#I start recording games for the clips about a year ago for this

[strawberryblondebutch]

Any more analysis about Boston team wise or specific player wise?

Anon, you have given me a platform that I am going to use to push my agenda.

Let's talk about my favorite college player and the steal of the 2025 draft.

This is Casey O'Brien, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. She's a captain this season, a center, and the combination of her cage placement and her earrings on the ice gives me anxiety. For reasons I do not understand, she has never been a USA Hockey darling - she's gotten some camp invites but has yet to appear at the senior level (outside of a very brief appearance in one Rivalry Series game), which is why her draft stock is so bad. Because, for whatever reason, she hasn't played the national team politics game.

So what's there to like about her?

I've talked before, in the context of the NHL and the PWHL alike, about things you can develop in the pros, things that come along with age, and things that you need to hope you come to the pros already knowing how to do. It's one of the reasons I liked the Jett Luchanko pick so much: the hardest things to teach (puck IQ and fearlessness) are the ones he has already developed at 18. Anything he needs to work on with his game will come along naturally - the kid is only 18. His speed and strength are both gonna keep going up for another decade. Contrast this with Jamie Drysdale, whose biggest hole in his game is that he freezes when he touches the puck. And that might take years to coach out of him. It's also my biggest problem with Fillier - she used to be a dynamic, instinctive player, and somewhere in the last two years, she lost that.

I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that O'Brien has one of the highest game IQs that I have seen at the NCAA level. Watch her over a full 60-minute game, and she is always exactly where she needs to be. As of my writing this, she ranks second all-time in NCAA program assists and is closing in on the record of 208. One of the reasons I suspect she hasn't gotten as much attention as her teammates, or the other members of her draft class, is because they score goals and she gets assists, which shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the role that a good playmaker takes on the ice. She can score when she needs to, but your favorite 50-goal scorers aren't getting those numbers without someone who can get them elite chances. O'Brien is also a face-off striker, which is critical in, well, any zone. You never want to start on the backfoot.

Her one flaw isn't much of one at all - she's small. She's really small for a center, clocking in at 5'4". That's half a foot shorter than Heise and Knight, who are more typical power forward centers. But, as with Kendall Coyne, being undersized gives you an explosive acceleration that bigger players don't always get as they drag more weight behind them.

So, we're looking at a high-IQ center who wins faceoffs, excels at setting up scoring chances for her teammates, and is smaller than her position usually dictates. Bonus points if she's undervalued relative to her peers and... goddammit I'm describing Claude Giroux aren't I.

If you have not been personally victimized by the Philadelphia Flyers, first of all, I envy you. Second of all, this is Claude Giroux, longtime captain who we sent to a farm upstate (Miami, technically, then he escaped the farm and went home to Ottawa). G, while starting to show a little rust with age, is one of the most dominant playmakers of this era. Since moving permanently off the wing ten years ago, his career face-off rate is 57.4% - Patrice Bergeron, considered one of the best centers of all time, retired at a 58.2% clip.

G is also on the smaller end. The NHL website lists him at a very generous 5'11" - having seen him, I think he's closer to 5'9". While he can't physically overpower opponents the same way a bigger center can, he has that speed and acceleration advantage, which also contributes to his agility. G's ability to turn on a dime is what lets him always get to where he needs to be, which we see with OB.

So, if G is this good... why is he always put in the A-tier conversation, and not S-tier? Part of it is that, for a playmaker to thrive, those teammates need to execute those plays, and Giroux had the misfortune of playing for the Flyers, whose roster-building skills are best considered incompetent. Yes, I said best. OB has never had this problem, thus allowing her to put together 73 points in 41 games last year (1.78 PPG). The other reason G is so underrated? He had the misfortune of being in the same era - and division - as Crosby and Ovi, the two best snipers of their generation and two bona-fide Hall of Famers. His less-flashy, more cerebral skillset receded into the background against their instant stardom, the same way that OB has dropped on draft lists against consensus 1OA Abbey Murphy, a USA Hockey darling with a reputation that precedes her.

Whoever gets OB in this draft is getting the steal of the year. She can quarterback a power play, clear space in the D-zone, and set up your Spooners, your Poulins, your seeing-eye snipers. GMs... leave #26 open. You're gonna need it.

[kaiowut99]

A Special Announcement~ | Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Tag Force Special Re-Translation Project!

I've been itching to get around to posting about this for a few months now, but wanted to wait until I'd worked on enough for it, but also had the idea to create an announcement trailer to go with it for added good measure--after recording and editing clips for a couple weeks and leveling the audio last night, heremst we are! (For some clips, I forgot to turn off the PPSSPP emulator's DevMenu option so that shows up in the top-left, buuut I didn't feel like re-recording those, lmao.)

