#haha... so quickly did i finish the game and all endings and achievements.....

[astrxealis]

on a whim and in spite of my responsibilities i have started on making a whole 9 chapter self-indulgent fic for mr. grim reaper from the hit game 'a date with death'

[spencessmile]

Scholar’s Mate

Pairing - Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader 

Summary - In a game of chess both you and Spencer make unexpected moves. 

Warnings - None 

Word Count - 1k

And all imagines/fanfics/blurbs are written solely by me so please don't steal my work and/or post it without my consent. 

Feedback and Comments are welcome. Happy reading! 

Requests are CLOSED!

Scholar's Mate is the checkmate achieved by the following moves, or similar: 1. e4 e5. 2. Bc4 Nc6

** 

The team and you wrapped up a case in New York and made your way onto the jet where everyone got comfortable for the flight back home. 

Morgan and Emily were chatting away, Rossi was preparing himself a drink, JJ was indulging herself by doing crossword puzzles, Hotch was doing paperwork and Spencer was seated at the far end of the jet.

You wrapped a blanket around your shoulders and headed towards Spencer, as you looked over Spencer’s shoulder you noticed he was setting up a small chessboard. 

“Mind if I sit?” You ask and Spencer shakes his head. You continue to watch as Spencer sets up the board and puts the chess pieces in their place. “Are you going to play alone?” 

“I do most of the time.” 

“How does one play chess by themselves?” 

“Actually, you can play with yourself using only knowledge of how the chess pieces move.” 

“I don’t think a game of solo chess would be as fun to play, so I’ll play with you,” Spencer looks up at you. 

“You k-know how to play chess?” 

“Not really but it can’t be that hard to learn while watching a genius play,” A small smirk tugging at your lips. 

“What’s going on here?” Morgan sits on the long couch as the rest of the team gathers around. 

“I’m joining Spencer in a game of chess,” You point to the board. 

“What? Reid, I’ve asked to play you several times and you never play with me,” Emily says. 

“It’s hard to play with people who don’t how to play chess,” Spencer replies, and Emily gaps. 

“I’ve asked you to teach me, and it’s not like Y/n knows how to play either.” 

Spencer looks back over at you, and you’re lightly smiling at him. You joined this team two years ago and you got along with pretty much everyone except for Spencer. You couldn’t speak for Spencer but you often found it hard to keep up with him. 

Chess may just the thing to help you become closer to Spencer. 

“Should we play?” You ask and Spencer nods. 

As Spencer went to pick up his piece, he stopped and looked up at you. “I’ll probably beat in less than 7 moves.” 

You lean forward in your seat, “Don’t hold your breath brown eyes.” 

“Damn,” You hear Morgan say as everyone laughs.  

“Oh wait,” You stopped Spencer again and flipped the board, the white chess pieces facing you as the black pieces faced Spencer. Spencer immediately started nervously playing with his hands. 

“Why did you do that?” 

“What’s wrong? Will you lose the game if you aren’t playing with white pieces?” 

Spencer was going to respond but he stopped, “No, I’ll be fine either way.” 

“Great, then make your first move,” You eye the board as Spencer moves his first chess piece.  

You wait a couple of seconds before making your first play; moving your King to E6. 

You could hear JJ whispering to Emily and Morgan “Who do you think going’s to win?” 

“I want someone to beat this kid’s ass in this game, I’m so sick of not knowing how to play but watching people who do know lose to the kid,” Morgan looks over at Rossi.

“Watch it,” Rossi pointed and Morgan chuckles. 

 “My bet’s on Y/n,” Hotch said watching you and Spencer carefully watching each other’s moves. 

Spencer made his second play, and you made your second play; moving your King’s Bishop to C5. 

Spencer made his third play, and you made your third play; moving your Queen to F6. 

Spencer made his fourth play and you decided it was time to show him how it’s really done so you took your Queen and moved it to F2. 

“Checkmate,” You say, putting your pieces down. “I beat you in four moves.” 

“Oh my god! No way!” Morgan says flipping out. “Haha, what just happened?!” 

“What?” You hear Spencer whisper. 

“JJ,” Emily spoke up. “Pinch me because I might be asleep,” JJ laughs. 

“Em, your very much awake and Y/n just beat Spencer,” She smiles. 

“Atta girl,” Morgan says high fiving you.   

“Well played Y/n,” Hotch smiled at you. 

“How di-” Spencer looks up at you and then back down at the board. “I never lose,” Spencer pulled the small board away from you and looked at the pieces. You could see the gears in Spencer’s brain were really turning trying to figure out how you beat him. 

 You look up at Rossi who has a smirk on his face as he knows the trick you just pulled. He raised his glass up and you ever so slightly nod, watching him take a sip. 

Everyone got up and went back to doing their own stuff as you sat there for a while watching Spencer figure out your moves. 

“Well that was fun maybe we should play again sometimes,” You say getting up but Spencer didn’t acknowledge you at all. You shake your head as you walk over to where JJ and Emily were and took a seat. 

** 

Morgan puts down a cup of tea for Spencer and he looks up from his book.

“So is there anything you want to tell me?” Spencer looks over at Morgan with a confused look. 

“No.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yeah, why are you asking?” 

“Because it’s obvious Reid.” 

“What is?” 

“That you like Y/n,” Spencer almost chokes on his tea. 

Spencer shakes his head. “You don’t know what your talking about.”  

“Oh come on kid, we all saw how you were looking at her. I mean, she is pret-” Morgan leaned over to his right and noticed you laughing with your head back at something Rossi was saying. “She’s perfect for you.” 

Spencer turned his head and instantly felt himself wanting to exposed seeing you smiling, as you were wrapped in a cozy blanket. As Spencer turns back to face Morgan he couldn’t help but smile a little. 

“I mean she beat you in chess, if I were you that’s not a woman I would want to lose. Just imagine all the other things she’s good at,” Spencer rolled his eyes at Morgan’s stupid comment. “Go for it kid, before it’s too late.” 

** 

After you made it back to the BAU, the team finished up their paperwork and headed out for the night. You grabbed your stuff and made your way to the elevator. 

As you were about to step inside you heard someone yell your name.  You turn around to see Spencer, walking up to you. 

“You lied to me earlier,” Spencer breathed, wrapping his bag around himself as you looked at him, confused. 

“About what?” 

“That you didn’t know how to play chess.” 

You smile at him “Well I guess you learned something new about me today,” You made your way inside the elevator but Spencer stops you again. 

“Who taught you to play like that?”

“It’s kind of hard for me not to learn when I was around my father who was a professional chess player.” 

“Your father played professional chess?” 

“For 36 years.” 

“No wonder,” Spencer says, nodding. 

“Why are you surprised, Spencer?” You ask. 

“What do you mean?”

“The day I joined the team, Garcia was asking me all these questions and I had mentioned that my father was a professional chess player and that I play too. I thought you would have caught my lie earlier.” 

From the moment you walked through the BAU doors all of Spencer’s knowledge and common sense flew out the window. He hadn’t seen anyone nearly as nerdy as him and he was fascinated at how much random stuff you knew about. 

Spencer’s liked you for months but he always pushed his feelings aside because he knew that he worked with you and that telling you how he feels would make things messy between you two. He never thought he would have a chance with you or that you would ever be interested in him. 

You snap your fingers to get Spencer’s attention; “You started staring off into space.” 

“Um, so sorry, I ju-” Spencer clears his throat.

Go for it kid, before it’s too late. 

Morgan’s words were ringing in Spencer’s ear. If Spencer didn’t tell you how he really felt about you, then he’ll never be able to tell you. 

“Would yo-you lik-like to go-” Spencer stopped mid-sentence and turned his back to you but you quickly grabbed onto his arm. 

“Wait,” You stood in front of Spencer.  “Don’t walk away before hearing my answer,” Spencer was confused. “Yes, yes I will go on a date with you.” 

“How did you know that’s what I was going to ask you?” 

“Well,” You move closer to Spencer. “I never told anyone on the team but I’m actually psychic,” Spencer looks down at you and pulls back a little. 

“No your not.” 

“I am,” You nod your head. 

“There’s no way.” 

“Do you want me to tell you what you’re thinking about at this very moment?” 

Spencer folds in arms. “Sure.” 

“You feel bad that you started to ask me out and then you got nervous and turned your back on me. But you’ve also figured out where you’re taking me for our first date.” 

“Oh yeah, where?” 

“The museum.” 

Spencer looked at you in shock. “Do you believe me now?” 

“I don-” 

“Do you ever why I always finish the rest of everyone’s sentences all the time? It’s because I literally know what their thinking and I can’t help myself,” The look on Spencer’s face was absolutely priceless. “See! This is exactly why I don’t tell people, they get all quiet and creeped out. Just like what your doing right now.” 

You and Spencer just looked at each other for a while until you couldn’t hold in your laughter. You placed your right hand over your chest and grabbed onto Spencer’s arm, trying to control your laughter. 

“You should have seen your face, Spencer! Oh my god,” You say trying to catch your breath. “I didn’t actually think you were going to go fall for that. I’ve tried to do that on so many other people and they’ve nev-” You were cut off when you felt Spencer’s soft lips on yours. 

Spencer pushed you against the wall, as you felt your elbow hit the elevator button, the doors opened and Spencer pushed you inside, pushing the stop button where you both felt the elevator jolt. 

Spencer pulled back for air, as you both just looked at each other.

The lust in Spencer’s eyes made you want him even more than before. 

You leaned in and kissed Spencer again and felt like the world fell apart. It was slow, soft, and comforting in ways you could never describe. Spencer’s hand rested just below your ear, his thumb caressing your cheek as both of yours breathes mingled. You ran your hand down his back, pulling him closer until there was no space left between you two, you could feel the beating of his heart against your chest. 

You pulled back for air as your hands now tightly gripped at his jacket. 

“Who knew you were such a good kisser.”

“I have secrets of my own,” Spencer whispers sending chills down your back. 

“I’m sure you do,” You say kissing Spencer’s cheek. “So when are going on our first date?” 

“I don’t know yet.” 

“I like surprises.” 

“Then it’ll be a surprise.” 

“I’m looking forward to it then,” You smile. 

“You beat me by using the Scholar’s Mate trick.” 

“I did,” You said proudly. 

“Well played.” 

“My father taught me well,” Spencer smiles. 

“I still need a rematch,” You look smirk at him. 

“Fine,” You sigh. “But like I said earlier don’t hold your breath.” 

** 

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in - Morrie Schwartz

[elyvorg]

elyvorg’s Great Ace Attorney Liveblog - Case 2-3 Part 1

This is a transcript of a liveblog that I originally did on Discord, having played a fan translation of the first game years ago and knowing a spoiler for the second game. I do not recommend following along with this on your first playthrough!

[[Please also bear in mind that I’ve long since finished the game by now, so if past-me wildly misinterprets something here (and I often did), no need to correct me, I already know!]]

Live reactions: 2-3, beginning

elyvorg

alright I'm doing it I'M GOING IN

Bench

Have fun!

elyvorg

before I do, just a little prediction for totally no reason whatsoever that this is also going to end up being my favourite case 3 in any game

elyvorg

clearly the important article on the back of this newspaper is... the lost cat!

the person in the article photo who's not van Zieks is wearing a mask and a hood. could that be Kazuma in disguise?

pfffft the way Iris's hat covers her round poofy pigtails

what the heck do you mean you know about Kazuma's real mission, Stronghart? ¬.¬

IS THAT HOODED PERSON KAZUMA

I'm jumping on this idea so quickly, for the record, because one of the many Wild Ideas I had about how this reunion might go down is that Kazuma might be in disguise somehow and then we do a Great Deduction to deduce his identity based on the way he reacts to Ryunosuke's presence. I would love it if I'm right about that.

haha, the prosecutor has a chess set in his office!

also an endless supply of glasses and bottles, of course, because he keeps smashing them repeatedly in every trial

love that they put in a silly nod to that

yes van Zieks, it's clearly all Ryunosuke's fault that you have no choice but to smash your poor glasses

ooh, the defendant is van Zieks's friend! ...not the Japanese one, but another one, still.

gonna suck for him to prosecute a friend of his, ouch.

aww, he's actually cool with being thought of as a killer for the sake of stopping crimes!

"there's merit in reminding yourself of who helped you become what you are today," says van Zieks as I present the armband to him. I feel like he's thinking about something personal there.

aww, I got an achievement for doing that!

why is this guy who I'm like 90% sure is Kazuma learning to be a prosecutor? :O

OH THAT IS SO HIM I saw the way he turned his head those were his mannerisms!!!!

please can we Great Deduce this it'd be delightful

RYUNOSUKE CAN TELL HE'S FAMILIAR

HE CAN TELLLLLL

OF COURSE HIS BEST FRIEND WOULD SPOT THE SAME MANNERISMS

oh hey we sure are talking to the university friend of this mysterious and imposing prosecutor, huhhhhh that's a parallel

GINAAAAAAA

this case is already great on so many levels

she's a detectiiiiiiive

(this was also something I'd been accidentally spoiled for, entirely separately, but that makes me no less happy to see it!)

oh no she promised Iris to look for her father, ooouuuuch that's not gonna end well

Bench

: >

elyvorg

she's so happy and proud of herself!!!! :3

waaaaiiiit, bombing the Crystal Tower was what Vilen Borshevik wanted to do, maybe this has something to do with him?

Great Deduction time! ...But not the one I wanted, here's hoping it's not the only one in this case.

Bench

Wait, I don't remember this one. What are you currently doing?

elyvorg

The waxwork one.

Bench

Ah, yeah.

Forgot about that.

elyvorg

ooh van Zieks's brother was murdered. Yeah this case is really racking up the interesting facts about him, isn't it.

aww van Zieks coming to talk to his friend in prison but not actually facing him for the entire conversation

Live reactions: 2-3, first trial day

elyvorg

Gina's gonna testify! In like a normal, non-defendant, non-perjury way! :3

Bench

:D

elyvorg

oh hey I just noticed in a zoom-out shot how most of the balloons Lune is holding are red and blue, but then there's one green one, just like in the actual case! Fun detail.

Bench

Oh, that's cool! I never noticed!

elyvorg

what do you mean my client's just decided to confess

Is he protecting somebody else? that'd be the only reason to, right?

or is he just... protecting his science. my dude. my dude, please.

has van Zieks been trying to insist the teleportation really happened all along to help out his friend? That'd be pretty adorable.

THE TRUST THEME AGAIN i love this so much

Susato!!!

(okay so for a moment I may have thought that unidentified voice was Kazuma but shush)

also I love Susato's Objection theme

Susato being here means she's also going to be present for The Identification Of Kazuma, whenever that happens (soooooon, pleeeeaaaase)

pfft, Susato gives happy-to-see-you Susato Takedowns instead of hugs, I see

also rip to Susato spending literally half of her past year on a boat going in one direction or another

...our tale was about to take yet another extraordinary turn.

YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT WAS

Live reactions: 2-3, second investigation day

elyvorg

oh, if she's here for the forensic science thing, did her dad come too? and maybe Rei as well?

I figured Susato's dad may have had some involvement in Hound of the Baskervilles and that's how she knew!

MISS BRETT WAS "A SHIN"

wait no

please don't tell me her first name was Asa

would they seriously

(then again I guess Asa Shinn isn't any worse than Shelly DE KILLER)

okay so, Kazuma, Shinn, and Wilson all being on the Secret List of Names make some kind of sense because they all seem(ed) to have some kind of secret missions. But why the hell's Gregson on there? Does he also have more to him than he's letting on?

hmmmmm Kazuma's body disappeared what a mysterious surprise :o

Susato: "Just thinking about the possibility [of Kazuma being alive] pains me. So very much."

yeah girl I've been there too

WAIT THEY'RE SAYING SHOLMES WOULD HAVE FUCKING KNOWN THE WHOLE TIME AND JUST HID IT

was it him who hid it and not Hosonaga?

aaaaaaa Susato's terrified of having hope

Ryunosuke do you wanna tell her about the guy you met yesterday who gave you Vibes, I think that might be pertinent to mention right now

listen. listen, I know we're supposed to go and like, investigate and prove our client didn't do a murder or whatever. But I really just want to go to van Zieks's office, drag Sholmes along possibly, and do some deduction. Everything else feels significantly less important right now.

oh you cheeky fucking game, you're literally barring me from going to the prosecutor's office right now, I see exactly what you're doing

Is Strongheart the Reaper? He really seems to hate criminals.

aww, Harebrayne insists that his friend believed in him! :3

I bet he did, too!

my appreciation of van Zieks keeps rising and rising, he is Good

believe in your old friend who's become a mysterious scary prosecutor for reasons you don't quite understand, dammit

dude, Harebrayne, this guy blindfolds you to take you to his workshop and it doesn't cross your mind that that's just a little bit sus?

Gregson's being transferred! Huh, maybe he does have a secret mission that makes him worthy of somehow being on the Secret Names List

(still weird that two of the people on that list were clearly not on the same side, given one of the murdered the other!)

aww, he's grown fond of Gina

GINA'S GOT A PUPPY :3

(another thing I knew from spoilers - that's what I get for trying to look up fanart of Gina after finishing GAA1 back last time - but still, PUPPY)

aww, she thinks van Zieks would be a decent boss!

(I hope so, given he's apparently the only company Kazuma's had for like, months)

:3 her puppy friend's going to help!

you know, I wonder. Van Zieks said before that he kept choosing to face Ryunosuke in court because he reminded him of his Japanese ex-friend. Except, van Zieks also literally has a Japanese guy as his apprentice, it turns out. So is that really why? Or did Kazuma ask him to face Ryunosuke in court, so that he could have a way to hear about how his friend had been doing?

van Zieks's brother's death was ten years ago... the timing would add up with when Hound of the Baskervilles happened, no?

OH HELLO GUESS WHO'S HERE

Susato can just Tell, too, can't she

ghhhhhh he pretended he didn't know them and just LEFT, my heart

oh, only three months ago? I wonder where he's been for the other few months.

oh

oh he's got amnesia

oh shit that changes everything

Bench

: >

elyvorg

(this is going to be ADORABLE)

(though I did really dig the idea I had until now that Kazuma was himself and knew perfectly well it was Ryunosuke and just had to pretend he didn't the entire time they were in the same room, aaaaa)

he's gonna be in COURT

oh HELL YEAH

this is gonna be ADORABLE

or wait

does he actually have amnesia?

is he just pretending to?

kazumaaaaa

what the fuck is with Sithe's daughter, she's terrifying

Bench

Hehehe

elyvorg

wait, so, if Kazuma doesn't actually have amnesia and is only pretending to, is that gonna be a Great Deduction? (we're clearly past the point of using one to simply identify him now.) I'd love that possibly even more than the original idea.

I honestly would have been willing to buy Sholmes not realising Kazuma wasn't dead, given we've now seen two other cases of it

also Strogenov moved his body, how did he not realise he wasn't dead

i s'pose their logic is "he's a detective, he should have checked properly", eh

...but then again he didn't check if Shamspeare was dead, did he?

Bench

Nope!

elyvorg

okay, ANTI-GRAVITY definitely in the running for Wackiest Great Deduction

ryunosuke are you sure you're not trying to steal sholmes's spotlight in these, it's kind of literally what you always do

pffft, love Ryunosuke's anecdote about his lottery ticket shenanigans

welp there was me casually trying every wrong answer in the Great Deduction while a literal timebomb ticked away in the background, no biggie

Bench

: >

elyvorg

D:

(^ re: the other timebomb)

Bench

Hehehehe.

How do you like the steampunk cyborg so far?

elyvorg

oh, he's fun. I mean, creepy and totally the murderer, but very fun animations.

The animators had a Time with some of the characters in this game.

elyvorg

ohhhh, and while I'm here talking about the animations, since it's now completely unambiguous that it's Kazuma under the mask so this is safe to talk about, I love how I could notice that fact through the subtlest of animations. He was there standing still and I sort of stared at his chin going "well it could be him, but I suppose it could still technically be someone else with a similar facial structure", and then he moved his head like an inch to look at van Zieks and my brain immediately went "IT'S HIM" without a single shred of doubt, just from the familiarity of the way he did that tiny movement. It's so good.

You mentioned elsewhere that GAA2 does some really neat foreshadowing and stuff with its animations; I assume this is one of the things you were thinking of!

Bench

Yep!

elyvorg

Ryunosuke still instinctively leans his hand on Kazuma's sword when he's feeling confident even though he knows Kazuma's rrrrright there opposite him

(not that I was expecting the animation to change, but it hits different now!)

elyvorg

man Kazuma's pokerfacing so hard as he watches his best friend run the whole spectrum from being an awesome and competent lawyer to freaking the hell out. (Ryunosuke and Susato seem to be buying the amnesia story for now but I for one am 100% convinced he's faking it.)

Interim thoughts: faking amnesia? and a Prediction

elyvorg

Am going to continue the trial soon, but first, I have been having a lot of Thoughts and Feelings about the current Kazuma situation that I wanted to get off my chest before there are any possible new developments in it. So hold tight for a textwall, big elyvorgramble incoming:

A rundown of the evidence that Kazuma's faking the amnesia, apart from that one comment Susato made that kinda hinted at it, which she's since decided to brush off: If Kazuma actually had amnesia, he'd want to figure out who he is, so he wouldn't have tried to leave as soon as Ryunosuke and Susato asked to talk to him, and he certainly wouldn't have reacted to Susato calling his name by going, "what are these meaningless syllables? they couldn't possibly have anything to do with me, anyway bye." An actual amnesiac would react to that situation with, "Is that my name? Do you know me?" and would want to hear more. Also, the very fact that it's the way he moves and holds himself that's causing his friends to recognise him is proof of it, because if he didn't remember who he was, he wouldn't have any of that conviction and he wouldn't hold himself in the same way. (We've seen from you-know-who in another Ace Attorney game that actually-amnesiac characters have completely different and unrecognisable mannerisms!!!)

But anyway, not only am I convinced that Kazuma's faking the amnesia, it's also what I really want to be true rather than the alternative. If he has amnesia then that's potential for an adorable scene where they help him remember through the power of friendship, but that's pretty much it; he's otherwise essentially a passive pawn with no agency while in that state, and that's way less interesting. I want Kazuma to be still secretly working on his mission right now, even if that means he has to put on a metaphorical as well as literal mask and convince everyone around him that he doesn't remember a thing. Van Zieks seems to genuinely believe he has amnesia; even Stronghart might, though I'm unsure on that one. If whoever Kazuma's working against thinks he's just some random apprentice with no identity or personal motives due to the amnesia, they're going to underestimate him and he can strike when they least expect it.

And I have a lot - like, a lot - of Feelings about Kazuma putting himself in that situation, because it must be so lonely for him, not able to show anybody at all who he really is and how he really feels. He's sacrificing so much for whatever this is. I want his friends to give him a hug (except for the part where they can't because that would break the whole facade he's working so hard to keep up, aaaagh).

And of course, he must have fled from Ryunosuke and Susato trying to talk to him because he was terrified that if he interacted with his friends again after all this time, he wouldn't be able to hide the fact that he remembers them and the whole mission would be ruined. Plus, ruining the mission or not, he probably wants them to think he's amnesiac rather than the alternative, which is that he's lying to and hiding things from them on purpose, including literally the fact that he was even alive. That'd make them feel like he'd betrayed them, and he wouldn't want to hurt them like that. (Oh hey it's that trust theme again!!!)

(And actually, I bet Susato and Ryunosuke brushed off the vague implication that he's faking the amnesia because they don't want to believe that he'd be lying to them, and despite it all it's less painful for them to assume that he simply doesn't remember. Aaaaa these friends, believe in him, it's going to be okay.)

[[lol, there was no actual “vague implication that he’s faking the amnesia” at all, that was me reading way too much into a single thought of Ryunosuke’s, I’ll mention that bit later]]

I was actually thinking about something along these lines back while I was having a bajillion different thoughts about how Kazuma coming back might play out. The big focus on the trust theme, and especially the reminiscence from a scene in 1-5 about how Ryunosuke felt when Kazuma believed in him back in 1-1 (he didn't even think Kazuma would, despite them being best friends!), made me think that it'd be thematically fucking beautiful if we got to have the same sort of situation with the roles reversed.

