#i used to *also* take a break from the internet a couple of months a year and it would help immensely

[feluka]

i'm in a desperate need for a week where i just shut myself in and not talk to anyone or go anywhere and keep the lights off and the noise down and do NOTHING until i unwind. but my parents won't allow me to miss any school days and idk what to do honestly. also finals are coming up so i can't argue with them.

[4sturns]

BREAK THE INTERNET

camboy!chris s. x fem!viewer!reader

genre: smut

synopsis: being chris' top tipper and most loyal viewer, you're gifted with a private one on one cyber call with your favorite camboy.

warnings: cyber sex, sub!chris (reader tells him what to do), whining and whimpering, use of vibrator, praise kink (4sturns knows what praise is ????? woah ...), orgasm denial, use of petnames (mamas, baby, etc.), not proofread!

wc: 1.822

a/n: sat there thinking about how kinky i am compared to others in the fandom and suddenly had the great idea of writing for camboy!chris because god he'd be such a pretty camboy .. thank you for 500 followers too this is for you guys ❤️‍🩹 also brace yourselves because this is probably the longest fic i have ever written in all my years of writing

you're sat at your desk, your laptop propped up at an angle which conceals your face, but shows off your breasts which are clad in a red lacy bra.

there's music playing lowly on a speaker somewhere on the other side of the room, something you put on to calm down your nerves.

you bounce your leg, waiting anxiously as you wait for chris' call notification to pop up on your screen.

you've been a viewer of chris' for a while. he was the first camboy you'd ever encountered and he was certainly your favorite. something about him and how he always gives in to his tippers made you cash in on his streams. he was just so good, so obedient, and so pretty.

unbeknownst to you, you had somehow became his top tipper in the span of a couple months. what you expected to be a cumulative amount of fifty dollars, maybe sixty, turned out to be close to ten times the price you assumed you had tipped him.

even with the initial shock, you still couldn't blame yourself for giving him so much money. he was just so good for you, giving you exactly what you wanted and asked of him every single time.

a sudden and loud tone rings from your laptop speakers making you jump from the unexpected noise. the screen flashes with chris' name and his provocative profile picture, your heart rate picking up at the sight. a shaky hand reaches up to the track pad to accept the call, not before a nervous breath leaves your body.

the call zooms in to show you a full view of chris' camera. his face is out of view, similar to you, but he's sporting a white tank top and plaid pajama pants in comparison to your red bra and black silk shorts.

through your little square screen in the corner, you can visibly see your chest heaving. your mouth feels dry, heart pounding uncontrollably. normally you'd feel fine, but that was when it was chris talking to his entire audience, not just you individually.

"hey mamas," chris greets you, he sounds just as breathless as you. "god, you look so good in that set."

you crack a faint smile although he can't see it. a hand goes up to play with the necklace around your neck, relieving some tension as you work up a response.

"not too bad yourself, chris." you can see him shift around, a muffled moan piercing through your speakers gains your attention.

"already worked up? is it because of my boobs on your screen or because you like my voice a little too much, baby?" you're almost shocked at your own words, you were just shaking a moment ago and now you're taunting the very guy you'd get off to almost nightly for the past three months.

"fuck, if you don't stop teasing me i might just cum in my pants." chris moves his camera back to reveal his face. you're stunned for a second, taking in his beauty. it's not the first time you've seen his face, but you swear he gets prettier every day.

based on chris' chuckle, you're sure he saw the way your chest spiked up with the silent gasp you let out when he showed his face.

"tell me what to do, mamas. you're in control of me tonight." his words are spoken quietly, but god do they do a number on you.

"can you— can you touch yourself, for me?" you stutter slightly. you're so used to giving him commands through his chat that giving him a verbal command one on one makes you lightheaded.

without a word, chris' hand inches towards the bulge in his pants. he starts palming himself through his pants as small whimpers leave his mouth. you're sitting back in your chair, your face from the nose down is now visible on the screen. your eyes are fixed to the screen as your entire body starts to heat up.

"can i take off my shirt? please, ma." he's still palming himself, but he stares right into the camera. you can't bring yourself to speak, so you nod your head, praying he gets the memo despite how little of your face is actually showing.

thankfully he does, his free hand gripping the bottom of his top before swiftly removing the garment. his soft, long hair bounces back into place, covering part of his eyes in a way that makes him look like an angel. a sinful angel.

suddenly, chris stops palming himself, his hand going to dip past the waistband of his pants. he quickly whips out his dick before hissing at the cold air which hits his tip.

you're in awe, no matter how many times you've seen his dick before, it'll never quite compare to how good it looks in this moment. but once the feeling subsides, you quickly remember something.

"i never told you you could take your dick out of your pants, did i?" you're now leaning forward, as if challenging chris through the screen. there's no battle however, as panic quickly flashes through chris' features.

his mouth springs open as floods of apologies and excuses leave his mouth, although you're not quite picking up what he's saying. your eyes are piercing your laptop screen as you notice his tip leaking a clear liquid. you watch as his entire cock twitches when you let out a low chuckle.

"i'm sorry, please, i'm a good boy! i swear i'm a good boy." chris pleads with you, causing a wave of heat to overtake your body. you say nothing as he continues to ramble. but you know you can't keep him waiting, you'd be torturing yourself more than him.

"show me how good you are and stroke yourself for me, hmm?" chris complies almost instantly, his head nodding frantically as he wraps a hand around his hard cock. whimpers and high pitched whines fill up your speakers as you instruct him to stroke himself faster. but just that isn't enough for you.

"can you do something for me, baby?" chris' eyes open, an eager smile crosses his face as he momentarily pauses his movements.

"anything for you, mamas." his hair flops around as he nods his head.

"grab that little black vibrator, the one you know i like." you remember the first time you stumbled onto chris' live broadcast. you remember how tightly he was gripping the base of his cock as he held a vibrator right under his angry, red tip. you remember how loud his whimpers were, how much he was begging for release. the image of his cum painting his stomach white as the buzzing continues in the back is something that will never fail to make you moan.

chris comes back into frame holding the toy, a devious smile makes it way onto your face. it's caught on your camera and you can tell chris knows your intentions aren't pure from the way he visibly gulps. regardless, he sits back down infront of his screen before positioning himself to face you again.

"use it on yourself, the same way you always do." the words leave your mouth sounding more like a command than you'd like, although it really is a command.

chris takes your words seriously as he quickly fumbled with the buttons on the little toy to turn it on. a breathy moan leaves his mouth as he finally lowers it down to circle around his tip. the sight is breathtaking. chris' head tipped back as his hand grips at the base of his cock so tightly you're surprised it's not turning a shade of purple. the vibrator soon finds home right under his tip, buzzing away at his sweet spot.

you bite your bottom lip to conceal your moans, a hand sneakily sliding into your silk bottoms as you feel your soaked folds. your fingers move quickly to collect your arousal before dipping into your throbbing cunt. a whine escapes your lips right as chris lets out a rather loud groan.

you know he's close, but you can't let him go yet. not before you do.

"you're such a good boy for me, so good." you lean back in your chair, propping a leg up on the table to get a better angle, maximizing your own pleasure.

chris' eyes flicker open to take a quick peak at his laptop screen. he nearly cums at the sight. your face is now fully in frame, except it's twisted in pleasure. your fingers moved fast, plunging in and out of your soaked cunt as strings of profanity leave your puffy lips. he thought your voice was pretty, but he never expected the voice to belong to a goddess like you.

"fuck, ma. i'm so close," your eyes open to watch chris' face as he turns the intensity of the vibrator up a level. his eyes are shut tight, but you can still see the tears pricking at his eyes as the pleasure builds up.

"hold it for me, baby. be my good boy and wait for me." an anguished cry leaves chris' throat, though he obeys you and holds himself back from his release.

on your end, you're working hard to reach your own release. you've long discarded your bottoms, having thrown them to the floor somewhere behind you. one hand works diligently to draw circles on your clit, while the other drills into your pussy relentlessly.

"i can't, please i need to come so badly. i've been a good boy, right? please, mamas. i need it." chris is in tears by now, the muscles in his stomach flexing with how much force he has put in so far to control himself for you.

you can feel yourself approaching your own climax, strained moans are pulled from your body as you find the energy in you to speak.

"go ahead, baby. paint your stomach white for me like the good boy you are." through your laptop speakers, you can hear chris' loud pants and whimpers as his orgasm washes over him, a cry of your name leaving his lips in such an erotic moan that you're sent over the edge.

your legs tremble and shake as you let your orgasm rip through your body. your body feels like it's on fire, little surges of electricity rage through your body even after the buzz of your orgasm fades.

you peer over at your laptop screen to see chris has discarded the vibrator, though his hand is still working to give his dick a few final strokes before going limp. his stomach is coated in thick ropes of cum, his skin glistening with a thin layer of sweat.

"did i do good for you, mamas?" chris asks, his voice barely above a whisper, clearly spent from all his whining.

"you did so good for me, such a good boy. you're my baby boy."

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for creating and running a gimmick blog?

A few months back, I was bored and decided to hop on the trend of gimmick blogs. Since I don't have any crazy skills like identifying cars or programming bots, I settled on something I thought was extremely simple: correcting typos. So I'll sometimes reblog posts that have typos in them and comment with corrections. I would only do this on posts that were already lighthearted or joking in tone; I would never derail a serious post with it. And I really haven't used it very often - maybe a couple times a week at most, just when I happen to notice a good candidate.

Well, recently I was inundated out of nowhere by a bunch of anons telling me this was a horribly offensive idea. According to them, I was insulting dyslexic people, non-native English speakers, people without access to education, and a whole bunch of other groups with these unwarranted corrections.

