#video editor home based

[sunrizef1]

Monaco Green

Pairing: Lando Norris x fem!reader

Warnings: suicide jokes in relation to a happy relationship? (Yall know what I mean)

Authors note: more Lando!

Requested: Yes/No

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yourusername

📍Monte Carlo, Monaco

liked by user1 user2 and 13,800 others

yourusername took a day-trip away from London to go visit Monaco, bit posher than I’m used to, vlog coming soon xx 💚💚💚

In the meantime, new cooking video is up now, we made pesto pasta! 🍝

load comments…

user1 I’m actually in love with her

user2 she’s so pretty!

user3 who’s behind the camera in the pasta video???

user4 is it her editor???

user5 James??? Nah, he’s American, the guy in the video is British

user6 secret boyfriend???

user7 why Monaco?

yourusername visiting a friend! It was quite nice, might have to consider moving 🤔

user8 no offense but how tf would she afford Monaco rent

user9 yk these influencers and their rich parents

user10 so pretty 🥰

yourusername thank you, love 🫶

user11 I love her phone case 💚💚

user12 “we” made pesto pasta 🤔

user13 I loved the new karting vid!!! James had no chance lol, how r u so good?!

yourusername I had a good instructor haha, helps that James is absolutely abysmal at it

jamesedits that’s rude, we don’t all have experienced go-karters to teach us 😒

user14 I want to be her friend so bad, omg her life seems so cool

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landonorris

📍Monte Carlo, Monaco

liked by jamesedits maxfewtrell and 3,008,996 others

landonorris Monaco green 💚

load comments…

user15 the soft-launch????

user16 who is that??????

user17 not Lando posting his secret girlfriend on a random Tuesday

user18 ooh but she’s got good taste in nails I’ll give her that

user19 and who tf is that then

maxfewtrell ah, bold innit?

landonorris 🤐

user20 wtf is max talking about

user21 all we get is hands????

user22 some Twitter detectives about to figure out who that is just based on the hands i bet my life

user23 and if I told you I know who that is, then what

user24 now how tf do you know that

user23 pure vibes and delusion

user25 who taught this man to soft-launch???

user26 I can tell she’s pretty

user27 NOOOOOOOO

user28 what about our marriage and kids???

oscarpiastri she’s lovely

landonorris you have not met her

oscarpiastri this is your sign to change that

oscarpiastri and from what you’ve told me, she is lovely

landonorris she is

user29 awww I already love her

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TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

yourusername

📍Monte Carlo, Monaco

liked by user1 user2 and 31,998 others

yourusername supposed to be a one day trip but now it’s been three days 😅

Day 1 Monaco vlog is up now! 💚

load comments…

user30 is this the girl that Twitter thread was about????

user31 she has the phone case!!!!

user32 you can’t tell me that the “tour guide” in the vlog isn’t Lando

user33 love that James was so against the sunshine the entire time lmao

jamesedits I’m white and from London, I can’t survive in the sun 😔

user34 I love the green 💚💚💚

user35 is this landos girlfriend????

user36 are yall just harassing this poor girl because she has a popular phone case??!! 😭😭

jamesedits can I go home now

yourusername pls do, you third-wheel too much

user37 third-wheeling???? I sense landooo

user38 are you staying with that friend you mentioned

user39 pretty girl 🤩

user40 if you go to the part of the vlog when they’re walking the circuit and go over the grand hotel hairpin, on my life you can see Lando for a split-second in the background

user41 are you sure that’s him and not James?

user40 James was wearing a black jacket, that guy was wearing like a beige hoodie

user42 I just binged like 20 of her videos because I heard she might be dating Lando and now I’m in love with her 😭😭😭

user43 I’m convinced it’s her just because of the phone case and yall can’t change my mind

jamesedits I had to work overtime to get all that footage cut quickly so you’re welcome

yourusername “work overtime” you are on vacation it’s hardly working

jamesedits don’t police my stress

yourusername 🙄

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yourusername added to their story

landonorris

🤩🤩🤩🤩

yourusername

🫶

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landonorris

📍Monte Carlo, Monaco

liked by yourusername charles_leclerc and 3,006,001 others

landonorris 3 days of Monaco with a guest 💚

load comments…

user44 GREEN AGAIN

user45 and if I told you that phone case girl had that same hat in her Instagram post then what

user46 “three days of Monaco” “supposed to be a day-trip but it’s been three days”

user47 that third picture must be from day 1 because someone’s wearing that same beige hoodie in the back of her day 1 vlog

user48 and the green ny hat???

user49 y/n was wearing green converse on her insta story!!!

user50 AND SHE LIKED!!!!

user51 I recognize those shoessss

user52 this is so cute 😭🫶

oscarpiastri she’s lovely!

landonorris now you can say that

oscarpiastri it was lovely to meet her 🫶

landonorris I’ll tell her you said that

user53 the green aesthetic is so adorable omg I love it so much

user54 LANDO DONT BE SCARED TAG HER

user54 OR POST HER ACTUAL FACE

user54 OR EVEN A STRAND OF HAIR PLEASE LANDO

user55 bathing with a toaster tonight dhmu

user56 wdym my husband has a gf? 😭

user57 what about our kids Lando?? What about the kids?

user58 I’ve never even seen her face but that’s my mom now I don’t make the rules 🤷‍♀️

——————————————

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

yourusername

📍Monte Carlo, Monaco

liked by landonorris oscarpiastri and 78,661 others

yourusername Day-trip —> full-time stay

More Monaco vlogs to come, then 😅

Monaco day 1 vlog (Lando’s version) is up now, thank you to James for re-including all the clips of him that he'd previously cut out 🫶

load comments…

user59 AWWWWWWW

user60 where’s the user who guessed this from the start

user61 James I going through it

jamesedits it’s bad enough I had to scrub through all the clips of them being lovey-dovey but then I had to look at all of them again to put them back in the vlog

jamesedits and NOW she’s gonna put these clips in EVERY VIDEO! THEYRE SO GROSS!

user62 oh my god poor James 😭

user63 somebody get James a pay raise

yourusername don’t listen to him, he’s like a dog, he’ll act sad to strangers but in reality he gets treated perfectly fine and gets fed on time every day, he doesn’t need any more treats

jamesedits I don’t appreciate being compared to a dog

landonorris dw about it mate, you’d be a nice little yorki

jamesedits 🤨

user64 LANDO!

user65 they both look so good im frothing at the mouth

landonorris glad I could convince you to stay

yourusername you’re very convincing

user66 sleeping on train tracks tonight

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landonorris

📍Monte Carlo, Monaco

liked by yourusername maxfewtrell and 5,000,881 others

landonorris might have to get her a different phone case…💚

Tagged: yourusername

load comments…

user67 SHE GOT A TAG!!!!

user68 Y/N!!!!!

user69 awww they’re adorable 🥰

user70 I’ve followed y/n for years and it’s so nice to see her so happy 😭

user71 HES PESTO PASTA GUY

user72 knowing it’s him makes it make sense as to why he never actually cooks in the video

user73 man moved to Monaco and still found an English girl

user74 I wish my rich athlete boyfriend would convince me to move in with him in his Monaco home… 😞

user75 I’m in love with both of themmmmm

maxfewtrell she made the main page! And you can see her face! Congrats mate!

landonorris 😐😑😐

maxfewtrell seriously though, happy 4 u

landonorris thanks max

user76 now I need to know where she got the phone case

yourusername wildflower!

user76 omg I wasn’t expecting a reply! Tysm!

yourusername 💚

user77 I’ve never been more interested in a relationship

user78 HARD-LAUNCH

yourusername 💚💚💚

landonorris 💚💚💚

user79 oh my god they’re so perfect

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@casperlikej @evie-119

[venusacrossthestars]

Carnival

Summary: You love your boyfriend and you love the edits of your boyfriend that are all over TikTok, however your dirty little secret is soon shared.

Pairing- Charles Leclerc x fem!reader

wc-923

warnings- not proofread, at all. Carnival by Kayne West is the song in question, one sexual innuendo at the end, swearing and FLUFF

f1 masterlist

You were no stranger to TikTok and the editing trends that made their rounds. You have seen your fair share of edits or both real and fictional men. You have even come across a few of your boyfriend and they were, well a sight to see. The first time you liked one with your main account, that had sent the comments and the poor editor into a frenzy. 

You wanted to interact with the fan base, especially the ones on TikTok without acting liked a crazed girlfriend who thirsted over her boyfriend publicly. So you did what any sane person would do and you made a fan account for your own boyfriend, you never posted anything just liking edits and commenting on how wonderful the edit was. 

Charles had no idea and to be honest you didn’t really want him finding out. This was your dirty little secret, something you only looked at when Charles wasn’t home. How was it that these editors were so talented. Putting together a bunch of random clips, the coloring, the transitions, the song choice, all of it was beautiful. 

The song of choice at the moment was Carnival and you weren’t complaining. Your entire saves was filled with edits of Charles to this song. You have probably seen hundreds and you ate it up everytime. 

It was a random wednesday and Charles was off doing his workout and you had thought that there was no better time than to open TikTok and go scroll through your saves. Too lost in your own little world you failed to notice the front door open a close, signaling that Charles was home. 

The only thing that Charles could hear throughout the apartment was a song he wasn’t familiar with. ‘Go Go, go, go, go Head so good, she a honor roll She'll ride the dick like a carnival’. What the hell were you watching? 

Coming up behind you Charles could see his own pictures flash across the screen to the song. He watched as you scrolled down and to his surprise it was another video of himself to the same song. 

“What are you watching?” Charles ask. 

You nearly screamed at Charles’ voice, not expecting him to be back so soon. You turned off your phone and flung it across the couch, “You’re home early!” 

“No, No, No. We aren’t changing the subject. What were you watching?” 

“Nothing…” you say sheepishly. 

Charles raises an eyebrow at your tone, “Are you sure?” 

“Mhmm,” you hum out, “Absolutely sure.” 

Charles moves next to you on the couch and grabs your phone. You go to reach for it but Charles is quick to grab it back. “I think I know what you were doing.” 

“Charles,” you groan out “Give me my phone please.” 

Charles continues to hold it out of reach, no matter how you move or where you move to, he is one step ahead. “Not until you tell me who that handsome man was on your screen.” 

“Charlie, stopppp.” You groan out, “It’s embarrassing.” 

“Then I’ll just have to keep this,” he says, pocketing your phone. 

“Fine! I was watching edits of you!” 

Charles giggles out at your admission and you hide your face in your hands, heat creeping up your neck. 

“I want to see,” Charles says, “show me your favorites.” 

“Wow, someones is a little vain.” 

“I’m not the one who was watching edits of their significant other.” Charles teases. 

“Well now I don’t want to.” 

“Mon amour, please.” Charles begs and you turn away from him. You won’t fall victim to his pleading eyes this time.

“Mon amour. Mon cheri. Please my love. I’m not making fun of you I swear.” 

You could never hold your resolve to Charles’ pleading, “Fine, can I have my phone?” 

Charles hands you your phone and you are quick to unlock it. You exit the edit you were currently watching to scroll back up to the top of your saves. 

“I made a separate account to like and comment. One time I liked with my personal account and I think I nearly sent the editor into a early grave. I wanted to interact with the fans but I thought you might think its strange for your girlfriend to be liking thirst edits of you.” 

“I think it’s adorable,” Charles says, pinching your cheeks. You swat his hands away in embarrassment. “But y’know you can thirst over me anytime, right?” 

“Of course I do, it’s just these edits do something to me. I can’t explain it.” 

“Well let me see.” 

“Fine,” you scroll down to where you know the edit is, “This one has been real popular lately. There are more to this song, the one that was playing when you walked in earlier, I really like them.” 

You hold your phone to at an angle so that Charles can see the edit play out. He sits in silence for the whole thing and once it loops you pause it and wait Charles reaction. 

“Wow,” he pauses, trying to think of what to say next, “people really make edits of me to songs like this.” 

“Yes and I don’t blame them. You are very sexy.” 

“I can see why you watch them. If there were edits of you I’d be watching them all the time. Can I see another?” 

“Sure.” You scroll down to another Carnival edit and you watch as Charles is encaptured by himself. 

“Well the song got one thing right-you do ride dick like a carnival.” Charles chuckles out. 

“CHARLES!” 

taglist- (crossed out names mean I couldn't tag you)

@arieslost @spookystitchery @tpwkstiles @oliveswiftly @morgonjinn @herondalism @softieekayy @deprxssed-loser @noreri @boiohboii @im-on-a-hellavator @captainchickadee @whatever7justchillin @outerudeth @jscircuit @loveyatopluto @saiteliites @asparklysoul @missmontiopath @helanahaadock @froggybij @slaygirlbossworld @vee2004dee @tennisloversblog @slvtforredheads @senna13sworld @hellobeauty-06 @jaxx-7 @anastasiamoony @reguluscrystals @gr1mes-cc @yoooooooogiiiiiiii @sharlsworld @janeholt3 @valtkitty @wondergirl101ks @georgeparisole @m4dyl @janegxi @amberpanda99 @itsmeimthedissapointment @jah0700 @non-binaryandy @sarahskomal @anedpev @xqwiser @apllo-axolotl @h34rts4maisey @anonymousjo @megsmclaren @charizznorizz @decadentlightchaos @adelinemack @bwormie @bonbonvz @hoodshair @bunbun9396 @fangirlika @vex-et-soleil @sillylittlegooselings @hlhclh @stvrlec16 @omgsuperstarg @luanasrta @its-cat-eyes @taytaythirteen @marekmybeloved @rqlstefanny @nickxcorpse @olivyamarvelgirl @violyn20 @emisaxols @thesouistone @hangmandruigandmav @embonbon

[hoshinasblade]

Hiyaa! I know you prob got a lot of hoshina prompts already but just wanna sent a request and see if you like it. How about a cool reader who seemingly cool infront of the higher up but got caught by hoshina when she fangirl over his skills and strategy to her peers

thank you for this anon, i liked this prompt a bit too much. i hope you don't mind that i didn't go exactly per the ask.

follow me (in twitter)

pairing: hoshina soshiro x f!reader author's note: likes, replies and reblogs are appreciated but please do not repost my works. my taglist is here if you wanna sign up, and my ask is always open for any of your thoughts or prompts! also if you sent an ask and i haven't answered, pls don't think im ignoring it, i plan on writing even just a drabble per prompt i receive; it just takes me a while to write, but i'll get to it in time. also i was supposed to post this yesterday, but i think it got lost in my queue. it might turn up again later so i'll just remove the duplicate post lol.

