#to be real for a sec i know my level is pretty good but for a long time being good at learning languages was the only thing i was good at

[perilegs]

You often leave tags worrying about your English spelling and typos, which is ridiculous because you have better English grammar and correct spelling more than most first language English speakers

ahdjdk i know but ty, i appreciate hearing it!

[concert-bflat]

I need to rant about Ivan guys guys I neeed to rant about Ivan (<--- keeps trying to write fics of him but Never finishes him) like God this man is so gay and so in love it genuinely hurts it Hurts and I am Injured by it and the imagrey is Sooo Good (and Yes this is probably me just parroting stuff Everyone has already said before but shut up it's my turn now!! (aka please I've been holding in these thoughts for Months now I must let them out of their cage before one of them Dies)) [Edit I am Not fucking proofreading this I spent 2 hours on it if there is a mistake you Imagined it </3]

Just like,

You can see it in the way he sees the stars in Till. His own hopes for freedom and the only real light in this world that he lost sight of in Till. He is the hope and wish for freedom that he has shut away and repressed and it makes him fall So Hard

Or how you only really see that red in his eyes (after. Almost Dying) when he's with or singing/thinking about how Till has Inspired him, like a fire has been lit inside him. A fire lit in the darkness. . hmm...

even at the end of the song, where he knows full well that he absolutely Crushed his opponent and also knows full well that Till is his next one. I'm sick. I'm so sick.

Or like. When he frees Till and everything is just Engulfed in that red now. How Till has that same fire in his eyes, he and Ivan are on the same page now. They see that same hope for freedom and they both share it. They're running towards the light (like the sky's lighter there, more on that in a sec), hell, the corners of the right side of the screen are literally tinted in LIGHT GREEN. Till's color. God dammit the whole scene is tinted in red and green. They are literally Complementary Colors. I'mmm soooooooo (God these scenes are soo pretty too I was genuinely Stunned when I first saw this)

DID YOU EVEN NOTICE I ONLY NOTICED NOW the Stars are fucking green. You can see it better in some of the Later Images but they are Literally Green because Ivan sees the stars in Till and uuuughsdfbshb

OR LIKE WHEN TILL TURNS BACK?? AND. And that red is no longer in his eyes and before The Realization hits Ivan his eyes are just Glowing with red. Because he was just Filled with that hope. Freedom was, potentially, Right There

Did you guys even notice in that like. 5 frames in the half-second animation of Till turning away he's totally engulfed in his shade of green. Like of Course. That's such a Till thing to do because of Course he's running back he never actually liked Ivan that way in the first place.

And also the lighting of the sky Flips. Because the light has always been with Till. And Ivan's left in the darkness. In the. Haha. Ha. Black Sorrow. Aha *sits down cries*

And Again with this mf's stupid eyes how they revert to just black because that hope's been stripped away again, how it's even reflected in his present self singing as he reminisces on it. Fucking. Ivan's Expression when Till runs away.T here's so fucking much like the irony. Like did he even see Till hesitate or did he just see him turn and run away.

Like the irony that the guy who's always breaking the rules and fighting and defying and clearly hating living in a world like this won't run away with him, who has always been passive and obeying the rules and just accepting captivity and has been repressing his desire for freedom is so Bitter and Awful but also he always Knew this would happen what the Hell was he thinking this was such a stupid idea like

this man gets No Breaks No Breaks Ever oh yeah btw they're facing off against each other in a literal Death Match. That they might've had a Chance of avoiding if they ran away. Ahah. Hh *sob*

Also this art brings me so much Joy as much as it hurts me on a visceral level like. Ivan Always has his eyes on Till but it goes from a fond smile. Like So Fond flat out lovestruck affectionate gaze because he loves this man and loves spending time with him to a grimace once they're on stage. How Till never really changes or really Has Changed, and that's why Ivan loves him as much as he is resentful towards him. How that's what brought them here, to the stage. How Ivan changed for Till and Because of Till but still Till is like a god damn immovable object with how he stubbornly sticks to his ways. There's such resentment but isn't he himself also stubborn for always sticking to Till anyways? Hell, he's singing all about him in Round 3 and loses control over his own emotions and expressions during it I'mmm Guhhh

Also the first image is titled Observation while the second one is titled Decision(? I think). Like mf What are you deciding. What happened Last Time you decided to do something I'm going to punt you into the next planet

Speaking of observing,

Just. How Ivan's Always Observing. I saw one person point out he's like a background character and it's like he sees himself as one too. He is a passive observer in his Own Life. How he watches all the other children in Anakt garden play. How his childhood leading him to Anakt Garden just kind of. Happens around him while he watches indifferently.

How he's always trailing behind Till. Or how he tends to just. Observe quietly and is portrayed as such.

Not to mention how he doesn't appear in the memories of Anyone else's rounds, not even Till's, even when he literally (temporarily) freed him from the city. He doesn't even appear At All in Luka's round even though we get a clear shot of Till getting his hopes and dreams shattered (though it Does parallel another shot of him from Round 2)

And then the One Times he tries to take action. Or start something. It gets rejected and he's resigned to just. Trailing behind again. Because of Course he'll always follow after Till. And of Course he's fucking bitter about it and bitter about himself because he Knew this would happen and Till is Always looking at someone else and that Never Changes but. He just thought for a moment that he could change something. Man.

Oh I forgot to talk about the competitions themselves huh? Wellll, (and I'll Attempt to keep it brief because I've been writing this post for Much too long but)

Till spends his first round singing completely devotedly to Mizi. Hell, his song wasn't even in the program, it's likely- no, almost definitely something he wrote entirely for her, and Ivan has no part in it, just watches bitterly as he passes out after his, er, stunt at the end

And continues to be passed out for almost the entirety of Ivan's song

Oh but he woke up for the emotional/musical climax at least, going over Ivan's most important memory of them together, that's cool at least right?! Surely Till felt something from that

Maybe they can talk something out, or at least acknowledge their relationship in Some way. Maybe Ivan could at least be seen by Till-

Aaand Till's Actual love interest Supposedly gets shot and now he probably thinks she's dead. His attention is turned to her once again, like it's always been from the start. He never really changes huh?

Better luck next time Ivan--

Just. This mf Never Wins and it makes me Laugh as much as it makes me So Sad

Gets hopes and dreams and future crushed by aliens (standard stuff). Sold off in an auction. Put in prestigious singing school and up to that point he hasn't really cared about Anything and has simply been going through the motions.

Meets boy that basically embodies the freedom and hope he used to have. Falls badly in love. Boy loves someone else. Tries to free him and give him the thing he'd surely want most. Rejected. Back to school you go loser.

Oh btw this school is to train you for a competition to the death. Btw you're facing off against that boy you love in the semi-finals of said death competition. And you might kill him or he'll kill you. Because you didn't run away when you had the chance.

Also he didn't sing or think about you at all during his round. In fact I'm pretty sure he wrote a whole ass song that wasn't even registered in the Alien Queue or whatever for someone else. Also he probably has hardly looked at you. Also he was unconscious for almost the entirety of your song. Except for the part where you lost control of your emotions.

Oh but that doesn't matter now because now he thinks the person He likes was just killed. So he's kiiinda gonna be distracted by that. And that might fuck up your round with him. Sorry man

This was Originally a rant about how much I love Black Sorrow's imagery and the portrayal of Ivan's love because this man clearly has Complex Emotions and then Kinda derailed into me just ranting about how many L's he's being handed before getting the executioner's blade. Uhhhhh oops. Congrats on sticking to the end though?

I just love Ivan very much. He is So Bitter and so Horribly In Love and looks up to and is inspired by Till So Much and I wish people explored him on a deeper level/more personally.

I wish I saw more deep looks at Ivan/Till, there's clearly Complicated Things going on there. Hell, we don't even know what Till's pov on the whole thing is aside from that One scene of him hesitating before running away from Ivan. As much as I love fluffy interpretations of them, I (did I mention that I'm an angst addict btw. Could You Tell) wish all their Complexities could be acknowledged. Like how Ivan Clearly puts Till on such a spotlight and it is Such a downfall for him through and through and he Kinda knows it but also What Else does he Have and he really looks up to him Sooo Much (just. Look at them in that official art of them in Anakt Garden !!!) and deep down just wants to run away from this horrible place and wants to run with Till, the Light of his life the fire in the darkness the fucking stars the universe his black sorrow just. Oh My God I need to end this post already I was supposed to be studying but spent those 2 hours Writing instead

But anyways yeah uuhhh long story short? This guy is a gay loser. He tries to look sooo cool and smooth but he is suuuch a gay lovestruck loser and his rose tinted glasses are so thick he can't see shit (I'm pretty sure I quoted that from something (but also no genuinely when I first got into alnst after just watching the first 3 rounds videos and saw Ivan in official art I was So Surprised like "Oh he's actually That kind of mf that tries to look Cool and Hot but is actually just Pathetic and Sad and Gay I thought he was Just Sad and Gay")) he's probably also touchstarved as hell idk and his love is doomed by the narrative (unless Hyuna saves his and Till's asses. Buuut we'll see </333)

Love ya Ivan keep taking L's <3333 mwah

[hopeymchope]

Hope's Peak and... Whatever is Going on with the "Talents" They Study

Hope's Peak Academy! Where only the greatest talents are invited to focus on the areas in which they excel (and to be studied by the staff).

The people working at Hope's Peak Academy in Danganronpa (whether staff, scientists, or Steering Committee) are pretty consistently presented as being dedicated to researching and understanding the nature of talent. They talk like talent is this hazy concept that only certain people somehow possess, so they're out to crack the code of its mysterious origins.

We have top men working on the origins of talent right now. .... TOP. MEN.

Now, I know we all eventually learn just how much of a shitshow HPA was and how corrupt its primary operators were. But the evidence of their crimes is mostly focused on how they take their interest in "Talent" much too far. So long as it furthered the study of "talent," human experimentation, endangering the lives of students, and much, MUCH more were totally on the table as far as HPA's Steering Committee was concerned. Which is very bad, yes.

However! I think the issues with HPA's intentions ran even deeper. The people in charge weren't just corrupt; they were also stupid. And this is evidenced by many of the "talents" they identified and researched.

See, Hope's Peak makes no real distinction between the types of talent they identify and accept into their walls. Even though there's a MASSIVE DIFFERENCE between the talent of someone like Junko Enoshima vs. that of someone like Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu. Y'know?

(I strongly doubt I'm the first to observe how bullshit some of these "talents" are. But since I can't find any other conversations about this on Tumblr, I'm going to move forward with making my own commentary. Sorry?)

BTW, consider this: If Komaeda were somehow born earlier and was an adult by the time the 77th Class entered HPA? He could've easily been one of the staff members putting Hajime into that metal coffin.

In descending order of "I can see why they were interested" to "WTF is this," here are the four core types of Super High School-Level "Talents" that Hope's Peak Academy welcomes within its hallowed halls:

(DISCLAIMER: I include V3 students as some of the examples cited below. YES, I know they don't attend Hope's Peak in their game's main storyline. However, they attend Hope's Peak in both UTDP and DRS. That's good enough for me; you can always ignore those examples if you disagree.)

CATEGORY (A) Talents that seem to come innaately/naturally to those who have them. These are either your wunderkind types, or they otherwise gained their talent seemingly overnight. — (e.g., Yasuhiro Hagakure, Junko Enoshima, Nagito Komaeda, Miu Iruma)

My Thoughts: Okay, SURE. I get why you'd want to study how this can happen and where these kinds of skills come from. No notes.

CATEGORY (B) Talents that are developed over a lifetime of practice and/or hard work. Most Hope's Peak students we know about seem like they slot into this category. — (e.g., Nekomaru Nidai, Mikan Tsumiki, Kaede Akamatsu)

My Thoughts: My first reaction is "What is there to study/research about this?" Do the Hope's Peak staff not know that working on something for a long time can make you get way better at that thing? Y'all reminding me of Hajime in the now-classic @reddpenn comic where he is legitimately shocked to learn people can gain skills through practice. :P But HOLD UP; let's give them the benefit of the doubt here for a sec. Perhaps Hope's Peak's personnel are wondering why only some practitioners of these talents can reach such a noteworthy level of skill by the time they're teenagers? That's the most reasonable conclusion to draw about the inclusion of these students.

