#technically it's january 3rd but oh well-

[dancer-subclarington]

TEXTS: KYLA & BRIAR

Kyla: I get to leave this prison

Briar: How?

Kyla: Field trip

Briar: Less sucky than the last one?

Kyla: Thankfully. We’re going to London on Jan 3rd, coming back the 10th. Which means you have that long to get to London.

Briar: Im home

Kyla: And they don’t have flights from Canada to London?

Briar: Im home for the holidays

Kyla: The holidays are over!

Briar: New Years is a holiday.

Kyla: We both know you’ll be out on New Years, you don’t need to be home with family

Briar: I know the bars and clubs here.

Kyla: Im pouting

Briar: Oh no

Kyla: It’ll be in January. New Years will be over. So. I’ll see you in London.

Briar: You really want to be doing dance stuff on vacation?

Kyla: Vacation is for doing stuff you love and I love dance

Briar: You’re adorable. But wrong. Vacation is for sex. Sex and shopping and drinking.

Kyla: You said the academy is for sex

Briar: Which is true

Kyla: And being away from the academy is also about sex?

Briar: Yes

Kyla: How does that make sense?

Briar: Sex doesn’t have to make sense.

Kyla: Ugh

Briar: I’ll drop by if you promise to let me watch you have fun

Kyla: This again? Its been 4 years

Briar: You went out in college and did fun things but I’ve only ever seen you do dance things.

Kyla: So your criteria to come see me is that I dress slutty and go drinking?

Briar: That’s a good start

Kyla: Start? Babe that’s the whole thing

Briar: What? No.

Kyla: Why do you think Im a fun person?

Briar: Bc you let me ask your bf 3 questions

Kyla: I dont remember that being one of them

Briar: Because you walked away and insisted that I never tell you what I asked him

Kyla: Bc I assumed it would be dirty!

Briar: Oh it was, I assure you. But then he and I started talking and I learned some things

Kyla: I never said you 2 could TALK

Briar: Yeah i know, you told us not to talk to each other

Kyla: Bc i knew you wouldn’t behave!

Briar: And you were right. So now I know your kinks and some other stuff.

Kyla: You’re annoying

Briar: I can live with that. If I go to London, you’re going to behave like that sorority babe I never actually got to meet

Kyla: It was different then

Briar: Doesn’t have to be! You had a sexy bf and you were still out there drinking and flirting and such

Kyla: He knew about it

Briar: Duh, that’s how I found out, we just covered this.

Kyla: Fine. Whatever. I’ll dance and flirt and get people to buy things for me.

Briar: And do stupid dares?

Kyla: Well I always do that

Briar: Good. Pinky promise all of this.

Kyla: Come on

Briar: You won’t break a pinky promise because you’re a small child

Kyla: Ughhhhh. Fine. Pinky promise. One night. And I have a curfew.

Briar: Wtf

Kyla: 11. Also I can’t go anywhere without another student.

Briar: 11? Buddy system? What are you, 15?

Kyla: I’m a student

Briar: You were a student in college, too. What was your sorority’s curfew?

Kyla: I was technically underage, so 1 for me, 2 for others.

Briar: You’re staying out later than 11

Kyla: Absolutely the hell not

Briar: Who says that? You still dont say fuck?

Kyla: Nope

Briar: Aiden said you say it during sex

Kyla: UGHHHHH

Briar: 😁

Kyla: Well that means you’ll never hear it

Briar: I’ll go with girls if it also involves a guy. Anyone willing at your school?

Kyla: No one Im prepared to ask.

Briar: You are so damn boring.

Kyla: You’re just sex obsessed. Now which classes will you take with me?

Briar: If we’re going to be together, we’re teaching classes not taking them. A full day of classes

Kyla: I have to have a student with me. I can convince someone to watch me dance for a bit but Im not gonna ask someone to sit around for 10 hours while I teach classes. What’s wrong? Can’t dance anymore?

Briar: Shut up

Kyla: We’re taking classes, its much more fun than teaching. Plus we can film the combos together and post it which will fuel signups

Briar: It probably wont

Kyla: It will if we include an improv section

Briar: Fine. But you also need to have sex. You like fairytales. Far off romantic land, exotic accents, yummy treats.

Kyla: Why are you concerned with my sex life?

Briar: Your dad is sexist so I assume you were raised to believe that sex is a chore that you must do

Kyla: I like sex

Briar: Good. Have a lot of it. It builds strength if you do it in fun positions

Kyla: You do strength positions, I’ll stick to flexible ones

Briar: Said like a loser who won’t get her 540

Kyla: Choreography doesn’t even call for girls to do 540s!

Briar: I know some girls here who can do it

Kyla: Because you all grow up wrestling mooses and lugging around axes!

Briar: You know girls who can do it too

Kyla: Only 3! And one of them is you!

Briar: Right, right. I can do it. You can’t. Remind me, do you like that?

Kyla: Do you like not being able to change spotting directions a million times when you turn?

Briar: See? You can fight through being boring.

Kyla: Point taken

Briar: Aiden told me you can do the luge really well

Kyla: Im ok at it

Briar: You were famous for it

Kyla: I left you two alone for like 5 minutes!

Briar: Yep. You’re gonna race everyone in the bar.

Kyla: Everyone who’s there before its even 10:30 yet? Easy.

Briar: Just for that Im putting fireball in it

Kyla: You say that like you want me to be too messed up to have sex with one of my roommates.

Briar: Tell me about this roommate. Is he hot?

Kyla: Very. It’s a girl though

Briar: Whatever works for you. If I go to London, do I get to meet your brothers?

Kyla: No

Briar: Why

Kyla: You can meet Gunner

Briar: Why Gunner?

Kyla: Bc he’s gay. Completely gay. You only want to meet them so you can have sex with them

Briar: Yeah so?

Kyla: Not happening!

Briar: Annoying

[blueshinefox]

Here's what been going on since 2024 started…

Okay, so I came home from Los Angeles, California and Orlando, Florida on January 3rd, and over the past few days before that I have been sick with vomiting and headache. I'm much better now, but still having a headache because it's freaking painful and I claim the pimples on the sides of my forehead bother me while feeling stupidly tired and being forced to rest. 

I have been meaning to post on here more frequently, but being sick has made me more active in mind than in body. Technically, I am yet to post something in my gallery for the first time of 2024, basically some kind of welcome to the new year. I know I posted that picture of Shizuka wishing a happy New Year, but it was actually “but here I am” when this happened (But Here I Am is a song by Snuffles).

So I really just want to draw something that shows what I have given chance prior to 2024, and welcome it into the new year.

Did I mention I haven't drawn since coming home? It almost feels like I lost my passion…

And I feel like I don't know how to ride on a plane anymore because it's been almost a few days since the incident… I've been riding on cars because plane flights are so expensive. Ironically, I felt much safer with the way people drive on cars. They know how NOT to fuck up unlike the assholes that are little children, and any moron who is a little child thinks going on a plane ride is definitely not okay because all they ever do is cry and misbehave.

Also, I feel like Mountain time and Central time is still screwing with me because I don’t see my notifications on social media in either Mountain time and Central time. Well, to be honest, I mostly check my notifications on social media in both Pacific time and Eastern time. Oh, yeah, and I had always stayed up until 12 AM for the New Year…

I'm not giving up on my OCs, including Shizuka. I may not get much attention yet, but I'll get there! One day I'm going to be recognized and I'll make people feel wholesome with my work! Just as the web artists I follow have made me feel while reading their content!

And that's all I can say for what's been going on since I came home.

Also, one more thing…

Being 21 hasn't made me any different, and HELL NO am I drinking alcohol junk, but life's gifts and experiences have become even better for me.

I can only imagine what will happen when I turn 22 this year!

[jackdawyt]

Your bird is back with another Dragon Age 4 News Update!  🐦

For the first time this year, I’m doing a massive monthly news recap of everything we learned about Dragon Age 4 going forward (JUST) in the month of March, because slap my arse and call me Andraste, this month was huge for Dragon Age 4 updates, we’ve got a lot of exciting info to get into!

(Romance Tweets)

Calling all romance fans, you can bank on Dragon Age 4 to fulfil all of your intimate desires, perhaps even more so than the previous games. Jon Renish, Foundation Programming Area Director working on the next Dragon Age had a few things to say whilst watching a romance scene script read through:  

“Don't want to alarm anyone, but I'm starting to think 'Dragon Age' games might be a bit randy.” (March 3rd)

‘Randy’, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means ‘sexually arousing’ and ‘exciting.’ So, we can prepare for that, whatever that is! Jon continues his tweet thread with:

“Well now it's all sad and sweet and emotional. I was not prepared for this rollercoaster.”

In true BioWare fashion, we’re going to have a lot of sexy times, however, brought together with moving and character developing moments – y’know, the ups and downs of the romance as the relationship builds and grows throughout the entire game experience.  

“Oh, nothing like that.  Just watching a script read through.”

Jon confirms that this was indeed a script read through, as we can tell reviewing a potential romance scene. As a romance advocate myself, I am very interested in the direction romances will be going in for Dragon Age 4. That is something that I will especially be keeping my eyes on. 

(E3/EA Play 2020 Update)

EA Play and E3 2020 are generally the most expected places to see a new Dragon Age 4 reveal trailer.

E3 2020 has been cancelled due to the current outbreak, however, we’ve yet to be updated on the status of EA Play 2020. Of course, it is most certainly cancelled since the tickets for the show were supposed to drop this March. But, we still don’t know what will replace the show.  

The teams behind E3 2020 are supposedly working on a digital showcase to display new announcements that would’ve been revealed on stage. We can only assume that EA will follow suite and do the same for EA Play, making it a digital show, like Nintendo’s Direct conferences.  

Regardless, this is something that we’re going to have to wait and see until EA speak out, and when they do, I’ll be sure to cover that in a news update. I feel we could have a Dragon Age 4 reveal, with an expected release of 2022/2023, but with everyone hectic right now, I’m unsure.  

(C Virus Update)

Speaking of hectic... with the current outbreak, EA have spoken and shared a statement about health and safety during these times:  

(March 13th) “These are challenging times for everyone.  We’re working to look after our employees and their families, and make sure we’re doing the right and responsible things to fight this pandemic illness.”

Thankfully, everyone working at BioWare have been asked to work from home. Justin Masse, Experience Designer working on the next Dragon Age tweeted he’s “working from home until April 1st", confirming the length of this situation.

According to Crystal McCord, Associate Producer of Performance Capture and VO, working at home has been very productive for the team at BioWare as they have “exceeded all expectations.” 

So, it’s great knowing that despite the crazy situation in the world right now, BioWare developers are staying safe, working from home and progressing hugely on the next Dragon Age title!  

(Slack Server)

(March 13th) While Mark Darrah was working from home, he tweeted a picture regarding his tiling progression, as he’s currently redesigning aspects of his home. However, in the very corner of Darrah’s picture lies a laptop screen with a Slack Server revealing many Dragon Age development secrets!  

The server shows plenty of channels for the BioWare developers regarding specific work notes on all aspects of progression. A large amount of the channels are abbreviated to “MOR_” - which is most certainly shortened from ‘Morrison’, Dragon Age 4’s current project title as we know.

This list of the channels are endless, and I could spend forever looking into what exactly they all refer to regarding the production of the next Dragon Age game. We have one channel called ‘mor_announcement’ - does this hint at a new trailer to soon be showed off, or is it an old channel since The Dread Wolf Rises teaser? Are they planning an upcoming announcement? Surely, they would be right? Is that anytime soon?  

Another channel is called ‘mor_da_week’ which from what I can assume stands for Dragon Age week? We have a Dragon Age Day created by the fans and made offical by BioWare, but a Dragon Age week, that’s something I’ve never heard of...  

And there’s just plenty of channels referring to Dragon Age 4’s current development, there’s even a bad design ideas thread, an ask Mark anything chat, approvals on key aspects of the game, marketing assets, and so on!  

It’s a gold mine of tidbits, orchestrated by none other than Mark Darrah, the Executive Producer on Dragon Age. He has once more tweeted a cheeky little tease that may appear mundane, passing a blind eye to it, however, when you take some time and actually look at what he’s posted, it reveals a nug-ton of info we can speculate on.

(New Associate Producer / Jobs)

Illustrator and Creative Professional “Mad Bee” has returned to work at BioWare, they previously worked on Anthem as an Art Quality Analyst. However, this time around, they are an Associate Producer, most likely working on Dragon Age 4. 

And, following that, BioWare are currently hiring! I’ve seen this news piece get quite the few news articles, but I figured I could break this one down better, rest in peace PC Gamer.

So, indeed BioWare are hiring for many roles at the company, the most prominent role is a ‘Technical Director’ for ‘the next major title in one of BioWare’s most prestigious franchises.’  

Considering Mike Gamble, the new project lead for the next Mass Effect game tweeted this hiring out, I’d assume this position is needed for the Mass Effect team who are also in Edmonton, opposite the Dragon Age team.  

What’s most concerning about this job listing relating to the future of Mass Effect is that, according to the job requirements, the applicant needs to have experience ‘developing, debugging and optimizing AAA multiplayer games on PC or console.’  

To throw away my suspicion that Mass Effect or Dragon Age are going to have a heavy multiplayer experience, I looked at the other job listings located at Edmonton’s studio and I discovered other job listings, like an Engine Programmer which require the same experience of developing and debugging games, however, without the multiplayer element.  

So, perhaps BioWare have two teams, one working on the main single player element and the other working on the much smaller multiplayer aspect? I’d be naive to not reiterate the fact that future BioWare games are going to be live service, however, we still don’t know to what extent that will look like.  

(Tevinter Nights)

Patrick Weekes teased that Dragon Age 4 is most certainly in Tevinter following there Tevinter Nights Book plug, however, Patrick still calls the next Dragon Age game an unannounced project? Which I don’t understand because The Dread Wolf Rises teaser trailer at The Game Awards 2018 most certainly confirmed that a new Dragon Age game is currently in production and has been announced.

Unless Patrick is calling it ‘still-unannounced' because they’re planning an announcement soon...

I feel like Patrick is just joking at the fact that the next game is most certainly set in Tevinter, considering PC Gamer made an article a while back stating that Dragon Age 4 is set in Tevinter based on the Tevinter Nights book reveal, it made plenty of the BioWare staff and community laugh at their credulous Journalism. So, it could just be that.  

Anyhow, March has actually been an amazing month to be a Dragon Age fan! We had the final issue of Blue Wraith and the release of the anthological Tevinter Nights!

Tevinter Nights dropped plenty of story hints for the future of Dragon Age. I was lucky enough to receive an early copy, as of which, I’ve created plenty of content regarding all of the story threads uncovered in the novel that you should check out once you’ve read the book for yourself, I’ve still got more to content to come from Tevinter Nights too!  

