#I love 3D stuff so much. hate all my other classes except this one.

[soliusss]

good afternoon chat this is my first time scultpingnplease be nice. it is ion

[strawberrymilk-sunshine]

Watching u <3

I've been working on this for a while. Off and on since late June. Believe it or not, I have actually been having ideas throughout my entire hiatus, it was just a case of not being able to really write anything down...

This is probably darker than some of my other stuff, I just feel like I should say. Please do not read this if you're uncomfortable with this. Thank you, and have a good day/afternooon/night.

Warning(s): yandere behaviors, explicitly fem reader, death, some sexist stuff (it's not as bad as it probably could be but it's there), incel Idia I know he isn't in canon please don't be mad at me for making him one in this fic, delusional yandere Idia, non consentual kiss, blood hemorrhage mention, unwanted comments about reader's body, implied past trauma, doxxing, breaking and entering

It was a long day of boring classes for Idia. Today was one of those days he was forced to actually attend class in person... ew. He hated it, being around people for that long. But he had a test today, and apparently the professor didn't trust him enough to do it remotely from his dorm room.

Luckily though, Idia had something to look forward to. At the end of the day, when he gets back to his dorm room, almost exactly... something he looks forward to all week will finally start.

What is this thing he is so looking forward to?

Well, what other than your weekly livestream, of course!

He loved everything about you.

He knew everything there was to know about you. He even knew your name, despite you hiding your identity behind a fictitious catgirl persona~

(Y/N). (Y/N) (L/N). He loved that name of yours. It felt like honey in his mouth as the words spilled out of him... calling you by your real name without you knowing~

Idia considered you a friend- no, even MORE. He wasn't friends with you, no no no no no! You were his lovely little girlfriend! Cute and submissive and everything... ohhh, he loved you so much. Hearing your voice... listening to you... answering you like you were right next to him... donating to you every time you streamed, copious amounts of money... participating in chat every now and again, to have an actual dialogue with you... he didn't like talking with other people, oh, but he ALWAYS made an exception for you.

You two have even started chatting outside just your streams. He's a mod for your streams now, as well as on your personal server... you were a bit apprehensive about that at first, but don't worry, he convinced you!

One time, you confided in him about some... serious issues you went through irl. It was so cute, imagining you in that situation.

Oh, you've been through so much together... you're practically dating at this point! Oh... but maybe he should actually ask you, just to make sure you know you're dating him. Just in case. Just in case.

Idia happily logged onto your stream, anxious to watch you... and to pop the question later~

But as he logged on... he... he heard you... say... something...

"Sorry I wasn't able to stream last week... something came up in my real life!" He saw your semi-3d avatar smile, responding to your real expression, no doubt. "I know it sounds crazy, but somehow... I'm dating someone!"

At first, Idia decided to optimistically think about how, maybe you're referring to him... but, as the pre-stream chitchat continued... it became obvious you weren't.

...

HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO HIM?!

In a fit of anger, Idia unsubscribed and blocked you on absolutely everything.

...but then, he thought of something. A nice plan... one that would hopefully make you dependent on him... you'd dump whatever loser you're dating right now... and he would be your only source of comfort.

He unblocked your accounts on his main... and then, he logged onto an alternate account, one that doesn't connect back to him in any way; sorta like what you tried to do with your stream persona, but actually unconnected, unlike yours.

He sent you a message from his sock puppet...

Your stream ended for the day, and... you were confused to see a message from an account you didn't recognize. You thought that maybe it was just a fan deciding to message you, as you get that a lot, but once you accepted the message request to see what they sent...

[xNDRWRLDx] : this u?

...you saw... a picture of yourself... one a family member of yours posted a few years ago... you tried your best to make sure that your online persona didn't connect back to your real life at all, so... how... how did this person get this picture?!

As terrified as you were, you chose to ignore this message. About an hour later, you received another.

Despite your thoughts, screaming at you to not give this person the time of day... that last message just set you off. You decided to respond.

[xNDRWRLDx] : ignoring ppl is rude

[xNDRWRLDx] : u know that, right?

[xNDRWRLDx] : or is ur thick skull not able to comprehend that

[xNDRWRLDx] : lmao yeah, thats prob the case

[xNDRWRLDx] : u could get a much higher paying job if u quit streaming & decided 2 use ur tits & ass 2 ur advantage

[xNDRWRLDx] : getting railed all day would b easier than streaming. u wouldnt have 2 pretend u have a personality beyond "uwu im a girl who plays video games arent i cute??"

You suddenly saw a string of numbers appear on your screen in the next message from this person. Is that your IP?!

[n3k0-ebi] : who tf are you??

[xNDRWRLDx] : o right, u said smth abt not being comfortable w/ talking abt stuff like that

[xNDRWRLDx] : lmfao weak much??? cant even take a joke

[xNDRWRLDx] : wat a pathetic excuse of a human

[n3k0-ebi] : whats your angle dude

[n3k0-ebi] : are you just trying to make me mad on purpose? it wont work, so just leave me alone.

What could this person know? Just what you look like in real life?? As much as you don't want people to know, it... it isn't that bad. You're not going to pose like that. You're not even going to give this person the time of day anymore.

[xNDRWRLDx] : look familiar?

[xNDRWRLDx] : just saying u would look adorable laying under me w/ ur mouth agape & drooling w/ ur eyes half shut <3

[xNDRWRLDx] : maybe if u send me a pic of u looking like that i might consider not sharing wat i know w/ ur entire audience

[xNDRWRLDx] : ur choice bitch

You log off for the night, not giving any more thought to this person's likely hollow threats.

The next day, you woke up, not realizing what happened over night.

You took a nice, relaxing, early morning shower...

Strangely enough, as you left your washroom, you could have sworn you'd seen a strange, blue light outside your hallway window. Probably just your eyes playing tricks on you... or light reflecting off something...

You make your way to your living room, and sit yourself down on the couch, comfy in your bathrobe and hair towel. You turn on the tv so you can half watch whatever comes on, and focus the rest of your attention on browsing Magicam.

...

...that's a lot of notifications.

You decide to look through your mentions first, and... you see a post from that account that was messaging you last night. It details your full legal name, your address, your partner's name, your parent's names, your homeland, every personal detail you could think of was listed in this post.

In a sudden moment of not thinking, you decide to message them.

They... they just sent you... a picture of you coming out of your shower... and then another, of you sitting here on the couch-?!

[n3k0-ebi] : what the hell is wrong with you?!

[n3k0-ebi] : you fucking doxxed me?!

[xNDRWRLDx] : i told u it was ur choice didnt i

[xNDRWRLDx] : u chose 2 not send me that pic i wanted

[xNDRWRLDx] : so really its ur own fault <3

You look out your living room window... but you don't see anybody.

[xNDRWRLDx] : ur not responding?

[xNDRWRLDx] : rude

[xNDRWRLDx] : little missy cant think of anything to say huh

[xNDRWRLDx] : idk wat i expected lmfao

[xNDRWRLDx] : typical 4 a female pretending 2 know stuff cant even hide ur identity properly

[xNDRWRLDx] : wat an idiotttt

The next month is a chaotic one.

Being stalked by so-called "fans"... yourself and your family members being sent weird letters and death threats... your regular workplace firing you... your family and friends cutting ties with you... your partner breaking up with you...

...why did this all have to happen...?

Is this your fault...? Maybe if you had just sent that picture... no, no don't even think about it. That person probably would have done this to you anyways...

...oh...

Oh, you... you have a notification. Since what happened last night, you haven't checked any of your notifications, but... this one... it's from someone you trust...

Idia was absolutely enraged. He could barely even believe what just happened. You have nothing. He is the only person in the world offering you comfort and support, and you just... YOU JUST WRITE HIM OFF LIKE HE'S NOTHING?!

[Gloomurai_] : hey, is everything OK w/ you?

[Gloomurai_] : i just saw you havent rlly been online since what happened

[Gloomurai_] : not that i blame you obv

[n3k0-ebi] : hi gloomy

[n3k0-ebi] : things haven't been great... lol.

[Gloomurai_] : i heard youre single again btw

[Gloomurai_] : that must suck

[Gloomurai_] : i hope this doesnt sound too forward but uh

[Gloomurai_] : is there anything i could do to help?

[n3k0-ebi] : definitely not, but thx for offering

[n3k0-ebi] : it's enough to just know you're there :)

...but, all of a sudden, the anger leaves him. Everything leaves him. All rational thought is gone from his head... and he smiles.

"Ortho... tell the vice leader he'll be in charge of Ignihyde for a while."

"What-? Big brother, why would you-"

"I need to go home for a bit." Idia closes the chat log, and stands up from his chair. "I won't be gone long. I just need to... make a copy of a file on my pc back home and bring it back here. That's all."

Ortho didn't entirely believe his brother...

...it's raining.

It's dark, stormy, the dead of night...

And most importantly, you're alone.

You used to like being alone. Not so much now, now you just feel... unsafe.

What with all the death threats, general threats, your home address and real face now being known... you don't feel safe in your own home anymore.

It's not a pleasant feeling, yet it is one you've felt before. One you never hoped to feel again. It's such a terrible feeling, knowing you might not be safe, in the place that you very well should be...

...

There's a knock at the door.

You are NOT going to answer it.

There are a lot of things that can happen in the exact moment of danger. Time feels like it slows down, and you have to make a choice... fight or flight, your natural instincts.

The door is kicked open and you drop down to at least somewhat hide yourself thanks to your couch. Maybe that pepper spray you lost last month is under there??? Hopefully...

And then... you hear a voice. A strangely familiar, sickly sweet voice.

"Ohh (Y/N)~" It calls out... "Where are youuuu~???"

That voice... you know that voice... you've been in a voice call with that voice before... that voice...

It's Gloomy... someone you thought was your friend...

"(Y/N), I know you're in here. Just show me where you are already. I-I won't hurt you~!!"

You frantically run your hand along the floor under your couch, looking for your pepper spray. You can't help but hope it's under there...

You hit something that rolls out from under your couch... it's exactly what you're looking for, but it also shows him exactly where you are.

A blue glow comes closer as the long, flaming hair drapes over your couch, the tips barely touching you as you lay on the ground. Then you see his face... piercing yellow eyes, and a terrifying, sickening smile full of sharp teeth...

"There you are!"

You scramble away from him in a panic, taking short glances at where the small canister rolled...

"There's no need to look so scared, (Y/N)." He smiles. "It's me, Gloomurai, Gloomy, Idia, your boyfriend."

"W...w-what... the hell... are you talking about...?"

"Are you fucking stupid? I think it's really clear what I said, isn't it?" He scowls at you... not just any scowl, it looks like he completely despised you... before quickly returning to a sickly sweet, and clearly fake smile. "I'm your boyfriend. You're my girlfriend. We've been dating for a long time, and I'm going to be taking you home with me now! I love you so much!"

"W-we've talked a few times... a-and I guess we're friends, but... but we aren't dating!!" You yell, clenching your fists tightly. You're absolutely terrified, but you don't want to just agree with him. There's no way in hell you're going to validate this...

"Yes we are. Do you not remember? Is your single braincell working overtime trying to understand what you already know? Aww, cute kitty..." The intruder suddenly pulls something out from his pocket.

He thrusts the object at you as you avoid it by crawling on your hands and knees as fast as you can towards your small canister. You stand up in the best defensive position you can, being sure to hide your spray from this creep.

"Ugh. Why are you so stubborn?? It won't hurt as much if you just stay still!!" He rushes towards you with the object, it's clear to you now that it is a syringe...

You spray him directly in the eyes as he screeches out in pain.

You run for your front door, hoping you can get away while he writhes in pain... but you feel something prick into your neck... and being flushed into your veins...

"YOU BITCH. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?! I HATE YOU SO FUCKING MUCH!!" He screams at you as you collapse. What is this... what in the world would work this fast...?

"...wh..." You try to ask what this is, before you feel a sudden metallic taste in your mouth, and blood begins to pour out...

"You don't need to know what it is. It's better if you don't know." The intruder shushes you. "I love you so much. I love you. We'll be happy together... me and a better version of you... I'll recreate you perfectly."

...he kisses you on the lips. He wipes your blood off of his face as he pulls away... when you realize he's wearing gloves.

"It won't be long before you hemorrhage all your blood... this stuff works really fast~" He smiles. "At least you'll look pretty as you die."

Idia's life entirely went back to normal after that. In fact, it's been a year since what he did.

Your body was found, but evidence to his crime was not.

Idia is a model student at NRC, despite almost never attending class in person. His grades are phenomenal, he hands in all his assignments in time, and he's going to get a good job when he graduates...

And... in his spare time... he's programming.

Idia is programming an artificial intelligence, based on a certain someone he used to know.

His lovely girlfriend.

"Don't worry... we'll be seeing each other again soon... I'm sure of it. I'll do everything I can to make it true... I love you, (Y/N)."

[korgidorgi]

Lena Luthor x AdoptedTeen! Reader

Word count: 2357

Warnings: Swearing, insecurities, mentions of past trauma, creepy dad, fluff?

Summary: Reader (written without pronouns but with the intention of being female) is totally into electronics (which i know absolutely nothing about) and struggles with insecurities and opening up fully. A science fair comes up for her electronics class so she totally dominates it. However her insecurities play in, and a call from her abusive dad who has no custody over her anymore sends them over the edge. Her adoptive mother, Lena, is there with her every step of the way.

“Hey, how is your project coming along?” Lena pops her head in the doorway, wanting to see your progress on your electronics project.

The tunes from your favorite band’s latest album reach her ears, and keep you concentrated on your work. You sit on the floor, bits and pieces of various circuits, metal, wires and other parts of your project are strewn all over the floor. Your project sits in front of you as you find the right parts to build it. You don’t even glance up at your adopted mother as you turn the music down a bit to answer her.

“It's coming along fine, still gotta work on some of the circuits and fine-tune the motor movements.” You answer, attaching some more wires into the body of the project. “A couple of the motors aren’t working properly.”

“You’re doing a nice job there, looks like it's coming along great.” She comments, smiling at your passion for your electronics class. “Well, if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask for help. I will always help you, whatever you need.”

She leaves your room, leaving you by yourself again to work on your project to the sound of music. The more you work on this one motor, the more frustrated you become. You know you can ask Lena for help, but the fear keeps you from doing so. You continue to power through your frustration, determined to get through this project, like all your projects, by yourself, independently.

“Stupid piece of shit.” You curse at your project.

Not too long later, you hear Lena call you out for dinner, so you surface almost immediately. She sits with you on the sofa and the two of you watch a show while you eat. You watch the show intently, commentating on how the characters are dumb and trying to guess what happens next, only for it to happen seconds after you say so. Lena joins in on the commentary, making you laugh at some of her lighthearted insults to the characters.

You and Lena have your good moments, but you’re still getting used to being under her care and guidance. You’re just counting the months and days until you get put back in the system. Thankfully this is only your second time out of a crowded home, with a family, but it still hurt the first time you were sent back. Although this time feels different. You feel safer here, more comfortable and confident. Lena has been there to help you adjust, learning all she can about parenting to help you. She was there for you when you first broke down at her place. She was there for you when you found out your dad was out of jail. You’re not nearly as closed off as you once were back when she first brought you home a little over a year ago. 

Home. Now that's a word. Will this be your final home? It’s starting to feel like that. Maybe if you just hold onto that hope.

You spot Lena’s car in the pickup/dropoff lane at your school, so you make your way over and hop in the passenger side, tossing your bag in the back.

