#the class is rigging so that should be good fun

[bacchuschucklefuck]

dreaming abt sophomore year class swap bard!riz

[chuthulhu-plays]

I generally watch LPs of horror games bc I'm too anxious to actually play them but a lot of them have FANTASTIC stories, so sometimes I just binge-watch KrinxTV for background noise. Been watching a lot of playthroughs of Still Wakes The Deep because it's such a delight to hear Scottish voice actors get work and I thought I'd address some questions I keep seeing Let's Players ask:

--Adair is a member of the National Front as you can find out from posters in his cabin, a Neo-Fascist British political party that’s been going since the sixties. While it often preaches British ethnic unity, in practice that often means “everybody in the UK should be exactly like East End Londerners” and features plentiful disdain for Scottish, Irish, and Welsh folk, alongside those perceived as “not British”. No wonder the wanker eats alone in the canteen.

--Neeps and Tatties=turnips and potatoes, mashed, drenched in butter or sauce. Fills your belly, keeps you warm, probably makes you sink like a stone because it’s so heavy.

--Cranachan=a dessert made of raspberries, honey, cream and oats, absolutely delicious

--Rennick calls Caz a “wee ned prick”. Ned is apocryphally said to stand for “non-educated delinquent” and is basically just a way of calling someone an uneducated, lower-class criminal

--A lot of things said by and about Roy indicate that he’s a teetotaller who went through AA and specifically became Catholic and is making an effort at converting Caz.

--I think it’s entertaining how Scottish nicknames often follow a pattern of shortening/rejiggering that I also see a lot with Australian nicknames—Cameron becomes Caz, Rafferty becomes Raffs, etc. Trots is an unusual one but is almost certainly a reference to him being a communist, presumably a Trotskyist. Gibbo is also an unusual one in that it’s just very silly. There’s a kind of indignity implied in being killed by a guy called Gibbo.

--A few times on the radio you hear the Shipping Forecast, a type of weather report aimed at specifically reporting weather conditions out on the ocean, and is also famous for the report being read in such a calm, soothing tone that some folk use it as a sleep aid.

--All the yellow paint for interactable things is very video gamey, yes, but is also in line with old British health and safety standards, and yellow paint on things like emergency ladders or on the edges of stairs that are trip hazards is a thing ou can still see in some older buildings.

--Caz keeps saying he’s “good with the leccy”; leccy=electricity. Caz is implied to be quite a wee guy who can get through a lot of tight spaces, and my uncle swears blind that electricians used to refuse to take on apprentices over a certain size because they only wanted to train wee guys who could get up into the tight spaces that a lot of older buildings are full of. On that note, “wee man” is a term of endearment, generally, and isn’t exclusively applied to short guys.

--Finlay saying of Gibbo that “he’s no right” is INCREDIBLY OMINOUS. It sounds mild but “he’s no right, that boy” is what older folk say about a child who’s been found disembowelling cats for fun or someone they strongly suspect is a pedophile. It’s not something you’d say about a friend who’s just acting a bit unusually.

– “Great minds united over a Buckie”--Buckfast, or Buckie, is a caffienated tonic wine that’s cheap, widely accessible, and is a bit like rocket fuel for bad decisions.

– “Ya roaster” tbh I don’t really know where it comes from, calling someone a roaster, but I’ve always felt like it has a vibe of telling them they’re huffing their own farts.

--Scunnert/scunnered--buggered, screwed, utterly fucked, etc

– “You’re the jammiest bastart on this rig” Someone who is jammy is someone who has incredible luck that is implied to be related to their sheer confidence or willingness to engage in risky behaviour. Walking along the street and finding a pound coin isn’t jammy; crossing the road confident that the cars won’t hit you and stopping in the middle to pick up a pound coin before making it unscathed to the other side is jammy as all hell.

--Barlinnie is the biggest prison in Scotland, and largely hosts violent offenders—it’s where Caz would definitely go for hospitalizing a man.

--Weans are children (contraction of wee yins/wee ones). I thought this one was contextually obvious but apparently not.

SPOILERS BELOW

--”One spark and the whole thing’ll go up”—this is referring to the wee spark of flame in the lighter used to blow up the rig, but is also kind of a pun because electricians are often called sparks or sparkies, and in the end it’s Caz who blows up the rig.

[zedecksiew]

How To Play The Revolution

So: I do not like the idea of TTRPGs making formal mechanics designed to incentivise ethical play.

But, to be honest, I do not like the idea of any single game pushing any particular formal mechanics about ethical play at all.

So here I am, trying to think through the reasons why, and proposing a solution. (Sort of. A procedure, really.)

+

Assumptions:

1.

Some genres of game resist ethical play. A grand strategy game dehumanises people into census data. The fun of a shooter is violence. This is truest in videogames, but applies to tabletop games also.

Games can question their own ethics, to an extent. Terra Nil is an anti-city-builder. But it is a management game at heart, so may elide critiques of "efficiency = virtue".

Not all games should try to design for ethical play. I believe games that incentivise "bad" behaviour have a lot to teach us about those behaviours, if you approach them with eyes open.

2.

The systems that currently govern our real lives are terrible: oligarchy, profit motive; patriarchy, nation-states, ethno-centrisms. They fuel our problems: class and sectarian strife, destruction of climate and people, spiritual desertification.

They are so total that the aspiration to ethical behaviour is subsumed by their logics. See: social enterprise; corpos and occupying forces flying rainbow flags; etc.

Nowadays, when I hear "ethical", I don't hear "we remember to be decent". I hear "we must work to be better". Good ethics is radical transformation.

3.

If a videogame shooter crosses a line for you, your only real response is to stop playing. This is true for other mechanically-bounded games, like CCGs or boardgames.

In TTRPGs, players have the innate capability to act as their own referees. (even in GM-ed games adjudications are / should be by consensus.) If you don't like certain aspects of a game, you could avoid it---but also you could change it.

Only in TTRPGs can you ditch basic rules of the game and keep playing.

+

So:

D&D's rules are an engine for accumulation: more levels, more power, more stuff, more numbers going up.

If you build a subsystem in D&D for egalitarian action, but have to quantify it in ways legible to the game's other mechanical parts---what does that mean? Is your radical aspiration feeding into / providing cover for the game's underlying logics of accumulation?

At the very least it feels unsatisfactory---"non-representative of what critique / revolution entails as a rupture," to quote Marcia, in conversations we've been having around this subject, over on Discord.

How do we imagine and represent rupture, to the extent that the word "revolution" evokes?

My proposal: we rupture the game.

+++

How To Play The Revolution

Over the course of play, your player-characters have decided to begin a revolution:

An armed struggle against an invader; overturning a feudal hierarchy; a community-wide decision to abandon the silver standard.

So:

Toss out your rule book and sheets.

And then:

Keep playing.

You already know who your characters are: how they prefer to act; what they are capable of; how well they might do at certain tasks; what their context is. You and your group are quite capable of improv-ing what happens next.

Of course, this might be unsatisfactory; you are here to play a TTRPG, after all. Structures are fun. Therefore:

Decide what the rules of your game will be, going forward.

Which rules you want to keep. Which you want to discard. Jury-rig different bits from different games. Shoe-horn a tarot deck into a map-making game---play that. Be as comprehensive or as freeform as you like. Patchwork and house-rule the mechanics of your new reality.

The god designer will not lead you to the revolution. You broke the tyranny of their design. You will lead yourself. You, as a group, together. The revolution is DIY.

+++

Notes:

This is mostly a thought experiment into a personal obsession. I am genuinely tempted to write a ruleset just so I can stick the above bit into it as a codified procedure.

I am tickled to imagine how the way this works may mirror the ways revolutions have played out in history.

A group might already have alternative ruleset in mind, that they want to replace the old ruleset with wholesale. A vanguard for their preferred system.

Things could happen piecemeal, progressively. Abandon fiat currency and a game's equipment price list. Adopt pacifism and replace the combat system with an alternative resolution mechanic. As contradictions pile up, do you continue, or revert?

Discover that the shift is too uncomfortable, too unpredictable, and default back to more familiar rules. The old order reacting, reasserting itself.

+

I keep returning to this damn idea, of players crossing thresholds between rulesets through the course of play. The Revolution is a rupture of ethical reality like Faerie or the Zone is a rupture in geography.

But writing all this down is primarily spurred by this post from Sofinho talking about his game PARIAH and the idea that "switching games/systems mid-session" is an opportunity to explore different lives and ethics:

Granted this is not an original conceit (I'm not claiming to have done anything not already explored by Plato or Zhuangzi) but I think it's a fun possibility to present to your players: dropping into a parallel nightmare realm where their characters can lead different lives and chase different goals.

+

Jay Dragon tells me she is already exploring this idea in a new game, Seven Part Pact:

"the game mechanics are downright oppressive but also present the capacity to sunder them utterly, so the only way to behave ethically is to reject the rules of the game and build something new."

VINDICATION! If other designers are also thinking along these lines this means the idea isn't dumb and I'm not alone!

