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#fun fact i did start off as a video editor
inkykeiji · 11 months
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hi clari! after reading ur posts about being a film and basically lit major i was curious about why u decided to study film at a university level n how it ties into ur “story” if u know what i mean
hello!! hmm i’m not like 100% sure what you mean by story (like, as in the story of my life???) but i decided to study film at a university level because i love cinema with everything in me and planned to work in the industry in any way, whether that be in production or distribution or exhibition or on an even more academic level (it’s a dream of mine to create my own film journal and publish academic pieces written by women).
my goals have changed a little now—i still love cinema, and i’d still die to work in the industry, but i’m currently more focused on creating (writing for) indie games + publishing novels & collections of short stories. everything i studied in school + the skills i developed n sharpened there are still helpful and applicable to these fields as well so!! i definitely do not regret my degree at all and i’m really happy i went with it! c: i also loved my program so so so much <3
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vivwritesfics · 8 months
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Gremlin
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I get paid to be his best friend.
Lance couldn't begin to describe just how much her saying that hurt him. She made it sound as though she was paid to keep him company, when in actual fact they had been best friends for years and years and years and years.
She was his assistant, but assistant was a loose title. The more Lance thought about it, the more he realised that maybe she was just paid to be his best friend. They spent any free moment goofing off together, probably annoying everybody around them.
"Lancenot Stroll," she said as she strode towards him in her green Aston Martin shirt. She had a notebook tucked under her arms, but Lance knew they were full of odd little drawings, most of them inappropriate.
Lancenot Stroll. She'd been calling him that since they were kids. Lance did a bit where he pretended to hate it, but he really loved it.
"Gremlin," he said as she hopped up onto the little table. "What do you want?"
His racing suit was around his hips and his white fireproofs covered his body. He looked good, undeniably so.
Y/N leaned back against the wall as she looked at her best friend. "Can't I just want to enjoy your company?"
"No."
Yes, she could.
Lance leaned his elbows on the table and looked up at her. She couldn't stop herself from running her hands through his hair and messing it up.
Lance gave her a joking glare and, goddamn, if he didn't look cute. Y/N booped his nose and leaned back.
As Lance prepared himself for the race, Y/N scrolled through her tiktok with the sound off. She watched through the F1 tiktoks that appeared on her for you page, most of them about Lance (if it wasn't for her, he'd never know about any of the drama).
"Did you know there's a thing on tiktok where people say how many shots it would take for them to get with drivers?" She asked as she gently kicked her legs.
Lance looked up, something of a grin playing on her lips. "How many to get with me?" He asked as he walked closer and placed his hands on her thighs.
She pretended not to notice, but his touch was warm, addicting. Y/N swiped through the slides on the tiktok until she found Lance. "Two," she answered and read out what they had to say about him. "So fucking cute, like seriously, and, I'm so freaking jealous of Y/N I'd do anything to be in her position."
His dark eyes stared unto her own. "How many shots would it take you?"
"Easy, zero," she answered just a little bit too quickly. Lance's eyes lit up. "Because it's not happening."
Lance pouted at her. In response, Y/N squeezed his cheeks together. She loved it when he pouted, couldn't get another of it.
His facial hair burned against her fingertips as she pulled away. "You're cute, Lancenot," she said and hopped off of the table to 'do her job'.
"You are, too, Gremlin," he said as she walked out of the room.
***
"I get paid to be his best friend," Y/N said with a grin to the audiences of the Aston Martin tiktok page.
Lance watched her. He couldn't help but grin as she spun and snapped her fingers towards the camera. "Gremlin!" He shouted and she walked away from the camera, leaving the editor of the video to do their job.
Lance opened his arm and she tucked herself beneath it. "Good luck, Lancenot," she said and reached up to kiss his cheek.
He tightened his arms around her, gently rocking her from side to side. It was a pre race ritual; Lance called it his good luck charm.
"Come with me to the track?" He asked, kissing the top of her head.
Y/N thought about it. Well, she made it look like she thought about it. "This may come as a surprise to you, but I actually have work to do."
"What? No you don't."
"Lancey Lance," she said as she pulled away. "I need to plan all of the fun things for us to do while we're in the United States," she said and walked away from him. "Good luuuuuck!" She called as she walked away, heading for the privacy of his unused drivers room.
Before the race started, before the driver's got into their cars, Y/N's phone buzzed
Estie Bestie x
You guys are so cute together
But you should definitely get a room
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akookminsupporter · 5 days
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ARE YOU SURE?!: MY THOUGHTS ON THE EIGHTH EPISODE AND THE SHOW IN GENERAL
I know I might be sounding a bit repetitive, but I seriously can’t believe AYS is over. When it was announced and we saw it would last for weeks, it felt like such a crazy long time, but now it seems way too short. It’s just not fair! I want more!
The last episode was the perfect depiction of that final day of your holiday—one you don’t want to end for a million reasons. For Jimin and Jungkook, that last day was their last ‘Freedom Day’ (dramatic, I know!), so it makes sense that it felt a bit melancholic.
I have no doubt that Jimin and Jungkook are just like they were in AYS in their private lives. Even with cameras around, they felt more natural, more themselves. AYS didn’t feel like a show made for us; it felt like they were entertaining themselves and just decided to share it with us.
I loved the last episode because, as I’ve said non-stop these past weeks, I adore how relaxed it was. The slow pace of everything they did, the lovely domesticity—it’s honestly the main reason I love AYS so much. In this last episode, they seemed more laid-back, and Jimin appeared a bit more melancholic, which is totally understandable. I loved that they got to watch the first episode of the show and laughed as much as we did watching them have fun together.
They really tried all sorts of food on the show, and honestly, I hope they paid for it all with the agency's card, haha!
Jimin and Jungkook are incredibly similar in so many ways, yet also different—they’re uniquely the same if that makes sense. They get each other’s jokes, meme references, video clips, and songs. They understand each other's looks and unspoken words; it’s amazing to see. AYS showed us why they never get bored of each other and why they often say they spend hours talking. While others take a break or rest, they’re off playing, chatting, and laughing together. That’s why AYS didn’t feel forced or like just another job for them. It explains why they obviously enjoyed making the show and why they decided to keep filming after they wrapped in the US, even though that wasn’t the original plan. It also explains their comments about wanting to do something similar in the future—12 more seasons, according to Jungkook!
AYS didn’t confirm that they’re a couple or that they’ve been married for 40 years with 30 kids, but it definitely reaffirmed just how close Jimin and Jungkook are. It showcased how different their dynamic is compared to their relationships with other members, especially when Tae was around. If there’s one thing that should be clear after this, it’s that. The fact that they chose to enlist together should be the biggest confirmation of all, but I know for many, that’s still not enough.
AYS was perfect in every sense, from start to finish. I would’ve loved for them to talk a bit more about their decision to enlist together and even about making the show, but then again, it’s Jimin and Jungkook, and there are things they’ll never discuss. It’s frustrating, understandable, and a bit funny all at once.
I’m really going to miss waiting every Thursday for a new episode. I’m going to miss seeing all the different reactions to the same clips on my timeline. I’ll miss the comments on everything new they did and the joy of discovering another layer of Jimin and Jungkook’s relationship. But most of all, I’m going to miss Jimin and Jungkook. I reckon unless they’ve got more things planned, we won’t see them until June 2025. Sure, there are the behind-the-scenes bits and the concert DVD from Seoul, but…
The last clip we saw in the episode, the day they enlisted in the army, was a bit of a shock, and I felt it was a bit cruel of the editors to do that, haha! But at the same time, it was a realistic way to end the show because that was the conclusion of it all, right? The final destination for Jimin and Jungkook. The lovely thing is, they made that journey together, and even after that ending, they’re still together.
I can’t wait to see Jimin and Jungkook in 2025. I’m so curious to see how their dynamic changes after military service. I feel like if they were unbearable together before, they’ll be even more so after!
All I can say is thank you. Thank you, Jimin and Jungkook, for such a beautiful gift. AYS confirmed that seeing you happy makes me happy, and while that just highlights the parasocial relationship I have with you, I also know I’m in this for life.
I can’t wait for 2025!
Note: Here's my list of favourite episodes with links to the posts with each reaction and conclusion:
Second Episode
Sixth Episode
First Episode
Eighth Episode
Fourth Episode
Seventh Episode
Fifth Episode
Third Episode
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thatsrightice · 9 months
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Iceman may have made the climb in ranks, eventually earning the title of Admiral and Commander of the Pacific Fleet, but that didn’t mean he had to give up flying entirely right away.
Retired Rear Admiral Jay “Spook” Yakeley continued to fly as he raised through the ranks, as did a few select other Rear Admirals. In fact, Spook said that he was able to fly just about whenever he wanted given his rank on base.
“I flew all of the teen fighters in one day. I went up in a Tomcat and a Hornet in the morning. After lunch I flew an F-15E and a TOPGUN F-16. Kind of a stunt, but hey. When you’re an admiral you can do stuff like that.” - Jay “Spook” Yakeley, Rear Admiral USN (Ret.)
Ice would have definitely done that just to rub it into Mav’s face, maybe to spite the other pilots. He would have someone hold the video camera and record him, and he’ll start in front of each jet talking to the camera. Nothing much, just his name and callsign, date, time, location, the aircraft type, aircraft bureau number, etc. for record keeping and proof.
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Then he’d be filmed climbing into the cockpit and going for a fun flight performing some semi-difficult maneuvers, nothing super dangerous but still impressive. Then he would move on to the next one and repeating the process. Ice would have kept it on the down-low, spending time carefully organizing his schedule to allow for his stunt to be pulled off flawlessly without drawing attention to himself.
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Then he’ll bring the video to the next Tailhook reunion early and have the organizers set it up on a projector or video device (or however old video tech works 🫣) just waiting for when one of his friends make a jab at him for probably not being able to fly much anymore given his new rank. And he’ll just turn and give a subtle nod to the man. Maybe it would have been edited by a movie editor he has connections with or something to make him look like the BAMF he is.
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anim-ttrpgs · 5 months
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An absolutely incredible review of the beta version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy by review Willy Muffin on youtube, complete with visuals and actual analysis!
I'm going to also add to this post a comment that I left on the video, offering further insight into the design intentions of the game, though the comment might not make as much sense if you haven't watched the video yet.
Hey, lead writer of Eureka here, first of all I wanna say how good and professional this review is, it’s almost indescribable how it feels to see our project taken so seriously and given real analysis, complete with visuals and everything! We would be super impressed and happy with it even if you didn’t like the game—but luckily it sounds like you loved it hahaha
I’d also like to address a few things throughout the video, not as arguments or rebuttals, just further developer insight for everyone
Re: “Urban Fantasy.” “Urban Fantasy” is basically just another term for “modern fantasy”, just a fantasy story that takes place in the 20th or 21st century and deals with the intersection of contemporary life with the supernatural, and it might be an Americanism, or even a Southern-ism, since it has a lot of connections and origins in the living folklore of New Orleans, so I shouldn’t be surprised it isn’t a term everyone is familiar with. Just think of it as the kind of genre where instead of the vampire living in a secluded scary castle, his name is Phil and he’s your roommate haha. What We Do in the Shadows, Shadowrun, and the World of Darkness games are all some other good examples of “urban fantasy.”
Re: Scooby-Doo. Oh we would LOVE for you to run a Scooby-Doo-like wacky mystery with Eureka. Even though the main tone is dark and gritty and noir, we did intentionally build it so that it could run more lighthearted stuff as well! There’s even a few Scooby-Doo references to be found throughout the text, and if we hit a certain stretch goal on the Kickstarter, we’re going to be adding a bunch of Scooby-gang-inspired traits, including the option to play a Talking Dog!
Re: Combat being the largest section, even larger than Investigation. First of all, that’s kind of an illusion that is the result of the game being unfinished. I have a tendency when I write rules to use really long sentences, overexplain things, repeat myself, etc, and that dramatically bloats the rules text and page count, but that’s why we have an editor! She goes through after the fact and trims most of the fat off my bloated writing style to make it flow smoother and read faster, and take up less space. The PDF that was read for this review has had the Investigation chapter copy-edited (and cut down in size by about 25%!), but the editor hasn’t gotten to the combat chapters yet, so they still have a hugely inflated page count. When she’s done with them, you can expect each combat chapter to also be cut down in size by about 25%, so they won’t be nearly so large a chunk of the book.
Secondly, I’ll explain our reasoning for why the combat chapters and advanced combat rules are such a big chunk of the rules text, it’s intentional design which I will now explain. If anyone still doesn’t agree with that design, that’s fair, and that’s why we made the Basic Combat Rules an option.
The reason that the advanced combat rules are the default, and the reason they exist at all, is because it incentivizes and rewards Investigation. If combat is super deadly, it makes Investigation, snooping, and spying more appealing than kicking down the door and getting your head blown off. But of combat is super deadly, it also needs to be very deep and tactical, because if it’s deadly but shallow, then there’s no player agency. “Combat starts, roll some dice, okay your guy is dead.” That’s no fun. So by adding rules and modifiers for cover/elevation, distance, the difference between a pistol and an assault rifle, etc. we make it so that not only is combat its own high-stakes puzzle, but make it so that when the PCs HAVE to engage in combat, all their investigation can really pay off and save their lives. Spying on a building to find out the number of goons stationed there and how they are armed helps you plan and assess risk, stealing the blueprints to the building helps you know how to get the drop on the goons, and know the best places to attack from so that they are stuck out in the open and you are not, etc. and having rules for those things means that all the PCs’ snooping and planning makes a real mechanical difference in whether they live or die.
That’s just my opinion though, and one of the biggest reasons WHY we decided to write the combat with as much depth as we did.
Anyway, thank you again for this review and analysis of our project, our Kickstarter jumped up by about ten more backers in the evening when this video went up after several days of no new backers, and we have to assume we have this video, and all of you watching and reading this, to thank. You’re really making our dreams come true. :)
Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is kickstarting from right now until May 10th! Back it while you still can!
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If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!
If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!
You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!
Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!
We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.
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babacomic · 4 months
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instructions: the 99th comic extraordinaire
Transcript below
(Various people are standing in a room, staring at a monitor which Fofo is sitting behind. This monitor begins narrating.)
3... 2... 1... Congralutions! Cogrunlatis! Congrations! Cogandyoueatons! Congregations! You're about to become a Baba character! In this instructional video you will learn:
How to do nothing and sit there all day
To read like you really mean it
When to go "brp brp brp" and make dust clouds as you walk in increments
What to when lua errors manifest
Where to order a dictionary
I think there was something about puzzle design too
Chapter 1: The main procedures every day
(There is a compressed image of Baba) As a Baba character, you must follow rules to the letter. Letter: "Oh, like me!" I guess. No matter the situation, we always follow their instructions word-for-word, and never miss a beat.
Event rule: start: baba / move Glyph rule: (Glyphs for Fofo and Orange) Node rule: Keke -> Sad
And rules don't just affect living creatures. Here at Hempuli, we believe that everything has a soul. No excuses! In fact, if you stick googly eyes on a random object, you'll probably find that it's a new character. (There is a drawing of a jellyfish becoming Vava, a water bottle becoming Tletle, an unspecified square object becoming Dydy, and an arrow becoming Iz) But that's off topic. For now, let's focus on the rules themselves. Most often, you'll be reading TEXT rules.