“What’d you do today, Darling?” Lena asks as she pulls out of the lane. “Anything fun or interesting coming up?”

“Actually, my Electronics class is doing a sort of science fair like the art kids do. We’re supposed to create an original design for the project.” You rant on excitedly. “Basically they gave us free reign to do whatever we wanted, whether it was practical, or for fun, or something.”

Lena chuckles at your enthusiasm as she turns down the street, joining the traffic to make her way back home. “Do you have an idea of what you want to make?”

“Well, I’ve always wanted to make an Iron Man suit. Or just the helmet for a starter. I think it would be really fun!” You respond, thinking up ways on how you could make such a thing.

“I think that would be totally cool, Y/N.” She responds. “How would you go about making something like that? Wouldn’t a full suit take a long time to make? When is this science fair?”

“Well, I would start with the helmet. I don’t think I’d actually have enough time for a full suit, but I would totally make it for fun.” You answer. Lena knows your obsession with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so she will always encourage you to do what you love, create what you love. “The fair isn't for another month and a half, but I’ve seen videos of people creating cool props with electronics and stuff, so for a helmet they use a whole bunch of materials like cardboard, or plastic, or foamboard or something like that.” You continue to ramble.

“I have access to a 3d printer.” She announces. “However, it’s for work.”

Her response dims your hopeful mood, causing you to let out a small pout. Guess you’ll just have to go with some other material; cardboard, foamboard, some other flat medium.

“I can make an exception though, for you.” She glances at you to watch your reaction, smiling when she sees your face light up. “I can help you design the pieces-”

“It's okay, I can design them myself.” You quickly say, once again finding yourself pushing her away.

“Alright, just let me know if you need help for anything.” She simply replies, not daring to push your limits.

As the date of the Fair nears, you scramble around to make adjustments and updates to your design. You continuously test the motors and placement of the pieces of the helmet and adjust them as so. You test out the LEDs in the eyes, the sound system, and voice control system. You’ve put so much hard work into the project, researching new systems like voice activation and using prior classroom knowledge to go above and beyond expectations. In fact, you’ve gone so far and beyond, you think you’ve gone too far.

As the date comes up just around the corner, you begin to doubt your project. You become self conscious of your project. What if the kids make fun of your obsession? What if they hate you for making such a thing? What if it turns into a complete disaster?

“Hey, darling, are you ready to set up and present your project?” Lena calls from the living room. The fair starts at 7pm, and you’re already having second thoughts about it.

When you don’t answer or come out of your room, Lena quietly approaches your bedroom and softly knocks on the door.

“Honey, you ready?” She gently pushes the door open to find you sitting on your bed, staring at your finished project worriedly. “Everything alright?” She asks, cautiously stepping over to you.

“What if everything goes wrong?” You begin, trying to hold back your emotions. “What if the kids make fun of me? They already think I’m weird. I did too much for the project, even the teachers are going to be mad at me for doing too much.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Lena sits next to you on your bed. “I think everyone will love it. This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen you make. And you did it all on your own! I couldn’t be more proud of you.” She gently brings you into a hug, whispering reassurances to you to calm you down and restore the confidence you had when you first talked to her about your project.

You finally calm down enough and the two of you leave to attend the Science Fair. The car ride was a little tense at first, until Lena asks if she can see the functions of the helmet you’ve created. You demonstrate the different features of it, slowly becoming more excited about the fact that you had built this thing by yourself.

Once you reach the school, you make your way inside to the gymnasium, where the fair is held. You receive a name tag to be displayed in front of your project. He and Lena have a short greeting before she helps you find a spot for your project among the many tables set up around the room. Kids and their parents with projects fill the entire room. Teachers wander the exhibits, helping people set up and answer questions about the night and meeting parents. You find an empty table in which to set your project and the label your electronics teacher has provided you with. You set down your covered up project, still a little insecure about your project and the people in the room.

You suddenly feel your phone buzz in your pocket, so you pull it out and answer it, ready to hang up on one of those scam callers or apologize to a “wrong number” person.

“Hey, sweetheart. It's been a while.” Your dad’s voice sounds from the other side of the call.

His voice makes you tense up as he continues. “I heard you’ve got a science fair thing going on tonight? Good luck. Daddy misses you.”

“D-dad?” You quietly stutter into the phone, unsure of what to respond with.

“Yeah, sweetie, it's me.” He chuckles from the other side. “You wouldn’t mind if I swung by to take a look at your project, would you?”

You don’t like the tone of his voice. A gentle hand on your shoulder makes you snap your attention to a concerned Lena. She tilts her head, wondering what's going on. You shake her off and excuse yourself and step out of the gym’s doors onto the school’s blacktop right outside.

“Honey, I know what school you go to.” He says, his words sending chills down your spine.

“N-no, you don’t- you don’t need to come here. I-” You stutter into the phone, losing more and more control of your emotions.

“Sweetie, I want you back.” He continues. “I want you back in my life.”

“Daddy?” A little girl's voice sounds from the other side of the line.

“Not now honey.” You hear him pull away from the phone to shoo the little girl away. “Please, babygirl, come back to me.”

“No. I-I’ve already moved on.” You try to stand up to him. “All you’ve ever done was bully me and make me feel like shit.”

“Hey! Watch your language.” He snaps suddenly before instantly changing his persona. “Come on, baby, why won't you let your dear old dad come visit you?”

“Be- because I don’t want anything to do with you anymore!” You raise your voice. “Don’t call me ever again, or-or try to see me. Cause it’s not gonna happen. I don't ever want to see you again, okay?”

“You can’t get rid of me, I’m your father!” He threatens, making you shake even more. “I will get you back one day!”

“Bye dad.” You hang up, cutting him off, and immediately block his number.

You’re so shaken up, you can’t bring yourself to go back inside. You just need to breathe. You lean against the brick wall of the school, trying to calm yourself down as you pocket your phone. You fidget with your hands as you continue to shake, not noticing Lena’s worried presence. She gives you space to calm down, keeping an eye on you from a distance. You glance around the space outside, trying to distract yourself from the previous interaction, spotting Lena. You finally calm down enough and slide down the wall, clutching your knees in your arms and placing your head on top. Lena gives you another moment before she walks over and sits next to you to give you company. You lean onto her shoulder, to which she wraps her arm around your shoulders in comfort.

“He-he called me.” You whisper, shaking against her. “He knows what school I go to, he knows i'm at a science fair. I told him off, but, Mom, I’m scared.” 

“Hey, it’s going to be alright. I’m proud of you for sticking up to him like that. Take a deep breath. In, and out.” She instructs. “I will never, ever, let him come near you. He will never hurt you again, you understand me?”

You nod against her, trying to take deep breaths to calm yourself down.

“Good. You know we’re friends with Alex, and Kara, and the rest of the Superfriends, and they would never let anything happen to you either.” She reassures you, holding you safely against her.

She holds you for another little while, allowing you to calm down before turning you to her. She wipes your stray tears and pushes some of your hair out of your face.

“Hey, you’re okay. You’re safe.” She reassures. “Why don’t we go inside and show off that awesome helmet of yours?”

She smiles softly at you, allowing you some time to get enough confidence to go back inside to show the teachers what you did for your project.

Despite your insecurities, the rest of the night goes smoothly. Your teacher was very impressed with your project. Parents and other kids were fascinated with the voice control you installed, and how JARVIS actually responds using certain responses to certain commands. Kids wanted to try on the helmet, so you let some of them try it out themselves. It wasn’t long until the night had to wrap up and come to an end. The teachers thanked the students that participated in the fair before calling it a night. The drive home with Lena was a comfortable silence. Lena had her hand resting atop yours the whole time, rubbing the top of yours with her thumb. She pulls up into her parking spot, but leaves the car running for another moment longer.

She finally decides to break the silence. “So, I’m a mom now, huh?”

Before you can open your mouth to apologize about calling her that earlier, she speaks up again, smiling. “I’m honored you think of me as your mother now.”

The two of you finish the night off with some junk food and a Marvel movie as a family.

[robinistrying]

Barbatos’s power

Something wasn’t right ...

I woke up in satin sheets, in a giant bed that was definitely not mine. I was wearing a night gown who was really pretty instead of my old pajamas, something was not right ...

I woke up in a hurry and opened the curtains .

“Wait ...” i thought

“ I know this place.”

I turned my head over the bed, that’s where i saw :

Lucifer . Sleeping.

He seemed at peace, it was so weird to see him like this so relaxed. The more i stared at him i felt the blush creeping trough my cheeks.            What was happening ? Why i was here ? Why he was here ? What happened last night? I was certain that i felt asleep in my bed ... I pinched myself just to be sure, but it wasn’t a dream.

Blankly staring at the wall, i tried to recollect yesterday’s events in my head : i had breakfast with everyone like usual, then i went to class, cooking duty, then study hall, everyone was there, Lucifer was doing some administrative papers and all the others were busy, Barbatos knocked at the door and stayed for a bit talking with Lucifer, but he barely acknowledged him then we had dinner and i went to sleep early ... that’s all i could remember.

I suddenly snapped off. Lucifer was awake. In front of me . Naked . I let out a gasp of surprise. 

“What’s wrong babe?”

“Ba-babe? Lucifer ??”

“What did i do to make you mad ?” he inquired with one eyebrow raised

“You always call me Lucy unless if you’re mad”

“Luc—y? i ...”

“What’s wrong ? You’re acting strange.”

Both of his hands were cupping my face, i was overwhelmed, i mean if this wasn’t a dream it certainly felt like one.

My heart was beating hard in my chest, i couldn’t escape his intense gaze, he leaned forward and i met him halfway, his lips brushed mine softly, i opened my mouth and let him in, i closed my eyes and run my hands through his hair, i felt him smile meanwhile his hands were on my hips running circles with his fingers...

Suddenly my back hit the wall and i felt like things were going to escalate quickly at this rate, not that i didn’t enjoyed it ... but i was still very confused about the whole thing and then suddenly i heard a few loud knocks coming through the door : 

“YO STOP ACTING LIKE HORNDOGS AND GET YOUR ASSES DOWNSTAIRS IT’S NOT THE WEEK END YET”

It was mammon’s voice.

Whew . Perfect timing. Lucifer stopped and looked at me .

He sighed and said : We are coming in 5 minutes and you better not be late too otherwise i will make you pay for this.

We heard him running downstairs.

“Go shower first, i’d gladly come with you but i’m afraid i would definitely get us late ...” Immediately images of what eventually could happen were popping in my brain and i blushed.

“Hehe you’re so cute acting all shy like that, you don’t need to pretend i know you want it too but unfortunately my dear we will have to wait... go now before i’ll eat you up”

I turned around and went straight to the bathroom, turned on the shower and washed myself mindlessly, too busy thinking, trying to make sense of the situation but i couldn’t find any .

I grabbed a towel around my body and went to the sink to brush my teeth, and that’s when i realized that all my stuff was here too, i had the exact same toothbrush, my perfume was over the counter and my makeup bag as well...

This is was way too strange, it seemed that his room was our room ? At least in this reality, and we were dating...

Me ... dating Lucifer .

I smiled . It was too good to be true. Since i had a crush on him for quite a while. How many times i’ve dreamed of this ? Maybe if you dream of something enough it become real ?

My thoughts were interrupted once again by two strong arms wrapped around me.

“Why are you smiling like that? Thinking about me ?” Lucifer said in a seductive tone

i looked at him in the mirror  “You can say that” i answered with a cocky smile

“You’re making it really hard for me to not bend you over and making you mine right now you now ... so cruel ...” he puured while dropping kisses on my neck. I reclutently ignored the butterflies in my lower abdomen and whispered

“But you hate being late ... “

“You’re right... your clothes are on the chair, get dressed before i change my mind” he kissed my cheek and went in the shower.

I didn’t lose a second and did as i was told, i put my uniform on, did my make up and hair as i tried to concentrate a bit on the normal aspect of the whole situation.

“Can you bring me a towel love ?”

“Sure ...”

I brought him a towel, hoping he wouldn’t come out at the same time but he did, seeing him naked was one thing, but seeing him naked and wet was...

I didn’t know what my ovaries would feel if they exploded but it certainly felt like it.

“Please someone give me strength” so i thought.

Thankfully he didn’t seemed to notice my gaze even if i tried so hard to not look too much.

After putting my hair in a bun, i went out the bathroom and Lucifer followed closely, since we were both ready, he said : shall we ? while gesturing to me to go ahead first i opened the door, he closed behind us and we started walking toward the breakfast room, nothing seems to have changed. Except for my situation...

I was walking too fast,  because Lucifer grabbed my hand and pulled me towards him

“not so fast y/n”

He offered me his arm, i had the feeling that was a thing he was used to, so i took his arm... I felt so happy, being close to him like this, i thought it was impossible. 

When we entered the room and took our places, everyone greeted us

“Finally !!” Mammon said.

“Shut up or i’ll break you in half Mammon” Lucifer answered.

Asmodeus glared at him with a mocking tone

“Don’t mind Mammon, he is frustrated because he doesn’t have anyone to warm his bed”

“Me ? It’s because i don’t want to, i could have someone if i wanted to but y’know being single has its perks”

“Like not getting laid ?” Asmo raised a cocky eyebrow.

Mammon raised his arm but Beel stopped him still eating his plate with his other arm.

“Stop it, you two”

I smiled, everthing was totally like usual, the brothers always bantering with each other.

“Here, eat some eggs” lucifer says while dropping one on my plate

Levi sighed :

“3D couples... You guys are so lovey dovey, it’s cringy”

“Who do you call cringy Leviathan? Watch your manners”

“DRIIIIIING” 

We were all interupted by the school bell.

« Time to head out y’all, see ya later » 

« Wait for me » shouted Belphegor to Mammon

Leviathan, Beel and Satan left the room when i finished my coffee pretty quickly even if i didn’t know where i was supposed to go, i guessed that i had class with Mammon Belphie and Asmo since they were waiting by the door

“Come by my office after class, we could go on a walk together, what do you think?”

“Sure, yes, see you later!” i stuttered

i still wasn’t used to heard him talking to me like this, this whole thing was beyond rational reasons. Before i left, he grabbed my hand and placed a kiss on it. 

This man was going to be the end of me i swear. I was sure he perfectly knew what he was doing, if i was more comfortable, i wouldn’t hesitate to tease him back because two can play this game .

“WATCH OUT” yelled Belphegor

I stopped in my tracks i was two centimeters close to hit a pillar.

“Ya dummy what are you thinking?”

“The question is not only what she is thinking but about who she is thinking” giggled Asmo

“I was just ...” but i was stopped by their laughter.

 And so the day went, as normal as it could be, except that i noticed one thing .

It was the same day as yesterday... i went to the study class at the end of the day , everyone was there, busy with their work, i tried to act normal and did my homework but i was still trying to figure out what and how that was happening and then i heard a knock at the door.

Barbatos entered the room .

That’s when my mind clicked, Barbatos, it was him ! Only him have the power to make this kind of events happening! 

I looked straight at him and he smirked but he went talking to lucifer like he did yesterday and before he left i got a note on my desk :

                                                   Meet me outside

I excused myself, pretending to go to the bathroom and followed him to an empty class.

“Could you explain what’s going on ??” i stuttered 

“Are you happy y/n?”

His question caught me off guard. But yes, i was.

“Yes of course i am but first this situation doesn’t make any sense and second how did you know ?”