@ hoshina_lover quote-retweeted a photo: vice-captain hoshina is the most good-looking in all of the divisions, u cant change my mind 👅

@ gn_arumi replied: this is because you haven't seen narumi-san in action yet

@ hoshina_lover: blech 🤮 need i inform u that hoshina beats narumi's ass even in video games? keep up!

being an anti-kaiju defense force officer is hard; from the entrance exam that you have barely passed as an inexperienced combatant before, to the day-to-day training regimen being enforced to the division as preparation for any attacks - there are moments when you doubt your decision to have even joined.

being a full-time fan of third division vice-captain hoshina soshiro while being a member of his team is harder.

with almost 50 thousand followers on twitter where you post very candid pictures of the man of your dreams, you have taken it upon yourself to be a social media expert slash photo editor slash copyreader for when you must write captions - you are the epitome of a loyal admirer. you were scared it would make you a creep, but you were so close once to building an altar for him in your bedroom back home.

“good morning, platoon leader!” you nodded to the newbie who saluted at you on your way to the canteen for breakfast. the menu in the base is pretty plain, and you suddenly miss your mom’s cooking, but you can’t really complain considering something that looks far more delicious was already sitting at the head of the long table near the entrance.

“you on a diet or something, vice-captain?” you started, placing your tray of food in front of hoshina soshiro. he is wearing his suit, unzipped in the middle of his chest. “this is why i got more kills than you last time”, you mentioned.

“ya won’t be able to beat me in close quarters”, he commented, holding his chopsticks and picking up a mouthful of beef from your plate. “not in a million years.”

there was a time when you would have fainted if brought within a fifty-foot radius from hoshina soshiro. even your parents thought it was a phase, an obsession that would pass; in high school, your schoolmates got into edgy pop music, and all you wanted was to learn how to wield a katana. you weren’t expecting people would understand - it wasn’t like anyone asked after all. they just assumed you were a hormone-crazed teenager idolizing an attractive young man.

“will ya join me in the drills this morning? yer the only platoon leader i can think of who can hold their own against me in a swordfight”, he asked, still chewing. “that’s a compliment, by the way.” the lilt in his voice was sufficient to persuade you to agree to his offer. you decided to be a bit stubborn.

“what do i get in return?” you answered, feigning nonchalance. one advantage of staying with spending long working hours with the person you like is you build up immunity to their charms. hoshina stood up from his seat, stretching his legs. he looked down at you and smirked.

fine, you need to spend more time with the guy and maybe you’ll be able to resist him.

hoshina knew you couldn’t say no to him. he’s not wrong.

@ gn_arumi replied to you: narumi-san still outranks him. talk to me when your hoshina has been made a captain of his division 😂

annoyance simmered from you. as the self-proclaimed president of the hoshina soshiro club, you could write an entire essay, complete with references cited in whatever academic format, as proof that the vice-captain does not have to be the commander to be considered the best in the force. you finished your meal and prepared for some action.

the training grounds is crowded with the newbies gathering around their vice-captain who was giving instructions on how the exercise would proceed. you watched, wondering if you can be that kind of person someday too - someone who can lead and command so well.

the drills were intense, pushing everyone to their limits as you did your best to showcase your skills and determination alongside hoshina. you swung and clashed your sword against any who was brave enough to spar with you. “we should see a round between you and the vice-captain”, you were told by the rookie who you have just defeated.

you laughed. “vice-captain isn’t going to like that; he doesn’t appreciate it when he gets his ass handed to him.” the room roared with laughter; hoshina rolled his eyes.

“maybe another time”, he suggested to his trainees. “i won’t go easy on ya then”, this he said to you. you couldn’t help but grin at his promise; the admiration you held for him had transformed into a mutual respect that came from fighting side by side multiple times.

“oh god, where’s my phone?” it was not until dinner when you noticed it, your hands patting all over your own body to find out if the device is indeed somewhere in your person and probably you had just forgotten. your palms are starting to get cold. “no, no, no”, you uttered like a prayer, not wanting to believe this absolute nightmare unfolding right in front of you.

retracing your steps to the places in the base you visited throughout that day, you found yourself in the training grounds. could it have been you misplaced it here? “have you seen a phone somewhere here?” you asked another officer roaming around. “it’s pink and it’s still fairly new -”

“oh yeah, the newbies have surrendered one this morning -”

you haven’t run quicker than when you ran towards the dormitory hall of the newly sworn-in troop members. it is at the far side of the building, and although your leg felt like it was on fire already, you did not mind. “did anyone see a phone after our drills? it’s pink”, you skipped the niceties and went straight to the point.

“i - we - uh”, the girls’ dorm room fell silent after you barged in. “ma’am, is it the uh- is it the one with the vice-captain’s picture as the uh -”

today is officially the worst day ever.

“it won’t stop ringing and we were still with hoshina-san, so we tried to open it to answer the call. and we found uh-” there was no judgment in her voice, only a tinge of awkwardness. “we didn’t mean to read the tweets. i mean they won’t stop popping in after we unlocked the screen.”

you ran out of words. you held out your hand, gesturing for her to return the phone to you.

“uh - vice-captain took it.”

breath was knocked out of you. as slowly as humanly possible, you walked the path to the vice-captain's office, counting the ways you could die on the way. the ground can open up and swallow you whole. a kaiju can appear and tear through the walls and eat you. the apocalypse can come and fire would rain down from the sky.

you did not dare knock on the door, fearing what would happen next; the shame alone would kill you.

“ah, if it isn’t narumi’s biggest online hater”, hoshina pulls you away from your self-destructive thoughts. “what’cha doin’ here?”

there was no benefit in denying it. “i-i’m here for my phone, sir.” it had been ages since you used that honorific on him; you were hoping it would get you in his good graces. maybe he’ll let this go if you asked nicely.

“uh-uh”, he said, the thumb and forefinger of both of his hands made an L-shape and he pointed at you. “how is it that you know i like drinking coffee?” he asked.

“vice-captain, i’ll just d-delete the account if that’s what you want”, you answered instead, taking the hint. your pinned tweet was a poster of him - an advertisement released by the defense force to get more recruits several months ago - captioned by a cool trivia that he may be into montblancs, he also fancies drinking coffee. “i apologize for putting you in this situation.”

“ya i get that, but how did ya know?” he repeated, humor absent in his question.

once hoshina soshiro retires, he can definitely make a living being an interrogation officer. “i know you stay all night training, and i’ve never seen you late in anything. it’s just common sense”, you admitted.

hoshina studied you for a bit - impressed - then reached down the side pocket of his pants. he held your phone in his hand before turning it over to you. “i would have made ya do a hundred push-ups, just sayin’. but now we’re quits.”

“huh?” you gawked at him.

“for helping me out on sword practice earlier”, he said. “next time, i won’t be as lenient.”

“thank you, vice-captain.” you took your phone, feeling a mix of relief and embarrassment.

vice-captain hoshina began walking away, dismissing you with a wave. “oh, by the way”, he paused, “can ya tweet for the last time that i’m cooler than narumi?” he laughed loudly, his teeth showing.

sleep did not come easy that night - hours and hours of overthinking about how tomorrow will be - news travel fast, gossips are faster. you’re sure people would be talking about you and your twitter page - headline: platoon leader double-hustling as a social media manager for the third division vice-captain. if the first division’s captain catches wind of this, you will never hear the end of it too; you got hordes of twitter thread detailing your beef against his fangirls. tossing and turning in your bed, you heard your phone pinged.

a notification.

the account has 12 followers, but surprisingly has a blue checkmark beside their username. you clicked on the profile icon.

@ hoshina_official followed you!

maybe today isn’t so bad, you thought.

[oracleofstars]

✦ 3VOLS : ISSUE 1, RAFAYEL

Featuring @maimochies, a well known Love & Deepspace author, as the spotlight creator!

IM NEW, WHATS "3VOLS" THE MAGAZINE?

This will serve as a "mini masterlist" where we compile links of works from different creators based on the character. And yes, its not limited to fanfiction. This is open to artists, graphic design/gfx creators & editors. (Basically, if you've created any kind of creative media related to the character)

MAIMOCHIES. WHO IS SHE?

mai is a rafayel enjoyer and a love & deepspace author! she has been writing in her corner of the internet with the pretty rafayel themed blog. have you seen her around? well, we have interviewed her recently with 4 simple questions. let's get to know mai better!

what got you into making love&deepspace content? are there any creators who inspired you to do so?

mai : funny enough ages ago when the first demo trailer came out for love and deepspace I didn't even know about it!! I happened to stumble upon a short clip of zayne and saved the video on a whim because he was attractive >·< then, as fate would have it, the game's official trailer popped up on my fyp and I got hooked, downloaded the game and haven't looked back since <333 l&ds is still new to the tumblr scene but I absolutely adore my mutuals' takes and fics on the boys!!

as a rafayel fan—what is your favorite headcannon of him? this can be your own or others

mai : hmmm… I think my favorite headcanon about rafayel is that he secretly cares a lot more than he lets on. lingers outside your apartment to make sure you've gotten home safe, always sending you a goodnight and good morning text, oh so conveniently shows up with a warm ready made meal when he knows you're having a particularly hard day, he cares deeply but he's scared of showing it.

if you could describe your favorite character with 5 words, what would it be?

mai : a gift from the stars

how is your time in oracle of stars so far?

so much fun!! it's such an honor to be part of such a loving and positive community. while I'm not as active as I would like to be I can see the effort that goes into the network and the server, from the graphics to the events. it's such a special place for l&ds creators to come together and uplift each other

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE DEEPSPACE NETWORK

welcome to the rafayel masterlist, find something that piques your interest here! show some love to our creators as well <3

l&ds boys crushing on you - @ maimochies

affectionate headcanons - @ maimochies

how the l&ds boys kiss - @ maimochies

sing with me? - @ sevvynth

𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞. - @ jqnehr

𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 - @ jqnehr

birthday celebration - @ lovexdeepspace

l&ds boys + their nicknames for you - @ lovexdeepspace

JEALOUSY , JEALOUSY! - @ rafyne

MESSAGES I CANT SEND : DEAR RAFAYEL

recently we had a 3VOLS related event entitled DEAR RAFAYEL, where we send out a prompt every 7 days and you have the choice to use whichever one you wanted.

POST MASTERLIST

dear rafayel ( prompt day 1 ) - @ rafyne

dear rafayel ( prompt day 3 ) - @ sweetheartsaku

WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING?

its april 5, that means our applications are open until april 10. come join us in the discord & the network. this first issue is finally done, thank you for all the support you've given the oracle. we'll see you again next time!

[desire-mona]

Opinions on jacksfilms v sssniperwolf?

Penny for ur thoughts plz 🪙 (<- pretend that is a penny shhhhh)

this ask is an equivalent to asking for my hand in marriage just btw.

so in case anyone doesnt know anything abt this old ass drama (i dont know as much as i could either, this is a retelling from the bits and pieces i remember):

so basically sssniperwolf used to be this gaming youtuber but she eventually turned into a half baked "reaction" channel where she just watches tiktoks, makes low effort surface level commentary, and then doesnt credit the creator of said tiktoks. jacksfilms is a comedy youtuber who does a bunch of stuff (sketches, streaming, something called YIAY where he gives ppl prompts / questions to answer n reads em out(with credit!(also hes been doing stuff with ai recently but mostly to show how mid it is which like. eh idk how i feel abt it but its not a dealbreaker))) and he at one point in 2023 called out sniper for her content stealking and lazy content.

he started doing this thing where he reacted to her videos the way she reacts to the videos she steals? i think? and then he gives credit to the creators that sniper reacts to i hope ur following. sniper eventually got mad and was like "uhhhmmm ur stealing from me....." which is rly funny considering she steals from SO many ppl. they had lowkey beef for a while (and obv jack was in the right the entire time) and on uhhhhhh lemme look this up hold on. october 13th of last year sniper posted an instagram story poll like "jacksfilms is close to this place im shooting at should i go see him" i guess to like? talk things out?

(src)

and then some amnt of time later while jack was playing jackbox on stream with his editors and stuff (dubbed the council) sniper showed up at his house, stood outside, and posted a video OF HIS HOME ON HER STORY. ON HER INSTAGRAM WITH OVER 5 MILLION FOLLOWERS. also to add even more context that i found out from youtube comments, sniper has been arrested for armed robbery before, so! some council member alerted jack and erin (jack's wife) was like "erm im gonna go outside" and everyone was like NO DONT OMG. eventually she deleted the story but by that point it was like wayyyy too late. and photos of his house were alr on twitter and stuff. the most ridiculous part is that when jack was rightfully like WHAG GHE HELL she was like this guy is creepy and hes been harassing me! i just wanna talk!!!

jacksfilms made a video being like heyyyyy youtube can u do smthn abt this???? youtube, of course, did nothing in response. i honestly dont know how it ended but snipers still doing her thing and so is jack so ultimately nothing substantial came of it, i guess. i wasnt on stream when it happened but i was GLUED to twitter as it was unfolding since ive been a big jacksfilms fan since i was 12ish. crazy times

WAIT EDIT I FORGOT TO ADD MY OPINION OOPS LOL: FUCK SNIPERWOLF

also fun fact! ive had a couple convos with a council member (marshaldoesstuff u will always be famous) and i was in his discord FOREVER ago. like 2018 forever ago. got groomed in that server it was kinda goofy (NOT marshal's fault - nor the mods of said server, im still friends with a few of those mods and they were always so protective of me and were there to put a stop to everything, i love them dearly.) so yeah im kinda etched into jacksfilms lore in a way that VERY few remember. which is the case for a few different fandoms tbh.

second fun fact: jack and erin r house md fans (erin has a crush on house and jack has a crush on cuddy which is sooo based of them)

thank u for asking and thank u for reading :3 i luv jacksfilms

[starblightbindery]

Editor's Note from The Black Sands of Socorro by Patricia A. Jackson

While researching Patricia A. Jackson’s entire body of Star Wars work for a short story anthology, I came across the West End Games sourcebook Star Wars: The Black Sands of Socorro (1997.) It’s a crucial work of Star Wars ephemera: The first creator of color writing for Star Wars in an official capacity, writing not just about individual characters of color, but centering entire cultures populated by non-white characters. A young Black woman in the 1990s wrote science fiction for Star Wars, worldbuilding with concepts like antislavery, indigeneity, linguistic divergence, and settler colonialism...while Disney-Lucasfilm in the 2020s ineffectually positions Star Wars as a post-racial fantasy.

