#i have been running out of storage space forever and my laptop has started having display driver issues...

[pokeharvest]

Hello everyone!! I've been having some laptop struggles lately, and am looking into purchasing a new one. If you could donate or reblog this post I would be ever appreciative :]

My commissions and merch store are also open!

[thefanficmonster]

An Impostor In Love

Sequel to ‘Love For The Faceless’ (’Body Reveal’)

Corpse Husband x Reader (Female)

Warnings: Swearing (maybe)

Genre: Fluff

Summary: Rae can’t stay mad at her best friends forever. Them being absolutely adorable doesn’t help her ‘pissed off’ act either. Y/N’s outing Corpse like she’s a human lie detector. Corpse is gushing about her every second word that comes out of his mouth. And the rest of the lobby are getting one hell of a kick out of the Among Us romantic comedy - An Impostor In Love

Requested but, once again, not in a typical way. I honestly wasn’t expecting all the positive feedback I got for Love For The Faceless (Body Reveal). I was star-struck! You guys are so amazing I have no words to describe just how much I love you all! Thank you for everything! This story is for all of you 🥰🥰🥰

“Mr. and Mrs. ‘Totally not dating’ have entered the call!“ Sean announces when I hop into the Discord call to play Among Us with the usual gang. I hear Corpse’s laugh from down the hall, bringing a smile to my face.

We’ve gotten used to playing in this arrangement, a few rooms away from each other, ever since we moved in together - Corpse is in his recording room and I am in our shared bedroom. When one dies, they go in the other’s room to troll them. I’m usually the one dead, but that’s besides the point.

“Hi everyone!“ I say in my typical cheery tone before kicking it done a few notches, making it an octave deeper just to say: “Hi Rae.”

The whole lobby laughs, they all know what I’m trying to do here. Everyone’s aware this is the first time Rae is in the same call and lobby as Corpse and I after you-know-which incident. Sure, I’ve been poking sticks at her, waving a white flag and admitting I was wrong several times by now. Who knew my sweetheart best friend could act so cold? I know it’s a front. I know she’s fighting to stay mad. There’s a ton of pressure on her to finally forgive us, but she’s been holding up better than I would be if I were in her situation.

I honestly felt, and still feel, slightly guilty. I know best friends are supposed to tell each other everything. They are supposed to be the first ones to know whatever’s going on in each other’s lives. And I know I broke one of the main rules of friendships, but the decision wasn’t only mine to make. I’m sure she understands where I’m coming from, she’s just giving me and Corpse a hard time.

“Hello, Y/N.” She replies, her tone strictly formal.

“Progress, people! Progress!“ I say joyously, the smile turning into a grin 

“Don’t worry, babe. We’ll get her eventually.“ Corpse reassures me as he’s done for the past week or two. He knew I wasn’t as unbothered by Rae’s anger towards me as I tried to appear - a pro and simultaneously a con of living with someone: they pick up on everything about you. You become as familiar to them as the back of their hand.

“I know, I know.“ I giggle, “She’ll cave.“

“Yeah, good luck with that.“ Rae has dropped the formal tone, now sounding like a stubborn child which is something I’m way more familiar with. I’ve dealt with her tantrums and childish outbursts - I don’t know which number it is, but it’s somewhere in the rule book of friendships - and I at least the approximate meaning behind it. 

Ken puts an end to our friendly, stick-poking, sorta one-sided banter, ushering us to start the game. We all oblige, muting our mics and getting our heads in the game as though we’re about to enter an actual warzone with upmost stealth.

To my dismay, the screen flashes ‘Crewmate’. I head out of cafeteria to do my task in Weapons, staying weary of anyone within my proximity. Once I’m done, I head on down to Shields and complete my task there as well. I cringe when I’m done, knowing my last three tasks are in Electrical. Like, the fuck kind of luck do I have?

I make my way through the halls, running into Sykkuno and we circle around each other a few times to show we’re safe before we each continue our own way. I enter Electrical and.....oh Felix is dead. And oh lookie who’s right there...

I report the body before the impostor can and we all unmute our mics.

“Found him in Electrical.“ I say nonchalantly, “Didn’t see anyone in there though.“ 

“Anyone sus?“ Sean asks

We say our ‘no’s and ‘I don’t know’s and skip the vote. I’m smirking to myself as I head back down to Electrical. Walking in, I see the same person as before - Rae. I stop dead in my tracks and we just stare at each other for a few seconds before she comes towards me, circling me twice, bumping visors with me and venting out of the room.

“You’re welcome.“ I mumble, smiling widely.

I finish my tasks and leave Electrical just as Corpse enters our bedroom, giving me this tired-parent look like he’s half disappointed and half amused. “You just threw the game, didn’t you? Don’t lie.” He raises his eyebrows, fully adopting his parent role.

I giggle, shaking my head, sending him the briefest of glances before my eyes fixate on the screen in utter shock - Sean just killed me. Oh, for fuck’s sake...

“I was gonna come clean eventually, but I guess they won’t hear it from me now.“ I shrug, lifting my laptop and setting it aside so Corpse can join me on the bed. I snuggle up to him immediately, drawn to him as though he’s a human magnet.

“Who was it?“ He asks me, running his hands through my hair in a soothing manner.

I frown, pulling away from his chest to look him in the eyes, “Wait, how did you know I threw the game if you don’t know who I threw it for?”

He smirks, shrugging, “I didn’t know. You were smiling downright evilly when I came in so I just assumed.” He boops my nose. “And you ratted yourself out.”

I narrow my eyes at him, blowing some air out my nose - a gesture that has become my only way of showing anger towards him. I literally can’t even voice when I’m upset with him cause the grudge lasts like .5 seconds. I let him get away with more than he should.

Seeing as how I can’t argue to his statement, I lean back into his chest and pull out my phone to pass the time while I pretend to give him the silent treatment. Among my notifications is one for Rae’s stream. I smile and tap it, being taken to her YouTube channel and her live stream.

Just when the stream loads, Rae finds my dead body in Storage.

“Oh, nooooooo! Y/N!“ She wines as she goes over to it, “Sean must’ve killed her.” She reports the body and unmutes herself in game, “The body’s in Storage. I was on my way to call an emergency meeting cause I saw Sean vent in Security.”

“WHAT?!“ Sean exclaims in shock, “I didn’t! Rae’s lying. I swear I didn’t! I wasn’t even in Security!“

“Sean has been following me around this whole time. Just saying.“ Ken joins the discussion, throwing even more suspicion on Sean.

“We gotta vote someone.“ Charlie says, “Might as well be the most sus person at the moment.“

The voting results show all the little astronaut icons on Sean except his which is on Rae. Sean gets launched into space and the game continues. Having muted her mic in-game, Rae speaks up: “Y/N has been avenged. No one kills my best friend.”

I’m staring at my phone screen, eyes wide, eyebrows raised, a huge smile on my face. I take a glance at Corpse out of the corner of my eye and see he’s just as pleasantly surprised as I am.

“For those of you asking if I’m still mad at her and Corpse, the answer’s no. Actually, I think I was never mad. I was just in shock and a little hurt that I wasn’t made aware sooner.“ Rae says as she keeps wandering around the map, “Then I realized not talking to my best friend hurt more than the betrayal, you know. The only reason I still pretend is because it’s really funny to see her trying to soften me up.“ She laughs, “But yeah. I don’t know what I’d do without her or Corpse in my life. I love them both and love them even more together. My best friends are dating, I still can’t wrap my brain around that! They are sooo cute, you guys! I wish they posted more content of them together. I’m literally simping over their relationship! But shh, don’t tell em I said that.”

I laugh, overjoyed by what I just heard. I knew she couldn’t still be mad at us. I know she has every right to be, but she’s too sweet to actually hold a grudge against anyone ever.

I suddenly want nothing more than to give her an enormous hug and hold onto her for as long as she’d let me. I just now realize how lonely it feels to have never hugged your best friend because you haven’t hung out together in person. The only reason Rae now knows what I look like is because I sent her a full body picture of myself as one of my sad attempts to get her to start talking to us again. We have never met in person, and that thought kills me. It makes me impatient for this pandemic to end even more than before. 

“Told you there was nothing to worry about.“ Corpse’s arms tighten their hold on my body, pulling me even closer which I didn’t know was possible. The most fulfilling and endearing feeling - being in the arms of a loved one. Being held so close and so tightly that you feel like you’re untouchable. Like you two can’t be hurt by anything in the world as long as you have each other.

“Yeah, you were right.“ I sigh in content, putting my phone down and covering his hands with mine, our rings clinking quietly when they touch.

“As usual...“ he whispers theatrically with his lips against my hair.

I playfully roll my eyes, catching glimpse of the screen showing Rae’s demise. 

“Oh no, they caught her.“ I say, a bit disappointed she didn’t win and more than a bit responsible for her defeat.

I somehow manage to convince myself to get untangled from Corpse’s embrace and join the new round. I hear him groan as I settle my computer in my lap, unmuting my mic.

“See ya, kitten.“ Corpse kisses my temple, standing up.

“Oh my God, you two are too cute.“ Poki says sweetly, having heard what Corpse said to me.

“SIMP!“ Sean and Felix shout in unison causing the whole lobby to laugh. Corpse is as red as Rae’s avatar as he exists our room, running down the hallway.

“Ok, ok, ok. Hold on. I have to address this. I really hadn’t stepped foot in Security, let alone vented in there. Rae why were you lying?“ Sean’s voice cuts through the teasing directed towards Corpse and I.

“While we’re on that topic...“ Felix speaks up as well, making me break out in a nervous sweat, “Y/N, you literally saw Rae kill me, but you said you didn’t see anyone.“ He laughs, “Not gonna lie, I was a bit pissed.“

The call falls silent for about five seconds until Rae and I speak simultaneously.

“I was avenging Y/N.“

“I was helping Rae.“

Silence follows our statements, not for long though, as our friends break out in amused laughter.

“Fuck’s sake, you two make a good team.“ Sean says through genuine laughter which Rae and I soon join him in.

Felix and Sean and the rest of the lobby forgive us for throwing the game from both the crewmate and impostor’s side and we move onto another round. This time I have only one task in Electrical which I leave for last as always. I don’t feel like dying right from the get-go. I start by doing the card swipe in Admin and then the fuel task in Storage. As I make my way to Upper Engine, Corpse leaves Electrical, falling in step with me. I immediately get nervous, but still make my way to where I’m supposed to go, hoping he’d go his own way eventually. 

I stay wary of my boyfriend as I do my task, praying he won’t take my head off. When the task is finished, I find I’m trapped in the room with the doors shut. And Corpse right there. With every right and opportunity to kill me and vent. No one would know. No one saw us. 

That nervous sweat is back. 

I’m counting my last seconds of being alive.

And it happens...

A body is reported

“Oh than you so so so much! Corpse was gonna kill me in Upper Engine!“ I don’t let the person who reported the body speak, thanking them for my survival. “I was sure I was a goner.“

“Babe, come on now. You know I wouldn’t kill you even if I was an impostor. I love you too much.“ Corpse hurries to defend himself, “I’m following you around to keep you safe.“

I can tell he’s capping, but I have no concrete proof. He knows I’m onto him. His best bet is having me killed by the other impostor. He might have been capping the majority of his defense, but I know he won’t kill me.

“I’ll vote for myself because of that one.“ I mumble

The vote is skipped except the one vote I placed on myself and the round continues. I follow Corpse around the whole time, making sure he’s completing tasks - not that I can be 100% certain he’s actually completing them.

All is well until we walk into Admin and find Felix there, uploading data. Corpse, dead-ass, goes up to him and kills him, reporting the body right afterwards.

“IT’S CORPSE!“ I don’t give him a chance to start his brainwashing of the rest of the players. “Felix, this is my redemption for leaving your death unavenged last round.“

“Yeah, it’s me.“ Corpse laughs, that adorable laugh of his melting me despite the need to stay strong and carry out my argument, “Just vote me out so I can go troll Y/N.“

“Sounds like a plan to me.“ Ken says, the remainder of the crewmates, and the impostor probably, agreeing with him.

The votes are put in, all on Corpse obviously, and he is sent off into space. Not even five seconds later I hear his footsteps approaching. 

I look up when he pops his head in the room and says, “I have come to annoy you to death with my love for you.”

I can’t help but laugh, shaking my head. The things this man does to me are insane. It’s insane that I let him. 

It’s amazing, really. We’re amazing.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I pat the spot on the bed next to me, “I’ll allow it. But only cause I love you too.”

@susceptible-but-siriusexual  @simonsbluee  @save-the-sky  @hacker-ghost  @itsminniekat  @bi-andready-tocry  @imtiredaffff  @jazzkaurtheglorious  @hereforbeebo  @fandomgirl17  @chrysanthykios  @maehemscorpyus  @loraleiix  @letsloveimagines  @annshit  @i-cant-choose-a-username-help  @enigmaticmaze  @divine-artemis

[superhero--imagines]

Etsy Store Here l Ko-Fi l Commission Info I Instagram I Zine

A/N: Looking for a beta reader for a personal writing piece, let me know if you feel like you're a pretty good editor! Also this has been sitting in my drafts for like 2 months, and IDK maybe I'll do more of them since it's kinda fun.