“Honestly anyone who is not Lucifer knows but they’re just too good at pretending they don’t know to not embarrass you”

I blushed, was i THAT oblivious?

“I saw you yesterday, you were always sneaking an eye on him whenever you got the chance, but what really bothered me is that i heard you crying last night,it was so pathetic...  You needed to realize that you could be happy too if you just took control over your life, i wanted to show you what was possible, if you really wanted it”

Tears picked through my eyes

“It doesn’t make sense, i don’t understand, why he would date me ? i’m not that great, why a man like him would embarass himself with someone like me ?”

“Enough, it’s time to grab some self esteem, you’re not going anywhere if you can’t believe in yourself” he replied with a cold tone.

“What should i do now ?” “Where does it end?” I asked with a lot of pain in my chest, i was living like in a dream and i didn’t want to wake up.

“It’s simple, as soon as you’re going to enter your old room, you get back in our current timeline”

“Just like that?”

“No it’s not that simple you know me, my lessons always have a meaning...” Barbatos said with one his eyebrow raised.

I waited him to speak again, he sighed :

“You have to confess to him, tell him what you feel, at least when you will be back you will know what you have to do, aren’t you tired of dreaming ?”

“Or i could just stay here forever, i like it here.”

He had a sardonic smile “You know perfectly well that it doesn’t work that way y/n but nice try, all you need is a little faith in yourself, ”

I breathed in and out. “Okay... “

“You know, Lord Diavolo didn’t liked to see you sad”

I gasped,  “Lord Diavolo knew ?”

“And he is not angry? I mean him... and Lucifer ... they ...”

“That what happens when you spend too much time with the brothers you actually believe their jokes... To be honest with you, i think they must have got close a few times but no more than that in the end they realized that they like each other more as friends but that is just my guess. Don’t let it get it to you too much.  Just do what you have to do and i won’t meddle in your business ever again”

“Thanks you Barbatos” i said, i was truly grateful for the opportunity he gave me.

“It’s not free you know, you owe me one but for now... Go !” he scolded.

Once i got off the room, i heard the last bell of the day, i knew that Lucifer must be back in his office right now, and so with a determined pace i walked to his door and knocked :

“It’s me, y/n”

“Come i, i was waiting for you” Lucifer answered

There was a stack of papers on his desk, but he put them aside and looked at me, just looking into his eyes gave me the strength to do what i had to do, i went straight over him and once by his side i kissed him passionately, i could tell that he was surprised but responded with the same eagerness, when we were both out of breath he said:

“What was that for ? did you miss me that much ?” he teased with a playful smile 

“Yes i did... I love you Lucifer”

There . I said it .

His gaze changed and a little bit of blush peaked through his cheeks, he wasn’t expecting it i could tell.

“And i love you too y/n”  he whispered while running his hand through my hair.

This moment was perfect, i just wanted to stay with him forever but i remembered Barbatos’s words and decided that i wanted to stop dreaming and start living.

“Will you excuse me for a second ? i‘ll be right back.”i asked while giving him a quick kiss.

“Sure, but why is tha-...” I interrupted him with another kiss

“Just trust me all right ?”

“Okay” he said with a smile “I’ll finish my report in the meantime.”

I almost ran to my room. I took a deep breath and grabbed the door’s knob, a big light flashed through my eyes and then it was pitch black for a few seconds, after that my vision was clear again. I knew i was back.

I didn’t wasted a second and went straight to Lucifer’s office, and made the silent promise to myself that i will not be a spectator of my own life, not anymore.

I knocked the door. a bit too loudly for my taste but i was overwhelmed by all the emotions floating through me .

“ It’s y/n ”

“Come in” he answered.

Here we go again i thought.

“Lucifer i need to talk to you ... “

END

[0poole]

Bloons

Honestly the entire Bloons series has been some of my favorite flash/other-than-flash games out there, and I feel like it’s worth bringing it up since I just crossed the 365 day threshold for BTD6. Maybe in the past, but nowadays I definitely don’t feel like I ever play a game daily for a year straight. Chances are it was a little desperate when I first started playing, but as of now literally every single day I open the game up and play the daily challenge just for the sake of it. Plus, since the chest technically resets every 9 hours or so instead of 24, I could’ve cheesed it a bit, but I didn’t. That’s a pure 365 days of playing the game.

And even apart from that, the entire Bloons series has been in my mind since the first one and my middle/elementary school Coolmath Games days. Even though the puzzle, pure form of Bloons wasn’t as much in my interest, the staying power of the Tower Defense version is crazy. Flash Tower Defense games are plenty, and yet the one with the stupid monkeys throwing darts at balloons was the best.

I went back semi-recently and played a round of each BTD, and I gotta say, it was fun seeing where everything came from. 1 is absolute garbage, forcing you to just spam Super Monkeys if you want to get anywhere, but a good starting point obviously. I honestly know nothing about the people creating these games, but obviously it wasn’t made by a AAA crew, so you can’t expect everything to be put in place in the first iteration. 2 and 3 feel much better, but obviously not much after being so used to the modern stuff, and 4 and 5 are the ones that really shine the most, apart from 6 obviously.

I definitely was one of the types of people who initially reacted poorly to the artstyle change of 5 and 6, but I’ve definitely turned over. I don’t know if the whole BTD community rioted at that point, but I at least was like “ew, they’re cute now” when I first saw it. Thankfully I turned over, and realized the current designs are the absolute best out of the entire franchise. Also, I love their cuteness, as I love cuteness in general, so basically just call it character growth. Even though 2D art always is more interesting for games than 3D in general, the entire art direction of 6 is genuinely really good, being so bright and cartoony (at least before the fifth stages of upgrades) really fits the cartoony idea of monkeys popping bloons. 5, and the entire franchise before it, really is proof enough how horrible a pure top-down perspective is. On the title screen, you can see what the monkeys are supposed to look like, but in-game they literally look like weird blobby scorpions. Even though in the back of my mind I knew what they were supposed to look like, the pure top-down perspective completely ruined the image. Not to mention the OG designs for the monkeys was really weird and bad anyway. Even if you wanted a goofy fat kind of monkey, there are a million better ways to achieve that than how it used to be. Again, of course, they weren’t exactly AAA game-level quality, so you can’t expect such perfect character design.

But, oh my god. One of the things about this game that must’ve kept me through 6 was the character designs. If you know anything about me, it’s that I love a good character design, and 6 is full of them. It’s so interesting to see how they extrapolate the main concepts of each tower into their three different paths. The generic Superman-based monkey can turn into a Batman-based monkey, a Terminator-based monkey, and a fucking ancient god of the sun. The seemingly chill Druid can smite people with the power of Zeus, become the much more expected forest-based type, but also turn into this completely out-there being of pure wrath. I could go on and on about that, but needless to say for so many of them look and are designed so great. I think the tower with the coolest level 5s of the game is the Ninja. It’s hard to explain, but they all just look really cool while also not deviating too much from the cartoony-cute art style. I think my all-time favorite level 5 is the top path of the Wizard, mostly just because he looks really cool, but also because the parts of the path before it show him aging and growing out his beard. I also have to say the 2-0-3/4 Wizard also looks exactly my style, with the dark purply-ness and gold rims. Also, if you haven’t noticed, the Magic monkeys are my favorite type, and not just because their signature color is purple. That’s part of it though. Magic is also just cool in general. My main RPG-class of choice is almost always a mage/wizard.

Also, the heroes are also really fun. As someone who often creates species of aliens/monsters, I always feel like I want to create a dedicated character out of them no matter what, so I feel like the heroes are basically just that. And, of course they have good designs too, and of course as you can probably guess my favorite is Adora, basically being the same thing as the 5-0-0 Wizard with the Sun God aesthetic. Since she has her own stage and a special interaction with the True Sun God/Vengeful Monkey, I think she’s a pretty big deal anyway. I will say that I highly slept on Gwen, but then for Easter they gave her the Harlegwen skin and I fell in love. It’s insanely good stuff. Apart from looks, it does feel nice to have some sort of interchangeable tower that you basically just place and forget about, aside from using their powers. Plus, it makes a really easy type of thing to periodically add to the game to keep things fresh, even with the skins in general. It definitely is much better than the stuff they had in 5, where you had to use Monkey Money to buy each one, and you could only use them once per stage. Obviously 6 has the extra powers to help you out, but they feel much more optional and cheaper than the heroes of 5. Since I barely buy anything with Monkey Money to begin with, and since I’ve obviously had 365 chest openings, and AND since I barely use them to begin with, I’m completely stocked up. I only ever use the farmer and sometimes the tech bot if I get lazy. I did use the portable lake I got from my 365th chest opening after I got it, just for the sake of celebration. That’s literally how my mind goes.

6 does have the slight tinge of a mobile game artstyle, but in this case it’s really just better. I’m not into mobile games, and especially not the generic artstyle they have, but it is really pleasing to look at anyway. It did chase me off before I converted, though. That, and the fact you had to buy it now. Like a true gamer, I was put off by the fact that something that was once expected to be free now has to be paid for. But, then, I realized that the entire franchise has provided much more than 10$ worth of entertainment to me throughout time, so it was extremely fair to pay that. It is still kinda weird how 5 has to be paid for for mobile, when it is just free online, though. However, unlike a true gamer I think the microtransactions of the game are extremely fair. Considering they just give you things that you don’t need, and can get for free otherwise, I think it’s completely fine to have them. It sounds bad on the surface to have to pay for the game and have there still be microtransactions in it, but since they’re completely optional there’s no good reason to hate it. I think people assume that means that you have to pay for the game, and pay extra for different major parts of the game, and that sours their opinion on everything. Gamers are a strange, irrationally angry breed. I do hate using my phone for pretty much anything, though, so once I bought 6 on Steam I haven’t played it on my phone since. It’s just so much better in every single way...

I bought the game around the time of one of my family’s semi-annual trips to England because I thought it’d help when we were traveling between wi-fi spots, and it really did wonders for me then. Probably looked like some asshole teen to strangers who don’t know I barely ever use my phone for anything, since I was playing it so much. My sister even saw me playing it and bought it for herself, although I don’t know how much she’s played since then. 

For the sake of stats, I have 235 hours played of it on Steam alone, and in game I’m level 115. My most complete map is Monkey Meadow with all medals except CHIMPS, which I put the effort in because it’s the default map, and definitely not because it’s an easy/good map because it’s just kinda bad compared to so many other ones. My Dart monkey has a total of 4 million XP, and the only towers that haven’t crossed a million are the Ice, Heli, Alchemist, Druid, and Spike factory monkeys/tower. I think the farthest I’ve actually gotten round-wise is 200 once or twice, but I don’t remember if I’ve actually beaten that level and continued on or lost there. I think I might’ve gotten past it once, but just sort of lost interest in micro-managing my powers and let myself lose. I probably got there once after that and lost on it. As someone who didn’t look up the optimal strategies for things until very recently, I think that’s pretty good. It definitely feels like the kind of game where if you know the best strategies, you can literally just replicate that over and over and win really easily, but that just sounds kinda boring. Since I pretty much only do daily challenges nowadays, it forces me to use a limited amount of towers, so I either go much farther because it forces me to build up less towers more, or it makes sure I can’t even pass round 90 because it just was made to get you to round 40 and that’s it. When I have the full range of towers to use, I feel like I try to get the instant satisfaction of getting a new tower to increase DPS instead of making the few towers I have/need reach their full potential, which seems to be the better option. I also don’t really sell anything when I don’t have a limited number of monkeys to place, which I think is also a good strategy if you can eliminate the major money loss in it, since it can give you a massive boost in cash to get you the better upgrades quicker. I may or may not try to learn the strategies to wipe the rest of the game clean eventually, but right now I’m fine with just doing the dailies.

But yeah, that’s like the whole thing with Bloons Tower Defense and me. Something something reject modernity, embrace monke, or whatever the kids these days are saying.

I will say that if I didn’t have so many OCs to work with and could just pump out animated shorts on the reg, I’d love to do some sort of Bloons shorts. They’d all lean into the ridiculousness of it all. Like, the first one could do the 2001 thing with the monkeys learning to use sticks, and as the main one is bashing the ground with one or whatever and throws it up, an ancient, leathery patchwork bloon flies overhead and accidentally bumps the stick such that it lands back on the main monkey’s head, knocking him out. Cue the monkeys around him to go berserk and start throwing other sticks at the ancient bloon, and once they pop it using a sharp stick, they realize what they must do. Cue a long montage of the different stages of war and invention using the monkeys finding better ways to fend off the bloons, with the whole idea being that the monkeys are getting irrationally angry at the bloons, who are just sort of around and not actually sentient, even though they assume they’re malicious because of their history and upbringing. Absolutely no political message in there whatsoever. Just comedy.

Other short ideas could include, for the start of the modern time story, it could be the backstory of some sort of chiseled veteran main character, which would involve a bloon floating into his town, and from the people’s panic someone knocks over a lamp post that sets his town ablaze, only for him and his people to blame the carnage on the bloon, causing his classic edgy character motives for fighting against the bloons. Another, much more golden idea, would be an interrogation scene, where a bunch of monkeys capture a bunch of bloons for interrogation purposes. They’d obviously do the whole “Silent treatment, eh? Well, we have ways of making you talk...” thing, except the “way to make them talk” is to strap them to a wall with one dart guy on one side to systematically pop them to try and extract info. But, of course, it would look and play out exactly like the classic Bloons puzzle game. That’d be the fun part. If not that, then it could be like the classic carnival game that likely inspired the idea of using darts to pop balloons. I really just think this weird world of monkeys and bloons is perfect for some good comedic content. Watching the monkeys severely overreact to the bloons sounds extremely fun, and I’d love to see someone do something with it some day.

[sir--cumference]

8 people i want to get to know better tag game

tagged by @otheliame ( 😘) - Thanks bb this is gonna be fun 

name/alias: Sir Cumference (irl name is Selin)

birthday: July 10

zodiac sign: cancer 

height: 5′4 and 3/4 (when i was 11 my doc was like damn you’ll get to 5′5 soon enough but like.... never did)

hobbies: writing (mostly fanfic now, used to work in journalism and dabbled in original fiction), drawing (took a long break and didn’t draw for 4 years but i’m back on my bullshit), bouldering (i like both doing the sport AND watching it), playing D&D, gaming (though I haven’t had as much time for games what with all the other stuff)! reading too. 

favorite colors: any form of light to medium blue is my absolute favourite colour, though I dress in complete black and grey monochrome because I hate making decisions in the morning 

favorite books: i have legit NO clue how to answer this because there’s too much shit but I’ll try. 

Growing up, my favourite series were A Series of Unfortunate Events and the City of Ember trilogy. 

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is another fav childhood book. It’s about a porcelain rabbit finding his way home and it really got me in the emotions so hard that I still think/cry about it as an adult. 

In HS, I remember loving John Steinbeck’s East of Eden so much that I went 15 mins over the time limit for a class presentation talking about it (everyone kept groaning but i just chugged on cause i loved that book so fucking much. prof enjoyed enthusiasm about books and didn’t stop me). 

Lately though, I’ve mostly been reading sci-fi anthologies, queer graphic novels (my absolute favourite is ‘The Less than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal,’ which is entirely available as a webcomic for free. It’s a really gorgeously drawn road trip/love story), and fanfic. 

