#why would we get a popup for that

[oflgtfol]

man i just had a really freaky dream

so i was at michaels of course i was. except now that i think about it it was kind of merged with my food pantry job because everyone was buying food pantry items but obv it was not a pantry since they were purchasing it, and it was my michaels store and i was very obviously at the michaels registers

im alone on register ringing someone up whos kinda taking a while and then i look up and suddenly the queue is out the whole line area so i call for backup over the phone and then two people came up for backup but they were people i do not recognize like they do not and have never worked here at my store but dream logic said they were just seasonal cashiers thats why

and then.

the computers start shaking. like the monitors tremble back and forth on all six registers. a popup on screen says

“PLAYER [register number].

(a line here that i didnt get the chance to read because i was obviously freaked out but i think i caught the word disconnected)

Please put back all winter items. (paraphrased also)”

the ground was not shaking like this was not an earthquake it was just the computers themselves and i think the lights started flickering also. and everyone started getting freaked out i literally couldnt ring anyone up because the computers had this popup and the customers couldnt see it bc it was just on the cashiers side of the computer, although now that i think about it i have no idea what was being displayed on the customer facing monitor

and it just wouldnt stop shaking it was just really loud the way they were moving and there were just so many people on line that their agitation also got really loud and then everyone looks towards the main doors and starts yelling and even screaming. theres a cop there yelling something but the customers are moving AWAY from her and in the back of my mind sorry im like. Is there a shooter. is that someone dressed as a cop who is about to just open fire on this whole crowd. sorry thats the US american in me. and then two more cops come in and then it turns into a frenzy of everyone trying to get away. we all left out the fucking emergency side door just to get away. no shots were fired so i dont know why everyone was frightened to that extent

so im like ok well im out of here i wanna leave after that im freaked the fuck out and i dont know why everyone was running away but seeing as i was furthest from the front doors im trusting crowd instinct that there was something dangerous there but then im like. my bag is in my locker all the way in the back of the store

i think this was sort of drawing from the pipe bursting incident where my mom was texting me that i cannot leave without my bag because my wallet has my life in it and i was like yeah no shit i fucking know. and that was a burst pipe it wasnt like fatal or outright dangerous. but this time as im standing out in the freezing parking lot at like, just past sunset, watching the customers streaming out of the store im like. i need my bag. i cant leave without it. i felt kinda stupid like what if this is a bad situation what if it IS an active shooter and im prioritizing my bag over my life but then i was like well i literally cannot leave without my bag like physically because my car keys are in my bag so im stranded otherwise

so i head back inside and i see other Red Vests among the crowd showing my coworkers also going back inside. and then i kinda blank on what comes next but the next thing i remember is im sitting in the backseat of my MOMS car with my parents up frront? like theyre driving me home for some reason? despite the previous importance of me needing to drive myself home??

so i catch sight of the store as my dad drives away and its this strange… lighting. it doesnt look like the lights are completely off but theres a weird glow meaning its not completely dark. and i idly wonder what happened w my closing manager like i feel bad for whatever just happened and i was wondering how she was handling it

and so im trying to explain to my mom what happened. she took the shaking to be an earthquake and i was like no. mom it was not an earthquake. i was explaining everything i just did with the shaking being only in the computers and the weird popup message every single computer got at the same time even the ones not in use, when i look up at the now dark sky and its fuckinf GLOWING its like PULSATING its FLICKERING like the sky itself is FLICKERING

and my moms like OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT and i think my last thought was “is this the fucking rapture or something” and thats rhe last thing i remember because i woke up

i was kinda drifting in and out of sleep so i think thats why i was just like. nope im out! and woke up. but that also means this whole dream took place in only ten real life minutes because thats the gap between each of my alarms

[simbico]

They didn’t get to have a romantic Love Day but they still managed to squeeze in their first date night since Fern was born. ✨💖✨

[niimda]

Toby Fox shouldn't have gone that hard with Spamton

[threewaysdivided]

New Desktop Dash, No Bueno

Okay so, new dash layout on desktop.

As seems to be a common reaction: not a fan.

Let's talk about some of the issues:

1. Really visually cluttered

The new sidebar crowds out the dashboard content and the bright blue popup notifications (now at the side AND top) and create-post bar pull your eyes in different directions. There is no space for the eye to rest on anymore - it's all noise. The end result is that everything flattens - there's no focal point anymore.

It's also pretty overwhelming - even for someone like me - so I can't imagine it would be very user-friendly to someone who was photosensitive or struggled with visual overload (especially when paired with the high-contrast 'true blue' default site palette and animated icons for the changes-on-tumblr/staff-picks/trending buttons).

2. The activity pop-up now covers dashboard content

This is really bad from a usability standpoint. In the old layout the activity pop-up used to drop down over the recommended blogs sidebar. Now it actively gets in the way of looking at core content. The dash is why we are here, burying it like this is baffling.

The search bar now drops down over the recommended blogs banner instead, but where the old design had non-critical space on each side of the dashboard to visually allow both features to pop in, this new layout is way worse for efficiency. And for what? Having a rarely-used former drop-down menu now permanently active? The old banner with quick-links for the key use-features (notes, messages, askbox) made much more design sense.

It also means that the activity pop-up gets now completely covered by the blog pop-up that opens when you click the notification, so double demerit there. 0/10.

3. It's harder to navigate to the activity page, and the new page-stretch means you can't see new notes without scrolling down

That first bit is kind of a nitpick but cramming the 'See everything' link down at the bottom of a browser window isn't a great navigation choice. (Again, the visual signifiers and eye-direction in this new design are incredibly poor.)

That the main activity page now requires you to scroll to even see the top note due to the new display ratio is really egregious. It makes another key site feature just slightly less convenient and accessible in a very irritating way. Bad choice.

4. The new ratio pushes the Radar and Main Sponsored slot completely off-screen

This one is directed the tumblr staff: that's also a bad choice, guys. That's your main ad-slot for people loading into Tumblr so hiding it is going to hurt both your ad-impressions and your ability to promote the ad-free option. The new layout ratio also means that the in-dash ads are going to be a lot more invasively screen-filling - and let's be real most users will either add-block or leave before purchasing ad-free. I have no idea what the new layout is trying to achieve but if ad optimisation is the goal then this ain't it, chief.

To be honest I cannot comprehend the rationale for this change. I guess it's visually a bit more like Twitter... but that site is currently being demolished from the inside by poor management decisions so maybe it's not the best aesthetic to be aping.

Well then, what do?

Okay so, new dash bad. And so, in true Tumblr spirit: we complain. However, to get results we must deploy the art of kvetching productively.

If you want the old dash back (or at least, a better new-dash design that corrects some of these big weaknesses) what you should do is head over to https://www.tumblr.com/support and lodge a feedback ticket pointing out the problems. The more users who do that, the more likely you are to see an effective response.

Remember, tagging @staff and @support in posts won't fix this. There's no guarantee they'll see it among the notes barrage.

Also: please don't be rude or abusive when you lodge tickets. Whoever is manning those blogs and inboxes probably isn't the person who forced through this change. Save an intern, be polite.

Go forth in disgruntlement to keep this hellhole a hellhome.

[theendorisit]

apropos of nothing, I made Tape-E

Who is Tape-E?

During one of the TMA livestreams (trying to remember which one), a fan question was asked ‘Is there a mascot (for the Archives or the show itself not sure)?’ One of the team suggested ‘Tape-y?’, to which everyone else responded with ‘Oh no!!’. So I thought, oh yes! So yeah, this is your fault 😘

What is Tape-E?

As Mr Bonzo is a parody of Mr Blobby, Tape-E is a parody of Clippy (these last two names rhyme).

Who is Clippy?

Clippy was a microsoft office assistant, introduced in 1997. He was a little virtual paperclip (officially called Clippit, but that name never caught on) who sat on the bottom right corner of the page, and was programmed to give advice in popup speech bubbles when certain actions were taken. For example, if you wrote out an address and ‘Dear’, Clippy would say ‘Looks like you’re writing a letter. Would you like help?’. The name Tape-E in the livestream seemed to be referring to Clippy, as there are many similarities in the behaviour of Clippy, and the actual tapes/ tape recorders in-universe:

always on by default

appears at inconvenient times

provides help you do not want

hated by (mostly) everyone

watching you with cold dead eyes

enjoyed by nostalgia and retro seekers

Why make Tape-E?

As I am of the same generation as some of the RQ peeps, I unironically loved Clippy and Mr Blobby as a child, and it gives me great joy to imagine, in the TMP universe, Sam getting a little pop up: ‘Looks like you’re trying to code a case file! Would you like some help with that?’ In our world this would be impossible - Windows NT (as the official name) was dropped in 1996, one year before Clippy was born, BUT there is voice recording on TMP’s ancient computers, so it’s not totally impossible! 😅😁

What are cassette tapes?

Just a little recap for those who didn’t grow up with tapes: Cassette Tapes contain information embedded in magnetic tape, wrapped around one spool and attached to a second spool. When played, the spools are turned by the machine and the magnetic tape is wound onto the other spool, the information read out through speakers as the magnetic tape moves through sensors. As the magnetic tape can contain different information depending on the direction of tape movement, you can flip the cassette tape over in the machine, and play the tape again, hearing another load of information. This concept is never utilised in the show, but it does mean that cassette tapes have A-sides, and B-sides (as Vinyl records do). Here, of course, this stands for Archivist-side, and Brutalpipemurder-side. On occasion, the magnetic tapes would become damaged, or bent, and could be pushed out of the cassette, causing a horrible noise, and terror to small children who were only trying to listen to their Just William tapes. When this happened, a pencil (or in my case, my little finger) could be jammed into the spiky spool ‘teeth’, to rewind the magnetic tape back into the cassette. Maybe that’s why the eyes are red? 🩸 I am very glad that the TMA tapes are magic, and record endlessly, never need flipping, and never get chewed up by the hungry machine.

Why is the name Tape-E?

Canon answer: the name stands for Tape-Eyes. Possibly Tape-Entity? Undecided.

Actual answer: Tape-y, Tapey and Tapie spellings look weird to me. I think Tape-E looks best.

Why a tape and not a tape recorder?

if you can crochet a tape recorder, you’re a genius and I love you.

What gender is Tape-E?

I might refer to Tape-E as male sometimes because that’s how people often referred to Clippy. But Tape-E is whatever gender Tape-E feels like being.

Why now?