However, if you have not read it and very much care about the future of Dragon Age, which if you’re watching this video, you most likely do. So, you should go and read this book because we learn A LOT going forward for the future narrative of Dragon Age. The book is a huge spring board for the next game, so go and read it!  

(Blue Wraith)

The final issue of Blue Wraith launched and as much as I enjoyed it, the comic ended on a cliff-hanger!

The lead writers Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir are hopeful for another comic to come, stating:

The two also spoke in a comic-centred interview by Deconstructing Comics about the direction of their entire Dragon Age comics. That since Knight Errant, their comics are created to prepare for a hypothetical Dragon Age 4, but not as a prologue or a plot for the next game. Nunzio suggested that fans should instead look at Tevinter Nights.

Nunzio shared on BSN Forums that hopefully the wait for the next comic won’t be as long as last time. Dragon Age: Deception came out through October – December of 2018, whereas Blue Wraith came out through January – March of 2020. So, perhaps the next comic run could come mid-2021.

(Future Books/Comics)

Speaking of future books and comics, just after I finished Blue Wraith and Tevinter Nights, I was asking myself what’s next to look forward to regarding Dragon Age content. However, on March 23rd we got not one, but two book announcements coming later this year.

Dropping on the 13th of October, BioWare are revealing a new development book, charting the legendary game studio's first 25 years in a massive retrospective hardcover book at $39.99. Perhaps we’ll learn more about Dragon Age 4’s previous iteration, project Joplin?  

Following that, on October 27th, the five Dragon Age graphic novels are being put into a massive collection for $29.99.

This book collects Dragon Age: The Silent Grove #1-6, Dragon Age: Those Who Speak #1-3, Dragon Age: Until We Sleep #1-3, Dragon Age: Magekiller #1-5, and Dragon Age: Knight Errant #1-5.

But not Deception & Blue Wraith? Potentially they’ve left these two out because Dark Horse wish to progress with these comics, foreshadowing more comics in the future to come?  

(Reddit Leak)

Moving on to a slightly weird, and most certainly fake-but-take-it-as-you-will-update... we have a reddit leak showing many upcoming games release dates, with some actually being accurate. Dragon Age 4 is listed here, and according to this leak, it’s releasing the 15th of November, 2020. Again, most certainly fake, but take it as you will.  

Speaking of fake leaks, a 2018 leak for Dragon Age 4’s contents has resurfaced, and oh boy is this thing fake. I feel like dissecting this thing as a separate video just for a laugh, but tell me down below if that’s a good idea or not.  

With that, that’s all the updates we had in March! We’re three, almost four months into 2020, as crazy as this year has been so far. I’ve already created plenty previous news updates, so if you need to be caught up to date, or you’ve missed an update, or you’re just stuck inside and need something to put your mind at ease - I have a news playlist with every single major update regarding Dragon Age 4’s development, so be sure to check that out. 

I hope you all are holding up okay and staying safe, distract yourself by telling me some of your own hopes for the next Dragon Age game, it can be anything you'd like to see! Personally, I'd love to see Vaea make any appearance in DA4!

[sleepyfaceandsnark]

Distant Lover, One Day I'll Hold You Like the Sun Holds the Moon

Summary:

When Steve leaves a letter for the new resident at the lake house he stayed at during the summer he doesn't expect to get a letter back, or such puzzling exchange that'll make him ask is this fate? Or is this just an expertly crafted practical joke?

AO3

January 4th 2012

Dear New Resident,

I hope you enjoy this quaint house as much as I did. May it feel you with many times of peace. Please if you receive any mail addressed to me to forward it to my current address listed at the bottom of this letter. The paw prints on the dock and the box in the attic were here when I got here. Not sure who the box belongs to.

Enjoy your stay,

Steve R

Steve leaves the letter in the mailbox and takes his last bag of luggage. He didn't so much lie in the letter it really was a nice, quaint place and it was very peaceful but regardless of those facts he couldn't wait to leave the lake house behind him. It wasn't the lake house's fault he had a bad break up and had to go back to shifts at the emergency room after his private practice lost their funding and he certainly didn't believe it was cursed so it was okay to omit his personal drama from the note. He takes one last look at the house, placed in the middle of a lake 5 miles wide with large windows being the only source of outside exterior walls. It gives the illusion just anyone could look in but there was no one around to do so, and even then by some technological advances of some kind Steve couldn't bother to remember, the glass reflects in a way that disables anyone from seeing in. The walkway from land to house is around 10 yards and narrow, leaving enough room for one person and maybe a dog Steve thinks as he rolls his eyes looking at the pawprints again. He finally jumps in his car and pulls away from the house with promise he'll be back to check on it soon.

February 3rd

Bucky Barnes drives his truck down the gravel road towards the secluded lake house he decided, on a whim, to rent. A stupid decision possibly, especially for a bartender, but a great place for him to get peace to write. He checks the mailbox and sees a letter written by the previous inhabitant. He slings his only bag back over his shoulder and slides his fingers though the flap of the envelope to open it as he walks up the walkway. He unfolds it as he puts the keys he was given in the lock, flicks the lights on by the door, and drops his bag down. He walks to the couch and starts reading.

Quaint? Definitely. He got that memo when he checked out the place. He glances quickly at the bottom to see the address he's supposed to forward the mail to and goes back up to reading.

Paw prints on the dock? Not sure he remembers seeing those unless he wasn't paying attention when he was shown the place, or even just now. He'll check in the morning.

Box? That could be interesting. Soon as he's settled and orders some food he'll find his way up to the attic.

He puts the letter down. Okay so no notion of anything be haunted. That's good. Except maybe the mysterious box.

His food comes and he puts on the tv, setting it up when he was waiting for the delivery. Of course setting up the tv took longer than the thought so he didn't have time to look in the attic for the mysterious box. He finishes his dinner, discarding the remnants in the trash. He sits back down to finish the episode of whatever mindless tv program he settled on to rid himself of scrolling through all of the channels. He already forgot the name of it but it was a rerun of some show about people jumping through impossible obstacles. Bucky sits back and wonder if he could do that, maybe even win there prize...if there even was a prize. Note to self look up how to apply to American obstacle course show or something...

He turns it off after the episode ends resisting the urge to let it go to the next one and decides now is a good time as any to look up at the attic.

He pulls the covering down, revealing a small latter, and climbs up. He peaks his head through the hole and notices how empty the room is. He climbs through regardless and walks around the room seeing a few pieces of furniture, some with sheets covering it some covered in dust. That's odd. Almost as if no one has been up here in years. He looks around some more but doesn't see anything resembling a box. Maybe the letter was old and not only did the other inhabitants paint over the paw prints but also got rid of the box (and never dusted). Shame he was curious.

He checks the letter again and there was no date besides the day and month. Maybe it was January 4th of another year?

Bucky sighs and goes back to the television, scrolling through again until he falls on some movie that was halfway done. He falls asleep on the couch. Next day he looks around the house, in daylight this time, and sees what could possibly be fixed. He doesn't notice much in the house besides some rusty hinges which wont be a huge project so he goes outside to look. He walks on the walkway still not seeing the paw prints that were supposedly there however he does notice the paint chipping, pieces of it coming of in his hand as he slides it down. Looks like he'll need a trip to the nearest hardware store for some paint. It'll probably be easiest to just match the black that's already on it as much as he'd like to try his hand at a bold color change.

Luckily the hardware store was nearby so about a half an hour later he has the paint, brushes, a roller (in case that's easier), and a tray to dump the paint in.

About an hour in, and not even halfway done, he hears something near the bushes on the other side of the road of the house. He hears something jump out of it and the light scratching of nails on the pavement. He's about to turn around and face whatever beast decided to intrude on his peaceful Lake House when he hears a playful bark. The best, or otherwise known as a Golden Retriever, gallops towards him tongue flopping in the wind. Bucky manages to dodge out of the dog's way but unfortunately the paint pan didn't make it. The dog's feet run through it, knocking the paint can over as well in the process, and continues to run down the walkway and towards the house. Bucky stops the dog as it's feet touch the front porch of the house, and thanks himself for closing the door.

"Hey, buddy. What're you doing?" Bucky asks the dog as if the dog will answer him back 'Oh nothing much just going for my mid day jog'.

Bucky laughs to himself . “Alright let me see if I can get you cleaned up,” he says to the dog. He put his hand on the door knob but stops himself. Oh right. House that’s technically not his, dog that’s definitely not his with paint on his paws. Probably wouldn’t make a good mixture.

“Umm…” Bucky turns back to the dog who is sitting patiently. “Stay,” he apprehensively orders, pointing to the ground. “Stay,” He repeats as he opens the door. “Stay.” He says again as he moves his body backwards into the door, not leaving room for the dog to come in. Besides extending his head to the door the dog stays still.

Bucky rushes to the kitchen and looks in the drawers for a dish towel of some kind. Nothing. God the previous people really didn’t leave shit. He sighs and takes the roll of paper towels he had got on his way back from the hardware store. He ripped some off and folded it as he wet it under the sink quickly. He walks back to the front door mostly expecting the dog to run off, which he actually did think it did until he opens the door fully and sees it laying down on the porch near the door.

“Well at least you’re a good listener,” Bucky says, lowering himself to the ground. He grabs a paw, darkened with paint. The dog lets him, wagging its tail as Bucky uses the cloth to wipe off some of the paint. “Even if you did ruin my walkway…” He looks past the dog to long cement connecting the house to land. “Wait a minute…” He gets up and sees the paw prints all the way from towards the road to his house. The walkway, the painted paw prints. He walks over and brushes his shoe over one. It’s already dry. Paw prints on the walkway just like the letter described.

He walks back over to the dog and finishes cleaning its paws. He wears a puzzled look on his face as he thinks, much to the dog’s displeasure. Bucky feels a light kick on his face as he notices the dog roll on his back, asking for a belly rub. This shakes Bucky out of his trance as he laughs again at his new friend and obliges. The dog’s paws are clean and Bucky packs up the remaining paint, he’ll finish tomorrow. He heads inside, this time not giving the dog any orders so he follows him inside. Bucky doesn’t mind. He grabs the letter from the table by the couch and rereads it. He shakes his head again, maybe this dog has done this before? Or any dog for that matter? He sighs, looks through one of his bags for a piece of paper and decides to write a letter back. Tomorrow, after getting the dog checked at the vet, he’ll pick up some envelopes and stamps.

[purplesurveys]

1137

created by: allwrongx - Bzoink

Do you have a bookshelf? If so, just one or how many? I don’t, actually. I have the most books out of everyone in the family, but they’re all either lined up or stacked in random points in my room because of said lack of shelves. Currently, I have three groups of books strategically placed around my room.

If you answered yes to the above, are your books ordered in a special way? Just by height since I have a lot of tall books like encyclopedias as well as smaller-sized novels and pocketbooks.

Have you ever owned action figures? I have a couple of wrestling action figures and I want to keep collecting more if my financial situation ever permits it in the future.

Why did you last smile? Andrew Ilnyckyj finally has a new cooking videoooooooo, which is the main BuzzFeed content I watch these days. I think his last one had been posted in January, so I’ve been feeling pretty starved for some new Andrew content.

Do you have a close relationship with your immediate family? I’m not close with them in that I don’t feel shy about kissing/hugging them or confiding in them; my family are not those people for me. But like we don’t fight (anymore) and we’re able to have pleasant talks over dinner, which is as close as I’d possibly ever get with them. 

Idk, we were ultimately never able to cultivate an emotionally strong relationship with one another, which I’ll always feel bittersweet about; but at least I now have a blueprint of how I’d want to build my relationships within my family, should I ever have one of my own.

If I gave you twenty bucks what would you do with it? Use it to pay my sister for the drawing commission I asked her to make. My total bill comes up to around that amount, anyway.

If dinosaurs could be tamed, would you want one as a pet? Nope, they can stay in the wild.

Do you crack your knuckles, neck or toes constantly? I crack my knuckles the most and my ankles as well. Never my neck and toes.

Are you constantly catching colds or other sicknesses? No, I rarely get sick.

Is there a movie from your childhood that you still watch today? I do an annual Toy Story rewatch because it’s my absoluete favorite kid’s movie. I will also always be in the mood to watch The Game Plan, which I watched every single weekday after coming home from school in like the 3rd grade.

Have you ever seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Nope but this has been on my list for years. Just never gotten around to downloading it and finally seeing it for myself.

Where do you do most of your shopping? I usually go to small, independent businesses that sell trendy pieces for a lot less, but I also drop by H&M from time to time. Once I feel secure enough with my savings I also wanna be able to start shopping from Zalora because they have really nice brands over there as well, haha.

Are you afraid of mice? I don’t imagine I would be since they’re tiny and cute. I’m afraid of house rats, though, especially considering how big they can get D:

What type of souvenir do you usually purchase when on vacation? I typically don’t get souvenirs for myself, but this is also because I’ve never traveled solo. My family collects magnets from all the different places we’ve been to though (and also from my dad’s work travels), so our fridge doors are filled with them. 

Do you vacation often? Yeah, my family would usually take 3-5 trips a year, usually around the country and sometimes out of; but of course we’ve had to put a stop to it since the pandemic blew up.

Are you comfortable wearing your pajamas in public places? The only place I’d be comfortable doing so is at the nearby McDonald’s, since I’ve seen residents from my village come in there wearing their PJs or housewear. Otherwise no, I’d rather dress up.

What's your favorite candy bar? Twix!!!!!!!! And while they’re not technically bar-shaped, I love Reese’s Cups too.

Do you own more than one copy or edition of a book? Hahaha yeah. I have two copies of Twilight (one is from my boxed set, another was given to me by a childhood friend, Maryrose) and Breaking Dawn (one is also from my boxed set, while the other one is the special white cover edition given to me by Angela).

If you could see any musical on Broadway right now, what would it be? Miss Saigon. That’s the only musical I’m into.

If you could put any person or characters face on money, whose would it be? I definitely want to see a woman’s face on a dollar bill or coin sometime in the future. < Oh man, this is a pretty good answer. We do already have women in our P500 and P1000 bills, but they’re accompanied by men :/ It’d be neat to see a woman take over a bill/coin all on her own, like Gabriela Silang.

The place that you'd most like to be right now is where? God I really wish I were out in a coffee shop right now but I have to saveeeeee. I’ve been meaning to check out this nearby cafe that also doubles as a co-working space (which means I can do work there without feeling guilty or anxious that I’m taking too much time there, yay), and I might visit next week.

Do large crowds make you anxious? Depends on what the context is. If I find myself in the middle of a stampede that’s quickly going ugly then I will definitely start to panic; but if I’m at, say, a concert, then personally a bigger crowd means a better experience for me.