* Omg this freak is so stupid into the fact that you literally create universes with those godly hands

* I’m not kidding, I think a good 80% of his initial attraction to you was because you’re writing will literally make you immortal

* “You’re going to live forever,” Satoru says slightly breathless as he holds one of your print publications in his hand

* You’re just like ‘wtf’ so he explains-

* “You die twice, once when your body can no longer sustain itself, and the second the last time someone says your name.”

* Ah, so he thinks you’ll live forever in the sense that someone will always reference your work

* “That’s not exactly true though, one day the sun will swallow the earth whole, turning everything we love to dust”

* Satoru thinks you sound just like a writer when you say stuff like that

* “Well, unless we find another planet and have a database there or something”

* Satoru googles ‘how to buy a planet’ and ‘how much would it cost to set up a database in space’

* He’s got no respect for your craft- and by that I mean if you’ve got a deadline you’re trying to meet for a submission period or for your editor whatever, he’s just got no respect for it

* Queue Gojo shenanigans where he’ll hide all the pens in the house, or hide your laptop or something just so he can see you all flustered and panicked

* “I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THIS I ONLY HAVE 12 HOURS TO GET THIS IN!!” You shriek running from one end of your home to the other looking desperately for your laptop charger

* It’s too late in the game to order another one, and you don’t trust leaving Gojo alone in this house

* More than once you’ve left the house to replace whatever Satoru stole only to return to see even more of your things were gone now

* One time he rearranged all the furniture

* “It’s up there,” Gojo says grinning, and you look up to the ceiling fan to see your laptop charger idly hanging off one of the panels

* “I’ll get it down for you if you give me a kiss,” he says cheekily

* There’s sort of a method to the madness

* Part of it is yeah, Gojo loves to laugh, and nothings funnier than you when you’re flustered

* But part of it is you’ve been hunched over your laptop for days now, and you’re starting to be mean to yourself because you’re frustrated

* You need a break

* One he’s more than happy to offer

* And a teeny tiny portion is because he’s lonely

* Whenever you get sucked into a project it’s like you forget about him completely

* So he just wants to remind you he’s here

* And that he loves you

* You sigh, giving him a quick peck, and with a wave of his hand he brings the charger down

* “I expect a better reward when you’re done with your story”

* I think Gojo is probably a pretty big fan of your work

* In fact he’s probably your #1 fan

* But he’s super low-key about it.

* Buys all your publications on pre-order (never in large amounts so you don’t notice)

* If you’ve got into a bigger journal/magazine, or have a book at a bookstore will buy a copy every time he passes by one and see’s it

* He keeps one copy of each work on his bookshelf in the living room

* And then stores the rest/extra copies in a velvet storage box in a temperature-controlled area

* He also has another set that he notoriously marks up with notes/annotations

* “This part sounds like the time I brought them food and took them on a spontaneous date” he’ll say, scribbling furiously into the margin

* Gojo see’s your writing as an extension of you- of your soul

* So he does his best to try and figure out where you get inspiration from

* He’s especially delighted if he notices something he did, inspired something you wrote -

* “Ah the villain hid the hero’s laptop charger so they couldn’t turn in their assignment on top,” he says with a sigh

* - Even if it’s not always positive

* Honestly he plays it so cool you think he doesn’t really think anything of your profession until you come over to his place for the first time and see all your works in a neat line on his shelf

* And even then you think he’s just supporting you because he loves you, after all, they’re all in great condition, he probably hasn’t even opened them.

* And then a little further into the relationship, probably when you move in together or something

* You find all those marked-up copies

* Gojo Satoru has never been redder

* You’re genuinely concerned he might combust

* He’s acting like you just found his porn stash or something

* You wait for a few minutes for him to stammer out an excuse or something

* But when he can’t seem to form any words after several minutes you sigh and close the box

* “I didn’t see anything”

* He just nods

* You start giving him copies of your work yourself now that you know he’s so interested

* “O-oh no it’s fine-“

* It’s actually one of the rare times you see Satoru flustered

* “It’s fine, I insist, I’ve got too many contributor copies anyway”

* He takes them in his hand blushing

* He would show up to all of your readings or signing events -

* Disguised Ofc

* “Hey you should be careful, that guy looks super sketchy-“

* You look to where your manager is pointing, to a tall lanky guy wearing a black hair wig, and these tacky thick-rimmed pink glasses and you sigh

* “No need to worry, that’s just my moronic boyfriend”

* “You don’t have to show up in disguise you know”

* “Well what was I supposed to do? You didn’t invite me” he’s doing that thing where he gets all shy, a blush on his face and his fingers tugging a strand of hair

* You sigh

* The dork is oddly lovable

* “Well, from now on you’ve got an open invitation to all my events”

* He smiles so bright you would think you just offered to blow him in the middle of the bookstore

* He’s got his shortcomings

* “SATORU DID YOU HIDE ALL MY REFERENCE BOOKS?!?!”

* But you couldn’t have asked for a more supportive boyfriend

* “Kiss me and maybe I’ll tell you where they’re at”

* Or a better muse

[let-me-luve-you]

Home Schooled

Tom Holland x Sister

Summary: The pandemic changes up your school schedule and Tom uses it as a way to help you with your dyslexia and struggle with school

Warnings: Dyslexia, Struggle with school, angst, fluff, sweet and caring Tom.

A/N: I hated school growing up. I would cry when I did homework and I would fight my mom on it because no matter how much I tried, I never got it. So this is based on my experience and how I wanted someone to be there for me that got it. 

MASTERLIST

BUY ME A COFFEE?

School was hard. You would study for hours and not be able to retain anything. You would read the words on the page and have to go back and read it again. Once Tom was diagnosed with dyslexia, Nikki and Dom had all of their kids tested. When you were six, you were diagnosed with it as well.

Tom was sixteen when you were diagnosed and he understood the hardships that came with it. Now that he is 24, he has learned how to work with the struggles of reading. You’re fourteen and starting high school. When Tom was home, he saw the frustration. He saw the abandoned homework. He heard his parents talking about your low scores. With school being online due to the pandemic, he knew that you would be struggling even more.

Tom talked with Nikki and Dom about you staying with him during lockdown. He wanted to keep an eye out on you and help you with your homework. Nikki and Dom still had to do work from home so they wouldn’t have the time to just sit with you during classes and homework to help you. Nikki reluctantly agreed.

You were excited to spend this time with your brother. You knew staying at his house was going to be a lot more fun than your parents. Tom had you pack a couple of bags since no one knew how long you would be there. He made sure you grabbed everything you would need. He put you in the guest room that was next to his room. He set your suitcase down next to the closet.

“Come on. You can unpack in a bit.” He said, grabbing your attention. “I want to show you something.” You followed Tom out of the room and back down the stairs. He led you to his office and walked in. You reluctantly followed, wondering what surprise could be in here. When you looked up, you saw a second desk pushed into the corner.

“What’s this?” You asked, confused.

“I wanted you to have a space where you could do your work.” He said. “With Haz, Tuwaine, and Harry, it can get kind of loud in the main room. This way you can do your zoom classes here and your homework.” You smiled at him, “Thanks Tom.” You said.

He nodded and walked towards the closet. He opened it up and you saw his filing system, some old clothes, and a new storage container. “You still like to draw, paint, and do other crafts don’t you?” He asked. You smiled and nodded. “Good. I got you some stuff. Figured if you are in need of a break from school or us, you could come in here and do your thing.” He opened the closet door more and you saw some canvases of different sizes leaned up against the wall.

“Wow. Tom. Thank you.” You looked up at your big brother and smiled. “You didn’t have to do this though.”

“I know. I wanted to. I love your art and I know you love to do it. School was already hard for you and now with it being home school, I wanted you to be able to do what you love to wind down. When you start to run low on something, let me know and I will order you more.”

You smiled and hugged Tom. You ran out of the room to get your school bag and laptop. You wanted to set up your desk before your first zoom class tomorrow. Tom went to his desk and played around on the computer. He smiled as he watched you get excited about the small thing he did.

The next day, you had to be in your zoom class at nine. Tom woke you up at eight to eat breakfast and to log on early in case there were any problems. He sat at his desk working on the script him and Harry were writing. Tom didn’t want to hover but wanted to be close in case you needed help.

“Thanks for doing all this for me. And thank you for sitting here with me while I’m in my class.” You said before your class started. Tom smiled at you, “it’s no problem y/n/n.”

As your teacher talked, Tom listened in. He wanted to know what assignments you had to do, but he also wanted to know what you were learning so he could help. After sitting at the desk from nine to lunch going from one class to the next, you finally had a break. You went into the kitchen to make a sandwich. Since Tom has been so helpful to you, you decided to make him lunch too. You would have asked, but he was deep in concentration while working on the script.

“Thanks.” Tom said, still typing as you sat the sandwich in front of him.

You went back to the kitchen and started eating yours. When two o’clock rolled around, you went back to your desk and got ready for the final three classes of the day. Thankfully you would be done by four and you only met twice a week. Bad news was, you knew Tom would want you to do your homework as soon as you were off zoom.

The classes flew by. Tom left the room shortly into the first one. He needed to get some house chores done and he needed a break from the computer screen. When he walked back in he saw you closing the zoom meeting. He walked up to you and started to massage your shoulders.

“Come on. Let’s go play and run Tessa in the backyard. Then we can start some of your homework.” Tom said walking out of the room.

“Some?” You asked.

“Yeah. Some. It’s not all due tomorrow. You should pace yourself with it so you don’t get overwhelmed. I heard your teachers. They said all the work you do this week is due Sunday night. You can do some this evening and then you can do more tomorrow. You have classes again now Wednesday right?”

You nodded as you picked up a tennis ball and threw it for Tessa to fetch.

“Okay. So since the classes are just going over everything you are doing this week, let’s just take our time with it. If we start in the mornings and work until lunch and then if need a couple of hours after lunch, you should be done with all the work Friday morning. That gives you the rest of the day and the weekend to relax.” Tom said as he sat down next to you on the patio steps.

“How do you know this?” You asked.

“I’m just estimating.” Tom said. You shook your head, “No I mean, how do you know how to do this? And why do you care so much?”

“Because I’ve seen you struggling with school. I want you to do well. And believe it or not, I struggled too. You may not think you are, but you’re just like me when I was in school. You need breaks. You need someone close by. You need to do something that doesn’t require you to think to help calm down. You don’t need distractions. When you get those things, you seem to do better. I did.”

“Is that why you sat in the room this morning? So I wasn’t alone?” You asked.

“Partially. I also wanted to know what you were learning and what you were doing with assignments. I will sit in there as much as you want me to. I may not be able to do that everyday, but I will try.” Tom said.

“You’re the best big brother ever, you know that right.”

“I don’t want you to go through what I did. Plus, you are going through something that none of us had to, you have to do online schooling while on lockdown. That’s tougher than anything, and since I’m not really working right now, I want to use my time to be there for you.” Tom said wrapping an arm around you.

“Thanks Tom. I’m glad you are here for this.” You said leaning into him.

“Of course. Now Tessa looks tired. Let’s go do some of your math homework.” Tom said standing up and holding a hand out to help you. You groaned as you took his hand.

“Letters don’t belong in math. It just makes it harder to read.” You said.

“I know. That’s why I’m going to sit with you. Want to work on it at your desk or at the kitchen counter since you’ve been in that room all day?”

“Kitchen. That way when I get mad at question three, I can take it out on Harry.” You joked. Tom laughed. “Go get your work. I’ll get us a snack and some drinks.”

For the first time in forever, you were actually excited about doing your school work. You finally felt like someone understood you and what you were going through. You had hope that you could actually get some passing grades. As much as you loved the rest of your family, they just didn’t get it. When they tried to help you, they just made you feel more stupid. Tom understood though. He fought this battle. And he did it while trying to become an actor too. If he can get through it, so can I. You skipped into the kitchen with your math assignment and book and smiled at Tom as you sat by him. Maybe, just maybe, you would get your first A since kindergarten.

[katymacsupernatural]

The Proposal Part 11

Jensen Ackles x Reader

Story Summary:  Jensen needs help keeping his life in order. To keep the media off his back. In order to do so, he comes up with a plan. Y/N, just a producer’s assistant, is pulled in to play a part she never thought she would have. Jensen’s fiancee. Only will it stay as a part to play, or will she start to want more?

Catch Up: Masterpost

The plane ride back to Vancouver was quiet, but not uneasy. Jensen had his script out, going over his lines while you mindlessly stared at the book in your hand. A historical romance book that seemed to have nothing on your life right now. 

Your life would make any fiction story pale in comparison right now. With a fake engagement that turned into a real engagement, you were sure it would be any author’s dream. But it was real, and it was happening to you. Now. 

How could you focus on the book in front of you when your mind continued to swirl around and dissect your current situation. How were things going to be now that you were back in Vancouver? Would working on set be awkward. How was Jensen going to act now that he was away from his family, and back with his friends and coworkers? 

And then there was the matter of your brother. You couldn’t wait until you could pry him away from your Aunt and Uncle. To get him back with you where he belongs. It was going to take time, and money, and patience. None of which you had much of. 

“Y/N, you’ve been staring at the same page for the last ten minutes now. What’s up?”

Giving up hope on the book, you closed it, placing it back on your lap. “Just thinking about what’s going to happen when we land. There’s so much that needs to happen or could go wrong. I just don’t want to disappoint you, or ruin things.”

