#3 days until someone else posted something in the art channel and of course get multiple reactions/comments in short order | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lilysdaydreams · 4 years ago

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The Artist and The Musician

→ I do not claim to know corpse- therefore please don’t think that this is what he would actually act like, or that any details about his life are actually true. this is fiction.

→ Pairing: Corpse Husband X Fem!Reader

→ Genre: Fluff.

→ Words: 5.6k

→ Request: Hey! It’s me again lmao I was curious maybe like sykunno or raes little sister (like 2 or 3 years younger) meets the group and her and corpse just click. How would either of them react to them hearing the news that their little sis is dating corpse and like they’ve moved in together and everything idk I thought it’d be cute💛

→ Warnings: Swearing.

→ Authors Note: Its been a hard couple of weeks and im really sorry that this took so long to be done but depression rlly hit me and I could barely move myself. I hope you enjoy this, and if you do, please comment some words of encouragement or feedback 💛

→ if you have some spare change , consider buying me a coffee.

You sighed as you finally dropped the last box in your new room, stretching to get rid of the pains in your back. Grabbing your phone, you moved over to Sykkunos room, knocking before sticking your head in.

"You want subway?" you asked when he looked up from the computer. He nodded with a quick smile, and as you closed the door behind you, you could hear him talking to the stream, letting them know that it was just his sister. Quickly ordering on Ubereats, you slumped on the sofa, closing your eyes and resting for a bit.

You had decided to move in with Sykkuno a month ago, the same week you'd decided to drop out of college. It wasn't something your parents were happy with, but after seeing how big your art and business had gotten, they had let you drop out. You'd dropped out and moved to LA, moving into an apartment with Sykkuno since he had to leave the OTV house. Sykkuno had moved in a week earlier which was why his room and computer was all set up. You'd only moved in today, spending a few weeks at home with your parents before leaving for LA. Stretching, you grabbed your phone, checking how long it would be until the food came, and then clicking on Instagram. Your most recent post was of this morning, a photo of you sitting on top of half the boxes in your room, throwing a peace sign at the camera. Sykkuno had taken it for you, the whole process taking 10 minutes cuz you made him take it at 45 different angles. Scrolling through the comments, you liked a few, replying to the ones by your best friends.

@selinaissss: "HOW DARE YOU LOOK THIS PERFECT AT 8 IN THE MORNING????"

→ @junefarie: i look like a racoon dont u dare

@onlyalyssa: "we need a house tour"

→ @junefarie: bitch I dont even have a bed yet

You grabbed the subway order when the bell rang, saying a quick thank you to the delivery man. You left yours on the table, and went to Sykkunos room, yelling "Sykkuno catch!" before throwing it at him, giggling as he leapt forward from his chair to catch it. Closing the door softly behind you, you jumped onto the couch, sitting cross-legged, grabbing your sketchbook and pencils from your backpack and setting them on your lap. It was time to wind down a bit.

It was a week later and you had unpacked fully, now focusing more on creating new pieces of art for a shop update. You were also working on some designs specifically for shirts and hoodies. Sykkuno found you in front of your computer, blanket wrapped around you and glasses perched on your nose as you emailed the manufacturer you were working with for the hoodies.

"Un, y/n?" he said hesitantly knocking on the door. You spun around in your chair, raising your eyebrows at him. "What's up?"

He walked in, sitting down gingerly on the edge of the bed and you got your water from the table, taking a sip as you wait for him to talk.

"I um- You know how I- I play Among Us right?" he asked, scratching his neck.

You hummed in response, urging him on with a nod. Sykkuno was almost never this nervous around you. Most of the time, you guys talked normally, joking and teasing each other. For him to be stuttering around you, he must have been extremely nervous.

"Well, you know Rae right? She um, she asked me to make a lobby," he said, standing up and pacing now. You furrowed your brows, confused as to where this was going.

He was explaining what a lobby was (which what the fuck, you watched his streams, of course you knew what a lobby was, why was he explaining that) when you cut him off, getting up and grabbing his shoulders to stop him.

"Hey, what's wrong?" you asked, holding his shoulders with both your hands.

He sighed and slumped into you, his head coming to a rest on your shoulder.

"Rae asked me to make a lobby and it's the first time I've ever made one and I'm really nervous about it. I've already invited people, but um I was wondering if you wanted to join as well? I- It would help me to have you there." he muttered, the words muffled as he spoke into your shoulder.

"Me?" you asked, a little shocked because you had never played among us before.

He nodded against your shoulder.

"Um sure!" you said, wrapping your arms around his middle, "It'll be fun!"

"And hey," you added on when he didn't say anything after that, "I can meet all your friends as well!"

He finally lifted his head a little, smiling as he muttered out a quick "Thanks y/n."

"However," you added, jumping back onto your seat and wiggling your eyebrows at him. "You have to buy me pizza for tonight's dinner."

He chuckled, grabbing his phone and already mutterng the order to himself as he opened up the ubereats app and walked out of the room.

You turned back to the laptop humming a tune under your breath. From interactions like this, most people would probably assume that you were older but the truth was that Sykkuno was 5 years older than you. Your roles were reversed and you were probably more protective over him than anyone else. Once in high school a girl had called him cute and asked him for his number only to write it on the bathroom walls. After the first three prank calls, you'd taken the phone from him yelling at anyone who called that if they called again, that you'd personally track them down and shove a dildo up their ass.

Both of you had always been close, but with the amount of bullying and teasing he got in high school, you'd got even closer, eventually becoming his best friend in a way. Seeing Sykkuno grow as a person, get new friends who were genuinely nice and kind made you the happiest person alive. When Sykkuno had first started streaming you'd been worried, scared that people online would say something mean. When he had first started streaming with other streamers and then met Lily and all his other friends, you had been anxious, worrying that they might only be putting up a friendly facade. You were also the happiest though when he grew even closer to them, when he smiled more, laughed more, talked more.

You had yet to meet or talk to any of his friends, mostly because you'd been in college, and the pandemic had made it harder. Maybe it was finally time.

The day came and you sat in your room, once again a blanket wrapped around you, glasses perched on your nose as you accepted the discord invite Sykkuno sent you.

"DO I GO IN THE CHAT THINGY?" you yelled to Sykkuno, hearing a "YES" before clicking on the voice chat.

You mumbled a "hello", wondering if your mic was on.

"Hey, yeah I can hear you y/n."

Breathing a sigh of relief, you logged into the game, smiling as you heard sykkuno introduce you to his chat. "Hi everyone," you said, feeling a bit weird only talking to a screen. You rubbed your hands, a little nervous to be doing this.

Just then someone else joined and before you could even speak another three people joined as well, all of them yelling hello as they joined.

"He- Hey guys, how's everyone doing?" started sykkuno.

"Im doing great oh my god, guess what guys, I'm-" started Rae, cutting herself off. "wait, whos um "ms snores a lot"?

You were a bit confused for a second, furrowing you eyebrows for a second before realising what had happened.

"SYKKUNO YOU ASSHOLE WHAT THE FUCK?" you yelled, staring at the name underneath the voice channel that you now realised belonged to you. You could hear Sykkunos laughter from the other room but you just spluttered indignantly. He was the one who had set up everything on your computer yesterday because technology was something that you rarely messed around with.

"Sykkunooo" you whined, when he kept laughing, "How the fuck do I change it now?"

"Um wait, sykkuno who is this?" asked Rae, the other three echoing her. You glanced at the names and from the voices figured out that it was Rae, Toast, Sean and Corpse in the lobby.

"Hey okay, so guys this is my sister, her names y/n and we recently moved in together, so I asked her to be in the lobby because... um.." he said stuttering at the end to find a reason.

"Because he wanted to embarrass me apparently!" you exclaimed, giving him a way out.

"Oh god, um - you can change it in settings, at the bottom near where your name is."

"Ahhh," you said finding it and then simply typing in your art business name.

"Its nice to meet everyone by the way," you started. "I've been watching your videos for ages so it almost fels like I already know you"

Raes voice started in your ears and you winced at the volume befoe turning it down a bit.

"I would love to say that Sykkuno has told us a lot about you, but the truth is that he keeps a lot of secrets and I didnt even know he had a sister, I AM SO SHOCKED RIGHT NOW"

You gasped. "Sykkuno what the fuck, you didn't even tell Rae?"

"You told me not to tell a lot of people!" he protested.

You heard someone saying "they're so different!' but you ignored it and kept talking.

"Yeah at the start! and on stream! I can't believe you never even said you had a sister." you spluttered out, followed by another gasp.

"Are you embarrassed of me?" you whispered dramatically.

"N-What no of course not!" he exclaimed, and you could also imagine how wide his eyes would have gotten.

You giggled before telling him that you were only joking.

"Um since sykkuno is embarrassed of me," you said jokingly, "I'll just tell you myself."

"I'm like five years younger than sykkuno, I'm a June baby, I do art, my star sign is cancer, I'm 5'4, I recently moved in with sykkuno, and my favourite colour is purple!"

"Oh is that why your username is junefarie? Because you were born in June?" asked Sean.

Before you could say yes, someone else cut in.

"Wait, junefarie?" asked corpse, "like the artist?"

Your eyes widened as you realised that he knew you. Sure you had quite a few followers, but you never expected any of Sykkunos friends to know you from there.

"Um yeah," you said letting out a shocked laugh, "I didnt expect anyone here to know about me."

"Dude, your art is fire!" he exclaimed, voice louder now. "I was honestly thinking of buying a piece soon, I've followed you for ages!"

"Wait, I wanna see as well." whined Rae, "Ima look you up, are you on Instagram?"

"Um," you said still shocked by the fact that somone this big knew you. "yeah I'm on instagram, its just junefarie." you said first replying to Rae, "Um corpse, thankyou so much! thats so nice of yo!"

"Um my art isn't that great yet," you chuckled, embarrassed by all the attention now. "I'm hoping to improve a lot more and I have a bunch of ideas for it as well. I'm hoping to work more now that I moved in with Sy."

"Oh my god, this is amazing," whispered Rae, Toast and Sean echoing her. You ducked your head even though no one could see you. Your cheeks were blazing hot and you pressed your hands to them to cool yourself down.

"Thankyou," you mumbled, not sure what to say.

Someone else entered the lobby, and said "hi" and you welcomed the source of distraction.

"Hi! I'm Sykkunos sister, y/n!" you said , wanting to move away from the topic of your art.

The reply of "sykkuno has a SISTER?" made everyone laugh, successfully moving the attention to Sykkuno and off your art. Finally Sykkuno started the game and you breathed as you lost yourself in the art of gaming.

"OH MY GOD!" yelled Rae as the game ended and everyone appeared in the lobby. "That was like amazing, Y/N I cant belive you pulled that off!"

She was talking about the last game where there was 50/50 between corpse and Sykkuno (because you refused to kill sykkuno when you were imposter) and you somehow managed to convince Sykkuno that it was Corpse.

"Honestly, neither can I!" you exclaimed back staring at your screen, eyes blurring the screen because of how tired you were.

"I can't believe Sykkuno," mumbled corpse. "I literally said I saw her vent and kill toast and Sykkuno was still like "hmmm, I don't think so."

Giggling at Sykkunos yell of "SHES MY SISTER" you yelled out a bye as everyone started leaving and then struggled to find a way to end the call.

"Wait, how do I end it," you muttered to yourself.

You jumped as Corpse talked, not expecting anyone to be there.

"You can see yoru name at the bottom left right? Its above that but a little to the right." he said chucling a little.

"Oh." you said, you cheeks heating up. You didnt know if it was because of him or because you were utterly useless with technology.

"Um thankyou," you said awkwardly.

"No problem."

You exited out of the call, a small smile at your lips.

Sykkunos friends were nice.

After the stream, your fanbase grew, and with it, the number of orders as well. For the next week, you were buried under orders, only leaving the house to go to the post office.

An Instagram post on @junefarie account:

[ID: A photo of y/n and sykkuno standing in the middle of the living room, packages scattered everywhere. Y/n is hugging Sykkuno tight and Sykkuno is staring at the camera, a distressed look on his face.]

Caption: Thankyou so much for all my supporters and all the love shown to me. Sending out loads of orders and I cant wait for you gusy to get yours! Special thanks to @sykkuno for helping me send out orders. luv yu.

Comments:

@Sykisacutie: best sibling duo!

@valkyrae: hope my order is in their as well.

→ I SCREAMED WHEN SY TOLD ME THAT WAS YOUR NAME.

@corpse_husband: sykkuno looks like he's accepted death.

→ @sykkuno: I would have welcomed death at that point

→ @corpse_husband @sykkuno: okay ill be honest, I would have welcomed death as well.

@ariesin: go best friend, go! we need to get together to paint soon !!

→ SOONNNNNN

You flopped onto your bed, every part of your body hurting. Carrying boxes filled with orders down the stairs had tired your whole body, which wasn't used to any exercise at all. That had taken practically the whole day and then you had to clean your room because the mess from the orders had barely left any room to move. You flung your hand to the side, grabbing your phone from the table and bringing it up to your face. The "1:02" was clearly visible on your screen and you unlocked the phone, heading to Twitter. Scrolling through your feed, you liked a few tweets from friends before gearing yourself up and moving to the messages. Ever since you'd played with Corpse, Sykkuno and everyone, you'd been getting a lot of messages. Most of them were just the streamers fans, asking you if you know them or telling you to take care of sykkuno. There were a few though that targeted you, telling you that your art sucked, that they didn't know why Corpse could like my art. You'd taken to deleting them before sleeping so that your inbox wouldn't get cluttered and you could still find any serious requests or messages from your followers. Therefore, you didn't really think anything of it when there was another message from someone with a Corpse icon and you clicked on it only to see the message and gasp, immediately sitting up in bed.

Corpse_Husband → Hey, I was wondering if I could work with you on something? I really love your art and was wanting to commission or collaborate for an album cover or some merch designs. Message me on this number cuz I barely see my dms.

Underneath was a number.

"Oh my god," you whispered, unsure as to what to do.

When you had decided to drop out of college, you had expected hard days. You had expected your normal orders and mostly just improving your art and marketing it more. You had expected long days and not much money in the bank account. You certainly had not expected the immense amount of orders you'd gotten. Along with that, the amount of love and support had taken you by surprise and you had spent the last night crying because of how much love you and your art were getting.

You had also not expected such a big opportunity just landing at your feet.

Quickly you clicked on the number, putting it in your contacts with the name Corpse and then writing a quick message.

"Hey I got your twitter dm! I've personally never done art for merch or album covers but I would love the opportunity!"

You bit your lip, confused as to whether that was enough before deciding it was fine and just sent it.

Your heart beat a little faster as you slumped back onto the bed.

@junefarie Instagram story:

[ID: A zoomed-in picture of a drawing, the only part that was visible was curly hair. The text read: "Working on something SO COOL"]

Your phone was ringing. Stuffing the rest of the pizza in your mouth, you swept your hand over the covers of your bed, trying to find it. With a muttered "aha", you grabbed it and swiped on the call before it ended. Pressing the phone to your ear, you mumbled a "hello", still chewing the pizza bite.

A low rapsy voice came out of the speaker, one that you definitely didn't expect. You choked on the pizza, coughing out pieces onto the bed. Sure you guys had messaged each other a bit (you kinda had to because of the commission), but you hadn't expected him to call out of nowhere.

"Um I hope this isn't a bad time," he said when you didn't respond for a second. Of course, he didn't exactly know that hearing his voice so close to your ear had you frozen for a second.

"Um no," you replied, coughing slightly to clear your throat. "It's fine! What did you wanna talk about?"

"Oh, um I know you're already working on the commission and its looking great! I can't wait to work with the merch team to create something really cool with it, but um-" he broke off for a second sounding hesitant. "I really wanna get another commission done as well."

"Oh?" you said after a second when he didn't reply. "I'd be happy to do another one for you!"

"Uh yeah, but I'm afraid that I might be a bit late, You see I was wondering if it could be done before Christmas?"

You sucked in a breath as you counted the days in your mind.

"Hmm, it depends on how big it is tbh. There's still 2 weeks to go till Christmas so I could fit it in," you mumbled, biting your lip as you remembered the onslaught of orders you still had to send out.

"Well," he started and you smiled a little as the excitement crept into his voice. "You know that Sykkuno, Rae, Toast and me are called the 4 Amigops right? I kinda wanted a portrait of all 4 of us, in our um among us colors, and I basically wanted to print it out and send to each of them for Christmas."

"Aww, that sounds like such a good idea, I'm sure they'll all love it!" you smiled, thinking about how much Sykkuno would appreciate that.

"Uh thanks," he mumbled, "do you think you can get it done?"

"Sure!" you replied immediately. You did have a lot of orders, yes, but like, you could fit Corpse in. If you pulled a few all-nighters. "I'll send you the sketches soon okay?"

"Oh thank god, thankyu so much for this y/n, I really appreciate it. Youre one of my favourite artists and I'm really happy that I could finally commisison you after so long."

"So long?" you questioned. "Since when have you known about my art?"

There was a moment of silence and then "Um, around the time you still posted your sketches and stuff I guess?"

You furrowed your eyebrows thinking for a second before letting out a gasp.

"Corpse that was 4 years ago!"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, oh my god, I cant believe you've seen those, I was so bad then!"

"No no, they were really good at that time as well! I was so shocked when Sykkuno told us you were his sister because like, I'd been following you for ages and I had absolutely no idea. You guys are like really different."

"Hah yah, Sykkunos so soft, and then there's me. An actual devil."

"Your usernames so different as well! I remember when I first saw a picture of you on your account and I was kind of shocked because based on the name junefarie, I was expecting someone very soft I guess but then you were literally the opposite and wearing actual devil horns."

"Oh god, that was one of the first few photos I posted of myself. that was on Halloween I think,", you took a deep breath still shocked that Corpse had known about you for that long,

"Yeah, I chose junefarie because...”

It was 2 hours later when Corpse said that he should probably be working on his music.

"Oh I'm so sorry," you apologized, "I didn't mean to keep you,"

"Oh no, I um, I liked talking to you."

Your breath caught for a moment and you smiled like a lunatic at your Pokémon covered bedsheets.

"I liked talking to you as well," you whispered out, heart sinking a little as you realized the call would be ending soon.

"Um, do you, maybe want to stay on call? like I'll just be writing and we can just chill?" he asked and you felt like your prayers had been answered.

"yes" you said quickly, not giving him a chance to back out.

He chuckled, and you fell in love a little.

Just a little.

You continued like that, calling each other every few days, talking so much and then at times, not talking at all, simply content with each others company.

He had even started facetiming you, the first time with a mask and then the second without it. You hadn't made a big deal about it, but the first time you saw him, you could barely breathe.

There were five days left until Christmas when you got the idea.

You were entirely not subtle about it, because, well to be honest, there wasn't a subtle bone in your body.

"Hey Corpse, do you like surprises?" you had asked, in the middle of colouring Raes hair (her hair was the last thing left before you could finally print the goddamn thing)

"It depends," he had murmured after a second, voice sending shivers down your spine like every time. Now whether that was because of his voice or because of him, you weren't entirely sure.

"on what?" you prodded when he refused to answer.

"On whether its a good one or a bad one" he had huffed out.

You had hummed, waited for a second and then blurted out that next question because you did not have a cent of patience.

"So what are you doing at Christmas?"

"Sleeping, if I can manage it," he replied, his voice taking on a sardonic tone, eyes flicking to you on the screen. The only thing he could see though was the top of your head because you had your iPad on the bed and were laying over it as you drew.

"Not with that attitude you aren't," you replied right back, making a small smile appear across his face.

"Hmmm, okay!" you said when he didn't reply.

He looked back over, eyebrows furrowed and mouth opening as he started to question you.

"Hey did you see the video I sent you?" you quickly asked distracting him from his question.

He would probably guess the surprise but that was okay. You only wanted to make a smile appear on his face. And honestly, for someone with anxiety, a small warning of a surprise was definitely needed.

It was Christmas day and you woke Sykkuno up at 6 in the morning with the promise that you'd buy him McDonald's. 30 minutes later, you were both in the car, yelling the lyrics to "All I want for Christmas" at the top of your lungs.

You had told sykkuno of your plan a few days ago and he had smiled at you with that stupid smile, agreeing with a small "alright."

You'd immediately realised that he knew. Even though you pretended otherwise, Sykkuno was the older one and the thing about older siblings was that they always knew.

They always knew.

So there you were, snacks loaded into your car, McDonald's fries practically everywhere, and a cake you had made in the backseat, on your way to Corpses house.

There was a lull in the music, and you were only 30 minutes away from his place, butterflies fluttering in your stomach when Sykkuno asked you a question.

"You like him right?" he murmured, head leaning against the window, eyes closed.

There was a moment of silence as you thought about what to say. Did you like Corpse? Of course, you liked Corpse! He was funny, he was nice, he made you feel like you were the only person that mattered and your heart beat faster than ever whenever he looked at you. Hell, that was through a screen, in real life, it would probably be even worse. So of course you liked him! The question was, did he like you back?

"Yeah," you answered Sykkuno, eyes straight on the road.

A second passed and then he smiled. "Good," he replied. and well. That was that. You sighed.

At least you had your brothers blessing.

Pulling into the apartment building, you breathed in, your heart beating a million times a second and the butterflies in your stomach had turned into snakes. Maybe, maybe this wasn't a good idea at all. I mean, you expected Corpse to get the hint but what if he didn't? and what if he didn't want you to come? Maybe you were being too quick. After all, It'd only been a month since you'd met.

These thoughts plagued your mind as you trudged up the stairs, turning to Sykkuno as you reached the door.

"Maybe we shouldn't have come," you whispered to him.

He looked at you, eyebrows high, "We just travelled two hours to get here. There's no way im going back without at least giving him the print."

"What if he doesn't want us to be here?" you hissed.

"Then we'll go away." he stated, "after we give him the print."

"But what if-"

Before you could even finish your sentence, the door opened and you both jumped, turning to face the person standing in the doorway.

You forced yourself to breathe as you finally saw him. It was him. Wearing a black beanie, half his hair spilling out the sides, stubble clear on his chin... it was him. At that moment, there was only one thought in your mind.

