman.. you look good" and you zone out after that. Mind running a mile a minute. He was able to keep contact with all of these pilots? Why not you? What was so wrong with you that he didn't want to know you anymore?

You barely hear Phoenix explaining to coyote that they were stationed together for 2 years and became quite close, close enough that they facetime 3x a week. You wish you didn't hear it at all. The bitter taste of feeling like a burden to him all those years ago when he facetimes her 3 times a week is too much to handle.

You snuck away before his eyes found you, not ready for whatever awkward polite pleasantries you two would exchange. Sitting at the bar now, you know your aunt is watching you. You know you're doing a shit job and hiding the pain too, but you don't really care.

When you hear the juke box get unplugged maybe 30 minutes later you feel like you can't breathe. You know exactly what comes next. The beginning notes of a piano starts playing, and you are scared to look over. Not sure if you'll make it through seeing the very man at the same piano you spent all those college weekends at with, continue on like you never existed.

You finally give in and spare a glance over at the piano, only to wish you hadn't. There he is singing the lyrics with everyone but you see Phoenix with her hand on his shoulder, and suddenly everything feels like too much. You see flashes of memories when it was you at the piano with him, you two stumbling out of the bar, giggling as you fall on the beach, and hungover mornings together. It was all too much and not enough simultaneously.

You feel foolish, here you are hung up on him after years of not even speaking, and it's like you don't even exist. Here in the very bar you made promises and spent so much time with him and he's acting like he doesn't remember you at all.

You take a deep breath before standing, ready to leave. You send your aunt Penny what you hope is a convincing smile, you can see she doesn't buy it though. You just needed out of here, away from him and you'd be fine. You were ready to face the memories, as painful as they would be. You weren't ready to face him along with them though.

You feel foolish for not considering he would have also been called back. Of course he would be, the pilot community is small enough and you had heard good things about him over the years. You're too wrapped up in your own thoughts and heading to the doors to notice the way he falters when his eyes find you.

The way he freezes and his smile drops. Hangman however, does pick up on this.

"anyone know where storm went?" the pilots eyes all dart around, missing you by a few seconds as you make your way out of the parking lot, back to the base housing to be tortured by your thoughts there, but at least in private.

"that's weird, she's usually never the first to head out" is bob's reply. It makes rooster jealous. Why does bob know that about you? He seems to confident in knowing your habits and it makes Bradley's blood run cold.

Truth is he knows ghosting you like he did all those years ago was a shit move. He beats himself up about it on the regular, but every time he talked to you but couldn't see you, and heard you laugh but couldn't kiss you broke his heart until he couldn't take it anymore. Instead of talking to you about it, he just decided to distance himself. In hindsight with what he is feeling now, it wasn't worth it. He messed up and he's got three weeks to make it up to you. To finally make you his after all these years.

Bradley takes a swig of his luke warm beer, mentally thinking of what he's going to say when he gets the chance. How do you make it right with the one person in the world that truly gets you when you left them out in the dirt?

He was going to need Phoenix's help with this one. She already knew about you, and what he had done. He'd just never told her you were also a pilot, but maybe it's time to give that detail away too. He motions for Phoenix to follow him out of the bar.

"I need your help phe" and the sassy pilot snorts

"when don't you need my help"

"no no for real this time.... you know the girl I told you about... the one i've been in love with forever but lost contact with?"

"of course I do Bradshaw it's the only girl you've ever talked about but continue"

"I-uh- well it's storm"

"WHAT!" her shout startles the mustached pilot. "bradley you are such a fucking dumbass"

"gee thanks phe like I don't already know that." She just rolls her eyes.

"What am I supposed to say to her" rooster asks, desperation seeping into his voice.

"how about the truth, everything you've told me over the last few years." she grumbles something about leaving the pilot part out.

"yeah... I- okay" and he runs his hand through his hair, a nervous tick he has always had.

"Just don't fuck it up rooster"

"wow thanks that's so helpful" he throws a glare her way and she just laughs turning and leaving him to his own thoughts as he stares out into the dark water before him.

He's gonna make things right. It might take him all three weeks but he's not leaving here without you being his, he's done making stupid mistakes and done wasting his time.

He's in love with you, and he always will be.

tags:

@alanadetigy 

@luckyladycreator2 

@multiplefandomsmess 

@tkmarvel-divergentbish

@ohh-to-be-a-frog

@roosterschanelslut

@americaarse

@malindacath

@atarmychick007 

@trikigirl271

@captainmarvelnerd

@averyhotchner

@lustfulseonghwa @rosiahills22

[duckprintspress]

Meet the Aether Beyond the Binary Contributors: Mikki Madison

Today, we’re kicking off introducing y’all to the contributors to Aether Beyond the Binary, our currently crowdfunding awesome anthology of 17 stories set in aetherpunk settings starring genderqueer and non-binary characters, with an interview with writer Mikki Madison and excerpt from her contribution!

