#it’s annoying that you HAVE to toggle it like you are just making me hate the live function more

[s-cullayy]

Tumblr users: please stop making us reset the tumblr live snooze every 7 days

Tumblr: okay :) how about every 30 days :) also the toggle doesn’t work :) you’re welcome :)

[no-shxme]

Question if you could rework Talon how would you do it? Like, if you have complete and total control of the character, can change things as far as the beginning or just progress his story. You can do whatever.

What would you do?

OKAY so i actually typed out a long ass response but then it got deleted so this makes me very sad faklsdjkljsfd but im gonna try and repeat myself. Disclaimer ofc this is going to be very long and its also just my personal opinion. No hate if anyone’s ideal talon is different.

So i can divide the changes i would make into like, 3 categories.

Core design

In game

Lore

I’ll go ahead and put it below the cut bc i know its gonna be so long (sob)

CORE DESIGN:

Okay im pretty sure i’ve said smth similar before but i cant remember. Basically i think talon’s core design fantasy conflicts with his design to an egregious degree. Riot’s goal is supposed to be to make the champ design fit the fantasy, but we’re supposed to believe he’s this cutthroat, efficient, STEALTHY assassin, who can kill with no mercy and climb all over the map and yet he’s got this jingle-jangle cape and also a hokey, non-retractable armblade. (this pisses me off bc zed has a retractable blade. So they DO exist.) also wild rift pissed me off bc when they redid their design of him they didn’t fix any of the issues and in fact made the armblade worse. How is he supposed to climb? It fundamentally conflicts with what he’s supposed to be. Get rid of both of them both. banished.

Granted, both of these things make his design more unique, but i dont think talon needs them. In fact their existence makes his own thematic design worse, as someone who’s supposed to blend in, supposed to hide in a crowd and be a nobody. He’s supposed to have a generic design. Maybe they can fuck with his cape a lil bit, but he doesn’t need to have this super notable look to him. Look at akshan. He’s just a shirtless dude (in a repurposed sol uniform) but he wears it well fr. 

As a side note: talon’s design in ‘the name of the blade’ is pretty good as a starting off point but it still has the stupid cape.

To be clear they will never change this i think. Talon’s armblade and cape are too ingrained in his old design so they’ll never be fixed, and this problem with it not matching his fantasy will only get worse over time.

Also i think base leblanc also looks ridiculous and is in the same boat.

IN GAME:

A new model + animations ofc! Hood toggle, + extra animation variants when vaulting over stuff. (over thin walls, thick walls, and side hops.) an idle knife flip. (oh and new splasharts ofc.) a new voice!! My current problem with the voice is that imo he sounds too old and deep, and also he suffers from being old (i hc him as between 23-25) and having few lines. Tbh i think talon would rock a raspy transmasc voice, or at least a raspy voice, prone to cracking bc he’s not super talkative.

random voice line ideas

New interactions with katarina, swain prolly, sett (as a treat) and ezreal. etc.

New joke response: “i dont get it” or “you talk too much.”

New taunt response: “be quiet.”

“Leave me alone” or “you’re annoying” after killing someone.

“I can climb that” when seeing sett or other eligible champs, both masc and fem. bisexual energy.

Lots of vocalizations. “Hah,” hrmphs, occasional “hm.”

A focus on shorter, more straightforward sentences as opposed to long wordy ones.

he will trigger more voicelines when by himself (for eg: in the jg) as opposed to around other champions. (yes im dreaming big.)

as an 'away from people or in the jg' voiceline: whistling. not like a tune or anything, just a few notes.

LORE:

Okay this is the really big one. I’m just gonna go all over the place.

Step 1: make him aro. MAKE HIM ARO. it doesn't need to be a big reveal or anything. Actually it’d be better if all of talon’s lore was lowkey. It can just be smth mentioned or implied on the side, but canon nonetheless. I hc him as bi too but the aro is way more important to me. WHILE WE'RE AT IT. riot please release an aromantic pride icon pls. every year i foolishly hope.

Step 2: i’d also make him trans. This isn’t a hard need for me but it makes his story/character stronger. Also i think its great to have open lgbt rep but i would like rep for people who are stealth too. Talon would be that. He likes to blend in, he likes to be unknown and invisible, he doesn’t want too much attention and he wants to be perfect. It’s pretty on the nose. I know people would be mad bc like, noo he wasn’t trans before, but i just dont care. My ideal talon is trans or at least gnc/nb-coded if amab. Also while we’re at it i’d also either give him autism with my autism ray-gun, or i’d just make him autism-coded. It just fits him. I think he realistically has anxiety and prolly some other personality disorder, if not a touch of tism.

Step 3: make the timeline of events around when he was adopted all the way to the kat comic more definite. Like how old was he when he was ‘adopted?’ (imo at least 13 but i can explain in a not already super long post pfpfpf). Retcon some of the kat comic. I think the most annoying part of it is how much he talks. I think riot thinks he’s like, a boring character, but he’s not. He’s just a NUANCED character. There are many different assassins in league that fit specific niches. (zed is evil shadow ninja assassin, akali is rogue wildcard assassin, pyke is the crazed executioner, yone is righteous, fizz is silly, katarina is proud and showy.) talon is already supposed to fit the most typical ‘assassin niche.’ like assassins creeds. Just let him be that. You don’t have to make him talk a ton, just amplify what’s already there. He’s a perfectionist, he does things in the most efficient way, he’s got layers and abandonment issues, and i think something that’s overlooked by riot is how he’s prolly a victim of manipulation and abuse. In fact i’d make that very clear, even by revealing that talon can’t read. That would already mean smth is up.

In terms of the kat comic: Cut out the whole part where talon monologues like an idiot at the end. While we’re at it, have kat kill the king, not that other guy. I think its a more interesting tie in and adds more character conflict. I actually hate how ‘good’ katarina was in the comic like she can afford to have more awfulness and then visibly grow out of it. Idc. continuing, i’d make it so that talon really thought marcus left, and then marcus returns just before the kat comic events and manipulates talon into trying to kill her. Idk this makes so much more sense to me i dont know why they had talon know about it the whole time, as if it didn’t kill his entire story that we’d been following for years. Like it was such an easy change to still respect what story he already had??? IT MAKES ME MAD. It also allows talon to have more obvious conflict with killing kat, bc their sibling connection improves in marcus' absence.

ALSO i like his scar in the kat comic but i’d like it differently instead of straight down. I feel like eye scars are pretty like, they all look the same yk. Can we vary it up or maybe give him a few more. He’s so pretty in the kat comic but he deserves more scars.

Also, in his high noon story i would not have fucking talon dish out the expository dialogue again. I love that story but it makes me mad how he just word vomits this whole story. Just put that shit at the beginning and leave him out of it. Or maybe find some way to explain that doesn’t involve clumsy paragraphs of expository dialogue. Sorry, no hate to the author but i think a character reciting a whole fable to someone is amateurish, lazy, and a disservice to his character. I would also make him and Yone the protagonists of high noon gothic as an au. Ive been meaning to make a post about it but they parallel each other very nicely. A demon going holy and a good man going hellish.

If i could i would legit canon-ship him with sett or with akshan. But thats ofc very indulgent and relies on setup.

uhhh extra bits that im thinking of:

retcon the going to shurima after failing to kill kat bit. i want him to fester. i would rather him be totally lost for a second and observe the wreckage of his lost family.

imo he never meets cass or soreana, because he enters the family in his teens when they're both already in shurima.

i think a really cool way to deliver talon's lore would be via other champ lore that happens to have him in it. with a consistent voice you'd be able to piece him together while still maintaining the theme of him being on the outside, lowkey.

OH I'D CHANGE HIS ICON BTW. his character icon doesn't look like him. dear god. dark brown hair pls, amber eyes. let it be so.

if i could i would strengthen the anarchistic themes he has going on in his skin lines. yeah let him go apeshit why not. let him be a thorn. let him break apart.

im pretty sure he's canonically short (looked the same size as kat in the comic) but if not. he is now. sorry bud.

oh as a final note. right now his parents are just Gone. but i would make sure that they abandoned him. its the strongest way to cause him to attach to marcus.

there's probably more but i really can't remember rn and its already so long. my god. thanks for this ask tho it was very fun to answer omg. if i ever become a famous author id beg riot to let me write smth for him. a novella or smth like garen first strike.

and ofc to reiterate, these are just my opinions. people can have their own versions of talon for sure, its all ok!

[dontcryminecraft]

I figured I'd just go ahead and say that translation AI is translation AI, and my critiques on Dream's mod video for his smp still hold up for Quackity's QSMP translation mod.

Now, before I continue, I want to clarify that this isn't hate, this is neutral criticism of the technology behind the AI and simply discussing the mods. This goes for both quackity and dream's mods. Yes, in the post where I talk about dream's smp (link here, for context), I hate on everything, but hopefully when I talked about the AI it came across as genuinely based on tech and linguistics. I actually got an anonymous message about that, so here's a post that went into a bit more in-depth on the topic.

Now, to the point of the post-

AI when used for translating is great, but it has its quirks and hiccups. Things like accents, slang, metaphors and other nuances to a language can make the translations an AI provides come out strangely. Names also trip the AI up. This is simply a hazard of using the tool, and you can fine-tune it all you want, but it'll always be there in some small way. Still, using the tool is very helpful and it should not be thrown away because of these things.

I will say I'm pleasantly surprised at the QSMP mod. The need to constantly look above people's character heads isn't as much of a hassle as I thought, the wait for the AI to finish translating isn't annoying in the slightest, and there's a chat box to the side that has the translations in them alongside the above-the-head ones which I really like. It also has a toggle button so you can turn it on and off at your discretion. This helps when people are speaking the same language, or if you want to go back to full immersion and having no translation help.

tldr- this mod has pleasantly surprised me, and all of the issues are par for the course but doesn't hinder conversation like I thought. 10/10. (as if my random opinion matters or hold weight lol)

[waterspoutskies]

If my blog dies or is shadowbanned let it be known that I died fighting to explain to staff that the hellsite doesn't have to become instagram

Re: Today's staff announcement (And what I sent staff in feedback under the cut)

Staff's latest announcement at: https://www.tumblr.com/staff/722477242948747264/tumblrs-core-product-strategy

Aside from the obvious concerns about the following tab being removed and the chronological feed being removed (let me tell you how annoying it is on my newer blog having to change over to the Following tab instead of the For You tab each time I log in because there's not a way to permanently enforce that change), there are a few major issues.