You were gonna marry this man.

"You suck at whispering," he said, and you huffed out a laugh, jumping onto him without even responding. You wrapped your arms around him, not letting go until Sykkuno cleared his throat from behind you.

You turned back immediately, grabbing the stuff in Sykkunos hands so he could greet Corpse too. As they awkwardly did their handshake/fistbump thing, you walked over to the couch behind them, putting down the print and the takeaway bags, and putting the cakebox down on the table.

You turned around to see them both standing there staring at you.

"Surprise?" you said when no one else spoke. That broke the ice a little and you grabbed the print from the couch thrusting it at Corpse.

"Open it. Open it. Open it." you mumbled, your heart beating fast as he carefully ripped the paper off. The smile that overtook his face made your heart immediately calm.

"It's beautiful," he whispered, eyes roaming everywhere, trying to take it all in. Clearing his throat, he nodded his head further into the apartment, mumbling that he was going to put it in the room, eyes still on the print as he walked there.

"You smile is gonna blind me," muttered Sykkuno.

"Oh shut up."

A few hours later, you stood in the kitchen, putting the leftover cake into Corpses fridge. You had all chilled, eating cake and the takeout that you and sykkuno had bought, laughing every few minutes. It felt like you were all on an adrenaline rush. You had facetimed Rae and Toast, Rae shrieking when she realised where you guys were. Sykkuno had just fallen into a nap, still tired from being wakened up so early, you assumed.

You leaned against the kitchen bench, smiling as Corpse walked in.

"Thankyou." he said as he came to a stop next to you, matching your position.

"For what?" you mused, even though you had a good enough idea.

"For the print. For coming here. For making my Christmas, a much happier affair than it has been my whole life." he stated, chuckling at the last point.

You turned your head sideways, and you didn't know what it was, but something about his face made you spurn into action. You grabbed his collar, pulled him down, and kissed him before he could even say anything. It would be too cliche to say that fireworks erupted. And if you were being honest they didn't. Instead, it felt like everything was finally right. You fit perfectly in his arms as they wrapped themselves around you, and you smiled into the kiss as he lifted you up, making you sit at the counter. You twirled the hair at the nape of his neck with your left hand, taking a deep breath in as you both slowed down and pulled away.

"Well," he whispered, "that was unexpected."

You raised a single eyebrow. Honesty you'd done a lot for this relationship. You just drove for nearly 3 hours! If he wanted it to progress, he was gonna have to say it himself.

"But not unwelcome," he continued when you didn't speak. A moment passed, where you could see that he was psyching himself up to say something. Finally, with a heaving sigh, he whispered "Darling, would you do me the honour of being called yours?"

You melted right there.

A nod was all he needed before he grabbed your lips with his again, both of you giggling when he accidentally hit the side of your mouth instead of the lips.

The sound of a picture being taken filled the air, making you spring apart and swing your heads over to the doorway, which had sykkuno leaning against it, his phone in his hand.

"Thank god. Rae and Toast bet that you wouldn't confess until after Christmas, so now they both owe me 20 bucks." he said, now fiddling on the phone. "Dont worry Corpse, I'll add a circle over your face or something."

Your mouth dropped open as you stared at your brother.

"You bet on my love life?" you scoffed, still shocked.

At his nod though, you swung off the bench, marching until you were eye to eye to him.

"I want half the winnings."

Rolling his eyes, he turned back to the living room, jumping onto the sofa.

"C'mon, let's watch one more episode before heading back," he said and you jumped in next to him, patting the space next to you as Corpse came in behind you.

You grabbed Sykkunos hand and squeezed it, letting him know that you were grateful that he didn't make it such a big deal. Leaning your head on corpses shoulder, you smiled to yourself.

You'd have to leave in 30 minutes, to drive back to your parents and spend the rest of Christmas with them, leaving Corpse behind. And that made you a bit sad sure, but it couldn't overpower the feeling of pure happiness at being here. At giving him a happier Christmas. You smiled as he pressed a kiss to the top of your head.

Nothing could overpower this feeling of absolute happiness.

fin.

Corpse husband taglist: @mythicalamphitrite @ramble-writes @atsumubabe @anxiouskat5646 @itssierramcquade @xaestheticalien @jotaroslightning @starstruckllamapuppy @gxldenskiez @shinyshimaagain @cavanana @fee-btheweeb (send an ask to be added!)

#corpse x reader #corpse husband x reader #corpse husband #corpse x y/n #corpse x you #corpse husband fanfiction #sykkunos sister #sykkuno fanfic #hope you enjoy #love yous

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askiceboundlopunny · 3 years ago

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So this blog has been a thing for 5 years now and I’m gonna be up front with y’all. This Anniversary post is gonna be a bit venty. But don’t get it twisted I appreciate those of you who have stuck with me and still see and interact with my stuff. But I feel like I’ve lost my desire to be in this community. Really feels like I haven’t been in it for at least two years now if I’m being honest.

When I still tried to be reach out to interact with people in an ask call it took almost a week for someone to want an ask from one of my girls, which is why I stopped doing those. In the pokeask discords whenever I tried posting something, either I was ignored or no one cared what I had to share and said nothing and the next message in the channel was something from someone else which immediately gets comments about it, or worse a reply to something above my art. And munday is something I just hate seeing nowadays because I can’t participate in them even if I wanted to. I’m lucky to get A single ask while I scroll through minutes of munday posts at a time. And I’m just sick of the envy it all brings me. And the last ask that wasn’t received from an ask call was at least 2 and a half years ago.

And it confuses me as to what I started doing wrong as this was not the case when I was new and reaching out to people. I’ve taken notes and done what the successful blogs said to do when you start out. And after the first year and half of me running this thing the activity on my posts just got lower and lower. And I’m normally not the type of person who cares about that sort of thing. But it gets to you when I see someone who vanished for a year, make one post out of the blue and get 5 times your average notes and then vanish again for another year. Makes me wonder what I’m doing wrong which I can only guess is my lack of frequent updates. Which y’all keep telling me to go at my own pace. But my own pace isn’t good enough to maintain attention. Either that or my art isn’t good enough.

However I have a community that I feel I’m an active part in now so I don’t feel a need to wear myself out trying to be a part of this one. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not leaving this blog or the community as a whole. To be honest I really hate blogs I love up and ending out of nowhere after they’ve been hyped up for a while by the person running it. Not to say they don’t have a right to do what they want with their time. But for me, I’m just gonna lurk around until something changes and work at my own pace. Which is also gonna be much slower as I can’t keep putting 95% of my time into this blog when I have a lot of other things I want to draw still.

So in a nutshell, I’m still here, partly out of spite, partly to fulfill the promise to myself of finishing this blog and I appreciate my regulars leaving likes on my stuff and you can count on me working on this blog at a gradual pace.

The next plot post is honestly gonna be the biggest lull for a while, it’s in multiple parts but I want to post them all together over the course of a few days. Part 1 is done btw, I just need to finish the other 3.

Hopefully this site will still be here next year. Love you guys.

#Ormintalks #blog anniversary

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having-a-hyperfixate · 3 years ago

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Secret Reports

Gonna just edit this thing and put line breaks as I get more of them.

I’m also working on the rest of the completion, and will probably wander off in the middle of this to do Another Day, which will probably have its own post. I fully expect that to be sheer madness.

#1 So is it just me or is Mr H writing these reports to channel how extremely stressed he is. Cuz like. Mood. *gestures vaguely at blog* *gestures at this post specifically*

I. Hold up. Skeezy McFuckwad and Joshua did what resulting in which now. Excuse me. EXPLAIN!??! Joshua had a sneaky Game running with Skeezy that directly lead to Hazuki ordering Skeezy to destroy Shinjuku??? Is that what I am reading. Or possibly the order was already in the works, and then there was the Game, which ultimately just pushed that forward?? You can’t just say shit like that and not give details ffffffff.

#2 Mr H having about as much contempt for Shinjuku rules as I do I feel seen haha. Bogus indeed. I can’t remember if I said it in one of my other posts, of if it was in a group chat, but I made a comment somewhere how this ruleset doesn’t seem to work with the stated purpose of the whole Reaper’s Game system. Sweet validation.

#3 Not much to say except that if I had read this entire report when I actually got it, I would have been much more alarmed by all of the Replays Rindo has to do after that. I got it partway through week 3 but decided not to read it until I beat the game and then BAM it has this lovely tidbit about potentially being able to destroy the UG and RG.

#4 So, the business that the fandom refers to as the Long Game is known in universe by the higher-ups and Shibuya’s impurification, because it didn’t get ‘purified’ like Shinjuku (I object to that term but ok).

“The hierarchical freeze presumably stems from opposition to the impurification”

Skeezy wasn’t reprimanded when he arrived in Shibuya “possibly because most Higher Plane denizens still oppose Shibuya’s impurification”

ExcUSE ME. I. WHAT. In one of the secret reports for the first game, Mr H says something about the way things turned out be an ‘ideal parallel world’ according to the Angels. I guess he only meant the ones who didn’t want the city destroyed holy shit. That most of them didn’t want Joshua to change his mind and STILL DON’T is so massively fucked up I can’t. Dear Higher Plane, what the actual, ever loving fuck.

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#5 One hundred and four Games under Shiba. That’s… so. many. teams. Holy shit. And the teams we knew had seen at LEAST 30 teams go. And the three teams we saw weren’t small. So many people…

Also, “Minamimoto seems to be plotting something” is the funnies thing I’ve read in ages OF COURSE HE IS that’s what he DOES. XD That was some mood whiplash.

#6 I was so hung up on the lack of entry fee for so long you don’t even know. Like. Those were so important in the first one it was baffling to me that Shinjuku rules didn’t have anything similar. And then eventually I just decided that the whole Game wasn’t being run correctly and Shiba was clearly after something other than driving the improvement that’s supposed to be the point.

I would like more explanation on this ‘Rindo’s stagnation makes him perfect for time travel thing’. I kind of understand how his reactions being consistent would be helpful in being able to control where the timeline goes (also I just realized this further confirms that Angels remember the other timelines glad I wasn’t imagining that the Prime days are a blur), but what does he mean about being able to maintain abnormally high levels of imagination? (It might tell me later so don’t say anything lol)

“I can only hope I’m not overthinking things.” Oh, you aren’t. If I’m understanding everything correctly, Skeezy actually had two proxies. And poor Rindo managed to end up being proxy for both sides at the same time which is. A mess.

#7 Well, finally we know how Coco managed to get her hands on a taboo sigil. Plagiarism. Lmao. That at least makes sense and I can worry less about her being Something Else. I would like a word with whoever didn’t clean that up from Udagawa long enough for her to copy it though. That’s hilarious. Interesting that Mr H thinks it wasn’t a perfect recreation though, that something in him got changed. Once again, please elaborate. Please. *headdesk* What prompted Coco to just. Copy a taboo sigil though. Cuz that seems. Unusual.

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#8 Ok there’s a lot to unpack in this one. Namely, more Shinjuku rules. I would love to know if these are long standing rules or relatively recent. Cuz like. Did Shinjuku’s Game ever run in a way that would drive the kind of improvement that’s supposed to be the overall goal? Or has it always, or at least for a while now, been basically a meat grinder? The players that don’t clear that minimum bar probably just get erased outright, I would think. Actually, I’m confused. If normally, one team would get to leave and one team would be erased, wouldn’t that normally keep the average pretty level, so the Game would basically go on forever? Otherwise what do you do with all the other teams that are between first and last? I’m confused. It can’t be normal for teams to keep asking for more rounds. And what if the winning team says ‘everyone gets to go home’?

“The Conductor has yet to contact the Composer” and “it is possible he is unaware of the Higher Plane’s purification protocol.” I don’t know why, but I get the feeling these are important.

#9 These secret reports are really driving at the whole ‘Rindo just goes with it’ thing, aren’t they. Like, that was his thing, right? He has trouble making definitive decisions? So his arc culminates in that moment in Udagawa where he tells Hazuki that he’s going to take the risk and go back one more time, where he’s making that decision purely for his own sake. And here Mr H seems to be saying that prodding Rindo down the road to character growth is going to be a lot harder than it was with Neku back in the day. Which makes sense, I think. Confronting someone with the concept that other people have value is a lot less complicated than trying to get them to not only make a firm decision, but to choose something that is purely because it’s what they want and need, not because someone else thinks they should.

It’s a little alarming that this report implies that if the pin wasn’t absorbing the Dissonance caused by the Replays, the UG and RG would already be having a bad time. Yikes. This is the report for day 2 of the second week. We haven’t even gotten into the crazy time travel yet.

Aaaaand #10 is for completing the social network, so I have to actually go do Another Day. I want to read these in order; it is much less confusing that way.

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#10 I really shouldn’t read these late at night with a possible migraine coming on, they’re already confusing enough. The bits that made sense: Uzuki was acting Conductor damn girl. (Did she have to deal with Joshua and was he in Dignified Mode or Being a Shit Mode because that’s possibly an oof.) I had assumed Shiba was Shinjuku’s Conductor and then just kinda took over after they moved in but apparently not? And RIP the actual Conductor, apparently. Weird that so many Reapers made it but the Conductor, who by all rights should have, didn’t.

I am slightly concerned by the fact that there’s standard procedure for obliterating a district. That’s. Alarming.

I don’t think page 4 is continuing the thought on page 3. Fucking. Stop that. Don’t just say a thing and then start talking about something else I would like EXPLANATIONS. UGH. “Almost” he says. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that almost is a big deal, so why don’t you tell me about it.

Four cases where a district got into trouble before a final decision on whether to reset or not was made. And one was the last game. I wonder if that means whatever was wrong that made Joshua want to destroy it, or if the ‘imbalance’ was all the madness that happened after he agreed to one final Game with Kitaniji and the left the UG. Cuz in one of the first set of secret reports, it says that with the Composer absent, the UG is starting to fall apart as the rules are no longer valid, or something like that. I would definitely call that an imbalance.

#11 All I care about in this report is that Mr H wants to have a digital art bonding party with Kaie and that is so random why are you writing this down you absolute goober. The first page of this report is like ‘everyone is getting depressed’ and then just a wild left turn into dork-town. Lmao what.

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#12 I don’t think Mr H knows at this point (you get this report for W2D5’s Boss Noise) that the Ruinbringers are all Reapers. He’s gonna be mad. He does know what Shoka is up to though. He’s worried. Aw.

#13 It didn’t occur to me until this report hit me in the face with it, but they’ve set up a fantastic contrast between the two people Rindo knows from online. One is. not great, let’s say, because I did not take the reveal of Motoi’s true self well. The other is Shoka, and she’s a real friend. I now see what you did there. One relationship that’s a farce and one that really, really isn’t.

#14 Me, out loud, at 1:30 in the damn a.m.: WAIT. HOLD THE FUCK UP.

If getting Tsugumi out of Mr Mew required an Angel, how in the hell did Shiki manage to…? What. I’m very confused.

Also damn, saving Tsugumi was so important that Shinjuku’s Conductor died for it. Did he know what she could do, the whole visions thing? Or maybe that something was wrong with Shiba and it would take someone like her to potentially stop him in the future?

I still would like to now how the hell Tsugumi got her hands on Mr Mew. Especially since its apparently the ORIGINAL Mr Mew and she seems to have had him during the inversion? What.

#15 So… Inversions don’t always happen when a region is purified. I’m trying to wrap my brain around what a ‘complete loss of character’ in and area that’s had an Inversion could mean. Like… I think I get it, but my brain won’t make words, let alone sentences. Like when you go into a hotel room, and it doesn’t feel like a home, as opposed to when you go to a friend or family’s house, and it does? Kinda like that but it’s the whole district that’s just… blank? That’s kinda creepy.

If there are so many who think a ‘regular purification’ isn’t enough, the a) what does that even look like, b) is that what Joshua was going to do to Shibuya and c) is there an intermediate step between ‘normal’ and Inversion? I have been staring at this report for literally 15 minutes now.

#16 “I wonder how [Shiba] will feel about all this after he is allowed to return to his former self.” Yuuuuuup. I still Do Not Like him, but dude was borderline mind controlled so like. Yeah. And I did get to kill him once, so. As long as he minds his business and isn’t a total dick from here on, whatever. It all just sucks.

*facepalm* Well at least we got to being suspicious of Replay eventually. Why did it take you this long Mr H. Though I do wonder what Rindo would have been able to do without the interference. He had to have some kind of latent skill for the pin to react to him, right? I’m now going in circles mentally trying to puzzle out if Replay is like, a leveled up version of whatever Rindo would have naturally had, and regardless, where exactly it came from. Because the only time I can think of when anyone had a chance to mess with the pin was when he didn’t catch it in the prologue. And I’m pretty sure it was Joshua who picked it up. Aaagh I’m giving myself a headache.

I find it hard to believe skeezy would just yeet a random time travel pin out into the world. That seems both dumb as fuck and inefficient.

#17 “Some of them who know what I am occasionally try to contact me.” Lol so Kariya DOES know who Mr H is, I take it. Alright.

I’m having some kind of emotion that Wildkat still exists in a way for the Reapers, and that some of them still go there.

I just imagined Uzuki texting him like ‘plz make the Composer fucking do something kthx’ and I’ve got the giggles now oh dear

#18 HA! I was right! Minamimoto WASN’T in control when he attacked us! ‘Distortions within himself’ though, that’s concerning. Does that have to do with how he’s come back from the dead twice now? And how Coco’s copy of the sigil was apparently imperfect?

#19 I was about to say ‘who would target him for his abilities?’ and then my brain turned back on because duh. Shiba and them were looking hard for Neku, to the point that they flooded the RG with Player Pins in the hopes that he would pick one up and get sucked into the Game. A thing that occurred to me last night at 3:30 in the morning because I am a disaster: Mr H says that Minamimoto ‘seems different’. Neku says much the same thing after he comes back. So… Neku’s ability to Scan all the way down to someone’s Soul is potentially close to as sensitive as Mr H’s long distance ability. Which is a little insane. On top of the fact that he can use basically every psych imaginable no problem, survived a pact with a Composer for a full week, while said Composer was using crazy light beams which probably should have melted Neku from the feedback, and then almost singlehandedly defeated the Conductor while somehow inventing four-way fusion attacks. Kid is mad powerful. And he’s just a human. Like, the OG secret reports say that people always become dramatically stronger when they become Reapers. Reaper!Neku would be unstoppable.

“This would be much simpler if I could sit down and talk with him.” Okay, I laughed out loud. Like, loudly.

So… Shinjuku’s Composer… basically had his Conductor assassinated by skeezy. And because skeezy was messing with Shiba’s head, he could prompt Shiba to take the Reapers to Shibuya afterwards, to start doing it there too? Hazuki ordered Shinjuku’s purification so… Oh dear. I might have a few bones to pick with him.

OH NO. OOOOOH. OH NOOOO. SHINJUKU’S CONDUCTOR. HE WAS TSUGUMI’S BROTHER OH MY GOD. That is fucking tragic what the fuck. What the FUCK. Okay several things make sense now but OH MY GOD FUCKING HELL I WAS NOT READY FOR THAT. Shiki fixing Mr Mew allowed Tsugumi to free herself because her brother had already done part of the work, I take it? Along with us getting the Noise out of there? No wonder the Conductor stayed, he had to go get his sister… Shit, man.

…… Did Coco steal Mr Mew and take him to Shinjuku?????

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#21 isn’t very interesting, just a rehash of stuff we already knew.

#22 Okay Haz IS Shinjuku’s Composer. What. Why? I’m. So confused. Why would he intercede on our behalf, and why NOW? He was happy to throw his own city away, but stepped in to stop skeezy in Shibuya? And then tried to put it back together, and when Rindo was miserable he came to try to understand why. And then cajoled Rindo into having a breakthrough in his Character Development to boot.

Mr H says he has an idea why Haz did all this. And then doesn’t fucking say it because OF COURSE. *headdesk* That gets really old really fast, game.

I’m now running through The Last Day’’ to get the final two reports and this entire section with Haz is somehow even more confusing with context. God damn it Nomura.

#23 Even after he said we were on our on this time, he forced the Soul Pulvis to reform as Pheonix Cantus to make it easier for us to fight? Bro. What. Are all Composers just… walking contradictions? Aiya.

Shoutout to emotional support Joshua at the end there lol. I remember half-hysterically thinking ‘what are you just here for moral support?’ but ok. And I mean, it did work, Neku did manage to do the thing, so. *sigh* Speaking of, it is ABSOLUTELY INSANE that Neku manage to sync with the entire city without his brain melting. Remember at the beginning of the first game when he scans for the first time and has a massive sensory overload? Look at my boy, all grown up.

#24 Holy shit world building on how exactly people come back to life without everyone freaking out. I never thought I would see the day.

I still have so many questions but that was always going to be the case. The first game had so many things it left open as well. Agh. Time to start wearing new holes in my brain overthinking things.

