#3 hours in one go is the max amount of time i get to play 😭

[seokjinsonlyone]

even more niche boyfriend things i think bts would do

part 1 | part 2 | part 3

namjoon:

not a newborn baby but is a big proponent of the kangaroo care concept; like loves to cuddle you while he’s shirtless; him on his back you laid on top of him, skin touching skin at every possible contact point; it does it for him every time

sends you pictures of animals he finds wandering around when he’s out and about 

takes soooo many pictures of you; don't get me wrong there's a fair share of couples photos like you're definitely taking selfies together whenever y'all go out but he takes twice as many off guard pictures of you as posed ones; definitely has a pic of you during golden hour forlornly looking out a window as his lockscreen

asks you to make him a playlist and listens to it whenever he misses you even if it's really disjointed and doesn't fit his mood simply bc you made it and he's always in the mood for you <333

learns to be more gentle around you so he becomes 5-7% less clumsy when you’re around

if you went to a party together i think there’d only be like one hour max where you’re separated from each other any more than that and y’all both start getting fidgety from missing each other bc if you’re in the same space you absolutely have to be together; when you do meet back up he tucks you up underneath his arm and kisses your temple and y’all are sickly cute for the rest of the night; like enough lovey dovey pda to make someone nauseous

always amazed at the amount of stuff you manage to bring out the house; like you'll come out after him and he sees you walking towards the car, arms stuffed to the brim with water bottles and lotions and umbrellas and whatever else you deemed necessary for the day's outings, so he has to rush to help you before you drop everything; eventually gets hip to the fact that you're a a girl and you're always gonna have bunch of things and starts pre-loading your belongings so you won't have to struggle

Oblivious Boyfriend™; as smart and emotionally intelligent and mindful as he is, he's not a mindreader; like he be so focused on his feelings for you, his passions, and his work that he lowkey don't know wtf going on outside of that; so if there's something going on around you or something wrong with you or you have a problem with him you're gonna have to spell it out lest he be none the wiser

doesn't like when you watch him work out because you're more of a distraction than anything but he does like going to you straight after working out; he gets a real kick out of the way you ogle him and feel up on his biceps while he's all pumped up 

he really likes when you call him cute nicknames; joon, joonie, joonie boonie, namu like it lowkey make his heart soar; his personal favorite is joon bug you call him that and he would literally steal the moon if you asked 

seokjin:

tests out all his new recipes on you; feeds you bites to taste along the way so you're not too hungry because he's a perfectionist and it takes him extra time for him to plate it; "the presentation is just as important as the taste!"

likes when you’re in the same room as him while he plays his games; not necessarily watching him but just your company is enough; switches between focusing on the game and engaging you in conversation so you won’t get bored; would actually love it if you did take an interest in whatever game he was playing; would take his time explaining the back story of each character and their strengths and weaknesses; would start a separate game so that you could play and have you sit between his legs while he helped you with the controls

has to kiss you at least 3 times before leaving the house; once when you wake up, once while you’re going through your morning routine, and once before you leave; more kisses may be shared but any less than three and he swears his whole day is thrown off

he’s going to pick at you; there’s just no way around it it’s in his nature; he won’t do it enough to make you actually annoyed but enough that you wanna smack him around a little; which… he likes things like that

has no problem singing and dancing whenever y'all are casually listening to music but if you actually wanted him to sing for you he'd get all shy, red in the ears and neck and would have to take a couple days to practice before following through

begs you to join him for tennis practice bc he wants you two to become the next venus and serena

y’all will do that one couples trend on tiktok where they paint each other and then reveal the pictures at the end and it’s not like yours is fantastic or anything but you can tell that you at least tried; meanwhile when you see seokjin’s painting you can’t tell if you’re looking at a distorted walrus or a possessed squirrel either way it is NOT you no matter how much he insists it looks like you

stays sending you thirst traps; like whenever he looks good whether it's bc he's all dolled up for some event or he's fresh out the shower with his hair slicked back or he just sees himself in a mirror and remembers he's worldwide handsome, his phone is out, he's putting a sultry look on his face, snapping a pic, and sending it straight to you

you binge watch animes together; no one will see or hear from either of y’all for like 5 days straight, complete radio silence; and when someone finally knocks on the door they see that y’all been camped out in the living room no phone in sight on season 6 of whatever anime y’all started last friday night  

must feed you every time you meet up; like if he has not seen you eat something in the time you spend together he has not completed his boyfriend duties; even if he comes to your place he has to make sure you have at least eaten a snack; doesn't matter how much you weigh he absolutely can not have you wasting away on his watch

yoongi:

gently tucks your hair behind your ear

always offers you his arm to link when it’s cold out so y’all can share each other’s warmth; he absolutely will still be wearing slides with no socks tho and you fuss at him about it every time

lets you play in his hair; just sits there nonchalantly while you give him the most ridiculous hair styles; pig tails, corn rows, mohawks; as long as you don’t cut nothing he doesn’t care fr; takes a picture when you’re done with that big gummy smile on full display bc of how silly he looks

says he's not a big social media person but one of his favorite past times is sitting down with you scrolling down your fyp for hours; makes you send the funniest videos to him so he can watch later

you’re one of the few people that he gains energy from being around so he likes your presence even when you’re not particularly doing anything; like you just be sitting next to each other or like be hand in hand on a walk around the neighborhood not even saying anything but in his head he’s thinking about what a great time he’s having 

if you're up late at night and start feeling peckish he'll make you some snacks even if he doesn't plan on eating; still scolds you about how eating late at night is bad as he's enabling you; ends up eating with you too

he doesn't like watching dramas with you; he'll claim it's bc of the plot but really he just doesn't like how you be kicking your feet and giggling at the male leads

not the best with verbal affirmations so whenever he does go out of his way to compliment you he ends up just as flustered as you are; “you look pretty today” and his cheeks are flushed more than yours 

always preps you to bargain and gathers together all coupons before y’all go grocery shopping; “just bc i’m rich doesn’t mean i like to be ripped off” 

he's always listening to you even when it seems like he's not; you could be rambling on about something and you think he's not paying attention so you stop midsentence and be like "are you even listening to what i'm saying?" and he looks up from whatever he was doing and then repeats back to you everything you said; has a great memory in general so he remembers everything you say and do even the small things that you forget about

hoseok:

sends ‘thinking of you’ texts just to let you know when you’re on his mind

if you start dancing to a song he gets all hyped up and he’s joining you immediately; hands on your hips moving you as he pleases; it’s a club wherever you and the music are

makes you one of his little beaded bracelets that says “ur my hope”

if you fell asleep in a position that looks uncomfortable he’d gently rearrange you until he got you in a more normal position; 100% the type to carry you bridal style to bed if you fell asleep for the night on the couch 

the type to pop up at your crib with an insane amount of the most exquisite, top tier take out and you gotta try to figure out who he think eating all this; doesn't even try to fight the boujee allegations when you tease him for bringing out caviar and truffles 

always takes pics of you when he thinks you look good; like you could be running late and you’re rushing trying to get out the door but hoseok is just gonna spend a good 30 seconds checking you out while you’re fussing at him and then be like wait a minute and starts posing you; has several organized folders of you because of this labeled by genre of your look; it’s easier that way so when he’s showing people pictures of you they won’t accidentally get a peek of something meant for his eyes only

loves the idea of you becoming his family so he really likes bringing you home; warms his heart to see you getting along with his parents and his sister; sets up a group chat with you him and his sister to help y'all talk more but lowkey gets pouty when y'all do get closer and be chatting and hanging out without him 💀

if you're not already together he'll facetime you in the morning; he won't have much to say at first other than a groggy good morning; but after he comes to terms with the fact that he has to be awake and takes a couple sips of his iced americano he's his usual ball of energy sunshiny self; will have you up doing morning stretches and light calisthenics at 6:30am

every couple weeks y'all go to the nail salon together and get mani-pedis; he leaves the acrylics and jewels and glitter to you but the overall color scheme and design aesthetic for your nails match; takes like 17 pictures of your hands together to show off

loves cuddling up to you on the couch so you can play in his hair; like each time his head is resting on your chest and your hand is running through his hair lightly scratching at his scalp he swears he’s reached nirvana 

jimin:

will drag you out the house in the middle of winter to drive down to the beach and watch the sunset together; you’d be huddled up together you sat in between his legs leaning against him his arms draped around your neck pulling you into him; you’d stay there sitting in the sand even after the night settled in just talking until you were shivering and sniffling then he’d take you to a cafe to get some hot cocoa to warm up 

randomly calls you in the middle of the night bc he misses your voice; smiles the entire he’s getting scolded for scaring you bc you thought something was wrong bc he called you at 2am

kisses your forehead, nose, and lips in that order every time you part ways 

hates knowing there's other people staring at you so like if you're out together and wearing like a hoodie or something and he notices you're garnering attention he zips it all the way up and pulls your hood over your head and tightens the strings so no one can see you; in turn knows you hate the thought that other people even think of him so he pretends they don't even exist; like you can literally point somebody out and be like "omg aren't they so pretty" and he's gonna avert his eyes in the opposite direction won't even look and just be like "you're so pretty. there's only you"

number one advocate for a lazy morning; snuggles into you, his head on your chest trapping you in; looks up at you with a goofy smile and preens when you press a kiss to his forehead

squishes your cheeks in both his hands when you're being too cute for him to handle

like the true feminist he is, he supports your rights and wrongs!!; like you get into it with somebody and then tell him the story afterwards he's hyping you up the entire time telling you that you were right and what you should've done and what he would've done if he were you; he's just always gonna be on your side

riles you up just bc he likes the reactions you make when you’re irritated 

it’s tea city when it comes to you two; like whatever you know he knows and whatever he knows you know; gossiping is actually one of your favorite bonding activities; he likes to play it up and drag it out whenever he finds something out; like he’s gonna text you and be like UR NOT GONNA BELIEVE THIS!!!!! and you’ll be like WHAT and he’ll be like I HAVE TO TELL YOU IN PERSON OMG!!!! 😱 when it’s like noon knowing darn well he not getting off work until 10pm at the earliest 😭

likes to go with you when you have to “run errands” bc it’s usually just you doing girl things like getting coffee and then going to the store to buy snacks and skincare and he thinks it’s really adorable how you light up when you see small things in cute packages

taehyung:

has a series of like 12 hour logs in his phone recents list bc he stay falling asleep on facetime

makes it a point to hang out with your male friends just to assert dominance; doesn't matter if they have partners of their own or are completely uninterested in you he still wants to look them in their eye, shake their hand, and then put his arm around you to tie up any loose ends that may be dangling around

helps you pick the eyelashes out of your eye whenever one gets stuck

asks you to come over with the sole purpose of convincing you to take a nap with him; will straight up lie on the phone and tell you he wanna hang out and do this and that and then when you get over there he like let’s nap first; your cuddles just gon do it for him every time

uses kisses as bargaining chips; like if you need him to do something like idk take out the trash he's only gonna do it if you give him 3 kisses so you give him one as a down payment and the other 2 after he completes the task; (he was always gonna do what you asked but kisses make everything better)

likes to keep his hands free when he's out and about so he's always adding extra stuff to your purse; because he's always in your bag, he knows its exact content; you'll be frantically searching for your lip gloss and he'll ask what you're looking for and when you tell him he'll pull it out of some random side pocket he moved it to so he could make room for his stuff

will randomly wake up out of his sleep and call you just bc you crossed his mind; takes like 30 seconds to respond to anything you say bc he only half awake; the call lasts for like three minutes before he hangs up to go back to sleep 

as a big fan of roleplay at least once in your relationship he's gonna make y'all get all dressed up and go to a bar separately and act like strangers and he's gonna pretend to pick you up

if you sent him out to pick up period products last minute he’s the type that ask if you wanted lemon or lime flavor bc one package is yellow and the other is green 😭; alternatively would ask what’s your coochie size when he noticed the numbers on it

he’s not gonna let you win at any game you play; doesn’t matter how much you whine and pout he likes winning too much; god forbid you’re actually good at something he’s gonna try his very hardest and will even practice so that he eventually beats you; will give you all the prizes tho

jungkook:

if he gets bored while you’re asleep he’s gonna start messing with you; his favorite go to games are flicking your bottom lip until you tuck it in or start to gain consciousness and stacking cheerios on your forehead; his personal best is 9 of em 

hooks his chin over your shoulder to be nosy when you’re watching something on your phone that catches his attention

he understands that you’re not as nocturnal as he is but sometimes when you stay over at his place and he feels restless he can’t help but crave your attention; will wake you up at 4am gently with kisses so you can try some of the food he made; you’ll be half asleep with him kneeling in front of you feeding you some spicy noodles; he’ll patiently wait for you to finish chewing before he asks you if it’s good; makes you take at least one more bite before kissing your forehead and letting you go back to sleep; tucks himself up next to you about an hour later after he finishes cleaning up after himself 

you make funny tiktoks together; they never leave the drafts of course except for when he finds it particularly hilarious and sends it in the group chat 

threatens to beat up anyone who upsets you; like you tell him a story about someone who was upsetting you at work and his first response is "bring them to me. i'll take care of it"; and lord don't let someone get carried away at a club or something like if a guy starts hitting on you and won't take no for an answer before you can even tell them off he's already at the scene one shove away from being breaking news on every media outlet in the world

gets pouty when you have a night out without him but he understands the need for balance so doesn’t put up too much of a fight; his only stipulation is that if you can’t make it home on your own or your friends can’t drop you off that you always always call him; the thought of you getting into some randos car late at night when you’re not even mentally there all the way sends chills up his spine; he can’t sleep unless he knows you’re at home safe and sound anyway 

doesn't consciously have a preference for how you dress like he thinks you look good in whatever but you in a dress or a skirt itches a particular part of his id that would have carl jung doing backflips; like whenever you pop out in a dress or a skirt he's coming up to you and giving you a kiss on the lips while his arms wrap around your waist and 10-30 seconds later they're dropping down and his hands are toying with the ends of your garment and grazing your thighs underneath it; it just does it for him every time

you're his safe place <333; he goes through periods where you're the only person he wants to see; he will scare you half to death like you'll get off work and go home and you hear all this noise and whole time it's him in your kitchen making sandwiches for lunch; will make up for scaring you by tucking your face into his neck while his arms are wrapped tightly around you so he can breathe you in and then cupping your face and giving you kisses; you're his baby

you have matching hyperfixations; like one of you will get into something and won’t shut up about it and then being the supportive partner you are whenever you’re on social media you send the posts you stumble across to them; but then the algorithm picks up on it and the content keeps popping so often that you actually start being entertained by it too; then y’all won’t shut up about it and have inside jokes and no one ever knows what y’all are talking about bc it’s so deep down into the referential millennial dadaism

gets offended if you’re walking side by side and not touching in some way; like if you start walking ahead of him or something he’s gonna clear his throat very pointedly and when you look at him like ???? he’s gonna look at you like you’re stupid and pull you into him where you belong 

a/n: as promised she is back 🫡 thank you to everyone who encouraged me to repost 💕 pls continue to be kind my mental state is probably worse than it was before LOL

[readychilledwine]

Pieces of You pt 3

Summary - After losing Feyre to childbirth, Rhysand finds himself leaning on one of her friends much more than he'd ever expected.