Jensen reached for and grasped your hand, offering you support. “We’re in new territory for both of us. We’re both bound to make mistakes. It’s gonna happen. We’re still getting to know each other. On top of that, we’ve turned a fake engagement into a real one. It’s a lot of stress for both of us. But I believe we can get through it.”

He held your hand the rest of the way as the plane skidded to a stop. His words had calmed your nerves, at least for now. But you knew they were bound to pop right back up. After all, there were so many unknown variables.

Stretching in bed the next morning, you had to agree with Jensen. Your apartment was tiny, and probably not in the greatest part of town. It was one room, your kitchen, your living room and bed all within an arm’s length away from each other. Your neighbors across the hall got into tremendous fights, while the people above you listened to techno music at two in the morning. But it was yours, and you were able to save the rest of your money for the day you would be able to fight for your brother. 

You had tried to make the place homey, with your colorful quilt and vintage pictures hanging on the wall. But it didn’t hide the water stain in the corner or the stained tile in the kitchen. But it was your own place, and that had been enough until Jensen had stepped into the cramped space last night. His large stature had made the small place seem minuscule. He had glanced around, his face full of dismay. 

“This is where you live?” He had asked, and you nodded, slightly ashamed of your tiny run-down place. 

“It’s cheap. I can save the rest of my paycheck,” you had answered back defensively. 

He had continued to frown before leaving last night without saying another word, and you wondered how he was going to react today. 

You didn’t have long to wait. As soon as you arrived at the set, ready to let the never-ending duties of a PA keep your mind occupied, Jensen was tugging on your hand, pulling you into his trailer. 

“Morning to you too,” you muttered as he forced you to the couch. Handing you a cup of coffee, he perched on the stool across from you. 

“Morning,” he muttered distractedly. “Listen, I’ve been thinking. Most of the night to be in fact. About you and that apartment. About your brother. And I’ve come to a decision I hope you don’t mind.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“You’re going to move in with me. I know, we hadn’t talked about it before. But that seems like the best option. You’ll be somewhere safer. Somewhere your brother can move into that the court won’t argue with.” 

“Okay,” you answered simply, knowing that it was the best thing. While you loved having your own place, you would do everything in your power to get your brother back.

He seemed taken back that you didn’t put up an argument. “Good, that’s settled. Tonight, after work, you’ll get what you need and bring it to my apartment. We can go back later and get everything else, place it in storage for now.”

Sipping on your coffee, you couldn’t believe how fast everything was happening. “And my apartment?”

A knock on the door stopped him just as he opened his mouth to answer. “Jensen, you’re supposed to be in makeup!” 

“We can talk about that later,” he answered. “You can keep it, or whatever. But we’re going to have bigger things to worry about soon enough.”

He stepped out of his trailer, leaving you there with an empty coffee mug, and your heart racing. What big things? 

As you made your way to the offices, you wondered if you were going to be able to handle it all. It seemed like each new minute you were thrown a curveball, and soon enough one might be strong enough to knock you off your feet.

“Y/N!” Jim called out. “Come see me in my office please.”

Gulping, you followed him into the spacious office. The office that just last week had turned your life upside down. Sitting down on the edge of the seat, you stared nervously at him. “How was this weekend?” He asked, opening up his laptop.

“It went well,” you answered nervously. “His family was nice.”

“Good, good.” To be honest, he seemed more interested in his computer than you, and you hoped he would get to the point so you could go on with your day. Finally, he glanced up, turning the computer around. Jensen’s face was on the screen, on one of the main entertainment websites. “Is this Bachelor no longer available?” The title read. Skimming through the article, you saw they had found out about the party. But there was no mention of you by name. 

“I talked to Jensen this morning, and we want to make a more public announcement. The proposal at the brewery was fine. But we want it to be more widespread. And that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. We want to do photos, Have a big engagement party up here. Staff, friends, a couple of entertainment magazine people. But before that, we will have staged engagement photos taken. I’m thinking Wednesday. Jensen has a light shooting day, and I can get someone to cover you. Of course, we’ll pay for your dress and the party. All you have to do is look pretty, and pretend to be in love with Jensen. That can’t be that hard, can it?”

Read Chapter 12

Dean/Jensen Tags: @acortez82​​ @acreativelydifferentlove​​ @adoptdontshoppets​​ @a-girl-who-loves-disney​​ @akshi8278​​   @bi-danvers0​  @cap-just-said-language​​ @colette2537​​   @deansgirl215​​  @flamencodiva​​ @hamiltrash1411​​ @its-not-a-tulpa​​ @jerkbitchidjitassbutt​​ @justanotherwinchester​​ @just-another-winchester​​ @karouwinchester​​ @keikoraventeller​​  @krys198478​ @librarygeekery​​ @magssteenkamp​​ @misspygmypie​​ @mlovesstories​​ @mrsambroserollinsacklesmgk​​  @mrspeacem1nusone​​ @nothinbuttrouble2​​ @ria132love​​ @ruprecht0420​​  @screechingartisancashbailiff​   @sortaathief​​ @superseejay721517​​ @squirrelnotsam​​ @team-free-will-you-idjiot​​ @thing-you-do-with-that-thing​​ @torn-and-frayed​​ @tricksterdean​​ @wonderfulworldofwinchester​​ @woodworthti666​​ @beabutterfly987​ 

The Proposal Tags: @supraveng​ @vicmc624​ @lottieellz101 @impala-dreamer​ @maddiepants​ @emilyshurley​ @tonystark-makes-me-cry​ @starryeyeseunbyul​  @rach-12​ @spnfamily-j2​ @ima-be-a-mongoose​ @flamencodiva​ @compresshischest09​ @parinarain​  @stoneyggirl​  @tftumblin​ @massivelycreepypineapple​ @posiemax​ @traceyaudette​ @peacedolantwins2​ @eliwinchester99​ @deans-baby-momma​ @aiofheavenandhell​ @athenamikaelson​ @samsgirl93​ @meowmeow-motherfucker​ @chevyimpala00067​ @metalfangirl​

Forever Tags: @aditimukul​​ @alexwinchester23​​ @algudaodoce03​​ @amanda-teaches​​ @andreaaalove​​   @artisticpoet​​ @atc74​​ @be-amaziing​​ @camelotandastronauts​ @caswinchester2000​​ @cpag7​​ @chelsea072498​​  @closetspngirl​​ @deanwanddamons​​ @docharleythegeekqueen​​ @emoryhemsworth​​ @ericaprice2008​​  @esoltis280​​   @tatted-trina6​ @foxyjwls007​​ @gh0stgurl​​ @goldenolaf25​​ @growningupgeek​​  @heartislubbingdubbing​​ @heyitscam99​​ @hobby27​​ @horsegirly99blog​​ @imsuperawkward​​ @internationalmusicteacher​​ @iwriteaboutdean​​  @jayankles​​ @jensen-gal​​ @justsomedreaming​​ @just-another-busyfangirl @karlee-fay-my-wayward-son​​ @linki-locks11​​ @littleblue5mcdork​​  @lowlyapprentice​​   @mersuperwholocked-lowlife​​ @mogaruke​​ @monkeymcpoopoo​​ @musiclovinchic93​​  @nanie5​​   @percussiongirl2017​​ @plaid-lover-bay25​​   @roonyxx​​ @ronja-uebrick​​ @roxyspearing​​  @samanddeanmyheroes​​ @sandlee44​​ @shamelesslydean​​ @simonsbluee​​ @sillesworldofwriting​​ @sgarrett49​​ @spnbaby-67​​ @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester​​ @spnwoman​​   @superbadassnatural​​ @thatcrazybookwormgeek​​   @thewinchesterchronicles​​ @valsworldofcreativity​ @vvinch3st3r​​  @whimsicalrobots​​ @winchester-writes​​ @zombiewerewolfqueen​​

[arse-crack-thistle]

gifts

rwrb and the five love languages | part two

in which june struggles to have a nice valentine’s date with nora

June never expected to care this much about a stupid holiday like Valentine’s Day, but here she is, practically renovating the apartment to give her girlfriend a perfect night. She strings LED lights around the entire living room ceiling and uses Command hooks to drape the sheer, white Ikea curtains she bought on sale months ago in preparation for this. The lights glow pink through the curtains, making the usually neutral-toned living room appear like Aphrodite’s palace. June’s moved the coffee table into her room and replaced it with a fluffy blanket and a picnic set-up to rival TikTok lesbians.  All she needs now is Nora, if only she weren’t stuck at school.

The texts say, Will be late! Data mining for the gods! [Monet X Change gif] I want to be home with you though. Will bring noodles! And chocolate! Scratch that, I ate the chocolate. Sorry.

June knows she shouldn’t be annoyed because Nora has no idea what she’s coming home to. She also knows who she got into a relationship with—a brilliant mind that’s constantly moving parsecs a minute and has a hard time communicating her feelings. June has to remind herself that Nora loves her even if she doesn’t always show it.

That’s what tonight is for. It’ll give them time to slow down and just be together. Break the routine. Talk or not talk. She doesn’t expect it to be mushy or obnoxious—June isn’t a super, flowery romantic herself—but she does want another sentimental moment to hold onto forever.

Like the night of the 2020 election over a year ago. After Alex and Henry slipped away and everyone else was celebrating in their own groups, Nora pulled June into a storage closet at the venue and kissed her point blank, leaving no questions in her mind that their dabbles the months before meant something more than spectacular.

Or like six months ago when Nora asked her if she wanted to move in with her. She didn’t do anything particularly special, but she slammed her laptop shut while June was throwing on one of her sweatshirts and asked her to stay—to take the second bedroom because Nora needs space sometimes—but to stay with her because she was her favorite person. June answered with a happy “yes,” and Nora got up and kissed her. They didn’t talk much more about it; June just packed up her room at the White House and let the world think they were very best friends.

June pours a glass of wine and waits on the couch, flipping through social media. A few hours ago, her brother posted a picture from the Valentine’s gala he and Henry threw for the London queer youth center. Alex, Henry, Bea, Catherine, and even Philip and Martha hold champagne flutes with cheeky smiles on their faces. The POTUS account has a sweet yet posed picture of her mother and Leo. She likes everything she sees, from the various celebrities she follows to the photos she’s tagged in by fans. The time on her phone reminds her Nora’s now over an hour late.

She texts her, Home soon?

Ten minutes later her phone dings. Need more time. Almost done!

You are aware it’s Valentine’s, yes? And that we had plans?

Yes!!!! But flexible plans, right? Not like we can’t eat noodles and make out later. Will leave soon though. Promise.

I got food covered. Just get home please.

June sighs. She thought she made it clear this morning that they deserved a night with no distractions. God, they need to talk; she’s afraid to, but nothing will get better if she doesn’t say anything and if they don’t try.

The charcuterie board spread she copied off of Pinterest has been sitting out for a while so she moves it from the floor to the fridge. “Soon” for Nora could mean an hour. Empty coffee mugs line the sink. An open pack of weed gummies sits on the counter, hardening. Binders of paperwork and schoolwork collect on the kitchen table. There’s so much Nora in here. June redecorated the living room and kitchen when she moved in, but Nora’s managed to touch everything.

She smiles. If this were Alex, she’d be pissed at the mess, but it’s Nora. The beautiful, erratic mess that is Nora. The girl who can have four different shows on at once and can still get shit done. The girl who always burns pancakes when she tries to cook breakfast for June. The girl who never fails to kiss her first.

June won’t lose her. So she sits down on the floor, runs her fingers over the fleece, and waits. And drinks more wine.

Sometime later, when a key turns in the lock, she downs the last sip in her glass and sets it down. Some old love songs play from her phone, the ones she and Nora love to make fun of. She hears her girlfriend curse when her key gets stuck, and then she bursts through the door and catches herself before she could slip on the hardwood.

“I know you said you got food covered, but I got noodles any—Whoa! You did all of this?” Nora walks into the living room with takeout bags in her hands and stares, mesmerized, at the ceiling. Her contacts must’ve been bothering her because she has on her back-up glasses.

“Hi. Happy Valentine’s Day,” June says and reaches for Nora’s hand to pull her down.

“I’m sorry, June. I had no idea. I thought we both hated this holiday, so tonight wasn’t that big of a deal. But this—this is beautiful,” Nora says, having a hard time meeting June’s eyes.

“Thanks.” June rubs Nora’s hand with her thumb. “And this isn’t really about the holiday. I just wanted to give something nice to you—to us—just us. With no distractions.”

The strings from “At Last” by Etta James play from the phone. The curtains billow from the air blowing out the vent. As much as she hates to ruin the moment, June has to start the conversation.

But Nora takes a deep breath and talks first. “I know I’m a bit all over the place but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you. I just have a lot going on.”

“I know, but sometimes it feels like you don’t care about us as much as I do. It feels like an afterthought to you,” June says.

“That’s not true, June! Come on! You know me.” She grabs June’s other hand and squeezes.

She squeezes back. “You don’t act with feelings in mind, but I know you have them. And I know it’s hard for you, but I need you to share them with me more. I need a reminder that you care every once in a while.”

Nora’s quiet. She uses her arm to wipe her eyes, knocking her glasses off.  “I—I’m sorry. I don’t know what to do.”

June’s chest collapses. She wraps Nora up in her arms. “I’m sorry, Nor. I don’t mean you’re not enough for me. I love you so much. I—”

“No, I understand. I just—I need help with that. I need you to tell me when you need more—maybe not after the fact like now but—”

June laughs and pulls away. “You’re right. I have a stewing problem. I just assume you’ll eventually get it.”