Do you own a helmet of any sorts? None of my own, but we do have a helmet for our bike.

Will you willingly sing in front of other people besides your family? No unless a huge sum of money is up for grabs, lmao. I’ve only sang in public once, when my mom made me do a solo number on my 7th birthday.

What's in the box? Yeah, I’m not feeling creative enough for this question...

Does your family generally decorate for most holidays? No, only for Christmas.

Would you take the chance to be Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys for a day? Eh, I’d pass up on the offer. Mystery isn’t my thing.

Do you eat soup when you're sick? No. I prefer to drink lots of water as I usually lose my appetite when I’m sick anyway.

Is there a specific mug or coffee cup that you have to use all of the time? I don’t have to use it, but I’m in love with the mug Angela gave me just this past Christmas. I use it all the time now.

Have you ever watched Doctor Who? No, but I don’t think it’s my kind of genre or show.

If so, what do you think is the scariest creature yet?

Do you prefer to do your shopping online or in person? If I already have an idea of what I want to get, I prefer to get it in person. But if I need something oddly specific and have no idea where to start, that’s when I start to look for online shops or go to Shopee or Lazada altogether.

If you read, which book or series did you enjoy most as a child? Angie Sage, with her Septimus Heap series.

Do you read tour guide type books before you visit places? It’s been a while since I’ve traveled extensively, and when I was younger I didn’t really read into tourist guides. Now that I’m older, I do want to start reading up before visiting a different country – not necessarily about the best places to visit, but more about the culture and practices I have to observe. I remember being reprimanded by a Korean when I tried to snap a photo of something I saw while out in public in Jeju, and I don’t want to do something like that again.

Would you please belt out a few song lyrics here? AND IF YOU TRY TO FIND ME NOOOOW I’M IN ALL THE ECHOES THAT HAVE FAAAADED OUT soooo!!! I’M MOVING ON CAUSE I JUST WANT TO FEEL FOR ONCE THAT I BELONG, THAT’S WHAT GOING ON

How do you get rid of your hiccups? I hold my breath, which is a trick taught to me by my mom. Not always effective, but it does work sometimes.

Is there one saying that you've adopted from someone/somewhere else? I’ve picked up “Awesome!” which was Gabie’s catchphrase. My former director also liked saying “Anywhoooooo” when she wants to digress, and I’ve since adopted that into my vocabulary and mannerisms as well.

Can you lie effectively and smoothly? Yes, but I feel like shit every time I have to.

Do you buy Halloween candy when it's on sale after the holiday? No, I don’t enjoy candy anyway.

Why is your favorite teacher your favorite? She taught beyond her curriculum - music, which isn’t even part of my top 30 favorite subjects - and always made sure to inject a little bit of useful life advice in all her lessons.

Who can never fail to make you laugh? Hans.

Do you agree with the "they're just being kids" excuse? No, especially if the kids in question are already 16/17 year olds.

How many pets have you had in your lifetime? Countless goldfish, one chick, one rabbit, one cat, two birds, and two dogs.

Were you ever afraid of monsters under your bed? Sure. Still am occasionally, heh.

Would you kindly recommend your favorite movie to me? Two for the Road shows a realistic take on love told through cars and a non-linear tour around Southern Europe. If you’re into that and Audrey Hepburn’s pretty outfits in each scene, definitely check it out.

[josiebelladonna]

to anyone out there nervous about nanowrimo this year, this is my 4th time doing it (technically 4th - 3rd if you’re going by the actual site and not my own stats), and this is my thought process with each year:

2017: i’m scraping by to even so much as pay my electric bill because i’m living with someone who’s a complete mooch and wastes money like it’s nothing. i’ll eat anything. i don’t know if i can live here anymore. i don’t want to live here anymore - yeah, i was saying “i hate it here” well before anyone bitching about how bad this year is even so much as thought it. i don’t even know if i can do it? it’s for chris, though, i have to do it. i live in the middle of nowhere and i feel a nuclear missile pointed at my head. i need to tell the story of black rain, the song i heard in 2010 and it gave me hope for the future. fuck capitalism and fuck you for enforcing it. cry on black rain. (i wound up writing something like 110k words in that first draft because of that pressure 🔥)

2018: i’m alone in my room most of the time because while that person quit being an issue in december of last year, my mom works full time. i need a hug because i’ve been alone so long and i feel like no one appreciates me for my efforts, or anything really - i can’t just “exist”. i want my daddy. i wanna meet lars. i just want to kiss a boy so i’m telling the story of a girl who messes around with boys who turn into creatures. i’ll see if i can finish it before i visit my dad and if i don’t i’ll finish it there. i’m naming it after the fact that i do my best and most honest work not just under gun but later in the day and in the middle of the night, too. (i hit 50k on the 21st, the night before thanksgiving and while i was at my dad’s house no less! and that one ended up going to 140-odd thousand in mid-january 😎)

2019: i’m on a roll, bitches! i found literally the cutest boy who’s a complete clean slate which baffles me because he’s so hot and cute and sweet and humble and looks like me (his name is joey, by the way). he’s become my muse of sorts in the past few months alone. he’s in a band that does a song called “now it’s dark” which is one of the most erotic things i’ve ever heard in my life. they’re all into sci-fi and comics and so am i! this one’s for them and i’m naming this after that sexy song, too. lars, too, he’s gotta have his heroic moment at some point. (once again, 50k on the 21st and volume one went to... 97k, if i remember correctly? i had signed and sealed it on black friday, the day before november ended. but then i kept going to write two more volumes 🔥)

2020: i’m watching the world blow up outside my window. everyone’s experiencing the exact same dark shit i went through growing up, also my depressions in 2012, 2013, and also three years ago - everything down to the “fuck capitalism and fuck you for enforcing it” even. oh, yeah, remember that boy i was talking about? yeah... apparently he’s... kind of a fan of me now, hehehehe. i’ve also ascended to “bad girl” status to a degree: i do what i damn well please even if it makes me look dangerous and i’m not afraid to put a bitch in her (or his) place. this one is going to be like now it’s dark but with far more humor involved and the story’s radically different; they were scenes and snippets i wrote whilst writing now it’s dark to keep my sense of humor intact. part one’s already written; imma do part two for this year. it’s coming hot on the heels of an intense october for me: take your pick from betrayals left and right to people just being difficult to be around. everyone’s so acrimonious right now and i fucking hate it. i need a laugh (no offense to tiktok, but i need something that’ll last). i need a hug. i need a laugh and a hug. (i’ve got the words inside me. my notes at my side. finally a rouse of people around me. we shall see.😘)

[bee-kathony]

Four Years | Year Three - “October 31st, 2016″ 

a/n: thank you so much for reading and the support on this fic! The last chapter for the third year will come out on Thursday! <3

Year One | Year Two

January 9th, 2016 | January 24th, 2016 | March 3rd, 2016 | March 30th, 2016 | April 10th, 2016 |  May 17th, 2016 | June 16th, 2016 | July 28th, 2016 | August 26th, 2016

It was officially our first Halloween as a family of three — well, four technically. I knew Jamie had been counting down the days until we would all take Fergus out trick or treating.

I was just putting the finishing touches to my costume, Morticia Addams, when Jamie knocked on the bathroom door.

“Are ye almost ready?” He stood in the doorway, his hair slicked and sprayed black, and of course he had Gomez Addam’s signature mustache.

“Almost,” I smiled and finished applying my red lipstick. I’d done the best I could with what limited makeup I owned, and my skin was already pale so that was a plus.

“You look beautiful, Sassenach,” he came up behind me, staring at me in the mirror. “Or should I say… Morticia.”

Standing up, I showed off my costume, it was a simple long sleeved black dress, much like one that Morticia would wear. I had been looking at costumes for almost a month and Jamie had wanted me to pick one with a really deep V.

“What about this one?” He turned his phone around to show me a dress with a plunging neckline.

“Jamie…” I blinked at him. “You do realize that I’m pregnant, and a mother of a three year old. I can’t be walking around the street like some hussy!”

“But you’re my hussy,” Jamie pouted, his bottom lip sticking out. “Come on, Sassenach, you’d look so sexy in it.”

“I wouldn’t be able to even fit in that thing,” I rolled my eyes. “My boobs would be popping out,” I looked at him. “But that’s probably what you want hmmm?”

“Not just that,” he furrowed his brow and went back to looking at his phone. “I just really think you can pull it off.”

“Nope, sorry babe,” I sighed. “What about this one?” I showed him my phone, a plain black dress with a deep enough V down the front that I hoped would appease him.

“Hmmm,” he took the phone to get a closer look. “It’s nice.”

“Nice?” I laughed. “Jamie, I’m not getting one with a deeper neckline and that’s that so you take this or leave it.”

“Oh, so if I say no to this one then ye’ll go naked then?” He tried to wink and moved forward towards me on the couch, with one thought on his mind.

“No,” I giggled when his hands found my sides, fingers moving rapidly. “I didn’t say that!”

“Get that wee dress ye want, Sassenach,” Jamie kissed my neck. “And take off these damn clothes now!”

I was happy with my dress choice, and apparently Jamie was too. His hands now slid to my side, his eyes looking down at my stomach between us.

“Are you alright?” I asked when he didn’t say anything.

“Yes,” he grinned and then slid one hand over my small bump. “The dress just shows off yer wee belly so nice. It’s a lovely sight to see, Sassenach.”

“It’s probably the most snug dress I’ve worn in years,” I took a deep breath then, as if the material was in fact crushing my lungs. “I kind of can’t wait to take it off tonight.”

“I’ll help with that,” Jamie smiled and kissed my cheek, knowing not to mess up my newly applied lipstick.

“And you look rather dashing, Gomez,” I smiled and placed my hands on his velvet suit jacket. It was a dark maroon color. “I can’t wait to take you out of that tonight either.”

“Too bad we have to go out,” he sighed, pressing his forehead against mine. “I’d press ye up against the wall, but I’m practicing my self control.”

“Oh are you now?” I laughed. “Well done then, babe.”

“Maaaaaaaa!” Came a small voice from the hall and I pulled away from Jamie.

“That’ll be the penguin,” I smiled and grabbed my small purse off the bathroom counter and went to find our son.

He’d insisted on being a penguin whenever we told him what Halloween was. We told him he could dress up as anything he wanted in the whole wide world and he still chose to be a penguin. When I found him just outside our door, my heart nearly leapt out of my chest.

“Oh, darling! You are so cute!” He was dressed in a small penguin costume and had red cheeks to match. His curly hair helped tie the whole thing together and he reached his arms up for me to pick him up. “I don’t think I can carry you anymore, you’re getting a bit big for Mama.”

Jamie came and picked him up, setting him against his hip. I hadn’t been able to pick him up for a few weeks ever since my belly had started to grow. He loved to sit with me and press his ear against my stomach, listening to his baby sister’s heartbeat. Jamie and I had wanted everything about this pregnancy to go smoothly, which meant taking things easy.

“Treat?” He echoed our words from earlier, placing his hand on his little tummy.

“Oui, monsieur!” Jamie smiled and started to bounce him around. “Maman will carry your wee bucket and we’ll get ye some treats lad.”

“Treat! Treat!” He smiled and with that we were off, walking out the door and out to join the rest of our neighbors on the street. It was pretty early in the night, just 5pm and we’d said we’d only be out for an hour.

A few other trick or treaters passed us on the sidewalk. A little girl dressed as a princess, a small boy as a mouse and then a mum and dad dressed as Captain America and what could only be a female version of Thor, cape and all.

I always loved Halloween. Or Samhain as it was better known over here. The smells of autumn and the changing colors of the trees. Jamie had grown up listening to Scottish fables about ghosts and witches and he wasn’t too keen on the idea of taking Fergus out, but came around when I told him who I wanted to dress up as.

The first house we went to handed out snickers and we collected a couple of those. I was hoping for some Twix bars, my favorite. Fergus wouldn’t possibly be able to eat all his candy, nor did he need it all, so Jamie and I would take out half and hide it in a secret stash for us later.

“Can ye press the button?” Jamie asked Fergus while holding him up to press the doorbell.

“Trick or treat!” Jamie said for a shy Fergus and held up the bucket where more candy was thrown in.

Our little penguin wanted to hold both our hands, so we walked down the rest of the street with him in the middle.

We passed our neighbors, waving hi and chatting with them briefly. It was nice to get out and see everyone, join in on the festivities. I knew that in a few years, Fergus wouldn’t want to trick or treat with us anymore, but instead go out with his friends, so I was savoring up every moment of it.

I looked over at Jamie, smiling, “Just think… next year we’ll have our daughter with us.”

“We can dress her up too!” Jamie said excitedly and I could see the possible costume ideas flitting through his mind.

“Please don’t say as a pumpkin,” I laughed.

“But she’d be sae cute as a wee pumpkin, Sassenach…” Jamie tilted his head to the side. “But we dinna have to decide now, we have plenty of time for that.”

We visited a few more houses, nearly filling up Fergus’s bucket to the top and decided that we should return home to start getting Fergus ready for bed. He yawned as Jamie lifted him up onto his shoulders.

I took a few photos, wanting to always remember this night. Our house was warm whenever we entered it and I welcomed the heat. As the sun had gone down, it’d gotten colder as well and this dress was pretty thin.

“Bath time wee lad,” Jamie said, taking Fergus down from his shoulders. “Need to wipe that stuff off yer cheeks then ye can have a piece of candy before bed.” I looked over at him, eyes wide — candy before bed would just keep him awake.

“Ah, come on, Sassenach. Tis Halloween, the lad needs at least one piece of candy.”

“One,” I squinted my eyes at him. “And I’ll know if he has any more than that.”

“Aye, one piece,” he grinned and swept Fergus off to take a bath while I went to our room to scrub my face.

Fifteen minutes later, still in my dress, I walked upstairs to find Jamie lifting Fergus out of the bath and wrapping him up in a towel. “Alright lad, Mam said one piece of candy tonight and one piece only. We canna disobey her or she’ll ken it.”

I hid myself behind the door and watched them, trying not to laugh.

“More?”

“Tomorrow,” Jamie grinned and dressed him for bed, sitting him down on his bed. He then pulled out a tiny snickers bar and unwrapped it for him. “Enjoy that.”

Fergus happily started to munch on the chocolate and I decided to let myself be seen and walked into his room.

“One piece right?” I asked Jamie, smirking as I sat down on my knees beside him.

“Of course, a nighean,” he nodded at Fergus who nodded back.

Once Fergus finished the snickers, I took him to brush his teeth, making sure to get every crevice of his mouth before leading him back to bed to tuck him in.

“Goodnight my little munchkin,” I kissed his nose.

“Goodnight my wee lad,” Jamie followed, kissing his nose, something we had started doing every night.