Warnings - self doubt, slight manipulation, discussion of moving forward after the death of a spouse, hurt people hurting people, HOFAS spoilers *slightly* (a lot of us had this theory to begin with and I just played with it to fit this)

A/n - It can only be uphill from here, right?.. Special thank you to @honeybeefae and @thehighladywrites for helping me think through how quickly I should let reader and Rhys move on, and for convincing me that I should continue writing this. (Ps friends - sorry I can't tag you. I evidently hit the max tag amount with my taglists.)

✨️ Pieces of You Masterlist ✨️

The 3 month milestone had changed your and Morwenna's lives forever. Rhys had finally convinced you to move into one of his homes. He was insistently whispering to you over and over that the small cabin wasn't going to work anymore, that Cassian and Azriel barely fit inside it, that once his Little Mor and sweet Nyx began to move you four would need more space.

It had been also heartbreaking, entering the home Feyre had crafted, each room so individually thought of for who it was intended to belong to. Above all else, though, it had been lonely.

It wasn't your home. It wasn't the finely crafted wooden arches your mate had assembled by hand. It wasn't the rooms you had spent hours picking colors for. It wasn't cozy. That lack of security and warmth was why you were once again up at 3am. Despite the babies now sleeping for longer chunks of time, you never did. Regardless of if it was a night Rhysand spent at your side or one he spent tucked into the room he had shared with Feyre.

You leaned your head back against the exterior of the home, looking up at the glittering sky, and it finally happened.

3 months of mourning in silence. 3 months of screaming into your pillow. 3 months of stress, of anger, of overflowing love, 3 months of feeling like a shell of the female you were, of feeling as though your body was no longer yours, it crashed into you like a tidal wave. And it swept and destroyed everything in its path.

Rhysand shot awake in bed, feeling something was off. His chest ached, begging him to get up, to move, to search. He pulled on pants, glancing at Nyx and Morwenna sleeping peacefully, but you, once again, had not come to the room. He waited for the wraith to appear, feeling her just moments after he called. “Is it y/n,” Nuala nodded to the question, moving to admire the sleeping babes. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. She is mourning. That is her right.”

Rhys sighed, moving to your room without hesitation. He had hoped getting you out of that house would help. He had hoped the luxury he could offer you would have helped. He knocked on the door, listening for the broken come in that followed. “Why haven't you come to bed?” You were taken back by the question, taken back by him holding that perfectly tanned hand out. “Come to bed. Let me hold you until those sorrows melt away for the night.”

He knew you didn't feel it. That soft string that had made him scream, made him question all he knew about love and life. Part of him hoped you never did. Part of him hoped he would never have to explain to his family how it had taken him a miniscule 3 month period to fall in love with you and for a Mother given mating bond to snap. Part of him hoped he would never have to experience losing you, to add you to his list of things he would bury too deeply to properly mourn.

“I was unsure if I was wanted there.” That hand reached for yours, clasping it. He was so warm. Always so warm. You could bask in his warmth like he was the sun if given the chance. You shook the feeling mentally, though. “It is-”

“Our room,” he finished softly. “It is our room. Where our children are sleeping. Come to bed.”

Morning came much too soon for Rhysand. It had come much too soon for you as well. You took both of the babes, laughing as they spoke to each other in a language only they knew. They had begun taking more interest in each other, in toys, in the world. They were making life the greatest adventure, even if a lingering pain came from both of you seeing them smile so brightly.

It happened at the worst possible time. You were holding Nyx, forearm under his little tummy and letting “fly” as he worked so very hard to stretch his growing wings. Rhysand was watching you from the doorway, Morwenna on his hip as she looked up at him. Her thoughts were jumbled baby speak, all so happy. Nyx's were elated and fast. When you looked to the doorway, your wide smile fell as that string finished itself and settled deep into your chest.

Rhysand had never watched someone's mental walls fall as quickly as yours did. The silence in the room almost made the giggles of the two unknowing parties fade to background noise. “I was shocked too, darling. It's okay.”

Rhysand had dinner without you that night. He flew to the House of Wind with Nyx to eat with the Inner Circle. He wanted to give you time. He remembered the moment Azriel and Nesta came home, questioning their bonds after exploring those damned caves with the Quinlan girl and learning how the Cauldron had been corrupted. He knew you needed to process. He had too after all.

He took his seat trying to ignore the one that sat empty next to him. Everynight a plate was still sitting there. Even when you came, that chair sat empty, plate untouched. It was a screaming sign that the Inner Circle had not moved in. That they may never move on.

“It just makes the two mates theory make more sense,” Cassian and Amren were deep in a debate again. “If the Daglan, asteri, whatever the fuck we want to call them, did something to the Cauldron to ensure the mating bonds were taken over by it's creation for breeding purposes, then the existence of a Mother Blessed Bond must also be there.”

Amren sighed, “So which do you two have then?” Nesta stiffened at the question. “A Mother Blessed Bond is meant to be true love. It's who we are technically meant to find as a soul mate. A Cauldron made Bond is evidently strictly for breeding. Which do you two share?”

The table hushed. It was a valid question and point. “To continue,” Amren took a drink from her glass before setting it down with a gentle click. “If we come out and tell other courts about this, how many other fae will begin to question their bonds? Kallias and Vivienne? Tamlin and Briar? Helion and Saraya? Lucien and Elain? How do we even begin to prove which bond is which? Does it mean they love that mate less? Rhysand would not have loved Feyre less regardless of the bond type. He will never remarry. Never move on.”

Azriel flicked his eyes to Rhysand. He knew about the bond Rhysand shared with you. He had given Rhysand his blessing to move on and pursue. He had asked his brother to find happiness again. He watched the words land on Rhysand's features, watched his eyes dull.

“If Rhysand did find a new mate,” Azriel spoke softly. “We would all support him moving forward with the bond.”

Nesta scoffed from next to Cassian. “Imagine being that poor female. Living in the shoes of Feyre Cursebreaker. No one could compare.”

But you did, didn't you? Rhysand's grip on his thigh tightened before relaxing. You were just as special, as kind, as loving. You were beautiful. Gods knew you were absolutely beautiful. You were selfless.

“I wouldn't want to try to sit in her place. I would reject the bond,” Mor sipped her wine, leaned back with one arm across her stomach.

Cassian and Azriel both looked to where Rhysand was dead silent. “I need to take Nyx home. He's getting hungry. I'll be right back.”

When Rhysand came back to the House of Wind without his son, he had no intentions of coming back to you that night. So, he never did.

3 awkward weeks passed between you and Rhysand. 3 absolutely strange weeks of either heated kisses and touches or nothing. Not even a good morning. You sighed as you laid Morwenna and Nyx down in the nursery before taking the few strides to Rhysand's office.

He was avoiding you, and it hurt. It hurt knowing your mate, this beautiful unasked for second chance was avoiding you. He was hunched over his desk, reading over some papers and signing a few. “Are we going to talk about why you are avoiding me?”

“I am not avoiding you. I am busy.”

“Yes, busy avoiding me.” You sat across from him, feeling so cold and informal. It was as if you were nothing more than his employee. “Our children are asleep. We should talk about this while we can. I deserve to know if I did something wrong.”

He didn't even look up at you as he replied. “You didn't do anything wrong. As I said, I am busy.” This wasn't the voice of the male who coaxed you to sleep. The one who whispered his dreams to you. “You can go.”

The dismissal made the bond go taunt, and when he felt the first wave of your confusion and hurt, he locked it down more. “Rhys-”

“I think we should sleep in separate rooms again. Our relationship has crossed some lines.”

You blinked at him. Stunned and almost dead silent. “I don't understand where this is coming from?”

“It's the truth. I am your High Lord. You are my subject.” It killed him to say it. His own heart was screaming to stop, but that first brick wall now stood, waiting for the other 3 sides. “We cannot continue blurring that line.”

“You're my mate,” your broken whisper almost made him stop, but he dug in.

“Something we will need to discuss at a later date and time. Surely there will be away for us to reject the bond without causing a downfall and hurting your ability to nanny Nyx.” A second wall stood in place of you and his heart. He knew it was a low blow, and he watched your brows knit and mouth slightly open.

“Rhysand.”

“High Lord,” he corrected.

“Why are you doing this?”

“The bedroom you were in previously is fine.”

“Why are you acting like this?”

“I am establishing a boundary, y/n.” He watched as you began to cry, holding in his own tears as he did. “Our relationship needs to remain appropriate.”

"Do you not want me? We are blessed with this second chance, and you are just turning your back on it. Please, is it me? I know I am not the beauty she was, I know I am not as special as she was. But I'd fight to make you happy, for our children-”

"Nyx isn't yours. Stop acting like he is.”

He watched as you crumbled inside of yourself, that last wall forming around his heart by destroying yours. He didn't mean a single word, but how else was he supposed to save you? All the Mother had ever done to Rhysand was take and take.

You recovered from the blow quickly, nodding as you aggressively wiped the tears from your face. "You have the weekend to find someone else to do what I am. Wen and I are leaving.”

"You can't just take her from me.”

"Yes I can," he knew what was coming, that new bond screaming for him to stop this all. "You aren't her father. Stop acting like it.”

You wanted to slam the door as you walked away before his act fell, before he gripped his chest and warded the room to sob. Little Mor had quickly become his everything. That dark hair, that button nose, those deep blue eyes. She looked like his sister, but you didn't know that when you threatened to take her away. Hadn't known why all three winged males so quickly became attached to her.

And now he was losing her. He was losing you. He was losing everything.

General Taglist:

@hnyclover @glitterypirateduck @slytherinindisguise @mischiefmanagers @bloodicka @starsinyourseyes @the-sweet-psycho @mariahoedt @rinalouu @sarawritestories @starryhiraeth @starswholistenanddreamsanswered @cumuluscranium @loneliestluvr @eternallyelvish @azrielsmate3 @daughterofthemoons-stuff @meritxellao @aria-chikage @hungryforbatboys @lilah-asteria

Pieces of You Taglist:

@dr4g0ngirl @bigcreatorwombatdreamer @blueeclipsepaperstudent @thisblogisaboutabook @mybestfriendmademe @novalovi @rachelnicolee @sleepylunarwolf @sidthedollface2 @acourtofbatboydreams @bunnyredgirl @fandomrejects @bookishbroadwaybish @littlestw01f @la-petite-lapin @juniperberriesaries @anuttellaa @luvmoo @mirandasidefics @soph1644 @hungryforbatboys @awkardnerd @bruxa0007 @eerievixen @youvereachedthenearest-lovergirl @ghostlyrose2 @amygdtjhddzvb @marvelouslovely-barnes @batii-skies @emma-andrea1 @buckystevelove @slut4acotar @cauldronboilmetakemetovelaris @throneofshadows @sevikas-whore @thebeautifulmysteriesoflife @why4anne @miadialila @12358 @blushingfawnsposts

✨️If you are not tagged but your name is listed, Tumblr will not allow me to tag you for some reason!✨️

[makomaki5]

If you want some other game recommendations from a huge gamer that is NOT Hogwarts Legacy, I got you bc we do not support antisemitism or transphobia.

Full disclaimer: If your advocacy goes as far as for Trans and Jewish voices to fall on deaf ears about a VIDEOGAME?!? Then, you were never an ally to begin with.

But, as a videogame lover and player, I will make other recommendations for you to play if you really need a good game that will support the rights of other people and is not built on hate!

If you really want a wizard game:

Play Skyrim and Eldan Ring! Those are two great open-world/build your character/magic games that don’t center around magic but have magic nonetheless! They actually have more spells and than this stupid game centered around wizards! Plus, they both have HUGE open worlds that will take (I promise) hundreds of hours to play and explore.

Play the Witcher!!! Although I have not played it, my sister raves left and right about the Witcher 3! It’s a choice-based, super long, world-heavy game that just immerses you in both magic and spells from the get go! Although not a ton of spells, it’s a timeless game and WAY ahead of it’s time.

If you really want a choice based game:

We literally got Cyberpunk a few years ago! It has amazing features for custom characters and fun armor to mix and match. It also has a choice-based storyline and multiple endings based on the choices you make/categories of your personality you update! What’s also so great about this game is it naturally has great representation. I’ve never seen a game that has NPCs have a set sexual orientation and won’t stray from it: if you are a straight man and hit on the lesbian, she will TELL YOU she’s a lesbian. It’s very interesting and also have trans representation and her personality is not just her being trans. It’s compelling. So, play this game!!!

Another set of great choice games is the Life is Strange series! Although not open world, every choice you make impacts the ending/relationships you have with different characters. There is also GREAT LGBTQ+ rep in every game they produce. The first time I played these games, my brain chemistry changed.

The walking dead series is an AMAZING choice-based series with a lot of representation. Although not open world and depressing(lol), it is a super immersive experience and has your heart rip in half for the characters. In the last game, especially, we see a more immursive and creative fighting techniques that just made you binge the game.

Another great game (that isn’t exactly choice but has an interesting way for you to interact with the world based off the way you want to explore) is Disco Elysium. You get to choose how/why/when/where you interact with the world and people. I have literally never played a game like this and my jaw dropped when I started. I could NOT put it down. The clock ticks throughout the day so you need to be careful about what you do with the amount of time you have. EVERY relationship will unravel another part of the mystery going on throughout the game. And, it’s very intense, fun, and full of philosophical shit that just makes you excited. Plus, you can tell it was made with so much dedication and care.

Fallout 4!!!!! This game is super underrated now a days, but is it worth playing! You can customize your character and choose who you side with/who you kill/who you save/who your friend are/what clothes you wear/what weapons you weld. Like, you cannot ask for more out of this game!! And, the world is HUGE and filled with such intricaticay. I cant rave about this game enough.

Persona 5! This is one of the best games I have ever played in my life! Like Disco Elysium, you only have so much time throughout the day to complete tasks and your relationship with peers/the skills you have are gotten from that time. So, if you choose not to hang out with someone or do homework or whatever, you could not max different parts of your personality/combat techniques. Is game is also in part a choice game, where you get to choose which route you want your narrative to be. Super fun! Also, this game has super fun turn-based combat that just leaves you on your toes! It’s super fun and super immersive and super HARD. It will take you a hundred hours to play.