“Yeah, don’t assume that.” Nora laughs too—the big kind that shows all of her teeth. “Reign me in when I’ve been off for too long. And know it’s not on purpose. I’m seriously spiraling in my own head the majority of the time.”

“Ha! And a hot head it is too.”

They both pause and look into each other’s eyes. And bust out into laughing fits. June makes a fart sound with her mouth, and Nora tackles her. They rumble around on the blanket for about forty seconds before June’s wine glass tips over and surprisingly bounces instead of shattering.

The girls take that as an opportunity to stop and pour some more glasses of wine. Nora preps the takeout while June brings the charcuterie board back to the indoor picnic. Nora changes the music to some weird techno shit, but June snatches the phone. They compromise with One Direction, which makes no sense since 1. June only knows their last album and 2. Nora definitely remembers the story of June turning down the advances of one Niall Horan when she did the daytime talk show circuit after her book deal was announced.

Either way, they stuff their faces and end up cuddled on the floor.

Nora interrupts the moment. “Before we get to sexy time—"

“Jesus Christ.”

“I just wanted to give you something. I would’ve saved it for your birthday, but I can get you something else.” She pops up from the floor and jogs to her bedroom. When she reemerges, she’s carrying a bunched-up blanket. “I didn’t have time to properly wrap it because—you know, you weren’t going to get it yet—although, it probably wouldn’t’ve been wrapped later either—but anyways, happy Valentine’s Day.”

She crouches down and hands over the present. She smiles and bops up and down in anticipation. June unwraps the blanket and sees a book.

It’s one of those photobooks you can get at Walgreens, and on the cover, it reads, “Catalina June Claremont-Diaz and Nora Elizabeth Holleran are NOT good friends…” June flips it over. “They’re fucking GIRLFRIENDS!” Inside is page after page of pictures as early as the day they first met and as recent as New Year’s Eve a month ago. A lot of candid pics they take of each other—Nora’s favorites. A lot of sleepy, cuddle pics—June’s favorites. It’s so perfect.

“Nora—this is—wow.” She feels the tears coming. No one has given her anything like this before.

“I’ll be better—”

“So will I.”

“No matter where my head’s at, I’m always thinking of you—just 50 million other things as well,” Nora says and cups her chin.

June leans in. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Nora kisses her, and everything wound up in June relaxes. Her body is so warm. “Best Song Ever” starts playing.

Cue sexy time.

check out the rest of my rwrb and the five love languages series: part one, part three, part four, and part five. (links to come as they’re released)

so this could be for quality time or gifts, but i decided to go with gifts since i had no other ideas for it! it’s definitely not my love language (quality time for the win!) but i had to write something lol. so i made it sapphic bc everything gay is better! <3

rwrb romance week | @rwrb-fests

[honeymoonjin]

enjoy your stay - chapter eight

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six | Chapter Seven | Chapter Eight

A/N - Just for now, I’m trialing not putting in chapter links on this post to see if it helps more people see it since the tumblr search function cuts out posts with links. If there’s not a big difference, I’ll put them in later, but to see the first chapter if you’re a new reader, please click on my blog and check out my masterlist.

ENJOY YOUR STAY ↳Boss!Namjoon, Chef!Jin, Receptionist!Hoseok, Bellboy!Jimin, Bartender!Jungkook, Accountant!Yoongi, Photography student!Taehyung ↳Some inappropriate language and cursing. Later chapters have sexual content.

SUMMARY ↳Working the graveyard shift at a hotel isn’t the most exciting job in the world, but your coworkers are certainly happy to have you here.

CHAPTER EIGHT ↳Your delightful encounter ends up leaving a bitter taste in your mouth when Jimin doesn’t respond the way you’d hoped. But perhaps a new source of comfort is around the corner.

Maybe it was too much to ask for you to just have one good day. It felt like after every good thing, there was a disaster around the corner just waiting to happen so that you didn’t get too happy.

In this case, it was your car breaking down on the side of the road ten minutes outside of town after you and Jimin fucked in a scummy bathroom like animals.

He was remarkably calm and collected about the whole ordeal as the two of you hung out in a ditch with smoke billowing from your hood, but maybe it was because he just had the soul sucked out of him less than half an hour ago.

You, on the other hand, had long left behind the post-orgasm bliss and were desperately holding back angry tears as your car was towed away, and a taxi was called out to take the two of you home.

The mechanics told you it would cost a small fortune to fix your shitty vehicle, but you had no other choice. You lived far enough from your workplace that walking or cycling wasn’t really an option, and you were too proud to take the bus. Besides, you had Jungkook to worry about too.

It only took a couple of hours to fix, but it took more out of your savings account than was put in from working every day for the past two months. If you were a more stubborn woman, perhaps you’d scowl and mutter about it practically being highway robbery, but instead you found yourself in the lobby of the local accounting firm, asking if you could have an appointment with Mr. Min Yoongi.

It was foolish of you to invite a freeloader into your home, acting like you were an upper middle-class diva when really you had just enough cushioning to feel a little secure.

Now, with your car using up more money than you had, you realized just how sad your finances were looking. You couldn’t even afford to hire an accountant, but you didn’t know where else to go. At least he could give you some advice, or something like that.

“What a delightful surprise,” he drawled when you were led into his fancy-schmancy corner office, “to what do I owe the honor?”

“It’s nothing to do with work. I just need some personal help with my finances.”

He adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and steepled his fingers together. “Hmm. I find that being an accountant is much like being a doctor or a dentist. People only come to me when something’s gone wrong.”

“You’d be correct. Only problem is, I don’t have enough money to even hire you to help. I was just hoping maybe you could give me some advice.” You cleared your throat and avoided his gaze. “Hoseok told me about you two. I don’t suppose you’re interested in taking on another…client?”

He narrowed his eyes at you as your gaze burned a hole in the carpet. “Are you propositioning me in my place of work?”

“…Mhm.”

“Tell you what,” he declares, “I’ll take you on as a pro-bono client as long as you promise to never fucking do that again.” His tone is deadpan but luckily not angry or insulted.

“Got it, chief.”

“Don’t do that, either.”

“Uh- Thank you, sir?”

He nods thoughtfully. “That’ll do. Anyway, pro-bonos look pretty great on the CV apparently, and I’ve always been too much of a cold-hearted asshole to do them before, so, it’ll work out for the both of us.” He unlinks his hands and scribbles a post-it note, tucking it away in a thick leather-bound planner. He sighs. “And please ask Hoseok not to speak of his sexual relations with me.”

You pause. “Is that another condition for you helping me?”

“Well, no, but-”

“Then, with all due respect sir, not a fucking chance.”

He twiddles the pen in his hands and stares down at it in resignation. “Got it, chief.”

“Did he look hot?”

“That’s a pretty redundant question, Hobi.” “Fair. Continue.”

“Anyway, I really feel like him and I are vibing, you know? We had a little back-and-forth, we gave each other cute nicknames, he told me I warmed up his cold, dead heart…”

“I’ve been wrist deep in him, Y/n, so I’d say I know him pretty well, and there’s no fucking way he said that.”

“Maybe not in those words exactly,” you concede, chucking your empty paper cup in the trash can at his feet.

Work was a little slow today, so you had gotten permission from Namjoon to ‘help Hoseok tidy up his work space’, which just meant you and him chilling out behind the desk for an hour, chatting about whatever.

“Anyway, where’s Jimin?”

Hobi shrugs. “He went home early. Probably caught his dick in the vending machine again or something stupid like that.”

You grin. “That’s a shame, it was perfectly functional last time I checked.”

“Well, you know Jimin, al- Wait! What?” Hoseok’s eyes are comically wide, and he’s staring at you like you’ve given him a million dollars. “I cannot believe you let me sit here, discussing my sugar daddy for an hour before letting me know that! You little minx, tell me all about it!”

After spending another twenty minutes explaining the precise physics of your sexual encounter, Hobi finally let you leave to go do rounds again, but before you went back to Namjoon’s office, you tucked yourself away in the storage closet to make a phone call.

He picks up after the first ring. “Hey, baby,” his husky voice answers, and you just about melt right then and there.

“Jimin, how come you didn’t come to work today? I was looking forward to seeing you again.”

He grunts, and you frown at the muffled noises coming through the receiver. “I knew that if I saw you, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.” He lets out a dreamy sigh. “I can’t even control myself now,” he murmurs.

“What do you-” You hear a wet smacking sound repeating rhythmically, and Jimin grunts again. “Are you seriously jerking off right now?”

He laughs breathily, but it catches on a moan. “Yeah, baby, when I came to work, I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and I got hard right in the middle of the lobby.”

You frown. “Well, can you please…stop for now? I wanted to talk to you.”

Another whine. “We are talking.”

His breath is coming out in little pants and whimpers, and as hot as the sound is, you feel yourself getting frustrated, and not in the good way. “Seriously, Jimin, I’m trying to have a proper conversation here. I was going to ask you out to dinner, or breakfast, or whatever. I thought we should get to know each other better.”

He doesn’t respond, choosing instead to whisper sweet nothings like ‘fuck, baby’ and ‘feels so good’ over and over into the phone.

You think back to the last time you were in this closet, having a very different phone call. How Jin respected you so much that he wouldn’t even go out with you because he didn’t want you to end up disappointed. How he would forgo his own happiness to make sure you didn’t make a mistake in dating him.

And here was Jimin, jerking off like a teenager, completely uninterested in you asking him out.

You squeeze your eyes shut and rest your forehead against a shelf. “Jimin,” you whisper, unsure if he can even hear you as he gets louder and louder, “Jimin, this isn’t what I wanted. If all you want is sex, I’m not going to take part in whatever this is anymore. I don’t need a fuck buddy, I need a boyfriend. I need someone who understands me. I think you and I have misunderstood each other. I’m sorry.”

Somewhere in the middle of your monologue, he thankfully stopped, and the other end of the line was silent, except for the sound of him still breathing hard. “Baby,” he started eventually, “we haven’t misunderstood each other. I really like you. The way you sucked me off yesterday, god, it was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen! Give me a chance.”

“No,” you reply softly, but your tone is final. “I’ll leave you to your jacking off.”

“Baby, just-” He’s cut off as you hang up.

Surprisingly, the whole encounter with Jimin has resolved a lot of bitterness with Jin. You could understand him now, not wanting to get involved with someone who expects something you just aren’t the right person to give.

It’s that sense of closure, like you made the right decision with Jimin, and that Jin had made a good call with you, that leaves you quite content as you speed through the rest of the shift.

Jungkook excitedly whips out his laptop when you pop into the bar, showing you an online course he found that would let him study game development specifically, rather than the generalized computer programming degree. He runs you through all the different topics, aware that you had no idea what they were but perfectly happy to spend forever explaining each one in excruciating detail and then thanked you profusely for letting him live with you.

When you had returned home yesterday after the whole broken-down car fiasco, you were genuinely shocked to see your apartment still in one piece. In fact, in the time he had to himself, he had set up his room with a desk and a little bookshelf he had found at the secondhand store. He was really making the place his own, and it made you feel like a protective mother hen to see the boy so happy.

He was just as pumped today and made sure to let you know how grateful he was. Jungkook had a completely different energy about him when he was doing something he actually enjoyed.

It was only twenty minutes away from the end of your shift when Hoseok called Namjoon’s office, saying there had been a noise complaint filed against the room that Taehyung was in. Namjoon, who was steeped in paperwork and reporting, asked you to handle it, saying that sometimes Taehyung could blast music a little too loud, but he’d turn it down if you told him to. He even threw in the exclusive offer that if you went and dealt with it, you could go home early afterwards. Of course, you’d have to wait around for Jungkook to get off, but finishing early was finishing early, so you gratefully accepted.

As you made your way to the hallway of rooms, you wondered what type of music Tae liked to blast. Did he wallow in self-pity to mopey 60s music like a tortured artist, or did he know all the dance moves to the latest k-pop hits?

But the closer you got, you realized there was no music at all. The hallway was completely silent. You knocked lightly on his door, but received no response.

If it wasn’t for the fact that you really wanted to get this sorted for good and go off duty a little early, you probably would’ve walked away.

As it was, you decided to whip out your master keycard and let yourself in. It was only once you got past the threshold that you heard any noise at all.

Certainly not loud enough to warrant a noise complaint since you couldn’t even hear it yourself directly outside the door, but it was there. The second you heard it, your heart dropped into your stomach, and your gaze immediately flicked over to the far side of the room where the sounds originated.

Jimin and Tae were entwined with each other, Jimin in Tae’s arms against the wall in a cruel mockery of the time you spent with him just the day before. Taehyung hadn’t heard you come in over the sound of Jimin moaning, but since the bellboy was conveniently facing the door, he glanced up over Tae’s sweaty shoulder when you came in and grinned at you.

The room tilted a little as your vision swam with the tears that quickly built up. He really couldn’t give a shit, could he? The moment you told him you weren’t interested in sex, he went out and found somebody else.

In any other circumstance, the scene playing out would’ve been completely pornographic. Jimin, hair sticking to his forehead, stared you deep in the eyes with a sultry smugness, jerking at each devastating thrust from the man below him.