+++

( Images:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-23-fronts-and-generals.1497106/

https://www.thestranger.com/race/2017/04/05/25059127/if-you-give-a-cop-a-pepsi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

https://nobonzo.com/

https://pangroksulap.com/about/ )

[cheezeybread]

Fluff but I picture Trey making it a point to send or give Yuu whatever sweets they have left after unbirthday parties. Since those happen literally everday... Trey might as well be the feeding Yuu and Grime. Both for thanks after chapter 1 and trying to manage and handle Deuce along with Ace.

Short lil oneshot (I love Trey sm, he's such a fun guy-)

Can be read as platonic or romantic!

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

"I wanted you to know that everyone here at Heartslabyul really appreciated what you did for Riddle during his...crisis. So please, take this as a show of gratitude.

-Trey"

The little handwritten note was taped to a little white box, tied together with a little jute cord as neatly as could be. The box itself was given to you by a Heartslabyul student after your last class, the student giving you Trey's apologies for not being able to hand-deliver it himself.

Inside were some decent-sized cherry and walnut tarts, lightly dusted with some powdered sugar.

Needless to say, you and Grim enjoyed them together later that night while doing homework.

That one instance was easy enough to excuse, but then the boxes started showing up more frequently.

Sometimes it would be set out in front of Ramshackle's door waiting for you to stumble upon it after classes, sometimes a Heartslabyul student would hand it to you in the halls again, sometimes Ace or Deuce would give it over begrudgingly, and sometimes Trey himself would bring it over with that friendly, endearing smile of his. The more boxes you received, the more likely it would be Trey to bring them over.

"We had extras left over after the Unbirthday party today, and Rule 27 states that no extra food must be thrown out, or the offending party must stand on their head until the sun winks at them," He would offer as an excuse, throwing you a wink of his own.

Or maybe he would say "I baked some of these as an experiment, I'd love to see what you- and Grim, of course- think about it. Honest opinions, only."

Or maybe "I just felt like taking a walk tonight, and decided to bring you guys something. Ramshackle dorm is eating right, aren't ya'll? How about your teeth? With all these sweets, you can't risk getting cavities. I doubt Headmage Crowley will pay for dental care, ahaha."

Or even just "Take some extra sweets for taking good care of Ace and Deuce. Who knows what sort of extra trouble they'd be getting into if they weren't hanging around you guys all the time."

Excuse after excuse after excuse. Soon enough, it got to the point where his visits would be predictable- around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, after his last class ended. The ringing of Ramshackle's old doorbell would make you smile, knowing who was outside pressing the button.

Opening the door to see- who else?- Trey standing there with a sheepish smile and a box in his hands made you flash him a smile of your own.

"So, what's the deal this time?" You asked with a chuckle, leaning up against the doorway.

"Am I that predictable?" Trey laughed in response "Rule 27 again, would you believe it?" He handed the box to you, and you lowered your hands to give it to Grim, who snatched it out of your hands like the greedy little cat he was and ran off to eat it himself.

"I'm starting to think you're making too much food on purpose, you know," You said "Surely you don't like seeing little old me that much, do you?"

Trey shrugged nonchalantly, his tongue sticking out between his teeth in an open-mouthed grin. What a goofball. "You'd be surprised at how much of an agreeable person you are to see when you're surrounded by a bunch of nitwits all the time!"

"Is that an insult or a compliment?" You raised an eyebrow.

"Who knows," He ran a hand through his hair, adjusting his glasses with his other hand "Maybe you should just start joining me in our dorm more often, save me the trouble of walking all the way out here, you know?" Leaning in closer to you, he added in a conspiratorial whisper "Plus, these sorts of desserts taste a lot better right out of the oven, while they're still warm."

"Oooh, how enticing of an offer," Leaning your head back slightly to look Trey in the eyes, you tilted your head "I'll have to think about it, alright?"

Looking slightly disappointed, Trey covered up the look with another smile "Yeah, yeah, I get it. No problem, you'll text me when-"

"I'm just messing with you, dummy," You put a hand over his mouth, squishing the skin and shaking his head side to side "I'd be more than delighted to, as long as you can convince Riddle not to do his whole 'Off with your head' shtick on me."

Trey stuck his tongue out, making you draw your hand back with a disgusted sound "Mm, no promises on that front, but! I can show you a fun time with Doodle Suit, how about that?"

"Hmmm," Pretending to think about it, you snapped your fingers "Can we use it to prank other students?"

"Hmmmm," He mimicked your expression "Sure, why not?"

"Then you have a deal, Mister Clover!"

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

[anonomouswriter-blr]

Oikawa x Reader: School Festival [a haikyuu one-shot]

Ok y'all, so my friends and I had an all-nighter where we write one-shots. The twist is, we each wrote down on different sticky notes a character, a plotline, and I think the third is a location. We did this a year ago and I forgot all about this, but I recently found it so I'm posting it here lol

I hope you enjoy.

1145 words

Story under the cut.

Being a foreign exchange student, experiencing life in Japan was a bit of a culture shock: different introductions, different eating customs, different school traditions. One school tradition you noted was that Japan had school festival days. For the past week, your class had been working on an idea and building the vision. Today was the final day where the booths would actually be open to people and you were kind of nervous. Why? Who knows. Maybe it was more excitement than nervousness.

Your class finished assembling the booth reasonably quickly, so you figured you’d find your friend Oikawa to see if his booth needed any help. It wasn’t long before you found his booth and he was waving you down. Oikawa was one of the first people to introduce himself to you. Of course, you now realize he was just trying to scope out the new girl considering his… following, but it ended up being a good friendship; mainly consisting of you helping Iwaizumi call him names and him being a weird flirt even though he’s pretty much a dork.

“Hi, Y/n! Couldn’t stay away for long, eh?” he asked, waving.

“No, actually I’m looking for your pretty friend. Hey, Iwa!” you responded jokingly, to which Oikawa feigned a sad pout. “How’s the booth coming along?”

“We're almost done. Just need to put up the last few banners,” Iwaizumi said.

“You may want to be careful, Y/n. As soon as we open, girls will swarm the area. You might get trampled and die,”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” you said, rolling your eyes. “What are you guys doing anyway?”

“Kissing booth,” Iwaizumi said boredly as the title banner was hung up. You turned your head to Oikawa,

“What?”

“It’s the perfect concept! There's no girl in the world that wouldn’t want to kiss me! Just think of the revenue,”

“I wouldn’t count on it if it’s gonna be you, Oikawa. How is this even allowed in a school setting?”

“It’s just on the cheek. He does have a big following of girls at this school. It’s not like we can use his brain to help our booth,”

“I guess that makes sense,”

“How mean! Everyone undermines my intelligence,”

“Oh yeah, how did your game go Saturday?”

“It was fine. We won, of course, but it just felt too easy. I need a challenge in my life. You should come to my next game! You can wear one of my jerseys,”

“Hmm, tempting, but I’ll pass. Volleyball isn’t really my thing. Well, if you’re pretty much done, I’m gonna head around to look at the other booths. See ya around!”

“Bye, Y/n~!”

*

Everything looked amazing and you were having a good amount of fun before someone grabbed your shoulders from behind, making you jump. “Ya ho~!”

“Gah! Oikawa you scared me! Why would you do that?” you exclaimed and punched him in the arm.

“Ow! I can take the abuse from Iwa, but from you, it’s just too much,”

“Sorry. I saw opportunity and couldn’t resist,”

“The abuse I endure for you. Do you wanna go do something together?”

“What about your booth?”

“I’m all kissed out and on break. Girls wear a lot of lip product,” he said while rubbing some gloss and balm off his cheek. “But anyways, let’s go get some food or something. I’m so hungry,”

“I saw a teriyaki booth somewhere. Wanna get some of that? You’re paying,”

“Don’t I always?” The two of you walked the booths, trying different foods and desserts. The games were pretty fun too! It was nice playing games that weren’t rigged. You were clowning on Oikawa a bit at how much he sucked at some of the games compared to you, though you're sure he’d thrown some of your matches together. As your escapade continued, you noticed some girls you passed had their hands pressed to their cheeks while pointing and gazing at Oikawa, undoubtedly gushing over how they kissed each other on the cheek.

“I don’t understand how you can manage all the female attention. I’d get too tired of having to interact that much,”

“It does get bothersome sometimes. I used to love it, but now I think I’d prefer to have only one girl's attention, you know?”

“Ah, the development of a teenage male. From boyhood to maturity. All ready to settle down,” suddenly you gasped dramatically, almost making Oikawa drop the snacks he had bought. “A Ferris wheel! How did they get a Ferris wheel here!?”

“Y/n, I don’t think I’d trust that. It looks a little old,”

“Old shmold! Let’s go on!” Without a moment to protest you were dragging Oikawa by the hand to the big ride. “Woah! I can see the field yard from here!”

“Y/n! Please don’t lean out the side like that. You’re gonna fall!”

“Oh, you mean like this?” you asked and leaned out,”

“Y/n!” he said, reaching for you.

“What? Are you scared” you asked, and started rocking the box. He grabbed you and forced you to sit still beside him, like a mother to her rambunctious child.