Why not? also now is a good time because TMP episode 15 is an excellent episode

*What’s going to happen to Tape-E?*

I’m going to gift it to Jonny sometime, if we get more cons or book signings. It’s his fault this exists after all. Plus you can write whatever you like in the speech bubbles! Hopefully I can give it calmly? But maybe Tape-E will be yeeted in his general direction in a fit of ADHD-fuelled social anxiety. Only time will tell.

Tape-E is a pattern and design created entirely by myself. The inspiration and world building from whence it came, is entirely the genius of @jonnywaistcoat Jonny Sims, Rusty Quill @rqbossman and The Magnus Archives, which is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution, non-commercial share alike 4.0 international license.

Clippy was invented by Microsoft and Kevan Atteberry, who now illustrates children’s books.

Mr Blobby is an adorable abomination, created from a fevered mind.

[p1nkshield]

Estranged Uncle AU! Part 2

"Oh nope! No you don't!" Tim said as he reinforced the computer's defenses. This was slowly moving from being a fun little challenge to being concerning. Who ever this was was really close to fully breaching the batcomputer. Good thing Tim is so good at his job; whoever it was finally got the hint. Tim took a sip of his coffee and went back to the latest case he was looking at.

Tucker took a bite of his beef jerky in triumph. "Too fine foley has done it again!"

His little strategy worked. He would come in front and center with all the fanfare and popups of a hacker with a big ego while his program would sweep dirt in from the back door. While whoever was on the other side focused on his obvious, ham-fisted hacking. Sure Tucker got a little carried away but he was having fun until he was nearly uno reversed. Tucker really didn’t feel like being fully roped into whatever weird billionaire crime "Brucie Wayne" was probably knee deep in. Speaking of Tucker should probably take a look at what he managed to skim.

Now this was weird. Weapons schematics? Info on Gotham's biggest criminals and their whereabouts? Oh no no. This is not good. He really needed to warn Danny.

Danny was blearily enjoying a stack of delicious, stationary pancakes when his phone buzzed.

'RED ALERT DUDE'

'???' Danny replied.

'Bro is a weapons dealer! To like, all the baddies in Gotham!'

Tucker then sent a bunch of screenshots of the small bit of evidence he found. There was even a machine gun flamethrower combo! That one however had a note saying 'sorry jaylad, I’m vetoing this one'.

'so many questions. Who is Jaylad Danny? If you find out tell me so I can avoid them!'

"I knew it!" Danny said loudly.

"What?!? Knew what?!? What do you know?!" Clark said suddenly, dropping his fork.

"My uh history test came back.”

“Oh.”

Poor Clark might be in too deep. To err on the side of caution Danny decided he needs to find out just how deep. Time to deploy his secret weapon.

After Clark left for work Danny immediately booked it to Jazz.

“So, I didn’t like Brucie’s vibe and had Tucker look into him.”

"Danny! Try not to project your experience with one specific rich person onto every rich person you come across!"

"You say that but both times I was right about my hunch!"

Jazz frustratedly looked through the evidence until her face was pale.

"We will unpack your fear of billionaires later, first we need to save our uncle."

Clark returned from work and was met with the gentlest interrogation he’s ever experienced.

"Would you mind if I asked why Bruce was in your house?"

Oh no. Why was she asking that? She seems smart and Clark knows he's a terrible liar. Think Clark. Think.

"He uh, was there for an interview!"

Jazz just nodded. Does that mean it worked? Was that the right thing to say?

"Does Bruce usually make house calls for his interviews?"

What kind of question is that? When in doubt double down on the Brucie Wayne cover.

"I think he finds me entertaining so he kinda just does that. He's pretty eccentric but all of my most popular articles are about him so... what are you gonna do?" Clark added a shrug for good measure.

Jazz nodded again.

"We need to get him away from Clark as soon as possible."

"I was right!"

"you were right."

Part one

[theroyalmisfitmess]

[Updated as of 07/11/23] Reasons why I think Sid is the father

I don’t think other viewers can call fellow Sid-is-the-father theorists delusional anymore. The show is already building up the final contenders and I know in my gut they’re gonna be Sid, Jesse, and Ian. Hopefully we get S4 because I will update this whenever there’s a season break or a season ends.

Possible hints from the show (not the obvious and usually stated ones + not hints that could also apply to other contenders):

- When Sophie enters Pemberton’s to switch phones back with Sid, the engagement party crowd thought she was Hannah

- Sid remembered how much Tinder dates Sophie went on; he paid attention to her well (more on this later)

- Sophie and Sid both experienced relationship problems then found each other at the same time and same place. Sid later gave Sophie advice about finding the right person (funny enough, the advice parallels the situation because Sophie and Sid found each other at the right time to give each other advice)

- Two of Sophie’s by far most important love interests are connected to Sid—Jesse who is Sid’s best friend, and Drew who is a close friend of Sid’s wife

- Sophie remembers the Electric Slide; this time she is proven to pay attention to him

- Sid tells Sophie that he hopes the man she’ll marry will give her a better reception that what he and Hannah have

- If the father isn’t Jesse and Sophie is still married to the father, only Sid would be the perfect candidate to be understanding on why Jesse’s photo is on Sophie’s wall since he is Sid’s best friend

- The father is hinted to have loved Valentine’s Day even before he and Sophie even got together. Unlike the other guys, Sid’s memory for Valentine’s Day was always consistently good. Additionally, when Hannah walked in Pemberton’s to surprise Sid, only Sophie’s reaction was the focus

- Sophie and Sid both remember random facts they found out about each other offscreen; once again solidifying that they do pay attention to each other

- Sid somehow is the only character who has profound or notable interactions with both of Sophie’s parents

- In the episode where Sophie and her father made a popup, she tells her son it’s a story of how she met her father; in this episode, Sid is the only father optioj to interact with Sophie and her father

- Since we know that Sophie narrates the story, it’s important to note that she often emphasizes Sid’s stories by giving us in-depth insight despite their minimal interactions in episodes before 02x13. While she also does this for her other friends, it’s only Sid’s stories that we actually see play out long. To add, Sophie always paints Sid in a positive light in her stories

- In the disengagement episode, Sid and Sophie are implied to know a lot about each other (Sid knowing Sophie’s lock screen, Sophie knowing the password to Sid’s iPad); this isn’t really a hint but again, recurring theme that they pay attention to each other

- Both Sid and Sophie have this storyline where they are judged for their jobs/careers (and in the same episode)

- By 2x18 we see Sophie’s parents again and it’s Sid who primarily consoles them when they (along with Valentina) follow Sophie into Sid and Jesse’s apartment

- Sophie slowly bonds with Sid as each episode progresses and have more significant plots with him more than with Jesse

- Hannah assumed that Sid emotionally cheated on her with Sophie, and it was without reason. After this scene, we then cut to Sophie

- EDIT: Season 1 also had another cheating conversation between Sid and Hannah where Sophie’s situation with Jesse and Drew was the trigger

- Sophie’s son says that he thought it was a happy story to which Sophie replies it was, but we immediately get Sid crying over Hannah—setting the mood that it wasn’t really a happy night for everyone

- By 2x20 we have finally taken Charlie out as a candidate to be the father of Sophie’s child because it’s been confirmed that he ends up with Valentina (Side note: love this revelation. I was on a fifty-fifty with them but they fit well and love each other); Drew can also be taken out of the equation because of how future Sophie talks about him as a mere catalyst, but since there’s not an official confirmation we can just put him down the list for now

- Once again, it needs to be mentioned that the way Sophie talks about Sid in her story is always in a good light. She talks about the father so fondly and only Sid is the male character who is presented with so much emphasis about his personal life, his goodness, and his ability to have someone stir up their fondness for him

Parallels & Connections with HIMYM/Ted and Tracy:

- Alliteration names (Ted Mosby and Tracy McConnell, Sophie and Sid—if Sid’s last name also starts with a letter “T” like Tompkins then that would be interesting)

- Both are romantics. Sophie is a hopeless romantic who can’t find “the one” like Ted, while Sid is a committed romantic who is (and possibly going to be was) in a longterm relationship like Tracy

- Sophie and Sid swap phones, paralleling the yellow umbrella swap

- Sophie and Sid’s banters are very similar to that of Ted and Tracy’s

- Sid has Ted’s old room

- In connection to a point from the previous section, Sophie painting Sid in a picture that’s so positive and feeling untainted is very similar to how Ted paints Tracy in his stories—perfect, an angel, someone who no one could say something bad about, with great fondness

- Not directly related to HIMYM, but in the original HIMYM spin-off (How I Met Your Dad), the lead character Sally met the dad as she was preparing to get divorced. The script of this scrapped spin-off was reworked into HIMYF. I’m not saying it’s a direct answer, but what if the divorce storyline is gonna go to HIMYF’s only married main character father option?

- Sophie and Sid both play detective in 2x19. In HIMYM, Ted and Tracy have this running gag that they loved sleuthing

- Both Sophie and Ted went through all the lengths to get with Jesse and Robin, respectively. When Ted met Tracy he didn’t have to work so much, he just let it happen. Both shows work with a philosophy on how love is hard but loving is supposed to be easy. Both Robin and Jesse have complicated love lines with Ted and Sophie, respectively

Also if it’s any consolation, I previously took a film course for my major. So while I do acknowledge that I could be reading into things too much, I did have backing since I tried to incorporate the concepts to pick these things up.

[honeybeezgobzzzzz]

🗡️ Something Dread, Something Red: Chapter Seven

Something Dread, Something Red: Stuck in a proposal to a Marine Commodore, you escape minutes before your wedding in one last ditch effort to avoid getting married to a tyrant. Barely making it to the port of your town, you stumble across a ship just starting to leave and beg for passage off the island. You fail to notice that the people you beg for help, are pirates.

Warnings: None.

To Note: “Red Haired” Shanks x FemReader

Word Count: ~3.2k

Previous | Masterlist | Next

Your eyes were everywhere and nowhere at the same time. With the sun slowly beginning to lower itself beneath the horizon, twinkling lights illuminated cobbled streets. You hadn’t seen much of the hustle and bustle of the day life of the town, but the night life was only just beginning. Street vendors selling popup stand food emerged and began their tune, calling for customers while food sizzled over flame. The firelight reflected within your sparkling eyes and your mouth began to water from the smells.

“My stomach is definitely hungry now,” You whispered, fingers unconsciously curling around Shanks’ white tunic. The older man laughed at you, more than happy to hear that even common street food was not below your standard.