CATEGORY (C) Talents that are only noteworthy because these students demonstrated some above-average skill relative to their age or because they garnered attention through one specific incident. In other words: These individuals aren't nearly as exceptional as those in the previous two categories of talent, but at least they seem pretty decent at what they're being identifed for? — (e.g., Mahiru Koizumi, Shuichi Saihara, Kaito Momota)

My Thoughts: I hope I'm being clear enough about what I mean by this category. But if not, I'll try to clarify: Shuichi was supposedly recognized for his talent solely because he caught one murderer. Mahiru's photography is almost solely portrait photography and therefore not particularly noteworthy to most photographers; she's just pretty good at the one thing she happens to do. (And in truth, her mom's reputation probably played a role in her own Hope's Peak invite.) Kaito being able to pass a basic Astronaut screening exam at a younger age than is usually allowed is neat, but it's not like he's been an exceptional trainee or even gone into space; he's just the "Ultimate Astronaut" because he cheated his way into taking a test early and did surprisingly well at it. Maybe we're meant to think "Oh, Kizakura or whoever could somehow tell these students have the innate potential to be truly spectacular" or somesuch?? But that interpretation requires putting a lot of faith in this questionable-ass system (and the one HPA scout we're familiar with — a known alcoholic). Do these people REALLY demand further study? Is there ACTUALLY anything to be gained by learning about their "talents"??? I... can't see it, y'all. I don't get it.

CATEGORY (D) Talents that aren't even really a talent at all, they're just a position/title someone gained by being born. — (e.g., Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu, Sonia Nevermind, Keebo)

LIVE HINATA REACTION

My Thoughts: Okay, so MAYBE Sonia was recognized by Hope's Peak as the the absolute pinnacle of refinement and royal behavior or something? But I kind of doubt it based on her actual behavior (and weird interest in serial killers) in DR2. And there's no way in hell that Fuyuhiko is the baddest-ass Yakuza, even among teenagers. You scratch that kid slightly. and you get the babychild undernearth. And Keebo? His talent is HIS OWN EXISTENCE. His "talent" is actually just his creator's talent, FFS. He's not even "High School"-AGED in reality; he's just programmed to operate at a mental capacity of approximately teenage-level. So ultimately, I'm asking: What is there to STUDY about any of these?! These aren't even TALENTS, frankly! These have got me wondering if there's some other reason to include these particular students... like perhaps Hope's Peak wants to extend their tentacles into the power/influence afforded by Novoselic royalty/the Yakuza? Or perhaps they wish the leverage Keebo's A.I. technology in their own pursuit of creating of an "Ultimate Talent"? Point is: THESE 'TALENTS' ARE SEVERELY SUS. (I have to wonder if the larger public and Reserve Coursers ever complained about how sketchy some of this shit sounds?? SURELY they did.)

ADDENDUM/NOTE: There are also those who hover between the various categories I've cited. This includes those who might be a mixture of two categories, or those whose background is hazy enough that it's not clear whether they always had their talent (A) or developed it over time (B). But I think the above list encompasses everyone we know about, either in one or multiple categories.

CONCLUSION: Hope's Peak is so vague and weird about what they define as "talents" that it's tough to say what on Earth they believe they're studying over there. Because the methodology they were employing for identifying these talents is super loose, they're inviting over SOME fascinating subjects right alongside a bunch of teenagers who... really can't reveal much of anything about anything?

How did Junko Enoshima learn to easily analyze the patterns all around her to the point that she was able to accurately predict most outcomes? GREAT question! You may genuinely be able to unravel something about inborn skillsets and unusual brain development from such a case.

How did Mahiru Koizumi become a great photographer? Uhhh, she observed some stuff from her mom and just tried a decent amount of portraits, I suppose. But she's not even that amazing frankly, she ain't taking any award-winning pictures or using any particular artistry. She's just good at smiling portraits. That's it. You ain't gonna learn shit from this.

How did Fuyuhiko become the Ultimate Yakuza? Because YOU decided he was! And that was just because of his inherited leadership role! He has NO special talent, wtf are you idiots doing?!?!

ANYWAY, that should cover all of the Hope's Peak students we've ever me—

Oh, right. There's ONE weird half-exception to this list, which I guess I'll explain for anyone who wants to be extracirricular about this topic.

BONUS! Outlier Case: Makoto Naegi (in DR1 only)

My Thoughts: In the original Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the player/viewer/reader is made to believe that Makoto Naegi possesses no talent at all. Instead, Naegi was merely this year's winner of the annual drawing at Hope's Peak, and THAT IS IT. He was just drawn from a proverbial hat, and his presence is just a randomized factor. And SURE, by the end of the game/manga/anime, he's declared the "Ultimate Hope," but it's not like he was brought into the school based on that talent, so that's not particularly relevant. What I'm saying is simply this: DR1-era Naegi is the only known Hope's Peak student who doesn't fit into the above four categories. ............ Though this was later retconned, of course. Stories such as Makoto Naegi's Worst Day Ever (which came out alongside the first release of DR2, a mere two years after DR1 first hit PSP) and Danganronpa 3 would state that Naegi always possessed some unpredictable form of Komaeda-style inborn "luck" even if he wasn't necessarily aware of it. Which slots him into category (A). AS SUCH, he was only an outlier for literally THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF THE SERIES. And since the first installment didn't really delve as much into the sketchy, obsessive ways the Hope's Peak scientists chose to study their roster of "talents," his outlier nature isn't really relevant anyway. I don't feel any need to justify "Makoto Naegi as portrayed in 2010-2011 continuity" for his inclusion in the class roster.

..........................but if I DID have to do that, I'd say including him among the students makes him the Control Group. :P

[empire-of-the-words]

I'm 10 and a half episodes into Young Justice (the TV show), and I feel like I should record my feelings for posterity's sake, so here we go (under the cut because it got too long 😅)

(Also I will be using superhero names for the most part since I don't want to look up how to spell Miss Martian or Aqualad's name)

Spoilers: I already know the Red Arrow thing. I'm also pretty confident I know Artemis's backstory. This doesn't bug me, because I love storytelling. A lot. So I keep looking at it from the writers' POV and it's honestly very fun. I also know a piece of Miss Martian's backstop, and the same as above applies

Investment in the characters: Honestly the show is doing a great job at this. So far it's had an episode focusing mainly on every character except Robin (who I'll talk about in a sec). The show is doing a lot of one episode character arcs (which is a great way to get you invested in the characters). Superboy and Superman both have obvious season character arcs going on, but the others have enough stuff that I'm confident they can do stuff with them

Robin: He is so competent in this, and I love it. Him being too competent to lead the team is both funny and adds another layer to both him and Aqualad. He actually hasn't had an episode really focused on him yet, just side plots. But this kind of works, since everyone knows Robin and there's less of a need to make sure people like him. (And this works. I didn't need to get as invested in Dick and Roy (and Bruce and Clark) since I'm already invested in their comic versions)

I also love that he hasn't revealed his identity yet. The little things about it (like in that episode the League of Shadows was trying to hack Wayne Enterprises). Especially with Artemis heading to Gotham Academy, I'm really hoping she has some fun interactions with Dick

Ships: Miss Martian/Superboy is pretty cute. I passively ship it. Just hoping they have real relationships with other members of the team. Kid Flash/Artemis (does she have a hero name?) is a bit more interesting. The amnesia episode did a good job selling it to me, as it shows they don’t necessarily hate each other at a basic level. Also I hate Kid Flash's crush on Miss Martian (or at least how he acts because of it), and rooting for another ship is the same as rooting for it to die. No real love triangle stuff for now, and hoping it stays that way. There's also the ship getting its own category:

JadeRoy: Starting very different from the comics (where they basically started as Enemy Lovers), but, uh, I Don't Care. I love this ship, both in comics and here. They're entirely enemies right now, but they've started to attach extra emotions to each other (not good ones, don't get me wrong, but they're singling each other out). And I know Lian will exist in this universe (thanks dc wiki), so I'm happily excited for Slow Burn (with the back of my mind preparing for disappointment, just in case). Not sure if this is going Enemies to Enemy Lovers or just straight up Enemies to Lovers (since it's a kids show they might give them a happy ending) but either way I'm down for it

(I'm actually horrible at watching shows in their entirety (instead of dropping them after a few episodes) , and the way I actually got myself to push forward and get invested was the knowledge that Cheshire appears in episode 6, and I really wanted to see her)

I'm super invested in the Superman/Superboy plotline. Also, Martian Manhunter giving Connor the last name Kent was just hilarious. The whole League is just like, "you will parent this kid, clark" and I love it. It's also got me thinking about how comic writers indirectly said Bruce wouldn't be great in this situation despite this version of him pushing for it, but that's an essay for another time (possibly never since it might involve reading Morrison!Talia which I desperately do not want to do 😭)

Speaking of Talia. I am dreading it. I know Damian’s just a cameo and it's a kids show, so it can't get as bad as the DCAU (knock on wood), but this is 2011. This is peak Morrison!Talia, and I do not want to see my favorite character's characterization get spit on

Moving on the nicer things, Batman is Peak Batman. He is a dad, and he’s trying his best, and they better not ruin him

The Light: I guess it makes sense that all these secret organizations are secretly all 1 secret organization, but I'm not quite invested yet. Also finding it hard to believe Ra's al Ghul would join an organization where he's not in charge

Also! I have figured out the usual formula. They start the episode with both a mission usually, and give one character a personal conflict. Things get to their worst at about the 16 minute mark, resolve at about 20/21 minutes, have a final scene with the team and a final final scene reveal the bad guys were actually part of the Light conspiracy thing. Honestly it's kind of comforting having a formula

Overall, pretty good. Can't say how quickly I'll watch it, or how often I'll post about it, but I'm going to keep watching it, which is pretty good, particularly for a kids show

Also if someone's reading this and really curious about what I think about something specific, feel free to send an ask, it'll be fun :)

[boxturret]

"One Sec Lol"

[disclaimer]I'm not insulting anyone's work on the project, everyone did amazing work and the project was shaping up to be amazing with everything I had seen.

I worked on the fan game Bionicle Masks of Power for nearly 2 years. I worked really hard on it, learned many things, used a lot of programs I'd never done before, actually worked up the nerve to use a mic for the first time, etc. Over time I got promoted to the head of two departments, 3d art and level design, basically because I was around a lot and kept things organised.

Then one day, with a "One sec lol" I was completely demoted, in a dehumanising, buzzword filled message. It called working on the game a "Journey". Now the reason I was demoted I won't really dispute, I was under a lot of stress, and sometimes I'd get upset, but these things don't happen in a vacuum, I don't get stressed for no reason.

The team was for the most part a bunch of really good, talented people that I enjoyed working with immensely, but there were some who were more focused on the glory (of making a free fan game for a 20 year old dead toy line... look, getting 200k views on the teaser went to their heads) so there was this constant push to get things...not done, because that wasn't really their concern, it was get things in a state where they could be shown off. And not a "here's a work in progress asset" sort of shown off, a "2 Paragraphs of fluff about the game, talking like it's already done, not actually mentioning the assets we're meant to be showing off" sort of thing.

The image in this tweet was meant to show off the newly (semi) completed UI, you know, that thing on the edge you can't see?

The 80/20 rule seemed foreign to them, where 80% of the work takes 20% of the time, and the final 20% of the work takes 80%, so someone would get a quick rough draft of an asset done in like a day, and they'd start pushing us to get it complete so we could show off, even though it would normally be months for something to get there.

This image here, of Pohatu in the desert. Do you know what it was supposed to show off? If you guessed the desert, no! That whole scene was thrown together by one person in like a day, it's completely fake, no work had been done on the desert at all. It was supposed to show off the Toa, as we'd just reached a pretty big milestone of completing and texturing all the parts and most importantly the masks. You know, that tiny thing that's facing away from the screen?

Originally the idea was to just show off the Toa in all their glory in their biome, but it mutated in to that...thing. There was work on a second one, but everyone finally realised that it was just looking bad so it was cancelled, thankfully.

