#i have enough for a $100 gift card so far. and only like 1% of the whole company are participating at all

[hillbilly---man]

One thing about me is that if there's a pointless rewards program that most people don't know exists, I'm gonna devote way too much time and energy to it so I can cash in 😈

[beesbeesfearfear]

I'm sorry but I'm gonna be a hater for a moment. Disclaimer: I absolutely LOVE hades and am very much looking forward to the sequel, I will definitely get it and 100% it like the previous game, and I am aware that it's not even in early access yet. I've also played hades 1 in its earliest early access days when meg was the only boss and nyx didn't have a model/portrait so I know how drastically a game can change in early access.

That being said, hades 2(from a gameplay perspective) has almost nothing new. Gameplay loop of every roguelike is bound to be the similar: clear a room of monsters, get a power up, go clear more. But hades 2 so far is almost literally the same as the original game, but now you have magic and new weapons.

You use ashes(darkness in hades 1) unlock more powers in tarot cards(mirror of darkness from nyx). You have olympian boons to choose from 3 options. Poms of power, centaur hearts, ambrosia, all the same from the first game and they work the same. Small prophecies from the fates, just like in hades 1. You gift to unlock keepsakes, just like in hades 1.

We do have new things, resource gathering and planting herbs do sound interesting and very witchy, but I dont think its enough to make the game more distinct.

I'm not even touching the plot and characters, a) they can and will be changed a lot so no reason to worry about them b) I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun regardless of the gameplay loop.

All in all, it just feels like a dlc/expansion to the first game than a sequel to me. I will still play the shit out of it, but I'm just disappointed as a supergiant fan.

[vtkira]

Rare (old) bts merch guide

2kool4skool

Bighit (I refuse to call it HYBE) put 200 Polaroids randomly into the first press versions of 2kool4skool, most of them that I've seen have been group or duo pics but there are some solo ones just they are rarer. These Polaroids are all extremely rare though (especially as they get older 🥲) and honestly I rarely see any being sold. Most of the posts I've seen of them have been older so you might have some luck digging deep into old hashtags. I have no clue how much these would go for since I never see listings but in 2015 they were 200ish (if your selling them please for the love of god message me)

ORUL82 signed pc

Once again, i rarely ever see these go for sale although I did find some listings from a few years ago on carousell (all were sold though). They never released the number of these as far as I know but they were only in the first press albums. From what I've heard finding a group pc signed is very hard but since there isn't much information or listings for it, its hard for me to say. And once again no idea on the pricing although I'd assume you'd have a hard time finding it cheaper than a few hundred.

MD diary

the fan club merch included a towel, bandana, and diary (the MD diary which also served as a seasons greetings) which were originally sold at the prices of:

2014 Diary -24,000 KRW (18.37 USD)

Official slogan -18,000 KRW (13.78 USD)

Bandana -15,000 KRW (11.48 USD)

Plus a gift for those who bought all 3 ( the gift was 7 member pictures and 2 group photos). The diary included 3 full group postcards and 3 random photo cards (out of 7 total) with only 600 ever being sold. This one i do actually see get listed frequently Normally the postcards are $900ish each, diary is around $900-1500 but sometimes i see them for about 150 although normally damaged (they tend to be cheaper off tumblr), no clue on the towel or bandana 😔

1st muster

Muster was the 1st fan meet and took place in early 2014. At the fan meet the bts in Thailand (aka now 1 in Thailand) came with two limited photo cards out of 7 total. You can still buy these now decently easy off ebay. The cheapest I've seen was about 100 and the most expensive was 500 but that one was sealed still. The pcs from it are usually 150 but some rarer ones like this can go for as much as 600

The postcards can go from 200-900 sold separately and pretty much no one sells them in the set anymore. Although the wrappens are very rare DO NOT PAY 900 FOR THEM!! If you dig hard enough you can find them for around 120. The bandana is probably going to cost you about 200. There was a few other things sold at the muster but they're so impossible to find its pointless to put them in here, if your interest though feel free to message me.

Hip Hop Monster Dolls

Only 95 of these per member were ever actually sold (some of which were signed) Jimin sold out the fastest and because of that has sort of become the rarest. I'm talking about the original ones right now (we will get to the others later) but first I think its important to point out the difference. The first ones came with a small badge of a members face and came inside of a black cardboard box

meanwhile the second came in a transparent box with no badge. Another difference is the second ones say hip hop on the front rather than bts

I'm honestly not sure how many of the 2nd were released but I'm assuming it was more since they go for much cheaper and a lot more are available. Anyways, the first ones are harder to find and are 500-1100 compared to the second ones costing as low as 60 or 100

Dark and wild Polaroids

i need the taehyung ones 🥹777 Polaroids were spread across first print albums and signed (a few aren't but thats a very small amount) Majority are solo, some are duo, very few are trio, and even fewer are full group (by even fewer I mean 2). Once again these are sadly nearly impossible to come across and if you do expect to pay about $1000 or more 🥲

Red bullet

Although I do see a lot of red bullet merch on here I feel like these two things are rare enough to be brought up. The postcard set goes from 180-500 (member pricing will be the death of me) and the poster set is 500. With the postcard set there was a total of 8 photos per member with 4 group photos making the total 60 photos.  The group ones are more rare because they were only included in the sets in Japan.

War of hormone pc

IDK WHY NO ONE TALKS ABOUT THESE THEY ARE SO CUTE 😩At the end of Hormone War Promotions, an Inkigayo fan meet was held and you would get 1 random pc but a few were signed and if you got the signed one you got all 8 pcs! If you want one of these your going to have to sell a arm and leg, they go normally for 1k. I did actually see a Jimin one for 600 but I would not expect them to be around that

No More Dream Pony Canyon Music Card

i feel like no one ever talks about this but every time BTS released a single in Japan, theyd hold a release event the first weekend after the single is released in Osaka and Tokyo. People who pulled winning lottery tickets from their cds got to attend the release event.  These normally included a Hi-Touch opportunity and a small performance. At these events, they sold music cards for their release. they always released 3 group versions of these cards some of which were signed. These tend to sell at around 70

Boy In Luv Pony Canyon Music Card

i haven't seen anything go up for these lately but last time I did it was 200 something. If your looking for the solo member ones though I see them a lot on ebay for about 45

Danger Pony Canyon Music Card

i don't really see the group ones for these either, but the member ones are typically about 80. If your interested in these types of pcs ill be making a separate post on them later!

while making this I realized it would make a LOT more sense to make this into smaller categories on different posts so ill be continuing this later! However if you have any questions in the meantime or need help trying to find were to buy things lmk (i check my messages very often 🫶)

[chmyri]

presents i've recived so far (with opinions)

from my mom (i have issues with her like personally, D- parent)

-Tokidoki sketchbook (actually pretty good gift for me, didn't even know i liked tokidoki, just saw it and went like "that's a fletcher thing")

-blanket (can't go wrong here)

-stanley tumbler (i promise i don't follow trends my mom is just a millennial please)

-better case for my ipad mini (the thing she got that was on my Christmas list, so yeah i like it)

dad (chill actually, if a bit abelist)

-my fav monster cus they were 2 for 1 at the gas station this morning (fair enough, can't really go wrong here)

my sister (she's not just my sister she's my best friend, i lover her very much)

-her presence (she's 15 and depressed, i'll take it)

grandma on my mom's side (fav grandparent (besides my grandpa on my mom's side but he died so))

-$100 FUCKING BUCKS?! (used it to buy a 1tb ssd for my computer)

grandma on my dads side (chill, taught me how to sew and quilt)

-handmade toiletry bag (i actually needed on of those for camping, would have been a bummer gift otherwise but actually chill)

-boxful of homemade cookies that i remember being really good but i can't eat due to my life treating milk allergy (bummer but i'm used to it)

one of my aunts on my mom's side (i like have barley talked to and hung out with this aunt but she's only like the 2nd most distant aunt)

-$10 amazon gift card (wish it wasn't amazon cus i'm boycotting atm so i guess i'll save it, she was the only aunt (out of 4) to gift me something so it's the thought that counts ig)

[digipaw2-0]

The newest event in Obey Me is horribly unfair to F2P players

Hello, I absolutely love this game and want it to grow and last a long time, I’ve been playing since day 1 and love it to bits. But, in the most recent events I’ve noticed a terrible trend, the events are slowly getting increasingly impossible for F2P players. 

Back in the earlier events a player only needed about 60,000 points to get past pg.1, but in the most recent event you need 95,000 to get past page 1.

This is not good and, as a game designer,  I feel I should express my concern and explain why I feel this. Under the cut you will see my reasoning and thought process. 

The event that is currently happening as I make this is the Paws and Claws event 

The cheat cards for this event are:

I’ll break down the total bonus point amounts for each card

SR Lucifer: +6 for first copy +1 every skill LV

SR Beel:  +6 for first copy +1 every skill LV

SSR Mammon: +18 for first copy +4 every skill LV

UR Satan: +36 for first copy +6 every skill LV

UR Asmo: +36 for first copy +6 every skill LV

I will also like to establish how many stages there are for each page of the event, this event has 2 pages of levels with a grand total of 26 stages

Each stage lets you play 3 times for free each day, costing 8AP each 

the player also gets 5 extra plays from watching ads, so if we take 26 x 3 + 5 = 83 plays per day, 

Then we take 83s x 8e = 664  energy needed per day to get each free play per day. 

-----------------------------------------------------

Now for the next section lets assume that the player did not get any of the cheat cards and only has the default 120 points per play. 

83s x 120p = 9,960 points per day

9960p x 11d = 109,560 total points during the event

109,560 is just over the final amount for the first page, getting them the SR demon card for the event. But this is assuming the player is able to do the Max amount of free plays each day which is easier said then done.

lets start by seeing how much energy the player gets during the typical day just via time.

The player gets 1 energy every 5 minutes with a cap of 100 (120 if VIP) that means that if we 24 x 60= 1440 then 1440 / 5 = 288 per day 

that still leaves us 376 energy short of the needed 664 energy.  so now lets add in the other free energy in a day

+60 from the daily 2 Beel missions

+30 from Ads

+20 from daily missions

+20 from interacting with demons after stages

potentially +50 from friends

= 180 energy from secondary sources

this gives us a total of 468 still 196 energy from the needed 664. And lets keep in mind that getting the 468 implys that the player is playing PERFECTLY doing everything every day. there are a few other ways of getting energy, such as the 30-50 energy we occasionally get in the gift box once a day, but that is not consistent, same with the energy gained from login bonuses. 

There is also the energy from the event its self which has 230 energy available on the 1st page, but it should be viewed as a last resort boost when you need it so I recommend saving them for the half part of the event. 

the way the player would be able to get the last remaining energy is from the daily flash sale where the player can get 200 energy for 10dp, but this will need the player to pay 100dp during the entire event, half of the daily intake of DP from daily missions. 

But lets assume the player does not want to spend the 10dp, or does not see the flash sale since sometimes they take forever to show up. what is the total points they can get with the free energy they are given each day? 

468 / 8 = 58.8, but we cant do .8 of a stage so 58.

58s x 120e = 6960 points

6960p x 11d = 76,560 points during the event

this will get you just above 2/3 of the way though the 1st pg, THE FIRST PAGE, so unless the player is willing to spend DP on refilling energy they are stuck without even getting the SR Demon card for this event.  --------------------------------------------------

Now lets assume the F2P player is willing to go all out with the DP they do have for this event, how far can they get while still having 0 cheat cards?