I non-hyperbolically refer to Patricia A. Jackson as the “Octavia Butler of Star Wars,” not because fans of color need to be officially sanctioned by Lucasfilm to create Star Wars content, but because of how difficult it is to carve out anti-racist space in a transmedia storytelling empire. Challenging even in transformational fandom spaces (e.g. fan works), to broach race in affirmational fandom spaces—or while writing content for the property holder—is to be unflinchingly subversive.

And Jackson did it first. In an interview with Rob Wolf in 2022, Jackson described her experience writing race into Star Wars in the 1990s as an “experiment.” The planet, peoples, and cultures of Socorro were a way for Jackson to obliquely, yet concretely, center Blackness and racial justice into Star Wars, pushing the racial allegory constrained by the original trilogy to its limits.

Since it’s inception, Star Wars has spent much of it’s storytelling on the fringes of the galaxy (whether it’s Tatooine or Jakku, Nevarro or Ajan Kloss.) The Black Sands of Socorro is an extension of that trope, but where the Star Wars films used indigeneity as set dressing (eg. “Sand People”, Ewoks, Gungans, etc.) Jackson creates a vivid world where indigenous culture and settler colonists collide; where characters are coded with dark skin and central to the action. The planet Socorro is distinct as a Star Wars setting. As one of the only places in the galaxy where slavery is eradicated with a vengeance, Socorro refuses to let go of a plot line Star Wars media often leaves behind. Socorro is a haven from Imperial fascism, a space where readers are invited to imagine a story that does not center around occupation.

When I learned that Patricia A. Jackson no longer has a physical copy of The Black Sands of Socorro, I realized that I had the materials and the means to create a fanbound hard copy for her home library (well, and also for my own home library.) While this handmade book is not an exact reproduction of the RPG supplement, I hope my renvisioning of the supplement as an in-universe travel guide lives up to the original work.

As the idea of creating a travel guidebook based on the original material percolated, I reflected on the State of Race in Star Wars in the year since I compiled Designs of Fate, an anthology of my favorite Patricia A. Jackson short stories. In May 2022, actress Moses Ingram debuted as Inquisitor Reva Sevander, the deuteragonist in the Dinsey+ streaming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. As predicted by Lucasfilm—and any fan sick of alt-right Star Wars related “whitelash”—Ingram was promptly subjected to a firehose of racialized harassment and misogynoir.

Yep, fascist self-proclaimed fanboys complained about a Black woman Inquisitor in 2022, having no idea (or deliberately whitewashing) that one of creators of the entire freakin’ concept of Inquisitors was a Black woman writing for the Star Wars Adventure Journal three decades ago.

Then, a public facing Star Wars account (@StarWars on Twitter) broke precedent and slapped back at the trolls. Lead actor Ewan McGregor filmed a video retort, posted on @StarWars, stating “racism has no place in this world” and telling off the racist bullies: “you’re no Star Wars fan in my mind.” A few months later, Disney+ debuted it’s second flagship Star Wars streaming series of the year, starring a Latino actor as the protagonist. In the opening episode of Andor, a police chief describes Diego Luna’s eponymous lead as a “dark-featured human,” perhaps the closest the franchise has ever gotten to acknowledging out-of-universe constructions of race, to date. The series explored aspects of imperialism with more depth than Star Wars had previously done on screen, such as the Empire’s treatment of the native people of Aldhani. And, in November, the The Acolyte, a Disney+ series co-developed by Rayne Roberts, announced Amandla Stenberg and Korean actor Lee Jung-jae as its top-billed leads. Stenberg will be the first Gen Z, mixed race, Black, Inuit, queer, and non-binary actor to lead a major Star Wars series.

On the Patricia A. Jackson Star Wars front, in 2022, Jackson’s character Fable Astin was an easter egg in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Jackson will again write for Star Wars in an official capacity in From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, due for publication in Fall 2023. A series about Lando Calrissian, the galaxy’s most famous Socorran, is still in production, so I have my fingers crossed that we may soon see Socorro on camera.

I wonder if this past year will have been a fulcrum year for BIPOC fandom. Maybe Disney has finally realized it’s bad for business that the alt-right uses social media algorithms and Star Wars fan spaces as a soft recruiting ground to radicalize young white men? Maybe Star Wars as a franchise will continue to loudly disavow fan whitelash and firmly position performers of color in true leading roles? I really hope so. On the other hand, as much as I am in favor of increased representation in Star Wars storytelling, I am also troubled by Disney-Lucasfilm’s framing of the Galaxy Far, Far Away (GFFA) as “colorblind.” Recently, Star Wars fans have been asked to accept that in the (a long time ago) sci-fi futurepast GFFA, humans have always been post-racial, and it’s just a coincidence that racialized people were not caught on camera the way white characters have been for years. The galaxy is post-racial and it’s just acoincidence that the movers and shakers of the galaxy have largely been depicted as white men for the past 40 years of media.

For example, in the decade since Disney rebooted the expanded universe, fans have learned that Star Wars’s biggest galactic war criminal to never be depicted on screen is Admiral Rae Sloane, a bisexual Black woman who was the leader of Imperial remnant forces, one of the architects of the First Order, and personal mentor to General Hux. Under Disney-Lucasfilm’s post-racial retcon of the Star Wars universe, the allegorical fascists are intersectional equal opportunity employers (at least in expanded universe content like animation, video games, and novels.) Along those lines, several of the franchise’s newly introduced, prominent women of color have been part of the Empire: Imperial loyalist Cienna Ree (Lost Stars), Inferno Squad leader Iden Versio (Star Wars: Battlefront II) former stormtrooper Jannah (Episode IX), First Order pilot Tamara Ryvora (Star Wars: Resistance), Inquisitor Trilla Sundari (Jedi: Fallen Order), Captain Terisa Kerrill (Star Wars: Squadron) and, most recently, Inquisitor Reva Sevander. Once the sole purview of stodgy, very white and very British men (demonstrably so even in the sequel trilogy movies,) now anyone can be a stooge of the Empire.

That’s not to say that marginalized people can’t collude with fascism, or that there haven’t been heroic characters of color introduced in recent years. Rather, I posit that in order to sell audiences on the post-racial/colorblind GFFA, fascist-of-color characters like Rae Sloane or Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon (The Mandalorian) are created by necessity. The franchise wants to at once be racially inclusive and yet never directly address race. In Star Wars, real world oppression is primarily explored through allegory—such as Solo (2018)’s bit on droid rights, the clone army, or the myriad of non-human alien bodies that nonetheless are coded with racial stereotypes. A lot has been said about how allegory in sci-fi allows audiences to grapple with inequality from a comfortable distance, and not enough has been said about which audience is being prioritized for comfort.

What does it mean when race is supposedly a non-issue for humans in the GFFA, but creators and actors with marginalized identities cannot participate in Star Wars in any capacity without experiencing identity-targeted harassment? In the past ten years, this has been true even for white women like Kathleen Kennedy and Daisy Ridley, but the vitriol has been most strongly directed towards Black women like Lucasfilm Story Group lead Kiri Hart, author Justina Ireland and The High Republic Show host Krystina Arielle. Can the Galaxy Far, Far Away truly be “colorblind” or “post-racial” (never-racial?) if the narrative continually centers white characters and replicates all the common racial inequities seen in commercialized Hollywood storytelling? Upon the release of The Force Awakens in 2015, critic Andre Seewood aptly described Finn’s positioning in the story as “hyper-⁠tokenism,” even presciently predicting that Finn would continue to be hyper-⁠tokenized in Episodes VIII and IX. As the narrative veered away from Finn, it also left unrealized a stormtrooper rebellion plot line where Finn could have been, in effect, a Black abolitionist. Actor John Boyega’s critique of his experience in the sequel trilogy aligns with Seewald’s assessment: “Do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important to the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side.”

Published in 1997, The Black Sands of Socorro came before Finn, before Mace Windu, back when all the melanin of Star Wars could be found in Billy Dee Williams’s singular swagger and James Earl Jones’s distinctive voice. Back then, the most prominent Black actress in the original trilogy was dancer Femi Taylor, who played Oola, the hypersexualized green twi’lek fed to the rancor in Return of the Jedi. Bantam Spectra, the publisher that held the license for Star Wars from 1991 to 1999, had no leading characters of color in its’ Expanded Universe. The first full length Star Wars novel by a writer of color, Steven Barnes’s The Cestus Deception15, would not be published until 2004. Even though the book featured two protagonists of color, they would not be depicted on the cover. At Comic-Con in 2010, I spoke with Tom Taylor, a white Australian comic book writer who tried to make the lead family in Star Wars: Invasion (2009) a Black one, but was shut down during the creative process. The comic instead depicts a family of blondes, because the publishers did not think fans would embrace leads of color. All this to say, the inclusion of melanated characters in Star Wars has been so, so hard fought. It’s incredible The Black Sands of Socorro exists at all. It’s more than worthy of celebration, and I’m floored that more attention has not been brought to it.

Patricia A. Jackson is a smuggler.

This sourcebook was explicitly written to assist fans in telling their own Star Wars stories, and in it Patricia A. Jackson smuggled in emphatic allusions to the Black Panther movement and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, smuggled in commentary on indigeneity and settler colonialism, and smuggled in multiple ways for fans to envision characters of color. Her writing has consistently added richness to the GFFA, and in The Black Sands of Socorro she envisions multiple histories for multiple cultures coded as non-white. She ensured the existence of not mere tokens, but flourishing societies of people of color in Star Wars.

The coda for The Last Jedi again shows how perilously close to tokenization characters of color, particularly Black characters, are in modern day Star Wars. In this film, the franchise returns to itsprevious exploration of slavery with the depiction of enslaved children on Canto Bight. The last speaking lines of the film are from Oniho Zaya (played by Josiah Oniha, a young Black British actor) who recounts Luke Skywalker’s heroic exploits to the other children. The film then closes out by showing that one of the downtrodden children is Force-sensitive—a future hero in the Star Wars mythos. In a film where every single Force-user depicted is white, the next generation kid with the potential is, again, a young white boy. Once again, the Black character can only serve the narrative in a supporting role. A franchise depicting a colorblind fantasy continually reifies racial and gender hierarchies in America. With The Acolyte, scheduled for release in 2024, it’s possible the franchise may finally be shifting past hyper-tokenism. In the meantime, fans of color and our erstwhile allies will continue doodling in the margins.

In the end, the sequel trilogy left the Canto Bight plot line (and the overarching slavery plot line started in Episode I) unresolved. I’d like to think the Black Bha’lir strafed Canto Bight and grabbed those kids. It seems like something they would do. Out among the stars, Oniho Zaya is adventuring with Drake Paulsen, and his story does not bracket another characters’; he is central. The Black Sands of Socorro is a launching pad for stories like that. It represents how fans of color have always carved out pieces of Star Wars for ourselves.

[brokehorrorfan]

The Warriors will be released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on December 12 via Arrow Video. Laurie Greasley designed the new cover art for the 1979 action thriller; the original poster is on the reverse side.

Walter Hill (48 Hrs., Deadwood) directs from a script he co-wrote with David Shaber (Nighthawks), based on Sol Yurick's 1965 novel. Michael Beck, James Remar, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Marcelino Sánchez, and David Harris lead the ensemble cast.

The limited edition set comes with a 100-page book featuring new writing by film critic Dennis Cozzalio plus archival material, a double-sided poster, six art carts, and gang logo stickers.

Both the theatrical cut and the 2005 alternate version have been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative, approved by Hill, with Dolby Vision. The theatrical cut is presented in its original 1.85:1 with original uncompressed mono, stereo 2.0, and Dolby Atmos audio. The alternate cut has stereo 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio.

Special features for the two-disc set are listed below, where you can also see more of the packaging and contents.

Disc 1 - Theatrical Cut:

Audio commentary by A Walter Hill Film author Walter Chaw (new)

Isolated score option

Interview with director Walter Hill (new)

Roundtable discussion on The Warriors with filmmakers Josh Olson (A History of Violence), Lexi Alexander (Green Street), and Robert D. Krzykowski (The Man Who Killed Hitler and then Bigfoot) (new)

Interview with editor Billy Weber (new)

Interview with costume designer Bobbie Mannix (new)

Costume designs and photographs from the archive of designer Bobbie Mannix (new)

Sound of the Streets - An appreciation on Barry De Vorzon's The Warriors score by film historian Neil Brand (new)

Filming location tour (new)

The Beginning - Making-of featurette with director Walter Hill, producer Lawrence Gordon, actor James Remar, and editor David Holden

Battleground - Featurette on shooting in New York City with director Walter Hill and assistant director David O. Sosna

The Way Home - Featurette on the look of the film with director of photography Andrew Laszlo

The Phenomenon - Featurette on the film's legacy with director Walter Hill and cast members

Theatrical trailer

Image gallery

Disc 2 - Alternate Version:

Introduction by director Walter Hill

Also included:

100-page book with new writing by film critic Dennis Cozzalio plus archival material

Double-sided fold-out poster with original and new art

6 postcard-sized art cards

Gang logo stickers

In New York the gangs outnumber the cops by 5-1. Together, they could rule the city. Gang-leader Cyrus has a dream to do just that and calls a summit. The gangs of New York gather in their thousands, Cyrus takes the stage. From somewhere in the crowd a shot rings out and Cyrus falls down dead. In the chaos that follows, a small gang from Coney Island – the Warriors – are blamed. Now everyone is out to get them. On foot, in enemy territory, can they make it through the night to get back across the city to the safety of home turf?

Pre-order The Warriors.

[lilyginnyblackv2]

Buddy Daddies - OST - Song Titles: Translations & Info.