1) Absolutely NO notification emails if push notifications are turned off. I turned them off. I don't want emails if I turned off notifications. This is the dumbest thing I've seen proposed in quite a while. Not even Instagram and Twitter send emails when you have notifications turned off for the site.

2) Bring back picking blogs to follow in the introduction steps, not just tags. This should be a no brainer. This site is unbelievably easy to use if you know that following blogs = content on your dash.

3) Don't collapse reblog threads. We make reblog chains for the humor of it. And if you must, you better make that toggleable the way collapsing long posts currently is. I want to see my reblog threads. There's a whole culture around this, which you might take the time to dive into if you wish to understand how things are being used by the userbase.

4) The same goes for hiding duplicate reblogs. First of all, doing it multiple times can be for the humor of it. But also? People use that as a timed post system to reach different parts of their audience based on the time of day. And it's much easier to promote an old post about your commissions than make up a brand new one each time. Your "creators" function much better the way things are than they do on sites that don't allow this- And you can ask them about it. Once again, if you must, make that toggleable.

5) Speaking of reblog issues. You want to clean up reblogs and make post chains easier to follow? Bring back our ability to click on usernames to track back through reblogged additions to posts. Don't take me to their blog. Don't take me to their frontpage. I want to see what they said on the post, and THEN I'll consider following them, not the other way around.

6) Y'all seem to be under the impression that the majority of us "create content." If content is us musing our random thoughts aloud and shitposting, then you'd be correct. Not everyone coming on here is coming to gain a mass following and monetize themselves-- I would bet, if you used one of your polls on a staff post, you'd discover that a majority of us are not doing that. We're here to socialize using a form of online media.

7) Since we're bringing up feedback issues, toggles should be permanent. If you make something toggleable, I do not want to go back in once a week and have to change it back. This applies to 3 and 4. And certain other issues.

8) Staff, I know y'all are getting a fair bit of hate for this, since y'all just make the announcements, not so much the upper level decisions. Especially not the corporate drivel lingo in today's. So let me address this one directly to the corporate overlords: If you want to make money off of users and improve the traffic of the site, you might try asking the userbase at large what keeps them on the website. Not what they want to see improved, what keeps them there. Tumblr succeeds because it isn't going the way of other social media websites. Don't be just like everyone else. That's why we're here in the first place.

[pieroulette]

Same. Sometimes i just want to stop writing. We give out so much, but receives so little (even receive hate as if we owe anyone anything in the first place). But my mind cant shut up, i just have to write them down -- let the universe live. Then i share it again, knowing very well i wouldnt get as much appreciation as I wish but at least my mind and heart is freed (slightly).

yep true, this is how i exactly felt. only writers will understand each others' troubles :') the lack of feedbacks and spam likers is getting annoying, but still that's a tiny bit okay. but when some unhinged people and more brazen they are to have their anon toggled on, that's when they crossed the line. we don't owe any damn thing to a disrespectful, obnoxious, immature, fucked up in the head kind of person. like that clown 🤡 yes I'm talking about u the clown anon of the year, i am not even mad but just amused cus it shows how mentally fucked up you are in the head </3

so when that happens, i am not going to back down lol. an eye for an eye. if people act like an immature kid, then they should be treated as one. so you shouldn't let them do that to u either, but again it's your choice, and it shouldn't cost your peace of mind. we can't really give up on writing anyways, that's true. our soul is meant to pour out, not to keep in. ig this is a never ending lifelong lesson to keep going on for our sake. to keep less expectations for others, and to only pour everything for ourselves. for us!

let's not give up on writing! (tbh I'm not sure but since you said you write, i assume you have a writing blog too? i badly wanna support u but no pressure<33) this is getting long, but i'm grateful for you reaching out and talking w me, it makes me happy to talk w u!!

[nanalikessurveys]

What’s your current favorite song at the moment? I never have a favorite song these days. The last song I listened to more than once was Nobody’s business by Rihanna and I meannnn it’s good?

Have you ever read any self-help books? I have a feeling I have but I have no memory of it. That’s not the book genre I’d normally go for.

What was the last book you read? Dernières nouvelles des choses: Une expérience philosophique by Roger-Pol Droit.

Do you thank the bus driver?

No, I would have to raise my voice for the driver to hear me and I hate raising my voice, especially in public settings.

How many tabs are open right now? 8 tabs. I like to toggle between different sites often so I want to have multiple tabs open.

Have you ever had your heart broken? I guess. Nothing super serious but it still affected me a lot.

Do you wear makeup much? I always do my brows if I go outside because my brows are very blonde and it just looks like I have no eyebrows and that doesn’t look good on me. But I like wearing other products as well quite often, makes me look prettier.

When was the last time you flirted? I don’t know. Never?

What should you be doing right now? Nothing I should be doing. I could go to bed since it’s almost midnight but I don’t feel like doing that just yet. And I don’t have any reason to wake up early tomorrow, so.

Do you usually get good grades at school? In elementary school, kinda. In middle school, no. In high school, yes.

How did you and your first best-friend meet? My first best friend was in the same class in elementary school as me. We’re not friends anymore since our friendship started fading away during middle school.

Do you like short hair on girls? I like girls with short hair and girls with long hair.

How about long hair on guys? ^ same thing.

When was the last time someone told you they loved you? I don’t know.

Are you a righty or a lefty? Righty.

Do you think someone’s thinking about you? Most likely no.

What is your favorite month? The months from october to february.

What is your favorite color? I like all the colors. I guess I still always say purple and (dark) blue.

Who was your last phone call from? From my mom.

Have you ever trusted someone you wish you wouldn’t have? Yeah, I trust people way too easily.

What color are your eyes? Blue/grey/green/idk.

If you could go back in time and change things, would you? Noo. I’ve seen The Back to the Future enough times to know it’s not worth it.

Do you like your smile? No. I used to not even think anything of my smile but for some annoying reason for the past couple years I’ve become aware of my smile and came to the conclusion that I don’t like it.

What made you the happiest today? I made homemade bread and it turned out perfect.

Who was the last boy you texted? Idk. My dad? lol

Do you get along with your parents? Yes. I’m not close with my dad but we get along perfectly fine.

Are you scared of needles? I’m not. I don’t know if this is a little goofy but I like getting my blood drawn. I like the little pinch it gives me.

Do you believe love can last forever? Of course. 

Do you like the ocean? Hmmm, sure. I don’t have strong feelings about it but it’s nice.

Are you allergic to anything? If so, what? To penicillin. Also I get really particularly big bumps from mosquito bites.

Do you know anyone who is/was a drug addict? No.

What is currently the most tan spot on your body right now? I uhhh…don’t know. My skin color is equally distributed haha?? < Lol same.

What is your dream job? I have no idea.

Would you say you are ‘popular’? Nope. I honestly love that now. I like having only a small circle of people around me.

Do you tend to cave into peer pressure? No.

Have you lost anyone close to you? No one close to me has died. Except for our cat when I was about 10.

Would you say that you are an intelligent person? I think I have pretty good “social intelligence”. I can read people really well. I have a lot of thoughts and I always like to examine everything from different prespectives. But I’m not good at things like problem-solving, planning etc. I am a slow learner and don’t have the attentiveness to even learn.

Who was the last person to hurt you? My best friend.

Are good-byes easy or hard for you? Hard, because I get attached to people very easily.

[patchesjam]

I don’t think anyone knows exactly how the algorithm works, not even YouTube, but I assume it might prioritize relative spikes in engagement (ie a popular channel uploading for the first time in a while like Dream’s Antarctica vid, or a smaller channel getting a viral hit) but I’m fairly certain that it has a mind of its own 😭 if it was simple the entire trending page would be Jimmy’s pristinely engineered content so even though it makes no damn sense to me I’m a little grateful for its unpredictability

Also re: the shorts being considered in the same trending tab as videos, I went to a data science conference last spring where susan wojcicki and her chief data scientist spoke a little about their future plans for YouTube, and both mentioned plans to promote their shorts feature to try and integrate it into the fabric of the site, so I don’t think it would be a far gamble to assume part of that is teaching the algorithm to promote shorts. From a corporate standpoint I guess it makes sense to merge shorts and regular videos but as a YouTube viewer who fucking hates shorts I would love to have separate trendings or at least an easy toggle filter? But also as a dream stan it’s a tad annoying to see short-form content beat him out on trending because his hard work editing and creating an engaging 40 minute video doesn’t feel comparable to, say, a 30 second clip someone roughly edited together

sorry im answering so late i had work and wanted time to read and respond fully :(

this is rly interesting tysm! and yeah that'd make sense about engagement, otherwise it would be almost like twitch with zero discoverability all over it.

and yeah that would make sense about promoting shorts. especially if theyre trying to keep up with things like tiktok. im in the same place as you in that i hate hate hate the shorts and i love your idea of being able to toggle it. even if just on the trending it would be nice to have a 'gaming - shorts/videos/mixed' toggle section. because you're right I just don't think its fair for effort and it just doesn't feel like real youtube content? like if im looking under trending videos i want to see videos.

[0perfectimperfections0]

Pet Peeve

There were the obvious ticks, of course. One of which being that Lou absolutely despised seeing messes. It was just in his nature. Had the janitor role not been enforced on him, he might have enjoyed it. Even so, those Ugly Dolls were terribly messy and most of the time they only were so to see Lou's eye twitch.

That was one little pet peeve.

Then there was the nonsense jargon that they used. He still couldn't fathom how they understood what Gibberish Cat was saying. And it seemed as if the Uglies had their own form of communication sometimes. "Woggle-Toggle" was not a word. It meant literally nothing. Yet the Uglies had their own definition for it. He still didn't understand.

