#it's not that i have problem per se with these videos existing

[malinthebodyguard]

I've never understood reaction videos as a YouTube genre

[ganondoodle]

watching a video of someone playing an older game (not even THAT old) and constantly having to hear them go 'omg can you imagine how much more pretty and good this would be if it ran at 60+ fps with highest end graphics of the current modern games and in 4k???' over and over while also commenting on some graphics looking slightly muddy and how ugly and shitty 30 fps is

and i just cant help but get incredibly annoyed at that, cant you just appreciate the game for what it is?? the constant focus on smoother everything and graphics so detailed it looks faker than the real world is such a limited view on games- more polygons and higher res textures doesnt equal better ffs

i, and i might out myself with an unpoluar opinion here, but remakes are in my opinion often rather unecessary, just rerelease the old game, just make it avaible for people, officially, you dont have to reprogramm the entire thing!! maybe upscale it a little so it doesnt get stretched into a blurry mess if possible but even that i will work with no problem!! there are cases where its pretty much an entirely different game (FF7?) and i get seeing one of your fav old games get some new paint can be really cool, not arguing against that- what i dont like is that those remakes replace the original as that isnt made avaible, only the new version- like i wish i could play windwaker on my switch, but i cant stand the "HD" remake of it and i know if it ever were to get ported it will only be that version like the original doesnt exist anymore and my earlier point that many people consider more fps, more polygons, more resolution as automatically better

i dont need games to be running at 60+ fps, 30 is enough, sure id like it to run smoothly on that without huge drops, but when its stable 30, why would i need more? more often than not i prefer simplified graphics bc they often focus on the most important parts of what they are trying to achieve or work with an interesting style to compensate and i LOVE THAT, also id like to not have to download 100+ GB even when i would turn it on its lowest settings anyway, save me the space- and that is if i even got hardware that can run it at all, my computer struggles with slime rancher and i dont have the funds to buy the newest consoles nor computers

im not against remakes per se, but the fact that the old will more often than not disappear entirely and remain unavaible forever and that higher end graphics are automatically seen as better drives me nuts

[kanohirren]

rwby fans really are a different breed huh

imply the show could be improved in any way and they'll get on your case telling you that you're actually a hater if you don't just swallow whole the hot garbage mess that shawcross and luna pull out of their butts when writing a season because they didn't plan out the show from the start and just make it up as they go.

and to all the people who say "whaaat of course they planned it out from the start you just don't understand their vision" you're right about one thing, I don't understand their vision but I don't think they do either. In the Volume 3 Commentary video, it's said that Monty only came up with the Maidens after Volume 2. The Maidens that proceeded to become the driving plot point for the rest of the series to this day didn't exist in anyone's plans when writing the show at the start. Not satisfied? How about the fact that Neo wasn't written in until volume 2 because Monty decided that Torchwick needed a henchman. Neo had like ten minutes of screentime pre-volume 6 but became one of the most popular characters so they decided to make her a major antagonist, even the main antagonist of volume 9. That DEFINITELY wasn't planned before the show started.

I think the show could have been so much better if the plot was planned out from the start and honestly a reboot feels like the way to go to me. Too many times, the writers feel like they're not writing to actually tell a good story but instead they're writing to try and get a reaction out of people. Looking at you, bumblebee. Blake and Yang had one (1) interaction in Volume 2. In Volume 3, Blake runs away at the end as isn't reunited with team rwby until the end of volume 5... but somehow by volume 6 they've somehow become a thing? Literally just shawcross and luna seeing bumblebee being a popular ship in the fndm and going "here you go guys! enjoy!"

It seems like their goal when writing is just to make the audience do this meme

"Whoa, bumblebee! These two characters are canon now and they totally interacted beforehand!"

or alternatively, "Whoa, Neo/Penny is back!"

I could make an entire other post about all the lost potential they had with the plot points that had been set up. Penny the robot girl is killed in volume 3 but surprise she's back in volume 7! That's not an issue per se but imagine the juicy angst steak if Penny's memory had to be wiped or rebooted because they essentially made a new Penny (being a destroyed robot and all) and so she'd forgotted Ruby, her only friend and Ruby thinks she knows Penny but this Penny is essentially a different person. But nope, Penny remembers everything and is a superhero now or something.

Oh and don't even get me started on World of Remnant. If your show can't explain your own lore in a way that isn't making separate lore videos to try and make your world make sense, there's a problem there.

I think this post is long enough though so I'm just gonna leave it at this: I used to really enjoy the show but as it went on the bad writing became harder and harder to ignore and I think the show would greatly benefit from a reboot because nothing of great value would be lost if they never finished the current series. The show had some really good ingredients but the cooks tried too hard to make something unique and ended up with something "technically edible" but not really all that tasty (and fans will insist it was perfect how dare you say anything bad about it but oops there I go looping back round)

[alpaca-clouds]

Let me talk about vampires and running water for a moment

When writing on my NaNoWriMo fic yesterday, I encountered a problem. The finale involves a ship on the Chionthar. And then I ran into the problem that in DnD vampires cannot cross running water. And for just a moment I thought about changing the finale, but then I decided: You know what? No, I don't. Because the entire "vampires cannot cross running water" thing is stupid anyway.

And given I got really annoyed about this a few weeks back when James Somerton did his really bad vampire video, let me quickly talk about this.

Because this has a very specific origin that actually has nothing to do with the vampires per se. Now, yes, technically it should be noted that in some areas of pre-helenistic Greece in ancient times there were stories involving the undead and the cursed being unable to cross water. But in those stories it usually was at times linked to running water - but at times linked to saltwater, too.

The idea of running water is fairly simple in that regard. Running water would wash away blood, death and decay. In dry regions such as Greece, water that came with fall would often wash away animals that had died and stuff that had collected in half dried riverbeds.

Yet, we do not quite know whether that had actual influence on the vampires. Because the reason for the vampires is probably a very different one.

If you look into historical vampire mythology, you will find that those are mostly common in Eastern Europe. Now, you can make a lot of arguments on whether or not certain other undead creatures from mythology are vampiric. But what we actually understand as vampires are all based on a certain subtext of creatures from Eastern Europe. They usually have some of the features we do associate with vampires today. Including that they are undead and they drink either blood or the live energy.

Now, those myths were especially common east of the Danube. Which is something that the people in Europe noticed. You got to understand that to them the stories were real in some regards. They believed that those vampires existed. So, the fact that barely anyone had stories about them west of the Danube meant clearly one thing: The vampires could not cross the Danube.