The player gets 18DP everyday for doing daily missions, and roughly 50DP from the event. 

this means they will get about 248DP during the event not counting any extras from other missions, devil tree, or potential compensation gifts.  if you deduct the 100DP from the daily flash energy flash sale that leaves 148DP for other purposes, such as stage and normal energy refills. 

it cost 5DP to refill 3 plays of a stage, so they can refill stages about 29 times, meaning roughly 87 more plays which will still only give them 10,440 more points getting them a grand total of exactly 120,000 points in this event not even the half way mark of the second page. At that point I personally don’t think it would be worth using the 148DP to get to that point, id suggest saving them or using them for the LV up flash sale since at least then you get 5 vouchers.

so to be clear, a F2P player with 0 cheat cards can only get around 120,000 points without spending money.

but this means they will be using all their DP on energy and stage refills, when I imagine most F2P would rather save for the level up flash sale for the 5 Demon Vouchers. 

This also assumes the player is playing absolutely perfectly, without missing any Energy drops, which can be very hard for people to maintain while also sleeping, for 11 days in a row as from personal experience it gets harder to maintain as time goes on. 

---------------------------------------------------

What does this mean? 

I believe this is unfair for F2P players, especially when you look at past events when it  would only take about 60,000 points for the first page, each event for the past few have raised the amount by about 10,000 - 20,000 thousand points which if they keep this up it will be almost impossible for F2P players to keep up. I understand that this is a company that needs money to run and continue creating this game we all love, but making it so the game is only viable for whales is not the way to go. 

when it comes to mobile games there are roughly 3 categories of players

whales - big spenders

dolphins - people who spend some but not a large amount

Free 2 Play - do not spend

as a whole Whales tend to only make up a small portion of the player base, just look at the people in the top 10 of the current event. 

See how quickly the numbers drop from absolute lunacy to more reasonable amounts (still a lot) meaning thousands of dollars difference between the people who payed enough money to reach that point. So by appealing to only those people they are alienating 90% of the player base, which is a very bad idea. 

By alienating the majority of players they risk loosing the currently very active fan base around the game, as people get more and more frustrated and eventually give it up out of frustration. Obey me has been very lucky to attract such a large fanbase so quickly, its only about 6 months old at the time that i’m writing this and its already has a massive and active fanbase creating tons of fanwork and engaging with each other. But if people start to feel like the game doesn't care about them and only caters to Whales they will stop playing and the community will slowly start to wither.

--------------------------------------------------

My Suggestions 

Several months ago Solmare listened to the feedback from players about how unfair they thought the events were and listened, they doubled the event stages allowing people to get more points then they could before, making it so F2P players could get to the end of the 2nd page if they put in the work. But by raising the point totals needed to get though the pages they are making that change completely redundant. Leaving us with events that take twice the amount of work for the same rewards as before. I understand they are figuring this out as they go and adjusting events constantly trying to work out a balance, but what they currently have is not good for the games long term as it will alienate a large section of the fan base. 

I believe that that they should either lower the total points needed for each page or raise the default point total, to make it so a F2P player with 0 cheat cards can get to the end of the first page without spending any DP

if they put in the work. Then make it so people who have summoned some SRs and a SSR cheat card can get to the 2nd page reliably, then the 3rd page+ can be for people who are willing to spend money and or are just lucky enough in the gacha. this way there is still the incentive for people to pay money if they want to, but don’t feel like they are forced to. (Although I imagine people are already spending a lot in the gacha to get the cards they want anyway)  

F2P people will still not be able to always get to page 3+ but this will also help long term for if/when they decide to do event re-runs. Since it would give players who where around for the first time something to still work for since they will likely be able to get the shards needed the 2nd time though. 

----------------------------------------------

What can you and I do?

It may not feel like we can do much about this, but Solmare has listened to the fans before. We also know that some of them do look at the content fans make and discuss.

SO talk about it, Tweet at them, share your displeasure, show your friends have them tweet it out, talk about it on the facebook page (be civil though), just kick up a fuss so they can see how much this is hurting the player base.  if you don’t know what to say to them, you can even tweet this at them, copy and past it, do what ever, just let them know how upset you are. 

Thank you for reading! and please, reblog this and spread it so others can see it. 

[grayintogreen]

How do you think Lucien's upbringing was for him to give that evil monologue? I'm specially curious about the "Someone needed to be the parent. When children have been acting out, well, making a mess of their potential, for this long even, a responsible caretaker must show discipline, enact punishment, and take the reins with force". Do you think Lucien was a gifted child who grew up to be the average adult or something like that?

This is actually funny, because Lucien gives that huge ass speech after he EXPLICITLY TOLD THE M9 HE DIDN'T HAVE FAMILY, so like LUCIEN. YOU FUCKING ORPHAN. WHAT DO YOU KNOW.

But I'm going to tell you!

Here's the thing- Lucien gives off two very strong vibes to me, and these two things make up the entire crux of his personality as I, personally see it.

1. Massively self-sufficient.

2. Gifted child who was never challenged properly.

Lucien very much gives off the Dad Friend Vibe of the Tombtakers in like the worst possible way. Like not the NICE Dad Friend. The Dad Friend who has a belt and will use it on you. You know... The, uh... Cult Leader Vibe. What is a cult leader but the worst kind of dad friend. Yikes. Anyway.

So I think most of his speech about caretakers are specific to how HE has viewed wrangling the Tombtakers for however many years he's been doing it, because as someone who has been massively self-sufficient he has had to be his own parent and thus feels he is qualified to be the parent to others, even if he's being a parent to other children. I don't think that came from a place of experience, because I feel like if an adult beat that into him, he would have marginally different issues. Like that whole spiel doesn't sound like it comes from a place of emotional pain, so much as it's just him listing facts about what he thinks parents are supposed to do. It's a very by the book, intellectual response, like someone who has taught himself how to behave like that because It Is Logical And Right. Like in comparison, Lucien, in that same speech, reacts deeply emotionally to one single thing- the way he says "and they chose ME to be their herald" is one of the single most choked up line deliveries he ever gives. THAT is where his emotional pain comes from. He didn't feel special and the Somnovem made him feel special, but WE WILL GET TO THAT. Stick a pin in that.

Honestly, it sounds like Lucien seems to consider ANYONE who isn't him a child, despite the fact that he is CANONLY IN HIS MID-TWENTIES. He talks down to literally every single person he meets. He acts like he walks into rooms, looks at everyone assembled, and immediately is like "wow which of you fucks are wasting your potential in here, have you tried not doing that." I think some of this is just that he has gone so far beyond "enlightenment" that everyone is Lesser than he is, but I also firmly believe he was just Like That. If he sees people who are useful to him, then of course his "parental" nature (re: his manipulative streak) is going to want to try and nurture that potential. I don't even think he actively considers it being manipulative. He thinks he's doing people a favor.

The way he talks about the Somnovem to Cree about how he wanted to save them as they saved him ultimately boils down to this: he believed the Somnovem couldn't function without his intervention and he was the only person who had the skill and imagination to direct them the way they needed to go. And I think he's thought that about A LOT of people over the years. It's not malicious to him. It's not cruel- even if what he does to get obedience probably is. It's for their own good. Again- yikes. He's a fucked up person, y'all.

Now the gifted kid thing gets into some "oh god are you projecting on this villain chris" shit, because I am a former, massively understimulated gifted kid who burned out in high school because I was bored too often and spent more time daydreaming than I did paying attention.

Guess what Lucien's calling card is? Oh right. He's a dreamer.

That's Lucien. Lucien is a gifted kid who had NOWHERE to put his gifts. He's gifted in a town where half the population can't even read, so of course he developed a massive complex about being the smartest in the room, the only TRUE adult, even when he was, yanno a KID.

See when I was in elementary school, I was just soooo smart. I was reading HIGH SCHOOL level books for FUN and ooooooh so cool. Yeah, I'm not even bragging about it. Every gifted kid I have ever met has this same story, and I can be flippant about it because I know where it goes. You get into high school and your brain hits a goddamn brick wall and you get anxiety because you're not the most special anymore. Oh look! There's that pin I put there. I told you we'd circle back to that.

For Lucien, high school was probably the Orders. The Orders are an INTELLIGENCE-BASED organization, meaning for the first time in his life, Lucien isn't the smartest person in the room, because everyone is smart, so he no longer has that advantage he once had and he's no longer special. That is DEVASTATING to deal with, and because Lucien already had a massive superiority complex, instead of burning out and getting passing grades and ultimately resigning himself to a mediocre life of Blood Huntering, he went "no it is the ORDERS who are wrong" and fucked off with his posse.

Which meant that the FIRST THING that made him feel special and validated his existence, he went whole ham on, and then the minute it wasn't what he thought it was, he switched gears and decided "no, I AM special. You just need a little but of parental guidance, and we'll do this properly."

tl;dr: Lucien is 100% what you get when a gifted kid goes absolutely balls to the wall insane. As a former gifted kid, can confirm that I might have sold my soul to a bunch of eldritch sugar daddies if they validated me enough too. I won't lie.

[onedivinemisfit]

During my recovery, this has been my biggest project, no kidding. I looked but couldn’t find Obi’s witcher!AU body template so I sketched some Bruxa!yuki designs instead. <w< I’ll finalize and colour them when I’m well, or so I hope, unless I forget XD

Pls forgive any mistakes I’m not 100% yet. ^^; 

Explanations below the cut~

AnS (c) Akizuki Sorata Witcher (c) Andrzej Sapkowski TW3 models (c) CDPR Art: Me

Disclaimer: I am not a tailor and as such all my opinions are based on preference and evt pushing rules in my favour XD

The main idea with her wardrobe was to underline that whatever she’s doing, Shirayuki is feminine, and wants to present feminine, hence the skirts and ribbons and embroidery. She’s also a person fond of utility, so belts, pockets, and layers that can be added or removed as she fancied, was also an important facet to add. But she’s also bruxae, monster species, so she’s got a few blind spots, so to speak, regarding what is and isn’t proper to wear in human society. But most of all, her clothes make it easy for her to use her bruxa powers to move around swiftly, silently, and with purpose

Around half of these were referenced from the witcher 3 game, with me picking my favourite garb, and what made more sense for her in different situations. 

1. Huntress Outfit - this one I made myself, using only some of the basic wardrobe notes from tw3. I’ve a softness for overdresses/kaftans with splits, especially if they’re combined with tights/buckskins. Shirayuki is a poor bruxa living in the woods outside a small human settlement, so she doesn’t have access to a tailor other than on market day, or when peddlers arrive, hence she often has to redesign old/too-small clothing for new purposes. Another point was to reinforce her sleeves, to make it easier to brush away branches and undergrowth, and adding the Skelligan waist shawl, a gift from her half-sister, as recurring themes.

2. Winter Outfit - another I made myself, because I was dying to design something that included a sheepskin jerkin. The waist shawl helps redefine the jerkin and give it a feminine twist, and the wrapped sleeves both reduce noise and keeps her cuffs from leaking precious warmth. The wool tunic could have been a dress, but I wanted to focus on showing off her fur-tucked winter boots and knitted long socks. Shirayuki probably knitted them herself.

3. High Summer Outfit - another self-made design. Made so as to underline her non-humanness, borrowing heavily from witcher elven aesthetics, with lots of exposed skin, crossed fabric, and asymmetrical cuts. This is what she wears when the weather *won’t* allow you to dress decently or you get purged by the sun, basically. Again, since Shirayuki’s often short of fabric, a lot of refashioning going on. 

4. Commoner Outfit - A very basic woman’s dress, very presentable, very respectable, especially since Shirayuki is trying to sell the lie that she’s a normal human woman. It’s her go-to outfit for visiting human settlements, or for performing simple chores around the house, such as cooking, sewing, or spinning. Things that keep her in or around her homestead, and not gallivanting in the woods at midnight looking for prey.