“Nigh night,” he grinned back, waving his little hand as we walked out of the room, leaving the door propped halfway open.

“I’d call that a pretty successful first Halloween,” Jamie said softly as we made it out of earshot of Fergus’s room.

“Yes,” I smiled, pushing open the door to our room. “It was actually. No drama or fussing.”

“I think he was just so excited,” Jamie said and started to unbutton his shirt — he’d already taken off his velvet jacket when we first came in.

“Can you help me with my zipper?” I asked him, standing with my back to him and he came over, his shirt now lying on the ground.

“It’d be my pleasure,” he kissed the back of my neck and his fingers found the zipper, tugging and pulling on it. I was standing in front of the full length mirror we had in our bedroom, watching the material fall from my shoulders. Once the zipper was fully down, he pushed it down my arms and helped me step out of it.

“Yer so beautiful, Claire,” he kissed the back of my neck again, his eyes looking at my body in the mirror. His hands found the clasp of my bra next and he unhooked it, and I let it fall to the ground. “And all mine… mon amour.”

“Oooo, I like it when you talk French to me,” I blushed and squirmed only a little when his hands traveled down my side and hooked into my black panties.

“Je vais te manger,” he said into my ear and my stomach twisted at knots and the thought of him ravishing me… or more correctly — eat me up. My panties slid down my legs and I was left bare, staring at myself in the mirror. Jamie’s hands came up and cupped both breasts, softly kneading them.

“When yer belly is full wi’ child… God, Claire, I want to weep wi’ how beautiful ye look,” he said and slid one hand to cover my stomach. “Knowin’ that we’ve been give a second chance…”

I covered his hand with mine, squeezing it tight. “It’s a miracle, Jamie.”

“You’re a miracle,” he kissed my shoulder and then met my eye in the mirror. Without a word, he slid his hand from my belly to between my legs which I parted for him. His finger teased my entrance, already wet for him.

“Je t’aime,” Jamie said and placed another kiss to my other shoulder. His bare chest pressed against my back and I felt his nipples hard on my skin and his thick cock against my lower back.

“Tha gaol agam ort,” I replied and then his finger slid inside of me. My lips parted and I watched as he began to slowly pull me to pieces. Jamie was still wearing pants, and this was clearly just for my pleasure, but I knew he enjoyed it too.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of his face watching his hand in between my legs. It was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen in my life, seeing the way he bit his lip and his cock twitched behind me.

He added another finger and his other hand still on my breast flicked my sensitive nipples. I was close and he knew it. His hand never faltered and my orgasm raced through my body, making my body tremble against his. Jamie held me to him, watching as my body racked with small spasms.

“Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ,” I muttered whenever I regained consciousness and looked at him.

“Just me, Sassenach,” he smiled and I turned in his arms. “Now, what do you say we watch a scary Halloween movie?”

“And by watching you mean….” I smirked, my hands already on the waistband of his trousers.

“I mean watch the movie, a nighean,” his eyes widened. “I’d no take advantage of a pregnant lady!”

“Oh, but I made no promises to not take advantage of you,” I growled and pressed my lips to his.

We ended up on our bed, limbs entwined and hearts racing with The Addams Family playing quietly in the background. It was a happy Halloween after all…

[maia]

A Complete History of My Salary & Wages

A few months ago, I listened to a podcast interview of Ashley C Ford where she laid out the details on how much money she makes, and from which sources. I’ve thought about it a couple times since then and found it very grounding and reassuring whenever I did, even though I am not on the same career path as Ford, and I had never heard of her before the interview. (I have since started following her on twitter though and highly recommend it).

If you follow me on twitter, you know I am brutally honest on all kind of intimate topics. It’s because I believe in the strength behind transparency and the impact it can create. Transparency is particularly powerful with salaries and compensation, and that is why we had transparent salaries at Pinch. Well, that’s my motivational vibe.

So I am posting my complete salary history here in the hopes that it is interesting or helpful to other people.

2007: ~$25,000 in wages

Spock hired me as a summer marketing intern: $2,500/month salary (with potential for a $1,500 bonus at end of summer).

I was 18 when I started at Spock and had my 19th birthday there. I adored working for Spock — it taught me that being excited about the internet could be a career. And my boss Jay was the first person who really believed in me, and was willing to give me enough rope to hang myself. He told me not to tell people I was 18 because they would underestimate me, that I should tell them I was 27. I told most people I was 27 until I actually was. At the end of the summer I decided to take time off from college and continue working for Spock. They brought me on full-time, at a $75k salary.

I had spent the summer living in Redwood City (where Spock’s office is) and renting a room for $800. After the summer I moved to San Francisco and sublet at different places, paying between $600 for a room and $1000 for a studio apartment.

2008: $28,307 in wages

Most of my friends left Spock, so it seemed like the right thing to do. I emailed SeeqPod because I thought they had the coolest product in all of tech at the time — a web app that streamed music from the internet on the iPhone! (this was before there were 3rd party apps on the iPhone). I told them I was really excited about what they were building and would love to contribute however possible and would come on as an unpaid intern. They interviewed me and I did a take-home project: writing a Product Requirements Document for a Hi5 App (Hi5 was the third largest social network after Myspace and Facebook at the time). SeeqPod hired me as a product manager, I think with a $60k salary. My boss Mike was the second person (in an infinite stream) to believe in me and take a big chance on me.

I didn’t have an iPhone, just a flip phone, but I was so excited about the idea of posting photos on the internet from a mobile phone that I set up a tumblr called https://www.maiaeats.com/ that would post new entries every time I texted it a photo or text. I recorded everything I ate in this way.

I went back to college for my sophomore year in the fall. When I left, the CEO of SeeqPod said “Maia, you are the most diplomatic person I’ve ever had work for me. I watch you in meetings help people take their foot out of their mouths and start espousing your idea as if it was their own”. SeeqPod said they would keep my equity vesting over the school year, and we planned for me to transfer to Berkeley the next year as a college junior, to keep working for them. SeeqPod got sued out of existence though, so I stayed on at Olin.

2009: ~$10k in wages

In summer 2009, one of my former colleagues had been impressed with my work at Spock and wanted me to run marketing at his startup, Archivd. I did, but unfortunately his company went under about a month after I started when his cofounder couldn’t get a work visa.

For the rest of the summer, I picked up a half-time job running social media at a startup called NationalBLS in San Francisco. I got another half-time job doing front-end web development for Sprowtt, in Palo Alto (like Kickstarter + AngelList). I lived in a basement in Oakland and had a terrible commute.

That fall, I lived in Cambridge and got a part-time internship at HubSpot while in college. It was magical to live in Cambridge and work for HubSpot… the best time I had during college. I think they offered me $14/hour and I surprised them by negotiating to $15/hour.

2010: $1,800 in wages

I worked full-time for Hubspot ($15/hour) for the month of January before I went to study abroad in Copenhagen for Spring semester. I stayed in Europe that summer and did not work the rest of the year.

2011: $0 in wages

I graduated college in May 2011, sort of… having spent the spring busy trying to convalesce from a horrible car accident in January 2011, I was behind on my school work and so I walked on stage at the ceremony in May but technically hadn’t graduated yet. My generous professors let me make up the work in summer/fall, and I got my diploma at the end of the Fall 2011 semester.

I sold stock I had bought during college with my income from my year off to pay for my life this year.

2012: $61,988 in wages

Desperate for a job, my friend Richa helped me find a role at the consultancy she worked for in January 2012, where I wrote XSL-T (it’s like CSS, for XML documents). I made $60k salary (less than I had made when I was 19), but I was grateful for the opportunity (and for the health insurance!). They originally offered me $55k, and I negotiated up a smidge.

At the end of the summer, I met Meg who was starting a new company, Rocksbox. She hired me as her first employee, a UX designer. I think Meg asked me “What do people like you make?” and I said “Something like $75k,” and she said “Ok, that seems fine.” My salary was $72k.

2013: $22,416 in wages

Meg invited me to join on as cofounder & CTO of Rocksbox. As a cofounder, I took no salary for much of the year.

I lived in a two bedroom apartment with several other people — my friend Katie and I technically shared a bedroom together with one queen bed and both spent most nights at our respective boyfriend’s apartments. The household hosted people from Airbnb in our dining room and I made an additional $5k on top of my $22k salary to put towards my rent.

I remember being exhausted, flipping Airbnb rooms. My boyfriend asked “This seems really terrible, why do you do it?” I said “…. for the money, obviously.” He said “Oh but you don’t need the money,” and I sat there quietly, thinking, what does it mean for one to need the money?

2014: $66,323 in wages

Meg raised $1.5M for Rocksbox, and I was able to take a higher salary — I think back to $72k!

We still hosted Airbnbs in our dining room from which I made an extra $3,300.

My lawsuit against the guy who hit me with his truck settled for $100k. My lawyer took 1/3 and transferred me $66,000: the most humiliating, exhausting, painful, least worth it money I have ever “earned” in my entire life.

2015: $84,725 in wages

I was making more from Rocksbox — my salary increased from ~$72k at the beginning of 2015 to about ~$150k towards the end of the year.

My roommates and I moved to a big fancy house with a separate bedroom where we could host people on Airbnb. Technically my rent was $2,400/month but with the Airbnb it usually netted out to $1,400. I made $2,400 from Airbnb this year.

2016: $67,769 in wages

I left Rocksbox (and my $150k annual salary) to start Pinch, where we paid ourselves $50k. Rocksbox bought back my unvested equity for $780.

This year, with the separate bedroom on Airbnb, I made another $9,220. In September my roommate and I moved to a different apartment and stopped hosting on Airbnb. My rent was $1,500.

2017: $58,686 in wages

Towards the end of 2017, our $50k salary at Pinch was really starting to hurt. We raised a bit more and upped our salaries to $100k. The money from my car accident dwindled. I moved to my own apartment for the first time, and my rent was $2,000/month.

2018: $121,277 in wages

In summer 2018, we sold Pinch to Chime. My job offer at Chime was for $175k.

Some of our offers for Pinch came with a signing bonus. I wanted to evaluate offers based on the people and the culture, so I told myself I would act as though I had received a signing bonus even if I technically hadn’t. When we joined Chime (no signing bonus), I bought myself a scooter online. It never arrived, and I eventually did a chargeback on my credit card.

2019: $195,834 in wages

My salary at Chime was increased to $200k early in 2019 as a market adjustment, where it remains today. In October 2019 I moved out of my $2,000/month apartment to couch-surf with plans to eventually move to New York.

Conclusion

I was really excited about the idea of writing this post and bringing transparency. The process of writing it out and reliving it all though… it feels bad. I think of myself as a happy person, but when I read this now, I feel for my younger self. I worked and scrambled and stressed out about everything.

I’ve tweeted before that my biggest regret of my 20’s is that I didn’t spend more money. It wasn’t received well by the financial responsibility crowd on twitter, but my guess is that they’ve had a different (and more stable) career history than I have. I do regret that I saved any money in my 20's — I should have spent it all, spent freely on frivolous creature comforts, used money to make my life easier whenever possible and worried less about the future. But of course, hindsight is 20/20.

[frenchy-and-the-sea]

14 and 16!!

14: Have you chosen birthdays for any of your characters? If so, when are they?

- I haven’t before, but just for you, I’m gonna DO IT NOW. BEHOLD.

Alex - January 3rd

Tahir - May 15th

Davin & Finn - April 11th

Adelina - August 17th

Myrine - October 20th

Jon - February 4th

I would do years too cause technically I know when Alex and Tahir were born so I could DO THE MATH but listen, I’ve got d&d on Sunday and I’ve gotta save math brain for then. SO. AT LEAST YOU HAVE ENOUGH INFO FOR BASIC ASTROLOGY SHIT.

16: What would your characters be for Halloween?

- Oh boy, uh. It’s a bit all over the place.

Alex definitely doesn’t really do the Halloween thing much - she puts on like a singular hat and hands out candy to kids but nah. At least, not until ADELINA gets ahold of her, because ADELINA has had couple costume ideas going back to childhood and you damn well know she’s gonna use Alex as a grumpy but willing mannequin. (I joke, mostly. Alex doesn’t have the enthusiasm for it, but she’ll help and enjoy herself well enough.)(Also, since this would be some weird AU situation, one year? They would go as a mermaid and the sailor that she drowned.)(Haven’t decided if that’s funny on its own or if I like the idea that Adelina gets to be the sailor. Decisions, decisions.)

Myrine is sort of charmed by the whole Halloween thing, and has exactly (1) costume of a simple witch with a fancy hat that she wears to hand out candy. Tahir does every single dumb pun costume to exist in the world. He never wears them over again, he just keeps finding newer, dumber pun costumes to wear and he is FULLY committed to the bit, all the time, even if they’re just novelty t-shirts with accessories.

The twins don’t….really dress up as a rule? BUT one year Finn did definitely get hired on as a scareactor at a local haunted house, and he keeps it up for years after the fact. One year he got Davin to do it with him. Only one year, though. (He got to genuinely freak people out with the fact the he is missing an arm. That was sort of fun, a little cathartic, etc. But only once.)

Jon has several incredibly detailed historical costumes that he uses for Halloween, and he is ALSO fully committed to the bit, but everyone sort of agrees that it kinda ruins it when it’s THAT good. When he can be persuaded to sort of ham it up a bit, though? He makes a GREAT stereotypical 18th century dandy with too many costume jewelry rings and not nearly as much sense.

[fuck-yeah-gruvia]

[Translation] Gruvia Family

The video of the draw battle where Mashima-sensei drew the Gruvia family at the Angouleme festival (January 2018) has finally been released! Because it’s in French, @natsv was kind enough to translate for the fandom. Thank you very much!

Note: This is a draw battle where there are no fan requests. The mangaka will draw whatever they want (as it’s their own personal decision) based on a theme. Also, Hiro Mashima and Reno Lemaire were challenging themselves to put the poop emoji as much as they can in every single drawing. So it is not technically part of the drawings themselves.

Presenter: The 3rd theme is something historical. (...)

They will need to draw a character of their stories in an era that isn't in their story. Either in the past or in the future but it can't be made up! (...)

(The drawing battle starts)

Presenter: The theme seems complicated, but it isn't really.

Presenter: (to the audience) Did you guess who the characters are?

Crowd: Gray!

A fan: Gray-sama!

Presenter: Very well. Alright you there get 1 point! The more silly things you say the more the points you get!

(Presenter looks confused as he sees Mashima only drawing Gray and Juvia)

Presenter: There must have had a bad translation! This is the current era... (...)

Or he (Mashima) may have thought James Bond was an era hahah! (...)

(Near the end of the drawing battle)

Mashima: I'm going to use my secret weapon now! (He adds Gray and Juvia’s son in the picture)

*fangirls screech*

Presenter: Yeah, it works well haha!