About Mikki Madison: Mikki Madison has been writing stories since she was seven years old.  While she is most prolific in fanfiction and has works scattered among  more than a dozen fandoms, she has been making strides into original  fiction. Her favorite genres to read are romance, fantasy, and cozy  mysteries. When she isn’t reading, writing, or falling headfirst into a  new fandom, she can be found baking, doing puzzles, walking her foster  dog, doting on her niblings, or playing Pokemon Go. She has also written  under the name M. K. Mads. Link: Tumblr

Mikki Madison has been involved with Duck Prints Press since our first project, and has contributed to two previous anthologies: And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and He Bears the Cape of Stars. She’s also written two short stories with the Press, one – The Fated Prince published on our webpage (and included in the contributor short-story bundle campaign add-on!) and It Happened on Maple Street, which is Patreon-backer exclusive.

Q&A with Mikki Madison

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I’m a planner. I virtually always have an outline for any project I’m working on, whether it’s a quick scribbled bullet list or more involved note cards. The note cards are typically for novels, while short stories  I can get away with something less involved. It helps to keep me on track and if the story veers while I’m writing, I can adjust either the  outline or the story as I need to.

Do you like having background noise when you create?  What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

It varies depending on project and also where I am. I have a bunch of story- or genre-specific iTunes playlists that I would listen to whenever I was at in-person write-ins, which usually contained movie and video game scores because I write most easily with instrumental music playing. So if I was writing a fantasy story, I’d have a playlist with the score from the LOTR movies or Final Fantasy games, and if it was a sci-fi story, I’d have Star Wars, and steampunk would be the movie scores from the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies. Recently someone in the DPP server shared a link to a YouTube channel with immersive writing sessions that are about 2 hours long, with 25-minute sprints interspersed with 5-minute breaks. I’ve been putting that channel on the TV while I’m writing at home and it’s really helped me focus!

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

As you can probably tell from a glance at my Tumblr, I love tea. I’m virtually always drinking tea, especially when it’s cold outside.

What are your favorite tropes?

Found family is one of my absolute favorite tropes. I love seeing a disparate group of people come together to care about each other. I’m also a huge fan of rivals to lovers and second-chance romances. Plus, the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one!! I love it when the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one.

Tell us about your pet(s).

Right now, I don’t have any full-time pets – I foster dogs for a local rescue. I’ve had 9 dogs over the course of the past year, from 80-pound coonhounds to 3-pound chihuahua puppies. It’s been extremely rewarding and I’ve had so much fun getting to know all the different dogs. It’s hard when I have to let them go, but I know that they’re not “my” dogs and I’m happy that they’re getting to go to a forever family.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

This quote from E.L. Konigsburg: “Finish. The difference between being a writer and being a person of talent is the discipline it takes to apply  the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair and finish. Don’t talk about doing it. Do it. Finish.”

Novels in particular are marathons, and finishing a story of that length is a skill you’ve got to build. It’s fine if it gets trunked, it’s fine if you never edit it, but I think especially as a younger writer, you really need to learn to at least finish that first draft. It helped me tremendously early on to focus on finishing my stories, instead of just editing the beginnings over and over and over.

What are your favorite resources and tools for your craft?

A friend of mine has gifted me a couple of writing-related card decks – one is a prompt deck called Writer’s XL Emergency Pack, another is a card game called Once Upon a Time. I’ve recently been using both to come up with short story ideas and it’s been really fun!

I draw anywhere from 3-9 cards, depending on the length of what I’m doing, and then start brainstorming how to use the different cards  within a story. If I’m not feeling one of the cards, I discard it and  draw another one. 

For example, I was recently working on a story where I knew one of the MCs didn’t want to work with the other one, but I didn’t know why. I knew that was going to be a big plot point, but none of the ideas I’d come up with seemed to fit. So I started drawing some cards out of the Once Upon a Time deck to see if that might spark something. Three of the first cards I drew were “secret,” “wolf,” and “cure.” Bam! A secret werewolf looking for a cure. That gave me my motivation and helped me  outline the back half of the story.

When you’re writing short stories for NaNoWriMo and you’re desperately trying to come up with something else for your word count, these are lifesavers. And I like the physicality of shuffling and drawing them.

Share five of your favorite books. 

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett – if you enjoy fantasy and comedy and you haven’t yet read the Discworld series, this is a fantastic place to start. The Night Watch books are probably my favorites and this one is  excellent. 