But, neither of those compared to his ultimate pet peeve.

It wasn't as obvious as the other ones and it probably would have gone over their heads if it hadn't been for the robots. Some of the new dolls that would come to Imperfection would notice him, walk up for a handshake, and go, "Oh! You must be Louis."

Moxy and the others -- whoever decided to annoy him for the day -- would think nothing of the slight twitch at the corner of his lips. With a cool aura, he'd simply shake their hand and say, "Call me Lou." The new dolls would think nothing of it, either, other than a simple formality that Lou would use to make them feel more at ease in the Institution.

They didn't notice until the robots kept repeating the full name. "Louis," one of them had spoken, "there's a doll in need of--"

"Lou, please," he corrected as calmly as possible. It had been the hundredth time he'd corrected the robot, but it was a reflex now to try and fix the error. He hoped that the machine would understand at some point.

It was then the regular statement hit home with some of the others. The robot's request had been paved over as Moxy tilted her head at the blonde, "Louis?" She asked experimentally.

It proved something when his hand twitched into a fist before he addressed her, "That's not my name."

"But, it is, actually," Ugly Dog continued. "Yo, bot. What's his name?"

Without missing a beat, it responded, "Prototype Model 12 has been assigned the name Louis."

"But," Lou quickly spoke up, "I go by Lou. End of story."

"Why don't you wanna be called Louis?"

"I just don't."

"Louis," Wage sang. "Louis. Louis. Louis. Loui--"

"Ugh! Don't call me that!" Lou held his fingers against either temple as if trying to mentally will the words away.

"What's wrong with Louis?" Moxy asked.

"Because I hate it!" Lou stomped his foot on the ground. "It sounds stupid! I mean, what's the first image that comes to your head when you hear the name, Louis?"

Nolan hesitated, "...You?"

Lou ignored him, "You think of some dweeb, right? Some nerd with glasses and a sweater vest with a bowtie around his neck."

(A/N: Shout out to Meet the Robinsons)

Mandy hummed, eyeing him up and down, "I kinda wanna see you dressed like that, now."

The blonde scrunched his face up, "Ew, no! My point is, don't call me that. Please," he stressed the last word.

This was new. They didn't think there was any aspect of himself that he didn't love. Other than being a prototype, of course. Because in their minds, what wasn't to love?

Moxy was about to drop the conversation, still ignoring the robot's need to talk to Lou. However, she had to get something out of the way, "Well, I like the name, Louis. It suits you." He glared down at her. "In a good way! It sounds professional! Right guys?" She looked to the others. They each gave their own affirmation.

Lou huffed, "Whatever. I still hate it." He noticed the antsy movement of the robot beside him, "Oh, what was it you needed?"

"A doll needs help, Sir," it quickly rushed. "The dog is using them as a chew toy."

"Oh!" Lou and the others quickly hurried off, laughing nervously at their neglect. Well, they found out another pet peeve of Lou's.

And, just like all the other ones, they wouldn't heed it.

[whaleofatjme1920]

I am BEGGING YOU! In your crack creepypasta fanfic pls include a part where the reader goes up to the roof of the mansion and starts singing fight song and doing ballet and all the pastas hear it

Creepy pasta x reader part?? Idk I’m so RANDOM XD 🕴

I don’t understand why Jane is so jealous of my relationship with Jeff. i don’t even LIKE him that way. He’s not my type. Ok maybe he is kinda cute when he smiles BUT THATS BESIDES THE POINT BAKA.

She’s so mean and for what?? Like I could be having a tea party with Sally and LJ were having a fun time eating cookies Masky made (his pink apron is so cute and I think I saw Hoodie kiss his cheek!!) and she just comes in and ruins all the fun. I don’t get it. Sally always says she’s been much moodier since I came in and I think she’s just jealous of le Moi? 😳

Idk what she’d like about me I’m not a blonde preppy popular girl I’m a girl that listens to emo music and is random with mean parents. They sold me here?! But it’s actually not that bad. Slender Man usually asks me to call him father or dad, because that’s what everyone else calls him.

It felt weird at first lol but I can confidently say waking up in the morning after a long night of killing people and having fun with Toby and EJ hearing him vacuum and see him read the paper with his faceless face is pretty funny and dad like.

We’re gonna have a Halloween party!! Obviously Halloween is a big thing in the mansion. The entire family gets together. We even mange to corral mr Widemouth!!! He’s so mean to sallly though 🙄

I’m sitting on the couch with Ben and we’re playing Mario kart while EJ, LJ and Jeff hang up some streamers. I wonder if we’re gonna have any adult apple juice 😳

“BRO let me win!!” Ben cries out as he whips the controller at the tv.

I laugh and shake my head. “No way! I won fair and square” I say as I cross my arms and playfully stick out my tongue.

Masky hisses. “BENJAMIN WE ARE NOT REPLACING IT IF U BREAK IT AGAIN!!” He yells like an angry mama bear.

I cackle and toggle my way back to the menu. “Another round gamer boy??” I ask as Sally sits between us and happily watches.

Ban nods. “You’re on.” He grins. He starts wildly flailing and I do too.

“You’re such a baka!” I scream as he sends a blue shell my way. I watch in horror as all the racers pass me up Ben included. (an: I would DESTROY Ben in Mario kart I USE LE BANANA PEELS WITH SCARY ACCURACY WHHHHHHA)

He’s laughing and I’m laughing and some people in the house are watching us play. Jason has his forearms rested on the couch EJ has a small smile on his face while he munches on a kidney and Hoodie is smilin while eating some cheesecake >-<.

We’re having so much fun and then miss buzzkill herself walks down the stairs. Jane looks so angry as she huffs at us.

“Will you two please shut up? I’m trying to sharpen my weapons and you take are being so d*mn loud!” She’s glaring daggers at us and her lips are pouting. Ugh I hate her makeup she looks like she tries way too hard.

I roll my (e/c) orbs. “Lighten up” I say.

“You’re so rude” she says back.

“Jane” EJ says. “They’re having fun.”

“It’s literally so fricking annoying” she says as she walks up to the tv. She bends down and turns it off making me and Ben groan loudly.

“Jane why are you being so mean to me?” I ask as I stomp up to her as the rest of the pastas move around the mansion give us space.

“I think you’re stupid” she says. Jane crosses her arms over her chest. “You clearly want to take Jeff from me.”

I scoff and flip my long shimmery (h/c) hair and flicker my (e/c) orbs wildly. “Uh no I don’t??” I reply.

Jane scoffs and slaps me! “Stop lying!”

I cry out and feel the red mark forming on my pale cheeks. I feel like I’m speechless! None of the other pastas say anything as I begin to cry and run away. I trip up the stairs before scurrying into my room. I throw the door open and reach for my iPod before running to the rooftop (an: uh pretend that the proxies gave u a magic key to open the roof!).

I shiver a little bit due to the autumn air but turn on my favorite song called “Fight Song”

The music plays and I can’t help but sing and cry and dance. My parents hated me but they wanted me to be their little overachiever so they enrolled my in ballet in a young age. I’ve never been an athlete but I do know how to dance.

“And all those things I didn't say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight

Can you hear my voice this time?”

I do a few flips and jumps up on the roof not even noticing how on the front lawn everyone is crowded around watching me dance and listening to me sing. Small smiles are on their faces.

Sally is dancing with smile dog and Slender looks proud of me!

“This is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power's turned on

Starting right now I'll be strong (I'll be strong)

I'll play my fight song

And I don't really care if nobody else believes

'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me”

I do a few dramatic flares and jumps as I extend my legs before looking over the edge at all the pastas. They’re smiling, cheering, sjnging with me except for Jane who looks more p*ssed off than ever.

I feel happy tears in my eyes as I wave down to everyone.

“Know I've still got a lot of fight left in me” I sing loudly with all my emotion letting out years of pain from my parents and bullied at school and Jane. Everyone on the lawn erupts into cheers and loud applause at my talent. Some are even whistling and Bloody Painter throws a rose up at me.

Jane looks so jealous.

[mermaidxatxheart]

Better Together Chapter 2

Pairing: Poe x Reader

Word Count: 3.5k

Warnings: Fluff, mentions of lackluster sex, paranoia, Poe being adorable. Probably swearing.

A/N: my works are not to be reposted on this site or any other site without my knowledge and permission. Reblogs are, of course, welcome. If you'd like to be added to my tag lists, please send me an ask and let me know which tag list you'd like to be added to.

Series Master List

Chapter One

Chapter Two

You slowly blink your eyes open in the darkness of the room. Bryce’s big arm is snaked tightly around you, self satisfied snores reverberate softly in your ear. Your entire lower half aches as you stretch and try to sit up. Bryce holds you tighter, pressing his chest into your bare back. His hand snakes up between your breasts as he clings to you.

Carefully, slowly, you roll him over, easing his hand off your skin. You place it back on his chest and slide off the bed, gathering up your clothes. You quickly get dressed and head for the hangar to meet Poe.

You’re feeling off this morning. You wish the commissary is open for some caf, you wish you had been able to sleep in; you wish Bryce had… well. Nothing you can do about that now.

Your go-bag previously stored in the ship, you head there now, trying not to wince with every step.

“Hey, partner.” Poe greets, smiling wide. His smile falters when he sees your empty hands. “You didn’t bring me a caf?”

You groan, walking towards the on-ramp. “I didn’t even bring me a caf. Don’t start.” You mutter.

“Well, lucky for you, I have a friend in the commissary staff.” He says, grabbing you by the back of your shirt and stopping you in the entryway.

“If you have something to say, just say it.” You complain, closing your eyes. He’s way too happy this morning, being awake before the birds are.

“Boy, you’re a grump this morning.” He teases, covering your eyes with one of his big warm soft hands.

“Poe.” You whine.

“Hold out your hand, gorgeous.” He says ever so softly in your ear, his breath on the outer shell making you shiver, making you wish last night had been more satisfying.

Shakily, you hold out your hand, palm up. He leans in close around you, broad chest pressing into your arm and, Maker, he’s so warm. He sets something circular and heavy in your palm and waits.