Text rule: NEVER BABA IS YOU
Condition sometimes, then subject, verb, object. To remember the CSVO order, keep this sentence in mind: Chemotheripoids Semiconductify Vexatiousnesses O'florocarbons. Trust me, we all remember it. Me: "I'm not trustworthy." It: "You really do?" Ha ha. Very funny. There's only 4 objects that anyone really uses that often. Here's what you need to keep in your brain. *Ideally you don't have a brain
(PUSH) If someone bumps you, move in the same direction they did (STOP) Prevent anyone from visiting your space on the board (WIN) When a unit with "you" reaches you, produce a single spore (YOU) Wing it
Now, I hear you asking… Iss: "But Monitorrrrr. There's, like, 6 different words in this game! How do I remember all of them?" That's the fun part of working here! We have an interactive training course that shows you what each word does. Iss: "That's not what I asked." Oh, yeah, right. I guess you could read the level editor's object list. That way you know what words you need. You may also be thinking... Iss: "The who whatsit now?" That's a good way to transition into
THE END!
(There is a compressed drawing of a flag.)
Yep, you heard me. It's a good way to transition into the end. Get out! Stop watching! Go!
Fofo: "That's it. Does anyone have questions at this point?" Obo: "Quite a few, actually…" Fofo: "Oh dear." (Fofo is bombarded with questions.) Fofo: "Crumble mumble..." Baba Fan: "Oh, there's an instructional video that answers all our questions! Play THAT!" Fofo: "Good plan." (Various people are standing in a room, staring at a monitor which Fofo is sitting behind. This monitor begins narrating.)
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missr3n3 · 5 months
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My brain needs to shut up, I'm now associating Peter with the songs: Let Her Go - The Passenger || Circles - Hollywood Undead || Better Than This - Set it Off. They fit so well with his journey ughhhhh
Sooo, let's just say hypothetically, someone were to do a crossover with CDTA + RR, would you allow it?
And finally, hit me with an obscure fact about the cast from CDTA and Rotten Roots!!
Okay, bye now (can you tell that I like sending you random thoughts and questions?)
absolutely! im rly not to picky about how ppl interact with cdta honestly lol. though it would be interesting if the timeline factored into the story, since peter would b in his late 40s and sarah in her early 50s by 2009!
i'll start with rotten roots for obscure facts, n then put cdta's cast under a read more bc it's a lot bigger lol
sarah - she's absolutely atrocious at dancing, since all she ever learned to do was line dances to only the honkiest of tonk country songs 😔
peter - the one thing he actually remembered correctly about sarah's preferences is that she did like it when he wore white. she specifically complimented him on the white suit he wore to the company mixer n that still affects his outfit choices even after the Easter Incident
officer wong - she's the only non-rich member of the peace cult/christmas rejects, and got into the organization due to her connection with law enforcement being beneficial
norman - he hasn't actually told any of the other cult members that he killed his wife/peter's mom for cheating on him, since that's not ~technically~ illegal, and thus not a valid reason for their. thing.
isabelle - she's one of those people who, despite coming from an affluent background, deeply longs to be a part of the counter culture, in her case manifesting as an infatuation with hippie aesthetics. thus her extremely long hair and floral dresses
steve - i think out of everyone in the peace cult (that showed up in the christmas special anyway), he's the most purely sadistic. everyone else can as least somewhat mental gymnastics their way into justifying their cruelty, but steve just thinks hurting ppl is a fun game.
ok cdta facts lightening round:
isaac - though he's no stranger to piercings, he doesn't have any tattoos bc he doesn't think he has the pain tolerance for it
joshua - he named the rabbit plush madeline gave him Lynnie after his mom marilyn, though you couldn't get him to admit this out loud even through torture lol
jessie - she has an orange cat named sunny
madeline - she has a tumblr account and is mutuals with delilah, though neither of them are aware of this since delilah doesn't make her status as a cael devil known online
leah - she originally made the youtube channel that would become red dragon project to make death note youtube poops
sam - he's green-red colorblind
delilah - though she has a tumblr, she's much more active on reddit (because she's constantly getting into petty arguments in the comments lol)
luce - he does have a mouth even though it's only visible sometimes, and when he does open it he has 6 rows of teeth :)
cairyx - his human form alias is caleb stone
elijah - a lot of alcohol was involved the night he got his tribal tattoo
cassandra - she gets name dropped as "editor cassie" in some of elijjah's videos, which has led to her having a little bit of a fanbase of her own
anyway hope u didn't mind another essay response lol. n thank you for the music recommendations!
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parkerbombshell · 1 year
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Stereo Embers The Podcast: Owen Vyse (Starclub)
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Thursdays 2pm-3pm EST 11pm-12pm PDT 7pm-8pm BST bombshellradio.com stereoembersmagazine.com Stereo Embers Magazine #StereoEmbers, #podcast, #RadioShow, #AlexGreen, #Nowplaying, #BombshellRadio, #StereoEmbersThePodcast Repeats Fridays 1am EST and Sundays 11am EST   "Hard To Find" Okay, so if you're a regular listener to the podcast, you've heard me talk endlessly about Starclub. The song you just heard Hard To Get is, in my opinion, the best pop song of the '90s, and the band's self-titled debut album from 1994 is just perfect and it seemed the band was positioned for a long and decorated career. But that career never happened and although they signed the biggest contract for a debut album in Island Records history, the label lost interest after the album didn't scale the heights they expected and they dropped the band from their roster.I've been obsessed with the Starclub story for years--I never got how a band this good, a band shot through with so much talent and promise, could just fade away with only one record under their belts. We've done several episodes with the band--the singer Owen Vyse was on, then Owen and bassist Julian Taylor did an episode, and then guitarist Steve French did one as well and slowly the picture of the band's demise started to really come into focus. Now, Owen is a friend of mine and has been for years. We used to talk all the time and he's one of the smartest, funniest and sweetest guys around. And he's what a lead singer should be: confident, brash, charismatic and absurdly talented. But about a year ago, he kind of vanished. Social media went dark, calls and texts were never returned and the silence was not only deafening, but troubling as well. I still don't know where he is or if he's okay. Several people have contacted me to see if I've heard from him and the fact is, I haven't. This episode serves several purposes: for starters, Starclub is an unfairly undocumented band--I can't find any live footage, there are barely any photos and almost no additional audio, with the exception for what's on the record. So this episode serves as a way to document them further and to remind people about how great they were. Secondly, Owen told me he had nothing from the band's time together and not only that,he hadn't thought about their tenure in years and was thinking there was so much he had forgotten. Remember, Starclub got together when they were in school and they were 12 and 13 years old, so it was a while ago. He wanted to have a series of conversations where his memory would get toggled and in chatting he'd dust off memories that hadn't occurred to him for a while. These guys were signed to the same label as U2and Bob Marley, they toured the country, and they had a video on MTV and VH-1: they were in it and when you're in it, things happen and those things are fun to hear about.And finally, this is just a great chat with a great friend about a life that very few of us get to live. After Starclub, Owen played guitar for years with Echo and the Bunnymen, so he covers that as well.... www.stereoembersmagazine.com www.bombshellradio.com www.embersarts.com Twitter: @emberseditor IG: @emberspodcast Email: [email protected] Read the full article
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typicalf001 · 2 years
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4 Years of Review On
Time really does fly readers. One weekend you open up a cheap editor to make a small website, and the next weekend the website you published is four years old and has around two hundred uploads. A small project you poured little effort into now represents all your dedication and hard work, and what was a hobby is now a job you attend to in your free time. I’ve been writing video game reviews since 2019, and my experience with gaming and journalism has grown a lot since then. Four years worth of experience and I want to talk about how I got this website to where it is today. This article won’t be structured like or as long as my traditional essays, but a reflection on how Review On came to be. So sorry if the focus of this story gets a little out of control.
Growing up I enjoyed writing . Doing the best I could to analyze the material given to me by my school teachers and putting together acceptable essays. Practicing my grammar, expanding my vocabulary, and overall ability to write. In my class journal I wrote original stories or retold stories I knew so that my surroundings peers could understand. It was a fun hobby and at times I would finish my class assignments early just so I could have more time to write what was in my mind. I did get made fun of this hobby though. I didn’t have that many friends, and at the time my parents didn’t have jobs that paid them well enough to afford the latest trinkets. I was made fun of for where I came from or what personal interests I had. It made me feel down, but to escape this discomfort I would retreat to my journal. To write, create, and be proud about what I was jotting down. Writing was an escape from reality and I did whatever I could to be free.
Years later my parents got better paying jobs. They were able to afford more luxuries for the family and introduced me to new hobbies. One such activity was gaming, which I wasn’t big into at a younger age but would soon be as we’ll explain shortly. I kept writing stories and ideas, but overtime I started to feel burnout. I was tired, running out of creative energy, and needed something else to write about. One day a classmate made fun of a show I liked, imitated me, and pretended to write a bad review for it. I was irritated for a few minutes, but then an idea sparked in my head. “What if I wrote about things I loved?” Give personal critiques, explain what is right and wrong, and reasons why more people should check it out. It was me figuring out how to write reviews. I was aware the concept of reviewing products and media existed for the longest and that not everyone in the reviewing was positive, but I wanted to deliver what were more positive takes. List reasons why people should check out things I love rather than skip them.
I was writing about cartoons at first because at the time those were my main interests, but slowly I eventually ran out of cartoons to talk about and found out half the time I was just re-explaining the main premise. Then one day I played this little indie game known as Shovel Knight. This challenging side-scrolling platformer which was reminiscent of old school titles. I felt inspired by it. The fact it was made by a small team of passionate developers, it had a goofy world and characters, and it demonstrated how time and hard work pays off. I wanted to express my love for this game, so I did! I wrote a review on Shovel Knight and showed it to as many people as possible. They were annoyed, which is fair to be honest, but they enjoyed what I had to say. From then on I wrote reviews on whatever games I owned but soon I ran out of games to cover.
8th grade was coming to a close and I was about to head into high school. Summer left me with a lot of freetime and  I used that time to catch up on games I never bothered trying in the past. My love for gaming was starting to grow and I wanted to expand my horizons beyond the Nintendo titles I grew up with. I purchased a couple of commonly known indie games on my Switch, and using an Xbox One a family friend gifted I played a handful of Triple A titles. Hollow Knight and Octopath Traveler being two of my favorite games and discoveries I made that summer. High school comes and I’m struggling to fit in with the bigger crowd. For middle school I went to a small private religious school, but I went to a big public place for high school. There were kids coming from everywhere and I got to learn things my previous school didn’t teach. I was confused and above all lonely. My parents felt bad for me, and one day my father took me to a local Best Buy and purchased a console I wanted earlier that year. God of War was the most highly acclaimed game of 2018, and I wanted to see why it was so beloved. However, I didn’t have a PS4 to play it. Mainly just a Nintendo Switch and Xbox One. My father got me a PS4, and man it’s the best gift he ever bought for me. I have bought so many games for my PS4, and even though I now own a PS5 I’m still playing a majority of games on what is probably my favorite console. My love for gaming grew further and with it more games to write about.
One of the classes I attended during my freshman year of high school was art. It was fun, let me get creative, and hone my drawing skills. However, I was struggling to connect with the kids in the class and didn’t feel encouraged to talk to them. Then one day I asked them if there were any games they’d recommend me to pick for my PS4 and the closest person to me suggested this: Bloodborne. I bought it a few days later to see what was up. At first I turned it down due to its punishing nature. Soulsborne games are titles I’d usually avoid especially since they had very few options of lowering the difficulty and making themselves easier, but there was this little voice in my head telling me I could do it. I beat Hollow Knight earlier that year and it was one of the best achievements I’ve made up until that point. I wanted another hard game to give me that feeling again. So I played Bloodborne  and it was one hell of an experience. I love Bloodborne so much, it’s one of my top three favorite games of all time. I immediately wrote a review after my first playthrough and showed the person who recommended it to me. He was impressed with my work and asked if I ever shared it with more people. I said “Yeah of course I tried showcasing it to my classmates!” but then he said, “No, I mean make it accessible online for individuals like me to encounter?” I never thought about this idea, and seeing how at the time I had a collection of short written reviews I thought it would be easy to transfer them to a digital format. I wrote all my works down onto Google Docs, found an easy website to form a blog page, and published my website. Review On, a shining little place to talk about the best video games out there.
I was able to make my reviews look fancier, add pictures to them, and signal when a new section was about to begin. It was hard at first as my website didn’t pick up much traction and the WIX editor I still use didn’t allow me to do everything imaginable unless I paid them a bunch of money, but I worked around the issues and got it working. My friend, who I still keep in touch with today, regularly goes to my site and says how well done my work is. I was happy and kept writing reviews for him and the people I wanted to impress. Writing reviews became a hobby and it felt like I was going somewhere. I was creating content I could be proud of and my sad lonely life finally had some use. I had a purpose, and I created it rather than let others control me. 
Life was good now, but I still felt like I could have been doing better. One day I thought about writing a more in depth review. Something that wasn’t as brief as the reviews I was writing up till that point. I decided to write an in depth essay about a game I already covered. The original review was a piece I was not pleased with and I felt like it had more to offer. It’s one of my favorite essays, Hollow Knight Is A Masterpiece. It’s not as great as some of the other essays I’ve written and some sections of it are messy. There was a short paragraph that explains video game difficulty and it would be expanded in my essay defending games with no difficulty options. There’s another section where I tried saying it was the best indie game of 2017 and tried making comparisons to Cuphead which was incredibly unfair. However, I put so much love into writing it. Explaining the mechanics, the world, the story, and what developers could learn from it. I enjoyed going through a game I already covered and doing it better. Did the exact same thing for other games I wrote simplistic reviews on like Prey, Nier: Automata, Octopath Traveler, and Bloodborne once again. My writing skills were improving and it helped me become more critical with my reviews going forward. It even helped me with high school writing as before I was having a hard time due to the low standards my middle school set me up with.
I kept writing and writing. Seeing my work get longer, chunkier, but better. I even went back and rewrote older reviews. Transforming them into the form you see me write now. A majority of my work I’m pleased with, but occasionally there are times where I feel like something is not right. Grammar errors, info that wasn’t there before, the review score no longer matching up to current views, etc. I spend hours editing previous work and making them better. Deleting what wasn’t necessary, or adding what was necessary. That’s probably my biggest flaw with me as a reviewer. That I’m never pleased and always see improvement that could be made. Yet this is also a pro as I’m always working towards my best self. My writing got better, but also my views on gaming. 
I checked out a good handful of reviewers and youtubers during high school to see what tips and tricks I could pick up. One of the critics I took a lot of influence from was Yahtzee Croshaw, who you may know for Zero Punctuation. He wasn’t my favorite reviewer and listening to a guy constantly being negative becomes draining after awhile, but he was the most sensible and honest reviewer I’ve ever witnessed. He always had points to make. What was being done right in a game and what was done wrong. What developers and writers should take away even if it’s bad. That nothing is immune to criticism and if all you can do is shower praise then you’re not ever gonna know what you should be doing as a creator. I took note of this and that’s why I always try to have sections in my reviews on what is done wrong. Even when a lot is done right. Occasionally he’d cover games that were really obscure, indies I never heard of because I wasn’t big into the indie scene at the time. I picked up games that he recommended and they managed to amaze me. I kept playing more indie games and found out the scene had a lot of gems hidden within. Then I thought, “Why don’t I expose these lesser known games to general audiences?” It was an epic plan and ever since then I’ve been trying to review whatever obscure games I could find. I am always in the pursuit of what is great, interesting, innovative, and well designed.