And that is how this myths came up. It was the idea that vampires could specifically not cross the Danube, which in many of the older religions of Europe was also closely linked to gods of water and life. So, it was not about the running water, but about the Danube specifically.

It was just that when Victorian England picked vampires up and their usual standin for unspoken sexual desires and sexual deviancy, that they kinda started to slowly broadened it. But the more than that those early Hollywood monster movies influenced the idea that indeed, vampires could not cross water. (Gentle reminder: It was also Hollywood who got us "vampires cannot go into the sun", which is not linked to the original mythology!)

So, yeah. It is not actually a mythology thing. it is more... complicated.

And also, I kinda just hate the idea, because I always just imagine a vampire running into an invisible wall, because there is an underground river somewhere, and the vampire can just not get across lol Like, call be a pandantic geologist, but running water is freaking everywhere.

[sapphire-weapon]

Clive, hush. Not only is it appropriate to give you the title of Mythos, but it’s one that you should’ve reclaimed and taken for yourself. In fact, I don’t know why Ultima even gave you that title. It’s kind of like naming a kid “Roger Stabbington” and then being surprised when he says “ok” and stabs people.

FFXVI had a lot of storytelling problems, but one of the issues that stands out the most is the refusal to explain the whole Mythos/Logos thing. There’s ATL entries about them, sure, but they’re kind of the most barebones, reductive explanations as to why those particular words/titles were chosen for Clive.

It’s time for me to put my “I was raised in an obnoxiously Greek family” hat back on once again and -- just as I did with the Hades II trailer -- break down all of the dumb ancient Greek nonsense being thrown at us in a video game.

“Mythos” isn’t actually a word that’s meant to be used as a title. The word “mythos” in and of itself refers to one of two things, depending on how it’s being used:

1. the compilation of folklore around a particular subject. For example, there’s the very famous myth of Hades and Persephone’s marriage, but there’s a whole mythos around the explanation of why seasons exist, and Demeter’s mourning of the loss of her daughter is only part of that mythos.

2. the plot of an ancient Greek tragedy -- just in general. The mythos of the story should have some sort of reversal (either the story starts off with the protagonist in a good place and ends with them in a bad one, or vice versa), and the intention should be to evoke fear or pity from the audience. Aristotle believed that the most tragic of stories were those involving violence between friends and/or family (and who does that sound like?) -- and, the worse the tragedy, the stronger the mythos.

So, to use the word “mythos” as a title implies that the person holding this title carries with them the legends and stories born from the hearts of mankind -- the “reason” behind mankind’s existence -- and then, through great tragedy, will become a legend in and of themselves.

Yeah, that kinda sounds like Clive, doesn’t it?

Ultima’s a fuckin idiot moron for naming him that and then expecting him to become anything else.

Another fun fact about the word “mythos” and how it relates to Greek tragedies, though:

Greek tragedies were historically performed in worship of Dionysus, who was the god of pleasure and indulgence. So, for Clive to be the human embodiment of Mythos, that means that his very existence serves the purpose of exalting carnal pleasure.

Clive Rosfield is actually, literally just personified sex appeal. He, himself is not a walking libido, per se -- but he’s meant to inspire that in everyone around him.

And he kind of does, considering how many characters in-game want to polish his knob.

Anyway. We’re getting off track I WANT HIM TO GIVE ME SADDLE SORES THAT LAST AT LEAST THREE DAYS

The word “logos” is also not meant to be a title -- and, to be completely honest, I don’t feel like it works the way that the devs wanted it to work. Like, it’s fine. It’s serviceable. But it doesn’t exactly fit what Clive becomes the way that Mythos does.

A more modern interpretation of what the word “logos” means would probably be The Discourse(TM). Logos is the use of logic and reason to explain the nature of the world and mankind’s role in it. Aristotle basically thought of logos as being the thing that sets humans apart from animals -- it’s our sense of self and our ability to think objectively enough to create an actual moral compass.

So, basically, by calling Clive “Logos” Ultima’s just saying he’s attained free will and learned to think rationally on his own -- but that’s also a very basic bitch way of thinking about logos as a concept.

And it’s not as clean of a fit for him as Mythos is, considering that it wasn’t exactly Clive’s sense of self that got him to where he was (he spends like 85% of the game wondering what his purpose is), nor did his attainment of power have anything to do with rational, logical thinking. In fact, the game even goes out of its way to say that Clive is being held up by the faith of those who believe in him, which, I mean --

sure, if you also take into account the whole “Jesus Christ is thought of as being logos incarnate” thing, but like. Then that pulls away from the whole ancient Greek philosophy thing happening and goes into a different metaphor entirely, and everything just gets really muddy.

There are some scholars who believe that the concepts of mythos and logos aren’t mutually exclusive -- and, in fact, that logos actually grew out of mythos. The idea was that people started looking at the myths that they were using and started to apply logic and reason to them in order to get a more nuanced view of the world. But like...

In XVI, mankind started with rational thought when they realized that God (the God that they knew existed and were not just making up as myths) had abandoned them, and then they joined together as a community to create their own image for the world through their use of mythos.

So, I really think the game got it backwards. Clive wasn’t Mythos who became Logos. He was Logos who became Mythos.

But like. Gold star for trying.

I’M JUST SAYING THAT CLIVE HAVING THE TITLE OF “MYTHOS” IS REALLY FUCKING HOT AND EVERY TIME SOMEONE CALLS HIM THAT MY PULSE QUICKENS BECAUSE HE IS LITERALLY SHOULDERING THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF MANKIND AS THE EMBODIMENT OF THE POWER OF HUMAN CREATIVITY IN SERVICE TO A SEX RITUAL

[heysawbones]

the dysphoria of being

—-

Wikipedia defines dysphoria as “a profound sense of unease or dissatisfaction”.

The internet talks about dysphoria a lot, gender dysphoria in particular. A raft of friends and acquaintances have cut their boobs off in response; a few have gone on estrogen. Because of my gender presentation - my hobbies, my interests, my tendency to write and essentially inhabit male characters - well-meaning friends have suggested on more than one occasion - why not try testosterone? Or even, you can just get rid of your boobs. It’s not bad advice, per se; it seems to be good advice for enough people, and frankly, if you have your boobs cut off and regret it later, you’ll live. Lesson learned: I guess the boobs weren’t the problem. I have never seriously contemplated this advice. I have contemplated whether I am gender dysphoric or not, however, especially in the wake of 2014-era tumblr and the relentless focus on whether one is, or is not, in the right body. The discourse made me deeply uncomfortable.