This constant push to get things done to show off was so pervasive, and always seemed to fall on my shoulders, being the 3d art and level design lead, even though the real bottle neck was programming. We only had 3-4 programmers of very limited availability. When I first joined the team as a 3d artist I was basically given makework tasks to do, things of no real consequence, most of which got thrown out. (why make random set dressing objects for Ta-Koro, a place that hasn't even been roughly sketched out yet, for example)

This only got worse when I was put in charge of level design. The levels themselves are the prime thing to show off things in, so there was this constant push to get the levels finished, which I always pushed back against because, and I need to really stress this, the game was in a suuuper early state, and still is. If you've played the stand alone game Trials of the Great Spirit, that area was initially supposed to be the intro to BMOP proper, but the gameplay evolved so much that it became unplayable. At one point there was even the suggestion of keeping the TOGS area with the old player movement. As this was supposed to be the player movement tutorial this was dire and shows the danger of putting work in to making a level look nice too early, you run in to the sunk cost fallacy. Making a level look nice takes a lot of work, it's very fiddly, moving around little decorative objects and getting textures right, and you don't want to have to redo it a lot, which is why most games are blocked out first, meaning that the basic level geometry is created with basic shapes, and once everything is refined then they move on to actually making it look nice. As level design lead I insisted that we do this, because most previous attempts at making levels had spent way too much time worrying about the looks.

One of the first things I was tasked with as a 3d artist was to make a series of modular tree bits:

I was given nothing but a pair of images as guides of what they wanted.

So I worked really hard to try and make a modular system that would allow some interesting level layouts. Once I made the rough version pictured do you know what I was asked to do? Texture it. Make them in to final assets. No testing at all, no time to see if they'd work for the levels they wanted, nothing. Just rough>final for platforming assets immediately.

Well I knew that if I did that it would just end up getting tossed out eventually so I refused, and guess what? These were made before the movement refactoring so they're completely useless now![emphasis added because people keep missing the important part]

So now you see why making sure everything was finalized before doing final art was so important, which is why I would always fight against moving on to set dressing in the demo, because the demo wasn't and still isn't done, not even close. Having been put in that situation where I was told to work on something that would inevitably be tossed out later, I didn't want to put anyone in the teams I was responsible for in that situation, it's not like there wasn't a shortage of things to work on anyway.

Basically I was put in the situation where I had to constantly say no to all these, I'll call them what they were, marketing ideas, due to the game not actually being in the state it was being presented as. The video released on 8/10 this year was cobbled together from a bunch of unfished assets, barely functioning in an area that was designed just as a goal for set dressing to reach in a real level. It took the poor dev who had a computer good enough to run it hundreds of playthroughs until they got one good enough to show off, avoiding most of the bugs. And now seeing all this, know that I had to spend literal DAYS trying to convince everyone we should have that tiny disclaimer on the screen (every one else was worried about the aesthetics).

So this was the source of most of my stress, trying to focus on making a game while fighting against those that wanted instead to act like we had made a game. That's what lead to my stress and occasional outbursts, and me just in general getting fed up with working on the game.

After I was demoted, for the next week or so I was miserable. The way it was done just completely destroyed any sort of comfort I had in the team. I'm very shy and introverted, it takes me a long time to warm up to people or a place, and when something like that happens, it's all gone in an instant.

I didn't feel comfortable in the chats anymore so I left, I tried to explain myself to the person who demoted me and they just ignored me for several days at a time, leaving it to all spiral out of control in my head, another person said conflicting things that just made it worse. "It's not a punitive measure" "We appreciate your work" "You should be thanking me you didn't just get kicked off entirely" forcing me to grovel at their feet etc. It was all so much.

The final straw, and what got me kicked off, was do do with a document I had spent 9 months creating, that outlined a possible way of structuring the whole game. Before I started trying to get some structure in to it, the game design just seemed to be a big question mark. 6 playable characters needing to collect 11 upgrades, it's quite a complex thing that doesn't really track to any other game I've seen. The first version, Legacy, was simply a fully open map with the masks scattered about, but that wouldn't do with the level of detail and gameplay complexity we were aiming for. I eventually worked out something I thought would work, using a system of context sensitive gates, and I wrote and did many diagrams on the subject.

After I was kicked out of the leads, not a week later they announced big sweeping changes that were basically what I had been pushing for for months. There was something I was unclear on, a sort of gate for Kopaka involving wind, and I asked what it was. The new level design lead, the person who I had explained the concept of gates too, then proceeded to tell me what a gate was.

This was it. I was done. A week after I get kicked off the lead team and I'm treated like I didn't do anything. Then later I was confronted by another lead, and forced to post PROOF that I'd actually posted this document I'd spent 9 months publicly working on, that we'd had a whole meeting about with the story team, the document that got me promoted to level design lead.

In the moment, was too much for me, with everything going on with the game project and stuff in my personal life being stressful at the time, I genuinely didn't want to be around anymore, it was too much for me, I wanted to disappear. I tried to tell one of the leads this, and was ignored, I tried to speak openly to the team about it, I was censored, probated, then the next day, before I'd even woke up, kicked off the team. For being "negative". I was then told that if I didn't want things I'd made to be used I could ask them, but the only things they listed were the makuta totems and some jungle assets which I didn't even know what they meant.

So 2 years of work, and all I'd done for them by their account was a noodle and some wood.

[clarification]I'm not implying that they stole anything or are using assets without my permission, it's more that I've worked on this game for nearly 2 years and made sooo many things, yet all they could list were the things I did in the past month. Sorry for any confusion.

Just keep working like a good little drone, no matter how much disrespect we throw at you. This is Team Kanohi.

I wanted to put this all behind me, but someone on the team had the gall to request the very document I was accused of pretending to have made (I mean who ever asked for it on the team, not who asked me personally, just to be clear) , so I'm just so fed up with them. I was paying to host the bulk of the parts and 3d assets out of my own pocket, and it took them like a month to bother moving things, by which time I got charged.

Here's a quick overview of some of the things I worked on, it's not comprehensive at all, it barely mentions the atlas system, but I'm so emotionally drained that I don't really want to bother with all that. It's also not just a noodle and some bits of wood though.

I want to reiterate that I genuinely enjoyed working with most of the people on the team, and I wish them well.

I just want to add one more note: I was personally asked to join the team, I was asked to be 3D art lead, I was asked to take on the Level design leadership role, and even after I was demoted it was still seemingly thought that I would do everything I had been doing up until that point. I never asked for these roles, I accepted them because I believed in the game project and wanted to do everything in my power that I could to make the game as good as it could be.

[dirtbra1n]

I’m all ego can u directors comment on the “fascinating” convo. also it’s like Fun to me.

oh I should definitely figure out how to format these. I got excited and just clicked Answer and now I have to think about it. one sec. coming back with hindsight to tell you This gets long. I’ve hind-seen it.

first things first This ask is asking about the very first portion of the yet-unnamed tashiro post that went live on. the gray area between sunday and monday, I think. when’d I post the thing again. whatever. figure I’ll just go at this piece mail You’ll see quick that I came out the gate swinging

he kind of doesn’t know why he does it, didn’t really take the time to think about it. all he knows is that the time read 2:41 a moment ago and changed the second shirahama’s voice crackled over the phone, “what?”

so if you’re a real #DBWRITINGHEAD you might see the emphasis on the time and think Okay so what’s happening here. just happens that I drudged up the reference point recently. specifically this chunk here

so you see there’s kind of a lot already happening.

firstly it tells you that time IS an object, and that it gets blended and molded together and thrown at walls to see if it sticks. and it does. secondly though it gets you familiar with tashiro and shirahama’s banter, and this is an especially good thing because there’s a lot of it moving forward. I love to write these two so much. it comes natural and it’s a riot I could write them sniping at each other forever. third it gives you tashiro’s perspective of an event that a experienced river-reader might have seen already, while also working just fine on its own. and fourth, I guess. just because this chunk is, spiritually. to me. just as part of tashiro post as the other nearly 7k words. So I guess it’s even closer to that number than I’d thought. go figure. FOURTH. if you have this chunk’s post’s context, if you see that time and think, Aw, hell, this is just like that chunk in db’s shirahama post from a few months ago, you might remember its surrounding context and then go, hanzawa and weird situation and almost-but-not-quite confession. Maybe. in a word: foreshadowing.

it’s also, if I say so myself, a pretty strong opening line. I think kiri that I’ve shown you and sunnfish the first line in the note on my phone enough times for you to remember that it DIDN’T start with this one. that was a day-of decision. was a good one.

figure I should also draw the comparison between the two pieces while this chunk is here—shirahama kyouji’s internal monologue, both here and in its prologue-and-chronological-pre-side-and-sequel. or whatever the relationship is on paper. makes use of his given name kyouji, whilst tashiro’s is tashiro, his family name, throughout. this is because tashiro, to me, is so bad at letting people in that he kind of locks himself out too. hasn’t got the keys. just drew a little connection with this other piece in my head right this second but This Ask Wasn’t About That Post, Now, Was It? anyway tashiro’s got himself locked out. so it makes it easier for him to watch himself plummet from the outside looking in. anyway this ask isn’t about that scene either. anyway anyway. Moving on

“gonna tell you something weird.”

“…mhm…?”

tashiro squeezes his eyes shut, groggily rubbing a thumb over quick-drying salt at the outer corner of his eye. “just dreamed about hanzawa senpai dying on me.”

tashiro’s levels of awareness are always really fun to me. because he’s a strange guy in how quick he can get hit with something and roll with it, but he Knows its weird. shirahama is of course a good friend who resolves to deal with this. and boy does he deal! also of course tashiro had at least a few tears leak out of his eyes. his hanzawa senpai just died on him in a dream, after all. tangentially Have you ever been dreaming when you’re about to wake up, and something in the dream is upsetting enough at least conceptually to make you cry, but the unsteadiness of your waning unconsciousness fights the tears from coming out, so what you get is unsatisfying denied catharsis? really makes you think.

“…” shirahama breathes in; tashiro can hear him hold it. similarly, the sound of his hand being dragged over his face is crisp and loud.

the entire scene, barring the opening paragraph, operates in the present moment and its Moments, but this paragraph I feel really does the best job at demonstrating that. you are tashiro, lying in bed, fresh off the water—if you’re wondering, which you probably weren’t until just now, I haven’t written masato’s death from this first time; tashiro has seen hanzawa senpai dying before now, but the key- and weight-bearing word here is ‘on’, implying that he wasn’t troubled enough by that first aesthetically striking drowning to tell anybody—and you’re on the phone with your best friend at probably 2:43 or :44 by now, and you can hear him thinking your words over as if he were right next to you, because that’s where you’ve got your phone.

finally, he says, “fascinating.”

as you well know, kiri, this one was both recommended by and consequently modeled off you. you are tashiro, lying in bed, fresh off the water, and your best friend thinks the whole thing is ‘fascinating.’

[triviareads]

ARC Review of Triple Sec by TJ Alexander

Rating: 4.5/5 Heat Level: 4/5 Publication Date: June 4th

Premise:

A queer, polyamorous romance; Mel is a bartender at one of New York's top cocktail bars. She has an instant connection with Bebe, one of her customers who is also married to Kade. She's surprised when Bebe asks her out on a date, but slowly falls for not only Bebe, but Kade.

My review:

This book was tender, sexy, and more than anything, it felt so real to me. All three main characters are Grown Adults in their thirties who have their respective pasts, failed relationships, and hang-ups— and reading them connect and fall in love was such a joy. I think with the rise of terms like "harem romance" or "reverse harems" (both of which I take issue with; "harem" has a specific cultural connotation that I feel the romance community has misappropriated) and "why choose" romances, some romance readers have somewhat misguided expectations for what *all* poly romances should be like (and some literally aren't calling it what it is, polyamorous) , and this book did a lovely job of portraying one polycule and all the dynamics within it.

Mel and Bebe have an instant connection from the moment they meet at Mel's bar. The attraction is SIZZLING and Bebe is so classy (!!) in the way she hits on Mel, I was like, genuinely shook. I'm glad Mel isn't automatically outraged that a married woman is flirting with her, and she doesn't jump to any conclusions (though she does hypothesize into the void with another queer friend in an open relationship). Ultimately, Bebe and Kade tell Mel pretty early on that they're poly, and that Bebe would like to see Mel.

Enter their relationship contract that outlines how Mel, Bebe, and Kade interact. I thought it was really cute the way the contract was formatted in the book, so every time the rules of their relationship change, the old parts are crossed out and the new parts are added in.