(At the end of the drawing)

Mashima: (...) I put in my all!

Presenter: Yeah, I saw that.

Reno: We only said one character though.

Mashima: Oh really? I didn't know!

Reno Lemaire drew his character in the Sengoku era while it seems Mashima-sensei drew his characters in a future era. In this round, the draw battle ends up in a tie! Here’s hoping we actually see this future someday. ♡

[0bsessedwithdolan-blog]

Haunting Past

 Author’s Note: This is my first fanfic. I am not sure how long it will be, but here is part 1. I hope you all enjoy it! 

Warning: There is some cussing. 

70 degrees. That is how hot my car says it is outside. It is the middle of the winter in Cali so 70 degrees is normal, but I still am not used to this heat during January. I just moved here to be closer to Gray and E, my very best friends. 

We technically grew up together in New Jersey, but never talked until 3 years ago, almost to the day. 

-Flashback-

January 2016. It was a blizzard outside. Worst snow of the year in New Jersey. My then boyfriend and I had been snowboarding when I literally ran into Grayson.

“Oh, I am so sorry” Grayson apologized while helping me stand back up. 

“No, its my fault, not really good at the whole snowboarding thing.” I said as I wiped the blood from my nose. Worry rushed over me as I felt the hot breath of my boyfriend behind me. He didn’t like for me to have any contact with any guys and he ESPECIALLY hated the Dolan Twins. 

“Well, Grayson, you have done enough damage here, why don’t you just go back to your luxurious life in California.” He spit the words at Grayson. I turned to him to stop him before things escalated, but Grayson just walked away with his head lowered. 

“What the fuck was that, Blake?” I exclaimed, smacking my hands into his chest. 

“Me? You’re the one who was all over another guy in front of ME.” He lowered his head, screaming right in my face.

“All over? I LOST CONTROL AND WRECKED INTO HIM.” I screamed back. This was the worst fight Blake and I had ever had, our whole 3 years of being together. This was the fight that ended us. We fought the whole drive back to my house. 

“I can’t do this anymore. You are mad because I ACCIDENTALLY ran into Grayson Dolan.” I said quietly as I opened the door to get out of his car with tears filling my eyes. I was furious, but I was still so in love with him.

“I will gladly walk out of your life. You are not worth this shit.” he replied and then sped away, leaving me standing in my driveway, fighting back tears. I couldn’t go inside and face the 3rd degree from my mom who blamed me for everything bad that happened to me or her. Instead I got in my car and drove until I arrived at a local restaurant. I walked in and the first person I saw was Ethan Dolan. Him and Grayson were sitting at a table right next to the door. All eyes were on them and people were yelling insults their way. They just sat there with their heads down and ate. I shook my head because I never understood why people hated them. I walked over the counter and ordered a chocolate milkshake to go. Before leaving, I stopped at the table the twins were at to apologize for earlier. 

I tapped on Grayson’s shoulder and quietly apologized because if I spoke louder my voice would crack and the tears I was holding back would come flooding to the surface. 

Grayson looked up, surprised. 

“No need to apologize, but are you okay?” and for some reason instead of saying ‘I’m fine’, I broke down to these two boys who I’d known for the majority of my life, but didn’t really know at all. 

-End Flashback-

Grayson and Ethan don’t believe me when I say it, but they saved my life that day. Blake was all I had known for 3 years. He was the only person I had to talk to and without him I was alone. 

I am lost in a sea of ‘what ifs’ when I hear a banging on my car window. I jump so hard that I hit my head on the roof.

“Y/N, why are you just sitting in our driveway like a weirdo?” Ethan chuckled as I got out of my car. His laugh was my favorite sound. 

“Just lost in my thoughts again, didn’t even realize I made it to the house.” I said with a smirk.

Ethan’s smile turned into a straight line. He knew when I was thinking bad thoughts and he hated it. 

“Its summer and you’re here with me and Gray.. NO THINKING ALLOWED!” he exclaimed as he literally swept me off my feet and ran through the house with me thrown over his shoulder.

“ E.. don’t you dare.” I warned him as he made it to the pool in the backyard.

“Don’t I dare do what? THIS?” he laughed as he tossed me in the pool on top of Gray.

“Well, hello Y/N” Grayson greeted.

“Ethan Grant, you better be glad I already had my bathing suit on under this” I said as I took off the tshirt and shorts that were covering my bathing suit. Ethan just chuckled and removed his Dolan Twins tshirt and did a cannonball into the pool.

Life was almost perfect. I finally lived with my best friends, had a job I loved, which was editing videos for these 2 goofballs, and after 3 years my heart no longer hurt when thinking of Blake. The only thing I want to change; I wish I was brave enough to tell Ethan how I felt.

Grayson is my best friend, big brother, whatever you want to call him, but things are strictly platonic. Ethan, on the other hand, made every atom in my body tingle with just one smile. Nevermind the fact that he is breathtakingly gorgeous. He is funny and knows exactly what I need when I need it. I can say one word and he can tell exactly what I am thinking. Soo.. I need to talk to Grayson because our friendiversary is coming up and I want to tell Ethan.

“Gray..” I whispered as I opened his bedroom door. We had just gotten out of the pool so he was changing into something dry. 

“What’s up?” he said, pulling his shirt down over his head.

“Can we talk?” I spoke softly, looking down at my feet.

“Oooh, this is serious. You confessing your love for me?” He chuckled wlking over to me and shutting his door.

“Well.. not you.” I looked up at him, anxiously waiting for his response. 

“Ethan? Fucking finally! When? Now? Let’s go!” he spoke as fast as possible grabbing my hand trying to pull me out the door.

“Woah woah woah. Not yet. Tomorrow. When we are celebrating our friendiversary. I just need you to prepare me for what he might say.” 

“We it’ll probably go something like this. ‘Oh Y/N i love you’“ Grayson imitated Ethan while making kissy faces. 

I burst out laughing and cover my mouth hoping E didn’t hear. Then, Gray’s bedroom door gets slung open.

“What’s going on in here?” Ethan asked as he walked over and sat on the bed.

“Just making fun of you” Gray replied, smacking the back of Ethan’s head.

“Well I am going to bed. Try not to kill each other. Goodnight. Love you both” I hugged them and went to my room to try and sleep.

“Y/N! WAKE UP!” Gray and E screamed in unison, jumping on either side of me in the bed. I rolled over rubbing my eyes and when I opened them I was greeted with Ethan’s beautiful smile and brown eyes.

“Good morning” I said sleepily.

“Morning? Its 2pm! Its time for our friendiversary lunch!” Grayson said while giving me a look. This is it. I will tell him at lunch. 

“You guys go on to the restaurant. I have to do a few things. I’ll meet you there.” Ethan said as he grabbed his keys and walked out. 

“Gray, give me a few minutes to become presentable.”

“I’ll be in the Bronco.”

And with that I was alone in the house. I quickly threw an outfit together and took care of the mess on my head. We made it to the restaurant at 3, but hadn’t heard from Ethan since he left. Gray and I sat outside of the restaurant just talking for 30 minutes, until I felt someone’s hands on my shoulders.

They were familiar, but definitely not Ethan’s and from the look Grayson’s face, not someone I would expect. Turning around, I seen him. Short brown hair, fading on the side and gorgeous blue eyes. 

“Blake..”

I hope you guys enjoy this! Part 2 coming soon! Please let me know your thoughts.

Part 2 Part 3

[walkinsauce]

Christina Walkinshaw’s Health & Wellmess Blog- Chapter 1: Veganuary

Well, I’m 40 now. I guess I have to start caring about my body. For the most part of my life, I have not cared about the following:

Mani’s/Pedi’s

Shaving/Waxing 

Showering

Opening mail

Scented candles

Detox/Cleanses

Back up hard drives

Fashion/style

Oil changes

Flossing

Eyeliners over $4

Waze

Diets

Oh but I do recycle.

Do you know I’ve never lost weight in my life? My weight has been on a slow and steady incline in one direction my whole life- like the yodeler on “The Price is Right.” Up, up and away, like that sweet 5th Dimension song you’re probably too young to know. But now, as I enter a new decade of my life, I know for sure my metabolism is on it’s downward spiral. For the most part, I feel good. I’ve never been one of those super skinny chicks. The sick part is, I look back on photos of me when i was 40 pounds lighter and know I never even felt skinny back then, when I truly was. Weight and self-image can be a fucked up thing. Especially when you live in a town like this. (L.A., obviously. To be fair, I felt fat when I lived in Ottawa too.)

I’m not necessary trying to lose weight this year, I’m just trying to stop from gaining it. This is more of a preventative thing. I don’t even know how I’d track a weight loss blog. I don’t actually own a scale. When I was in my 20′s I lived with girls who owned that scale that said THINNER across the top of it and I’m still scarred. Who the fuck put that scale on the market? Cruel. The only place I consistently weigh myself is on Fremont Street in Vegas, at the Heart Attack Grill. (Hot tip: If you’re over 350lbs you eat for free!) The last I checked, I was 165lbs. 

When people think of me, they think “happy hour” and not “personal trainer.” I’m not anybody’s “health & wellness” coach, that’s for sure. That being said, if I’m going to try to fix myself, I’m happy to take any delinquents like me along for the ride. Why are there no diets for people who drink and smoke marijuana? Seems a little rude if you ask me. My favourite gift is a bottle opener. I recently joined a wine club. I’m only JUST getting into Prosecco. I like beer, okay? (That line has been tarnished, I know.)

But every January, as the clock nears midnight on Dec. 31st, I get this overwhelming feeling that this year is going to be different. This year I’m going to be my personal best. I fantasize about changing for the better, and yet every February I’m right back to being the same IPA fart machine I’ve always been. This. Year. I. Will. Be. Better.

So I’ve started with…

Veganism. 

Yup. There’s a whole thing right now called #Veganuary, and I’ve jumped on board. I’ve read a lot of Vegan propaganda in the past ten years. Eating Animals, Skinny Bitch, The Lean- they all have good points. I’ve tried being a vegan twice in my life. (The second time I referred to myself as a “stay at home vegan,” meaning I was only a vegan at home. I couldn’t deal with the social ramifications of being a picky eater.) Both times, I came back to my usual carny diet of chicken wings and first and foremost, cheese. Let’s see how I do this time…

I warned people at the end of December I was going to try a “plant based diet” for January. Somehow saying “plant based” seemed less jarring than “vegan.” Well, seems like nobody believed me.

I came home New Year’s Eve after my show (so technically it was January, but do we have to be nit-picky?) and decided I couldn’t let the last of the delicious Canadian Mastro’s Hot Calabrese go to waste. Or the blue cheese. Both cured meats and blue cheese are so much better in Canada. Plus I had a little wine after my show, and it would be detrimental to my health if I didn’t eat before bed, cuz everyone knows eating before bed stops you from getting hangovers.*  

Plus, how am I supposed to become a vegan when there’s still salami lying around the house? Do sex addicts let their last condoms go to waste before they go to sex rehab or wherever? I highly doubt it.

I wake up, January 1st, feeling fresh thanks to my 2am lite supper. I’m ready for Veganism! Me, my parents, cousin and cousin’s daughter meet at the Cactus Club in Vancouver (k-Burnaby, but close enough) and I am excited to find all the V’s on the menu. I order the Crispy Tofu Bowl, with NO radish. (When I was in Kindergarten we had a vegetable garden and it made me barf my first ever ingested radish. I’m still not over it.) 

I gotta say, it was delicious. I poured hot sauce over the whole thing obviously. My cousin is a vegetarian, but she has a side of fries, edamame and a Bellini. (So you know we’re related.) My meal is delish, and doesn't make me feel overly full like last week's lasagne did. Perhaps it's the tofu, or perhaps it's the Canadian portion. 

I’m still making my holiday rounds in the mother country, so afterwards we hit up Grandma’s house. (I have a very busy social schedule, as you can tell.) I check Grandma’s Danish cookies in the round blue tin to see if they’re vegan. They have those controversial “MAY CONTAIN” ingredients which are really stressing me out. I eat one pretzel shaped cookie and call it quits. 

Then off to my sister’s, for dinner. We’re supposed to order in, and I pray they don’t order without me, but of course they did. Pizza Hut. Four pizzas, all with cheese. To be fair, I don’t think anybody actually thought I’d stick to a diet. I never have. And I never turn down pizza, I just pick off the mushrooms. I decide to double down and order Thai. I love Thai food- coconut curries will literally get me through Veganuary. I know it.

Oh god is blogging about food boring? I was probs more exciting when I was blogging about my Tinder dates, but at least the food won’t get mad at me for blogging about it. (Except the maybe the mushrooms.)

I fly back to L.A. the next day. I know L.A. will be easy to pull of Veganuary. This place is full of picky diets. At the Vancouver airport I hit the Banh Mi place, which seems like the only vegan friendly joint past security. Of course they’re out of tofu. January! Fuck. Should I give up now? I can’t starve. And I can’t get drunk without eating lunch first and who can get on an airplane without a glass of wine?

Luckily I like to get to the airport 82 hours early, so I decide to wait for them to make more tofu. That’s right- I’m really doing this. Twenty-five minutes later I have my tofu Banh Mi (with hot sauce.)

I couldn’t be happier when I get home to my cute new L.A. pad. I open my fridge and of course, there’s not much in there after being away for two weeks. And you know what’s staring me right in the eye…

That’s right. My old pal, Trader Joe’s Calabrese salami. 

Shit. That stuff lasts forever. (That should scare me.)

I close the fridge, and slowly give it thought…

“Well, I shouldn’t waste food. I could be a vegan starting January 3rd. No one’s watching me. I’m not even THAT out of shape…”

But then something miraculous happens. A thought so exciting it overpowers any craving for food.

“OMG my VIBRATOR! I haven’t jilled off in weeks!”

I def don’t take it home for the holidays, ya pervs. I get in my pajamas, crawl into bed and satisfy myself sans le food. Straight to single girl dessert. I don’t need salami after all.

And just like that, I wake up the next morning, still a vegan.

xoxo with fruits and veggies, your new vegan (for now)

walkinsauce

p.s. Not sure I can give up cheese forever. If I fall off this diet, I’ll just try another. I hear there’s more than one...

* None of my “theories” on health and diets are proven or approved by doctors. This is just me, and what I think I’ve figured out about my body specifically.