Sort of. I was already deeply uncomfortable, but, like many other things that seem insurmountable: those feelings were buried. Turned off. The discourse was rough on me. It was a reminder both that there were people who were one with their bodies, and that many people who weren’t, were a lot angrier about it than I was. In my life, the gender dysphoria discourse’s overwhelming role was to make me wonder: what, in addition to everything else, is wrong with me? Yet again, I am not reacting the way I’m supposed to, to this disconnect from the physical. Gender is such a focus for these people’s pain; is the source of my disconnection gender, too? My dysphoria started when I went through puberty, like it did for a lot of these people. Am I in the wrong body? Is that correct body, what we’ve decided to call male? I love military history. The Cold War. Building Gundams. Video games. Old cars. Lifting weights. Restoring old tools. Nice leather boots. I was active duty Army. I’m the grandpa of my friend group. If I’m supposed to be a guy - why isn’t that what I feel? Imagine, you are so aware of your own ineptitude at feeling, at processing things normally, that you aren’t sure if you’re supposed to be feeling gender dysphoria or not. That’s where I was, for long stretches. Yet, I did nothing. Simply, I have enough problems as it is, and adding testosterone and/or removing boobs seemed unwise. Plus, on some level, I knew: it’s not about gender for me. It never was. To call myself a “boy” or a “girl” is performative for me; I am nonbinary to my friends because it is the most accurate shorthand for both my experience and performance of gender. It is not a category of traits which I can appreciate or recognize in myself, not dissimilar to the disconnect from the body.

What I feel isn’t gender dysphoria. It is a dysphoria of being. Of having a body that looks back at me in the mirror; of always having to take a moment to reassess the features and confirm that it is, indeed, the collection of proportions and skin and two eyeballs I have learned are the ones that mean it is me. The intellectual aspects of having a body are not difficult - most of the time. Once, I made the mistake of attempting to articulate my feeling, or lack thereof, to a well-meaning partner and was forced to stand in front of a mirror until I stopped “feeling weird”, which I am fairly sure meant “acting weird”. It did not help. The intellectual knowledge that you are looking at yourself, and the visceral, gut-truth of is that me? What thefuckholyshit can easily exist at the same time. It’s not even a little difficult, and reinforcement of an existing conscious fact does not often alter the underlying emotional reality. Once, when I was 13, I got out of the shower and saw my mother’s face in the mirror. I don’t particularly look like my mother. I knew this was not the face I was supposed to see, looked away, and looked back. It was still there. I curled into bed and closed my eyes in hopes that it wouldn’t be there next time I checked. It was not.

My legs, my arms, my hands. My feet. Everything. Are they mine? Technically speaking. I do not doubt or question that they are, though I can barely remember a time where I could observe these and not take the fraction of a second required to run through the mental algorithm of outsider observation - ah, this leg in these pants is mine. I can tense the muscles, but am I tensing my muscles? Are the muscles, also me? I am in the body, but am I the body? Is there a right body? Is there a wrong body? The purest and least anxiety-inducing state of being for me is on IV ketamine, a powerful dissociative. The body is gone. It would seem there is no correct body, and so, every body is equally correct. Having a penis sounds nice, in ways - it seems more sexually convenient, maybe easier to clean depending on your particular configuration. If I had a penis, it would still not really be mine, just like my vagina isn’t. The damn thing is just *there*. Cutting my boobs off would just make me angry at myself because even if I don’t identify with the boobs, they are pretty good ones and having 0% boob solves jack shit in my case; it would amount to pointlessly disfiguring the perfectly ok equipment I was assigned. They take it out of your pay when you do that in the Army.

I’m still figuring this one out. Somehow this hadn’t come up with my current therapist until this week, and now I am assigned to gently stroke the hairs on my arm.

Life is fucking bizarre.

[utilitycaster]

@spiderdreamer-blog replied to your post “The Problem With Canon”:

Oh I wanna hear the CR examples

The ones I have in mind are:

The Lucien novel that just came out; I have yet to see criticism that didn't boil down to "this didn't match my headcanons so it's bad" and like, it's fine if you don't like it, and I don't think it's above criticism (I mean if you follow me in any capacity you will find that I think very little is above criticism, even the things I love), but there was nothing that struck me as out of character or not fitting with existing canon.

The upcoming Nein one-shot; I completely respect being upset that Caduceus won't be there! But it's incorrect to say this is out of character or missing the point of his arc when Caduceus spends the last ten episodes being like "I want to go home, I love you people but I am so tired of this, I wish I had never had to leave, this should have been Calliope's story" to the point of choosing to stay at the Blooming Grove before the rest of the Mighty Nein split up in Nicodranas.

People wanting Calamity to show the Betrayer gods as being ~*complex*~ and the Prime deities as ~*flawed*~ which was just absolutely bizarre, like, we've established, repeatedly, in canon, that the Betrayer gods do in fact want to destroy all people in the world and that Asmodeus will play the wounded gazelle gambit to anyone. Again, fine if you want this, I guess, but that was never canon; you're upset that your personal philosophy isn't being validated.

Percy's depiction in Campaign 3; I am a fan of Percy but if you think he would for one second be generous to a total stranger who could potentially bring back Delilah Briarwood, what precisely are you watching. I think most headcanons of Percy, and to an extent Vox Machina, ignore that they were a remarkably insular and unwelcoming bunch of people.

While the post-hiatus Mighty Nein episodes are part of the same work and are not a sequel/prequel per se, I do think that the long gap between episodes 99 and 100 (and that gap being during lockdown) also means, as many people have pointed out, people watched ship compilation videos on repeat for four months and then got mad that canon was more than a handful of cherrypicked moments.

[felikatze]

Do you feel Awakening's plot was let down by the need to be a male power fantasy, IE: kill lots of ugly people without remorse, get praised by everyone, all the woman want the avatar, ETC?

hmmmmm. good question. I don't think it's a power fantasy, per se - FE heavily ascribes to the design philosophy of "only beautiful people can be good", which is horrible for a lot of reasons, but I feel in this aspect it's plot structure is more hampered by the fact that it is a video game, and every chapter needs a Battle.

That's how you get basically every single generic brigand. There's a lull in the action, as characters talk, get to know each other, travel to the next relevant location. But you can't put any important battles inbetween, because those moments need to be slow - thus, an enemy who could just as easily be removed from the story without changing it.

In another game I like, Lord of Heroes, it's almost a running gag - the protagonist sees someone important, and wonders when they'll have to fight the next new guy, cuz We Need Boss Battles, even when the characters have no real need to fight each other. This is how you get comical misunderstandings only resolved after trashing each other, or your typical "I need to test your strength first" shtick.

These characters are engineered to be unimportant, for their deaths to mean nothing except some extra exp. It's just a problem baked into every FE game's chapter structure.