And the rules do change, to be clear. There are three parts in this book and each part focuses on a different facet of the relationship with them ultimately deciding they would all like to be together (as opposed to Bebe, and then both Kade and Bebe seeing Mel individually). Kade and Mel's relationship is initially tinged with a lot of foot-in-the-mouth moments. The good thing about the contract is, it provides boundaries but they're just super awkward with one another until they have the opportunity to bond without Bebe, and all bets are off. And honestly, Kade has my heart— they're deadpan and somewhat blunt but as you get to know them better along with Mel (this is a single-person POV book— do I think it would have benefitted from all 3 POVs? Maybe, but I don't feel like I missed any important context), you see they're an absolute sweetheart— an artist who feels deeply but keeps that side hidden. There are a couple instances where Kade is misgendered and we see the misconceptions people harbor about non-binary people, and I thought it was interesting to read not only how they, but also their love interest (Mel) deals with it.

I realize I haven't talked a lot about the actual plot— the cocktail making competition and Mel's job at the bar— but I thought both were written with so much love for the craft and respect for service workers.

The sex:

Super hot, super well-written. It's always fun to read the individual and group dynamics because they're so unique. Bebe is an out-and-proud pillow princess, and I kinda love that she was able to coax out a "mean", more selfish side of Mel, who is usually more of a giver in real life. Kade is a service top and this book answers the question what happened when a top and a service top get together— the answer does involve cum-eating. Also, the last sex scene in the book? Fabulous. Excellent. There are strap-ons. There's face-sitting. I have no notes.

Overall:

I really enjoyed this book! @tjalexandernyc wrote a banger, and the payoff of seeing three very different individuals connect, fall in love and make space for each other is absolutely worth it, and I'd recommend this to any romance reader.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[tabithatwo]

Ella Purnell I'M IN YOUR WALLS..... I WANT THAT MOMENT WHERE SHAUNA GETS HER BACK TO BE IN THE FINALE PLEASE GOD. LET'S MANIFEST IT. YOU'RE SO RIGHT THEY ARE SETTING IT UP. THEY HAVE NOT JUST DROPPED THAT STORYLINE THANK FUCK I WAS SO WORRIED THERE FOR A SEC. JACKIE HAUNTING SHAUNA IS SO UNBELIEVABLY CRUCIAL IT CANNOT LITERALLY JUST DISAPPEAR IT WOULD MAKE NO NARRATIVE SENSE WHATSOEVER!!!! I need to calm down but I do think, even if I dislike the creative choice due to my Jackie Bias, that it does make sense for Shauna to temporarily lose the ability to hallucinate her after cannibalizing her and thus feeling the absence of her physical body. Jackie is inside her now but she can't see her so it's not as easy as projecting that false image of her being alive onto her corpse like she was before. Actually kind of excited to see what will allow Shauna to conjure her up again.... In my mind the Jackie we've seen thus far truly was a hallucination because she was so clearly vocalizing Shauna's subconscious desires BUT I desperately want them to actually communicate. I want Shauna to see Jackie and have a conversation with her and for it to genuinely feel like Jackie's ghost. Need Jackie to be tangible I miss my girl so bad. I know she's got shit to say LET HER SPEAK! I know you might not answer this ask but I'd love your thoughts !!!!

ELLA HAS BEEN TRYING SHE'S BEEN LIKE HEYYYYYYY YELLOWJACKETS LET ME OUT OF MY CAGE I WOULD LIKE TO PLAY JACKIE TAYLOR MORE which is why it is so frustrating to me like DAMN i am in the walls of the showtime execs who didn't wanna pay for her ass and/or showrunners who didn't wanna use her WHATEVER. my biggest fear is the lack of her presence (ella or not!) in 2021 HOWEVER i think that this show is very WILLING to do a thing i don't love but need to get on board with i guess, which is completely reshape the way the adults interact with things based on what we're seeing unfold in 96 (nobody come explain narrative storytelling to me PLEASE i beg you, i've learned to give so many disclaimers that i Understand Things now cause BOY do people want to educate you, i understand pulling focus to a theme i pinky promise!!! i just think that, partly because of all the other characters and storylines they crammed into 21, they shift to a degree that Lacks The Level Of Character Continuity That I Desire, okay it is a personal PREFERENCE, if you don't care about that i am SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!!!) sorry anon, for the obligatory pls know i understand things aside. NOW 96 jackie. yes yes yes agree!! meat shed jackie that we've had was hallucination, with near 100% certainty. i think that if they're planning on delivering on all the threads they start to unravel in this show (which doesn't always happen in any show so i am cautious in my optimism) they have got to do something with 1x10. the cabin guy presence in the dream realm is really a firm suggestion that there are ghosts happening. laura lee can be written off as a dream they would have, but he is NOT. now i DO think they're putting way too much effort into this dream realm to NOT have it be developed or mean something, and i think that the separation between everyone else in jackie's death dream and cabin guy and laura lee coming in and welcoming her is pretty concrete. there is...whatever the fuck the uncanny valley versions of the yellowjackets are (i think they're "it" playing tricksy games personally) and the Actual Dead (cabin guy, laura lee, jackie). SO ALL THIS TO SAY yeah. i think there is real potential for them to pick up that thread and establish ghost jackie. i think there is also potential for her and shauna to communicate. i think PERSONALLY (no one come to my asks to tell me this is stupid i literally cannot handle you today okay give a girl a break i beg) that there's a very good chance that by the end of the show shauna in the 21 timeline sees/communicates with/(joins?) ghost jackie, whether she gets to see her in 96 tl or not. these are my thoughts they have diverted maybe from your point and if so i am so sorry lol along those lines i have RAGING adhd, so when you say i might not answer i hope it isn't because i haven't responded to an ask you've sent me before but if it is i promise it isn't personal! this goes to anyone else too, like i really have 17 things happening at once at all times and i drop the ball sometimes lol but know that i love to hear people's thoughts <3 <3

[selfdiagnosedeyemotif]

Ema Skye for ask game

a) i think she had a major falling out with her friends (kay and sebastian from aai, but you wouldnt know them) about 4 years into the 7yg, and hadn't spoken to them for a hot sec going into ajaa. b) she reads as being a bit of a tech wiz to me in addition to her other scientific prowess. i think she has the single most powerful modded 3ds on the planet. like that thing runs elden ring. (source: the sprite attached at the top of the post). c) she and lana shared an apartment for a few months after the latter got out of prison. they have both sworn to never repeat such a thing. even if they grew up with only the two of them, that is something that must stay in the past.

on a doylist level, i do think that giving her something to differentiate her personality-wise from maya in the first game would have been to her benefit. on a watsonian level, she is enough of an asshole that i dont think i would want to be around her all that much. like the hater schtick would be fun at first but it would get tired fast.

truly just a phenomenal depiction of what it's like to grow up. you change. sometimes, the way you used to be isnt something you can keep up anymore. that little kid isnt you anymore. but the stuff that they loved, their passions, are still your passions. you can't change that. and sometimes, those things can come back to you. also, GREAT way to really sell the weight of the 7yg. beanix alone would have been good, but having an outsider perspective on state vs. enigmar makes it feel way more real, especially given her second perspective on that change is paired nicely with her own personal changes.

shes a fellow science freak. i dont talk a ton about it online but i fucking love chemistry. chemistry is my shit. and i see a lot of the same traits in regards to that (especially in how it can quickly usurp ema's cynicism) in her.

im boring. i like faraskye (kay faraday from aai and ema). they just feel like they wouldve swapped numbers after their brief meeting in aai1-3, and i just find the idea pretty fun (and like. i think they ABSOLUTELY need to have gotten close in some regard, hence the headcanon in 1a)

a) i think she and klavier made up after the events of turnabout succession. like a big part of her feud with him was his involvement in state vs. enigmar and phoenix's disbarment, and that trial proved that he wasn't at fault for that. the two of them obviously had other stuff to work through, they were both kinda dicks to each other, but it was a start. b) after she failed the forensics exams, the first person she went to was lana. the two of them had a good cry about it for a while in the visitor's room of the prison. c) she cried at the first one of trucy's performances that she went to. the weirdgirl-former weirdgirl link got a little too powerful there. d) a bit vaguer, but she should have met maya! before aa6! im not even sure if the two of them met in aa6! but they still should have met before getting to that point! e) ill be real ive kinda run out of steam on the situations thing so i might have to leave it here. apologies

ditto for this one. i havent the foggiest, mostly by virtue of the fact that theres only so many characters that ema interacts with

[lostsneeze]

Vod Transcript From Your Fav

Hey everybody what’s up today we’re playing this game, it’s apparently just a worse version of Overwatch or something, I don’t really know. But I’m a worse version of an Overwatch player so maybe it’ll be a good time.

Now chat I did play it a little bit already, um, yesterday, on an unscheduled stream, because you have-there’s like, you don’t get to play against humans until rank 5 or account level 5 or experience level 5 or something, I don’t know what it’s called, but we did it. So now we can get into the real game *sniffs*

Is this going to be another sneeze stream? Man I hope not, that was weird. I don’t-I don’t know if it’s allergies or if I’m getting sick or if that was just random like, I don’t know. I mean I feel fine, or well, I don’t feel sick or anything. I mean I feel kind of just generally not great but I’m pretty sure that’s just because my sleep schedule is dogwater.

Alright match found, let’s go!

Okay let’s see what our team is picking…I say like I recognize any of these characters. *laughs* I’m just going to just pick one of the like 2 dudes I figured out already regardless.

Alright I’m picking this pirate guy. He’s great, he’s like the demoman in TF2. Any of you guys play TF2? Nobody better call me a boomer for that. That game’s a classic, alright?

Okay, enemy picks…Oh dangit they’re picking this…this fucking, this trenchcoat ass, beetleborg ass motherfucker. I hate this dude, he’s like…he’s like McCre-er, Cowboy, but he can fly. And he has like a reflect…shield…thing.

*sneeze* One sec, sorry. *sneeze* Oh no, it’s happening again! Ha. *sniffs*

Hmm, this is going to be tough. Actually wait that guy’s shield thing I think says it reflects shots? Like the ability description, I think it doesn’t say like attacks-one second *sneeze* augh. Excuse me. It doesn’t say attacks in general. So maybe, cuz my guy th-throws…bomb…*sneeze* Oh my god trying to explain this while I have to sneeze is so hard! *sniffs* My guy throws bombs and this game differentiates between like, shot damage and blast damage. So if he only reflects shots maybe I can throw bombs at him, or like his feet, so the explosion gets him? And then it doesn’t get reflected? *sniffs* Like does that work? What do you think chat?

Yes…No…No…Idk but try it. Alright helpful as ever you guys thanks. I mean we’re gonna try it.

Alright we’re getting into the match. I don’t know this map but it’s fine we just sit in the back and throw grenades. See…look they actually can’t handle it, they’re, they’re going to have to send that guy up here, the flying bastard…Okay here he is okay shoot, his shield’s up, we fire at the feet, and…AAGH!

*deep breath* We’ve learned a lot here today. Ugghh that’s so disappointing.. Okay, it’s fine, we get back, we focus up, the team will not get wiped in the time it takes for me to respawn, surely.

Yeahh, see, this isn’t, we just go up here now I think…Yeah that’s right, get outta here you freakin’ nerds…Oh this is so much easier, when that guy’s not around. We just k-keep...firing, I’m…*sneeze* *sneeze* oh crap the-the *sneeze* The…Crap I don’t know the names! *sneeze* *sneeze* I can’t…*sneeze* Augh BALLS I died while I was sneezing, god…dangit! Sorry chat I hope wasn’t not too loud. *sniffs*

That freakin’ green guy, man! *sniffs* He, he’s a Jedi, he force-choked me! I couldn’t move! *sniffs* Fuck, that guy’s supposed to be a healer too I think, why does he do so much fucking damage??? *sniffs* What the heck.

Why not mute mic? Because we are engaged in serious gamer business right now, there ain’t no time for that! …Literally one button just hotkey it, chat I’m actually a boomer? I can’t handle the thought process of trying to stay alive AND sneeze AND remember a hotkey outside the normal buttons, it’s too much.

Is it actually annoying though chat like is it bad? Be honest.

No, nah, no, no not really…kinda cute tbh LOL alright excellent, my camgirl era can finally begin.