Flash forward to where we are today. I kept reviewing up as a hobby and have now covered two hundred games. That’s a lot of time and money spent towards gaming. Time that could be spent towards sports or becoming popular in school, but I’d say it’s worth it. I get more readers now that I know how to advertise myself and know how social media works. I partnered up with a site named Sinical Network and occasionally I hand them some of my existing reviews so they can sponsor me. I am a fan of multiple genres, even ones I used to despise at a younger age. And a media I had little interest in once has grown into my biggest hobby. I got to make a lot of friends along the way, meet other writers who gave me advice, and for once feel accomplished for what I was doing. Was I gaining anything in the real world? Not much, I mean my site isn’t monetized and I don’t take cash or donations from people. My site is getting better, but still isn’t truly the best it could be. There are times I feel like I should have programmed one myself rather than use a wix editor. There are times I wonder if making videos would have been a better option than writing these articles, because more people these days are less likely to read even when it’s online. However, I’m proud of what I have done. Four years and I’m no longer in high school. I’m in college and life is getting much busier. I still try to find time to play games and write. I don’t pump out as many reviews I used to, but when I deliver one it’s top quality. Always expect the best, because I want to deliver the best. Here, now, and moving forward this year.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to all the devs who brought these wonderful years of gaming. Your work brings joy to many and without it I and this site wouldn’t have come into existence. Just, thank you, and to anyone who feels discouraged in life just know you will get there. To a place that’s grand and right for you. Just keep trying and you’ll achieve it.
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hangovercurse · 4 years
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The Things We Can’t Tell Pete About
Pete invites you to meet his friends from The Dirt and makes you promise not to flirt with any of them, which is a lot easier said than done, especially when Colson Baker acts like that.
Request: “Hey so I love all your writing and I just thought you should know that! But also I’d your requests are on still would you mind writing a youre Pete’s little sister but kells got a crush xx”
Colson x reader
Warnings: Drug use, Cursing
A/N: I know, Dom (Yungblud) wrote the song, but also I am the writer and I say that Y/N wrote it :) Anyways, enjoy. This is only part 1 of what is probably going to be a fun, cute lil series. Also thank you to the anon who sent this! You made my day(s)
Word Count: 2411
| ii | iii | iv | v |
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New York was lonely without your brother. He had been filming in New Orleans for the past three months, leaving you alone. You had some friends, but Pete was your best friend. You were only eight months younger than him and practically attached at the hip. You supposed going through trauma together would do that to people.
He facetimed you all the time from set, updating you on things in his life, showing you cool stuff from the set, and introducing you to his castmates. You had kept him updated on your music, playing him demos of songs you were writing and getting his opinion on them.
Him being away wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but it definitely sucked for you. So, when Pete texted you that he was having a few friends from the movie over the night he got back, you were ecstatic.
Before you left your apartment to walk to his, he texted you.
You’re not allowed to flirt with any of my friends
You rolled your eyes as you locked your door, preparing a response.
I’ll try my best
Your phone buzzed seconds later.
I’m serious. I don’t trust any of them with you.
And I don’t need that kind of awkwardness in my life
Like if you date one of my friends and it goes badly
I don’t wanna deal with that shit
You chuckled at his chain of texts.
Don’t flirt with your friends because they’re dicks, got it
Don’t worry bro, I know the sibling code
 You came to find out that that was a lot easier said than done. When you walked into his place, everyone in the room turned to look at you. You recognized most of them from your facetimes with Pete, but you doubted they remembered who you were. One who did remember you was Colson, Pete’s new best friend. He made eye contact with you from across the room, a sly grin on his lips. You sent him a small smile, Pete’s text running through your head briefly.
You found your brother lounging on the couch, a huge grin on his face. He was definitely tripping on mushrooms. “Y/N!” He yelled. “This is my baby sister, everyone.”
You rolled your eyes, walking further into the room, grabbing a drink from the cooler, and taking an empty seat on the opposite couch. “I’m less than a year younger than you, Pete.”
You heard a snicker from the one of the guys, looking over to see Colson covering up the smile on his face. “But you’re still younger than me so it counts.”
Everyone went back to their own conversations, which you were thankful for. “Y/N, you remember Colson, right?” Pete motioned to the blond guy.
“Yeah.” You nodded, looking him up and down. His muscle tank exposed the sleeves of tattoos, which seemed to cover every inch of his skin. “Your hair was different, but yeah I remember you.” You opened the beer on the coffee table, taking a swig.
“You’re the musician, right?” He asked you, leaning back onto the couch.
You nodded, “Aspiring musician but, yeah.”
“Oh, she’s great. You should hear her sometime.” Pete butted in, grinning like an idiot at you.
You rolled your eyes but had a smile on your face. “I work primarily as a songwriter and editor right now, but I’m trying to work on putting out some of my own stuff.”
You felt a little intimidated talking to Machine Gun Kelly about music, seeing as he was one of the best in the industry, but he seemed to be genuinely interested in your work. “Well, if you ever want some help or someone to listen to it, I’d be willing.” He flashed a smile, his bright blue eyes sparkling.
“Thanks, that’s really cool of you.” You bit your lip slightly, trying to hide the fact that you were totally breaking Pete’s rule.
Pete sent a glare your way to which you raised your eyebrow. You weren’t really flirting; you were just… making connections. “Anyways,” he cleared his throat, “I’ve been working on this sketch idea, Y/N, and I need your opinion.”
You nodded, letting him talk. “So, I was thinking like, there’s this guy with posters all over his wall. Like life size posters of a bunch of different people. And he falls asleep while doing homework and he dreams about them coming to life. And it plays out like one of those really bad commercials that encourage kids to stay in school and shit. Like the posters are telling him to study for his test, but then there’s this one poster that’s like, very sexy. And she’s just like, talking about hot dogs and everyone else gets really sick of it and one of the other posters tries to like, tear down her poster or something.”
Throughout his description, you got more and more confused. “Pete, that’s not funny that’s just fuckin weird.” His mouth hung open in shock. “Dude, seriously? The big punchline is the playboy poster girl talking about hot dogs until the other poster people get tired of it?”
“Yes.” Pete said, as if it were obvious. “That’s hilarious.” You glanced at Colson with a questioning look on your face. He seemed as unsure of the joke as you were.
“Pete, man, that’s not your best work.” Colson clapped him on the shoulder and you giggled at Pete’s disappointed expression.
“You guys are mean.” He pouted and you two laughed. “Ok, well, how would you make it funny?”
“I don’t know if you can, bro.” Colson’s laugh was contagious. When he laughed his whole body shook, his feet stomping and everything.
“What are the other posters?” You asked, trying to be supportive but knowing this wouldn’t turn out very good.
“Well, I was thinking maybe one is like a video game character. Like that lady from Wreck-It-Ralph. The mean one. And then like a snowboarder who is definitely high, and someone else, I dunno.” He shrugged, taking a hit from the joint in his hand and passing it to you.
“Okay…” You trailed off, looking at Colson for support. You brought the blunt to your lips, inhaling the smoke and bringing it down, letting the smoke leave your mouth slowly. You passed the joint to Colson, who gladly took it, a smirk on his face.
Pete looked between you two at the small interaction, a frown. “So, the posters,” he brought your attention away from the man again, “they’re all really serious about teaching this dude math. But the hotdog girl just keeps talking about hot dogs in like this really high-pitched voice.”
You watched the smoke fall from Colson’s lips, not fully paying attention to your brother.
“Yeah man, I think that sounds funny.” Colson told Pete, his eyes lingering on you for a little longer than they should have. “It could use some work but if anyone can make it funny, it’s you.” Colson punched your brother on the shoulder, but the look he sent you said the exact opposite.
You held in your giggle, taking another sip of your beer.
The rest of the night followed a similar pattern, you and Colson flirting and Pete trying to get in between you two. At one point, after a few more hits of weed and a couple more drinks, Colson brought out a guitar, insisting you play something for him. Where he got the guitar from, you had no idea, but you didn’t ask questions. Instead, you rolled your eyes, insisting that “if I have to play something, so do you.”
Everyone was too caught up in their own conversations to care about the noise, or too drunk. You started strumming, trying to remember the chords to a song you had started writing a few days ago. “There’s no lyrics yet, just a melody I came up with.” You blushed, feeling very self-conscious suddenly.
“Guess I’ll just free style to it then.” He chuckled as you started to strum, your fingers working the strings like they had your whole life.
The blond man closed his eyes, head nodding as you played and thinking of what to rap.
“Watch me, take a good thing and fuck it all up in one night. Catch me, I’m the one on the run away from the headlights.
No sleep, up all week wastin time with people I don’t like. I think, somethin’s fuckin wrong with me.
You smiled as he sang, watching his expressions change as he tried to think up the next line.
Drown myself in alcohol, that shit never helps at all
I might say some stupid things tonight when you pick up this call
I be hearin silence on the other side for way to long, I can taste it on my tongue, I can tell that somethin’s wrong.”
He opened his eyes, looking rather proud of himself. “I had some of those lyrics already, but I just changed ‘em a little. I really liked that.”
You nodded, “That was impressive.” You smiled, looking back down to the guitar when something hit you.
You began to play the same melody but pitched higher to fit your voice.
“Roll me up, and smoke me love
And we could fly into the night
You take drugs, to let go, and figure it all out on your own
Take drugs, on gravestones, to figure it all out on your own.”
You looked up to Colson, watching his expression change, his eyes wide. Pete had a proud look on his face.
“Pete, you are a sucky hype man. You did her no justice.” Colson hit Pete on the arm.
“Whaddya mean, I told you she was great.”
Colson looked over to you, a stupid smile on his face. “Seriously, that was fucking amazing. Like, we gotta write that shit out some day.”
You bit your lip, trying to stop the blush from reaching your cheeks. “Yeah, that’d be cool.” You were trying your best to keep your cool as Colson kept his gaze on you, but you were completely freaking out on the inside.
A little while later, almost everyone was gone except you, Pete, Colson, and Douglas Booth, who joined your conversation not long after your jam session. Pete let out a yawn, directing your attention to the time.
“Jesus, it’s already 4am?” You asked, a frown on your face.
“Why, you got somewhere to be, darling?” Douglas asked you, your face scrunching up from the nickname.
“I have a writing session at 11 am tomorrow. Or, today, I guess.”
Pete reached out to hit you in the head, playfully, which you dodged. “Go to bed, dummy.”
You shrugged, “I’m gonna be dead at it anyways, might as well keep the party going a little longer.”
Douglas rolled his eyes, patting your shoulder. “Be that as it may, I am ending this party and going home. Goodnight, guys. It was nice meeting you again, Y/N. Good to see you guys.” Douglas and the guys did that little hand slap and hug thing before he left.
“I love you both, but I will also be going to sleep. And you should too.” Pete stood up, stretching his arms out before giving Colson a fist bump and leaving to his bedroom.
Once your older brother left, Colson moved to the couch you were on, his arm falling over your shoulders. You looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. “And how can I help you Mr. Kelly?”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “I’m assuming Pete gave us both very similar talking to’s, given the glares you’ve been receiving all night.”
“You mean the “don’t flirt with my friends” talking to or the other one?” You tilted your head, a sly look on your face.
“That’s the one.” Colson laughed through his nose, an adorable smile on his face. You were both considerably high, but you still knew exactly what you were doing.
You moved closer to Colson’s body, “Well then I guess we’d better not do this.” You said quietly, leaning into him. “Or this,” You grabbed his jaw, inches from his face.
“Or this?” He whispered, connecting your lips. You smiled into the kiss, tasting the weed on his tongue. You adjusted your body so you were facing him, his arm that was once around your shoulder now wrapped around your waist.
His other hand grabbed your leg, pulling you up so you were straddling his lap, and your arms wrapped around his neck. His lips seemed to fit perfectly around yours, and you did all you could to keep yourself from moaning into the kiss as his hand began to travel up your leg.
Realization hit you like a brick wall, and you pulled away, your breathing heavy. “Sorry,” you muttered after a few seconds. You climbed off his lap, smoothing out your shirt. “We shouldn’t do that. I shouldn’t have done that.” You smiled awkwardly down at him.
He nodded, the same realization hitting him. “Yeah, that’s not the best idea. Sorry I wasn’t really thinking.”
You shook your head, cheeks still very red. “No, no, no don’t apologize. It was fine, it’s all fine.”
He nodded, looking down awkwardly. “I should get going.” He stood up, landing a little too close to you.
“Why don’t you just sleep here? Pete won’t mind and it’s a lot easier than going home.” You bit your lip awkwardly, taking a few steps back.
Colson scratched the back of his neck. This was a very different demeanor than he had before, and you found it very cute. “Are you sure?”
You nod. “I’ll get you some blankets and pillows.” You moved towards the guest bedroom, a guilty smile on your face. You moved your hand to your lips, feeling where Colson’s lips had graced you minutes before.
You came back to find Colson laying on the couch, one hand behind his head. “We don’t have to tell Pete about that, right?”
You shook your head, a small smile still playing on your lips. You put the pillow behind his head, watching his eyes as he watched your lips. “Stop looking at me like that or I’ll do something else we can’t tell Pete about.” You said quietly, watching him grin. You pulled the blanket over him, leaning down to be level with his face.
“I kind of like the things we can’t tell Pete about.” Colson chuckled, leaning forward to connect your lips again.
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car ride, m | kth, jjk
pairing(s): taehyung x reader x jungkook
summary: You really know how to make a car ride, er... eventful. Maybe too eventful for Kim Taehyung and Jeon Jungkook. They try to punish you, but who are we kidding? The three of you are too busy being horny as fuck. Oh well.
warnings: rated M (18+) for language, (slight) exhibitionism; intense smut (fem reader, fingering, lil cock slapping, threesome, m-receiving oral, f and m-masturbation, double penetration/spit-roasting, cum eating; also you get covered in cum, yay!); fluff; non-idol!AU; noona!reader and you’re all nymphos, welp
Technically a continuation of just kidding and ii, but can be read alone.
Kim Taehyung said it first.
“She’s actually insane.”
Jeon Jungkook nodded tightly; jaw clenched as he tried not to stare at you through the rearview mirror.
Thirty minutes ago, you had called Taehyung, tone casual and light.
“Hey, could you pick me up? I think I missed the last bus.”
“Hm, sure.”
“Bring Jungkook with you, please.”
And then you hung up.
Taehyung had stared at his phone, frowning. Then he went to go collect Jungkook, who was in the middle of editing a music video. He edited videos for indie bands in his spare time, kind of for fun, kind of as a passion project. He did want to be a director or video editor, after all.
“Oi, our horny little seductress called.”