5. Relaxing Outfit - merely a dusty day dress pulled over her nightgown, for those chilly nights where Shirayuki doesn’t want to undress for bed until she’s halfway under the covers. When the chores are done and all that’s left to do is sip a cup of blood, read a book beside the hearth and wait for Ryuu to return from his late night wandering, she likes to shed all those layers and relax.

6. Throw-together Outfit - referenced from the game, almost entirely (Keira Metz’ witch model) - save the shoes and headband. After the loss of her home and her more presentable clothing thanks to witcher Obi (who will later admit that yes he does in fact owe her a new dress... and blouse... and apron...) this outfit was assembled through raiding an abandoned witch’s hut. Anything that could suffice as clothing, basically, even the old curtains. Shirayuki doesn’t personally care that some of her *assets* are pretty much on display, but she would like some linen anyway, the cotton does chafe a bit. Aside from the pearl necklace, nothing she’s wearing actually belonged to her in the first place.

7. Formal Commoner Outfit - reffed from the game, (Keira Metz’ second model) the shoes being the sole exception. A dress for special occassions, perhaps May Day, Equinox celebrations, etc. Not that Shirayuki often dared participate in such events, due to the amount of people who show up even in small villages to throw tankards together and dance around bonfires. But she does pilfer the dress from the abandoned witch’s hut anyway, thinking maybe, afterall, since it’s so pretty and it had matching sleeves to go with it... keeping it wasn’t such a dumb idea. 

8. Pants Outfit - reffed from the game (juggler npc) A cross between a traveler and a city dweller, a light-weight yet very elegant outfit for strolling in the human cities. The top is presentable enough that she doesn’t look poor as a pauper, while the pants give the impression of someone on the move, a stranger. It also provides the most comfortable riding experience, the few times she does ride, as she has no need for a lady’s saddle.

9. High-Class Outfit - reffed from the game/one of my favourite tw3 modders, (New Sorceress models by Roksa) I only added the shoes and circlet. When Zen has the dress made for her, it is by FAR the most expensive thing she’s ever worn. Not a single thread of the dress isn’t well-made, the dyes are the brightest and most even-coloured, and the silk is light as a touch on her skin. While the dress itself is a demure, feminine dream, what sets the ensemble apart are the dark cat’s eye gems, just hinting at Shirayuki’s darker secrets. They’re set in gold, for obvious, unspoken reasons, as she reacts to silver much like being set on fire...

10. Evening Outfit - reffed from the game, I just changed the necklace (Ida Eméan’s Gwent card art) another very expensive dress, but surprisingly one that Shirayuki tolerates better. No stiff, itchy velvet, no heavy damask, just sheer silk with gold thread (again for reasons obvious to a bruxa) some simple sleeves, and a chain of stones, no gilded jewellry that could empty a bank vault if sold to the right people. She probably takes a fancy to this dress while attempting to woo a certain witcher, which explains the understated beauty, the most daring of cuts, one that screams “look at me, only me” and the simple-at-a-glance design. Much like Shirayuki herself.

11. Skellige Outfit - inspired by the viking-esque game design for Skellige fashion, this dress is for when Shirayuki and her family stay in the Isles, following her sister’s suggestion. A dress that signifies the matron head of a household with its pewter clasps and apron, follows Skellige fashion demanding you wear a shawl with your clan colors (Shirayuki, although clan-less, was given one by Torou) and layers. And armguards. And a split overdress. To show that this is Shirayuki’s choice wear afterall. 

[jibrillenyan]

Eldarya Come-Back

[Disponibile in Italiano qui]

Eldarya EU servers are back up. For people out of the loop, a fire destroyed both the servers and the backups of Eldarya. It's not beemoov's fault.

BR and US servers, stored somewhere else, are perfectly ok.

The FR server accounts were lost, but the story retrieved.

All the others (IT HU PL DE ES RU) have both the accounts and the story wiped out. ANE has been re-translated/Recovered, but origins is currently only playable in english.

Only the first 2 episodes of ANE have been translated so far. Errata corrige: PL, RU, ES haven't released any ANE episodes yet. DE IT and HU have the first 2 available in english. DE and HU appear to be broken.

Level 7 and episode 6 of origins (completed) are needed to access the market.

BUG REPORT: Currently there is a bug where if you change the name of your companion for the first time after evolving it you lose 100gc. please take care.

BUG REPORT: If you already have a companion and you play episode 3 of Origins you won't be able to hatch the companion Kero gives you and you might get stuck right after "Objective: Go to Kero’s room to complete the Companion Questionnaire" 

Accounts must be recreated. You have to create a new account and, if you ever bought maana or gold coins, follow the instructions below.

I REPEAT, ACCOUNTS ARE LOST ON THE EU SERVERS. YOU MUST MAKE A NEW ACCOUNT. (sorry, I get this one a lot)

FAQ of sort under the cut, original here. Italian translation will be here starting tomorrow. warning: it’s long XD

♦ WHAT DO I GET?

Everyone gets 1000 maanas, 100 gold coins and 350.000 ancient coins upon creating an account. You will also get 5 big exp potions, 10 small, 5 big energy potions, 10 small, 1 evolution potion and 3 incubators. You will also get the companion Sogiluv... it's not very good. You can retrieve some (most?) of the currency you bought by contacting the support (see below), you will be credited maana/ancient coins depending on your purchases; once you get the money back the 3 spin-offs will automatically unlock, along with the bank outfits.

The first companion to hatch will require no incubation time.

BR and US Server got 10.000 AC for their troubles too, but no maana or GC or items.

♦ I ENDED UP IN THE WRONG GUARD.

Please check this page. Re-doing the 3rd episode of Origins WON'T help.

♦ DECORATING GUARDIENNE'S ROOM, EP 5-6.

If you want to know how to get the guy you like AND have the room decorated by him, or other questions along these lines check this link

♦ WHAT'S THE BEST COMPANION TO USE?

Since you can now get any companion you like if you want to get the "best" one in terms of energy/luck ratio you should consider these:

PLESE NOTE: Hatching an adult companion (Chiromagnus, Blobbiathan) has the advantage of giving you an adult companion AND saving the evolution potion. This could be nice to have, for example, during a map event, you can use all the energy of your companion after midnight, then hatch another egg, use all the energy of the baby, evolve with the potion, use all the energy of the adult. If well played , with a baby companion, it means potentially 400-500 energy to use on the map

"Best" Companion, bought food (36 maana): Blobbiathan Energy 170 (already an adult when hatched) Luck 360 - 400

"Best" Companion, bought food (30 maana or less):

1. Chiromagnus Energy 160 (already an adult when hatched) Luck 340-390

2. Zarali Energy 90-160 Luck 350-380

3. Ocemas Energy 100-150 Luck 310-360

4. Ciralak Energy 110-160 Luck 300-350

4. Rawist Energy 110-160 Luck 300-350

"Best" Companion, farmed food (in exploration):

1. Alfeli: Energy 80-150 Fortuna 320 -370

2. Gallytrot: Energy 110-150 Fortuna 320-370

I consider the Alfeli "better" because its food, elven grapes, comes from a 20energy/30 min area, Mont sizhe, compared to the food for the gallytrot, gallyflore, from the Cave (35 energy/60 min).

♦ WHAT CAN I USE ANCIENT COINS FOR?

There is a special ancient coins shop (Until May 9th) with ALL the items ever released in the game. I do not advise using them for Origins illustrations but I suggest you grab some of the rarest items at least. It's among the boutiques.

BANK ITEMS WILL ONLY APPEAR AFTER RETRIEVING THE PURCHASED CURRENCY (? Im not sure about this, some are there from the beginning and I'm still waiting on the email I sent for the currency)

♦ HOW LONG DOES THE SHOP LAST?

May 9th

♦ HOW DO I GET MY BOUGHT MAANA/GOLD COINS BACK?

Go to "your account" by clicking on your name (top right). There is a button to retrieve the credit, for many payment options there is a simple form to fill.

However, if you paid by credit card or paypal you have to send an email to the support (you can get the adress by clicking on "other"). In the mail you should include:

Credit card:

- Old/New Username (if they aren't the same) - The email address associated to the accounts - The date and the amount in €/$ of a recent transaction (max 12 months old, the most recent, the better). - Last 4 digits of the credit card you used. - I'm not sure what happens if you you used more than a credit card, I'd suggest sending one transaction per credit card and telling them about this issue.

Paypal:

- Old/New Username (if they aren't the same) - The email address associated to the accounts - If it's not the same email address, the email address/username of the paypal account. - The date and the transaction ID* of a recent transaction (max 12 months old, the most recent, the better).

* Transaction ID's can be found in the confirmation email you get when you make a payment or on the paypal website, in the payment history section.

One ID should suffice, they can retrieve them all from there.

♦ WHAT DO YOU ADVISE WE BUY?

On a general note, do not buy things that can be found at all times, like explorations items, other than that, anything you like, but I'd at least consider to buy/play the following:

*** PLEASE NOTE: I've heard rumors that during each event, you will be able to find things in explorations from the previous events of that kind, so easter should have the other easter events' outfits on the map. I'd wait a bit to spend the coins to see if we get any confirmation, the store will be open until May 9th.

HOW CAN I KNOW WHERE (SOMETHING) IS FROM?

Wiki. Or This wonderful site. Or the wikinyan (c'est moi!), I don't mind answering specific messages, I'll update this post with any question I get. If you don't know the french name you can find it out in the French shop.

1. COMPANIONS:

Other than the event companions that you like you should probably consider...

GET:

Minaloo and Draflayel. These only comes from the purro'swap. Once the store closes, if you're unlucky, you'll never see them again.

Calunko and Bunraku. They're 2 of the japan expo rewards and with the merchandise boutique closed, they're incredibly hard to obtain, you need a physical code.

Chiromagnus, while you can get this from explorations, the scroll for it is extremely rare, and 2000 AC is stealing it.

ON THE FENCE:

The Seryphon , Poulpatata (both of them) and the chestok. These can be found on AH but require Gold coins to get in exploration. Personally I won't get them, but it's personal preference.

SKIP:

All the normal explorations companions, no matter how rare. They'll start popping up at the market soon enough

2. CLOTHES:

This is clearly completely at your own discretion, Events and ranking rewards should be considered. However there are some times never released before, like the fireflies so...

GET:

Fireflies. A beta-tester reward item, they were never made available to purchase before.

Steam girl set (Total: 1594 AC). It's the japan expo 2017 reward, 9 pieces

Maana demon and its other 3 colorations is a skin never seen in the game, previously reserved for admins. It could however be added to explorations, like other items of this kind.

Frency French was once an inside joke for ChiNoMiko, has not been made available to the public before, you can buy the skin, the hairstyle (it's a special jackson), Frency French Top, etc it's just a joke, but it's still something you won't see again, if you like it.

ON THE FENCE:

Depending how much you hate alchemy, you can consider some alchemy stuff.

Some rare Skins like Nan'vi, that could be hard to find in explorations

Rainbow and Pearly hair colours, if you like them, they can be rare/offered only in rare circumstances.

Crylasm set (526 AC), top, socks, hat. It was a special Christmas outfit released one piece at a time during Christmas events of 2016, 2017, 2018

Healer support Set (400 AC), made of 7 pieces, it was a special gift given at the beginning of the 2020 pandemic)

Rainbow Spirit (1594 AC), released for the 2020 Pride month (sorta)

Guard ranking rewards, the total il 11.980 AC (thanks Desdhi ♥)

SKIP:

Anything normally on the shop, or from (normal) map explorations.