I feel like I should also mention Questionable Content - it’s a (free) webcomic that still updates almost daily, and I’ve been following it for a decade. QC is still one of my ultimate favourite things I’ve ever read. 

last song i listened to: Probably “The Parting Glass” by The High Kings, a rendition of a Scottish Drinking song that is legit the best fucking song ever. Either that or something by Doja Cat

last film i watched:  Bon Cop Bad Cop - a Canadian classic and I realized I’d never actually seen it! Had to rectify that stat

inspiration or muse: tbh when it comes to writing (this is gonna sound cheesy as FUCK) i’m most inspired by my relationships with my close friends, my family and my partner. my writing might be hella ridiculous at times but it’s entirely cheesy mush when it comes down to it

dream job: to be QUITE honest, i just wanna be one of those people in mocap suits that jumps around in a green room and models for 3D animation. However, the chances of that happening are close to 0%  given i’m literally in grad school to be a librarian. i do GENUINELY want to be a librarian but if someone were to come up to me tomorrow and be like, “i’m offering you a job with the same salary as a specialized librarian except all you need to do is mime out action sequences and facial expressions in a mocap suit” i’d be like sign me the fuck up. alas, a girl can dream.

meaning behind your url: I wanted it to be a pun and i thought “Sir Cumference” was funny because it had a medieval vibe. Turns out, its the name of a series of educational math books for kids. the more ya know.

People I want to know more about (hi everyone!): @noussommeslessquelettes @maltedmilkchocolate @miles-from-home @thatsthejoke @isas-identitty @bsfordays @kuranico @gayndetergent

[eldritchsurveys]

220.

What is your favorite type of cat? >> The quiet, fastidiously clean, low-shed kind.

If you could delete any word from existence, which word would it be and why? >> Meh.

What is your favorite swearword? >> I guess fuck, I say it a lot.

What celebrity do you wish you looked more like? >> ---

If you had your way, what color(s) would you dye your hair? >> I mean, I do have my way, and I still don’t bother with colouring my hair (although I did a few times when I was a bit younger). It’s fine the way it is, I generally don’t wear my hair long enough to bother, and colouring is way too much work (or money, if I pay someone reputable to do it).

Do you support the LGBTQ community? If not, state your reasons. You are entitled to your opinions. >> I mean, yes.

Do you like seafood? If so, what is your favorite? If not, what is your favorite type of food? >> I love seafood. Scallops and tilapia are two favourites.

Have you ever gone vegan/vegetarian? >> I was raised pescetarian -- or, more accurately, “vegan, but fish was the sole exception”.

Have you ever eaten a veggie burger? >> Yeah, I eat them daily.

If you could master any sport, which one would you choose? >> I don’t want to master any sports.

If you could meet any major political figure, who would it be? What would you say to him/her?  >> I don’t want to do this.

Do you play any unique instruments? >> No.

In school, did you take any classes to learn how to play any instruments? >> I didn’t, I was a choir kid.

Do you like applesauce? >> Yep.

Do you know any German words? >> I do, since it’s my Duolingo focus.

How about any Portuguese words? >> I know “obrigado”, and that’s because I heard it a lot from an ex-friend.

Did you actually pay attention in Spanish class? >> I did.

If you drink Monster, what is your favorite flavor? If you don't drink Monster, why not?  >> I don’t drink it because I find it repulsive. Also, I’m not sure the stuff in them is any good for me, and it doesn’t have any benefits, so it’d be pointless for me to drink it unless I just wanted to punish my body for some reason.

Do you think any of your family members voted for Mitt Romney? Did you/would you? >> I don’t know anything about this. No, I didn’t vote at all that year.

Do you have a reason to hate anyone at the moment? >> I’m sure I could invent one, but I’d rather not bother.

Is it easier for you to forgive or to pretend it never happened? >> I usually just try to move on with my life as quickly as I can, and make a mental note to avoid whatever situation fucked me over in the future.

Are you one of those people who remembers EVERYTHING? >> In comparison to other people I know, it might seem that way sometimes.

Do you sometimes pretend you don't remember something about someone? >> No.

Do you own any Webkinz stuffed animals? If so, do you have a Webkinz online account? Do you still go on it? >> No.

If you had/have a Club Penguin account, how old were you when you got it? >> I’ve never had an account there.

Do you own any Nintendo video game consoles/handhelds? >> We have a Switch and a 3DS. Mostly Sparrow plays them.

Do/did you ever own a Blackberry? >> I did own one, when they were popular.

Do you know the band Noah & the Whale? >> I’ve heard of them, but never listened.

Do you listen to Ingrid Michaelson? >> No.

If you have a song stuck in your head, what's the name of it & the artist? >> I don’t.

Do you know who Sue Lyons is? How about Dominique Swain? >> No and no.

Unpopular opinion time. Be honest. The Beatles - overrated or not? >> I’ve never much cared for them, and I’m a little dim on their impact on popular music -- mostly because I never cared enough to research it.

What religion were you raised in? Are you still that religion, if you had one? >> I was raised casually-Christian. I am not a Christian now. (I highly doubt I ever was one, even when I was attempting to be.)

What religion/spiritual path intrigues you the most, if any? >> I mean, all of them do, really. Christianity is just the one that intrigues me least (although the Bible’s kinda neat in parts).

What ancient culture intrigues you the most, if any? >> All of them.

What was/is your favorite subject in school? >> ---

What was the last name of your second grade teacher? >> Condor, I think. She was technically a sub because the actual teacher was out all year for some reason.

Who was your favorite teacher of all time? >> ---

Were/are you a teacher's pet? >> No.

Do you like pink lemonade? >> Sometimes. I generally prefer plain lemonade.

Do you have a Spotify account? >> Yup.

Firefox or Chrome? >> Chrome.

Safari or Internet Explorer? >> Neither.

Windows or Mac? >> Windows.

Desktop or laptop? >> Laptops are what I’m used to by now.

What's your favorite U2 song, if you have one? >> I’ve always really liked Walk On and Sunday Bloody Sunday.

What's your favorite song that's playing on the radio, if you have one? >> ---

What's a song that you remember from your childhood? >> All Coming Back to Me Now, Céline Dion.

Are/were your parents hippies? >> No.

Would you ever consider getting dreadlocks? >> I’ve wanted them for most of my life, but I know I don’t have the executive function to maintain them properly, so I’ve given up on the idea.

If you had a baby boy right now, what would his middle name(s) be? >> ---

What heritage does your last name imply? >> I don’t know.

How about your middle name? >> None, it’s a word.

And first? >> Arthurian...? lmao.

What is your heritage, anyway? >> Black American, Haitian, Native American.

Were your parents born in the United States? Most importantly, were you? If not, what country?  >> One parent was, one wasn’t. I was.

Name an American stereotype? >> I’d rather not.

Name a stereotype from your country/culture? >> ---

Do you have any paint in your house? Is it wall paint, art paint, or something else? >> No.

Do you ever swing at the playground & listen to music? >> I haven’t done that in a very long time, but it’s a pretty good way to pass the time.

What was your favorite age so far? >> ---

What was your least favorite age so far? >> ---

Were you/are you in a rush to grow up? >> I was in a rush to grow up because I couldn’t abide my father’s tyrannical style of parenting. Now, it’s irrelevant.

What's your opinion on tattoos in the workforce? How about piercings?  >> It’s not even my place to have an opinion, I’m not a part of the workforce.

Do women breastfeeding in public make you feel uncomfortable? Why or why not? >> No. Because... why would it???

Do you know the band The Last Place You Look? >> No.

If not, you should check them out. Do you like A Day To Remember? If not, they're a lot like The Last Place You Look. >> I don’t know anything about their music.

What is the most annoying commercial you've seen/heard this past week? >> I haven’t seen any commercials.

What is your favorite holiday? >> Christmas.

What holidays do you choose not to participate in, but others celebrate? >> Valentine’s Day, Independence Day, Easter... most of them, I guess, huh.

"Happy Holidays," "Merry Christmas," or "Merry X-Mas?' >> I really don’t give a fuck. Either way, it’s someone being polite, so.

Does it even matter to you which one people say? >> Fuck no.

Why is that every major Christian holiday adopts Pagan traditions in its celebrations? >> That’s an essay-level question that requires multiple citations and fact-checking and I am not going to get into that on a survey, of all places.

[surprisebitch]

THOUGHTS ON DANGANRONPA V3 (NOT SPOILER-FREE)

This is not a spoiler-free review so only click Read More or read IF YOU HAVE FINISHED THE GAME. 

If not, don’t read this at all and if you’re on mobile, scroll down super quickly and I tagged this as ndrv3, drv3 so don’t complain or say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, so my thoughts!!!

GAMEPLAY

DRV3 has the superior gameplay objectively out of all the franchise. It feels more polished, refined, and it looks like they really took criticisms from the previous games and improved the gameplay for this.

From the first shooting movement, it’s definitely more suited than the Danganronpa movement style when moving across the academy or map. And how easier it is to get Monocoins now just by shooting all the stuff in every room… It is definitely more reasonable than having to examine everything (EVEN MONITORS) from the previous games which was tedious and a hard way to earn coins just to earn precious gifts. Like now, it is actually possible to give THE BEST PRESENTS for every freetime even from the beginning of the game! I gave EVERYONE THE BEST PRESENT from the beginning. The Hidden Monokuma this time also are nice cause you see them in 3D and around the campus! So yeah, these were nice improvements when it comes to moving.

Now onto the class trials!

Let’s start with the minigames. Hangman’s Gambit is the best here and it’s still challenging. Psyche Taxi was pretty good even though Mind Surfing from DR2 was more challenging and can be frustrating. The classic Rebuttal Showdown was great. Argument Armament had a nice rhythm game mechanics and challenges. I especially love the unique sprite of the character involved in the middle and the transitions to the end.. really builds up nicely and when all their clothes get torn in the end, how dramatic.

But the crown definitely goes to SCRUM DEBATE. Now that was really lit. It was intense and really encapsulated the atmosphere of the debate grounds. It would have been really great if this was a minigame for the previous games but I guess it’s never too late!

Now another aspect of the trial, nonstop debate! I really loved Mass Panic Debate, it added more challenge and the Loud Voices too. I think objectively DRV3 has the most challenging Trials that I hit the Retry screen a number of times haha but I thankfully still got an A grade in all trials (playing in Mean Logic too so).

The LIE BULLET deserves to be singled out though. How lying becomes a necessary thing to do and gets you closer to the truth since every trial is designed where you have to lie once. If you lie more than once, you unlocked the backroute. (I apparently did that for one of the cases though since I found the most logical argument was to lie.) But yeah, it also gives the main story a replay value somehow cause you get to see alternate events unfold if you lie instead of tell the truth or vice versa. And yup, this game DOES involve the theme of lying so I think it was cleverly executed.

Tl;dr:

Gameplay-wise, DRV3 is objectively superiour and the best of the franchise.

CHARACTERS AND OTHER POSITIVE POINTS

Let’s start with the amazing Kaede. God, she would have really been the strongest protagonist and I was soo looking forward to play as her then felt betrayed after chapter 1. BTW, the strongest chapter 1 of the series.. really started this game off with a BANG and lots of tears. It was suspicious though how she already started strong when Makoto and Hajime weren’t as strong as Kaede so RED FLAGS there. But I didn’t like chapter 1 and I will get more into that later.

Shuichi had amazing development though and watching him evolve redeemed chapter 1 so it was justified. EVEN THOUGH we find out later Kaede was wrongfully executed ugh.

All the executions in V3 are absolutely brutal. I think V3 has the worst executions in the franchise. All of them were torturous while other games had fast death executions. V3 didn’t spare you from seeing the characters suffer an agonizing death so yeah it did have a lot of impact especially since many of the characters except Kiyo died unfairly and brutally. The Kaito plot twist was amazing though and I’m glad we got to see a character not suffer.

I think it really conveyed how twisted watching such a game can be. But then again, it would have been better if they didn’t remind us it was fiction even though we know it is.

Personally, I think V3 has the strongest cast because everybody had strong character development including the survivors.

Before everyone was sent off, we all got to see their talents and how their characters evolve. Also how unlikely the survivors are here.. I totally didn’t expect Himiko and Kibo to survive. I did get Maki and Shuichi though since Maki was like a deadly Kirigiri.

I ended up loving so many students. Kirumi is best girl though. Of course, there’s Miu too and Maki. AND GONTA AND KAITO ARE MY HUSBANDS. And you end up loving the rest in their own way.

tl;dr:

V3 definitely has the strongest cast but couldve gotten a strong protagonist and I can go on and on why but for the previous DR games, there were characters I didn’t like but for V3, I loved everybody even the twisted ones cause like they really were interesting fascinating characters haha

SOUNDTRACK

Amazing.. A+

Nothing else to be said. Phenomenal. So let’s go with the Ending

CHAPTER 1 AND ENDING AND STORY CRITIQUE

I honestly wish that they made Kaede stick around longer til chapter 5 at least then protag switch. Kaede had sooo much potential to be the most complex character. chapter 1 was messily executed imo (pun intended) and was just done for shock value on the get go imo. It would have been more impactful if we actually lost her towards the end of the game and been a different formula. In all DRs, the most advertised and significant character died on the 1st chapter and V3 isn’t an exception except for the fact it was a protagonist switch. I still think the switch could’ve been happened later.

I think the whole meta plot twist was brilliant. THAT BEING SAID, it could have been executed differently but still conveyed the intended message and the philosophy of Danganronpa. 

So, in the end we find out that this Killing Game was orchestrated by the real world and Tsumugi is the mastermind of this game. Okay, so let’s talk about Tsumugi first. I honestly think that Tsumugi as a mastermind was clever.. who would have expected the Plain Jane of the class will be the mastermind; it is a totally danganronpa plot twist but at the same time the iconic Junko makes an appearance thanks to her ultimate talent as a cosplayer.

I liked Tsumugi as a mastermind but I didn’t like how it was executed (no pun intended). If she actually had development, she would’ve not ended up being one of the least fave characters in the polls. I liked her motive though and it was really sinister but she was such a background character. i wish we actually saw her play a significant role throughout the game. She has a really cute character design so in my opinion, she’s a strong mastermind. Junko was flashy and sexy and out of the class whereas Tsumugi was still sexy but presented herself as ordinary and is a “survivor” since her talent makes her extraordinary so YES I think Tsumugi as the mastermind is perfect but it would’ve been better to see her play an active role throughout the game.

It was also clever that DR would mislead us with Kokichi who I think is one of the best characters in the franchise alongside Komaeda. I was fooled into thinking he really was the mastermind with his lies! BUT THEN I REMEMBERED, this is Danganronpa and there will ALWAYS BE PLOT TWISTS, it’s not that easy and I was right but I didn’t know how to explain it. Actually, I thought it was Kaito who I love btw cause he was suspicious and it turned out that it was neither of them and they worked together in the end. Chapter 5 of SDR2 and V3 are definitely iconic chapters in the franchise. So back to Kokichi.. I think it was brilliant writing with no continuity errors that he ended up being the dark knight of this game or the unlikely good guy when he always presented himself as a villain. I must admit I hated Kokichi especially after Chapter 4 when he sacrificed Gonta but then Kokichi really had no choice, who else could’ve killed Miu (RIP btw, I also really loved Miu). And while I was angry that Kokichi said he was fake crying for Gonta.. after the ending and his dying words, I can see that he was just using his lies to mask his thoughts and he really hated this killing game. So yes, Kokichi was manipulative and deceitful but this game proved that such a character can end up being the “good guy” here since his ultimate goal was to lure the mastermind out through the killing game and even confuse the mastermind.