“Open those pretty eyes.” He prompts. You do and there’s a big cup of coffee balancing perfectly in your hand.

You smile slightly to yourself, grateful to your friend, and you try to shake yourself out of this slump. “Thanks, Dameron.” You step further into the ship, changing your grasp on the cup. “How’s your head?” You ask.

“Just fine. I didn’t end up drinking last night.” He studies you as you head for your bunk. “Okay, what’s the matter with you?” He asks, following after you.

“Nothing. Just tired.” You dig your bag out and rifle through for your favorite sweatshirt. Space is cold and you naturally have a lower body temperature.

“Didn’t you see your loverboy last night? Shouldn’t you be in a better mood?” He teases and you feel your shoulders tense against your will.

“I’m fine, Poe.” You toss over your shoulder, pulling the thick fabric on.

“Oh, did Mr. Prick not live up to the hype?” He continues as you head for the cockpit.

You want to tell him to let it go, that it’s none of his business if you didn’t… but there’s no way to say anything without giving everything away.

“That’s exactly it.” He surmises easily and you do your best to hide your quickly flushing face. “Yikes. If only there was someone who warned you that he wouldn’t be worth your time.” Poe ponders and you roll your eyes.

“If you’re done poking fun at my anticlimactic sex life, maybe we could get going? It’s gonna be a long week together.” You prompt, sliding automatically into the co-pilot’s seat and leaving the pilot’s seat open for Poe.

“I have so many questions.” He sighs.

“If you value keeping your tongue in your mouth, you won’t ask them.” You warn and he groans. “We need to do flight checks.” You half rise out of your seat before he catches your arm.

“Nya already did them.” He says and you roll your eyes.

“Right. Like I’m trusting my life to her.” You scoff and head out of the little room to check on everything yourself.

Nya is probably the worst person on this Resistance base. Maybe even in all the galaxies. She’s rude, condescending, petty, moralless, and you have a sneaking suspicion she’s not really here for the cause. She hates you, and you hate her. No way in all seven hells are you trusting your life in her hands.

You shimmy down the engine hatch, checking all the gauges, valves, pumps, and anything else that she might have tampered with. You’re excruciatingly thorough. Just as you’re about to finish, Poe’s exasperated sigh reaches you.

“Done yet?” He calls and you roll your eyes, taking just a little longer to properly annoy him. “Y/N, do you trust me?” He asks and you sigh.

“Probably against my better judgment.” You admit.

“I was with Nya when she did them. My name is on the list.” He says and you head back over to the opening and extend your hand.

“You promise you didn’t let her ample… personality… distract you?” You ask as he easily hauls you back up to him.

“Promise.” He holds out his index finger and you press yours to it.

“Okay. I feel better.” You nod and he chuckles, draping a muscular arm around your shoulders.

“Good, now let’s get going. Oh, and if you need to… take care of business,” he pauses to wiggle his eyebrows at you, “I won’t judge.”

You smack him in the chest, hard. “Fuck off, Dameron.” You slide back into your seat and start the engaging sequences. He laughs quietly, rubbing his chest where you hit him.

***

“Landing gear.” You say you assume pointlessly. Poe Dameron doesn’t need you to remind him to extend the landing gear, and yet here you are.

He doesn’t respond, doesn’t look at you, he hasn’t even blinked for the last five minutes.

“Poe. Landing gear.” You repeat, a little louder. Still nothing. You grumble and start to lift out of your seat to reach across him and flip it. Naturally, that’s when he starts to move.

“I’ve got it.” He huffs, lifting your arm out of his face and toggling the switch.

“Clearly.” You roll your eyes. “Lost you there for a second.” You hint and he glances at you, his skilled hands flying over the console now without thought.

“Sorry. Daydreaming, I guess.” He rolls his head, easing some tension out of his neck.

“About being anywhere else?” You tease.

“Absolutely. I can’t stand being here with you. Don’t know how you stand being around yourself.” He huffs, glancing out the window, trying to ease the ship down without knocking into too many branches.

“Unlike you, Dameron. I don’t have a choice.” You reply.

The unanswered question of his daydream is dropped as he lowers the ramp and stands up. “Come on, partner.” He says, grabbing his bag and draping it across his chest.

You follow, grabbing your holopad, and double-checking for the third time that you have everything you need. Following Poe, you slip easily into work mode. He closes the ramp after you and waits while you pull up your coordinates on the planet.

It’s densely covered in trees as tall as the clouds, so big around the base that fifteen men could stand holding arms outstretched and probably not be all the way around. Thick foliage covers the ground, threatening to trip you even if you’re careful of where you step. Bright flowers are scattered in the green light cast down from above. Massive branches are over your head, big and sturdy enough for both you and Poe to lie down on. Gnarled, twisting roots rise up from the ground, sprawling across the floor. Roots from one tree can end up ten or fifteen feet away, and they seem to follow you, creaking and creeping up behind you.

The air is muggy, damp with condensation from the water being evaporated under the tree canopy. After just a couple minutes, you feel like you’re drinking the air rather than breathing it.

Focusing, you pull up the map construction on your holopad and hold it up, scanning the area surrounding your ship. You glance at Poe, already seeing little droplets of sweat gathering at the edges of his dark curls. He’s looking around, head on a swivel, hands gripping his rifle, as you work.

“Alright. Pick a direction.” You nod, letting him know you’re ready to begin.

“Left.” He says, stepping in front of you to cross your path.

“Hey, I know it doesn’t need saying again, but we know nothing about this place. Try not to touch too much, and for Maker’s sake, don’t lick anything.” You roll your eyes and that charmingly cheeky grin is back.

“I make no promises, gorgeous. You know I love to lick things.” He smirks and you just wanna smack him again. You could have done without the innuendo.

You follow him to the left, which is actually east, scanning and recording. Every so often, you stop to pick a flower for a sample. It goes into a sealable bag to examine back at the base. If you’re going to live here, you need to know as much about the local plant life, what’s poisonous, what’s okay to eat or smell.

You wipe your hand across your forehead, already feeling your shirt sticking uncomfortably to your shoulders. Poe doesn’t complain, so you don’t, either.

A creaking behind you makes you halt and half turn. It’s been about an hour since you left the safety of your ship, and so far, only giant bugs to report.

“What is it?” He asks, turning to look at you.

“I just thought I heard something.” You shake your head, brushing off your own paranoia. “Probably just one of the branches settling.”

“They’re massive, aren’t they?” He peers up at them. “Try not to get crushed by one.” He jokes, but it’s half-hearted. The good mood from takeoff is quickly wearing off.

He turns back around to keep moving forward, but you catch him just in time. “Poe!” You wrap your hand around the front of his shoulder, pulling him back against your chest before he can walk right into a butterfly the size of an eagle.

“Thanks.” He lets out a breath, squeezing your fingers reassuringly.

“Ever hear the story of how Makimbo walked into the flight path of a moth and it got stuck in his ear for three days until the medics could get it out?” You start and Poe stops again, slowly turning to face you, beautiful brown eyes wide in disbelief.

“You’re shitting me.” He says finally and you laugh, feeling better now that you’ve shaken off some of the silence.

“Nope. Walked right out the door from the dorms as a moth was flying to the light and flew right into his ear canal. Swears to this day he can still hear flapping in there.”

“Unbelievable. Only Mak could do something like that.” He shakes his head, turning back around.

“Can we take a break? I think we should have some water.” You say, your legs throbbing. They were already sore from your time with Bryce, but hiking through this impossible forest is killing you.

“Yeah, of course.” He says, coming back up to join you. “Feeling okay?” He asks, watching your eyes as you ease down onto one of those gnarled roots. It’s almost at chair height.

“Yeah. I probably should have just gone out with you to the bar.” You sigh, unscrewing your canteen.

“Probably would have had a better time.” He agrees, and you’re nodding before you can even think to stop yourself.

“At least my legs wouldn’t hurt this much.” You admit and he groans.

“Please tell me he’s not a ‘lay back and let you do all the work’ type.” He rubs his face with a handkerchief.

“There’s nothing wrong with a girl being on top.” You huff.

“No, yeah, of course. One of my favorite positions.” He holds out his hand to stop you. “But not for the whole time. And especially not if she doesn’t finish.” He says vehemently. “Always knew he was a selfish prick.”

The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Something isn’t right. “Poe?” You start quietly. Your voice is barely above a whisper.

“Sorry, I know you don’t like when I complain about him.” He waves and you’re trying so hard not to panic. You feel eyes on you, dangerous and intentional.

“Poe.” You say with a little more urgency. He finally looks at you, confused. “There’s something behind me. I can feel it.” You say, barely moving your mouth.

His eyes scan diligently over your shoulders. They search every inch of the exposed woods behind you until he shakes his head. “There’s nothing, sweetheart. Just leaves.” He says, sounding very sure. “Come sit by me.” He says, scooting over and patting the spot next to him.

You quickly cross to him and he wraps his arm around you, despite the uncomfortable heat. “I feel stupid, but I swear I felt something watching me.” You sigh, leaning against him.

“Maybe an animal.” He says, not dismissing your feelings at all. You’re grateful that he doesn’t tell you it’s nothing, but offers a possible solution. “If the bugs here are giant, can you imagine the predators?” He shudders, but you tilt your head.

“Actually, if the bugs are so big, there shouldn’t be any predators.” You frown, your anxious stomach settling a little bit. “Because size is equivalent to speed, the bigger they are, the slower they are. So, if the bugs can’t outrun the predator, they die off.” You press your lips together, feeling like you’re rambling.

He turns to look at you, appreciation in his eyes. “You’re pretty smart, you know that?” He says and you grin.

“I do. It’s about time that someone else sees it.” You reply and he laughs.

“Alright, noodle legs. You ready to keep going? We should try to find somewhere to camp soon. The days on this planet aren’t exceptionally long.” He says, and you nod, putting your water away.

“You’re right, let’s get going.” You stand up, picking up your holopad once more. Poe shoulders his rifle, head turning every which way as he leads you through the trees.

“Tell you what.” He starts after an immeasurable amount of silence.

“What’s that?” You croak, your voice sticking in your throat after not being used for a while.