3.ILLUSTRATIONS:

GET:

Possibly the event ones you like the best, there should be 42 event illustrations for a total of 105.000 ac

SKIP:

If you have the time to farm, the episodes' ones. They're way cheaper with replay, with a few exceptions (see below).

ON THE FENCE:

There are a few episodes where it's cheaper to buy the other illustrations than replay, I'll make a list below.

♦HOW MUCH IS... 

EGGS

As "one time" I mean it's either now or never, so exclusive items or event items, unless they come back with their event.

No Explorations is events + rare +the stuff  that you would pay gc to get the bait for

All the eggs: 222.400,

One-time + rare ones: Chiromagnus, Minaloo Draflayel: 164.500

one-time: 158.000

No explorations (+GC/rare ones): 180.700

BACKGROUNDS:

All: why do you hate yourself? don't. it should be around 5660

Events only: 2460

EPISODES:

Event Illustrations are 2500 each, Episodes' 2000

It's generally cheaper to play the episode to unlock illustrations. Coins won't disappear, so if you can slowly make your way up you will end up saving A LOT of Ancient Coins. During episodes, each dialogue is 2 AC

(cost is rounded up) (!) = Replaying is not worth it, money wise (*) = more expensive than 1 illustration, but still worth it in the grand scheme of things

(how much it costs playing Origins VS how much it costs at the shop)

Episode 1 - Free - 1 Illustration, play once (FREE vs 2000) Episode 2 - Free - 3 Illustrations, play twice (FREE vs 6000) Episode 3 - Free - 1 Illustrations, play once (FREE vs 2000) Episode 4 - Free - 2 Illustrations, play once (FREE vs 4000) Episode 5 - Around 1200 maana - 3 illustrations, play 3 times (3600 vs 6000) Episode 6 - Around 1500 maana - 2 illustrations, play once (1500 vs 4000) Episode 7 - 1200maana ca - 4 Illustrations, play 4 times (4800 vs 8000) Episode 8 - 1700maaana ca - 4 Illustrations, play 3 times (5100 vs 8000) Episode 9 - 2000 maana ca - 1 Illustration, play once (2000 vs 2000) Episode 10 - 1500 maana ca - 3 Illustrations, play 3 times (4500 vs 6000) Episode 11 - 1900 maana ca - 2 illustrations, play once (1900 vs 4000) Episode 12 - 1500 maana ca - 3 illustrations, play 3 times (4500 vs 6000) Episode 13 - 1500 maana ca - 3 illustrations, play 3 times (4500 vs 6000) Episode 14 - 1500 maana ca - 2 illustrations, play once (1500 vs 4000) (!) Episode 15 - 2500 maana ca - 3 illustrations, play 3 times (7500 vs 6000, it's better to buy the other 2!) (!) Episode 16 - 2150 maana ca - 1 illustration, play once (2150 vs 2000 it's still worth to play the episode) (*) Episode 17 - 2450 maana ca - 3 illustrations, play ONCE (2450 vs 6000) Episode 18 - 1900 maana ca - 6 illustrations, play 3 times (5700 vs 12000) Episode 19 - 1700 maana ca - 4 illustrations, play 4 times (6800 vs 8000) Episode 20 - 1800 maana ca - 5 illustrations, play 4 times (7200 vs 10000) Episode 21 - 1800 maana ca - 3 illustrations, play once (1800 vs 6000) Episode 22 - 1700 maana ca - 4 illustrations, play 3 times (6800 vs 8000) (!) Episode 23 - 2100 maana ca - 4 illustrations, play 4 times (8400 vs 8000, it's better to buy the other 3!) Episode 24 - 2000 maana ca - 2 Illustrations, play once (2000 vs 4000) (!) Episode 25 - 2500 maana ca - 3 illustrations, play once (2500 vs 6000) (!) Episode 26 - 2200 maana ca - 4 Illustrations, play three times (6600 vs 8000, it's better to play once for 2 illustrations then buy the other 2!) Episode 27 - 1800 maana ca - 4 Illustrations, play 3 times (5400 vs 8000) Episode 28 - 1700 maana ca - 5 illustrations, play 3 times (5100 vs 10000) (!) Episode 29 - 3250 maana ca - 4 illustrations, play 4 times (13000 vs 8000 it's a huge ac loss to replay) (!) Episode 30 - 2400 maana ca - 4 illustrations, play 4 times. (9600 vs 8000 it's better to play once and buy the other 3)

Grand total so far: 93 Illustrations, 71 playthroughs, 58 suggested.  Extimated maana/Ancient coins: 129.000 replay eveything vs  186.000 buying everything. Optimal:  122.750

IF you play everything once then buy the rest you should spend around 146000

* Optimal means buying the illustrations where needed before May 9th, then play all the episodes at your leisure.  The episodes where you'd have to buy illustrations are: 15, 23, 26, 29, 30.

Please remember that if you buy the illustrations then you decide to play the game you will ended up paying not only 186.000 ac for the illustrations, but also roughly 60.000 to play all the episodes. The only case where my racommendation is to buy the illustrations is if you really don't care about origins or you only want a few illustrations

[evakuality]

Mia, episode two

1.  Finally, it looks like we’re getting some alone time with Mia.  I’m not 100% sure what’s going on in this scene, but I guess Mia must have pulled Kiki’s name out of the secret santa?  And Mia has forgotten to get her something?  It’s interesting to see the thought she put into looking for something for Kiki, and how she has enough empathy and consideration to not give over the book on eating.  We’ve seen a huge amount of how worried Mia is about Kiki and her eating habits, so I can see why it was tempting to give over the book.  One of the things I have found difficult about Mia so far is that she is very opinionated and very firm in pushing those opinions onto others.  It feels like she’s even more like this than Noora was (though it’s been a very long time since I watched Noora’s season for the one and only time so she may have been just as bad), so it’s good to see that she can step outside those opinions and think about how others may perceive something.  Still, a printed card is not a good alternative.

2.  This gift sharing scene is absolutely gorgeous.  The colours here are so pretty, and all the girls look wonderful!!  It’s all so warm and has a glorious sort of glow about it.  Oh but how awkward that Kiki was so thoughtful to Mia and Mia... wasn’t.  Poor Kiki’s face when she sees it :(  

3.  Hanna’s father is still being critical?  Bleh.  I guess some things never change.  And Mia tries to step in and help, but it makes it worse in some way?  Like, it feels like he’s basically saying ‘why can’t you stop being you and start being this other girl?’ which I’m sure feeds into a whole lot of Hanna’s insecurities.  No wonder she was still down on herself, lost and confused, in s3.  Also me in this scene: ‘please just go away, Alex’ - I really don’t like him.  I’m still not sure why she’s messaging with him, or why she has his number saved separately in her phone.  Then she’s all ‘stop harrassing me’ as if that rings true at all.  Mia, if you really wanted him to stop messaging etc, you’d have blocked him and wouldn’t interact.  This already looks like a charade, and I hate where I know it’s going :(

4.  Totally unrelated to the content of this clip, but I cannot stand the sound of people eating, so listening to Mia crunch on her food is excruciating.  I’m hoping this is a very short clip!   Ohhh yikes, Mia’s parents are also pretty awful in an ignorant and unintentionally offensive way.  But it’s very nice to see Mia defending Hanna - I stand by my suggestion that she quite likes her.  I don’t think it was any mistake that Hanna was the one she chose to kiss to put Alex off.  ‘Why do all our conversations have to end like this?’ Well, probably because you’re ignorant and unintentionally offensive and when you’re called out for it, you get defensive rather than trying to understand what’s being said.  It was nice to end with Hans, though.  Even though his little story is very sad.

5.  Alex gave Kiki a voucher for Christmas for breast surgery?  What a dick.  I still cannot see what this show can do to make me like this guy.  Even if she asked for the voucher in some bizarre way (that story is a bit odd), she’s a vulnerable young woman and he’s been playing with her feelings a huge amount while also still pursuing Mia.  The idea that he plays into her insecurities by doing this is ... ugh.  This is just plain gross.  ‘It’s a little bit cute, isn’t it?’ no Kiki, it isn’t.  Ouch and then Mia is trying to tell them that he’s still pressuring her into a date, and they cut her off.  And then Alex doubles down on the assholery by literally saying he’ll end things with Kiki if Mia will date him.  Once again - blackmail is not cool or sexy or sweet or whatever they’re going for here.  It’s gross and dehumanising for both girls.  Yeah, this whole situation is shitty.  I blame William.  All of this is his fault really.  The colouring etc here is also interesting - Mia is in the washed out and pale colours against pale backgrounds that we usually see with Alex.  A suggestion that she’s moving into Alex’s world maybe?  Or that she is now a washed out version of herself/compromising herself?

6.  Interesting that Mia removes the lipstick here while she’s getting ready.  My memory of Noora doing it is because William told her he liked it, rather than here where she does it because she doesn’t want to look good for Alex.  Also interesting the way it’s been framed - in the mirror but also not quite fully framed.  It reinforces that she’s not entirely ‘there’ or not entirely herself.  And then the clear and obvious way Alex is lying to Kiki.  What’s interesting is that I sort of forgive this in Matteo (he does something like this to Sara as well, after all) I guess because we’re in his PoV, but here we’re not in Alex’s PoV, we know all the background and we know that as well as being a liar and an asshole, Alex is also blackmailing Mia.  So it feels worse.  I’m not sure why Mia told Hans all this stuff, and also, she didn’t do a good job of it - her reasoning is actually fine, and he’s blackmailing her so adding that would have made the argument stronger.  As it is, she looks like a dick who’s screwing over her friend.

7.  Here we have more of these super close up shots like we did at the start of the first episode.  I’m finding it just as awkward and uncomfortable as I did then.  I don’t really know why they’re here.  If we’re genuinely supposed to be feeling uncomfortable, that doesn’t bode well for the relationship, but I can’t see why else these shots would be here.  Alex ‘are you going to be pissy the whole time?’ Yes, probably.  You’re BLACKMAILING her and treating her friend like shit as if the whole thing is a game.  What do you expect her to feel?  Why do expect her to think your ‘surprise’ is going to be good?  You have a reputation and everything she sees of you lives up to it.  Also interesting: the cool colours Mia is in with Alex compared to the girls.  The difference between the two is quite stark.  

8.  ‘What do you mean I’ve blackmailed you?’ Oh, Alex - she means exactly that you’ve blackmailed her.  Which you have.  Then he tries to justify it.  Just like William’s version of this chat, I hate this.  ‘you’re lying to your friend and blaming me’ - acting like he has no culpability in the situation.  He literally refused to respect her boundaries and stop pursuing her and he literally said that Kiki means nothing to him when he knows she’s more all-in than he is and is playing around with her insecurities.  I hate that he’s trying to make Mia feel like she’s to blame for a situation he literally created.  He had the ability to not date Kiki when he wasn’t into it.  He has the ability to stop pressuring Mia.  He has the ability to break up with Kiki if he wants Mia.  This is not her fault!!!  And just like when William said it, ‘I wanted to hurt her to make her feel less bad in the long run’ is a terrible, shitty thing to say and do, and if they do what they did with William and make it a ‘see, I was right to be mean to her to start’ I will be so angry!!  It’s not an either/or situation.  First he didn’t have to have sex with her, second he didn’t have to go out with her again.  It’s not her fault that she thinks there’s a chance - they’re pretty much dating exclusively at the moment.  None of his ‘reasonable’ excuses are actually reasonable.  