To compare to another SRPG, Triangle Strategy - you don't have plot unimportant combat in the story, ever. It's all optinal. Like yeah, there's bandits now and again, but the bandits are actually reoccuring characters, one of whom you can recruit, so they are made to be enjoyed as characters and sympathized with. The bandit characters even make good points sometimes! There's a part in the game where the main characters are involved in a black market smuggling deal, and bandits catch them transporting illegal goods. So, the bandit questions, what makes you rightous in this situation? Why is it right when you're doing it, but wrong when she does? What, because your goal is noble? What does it matter when you've sunk to the rock bottom of morality already?

However, Tristrat has an entirely different plot structure to FE. It also has a chapter system, but not every chapter includes combat. Some chapters only feature cutscenes, or exploration segments.

The game is just set up differently in a way that lets the plot breathe without forcing conflict. Combat gameplay isn't the main draw or a necessity. I'd fucking adore Tristrat if it had no combat whatsoever - It's the opposite of FE. Plot doesn't exist because combat needs to happen, no, combat only exists because the plot occasionally necessitates it.

Okay, this has been my triade on the disposable enemy archetype of Generic Brigand. To the next point - well, is Awakening a male power fantasy?

From the main plot? Not really. Like, yeah, sure, the avatar is the only person who can marry whoever. That's to give the player the opportunity to romance their favorite, I won't deny it. But the main plot itself doesn't have anyone fawn over Robin (besides Chrom). Hell, you could even go without finding out about Tharja's devotion to them if you benched her and never read her supports. Since her whole thing with Robin isn't included in her recruitment chapter at all. That utterly blindsided me when I played, cuz all I knew about her was "Robin simp." and then she didn't even simp robin in her first appearance.

If we're talking "recruiting lots of girls to your army constitutes a harem" then like, every FE game would be a harem. They're not. The game even forces you to be monogamous. I'd argue Fates is worse in this, because characters start falling in love and blushing profusely by A-support, even when they're already married, so everyone is Schrödinger's Cheating. In Awakening support chains, there's never really any romance outside of the sudden S support marriage proposal. I'll admit S-supports are well put together in recontextualizing the previous supports as falling in love, but all of them can also be left at A for a perfectly fine platonic dynamic between all characters.

Robin themself doesn't emphasize their own strength and intellect much, even if it is impressive in the world of the game. It's all about their bonds with others, how others give them strength and hope and all that good stuff. Robin is a well-developed character with positives and negatives. They're not just a blank slate. Hell, man, there's a whopping three choices you can make in the plot, and only one of them actually changes anything, and the first one is actually a choice for Chrom instead. Robin has their own thoughts and feelings and a great arc and if you ignore that in favor of "they're just me fr" then that's a you problem tbh.

You can argue till the cows come home about beauty standards and colorism in FE enemy design, fuck knows that I can freely admit a lot of Awakening enemy designs are racist as all hell, but that's sadly not unique to Awakening. Generic Brigands are ugly to signal that they're unimportant and morally corrupt and it's fine to kill them because only pretty people have morals. The only black people in Awakening are the shadowy desert cultists and the leaders of the "barbaric meathead" nation, so go figure what the game was trying to signal on that front. It's just shit design.

Awakening's finale actually makes me think of your typical fairytale hero story, and it's a great subversion of "the knight in shining armor kills the evil dragon to save the land." In that way, it's also a great subversion of other FE stories, since that summary is a lot of them in a nutshell.

Binding Blade did the subversion first though. Grima is just Idunn 2 (actual bastard edition) and I adore them for it (that much is obvious).

So like TLDR no, I don't think Awakening is a male power fantasy, because the main plot itself doesn't focus on romance or how awesome the main character is whatsoever. Less power fantasy, more "power of friendship" fantasy.

[zephyr-rat]

League of Legends Lore Reactions

So League of Legend lore video came out. 2 main points came out of this: Point 1: They will try to unify League of Legends lore under 1 unified Canon and Arcane is mainly part of that canon

I mean... It's nice to have a consistent timeline, but the more I think of this, the more I'm cynical. Like, anyone who knows League of Legend lore knows how much of a mess the canon is. It always goes through some retcons every 5 years or so. Anyone who knows anything about DC and Marvel comics know how hard it is to maintain such canon due to conflicting writer voices. It feels like a Crisis on Infinite Earth problem where the company is destroying a lot of the pre-existing champions lore or other "multiverses" per-se because they don't "matter" compared to the stories / timeline that do "matter".

And the definition of "matter" is what makes the most money and drive engagement! (Arcane). Anything in Universe (the short story bargain bin now) that has never expanded to a different medium (Riot forge or Arcane or maybe the comics?) is not officially canon and it's not safe until it moves out of that bargain bin. Arcane Viktor is significantly different from what Viktor was. Convergence camille is significantly different from what Camille was. Katarina wasn't that devoutly loyal to noxian ideals until that pre-comic for Mageseekers came out. Jayce wasn't originally a himbo with too much political power, he was diet Tony Stark. Point 2: We will no longer do short stories because they don't drive engagement. We will look into other mediums

As someone who likes 2 very unpopular characters (Twitch and ZAC), I hate this. Short stories are (compared to other mediums) the quickest and easiest way to deliver lore. If we ditch short stories entirely, then they have to go to other mediums which take much more time and investment. With such investment requires bigger returns on their offers because that's how a corporation works. The problem is that not all 200+ champions are created equal. A lot are more popular than others and those (if they want to make a profit on such projects) are the ones they will invest in at the cost of all others. This is why the only time we saw Twitch content is when it was related to his release on wild rift. I doubt we will ever get Twitch content in the future (unless he's some generic villain for a more popular character like Ekko). Or why we never get anything with ZAC because he's infamously a character that's hard to make skins for in general (thus very little profit for an already unpopular character)

So yeah, I'm not that happy with the update. I'll probably continue working on my Twitch and ZAC game and maybe write stories about them in the future. Because I already know that they don't "matter" to riot (the corporation) if engagement and profit is the only thing that they care about.