A few days ago, they put up a teaser video with some of the songs from the Buddy Daddies OST playing. They also provided this image above, which has all the song titles listed. I’ve translated them all and have provided some interesting insight and information when and where I could. If anyone else has any more info on these titles, or extra insight, feel free to add on to this! :D

So, first, here are the song titles:

1. Buddy Daddies Theme

2. Commencing Pursuit

3. Under Interrogation

4. SHARK ATTACK

5. Ska De Buddy

6. Buddy & Daddies Act. 1

7. Knight of Dragon Emblem

8. Funk Me Up! Feat. Nick Green

9. Jazzy & Daddies

10. Jingle Bells

11. Watermelon Woman

12. Let’s Cooking

13. Targets in the Dark

14. Silent Night

15. Undercover Investigation

16. Strolling Waltz

17. Battle of Spanish Joint

18. Welcome Home, Daddy

19. Comfort in My Heart

20. Franny! Rudolph! Francesco!

21. Mystery of Spanish Joint

22. Stand Off

23. Caprice Waltz

24. Country & Daddies

25. Diversionary Tactics

26. Start Strategy

27. Twilight Sunset

28. Requiem

29. Nocturne

30. Good Luck Charm

31. Wake Me Up to Hit the Town

32. Secret Maneuvers

33. 24 Hours

34. Don’t Say Goodbye (Japanese Translated Title)

35. Don’t Say Goodbye (English Title)

Some more interesting info on some of these titles under the Read More!

First we have the “Knight of Dragon Emblem” title. This makes me think of Fire Emblem (a video game series that I am not overly familiar with, I just know the name) and dragon imagery. Dragon imagery is associated with strength, courage, magic, and all of that kind of stuff. While a knight protects.

Second we have “Watermelon Woman,” when I looked this up, I found a Wikipedia page on a 1996 romantic-comedy drama called “The Watermelon Woman.” This is a movie that was written, edited, and directed by Cheryl Dunye:

a Liberian-American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye's work often concerns themes of race, sexuality, and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians. She is known as the first out black lesbian to ever direct a feature film with her 1996 film The Watermelon Woman. She runs the production company Jingletown Films based in Oakland California.

(From Wikipedia, which will be linked to below).

She also stars as the lead role in the film. The lead character is Cheryl who is a “young black lesbian.” 

This is the song that plays when Carol and Dorothy show up. Interesting. In the movie, Cheryl explores a lesbian relationship with a white woman Hmm....

But it also plays during stuff like Miri’s daycare interview with Miss Anna. So, I don’t know if there might be some other reference as well.

It could be an indicator of musical influence as well. At least, I definitely think that the song titles Battle of Spanish Joint and Mystery of Spanish Joint come from a song by D’Angelo that came out in 2011. The song is titled, “Spanish Joint,” and you can definitely hear some of the musical influences there. 

The lyrics are rather interesting, especially if you think about them in connection to Buddy Daddies.

One song is titled Requiem, which has a few meanings:

Text: 

(especially in the Roman Catholic Church) a Mass for the repose of the souls of the dead."a requiem was held for the dead queen"

a musical composition setting parts of a requiem Mass, or of a similar character."Fauré's Requiem"

an act or token of remembrance."he designed the epic as a requiem for his wife"

The second meaning is likely the meaning they are going with here.

Nocturne is a musical composition that is meant to invoke the night.

“Don’t Say Goodbye” is the song that Miri’s mother sings in the snack bar back in Episode 3. We get the extra lyric of: “I wanna spend as much time as possible...” Given the current situation she is in, with cancer and wanting Miri back, etc. This song seems like it will be reflective of her feelings in regards to all of those things. I hope we get a full version of it in the actual series itself too!

[she-karev]

Birth (Andrew DeLuca x Amber Karev Imagine)

Previous Part Here

Age Rating: 12+

Chapters: Two of Two

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy

Head canon Ship: Andrew DeLuca x Amber Karev (Alex Karev’s Sister)

AN: Here’s the final chapter for the story you guys and I will try to post the next one as soon as I can and until then enjoy and I always appreciate and like and a reblog!

Editors Note: Hey guys so I just learned how to make GIF’s and decided to reblog this beautiful chapter with a GIF I made myself. Let me know what you think.

Summary: Amber gives birth to a girl with Andrew by her side and Dr. Montgomery delivering.

Words: 1441

Simone Griffith stands outside Amber DeLuca’s delivery room peeking through the transom on the closed door. It’s been six hours since she and DeLuca found out Amber was in labor. She was curious on how her chief resident was after her water broke causing Dr. DeLuca to have her close after his surgery and couldn’t help but go up and see how they are.

Also, after witnessing her grandmother have an Alzheimer’s episode, she wanted a reminder that there were good things in this world too, like babies being born. Alex Karev walks down the hall with a welcome home baby girl gift basket from him and Jo to give to Amber. He spots Griffith outside the room and clears his throat causing her to stand back and look at him.

“Dr. Karev hi I-I was just uh-”

“Spying on my sister while she’s trying to bring a new life into this world right this second?”

“…It looks weird, doesn’t it?”

“Yes!” Alex confirms causing her to look down in shame, “Is there a reason you’re doing this very weird thing?”

“I just…I just needed a reminder that there’s good things in this world too. And watching a birth happen in real time works more effectively than faith in humanity videos.”

Alex grins at that understanding where she’s coming from, “Yeah there is something magical about my baby sister becoming a mother.”

“That is all I am saying sir.” He motions for her to step aside and she does so. He walks inside the room to find Amber lying on her side in her bed with Dr. Montgomery behind her inserting the epidural catheter. Andrew is standing by her side and holding her hand as she groans at the needle insertion.

“Hey kid how are we doing?”

“Terrible! You’re lucky your ex-girlfriend knows what she’s doing otherwise I would judge her based on her poor choices from sleeping with you.” Alexs eyes widen at his sister’s knowledge of his and Addison’s past relationship. Andrew looks at him in shock as well just learning about this.

“Is this true or is it the hormones talking?”

Addison finishes the insertion and looks up at Alex in disgust, “You told her?”

“No! I swear I didn’t.”

Amber groans and lays on her back on the bed, “Oh please the nurses keep tabs on your love lives and they love to gush with me. They could write romance best sellers with Alex’s disaster of a love life. I mean I’m still at the Ava/Rebecca chapter and it is a doozy.” She turns to Addison, “For the record you could’ve done way better back then.”

“You know I’m in the room, right?” Alex points out before putting the pink basket on the table.

“I’m gonna check how dilated you are.” Addison sighs and feels the need to clarify to Amber while she does her cervix exam, “And for the record I didn’t date him. I found him attractive, I was horny and he was there. It was one time and I judge myself for it enough as it is.”

“I’m his sister I know how shameful you’d feel sleeping with him when he was an intern and an asshat.”

Addison grins at that and looks back at Alex, “I like her.”

Andrew asks trying to comprehend it, “Wait you slept with your sister’s OB and you didn’t think to mention it?”

“You slept with my sister and I had to find out after the fact.” Alex bitterly points out.

“I didn’t even know she was your sister man.”

“And I didn’t think my ex was gonna be delivering my sister’s baby over ten years later but here we are.”

Amber inhales and exhales in annoyance at their petty squabble, “Hey boys?” They turn to her and she looks disheveled while Addison checks her cervix, “I need you two to read the room because I have enough on my plate right now, I don’t need to mediate an argument between my husband and brother.” They quiet and look at her concerned as she continues, “I am just trying to squeeze a giant Escalada out of a compact FUCKING PARKING SPOT!” The boys look scared by her last exclamation.

“Very good.” Addison calmly says, “Swearing helps a lot, you’re at 7 centimeters.” Addison stands back up covering Amber with a blanket.

“Ugh I hate you tell me when I can start pushing this sucker out. Speaking of suckers exiting, Alex get out.” He looks offended by that as Amber continues, “You dropped off the gift and unless you can transport my daughter out of my body you are useless to me. And do me a favor. Let it be known that the only people allowed in this room are Dr. Montgomery and the people who provided genetic material to this baby otherwise they are gonna be in a world of hurt, now out!” Amber points at the door causing Alex to nod and pat Andrew on the back seeing the road ahead of him.

“God speed.”

Andrew nods, “Yeah.” Alex gets out of the room and closes the door behind him.

TWO HOURS LATER

I scream out loud as the next contraction comes and push per Dr. Montgomery’s instructions. While this happens, Andrew is by my side holding me encouraging me. My lower region is covered by blue tarps with Addison behind the curtain delivering my daughter, out of all of us I think she has the easiest job in the room because Andrew is no doubt in pain from me holding his hand with monster strength that’s coming from being in labor.

“Good Dr. DeLuca! Okay at the next contraction I’m gonna need you to really bear down but not until I tell you.”

I whimper at the never-ending cycle, “Oh god come on! I know my brother rejected you but don’t take it out on me!”

Andrew rubs my arm to soothe me, “It’s gonna be okay, you’re doing great, it’ll be over soon.”

I am too in pain and too mad at him to take in his soothing words, “If you think we’re having sex again after this you got another thing coming Andrew DeLuca!”

He chuckles at that and kisses the top of my head wiping the sweat off my forehead, “I think we’re stalled in the sex department until this kid goes off to college.”

I chuckle lightly at that but then I stop and gasp as I feel another contraction coming, “Oh god not again!” I scream as the pain courses through my body.

“Okay one last push Amber!” Dr. Montgomery instructed me and even though it hurts I do as she says, pushing with all my might. Andrew is holding me and encouraging me to push through my piercing screams. After what seems like forever, I feel relief in my body and slump back down on the bed panting for breath. I hear a baby crying and I felt my heart stop as I look down to see Dr. Montgomery holding our small, wriggling and bloody daughter already crying her lungs out. Addison is smiling and laughing in joy, “There she is!”

I’m so shocked by what’s happening I’m laughing and crying at the same time, “Oh my god.”

I can see Andrew laughing in joy too with tears glistening in his eyes, “Look at her oh my god you did that.”

“You helped.” I remind him. He takes the scissors from Dr. Montgomery and cuts the umbilical cord. After that Addison takes the baby to get her cleaned up and comes back a few moments later with our baby daughter wrapped in a baby blanket. She’s crying on the way until she reaches my arms and I hold her shocked at how tiny she is. I smile down at her still overcome with so much love and awe over this tiny human that made the last eight hours of pain I’ve endured so worth it, “Hi. Oh my god she’s…she’s…”

“She’s perfect.” Andrew finishes and I nod as he smiles. I can see the love in his eyes and grin at him.

“Here let’s go to daddy.” I carefully place the baby in Andrew’s arms and he handles her so carefully, no doubt shocked at how light she is too. He croons at the baby speaking words of affection in Italian cradling her head, “Ciao bambina, sono tua mamma e tuo papà.”

I sniffle and grin at the sight of both of them before cooing at our daughter, “Hi welcome to the world. Right now your the only pure and innocent thing in it at this very moment. And I promise we are gonna name you by the time you come home.” Andrew chuckles at that and we just enjoy this moment together as a family.

[zeke-in-devildom]

Dissonance - Chapter 5: The House of Lamentation

What the hell even was his life at this moment? It didn’t help that he was still half-convinced that he was trapped in some kind of fever dream, or maybe his mind really had finally just collapsed under the weight of his damaged psyche. Still seemed like an odd twisted delusion for his mind to cook up, though. Then again, he’s spent his entire life listening to the whispers of the dead, witnessing their spiritual visages twisted in agony, bodies broken, mangled, and sometimes dismembered. He’d made a living writing about the paranormal, about the gruesome fate of countless characters caught up in things beyond the human experience. Why not add demons and a trip to Hell in there? 

Maybe that was why he had agreed to forging a pact with Lucifer. Like, the biblical fallen angel Lucifer. That Lucifer. If he weren’t so tired Zeke might have laughed hysterically, emphasis on hysterical. Never had he been more thankful for his ability to school his face into a polite mask.

After forging the pact, Lucifer had carefully helped him from the couch to settle into one of the armchairs situated in front of the desk before fetching the demon that desk belonged to, who apparently had been waiting just outside, who was also apparently the prince of Hell, or rather the Devildom - apparently there was a difference. The last several minutes had been so surreal. Barbatos, the demon that had stalked him for days prior to his abduction, served them tea as the prince - Lord Diavolo as he’d been introduced - explained this exchange program in further detail.

Zeke had plenty of questions - far too many questions. Thankfully the demons did seem eager enough to answer them. Well, Diavolo and Barbatos seemed to have endless patience as they indulged his curiosity. He hated feeling singled out as the only exchange student not living at Purgatory Hall, but it was reasonable that he was the most vulnerable of the exchange students and they could not ask the other exchange students to take responsibility for his safety. 

Apparently all his basic needs would be provided for, and each exchange student received a monthly stipend. The idea of being financially dependent on anyone, let alone demons, left a bad taste in his mouth. Fortunately it seemed that wouldn’t be the case. In addition to all the other things to wrap his mind around, it turned out that his pen name had a rather large and loyal fan base here. Anything with his pen name attached - book series reprints, tv adaptations, movies, video games, and even merchandise - they had set aside an account with all his accumulated royalties from the Devildom and the number was a lot. Knowing that they were producing content from his intellectual property without his knowledge or approval certainly did not make him happy, but at least it seemed as if their infringement was benefiting him now.

Speaking of his intellectual property, arrangements were already being made so that he could continue his work while studying in the Devildom. He already did much of his work from home, and so all that was to worry about was his ability to remotely submit his drafts to his editor. Zeke wasn’t interested in the specifics, but apparently some demon (AI?) called Karasu would be taking care of his remote connection to the human world. All he cared about was that he would be able to email his files so that his publishing schedule should not be thrown off and that the only people who knew about his connection to E.J. Novak were in that office. Zeke valued his privacy and wanted to continue keeping his private life firmly separate from his work. The three demons agreed.

Finally they gave him a cellphone to use while in the Devildom. They called it a D.D.D  but it was a smart phone at the core. Lucifer informed him that the contact information of every other member of the House of Lamentation, as well as Diavolo and Barbatos, was already programmed into his new device. All three of them urged him to not hesitate to reach out to any of them if he needed anything at all. That said, Lucifer seemed to hint that he should definitely be the first person Zeke contacted for any reason.