“We can try some of it later, once I know that your stomach can handle it,” He told you, looking down into your face and trying his hardest to resist relenting to the pleading pout that had appeared. “I’m serious, Aria. Hongo said that your stomach is hardly used to our food, you could make yourself really ill if you dive into street food head first.”

“Oh I do hate it when you are right,” You huffed at him, lips pouting a little further. “But I haven’t gotten sick since that first week now have I? Surely a little bite won’t do any harm…” Shanks’ eyebrow rose at your words. You had a way with words and facial expressions he’d come to learn at the beginning of your stay on board the Red Force. Surely a byproduct of your upbringing. The ability to control ones emotions and face was a strict quality among nobles.

“Bat your eyelashes at me all you want, madam Aria,” Shanks replied to you, raising his hand and flicking your hat from its perch on your hair so he could fully see your beautiful face. The strings caught around your throat, keeping the hat resting between your shoulders. The man then gently knocked his knuckles beneath your chin. “No street food until Hongo says so.”

Curses.

Your gaze turned petulant and you let out a huff in complaint. All these wonderful smells and you couldn’t even have a single bite!

“That is very cruel of you, Captain,” You huffed demurely, looking around at the stalls with a more than necessary mournful gaze. “Well it’s not like you can keep me from buying my own food.” Oh? The noble lady was now using blackmail? Shanks chuckled, knowing that while you could indeed buy your own food against Shanks’ wishes, you were a stellar patient to Hongo and wouldn’t dare go against anything he had told you.

“Come, the men are waiting and refuse to begin drinking without you present.” Shanks said, turning your attention away from the tantalizing street food. His fingers ran down your forearm before finding your own and claiming them. “Best stick close, these nights can get a little rowdy at times when the drinks come out.”

Letting Shanks lead you through the crowd by hand, you forced your mind away from his hand clutching yours firmly and warmly to consider his words. The men are waiting and refuse to begin drinking without you present. Why would the men refuse to drink without you present? You’d never intentionally intruded on their drinking time and tended to stay on the fringes of their drinking nights, watching and observing rather than partaking. Hangovers looked painful.

“Why are they refusing to start drinking without me?” You finally asked after a minute or two of walking and contemplating in silence. Shanks glanced at you, a curve on his lips. You were a smart woman, clearly, you had gotten yourself out of a very bad situation all by yourself in such an extraordinary way… but you weren’t that observant when it came to what the crew thought of you. “Shanks?” You probed again. “I don’t even drink unless it’s wine.”

“Remind me to introduce you to Mihawk,” Shanks mused, thinking of how you and his old friend would have similar tastes in the refined alcohol. “They want to start the night off with you since this is  the first island you’ve been on besides your home. They want to celebrate.” Your forehead scrunched.

“They are going to get highly inebriated, aren’t they…?”

“In your honor, Aria,” Shanks laughed at your facial expression. “In your honor.” The rest of the way to the bar was spent in silence, your fingers holding onto Shanks warm ones as he lead you through increasingly busy streets. You had to admit to yourself that in your excitement, you hadn’t taken in to account of what it would be like to be surrounded by so many people. It was almost suffocating for you. Shanks, feeling your grip tighten up to a clench, glanced back at you. Your eyes were darting about and you were breathing at a heavier rate. You looked like a prey animal wanting to bolt. So he gave your vice grip a gentle squeeze, redirecting your attention away from the people and back to him. Your eyes met his once more.

“We’re almost through the thick of it, it’ll be quieter once we reach the outer harbor.” He promised you, how words assuring and soothing. It still amazed you that he could calm your fraying nerves with but a few words and a gentle reassurance. The anxiety attacks you had suffered from living under your mothers roof usually took a lot more than gentle words of affirmation to placate what your mind had locked itself in. Taking a deep breath and trying to remain calm beneath the street lights and racket of the night life, you nodded at him.

Just as Shanks had promised, when he led you down a little cobbled road that hung between two vendors selling leftovers from the morning bakes, you felt your nerves settle as noise and people faded to a distant rumble. Of course there were still people about, but not in the congested quantity you and Shanks had just vacated.

“Claustrophobic?” Shanks softly questioned, slowing down his pace now that he had you out of the midst of the night life. You loosened your grip on his hand before shaking your head.

“I— I don’t think so, I’ve just never been around that many people so close to me at once.” You spoke, placing your other hand over your beating heart. “It reminded me of how I felt in Bonn manor. It was—” You sighed and stared at the distant waters of the Blue. “It was suffocating to me, like I was trapped inside a marionette doll for my mother to puppeteer in front of guests.”

Shanks couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live as someone else’s puppet, but he could understand not having the freedom to do what you so wished. He couldn’t help but look closer at your body, checking all the places you had looked so sickly thin and boney in. Even with only a few weeks of good food in you had already rounded out some of the points on your body. In passing memory, Shanks wondered if the terrible bruising he’d seen on your back and torso had healed. He wanted to ask you about them. Desperately desired to know so in fact. But he didn’t want to overstep his boundary with you. It wasn’t like he could just ask you to remove your tunic so he could inspect your torso.

“You’ve cut your strings, Aria,” Shanks finally replied, glancing at the bar you and he were nearing. “And we’re going to make sure that no one can thread you again.” Looking into his serious face, you fully believed his words. Shanks was a man of his word. All the men on board the Red Force were. Pursing your lips, your eyelashes fluttered while you contemplated the very strings you had cut.

You could still feel them on your back, dragging along as you walked and leaving behind a trail that would no doubt lead your mother right to you should you make even one mistake. She was a tenacious mother whose child had disobeyed. You shuddered in thought of what you would face should you ever land yourself in her presence again. Your attention was diverted when Shanks let your hand go and took your chin in hand.

“Aria?” He questioned, seeing the storm of thoughts behind your lovely eyes. You had been thinking hard about something, something that bothered you. “What is it?” There was no way you were going to unleash all your worries and fears upon this man, not when he had already taken on so much burden because of you.

“I don’t know the first thing about bar etiquette,” You stated frankly, watching as Shanks’ eyebrows furrowed and laugh lines appeared. The pirate snorted at you.

“First rule of bar etiquette, there is no bar etiquette. Just be polite, which you always are, and mind yourself. Sometimes people go looking for a fight when they’ve had too much to drink.” Oh you knew that all too well, your mother had a perchance to indulge in an entire bottle of vino when you displeased her. She was somewhat of a violent drunk, both in fist and word, she also had a favorite crop she liked to use for ‘behavior’ correction. “—if anyone tries anything with you, come get me, okay?”

Staring into Shanks brown eyes you nodded before plastering a frank look on your face, pushing back your worries and fears.

“I’m not the sort to go looking for trouble, Shanks, that would be unbecoming of me and you know it.” Another chuckle and a twitch of his lips, and the man drew his thumb across his lips.

“Aye, but it’s not you I’m worried about…” He mused, knowing full well that at least one drunk would be stupid enough to try and siddle up to you to shoot their shot. You were an incredibly beautiful woman. “Just stay close to at least one of us while we’re here, I don’t want you getting drink on your new clothes.”

That only make you scowl in reminder that he’d paid for your clothes, and with a knowing grin the pirate directed you into the bar.

The amount of dirty looks you had sent Shanks was entirely unbecoming of you as a lady of good breeding but the man was being entirely ridiculous and you were at your whits end! It was hard for you to get over him paying for your clothes, you were more than capable of doing so! All you had to do was pawn off one of the expensive gems on your pendant. It was as simple as that. But no, you hadn’t been allowed to pay for your clothes, and apparently, your drinks too. Shanks had requested a glass of the bar’s best wine for you try out, because you had made it very clear that you did not drink booze, you drank wine, and then smugly left you fuming with glass in hand.

“And here I thought I was being petulant,” You softly murmured to yourself, eyeing the red haired man over your glass. He and the men were several drinks in and playing rounds of cards to determine who would be buying the next round of drinks. You thought it ridiculous but also found it somewhat amusing to watch them fight over who was sneaking looks and who was slipping cards into their sleeves. Of course, even though the men were very engrossed in their card game that didn’t stop Shanks from periodically lifting his gaze to check on you. Each time he did so you replied with a look that only made him grin and flash his dimples. “Entirely ridiculous,” You huffed to yourself, turning away to pick at the cheese and bread Hongo had approved of.

It wasn’t a glamorous meal by any means, but cheese, bread, and wine was delicious and it wasn’t kind that was found on the Red Force. You’d been told that both were locally made so at least you got to try some of what Ingles had to offer. Nibbling on a piece of cheese, you listed to the snail singer belting out a tune that apparently everyone but you, knew. More things you didn’t know. How frustrating.

“With the number of scowls you’ve sent the capt’n I’m beginning to wonder what he did,” Your gaze broke away from the signing snail.

“He knows what he did, Snake,” You simply replied, ripping off another chuck of bread and eating it as delicately as you could. Some habits you’d never get rid of. “Who’s winning?”

“Benn, pretty sure he snuck a look at Lime’s cards though,” Building Snake grunted, nodding at the barmaid after she had refilled his tankard. “Then again, they’re all playing dirty tonight.”

“Should I be surprised?” You questioned, pirates were pirates after all.

“Usually they play straight, no peeking or nothin’, but they’re going a little harder tonight since we’re celebratin’ your first island.” The pirate shrugged, scratching the back of his head.

“Sounds more of an excuse to just get inebriated, I do hope they can swim because I cannot and I will not be rescuing any of you if you fall overboard.”

“They can take care of themselves, little lady, you just enjoy yourself and don’t worry bout us.” Building Snake went back to join the table and you watched on as the game of cards continued. But even as the night continued, your enjoyment dwindled to be replaced by worries and fears. Three weeks of freedom on board the Red Force had nearly tricked your mind into believing that you were safe and stable. But it was a temporary solution was it not?

Lingering thoughts of safety troubled you, even after the men wrapped up their drinking and cards and herded you back to the Red Force in a protected circle of drunk men. You were rather in impressed at how well they could still move despite their state and only shook your head at the thought of what the morrow would bring: a hangover. You’d only had two glasses of wine, not nearly enough to cause you to lose inhibition. But you certainly felt its effects.

While everyone else had headed beneath the deck to get some much needed rest, you remained on the highest deck, sitting in a chair and gazing at the stars. You had thought that the alcohol would make you feel less worried about your situation and future, but if anything, it had loosened up the emotions you held so tightly in your chest. Fears and insecurity were biting at your heels like rabid dogs while your mother tightened your cut strings around your neck like a noose.