[hilarychuff]

for the ask game :)

i carry it in mine + 3, 13, 14

howl + 9, 15

the ask game

ty for the questions!!

i carry it in mine - tag, ao3

3. what’s your favorite line of narration?

hmm it currently stands at 45k words so hard to pick just one but i'm p sure this was the line that i was like first working towards when i started writing it

He means to make me queen, she thinks, her legs turning to jelly as she sinks to the floor.

like the scenes in chapter 6 and 7 at the wall where he shows her his mark/she realizes the full implications of it all were for sure like one of THEEEE inciting visuals i had

13. what music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

i actually write mostly in silence 😭 i can plot and write notes etc with the tv on or with music on but honestly i usually find it too distracting!!! i'm a big singer alonger and i really need to like. concentrate for the most part when i'm writing for real. nooooo clue what would be a good soundtrack for reading bc i would want vibes to be similar to like medieval period piece stuff so maybe something sort of instrumental???? or like a softly crooning female singer songwriter type of vibe. something a lil folksy perhaps???

actually wait i lied sometimes i listen to asmr videos on youtube!!! not that i recommend that per se lmao. but just a lil something to provide a bit of sensory stimulation so that i don't get like. bored.

14. is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

hmmmm. i don't think i went into this fic with the intention of like "this is what i want readers to learn" so much as i was like wouldn't if be interesting if... and then if their places were switched....

but i will say that something i didn't expect while writing was how many people would be upset with jon in the beginning for not making sansa his priority number one. which i GET like it's a soulmate fic that's sort of the expectation and it's an uneven expectation because he knows something here that sansa doesn't. but i always kind of felt like.... sure sansa is something different to him here than in canon but at least in the beginning the love is very much the same and exists and always existed???? and i could have done a better job writing TO that if i wanted it to be clear but i think it never occurred to me that it wouldn't be. it's so clear to me in canon how much jon loves his family, including sansa, even though we never actually see them interact for ourselves. but the way he thinks about her is so sweet. and the memories he has of her are very tender.

i think probably for the most part anyone who stuck around found a way to move past that if it felt wrong/unfair to them but i guess if i had one thing i wanted people to learn it would be sometimes that your ability to help someone or be there for them is not always a reflection of the love that you have for them. sometimes circumstances are just complicated. sometimes there's nothing you can do. but that doesn't mean you don't love someone and have love for them and hurt for them and think about them etcetcetc.

i am very much a problem solver in my own life/relationships which i think frustrates people sometimes and also sometimes leaves me feeling useless if someone is upset about something and there's nothing i can do but sometimes just loving someone and making sure they know that is enough !!! not that jon does that either in the beginning i guess lol woops but he's very much a sad boy ok maybe cut him some slack 😭

howl - tag, ao3

9. were there any alternate versions of this fic?

WELL the first howl i banged out in literally a 72 hour period cribbing heavily from an old scream script i found online that wasn't quiiteeee screen accurate and there was only ever one version of that. BUT in the larger grand scheme sense of this i do have notes for a howl 3 and howl 4 so like. not alt versions but additional installments in theory!!

i think there in the initial like "casting" phase if you will i had different notions for what howl 2 would be. bc joffrey was an obvious billy but i was like then who is stu.... and then finagling howl 1 meant some changes for howl 2 but honestly those felt really right to me when i settled on them!!!!!

as for howl 3 that casting has also taken a LOT of finagling that probably still needs some ironing out so that has probably gone through a couple different mental makeovers about how exactly to handle the roman/john milton of it all but rest assured i have lots of thoughts!!!!!!

15. what did you learn from writing this fic?

WELL!!!! actually!!!!! one thing that always bugged me about scream 2 was sidney being an actress and doing theater when it felt so like antithetical to her character to put herself in the spotlight in any capacity. but it's so like baked into the movie that doing howl 2 i was like ok how do i keep it??? and in thinking about that for sansa i considered a lot about the interiority of the character and how like. sure it's putting yourself in the spotlight. but it's also an opportunity to step out of yourself and be somebody different which i think both sidney and sansa are really craving, especially when stab/knifed is putting them on a national stage in a lot of ways. so that was something i hadn't really thought about before!!

i also think there are lots of times watching a horror movie where you see a character doing something and you're like "NO WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT WHY AREN'T YOU DOING XYZ INSTEAD" and then when you're making it like prose narrative as opposed to a script and you're in their head you really have to make it make sense to yourself a lot more (like not just running away after the police car crash scene in scream 2/howl 2) and so that was something i felt like i learned more about too like. yes sometimes you are making a decision because it serves the plot. but also how can you reconcile that action with your character's needs/wants/turmoils/experience etc.

[ideahat-universe]

Youtube's insane war with Adblock

Anti Adblock has been the bane of any casual website viewing experience and any website I visits that had those banners is typically written off entirely, and now Youtube is one of them but they take it to a whole nother level. Apparently on the Ublock reddit. They have to routinely change up how they block the banner every couple of days and by extension, you will have to update your ublock every couple of days for it to work and may have to only use Ublock because it can conflict with other blockers.

How did we get here? Oh right, every multi million dollar corporation keeping the lights on with advertisements. Advertisements so bad the our governments actually consider it a good idea to have ad block on because advertisements are a hotbed for malware to speak nothing of deepfakes or outright scam ads that the FTC considers too small a problem to get rid of.

I mean ever since Ross from the game dungeon released his video where he said that Games as a Service are Scams I've been workshopping basically the same sentiment for advertisements.

Companies sell ad space with no expectation that customers will click on the ads, only that for all intents and purposes, they presented the ads to you and are thus owed money for providing that service.

Advertisers dump tens of thousands of dollars just so the advertisement can be clicked on with the possible chance of making a sale as that's the only way to actually get a return on the investment of the advertisement in the first place.

After all a really great product doesn't even need an advertising budget per se. Word of mouth is so powerful, hell, a 7-10 review of a product from a random youtuber generates more attention and sales than a million dollar super bowl advertisement. As long as you get the right Youtuber it's way more cost effective to not have traditional ad spaces.

Not that sponsors are free from guilt. Sponsors are often scams as well. There's been more than a couple sponsored products that were scams but unlike Youtube/Google which can sell ad space to con artists and never suffer an issue, one video from Scott Schafer can convince the youtube community to effectively deplatform a bad product or service.

I mean Raid Shadow Legends still falls through the cracks but it's better than nothing.

But I've been preparing for this, actually a few people have. Louis Rossman has been working on some Manhattan project called Grayjay that will bring multi platform streaming all under one app.

There are of course other streaming platforms with different, more affordable hosting methods as well as ways to monetize content that hopes to not make the same mistakes Youtube makes with budgeting.

There's my method which is downloading every video you think you'll ever want to watch more than once, putting it on a single hard drive and then using some server hosting service like Plex and you just stream your own content to yourself (which by the way is really affordable to do as long as you are okay with 1080p to 360p as higher resolutions on very long videos like streams will soak up a lot of space for what is just one video).