Jungkook had snapped his head far too quickly, long black hair cascading against his cheek, eyes glittering with interest. Too much interest. Taehyung would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little annoyed.
“Asked you to come, so you’re driving.”
Jungkook had grinned.
“Okay.”
Except it was not okay. Very not okay.
“You can sit in the front, Tae. I need space for my bag.”
So now the three of you were sitting in Jungkook’s car, Jungkook driving, Taehyung riding shotgun as you sat in the backseat. From this position, you could see Jungkook’s black sweater and Taehyung’s camel coat. You were wearing an oversized black parka with a nine-pointed star embordered on the chest, your black leather skull-shaped purse chilling beside you. Knee-high black leather boots.
Bare legs.
That should have been their first warning sign.
“What were you doing?” Taehyung had asked as you climbed in. Jungkook started the car, pulling out of the parking garage, into the night.
“Doctor’s appointment for my wrist.” You sighed, tapping your right arm. “Just a check-up.” You pulled down the sleeve of your large parka, showing the wrist brace. “I should at least sleep with it.”
Taehyung scratched his head. “Damn, I didn’t realize your carpal tunnel was that bad.”
You waved your hand. “It’ll be fine. I’m exercising it.”
“Where to?” Jungkook chirped, stopping at a red light.
Pop.
Jungkook’s dark brown eyes flickered to the rearview mirror, narrowing. His face was lit with red from the cars in front of him. Taehyung turned around sharply. You smiled, feeling the cold air on your bare collarbones. Pop, pop, pop. The silver buttons of your parka snapped apart, revealing skin. Bare skin, the gentle curve of your breasts and cleavage. Taehyung’s dark eyes widened, as you pushed the sides apart, your naked breasts bouncing as the light turned green.
“WHAT THE FUCK?”
A car honked very loudly behind Jungkook and he was forced to press on the accelerator as Taehyung exploded, his deep voice booming as he gawked at your tits.
“Are you insane?” Taehyung shouted.
You grinned, cupping your breasts and squeezing your nipples between two fingers, mouth open, tongue tracing your teeth from side to side.
Taehyung snapped back forward, searching for police.
“She’s actually insane.”
Jungkook clenched his jaw so tight that he couldn’t say anything, trying to focus on driving and only driving, and not the sound of you moaning as you played with your breasts, pressing them together and flicking your nipples.
“Do you want us to get arrested?” Taehyung hissed, sneaking glances at you in the darkness while simultaneously darting his eyes around for literally anyone who might be able to witness your sinful lunacy.
“Taehyung, she went to the doctor like that,” Jungkook gritted out.
That thought apparently hadn’t crossed Taehyung’s mind. He whipped his head around again, eyes so wide that you paused your heinous display of lust for a second, afraid they were going to fall out of his head.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” he roared.
You grinned, holding your hands up. “I didn’t have to take my coat off, if that makes you feel better,” you said cheerfully.
Taehyung did not look like he felt better. In fact, he looked like he was going to pass out. He lifted his head to stare at the sky, mouthing silent words, running a large hand through his dark brown hair and messing it up. Your mouth watered, seeing that hand, knowing what it could do. Jungkook’s knuckles were white with how hard he was gripping the steering wheel.
“So, where are we go–?” you began, far too cheerfully for the two men in front of you.
Jungkook cut you off tightly. “Ours. You are going to our place. Now.”
“Ah,” you exhaled, smiling. “That’s good.” You nuzzled back into your seat, tits still out, nipples hard from the cold air. “That’s very good.” You spread your legs, hands clutching both sides of your black parka.
Pop, pop, pop, pop.
Jungkook nearly veered off the road.
“WHAT THE HELL?”
Taehyung was going to get whiplash with how hard he kept jerking his head back and forth. “Where the fuck are your panties?”
You placed a finger to your lips, smirking. “Oh no, I think I lost them.”
Maybe it was time to pray because Jungkook was trying very hard not to fucking die, his eyes shooting from the road, to the rearview mirror, to the road, to the mirror, veins popping in his forehead, his black hair covering his left eye. You pushed the shoulders of your parka down, spreading it open, inserting your finger into your mouth.
“Noona, don’t you fucking dare…” Jungkook warned.
But you did dare, swirling your tongue around your finger, softly moaning his name, Taehyung slack-jawed as your lashes lowered. You ground your hips into the seat, pussy already glistening as you popped your fingertip out of your mouth, making Jungkook hiss, sliding your hand down your neck, between your breasts, all the way down, down, pressing your wet finger against your clit.
Taehyung’s voice went low, dangerous.
“Are you a bad, bad girl, noona?” he growled.
You bit your lip, pressing down on your bundle of nerves, gasping. “I’m a good girl sometimes… But it’s so hard...” You rubbed your clit slowly, pushing your head back into the headrest, locking eyes with Taehyung, rocking your hips into your hand. “It’s so hard when I want to be naughty for you, Tae…”
His beautiful lips curved into a wicked smile, voice so low it was tearing through you, burning you with arousal. “Yeah? Just for me?”
You cried out softly, adding more pressure. Your eyes flickered to the rearview mirror, to Jungkook’s panicked, blown-out pupils.
“No… For Jungkook, t-too…”
“Fucking shit,” Jungkook breathed, trying to drive slow and steady so he wouldn’t die while having the biggest hard-on of his life.
Taehyung yanked the lever of the passenger’s seat, pushing down the back to get closer to you. Jungkook slammed his palm against the wheel, snarling at him, but Taehyung completely ignored his outburst, sliding up the seat. You licked your lips and rubbed yourself faster, tipping your hips in his direction.
“Fuck,” Taehyung breathed, eyes roaming over your form. “You’re so fucking hot, noona.”
“Tae…” you whined, angling yourself to him.
“You want me to touch you, noona?” Taehyung purred; eyes even darker from the low light. He lifted his hand, flexing his long fingers. “You want me to touch that naughty pussy of yours?”
You whimpered, stroking your clit, chasing your orgasm, your dripping wet hole opening and closing, begging for his fingers. He dragged himself closer, fingertips dancing on your thigh. So hot, so close, fuck, you wanted him, Taehyung and his hungry eyes.
“I want to tell you no,” he whispered, gravelly and deep. “Shit, I want to tell you no and make you get yourself off, but you’re so fucking sexy, I just have to touch that dirty little pussy.”
And then he shoved two fingers into you, making you throw your head back and moan, long and wanton, Jungkook’s frustrated cries coming from the front seat as Taehyung’s fingers squelched into you, hard and fast and rough, not letting you get used to him, but you didn’t care, didn’t give a single fuck as you fucked your hips into his fingers. Gasping his name, rutting into his hand.
“Tell me when you’re close,” Taehyung demanded. “Be a good girl and tell me when you’re close.”
You nodded tightly, feeling the car slow as Jungkook pulled into the neighborhoods, nearing your orgasm, rubbing yourself fast as Taehyung thrust his fingers into you, your head pressing against the glass window. You panted, hip rising to meet him.
“A-ah, Taehyung, your fingers feel so good, so good, so fucking good,” you gasped. “Gonna cum, gonna cum just for you, Tae, all over your hand...”
Taehyung’s eyebrow rose, a smirk on his lips as he pumped his fingers into you, watching you come undone, seeing you hit the peak. Voice low, sexy, and authoritative.
“Oh, you wish.”
And then he ripped his fingers out of you as you screamed, your juices spilling out, pussy empty and clenching, orgasm hit, but wildly unsatisfying as Taehyung lifted himself up, grinning over you, fingers slick as he slid them into his mouth, licking them off. Your cum slid all over your thighs, dripping down, falling onto the carpet of Jungkook’s car.
“T-Taehyung!” you panted indignantly, sitting up sharply. “How could you!”
He cocked his head as the car stopped. Jungkook tore himself out of the seat, practically blasting his car door open to rip open your door, snatching you from the backseat. He slammed your nakedness against his black sweater and jeans, his hard body flexed against yours. You gasped at the sudden force, skin tingling with stimulation, the aftershocks of your orgasm still trembling through you.
“Noona,” he growled into your face, bringing his dark eyes to yours. “We have to teach you a lesson.”
-
Somehow, the three of you made it into the apartment without you flashing the entire complex.
Nice.
Getting you out of your clothes was easy. You were barely wearing any after all.
Taehyung shoved you against the hallway wall, tearing off his camel coat. You grabbed his white shirt and kissed him, hard, his musky cologne filling your nose. He whispered your name against your lips, grating and dangerous, smiling as you kissed him hungrily. You changed your positions, still kissing him, pushing him into the wall as Jungkook came up behind you, rolling his hard body into your back, sandwiching your nakedness between their clothed bodies. Jungkook grabbed your head and yanked your hair back, breaking your kiss with Taehyung to crash his lips into yours, forcing his tongue into your mouth and fucking it roughly, making you whimper.
“Fuck, you’re so beautiful,” Taehyung growled, grabbing your thighs and hoisting them up to hook them around his waist. You leaned against Jungkook’s chest, holding your upper body up Taehyung licked up your breasts, latching his lips to your nipple. You whined in Jungkook’s mouth, hands coming up to grab the black fabric of his sweater, back arching. Taehyung’s large hands found your ass, smacking it once before gripping it tightly.
“You’re so naughty,” Jungkook murmured against your lips, right hand snaking around your waist, in between your legs. Taehyung narrowed his eyes at him, but Jungkook was focused on you and only you, your panting mouth as Taehyung sucked on your nipples, switching between them. “Dirty girl, walking around the city without underwear,” Jungkook purred, watching you gasp as he slid his fingers in between Taeyang’s clothed stomach and your dripping pussy. “Were you thinking about us all day, desperate for our cocks to fill you up?”
Your arms encircled Jungkook’s neck as you moaned, head against his broad shoulder as he began to rub your clit.
“Y-yes…”
Jungkook’s breath so hot against your neck as Taehyung spread your nipples with his tongue. You rocked your hips into his stomach, so wet Taehyung’s white t-shirt squelched against his skin, Jungkook’s fingers rubbing you hard and fast, racing you to your orgasm.
“You’re such a bad girl, noona. What are we going to do with you? Should we give you cock?” Jungkook snarled, so low and dangerous that you shivered, crying out Taehyung’s name as he nipped at your nipple, sending shocks of pain through you.
“P-please…” you panted, eyes rolling back as Jungkook pinched your clit, your hips grinding into Taehyung’s shirt. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me…”
Taehyung removed his mouth sharply and you whined, nipples dripping with his saliva.
“You think you deserve cock, noona?” Taehyung barked, spanking your ass hard as he spoke, punctuating his words with slaps. “You’ve been such a bad, bad girl. Should we even let you finish?”
You were nearly sobbing now, knowing you were so close, so close, breath hitching as Jungkook violently stroked you to orgasm.
“P-please… Please, Taehyung, let me cum, please, I need to cum so bad, please…”
Taehyung smirked, locking eyes with Jungkook.
“Aw, too bad I’m not the one pleasuring you.”
And then Jungkook tore his hand from you, making you wail, orgasm met, but wholly unsatisfying as you leaked all over Taehyung’s stomach, legs shaking, almost slipping if it wasn’t for Jungkook’s strong arms catching you. You clenched Jungkook’s sweater, yanking hard.
“You guys are so fucking mean!”
Taehyung chuckled as your legs slid down, down, gently placing you on the floor. He looked down at his white t-shirt and shook his head.
“You made a mess.”
You glared at him and then at Jungkook, who gave you an arrogant smirk.
“Sorry, noona. You nearly killed us all with your antics, after all.”
“Are you saying it wasn’t fun?” you countered.
Jungkook’s smirk grew. “It’s fun punishing you too.”
You narrowed your eyes, but quickly became distracted with Taehyung stepping away from the wall, pointing to the door at the end of the hall.
“Go.” A command.
That wasn’t Taehyung’s room. You tilted your head. You’d never been in Jungkook’s room before.
“Now.”
Your eyes shifted to Jungkook and he cocked his chin in the same direction. You frowned but went, legs still unsteady. Jungkook began to walk after you, but Taehyung grabbed his forearm, stopping him.
“Jungkook.”
The younger man turned his head to look at him. Taehyung’s expression was very stern, almost cold.
“There can be no one else,” he said quietly. “I’ll kill you if you hurt her.”
Jungkook blinked. He had never seen Taehyung so serious over a woman. Sure, Taehyung dated and fucked around, but he let things go quite easily most of the time. Jungkook placed a hand over his, staring straight into Taehyung’s eyes.
“Okay.”
Taehyung’s grip tightened, eyes hardening.
Jungkook smiled, lowering his hand.
“Trust me, hyung, she’s more than enough for me. I don’t need anyone else.”
After a long moment, Taehyung let him go, turning away to go to his room. Jungkook looked after him, rubbing his arm. He turned away, gazing at his now open door. A weird feeling overcame him, a strange push and pull, before he brushed it aside and walked to his bedroom. Jungkook stopped at the doorframe.
And was greeted by the sight of you sprawled out in his gaming chair, holding one of his t-shirts against your chest, inhaling deeply as your eyes closed, right hand between your legs. Your wrist brace was making it difficult to go fast, so instead you stroked your clit slowly, breathing in the scent of his residual cologne that clung to his clothes, paying little attention to the fact that Jungkook was now watching you, amused. 
"You really are a horny little seductress, aren't you?'
You grinned hearing his deep voice, eyes still closed. You rubbed the fabric against your nipples, moaning at the sensation. 
“How often do you sit here, jacking off while thinking about me?” you wondered out loud.
Jungkook clicked his tongue, making you open your eyes.
“Too often.”
You licked your lips, purring his name enticingly. His lips curved into a lazy smirk.
Ah.
Jungkook was just so very, very sexy and he knew it.
Your eyes admired him for a moment. The right side of his hair pinned back, revealing his undercut. Long dark locks obscuring the left side of his face, hiding his angular cheekbone, framing his chiseled jaw and mischievous eyes. He stepped into the room, reaching down and crossing his arms, pulling his sweater up and over his head. You sucked in a breath. His toned torso, lean and tan. His right arm, covered in tattoos, flexing as he pulled the clothing over his head, mussing up his hair. It curled a bit around his forehead. Fuck, both his arms, shapely and strong, deliberately tensing them to make you gasp. Jungkook raised his right hand, tiny tattoos flashing as he beckoned you to him.
“Come here.”
You stood up from his chair slowly, his t-shirt sliding down your body and onto the floor. Light, careful steps as he circled the bed, putting it between you and him. You crawled onto the bed on all fours, hands digging into his slate gray sheets as he stepped to the very edge of the bed, undoing the button of his black jeans, zipping it down as you approached him, nearly moaning when you pushed them past his hips, pressing your face into his black underwear, breathing hotly against his erection. Your eyes traveled back up to him, tongue sliding out and pressing wetly against his clothed cock.
“Fuck,” Jungkook breathed. “You’re so fucking hot.”
You grinned as he pushed his underwear down, his cock springing up to smear pre-cum against your cheek, already dripping from lack of stimulation. You went from base to tip, swirling your tongue all over, watching Jungkook’s head fall back as you took him in your mouth, so wet, so hot, so tight. Took it all the way down, feeling him swell in your mouth deliciously, his strong hand gripping the back of your head, keeping you there.