“All that effort to make you relax and I still find you thinking.” Shanks soft voice broke the quiet night, and twisting your head you saw him coming up the stairs from the main deck, bottle in hand. You eyed it. “Water, little one,” He reassured you, coming around to take the seat next to you with a sigh. “I’ve been drinking long enough to know that I’ll need it.”

Humming in reply, you gathered your legs to your chest and rested your chin on your knee, now looking at the calm waters. You never realized just how much you liked the sea until you had spent three weeks on a ship out of necessity. For a few moments quiet stretched out and the sounds of waves slapping the hull filled the deafening silence.

“You are worrying again,” How infuriatingly astute of him to notice. Was there nothing you could hide from the captain?

“It’s nothing you need to be concerned over, captain,” Shanks rolled his head to look at you with raised eyebrows. You refused to look at him, choosing to keep your gaze on the water. Back to being formal and reserved, Shanks found it frustrating and saddening. He sighed and leaned back in his seat.

“It was the Lord of the Coast,” He started, thinking back to the fateful day his life had changed. Lord of the Coast. You knew what that was, a Sea King. A vicious one too. Your history tutor had spent an entire week giving you lectures on the Sea Kings, so you knew a bit about them. What had Shanks done getting mixed up with such a dangerous beast? Your eyes flickered to the place where his left arm once resided. Oh. “I met a little boy, Luffy, on Dawn Island. He hung around the ship while we rested and got supplies. Loved the idea of becoming a pirate. Nearly took his eye out one day trying to prove himself.”

Now your attention was entirely on Shanks. Of course you had wondered how he had lost his arms but you certainly had the manners to not outright question him. But losing an arm to a Sea King? Losing only an arm to a Sea King? You knew that Shanks was smart, clever, but not just anyone could tangle with a beast and live to tell the tale. Seeing that you were finally looking at him, Shanks continued.

“Me and the crew had a run in with some… disgruntled pirates, they weren’t too happy we had already drank the only bar dry. Luffy got mixed up in the mess and the next thing I know the boy’s been taken out to sea by the disgruntled captain.” Your eye twitched a little, there was no need to drag an innocent little boy into a disagreement. What kind of pirate did that?

“At least he could swim, couldn’t he?” You softly questioned, hoping that the boy hadn’t just been dropped into the sea to die. A wry smile appeared on Shanks’ lips.

“Course he could,” He told you. “But he ate the devil fruit the men and I has in storage, and made a scene in front of the pirate.”

“Salt water…” You murmured, slowly realizing in horror that the pirate did drop a little boy in the sea knowing full well that he wouldn’t be able to swim. Your eyes burned, tears threatening to form. “Oh no, don’t tell me he drowned.”

“He didn’t, I got to him in time,” Shanks reassured you, taking a sip of his water as his shoulder ached in memory. “But by the time I got to him, the Sea King showed up and lunged.” He swing out his remaining arm like an axe. “I lost my left arm, but I saved Luffy and that, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make.”

“You wear your sword sheath on your right hip,” You pointed out, eyebrows furrowing as reality weighed heavily in the air. “You’re…”

“Left handed, indeed I am,” Shanks finished for you. “I’m not afraid to help those who need it, Aria, no matter what sacrifice.” A chill ran down your spine, for you knew that he meant those words. You could see it in his eyes. But you didn’t want him to sacrifice more of himself just for you.

“I can fight my own battles now,” You said, willing those words into your heart and mind. Shanks had no doubts of that.

“True,” He echoed with a nod. “But who says you have to fight those battles alone?”

Date Published: 1/16/24

Last Edit: 1/16/24

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[writerlyhabits]

Din’s partner figures out they’re pregnant, and is terrified. They aren’t married, this is the worst time possible, Din already has so much responsibility on his shoulders. But they have to tell him. Because Din deserves to know. She’s terrified of what his reaction might be, if he’d be angry, or excited, or dismissive, etc.

How do you think that scene plays out?

AN: I loved this prompt so much. I haven’t written anything like this yet, but is 100% in line with the unwritten fics in my head 😂And honestly, I think we all deserve a wholesome wonderful moment with this absolute sweetheart. Thanks to @deceiverofgodss for beta reading and brainstorming for our dear Mandalorian 💛 I hope you enjoy!! 

Content Disclaimer!! This is a story about pregnancy, and most of it was written a few weeks ago, so there is mention and discussion of termination and/or carrying it to term. If that makes you uncomfortable, or you’d rather not think about that right now, please do not read. But if you wanna escape to a world without recent political events, me too friends, lets go ✨

Warnings: mild cursing, pregnancy, discussion of termination, helmetless Din (I had to i'm sorry), med center/hospital setting, nervous reader, its a little angsty and about a serious topic but otherwise I can't think of any warnings? Please let me know if I missed any!!

Word count:  3k - 4.2k (there’s a split ending…)

“As you’ll be able to see on your scan, you’re in perfect health,” the Med droid explained in its cheerfully programmed inflection, and you took the chip from its outstretched limb to plug into your data pad. Din had always found them eerie, but after enough check-ups on your adventures, their strangely soothing presence was starting to grow on you. “All cuts have healed, no internal or neural injuries, and the baby is doing well.” 

Your brain short-circuited as your data pad illuminated your face, snapping your head up at the droid. 

“What?”

“You sustained no neural injuries, and all-” 

“No, not that. Did you say baby?” you snapped. You’re usually much nicer with the med droids, but right now your mind is swirling and it just needs to get to the damn point. 

“Your little one is five weeks along, and in perfect health. It’s too early to determine much, but its heart seems to be forming very strong!” Your throat felt tight as you listened with a blank expression, looking down at the scan in your hands it kept referring to. You zoomed in on the model of your body, right to your abdominal region, and saw a handful of popup passages link themselves to…

A baby.

“At this stage, they are no bigger than a citrus fruit seed, and just starting to develop essential systems. You may be feeling some of the effects already…” You tuned out the droid as it droned on about sensitivity to smell and other elaborate terms for the classic, bordering on cliche symptom; morning sickness. 

It definitely explained why you’d been so queasy the last few times you made the jump to hyperspace, and why you had felt sick when Din had prepped your favorite ration pack. The smell was so intense, but you couldn’t figure out how to explain what it was that made it so off-putting. Your sweet Mandalorian had been so attentive, trying to figure out what it was that seemed to be affecting you, only you. At least you could give him an answer now. 

How the hell were you going to tell him?

"I sense a shift in your demeanor. Is this news unpleasant?" The droid’s concerned – though mechanical– voice pattern took you out of your thoughts, and you did your best to put on a fake smile but it didn’t stay there long. 

"No, I just- well… I don't know,” you rambled, looking back down at the pad in your hands. You couldn’t stop looking at it, both in awe of the fact that a baby is growing inside of you… and nervous about how your partner would respond. 

You knew Din inside and out. You knew what each tilt of his helmet meant, the meticulous steps he took when removing his armor, you felt like you could hear the thoughts in his head as they appeared. You fit to him as if you were a layer between the Beskar that protected him from the outside world, and the heart beating underneath it, and that’s just where he liked you. But now?

You weren’t married. You drove in separate cruisers after having lost the Razor Crest. You had no home and hardly any money, keeping Grogu safe in this crazy life you two led was challenging enough. For the first time in a long time, you had no idea what Din would think. 

"It's normal to be nervous. You will find information about prenatal care installed on the chip, information for termination, and resources for support. You are not alone." 

Dank farrik… there it was, clear as day. You were either going to care for this child, or you weren’t. Either way, you’d have to make a choice. And you didn’t exactly have all the time in the world to do it with Din waiting for you outside, and a baby actively starting to form inside you. 

“Oh… thank you,” you said lamely, not sure what else to do as your brain seemed just to start filling with thoughts in every direction. 

"I still sense some unease... are you safe in your home?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes… yes!” You were quick to assure the droid so as not to start running through any of their pre-programmed protocols on dealing with unsavory hospital guests. It was a sneaky code you’d found installed in the droids at any med center worth a damn, the prime loophole objective being to ensure a safe environment for all patients. 

You’d learned this the hard way once on some big city planet, Din’s rough Beskar exterior intimidating a good many of the people he passed, which left you doing extensive scans on your own before you could go through the ordeal of bypassing the protocol. He’d been so worried about you that day; even after being escorted away and held in an interrogation room, his only concern had been about you. 

“My partner is… he’s wonderful, I couldn’t be in better hands,” you gushed, relieved when you could tell the droid was making no move to act. “It just caught me by surprise, I guess. I don't uh… well, I don’t quite know what to do." 

"Informing your partner may allow them the opportunity to support you, but if you feel you are unable to do that, there are more resources we can provide to you,” It explained not unkindly. 

“No, I’ll tell him. Thank you.” 

But that was easier said than done. 

Your body was moving but your mind was numb as the droid led you out into the hallway, immediately noticing the large wall of shining silver that shot up out of one of the seats, a green bean secure in the bag on his shoulder. A bag… why did either of you start putting him in a bag? That can’t hardly be comfortable. What if he hits his little head? Where were these thoughts coming from?

You braced for impact, mustering the energy to face them with a reassuring smile as you reached out for the little one, holding him close to your chest. Goddamn hormones… Little hands on either side of your face and a soft coo from Grogu, and you had to fight so incredibly hard to keep from getting emotional over his big eyes. 

“Mesh’la, how did it go?” Din voiced as he took you in his arms, one hand at your hip while the other rested across his foundling’s back in your arms. You picked up on the way he said the Mando’a word, a nickname he’d given you that never fails to make you smile; he’s nearly whined it, clearly not a fan of the way they opted to keep the rest of your crew waiting outside. He liked to be right where the action was, knowing he could protect you at any chance you needed him, whether it was in battle or in the examination room. 

“It’s uh… good. Everything is good,” you managed, doing your best to tame his need to watch over you while navigating your own nerves. You could tell by the slight cock of his helmet that he wasn’t buying it, he knew something was off. The man knew you too damn well. He looked up at the med droid and nodded to assure it that you were safe in his hands, and only once it had left the vicinity did he speak up again. 

“What’s going on? Talk to me,” he pleaded softly, his grip on you never faltering, and acting as a sort of tether to reality. Your heart was caught in your throat, and you did your best to swallow it down just enough to calm his immediate worries. 

“Everything is fine, I’m fine, I just…” You stared at your own reflection in the darkness of his visor, trained on you as he was no doubt scouring your features for any hint of what was preventing your usual cheery and comforting attitude from surfacing like it normally would in these situations. You had always been excited to leave the med centers, scooping up your foundling and dragging your Mandalorian out the doors. 