A third method is installing Linux on a machine and gain access to some linux exclusive apps like Freetube which removes the bad aspects of Youtube and only has the videos as well as sponsorblock with no ads to boot (you won't be able to block content though and there's no algorithm so you better know what you want to find because you are on your own for real).

The last method is Vanced. It was supposed to be dead but like a building that's closed 11 months in a year, it sprung to life one day and now lives although you will have to have a android device and learn the side loading method to get it really working.

I've been saying this about Youtube and Twitter X for awhile now but you really should consider a future where Youtube doesn't exist, companies are tightening their budgets across the board, once the advertising firm gets slashed basically everything dependent on it will evaporate. Not enough people will ever use Youtube Red to keep the lights on for Youtube as Youtube's budget is constantly scaling and impossible to price in.

The lost media Youtube will create when it shudders is beyond your comprehension.

[ippenx]

A3! Act 1 Thoughts (4) | Reread

Muku baby my beloved, you can have ALL the fliers, and I will personally build you a castle out of them.

Tsuzureact number … you know what, I’ll stop counting.

Them using Yuzo’s troupe’s play as inspiration was really cute.

I feel so bad for him … fuck parentification, he deserved so much better and I’m glad he’s finally getting it.

Kazureact number one.

Family connections or not, really nice of him to use them for Mankai!

That reminds me of that random chipmunks movie scene, lol. 

There he goes, selling gem pa- I mean, tickets.

Hehehehehe

I like how we now know this to be literal.

Tsuzuru is such a great writer, I love him.

A rare Sakureact!

Citron is so attentive and caring!

Oh no, Sakyo’s been found out :D

I AM NONLINEAR I AM NOT ALRIGHT I AM GOING INSANE ACTUALLY AAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ITARUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!

And then he ends up doing a play about video games and and and and and he called Sakuya leader first and and AND I’m not an Itaru liker per se (I mustn’t I can’t I’m not that rich).

He is so cute, help.

Someone stuff this mean old grump with a creampuff or two. Yes yes honey we’re taking this seriously, don’t worry we’re coming for you in another 30-ish chapters 😊

Hehe.

Muku I love you, thank you so much for existing.

In summary I take too many screenshots and Tumblr only allows 30 pics per post. *looks at upcoming winter content* I may have a problem.

Next: Act 2 Part 1 →

← Previous: Act 1 Part 3

[dokidokitsuna]

Aren’t we having fun...?

Still depressed (and insomniac), so I did some more work on this AU...I actually drew quite a few pictures, but this was the most interesting one. ^^

Since I made the Knight Quartet the protags, it probably won’t come as a shock that I made Kirby the antagonist: a 12-foot tall pillar of violent hedonism. :9

It’s been a while since I’ve written an evil Kirb, and I decided to take a slightly more twisted approach this time: Star Paragon is not really ‘evil’ per se; he doesn’t necessarily want to cause harm. He actually comes to Earth to save it from a separate threat...after which, he becomes the problem.

Where he’s from, the kind of thing he likes to do-- testing his strength out on anything or anyone that exists-- is mostly without consequences, because everyone is just as powerful and invincible as he is. Basically, he lives by video game logic: of course you can destroy everything and kill everyone just to see what happens; they’ll just heal or respawn or whatever. It’s fine~.

Because of this, he can’t really conceive of a race of aliens (i.e. HUMAN BEINGS) that are too fragile for that kind of thing. People who might not appreciate having their planet Megaton Punched in half, for instance. He’s driving all life on Earth extinct and not only does he not understand why, he doesn’t really care that much. ^^; He figures if he’s actually bothering anyone worth worrying about, they’ll confront him (video game logic again), without considering that they’re simply not capable of doing that.

And of course, when someone finally does confront him: ”Hooray, some colorful new toys! Wonder how much it’ll take to break them~”

[weareallstardustfallen]

i was talking with people on the empiressona discord about gem and fwhip and their general moral greyness, and i figured i would post the analysis that i wrote out

i will preface this by saying that i started watching both of them partway in and never actually watched their first couple of videos; gem i only missed her first one or two iirc, but fwhip i started watching later so if there’s anything relevant from the early parts of his pov i don’t know about it. also my memory is not the Most reliable so i might have forgotten or misremembered things

my thesis regarding fwhip is that his basic priority is his own gain, often just in the form of his own enjoyment. he does care about things- he loves gem, he loves deepslate redstone although that's a little bit It's Fucking With His Head so idk if it counts, he genuinely cares about and tries to do right by his people, he did i think care about sausage although he didn't so much have a problem with dropping him when he got to be a liability- but most of the time, he does not care about what his actions do to other people. 

he knew perfectly well that what he and sausage were doing was hurting jimmy, and that the lies he was telling other people about him weren't true, but when jimmy is upset the way he reacts is funny so he didn't care. he was genuinely upset when the salmon were killed, but not because of their lives or conservation or whatever it is he was justifying it with, he was doing it as a way to challenge jimmy. he says he wants peace, but he never follows through, and he knows that perfectly well- he's lying to other people, not himself. he thrives on chaos and on other people's distress or panic or unhappiness, because he thinks seeing the way that he hurts them is funny.

and he does genuinely love gem, but i don't think he really respects her per se- he's totally fine with lying to her about things he knows she finds important and treating her as if she's more naive than she is. he’ll tell her that he wants peace when he knows he’s not and he knows that peace matters to her. there’s next to no guilt when she believes him blindly.

and she will play along with him, because gem does actually want peace but she's a coward and an unreliable narrator. she knows, on some level, that fwhip is lying to her and that he's not a good person, but she doesn't want to believe that- she wants a world that lets her keep both her ideals and the people she loves, but that world doesn't exist, so she pretends it does. she thinks there's some way that she can get it, by helping jimmy without telling fwhip and by telling herself that her allies are in the right, that (in the codfather conflict arcs) jimmy was the aggressor and the one in the wrong and fwhip and sausage were just defending themselves in a reasonable way, like they told her. 

she wants the people she loves to be good people, but when they're not she doesn't confront them or do anything about it, she just chooses to believe that they are. she's not actually naive, she's just choosing to believe the lies she's being told. and even if she does realize that fwhip isn't doing good things or that jimmy deserves help too, she doesn't really do anything about it- she's been getting better about helping jimmy, but earlier on she was just acting nice and on his side while she openly allowed fwhip and sausage to do what they were already going to, and if she tries to tell fwhip that he's wrong he's cheeky and playful about it and she forgives him every time, because she wants to. 

gem’s character is really interesting because she’s a coward, and she’s selfish. it makes her a really fascinating, flawed character- her own comfort in her ideals seems to matter more than actually upholding those ideals.