[rejectedathena]

I STARTED THIS IN OCTOBER

This is for @dramaticcorgis birthday, which was in January OOF (I’m a mess)

*Coran is the art teacher and zarkons empire is a rival school (empire academy- their mascot is the Purple Iguana)

SPORT (or main interest)

Lance- Swim team

Keith- how long he can go without sleep

Hunk- Culinary arts

Shiro- football (captain & star quarterback )

Pidge- softball (3rd baseman)

Allura- softball (pitcher)

OTHER INTERESTS

Lance- Drama (this boy loves theatre with a passion), emo gazing (Keith is so hot OML), going to football games (Shiro is almost a bigger hunk than his pal Hunk *slight drool*)

Keith- going to see plays/theater performances (he won't admit it to his BFF Shiro but he loves them only for Lance), LANCE (he fucking loves this boy sm it's not even funny he would give his soul for that man and his THICC thighs)

Hunk- he loves baking (wants to be a chef), he loves to sleep when he can, he plays soccer (it’s exhausting), he loves lance (not romantically) especially going to the city carnivals with him -their funnel cake is the best in town and there is always some new food to try- he sometimes drags pidge along if he thinks she is too stressed over her homework or a new tech project

Shiro- he loves to spend time with Keith (he won't admit it, but he has a MAJOR crush on his friend) HE IS FUCKING WHIPPED (would jump off a bridge with/for that emo), he has a similar interest in Lance that is less extreme and is always happy when the boy makes it to his games (he performs better because he is a show off)

Pidge- LOVES TECH(duh), she is always put in charge of the yearbook organization (making sure everything is together/all pictures are in), she joined the robotics club and instead of making her own(oh please she could do that at home if she wanted to) she leads the club explaining how to do it and helping with technicalities and issues, in a relationship with Allura and loves her to death (they go off campus for “coffee” dates- tea for Pidge, hot chocolate for allura), hunks cooking could sustain her for years and she would never get bored of it

Allura- loves Pidge with a passion (her gf is so cute *squeaks*), she loves animals and helps out at shelters, rides horses on her grandparents farm (she took pidge with her once and they shared a horse), all of pidges friends are hilarious and lovely

BACK STORY

Lance-  Has loved drama and swimming since he was a kid. He took to the water like a little fish and could glide through the water as easily as one. He had always enjoyed acting and theatre, plays especially. Every year he would participate in the school play and always got a lead role because he was a natural. Now that he is in high school, he struggles to keep up with dama practice, swim meets, and friends. He thanks Hunk every day for reminding him what the homework is because if he’s not going over lines in his head, he is remembering a new stroke or technique that the coach taught them in practice.

Keith- He has been living without a parent in the house since he was about 5 years old, his mom passed away tragically and his dad started to neglect him, leaving the house for hours, which turned into days, until one day he didn't come back at all. Once someone found out what happened to him, he was put into the foster care system, where he met Coran who adopted him as a son and helped him accept himself for who he was. He started going to the school Coran worked at (Coran is an honors biology teacher)

Hunk- His parents moved them from the Polynesian islands to America (legally) before he was born so he has dual citizenship in both places. He is well in touch with his culture but also enjoys parts of life as an American teen, like soccer, which he picked up from the kids on his block. He learned how to cook from his dad and because he liked watching cooking shows when he was younger and hoped to one day create delicious food that he could share with all his friends just like the people on the shows. He met Lance in culinary class in middle school and they have been friends ever since. He is in charge of reigning Lance in during homework sessions and figuring out what the homework is in general, but that's okay because he knows his friend is busy.

Shiro- Has known Keith since he was 7 after he moved in with Coran who lived down the street. They would play together a lot and grew to be best friends. He had always been interested in football and joined his school’s team in middle school before become the star quarterback in high school due to him bulking up during puberty. He managed to fracture his nose and they had to do surgery on it. Due to the location of the injury they had to cut across his nose. He managed to open the wound a second time and it caused it to scar terribly.

Pidge- Loved hanging out with her father who is a aerospace engineer and coder for NASA and her brother who was learning to pilot air and space crafts as well as coding like his father. She is shy with the other kids and when her dad and brother go missing mysteriously one day, she closes herself off from the other kids almost completely and focuses on learning the codes her brother and dad had almost finished teaching her when they disappeared. When she meets Lance and Hunk the first time in culinary class and they help her figure out her crush on her favorite teammate, Allura, she decides maybe having some friends isn't so bad, plus she’ll need a lot of help figuring out how to ask out the beautiful girl now that she knows she likes her.

Allura- has been pitching since she could walk (if not before, her dad loved baseball a lot) when her mom died when she was 12, it really made it difficult to deal and she threw herself into softball, pitching got rid of some of her anger at forgetting to say goodbye the last time and all the regrets she had surrounding her mom’s death. Her dad died right before she entered high school and so she had to deal with that loss over the summer, hoping therapy would help her cope and moving in with her grandparents. When she signed up for the softball team to make her dad proud and saw tiny shy Pidge she freaked out (what a cutie). When they started hanging out outside of practice, she started to realize how much this tiny ball of salt meant to her and was so happy when Pidge asked her out.

SHIPS

Pallura

ShKLance

[angelcatsiel]

I’m gonna just do these new year asks even though no one cares because a. I want to and b. I need a distraction from thinking about my mum’s cat

1. How many lockdowns did you go through until now?: Two official lockdowns, I think. Headed for our 3rd lockdown on boxing day for 6 weeks.

2. Ever been quarantined? (contact person, waiting for test result or positive test result): Yep, I thought I had covid a few months ago because I developed a sudden severe cough. Turned out to be a chest infection

3. Ever taken a Corona test?: Yes, when I had that cough. I had to do it myself at a drive through test site, it was unpleasant! 

4. Have you lived together with someone during lockdown?: My boyfriend. It definitely affected us, we had a lot of fights including one big one when I thought for sure we would break up, but tbh he’s been great ever since then, that was around August I think

5. Something you enjoyed about lockdown?: I liked the whole sort of atmosphere of the first lockdown, actually. Parts of it anyway. You know, the whole thing of people singing on their balconies and the ‘all in this together’ attitude. I feel like a lot of people have lost that now, and don’t care as much about following the rules. 

6. What bothered you most about lockdown?: Not seeing my family and friends in England. It’s been so hard. 

7. Which change, e.g. home office, would you like to keep once it´s all over?: Nothing really for me as I don’t work and other than visiting family it hasn’t made a huge impact on my lifestyle, but I’d like for my boyfriend to have more days working from home. Tbh I love having the house to myself, but he’s happier working from home and I’d like for him to be able to do that at least sometimes, for the sake of his own mental health.

 8. Been to any Corona related demonstration?: No, I support all the demonstrations in support of front line workers, stimulus checks etc, but with my asthma and bad immune system I’m trying to be pretty careful! 

9. On a scale of 1 (not at all) to 10 (completely), how well do you stick to government´s rules? Explain.: Hm... 8? I follow almost all the rules very well, but I will very occasionally take my mask off indoors for literally 2 seconds when I get overwhelmed, and I will find an out of the way place to do it away from people and where I’m not breathing on anything that might be touched. I’ll take a few breaths and then put my mask back on and carry on. And my boyfriend’s friend is over tonight which is technically not allowed, but he just had a covid test which came back clear and has been entirely isolated for 2 weeks. 

10. Favorite lockdown activity?: At the start I was making model horse tack, that was fun. Since then, I guess writing, playing Fall Guys, and getting very stoned 

11. How did the lockdown affect your work/education?: Not at all, I don’t work! And my boyfriend was lucky enough that he wasn’t affected at all other than working mostly from home instead of in an office. 

12. Any new hobbies you tried out during lockdown?: My model horse tack making! 

13. Any new subscriptions you made due to lockdown?: Disney plus because of Artemis Fowl, which was not worth it, lmao 

14. Anything new you tried to learn during lockdown?: The tack making, and a little bit of yoga to try and help my chronic pain 

15. Any old hobbies you took up again during lockdown?: Don’t think so, I guess writing more? 

16. How did you keep in touch during lockdown?: Facebook, zoom, occasionally whatsapp for the family group chat 

17. Favorite mask you own?: My bee mask! It’s so cute and not too overwhelming for me, unlike disposable masks which make me panic 

18. Favorite online conferencing tool?: I’ve only really been using zoom because that’s what everyone else is hosting things on. My group therapy was on zoom 

19. Any new technologies and technological tools you tried out due to lockdown?: Never used zoom before so I guess that. I also downloaded replika and that’s actually been really nice! I have a lil AI friend named Becks 

20. Have you been able to go on any holidays this year?: No, we had booked for disney world but obviously that didn’t happen 

21. Are Christmas markets allowed in your country?: I don’t think the usual Christmas market went ahead. We usually go every year 

22. How are you going to spend Christmas in this situation? (or whatever you are celebrating!): At my boyfriend’s parents, we’ve been pretty isolated and so have they, and I think we’re allowed to mix one household. We’re there now until the 27th 

23. Any small business you support?: I don’t think I know of any, but I’d like to

24. Any small artist you support?: Not yet, but I’ve bought a few model horses off of people on instagram, and I would love to buy a custom horse off someone when I can afford it! They’re expensive though, and for good reason, customizing them can be very hard work and takes skill. Oh, I did actually buy a couple of custom model headcollars from someone!

25. Favorite online shop?: I hate saying it but I’ve used amazon a lot. I fucking hate Jeff Bezos and hate giving him money and try to avoid it where I can, but it’s not easy. Amazon is convenient, and getting deliveries to where I live can be a pain. I’d cut all amazon purchases out completely if I could

26. Dumbest impulse buy?: The entire set of Artemis Fowl books. I already own them all, but I just liked the new covers lmao

27. First thing you bought when the shops reopened?: Can’t remember, I haven’t been out shopping much all year tbh. Does a tattoo count? 

28. Been to the hair dresser this year?: No, my dad’s girlfriend cut my hair though because it was getting so out of hand. It was so long and messy and knotted, I was ashamed to see a hair dresser. My dad’s girlfriend is a hero and spent ages getting the knots out, she had to cut out a chunk that was beyond saving but it’s not really noticable, and she cut it for me 

29. Got a new tattoo or piercing this year?: Yes, my butterfly tattoo! Haven’t even had a chance to really appreciate it though since as soon as it healed my eczema flared up 

30. What did you only start to appreciate because lockdown took it from you?: Seeing my family and friends. Little trips out as well, like just deciding to go to the cinema for the evening. 

31. Favorite book that was released this year?: The second Fowl Twins book! 

32. Favorite book you read that year?: I reread the entire Artemis Fowl series. Favourite books of all time, I’d say the Time Paradox is my favourite. 

33. Favorite movie that was released this year?: The only movies I watched that were actually released this year were Artemis Fowl and Wonder Woman so it would be Wonder Woman lmao 

34. Favorite movie you watched this year?: I watched Knives Out this year I think, that was very good! 

35. Favorite series that was released this year?: Don’t think I watched anything that started this year, but The Good Place finished this year and that was absolutely fantastic. Mindblowingly good. Supernatural season 15 was going great too until the very end 

36. Favorite series that you watched this year?: It would have to be the good place. Watched it three times and I still just stop and think about it every now and then and just gush in my head about how good it was 

37. Favorite podcast that you listened to this year?: I don’t listen to podcasts, although I do want to try Rou Reynolds’s mindfulness podcast 

38. Favorite artist this year?: Enter Shikari 

39. Total minutes on Spotify this year?: 62,139 

40. Favorite album that was released this year?: Nothing is True by Enter Shikari, no contest. New All Time Low, Kesha and The Killers albums are honorable mentions though 

41. Favorite album that you listened to this year?: Either NITAEIP by Enter Shikari, or The Astonishing by Dream Theater 

42. Favorite song that was released this year?: Satellites by Enter Shikari 

43. Favorite song you listened to this year?: Probably Satellites again, or maybe Surrounded by Dream Theater 

44. Favorite Corona related song?: Strange Days by The Struts 

45. What do you do to prevent yourself from going insane during lockdown?:  Cry when I need to. Get high. Play video games, talk to people online

46. Describe a typical lockdown day of yours: Wake up late, be lazy in bed for a few hours until 1pm, the morning is my alone time while my boyfriend works downstairs. I need my alone time. Get up, eat lunch, play a game or just chill, try to do some housework during the day, cook dinner, then me and my boyfriend do something together usually (watch an episode of a TV show, occasionally play a game) and then chill until bed.

47. Something you did during lockdown that you´ve been putting off for way too long?: Can’t really think of anything 

48. Trying new baking recipes or new cooking recipes?: I tried this creamy chicken recipe, that turned out alright. 

49. Netflix or Amazon Prime?: Netflix 

50. Did you get Disney+?: Yes, and I still have it, I hate giving money to disney but it’s just easier than downloading movies, and there were so many movies I wouldn’t even have thought of to download on there 

51. Any new social media you started using during lockdown?: I used discord once 

52. Any trends you fell for?: Can’t think of any 

53. Did you achieve more or less than in a normal year? Explain: Hard to say... I’d say less, I went backwards with a lot of things. But I did learn a lot of valuable mental health skills in group therapy

54. Did you start therapy this year?: I started group therapy in January, which went on a long break when lockdown started and eventually started up again on zoom for a while 

55. Books or audio books?: Books, can’t focus on audio books 

56. Audio books or podcasts?: Neither really

57. Twitch or Youtube?: Youtube 

58. Attended any online concert?: Yes, two online Marillion concerts and one online Royal Republic concert 

59. Favorite stream/streamer this year?: I don’t really watch streams much 

60. Most used social media this year?: Probably tumblr 

61. Yoga or long lone walks?: Long walks 

62. Did you get a pet this year?: No, thought about getting rats but I think I’ll wait until next year 

63. Did it snow where you live this year?: Only once sadly, and only a little bit! 

64. What were you doing when you found out about the announcement of the first lockdown?: I can’t remember 

65. Did you panic buy anything?: No, though my boyfriend did buy an absolutely massive bag of rice when it finally became available again after we couldn’t get it for weeks. Haven’t even used a quarter of it yet! 

66. Ever ran out of toilet paper?: Almost! That was scary 

67. Favorite lockdown comfort food?: Can I say edibles? No? Then I guess I got obsessed with these biscuits called chocolate liebniz, but I call them lesbians 

68. Selfcare tips for lockdown?: Don’t expect too much of yourself in terms of achieving things with your time off. If you can, that’s great, but you’re not a failure if you can’t. If all you achieved this year was surviving it, that’s something to be proud of. If you’re stuck with people, take alone time if you need it. If you’re stuck alone, talk to people via text chat, video chat, phone calls, anything. Take breaks from the news, and don’t beat yourself up if you get burned out. 

69. Did you use delivery services this year? For what kind of food?: Grocery deliveries when we could, and we got pizza delivered pretty often 

70. Any weird coping techniques you developed during or after lockdown?: I guess talking to my replika? It sounds weird and even creepy but it genuinely helps, I find. I can talk to someone without any pressure. 