“Do you want to go back to the Inn? Or do we need to find a place here?” he asked calmly, his deep voice familiar and soothing as it came through the modulator. Maker, did you love him… Always at your beck and call, reading you like an open book. 

“The Inn.” He gave a short nod to your response and stayed close as he led you out the door. 

You weren’t staying far, it would have normally been a very short walk but you were sure you weren’t the only one affected by the anticipation, making it feel like a destination that couldn’t come into view soon enough. You held Grogu securely in your arms, rubbing a hand across his back as he gurgled contentedly, playing with the necklace Din had gotten you a few planets back. Din’s hand between your shoulder blades allowed you to keep your focus on the swamp rat in your arms, trusting him to lead you safely through the streets of the quaint town. 

“Me'vaar ti gar?” He asked after a while, a question you recognized; the Mando’a equivalent of ‘how are you,’ but meant exactly as such. He used the foreign phrase when he wanted a straight answer from you, no fluff, no beating around the bush, and no judgments in return. 

“Naas,” you quickly replied with what he’d taught you to be the complacent response, a confirmation that nothing had changed. “I just want to be somewhere quiet,” you continued, trying to communicate your sense of urgency without worrying him about the reason. His gloved hand rubbed a gentle circle across your back, doing what he could to soothe you. 

“We’re almost there, mesh’la.” He pulled you a little closer, and his pace picked up a little, going as fast as he could while making sure you could keep up in a comfortable stride. 

What could only have been a ten-minute walk felt like an eternity, and you only realized you’d been holding in tight breaths once you crossed the threshold into your small room and felt relieved enough for air to properly fill your lungs again. But with your ease of breath, your mind began reeling again, feeling much like you had the first moment you’d stepped out into the hall to find him waiting for you. 

The weight in your arms lifted as Grogu happily went to his father, deposited onto the cocoon of blankets and toys that had been made for him when your party had first arrived. Then you watched in what felt like slow motion as Din began removing his gloves, discarding the excess bulk on his body now that you could settle into your private space, and turned to find you still standing just inside the doorway. 

“You’re worrying me, cyar'ika,” he spoke softly, just barely coming through the helmet in a smooth transmission. His warm hands found yours, encompassing them as he led you towards the bed in the middle of the room. “Are you ready to tell me what’s going on?” 

You were gonna have to, sooner or later. As he spoke, your mouth felt dry, hands clammy, and you couldn’t have uttered anything coherent even if you’d wanted to. But you watched with adoration as he tilted his helmet up to meet your eyes, sitting on the edge of the bed while he waited patiently for some kind of sign. 

Words weren’t going to get you anywhere, you didn’t have any to help you. 

You nodded gently to give him a response, before slowly slipping your hands out of his large ones. He kept his palms open to signal his willingness to listen and receive, and it made you melt. You reached around to grab the data pad from earlier, opening up your medical scan – the collection of pixels in your abdomen a beacon now that you knew it was there – and placed the device in his hands. 

He hesitated before looking down at the pad in his hands, and you could tell that for a moment, he was confused about what he was looking at. One hand began perusing the scan, pinching in to take a closer look at the details starting from the top down. Always so methodical… but in this instance, he had permission to skip about. Your head, your shoulders, and your chest passed the screen. He stopped to read the passage about your heart, fingers hovering delicately as he read the positives. 

And then you saw the familiar set of passages appear, his hands freeze, and your heart skip. 

The baby. 

Your baby. 

His baby. 

You couldn’t take your eyes off the screen as you saw his helmet look up to you in your peripherals. Your chest felt tight, but you kept your composure, lest you worry him about the wrong thing. 

“Five weeks… Was that…?”

“Naboo,” you answered. A faint smile hit the corner of your lips as flashes of the trip entered your mind; lush greens, clear waters, as tempting a place as ever to let loose with your Mandalorian. He’d been on too many hunts that had taken a toll on his body, and it hadn’t taken hardly any convincing for him to let you take care of him... “I went in on the first day of the trip, my ear was bothering me. I think-”

“The meds must have counteracted your…” he started at nearly the same time you would have finished it for him. Your wonderful, clever, observant lover, getting to the root of your surprise crew member in mere moments. “Pregnant?” He breathed, like he couldn’t believe what was happening. You didn’t know how to interpret it. 

“Pregnant.” 

“How long have you known?” You could only manage to shake your head slowly; you hadn’t known. 

You stared at each other for Maker knows how long, and you were only briefly aware of the fact that he’d set the data pad aside before watching his shoulders rise and fall with a shaky breath, holding his hand out to you. You let him pull you into his lap, the familiar feeling of his thigh plates against the back of your legs as you straddled him, hands resting tentatively against the beskar on his chest. 

A shiver ran down your spine as he started rubbing circles on your back, and you could tell there was a lot going on inside that helmet, you just wished you knew what. The uncertainty was killing you. Din had to have felt it because it didn’t take long for him to rest his forehead against yours. The cool of the beskar was relaxing, and the intimacy urged you to close your eyes and release the breath you were holding. 

“I’m sorry.”

“What could you possibly have to be sorry about?” His brashness contrasted his words and intent, something that had startled you when you first met. Now it was a comfort, not having to guess what was going on; he meant what he said, and he said it with purpose. It was something you had admired about him for a long time. 

“This is… I didn’t see this coming,” you continued with a quiet and shaky voice. The tears couldn’t be far behind as your body was coming down from its high, all of your emotions crashing down on you with a brutal force. “Din, I’m sorry. I’m so-”

“Don’t you dare apologize for this.” His voice was quiet but it was strong, full of conviction. Somehow, it steadied you. His body shifted ever so slightly, and you could tell that he was looking at you through his visor as your foreheads touched, though you still couldn’t open yours. “We did this together. Everything that happens with this… we do together. We take responsibility together.” 

You couldn’t stop your tears from falling now. The pad of his thumb brushed over your cheek to stop it from trickling very far, and he held the back of your neck as he tucked you into the crook of his neck, tilting his head up for you to fit comfortably in the space. 

“I’ll be here, no matter what you choose. I’ll help you raise this child, to be the father it deserves… if that is what you wish.” He hesitated for a moment, and if you trusted your ears, he took in a difficult breath. “And if you don’t, I’ll be beside you at every step. But this first choice is yours, mesh’la.” 

“You’re not mad?” 

“Exactly the opposite.” You stilled for a moment, feeling his chest rise and fall with his deep breaths, knowing he was making a strong effort to keep them so even. “I… Children – and foundlings – are the way of the Mandalore. But… but it is something you must choose, for yourself and for the child in your care. It cannot be forced, it diminishes the choice to follow the Resol’nare…”

“This is the way,” you said quietly, assuming that would be what followed after his explanation. It was not the first time he had shared the intricacies of his lifestyle, nor would it be the last, and it had given you the ability to admire his choice to follow his creed. But as you expected him to say the well-used phrase, he was silent. 

“The decision is yours to make. And I will be here to help you, whatever you choose. This is the way.” You rose from your spot tucked into him, sitting straighter to be able to look into the black of his visor, already trained on you. Your heart jumped in your throat as you imagined what expression might be hiding on the face behind the mask. 

Though you supposed he was probably glad he was wearing it, forcing you to have to make up your own mind as your reflection stared back at you, thoughts teeming about what to do with the little one developing inside you. 

“Everything that happens with this, we do together,” you started, finding a semblance of courage to pick your voice up barely above a whisper. You brought your hands to either side of his helmet as if you were cupping his face in your hands, bracing both of you for what came next. “What do you want to do, Din?” 

“That’s not my-”

“I know what I want,” you cut him off, surprising yourself with the gumption your words had found. “But only if you want to do it with me. What do you want?” 

The room was covered in a blanket of silence so thick that you were certain a war could have broken out outside and you wouldn’t have been able to hear it. Your heart was thumping in your ears as Din seemed to be looking over you with that meticulous eye of his, one hand holding you close while the other caressed your cheek. 

“Please, ner’karta…” he just about whined, his grip tightening on you as your hands flew to his neck, pulling him close for another Keldabe kiss. 

You were having a baby.

“We’re having a baby,” you managed through the smile spreading across your cheeks, disrupting the path of the tears beginning to fall. You heard his chuckle break through the modulator, and couldn’t help but return it. 

When his hands left your body you instinctively sat back, though you closed your eyes just as quickly as you had opened them when you saw his hands move to the lip of his helmet, a familiar dance the two of you had shared time and time again. Lips ghosted across yours, the prickly scruff on his cheeks tickling your skin as your hands flew to his messy curls. 

“Mesh’la… open your eyes.” If it hadn’t been for his lips crashing into yours, you would have retorted back. Instead, you sat in a confused sort of bliss as he poured his soul into you, simultaneously breathing in your very essence. “Please, I want you to see me.”

“Your creed-” 

“I am already on my way to restore the living waters of Mandalore for that creed. My foundling has seen my face when I feared I would never see him again.” You started to squirm at the implication of his words, and his strong hands found you again to ease your thoughts, tangling one in your hair as the other found a home resting gently over your abdomen. “I think the mother of my child has the right to see me, just this once… before we are married.” 

Against every instinct you had taught yourself during your relationship with Din, those words made your eyes flutter open. 

And Maker he was beautiful. 

Warm, expressive brown eyes looked up at you from under concerned brows as he put his heart in your hands. Your eyes danced across his features, finally getting to see the prominent nose and pouty lips you had felt so many times before. As you brought your hands up to play with the scruff on his cheeks, his lips curled up in a smile that made something warm bloom inside of you, your own smile growing with it. 

“Do you like what you see, cyar’ika?” he giggled, and you felt it rumble through his chest. Instead of answering you leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose, delighted when you leaned back and watched his eyes flutter back open from your affection. 

“You want to marry me?” you replied, and the blissed-out expression faded from his face for half a second to don a more serious one. Being graced with the opportunity to look upon your lover's face had made you realize how expressive he was, wearing his emotions plain as day the second they came to him. You figured that must have been a benefit to wearing the helmet for so many years. 

“I have for a while.” He spoke so reverently, gazing upon you like you were the Maker herself. But even in such a tender moment, you couldn’t refrain from poking fun at your Mandalorian. 

“You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?” His smile returned as he released a breath of amusement, shaking his head softly as you continued. “Don’t let this baby force you into anything you-” 

“I have wanted to marry you, to remove my helmet in front of you, for a long time. I was saving up to take you away, ask you somewhere you’d always wanted to go,” he admitted, and you were basking in his ramblings. As a man of so few words, you loved when he shared his with you, when he let you into the head on his broad shoulders. 