I had honestly never considered that angle, and I've paused using that blog so I can try and reflect on it. But when I replied to a couple of the asks asking for a better explanation of exactly how this was harmful - because I genuinely wanted to be informed - the vast majority of the replies, with few exceptions, were obscenely rude to me. I've been called classist, ableist, racist, and a lot of much worse words I don't care to repeat here. I blocked exactly two people because they were being extremely hateful in my notes, while still trying to engage with the more polite ones, but of course I still got accused of blocking and ignoring everyone I disagreed with.

The truth is, I'm still not sure whether or not I disagree with any of them on the actual subject at hand; I just can't deal with people being bitter and rude and assuming the worst of me. I tried to make it clear that I was more than willing to listen and have a conversation in good faith, but that has proved impossible.

So now I'm really hurt and really, really confused. I'm not going to just blindly trust a small group of hypocrites on the internet who claim they're worried about people's feelings while at the same time trying to completely villainize me as if I don't have feelings too. But I also understand that they might have a point. Sadly, politeness is not always correlated with correctness.

I absolutely do not want to continue running this gimmick blog if it's truly harmful and offensive to people. I've just never encountered this take before, and it was delivered with such vitriol that I had to take a break from tumblr entirely just to recover my sanity. So I'm hoping a much broader and less biased sample size will help to clear this up. I know an AITA poll isn't perfect, but it should do.

If I get a YTA verdict, I will delete the typo-correcting blog and stop immediately, no questions asked. If not, I'll know I just angered an extremely vocal minority that has no idea how to deal with conflict.

AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[drewsbuzzcut]

GQ’s Couple’s Quiz

mat barzal x model!fem!reader

a visceral in doses fic

warnings: mentions having kids and I think that’s all… also! how ever many points reader or mat has is after each question they get correct

“Don’t give me that look,” you point at Mat, trying to hold in your laughter, but failing so far. You can’t contain the wide smile that dares to break out on your face.

“I’m not doing anything. Just know, I’m taking your ass down,” Mat declares.

“Okay! Rolling in 3… 2… 1…” the director’s words gathers your and Mat’s attention, the both of you staring at the camera.

“I’m more competitive than you, so I got this in the bag,” you state, confidently.

“We’ll see about that.”

“Hi! I’m Y/n Barzal,” you greet.

“Hi! I’m Mat Barzal,” Mat greets as well.

“And this is GQ’s Couple’s Quiz,” you both say together.

“Are you ready? This one’s hard,” you try to make Mat second guess himself, but you also know his memory isn’t the best.

“Hit me.”

“Who are our kids' godparents, in order from oldest to youngest?”

You see Mat’s face shift to slight panic.

“Nolan’s godparents are Anthony Beauvillier and Devon Lee Carlson. Angels’ godparents are Beverly Blount and Ethan Bear. Sloane’s godparents are Sydney and Matt Martin,” he answers swiftly.

“Correct.”

Mat: 1

“Second question: how old am I?” You know he knows this.

“You, my lovely wife, are 26 beautiful years old, almost 27,” he says, making you feel giddy.

“Okay, hotshot, stop trying to make me flustered.”

Mat: 2

“Do I prefer an intimate setting or a family setting?”

“If we’re talking about a family setting as in us with our kids, then a family setting. Our younger selves would most definitely love an intimate setting, but now that we have a 4 year old, a 1 year old, and a 9 month old, we really enjoy the family setting,” Mat answers flawlessly.

“Correct! I like the way you answered that, babe,” you compliment.

Mat: 3

“What was my first modeling gig?”

Mat rubs his chin, thinking long and hard before answering.

“You can’t be mad if I’m wrong,” he tells you.

“Why can’t I be mad?” You ask, but you’re just messing with him.

“Because I didn’t know you then.”

You gasp in fake surprise, mouth open and hand over your heart.

“You mean you didn’t stalk me on the internet when we were dating?”

“I’m not you,” Mat says, referring to something from the early bits of your relationship, something you’re glad you can laugh about now.

“Ouch that was a low blow,” you fake pout.

“Your first modeling gig was for a fashion show during Paris fashion week when you were 18.”

“Wrong. My first modeling gig was on a local magazine in my hometown when I was 17,” you correct him.

“Oh yeah. I totally forgot about that. Sorry, babe.”

“What’s my favorite movie?”

“That’s easy. It’s The Conjuring. My girl loves her scary movies,” he says proudly.

“It’s true! Mat loves whenever I get to pick the movie on our movie nights. Only because I pretend to be scared and cuddle into him more than I already do,” you look over at Mat with heart eyes to see that he’s already looking back at you with heart eyes.

Mat: 4

“What’s the hardest thing for our family when you’re on roadies?”

“The short disconnect between me and the kids. It’s hard for me to be gone when our babies are still really young. It’s also hard because I’m not always there to help you. You’re a champ for stepping up for me, and there are no words to describe how grateful I am that you’re my life partner. My heart would search for yours in every lifetime,” you tear up at his sweet words, immediately getting out of your chair to hug him. He’s quick to pull you between his legs, arms wrapping around your waist while his head rests on your chest.

Mat: 5

“If I wasn’t a model, what would I be doing?”

“You’d be a writer. Although, I already tell you that you can still be a writer and a model,” Mat says.

“Maybe when I retire modeling, whenever that’ll be.”

Mat: 6

“This one might be hard for you: what was the first name on my ‘baby names’ list?”

“How on earth am I supposed to know that? Umm… was it… I know it’s an S name because we both love S names. It’s Sloane,” Mat guesses.

“Nope. It’s actually Selene. I loved Selene so much, but when we found out our first baby was a boy, I just dropped Selene. I also didn’t want to use it for Sloane. I felt like she needed a whole new name, and Sloane just fits baby girl so well.”

“That’s true. She is meant to be named Sloane,” Mat agrees.

“What’s my favorite sport?”

“Hockey!” He has a cocky smile on his face, but only because he knows he’s the only reason you watch hockey.

“Barzy! I know you know the REAL answer, so answer truthfully.”

“It’s baseball,” he mutters, feigning annoyance.

Mat: 7

“If I could be an animal for a day, what animal would I be?”

“A cat.”

Mat: 8

“What’s my ritual before a fashion show?”

“When you leave for the venue, you give us all kisses. At the venue you listen to the playlist I made you and refrain from talking to anyone for the first 30 minutes so you can center yourself. After those first 30 minutes you like to dance around to get all your nerves out.”

“I’m surprised you remember that,” you grin proudly at your man.

“Well I have been backstage with you for quite a few of those shows. I actually miss being able to see you go through that process. It’s an honor to see you in a vulnerable state outside of the intimacy of our relationship.”

“Baby, I love you.”

“I love you more.”

Mat: 9

“What was my wedding scent?”

“This is so easy because I love that perfume so much. It’s so intoxicating. I swear it’s an aphrodisiac because I just never wanted to be away from you. It’s Maison Margiela’s Replica perfume in the scent: Jazz Club. I especially love when you wear it on special occasions,” Mat answers in a way that can only be described as lovesick.

“It’s true. On our wedding day, we could not be pulled apart. Our lips or hands were always on each other. I’m actually thinking about making it my signature smell, but I’m hesitant because I want it to be for special occasions only,” you ramble, face flustered by bringing up how touchy you and Mat are.

“Special occasions only, babe.”

“What if I said I’m wearing it today?” You tease.

Mat’s head falls back, a moan desperately trying to fly out his mouth. Without a word, he’s out of his chair and throwing you over his shoulder. He walks off set with you while you laugh uncontrollably.

“Barzy! Baby, we have to go back,” you say and even though you’re both off camera, the mic still picks up your voices.

“I love you,” Mat says through a laugh, lips connecting with yours.

As you both walk back, you’re fixing your hair and lipstick before fixing Mat’s shirt.

When you move to walk in front of him, he tickles you from behind, sending you into a fit of giggles. You reach behind yourself to wrap your hands around the back of his neck, pressing your body into his to get him to stop. His hands don’t leave your body, though. They just rest on your stomach.

“Sorry about that,” Mat apologizes while you hide behind your hand, trying to mask your red cheeks and big smile.

Mat: 10

“It’s your turn. Are you ready to lose?” Mat asks, sending you a smirk that makes you want to kiss him.

“I’m loving the aggression, but yes bring it on,” you send a playful glare back at him.

“How old am I?”

“You’re 31 and about to be 32. Old man,” you say in a fake cough, but it just turns out to be a big laugh.

Mat smiles, nose scrunching and he reaches out to tickle your neck.

“I’m sorry I’m sorry,” you try not to yell.

Y/n: 1

“Do I want more babies?”

“Surprisingly, no. Mat wanted to try for Angel and Sloane, but I was hesitant because Nolan was still young. However, I couldn’t deny that I wanted more kids. This time, Mat’s the one who told me he didn’t want anymore kids while I’m actually okay with having another baby. That being said, we won’t be having anymore kids, it’s a mutual agreement and we have our reasons,” you explain.

“Babe, I love the way you speak,” your husband compliments you.

“I love you.”

Y/n: 2

“What food do I hate?”

“Seafood.”

“Wrong. Babe, we just had fish the other day on our date.”

“Wait! Then why did you say no to sushi? I just realized this. Oh my god. You denied me sushi!” You’re appalled because you seriously thought he hated seafood.

“Sorry, I just don’t like sushi.”

“Literally how? It has seafood!” You’re still in shock.

“What’s something I want to learn?”

“You want to learn how to cook. You hate how I’m the one cooking all the time. But guess what guys, I’ve been teaching Mat every time I’m in the kitchen,” you state.

“You’re a great teacher.”

Y/n: 3

“How do you know when I’m mad at you?”

“You’ll give yourself some space or take one of the babies to rock in the rocking chair until you’re ready to talk. However, if I don’t notice you’re upset, you’ll linger around with a pout. The same pout that all our kids have. Sometimes if you’re upset for a small reason, you’ll just kiss me until you snap out of it,” you go through his tells.