“You’ve lost your fun privileges. Sit still until the ride is over,” you couldn’t help but laugh at him. You wondered if rides were a fear of his or if it was just Ferris wheels. Either way, it was fun to be out like this. You guys only ever really interacted at school during classes or studying. “Hey, Y/n. I think you should rethink going to my next game. I think I’d play better if you were there,”

“Why would you need to play better? You already win don’t you?” by this time the wheel had stopped and it was time to get off. You left the ride with a ‘thank you’ to the person running it and continued on.

“It’s less about the winning and more about… Y/n, would you just listen for a sec?” he grabbed your hand and pulled you back nearer to him. You blinked twice, looking down at where his hand didn’t leave yours.

“Kawa?” he started running his thumb over your knuckles nervously, his eyebrows knitting together in conflict.

“I want to see you at my games. I don’t care if I win, I just want to see you wearing my jersey number at my games,”

“What do you…” this wasn’t… was it?

“Earlier, I was wondering if you were gonna show up to the kissing booth at some point today. But now I’m realizing I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Wh-why?”

“Because now it feels more genuine,” he looked up at you, into your eyes, it felt invasive, uncomfortable, but not altogether unwelcomed. “Y/n. Can I kiss you?”

“I…” but the decision was clear to you then. “Yes.”

Sure enough, you were at his next game, the number one displayed proudly on your back.

[slippery-domjot-balls]

Our Man Bashir S4 E10

Saw this episode for the first time this week. There were so many little touches that made the episode a perfect parody of the Bond aesthetic. It payed tribute to classic James Bond (Sean Connery and it even teased the silly nature of Roger Moore's Bond).

The opening sequence of a villain crashing through glass with a follow up KO by the champagne cork was a lovely campy tribute. It had a Our Man Flint with James Coburn vibe! Try those if you like Bond parodies.

The Bondesque portrayal of Bashir works well. It both fits the desire he has to be heroic, to be more alluring and charismatic, and to take confidence in life outside the holosuite. Julian already is those things though. He just needs help realizing that sometimes. He was heroic in Hippocratic Oath when he stood for the lost Jem'Hadar. In his medical domain he is charismatic and in charge. All of his interactions with Garak show his subtle and alluring personality. He is on his journey of gaining confidence and with each passing episode he gains more self-esteem.

We all were admiring Julian just like Garak is. Look at that sweet face. Garak recognizes Julian's chance at character growth as his spy persona. By taking him under his wing, Garak can help him develop as a man of mystery!

The clothing is also perfect. Fashion was nailed for a Bond film parody. The high class tuxedos and the casual sweaters! We only missed out on the incredibly short-short-short-swim-shorts that Sean Connery seemed to love.

Miles as the main evil henchman was an excellent choice. Silly falcon eyepatch was just a bonus. It was nice to see a little spy gadget used by Bashir as well. Gotta have those!

I will make of gif of it later, but Worf blew a genuine smoke ring at one point. The white tux also looked amazing. More Klingons should wear white! It would be great for battle too. Showcases all the blood of their enemies.

Another A+ costume designed by the fabulous Trek Costume designers. The flair, the jewelry, all just works with that stunning Bajoran. She also played the Russian accent really well (not that I am an accent expert). Underneath this holosuite persona though we still enjoy Nana Visitor's warm smile. Nothing can stop her from making all our hearts melt!

Dr. Honey Bare....of course there would be a silly name like that. I wish Dax's character was treated less as plot device, but as a parody of older Bond movies I see the placement and and ridiculousness of it. It did feel like the cast enjoyed making fun of it.

This gem....I cannot even begin to state my delight over this single high pitched chort....giggle...laugh? What even is it? I knew of this gif out of context but now having seen the episode I see that Sisko was the deranged villain set out to destroy the world so he could create his human 2.0 sex island.

Above all of this, we must give the spotlight to the REAL hero. Rom. He is an absolute genius!!!! I love that he is so intelligent. Sure, Lt. Mr. Little Boy Eddington was there too, Odo helped a bunch, and Quark wanted to show off his jacket, but Rom saved the day. Rom singlehandedly saved the entire main cast. On the fly he rigged up an engineering masterpiece in a Frankenstein's monster way. Under incredible pressure with try or die high stakes, he pioneered a solution. I sure hope that Rom can be the star of the show more often in the coming seasons. He is a brilliantly written Ferengi and a well acted character. A loving and supportive father, caring brother, talented engineer, and an all around good friend to everyone.

For me, this episode surprisingly became a "wow, I love Rom" episode. Of course, I enjoyed and can see how iconic and quintessentially Star Trek the entire Bond tribute plot was, but this episode is about Rom for me as much as it is about Bashir and anything else.

I am glad that I can share my first watch of DS9 with all you lovely people. Thank you for sharing all your insights and passion for DS9 and Star Trek as a franchise with me.

Here is to many more shared laughs and warm moments together!

[logan-lieutenant]

i feel so high school (au) pt. 4: webbonso

anyway here are some high school aus for my fav f1 rpf ships and an exploration of who knows how to ball, and who knows aristotle

(based on american high school setups because of the song)

buckle up guys this one’s gonna be a wild ride

punk band!mark/delinquent!fernando: so in some american high schools we have this term called ‘supersenior.’ it’s not actually a grade, it’s a term describing an older kid who should have graduated last year or even years ago and is suck repeating senior year. they’re stereotypically the future dropout kid, probably stoned 24/7, a bad influence etc. fernando is a supersenior. two years ago he was in the right grade for his age, all caught up, but he got into way too much trouble. never showing up to class, being disruptive, pulling the fire alarm, skateboarding through the halls– and that was just on campus. outside of school he ran with the wrong crowd. sneaking into places, vandalizing, smashing windows, racing their parents’ cars at night and driving drunk. that was his life since he was like fourteen and he never saw a reason to change his ways until he crashed a car into a telephone pole with some younger high school kids inside. by some miracle no one was hurt, but he nearly got charged with child endangerment and driving without a license, there was a trial and everything and he barely made it off with a year of probation and community service.

that was then, this was now. he’s done a lot of volunteering to get his hours in, mostly at animal shelters cause when he tries to work with people he brings his belligerent attitude with him too often. since he’s on probation he ends up cooling down, getting sober, leaving behind the crowd he was getting into trouble with in the first place. it’s taken a while but he’s almost out of the woods, he has three classes to repeat but since his schedule is almost free the rest of the week he helps out the janitorial/maintenance staff at school since that counts for community service hours too. he does a lot of setup for events (american high schools think they’re fun by having like six events a year on average) and he ends up getting really good at rigging the lighting and sound systems. so of course he ends up doing a lot every year for battle of the bands. it’s a pretty big school, but since it’s more or less the same musicians every year he gets to know quite a few of them over time. sometimes he stays for practices and he usually goes to the performances even though he pretends to be too cool to enjoy it.

mark is a little bit younger than fernando, but he got held back a grade when he was younger so he’s a year older than the rest of his grade. and yeah, he’s in his punk kid era. perhaps even the lead punk kid. he doesn’t have a single t shirt that’s not a band shirt, his hair is too long and he changes the color of the highlights once a week, he definitely wears combat boots that make him significantly taller than he is (not that he would admit that or be caught dead in normal shoes). and he’s in a band, lead guitarist. there’s a couple scrappily assembled bands in their school, but they’re the ones who think they can make it. they’re gonna be the next blink 182 or green day, they swear. and as much as the other kids get annoyed with them (“stfu you actually are like the other girls give me a break”) they’re the only band that makes it to BOTB finals every year.

he and fernando meet at the beginning of the school year because mark’s band got permission to play at the homecoming dance for the first time. fernando’s doing the setup for the event, he’s done it before and never really pays attention to the practices, just puts on some noise-canceling headphones so he can focus. but then the band starts to play and he’s like holy shit, what is going on since when do any of these kids actually know how to play? and he just stands there kind of starstruck with a forgotten staple gun in hand watching them play and mark steps up and has his lil guitar solo moment at the end of the song and fernando is immediately caught in the throes of gay panic

and mark doesn’t even notice he’s there at first because there’s plenty of people moving around putting up signs and rearranging the space and he just tries to stay out of their way, their first conversation is fernando throwing out a song request (he tries to speak casually but he’s actually super nervous butterflies and probably sounds like he’s on something) and mark is like omg you know good charlotte? and fernando scoffs and is like do i look like i was born yesterday of course i know good charlotte and mark i like yeah i got that for you :) and because he’s a little shit he tries wayyyyy too hard the whole song like eye contact fucking smolder looking at fernando in the audience like he’s trying to seduce him with his shitty dollar store eyeliner and fuck it might be working and

yeah the rest can be history

[roxannarambles]

teal mask fixit-fic on the fly part 4

(Current story so far: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3)

The festival had been great fun so far, once you'd all managed to ditch Carmine. It was like any good festival should be; lots of bad fried food; lots of games that were rigged against the player but were cheap enough to try again and again and eventually earn silly prizes; and plenty of opportunity to just generally horse around and not worry about classes or other, weightier matters in life, at least for the evening. Arven was absolutely affronted by the fair food, clamining it to be a culinary crime, so you and Nemona made a point of buying the greasiest and worst snacks and treats so you could to eat them in front of him. Penny had worked out how they'd rigged one of the games--a basketball toss that Arven was annoyed he couldn't win-- and helped him win the next round. (Turns out the ball was intentionally over-inflated and the hoop was higher than regulation). Even Kieran seemed to eventually warm up to everyone and enjoy himself, showing you all one of his favorites of the festival, an informal contest that festival-goers had acting out the heoric feats of the Loyal Three while wearing their masks. After all that messing about, you all just wandered for a bit, enjoying the atmosphere and all the costumes.