Ahhh nuts, okay. Yeah so now we have to defend *sniffs*, but it’s fine cuz our…whoever she is, our goth mommy. *sniffs* She’s our healer and she has her ult so we’re going to be able to get aggressive here *sniffs* and take a good position I think. Cuz like, this…I remember hearing the maps in this game don’t have like hella chokepoints *sniffs* the way Overwatch does. So it’s important, I think we want to keep them as far as we can as soon as we can. *sniffs* We don’t want them moving up like at all.

*sniffs* Ugh should’ve grabbed tissues while I was dead.

What are you guys…chat she is! She is a goth mommy, look at her. *sniffs* It’s not weird to say if it’s true. Oh that’s her ult…yesss, yessssssss. *laughs* look, I can just stand in the…okay actually I’m still taking some damage here let’s back up. *sniffs* Back it up back it up. *sniffs* Crap I have to sneeze a-again…god dangit *sneeze* *sneeze* *sneeze* O-oh my *sneeze* god *sneeze* what is this *sneeze* Oh jesus th-this hehh bullcrap’s gonna kill me a-again *sneeze* *sneeze* *sneeze* Bro what the HECK. Aaaugh this is so annoying. I’m annoyed chat! *sniffs*

Sorry guys *sniffs* I’m getting, these sneezes are tilting me. Like I think I’m actually doing pretty well on the whole it’s just I, like every time I die it’s to this crap. *sniffs* Our team’s kind of slaying tho *sniffs* hold on. Yo our team’s kind of SLAYING tho hold on! Even like *sniffs*…see even after I die they pop off cuz my dude just does so much damage with the grenades, like look at these assists.

*sniffs* Oh my god I HAVE to blow my nose. AND I DIDN’T GRAB TISSUES WHILE I WAS DEAD AGAIN CUZ I WAS TILTED! *sniffs* I don’t have…Ugh I…alright chat look away. Look away chat. Turn the stream off. I don’t want you to see this. *blows* Sorry. I’m sorry everyone! *blows* Sorry but it was necessary. A necessary evil.

Okay now I think we can get back in this. Like I’m going to get up to this spot now and we’re just gonna like, we can just force them to come at us soooo slowly. They have to regroup and they have to, like they can’t risk being in the open for long…So we just keep, okay actually, that trenchcoat guy is coming I’mma port out…it’s fine we back up here and he has no idea, we just wait a little bit…Yeah and now we can go like over here maybe.

We just gotta attrition them. Cuz even if they make it through us here they still have to hehh oh my god *sneeze* Damnit *sneeze* I-I’m freaking *sneeze* UGhh okay hide hide *sneeze* sneeze* *sneeze*…*sneeze*

Okay *sniffs* don’t mind me I just had to hide over here and sneeze for a little bit. It’s all good, allies are killing it. Our tank’s doing like, tank things. Goth mommy is doing mom-no I’m not finishing that actually. *sniffs* Ugh. Yeah see, they have to get all the way to the base still. So all the time we buy is going to like, yeah like look how do they get through this? They don’t have, even with overtime I don’t think they have long enough, yknow? *sniffs*

Yes yes yes, hold on, we’re…EYY let’s go! Alright that was round one. I’m gonna find some tissues and then we’re gonna do this, next round’s ours. BRB.

[side-shuffling-hyperfixations]

Could you maybe do 22 (falling asleep on the other’s shoulder) + 23 (carrying them in their arms) with the Peters? For example, Peter Three has been up for waayyy to long and his brothers help him out? Also I gotta say I really love your writing!!

22. Falling asleep on the other’s shoulder + 23. Carrying them in their arms

“I’m not really sure why you’re asking me to do this intervention, Peter. I’m just as much on that insomniac grind as he is; he’ll peg me as a hypocrite right off the bat,” Peter Two pointed out.

“Maybe not, okay, you don’t know for sure! He looks up to you, we both do! He’s more likely to listen to you than me, at least. Y-You can approach it as somebody who actually understands!” Peter One pleaded. “H-He’s really bad right now. He’s back on the coffee and the energy shots and those, like, hyper-caffeine patches. I don’t even know how long he’s been awake; actually I’m not really sure he knows at this point. He’s starting to get that look, like he had before.”

Peter Two couldn’t help but grimace at the reminder. The last time Peter Three had pushed himself so hard, it had resulted in nine days’ worth of caffeine withdrawals that were none too pretty. “Alright. Brother knows best.”

“Just don’t let him suck you into whatever he’s doing too; he’s already neck deep—”

“Sure, sure, sure, sure, neck deep, but that means my ears are still above ground—a-above water—above whatever! I can hear you!” Peter Three announced as he hauled the door open, big, bloodshot eyes flicking wildly between them. “Two, Peter Two, I’m totally, absolutely about to do exactly what Peter One said to not do and I’m gonna suck you into—to—to do what I’m doing! C’mere, I wanna show you a—it’s almost—I’ve almost got it!”

“Wait, but I—” Peter Two jumped as Three abruptly lashed out for his arm, hauling him into the mountainous midst of tech, tools, and trash teetering precariously in the room.

“I know, I know, I know, it’ll just be a real teeny quick sec, okay? You gotta see this first, you gotta tell me what it’s missing so I can flux—flix—f-fix it!” A tense noise shook through him. “Sorry, mouth—word vomit! S’just a headache, my brain’s in, like, ten tiff—d-d-different places right now!” A hoarse attempt at a laugh escaped him, which Peter Two didn’t return.

“Before you show me what you’ve been working on, why don’t you hit the pause button real quick, take a deep breath in…” He demonstrated, inhaling deeply, and Three jerked a nod, shakily following. “And out…Good, that’s good. Now how about a hug? I haven’t seen you in days; I’ve missed your hugs.”

“Days? Yeah, I guess it has been, uh…um…I-I…” His breath hitched again. “I’ve missed you too. I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to—for it—I’ve just had a lot going on, I got all excited about jumping right in and then once I started— It’s just been a lot on my mind and, uh—and—”

“Oh, believe me, I know. Wanting to get it all done in one shot, otherwise it’s going to be circling around and around in your head while you’re trying to sleep. But you’ve been trying not to, haven’t you?” Two kept his voice gentle but cautionary. “Peter, you remember that conversation we all had a while back, about caffeine levels like this interacting badly with your meds?”

“…Yeah.”

“Their job is to keep you calmer and more focused. When you’re hopped up way over the limit like this, they can’t work like they’re supposed to and neither can you. That’s why your project needs some adjustments now, huh?” Another tiny nod, hands weak and jittery as they curled into Peter Two’s back. “I can take a look at it for you if you can take a break for me.”

“…Can we…I-I don’t wanna…nnh.” Frustration, guilt and dejection dragged across his haggard face, forcing it down against Two’s shoulder. Rubbing circles over his back, Peter Two waited it out for a few minutes until Three gathered himself enough to speak again, a slurred, muffled croak. “S’rry…I th-think if I let go of you, m’gonna pass out.”

“Okay. You’re not gonna fall, bud, I’ve gotcha. Peter One—?”

“Clear the bed,” Peter read his mind, already on his way to push heaps of laundry and paper plates and cups out of the way. Grunting softly, Peter Two bent back to compensate as Three’s legs gave out, hooking both arms around buckling knees to lift him.

The path to the bed was a precarious one, full of stops and starts as Peter One had to keep kicking stray shoes and wrenches and boxes out of the way. By the time they made it, Peter Three was out, though still shivery and loosely clinging to Two’s neck as he tried to maneuver him down.

“Are you free to snuggle up with him for a while so I can work on…” He glanced with some trepidation over at the desk. “…whatever’s happening over there?”

“Sure thing—as long as it doesn’t take another nine days!”

[ilaiyayaya]

I Just Really Want To Like Everything Ever

There are so many things I just desperately wish I could get interested in but like, I just can't no matter how hard I try and it fucking sucks. I have a lot of friends that I've met through a lot of weird places, both online and in-person, and like every friend group I have just has completely different interests that sound so cool, and I would love to share those interests, but even when I try, some things just like, aren't for me, and that's okay I guess, but it's still kinda lame. Why can't I share every single interest every single one of my friends have this is so sad 😔.

Gacha games are a really big one. I love Genshin Impact, I have played it since launch, but it is the singular exception, and when I first learned about it I didn't know that it was a gacha game, I was told that it was an MMO; and the reason I still play it isn't really because of the gacha elements, I just have an unhealthy obsession with min-maxing and watching number go up, and Genshin is prime for that. Most gacha games do not appeal to me at all, I don't enjoy gambling at all and the idea of spending a significant amount of real money on any game gives me extreme anxiety, and the gameplay outside of the gacha systems are usually super uninteresting, so much so that almost every gacha game has an auto-battle system so you don't have to sit through the tedious part of the game and can just get back to rolling for pretty women. Despite this, I have tried out like every gacha game that I have even the tiniest bit of interest in for at least a few minutes, and I almost always drop them all within an hour of playing, they're just so boring and a lot of them are also really needlessly confusing when you start, especially ones that have been around for a few years, like idk wtf I'm even supposed to be doing. Almost every person I know is into at least 1 gacha (and they're all into completely different ones too lol), which I technically am too, Genshin Impact is a gacha game, even if I don't really play it very much like one, but I have attempted and failed to get into almost all of them. I'm just gonna list off a few in very recent memory that I have played and then dropped almost immediately: Touhou Lostword, Honkai Impact 3rd, Arknights, Fate/Grand Order, Blue Archive I TRIED PLAYING ALL OF THESE WITHIN THE LAST LIKE 3 MONTHS THEY ALL FUCKING SUCK I was really hoping I would like Honkai too, now I'll never know firsthand the deep lore of why Luocha in Star Rail is carrying around a coffin filled with printed out low quality jpegs of the queen of England 😢. Also why do all gacha games have to have such good character designs, like I know the actual answer is so you spend more money rolling for them but like, these motherfuckers-

Maybe I should try Uma Musume next maybe that one will be good surely... Oh yea I forgot I also played Puzzle & Dragons for a few years when I was like 12, but like I don't think I ever even rolled in that I just really like puzzle games. Oh and I guess Xenoblade 2 is technically a gacha game, that counts right? Dam I guess I actually am a gacha gamer! WAIT A SEC, COUNTING XENOBLADE 2 MEANS I CAN INCLUDE URSULA IN MY LIST!!!

Look at her, she's so oomfie-core. And she's the best healer in the game. Objectively. You are not allowed to disagree with me. I WILL cry.

Fighting games are probably the absolute biggest example of something I want to get into, but just cannot. Every single person I know plays fighting games, and for a large portion of them it's the main genre they play, even the ones that aren't that into fighting games still have like 1 that they play pretty often. I know several people that have played at high level tournaments in multiple fighting games, idk shit about the Smash Melee competitive community except that there's this guy named Hungrybox, and one of my friends has had some really bad experiences with them, and like, edgeguarding is bad I guess. This sounds like bragging about like, knowing people in high places in the fighting game scene, but like, this is literally a bad thing for me lol, why can't I know high level Tetris players or like, a single person that has completed an ultimate raid in FFXIV my friend group fucking sucks I hate my friends (I'M JOKING DON'T YELL AT ME AAAAAAAA I LOVE MY FRIENDS I FORCED ONE OF THEM TO READ UMINEKO AND THEY ONLY COMPLAINED LIKE, A FEW TIMES). Recently the desire to get into fighting games has been like, especially strong because one of my closest friends who was one of the only people I knew that wasn't into the FGC, started getting really into them in the last year so I've been hearing about it even more than usual, even one of my irl coworkers is into fighting games (later edit: forgor she follows me on here, she probably doesn't read these hopefully, but if she does see this, hi lol, I promise I'm only unhinged when it's funny and also most of the rest of the time), so like I just can't escape it no matter what, god is real and he's mocking me for not liking beating people up digitally (what an asshole). I played Umineko Golden Fantasia today (now like, 4 days ago), which like, I knew beforehand was not a very good game, like obviously it was just gonna be a mediocre at best doujin fighter, but like, I was really hoping the Umineko brainrot would carry me into it becoming a gateway drug and me finally getting into fighting games as a whole! It didn't work :( I played it for like an hour and decided it sucked (big surprise who would've guessed). I was also going to try Guilty Gear XX, but like, now I'm afraid to, cause I'm not confident I'll like it (even tho Xrd is by far my favorite fighting game and the only one I've been able to put any significant time into) and if I don't like it, it's like, so over, everyone I know plays XX, it's the only game that I know more than one person that plays at a tournament level. I feel like if I play XX and don't end up enjoying it that's like, the final nail in the coffin, I'll never get into fighting games ever, I'm fucked, life is doomed, it's so joever. But on the other hand, if XX did end up being the game that truly gets me into fighting games, it's like, the best one, I'd have so many friends to play with, I literally know like, 8 people that play XX all the time at multiple different skill levels! But like, that's why the stakes are so high to a point that the idea of playing it just gives me really bad anxiety, cause like, if I don't like it, and I feel like there's like an 80% chance that I won't, I'm just fucked, I'll never be able to relate to all my FGC friends 😔.