“Ah, such nice lips…” he purred, releasing your head so you could bob up and down, slowly. “That’s it, noona, just like that.”
You did, keeping a measured but deep pace, sucking in your cheeks. He hissed at the added stimulation, rocking his hips into your face. Jungkook looked back down, seeing you observing him, crouching on your hands and knees, your ass up in the air.
“Look at you, noona,” he murmured, reaching down to tweak your nipple. “So good at swallowing cock, so good at taking it all.”
You whimpered, rubbing your thighs together. Jungkook took both your nipples and pulled, making you groan around his cock. He thrust his hips into your mouth and you almost choked, hands suddenly coming up to grab his thighs. He shushed you, rubbing your nipples soothingly as he pulled out of your mouth, cock slapping your chin wetly.
“On your back. Show me that pretty pussy of yours.”
You scooted back, spreading your legs. Jungkook went to his desk, opening a drawer, watching you as you gripped each side of your thighs, spreading them further, your glistening slit out in the open. You flexed your vaginal muscles, opening and closing, making him suck a tight breath as he rolled the condom on.
“Fuck, that’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
He climbed onto the bed, trailing his eyes up to your face and your half-lidded eyes, mouth open, panting his name.
“J-Jungkook, please…”
He smiled. “What is it, noona? What do you want?”
You wiggled your hips into his bed. “Your cock, please, Jungkook, I need it…”
He smacked his length against your clit, earning a sharp gasp. You pushed your head back into his sheets, whining as Jungkook slapped your swollen clit repeatedly with his cock, hard and fast, smearing it with lubrication from the condom. He was so hard that it almost hurt if it wasn’t for the lube.
“Is this enough for you?” Jungkook taunted. “Or does my naughty girl want more?”
“I-inside, please, a-ah, Jungkook, it’s t-too sensitive.…”
He stopped for only a split second before thrusting himself inside you, hissing as you sucked him in, previous stimulations already readying you for him. You rolled your hips, arching your back and gasping his name as Jungkook began, long, deep strokes that made you clench and shudder, aching for more. But before you could say anything, a familiar weight landed on the bed near your head.
Your eyes widened seeing Taehyung’s naked body, strong and handsome, tan skin glowing. His stoic, almost arrogant expression burned into your memory as he hovered over you, stroking his cock leisurely. He pressed it against your cheek, the warm, velvety head smearing pre-cum against your cheek. You tried to turn, but he used his free hand to hold your head still, shutting his eyes as he enjoyed himself.
“Fuck, even your cheek is so soft…” he murmured.
You whined but he shushed you, pressing a finger to your lips as he stroked himself faster, harder, Jungkook deep strokes sliding you up and down the bed. He used your face to stimulate the head, your lips, your cheeks, rocking his hips, smacking you in your face with his balls. Over and over as Jungkook thrust into you, watching your wanton expression as Taehyung’s pre-cum coated your skin. You could hear Taehyung’s breathing becoming shallow, clenching his jaw and closing his eyes.
“Gonna cum on your pretty tits, noona,” Taehyung murmured. “All over your tits, and then I’m going to fuck your mouth.”
You whimpered, watching his shoulders tense as he raised himself over you, Jungkook still fucking you agonizingly slowly, his thick cock stretching you out as Taehyung sucked in a breath, hissing your name tightly. You could only watch, breathless, as white strings squirted out, smacking you hotly in the chest with his thick cum, shuddering as you felt it spread out like fucking cake icing on your nipples and breasts. Jungkook moaned, watching the cum drip downwards, all over your skin.
“Open up,” Taehyung commanded and you opened your mouth. He slid in, readjusting himself so that he was above your head, legs on either side of you, facing Jungkook. He filled your mouth, almost too much even though he just orgasmed. You had to push your head up so he sank deeper into your throat, sticky from Taehyung’s cum soaking into your chest.
Oh, fuuuuck.
Stuffed from front to back, tits covered in cum, neck and back arched uncomfortably to accommodate the two cocks spearing into you, pussy throbbing and orgasming at the thought alone. And feeling it, oh God, feeling so full, so dirty, so used by both Taehyung and Jungkook at the same time made your eyes roll back into your head, tightening the muscles of both holes, muffled moans as you heard Jungkook grunt with effort and Taehyung’s hiss of pleasure. Taehyung controlled the pace as he fucked your face, carefully thrusting into your throat, staring at Jungkook’s dark hair bouncing as he fucked you.
Jungkook seemed to feel his gaze. He looked up.
Taehyung cocked an eyebrow at him.
Then he grabbed Jungkook’s head and forced it down, Jungkook’s eyes widening as he watched your cum-covered tits bounce back and forth, hard nipples swaying in the air. He rammed his hips into you and you whimpered, breasts bouncing harder so he fucked you even rougher, fascinated. Wet, lewd slapping sounds as he watched Taehyung’s cock disappear and reappear from your throat, covered in saliva, so messy that you were drooling down your chin, whining as you gripped his sheets. He felt liquid leaking down his thighs from your orgasms, your pussy clenching around him.
It was so much, so fucking much, Jungkook lifting your legs so he could go deeper, rubbing against your clit punishingly as Taehyung fucked your mouth, his tense thighs indicating that he was close. It made your entire body strain with effort and pleasure, head empty except chasing your orgasm over and over, smitten with the idea of being used like a fucktoy.
“S-so fucking good,” Taehyung groaned. “Such a good girl, taking so much cock all at once.”
“Fuck, I’m going to–”
But Jungkook didn’t get to finish because you wailed around Taehyung’s cock, pussy throbbing as you came, ripping his orgasm from him. He gasped sharply, slamming into you as his cock jerked into your walls, pulsing with you, gripping his entire length. So tight, but soft, his eyelids fluttering at the experience.
It only took Taehyung a few more pumps before he moaned your name, spilling down your throat, almost falling onto Jungkook as you sucked it out of him, swallowing greedily. He inhaled sharply as he snapped his head down to watch your throat constrict repeatedly, drinking it all and squeezing the head with your lips. Taehyung taped your side repeatedly, trying to get you to release him.
“Please, noona, too s-sensitive…”
You unlocked your jaw, gulping a huge vat of air as you realized you could breathe again. Taehyung pushed himself off you, falling against the wooden headboard as Jungkook carefully pulled out. You whined at the loss, back and neck aching. Every nerve hummed, brimming with pleasure, shaking you to your core.
It was glorious.
You panted, lowering your head to look down at Jungkook, dark eyes flashing as sweat from his angular jaw dripped onto your legs. He smirked at you, peeling the condom off and wrapping his hand around his still-hard, slick cock. Your breath caught in your throat as he began to furiously jack himself off, scooting on his knees to get closer to you, right in between your legs.
“J-Jungkook…”
The mole under his chin winked at you as he grinned. “Do you love it when you’re covered in cum, noona?” he panted, licking his lips. “Do you love it when Taehyung and I cum all over you?”
You moaned, your hands sliding up your breasts, smearing Taehyung’s drying cum even more, pinching your nipples as Jungkook gasped, pupils blown wide, eyes locked on your every move.
“Yes, Jungkook, I love it. I love being covered in your and Taehyung’s cum.”
He hissed, hips rocking into his hand as you made your lewd, obscene noises, body shaking as you waited for him. It didn’t take him very long before he groaned, towering over you as it shot out of him, showering you with creamy, salty strings of his orgasm. You dipped your fingers into it, scooping it into your mouth, sighing in satisfaction as Jungkook’s taste mixed with Taehyung’s in your throat, eating up as much a you could, and wiping the rest on your skin, relishing in the dirty act.
You were already prepared to do it again.
You heard Jungkook stumble off to the bathroom as you laid there, panting.
"Are you happy?" Taehyung asked, reaching down to pat your head. 
You grinned, bending your head back to look up at him upside down. He seemed surprised at your energy but smiled as you licked your lips, eyes clouded with lust. 
"So, so happy, Taehyungie."
He chuckled, dark eyes gazing into yours. You sensed a shift in his demeanor. For some reason, a calm, comforting feeling came over you when Taehyung looked at you. He bent down, his hands cupping your face, thumbs caressing your cheeks. He whispered your name, low and secretive, sending a shiver down your spine. You stared into his neck, watching his Adam’s apple bob as he spoke. His breath against your lips, tickling them.
"I’ll give you whatever you want."
You blinked slowly, lips parting. Now his lips were even closer, touching yours. 
"I'll do everything in my power to satisfy you."
And then Taehyung kissed you, intoxicating you with his touch, his scent, his intensity of his lips against yours, tongue thrusting into your mouth. You moaned, thighs rubbing together, clutching Jungkook's sheets, your body trembling as you kissed him. He held you protectively, fingertips pressing into your skin.
"Damn, do you two need a room?" came Jungkook's amused voice.
You broke the kiss softly, pecking Taehyung on the nose lightly before sliding down to Jungkook’s playful expression at the foot of the bed. He was holding a towel, raising at eyebrow at you. You sat up, grinning far too wide, making his smile falter a bit.
“Uh oh.”
“Come here, Jungkookie…”
“Please, we’re only men–gah!”
-
The next day, you dragged a seat next to Taehyung's gaming chair. He looked up as you sat down, still scrolling with his mouse. 
"What's up?" he asked. His voice was smooth, even. He gave you a quizzical look as you laid your head against his shoulder. "You want to fuck again?" he added, smirking. 
"No," you pouted, nestling your head on his shoulder. He was reading the new set of League of Legends patch notes. "Just want to be near you."
You saw the reflection of his smile in the computer monitor. He reached over and patted your head, making you hum in bliss. You two stayed like that for a moment, him scrolling periodically as he read, your head against his shoulder. 
Jungkook popped in, wearing a leather jacket over his white hoodie and jeans. He waved a USB drive.
"Gotta drop this off. I'll be back," he said merrily to Taehyung before leaning down to kiss you on the cheek. You turned your head, meeting his lips, and snuck your tongue into his mouth. 
Jungkook pulled back quickly, narrowing his eyes at you. "No. Bad girl."
You blinked innocently at him. "What'd I do?"
Jungkook glared at you, trying not to smile. "I have things to do. Let me kiss you normally."
Taehyung laughed deep from his chest, rumbling his shoulder you were leaning against. "Good luck with that."
Your smile widened. Smugly.
Too smugly. 
Jungkook backed away, pointing a finger at you. He was smiling too now, playful and mirthful.
"Later, you horny little seductress."
He left, winking. 
Taehyung patted your head again, his large hand massaging your scalp. 
"You sure you don't want to fuck?" he teased. 
-
continuation: christmas eve
--
masterpost
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0poole · 4 years
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I LOVE No Straight Roads
Honestly it’s hard to keep me away from a game with great visuals and even greater character design. I knew from the INSTANT I saw these characters that I was going to love it. I just finished it because it’s (unfortunately) pretty short, and even though I cheesed the final boss through it’s very lenient death mechanics (Instant respawn at the cost of a good rank) I actually appreciated that it wasn’t a pure cake walk. I’ve yet to rematch all of the bosses, but since I had genuine trouble with the later ones I’ll hold off on that.
But who cares about gameplay, am I right? I sure as hell don’t. I would’ve bought the game no matter what the hell it was. I wanted the characters (and the music, although I realized that second) and that was it. 
First of all, I love any world that is super fantastical but cheesy in its concept, ala a city powered by music, and battles between artists using music. Ideas like this only spawn from a mind that wants to create a fun atmosphere, if nothing else, and it was sure as hell fun. I genuinely love when someone goes so far into a crazy idea and doesn’t waste your time explaining it with real world logic. Wanna know how a city can be powered by music? Shut up and look at the cute virtual mermaid. Lord knows I did. Every once in a while, it does you good to just let the player/reader/viewer just revel in the idea without having to go out of your way to make things seem realistic. It’s not about “turning your brain off” or whatever, it’s picking your battles.
Also, I can seriously love a world with great background characters to it. Any game with the right situation to insert the random nobodies you find onto the streets into the art in the credits really played into the greatness of the world’s less important characters, and that’s always a good thing. It’s technically world building. But, since I always love to pick favorites, I’d have to say my favorite background character is easily Mia, the NSR infodesk assistant. It’s funny, because you can literally search “nsr characters” into Google and she’s the third image result. I love how jumpy she is when you first interact with her, since NSR probably spread the word about B2J suggesting they’re rock thugs who’d beat up anyone, so for all she knows she could die right then and there with a guitar lodged in her skull. She’s probably just some intern trying to pay for college. She don’t want trouble.
Also, I just realized that 90% of the characters in this game have the same body structure that I always love, that being having arms/legs that sort of fan out in width into relatively large hands/feet. It’s a kind of limb structure I fall into so much because it just really hits me right for some reason. I really can’t explain why.
Anyways, I gotta talk about the big boys individually:
Mayday and Zuke are an amazing duo. I’m always a sucker for a cute and crazy girl, but honestly Zuke hit so many of the right notes too. I will say it’s weird to pair the martian Zuke with the humanly-skinned Mayday, but honestly it doesn’t even matter because he looks so cool on his own. I love his weird blocky blue dreadlocks, and his weirdly shaped shirt which bares his chest in the weirdest way... And, oh my god, Mayday’s weird Spongebob background flower eyes? It’s little tidbits like that that really make me jealous. How could I have ever thought of that? It looks so perfect, and I don’t know why. And her little booty jig she does in her idle animation? Adorable. I played as her as much as was reasonable not only because I’m a filthy button masher with little strategy but also because she’s so damn cute. I can also appreciate how she has a tough-as-nails persona while still keeping a semi-girly attitude, like with her falling for 1010 and Sayu. Characters are so much better when they’re a perfect blend of characteristics, instead of being all one-note, like how Zuke is the quiet one but gets heated against DK West, and all. 
Honestly the voice acting for every character is great, but I love when Mayday’s VA’s accent shows through. It’s a perfect twang to accent (consider this the only acknowledgement of a pun in this post) her snarkiness. 
DJ Subatomic Supernova was going to be an easy favorite since he’s all space-themed. Also, I don’t know why I always end up liking the egotistic characters. Not in the sense that I like their egotistic-ness, but in the sense that I like everything else about them and they just so happen to also be egotistic. The same applied with Empoleon (maybe like my 2nd favorite Pokemon) and Rarity from MLP, probably among others. Either way, I’ll never not love space themes. Not to mention he’s got a funky disco theme, and I’m slowly starting to realize that I am in extreme love with techno-funk styles of music. The instant I heard his music he cemented his place into my playlists. 
As for design, I still have no idea what the fuck he is. Clearly AI is at human levels in this world, but if he’s a robot why does he still have hairy legs? But, if he’s a human, is that weird orb his head? Is it just some sort of puppet which he controls from inside his giant jacket? I know I dissed explaining things realistically but I actually want to know with this guy. Even the wiki doesn’t say. Either way, he’s clearly the logical extreme of “being at the center of your own universe.” Even his jacket depicts a solar system, with his hood being the sun. Didn’t see that until I tried to draw him. I really wish this guy wasn’t so tied to his DJ stand so I could reasonably draw him without it. I don’t want to draw his hairy ass legs. It is a great touch for his design though (although I prefer his beta look with pants and long boots, another design trait I tend to gravitate to) since DJs could reasonably not wear pants, since they’re always behind a table.