Then Carmine caught up to the group again.

She was pretty annoyed, claiming you'd all ditched her; Kieran was quick to tell her that you'd all simply lost her in the crowds, and everyone backed him up on that point. She seemed unconvinced but dropped it, in favor of issuing a challenge to the Paldean students: She claimed none could beat her score at some game called Ogre Ousting and dared one of you to try.

It didn't surprise you at all that Nemona's eyes took on a competitive gleam and she stepped up to the plate to defend Naranja's honor.

"Sure, I'll give it a go!"

Carmine laughed in her face, saying,

"You? Oh, perfect. This should be fun to watch."

There was a heavy tone of sarcasm underlying her words, but Nemona just smiled at her, saying,

"Thanks! So, what are the rules?"

You listened as Carmine explained the game to her in as condescending a way as possible. It was starting to really grind your gears. This girl being snotty to you, you could handle that, but watching her treating Nemona that way was too much. When they'd finished talking and everyone started to walk to the seating that was meant for people observing the games, you reached out and grabbed Nemona's arm.

"Hold on a sec."

She looked at you curiously. You pulled a pokeball from your pocket and handed it to her.

"Here. Why don't you use Koraidon? Give that girl a taste of Paldean pride. I bet they've never had to contend with a pokemon like this before with their little berry game, would be fun to see their reactions."

Nemona's eyes widened a little, but then she shook her head, handing you the ball back.

"No, Koraidon is way faster than any Stantler. I don't want to have any unfair advantages!"

You frowned.

"I heard her explain the rules. Players are allowed to use any ride pokemon they want. It's not cheating."

"I know it's not cheating. But it still wouldn't be very sporting of me."

You sighed, frustrated. You adored Nemona's purehearted respect for competition, but for once it was making things difficult.

"Nemona, that girl isn't as nice as she seems. She was totally disrespecting you and, and . . . she doesn't deserve to be treated that nice, she deserves to be taken down a peg! Plus, she already has an unfair advantage over you. She's played this silly game her whole life, she knows it way better then you do."

Nemona smiled at you softly.

"I know. Thank you for looking out for me, Jules. But I did get the idea she doesn't like me all that much. I'm getting a lot better at noticing that kinda stuff. And I know she already has an advantage over me. But you don't have to worry. Win or lose, I'm gonna do my best and I'll make Paldea proud!"

You gazed at Nemona a moment, her eyes bright and determined.

Then you smiled and let out a sigh.

". . . okay, okay. You know I have complete faith in you, I know you'll do amazing regardless."

Nemona grinned.

"Damn right I will."

You laughed and the two of you went to join the others.

However, once Nemona was set up with the rental Stantler, she realized Carmine wasn't getting ready for the game.

"No, no, I'm not playing. I'm just watching. You have to beat my record, remember? I've already set the record." Carmine told her. Nemona considered that a moment.

"Well, that's boring!" she said.

"Why don't we make it a little more exciting for our friends to watch? We should both play the game at the same time. You have to defend your title right here, right now. Sound good?"

Carmine glared at her, protesting,

"That isn't fair! I shouldn't have to meet my record again, that's not how records work!"

Nemona cast her a curious look.

"You don't want to? I think it could be fun. Or are you worried you can't beat me?"

You smirked as Carmine's face flushed in anger and she growled,

"I could beat some clueless Paldean bug-catcher any time, day or night, with my hands tied behind my back!"

Nemona beamed at her.

"Great! So we're on?"

"Oh we're ON all right. Get your Stantler, I'll set up the second course."

It didn't take too long for them to prepare, and soon both girls were atop their Stantlers, in their respective positions, ready to roll. You and the others were seated in the bleachers, watching expectantly.

The referee called,

"On your marks . . . get set . . . GO!"

The two players were off like rockets, blasting through rows and rows of balloons.

"You can do it, Carmine!" Kieran called out tentatively to his sister.

"KICK HER ASS, NEMONA!" you shouted through cupped hands, startling Kieran. He seemed to think a moment and then stammered,

"Oh, I-I'm-- I'm sorry, I'm rooting for Carmine, but you know, I still like you all too, I just, um . . ."

You laughed and reassured him,

"It's fine. I don't mind, I get it."

"I'm rooting for Carmine too," Arven told Kieran. You shot Arven a glare.

"What? Kieran can but I can't?"

"Carmine's his sister, that just makes him a good brother. You however are being a traitor."

Arven huffed an annoyed noise.

"I am completely impartial," Penny declared, leaning back in her seat. Arven said,

"That just means you don't want to tick anyone off."

"Yeah? And how is that bad?"

"Shhhh, quiet guys, they're coming by to drop the berries off!"

Both girls had returned to the tables to drop off the berries they already had, their buckets laden heavy with the fruits. Then they were off again to gather more. You all spent the time trying to count the berries and estimate who was in the lead, as well as argue over tactics of blasting through the balloons and protecting the tables from Skwovets. The time limit was rapidly drawing to a close, and both girls seemed to be progressing at a very even pace. It was honestly imposible to tell who had the lead.

When the game was called, you all rushed down to the field to watch the referee tally the berry totals. It would come down to the final counts. Nemona stood there, stained in berry juice and beaming, looking tired but proud. You gave her a hug, not minding the berry juice and gushing,

"You did awesome, Nemona! It was your first time but you were running that course like you'd done it dozens of times already!"

She laughed,

"Thanks, Jules. It was really fun! A real adrenaline rush."

When you began to pull away from the hug, she paused to whisper to you,

"Y'wanna know my secret?"

You nodded eagerly. She murmured,

"While they were setting the second course up, I mighta spent the extra time wandering the course and studying it a bit. Thought it wouldn't hurt to be a bit prepared." She winked.

You gave her a proud smile.

"That's mi tesoro, always usin' her head."

"Y-you looked great out there, Carmine. I think you might have even beaten your old record," Kieran told his sister. She didn't acknowledge him, instead just standing there with a tense expression, watching like a hawk as the referee counted the berries one by one.

"He's right, you looked really in the zone out there, I was impressed!" Nemona told her sincerely. Carmine waved a hand and hissed,

"Quiet, I'm counting!"

Everyone fell into an awkward sort of silence as Carmine watched the referee finish tallying the berries. When he'd finally got through them all, he announced in a loud voice;

"Aaaaaand the winner of the Ogre Ousting for tonight . . . at a whopping 20,000 berries . . . isssss . . . ."

The dramatic pause apparently went on for too long, as Carmine snapped,

"Gah! Just tell us already!"

The man gestured to both girls.

"It's a dead tie! You both win!"

"WHAT?! That can't be right! Count it again!"

"I already counted it three times," the man said sternly,

"I take my job very seriously."

"Ugh, this is-- this is ridiculous," Carmine spat, clearly disgusted. Carefully, Nemona said,

"Don't feel bad, Carmine. I mean, we both won, you don't have to feel bad--"

Carmine snapped,

"We didn't both win! Two people winning means nobody won! We still have no clue who's better!"

Nemona frowned.

"Well, we know we're both really amazing at it? I think a tie is kinda neat--"

"Wait, I've got it!" Carmine interrupted, pulling some pokeballs from her fanny pack.

"If we can't settle this with Ogre Ousting, we'll just settle this with a pokemon battle!"

She looked at Nemona expectantly, full of confidance and defiance, as if incredibly pleased with her idea and eager to see Nemona's response.

Nemona was quiet a moment, and then a smile settled onto her pretty features. It was not one of her usual smiles; it was something much more subtle, something almost dangerous.

"A pokemon battle, huh?"

Nemona tossed you a glance and you could hardly hold back your grin and bite back your words, but decided it would be more fun to keep quiet. Nemona's eyes sparkled with mirth. Carmine glanced between you and Nemona, looking faintly confused. Nemona answered her lightly,

"I guess I could try it out! Promise you won't go easy on me, though. I don't wanna feel like I'm getting an undeserved victory or anything."

Carmine snorted.

"I can definitely promise you I won't go easy."

"Good."

You looked to Arven and Penny, smirking. Arven said hesitantly,

"Carmine, you miiiight wanna reconsi--"

"Hush, Arven, let them fight," you say to him mildly, putting a hand on his mouth to silence him. He swatted you away.

"Yeah, this could be fun to watch," Penny said, grinning.

Penny was right, the battle was incredibly fun to watch, but not in the way Carmine had been hoping.

[noonaishere]

Online/Offline [C.S] - fourteen | commit to the bit

You pointed at how neat you had cleaned the counter. You pointed at the espresso machine, which you had just finished cleaning. You did a little spin and pointed at how you had tidied the cups and utensils, posing like a Venice Beach bodybuilder who was just asked where the beach was. It was in the direction you were pointing, and it was the very clean drink preparation area.

What a weird beach.

Seonghwa laughed softly. “You don’t need to keep showing me that you’ve cleaned everything.”