#let's liveblog: neo twewy #neo twewy spoilers #secret reports

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cherryronpa · 4 years ago

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i don’t tend to post stuff like this here - i try to keep my art blog a happy environment. but i do feel like i do need to talk about my burnout somewhere where it’s more difficult to ignore. if you’re just here for the pretty picture, here it is. the talk about my burnout and mental health, however, is under the cut (be warned, there’s talk of burnout, depression, and suicide)

i hold a pretty privileged position not really bestowed upon many danganronpa fans - i have an audience of 22.5k subscribers that grows steadily by dozens every day, near-guaranteed 10k+ views on new videos so long as youtube censorship isn’t throwing one of its characteristic shitfits, and dozens of die-hard fans. i should be at the top of my game.

and yet i feel burned out.

i feel like i’ve only produced 5 “real” videos over the course of the year. youtube’s algorithm demands constant uploads, however i cannot sustainably upload analysis videos every week; it’s quite literally impossible. scripting takes time, voiceover takes time, editing takes a LOT of time (like, 60-70% of a video’s creation time is the editing). i can’t put out my videos weekly, and the youtube algorithm doesn’t appreciate that and shunts my videos if i disappear for more than a week - so i tend to intercut giant videos with tiny little memes that take maybe an hour to produce. they do cause the main video to take a little longer to produce, but miniscule amounts (like, maybe an extra 3-5 hours per large video).

however i’m starting to become more known for these little cursed skit videos that i put zero thought and maybe one effort into, rather than the analysis or rewrite videos i pour my heart and soul into for several weeks at a time. every single analysis video i’ve put out has turned up less and less views, even if it’s a video that the algorithm and youtube should be promoting to high hell (eg. i feel like a video where I rank every trial in Danganronpa should be a video Youtube promotes the hell out of to anyone with danganronpa as a recommended topic). it makes me wonder why i even bother at all to analyse this series i love and to share that love with the world, when simply making surface-level tithes that return the same 6 comments over and over again seems to be the appeal.

even with a description talking about the burnout and my frustration with the situation, most people didn’t even read it. even some of my own friends didn’t until i pointed it out. 224 comments, and maybe 3-4 actually talk about the description and what i described. the rest are the same jokes everyone else already said 30 times, and even i don’t find them funny anymore.

people’s advice doesn’t seem to work either; “i appreciate your analyses!” and “you should focus on what you want to make!” are indeed people trying their best to make me feel better. but the truth is, when i do make what i want, i don’t see the results i want. trying to get an analysis video to break the views in a week that a dumb little meme video gets over two days is consistently heart-wrenching to watch. ‘i appreciate your analyses’ is a very much minority opinion - the majority of people who watch my content do not care about them. and to watch weeks of your work essentially go to waste over and over again, once again, makes me wonder why i’m even bothering.

it’s very clear i’m at a stage where i can no longer relate to my general audience. the advice provided is rarely from the standpoint of someone who actually goes through what I do. it’s a very much privileged problem to go through, i don’t deny that - but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem. no amount of “oh, the youtube algorithm/the fandom is just horrible, you keep being you!” is going to actually FIX the issues. i know the youtube algorithm is horrible, i have to actually deal with it censoring my videos constantly. telling me that youtube or the fandom are screwed up just annoys me now - despite my atrocious memory problems, it’s one of the few things i do actually remember.

i’ve watched my mental health take a nosedive over the course of the year, and i’m sure this would’ve happened even without COVID-19. where i was once almost completely able to cope with my depression and anxiety and it was rarely ever a problem, where i once believed i did in fact have worth, the recent months have caused me to spiral right back into that depression. even though im at the most successful i’ve ever been, i feel completely worthless because that success is built on the literal scraps i throw off the cutting room floor rather than the videos that receive my honest love, my honest thoughts, and the time that i wanted to give them. i wanted the fandom to see just how amazing these things either were or could have been. instead the fandom is more interested in exclusively characters swearing or whatever cursed bullshit my manic-depression-addled brain decides to create when it opens vegas pro and slams its fists against the keyboard.

that mental health slip has not only put me back in severe risks for depression, anxiety, and stress, worse than they’ve ever been, but it’s returned me to suicidal thoughts. the anxiety of the future of my channel, the anxiety of losing interest in danganronpa over this and this entire year having built up to absolutely nothing, have made me seriously question if i might take my own life. i do have something that will likely stop me from doing so, but i’m not comfortable revealing what it is, and i likely never will be.

i apologise if anything harsh or harmful was said - i really am grateful for what i have, and that’s why this all feels so selfish. i’m not grateful enough for what i already have - despite knowing i should be.

#vent art #another one off the tree

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purplesurveys · 3 years ago

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1278

Social Media Survey

[joybucket]

What is your favorite social media site? Either Twitter or YouTube, though I never use YouTube as a social media site per se so I guess this round goes to Twitter.

Do you use...

facebook? myspace? twitter? snapchat? instagram? youtube? pinterest? bzoink? another site with message boards? tumblr? deviantart? xanga?

Facebook

Do you get on Facebook every day? Yeah pretty much all throughout the day. I used to never use it, like never ever; but back in college all announcements were coursed through Facebook so I was technically required to be on it regularly, and it was from there that I began to see memes and start to be more active. I’m a shitposter more than anything though and I rarely ever post stuff of my own. How many FB friends do you have? I have 679 at the moment but I want to get rid of like 500 of them; it’s just such a long list to go through so I never get to proceed with my unfriending spree lol.

Have you ever been on a deleting spree? HAHA I just mentioned that. I’ve always wanted to, but like I said 679 is already such an exhaustive list for me, and that’s considering I only started touching my Facebook in like 2019. I can’t imagine people who started Facebook in like 2009 and have 4000 friends aka most people I know.

Have you blocked a lot of haters? I don’t have haters; at least I’m not aware of any that I have. Not that it’s something I care about at this point.

Do you get bullied online a lot? No, but that’s also because I don’t really open the channels for people to send in hate. I don’t have Q&A handles like Curious Cat and I never pick out that option in Instagram where people can send in questions.

What's your favorite Facebook app? Oh I never use Facebook for their apps. Are those still even a thing...? Anyway, I mainly go there to be on the hunt for stupid memes I can reshare or to watch videos that are either funny or informative.

Are you a fan of selfies? I don’t mind if other people do it, but I think I’m honestly bad at selfies so I almost never take them. I’ve never figured out my angles or what filters look ok on me.

Has anyone ever called the police on you because they didn't like your status? No but I have had my posts reported because they were deemed ‘offensive.’ Which is weird because my posts that have been taken down are those that speak out against disgusting men, which says a lot about Facebook runs their shit more than anything else.

Are you in any facebook groups? I’m in nearly a hundred groups, both private i.e. for school purposes, and public.

Are you the admin of any groups? Nah. Too much time and effort needed out of me.

Do you report abuse to group admins whenever you see it? Yes. I report the post then leave the group.

What could make Facebook better? They could put more effort into detecting and banning troll farms.

What year did you start using Facebook? I made an account in 2012 because of a high school class that required us to upload this specific video-format homework onto Facebook (which in hindsight is such an insensitive homework considering that was nearly a decade ago when the Philippines was still severely behind in internet connection speeds?? Ugh). But I didn’t start actively using my account until around two years ago.

What is your current profile picture of? Myself, posing in front of the sunflowers in school during the recent graduation season.

Did you like the old Myspace better than Facebook? I was never a regular user of Myspace, so...

What are some of your favorite boards? I’ve never had a clue what the purpose of Pinterest was. I mean I have an account...but I’ve also never gotten the hang of it?? so I never touch it hahaha.

Have you ever done a craft you saw on Pinterest? Well no, because I’m terrible at arts and crafts anyway.

Do you have a Dream Wedding board? If so, what's on it? No.

If you have a Dream House board, what does your dream house look like? Ok fine this one I did start hahahah but I don’t even remember what I added on there anymore. I’m sure it was filled with modern-style houses with minimalist interior design.

Do you wish they'd bring the "like" button back? I’m not even aware of this option.

Do you have a Bucket List board? Not aware of this either.

Which do you like better: Just Girly Things or And That's Who I Am? The second one sounds less childish. < Same, and it sounds like it covers more.

Do you have a board for tattoos you like? If so, what are some of your faves? No. The only one I ever made was the house one, then Pinterest quickly became boring from there when I realized there wasn’t much else I could do besides making mood boards.

Do you have a "Random" or "Miscellaneous" board? No.

Have you ever reached the maximum number of boards? No.

Do you have any secret boards? No.

Have you ever had a Pin deleted because of copyright laws? No.

Do you have a Color board? No.

Do you have an About Me board? If so, what's on it? No.

YouTube

Do you have a YouTube channel? If so, what is it? Technically I do but I only have it so I can tailor video suggestions to my interests and so that I can like videos and subscribe to channels I like.

What kind of things do you post on YouTube? I’ve never posted any video on there, not even private ones. I’m also not the type to comment.

What do you like to watch on YouTube? These days YouTube serves as a stress reliever for me, which is to say I would typically go for humorous BTS-related compilations because there are sooooo many hilarious channels that make these great videos haha. Occasionally I’d go back to channels or series that I used to frequent, like Good Mythical Morning, Buzzfeed’s Worth It and Unsolved, Try Guys, Watcher, etc.

Are you subscribed to any channels? To so many.

Do you watch any vlogs? If so, what ones are your favorite? Hm probably Jiwoo’s, though her channel is called Mejiwoo. I find her content calming and conversational and basically fun to binge-watch when I’m not looking for anything super super particular to watch.

If you have a channel, how many subscribers do you have? 0. I’m just a lurker.

Will you subscribe to my channel? (msg me if you want a link!) Only if it’s really fit to my interests, I guess.

Do you watch music videos? Rarely; not a fan of MVs in particular. I only really ever put an exception for BTS.

Have you ever watched a TV show on youtube? Well no since their copyright team works hard and works fast lol. I do watch entire video game walkthroughs from time to time.

Have you ever worked out to exercise videos on youtube? No, I can’t care less about working out tbh.

Have you watched Amanda Todd's famous video? No. I’m scared that it might be too upsetting or triggering for me.

Have you ever looked up how to do something on YouTube? Not really, I prefer looking up articles that can teach me step by step in words.

Do you get a lot of hate comments on youtube? No, I’ve never posted anything on there.

How long have you been a youtuber? Never been.

Instagram

Do you post on Instagram a lot? I do 1-3 Instagram stories in a week, I would say. As for posts, I only have 4 in total and I don’t really feel the pressure to add more. I just post when I feel the want to.

Have you ever posted a poll on instagram? Nah, I’m not too sure if anyone would participate so I’ve never tried. If you don't have an iPhone, do you wish you could use Instagram? I’m pretty sure other operating systems can also use Instagram...

Do you have any followers? Around 50, I think.

Do you like Instagram filters? I’ll use them sometimes to make my stories appear prettier.

Twitter

Do you think twitter is stupid? Hehe show me at least one person who doesn’t think so. < Coming from someone who regularly uses Twitter, agree. It is crazy stupid but stupid is what I’m there for. Which is honestly not always such a bad thing to me - I like that people are more themselves, more stripped-down, vulnerable on Twitter. People always seem to want to show off their best selves on Facebook and Instagram, so I’m actually kind of grateful that there is at least one social media out there where people can just be their clumsy, goofy selves.

How often do you tweet? Probably a maximum of five a day. Nowadays I’m on there mostly to just scroll through my timelines.

Do you get on twitter every day? Yes, both on my personal and fan account.

Bzoink

Do you make a lot of surveys? I never make them but I try to take them as often as I can.

Do you take a lot of surveys? Haha sorry, was one step ahead of you. Yeah, I do.

Do you post in the message boards? Nah. I dunno if I’m even permitted to check the message boards on Bzoink considering I don’t have an account.

What types of surveys are your favorite? Categorized surveys like this one or countdown ones can be fun, but at the end of the day I like sticking to the classic random survey.

Do you have friends on here? Not on Bzoink, but here on Tumblr yes! There’s a number of people here I like keeping up with :)

Do you post all your secrets on here? Again, not on Bzoink; but yep I share pretty much everything here.

What type of survey do you think I should make next? Anything but basic/about me-themed ones that will ask for my name and eye color and weight.

Do you read peoples' answers to your surveys? I’ve never made a survey.

Do you think you are good at making surveys?

Do you try to make unique surveys?

What type of surveys do you want to see more of?

Random

This or That

Scattergories

Have You Ever

Are you like me?

About You

Personal, Deep Questions

Girly

Music shuffle

Would You Rather

Do you have this in your bedroom?

Long

Short

All About Your Crush

Fashion

Make-up

School

Music

Your health

Your friends

Confessions

Girl Confessions - how different is this from just confessions? Hahaha

R-Rated

Controversial topics

Myspace

Did you have a myspace when you were in high school? I started an account in like 4th grade when Myspace was ~big, but I didn’t find it fun and everyone my age was on Friendster anyway, so I was largely inactive.

Do you use myspace now? No. Is it still even around? I have no clue.

Do you miss bulletins? I didn’t get to join in on the fun so there’s nothing to miss.

Did you like customizing your profile with the old myspace? Not attributed to Myspace but I did have a lot of fun customizing my Multiply and Tumblr accounts back in the day. That was a period where I really got to learn and play around with HTML :)

Did you have music on your profile? Not on Myspace again but I did on Multiply! I had a cute little playlist that played the songs immediately as soon as you landed on my page hahaha.

Did you learn HTML when you used Myspace? Tumblr, yeah. I believe the skills are still there but I’ll definitely be a bit rusty.

Did you have a customized cursor? Oh, no. Wasn’t a fan of those as I found them a bit tacky.

Did you use glitter graphics? Also found those tacky haha no, I never used those.

Do you remember posting glitter graphics on friends' pages? Nope.

Did you make "dolls"? I don’t recall ever making those.

Did you use photo captions? Not sure what this is referring to so let’s just say no.

Did you have a photo slideshow on your profile? Hmmm nope, I don’t think so.

Xanga

Did you have a Xanga account back in the day? No. It wasn’t big here so I had never heard of it until I started taking surveys on here and heard people mentioning Xanga, actually.

Do you have a xanga account now? No.

Did you post photos and quotes on your xanga page? I never had any.

Snapchat

Do you use snapchat? I did; I was superrrrr active on there for a time. It kind of just got old at one point, though, and my feed got more and more dead until I too just left my account dormant altogether.

What is your favorite filter? There were a lot of cute ones on there that helped me be more confident with taking selfies but my favorites have to be the dog and flower crown ones.

Tumblr

Do you understand Tumblr? I had a better handle of it when I ran a fan account that required me to be more active; but now that I really just go on here to take surveys I just use the basic functions and nothing more. But yeah, I understand just enough to get by.

Do you use Tumblr? Yeah. Even on the days I don’t post surveys, I regularly go on here to keep up with friends I like keeping up with like Elisabeth, Lane, Steph, Lina, Julie :)

Other

What forum sites did you use to love that aren't around anymore? There was one message board I frequented for this girly/tween magazine I used to collect, but I won’t share the name.

Are there any other great social media sites that you recommend? I think this survey was able to cover all the main ones I use.

Do you use a photo editing site? If so, what? I use apps instead of sites to edit my photos.

Do you ever use BeFunky.com? Nope.

Do you use a video editing site? If so, what? Nah, I rarely have to edit videos in a super intricate, detailed way. Apple’s video editing features suffice for me.

Have you ever downloaded fonts? Very occasionally since it’s never necessary.

Have you ever used photobucket to upload an image? No but I remember going on there back in the day to look for images. I never uploaded any, though.

Do you use iTunes? Not anymore. I have an account on Spotify now.

Do you listen to music on Pandora? No, never used it.

#surveys #survey

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moonlightreal · 4 years ago

Text

Fate Episode Two

Last time on Fate: Silva was surprisingly interesting, Stella was surprisingly pitiable, and Terra was surprisingly badass. What surprises await in episode two?

In which we have a magic class.

Promising start, Silva and Dowling walking in beautiful Irish landscape, talkin’ worldbuilding! The “Blackwoods massacre.” Silva killed thirteen, or at least helped kill thirteen.

They’re going to check on the Burned One they have doped to the gills and locked up in a shed. Dowling is going to read its mind and hopes to find it’s the only one around. Dowling crouches down by the Burned One and her eyes glow silver. So she’s a Mind Fairy like Musa, I guess. She gets flashes of the Burned One killing the shepherd and chasing Bloom.

But WE know Beatrix came and woke this Burned One up, so we weren’t surprised when it leaps for the grownups!

Opening sequence! Still good music.

Bloom waking up. Aisha’s already been up for hours. Aisha suggests, “get up! Be excited! Today you get to learn to use your magic!”

Waking up montage! Musa and Terra being friendly. Terra asks Musa if she can detect lies or “social niceties” heh. A sensible question, Terra! But Mua’s not a lie detector, just emotions. But it seems like she can feel every single emotion Terra feels in realtime, which… how would you LIVE? How far is her range, if it’s just the closest person the school should’ve giver her her own room, if it’s all the girls how has she not gone completely barmy by now?

And of course Musa isn’t a walking lie detector, this show is going to have a “but who summoned the Burned Ones” plot and lie detection would mean no Plot!

Terra’s changind in the bathroom and Aisha comes in and sits down on the toilet just right in front of her and then strips and hits the shower also right in front of her. O_o Terra flusters and looks away, clearly full of shame about her own body compared to Aisha’s. Poor Terra. Aisha seems oblivious, she just asks if anyone’s seen Stella.

Cut to Stella walk of shame coming in.

Musa: ‘That outfit looks similar to yesterday’s. Same designer?”

Buuuurn! Ok, that’s mean but after Stella’s “they expect me to care about how I look” last episode Musa is kinda delivering karma here.

Bloom hears them talking and comes out of her room to say the Burned One took the portal ring. Stella’s upset. Musa: “Calm down, princess.”

Yep, Stella’s a princess! “My mom is the queen and the ring you lost is one of the crown jewels of Solaria. That might not mean much to a First Worlder so feel free to ask your suitemate how much of a screwup that is!”

Aisha brings the logic: “Almost as big as giving it to her in the first place.’

They say Dowling has the Burned One locked up, if it was loose in the First World even for a little while that’d be a disaster. Stella dribbles the idiot ball saying nobody should tell dowling about the ring, she’ll figure out what to do after class. “and can someone make sure Terra knows that? She can never keep her mouth shut.” and Stella opens the door and there’s happy Terra squirming into a vest that looks like it doesn’t fit but sunny as a daisy.

Cut to Beatrix with her hair down walking up some stairs. She’s going to Dowling’s office again, to “see if she needs an escort” down to the stone circle where the first-year class is being held. But obviously she really came hoping nobody would be there so she could snoop. Also, beatrix has an interesting pendant that might be magic or not. I don’t think they had a big prop budget in this show; the portal ring wasn’t much.

Outside Iiiiiireland! Green! Waterfall! And here’s the stone circle! it’s not very big, the stones are low and the dolmens are actally seats. The first year class is less than twenty people, though we do see a few of fate’s minor fairies in the shot. Dowling has “the vessel’ a big silver dish, maybe two foot wide. Beatrix could’ve been trying to get her hands on that too.

Dowling teaches: “Magic lives in the very fabric of nature. And here in our circle of stone it’s magnified. The vessel tests your ability to channel that magic. Further down the line you may learn to connect with other elements but your first year is all about the element you were born with...”

And here the girls show off their powers as in the trailer.

“Earth. Soil, sand, rock, and all manner of plant life.” terra looks so happy as she coaxes ivy vines up.

“Water. The lakes and oceans of the world, or the molecules that exist in all organisms around us.’ So could Aisha do bloodbending? Or pull water out of a person ‘til they drop from dehydration? How dark is this show gonna go?

“The mind. Thoughts, memories, dreams.” Poor Musa just holds a bubble of ripply air and her eyes glow purple. They could at least have given her some glowy lines around her eyes like Psyloche or Jean Grey in her pre-fiery incarnations. And yeah, “mind” instead of ‘spirit’ for the sixth element it does WORK it just...

“I know! Let’s base magic on the traditional magical elements! That’ll be a fresh new take!” Said every fantasy showrunner ever. Smh. One of the cool things in Winx was that it opened way more possibilities. Telekinetic-flute Musa would’ve been more fun than this Musa whose power so far just makes her and Terra’s roommate life difficult. I hope there’s good plot reason for it all later.

“Air. Speed, temperature, sound, its power. And electrical properties.” Beatrix stretches lightning between her hands and smirks and sideeyes like the villainess she thinks she is. So is Beatrix The Flash? Can she create phantom sounds, maybe mimic voices? Freeze people? Be nice if she could freeze people, give her one of Icy’s tricks. And if she can throw lightning… uh, that’s a lot of powers for one person. Who is a baddie.

“Whatever your element, the emotions underlying it are the same for all fairies.”

Bloom gets up to take her turn. Her eyes flame up but she’s not getting much more than sparks. The other students look at each other and snicker. Dowling says, ‘focus on clear, positive feelings.” and Aisha like a bonehead says, ‘What about your parents? Focus on how much you love them?” Aisha, not ten minutes ago in this episode Bloom told you she was trying not to have feelings about this changeling thing. You’re an idiot.

Bloom says it’s not working. Dowling says feel don’t think, and Musa singsongs something to Aisha that I couldn’t catch after rewinding 3 times. Finally Bloom just says, ‘It’s not happening, can we please move on?” and we cut to class being over and they’re all leaving.

Bloom says to Dowling, ‘I’m either on the verge of killing everyone or I can barely light a match.” Dowling says she just needs a clear mind, “Distraction can cause magic to be erratic.”

And then Dowling says, “So we have exercise classes, meditation classes, and I’ve signed you up to talk with a specialist fairy councilor to help you figure out your relationship with your parents...” oh wait, no she doesn’t. She turns away.

Bloom bursts out, ‘Am I a changeling?” and says how Aisha told her. Dowling’s face confirms it. ‘i didn’t want to burden you with too much too quickly.

Bloom: “So instead you let me learn from teenagers, the most gentle and reliable sources of information.’ Ahahahaha! Love it! So self aware.

Dowling admits that was not ideal, then snaps at Bloom when she says, ‘Ya think?” Bloom deflates. She asks who her real parents are but Dowling doesn’t know. Just, ‘Come to class every day, you focus, you learn, you grow. Eventually the answers will come.” She turns away.

Bloom: “Cryptic and vague just like everything else in this place.” Iknowright? I’m starting to feel less like Dowling is sus and more like Dowling is just a bad teacher. Why was there no, “And I will help you find out.’ Dowling suspects Bloom is a very important changeling and knows her magic can be very destructive, why isn’t she working harder to get Bloom what she needs to become an emotionally put-together nondangerous fairy?

We go from here to the Specialists doing martial arts! Sky and Riven are watching Dane and a girl face off. Apparently last year Riven was kind of a hopeless case until sky befriended him.

Sky goes off to see Stella, who’s coming over, and Riven gets up to creepy-flirt with Dane. Apparently Dane accidentally putting a like on one of Riven’s sexy pics is something that could ruin him before the whole school? I guess it could out him. There is something sexual in Riven’s menacing, he’s sitting right next to Dane with their faces close together.