If you want an immersive open-world:

I already named a few up there, but I haven’t mentioned the Horizon series yet, which is just fantastic. Both games have HUGE open worlds and a great amount of representation that just comes so easy to it and feels so natural. It’s not forced or random or anything: it’s right and natural and not a HUGE deal. It also has very immersive worlds with quite a lot to do. Although Horizon Forbidden West only has about 28 hours of the main story, it took me 80 hours to complete it because that’s just how huge the world was. Plus, the lead character, Aloy, has so much depth and interesting tidbits about her that you KNOW the game was created so much love and care. Also, the face expressions are so real and beautiful, it literally brought tears to my EYES

Red Dead Redemption 2 literally has one of the greatest open-worlds of all time and y’all are gonna play that shitty wizard game 😭?? It’s SO intimate and fun. There are times where you’ll be stopped to do a side mission and, if you die, you can’t go back to do it! I can’t say enough about this game because im sure everyone has heard it already but it’s emotional, FILLED TO THE BRIM with character depth, and super goddamn fun.

We all know about Breath of the Wild, but if you haven’t played that yet and are choosing to play Hogwarts Legacy, what are you doing ??

And just other GREAT games:

All the Batman Arkham Series games are INCREDIBLE. They literally were the stepping stones to other great games and was one of the first to introduce such an interesting half-open world concept. They fighting and stealth is ridiculously fun, and I have replayed these games so many times!

The tomb raider games are FANTASTIC. Filled with puzzles, stealth, and fighting, you cannot milk out more from this game. Plus, you okay as the incredible Lara Croft, who is such an interesting character.

The Last of Us?!? Such great representation! And what great character depth! You can see the love that goes into this game and what it means for the people that create it. Although a linear game, it does not necessarily feel that way because of the amount of exploring you are forced to do. This is one of those rare games where crafting does not feel like a chore, but an immersive and anxious experience. Both games are perfect!!!

If I forgot any, repost and add them because yeah! And, if you’re still not convinced to play something else, you aren’t an ally and stop calling yourself one!

[httpsserene]

𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞'𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐬 (𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐬𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠!) - 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐢𝐜.

𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: maybe this time, the natural distance between them concerning their now different job requirements would help max get over his small, miniscule, tiny, fractional, microscopic, miniature, little, itty-bitty crush on daniel. it didn’t work the first time, when younger-max had avoided his ex-teammate like the plague after his move to a different team—if anything that absence made his heart ache for daniel more, even though he tried his hardest to hate him. so now, maybe that max isn’t the one causing the growing gap between him and daniel, this space might dissolve max’s fondness. 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 18+ only. idiots in love. mild angst. fluff. happy ending. attempt at humor. plot with a side of porn. the timeline is mostly accurate. max verstappen is an oblivious idiot. daniel ricciardo is an obvious idiot. 5+1 things (in a way). the three musketeers: charles, pierre, and lando. light praise kink. light dom/sub undertones. mild orgasm delay/denial. 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: 9.5k 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: max verstappen x daniel ricciardo

𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲: so....how's life been treating y'all while i disappeared for two months :) ? no, um, sorry for ghosting you guys; i know, i'm surprised that i didn't forget my login info. life started being life for a good amount of time and i got really sucked into school and work. aside from the boring everyday stuff, i've got an internship this summer (yay!), i'm pretty sure i have a bit of a mutual-crush with this boy in my morning lecture, and i've started playing final fantasy sixteen.

anyways, this is my longest work ever! and i'm dedicating it to one of my sweetest betas, bianca. you requested this long before my disappearing act in december, and i told you i was nearly finished with a 6k-word fic for your request. to make up for my unexplained absence, i rewrote the entire thing into a near ten-thousand word feel-good masterpiece.

i hope this fic is of good enough quality for all of you wonderful f1-stans to forgive me because, i'm back, and hopefuily here to stay lol. enjoy reading, loves &lt; 3.

requested & written by/for @biancathecool

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milton keynes, red bull racing headquarters, pre-season 2023

daniel looks happy. max doesn’t know why that surprises him—maybe he’s projecting his emotions (his therapist says he does that quite often) onto the man. the surprise makes sense though, max thinks, as he watches the australian chatter away with the engineers, the largest toothy smile spread across his face like he never left red bull behind in 2018. if it were max who had gone through the mclaren bullshit along with not having a guaranteed seat for the upcoming 2023 season, and he had to settle for a third driver position: he would scourge the world with his fury.

but: it’s not max, it’s daniel. it’s daniel, who was warmly welcomed back into navy blue (papaya did not suit him), it’s daniel, who doesn’t snap at the marketing team when they ask how he’s “coping” with not being on the grid. it’s daniel, who becomes friends with checo easily. it’s daniel, who’s scheduled to fulfill the pr activities that the two red bull drivers refuse to complete. it’s daniel, who has clocked in insane hours in the sim and factory while max has been enjoying his off-season. 

it’s daniel, who hasn’t shown any signs of disappointment about not having a seat this year.

if he won’t show or admit it, max will. having a race weekend without daniel doesn’t feel right. max knows this, even though the season hasn’t started yet: he’s going to be miserable. it’s like when daniel left him the team. of course, max had pushed daniel away after he signed with renault. what was he supposed to do? react calmly with the emotional intelligence he didn’t have? max thought the man hated him when he didn’t tell him that he was leaving before the news was released. 

regardless, instead of the australian leaving, this time around he’s coming back, which max had originally believed was the best thing to ever happen. he’s not so sure of that anymore. daniel belongs in the car chasing him with the smell of burning rubber and petrol surrounding them. max doesn’t appreciate how the smell of race tracks has already disappeared from him. he could tell it was missing when daniel made a show of giving max the biggest hug as soon as he stepped foot in the factory.

maybe this time, the natural distance between them concerning their now different job requirements would help max get over his small, miniscule, tiny, fractional, microscopic, miniature, little, itty-bitty crush on daniel. it didn’t work the first time, when younger-max had avoided his ex-teammate like the plague after his move to a different team—if anything that absence made his heart ache for daniel more, even though he tried his hardest to hate him. so now, maybe that max isn’t the one causing the growing gap between him and daniel, this space might dissolve max’s fondness.

“max, kid,” christian waves a hand in front of max’s face with an unimpressed look, “did you hear a single thing i said or were you too distracted by the sight of daniel in red bull gear again?”

the tips of max’s ears redden, and he snaps his head away from where it was turned to watch daniel’s constant smile, to face his team principal. max doesn’t know what he was thinking; his crush is going nowhere.

𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐎𝟑.

taglist: @saintslewis @cherry2stems @lorarri @inloveallthetime @mindless-rock @biancathecool @barnestatic @my-ylenia @katekipshidze @darleneslane @lovingaphroditesworld @smoothopz @vetteltea @tallrock35

© httpsserene 2023

[earthtokhal]

You know, I thought that the way Mexico went, I would feel some sort of consolation about how everything went down and momentarily I did. It was joyous to see them getting hit from every single direction and while I love Max, having him get that penalty and having no help around him to mitigate for him until he made his way back to the front was another reminder that the team absolutely messed up. Max need to constantly play 4D chess because he is doing it all on his own with zero help and a car that is going backwards.

Anyway, Daniel genuinely seems free and I am happy that he has taken this on the chin and took control of the situation again.

But this Daniel isn't the one I am raging for. Because everything was just pointless.

I am upset for the Daniel that declined offers from Haas and that alleged Mercedes role that everyone was talking about and trusted the team that burned him once before.

I am upset for the man who put in the work and the hours in the sim with Simon to undo every bad thing he had learned in McLaren and try to reach his best again.

I am upset for the person who genuinely thought they were giving him a fighting chance to get to that seat again.

I am upset for the driver who stood in an airport in his home country in what was only the start of the season already denying rumors that he would be replaced.

For the man who had to spend so much of energy every race weekend defending his position in the sport.

For the man who tried so hard, started performing, cleaned up his quali laps only to be destroyed by his team. He had a patched together engine while everyone around him had newer ones.

For the man who had his team principal comment about how he isn't using social media anymore as if he is some newbie needing to cut out the distractions and not a veteran of the sport.

For the man who truly thought his plan was coming to pass after Spa only for everything to change hours later.

And for the man who returned to prove something which he honestly did but they just undid everything with their podcasts and their comments in the media to save face.

Formula 1 is a business. It is not some fun, merry-go-round where everyone is just good and loyal to each other and I am not stupid enough to believe that they were ever truly 100% on his side.

But there are still people involved, relationships that have been built over decades and maybe I was stupid enough to believe at least that held some weight.

And in the end, no amount of bad weekends for the team and the drivers (Max is obviously excluded from all of this) would make any of this okay because all of it was for nothing.

We thought he was enduring because there was an end plan.

Surely, Horner and his management knew 11 wasn't going to do any better in Mexico when he completely bombed his best tracks. The King of the streets scored the same amount of points that Daniel took from McLaren which benefited Max.

So why couldn't they have held on a little bit.

And if it was truly his performance, why didn't he get the grace to wait until his best tracks before the decision was made?

And now, the same people who have been calling for his head since he set foot in the car in the first race are the same ones going "Hang on. maybe they did fire the wrong driver."

And I actually thought that they were suddenly cleaning up some of the stuff they said in the media as if clearing the way for his return if needed.

I would LOVE for Daniel to return, for 1 race, for 3 races for 5 more seasons but I do not see it happening for just a fraction of races because it benefits him in no way. Unless he gets the full time seat for 2025, I do not see him coming back to this mess.

And I do not blame him.

But for us, they need to handle their shit quickly and make an announcement so we are not stuck in a limbo.

And while I would love for Franco to get the seat instead of LL, it still won't be enough for me to get over this and how everything went down, this was his seat.

And ultimately, if they are trying to bring him back and if he decides he wants to do it, I sure as hell will support that team until he leaves.

[sexhaver]

ive been playing Cassette Beasts for a minute and it never stops being funny to me how flagrant they are about making this "Pokemon but with features you didn't know Pokemon has always needed". off the top of my head:

super effective/NVE hits have added benefits/debuffs beyond just doubling/halving the damage (hitting Electric types with Ground reduces their evasion and speed, hitting Steel types with Poison gives them poison-coated spikes that do contact damage, etc)

legally-distinct-Pokemon will learn new moves while in your party without having to battle, and you can then straight up steal these moves from them and put them on a not-Pokemon you actually care about using, which gives an actual incentive to hunt down and raise otherwise fringe not-mons beyond completing the not-Pokedex

we all played the Pokemon Infinite Fusion fangame right? we know how fusions work? okay so this game has them as temporary per-battle things instead of permanent ones, which is only marginally less cool while being infinitely easier to balance around

attempting to catch something shows you the percentage chance of success so you know whether you just got unlucky or if you should save your Pokeballs-i-mean-blank-cassette-tapes

leveling up is tied to your not-trainer instead of your not-pokemon, so you don't end up in the classic trap where your starter is way overleveled and everything else is underleveled and then you hit a fight your starter can't solo and have to spend an hour grinding to get the weaker not-mons up to par (funnily enough most Pokemon Nuzlocke romhacks have already figured this out and give you infinite rare candies with the only restriction being that you can't level past the next gym leader's ace pokemon, because Pokemon fans have realized that grinding is the worst part of the game way before Game Freak has)

moves, not-Pokeballs, not-PokeCenter visits, and healing items are all bought using entirely separate currencies which stops you from trivially breaking the economy in half

the soundtrack, fittingly, is pretty good! the vocals were a bit much for my taste but there's an option in the settings menu to straight up turn them off (letting the BGM play on its own), which i've never seen in any other game and really appreciate

downsides:

on a game design level, i understand why can i only carry a max of 5 not-Potions and 1 not-Revive at a time - it's to put a limit on how far away from fast travel points i can get by just running away from everything and healing off damage. on a gameplay level, however, this feels pretty bad

the pixel art style is trying to look as much like Pokemon as possible without actually being Pokemon so the overworld sprites look more like beta stuff from Pokemon that they cut for looking too weird. i have yet to find a haircut that doesn't look bad

this is super petty of me but something about the bloom and lighting of the 3d environments combined with pixelated 2d sprites that still cast shadows makes me painfully aware im playing a video game. it's like they were going for the same aesthetic as Octopath Traveler but fell just barely short. i can't think of a better way to articulate this feeling but if you know you know

it does that really obnoxious half-assed style of voice acting where plot-relevant characters will sometimes (maybe every third or fourth textbox) speak the first two or three words of dialogue before trailing off. mashing through textboxes (as one does) means constantly getting jumpscared by "hmm"s and "haha!"s "okay then!"s

i get that they wanted to make the player feel involved in the story, and it has a pretty decent hook so far, but oh my god. the amount of dialogue "choices" that just transparently do not matter. you know how people memed on Fallout 3 and 4's dialogue choices all leading to the same outcome, to the extent that you were basically choosing between "yes" and "yes (rude)"? and you know how Bethesda would at least attempt to justify how both options led to you accepting the quest anyways, even if it was really dumb? Cassette Beasts has streamlined this process even further by making the options in most of their binary decisions so identical that they don't even require different followup dailogue before rejoining into the main conversation thread. a solid 2/3rds of the dialogue options in this game so far feel like checks that you're still awake. i know this is a minor issue because people aren't playing Pokemon-likes for the engaging "choices matter" approach to storytelling, and i did ignore it at first, but it's so pervasive that you really can't ignore it

[bitchfitch]

idk my stained glass post is going around again and a lot of people are saying it's inspiring them but they're still hesitant to start whatever craft has their fancy rn, so here's a dipshit's guide to getting from horsey to whale when you're starting out a craft

Step 1: skim a tutorial.

don't take notes, don't pay all that much attention to it, give it like. at max 10 minutes of your time. Just get the general shape of the process into your head along with any relevant safety precautions.

the point of doing this is to stop yourself from forming expectations. Expectations are the motivation killer. Strangle them to death.

Step 2: Tool time

You may want to start right in on a project, you might even have one in your head already.

Don't. Stop that, see the point above about expectations. Your first project is going to suck major nuts, it doesn't matter what you do, so you simply must plan to make your first project as nut-sucktastic as physically possible. Burry your expectations so deep in the ground that you will leap over them by simply faceplanting.

So here's what you do instead, gather the necessary tools and materials then set aside an amount of material that you are ok with just pissing away. just absolutely wasting. If you went right in and got discouraged enough to drop a project while doing it, youd be wasting the materials anyway. Might as well get the wasting over and done with Before it eats hours of your mortal life.

Ok, now pick the first tool and associated skill involved in your new craft and just practice That. Don't try to make anything, just learn the motions and teach yourself how things move or break or bend or etc etc etc. all the real basic boring parts that don't produce anything.