So I kinda got off a tangent I know so lets go BACK to the ending. I think the weakest point of the ending is the fiction aspect. I feel like that was totally unnecessary and the message of Danganronpa could have been portrayed if they just went meta, we were the audience, and said that the universe of V3 isn’t fiction. It would have been more effective cause we would have felt more sympathy for the characters playing this twisted game and they could still end the game by not voting at all and having the canon no hope or despair ending. We would have gotten the message and the philosophy while making the rest of the Danganronpa including V3 matter. Sure WE KNOW they are fiction but we didn’t have to be reminded especially for 3+ hours since the trial lasted 6-8 hours gosh.. It was really tedious and LOOONG.

Presenting Danganronpa as fiction makes everything seem meaningless and I feel that’s why the ending was very polarizing. I feel that if they left Fiction out and just went Meta that everyone in the Killing Game is us then that would have better conveyed the message without leaving a sour taste about the significance of the previous games cause many felt that everything was a lie and meaningless even when Team DR didn’t intend it since they wanted to critique violence in media and how twisted enjoying playing games such as DR. Personally, i am rooting for Hope everytime but i see now how hope and despair will not end the cycle of this killing game so i love how neither hope nor despair ended it.

So yes, I love that the contestants were fans and wanted to be part of the Killing Game. It was a smart plot twist and could be satirical since who knows if there are really players out there who’d have the mentality of the students. So yeah, the whole Killing Game being orchestrated by an audience would have been brilliant. I just hope that they blurred the idea it’s fictional and made Danganronpa seem real cause yes we know it’s fiction but we play this game for escapism and the thrill. We didn’t have to be reminded of it and we WOULD STILL GRASP the message. 

After all is said, I really love the mastermind’s motive and plot twist of this game. It’s a satire to consumerism.. Supply and demand was such an important concept here. True, Tsumugi just saw life as a way to satisfy demand but i think it was so despairful cause WE ARE THE MASTERMINDS.. us playing Danganronpa, we play for the thrill even though our intentions are different. 

Personally i played to see Hope triumph over Despair. and Tsumugi and the whole ending made us see that even rooting for hope wont end the killing game. And it was so twisted cause Tsumugi was a representation of the irony behind Danganronpa. It was awful true but at the end of the day, she represents team Danganronpa and we love that game so yeah it was so meta. Hard fact but Tsumugi’s motive was strong and makes you ponder. (but AGAIN, i wish she had a more explicit active role throughout the story)

Tl;dr:

So did I love it or hate it? I loved that it had a self-aware message but it could have been executed better (no pun intended. damn im sorry). It is a strong installment in the franchise but it is not without flaws. Protagonist switch would’ve been better in chapter 4 or 5. That being said, I loved most aspects of it but I dislike how they tried to layer so many things onto each other that it ended up being convoluted. I feel that if they just said that the V3 universe was real and left fiction out of the picture, we still would have grasped the message. They should have just left DR1 and DR2 as fictional in the V3 universe while the Killing Games in V3 are reality. And I feel with that clarified, the ending would have been less confusing.

Nevertheless, I love how the ending didnt follow Hope winning over Despair and was a completely different ending. And yes, Tsumugi as a mastermind was amazing.. totally despairful and has a strong message. But yet again, the story could have been reworked and delivered more strongly.

However, the entire ending could have been a lie right? I mean the game's theme is Lie vs. Truth so who knows what really was the truth or not? I guess we’ll find out if we get another Danganronpa game… because at the end of the day, Supply and Demand!

How about you? What are your thoughts? Reply to this post if you wanna share!

[kaorei-endgame]

So without spoiling stuff... how's that nier treating ya?

Y’know, it’s good! Finished it yesterday! If you’re going in for the story and the narrative quirks, I’d really recommend it.

Without getting into spoilers, I’m just gonna meander. So bail now if that’s not your thing. ‘coz I’m not sure how much concrete I can say, except that it’s fun enough, but also extremely easy, and I suspect I’m getting a little tired of the Platinum gameplay model–or at least, in so far as it being universally applied to any game as a bandage for “better gameplay.” 

Don’t get me wrong, I likes my dodge counters and the LOOK of the combat is plenty slick (cool mirages dodges, and that thing she do with a big sword where she basically handstands on it during the second hit), but as a whole, it was never remotely challenging. I didn’t go out of my way to grind, but even doing a decent amount of sidequests had me always several levels above all plot enemies. Thus, the combat could be smooth and fun, but its balancing never really pushed me hard enough that I felt like I needed to get invested in learning how to actually play it well (y’know, not spamming healing items as needed, practicing/mastering dodge timing instead of just taking my lumps, etc). It could be that my time for “No Items Ever In Devil May Cry Because They Mess Up Your SSS Rank” has passed, and that’s okay, but I also suspect there’s just a fundamental lack of depth here vs. DMC and Bayonetta. As a result, I slotted “move speed up” and other utility chips into my skill layout–and “utility” or “support” is my preference 100% of the time anyway, so w/e–and never felt my damage was suffering or combat took too long for it.

Some cool things I noticed, or had told to me: 1) immediately after a perfect dodge you can hit R1 to do a big AoE counter (the animation for this is superlative) and 2) once you get more than one pod, you can hold the special move button down to charge the attack between all your pods (the animation for this is just the normal animation x3 but that’s still good)

There’s a bunch of dumb pickups that serve an rudimentary, pointless crafting system (but isn’t that pretty much all crafting systems???) So the best moment in the game is when you can buy a chip that automagically hoovers that crap up off the ground as you sprint past–crap that you don’t really want in the first place because all the weapons are more or less the same anyway. And giant gauntlets are super super fun to punch with, even in this easy game (especially if you plug in a chip that creates “a strong shockwave with every attack”), but every gauntlet is pretty much within a standard deviation of every other gauntlet; tho, remember, you do get cool short stories when you level them up:

Automata pulled back a bit from Nier’s kitchen sink gameplay mechanics, which disappointed me, such that I wonder if the Platinumification of it wasn’t a net loss. They leaned more on their polished, pleasing combat, and the rudimentary, half-baked stuff that populated the first game was in shorter supply. Obviously I don’t know how much interplay there was between Platinum and Cavia, and who’s responsible for what gameplay system or what snippet of text or what pacing decision, but I felt as if a lot of things that I considered emblematic of the first Nier were present here in a much more superficial way. Same with a lot of the genre bending–there isn’t a part in this game where you shift from 3D action to text adventure to survival horror in rapid succession. While text adventure stuff still exists, it’s more like set dressing than a game mechanic. This is true of gameplay elements as well. Transitioning from 2D to 3D exists, but it hit me more as flourish than function. Not that the original Nier was Gameplay King, I think that’s pretty well known, but this one swung the pendulum a bit too far towards Ease of Use.

Then again, there were moments in Automata where I thought “well that’s some really inconsistent character writing,” and somehow I let myself be fooled by that, even having played Nier 1, even knowing that these moments of contradiction would exist and be reconciled later–they got me. 

And that’s p. great, because my favorite experiences with art is when I am “got” by it. Often–and I think this mostly about horror games, but it applies here to–I feel like either video games or I have lost their or my capacity to even fool or be fooled in the first place. So that they tricked me in ways I was already ready for them to trick me about…  how many extra points does that get on a review score, when compared to the frame rate, or the latency on the perfect dodge?

Ah, who knows. 

There is just one absolutely crazy thing in the desert, though, that I don’t think is ever involved in a sidequest. I just found it by accident, without context, and I was like… oh hello, you are being very “Nier” right now, game.

Geez, that one song:

But also all the other songs.

In the end, Automata’s messages and themes were a lot more straightforward than I expected, but many of them hit me in this hard, strange way that few games have been able to replicate, and I appreciate this feeling that the vibe of the game has more weight than its plot twists. I love the serene, melancholy nature of Nier’s post-apocalypse, where even “The Resistance” seems to spend more time just living their daily lives than shooting robot guns. While I acknowledge that I’m still basking in the afterglow, it’s hard to think of another recent game that took me like this; certainly I don’t often blitz through 50+ hours of game in less than a week, these days. I wanted something greater from Automata, but how much of that is some instinctual insatiation? I can’t deny that it offered me so much more than almost anything in its class.

It came out at one of those points where I’ve spent a lot of time feeling nothing but aimless/detached/disassociated, and the thing I hate/dread most about these periods is the sense that I am existing on auto-pilot and just doing what’s convenient and/or easy instead of doing things I want to do, but that require effort. I try to be circumspect about my ability/proclivity to use games as simple, low-brain-usage escapism, but there’s also a kind of peace in being able to drown yourself in distraction to cleave off the worst of things. I don’t know. Having Automata be a mirror, a dead world just going through its low-activity cycles, while I feel like I’m just living my life autonomically, it gave me some kind of respite.

Here’s a part I think all should notice (don’t know if this counts as SPOILERS spoilers): http://targetcombo.tumblr.com/post/158342893201/this-happens-in-nier-automata

Finally: I hope someone sees my name, when the time comes :

[2djdanger]

RAMBLINGS OF AN ANIMATION STUDENT ON THE BOSS BABY AND THE INDUSTRY ITSELF AND WHY I LOVE THE BOSS BABY WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL:

Words cannot describe the love I have for The Boss Baby. I saw an advanced screening of it a few weeks back with the director there & it blew my mind it’s like 3D animation meets 2D along with gorgeous art & so many opposites attract motifs like the baby acting like an adult & the graphic bold bright comic book feel type scenes that also meet this almost soft pastel 1950s/1960s vibe going on. AND THE EMOTION IN EVERYONES FACES AGH IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY AS AN ANIMATOR!!! It’s such a fast paced movie & everything happening at once & throughout all this everyone’s showing a variety of different emotions in a few seconds & the writing is amazing like not many animated films these days go back to the roots of traditional animation & just making it for a wide variety of an audience from all walks of life instead of making the same movie over & over again with great animation but a story line that seems rushed & choppy & not thought out but they keep making sequels anyways whether we wanted them or not just because m o n e y. I’m looking at u Disney with almost everything & Illumination with Despicable Me. It’s not to say that I don’t like sequels bc those companies have made some I enjoyed but it makes me disappointed when they could be putting their talents towards something fresh & new & original. This movie was o r i g i n a l in every sense of the word. Go take your kids to see it, yourself, your parents (I took mine & im a fully grown adult as are they & we loved it), your grandparents, your grandparent’s grandparents!!! It’s so great!!! It’s literally what the 3D animation community needed. I’m a traditional/2D animator myself & it seems more of the 2D movies out there recently have been trying to keep it original and don’t even get me started on the amount of work the animators do in not only 2D but 3D as well. But like recently 3D animation seems obsessed with the technology realizing they can make anything look more & more realistic nowadays then say when Pixar created Toy Story & their shorts in the 80s. These big companies keep churning out these movies not putting much thought into it & spending everything to make it look as real as possible. But that’s not the point of animation at all! They’re losing touch with why we animate in the first place!!! As my old storyboarding teacher once told our class on why we animate, we animate because it shouldn’t be possible in the real world. When you make anything animated you should stop & think: why am I making this story animated? Does it really need to be animated? Can I do this in live action? If you can make a story in live action then why are you animating it at all in the first place? It doesn’t need to be animated! Literally animation is just beautiful. You can do anything with it. And more & more especially with the technology in 3D films they’re slipping away from those values & ideas & making things that can be replicated in live action. So to see The Boss Baby really utilize the original concept of animation to tell that beautiful crazy impossible story & to top it off tell it through the bright eyes of an over imaginative child make it all the more better because it gives way to these big brilliant imagination sequences with these bold graphic designs that I’d die for. The editing and the animation in this movie is literally perfection it’s one thing flows into another into another into another & it works ANNND THERES EVEN GOOD COMEDIC TIMING!!! Sometimes movies live action & animated just can’t capture that kind of fast paced back to back tension followed by good comedic timing so to the writing team on The Boss Baby I say bravo to you & to the animators as well because God knows how difficult it is to draw out a normal sequence of actions but to follow the writing & get that vision out there in the open & follow it & draw it out so every detail works that’s just insane. This movie just inspires me so much & it’s relatable. My childhood was like Tim’s where everything was perfect & I was happy until my baby sister came along & we went at it for years. Another thing back to the genius writing in the film is this style where it forces you into Tim’s shoes because when they first introduce Boss Baby & for the first half of the film you’re made to hate him & he acts as the villain of the film until about halfway through Boss Baby really comes out of his 1 dimensional evil villain shell & just sees Tim in distress & reveals why it’s not only bad for Tim the current situation but why it’s bad for him too & then proceeds to give Boss Baby this insane narrative & beautifully tragic multidimensional backstory. Tim as the first main character has already been developed as a multidimensional character with different feelings & emotional expressions because he doesn’t know much about the world except for his imagination since he is a kid but by showing this then completely flipping everything on it’s head & giving Boss Baby real flaws & strengths that balance out Tim’s strengths & weaknesses it makes them seem a lot more like real relatable people & more so like siblings who depend on each other. As an older sister I can say some of my weaknesses end up being my sisters strengths & vice versa. Then by the end of the film,Boss Baby is this character you can't help but love & root for hoping he wins & can get out of the bad situations like when his formula was stolen so he kept going baby again it's like you feel panicked because you don't want Boss Baby to be normal you want him to be his crazy quirky self. Also this whole tragic narrative really hit me like it just stuck with me because I’m a sucker for these kinds of dark/sad stories layered in a brighter happier story & they coexist in harmony like that’s when you know a film’s really working. So SPOILERS AHEAD even though if you got this far there have already been some light spoilers I couldn’t avoid talking about but these get right into the grit of it. So the idea that Boss Baby was never really born fascinates me. In this world in the movie it makes sense. It’s also really sad as Tim points out as we’re finding out more about Boss Baby that he never had a childhood & how Boss Baby even says himself he was “born” or more so created (in both the universe of the movie & if he was self aware ((which he isn’t but for the sake of explaining this just humor the thought if he was)) that he was created as a character to work in this movie world realm plane of existence whatever you want to call it) all grown up as an adult in a baby’s body. Just think about that for a minute. What if you were born an adult & never went through childhood, never had a family, no one ever loved you or played with you or anything, all you knew was co-workers & business stuff. You never had fun or imagined things. That’s a really sad life if you ask me personally. He never had a chance to be creative or find himself all he knew was what the cold adult business school taught him from day 1. Most adults these days forgot what it was like to be a child & have fun & I think that’s what they were trying to get at with this backstory especially when Tim’s on the plane to Vegas with Boss Baby & just trying to teach him in small little ways how to use his imagination & just be a kid & not be so serious & black & white all the time. Also, I feel like that’s the issue sometimes with my own parents. As an animator I see animated movies as just another way of telling a story whereas people like my parents who don’t understand much from my line of work see it as a children’s media with no substance & pretty pictures. I want to break that barrier because the first animated pieces were NOT made for kids they were for other adults. I feel like it shouldn’t matter anyways if the movie’s marketed for kids because it could always be a good movie regardless of that & people like my parents forget what it’s like to have fun & see a good kids movie. They were kids once, we all were. As with many animated films before it, The Boss Baby brings subtle tasteful adult humor to the film as well as some just downright outrageous adult humor like Boss Baby running around butt naked with a censor bar over his nether regions. When you can marry adult & child humor together in a movie & make it work nicely it’s always a sign of a good movie. So tonight’s the opening night of The Boss Baby in cinemas everywhere & because I have so much love for this movie after seeing the advanced screening & listening to the director, producer, & designer from the movie speak about it & their own experiences they put into this film, like I stated before I dragged my parents out of the house on a Friday night when they would normally be in bed sleeping really early & shared the joy & beauty of the animated feature film with them. Normally my dad’s the one who will give almost any film a try & watch it & really like it. My mom however is extremely picky & if it doesn’t please her in the first 10 minutes or less she will zone out & fall asleep taking a nap through over half the movie. Both of my parents were on the edge of their seats tonight paying the utmost attention to the movie. It was a really beautiful moment to see my parents actually giving this animated movie a shot & they both ended up loving it as much I did on my second go seeing it. I’m not gonna lie I saw the trailers for this movie late last year & it caught my interest but I had this nagging thought that it wasn’t going to be a fresh new story it would just be typical & only made to make some money & keep Dreamworks in the game another year. I was happily proven wrong & this movie just takes everything about these money making no story movies & flips it on its head entirely. I even bought the art book for The Boss Baby because the artwork alone is enough to inspire me while working on my own projects. And that my friends is why you need to see The Boss Baby

TL;DR: The Boss Baby is an A+ gorgeously animated film with a breath of fresh air new story told in a way that’s really interesting & new & takes you back to the old days of 2D animation classics despite being a 3D film so disregard Rotten Tomato’s obviously wrong ratings & go see it for yourself because as an animator this movie makes me happy & I want to live in it forever ❤️❤️❤️

[shada-was-in-the-area-and]

all odd numbers

i’ll play ur game, nhi, if this is really u

3. Who did you play with as a kid?

My family, mostly! My friends weren’t really into videogames in elementary school; I was a lot more active back then. Coming into middleschool and the first half of highschool I had like two friends. I was, for the most part, a Solitary Gamer.