Later, when you had cried all the tears you had to give, you would be thankful that at least Namjoon asked you to go instead of walking in on his little brother and the bellboy himself. But for now, you felt stupid and ashamed and used, and it must have been some masochistic streak that caused you to stand there for what was at least a full minute, never glancing away from Jimin’s mocking gaze as he muttered sweet things into Tae’s ear and breathed in little whimpers that were harmonizing sinfully with Taehyung’s deeper grunts and groans.

You tore your eyes away once as the two men began to come undone, bolting into the hallway and slamming the door behind you.

As valiantly as you tried to remain composed until you reached the staff carpark, hot tears spattered against your cheeks as you all but ran down the hallway. Clearly there was no real noise complaint. Clearly Park Jimin knew exactly what the fuck he was doing when he got you to come to Tae’s apartment in the middle of their tryst. You always saw Jimin as a little petty but there was really no reason for him to be this cruel.

What was it you said that caused him to be this way? He was just proving the reason you called quits on whatever it was the two of you had. You were right, really; there was no way he was boyfriend material if this was how he responded to rejection.

Perhaps the worst part of this is that you couldn’t even tell anyone about it. While workplace romance wasn’t illegal, fucking your way around the hotel staff was certainly frowned upon and was sure to bring an awkward light to the night shift. There was no way you were explaining to Namjoon the situation you found his sibling in, and you had no way of knowing whether Hobi would take your side or his.

As you bawled your eyes out in anger and frustration, you weren’t keeping track of the time at all, and you just about jumped out of your skin when the passenger door opened.

“Alrightey, let’s g- Oh my god, what happened to you?”

You shook your head mutely at the boy who sat himself in the seat beside you.

“Are you alright? Do you need me to drive?”

You sniff. “Do you have your license?”

“N- No.”

“Then no.” You clear your throat a couple times and pat your red cheeks a little to sober yourself before making the awkward drive home.

Jungkook had the good graces not to ask questions in the car, or once you got home and collapsed onto the couch to resume sobbing, but by the time midday rolled around and you still hadn’t moved a muscle except to wipe your dribbling nose, he brought you a block of chocolate and sat on the couch next to you. “Please, noona, tell me something so I can help you, I hate seeing you like this.”

You chow through a row or two of comforting confectionery before you answer. “Boy troubles,” you mumble. “Not much you can do about it.”

He tucks one leg under the other so he can face you fully on the couch. “Maybe it would help to just vent. Get it all out there.”

You raise your eyebrows, but he just blinks at you with his wide eyes, completely serious. “Fine. I had sex with a guy, told him I wasn’t interested in sex if it meant nothing to him, and then he got mad and fucked somebody else as revenge. He even set me up so that I walked in on the act. Sick son of a bitch.”

“What? Isn’t revenge porn illegal? I read that somewhere,” he stated.

“It is illegal, but this wasn’t technically revenge porn, it was…revenge sex. I don’t know. I just feel so shitty that he would do something like that. And then I feel shitty for feeling shitty because I shouldn’t care about him anyway since I was the one that ended things, right?”

“I had this one girlfriend,” Jungkook mused, “who would follow me around everywhere, always wanted to have sex, always wanted to make out. And so, I did. But then she told me she’d rather not bother with the making out and just go straight to sex all the time.” He broke off, eyes distant, and shook his head slowly at the memory.

You frown. “How is this supposed to help me?”

“Oh, I guess it probably doesn’t, but I just wanted you to know I’ve had a girlfriend before, and I’ve had sex before, like, multiple times, so I get what you’re going through.”

You open your mouth to retort, but then realize you have no idea what the fuck to say to that. Your mouth closes again.

“Anyway, when we finally broke up, I was super devastated. But after a while I realized that even if I had done whatever she wanted, I wouldn’t be happy. And it was kind of better to be sad knowing that I made the right decision, than be sad and not do anything about it, you know?”

You tilt your head in confusion. “Your grand thesis is that if I’m going to be miserable either way, I might as well be miserable on the moral high ground?”

He swallows and pouts a little. “Well, you’ve been having this conversation with me for the past five minutes and you’ve already stopped crying. You can’t be sad if you’re too distracted to think about your problems.”

“Your logic is very poorly constructed, but I think I see your point.”

He smiles at you, then, and leans in a little to rest his hand on yours. “If you want, I can distract you, noona.”

TAGLIST (if you wish to be added, send a message or an ask.)

@xxqueenwxtchxx

@fandomarchive00

@cvbachacbitch

@echimozart

[willidleaway]

Doctor Who, series 12, episodes 1 and 2

In short: I love two-parters and I’m glad Spyfall was a two-parter. The conclusion wasn’t entirely satisfying, parts of this felt like a retread of old favourite story elements (including from The Curse of Fatal Death—seriously!), and I think there was a bit of disjointness between the two parts, but this is still a very good start to series 12, and I’m 90% sure I’m not saying that just because he’s back.

In slightly less short, still without spoilers:

—Positives: good tension throughout part 1, including the cliffhanger (hangar?); loved seeing historical characters tag along and interact in part 2, in one of the better attempts of Chibnall!Who at being educational; strong performances all around from heroes and villains.

—Negatives: part 2 has me fearing for a regression from some of the positive aspects of series 11; the villains weren't really fleshed out enough, especially in their motivation.

Verdict: Go watch Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. It’s quite funny.

Oh, you mean about this two-parter? It’s good. Could have been great, though—almost should have been with its set pieces—and it didn’t strike me as great.

In less short, with spoilers:

OK, so I don’t even have much to say about part 1 because it really is all setup. We’ve got weird higher-dimensional ghosty things, they’re attacking spies all around the world and swapping their DNA out with something else, except they either won’t or can’t attack Yas and send her instead to some weird alternate dimension. Yas and Ryan go off to find out that Google are involved [0] in some sinister fashion because their CEO is totally in league with the aliens and is himself 7% alien, but it turns out the real mastermind is ... the Master! Dun dun dun. Very much the Dark Water reveal, right down to the gender swap.

So at the end of part 1, the situation is that the Doctor is in the same realm that Yas had ended up in, and her companions are in a crashing plane. So how is this all resolved?

Well, the second one is easy. It’s a time travel show. Do the Blink gambit! [1] Just go back in time after everything’s done, plant some signs and a recording on the plane, and they can land completely unscathed! In Essex! (I’d say ‘unscathed/Essex: pick one’, but obviously Graham feels differently.)

This is fine, but ultimately the companions don’t ... do much from there? It’s the series 3 finale thing again where they’ve got to go off-grid, except in series 3 where Martha is planting the seeds for, well, that conclusion. But she’s at least got some kind of agency in the story. Here, Graham and Yas and Ryan are ... chased? I mean, it did give us Graham laser-tap-dancing his way out of those situations, and I will be forever happy that that was a thing that happened, but overall they had so little to do other than have villainous speeches and antics spouted at them. Frankly, from a purely logistical point of view, it would have made very little difference if the Doctor had just picked them up on the plane before it crashed, because of course the Doctor had sorted everything out about the Silver Lady and the Kasaavins and all.

So I found that fairly unfortunate, especially given Yas and Ryan’s crucial actions (and their rather excellent performances) in part 1.

Resolving the Doctor’s cliffhanger seems a little trickier, and it leads to some of the disjointness I was talking about at the start between parts 1 and 2. In part 1 we’re led to believe that these pointy-hat white ghosts [2] are alien spies spying on Earth’s spies today. Here it turns out that, no, actually, they’re also spying on the Who’s Who of Earth computing and telecommunications.

This includes Ada Lovelace [3]—why she was also known as Ada Gordon is baffling to me given she was Lord Byron’s legitimate daughter and it’s not like Gordon was Byron’s surname (not blaming the show, just baffled at the apparent historical fact)—and later Noor Inayat Khan, the pacifist SOE hero with expertise in wireless telegraphy. It was really good to learn about them and their contributions, however briefly (although I have mixed feelings about the episode avoiding discussing Noor’s ultimate fate).

Thankfully they also get more to do than the companions—Ada hijacks a gun and fights off the Master while he’s distracted, while Noor hides Ada and the Doctor from Nazis and later feeds information to the Nazis to trap the Master. They then both go out and track down the Master’s TARDIS (although given his hubris it turns out to be not so difficult). That’s way more than laser-tap-dancing and being rather ineffectual otherwise!

My main gripe is how the Doctor wipes both their memories at the end—it’s not like the Doctor’s wiped the memories of Dickens or Shakespeare or even Queen Elizabeth! Anti-STEM discrimination, this is.

But overall I very much liked the Doctor in this power trio of women, although I think Ada got the short end of the stick out of the three of them. I suppose it may have been difficult because her abilities are relatively abstract—computer science is a bit more difficult to get across on screen compared to telegraphy and disinformation, so she has to make do with a gun instead.

So: strong companions in part 1 (although not so much in part 2), strong Doctor and historical figures in part 2. All fine and dandy. But let’s talk about the villains, because of course that’s the meat of the story.

OK, first off: that’s Lenny Henry?! God he’s unrecognisable. Goatee suits him, though. He looks sharp.

Daniel Barton, though, seems not so sharp, and not terribly interesting either. First off, he has all the information in the world yet can’t seem to be bothered to run a face recognition routine on Yas and Ryan when they’re undercover in his office as journalists. (Maybe he’s wilfully ignoring it. Maybe he just wants attention.) Then it turns out he’s 7% non-human, which is intriguing at the start but gets rather casually dismissed towards the end of part 2 as just him test-driving the DNA replacement idea.

But the real trouble was that I never found it terribly clear why Barton would have been interested in joining forces with the aliens to wipe out humanity. Did he just find the idea of using seven billion humans as data centres really appealing? Maybe, but what’s the use of all that data? Barton is most powerful as the head of basically Google, and all his data becomes utterly useless without the civilisation that actually needs it, surely.

Oh, then there are the Kasaavins themselves.

At first, their basic plan seems like it’s to wipe out Earth’s intelligence network, which makes sense as a step in an invasion. But then it turns out the ultimate point of their invasion is all about ... computers? And disk space, basically???

Why did they attach themselves to people like Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing and Steve Jobs? Was it to influence the evolution of computing in ways that made today’s computer architectures more vulnerable to ... whatever it is the Kasaavins later do through the Silver Lady and all of our modern devices? Sure, Ada Lovelace’s notes on computing engines were prescient and unquestionably influenced her spiritual successors like Turing, but I would personally have said more in the abstract. You'd definitely want to go after people like Woz, doing design on microcomputers much closer to our modern laptops and phones. I guess they figured it couldn’t hurt, anyway.

What exactly were they going to do with all that disk space? Why don’t they have their own massive storage devices? Why do they need to overwrite human DNA? Can’t they just build more DNA?

I dunno, maybe I’m overthinking it. I thought they were building towards a Matrix-style thing where all of human civilisation was going to just be someone’s cloud computing instance—but no, it’s hard drive space. It seemed a bit weak.

I think the Kasaavins suffered mostly for being in the same story as the newest incarnation of the Master.

The good thing about the Master, at least, is that he needs little motivation. He’s just mad. If he wants to wipe out all of humanity and the Kasaavins needing storage space happens to mean there may be a common interest there, the Master can just do that. That’s how the Master works.

He cuts an imposing figure at the start, I suppose—maniacal slick sort of fellow, shades of Simm’s incarnation in series 3 but still his own thing. But the way he works in this episode is just ... goofy. I mean, really? He just keeps tracking the Doctor through time? Can’t be bothered to keep tabs on whether someone’s trying to sabotage his master plan?

And then there’s the way the whole situation with the Nazis gets resolved.

I really thought he was going to go ‘seventy-seven years ... in a sodding twentieth century ...’, à la Jonathan Pryce’s excellent Master from Steven Moffat’s Comic Relief special. You know, the one from all the way back in 1999 where for the first half-ish, the Doctor and Master basically try to outwit each other through increasingly ridiculous time-travel hijinks, ending up with the Master having to crawl out a sewer for over nine hundred years.

Totally unlike this story, where the second half-ish involves the Doctor and Master trying to outwit each other through time-travel hijinks, and the Master ends up having to crawl out of his predicament for almost eight decades.

I’m not sure that’s a complaint, myself, frankly. For one thing, of course, when a show has gone on for over half a century, it’s difficult to avoid new stories running into old ones. But for another thing, saying something feels right out of a Comic Relief special isn’t necessarily a, erm, fatal flaw for Doctor Who. I prefer it when Doctor Who isn’t taking itself too seriously, just seriously enough.

Still, when you look at the big picture and look at all the retreads, I can’t help but think we’re heading back into the worst excesses of past new!Who.

For all its faults, I really enjoyed series 11 for how the narrative focus returned to the companions after much of the Moffat era’s obsession with ridiculously overpowered characters—Clara as the impossible girl, the Doctor as the Hybrid, the Doctor as literally where we get the word ‘doctor’, and so forth.

Well, now we’ve got the Master back and he’s gone and destroyed Gallifrey (negating the big winning moment of the 50th anniversary special, to boot) and it’s all because of some mysterious lie and it involves the Timeless Child that was mentioned for a hot five seconds last series??? It smacks of past new!Who arcs, especially under Moffat—and at least in my eyes those arcs have never gone terribly well. Those arcs have come at the expense of good companion characterisation as well, so overall it has me a bit concerned about series 12.