Details worth reading below the cut here, but tl;dr work has been in progress for over a year in between things, work will continue to be in progress for a while, and the release will happen when everything's ready, but stay tuned, fun's getting started etc etc~

So, I'm sure most of us are familiar with the as-yet-unlocalized-by-Konami TFSP, the seventh and last entry in the Tag Force series on the PSP that came out early in ARC-V's run (featuring the first five series which was a cool first), as well as the current translations out there originally worked on by the guys at XenoTranslations (omarrrio and ScrewTheRules/ClickClaxer01 at GBATemp handling the card and story/etc translations, respectively) and how there are... some issues with what's out there. Everything from the DM story mode being loaded with YGOTAS references (no shade to YGOTAS and much respect to LK/Martin for his ongoing work on it still making me laugh sometimes, ofc) to the off-the-cuff edginess of 2014-2015-era internet culture and the problematic (in some cases, derogatory) language that permeated it--though to its credit, some parts do have some level of translation attempted, but taken as a whole, it can definitely turn people off from giving the game a try and seeing what it brings to the table (which is still a good amount despite the corners Konami cut here/there compared to prior TF games).

I actually did attempt a translation of my own back in 2015 (if you've been following me for a long time, you might remember it lol), tackling the GX story text starting with Judai's heart events, but eventually put it on the backburner as I focused more on my GX subbing work and beginning to finalize everything (which I'm still doing). Sometime in 2022, a friend over on NeoArkCradle (the "anonymous YGO fan" in the opening screen) was poring over the story text and patching it up the best he could to remove the references and inaccuracies with more coherent work, and after a while of seeing what he was working with in the Discord, I was a bit blown away by just how inaccurate much of it was--so alongside him, and using the better tools available since then (including some really awesome work from both nzxth2 [who did a proper re-translation of 5D's TF6 not too long ago and was kind enough to release his tools for it] and our coding helper Xan1242 who we eventually reached out to for some help), I decided to *cracks knuckles* get involved and help give everything a more accurate and professional translation, much like I do with my GX subs, working directly off the Japanese text and files. I've been taking cracks at everything in between the GX episodes I've been finalizing going back to at least last January (and I'd used my little hiatus after finalizing GX Season 2's subs to really get at some other stuff throughout the game), starting with re-translating DM's story text but also properly translating other aspects of the game, from the character names (using the original Japanese names, including those of the TF-exclusive characters, partly since Konami made a whole mess of them in English TF1-5), in-duel dialogue, pack descriptions, and more to images with Japanese text (such as localizing the in-duel cut-in onomatopoeia as you see in the video above, or other little images throughout) using some Photoshop skills I've picked up. And it's been a joint effort, as said NAC friend and I have been bouncing off how we'd like to see this go between us to stay on the same page and all, while also checking with other translators there for second/third opinions as needed.

Our plan is to release two versions of a translation--one which uses the OCG [translated] card names in Story Mode, in-duel, and other text but not in the game's card system (mainly to deal with story-relevant notes like Osiris vs Slifer with the Gods or things like not-Utopia Hope being symbolic between Yuma and Astral, akin to how I do my GX subs), and one which uses the TCG card names in everything (like how the official subs go about it). While we're mostly working with the Japanese game files due to how the Xeno team went about decoding everything, we'll be using the card-system-related files from the fixed ISO provided by FLSGaming which fixed some issues that had been present there. And Xan has helped us with a plugin that will be used to apply our translations to the system files that were hard to edit otherwise (things like the character and recipe names, as well as the pack names pulled from for the Card Description screen), but more on how that'll work once this is ready for release, lol. At some point, I'd like to also look at HDifying textures and things, but that's definitely a bonus-level thing for after the main work here is done.

SO.

Currently, Story-Mode-wise, I've gone through everything up to Yusei's events--so Dark Yugi/Kaiba/Jounouchi/Ishizu/Mai in DM, Judai/Manjoume/Asuka/Misawa/Ryou in GX, and Yusei in 5D's have been fully retranslated, though I took initial cracks at Yuma and Yuya's events to get content for this video lol (I've also been intentionally holding off on as much ZEXAL as I can until I've properly watched the whole show so I have context). I haven't tackled overworld text yet, though (like pre-duel or the tournament-related text, which is all in the same file as all the story text). I've also been handling the in-duel dialogue as I go through the character stories, so also just up to Yusei, though I did take initial cracks at Aki's, Yuma and Shark's, and Yuya and Yuzu's for the video.