their characters are both so complex and well-written, and their flaws and the relationship between them could absolutely lead to some really fascinating conflicts. right now xornoth is a bigger problem, but before it became the major plot focus fwhip was heading head first down a villain arc, and kind of dragging gem with him- i think it would be really interesting to see that a bit more, and see just how far he’ll go, and how far that would push gem.

gem would, i think, probably reach some kind of breaking point- there’s a line at which even plausible deniability can’t help her see his actions as morally right. she’d be forced to chose between the people she cares about (fwhip specifically in this case) and the ideals she tries to uphold. if she chose him, we could get a really, really fun villain gem arc; if she chose her ideals, she could have an interesting sort of recovery-type arc surrounding that and fwhip could be forced to realize that she won’t always enable him, which would provide a really interesting character arc for them both as they process that.

of course, they could also take it in an entirely different direction and i’m sure it would be wicked cool, bc they’re both talented writers! this is just what i’ve been thinking about in regards to their characters

[testingcheats0n]

Detroit Become Human AU where:

-> Tommy is an up-and-coming livestreamer of the retro game Minecraft- forming part of a fledgling community of all-human players of the game. His growth is slow but steady and he has a future in a genre that had fallen out of fashion with the rise of the newest and more immersive VR games on the market. People love to see an actual human that could make mistakes and win against another fellow human fairly. The nostalgia it brought to some people is also undeniably at play.

It's worth noting that Tommy is a very lonely kid, with a non-existent social life since he and his family had to move to America after his father struck a lucrative business deal with his brilliant protege.

-> Wilbur, Tommy's older brother and only guardian after their father, Phil, dedicated his life to the creation of androids with his young but brilliant pupil Elijah Kamski, is a simple busker. It's hard to find a job at 24 with no previous experience or further education, he had to take care of Tommy, after all. True, their economic troubles never ended, and he could barely provide for Tommy, but at least they had each other, even if Wilbur was off to the streets of Detroit more often than not. He has no idea of his younger brother's blooming career in the gaming industry and is very worried about his future. The solution? A very suspicious android his best friend Schlatt offers for very cheap.

-> Phil Watson is a household name together with Elijah Kamski's, they created one of humanity's greatest tools, after all. Nothing suspicious here, they're definitely not hiding any potential deviancies from the code! In any case, his family never saw a dime of the frankly insane amount of money piling up in his bank account. He has an old phone he carries in his pocket every day with Wilbur's phone number, but he never dares to call it despite RN800, his assistant's, insistence that he was only making his own life harder. He is going to dial that phone number someday. Surely.

-> TU880 is an android from an old companion/educational line, discontinued after a few notable bugs and glitches in their core programming. Nothing serious, or life-threatening, but many customers have complained about disturbing behavior that falls straight into the uncanny valley- he's too human. Schlatt, his previous owner, refuses to disclose where he got TU880 from, nor does he have any legal documentation to prove he is his owner. Wilbur, desperate to find a solution for Tommy's perceived loneliness pays the fifty bucks his old pal asks for the android without asking any questions. It's weird for an adult to go around with a teen model created to counsel adolescents and help them with their homework. TU880 had problems with reading his grocery list, anyway.

-> Tommy is a bit weirded out, he thrives in an internet community which openly despises anything android, but his good friend Technoblade has plenty of useful advice, from maitenance to behavior. TU880 is odd, which he discards as kinks and bugs of the older models, but they get along nicely once TU880's programming kicks in. He likes to help Tommy edit his videos and speak about the problems of adolescence, he is oddly fond of bees or anything small and defenceless and likes to tell his 'dreams' of scientists in labcoats and other kids like him stuck in experiments. Tommy listens with half an ear, TU880 is his friend, after all. He thinks nothing of it.

-> It all becomes a bit too much when TU880 accidentally appears on camera during one of Tommy's streams. People assume he's Tommy's brother, and insist on getting an introduction. TU880 is ecstatic, but from what Tommy's told him, revealing his artificial status might harm his friend's career so he greets the chat as Toby, Tommy's older brother. The community goes wild and Tommy has to pretend that TU880 is his brother (which isn't that terrible per-se) and not the house assistant who has a complete psychological profile of him.

-> TU880 begins to feel strange, both regarding Tommy and his own place in the household. Calling Tommy hus brother is easy as calculus and makes his thirium pump skip a few beats, but he's not sure if he should be getting this attached. He's sure he is malfunctioning in some way, but Schlatt always assured him that he is fine. He thinks nothing of it and instead continues to watch over Tommy.

-> Minecraft is fun, and he eventually gets his own account on Wilbur's old (read: ancient) laptop despite possessing an internal processor powerful enough to play the game at its maximum capacity in his mind, and probably in a 3D holoprojector. At this point, he's in too deep and the friends he's making would certainly ask questions if he were to disappear. He has the opportunity to talk about anything at all to his growing audience, and the community is very welcoming in general once one integrates into their culture. He still doesn't feel it's fair to participate in the tournaments and all the other official competitions. People find it odd, but they assume he's not very good at PVP so no one tends to comment on it for now. It's okay though, he and his new friend Ranboo act as commentators during the events and everyone thinks they're pretty funny.

-> Ranboo is fun to be around. He just gets TU880- or as the internet knows him as, Tubbo. They click easily, sometimes the other boy seems just as confused about other people's reactions and behavior as Tubbo is (despite his in-depth knowledge of psychology. He's not quite connected to Cyberlife's database anymore and his learning algorithm is outdated at best.) and they like to spend their afternoons with Tommy, watching movies. The game overtakes their lives and they spend a lot of time playing privately with the best strategies Tubbo's advanced algorithms and Ranboo's sheer brilliancy can create. That's how they meet their friend Fundy, who is more than happy to keep their Technical Minecraft server a secret, as long as he gets to do his own thing with coding and they test it.

-> Tommy is just happy that he can use the cool farms for his own grinding.

-> Technoblade is Tommy's mysterious internet friend and fellow growing streamer. Everyone is sure that he's an android infiltrating the budding community, but after several years of isolated incidents, investigations, and online scandals no one was able to prove anything. Technoblade just never dies. (Tommy is 50% sure his friend is really an android, the older man simply refuses to comment). It is possible to spend months farming digital potatoes, people are just mean and want drama. Technoblade is just vibing. Incidentally, he's also the first one to figure out that Ranboo and Tubbo are androids. He is also the first one to figure out they're deviants. He doesn't mention it until much later though.