When his questions ran dry and the conversation drifted away from him, Zeke was able to fall silent and start to truly digest everything he had learned so far. Diavolo and Lucifer seemed to start their own conversation, but he was completely tuned out to the demons in the room now. Frankly, his mind felt sluggish, slow to process all the information that had been thrown at him. It was quite a lot of very nonsensical things for him to try to make sense of while basically blind and deaf. The first thing he had to decide was if he believed this was real or not, given his history it was exceedingly plausible that this was all in his head. That was the logical conclusion, wasn’t it? 

He was too drained to think.

Zeke was very familiar with being tired. Insomnia was a well-acquainted old friend at this point, being tired was just an inevitable part of his existence. What he was feeling right now was something far beyond tired. This was some bone-deep weariness that had wound icy tendrils around his soul. An exhaustion that made the gray matter behind his eyes throb in time with his heartbeat. 

Instead of focusing on complex thoughts, he closed his eyes and just let himself feel. The ward that had been protecting the room previously was gone now allowing the magic of the Devildom to buzz almost like electricity across his skin in erratic intervals, swelling and ebbing like waves across water - sometimes a ripple, sometimes a breaker. That chaotic, wild power had nearly suffocated him the moment it had crashed into him, but now it could only brush against him, enough to feel it, but not enough to overwhelm. It reminded him of rainwater rolling off a duck’s back. They had natural oils preventing the wet from seeping in. The aura that cloaked him now was kind of like that, except perhaps less oil and more weighted blanket. It was heavy in an almost comforting way.

Shifting focus from the magic in the air, he could feel a similar swelling of power emanating directly from each of the three demons in the room. He was confident that even though his eyes were closed he could have pointed to each of them and identified them by the feel of their magic alone. Diavolo’s power was immense, overbearing and loud, Barbatos’ power was subtler, quieter, and even more frightening, and Lucifer…

He could still feel the infernal magic of the pact with Lucifer pulsing through his veins, twisting around his tongue, tingling like spice in his mouth and burning softly against the back of his neck. Lucifer said that his pact mark was etched into his nape now, although supposedly it would remain invisible to any but those in a pact with him unless he was actively pulling magic through the bond they now shared. That said, anyone should be able to feel Lucifer’s magic and aura all over him. Zeke wasn’t sure how he really felt about that, but there wasn’t much to be done about it now. 

No amount of logic could explain how intensely he could feel everything. Not even in his most lucid of dreams did everything feel quite so real. Whether it was real or not, it wasn’t as if he saw many options other than to go along with it. If demons really wanted him to stay here, what could he do to fight it? 

Absolutely nothing was the resounding answer. 

With his eyes closed he could pretend that this was a dream, he could convince himself that he would open his eyes and things would be normal again. It bothered him that he couldn’t really believe that. Opening his eyes to face his new reality, he was momentarily struck again by that existential dread. All these years of trying so desperately to be normal and why? He was never normal but - he wasn’t crazy either. 

An unfamiliar sense of serenity and peace washed over him, banishing the anxiety and doubt that usually gripped him. Zeke closed his eyes again and relaxed into the chair even further. His entire body was sore, and looking at the demons was making him feel a little unwell. They were annoyingly beautiful, but the way their demonic features flickered in and out of his vision while in human form was making him a bit motion sick. There had to be a way to block that out, it was too visually overstimulating. That would be the first thing he tried to figure out how to control with his abilities.

Zeke didn’t even realize that the voices of the demons had grown into hushed whispers as he slowly was lulled to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This time when he woke up Zeke was confused for entirely different reasons. He hadn’t opened his eyes, but slowly became aware that he was very warm, his head was not resting back against a cushion, but lolled forward to press into something firmer and alive. Blinking groggily, he realized a few things. The first was that at some point Lucifer had wrapped his coat around him, the second was that he was in the demon’s arms, and finally that they were moving. 

Zeke made a sound of surprise, hands immediately reaching to cling to Lucifer, worried that he’d be dropped. Why was he being carried? When had he even fallen asleep? Finding sleep was never that easy.

“Don’t squirm, I am not going to drop you.” Lucifer’s voice was melodious, and somewhere between smug and amused. It kind of annoyed him.

“Put me down!” Zeke squeaked, which was nowhere near as confident as he wanted that to sound. “…please.”

To his surprise, Lucifer stopped walking almost immediately to set him gently back on his feet. Zeke rubbed at his eyes and looked around. It was dark out. Surely he hadn’t been asleep that long. His demon must have seen his confusion.

“It is always night in the Devildom. There is no sun here.” That had not come up in the previous conversation. No wonder the air seemed chilly if it was always dark out, but he always assumed what humans considered Hell would be, well, hot. He pulled Lucifer’s coat tighter around his body, nuzzling his face into the warm fur collar. It was once again a reminder that he had not been prepared to come here at all. His thin turtleneck wasn’t warm enough and his toes were cold as he wiggled them in his boots.

Lucifer guided him to keep moving forward with a hand pressing on his back gently. Zeke took in the street they were walking along. It was surprisingly empty. Shouldn’t there be more people around? Oh, but there weren’t really other houses, were there? They were following a wrought iron fence, and as Zeke’s eyes traveled along it he finally caught sight of their destination. That had to be the House of Lamentation. Of course, Zeke would say it was less house and more mansion in his humble opinion. Even from here the house gave off a very haunted aura. He had seen haunted houses and buildings before, but this was something else entirely.

As they approached the ancient looking gate Zeke felt his feet become rooted in place. If it weren’t for the protective barrier of Lucifer’s aura he was pretty sure that he’d have been trembling at best, and lost the use of his legs at worst. They lived here? How could they stand it? Even demons had to have a limit to how much spiritual residue they could handle, right?

“Ezekiel, it’s alright. The House of Lamentation was a haunted house shrouded in superstition in the human world, we relocated it here to the Devildom several thousand years ago. There are no lingering spirits inside. It is perfectly safe for you.” Lucifer was obviously trying to comfort him, and Zeke might have appreciated it, except he realized that the demons actually didn’t understand how much energy was still swirling in and around the old mansion. Even if there were no active spirits, the house was alive. Not in the sense of a person, perhaps, but it was living and breathing in its own way.

“You really can’t feel it?” His voice was barely above a whisper as he gazed up at the windows that were casting warm light over the front porch.

“Feel what?” Lucifer furrowed his brows and looked up at the house, as if trying to see what Zeke was seeing. “Maybe you should rest once we get you inside.”

The demon’s hand on his back, once again urging him forward seemed to break him from his daze, feet no longer refusing to move forward. It was true, the house was alive, but the longer and closer he looked, listened, felt, the more Zeke understood that there was no malice behind that energy. In fact, it almost seemed excited, beckoning him, warm and happy to welcome its first human in thousands of years.

“I think…I like your house.” Zeke finally said as they approached the door, a faint but genuine smile creeping onto his face.

[ahappydnp]

So like based on Phil’s tweets and now that cute little video, I feel like it’s safe to assume dan isn’t home and hasn’t been in a few days.

his ass better be in a recording booth doing directors commentary on the wad dvd and micromanaging a poor editor

[juette]

a comprehensive guide to custom villagers

when making my custom villager it was very difficult to find good tutorials as many of them would point to deleted pages or only cover things i already knew, so i have decided to make my own complete tutorial. please let me know if you need any aditional help! i will try my best to keep this tutorial up to date and clarify it if needed.

it's important to note that these villagers will NOT show up in online play and dream towns. since only your game is edited, other players will see whichever villager you've replaced instead of the one you've made unless they also mod their game.

first things first, you will need a hacked 3ds with luma3ds and an SD card for this. you can probably play in citra, but i dont really know how using mods in citra works so i will focus on luma3ds for this tutorial.

if you haven't hacked your 3ds yet, do not follow a video tutorial: they can become outdated very easily with no indication of it and following outdated guides makes it a lot more likely that you'll brick your console. follow the guide on 3ds.hacks.guide instead.

other software you will need:

hackingtoolkit9ds to decrypt and unpack the rom

kukkii to extract the textures and put them back in

a drawing software (can be anything, even mspaint) to edit the textures

blender or another 3d editing software to preview what you're doing

010 editor to edit the bin and .umsbt files

step 1: getting a rom

if you're simply downloading the rom online, you may skip this step.

for those who wish to dump the rom from their console, you must first turn it on while pressing the START button to enter godmode9's menu. click the HOME button to see more options, then select "Title manager", then select where you've installed the title (SD card or the console itself). a list of all your installed games will appear. scroll down to Animal Crossing New Leaf or Happy Home Designer depending on which game you want your villager to be injected into.

once you've chosen the game, select "Manage title..." and choose either "Build CIA (standard)" or "Dump CXI/NDS file". you may then shut down the console and insert the SD card into your computer. the rom will be in the folder \gm9\out on the root of your SD card

step 2: decrypting/unpacking the rom

drag and drop your rom to the "PackHack" folder that hackingtoolkit9ds is in. rename it so that it doesn't contain any spaces or special characters.

open up hackingtoolkit9ds and type either CE (for .cia roms) or CXI (for .cxi files) in the window that appears depending on the format of your rom. it will ask you to write the name of your file without the extension. type it and press enter and wait for it to do its thing.

step 3: making your textures!

you'll find your extracted villager models in the folder \ExtractedRomFS\Npc\Normal\Model

the first three letters in each .bcres file name represent the species. open up one of the files of the species you want to make yoir villager be. it doesn't have to be the file of the specific villager you want to replace as we can rename it later, but do be careful that certain villagers have slightly different models than the rest of their species (tucker having tusks or étoile having hairpins, for example)

since i wanted to make an elephant with tusks, i've picked tucker as my base. he uses model elp09.bcres

click the "Batch export PNG" button and choose the folder you want the textures to go in. you may then edit them as you wish. your textures do not need to be semi-transparent like the extracted textures are.

i like seeing the way things look as i work, so i get a copy of the model as a .dae file to open it in blender. you may get those from models-resource.com or you may extract them yourself using ohana 3ds rebirth, though ohana can be a bit unreliable at times. blender's "texture paint" tab also allows you to draw directly on the model, though i don't find it precise enough to my taste so i mostly use it to lay guidelines for me to draw over.

once you're satisfied with your model, make sure to draw the different expressions as well.

eyes 0: neutral

eyes 1: half-blink

eyes 2: blink

eyes 3: angry

eyes 4: sad

eyes 5: happy closed (think ^_^)

eyes 6: surprised

eyes 7: >_< face

mouth 0: neutral/smile

mouth 1: half-open

mouth 2: fully open

mouth 3: frown

mouth 4: half-open frown

mouth 5: fully open frown

you do not have to follow those expressions exactly: for example, being a plush elephant, tusker's mouth moves up and down as he speaks instead of opening and closing.

once everything is done, open the .bcres file in kukkii again and import all of your textures in the right slot (i've found the mass import button does not work for me), then save the file.

step 4: editing names and catchphrases

note: if the villager you are replacing is already in your town, editing the catchphrase in the game's files will NOT change it in-game. similarly, if you are putting the villager in your town with marc robledo's save editor, they will have the catchphrase of the villager you've replaced unless you change it in the save editor yourself.

editing a villager's name or default catchphrase is quite simple, but the new name/catchphrase cannot be longer than the old one. if it is, it will mess up the names and default catchphrases of all the following villagers in the game files.

since you can edit the villager's personality in the game files, simply pick a villager with a long enough name and the right gender. you may also look at the villagers' favourite colors and styles on nookipedia to find one that most closely resembles the villager you wish to make.

since i want tusker to have the sisterly personality, i looked at all the sisterly villagers and i found that pashmina's tastes were close enough, so this is who tusker will be replacing. since her id is goa08, tusker's model needs to be renamed to goa08.bcres

you will find villager names in \ExtractedRomFS\Script\Str\STR_NNpc_name.umsbt and \ExtractedRomFS\Script\Str\STR_NNpc_name_ASR.umsbt

scroll down until you find the name of the villager you wish to replace and change it. the dots between each letter are NOT periods! make sure not to delete them. if you do delete one, or if the villager you're replacing has too many letters in its name, you can copy a dot from another name and paste it between the letters or in place of the extra letters.

catchphrases are found in \ExtractedRomFS\Script\Str\STR_NNpc_habit.umsbt

step 5: editing birthdays, species and personalities

you may skip this step if you only wanted to edit the villager's name. as far as i know, this does not work in happy home designer.

first, download this template.

then, open up \ExtractedRomFS\Npc\Normal\ConstPack.bin in 010 editor and click View -> Line Width -> Custom Width... and enter a value of 34 to make all the villager IDs align.

next, click Templates -> Run Template and select the template we've downloaded. a list will appear at the bottom of the window. scroll through it until you reach the villager you wish to edit, (it will be highlighted in the top half of the window) mine being goa08.

clicking the arrow to the left of struct VillagerConst will reveal a list of all the data this line contains. i will show you how to change birthday, species and personality.

the page we downloaded the template on shows a list of "cases" for each field . for example, for the species field, we want tusker to be an elephant, which is case 0x01 on the page. we will thus type 0x01 in the u8 Species field of 010 editor. the same thing goes for the u8 Personality field. sisterly is 7.

the birth month and day simply require the date. tusker's birthday is may 1st, so i typed 1 in the u8 BirthDay field and 5 in the u8 BirthMonth field. leave everything else alone.

step 6: putting them in the game

luma3ds makes it really easy to put your villagers into the game as long as you pay attention to the folder structure of the original rom.

on the root of your sd card, there should be a folder named luma, and within it a folder named titles (if there isn't, you can create it.)

within that folder, create a folder named with the title ID of your animal crossing game. that title ID will depend on the region of your game.

you can then create a folder named romfs in which you will place your mod files while respecting the path of theoriginal files. for example, the path for the models will be \luma\titles\<game title ID>\romfs\Npc\Normal\Model

when all the files are in place, pop your sd card back into your 3ds and open the game. if the villager isn't in your town, use wisp and an amiibo card (or wumiibo) to see if they show up properly.

and that's it! enjoy your new villagers <3 feel free to tag me in your custom villagers, i'd love to see what you make!

did you find this tutorial helpful? you can buy me a ko-fi as thanks!