Sayu is my favorite. It’s so plainly obvious. It’s weird to say that sometimes, because some characters like Sayu are so clearly engineered to be as adorable as possible, to the point where they’re basically a parody of whatever they’re supposed to be emulating, but then they do that so well that they are still likable for what they’re trying to parody. Also, even though I’ve never looked into any vocaloid superstars myself, the fact that they exist and are loved in real life is absolutely perfect to be used as a character design in a world like this. It’s so weird conceptually, but we all know it’s normal and realistic. But yeah, she’s a giga-cutie whom I’ve already drawn and I’ve listened to her theme on loop on many different occasions. Favorite character, favorite track, favorite weapon of choice (What did I say about Empoleon?), which, and I wouldn’t have noticed this myself, looks like the USB symbol you see above USB ports on computers. How crazy perfect is that?
Even apart from my unbridled love for cute monster robot(?) girls, her boss fight is probably the 2nd greatest of them all, at least conceptually. She’s just a hologram, so you can’t touch her, but you CAN disconnect the artists which control her in order to defeat her. It’s the kind of concept for a boss fight that could only work for this type of character. I’m a sucker for the cute girl that provides her voice, but I love how the animator (video editor? the yellow one) actually attacks you with a mouse and lowers the brightness of the setting once he appears. Also, the mocap guy being the deeply-voiced type but still providing the adorable movements of her body. It’s such a great combo of characters, and their little extra art in the credits makes me like them even more. I just wish we could interact with them individually.
DK West was probably one of the most interesting characters visually, especially since I knew of every other NSR member long before the game came out, but I only just heard of him closer to the release. I wasn’t sure where he was placed, but I definitely assumed his gig was the weird shadow demon we saw in the trailers. When I finally saw him in game, I was shocked to hear him speak an entirely different language most of the time, which was really cool. Also, finding out he was tied to Zuke and wasn’t strictly an NSR artist really made him more interesting. You know, if his fucking shadow clone magic didn’t make him crazy cool enough. Even though I suck at his game and am not especially fond of his raps, the visual of him rapping with this giant monster behind him and dozens of weird shadow wingmen by his side hyping him up was probably one of the coolest in the entire game. The dark way they were hyping him up too gave such a bizarre atmosphere, especially since it parallels his seemingly chill and smiley demeanor. 
I definitely hope they’ll introduce new bosses as DLC in the future, and make them sort of in the same vein as DK West, where they aren’t the biggest artists ever, but they want to pick a fight with B2J. I’d kill for any extra content this game can provide.
Yinu is obviously special since she was the subject of the demo they put out for the game. Even though I knew all her bells and whistles, she and her mom still beat me a few times in the full game. Considering she’s semi-tied to story-ish spoilers I kinda want to go more into her in a separate section. It is worth considering playing the game first since it’s not hard (with the easy going deaths) and it’s short length.
1010 seriously grew on me as I learned more about them and interacted with them. I got their shtick when I first looked at them, but after seeing that animation of them touring the city on Youtube I was kinda falling for them. Then, I learned that they’re apparently repurposed navy war robots? I mean, maybe not them specifically, but it seems to heavily point in that direction, with the warship cars and “attention!”s and all. It took me a bit to get into their music too, but once I actually fought them and put their actions to the music I fell in love with it. I swear, Neon J’s weird dancing can has some of the smoothest moves in all of gaming. I don’t know whether they mocapped out those movements or got one of the greatest animators ever, but it looks so impossibly clean his part of the song gets me like 30x more hype than it would normally. 
Also, their little art piece of them looking at fan mail in the credits is probably one of the most adorable things ever. Even if they’re just Neon J’s puppets, that piece of art really makes it seem like they love every one of their fans. I’m not gonna lie, I might swoon a bit too if they picked me out and gave me some special attention.
Oh yeah, and the fact that Mayday was super sad in her showstopper against them was adorable and hilarious at the same time. The little tweaks they made to the showstopper for each fight were great.
Eve just has to be Lady Gaga, right? Like, an even crazier Lady Gaga. DJSS is Daft Punk (or any artist with a helmet persona, you know what I’m talking about), Sayu is Hatsune Miku, DK West is Kanye West, Yinu is a generic child protege, 1010 is a KPop boyband (just pick one) and Eve is Lady Gaga. That’s just how things are. But, again, this is the kind of boss fight that only this type of character could provide. It’s not just surreal imagery, it’s ARTISTIC surreal imagery. The fight is so mesmerizing in every way, especially by how it starts off so slow and calm and progresses to insanity, as well as the increased emotional investment in the fight making you feel so much more into it than just “That’s the boy band. Let’s fight.” Not only does it get you more invested, but it makes her artistic persona go deeper than just “she looks weird.” She is genuinely conflicted about her relationship with Zuke, and naturally that leads her to literally split him and Mayday apart. That mechanic specifically was the coolest, although I do wish they made it more obvious when you needed to switch over to a different side. I was getting pulverized by her fight too, since there were so many things to pay attention to. Her fight was definitely the best one. 
Tatiana and Spoilers:
Let’s be real with ourselves, the twist was so obvious. I do also think, though, that obvious twists aren’t bad if they’re just good reveals. At some point, a person just has experienced so many stories that “only pretty good” twists are easy to spot. It doesn’t mean that the twists are bad, it just means you yourself experienced.
I feel like her transition from rock to EDM was pretty understandable, even as a non-musician. She was so caught up in what she assumed was popular that it basically consumed her. It’s easy as an artist to want to forgo what you truly want to make in favor of what makes you popular, and clearly since her transition to EDM made her the CEO of the biggest company in the city (world?) that probably made her think she truly needed to change her outlook. Then, when she saw B2J try to bring it back, she sort of coined them as being as misguided as she was and knocked them down a peg. Plus, they were kinda being jerks about it.
It’s kinda like the Trolls sequel, where everyone pegs rock music fanatics as being too stuck up in their own heads to appreciate other types of music, which honestly seems more like the case than the alternative. When I first heard of the story of the game, I was seriously hoping they did put an asterisk on B2J’s ambitions because they were a bit sketchy from the start. 
That’s kinda where I want to talk about Yinu, because she was the true turning point in what they were doing. She’s literally 9 and yet she’s getting dragged into all this BS. When she said “I hate you all” at the end of her fight, and played a somber tune on her broken piano after the fight destroyed it, you kinda got a kick in the face to realize you’re kinda being an asshole to some of them. Sure, they fight back, but they wouldn’t fight in the first place if they didn’t have to. They are just people who play music under a joint name that B2J just so happened to get in hot water with. 
Then, of course, there’s Kliff, who also reeked of surprise villain, and who’s basically the embodiment of the bad side of B2J, where he just wanted to destroy for his own sake and not for the actual greater good. Once B2J realized their mistake, they backed off, but Kliff was so hard pressed to do what he planned on in the first place he wouldn’t stop. I kinda wish he got a bigger fight to his own since he’s clearly a big enough tech genius to divert a whole satellite into one specific building. Maybe the Elliecopter chase bit was his thing, but I do kind of wish he was there to fight against them too.
Even though Tatiana did kind of reform a bit quick, It’s still not too crazy to assume she could see that B2J was just misguided and the fact that they worked to revert their wrongdoings for her sake would make a pretty strong impressions. They clearly can hold their own, so it’s not like she wouldn’t want them to join NSR too. 
Oh yeah, and her boss fight was clock/time themed. If there’s a theme under space that I love, it’s clocks/time. 
And If I am to be respected by the internet, I must provide a negative opinion to balance out my positive one. I will say that the character model physics (like Mayday’s braids, DK West’s vest thing, Neon J’s fluffy neck thing, etc) got kinda funky at times. Especially DK West’s vest, which was completely messed up for every scene he was in... Also, even though the voices are mostly great, some lines felt a bit off. Just a bit. That good enough? Good.
But yeah anyway that’s another favorite game to add to the pile. Eventually I’m gonna have to compile a true list of my all-time favorite games/movies because I do kind of want to have a solid idea of what my all-time favorites are.
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tobiosmilktea · 4 years
Text
umpah umpah! smau
↪︎ bokuto x f!reader x iwaizumi
[004] — it’s you!
masterlist | prev. | next
a/n: i wrote this during my psych class cause i was bored,, also this wasn’t proofread lol
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by the time iwaizumi gets home after long days at work, he would usually knock out like a light after dinner and a bath, but tonight he had more energy than anticipated. and if he was being completely honest, he was not expecting himself to be spending the rest of his night reading a random webtoon. hell, he wasn’t even planning on reading it in the first place, but his boredom got the best of him.
a sigh escapes him as he settles at his desk, finger hovering over the lime green webtoon app for a brief second before giving in. quickly, he input in his information to create an account and before long he was already bombarded with promotions of many other webtoons until he was met with the biggest one—the love cemetery: soon to become a major motion picture!
that’s it, iwaizumi thought as he clicked on the promotional advert as it redirected him to the webtoon’s table of contents. there, he reread the synopsis over again, peering slightly at its contents purely from the plain inkling of familiarity of it all.
the moment he opened the first chapter, he was immediately enticed by the art style and colors. it was as if he was suddenly transported into this world that you have created that the hours had past faster than he had anticipated. the only reason why he even looked up from his phone in the first place was due to that little white box notifying him that his phone was at the cusp dying. iwaizumi’s eyes flickered over to his clock, two in the morning, he read as he let out a sigh. despite wanting to read more of the webtoon, he knew he was going to regret staying up. never mind the fact that he needed to go into work early and even hesitating to close his phone was a good enough reason to force himself to stop.
no wonder bokuto was obsessed.
iwaizumi’s thumb hovered over the author’s handle then, “dddeities?” he whispers to himself before swiftly pressing on the link.
it was then did his familiarity was suddenly confirmed. the moment the link took him to the webtoon author’s twitter account, iwaizumi recognized your name and face within a snap. a lump formed in his throat.
he wasn’t sure what really came over him as the obvious fatigue in his eyes was nowhere to be seen. grabbing his laptop from his desk, his fingers quickly typed away on his keyboard to search up your name on youtube. once the videos loaded in, iwaizumi found himself hesitating again as the first video that was at the top of the list had your smiling face. it still had his heart thumping in his chest even after all these years.
you looked amazing and the fact the interview had just been uploaded a few hours ago had him feeling shy for a brief second. iwaizumi scoffs at himself before shaking his head, “fuck it,” he mutters to himself before clicking on the video. it wasn’t like you, his first love and ex would ever find out he had ever read your webtoon.
“hey, my name is (y/l/n) (y/n) aka dddeities and i’m the author of the webtoon, love cemetery,” your voice softly emitted from iwaizumi’s laptop at a low volume. “today i was invited by webtoon themselves to answer some of your questions you have asked me!”
iwaizumi couldn’t remember the last time he had heard your voice. it was strange hearing it after so long now that you’ve matured since the last time he had seen you—from your looks to the way you dressed, a lot of things changed. granted, you both weren’t fifteen anymore.
“the first question is from seonshines who asked, ‘how does it feel to be able to be part of love cemetery’s film production?’’ you read off the slip of paper before discarding it off to the side, “it’s genuinely a dream come true! i’ve never expected love cemetery to be popular enough to even become a film, but considering how a lot of live actions tend to flop whenever the original creator isn’t part of production, i’m really excited for this project and i have high expectations.”
still as eloquent as usual, iwaizumi thought as he didn’t even notice the smile that was melting upon his expression the more he admired you.
you grab another question from a bowl, “from iloveddd, they asked: how do you plan your webtoons? …well when i first got the idea for love cemetery, i just started plotting it out on a piece of paper. it was initially only me who started drawing, coloring, and publishing each chapter, but once it started picking up a bit, my best friend murakami kaori started co-writing it.”
“kaori?” the familiar name slipped out of iwaizumi’s lips. “i remember her,” how could he forget the girl who got you and him together in the first place?
“overall, she’s mainly the one that keeps the story a bit more interesting while another member of my team, akaashi keiji, is my editor. he’s very meticulous and knows whenever there’s a plot hole somewhere so he’s often part of the writing process as well.” you finished off your answer before continuing to the next one, “this question is from user bokutoxbaisho. they asked ‘did you know that bokuto koutarou of msby black jackals is a big fan of love cemetery?? how do you feel about it??”
hesitance radiated out of you as you awkwardly laughed.
“um...” you trailed out, “i think it’s pretty cool i guess. it’s definitely a shock considering i never thought he would be the kind of guy to be into these types of things.”
iwaizumi’s eyebrows furrowed at this. how would you know? it wasn’t like you were the type to make assumptions about people you didn’t know either. if anything, he found it a bit strange but he shook it off.
“alright the last question is from annaoopsy,” you swiftly changed the subject, “this love triangle trope is honestly one of the best ones i’ve read. it’s really a breath of fresh air for a cliché ,which comes into question, how did you come up with this romance? was it from personal experience in past relationships?”
a chuckle left your lips as you discarded the question with a pink tint appearing lightly on your cheeks.
“let’s just say first loves were a major impact to the creation of this webtoon.”
iwaizumi felt his breath suddenly hitch the moment those words left your mouth. as if a sudden downpour of each and every feeling he felt back then in high school was catching back up to him after years of suppressing them. he swallowed the lump forming in his throat as he slapped his laptop shut, “oh no.”
fun facts! —
kaori was the one who got y/n and iwaizumi together back in middle school after she tricked them into being alone together to get to them to confess
iwaizumi was the one who confessed first since y/n was a shy, art hoe™️ back then lmao
taglist: (comment or send an ask to be added!)
@moonlightaangel @elianetsantana @k4tiepie @memorableminds @skyguy-peach @suhkusa @kitsunetea @airybby @noeminemi @truly-a-snitch @keichan @cosmicmermaid25 @bap-kingdom @saturnfarie @kwdflash @ennos-baby @dinablossom @chrisrue15 @seikamuzu @nestlevanilla @chasekudo @yammmers @pixcldust @iwaizluv @h0ngh0ngh0ng @emogril @tiredandkindaoverworked @atsunakaashi @underratedmage @bokutosuwus @kellesvt @kaiju-teeth @oh-tapeworm @scrappydaisies @alittlebitofrain @mxngy @tpwkatsumu @atsumuwoah @macchiatoast @dicerawr @kageyamasbabygorl @some-random-stranger-007 @vhskenma @wntrmn @little-plants @stargirlara @kissungjae @je11yfishwriter @sbaepsae @apollochjld
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lizlet · 2 years
Text
Well, it’s been a while...
For a lot of things. Since I actively updated this Tumblr, for one thing — I think I’ve changed jobs twice in that time! (Now, post-freelancing, happily serving as senior entertainment editor at Consequence!)
But I wanted to reopen this dusty ol' place and clear out the cobwebs because, well, several years ago I started writing a novel about two young women building a robot boyfriend. A lot of stuff has happened since Tuesday, Dec 24, 2013 (the date I officially created the Evernote file where this story started) but relevant to this post are the following events:
Through a friend, I ended up connecting with an agent who got excited about the concept and the writing.