“Yeah, your kisses almost always work. They’re magic,” he gets up real quick to peck your lips.

Y/n: 4

“When was our first kiss?”

“When you came to my apartment with flowers and an apology. We just had our first fight, before we were an official couple, and you were hesitant about kissing me so I kissed you first.”

“I think about that day everyday. I can kiss you forever. I will kiss you forever,” he whispers.

“Okay, sap,” you tease.

Y/n: 5

“Where’s somewhere I want to go?”

“Tokyo! We both want to go, so maybe our next couple vacation!”

Y/n: 6

“What are my tattoos?”

You look at him with wide eyes because none of his or your fans know he has tattoos. You knew people were going to freak out.

“Ooo a GQ exclusive! Your tattoos are ‘Nolan,’ ‘Angel,’ and ‘Sloane.’ Our kids' names and they are located on the inside of your fingers. You also have my initial tattoo on your ring finger.” You say animatedly, you’ve been waiting for him to share his tattoos with the public, so you can talk about them freely.

“I need my family with me at all times,” Mat confirms.

Y/n: 7

“Who is my celebrity crush?” You want to wipe the smirk off his face.

You remember the time in your relationship when you got insanely jealous when you found out about his celebrity crush. Now, you think it’s actually funny.

“Your celebrity crush is Zoë Kravitz. Zoë, Mat’s free on sundays. Just kidding. He’s all mine,” you say in giggles.

“Baby, you’re my celebrity crush,” he plays around.

“Liar.”

Y/n: 8

“What’s my go-to snack?”

“You love nutella a lot, so maybe your bagel with nutella?”

“I’ll give you the point because I do love nutella.”

“Thank you!”

Y/n: 9

“What’s the easiest way to make me mad?”

“When I ignore you,” you answer with a little smug smile.

“I hate it!”

“Sometimes I’ll do it so you’ll just kiss me. Or to see you pout because I can kiss your pout away.”

“We kiss a lot,” Mat points out.

“Yeah, well we’re married.”

Y/n: 10

“What’s my favorite color on you?”

“You love me in blue because it inflates your ego,” you roll your eyes. You think about all the times you’ve bought lingerie that was the same blue as the one on his hockey uniform. You immediately blush.

“You just look sexy in blue,” he states.

“Sure,” you say, unconvinced and your arms crossed over your chest.

Mat pulls the chair you’re seated on closer to him, brushing some of your hair behind your ear. You press a chaste kiss to his palm.

“Blue is your best color. I mean you’re even wearing it right now,” he says, pointing at the dark blue top you’re wearing.

“Ugh… kiss me,” he doesn’t keep you waiting.

Y/n: 11

“What makes me laugh?”

“Easy. Angel’s baby giggles make you laugh so much. Oh and you also laugh a lot when we watch jersey shore.”

“Nothing can beat Angel’s giggles. Cutest thing ever.”

Y/n: 12

You get out of your chair, dancing your way to Mat so you can sit on his lap.

“I won! I won! I won!” You sing.

“No, I don’t think so. I definitely have it in the bag,” Mat says, arms wrapped around your waist while your back leans against his chest.

“I’m educated in Y/n Barzal! That should be the name of a bachelor’s degree,” Mat jokes.

“Shushhh,” you quiet him with a finger to his lips. You smile at him, too happy and too in love to ever be bothered with him.

“Please tell us who won,” you requested.

“Y/n has 11/12 correct and Mat has 10/12 correct,” someone from the camera crew tells you.

“HA! I won,” you say in Mat’s face, grabbing his cheeks to kiss his lips repeatedly.

“Sorry if we kiss too much on camera. I just really love my husband,” you muse.

“Thank you so much for watching. I’m actually the winner, but we’ll let Y/n believe she won,” Mat teases you.

“It’s okay, hotshot, we all know I’m the best,” you say playfully.

“Thank you all for watching. We love you,” you add.

“Ready to go? I need more kisses,” Mat carries you out of the camera’s frame.

a/n: I had fun with this one, So I hope y’all enjoy!

[thegoodwitchglinda]

magazine matchups

vil x reader

you and vil were supposed to just be colleagues, but as your work kept pushing you closer and closer together, you couldn’t help but fall for one another.

a/n: this is another repost of a previously deleted fic I posted. also can’t believe i ever deleted this, this is like the funniest thing I’ve ever written (imho)

—————————————

His absence was something you barely noticed, just as his presence. You weren’t oblivious to it, however. It started out as a coincidence, the two of you ended up modelling for a few projects together, which had the internet going wild. Soon enough, it turned into free advertising, and your managers were intentionally pulling the strings so that you’d be working together. If anything, the nonsensical rumours that came out of it were kind of annoying - other than that, you had no strong opinion about working with him, or his personality.

He wasn’t exactly a constant in your life either, that’s why you almost didn’t notice his unannounced break from the public eye. You remembered him after seeing a now slightly old article about the SDC, ah that’s right, he’d taken a break from almost all of his work to focus on the competition, which had ended a couple of months ago. Despite this, you can’t recall him coming back to the limelight since.

Might as well check his magicam page, you thought. He still posted there, would it be weird to follow him out of nowhere? Eh, who cares- you did it anyways, and then went to bed.

As always, it felt like the sun rose far too early to wake you from your slumber. Your alarm hasn’t gone off yet, or you hoped it hadn’t at least. You checked the time, and you were fine, you didn’t oversleep.

In the meantime you should probably check the texts you got from Neige, your certified best friend who doesn’t usually text you at six in the morning.

“Hey, Y/N! You’re trending on magicam, so is you and Vil’s ship-name, did you know?”

Um, what? That was… strange? Honestly, you really wanted to see what was going on, but you’d be late for school if you let social media get a grip on you right now.

Break time. It felt pretty exciting to hear the bell ring this time around, since you’d been itching to find out what had you on the trending page, it’s not like you did anything either spectacular or offensive recently.

Damn, Neige really wasn’t lying, then again, you couldn’t recall any time he ever has. Your expression died down comically quick, as you kept scrolling through the tagged posts. Your fans were literally insane sometimes, to the point were maybe following someone new on your public account was a bit of a mistake. Basically all of your conjoined fandom was trying to theorise over Vil being added to the list of people you follow, which was otherwise only Neige and your manager. Really, it was a slight disappointment, but it was also kind of funny, at least the internet didn’t decide it was time for a dose of unjust cancel culture just yet.

A few days later, after school had let up, you went to hang out with Neige in town. It was a tradition between you two, a way to keep in contact despite your busy schedules. The two of you often cycled round different attractions or areas in the city, sometimes just opting to walk around and talk. This time, you were headed to the local museum. It was interesting to read about all the history loaded behind what seemed like a simple piece of pottery, or learn about how certain things were used to supplement both the lack of technology and magic of the older world.

It was mostly things you’d seen here before though, but you’d never paid much mind to the modern art section, you realised after thinking about it. “Hey Neige, should we go look over there? Who knows, they might have your portrait framed or something.”

Your joke was received with a light laugh and, “Sure, let’s go take a look!”

This section of the museum felt a lot smaller, but there were even less people willing to marvel at the paintings that adorned the walls. Coincidentally, the one other person that was there happened to be someone both you and Neige recognised. You wondered if he visited the place a lot, people don’t tend to look so blank whilst visiting a museum by themselves.

Neige turned to you, excited to ask if it’d to be alright to approach him. That’s right, you’d somewhat forgotten that those two knew each-other. “Yeah sure, I don’t mind.” As soon as the sound of his name filled the room, his head turned, and his expression looked mildly annoyed. Did he look like that before? God, you’d have to hope the two of you weren’t upsetting him. Your friend however, didn’t appear to notice anything out of the ordinary as he continued to make small talk.

Gradually, said small talk came to close, and Neige had invited him to spend more time with the two of you, though Vil politely declined. He was rather curt, but he didn’t seem like a bad person, if anything your opinion hadn’t changed since you first worked with him.

Before waving goodbye, you rushed to scribble your phone number down on a crumpled piece of paper to give to him. Momentarily, you pondered wether that was a good decision to make, as he almost stayed silent, but soon put on a smile and thanked you. It was an awkward first meet.

Vil turned away after the two of you had left, it was due time to head back to his dorm, despite his visit to the museum serving a different purpose than intended. For Vil, he had hoped to come about some inspiration in preparation for returning to his work but meeting Neige was a frustration in its own right, considering how a large part of his break was dedicated to self improvement after realising his envy was severely holding him back.

Regardless of his efforts, it was disappointing to see Neige thrive under the same conditions as him and yet thwart all the hardships that Vil faced. Whilst his perfection was his pride it robbed him of approachability.

You however, offered him your number despite how out-of-reach he often is to people through your slight uncomfortableness. He thought it was folly of you, but it was a rare boldness that wasn’t unbeffiting of you - having only experienced similar things from Rook, who sometimes took it to an extreme.

Maybe it came from you also being in the industry, but he found himself thinking fondly of it. When Vil arrived at pomefiore once again, he decided to follow you back on magicam, not unaware of you doing so a few days back, although he made no effort to add your contact to his phone. You were still asleep by morning, enjoying the extra time the weekend was granting you. When you did wake up, you checked your phone, a part of your usual morning routine. ‘Oh, he doesn’t hate me’ was what came to mind after seeing that Vil had followed you back.

Not having any plans today you thought to message him on the app, curious as to wether he’d reply. “Hey, how are you doing? Hope we didn’t bother you yesterday.”

After sending that short message you looked through your feed for a bit. Reasonably soon you got an awfully formal response back. Apparently he didn’t mind your presence the other day, which was nice to know. Now however, you were in a position of not knowing wether or not to continue the conversation or what to say. Reaching out to someone over something so minuscule without making an attempt at getting closer with them proved kind of useless, so the two of you briefly discussed your musings about school and work before cutting the conversation.