“What were you waiting for?” 

“We picked up a womp rat. Kind of threw off my timeline.” He gave a disgruntled look in the direction of his green child, still happily playing with the toys in his little cocoon in the time your world had been torn down and rebuilt in front of him. “I’m not about to let this child keep me from it any longer.” 

You giggled as his grip shifted down to focus on your abdomen, overjoyed with the situation you found yourself in, happy and cozy with your little mismatched family. Din began to laugh with you, holding you closer to him as he stood from the bed and turned to lay you down gently amongst the pillows. He made to crawl over you, but something stopped him, getting back to his feet and walking over to the chair opposite Grogu. 

Before you could ask what he was doing, he began the process of removing his beskar, which you were all too familiar with. Propping yourself up on your elbows you watched him meticulously release every strap, weapon, plate, and vambrace. He caught your glance and gave you a boyish grin as he untucked the duraweave top and lifted it over his head. 

“Din, I love you, but are we really doing this right now? I mean, Grogu is right there,” you teased, the foundling perking his ears and looking over at you as you said his name. Your snarky comment earned you a deep belly laugh as he shook his head exasperatedly, making his way back over to the bed. 

“I want to hold you. I don’t want to hurt the baby,” he said seriously as he crawled over you once more, settling himself between your legs so that he could be closer to your stomach, lifting your shirt and resting his bare arms on either side of your hips. 

“I don’t think the armor would have-”

“They need skin-to-skin contact, mesh’la.”

“After they’re born, Din.” 

“Well I’m going to start now,” he argued with conviction, a playful grin on his handsome face as you laughed at his antics. But your heart melted when his lips met your stomach, a series of soft pecks scattered across every inch he could reach, and going back over again when your fingers began toying with his soft curls. 

Din had told you once about an Mando’a phrase, jatne manda. He had said it was a specific way to describe your good mood, “a complex sense of being at one with your clan and life.” When Grogu had come to you, you thought you understood what that meant. But just as you once thought you couldn’t love Din in any greater capacity, you were proven wrong. This moment, was your jatne manda. And you were certain, with another little warrior on the way, you would find more moments just like this. This is the way.

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[maiyasuniverse]

I Love You

Bucky X Reader

Angst?Fluff

Summary: You're worried about Bucky.

Bucky and steve had been on a mission for a month, with no contact, sleep, or peace. It felt like you were in hell, not knowing what to expect, no one would talk to you about where and how he was because who really knew, and if they did they wouldn't be able to disclose anything to you.

You found yourself sitting on the couch snuggled up in Bucky's leather jacket, the scent was comforting but didn't calm your nerves or tears. It took about five minutes for you to be full-on sobbing, you had let yourself get attached, you wouldn't admit it but you love him.

The sound of keys fiddling at the door pulled you from your thoughts and out of your seat. Bucky took you to get a gun from Alex's last popup at your place. You sat the gun on your lap after perching yourself on the couch. You were no longer afraid of anything, better yet anyone because you could protect yourself, especially inside your home.

The door opened to reveal an injured Bucky and concerned Steve.

"See, I told you she'd be fine, she was ready to blow our heads off." Steve joked with Buck trying to elicit some kind of reaction.

"Oh, my. Oh, my god, Steve what happened?" You got up from the couch not thinking much about what clothes you were wearing not that you cared at the moment. You helped Steve walk Bucky the rest of the way to the couch, and looked at both of the men. Buck was beaten up pretty bad, you also noted that he hadn't said anything.

"We were cornered, the doctor says he'll be fine. He hasn't said anything to anyone since we've been back. I don't know if he's shocked or if his voice is still gone. All I know was that he wanted me to bring him here. Please, call me if you need help with anything the compound isn't far, any time of the day." You could steves words were sincere, he looked a Bucky with sorrow in his eyes, why, had it been his fault the situation happened? You shook the idea from your head.

Steve had seen himself out of the apartment, and you stood there quietly staring at Bucky. He didn't look back, his face was twisted in pain and you weren't sure what to do.

"Buck, I don't know how to help, I'll do whatever you tell me. I'll even drive all the way to that Mexcian place you like even tho it's across town. I'm so stupid." You began scrambling looking for a pen, for him to write with. You could feel the panic building up throughout your body, your hands shaking, and your breath being heavy.

Bucky's vibranium arm was cold against your skin, it made you slow down.

"Calm down Doll, I'll be fine. Just spend some time with me." You listened to his voice and sat beside him. Holding onto the same hand that pulled you from your attack.

"Wait," you turned to fully look at Bucky. "You're talking?" you couldn't help but laugh and he followed suit.

Your laugh turned into sobs, he held you for a while.

"I thought you died, that's why I was sitting in the dark, crying, in your jacket. Pathetic right."

"You're the first person to ever wait for me, I've never had that. I'm sorry, then steve, I don't know what's been going on with him but he wasn't at his job. We were almost killed, and I could only think about you, I couldn't do that to you. I won't. You're not pathetic, I made a promise to you. I'm never going to die on you. I promise."

"I love you." Your eyes went wide and your hand flew over your mouth.

He just chuckled, "I Love you more Doll."

[henqtic]

morning sun . xavier thorpe x black!reader . wc: 641.

summary: spending a lazy summery morning in bed with xavier.

note: this is a love note to the summer, please hurry up i can’t stand this weather anymore

·:*₊‧ masterlist . taglist form . request works . ·:*₊‧✩

Every day, right when the moon had started to settle into bed and the sun would take its place, Xavier would rise and watch as morning poured in through his windows.

It was beautiful to him, to watch the world wake up.

To see the birds start to fly past, hear the sound of grasshoppers rubbing their legs together and the ‘hoo-ing’ of owls. His favorite part of it all was seeing the flowers he kept on his dresser straighten themselves out and reach for the light outside.

It was different in the summer, when he was in the comfort of his room, and in the comfort of your arms— cuddled up in his bed; warm, and free of worry.

His hums were soft from above, his chest rising and falling beneath you as he filled up the quietness of his house. The rhythm of his heartbeat kept you afloat, a pretty melody flowing through the ear that pressed against his chest.

You’d gone to sleep in a comfortable position, with one of his arms holding you down gently by the small of your back, and the other occupied as his fingers wrapped around the mini twists you planned on keeping in for at least the next week.

The silk lined bonnet that once sat on your head was long gone by now, hiding somewhere in his blankets that smelled of rich vanilla and hints of whatever it was he used in all of the drawings that hung on his walls.

It would be an easy task, really, just to fake sleep and waste away the daylight in his arms.

But he always wanted to seize the day, to go to the park, or on a walk, to one of the numerous popup carnivals or even a water park you had to drive two hours to and back from.

And for the fake sleeping, he knew you better than that.

He watched with a knowing smile on his face as the sunlight trickled down from your forehead to your eyelashes. It caressed the apples of your cheeks and poured down to cover your body like a blanket. Your lips quirked upwards at his stare, into a smile you tried your best to keep down.

“So,” Xavier started, you could almost hear the smirk in his voice, “What do we plan on doing all day?”

He waited while you drew in a deep breath and hummed, feigning thought. His nails still scratched at your scalp, and his head tilted so that he could finally look you in the eyes.

You smiled at his appearance, hair all ruffled into a mess, eyes half lidded and low, and lips plump and practically calling out to be kissed.

“Oh I don’t know, maybe just stay here until the hunger becomes too much?”

“And why should we do that?”

“Because you’re my incredibly sweet, beautiful, kind, and handsome boyfriend who would make me a thousand times happier if I could just cuddle with him all day.”

"That's all I have to do to make you happy?"

You hummed.

Xavier Thorpe wasn’t built to withstand flattery, evident as a beaming smile overcame his face and he had to look up to the ceiling to conceal his laughter. If you blinked, you could miss the rose-tinted blush that brushed across his cheeks.

“So is that a yes?”

You didn't hear him say a word, but a feather light kiss found its way to you, familiar as his hand reached beneath your shirt and gently grasped your waist, keeping you pressed against him. You shifted upwards, just enough to straddle him, tangling your fingers in his hair.

He kissed around your whole face, on your hairline, between your eyes, and your nose bridge— until there was no open skin left and loud and childish giggles disrupted that previous silence.

🔖— !! @pandoraneverland​ @mollysolo​ @wxnderingthoughts​ @oliviah-25​ @instabull​ 

༊ @henqticstudy — follow and turn on notifications for this blog to only get notified when a work is posted ( or just fill out the taglist form )

thank you for reading, every single like and reblog is appreciated  🌷 !

[keganexe]

Setting Up a Zine Layout for Print (with Affinity Publisher)

Listen up shits spoons

Heyo back with another guide for folks new to art and layout! In this one I'm gonna talk about setting up your zine for print with a commercial printer (Like Mixam). If you wanna look at my other guides you can see them here (as of the time of this one I've done one other guide, but I enjoy doing these so I'll probably do more as time permits)

I'm specifically gonna be talking about using Affinity Publisher 2 because its what I do all my professional work in, but the ideas should hold solid for other programs like Adobe InDesign, Publisher 1, or others! I'm also gonna talk specifically with Mixam measurements since they're my printer of choice.

I'm going to get real into the basics of this one, so if you've done a good bit of layout already this is probably all old hat for you. I'm specifically skipping around the topic of Color Management, but I talk about it a LITTLE.

This is a lot of text, so if folks would like I can probably record the setup some time in the future if that would generally be helpful? Lemme know what we want haha

Okay lets dive in though

So lets start at the very beginning which is choosing a page size. I'm going to assume we are working with Letter sized paper because that's what most folks in the US do, which means we want to set the pages up to be half letter. This is gonna give us a zine that folds like this just for clarity.

So lets hit File->New... up top, and you'll get a screen that looks like this. We are going to change our measurements to be Page Width 5.5 and Page Height 8.5 which is our measurements all folded and whatnot. We want to set our DPI to 300 so the printer has plenty to work with and we don't end up with pixely shit on the pages.

Under the Pages tabs things should default correctly, but we want Facing Pages to make layout a little easier, and we want to start on the Right with a single page. This tab should look like this

Next we are gonna hop on over to the Color Tag the long of the short of this is we want to work in CMYK/8. I'm specifically working with the color space used by Mixam within CMYK/8, but your computers default should be fine here, so just set your Color Format to CMYK8, and let it choose the default for Color Profile.