“If we do settle this planet, we’re gonna need some serious air conditioning. My curls are not holding up in this heat.” He says, purposely messing up his dripping locks.

You laugh, flinching away from the flying moisture. “Agreed. But if there are no predators, as we’ve theorized, it could be pretty perfect.”

He turns to glance back at you, his forehead wrinkling in concern. “How are you feeling?” He asks again.

“I’m fine, why?”

He takes you by the arms, his big hands burning into your skin as he guides you to sit down. “You’re really flushed.” He comments, holding his bare wrist to your forehead. “And very warm.”

“It’s a million degrees out here. Of course, I’m warm, Poe.” You look up at him, appreciating his concern.

“Am I flushed?” He frowns.

“Who can tell? You’re perfectly tan all year round. How do you do that, by the way?”

He cups your face gently and tilts it up to him to see better. “I do this thing called going outside.” He says, gently pulling your lower eyelids down.

“See anything?” You ask, only half teasing.

“Nope, no soul in there.” He replies, letting go of you all together and suddenly you miss his hands on your face. They were warm and comforting and you felt safe.

This forest is messing with your head.

Another creak behind you has you up and moving around Poe. He catches your arm, making you slow down.

“Sweetheart, we should eat. It’s been all day. I didn’t realize how much time was passing.” He says.

You shift from foot to foot nervously, looking behind him. Your eyes scan the foliage, looking for any sign of movement. You don’t want to stop, too wound up to eat, but you know he’s right.

“I’ll keep you safe.” He promises. You acquiesce and let him guide you down to the ground and back against the base of a tree.

“I don’t know why I’m being such a weirdo.” You sigh, digging into your pack for your rations.

“Maybe you’re sensing something I’m not.” He shrugs, sitting across from you. From down here the ferns and other ground plants tower over you, creating its own little world. “Maybe it’s the idea of being somewhere new, unfamiliar. Maybe it’s the thought of being the only two people on an entire planet, so certain noises you would hear from other people, you shouldn’t be hearing. There are a million reasons. But don’t brush them off. You have a good gut instinct, Y/N. Use it. It might save us later.” He reaches over and squeezes your knee soothingly.

“Thanks.” You say, feeling a little better. You eat slowly, looking around, but mostly watching Poe. His dark hair is disheveled, curling into his heavy-lidded eyes. You’re grateful to Leia for pairing you with him. She could have picked anyone, and she picked the one person you get along with best. It’s easy to get along with Poe Dameron. Easy as breathing. Even when he’s being difficult, pushing people away after everything he’s seen, he has never once tried to push you away.

“You’re staring at me.” He comments and you drop your gaze instantly.

“Sorry.” You mutter, rubbing your forehead. “Just thinking.”

“About what I look like naked? Don’t feel bad, everyone on base has wondered.” He grins and you laugh.

“Sure. We’ll go with that.” You nod, pushing the rest of your food back into your bag. Your stomach is too tense to really eat anything.

He knocks his knee against yours. “Tell me.” He prompts.

“Just thinking about how we’re friends.” You shrug and he waits patiently for you to continue. “You… you don’t always… make things easy for other people. You argue with Mak, or Hana, or Setti. You sometimes seem to enjoy pushing them away because you do it so often.” You stumble over your words, not wanting to really screw things up. “But you’ve never done that to me.” You avoid his gaze for as long as you can stand it before finally looking up at him.

He’s smiling. “You’re funny.” He says eventually. “I did try doing that to you. At the very beginning. And sometimes it’s easier to have people be mad at me; to take all of it in and feel that instead of… other less pleasant things. And yeah, they get pissed at me, call me a jerk, or whatever name they like. They storm off and hate me for a while. And it feels good.” He nods, clearing his throat and looking around, away from you. “But not you. Never you. I’d pick a fight with you and you would stand your ground, fight me back until I was the one storming off. Then you’d show up at my dorm, or in the woods, or wherever I happened to be hiding, give me a cup of hot chocolate. You absolutely floored me that first time, telling me I could fight you all day long and you’d be there every time, not letting me lose myself.” He inhales sharply, disguising a sniffle. “I think you knew before I did. You just see through me, constantly.”

You're quiet for a long time, thinking over his words. He never says it out loud, never admits that he could use help. Never gives his nightmare a name. But you feel it, weighing on his soul; and yours. “Poe.” You start and he looks up at you expectantly. “I only said those things because you had my favorite book in your bag and I wanted it back.” You say quietly and he laughs loudly, grabbing your arm and pulling you into his lap, hugging you tight.

“Can’t push you away, no matter how hard I tried. You’re too stubborn.” He sighs, rocking you from side to side as you let your forehead rest in the crook of his neck. “Sometimes, I wonder if the bullshit I say will do it. Like the sex talk, or the time I told you I masturbate five times a day just to see what you’d say.” He chuckles, his breath skittering down the back of your neck. “You didn’t miss a beat, just said ‘I believe you. You look like the type’ and moved on.” He grins.

“I just thought you were a really open person.” You admit, pushing back from his chest, seeing his eyes shine with laughter. “We should keep going, you weirdo. There are some cliffs up ahead, I think. We can probably find a cave to sleep in for the night.”

“Agreed.” He pushes you to your feet, and you pull him up right after you. His hand lingers in yours for a long second before he takes it back to adjust his rifle position.

Chapter Three

Everything Tag List:

@everythingisoverrated @psyched2b @shreddedparchment @bitsandbobsandstuff @after-avenging-hours @alexblrus @thinkingsofamadwoman @i-dont-want-to-be-called @thefridgeismybestie @fortheloveofallthatsholy @crazychaotic @pleasureoftheguiltiestvariety @redstarstan @justreadingfics @themistsofmyavalon @sebastianstanslefteyebrow @wkemeup @thiccbinch @glide-thru @elliee1497 @ellaenchanted91 @part-time-patronus @janeyboo @scarlettwitcher @thirstybitchqueen @stuckonjbbarnes @barnesandco @geeksareunique @nicoleplacee @lexshead @gambitsqueen @lokisironthrone @imanuglywombat @also-fangirlinsweden @ravenesque @murdermornings @tinymalscoffee @countryrockmama

Star Wars Tag List:

@shinycollectivesuit @bookishofalder

[captain-hen]

No offence but people can use tags for whatever they want to. If they want to use it for commentary not related to your gifset, they can. You cannot dictate how people interact with tags. Tumblr openly permits them to use tags however they please. If its annoying, turn off the detailed activity log toggle.

Nobody is ranting about your actual gifset. They're discussing, albeit negatively, the subject of it. That is not relevant to you. That does not impact you. Stop being so entitled.

lol what? it's true that i can't dictate or control what people use the tags for. but how am i the entitled one here? gifmakers view the tags to see the nice comments that decent people leave; because, y'know, we need feedback and motivation too! it is absolutely relevant to me when people spread their negativity all over my gifset! for one thing, half the time it's not even relevant to the topic of what i made; for another, i didn't spend hours of time and effort making content for a show i hate, so it really bothers me when people go on about how much they hate stuff about it in the tags! i hate to break it to you, but no one likes to hear about how much someone else hates the thing they love. it's extremely disheartening because people are ignoring, or even missing the point of what i make because they just can't stop themselves from whining about how much they hate everything.

gifmakers come onto this site to share their work for free, for a depressing likes to reblogs ratio, for people to steal their work without credit, for people to act entitled to what they do; so yeah, i think the least we can ask you to do is not be negative on our sets. please explain to me how "i hate season 5" or "i hate the storylines they gave to maddie, eddie and bobby" or "i hate how the firefam was apart" was relevant in any way to a set that was meant to give us a laugh by poking fun at BT. how are comments saying "i hate [x character that wasn't even in the gifset]" or "why couldn't they have done X instead" in any way appropriate? why are you reblogging a gifset focusing on a particular thing if you're only gonna rant about how much you hate the thing? sincerely, go fuck yourself.

[dizzydancingdreamer]

The Art of Losing at Mario Kart | Tony Stark

Hi my lovelies I hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday!! Please enjoy some fluffy Tony and do take care of yourselves!!

Appetizers (Tags): Fluff

Entres (Pairing): Tony Stark x F!Reader, slight Platonic!Peter Parker x F!Reader (Third Person)

Sides (Prompts): 5: “You’re small, but you’re talking loud.”

Notes: Tony says line, Requested by Anon

Word Count: 1.5k

Dinner at Dizzy’s Master List

Her hands clutch the controller so tight her fingers hurt, her eyes locked on the TV screen like her life depends on it. It kind of does. The peppy music has long stopped being fun— now it sounds like a threat. Don’t lose, y/n. She grits her teeth, leaning forward until her elbows hit her knees, eyebrows creasing together as she completes another lap.

“That’s not going to help you win, baby.” Tony snickers, posture relaxed and a sly grin on his lips.

She scrunches her eyes as she narrowly avoids a shell he launches at her. “Shut up won’t you?”

He only laughs, continuing to hold the controller like this is the most boring thing he’s ever done. It makes her vision haze with red, her skin flaming from the inside out. How is he so effortlessly good at Mario Kart? She taps down on the a button relentlessly, head cocking, veins thrumming as she approaches the red car on the screen. Maybe she spoke too soon.

“Ooh—” she taunts, tapping the button to launch the banana peel she’s been saving— “what were you saying again? Who’s not going to win?”

As she says it her smile widens, teeth flashing at the man who’s smirk has significantly dropped. Now he’s leaning forward too, elbows on his knees and lip between his teeth.

“Oh it’s on now.”

For a moment all she can hear is the rapid tap, tap, tapping of buttons. The race becomes neck and neck, the pressure building— there’s no way she’s letting him plan a whole day together by himself; she doesn’t have a death wish. She has to win—

“Hey, Tones?” She mumbles quietly, a stark contrast to her previously snarky tone.

His eyes shift in her peripheral, eyes softening slightly. “Yeah, baby?”

She bites down on her lip, swallowing lightly. “I, erm, I think I know what I want to do after this.”

His hands falter, his head turning fully to look at her. “Go on.”