[shijiujun]

Literally my one and only long post on TTEOTM ending:

Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu really gave stellar performances if they don’t win every award out there especially for Luo Yunxi who played every single nuanced version of sad, depressed, happy, sinister, vengeful, longing, pining and devotion out there like who else could?!

Also like the ending really left big question marks on Ye Qingyu and GYJW and YBC demon you know like???

---

CGI was damn amazing and production etc. was top-tier, but danggg will yall pls fix that ending?! Also a fun note that TTEOTM sold up to 13M RMB worth in merchandise DURING the airing period and broke some records I think 

---

BE or OE or HE and does it matter?

Yes appreciating BEs is one thing and BEs are certainly great for certain plots and shows, BUT-

We’ve seen this BE in xianxia and sometimes wuxia/historical as if writers are dumping set BEs in just for fun, it’s almost always the same formula and not every show requires the same treatment? At this point we’re all certain none of the xianxias maybe a bit of the wuxia/historical too are going to end well (Immortal Samsara, Novoland, One and Only although I’d say O&O was perhaps deserved) or we get OEs (Winner is Love, LYX’s previous xianxia), or we get the split-second HEs (omg where do I begin, Eternal Love, CLJ, Pillow Book, The Blue Whisper, omg the list goes on) - I’m almost expecting either full BE or the guy to die and then turn up when the female lead turns around on a street or at home or whatever hundreds of years later cuz he comes back but you may or may not see him on screen

TTJ for one, based on his character and personality, was trying so hard to make things work, to give and give and give to the people he loved and the people who gave to him - sure, the writer wrote it as a BE and i respect that, but they also wrote the HE i.e. it’s canon, and the show not giving us that for whatever reason is depressing because the moral of the story is TTJ suffered so fucking much and led such a tired life just for a few happy moments and still was the sacrificial lamb. Yes he was happy too or whatever, he understood the circumstances, but is it so hard to give the canon HE ending to it and giving him the ending he truly deserves for all that he’s done?!

Also it was a strangely cut ending for a BE/OE whatever that was, like three stitched frames that faded out into each other, like I don’t know what the editors were doing but oomph an undeserved ending is one thing, and undeserved AND weirdly cut ending is another thing

And yeah if we read it as him being in the clam then yes it’s a mild HE but leaning towards an OE, and if we count the audio drama snippet sure HE, but no that don’t count!!!!

I feel pretty calm after the initial confusion since we already knew it was likely going to be BE BUT this calm is at the expense of watching TTJ suffer 10,000 times in the past 40 episodes we’ve been desensitized for the last death like don’t tell me yall aren’t tired of this show as much as you love it I AM EXHAUSTED MENTALLY - the “ok” i feel probably isn’t because it’s really ok because if we chose, we’d probably think he deserves his rest and happiness after 500+ years of suffering with happy days he can probably count on one hand 

---

Read the novel for the HEs: This is literally the only thing that’ll save you unless Youku gives us a good video cut tomorrow or end of the week you know?! You’ll truly see what TTJ deserved and we know he didn’t deserve this because WE DON’t EVEN HAVE TO WRITE THE FIX-IT OURSELVES IT LITERALLY EXISTS?!?!?!

But TBF, personally, I have slightly different feelings on the novel because Susu didn’t seem to love him as much at the end as she did in the drama, the drama did that beautifully

---

TL;DR Tantai Jin deserved better, and the us who suffered with TTJ deserved better just on principle!!!

[arbitrarygreay]

Audacity for Debian-based Linux

So, some time around 2020/2021, Audacity for Linux from the repositories of Debian-based distros (including Ubuntu, Mint, etc.) no longer had access to high quality stretch (change tempo, change pitch, shifting slider). This appears to be due to a combination of Debian no longer updating Audacity at all past 2.4.2 (as Audacity's new owners from 3.0.0 on have had...issues, to put it lightly), but also the fact that 2.4.2 specifically was requiring a version of the SBSMS library past what Debian had. It's still the case that the apt version of Audacity on Linux Mint still lacks the high quality stretch functions.

The workaround for this is to compile from source. HOWEVER. Be apprised that if you specifically go for version 2.4.2, there is still a bug around SBSMS, which causes Audacity to crash when attempting high quality stretching. Apparently, if you go for versions afterwards (3.0+, new Audacity owners), or the version before (2.3.3), you will not run into this issue.

I am stubborn, so I have verified that I can now open Audacity 2.4.2 and do a high quality pitch change without crashing. Here are the solution options. Know that both are still compiling from source.

Option 1: Do it manually command by command on the terminal

You will, however, notice that the important download link for the patch is broken. You must get it from here.

Note that you should preface all of the commands listed in that post with "sudo", or they will likely throw an error. (Or do whatever you need to for terminal to continuously recognize root access.) In addition, note that the "pre-installation test" section is not optional. Audacity will not run if the "Portable Settings" folder is not created, and furthermore, the "Portable Settings" folder and all containing files need to have write permissions enabled to the relevant non-root group/owner.

Whether you installed manually or used the script, you will need to go to "/usr/local/share/audacity/audacity-minsrc-2.4.2/build/bin/Release" to launch Audacity. In the file explorer window, you can click the button to the left of the magnifying glass to switch to text input where you can copy and paste the above path. Or, from /home, go up one level, and then navigate through manually.

Change the launcher's icon and add it to the start menu/desktop, per your specific distro and desktop environment.

Option 2: Modify and run a bash script

I found a helpful Youtube video stepping through the process, before they link to a bash script automating the whole thing. However, the script does not include the 2.4.2 patch. There are also a few modifications that need to be done to the script.

Modifications to make (right click the .sh file, open with, pick some text editor):

Line 35: change the dl_directory to match your own system. (Specifically, you probably need to replace "piuser" with your own account name.)

This change also needs be done on lines 115, 116, and 120 (or replace the hard coded parts with "${DL_DIRECTORY}").

Line 77 (optional): add "patch" as a dependent package to check. Like Python, it's mostly likely already installed, so you could leave this commented out.

Lines 139-142: Not a modification, but a note that I didn't end up using this (left it commented out), so I did have to download the 2.4.2 source code from fosshub manually and put it in the location specified by dl_directory. I also put the patch there. If you do want to try to automate the download, you'll not only have to add another line to also download the patch file, but both the source code for 2.4.2 and the patch have hyphens in their urls, so you need to either add backslashes to escape them, or enclose the entire url in quotation marks. But I also can't guarantee that either of those things will work, since I ended up doing the downloads manually.

Line 150: Per the manual installation above, the patch needs to be applied before the build. Add this code block at line 150 (after the script checks to see if the "Build" folder exists):

#SBSMS patch required for 2.4.2 if [ -f "${DL_DIRECTORY}/changepitch.patch" ]; then sudo cp "${DL_DIRECTORY}/changepitch.patch" "${DIRECTORY}/${VERSION}" fi sudo patch -p 1 < changepitch.patch

That's it for changing the script. Save it, close out of the text editor. (If you decided not to try letting the script do the downloads, then make sure you download the source code and the patch and put them in the dl_directory location at this point.)

Enable the script to be executable. (Right click the .sh file, Properties. On the Permissions tab, check that "Allow executing file as a program" is checked.)

Double click the .sh file. I suggest doing the "Run In Terminal" option so you can see the progress. (And if it's really short, probably something went wrong. The build section takes 20 minutes.)

This script does not include installing the offline manual for Audacity. That is covered in the guide posted in Option 1. Sorry, you'll have to do some terminal typing after all.

Whether you installed manually or used the script, you will need to go to "/usr/local/share/audacity/audacity-minsrc-2.4.2/build/bin/Release" to launch Audacity. In the file explorer window, you can click the button to the left of the magnifying glass to switch to text input where you can copy and paste the above path. Or, from /home, go up one level, and then navigate through manually.

Change the launcher's icon and add it to the start menu/desktop, per your specific distro and desktop environment.

[februairy]

grief that disguised as love

chapter two of an english version of acesabo fanfic based on an indonesian movie; jatuh cinta seperti di film-film (literally translated into falling in love like in the movies)

warning: spoilers for jatuh cinta seperti di film-film, past sabolaw, minor character death, grammar mistake as english isn’t my first language (but i did try my best!), grieving theme.

note: koala and deuce were married only for plot convenience and because they suited as acsb sidekicks

ep. 1 english version [here]

you can find the indonesian version ep. 1 [here] and ep. 2 [here]

enjoy!

-

hastily arriving at the apartment, accompanied by a cup of instant coffee and the sun which began to dim through the window, ace's fingers typed slowly on his laptop.

s e q u e n c e    t w o

sequence two, hm. this was the part where the character found their goal. after a few hours been spent thinking about it, producer shanks’ feedbacks were spinning in ace’s head. this and that and all manner of things that made the story even more complicated.

ace sighed, enough for today. he picked up his phone and started chatting with his closest friend while he was studying film in university.

ace: u home tmrrw with deuce?

koala: what

a few minutes later;

koala: deuce’s shooting had been canceled anw

koala: yea well be at homw

koala: home

-

"how was it? my idea?"

ace leaned his head hard on the sofa of koala and deuce's house, he sat on the floor with his feet stretched out and there was already a gaming console controller in his hands (a sign that he had used to come arbitrarily and relaxing around the house of the video editor and actor couple). 

next to him, koala sat in her home attire and a shoulder massager in her hand. her face looked as if it was swallowing bitter food after hearing ace's script idea, "honest opinion? tacky."

"why is it tacky, huh? won’t it be cute if sabo watches it, and then at the end he will realize that it turns out to be my confession?" ace scowled, turning his body slightly to face koala. "anyway, why aren't you shooting, deuce?"

deuce, who had just entered the living room with his laundry basket, simply replied with a flat face before continuing. "my director is annoying," he put the basket on the sofa, then began to fold the clothes one by one. "well, yeah, this happened a lot with a newbie director. suddenly, he went away in the middle of shooting. i don’t know when we will resume the shooting again."

"this happened often with newbie directors, huh?" ace showed interest and suddenly remembered producer shanks' words. "hey, deuce. do you want to be in my movie if you are being offered by shanks?"

the blue-haired man paused for a moment before stacking up his already folded t-shirt. "soap opera adaptation again?" his voice was a little doubtful. 

this time, it was the koala who answered (while still beating her shoulders with a massage stick). "no, this one is ace's first original script. based on his personal experience, he said. the film is intended for confessing to his high school crush. i’m so grossed out."

ace looked at deuce, looking for an ally, but deuce just turned his face away.

"hey, ace. have you asked sabo’s permission? that's his life, no? i will be furious if i'm in his shoes." said koala, as if she was trying to force a common sense to get into ace’s head.

"won’t he be moved?" deuce replied while still meddling with his laundry, he had this questioning expression, ace sticked out his tongue towards koala, 'hah!’. koala stopped her movement, she lifted her shoulder massager stick, motioning to throw it at ace. 

"now sabo is still grieving, koala. how can i tell him? he will see me as heartless." ace chimed in, his shoulders shrugged.

"what if he hasn't moved on?" koala asked, sharply.

ace was silent. "then it will be a sad ending, huh?" his hand began to touch his chin, doubting. "but, listen. the production of the film is about a year or so? i can approach him for the time being, and when the film’s aired, i will invite him and confess my feelings. that sounds great, doesn’t it?"

koala made a vomiting expression. 

"it's been a year, koala. surely, he will have moved on, right?"

annoyed, koala's voice sounded harsh by the next she spoke up; "you can't tell when people are done grieving."

deuce, who had been lost in the conversation between his friend and his wife, stared back and forth between ace and koala. confused. "aren’t we talking about ace’s film?"

the light brown-haired woman raised her hand, defeated, and stood up to walk to her desk behind the sofa. giving up talking with ace for further discussion. surprisingly, their debates often ended in nothing, but koala and ace were still friends from their university days until now. 

"whatever. i will continue my work. get out of the way, ace. i want to use the TV for editing." koala grabbed the controller in ace's hand while ace was lost in his own thought, thinking about the koala's words which, according to ace, did not make sense.

is it true that sabo won’t have moved on for over a year?

the whole pile of deuce's laundry was neatly folded, but the confusion still didn't disappear from his face.

"so… is this a true story or…?"

-

sabo was busy discussing orders with his employees when he caught ace's figure from the corner of his eye, he saw ace hesitated to enter sabo's flower arrangement studio before being allowed to.

"just come in, ace," sabo coaxed with a chuckle. it was actually casual, but sabo himself didn't know how big the effect of his smile was to ace, because ace wanted to melt in front of the door right away. "you're not lost, are you? how did you get here?"

ace pointed at his car which was parked in front of the gate of sabo's house, to which sabo replied with a thumbs up before walking towards the rows of flower arrangements in his studio. "sit down, i'll take care of the orders first. you can have a look and take photos."

after getting permission and approval from his friend, ace walked around sabo's studio while occasionally nodding a little to the employees of the flower shop. sabo’s flower arrangement studio occupied one of the room in the old house of sabo's parents, a modest house with colonial architecture in the old housing area of the capital city. during the day, the studio was only illuminated by sunlight that seeped in from the gap of windows. 

the floral fragrance mixed with the weathered wood of an old shelf, that ace could guess was an old shelf handed down from the sabo’s parents too. there are many crumbs of dry leaves and spots of blackish stains on the floor, a sign testifying to the high intensity of activity and mobility in the room. the flowers were lined up in a plastic bucket (which arranged alphabetically by the type of flower, ace noticed).

ace smiled. after so many years of not meeting sabo, this small space was able to provide a small part of sabo that ace had not had time to know. about sabo, who turned out to had participated in flower arrangement certification several times (there are four certificates displayed on the wall), about sabo, who once received an order from the mayor of a neighboring city (his photo was at the top corner of the shelf).

about sabo– 

ace's steps stopped at a framed photograph hanging on the innermost side of the studio with fresh white flowers embedded between the frame carvings.