5. Ever use cheat codes?

I used a Gameshark once, but other than that I never knew the codes because I never went on the internet to look for them.

7. Any games you have multiple copies of?

this sounds like a waste of money and i’ve never done it because i thought it was a waste

11. Have you ever made new friends from playing video games?

Just acquaintances

 13. A game you’ve never played that everyone else has?

I’ve never played Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. Fire Emblem. Animal Crossing. Harvest Moon. Etc.

15. If it was a requirement to get a game related tattoo, what would you pick?

Man...it would either be Mega Man or Kirby.

17. Ever lose a friend over a game?

nah

19. Favorite handheld console?

My Gameboy SP never did me wrong.

21. Game that you didn’t like or understand as a kid but love now?

I honestly don’t know? I don’t think so? Most of the things I didn’t like as a kid I still don’t really like, because my tastes are stagnant.

23. The game that you’ve logged the most hours into?

I maxed out the hours on Pokemon Emerald

25. Were you ever an arcade game player?

With the exception of the Donkey Kong Machine I mentioned in the last ask, I wasn’t an arcade player! I’ve played arcade games, just on other consoles.

27. Game that makes you rage?

i’m not really a rager. i’m a calm, tranquil gamer.

29. What is your gaming set up?

computer, bed, mouse

31. Does the 3DS and/or Virtual Boy hurt your eyes or give you headaches?

From prolonged use, yeah! But I’ve learned to take breaks/get used to it.

33. Did you ever have any bootleg games or plug-n-play games?

I still to this day have no idea how you get these

35. Ever work in a game store? Or do you have a favorite game shop?

I never have! Gamestop is like the only gaming store i know.

37. Have you played E.T. for the Atari 2600? Do you think that’s the worst game ever, or do you have another nomination?

NOPE HAHAHA

39. A sequel that you would die for them to make?

It doesn’t need one, but: Ghost Trick.

Half-Life 2, just so my suffering can end.

41. A genre that you just can’t get into?

I’ve never really been into JRPG’s, and I can’t see myself getting sucked into them anytime soon. You’d think i’d be into them, but i’ve never ever been a fan of the genre. This includes KH and more Square Enix stuff. My biggest JRPG experience was Super Mario RPG, if thats any indication.

43. Ever play games when you really should have been concentrating on something else?

literally every day of my life

45. How are you at Mario Kart?

i’m really good at Double Dash

47. Do you like competitive games?

I don’t mind them! It really depends on my mood going into them. Sometimes I have a lot of fun playing competitive matches, other times I get spooked to use voice chat. Recently my take has kind of soured. I had a couple bad Overwatch Games and have been kinda tenative to use the mic/play since.

49. In games where you can pick your class, do you always tend to go for the same type of character?

i always go for rogue because im a predictable asshole who wants so desperately to be cool

51. Have you ever played a game for so long that you forgot to eat or sleep?

pokemon, easily

53. What’s your opinion on DLC these days?

I am fine when DLC is actual, bonus content like Epilogues/New Routes/Prequels. But if DLC is something that should have been in the game at launch, it makes me kinda “:/”

55. Did you ever make someone you hated in the Sims and did mean stuff to them?

I have played the sims once. I accidently blocked my SIms access to the bathroom, didn’t know how to fix it fast enough, and they all shit themselves. I closed the game and never played again.

57. Did you ever play a game to 100% or get all of the achievements?

I try and do this with most games nowadays. I did it with Robobot and most Kirby games.I recently did it with Pokemon Moon, which was, an achievement.

59. Do you play any cell phone games?

Just basic ones like Tetris, Scrabble, and Pocket Morty’s

61. Do you trade in your games or keep them forever

I can’t part with games, and overall have a bad habit of keeping everything.

63. Ever go to a gaming convention or tournament?

Nope! Almost went to a tournament, but passed.

65. Ever have a Game Genie, Game Shark or Action Replay? Did it ever mess up your game’s save file?

I used a Game Shark on my cousins Pokemon Emerald so he could get me a bunch of Mew’s/Duplicate my main party. IDK what it did to his save file, but i have a lot of Mew’s now.

67. Do you have a happy gaming-related childhood memory you want to share?

There’s this one part in Powerpuff Girls: Him and Seek where you have to break Mojo Jojo out of jail. He breaks the fourth wall in the beginning asking “You. Yes, You! The one with the game!” to help him out. It freaked me out so much at first but then I started to play the part of evil sidekick to Jojo. It turned me.

There was a time where Me, my Mother, my Cousin and my Uncle were all playing Double Dash. My Uncle never wins and for the first time ever, on Daisy Cruiser, he was going to win. I was in second, and fired a Bowser Turtle up the stairs, and it richoeted off a certain angle that knocked the shell directly across and into him. Then, when it bounced off the wall on the other side, it went in the same trajectory and hit my Uncle again. It proceeded to hit my Uncle for five turns, allowing me and the rest of my family to cross and for him to once again come in fourth. I think I almost died.

I used to RP a bunch of stories with my Cousin in Smash Brothers. We would pick a character, put the time of infinite and make up stories. We did it with Simpsons Hit and Run too.

I have a lot of good memories of forcing my Uncle and Mother to play COD with two kids who were margainally better than them.

69. In your opinion, best game ever made?

Ghost Trick

Ghost Trick, Ghost Trick, Ghost Trick

For the love of God, buy Ghost Trick. Watch a playthrough. Do anything. Ghost Trick is a diamond in the dust, left behind but still so glamarous. Ghost Trick. It’s Ghost Trick. Play Ghost Trick.

[wonhuis]

ahh thanks! you're very nice, but it actually happens with my native language as well, so i tend to apologize bc of that😅😅 it's related to dyslexia to some extend. i'm sorry to hear your college is not that good, can you change next year maybe? or is the only place you can find that major? What other courses would you like to do?? your content is already gorgeous!! oh here is not winter but i like to start with time bc i don't like to rush things and end up with a vest or smth lmao. 1/? 🍰-sss

😡😡you're right! i imagine them adopting some cute kittens, i mean i think most of svt loves cats but they seem to match cats personalities. and yes! jun + royalty + matching aes colors, lately i've been loving this concept, and i need to thank you for that! i think we all love miracles in december, even withouth loving ballads jbdkfjsb, it's one of my fav "old" kpop songs. THAT MOVIE! i remember it and its plot twist was so clever!! you can never go wrong with ghibli tbh💖 2/? 🍰-sss

i really like animation movies as well, but recently i've been loving horror and science fiction movies a lot! even though they might no be that scary, i love classics like halloween or alien. i think you're right lmao, jun'd probably love animation/disney/ghibli movies. thanks to him i discovered Hotarubi no Mori e or Into the Forest of Fireflies' Light in english, i highly recommend it😭 we share that, i suck at videogames but i love watching how people play, its like a movie(? 3/4 🍰-sss

(idk if you got any ask twice, but tumblr wasn't working propely) oh! what are your cats names? and do you associate with svt members? jskdfs i associate mine with seungkwan bc she's hella loud and gives the best hugs :( btw, how is your saturday going so far? 4/4 🍰-sss

ah but that’s a normal thing you know, we’re not perfect and we make mistakes!!! but i myself can’t type too so i fully understand you lmao it’s way worse in my native language than it is in english though 🤔🤔 i think i tend to pay more attention to things when i’m typing in other language lmao but anyway

i can find the major basically anywhere, but this is the least expensive place 😔😔 bc i’m not smart enough to go to a public school, also i don’t exactly do ~college~ it’s a 2 year course that’s way more practical but the degree works just like a college one. but my school is actually pretty great in education, it seems, they have really high grades in the ministry of education (my course has a 4 out of 5, and others have 5 out of 5) but some of my classes are pretty horrible too ksjndkj but oh well what dont we do to have a good job right 

i’m basically in the areas of design and technology right, so i’m studying ux/ui design, front end development, some other programming languages and i’ve also been learning drawing fundamentals, so i can go to illustration/animation. I BASICALLY WANNA DO EVERYTHING RELATED TO THESE AREAS LMAO i recently bought a game development course, so i’m gonna start that too!! drawing, illustration, animation, gaming, design, programming, 3d modeling, app development, idkkkk i love learning stuff and doing stuff but actually ~studying~ is a pain in the ass lmao ALSO THANK U FOR LIKING MY CONTENTTTTT, as a graphic designer i feel like i never do enough of ~design~ here on tumblr lmao like my gfx (the few i’ve done) are rlly basic but oh well

but ahhhh yeah you’re completely right!! it’s way better to start early so that when winter comes you already have something to wear 🤗🤗

YESSSS, you know my DREAM is for wonhui to go to a cat café and just be really happy playing with cats 😩😩 i’d pass out from so much cuteness!!!!!! i think most of svt are dog people though 🤔🤔 i mean they do like cats but they just prefer dogs?? either way they can ALL go to a cat café just so i can die happy!!

well i’m GLAD to have opened ur eyes for royalty!jun bc it’s what he deserves!!! i’ll scream about it anytime honestly, esp if the matching color is purple lmao 

and yessss, miracles in december is really THAT song right?? but i do like most of exo ballads just bc i’m bbh’s bitch and his + ksoo’s voice = everything to me. except for a few like baby don’t cry that i absolutely HATE, i tend to enjoy most of them! i think exo, svt and day6 are the only groups that can make me enjoy ballads even if it’s not all of them lmao otherwise i’ll always prefer the funkier songs

oh oh oh, i love science fictions too!! and i love halloween!! AND LOVE HOTARUBI NO MORI E, dude i’m really into animes u know and one of my fave things about svt is that they’re all weebs too lmao so when jun said he wanted to cosplay gin i SCREAMED, i was so happyyyyyy, i love that anime, i love gin and i hate pledis for never allowing jun to cosplay 😡😡😡😡 

also yeah! i find ppl playing games so interesting honestly jdkakjd depends on the people and the game though, i used to love cryaotic and all the deep story games he played but now i can’t concentrate anymore 😔😔 bc like i said i have the attention spam of a 5 year old lmao so i need to keep myself entertained, so i usually watch idk pubg streams or something bc they have more action

and i have a good weekend!! i literally did NOTHING besides sleeping so it was all good lmao tomorrow i’ll go back to doing something with my life though (at least i plan on doing so), but what about yours??

[swarkler]

Chapter 2 - Day 01 (read Chapter 1 on ao3)

“So, why aren’t we staying at the Hostel with the rest of your friends?” Julie asks as they cuddle in bed, her chin propped up in Karolina’s elbow, her lips pursed in the most adorable little frown. “Wasn’t that supposed to start today?”

“Well, since the Hostel is less than an hour’s drive away, I thought it would be more comfortable to stay here.” Karolina tries to sound as neutral and reasonable as possible. Lying was never really her forté. “We can still go to our classes like we usually do and we’ll swing by the Hostel at night for dinner and stuff like that.”

“Since when do you care so much about missing class?”

“I don’t, I just…” She scrambles for a good excuse. “I thought you liked having me all to yourself.”

“Well, of course I do.” Julie smiles coyly, her hand sliding down Karolina’s side and resting near her waist.  “But I was actually looking forward to getting to know your friends a little better. How did Gert take it when you told her you aren’t coming? She must have been pissed.”

“Nope, she totally got it, actually.” Karolina nearly chokes on her words.

Gert did not, by any means, totally get it . In fact, she gave one of her classic 40-minute-long Yorkes Monologue about how Karolina was single handedly ruining everything . She even mentioned the carbon footprint of driving to the Hostel and back everyday in an attempt to guilt her into giving up. Still, Karolina played the Nico card and they were able to reach an agreement: Karolina is going to hang back initially and test the waters, and if things with her ex-girlfriend aren’t completely unbearable she’ll relocate to the hostel midweek.

What Gert doesn’t know is that there is another factor that will definitely contribute to the already overwhelming awkwardness: Julie doesn’t know about Nico yet - and it’s not just that she doesn’t know Nico is coming, she doesn’t even know who Nico is. Karolina has been trying to gather up the courage to tell her for the past three weeks with no success.

It wasn’t a conscious decision, not telling Julie about Nico. It’s not like Karolina was trying to hide anything, she just didn’t know how to bring it up and frankly she didn’t want to. She and Xavin talked extensively about Nico and it took a huge toll on their relationship. It was kind of cathartic for Karolina at first, specially back then when things were still so fresh, but it must have been no fun for Xavin, listening to their girlfriend go on and on about how she spent her entire life loving a girl who broke her heart. So when Karolina started dating Julie, she decided she’d done enough wallowing in the past and that she would only talk about Nico if it ever came up.

Except one day it did come up, and Karolina had gotten so used to not talking about Nico she chickened out completely. When Julie asked her about her past relationships, she told her all about Xavin, how they met when she was spending a year abroad in Europe and decided it was best to break up when Karolina came home. She never explicitly said Xavin was her first relationship, but she let Julie assume - which is just as bad.

In Karolina’s defense, she genuinely thought it would never be an issue. Her friends never talked about Nico, at least not while Karolina or Alex were in the room. She was their group’s version of Voldemort, always up in the air but never directly mentioned. They even replaced whatever framed pictures she was in with newer versions without her. She was erased, and it hurt, but not nearly as much as being reminded of her did. Karolina had made peace with the fact that she would never see Nico again, so what was so wrong about wanting to keep that particularly painful part of her past to herself? It had never even occurred to her that Gert would invite Nico to the wedding, much less that Nico would agree to come.

“Babe? Are you there?” Julie almost has to physically shake Karolina’s head in order to get her attention. “You kind of spaced out on me.”

Karolina blinks. “Uh, sorry, I… didn’t get much sleep last night.”