Sure, all these aspects of pre-series 11 Who returning to the show—the Daleks last year, and now the Master—maybe makes the show feel more like itself, much like how having a functional rebel force that’s not just confined to a single light freighter makes a Star Wars film feel more like Star Wars. I just worry that it’s a instinctive reaction against some of the mixed reactions to series 11, and that ultimately it’ll be an overreaction.

Good start, though, this two-parter. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be the best story that series 12 gets.

Footnotes:

[0: Sure, they’re called Vor in the episodes, but first off they’re clearly meant to be Google, and second off it’s very awkward talking about ‘Vor’ being everywhere on the Internet and on everyone’s devices ... so for the purposes of this write-up I’m going to call them Google.]

[1: I know that in Blink, the Doctor and Martha are trapped in the past and have to plant the message in DVDs to get someone to get them out of trouble. But you know what I mean. Timey-wimey out-of-order rescue plan.

Maybe I ought to call it the Arrival gambit, after the excellent film from a few years back.]

[2: Makes them sound like alien Klansmen, doesn’t it?]

[3: What’s the opposite of née for the purposes of distinguishing maiden and married names in time travel stories? I guess mariée is as good as any ...]

[businesssetupindubai4-blog]

Essential IT Infrastructure for a Small Business Setup

If you're reading this, you are in the process of taking your business from an idea you've talked to a few people about to something to make some serious money from.

What I'll cover will give you all the essential knowledge to cover at least 5 employees. This setup will run and run, and when you finally hire an IT person, they'll be able to take over effortlessly (and possibly question whether they're really needed).

Laptops and Desktops

First you need to decide between a desktop and a laptop. I would strongly advise on a laptop, as this gives you the portability you might need, and you don't have to plug anything aside from the charger in. Simple and straightforward.

Internet Connection

The first thing you'll need to make your system work is an internet connection. It can be through a mobile, cable, or ADSL. All are great, when used appropriately, but you need to choose one to start with.

For any office of ten or less people, you will be very comfortable with an ADSL connection from whoever the cheapest and best reviewed provider in your area is. You'll want to ask for a static IP when you set it up, and be adamant that you need one. Right now, it's not important, but it might be down the line and it'll save you time later on. Some services will charge a little more for this, so I suggest shopping around.

In terms of speed, the speed that's quoted on advertisements (for example 20Mb) is how fast you can get stuff from the Internet, and is mainly what we're concerned with at this point. Uploading will generally be a much smaller number, perhaps 512kbps, but generally the amount of traffic you'll be sending back to the internet is minimal.

You should look for bandwidth caps: some service providers will either restrict your speed, or cut off your connection all together when you've downloaded too many files from the Internet. This is less common now, but important to ask about.

Email, Calendaring, and Contacts

A lot has changed over the last six years, with the focus being to move away from having a mail server all of your own, to using one managed by someone else (also known as 'moving to the cloud').

There are only really two players in this field: Google, and Microsoft.

A lot of IT consultancies will push you towards a Microsoft Small Business Server, which whilst it can appear attractive is very expensive both up front, and in the long term when you move away from it. I cannot advise you enough to stay clear of this product.

If you're still stuck on the idea of Microsoft, most IT consultancies will be delighted to offer you a hosted Exchange server, but at its cheapest, this will be 100% more expensive than the next offering, which provides everything hosted Exchange does, and more.

The key innovator in this area has been Google: initially, they launched their incredibly popular Gmail product, which popularized the idea of threaded conversations and a lot of space for free. This, coupled with unobtrusive advertising and a clean interface took them to being probably the biggest provider of email today.

Office Suite and Note Taking

Office Suite

If you've opted for Google Apps, you've already got your office suite set up: it doesn't have every feature of either iWork or Microsoft Office, but it has so many that for free, there's very little point in going further initially. It has capability for word processing, spreadsheets, slideshows, drawings, and very neat data collection tables (useful for emailing a questionnaire, or posting one to a website).

But let's say you need more: you're trying to produce a very complex layout for a flyer, or you have a fiendish spreadsheet that Google Docs just can't quite handle. Microsoft has very carefully written its office suite for Macs, and it works very well. Apple has its competitor platform, iWork, which for an extra charge ties in very neatly with iWork on your iPhone or iPad if you get one. You can buy Microsoft Office for Mac (traditionally Microsoft awards odd years to Apple and even to Windows) from anywhere else that sells software, or you can buy iWork from the App Store on your Mac. The advantage of the App Store approach is that you'll have it installed and ready in a few minutes. For Pages, Numbers, and Keynote the total is £42, but each application is purchased individually for £13.99. Office for Mac runs to around £150 or so, and you'll need to use a DVD drive to install it.

Any files that you create should be saved somewhere that's backed up, for example your Dropbox (keep reading... ).

Note Taking

Note taking is useful. Synchronised note taking across Mac, Windows, iPhone, and Android a web browser-based client is even more useful. The chosen product in this category is Evernote, which for free gives you a generous account, and if you upload a photo (of a business card, for example) you can later find that picture by searching for text in it. You can share notebooks with other people, which is excellent for building a shared repository of information. These notebooks can also be shared to anyone on the Internet, although this is completely at your discretion.

Evernote will let you encrypt pieces of text, so it's very useful for saving passwords to. Select the text, right-click, and choose encrypt.

Evernote is also an excellent place to store your documentation.

Shared Storage

So now you have your Internet connection, your computer, and you're able to send people emails, you'll probably find you want a space to store your files.

My first recommendation for a startup will always be Dropbox. Dropbox is a small piece of software that runs on your computer, and watches a special folder, called Dropbox. It's available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile. Every time you add a file to that folder, or make a change to it, that file or those changes are written back to the central Dropbox servers.

A free account will give you 2GB of space, and will keep any changes you make to a file for the last 30 days, turning it into your personal time machine for everything stored in there. If you delete a file you can restore it immediately.

Additionally, you can have a shared folder with someone, which means that the folder on your computer you've shared with them is a mirror image of the same folder on theirs. You can see when they're working on a file, and vice versa. As soon as they save changes, these changes are replicated across to your computer.

Finally, there is a special folder in your Dropbox, called Public. Anything you put in here can be shared with someone else by emailing them a link to the file. This is an excellent alternative to emailing large attachments, or using FTP servers (fantastic for artwork files, for example).

If you pay Dropbox, they'll give you more than 2GB, and instead of saving changes to your files for the last 30 days, they'll save them forever, which can be useful if you need to show a chain of work.

For a more serious, server-like approach to file serving, I suggest buying a Synology disk station. Synology make incredibly user-friendly self-contained servers that can hum quietly to themselves in the corner of a room without anyone noticing. They have support for something called RAID, which means that if a disk fails, you can just slide out the broken one and replace it with a new one. They have built-in virus scanning for peace-of-mind (although you do have to enable it), and can function as a web server if you ever need to.

Remember when you buy a Synology, you need to buy the hard drives separately: you don't have to buy enough to fill your device at once, but you do need to buy at least one to be able to use it business setup in dubai.

[nochuie]

Okay so I took your advice and I'm holding off on dropping cash on an entirely new system given I don't want to spend too much. I've been digging around and trying to understand computer specs and quite frankly wtf is the difference between core processors and which is better and its seems the i7 as you said would deal me a steep stack of money. BUT ALAS I have an old dell intel inspirion 14 that I thought was trashed. Maybe i could upgrade it myself and just buy the i7 chip and install? As well

-as buy a HDD to give it more room? I messed it up a few years ago but deleting all the files I thought I didn't need and now my computer is running like a turtle it takes forever to start but I got it in like 2016 and I think shelf models are already 2 years old right? At least that's how it is with phones typically. On top of that the inside is pretty banged up from a car accident earlier within the year but it still runs just slow af. But maybe I could drop some money on a 2tb hardrive for space and then input the i5 (minimum) or i7 processor myself? Is that possible? I know other models are interchangeable and Intel is a good product decent brand so I'm hoping my old computer can be livened up. Then I'd but the DAW of choice and attempt to run it to see if it will work. I guage my PC should handle a DAW because I tried downloading fortnite and it ran well but there was a graphics lag due to no space. I'm hoping installing a TB will solve this. Any advice? Plz!!! 

I saw the processors themselves (for desktop however) ran between $200 and $500 which I mean is okay ig I don't need to buy a whole new computer for $300 additional with everything packaged at once?

this is a lot to take in, going over this the i5 vs i7 should be at the lowest priority. You only really need an i7 if you plan to overclock on gaming and its completely unnecessary for pretty much everything else. I also do not know how easy it is to replace/upgrade parts in a laptop as I have a desktop pc and it’s very different, especially if you plan to change out your cpu because 8 out of 10 times it might mean you need to change your motherboard too. 

While it is true that your computer will slow down if there isn’t enough space of whatever drive the OS is on, unless you have less than 10% remaining (the bar is red) then changing your OS drive will not effect your speed. If you want speed on your computer you’ll need an internal ssd (with os installed on that) where you can install the programs you need, any non priority programs + the rest of your bulk storage files can go on an internal hdd (if your computer has one) or onto an external hdd.

Fortnite isn’t really a gauge for how well your computer can run something because fortnite is optimised pretty well for low end computers (also a reason why a large portion of their demographic are children)

[blogpr940]

Capture One 20 Slow

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Anyone else experience C1 catalogs taking forever to load? Once the app is open, then I can load/change catalogs with ease. But the first time I open the app and the catalog size is at least 40GB, it just takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Reminds me of Aperture 2. Just painful and my number one complaint. I’m still using the test version… but maybe things are better once I purchase???

Not noticing that here, and my machine is not overpowered.

Behind the scenes videos with our favourite photographers, tutorials, tips and guides to Capture One. Whether you are a beginner or an expert, prepare yourself for a dose of tips, tricks. This indicates what speed the camera is connected: 12Mb/s: USB 1.1. If the camera is connecting slower than it should be, reconnect it and refresh System Profiler (via cmd+R). If it persists, try a different port on the machine, preferably on a different USB bus. For our Capture One 21 launch, we challenged Polish food and still life photographer Maciek Miloch to tell us about his experience of the pandemic – using just one color. In this blog, he shares the inspiration behind his shoot. Customizing the Interface. Capture One is a popular RAW photo editor that caters to the professional photographer looking for full control over their craft. In a land of competing products, CO stands out as being one of the few to take the GPU seriously, which is exactly why we decided to take the application for a. Length: 60:00 minutes New Heal and Clone tools in Capture One's latest update are both easier and faster to work with, while providing the high image quality that Capture One is known for. Webinars Shooting and Editing with the Fujifilm X-T4 and Capture One.

“but maybe things are better once I purchase???”

That is never a good thing to assume. It’s rarely right. :-)

Apparently, it is a known issue. Received this from their tech support (which was pretty cool that they’d reply to a non-customer using their time-bombed app):

Hi

If you are on “All images” in the catalog, then CaptureOne is strating threads to open all images. If you instead highlight a low count folder before closing, it will only start opening that folder and it will be much quicker. We are looking in to things to improve this.

Kind Regards Phase One support

Could also be linked to the size of the preview images?

I have a fast iMac, with a very fast thunderbolt drobo. My library contains 40k images. C1 opens in 2mins- 10sec. Holy Cow. I will try pre-selecting a low count folder as described above. Hope this works. So far C1 is the best alternative to Aperture. I tried LR… Really not happy with that program. It’s kindof a disorganized mess.

(Reply to #5)#6

Like I wrote in the other thread, try to relocate your masters out of the Aperture library. I think reading an Aperture managed library may slow C1 down (just an idea).

My catalog also opens quite slowly, taking about a minute with 63K images. This is with the catalog on an SSD and the referenced images on a Thunderbolt drive.

It was worse when I first created the catalog from my Aperture library (over 2 minutes, like you are seeing) but I used the command “File > Verify Catalog or Session…” and it found some problems which it was able to repair. That improved the file opening time from over two minutes to about a minute.

Also, selecting either a small folder of images to open at startup or the full “All Images” collection doesn’t make any difference in the performance.

Look at what part of your catalog you have selected in the left sidebar when closing C1. I've noticed that if I select All Images, then loading of the catalog upon next startup can be slow. Selecting an individual Album or Folder that has fewer images speeds up loading on next startup. I've given this feedback to PhaseOne. Don't know if they will find a way to improve that in a future update, but they do seem to be very interested in user feedback so tell them all of the quirks you experience using their Support Case system.

I am experiencing this very slow startup as well. When the catalog and referenced files are both on external HDD, I have extremely slow startup. I made a screen recording and provided it to PhaseOne. It is an 8 minute video. I have under 40,000 images and the catalog is about 64GB. I copied the catalog to an internal SSD and left the referenced files on external HDD. Startup was extremely fast by comparison (under 30 seconds vs 5-8 minutes).

I have a running case open with PhaseOne (case #215211 if anyone else wants to reference it in their own case).

I’m using Apple Photos to be my reference catalog because C1 was so slow. C1 is too good and I don’t waste my time editing with any other software. Then Photos is too good at cataloging. jpegs and raw files show as 1 file and the viewing modes are perfect. No need to catalog every single photo with C1.

(Reply to #10)#11

Milo, this seems like a brilliant idea. I would like to reference my growing iPhone images from C1. Are you able to comment on the following:

1) Did you create a new C1 catalog for the images in Photos?