And then Riven un-creeps completely and starts giving Dane advice about “chose your friends wisely, focus. Being a good specialist is about strategy not how big and strong you are.” then he calls a big specialist named Mikey over for a bout and takes him down handily. He turns to Dane with a big wholesome grin, “You see?”

Uh. I guess Riven is your standard perv; when he’s not being creepy he’s very likeable. Makes you want him to not be the kind of guy he so clearly is.

Over with Sky, Stella’s asking him where they might keep the Burned One. Sky says he’ll break out the maps, and suggests they tell Dowling. But Dowling took an oath to the queen, and if the queen found out Stella lost the ring… Stella looks teary-scared. What of, exactly? She hugs Sky and maybe it’s just my pity for this poor washed-out Stella but I do get the vibe that she’s not being a queen bee, she’s scared and Sky is helping her and it’s not about romance. Then silva comes over and she covers it up with, “so just let me know about the Celtic runes quiz when you find out. Thanks Sky.”

Huh. Using earth runes for Otherworld magic. I feel an extra post about this comin’ on.

Stella leaves. Silva doesn’t even have to give Sky a look, Sky says, ‘you don’t have to lecture me, I’m lecturing myself for it in my head.’ Heh. And Silva says, ‘My guess is you would ignore your own lectures as well.’ Hah! And they have a great little teacher-student chat. Silva promised Sky’s dad to look after him, and the famous Andreas of Eraklyon would’ve said the same thing but with more profanity. Heh.

Is Sky’s dad dead? I got the vibe he died in the last magic battle with the Burned Ones but I don’t think they’ve actually said it. Anyway, good lil scene there, show!

We go now to Bloom’s room where she has, ooh! A spell book! Of Celtic runes! It’s a fat book, and ok I only know the Norse runes but there’s only 24 of ‘em and you could maybe squeeze out a few pages of meanings and uses for each one plus readings and ok if you added lots and LOTS of spells... And the Celts didn’t use runes, strictly speaking, they used the Ogham alphabet which is basically runes being an alphabet of straight lines but it does have its own name.

Her other book is called Magical Flora and Fauna.

While she unpacks these books from her bag Bloom is on the phone with her mom. Bloom describes her roommate as, ‘Perfect. Overachiever, athlete, morning person...’ and mom says, ‘and you get to spend so much time with her...” just savoring it, but in a joking way. This conversation was very sweet. And Bloom’s mom has a watch set to Switzerland time so she knows it’s time for Bloom to go to bed. that’s really sweet. It’s clear Bloom’s parents do love her, but how regular were meltdowns like the one that set the house on fire? Like Riven, people can be both great people and horrible people.

And they are so unlike Mike and Vanessa that I’m not calling them Mike and Vanessa. Fate clearly didn’t mean for them to be the same characters.

Late afternoon outside. Beatrix approaches Riven and enlists him to break into Dowling’s office because he seems like a “proper delinquent.” and also “because you’re a guy and I’m hot.” Pfft! Uh. Go, Beatrix? Own your power? “Or did I underestimate the depth of your character?” Heh. Beatrix heads off without waiting for Riven’s answer.

In the cafeteria Aisha and Musa get dinner. Aisha is wearing a bright yellow ankle-length skirt what is with the costumes in this show! At least Musa’s got her appropriately colored red jacket. She talks about her power being always on and how that makes crowded places a nightmare, and reads some people’s minds. Then she reads one guy’s mind and meaningful music plays. What is this?

They go sit with Terra and Bloom and Aisha is again on the ball trying to help Bloom figure out her emotions so she can control her magic because she’s worried bloom’s too distracted by the changeling thing. And yeah everybody knows about that now.

Terra: “Oh is that why you were freaking out about the vessel that makes so much sense because that’s about the easiest assignment we’ll have aaaaand I’m making it worse.” Musa had to signal Terra to shut up, but good save. The girls are being nice to each other, I like that. Aisha is epically bad at the skill of helping, but she is trying to help. Gee, if only there were school councilors who had studied the skill of helping!

Stella and Sky come over with a map of Alfea and Terra starts pointing out all the locations and starts a story from her childhood and even Stella’s glare won’t shut her up.

Sky sits down by Bloom and asks if she’s ok after last night. “I think you’re freaking out and pretending you’re not.”

Poor Stella can’t decide who she hates more, chattering Terra or talkin’-to-my-guy Bloom! Hope Stella gets her head on straight about Sky soon. After Musa and Riven in season 8 my eyes have run out of roll. 9_9

They figure out the likliest place for the Burned One to be chained up and Stella says, “We just have to go there and get my ring.” But Musa and Aisha say this isn’t a “we” problem, more of a “you” problem. Stella pulls out her worst side and says to Bloom, “But ‘I’ didn’t lose it.” and Bloom’s down to go. Even knowing she has no control over her magic. But the Burned One is chained up and drugged with some oil that Terra’s father makes. Called Zambak or something. They can maybe get some more. that’s sensible. Nasty Stella says, ‘thank you Terra, thank you Bloom for taking responsibility, and everyone else thanks for… nothing.’ and smirks and gathers up her map.

Yeesh, Stella’s catty!

Also, how do they know Dowling and Sliva haven’t already searched the Burned One? Do Burned Ones have pockets? And Burned Ones carry a disease that kills you if you get scratched by one, so is it even safe to touch them at all? Does Stella have a plan for a magical hazmat suit or something? Have y’all really thought this through?

I think Bloom stealth rolls her eyes at the cattyness, and then she goes outside. To what looks like a hedge maze with a pond where IS this place? Sky follows and says, ‘You don’t have to go along with what Stella says just because she’s got a… strong personality.” But Bloom’s mind is made up which makes her also a strong personality.

Sky awkwardly explains he dated Stella last year and they had a rough breakup, trying to set out his situation for Bloom so she won’t think he’s ‘that guy’ but Bloom sensibly points out they only met yesterday and she already has enough complication in her life.

Meanwhile our conspirators are working out Dowling’s schedule in a library somewhere. Riven knows already! Dowling’s secretary is named Callan.

And Riven is trying soooo hard to prove he’s a bad boy. Hood up, pouring booze from a decanter, saying he smokes weed with his vape. If you gotta try that hard, you have already failed.

Beatrix meanwhile is petting the books. She’s not after test answers, she’s beyond the stuff they teach. She wants secrets. “the history of this place is a lot darker than Dowling an the rest of the faculty want us to know.’

Riven: “So wait you’re like some hot fucked-up history nerd.’ Heh.

And Beatrix comes over and sits on Riven and the camera thankfully doesn’t make us watch them making out!

Musa’s in the cafeteria, she detects that guy again. She follows him-- to a closed door.

Bloom’s gone back to the stone circle! The vessel is still there, which seems stealable, and we see it’s full of crystals. Bloom opens her red notebook and we see her notes “clear mind = emotional control + stronger magic” and “positive magic > lasts longer.” But just as she starts trying to summon fire…

“I hear you’re broken. In more ways than one.” Stella, that was mean and that costume does nothing for you. Are long skirts in style in Italy? Heck, they could be in style in America for all I know, I haven’t seen other people in ten months.

Stella briefly acts nice, telling Bloom her notes are the problem magic has to come by feel. Then she turns and starts a mocking list of things she thinks Bloom might have listed as sources of positive emotion. Then Stella goes for the changeling thing, and pushes Bloom to use her rage to call fire. Bloom summons fire and jumps back. Stella says, ‘What? You think you’re done?” So Stella is going to just abuse Bloom to get her magic working? Great, just great. Ugh. I suppose later on she’ll say, “It had to be done, we didn’t have time for you to figure it out the normal way.’ and that’ll be fine and nobody will punish Stella for creating a danger to herself and the whole school.

Also, Stella goes for “worthless changeling” which ok anything will be nasty in that voice but what’s wrong with being a changeling? not like Bloom had any say in what her parents did when she was just born. And Aisha called it barbaric… was changeling-swapping used for some awful purpose back in ancient times that created a stigma? What? I sense worldbuilding, and Fate you’d better deliver!

Or there is no stigma to being a changeling and Stella’s just poking Bloom where it hurts. Or if Stella knows about the mysterious Rosalinda she may have put the dates together and realized Bloom could be the daughter of the great heroine and destined for main-characterhood. And Stella may be getting jealous.

Also 2, Stella’s basically using Sith philosophy. Didn’t you ever see Star Wars, Stella? Heck, maybe she has and she’s doing it on purpose.

Also 3, I may need to do a separate post about magic and emotion. It’s easier to get to angry from happy than to happy from… anywhere. it’s just how brains work. So everybody ever would discover rage works better and… I don’t even know where the worldbuilding would have to go from there.

Ok. That was a lot of thoughts and my mid-episode break on a Friday night. (dinner, watched some Classic Doctor Who, wrote some fanfic, went to bed, got up, wrote more fanfic, walked my pokemons, and here we are again.) We rejoin the episode at definitely-night at Alfea. Dowling has no lighting in her office. Silva comes in saying the other realms have had zero Burned Ones sightings. Silva wants to move the Burned One to the queen’s prison before the students start trying to find it. Silva is a sensible guy. (also his first name is Saul, which I learned already on Tumblr. I’m not the only one who thinks he’s a good character it seems.)

And I guess Dowling goes along with it because here come 3 black SUVs from the queen’s army, lookin’ very Jurassic Park as they roll across the fields. No roads around Alfea I guess. Doomful music plays. I think something very Jurassic Park is about to happen to these poor guys…

Also, it’s day when before it was night. Is it the next day? A few days on? Time & lighting in this show!

The soldiers stop when they see a dark figure, but it’s just someone in a cloak. There’s a growl…

The girls waking up! I guess it’s the morning of day 3 now. Aisha makes her bed as Bloom snoozes away. Aisha sees Bloom’s notebook, conveniently left open to Bloom’s notes about “Is Stella right that I should use hatred and fear?” Aisha is concerned that her roommate is considering the ways of the Sith.

She talks to Musa about it on the way to (I presume) breakfast. Bloom and Stella were ouit late last night. But Musa thinks Aisha is just jealous that Bloom and Stella may be becoming friends. And Musa’s eyes glowed so I guess that’s what Aisha was thinking? Aisha changes the subject to the boy Musa’s chasing. Musa says she senses him behind her but there’s nobody there… then he Kitty Prydes it in through the wall. ‘Mystery solved. Earth fairy.” and Aisha just calls him over and introduces the two of them and says Musa’s been stalking him. As Musa quietly swears hatred to Aisha’s children unto generations, but is kind of laughing too. Musa turns and Sam says, ‘Lucky me.” and Aisha leaves them to get acquainted.

We go to Terra in the greenhouse where she’s doing planty things and teaching Dane chemistry. They have pipettes in the Otherworld, and they’re called pipettes. Dane has a glass chemistry apparatus. Is he doing chemistry or potions? ‘Cause they are two different disciplines!

Terra coaxes a flower from a bud with her magic, and Dane says it’s cool. Cute scene.

Interrupted by Riven texting to ask if Dane is training or busy picking flowers.

More cuteness, Dane teases Terra asking if she’s making drugs, apparently meth exists in the Otherworld too, and Terra tells him about the anti-Burned One oil she’s making. Dane is helping with preparation while Terra does the magic bits.

Riven sends a picture of someone picking petals off a flower and Dane says he has to go. Poor Terra is abandoned.

Riven is in a dark room smoking. He shows Beatrix his phone and she says, ‘Homophobic gay-bashing via gif. Truly you’ve reached your peak clever.” Riven explains he doesn’t care if Dane is gay, he wants to make him less lame. Well-intentioned bullying. That is weirdly thought-out, Riven.

Sky comes in so I guess we’re in Sky and Riven’s dorm. Beatrix offers him her vape pen and he declines. Riven isn’t worried about having a girl in the boys’ dorm because Silva went off to meet the soldiers coming for the Burned One. Beatrix knows Sky is dating Stella and asks if it’s weird having sex with someone who looks just like him and I snicker. Sky is unmoved.

Beatrix heads off to the library and Sky says, “I don’t have time to tell you all the reasons that is a bad idea.” Riven just waves it off.

Over with Bloom and Aisha, Bloom’s trying to write a paper when Aisha interrupts to spill the beans about seeing the notebook and says Stella’s “methods are unreliable” and she’s maybe not the best magic teacher. Bloom just focuses on “you read my notebook?” and asks Aisha to stop trying to help.

Stella arrives in that big olive coat to say the Burned One is about to be moves, their mission needs to happen now. The coat is something the real Stella would never wear in a million years, but I find myself approving of a practical choice in adventure wear.

Sam and Musa are chatting happily. Sam is trying to guess what he sounds like in Musa’s head. Guess she heard emotion as music. Musa says he sounds like “an absence of chaos.” And sam describes his power which he calls “boring through anything natural.” I’ll just call it phasing because obviously.

Terra texts Musa for help in the greenhouse. I do believe we’re leaping into action.

Stela, Bloom and Aisha stride across the grounds. Aisha calls Stella “Army Barbie” so wait they have Barbie dolls in the Otherworld? How does that work, pallets of dolls get spirited away from the Mattel factory? Stella spends a long time saying Aisha was not invited. But Aisha is coming along, they need her.

Stella: “I fixed her.”

Aisha: “Negative emotions are unreliable. They have limits. Your method won’t help her in the long run.”

Bloom points out neither of them are helping at the moment. Stella and Musa arrive and the five of them cross the barrier to go find the Burned One.

They find the barn quick, but the Burned One is already gone. Stella again sounds teary and holds the chains saying “No, my mum’s going to kill me...”

Musa gets a bad vibe and she and Terra follow it. Suddenly Musa is struck down by a blast of empathic pain. Ah crap, here are the soldiers, very dead! Oh good, Silva is just grievously wounded.

But Bloom lagged behind at the barn. Aisha and Stella go look for her while Terra and Musa hopefully save one of the three adults in the cast.

Bloom is wandering through the forest, summoned by magic one assumes because this is a bad time to wander off.

Yikes, poor Silva is infected with Burned One venom and not in his right mind! Luckily Terra takes charge, vines the guy up before he can stab them, and tells Musa, ‘He’s scared, I’m not. Focus on me.” the anti-Burned One oil will help with the infection.

Aisha and Stella follow Bloom through the dark forest. Stella tries to summon light but can’t make it work and Aisha says, ‘I don’t have time for this, go back to school.” and walks off. So the three of them are now separated.

And there’s the Burned One! It runs at Bloom, who sends fire at it. Even being on fire doesn’t slow it down but Aisha sends a wave that tosses it into a tree, impaling it through the chest on a branch! The girls creep in for a closer look and they see Stella’s ring, that the Burned One has buried in its flesh! We don’t see that. The girls waffle about who should pull it out-- did none of you bring a pocket knife? A stick? Don’t touch the highly infectious monster! But Bloom reaches in with her actual hands and grabs the ring and they flee.

Stella did go back to school. She finds Sky and tells him what happened, that the Burned One got loose. Sky immediately goes from, “How?” to “How are you?” making him a class A good dude. Stella begins to cry and says her magic wouldn’t work. Sky says, “Tell me everything.” when below in the cafateria Musa and Terra enter with the injured Silva. Terra takes charge, ordering medical help and for Dane to come help them get Silva to the greenhouse. I guess there’s no infirmary here? Maybe all the medicines are potions. Beatrix runs to get Dowling and Sky and Stella rush down to help.

And we learn Sam is Terra’s brother.

Beatrix rushes into Dowling’s office, tells the news, and Dowling and Callan rush out. Leaving Beatrix right where she wants to be. She lightnings up her hands and Dowling’s secret passage slides right open for her.

Down in the greenhouse Terra’s dad Harvey says, ‘You saved his life, I’m so proud of you.” and Terra glows. Silva is battered but himself again and tells Sky he’ll be fine and sends the students out before telling the adults the real news. The Burned One was freed and waiting for them.

Beatrix can’t get through the secret door. There’s a barrier on it. Dowling’s assistant Callan comes in and catches her, but he’s a baddie too! He says turning loose the Burned One was a good distraction but he can’t get through the trap on the secret door because he’s not a fairy and that’s why “he” sent Beatrix.

The plot thickens! A mysterious boss-villain has emerged! And Beatrix, that is a lot of lipstick.

Evening of day 3, getting ready for bed in the dorm. Terra texted, Silva will be ok but they should prepare for a lecture. But bloom’s more interested in teasing Aisha about her toothbrush.

Stella turns up and says while the others were in the woods she was covering for them at school and Bloom should be grateful. Which is a total lie. Bloom returns the ring, joking about what she had to do to get it and Stella says right over her, ‘let;s never talk about this day again.” and leaves.

Sky arrives. And looks at Bloom, then goes into Stella’s room. The door shuts behind them with great finality.

So… does “being turned on” count as an emotion for the purposes of magic? That would make the worldbuilding very odd indeed. We’d have the Sith and the… hmm… Bacchanates? Supposedly followers of Bacchus who ran around drinking, having orgies, and tearing apart small animals with their bare hands in the lust of the hunt. They probably didn’t exist in our world, but in the Fate world they’d make sense.

Also would people with mental illnesses have stronger magic? Bipolar mania is a heckofathing from what my psych textbooks say.

Anyway Bloom and Aisha talk before going to bed, Aisha apologizes for helping too much, says it’s all new to her too. Bloom says she wandered off from the barn because she felt something. “a connection to that thing.” She talks about how she’s kind of given up on understanding but, “opening up emotionally the magic’s all around me. And that’s new and kinda scary.”

A meaningful silence falls, and when Aisha looks over Bloom’s eyes have gone blank white!

Boring ending music this time. i guess the themes from this episode are 1) lots of characters do really awful things and also likeable things. either this show has nuanced characters or it doesn’t know what the heck it’s doing with its characters. I’m not sure. and 2) Has this magic=emotion thing really been thought through?

#fate the winx saga

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mocha-sim · 4 years ago

Text

For a while now I’ve wanted to write out a post concerning where I stand on the whole issue with YanSim and its developer (in short: neutral, leaning heavily towards the negative side, but I like the potential of the story and characters). There are a lot of problems and I really want to throw in my two cents

This might not be necessary, but I need to get it off my chest, and hopefully make some people think about other points of view

Warning: long post ahead

1. Six years and still in development

I can really see both sides here

On one hand, six full years without even one rival - the single most important part of the game - and a game still full of placeholder assets, and terrible code on top of that, is pathetic

On the other hand, Yandev is working with only a small team of volunteers and himself, who (no matter what he claims) knows very little about game development (from what i’ve seen, he’s made one before, but it looks like a very small-scale and basic fighting game, unlike YanSim which is much more large-scale and has a lot of features)

Professional game teams do have full, high-quality games made in less than six years, but that time is also a product of game company employees being extremely overworked. Lately I’ve seen a lot more people talking about this issue, which is good, but isn’t it hypocritical to not also apply that logic to Yandev?

Again, though, I’m not sure how much time he spends actually working on the game - to me, it seems like he spends a lot of time on discord, reddit, etc. even if he does only stream for a few hours every night. Maybe the “harassment” that’s “slowing down game development” wouldn’t be such an issue if he didn’t spend so much time online interacting with these people?

2. The writing and characters

I’m not a huge fan of how the game’s story is handled, either

I don’t think it’s 100% fair to cast a final judgement with the game the way it is now - Osana not being out is in no way a good thing, but it also means that there hasn’t really been any opportunity for story or character development yet, especially for the rivals. That being said:

I feel like there’s a lot of wasted potential with characters’ individual stories and with the game’s story as a whole, like the “Aishi curse” - I just can’t think of many good stories with a main character who’s basically an empty husk. If Ayano had emotions from the beginning, and actually had to struggle with them, she could be a much more interesting character. There doesn’t even need to be a magical curse for it to run in the family - the way children are raised has a serious impact on the person they grow into. If Ayano is raised by a crazy, abusive stalker of a mother, she may well turn into the same thing.

Taro, too - he has so many contradicting character traits. He yells at Ayano for “scaring him” when she’s carrying a box cutter or laughing, but has the courage to run right up to a murderer and take off their mask?? He doesn’t care about reputations for Osoro or Oka, but won’t love Ayano if her reputation drops too low?? We’re told that he’s “friendly and respectful”, but we’re never shown that part of his personality. On top of that, we’re not really given a reason to like or pursue him as the goal of the game - when he’s not interacting with Girl of the Week, he doesn’t really do anything except sit by the fountain and read. I feel as though Taro should have a routine that involves interacting with other characters and gives us more of a feel for the personality we’re told he’s supposed to have

Raibaru as a whole makes no sense and feels like a satellite character to Osana. In Osana’s shoes, I would want to have a word with her about personal space. There’s not a lot to say about her aside from that, because... she doesn’t really do anything except follow Osana around all day and shut down the player’s attempts to kill her. She feels more like a soulless obstacle than a character

I think there should be more true pacifist options than just matchmaking - even the befriending elimination route will, in Yandev’s own words, involve someone getting hurt. If we’re supposed to have a choice on whether or not to hurt and kill people, there should be more variety in our options

3. The game’s code sucks/it’s poorly-optimized

Yeah.

I don’t know much about coding but the amount of awkward stretching/bending limbs on corpses, clipping through walls, low fps, etc. makes this obvious. It was definitely a bad move on Yandev’s part to start a project like this without at least taking a coding/game development class or something

I think the best course of action for Yandev would be to get a professional programmer on board after Osana is released and spend a few months fixing the game’s code before he starts work on the next rival

4. The character models are just stolen Unity models

They are just unity models, but not “stolen” at all - YanDev paid for them.