What if Ryunosuke has to defend Kazuma, except not only does it look like he did a murder, but he's also been keeping so many secrets from them to the point that it's perfectly reasonable for Kazuma to assume Ryunosuke would never believe in him now, and for Ryunosuke to legitimately struggle to do so. Because of this thought, I'd had this possible idea of "what if Kazuma's basically acting like some kind of spy", not even for plot reasons (though those fit with it), but just for narrative reasons because it'd fit with the themes so well, and it's starting to look like that really is roughly what's going on with him! I am so thrilled. (I did not remotely expect the prosecutor thing, though, nor the faking amnesia, which are so many more reasons for this to feel like essentially a kind of betrayal, and aaaa.)

So I really hope Kazuma gets himself accused of murder, probably in case 5, so that Ryunosuke has to choose to believe in his best friend anyway despite everything, simply because he wants to, and it can be ADORABLE and FRIENDS.

[jostepherjoestar]

hey cozy! ik requests are closed at the moment so u dont have to answer this im only sending it so i dont forget the idea! u can answer once requests are open again haha so like what about hcs for la squadra members actually playing yakuza? im not a yakuza player but my friend is and im trying to get into it!

La Squadra playing Yakuza 0 HC’s

AAA! Anon I love you for requesting this!! I know the niche in the Yakuza and JJBA venn diagram is kinda small :0 but here we go regardless because this mixture has literally been my shit for a year so far!! Hc’s for them playing Yakuza 0 since that’s a very nice entry point 💖✨(also deffo give the game a try it will BREAK UR HEART)

also maybe Yakuza 0 spoilers?

Risotto

Risotto will be hard to convince to do anything fun or relaxing since he’s always working. After a loooooot of nagging he will finally give in and say he’ll play a chapter or two.

Silent standoff with Kiryu because Risotto can R E L A T E.

Is surprised that he likes the fighting mechanics and quickly picks up the combos, literally obliterates enemies with his skills.

Gets sucked into the story and will play more than two chapters because he just needs to know what the fuck is going on.

Risotto is BAD at the karaoke mini game at first, not really having much experience with games in general, especially rhythm games. He gets a little better over time but still can’t get over a 92 score.

When he gets to Majima he will  R E L A T E again. He feels a connection between the complicated situations in the game and his own work life, he’s glad that it’s fictional because he’s already feeling a bit stressed thinking about being in those situations.

Will finish the game pretty quickly, doesn’t do too much side quests or minigames because he loves the story too much. He does like the Cabaret Club Czar minigame, he enjoys talking to the girls but won’t finish it. Ignores the existence of Pocket Racing.

Formaggio

Is into casually gaming every once in a while and is open to the game but isn’t really sure he will like the story.

Oh but he falls hard. He’s totally in love with this game, literally loses his shit at the end of every chapter.

Will get distracted and play way too much side content instead of the main story despite wanting to know what happens next. Will also ragequit if he can’t get the hit in baseball or grab the plushy in the claw machine.

Likes the silliness of the side quests but gets a little whiplashed from the emotional tone changes in the main story.

POCKET RACING IS HIS SHIT! Will complete the Real Estate business thing just so he can spend all his money on car parts.

Is pretty good at karaoke and will start randomly singing the songs throughout the day. Also really loves Cabaret Club Czar and grind till he finishes it. 

Formaggio is a loud gamer, will say his thoughts out loud and attract an audience from his housemates.

Is a literal mess at the end. WHY CAN’T WE HAVE NICE THINGS?

Illuso

Doesn’t really game but like Risotto will finally cave so whoever’s nagging will finally shut up.

Is suspicious of every character and what their part is in the story. Has a bunch of predictions at the start, actually got a few things right before knowing what was up.

Really loves Nishiki and wishes he could be friends with him in real life. Does still think he’s hotter than Nishiki even though he has great hair.

Doesn’t bother too much with doing a lot of side quests and finds it really annoying he can’t run through the map without getting into a fight every 2 seconds.

Oof he doesn’t really like Majima but gets where he comes from, just doesn’t really relate to him.

Gets annoyed by Kiryu’s denseness sometimes.

Enjoys the story but doesn’t really get emotionally attached.

Even though he will have enjoyed it, he won’t play any other games from the franchise, he has better stuff to do.

Prosciutto

Prosciutto is not a gamer AT ALL, has a hard time getting into it and barely understands the controls.

Will offer live snide commentary about the stupid stuff that happens.

He does enjoy going ham every once in a while once he gets beast mode.

He tries out almost everything available sidecontent-wise and eating at restaurants just to see what it’s like.

Does get bored easily and doesn’t care if he finishes the game or not.

Well shit... he dropped the game before he even got into it.

Don’t bother him again with playing games unless it’s cards, he’s an old man like that.

Pesci

Pesci enjoys gaming every once in a while and is actually pretty good at them. He can really lose himself in them, fully concentrated and having a lot of fun.

He loves Kiryu and looks up to him, he can relate to Kiryu being a bit lost as well. Majima on the other hand is very cool to him but he doesn’t really get his transition.

Will love playing Cabaret Club and completes it. He truly does his best to talk with the hostesses, making it practice for when he actually has to talk to girls.

Has a crush on all of the girls, if they’re somewhat nice to him he’ll think about them for days.

Pesci is pretty good at fighting in the Colosseum as well, enjoying being able to focus on successfully beating the hell out of those idiots.

Wants to swoop Makoto off her feet and speed off to safety. Cheers her on quietly and cries whenever bad things happen.

Absolutely crushed by the ending but will still want to continue playing the other games in the franchise.

Melone

Did someone say new hyper-fixation? Because it sure sounded like it!!

Melone plays to game from start to end fully into it and only wanting more. In between jobs he’ll spend most of his time playing, fully immersed.

He wants to 100% the game at any cost, so he will do premium adventure to get all the achievements.

Sometimes he isn’t even having fun anymore, just doing the things he needs to get that 100%. Will have heard every single karaoke song a million times and still listens to them by choice.

He looooves playing Cabaret Club Czar and doesn’t even need a guide to know how to get the most out of his hostesses. He’d actually love to manage a hostess club now that he thinks about it.

Will get a crush on Majima, will cry at all the horrible stuff that happens and he will stan him even harder in the end.

Melone is already planning his trip to Tokyo for a thorough tour of Kabukicho (Kamurocho), won’t even need a guide since he’s memorised the map.

He will also purchase all the other games available in the franchise. Honestly he’s never been this into any game before but he’s so glad to have found it.

Ghiaccio

Just like Formaggio he is a loud gamer. This game will get on his nerves, especially since he isn’t immediately good at fighting.

No matter how angry he gets he will NOT quit! Gritting his teeth and slamming the controller but HE WILL CONTINUE FUUU-

Can relate to Majima a lot, sometimes he feels like another pawn in a game he has no power in. Maybe it inspires him to be more rebellious or let go of mental restraints.

He will try for hours on end to get a 100 in karaoke. When he finally gets it, expect a loooot of yelling and whooping.

Secretly loves dressing up the hostesses but is too embarrassed to play too much Cabaret Club in case someone walks by.  

Ghiaccio will also get annoyed at Kiryu’s sporadic stupidity.

He’ll also spend a lot of time on Pocket Circuit but he won’t finish it once it gets hard, unlike the fighting in the game, he will quit this minigame.

He won’t let anyone see or know but he sobbed like a baby at the ending. He really liked the story and got attached to these wonderfully weird characters.

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

This isn’t really an ask but I wanted to share something I was thinking about with you guys who show your sincere love/admiration for BTS in all you post —

Watching the past BTS Run episodes and the behind videos makes me feel a certain way not only because we get to see the boys relax and have fun (even if they get frustrated a bit haha *looking at HS and JM*), but also because I wonder how often they got to play around and do these kinds of things during the age most people do? I’d say teens and early-20s is the age when we do silly things like play mini games with friends, go to amusement parks for the first time, take a stab at cooking — and yet they were working their hardest and truly shedding blood, sweat, and tears during that time (thinking about JK makes me incredibly soft because he really started young). This show really just allows them to have fun. And it’s frustrating to see that others called the show terrible and said it was something the boys were forced to do and didn’t truly enjoy (the article saying otherwise was a blessing).

Watching “special guests” also be on the show I think highlights this feeling (of them enjoying doing these kinds of things) even more! You can see the excited ness and almost shy manners when they have others on (the voice acting, T1, and recent cooking ep come to mind). I’m looking forward to future episodes! Are there any things/games/themes you’d like to see the boys do on a BTS Run episode?

(Ah, sorry, I guess there is an ask — only if you two wish to answer it!)(Catch me listening to Young Forever now in my feels 😭)

I’ve been sitting on this ask forever and I’m really sorry for that! Especially since it’s such a good one, so thank you so much for sending it in. Maybe that’s why it took me so long, since I kind of wanted to think about it a little and offer something (hopefully) good as response.

RUN certainly offers them a bit of time in their schedules to just be silly together, play mini games and other things they normally wouldn’t really be able to do in their own time, like the zombie game episode or try a flower class. In one of the episodes of Break the Silence Yoongi spoke about how things that are mundane for us are special to them since they don’t get to do them without putting thought into how to pull it off; Seokjin spoke about how while his friends said that he’ll never have to worry about rent, he argued that while that may be true, they will never have to worry about something as trivial as walking down the street, or in one of the Bring the Soul (if I remember currently) episodes where Seokjin was apologetic about wanting to visit the zoo in Berlin since it meant that he had to take so many people with him since they were abroad, though it’s less of an issue while they’re in Korea it seems.

It’s curious how different that experience is for the members though, I mean, just look at their vacation in 2019 and how different it went for Namjoon and Jimin. While Jimin was quickly discovered and followed in Paris and Russia, Namjoon toured through Europe in a way that while ARMY from the respective countries knew about it, they kept it so low key everyone else had no idea until Namjoon posted about it himself. On the other hand, except for their finishing trip, we have no idea what Yoongi did during their vacation, or Hobi besides his CNS collab.

But, generally, it’s rather clear that none of the members would be able to just show up at Everland (an amusement park in Korea, the place where they filmed the America’s Got Talent performance of Dynamite) and have a good time without immediately being spotted, or having to heavily rely on disguises (and likely still worry about it not being enough and what would happen if they were discovered, therefore defeating the entire point of going to a place like that in the first place).

There are two sides to every medal. While yes they had and continue to have to give up on certain things, experiences and freedoms that seem so normal to the average person, something we don’t even have to think about much or can just do whenever we want (like going to the cinema at peak hours or go to McDonald’s (even one of the TXT members couldn’t do that without pictures being secretly taken of him and posted on sns and TXT isn’t nearly as famous as BTS)), they also gain a lot in terms of money but also experiences no one but them will have in such a way. They get to live their dream of being artists, of giving giant concerts all across the globe, of sharing their music with millions of people and bringing us happiness and comfort when we need it most.

More below the cut:

In one of the episodes of Bring the Soul Tae spoke about how they had the opportunities to go higher quicker, but they refused, wanted to do things their own way in their own time. It isn’t like they’ve lost control of their lives, like they wouldn’t be able to do things if they truly wanted—after all in the Bring the Soul episode where Seokjin went to the Zoo, Hobi could also walk around in the area close to the arena where they performed largely without being bothered (which might be due to his heavy disguise and security, but you get the point)—but there are limitations, and in a way, it really is a shame, but at the end of the day, many of these things are ones they’ll still be able to do whenever their fame will calm down, or fade away one day in the future. Cinemas and flower classes and amusement parks won’t just disappear, and they are certainly things you can still do once you’re thirty or forty years old, or even older than that.

But, going back to RUN, the show certainly offers them the opportunity to not have to wait until their fame passes, gives them a chance to experience and try things while also sharing that with us, work and pleasure at once. Though it’s clear that perhaps filming episodes isn’t always at the top of their priorities and I can imagine there are things they’d sometimes rather do—I mean episodes that we’ve seen being filmed in hotel rooms between concerts where I’m sure they’d rather spend the day relaxing, though they likely still prefer filming RUN over giving yet another boring and mindless interview in English, since let’s be honest, those aren’t…great, usually.

When it comes to guests on RUN, be it in form of people like the T1 members or instructors like the tennis players or the auntie teaching them how to make kimchi, it’s always so funny to me to see how humble they are about their own fame, how they get all shy as though they are meeting someone exceedingly famous instead of them being the most famous people in any room they enter. Looking at how they speak of their goals and achievements, it’s easy to see though that they’ve carefully worked on not allowing their fame to get to their heads, to remain grounded and as connected to reality as possible despite being them and how different their lives are from those of normal people. I mean, how many of us can say they were mobbed while trying to buy an iPad?

It's also so beautiful and remarkable to me how people who have met them spoke about them, like Isaac the florist who spoke about how interested they all were in the flowers and truly participated and listened, that they were extremely friendly, kind and polite, and if that doesn’t sound like Bangtan, I don’t know what does. I think this is also one of the reasons why they managed to get to where they are now, why they are so strong as a group, why they still enjoy spending time together, still manage to get even closer and deepen their friendships even after a decade has passed—they’ve remained human despite everything they’ve gone through, despite the heights they keep on reaching, despite all the awards and achievements, the number ones and sold out tours.

Tae said the following about V and his relation to Kim Taehyung in Break the Silence: Persona (the movie):

I think V can show parts of Kim Taehyung and parts of V, but Kim Taehyung can’t show V. Kim Taehyung is Kim Taehyung. Kim Taehyung is someone who’s still filled with a lot of curiosity and he’s inquisitive about a lot of things. There are so many things he wants to do. Also I think there’s so many things he is curious about.

This is the important stuff, and while I don’t have such quotes for the other members, I’m sure it’s true for them as well. Even after all this time Tae is still curious about the world, still has things he’d like to do, he’s still himself even while he stands on stage as V, hasn’t lost himself to the stage persona and the fame. We know Namjoon had a whole crisis about where RM ends and Kim Namjoon begins, and if they really are two separate things, if Namjoon even still exists or if RM has taken over his personality. I’m sure all of them had their respective moment of trying to determine who they are as people, who they are as artists, and who they want to be when they look in the mirror, how to not lose the person below the persona. We’ve also had Jungkook question his worth outside of being a BTS member, something I’m sure all of them also experienced in one way or another since it seems like such an inevitable question to ask yourself after you’ve been part of a group for so long, and yet despite it all, they all still want to stay together as BTS for as long as they can, despite mixtapes and thoughts of wanting to at least be able/confident enough to lead a concert on their own (Jungkook BE Weverse interview).

RUN gives them a chance to be them, to have fun, to be silly, to not have to constantly be on guard, to have fun in an environment where they can feel safe and are surrounded by people who have been with them for a long time and have their best interest in mind as well. There was a whole Weverse Magazine article about it, which I also wrote a post about. And yet there are people who want to take this away from them because they don’t like it while disregarding what BTS themselves want. I won’t call them ARMY since most of them are solos/akgae/mantis, and those are anything but ARMY, they’re not even fans of the one member they claim to stan, are merely caricatures of “fans” who want to “save” them, or rather take control of their lives so BTS would act exactly how they want them to. It’s obsessive and wrong, and it crosses every line and boundary of what it means to be anyone’s fan. As fans it isn’t our job to decide what is and isn’t good for their careers. We don’t know anything about the industry, while they’ve been in it since 2010, and we know nothing about their contracts or what happens behind the scenes.

As long as they are happy and have fun, who are we to question it? I don’t know about you but Bangtan have looked nothing but happy and like they were having a good time in the last couple of episodes, even when they were frustrated because they couldn’t pass a game. After all learning tennis properly and over a longer period of time was their own idea, not anyone else’s, but that’s something those people don’t want to hear anything about or will just twist somehow to fit their narrative. It truly is a shame, but also, it’s their loss if they’d rather make themselves miserable than spend forty minutes laughing along with Bangtan as they’re trying to play the harmonica or trying to cook something with less than stellar cooking skills.

As for something I’d want to see them do on RUN, that’s tricky since there’s so much they’ve already done, but something that comes to mind would be even something as silly as sitting them down and having them try to recreate all the members, or one they chose at random, in The Sims 4. It could be hilarious, and we could see how differently they’d tackle something like it. Or have them decorate a house in Sims, which would be especially interesting with our resident lighting fixtures enthusiast Yoongi. Or maybe something to do with painting, like them attending a class or just attempting to draw the same object or person. (A2: maybe given them a wall and spray cans and have them do graffiti or a mural, or have them do each other’s hair and makeup (taking it serious, of course) for a photoshoot or something like that) Or maybe a Bangtan book club where they’d discuss the same book since it would be so interesting to see what different things each of the members would find in a book and their opinions etc.

The possibilities are endless and just like you I can’t wait to see what the future episodes of RUN will have, and especially the tennis match we’ll see in next week’s episode.

[tiramochi]

untitled goose game

t: we're home.  a: this is the rumoured trayastrimsa? it's empty and dead, how can it be the celestial's paradise. god of trayastrimsa: but my soul is not filled, it's still empty, what can fill my spirit? t: the only way you can fill a gap in one's heart, is with the heart of another person. t: the soul cannot be filled with tangible things, because it is born craving other souls. (big lore gap here ceebs) t: it's this place that changed me, since i saw this ideal country, i've always wanted to take asura here, and share everything with you. t: forget all the wars, and stay here with me. isn't that your wish? a: my wish is to personally bring about my desires with my own hands, i don't need a god to do it all for me. i: but there are some things that can't be obtained, even if one tries their best, yet in this unsullied heaven you can have everything you want. a: everything i want... asura's mom: asura, are you finally back? everyone's been waiting a long time for you. a: mother? asura's mom: taishakuten, did you guys come back together? it just so happened that your mother and brothers said they wanted to see you, so i said that if you still weren't back, i would go out to look for you. t: sorry to make you worry. asura & i just went boating out in the lotus pond, i also picked some lotus flowers for you. asura's mom: child, did asura tell you that i like flowers? t: because my mother also likes flowers, and she smiles when i give her lotus flowers. a: ...indeed, this is something you and i can't achieve with all our effort.  asura's mom: what's wrong with asura? he still refuses to look at me. is there anything urgent that hasn't yet been done? asura's mom: if that's the case, asura should go finish his own business, and i'll wait here. a: mother, i'm... not in a hurry, i'm just a little hot. a: taishakuten, let's go over there to cool down. asura said this abruptly, and pulled taishakuten away. a: taishakuten, what trick are you trying to pull again? t: i haven't done anything. but didn't i say, in trayastrimsa's spiritual sea there's no line between life and death, and no line between reality and dreams. t: you wanted to personally shape your own world, so this is the world you created. a: stop laughing. your family and mine have never known each other. how can your mother and brother be in my world? t: but you have me, in your world. t: if you don't believe it, asura, then look - isn't this like the hillside where we first met? a: ah? it seems a bit similar, but at that time there were corpses everywhere, and there wasn't such a large lotus pond. t: the look of spring flowers in full bloom isn't better than this, and also i really love lotus ponds. t: it would be great if i could build a house here, i really want to live forever in this beautiful scenery. a: you, build a house? in the past, the wings marched overnight and you couldn't even set up a tent. t: in that case, i had no choice but to let asura see my true abilities. as soon as he finished speaking, a marching tent appeared on the grass. t: this is the spiritual power of trayastrimsa, if there's anything you want, it will appear, and any wish you have will come true. t: asura, why don't you try it out? a: after so many years, i didn't expect you to be at the level of a tent. (help) t: if i put my true skills to use, it wouldn't be too difficult to build a house out of wood and stone. in the blink of an eye, there appeared a house of wood and stone exactly the same as the one in asura's childhood. the small house replaced the tent on the ground. a: i also want to raise geese. a goose pen & a dozen geese appeared. although asura was surprised, he quickly accepted this reality. t: why do you want to raise geese? a: they can mind the house, it's very useful, and also catch the insects in the paddy. t: haha, asura, in this spiritual sea, flowers never wither, everything is endless, and even the rain falling from the sky is sweet. t: the sun will never set, the crops will grow on their own, and the mountain streams are full of fine wine, how can there be theft. t: now that the house and yard are here, asura, why don't we live here? t: i'm hungry after rowing for so long. this is the first time i've seen such a stove. is it here to make a fire? a: that's a bellows, not a stove, put it down! t: then i'll leave the matter of making the fire to you, and i will invite you to taste my newly learned craft. a: can you cook? t: before i came here, i specifically asked the royal chef at the palace how to make lotus soup. he said it was very simple. i probed his heart, he was telling the truth. a: where are you going to get the lotus seeds. t: isn't there a big lotus pond by the door, the lotus there is so good, it's definitely tasty. a: but can you man the boat? t: didn't i go sailing in the sea of stars when i came here before? the pole boat in that clump of lotuses should be about the same. a: ...taishakuten, don't move, i will go pick a few lotus pods, remember in future to never go on a boat like that one, when there's nobody there. asura went to the pond in front of the door, and picked a few lotus pods with the boat. when he came back, asura saw smoke rising from the direction of the kitchen, and taishakuten ran out with a look of horror. t: i wanted to make a fire by myself, so i could get cooking when you came back, but i didn't expect... a: when i left, there was no firewood in the house, so what did you burn?! asura rushed into the kitchen. after extinguishing the fire, he pulled from the stove a half-burned wooden bellows. t: when i was marching back then, we used this to make the fire, i really didn't expect the fire to be this lively when i used the bellows. a: i was really careless to leave you in the kitchen. you go out and stand in the yard for me. however, when asura came back from cutting down some firewood, he found taishakuten being chased by a flock of geese in the yard. goose: honk t: aahhhhhhh! don't eat me! you can't eat my lotus seeds! asura help me! asura summoned his spiritual entity, took taishakuten and placed him on the roof. then he nimbly picked up the screaming geese, threw them back into the pen, and locked the gate. a: why on earth did you take them out? t: i heard them crying very pitifully, and they seemed to be hungry. t: so i opened the gate and went in to feed them. who knew they would want to eat my lotus seeds! a: you should have let them eat you. (fdnsjkfjsdghahaha) t: hey, don't go, let me down first! a: i think you should just stay up there. so taishakuten had to stay still on the roof, the white geese were still looking at him, and the sound of chopping firewood came in from the yard. after who knows how long, asura walked back out carrying the freshly cooked lotus seed soup, and then took taishakuten down from the roof. a: i've never seen someone who can make as much trouble as you, so much happened in just one day. t: i didn't expect the lotus seed soup cooked by asura to be so delicious, even the cooks of the royal palace couldn't produce such a good flavour! a: i think your taste has become more sophisticated over the years, you've forgotten the taste of starvation. only when you venture outside the city walls will you praise/appreciate the food of the common people. t: but asura likes spicy food, how can you be good at making lotus seed soup? a: though my taste differs from yours, my mother still liked those light, sweet things like normal celestials. a: in the past, when she was busy, i would cook according to her taste. after all, my taste is different from ordinary people, or perhaps it could be due to my unusual bloodline. t: no one here cares about your origins, there are no wars or other troubles. t: the dead can be resurrected, time can be turned back, misunderstandings can be solved, and regrets can be alleviated. t: stay here and live together with me, asura. a: now that you've found the world you'd been pursuing, now that you have everything you want, what do you want me to do? t: remember why the god of trayastrimsa created us? t: the heavens and the earth are enormous, yet they can be filled with mountains, and deep seas. yet loneliness cannot be filled t: without you, i would end up like that god. t: to commit the first sin, then pour my own tears and blood into the sea t: so please, please stay in my heaven, okay? a: you did those stupid things deliberately, to stall for time so i would stay, huh t: hahaha, fortunately, there's no night or day in this spiritual sea. in fact, asura stayed here for a long time. t: otherwise, if day and night changed, i wouldn't be able to fool you, asura. a: how long has it been? t: i don't know, but if you want to go back now, it must be too late. a: taishakuten. t: huh? a: geese won't eat raw lotus seeds that haven't been peeled. next time you lie, remember to think it through! t: what?! t: about this alone, i really didn't lie to you! if you don't believe me, i'll open the goose pen and prove it to you myself! a: taishakuten! sit down for me! goose: honk t: AHHHHHHHHH a: i think you should live on the roof. the two of them then settled down on the hillside facing the lotus pond, & stopped mentioning their past grudges. the once endless war seemed to have happened in another world. there was no autumn, winter, spring or summer, or night and day in trayastrimsa, and time flowed but never changed. most beautiful dreams are barely fulfilling, yet this one lasted until the end of the universe. taishakuten & asura spent hundreds of quiet, peaceful and comfortable years there, & in that time the sun had yet to set once. a: here you are clearly able to do what you want, but why can't you learn something so simple? a: for example, how to make a fire, how to fish, how to look for lotus roots in the mud, how to get along with the geese at the door. a: & for example, how to speak frankly to me. t: even in trayastrimsa, there are things that people can't imagine. t: like i can't imagine a taishakuten who's blunt and free-spoken, and the god of trayastrimsa can't imagine a self who is no longer lonely. a: this is like a dream of trayastrimsa's god.