Then move onto the next steps associated skills and tools. Connect them back to the product you got from practicing the first step if you can, then the third and so on, so that at the end of this ordeal you too can have a horrible abomination you can pretend looks like a horse.

Step 3: nap

With that done, fuck off and do something else for a bit. like for at Least a few hours if not a full day. Take a nap. do some drugs, play a hentai gatcha game, fuck if I care man. Just don't do the craft. This is the best way to kill expectations: fuckin forgetting what you're capable of.

step 4: learn it right this time

Actually watch/read that tutorial now. like. for real. give it your full atten and take notes on where you fucked up and how you struggled back in step two. like actual written/typed notes. You're going to be focusing on those areas and having a neat list to keep thing orderly in your head can help.

at this point it's also a good idea to try to find other tutorials that explain the Thing, but have a different person explaining it. or tutorials that are more granular. like ones that talk about the skills involved in a single step instead of the whole process. having that little bit more detail can be a game changer.

step 5: visualization

Come up with the easiest and most basic project you can think of while referring to that list of areas you struggled. You want this project to primarily focus on those weak spots and give you room to practice and improve them. ok. and now scrape the top 10% off the project. Make it easier make it smaller, make it less detailed, find a pattern instead of making your own, whatever just simplify it that little bit more.

Step 6: just do it

actually do that project while referring to your tutorials and notes.

Let yourself fuck up. Let yourself waste shit. And then move on. Don't get tangled in expectations, or let your perfectionism strangle you. Look it in the eye and strangle it back, make your shit uglier just to spite it.

Skills take time to develop. Give yourself that time and don't let your brain issues take the joy of creation from you. It's fuckin hard, but you've Got to do it if you want a modicum of happiness in this hell world. the vibe is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy but done with pure violence and vitriolic hatred of what your own neurosis are trying to take from you.

step 7: aw shit it's a never ending cycle

repeat step 5, but go for something a bit harder, then step six until you find a new muse to start over at step 1 with.

[keelt9]

Chapter 6

Masterlist

“Perseverance, perseverance, bloody perseverance.” I whisper in a low voice as I nock the arrow to the bowstring. 

“Stop the low talking and do it.” Liam says at my back. I took a deep breath, before shooting, I wasn't able to hit the yellow zone 3 times in a row and Liam already complained about my lack of perseverance. 

I wait a few seconds, make the last adjustment and let it go. 

“7” Anton said and I low my head hearing Liam coming closer. 

“Ok, let’s do something.” He put 3 arrows in the quiver. “That 3 between 9 and 10 and we stay at home full week as you ask.”

Two days ago, I made a special request to Anton and Liam. They gave me a full week at home instead of 2 days, at first the scoff and denial right away.

“Promise?” I grab one arrow, looking at his eyes.

“Upon you.” He said and walked back to his spot.

I regulate my breathing and raise the bow, slowly I search for the perfect spot,  stabilize the bow in my hands. It's not even 70 mts of distance, I can do it. This time I don’t give myself the time to doubt and shoot, 3 in a row.

“DON’T CHEAT ANTON!” Liam screams while we watch Anton walking to review the arrows. 

“9.” Anton removes one. “10” He removes the other and the last one. 

“And?!” I grip the bow really tight, Liam is enjoying the tension.

“9!” I screamed and jumped. I got it, I got it!

Like if I were a little girl, they told me over and over again, not for my birthday I’m allowed to do whatever I want, I must keep calm, take care of that shoulder and be with the kinesthetic tape all the time.

“I’m not joking Y/N.” Anton says, putting the tape over my shoulder, after he lets me stand, he hugs me. “Happy birthday.” When he splits, takes out a small bag from his back. “I hope you like it. Have fun, ok? You deserve it.” He said before leaving Liam and I alone.

“3 things.” He crosses his arms. “#1 Nothing extreme for that shoulder. #2 Not party late at night or drink alcohol in higher amounts.” I’m not a fan of drinking but it makes me giggle at his concerns.

“#3 No matter the time, place or distance, call me if you need me to pick you. Even if you are in the middle of the ocean, all right?” I laughed and raised my hand in promise.

“Happy birthday golden girl. We’re going to be in competition next year, I promise you that.” I hug Liam. “Have fun.”

 

“DON’T ISOLATE YOU!” Matt screams obligate me to split the cellphone of my ear. 

I told my family, the team and Liam I spent my birthday on a small tour around the country. Besides, I will see them in 1 week for Mia’s competitions where she is playing for the qualifier.

True to be told, I expect to sleep all weekend and eat all I like, free of restrictions.

“You can come, I mean, we’re not that far…” Yes, they are but Matt insisted I have a secure spot with them in the competition.

“With the press over me as they seem, not thanks.” The last time I spoke with the press I almost ended up at the border of tears, my hands shaking as I grip my arm. 

“Take care, ok? Happy birthday.” I hear Marie Anne call him as the sound of voices increases.

“I swear. Now, let me sleep.” The almost twelve hours of difference doesn’t help at all; he giggles before clearing his throat.

“I LOVE YOU!” I was ready this time, the cellphone was far away from my ear. 

My pleasant sleep didn’t last; at 5 am someone knocked on my door, after watching the clock I turned around covering my face trying to sleep; but again the knock on my door makes me stand cursing in low voice as I walk for open.

“GOOD MORNING!” You must be joking. I laid my head in the door.

“What?! It’s like 6 am!” Max gives me a peek on my forehead and gets in drag me as he grabs my wrist. 

“Let’s go.” Is he giggling?

“Go? Max listen I love having you here, you know that but, I really, really want to sleep.” We walk back to the bedroom but I lay back in the bed; Liam lately has intensified my training leaving me exhausted and almost dead by the weekend; clearly I’m out of my rhythm. 

“You can sleep, you just need to give me 10 minutes awake.” He squats next to me lifting a blue peony, instantly putting a smile on my face. 

“Happy official birthday.” He has that huge smile on his face. I gave up. 

“Ok, ok, can I at least change my clothes?” I leave the bed smiling at the flower, looking for something to change.

“You look pretty!” A full smile appears on my face and turns around before closing the door of the bathroom.

“And you’re the one who speaks.” He fully changed wearing his black jacket, white shirt and black jeans.

I fall asleep after I get in the car and he starts to drive. I woke up because the car stopped and I couldn't hear the diverse noise of the city.

“We’re here.” I open my eyes and sit straight, he notices my confusion because he giggles, opens the door and goes to the other side to open mine.

“Where are we exactly?” A small house surrenders around big trees and an open green land where flowers are growing beautifully.

“Olney. My vacation just started and you said all you want to do is rest and keep away from everything, so I think this will be a nice place.” I’m utterly fascinated by the view and the calming breeze is touching my face. “Besides we are not more than 30 minutes so if you need back…” 

I surround him with both of my arms around his waist. “It’s perfect, you don’t have to, thank you so much…But, I’m hungry now.”

Max smiles and giggles. “Me too.”

We speed the first day, around the house, just resting, walking down the fields, telling us stories of each other; and for the first time he told me about how hard his childhood was but all he been through made him be where he is right now, I see the switch of his bright blue eyes start to snuff out, so I tried to change the subject but he raise his face and when he saw me,smiles softly one more time.

“We don’t have to talk about this.” I comfort him by grabbing his hand. “When you are ready, I will be here, for hear you.” He nods, taking a deep breath.

All day I have texts and calls from my family and friends wishing me a happy birthday and a good recovery. At night we decided to go out on foot, the small house is not that far from the town and the weather is simply lovely. We enjoyed a nice dinner and he even stole some glances of people and some waves of hands, people trying to remain a proper distance.

As we walked back his curiosity about archery was so evident, he kept asking me questions about things he doesn’t have clear and some hangup I or the team have.

“Did you keep reading about this, huh?” I tease him as we approach the house, he shuggers trying to act cool.

“I mean, the girl I like is what? One of the best, I don’t say it, the score of each of one of the competitions supports my words, the minimum I h…” He starts rambling.

“The girl you like, huh?” I’m screaming inside, fighting for my life to not jump and scream like a little girl.

An intense blush appears in his face as I jostle with my right elbow. “Interesting.” He covers his face and stops trying to calm his nervous laugh, I keep walking and screaming in silence.

My shaking steps last a few seconds because Max runs and stands in front of me, taking me by surprise. I see determination in his eyes still, when his eyes found mine, turned into those soft blue eyes.

Max slowly leans toward me, I swear I stop breathing, his hands firmly at both sides of my face, I feel his lips brush against mine softly, just when I close my eyes he is kissing me with tenderness, I grip his jacket fearing if I don't hold onto something all this will disappear. 

He splits for a second, I don’t need to open my eyes to see his smile, all the feelings we contain release, he intensifies the kiss pulling me closer, the closest he could, even he takes me for surprise I return the kiss with the same intensity, I feel safe. 

I feel love.

The lack of hair made us splits, slightly breathless, as we tried to recover our breathing a small grin appeared on our faces. He lay his forehead on me, careness my face. 

“I definitely don’t expect our first kiss to be on the sidewalk.” I giggle and I see him in the eyes, I whisper so close to his lips “It’s perfect.” 

Max laughs and captures my lips one more time, his arm around my shoulders.

The smell of cinnamon and butter made my stomach growl; I slowly opened my eyes and I went to the kitchen where at plain sight you can see a mess, in the middle, Max Verstappen. 

“Mm, what are you doing?” I made him jump, letting the spoon fall from his hands. 

I chuckle and walk closer to him. “Breakfast…Well, I will try to make breakfast.” 

As I walk I see butter, eggshells, milk, cinnamon, bread and chocolate split all over the kitchen, and I get it, he tried to make french toast. Tried because at his left a small pile of black toast starts to accumulate.

“Can I help you?” I put my arms around his waist. He still focuses on turning the toast around. Maybe it was my imagination but he felt tense.

“Actually…” He turns off the stove and puts the pat aside to turn around and walk while sitting on the stool. “I want to talk to you about something.” 

He crosses his arms and fights to find the right words, then he begins to tell me that on the social media a rumour starts to circulate about him being spotted near Milton Keynes, not alone, there aren't any pictures but the buzz was really strong. 

I couldn't avoid it but my mind starts to work in the worst scenarios;I can deal with an angry press but I feel terrified about the simple thought that he is involved in something meaningful around me. He already deals with bad and meanings and sharp comments around him so adding something more is the least I want.

“Y/N?” I walk away from him trying to find calm, walking side to side. “I won't hide it.” He left me frozen in front of the fridge. “I don't care about the comments, the headlines...I won't hide this.” 

He takes a deep breath and looks straight into my eyes. “You are the most wonderful person I ever met, you're brave, strong, intelligent, cheerful…God I can speak about you for hours, I know you are scared about all the comments that could surround you, affect me or add something bad to me but you only bring me peace.” He smiles at me. “We're starting to build something wonderful, I don't let anyone hurt you, I promise.”

I walk to be in front of him, making him relax his shoulders. I'm scared but if he is willing to stand for us, I won't leave him alone on this, I will defend this even against my fears. “Ok. Let's do this.” His wide open smile appeared on his face and extended his arm, putting his hands around my waist and pulling me close to him.

“Let's be honest, my girlfriend is pretty impressive.” He rolls his eyes, following for a soft kiss on my lips.

“Girlfriend?” I put my arms around his neck, sitting, he’s almost at my height. “Is this your way of asking?” 

The soft pink appears in his cheeks. “You want more? Ok, I can do it.” I shake my head kissing his lips. 

“You already gave me something important.” I hugged him this time, making space for me to stand between his legs. “Thanks Max, thank you so much.”

He surrounded me with his arms, hiding his face on my neck. “Thi is now my favorite shirt.” I said, I'm wearing his white shirt with red letter where you can read <Out of office>

“Your?” He giggles, making us split. “This is for sure coming back with me.” Pointing the shirt.

“Burn my breakfast, now you want the shirt you gave last night, that's rude.” I smile at him, he tight his embrace around my waist. 

“I’m sorry but I’m not the one who forgot to bring pjs.” I forgot to pack pjs so he lent me a t-shirt which easily reached the middle of my thighs.

I giggled pretending to think. “I can easily convince you.” He raises his eyebrows, eyes wide open. “Want to see?” 

I grab his face between my thumb and my index finger pulling right to me, I feel him smiling and easily taking advantage, deepening the kiss holding me by my neck. 

He whispers to me.“It works.” 

The rest of the day we spend walking around the countryside, he prefers to disconnect on his free days and I love just being here, making all the perfect plan. By the afternoon a slight rain starts so we walk back home, where we  pick up our things. Max can be on his vacations but Anton and Liam wait for me for a long week of training before resting a full week at home.

Max was putting our bags in the car when Mia called me, a video call. “Hi there.” I answered the first view was Mia in our backyard, hair wet, tired eyes and eating a candy, clearly arriving for training.

“I get it!” I barely can understand those three words, she notices because she takes out the candy and repeats it. “I mean, it’s not super clean but I can get a 7 for that.”

Mia has changelle her this time for this competition adding a new dive; two and a half turns backwards with one and a half twist, even though she got it she has been fighting for making it look clean, and now she gets it.

“Omg, congratulations Mia, don’t show me, wait for me to see it live.” She nods before narrowing her eyes, smiling naughty.

“Did you have a nice birthday?” I shake my head, but I think for more than a second, and take the first step. Just when Max was about to pass in front of me, I grabbed his wrist and pulled next to me.

“Mia I want you to meet…” He is out of balance but I look at his eyes. “My boyfriend, Max.” He smiles at me, the kind smile made his eyes disappear. “Max, my noisy, little sister, Mia.” 

Mia's face is burning red, still she manages to smile and say hi to him. “I’m sorry if my sister is giving you headaches, but I swear you get used to the time.” Mia scrunch her nose mocking me.

“At all, she is… well, a moment of calm.” I feel his arms around my waist giving me a quick peck in my cheek that makes my eyes close.

“Darling?” The voice of my mother makes Mia and I open our eyes so big that it could almost fall; at her back my mother narrows her eyes as she walks closer to get a full view of me and Max.

“M…Mo…Mom.” The courage I had a few seconds ago now totally drains. “Hi.” She had that side smile, the kind of smile she always gives us when we are trapped in a mischief. 

“Hi.” It’s now or never. I did the same introduction just this time the timid version of Max appears, he politely salutes to my mom; she hears him all the time and asks a few innocent questions which he answers calmly.

“Does your father know?” Mom asks me with the same naughty smile of Mia.

“He will.” I answered confidently, making Mia and her look at each other and giggle.

“This will be an interest coming back.” Mom said before saying goodbye to Max. “See you soon honey.” She smiles and kisses the back of Mia's head. “Let them alone Mia, you should rest and eat properly.” She takes the candy Mia is eating, making her pout.