2) By default, Photos does not download images to your computer. The pictures reside in the iCloud, unless you download them into the Photos application. Are you only referencing the downloaded images in Photos?

3) How are you organizing your images in Photos and how does that structure appear in C1?

Capture One 20 Slow Start

4) Is the metadata, favorites, tags, etc. recognized when referenced by C1?

Your idea of referencing your Photos library in C1 could be a great solution for those of us who increasingly use iPhone 7 Plus pictures from our travels, etc.

Sincerely, Alex

I haven’t seen the slow starting many have. My catalog is 82G, and opens in approx. 9.5 seconds either on the internal HD on my laptop, or the backup copy on an external raid 5 thunderbolt DAS. All files are referenced, there aren’t any stored in the catalog. Thats opening on a root folder with not thumbnails showing on start up. The time measurement is the best I can do with a stop watch.

absolutely. a pain in the butt

I had. a catalogue. at 70gb

it took 12 hours

it seems. that with Mac there is. a huge problem.

I have been. writing with them , they know there is a problem but will not. admit

and so far nothing has really changed.

I don’t think they know what the problem is

(Reply to #13)#14

What is your configuration? Memory? HDD or SSD? Catalog on internal or external disk? I get the best performance from placing the catalog itself on internal SSD and leaving images on external disk. I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, 1TB internal SSD, 2TB external portable HDD. My catalog has 56,000 images now.

If I select “All Images”, it sends Capture One into a tailspin where it consumes all 16GB of RAM and then some (so says Activity Monitor). The app locks up for 5-10 minutes, but eventually the memory goes back down and the app becomes responsive again. I opened several cases with Capture One and provided them a lot of evidence of the issue. They agree there is an issue. I believe an update will addresses this. I can't say when that update will be released.

If I select any other folder or album with fewer images with under 1000 image, for example, Capture One is much faster.

With a few tweaks, Capture One is a fantastic Lightroom alternative.

…and shrink that enormous Capture One catalog file

» Scroll to step-by-step instructions

One of the most pleasant surprises of going 100% Adobe-free has been the switch to Phase One’s Capture One. It has long been a favorite among pros, but I have to admit that I overlooked it at first after being seduced by the slicker marketing and shinier interfaces of some other self-described Lightroom alternatives. None of those proved to be — or show any real progress towards ever being — a complete replacement for Adobe Lightroom, at least not for many professional photographers.

Capture One Pro 11, on the other hand, is an excellent Adobe Lightroom alternative. Capture One is faster, has more powerful tools (including layers), and does not require a subscription! If only Phase One’s marketing reach matched that of Adobe’s (or Luminar’s for that matter), more photographers might learn that they’ve had a wonderful Lightroom alternative just waiting for them all along.

Update November 29, 2018

Capture One 12 is here and it’s the best pro-level Lightroom alternative on the market.

I do have one issue, however, with the configuration options of Capture One. Although it is simple enough to import images into Capture One while keeping those big RAW files on my external RAID, the preview and thumbnail images that Capture One creates can only be stored in the catalog file itself, which is actually a macOS package. This is not unlike Apple’s Photos app, and it makes sense for smaller catalogs.

However, the size of the preview files is not trivial. For a large library, the catalog file can reach many gigabytes, even while the database file itself is only a few hundred megabytes. I would much rather store those preview files on the external SSD that I reserve specifically for caches. That way I don’t waste precious space on my internal SSD, and I can exclude that drive from my various backup services. There’s not much point wasting bandwidth and storage space by constantly backing up new preview files that can always be recreated if lost, and, in my particular case, the catalog file size had surpassed the single file size limit for syncing with iCloud Drive, which is a critical part of my workflow.

I was unable to find an answer in the Capture One user forum, but I eventually, and accidentally, stumbled on a solution while testing the Backup Catalog… command. For whatever reason, Capture One creates a standalone database file when exporting a backup and separates out the preview image cache into its own directory.

It occurred to me that this database file was the same type as that found within the contents of the default catalog package, which led to the following 10-step procedure to move the cache to an external drive.

Step-by-step tutorial:

1 Find the location of the Capture One catalog file in the Finder. The default path is Pictures ▸ Capture One Catalog ▸ Capture One Catalog.cocatalog.

2 Right click on the catalog file (extension .cocatalog), which is actually a package.

3 Select Show Package Contents. This will reveal a .cocatalogdb file, along with various directories, including Cache and possibly Adjustments. You may also see Originals if you have opted to store photos inside the catalog, although that would negate the space savings of storing the preview files in a separate location!

Capture One 20 Slow Cooker

4 Copy the .cocatalogdb file (along with the Adjustments and Originals folders, if they exist) to the directory where you would like to keep your new database file. An easy way to do this is to select the files/directories and press Command-C. Click the back arrow in the top left corner of the Finder window to exit the package. If you want to keep your new catalog database file in the same directory as the original catalog package, just press Command-V to paste right there, or navigate to another location and paste the files there. Personally, I choose to store my Capture One Catalog in a directory that syncs with iCloud.

Capture One 20 Sony

5 Copy just the Cache directory to the drive where you want to store all of your preview images. In my case, I keep the cache in a folder named Capture One on an external SSD.

6 Delete the Cache directory that you just copied (the one in the same folder as the .cocatalogdb file).

7 Here’s where the magic happens. Use the Terminal to create a symbolic link, also known as a symlink or soft link, in the location of the Cache folder you just deleted. This symlink will point to your external cache in a way that is transparent to Capture One. To do this, enter the following at the command line prompt, replacing the first path with the location of your external cache directory and the second path with the original location. Note the backslash escape characters before the spaces.

ln -s /Volumes/My External Drive/Capture One/Cache /Users/username/Pictures/Capture One Catalog/Cache

Hint: You can drag a directory from the Finder into the Terminal window to paste in the path.

8 Double-click your new, nice and slim .cocatalogdb file to launch Capture One. Et voila! Your catalog should load exactly as before.

9 If everything is cool (and all photos are backed up as always!), you can delete the original, bulky .cocatalog file.

10 I can’t end at step 9! So go take some pictures!

[hpprinterblog]

How Can you Download iCloud Photos on your Windows PC?

Maybe iCloud is the best assistant for iOS users, we like to synchronize our information with iCloud to save iPhone storage or back up iPhone information. Here we tell you how to access iCloud photos on pc and how can you download? It's so convenient that we don't even have to do anything to create it, as it can be done automatically while connecting the phone to a charger and WiFi network. Although some users do not use iCloud to back up phone information, iCloud Photo Library is still commonly used. With the iCloud Photo Library, we can quickly synchronize and readily access all pictures to iCloud on other systems.

 What is most annoying, though, is that Apple offers only 5 GB of free space, which is clearly too low to save our huge information, so you need to pay more if you want more room. So get ready to access icloud photos on pc. Even so, we may run out of iCloud storage one day with more and more pictures we take and the boost of other information. So to keep a local backup, we need to download the photos from iCloud to release the space on iCloud. And this tutorial is here to offer you some choices for downloading iCloud pictures. And let's start now.In that step we discuss, how to access iCloud photos on your PC?

You can simply login to iCloud.com to download them manually if you don't want any instruments and just want to download the pictures straight. Find below the information of how to access icloud photos on pc?

Open iCloud.com with your browser and enter your Apple ID. You also need to enter the safety code produced on your iPhone if you allow Two-Factor Authentication. Click on the pictures.

Simply pick your required pictures from the album and press the download button in the top correct corner to download chosen pictures to your PC.

Note: If you want to pick various pictures at once, you can only hold the Ctrl key and then click on each picture, Apple has removed all pictures at once, such a dumb move. In the future, Hope Apple will restore the function.

How to Download iCloud Photos From iCloud Backup to Computer?

The last way to download iCloud pictures to your desktop can be the fastest way. iOS Data Recovery promotes seamless recovery of information from iOS devices to PC&devices, including contacts, emails, photos, photos, videos, music and more. Follow these steps to access icloud photos on pc. You can easily move all photos and images from iCloud backup to PC with the assistance of this program.

Download and install Data Recovery for iPhone from below on your desktop. Start it, select Recover from the homepage's iCloud backup file mode.

To download an iCloud backup to your PC, you'll be asked to login your Apple ID, just enter your Apple ID and pick backups to download to your PC.

After successfully downloading the iCloud backup(s), select a backup, the program will list all data, check Photos in the checkbox, and click Recover to PC to download to PC.

Note: If you have less than 1000 pictures in iCloud, by pressing Ctrl + A, you can quickly download all pictures, then click the download button. However, if you have more than 1000 pictures, it gets a bit trickier. You'll need to monitor which 1000 pictures you've already uploaded, then pick another 1000, etc. you can easily access icloud photos on pc.You can download everything at once with CopyTrans Cloud.

By choosing moments, you can also pick various pictures on iCloud. Click on the tiny plus sign at one of the moments ' top correct corner. Voila! All photos are chosen in your time. They can now be downloaded to your PC.

Once your pictures and videos are uploaded to your desktop, you will need to remove them manually from the Downloads folder (or wherever your browser shops downloaded files, mine is in This PC > > Downloads), as iCloud's browser version does not provide you with the option to download all your pictures and videos to a directory of your choice. I hope now you can easily access icloud photos on pc.

You can delete all your photos from iCloud once the download process is complete and forget about it forever or continue to use it. Personally, since the time I ran out of space on both my iCloud and iPhone, I haven't been a fan of iCloud Photo Library and couldn't do much about it.

Anyway, if you want to delete all your photos from your iCloud, you will need to pick all your photos one by one (or by choosing moments as described above) and click "Delete." Make sure all your pictures were saved to your laptop before deleting. If you follow all these instructions you can access icloud photos on pc.

[kayroseoldblog]

iPad Pro w/ Apple Pencil vs. Wacom Cintiq Companion

Hello everyone!For Christmas this year, I received an iPad Pro 12.9in and an Apple Pencil!

As someone who has been practicing digital art for almost 10 years now, I thought it made sense to throw my two cents into the internet about this tool. I also included a few other people's thoughts on each device to try and make the review as well rounded as possible!

Keeping in mine that my Cintiq Companion 1 is three years old now, and my iPad is the latest 2016 edition, you can take this review with a grain of salt if you like.

Let me first start by listing the tools I have used to draw with...

Drawing Tablets I've used:

Wacom Bamboo Tablet (No longer available)

Wacom Intuous 4 Tablet (No longer available?)

Wacom Cintiq Companion (First gen, 2013, Windows 8)

and now:iPad Pro 12.9 w/ Apple PencilDrawing 

Programs I've used:

Photoshop Elements

Corel Painter

Sketchbook Express

Paint Tool Sai

Fire Alpaca

Photoshop CC

Procreate App

Medibang Paint App

The Cintiq 

I've had a Wacom Cintiq Companion v1 since 2012-2013 ish, and I have always loved it. I took to drawing directly on the screen pretty fast, and since beginning to use it, I've always had a slight disconnect when returning to regular drawing tablets. I'm just not as used to it anymore, but I do use them in a pinch.

The Cintiq has an amazing Tempered Glass screen which gives the texture of the drawing a really nice feel, though it seems to make its accuracy suffer, it's very easy to tell that you are drawing on a SCREEN and theres a bit of glass between you and your drawing, but you hardly notice it when drawing usually.

However, Wacom recently, in my opinion, has been going down hill with its portable tablets...I haven't tried out/seen anyone usng the Mobile Studio, but maybe that one is better! Sure looks promising!

My cintiq's charger has been broken for some time now, and after doing some research I found out that any tablet manufactured before July 2014 has a really bad charging problem...and Wacom will fix it for free, but it's been known to just be a band-aid fix. Many friends have said this about their external drawing tablets from Wacom in recent years as well. It makes me miss my old Intuos 4!

My Cintiq has a battery life right out of the box of between 8-10 hours. I use photoshop extensively to draw, and sometimes switch between that and other programs, making 8 hours about the max I can get out of it. After a year or so, that went down to 5-8. So I wouldnt use this more at home than on the go.​

Pros:

OS is up to you (Mac or PC available)

Desktop Applications (Creative Cloud, etc)

Pen w/ eraser on back- Comes with Stand/Case/Pen in one cost

Sort of Portable

Custom Brushes/Downloadable Brushes

Can use on its own w/ no external monitor​

Pressure Sensitive

Cons:

Heavy heavy heavy!

Very thick

Fan gets loud

Included stand is pretty bad

Calibration is off near the edges (Granted, not many people draw near the edges)- Wacom usually has problems

Horrible Battery life

Takes a long time to charge

Screen resolution is odd

Colors are always slightly off

While my review is of the Cintiq Companion 1, I've noticed not much difference in my friend's Cintiq 2, aside from the battery charge lasting a little longer, and it being a bit lighter in weight, but they had this to say:

"Haven't used the iPad so i'm biased - t's the industry standard, I like having the touch keys while drawing, i like the texture of the surface, and it's powerful enough to run Adobe programs without lag, I also like that it's fairly portable if you don't mind the weight. The color on screen I think is sliiiiightly off bc whenever I transfer it from there to my phone or elsewhere something is just... off with the colors. Cintiq is powerful. Use it if you're like professional, because Adobe programs and other stuff. Plus it's a laptop. But if you're just looking for something to do digital art on, the iPad is cheaper and will do it for you from what I hear.  I enjoy [my cintiq companion 2], it does what I need it to and that's all I asked for."