Upshot of this scene: I loathe Alex even more now than I did before.  And I freely admit a lot of this is William’s fault, but nothing that’s happened so far has made Alex any more likeable to me than William in the original.  I still think Mia should run far far far away after this conversation.  And I hate that accepting the cocoa means accepting his reasoning.  His reasoning is not a whole ‘gotcha’ that he thinks it is.  He is a completely different person to Kiki and playing with her and being mean to her was shitty.  

[werealljustwinginit]

Tell us about what skincare ingredients and products you love!

Okay, so I LOVE TALKING SKINCARE. This is a huge topic for me and I often write up a blog post once a year where i recommend skin care products. So here is this year’s recommendation! An insanelyyyyy long and detailed post nobody asked for!! HERE WE GO: 

I am a long time skincare advocate...before it really blew up and people started really getting to know more about their products and ingredients. I’ve just always had very acne-prone skin so I’ve had to pay attention to what products and ingredients I was using and how their formulas worked for me. As a result, over the years I tried A SHIT TON of products. Many expensive, fancy, high end, etc. But now I have my skincare routine down to a much more manageable and quality ingredient list. Obviously everyone’s skin is different...but this is what I use on a regular basis these days:

Serums:

- Krave Beauty’s Great Barrier Relief Serum: Honestly, this is THE SHIT. My favorite moisturizing serum to really help balance your skins hydration barrier and stay hydrated. It’s thicker and almost feels like a moisturizer. It’s so great.  - The Ordinary’s Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% Drops: Niacinamide is an amazing ingredient for your skin and can help a tremendous amount with clearing the skin, resurfacing, fading scars, and more. This really does a good job helping with my acne, so i really recommend to anyone. And I am pretty sure it’s like $5 cause it’s from the ordinary.

Moisturizers:

- CeraVe Moisturizing Cream: It’s a very cheap drug store moisturizer that has good, clean ingredients. After using fancy moisturizers for years, I finally gave into my dermatologist’s recommended lotion. LOL. They do have a lotion that is lighter, but my skin tends to be dryer, especially in the winter so I use the cream not the lotion. It’s thicker. (For high end junkies--it’s like comparing Drunk Elephant’s LaLa Retro to their Protini cream). I also sometimes throw in drops of a marula oil into this cream if I am really dry. Make myself a little face smoothie. 

Eye/Lip Creams:

- Mario Badescu Ceramide Herbal Eye Cream: Now honestly, I still haven’t found my perfect eye cream yet...but I have used this one for a few years now. It moisturizes well and is cheap to buy. It’s probs not the most effective but at least I am moisturizing my eye area. One day I will take on more eye creams that target certain things, but that is one day when I have money to spend lmao. -Glossier Bubblewrap Lip/Eye Cream: This is a very unique moisturizing product that is meant for sensitive skin like your eye area and lips. It does say it plumps a bit, which I don’t ever feel a plumping effect, but I do love to use it on my lips. It’s so moisturizing and is kind of like using a primer before you apply chapstick or lipstick. 

Exfoliators:

- Glossier Solution: The OG chemical exfoliant I tried and loved. These types of products aren’t great for everyone, and may have to be used less or more depending on skin type, but as an acne-prone human, I love a chemical exfoliant. This works and lasts a long while.

- Krave Beauty’s Kale-Lalu_AHA: Another chemical exfoliant. I recently tried this one because I do believe Krave Beauty uses better ingredients than Glossier Skin typically does (no shade tho). They were close in price, so I made the switch and have enjoyed the results so far. The packaging is also beautiful.

- Dr. Brant Microdermabrasion Exfoliant: This is NOT a chemical peel, this has aluminum oxyde crystals in it to polish the skin like a normal exfoliant would. It also has a lot of ingredients that help renew and refresh the skin while exfoliating. Now this product is HELLA expensive...I only have it because I once bought it for way cheaper when I had a subscription box. I don’t know if I would spend the full $80 bucks on it, but your skin does feel smooth.

- Tatcha The Deep Polish: This is an enzyme powder that you mix with water and exfoliate fro there. It is from when I used to buy the highest end products in hopes it would help my skin. It is pricey, but again does leave your skin feeling soft. So I rotate it in from time to time.

Masks: 

- The Ordinary’s AHA 30% BHA 2% Peeling Solution: AKA THE BLOOD MASK. Now hugely popular on social media, the “blood mask” is a chemical mask that peels off dead skin and essentially works to eliminate the top layers of your skin and begin rejuvenating a fresher layer for softer, healthier, plumper skin. I do this once a week and it is way cheap. I can compare it to Drunk Elephant’s Sukari Babyfacial and it definitely beats that expensive version.

- Glow Recipe’s Avocado Melt Sleeping Mask: This is an overnight moisturizing mask that you simply wash off in the morning. It really helps lock in moisture and feels nice on the skin. I use this when I am feeling really dry. 

- Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay Mask: This one you have to mix the dry clay mixture with water and apple cider vinegar to create a goo that you can then let dry on your face. It may be intense for some, but I find it really helps dry out my acne spots and reduce redness in my skin. It’s always a fun one to do with other people too because you do have to prepare it. Good sleepover activity. 

- GlamGlow Bubble Sheet Mask:  This one is honestly more so used for when I am traveling and want to keep a mask on hand or when I am having a fun girls night or something. It’s a bubble mask--so to me that just means fun. I typically avoid sheet masks (unless I am traveling) because I think you end up throwing a way a lot of product you are paying for. But this one is fun, it’s cute, it’s different. I don’t notice a huge change in my skin tbh, but it is a fun activity for girls night. 

Honorable Mention/Random Products:

- Youth to the People’s Kale and Green Tea Superfood Cleanser: I stayed away from this one for a long time because it’s expensive and I could rationalize buying such an expensive cleanser, but I got a gift card to Sephora and finally decided to try it. And ya know what?? I guess I am fancy now because I really love it. It does not overly strip your skin at all, and for the first time in my life I really know what that means. It’s so great, it smells so good. Ugh. Can’t get enough of this bougie bitch of a face wash.

- The Inkey List Retinol Cream: A recent purchase, but I have enjoyed seeing the results. Everyone imo should be using an eye cream and a retinol. This is a nice introduction to retinol, so I recommend to those looking for one.

- Glossier Mint Balm Dot Com Chapstick: THIS AGAIN--IS THE SHIT. Many will say they would never spend more than two bucks but one tube of their’s is seven bucks and it is WORTH IT. I buy the three pack once a year and i’m good. This is the best chapstick you will literally ever use. Fucking buy it. If I could tell you only three products that are a must from this list this would be one of them. (the other two would be great barrier relief and the kale cleanser)

- Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask: I like this lip mask, it’s not needed everynight, but I do like to use a lip exfoliant (made or buy one, whatever) and then use this to really retextures my lips. 

- Bag Balm: Now this is a very unusual product to recommend lmaooo. Originally, bag balm is used for chapped cow udders on farms--which is how I discovered it. Farmers eventually noticed that it helped your skin retain moisture and repair cracked skin in their hands. So now it is known as a good thick ass cream for hands and feet. Now this shit is again--used on cows originally, so the formula feels thick and greasy. I like putting it on at night and letting it soak in for a while as I lay on my phone. It really works--I swear to you. 

- Sagely CBD Cream: I use their relief and recovery crea which smells like lavender and has a cooling effect when applied to the skin (kinda like biofreeze or icyhot would). This is only a 50mg CBD lotion, but I do like it. 

- Mad Ritual CBD Muscle Recovery Balm: Now this is thick and definitely a balm, not a cream. It is much higher strength though, so I break it out when needed and a little goes a long way. This one is 200mg of CBD. 

- Mario Badescu Drying Lotion: This drying lotion is now so popular but has been a staple of mine for at least a decade now. You leave it on over night and it really does dry up and reduce zit size. Helps a lot. There must be a reason why super models are told to use this shit before a runway show. 

- Tatcha The Essence: Essences are a new and kind of weird thing, kinda like priming the skin to allow for better absorption of a product. Now this product I received as a Christmas gift one year, but I am pretty sure it’s like $100...breaking the bank as always, tatcha. Anyway, it does allow for better absorption of products and feels light and refreshing on the skin. One bottle has lasted me two years now. I don’t know if I would recommend it, but I do use it somewhat regularly and it does make you feel like a bougie bitch. 

AND THAT IS THE END. Sorry that was soooo long. But like I said, I do a write up once a year of my skincare products anyway. So there you guys have it!! If you have any questions at all about your skin or skincare routine , honestly hit me up. Over the years I have slowly has friends come to me. Once I collect all of the I will have all of the infinity stones lmao. 

[emy-loves-you]

Wrong Numbers and Useless Gays Chapter 12

Starlight, Star Bright

Virgil’s list of crushed is growing, but why do they seem so familiar?

Chapter 11 | Masterlist | Chapter 13

The next day, Virgil found himself walking up to Puppy Pastries. He had texted a standard “Good morning” to his crushes before leaving to go flirt with Angel. He decided not to tell his crushes about Angel. If he had any chance with the three of them, it would be immediately lost the moment he told them about his new crush. Part of him was worried that Angel would recognize him as Anxiety, but so far there was nothing on social media that hinted at Anxiety even living in Florida. So either Angel didn’t recognize him, or he knew and decided to respect Anxiety’s privacy. Even though it was probably the first option, Virgil felt his blush grow at the thought of Angel caring that much.

Virgil entered the cafe at 11 AM, scanning the people there. Today was obviously a slow day, with only 3 customers throughout the building. As Virgil made his way to the counter, he saw the same worker from yesterday- Katherine, if he remembered correctly. Katherine’s eyes widened at the sight of him, and she quickly turned to face the kitchens. “Boss!”

“Yes, Kyle?” Angel’s asked, still obviously caught up in whatever he was doing. Kyle? Virgil glanced around until he saw a blue pronoun bracelet on Kat- Kyle’s wrist.

“That one guy from yesterday? He’s back.” Virgil heard the clunking of pots and pans before Angel came out covered in flour, wiping his hands off with a blue dishtowel. He wore a light blue apron with the Puppy Pastries logo written in cartoonish white letters.

Flirt Mode: Activated.

“Hey there, Angel.” Anxiety purred, leaning up against the counter. “Did you just lose a flour-fight or something?”

Angel blushed, looking down at his apron. “Nah, I just spilled a little, that’s all.” He looked back up, a slight scowl on his face. “Now, why did you tip $100 on a free meal, Kiddo?”

Anxiety smirked. “Why did you give me an extra muffin, Beautiful?”

“Because I almost broke your nose with a door!” He near-yelled, clenching the towel in his hands. He must really be beating himself up about this.

“And you cleaned me up and gave me an ice pack.” He glanced at the cup of lollipops on the counter, priced at $1 apiece. He took a dollar out of his pocket before grabbing the lollipop, quickly unwrapping it to stick in his mouth.

“It was the right thing to do! You still didn’t have to tip!” The guy looked close to hyperventilating. Anxiety sighed, pulling the lollipop out with a quiet pop.

“Listen,” he said, lazily gesturing with his lollipop. “Tipping you was my decision, got it? I was gonna tip anyways, if only because Kyle made my friend’s monster drink without complaint. And I shouldn’t have been standing in the doorway, either. So don’t blame yourself, cutey.” He turned to Kyle, who seemed to be watching them talk like it was a tennis match. “One medium chai tea and a… blackberry muffin, please.”

“On the house!” Angel yelled before Kyle could list off the price. “You’ve already paid enough to have breakfast here for at least the whole week. Let me make it up to you, please.”