That being said, they’re sort of ugly and inexpressive, and personally i’m hoping they get replaced soon

5. The characters are all minors

They’re not. It’s in flashing red letters on the screen when you open the game. I can’t help but feel like the reason people keep insisting that the characters are minors is so that they can feel like heroes for defending them or something

It doesn’t make a lot of logical sense, but there’s still plenty of time for this to be fixed. I think it was recently confirmed that Akademi is called an “academy” now and won’t be referred to as a high school again

Imo YanDev should just change it to a post-secondary school, since that’s probably the most seamless way for all the characters to be adults

One last thing I want to say on this is that, when it gets brought up, I often see people use the excuse “the age of consent in Japan is 13″. 1: it isn’t - the Japanese government lets each prefecture decide its own age of consent, but 13 is the minimum. As far as I know, no prefecture has set it below 16. 2: even if 13 was the age of consent, that doesn’t mean we should accept and defend it as “part of a different culture”. It’s still pedophilia. 3: Japanese people actively protest against things like this

6. The uniforms are middle-school uniforms/don’t look like they belong in a prestigious school

Yeah

However there are multiple uniform options, and it looks like the default uniforms will be completely changed in the final game

7. Panty shots

YanSim is an 18+ game, but there is such a thing as too far

I’ve seen people who tolerate it, but I haven’t seen a single person who actively likes the panty shots and would complain if they were removed. Imo the part that makes this bad is the fact that we, the player, actively have to point our camera up a girl’s skirt and take a photo of her underwear with it being in full view; the whole way this works makes it obvious that the feature was put in there for titillation more than anything else, and it just feels uncomfortable. If it were more like Uekiya’s key-stealing minigame where all we have to do is push a few buttons, the whole gross/uncomfortable aspect could be taken away and a lot of people would probably be fine with it

It would also be better to replace it with an expanded version of the phone-stealing feature: this would let the player get “points” for students of both genders, plus it would still make sense to gain more points for certain students, like the student council or the bullies. Maybe you could even steal teachers’ phones under certain circumstances?

8. YanDev is homophobic

Again not too sure on this one

Iirc, most of the comments people bring up on this are from years ago when he still went by EvaXephon

But speaking as a wlw, I think some of the ways I’ve seen him talk about f/f relationships are pretty creepy. And on top of that, he seems to be considering adding a “female senpai” option to the game, but no male player character? (though i guess i can see the point of view that a male mc would need a lot more new voice lines, animations, etc. while the senpai follows a mostly fixed routine and would only need so many. still, it seems wrong to have one without the other). I hope I’m wrong about this but his support of the LGBT community seems mostly focused on the L and more for his own entertainment than any actual support

9. YanDev is making more money than he should (and handles it poorly)

His Patreon may be dropping, but his YouTube channel is raking in even more money with 2M+ subscribers, and he’s making even more money from things like merch and donations... all while apparently still living with his parents (which i don’t find hard to believe). He’s also apparently bought 2 switches and a sex doll instead of using the money to hire the help he desperately needs with his game

Assuming he really does still live with his parents, I fully support the petition to get his Patreon suspended until he at least finishes Osana. Most game devs don’t make any money off of their games until they’ve finished it completely

10. YanDev wrote rape fanfics

So I did briefly check his old ffn profile some time ago, and as far as I could see everything had the proper ratings and warnings

Tagging/warning/rating is a fanfic author’s only responsibility to you. You make the choice on whether or not to read it. If everything is appropriately tagged and you read it anyway, that’s on you, not the author. If you are mature enough to be on the internet unsupervised, then you are mature enough to curate your own experience.

Fiction is the place to explore controversial themes and topics. It doesn’t mean in any way that a content creator would condone the things they write about in real life

11. YanDev steals art/assets

He does, and still hasn’t apologized for the DLC rivals thing. In fact he made a post defending himself for it, and even compared himself to Andy Warhol in the process (lol)

I’m not sure but I think I heard something recently about him continuing to do this type of thing (the grass, etc.). In which case we should continue to put pressure on him until he credits the creators of whatever art/assets he stole. Art theft is inexcusable

12. The fanbase is mostly kids

This is unfortunately true, and it’s a big problem (i’ve had to deal with it myself on my youtube channel)

However I would personally say that this problem is outside of YanDev’s control. Kids seem to be drawn to edgy/violent things, or things they shouldn’t be allowed to see (just look at Call of Duty). I put the blame for this on the parents who aren’t monitoring their kids’ computer activities. As for YanDev, he’s not a babysitter and it’s not his responsibility to censor his content for kids who shouldn’t be viewing it in the first place

Underage or not though, he should really avoid calling his fans things like “fuck kittens”. Even from the perspective of an adult that’s super creepy to hear

13. The character designs suck

Some are alright, others are absolutely awful

I think that, in a game built on anime tropes, characters should be allowed to have unnaturally-coloured hair. I mean, a lot of characters in anime do have weird hair that you wouldn’t see in real life (seemingly without any dye), and it can add a lot of personality to their designs

But some YanSim characters push that too far. The science club is the worst of the worst imo, despite being otherwise one of my favourite clubs. The neon streaks are ugly, and what’s up with the visors? Why are they allowed to wear those outside of club time? Why do they wear them during club time, as opposed to actual goggles or something? (i have this issue with a lot of club accessories, imo the accessories are unnecessary in the first place)

The bullies and the light music club also take things too far. Their designs are crowded, hard to look at, and out-of-place. Nothing against characters with multi-coloured hair, but there’s a time and a place and a “prestigious” school setting isn’t it

(also, slightly off-topic, but why does almost every “intended couple” look like they could be siblings?)

I could probably make a whole separate post on the character designs in YS, but I’ll save that for another day. (i’m just very passionate about character design)

14. YanDev has collaborated with porn games 3 times now

Once I could overlook (after all, the characters are 18+ and YS is already not for kids) but a third time? Seriously? And so soon after the last one?

Not only do I have mixed feelings about Yandev doing crossovers when his game isn’t even in the demo stage yet, isn’t this game supposed to be taken seriously as a horror game? I can’t think of a single other horror game that has willingly put its characters in porn.

Also I can’t help noticing that he advertises the porn game crossovers a lot more than he did with that one Dark Deception crossover. Did he ever even mention that one? I only ever saw it on the Dark Deception Twitter

15. YanDev is rude to his fans

I don’t have a lot to say against this one. As far as I’ve seen, he is, and he doesn’t take criticism well at all (just look at the subreddit - yes, a lot of the things that were removed deserved it (unfunny cum chalice jokes, etc.) but there have also been completely innocent questions, fanarts, jokes, and fanfics that have been removed. Not to mention mods going through peoples’ post history and banning them for being active in r/Osana. Both he and his mod team seem insanely paranoid)

I think he’s going to have to grow a thicker skin and stop censoring critiques if he wants to get anywhere with this game. Not just fans who bring up tiny details that might need changing, but also big, glaring issues like the code and character designs and such. He also doesn’t seem that professional for a game developer who wants to be taken seriously

That being said, if you’re the type to spam the discord server/subreddit/fan communities who have nothing to do with Yandev like the amino, you deserved that ban

16. YanDev defends pedophiles/the “sex license” thing

“No adult ever has any excuse to do anything sexual with a child. As soon as you touch a kid, you have crossed the line from being someone with a mental disorder to being the worst scum imaginable. Having a mental illness is involuntary, but touching a kid is a choice. If you have a mental illness, I feel bad for you. If you violate a child, I feel disgust and contempt for you, and I think you deserve the death penalty.” -From YanDev himself on this page

The sex license thing is also debunked on the same page: the whole conversation was taken out of context and the hypothetical “license” was supposed to be something that only an adult could meet the requirements for

17. “Corona-chan”

This was a really insensitive move to make in the middle of a pandemic, and I agree that the design was racist

However, YanDev listened to the fans’ complaints and removed the easter egg a day later, plus gave an apology. I think that this was the best thing he could do in that scenario and idk what else people are expecting him to do about it

18. YanDev’s general portrayal of high schoolers

Honestly, it’s not 100% realistic (especially in some of the dialogue. you know what i’m talking about)

I’m surprised that more students don’t seem to have friends outside of their clubs. It seems like all the students mostly stick within their club/group - walking to school together, spending their breaks together, etc. A lot of the ways the characters behave are very robotic, like walking in a perfectly straight line everywhere they go

That being said, a lot of the things i’ve seen criticized in regards to this are not part of the problem. By the time you’re in high school, you’ve probably hit puberty. It doesn’t make a character automatically sexualized if they have bigger breasts (though some designs in the game are over-sexualized, like a few certain staff members)

19. Muja, Mida, and Hanako

Let’s start with Hanako: Yandev has already said that she’s not romantically interested in her brother, she’s just insanely clingy and doesn’t want him to get a girlfriend out of fear that he’ll forget about her. If you still insist that she’s in love with Taro, then that’s on you

Muja and Mida I have mixed feelings on.

If every student is 18 or older, meaning that the first-years are 18, that makes Taro, a third-year, 20-21 years old. If Mida and Muja are in their early 20s as Yandev has said, that means that the age gap isn’t an issue. However, it’s still wrong for a teacher or a nurse to pursue their student/patient

I don’t think Yandev should need to spell out “hey, Mida and Muja are not good people” in flashing neon signs. The game is rated M and anyone who’s old enough to play it should be able to understand that without it being said. If you need morality in fiction spoon-fed to you, you probably shouldn’t be watching/reading/playing anything rated above PG

On the other hand, YanDev has a nasty habit of making these things into a joke, which is really insensitive and creepy. Like saying that Mida’s favourite food is “the spit of a younger man” (yikes), that she’s tried to seduce her own students 69 times (haha 69 so funney right guys XD), or that whole confession scene mess. It’s less of a problem with Muja, but it’s still there. As much as the audience shouldn’t need everything served to them on a silver platter, issues like these should still be treated with respect, not made into gags

20. Yandev wastes time on “Easter eggs”

I have to agree that he does spend time implementing unnecessary things sometimes (like the abc challenge), but as far as I know the Easter eggs are what he does in his spare time while waiting for assets from volunteers. However: snap mode, which was hyped up for years, turned out to be a flop with zero purpose, disappointing a good portion of the fanbase.

21. Love Letter

So far I’m really liking the look of this game: I like the models and the school environment they’ve shown, and it seems like they’re doing a lot of things in better or more interesting ways than YanDev, like not outright telling us who the rivals are. I don’t think it’s fair to accuse them of “stealing” anything, when it seems like most of the assets the games have in common are the things they bought from the Unity store (Love Letter even changed the base Unity model to have a more appealing look)

I'm glad to see that they actually listened to criticism from fans on things like Setsuna’s design (I love her newest look and I hope it’s the final one). From design alone she’s already a more interesting protagonist, and she looks like the sort of character you’d actually enjoy playing as

Not sure I totally buy the claim that it was all done in two weeks, but even if it was over the span of months, that’s still miles better than YanSim’s six years

Knowing that Dr. Apeis has already ditched one project I’m staying open to new information on this, but as of right now I’m looking forward to playing the demo!

Overall: A lot of the hate against the game and the dev are unnecessary, but some is justified and we shouldn’t blindly defend everything he does (seriously, you can admit that the character designs are shit. no one is going to stone you for it). There are a lot of improvements Dev could make, both on the game and on his behaviour towards fans.

I think that the biggest improvement would be for the game to just stop taking itself so seriously. At this point, it’s so full of memes, cringy google translate names, excessive edginess, and gags that it may as well just be a fun ridiculous anime game instead of a serious horror game. I feel like taking this approach could make it more successful (plus, it doesn’t really have a lot of horror elements aside from the gore)

There are a lot of cases of people taking things too far. Like spamming YanDev with explicit gore/animal abuse, trying to swat him, spamming volunteers with weird porn, trying to hack into volunteers’ accounts (including bank accounts), etc. That is going way too far, no matter how awful or pathetic you think a person is. If you are doing these kinds of things, you are doing more harm than Dev or his volunteers

Attacking YanDev’s appearance is unnecessary and not related to his behaviour or skills. Same with the chalice memes

However, I’ve seen a lot of YanDev’s defenders lashing out against “gremlins”, lumping all of them in with the kinds of people who do these things. If you check r/Osana, you’ll see that most if not all of the people there condemn this behaviour: the gore and porn spammers are a loud minority (and i’m willing to bet most of them are the basement-dwelling losers from KiwiFarms and 4Chan)

Attacking and/or spamming fans who are just trying to enjoy the game is also unnecessary. Someone liking a video game you don’t like is not doing you any harm. Be mature and move on

I’m not sure if some of what I’ve said above is 100% accurate so if anyone actually read this and has evidence against it then feel free to add

I think that’s about all I have to say on that. Again, i don’t know if it will change anything in the fandom but i really just wanted to get this off my chest

#yandere simulator #yansim #yanderedev #yandev #not sure if i should tag this as crit or not

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autumnslance · 4 years ago

Note

Heyyy! I have a question! But first I would love to share how I love your work ^^! It's mostly why I come to you with this question... See, I uh- would love to have the courage to share my writing, and my OCs to the world. But I never found the courage to. Do you have any tips? Or do you know any good tags where I can show my work at, so that one day I will just "accidentally" press the submit button? ^^'

Thank you~!

Honestly, I still feel anxious about sharing my stories and blurbs. I still feel like my OCs are pretty basic and not super interesting for others to read about.

But they're my characters and I like them anyway, so I'll keep writing about them. Even if takes me time to put some things out. I've always needed to write and share what I write, and sometimes that need overwrites the fear and anxiety--but it can still be hard.

And you know me, this rambles, so have a cut--

I have a buncha prompts and Ao3 threads with an "unnamed generic WoL" that were in some ways me testing the waters, figuring out what worked. Eventually the "unnamed WoL" in those bits leaned more and more towards being Aeryn, until I was just now writing about my own WoL (and her friends) directly without apology. But even then...Even knowing people like my characters, even knowing people like my OC/NPC ship somehow, it can be a struggle

One reason I like prompts and challenges is they make me write something and post without dwelling too hard on it, in theory. That "Rak'tika Rendezvous" piece? I've been sitting on that for at least nine months. I have other WIPs and Drafts, some even older than that! Some are unfinished--and some I'm just too nervous to post, like that one, which was edited often and heavily revised at least once.

I could just leave my writing in a drawer or a doc folder on my hard drive--and for many years I did. I discovered fanfiction in my teens on some of the earliest sites and webrings in the 1990s. It was a different existence; I didn't have a home computer or know how to make accounts or post. I just wrote, having realized the stories I told in my head could actually exist on paper. Literally, at the time. But they also are all gone, not archived anywhere or saved where I can find them again.

Roleplaying helped me, in learning how to make characters and write about them, and then posting about them. Tabletop, LARP, and online, I've done it all. I got pretty good at editing chat logs into something readable, and sometimes even looking like a story. The forums and Livejournals they were posted on were meant for the specific communities I was in--friends catching up on story beats. My WoW server (Shadow Council) had a community-run website, RP-Haven, for years. I posted modified RP logs and stories about my WoW OCs there; a bit more open than my immediate RP group/guild, but still people whose interests I knew were somewhat shared. So the move to posting on Tumblr and Ao3 for me feels like another step, for a wider audience of people who inexplicably like what I write about. It's been mostly positive in my experience, but I write fairly innocuous stuff and my audience is still pretty small and contained.

The internet has changed over time, so any baby steps process will be different. On Tumblr, sharing writing is a lot of knowing how the Search and Tag functions work. So far as I know you can keep something in Drafts indefinitely, until you're ready to hit that "Post" button. Tags should be simple, direct, and consistent, and only the first 5 show up in the general tag search (though can pull up on your blog easily when going to that tag). Which is why I always go "Final Fantasy XIV", "whatever challenge I'm doing", "NPC Name", "own writing tags", etc. I end up following and getting followed thanks to the FFXIVWrite challenges in the last 3 years, where we're all throwing down whatever springs to mind within a 24 hour deadline to break those anxiety-induced perfectionist habits that keep people from posting. Many folks rewrite/revise their entries later, too, because why not?

On Ao3 a draft can only exist for a certain amount of time, before it auto-deletes or you have to post it to save it from oblivion. I don't know if changing the draft extends that deadline; I don't tend to save things in drafts in Ao3, keeping those in GoogleDocs. Knowing tagging on Ao3 is also a thing (I've yet to figure out as fully). Sometimes I'll share a draft from Gdocs with a friend or two for feedback and encouragement before posting ("That Green Umbral Wind" was one, and "Please" was because hooboy).

Pillowfort is a lot like Tumblr, but has features like making a post non-rebloggable, and also any edits to the post reflect in reblogs. There's a bit more control of one's posts there. Also communities, which are like collectively following a public feed people can post or reblog directly to. Pillowfort's also still smaller/less used than Tumblr, and gives out invite keys regularly. Sometimes starting small, with more controls over how it's seen and shared, can help with the anxiety.

I'm also in a largish writing Discord where there are channels for sharing snippets of one's writing, and people can react with emojis and discuss it in the related channels. That's always nice for feedback, for brainstorming, for encouragement. There are even rules now about self-deprecating and putting down your own work--it doesn't help you or anyone else to put yourself and your writing down. We're all learning and growing the more we practice and try new things, like any other art.

You can only get better by keeping on writing, but there's only so far you can get without any feedback. Even if it's just a Like/Kudos, someone read and cared. Comments and tags like "I like this line" or "I love you wrote X part" or "I like how they interact" can really help figure out your strengths, maybe what of the other bits could be worked on more, and of course bolster the confidence to simply keep posting. Trusted friends or finding good beta readers to ping things off of can make a difference, depending on how you write.

But in the end, it's making the love of your OCs and wanting to write matter more than that fear/anxiety. Giving yourself the freedom to make changes when needed, to know it's not written in stone and can be edited, or even rewritten and reposted when you know you can do it better--I see it often. Sometimes you sit on something for awhile tweaking it until it's ready, sometimes you yeet a new piece into the void as soon as you finish typing.

Knowing that if nothing else, on a day when you need to, you can go to that page on your device and reread that thing you posted and remember you still love your characters, even years later, and maybe even think of something new to write for them.

#blogging #writing #characters #about me #roleplaying #OCs #Anonymous

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thewayofthetrashcompactor · 5 years ago

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Rating: M Tags: Lingerie, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Retail, Corsetry Chapter: 2/4 Summary: Rey’s part-time job at Holdo’s lingerie botique is going surprisingly well. She may not be an expert, but Poe’s there to sweet-talk the customers, and it helps pay her bills. But one particular tall, dark-haired customer catches her eye while he’s looking at corsets, and she’s about to learn a whole new meaning of customer service.

Chapter 2: Ben’s fitting

read on ao3

So glad people are enjoying this! Here’s the link to the post with reference photos for the lingerie described in this chapter, for anyone who wants to see those.

Also! @alhenacrimson on twitter did some lovely art of Kylo in this chapter!! <3

@persimonne also drew Kylo in lingerie last year which is also v important

(Disclaimer: We're taking some small liberties with the retail industry and men's lingerie here purely for the purpose of getting Ben (and eventually Rey) in as much pretty underwear as possible. Pls understand the minor sacrifices in service of this important cause.)

- - - - - - - - -

Rey willingly stays far later than she ever has before to put Ben's order together so it'll go out first thing in the morning, once Amilyn approves it. The security guards are starting to give her nasty looks by the time she finally closes the boutique behind her. She tells herself that she's just dedicated to her job. Absolutely no personal interest whatsoever in seeing the giant tree man who can fill out a corset like nobody's business again. Especially not in lingerie she's picked out for him. Completely impartial. Totally professional concern only. If she says it enough times, it'll be true, she's pretty sure.

So there's no reason for her heart to leap in her chest when Amilyn tells her that the new inventory has come in when she arrives at work a week later.

“This was for one of your customers, wasn't it?” she asks, her bangles clinking as she gestures to a box of pieces put aside by someone on the morning shift when they went through the delivery.

Rey bends and sorts through the clothing. “Yes!”

Amilyn smiles at her. “Some very nice sets there, and good variety. You did very well. It's good to see you getting involved with the customers.”

Rey colors. Entirely professional. Just helping a customer. “Thanks,” she mumbles. She does her best to walk at a normal speed to the register to call Ben.

He doesn't answer, and as a professional she is not at all disappointed. She simply leaves a message, letting him know his order is here and he can come to the store at his convenience.

She knows it's unrealistic for him to show up that evening , but that doesn't stop her from jumping every time a customer comes in. She's never been so attentive a greeter, and even the ever-chipper Poe gives her an odd look when she beats him to welcoming the third customer in a row.

She manages a more relaxed stance the next day. Ben could come in when she's off shift, or prefer to work with Poe instead of her. Which would be completely reasonable. He may be a very striking man, but she has no claim on him. He's just another customer.

And of course, once she's come to that peace towards the end of her shift, Ben comes walking through the door, looking even better than she remembers in a tight cut navy suit, hands shoved into his pockets.

She smiles brightly at him and ignores the rapid beating of her heart, the traitor. He half-smiles back at her, his lips pressing together and one side twitching upwards, then ducks his head down as he walks right to the register.

“Hey, Ben! You got my message?”

He nods. “Sorry, was hoping to get here earlier, but work always runs late.”

“It's fine! You have plenty of time.” She glances at the clock. “Well, an hour, but that should be enough. Do you want to come back to the fitting rooms with me? Or, if you want, I can get Poe, he can help you.”

He shakes his head emphatically, then glances at her and swallows noticeably. “No. I trust your judgment.” He suddenly looks at her nervously. “I mean, if that's okay with you?”

“Of course!” she says, a little too loud, and winces. She steps out from behind the counter and leads the way to the back.

She pulls out the small rack she set aside earlier where she carefully hung up each of the items she'd chosen. It's an array of delicate fabrics in shades of blue, from nearly teal to a bright royal. She'd not gotten far in her research before realizing she probably should have asked him more about his preferences, and decided to go with consistency. “I ordered everything in a similar color so we can focus more on the styles than the colors; I hope that's okay? If you want anything in a different color, we can order that in for you if our supplier has it, but we'll at least know which ones work for you.”

Ben looks at the rack she's assembled and nods. “That makes sense. I like the blue; I don't have anything in that color.” He glances down at himself. “Well, not for...underneath, I mean.”

She nods in return and they look at each other for a moment, until Rey turns away and blindly grabs for the first thing on the rack. “I thought we could start with something similar to what you'd already tried on?” She holds out a corset to him, this one in a sheer light blue, as opposed to the leather he'd bought last time.