[keisuke-akm]

Craving more Akigure content since anime is currently in a drought, more headcanon a please? uwu

Missing akigure as well haha ;w; 

Well, let’s go ♥ : 

eating habits : 

-Even if we would think Shigure is the whiny one about food, always asking for something he is craving, he is actually isn’t picky, whereas Akito, if she don’t want to eat something, she won’t. It’s a bad habit she took from the time she had a god complex, since nobody told her she had to make an effort. However, instead of screaming on people who did food she don’t like, she just won’t touch her plate. So Shigure bought some snack for her to eat before going to bed, in case she don’t eat at all. 

-Akito is not picky on vegetables, it’s more meat and fish she don’t like. She only eat her egg half boiled. She don’t like to chew. Shigure on the opposite, like meat raw. He don’t like fish because each time he eat one, he end up having way too much fishbone and it spoilt his appetite. 

-She often tease him about his luck with fishes, especially when are invited in a reception and that the main dish is fish. 

-When they are invited in reception or in restaurant for official meeting, the politeness ask people to finish their plates. However, it’s often too much for Akito, so when nobody is looking, Shigure take what’s left in her plate in his and eat everything. 

-She is shocked by how much he can eat, he often laugh it’s his dog stomach. 

Sleeping habits: 

-Akito sleep a lot, she goes sleep early (around 10 p.m when they don’t have sexual activities) and she would wake up late if they didn’t have any alarm. She can take naps during the afternoon as well, always when it’s summer. Shigure at the difference go to sleep really late, past 1 a.m and he totally isn’t a morning person. Also, when he done more than half of his work, he allow himself to join Akito in her nap. 

-I think I already said this headcanon, but i really love it ♥; Shigure always wrap his arms around Akito during his sleep to the point she can’t move nor turn around. She is stuck. It became worse when Shiki came in the picture because he is like his father and she find herself being a human pillow for her husband and son. 

-Their favorite sleeping position is spooning. She fall asleep on his arm and he, the nose in the crook of her shoulder, where he can smell her scent the best. He really love it when it’s still dampened from shower.

-It’s a specialized maid who is in charge to wake them up the morning, because they tend to ignore the alarm. Once they got Shiki, the boy took this role. 

-Akito tend to daze in the eyes empty for one minute before getting completely awake while Shigure is more to beg for ‘5 more minutes’ in the pillow. 

Leisure activities : 

-Of course, when Shigure have free time, he wants to read a bit of see his friends. When he is reading, he likes having Akito around. Like her napping of doing something. He knows it’s stupid, but it kind of reassure him to know she is safe. 

-Before having Shigure in, Akito never listened music out of traditional song play during new year banquet, because maids told her it’s loud and it’s bad for her. Shigure kind of suspected it but he was still shocked. He installed his cd players and they spent a whole afternoon to do nothing but listen songs, in aim to find something she would like. 

-However, Shigure is more a person to listen old songs like Sachiko Nishida; Akito often catch him humming ‘Acacia no ame ga yamu toki’ (When the rain of Acacia stop; it’s a melancholic love song about a person wondering if the loved one would think about you if you were to disappear. It’s really popular). When Shiki was born, he would always sing him Michiyo Azusa’s “Konnichiwa Akachan�� (Hello baby; it’s a song about a mother singing to her baby how happy she is to have her baby and how they make her and their father happy). Akito, with Saki, Tohru and Mine influence is more into popular song, she really like Perfume, her favorite is Natural ni Koishite (be naturally loving; it’s a simple love song. Shigure saw her moving her hips in rhythm when she sorting out paperworks when Kyary Pamyu Pamyu‘s ‘Ninja Re bang bang’ was on radio. She still denies. They both agree to say that Kenshi Yonezu is one of the best singer of the decade. 

-They don’t like sport, however, they don’t mind taking a walk for hours, especially in nature. Akito don’t like walking in city much, the pollution is bad for her health. So they often go and walk around field roads and at the beach. However, they won’t go near of Shigure’s old house forest, it bring Akito way too many bad memories about Tohru falling off the cliff. 

-They watch movies really casually. They don’t go in cinema, so they prefer watching the movies scheduled on tv. Akito devotes a hellish hate toward ads. Shigure tried to buy movie dvds, but it ended up forgotten and they never watch it.

-They don’t play much video games, but they are both nintendo only players. Akito is all about Animal Crossing (the island she made on new horizon have zodiac characters, but she quickly found new villagers and let them go. Her favorite is Fang). Shigure is really a casual player and it’s more Zelda and Mario. He also never finish game. 

-Shigure still write from time to time, but it’s really short stories when he have nothing else to do, when his imagination run wild. However, since he achieved his dreams, he find himself not having idea to write about anymore haha. He was sad about it. Akito noticed it and instead of saying something, she just went and hugged him. At this moment, he thought that even if he lost his inspiration for writing, he was really happy. When Akito got pregnant, his inspiration came back and he written so many stories for children. 

That’s all I have for the moment, maybe ask me later, i will give you more haha ♥

[za3k]

2020 Videogames

In 2020 I’m newly retired, so I’ve had free time. I think it’s fun to do reviews, so without further ado here’s every video game I played in 2020!

I recommend:

(4/5) Among Us – Very fun. It’s only fun with voice chat with friends, so I’ve only gotten to play once or twice. I’ve been watching it more than playing it. Also free to play for mobile gamers–I’m tired of the “everyone buys a copy” model of group gameplay.

(4/5) Brogue. Brogue is an ascii-art roguelike. It’s great, and it has a nice difficulty ramp. It’s a good “quick break” game. I play it in preference to other roguelikes partly because I haven’t done it to death yet, and partly because I don’t need a numpad?

(4/5) Cook Serve Delicious 3. One of the more fun games I played this year. You get really into it, but I had trouble relaxing and paying attention to the real world when I played too much, haha. I own but haven’t played the first two–I gather this is pretty much just a refinement.

(4/5) Green Hell. Price tag is a bit high for the number of hours I got out of it, but I haven’t finished the story. Great graphics, and the BEST map design I’ve seen in a 3D game in a long time. It feels like a real place, with reasonable geography instead of copy-pasted tiles. I love that as you walk along, you can just spot a cultivated area from the rest of the jungle–it feels more like it’s treating me like an adult than most survival games. Everything still gets highlighted if you can pick it up. I played the survival mode, which was okay but gets old quickly. I started the story mode–I think it would be fine, but it has some LONG unskippable scenes at the start, including a very hand-holdy tutorial, that I think they should have cut. I did start getting into the story and was having fun, but I stopped. I might finish the game some time.

(4/5) Hyperrogue. One of my recent favorites. The dev has made a fair number of highly experimental games, most of which are a total miss with me, but this one is fun. I do wish the early game wasn’t quite as repetitive. Failing another solution, I might actually want this not to be permadeath, or to have a save feature? I bought it on steam to support the dev and get achievements, but it’s also available a version or two behind free, which is how I tried it. Constantly getting updates and new worlds.

(4/5) Minecraft – Compact Claustrophobia modpack. Fun idea, nice variety. After one expansion felt a little samey, and it was hard to start with two people. I’d consider finishing this pack.

(4/5) Overcooked 2. Overcooked 2 is just more levels for Overcooked. The foods in the second game is more fun, and it has better controls and less bugs. If you’re considering playing Overcooked, I recommend just starting with the second game, despite very fun levels in the first. I especially appreciate that the second game didn’t just re-use foods from the first.

(4/5) Please Don’t Press Anything. A unique little game where you try to get all the endings. I had a lot of fun with this one, but it could have used some kind of built-in hints like Reventure. Also, it had a lot of red herrings. Got it for $2, which it was well worth.

(5/5) Reventure. Probably the best game new to me this year. It’s a short game where you try to get each of about 100 endings. The art and writing are cute and funny. The level design is INCREDIBLE. One thing I found interesting is the early prototype–if I had played it, I would NOT have imagined it would someday be any fun at all, let alone as amazing as it is. As a game designer I found that interesting! I did 100% complete this one–there’s a nice in-game hint system, but there were still 1-3 “huh” puzzles, especially in the post-game content, one of which I had to look up. It’s still getting updates so I’m hoping those will be swapped for something else.

(5/5) Rimworld. Dwarf fortress, but with good cute graphics, set in the Firefly universe. Only has 1-10 pawns instead of hundreds of dwarves. Basically Dwarf Fortress but with a good UI. I wish you could do a little more in Rimworld, but it’s a fantastic, relaxing game.

(5/5) Slay the Spire. Probably the game I played most this year. A deckbuilding adventure through a series of RPG fights. A bit luck-based, but relaxing and fun. I like that you can play fast or slow. Very, very well-designed UI–you can really learn how things work. My favorite part is that because it’s singleplayer, it’s really designed to let you build a game-breaking deck. That’s how it should be!

(4/5) Stationeers. I had a lot of fun with this one. It’s similar to Space Engineers but… fun. It has better UI by a mile too, even if it’s not perfect. I lost steam after playing with friends and then going back to being alone, as I often do for base-building games. Looks like you can genuinely make some complicated stuff using simple parts. Mining might not be ideal.

(5/5) Spy Party. One of my favorite games. Very fun, and an incredibly high skill ceiling. There’s finally starting to be enough people to play a game with straners sometimes. Bad support for “hot seat”–I want to play with beginners in person, and it got even harder with the introduction of an ELO equivalent and removing the manual switch to use “beginner” gameplay.

(4/5) Telling Lies. A storytelling game. The core mechanic is that you can use a search engine for any phrase, and it will show the top 5 survellance footage results for that. The game internally has transcripts of every video. I didn’t really finish the game, but I had a lot of fun with it. The game was well-made. I felt the video acting didn’t really add a huge amount, and they could have done a text version, but I understand it wouldn’t have had any popular appeal. The acting was decent. There’s some uncomfortable content, on purpose.

(4/5) Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS). Delightful. Very silly, not what you’d expect from the name. What everyone should have been doing with physics engines since they were invented. Imagine that when a caveman attacks, the club moves on its own and the caveman just gets ragdolled along, glued to it. Also the caveman and club have googley eyes. Don’t try to win or it will stop being fun. Learn how to turn on slo-mo and move the camera.

(4/5) We Were Here Together. Lots of fun. I believe the second game out of three. Still some crashes and UI issues. MUCH better puzzles and the grpahics are gorgeous. They need to fix the crashes or improve the autosave, we ended up replaying a lot of both games from crashes. It’s possible I should be recommending the third game but I haven’t played it yet.

The Rest

(3/5) 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel. More fun that it sounds. If you play to mess around and win by accident, it’s pretty good. Definitely play with a second human player, though.

(1.5/5) 7 billion humans. Better than the original, still not fun. Soulless game about a soulless, beige corporation. Just play Zachtronics instead. If you’re on a phone and want to engage your brain, play Euclidea.

(3/5) A Dark Room. Idle game.

(1/5) Amazing Cultivation Simulator. A big disappointment. Bad english voice acting which can’t be turned off, and a long, unskippable tutorial. I didn’t get to actual gameplay. I like Rimworld and cultivation novels so I had high hopes.

(3/5) ADOM (Steam version) – Fun like the original, which I would give 5/5. Developed some major issues on Linux, but I appreciate that there’s a graphical version available, one of my friends will play it now.

(4/5) agar.io – Good, but used to be better. Too difficult to get into games now. Very fun and addictive gameplay.

(3/5) Amorous – Furry dating sim. All of the hot characters are background art you can’t interact with, and the characters you can actually talk to are a bunch of sulky nerds who for some reason came to a nightclub. I think it was free, though.

(0/5) Apis. Alpha game, AFAIK I was the first player. Pretty much no fun right now (to the point of not really being a game yet), but it could potentially become fun if the author puts in work.

(4/5) Autonauts. I played a ton of Autonauts this year, almost finished it, which is rare for me. My main complaint is that it’s fundamentally supposed to be a game about programming robots, but I can’t actually make them do more than about 3 things, even as a professional programmer. Add more programming! It can be optional, that’s fine. They’re adding some kind of tower defense waves instead, which is bullshit. Not recommended because it’s not for everyone.

(3/5) A-Z Inc. Points for having the guts to have a simple game. At first this looked like just the bones of Swarm Simulator, but the more you look at the UI and the ascension system, the worse it actually is. I would regularly reset because I found out an ascension “perk” actually made me worse off.

(5/5) Beat Saber. Great game, and my favorite way to stay in shape early this year. Oculus VR only, if you have VR you already have this game so no need to recommend. Not QUITE worth getting a VR set just to play it at current prices.

(1/5) Big Tall Small. Good idea, but no fun to play. Needed better controls and level design, maybe some art.

(0.5/5) Blush Blush. Boring.

(3/5) Business Shark. I had too much fun with this simple game. All you do is just eat a bunch of office workers.

(3/5) chess.com. Turns out I like chess while I’m high?

(3/5) Circle Empires Rivals. Decent, more fun than the singleplayer original. It shouldn’t really have been a separate game from Circle Empires, and I’m annoyed I couldn’t get it DRM-free like the original.

(3/5) Cross Virus. By Dan-box. Really interesting puzzle mechanics.

(4/5) Cultist Simulator. Really fun to learn how to play–I love games that drop you in with no explanation. Great art and writing, I wish I could have gotten their tarot deck. Probably the best gameplay “ambience” I’ve seen–getting a card that’s labeled “fleeting sense of radiance” that disappears in 5 seconds? Great. Also the core stats are very well thought out for “feel” and real-life accuracy–dread (depression) conquers fascination (mania), etc. It has a few gameplay gotchas, but they’re not too big–layout issues, inability to go back to skipped text, or to put your game in an unwinnable state early on). Unfortunately it’s a “roguelike”, and it’s much too slow-paced and doesn’t have enough replay value, so it becomes a horrible, un-fun grind when you want to actually win. I probably missed the 100% ending but I won’t be going back to get it. I have no idea who would want to play this repeatedly. I’m looking forward to the next game from the same studio though! I recommend playing a friend’s copy instead of buying.

(2/5) Darkest Dungeon. It was fine but I don’t really remember it.

(2/5) Dicey Dungeons. Okay deck-building roguelike gameplay (with an inventory instead of a deck). Really frustrating, unskippably slow difficulty curve at the start. I played it some more this year and liked it better because I had a savegame. I appreciate having several character classes, but they should unlock every difficulty from the start.

(2/5) Diner Bros. Basically just a worse Overcooked. I didn’t like the controls, and it felt too repetitive with only one diner.

(2/5) Don’t Eat My Mind You Stupid Monster. Okay art and idea, the gameplay wasn’t too fun for me.

(2/5) Don’t Starve – I’ve played Don’t Stave maybe 8 different times, and it’s never really gripped me, I always put it back down. It’s slow, a bit grindy, and there’s no bigger goal–all you can do is live.

(3/5) Don’t Starve Together – Confusingly, Don’t Starve Together can be played alone. It’s Don’t Starve, plus a couple of the expansions. This really could be much more clearly explained.

(1/5) Elemental Abyss – A deck-builder, but this time it’s grid-based tactics. Really not all that fun. Just play Into the Abyss instead or something.

(1/5) Else Heart.Break() – I was excited that this might be a version of “Hack N’ Slash” from doublefine that actually delivered and let you goof around with the world. I gave it up in the first ten minutes, because the writing and characters drove me crazy, without getting to hacking the world.

(2/5) Everything is Garbage. Pretty good for a game jam game. Not a bad use of 10 minutes. I do think it’s probably possible to make the game unwinnable, and the ending is just nothing.

(1/5) Evolve. Idle game, not all that fun. I take issue with the mechanic in Sharks, Kittens, and this where buying your 15th fence takes 10^15 wood for some reason.

(4/5) Exapunks. Zachtronics has really been killing it lately, with Exapunks and Opus Magnum. WONDERFUL art and characters during story portions, and much better writing. The gameplay is a little more varied than in TIS-100 or the little I played of ShenZen I/O. My main complaint about Zachtronics games continues to be, that I don’t want to be given a series of resource-limited puzzles (do X, but without using more than 10 programming instructions). Exapunks is the first game where it becomes harder to do something /at all/, rather than with a particular amount of resources, but it’s still not there for me. Like ShenZen, they really go for a variety of hardware, too. Can’t recommend this because it’s really only for programmers.

(1/5) Exception. Programming game written by some money machine mobile games company. Awful.

(4/5) Factorio. Factorio’s great, but for me it doesn’t have that much replay value, even with mods. I do like their recent updates, which included adding blueprints from the start of the game, improving belt sorting, and adding a research queue. We changed movement speed, made things visually always day, and adding a small number of personal construction robots from the start this run. I’m sure if you’d like factorio you’ve played it already.

(3/5) Fall Guys – I got this because it was decently fun to watch. Unfortunately, it’s slightly less fun to play. Overall, there’s WAY too much matchmaking waiting considering the number of players, and the skill ceiling is very low on most of the games, some of which are essentially luck (I’m looking at you, team games).

(3/5) Forager – Decent game. A little too much guesswork in picking upgrades–was probably a bit more fun on my second play because of that. Overall, nice graphics and a cute map, but the gameplay could use a bit of work.

(3/5) Getting Over It – Funny idea, executed well. Pretty sure my friends and I have only gotten through 10% of the game, and all hit about the same wall (the first tunnel)

(3/5) Guild of Dungeoneering – Pretty decent gameplay. I feel like it’s a bit too hard for me, but that’s fine. Overall I think it could use a little more cute/fun art, I never quite felt that motivated.

(1/5) Hardspace: Shipbreakers. Okay, I seriously didn’t get to play this one, but I had GAMEBREAKING issues with my controller, which is a microsoft X-box controller for PC–THE development controller.

(2/5) Helltaker. All right art, meh gameplay. But eh, it’s free!

(3/5) Hot Lava. Decent gameplay. Somehow felt like the place that made this had sucked the souls out of all the devs first–no one cared about the story or characters. It’s a game where the floor is made out of lava, with a saturday morning cartoon open, so that was a really an issue. Admirable lack of bugs, though. I’m a completionist so I played the first world a lot to get all the medals, and didn’t try the later ones.

(3/5) House Flipper – Weird, but I had fun. I wish the gameplay was a little more unified–it felt like a bunch of glued-together minigames.

(2/5) Hydroneer. Utterly uninspiring. I couldn’t care about making progress at all, looked like a terrible grind to no benefit.

(1/5) io. Tiny game, I got it on Steam, also available on phone. Basically a free web flash game, but for money. Not good enough to pay the $1 I paid. Just a bit of a time-killer.

(3/5) Islanders – All you do is place buildings and get points. Not particularly challenging, but relaxing. Overall I liked it.

(3/5) Jackbox – I played this online with a streamer. Jackbox has always felt a little bit soulless money grab to me, but it’s still all right. I like that I can play without having a copy–we need more games using this purchase model.

(3/5) Life is Feudal – Soul-crushingly depressing and grindy, which I knew going in. I thought it was… okay, but I really want an offline play mode (Yes, I know there’s an unsupported single-player game, but it’s buggier and costs money). UI was pretty buggy, and I think hunting might literally be impossible.

(2/5) Minecraft – Antimatter Chemistry. Not particularly fun.

(3/5) Minecraft – ComputerCraft. I played a pack with just ComputerCraft and really nothing else. Was a little slow, would have been more fun with more of an audience. I love the ComputerCraft mod, I just didn’t have a great experience playing my pack I made.

(3/5) Minecraft – Foolcraft 3. Fun, a bit buggy. Honestly I can’t remember it too well.

(1/5) Minecraft – Manufactio. Looked potentially fun, but huge bugs and performance issues, couldn’t play.

(4/5) Minecraft – Tekkit. Tekkit remains one of my favorite Minecraft modpacks.

(3/5) Minecraft – Valhelsia 2. I remember this being fun, but I can’t remember details as much as I’d like. I think it was mostly based around being the latest version of minecraft?

(4/5) Minecraft – Volcano Block. Interesting, designed around some weird mods I hadn’t used. I could have used more storage management or bulk dirt/blocks early in the game–felt quite cramped. Probably got a third of the way through the pack. I got novelty value out of it, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed it if I had ever used the plant mod before–it’s a very fixed, linear progression.

(5/5) Minit. This is a weird, small game. I actually had a lot of fun with it. Then I 100% completed it, which was less fun but I still had a good time overall.

(3/5) Monster Box. By Dan-box. One of two Dan-box games I played a lot of. Just visually appealing, the gameplay isn’t amazing. Also, Dan-box does some great programming–this is a game written in 1990 or so, and it can render hundreds of arrows in the air smoothly in a background tab.

(3/5) Monster Train. A relatively fun deckbuilding card game. It can’t run well on my computer, which is UNACCEPTABLE–this is a card game with 2D graphics. My MICROWAVE should run this shit in 2020. Ignoring that, the gameplay style (summon monsters, MTG style) just isn’t my cup of tea.

(2/5) Moonlighter. Felt like it was missing some inspiration, just didn’t have a sense of “fun”. The art was nice. The credits list is surprisingly long.

(2/5) Muse Dash. All right, a basic rhythm game. Not enough variety to the game play, and everything was based around perfect or near-perfect gameplay, which makes things less fun for me.

(3/5) NES games – various. Dr Mario, Ice Climbers. Basically, I got some Chinese handheld “gameboy” that has all the NES games preloaded on it. Overall it was a great purchase.

(2/5) Noita. “The Powder Game” by Dan-Box, as a procedurally generated platformer with guns. Lets you design your own battle spells. Despite the description, you really still can’t screw around as much as I’d like. I also had major performance issues

(3/5) Observation. I haven’t played this one as much as I’d like, I feel like it may get better. Storytelling, 3D game from the point of view of the AI computer on a space station. I think I might have read a book it’s based on, unfortunately.

(2/5) One Step From Eden. This is a deck-building combat tactics game. I thought it was turn-based, but it’s actually realtime. I think if it was turn-based I would have liked it. The characters were a bit uninspired.

(1/5) Orbt XL. Very dull. I paid $0.50 for it, it was worth that.

(4/5) Opus Magnum. Another great game from Zachtronics, along with Exapunks they’re really ramping up. This is the third execution of the same basic concept. I’d like to see Zachtronics treading new ground more as far as gameplay–that said, it is much improved compared to the first two iterations. The art, writing, and story were stellar on the other hand.

(3/5) Out of Space. Fun idea, you clean a spaceship. It’s never that challenging, and it has mechanics such that it gets easier the more you clean, rather than harder. Good but not enough replay value. Fun with friends the first few times. The controls are a little wonky.

(1/5) Outpost (tower defense game). I hate all tower defense.

(3/5) Overcooked. Overcooked is a ton of fun.

(4/5) Powder Game – Dan-box. I played this in reaction to not liking Noita. It’s fairly old at this point. Just a fun little toy.

(1/5) Prime Mover – Very cool art, the gameplay put me to sleep immediately. A “circuit builder” game but somehow missing any challenge or consistency.

(2/5) Quest for Glory I. Older, from 1989. Didn’t really play this much, I couldn’t get into the writing, and the pseudo-photography art was a little jarring.

(4/5) Raft. I played this in beta for free on itch.io, and had a lot of fun. Not enough changed that it was really worth a replay, but it has improved, and I got to play with a second player. Not a hard game, which I think was a good thing. The late game they’ve expanded, but it doesn’t really add much. The original was fun and so was this.

(3/5) Satisfactory. I honestly don’t know how I like this one–I didn’t get too far into it.

(4/5) Scrap Mechanic. I got this on a recommendation from a player who played in creative. I only tried the survival mode–that mode is not well designed, and their focuses for survival are totally wrong. I like the core game, you can actually build stuff. If I play again, I’ll try the creative mode, I think.

(3.5/5) Shapez.io. A weird, abstracted simplification of Factorio. If I hadn’t played factorio and half a dozen copies, I imagine this would have been fun, but it’s just more of the same. Too much waiting–blueprints are too far into the game, too.

(2.5/5) Simmiland. Okay, but short. Used cards for no reason. For a paid game, I wanted more gameplay out of it?