Other things tackled that were sprinkled into the video, along with some other notes:

Pack names and descriptions have been retranslated, though the descriptions may see minor edits closer to release for a little variety between worlds given the different characters at the shop. Character recipe names were also retranslated, with Yugipedia's translations for them used as an occasional second opinion, though ones based on pack names had to be abbreviated in spots.

Menu text, from the Options to Help screens and stuff in between, has been retranslated, as have in-duel text strings (so, you'll see a full "Activate Effect" instead of "Activate" or "Switch to Attack/Defense Position" instead of "Switch to ATK/DEF Position", etc--also fixed the "BATTELE PHASE" graphic typo, and NAC friend created a new translation for the "Turn Change" graphic for accuracy since ENG TF1-5 made that into "Next Player's Turn").

Database stuff, such as the Sound Test, Tutorials, Duel Missions, etc., have been retranslated closer to the Japanese text; originally I retranslated the Tutorial text via hex editor, with compromises done on quite a bit of it due to the space limits, but as Xan recently updated a text extractor tool of theirs to more cleanly pull out and reinsert that text, I've been going through and fleshing out those translations more (on my commutes to/from work mostly, to be productive lol).

As mentioned, I've been localizing/translating Japanese-text images throughout the game as I come across them, like with the in-duel onomatopoeia that come up during cut-ins or images in the shop/duel/etc screens using Japanese text, to make sure the game is fully translated.

The series logos, used during the title sequence and in the Series Select screens, were updated with translated fan edits shared on Deviantart (which we'll credit in the final release) for DM and GX, while the 5D's-ARC-V logos were edited to enlarge the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" text on them that was pretty hard to see originally.

The game's original opening sequence starts on an anti-piracy message before going into the Konami logo and then a "From Yu-Gi-Oh!..." screen before the opening animation for each series logo--the original team decided to use the first image to vent their frustration at Konami for not localizing this game, and while that's valid (to some extent), we thought we'd use the opportunity to dedicate this project to Kazuki Takahashi for inspiring our love for YGO and the place it's had in our hearts for all these years.

We'll be updating the names of cards that had TCG releases after the original patch was worked on/updated by FLSG to those corresponding names.

Xan has been working on many UI fixes for us to apply with this, among them 3-line dialogue box text as is used in the ENG TF1-5 games--once implemented for TFSP, I'll be going over everything to make full use of that extra space where needed, so things might not look as they do in the video by then.

Character bios will be worked on after I've done the story stuff, though I've taken initial cracks at it for Yuma and Yuya's bios for the video, along with translating the location/affiliation names ("Domino High School," "Satellite," etc).

Currently no release date is planned, as I'm working on this between my GX-finalizing work and actual IRL work, though we'll see how later this year looks as more work gets done--but as noted in the video, all things being equal, it will be released when everything is ready. I'll try to post regular updates or rambles now that this announcement's been made, lol, but do try not to constantly check in on a release date. 🙏🏽

All that said, I think that covers just about everything I wanted to put out there with this, lol. It's been fun to work on this so far and getting to see what I've re-translated in-game is definitely neat; looking forward to us being able to release everything when ready.

Stay tuned for more; the fun's just getting started!

[project-sekai-facts]

sorry if this has been sent in/answered before, i tried searching thru the blog and couldn't find anything

i remember you made a post a while ago about beta character designs and mentioned this miku and shiho(?) placeholder card

i just found this year old reddit post theorizing that the character isn't actually shiho and might have been a "human mc" design, which, along with another commenters note about unused virtual live audios

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectSekai/comments/12kk4l9/i_dont_think_this_beta_character_was_shiho/?chainedPosts=t3_txq6vn

mm, i don't really agree with that person. saying "it looks nothing like shiho" isn't exactly a valid point. like that's not how character design works, sometimes there are massive changes. like there's too much evidence pointing towards that character being then-shiho. she's absolutely not final shiho, but she was the shiho character back then. the design matches with what we can see of the leoneed concept arts, and matches with shizuku's early design.

my theory is originally then-shiho was the "ichika" character: the face of marketing who was probably the audience surrogate miku fan, before these attributes were given to ichika. in all honestly i think it's likely that then-shiho was completely reworked into final shiho for whatever reason, still being the leoni bassist and shizuku's sister but with a new design and personality. and hey shizuku might've been changed first who knows. i think this is kinda what OP was meaning, but they completely denied the fact that then-shiho looks very related to then-shizuku, moreso than their final designs look related. like they had her down as a totally new character when imo it's pretty clear then-shiho was just reworked into what we have now. also apparently when yukki auditioned, she was cast as shiho before they even had character art of her, so that kinda backs up that she was reworked later in development (cannot find the source for this but i keep seeing people metion it for like the last 2 or so years).