Also like, ngl, fighting games kinda have peak character designs, like gacha games are literally sold on their character designs and yet fighting games somehow have them outclassed most of the time imo. Like, dam, how they so cool frfr???

Really it's just Guilty Gear that has the best designs for the most part but like, other fighting games do too, I'm just not digging to find them and Guilty Gear is the only series I've put more than 30 minutes into.

Ngl kinda not just the character designs, I love the art, the music, the community, the metaphysical concept, the idea, literally everything about fighting games, except the gameplay, and more specifically the progression structure of them. Most fighters have like, no in-game form of progression outside of like, an arcade mode for each character and maybe a mediocre story mode, and beyond that it's usually just up to you to get your own value out of the game by just improving yourself and matches against others, and like, that's cool, and that works for most people, but not for me I need funny little lists that I can put checkmarks on every time I do a thing. Fighting games are pretty much entirely intrinsic enjoyment with little to no extrinsic motivation, which I want to make clear, is not necessarily a bad thing at all, and is probably why people who get into fighting games get so into them for such a long time, the enjoyment comes entirely from improving yourself and getting better and that's like, really based, but also uhhhh I'm bad at that lol. I suck at intrinsic motivation, I need to have some kind of external force motivating me to do anything long term, and fighting games just don't give that external motivation, the most they'll do is like, give you a checklist of combos in the training mode and every time you complete a combo you get a little check (which tbh is probably the only reason I was ever able to get into Xrd lol), and like, that motivates me to learn characters and actually get good at the game, but then once the combo lists for every character I want to play is finished I just lose interest. Idk, like I say that I can't get into any game that requires motivating yourself, and that generally is the case, but like, I also play Tetris, and I have like, probably close to 10k hours across all versions of Tetris and that also has absolutely no outside motivation, but like, Tetris is special, idk why it's special, but like, it's just special okay? Maybe Tetris stole all of my internal gamer motivation and therefore I'll never find another game ever that I'll want to put effort in to get good at 😔.

One more final thing that I have no interest in that my friends like: Gunpla! Specifically Gunpla, like the model kits, not Gundam as a whole, I know I'm not interested in a majority of the Gundam franchise beyond G-Witch and some of the games like Gundam Dynasty Warriors, and I don't really care enough to get into the rest of it, it's just not for me and I've accepted that long ago. Gunpla tho is in like, a kinda weird spot compared to those other 2 things, those I want to like, but just can't get into even slightly despite trying over and over, Gunpla I do like, but only sometimes. I like Gunpla, I've built like, 7 or 8 model kits in the last 2 years, but I only ever really feel like building a kit like once every 2 or 3 months, and only for like maybe an hour or 2 at a time, the issue tho is that I'm really slow so an hour or 2 is not nearly enough for me to finish even a high grade lol. I bought the Figure-rise Standard kits of Miorine and Suletta like 3 months ago, and the box for Miorine is still sitting on a shelf unopened, and the kit for Miorine has been sitting on my desk for over a month, half built, and like I need to finish it, I want to finish both of them, but like, I just never feel like it. Luckily Gunpla isn't really something I want to talk about very much with others, it's kinda just, a solo hobby for me. I initially got into it through a friend that used to participate in a lot of Gunpla building competitions, but unlike with fighting games or gachas, I don't really have any interest in talking about it with others, so I don't really feel the need to get super into it, but I wish I at least liked it enough to motivate myself to finish these 2 kits cause I really want to put them together on my shelf, and I also really want Suletta out of the fucking way she is taking up 2/3rds of my desk. Also I really want to paint Gunpla, that's the main reason I got into it, but like, that requires so many supplies, and it takes a lot of time and you need a well ventilated space to do any kind of airbrushing and aaaaa thinking about how many steps there are to even start painting hurts my brain I'll just thinking about Suletta and Miorine kissing instead.

Writing this took too long and also has too many words and also I'm getting eepy disease and I wanna talk about something else instead I started writing this like a week ago. But yea maybe someday I'll finally buy SONOHIGURASHI VS. TOUHOU UNIVERSE2 and my life will be changed forever and i'll finally be a fighting game fan life will be good ok byebye byeeee!!! honk shoo honk shoo hooooooonk mimimimi...

[leewonkyeom]

Naurrr i literally shed my blood sweat and tears trying to come up with a username 😭 like all the usernames I typed in were taken somehow (even the most down bad ones like Jaehyunleftbuttcheek)

YOU'RE SO RIGHT Chan is being a real threat nowadays 😭😭 he is a good brother figure but like...he been looking a bit TOO fine recently... especially that one back it up performance pic of his (you definitely know what I'm talking about I'll still put that pic in tho)

This was my last straw.

Pls not shua bias wrecking both of us like damn dude don't do this to me T^T vernon and hoshi are fighting for their spots in my svt bias unit 😭 (or they just have to make more space)

I love how we both had vernon in mind when Spiderman au was mentioned lol he fits in a bit too perfectly <33

with the Jeonghan one I was saying that if anyone decided to make a Spiderman au with him he would be Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy and the reader would be in the place of Peter Parker! (It's biblically accurate cause I'm the one down bad and desperate for hannie) If Vernon is Spidey then ofc reader would be his mj/Gwen

Ooh a Avengers au sounds interesting!! It could either be a serious fic or a crack smau I kinda had a similar idea for a while now but instead of Avengers it's teen titans! i would eat the Avengers au up if you ever decided to write it anyways which Avengers would be who? I'm assuming cheol would be iron man and Woozi would be Cap??

Oh Scandinavia! I have heard those things don't phase ya'll much but i didn't know ya'll were chill like that! The culture I'm from is more sort of reserved?? Things like that are very taboo so in a million years i would NEVER watch any media with adult scenes with my family T^T

I was able to sit through sex education (on my own ofc) it's actually a pretty good series but i haven't watched the recent episodes yet

Ida is still a very cute nickname I love it!! I was gonna go by my government name too but it's kinda weird to pronounce and just doesn't suit as much as Jolene does 😭

WAIT YOU'RE A JOJO FAN?? omgomg what are your favourite parts and characters⁉️

lmao i love that😭😭 i love those jaehyunsleftbuttcheek names on some level, but the name you have now is sm cuter!! i think it turned out well

NO CAUSE ALL I'M ABLE TO SEE IS THAT DINO PIC I AM NOT WELL😭😭 dino literally shows up in all my pulls😭 like i have two carat versions of this guy😭 AND HE ALWAYS LOOKS SO FINE

i agree. personally my bias line is ot13😌😌 always room for everyone

vernon is absolutely perfect😭 so perfect that i didn't even really think about reader being a spider creature instead of him😭😭 but that actually sounds like a good idea... i'll think about it. also seems easier to execute than a whole avengers type thing😭

i agree that cheol would be iron man, but cao is 100% shua😭 like he's captain AMERICA. i imagine woozi more like hulk😭 ig wonwoo or mingyu would fit too, but they don't get angry often enough tbh. so mingyu's more of a thor maybe?

like i watched the entire game of thrones series with my mom😭 like it's awkward still, but definitely nothing more than that. like i am shocked the way some people on the internet treat sex, bc in my culture it's seen as such a normal thing🥴 i'm also not caught up on sec education lmao

thank you!! no, but that'd definitely fair. besides i love the name jolene so i get it 100%

i feel like almost everyone who likes kpop also likes anime? but yes!! my fave part is part 4 (i've only watched until part 5 though whoops, but i know who jolyne is dw) and fave character is josuke. what about you?

[brainsforbrunch]

The Dungeon Master (18+)

warnings!: smut, 18+, swearing, fluff at the very end, no spoilers (I think!), fem!reader/listener, kink names (slut, whore, good girl, etc.), fingering, penetrative sex, smoking weed, choking, oral sex, reader is 18+!

description: a short smut fic based on (this audio), after teasing you, your DM and neighbor Eddie Munson confronts some hidden feelings

a/n: this is my first real smut writing (it has not been proofread yet so there may be mistakes) I would be glad to do other characters so feel free to leave suggestions (i will do most characters [adults only ofc]) Enjoy! ❤

---------------------------

"Alright guys you get home safe! " Eddie closes the door after saying goodbye to the last of the members and takes a seat back down on the couch with you, taking the lit blunt you had been smoking.

The Hellfire club had just finished off a campaign in Eddie's trailer with an epic battle between your party and a fire elemental. You had done him a solid, helping him clean up after the group, in return you two decided to let off some steam, not like you had to earn his stash anyway.

"Hey, thanks for helping me clean up tonight" Eddie brings the rolled paper to his mouth and takes a long drag

You let out a soft laugh "No, thank you, that session tonight was amazing".

Eddie's eyes light up, he always loves when you enjoy his campaigns " Oh I know, you got so fucking lucky. I mean you completely obliterated that fire elemental, and it was so many more levels than your entire party"

He gives you a big smile and chuckles "I mean who needs power when you're that lucky! Two nat twenties are kidding me" You roll your eyes playfully at his comment.

"You know, I'm really glad you joined the party. It can get pretty dicey with all the testosterone driven egos in the party, I'm glad you enjoy it, get the hang of things"

He shrugs a bit and offers the blunt back to you "For how long we've known each other it was only a matter of time before you joined my little dnd cult".

You raise an eyebrow and take it between your fingers "Cult? Really? Very interesting Munson".

He puts on that signature smirk and leans in a bit closer to you " Yes, it is a cult... And I am your God" he lowers his voice at the last part before bursting out laughing "Yes yes, hail me".

You pull away from him a bit, you could already tell he was trying to to push your buttons with his constant teasing "Oh cmon, I kicked your campaign's ass tonight" you say firmly.

He chuckles to himself "You really know how to run that mouth of yours. It would be a shame to give your character another run in with the fire elemental, I wonder if your dice would save you this time" he stares directly into your eyes, enjoying the slight glare youre giving him

"Or how about an evil evil tentacle monster" he glides his fingers against the side of your thigh while you take a drag "Mm, maybe that's for a private session".

You choke on the smoke in your throat from your surprise, god, he knew exactly how to make your body riled up. Collecting yourself, you give him a hard punch in the shoulder, making Eddie burst out laughing.

" Ow! I'm just kidding, you're so cute, are you blushing? Y'know your half-elf might appreciate this battle"

He leans into your ear after looking you up and down, examining your glorious reactions to his teasing "you seem to enjoy the thought of it, sweetheart".

He stays there for a moment before pulling away and clearing his throat "Oh we should be getting pizza for tonight by the way, horror movie Fridays and all".

Eddie and you had a tradition since middle school where you would lay together on his couch and watch horror movies, often quarreling about which flicks are superior.

" You want to order Ed's? I think we should get a half and half" You hold out the blunt to him

He nods, taking it and stands up, picking up his phone

"Yeah sounds good, hang on one sec".

As he types in the number you press a finger into his side " Ed, do the voice, pleeease"

He rolls his eyes playfully and dabs out the blunt, shushing you as it rings. Eddie clears his throat and puts on a surfer bro accent, as he orders he keeps slipping up, trying to hold back his own laughter.

After ordering he lays down with you, you gently place your hand in his and rub small circles "So what are we watching tonight Munson?"

He smiles a bit "Oh, Evil Dead, for sure mixing horror and comedy like that is talent".