That was the last time either of you had talked to one another until the two of you inevitably crossed paths again, outside of the internet. This time, the two of you met at a more understandable place, a model’s holy grail, the skincare section.

Another thing to note was that this time, he was not unaccompanied, unlike you. His purple-haired friend was actually who drew your attention away from the ingredient list on the bottle you were looking at. Being a bit louder than intended, he was complaining about this excursion being a waste of time and effort. When you did turn around, you saw Vil glaring daggers into the poor boys soul. Maybe they weren’t friends as you’d initially thought?

Ignoring it would’ve been your best bet but as you heard Vil sigh and mutter something along the lines of ‘I thought we were past this’ you realised he was dragging himself and his possible-friend in your direction. The two of them started looking at the labels of product after product, after Vil had scanned the shelf for a short while. Vil looked quite nonchalant while doing so, but his friend seemed awfully confused when absentmindedly staring at the product. Considering you knew one of them, you thought it might be good to offer up some advice, and recommend a couple brands.

Vil was actually quite thankful for your help, due to him only using products that he’s created himself, he was only aware of what was currently popular rather than beneficial. And this wouldn’t have been the best way to teach Epel how to pick out certain products without any good examples. He thanked you, and invited you to hang out over coffee some time as a thank you.

It was perhaps a little overboard, but neither of you really minded, considering how it was starting to seem that you could become decent friends. And that was how you ended up here, finally settled in to a popular cafe, that at first proved to be a bit of a poor choice, specifically due to its popularity.

When the two of you met up, the people already around the place started to form a crowd around you. It was reasonable, after all people don’t see celebrities everyday, and whilst you were used to it, it could prove to be rather bothersome. Of course, both of you handled the situation well, but there was something so enchanting about how graceful he was with each and every person who approached him, and how he was able to express his appreciation all the while making sure his air of perfectionism never slipped.

When you eventually got a moment of quiet together, you made sure to learn a lot about each other. He wouldn’t say it out-right, but you could surmise that the purple-haired boy from before and a huntsman named Rook were his set of friends. It sounded like an interesting group, but cute nonetheless. You also figured out that a lot of his personal life revolves around his work, or maybe it would be better to say that they happened to coincide.Despite that, he still seemed less daunting now that you’d got to know him a little.

Naturally, you two hung out a lot more after that, and it was fun as you got more comfortable. You even got to do things like convincing him to pose for you to draw him because, “come one, it’ll be extra practice!” He didn’t look amused at all, but he still let you.

Sketching Vil was enjoyable, but he wouldn’t let you notice how he got increasingly anxious as time passed. Vil normally had no reason to feel anxious around anyone, he usually felt confident in himself, but the issue was that his confidence was surprisingly conditional.

It was strange though, the only person to ever make him feel insecure before was Neige, yet you didn’t make him feel threatened. He could only come to one conclusion as to why he was becoming increasingly sensitive to your opinion on him, and being as self aware as he is, the answer didn’t come as a shock to him. But acknowledging that he was in love was a scary revelation to make.

As you finished up your drawings and showed them to him whilst raving about how pretty he was, he calmed down. His appearance was the main factor in his confidence, and reminding himself that he would always have power in that regard soothed his anxiousness, but what really relieved him this time around was the fact that you weren’t judging him.

The next time you were on-set participating in a photo-shoot together, you’d known beforehand. You were both affiliated with the same company, and had managed to put two and two together when discussing your work schedule.

Things felt a lot more light-hearted than all of the other times you’d worked together. Seeing him there as you’d entered the room put a smile on your face.

As you’d taken your last shot together, and everything was getting cleared up, you went to take your arm of Vil’s shoulder, but as you were doing so, he grabbed your hand. You could feel him tense up, and the walls started to feel slightly closer than before. “What’s wrong?” You couldn’t help but be worried. You saw him take a second to compose himself, before he leaned closer to you and whispered a short confession in your ear, “I’ve happened to find myself loving you… Would you be mine?”

That was… unexpected.

But when you said yes, Vil found himself experiencing a joy he hadn’t felt in a long time, and enveloped you in a gentle, heartfelt hug. The two of you stayed there for quite some time, ignoring everyone else around you because they didn’t matter.

[nikos-oneshots]

hello HELLO guess who's back and is into monster prom now.

could i have some headcanons for calculester with a friend who struggles in school?

:D - 🪐

Calculester & Reader who Struggles in School.

Warnings: No beta we die like everybody in the z'gord ending ✌️ Word Count: 0.6k Pronouns: None Notes: I COMPLETELY FORGOT THIS SAID HEADCANONS UNTIL I WENT BACK TO POST THIS!! D: I'M SORRY ANON!! If you want me to remake this, then I will! Note 2: ALSO IM SO GLAD YOUR INTO MONSTER PROM ANON!! I love monster prom so much so i'm always happy to do requests for it!! I hope you enjoy!

Calculester Hewlett-Packard does really well in school. He has the internet as his brain, everything known by man at his fingertips. I wouldn’t assume he talks about school much because he knows he has a huge advantage over everybody else and doesn’t want to upset people by telling them that he has straight A’s in most of his classes. This rule especially applies to you, Cal knows that you don’t do the best in school. Whether you are a person who tries super hard and still doesn’t make it that far or decides to skip class multiple times a week, I would imagine Calculester would be clueless about your struggles.

I would think that he would only notice after midterms.

Everybody is sharing their scores. Liam is subtly bragging about how he got the highest in the school, Polly is super excited to show everybody that she got a 69 and Scott is relieved that he just did good enough to stay on the football team. You on the other hand, aren’t really happy about your score, you did your best, or maybe you didn’t, point is, you got a 20. Cal comes up to you asking about your score, you were hesitant to show him, but after he showed you his score of 89, you showed him your score.

“Oh, dear Friend Y/N. Not to alarm you, but that has been the lowest score I have seen yet. I apologize for your test failure.”

You look down in shame, you thought at least somebody would have done worse.

“I notice your struggles now Friend Y/N. If you are open to the idea, I could teach you what I know, like tutoring. Your problem may be that the strategies the professors here use aren’t effective for you to learn from. What do you say?”

You decide to take him up on his offer and once you begin your first session at the library. Calculester proves himself to be a great teacher, he knows how to tailor the way he teaches to match your learning style. You get through worksheets faster and actually begin learning the material. Along with potentially turning your marks around, you also begin to connect with Calculester more than you have already before! As you get him to talk about himself during your breaks, you learn about the way he also tutors Scott and how much of a struggle it was. You learned that even though he is a sentient computer, he still has so much he still needs to learn about interacting with others. You also learn a couple new plant facts!

When your next big test came up for your science class a couple months later, you went into it with a newfound confidence, an attitude completely different from your usual one. Calculester wished you luck, he was confident you would do amazingly, but deeper down, he was nervous for you. He dreaded the possibility that you come back with a terrible score again, he was scared that you would lose faith in him as a teacher and along with that, your trust; He could have sworn he was about to malfunction with how worried he was for you.

As you received your scores a week later, you instantly go to find Cal to show him your score. You try to hide the smile on your face, but you can’t as you give him your paper marked with a large 79 at the top. Relief washed over him and pulled you into a hug. He was so glad he was able to help you, both of your hard work paid off and he was glad that you had managed to achieve your goal with his help, validating his ability as a tutor. As the bell rang, you guys walked to your next class together. As you guys passed his classroom, you shouted to him as he was going to walk in.

“See you after school for our study session!”

Lots of Love -Niko

[shinysamurott9]

2024 Games: Pokemon Sword

So this was a bit of a weird time. This is a pretty long read as after playing this game after so many years that, along with the borderline nuclear fallout that was the fandom reaction to it, was a major contributor to me kind of falling out of active interest in pokemon, my ultimate takeaway was that the game was actually not that bad. It was pretty fun, a little underrated even.

My history with this game starts around 2018ish. USUM had come out and I really liked that game. Gen 7 was an all around good time overall which I still appreciate today. The release that year was Let's Go, which I'll be real, I wasn't a fan of it in premise, I'm still not tbh. I could go into that but, in short, it was a game I had little to no interest in and I ultimately decided to skip it to see whatever was next. I bring this up because I think this was the start of me falling out of interest in pokemon, at least for a while. But while Let's Go may have planted the seed, SwSh was what solidified it.

Enter the announcement of Sword and Shield, my friends and I were pretty excited for it, the game looked pretty interesting, a region based on England? That's pretty neat. The new pokemon looked really cool too, we were genuinely excited about it. But if you're familiar with this game's history, you know exactly what happened. In the middle of the game’s hype cycle, GameFreak announced the titanically controversial decision to not include roughly half the existing pokedex in the game meaning that many pokemon would simply not exist in Pokemon SwSh. This was probably one of the biggest Internet shitstorms I've ever been witness to, and the whole thing, both the actual decision and visceral reaction, only made worse by bad actors in the community fanning the flame, just really turned me off SwSh and Pokemon as a whole in a way. In some ways it was a good thing, in the time I wasn't playing Pokemon I was exploring other series I was less familiar with like Devil May Cry, Zelda or Xenoblade or further exploring series I hadn't fully played yet like Metroid or Mega Man, most of which are series I absolutely adore today.