“MOM!” Mia whines, making us laugh. “Bye sis. Nice to meet you Max, treat her well.” Mia cuts the call as she keeps claiming for her candy.

I noticed a change in Max's behavior, he was strangely quiet on our way back, just looking at the road.

“Are you ok?” I ask him, he tries to relax but his shoulder looks so tense. “Max?” He takes a deep breath and pulls to the side of the road.

“I could do it better.” I scoff and he laughs looking at me. “Oh, I was so nervous, you see it right? I mean, I can barely answer without a shutter.” 

Max is known for his confidence to answer in front of thousands of cameras but in front of my mother I even feel his hand a little bit sweating. 

“Believe my mother was easy, my father well, that's the challenge.” He turns his sight to see me, panic in his eyes. I laugh and grab his hand intertwining our fingers. “I’m joking.” 

He laughs nervously, still the tension in his shoulder is visible. “Max it’s ok, just surprisingly for her.” Mia texts me mom is ok, just shocked by the news, asking her instantly about her silence and our complicity. “Believe as the time passes, you will get a nice surprise from her.” 

Max holds my hand tighter, still something in his mind. “Hey.” He saw me, full attention on me. “I like you too by the way.” 

This time I win a soft smile on his lips and a bonus when he sees me blushing.

A kiss in the car at the side road.

[seiko09]

— When you went out to buy something without the 2 of them knowing and ended up getting kidnapped

Pairings: Feitan x Reader x Shalnark

Ps: Feitan's first language is Chinese so he's still having trouble speaking

Warnings: Inappropriate words/ cursing

'Ugh... In a room and doing nothing is super boring.'Was all you can think at the current moment, suddenly your genius of a head thought of something.

"Why don't I... Go get food or something...?" You muttered as you stood up and went to change your clothes, after a while you came back looking casual but pretty at the same time.

'What can I say... My family genes are amazing.' You though at yourself as you look at yourself in the mirror.

Snapping back to reality, you grab your purse and headed out of your room, you headed to the living room thinking both of your boyfriends are there but instead of Feitan and Shalnark you saw Phinks.

"Oi fei- Oh... Y/n, you're all dressed up. What's the occasion?" Phinks asked as he raised his eyebrows "Ah, Im going to buy some food or something that may caught my eye. And where's Fei and Shal?" You replied and added a question.

"Oh that's good, And both of them went to a mission." Phinks explained as you nod "Alright, Ill head out! Do tell Fei and Shall that i went out to buy something." I said as i walk away.

"I got you. Stay safe" Phinks replied as he went back to what he was doing.

—————

You we're now walking at the streets as you were looking around, suddenly one store full of fruits caught your eye so you directly went to it and checked it.

"Ah, are these mango fresh?" You asked as you grab one mango, The seller nods "Why yes, they are fresh. They just got delivered 1 hour ago." The seller said as you nod and looked at the mango.

"Ill buy 12 mangoes please" You said as the seller nod and took 12 mangoes and put them on a reusable bag and handed it to you.

"That would be *Amount* ¥" The seller said as you pay for the mangoes, after that you began walking back to the streets to find more interesting shops.

Suddenly you felt someone put a clothe in your nose and mouth, you being you hit their side with your elbow and run away.

Thinking you we're far from them you sighed in relief and looked at the reusable bag that has the mangoes inside.

"Aish, good thing the mango-" before you could even finish your sentence you suddenly fall unconscious.

——————

Back with the troupe:

Feitan and Shalnark came back from their mission, they went to your shared room expecting to see you there.

But when they opened the door, you we're nowhere to be found so they decided to check the other rooms but you weren't there.

They walk to the living room and found Phinks playing a video game, so they decided to ask "Hey, Phinks. Where's Y/n?" Shalnark asked "Y/n, no in the room" Feitan added.

"Ah? Y/n went out to buy some stuff which she told me to tell you both." Phinks said still focus on his game "What? Why didnt you say it then?" Shalnark said with a 'are you serious' face

"You didnt ask until now" Phinks snap back "y/n told you, say it to us" Feitan said as he groaned in irritatedly as Phinks rolled his eyes "Whatever."

5 HOURS HAS PASSED

Feitan and Shalnark was getting worried, because you still haven't returned. Usually when you go out it only takes you 2 hours not 5 hours.

Shalnark was pacing back and fourth around the living room while Feitan was tapping his foot while leaning against the wall.

"Can you both calm down? Im sure she was enjoying her time thats why she's taking so long!" Phinks said as he irritatedly sighed.

"You no know her. She go 2 hours only!" Feitan glared at him while talking "Yes, even if she did enjoyed it. The max time if she enjoyed going out is 3 hours!" Shalnark added as he irritatedly grumbled.

"What if-" Before phinks can finish his sentence a letter flew in the room "What the actual f*ck? How'd did this fly here?" Phinks asked.

"Tch. Magic of course." Feitan replied as Shalnark opened the letter "Hey! Careful it might be poisonous!" Phinks yelled at Shalnark "If it was i should've been dead by now." Shalnark said sarcastically as he read the letter.

"What the hell." Shalnark said as he threw the letter "What? What in the letter?" Feitan asked raising his eyebrows and read the letter and crumb fold the paper and threw it at the trash.

"Lets go." Shalnark said as his whole demeanor changed from playful to serious as walked out the room as Feitan followed.

"What the actual shit. They kidnapped Y/n?!" Phinks yelled as he reads the letter that was thrown in the trash and followed after the 2 of them.

"We're going there without a plan? Without boss's permission?" Phinks asked as he catched up with Feitan and Shalnark.

"Tch. Personal life. Boss no decide." Feitan replied as Phinks rolled his eyes and they continue to go to the place where the letter was from.

——————————

The 3 of them arrived at a abandon building "Damn. This place look haunted" Phinks said as he judge the place.

"Stop talking. Lets find Y/n" Shalnark said sternly as he enter the abandon building as Feitan followed him.

'Y/n's a lucky woman to have a boyfriend who will not hesitate to save her' Phinks thought as he smiled and follow after them.

——————-————

They started searching around the quiet building, suddenly they heared some soft whimper of pain.

This alerted the 3 of them as they followed the sound to where it was coming from and saw you tied up in a chair with a lot of bruises and blood coming out of the wound in your arms.

Shalnark and Feitan's blood boiled seeing you in this state, meanwhile phinks was literally at the edge off punching a wall, He may not show that he cares for you but he grew closer to you and sees you as his little sister.

"Fuck. Lets kill them." Phinks mutters as he walks to the room you were in alerting the people in the room.

Feitan and Shalnark followed him as the people/mans in the room attacks them, which they handled them easily.

Feitan and Shalnark went to you to untie and check you as Phinks was still punching the lifeless body of the peoples to make sure they suffer 10x of what you suffered.

"Sorry. We not save you fast." Feitan mutters softly as Shalnark grab one jacket he brought just in case, and wrap it around you.

"Yes, sorry love..." Shalnark added as Feitan hugged you gently "I-Its... Alr.. ight" You mutter as smile weakly.

"Lets get out of here." Phinks said as he look at you "Im not letting you get out of my sight again." He added as he walk away making you chuckle softly.

Shalnark and Feitan smiled at you as Shalnark carry you bridal style as Feitan followed behind both of you to guard if there's someone planning to attack.

——————-————

Arriving back at their base and treating your wounds as you wince.

"It alright... No hurt... Few more..." Feitan said as he watch Shalnark treat your wound, You just nod as Shalnark finished treating your wound.

"Its alright now love..." Shalnark said as he pat your head, Feitan pat his lap instructing you to lay on his lap.

Which you did as Shalnark smiled and hug you.

——————-————

And so after that they made sure to keep a close eye on you and never left your side

[thissying]

Max interview with Frank Woestenburg, Formule1 magazine, Dutch GP Special 2023

(translation by me. please don't repost elsewhere.)

Max, do you ever think about the life you lead? You’re 25 years old, a two-time F1 world champion, title number 3 is on its way and one record after another is shattering. You’re living your dream, so to speak. Aren’t you ever afraid that anything that comes your way after F1 won’t give you the same satisfaction, kick or adrenaline?

“It will be different, I’m aware of that but maybe that’s a good thing. There’s always a lot of pressure on you during a race weekend, and that’s year after year. Maybe it’s actually nice to, at some point, just do the things you enjoy doing and be relaxed about it.

A lot of people say I will miss this life and the pressure it brings. My dad says it, too. But personally, I don’t think so. When you’ve done this often and for a long time, you’re done at some point. Not now, of course, but there will come a time when it’s enough. Don’t forget: I started in go-karts when I was four. One day you will start wondering when constantly having to extract the best out of yourself to achieve the highest will end.”

I understand that but it’s become your second nature. You don’t just switch that off.

“True, I don’t know any different. And in other areas I will probably be wanting to get the best out of myself. But when something doesn’t work out later, it’s not a disaster. It’s all a bit more relaxed.”

You’ve been critical of the busy F1 calendar several times, the constant travelling, the downsides of being well-known. At some point…

“…it’s been enough, yeah. I’ve always said 24 race weekends is a lot. It’s not just the races but everything around makes it hard. All the marketing activities, simulator days, personal sponsor obligations. You don’t actually have any free days left.”

So often it really feels like a challenge.

“Yeah, and I talk about it very often with the people around me. Those are all things that play part in the decision on how long you will continue. Of course I’m happy to be in the position to be able to make those decisions for the future myself. The goal was always to become world champion and win races. That’s been achieved. I’ve said it before: anything that comes after that, is a bonus.”

As if you’re not busy enough, recently you’ve also got the Verstappen.com Racing project that you’re investing a lot of time in.

“That too, but that is actually something that gives me energy.”

Can you tell me what the project Verstappen.com Racing entails?

“It’s still in its infancy. Through Verstappen.com Racing we sponsor and support several race activities of people close to me with council and advice. It all started with sim racing with Team Redline. A lot of people still think that sim racing isn’t professional, but it’s very serious and I really spend a lot of hours to get everything right and trying to beat everyone. Besides that, we’re also active in DTM and GTWC Sprint with Thierry Vermeulen and my dad in rallying, but the ultimate goal is to set up a race team. We’ll start in GT3 and then we’ll see where it ends. If it ends…”

“When I do something, I want to do it right. I want to win, with this as well. And it’s about creating a stepping stone from sim racing to GT3. So that you can’t only reach autosport through karting, because that costs a ridiculous amount of money at the moment. Compared to that, sim racing is a lot cheaper. And of course, such a switch is possible. It has happened before, but it’s never really been really successful, for several reasons. I believe that, when you go about everything very professionally, you can build up a beautiful racing career through sim racing.”

How do you envisage the structure? Will Team Redline be called Team Verstappen.com Racing, for example?

“No, not that, but in the end the two will be connected. And not everyone in the sim-team can handle a real race car, but the few guys who I think do have that potential, I want to help along, like with the GT3 team for example. I think GT3 is a nice category, in which you can drive all the appealing endurance races. A junior class for Formula cars doesn’t appeal to me. Formula 3, Formula 2… you don’t get enough driving time while it costs a lot of money. In the GT3 class you drive a lot more races, but there’s a different atmosphere. A bit more relaxed.”

And what are the future ambitions, assuming your own GT3-team is the first step?

“Well, you never know how things will go, but there’s always ambition. It depends on how many good people we will have in the team and how much know-how there is, but it would be nice if we grow to the highest level in endurance racing.”

You once said you wanted to take part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Of course you will be doing that in a car of your own team?

“Yeah, that would be awesome wouldn’t it? Who knows.”

When it comes to Verstappen.com Racing, you’re involved in every decision, so the design of the logo as well. The link with Red Bull is very visible in it.

“I think it’s two beautiful brands together. If I can imagine ever driving for a different team in Formula 1? Well, not at the moment, no.”

Do you have a time-frame in mind for the further development of Verstappen.com Racing?

"Absolutely, we’re very busy with that at the moment. The next step is our own GT3-team. Next year is going to be tight, but I want it as soon as possible. A GT3-team in 2025, that should be do-able. With a minimum of two cars then.”

You’re talking about 2025, that’s very soon.

“We’re well under way. We’re passed the planning stage. We’re already in action mode.”

That must be an exciting prospect for you, your own team. But what role do you see for yourself? Team boss? Team manager?

“I don’t see myself as a Christian Horner per sé. But I do want to know and be involved in everything, advise and sometimes be at races physically, if it fits with the schedule. Mostly, it’s important to have the right people in the right places. For myself, I see mostly an advisory role, where I will also be critical.

If I would be more a Christian Horner type of team principal or more a Guenther Steiner type? Haha, I think neither. I think I’m more like my dad. In the past, when I was little, I always said: ‘I’m not like my dad’. But as I’m getting older, I notice more and more how much I am like him. How much energy I put into things to get them just right, how serious I can be about that and how much time I spend on it. That eternal need for perfection I got from him. In the end, those are only good traits, I think. There are a lot of talented people in the world, but there are also a lot of lazy people. The people who settle for second or third best, usually drop out. And it’s the people who hate becoming second or third, who always keep going, who never give up, who will make it.”

Let me guess, it’s the last category of people you will want in your team?

“Of course! That’s already the case with Team Redline. You always want people who work harder than anyone else. You see that at Red Bull too, actually.”

Are you already scouting for the right people?

“We’re looking. Not just me, but my dad as well. It’s nice that I can involve him in this. And he thinks it’s a beautiful project. He now drives rally under the Verstappen.com Racing flag, but it makes sense his role extends beyond that. We’re still working out the details, but a mentor-like part would suit him well and he likes the idea.”

What do you think of your dad having started driving rally racing?

“I think it’s nice. He needs the adrenalin and that’s okay, but rally racing is dangerous, too. He’s had some serious shunts already. But I do like seeing it and he’s very serious about it. It wouldn’t be my thing. Driving across a terrain with a rally car is fun, but those stages driving between trees and houses, no, that’s not my thing. I haven’t sat beside him yet either. I trust my dad with a lot of things, but that prospect is not as appealing.

Speaking of risks and safety: the fatal accident of Dilano van ‘t Hoff at Spa had a big impact on everyone, on you too. These are moments of reflection. When you look at yourself, do you handle risks differently from when you were young?

“I don’t know, but you’re thinking process is different. I know what I was like when I drove Formula 3. There was no fear. I don’t have that now either, but I do think more about the consequences of my actions. What would happen if… Back then, you never thought about that, you drove purely on instinct. I’m not talking about Dilano now, because he got hit by someone else, but generally speaking, as a junior driver you take more wild risks than at a later age.”

The accident got a lot of people thinking. Like, should you as a parent put your kids in a go-kart?