—She has to win even if it means playing dirty. God he’s so easy.

“I want to celebrate my win.”

“Wait, what?”

By the time he catches on it’s too late. With his head turned she pushes the toggle forward harder, smashing the a button to accelerate past the finish line. As soon as the First Place banner flashes across the flatscreen she’s out of her seat, arms thrown high in the air, jumping up and down like a child. She doesn’t care— the fact that she won— that she beat Tony Stark, the man who plays too much Mario Kart with Peter— is too exciting. Only the spider-kid can beat this man and now she has as well!

“Did you see that! Did you? That was amazing! I can’t believe that actually worked!” She lowers her voice, deepening it to match his “Go on, baby. You actually fell for that!”

She can’t stop the giggles as they come, hunching over to steady herself on her legs.

Tony groans, falling back on the cushions behind him, the controller landing with a defeated thud beside him. “You know, you’re small, but you’re talking loud.”

She giggles harder, scampering over to the man who looks like he wants to roll his eyes at her but is too busy staring at her like a love struck puppy. Despite losing— something which everyone in the compound— no, the world— knows he hates— he still watches her with a lazy smile, holding his arms out for her. She happily accepts the invitation, climbing onto his lap warm, hands falling to his face.

“Oh you love it, you’re just a sore loser.” She scratches her fingers through the stubble on his jaw, chest bubbling with warmth when he leans deeper into her touch.

“Only because I don’t lose.” He mumbles back, eyes closing with a content sigh.

She rolls her eyes at the man, letting the easy smile creep over her features. How did she end up with the most arrogant man in New York?

“You just lost, honey.” She points out, slipping her hands up and into his hair.

Scratching at his scalp she sinks deeper into his arms. He doesn’t open his eyes, only tilts his head back to follow her hands, fully absorbed in her touch. She follows suit, leaning her head on his shoulder. She could get used to this.

“Did I, though?”

She springs back up. “Of course you did.”

Tony cracks an eye open, the arrogant smirk back on his mouth. “Maybe I let you win.”

Her heart stutter, her gut twisting— he didn’t!

She narrows her eyes, pulling her hands from his hair. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Did he?

Leaning back towards her, ducking his head to nudge against her fingers, Tony laughs. She swats his head gently, grumbling at the man. Did he let her win? He better not have— she wants bragging rights. Well, bragging rights and to not die when he decides that the planned day he won means going skydiving or something else equally ridiculous. He may enjoy heights but she certainly does not.

When she doesn’t sink her fingers back against his scalp he takes her hands in his, wrapping them around his neck and passing her a smile that appears to be more like a laugh that’s been frozen on his lips. She has to bite back her own grin when she sees it. Instead she stares at the wall behind his head, glaring at the painting to keep from looking at him and cracking— she’s too soft for him, it makes being mad impossible.

“Baby c’mon, I’m just joking.” He pleads, massaging his fingers over hers. “You won just come back.”

She flicks her eyes to his half delighted, half worried gaze, letting the smile creep into place once more. Damnit. Maybe she’s the one who’s too easy.

“You swear?”

His warm hands find her cheeks, pulling her face down to his and pressing a quick but firm kiss to her lips before mumbling. “I swear— now let me properly congratulate you for your win.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Later that day she stumbles into the kitchen, a sheen of sweat coating her heavy limbs and a dopey smile on her face. As she rounds the corner to the fridge, feet slipping on the linoleum, she bumps into a similarly happy face.

“Oh, Peter, hey kid! Haven’t seen you around these past few days.”

She holds her fist out, waiting for his knuckles to bump against hers before turning back to her original task— water. So much water.

He laughs, grabbing a cup from the cupboard and passing it to her. “Yeah, been busy with SAT’s. They’re coming up soon. I’m kinda’ worried.”

She hums and passes him a grateful look, filling her cup from the jug in the fridge. “Ah, yes— the good old days. I remember taking those. I did terribly. Aren’t you, like, boy wonder or something, though? Kid genius? I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Eyes wide, cheeks pink, he stammers. “Oh well, no, I wouldn’t say gen—”

Rolling her eyes, she interrupts him with a laugh. “Don’t downplay yourself— you’re a genius. You’re good at everything! It’s almost annoying.”

Honestly it is annoying but he deserves— she’s seen how hard he works.

Peter laughs, awkwardly shrugging his shoulders. “Maybe.”

At least he’s humble.

She scrunches her nose, hopping up onto the counter as he opens the fridge next, pulling out a loaf of bread and the strawberry jam that Natasha has bought a few days ago. For a smart kid he really has a death wish. She nods at the jar and he holds a finger to his lips, the message clear— don’t tell. She giggles back, holding a hand over her heart— scout’s honor, boy wonder.

She kicks her feet, curling her toes to bring some of the feeling back, continuing with the conversation at hand. “Name one thing you can’t do.”

He pauses, butter knife clutched in his fist as he tilts his head, thinking. Of course he has to think about it. He’s like a mini Tony— too smart for his own good.

Finally his eyes fill with light, his brows raising as he comes to an answer— “Got it— I can’t win at Mario Kart against Mr. Stark.”

For a moment she giggles. He still calls Tony Mr. Star—

Wait.

Did he just say he can’t win against Tony at Mario Kart? No, that’s not possible—

“But I’ve seen you win.” She points out, setting her cup down a little too harshly, the glass thudding off the counter.

Peter, not noticing, laughs, shaking his head. “No, he only lets me win to impress you.” He flicks his eyes up from his sandwich, his face shifting when he sees her furrowed brows— “You didn’t know that?”

The glare on her face is enough of an answer. “Shit.”

He starts to shake his head but it’s too late; she’s already hopped off the counter, bare feet pounding on the floor as she starts storming out of the kitchen.

“Tony you have some explaining to do!”

Not long after she hears a groan followed by a—

“Not cool Parker!”

[antialiasis]

Pokémon Legends: Arceus, first impressions

Got the game today and played for about five hours, stopping after getting the Kleavor quest.

It more or less bears out what I expected in that it's a different kind of game than regular Pokémon, and that kind of game doesn't vibe with me as much as regular Pokémon. Wide open spaces in games mostly give me the persistent annoying feeling I've probably missed something somewhere all the time, and having to worry about button timings and dexterity and aim (God, I hate aiming) is mostly frustrating to me. These things are obviously not objectively bad qualities, just things I personally don't really enjoy, that I knew I wouldn't enjoy when I started.

On the other hand, despite this and that I have various actual gripes and complaints below the cut, I'm kind of enjoying it overall more than expected so far? There is a fun dynamism to having to watch out for Pokémon literally attacking you, being able to actually walk up hills and mountainsides is kind of magical, and the characters are more emotive than usual and I really appreciate that. Pokémon just existing in the field and behaving differently adds a lot of life. Most of all I like that there actually seems to be a fair amount of breathing room for different ways of playing the game. You can sneak up on Pokémon and try to aim a Pokéball at them, but you can also just engage them in battle and throw balls without the aim bit. You can catch a dozen of the same Pokémon to complete research, but you can also just battle a bunch of them to do it, or just catch one and have it use certain moves in battle - I appreciate that and it makes it a lot less annoying to do research tasks. I definitely all in all find myself wanting to play more of the game, which I wasn't sure about beforehand.

Also, somehow I already found and caught a shiny Bidoof? I thought Ultra Moon was the one game where I'd miraculously catch a shiny at like level 7 but no, apparently this is just a thing that happens to me now. (Reminder that like, I played my Gen II games and Sapphire for hundreds of hours each without ever seeing a single non-Red Gyarados shiny. I learned about shinies on the internet but for all I knew everyone could just be pranking me with rumours.)

Complaining below.

I find the controls a lot more obtuse than they had to be even for a game with a more real-time bent than usual. It's theoretically a cute idea to have the same button for throwing empty and occupied Pokéballs, but gameplay-wise these are simply two fundamentally different actions and it's a bit maddening how easy it is to accidentally do the one you didn't want when they're mapped to the same trigger and have to be swapped between - absolutely no part of my game experience is better for the ability to waste my Pokéballs by throwing them at trees. (And why is X, a face button, something you use to swap between Pokémon and items, while the right trigger, something other parts of the game's own interface use to flip between different things, throws the ball?)

Also, I don't know if it's just me but the whole function to use the left trigger to focus on a Pokémon and see what research tasks you have for it seems so fiddly as to be useless and I pretty much gave up trying it? Which is already annoying me a fair amount because there are different research tasks for every Pokémon and remembering what they are or if you've completed the research for this species without manually checking every time you encounter a Pokémon is largely impossible. Wish you could at least like, toggle on/off the automatic display of a little bubble that'd appear above any Pokémon species in clear view, telling you whether you have outstanding research to complete on it.

Meanwhile, the process of initiating a simple battle with a wild Pokémon takes significantly more finesse and mental effort here than in a regular Pokémon game, which I'm sure is fun for many people but for me it's mainly just friction that makes it a little fiddlier and more annoying to get things done in the game. You even need to aim and make sure you have a Pokémon selected in order to collect resources in the field. It's not that much friction but it is friction. I do kind of enjoy the fact you actually use your Pokémon to get stuff, but heck, they could've done that for flavor while still making it happen when you just press A, you know? Godddd I just don't want to have to aim at things, aiming with a controller is the worst.

There are a lot of mechanics the game has sort of told me about but not really well enough for them to make any sense. Like, it's told me about throwing berries into the field to distract Pokémon, but when I throw a berry it seems to be giving off some sort of noxious odor and the Pokémon ignore it and then it disappears? I have no idea what that's supposed to mean. A guy enthusiastically told me a recipe for cake that's supposed to attract Dragon Pokémon, but what does that mean - like, do I have to throw it out in front of a Dragon Pokémon I already see, or does it cause them to spawn? Is it also going to disappear in like ten seconds like the berry? Very unclear.

Also I never really thought the game looked as terrible as people said from the previews but actually playing it on the TV, it does look pretty rough and I wish the graphics had at least a bit more polish.

[illgiveyouahint]

So I've been thinking about something and maybe marketers/web designers could help me understand.