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan – Honestly I love all of Courtney Milan’s romance novels, but The Brothers Sinister series (of which The Heiress Effect is the second book) is really, really great. I love Jane, the heroine of this story, SO MUCH, and the secondary romance between her sister and a lawyer is so, so sweet. I’ve read it three or four  times at this point.

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – I love found families and fantasy and romance, so this book was right up my alley and I read the entire thing in one go. The kids particularly were wonderful.

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi – Another book I read in one go, and it was SO much fun that I couldn’t put it down. Scalzi’s sci-fi is both funny and accessible, and another thing I liked about this book was that the first-person POV and the unisex name (Jamie) meant that you can read the main character as any gender you’d like.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – I really loved the structure of this book: essentially several episodes of this ship’s  crew becoming closer as they make their way across the galaxy on a yearlong journey to help create a new wormhole. It was both fascinating  and heart-wrenching.

And my +1 (because we do 5+1 in fandom, yeah?): A Clash of Steel by C. B. Lee – This is a queer YA retelling of Treasure Island set in 1820s China, and it’s an absolute delight. Lee’s descriptions are so vivid that it feels like you’re actually there, and the romance is so, so good.

About Mikki Madison’s Aether Beyond the Binary Contribution

Title: Mixed Dough

Tags: bakery, bed and breakfast, character injury (permanent), character injury (serious), cults, death of a sibling (past), emotional hurt/comfort, food (graphic descriptions), gender exploration, gender non-conforming character, getting together, hurt/comfort, m/nb, non-binary, past tense, plane crash, tattooed, third person limited pov

Excerpt:

“Your plane crashed,” Jules explained. “You’re badly injured. Help is on the way. I’ll—”

The pilot’s eyes grew wide, and they struggled to speak. Jules leaned in closer, putting his ear as close to the pilot’s mouth as he dared.

“Where…?”

It was the only word Jules could make out. “You’re in New Blanchard. Or, well, just outside of it.”

The pilot’s eyes closed and their whole body sagged. “Thank fuck.”

They were still breathing, albeit barely, so Jules didn’t panic. He glanced back toward the bed-and-breakfast and the road; the ambulance lights were pulling into the driveway. “The ambulance is here. I’ll…”

His eyes fell on a tattoo peeking over the collar of the pilot’s shirt. In and of itself, that wasn’t a cause for concern, but given the shape and that the pilot had been in a gas-powered plane…

Jules pulled the shirt down to reveal a tattoo of three interlocking rings, about the size of a half-dollar.

Well. Shit.

Mikki Madison is one of 17 awesome contributors to this collection. Visit our Kickstarter Campaign page to learn all about the other contributors and this project!

[desolationcleo]

some life series related things i think about

-each recording session is 3 hours long which is 9 days minceraft time which is the length of a full moon to full moon minceraft lunar cycle

-what this means about the boogeyman curse

-speaking of translation to minceraft time, that hour and a half left on martyn's timer after his win? that was four and a half days of wandering the ruins of the world completely alone. even if you subtract the hour taken by that /kill that's still more than a day.

-the characters being referred to as players, not because of anything to do with a keyboard and mouse, not because terms like server and admin are relevant here, but because their world is an arena and their lives are a death game. strip the story of its minceraft context and they're still called players.

-what if bigb's usage of the programmer art texture pack (aka the legacy textures from older versions) during s1 and the start of s2 translates in-universe as some form of lingering effect from evo?

-the way joel's house in s1 was haunted by the ghost of an enderman and we never figure out what the deal was with that. this place has history

-the time the crastle team were like "you guys want to move to the nether" "that sounds peaceful" "just put on a jukebox and sing" something about a brief group fantasizing session where they all pretend they'll be able to escape all this and not have to be in a death game or a war and just peacefully vibe to music together and sing songs around a campfire

-speaking of singing around a campfire, martyn mentions being a bard multiple times. i'm just picturing him singing for the team

-given the villagers and the endermen in boats, dogwarts is actually a pretty densely populated kingdom. what was this like for the villagers?

-in a similar vein, imagine being a pillager in the outpost in double life

-cleo keeps dying in or near rivers. season 1 she permadied at a river, season 2 both times she went yellow were in rivers, season 3 she was pushed off the bridge and landed on the riverbank. there might have been one in season 4 i don't know it's impossible to keep track of all the deaths that occurred in that one

-at the end of s1, when scott and jimmy have their afterlife reunion, jimmy says "this is it, this is the end". and then in martyn's last life finale- oh you already know where i'm going with this

-given the appearance of his eyes it is entirely plausible that grian, at least when red, has black sclera

-lizzie, mumbo, and ren are most likely presumed permadead by the others

-additionally, skizz's return would do nothing to disprove this as the others could easily chalk it up to his being left out by virtue of DL needing an even number of players

-the in-universe implications of pearl having been on evo but not joining the life games until season 2

-speaking of pearl and watchers and in-universe implications. considering the timing of the boogeyman reroll in last life, and the player chosen, and everything in relation, whatever happened in-universe that took pearl out of the picture so hard she couldn't get a kill probably wasn't an accident.