“But you like it when things are clean, so I want to show you how clean I made it for you.”

“Are you trying to impress me?”

“No, I'm showing you that I was a worthy investment.”

Seonghwa smiled and went back to what he was doing at the register. You stood next to him and sighed as you looked out the glass doors.

“Is it always so dead now?”

“Usually. The morning rush ends and it’s dead until the university students start showing up between classes, and then it’s dead again until the high schoolers show up in between school and cram school.”

You nodded. You stared out the doors for a few minutes. “I wasn’t just making it clean for you, you know.”

“Oh?” Seonghwa asked without looking up.

“Nope. I also like it when things are nice and neat.”

“I recall you saying something like that during your interview.”

“Mhm. You should see the cables for my streaming rig. Super neat, everything’s all bundled up nicely…”

Seonghwa looked up at you. “Are you bored?”

“So bored, oh my god.”

He chuckled and went back to what he was doing.

You looked over his shoulder at the screen. “We got new food?”

“Wooyoung changes the menu every so often. Seasonal stuff, stuff he wants to try for fun, that kind of thing.”

You nodded. “Raspberry tart… Pain au Chocolat--”

“It’s rude to read over people’s shoulders.”

“I’m bored.”

He looked at you again, shook his head, and went back to updating the register.

Wooyoung came out of the kitchen with a tray. “Did someone say Pain au Chocolat? Because they just came out of the oven.”

You looked at them as he put the tray into the case. “Ooooooh.”

“Don’t they look good?”

“Mhm. Now I want one.”

He laughed. “So buy one.”

The two of you looked at each other. 

You went to the cubby area and took off your apron and hung it next to your jacket. You put your jacket on and felt for your wallet, finding it in one of the pockets. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Seonghwa looking at you, confused, as you walked to the door, opened it, and left the café.

You came back in with a smile. “Hi there--” you beelined over to the fresh Pain au Chocolat, “Oh, did those just come out?”

Wooyoung threw his head back and cackled.

You waited, looking at him as if he wasn’t currently scream-laughing.

“Ahh,” he wiped a tear from his eye. “I just made them.”

“Wow, it’s a good thing I walked in just now.” You smiled. “What are the odds?”

He held back another laugh.

“Can I buy one?”

He nodded, still trying to hold in his laughter, and packaged it up for you. He brought it over to the register. Seonghwa had been leaning with one arm across the register screen, looking at the both of you skeptically. Wooyoung shooed him, and Seonghwa moved so he could ring you up.

“That’ll be 3000 won.”

You took out your card and tapped it against the reader.

Wooyoung held the bag out with both hands. “Have a lovely day.”

You took it and smiled. “You are so nice. I will! You have a lovely day too.”

He nodded, shoulders shaking as Seonghwa continued to watch the two of you with a bemused expression.

You walked towards the door, stopping at one of the fake plants to sniff it, pretending it smelled nice. You heard Wooyoung at the counter, cackling like a witch on Halloween as you walked out the door., leaving the café.

Wooyoung and Seonghwa stood in silence for a few minutes, expecting you to walk back in. When a few more minutes had gone by and you still hadn’t come back, they looked at each other.

“Wow,” you said as you walked in from the kitchen, eating the Pain au Chocolate, “I just bought this at a café nearby, you guys gotta try it.”

“Y/n, what the fuck?” Wooyoung yelled before howling with laughter. “Did you come in the back door?”

“No eating outside the break area.” Seonghwa said sternly.

“Hup!” You spun around and walked back through the kitchen.

Wooyoung hit Seonghwa on the arm as he laughed. Seonghwa smiled.

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[alltheotherblogs]

My most recent obsession, and how I've been obsessed with it my whole life.

Some people will understand what it's like to be too poor to actually do the things you want to do. Others won't quite get it. But for me that thing I've always wanted to do was FIGHTING!! Fighting is my heart and soul. Without combat, I'd be nothing but some bland boring husk. I've talked about this before, how if I was born even a few years back in time things would be different. Well, it's true! Fact is that with supply and demand, there is not a lot of demand to become a fighter. So gyms hike up prices to be able to make rent. Especially in an ever more fucked up economy. That leads me to my obsession... The fantasy of being a fighter. And the manga Hajime no Ippo. All of you know I'm a writer, a pretty intense one too. If I write these massive paragraphs every other day, imagine how often I'm writing in my books! Ippo, Baki, and so many others have given me the motivation I need to keep going, and they've made me happy to watch and enjoy fighting again. Because before, it just felt like torture. But now, it feels like maybe one day I'll really be there, in that ring, with an opponent that is about to be very very sad that they lost. The saddest part is that I am an ideal boxer, or fighter in general. I get gassy yeah but if I had a proper diet I wouldn't. In general, I find it easy to cycle through weight classes. Very easy. I just wish I had the equipment! The supplies to actually take this matter into my own hands... But the system is rigged against me. Even though I can fight, step into that ring, and walk out a winner, the fact is you NEED a trainer and a manager. You can't actually do it without them, they don't let you and those guys need a license to be a trainer or manager. So, yeah. I'm screwed! It's a money thing, and I don't have money. And if I had money I wouldn't have time. I want to work a lot of jobs and my current favorite option is to be a firefighter, or to actually profit off one of my books. Obviously the book thing isn't gonna happen, that's another money thing to actually publish it, even online... Maybe I'll just start another blog and start putting up pages there. That doesn't cost money, lol. Might get noticed one day.

Anywaysssss yeah. Read hajime no ippo. It's really good. I like to voice the characters sometimes, just for fun even though I'm alone. And I'm really really fond of Takemura's voice in the show. He and I have the same voice type so it's easy to do an impression of him. Another thing related to Ippo is the ps3 japan exclusive boxing game based on ippo, it's absurdly good. You should all check it out. It takes maybe 3 hours to set it all up.

[bvannn]

Weekly update March 22, 2024

I’m still exhausted beyond words. I’m also on a bit of a spiral where I’m worried about the quality of my art and about my output, but it’s okay because I’m chipping away at old big projects still and as soon as classwork is subsided I’m going to try to learn a new skill, because any time I feel insufficient I learn a new skill so I can be better. Classes have been kicking my ass mostly but hopefully big things will be coming sooner rather than later.

I’ve been doing a number of drawings to time myself and update my comms. Turns out I’m a lot less consistent than I thought so it’ll be a bit longer till I get prices sorted out but it’s coming along. Also good chance I’ll add more on to it later once I sort out more things I can offer. My usual drawing style will be the main one, but I’m hoping I can also add the epithet erased style, the chibi dnd mini style I do sometimes, options for backgrounds, and eventually also music.

Problem with music though has been my exhaustion. The only music stuff I’ve really been drilling at has been bigger projects, but I’d like to just sit down and do a small beat as well at some point. Once I catch up with classwork I might try. I have been chipping away at a couple instrumental pieces, as well as the larger vocal cover and I did some lyric writing today for the two ‘finished mostly’ ones I’ve been sitting on. I did have to scrap and redo a character theme for the second time this week but once I have some time with a clear mind I can reroute that one and use the melody I wrote for the last draft. In development right now are an ambient character theme, a 16bit-ish instrumental theme, a Zelda medley, a song cover with Kyo, a small gabber song with no affiliation to anything, the two original vocal songs, one symphonic rock and one EDM, and a handful of others that I haven’t been actively working on. As soon as I have significant time I’m going to try to finish off some of them.

Once the music is finished I’ll have to throw visuals together for them too. I really want to put in effort to make animation rigs again but I don’t have the time or energy. I might do one for the vocal cover song since I could be reusing the character but I’m not sure it’ll be necessary. Once the cover is done I’ll storyboard something and decide then.

Comic is also still going, I haven’t had a ton of time to do thumbnailing/writing, but I should be down to the last scene. No guarantee I won’t have to add more after editing, but it’s getting there. Once that’s done I’ll try to post roughs of specific panels so it’s a bit easier to keep track of where it’s at. The thumbnailing is a big bottleneck right now because it takes a lot of brain power but it’s almost done. If I get myself together this next week it should be done by the next update. No promises though, I have a lot of classwork.

Last couple things, a good amount of my exhaustion is the result of insomnia, but I’ve been using that time to plan out TTRPG campaign stuff. I think I have some really fun creative encounters. I think I probably will try to write it out and find a way to release it, just in the interest of getting more people to play the anime campaign system (or whatever they end up renaming it to when the epithet erased version of the rules drops… eventually). I might throw together art for that too, but that’ll be a ways off, after the writing and encounters are done. Plus ideally I’d want the module to be available for free, so I don’t need to add too much anyway.

Last thing, as I mentioned I’m a bit unsatisfied with where I am with art stuff. I want to thank everyone who has been sticking around, I am trying to make it worthwhile for you too. But whenever I am unsatisfied with myself I need to learn a new skill, so I may be dipping my toes into pixel art soon. I do have that 16bit ish instrumental song I mentioned, that’s been on the back burner since January but I’ve finally been hit with the inspiration to finish it, and a little pixel animation would be nice to go with it, but that would require me to learn pixel art itself first, so I’ll try to do that in the coming weeks. Idk how soon though.