I've been saying how I think it's great that tumblr has actually started using the toggle option a lot more and now with a lot of things they're implementing you can actually opt out of it whether it's “based on your likes” “stuff in your orbit” or even “timestamps”. I genuinely think this is a great thing because it means you can make this site more your own and make it work for you. It's also why xkit is a great extension because it allows you to just choose which things work for you and which don't.

Letterboxd is another great site that has plenty of filter and config options that make the site a delight to use. I spend hours on letterboxd just filtering various things based on years or genres or seeing which films are playing on which platform etc. I find the site so useful and nice, and my experience is so positive every time, I'm even happily paying the pro account because that give me even more of these options.

And then there is sites like Netflix where I've been increasingly more and more frustrated with them removing all the config options for me. I used to be able to order films and shows in my watchlist however I wanted, and I was able to choose if I want to see the pictures of the films or rather see it as a list of names of the film. In a list form I could then easily see which films are about to leave Netflix. All of those options are now gone. I'm left with netflix recommendations order and pictures instead of names which make me search for several minutes before I even find the film I'm looking for (if I can even find it because the pictures for the films also keep changing). If I want to see which film is leaving Netflix I have to physically open each film and look if it's written there in the description that it is leaving and when. All of this is making the use of the site so much worse and my overall experience of the site is very negative and I'm constantly on the brink of just cancelling the thing all together because of how annoyed I am with it.

So please someone explain to me the thinking behind this because it seems to me that giving users more options to configure the site to their own pleasure makes the users happier and in my experience make them spent longer time on the site but taking away all the options make them frustrated and make them hate the use of your site.

[bearpillowmonster]

FF6 Review (Overall)

I'm going to rate similar to the way I did FF7 Remake, but in only 2 parts, so there will be an overall review then a separate deep dive into the characters.

I played this game using an emulator and I'm not ashamed of it because I used the FF6 Relocalization project which I'll link

Basically nerd talk and explanation of what that means: It's basically a retranslation of the original SNES script using the GBA port as a base and mixing and matching some of the best parts so there you go. They have a way to mod the PC version to have the OG sprite work because sheesh is that thing ugly and they also have a way to resprite and resound the GBA version but this is the easiest and logical solution to get the best of all worlds. There's also "Anthology" which is the PS1 port that adds some CG custscenes which I just watched off of YouTube because it's only a few of the major scenes.

Anyways, yeah, I'm glad I emulated it especially because of the fast forward function. That first chunk would've been rough without it because you're left just waiting for one of your party's commands to be ready but it eases up as the game goes on because you get pretty busy with the combat.

I'm not a fan of turn-based RPGs which was the main reason I haven't touched a 2D FF game until now so this is my first and oh boy, what a first!

Could you just watch a playthrough or read the story then? I wouldn't recommend it. There are certain things that I feel are better experienced.

Gameplay actually wasn't all that gruesome, as I mentioned, it got better thoughout but I know for a fact that I didn't do everything it had to offer because I see other people doing it online and I just had no idea how. That's not to say it's not newcomer friendly though, I mean I beat the game, didn't I? I think it would've just gotten complicated and made me confused if I learned how to do everything in the game anyway.

I found myself liking some of the mechanics and recognizing some of the systems from games as late as today (I'm not sure if this is where they started but I wouldn't be surprised). The random encounters weren't all bad because of the emulator's speed up function but there were definitely times where it felt a little out of hand with the amount I was getting. (I'm looking at you Cave to the Sealed Gate!) So it's all pretty familiar, though there are "Relics" which are kind of like Materia but each member has 2 each where it gives you an ability, f.e. Reflect, every attack hits, extra power, auto cast protect, heal with every step, etc.

One of the drawbacks of using BSNES though was that there was no toggle for a L or R shoulder button, just turbo and while that's not a big problem, that is the button to Flee a battle, so I just never fled. There is an item that lets you escape any dungeon or battle but I didn't really use it, same with the permanent item that Mog has in the cave (pretty late in the game). I'd rather there be a repel than the warp stone, but I figured that if I just fought whenever the opp arrived then I wouldn't have to grind, which is another thing I hate about RPGs! Luckily, I didn't really feel the need to grind other than for the ending.

Difficulty wasn't really a grind but make sure once you get to the floating island, that you know what you're doing because that level was annoying and I felt a very stong spike in difficulty as soon as I landed on it. Another thing is that sometimes it'd glitch and an enemy would have infinite health so I'd just sit there on fast forward, watching and watching then finally use Libra and no damage was made, might be an emulator thing, might be a game thing and although rare, it still happened.

There are these sections called scenarios where the game branches off into multiple different paths and you can choose which order to follow the specific sets of characters. I really like that aspect and makes it seem less linear and interactive because it's letting you choose how to tell the story. I have a thing for games that let me interact with it (That opera scene is pretty interactive too).

For a 2D sprite game, it has quite a personality with its cutscenes. They can be very cinematic and defintely makes the characters just that more engaging with some of their mannerisms.

Ok, I get it now. The music is bomb. If anything, that would be worth doing a remake for, to get orchestral and updated versions of some of the themes. (I'd probably cry at that opera scene) But Celes' theme is probably my favorite. The PC port has pretty good remixes for the most part though.

Could this use a remake? It's a trivial matter because I think a good majority of fans want it to be remade and I understand why but at the same time I understand the other side of the argument as well. This was the last 2D FF game and that's special, in a way, the story kind of reflects that. And I think with all the personality comes a bit of caution because you might see something in these characters or scenes that may be misinterpreted or done differently in a remake, similar to how you read a book and just imagine how it's playing out. I think it lays enough ground so that you don't "have to interpret" like with most NES games (how the Super Mario Movie was born) from an outsider's point of view, it may first seem that way though. (myself included (yes, I know this was SNES era. Shut up!))

What would I want out of a remake? I would want the airship to return and be able to move around freely but keep the towns pretty faithful (which makes for more linear opportunities). I could see Edgar's tools being used similar to Barrett's but we have "First Soldier" now which is a 3PS Battle Royale, why not have his tools play similar to that? Then actually give him story opportunities to pick up his tools rather than "just because you bought them" It would be a nice natural progression. I would suggest the same with Sabin and Cyan, have them learn their Blitz and Bushido moves by being taught by Duncan, you do learn one move from Duncan in the vanilla game but I'd see it as more opportunity to build your characters and make it feel rewarded. So, in those aspects, I would like to see FF6 remade or improved but as for everything else, they should keep it a lot similar to the original than FF7R did. I think that's where a lot of the criticism with FF7R came from (as well as what I mentioned in the previous paragraph) While I'd prefer a gameplay overhaul similar to what they did with R, I'd rather keep the essence. There aren't sequels or spinoffs or anything of this game so this is all it has (unless you count the ports but that's minimal).

In the CHARACTERS section, I compliment the side-quest system but I would like there to be a better indication as to "what" you're doing, rather than just looking up the next steps or be left to travel around until the goal is clear. They have the quest completion menu as well as waypoints in FF7R, I could see that being put to good use in a game like this. It would also be cool to actually "visibly" wear the gear that you equip to your character but I understand why that isn't utilized in most of the games (probably makes for better character models) especially considering most of these characters' costumes could use an update. You didn't get to use the Magitek suits nearly as much as I thought you would from the marketing and even the dang cover and logo, so a remake could improve on that as well. Another small complaint is that it doesn't tell you what the items do WHILE you're in battle, only when you're in the menu, sorting them and while some are staples like Phoenix Down, I still don't remember what the heck a 'Gold Needle' does.

Overall I'd probably rate the FF games that I've played (but maybe not finished all of) as such: FF7 > FF13 > FF6 > CRISIS CORE > FF15 > FF12 but I think 6 and 13 are kind of interchangeable because if you said one over the other, I wouldn't really argue.

[bedtimebrain]

EXO KAI: Detective Gone Wrong P2

Characters: JonginxYou

You came to know Jongin by accident, but have no clue he’s EXO’s Kai. And when you found out....

Part 1 Part 3

Your text messages with Jongki didn’t just stop there after that night. You guys texted frequently, on and off work. Though neither of you always replied instantly, the conversation kept going.

Jongki seems to have really long working hours occasionally. You were still not sure what kind of job he does, he seems to be doing a variety of things during his working hours, and even travels around sometimes.

You came to a weak conclusion that he might be a fitness trainer for those rich family wives, which explains why he would need to go to the gym during his working hours and his nice body. You decided to tell him you wild Guess tonight when you go over.

‘Jongki oppa!’ You knocked on his door and shouted excitedly.

‘annyeong Y/N!’

‘I came with food bribes to use your TV! Ginseng chicken soup!’ You presented the thermal pot to him at the door removed your shoes

‘Anyway it’s meant for you, i already ate some at home before coming over. I mean it’s almost 9pm, I’m sorry I couldn’t wait to eat w you’ you added

‘Gumawo, this food bribe is more than what I expected, haha. I’m gna eat on the dining table, just use the TV’

‘Woohoo!’ You cheered and speeded over to his sofa and switched on his TV while he set his dining table.

‘Oppa! You have Netflix? I’m gna use it ok!’

Seeing how excited you are he couldn’t help but laugh.

‘Omo 100 days my prince. My friend loves this show, she say loves the male lead! Oppa did u watch this?? Or are u not into dramas?’ You turned your head back to ask jongki who was eating at the dining table

‘100 days my prince ?! Wow, I guess it’s really popular among the females. No I didn’t watch the full thing, just here and there.’

You loudly declared you were going to watch it, and toggled to watch the first episode. But you were hooked. You couldn’t stop at the first episode, by the time you were done with the second it was already past 12.

Nicely, jongki also came out from the shower as your episode ended. Saying your byes and your goodnights, you thanked him for hosting and he thanked you back for the food. You headed home, it was a good night indeed!

—

Again in that week, you both decided to meet for supper. Over supper you asked

‘Oppa I wanted to ask you previously but I forgot, are you a fitness trainer for rich people? You have such a nice body and you earn so much and you have not so regular working hours. I’ve been thinking about it..’