I still kept up with Pokemon to some extent, mostly playing the games while keeping my distance from the wider community. I played BDSP when it released and was not as disappointed as everyone else while still feeling fairly apathetic to it. Played Legends Arceus when it came out and genuinely loved it for it's fresh take on pokemon while also offering a ton of history and lore on Sinnoh that I really appreciated and I played Scarlet and dropped it a couple days in after discovering Pokeball warps and absolutely breaking the game letting me do a lap around the whole region and getting a lvl 40 starter before ever entering the school. Yhe vast majority of my time with pokemon was playing older games in Gen 3 or shiny hunting. That was til about 6 months ago. I had been playing Emerald and I wanted to take on the Battle Frontier and get the Gold Symbols. While I was prepping to do this I was watching a couple videos on the Ribbon Master Challenge and since I was already doing the Frontier and with the looming closure of Pokemon Bank, I thought that I wanted to take that on. And it's been something I've been working on the past few months. Massive shoutouts to CannedWolfMeat and SirToastyToes for their excellent videos that inspired me to do this. And now I'm here basically at the end,prepping to play through Scarlet for the the last few Ribbons in that game.

Of course though, In order to get the ribbons in Sword, I had to actually play through it for the first time. The playthrough, while really easy Leon and early Klara not withstanding, was extremely strong in terms of options for team members, especially with Isle of Armor options thrown in. I love pokemon games that offer a large variety of team members to use, it's a big reason I enjoy XY more than most. I found myself using 10 whole team members by the end of the playthrough. Would have had more but I literally never found Applin and Cursola is Shield exclusive. Many of these were new Galarian Pokemon which are for the most part fantastic. Galar imo has one of the strongest lineups of new pokemon in the series, though I feel Alola did regional forms better. Seriously though, I was using all these guys by the end.

Something thatvalso surprised me was the locations. While the Wild Area is a little boring, I found myself enjoying many of the locations. The two big cities, Hammerlocke and Motostoke are cool and feel very large, Ballonlea and the Glimwood Tangle are actually really great areas visually and Wyndon is imo, one of the best cities we've seen in a Pokemon Game in terms of both scale and looks. While I do like these areas, I will say progressing through them is extremely linear, it feels like there's very little opportunity to go off the beaten path. It's a pretty big shame when even more linear games like XY or Gen 7 had at least a couple of optional areas to explore.

I will say the main story isn’t great. I enjoyed some of the characters. Bede had a neat story with him basically trying to get validation from a father figure who doesn't seem to care much about him. Marnie was an all around good character with some fun interactions who genuinely is just doing her best for her home town and much of the dlc cast like Mustard, Klara and Peony were genuinely entertaining. I did enjoy some of the main game side characters too like Bea and Piers.

Where the plot falls is, well, the plot, not a lot really happens. The game does build up Rose's plan with Eternatus, but you're kept out of the action for most of the events leading up to it. The game basically doesn't have an antagonist until right at the end, where it just kinda feels forced. Everything with Macro Cosmos at Rose Tower only happens because Leon was meeting Rose and we didn't like that for some reason? And of course there's the climax with Eternatus, where as everyone and their mother has pointed out, Rose basically unleashes the apocalypse because he couldn't wait one day to solve a problem 1000 years away. I do like how nonchalant he is about it though, that's kind of funny and Eternatus is actually a pretty cool legendary, though there really isn't much on it storywise beyond the fact it crashed to Earth 3000 years ago and it is the source of Dynamax.

The DLCs though do have more interesting stories. With Isle of Armor focusing on Klara and her being humbled through the dojo and then bonding with Kubfu to raise him to his ultimate form. And Crown Tundra was actually really interesting as you have Calyrex be an actual character. The king of the land who lost his power over time, seemingly losing faith in himself and subsequently losing the people's worship and his steeds. Heck the fact that Calyrex properly talks to you really helps make him and his story stand out from other legendaries and is really neat I think.

I will say, there may be something to be said about how many of the best parts of this game are locked behind DLC. I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, the DLC itself definitely justifies its purchase, but I do agree that the main game is a little lacking in some areas that the DLC does help make up for but that of course has the price tag attached. I also have to say the way the DLC is designed is a liitle strange. While Isle of armor does a decent job being something you can do at any point. Having access to the Crown Tundra as early as the Wild Area is extremely weird. The levels don't scale like the Wild Area or Isle of Armor so no matter when you go there you'll be fighting stuff in the high 50s or low 60s. While this does mean you can't catch anything in the wild, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from doing the Dynamax adventures and catching not just a massive variety of overleveled fully evolved mons but basically any legendary from the previous generations. And with that stuff, it's not unreasonable to be able to do literally everything in the Tundra after that except for catching Calyrex. While I would agree this is a fair decision, when you're already handing me literally anything I could want to steamroll the game, blocking off Calyrex and only Calyrex just seems weird.

For some other Miscellaneous stuff. The Battle Tower: It's pathetically easy, especially by previous Tower standards. The NPCs are limited to the Pokedex available at launch and you have no restrictions on useable mons. I'm not really complaining about this as it felt good to have a Facility that was basically just a victory lap after doing every other Tower in the past 6 months or so, and it is very worthwhile to do for rewards like Bottle Caps, Candies and the Nature Mints. 50 BP for one mint sounds like a lot but it's really not as bad as it sounds. But it is slso incredibly funny that shit like this is allowed.

Speaking of, the Nature Mints, those are a genuinely fantastic addition to the series. I'm very happy to see how accessible optimising pokemon has become since Gen 7. Between Hyper Training, Very easy levelling with jow many candies you can get through Raids, Nature Mints, easily accessible EV Training through the dojo and items like the Ability Capsule and Patch (Even with how expensive the patch is in SwSh), you can make pretty much any pokemon perfectly optimised for competitive use with, for the most part, not much time investment, it's genuinely great.

One thing I have to say as someone who enjoys a bit of Shiny Hunting, SwSh are kind of a slap in tge face with how many mons are shiny locked. Stuff like Type Null which was huntable in Gen 7, the starters which are a cardinal sin to shiny lock imo, and Cosmog who has literally no practical reason to be shiny locked when you can get Solgaleo or Lunala from the Max Lair with massively boosted shiny odds. It only really reinforces how little reason there actually is to shiny lock stuff imo and SwSh has among the most in the series. It's extremely annoying. Doesn't help that the game’s shiny hunting method is kinda eh, and wasn't properly figured out til ages after it's release.

So overall, I do think SwSh is a pretty flawed game, but I feel like it has a lot of strong aspects that get overlooked due to how initial reactions colored people's opinion on the game. Is it the best pokemon game? Not by a long shot imo. Is it still good though? I would say so yeah. I'd put it around B Tier I think. It has made me pretty interested to get to SV, which I'll have to do soon for the last few ribbons.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I haven't done lists in a while and there's a lot pilling up just this week so it's time to bring it back.

1. I'm revisting Old Hollywood again now that I've watched most of the films nominated for Oscar this year. The Be Kind Rewind youtube channel has been sort of the trigger for going back to the past and for that I have to thank @shimako for the recommendation 🩷 I've watched the 2 hour and a half video essays on the Valley of The Dolls and the behind the scenes story is far more interesting that the film itself.

Not to say that the themes addressed in the film wouldn't be, like disillusionment in Hollywood, personal grievances, what it means to be an actress and especially not a really succesful one. It reminded me of Didion's Play It As It Lays (which I think it's a better piece of literature although the film adaption seems to have turned into a failure?)

2. Anyway, that made me go down the rabbit hole and watch other essays on Ruth Gordon (amazing woman) and Katharine Hepburn.

3 . Speaking of Hepburn, I realized yesterday that I've only seen her paired on screen with Cary Grant and not with Spencer Tracy (I know!). So I rectified that mistake and I watched Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 1949) and I finally understood what all the fuss was about and I have some sort of theory. Grant and Hepburn together are like this very performative version of a couple in which the constant bickering takes center stage, but even when they do get together, it lacks something. A bit of authenticity. But with the Hepburn-Tracy duo, you can almost feel it. It's right there in the small, natural gestures. Instant chemistry and love. They work so well together. I guess the off screen affair of 26 years helped that as well.

3. I love Mommy Dearest and Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford. The screaming, the crying, the makeup, "No wire hangers!". Poor baby Christina. It's a shame though that Faye Dunaway distanced herself from it because of how "bad" it turned out, but I understand why she felt she had to do it.

But I also couldn't help but think of DeNiro in Cape Fear and his own campy performance in a very 90s ridiculous film that allowed Scorsese to try his hand at that type of thriller. DeNiro's career didn't suffer because of it, as opposed to Dunaway's version of camp, which I prefer actually. It may have been hated at that time, but Mommie Dearest is a cult classic.

*Bonus: Currently listening to another You Must Remember This podcast series. It's Gossip Girls: Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper, aka the famous old Hollywood gossip columnists.

Now, for some ridiculous internet & showbiz drama:

4. People going conspiracy mode over Kate Middleton? Some of us lived months without any sign from Jimin. They could learn from that. But love the memes.

5. I feel sorry for those kids in Glasgow. They really experienced the effects of AI used by assholes who wanted to make some money. The lady in green hair has been all over twitter and whilst funny for us, it is shitty to be in her shoes. The Unknown! 🤦‍♀️

6. Who was an ass to Rebecca Ferguson on set? The consensus is that Jake Gyllenhaal was the culprit and I wouldn't be surprised. But it needs more investigating.

7. Over in K-Pop Land Karina gets a boyfriend, her fans are devasted and Koreaboo is pumping "articles" by the minute. What else is new?

8. Stans of all types are stanning and fighting. One day 🐥 girlies, the next day 🐰 girlies and all the other crazies all week long, no break. I do read the stuff in my inbox, but I'm really not in a mood to comment on every shitty thing that happens so often. I know that once I do it, then I just invite more and it's just pointless. There's no actual JM and JK which is frustrating enough and no travel show on the horizon and it's just too bleak at this point.

We're waiting, clock is ticking. At least release a travel show as a summer content, ok?

9. I did see that Billboard kpop 100 top. Yeah, I don't understand the logic of including individual artists if they haven't charted on their own. Don't these people have editors to point out the flaws in the listicles? It's just dumb.