Anxiety sighed, pulling out his wallet. “Angel, if you don’t let me pay for this, I’m just gonna tip again. You’ve already made it up. Stop it with this guilty shit or I’m gonna have to do something drastically expensive.” He and Angel had an intense staring contest before Angel huffed, going back to the kitchen. Anxiety paid for his breakfast before walking out the door. “Nice talking to you Angel, Kyle!”

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Virgil sighed as he finished his muffin. It wasn’t quite noon yet, and the streets started getting a little more hectic with people on lunch break. Virgil walked aimlessly down the street, having planned nothing beyond visiting Puppy Pastries. He stopped at a random library, deciding to take a look inside. Lo’s Birthday is in a few weeks. I’m already getting him chocolate, but maybe something in here can give me ideas?

Virgil strolled through the library, trying to find anything on space. He eventually found a section tucked away in the corner. Even though the section was near impossible to find, it was definitely popular, judging by the massive array of books on the shelves. He quickly grabbed the first book he saw and opened it up, skimming it to see if it might interest Lo. His heart sunk as he realized something.

“May I be of assistance?” Virgil’s eyes shot up, staring at the man in front of him. He had dark brown hair, brushed neatly out of his face. He wore a pair of square glasses, which perfectly framed his dark blue eyes. He wore a black button-up shirt with a perfectly straightened navy blue tie. He also wore a pair of dark wash jeans that perfectly hugged his-

Flirt Mode: Activated

“There are many ways you could help me, Beautiful.” Anxiety purred out, closing the book and putting it on the shelf. “But unless you know anything about space, you can’t really help me with this problem.”

If the man realized that Anxiety was flirting, he didn’t acknowledge it. “I happen to know a great deal about space. I have read the majority of the books in this section. Now, what is this problem of yours?”

Anxiety sighed, carding a hand through his hair. “My friend’s birthday is in a few days, and I need a present for him. I know he really likes space, so I was hoping I could find information in one of these books. But then realized that I don’t know anything about space beyond the names of the planets.”

The man sighed. “That is a problem.” He turned to the shelf next to Anxiety, pulling out a giant paperback book. He then handed it to Anxiety. “This book gives simplistic descriptions of most of our universe’s known types of celestial bodies. If you are only learning this to find a proper gift, this will be your best choice. If you need any further assistance, I will be here until 2 PM.”

Anxiety smiled, giving the man a casual two-finger salute. “Thanks, Starlight. I’ll let you know if I have any questions.” Starlight blushed at the nickname before walking away.

He stayed at the library for around 2 hours, taking pictures of what he found interesting and finding Starlight when there was something he didn’t understand. Every time he asked a question, Starlight would get a certain shine in his eyes as he spoke passionately about the topic at hand. Starlight would stop every few sentences to make sure that he understood, and every time Anxiety would give his own recap while flirting. By the time they were finished, Anxiety felt confident enough to hold a decent conversation about space, and Starlight’s cheeks were bright red.

It was now 1:45 PM, and Virgil was ready to head home. He put the book back on the shelf and went to the front desk, where Starlight stood helping an older woman. He waited until the woman left before approaching. “Oh, did you have another question?”

“Nah, just wanted to say goodbye before I head out. Thanks again for the help. Will you be here on Monday? You know, in case I have another question?”

Starlight smiled, typing something into the computer. “Yes. I am here from 10 AM to 2 PM every weekday.” He paused, looking up at Anxiety’s face. “I’ve been meaning to ask all day, and I don’t mean to be rude, but what happened to your face?”

Anxiety cringed, hand flying to cover his nose. Even though it’s not broken, his nose was still an ugly shade of purple. “I fought a door,” he joked, “the door won. Catch you later, Starlight.” And with that, he walked away.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day, when Virgil gushed to Janus and Remus about how cute both Angel and Starlight were, they were cackling with laughter. He ended up sending another box of chocolates to Logan, if only to talk to someone that wasn’t laughing at him. They spent the weekend debating whether or not Pluto was a planet. Logan wasn’t quite sure how to respond to Virgil’s main argument of “Viva La Pluto Fuck You.” Virgil, on the other hand, was extremely thankful for those questions he had asked Starlight over Dwarf Planets. Every time he saw Patton or Logan take a moment to respond, he imagined how they would look in that moment; Patton’s face would be bright red from giggling. Logan’s would be bright red from Patton’s teasing puns. They would be curled up on the couch, their glasses shining from the bright light of their phones-

Wait a minute, why the hell was he imagining them with glasses? Sure, it would probably match their aesthetics (especially Logan’s nerdiness) but they’ve never mentioned wearing glasses. So why was he imagining it? Virgil thought for a few more minutes before he sighed, going back to their conversation. The increase in social interactions must be triggering his overactive imagination. That makes sense, right? Virgil smiled. Lo and Starlight would be proud of him, finding logical and rational reasoning instead of freaking out.

But why did that thought make him feel so… uneasy?

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Taglist: @bisexualdisaster106 @self-taught-mess @itawalrus @arodynamic-enby @sanderssides-angst

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

UPDATE!

9/20/2020

Okay, so I’m definitely glad to live in a house that has Doors, Closets, Walls in the Bathroom(s), a Kitchen, and no stairs. These are the biggest pluses I can think of at present beyond us having few neighbors and it being dead quiet at night(thank God).

Unfortunately, being uprooted so quickly means we’ve had no internet connection this entire time and whatever I got was from bumming off of Walmart the few times we went! My life requires internet connection for me to do fucking anything! I’m useless any other way.

I’m pissed because on September 6th I purchased a 1 Month Subscription for the PSN so I could extend my experience another month(to October 8th). I had to do surveys to get the money to even buy the thing. It was necessary if I want to be able to play Dead by Daylight(or any game requiring an online connection tbh). We didn’t get internet until October 6th. The move has rendered 2/3 of that month useless, meaning I basically wasted $10 and because I’ve had no internet connection, I haven’t been able to do more surveys to get more points to trade in for gift cards.

I do not like wasting money. I’m poor. It’s like everything I’m against.

So I’ve just been stressed from that since I don’t know when I’m gonna be able to play DbD again(or much of anything).

Add on the fact that we have so much shit but no idea where to put any of it, and I wanna pull my hair out.

Like, we needed to move things twice with the same moving truck, and then the rest was split between 2 cars several times because the truck was only rented for 2 days. We cleaned out the dining room of all the stuff dumped there on the first night, and then the second night the second load came in and we’ve barely made it through it all. [Edit: 10/6/2020 - It’s mostly cleaned out y now.]

A lot of it was my sister’s so she’s just got stacks of shit in her room with nowhere to put all of it. So there is an empty space in the dining room now, but we can’t put anything else away right now.

Why?

-There is central air, and it isn’t working. It’s been in the 90s/100s ever since we got here. I’m using 3 fans in my room alone. My room is the coolest and goes down to like the 70s at night. It’s fucking sad as hell. Anyway, dude had to come out and fix the air. It needs a part(and the landlord said if we bought it, he’d remove the price of it from the rent each month apparently). So we buy it and it gets put in. Air’s still not working for some reason? Don’t know much more about it tbh. [Edit: 10/3/2020 – We just got back our ACs and just put them in the windows. Central Air ain’t doing shit still.]

-There’s no hot water. The thing that heats it needs a part and the landlord gives the same rent option. So now there’s hot water and lower rent.

-The kitchen sink needed a final part. We got the part, put it in. The pipe broke. So we need to get a new pipe for it(with the same option about rent from the landlord). [Edit: 10/3/2020 – The sink is shit still. It clogs too quickly no matter what we do and to get a full day’s use out of it we need to pour acid down the drain each night. Wtf?]

So in order to put everything away, we need to be able to put all the crockery away first. That’s an ass load of things that are ours and then a lot that were my Nana’s. We’ve been slowly and steadily doing the dishes in the bathtub of my mom’s bathroom because we can’t use the fucking sink because of the pipe and the fact that the drain gets clogged really fast. [Edit: 10/4/2020 - We’ve finally got things working out. Most stuff is put away now.]

There’s so much stuff we have.

And no internet. I’ve been dying.

I don’t know if Taylor Swift did anything in this time.

I don’t know if I lost any followers because I vanished. [Edit: 10/6/2020 - I actually gained followers somehow.]

I don’t know what any of my fav YouTube reactors are doing.

I didn’t have any music to listen to.

I didn’t have access to Dead by Daylight.

I’ve been suffering in hot boredom! T_T

Good News:

My room is finished, so that’s nice. I didn’t have as many things as I thought. And this room is so much bigger than the other. Like, my bed is pushed up against a far corner across from the door. Lengthwise, along the back wall, it’s about 10 ft., widthwise, along the side walls, it’s about 15 ft. on one side and 18ft. on the other side where the door is.

My sister’s is the exact same size and shape but mirrored. She likes hers too.

Here’s how our rooms are shaped, just mirrored against each other.

I am glad to be away from all the shit from before, I just wish things could go smoothly for us for just once. Being poor just comes with bad luck unfortunately.

And there is still drama on all sides. The rent is not cheap. I don’t even have to pay it and I’m stressing over it. As such, I kept all boxes that held my shit, and just put them in the closet. Everything will be easy enough to pack up since I didn’t unpack a lot of things too. I don’t trust anything and am an eternal realist. And realistically, for poor people, things always get worse and never get better(or manage stay better long enough to count).

Mom and I knew that step-bro and his wife would manipulate their way into living with us somehow. That’s how these things go. He jumps in over his head, fucks up, and the moment he’s held responsible, he picks up and moves on to the next house in the cycle so he can avoid his problems. And he’ll repeat it over and over again. He’s been doing this since he was 10.

Which means them and their baby. And since he’s like an adult-sized baby, I’m none too pleased, and mom isn’t either.

And I don’t even have internet to lessen my suffering.

Edit: 10/6/2020 - We have internet! This post was something I was working on the whole time I was gone, as you can tell by the edits added.