–who started this business supported by law. 

there was sabo's sweetest smile in the photo, sabo's smile that had always taken ace's breath away since they were in highschool. a photo of sabo in front of a flower shop in his old town, embraced by a taller man with a sheepish smile and looking at sabo lovingly. 

and suddenly, all the information ace had just learned about sabo seemed meaningless.

ace's fingers, which were holding the camera, were frozen. 

from the gap of the shelf, ace turned his head weakly towards sabo who was still busy directing his employees to move the flower arrangements into the delivery box, making sure the destination address was correct. really, the grief was not visible in ace’s eyes, covered by sabo's usual attitude in carrying out his daily activities. 

but the fresh flowers in the frame said otherwise.

one year. would ace be able to make sabo drew his grief to a close?

"ace?"

sabo's voice from behind the other rack pulled ace out of his thoughts. ace hurriedly approached sabo while trying to cover the confusion on his face, "have you finished your business?" ace asked nervously which, hopefully, was subtle. 

"yes," sabo's eyes glanced at the shelf aisle that ace had just passed through and deduced that ace had seen the photo hanging there. for some reason, there was pressure in sabo's heart that passed by, but sabo ignored it. "by the way, how is it? how can i help you with the survey?"

"i– " ace cleared his throat, his fingers fiddling with the camera he was holding. "i want to see your daily life as a florist, sab." 

"are you free tomorrow?"

ace blinked confusedly. "yeah?"

"tomorrow morning, would you like to come with me to the flower market? usually, i buy flowers early in the morning at the flower market," sabo's hand moved, sweeping to one of the flower arrangements on the shelf. "because i restock fresh flowers everyday. but it will be suuuper early in the morning–"

before sabo could continue his words again, ace had already shown an affirmative nods. the opportunity to be alone with sabo? certainly ace wouldn’t miss it. their plan was further confirmed after ace promised to pick up sabo tomorrow at five in the morning.

-

sabo and ace just got to the flower market at nine in the morning. 

"so... you go the flower market this early every day, huh, sab?" 

sabo's footsteps slowed down, adjusting to ace who was busy taking photos with his camera to all corners of the flower market, as documentation for spots that would be good for shooting later. 

sabo looked back, flashing a small smile. "well… i think… this is unusually late for me." which was followed by a small chuckle. ace's face flushed, saying sorry at sabo because he overslept and was late to pick sabo up from the promised time. sabo laughed back, patting ace on the shoulder, reassuring that it was fine.

some time later, colorful flowers had diverted ace's mind from his steps with sabo getting at the same tempo. 

"why do you want to make the main character as a florist?"

ace turned his head, somewhat flustered by sabo's sudden question. he scratched his neck, looking for answers. "you see... in my mind, florist… is lovable, isn’t it?" it was sabo's turn to turn his head before ace continued “and later, the setting will also be pretty, there will be lots of flowers and very colorful. well, even if the film mostly is going to be black-and-white, anyway." 

only a small hmm came out of sabo as he continued to walk across the sea of flowers while looking right and left, trying to find fresh flowers that he could buy today. the minimal reaction from sabo made ace a little uneasy, and his brain started looking for a way to break the silence. 

"can i ask something? if you don’t mind?" ace asked, while sabo was busy bidding for flowers with the seller. sabo turned his head slightly, nodded, allowing ace to continue his question. "why did you open a flower-arranging shop?"

sabo's face looked like he was looking for an answer in a few seconds of pause.

"after graduating from uni, i came to take a liking to flowers. i think…flowers can say things that can't be conveyed with words." the tip of sabo's lips lifted slightly, but his eyebrows said otherwise, showing a bitter smile. ace caught on, there was something deeper from the colour of his voice and all of that was instantly answered in sabo's next words;

“actually, i was already going to stop this business,” and in between his words, sabo chose another bouquet of flowers. "but this was one of my dream that was realized by law’s support. for me, this is all that left of law. so… i can't stop doing this."

ace and sabo were silent.

sabo blinked quickly as if he was processing something in his brain. it was like he had just got an epiphany. he turned and looked at ace.

"i realize something because of your question, ace... not all my dreams were buried with law–"

at that instant, something felt like hitting ace's chest, pressing like it was taking his breath away; who would have thought ace's own words would strengthen law's presence in sabo's memories. 

“–my flower shop is one of them." 

sabo lifted the flowers he had just bought, then tilted his head at ace. for some reason, his movements were like slow motion and, oh god, that smile... the smile that was painted on sabo's face, which ace knew, only appeared when law crossed sabo's mind.

“pretty, right?”

this time it was ace's turn to smile bitterly. not sure how to answer; yes, pretty. but, which one is pretty? the flowers or sabo in his eyes?

sabo, who still bore the pain of losing, was still as pretty as sabo that made ace fell in love; was it mean if ace thought so?

-

the flowers that sabo bought were neatly stored in the middle of sabo's car and trunk. ace was seated behind the steering wheel, while sabo was already leaning his head on his hand draped over the window. 

sabo's eyelids felt heavy, the faint sound of ace's voice and the radio gradually sounded quieter in his ears. 

"sabo?" 

his eyes suddenly opened. "i'm sorry, i was a little bit sleepy," he smiled, scratching the back of his neck. "i only got a few hours of sleep last night because i was occasionally awoken."

ace's gaze remained fixed on the road, but sabo could see his fingers tightening on the steering wheel after hearing sabo's answer. without heeding what ace had in mind, sabo continued his own words. somehow the company of his old friend brought back the old habit of sabo with ace; pouring his feelings out without notice.

"since law passed away, i haven't been able to sleep in our room anymore," sabo's eyeballs glanced at the road, not thinking deeply about the words that came out of his mouth. maybe sabo really just needed a friend to tell stories, sharing his grief. "law's bedside was empty, ace. i can't. that's why i sleep on the living room’s sofa."

all those words were honest and sabo did not try to cover it up. in the past four months, sabo had never expressed his feelings like this. but this was ace. this time, like water in a cracked dam, sabo’s feeling seeping out, raw and bleak in the face of ace's presence. 

there was no reply from ace and sabo appreciated that. sabo just needed a person to listen to his mechanism in overcoming his grief. the silence in the car and the song that sabo did not know the lyrics couldn’t win over his sleepiness.

slowly, sabo finally fell asleep with the increasingly dense traffic, driving him slowly back to his house, until he didn’t realize ace had parked in front of his gate.

ace turned his body towards sabo, resting his face on his hands and staring at the sleeping face of the blonde man beside him. sabo's face was so calm and peaceful with no signs of fatigue on his face if ace didn’t catch the bags under his eyes that were so obvious.

ace wanted to sweep sabo's hair that fell over his face, but ace canceled his intention as means of keeping the boundary line between them or just to not wake sabo up.

ace sighed for the umpteenth time today, then he took his notepad from his bag, started typing the continuation of the script that had been running in his head this whole day long.

N A R R A T O R

In his tiredness, Sabo fell asleep like an exhausted child running all day, playing with grief that disguised as love.

there was a weak groan coming from sabo in his sleep, making ace immediately closed his notepad. 

sabo woke up and ace put the manuscript back in the bag, together with all his feelings.

[bmodiwrites]

You Drew Stars Around My Scars

Hi friends! This one is based of a prompt I got sent a couple of days ago. The general gist of it is janitor x workaholic AU. So, here we are! Eddie's a story board editor with nothing to go home to and Steve, well, he's a janitor. This little beauty is filled with cuteness, a few twists, and lots of steddie goodness. Oh, there's some naught stuff, too. Minors, DNI! Check it out here or over on AO3! Let me know what you think in the comments below <3

Dropping the ludicrously expensive color pencil back onto his drawing desk, Eddie reclines back into his chair. He quickly clenches and unclenches his fingers in a desperate attempt to get some blood flow back to them. The sketch before him, a recent episode idea for Epic Kids, is almost perfect – after ten straight hours of work, Eddie is glad to see the thing finally shaping up into what it’s actually supposed to be.

As a story board artist, the demands on Eddie change daily. He doesn’t work for one show or something simple like that. Instead, he works for a company that dabbles in both television and video games. His projects range from children’s shows to multi-million dollar selling video games. No one knew the 90’s would be the time technology blew up – now, so many different game consoles exist, Eddie is never shy on work.

Upon picking up the craft right out of college, Eddie didn’t expect this to be the rest of his life. Sometimes, though, the world works in mysterious ways. The children’s book he always wanted to write comes alive in the shorts he draws and ideas he shares. Though he’s still wanting to put together a D&D epic for younger kids, Eddie is content enough with his lot to continue doodling on someone else’s dime.

He's about to pick the red pencil back up when the creak of his already open door startles him. It’s well past the time at night where anyone else is usually in the building. Eddie likes to close his door until everyone leaves so he’s got the space to himself. Now, he’s drawing in ambient light with nothing to disturb him – except, he guesses, for a gorgeous man dragging along a cleaning cart.

For a lingering moment, Eddie knows the man hasn’t seen him yet. He’s got headphones covering his ears and his head bobs to the beat. Strong hands are already reaching for the tools he’ll need to clean the floor before clearing out Eddie’s trash. This guy is new because no one ever took the time to sweep up the pencil shavings under Eddie’s desk. Lately, he’s been coming back to the office to a clean space. Now, he knows who the culprit is.

Since the guy still isn’t reacting to Eddie’s presence, brown eyes greedily take in their fill. Though the headphones push it down, the janitor has gorgeous hair. It’s thick and dirty blonde. Eddie thinks about the potential for amazing hairstyles and almost swoons. As his eyes roam a little further, Eddie notices wide wire-framed glasses pushed up an angular nose. They enhance hazel eyes that are now looking at him with a mix of panic and surprise.

“Oh damn, I’m so sorry. No one is ever here, I didn’t even think to knock. I’ll uh – I’ll come back later.” The words are out of the new janitors mouth so fast that Eddie’s head spins. Though, he’s quick to put it on right in hopes of keeping this mouthwatering stranger in the room.

“Hey, it’s alright. I should be thanking you. You’re the first cleaner to ever pick up my pencil shavings. It’s awesome, man. I appreciate it.” Eddie finishes his thanks with a soft smile. It should be enough, saying something sweet before moving on. Yet, it’s not. Eddie feels compelled to keep talking. “Are you new?”

The guy looks incredibly uncomfortable for a second before nodding. It’s brief and coarse but it’s a reaction – one that Eddie wasn’t all that sure he was going to get. Happy with that small crumb, Eddie’s smile widens.

“Cool, you’ll like it here. I’ve been working behind this desk since college. Loved every second of it.”

His comment is met with silence that lingers so long Eddie thinks his new friend is done with the conversation. He’s about to grab at his pencil again when that deep voice sounds off.

“Maybe you’re right. It’s really quiet. I like that.” The man pauses for a second, takes Eddie in. His hazel eyes roam over Eddie’s face and down until he sees the drawing on the desk. For an instant, those eyes widen, but the moment is gone long before Eddie can process it.

“I’ll let you get back to your work, Mr. Munson. Sorry again about the interruption.”

Shrinking back at the name, Eddie calls out immediately – “It’s Eddie. Please, call me Eddie.”

Though the man doesn’t verbally respond or outwardly acknowledge Eddie’s request, there’s a short little nod before the squeaking of the cart sounds again and the enigma of a man is gone as quickly as he came.

Over the next couple of weeks, Eddie changes his routine in hope of bumping into their new custodian again. He walks the halls every couple of hours during the day to see if the man works while the rest of his crew does, but never finds him. He then stays a little later, lingering in his office until the call of food or a television show or plain boredom has him collecting his bags to head off for the night.

Eventually, Eddie’s enigma makes another appearance. This time, though, Eddie is not prepared for him. He’s been curled up into the sanctuary of his arm, napping soundly, since his last meeting. They ripped apart his drawing and asked for something completely different than what Eddie had been picturing. The game isn’t even out yet and Eddie is over it. The headache that sets in kicks his ass, making the call of the flat of his desk so very enticing. He doesn’t know he’s fallen asleep until the door kicks open and he’s blinking awake.

“Shit, I did it again. I’ve been saving your office for last every day, trying not to disturb you on your late nights. Sorry, Mr. – Eddie. I don’t mean to disturb you.”

Sitting up a little straighter in his chair, Eddie stops him before he can go. “Wait! You don’t have to do that. I don’t mind the interruption. It’s probably needed. I’m spending way too much time here, anyway.”

With an invitation to stay, the guy doesn’t take off like the rocket he had just been trying to become. Instead, he lingers in the doorway, eyes roaming over Eddie again. Since they’re staring at one another, Eddie doesn’t disguise his desire to look back.

This time, Eddie notices a thin little mustache that covers red and probably delectable lips. They’re plump and forming words that Eddie is obviously missing out on. He clues back in just in time to catch the tail end.

“ – my friend’s son loves Epic Kids. I get so many more cool points now because I know one of the artists.”

Eddie is glad he managed to tune back into reality – catching that compliment makes the rest of his shitty day seem insignificant. Epic Kids is his pet project, one he’s much more interested in than the stupid game pitch still haunting him from his desk. Though, Eddie is unsure how the man before him knows about his involvement. He hasn’t had a new project for the show cross his desk since they first met.

“How did you know I worked on that show?”

The man smiles then, his lips (they are absolutely kissable, Eddie just knows it) quirk into a knowing grin. For the first time since Eddie encountered him, there’s a sign of life outside of trash cans and a grumpy demeanor.

“That first night I barged in, you were working on a doodle that ended up in yesterday’s show. After Lucas finished up the episode, I watched through the credits. Eddie Munson, Storyboard Editor, is pretty hard to miss.”

“It’s kind of unfair you know my name and I don’t know yours,” Eddie petulantly says before he can stop himself. Though, it’s not a bad thing because the man laughs, genuinely chuckles, and points to the embroidered name on the left side of his tacky blue jumpsuit.

“I’m Steve. Steve Harrington.”

Eddie’s cheeks heat up for some reason, as if access to a name gives him so much more. While it’s just a title to call the hot man that roams the halls at night, Eddie sees the vulnerability as something more. An obvious door has been opened and he’s timidly excited to step through it.

Steve becomes a regular fixture after that. It’s easy for him to wheel his cart into Eddie’s office at the end of the night and make conversation while he goes about his duties. Eddie draws or sits in his chair listening intently to everything Steve’s got to say. He learns about the man’s found family and his platonic soulmate who also doubles as a roommate whenever she’s in town. The connection they have is something that should be cherished, despite only being nurtured for a handful of minutes the nights Eddie can force himself to stay late enough.