(0.5/5) Snakeybus. The most disappointing game I remember this year. Someone made “Snake” in 3D. There are a million game modes and worlds to play in. I didn’t find anything I tried much fun.

(1/5) Soda Dungeon. A “mobile” (read: not fun) style idle game. Patterned after money-grab games, although I don’t remember if paid progress was actually an option. I think so.

(4/5) Spelunky. The only procedurally generated platformer I’ve ever seen work. Genuinely very fun.

(4/5) Spelunky 2. Fun, more of an upgrade of new content than a new game. Better multiplayer. My computer can’t run later levels at full speed.

(1/5) Stick Ranger 2. Dan-box. Not much fun.

(3/5) Superliminal. Fun game. A bit short for the pricetag.

(3/5) Tabletop Simulator – Aether’s End: Legacy. Interesting, a “campaign” (series of challenge bosses and pre-written encounters) deckbuilding RPG. I like the whole “campaign RPG boardgame” idea. This would have worked better with paper, there were some rough edges in both the game instructions and the port to Tabletop Simulator.

(4/5) Tabletop Simulator – The Captain is Dead. Very fun. I’d love to play with more than 2 people. Tabletop simulator was so-so for this one.

(2/5) Tabletop Simulator – Tiny Epic Mechs. You give your mech a list of instructions, and it does them in order. Arena fight. Fun, but I think I could whip up something at least as good.

(3/5) The Council. One of the only 3D games I finished. It’s a story game, where you investigate what’s going on and make various choices. It’s set in revolutionary france, at the Secret World Council that determines the fate of the world. It had a weak ending, with less choice elements than the rest of the game so far, which was a weird decision. Also, it has an EXCRUTIATINGLY bad opening scene, which was also weird. The middle 95% of the game I enjoyed, although the ending went on a little long. The level of background knowledge expected of the player swung wildly–they seemed to expect me to know who revolutionary French generals were with no explanation, but not Daedalus and the Minotaur. The acting was generally enjoyable–there’s a lot of lying going on in the game and it’s conveyed well. The pricetag is too high to recommend.

(0/5) The Grandma’s Recipe (Unus Annus). This game is unplayably bad–it’s just a random pixel hunt. Maybe it would be fun if you had watched the video it’s based on.

(3/5) The Room. Pretty fun! I think this is really designed for a touchscreen, but I managed to play it on my PC. Played it stoned, which I think helps with popular puzzle games–it has nice visuals but it’s a little too easy.

(3/5) This Call May Be Recorded. Goofy experimental game.

(4/5) TIS-100. Zachtronics. A programming game. I finally got done with the first set of puzzles and into the second this year. I had fun, definitely not for everyone.

(3/5) Trine. I played this 2-player. I think the difficulty was much better 2-player, but it doesn’t manage 2 players getting separated well. Sadly we skipped the story, which seemed like simple nice low-fantasy. Could have used goofier puzzles, it took itself a little too seriously and the levels were a bit same-y.

(2/5) Unrailed. Co-op railroad building game. It was okay but there wasn’t base-building. Overall not my thing. I’d say I would prefer something like Overcooked if it’s going to be timed? Graphics reminded me of autonauts.

(2/5) Vampire Night Shift. Art game. Gameplay could have used a bit of polish. Short but interesting.

(4/5) Wayward. To date, the best survival crafting system I’ve seen. You can use any pointy object and stick-like object, together with glue or twine, to make an arrow. The UI is not great, and there’s a very counter-intuitive difficulty system. You need to do a little too much tutorial reading, and it could use more goals. Overall very fun. Under constant development, so how it plays a given week is a crapshoot. The steam version finally works for me (last time I played it was worse than the free online alpha, now it’s the same or better). I recomend playing the free online version unless you want to support the author.

(1/5) We Need to Go Deeper. Multiplayer exploration game in a sub, with sidescrolling battle. Somehow incredibly unfun, together with high pricetag. Aesthetics reminded me of Don’t Starve somehow.

(2/5) We Were Here. Okay 2-player puzzle game. Crashed frequently, and there were some “huh” puzzles and UI. Free.

(3/5) Yes, your grace. Gorgeous pixel art graphics. The story is supposed to be very player-dependent, but I started getting the feeling that it wasn’t. I didn’t quite finish the game but I think I was well past halfway. Hard to resume after a save, you forget things. I got the feeling I wouldn’t replay it, which is a shame because it’s fun to see how things go differently in a second play with something like this.

These are not all new to me, and very few came out in 2020. I removed any games I don’t remember and couldn’t google (a fair number, I play a lot of game jam games) as well as any with pornographic content.

2020 Videogames was originally published on Optimal Prime

[missmonsters2]

Drive Her Crazy || Part VI

PAIRING: Wanda Maximoff x OFC/Reader

Summary: AU. Meet Wanda, the new ‘It’ girl. She’s built her social standing as a social influencer through Instagram and vlogging on Youtube. Queen Bee in her social circle, she’s got everyone wrapped around her finger. She’s perfect, you think. Girls like that require a little finesse, and you’re ready to play the game.

Warnings: Non-healthy relationship, psychological games, eventual smut. 18+ only.

Note: Some real shit be happening. This is an extremely long chapter on the count that I have poor planning skills and will be trying to conclude this 10 parts total haha 

PART I || PART II || PART III || PART IV || PART V 

PART VI of X

Count: 7711

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“No, that’s wonderful. Of course. Yes. If you could send it over to me. Thank you again.” 

You sigh as you hang up your phone, a huge smile on your face. You had finally gotten your present for Wanda. She was going to be so ecstatic. A couple of weeks had passed by so quickly. 

That night after Wasteland, you and Wanda had stayed out all night, even falling asleep a little at the pier. When you had dropped Wanda at home, the two of you could see the lights on, indicating that Vision was awake, most likely waiting for her. 

You gave her a soft smile and told her she could text or call you later. You met up with her a couple days after to help plan her party. She was renting out a venue as it was going to be a big gathering. All of her friends and work friends were going to be there. She needed help choosing catering and a live band. She had shown up at the meeting spot with a huff which caused you to raise your brow at her.

She confided to you that Vision and her have been fighting a lot more lately. It just seemed that Vision was on edge but wouldn’t say why that was, and she couldn’t figure it out.

You, of course, offered her comfort, which she soaked up greedily. You could only suspect why Vision was on edge. Wanda was spending a lot of time with you, drawing away from him. You didn’t interact with him enough for him to consider you just her ‘gal pal.’ 

You told Wanda to not worry about the live band, you would take care of that. As for the catering, you scheduled tastings that day to see which one would be best. The experience had you thinking that it felt like you were doing wedding things together. Wanda seemed to enjoy herself as well, often feeding you a spoonful of the dishes to see your opinion. 

When you had finished the catering, she told you everything else was handled, so you went to get desert together. Wanda had seemed to finally resign to the fact that you were always going to pay when you were together. 

In the middle of eating and chatting, your phone began to go off. When you looked at your phone, you saw that it was Natasha that was calling you. She had been pretty busy with some kind of work emergency with Tony. You gave Wanda an apologetic smile as you picked the call. Wanda pursed her lips, stirring her ice cream in her cup a little as she watched you talk on the phone. 

Natasha says the crisis had been averted and invited you to have dinner with her. You agreed and hung up the phone. When you told Wanda it was time to go as you needed to get ready for your date with Natasha, she seemed like she was going to say something but stopped herself. 

In the car, she had asked you outright if you were now dating Natasha. You told her vaguely it was just a date, neither indicating if you wanted to date the redhead or not.

Since then, Wanda had been a little silent, which had you smirking.

As it was nearing the day of the party, you had lunch with Natasha again at her request. You had brought some takeout and was currently carrying it to her office. 

When you arrived at Stark Towers, a security guard named Happy checked you down before allowing you through.

“Miss Romanoff is on the 30th floor, room 204.”

You thanked him and took your guest pass to the elevator. There was an automated voice in the elevator asking which floor you would like.

You knew Tony Stark was an inventor, but even you were impressed with what he has built and achieved.

Knocking on the door, you heard Natasha’s soft voice telling you to enter. She smiled when she saw you.

“Hey, stranger,” she greeted you with her husky voice and a soft jilt her lips. You looked around her office and whistled as you put down the food. Not shabby at all.

“Stranger?” You said with an amused tone. “We saw each other two days ago.”

“Maybe that’s too long,” Natasha quipped back, getting up to stand right in front of you. You quirk your lips at her, tilting your head slightly downwards to capture her lips in a soft kiss as you put her hand on the juncture of her jaw and neck. Natasha leaned into it, putting her arms around your waist. 

When you both pulled back, the redhead sighed with a soft smile. “Tell me again why we aren’t officially dating?”

You chuckle at her, pulling away to unpack the food. “Pretty sure it was you that said you had a lot going on currently and wanted to take things slow.”

You had started to officially see Natasha for about two weeks now. It was at a late-night dinner over at her place that she kissed you. The kisses had gotten so heated, but before anything else could happen, the redhead stopped. You then learned that she and Bruce had dated seriously and they had just recently broken up.

She was still trying to get over it and wanted to take things slow and slow meant that she wanted to keep whatever you had going on a secret. That had changed your plans a little in the sense that it was hardly benefiting you if Wanda didn’t know.

Still, it wasn’t completely useless. Timing is everything, you reminded yourself. 

“Huh,” Natasha hummed. “Now why would I go and say that?”

You just chuckled at her joke, handing a bowl of food over to her and settled into a seat.

“So,” Natasha said, scooping some food into her mouth sitting on the armrest of the chair you were in. “Wanda’s party is next Saturday. What did you get her?”

“It’s going to be a surprise,” you tell Natasha. Since Wanda had confided in you that she had yet to share with anyone else about her aspiration on becoming an actress, you were going to be giving her present in private most likely.

“A surprise? Even from me?” Natasha asked with a quirk of her brow.

You nodded your head, chewing your food. When you looked at her expression, you put your food down, sighing as you pulled her into your lap.

“Hey, don’t make that face,” you tell Natasha, pinching her hip lightly and she wriggles in your hold.

“I would tell you, but it’s in relation to something Wanda told me in confidence. As a friend, I really value that.” When you say that, Natasha could only sigh lightly with a smile, wrapping her arms around your neck and kisses you softly.

“You really are a good friend to her,” Natasha says, respect in her tone and you smile back. With that, the two of you resume eating, making small chat.

“Vision has been bragging about his gift,” Natasha says after you both discuss what the other group members are getting her. 

“Oh, really? What’s he getting her?” You say with a bit of an amused huff. 

“Oh, he’s not getting her anything. He has apparently written her a song and is arranging to play it at her party in the evening. He’s literally telling everyone about it. Wanda is such a huge sucker for romantic gestures like that, so she’s basking in the accolades everyone is giving her. I think they might finalize their wedding date soon.” Natasha says, finishing up her food and putting it on the table.

There’s a momentary pause in you, but you continue on as normal to avoid Natasha being suspicious. 

“Oh, that’s really romantic,” you say. The topic changes and you continue the afternoon with Natasha as normal, kissing her goodbye and promising to call later when she’s off work. 

The moment you leave, your expression falls. Your jaw in a tight line as you get into your car.

You can’t let Vision play for Wanda at her party, it would really put a wrench in your plan if Wanda is swept off her feet by him.

No.

Not when you were so close. 

It would be a small price to pay, but nothing and no one would stop you from having Wanda.

It was time to call in a favor that was owed to you.

Throwing your Bluetooth headset, you dialed a number and drove off.

“Hey, it’s me. I heard you’re in the city. Come have dinner with me tonight, my treat.”

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You arrive at the restaurant in the evening. It was at a high-end restaurant that you had arranged for the meeting. The greeter at the front took your name, immediately leading you to one of the VIP rooms in the back. As he opened the door, you found you weren’t the first to arrive. 

“Hey,” you greet, with a smile. “It’s been a while, Charles. How’s the missus?”

He was a tall man, clean cut in every way possible, and a charming smile. A waiter comes and Charles orders for the both of you as you take a seat across from him.

“It’s been a hot minute,” Charles agrees. “Cheryl is doing great. How have you been? I can’t imagine that you’re here just to catch up.”

You give him a cunning grin. “Right down to business as always, Charles. You need to relax. I can’t even imagine how you’re an A&R manager like that.”

The man chuckles, adjusting his tie a little looser. “Oh trust me, I can relax plenty. But, you never come to see me unless you want something. You usually just email me what projects you’re working on and prefer that I just email you regarding any interviews or sponsorships.”

The waiter returns with a bottle of wine, pouring it for the two of you before leaving it in the ice bucket. You give the waiter a smile of thanks, taking the glass and taking a gentle sip.

“Well, I suppose you’re not wrong. I want you to sign someone on.”

Charles raises his eyebrow at you, clearly intrigued as he takes a sip from his own glass. You pull out your phone and already have Vision’s SoundCloud up. You press play, watching as Charles expression changes as he listens.

“I hope you’re kidding,” Charles asks, dead expression in his eyes.

“Not in the slightest,” You tell Charles. “Lyrics aside, he has a good physique, decent musical ability, and sings well. Ghostwriters are popular these days anyway.”

Charles eyes you with the tilt of his head and arms crossed. “Is there a particular reason you want to sign this person on?”

You nod, leaning back and crossing your legs. Your hand grabs a strand of your hair and twirls it. “He’s in the way of what I want.”

Charles sighs, rubbing his eyes blearily. “I don’t know about this, he could be a total waste.”

“Total waste or not, you owe me. You got where you are today because I chose you out of everyone else to sign me on to this label. That got you the bonus you needed to pay for Cheryl’s surgery.” You eye him from across the table and watch as he purses his lips and sighs in resignation. 

“Alright, fine. I’ll sign him on with a six-month contract and see where it goes.”

“One year,” you tell him. Six months was too short, in your opinion, and a lot could happen in one year. You wanted him to go on tour by then.

Charles scrunches his nose but nods. “Alright, fine. We’re even after this?”

You nod at him. “We’re even. Contact Vision next Saturday and get him to sign on.”

You spin your wine glass at the stem delicately between your fingers. “Celebrate. Make sure he understands this is his one shot and keep him busy the entire night.” 

Charles chuckles and nods just as the food is coming in. “Alright, will do. You’ve got a strange way of getting rid of things that are in your way. What if he actually becomes big?”

You smile sardonically, “I’ll make sure to send him a congratulations card signed by my girlfriend and me. She’s his biggest supporter.”

“Oh, you’ve got yourself a new girlfriend?” Charles asks, smiling at you.

“If all goes well, I will.”

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The day of the party, you woke up early. You delicately wrapped Wanda’s present and set it aside. Wanda had called you soon after frantically panicking about something going wrong today, so you had to spend some time calming her down and reassuring her that everything was fine and that you’d even call the hotel, the catering, and the band to triple check everything. 

The gathering was supposed to happen at 5pm tonight, so you made time to bring lunch to Natasha who told you she would meet you there as she might be a little late from work with Tony. Deciding to show up an hour earlier, you approached the venue to see Wanda running around to make sure everything was okay.

The venue was outside with a beautiful view and stage and dancing floor set up. There were flower decorations and poles with a box on top to hold a fire inside for when it got dark or cold. There were string LED lights set up as well for when it got dark.

You approach her, putting her hand on her shoulder to settle her down. 

“Hey, birthday girl,” you call, and Wanda looked so relieved to see you. “Where’s the fire?”

Wanda wraps her arms around your waist and pulls you into a tight hug. “Oh my god, this is a disaster. The catering company just let me know they’re going to be late. I don’t know what to do when people get here, and there’s going to be no food.”

You rub Wanda’s back soothingly and get her to sit in a chair. “Alright, just sit here and relax. I’m going to get someone to bring you a drink. It’s your birthday, and I feel like you running around like a chicken without its head is hardly what a birthday girl should be doing. Just let me handle this. Where’s Vision?”

Wanda leans back in her chair while you call over a server. “He’s practicing his song for tonight. He should be here when the party starts.”

You nod your head, opting to not say anything. The server comes back with a drink in hand that you pass over to Wanda. “Just sit here and relax a little, okay? Why don’t you make sure everyone you’ve invited will be here?”

Wanda nods to you with a grateful smile as you gently graze your finger on her cheek and walk off. 

Within 45 minutes, you have everything solved and walk back to Wanda, who is just finishing getting off the phone. 

“Hey,” Wanda says as you take a seat next to her, drinks in hand. “What’s going on?”

You hand her another drink and lean back in your seat with a sigh. “It’s solved. I called the catering company who is going to give you a partial refund. I arranged the hotel to serve appetizers that your guests can grab around those tables in the back there. That should probably hold them over until the catering arrives at least.���

Wanda sighs in relief, eyes fluttering closed for a moment. “Oh, thank God. How much extra is that going to cost?”

You wave your hand off at her, “Don’t even worry about that.”

“No!” Wanda says to you. “You seriously can’t.”

You just smile at her, elbow against the table as your rest your temple against your fist. “Happy Birthday, Wanda.”

“So, is this my birthday present? You saving me from disaster again?” Wanda asks with a smile on her face and eyes twinkling.

“Oh, God no,” you laugh. “That’d be too tacky.” 

You chat for another couple minutes, but Wanda tells you she’s going to go change as she booked a room at the hotel for tonight. 

It isn’t long before she’s back and some of the guests start to arrive. You recognize some of them as other social influencers Wanda has taken pictures with or was in a video with. She has photographers and brand representatives she’s worked with before. Some of her personal friends outside of the ones you’ve already met arrive as well. 

The room is beginning to fill up, and the appetizers arrive just in time for the guests along with the band who are playing live music. 

Wanda is flitting around, socializing with everyone while you’re watching the hotel workers gather the insane amount of presents into one corner. 

God, this is bigger than a wedding. 

Soon enough, you see Steve, Bucky, Bruce, Thor, and Clint arrive. There are some other people that you don’t recognize with them. They walk up to you first as Wanda is lost within the crowd somewhere.

“This is so Wanda,” Clint comments with a smile and shake of his head. 

They introduce you to the people they brought with them, but honestly, the names just fly over your head since there are so many of them.

As a group, you go in search for Wanda who is currently chatting with a group of girls. As soon as she sees you guys, she turns back to the girls to say she’ll see them later and runs to guys. She immediately hugs Clint first before the rest of the group.

“Jeeze Wanda, did you invite all of California to your party?” Steve says as he hugs her. 

Wanda just laughs as they pull back. “C’mon, you know this is nowhere to Tony’s parties.”

The group seems to mumble in agreement with her. Hovering over the appetizer table, they’re all making conversation when you notice at the door Natasha, Tony, and Pepper walk in half an hour later.

They make their way over to your and Natasha hugs everyone first before saving you for last. 

“Hey,” you greet softly in her ear.

“Hey, yourself,” Natasha greets back with a smile. 

“You look amazing,” you tell the redhead, not even subtly eyeing her in a way that makes everyone look at the two of you. 

“Jesus, get a room,” Clint teases, but Natasha only smirks her lips in response.

You look at Wanda from your peripheral to see that she’s undoubtedly not smiling, but no one is currently looking at her right now.

Another half-hour passes and the catering arrives to serve everyone food. It’s you and the original gang sitting together at the table, except Vision. 

At this point, Wanda looks half irritated, and half worried that she stands up to go call to see where her fiancé is. 

When she comes back, she looks more excited but still a little irritated. 

“Where’s Vision?” Tony asks. “Isn’t he performing his undying love for you tonight?”

Wanda gives a smile as she looks at everyone, “Apparently, he got a call from an agent at a record label saying they discovered his SoundCloud. They want to meet up with him immediately to see if he will sign on because they’re flying out tonight.”

Everyone’s cheering, including yourself.

“That is the most amazing news, Wanda! Will he still be able to make it tonight?” Thor asks with his booming voice and cheery smile. 

Wanda nods, “Oh, yeah. He promised for sure that he was going to be able to make it back in time.”

You only smile as you eat your food, checking your phone discreetly at you do.

Going over the contract in excruciatingly full detail. Celebrating will be right after all night. You’re welcome. 

You read the text and put your phone away. The evening falls into the night as the band plays and everyone’s mingling and dancing. You had a couple guys approach you that you quickly shot down. Then a couple girls would approach you before Natasha would come and scare them off.

“A little territorial, aren’t we?” You tease the redhead as she huffs. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I interrupt?” She deadpans, and you have to contain your laughter because you don’t think she would appreciate it. 

You grab her hand and pull her on the dance floor. You hold her hand in one, your other hand settling on her back at the base of her spine while her hand settles on your shoulder near the bottom of your neck. 

You lead her through the rhythm and steps, smiling as you do so. As you turn, you can see Wanda watching the two of you from afar along with the gang.

“Is this too much?” You ask softly. “Might get exposed at this rate.”

Natasha’s lips curl upward in a seductive smile, her lips ghosting over your own. “Every secret gets revealed eventually.”

More people start to fill the dance floor. You eventually split up from Natasha as Bucky grabs her for a dance. You danced with Steve who looked really nervous and stepped on your toes a couple times, but you reassured him and guided him through the steps. By the end of it, he was still a little robotic, but at least he wasn’t stepping on your toes. You danced with Thor, who was just a whirlwind on the floor, completely confident in guiding his partner. You were almost dizzy by the time you landed in Clint’s arms.

“So,” he starts. “You and Natasha?”

You just grin at him if this was the attempt of his protective friend talk.

“Maybe,” you say. “She’s a complicated gal.”

“You don’t seem so simple yourself,” Clint comments as his eyes move over to Wanda. 

You had to give it to him for being so perceptive. But you were sure he didn’t know quite exactly what was going on.

“No one is ever just simple,” you finally say. Wanda finishes her dance with Tony and is making her way over to the two of you.

“Just remember everything doesn’t have to be difficult either,” Clint tells you as Wanda interrupts the two of you.

“Alright, Clint, I had my birthday dance with you. She’s the only one left who owes me one.” Wanda says, and Clint looks at you but still defers to Wanda with a smile and nod.

You hold her the same way you did with Natasha, but Wanda scoots much closer to you. 

“So you and Natasha?” Wanda asks, and you let out a light chuckle.

“That seems to be the big question tonight, but I think we should focus on you today. It is your special day, after all.”

Wanda looks at you with a slight pout. “It’s my birthday, so you will answer my questions.”

You just smile at her, twirling her around.

“It’s undefined,” you confess as she comes back into your arms. You swear you could hear a sigh of relief.

“When did that even happen?” Wanda asks as if she was trying to recall all the times she saw the two of you together.

“About three weeks ago, when I had dinner with her. She wants to take it slow and slow meant keeping it a secret and undefined.”

Wanda frowns, “That doesn’t seem very fair to you.”

You just shrug, swaying with Wanda as you glide her across the dance floor. 

“It is what is.”

To stop Wanda from inquiring anymore, you twirl her in your arms before dipping her slightly as you hold her up with your hand on her back.

The song ends, so you pull her back up with a smirk since her cheeks are lightly dusted pink.

Natasha comes up at the moment, putting her hand on your shoulder.

“Drinks?” She asks, and you nod, dropping Wanda’s hand and telling her you’d see her later.

You walk off with Natasha. She looked a little tense, but you assumed that was because of her last dance with Bruce. He had been staring on and off at you and Natasha ever since you had first danced with her.

It was now a delicate situation for you. It was clear that there were a lot of things left unsaid between Natasha and Bruce, but Natasha still liked you.

Perhaps seeing Natasha move on with someone was more surprising to Bruce than he thought would affect him.

If you played this right, you could probably keep whatever you had going on with Natasha long enough before Bruce snapped and went back for Natasha.

It was a mystery on how Natasha would react to that though.

It occurred to you that you really had no idea how to read Natasha clearly. You weren’t lying to Clint when you said she was a complicated person. 

Perhaps if you could have normal relationships, Natasha would be the perfect person for you.

But you couldn’t. 

It didn’t appeal to you. 

“Damn, Vision is pushing it kind of close,” Natasha said, pulling you out of your thoughts as she ordered drinks for the two of you. You looked around and could hear some of the people commenting on how Vision was missing. 

Some of the girls who came along definitely were more jealous of Wanda than a friend. It was like they were rooting for her embarrassment.

The night continued on but as the time came closer, Wanda began to get more stressed as she was trying to find out where Vision was. He had neither texted or called her. Still, she continued on, believing that her fiancé would show up like he had promised.

It was the last half-hour before Vision was supposed to play for Wanda. The birthday girl was calling him, but it kept going to voicemail.