Said agent read a completed manuscript in... well, let's not get into the dates at this time (it was a while ago, though) and gave me a few big notes to address along with a lot of encouragement.
For a variety of personal reasons, those big notes took me... well, let's not get into the dates at this time, but let's just say a while to complete.
Okay, in the name of complete transparency, I was completely stalled out on it for a good five years or so, until I finally dug back into it in March 2021.
I highly recommend Scrivener, by the way!
And, well, The Artist's Way. (Yes, one might say that I joined a cult. It's a nice one, though, very lowkey and no wardrobe or orgy requirements. Still do my morning pages every day!)
Sent a new draft to the agent the day before my late April birthday (the deadline I set for myself with little hope of making it — still thrilled that I pulled it off).
The agent liked it!
He had notes.
But they were all good notes! And in the ensuing year I have gone from Draft 4 to Draft 5 to Draft 6 to Draft 6C to Draft 7 to Draft 7B!
And right now, Draft 7B is in the inboxes of several editors, thanks to my wonderful wonderful agent (I have recently signed an actual document which declares him to be not just an agent but my agent, so I don't feel as weird about saying it as I used to!).
And... we're waiting to hear what happens next.
The answer may be nothing, which is fine. I mean, rejection isn't fun, but this was never a project I pursued for the fame and glamour of it. Really, I just wanted to see if I could finish a novel, and I not only did it (arguably seven times over!) but I've once again come to really enjoy the process of putting down 500 words a day, every day I can, and seeing what happens as a result.
In fact, when I finished Draft 5B in August, I actually started writing a new novel, and as of today I'm about 56,000 words into the first draft and aside from the times when I feel like I'm running full speed into a wall without a helmet on, it's been a lot of fun.
That said, I won't be mad if eight years (okay, off and on) of hard work result in someone writing a check. So, as we embark upon this new phase in the life cycle of How to Build a Robot (Boyfriend), I figured I'd reawaken this humblr Tumblr to, at the very least, note the occasion. And watch this space for further updates (as well as, now that I'm going to attempt to be back on Tumblr, probably a lot of reblogged cat videos and yelling about TV).
And if you're reading this and if you've ever offered encouragement, support, a wry comment, notes, or even just a vague bit of interest in regards to Robot (Boyfriend) (or any of my other writing), please just know... thank you. No matter what happens next, literally could not have done it without you.
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garbagevanfleet · 4 years
Text
Brightest Blue (series)
SURPRISE VALENTINE’S DAY UPDATE!
PART FIVE
Pairing: Josh x reader Warnings: flirting, alcohol, mentions of smoking  Summary:  Things are changing. New state. New school. New roommate. You just pray things are going to click into place. Notes: This chapter is so cute to me. Pajama party anyone?  As always, thanks to the actual best editor alive today, @lantern-inthenight​ 
MASTER POST
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taglist: @valleyd0ll​ @satingrass-maidensfair​ @guitarfingers​ @thebohemianpenguin​ @peaceisouranthem​ @oblvions​ @hansonobsessed​
@bigblack-catattack​ @myownparadise96​ @lara-gvf​ @anditsmywholeheart​ @kill-fear-the-power-of-lies​
It was undeniable that winter was on its way. The weekend brought predictions for temps in the lower 40’s and, even in the warmth of the apartment, you felt perpetually chilled.
Kate had messaged you late on Friday asking if you wanted to get coffee Saturday morning, and you had excitedly agreed to meet her at the local cafe called The Daily Grind (which, admittedly, you chose because of the cute name).
She had seen you bundled up like a burrito in two sweatshirts and a long-sleeved tee underneath and laughed, but you explained to her how you had never really been in temps this cold before.
Your fingers were wrapped as tight as they could go around your mocha as you watched her sip her black coffee, her maroon-painted lips leaving a mark on the white mug.
“When we’re done here, would you want to go with me to a thrift store? My mom sent some money for me to buy warmer clothes when she saw the weather for this area,” you said with an excited tone. “She’s afraid I’m going to get pneumonia.”
She hummed in an interested tone. “That sounds like fun. Which one do you wanna check out first?”
“You’ve been around here longer, so I’ll let you pick.”
“The one on Maple is the one where all the rich sorority girls go, so I bet you’d find some good stuff there,” she informed, tapping her nails against the ceramic.
You beamed a smile, relishing in the sunny feeling that only spending time with other girls gave you. “You wanna drive or me?”
+++
“Do you think if I buy a pair of jeans a size too big I could get away with wearing leggings under them?” you asked, flicking through the hangers. “I feel like the wind here cuts right through my denim.”
“Maybe two sizes bigger so you can wear sweatpants.” You knew she was teasing you by her playful tone, but that was actually kind of brilliant, you thought. “You should try this one.”
You had to get onto your tippy toes to see her over the long rack. She was holding up a soft-looking sweater, multicolored horizontal stripes running across the fabric. The color pattern reminded you of Twiggy from the ’60s.
“It’s cute,” you agreed, taking it as she handed it to you. By the time you were ready for a fitting room, you had a pile of things and the employee on duty looked not very excited to have to put them back when you were done, but luckily she wouldn’t have to. Pretty much everything fit perfectly.
You were shocked to see the total - where you were from, all of that would have been well over $60, even second hand, but you ended up forking over a measly $35, and you figured most of that total was from the nearly new jacket you had found.
As she was driving you back to the coffee shop, you exclaimed giddily, “I’m so excited to have warm clothes. Now Josh can finally have his sweatshirts back.”
She looked over at you surprisedly. “That’s Josh’s?”
“Yeah, he gave me three and I’ve been alternating between them.” You reached forward to turn her radio up a notch, Janet Jackson’s “All For You” perking your ears.
“Are you sure he wants them back?” she asked, giving you a coy smile that you didn’t understand.
You adopted a puzzled look. If she was alluding to something, it was lost on you. “Why wouldn’t he? They’re still perfectly fine - I was even careful not to get my perfume on them.”
Now stopped at a red light, she turned to give you a squinty look until she seemed to realize you were serious. “Nevermind,” she relented, smirking forward at the road.
When you got back home, Josh was gone. You shot him a message inquiring as to his whereabouts and started snipping the tags off of your new clothes with a pair of pruning shears. You were exponentially grateful for the fact that the washing machine in your building had been repaired - and with a shocking amount of haste too.
The smell of the laundry room down the hall was pleasant. It reminded you of the times when your mom would wash all the towels and blankets in the house, and that was a job that either required a laundromat, or an entire day switching loads.
At the end of your shopping day, you made out with three new sweaters, two pairs of thicker jeans, a new coat, a winter hat, and an actual pajama set, which would be infinitely warmer than the shorts and tank top you’d moved in with.
You cheerily popped your new clothes into the washer, along with a tide pod, some of your bras and underwear, and closed the lid.
Around 1 pm, Josh still wasn’t back and hadn’t replied, so you decided it was a perfect time to work on some self-care. The yoga mat you had packed had yet to see the light of day in Michigan, so you dug it out, unrolled it in your room, changed into some easy clothing, and pulled up a beginner’s tutorial on your phone. By the thirty-minute mark, you were sweating and tired, but the stretch in your muscles was oddly pleasant on top of the discomfort, so you pushed yourself to keep going until the video was done. The cute blonde running the tutorial suggested you take some time in your cool down to look inward, as she thought that was a big part of yoga. So, you laid there on the mat, staring up at your ceiling for a good, long while, just taking time to reflect and enjoying it.
Your room, and the whole apartment really, had become home so quickly. You hadn’t ever had the opportunity to test the theory before, but you had always imagined that leaving home would make you feel out of place.
But you didn’t.
Sure, you missed home in the way that any human that came from a loving and supporting family would, but you were expecting to ache for it. You had taken a long time in your backyard and in your favorite spot back home, just so you could have a final fix, but all that was to you now was a fond memory.
After a few moments of being alone with your thoughts, you were going to get up and take a shower, but you had decided to postpone it. While you were staring up at the ceiling, you realized that there was a lot of unused space that the sun hit toward the top of the room. Wasted sun was a felony in your book. You spent about an hour pulling down your curtain rod, removing the fabric, and replacing it with hanging pots of all sizes and lengths.
Your string of hearts, your pearls, your golden pothos - the thought of them being the first thing you saw when you opened your eyes in the morning was one that made you feel sentimental. You’d just have to be careful with watering.
Once you were satisfied with the placements, you made your way to the bathroom. As you waited for the shower to heat up to a tolerable temperature, you took some time to pluck any stray hairs around your eyebrows and gently brush the knots out of your hair. Self-care had always felt like a long term investment to you - one well worth it.
The warm spray of the shower felt amazing on your tired muscles, so you took your sweet time getting clean and enjoying it, then blow-drying your hair on low heat when you were finished. After, you excitedly got out your new pajama set, clipped the tags, and put it on.
Shortly thereafter, you heard a key slip into the lock on the front door. You were cuddled up on the couch, enjoying the feel of the soft fabric on your freshly scrubbed skin as you watched through the complete second season of the Simpsons, popcorn in your lap.
When he stepped into the house, he raised his eyebrows at you, surveying the area.
“What?” you asked, giving him a confused look.
“Just looking for the books and the homework.” You rolled your eyes at him before he continued on with, “I just always assumed that when I wasn’t around, you were doing boring, adult things.”
You gave him a playful shrug as you gestured to the noticeably book free space around you.
He squinted at you suddenly. “Are you in your pajamas? You know it’s like 3:30 in the afternoon, right?”
“They’re new!” you quipped. “And I was excited to wear them. You don’t have to be jealous, you could go get yours on and join me.”
The offer seemed to be tempting him. “I have a better idea. How about you go change, and we’re going to go to a party tonight.”
You scowled at him, crossing your arms over your chest. “Are you crazy? I’m already in my pajamas. I’ve already taken my bra off! Once it’s off, it doesn’t go back on.”
He laughed, loud and unabashed, showing you all of his teeth. The sound made your cheeks flush.
“C’mon, I bet Kate will be there,” he reasoned. “And I obviously will be. And I’m positive Jake will be too. This might be your chance to get them to hook up.”
You bit your bottom lip in consideration. “The timing would be kinda perfect; she could have the whole day tomorrow to process it and then tell me about it on Monday.”
He was smirking at you when you looked back up at him, making you tuck your hair behind your ear anxiously. “If I come, do you promise not to leave me alone?”
He nodded at you confidently. “I will not leave you.”
The very first thing you did was message Kate. It was vital that she was there, just in case Josh got too drunk to remember his promise. You didn’t have a hard time socializing, per-say. You were just nervous about your first real social event here.
Josh was right though - it wouldn’t kill you to make some more friends.
When you were in the bathroom brushing your teeth, Kate messaged back saying that she would never miss getting to see you drunk, and you didn’t have the heart to tell her you had to drive, so you opted to leave that part out. You worked on picking out a good, sensible outfit and took your time to put on makeup again. Admittedly, it felt kind of nice - you used to wear a full beat all the time, but somewhere along the line it started to feel tedious, which is something you never wanted any of your favorite things to feel, so you put the whole idea of it on the shelf for a while.
When you finally emerged from your room around 8, Josh was sitting on the kitchen counter, phone in his hands as he furiously typed out a message. You listened to the pleasant sound of his fingers tapping on the glass screen for a moment before speaking.
“Who are you messaging?” you asked, but it didn’t grab his full attention right away.
“Just one of the other theater guys,” he said through a near sneer. The only time you ever saw him looking distressed was when it came to his production. “Trying to tell me what I can and can’t do with my own production-”
When he looked up at you the rest of his thoughts seemed to escape him, all the emotion in his face and posture crumbling away.
You folded your hands together, giving him a concerned look. “Are you okay?”
He tucked his phone into the pocket of his pants, abandoning whatever he had been so intent on doing just seconds ago.
“Yeah, I just haven’t ever seen you dressed up before.”
The extra attention made you slump back against the hallway wall, giving him a nervous grimace. Through pursed lips, you asked, “Is it too much?”
His eyes popped open, along with his mouth. It took him a moment to speak actual words - like he wanted to say a lot all at once. “What? No! I’m just stupid,” he assured, running his fingers through his curls. “It took my brain a moment to process.”
You gave him a forgiving smile, opening the fridge and grabbing out a carton of juice. He watched as you took a swig, letting you swallow before asking, “Do you want me to drive?”
Your eyebrows raised in surprise, finger swiping away a stray droplet. “Can you?”
“Drive?” he laughed. “Yes. I can drive.”
“Legally?” you pressed, handing over the carton to him when you caught him eyeing it. He took a drink right from the spout as well, giving you a wink that made you lovingly roll your eyes.
+++
You two seemed to unintentionally match. He was in a pair of khaki pants, a black long-sleeved shirt, and a denim jacket on top. You were positive he was going to freeze solid one of these days because he always seemed to be way underdressed for the weather.
As you went to get out of the car, he stopped you with a touch to your knee. “You should take off your jacket and hat and leave them in here; I wouldn’t ever trust leaving them unattended at a party.” He paused before speaking again. “Not that anyone would necessarily steal them, just that people get drunk and think stuff is theirs.”
“Like you did with the wallet?” you teased, making him rub at the back of his neck.
“Yes,” he said pointedly through a grin. “Like that.”
He held the sleeve of your jacket as you shrugged out of it, abandoning it into the back seat. You took just a second to mourn the fact that it would be cold when you went to put it back on.
In the rearview mirror, you fixed your hair, having been mussed by the removal of your hat, and then stepped out. He ushered you along first, reaching past you and pushing the door open for you when you had reached it. The music hit you like a wall, loud and energetic - followed quickly by the smell of alcohol. A cloud of smoke hung subtly near the ceiling, giving the room an air of mystery. You realized you hadn’t made a move to enter the house when you felt his hand on the middle of your back.
“Everything okay?” he asked, just above the volume of the music. You nodded, feeling silly for holding him up, and stepped inside.
People were moving to the music like blood reacting to a heartbeat, swaying around to the rhythms all in a pleasant unison. The scene was oddly hypnotic as the colors danced around.
The second that people could see Josh behind you, they started calling his name. Your stomach lurched for a second, scared that he was either going to leave you or drag you to a group that you didn’t know, but he waved them off instead.
“I’ll catch you guys in a minute,” he shouted through a grin so charming they couldn’t seem to muster up a shred of annoyance toward him. Then, he spoke the next part right against your ear. “You want a drink?”
“Just one,” you agreed with a nod, shivering ever so slightly as his breath hit your cheek.
In the kitchen, huddled around an island covered by bottles, was a group of people, all very visibly drunk. One of those people was Kate, dressed in a crisp looking pair of jeans, a white crop top, and a red checkered flannel shirt, left open to expose her midriff.
When she caught sight of you, she gave you a big, toothy smile. The sharp fringe of her bob moved just enough to sometimes expose a pair of gold disk earrings.
“Need a drink?” she asked as she broke away from the rest of the crowd. “I’ll make it for you.”
You put your hands up, laughing at her enthusiasm. “I’m going to let Josh make it for me,” you informed, knowing full well that she would make it strong enough to get you drunk and keep you in that state for the whole evening.
The one that Josh ended up making for you was, undeniably, a rum and Coke. Not your most favorite thing ever, but then again, this one was mostly just Coke. You made a mental note to thank him for being so considerate.