-lizzie, who wears a flower crown and filled her first base with flowers and planted several outside her second one, ever surrounded by flower motifs, died in a manner involving a wither rose

-that time in late season 2 when joel, who spent 80% of the series red, said that seeing the 4+ life indicator shade of dark green makes him physically sick now

-ren's final death in last life -and subsequently, scott's victory- involved a zombie and happened at night when the moon was out

-the little jellie that scar carries around in double life, first in a purse and then in a backpack, who outlived him

-bdubs is STILL trapped in his red life appearance because of lingering effects from last life, two full seasons later

-pearl has the whole frog/dog/log thing with ren and martyn in double life, in which she's the frog. come season 4 and she's in the partially frog themed alliance

-the minceraft flower language post applied to the life games. oxeye daisies for love. lily of the valley, worn as a symbol of grief. cornflowers for sudden betrayal, and as an equivalent to a gold medal for those who win tournaments or games. poppies for watching and being watched. azure bluets for a secret alliance. wither roses for murder and intent to kill. pink tulips for codependency. alliums for protection and a wish for someone to stay safe, and for defiance. do you see my vision

-the whole thing with the watchers feeding on the players' emotions. it only stands to reason that grian gets hungry too.

[wannabebeaut1ful]

Wannabe’s guide to fighting the binge urges

These are things that I do to stop myself from binging that work 80-90% of the time because sometimes we’re in a position where the urges have won before we even get the chance to fight them. But if you have time, give these steps a try.

After every binge I write down how I feel afterwards. The guilt, what I ate, if it was even good, the stomach pain, what triggered it, my feelings, everything. When you feel the urge to binge go back and read what you wrote. A lot of the time seeing first hand exactly what you wrote when you we feeling it is more effective than just trying to remember how bad it was.

Write down what you’re feeling in this moment. As you are trying to decide whether to binge or not. Write why you want to binge, what you want to eat, what triggered you, why you are trying to rationalise it. Write everything you can. A lot of the time you can talk yourself out of it while trying to explain why you were talking yourself into it.

Think about the things you want to eat on the binge you’re fighting. Ask yourself these questions: how accessible are the things I want to eat? Are they a once in a lifetime meal, or can you buy it whenever you want? Will it be there tomorrow? If so, is there a way you can fit it into into your calorie limit tomorrow? Often when we are in a binge mindset our brain tricks us into thinking if we don’t eat it now we will never be able to eat it again, telling your brain that it is a very real possibility that you will be able to eat it tomorrow will calm your brain down. Even if you don’t end up eating it the next day, your brain will stop freaking out as much that you will never get it again. Plus, a lot of the time when I think about what I want to eat on a binge there is actually nothing specific I want to eat, nothing is appetising. I just want to eat for the comfort of eating, and the thought of that seems so useless to me that the urge can go away.

Drink a huge glass of water. Drink like you’ve never drunk before. And drink fast. If you can drink so much that you stomach is full and uncomfortable, food may seem less appealing (careful because many people find the opposite is true)

Shower and do skincare. I find that when I focus hard on one area of beauty it motivates me to continue with maintaining other areas i.e my body. This works both ways for me, when I look after my body, I look after my skin, when I look after my skin, I look after my body

Distracting yourself with things you enjoy. I really like video games so sometimes I make myself a cup of tea and play video games for a few hours. I also love to dance so sometimes I choreograph a contemporary solo or learn a kpop dance that I’ve been meaning to for ages. This is a double win because it also burns calories and when I exercise I get motivated to keep eating well because otherwise I feel like the exercise was a “waste”.

Continuing to combine exercise with a distraction can also come in any form of exercise, going to the gym to lift weights, biking, running, swimming, Pilates, yoga, whatever is accessible to you is great. Personally I love walking because you can just put some music on and get lost for a really long time while also burning calories. Making it a perfect long distraction.

Next time you have the urge to binge please give these steps a try. I can’t guarantee that they will always work or even work at all for you. But I find that these steps are very effective with me and I have fought off urges to binge too many times to count with these steps. Whatever you end up doing, remember that I AM HERE FOR YOU !! if you are struggling please send me a message and I will try my best to be here for you as someone to talk to