There is, of course, an easy fix. Eddie isn’t one to actively pursue another person, especially when he’s not quite sure about their interest. Steve, it seems, is the exception to every rule that Eddie’s ever put into place, however. Their time together is too nice not to extend it past the walls of his workplace. Never mind the fact that Eddie is more than excited by the prospect of Steve in anything but the ugly blue uniform he’s forced to wear. The man is beautiful, Eddie sees that through and through. Something tells him, though, that Steve has lots of potential outside of navy blue.

He bids his time until the perfect opportunity presents itself. It’s a Thursday night and Steve is already talking about the weekend. He has yet to mention Friday night, however, so Eddie takes that as his chance.

“What about Friday? Are you free? There’s this joint in town I’ve been dying to try out, thought you might like to come.”

Eddie waits with bated breath as Steve blinks a few times behind his thick lenses. He goes about putting the trashcan back in its spot, even replaces the bag before looking in Eddie’s direction.

“Uh, yeah. That – that sounds good. I haven’t been out with adults I didn’t grow up with in ages. I think I’d really like that.”

It takes a massive amount of effort for Eddie not to happily jump up from his chair. His fist is tingling with the need to thrust itself into the air in triumph, but Eddie keeps control. After finally securing some extra time with Steve, the last thing Eddie wants to do is muck it up by being over eager or worse – immature with his excitement.

It seems, however, that Steve is just as excited. Pink overtakes his cheeks and a smile that Eddie’s never seen before stretches those gorgeous lips wide. And while he’s not making eye contact with Eddie at all, Steve sneakily glances in his direction time and time again as he finishes up.

Eddie feels like he’s back in high school again, fumbling over his first crush. It’s a glorious thing, experiencing freedom like that after the fickle mundaneness of adulthood.

----

As expected, Steve is an absolute dream out of uniform. The yellow polo Steve’s wearing makes the hazel in his eyes stand out beyond belief. His blue jeans are tight in all the right areas, enhancing thighs and ass like navy blue fabric never could. Eddie has to physically close his mouth upon first glance, lest he starts drooling before the date actually gets started.

Thankfully, Steve spots him across the weird little bar and makes a beeline in Eddie’s direction. The space they’re in is an eclectic little place that serves beer while it’s patrons play mini golf on the two courses out back. It’s one of the coolest things Eddie has seen – he desperately hopes this little place won’t be the last of such an interesting idea.

Everyone around them looks to be enjoying themselves, either way.

Glad for that knowledge and reassurane, Eddie makes quick work of getting them both a drink and the things they need to play the first course. Steve is slightly stiff as they start but loosens up by the third hole.

Now that they’re not in the noisy bar and the party before them is a couple holes ahead, Steve relaxes. He starts to shoot better and actually takes a couple pulls of his drink. It’s a relief because Eddie already thought he blew it.

As it turns out, Steve is just a man with a little social anxiety. When it’s just the two of them, Eddie gets so much from Steve. He talks about his family the most, the little brother (who’s not actually a ‘real’ sibling, though Steve counts him as one) that’s been a pain in his ass most of Steve’s life, the niece and nephew he spoils incessantly. It’s a beautiful thing to experience a person so dedicated to the people around them.

Eddie tries to reciprocate by telling him about art school and the program he did throughout. He talks about the children’s book he wants to write, despite never spilling the beans of that to anyone else in the entire world. Uncle Wayne doesn’t even know the plot of Eddie’s dream work. For some reason, Eddie can’t stop himself from speaking so earnestly to Steve. It doesn’t hurt, however, that Steve is pretty candid with his words, too.

The only thing that Steve doesn’t talk about is himself. After the first date and then the second, Eddie chalks it up to nerves and taking things slow. He’s in deep already, so the change in pace is a welcome thing.

Except, it keeps happening the longer they’re together. Two dates turns to two months of dating, two months of Steve avoiding questions, two months of them never once setting foot in Steve’s apartment. Admittedly, the lack of personal details is a little off putting. Though, Eddie is eager enough to see where things might go with Steve that he pushes all of that aside. One day, one day really soon, Steve will open up.

It eventually happens, just not in the way Eddie ever thought it would.

For the first time in their entire relationship, Steve’s walking him towards his door. Well, he’s backing Eddie up against it because they can’t keep their hands off each other. Between their intense connection and the chemistry that runs rampant, Eddie’s been edging himself, waiting for this very moment. It’s a little much now that it’s happening but Eddie’s here for it, eager and willing, too. So much so that he doesn’t question Steve leaving off lights as they stumble inside.

Despite the time it took them to get here, Steve is anything but patient and inexperienced. He doesn’t fumble or miss buttons in the darkness of the room. His accurate attack gets Eddie out of his clothes in record time.

Instead of taking off his own, however, Steve immediately drops to his knees, eager hands finding Eddie’s cock without struggle. Long fingers wrap around the base while Steve’s other hand drops to Eddie’s balls. He rolls them at the same time the wetness of his mouth sucks in the head of Eddie’s cock. It’s so glorious, Eddie can do nothing but thread his fingers through Steve’s hair and pull him closer.

The suction is so good that Eddie has to dig the nails of his free hand into the fleshy skin of his palm. Drawing blood is the only thing stopping Eddie from shooting down Steve’s throat but it’s all too good to make him stop. At least, Eddie thinks that until the end is actually imminent. Then, he tugs on Steve’s hair, pulling him off as gently as possible.

“You’re way too good at that. Care for a little something more?” Eddie asks as Steve stands up from his spot on the ground. There’s a smile on his face, though Eddie barely recognizes it in the dark. He thinks to ask about the light but bypasses the urge – if Steve wanted them on, he would’ve flipped the switch as he passed.

Knowing that, Eddie is a little surprised that Steve takes off his clothes at all. Usually when a person liked to keep the lights off, they liked to keep their clothes on, too. Steve, it seems, is filled with contradictory worries and triggers. He sheds his clothes in the same manner he disrobed Eddie. It’s efficient and quick and soon, they’re both standing in front of each other naked as can be.

Steve doesn’t give Eddie much time to take him in. That self-conscious air is back, despite Steve covering it up by sliding his body on top of Eddie’s on the mattress. They fit together so well it’s difficult to keep up with anything at all aside slick slide of Steve’s hips as he grinds down against Eddie. Their cocks are both wet with pre-cum that makes each brush of their pelvises an electric thing. Eddie is already done in – he’s not sure how much more he can take.

There must be precognition in Steve’s life because he moves away from Eddie right as he thinks that. It’s both a torture and relief, one that’s only made better by Steve shifting his body so he can dig into the bedside table for a condom and some lube. The triumphant little noise he makes is kind of nice, too. It reorients Eddie back to the real reason they’re taking each other apart. He loves Steve. Steve loves him. Coming together like this is the ultimate culmination of their feelings for each other.

That thought echoes in Eddie’s head while Steve lubes up a finger, then leaves a dollop of the cool liquid on Eddie’s hip for later. When that finger breaches him, Eddie lets Steve project his love into him, feeling complete for the first time since things started between them. It’s satisfying and dizzyingly delicious.

Steve is very good at the things he’s doing to Eddie. His fingers take no time at all to find Eddie’s prostate. They nail the bundle of nerves tirelessly before not touching it again for many minutes on end, despite more digits coming to the party.

Eventually, three fingers barely skim against it by the time Steve’s getting antsy for more. Eddie too is right there with him.

“I’m good, Steve. I’m good. I need you, baby.”

A soft chuckle slips from Steve’s lips that are pressed against Eddie’s neck. While hands fumble between them, Steve kisses and nips little marks into soft skin, distracting them both from the lurid slip of a condom down Steve’s cock. Eventually a hard tip presses against Eddie’s entrance and the softest of whispers echoes in his head.

“I’ve got you, Eds. I’ve got you,” Steve mumbles, his words laced with lust and want and anticipation that reaches a peak as Steve finally presses inside.

It’s so difficult to keep his composure, Eddie doesn’t even try. He yells out a loud “fuck” that sits in the room with them. While Steve draws back and thrusts forward, Eddie clings to him. He runs his hands over Steve’s back and sides, tracing lines of something like scarring from one side of his torso to the other. If he was thinking straight, Eddie would’ve taken that all into account. Instead, he wraps his arms around Steve’s neck and lets the man drop even more weight upon him, distracting Eddie further.

When the end comes creeping near, Steve’s head is tucked into Eddie’s neck, his harsh breath like a tsunami’s wind. Eddie is hanging on the precipice, already able to cum for minutes now. He’s clutching to that edge just to make sure he tumbles off at the same time Steve does. It only takes a handful of thrusts and a cleverly placed bite of Steve’s teeth right above Eddie’s collarbone for both boys to free fall into the unknown abyss of immaculate pleasure.

Eddie must black out because the next time he blinks back to consciousness, there’s light streaming through Steve’s windows. There are curtains but each one is pulled back, letting in the light.

It’s then that Eddie sees them, the reasons behind Steve’s need to keep the lights off in front of Eddie. There are scars everywhere that Eddie can see. Some are long and thin while others look like something tried to take a bite out of Steve’s skin. The flesh is red and raised, though healed completely all the same. Eddie wants to reach out and touch but he refrains. Intimacy is a gift he doesn’t want to give away. Misplacing Steve’s trust in him is not at all what Eddie wants to do.

Already, it’s too late, though. Steve turns slightly, revealing more of the scars on his chest and neck. There’s a long line around his throat that Eddie is surprised he’s never noticed. It obviously hides well under all the clothes Steve wears. This time, he doesn’t tamp down the urge. His fingers brush up against Steve’s neck on their own accord.

“What happened, Steve?” Eddie’s eyes are welling up with tears. He can’t decide if he’s mad at whatever did this or overwhelmed with the need to care for the man before him. That must be clear – Steve doesn’t draw away or try to hide. He rolls over completely and pulls Eddie into his arms.

“It’s – really hard to explain,” Steve starts, his hand idly running up and down Eddie’s sides as they cuddle. “The town I grew up in, Hawkins – it made the news a bunch of times a few years ago.”

Sensing some familiarity, Eddie wracks his brain, trying to remember but New York is a long way away from Indiana. He still nods his head, willing Steve to go on.

“Some crazy stuff went down that you probably won’t believe. In the end, I took a beating to make sure my family got to see another day. I got… taken and the things that were trying to tear Hawkins apart, they did this to me. A couple times over.”

Steve’s a little breathless when he finishes. Despite not sharing all that many details, Eddie knows whatever he just purged from Steve is a lot. It’s something that’s stricken him down in unimaginable ways.

For all it’s worth, Eddie leans further into Steve, dragging him in a little closer. He doesn’t know what to say but that seems to be okay. Steve wraps him up tighter and lets the easy silence settle between them. Without noticing, both drift off again.

Between a nap and another round of amazing sex a while later, Eddie is famished when they eventually resurface to go about the rest of the day.

Steve volunteered to cook so Eddie wanders around the apartment. He takes in the comic books and CDs. There are toys in a box in a corner and a big tv box tucked into a nice looking stand. It’s simple and nice and totally not what Eddie expected at all.

Neither is the master’s degree Eddie sees hanging from the wall.

“Steve, you went to college? For longer than the mandatory four years?” Eddie’s voice is high, the shock clearly coming through.

Steve comes bounding around the corner, a spatula still in his hand. “What are you screaming about in here?”

Eddie takes a long breath and then another. He looks at the diploma on the wall and then back at Steve. “You never said you were a college boy.”

Laughing lightly, Steve shrugs his shoulders. “You never asked.”

“But – “ Eddie starts, his face flushing. The mere thought is too much. How can he ever say the words?

Steve, of course, beats him to it. “But what? But I’m a janitor? You know, Eddie – that’s pretty narrow minded of you.” The words hold no malice, despite the tone of Steve’s voice.

“I don’t like people or crowds. I have PTSD from all the trauma in my teens. Offices and university campuses are the Mecca of loud noises and large masses of other humans. Instead of putting myself into danger, I work a slow job that fits my complexities. It’s exactly what I need, Eddie. Kind of like you.”

The last sentence is enough to make Eddie’s head spin. He for sure thought he was getting a lecture where in fact he gets the opposite.

Steve strides towards his bookcase a determined look in his eye. He searches and skims his fingers over book spines until the right one is in his hands. “Read this. You might understand things a little better. I always told anyone who asked that the events weren’t real but they are. Everything I wrote down in that book is what me and my friends went through. All of it.”

Steve taps the top, looking directly at Eddie. “Read it, don’t read it. If you’re curious about me, you’ll find a lot of what you want to know between those pages.”

All the sudden, Eddie remembers where he heard the name Hawkins before, where he’d even been privy to Steve’s name prior to them meeting. Looking down at the book in his hands, Eddie distinctly remembers demogorgons and bats with tails that stung and ripped and tore. Quickly, Eddie riffled through the pages in order to get to the back cover.

There, in all his gorgeous glory, was Steve Harrington, not at all smiling at the camera. Reading into the bio, Eddie ticked off all the educational credentials that Steve has. Two master’s and a prestigious scholarship from the university he used to teach at. Despite himself, Eddie is surprised, yet not all at the same time.

Instead of continuing to read through the book in hopes of finding out more details, Eddie closes it and puts it back on the shelf where Steve found it. Sucking in a long breath, Eddie nods, then goes to join Steve in the kitchen. Now that the cats out of the bag, Eddie thinks he might enjoy learning more about his boyfriend strictly from the source himself.

As Eddie settles himself against Steve’s back, he allows himself to relax. Steve’s mystery is one Eddie can’t wait to pick apart. Until the clues lay themselves out for him, however, Eddie’s content to hold onto Steve tight and see where the road leads them. It’s too easy to be enraptured by a man that holds his hand while flipping pancakes with the other.

“Thanks,” Eddie whispers as the breakfast making commotion calms down.

Steve doesn’t ask him what he’s thankful for or demand an explanation. He simply pulls Eddie close and silently finishes breakfast.

Slow and steady.

Absolutely perfect in every way.

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