You shake your head " What about the scary movie-"

Eddie shushes you, cutting you off by putting a finger to your lips "No no shh you don't know what you're talking about, the scary movie franchise is horror themed comedy, it's totally different"

You give his ringed finger a little nibble, successfully making him remove his hand "well what about scream? What do you have to say about that, hm? " you glare at him playfully.

He shakes his head "Ah scream is a thriller, if anything, has fantastic writing though".

You roll your eyes " Finally, we agree on something, but since you have a opinion on it, who's your favourite character?"

He laughs a bit and nods "Oh Sid, hands down and Dewey is a close second but that's just because he's a funny man child"

"I can't say I'm surprised you like ghost face, you did mention you had a crush on Billy" he smirks.

You shake your head "Oh my god Munson, I did not, you're lying"

"Yes you did, I remember because you were cooing about him the entire movie"

He brushes a strand of hair behind your ear and lowers his voice "You like how he talked, like some sexy stalker"

The feeling of his warm hand and his eyes piercing through you makes you squirm while he talks, clearly falling for his game again "I- get over yourself Eddie, I did not"

He let's out a satisfied chuckle, knowing he's already getting the reaction he wants "Don't deny it, I can see your lip quiver and your chest heave, who you kidding princess?"

You feel can feel his words make a dampness between your legs, he was already making you needy "S-shut up".

You yank a bit on his curls in a attempt for him to quiet. "Hey, stop" Eddie plasters a smirk across his face "What? Is this voice turning you on? Making your heart race"

He leans into your neck, his lips inches away from your ear "Mm what if I get closer, you like that? "

You let out a small whine and stay frozen in place, you wish he'd just do something, anything. Your thighs squeeze together and press up against him, searching for friction

"But hey that's just my interpretation y'kno- " Eddie's heart begins to go faster when he feels your plush thighs up against him "Ah uh, it was all just acting"

"It's just so much fun to piss you off" He pulls away from your neck and smiles

You roll your eyes "Seriously, you get such a rise out of this"

"Your face gets all scrunched up in a pout and it's uh, it's really cute" your eyes meet as he admires you silently

The two of you stare into each other for a moment before you break the silence "Hey Ed's, uh what are we?..."

His eyes widen and he nervously chuckles "Oh- so we're doing this now? Alright"

"Well uh we are neighbors who watch movies together and make brea-breakfast for each other uh- and play dnd together"

You give him a soft smile. He always seems to finally become as nervous as you when you bring up your relationship, it's cute how he slips on his words.

"Look, don't mind me practicing my improvisational skills, please, so i-"

You lean in closer to him, thighs now straddling his leg. Leaning in close to his face, you shut him up. It's so nice to see him squirm for once.

"What are you doing" he chuckles softly

"What do you mean?" you move your hand to rest on his shoulder

"Your face is very close to my face and you're practically on top of me"

You start to rubs circles on his shoulder as your eyes continue to pierce through him "Hm? "

He takes in a shallow breath and adjusts his leg to cover the bulge growing in his jeans "Did- my Billy impression really do it for you"

"Seriously, or are you just forcing me to confront some hidden feelings" He stops for a moment and hooks his fingers into yours "Y'know just forget I said anything, please?"

"Hm, why? " You take your hand off his shoulder to clasp your hand into his

"Why? Well you don't think of me like that, I mean why the hell would you- "

You suddenly close the gap between each other, clashing your lips and teeth together. Eddie let's a small grunt, surprised by the sudden kiss.

He then releases his hand, placing it to the back of your neck and pulling you closer. His tongue glides across your bottom lip, asking for permission to enter.

You part your lips allowing him entrance, you whine into the kiss when you feel his hand run down to your waist, gripping firmly.

Eddie's cold rings dig into your skin, he groans into the kiss "Fuck-, y/n you taste so good"

After your lips part from each other, you rest your forehead against his, both of you panting.

"Does this mean your feelings have been stewing too? "

You let out a quiet giggle "I just kissed you Ed's, I think that shows I like you. Do you like me? "

He places a small kiss on the tip of your nose "yeah of course i like you, I've liked you for a long ass time, just never had the balls to say it". He moves his other hand down to your waist and joins them both together " It sure as hell didn't help that I got jealous everytime I saw you bring guys over next door."

"Jealous? Really? Eddie Munson was jealous over me"

"Yeah, I'll admit I got jealous" Eddie shrugs "It didn't help also that you were...loud, seemingly even when I was busy"

You bring your hand up and cup his jaw "Do you hold it against me?"

"No, I don't hold it against you" His grip tightens on your waist, the cold metal of his rings on your skin "It just made me rock hard when I was trying to focus"

You run your fingers through his hair becoming needier as he continues "Ah fuck-, my mind just went a little wild wondering what you were doing behind those closed doors".

He breathes out against your neck " I just couldn't help but wonder if I could get you to scream my name, if given the chance"

You whine quietly "Mm, tell what you would do, tell me how you'd make me scream"

He let's out a soft chuckle "What would I do? Man you are full of questions today aren't you. I'm glad you asked"

Eddie places one of his hands in your hair, and the other in the dip of your back "Well first I'd make sure you were comfortable, rub your shoulders, run my fingers through your hair"

You let out a shaky breath and lean down to kiss his neck, leaving small marks to the skin before pulling away.

He then rubs his thumb over your bottom lip, dragging it down slowly "Then I'd kiss you, gently at first"

You lean down closer to him, both of your lips barely touching, your chest heaves as you get closer, the look you have on your face practically begging Eddie to close the gap.

He runs his hands up and down your sides making sure to move slower when he gets to your hips "And then I'd get more daring with my selfishness, like this" he slowly moves in, closing the gap between you, gently sliding his tongue into your mouth.

Your tongues intertwined, you give him the occasional nibble on his bottom lip, causing him to groan "Mm- god youre driving me crazy princess"

You continue letting out your quiet moans in between kisses as he runs his hand down your body, making your back arch "Shiit ah- I'm to high for this, you get me so needy Ed's"

"Aw my girl's needy? Tell me what you want me to do y/n, tell me while I ran my hands down your body, I might go past your waistline if you let me" he glides his hand down your stomach, stopping at the hem of your skirt.

"Yes- please Eddie, just do something" you grip your hands into his hair as he tucks under your waistband, cupping you gently

"I can whisper all sorts of things in your ear, naughty things. Whatever I think you want to hear" he leans into your neck leaving soft kisses behind your ear down to your collarbone "I'm not sure if you're patient enough today for that sweetheart"

Eddie breathes out a deep moan against your ear as you run your hands under his shirt, feeling his chest and stomach. He bites on your neck, fingers slowly sliding into your underwear "that's a good girl"

You yank his hair a bit and buck your hips slightly as he cups you, letting out soft moans into his ear.

"Oh? You bucked your hips when I called you a-" he chuckles quietly to himself and you feel his hot breath against your ear "a good girl "

He continues to suck at your neck, occasionally nibbling at your ear lobe. "I know what you want, say it loud and proud as I cup that hot little box of yours" Eddie now looks at you, his brown eyes piercing into yours "tell me you want my fingers inside you"

You hesitate, it's humiliating to beg but god is it worth it if your begging Eddie fucking Munson, and he knew it too. "I-" your hands grip into him, his shirt bundled between your fingers.

"Do it, do it, do it" he chants, giving you a kiss before smirking "cmon y/n, be a good girl, tell me how you want me" Eddie glides his finger over your entrance, edging you on.

"Oh god- fuck I want your fingers inside me, please Eddie, hurry"

He let's out a laugh and slides his digits inside of you, slowly pumping in and out of your pussy. He places his thumb firmly against your clit as he speeds up his movements "you dirty little slut, I knew I should've had you earlier"

The feeling of his cold rings pressing against you and his low words send a jolt through your clit, making you squirm. "Your innocent eyes told me everything baby, especially when you'd prance around my trailer in boxers and a bra, god that made me so hard"

"I cant tell you how many times I wanted to just bend you over and fuck you on the counter right there"

Your walls start to clench around him and you reach for Eddie's arm, digging your nails into his tatted skin.

"You getting close? Aw good girl's getting close" he pulls out of you for a moment, flipping you onto your back. You whine at the loss of his fingers and he chuckles, leaning down to throw your legs over his shoulders "trust me sweetheart, this'll get you squirming"

Eddie laps his tongue over your slit, placing his mouth over your clit as he returns his fingers to your core. He gets you back on your high as you feel him work at your clit.

"Your so close, so needy princess" he continues to pump his fingers in you, his movements faster this time. The warmth starts to pool in your stomach again, as you begin to reach the edge, your thighs press against each side of his head "Eddie, Eddie Ed- Oh god don't stop baby"

He reaches his free hand to push under your shirt, massaging your breast in his cold hands "Beg me, beg me to cum". Eddie replaces his mouth with his thumb, rubbing soft circles around your ball of nerves" Ask me for permission"

You can feel your eyes start to glaze over as you run your hand through his hair "Please Ed's, let me cum, I'm- begging you"

He smirks and continues his work, placing his mouth over your breast and licking at the sensitive bud. Just as you start to tighten, he removes his digits and brings them up to his mouth, sucking off the slick.

"Ed- why'd you stop" you whine out, throwing your head back at the loss of the fullness.

Eddie looks down to see your pleading face and laughs when he sees a slight pout form "Why'd I stop? " He leans down and places a kiss to your collarbone "Atta girl, you cant cum unless I let you, that's why. Aw don't pout sweetheart, you'll get to cum soon".

He sits up and removes your legs from his shoulders, he glides his hand over your stomach "it's just that my cock needs to be inside of you when you do"

Your chest heaves as you watch him lean next to the couch, grabbing a condom out of the drawer. Eddie places a hand under your skirt and hooks his finger on your underwear "can I take these off princess?" He gives you a smile when you nod and slides them down your legs. After they're removed he stuffs them into his back pocket. Yeah, youre probably not getting those back.

Eddie then hikes your skirt up, rubbing at your thighs "so beautiful y/n..."

You mutter under your breath "I think youre the beautiful one Munson"

He then reaches down into his back pocket, pulling out the tin foil wrapped condom you know so well.

Eddie slowly rips open the wrapper with his teeth with one ring clad hand while undoing and removing his belt with the other. As he pulls down his boxers, you sit up and start to peel his shirt off of him, leaving kisses all over his chest after throwing his shirt to the floor.

You take the condom out of his hand, looking up at him for permission. He gives you a nod and as you work to slide it on him, he grabs your waist, running his hands up and down your body. He then suddenly grabs you by your thighs, pulling you forward to position himself between your legs.

You let out a yelp, surprised as you you fall back against the couch. "Aw you are so cute when you cry out for me" he let's out a low laugh and massages your thigh, his rings pressing into the plush skin.

He kisses right above your belly button, leaving a trail all the way to your chest "Beg me to fuck you, to rearrange your insides"

You glide your fingertips down his stomach, making him shiver "Im all ready for you" you push yourself forward to grind your hot core against his length "Please Ed's, touch me"

He takes a hold at the base of his cock, lining himself, his tip prodding at your entrance " that's my girl, you gonna let the DM slide into you? Such a good slut for me, hm? " he thrusts forward gently, groaning at your tight walls around him.

A wave of pleasure jolts through you as he hits the right angle. Eddie starting to slowly thrust in and out of you, you curse under you breath letting whines and little moans pour out of your mouth.

He slides one of his hands up to your lips, letting you suck on his ringed finger, your mouth hanging open. "Fuck- I had a feeling you liked to be treated like a little whore, I could hear your moans on those lonely nights. Begging, aching, to be filled with a proper cock." Eddie's groans get deeper as his thrusts speed up, snapping your hips together "Oh god- that look you're giving me is making me crazy y/n"

You bite down gently on his finger and laugh "Hm? Does my stare make you nervous Ed's, go faster baby, I can take it" you grind against him, making him throw his head back.

He hisses through his teeth as he bucks his hips into yours, the friction bringing him to the edge "God, I gotta calm down, youre gonna make me lose it-" he grunts under his breath as he slides his hand down to your clit, pressing firmly against it. You feel as though you can't stay still as he slides his fingers through your folds, flicking at your clit.

You grab a hold of his wrist pulling on it to relieve the over stimulation washing over you, whining out as he rubbes circles against your nerves. "Move your hand princess, I got you" you release his wrist and clasp your hand to your mouth, covering the sounds that spill out.