“Oh my god,” Wanda whispered, putting her hand to her forehead. “Where the hell is he?”

The rest of the group looked unhappy and tried to reach the man themselves, but the same thing happened as it kept ringing until it went to voicemail.

Wanda could hear some of the whispers of her guest that Vision was missing and some backhanded comments made her clench her jaw.

“This is so embarrassing,” Wanda said, turning to face the group, so she didn’t have to hear the comments as much.

The combination of her hurt, disappointed, and embarrassed expression really did break your heart. 

“Maybe something happened? I’ll call to see if there have been any accidents on the road or if he checked into any hospitals.” Clint said as he walked off with Steve and Bucky, and raised his phone to his ear. 

Fifteen minutes later, they came back with reluctant expressions.

“Nothing,” Clint said with an apologetic expression.

Wanda sighed, taking a seat at the table in front of the stage and shaking her head. “Just...tell the band to keep playing, I guess. I’ll end the party soon.”

Wanda watches as you whisper something to Natasha and walk off. Everyone is trying to comfort her, but she can’t help but feel so flustered. Vision had literally made such a big deal that he wrote her a song for her birthday and was so excited to perform it for her. He had gone and told everyone when she was inviting people to her birthday.

She was excited to hear him play for her. He had been so weird with her lately, and this was such a romantic gesture. She was basking in the congratulations she was getting.

He had talked about wanting to finalize a date for their wedding and Wanda had actually hesitated in her mind briefly before agreeing they should.

Why did she hesitate? She wanted to say she didn’t know, but if she were honest with herself, your electric eyes popped up in her mind. 

She found herself obsessing over you ever so slowly. What were you doing? Why was Natasha calling you again? God, why did you treat her so good? Did you treat Natasha this good? Why did your hands feel so hot on her?

Wanda looked at her phone again to see if Vision was returning any of her texts. God, if he isn’t seriously injured, she was going to be so pissed at him.

She could hear some girls snicker behind her again, and she closed her eyes. Damn, being a social influencer could be hallowing sometimes.

Suddenly, there was some noise from the stage and a cough into the mic that made Wanda snap her head up. She found you, in your Lady Phantom mask standing up there. You were still in your same outfit though, so people who had seen and interacted with you earlier in the day knew it was you.

You stood up there, holding a ukelele a little awkwardly as you’re more used to standing behind a DJ stand.

“Hello, everyone,” you greeted into the mic, and you heard a couple cheers from the people who recognized you or was a fan of Lady Phantom. 

“I’m Lady Phantom, here to perform for a very, very special birthday girl. It’s no original, so forgive me, but it’s most certainly dedicated to you. Happy Birthday, Wanda Maximoff.”

Wanda could hear the excited whispering from her guests and friends. People had pulled their phones as Lady Phantom has never sung before, nevermind singing live. 

She watched as you turned around, signaling the band and then started to strum your ukelele.

Wanda recognized the riff immediately. She couldn’t believe you. You were playing Riptide by Vance Joy, her favorite song she mentioned in passing on the night in the Palm Desert.

I was scared of dentists and the dark I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations Oh, all my friends are turning green You're the magician's assistant in their dreams

You kept eye contact with Wanda the entire time, your voice was melodic in a way no one would’ve ever guessed. Though you didn’t possess a wide vocal range and not technically adept, this song was perfect for you. You were a little breathy, and it made Wanda’s heart skip a beat. 

Wanda laughed as you winked at her, shaking her head. She couldn’t believe you were doing this for her. Saving her from disaster once more. People around her were whispering about how it was possible to get Lady Phantom to sing for her. It outshined the news that her fiancé didn’t show up. People were so vapid that they were more amazed by a hotshot DJ was here singing rather than a heartful performance from a nobody.

Wanda looked over to see Natasha watching, looking a little conflicted as it was evident that you were only focusing on Wanda. 

And it made her feel smug. 

Wanda looked back at you as you sang with your eyes closed, strumming the ukelele and tapping your foot.

You opened your eyes, looking right at Wanda. This was for her.

Everything was for her. 

I can't have it, I can't have it any other way

The background noises faded out, people were blurring away as you looked at her with an intensity that forced her to only see you. 

I swear she's destined for the screen Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen, oh

You smiled as you sang that line, and Wanda was smiling back at you, tears welling up in her eyes. Her heart was swelling up with an emotion she couldn’t even identify.

Why did it feel so right?

You were coming down to the final riff as you sang softly. 

Lady, running down to the riptide Taken away to the dark side I wanna be your left hand man I love you when you're singing that song and I got a lump in my throat 'cause You're gonna sing the words wrong 

The song soon came to an end as you strummed the last note. The crowd erupted in cheers for you, phone flashes going off as photos were being taken. Wanda stood up, clapping as well. People were still recording as you bent down, kneeling on the stage on one knee in front of Wanda as you gave her the ukelele. She turned it over on the back to see your signature on it and a short message.

Happy Birthday, Lady

From your left-hand man,

Lady Phantom

A tear slipped out of Wanda’s eyes as she looked at you with a gigantic smile. You softly used your index finger to poke her nose with a smirk before getting up, waving to the crowd, and walked off the stage. 

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The party went on for another hour before Wanda ended it and bid all of her guests' goodnight and thank you for coming to the party.

It was pretty crazy after you had come off the stage. You had decided to keep your mask on afterward even though there were people who had seen you without it. But now, with all the flashing photos, you did want to minimize the amount of exposure you were going to get. 

It was increasingly difficult to be able to spend time with Wanda or Natasha after as you constantly kept having groups of people come up to you and chat you up or ask for a photo. 

A girl had come up to you too close for comfort and asked for a photo. You saw Natasha watching you in the distance with an unimpressed look before smirking at you a little. 

You chuckled awkwardly at the girl clinging to you after the photo was taken, using your hands to pry her off as you walked off briskly to Natasha.

Seemingly standing with the redhead, she emitted an aura that prevented anyone else from coming up. You sighed in relief while Natasha asked her arms crossed.

“Quite the romantic gesture you did,” she commented. 

You pursed your lip at her. “C’mon Natasha, it’s Wanda’s birthday. Her fiancé is missing in action after making such a big deal about his performance. She looked crushed and really embarrassed. I couldn’t just let that happen on her birthday.”

Natasha eyes you for a moment before sighing and uncrossing her arms. “I know, I was seriously going to beat some of these girls’ asses for making snide comments about Wanda. Why did she even invite half these people?”

“Networking,” you answer, adjusting your mask. 

Natasha made a disgruntled noise and looked at you again. 

“Come home with me tonight,” she tells you. You smile at her with a nod. The party was ending with people leaving.

“I’ll have to meet you later though, I still have to give Wanda her gift.” You tell the redhead who nods. She looks around to see everyone occupied and turns back to kiss you lightly on the cheek and leaves. 

You stay back until everyone has left, grabbing your present from the stack that had gathered. Wanda looks incredibly exhausted as you approach her.

“Let’s go to my room,” Wanda says, grabbing your hand and drags you off while the hotel staff starts cleaning up. They tell her they’ll have her gifts send to her room in the morning and keep it locked up for tonight. Ukelele in hand, Wanda lets go your hand to press the floor to her place in the elevator. With it now just the two of you, you relax a little more, the tension leaving from your shoulders.

“Your friends are kind of insane,” you mumble, referring more to her social influencer group of friends. 

“Yeah...I wouldn’t call Stacey a friend really. She’s pretty new and can be...aggressive,” Wanda says with a crinkle in her brow. You smile lightly, using your finger to press against the crinkle and watches as it fades out as Wanda looks at you. 

The elevator dings to signal you’ve arrived on the 20th floor. Wanda grabs your hand again and drags you out and down the hall to her room. She opens the door with her key pass and shuts the door behind you. 

With a sigh, she gently sets down the ukelele you gave her. The room is pretty dark, but Wanda doesn’t make any move to turn on the lights. She had a pretty good suite with the window facing the outside view.

Moonlight shined through the open curtains illuminating the room. When you turn around, Wanda is there, and she lifts her hands to gently take off your mask, smiling as your eyes framed by your long lashes come into view. 

It’s silent for a moment as Wanda puts your mask on the table. You just stand there, staring at each other. 

It’s more intimate than any kiss or sex you’ve ever had. 

“Thank you,” Wanda finally says. “Thank you for the beautiful performance, for saving me from embarrassment. You always seem to be my knight in shining armor.”

You chuckle softly, shifting to your other foot. 

“I would hardly call you a damsel in distress,” you tease her softly. Then you lift your present in your hand to her. She stares at the box in confusion. 

“What’s this?” She asks.

“Your present?” You reply with a raise of your brow and smirk. 

“You mean the ukelele isn’t my present?” Wanda asks, turning her eyes over to the instrument she had laid down. 

You let out a bark of laughter. “Oh, God, no. I don’t even know what you’d do with a ukelele. Can you even play? No, God, no. I just had that in the back of my car for my new collab I was working on this week. I can get another one.”

Wanda just let out a tiny smile, and she grabs the beautifully wrapped gift from your hand. She pulls the string to undo the bow and lets it fall to the ground. Placing the box to rest against her forearm, she lifts the lid and stares at the content confusedly. 

She grabs out the thin stack of paper that is neatly stabled together. 

“What...is this?” Wanda asks, eyeing the front page that only had a title on it.

“Your script,” you answer with a smile. “You’ll need to learn it for your audition in eight weeks.”

Wanda just looks at you, shellshocked. She looks back at the script and then back to you.

“What?” She asks, disbelief in her tone. You just continue to smile.

She drops the box and flips through the script. The first couple of pages had the characters and premise of the story. The rest only had a particular scene, but when she read it, she loved it. 

“How did you...? What?” Wanda asks again, and you laugh.

“It’s not guaranteed, but I know someone who is doing auditions for a movie he’s directing. He’s willing to give you a shot even though you have no portfolio in acting. It did make it better you’re a social influencer, and I did tell him even David is going to be working with you.”

Wanda is just smiling, letting out a burst of laughter in shock. Wanda just watches as you turn around, babbling about how you had complete faith in her she was going to nail it, that she seriously needed to get into acting because the world was missing out, and how you knew an acting coach you could contact to help her with tips or run lines.

It just hit Wanda. 

It hit her why she hesitated about finalizing a date to get married to Vision. Why she didn’t care that Vision ended up never showing up. Why she thought about you all the time lately. Why she wanted to throttle Natasha every time her friend got close to you.

She thought back to when she met you, the trust fund kid’s birthday bash, the night at Tony’s, the hot jealousy burning she felt at watching you get along with Natasha, how she cried about Pietro with you, how you comforted her with your own stories, the work you put in to make paprikash for her, the beach, Wasteland, your hands on her waist, the music, your lips, the pier, everything.

You were still babbling, but the moment you turned around, Wanda disregarded the script on the floor and crashed her lips into yours. She fisted her hands on your shoulder, sliding them up to cup your neck, pulling you closer as her eyes closed. 

As good as it felt, the next moment, Wanda snapped her eyes open and yanked away from you. You hadn’t even reacted, shocked that Wanda kissed you. 

“Oh, god,” Wanda whispered. She looked at you, lips trembling. “I--I’m so sorry, I--”

You didn’t even give her a chance to finish as you rushed forward, cupping her jaw as you collided your lips into Wanda’s again. She let out a moan, feeling your lips against her. You pushed her back until her back hits the table stand and you used your hands to lift her up onto the table. She was yanking at your leather jacket to get it off, and you released her for a quick second, to let the jacket fall down your arms. 

Your lips met hers over and over again messily as she wrapped her arms around your neck to keep you close. Her legs were spread open and wrapped around your torso tightly as your hands slid from her bottom up her back, finding the zipper of her dress to pull it down all the way. Wanda encourages you with her hand fisting your hair tightly, kissing you more aggressively, slipping her tongue into your mouth. 

You groaned, grabbing her roughly off of the table and turned around to walk towards the bed, throwing her against the mattress roughly. Her dress began to slip off her, exposing her chest covered by her strapless lacy white bra that had you biting your lip. 

Wanda’s hair splayed messily against the sheets, and her lips looked plump from kissing you so hard. She was flushed and breathing heavily as she stared at you with dilated pupils.

The sight made you moan softly, climbing atop of her as she readily let you between her legs. You kissed her lips again, not as fervent as you first did, slower but as hard as the first. Your hand traced down her arm until you reached her hand and brought it next to her head and laced your fingers together. Your lips left hers, pressing kisses against her jawline before moving downwards against her neck. 

Wanda let out a soft moan, her torso lifting up to press against you. You sucked against the skin, releasing just before you could make a mark. You moved your lips more down and nibbled against her collarbone. She let out a high pitched whine that made you smile against her skin. 

You wanted more.

You needed more. 

She wanted more. 

You were getting lost in her, wanting to stir more noises out of her.

You shifted your body, your navel ground against Wanda’s core firmly through her dress.

“Oh,” Wanda moaned needily as she lifted her hips, desperate to get more friction. Her hand tightened against yours, and you went back up to kiss her lips again. 

Wanda moved her lips against yours, sucking on your bottom lip, making you groan into her mouth as she released it and licked against it slowly. 

You were going to devour her. You really were. 

She was looking at you through half-lidded eyes that begged you to just fuck her.

Just as you were going to smash your lips against her, your phone began to ring loudly in your back pocket.

The noise woke you. You blinked as Wanda let out a quiet groan of disappointment, throwing her head back on the mattress.

You pull out your phone to see it’s Natasha calling. 

You looked at Wanda, flushed, chest heaving as she was hot and heavy. 

You needed to make your exit now. 

“Shit,” you swore, catching her attention. You picked up the phone.

“Hey, Natasha,” You said, trying to gain your breathing again. “No, yeah, I’m on my way. Yeah, see you.”

You hung up, looking at Wanda with an overwhelmed expression. 

“I--” You tried to say, but not sure what to really say.

“Fuck, Wanda,” You said, “What the hell are we doing?”

You get off of her, running your fingers through your hair. You’re about to turn around, but Wanda sits up and grabs your arm to force you to turn back to her. 

“No, you can’t go to her. Not after--not after you’re about to be with me.” Wanda says, her eyes telling you to stay. Her dress was sliding off of her body as she sat up and you had to rip your eyes away from looking at her chest and taut stomach. Her jaw was set in a line, and you’re tempted to stay.

But you know you shouldn’t. 

“Wanda,” you tell her. “We can’t.”

“You can’t lie to me and say you don’t want me too. You feel it, whatever it is between us. You can’t erase that.” Wanda challenges you.

You sigh, not denying it. You pull your arm away, forcing Wanda to let go.

“That doesn’t change that you have Vision and I have Natasha waiting for me. So whatever it is, is it enough to make you leave him?”

Wanda is silent. 

It confirms what you thought. 

“Exactly,” you say. “We’re friends, Wanda. That has to be enough.”

Not letting her say anything else, you turn around, grabbing your jacket off the floor and leave her in the hotel room alone.

In the elevator, you put back on your leather jacket and wipe the lipgloss that smudged on you from Wanda.

You smirk as your thumb swipes your bottom lip. 

Goddamn, Wanda was quite the dangerous one if you let her be. She lured you in to the point you couldn’t even think.

She was absolutely sinful.

The elevator dinged and you pushed off the railing walking out the hotel doors to your car. You briefly looked up to the floor she would be on.

Patience, you reminded yourself. You’re almost there. You could see she was starting to unravel for you. 

The game was far from over, and Wanda was quite the active participant now.

PART VII

[jddoesc25k]

Week 6 Run 1

Tuesday. OMG! I can’t believe we’re on week six!

We are still VERY tired from our 20 minute run on Sunday, muscles aching and the lot! But I had an animal crossing party to attend after my duties for the day, so we had to hop to it!

Today was 5min run, 3m walk, 8min run, 3m walk, 5min run. I wasn’t too worried after last week, we felt prepared to do these runs.

We were at quite a brisk pace today on our warm up, and when we set off, headphones in, we found the 5m was quite quickly over. Apart from some socially close teenagers, we didn’t have much trouble. We seemed to be going a little further than usual, and worried we might have been a bit too quick on our first run. We recovered quickly and continued chatting, then began our 8mins.

Sarah was soon saying we were half way, and our worst concern was navigating every dog walker, runner and couple in Worksop, all who seemed to be on Gateford estate! We won’t be out at this time again! Way too busy!

We did a bit of off-pavement running on the grass and as we ended the 2nd run I was starting to feel a bit tired. Pat told me I was running quite quickly, so I think I need to find more mellow tunes to run to!

The next run seemed to come around quite quickly, and although my breathing was okay, my legs were burning a lot as we started up the incline that is usually our finishing point. This was a very odd feeling and it made it very hard to keep on going for another 3 minutes when we we normally were just finishing our run, not starting it! Those last few minutes were agonisingly slow, but we kept putting one foot in from of the other.

We finished our run being egged on by a fellow jogger, which was great! 🥰 We continued to our 5minute warm down and finished nearly exactly outside our front door! I checked and on Sunday we did 2.7km in the solid 20m but today we 3.2km in 24m with breaks, so we are keeping an even pace.

We were so close to home, and I was rushing for a bath before the party so we forgot our sweaty selfie! Silly old us!

Two of my friends and family have told me that because of our success on c25k, they have started/are about to start running, which is great! I really hope they find the sense of achievement we have!

Week 6 Run 2

Friday...after saying “maybe later.....” 3 times since Thursday morning and calling off our run because of the rain, we bit the bullet and went for it.

Today was a 10minute run, 3min break, then another 10m run. The rain was definitely falling but it wasn’t too heavy. The problem was we went for a run just after having a meal - won’t make that mistake again! We both had gurgling tummies most of the way round.

It was a little tough getting going, and nearly as soon as we started I was out of breath and Pat’s legs were hurting! (I blame the food!) Sarah told us we were halfway through the first run, and I was very grateful we were nearly there. Around that time my legs started to burn but my breathing was easier. One stops, the other starts, typical! No reprieve haha! Despite the difficulty, we both recovered quickly in between our runs and when we started again I think my music helped my mind wander a little and not focus on the running too much “just 2 more songs to go Jordan! You can do it!”.

As we got part way through the second run I realised I was beginning to feel a bit of muscle ache in my thighs which I haven’t really felt before, only my calves. Pat thinks this means we’re opening our strides up a little more, although I did feel like I was shuffling the whole way round! 😂

Pat must be right though as it we have made good progress - we did about 3k over the 23mins which isn’t a bad time.

We basically finished our walk at our doorstep again, so we forgot to take a sweaty selfie again! We’re going to have to add some distance to our run so we remember!

We’ve got a 25 min run on Sunday, so we’re going to try and take what we have learned and throw it into that! STRETCH!! Water, but no food right before! Don’t forget to pace yourself!

Week 6 Run 3

I still can’t believe we’ve been doing this for 8 weeks guys!!

I had a late night last night, so I got up just after twelve (and missed buying turnips on Animal Crossing! Damn!) and had a day of mooching about on the sofa, watching tv and playing games with Pat. We said we’d go for a run later, when we knew it wouldn’t be busy outside. We had tea and said we’ll go in a bit when our food had gone down. We promptly forgot about our run.

So, at 22:20, we set off! And in our rush to get out before midnight, we forgot to stretch! We looked a bit of a sight doing lunges and stretching our legs on the warm up walk. 😂

Today it was a 25 minute run. While I wasn’t looking forward to it and I knew it wouldn’t be a walk in the park (😉), I also felt like we had it in us to do 25minutes. We did 10x2 the other day and 20 last week so I thought: we can do this!

This first five minutes seemed to go relatively quickly. I kept a good pace and was pleasantly surprised when Sarah M started talking at the 5m mark as my breathing was fine and my legs weren’t too upset. However, the next 7.5mins, getting to half way (12.5min) through the run, were very long!

We were on a very very slight hill, but I always feel it in my calves, not as much as usual today, but it was still a little burn-y. The next section (to the 12.5 mins) seemed to take forever! I had started to get a stitch - I think we ran too quickly after eating again 🙈 - so I was breathing deeply to try and take it off, which messed up my running rhythm. After that, about halfway, I purposefully slowed down a little to try and get back on track. Pat did really great all through this - he kept an even pace and didn’t struggle. 🎉

Soon we were at halfway, and we were starting the long straight climb that we always used to end on. The gentle incline was fine, both Pat and I were much better with this than usual. Other than an excess of sweat because the weather was so close we were doing well, breathing evenly, legs doing okay too. As you come to end of this stretch the road banks upwards and we always slow down and it kills your calves because you’re already tired, but we both kept up a ~slower~ but regular pace rather than dragging ourselves up the “hill” as usual. I did have a small stumble here, but I’m blaming that on the street lights being out. 😂

Sarah M. told us we had 5 minutes to go, where had that time gone?? Great! We had just crested the hill where we normally finish running and turned up another hill! Luckily, this was was really nice and gentle and we kept on going. “I am Moana” came on my headphones and Moana and her grandma sung encouragement to me until just after Sarah said “One minute left”. I went for it (a fast jog!) and really ended the run on a breathless high! It was “Run-derful”!😂😂

We are really proud of ourselves! The point of C25k is to run for 30mins, and we just did 25! We both felt we had a little bit more left if we had needed it, so it’s somehow actually become an achievable goal!! Crazy!

We ran about 3.15km in the 25m which is a little slower than we did the other day, but I’m happy with that! I think it’s the longest time I’ve ever run in my life!

Don’t worry, we added a bit on the end of our run so we remembered our sweaty selfie this time!

Peace out ✌️ (Lol!)

🦄💖JD🏃‍♀️🤯

[nighttimepixels]

Heyhey Night! I have a buncha questions after seeing all your animations and they're just so cool so! I hope this is ok!! Can u animate normally too, or only pixel? Not that that's bad, just wondering! What's ur preferred kinda animation? Do u prefer lipflaps or lipsyncs? What's the hardest part of the animation process?? What's ur favorite?? Any part u don't like? What's a thing people don't see that u put a lotta time into? Do u have a fave animation u've done? Thank u btw for all ur art!!

Oh stars, okay, yeah- I’m happy to answer all these!! I’ll break them up so it’s easier to read X) And awww geez thank you so much for your support, sweet anon! It really makes my day when people say they like anything I’ve made, and stars knows it’s all the more true with the sweet sweet time sink that is animation   (´•̥̥̥\\ヮ\\•̥̥̥` )

I’ll also put this under a cut since it gets a bit long :)

Can u animate normally too, or only pixel?

This one cracks me up a little, don’t worry about it XD I totally can! In fact I enjoy it a lot - and... gods, animation software is a nightmare and a half, to be honest. That’s the biggest hurdle.

I do just straight up love pixel art and the aesthetic I can achieve with it, but I do at times miss ‘normal’ (non pixel?) animation, heh. Especially sound-syncing! I do all my pixel art in Asesprite which imo is the best pixel art program, not to mention made by an actual pixel artist - buuuut it doesn’t have a sound file option. Which makes sense! Er, frankly, most pixel artists wouldn’t... use it to animate like I do? More for games, or for looping gifs? So I can’t complain much, it makes a lot of sense that it’s a low dev priority.

Now, when it comes to other animation programs... I’ve tried a lot. Unfortunately, the ones that are preferable for the feel I like are either way out of budget (stares at TVPaint in the distance) or... well, have too high a learning curve for my single-person workflow, really. (OpenToonz, sigh...) And a lot of the free programs are good for getting a start in animation, but once you get to a certain point you really feel the limitations (whether it’s workflow, sound import, exports, trying to make something more finished than a rough...).

Then... there’s animation programs I just don’t like, and a lot of those are angled towards bone-style animations (nothing wrong with those, they just don’t fit my style? and are too much time investment for a single artist to output more quickly...), or are, well, freakin’ Adobe Animate.

I... gods, I do not like Animate (formerly Flash). And I made a whole 2 minute+ animation in it a couple years ago! (It’s very rough and bad and doesn’t make sense, pfff, not gonna link it XD) It’s... clunky, and vector oriented, and freaking lines don’t go where I want them too, and it tries to predict too much?? It’s hard to put to words, gah. For me, my animation style would be much more... raster oriented. Flow, hand drawn inbetweens, yaddayadda. Animate’s great for... plenty of things, but not for that kind of animation. There are far better animators than I who make it work with freakin’ aplomb though! So really, it’s just my taste, haha.