[ephemeralityonline]

The Last American Hero in Liminal Spaces (1/1/21; A review of the James Ferraro bootleg "Deleted Schemes")

James Ferraro is an American artist with a heavy emphasis on both "American" and "artist." His work often invokes the feeling of all things fake and uncanny in current American capitalism. Whether it be the movie set desert of Speed or the faux leather sheen of God of London, Ferraro is always trying to capture the essence of certain scenes in a post-Google world. However, it is impossible to properly convey his artistry in just one project. Ferraro is simultaneously self-parodying while staying deadly serious about the subject matter. He insists none of his work is ironic and all of it comes from a genuine place which is surprisingly believable. To say his work is purely satirical would take away from a lot of the nuance in some of the music. While tracks like "Trapped in a Hummer" and "Fidget Spinners (The Anthem)" have an obvious tongue-in-cheek nature to them, they don't feel cynical or holier-than-thou. Purely from a sonic standpoint, there's no denying James' range as a musician. With everything hypnagogic-pop/rock to RnB to ambient to rap, sometimes blending all of these genres together, he is able to maintain his signature style. Through the use of this compilation, the listener is able to not only see the blindingly joyful beauty in "☺ Earth Jump" but the vacant nightmare that is "God of London" as well. Despite "TV Lobotomy" being a lo-fi rock track and "Xerces Blau" being an ambient soundscape, they both contain a distinct elegiac quality about them. The shocking thing is that despite the compilation being mostly experimental music, there are some legitimately catchy and well-written moments all throughout, begging to be discovered in this almost nine-hour experience. In an old interview, Ferraro said this "Far Side Virtual mainly designates a space in society, or a mode of behaving. All of these things operating in synchronicity: like ringtones, flat-screens, theater, cuisine, fashion, sushi. I don't want to call it 'virtual reality,' so I call it Far Side Virtual. If you really want to understand Far Side, first off, listen to Debussy, and secondly, go into a frozen yogurt shop. Afterwards, go into an Apple store and just fool around, hang out in there. Afterwards, go to Starbucks and get a gift card. They have a book there on the history of Starbucks—buy this book and go home. If you do all these things you'll understand what Far Side Virtual is — because people kind of live in it already." While this quote was specifically about Far Side Virtual, I feel that it can apply to all of his work in the way he evokes emotions. There's a consistently post-ironic and contemporary feeling that makes a connection better than most traditional music. With each section, there is a unique style that falls under the aforementioned post-ironic digital ennui. The greasy cathode TV advertising fresh KFC (Brainteaser). A sleazy gas station selling dick pills and sex toys (Xerox Kamikaze). Plastic jungle props in a kids museum (Urban Avatar). A gun store in a cheap GTA clone (100% Rain). Some creep hanging at a nightclub when almost everyone has left (Trapped in a Hummer). The view of a chilled NYC skyline from all glass office (Imported Snow). A commercial for a cheesy RnB album during a national tragedy (Coked Sentinel). Copaganda in a beloved sci-fi film (Hollywood Pretender). Gacha games stealing your data (Pollution Techniques). Second Life avatars reaching nirvana (First World Decay Systems). While these are all my own personal interpretations of what the different sections evoke, the soundscapes (and in some cases lyrics) were potent enough for me to come up with such specific imagery. This is the first review I've done without a score. I usually think ratings are a good way to summarize your enjoyment of something into a symbol that is immediately recognizable but this project is so nebulous that by rating it, some of the magic will disappear for me. I can tell you my favorite sections were Imported Snow and Urban Avatar but I plead that you try a little bit everything.

I highly recommend this compilation whether you're already a fan of Ferraro's work or trying to get into him for the first time. Words can't describe some of the emotions in this compilation, listen to it.

Originally posted on my RYM account.

[oldsoldierr]

The Carnation ~ Part 2

summary: the media always told you that the famous art critic bucky barnes is an arrogant, rude playboy and you agree, but something still draws you to him. is there a deeper reason to why he acts the way he does or is he the class A jackass you first met?

art critic!bucky x artist!reader

word count: about 2.1k

series masterlist ~ part 1

After your startling realization that you just might have a crush on a certain Bucky Barnes, you tried your best to just ignore it. You told yourself that your feelings would go away after not seeing him for the rest of your life. You just assumed that after he left that day it would be the end of it. 

But then he did the worst thing you could’ve possibly imagined. He came back to the studio. Everyday in fact. You had never known someone so frustrating. 

Every day he’d come in, insult something, and sit on whichever side of you wasn’t occupied by Steve. Bucky would just sit there annoying you for however long he was there, occasionally walking over to Sharon’s area or making conversation with Steve. How did this busy man always find time to be the worst?

One time after a particularly rough day, you complained, “Why won’t you just sit by Steve?” He just smiled at you innocently.

“Well, how’m I supposed to bother you when you’re a whole seat away from me?” You stared at him blankly for a good 5 minutes. You lost 12 brain cells that day.

You decided you’d need a new plan once you realized he actually wasn’t going anywhere. After considering hiring some pest patrol or just hitting him with a brush you decided on just trying to avoid him.

It’s too bad that it was near impossible because, not only did he insist on moving seats to wherever you moved, but after a couple of weeks of Bucky coming to the art studio, Steve had to leave town for some business meetings.

“It’s gonna be fine!” Steve insisted. 

Your car reached the airport.

“You guys know each other well enough to be by yourselves for two weeks.”

“I do not! We’re barely acquaintances! All he does in the studio is bother me or flirt,” you retorted. “I legitimately don’t think he’s picked one pencil up since he first started coming.”

“That’s not true! He picked up a pencil once to throw it at you,” he pointed out. You barked out a laugh.

“Really helping your case here,” you said sarcastically.

“Hey,” Steve looked at you and squeezed your shoulder reassuringly. “It’s gonna be okay.” You took a deep breath.

“I really hope so.” You gave the blonde a nervous smile. 

“Anyways, I don’t matter right now. Go be amazing at your meeting and when you get the client you have to give me half the money!” You changed the subject.

“Fuck no!” Steve laughed. You continued to chat as you parked the car and began helping Steve get out his luggage. With each second the realization that you weren’t going to see Steve for 14 days hit you harder. Once his suitcases were all out you gave him a bittersweet look.

“I’m really gonna miss you.” You engulfed him in a hug. He hugged back.

“It’s only for two weeks and I’ll call you,” he soothed. You pulled away and rocked back and forth on your heels.

“You promise?” The blonde chuckled.

“Mhm, I’ll even pinky promise,” he said with a teasing smile. You gave him a faux pout.

“You’re mean. I change my mind. I’m not gonna miss you.” You jokingly walked away but you knew you were only trying to delay him leaving. Steve caught on.

“Well, I gotta go now y/n/n,” he said. You sighed.

“I know…” You acknowledged sadly but didn’t show your true emotions for long.

“Good luck! Go kick ass!” You continued with forced excitement.

He put his hands on each side of your shoulders. 

“It’s really gonna be okay,” he assured. He turned around and started walking to the airport.

You nodded as Steve left. But your smile dropped as soon as you were out of his view. Steve had been your only friend since you moved to Brooklyn and had never been without him this long. You massaged the bridge of your nose.