(She hasn’t gotten much sleep since Gert asked her to meet for breakfast three weeks ago).

“Poor thing.” Julie caresses her cheek affectionately, looking at Karolina with eyes so attentive and trusting it makes her stomach fill with guilt. “I was just asking you if we’re going over there tonight.”

“No, not tonight. Everyone’s probably jet lagged, I don’t think there’s any plans for today. We’ll swing by tomorrow, though.”

“Okay.” Julie nods, clearly a little disappointed.

Karolina decides it’s now or never. She has to tell her. “Hey, Julie?”

“Yes, love?” Her girlfriend smiles at her expectantly, looking particularly angel-like with her strawberry blonde hair falling carelessly around her face. God, she’s so beautiful. And loving, and kind, and hopeful. She realizes Julie reminds her a little bit of her 17 year old self, and she knows it’s the wrong thing to do but she can’t bring herself to let her, down not right now.

“How about we go out tonight, just the two of us?”

Julie grins contently. “I’d love that.”

If it’s their last night of normalcy before hurricane Nico arrives, they might as well enjoy it.

. . .

By the time they finally get to the Hostel, they’re both sweaty and exhausted. Their Lyft driver dropped them off about a quarter of a mile away from the actual entrance, and the rest of the path had to be done on foot. Nico realizes she had completely forgotten how hot the LA sun could actually get, specially when you’re wearing all-black.

They let themselves in through the open entrance and Nico is pleased to find that Gert and Chase have completely redecorated the place, making it look a lot more modern and a lot less like the Hostel from their youth. It makes it a little be easier to bare, not having all of those memories flushing back at once.

“Well, if it isn’t the prodigal daughter!”

Nico barely recognizes Gert and she comes over to greet her, the familiar purple hair she knew replaced by a much more sober shade of brown. Still, the fiery spirit in Gert’s eyes thankfully hasn’t changed a bit, and Nico can tell her old friend is still every bit of the unstoppable activist she knew.

Chase looks just about the same as always, now sporting a scruffy beard to hide his eternal baby face. He wraps her up in a bear hug as soon as he sees her, and she’s not nearly as bothered by the contact as she thought she would be.

“You’re still just as tiny as remember, maybe even tinier.” He looks to Gert. “Does she look tinier to you?”

Nico shrugs. “Maybe you got bigger.”

Chase is annoyingly pleased at this, opening up his signature goofball grin as he stretched out his arms. “You know what? Maybe I did.”

She turns around to make introductions, but Victor is already shaking Gert’s hand.

“Hello there mis amigos , I’m Victor. Victor Mancha. I’m Nico’s plus one.”

Nico can’t help but roll her eyes at his smug face and suggestive tone. That boy can’t even introduce himself without seeming flirty. She doesn’t even have to look at Chase to know he’s giving Victor the death stare right now.  

Gert and Chase introduce themselves politely, and Victor’s eyes light up instantly. “Oh, Nico told me about you guys! Gert, you’re the social justice warrior, right?”

She seems a little proud to know Nico has talked about her. “Well, I prefer the term activist , but sure, that’s me.”

“Great! We seriously need to talk about your wedding venue accessibility problems.” He rolls up his cargo pants’ left leg to show off his prosthetic - a rather flashy piece of black and silver titanium he made himself using their university’s medical-grade 3D printer. “The Lyft driver can’t get anywhere near this place, we’re on a literal mountain and this bad boy here wasn’t really designed for hiking.”

“Damn, he’s right!” Gert stares at him in what could only be described as awe. Did he just call her out? Did Gert just enjoy it? “I’ll ask my parents to bring their jeep up here, that way we can get everyone all the way to the entrance with no trouble.”

“Hey, Vic?” Nico tugs at his jacket, trying to get his attention. “Can you drop our stuff at our room while the rest of us catch up?”

“It’s the second door to the right.” Gert adds, still smiling at her new best friend Victor Mancha.

“Sure thing, cariño .” He grabs Nico’s wheel bag from her hand and disappears into the corridor.

“I love him!” Gert exclaims as soon as he’s out of earshot. “Can we keep him?”

Chase looks considerably less pleased. “ Cariño, huh?”

Nico rolls her eyes once again. Victor seriously needs to be stopped. “He only calls me that because he knows I hate it.”

“So, are you two, you know…” Gert makes smooch-like noises while Chase uses his hands to mimic two people kissing. Nico feels as if she’s been thrown straight back into 8th grade. Half of her is amazed that these dorks really are old enough to get married and the other half is annoyed at how perfect they are for each other.

“No, we’re not. He’s just my roommate. And my best friend, I guess.”

“Well, you do have a bit of a history with best friends…” Gert starts.

Nico doesn’t even know how to react to that. Thankfully, Chase looks at his fiancée disapprovingly. “Too soon, Gert. Too soon.”

The three of them stare at each other in silence for a second before Gert speaks, her tone quiet and serious. “Just so you know… she’s not staying here with us. She says she’ll come over tomorrow for dinner, though.”

Gert doesn’t need to specify who she is, they all know exactly who she’s talking about. Nico thought she would be relieved to find out she still has some time to prepare for what will probably be the most intense moment of her trip, but it turns out all she feels is concern. She knows Karolina would never pass up an opportunity to spend a week hanging out with her friends, and for a moment Nico feels that familiar feeling creeping in again, that dark mix of guilt and self-hatred that silently whispers to her that this is all her fault. She’s been back for all of five seconds and she’s ruined Karolina’s week once again. Hasn’t she hurt her enough? Can’t she just stay the hell away and just let Karolina be happy?

Nico shakes her head to stop the thoughts from continuing, taking deep breaths and counting down from 10 just like Steve told her to. She reminds herself that this is Gert and Chase’s wedding, and they reallywant her to be there. She wants to be there. And Karolina has the right to stay away if that’s what makes her most comfortable, and Nico should respect that. She can’t change what she’s done, but she sure as hell can make sure she will do better from now on.

Gert and Chase definitely realize something is going on with her, both eyeing her sympathetically, but they give her time to gather herself instead of asking if she’s okay and she’s grateful for that.

“So, there’s something else I should probably give you a heads up about…”

“Let me guess…She’s bringing over some over-achieving, supermodel-looking girlfriend with her?”

Chase holds back a chuckle. “Yep, pretty much, yeah.”

“Of course she is. I’m happy for her.” Nico is surprised at just how much she means what she says. God knows she could be a annoyingly possessive of Karolina back when they were young - it was hard not to be when everyone within a 10-mile radius instantly fell in love with her girlfriend - but now she’s made peace with it. She’s just glad to know that Karolina is happy and that she loves somebody who loves her just the way she deserves.

(Maybe deep down Nico is just glad to know she didn’t wipe out Karolina’s light entirely).

“You seem different, tiny one.” Gert dips her head a little bit to look at Nico, scratching her chin and squinting as if she were staring at an unsolved puzzle.

Nico smirks. “I like to think I’ve matured.”

[ajeevan]

10/17/18

6:33 AM

Just realized that I have 3 exams in two weeks than just 2. Have a math exam tomorrow and I know shit about math but I feel like I've mastered French Vocabulary! Wrote down all 24 pages of Vocabulary every day for the past 9 or so days! Also read a few pages in my English book today it gotta be finished by tomorrow but I won't finish it. I'm just gonna continue reading and get as much done as possible. We have an oral test about the book in small groups and I'm sure the tests are still a few weeks away so I have time to read.

Failed the physics exam. No surprise. Didn't pay any attention in class. It could've been a lot worse tbh. Math and physics are my most hated subjects well sports is Nr 1 on that list but the grade we get there doesn't count.

I spent some time during class writing a plan on how I can get my movie made. Just wrote down everything that came to my mind. I also have the deadline for this project. I want to start production in 2027 for a 2029 release. Last year I said I'd get my movie done in 10 years so 2027 now I don't know if I meant just some random movie or my sci fi universe movie but I thought 2027 would be a good year to start. I have to gain as much experience as possible till 2027. I'll be in London by September 2020 so I'd have 6 to 7 years to work on sets and learn as much as possible about filmmaking and do as many short films as possible to just practice and practice. There is still this one question I have to answer: Will I enjoy making movies? I've never worked on a set before. I never made a movie. I made one or two small videos that had other people as actors and I've done stop motion films and I'm making YT vids and I wouldn't call them films except for one or two. I guess this is the case with everything. I mean if you want to do something but you've never done before you don't know if you'll enjoy it but I love watching movies and coming up with stuff like fight scenes and I also like writing and I want to try out acting and soon I'll get to really experiment with cinematography. You know what? Fuck that question. Fuck it. (I enjoy editing too btw) I enjoy the process of making films. I've done it on a very very very small scale and there's still so much I have to learn but I will learn them over time. I will learn more about every job on set and in time I'll know everything I need to know and even then I'll be learning stuff. This movie making process seems so huge and complicated but it has been done before. Many times. I will learn all about the process. I enjoy making videos. Like stop motion too. Have to do a new stop motion film. Might do something around Christmas idk. I'm also interested in animation like 2D and 3D. Have to remember to download Blender for my laptop and DO SOMETHING WITH IT! I never did anything with Blender! I want to model something! But have to wait a little while because of tests and shit but I want to model something in 3D in Blender! I should just remove that question from my mind. Optimism. I'm excited about my ideas and can't wait to turn them into reality! It will be very stressful but I WILL ENJOY MAKING MOVIES!

[soullesscoyote]

All the asks

A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?My process for naming fics is eitherA) a joke name because i can't help myselfB) or a name that just sounds like "yeah that's a fitting title name"B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?Plenty! I try to follow the rule "write what you know" in a way to convey maybe something I've experienced, but also use it to write what I don't know about.For example I have a lower middle class family, but to write a more well off family i base it on things I've seen and experienced when younger like those times we got home from the grocery store and that first day with a ton of food and i felt like i wouldnt have to worry about eating a ton of it, or even back when i was younger (7) with a loft bed and having all my stuff organized with a spot in my room had me feel really content with my life where i felt like i had everything i wanted and couldn't ask for more. I had a 3d puzzle of the inside of a frog, an ant farm, a hamster, a framed picture of a praying mantis, a very small binder of pokémon cards, a room painted green and at that age and time felt like my life was really together despite not knowing how to articulate it. It felt like my own personal space that i had control of so to write a well of family i try to write in things that give off a similar feeling of a well put together room except a entire house that way where everything feels like it has its place. If that makes sense.C: What character do you identify with most?In Marble Hornets, Jay Merrick who just wanted to help everyone despite how many time those people tried to kill or hurt him.In Voltron, Keith in terms of not always feeling like I belong in groups and sometimes struggling to understand myself. Also Hunk whos a very caring person with a big heart.In Be More Chill i relate to Jake where in freshman year of high school i worked really hard to be the best in my classes to a point that id cry from stress every night.Jeremy feeling unimportant and more like a background character with nothing really notable about him compared to everyone else.Brooke feeling constantly like she's second best to Chloe and people using her.Christine being unsure of what she wants in life as she nears the last year of high school where she feels like she needs to decide.Rich while unsquipped seeming like he hardly knows how to handle himself in social situations and seeming incredibly anxious without a squip also being a big nerd D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with [insert fic]?Typically if its a musical depending on viewpoint i listen to songs with those characters in it.In other things its songs that give me a similar feeling to the thing i'm writing (for example i imagine things as color pallets so i try to match them with the colors another thing gives me. Or the corresponding emotion i feel/need to feel as I write a scene.E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?Starting From Square One? The sequel would be more of Rich adjusting to life without a squip and living a pretty happy life with Michael and them going about their lives be it them going to college and struggling or as adults with jobs and trying to figure themselves out during that since i kinda feel like life is constantly a thing of trying to figure yourself out.Out of the tons of Voltron Fics probably more on Keith being glara and the lives/background behind the galra species with how it affects keithIn hu it's hard to say. A lot of them would be hard to find a way to make sequels of but considering Starting From Square one is the only fic i managed make myself work on currently i wouldnt say its impossible to find/make sequels for any of those ficsF: Care to share a favorite hurt/comfort fic?For Be More Chill http://archiveofourown.org/works/11671890/chapters/26267448 Both because its from Michaels viewpoint and it definitely doesn't seem to go out of its way to make Jeremy a monster and make Michaels personality center around hsi panic attack like plenty fics do.G: Care to share a favorite crack fic?I'm not too big on crack fics because i personally love really long fics with character development. (crack fics are good, for me it's just my preference where most of the time i'm not in a huge mood for them) but i know this one has been p funny https://my.w.tt/UiNb/v4KNrRgajJ H: How would you describe your style?Id say i write in whatever sounds right in my mind while i'm reading to fit the mood of what i intend to portray. Its really hard to sayI: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?Already answeredJ: Write or describe an alternative ending to [insert fic].Starting from Square Ones Alternate ending would be it ending where Rich snaps at everyone and it would have a sequel of everyone in the squip squad meeting Rich in college after not seeing him for an entire year. They'd find who took online classes because he didn't want to see anyone and was still pissed and during that time he had gotten several jobs and was barely even supporting himself with how his dad doesnt care for him. (potentially where he may take up selling drugs) and everyone does try to apologize but it takes awhile for anyone to convince Rich they actually mean it.K: What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?In Starting From Square One there was a scrapped idea of everyone actually hating rich and him trying desperately to convince them it wasn't his fault he started the fire only when everyone finally does get proof from Jeremy who actually understands Rich's struggle because he had a squip longer Rich hasn't gone to school in well over a week and has goes missing because he's hiding from his dad. L: What's the weirdest AU you've ever come up with?I based one on a dream i had which was like a Xiaolin Showdown, meets high school au, meets almost one pieceLike if you touched these specific items they latched onto you and gave you abilities that typically corresponded to an animal or gave a animals trait to you like enhanced sense of smell, stronger legs for jumping, wings etc. It wasn't fully thought out or planned so it's a very vague idea.M: Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?Im writing bits and pieces of terraverse, its hard but i'm getting somewhere with it! There's others but they're like aus based off dreams that i'm yet to figure out how to explain or develop in a way they make sense.N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?All of them tbhO: How do you begin a story--with the plot, or the characters?Typically plot first and then i'll add characters to match the plotP: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)It's a little bit of bothI try to plan in advance but as i write Point A going to Pont B i do find things in the story that unfold as I go and then proceed to go to my planning to find a spot to mention it again later.For example i mainly planned on in Starting From Square One that Rich would have known Michaels older brother from when he was a kid but didnt know his last name therefore didn't know he and Michael were related and as I wrote more in my planning it sort of unfolded as I wrote and became me writing in that Michaels older brother dropped out of college because of how stressful it was and Rich gos to stay with him and that's when he finds out michael and him are brothers.Q: Do you have any discarded scenes/storylines/projects?While writing if i decide suddenly I want to change something I take what i've already written of that version and paste it into a Google doc of scrapped ideas. That way if i can find a chance to implement them in another fic or other point in a chapter even if written differently i can have the general idea for what i may have intended to go off of.R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?None in particular but I feel like a little bit of everything I've read and written influences my writing since i always find something somebody may have written i want to implement in a fic.Not like their idea. But small things like reading people write about Michael's parents did influence me to include Michaels parents in my fic. Not the same way they did but it was something i read that had made me stop and realize.I never considered what some of these character's families and cousins and such are thinking as they may hear about this from another viewpoint like Michael’s, Jeremy’s, Rich's, Brooke’s, Chloe's, Jenna’s, or Christine's.S: Any fandom tropes you can't resist?In voltron (before it became canon) i liked a trope that Keith isn't as angry as everyone makes him and actually is just really defensive and afraid of being seen as weak to everyone else because lance seems to constantly go to pick on him for things.In Be More Chill i stand by the Trope Jake is really smart just perhaps Ditzy and gets really excited over something and struggles to pay attention to the other details because of a long theory and research i did with all the extra curriculars jake did paired with his need to be the best. T: Any fandom tropes you can't stand?G o dIn Hollywood Undead stuff I always hated Aron being an unreasonable asshole by default.In Be More ChillJeremy's character being reduced to having been an asshole to Michael because it erases how they were friends for TWELVE YEARS and Jeremy in the bathroom did say "I missed you" TO MICHAEL. Or how Jeremy did have a lot of stressful shit happen to him minutes prior which made him get really defensive over the squip.Everytime people center Michaels personality around his panic attack i love 7 years to my life because they only go as far as Michael hates himself but never even delve into things like how Michael said to Jeremy how he wouldn't be glad to see him after he heard about his research on the squip Kinda like he anticipated Jeremy wouldn't be happy and Michael had a feeling Jeremy wouldn't outright be happy about it.(asks cut me off hold up)

[eleanorguestillustration-blog]

Ben the Illustrator- Interview by by Sean Hodge- 12 Dec 2009

1. Hello Ben, please tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, what training do you have, how did you got started in the field, and could you tell us about your creative background?