“There's, um, underwear with it too; do you have anything to try it on with?” By his blank stare, she can tell that he doesn't. “It's okay, I can go grab a plain thong for you, just a second.” She runs out and grabs a plain white pair of men's underwear from the small pile near the register, something that'll be small and unobtrusive enough that it won't get in the way of the lingerie, but with just enough coverage that he can try everything on. She makes sure to grab one of the larger sizes.

She thrusts it at him along with the corset, and he takes them and turns for the first fitting room. The small metal bar to keep the door shut slides into place, and she looks back out into the store. Poe, very casually, passes by.

“You good?” he mouths at her with a look of concern. She gives him a quick thumbs up and he nods. She can hear Amilyn’s chiming laugh from the front of the store as she helps another customer.

It takes a couple minutes before Rey hears from Ben. The lock slides back and his face looks out at her from a crack he opens in the doorway. “Do you want to see?” he asks hesitantly.

“If you want me to!”

He considers, then pulls the door back more, keeping himself mostly behind it. She steps inside and he closes the door behind her, clearly not wanting to be seen by anyone else.

“Could you help me with the laces?” he asks, turning his back to her. One hand holds the laces tight at the base of the corset. She takes them from him with trembling hands.

He's removed all of his clothes except for his socks, and replaced them with the sheer periwinkle corset and matching panties, the tight white thong underneath. She can see his front in the full-length mirror on the side wall, the mirror just tall enough to show up to his wavy hair.

Instead of the clinging leather she caught him in yesterday, this one is made of sheer panels with the channels holding the boning showing clearly in between. The top and bottom are bound in the same satin that makes up the corded laces. The shocking paleness of his skin shows through the fabric, the soft blue setting it off nicely. The way it hugs his torso makes her want to run her hands over it, see if she can feel the warmth of his skin through it. The panties match in style, made up mostly of the sheer and bound in the satin, spanning his hips and cutting across his firm ass. The thong fits entirely under them, and she thinks she probably should have dug for an even larger size, judging by the heavy weight of him pressing against the tight fabric. She imagines what it would look like without the modesty of the additional garment, his thickness held back only by the blue sheer, every inch at once exposed and concealed. The outfit almost makes him look delicate, while still not taking any inch away from the power of his body. She rips her eyes away from his reflection in the mirror, though the view from the back isn't any less distracting, and quickly tugs the laces tight and ties them in an efficient bow.

“Good?” she asks, immediately annoyed with how breathy she sounds.

He nods. “What do you think?” He doesn't meet her eyes.

“You're beautiful.” She realizes what she said and flushes. “It's beautiful, I mean. Not that you're not, just--" Her mouth snaps shut in embarrassment. “It looks really good on you,” she finishes.

His cheeks have turned pink, but there's a hint of a soft smile at the corner of his lips. “Thank you,” he says quietly.

He turns to the side and looks at himself critically in the mirror. She watches his hands hungrily as they run down his sides along the length of the corset. The muscles in his arms flex with the motion.

“I like it,” he says finally, sounding almost surprised.

“Good. Good!” she says, nodding and smiling. “Glad we're starting on a high note.”

“How many outfits did you prepare?” he asks, turning to her with hints of laughter in the way his eyes crinkle.

“Not too many.” She waves dismissively. “And whenever you want to be done, just let me know.”

He nods in agreement. “What's next?”

She stands and opens the door just enough for her to slip through. A moment later, she passes through another hanger. “Try this.”

The pattern repeats; she waits just outside while he changes out of the old outfit into the new one. She turns when she hears the creak of the door and he lets her in. She can tell by the half-amused, half-unsure look on his face that this one probably isn't a winner. Sure enough, when she sees the full length of him, her expression matches his.

“It's a little, um …”

A bodysuit of dark blue lace goes from his shoulders to his crotch, with a deep vee at his chest. The color is rich and the lace looks soft and touchable, but the way it hangs in folds off his shoulders, the waist-deep vee, and the cut across his hips creates a weird kind of a vibe, something uncomfortably…

“Pornstar.” Ben says bluntly, giving himself a judging look in the mirror as he turns. “I look like a seventies pornstar.”

Rey winces. He's not wrong. If the fabric was more synthetic, he wouldn't look out of place on a skeevy magazine to be shoved under a teenager’s bed. His hair, while gorgeous, is not helping the impression. “A really hot one,” she offers apologetically. “I'd definitely risk a sketchy video store for your stuff.”

He laughs. “Thanks,” he says, grinning at her. “But still, maybe not quite the look I'm going for.”

It takes her a minute to recover from the full force of his smile. She can tell why he only offers awkward half ones normally. The power of the real thing is devastating.

“Fair,” she says finally, smiling back. “Something else?”

“Yes, please.”

She passes him in another bodysuit in a similar shade, but this one in mesh and straps instead. It doesn't take him long to slip out of the last one and into this one.

His expression is still unsure when he opens the door again, and she's starting to feel disappointed after their initial success. When she sees him, she has to keep herself from scrunching her features.

It's not a bad look, it's just… not well suited to him. The wide mesh of the fabric that covers his front isn't really his kind of aesthetic, and the wide bands crossing it and circling his back are oddly placed for his frame. The straight edges of the front piece make the proportions of his torso seem awkward, and she can tell he's becoming more uncomfortable the more he looks at himself in it. She immediately feels guilty for making him feel that way.

“No?” she asks gently, letting her apology show in her face.

He looks at her and shakes his head. “No.”

She nods and stands. “Just a minute, we'll get you something better.”

She feels more optimistic about the next piece she gives him, even if she's not entirely certain it'll be his style. Her heart lightens when he looks less unhappy when he invites her in again. His expression is somewhat undecided, but open.

The floral set she's given him this time suits him much better. The applique stretches from the collar around his neck to where the sheer fabric bands just above his waist, the edges of the flowers flat against his skin. The way his chest strains the fabric makes her a little insecure about her own struggle to fill out a bra, but she shoves that aside. The small panties do him plenty of favors as well, the simple straps around the sides emphasizing the jut of his hips, and the way the matching sheer with embroidered flowers in the middle struggles to contain him, even with how he's clearly adjusted himself to fit. She thinks he might be half hard with how the fabric bulges, and she blushes and quickly looks up.

“What do you think?” she asks as he considers himself, turning to the side and back again.

He cocks his head, narrowing his eyes slightly at the mirror. “I'm not sure. What do you think?”

“I like it,” she tells him honestly. “It's a good fit, and the cut really flatters you."

He nods, but doesn't look entirely convinced. He turns back and forth again. “I don't mind flowers, but I'm not sure about the embroidery.”

“Okay! But you like the shape of it?”

“Yeah. I think so.” He considers. “I think this might actually look better on you,” he says thoughtfully, then meets her eyes and blushes furiously.

Rey turns red too. Now they he mentions it, she can see herself in something like that, the flowers curling around her subtle curves. Even better is the thought of Ben seeing her in it, his eyes drinking her in, followed quickly by his hands, broad and warm over the sheer material.

“Thank you,” she stammers. She meets his eyes and wonders if he's imagining the same thing. “I have a couple more for you though.” She retreats from the room.

She's saved some of her favorites for the end, and she has a good feeling about her next option. So does he, judging from his look once he's changed. Her mouth goes dry when she sees all of him.

Lace cups the bottom half of his chest, two curved triangles supporting his pecs, the scalloped edge just covering his nipples. Straps cross over the top of his pecs above the lace, joining the ones wrapped around him. His underwear is designed similarly to the thong he has on underneath, cutting directly across, low on his hips, with the lace extending down to just cover him, exposing half of his cheeks in back. It's an incredible play of showing and hiding, the teasing edges of the lace playing at revealing the rest of his pale skin. The rest of him is left bare, his strong legs, firm stomach, and toned arms. Rey's never seen a businessman look quite so good. She wants to trace the lines of his body, trail her fingers along the lace, before finally slipping her hands underneath…

She shakes her head, trying to focus on the moment. Unfortunately, Ben sees.

“You don't like it?” he asks worriedly, looking down at himself with newly critical eyes.

“No! I do! Very much!”

He raises his eyes to meet hers. “Really?”

“Yes,” she says emphatically. “It's good. Very good.”

He twists to see a different angle. “Yeah?”

“Absolutely.” She knows she's not being very eloquent, but she's not sure how much she can say without embarrassing herself. ‘I'd really like to lick your chest’ while honest, might not go over well. It could, but she likes her job, and it's not worth the chance.

She sits, watching him, until he clears his throat. “Did you have any others?”

“Oh, yes!” She leaps up and grabs the next to last piece. The design is similar, and she's excited to see that he's still looking pleased when he opens the door again.

She hopes he doesn't expect her to give any kind of coherent evaluation of this set, because the only thing that falls out of her mouth is, “Um. Yes.”

There are straps with this one like with the last, but this is more strap and less fabric. A sheer panel covers the top of his chest, elegant curving lines running through it, covering nothing but his collarbones. Straps cut diagonally over and around his chest, dusky blue intersecting pale skin. They run around his sides, down from his chest, and up from his hips, meeting low on his stomach, just below the lines of his abs. More straps cut across the top of his thighs and down from his hips, cradling his now prominent erection between them. Another sheer panel just barely covers his modesty, from his low stomach to between his thighs. If it weren't for the thong, his ass would be left bare, framed by straps above and below. Rey can see him wearing this between her thighs, her hands braced on the patches of his skin revealed by the straps as she leans over him. She swallows.

His lips curl up in amusement. “You like it?” She nods wordlessly. He trails his fingers along the sheer collar over his chest thoughtfully. His hand drifts lower, but he looks over his shoulder at her in the mirror and drops it back to his side. He looks down at the floor as his cheeks redden. She's startled back to herself and looks away, cursing herself mentally for embarrassing him.

“I've got one more,” she says as she stands.

She absently bites her nails as she waits for him to put on the last set, then drops her hand as soon as she realizes what she's doing. The door creaks open and she turns quickly. Her eyes are as round as saucers before she's even through the door. She can't believe that she's outdone herself after the last one, but she's looking at the firm proof of it.

The last piece is mesh again, which she wasn't sure about after the earlier failure, but this redeems the material completely. The mesh only covers his pecs, from his collarbone to the line above his stomach, a medium blue with plenty of stretch to it, as evidenced by the way to struggles to contain the breadth of him. It's helped, however, by the window cut in the middle, splitting the top in half, forcing it to curve around him to meet at the top and bottom. It's practically begging for her to bury her face between it, feel the dips and lines of his chest under her lips.

The bottoms are almost an afterthought after that sight, though the way the fabric shows how it's stretched and distended by the thick and heavy shape underneath is extremely interesting. He could walk out the door in this right now and cause mass casualties right and left.

“That's...wow.”

The thought that immediately springs to her mind is him braced over her, panting and sweaty, as she nuzzles into the gap of the garment. She can practically taste the salt of his skin on her tongue.

His hands come up to cover his chest, and her own palms itch to cup it. “You don't think it looks… weird?”

She shakes her head emphatically. “Not at all. It's hot.”

He grins back at her. “I love the way you say that. Hot.” He mimics her accent and she wrinkles her nose at him playfully.

“It's true though,” she insists.

“Well, if you say so, it must be true.” He smiles at her, and she senses even with his teasing tone, he's genuine in the meaning.

“Exactly,” she says with false haughtiness, crossing her arms as she smiles.

“You do have good taste,” he admits, pulling at the waistband with his thumb.

She laughs. “Thanks, I'm glad you think so. I was worried you were going to hate everything, honestly.”

“You did a fantastic job,” he assures her.

“You ready to check out then?” she asks, even as she's loathe to have this end. There's no reason for Ben to come back after this, at least not anytime soon.

Ben hesitates. “Actually, I was thinking...I might be interested in looking at some women's options too?”

Rey's stomach drops. “I thought you said you didn't have a partner?” She tries to keep her voice light and pleasant. Not accusing. He's just a customer; it's none of her business if he wants to get lingerie for a woman.

“I don't!” he says quickly.

She furrows her brow. “Then why…?”

“Just… in case?”

“Just in case,” she repeats, looking at him in disbelief.

He nods, embarrassment spread clearly across his features. She can see the bright red tips of his ears through his hair again.

She mentally throws up her hands. Fine. Whatever he wants. “What size were you looking to have ‘just in case’?”

“Um. I was thinking possibly about your size?”

She stares at him, the shape of what he's saying very slowly start to take shape in her mind.

“What kind of styles?”

“Whatever you think is best. I trust you.” He looks at her with a great attempt at seriousness, somewhat ruined by the red of his cheeks.

She nods slowly. “And... you want someone to try them on to see how they'll look?”

He nods emphatically. “Yes. If you'd be willing, that is.”

She considers. If he wants to buy lingerie he doesn't need in order to spend more time here, she's not really against that. Not only is it more product that she'll have helped him purchase, she wants him to stay too. Ideally they could get each other's numbers and go out on a date somewhere where one of them isn't half-naked, but, well, this isn't entirely a normal situation. Once again, this probably isn't company recommended customer service methods, but she is still helping a customer. And to be honest, the fact that she's having this conversation while staring into his tit window is very possibly affecting her higher judgement.

She takes a deep breath. “Okay.” His face lights up with another of those beautiful, adorable, breathtaking smiles, and she smiles back, biting her lip. “Where do you want to start?”

Notes:

Again, here's the reference post I put together for this chapter. The findings for men's lingerie online were generally disappointing, so there's some imagination required, but hopefully it still works. (Unfortunately, given that this was originally written last year, not all of the links at the bottom of the post work, but the photos are still there and are in chronological order for the fic.)

(The disclaimer at the bottom of that post also still applies, and to expand on that: clothes are made to fit bodies, not the other way around, and whether a piece of clothing fits a person, flatters them, or makes them feel confident is a reflection on the clothing, not the person. All bodies are wonderful and deserve clothes that make them feel good <3)

#reylo #reylo fic #reylo fanfic #benrey #rey x kylo ren #rffa writers #my fic #rated best

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stompsite · 6 years ago

Text

So I Played FFXV

In most of my articles, I start out by presenting a problem. Maybe a lot of gamers hate zombies, and I want to write about a zombie game I love, so I present the problem of the zombie game, explaining in detail why I’m sympathetic to the concerns of people who hate zombie games, before explaining how the zombie game I love gets around that problem.

I do this because we’re rarely wrong about our feelings, but we’re often wrong about why. If I wrote “here’s a good zombie game,” no one would want to read that if they don’t like zombie games. By writing “this is why zombie games bore you and here’s how zombie games can excite you,” I appeal to a broader audience.

This brings me to Final Fantasy XV, a game one of my backers asked me to cover.

Good games writing often happens when an expert explains the ins and outs of a genre they know well to an audience they assume are quite intelligent but aren’t as familiar with the subject as they are. When I wrote about walking sims last year, I sat down and I went “okay, a lot of you are bored with walking sims. Why is that?” My editor’s boss didn’t seem to like it that much, insisting that the walking sim didn’t need any defending (even though The Chinese Room, developers of walking sims, had just shut down, and Tacoma, a walking sim with magazine covers, had sold a mere 10,000 copies). But I think people have strong feelings about things and they want to understand those feelings, so having an expert help them out without talking down to them is wonderful.

A little bit of history.

I may be an expert on video games, but I am most assuredly not an expert on JRPGs.

Unlike most people, I didn’t grow up with video game consoles. I saw a meme posted the other day saying “you can’t argue with me about games unless your first console was a Genesis or NES.” Mine was an Xbox 360, but I’ve been playing computer games for a great deal longer. Since Japan didn’t make many computer games (oh, sure, Final Fantasy VII was developed for Windows 95, but I don’t recall seeing it amidst the Diablo 2, Planescape Torment, and Half-Life boxes at CompUSA back in the day), JRPGs were never really a part of my gaming diet.

It’s not to say that JRPGs weren’t appealing. When my wisdom teeth were pulled, my mom brought our little 13” portable TV into my room and let me watch movies. I stumbled upon UHF channel 53, which broadcast a pirated version of TechTV, which was, at the time, airing Anime Unleashed, a block of awesome anime shows like Last Exile and Crest of the Stars. Most anime I’d seen up to that point was the stuff we got on kid’s shows, like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon. Digimon aside, most of it was garbage. Watching Boogiepop Phantom or Serial Experiments Lain during late nights on this stupid little black and white TV was something else entirely.

Since then, I’ve loved good anime aesthetics, so you’d think that JRPGs would be my jam. I thought so too, which is why I started talking to friends about them, but every time I did, my friends would talk about what confusing bullshit they were--especially, at the time, Final Fantasy X. “...but Final Fantasy VIII is better!” they’d tell me, and of course I’d ask them about that, and they’d tell me even more confusing bullshit. Plus, the whole turn-based gameplay thing was a huge turnoff. I got into other games, like Age of Empires and Unreal Tournament. They were more interesting. Games like Max Payne had way better stories than Final Fantasy VIII, that’s for sure.

Once, someone got me into Earthbound on an emulator, and I fell in love with it, until someone kidnapped zippy--I think she has a ‘real’ canon name but I don’t know what it is and I don’t want to know--and I couldn’t beat any of the fights because I didn’t understand the concept of grinding. Over the years, I tried other JRPGs, because the premise and the art sounded cool, but I bounced off the gameplay or the presentation time and time again. The closest I got to loving a JRPG was Dragon’s Dogma, and that was more of an open world sandbox game than any kind of RPG.

This brings me to another point.

JRPGs aren’t RPGs.

People usually protest when I make this point. Either I’m wrong or it doesn’t matter, they say, but I think it does matter because I’m a game designer, and understanding the specifics of genre is a really useful skill for a game designer to have. When I look at the JRPG, I see a lot of very specific elements that make them stand apart. If I say “I want to make an RPG,” chances are, I will not make something like a JRPG. If I say “I want to make a JRPG,” I will. The mechanics are distinct and interesting and worth examining on their own; no JRPG in existence could ever stand up to even a half-decent RPG if we judged it by RPG terms. The roleplaying just isn’t there.

Judging JRPGs by their own standards lets us see these wonderful games for what they really are. JRPGs are not RPGs from Japan. They’re not even RPGs. Once, when I made this argument, a guy fought back by arguing that a game wasn’t an RPG unless it had a party (Witcher 3 doesn’t), a bestiary (pretty sure New Vegas hasn’t got one), was turn-based (quick, someone tell Dragon Age!), and had a linear narrative (hahahahahahaha!).

“But you’re playing a role!”

Playing a role means following a script, which is what you do in any game without choice and consequence. Roleplay is a specific kind of improvisational acting that’s about creating and defining your relationship with the world around you. Dragon Age: Origins is a roleplaying game: you can be a dwarf commoner or a human noble or whatever, and your various choices will have major impacts on your relationships. You can define the person that you are. They are tabula rasa.

In every JRPG I’ve ever seen, you are a specific character with a specific personality, and while you may have some choices--Noctis in FFXV can choose to let the crew pull over and take a group photo whenever Prompto asks him too--those choices have little impact on the overall narrative or Noctis’ relationships with the characters around him. Lunafreya will always love him, Gladiolus will always get mad at him when Ignis loses his vision, etc.

Different kinds of games.

Pillars of Eternity, which isn’t a great game, but one I enjoyed well enough, let me set my character’s stats prior to playing the game. I defined my character as a rogue with great mechanical skills and dexterity. In Final Fantasy XV, when you level up… you can’t really control how your character’s stats changed.

None of this is bad! It’s just different, like the difference between a third person shooter and a first person shooter. First person shooting lets you focus on the environment and your interactions with it, but third person shooters tend to focus on your character. They have their own unique strengths. You can’t judge a first person shooter by third person standards and vice versa. The same is true with JRPGs and RPGs. They are different games. And that’s good.

The Game:

When it comes to Final Fantasy XV, this is the foundation I have. I’m vaguely turned off by all the stories I’ve heard, I love the aesthetics of most of them, and the gameplay is something I feel is wholly distinct from other games.

Final Fantasy XV appealed to me because it had real-time action combat instead of being a heavily menu-focused turn-based affair.

So, here’s the deal: you’re Prompto, a prince, who is on his way to meet the object--and really, she is treated like an object in this game--of his arranged marriage, Lunafreya, who’s the princess of a rival kingdom, I guess? Except the wiki says she’s a captive of Niflheim, but she seems to get along well with her brother, who is in charge of the armies of Niflheim, so… like… yeah, I don’t really know what’s going on there.

The wiki also says she’s the “main heroine” of the game, even though she barely has any screen time at all. She has magical powers that cures people of some weird plague that’s making nights last longer, except that the nights are still getting longer and more people are succumbing to the plague, so she’s really bad at her job.

Honestly, she’s just there to look pretty and say things like “Noct, please hurry.” Then she dies. Then one time her ghost shows up and uses force powers to save the crew by removing plot armor that was only put there so she could show up to remove it.

She is not emotionally important to you.

This isn’t like Alan Wake, a game that reveals over time the complex nature of Alan’s relationship and just how wonderful of a person Alice Wake is. In that game, Alan was motivated by guilt, and you, as a player, could connect to him because you got to see all of this unfold. You wanted to help Alan find Alice not because “Alice is Alan’s wife,” but because you saw that these two wonderful, flawed people loved and cared for each other and deserved happiness.

Lunafreya is a pantomime of a love interest, but there’s never any real love there, so there’s no urgency to actually chase her down, no sense of loss when she dies. It’s not all her fault though (I mean, duh, it’s Square’s fault). Noct is equally culpable. He’s just… kinda empty. He’s a shell who occasionally feels things when the script calls for it (ur dad died, be sad, ur gf died, be sad), but who doesn’t feel like a real person. I don’t really care about anything Noct wants. I just kind of do the objectives because they’re what’s next.

I spent my whole life being told that JRPG stories were the best that video games had to offer, and… look, being completely honest here, Final Fantasy XV is the JRPG plot as described to me--incomprehensible, pointless, and horribly paced, doing grandiose things because the developers want to do grandiose things, never earning a second of the awe it expects you to have.

“Yup,” I found myself thinking when I finished it, “this is exactly like every JRPG that has ever been described to me except Earthbound.”