The iPad Pro 12.9in w/ Apple Pencil

Now to be fair, I've only had my iPad for a week and a half, but I think that's even more impressive, because I love it WAY more than my cintiq

The battery life of the iPad is already way longer than my cintiq ever had. I've charged my iPad once since unboxing it. (it was unboxed at about 70%) and thats with extensive drawing every day. Apple says it gets between 10-18 hours of life depending on what you're doing, and boy is that true The downside is that this thing takes FOREVER to charge again, but for how long it lasts, I suppose it's a small price to pay.

The Apple Pencil has an amazing battery life and charges incredibly fast. I've topped it off once since getting it, and it charges fast. Charging it for 15 seconds supposedly gets you another 30 minutes of life. I haven't tested that out, but I wouldn't doubt it honestly. I was able to charge it from 12% to 100% in just 20 minutes, and that's the only time I've had to charge it!

The Apple Pencil feels great on the iPad, and glides really nicely and naturally. It didn't take me long to get used to it at all, it's very much like drawing on the cintiq screen which I liked. However the pressure sensitivity is even more accurate, and the ability of the pencil to draw exactly where you put down your tip is INCREDIBLE. It's very much like drawing on paper.

The size is also great, as it's like drawing on any A4 paper if you draw portrait, and the real-estate of the screen drawing landscape is even nicer. The resolution is much more comfortable than the cintiq's, and I don't feel like I'm drawing in a super cramped area. (Though this all depends on the App you use, I'm not a fan of Medibang Paint as I feel like everything is so squished!)

The Apple Pencil also has the ability to draw tilted. The cintiq's stylus has this too, but it's not as accurate or helpful. This is what makes the Apple Pencil a PENCIL and not a stylus.

However, the Pencil and iPad, which are sold separately, don't come with anything to hold the Apple Pencil in, so I had to buy a sling for it, which was only 6$, but still. It's an expensive item and you're going to want to keep it, not lose! Before buying the sling, I was constantly worried about misplacing my pencil. I don't mind not having a stand as the iPad Pro is so comfortable to draw with it in your lap, sitting anywhere you like. If you're looking for a stand for it, they're pretty cheap on Amazon

Pros:

Better Pressure Sensitivity/Accuracy

Amazing Battery Life

Extremely Portable

Cheap or free Apps W/ Great Quality. Bridging the gap for Photoshop.

Pencil feels great to draw with

iOS Updates

Custom Brushes/Downloadable Brushes

Feels more natural to draw on

No Lag

Cons

Pencil/Tablet sold separately 

Slow to charge

Case/Accessories all sold separately (I'm told Mobile Studio Cintiq will also have everything sold separate)

No Desktop Apps (Photoshop, Creative Cloud, etc)

No cursor to show how big your brush is (in Procreate at least)

ONLY compatible with iOS for iPad

Not a full computer

I was lucky enough to have professional Comic Artist, K. Lynn Smith of "Plume" give me her thoughts on the iPad Pro as well!

"Pros, extremely fun to draw on, it replicates pencil and paper perfectly and it's portability is amazing. You can draw anywhere. Cons: not a lot of storage space on the iPad, sometimes the airdrop goes wonky, and though the programs available are amazing, there are some options not available...like assistance in drawing a perfect circle or stamp/clone tool. "

You can read Plume here!

The Final Word

In all Honesty, I think I'll be using my iPad Pro for most of my digital work from now on. Between all the apps and features, especially with ProCreate, this tablet is really bridging the gap between a Ciintiq and an iPad. Procreate specificaly is missing a few things such as a crop tool, and a text tool. It also doesn't have quite as many ways to edit as Photoshop does, but it's got most of them and enough that it doesn't bother me. You can also save your files from this app as JPEGS, PNGs, PSDs, and GIFs, to name a few.

My Cintiq is currently on it's way out and wheezing its way through life , but I don't think I'll be totally getting rid of it in case I need to bring something from my iPad over for photoshop, but honestly, I do that with my traditional work already so that really isn't an issue to me.

If you're looking to get into digital work, I recommend the iPad Pro 12.9 and Apple Pencil over the current Cintiq Companions. When adding in all the things you'll need, it comes out to the same price as a Cintiq Companion.

While the Cintiq and Wacom ARE the "Industry Standard", you really cannot tell the difference any longer, and I know of many professionals who use strictly the iPad Pro 12.9! Most studios/Art Directors care about what the work looks like, not what you made it on. (unless you're animating!)

[viralhottopics]

The new iPad is the perfect upgrade if you’re still using… an iPad

The new iPad (2017) looks virtually identical to the iPad Air (2014).

Image: lili sams/mashable

Apple announced a new iPad a few weeks ago. Did you even notice? I wouldn’t blame you if you missed it. There wasn’t any big event, or a keynote, and people definitely weren’t waiting in line for it.

Apple’s new 9.7-inch iPad (it’s just called iPad) doesn’t come with any major redesign and it’s not as powerful as the 9.7-inch iPad Pro.

SEE ALSO: Apples cheap iPad is tailor-made for education

The new iPad replaces the nearly three-year-old iPad Air 2, which Apple says was its best-selling iPad ever. In many ways, the new iPad reminds me of the iPhone SE: it’s got an old, but familiar design, with faster components inside to keep up with new iOS updates.

But most importantly, the new iPad is more affordable than ever before it starts at just $329. That’s $170 less than what the iPad Air 2 cost when it launched in 2014. The price alone makes this product stand out, and is reason enough for old iPad users to upgrade and new iPad users to seriously consider the new model, at least as far as 9.7-inch iPads go.

iPad Air roots

You can get one in silver, space gray, or gold. If you want rose gold, you’ll need to buy an iPad Pro 9.7.

Image: lili sams/mashable

The new iPad is one of those rare times when a new Apple product is slightly thicker and heavier than its predecessor.

The last time an iPad bulked up was when Apple replaced the iPad 2 with the iPad 3; the iPad 3’s increased weight and thickness was a tradeoff as a result of the Retina display and a battery nearly twice as large as the iPad 2’s to power it.

With the exception of the non-polished chamfer, the new iPad looks virtually indistinguishable from the first-gen iPad Air. Even its dimensions and weight (1 pound) are exactly the same. It’s almost like Apple had a factory full of unused iPad Airs it needed to repurpose.

The new iPad (bottom) is slightly thicker and heavier than the iPad Air 2 (top).

Image: lili sams/mashable

I thought I would take issue with the added girth since I use an iPad Air 2 at home every day, but I just got used to it. iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro users will definitely be able to feel the difference, but the new iPad isn’t that much thicker or heavier that it’s a deal-breaker.

The one feature on the new iPad that feels like a serious step back is the display. Sure, it’s brighter than the iPad Air 2’s and as bright as the 9.7-inch iPad Pro’s, but the non-laminated display, which creates a gap between the display and the glass, just doesn’t look as good.

You can’t see it easily in photos, but there’s an air gap between the display and the glass.

Image: lili sams/mashable

I’m nitpicking the 2,048 x 1,536 resolution Retina display still looks fantastic with rich, accurate colors and plenty of sharpness but the display also doesn’t have any kind of antireflective coating to reduce glare from overhead lights. Compared to my iPad Air 2 at 75 percent brightness, I had to crank the new iPad to 100 percent brightness in order to not see my face reflected back at me while watching videos.

I admit these are all minor issues in the grand scheme of things, but it still sucks when you see progress take a step back.

Image: lili sams/mashable

Otherwise, the new iPad is still basically an iPad Air. It’s got the same Lightning port, same Touch ID fingerprint sensor, same 8-megapixel back camera, same 1.2-megapixel FaceTime HD camera, and same bottom-firing stereo speakers.

Refreshed guts for more power

Image: lili sams/mashable

Not that the iPad Air 2 isn’t still a very capable tablet (I just installed iOS 10.3.1 on mine and it still runs pretty damn well), but the new iPad’s internal refresh is all about future-proofing to ensure it’ll be able to support future iOS updates. The iPad Air 2’s A8X processor might still be able to keep up with a few more updates, but it won’t be able to forever.

The new iPad, however, packs a faster 64-bit A9 chip and 2GB of RAM the same specs as the iPhone 6S/6S Plus/SE and an embedded M9 motion coprocessor. My own benchmark tests taken with Geekbench 4 confirm as much:

The new iPad is just as powerful as…

Image: screenshot: Raymond wong/mashable

…an iPhone 6S.

Image: screenshot: Raymond wong/mashable

There’s honestly not much more to say about performance. The new iPad’s fast not as fast as the iPad Pros and their A9X chip but incredibly speedy. I was able to play graphically intensive 3D games like the latest Asphalt Xtreme, which has more detailed textures, more particle effects, and more speeding and crashing onscreen than any previous Asphalt racing game, and didn’t see any major issues like dropped frame rates or jitters.

You’ll have absolutely no problems opening a dozen Safari tabs, streaming videos on services like Netflix and YouTube, posting to social networks, and playing Sudoku. Split View with two apps open side-by-side also works much better on the new iPad than on my iPad Air 2.

That a two-year-old chip still works at peak performance and runs circles around other new Android devices (A Google Pixel running Android 7.1.1 only managed a 1,590 single-core and 4,242 multi-core score) is a real testament to Apple’s chip-designing skills and how far ahead iOS devices are compared to the competition.

Battery life is also as fantastic as you’d expect from an iPad. Apple advertises up to 10 hours of battery for browsing the web on Wi-Fi, watching videos, and listening to music, and I got pretty much exactly that. In fact, you might get more than 10 hours if you manage your power settings right.

Cameras are fine…for a tablet

8-megapixel camera on the back.

Image: lili sams/mashable

On paper, there’s no difference between the cameras on the new iPad and those on the iPad Air 2. The rear camera is still 8 megapixels and the front-facing FaceTime HD camera is still 1.2 megapixels. But in practice, things are a little different if you look closely.

There are a few things I noticed while testing the selfie camera. First, the new iPad supports Live Photos and Retina flash, thanks to the A9 chip. And second, image quality appears to be worse on the new iPad somehow. Yeah, it surprised me, too.

Image: Raymond wong/mashable

Photos have more dynamic range from the new iPad’s selfie camera, but there’s also a lot more image noise. For example, the ceiling in my selfie (look at upper left corner) looks way over-processed compared to the right taken with the iPad Air 2. And if you zoom in and take a look at the words on the books on the shelf below, you’ll notice the text is sharper. Most people probably won’t care, but it’s still very strange.

Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

Photos taken with the new iPad’s back camera are a little crisper and also have slightly better dynamic range than the iPad Air 2, but again, it’s kinda negligible unless you’re looking for the differences.

Image: raymond Wong/mashable

Image: RAYMOND WONG/MASHABLE

At the end of the day, photos look fine, even if you’re one of those monsters who takes photos with a tablet.

Who should buy and who shouldn’t?

Image: lili sams/mashable

iPad sales are down and have been trending that way for years. What Apple’s found is that iPad owners are just like PC owners: they’re hanging onto their old iPads longer than expected four, maybe five years. But can you really blame them?

For the most part, old iPads still work just fine for doing basic things like browsing the web, watching videos, listening to music and reading e-books, and that’s primarily because Apple engineers them so damn well.

My mom’s got my original iPad, and even though it doesn’t have a Retina display and the thing is a tank compared to the new iPad, it still works for all of the basic tasks I just listed. That said, she’s exactly the type of iPad owner who could use a new one. The iPad Pro would be overkill for her, but the new iPad would be just right.

These are the most affordable 9.7-inch iPads Apple’s ever offered.

It’s without question the new iPad offers a lot of value at a very attractive price. A 32GB Wi-Fi model costs $329, and for another $100 you can quadruple the storage to 128GB. And as always, cellular cost an extra $130 more than their Wi-Fi-only counterparts.

Simply put, these are the most affordable 9.7-inch iPads Apple’s ever offered. (Remember, for the longest time 9.7-inch iPads started at $499 for 16GB, and that was considered “low” for a 10-inch tablet.)

But it’s obviously not the upgrade for everyone. If you’ve got an iPad Pro congrats, you’ve already got the best, so you can skip right over this iPad. And if you’ve got an iPad mini well, you can go either way and skip or buy. It all depends on whether you want a larger screen or not.

However, if you’ve been clinging onto any pre-Air iPad (iPad 1, 2, 3, and 4), the new iPad is a steal. Give your old iPad to your kid, donate it, or repurpose it as a digital picture frame. The leap in performance you’ll get will be like swapping your Toyota Camry for a Porsche.

The new iPad may not have the latest Apple chip, or support Apple Pencil, or be the thinnest iPad ever created, but it’s still an iPad, which means it’ll be good for probably another four or five more years. Not many gadgets can say the same.

iPad (2017)

The Good

Super affordable price 10-hour battery life iOS 10 runs like a champ

The Bad

Non-laminated display No antireflective coating Selfies are worse than on iPad Air 2 Thicker and heavier than iPad Air 2

The Bottom Line

Starting at $329, the new IPad (2017) is a no-brainer if upgrade if you’ve got a pre-Air iPad or a first-time iPad owner.

WATCH: Apple wants to replace your laptop with the powerful 9.7-inch iPad Pro

Read more: http://on.mash.to/2nXGyoi

from The new iPad is the perfect upgrade if you’re still using… an iPad