.... Er, that got long! I’ll cut off more rambling about animation software and tl;dr boil it down to “I love animating period, but turnaround is something I have to keep in mind as a freelancer, as well as budget, and my current focus is pixel animations for a number of reasons.” X)

What's ur preferred kinda animation?

I’m not exactly sure what this one means! Between pixel and non-pixel? Er, they both have their pros and cons, so I couldn’t say! But if I have to break down my current animations into categories, I’d say I have cutscenes, loop environments, and the broad game-like animations...

The first would be something like this animation feat. teasing Edge, the second would be something like this one with skesgo’s Starlan and Cinnamon, and the third is... everything else! From headsprite loops to ‘small’ characters running and so on.

Honestly, they’re all a lot of fun for different reasons! Cutscenes are generally the most challenging, but they give me the chance to push my limits and try and pull off something cool, whether I’m having to conserve frames (to keep the cost of a commission down) or whether I’m going more all out (which is a pricey commission, or a fun personal project, lol).

Loop environments are their own challenge - it may not look like it, but I put a lot of thought into how to make them look as natural as possible! From timing of talking characters, to where to place a blink, to exactly how many frames it’ll take to ‘soften’ a motion (so people aren’t just snapping between major poses) and so on - it takes... a lot of time to animate even simple scenes well, so I do a lot of mental math on how I can keep things affordable when someone approaches me for a commission. And frankly, I totally undercharge;; but I do my best!

Game-like animations are just fun. They range, they’re silly, to intense (I’ve animated fight animations before for game concepts), to indulgent, and beyond! Headsprites are always a delight, especially if I get to push the expression X) and I love tiny things (I mean... I am a pixel artist...) so getting to make lil tiny babs even just walking can be fun - and also, a lot more time consuming than you might thing, esp if you wanna make it smooth, like this lil Frisk I did last month or so:

Do u prefer lipflaps or lipsyncs?

oTL

B... both??

Okay, lipsyncing basically is very time consuming. AND, I freakin’ love it. I love puzzles, and when it boils down to it, that’s what super fun & expressive lip syncing is (some Ghibli animations are the heckin’ best for this)...

and, I’m a pixel artist, without sound-syncing capabilities in her main art program oTL Yeah, I can export frames and line them up and check but... gods, it’s so time consuming. I’ve tried it out of desperation - but for even five seconds of sound (sayyyyy a lil Vine...) that’s hours upon hours of transferring back and forth just to check.

So even though I love lipsyncs, they’re too time-consuming (and ergo, if I’m being commissioned, often too expensive) to do often! Someday I’d like to get back to doing them more often, but for now, practically I stick to/’prefer’, in the loosest terms, to do lipflaps. For the layman, this is that ‘two frame’ (maybe three) open-closed style of animating mouths- however, I’m working on ways to keep that style, but make it more expressive! It depends on the project - and in commissions, I’ll pretty much always prioritize giving the client a little more body animation than mouth animation, unless it’d really fit what they’ve requested.

What's the hardest part of the animation process??

.... damn, this is a tough one! Sometimes I’d say it’s the initial concept work - but it depends on what I have to work with. Sometimes that parts a breeze - and honestly freeing, bc I can take the time to try and push what I’ll do with it!

Roughing is one of my favorite parts, tbh. It can be tricky, sure, but getting to go from keyframes to in-betweens & smears to adding the flairs of secondary motion (think hair swishing, or coats flaring, etc) is so exciting and satisfying.

From there it’s all refining, and tweaking...

Hm. Honestly, the hardest is probably the initial cleanup and lining. It’s cool to see it come together, but it feels so much slower, and it can drag - and then you find bits that actually don’t translate well from the rough stage, so you have to go back and rework, and oof it can just drag in this phase, heh. Plus, I’m always tempted to add more frames, but it’s not always realistic - I’m a perfectionist, to say the least, so I’m constantly having to leash myself back so I don’t turn a project into a half-a-year undertaking, pff.

What's ur favorite??

Probably gave myself away talking about the roughing stage X) It’s just loose and fun and free! But seeing it all come together is also damn satisfying too, so that’s not to say I don’t like the refining portions either...

Outside of that, I also really like the beginning of the color stage! .... Before having to translate shadows/highlights to each and every frame *shudders*. That gets tedious, but it’s so critical! Anyways, though, I heckin’ love colors. I always have a rough palette in mind at the start of the process, but I go ham and play with it as a little break and a true test when I get to actual slap together a full frame with full color, highlights/shadows included! It’s exciting, like a preview of the finished product, basically :D

Any part u don't like?

Heh, by the time I get to shadows/highlights, I tend to be getting impatient, I suppose. It’s not that I don’t like it - I definitely highly value it, and if it was the only thing I was working on in an animation that’d be different, but as a one-woman team I’m just raring to be done at that point; it’s very nearly the last thing I do, after all, so it’s a struggle to focus. X)

I suppose one that always gets me is more complicated backgrounds. It’s a work in progress, as I’m getting better and finding the fun in them for sure! But I’m still not where I want to be in translating ‘background concept’ to ‘finished background’ - it feels more stiff than my animations, I guess. So it’s a frustrating part... but hey, it’s part of it! And learning to embrace the challenge is a big help.

... I just always have to make sure I have a big cup of coffee and a good jam playlist going when I sit down to do ‘em, in the meantime.(=▿= ||||)

What's a thing people don't see that u put a lotta time into?

Definitely the coloring. This goes for both backgrounds and the animated characters themselves. It’s... never as simple as it looks? It’s time consuming, and while some parts of frames can be copy-pasted, I also put subtle work into the animations that mean that some pixels are off so it ends up being marginally faster to just recolor, but then there’s shadows, and working in pixels means that if I miss one then there’s a flickering pixel mid-animation, and sometimes there’s an unconnected line and then you bucket fill the whole damn thing, and gods know I’ve got colored lines so I have to be exacting with keeping the same ratios highlighted vs darker in shifting frames...

*deep breath*

... Yeah, basically the coloring is super time consuming. And balancing bg coloring with animated elements in the image itself is a whole extra challenge on top of that. For 99% of my animations, I can damn near guarantee I’ve spent at least twice as much time coloring it as I have animating it.

Do u have a fave animation u've done?

*looks at my goblin hoard of animations in horror like I’ve been asked to choose a favorite child*

... Stars above, I can’t choose! I love them all, and at this point a good portion of them are commissions- it wouldn’t feel right to choose!

*...carefully covers the hoard’s metaphorical ears*

... also, that said, I can admit a soft spot for any of them that involve humor. I tend to get to do extremely expressive faces and action there, even if I have to ration the frames, so it turns out really fun X)

And though rough and I’ve definitely done stuff I’m more proud of, I still crack up at this one I did a while back of the nonsense ‘ass’ joke between Red & Stretch... their faces were too much fun XD I’ve gotten waybetter since then though, Big Oof, I see so many things I can fix; might go back and redo it someday.

Honestly, though, I just freakin’ love animating! They all have their ups and downs andI always put a lot of love into them and find a way to have fun with it and try to push any emotion/theme (when applicable). I like to think it shows, but idk, that’s something I have to leave up to you guys X)

[skizmin]

Ravenclaw Seungmin

(my sweet sunshine i hope i can do you justice)

Genre: fluffy as FUCC yo, seungmin is a precious baby, he’s book smart then falls in love and has nO fuckin idea what to do, ugh hes so cUTe, confident til you (my lovely gender neutral reader) come along type shit lmao sue me

Words: 6330 holy shit

A/N: alrighty so i put some more effort into this one bc apparently yall didnt appreciate my woojin one (lookin at you you well rested hoes) and yeah. for the love of coke please stop sleeping on woojin and seungmin it hurts my heart.

this all sorta starts in the middle of exam season

seungmin is lowkey stressed

okay possibly highkey stressed

especially when his friend hyunjin drags him out of the study hall to go see some quidditch game

“hyunjin seriously i need to study” 

but hyunjins carrying seungmin over his shoulder screaming about something called stress relief and fun

but anyway, here seungmin is in the stands very begrudgingly 

thinkin about that lil song he made to remember how to pronounce that one pet hair expelling spell lmao

when he sees you

he knows you of course, always coming extremely close to his top mark in all his classes

once, in second year, you even beat him in defence against the dark arts which seungmin felt a bit down about for 3 weeks but also he knew you had an immense interest in jinxed plants which was the topic of half of the test

rip seungmin

anyway, he’d always sorta just ignored thinking about you unless it was his competitive side coming out 

for real once he almost gave up studying for a divination in class essay but was reminded you were in that class and just nYOOMED to finish his final draft

he only ever really thought about school anyway, much to the dismay of his friends who for once just wanted to get to know him more and take him out to hogsmeade or something

okay so anyway, hes in the stands and he sees you

he doesnt exect you to be there lol like

you study just as much as he does, right? 

not only are you there, but you arent even watching the game

youre in it

seungmin chokes on his motherfuckin pumpkin juice

hes all

W-WHAT

NO WHAT

HOW

hyunjin looks at him like wtf bro

seungmins just

“Y/NS IN THE QUIDDITCH TEAM? BITCH? WHAT??”

hyunjins like what???? ohhhh y/n?? dude theyre like one of the best chasers in the damn school

seungmin just looks from hyunjin to you (trying to intercept a pass from the other team) with wide eyes

“seungmin why do you look so shocked? do you know them?”

“yeAH THEYRE THE ONE THAT BEAT ME ON THAT TEST ONCE”

“hmm? what in second year??? dude you have GOT to let that go.”

but by now seungmins not even paying attention to hyunjin, he’s watching you speed past with the quaffle and scoring almost effortlessly

seungmin had never really paid much attention to quidditch. now much at all

aside from happily congratulating his friends on their most recent win and smiling brightly along with jisung when he begins screaming about the new chudley cannons line up

seungmin never really followed the world cup or anything

he simply decided when he was sorted into ravenclaw that he would dedicate himself to his studies

and he struggled to get the grades he does even though felix’s favourite thing to say to him was “all you do is study”

but he was proud of his grades

seungmin never really paid much attention to quidditch

but now? watching you?

your house colours billowing behind you as you smiled to a teammate, listening to their instructions on your next course of action.

he was mesmerised

wholly?? fully?? mesmerised??

he didnt know why but his heart sort of ached

he thought, why would he feel like this?

he understood though that he simply felt completely and utterly inferior to you

hes fine with being inferior to you in terms of quidditch, he doesnt play quidditch

rarely has flown a broom actually, unless necessary

but in terms of school work?

he genuinely set his soul to do that

he’s wholly dedicated to studying to achieve the almost record grades he has

and you?

you were right behind him

dont get him wrong, he doesnt think you dont deserve it, not at all. he would never say someone doesnt deserve recognition for their hard earned work.

he was upset because, honestly?

he saw how often his friends practised their quidditch skills. the team practise, individual practise, game plans, codes, flying methods, opponent studies

all of it

it was very nearly the same amount of time he spent studying.

and his friends? 

he remembers the time his friends minho a few years back struggled to scrape by a pass due to his commitment to the sport. even with copious amounts of tutoring that drove him into the early hours of the morning so often

the stress ate away at him. it was a particularly busy year for slytherins team and he was on high demand. the lack of interest in school kicked in after his grades began dropping

it wasnt a good time, not a good thing to witness. eventually he passed purely on all nighters full of cramming before exams

all his quidditch playing friends struggled to get above average in their grades, no matter how enthusiastic they were about learning and magic 

how did you, who was on par with their skill, manage to follow so closely behind him whilst studying?

of course, he was prefect, but that consisted of simply once a week meetings and helping younger students with school related things. sometimes an odd counselling session here and there and some advice on how to handle situations

but that took up rarely any of his time

not nearly as much as quidditch would

he felt sort of empty, like he had lost some kind of purpose. 

how was he going to deal with this? how was he going to deal with the fact that you were so so so far above him in all ways possible? the one thing he fully applies himself to is now meaningless to him

he wants to be better 

“minnie?? the games over. y/ns team won.” hyunjin called from beside him, nudging him with his shoulder

“ah, right.”

hyunjin furrowed his brows at seungmins down attitude but shrugged it off because

it be like that sometimes

ya’know??????

,,

fast forward to one week later and seungmins friends were getting increasingly more worried. why?

his usually immaculate notes were empty, he went straight to bed instead of studying (yet the bags under his eyes were dark and prominent. one of his dormmates reports to jisung that he has been sleeping quite fitfully.), he sat for hours on the weekend in the study hall tapping his quill on the table but his paper remained blank

hell, he hadnt even borrowed a new book from the library after finishing his most recent read

it was at this point jeongin forced hyunjin to confront seungmin about it

“so uh, whats up?”

“huh? oh nothing just chilling.”

“no i mean recently, youre acting odd.”

“o-oh?? (worm)”

“yeah, so you okay??”

“definitely, just busy sorting something out.”

hyunjin smiled and left seungmin be at that

seungmin realised that was the last straw, he was going to do something about how this affected him

so the next day, after classes ended, seungmin made his way to the library. after that he walked down to hagrid’s, their groundskeeper and teacher of magical creatures’, hut. then after that he walked up to the hospital wing.

when he returned to the great hall and jisung asked him where he had been, he just smiled and shook his head

what had be been doing?

volunteering.

volunteering to help at the library and help madam pince 5 nights a week every fortnight, volunteering to help hagrid tend to the animals and feed them and give them exercise every sunday, and finally, volunteering to run errands for madam pomfrey for 5 nights every other week and to tend to small injuries that can be handled with a simple muggle first aid kit if thats what the student would like

anyway once his friends found out what he had done they were very happy!! and confused??

and also worried

seungmin had aways had this habit of overworking himself

,,,,

okay so 3 weeks later he was in the library volunteering

pushing a trolley full of misplaced books up the isle while yawning widely

he thought he was doing pretty well. he was more than confident on the two exams that had passed during the time he spent volunteering n stuff

he walked along, still yawning occasionally, blaming it on the warm cozy feeling of the library late at night

but he jumped as he felt a tap on his shoulder and whipping his head around so fast his neck couldve snapped off

and then he saw you, looking nervous as you twisted your fingers together in front of you

he swore he couldve melted right then and there

wait?????? what???????

“u-uh, hey! um. yeah madam pince she-, she told me to ask you. ask you where to find a b-book that is! ha. haha.”

seungmin watched as your face got red and his heart sorta swelled?????

“oh! u-uh yeah! sure! which book?”

you smiled at him widely, relieved you hadnt asked the wrong person. “magical mediterranean water plants and their properties???”

seungmins heart stuttered

he had never really paid much attention to you before he saw you on the quidditch pitch, thinking of you purely as competition. but recently

god, recently he couldnt stop thinking about you. your face. your smile. your laugh, remembering the rare times you would joke around in class.

was this what it was like to have you smile at him?

he would fetch you 1000 books if he got to see 1000 of those smiles

oh my oh my was his heart beginning to beat faster and faster

“o-okay, uh- follow me?” he turned around quickly and began walking. he’d memorised the library way before volunteering anyway, madam pince getting sick of him asking where books were every second day

he walked up 3 isles and turned right, walking up the middle before tugging out his wand from his robes and softly flourishing his wand

from a high shelf, a black leather book floating down gently, seungmin extended his hand to grab it before passing it to you, cheeks red

“is this it?” seungmin already knew that was the book you were looking for. he read it last term to jog his memory before a herbology test

fUCK THERE WAS A HERBOLOGY TEST COMING UP RIP SEUNGMIN

anyway

“yeah!! seungmin, right? thank you so much.” you shyly smiled at him

“u-uh yeah!! just um, ask me for help if you need it and you see me. y/n, right?” god his brain was a mess

“of course!! well, i’ll see you around yeah??”

seungmin nodded, cheeks getting slightly redder

and with that you walked away, cheeks equally as red as seungmins and hands clasping tightly around the book he got for you

anyway, in the next week you and seungmin sometimes exchanged small smiles and waves but nothing more

you highkey wanted to talk to him but you were too shy so

it was okay bc he was shy too so

but anyway, you had been in your care of magical creatures class, talking to your professor as you attempted to befriend a porlock

(a small horse guardian thing that doesnt quite trust humans)

anyway, simply you got onto the topic of how hagrid could possibly look after all his creatures constantly to which he replied with a smile and 

“well theres a ravenclaw boy that helps me now. seungmin. do you know him? he helps me care for all of them every sunday.”

you furrowed your brows, it couldnt possibly be

“kim seungmin?” you questioned

“thats the one!” 

you smiled, saying you knew him before getting lost in your own thoughts.

didnt seungmin already volunteer at the library? maybe that was a one time thing. right????

surely he wouldnt be volunteering at two places at once. thats impossible

not with his grades, he couldnt possibly keep up. how much overworking would that be?

you were taking out of you thoughts with a sharp stinging pain on your wrist

you looked down to see your porlock obviously angry and trying to escape the calming hold you had on him

hagrid noticed you gasp and his eyes widened as he saw the blood trickling down your arm

“oh no! are you alright????”

“i’m fine! just got bitten is all.”

“here let me take the porlock, you should get yourself to the hospital wing. the last period bell is gonna go anyway so take your bag too”

you were stunned at your professor being so panicked

“im sorry its just ive filled out three incident reports in the last week”

you laughed, tugging your satchel over your shoulder and holding your wrist with your free hand to stop the bleeding somewhat

you greeted you friends goodbye before climbing up the grassy hill to hogwarts on your way to the hospital wing

as soon as you reached the castle, chimes came loudly from the bell tower above

you groaned, you knew you had quidditch practise in half an hour so you began to speed walk through the halls that were filling quickly with students

reaching the hospital wing you pushed the big oak door open, searching around for madam pomfrey

“excuse me?”

madam pomfrey popped out from behind her desk

“oh! y/l/n! im just about to head out on an emergency. some kid ate sat on a firework from that pesky store. is it serious?”

“uhhhhh, no?? i can patch myself up.” you smiled at the frantic nurse

she nodded and walked passed you, calling out as she rushed through the door in a hurry

“the kits on my desk! and if kim seungmin shows up tell him i dont have anything for him to do!”

you smiled quickly to her before she was gone

wait a minute? seungmin? what would he be doing here???

anyway, you walk up to her desk and drag out the first aid kit

you knew how to use a first aid kit

you were Cultured

anyway you were looking for something to dress your arm, you found a big ol’ dressing with all that sticky shit

bitch yes

anyway as you were struggling to open the dressing up, the gigantic oak door opened suddenly and you almost dropped the dressing you were holding to see a panting seungmin

your eyes widened as he crouched over and spoke

“madam- madam pomfrey im so” large breath in “sorry im late i just-” another pant “a student asked me where vectors office was and-” 

he finally stood up, eyes widening when he saw you

“o-oh! y/n? whatre you doing here??”

“uh, porlock.” you replied dumbly. not thinking enough to elaborate bc wow kim seungmin was right there looking gorgeous n shit

“porlock?????? the animal??????” he furrowed his brows

you nodded and suddenly remembered what the nurse had told you

“oh! uh, madam pomfrey is out right now but she said theres um,,, nothing for you to do???” you asked him, sounding unsure to whether or not you heard her correctly

seungmin furrowed his brows “o-oh.”

you looked away, and began fumbling with your dressing and spoke up again “do you help out here too?”

“uhhh. yeah, i do.” he replied somewhat awkwardly

“hagrid said you help him as well. do you get any rest?” you asking, sounding exasperated

but like,,,

low key lmao

“oh uh. yeah i try my best i guess.” he sounded so??? nervous???

“wait! y/n, let me do that. its what im supposed to be doing anyway” seungmin sheepishly says as he walked up to you

oh god what now???????? uh???????? seungmin very possibly touching you and being that close??????? uh??? a bitch is scared for their health but shhhhh

“n-no! its fine!” you mumbled back, suddenly very shy under seungmins gaze

“y/n you cant even get it open, not to mention your arm and hand are still covered in blood.”

he had a point

“oh. right.”

seungmin moved you over to one side of the table as he pulled out a bowl and a washcloth from one of the cabinets next to it.

he mumbled a soft aguamenti, creating water from his wand into the bowl, smiling in accomplishment

then he dipped half of the cloth into the water and wrenched it to get the excess water out

“can i uh- can u have your arm??” he  stuttered, suddenly realising how close you were, cheeks dusting pink

you held your arm up for him and he started wiping at the blood on your skin, you didnt actually mind the cool feeling of the water at all. 

you decided to use the awkward silence to have a little conversation with him

“why do you volunteer so much?” you questioned

seungmins movements halted for a second before he started cleaning your arm again

“no particular r-reason. i-, i like it?” he replied, not meeting your eyes

“why do you sound so unsure?” your pried, wondering why exactly the question was difficult for him

“im not unsure!” he assured you, taking a glance at your face finally before dumping the cloth in the water because he was done

“alright i guess”

“i uh,” he started whilst ripping open he package to the dressing, “i didnt know you played quidditch.”

you were surprised by this, everyone knew you played quidditch

“oh! really?? i thought it was obvious.”

he began placing the dressing on your wrist, trying to make sure there was no crinkles in the plastic sticky part

(yes i dont know the actual term for it fucking SUE ME)

“ah, i dont really pay attention to quidditch so.”

“oh. how’d you find out then?” you were curious as to how he knew if he barely knew you and didnt even like quidditch

“hwang hyunjin, you might know him, hes in our year. anyway he dragged me out to watch and you were playing so.”

“ah right. hyunjin’s the slytherin right?” 

“yup!”

cue: silence

seungmin was smoothing out the dressing on your wrist 

“y-your robes...” seungmin started, picking up his wand from the desk and mumbling a short “tergeo”

suddenly your robes grew warm and the blood siphoned off of them cleanly into seungmins wand

you were now comfortably warn in your robes as you went to pull your sleeve down before seungmin stopped you gently with his hand, checking the dressing was on properly one last time

you shivered at the feeling of his cold fingers, and decided to return the favour of hhim helping you

pulling out your wand, you muttered a soft incantation of a heat charm, pointing your wand over seungmins hands that adorned a pink hue due to the cold of the water earlier

“oh my god thank you” seungmin practically groaned, rubbing his hands together in front of your wand

you laughed quietly at him, finding his satisfaction amusing before he looked up to your face and realised, blushing a deep shade of pink

okay imma keep it real with you chief

you liked seungmin a lot

idk he just??? made you feel so giddy. your stomach like,,, dipped when he smiled at you n stuff

i mean you werent the only one,, there were heaps of people in your year that fawned over the smart boy. hard-workers are always the most popular like come on

but you sorta just knew there was no chance between the two of you and you were perfectly happy being friends with the boy. his friends always hyped him up a bunch like he was some kind of god

you definitely agreed he was good company, even when you two werent necessarily comfortable around each other yet

but anyway, seeing him standing there blushing in front of you made you uwu SO HARD

and you were glad he knew you from something you loved, that being quidditch

wait

fuCK QUIDDITCH PRACTISE YOU ALMOST FORGOT

“seungmin!! im so sorry i have to go!! i have inter house practise!!”

seungmin’s eyes widened a little

i mean yeah you had to go to practise but like also

that was the first time???????? you’d said his name to him???????? excluding the time you asked him if it was in fact his name but like

oh my god seungmins blush got even darker because he didnt know he could like how someone said his name but he definitely likes him name 20 times more when youre saying it and and youre smiling and running out of the infirmary and waving to him and its all too much like his heart rn??? dead. his brain??? he doesnt know her, it turned to mush

seungmin walked over to one of the beds in the hospital wing and sat down, sighing

he was so fucked

,,,,,,,,

 “you’re friends with kim seungmin right?” you questioned jisung as you waited for the rest of the schools quidditch players to exit the change rooms

“yeah!! we’re close actually. why?” 

jisung was always so excitable and held such confidence in everything he did, he was comfortable to talk to

“oh nothing, i just ran into him at the hospital wing is all”

“hospital wing? he’s still volunteering there??”

you furrowed your brows, “yeah??? is something wrong????”

jisung sighed, scuffing his boot along the grass of the slowly filling pitch and tossing his bat up into the air before catching it nonchalantly (imagine being That Cool)

“yeah. he’s been overworking himself way too much lately. he used to only focus on studying but he’s trying to fit in all this helping staff out and he looks so tired all the time.”

looking back you do remember seungmins hair being a bit more dishevelled than usual, and under his eyes was a little bit darker

“why though? i mean its nice he is but like, he doesnt need to?”

jisung nods thoroughly at you

“thats what we all said! he wont tell us why he’s had this sudden change in heart though.” jisung pouted and you laughed lightheartedly at him

“oh well, he’ll come around right?”