Eddie removes your hand from your mouth moving it up his chest, stopping at his throat "I like hearing those moans, scream louder for me sweetheart. I want the whole neighborhood to know I'm using you as my little fuck toy." He grips your fingers around his throat and groans as you apply pressure, your nails leaving little marks on his neck. "God- yes mm!"

As the sound of skin slapping echos through the room you feel that familiar warmth start to wash over you. Your moans grow louder as Eddie speeds up his movements. He leans down to your ear, his hot breath beating across your neck.

You grab a handful of his curly locs, yanking on them as your high starts to come over you. "Your so close baby, is my girl gonna cum?" He let's out a throaty moan, your hot walls around his cock "Cum for me, let me see how I've ruined you"

You eyes roll back as you lift your hips, pushing against Eddie's length. "Fuck- fuck fuck, so good" your words coming out through breathy moans. Your release suddenly comes over you, the jolt of warmth washing through you.

"Good girl, you're practically dripping for me" he slides his hands down your thighs as you ride out your orgasm, his calloused fingertips making you twitch. He glides his thumb around your entrance, pressing where you connect.

You let out a shaky whine and cover his hand "Hey quit- that feels weird asshole"

"Can you open your mouth for me princess? Good girl" Eddie chuckles and leans down slipping his tongue into your mouth when you connect. He gently takes your bottom lip between his teeth as you kiss, pulling away from you.

You place a peck on his jaw before he rests his head in your neck "My turn, you alright for me to finish sweetheart?" He whispers in your ear, his lips grazing against your neck.

You let out a quiet giggle "I'll be alright, just let me see your face when you cum" you wrap your legs around his waist, pressing him deeper as he raises back up from your neck. His brown doe eyes staring down at you as he begins his thrusting into your core.

You moan out, squeezing your eyes shut as you feel him inside of you, the friction now even harder to control after just cumming.

Eddie slides his hands up to your chest, running his hands across them and pinching at your sensitive buds "Mm, so good baby, I can feel you already clenching back around my cock." His voice rings in your ears as you listen to his moans, his deep throated grunts bouncing off the walls.

You take a hold of his hands, clasping them together with yours as they are pinned to each side of you "You getting close baby?" You lean up next to his ear "Cmon, finish for me Ed's. Fill me up with your load"

"Ah god- shit I'm gonna cum, please" His grip gets tighter in your hand as he snaps his hips harder against yours.

You laugh against his neck "good boy, give it to me" you raise your hips slightly, giving him access to fuck out his high.

Eddie let's out groans into your ear as his thrusts get sloppier , his nails digging into the bedsheets. He finally arches his back, his release washing over him, leaving him a fucking mess in your neck.

He quietly hisses as he pulls out of you, laying down next to you. "Well that was fucking nuts! How'd you feel? "

The both of you start bursting out laughing, "Damn right it was Munson, I don't think I can feel my feet"

"I guess you could say I hit all the right places then, hm? y/n" he plants a kiss on your cheek "I wasn't to rough on you then? "

You lean in close to him " 'Course not, you were just right" you sweep the sweaty hair out of his face, sticking out your tongue at him

Eddie shakes his head and smiles, pulling you in close to his chest.

"Yuck, you're all sweaty Eddie" you pinch his nose and lay against his chest

"Mm I know, we're both sweaty. That's not the only juices we mixed tonight if you get what I mean" he wiggles his eyebrows at you

"Youre quite the cuddle bug l/n. So does that mean this will be another event of Friday horror movie nights and all?" He cups the side of your jaw

You give him a soft kiss and bite his lip as you pull away "Whenever you want, I'm sure as hell not letting you go now ed's"

He rest his head on top of yours, running his hands through your hair "I can't wait to make you happy".

---------------------------

[copperbadge]

How did you get started with investing? I've seen you talk about it before and I know that's something I need to do, but I feel so lost in terms of which companies to invest in and how much money I should put in. I have retirement accounts but nothing outside of that. And really, I feel like I can't talk to anyone IRL about this because I'm too embarrassed - I'm literally a CPA and do corporate taxes for a living but still find investing to be so intimidating 😞.

I mean, when people say "you should be investing" often, until you reach a certain wealth level, they are actually referring to your 401K. This is more general advice for the readers, but don't feel bad if you're not investing outside of retirement, especially if you're early in your career or if you're in a job where you don't have much disposable income. Don't feel bad in general, honestly, even if you haven't got a retirement fund at all; life is hard and money is necessary but stupid.

I only really started to invest invest in the last two years and even then I'm pretty conservative about it. On the plus, as a CPA, you will probably have a leg up in terms of knowing a lot of financial terms and kind of...understanding how money works in at least some sense.

I actually got started studying investing with my retirement fund. I was young and broke and mad that a chunk of my paycheck was going into my 401K when I could use that money NOW (see Sam Vimes Boots Theory for more on why ready cash now can often beat more cash later). I didn't know much about finance but I knew that a) I was basically being forced to play the financial markets with that money and b) the fate of our country's economy is tied to the stock market which is a mood ring hooked up to a roulette wheel. Being the Oldest Living Millennial I also understood I might not actually ever get to retire, so I decided to treat my retirement fund like Monopoly money: real but meaningless. And so I thought, well, let's Learn About Investing with it.

When you invest with a 401K or IRA usually you're not buying straight stocks; you're buying some conglomeration of investments bundled together as a fund (this is not a technical term, fund has a specific meaning in the technical sense, but it's easier to just use fund as a shorthand so I'm gonna). These can include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other more esoteric vehicles. So I started looking into the funds available to me -- there's the "retire in this year" fund that most people just dump all their money into, but there were also ways to invest in small businesses abroad, in health care or in funds that are "socially responsible", ways to buy into funds that did nothing but attempt to keep up with inflation, and on and on.

I didn't know any of that, of course -- I just saw something like "International Explorer Fund" and decided it sounded interesting and I'd learn what it was and what it did, and when I was satisfied that the reward was worth the risk, I'd dump some cash from my 2045-Retirement investment into it. While "past performance is no indication of future success" past performance isn't a bad way to at least pick something to research, and usually there's an earnings graph on the fund's prospectus page. I'd start reading prospectuses and looking up every word I didn't know or felt had a specific context I was missing (mostly on Investopedia, a GREAT resource). I'd take the term, add it to a vocabulary list, and rewrite "what is this and what does it do" in my own words. Eventually I internalized a lot of the terminology but I still check my notes once in a while.

There are financial literacy courses you can take, of course, and I don't think you should be AT ALL ashamed about trying to find a good one (lots of scams out there) or asking colleagues about them. "Hey, I'm not comfortable with my level of literacy about investment vehicles; do you know of any good educational material or class that would fill in the gaps?" is a good way to go about it. Very few people know jack shit about investing and my level of knowledge is just BARELY above jack shit, to be honest, so no shame, my friend. It is also totally fine to find a financial planner or investment advisor outside of your work and have a sit-down with them to get advice, which is what my parents do. Many banks offer that kind of service, so check with wherever you do your banking, and almost any retirement fund administrator (like Vanguard or American Funds) will be happy to send someone to meet with you and advise you. I was never prouder of my financial self-education than the one time I met with a guy from Vanguard who said, "Basically, keep doing what you're doing, this is a model portfolio."

Once I was investing in my retirement funds more confidently, I got the RobinHood app and started studying stocks, which is really just like, "find a stock and do a book report on it". Look at past earnings, who the CEO of the company is, what their board makeup is like, what they're doing in the news. And of course the most important advice: Never, ever invest money in the stock market that you aren't prepared to lose.

Aside from my stock adventures on RobinHood, which is about five hundred dollars that I turned into a thousand dollars over a couple of years, I have money in a few savings accounts. I don't have CDs or money market accounts or any of that, because I still don't have quite enough cash to make it worth it. I just parked some in a credit union that pays 6% interest on the first $1K you put in, and the rest in Betterment, which had a 2% interest rate when I started but now is down to .3% which is a bummer. But I haven't found another vehicle like Betterment which allows you equally easy access to your money while having as intuitive and modular an online interface.

So overall, aside from retirement (which is at $116K, which seems impressive until you remember you're supposed to retire with 25x your yearly salary in your 401K) I have a grand in the stock market, a grand in a 6%-interest savings account with a credit union, a grand in an emergency-only savings account attached to my checking, and roughly five grand with Betterment. It's a fairly conservative setup but I'd like never to be poor ever again, so I'm hedging carefully :D

Some great resources that I've used include:

Investopedia

Planet Money podcast by NPR and its sister podcast, The Indicator

The Financial page of the newspaper (I used to read NYT, now I read Tribune)

Rankandfiled.com, a free stock filings resource site that basically scrapes the SEC for financial data -- this is for if you really want to do a deep dive once you've got more experience

Good luck! It's a slog at first, but eventually it gets kinda fun :)

[rppromptarchive]

Sentence starters - The King Dragon skits by Prozd. Edit pronouns, names, etc as necessary!

Chairem Anime starters, Pizza Brothers starters

“Will you relax? I’m trying to find every pinecone, okay?”

“Maybe instead of yelling, ‘Here comes the club!’, you could try using your right hand, or not yelling that.”

🎵 “Yo, I’m King __, I’m the king of the lair, and now that you’re in here, you’re not going anywhere but down on the ground, ‘cause I’m gonna kick your ass. I’m sorry I said ass, I don’t mean to be crass. When I’m not busy killin’ like a villain, I write raps —” 🎵

“Hello...FUCKER.”

“So, you’ve finally arrived — what the hell are you wearing?”

“IT’S MY ASS-KICKING OUTFIT, BITCH!”

“What do you mean, ‘one second?’ We’re — we’re in the middle of something here...”

“I don’t care if you found a potion...oh my God.”

“This world is imperfect. If only I could wipe away the impurities and make it as beautiful as me.”

“Is anyone else listening to this...?”

“Yes, it was I! My machinations lay undetected for years, for I am a master of deception!"

“___ sends his regards.”

“You can’t die! I put my best equipment on you! I dodged a thousand lightning bolts for your final weapon! I level grinded you for hours!”

“It’s a good thing I always carry two guns!”

“HRAAAGH! I think that enemy got the point!”

“Dude, ___’s the best! He’s strong as hell, he’s like, the beast of the party!”

“Little do you know he’ll soon be the deceased of the party!”

*maniacal laughter morphs into sobs*

“I’m glad all of us can be the best of chums, and nothing will ever change that.”

“You thought that was a nice shot? You have no idea.”

“___, your contributions to this party are greatly appreciated.”

“Think nothing of it, ___. This journey has only just begun.”

“Uh...I found all 900 pinecones.”

“You are at FULL HEALTH!”

“Do you have to eat them immediately? And WILL YOU STOP JUMPING???”

“Press X — NOT RIGHT NOW!! When enemies appear!”

“Oh — sorry, I mixed up characters. I thought I was you for a sec.”

“You sold our ENTIRE INVENTORY and bought ONE THOUSAND BOOKS???”

“Is there, like, a walkthrough for this?”

“I need those heart points, man!”

“So, you finally made it, ___. Did you weep when you watched ___ bleed to death?”

“You’ll have to get more than 8000 rainbow gems to beat me!”

“___ is my brother, and he killed everyone in my village, and I will not stop until I get revenge —”

“I’m ___. I fight with a sword, and also, my breasts.”

“My name’s ___. My nunchuck has a knife on it, and also a gun, and I’m very cool.”

“Guys, I think I should be in the party for this one...”

“Do you really need both Bradicus AND Chadicus in your party???”

“My sword has a gun on it. And, I’m very cool.”

“I don't even know who we’re fighting!”

“Ehh, I don’t need to use any more crystals. I'm pretty happy with what I got. I got normal Archibald, that’s pretty good!”

“There’s one thing you should know. My real name is... ___. That’s — that’s kind of a big deal.”

“So, you finally made it, ___. You chased me all the way to the short hair timeline.”

“All of my friends’ hopes and dreams...their love...their sacrifices. Their power is my power now!”

“Enough talk, boy. The time of reckoning is now.”

“Behold, my ultimate spell...KABOOBLE!”

“Um, actually, that’s not the real name of the spell.”

“And, actually, it doesn’t make sense to use the ka- prefix, because the ka- prefix is for multi-target spells —”

“These are made up words!”