The three of you ended up in the living room, right in the throws of all the action. You’d been to a few parties back home, but this felt kind of different. Back home, it was always hot, so the parties usually spilled out into the yard in all directions. Come to think of it, you’d never been to a party where the guests weren’t making prominent use of the pool. But here everyone was packed in tightly, making a large house feel tiny.
Kate found you all a nice little corner with a love seat and some kind of weird puff you think you were meant to put your feet on. Settling in there meant you’d have to share the space with a couple of other people, but it felt worth it to not be standing in the middle of the room. Being out in the open made you feel nervous - like you were being circled by sharks.
The songs changed, but the beat seemed to stay pretty much the same, making it easy for the time to slip by without your acknowledgment. By the time you checked your watch, it was nearly eleven.
True to his word, Josh didn’t leave your side the whole night. People kept popping in and out to get a word with him. You couldn’t hear them well because he was sat across from you, but he was laughing quite a bit. Some of it looked kind of forced, but most of it seemed genuine - like he was actually having a nice time.
It wasn’t until you were close to getting ready to leave that you saw Jake making his way down the stairs, one hand on the wooden railing to steady himself and the other wrapped around a red cup. You flashed him a smile when his eyes landed on you, and he gave you one back, giving you a feather-light punch to your shoulder when he reached you.
“Move over,” he demanded in Josh’s direction, sitting nearly on top of him on the couch, with only light complaints from his twin.
“You smell like sex,” Josh said through a fake grimace, pressing his elbow into Jake’s ribs.
“Can’t imagine why,” Jake responded with a smirk, lifting the cup to his lips as you giggled at him.
The realization struck you as his eyes landed on Kate next. “Oh, Jake, this is my friend Kate. Kate, Jake Kiszka.”
She reached out and took his hand to shake and at the same moment, Josh laid his hand on your leg and through a grin, asked, “Should we take off?”
You laughed, giving him a nod.
“Kathrine, Jacob,” Josh started, clapping his hands together in front of him. “We are leaving. See you guys soon?”
“We should actually get tacos,” Kate stated seriously to the group as a whole, and then just to Josh said, “And my name is Kathleen.”
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felassan · 3 years
Text
Highlights and insights from the MELE launch cast & crew reunion panel
[rewatch link] [highlights & insights from the N7 Day 2020 reunion]
In case a text format is better for anyone (in terms of accessibility for example). Cut for length.
Some paraphrasing.
If anyone’s interested in just the line-reading session, it starts at timestamp ~1:04:45.
In addition to the cast and crew from the N7 Day reunion, at this reunion also in attendance were: 
Mac Walters (Project Director for MELE, Lead Writer of the og MET)
Melanie Faulknor (Lead Producer for MELE)
Crystal McCord (Producer for MELE)
Fred Tatasciore (Saren)
Seth Green (Joker)
Kimberly Brooks (Ash)
Ash Sroka (Tali)
This was the biggest reunion / meetup of the cast so far, and some of the cast and crew were meeting for the first time here.
It’s been so long since the og MET that PW & KW are getting to watch their kids experience playing it for the first time
JHale doesn’t play but since MELE she’s been sneaking around Twitch jumping into peoples’ MELE livestreams to lurk, watch and comment a bit
What drew Seth to the character of Joker? The whole concept of the game. He likes games and MET’s mechanics (different trees of adventure, stacking reputation, choices carrying between games) at the time were the most sophisticated that he’d ever heard pitched. He thought this was new and exciting and wanted to be a part of it. For the character they cast him based on his personality traits (i.e. he sounds quite similar to Joker personality-wise)
Would Seth ever want to play Joker again if the opportunity presented itself? Sure, he loves the character, and if the writers ever had more things to explore/expand with Joker he’d be down for it. 
Seth said that it’s a different kind of fan that approach him about this project. The fans have spent many many hours in an intimate exchange with “him” that he hasn’t been a part of, but they experienced it nonetheless. “I’ve hugged a lot of strangers, you know what I’m saying? It’s great, you get an interaction with fans that you never get as a performer in any other experience”
Seth has been a space guy since he was little, it inspires him
With the state of the world the way it is now [covid, masks etc], does Ash think Tali’s story will be more impactful now than it was before? Ash hopes so, and that anything they do here will have a positive impact on a bigger level. Ultimately that’s why most of them do what they do, they want to reach people in deep ways. She hopes Tali is an inspiration in courage, bravery, standing up for what’s right and thinking about the greater good
The [MELE I think] dev team had a last team meeting with Greg Zeschuk, one of the founders of BioWare, who they had invited to it. He was regaling them with stories of the inception of Mass Effect. “You would imagine this sort of well-laid out, drawing boards everywhere... [but] it was basically just a napkin sketch in a Greek taverna with him and Casey going ‘We wanna do a space opera’, and then it took off”
The process of creating lore through development is very organic. A lot of it comes from character and story development. It builds up over the course of the game’s development. They did the codex entries at the end, the idea being that if they saved them for as late as they could, then they could pull from the story, characters and meaningful moments, and build them from there
PW wrote a bunch of the codex entries, elevator banter & lots of little bits of lore. They describe their time on the og MET as being a “baby writer”. They originally came in after Mac had back surgery and a junior writer was needed to fill in. “It was really fun, it was us sitting in a room together going ‘What do you think a hanar or a krogan thinks about this or that’?” For a first project for them this was an amazing experience - the world building itself creatively with all these awesome people
They tried to add multiplayer in every game but only got it to work in ME3
They had a lot of plots laid out in ME1 that they called “global plots”. These were outside the core critical path and would take players from planet to planet, and were sprawling stories. They pulled out a lot of really interesting concepts and ideas from these that did make it into the game, but all of the global plots ended up getting cut due to time. Mac still has old diagrams and spreadsheets which detailed how all of these would have come together
Q. If you all had to take a long-distance road-trip with two squadmates, who would you take and why? PW: “Jack and Mordin. Mordin because the drive would never lack for things to talk about at length quickly, Jack because you know you wouldn’t pay for the room. You wouldn’t know how you’d get the room, but you wouldn’t be paying for it.” Courtenay: “I’d take Mordin because there’d be singing, and FemShep just to have this thing - happen. In the room that I get for free.” JHale at this point fistpumped while saying “Yeess” [then I think what she said was “steaming hot”]
Seeing as asari are long-lived, how open is Ali to one day reprising her role as Liara? “She’s a character very close to my heart, it was such a great opportunity. In some games that we work on the character has already been created or voiced by someone else, but this was really a group effort. When I first went into the booth, the only thing I’d seen of her was a sort of like, rendering, and we slowly kind of came to her voice and presence. I would love to bring Liara back any time... hey, she can live a really long time guys. :D”
Caroline and people who do what she does (Creative Performance Director) are so critical to the quality of games. Caroline: “This group of people are extraordinary. We were lucky to have such an extraordinary cast. Every [recording] session was new and challenging. It was a labor of love. I’m tearing up right now thinking about it. I’m remembering my last session with Jen, she was the last session, just sobbing and sobbing”. When JHale was trying to say the lines of Shepard’s goodbye with Garrus, a line hit her like a tonne of bricks and she was in tears and was like “Shepard does not cry”. “It took me a second, I got it out and took another run at it, it was in there but stuffed down as it should have been, and I finished the line [and there was silence in the booth when usually Caroline would have been talking to give direction or instruction] Did we lose her? Did Skype crash?” and it transpired that what had happened was that Caroline was in floods of tears
ME was the first time Keythe had ever come across branching dialogue. “Normally when we work on a script and it’s from page 1 to 100. In this it was get to page 5, then go back to page 2 and play it a little differently. The skill and the fun and joy of it was to be able to go back and play a scene in a different way, with different writing, with different outcomes. This was not only a challenge but a real treat. So to all the writers who dreamed up how this build-your-own-adventure plays out, you have my undying respect. It was a real pleasure”
VEDA is a proprietary system that BW use to record the dialogue, which is the closest way of having it feel like having people in the booth together (it’s all digital and VAs get to hear the line someone else has done in that scene). Caroline really pushed for this because of the amount of time etc that was wasted due to lack of this sort of thing on ME1. William: “It was a god send for me, thank you, getting to hear a cue from Jen or Mark.” Ali: “Us being able to bounce off each other helps make it more real. This for me was the most real acting experience on a game I had ever had - the writing being so good, Caroline helping us through, being able to hear each other.” JHale was always early coming in to record relative to the others so only got to use VEDA a few times - a bit of Liara content and the scene with Anderson towards the end. “Those two times, oh my god it was amazing”. VEDA being a thing also helps from a scheduling standpoint
Seth and Tricia Helfer (EDI) only got to be in the booth actually together 1 time, to record/shoot a piece of promotional video. “We actually got to record a scene together and we were like ‘oh my god this is the best thing ever’. It was great, even though I had to stand on a stool. She’s the best”
Seth: “As an actor, the kind of opportunity to do this kind of material in games just didn’t exist.” Fred: “Oh, never! I had never had a villain part that was complicated like that. In a game? Never before, it was really interesting”
Raphael always goes back to the fact that ME brought more women into gaming than any other game before it. “The writing and the complexity of the relationships gave us so much ballast”. “This set this apart from running, shooting, gunning, looting”
JHale: “What I noticed in the times before when I got to be around fans, there was a huge hunger among women in the gaming world for something they could really jump into. They were starving for something which fed them what they deserved and needed”
Mac: “[praising Caroline] Caroline would often come to us as writers and challenge us and say, as an example, ‘Do we really need another male character to do this? Why are we writing another male character for this?’ She pushed that very early and to the betterment of everything we created”
PW: “Karin and Cookie and all of the editors across the trilogy, [were critical in] making sure that Shepard sounded consistent - [especially since] we had a large writing team, writers came and went, Mac is the only one with a significant writing contribution on each of the games”
PW: “[on game dev] It’s a process of getting hundreds of people pointed in the same direction, all believing that this is something worth doing”
Ash: “Having all the different possibilities and avenues, going back to play them all out in the different ways [really helped to round the character of Tali out and make her feel like a natural person]”.
VAs only get paid for the original recording sessions, not again (as in they don’t any royalties or anything from something like the remaster)
In MELE, they left all the original credits at the end of each game in
Fred: “It’s creating in five dimensions [because of all the outcomes and relationships etc]”. Seth: “The cool thing is that the audience feels that. They’re immediately struck by how dense, thought-out, prepared and planned the entire universe is”
How was it for the new MELE devs coming onto this? Crystal: “I knew it [the series and fans’ love for it] was big, but I didn’t know it was BIG! Working on MELE there was this infectious excitement. Being part of it was so exciting.” Melanie: “I came on at ME3, I had a 3 or 4 year honeymoon period with BioWare. Coming onto MELE, I’m getting really emotional. One of my first meetings originally was going into a cinematic review for an epic Tali scene in ME3”. Crystal: “On MELE, we had an hour or 2 every day where the team came together to play the game. In those reviews, a lot of the devs who worked on the original would tell all these stories. It was really fun to hear all the inside stories on ME’s creation and be a part of that”
DC: “Should this unit get vaccinated?” Ash: “Of course”
How do they think ME will be viewed in the next 10-20 years, what do they think its legacy will be? A piece of history, ground-breaking. It broke down some barriers and opened doors for people. It’s a powerful, powerful community. It’ll continue to age quite well and be enjoyed by a new generation, it’s original and evergreen and there’s a lot in it that people go back to. There’s a lot of universal things in it (personal experiences, like there will always be love, people fighting to belong, trying to make sense of their pasts etc)
JHale and Alix did the “I love you Shepard, now go save the world again” Shep-Sam exchange and both got teary. It was then Seth’s turn to line-read: “Jesus Christ, now that I’m good and choked up, fucking mess”. Ali was also actually crying from it
Seth: “It can’t be overstated, this community is so large and global, it is one of the most powerful fandoms that I’ve ever been greeted with. Thank you”. Ash: “It’s the most amazing group of fans ever. We’re all so grateful”
Some funny anecdotes/stories:
PW didn’t realize that Alix could do different accents. They remember a time when they were listening in the booth and an Alliance soldier was complaining about the gear had been given. They said “Wow that’s really good, who is that?” and the VO producer said “That’s Alix, Patrick”, “because she wasn’t doing her [normal British accent but was doing a Californian accent instead]. Alix roasted me later for not recognizing her voice and never let me heard the end of it”
Alix: “[on Sam’s toothbrush] Caroline’s like, ‘So then she pulls her toothbrush’ and I’m like ‘What? Sorry? A toothbrush?’ and obviously it’s funny now as everyone knows that Sam’s thing is her toothbrush. Caroline’s like ‘Yeah, you’ve gotta like, flirt, over the toothbrush’ and I’m like ‘Who wrote this - a frickin toothbrush, are you kidding me? Really guys?’ ANYWAY. I was wrong and it worked. :D”
Fred: “I remember a 12 year old kid coming up to me and being like [flat tone] ‘Oh yeah. I killed you’.”
Keythe: “The other assasin I play is Kellogg in Fallout 4. People come up to me like ‘Omg. I love you so much. And then I fucking KILLED you!’”
Courtenay once went out to dinner in NZ with a few prominent people from the Game of Thrones cast. “Everyone around was making a big deal out of it like ‘Omg, it’s so-and-so from GoT’. I was feeling a bit like ‘Hi, I’m here, just nobody’. And I looked around in the restaurant and there's one guy in the corner and he’s got an N7 shirt on and he’s just looking at me like [knowing look, does a peace sign]. And I’m like ‘I got one! I love you guys!’”
PW: “I have a question for the cast members, because I don’t know if JHale has done this to all of you or if she just does it to the devs. Show of hands if Jen has ever made you do push-ups.” JHale: “It’s just you guys”
Karin: “One of my favorite editing files that I ever had was a ME file. It was before Seth was coming in for a session. I opened it up and it was just 20, 25 lines with the word ‘Shit’, over and over again, and I was like, ‘This file is perfect, I don’t need to do anything to it, have fun!’”
Seth: “Didn’t we do a track that’s like 60 seconds of laughing? Escalating laughing? I don’t know about other actors but for me getting into a laughing fit is kind of like trying to get into a crying fit, it takes the same level of commitment, you start to follow a path until like you’re hysterically uncontrollably laughing. I remember looking through the glass, and I’m deep in it at this point, and I make eye contact, and I can see from the other side of the booth and they’re like [making ‘okay you can stop’ now gestures] - ‘Like that’s plenty, we got it’ and I was like ‘okay, okay [dying]’”
JHale: “The craziest thing Mark and I had to deal with was how many times we had to say ‘I should go’”. Mark: “We also, Caroline and I tended to use that as short hand when I needed to go to the bathroom”
The panel host: “The first time I interviewed Ali was a decade ago. She did the ‘I’ll flay you alive with my mind’ line halfway through, it was my first interview and I literally fell out of my seat [from being star-struck]”
Ash line-read Tali’s drunk omni-tattoo scene and in response DC said “I totally get why people wanna romanticize all these characters :D”. Karin: “We’ve had more than one person come up to us and show us actual tattoos that looked like that”
[source]
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