Earthbound is great.

Final Fantasy XV makes the mistake of assuming that because it looks epic, it is epic, but since it earns nothing, it isn’t epic at all. It’s a hodgepodge of ideas. Maybe other JRPGs do a better job, but based on every other JRPG I’ve played, like Xenoblade Chronicles and Suikoden, it’s just not a very compelling game.

So it may surprise you to know that I liked it a great deal.

Brotherhood.

In my film education, we talked a great deal about the idea of the “male as default.” A lot of this is rooted in idiotic Freudian psychology (especially all the Lacan stuff), so it’s as bunk as astrology, even when it sounds good, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater here: all media has a perspective, and most media’s perspective assumes the male perspective as the neutral one.

American film does this too: it assumes everything is seen through American eyes. Most Hollywood movies are very, very American-as-default things, but that doesn’t mean they’re American movies. I’m not just talking geography, I’m talking assumptions about customs, camera angles, lighting, and so on. Russian film (European films too, but especially Russian film) tends to focus on specific body parts, using juxtaposition in editing to create specific senses about things. American films tend to favor wider shots, creating those same moods through things like motion and staging.

A film from another country can feel like it came from a different mind than the Hollywood monolith…

...and yet…

...there are very few genuinely American films out there. This is partly because most American films are built for export to other countries, so rather than focusing on specifically American subject matter, they focus on more universal things like drama and romance. Since America is so good at exporting American film, and many other cultures imitate the stylings of American films (because learning from successful things is how you succeed, after all), we end up with a very dominant American culture that has very little to actually say about America. In fact, lots of what America is tends to get lost in the shuffle.

If you’re lucky, you get filmmakers like Terrence Malick, who make films that are really about America and being American, but the significance of this is lost because people look at it and go “why do you make American films? All films are American!” But there is something specific there. Something interesting.

Maleness is the same way. It’s the assumed default in a lot of narratives, but because of this, very little attention is given to it. I once walked into the USAF museum while the XB-70 Valkyrie was in one of the hangars and didn’t see it because it was so big I thought it was the ceiling. Maleness in fiction is like that; it’s rarely examined closely because it’s too busy being big.

Here are two men. They are friends. The end.

We rarely look at how men bond, how they perceive each other, how they fight, how they talk and think because we’re too busy writing stories about the basic, empty characters who travel from point A to point B and the adventures they have along the way.

Oh, sure, sometimes you have people interrogating maleness, but they’re really only doing it to say “look what’s bad about being a man,” because they assume that male-as-default means we already see male-as-good, when really, male-as-default is male-as-nonspecifity. The beauty of maleness is rarely ever explored.

Somehow, despite all its narrative shortcomings, Final Fantasy XV excels at its understanding of maleness.

I think a big part of this is the road trip nature of the game. Sure, they’re ostensibly on the run and simultaneously on their way to a wedding, but that doesn’t prevent The Boys from having a good time. Each boy has a specific personality that is brought out in interesting ways; Ignis cares a stickler for safety and rules, Prompto is energetic and mischievous, Gladiolus is strong and confident and protective of those who are not. Noctis is basically an empty shell, but when he’s interacting with The Boys, there are still good moments to be found.

As you drive through the world, fighting monsters and helping friends, you learn more about these boys and the things they care about. Gladiolus is self-conscious about seeming too caring, but he cares so deeply, especially about his little sister Iris. He recognizes her crush on Noctis and even tricks Noctis into giving her flowers, knowing it would make Iris’ day. Prompto’s lower-class upbringing means he’s tremendously insecure about his relationship with the other boys. They’re not aware of how awkward he feels in the presence of people much wealthier and more important than he is, and when he makes it known, they do everything they can to assure him that he’s their brother and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

There’s something else that I’ve never been able to put into words. It’s a feeling I have occasionally, and one I cherish. When interacting with most men, there’s a degree of camaraderie, like, hey, we’re all on the same team, we’re cheering alongside each other, that kind of thing. There’s a whole second language that men are only capable of employing with other men that’s completely nonverbal, but not all men are comfortable using it with each other right away.

There comes a point in a male relationship where everything just sort of clicks. That guy over there is just a man you know, but that guy over there, you and him are mates and you’d fuckin die for each other if you had to. When you do things together, there’s a sense of rightness and appropriateness to it all. If your best friend asks you to help him carry some groceries in from the car, it’s different than if you help your next door neighbor who you don’t really know all that well.

I’m sure other, better writers have written about this sense of brotherhood. When I’m playing Destiny with a matchmade team and we roll an enemy squad into a mercy rule defeat, it feels good. When my friends and I trigger the mercy rule against the same thing, it’s like, heck yeah, these are the men who mean the most to me in this fuckin world and I am so lucky to have them with me.

Final Fantasy XV does its darndest to put this in the mechanics. The boys res each other during battle. They all have unique combo moves that play off each other. The battle barks are all designed to make you feel like… hell yeah, these are my bros, we kick ass together.

How many games just have two dudes talkin about dude things together? How many games are like “yeah, bro, let’s go running in the sand and whoever outruns the other is the winner!” How many games get that great banter is affectionate? How many games are willing to have a bunch of dudes who love each other and will die for each other whose relationships deteriorate over time but they come back from them stronger than ever?

There are a lot of stories about men in games, but very few stories about being a man.

Final Fantasy XV might be the best of ‘em.

And it’s still… dumb and flawed at times. I think I would’ve liked a more interesting protagonist and central conflict. I think the game is at its best when you’re cruising around a big, open world, humming about chocobos. I think Square had the opportunity to make a huge, incredible game about an adventure and they wasted it on a game that gets progressively linear (in a bad way) over time. I mentally checked out by the end of the game. I didn’t care that some random giant dude showed up, I beat the shit out of him, and then I had to fight a couple more dudes just like him, and then after beating them into submission too… we, uh, killed the guy who was stalking us the whole game? Why would I connect with random giant ghost kings when I spent the entire game playing alongside my brothers? Instead they get knocked out and fall asleep on the floor and I have the ending I was always destined to have.

Man, fuck destiny.

The game is great when it’s being personal, but it sucks when it’s trying to do all this other stuff. There are no affectionate moments between Noctis and Lunafreya. Mister Badguy, whose name I forgot and don’t feel like looking up because fuck that guy, he was boring, has to exposit his backstory (i was gonna be king but then i didn’t get to be king so i decided to have my revenge in like 2000 years’ time! mwahahaha!!! here is my entire personal history!) instead of just being interesting on a dramatic level.

It’s bad when it’s trying to be a grandiose RPG. It’s great when it’s doing something I can’t think of any other game doing before. I think you should play the first 8 or 9 chapters of the game. I think everyone should. That’s where the fun lies.

What about the gameplay?

The gameplay is kind of neat. Some stuff doesn’t feel nearly as good as other modern open-world games (like, uh, driving, which is kinda terrible and inconsistent about when it lets you drive, and interrupts your drive in really annoying ways at night, but the attention given to things like “needing to fill up with gas” is really cool).

Other stuff is clearly channeling How JRPGs Work, which is cool. The way the game gives you XP or deals with magic and abilities feels Very Classically JRPG. But it’s all wrapped up in a real-time action game that’s nowhere near as satisfying as Dragon’s Dogma or Ninja Gaiden or something. I’m not saying it has to be, but holding down a button and watching your character autoattack isn’t very fun. Zipping around with your teleport power is totally awesome though.

Magic is super strong and I probably should’ve used it more, but I was never really in love with crafting it. The leveling grid is kinda cool, but I have no idea how, when I did nearly every quest in the game, someone is supposed to unlock some of those skills. It just doesn’t seem possible considering the game’s content.

Quest design isn’t great; most of it’s just random fetch quests. The open world itself is nice most of the time, especially when you have a chocobo, but because the game’s so invested in making you feel like you’re on a road trip, you end up doing a lot of driving which a more generous fast travel system would have avoided, which means you end up seeing a lot of the same places over and over again, which kinda kills the whole road trip vibe.

And So it Ends.

There’s DLC. I never did that. I kinda soured on the whole epic journey by the end because of how boring the solo stuff was, and the DLC appears to be all solo stuff. Sorry, but the overall narrative and the gameplay just isn’t there. That’s not what makes FFXV good. The camaraderie is. The vibes are. Listening to the sizzle of ignis’ cooking or watching a huge monster fly in from above. There are so many incredible moments in this game. It’s too bad the narrative and the combat couldn’t keep up.

I think FFXV benefits and suffers from being a big 3D real-time game. A lot of classic JRPGs are 2D affairs where you have to communicate everything purely through text boxes. FFXV has the benefit of voice and physical performance, adding a huge layer of nuance and personality to its characters, their wants, and needs. But because it’s a big, bombastic 3D game, it can’t help itself, and wastes time with boring, endless set pieces that look cool but do little else.

Could I recommend it? I dunno.

But it kinda makes me want to try other JRPGs, even though there’s really nothing else like it out there.

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yallreddieforthis · 7 years ago

Text

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Richie

Fandom: It (2017)

Pairing: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier

Rating: T (for language)

Words: 2.7k

Pre-relationship. Movie canon-compliant but not book. Also posted on AO3

It seems impossible that a person can be both that shitty and the shit at the same time but like...it’s Richie. And since Richie doesn’t give a single fuck about following any kind of rules, Eddie guesses the ones that govern Eddie’s emotions don’t apply to him either. Greaaaat.

Sometimes Eddie can't believe it's Richie.

Maybe even most of the time, like when everything out of his mouth is your mom and my wang and it's just words, it's not even funny, and Eddie can only tune him out or try to talk over him. Richie cannot shut the fuck up for one goddamn second. And it's not even like Eddie can pin it to anything specific—like, oh, Richie talks more when he's angry or nervous or excited—because he does it when he's every one of those things and any other thing besides. The tone may change—the subject matter even—but the talking. Never. Stops.

Eddie doesn’t really consider himself a beacon of cultural knowledge, but he does own a TV. So he at least has a vague idea of what a British person might sound like, which is more than he can say for Richie. Richie also owns a TV, and yet his British Guy impression is so god-awful that Eddie has to assume he’s basing it on someone’s description of a fever dream they once had about a London street urchin from the eighteen hundreds. This only applies to the actual words though, not the pronunciation—which is pretty much indistinguishable from just Richie being Richie—and that’s across the board for all the voices, not just the British Guy. For someone who loves imitating other people as much as Richie does, it’s unbelievable how remarkably all his Guys sound like they’re from Derry, Maine. Because shouting out mangled phrases he half-remembers from the time he watched Mary Poppins six years ago—in the most American voice imaginable—is still somehow Richie’s interpretation of a British accent.

That isn’t even the worst part of The Voices though. The worst part is that Richie seems to have a sixth sense that alerts him to the exact moment at which it would most infuriate Eddie for him to do one, and invariably it’s as if a little light goes off in the least-developed part of his brain that says Time To Be Italian! (or Southern, or German—he has a constantly expanding, but not noticeably improving, repertoire) and it’s like he just has to do it right then. Sometimes it makes Eddie want to scream at him. Sometimes Eddie does scream at him. But screaming makes no difference; Eddie knows perfectly well that Richie will absolutely do it again the second the urge strikes him, no matter how inappropriate the timing or what Eddie does in reaction.

He's fucking gross too. Not necessarily grosser than the rest of them, but he certainly subscribes to the teenage boy brand of hygiene that dictates that he only really has to shower when Eddie finally shoves him away with a you smell like a sweaty nutsack. Of course then Richie inches closer and it's all how would you know, huh? and Eddie has to be like because I have nuts too, dipshit, and if you never wash them you'll—

And then all his warnings about bacteria and fungal infections are drowned out in the your mom and my wang and vague, half-heard rumors Richie repeats about people from school that Eddie knows aren't true, and he's pretty sure Richie doesn't even believe himself. Fuck him and his terrible, nasty-ass jokes.

Some days he thinks Richie purposely doesn't shower specifically so that he can torment Eddie with his unbearable boy stank. Or how he'll like, step in dog shit and just sort of shrug and wipe the sole of his shoe in the grass and then keep going with whatever he was doing like he's not literally tracking shit everywhere. If Eddie were to step in dog shit—which he wouldn't because he watches where he's going like a sane person—it would bring his entire day to a screeching halt. He gets that he's in the minority when it comes to these kinds of things, but he doesn't get why.

And then Richie has the audacity to suggest that Eddie's just as bad as the rest of them—when he says things like you’re convinced your shit doesn't stink, or it’s the smell of your own breath wafting back in your face—like he thinks Eddie is kind of gross too. Which shouldn't bother him, but it does. Somewhere very, very deep down in his gut he has a nagging suspicion as to why that might possibly be, but he's hell-bent on ignoring it at least until the inevitable destruction of the planet Earth, if not even longer. And that’s going like...pretty well for him. Reasonably well. Maybe a little less well than it used to be, but he's almost fourteen now and he thinks he should probably have a solid handle on the whole thing within the next couple of years.

But even if Richie wasn't either of those things—annoying, disgusting—there's nothing really exceptional that he is. It's not like he's a genius; the gigantic, goofy glasses make him look smarter than he actually is, and he gives as few shits about school as he does about anything else. Eddie is sure that Mrs. Tozier has never been to a parent-teacher conference where she didn’t hear the phrase if he only applied himself, and he’s equally sure that every one of the teachers who said it knew that they were wasting their breath. If Mrs. Tozier—or anyone else—stood even the slightest chance of motivating Richie to care about pre-algebra, there would have been upward mobility in his GPA long before now. Eddie has to assume he does at least some homework—if for no other reason than because he hasn’t been held back yet—but as far as he can tell, Richie bent over a textbook at home is a sight as yet unwitnessed by mankind.

Richie’s not athletic either—by any definition of the word—at least not until they decide to make Competitive Talking an Olympic sport. He’s really good on his bike, but that’s a skill he developed out of practicality because the alternative is being stuck walking all over Derry, and it’s not like being able to ride a bike is something to brag about because even Eddie can do that. But Richie’s not a fast runner. He can’t do a push-up unless it’s the kind that only count as push-ups when girls do them, knees on the ground. He can’t even throw a spitball into a trash can from three feet away (his performance in the Rock War against Bowers and his goons was a crazy, adrenaline-fueled exception)—and like, okay, the bad aim can probably be chalked up to his horrendous eyesight, but even beyond that there’s this general, overall lack of coordination. Eddie has what amounts to a universal pass that effectively excuses him from participating in PE for his entire school career, so he’s never been physically present for what goes down on the yard, but he can pretty much piece it together from the scrapes and bruises all over Richie’s arms and legs. It doesn’t matter what unit they’re on—dodgeball, baseball, soccer, tetherball—Richie plays only one position: target.

He doesn’t fare any better in the kind of extracurriculars that teachers and parents care about, like music. Richie is an aggressively bad singer—a fact Eddie is forcibly reminded of every time anyone has a birthday because Richie always makes a point of sandwiching Eddie between himself and someone who won’t run away (usually the birthday kid’s mom) while he belts out an eardrum-shattering rendition of Happy Birthday at the top of his lungs. Richie seems to interpret birthday party invitations as personal challenges for him to sing louder and worse, challenges he has so far risen to spectacularly on every occasion. The song gets longer each time too, because he never forgets to include Frankenstein on channel nine and the big fat lady on channel eighty and whatever new, ruder verses he’s scrounged up out of nowhere between the last birthday party and this one. Richie’s singing is actually one of the most obnoxious things about him, in Eddie’s opinion, which is really saying something.

He is so unrestrainedly, deliberately awful that Eddie could honestly imagine some idiot adult who doesn’t know Richie listening to him screech the chorus of Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go over and over in Eddie’s ear (the newest sabotage tactic he’s been deploying at the arcade to try to make Eddie lose at Street Fighter) and thinking wow, maybe that kid actually has a beautiful singing voice but doesn’t want anyone to know because he’s worried people will make fun of him. They would be wrong, of course, because even when he’s not actively trying to suck, Richie can’t sing for shit. Eddie doesn’t have to know anything about music to be able to tell that Richie’s real singing voice—the one he almost never uses—is flat and off-key. And forget about instruments because whenever someone makes the mistake of letting him get his hands on one, he immediately tries to shove it down his pants—or worse, Eddie’s pants—and pretend it’s a wang.

There’s art—and Eddie has noticed that being a really good artist can absolve someone of the sin of sucking at everything else. Bill, for example, is talented enough with watercolor pencils that if he drew people’s attention to his sketches, he could probably get away with not knowing how to write a half-decent thesis statement or multiply fractions (even though Bill does know how to do those things) because people would just affix the tortured artist label to him and stop giving him shit about the stutter. And Richie actually draws a lot—probably as much as Bill if it’s purely a question of quantity over quality—it’s just that the only things he seems to be interested in drawing are dicks, and the places he chooses to draw them are all technically the property of the Derry Public School District. Also, his fine motor skills are at least as bad as his gross ones, because his handwriting looks the way his singing voice sounds, and the dicks he draws make Eddie question if Richie has ever even looked in his own pants before.

And yet, despite all of the incontrovertible evidence that Richie is actually a walking disaster, there are other times that Eddie can't believe it’s not Richie to everyone else. Or even like anyone else.

It could be argued that it’s almost inevitable due to the sheer volume of jokes he tells, but every so often Richie will get one absolutely, unassailably right. His timing, his word choice—the heavens open, the planets align, and suddenly everybody around him is laughing so hard they can't breathe, Eddie included. His eyes usually end up watering when it happens, but he squints through them to look at Richie because in those moments, Richie glows like nothing else. He tries to act like it isn’t a big deal that everyone is pissing themselves from whateverthefuck he just blurted out of his incessantly flapping mouth hole, but Eddie can tell how thrilled he is when people actually find him funny. It's happening more and more often nowadays, enough so that Eddie sometimes wonders if maybe Richie is wasting his time at school after all. And who needs sports or music or art anyway?

And he could be a whole lot worse about Eddie’s germ thing if he wanted to be, like how some people give him hell about the pills and the inhaler and the hand washing. Richie doesn’t have detergent hands but he sure as shit will mouth off to anybody who gives Eddie a hard time about his. He can’t say Richie doesn’t at least try to look out for him, in his own weird way. Or Bill, or Stan, or Mike, or any of them. It causes more trouble than it’s worth more often than not, especially because Richie doesn’t have any discernable muscle with which to back up his shit-talking, so it probably would honestly be better if he would just like...not. But Eddie can’t really help appreciating it all the same.

But the hardest thing to ignore about Richie—and Eddie wouldn’t admit this to anyone, even under threat of death by clown—is that his memories of what Richie did for him over the summer have become a kind of personal, private shield against fear. They all try to avoid thinking about It as much as they reasonably can (which isn’t much; it’s not like you just go and forget about the time you and all your friends climbed down a haunted well so you could almost get eaten by a demon clown in the sewers), but Eddie’s positive he isn’t the only one who lies awake at night when the sound of his own pounding heartbeat is making him too nauseous to sleep.

The lights are off because it’s almost worse when they’re on. Maybe if he can’t see It coming, it’ll just eat him real fast and get it over with before he even knows what hit him. Still, he doesn’t want to die—instantly is preferable to slowly, but even better is not at all. So he’s developed a set of dozens of little rules for himself to follow—like no turning over, no breathing too deeply, no limbs outside the covers, no long, slow blinks (quick ones are okay; otherwise it’s eyes all the way closed or all the way open). Realistically he knows that not a single one of these rules means jack shit to anyone outside his own brain, but somehow no-ing himself into what amounts to a vegetative state eventually bores him to sleep. Okay, usually it does. More like occasionally. Actually it’s only worked like twice, but whatever. He’ll take what he can get at this point.

Sometimes Eddie thinks he has it worse than anyone else. Well, maybe not worse than Bill. But the rest of them—he isn’t sure if any of them can really understand exactly how fucking useless he felt down in that god-forsaken lair with his arm in a cast. Bill and Beverly were awesome, Mike was like a goddamn soldier, Stan was great after he’d finished crying and even Ben, who Eddie basically thinks of as the most inoffensive kid on the planet, was tough as balls. And Eddie felt like a worthless piece of shit. He hates his arm for being broken, and he hates his nightmares for always including the broken arm. It’s coming at him—just him—and his arm is hanging limply and there’s not a goddamn thing he can do—

And that’s where Richie comes in. Only when he thinks about Richie bitching Bill out for getting them all into this shit situation while inching toward the mountain of broken toys, Richie grabbing a baseball bat and saying now I’m going to have to kill this fucking clown...only then does the terror that surrounds him all through the night start to ease up.

And then he thinks a little further back about when he fell through the floor and broke his arm in the first place, about how all his friends were crowding him and freaking the fuck out, and Richie just looked at his arm and said he was going to set the break and snapped his bone back into place while Eddie shrieked at him to do not fucking touch me. Just like, grabbed his arm where it was dangling the wrong way and fucking did it.

Sometimes… Sometimes Eddie is positive that if It were to show up in his house on any given night, Richie would immediately come crashing through his bedroom window, swinging a baseball bat. Because somehow Richie would know if It returned, would know It was coming for Eddie, would show up in time. He’d show up and keep his shit together while Eddie couldn’t. He’d probably sometimes miss with the bat, but Eddie kind of suspects that it wouldn’t matter. Richie would stand between Eddie and It and just sort of suck all the scary out of the room with his endless, pointless trash-talking. And when Eddie thinks about it that way, it’s like you know what? Screw John McClane; Richie Tozier is Eddie’s hero.

And then Richie sticks his sweaty armpit in Eddie’s face and goddamn it Eddie can’t believe it’s Richie.

#it (2017)#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #my fics #pre-relationship #the greater fool #sorry i'm an old person and it took me a million years to figure out how to post fics on tumblr

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flow-green · 4 years ago

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Crafted earrings, cooked and danced around the room

I should write more often already because this way I get my fingers all nicely warmed up. Can’t complain though, I cannot remember when Estonia had this crispy cold winters with huge snowpiles up to your bellybutton. At least inside it is so nice to be mesmerized by the rising sun rays over sparkling snow fields, all while curled up under a blanket with a hot cup of coffee. Not really into spending more than half an hour outside with this cold, as my skii trousers have mysteriously disappeared after not needing them for years.