“Those thoughts are logical, but on a bike in Amsterdam your kid can also get run over. Risks are part of life or you put yourself in a body cast and sit at home. But of course you think about it. Me too, yes.

When the news about Dilano came out, I posted a message on social media. A while later, I saw Dilano’s sister had replied: ‘Max, you were his great role model. Thank you for this message.’ That reaction did something to me. Then I immediately think about my own family too for a minute. You think: Shit, if this had happened to me, then they… You really think: Fuck.”

Do you then, for example, talk about the autosport risks at home with your girlfriend Kelly?

“No, not that. She comes from a racing family herself and knows what autosport entails. As far as that is concerned, she’s seen enough of it in her family. After his Formula 1 career in 1992, her dad (Nelson Piquet) was in a serious crash ahead of the Indy 500 and had severe injuries on his feet and legs. The danger is just always there. She knows it, I know it. But you can also slip in the shower and break your neck. Unreal things happen sometimes. So at the track too, unfortunately.”

Back to racing then. One record after another is shattering. In England, Helmut Marko said he’s no longer keeping track of all your records, but also that you say you don’t care about them but that in the meantime you do know most of them by heart. What’s up with that?

“Of course I know where most drivers are and which records there are, but truly, I’m not that preoccupied with it. Records also have to do with having the luck of having a good car for a longer period of time. If I’ve got a good car for seven or eight years, I know many more records will be broken. But in the end, I don’t care about them. I didn’t come to Formula 1 to break records, I started driving Formula 1 to win. The first is just a consequence of the second, usually.”

A record does mean a milestone every time though. That you’ve passed a legend like Ayrton Senna when it comes to Grand Prix victories, surely that does mean something to you?

“Yes, but even that record… These days there are a lot more races than in the past. And like I said, you’re dependant on the material. I deliberately put it into perspective. For me, other things are more important. Like always beating your team mate, for example. That is and will remain the most important thing. And that’s going pretty well, yeah.”

Your successes make you very popular in big parts of the world, with The Netherlands at the top of the list of course, but one country isn’t the same as the other. How well-known are you in Monaco, where you live?

“I do get approached there regularly when I’m outside, usually by tourists. But it’s a lot more relaxed than in The Netherlands. Being out on the streets for two minutes is still possible.”

Do you see yourself, later, after your F1 career, ever moving back to Belgium or The Netherlands, to Maaseik for example?

“No, I’m really enjoying myself in Southern France. Of course, there are certain things I miss. ‘Frites speciaal’ [fries special: Dutch fries with mayonnaise, combined with either ketchup or curry sauce and sprinkled with chopped white onion], the local cuisine, haha. And of course my family and friends. But on the other hand: when I’m done racing, I will have more time anyway for weekends and holidays with friends and other fun things. I’m really looking forward to that free time.”

[wildemaven]

. . . The Rest

Paring: Frankie Morales x HairstylistF!Reader

WC: 2846

Warning: T; mentions of food, drinks, coffee, divorce, anxiety feelings.

A/N: This follow up is for the sweet @heythere-mel Because what happened after Frankie called?! I didn’t really have an intention of writing more but then Mel asked and my brain started spinning with more. And as I was writing this I was like, could this be the beginning of Weekends with Frankie and how they came to be (like if you squint just a little you can see it right??). Anyways, this isn’t beta’d and probably is a jumbled mess, my head feels like stuffed to the max, but thankfully on the mend. Enjoy.

Masterlist / Series Masterlist / Previous / Next

“It’s not— weird is it? It’s only been…”

His voice has a relaxed tone to it, shifting in his bed to catch the time on the bedside clock, its bright red numbers glowing against the darkness that is his bedroom— 12 am.

“Shit! We’ve been on the phone for 3 hours now!”

“Oh wow! Doesn’t really feel like it though. What were you saying about being weird?”

You immediately answered Frankie’s call on your drive home, picking up where you had left off at the sports bar. You both found you had an endless amount of things to talk about, never that awkward silence, each topic flowing from one to the next with ease.

“Oh yeah. You don’t find it weird wanting more time with someone you only just met? I don’t know what it is, but I just— I just feel so drawn to you in such a short amount of time.”

“Weird is someone not liking pineapple on their pizza.”

“That’s it— Sorry, it was nice knowing you…” You can’t help but laugh at his dramatics.

“Oh, shut up! I’ll eat your pineapple pieces Frankie!”

He’s right though, it feels like it should be a little weird how things are playing out, that you both hit it off so soon and can’t get enough of each other. And yet sometimes life has a way of making things work and it’s better to go with it than fight it.

“When can I see you again?”

A small yawn escapes before you can respond. “Hmm, when do you want to see me again?”

“Today.”

You laugh at that because it’s nearing 1 am and you can’t wrap your head around the fact that you went to work yesterday like any other day and now your talking on the phone like some giddy high schooler. It all just feels like a dream you don’t want to wake up from.

“Anyone ever told you you’re cute?”

“Yeah actually, my hairdresser said the same thing just yesterday.” You can’t see it, but you know that damn dimple has caved in just the perfect amount, paired with that incredible smile of his.

“Oh my god, Frankie! Are you going to hold that over my head forever?!”

“Forever sounds nice.” He says just above a whisper and there’s a soft emotion behind the way he says it..

“Frankie…” You feel dizzy, intoxicated by the affect Frankie is starting to have on you.

He says your name and your heart flutters at the way it falls from his mouth, a feeling you want to know for as long as you can.

“What is this? This thing happening between us? I mean— I like whatever it is.”

“Hmm— I like… whatever this is too. Feels— right. I haven’t felt this way about anyone in a long time.” You can’t help but smile at his confession, situating yourself further into your stack of pillows.

“So, you want to see me today?”

“Yeah, I’d really like too...” He tries to conceal his yawn. “Can I meet you for coffee? Say— 10:30?? I can text you the name of the place that has the best pastries in town.”

“That sounds perfect!”

“Alright, time for bed now beautiful.”

“You think I’m beautiful?” Your teeth catch your bottom lip, you definitely feel like a giddy high schooler.

“Yeah, I really do.”

“What am I going to do with you Frankie?”

“Let me take you to coffee— then we can figure it out.”

“Okay. Goodnight Frankie.”

“Night.”

You tuck yourself in, thoughts of today still running through your mind, Frankie at the forefront of them. Your limbs heavy as you drift off into an array of vivid colors, movie like imagery tickling your eyes with each breath you take in slipping further into a suspended realm.

*

Frankie already waiting for you when you pull into the parking lot of the cute little coffee shop he’d text you first thing this morning. Leaning up against his truck, his relaxed posture makes him somehow look more attractive. A comfy green shirt hugs his broad shoulders, his flexed forearms crossed over his chest— one sleeve pushed up just enough to see the pull of the muscles and tendons on display.

“Good morning beautiful.” He greets you with a smile as he pushes himself forward towards you, welcoming your arrival.

“Hey there handsome.” You’d practically skipped the rest of the way to him. All giggles and smiles when you finally got to where he’s standing.

Your arms around his waist, securing yourself to him, his hands clasped around your jaw as he leans in for a kiss. His lips tender and patient as they mold against yours.

“Mmm, I’ve been looking forward to that— it’s kinda becoming my favorite thing.” You smile against his mouth.

“Yeah??” Pulling you back in for seconds, savoring how you completely melt against him.

“Hi.” He says as his thumb brushes against your jaw, taking in your features up close in the morning light.

“Hey.” Your fingers find their way into his hair instinctually, he decided to forego his hat today, his effort in styling not lost on you. “Your hair looks good, I like it like this.” Combing a few strands off his forehead.

“Thanks. I tried to recreate what you did— I’ll get the hang of it eventually. Just know though, the hat will be making an appearance from time to time.”

“Hat or no hat— I truly like both.”

Frankie isn’t use to the heavy dose of compliments you keep sending him, but he likes the way he feels when you say them and finds himself feeling a sort of way about you when you do— he tucks the sentiment away for the time being.

*

You situate yourself into a little table near a window, the sound music and coffee-goers competing against each other. The baristas busy filling orders behind the counter— running through the motions of pulling shots of espresso, frothing milks and dishing out bags and bags filled with what look like delicious pastries. Frankie is in line waiting for the order— he insisted on paying, so you let him. From where you’re sitting you can see him among the waiting customers. Hands in his pockets, his profile on display for your viewing pleasure. He must sense your staring, glancing over at you and throws a wink your way— collecting his little gestures over the last day has you feeling a certain emotion, it’s starting to consume you in the best way.

Placing the two coffees, an oatmilk latte for you and rich black for him, on the table along with the freshly baked croissants he wanted you to try.

Frankie settles in his chair, his long legs barely have enough room to fit comfortably, his knee slightly knocking into yours. He goes to shift away as he begins to apologize, but your hand rests on his thigh as you tell him it’s okay. The contact is brief, but long enough to feel an electric shock of bliss zip through his body.

“So what are your plans for the week?” He asks, trying to break through the bustling noise of the coffee shop.

His question catches you mid bite. The buttery soft croissant nearly melts in your mouth, the flaky bits soft and moist paired with the crunchy texture of the caramelized sugar topping— a perfect balance of sweet and savory.

“Mmmm! This is so good!” Trying to wipe away the crumbs from your mouth before you answer him. “Not much really going on. Tomorrow is my usual day to get my week ready— picking up needed supplies and cleaning house are how most Monday’s are for me. Then a busy week of clients. What about you?”

He takes a drink of his coffee and you catch the way his adam’s apple shifts a bit as he swallows, the prominent features on his neck drawing you in as he begins to speak.

“Have a few flights scheduled throughout the week, that will keep me busy with prepping and air time. Then helping Benny at the gym a few nights.”

“You help him train?”

“I try. I’m usually just a human punching bag. But whatever it takes to get him a win.” He’s says so nonchalantly with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

“I’m sure he really appreciates it though. Having a friend like you supporting him inside and outside of the ring.”

“Yeah— I guess so.” Finishing off the rest of his coffee. “You’ll have to come sometime— catch one of his fights. There’s a few local ones coming up.”

“I’d like that. Thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for?”

“For inviting me into your life with out a second thought. Feeling comfortable enough to bring me into your circle of friends. I mean I already know the other guys obviously, but I appreciate you asking me to be apart of that space with them.”

“Of course.” His hand grabbing for yours, pulling you closer so he can kiss your temple— tender and soft. “Plus, the more people in Benny’s corner, the better he does.”

“Good to know. I’ll make sure to invite Hannah, she’ll lose her mind over a caged up Benny, I’m sure.”

The rest of the date is spent divulging more into each other’s lives. Sharing embarrassing moments as kids. your favorite of his being when he locked his little sister in the bathroom with wet cat food and crackers telling her it was tuna— you hadn’t laughed that hard in awhile.

Another round of coffee brought more questions and more stories from yours and Frankie’s past. He touched on his recent divorce, and you learned that it wasn’t due to one particular issue, they just grew apart early on and knew splitting was the best thing. Frankie had shared his apprehension to dating, worried he would repeat the same cycle if he was to fall in love and marry again, but he was working through it in therapy and finding that his thoughts were his worst critic sometimes— you could relate to that. You could sit and listen to him talk about anything, the way Frankie shares with so much heart and sincerity could hold your attention for an endless amount of time.

Nothing seems to exist around you as time passes. His presence envelops you in a bubble, makes you feel like you and him are the only ones in this space.

After coffee, you exchange goodbyes and a less than chaste kiss, your back against your car door as Frankie’s expansive frame cages you in as you grip on to him fearing you might just float away entirely. You both make a plan to set up seeing each other sometime during the coming week. You’re already dreading the time in between until you see him again.

*

Before you knew it, Monday rolled into Tuesday and it was back servicing clients for the week.

The day was steady, leaving ample time in between appointments for short breaks and quick text exchanges to Frankie.

Frankie: miss you. Hope you’re having a great day.

-Miss you too handsome. Hope this morning’s flight was great.

Frankie: It was. The sunrise was almost as beautiful as you are 😉

-Quite the charmer you are Morales.

Frankie: I try.

Finishing up a color service, you take your color bowls and brushes to the back room to clean and sanitize. Checking the time, you have 30 minutes before the next client arrives— a cut and blow-out.

You hear the familiar sound of the front door opening alerting the arrival of someone, knowing Hannah’s at the front desk you don’t bother to check, allowing her to greet them.

*

“Welcome in, how can I help you sir.” Hannah always does her best to welcome everyone with her cheerful voice.

“Hi, I’m Frankie. I’m here…”

“Frankie?”

“Y-yes?”

“The Frankie? The Frankie that my girl has been texting me about for the last several days?”

“If we are talking about the same person, then guilty.”

“Hi, Frankie, I’m Hannah.” She introduces herself after her barrage of questioning.

“Hannah?? So you’re the cute receptionist Benny has been going on about. Nice to finally meet you.”

“Benny talks about me?!” If she wasn’t already sitting, she would have fallen to the floor at the mention of Benny Miller thinking of her.

“He does.” Frankie chuckles at Hannah’s flustered state.

“I’ll go get our girl. Be right back.”

*

“Hey! There’s a guy up front, says he knows you.” She’s got this look about her as she says it.

You look at he, brows furrowed in confusion, you weren’t expecting anyone and you still had plenty of time until your next client.

“He’s very attractive… Goes by the name Frankie. You know him??” Her melodramatic tone is too much as she fans at her face with her hands.

“You are the worst!”

“But you love me!” Fluttering her eyelashes as she tries to play innocent.

“Sometimes against my better judgment.”

*

As you walk to the front, you can’t help but be captivated by Frankie. The light shining through the front window was the perfect radiant backdrop to his beautiful silhouette. You can feel the excitement start to come to life the moment he turns and you see that charming smile of his.

“Hey! What are you doing here?”

“I got off early and was looking for an excuse to see you.”

“What’s that you got there?” Pointing to the two coffees and what you can only assume is a bag filled with those delicious croissants.

“My excuse to see you. Thought you could use a little pick me up. Also wanted to see if you’re free Saturday evening to watch Benny’s fight.” He says holding up the coffees and pastry bag.

“You alone are the perfect pick me up. And yes, I’d love to go— it’s a date.” Grabbing one of the coffees before stealing a kiss.

“Uh, I wasn’t sure what you liked Hannah— so I just got two of the same thing.” Placing the second latte on the front desk.

Your heart swelled at the gesture. Stopping by to bring you a treat, to see you— a drive that’s out of his way. And then to bring a coffee for Hannah. What is this man doing to you??

“He’s handsome and brings coffee??” Hannah grabs the cup and begins to leave, but not before saying over her shoulder, “Marry him, now!”