This next week will be primarily dedicated to clearing up schoolwork and fixing my sleep problem. After that I’ll try finishing up that cover song, finishing up comic thumbnailing, and finishing up that instrumental song, in that order. Anything else is a bonus. Will class work and insomnia get in the way? Probably, but I’m still doing my best.

[ya-jirushi]

Tsurune Audio Drama: A Shot of Color 3 Kirisaki Ranking

Kirisaki gets to have fun sometimes we love to see it. Apologies with the lateness I have a pretty big school project in the works sooo yeah. But I also just really wanted to have this out especially this week because Kabashima and Yushima's seiyuu also voice Kacchan's former teammates! So I thought it was nice timing, accidentally. Also did you guys know these two didn't have first names until like. Now. I didn't, it was wild trying to remember their names. Notes: -the word used is actually 'vote' but they were discussing the results already so it felt weird to not mention that -the term here is 'looking down on something' it didn't really fit in context literally but the general idea is that Kabashima is speaking about the results and Shuu's background as if he's removed from being involved in the poll and he's 'above all that', basically -okay I tried to look up what a tsundera was and I didn't really get anything that made sense unfortunately, the term def exists tho so I'll come back and edit this when I know what it means!! (atm my guess is he is tsun yet someone admirable so like. teratera. sparkly) EDIT: This edit came faster than I thought it would but update on the tsundera thing! It's the mix of tsuntsun (I'm sure yall know what tsun means but if you don't its someone that's kinda prickly/mean/unapproachable on the outside) and deradera which means shiny or slippery! In this context my guess is that they mean he's sly (slippery) basing it on how Nikaido is.

Kabashima: *sighs* Yushima: Oh, welcome back, Kabashima. Kabashima: …That was quick. You’re done with the bath already? Yushima: Yeah, quick showers are great. Kabashima: Yushima, what’s that on your desk, is it a handout? Did we have homework or something? Yushima: Nope. These are the results* of the Kirisaki High School Kyudo Club boys’ popularity poll. Kabashima: Hah? A popularity poll? Yushima: The girls got really into it when they were talking so they made this. Wanna see? Kabashima: Who’d want to see that drivel? Yushima: You managed to get into the ranking though, but alright if you don’t wanna see then fine. I guess it’s better that way, since it looks like only the girls are allowed to see it. Kabashima: W-Wait a sec! Why’re you looking at it then?! Yushima: Me? I’m an exception. Kabashima: That's hardly an explanation! Yushima: It’s ‘cause the girls have relied on me a lot. You didn’t know that the girls’ are fed up with the boys’ equipment being smelly or with how sloppy the weeding on the range is, right? Kabashima: I… I didn’t. Yushima: They asked me to tell Mutou-sensei to make it so we can't leave our gi there on the weekends.They also come to me for love advice. Like if so and so is going out with anyone or something. Kabashima: Love a– talking about something so promiscuous in the club?! That’s a corruption of our club’s morals! Yushima: You’re too much of a prude. What era are you in right now, exactly? Kabashima: Ugh… A-Anyway, show me that popularity poll! Yushima: Oh, so you do wanna see? Kabashima: I’m just going to check! Once the president and the others retire, us second years are next in line, okay! Yushima: Wow~ that’s some enthusiasm. Kabashima: “Intelligence ranking”, president’s in first place. Then Sase-san’s second, and Fujiwara’s next… These are pretty decent results. Fujiwara aside, the two third years are thinking of their university exams, so… Yushima: That’s despite the fact that they could get in anywhere on a recommendation too, but it’s on brand for them. Kabashima: “Princely-ness ranking”... Fujiwara’s on top. Well, this has some sense to it too. He’s from a good family, and he’s got class too. Yushima: Hahaha. Fair assessment from you, huh?* Kabashima: What should I say then? He really is on top of the ranking, isn’t he?? …What’s next? “Similarity ranking”? Huh, it says Senichi and Manji are first but does anyone else even match he criteria? What’s with this rigged poll?? Yushima: Calm down, don’t take it too seriously. It’s just the girls’ playing around. Kabashima: “Tsundere ranking”... There’s even a ranking for this type of thing? …Huh? Who’s ‘Nikaido from middle school’? Yushima: About that, they say there was an ‘ikemen tsundera*’ in Kirisaki’s middle school. It’s amazing that he’s still pretty popular even today. Kabashima: …This is all so pointless. Seriously it’s– Yushima! You’re on top in one of these! What’s the meaning of this?! Yushima: Oh that. That’s just due to how much of a monk I look, since my buzz cut gets brought up often. Kabashima: No, the comments here say “It’s because he’s always so calm.”, “It’s like he’s enlightened.” and stuff. You’re oddly highly favored aren’t you? Yushima: ”Oddly”, huh… No, but, it’s ultimately ‘cause of the monk thing, isn’t it? Kabashima: That’s true… But, of all things…a monk, huh? Yushima: Well, someone’s having fun with that. Kabashima: …Sorry. I think they’re complimenting you though. Yushima: That’s a total lie. You look like you’re totally enjoying this. You’re for sure imagining me posing like the Buddha right now. Kabashima: Pfft… *clears throat* Yushima: Well, as for your ranking, Kabashima– Kabashima: W-Wait! I’ll see it for myself! …Here, Kabashima Umetaro. Landslide first place! In… What?! “Being annoyingly cute”?? Yushima: Good for you, Kabashima. Kabashima: Huh? Huuh? “Annoyingly cute”? I’m neither annoying nor cute!! Yushima: No, no… You’re definitely both those things. There’s no coming back if you were ranked as most annoying, but once they attached ‘cute’ to it you got an unexpected chance at redemption. Kabashima: There’s no way I’m accepting this! What about me is like that, huh?! If I had to get a ranking anywhere I’d rather it was something like ‘reliable’ or ‘trustworthy’! Yushima: Heh~ Kabashima: What? You got something to say to that?? Yushima: Ah, geez… This is why I didn’t want to show you.

[isabellafoster13]

This was requested on Wattpad by CelineCourageux.

This takes place in the modern day. 

I hope you enjoy!

Amusement Park Prize (Mira x Lucy)

"Come on, Lucy!" 

Mira begged her girlfriend while they sat next to each other in class. Lucy shook her head, saying, "you know I'm not interested in Amusement Parks. They're too loud and crowded, and there aren't a lot of rides I'd even go on. Plus, the lines are always a mile long and the games are all rigged." 

Mira pouted. She and Lucy had been dating for a few months now, and all of their dates were in parks, at coffee shops, or at movie theaters. She wanted to go some a bit more fun. When she heard from Lisanna that the annual amusement park was swinging around tomorrow, she decided that it would be the perfect date night. However, she didn't think that convincing her girlfriend to go would be so difficult. 

She felt Lucy rest her hand on her shoulder and heard her say, "we can do something else, Mira. How about we go see that new movie that Evergreen and Elfman saw? They said that it was really good, didn't they?" 

Mira shook her head, exclaiming, "but I want to go to the amusement park! It'll be fun, I promise!" 

Lucy sighed, "well, I don't like them." 

"Have you ever even gone to one?" 

"Yes, once, and it was terrible. I don't want to go to another one that'll just be a disappointment." 

"But, Lucy, this one is amazing! Everybody in school goes every year! It's the best amusement park in Fiore, so I know that you'll enjoy it!" 

Lucy opened her mouth to speak when Natsu dragged over a chair and loudly asked, "what are you two talking about?" 

Mira was the one who answered, "I'm trying to convince Lucy to go to the amusement park with me." 

Natsu's eyes lit up at the mention and grabbed Lucy's shoulders, shaking her as he practically yelled, "you need to come, Luce! That place is awesome! It has the fastest rides you can imagine, the funest games, and, best of all, the greatest food to ever exist!" 

Mira giggled as she watched Lucy try to get out of her best friend's grasp before she got whiplash. The blonde then responded, "I don't know. Is it usually crowded?" 

Natsu answered, "not really. It's big, so you shouldn't be bothered by anyone." 

Mira looked to the front of the room and saw Erza and Gray. She called over to them and, when they looked at her, she waved them over to the back of the classroom. When the pair arrived, she explained, "I'm trying to get Lucy to come to the amusement park with me tomorrow. Lend a hand?" 

Erza and Gray both smiled. The redhead praised, "you really should try it, Lucy. It has something for everybody, I can assure you. If you don't like fast rides, then it has calmer ones. If you don't like rides at all, then you give the games a try. They are a lot of fun to play." 

Gray chimed in, "yeah! The food is great too. It's so much fun, even Laxus likes to go." 

As Lucy hummed thoughtfully and stared down at her desk, Mira clapped her hands together in front of herself, right underneath her chin. She smiled at her girlfriend, blue eyes sparkling with hope. Her silent pleading was impossible to miss. 

She watched with delight as Lucy sighed and relented, "alright, Mira, we can go to the amusement park together." 

Mira cheered as she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and planted a big kiss on her cheek. She was determined to make sure that Lucy had a great time tomorrow. 