How the fuck am I gonna survive this?

~~~

If you’re being honest, your drive back was rather depressing. You didn’t even bother turning on the radio. You just drove with a tight expression on your face trying to make your anxieties go away, but they just wouldn’t stop. Your brain was pounding. 

You had sulk-driven in silence around a third of the way back without even noticing. That’s when you felt your phone vibrate and the familiar chiming ringtone of a call. 

You glanced down quickly at the screen to see an unknown number. You thought about just ignoring it since you got spam often and you know, you were driving. It probably would’ve been the wiser thing to do but you were bored and miserable so you thought, what the hell. You heard the beep as you pressed the accept call button.

“Hello?” You half expected to get an automated message telling you that you had won an amazon gift card and that you needed to tell them your credit card number immediately. Instead, it was a rich, deep voice you had heard far too many times before.

“Hey y/n,” Your eyes widened so much you were afraid they might fall out.

“Bucky?” you choked out. You could practically see his smug little face.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied obediently. There was an unending amount of thoughts swirling through your head faster than you could calculate. The first question that entered your mind was, “How did you get this number?” Something rustled from the other end before bucky responded.

“I hacked into your phone and took it,” He said sarcastically. You raised your eyebrows.

“Haha, very funny. But seriously, did Steve give it to you?” Bucky hesitated and answered.

“Yeah.--” He selected his words with caution. “--...he thought you might need some company.” From the deliberate phrasing he chose, you deduced that Steve had told him about you being a lonely fuck. You internally groaned.

“S’ one way to put it,” you mumbled.  “Thank you for your consideration but I don’t feel like being pitied right now.” Bucky fake laughed.

“Like I’d ever pity you,” he said like it was a hilarious joke. 

“It’s more babysitting.” You suddenly remembered you were talking to Bucky Barnes and bit your lip in exasperation. 

“Fuck you, Bucky,” you snapped back. You knew you had made a mistake far too late.

“Only if you want me too,” he sang back, overjoyed at the opportunity to make the joke.

You threatened, “I will hang up your ass faster than you can say pumpkin pie is the worst pie.” The brunette fucking laughed.

“Mmm, so first of all, it’s not, it’s the best thing on earth, and second, then why haven’t you hung up yet?” You didn’t really have an answer to give him that wasn’t “I love your voice and I want to kiss you”. You swiftly came up with an excuse.

“Cause I need to drive idiot.”

More noise erupted from Bucky’s side. Your eyes narrowed, confused.

“Where are you right now? It sounds like a zoo on your end.” You heard the brunette talking to someone before he returned to you.

“Hmm? Oh, I’m at an art museum.” You scrunched your brows together. What’s he doing at an art museum at 11:30pm? You wondered. You felt like you had heard something about this before, but couldn’t put your finger on it. Another couple seconds of idle insults were held between the two of you. Then, as if to answer you you hear someone distantly say, “Thank you for coming to the Party in the Garden, please take a…” You gasp. That’s what you were trying to remember! 

“You’re at the fucking biggest MoMA fundraiser of the year and you’re talking to me? You’re so much dumber than I thought you were.” This man was truly unbelievable. But you had to admit it did feel nice that he was blowing off the party for you. 

“There are some really important people there, what are you doing on your phone?” you scolded. He hummed in response.

“In my defense, it’s kind of your fault I’m on my phone.” Bucky pointed out.

“I-- wh-” you stuttered at this guy’s nerve. “How is it my fault? You called me!”

“Yeah cause you don’t have any friends. That’s why Steve made me call you, right?” Bucky sneered. From his tone, it seemed like he realized how much that hurt you. This fucking man. Your voice rose.

“Oh, I don’t have any friends? Like you can talk, the person with only fake friends.” You said defensively. “None of them actually like you, they like your status, you know,”  You snapped in return. By his silence, clearly you had struck a chord with him. This conversation went from 1 to 100 real quick. He grunted.

“At least I even have fake friends. Do YOU have any? Oh that's right, you don’t, you’re all. fucking. Alone. And I don’t doubt for a minute that you deserve it,” he bit back. Oh, he was gonna be like that. You scoffed before going off.

“Oh I deserve it? Look at yourself. You always pretend you’re the best, walk around like you're royalty. Well, I’ve seen how you really are, you aren’t worth a damn thing.” Bucky went to interrupt but you weren’t done. “You’re an insecure, cowardly bitch who insults others to make yourself feel better about yourself. Do you wanna know what people say behind your back? They say you’re annoying and arrogant. A selfish ass playboy who doesn’t deserve a fucking thing he gets, goddamn cuck,” You exploded, taking a deep breath. 

There were so many emotions rocking around your head it was getting hard to think clearly. Cars beeped at you as you began to drift. The phone was silent before Bucky spoke again. It was surprisingly quiet and vulnerable.

“That’s what you think?” You realized what you had said.

“I-- no-I didn’t--” This time he cut you off.

“It’s fine,” he replied sharply. “I understand--” He let out a breath. 

“I won’t bother you again.” 

“No, wait--!” With a loud beep, the line went dead. 

You groaned. 

Shit. 

You hit your hand on the dashboard. 

Stupid, stupid, you scolded yourself.

You tried to make excuses for saying those things but you couldn’t. Most of them weren’t even true. You felt like a monster.  You yelled in frustration. You couldn’t even call anyone to talk about it. Steve was on a plane and your other friends were asleep in your hometown. You wished you had never answered that call. You wished you hadn’t been such an idiot. 

The rest of the ride back felt even colder than it had beforehand. The busy city of Brooklyn passed you by. The lights and the noise you had dreamed about as a kid felt dull and melancholic. 

Fuck the American dream. 

You arrived at your apartment around an hour later. You pulled up in front of the building and walked up to your floor like there was a pile of bricks on your back. You fiddled with your keys before finding the right one and walked inside your apartment. You collapsed onto the couch and screamed into a cushion. 

I should call him back and apologize, you thought. But from the little time you spent with Bucky Barnes, you knew he didn’t forgive that easily. 

How did this all go to shit so fast? Your conversation had started so nicely. Maybe even playfully flirty if you squinted.

You didn’t get a chance to wallow in your self-pity for long as your phone rang again for the second time that night. You grabbed hopefully at the phone thinking it might be Bucky, but it wasn’t. Your wishful thinking seemed it was just that cause it was another random number.

You placed it face down back on the couch and let it ring out. For half a minute the ringtone that you began to resent sang it’s melody. You didn’t have the heart to stop it though, as it went to voicemail. You were planning on completely ignoring it but your conscience wouldn’t let you. What if it was important?

You sighed as you unlocked your phone and clicked on the play button on the voicemail. As the person on the other side kept speaking, you felt like your heart was going further into your throat. You couldn’t breathe and your hands shook.

“Ms. y/l/n, this is NYU Langone Health, you need to come to the hospital as soon as possible. James Buchanan Barnes has been in an accident.”

writing this series is pretty fun but i miss going outside and seeing real people :’)

series masterlist

[ge]

hi so i started playing onmyoji because of you and i wanted to ask if you can give me any tips?? im at level 16 i think im doing well so far but since idk anyone who plays anything would help! sorry for bothering

HEHE YESS ok.. this got rlly long WHOOPS 

so first thing u shld do while ur at a low level is get a mentor.. when i started playing i just fucked around and didnt get a mentor until i was well into lvl 40.. a mentorship is where low lvl (15 to 45 i tihnk..) players can apply for an apprenticeship and level up fast while also getting rewards such as grade darumas and a random ssr once u finish ur apprenticeship.. u can find the mentor application icon in the right side of ur courtyard.. it shld look like this!

while under a mentor u are also lvling up ur friendship which, once it reaches a certain level, it unlocks the co-op feature that u can find by clicking the scroll at the bottom right hand side of ur screen > friends > co-op tab at the bottom right side of the pop up screen... there u can access ur friends powerful shikigami that u can use a limited amount of times daily to beat hard chapters/evo/soul zones, etc etc... if ur looking for a mentor i recently finished an apprenticeship w someone so im free to help out if ur interested ^__^ (my user is @.sneer [all lowercase] if u didnt already know hehe)

join a guild if you havent already! i tihnk it prompts you to join a guild when u first start playing i dont rmbr but a couple things to rmbr.. one. if ur guild has ‘15gq’ ‘100gq’ in its notice, gq means guild quest and u like.. HAVE to do those or else theyll kick u from the guild.. u can find the guild quests by going to ur guild, clikcing the shrine tab on the bottom right, and where it says GROUP QUESTS thats it! usually theyre basic things like submit grade four souls or evo materials but u shld definitely stack up on evo materials and souls so u dont run out.. so if ur guild says 100+gqs.... i wld suggest leaving that guild for a lighter gq guild.. 100+gq guilds are like.. big bad guilds who wanna rank in the top ten soo save urself the trouble.... TWO. ur realm! ur realm comes w ur guild so if ur kicked u cant access ur realm :( i think u already know what ur realm is and what it does so i will just say .. fuse ur low level realm cards.. SAVE UR DRUMS REALM CARDS.. if its a 1*, fuse it but if its 3*+... save that bad boy..

speaking of jade... SAVE IT.. jade and mystery talismans r like GOLD.. theyre rlly easy to get in the beginning of the game but they start getting super scarce when ur lvling up and r completing achievements.. usually when u get ten mystery amulets or 1k jade ur gonna think “oh what if i get an ssr out of this summon ooh” YOU WILL NOT.. this game HATES ur ass it hates u so much it hates ME it hates EVERYONE except lvl 60s who get new ssrs and shit on their first summon... ennieway.. random chance up events r stupid scams but chance up events featuring new shikigami are not... like the one thats going on right now for sp aoandon.. these r good events... random chance up events coming up out of no where is just netease being like ‘buy more jade we want ur money ugly idiot... stupid lmao’.. so yeah hoard ur amulets and jade AH ALSO IN THE MALL go to the mall and go to GENERAL.. youll see a package that says smth like 5 daily jade or smth that costs 666 jade.. BUY THAT itll give u 5 jade daily everyday.. it also stacks up so if ur not online for a couple days u wil be swimming in it baby...

oh god what else... click ur scroll on the bottom right and at the end next to collection youll see a tab that says TEAM.. thats a very useful helpful tab bc if u ever need help or want to join in on someone elses team for loot this is where u go.. when i started playing and i was farming for hiyoribo shards i always went to the system chat and clicked rlly fast on the hiyoribo shard zone hoping i cld get in ... i did that up until i was in my lvl 40s .. ur prbly smarter than me and alreayd know abt this tab but just felt like i needed to mention it just in case.........

SHARDS... if u get enough shards u can form a summoning pact w that shikigami.. demon seals are little side quests that pop up after youve completed a chapter/exploration and they come up randomly with a handful of different shikigami... but you can also access all of the demon seals from the TEAM tab i mentioned above.... demon seals only have a handful of shikigami though not all of them so dont expect to see like ssr demon seals lol also  some of the shikis u can farm from demon seals are VERY good.. ill touch on this later.. DEMON PARADE is another good way to collect shards.. in ur courtyard, click the town sign and the demon parade sign shld be the first thing u see! demon parade, unlike the demon seals, are chance thing, u might get the shards u want or u might not.. its kinda stupid... throwing beans around and shit.. itll give u a lineup of three shiki that u can choose from, if u hit the shiki u picked u get extra shards.. u might see some shiki in the parade w little lanterns over their heads, that just means they give more shards too nothing special

SHIKIGAMI... when ur looking at all of ur rare and sr shikigami ur probably thinking “this sucks these r all USELESS i want ssrs and sps >:(” well akchually... some of the best shiki in the game (for beginners especially) are rares and srs... shouzu (r), kamaitachi (sr), and hiyoribo (sr), are all farmable shikigami u can get from demon seals, if u havent summoned them already! yamausagi, a shiki u will see a LOT, is also a very easily summonable shiki so dont throw her away.. if u have duplicates of the same shiki u can PROMOTE THEM and it will level up one of their skills, just like a skill daruma! (DONT waste ur skill darumas they are soo valuable.. only use them on the shiki u use the most and want to lvl up skills on).. lvling up the skills on ur shiki increases their power and adds perks and makes them over all.. very sexy..

EDIT: added in this list of easy farmable beginners shikigami that u want to keep and build (refer to list BENEATH this one for list of roles)

kujira (sr) support

yamausagi (r) puller

shouzu (r) unique/shield **DEMON SEAL**

hiyoribo (sr) healer/revive **DEMON SEAL**

kusa (r) healer/dps

samurai x (r) cc

momo (sr) healer/revive

ushi no toki (r) unique

kamikui (r) pusher

oitsuki (sr) orbs

komatsu (sr) cc

kamaitachi (sr) puller **DEMON SEAL**

all shikigami have a certain role and its very important u know which shiki is which bc sometimes if u use them wrong u can mess up ur entire team.. here are all of the roles and some shiki examples:

dps: dps stands for ‘damage per second’ but it can also be used as a noun to describe a shikigami that is damage focused (ex. kuro mujou, momiji, hangan, mio)

cc: stands for ‘crowd control’. ccs have the ability to limit the number of enemies actively fighting during an encounter giving u the advantage (ex. enma, yuki onna, yumekui, samurai x)

pusher: pushes the enemies move bar back, giving u the advantage of going first (ex. kamikui)

puller: basically the same thing as pusher. pulls the ally move bar forward (ex. kamaitachi, yamausagi)

shield: shiki that provides a shield of some sort to protect allies without the use of souls (ex. ichimokuren, shiro)

heal: self explanatory (ex. sakura, hana)

revive: healer types with the ability to revive players w a cooldown. not all healers are revives (ex. hiyoribo, momo)

support: self explanatory.. supports allies (ex. miketsu, kujira, bake-kujira)

unique: shiki w unique abilities that cant be placed under labels (ex. hakuzosu, ushi no toki)

orbs: shiki that supply orbs to ur team (ex. aoandon, zashiki, oitsuki)

counter: shiki that counters after an enemy attack (ex. mannendake, vampire)

AND FINALLYYYYYY how to build ur shiki... while doing explorations u get free little souls.. in the beginning this will be ok since ur just starting off but actually each shiki has a perfect soul that makes them work the best.. now there are too many souls for me to actually list so as a parting gift to this entirely too long onmyoji cheat sheet, i will leave u this SHIKIGAMI BUILD GUIDE made by the nura clan.. it lists EVERY shikigami w the perfect soul for them, what role they play, and how to build them.. i touched on their roles a little bit above but i cldnt list everything so heres this.. i use it like everyday when building new shiki its sooo helpful

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zZoMPfuA1plomt6Kq077Q9CZ3mD_0ThYzF_tIUyf28M/edit#gid=824193257

ANYWAY.. I TIHNK IM DONE.. I HOPE THIS WASNT A COMPLETE UNINTELLIGIBLE MESS... if u need clarification for anything pls ask i feel like i mashed up a bunch of words together and called it a day.. ummmm so yeah :) theres probably..... stuff... i might be missing but if theres smth specific u want to know about JUST ASK!!!!!!!!! im always looking for new omj friends...

[thijnvan76]

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China Officially Backs a CryptoCurrency and Establishes it as their Official Coin.

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It’s finally happened. A major worldwide government has just bestowed a huge vote of confidence and legitimacy onto the world of cryptocurrencies. China, in an unprecedented move, just announced that they are officially adopting a certain cryptocurrency as China’s official coin!

The government of China just informed us that they have chosen a preferred firm for the purchase and marketing of their new coin - YuanPay Group. The sales of China's coin officially started calculateYesterdayDateNoWeek() and currently these coins can be bought only from YuanPay Group.

In fact, China deputy minister of finance, Liu Kun, informed us that their new official coin starting price is just ¥0.12 cents!

! 1 Chinese Yuan equals 0.61 Malaysian Ringgit

That’s right, their coin is incredibly inexpensive in comparison to most other coins out there. Bitcoin for example trades at ¥65,366.84 at the time of this writing, and Ethereum, trades at around ¥1,362.76.

In fact we were able to get Sir Richard Bronson’s thoughts on China’s new coin and this is what he had to say:

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Sir Richard Bronson’s states: "Anytime a major corporation announces even a small partnership with an individual cryptocurrency that coin's value skyrockets. I can't wait to see what happens when a government officially adopts a crypto. When the name of China's coin is released many people will become millionaires practically overnight."

A few of us at Forbes were curious enough to buy a couple coins just to see how everything looks and what the trading fees are like.

It was fairly easy to get the coins, but I will show you the whole process below for those that are interested.

First step was to fill out all the details. As you can see, nothing complicated so far.

Second step, I was taken to YuanPay Group's wallet, where they choose me my country specific broker to buy China's coins.

Third step, I was taken to purchase page and had to fill out my details.

For ¥1,921, I received 21,375 coins at ¥0.12 cents each. You can see current value of my coins on the same page. PS: As a early investor they gave me 5,367 extra coins for free!

The whole process was simple and I even received a phone call from one of YuanPay Group's friendly agents, but I didn't really need any help as the whole process was easy enough.

After finishing this article, literally around 4 hours, I checked my wallet again and to my surprise:

In only 4 hours, the price increased from ¥0.12 to ¥0.31. At this point, I was positively surprised. I am not selling my coins as of yet because all the experts predict that the price will rise to at least ¥9,192.63 per coin in matter of months.

YuanPay Group was kind enough to give us a 100% accurate coin movement price counter, so everyone can see the increase directly on this page.

Official price currently

1 coin = ¥0.33

(Note - price is being updated every 30 minutes)

With a story of this nature news seems to be breaking every so often, we’ll be sure to update the story as needed.

You can find their promo video as well as direct coin sales here:

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