,,,,

he didnt

its been 3 weeks since your conversation with jisung and you can guarantee seungmin was overworking himself to the max

he came into astronomy studies late and ended up falling asleep the other day. it was one of the easier classes to fall asleep in of course due to the whole jinxing the ceiling to look like a nights sky in a dark room n stuff but like still

seungmin never was late to class

seungmin never fell asleep in class

lately youve noticed him turning up to morning classes barely on time, tie askew and hair a complete mess

you’d find it cute if you werent worried for his health 

okay you did find it cute but YoU weRe sTiLL WoRRieD

anyway, so it was one day in herbology theory when he fell asleep again

sprout wasnt too happy but let him sleep anyway bc like. if you can sleep through her basically screaming explanations to the class due to her half deafness than yeah, you probably needed it

at the end of the class you packed your things and saw seungmin still peacefully sleeping at his desk and you frowned lightly

so you decided to let him sleep but you sat at your table for a while, using spare parchment and a scribing spell to copy your notes for him

after it was completed, you left it on the table next to him with a bottle of pumpkin juice you were saving for later, your eyebrows still furrowed

why was he overworking himself?

sighing, you just left, deciding it was creepy to be there for so long

anyway, that night you went to the library to find a book you needed for your ancient runes course test

you didnt really expect anyone to be there so late (it was almost curfew, you were forgetful)

and it sorta slipped your mind that seungmin volunteered there until

“need help?”

holy fUCK he scared you like boy you cant go sneakin up on people in an almost empty library and speak loudly like that

anyway so you violently flinched away and he started laughing whilst apologising profusely

you smiled bc he was cute adalsfafrfpi;fef seungmin omg stop

but yeah once he was done, he reiterated “sorry, but is there any book youre looking for?”

“uhhhhh yeah, ancient runes made easy??” you sorta felt dumb saying it out loud but oh well, you needed to pass this test

“follow me then!” seungmin led you out of the tall shelves confines to the middle corridor before delving into another set of shelves, this time he didnt pull out his wand to get the book down, instead he simply reached up and plucked it from the shelf

“here you go!” he handed it to you, it was indeed the book you were looking for and it was in mint condition. not surprising as basically no one took the ancient runes elective rip

you mumbled a thanks, cheeks sorta going a bit red as you stared at your feet because like

kim seungmin

(thats a phat mood btw)

“oh! i almost forgot!” seungmin started, dipping his head down a bit to try and catch your eyes. when you looked up, he smiled

“uh, thanks for what you did today. you know, the notes a-and the pumpkin juice and stuff.”

you watched seungmins cheeks get pinker as he went on

you were full on uwuing at this point

“its okay! really!” you blurted out like omgkimseungministhankingme

suddenly it fell into an almost awkward silence between the two of you

shoes shuffling on the ground and cheeks red

“um, what do you need help with in ancient runes? im all caught up. i could explain something if you want?”

and thats how you ended up on one of the large library tables after curfew with special permission from madam pince

seungmin legit took 15 minutes to explain some stuff to you but now yall were just chillin (in cedar rapids)

you began talking about nothing in particular really

seungmin asked about your quidditch, you asked about his volunteering which he brushed off almost immediately

seungmin and you felt like time didnt exist as you kept talking and talking

you subconsciously moved closer to each other until your thighs were touching

seungmins speech had slowed into a comforting lazy slurring of words, his voice getting heavier with the need for sleep. you felt the same though

his eyes stayed intently on you, even with his cheek in his hand as the conversation slowed to a pleasant silence

you yawned, a hand coming to your face. you knew you should go to bed but you didnt really want to at this point

you looked at seungmin to see him softly smiling at you and your heartbeat picked up. your obvious feelings for him going crazy

“youre really pretty y/n” he mumbled lowly, you almost didnt hear him

of how you wished you didnt hear him because now you were a mess, heart thumping in your chest and red creeping up your neck to your face

how do you reply to that? you were stumped for words honestly

seungmin didnt seem to mind though as he smiled wider, sitting up straight and stretching his arms over his head

“wait here, ill go put out the lamps and we can walk back”

you barely nodded, face still red as seungmin climbed from his seat to wander around, blowing out the candles lighting the library

on your walk back, it was silent. it was comfortable though and seungmin didnt seem to mind your lack of response to his compliment that still had your mind reeling 

seungmin waved bye to you as you parted ways, smiles on your faces

seungmin didnt study when he got into his dorm room, falling face first onto his bed and falling into a deep sleep almost immediately

,,,,

waking up, seungmin first realised he was late, only 30 minutes of breakfast left

and then, the memories of seeing you last night flooded it

mid throwing his covers off of his body, he groaned loudly, how on earth had he said that

his cheeks got red just thinking about it

this was a crisis. he dragged on his uniform and grabbed his satchel and sprinted the whole way to the great hall

once he made it, he spotted his friends at the hufflepuff table and dashed to them

“i have a problem”

jisung, hyunjin and jeongin looked up towards seungmin

“what is it?” jeongin asked, eyes lighting up with curiosity. oh did he love seeing his friends suffer

“so i was in the library with y/n last night” 

“waiT Y/N THE ONE YOU” hyunjin started before jisung harshly elbowed him in the side

seungmin loves jisung

“yes, shut up hyunjin. anyway i was really tired and not thinking straight and i called them pretty and they didnt even respond im so ashamed”

jeongin started laughing, hyunjin smiling along whilst rubbing the sore spot of his side

seungmin groans and stomps his foot, not happy with the lack of support from his friends

jisung tosses him a sympathetic look, “your problem man, i cant really help.”

seungmin pouts but sits down to eat anyway

,,,,,

okay so its been 3 days and seungmins worried

like seriously 

whenever he tries to talk to you your eyes just widen and you walk to other way before he can even get a word out

whenever he passes you in class or in the hallways, he prepares a smile only to be met with you ducking your head to look at the ground as you speed past him

his small waves in class seemingly go unnoticed

but he knows you dont hate him

how? simple. youre still leaving him notes and treats every time he falls asleep in class

so what does he do? like any other desperately in need boy he hatches a plan. 

today last period you both share astrology. he’s simply fake falling asleep and confront you whilst you left him the classes notes

seungmins game plan didnt really work tho bc he actually fell asleep like a dumbass

it was last period astrology and seungmin was lying on his books, passed out

the bell rang and you went through your normal routine, copying your notes which included your immaculately drawn sketches of the constellations you’d studied that day

you waked over to his desk and placed them next to his head, the corner of a page accidentally bushing his nose and you like,,, froze

bc he twitched and scrunched his nose up which wouldve been so cute if you werent terrified of him waking up

you put down a cauldron cake as well once he went back to looking peaceful and frowned bc

“seungmin why don’t you rest more?” you whispered

he exhaled deeply in his sleep and a piece of hair fell into his face, subconsciously you went to brush it away and carded your fingers ever so lightly through his hair

but then you halted bc like

wtf thats super creepy

you quickly turned to leave b-but uwu cliche

seungmin grabbed at your wrist yO SEUNGMINS DAINTY ASS FINGERS CURLING THEMSELVES AROUND YOUR WRIST IMAGINE

anyway

you squeaked and turned back around bc wtf it scared you

and seungmin was just sitting up now, arm outstretched grabbing onto yours, eyes wide and hair a fucking cute mess

you were like uhhhhhhhashlfbfkacbsdcbigev

“uh, dont run away, please?” seungmin said, super duper shyly aw hes so CUTE

you like just,,,, shakily nodded at him

seungmin smiled lightly and let go of you, climbing out of his set in lightning speed to stand in front of you

“i uh-, i just wanted to ask why you’ve been avoiding m-me i guess” seungmin started and you cringed

bc this was hella awkward like no 

seungmin cut you off before you could say anything tho with a 

“bc like if its because i called you pretty and stuff im so so so sorry i didnt mean to make you uncomfortable at all and i feel really bad bc i shouldnt have said it and i was really tired and my judgement wasnt the best and i accidentally made things awkward between us and i dont want that and i just feel really really bad like you dont even have to forgive me or anything i swear”

he said all that in like, under 15 seconds. eminem who???

anyway your eyes just went wide as you processed his words n n you lowkey got a bit emo when he said he said it bc he was tired n stuff n just :^((

“why dont you get enough rest seungmin?” you said blankly

“w-what?” seungmins heart rate SKY ROCKETED

“why dont you get enough rest?”

“uh-, i just um,,, i do get e-enough rest!” he was like, nervously laughing

“no you dont, you fall asleep in 40 percent of your classes.”

“i-, i uh-” “why can’t you tell me??” you questioned, eyebrows furrowing at his anxiousness towards the question

“its uh-, its sorta embarrassing” he replied, looking ANYWHERE but your eyes

“is it bad? did you get into trouble or something?”

“nO! god no!”

“then it doesnt sound that bad to me.” oooh go y/n hold ur ground bub

“uhhhh” seungmin sighed, defeated “okay ill tell you.” you just hummed in response and waited patiently

he exhaled loudly and stared blatanly at your feet before beginning

“i uh. you play quidditch really well and- and you also get near all my scores on tests and stuff and i just felt. idk, dumb or something so i wanted to prove to myself that i could do extra curricular sort of stuff like volunteering and still g-get top scores i guess.”

once he finished he looked into your eyes and you were like ????? what the fuck

you were so confused,,, he was volunteering bc you played quidditch and got good scores???

“seungmin i dont work nearly as hard as you do”

his eyes widened “what do you mean! yes you do! you’re like, on par with jisung and he practises religiously!”

you laughed a little and seungmin furrowed his brows

“seungmin, jisung is muggleborn. whereas my older sister is captain of the tutshill tornados. i dont need to train that hard in quidditch” oh seungmin

the pooor boy

after you made that comment seungmins face just went BRIGHT red lmao

“uhhhhh,,, uh,, uhhh” he didnt know what to say

“anyway seungmin, i suggest you take a break and get some rest so you dont keep saying things accidentally” you said, adjusting your satchel strap on your shoulder and preparing to leave

“what?? acidentally???” seungmin said, preventing you from leaving “you don’t mean me calling you pretty right bc like. i meant that” okay but how was seungmin now so confident especially when he said that

“w-what?” you said, red going ALL over your face lmao like everywhere

“i meant it when i called you pretty i just. i know there was a better time to say it probably” seungmin started getting shyer now like his ears going red he was so cute

‘you think im pretty????????” you were so confused like. kim seungmin?? the kim seungin? thinking youre pretty??? you discreetly pinched yourself, checking this wasnt a dream

“d-dont say it so forwardly like that!” seungmin exclaimed

“you said it forwardly first!” you laughed back at him, ngl you were feeling a little giddy 

seungmin just sorta sunk back into himself, feelin super duper shy

your face got even more red as words tumbled out of your mouth before your common sense could stop you

“f-for the record, i-, i think you’re pretty too”

oh my GOD

1) y/n sweetie thank you for telling seungmin this for all of us

2) yoU JUST CALLED SEUNGMIN PRETTY AND NOW HIS EYES WERE WIDE AS FUCK 

HE SQUEAKED

HE MCFRICKIN SQUEAKED CAN YALL IMAGINE

he brought a hand up to his mouth in surprise and by this point you were like

too shy to do anything lmfao

so you sorta just looked down at your shoes bc wow all of a sudden your black leather school shoes were immensely and intricately beautiful

not

anyway there was a bit of silence as seungmin regained composure and you were way to embarrassed to say anything at all

but then

but thEN

get ready omg

you dont even notice but suddenly seungmins  right in front of you and he’s leaning toward your face and and hes

hes kissED YOUR CHEEK

oh my GOD his cute ass lips just came in contact with your cheek, as quick as lightning but of my god it was worth it

your head whipped up and you gasped

seungmin stood there with an inCREDibly nervous look on his face and his eyes prompting you to respond

like,,,, in any way. pls y/n do something

your mind was fuzzy and the low swooping feeling in your stomach compelled you as you stepped impossibly closer to seungmin, yours and his cheeks radiating a magnificently bright red glow

and you kissed him

thanks again y/n for doing the world a good deed

you sorta squeaked afterwards and went to leap back bc seungmins face was suddenly too close and you were embarrassed and nervous and and

oh my god your heart was beating louder than ever jesus

but before you could leap back, seungmin was wrapping his arms tightly around you, hugging your body and preventing you from distancing yourself from him

his breathing was rapid as his mouth found home near your ear to stutter out a question that would make you squeal if it werent for the fear your legs might give out

“w-wanna go on a-, a date with me? maybe?”

as soon as seungmin felt you nod against him (you didnt trust your voice rn lmao) he smiled, easing into the hug more and essentially melting his heart with yours

uwu

hope you liked it!!!

[svtmatokis]

Closure Part 1

Annyeong~! I’m literally WEEKS away from the end of probation and I am super duper stoked to share with you this next piece. It’s going to be a two parter so look out for the next one soon. 

I’m someone who believes that you shouldn’t live life with regrets and that everything is a learning experience. Everything is meant to happen for a reason and we’re all meant to walk our own paths. Sometimes though, the people that come into our lives are hard to forget. People like your first love for example. 

When I was in grade 11 we had a transfer student from Sask. and he was like that hot new kid that every girl liked. I was lucky enough to have his locker next to mine so we became quick friends.  The thing is, we were on two totally different spectrums of life. He was that popular AP/IB kid who was super smart and took Calculus and wanted to go to top Universities while I was the art student who was involved in a lot of extracurriculars while focusing on Music and Culinary and just wanted to live my life. We were in first aid together and had NOTHING in common. We joked, smiled and shared some special moments while others judged. Why would the hot new kid like someone like me? It didn’t make sense. Eventually, the pressure of his new friends got to the both of us and by senior year, we were nothing more than acquaintances. We talked but it was nothing as in depth as it was before and eventually after graduation, we left with unspoken words and to this day, what if’s still play in my mind.

I’ll never forget him nor will I regret my choices back then. We were young  and if we had stayed the way we were, I dont think I’d be writing this blog right now haha... 

Sorry if this was a bit long, but writing this is closure for me too. I know I’ll probably never see him again but I needed to get this off my chest once and for all. No matter what, he’ll always have a place in my heart. 

NOW TO THE REAL STORY! 

Plot: You were once a trainee with Pledis and had a close relationship with the boys of Seventeen before debut especially Wonwoo. But with the boys debuting so soon and your ambitions changing, leaving was the best choice, but maybe cutting contact from them for five years was not....

Pairing: Reader x Wonwoo

Words: 2565

Genre: A tiny bit of Fluff, lots of reminiscing

“So I’m bringing a friend with me to the meet up tonight” Seungcheol said as the boys finished up practice.

Tonight was a night where all the artists from Pledis got together to hang out. They normally had dinner together before going back to one of the dorms to play games, have dessert and relax outside of their busy schedules. This only happened on rare occasions and were organized by group leaders and their managers so it took a lot of careful planning.

Wonwoo looked up from his phone and raised an eyebrow at his best friend, “Someone we know?”

Seungcheol nodded  his head, “I ran into her a few weeks ago at a cafe and invited her to our get together tonight. I’m going to meet up with her now for dinner so I’ll see you guys back at the dorms.” he said before throwing on a nicer shirt he brought with him and said his goodbyes realizing he was running late.

You sat at the meeting place Seungcheol had told you to wait at so the two of you could have dinner together. You couldn’t believe it had already been close to five years since you last saw him and the rest of the boys. Had it really been that long since you left Pledis?

You thought about each of the Seventeen members, from the oldest but still childish Seungcheol, to the shy gentleman Joshua who you were happy to see had come out of his shell after all these years and of course baby Chan who was still in high school when you left and now he was a graduate and achieving his dreams.

Then there was Wonwoo, the man who no matter how hard you tried, could not rid of from your memories. You leaned back against the bench thinking back to your days with Pledis.

You were one of the older trainees, only being a month younger than Joshua but had entered around the same time Seungcheol had. Not too long later, Jihoon came along and the three of you formed a quick bond both wanting to achieve the similar dream. You and Jihoon became close naturally since composing was something you were both passionate about. Seungcheol was like the big brother you never had, he was always looking out for you but at the same time, he didn’t hesitate to critique you during practices and boy was he harsh sometimes.  

You remembered the day Wonwoo was introduced to the rest of the trainees, it was a few weeks after Soonyoung had joined and you couldn’t help but be intrigued.  He said he was a singer but eventually through Seungcheols influence, he got into hip hop and started rapping.

You remembered the days where you and a few of the other female trainees would sit in on the monthly evaluations and you were mesmerized by Wonwoo’s rapping skills that he had picked up. It complimented his naturally deep voice and his style only added more to his performance.

Eventually as time went on, you two got close since you ran into each other during practices or whenever you were with Seungcheol and Jihoon. Eventually, those group meetings turned into one on one meetings and it was safe to say, you were developing a slight crush on him.

He was quiet and didn’t say much but his actions spoke for him. There were days where practice for you didn’t end till late and Wonwoo would wait for you to finish so he could walk you back to the dorms and stop by for a late night snack along the way. His reason being that it was too dangerous for you to be going home alone though in reality, you normally walked with the girls who lived in your dorm until this habit had picked up.

Other times, he would wait for you outside your dorm building with coffee in hand knowing that you had an early class and he would walk with you to the company all the while enjoying the banter that went back and forth between you two. It was a natural feeling which made your insides warm.

The times you cherished the most were during breaks where a few of you would go to a cafe to relax and it was almost always that you and Wonwoo were together. As the people around you would converse, you would rest your head in your arms while leaning on his arm for support. It brought butterflies to your stomach every time you felt his  fingers gently caress your arm, slowly lulling you to sleep.

But all those moments ended just as quickly as they began. When the boys found out they were going to debut, the boys were on lockdown and working extra hard and all the time that you spent with them was cut short. You didn’t mind because you were working with Bumzu and learning how to compose with Jihoon but because of all that, it meant that you were seeing less of Wonwoo as well.

The two of you always missed each other with timing. Whenever Wonwoo had free time, you would be with Jihoon or Bumzu or at practice and vise versa.

Eventually, the two of you were forced to focus on your respective paths and despite you having feelings for him, had to make that sacrifice and push them aside and soon friends turned into strangers.

You would pass each other in the hallways and greet each other politely but there was never anything more than that. Eventually, as the boys got closer to debut, your own path changed and you found yourself leaving Pledis.

You stated that it was time to move on and that you had other aspirations but deep down, you knew that you were heartbroken and you were running away from your feelings for Wonwoo. Only Seungcheol and Jihoon knew that you had resigned.  There was no big farewell, you had a meal with the two boys on your last day before promising to keep in touch but never did.

As you said goodbye, the memories of you and Wonwoo played back in your mind. The talks, the laughs, the late night walks everything and you had to stop yourself from shedding a tear in front of your friends.

You didn’t think your absence would make an impact on anyone and it didn’t except to Wonwoo who had immediately noticed your absence. When he asked Seungcheol a few months later, a pained look made its way onto his face and the leader only shook his head before walking out of the room not answering.

It was Jihoon who told Wonwoo that you left and cut all contact from everyone and no one could locate you and amongst the boys, Seungcheol was taking it the hardest since the two were practically siblings.

From that day on, you were a constant in Wonwoo’s mind as he was yours.

Five years later, you were a successful composer with Starship Entertainment. The path that you were on with Pledis was different from the one you were on now and looking back, despite what you left behind. You had zero regrets.

Your thoughts were interrupted when someone grabbed you from behind causing you to turn around in shock.

“Seungcheol!” you gasped as the said boy grinned at you before pulling you into a long hug.

The two of you went to a restaurant you both frequented back during your trainee days. It was a small place but had the best Cheesy Korean Chicken and the two of you often found yourselves eating there more often than not.

“Ah...this place feels so nostalgic doesnt it?” Seungcheol asked leaning on the table.

You smiled and nodded your head, “I haven’t been back here in ages.”

“How’s Starship? I heard through Baekho that you left the country for a few years before joining them.”  Seungcheol said after you had ordered.

You nodded your head at his statement. Running into the members of Nu’est had been completely by accident.

After leaving Pledis, you went to do a bit of soul searching and spent three years out in L.A. Nu’est went to film their comeback music video there and it was just pure luck that you ran into them at a restaurant you were at with a few friends Joshua had introduced you to once upon a time. .

Baeko, a member you had bonded with during your trainees days recognized you instantly and called you out.

Once the initial nagging was over, the two of you caught up and you even took him and the other members to your studio your practiced before telling him about the offer Starship had had given you and that you accepted it.

Baekho passed the message on to the others at Pledis and thats what lead to your conversation now.

You and Seungcheol ran into each other backstage at an award show that you attended with Monsta X. They had won an award for their comeback album which you helped produced and wanted to take you in thanks. After the initial shock wore off, you agreed to meet him for dinner the following week..

“I really enjoy working with everyone there” you answered with a smile. “I feel like it was all meant to be.”

Seungcheol nodded his head with a smile. “You looked really happy that night. I can’t believe you helped produce that amazing album. Your skills have seriously improved.”

You blushed at his compliment before thanking him and telling him how proud you were of him and the boys for winning all those awards but also on constantly improving day after day causing him to only grin at you cockily.

There was no anger or tension in the conversation. The conversation flowed like they did back in the day and to anyone who didn’t know the situation, they wouldn’t have been able to tell that you hadn’t seen each other in almost five years. But you also knew that there was a giant turkey in the room and it was no surprise Seungcheol was the one to drop it.

“And you’re one of the most sought after producers in the Korean music industry. Bumzu must be proud. Do you keep in contact with anyone? Outside of Baekho?”

His tone was light but you knew the underlying meaning in his question.

You shook your head, “I only met with Baekho briefly and he gave Bumzu my cell phone number and we only talked on the phone not too long ago. I kind of made it a point to move on with life after I left Pledis.” you explained, “You were all preparing for your debut and I just didn’t feel complete at the agency anymore. I didn’t think it mattered.” you shrugged as Seungcheol shook his head.

“It tore me apart that no one knew where you were after you left. After time passed, I guess a few of the members stopped wondering and moved on with their lives but we can all tell Wonwoo thinks about you alot.” Seungcheol said clenching his hands. “I don’t know what went on between you two before you left but from time to time, when someone brings you up, he gets this distant look in his eyes.”

You sighed, “I’ve thought a lot of about it over the last few years too. What could or should have been. I guess with time, the close friendship we had as trainees faded and we both went our separate ways to walk our own paths. Though at the same time, I feel like there were a lot of things left unsaid between the two of us.” you ran your hand through your hair, “Like we never got any closure you know?”

Seungcheol nodded his head understanding before changing the subject.

“There’s a meet up tonight with a the guys from the company. I said I was bringing someone so I was hoping you’d go with me. I know everyone would be happy to see you again since they heard you were the musical genius behind Monsta X’s latest comeback album.”

You sighed remembering how that was announced. Monsta X had included you in their thank you speech during the award ceremony and you recalled seeing many shocked faces in the area where Seventeen was sitting but remained hidden.

You agreed to go with the promise that if you felt uncomfortable, you would leave and Seungcheol agreed knowing that it wouldnt come to that.

After he paid for the meal, the two of you put your masks on and walked through the streets of Gangnam hand in hand to the Penthouse that the leaders and solo artists had rented out for the get together.

Wonwoo knew the moment Seungcheol walked in and his jaw dropped at who he brought with him.

“No way, is that Y/N-noona?” Mingyu asked shocked as a group started to gather around you and Seungcheol .

Wonwoo couldn’t stop staring from his spot. The last time he saw you was at the monthly evaluation right before you left Pledis though he was sure he caught a brief glimpse of you at the award show the week before sitting with Monsta X’s Shownu.

You felt his eyes on you throughout the night as various artists came to greet you and caught up with those you were once close with. He didn’t approach you but you knew he was watching as if almost waiting for the right time.

Stepping out onto the patio to take a breather, you looked out at the city skyline and let out a sigh. Seeing and catching up with everyone was nice and you were glad they were all doing well. Jihoon had embraced you tightly as soon as he saw you and congratulated you on your success. He even offered to collab on a piece with you one day which you said you would think about.

As you pondered your thoughts, you didn’t hear the door behind you open and shut before feelings someone’s presence next to you.

“It’s been a while…” a deep voice interrupted your thoughts and you turned your head shocked to see the one person who was constantly on your mind.

“It has. How are you Wonwoo?” you asked as he turned to give you a small bow.