The couple walked through the ground of the amusement park, occasionally seeing some of their friends. Natsu and Gray were going on roller coasters and seeing who would get sick first, it was always Natsu, while Erza waited for them on the ground, eating whatever strawberry-flavored treat she had managed to find. Lisanna and Juvia quickly joined them. Evergreen and Elfman were going on the Tunnel of Love together while Laxus, Freed, and Bixlow competed against each in some games. Levy was pulling Gajeel along, the large man complaining the entire time. They also saw Wendy and Romeo, who were both heading into the Maze of Mirrors after Romeo's father apparently got lost and needed help getting out. 

Mira looked at her girlfriend, asking, "so, what do you wanna do first?" 

Lucy shrugged, causing Mira to frown. The white-haired woman looked around, searching for something that they could do. More specifically, she was looking for a game that looked interesting, guessing that playing a game would be the best way to get Lucy into the park. 

She quickly spotted a game that had a prize that she knew Lucy would love. She grabbed her girlfriend's hand and pulled her toward the game before she pointed up at the prize and asked, "what do you think of that?" 

She watched as Lucy looked up at the prize. It looked like a snowman, with a white body with an orange, horn-like nose that resembled a carrot. When Lucy's eyes lit up upon seeing it and she grinned, Mira placed some jewel onto the stand and asked to play. 

The carny smiled at her as he explained the game, "all you have to do is knock down all of these clowns with that water gun. If you can manage that, then you can have any prize you choose." 

Mira nodded and took up the water gun, resting the butt against the front of her shoulder. She waited for the wooden clown figures to start moving before she began shooting water at them. She silently thanked Laxus for teaching her to win when they were dating a few years ago. 

'Just aim for where the freaky clown think is going to be,' he had told her. She did just that, picking a clown figure to shoot down and aiming at where it was heading. Once it got close enough, she pulled the trigger, a large burst of water knocking it down. 

It didn't take her long to knock down all of the targets. She listened to Lucy clap beside her as she pointed at the large, stuffed toy and announced, "I'd like that one, please." 

She quickly accepted the toy from the carny and handed it to Lucy, watching with delight as her girlfriend proudly proclaimed, "I'll name it Plue! Thank you so much, Mira!" 

Mira giggled and entwined her fingers with Lucy's, saying, "of course, Lucy. Now, how about we go try the Ferris Wheel next? The line is never very long around this time." 

With that, the couple was off to the aforementioned ride, later sharing a kiss when they reached the top. 

[jaggedwolf]

pll rewatch 2x13

Our first Halloween special, sending us back to 2008

Ali tells a creepy twin story to some kid Hanna is babysitting

Hanna would not be a good babysitter

Let me attempt to collate all the times I go awww at these two-years-younger versions of the liars so that I don’t keep doing that for the rest of the post. (1) Aw at everyone being so excited to go to Noel’s party (2) Aw at Emily and Toby interacting (3) Aw at Spencer’s Giant Nerd Glasses and her eagerly explaining her Mary Queen of Scots costume while no one cares (3) Aw at Hanna and Aria having fun getting scared together at the party

Ali tries to get the liars to pick whether Hanna should be Cute Britney or Bald Britney and the liars are like...obviously Cute. I wonder how long they’ve all been friends, it’s a couple of months into freshman year.

Toby saying “she gets what she wants” about Jenna....he doesn’t even know the worst of it yet :( 

All this time I’d remembered Emily’s costume as explicitly “Pocahontas” but no, everyone calls it “Indian Girl” or “Hot Indian Girl” and that is so much more yikes.

Ali tries to intimidate Jenna out of also being Lady Gaga for Halloween, except she insists on saying “Lady G” the whole time and that really downgrades the threat level

Oh god, alive Ian, gross.

Melissa is saying many nice things about Spencer’s class president speech and Spencer is adorably pleased by her sister’s praise

Ezra aside, Aria full-on sprinting through Hollis to get to her dad’s office is endearing, you can tell she’s been here all the time

Wait actually, on the topic of Ezra, I’ll take the opportunity to be judgy about him going to the same school for his undergrad and his master’s. 

Ugh at Wilden driving Ashley home, makes his stuff with her even grosser

Aria is like, ready to go beat up Ben for telling his bros that he slept with Emily. She’s very gung-ho here.

Which makes me realize that by the time of Halloween 2008, Spencer, Emily, and Hanna are already diminished by their life circumstances or Ali or both, while Aria isn’t. Not really

Aria’s having a grand time outside of the group, maybe Ali’s a little mean sometimes but hey, who isn’t, and it’s the events of these Halloween days that spark her own downslide

On Mona, Ali says “If you ignore it, it’ll go away”, though the girls don’t appear to be tempted to acknowledge Mona even before that. Does remind me of this gifset comparing Ali to Davie from PLL:OS. 

Jason, who must be around 20/21 here, asks his 14/15-year-old sister for beer money, what a loser

Ali puts the threatening note in the same box that we saw Aria get from Jason

Poor freshman Spencer is about to cry at the idea of not winning some dumb school election because her parents have already planned the party :( 

Ali works very hard here to convince Spencer that Melissa isn’t her ally but an enemy. Why? Is she against Melissa because of her own feelings for Ian, because she doesn’t like Spencer having an ally that isn’t Ali, because she genuinely does detect animosity on Melissa’s part for Spencer? Or all of the above...

Regardless, I’m convinced Ali doesn’t actually rig the election but merely convinces Spencer she does so to “strengthen” their relationship

Byron sucks so fucking much. Staring at Aria’s baby photos and telling her not to tell Ella to protect Ella?!? Saying he’ll respect her decision either way?!?!

That is a kid Byron go man up and tell Ella yourself you coward

I do think Aria is more of a mommy’s girl but up to this point I think she really looked up to Byron...literature kid with literature prof dad...

Ali does her usual shtick of implying Lucas is intersex to insult him and you know, Lucas never even poses a hint of a threat to her to prompt this. I begrudge Lucas many things, but I can never hold destroying the memorial against him

Ali goes Full Blackmail Mode when Aria wants to skip one (1) Halloween party. Ali must’ve been thrilled, she finally figured out how to sink her claws into Aria and Emily within a single day

Mona introduces herself to Jenna as confident Catwoman. Do you think Jenna sees Nerdy Mona at school for the rest of freshman year and goes ????

Love that Ali’s Gaga wig is worse than Jenna’s.

Ali implies to Spencer that Hanna didn’t vote for her. I’d be impressed if flashback!Hanna even voted in a school election, I am 100% certain she was about to forget till one of the others went to go vote and took her with them

Emily’s eyeing up of Jenna...don’t think Emily knows she’s gay yet. She’s uneasy enough about Ben that she feels the need to let his lie go, confused by how transfixed she is by Jenna dancing, and even more confused by Ali’s mocking “cherry chapstick” comment. 

When the girls charge into the haunted house after Ali, Emily leads the way, with Spencer later coming up beside her. Emily will later pick up a literal stick as weapon when the girls think Ali’s in danger. Interesting. To me, anyway, given the passivity of flashback Emily. 

Ali has soooo much fun pretending to play the dramatic self-sacrificing hero going out into the hall to call the cops. It makes it fun when the show flips it in on her, with Noel saying it wasn’t him pretending to attack her in the house

AU where the liars are sick of Ali’s shit after Halloween, unionize, and stop being friends with her. Would be amusing to me if Ali miscalibrated right when she’s getting creepy texts!

[infin-8-morphosis]

Monthly not-dead progress post here we go

Still working on my model. Theres too many little bits to say what I have and havent done (sooo much redoing) but umm in brief,

Oh this isnt brief whoops lets put a cut, tldr model good still wip, new map with Peirce Quinuncial projection, more website work, lots and lots of little half done things as usual

Functional eyes and eyelids, actual mesh is more or less 100% done, and partially unwrapped, but havent skinned it properly.

Partially rigged, but rigging will neeeveeer be finished. Thankfully my twisted setup with multiple rigs and multiple rigs inside those rigs actually seems to work...?

A brief rundown is:

The rig is made of 3 sets of identical bones: the scaler, poser, and deformer. The poser handles, most posing, shocking, and is more or less the 'crown' rig. The scaler doesnt move but scales, and said scale is copied to the poser. The deformer is the only set that deforms the mesh, it copies the location of the poser. So, Scaler scales the poser, poser moves the deformer. You should never need to view anything except the poser BUT and its a cool but, since the deformer is isolated from the poser, it also acts as a sort of pseudo FK rig, allowing fine adjustment of the posers IK positions. VERY handy!

There are other rigs, like an eye rig for just the eyes, a character-specific rig for the face (just not possible to use the same rig even with my scaling trick, and i dont want to have to worry about breaking the most important part of the mesh) and soon i will begin the harrowing task of a hair rig... for each hair. Fear and suffering ahead, but also funny hairdos.

Thankfully my trick to use geo nodes to fuse the meshes together seamlessly seems to work, but it seems to mess with uv's so still a roadblock. I nedd to really knuckle down on understanding geo nodes, and also get more fmailiar with uvs in the technical sense...

Also making an effort to completely ditch shape keys (FUCK shape keys) by using lattices instead. This is... unfortunately janky. But, useable. I dont care if it isnt perfect anyway, I just hate shape keys. The main trouble is how dogshit lattices are... They work so odd. And very destructively, so if I screw up a pose, tough shit...