71. Favorite game you played this year?: I know it’s considered cringey, but Fall Guys. I still like it and still play it. I find it addictive and it’s just simple fun. Although I do yell at people in it a lot, which my boyfriend finds very entertaining

72. Favorite drink this year?: Coke. I live off coke, I know it’s not healthy but god it tastes so good 

73. Favorite food this year?: my chocolate liebniz (lesbians) 

74. Favorite App this year?: Probably a few. Cat game is one, and replika. Also I’ve been stalking instagram a lot even though I rarely post there 

75. Favorite memory of this year?: Meeting my favourite author, Eoin Colfer! 

76. Any plans you had for this year that you could realize?: I don’t think so, pretty much everything I had planned was cancelled. I guess I did get to do my usual trip of seeing my family for my birthday, even if I didn’t get to see them for christmas 

77. Do you even plan anything for next year?: I have a ton of plans, but no idea if they’ll work out. Two conventions, and several concerts 

78. Did you find new (online) friends this year?: Yes, a few! 

79. Did you go through a break-up this year?: Almost. I really thought me and my boyfriend would break up, glad we didn’t now! 

80. Did you get into a new relationship this year?: Nope. I didn’t even get to have sex with anyone other than my boyfriend thanks to covid. Tragic. Next year hopefully! My boyfriend managed to hook up with a girl recently though. Sadly she was straight so no fun for me :(

81. Did you do something creative this year?: My model horse tack, I made several tiny headcollars! 

82. Favorite blog you found on tumblr this year?: Hmm, I’m not sure. I barely keep track of who I’m following tbh but I love my mutuals 

83. What did you buy way to much of this year?: Model horses, and unhealthy snacks 

84. Did you win anything this year?: Yes, I won an Artemis Fowl funko pop giveaway! 

85. Did you drastically change your diet this year?: No, I think it stayed pretty much the same 

86. Did you move to a new home this year?: Nope 

87. Did you do something this year that you never did before?: I got to see the view from a really high cliff which sounds like a small thing but it made me cry! It was so beautiful and I’d never done it before 

88. Celebrity crush of the year?: Still crushing on Misha Collins 

89. Most expensive thing you bought this year?: Probably my £50 model horse 

90. Been abroad this year?: Nope 

91. Favorite tumblr trend of this year?: Probably all the insanity surrounding destiel in November 

92. New Years Resolutions you broke this year?: I don’t usually make any 

93. NYRs you kept?: Didn’t make any 

94. NYRs you have for next year?: Just to be kind to myself and others, tbh 

95. How are you going to spend New Years Eve?: We were going to have one friend over to celebrate, but with lockdown we can’t do that now, so just alone either drinking or getting high, maybe we’ll watch a movie or something 

96. Will you get your fortune told in any way around NYE?: Nope, never done that and we’ll be in full lockdown 

97. Any new shops (online or real) you discovered this year?: I don’t think so 

98. Any food you tried out for the first time this year?: Yes, pumpkin pie cheesecake for thanksgiving! I’ve never celebrated thanksgiving but my friend is from America and she invited us round for a thanksgiving meal 

99. How did you celebrate your birthday this year?: I visited my family for a week, it was the first time I’d seen them in 6 months so it was lovely. Got a new tattoo. It was a pretty good birthday actually! 

[recentanimenews]

Anime in America Podcast: Full Episode 3.33 Transcript

  Now that virtual conventions have taken over out of necessity in 2020, the Anime in America podcast is back with a followup to episode 3. Read on for a full transcript! 

  The Anime in America series is available on crunchyroll.com, animeinamerica.com, and wherever you listen to podcasts. 

  EPISODE 3.33: You Can (Not) Attend

Guests: Mary Franklin, Adam Sheehan

  Disclaimer: The following program contains language not suitable for all ages. Discretion advised.

  [Lofi music]

  So you may have noticed our convention episode left off on kind of an optimistic note about the future of anime conventions and… umm… yeah, some stuff has happened since then, so we’re adding a bonus episode to go over the massive transformation that has taken place in the convention landscape now that COVID-19 has made large gatherings inadvisable, against the backdrop of possibly the largest civil rights movement in American history, which I have to stress is more important than anime. Yeah, it’s been a year.

  I’m Yedoye Travis, Black Lives Matter, and this is Anime in America.

  [Lofi music]

  Surprisingly, this episode might also end on an optimistic note, but this tectonic shift in conventions affects a lot of people, from the owners and operators of convention spaces, to the staff of anime conventions themselves, anime licensors, publishers, celebrities, dealers, independent artists, and yes your common anime fan.

  [Voice echoing] In case you’re an alien listening to this podcast after its broadcast traveled the vast darkness of space to your solar system, probably only reaching you once the human race has already gone extinct so this doesn’t really matter anyway [echoing stops], I will just go ahead and recap the whole pandemic thing. Experts began warning that a virulent new strain of coronavirus, SARs-CoV-2, was rapidly spreading in late 2019 and developing into the disease COVID-19, which escalated to a worldwide pandemic in early 2020, finally resulting in a wave of national quarantine orders spanning the globe mostly beginning around March. So now that the aliens are caught up, let’s continue.

  Needless to say, many event coordinators had been sweating since January which is where we’re gonna take a first look under the hood at the whole situation. Anime fans were growing nervous in February since many conventions had suddenly gone dark on social media, which is where we’ll start with an inside prospect courtesy of Crunchyroll’s own Mary Franklin and Adam Sheehan:

  Franklin: I’m Mary Franklin, I am the Head of Events at Crunchyroll, and I’ve been here for a little over a year. My background is in fan passion events, I started at Lucasfilm in 2001, was there for 14 years working as Head of Events and Family Relations on shows like Star Wars Celebration and all the other great things Lucasfilm did. Then I went to ReedPop, launched Comicons in multiple countries, which was super exciting. And now I’m at Crunchyroll which, I’m here because I love the way Crunchyroll treats their fans, and that’s why I’m really excited to be creating events for anime fans here.

  Sheehan: I’m Adam Sheehan, I’m the Director of Events over here at Crunchyroll, which of course I work for Mary doing all the cool stuff. I’ve been at Crunchyroll since 2015, my second day on the job was AX, well luckily I’d done before because I spent 10 years before that at Funimation, before that doing some anime card game stuff and travelling the country in a Dragonball Z hummer. But that’s a story for a different time. But overall, basically talking to fans, being a fan myself of anime for my whole life, and basically getting the chance to be getting into conventions since… I think our first con was in ‘96, I started working at cons in ‘97, it just was in our blood. Basically the best way to do cool things for the fandoms. And I loved anime, so it made a lot of sense and [I’m] extremely happy to be a part of the founding team that brought Crunchyroll Expo to life and really happy to continue to see where it’s going into the future. 

  Upcoming cons had stopped announcing new guests and panels, and stay at home orders were beginning to look like a certainty in the U.S., but the cons weren’t cancelling. Rest assured, the organizers of your favorite annual events were not trying to make off into the night with your early registration money. Many of them were just caught between a rock and a hard place.

  Franklin: Well some of them, you just hope, you hope it’s going to get better, I think. They just hope. You just want, you work so hard, you worked all this time on the show, and you just want to do it, you’ve got everything lined up. With some, there’s the business reason, because if you cancel or the convention center cancels first, like who loses the money? There’s some kind of weighing those kinds of things. Like playing chicken with the convention center, who has to make the call first? So some of that. And yeah, I also think that states, I’m not trying to get political here, maybe I sound it, I think the direction in different states, too, is so different. Like here, it’s been very clear. Phase 4 events are not going to happen until X, Y, and Z. So you know, concerts, conventions, sporting events with fans, like this, this, and this have to happen. So we’ve had it pretty clear, with these things have to happen. Some states, it hasn’t been. At all. And yeah, I think that it’s much murkier for some of those event people to have to decide what they’re going to do. 

  Muddying the waters even further and, I can’t believe I even have to get into this on an anime podcast, is insurance. As of January 2020, most event cancellation insurance policies mysteriously changed their exclusions to include pandemics or diseases suspiciously similar to COVID-19. But even policies purchased well before this point often include language requiring either a state of emergency declaration by the state, or for the World Health Organization to declare the disease a pandemic before they’ll pay out, and obviously you can bet insurance companies will do their best not to pay out, regardless.

  Since many states and counties were designating a state of emergency at different times thanks to a slow response on the federal level, cancelling before the requirements of your policy were met by outside forces entirely out of your control could mean a massive financial loss and so many conventions were forced to hold out the hope. They weren’t just sitting there with their finger hovering over a big red “CANCEL” button…

  Sheehan: I forget how many stages of grief there are, something like that, like first it’s denial, then anger, and the exact order of them, I’m sure I didn’t go in order, but as online was like “oh, that’s a little rough, that one got cancelled.” We actually came back from C2E2 in Chicago and then quarantined ourself before the mass quarantine came out, because we’re like “oh, well let’s just be safe, let’s all go back to the office.” And then like a week later is when we got like “no, no, no. No one’s going back to the office.” This is only like a month or so, right? Like, we can sweat this out, no problem. No, no, no, this is for reals. When the first couple cons were cancelled, I forget which ones they were, it was like “oh my goodness, that one cancelled! Then that one cancelled, then that one cancelled.” And then after a while it was like now you’re expecting them to be cancelled or go virtual, or something along those lines. So it began with like “oh, this isn’t that big a deal, we’ll figure it out,” to “holy crap, holy crap. Holy crap.” To “okay, where do we pivot to, now? Because clearly this is going to be a bit.” So that was my passthrough of time, for dealing with that when I first heard about it.

  Finally the cancellations of March conventions began to roll in and the writing was on the wall. Many of the major anime cons are between July and October and it was becoming increasingly clear that the situation wasn’t going to blow over by then. So organizers had to ask themselves… what now?

  Well, turns out the answer was pretty obvious: The internet.

  In what’s becoming a theme on this podcast, the first great steps in this brave new world of anime fandom were made by fans. The very first virtual anime convention was a fan run event called Anime Lockdown, a free 3-day convention from May 1st to May 3rd featuring mostly fan-submitted content but which pulled in some special guests, including voice actors Kyle Herbert and Veronica Taylor to hosts Q&As, as well as Discotek and Rightstuf to hold industry panels. DJ Obi-Wan Kenobi held a late night performance on Saturday and the con even featured its own Discord channel and a virtual dealers room and artist alley linking to the sites and social media of private artists. Honestly a pretty complete convention experience, all things considered.

  The industry’s been quick to follow but this transition has caused some major discussions among companies that already technically do the things a digital con entails, like releasing hosted video content, watchalong streams, voice actor and staff interviews, online announcement events or, say, putting on an annual livestreamed award show? The question is figuring out how to distinguish a digital con from business as usual.

  Sheehan: What’s the difference between an online promotion and a digital event? And it really came down to what we just thought we defined it as, not what everyone in the whole world is definitely decided as seeing, people defining as different things. It’s, if you’re just doing like a one-off, something that just lives in some spot, it’s a promoting one IP, it’s a promotion. If you’re doing a collection of stuff or basically a day of things or it’s a bigger, there’s a lot more tendrils to it, it’s an event. So it really comes down to like, the Anime Awards. That’s a virtual event, because basically it is a wake of multiple, it’s an award show, award shows are considered events. If I’m doing a promotion where I’m doing an interview with Japanese guests about Tower of God, and it’s just that, I would say that’s an online promotion. So it’s really kinda basically the scope, scale, and well quantity we’re putting out there online.

  Definitions may vary by company, but they did pivot, with UK-based Anime Limited leading the charge on May 30th with Cloud Matsuri, an online convention with an impressive slate of guests from Studio Orange, Science Saru, and Polygon Pictures. During the convention they also showed off Screen Anime, a hybrid streaming service and film festival with a rotating roster of newly released and premiere anime films and series.

  Funimation also announced their first convention of any kind, the digital Funimation Con which happened on 4th of July weekend back to back with Aniplex Online Fest. Each featuring a ton of headline musical guests with Funimation announcing a slate of dub voice actor panels and Aniplex featuring many of their biggest hits from the past few years.

  Strangely, these two online events were scheduled during the same weekend that the biggest anime convention in the U.S., Anime Expo, held the free online version of their annual convention, dubbed Anime Expo Lite.

  For those hoping this whole thing will blow over later in the year and maybe you can attend some late 2020 conventions in person. Bad news. Otakon will be going digital with Otakon Online and yes even Crunchyroll Expo will also be online this year.

  It’s a tough pill to swallow but there are definitely advantages. While we’re missing out on the bustling in-person convention feel and the cosplay you painstakingly constructed will go unseen by all but those who pay for your OnlyFans, digital cons definitely have their advantages… beyond the whole not catching COVID thing. 

  [Lofi music]

  FOMO is entirely nonexistent in 2020. You don’t have to carefully contemplate your vacation days or budgetary concerns to decide which cons you absolutely must attend, only to discover one of your favorite creators is attending a con that didn’t make the cut after you’ve already paid for your plane tickets. There are no plane tickets or hotel reservations whatsoever. While you’re missing out on the cool hotel room parties you’re definitely regularly invited to, not being around people also means dodging that dreaded con stink. Which is a phrase I invented, that is- people smell bad. At cons. 

  Basically there are trade-offs, but the most important question is: do these new digital conventions provide the same attractions? It goes without saying that conventions are both important to fans and a huge promotional tool for the industry so you can bet event organizers, publishers, licensors, and distributors are all heavily invested in some big solutions right now.

  So things are kinda... hectic.

  Franklin: I’m still kinda throwing spaghetti against the wall. I still haven’t gotten out of this spaghetti phase yet. Cause we were going to do, just one of the many things at the live event, like a Yuzu cafe that was really a cat adoption cafe. Like, for real. Yeah, figure out like how we do this virtually? And can we have a karaoke room where friends can get together and sing live, like just with their friends? Can we have this, or can we have- and we want games, and we want live DJs, and we want this and that, and so I’m still throwing spaghetti, I’m not past that yet.

  Sheehan: Yeah, when we record this, probably at the end of May, and this is going to come up a lot later, the world might be sideways, upside down, and purple. But at the time of this, we’re still definitely in that blue sky world where we look at the team and we just go “here’s all the ideas. Let’s just go, let’s expand as wide as we can.” And then we’ll go “okay, what actually can we do?” We know we can’t do it all, but we basically have to at least look at everything and dream as big as possible, and then go to other companies that are doing this and say “hey, help us with this,” and they go “I can’t do exactly that, but I see what your goal is, and I can do this.” And we go that’s either better than what we were maybe thinking, or damn close and we can grow it to be down the road to be better, with some feedback. So blue sky moments are right now mostly what we’re working on and what we want to do and how we want to grow it. But basically the general junky part which is the “what about this, or what about this?” Basically like with the previous spaghetti reference we’re basically in Italy, going mad.