Sure thing. So, I'm 33 and to put it simply I'm an illustrator. I grew up in the South East of England, in a little village surrounded by some awesome woodlands and hills. When I left school I went up to London to study art, then I studied animation for 3 years. This was the mid to late 90s, there was a lot of very exciting stuff going on in animation with Michel Gondry, Shynola, Hammer & Tongs and a whole load more making awesome music videos, that's what I dreamt of doing. I studied traditional animation and it was at a time when the industry was really changing, with Flash and 3D software becoming much more widespread, so once I graduated in '99 I instantly had to paddle hard to keep up with everyone. I got a lucky break from Skint Records (home of Fatboy Slim who was huge at the time), they were doing some really good stuff at the time and investing in a lot of videos for their smaller artists, just as I was graduating they commissioned me to animate and direct a promo for Cut La Roc (hiphop/breakbeat DJ) which was a massive drop in the deep end for me, but really good times, a massive learning experience. This lead to a few more videos for Skint, Domino Records, Channel 4 (UK TV channel) and Sony Japan. It was fun, but really hard trying to find my way in this massive animation/design/film world. The internet was nothing like it is now, so there wasn't the communities and the ease of communication we have now to sell ourselves and show our work. We had to get things into festivals for the right people to see them. After a couple of years going it alone I joined forces with some guys I'd studied and worked with before and we formed a small animation/design studio. I was working on the design/creative direction side of things, while also taking on illustration projects, and sometimes having to step in as production staff on animation projects. Being a small studio we all had to take on a thousand different tasks. Again, it was fun, I learnt a lot, but we had to work hard. We got to work on lots of children's TV animation for the BBC, and amongst other things like t-shirts and editorial work, we really indulged ourselves in the possibilities of the internet as it grew. Then in 2005 I was getting tired of having so many job titles within one studio, and I had an epiphany! I had this thought, all I really wanted to be was 'Ben the Illustrator' so I called it a day in the studio and went solo. Again I was dropping right in the deep end, starting everything all over again, but it was worth it in the end. Not long after that I met Fi, and we started working together, left London and headed out to the countryside. We're now married and living in a lush little place in the South West UK, called Cornwall, we're by the sea and surrounded by magical woodlands, a lot like where I grew up.

2. Could you tell us about your collaboration experiences working with your wife Fi. How are the various roles of "Ben the Illustrator" divided between you two? How does having such a close partnership benefit the quality and output of "Ben the Illustrator?" Above everything else, I love it, it's always a blast working together, having a share in everything. We do both play quite different parts, which I guess is why it works out well, I'd probably be too stubborn to work so closely with another illustrator! So, essentially I'm the illustrator, obviously, I don't really have many other jobs outside that, except maintaining our main websites. Fi's main role is managing 'Wish You Were Here,' our home wares brand, this is almost a full-time job, maintaining the online shop but more so doing all the promotion and dealing with orders. We're lucky to have a few good stockists now too, selling our art prints, so that takes Fi's calm and creative business mind to keep everything rolling along. It's great how many artists/illustrators/designers are selling their work as prints nowadays, but I know that I'd never have been able to sell my artwork so successfully without Fi's managing the brand, the products and everything that comes with it. While that takes up a lot of her time, my time is spent more on commissioned illustration work, advertising and editorial, and finding the occasional day to work on new artwork for prints to hand over to Fi. When we have a commission that's very conceptual, like ad campaigns, we work together, Fi has a great imagination and frequently comes up with the ideas behind my illustrations, so in these cases we work more like a design studio, analyzing the brief, brainstorming for ideas and developing the project from beginning to end together. Even though I'm the illustrator, we still work together while the image comes together, discussing color schemes, compositions, moods, etc. It's a great way to work as a business, seeing everything throughout together, always having another mind to bring something else to a project or a piece of work. Our partnership ensures a higher level of quality and a much fresher more original outlook on design and illustration than if I worked alone.

3. You have such a well-defined, colorful, and happy style to your illustrations. How did this develop? What inspired this work and how long did it take before you felt it really came together? Thank you, honestly, thanks. It started coming together very gradually, over a couple of years. While I was working as part of a design studio I would work in varied illustration styles, whatever answered the brief, but I guess for those years I had a thread of one style coming together, creating places, taking inspiration from nature, using bold colors. I've always been a huge fan of Pop Art and early 80s graffiti (the NYC Wild Style era), so I'd learnt from the greats about how to use color, to be brave with color and to find a balance between different colors. Towards the end of my time as part of a studio, I was working on a commission for Smart Cars, illustrating a car driving through various landscapes, there was this one piece, with the car driving across a desert with mountains on the horizon. Originally I had the ground in bright orange and the mountains in brown, the car was black and white (the client's requirement), I actually remember staring at this piece for ages, I think I even hated it for a while, it just wasn't very exciting, the color palette was so limited, but since it was a desert I couldn't throw in trees or anything with color. Then (and I guess this was quite a pivotal moment in my career!) I figured that there was no rules on what color those mountains could be, so I played with them, effectively changing them into a rainbow, but in the graphic form of a mountain range, and then it all came together, I loved what I'd done, it even gave me a rush, the client and the advertising crew were psyched with it, job done. Since then I've always been conscious of progressing and developing and always trying to keep things fresh.

4. What do you think makes a great character design? And how do you go about developing a character's story and personality? Character design is such a funny one, especially nowadays, it's easy to make a character, but it's not easy to make a brilliant character. Anyone can slap a smiley face on a tree or add a kawaii face to an ice cream, but it takes a bit more to really design a character. Personally I don't think it matters what it's for, but you have to have a story in your head for a character, even the smallest details, just something that tells you what kind of character it is, and why you're creating it. Character literally means personality, so give a character some personality. There are some amazing character artists working at the moment (Peskimo, Tado, Noferin, etc.), and the best are those that can design a well-rounded character, not just add faces, it's something I even get a bit annoyed with! Seeing people mimic character designs without thinking what they're actually designing. For us it's usually the life-story or the personality traits that come first, once we've invented a persona, the character design often follows quite naturally.

5. Who is Speakerdog and what is he currently up to? Also, could you tell us about the Speakerdog paper toys project and what you love about it? Awwww, lil Speakerdog, he's his own man now really, it's like we conceived him and did loads of stuff, and now he's bigger than us, just taking care of himself! Okay, Speakerdog is our own illustrated character, he started as a fun thing, just a doodle really, but he's developed into being this spokesman, a mascot for environmentalism and all sorts of good times. We've had exhibitions of prints and painting all over the place, and we sell posters and customized paper toys at The Speakerdog Shop. The paper toys developed a few years ago, I was really getting into what Shin Tanaka was creating, and decided to engineer a paper toy out of Speakerdog. Since then we've continued with the project, now inviting artists to customize the template and design their own Speakerdogs, there's about 300 different designs now available. We do love it, we get no money for doing it, they're free to download and all, we just love doing it. We get emails from little kids, students, adults, parents, teachers, all sorts of people that enjoy making Speakerdogs. We now have schools in the UK making Speakerdogs as part of their art classes?!?! Sometimes the schools ask us to set briefs, giving a theme or a topic, it's all good. Unfortunately, Speakerdog isn't up to much at the moment! We've got a baby due in January, so we're taking a few months out of everything, so we've decided to hold back on new Speakerdog projects until after then. We've got some great things planned though, for next year, we'll be launching a whole load of new Speakerdog 'things' in Summer 2010!

6. Could you let us know about your personal projects and about "Wish You Were Here"? With art prints, cushions, calendars and more, what do you plan to add in 2010? As I said before, WYWH is pretty much Fi's business, I know this sounds soft but I'm proud of her for what she's done with it, it astounds me when I see the prints going out to buyers sometimes, we're always especially proud when prints go to people in New York, Paris, Tokyo and Australia, it feels like we're really reaching out to the big cultural places we love and take inspiration from. It's become a major part of our business as a whole too really, a lot of clients come to us having seen what we've done with WYWH. It's a blast though, it brings in more 'interior design' related jobs, which are always good. 2010 will see more new art prints, but we're also planning on some new products, mugs probably being the first to go public when it's all come together.

7. What key business decisions have had a positive impact on your business? What commercial work are you most proud of so far? It's nice that you ask me that, a lot of people underestimate the 'business' side of being an independent illustrator/small design studio. If you're doing it for your income, if it's your career then you do have to keep a business head on a lot of the time, you can't just be the wild, creative 'artist' all the time. A few years ago I read this incredible book by Paul Arden (a former creative director at Saatchi, he sadly passed away not so long ago). It's called 'It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be' and it's about managing yourself in the creative/advertising world, and it completely changed my path! Before that my business knowledge was taken from a few small courses I had done, enough to learn accounts and basic practice, but nothing that really helped you to manage projects, and to think in a positive, productive way. Now, having learnt from that book and the people we admire, such as UK design studio Airside, who I did some freelancing for some time ago, we're able to manage our business positively and enjoy every moment. The key factors are to keep focused, aim high, enjoy everything, take a risk and never ever repeat yourself. Commercially, I'm always proud of those original pieces I mentioned for Smart Cars, that actually developed into a couple of years work with them, creative illustrations for advertising, displays for trade shows and even designing a mural to be wrapped around a car. That client relationship took me from pretty much starting out through to just a year or so ago, so that's probably my proudest one!

8. What's that happy mix for you with balancing various types of creative projects? Are you most happy cutting personal and client projects in half, or some other mix? What are the benefits of each type of project? Unfortunately it's impossible to control the mix! I love both, the main split of my own time is between client projects and designing/illustrating WYWH products and prints. The client projects always have to take a precedent, they have their deadlines and I have to work to them. There's never a routine mix. Sometimes I'll be working on a client project for a solid couple of weeks, and during that time I might have an image in my head for a new print, but I've no time to make it, that's hard, probably sounds daft, but it's hard to keep working on a project when you really want to get a good picture out of your head and into reality! It's completely random how projects roll along, sometimes they'll be very free and easy, creative projects, pure fun, whether it's for a client or an artist collaboration or a WYWH project, but then sometimes you can have very specific guidelines, like some design projects, which can be hugely technical and require super serious focus, but to be honest, I love it all, that's perhaps why I'm happy with my career, it can go anywhere, even tomorrow is unknown. I enjoy the instability of it all, I think you have to in this kind of job.

9. Could you tell us your opinion on the benefits of working with an agency vs. representing yourself? Why did you choose to work with an agency? What did Agency Rush offer specifically that made you want to be represented by them? First and foremost, they're great, they're a pleasure to work with, and essentially, I get more client projects from having them representing me than not having an agent. I'm lucky to have an agent, there are only so many agents in the world, and a lot more independent illustrators, I know I'm one of the lucky ones. The benefits far out-weigh the negatives, firstly, you've got an entire company promoting you, and then managing a project, invoicing, chasing payments, all of that. Plus, hugely, negotiating a price with the client, of course the agent take their commission, but generally an agent will successfully negotiate a bigger budget, often ensuring their commission without taking much from the illustrator. I know there's some dodgy agents out there, and you have to watch your back, but if you're represented by a reputable agent, then you're in a much better position to build a good career. I've been represented by two different agents before, one was great, and taught me a lot about the industry, however they were a more traditional agent, representing more traditional illustrators. It's vital to have an agent that looks for clients in the fields that you want to work in. Having an agent, as far as Fi and I are concerned, means we can put more time into our own projects, like WYWH without having to spend time marketing me as an illustrator to the commercial market, plus it means that when we have a project, all we have to worry about is the final design/illustration work, not the budgets, planning schedules, etc. Agency Rush are great, when we first looked around for a new agent a couple of years ago, we wanted someone who already represented illustrators we admired, which they did. We wanted someone who is friendly and good to work with, which they are, and we wanted someone open and honest, that we can always talk to about projects, finances, and the general flow of work. Fingers crossed we'll get to work alongside Agency Rush for a long time to come!

10. You've written quite a few vector illustration tutorials for numerous professional publications? What do you feel makes a great tutorial? What approach do you like to take? And will we see more educational material from you in the future? Tutorials are such a good thing, I'm very proud to have written them for Computer Arts, Digital Arts and Vectortuts+! I learnt Adobe Illustrator myself, like a lot of people, and so it's impossible to know if you've figured it all out, so tutorials can be priceless to share the knowledge around the community. I'm flattered to be asked to write tutorials, but at the same time I've learnt so much from other people's tutorials. The best tutorials generally do one of two things, either they instruct you on the best way to use tools, they can give you a clear idea on simplifying the processes, OR they teach you something completely new, perhaps someone has been clever enough to use a tool in a whole new way. If a tutorial doesn't widen your scope or your knowledge, and allow you to use that knowledge, then it's a waste of good publishing space. My approach is to generally set the final product, think what people might want to achieve, and then just work backwards, what do people REALLY need to know? What will people make good use of? We do have one new tutorial coming out in Digital Arts magazine in December, I'm not sure if that's available globally or not, but it'll be online. I'm not sure if I can say what it's about though! Stay tuned!

12. What are your plans for the future? Any creative work coming up, or that you're currently working on, that you're excited about? Just this week I'm working on a nice commission for a book, it's a double-page landscape, but that's all I can say probably. We've just launched our 2010 calendar on Wish You Where Here, that's been quite exciting, it's not a massive product, but it's our first calendar. We're also working on a long-term interior design project for Westfields Shopping Centres in the UK, we've designed a series of murals for the shopping centre in London, and these are now rolling out to different areas, so we're getting to work on different colorways and elements for each location. As for long term plans, everything is actually slowing down a little, we're having a baby, due in January, so that's the big news, that's the most exciting project I guess! It's due in January so we'll be having a break from work at the beginning of the year.

13. Thanks for the interview Ben! Is there any advice that you'd like to give aspiring illustrators and designer who are working hard to grow professionally? Be exciting. That's all that really matters. If you produce exciting work, clients will want to work with you. If people think you're exciting, they'll want to know you. If you excite other people, those people will respect you. If you're working on something that excites you, you're in a wonderful position in life. Be exciting!