Frankie and you laugh at the remark- but you’re teetering on the edge of insecurity. It was a silly thing to say considering your brief dating— if you could call it that and the thought of it didn’t sound like the worse thing either. But your previous partners were never at a point in their lives where marriage or serious relationships were ever a priority, always making you feel ridiculous and that you were the problem in every equation. But you knew it was something you wanted eventually, when the time was right. You just hoped that you weren’t forcing something on to Frankie to think about so soon.

You’re brain starts doing that thing where it’s already preparing for the worst. You just know he is going to be annoyed with what just happened and decide that this isn’t what he truly wasn’t. He’ll tell you this was only supposed to be a casual thing, it would never become anything serious. You can feel your chest clenched at the thought of him calling it off right here in the middle of the salon. Old feelings and insecurities bubbling to the surface, but you try to pull yourself together, you’ll deal with this problem later.

“Sorry about her. Uh, She can be a bit much sometimes.” You can feel your face becoming hot, picking at your fingers like you tend to do when you’re nervous.

“No— no it’s fine. I can see why Benny likes her. She’s— quirky.”

He can’t help but take in the mix of emotions dancing across your face. Sensing the nervousness stirring with in you after Hannah’s comment, and he can’t help but think it has you feeling fearful and unsure. He wants you to know he isn’t feeling flighty because of it either.

“Hey, look at me.” Pulling your attention back to him fully. “It’s okay, what she said. It doesn’t bother me.”

“Sorry, got in my head for a second. My damn self-sabotage rearing it’s head again.”

Relief washes over you. Sure it doesn’t mean anything is happening right now, but you’re glad to know that the thought of being serious moving forward isn’t something Frankie would turn down.

“Come here.” His arms become a security blanket to your uncertainty. Strong enough to withstand any threat against your own enemies. He feels safe and you like that he wants to be a part of what ever this growing connection between you becomes.

You nuzzle right into the crook of his neck, his skin warm and inviting. You want to stay wrapped up like this for as long as you can.

“Umm— if you and your boyfriend could wrap it up. I’ve got work to do and I’d rather not be front row to whatever is happening up here.” Hannah and her innate ability to make herself known.

“Hmm— Boyfriend??” Frankie says, as if he’s asking you for your opinion on the title.

“Boyfriend?”

“I kinda like the way it sounds.”

“Me too.”

Next

[enpr-ss]

1 HOUR LONG RUN?! HE WOULDNT FARM THAT LONG WOULD HE?

He doesn’t recognize the bony ravagers lol. “You gotta feed the ravagers they’re skins and bones!” LOL.

Also the amount of cards he has is just visually intimidating.

The joy in his voice every time loot n scoot plays.

He just can’t stop hitting these pressure plates. LOL HE THREW A BERRY INSTEAD OF THE COMPASS. dude needs to stop jumping onto the pressure plates. He’s just booking it out because he’s scared. And of course he gets bounding strides as he is being chased by a ravager to go right over the jump boost wall. HOW DID HE FALL IN JUMP BOOST?!? THERES LITERALLY A JUMP BOOST BYPASS FOR THE CHAIN PARKOUR. AND HE DOES IT AGAIN!!! DOES HE NOT KNOW ABOUT THE PATH? He could have made it on the second try but now the ravager’s there.

Ravager ping pong is always so funky to watch. What do you mean very hard to do with bounding strides etho please. THERES A BYPASS SPECIFICALLY FOR BOUNDING STRIDES. how does he fall into the same pit 3 times WITH bounding strides. HE GOT BOUNDING STRIDES AGAIN?!? AND HES GOING TO WAIT FOR IT TO END BEFORE GETTING OUT?!? WHY. I’m having a breakdown watching this. I’m losing my mind. Tango is also correct; there’s other ways besides the chain parkour and he has jump boost AND armor. He can take 2 ravager hits. “But they’re not blocked because you have jump boost, skippy” TANGO LOL.

Is this really our champion. The best player. The winner of phases 3 and 4?

“We’re going to get it first try” *takes berry damage* AND HE FALLS DOWN FOR FOURTH TIME. THE RAVAGER ISNT EVEN INTERESTED IN HIM ANYMORE BUT GETS LINE OF SIGHT BECAUSE HE LINGERED TOO LONG ON THE WRONG END. How does someone fall into the same pit 5 times. He was almost out of there. “How many times can I fail this?” “You’ve surprised me so far” Tango absolutely obliterating this man. Good. And he finally realizes the jump boost bypass. The regret in his voice. Delicious. He’s begging, weeping and wailing and cowering in the pit. Keep it coming this is fantastic. “I’m safe to come up now” as the ravagers wanders closer LOL. THE DUNGEON TRULY IS YANKING HIS CHAIN HAHAHAA. where are your Jedi mind tricks now Etho? Look at him yelling and pleading with the ravager. Pearl logging in just to roast him. We love it. NOW THERE ARE TWO RAVAGERS LOL. IM LAUGHING SO HARD IM CRYING. He’s overloaded with sounds and no one has any pity for him. We’re too busy laughing. Kangaroo Master LOL. NUMBER 6 HAHAHA

lackey on demand for 30 crowns honestly not a bad idea. LET HER IN!! LET HER KILL! 7 times. This is a farce. “That was a bad booping.” That llama idea by Pearl is brilliant. The shame, the humiliation of dying by being literally spat on. Definitely should be the path of the coward death. Meatball and Snausages LOL.

New plan to live in the dungeon? DUNGEON LET’S PLAY CUB HAHAHA.

AND TANGO GOES IN JUST TO PUNCH HIM. OH MY GOD. PEAK COMEDY. “I can’t believe this. It’s ridiculous at this point. What are you doing?” Eat your own words Etho.

AND HE’S OUT!!! AFTER LIKE 20 MINUTES. Is he literally going to go camp the berry bush. Just live in the treat or trick hut. I’m losing it. IS HE GOING TO RUTSY? I HATE HIM SO MUCH. 12 CROWNS AND 53 EMBERS?!?! DIE. “Just a little more berries and I’ll go just trust me IM GOING Don’t let Gem in” most pathetic man ever.

HES JUST BEELINIG TO ALL BERRIES LOL. AND THE RAVAGER IN THE WATER HAZARD IN THE CRYPT AGAIN. NOT AGAIN. NOT THIS CAMPING AGAIN.

“Oh no you might hit max clank soon” tango stop LOL. “Which year?” LOL. THE HAZARD BERRY BUSH IS INSANE. IT REGREW INSTANTLY TWICE. AND HES JUST THROWING COINS AND KEYS INTO THE LAVA.

AND HE FAILS!! AND DIES TO A VEX!! YAY!!!! GET HIM GEM!!! GET HIS ASS!!

A lava bucket at max clank! Making it worse for himself! Etho’s run was so long that the server died HA.

This run as long as one of my reaction posts.

[natzomi]

Ok there are two things in the 3 specials with the 14th doctor that realy anoy me.

Donna beeing able to just "let it go" and beeing ok

And the two tardises at the end

So in this probably very long and maby very confusing post ill try to fix them (aka write down how i would have done it with zero ofense or bad intent towards the people who wrote the actual episodes cause i still love them)

So we start with the donna problem cause it anoyes me the most. For this the star beast happens the same up until the scene where dr. Donna lets go of her timelord powers.

Instead of that the doctor manages to "contain" the timelord part of donna (and rose) and seal it away in her brain or something (i dont know. Its docor who it doesnt need to make sense) That gives them a unknown amount of time to get it out completly.

Donna and the doctor jump into the tardis to find a way to save her, coffee gets spiled, tardis goes crazy and basicly wild blue yonder happens exactly the same (maby a bit mor angst because of the still ongoing donna problem)

Then in the giggle we start to see donna get realy effekted by it. She has a constand head ache (makes her finding out the musik thing even more impressiv) and this beeing one of the reasons the doctor wants her to go back to the tardis in the toymakers shop (not only is he facing one of his most powerfull enemys but his friend is not in the best shape to deal with it as well wich stresses him out so hard)

Then the rest of the episode goes on normaly. They meet and play angainst the toy maker, he has his musical moment, the bigeneration happens and they win.

But instead of the price for them beeing the toymaker put in a box and the second tardis (yes i consider the second tardis as a price from the toymaker deal with it) 14ths price is donna and rose geting fixed and 15th gets to put the toymaker in a box for eternaty.

This way you get a storry line that goes throu all 3 episodes and fixes donna in a more rewarding maner than the way they did it in the show.

But you may now ask: "but natzomi if you think the secon tardis 15 gets at the end is a price for the doctor but in this version they both already got a reward then how do they both get a tardis?" And to you i say: they are the same tardis. But ✨️timetravel✨️

Like i said i dont like that there are two tardises at the end of the specials (yes i also said i think its a reward from the toymaker but that doesnt mean i like it. Why? I dont know i just think its a litle lazy and you could have done more with that)

Sooooooo to fix that problem you would need to add or change like only a hand full of scene.

Basicly the entity of star beast and wild blue yonder is the same no change there. But at the beginning of the giggle you add a litle scene (like 20 seconds max.) where the doctor notices a scratch on the console or a broken button or something that basicly doesnt stop the tardis from working in any way and he writes it of as the tardis having missed that while fixing herself or that she hurried back to get them in wild blue yonder. The rest of the episode continues normaly untill the end when they disgust the problem that 14 and 15 dont want to travel together, they are standing outside the tardis talking and then Boom. Out of nowhere a second tardis apears. They didnt do anything its just there. The exakt same tardis exept for that scrath on the console that only exists on the first tardis (the one we see throut the whole episode)

15 gets the one with no scrath 14 keeps his and everyone is happy.

But now we just need three more scenes later in the season to complet this storry. One where because of some fight or acident the tardis console gets a scrath on the console (extra points if the doctor doesnt know/see)

The second where the tardis just randomly leaves one day for like an hour or so (could be the start of an episode and the tardis disapearing kicks of the plot for that story)

And the last where the tardis returns (probably at the end of that same episode)

And now to get to the point ant explain the storry/idea ill just go over the events out of the perspective of the tardis (or at least her timeline)

In wild blue yonder she leaves to repair herself. Then she lands in the avengers unit tower and goes of with 15. After she gets the scratch she goes back to save 14 in wild blue yonder and then stayes with him for the rest of his life after he passes she comes back to 15 and the continues to travel with him.

This might also give the posibility for 15 getting his own interior since 14 probably changed it a lot while he had her and either 15 then could get the "old rundown" version with all of 14ths changes or the tardis changes completly for him.

Anyways its 3 am and i cant sleep cause i cant stop thinking about the stupid timetraveling alien man :)

[smash-64]

2023 Game of the Year Countdown #1 The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Nintendo Switch, 2023

For a fourth time since 2018, a Trails game takes my #1 for the year.

Breaking from tradition, this Trails game has no sidequests. It has a very linear story, although technically there are three linear stories and you can jump from one to another for most of the game. In many respects, this is the “Trails in the Sky the 3rd” for the Cold Steel series. Not only is the story more linear, but we get redemption arcs from past villains, and we also get an absolutely disgusting amount of playable characters. Chrono Cross has 45 playable characters, and people often say that’s too many. Well…Reverie has 50. And each of them gets at least a little time in the spotlight. It’s fantastic for Trails fans, and I adored it. I put 150 hours into this game and I’m not sure I could have put less time into it.

Playing the game on Switch, there were definitely a few times the game chugged, so I can’t give the game a perfect 10. Many of the cutscenes in Crossbell City were bogged down by the sheer number of NPCs, and was noticeable to me, a person famously unconcerned with performance. I can see why people advocate for playing this on PC or PS4, but the portability of the Switch trumps all else in my mind. This is really the only downside I experienced with the game, although it did not affect my enjoyment at all.

Having three linear storylines to follow in any order you want is phenomenal. You can keep going with characters you love, and are never forced to stick with the ones you don’t for very long. And with having a linear story, the pace of the game is potentially sped up a little bit from the traditional Trails experience where sidequests can often lead to very long delays in the main story.

The story itself offers a ton. Obviously I can’t spoil a game that is the 10th in an interconnected, on-going series, but I’ll just say that once the main story is over…the postgame story is equally as interesting and gives fans a peek at some of the series-long questions and issues brought up in previous entries. 

Combat is fairly standard as far as the Cold Steel games go. I love Trails combat and this game tweaks little, as nothing was broken. It’s perhaps a little bit more difficult than CS3 or CS4, since the Break mechanic was pretty OP in those two games and it has been toned down slightly, but you can still take full advantage of it if you’re smart and plan well. I also like how some of the accessories drastically increase specific stats, so min/maxing is actually fun in this game. I was able to get Tita Russell’s attack and HP to absolutely absurd heights in this game. She is no longer baby; she wants power!

As previously stated, almost every single character gets their time in the spotlight. Some more than others, of course, but the fact that we get 50 playable characters, yet every one of them gets a chance to shine is a wonderful piece of work by the developers and writers. I’d say that perhaps Musse gets very little, but she had more than enough focus in CS3 and 4. Even Machias gets his own episode, and he is so often forgotten that even I forget about him at times.

Music is good as always when it comes to Falcom. I appreciate some of the battle tunes, like Elegant Prowess, and the game has its own unique sound that sets it apart from CS3 and 4. Maybe not to the same extent that Sky the 3rd sets itself apart from FC and SC, but the tracks unique to this game sound different enough that they are easy to pick out. There are dozens of returning tracks as well, since we revisit quite a few places from previous entries. 

My favorite character is Estelle Bright, and I was glad to see a focused effort to put her in the spotlight more often. She wasn’t in CS1-3, and played a more supporting role in 4 than anything else. Meanwhile, Lloyd and Rean ran the show. Estelle is not one of the main storylines in this game, but it’s nice to see her back with some of her famous one-liners.

Overall, I can’t really say enough about the game. It’s an amazing JRPG experience, but one that requires playing the 9 previous games in the series. Maybe that’s a daunting task to some, but the good thing about trying out a Trails game is that there is always another one to play afterward.

[gotjacobian]

Travel journal-type posting, just describing some of the stuff I've gotten to do in Japan.

Day 1: Got off the plane, got through passport control and customs with minimum issues (I fucked up my entry date bc time zones and had to hold up the line while I fixed it whoops). Took the subway to Yokohama, also screwed that up because I was hopped up on benadryl and still only managed to sleep for 2 hours at a time max on the plane. Unscrewed it up with the help of a very patient attendant, made it to the hotel. I bought takoyaki and a highball from a place across the street from the hotel, which reminded me that I don’t actually like takoyaki. It’s too mushy. Then passed out.