“I hear congratulations are in order.” he said with smile looking out at the city skyline.

“Thank you…” you said, “Congratulations on your success. I knew you guys would be great.”

Wonwoo chuckled looking down letting out a hesitant breath, “Listen…” he had to think hard of what he was going to say. Right now, they were treading on light water and he missed when their conversations would naturally flow between them.

“Would...you like to get coffee with me tomorrow?” he asked turning to look at you and he met his eyes before nodding slowly.

“I would like that.” you said with a smile as he grinned knowing he made the right move. The two of you stayed on the balcony in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before you both deemed it too cold and decided to go back inside.

At the end of the night, at Seungcheols insistence, Wonwoo walked you back to your apartment with the promise of seeing you the next day.

Shoutout to @johnaldsuh and everyone else in the Discord chat for the encouragement! - Anna

[narutostuff101]

Nara Family Fanfic [Part 1]

Summary: Shikamaru and Temari sees Shikadai after Day 1 of the Round 3 of the Chunin Exams officially ended.

Set during and after the events of Boruto Next Generations Episode 60

—————————————————————

Love and Pride

When Lee finished his explanation regarding the Final Round of the Chunin Exams; a Three Way Battle Royal between Boruto, Sarada and Sunagakure’s Shinki that was slated to take place tomorrow, the crowd at the stands began to disperse. The excitement and buzz still had not died off. The spectators were having animated conversations, recounting the battles that took place between the participants and the possible outcomes for tomorrow’s big match to determine the Champion of the joint Chunin Exams.

In the top stands, the Five Kage hadn’t move from their seats. The Fourth Tsuchikage, Kurotsuchi, stretch her arms and leaned back into her chair.

“Ahh... what a day. Can’t wait to see what’ll happen tomorrow, if you know what I mean, Hokage-dono, Kazekage-dono...hehe...”, she smirked in the direction of the two Kages that she had addressed.

Naruto smiled and said, “It’ll be exciting. Tomorrow, we’ll get to see how true Shinobis will fight for their worth. Or, something like that, dattebayo.”

Gaara had remained silent, his eyes closed. Then softly he said, “That’s true...”

Naruto grinned at Gaara and addressed the Tsuchikage, “There you go! Gaara agreed with me!” Kurotsuchi just gave the Hokage an nonchalant look.

“Anyways, let’s wrap it up for today.” Naruto stood up from his seat. “I will see you all tomorrow,” he said politely. The other Kages stood up as well. They shook hands with Naruto and each other, a sign of bidding goodbye for the day.

Shikamaru stood behind Naruto, his hands buried deep in the pockets of his pants. He turned to Kankuro who was standing besides him; his hands in his pockets as well. “We’re welcoming you guys for dinner tonight.” He told his brother-in-law, as a-matter-of-factly.

“Hmm, how does that sound like Gaara?”. Gaara turned away from Mizukage Chojuro after he shook his hand to stand in between Shikamaru and Kankuro.

He made a humble expression and Shikamaru knew what his answer would be. He raised his hand before Gaara could answer. “I know what you’re going to say. That you wouldn’t want to cause trouble for Temari.” Shikamaru told Gaara. “Well, Temari has told me to tell you two that if you refuse our invitation, she’ll come down to the hotel that you staying and serve you guys dinner. In the end, you’ll be eating her dishes one way or another.” Shikamaru gave the two Suna Shinobis a smug look. They had to accept the invitation now. They knew that when Temari says what she says, she will carry it out no matter out. Their sister was very determined.

Kankuro spoke first, “Well, I guess we can’t say no.” Gaara nodded in agreement. Behind him, Naruto had ended his conversation with Chojuro and Darui. He signalled Shikamaru that is was time to go.

“Alright. I’ll see you later then.” Shikamaru patted Gaara’s shoulder lightly. He did the same for Kankuro before following Naruto out from the Kage’s stands. “Shikamaru, I’m heading for the decoding unit for a sec to check on the decryption of the scroll.” Naruto told him as they walked down the flight of stairs.

“I’ll be heading home. We’ll be having a lot of work after the exams are over. Reports and details and other stuff. You should head home too, Naruto. It’ll be troublesome if your tired.” Shikamaru advised Naruto. Sometimes, Shikamaru felt that Naruto was too workaholic. He never knew when to stop.

“Sure, sure. I’ll go home. I just need to get an update. Don’t worry about me. You go get some rest, Shikamaru.” Naruto turned his head and gave Shikamaru a small smile. They reached the level below that opened up the stands. Temari was waiting for Shikamaru. “Good work today. See you tomorrow.” Naruto said as he made his way further down the arena stands. Shikamaru grunted a yes and raised a hand of goodbye. He approached his wife.

Temari was leaning against the metal bars, looking towards the arena grounds. He came to stand next to her and she turned to look at him. “He’s still downstairs,” she told him. He knew whom she was referring to. He had wanted to ask where their son was anyway. It was like she read his mind (it wasn’t unusual; and that was pretty scary to Shikamaru).

He gave her a slight nod and a grin. Without saying anything, Temari walked towards the stairs and Shikamaru followed suit. The lowest floor of the arena was still buzzing with many people. Among the crowd, Shikamaru spotted Shikadai, who was with his Team members and their sensei, Moegi. They seemed to be persuading Moegi, who was looking quite pale and panicky, about something.

The two parents approached the small gathering. Shikadai noticed them and turned away from his team to face his parents. He wore a weary expression mixed with a little embarrassment. Shikamaru could tell just by looking into his eyes. It was the same as his wife’s.

Shikadai opened his mouth even before his parents reached him, “You guys don’t need to check on me!” He sounded so embarrassed that Temari and Shikamaru had to laugh. At the moment, the irritated face that Shikadai was actually making him look cute.

“Tsk. We just wanted to see you.” Temari gave him an equally irritated look but she was smiling nevertheless. Then, Temari bent down slightly to put her hands on his shoulders. She looked at him dead in the eye. “You did great!” She gave him a wide beautiful smile that she exclusively reserved for Shikamaru and Shikadai. Shikadai blushed a terrible shade of pink. Shikamaru sniggered at the sight of his flustered son.

Inojin and Chocho had turned around to see the scene happening behind them. “Shikadai! You’re so pink.” Chocho exclaimed. Then Inojin said, “Isn’t that so, Chubs? He looks like Sakura flowers right now... though it’s not even spring...”

“Haha...” Shikamaru chuckled. Inojin was as blunt as ever, just like Sai. “Shut up!” Shikadai told his teammates comically.

Temari let go of Shikadai and stood up straight. She looked extremely amused. Shikamaru looked at his son closely. He felt a sudden rush of pride washing over him. It was overwhelming. Although Shikadai hadn’t won against Boruto, Shikamaru still felt happy for his son’s achievement of making it this far in the Chunin Exams.

At least he tried his best. And that was the important thing.

“It’s checkmate, Shikadai. So? What’s you’re next move?” Shikamaru asked a Shogi-referenced question to Shikadai. Shikadai looked up to meet his father’s eyes.

“You can’t move after it’s checkmate,” he answered Shikamaru, calm and collected. “The only move you can do is to reset the game and start a new game. But I can’t afford to do that. That is why, it’s not checkmate. Not yet. This was just another trick move.”

“Hmm... Like the kakugawari hayakuirgin*?” Shikamaru asked as he stroked his goatee.

“No. More like kakugawari koshikakegin**, Oyaji.”

Behind them, Moegi, Inojin, Chocho had confused looks as they witness the father-son Shogi talk. Even Temari was bemused.

“I see... Well then, you’re on the right path. Anyways. You did well today, Shikadai,” Shikamaru added. He beamed at his son, feeling very proud.

Shikadai blushed, if possible, an even darker shade of pink. “Ahh...”, was all he that he managed as he tried to not make eye contact with Shikamaru and Temari. Shikadai wasn’t usually embarrassed by his parents display of affection towards him, but today was different. It was kind of funny to see him like this.

“Your uncles are coming over for dinner tonight,” Shikamaru told Shikadai.

Before Shikadai could respond, Inojin interjected. “Actually, Shikamaru-ojisan, we were thinking of going to eat at Yakiniku-Q. Moegi-sensei agreed to treat us!” Behind them, Moegi gulped and chuckled nervously. Shikamaru was reminded of his own sensei, Asuma. He smiled at that thought.

“Oh if that’s the case, go ahead then. Just don’t come home too late.” Temari said to her son. Shikadai simply nodded.

“Yipee! Yakiniku-Q Deluxe here we come!”, Chocho shouted with glee. Hearing this, Moegi quickly said that they were not ordering deluxe meat. Shikamaru knew deluxe meat were very tasty but also quite pricey. He remembered those times when Asuma was forced to apologise to the shop owner because he needed to owe money. Back then, Choji never ate a meal without ordering a deluxe servings. This was like deja vu.

After waving goodbye, the four of them left for Yakiniku Q. Shikamaru stretched his arms in the air and gave a big yawn. Temari raised her eyebrows at him.

“You weren’t even a participant. Why’re you so tired?” she said somewhat accusingly. Shikamaru made a grunting noise and pouted. “I hadn’t had much sleep in the past few days. Give me a break, troublesome woman.”

Temari narrowed her eyes. “Who’re you calling troublesome?”, she scowled at her languished husband. Shikamaru ignored this and wrapped his right arm around her shoulder instead. “Enough talking. Let’s go home”, he told her. It was Temari’s turn to grunt. She shook off his arm and slid her hand into his. Together, they exited the arena and began their journey home.

To be continued

{Shoji Tactic references}

*Bishop Exchange Rushing Silver

** Bishop Exchange, Reclining Silver

A/N: This was meant to be a single post but it was already too long when I reached the end of this part. So, I’m just going to separate them into to two. Part two will be up as soon as I’m done with it. Like, Reblog, Review and Follow Me! Thank you!

Update! It’ll be more that just two parts! I realized that if I write fanfics about the Nara Family, my hands just can’t stop typing. So, I apologize; there will be more that just two parts.

[Part 2]

[Part 3]

[bestdjkit]

Famba Talks Gaming, Favorite Synths, & New Single With Jake Tarry & Alex Hosking, “Know You Best”[Spinnin’ Records]

On the strength of his major label releases and crowd pleasing remixes, Famba has become one of Canada’s fastest rising talents. His first two major label releases, “Wish You Well (feat. Trove)” and “Swear to God” each went on to achieve Gold certified status in Canada, while his third release, “Storm (feat. Kara Mastro)” introduced Famba to the U.S. market in a big way by scoring the #1 spot at Dance Radio.

Jake Tarryhas had a huge year, with his debut single with Joe Stone earlier this year receiving support from the likes of R3HAB, Afrojack and many more. Australian singer/songwriter Alex Hosking is unashamedly unique and undoubtedly captivating, garnering success in her music through alluring lyrics, hooky melodies and a supreme work ethic.

Together, all of these incredibly talented artists make an excellent team in their brand new single, “Know You Best“, signed to none other than Spinnin’ Records. It’s an uplifting house anthem, produced to perfection by Famba and Jake Tarry, featuring the bright and infectious vocal performance of Alex Hosking.

We had the chance to catch up with Famba and hear more about the song as well as what he’s been up to:

“Know You Best” is part of new House direction for you. Can you expand on that? 

I had a lot of time to reflect on my music direction when the lockdown started. Before I transitioned to more pop focused music, I was making disco house and tech house. I felt like I was missing it more and more, so I decided to come back to my roots and combine the two styles.  Now all of the new music feels so inspired and fun, I reignited the spark and genuinely have been having fun making music again! 

Have there been certain artists or songs that have inspired you in this new direction?

My biggest inspiration has always been Calvin Harris. It was partly seeing him take on his new alias “Love Regenerator” that really inspired me to open up this new chapter.  

How did “Know You Best” come together? 

The song started at ADE, and we had plans to finish it in person around our tour dates and writing camps. However COVID hit and we all know how that went. After lots of sessions transfers and revisions going back and forth, we were able to get it across the line.

Let’s talk about your gear lust…what are some of your favorite synths? Do you prefer analog to digital synths?

Oddly enough, I was never super into analog gear. I always wanted it but never gave it much thought. Then I went to Shaun Frank’s studio and it blew my mind. It was so amazing to see his eurorack set up and his synth collection. After I left there for the first time, I was obsessed! I quickly ended up planning my own euro rack, and got a Juno-06A (a combo of the classic Juno 106/60). I recently picked up a Moog Sub 37, and am keen on also getting the Prophet 6. I think those 3 synths together can get you anywhere you need to go musically. To answer the question, analog all the way

We hear you’re into playing Nintendo Switch, what games do you play? Do you play with any other DJ’s? Is there anyone you’d like to play against?

I’m a huge gamer, I always have been and always will be! I play a really terrible amount of smash bros, but I think it’s a great way to disconnect from music. I think it’s important to have other hobbies to take your mind off everything. Fransis Derelle is a DJ I had met through my old roommate, CRaymak. We met in Miami at Miami Music Week, and we discovered we both played competitive smash. Now we play a ton together, we’ve def had some late nights haha! I have an idea to start an “EDM DJ Smash Bros Invitational” tournament sometime in the future – I think that would be hilarious. 

Check out “Know You Best” below!

  This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Famba Talks Gaming, Favorite Synths, & New Single With Jake Tarry & Alex Hosking, “Know You Best”[Spinnin’ Records]

from Best DJ Kit https://www.youredm.com/2020/10/09/famba-talks-gaming-favorite-synths-new-single-with-jake-tarry-alex-hosking-know-you-bestspinnin-records/

[tricksheart]

The iPersonic (Career) test!

DREAMY IDEALISTS Dreamy Idealists are very cautious and therefore often appear shy and reserved to others. They share their rich emotional life and their passionate convictions with very few people. But one would be very much mistaken to judge them to be cool and reserved. They have a pronounced inner system of values and clear, honorable principles for which they are willing to sacrifice a great deal.

Joan of Arc or Sir Galahad would have been good examples of this personality type. Dreamy Idealists are always at great pains to improve the world. They can be very considerate towards others and do a lot to support them and stand up for them. They are interested in their fellow beings, attentive and generous towards them. Once their enthusiasm for an issue or person is aroused, they can become tireless fighters.

As a Dreamy Idealist you are one of the introverted personality types. Therefore you prefer a quiet work environment where you can intensively deal with your responsibilities and are not disturbed by too many people and repeated distractions. You need a lot of time to dwell on your thoughts, to put them into words, and let your ideas take shape.

You are grateful for a certain measure of order and structure because they secure the time to achieve this so you can deal with one task after the other and not have to juggle a number of responsibilities at once - you don’t like that because it is important to you to deal with things thoroughly. Your capability to concentrate is unusually great and very often you become engrossed in something and forget everything around you - even to eat and drink.

Nevertheless, because you are very adaptable, congenial and interested in harmony and cooperation, you enjoy working together with others. A neighborhood that requires the ability to assert yourself and where direct confrontations are the order of the day is not your optimal environment. In order to permit you to fully develop your ability you need an environment that is as stress free as possible. If you can’t get that you soon suffer, because you take critique and negative feedback very personally.

You enjoy the opportunity for exchanges with other people you value and whose capabilities you respect but in this case remember the motto: Better less than more; better a few “hand picked” colleagues who truly move on your wavelength. It is best when you share the same high ideals and important objectives and together can fight for the same good cause because then you are truly in your element. If that is not the case, you do better by largely working by yourself because you belong to the personality types who can do that very well and don’t necessarily have to depend on others in order to come up with good results.

Send “👨‍👩‍👧‍👦” for one of my muse’s memories with their parents ( anon asked cat!dad Katsuya )

Really? A memory about his real father that’s obsessed with cats? The majority of the people in Japan know him more as the famous Katsuya Suou that’s mentioned in the media from time to time. Akira’s not too familiar with him for the most part. Strained relationship but it’s because the noodle boy hadn’t really met the man until after the events of his year away in the city. There’s not a lot to tell besides the usual, ‘what do you mean you used the code-name of Joker? Don’t you know know how serious that is to be named that???’. And being part of the police. That too. But there’s a still fresh memory in Akira’s mind that brings both a smile and a little bit of regret. 

“So I went over to his apartment to spend some ‘quality time’ with my real father, as mom put it. Although, I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea though because I was so nervous. I mean I didn’t know this guy. He could had turned to be like Akechi or someone worse. I was still traumatized by the whole ‘there was a hit on me inside of a police station’ no matter how much of a brave face I put on in mementos. That shit fucked me up. There were times that I felt withdrawn after that. So, I had every right to be a little nervous and a little untrusting to whomever I had met.

Morgana decided to tag along because they were worried about me for some odd reason. Maybe the cat knew I was nervous or that Morgana wanted some fancy sushi from the corner restaurant but anyway. Meeting Mr. media cop himself was what you expect it to be. Glaring face, glasses that almost were a shade darker than Shido’s, folding arms. You know, the typical tough person who doesn’t smile at all. To say I was ready to makes jokes and be comfortable with a person like that would be when it snowed in hell. It just wasn’t going to happen.

But as soon as Morgana popped out of my school bag, the funniest thing happened. He just went and had a sneezing fit! Call my sense of humor odd but it was the most funniest thing ever! I never seen someone sneeze that many times in my life. Turns out that he was allergic to cats and had to take some allergy medicine. I feel a little bad but at least that broke the tension in the room. I mean, I trust him a little more than I used to. Also, he dresses up Morgana like his own persona Helios sometimes and it’s really hilarious. Now when Morgana tells me to go to bed, I tell them that I’ll just bring him over to dad’s apartment. That makes them keep quiet. Haha”.  

Send “👨‍👩‍👧‍👦” for one of my muse’s memories with their parents ( ryuji asked this )

Figures Ryuji would want to know about his childhood. It wasn’t much since Akira didn’t really want to talk about his past too much. There was just too many sad memories that hurt to be brought up. Plus, telling things that might be considered annoying or not worth anyone’s time was also weighing on his mind. Didn’t want to be a pain in the ass to others. Nope, don’t want that.

“A memory huh? ‘Kay. I think I have a happy one when I was a kid”. There’s a pause. A thing that made him nostalgic? Well, Akira could tell the time where him and his mom went to a pet shop. Simple yes, and not something one would normally share but it was the best thing he could come up with at such a short notice. The thing was that Akira liked to analyze the situation and think about the best answer. There were times that pressure made him cave in and did stupid things like kicking the desert palace mechanisms

“Back when I was three or so, I can’t remember for shit back then since you know, being three years old. Sometimes I think I made it up to compensate for the lack of happy memories but Maya, my mother, took me to the local pet shop in my hometown, Sumaru City”. He looks to Ryuji to see if the blonde was doing okay with the story so far but he’s surprise to see the other just listening very closely to his story. Wait, was that a piece of paper and pen? Was he writing this down? How embarrassing! It wasn’t notebook worthy that’s for sure. Maybe it was best to finish the story than focus on the questionable habits of a certain Ryuji Sakamoto for today.

“So she brings me to the back end of the store, or wanted me to go because that’s where all the dogs and cats were. Maybe she thought I was either of those type of people. You know, like those who choose the most popular choice. Most kids would choose a dog or a cat because it’s the norm. But I wasn’t the normal kid, not by any means. Just like I am now. I guess I haven’t changed from the person who marches on to his own beat huh? Hahahahahahaha”. Akira sheepishly looks over, wondering if Ryuji was freak out by his odd sense of humor or the fact that he hasn’t really changed that much since then. Time to quickly say the next part. Akira was already saying too much then he wanted to let on.

“So my mom couldn’t find me since I sneaked off and was at the middle of the store checking out the rabbits. I don’t know why they drew me in but they are were so fluffy and they kind of reminded me of myself, especially the ones with the black fur coat. It almost matched my hair! So how could I not choose them over the others? They can’t compare to be completely honest. Maybe I liked them because mom also liked them a lot??? She even had a key-chain shaped like a rabbit named Mr. BUN-BUN that she let me play with sometimes.

I didn’t get to have a bunny as a pet though. My ‘father’ thought it was too irresponsible for me to have a pet let alone a rabbit. How he found out that we went to the pet shop in the first place still strikes me as odd because both mom and I hadn’t seen him in days. I repeat, DAYS. Sometimes I wonder if he said no on purpose……Anyways, not to make that sad at the end but that day I felt a certain kindness to those animals that don’t get enough love because they get looked over for the more popular pet. I wish Morgana was a rabbit instead of a cat. Hahahahaha. Nah. I wouldn’t change what he was. Maybe we can put some bunny ears on him or something next time. You game? Heh”.  

BIRTHDAY SYMBOLS - (02/26/2000)

AMETHYST - THE GEM OF PEACE AND TRANQUILITY.

Amethyst is a part of royal gem collections all over the world, from ancient Egypt to the British crown jewels. For some time, true amethyst was valued equally with the diamond. The name amethyst derives from the ancient Greek word amethustos, meaning sober. It was said that an amethyst could instill a sober and serious mind. Amethyst was known as a gem that would bring forth the highest, purest aspirations of human kind. Chastity, sobriety, and control over one’s thoughts were all attributes heightened by wearing the stone. Amethysts are recommended to those who deal with stress a lot, such as people with an excessive work ethic who are unable to enjoy relaxation.

VIOLET.

Violet is a delicate flower that appears at the end of February. It may come in shades of blue, mauve, or even yellow or cream. Violet denotes faithful love, humility and modesty. In the Victorian era, giving someone violets suggested “I’ll always be true”. Dreaming of violets means that luck is coming your way, and that your future spouse will be younger than you. Violet is known as the state flower of Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, and the official flower of Greece. It is also given on the 50th wedding anniversary.

PISCES.

Pisces people are devoted, compassionate, imaginative, adaptable, sensitive, kind, selfless and sympathetic. You tend to keep a low profile compared to other zodiac signs. You have a quiet disposition, yet on the inside you experience extremes of emotions, both good and bad. You have the talent of understanding people’s motivations where they might not be obvious to other people. You also have incredible strength of character. You will always stand up and/ or work hard for what you believe in, especially if loved ones are involved. You are the most sensitive of all the zodiac signs.

THE DRAGON.

A symbol of Strength. You are lucky, passionate, flexible, eccentric, original, confident, imaginative, artistic, spiritual, and charismatic. You have a strong personality and will. You follow your own unique path in life and always speak your mind. You are honest and direct with everyone, romantic with your lovers, and confident in your abilities. You put all of your effort into anything you put your mind to, and you are a powerful force- never giving up on anything as you know there is always a solution to every problem. You are happiest when you have a good cause to focus on. You are full of energy and your charisma is inspiring. Famous Dragons: Nicolas Cage, Colin Farrell, Vanessa Hudgens, Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock.

WOLF.

You are compassionate, spiritual, intuitive, generous, mysterious, artistic, gentle, adaptable, sympathetic, and deeply emotional. Your path in life revolves around love- to receive it, and to give it. You hate the thought of others suffering or in pain, because of your deep compassion. You take on the responsibility of teaching others to be compassionate as well. As a teacher, you have the ability to know when to stand back and let others figure out their own paths of life. You are very self aware- you eliminate things that may cause harm to people.

PINE TREE.

The tree of peace. You are poised, active, natural, friendly, practical, compassionate, and trustworthy. You are a health conscious person, and do everything in moderation. You are always doing something to move towards progress and success. You are aware of what you need emotionally, physically, and spiritually, to be happy. You crave harmony and peace and as such, with your compassionate nature, you love to help other people too. You have an active imagination and you enjoy writing.

TOP THREE INTELLIGENCES FOR YOUR MUSE

MUSICAL: [5] You like the rhythm and sound of language. You like poems, songs, and jingles. You enjoy humming or singing along with music. You probably remember things well when they are associated with music or rhythm. Try to incorporate sounds into your lessons, such as using a familiar tune, song, or rap beat to teach spelling rules, or to remember words in a series for a test.

SELF: [4.43] You have a very good sense of self. You like to spend time by yourself and think things over. You will often take in information from another person, mull it over by yourself, and come back to that person later to discuss it. You like working on projects on your own. You often prefer to learn by trial and error. Effective techniques to enhance your learning include keeping a journal and giving yourself time to reflect on new ideas and information.

SPATIAL: [4.14] You remember things visually, including exact sizes and shapes of objects. You like posters, charts, and graphics. You like any kind of visual clues. You enjoy drawing. Effective techniques of enhancing your learning using your spatial intelligence include creating and/or using pictures, maps, diagrams, and graphs as you learn things.