[moonsinkfoxgirl]

Oh you've got time do ya? Time for the prime numbers?

prime numbers, yay ^_^

2. Are you outgoing or shy?

shy of course lol

3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?

Lilly^^

5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?

that is extremely unlikely to happen, but yeah, she would^^

7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

not gonna ever break up if I can help it

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

it's super nice ^_^

17. Do you think there is life on other planets?

it would be ridiculous to think otherwise

19. Do you like bubble baths?

it's how I take all my baths^^ it does wonders for the dysphoria

23. Do you have trust issues?

probably a bit more than most people but it's not that bad I think? I more have worrying issues than trust issues mostly

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?

never had an ex and hopefully never will

31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail?

it is^^ usually need to make one to clean

37. What do you say during awkward silences?

it wouldn't be an awkward silence if I was capable of breaking it

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?

that is a loaded question that is highly dependent on context, and the word 'deserves' is an extremely bad term to use in it

43. Do you smile at strangers?

no

47. Have you ever been high?

nope

53. Favourite makeup brand?

I don't

59. First thing you ate this morning?

cereal! choco rice to be specific

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?

nope, i was a 'pleasure to have in class'-kid

67. Facebook or Twitter?

I neither want the plague nor cholera

71. Craving something? What?

haven't had a good pasta in couple days now... the tragedy of not being with my girl, also cuddles

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?

yes^^ here in Vienna it's my pink blåhaj and Miharu my cute black snake

79. What colour shirt are you wearing?

yellow

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?

is that like a TV show or sthg?

89. Name a person you hate?

no thanks

97. Favourite actor?

I don't know any actors; favorite voice actress is probably 悠木 碧

101. Do you type fast?

most people rarely do I think and neither do I probably

103. Can you spell well?

haven't really checked much since my school days I was pretty alright back then, got a bit worse through all the internet typing but still nothing too bad I think

107. Have you ever been on a horse?

nope

109. Is something irritating you right now?

the fact that my gf is far far outside of cuddling range

113. What was your childhood nickname?

no thanks

127. What makes you happy?

Lilly, yuri, video games, having stressless free time to engage in my few creative outlets, Lilly

131. Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

137. How tall are you?

167cm

139. Brunette or Blonde?

I would understand this question if it at least only excluded like the rare natural hair colors, but like there isn't even a black hair choice? what the hell? (this does not mean I would pick black hair)

149. Do you believe in ghosts?

I wish I could, but alas, there is no evidence.

[yippeesizedifgohard]

The Date (oneshot)

HI. this is my first writing, i hope the g/t community on here likes it

-----

Sal was not a confident person, they would count themself as far more anxious, in fact. It didn’t help that sometimes they felt as though they had a phobia of Lobians - a newly befriended species that just so happened to be huge. Sal hadn’t even graduated college yet, they were an intern at a company to pay the bills, but they didn’t care much for the work. It would look good on a resume, and that was all that mattered. Lobians were frequent in the office - well not in the office but near it - but Sal never had to talk to them. It wasn’t until they met another paid intern that they first spoke to a Lobian.

“Hi,” he said, a small wave of a hand that could cover Sal like a weighted blanket, “you’re Sal, right?” They looked up from the forms they had been filling out and took a minute just to give him a light nod. “I’m new here - only been working for a few months actually - and my boss told me you’d be the best person to talk to about how to use the copier.” 

“Well, I-I don’t know if you’ll be able to use it,” they began, then realized that if they made this giant angry it could be over for them. “B-but, um, I can copy some things for you, i-if you need.” Sal tapped the papers on the table once, then set them down and stood. The Lobian offered another kind smile and scratched the back of his neck.

“Thank you so much,” he stated, reaching his hand out. Sal flinched and prayed he didn’t notice. He unfurled his fingers - about the size of Sal themself - and in his palm sat a piece of paper, a little wrinkled and wet from the sweat of his palm. Sal offered a nervous smile. 

Little did they know that would be the first of many interactions. Sal eventually learned the Lobians name - it was Ezra. Sal also learned a few other things about Ezra. He was talkative, friendly (at least on the outside), and oblivious as hell. He was denser than a rock. At least Sal knew he’d never get angry over their little flinches or the times Ezra would laugh and Sal would shake for a few moments after that. Still, Ezra scared them, and Sal knew deep down that there was something off about him. Nobody was that happy. 

There was one time, of course, when he slipped that facade. Watching when a man who was several stories tall yells at someone? It’s an experience you don’t forget. It didn’t help that the incident practically confirmed office rumors. People had already begun to claim that Ezra had been violent in the past, that he had anger issues and had only gotten the job because he had intimidated the boss. After the incident, the rumors furthered in severity. The secretary, Jenni, had looked his name up on the internet one time, and an article popped up. Allegedly, when he was sixteen, he had been caught trying to french a human, and then that human was found dead a few days later. Unrelated, the article had said. But Sal didn’t believe it.

“Sal? I had a request, if you aren’t busy.” He poked his head through the balcony window. Sal spun around in their chair, trembling lightly. How could someone so big sneak up on people like that? 

“You, um, you have the floor Ezra.” They noted, sitting on their hands so that they would stop shaking. 

“Would you like to get lunch together?” He asked, his cheeks lightly dusted with red. No. Sal thought. No, no, no. This can’t be happening. They panicked silently with their eyes open and a soft smile on their face. He couldn’t be serious. There was no fucking way. Either way, Sal could not have a choice in the matter. They had seen what happened if Ezra wanted his way - he got it, always.

“Okay,” they practically breathed out the response, their muscles tensing. They flinched when his hand laid down on the balcony. 

“Well, lunch break starts in a couple minutes, you wanna go now?” Sal stared at the hand. They couldn’t take too long in their response, or Ezra might get mad. But even if they said yes, would it be safe to go with him? If he had an unstable past, it surely wasn’t. But, if he had an unstable past, what was stopping him from doing whatever he wanted? So Sal got up from the chair, trembling of course, and sat in his hand. They tried not to look at his face as he blushed again.

Ezra had talked their ear off the whole way there, but Sal hadn’t been listening. They were preoccupied with the fact that they were now on a date with a guy they didn’t like who might’ve had a track record of hurting human partners. They trembled in his hand the whole way to the cushy restaurant, and felt even worse when the giant hostess made a face at them when they walked in. She seated them swiftly, but gave a knowing look to Sal. They’d gotten it before. It was one that meant ‘if you need out of here, just let me know.’ 

“So, I’ve probably bored you with all the nerdy work stuff, what do you want to do outside of filing papers all day?” Ezra asked, still oblivious to Sal’s discomfort. They fiddled with their fingers in their lap.

“I-I’m studying to be a psychologist right now, but, um, I don’t know if that’s what I’m going to go with yet.” They said, using the menu as a shield to hide behind. Ezra looked at his own menu, but continued the conversation.

“That’s really cool, Sal!” He noted loudly, though he changed the subject with a laugh. His laughter was always so unrestrained and loud, but now it felt mocking, which only added to Sal’s discomfort. He smiled playfully, “I know just what you should get. The fish and chips! Ha, I still remember when you told Jenni about how much you hated fish.” Sal’s toes curled inside their shoes and they desperately tried to make themself look smaller. How had he even known about that conversation? He wasn’t even a part of it? Had he just been listening to everything they said? When the waiter finally came, Ezra ordered himself a chicken parmesan sandwich. 

Sal ordered fish and chips. 

“Hey, you know I was just joking, right? You-you didn’t have to order the fish and chips.” Ezra suddenly got quiet and lower to the table. Closer to eye level. His face changed, and for a minute Sal’s brain lied to them about what it meant. It was by no means an angry face, but the sudden shift in Ezra’s mood made them more twitchy. Sal kept quiet, their eyes keeping away from him like the way he looked was poison. “Sal? Are…you okay?” Sal’s gaze snapped up to meet him and they nodded quickly. It was then Ezra caught on. “Oh. Oh no. Not again.” He gasped lightly and sat back up again. Sal tensed and he noticed. “I-I. Sal, you aren’t…no. No. I didn’t- I’m sorry.” He stood up from the table. “I-I’m going to the restroom.” Sal was left alone at the table.

~

He’d done it again. This happened so many times. Ezra would meet someone, mistaken their complacence was kindness, and then think they were way closer than they were. He looked at himself in the mirror of the bathroom, desperately messing with his hair.

“Oh god, no. I-I didn’t mean to-.” He didn’t know how to deal with it, so he just cried. He slumped onto the sinks and cried. Soon enough, someone came to check on him. 

“Hey man, you okay?” It was the waiter that was waiting his table. He looked up at him and sniffled.

“I-I did it again. I th-thought- I didn’t know.” The waiter just looked at him, confused.

“Your date sent me, by the way.” He added, washing his hands. “You might wanna head back out there.” Ezra splashed some water on his face, took in a deep breath, and let out a ragged exhale. When he got back to the table, the food had arrived, but he wasn’t hungry anymore.

“Listen, Sal, I am so sorry. I-I thought we were friends, and I didn’t know that you were…” he trailed off, his eyes refreshing with tears again. He slumped on the table, not wanting to look at the little face he had admired. There was a soft touch on his forehead and his head slowly moved up. Sal was standing right in front of his face, shaking, but there.

“N-No. I-I’m sorry, Ezra. I-I should’ve…” It was then he took in their nervous body language and recognised it as the language that had been there the whole time. That first day with the copier, he knew they were nervous then, but he assumed they had never talked to one of his kind before.

“Sal, I-I’m going to quit.” He said quickly and quietly. “I-I’m so sorry I didn’t notice before- oh god, I-I’m so sorry.” Ezra cried softly, mindful of how close Sal was to him. 

“No, no, y-you don't have to do that, i-its okay, really.” Sal tried to assure him, though they were shaking and stuttering. Ezra sighed into the table.