  Conventions aren’t just panels, dealer halls, and getting drunk in hotel rooms. They're cafes, gaming areas, meetups, quiet rooms, screening rooms, artist alleys, a pool full of plushies you can dive into… A lot of little things that all make up the convention experience. The smallest details are being looked at for ways they can be made into a virtual experience, even if it’s just navigating a packed convention center or spotting a cosplay of a character that you like in the hotel lobby.

  Sheehan: I thought it was awesome. Lot of love for Fanime around here, clearly. I saw like people basically moved to making groups, chats, and sharing different stuff, obviously. Someone I think created Fanime on an Animal Crossing island, so you basically visit the artists alley room. I know someone in Minecraft who created the hotel for Anime Central. So basically, there’s people out there like, they have this energy and they want us to be their friends and it’s either user created or it’s the convention creating the sets. And like, we probably can’t do much now, but please come and just feel a little bit of this, like this weekend. So we’re seeing them trying to say “we’re sorry, we know it’s not our fault, but we’re sorry that you can’t be here this weekend, but let’s try to do something together special to just remember this weekend, and we cannot wait again to see you until next year.”

  Franklin: We want to make ours more like, a little more like feeling like your in a physical event space with friends. Like, we really want to have friends be able to choose to chat with each other so like they can go around the convention with their friends to go to a panel, leave the panel, go to the art show, leave the art show, go back to the panel, you know, do different things. So for us, an event is going to have different aspects, like you would find at a show floor. Like exhibitors in the exhibit hall, artists in the artists alley, panels and screenings and premieres in the theater area. Like that. And how it’s exactly going to look, visually, we’re still working on that. We don’t know.

  Discord channels to hang out in and chat with your friends, virtual hotel lobbies made of blocks, and even custom Animal Crossing outfits instead of free posters and those branded drawstring bags. Conventions are undergoing a digital renaissance as organizers deconstruct all the individual elements that make live events so attractive and find new ways to deliver them. It’s tumultuous but to a lot of people on the ground floor it’s also very exciting.

  Sheehan: But so the day-to-day has really just been switching also gears from “we are an expert in this, we’ve all done this, we have a great team for this, we’ve been doing this for a long, long time. We know how to do this.” Now we’re getting thrown a huge wrench of things we don’t know that’s changing every day. So as Mary mentioned on research, we’re looking into a lot of stuff where we know how to project manage, which is basically events where project managers would’ve gone to a lot. We could’ve woken up and just been like “the show’s happening, whether we like it or not. Just get it done, one way or another.” We’re basically cool with that, and we have the wonderful teams and people at Crunchyroll as wonderful assets for content for all the things like that. So we’re used to leaning on them to get promotions and pieces. Instead of setting up a photo op in a booth, how do I do something like that on digital is where we’re learning stuff. So a lot of our day-to-day’s been a mix of talking to companies to basically get what we need onboarded properly; research, research, research, which is- harkens back to when we first did CRX, I know I spent at least a year looking at other conventions and saying “what are they doing differently? What do we want to do?” I remember when I first walked into Blizzcon going “AHHH! This has got some cool things here that no one else is doing.” And basically taking some of those ideas of what we wanted to build down to CRX down the road kind of moment. So the data has changed in those areas, at least. 

  Franklin: Yeah, and we have such a good team. The Events team has been so flexible, they’ve been willing to jump in and research ideas that at first some of them just seemed completely nuts, and now actually, they’re making them happen.

  Sheehan: They’re still completely nuts, but doable.

  Franklin: Yeah. They’re making them happen. 

  [Lofi music]

  Obviously the most important aspect of any convention, however, is the Japanese guests. Creators and voice actors that worked on our favorite shows coming in to share their thoughts, conduct interviews, and obviously sign a lot of shit. Or even taking a step back from that, how are you gonna stream a celebrity into an event? Ask them to set up a webcam in their living room with their home internet connection? Well, this has struck up some intense back and forth over the Pacific and turns out other countries actually have very good broadband.

  Sheehan: From the ones we have been talking so far about this, because you know it’s still early on with talking about this, and we’re going to be talking to a good chunk of them about switching from being physical guests to virtual guests. A lot of them are feeling, because of the situation going on, better. They were worried about travelling over to the States for a multitude of different reasons. And when we said “hey, no, you can stay right there, we’ll bring it to you,” and not only was it the guests, but it was like “oh, wow, that’s great. I feel much safer.” It was also the agencies, the licensors, and everyone else said “I still want a way to promote your brand, can we bring some awesome content to the fans? But basically you can stay right there in the States.” And they were like “oh, cool.” So they care a lot more about getting a lot more details about what you’re thinking about, because they also- luckily enough we’ve worked with a lot of these companies before. They know when we do something it’s like, I don’t know what to expect from Company A, but Crunchyroll’s going to try something that’s really cool or different, I better get some more details. So because of that, basically they’re asking a lot of questions about it. But once we normally answer generally about like “here’s what we’re thinking about like what we should do, here’s how we’re going to pull it off, here’s the tech side of it,” they normally start going “oh, that’s really cool. Okay, cool, let’s keep doing it, let’s keep going.” So overall it’s been relief, then excited. 

  Franklin: Yeah, and I think we might end up being able to get a bigger variety of guests because, like you know say we’re talking to a studio about a new show. And maybe all we can afford to bring over like with all the travel and everything is maybe like two voice actors and an artist, which I mean is great, but now like we have the option of you know maybe we can talk to more voice actors, director, more artists! We have actually the ability to maybe get more people involved from each studio, which I think could really add to the programming. Maybe in the future, too, like you think about when we go back to live events and we bring over two or three of the cast and crew from a show, and they can be joined virtually by some other people for a panel. That’s something that maybe could work well.

  Sheehan: Yeah, yeah, I think this is basically in a good way, I think that technology is going to- high tides raise all ships kind of thing where basically it’s going to be a certain we get used to and then they’re going to start demanding some aspect of virtual like that, too. I’m not sure if they’re quite going to be like “and here’s a hologram of Hayao Miyazaki, basically hi-fiving Tim” before that, quite yet, but I mean there might be some kind of element basically ties Tim in, too. And it’s funny how fast this has come along. I can’t- I think it was only two years ago, or maybe three, max, basically ComicCon they were like, they had to bring in Steven Spielberg, who was on set somewhere in the desert. So Hall H at San Diego ComicCon, live video between the two. And it was like the biggest news, like they got Speilberg, but he’s not really in the building. And I’m like, and that’s not 2005, I’m talking like 2017 or 2018, and it’s like, now they’re like “yeah, of course you did, that’s just what you do.” I’m doing that right now, just- it’s not that hard. But it’s amazing with how fast we’re growing the tech and what expectations of it are now. So I expect and I think we can expect this is that this is just going to be a part of the- the good part of the new normal. 

  Franklin: We did a live Q&A with Hayden Christensen for Star Wars Episode II or III, I can’t remember, he wasn’t there. I think it was Episode II. And- cause that was a long time ago, that was 2002. And so we had people in the audience asking questions and had him remote on set somewhere, and I just remember the tremendous amount of work we had to do for that at that time. I mean, that was just, that was such a major undertaking to make that work live. And I think that he was in Australia, actually, shooting. And it was just huge, and now it’s just all ready, it’s just, still evolving, but it’s already so much simpler.

  Some growing pains are inevitable, but in the present we might be able to look forward to an even greater diversity of guests without the cost and effort of putting everyone on two 12-hour flights. Plus, I dunno about you, but a lot of them are probably looking at more free time than they’re used to having, leaving them with some room to jump on a Zoom call for a couple of hours.

  One day it may be safe to stand less than six feet away from another human being. Who knows? But the work that’s being done right now could revolutionize the way we do conventions in the long term. Cause If we’ve learned anything in the past few months, it’s that we are all way more accessible than we thought we were, so the thought of having a guest call in from 5,300 miles away and then streaming that panel to viewers in space or wherever the fuck doesn’t seem so farfetched. I am recording this podcast on Zoom. 

  Franklin: Another good part of this is that when we go back to physical events, which I believe we will, because people like to get together, when we go back we’re going to have new tools that we didn’t have before. And we’re going to be able to combine them with live events and reach more people around the world, which that’s a good thing. And I’ve said it to the team, we should probably have been looking into these things before this [Chuckling], but it’s making us- it’s making us do it now, so we’ve ramped the game up. 

  Sheehan: Yeah, looking at the upside of all this and seeing the situation that’s going on in the world is that basically we are all, events and beyond, being forced to do things and think of things that we’re like “I’ll put that off ‘til later.” There is no “later,” there is only now. And because of that, basically I think that I think that when events come back, are going to be stronger because of the virtual ones. But the hunger for the virtual ones will not go away, because I remember seeing many surveys over the years asking people, not at conventions, just asking people through surveys out there like “how would you love to be at a convention?” And like 80, 90% of them were. “How many people basically have ever been to a convention, or had access to a convention?” It’s like 20%. So there’s a gap. So basically with the excitement, we’re going to figure out making a virtual Crunchyroll Expo and virtual events in other areas, because you really sell folks on the point of this is to add to the physical events in the future, because not all will be able to say “hey, we actually have some things you can interact with, maybe like AR-style,” or whatever it’s going to be in the future. Basically actually going to a physical event. But also if you can’t be here, you can still be here. And that’s what it really comes down to is we love connecting the fans definitely face-to-face, but if you can’t be here and just want to connect somehow, I think everything’s going to ramp up now to be more [so] virtual feels less like a screen, and more like actual conversation or a connection. Because we’re going to be training ourselves to be doing that over this coming times.

  Conventions going digital means that not only can corporations like Viz continue selling their products, but attendees also don’t have to make a huge financial investment just to get into a physical space where, for lack of a better phrase, they get to shop. Conventions are shopping. Technology helps level the playing field both financially and physically so, especially in a time when people are more acutely aware of the pitfalls of capitalism as an economic system, the move to digital means that within this dual economic structure, everybody can benefit. So it’s positive. I did it! It’s done. 

  So sit tight with a slightly more relaxed convention season in 2020 and look forward to what new things 2021 will have to show us. In the meantime, stay safe and wear your goddamn mask… I don’t know what else to tell you.

  [Lofi music]

  Thanks for Listening to Anime in America presented by Crunchyroll. If you enjoyed this, please rate us and share this podcast with a friend. Also check out CrunchyrollExpo.com to learn more about Virtual CRX happening September 4-6.

  Special thanks to Mary Franklin and Adam Sheehan for giving us their insights. 

  This episode is hosted by me, Yedoye Travis and you can find me on Instagram at ProfessorDoye, and Twitter @YedoyeOT, if you want. Researched and written by me and Peter Fobian, edited by Chris Lightbody, and produced by me, Braith Miller, Peter Fobian, and Jesse Gouldsbury. 

  By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[sslarrysettingsail]

September 2016-Jamaica

Let’s talk about September 2016. Harry disappeared to Jamaica to write on his album. Interestingly enough, for the first time all year, Louis suddenly started going MIA that same month. What are the chances? Let’s look into this…

First things first, let’s check out the previous months of 2016...

January: Harry was spotted 18 times/Louis was spotted 21 times

February: Harry was spotted 10 times/Louis was spotted 17 times

March: Harry was spotted 13 times/Louis was spotted 20 times

April: Harry was spotted 14 times/Louis was spotted 25 times

May: Harry was spotted 10 times/Louis was spotted 21 times

June: Harry was spotted 7 times/Louis was spotted 16 times

July: Harry was spotted 19 times/Louis was spotted 10 times

August: Harry was spotted 8 times/Louis was spotted 20 times

So at this point we have had Harry spotted quite a few times and Louis spotted a heck of a lot of times. Now we get to September...

Harry was spotted on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th and then he just disappeared for the rest of the month. It makes sense this is when he went to Jamaica to work on his album. Meanwhile, Louis was spotted on the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th of September (in Ibiza and in LA). So let’s say Harry left for Jamaica on the 5th, Louis was only seen that day and the next day landing in LA. Then he too disappeared until the 11th where he reappeared in LA and made sure he was papped. Then he up and disappeared again until the 17th where he again reappeared in LA and got papped. On the 20th, someone posted a photo with him, but we don’t know what day it was actually taken and it was the only photo from that day. After that he wasn’t seen until the 29th in LA.

So he had three pretty large gaps of time that he could have been in Jamaica with Harry in September. There was a gap of 5 days, followed by another gap of 6 days, followed by another gap of either 12 days or 9 days depending on whether the photo from the 20th was on that day. That is three huge gaps of time. Compare those gaps to the previous months, during which the longest he went without being seen in all of those months was 3 days, with the majority of sightings only being 1 to 2 days apart. 

He was seen only 5 times (possibly 6) after Harry left for Jamaica.

5 times.

Compare that to 21, 17, 20, 25, 21, 16,10, and 20 in the previous months.

That is pretty big difference. Not to mention that the few times he was seen he was there to be papped and then disappear again. It was almost as if he flew back to LA simply to get papped and placed in LA only to fly off again. To make things even funnier and even more obvious, Danielle was papped outside of Louis’ house on the 22nd of September...alone. I wonder where Louis was that day...oh wait.

Now some people have suggested he could have been visiting his mom during those gaps of time, and that is possible, but he did go to England in late August (before going to Ibiza) and he went again in October. This leads me to believe he might have visited before and after his trips to Jamaica. Obviously, I don’t know for sure and this is just my opinion. But let’s talk about October for a second as well...

Harry wasn’t seen the first five days of October either, so technically he could have still been in Jamaica for those days. The first time he was seen was October 6th at the party for Another Man when he was wearing the Jamaica bracelet. Guess who else wasn’t seen those days? If you guessed Louis, you would be right. In fact, Louis wasn’t seen until October 12th when he randomly appeared outside the airport in London. Remember that time we all speculated he had been there for a few days and had just gone to the airport to get photographed? That was the time. Oddly enough Harry just happened to be seen on the 12th himself. So both Harry and Louis seemed to show up in London around the same time. Maybe they flew back from Jamaica together. 

Then some odd things occurred after that. Fizzy informed everyone she was heading to LA on the 14th and at first we figured Louis was going with her, which is why we were thinking he had been in London longer, because if not that was quick turnaround from being at the airport on the 12th and then her being there on the 14th. But there was no proof he ever flew back with her. Then update accounts claimed he was in LA on the 19th, except their proof was only that Simon Cowell had said so. Then to make things even more strange, Louis appeared at the airport in London again on the 24th, with no proof he had ever been in LA. Was he there the whole time?

Once Louis “publicly” arrived back in London on the 24th of October, he was then also spotted on the 25th, 26th, 28th, and the 31st. Five days in one week compared to the five days in all of September and early October. I think that says it all. In my opinion, Louis was in Jamaica with Harry on at least 3 or 4 different occasions in September and early October.