‘No I’m not! Why are you always coming up with strange conclusions, hahah. I’m pretty sure I don’t sound like a fitness trainer right, I told you I just came from a show’ he said as he stuffed the ssambap into his mouth

‘Right , I thought so too. Are you a model then? I’m sorry but I know you have abs’ you said it with your mouth full and sent a wink to him, making him laugh

‘How would you know I have abs! I’m not a model but you’re close hahaha’

‘Ok, I’ll continue thinking about it then, haha’

—-

‘Oppa, don’t you think the male lead is really charming? I found out his name, he’s do kyungsoo from EXO!!’ You kept your eyes on the screen , oblivious to the questioning look jongki had on his face.

Tonight, you were at Jongki’s place after work again, to catch up on 100 days my prince since he was home.

The past few times you watched, he never sat down with you as he was always busy with chores. But today he decided to, and he was starting to irritate you when he kept cracking up once in a while.

‘Oppa what’s so funny? You’re so annoying!’You threw a cushion at him , but he caught it and stuck his tongue out at you

At the end of the episode, Jongki quickly took the remote on the table.

‘I’m deciding what to watch next!’ He gloated

But the previous episode ended on a cliff hanger! You weren’t going to let him have it. You attempted to snatch the remote from him and you both ended up in a chase around the house.

Obviously you weren’t going to win against the owner, giving up, you both sat back down on the sofa, panting and dying of laughter. Looking up at the TV screen, it was now on YouTube. You guys must have accidentally switched the screen while fooling around.

His YouTube homepage were all EXO Kai dance videos. Not that you know exactly who that is but you heard about him.

‘Ohhhh opppaaaaa you’re an EXO fan? You like EXO Kai~’ you raised your brows at him and said it in a teasing tone

But he started kneeling over in laughter. You didn’t get what’s so funny though, but anyway you continued asking

‘Oppa can you dance ? Im sure you like dancing right? Show me please !!!!’

Recovering from his fits of laugh, he looked straight at you

‘You really wanna see?’

‘YES!!’ You shouted like a fangirl.

He connected his phone to his speaker and started playing some pop song that was totally not your style. It went something like ‘don’t mess up my tempo~~’. Though the song wasn’t really blessing your ears but jongki’s dancing was absolutely world class in your opinion.

You didn’t know much about dancing. But damn, anyone would know he’s a good dancer. Though he was just dancing for fun, just for you, he bothered with his facial expressions, giving life to his dance. You felt your heart started thumping, as you realise how attractive jongki was in this moment.

When it came to an end, you did a standing ovation just for him and cheered.

‘You’re hella hot, I’m serious.’ You raised a thumbs up at him and he got a little shy at your honest compliments

‘How are you not attached if you’re so eligible though. How do girls around you not fall for you?’

Seeming not too sure how to answer your question, he started

‘Uhm, actually I’ve been in and out of relationships. But I guess they dont really last because of the nature of my job? And some other reasons I guess’

‘Are you a back up dancer ? That’s why? I mean it can be little hard if you’re always dancing with hot girls or something’ you replied thoughtfully

‘About love, I’m fine, fate will come. But Y/N, I look like a back up dancer to you?’ He was all serious as he asked, and you were a little shocked

Teasing him, you replied ‘you’re the main dancer in my heart’ and you showed him a heart sign. His expression softened, showing that ‘I’m so done with you’ face

‘Oppa I know you’re done with my nonsense for tonight, and I’m not going to watch your Kai dancing videos, you can slowly watch them when I’m home sleeping. Bye~ see you soon’ you picked up your belongings and gave him a side hug as you said your goodbyes.

—-

‘Y/N ah, let’s watch a horror movie tonight.’

Tonight you both were having supper take out at his place, since it was too cold to go outside. By the time the food arrived it was already late, but you didn’t mind since you had an off the next day.

‘But I really can’t , I’ll have indigestion’ you pouted

Not really taking your aegyo jongki insisted ‘I’m sorry , we are watching it. At most we finish our supper first’

And he was smug about it, especially when you kept whining after.

‘Oppa, I’m warning you. I might scream, cry, bite you or tear your clothes apart because I’m a scaredy cat. Don’t regret your decision’ you warned him just before he offed the lights

The movie barely started but you were already feeling scared. You moved closer to him and hugged the cushions tightly. At every scary part you looked away and leaned closer to jongki without thinking.

Omg omg, the jump scare is coming!

You quickly shut your eyes as the story progressed to it’s main crux.

‘YOUR SOULS SHALL BE MINE’

The boom of the zombie’s voice sent you in a scream and you jumped onto jongki. You hugged him tightly and burst into tears, you were scared out of your life.Of course, this got jongki cracking up instead.

‘It’s just a movie , don’t be scared’ He put his arms around and gave your shoulders a rub.

After you calmed down a little, you attempted to sit up and recover the distance between the both of you. But suddenly there were flashes of light from the TV. And you headed right for Jongki’s chest, grasping him tightly.

‘I DONT WANNA WATCH ANYMORE’ you yelled and sobbed hard

Seeing how you were really in a bad state, jongki gave in and stopped the movie.

‘Y/N I’ll go on the light, ok?’ He tried to free himself from your hold but you weren’t letting him go, you were scared and when you were scared you were clingy like a child. Getting the hint, he stayed beside you and let you cry your fears out. Feeling a little bad about this, he apologised softly ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t know you hated it so much’

‘I definitely won’t be able to sleep tonight. You jerk’ you threw a punch on his chest and said in between hitches of breaths, not really calm yet.

He tucked your head under his chin and pat you lightly, hoping to comfort you the best he could. Your eyes started to feel swollen and heavy from all the crying, together with his rhythmic pats, it all produced a hypnotic effect on you. Without even knowing, you drifted off to sleep.

You had no idea how long you were asleep for before you woke up to see jongki laying you down on the bed.

He turned around ready to leave but you reached out for his hand before he walked far. You could feel him gently trying to remove himself from your hold but you subconsciously asked

‘can you stay for a while?’

He lightly tapped your hand, and you let go of it. The next thing you feel was the bed dipping down on the other side.

Opening your eyes, you saw jongki sitting up beside you then you safely drifted off to sleep again.

It was already morning when you woke again, checking your watch it was 6.30am. Still sitting up, jongki had fallen asleep. You laughed a little seeing him like this, but at the same time feeling a little bad and guilty. You slowly got out of the bed and went over to the side where jongki was, wanting to adjust his sleeping posture without waking him up.

You put one hand over his torso and one hand behind his head, wanting to gently adjust him. But you were only able to move him slightly before you got stuck in a really awkward position. You managed to get half of his torso lying on the bed, but your hand was now stuck under it.

You tried pulling your hand out as lightly as you could, but you the awkward position you were in was not really holding you up well, and you were losing your balance. You quickly grabbed the bed frame and steadied yourself, but seeing jongki’s sleeping face so close made you forget about the task at hand. You leaned in to take a closer look, and the more you looked, you don’t know why there was this overwhelming desire to kiss him. Without thinking, you quickly gave him a peck.

It was as if he felt your kiss or something because he suddenly turned over to his side making you fall onto him. You let out a Yelp in shock.

He opened his eyes and murmured ‘What are doing?’ You were in such an awkward position you couldn’t even think of a good answer. But he didn’t wait either, he just continued saying

‘Just sleep, it’s still early’ and pulled you right back into bed instead, this time locking you in his arms as he closed his eyes.

You were utterly confused at what had just happened and there’s no way you could be sleeping with your heart almost exploding in your chest. You tried to wriggle out of his hold, but it wasn’t much use. So instead, you forced yourself to take deep breaths in and out and the next thing you know, you were woken up by the jarring alarm.

You thought jongki would be shock to wake up next to you, but you were totally wrong. He seem to be very much clear that he had you sleep right next to him. Turning off the alarm, he turned to face you and tucked your hair behind your ears. Catching you off guard like this, you jerked your head backwards.

‘What are you doing?’ You asked and sat up, wide awake now.

‘Didnt you kiss me last night?’ He looked at you straight in your eye, and tried to control his smirk.

Realising you fell into your own pothole, you immediately tried to escape. Jumping out of bed and out of the room. You went straight for the washroom and tidied up yourself as fast as you could. Grabbing your coat and your belongings you stood by the door all ready to leave. Only that you needed Jongki’s fingerprint .

After about 5 minutes had passed as you waited nervously, he finally came walking through to the living room with his mad scientist hair.

‘What’s up with you ? You literally transformed in 5 minutes’ he joked

What in the world was he thinking? Is he playing with you or what? What’s all his actions suppose to mean?

You had this inner thoughts but did you really wanna know the answer to these?

Okay, yes you wanted to. But do you dare to ask?

No you didn’t. So you could only suck it up like a loser and be confused and embarrassed all by yourself.

He took a step closer to you but you massively overreacted and almost fell backwards. But all he wanted was to reach across you to open the door.

Seeing how flustered you looked, he took the chance to tease you. Keeping his hand on the handle, he stepped closer to you and you moved back. Just like in the movies, his head kept moving towards you until you hit the wall. You shut your eyes and scrunched your face

‘What do you want!!!’ You pushed him away and yelled

You didn’t realise you have been holding your breath all this while. Jongki on the other hand seem to be having fun with this. But you were trying your best to look serious and firm about this.

He didn’t reply, but simply opened the door instead. You stepped out right away the minute he opened it.

‘Okay bye’ giving him a panicky goodbye wanting to run away already. But he called you

‘Y/N! Look behind you!’ And he pointed to behind you

You quickly turned but there wasn’t anything. What the hell ?

Turning back, you came face to face with him instead and he gave you a kiss on your lips.

‘Okay you can leave now, bye bye! See you soon!’

What just happened? You have no idea what just happened.

Your mind was blank. Really blank, as blank than an empty canvas.

And your heart was beating erratically as you walked away in a daze.

Kim Jongki.... am i falling for you? are you falling for me? ------------

Decided to split another part out so i don’t have to rush the ending. The story hasn’t exactly hit the climax yet? Let’s see how it turns out!

Edit: Part 3