Day 2: This was my full day in Yokohama before the conference. I beelined for a 7-11 to get the canned coffee I like and can only get here (and some pastries), then went to a park by the baseball stadium to eat it. Then I took off to try and at least see the (closed :( ) gundam factory exhibit. There was a triathalon in the way, so I spent awhile wandering through parks to get around it and get close enough for a picture. There were tons of beautiful gardens, and lots of people taking photos of their costumed dogs there? Like, 3 dog photoshoots for every presumed child/romantic partner photoshoot. They all seemed very happy to chill in the flowers and get fussed over.

In general Yokohama is really well suited to my kind of travel wandering - going along the harbor coast takes you through a couple different gorgeous parks and past a few museums, and also gives you a great view of the water. I ended up going into the doll museum, and immediately learned I had vastly overestimated the amount of english they’d have on the exhibits based on their website. I speak basically no Japanese, so used an image translate app a lot. That’s wasn’t an option the last time I was in Japan in 2019 - it was really useful! I drained my battery using it on basically every single plaque in the museum. The style of the exhibit captions felt different than I’d expect from a US museum. They were often more anecdotes from an artist or curator than they were descriptions. I’m curious to what extent that was cultural or was something lost in translation? The translations I got definitely weren’t perfect, and seemed to get worse the more anecdotal or conversational the material was.

The exhibit that attracted me to the doll museum was called “Why do we create objects that look like humans?”. It had exhibits of historical dolls and sculptures, as well as installations from modern artist and dollmakers. A lot of it touched on an inherent alienation in recreating the human in the nonhuman, and the ways all depictions of the human form are exaggerated in ways we sort after the fact into “beautiful” or “grotesque.” I liked it, but honestly wanted it to be more like, embodiment philosophy-y. Very much a me problem.

On the way back, I stopped by Yokohama’s Chinatown. I feel like it was much more of a tourist attraction than the equivalent in Boston or SF - lots of street food stands and people hawking specific restaurants or palm-reading services. Lots of panda-themed merch. It was VERY crowded. I bought a single pork bun for lunch, wandered through a few stores, and then ditched to try and find somewhere calmer.

A friend recommended that I check out Kaganecho, the arts district about a half an hour walk along the canal from where I was staying, so I went that way. I immediately saw a lot of signs advertising an “Art Bazaar” that was supposed to be happening in the area. There were people wandering around with tickets and brochures. It took me an hour to figure out how to get one - I was saved by stumbling on a performance piece that was part of the exhibit, a woman playing a song by hitting a series of bowls with wooden mallets, that just happened to be scheduled right then. It was right under the train line, so you got the loud rumbling drowning her out every few minutes, and also the ambient city sounds of bikes and children and wind under her playing. When she finished, I stalked some people who were watching with me and finally found the office that could sell me a ticket.

The “art bazaar” is a yearly exhibition in a series of apartments converted into studios in the few blocks around a particular train station. You’re given a ticket and a map where some of the buildings were marked. You wander around to find them, go in, and there’s Art there. I’ll probably post separately about this, honestly. It was one of the coolest gallery experiences I’ve ever had. The theme of the exhibits was “The world through no art”, and a lot of the material directly engaged with the history of the area - a neighborhood that housed a lot of bars, brothels, etc starting from the US occupation in the city post WWII, which were forcibly evicted in the 2000s, then later replaced with the studios as part of a city initiative to ‘rejuvenate’ the area. I went to every single exhibit that was open and stayed until I was about to pass out from the combination of walking and art feelings. I chickened out of going to a restaurant alone when I was already exhausted, and instead grabbed a katsu sandwich from 7-11 to eat in my hotel room.

Day 3: Start of the conference. It was raining horribly, and I have big fears about walking in the rain with my laptop, so I skipped the first couple hours until it calmed enough that I felt okay buying and using an umbrella. The conference was in this giant exhibition hall on a peninsula in the city that was all fancy hotels, shopping centers, and an amusement park. My maps app kept trying to get me to walk THROUGH the amusement park to get there, which was a kind of ominous experience when it was empty and raining. I met with some friends and labmates, we got Singaporean food for lunch (chicken and rice), and went to some of the afternoon talks. There was a welcome banquet where a guy performed with Kendamas (japanese toy/prop with a wooden ball attached to a wooden thing with cups and a spike). He did a bunch of poi tricks with them, and seemed to be having the time of his life. They also opened the expo, where I discovered they did at least have the gundam head from the gundam factory exhibit left over (still cannot believe they would close it a month before the robotics conference). Me and one of my former labmates got dinner at a katsu place that claimed to be the oldest in the city. We had to split from the group to get it, since there weren’t any vegetarian options there, but it was really good. I discovered that my hotel is like 1/10th as fancy as any of the other conference hotels, idk what happened. Very jealous of the main venue hotel people who had a room overlooking the harbor.

Day 4: Got there in the morning, did some conference stuff. We got sushi for lunch in this giant mall right next to the venue. I ditched for half an hour in the afternoon to wander through a different park by the harbor, which was also very pretty. All the greenery is very green and the water is very blue. I took another break to try and work some on my paper, since I feel bad for not doing more of that, but finding a place with decent wifi is hard. I meet back up with my labmates to get dinner, at a nearby ramen place with vegan options. I got their signature yuzu shio ramen, which was good, but I still prefer the pork-based styles.

Day 5: Is the day I’m helping present. I go to my coauthor’s presentation and then stand with him at the poster session, and get to talk to a few people. I’m surprised how fast the paper comes back to me, even though I haven’t really thought about it for at least a year at this point. I get lunch with another labmate at a milk-themed restaurant in the mall. I’m weirdly charmed that in Japan, “milk” is a flavor? And that there are prefectures proud of their local milk? The restaurant has both western-style food with cheese or cream as ingredients, and a milk and cheese bar where you can get bread, spreadable cheese, and toppings. I run back to the hotel before the conference banquet, get lost in the other hotel the banquet is in, finally arrive and realize all my labmates are either ditching or got a different banquet venue, so I sit with a very nice person from the university of edinburgh I met at the poster earlier that day. I talk about firespinning and mugs because I’m incapable of not doing so. Every one of the venues has a different style of food and performance - ours performance is actually a lion dance, which is notably… not japanese, put on by students from a school in the local chinatown. It’s still really impressive, especially given that they did it between the tables people were eating at. Like, I’ve attempted to be a base for a cheerleading toss once, and it was hard for 3 people to hold one up - these performers were jumping on each other’s shoulders the whole time, while puppeting the giant lion. They kept having it pretend to eat the heads of the people it walked past, it was a good time.

I spend an hour or two that night on my Quest, which is that I saw some kind of peach jelly drink in exactly one vending machine early in the trip and didn’t buy it. Now I want it, so I’ve been wandering through the city inspecting vending machines to try and find it again. Tonight I wander up and down this shopping center street that has a lot of them, in the rain, but no dice. I buy peach flavored ice cream at the 7-11 instead and reaffirm my mission.

Day 6: I wake up feeling bad, in both a stress and a physical way. I stay at the hotel and work on my paper, then go to a nearby cafe and try to work on my paper, but they don’t have wifi. I go back and end up sleeping, which I feel bad about, but probably needed - I can get disconnected from my own tiredness levels when I’m doing extended crunch time for a project, and I’m trying to be more aware of that. I don’t go to any of the conference stuff, but do leave at one point to get the local kind of ramen from a place I saw recommended online. The style is called ie-kei, and is an emulsified mix of pork broth and shoyu with chicken oil, served with pork, seaweed, short noodles, and spinach on top. I redeem myself by ordering and eating in the restaurant alone. It’s good in a comfort food way. I go back to the hotel and alternate working and sleeping, and end up skipping dinner with my labmates because I still feel gross.

Day 7: I feel better when I wake up, but have already committed to skipping this day of the conference because I’m going to Osaka. I find another cafe that actually has wifi, and eat there to do some work in the morning. Tangent - people really go nuts for the egg salad sandwiches here, and I don’t get it. I tried one and thought it was tasteless and had that bad cooked egg yolk texture. Super not for me.

I check out of the hotel and take the subway to Tokyo station. I get there an hour early because I forgot when my train was, so wander around the station for a while. It is SO crowded and there are SO MANY stores selling train bento, souvenirs, boxes of desserts to give as gifts, etc, and every single one has a designated salesperson shouting into the void. It is the most sensory-overloading, maze-like place I have been in my entire life. I take great pride in managing to eventually actually find the internet-recommended places to get ekibento for the train. I buy one with more traditional food, and one kids one that comes in a fake JR train freight container, because I really want the fake freight container. I also get an apple-custard pastry and a crepe with cream and melon ball topping. And then I am exhausted, and still too early for my train, so I stand by the platform and am extremely confused when someone asks me for directions (correctly assigned english-speaking person who knows where the ekibento are at the tokyo shinkansen station, I guess).

I do get on the train eventually, and eat one of the bento (I save the second because I am worried the person sitting next to me is gonna judge me for eating 2 bento, one of which is definitely meant for children, but I will eat it eventually). I said I was gonna do work but instead I’m writing this and watching out the window of the train. I feel like everyone has their travel fixation - my grandparents laugh about how when my mom and brother would go on trips as kids, they’d get disposable cameras. And when they developed the photos, all of them were of ponds, lakes, coastlines, because they grew up in the west texas desert. I grew up in the flat, flat Texas plains, and now I’m like that about mountains. This train goes straight through them, and right past Mt Fuji. It gets to me how distinctive the landscape in japan is - I’ve looked at a lot of traditional japanese art as like, a precursor to modern styles in comics, because I find it interesting. And I feel like I looked at some elements of that style - atmospheric perspective, depth through stacking flat layers of scenery, the specific abstract-seeming way Mt Fuji gets drawn - and assumed it was entirely an artistic choice. But like… Mt Fuji just looks like that. The landscape just looks like that, with the fog and the layered mountains. The green is such a specific shade of green, and the blue is a specific shade of blue, and the buildings are all such a particular faded palette in a way I feel like must make Japan instantly recognizable on geoguessr, a game I am very bad at. I love looking at the cities and buildings, too - I wish I knew the words to describe the specifics of the style and design. I feel like I'm getting increasing city architecture obsessed these days, despite not having that language. Getting to see it is the bit of travel that really makes me feel like I'm experiencing something I couldn't anywhere else. I'm gonna find my hotel in Osaka once I get there, hunt down some food, then will probably try and do some more work before bed. Then tomorrow, in theory, Osaka castle and whatever else seems compelling.

[babydiaperboy94]

So I watched a few videos breaking down the F.A.T.A.L system, and while it seems terrible R.A.W and not something I'd be interested in actually playing, it did get me thinking. Could you mimic being not-fully-potty-trained using an RPG system? Something crunchy enough to be somewhat realistic and interesting but playable enough to be fun? So I set out to make one.

Basically, it can be added on top of any other RPG system for a little diapered fun. It requires the GM to keep track of how many hours pass in-game, and keep track of two trackers per player, plus know their potty-training levels. The tracker levels are how full the players bladder/bowels are and use the scale of how many hours worth of pee/poop have built up. To keep things simple, they are constants, though if you wanted a bit more crunch, you could have bladder levels go up double if they consumed alcohol or add other modifiers, though those should only be to raise the amount the tracker goes up. 1 per hour on each tracker is the bare minimum.

Then, once per in-game hour, either the GM rolls a percentage die for each player, or the players roll in the tower, so only the GM can see the results. If the percentage die is lower than the number indicated by the character's potty training level, and their bladder/bowel levels are high enough, they have an accident.

If you're feeling very fancy, you can roll/have the players roll a second die/set of dice of the type usually used by the overall game system (2d6 for PbTA, d20 for D&D/Pathfinder, d100 for Call of Cthulhu/Dark Heresy, etc.). If they do have an accident, the check is to determine if they notice or not. If they don't, it's to determine if they know how full their bladder and bowels are. PCs who have no potty-training automatically fail such a check. If they do notice and don't have an accident, they're immune from accidents until after they've gone on purpose and built their levels back up, or until they're at maximum.

If the PCs are asleep, they either roll the same checks to see if they have an accident, or, if they're asleep long enough, they simply have the accident when they hit maximum level, and automatically noticing doesn't apply when they're asleep. Since they typically sleep for eight hours overnight, they will always wet the bed. If you want, you could give the PCs a roll to notice if they hit maximum bowel and are about to mess the bed and wake up in time to maybe stop it, though that check should be quite hard.

If the PCs are wearing diapers or pull-ups of some sort, then the GM will also have to keep track of how many accidents they've had (and if you want a lot of crunch, a what level they had said accidents at), as they will have a finite capacity, and leak if the PCs exceed that capacity. If they are not, they simply have to deal with having their clothes ruined, and might face penalties of charisma-type checks, which also apply if the diaper leaks

Levels of over-all potty training can be determined randomly or chosen at character creation. While the two levels are separate, PCs with none as their overall potty training level do not get a sperate bowel control level, and it would be quite prudent to impose the restriction that if they have Middling over-all potty training, they have at least Decent bowel control.

Levels of overall potty training:

None: Absolutely no training whatsoever Dice :50% at Bladder 1, Automatic voiding at bladder 2 or bowel 5

Alleged: More than 4 accidents per day. Dice:30% at Bladder 1 or higher +3% per bladder level past 2  Max bladder=4 (automatic voiding if unnoticed)

Nominal: Fewer than four accidents while awake per day Dice: 10% at bladder 1, 22% at Bladder 2 or higher. Add +2% per bladder past 3 if unrecognized Max bladder=5 (automatic voiding if unnoticed)

Insufficient: Fewer than three accidents while awake per day. Dice: 18% at bladder 2 or higher 8% at Bladder 1. Add +2% for bladder past 3 if unrecognized Max bladder=5 (Automatic notice, void within 5 minutes)

Poor: Fewer than fifteen accidents while awake per week. Dice: 13% at bladder 2 or higher with +2% per bladder 4 or higher Max bladder=6 (Automatic notice, void within 5 minutes)

Middling: Fewer than ten accidents  while awake per week. Dice: 8% at bladder 2 or higher with +1% per bladder 4 or higher Max bladder=7 (Automatic notice, void within ten minutes)

Levels of bowel control:

Terrible: Messes self more than ten times per week while awake. Dice: 10% at bowel 5 +4% per level higher Max=8 (automatic voiding if unnoticed)

Low: Messes self fewer than ten times per week while awake Dice: 8% at bowel 5 +3% per each bowl level higher Max=9 (automatic notice, void within twenty minutes)

Decent: Messes self fewer than five times per week while awake Dice: 4% at bowel 5 +2% per bowel level higher than 6 Max=10 (Automatic notice, void within twenty minutes)

Good: Messes self fewer than three times per week while awake Dice: 2% at bowel 5 +1% per bowel level higher than 7 Max=10 (Automatic notice, void within thirty minutes)