“I…is everyone there afraid of me too?” He asked softly, terrified of the answer.

“Well I-I know Mr. P isn't,” they offered.

“That's the boss, he doesn't count.” Ezra frowned. “I-I’m so sorry. It wasn't supposed to go like this again.” Sal gave him a confused look. “This isn't the first time I fell in love with someone who was afraid of me.” He commented, not really wanting to speak on it further.

“I-Is that what that article was about?” Sal asked themself quietly, probably trying to make it so Ezra couldn't hear them. But he did.

“What article?” He began to sit up. Sal flinched and he clenched his aching fingers.

“Jenni showed us an article, um, about…you.” Sal said, legs shaking. Ezra inhaled sharply.

“Oh. Wh-what was it about, anyway?” He had a hunch, but he needed to hear it from someone else just in case it wasn't what he thought. Sal took a deep breath and backed away, like they were afraid he was going to lash out. His stomach sank, knowing that fear was actually reasonable. He had freaked out at the boss a few weeks ago.

He was interning in HR, and somebody had voiced a complaint about him. Instead of doing the reasonable thing and saving his frustration for later like he typically did in the presence of humans, he expressed his frustration to his boss. Loudly. For a minute he forgot the office was made almost entirely out of windows and he yelled about it. Mr. Picker had told him softly that he could have the rest of the day off, and so Ezra left early that day.

“Um,” Sal's voice brought his attention out of his thoughts. “It was about something that happened when you were sixteen. I-It involved a human who later died and, um, yeah.” Ezra covered his eyes with his hands and began to cry again. “Ezra? I-I’m sorry.”

He was sixteen and in love with a human boy at his school. By now the two had begun dating, and Ezra had thought things were going well, at least, until the police burst in when they were getting very passionate. It turned out that Ezra's boyfriend hadn't been in love with him, in fact he was afraid of him. A few days later, his ex was found dead and he was taken to court over it. It was the most stressful time in his life, and he became more angry as a result. He was tired and scared.

“No, no, i-its partly true. I-I had done what I did to you, b-but it went further than it should have. B-but I didn't kill him.” He said, not looking at Sal at all. There were a few moments of silence between them as he cried. “I-I’m so sorry, it makes sense why you're all so afraid.”

“I'm sorry I judged you so quickly. That was wrong of me.” Sal commented, not able to look at Ezra. “Let's just go back to the office.” Ezra wiped his face.

“I shouldn't carry you right now. I'm sorry.” He said, sniffling. “I shouldn't have taken you out. I should have known better.” His head was laid in his arms and he kept his gaze away from Sal.

“Focusing on the should’ves doesn't help.” Sal said automatically, but then Ezra looked at them and they flinched. “I-I mean from a psychological standpoint.” Ezra laughed breathily.

“I know,” he wiped his eyes, “it's just really easy to.” The pair sat there in silence for a few minutes. “Thank you for not, I don't know, running away or screaming or hiding from me.” Sal gave him an honest soft smile.

“It's the least I could've done.”

Eventually, the two of them made it back to the office and were called in by Mr. Picker. Ezra was fully ready to take the fall, but Sal surprised him when they told their boss about all the ways Ezra was doing well at his job. He almost cried for the third time that day when Sal said they would stake their career on him. He would get to work there, but Mr. Picker was changing his job to be a delivery boy between employees to help prevent the collective fear due to ignorance.

[phatcatphergus]

okay honestly if i had to guess. I think tubbo will take off longer than literally just a day and I do think it’ll be several weeks if not a month or even longer before he streams on main but I do think he’ll do an alt stream within a week of the subbathon ending. bc as much as this subbathon has become a part of our lives and routines bc it’s been actual months it’s a part of his too and I think once the novelty of oh my god I have my life back goes away I genuinely do think he’ll miss streaming like I could totally see him doing a DJ alt stream for instance cause that isn’t as fun to do on your own without chat spamming emotes yknow. And I’m sure he’ll still be playing games with friends and some of those friends will be live sometime. I don’t think he could disappear from the internet for longer than like a week tops even if he wanted to cause his lives and routines and hobbies are so intertwined with streaming that genuinely an long break might make him feel worse not better. And cause like if he’s feeling pressure or whatever his alt chat is Very well cultivated at this point it’s 1k very chill people yknow. Sorry if this was a little parasocial it’s just me theorizing and just from the perspective of stopping anything cold turkey, whether stopping is a good thing or a bad thing, never works and all like we’ll miss him and I think he’ll miss us too

Honestly that’s my thoughts as well. He might go a bit longer if piso is there but that depends ENTIRELY on when the subathon ends. If it ends at the 90 day cap then he will only have a couple week before a sad last stream where he’s “bored without piso” but I think if it ends before that cap then piso Can keep him occupied enough to not stream.

I think we have to realize that Tubbo spent the majority of his formative years in developing individuality and independence live streaming to hundreds of thousands of people. He also used it as a form of escapism from the stress of streaming and the problems that come from it. Streaming is literally part of his mentality at this point and I think it’s too ingrained in his psyche for him to leave long term. He has to pretend that there’s a camera on him constantly or he gets paranoid that people are watching him. He looks in the mirror and sees a stream preview. The time he spends on the alt is related to his mental health (his words!).

He has a lot of great plans and aspirations, and I think he wants to be able to go a while without feeling the pressure to stream, but I don’t think he actually can. His life revolves around it and he quite literally depends on it in more ways then one.

[thenhlteaissuperhot]

I dont know if you keep tabs on her but i think something’s going on with Provy and Madison (his girlfriend). Yes, there was a lot going on with him not wearing the Pride jersey and her using their dogs account to talk about how she supports all people (and she took Provy out of the dog account bio after it happened. She also apparently had a pro-Trump picture in her vsco back in the day but took it down at some point too).

The reason why I think something’s going on is because back in April, Madison posted in Miami for her birthday and also saw her friends who moved there and her mom and brother flew out for to celebrate with her. I was really confused when I saw her stories because Provy wasn’t there at all (she still posted about him, even when everything was going down) and this had happened before he was traded. Granted, the week before, he was with her in Nashville but she didn’t even acknowledge that he wouldn’t be there for her birthday in Miami or celebrating her birthday, like how other couples would do.

The next big thing I noticed is that she went on vacation with Provy to Hawaii earlier this month and in one of the pictures on her insta story, you could see a bit of her engagement ring. Then a few days later, she had posted pictures of them together, almost confirming the engagement because the ring was more noticeable (but she didn’t say in the caption that she was engaged and she got a bunch of comments congratulating her engagement). She also posted more pictures of her in Hawaii later on this month and then today, all of those pictures from Hawaii were gone. She still has pictures of her and Provy together from earlier this year and the past. I’m a bit confused as to why she would take the Hawaii stuff down. Do you think he gave her a promise ring instead of an engagement ring and she got upset about it? Is this a quiet signal of trouble in paradise or am I reading too much into it?

The other thing that kinda throws me off a little about their relationship is the timing. She interned with the Flyers in 2018 and by All-Star Break 2019, she and Provy were on vacation together. I know it’s not a workplace violation or fireable offense for that to happen but who knows if she had secretly been messing around with him during her internship.

Frankly, I don't know anything about him beyond his religious statements, so I am solely relying on the information you have just given me here - feel free to correct me if I mess some of the facts up.

Some WAGs tend to take a bunch of their photos down every once in a while - whether it is because they don't suit their account's current aesthetic, because they no longer think they look good in them, I have no idea, but it certainly isn't an odd occasion. In this case, it seems like it might not have been an engagement ring and they didn't want any rumors about their alleged engagement to spread on the internet, or maybe she posted them without his knowledge and when he found out he told her that he doesn't want their engagement to be this public. I really don't have any other reasonable scenarios that would explain why she deleted them so suddenly.

They probably were messing around with each other already during her internship since it was the place they met and interacted first (I seriously don't believe someone, let alone an NHL player, would be willing to wait with f*cking someone just to refrain from breaking job regulations) - once again, this is a normal thing to happen basically everywhere.

Personally, I don't see that much weird stuff in this. The same stuff and even significantly worse one (ask Lauren Kyle about the McDavid cheating video or Svetlana about the entire Nichushkin and dr*gged girl scandal) happens to every other NHL couple.

[jackiewepps]

Anime Talk - Just Sad

*sigh* Now I'm just feeling sad, and it's all because of anime because... well anime can make you go through all kinds of emotions but this... well it just became a bit more real than usual.

Remember what anime I have been promoting for the past couple of months? This one! ("Oshi no Ko" in case you can't be bothered to follow the link) If you don't feel like watching the anime, go read the manga. It's on Jump+, first read is free.

Last month, a classmate told me that it is based on real events. When she said that, I wanted to look into it and learn more. Well, she is kind of right. I believe that most of the events described have actually happened, not to the same people, maybe not even anywhere near the same time, but I believe there is at least one example of most events in the real Japanese entertainment industry. According to one of the authors (Akasaka, Aka) that is what is going on. However, after episode 6, people got a much more specific case in mind.

SPOILER WARNING FOR THAT EPISODE!!!!!!

Also, if you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to reach out to any support, annonymous or otherwise. I'm sure there are many countries that has one. We do here in Denmark: livslinien.dk.

In this episode, a participant in a dating drama is being exessively bullied online by fans of the show and this causes her to attempt suicide. She is saved, but the story that these events are allegedly based on, ends a lot differently.

A pro-wrestler was in a similar situation, and unfortunately, she had no one to save her. Apparently the two stories were so similar that the mother of the pro-wrestler claims that the show is using her daughter's death to make a profit.

It has never been confirmed that this is the case, but if it is, honestly I can no longer support the show the way I do now. It's good, yes, but I will not help someone making a profit from someone else's suicide.