-> Jack and Niki Manifold have successfully founded their own mechanic business for android repairs. Cyberlife mumbled and grumbled at the siblings' repair shop, but in the end it was good for PR so they let them be. Tommy and Wilbur become their friends as TU880's frequent malfunctions inevitably bring the pair to the cheapest android repair service in the city. TU880 can't complain, Niki is sweet to him and understands what is wrong with him just by his description, since his diagnostics aren't working entirely and each an every single one of Jack's repairs last loner than every other mechanic he's been to.

-> Gradually, Tommy's fame becomes apparent, and Wilbur has the time to actually rest and spend time with his brother. He's just happy that they can be together. A weight is lifted off his shoulders and for the first time ever he feels like his little family has a future. Not even once does it pass through his mind that TU880 isn't acting like a typical android- he avoided the things on principle. Once, TU880 calls him his brother and he cries.

-> Sam is Cyberlife's very own private investigator. He is in charge of researching and turning in possible deviants that might help the company with developing a solution for the rising problem. In particular, he's been after the trail of a specific line of androids, the first one released by Kamski and Watson dubbed as TU. According to his investigations the line might have contained the code responsible for deviancy. Further research indicated that Kamski's code was based on a group project from the Dutch university for cibernetics.

-> Fundy is just a 21 y/o with a Twitch account and a passing interest in coding. Nothing serious, nothing suspicious. He absolutely wasn't part of the early AI coding trials that Kamski would later on use as the basis for his own code. If someone asks, he has no idea what ra9 means. He is almost sure that his friends are androids, the thought makes him very happy.

-> Puffy is Phil's new psychologist. Need I say more? Eventual Hurt/comfort baby!!!

[aobakukkii]

✬Bokuto Relationship Headcanons✬

Bokuto x Gender Neutral Reader

(+small male reader bonus part at the end because the guys deserve it)

✬

Just really fluffy stuff for you and best boy

✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬

- Having someone like Bokuto as your partner will be an incredibly rewarding experience, if you are willing to adapt to his antics. He actively seeks out fun, excitement and chances to grow and expects you to be his personal portable power bank on his journey. For him, one must always try to become the most ideal version of oneself and this also involves moving someone out of their comfort zone because boy does not like feeling restrained. He picks up cues on how to handle people extremely well and makes sure that both of you feel happy and secure on your path. Most of the time Bokuto radiates positive energy and hype, so his s/o really does not have to worry and just put faith into his skills.

- Bokuto likes to express his feelings through physical affection. He is awfully touchy with people he is close with and his s/o gets to feel it double. Bokuto is build for the greatest of cuddles and hugs and he just finds it so easy and convenient to hold his s/o close or touch any given part of their body throughout the day to say “I love you and I deeply care about you”, although his s/o could always ask him to say it out loud and he would shower them with sweet-nothings and compliments.

In return, he wants his s/o to accept his affection, return it in their way and finally their attention. He’s not per se the most jealous person (only to a certain extent) and completely understand that sometimes people need their alone time, but he’s self-absorbed to a degree that he wants and needs to be the center of your love and attention at least a little bit everyday. Otherwise he can become really whiny. To stop him just do something (in his eyes) really cute and everything is forgiven.

- One word that Bokuto does not know of is shame. He wants to show off and attention and this has an impact on how he displays PDA when you don’t stop him. He prides himself a lot on having the best s/o ever and sadly won’t accept nothing as an option because he can’t help himself. He is fine with keeping it on a low level like holding hands, leaning onto each other or throwing his arm around your shoulder, but if you let him go as he pleases him he may just make you sit on his lap or pick you up and spin you around once you guys meet.

- Contrary to what some might think, Bokuto does appreciates relaxed dates to recharge. The most common quality time with him is chilling at one of your places after work/university/school and just play video games or binge shows. However daily responsibilities won’t stop him from dragging you out at night for some “late-night adventures” like getting some food and/or taking a walk and talking about random stuff while appreciating the privacy and beauty of the dark so hopefully you’re into that as well.

He regularly checks for new or popular spots in and around town for you guys to visit on your days off. A popular restaurant, local sightseeing spots, an interesting exhibition, any amusement park (probably his favorite date spot) or some escape room, he wants to see them all. He also really loves to travel to near and far with you and take cheesy, but cute, couple selfies. However his schedule sadly limits his abilities to do so often besides local stuff and short trips.

- When you guys are apart, especially for a longer period of time, he quite literally trashes your phone with the amount of notifications and videos he sends you throughout the day. He begs you to install Snapchat (if you don’t already have it) and vlogs you his training, things you might find interesting and bad jokes in hopes of making you smile. Speaking of bad jokes, expect a lot of memes for another cheap laugh. If you’re somewhat responsible you should not produce content at a similar rate (you both need to get something done after all), but as long as you reply ever so often you make his day.

- In a relationship with Bokuto, you will receive a lot of support but also have to give a lot of support. He feels like it’s his responsibility to bring you back up and make you feel special and that’s exactly what he needs in return. He is without a doubt resilient and some kisses, hugs and compliments can get him back on track most of the time, but he couldn’t handle if the person he trusts the most does not have his back or rejects him when he needs them.

Nevertheless, his style of love involves a lot of spoiling his s/o rotten and if he gets spoiled in return, you should be well prepared for possible hardships.

- Have I mentioned that he is perfect if you take care of him? He won’t have a problem with including you in his friend-circle (his teammates and you have a lot of passive contact through his vlogs anyway) or inserting himself into yours. He’s ready to indulge in interests you might have as long as he can spend some time with you. It’s pretty easy to get him hooked onto something as long as you love it.

- It’s really important for him that try to cheer him on during his games and that you are active enough to play at least a bit of volleyball with him (not like you could keep up with him otherwise). He’s a patient teacher, but you will probably learn the most about being a setter for countless demonstrations of his straights. If you already play volleyball at any level really, he’s even more satisfied. The experience of playing with you is one of the biggest confidence boosts he can get for his games and he's determined to use the techniques he showed you to win! Another big boost is to wear his merch or even better his spare training clothes (or option 3: both) when you attend the games in person. Show others that you're his #1 fan!

✬

Fanboy BONUS~

Warning: Suggestive, but nothing graphic

- If you guys speak English (don’t worry, he passed his English exams), expect him to use surprisingly creative yet lame bro pick-up lines. You just know that he practices those with Kuroo.

- Remember the show off part? With a boyfriend he adds an “own the haters” attitude on top of it. When gushing about you, he can’t stop saying how HIS BOYFRIEND is the most fantastic thing in existence.  He’s maybe a bit overbearing sometimes, but his motivation is just so pure that barely anyone minds.

- He’s a top, deal with it. You can learn it the easy or the hard way, but he will assert it in your relationship in any way he wants.