Yet to step into the scary world of 'so will we actually model our characters with this' since at any point I can break things and will need to redo things... but also the sooner i start the sooner I catch things that dont work or need fixing...

Non-model wise I'm making pretty good progress on the map. As you probably dont know I have yet fucking again started from near scratch, but this time with the sexy as hell Peirce-Quincuncial map projection (go look it up its very good). This means a less warped map and also more sensible views of the poles, which were always a bit hacky on an equirectangular map since my planets 'poles' are on the equator. ie imagine a globe rotated 90° so the bottom and top are at the sides. Im feeling much better with how it fits together (even 'simulated' the plate tectonics a little to get them more accurate. Surpisingly my eyeballing it was about 80% correct!) but yet again the main headache is the actual height. Very, very hard to keep heights consistent and proportional.

Today I worked on my website! I had not checked on it in quite some time. Refamiliarised myself with its inner workings (loooove css. Very fun. Oddly fun battling wordpress to change things from its defaults that are often quite odd. For example, drop shadows only go to the bottom right. You cant alter it in the editor. Why??? So i just... edited the default shadow's css. Easy peasy. The hardest part was tracking down where exactly wordpress defined shadows. However there is some good to this since i dont need to add a class to things to give them my own shadow~) and have got it looking very smooth. Almost everything from my original website has been re-added, code wise. All that remains is the actual articles, and well, lots and lots more tweaking and new things. Still no mobile menu, that'll be a doozy... ah, also reimplemented tooltips properly. Verrry nice. Just not sure how the plugin manages colours... i will crack it open and study it...

Hmmm what else. I guess ive begun to organise my notes on everything, but i have attmepted this many times and it is a total mess... hoping this one sticks since i moved to using obsidian instead of google docs, so maybe i wont fuss over organisation and style as much and actually work on things.

Story wise eeerrrr. I mean. The problem i had is now, reversed, in that i used to have an end and no way of starting the plot, and now ive come up with a great hook that no longer works with the old ending... hrmm...

[smollobsession]

Posted 27.5.

Start of the month:

Met with P in Telč. The weather was terrible :D but I had good svičkova and a good talk with my friend! I also picked up some albums she's been wanting to get rid of, and I'll pass them on to my kids who want them! woo!

As I was on the bus to get there, I passed the "pretty bridge" again and I decided to finally find it and check out the view. I was right, it's amazing! I then went on to Chodov for some more cinnabuns :D

On Sunday I went to Hlavni, thought I'd play some pogo. Honestly not many good raids but I did one and I finished a few researches so ok. I had a YUMMY pancake with ice cream.

6.5. Considering doing this

7.5. I had the most productive morning wow. first of all, i slept i think 9h so wow to that! Made and filled pancakes for C's bday, packed them up nice with skz stickers :D caught up on met gala skz gossip :D made lunch (sandwich and smoothie) bought rice and made breakfast (i researched this morning and apparently potatoes are also bad for ibs. all starches except bland ass white rice are, so, white rice it is) did most of the dishes so it's not a whole mess.

i still have pancakes left over so that's tomorrow sorted :D

i'm following what's happening in Palestine and getting ready for this week's protest. :/

but in the process i was on fb again and found this bit of typical internet discourse

8.5.

:( onigiri class for adults is full. the lady hasn't contacted me about meeting. and yesterday i made pancakes for a new friend but it turned out we weren't able to meet and my class pissed me off so i just ate the pancakes.

i'll give it till the end of this week and then i'll contact the lady asking to maybe only speak online, if meeting is too hard.

talked to my dad about this new job idea and he's enthusiasic. his idea is that if i'm looking for a bridge job, i might as well look for one in the general area (family) of they company i'd like to work for. he said oil rigs have a similar system. they are called differently tho which makes my search even more complicated.

idk why, when i talk to others about this, it seems so possible, but when i'm in my own head, it seems like a silly dream.

meanwhile, pogo gave me 2 more useless 4 stars :D i mean yay i'm happy with my collection but truly every pokemon i use and want to be good is meh :D

the animation before i could catch the diancie was fun :) but the diancie also has trash stats lol.

hello sir mr vegas sir... afterglow you say? O.O

in completely opposite news, i guess i'm happy someone put this up, even if clearly someone was Very Upset it was up.

it's nice to know that despite it all, there are SOME czech people who care.

OMG SOMEONE IS USING THE ESIM I BOUGHT!

12.5. They used a bit more!

The lady I wanted to talk to about work has rejected me. I guess my next stop is reddit :D

I had Korean on Friday and it was excellent! I then went to the agency that someone recommended to talk about potential job offers in my city and they were like "uh you should send us an email" which YEP i knew it (i tried but it got spammed).

Yesterday sure was a day. It was my mom's 11 years dethiversary. I had a weird ass dream about her of course.

I made a very hopeful meal plan for the rest of the month... fingers crossed. then went shopping for it. I also went to balkan store to get sweets for my kids, but I'll have to do more today bcs they didn't have my faves. Went to Flora to do some of my Korean HW - I have too much lol - and had a cake for breakfast... not the healthiest of choices but I was starving by that point because I didn't have breakfast at home. Saw C and said hi :D Then had a phonecall with D.

I hoped to see Aurora Borealis last night so I went to sleep early. I just slept until midnight, went out to see if anything was there - saw the city was oddly lively at midnight - didn't see AB, went back to sleep. Got a solid 9-10h last night thanks to this :D

There's a protest today, I'm getting ready and I shaved my legs :D priorities! :D

wore a dress and open sandals, no regrets, it was perfect for the weather, especially with the hat and the mask.

on my way to the protest i was on a bus and a man reached over and gave me a flower. i was confused but my kids reminded me it's mother's day!

some of them are going to the rammstein concert so the chat is buzzing :D (in the city i also saw hockey fans so wow so much stuff happening here now)

it was a good protest overall, though i felt like there were maybe fewer people than last time. sadly when we arrived there was a small group of pro isr protesters waiting for us (with cops between us, no issue) and a lady had a massive panic attack, it was kinda scary. ambulance came and helped her and i think it all ended up ok.

I went to the other balkan market later and got a burek and the rest of the sweets i want to share.

then i went to flora again to finish my homework. and have one more cake hehe

rip my feetsies :D

meanwhile... two things i'm considering. a) swimming in the local pool once a week. idk yet i'm so scared to try but :/ i want to? b) tmi but there's a big sxtoy store near the balkan market and i'm considering a toy. we'll see. honestly i'm far more concerned about the swimming... being perceived half naked is uh :(

and on a totally different note, i asked on reddit about the job and yeah... i think it's not for me. sadly. ah well.

18.5. hm so far all my attempts to socialize have been destroyed, i wonder why :D telc was good but rainy and i ended up being 1h late. my local friend wasn't in for pancakes. last week i made plans for pub quiz and then i locked my card by typing in the wrong number 3 times as i was trying to withdraw ca$h for the quiz master. Sigh. Even the fun lesson i planned with that one class ended up being with only half of us!

Now I joned a pogo group for bounsweet community day... let's see if i manage ><

some other adventures have been happening tho! I managed to try corncob - why sweet? and i found a taiyaki place that i really like!

yesterday before korean (since i had to leave early to unblock my card......) i was bored and it was raining so i found myself in the small botanical garden which currently has a succulents exhibit.

I did buy a smol one :) and it inspired me to clean my plants too so i did some of that yesterday and today.

After Korean I ended up at the Nepalese Indian place and had a great lunch. Omg their food is so good sob.

In fandom news, Jeff is in Sweden. I'm fine.

And this vid of Khao by First just melted me. Sometimes when people take pictures or even draw people they love you can just see how they see them and it's wonderful.

And I made plans with P for next weekend! I'm exciteeed!

It's spring here and plants are pretty <3

21.5. I've exercised 3 days in a row so that's nice.

On Sunday i did go to the center to meet up with the pogo group i follow on discord. i managed to speak to absolutely no one and even the pic we took hasn't been posted so there's like 0 evidence i was there. well, i got some codes from the leader so that. sigh, i'm so bad at this.

i got my period and bled all over everything again, despite a tampon and a pad. so now i'm washing all my sheets and protectors. happy tuesday to me.

27.5. last Thursday I joined the Pub Quiz group and had a good time and wasn't totally useless. Just got another confirmation I should have more faith in myself.

Evaluations sent and I'm slowly wrapping up the school year. (Omg today I talked to S*'s mom and I was so awkward lorde why am I like thissss aaaa)

Ugh ANYWAY. This weekend P visited! We did some good (and some mid :D ) food tasting, went to a medieval fair and visited the castle!

When she left, I got on a tram and spent an hour just traveling and reading. I'm reading Natsume's book of friend's finally and I still love it as much as I did originally. Such an underrated manga.

Did my homework in a cafe and had some cake :) and then did my shopping for the week.

Wednesday will be my last Full Day at work. It's really hard saying bye to some of the kids. sG said today that he'll continue if I'm not the teacher. He will be really busy and he would have made time for me but now he's not sure. I almost wept yo. Teens.

PS. I tried a new form where I write more often and keep it in a draft. I like it... but I wonder if it'll post without errors hahaha