However, even with the arguments that the mother makes, it could be a coincidence that some of the posts are similar to those her daughter received. I mean, I don't know what kind of posts it even is. Many people get bullied online these days. Sadly that is nothing new. You don't have to be on a dating show, you don't even have to be famous for people online to tell you such evil things. I don't even want to type out what kind of evil things it is! Many years ago, I remember seeing a documentary, I think it was British, about teens taking their own lives due to exessive bullying on the internet that they could never escape from. Because this is such a common problem, I do not believe that neither the manga artists, nor the animators are trying to make a profit out of a single girl's suicide.

Even so, the mother of the daugher in question has every right to her feelings. She has every right to make the claims she does, and they may be true, I have no way of neither confirming, nor denying that.

However, people do not have the right to start bullying this poor mother who lost her daughter in such a tragic way (they don't have the right to bully anyone actually). Even so, they have been harrassing her for her claims, no matter what. The "fans" of "Oshi no Ko" who have just seen a message about what bullying online can cause, are actively doing that to someone else. How is this right? It's sad. It's tragic. My heart breaks for anyone who has ever been bullied this exessively online or offline.

I honestly wonder what goes through people's minds that makes them capable of bullying someone online. *sigh*

Anyway, if you are hurting and need someone to talk to, reach out to a service, or to anyone really. You are important to someone, you are valued, even if it doesn't always feel that way, there is someone who cares.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Impositions

I need to take a break to vent about a thing. For once, not about work.

So my email pings while I'm working away. It's from my stepfather, saying, "Guy's coming in to Do Things to the fuse box on 27th November, probably all day (8am-5pm). The electricity will probably have to be off all that day. Even then, he might have to come in on the 28th if things aren't finished, but he'll try really hard to be done before you have to start work."

So ... a few things.

I did not find out that anything was being done to the electrics at all until yesterday afternoon, when he interrupted my work day to bring this guy into the house to look at the fuse box. He said that work would be done on it "at some point". I did not expect it to be this month.

I did not get asked if this was convenient for me. I did not get asked to choose dates. If I'd just been asked, I probably would have been fine with the 27th. The fact that I'm getting this dumped on my plate without even the remotest bit of input is just starting to get annoying now, because he keeps doing it. Every time he wants to do something in the flat, I get told, not asked. I get that this is going to make things better in the long run, but I should at least get some input.

The entire point of me moving into this mess of a flat was that they were supposed to finish the entirety of the other flat, then let me move into it while they worked on this one. So why are we doing major electric works when I'm trying to live in this place?

There was zero offer to help with logistics like, for instance, where the fuck I'm supposed to put all the stuff that's in my freezer. A couple of hours while he's rewiring shit is one thing, but all day? Do you have any idea how much food that's going to waste? I'm not going to finish it all in a little over two weeks!

So my entire restful Monday, which I need to actually recuperate enough for a week of work, is now shot. I can't sleep in, because there's going to be this person doing fucking electrical work - which is apparently going to involve removing and replacing two fuse boxes, so a lot of power tool noise. Nothing in the flat is going to work, so no food, no coffee, no internet, no TV, no video games, and given how dark it is by 4pm, at least an hour of no book. I don't know if my stepfather is going to be there, so either I can't vacate because I can't have a stranger wandering around the flat on his own, or I have to leave and let my stepfather deal with everything and also wander around the flat more or less on his own.

I feel like my space is being invaded with no opportunity to even have any input. The worst part is, I feel like I have to accept it because I don't really own this flat. It's my mother's flat on paper; she's just letting me live here. Not to mention that I should be happy he's getting any shit done at all, given he's spent two and a half years doing absolutely nothing on either flat. I'm assuming he had the electrician do work here this month because this guy's done work on the other flat and it makes sense to him to get both done at once. But I'm still fucking annoyed.

So currently gritting my teeth and wondering what the consequences would be of saying, "I'm grateful for everything you're doing with the flats, I really am. I would just really appreciate it if you could be more respectful of my time and at least ask for my input on things that are going to be that much of a barrier to anything I might have needed or wanted to do on any given day." Because this is bullshit.

And also upstairs is back to using the power tools. Thank the gods it's Friday and I'm not working next week.

...But I am working now, so I'd best get back to it. I don't feel better. I'm still fucking angry, and I just want to punch walls, thanks.

[crazycatsiren]

Hey, so there's this blog that I used to follow. They're religious and act like a very kind, accepting person. One day, they suddenly ghosted me without a reason. Due to a lot of anxiety, I messaged them about three times and asked them if they're purposely ignoring me, and they never responded (I know three times is a lot; I feel really guilty about it, actually). I'm not blocked or anything, but it really scares me to think this person I really enjoyed talking to and even looked up to just straight up ghosted me, and I'll never know why. Do you have any advice? I'm sorry for venting to you; I have no one else I can talk to about this.

(I'm really bad with social cues and stuff, so I'm sorry if this also comes across weird at all)

Sometimes, life just gets in the way.

It could be that this person is simply taking a break from social media, and has stepped away from their blog for a bit. They might not be responding to anybody on the internet at the moment for their mental health. Or that they got busy all of a sudden, and their Tumblr had to get put on the back burner.

I've had plenty of mutuals who seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth all of a sudden. And then one day, they would return as fast as they left and were like "hey sorry folks the last couple of months sucked balls!"

[kindofblue28]

I played Faust not too long back, and although it was quite an Experience, I wouldn't say I consider the game to be very good, so I am curious as to why someone would consider it a good game.

You seem to enjoy it very much (at least that is the impression that I get), so would you explain what is it about that you like?

Also, since this is the Internet, I feel that I should clarify that I don't intend this question to be rude or malicious; I'm just genuinely curious as to what makes this game enjoyable for other people.

Hey! Appreciate the ask, I'd love to explain- but this is going to get a bit long, so forgive that. It's probably my favorite game tied with another game, so you've come to the right place. Spoilers below so I'm throwing this into a readmore:

Firstly I will at least state this game doesn't execute what it's trying to do well at all, and that's one criticism I have to recognize. The game ropes you in with it being about judging people and choosing if they go to heaven or hell, but that's just a lie told by Mephisto to rope YOU into the plot, and I found I missed this because it's not executed well at all, which left me confused for a couple months. The story of the game is of course, you're going around seeing these people's lives, their flaws, but you're also there to officiate the pact between Mephisto and Theodore- Mephisto wants his freedom from who he is and to move on from this world- and Theodore wants the idea of Dreamland to never die off, so in the end of the game, Theo takes Mephisto's role. I wanted to clarify this as it's frequently misunderstood about the game's overarching plot and why many people feel unsatisfied with the game's ending.

I like this game a lot for personal reasons I'll get into, but the way it talks about flawed people. We've got people who are complete shitheads, who deal with jealousy and greed, people like Frank who have a clear misunderstanding of what love even really is- and just, this cast is a mess. But I think they're all very human, even if it's not executed super well. Thirty minutes per episode with easily missable interactions can really hinder your experience based on how you play.

I thought characters like Frank were fantastically written and even if I hate Frank with my entire being, I feel as if he's still a character I can pity a bit- he abandoned his dreams for love, but got desire instead- and those are two clearly different things. He seems to "use" rather than "love" and those desires create a ripple effect on the other members of the cast he interacts with. A lot of this game's focus is on "force and counter force"- that one good or bad action can lead into an opposite action. For instance, I'm going to talk about Mephisto a bit.

Mephisto's arc is about him not being as bad of a person as everyone thinks, and being misunderstood- after all, he's not really the devil himself, he's just a neutral force carrying out his role in the story, which is to tempt people to hell. Does it align with his actual feelings on people? I highly doubt- he's very passive as one of the Mephisto roles I've seen, and isn't actively trying to bring you to doom, he gives you the tools to do it, but never forces you to go down that path.

Mephisto intentionally went out of his way to care for Giselle- after disagreeing with her desire to leave this world- after all, her true "sin" was wanting to die. Instead, he directly breaks the rules by giving her a friend, meeting her, and trying to help her find a reason to keep on going- "It's life's most important secret, my love: to find things to do that will make one proud." Unfortunately for this, this gesture of kindness and selflessness brought on a counter-force of horrible things happening- Marcellus took the hit for Mephisto breaking the rules and lost his status as an angel because of this, and Giselle is still taken advantage of by Frank in the end. It's really unfortunate, but that's just one of the few examples of how one action can lead into another. Mephisto is a really interesting character whom I also see people frequently miss the point of too- that he's just as human as the rest of the cast. I think everyone in this cast is pretty human besides Marcellus, who, being an angel, is kind of "above" everyone, even if Marcellus and Meph are cut from the same cloth (Mephisto is said to be one of the angels too, except he's just serving the devil, according to the old Arxel Tribe website).

Forgive me for how long I've been rambling, I'm writing this on a whim so I didn't get the time to flesh out my ideas. I just think overall that the nuance in this game is really interesting and I found many characters I could personally relate to as a human, as I'm flawed too (namely Mephisto and Giselle). I just got a lot out of this game that many others likely didn't, this game really helped me out of a bad place when I was struggling with my mental health as well.

This game is ugly as hell too but I grew to love it, especially after playing it on the proper display of the time- the mood and environments are fantastic on a CRT and you're missing out a lot of small details playing it on a modern display. I've left out a lot of things because I know if I talked more this would be an entire 10000 word essay, and I need to channel that towards my analysis of the game I'm writing and not an ask on tumblr XD

I recommend if this game left you confused, please check out this talk on the story of Faust with the writer of the game itself:

It cleared a lot of my confusion with this game for me, and I've gone some into the plot of this, but this covers a lot of bases that I can't cover in a concise manner at all.

I appreciate you reaching out and asking about this, and hope you have a great day/night/whatever :)