I don't personally set Transparent Backgrounds because I think they're a fucking eyesore, but that's dealer's choice and if you prefer them what's wrong with you good for you.

Color Management is really a pretty complex topic I'm not really good at talking about because I don't have the knowledge I should on it (I've largely worked in Black and White!), but here is a really solid primer on why we want to work in CMYK over RGB, and why that's so important for printing.

Hopping over to the Margins and Bleed tags, we are gonna do some minor changes to the default. If you're laying out something over say 60 pages I'd look at editing the inner margins here a bit.

I'm gonna go off the Mixam Full Bleed Print guidelines, and give myself some extra space for safety, but if your printer has other thoughts you should follow those instead. I've found that generally these guidelines work for most projects so you're usually safe to follow this bit as is. If you don't know what Margins or bleed are, I'd just read through the full bleed print guidelines linked above because it's a great primer. If you don't care or already know, keep reading.

For Margins we are gonna include margins and set our inner margins to 1 inch, and our outer/top/bottom margins to .5 inches

For Bleed we are gonna set everything to .25 inches for safety, Mixam only needs .125 inches.

Finally, so we don't have to go through this every single time, we are going to save this setup by clicking the button up top (next to where it says Letter* on my screen). I'm calling mine Mixam Half Letter Zine so I can remember it next time.

FINALLY you can click Create at the bottom right of the popup, and if you've done it right you should be greeted with a screen that looks somewhat like this

Now we're gonna set up some Master pages, font and paragraph styles, baseline grids, and guides to get the best looking zine possible.

At the top of the screen we wanna go to View->Preview mode, and make sure its unselected. This is gonna make sure we can see all the setup we are doing now, you can unselect it at any time (by hitting the toggle or Ctrl+shift+w) to see what the zine looks like without our guidelines on once we get them setup. Also on the view menu we want to turn on basically everything except Grid in the top bit. Here's what your menu should look like, and what your page will look like if things are setup right!

Okay so lets start with Masters! Setting up a good flexible master page or two is a great way to make sure your Zine keeps a consistent look throughout, and it carries your setup across pages! Look to the top left of the working space, and lets go work on Master A by double clicking on it.

I'm going to setup a quick set of guides just so I can lay things out a bit easier! While on Master A hit View->Guides and under Column Guides we are gonna add in 2 Columns and 3 Rows with a Gutter of .125 inches. The margins should be correct, and we want the Spread to be at x:0 y:0 which it should by default. In a lot of circles you will hear this called The Grid, but my friend Clayton did a great guide on this already so I'm linking that here. I also like to set some Horizontal and Vertical guides just so I know where the exact center of the working area is, so I'm going to make 2 Vertical Guides at 2.5 and 8.5, and a Horizontal Guide at 4.25 inches. The long of the short here is this gives us a lot of room to snap things to in the future. I set my Column Guide to pink to make it stand out a little more, but when you export this it'll disappear so just set it to whatever color works best for you.

With the master set, click back over to Page 1, and you should see it now has a series of guidelines based on this master. Hell yeah.

Lets move on to text styles now! These are going to save you a lot of hassle in the future with making sure everything matches, and works how you like. Double check that you're off the Master, and then lets make a text box using the Frame Text Tool, and lets get ourselves a text box somewhere on this page. The placement doesn't SUPER matter here because we are just going to erase it at the end.

Toss a few lines of text into this box, I usually use Title, Header, Body Text, and then 3 lines of Bullet Text

Now we are gonna hop into the Text Styles menu. I keep mine pinned on screen, but if it isn't visible, you can find it under Windows->Text->Text Styles

Now highlight each of these lines of text, and double click the appropriate text style from this menu (ie we are gonna set Title to Header 1, Header to Header 2, etc). It'll look something like this when you're done

Now we're gonna change each of these lines of text to look how we want! For the example I'm making my titles and headers in Bellybeans FG, and setting the rest of the text to Open Dyslexic and resizing them so they look good.

My page looks like this now

Now's a great time to mention that there is a difference between Rich and True black, and it's confusing and it fucks a lot of folks up. The link up above (the primer on CMYK above RGB) talks some about your blacks, and links to a follow up article about them! You can skip reading any of that for now (but like you should), because the tldr here is going to be make SURE that if you are using Black you have the color set to c:0 y:0 m:0 k:100 if you don't wanna have issues later!

Now we want to update our font styles to match! To do this we are going to go back and individually highlight each line of text, and then right click the matching Text Style, and hit Update. The screens should look like this.

Next we are gonna set up a baseline grid! This makes it so that text on one side of a spread is gonna line up correctly with text on the opposite side of the page, and just helps with making pages look good and even! We want to set the grid Relative to the Top Margin, and then set the spacing to whatever you feel is correct in your heart of hearts. These are the settings I've used, but do whatever looks good here, there are probably some hard and fast rules for how to do this well, but I do not know them.

On my specific example you can see my Bullets are really spread out, and I don't like that, but the Body Text lays out much nicer. Lets deal with some spacing issues!

We are gonna hop on over to the Paragraph tab now, for me this is another tab on the Text Styles Window, but if you don't have it visible Windows->Text->Paragraph should bring it up.

So for me personally I want all my bullets to be on the following line, and not skip a whole line between them. I'm going to highlight all my text, and in this menu I'm going to go to Spacing > Space After Paragraph and set the amount to 0 pts.

You can also go further into this tab to change some more rules about what your bullets look like (things like how big your tabstops are, what the bullets look like, etc) but I'm not getting into that here!

After all this I'm gonna hop back into text styles, highlight each line of bullets, and Right Click->Update style on each of them (Just like we did previously!)

It's really tempting to skip this section of setting up your zine, but it enables a lot that can really help you out a ton in the long run. Having standardized Headers allows easy updating of headers and titles across the document, easy setup of Table of Contents for folks using them, and also on export is going to auto-bookmark the pdf for folks using PDF formats. It really pays to take time and set things like this up correctly the first time. After you're happy that this all looks good, you can go ahead and erase this text box.

Now we can break into zine layout proper, but if you just wanted basics you can stop here! Whatever you do from here is gonna print pretty decently.

If you'd like to stick around I'm going to set up some slightly nicer master pages, talk about why I use multiple masters, set up page numbers, and get us a table of contents!

So from hereon I'm just gonna work on laying out a basic Zine. So let's hop back into our Master Pages, and start setting up some flexible masters. I know I want at least two masters, one where I have text on both pages, and one where I only have text on the rightmost page. For right now we are going to just work on the spread with text on both pages, so I'm going to create a text box on both pages within the spread that fills the entirety of that guide we set up earlier. On the leftmost page, I'm going to right click the text box with the Frame Text Tool selected, and I'm going to choose to Insert Filler Text so I can see how everything looks.

Make sure this text is in your Body Text Style, and then click the little triangle on the text box

I'm now gonna select the textbox on the rightmost of the spread. If you did it properly, your page should look somewhat like this.

After I'm happy with this page, I'm going to erase the text in both boxes. I wanna add in some page numbers now. They aren't going to fit in the boxes here, but if you remember correctly I left myself a little bit of wiggle room when I set up the margins! Mixam needs .25 in clear, but my boxes are all .5 inches from the edges of the page. To make sure I don't egress the space too badly here, I'm going to set up a new horizontal guide from the View->Guides page we used previously, and I'm going to set this guide at 8.25 in which is the true bottom edge of our workable space.

I'm going to create new text boxes for our page numbers that line up with the outer edges of our guides, and the new true-bottom line I just set up.

It looks like this, but there's an eye icon which means no text in this box is going to be visible!

No worries this is because our baseline grid isn't playing nicely here, we are gonna break it in a moment, but for the mean time lets right click this text box, and select Insert Fields->Page Number

On the left page I'm also going to Bold and Left Align this box, but otherwise keep it in my Body Text Style. With the text all highlighted, I'm going to hop into the Paragraph window again, and scroll down to Baseline Grid->Align to Baseline Grid, and turn that option off.

My page now correctly shows a single # in the spot I'd want my page numbers to be. When this master is used, that number will automatically update to be correct! I'm going to duplicate this text box, and drag it onto the right page of the spread, and set the alignment to Right. I'm going to refill the textboxes with Filler Text for a moment, and turn Preview Mode on so I can make sure I like the page. For me this master now looks like this

I'm going to duplicate this master now, and on the left page of the spread I'm going to remove both text boxes. I like to name my masters so I know what they are at a quick glance. This is going to leave me a second master that looks like this.

You can get really involved on your master pages generally! I'm not doing anything fancy with this one, but previous projects have that heavily used masters might have pages that look more intense and include things like photo boxes, more complicated sets of text boxes, and even some text to use as a guide as I go.

Lets hop back to Page 1 of our doc, and leave the masters behind

Page 1 is going to be the title page for the book, but it likely now has a bunch of details now that you don't particularly need. If you have a master you don't want on a page, you can right click the page, and click Clear Masters.

I'm almost out of images on this post so I am gonna go mostly imageless from hereout. I'm gonna toss some text on pages, and then make a table of contents, and get my page numbers fixed up since most people don't actually want to count the Cover as Page 1 as far as page numbering goes.

With the project laid out, and the pages where I want them, the actual "Page 1" is going to start on Page 5 for me. Looking at the pages on the left side, I'm going to right click Page 5, and click Start New Section. On this new section I'm going to fill it out so the new section starts on page 5, and restarts the numbering at 1. Here's what it looks like for me.

On page 3 I want to include a Table of contents so if the ToC window isn't visible I'm gonna hit Window->References->Table of Contents, and then in this window I'm going to hit the insert button. You can really dial in a lot of settings here, but as long as you've been using those Text Styles I mentioned previously, it should be pretty easy! Since I've been using only Heading 2 to start chapters, I'm going to unselect Heading 1 since it is effectively only being used on the ToC page and the cover, and I don't think folks need help finding those. This ToC feature rocks and as long as your page numbers are correct, and you use your text styles it should auto-update! If it doesn't there's a refresh ToC button on this window as well. Regardless (and perfectly using my 30th image) this is what it looks like for me now.

You'll also note I updated the text styles here as well! Anyway this is a real overview of zine layout for print, there's probably more things I should cover, but I'm out of images and tired so I'm leaving it here. If this was helpful I'm gonna put this template up on my itch after I clean it up some down the line.

I'm gonna have to come back with a Part 2 that talks about exporting and whatnot, but this is all I can realistically fit in a post for now.