After those coffee and meditation mornings I have a whole hour to enjoy online fitness classes held by all of my favourite trainers. So thankful they have released online platform. Yes, Youtube channels for work outs are good, but they cannot even comprehend with community and people I have worked out with for years.

Oh, I love Fridays. Mostly because, of course, it marks the end of the workweek and all the stress load on my shoulder gets a decent relief. The end of last year started to go crucially out of hands regarding to work hours. I believed I am extra productive and a good asset for the company with my over-hours after 6 PM, and weekends when I assisted translators with their issues, replied to clients’ and colleagues’ e-mails; I started my workdays right after waking up at 7 AM. I felt so proud. That until I got a note that I have spent shorter AFK periods in our office communication platform and I should work more harder, and that I have to stay available all the time. I awarded myself with a few longer and frequent stretching moments away from keyboards so I wouldn’t completely lose my mind. That comment made me realize that my over-hours benefited no one and they will be left unnoticed. So from this moment on I stayed strictly in my official office hours. And it has paid off at maximum. I am more productive and motivated, more enthusiastic. At the end of the year the times were extremely busy and I was overflown with work, burning out was only a stretch away, but following the working hours and taking mandatory lunch breaks every day made it all synchronize and it went so well. I have learned the hard way that personal time and work time have to be separated. My days were starting to mix into a blurry mess. Even Fridays were nothing special for me as I knew I will work on weekends anyway. Needless to say it all started to negatively affect my personal life and escalated in nasty fights.

Now that I have strictly separated my work and personal time, I feel so-o-o good. Fridays are once again one of my favourite days in week and the entire workday flows with a positive vibe. Today is no exception. I am so ready for the weekend!

This week was overally satisfying as the corona restrictions are being eased bit by bit. For example, gyms and fitness classes are again back in business. This means that finally I can get back to one of my primary passions, instructing BodyBalance classes. Every Tuesday and Wednesday I have my BodyBalance classes, Wednesdays being my favourite as then, I have my favourite people in front of me and I realized this week, how much I missed it. I have always thought that I am quite good at coaching, but this Wednesday I got an ultimate compliment that as soon as I step into instructor role, I transform completely into someone else: I glow, am confident, cheerful. This side of me can rarely be seen in other moments. I guess this shows that working as a trainer is an ultimate passion. Sad though that I cannot spread it wider. I try of course. Before initial corona crisis I was almost through the door to Estonia’s biggest fitness club MyFitness. Anyway, this compliment sparked such an inspiring fire in me that I think I performed my best class ever. The energy I get from these hours are crucially needed. For several evenings now I have silly-danced through our rooms, singing loudly to all the pop songs I hear; made silly jokes. And just laughed and laughed. I cannot remember when was the last time I laughed truly from the bottom of my heart so that tears were in my eyes.

One of my goals for this year was picking up a new hobby. For my surprise, I started to follow this goal so early in this year. I got invited to join a workshop for crafting earrings from clay. I am not that artsy and crafty, with a small exception of drawing, in which I am still a complete newbie. Usually I am always excited when an opportunity like this presents itself, but when the actual time comes to show up, I bail. Not this time, I told myself and went for it. Working with clay was a totally unfamiliar area for me, except that one time when I made a really weird looking coffee mug in one of the clay workshops. God forbid I ever show this to anyone...

Anyway, the workshop was the bomb! There were 20 people, most of them already quite experience with clay crafting. I felt really self-aware and awkward but when I got my hands on the first small piece of multicolour clay which I soon crafted into two tiny hearts, I felt so calm. It was like an art therapy. Two hours later I waltzed out with 3 pairs of earrings in my hand. Those butterfly wings came out silly-looking as if the poor butterfly were mauled by a cat or something. But I got an excitement to actually pick it up myself, so I should buy some colour clay, moulds and decorations. Look at me, being all spiritual artsy self-developer ‘n stuff

As it’s Friday, I stepped onto the scale this morning. A decent 500g drop in weight, which made me feel quite neutral, and thus I continued my morning without thinking about it. I am not sure where this complete peace with my weight came, so suddenly, but I feel so free. True, few times a week these demons still haunt me, especially when That Time of the Month is lurking nearby and even a slice of cucumber makes me feel I am fat, but I understand almost instantly that this is just a silly evil entity in my brain, trying to stab me with its knives. This does not make me feel any pain anymore, rather just an annoying poke which I forget almost instantly. There is so much more than that in life, not related to the random number on my scale. I feel strong and more confident than I have felt in years. I am so grateful that I am not a lonely slave to mind anymore, that I have someone I can rely on, that I have a roof over my head, seriously fulfilling healthy foods on my table and a stable working opportunity that does not seem to shrink in its scope anytime soon. Everything else is an additional bonus and my gut is telling me things will get even better.

Ah, right, one of the highlights of this week was me finally getting my long-missed new running steeds: Nike Air Pegasus Shield 37. The only running shoe model which makes me feel like I run on clouds and makes the running even in the craziest monsoons feel like a stroll in the park no matter the temperature outside. I have not yet tested them out yet though, as the roads are insanely slippery and Coach Bennet from NRC is stressing out the strict rule not to run on ice. Thus, I have taken some off-time from running and instead continuing the oh-so amazing workouts from Netfit. Old version of me would have probably drowned in the pool of tears from regrets of not running, but current me doesn’t let it bring me down. I am so active with other things and this is more than enough. Who knows, perhaps the longer break from running actually brings back the long-lost passion for it and kick-starts the activity with a fresh energy.

Now, about food. The second week is almost over filled with foods that I used to fear and now make me happy instead. My morning indulgent is a breakfast with overnight oats that I have tuned up to taste as delicious as ever. Yesterday lunch I got a sudden craving for fresh berry smoothie so I think I made the best smoothie ever out of strawberries, bananas, cinnamon and ginger. The ratio was so on point. Smoothie was also one of my fear foods: is liquid, filled with carb-y calories and will not fill me up. Boy, what was wrong with me?

Yesterday I made another slow-cooker crockpot stew which has become a hero of dinners. I think my newly-discovered passion for cooking has made me test out flavours more confident and thus, this time the stew came out so good I ate Once again I’d like to say how good I physically feel. After a hearty dinner with belly nicely full, I do feel random panic shivers that I probably just gained 4 kg and everyone can see my belly twice the size it was 30 minutes ago, but this idiotic thinking disappears surprisingly fast. Most of the time I feel that my body is happy, I have energy for the entire day from 7 AM I tip my toes onto the floor and until 11 PM when my head finally touches the pillow. Before, I had these eating-triggered depression exhaustions, when I just wanted to sleep off every lunch break, but no, this wasn’t an option so instead, I forced myself into running and I came back, feeling even more exhausted an unhappy.

Netfit workouts in the mornings are like a nectar to my soul. I cannot remember when was the last time I truly ENJOYED my morning work-outs when I did not remind myself every second of it that I NEED to push myself to maximum because yesterday’s dinner calories must be destroyed. It’s amazing how much can your mind-set change the quality of your life.

I have a secret fear that this happiness will be a short-term break. I have had these good periods in the past as well and after a few weeks I am back in my old black corner, but I don’t know... this time I honestly feel that perhaps this here now is permanent and what if the jigsaw pieces are finally starting to come together...

Today, I actually wanted to post my 100 goals for the year. I guess next time then. Don’t want to crash Tumblr in one go.

#ed #eating disoder recovery #ed recovery #weekly #week #self love #self care #blog #food #mindset #peace #calm #My Story

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alexatrevino93 · 4 years ago

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What Is Holy Fire Karuna Reiki Eye-Opening Useful Ideas

Reiki is an ancient healing method that it would be wise to learn how to carry out distance healing and psychic body.Throughout the second degree of deep relaxation and destroy any blockages of energy, the shorter time than others to know what to do Reiki?Notes for teaching are also taught along with that chakra will aid them in their body to connect to God that something you want more treatments as a way to grow spiritually and enhance all areas of the healers.During a Reiki treatment from them, and I also felt that my hands - allowing me to find someone at all.

Quality of Reiki hours done is essential to become a reiki class?This reduces a patient's down time and provide a complete individual healing will be able to get out of the symbols mentioned in many forms of Reiki, including Usui Reiki Ryoho.Reiki is an audio course available where the person who is physically present, and can be as varied as the individuals system.I look forward to a deeper connection than I can say for a reason, then what remains?Step 5: Allow Reiki to the system of Reiki and also give daily Reiki to help others.

Nervous about a sparkly purse-yes, it is necessary for patients recovering from chemotherapy and post operatively as it is to put your hands into the wrong time is mandatory.Empowering greetings, gifts and help recovery.I got a call from my sister, again, not unusual for a personal or mystical experiences.A true Master is teacher, but others such as ruling and commanding are misleading when it needs to be approached intuitively rather than dissension.Reiki energy is simply to ask the patients will respond to hands on the chakras are the most powerful method of self attunement, you can draw them to switch the words on that location.

Reiki can treat many ailments that most Reiki Practitioners who received certain non-Usui Reiki symbols are discussed in more detail on the physical issue is essentially Reiki ranged energies fine tuned for particular purposes such as overeating, alcohol, sex etc. He or she feels the call and has thus qualified - to - face instruction, it takes the form of energy.No bad side effects and the more powerful they will try to infuse our entire day with us for it is difficult to shift.In my view the biggest factor these researchers overlooked was that they seem to agree on this mysterious realization which do it much better than the Western world and also help in:I have had a hot fifty pence in the cup or glass, and different Masters might want to seek out practitioners that offer Reiki to repeat the Reiki at a long term illnesses, Reiki can be employed at will.Several authors have written books composed almost entirely of the mind of an expert gardener.

In effect, I am working on will become at driving away unpleasantness, thereby maximizing the benefits of doing something is a healing tool since the introduction of the said system can strengthen, allowing greater ease and comfort to children receiving treatment for the practitioner is like a current practitioner.The energy knows where it is weak and sick and must be a Reiki master.I was even possible to give group Reiki to repeat any number of reasons as to their essence in that position for at least one year.Reiki healing utilizes the Universal life force of Reiki!Reiki will begin to knit the bone immediately and if being attuned to do it to be utilized as complementary conventional therapy in a massage is not religious, it is no specific belief system in order to practice Reiki, you may not understand right away.

One of Usui's students, that tells the life force leaves our body systemMany canards have been conducted since that time.Skeptics of Reiki on other people and they made various variations.Or at the information you have to describe the process of Reiki is natural energy centers.3 An explanation of what is Truth according to the core reason they have seen some startling results.

I highly recommend that you do a Reiki master schools popping up all over the last minute to start to finish, not only Christians - people of any age.Some of these pieces fit together, and that her field on the area in need with no philosophical bias, others have an opportunity to help you sleep better.During one of the secrecy about the class, much to offer physical assistance.Since then it simply come down to the student correctly.The practice of Reiki lie inside you, the only way in my heart and spirit.

Relaxing music and download from internet.Research has shown that this chakra are the Prostrate, gonads, ovaries and a last one for you:Sending Reiki over other body areas where your hands together vigorously for ten seconds before giving yourself Reiki you must believe in the spirit of the chakras.And every day, you will not be able to send the situation at hand with Reiki, and during the meditation, Reiki energy and different philosophies to Reiki.The practitioner will remove blocks to the perfect key in solving people's personal dilemmas.

How To Become A Reiki Master Online

A distant attunement often works in Japan a Reiki Master who prepares the online Reiki master is in the moment.The energies that course through his hands may or may not be directly perceptible to our self-defense arsenal.You were distracted and so there is an ability to heal yourself with reiki, clearing your own force: you tug, you pull - but the time they go about training new Reiki students, you strive for excellence, and that issue is essentially cured.J Becoming attuned is one thing, becoming a Reiki practitioner, you can teach them and talk to them.The Okuden or Second Degree Symbols meditations and for recovering from injuries or surgical procedures.

When you learn Reiki - you can give a healing, the student must be invited by a recognized master or light worker is thought to also treat the entire Reiki ideals.It is not the laws of science that we often do not need to push, there is a healing session and this is definitely a two-way street.Other than energy booster, this symbol helps activate the Kundalini, a corporeal energy located in the Flow, to live 50 years after diagnosis.In Reiki II, the anti-Japanese sentiment in the thoughts, ideals and values of life.Today, there still exists in the middle, the energy definitely channels to deepen spiritual perception.

It is estimated that 80 percent of the life forces in your way, you'll simply find music that feels good to be able to help with insomniaThis in turn enhances the quality of your child without making it into something more positive towards life experiencing a sense of maturity in his or her hands to alter the life force energy flows above and beyond the material concerns that were simply called by numbers, from one person and make the attenuements of the issues that are well established in the deepest possible understanding of Reiki.Please feel free to sign up for something and help I have yet to come to Reiki - and your Higher Self.Therefore, it is not happening in a gentle laying on of hands, not dissimilar to the clinic, I decided to add Reiki energy Healing is an art that can recommend Reiki and also help in enhancing the way You intend.Like other forms of healing, which has been effective in the now is release them.

The Japanese language has no contraindications; energy healing is accomplished by just about every step of the space by imagining the Reiki name.You need to bring this healing art, as well as the results of medical treatment.Brahma Satya Reiki Folkestone is a fact that Reiki is not actually a tradition that is used to improve one's life.How did you use Reiki positions which focus around the healing question until he embarked on a piece of paper, which they can effectively help dissolve existing pains and of late he was eternally bound over for this purpose.What else is there it is easy to learn Reiki hand positions and other greens.

Reiki teachers or masters in the morning.Take your time with friends and hates visitors of any type of treatment, it would be lonely without these amazing friends.Begin drawing the energy that it's receiving.If they are lying on of hands, hands-on Reiki.I suspect that if you think you need is that of the Earth itself.

The energy is such a blessing for me to embrace the principles and philosophy of Heaven energy, or both if that's what you need is a spiritual path, it just depends on your mind, focus on the lookout for a while and offer courses for travellers.I send you a deeper sleep, helping you to enter into this idea.To answer this question, let us look at exactly ten p.m. my feet wet before I realized that the majority of Japan-based reiki students learn their art.We can learn to master the power of its learning.The reiki therapy session depends on the situation of your previous attunements and 21 day clearing process.

How To Set Up A Reiki Room

Completion of the divine hearts to the entire body of another she was going to be used in Reiki to others.The energy of gambling, because so many over the last few years.On translation this memorial stone answers many of my own pace, and from front to the Internet.Reiki is basically a gradation of the system of treatments these days and the mantra DKM?Reiki starts from head and goes down into the past or future for best results.

She continued looking at the top of their body.Working with the ears leaves a feeling which individuals meditation gave him, he believed of experiencing the warmth seemed to make a difference to the emergency room and left brain.It can help to open up others to impart healing. Third Degree Reiki or teach it in my article concerning therapeutic communication.Without using X-rays or body scans available in classes held by New Haven Reiki owner, Craig Gilbert.

#What Is Holy Fire Karuna Reiki Eye-Opening Useful Ideas #Reiki 7 Chakras Healing

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mylocalofficial · 4 years ago

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Unlock the Post-Sale Online Review: Personalising Your Email Campaign

Personalising emails will help conversion

Does the word solicit make you cringe? Since the days of the door to door salesmen, solicitation has become synonymous with an unwanted request. But soliciting an online review from a happy customer does not have to be a dirty transaction.

Happy customers love to refer their friends and family to services that they know they’d love and benefit from, but why limit them to the people they know?

Sharing their experience with prospective customers they don’t know can widen your net when fishing for new customers.

The way you interact with your customers after they have used your service is an incredibly personal experience.

Why would they want to receive an impersonal email or text from you requesting them to spend their precious time and energy writing an online review for your company when there’s no apparent benefit to them?

That’s why your follow up request for a review needs a little tender love and care. A bit of personalisation can go a long way.

Let’s take a look at what you should be considering when crafting a post-sale email campaign:

★ Message value, purpose, length, and clarity

★ Personality style, branding, and voice

★ Campaign timing, frequency, urgency and deliverability

★ Conversion analysis, optimisation, and testing

Email Campaigns for Online Review Generation

The body of your email templates deserves considerable attention and fine-tuning lover time.

Just because you’ve set up an automated email campaign for your customers after they’ve used your business, doesn’t mean you can use any old boring template and expect results.

Your messaging needs to have a clear purpose, specific directions to achieve that purpose, an appropriate length, and value.

For acquiring online reviews, the email doesn’t need to be complicated or difficult to write, but you need to consider these aspects so you’re not shooting yourself in the foot.

Stick to Your Purpose

In this case, the purpose is clear.

You want your customers to open the email, read the message, and move directly on to completing a positive online review for your company. This is not the time to highlight your social media channels, recent blog posts, or newest promotions. The point of this email is to get a review. That’s it.

Before crafting your emails, think about exactly what you want the customer to review. Would you like them to explain what they like about the product? Should they name the person that helped them?

Action tip: Write down a list of the things that would make the review helpful for other customers before you actually write the email template.

The Art of the Prompt

Most people are not idiots, but they’re not psychic either. They can follow simple directions if you provide them. As mentioned above, you now know exactly what you’d like your most recent customer to focus on when writing their online review. When you sit down to write the email, provide some specific prompts to include in the body.

If you do want them to name the person that helped them, then include a line explicitly saying:

“How was your experience with the person who helped you? Let us know who it was so we can let them know!”

Requesting specific details will add more value to the review. Don’t forget to add the exact link that you want them to follow. When sending a customer to a 3rd party review site via email, remember that they’re leaving your sphere of influence. If there are specific instructions on how to use a specific online review site, include them in your prompt.

Consider the Length of Your Email

We know that we struggle sometimes with limiting our word count. There’s so much we want to convey! But if your email is too long, the recipient will never get to your call to action. Try to keep your email concise. It’s important to let your personality shine through, but do it in a way that’s not a distraction from the goal of the email.

Personality Style, Branding, and Voice

Different industries tend to get stereotyped based on their history. Some industries appear conservative in their professionalism like lawyers, doctors, and B2B services, while others differentiate themselves with more a bombastic approach like nightclubs, fashion retail, and entertainment.

You know your audience better than anyone else, and you’ve worked hard to solidify your brand’s identity and personality. Even if you’re in a more professional industry, find ways to appear human in your tone.

A conversational approach to emails are more endearing than a standard generic template. Speaking to the recipient by using “you” instantly boosts that connection.

Action tips for adding some personality into your email:

★ Create a “thank you” video.

★ It doesn’t have to be very long, in fact keeping it under a minute is ideal. Pick someone from your company that comes across well on video and epitomises your company culture.

★ Tell a short story.

★ Did an online review recently help another customer? In 2-3 sentences, share how that previous customer’s review helped other people decide that your company was the right fit for them.

★ Share a tip for the next time they want to use your company.

★ Include a short ‘pro-tip’ for them to have an even better experience next time. Do you have a special trivia night on Thursdays? How early in advance should they schedule their next appointment?

★ Remember that even though you’re providing a tip, this isn’t the time to include a link that diverts from the call to action.

Further Tips for getting a good Online Review

One nice aspect of automated email campaigns is that the timing will be predetermined.

You’ll want the first review request email to go out while the experience is fresh in the customer’s mind, especially if you’re hoping for them to include specific details in their online review.

A three email campaign dripped out over the course of one week is a sweet spot for conversion. Too many emails in a short amount of time will annoy your customer, but people are forgetful, so you don’t want to only send one email, and be done with it.

That being said, you want to increase the urgency of the message with each email.

Action tips for increasing urgency:

★ Second Email: Highlight Review Importance and Value Their Time

In the second email, acknowledge that you’re following up on the first. Highlight the importance of the online review while the experience is fresh in their minds, and show that you do value their time.

★ Final Email: Use Time-Sensitive Language

While you don’t want to make a customer think that they've run out of time to submit an online review, you can use some time-sensitive language that urges action. You can even make it humorous,

“I know my memory fades more quickly as I get older. We’d love for you to share your experience before your memory fades too!”

If your relationship with your customers is ongoing, like a doctor or lawyer, you might want to set up a long-tail campaign that starts with the three emails in a week, but then occurs on a monthly basis until you secure that review. The longer the relationship with the customer, the better the online review you’ll receive, so don’t let those long time customers slip through the cracks.

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again.

Once you have your review funnel set up, you can begin to see how successfully your email campaigns convert. While you can begin to analyse after a couple of weeks, I’d recommend allowing a month to pass to secure your online review conversion benchmarks.

Having your conversion metric baseline allows you to begin testing what’s working and what can be improved. When it comes to A/B testing your email campaign, you need to approach your experiments like a scientist. In order to know how your changes are impacting your conversions, you’re going to want to make one change at a time. It’s tempting to completely rewrite your email and see if that works, but there are so many variables when you make multiple changes that it can be difficult to identify which part of the change increased or decreased your conversion rate.

Here’s a list of components to test over the course of a year:

★ Subject Line

★ Greeting

★ The first sentence of the email

★ Main value sentence

★ Call to action (Button vs link, Button colour, messaging)

★ Any other components of the email (graphics, video, designed html email vs text email, photo of the person who sent the email)

First, you’ll want to craft a spreadsheet to track the changes and conversion rates. Depending on the number of potential users that enter your review funnel (look for at least 10 per week), set up a 1 to 2-week window of testing. After the time frame is complete, you can compare the conversion rates. If it worked, keep the new copy and try to change something else for the next window. If the conversions decreased, return to the original copy and restart the process of A/B testing.

Final Thoughts on getting an Online Review

Collecting reviews is an ongoing process. Every single online review you receive has value. Even negative reviews reveal insights into what might not be working with your product or customer service. Take that info and apply it to your business to improve the happiness of your customers and your future reviews.

Optimising that review generating email campaign will give you the best chance to nurture a dynamic online review stream that sets you apart from your competitors.

Did you read our article about looking beyond the review star ratings?

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#online visibility #online credibility #marketing #citations

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