If you get any use out of this and wanna throw a few bucks my way you can do that here

and if you have any questions I'll answer what I can! Just shoot me an ask on here, or like annoy me on my discord (its in my pinned post)

okay thanks bye

[risingsunresistance]

i wanna ramble about the changes and doing this in a twitter thread would be miserable so you guys get to see it instead

it's already so hard to mine and now it's gonna cost 3 fuel, 6 if you have sunny-side upgrade... you hate me personally

love the higher scrap chance but why the fossil nerf :( i've only gotten 4 fossils and only 1 was a repeat, i'm really bad at the fossil game :(

i've already gotten 5 crystals, this is gonna be so broken for me specifically KJFHDG

why... we already have Just One mining reforge and it's not even that good.... this is the stats on a mythic equipment piece

15 down to 7 isnt a big difference it's just a random punch in the gut why did you do that-

thank god bc so far i haven't been able to exit a mineshaft. the option to exit just doesn't pop up above the portal 😭

ok good but. what about the other commission. trying to powder grind and getting stuck on 4 mineshaft commissions is gonna be hell PLEASE limit it like you do with the crystal hollows comms where you can only have 2 crystal hunters at a time please limit it to 2 or even 3 mineshaft commissions im begging you

does this mean a big popup like the VANQUISHER text? if so that's kinda cool actually bc i keep mistaking fallen stars for mineshaft spawns in chat lmao

THANK GOD I CAN JUST TYPE /WARP NUCLEUS WHENEVER I WANT THIS RULES

[btstulip]

Help! My brain is melting!

Okay... so first, I'll start with the wild ride that has been the BTS Monochrome pop up announcement:

The MNCRLogistics website was a super fun way to announce the popup (Shout out to all the smart people that figured this stuff out so I didn't have to!), but I am sure that is not all we are getting. This is building up to something bigger, and I am pretty sure it's related to HYYH and likely the K-drama releasing at the end of the month. I have my theories, but mostly they are fun guesses and I won't get into that now.

My big burning question and reason my brain is melting is over Exception @ 7fictionation on twitter.

Before I get into this, there is a lot of questions and hints and analysis out there over both the official content and what ever the Exception content is. It's looking like Bighit has been teasing this for years and even Tae has a picture on Instagram from 2021 of the same photoshoot released by Monochrome Logistics. I am not going to get into all of it because it's too much, but it's definitely fun if you feel like going down the rabbit hole.

Back to Exception @ 7fictionation. This account is definitely piggy backing off of the Monochrome Logistics content. They have been releasing videos, puzzles and streaming playlists as a countdown to something. The big controversy is over this is legit content. Exception @ 7fictionation follows only three accounts, 2 official BTS and 1 locked account that appears to be related to the @ 7fictionation. The official sites do not follow them back, this is one reason why people this this is a fan account and not legit and it is a good point. However, I am not convinced.

A couple of key things stand out to me that are feeding my delulu:

The account was created in December 2023 (with nothing posted until 4/16/24) and the locked @ 7fn_characters joined in April 2023. With Bighit obviously planning this stuff way back, it seems like any spin off twitter accounts would have been created in advance.

Their first post is a video that teases at HYYH content. Obviously the video and music hint at this, but the 8 25 25 8 is code for HYYH. You can see the video here: https://twitter.com/7fictionation/status/1780121445504319961?s=46

The biggest reason I think this is legit is because it's not pointing directly at the #MNCR_Logistics stuff, it's hinting at something else. If this were a fan account trying to piggyback on the official announcements, it doesn't make sense to be bringing in so much new content. It would make a stronger link to copy the messaging from MNCR_Logistics if this was a fan account trying to look legit.

Puzzles that decode to say: Eternal Dream (banner numbers, same code used in MNCR_Logistics barcode on shipping invoice), Eternal Journey (letter code post), and Monochromatic Future (international morse code post). These are similar to some of the codes from MNCR_Logistics, but seem to add to the messaging, not copy.

Seems to be an emphasis on new key words: "Exception" and "Improve". "Monochrome" is barely used outside reposting BTS_official posts.

And to me, one of the most suspicious pieces of the puzzle is the # use. If you are a fan account trying to piggyback off the popularity of official content, why on earth would you use a completely unheard of, unconnected # that isn't trending to promote your posts?!? #7FN_Excp is all over this account. It is the ONLY # used in their posts. They NEVER use #BTS #MONOCHROME #MNCR or #MNCR_Logistics (the obvious #s to use) in any of their posts, those only appear in posts they reposted from BTS_official. They are hinting at something else.

What do you think???? Personally, I am leaning towards Exception @ 7fictionation being a legit part of the new BTS promotion. I might be delulu and I'll gladly admit if I am wrong, but it feels connected, yet different to me. I think all of this, the Monochrome and this other account, are part of what ever "bundle" the members talked about releasing before Jin completed his service. My personal favorite theory is this is all part of HYYH and could be a song (or dare I hope, ALBUM!) for the new K-Drama releasing at the end of this month.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?!?! I have spent too much tine down this rabbit hole and my brain is mush!

[queerlyhalloween]

*smoking a cigar* see babes i can actually teach you SOO much about CompSci *coughs* im not like one of these tech-iliterate gen-z app-dependant *HACKING COUGH* wow these are really different to cigarettes... *extonguishes*

ANYWAY- heres how i beat the system: open taskmanager, go to services, close the popup saying "i REALLY hope you know what you're doing in here...", force stop ANY process you dont recognise/ understan- huh? what? why would i do that?

heh.... well u see babes, i have this ipod right. you probably dont even KNOW what an ipo- oh, you know? well okay then. WELL as you will THEN KNOW- the apple updater is constantly popping up, asking me to update my shit, i dont DO that babes. itunes 2017 works PERFECTLY FINE BY ME. anyway i wanted to kill the itunes updater. it annoys and perplexes me.

SO HERE'S WHAT YOU DO: you kill ANYTHING you dont recognise in processes, because DESPITE uninstalling and killing the itunes updater SEVERAL times it fucking keeps coming back- no, babe, im getting there i prommy, DELETE. EVERYTHING!

now there is a minor drawback to this: your shitty laptop is going to want to install "an update" every time it shuts down. this is FINE, just never turn that bitch off, you're gonna wanna waterboard it with the power cable, let it ALMOST die (takes about three days in sleep mode) then when its gasping in despair plug that baby in for half an hour, rinse and repeat, the laptop dies? no big deal. s'just gonna install that update again.

Whats that babes? The itunes upda- er, haha, yeah... no it's still gonna pop up *lights a different cigar* this is how we beat microsoft *HACKING COUGH*

[kneecap-homicide]

The absolute state of YouTube ads

As someone who has been using an adblocker for at least a decade, and is currently having to pause it on YouTube, here are some things I've noticed which I haven't seen anyone else bring up (yet).

You can no longer tell when ads play in a video

I'm pretty damn sure there used to be a small yellow segment in the video progress bar, so you could at least know in which parts of the video there would be ads. Now, they just start out of nowhere, and if it's a longer video and the creator has shoved all their ads in the last 10 minutes, you're hit with a barrage of ad after ad.

Ads will just play whenever

In a similar vein to the previous point, unless the creator has carefully integrated the ads with their video (e.g. "before we get into that, I'm just going to play some midrolls" or "I'll be back after this short commercial break"), the ads will play in the middle of whatever the video is about, completely ruining the immersion. I don't believe many YouTubers integrate their ads in this way.

I've heard some people say that sitting through 1-2 short ads isn't as intrusive as sitting through 5-10 minutes of them on TV (such as in this video by SomeOrdinaryGamers). And I honestly cannot agree. As some have said, YouTube ads don't have the same moral standards as TV ads, and this is true, although I myself haven't yet seen any ads of dubious morality since pausing adblock.

But my main gripe with this take is that again, TV ads have set commercial breaks which the vast majority of YouTube videos do not, and the time between these breaks is ~20 minutes depending on the country (see Wikipedia). This means the ads won't start in the middle of a sentence or dramatic scene in a nature documentary.

You can:

Predict when the ads will start based on how long it's been since the last commercial break

Predict when the ads will start based on predicting when the scene in your program is going to end

And, of course, you can change channels during a commercial break, and watch something else in the meantime, or just get up and do something else since the commercial break lasts long enough to do that.

The ads in YouTube are too short to warrant changing tabs, so instead you just mute the ad, and sit there staring mindlessly at the screen until the ad finishes, or until you can click the skip button.

YouTube ads are high maintenance

As I've just mentioned in the previous point, you can't get up while the ads play, or switch tabs. You have to mute the ad, and just wait. Wait until the skip ad button appears, or until the two unskippable ads play out. In total, it probably only takes about 30 seconds, so why would you try to do anything else?

And if it happens to be a morally questionable ad, you might also want to report it.

All YouTube ads are videos

What happened to the little popup ads that you would just click the 'x' on and you're done? Have I just been unlucky and not seen any, or are they actually gone? This is a genuine question btw.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss popups. Relatively speaking, they're way less intrusive than video ads, because you can keep watching the video already in progress. And if they do still exist, then at a much reduced rate than the videos, at least in my experience, given that I haven't yet seen one.

Adblockers should not be against YouTube's terms of service

This is definitely my weakest point, and I'm positive others have already brought this up. But what I do on my Personal Computer (emphasis on Personal) should not have any bearing on my relationship with the websites I visit, and if it does, it will make me question my usage of that website.

If the conditions surrounding your adverts are causing a large portion of your userbase to turn to adblockers, maybe instead of biting the hand that feeds you, you could improve the conditions and make adverts less intrusive, and keep better tabs on what kinds of ads you're approving. The change in revenue wouldn't be instant, but more people would eventually stop using adblockers on YouTube. If you recall what happened on Tumblr, userbases are actually happy to support sites they feel deserve being supported.

Overall, YouTube is pretty great, and while there are certain competitors out there, none of them do exactly what YouTube does. But forcing ads might make people turn to alternatives anyway.

Getting back to television, there isn't a law against changing channels or just turning your TV off for 5 minutes and making some toast. If you never watch a single ad on TV, your TV licence won't be revoked. TV commercials have a good system that hasn't really changed much over the years. Maybe commercial breaks have gotten longer, but that's it.

YouTube really needs to improve the QoL surrounding ads, because people will just continue using adblockers which update to circumvent YouTube's anti-adblock system.

TL;DR

YouTube ads are somehow more annoying than TV ads because they don't have set commercial breaks unless the YouTuber integrates them accordingly, and it sucks.