and well the art is labelled as placeholder so it was probably drawn just for the sake of testing the game before finalised stuff was being drawn and implemented. the final character designs were completed in early 2019 iirc but initial planning and dev would've started long before then, since the game was first revealed later that year looking close enough to the game we saw at launch. the art style has some resemblance to early bandori cards which also makes sense since clpl is an offshoot of craftegg and it was probably one of their artists that drew that card probably not long after garupa opened service. like those blurred out arts of n25/ln/mmj are clearly very old and from the very early game concept stages.

also those voice clips were probably recorded by staff for testing. the last one is introducing a song to be performed and I think they're saying Tell Your World, which means these are stand in voice clips are placeholders for Miku. it might even be Saki Fujita voice recordings but i don't really have much to compare it to other than a few short pjdiva cutscene things.

[https-harlow]

Fight The Feeling Prologue- Part 7 Celebrations & Realizations

18+ Smut

Summary- You and Jack celebrate your one year anniversary and Jack's birthday with a trip to the Bahamas, the same place he took you for your first date.

Thank you so much to @harlowcomehome for helping me with the smut! I appreciate it so much!

Over the next 4 months, you spent 2 and a half with Jack in Louisville, most of that being over the holidays so it wasn’t odd that neither of you were working. Jack and his friends even convinced you to look at some houses and apartments in the area, but you ultimately decided that it wasn’t the right time. Jack offered to let you move in with him, but even though you had spent the last 2 and a half months practically living with him, you didn’t want him to make a decision like that without putting more thought into it other than just not wanting you to leave.

The month and a half after that was busier for you and Jack. You were traveling for runway shows or photoshoots, Jack started recording his album Come Home The Kids Miss You, and he had the celebrity all star basketball game, which you figured out a way to go to so you could support Jack.   

After the Celebrity basketball game, it was your 1-year anniversary, which was around the same time as Jack’s birthday.  You wanted to celebrate your anniversary and Jack’s birthday separately.  Not because you wanted a specific trip just for your anniversary, but because you didn’t want Jack to have to share his birthday celebration with your anniversary. Jack insisted it was okay, he was going to have his party at home anyways, and with Jack releasing Come Home The Kids Miss You in May, and all the promo he had in April, along with the couple of photoshoots you had, neither of you had time to take two separate trips.

You both took a week off, and even though your trip was partly for Jack’s birthday, he insisted on planning everything, letting you plan a day for his birthday, but he insisted that your anniversary was more important than his birthday. 

Jack planned a trip to the Bahamas, similar to your first date trip, but this time it was for a full week instead of a weekend, and instead of staying in a hotel, Jack rented out a private house on the beach for the two of you. You were both less known a year ago, so you weren’t as worried about being recognized, now you were. 

You two spent the first two days between the beach and the house, enjoying each other’s company with no distractions. You both told your teams to only contact you in if it was an emergency. On the third day was when you planned Jack’s birthday celebration. You wanted it to be a complete surprise, so all you told Jack was to dress up for dinner. 

“Our car is almost here.” You told Jack and he nodded, sitting down on the bed, watching you get ready, he had been ready for a few minutes.

“Okay, I’m ready whenever you are baby.” Jack told you and you nodded.

“Okay, can you help me put my necklace back on please?” You asked, carrying your necklace over to Jack. Jack had been giving you one gift every day of the trip instead of giving you all your gifts at one time, the first day’s gift was a new purse, and the second day’s gift was the diamond necklace you had in your hands. You had taken it off before you both went into the ocean, not wanting to risk anything happening to it.

“Of course.” Jack said, taking the necklace from you and waiting until you turned around to clip it on. Jack pressed a kiss to the back of your neck before wrapping his arms around your waist.

“I love you.” Jack said, his lips brushing against your skin.

“I love you too.” You said, turning in his arms to kiss him gently. “Let me put my shoes on and then we can go.” You told him and he nodded. You walked over to where your heels were, putting them on and grabbing your purse.

“Where are we going?” Jack asked, standing up from the bed.

“Just to dinner.” You told Jack and he nodded. “Everyone already signed NDA’s, including the driver, so we don’t have to worry about anything getting out.” 

“You didn’t have to do all of this.” Jack told you.

“I know.” You said, slipping two small, wrapped boxes into your purse as Jack eyed them suspiciously. “But, I wanted to.” You said.

“What are those?” Jack asked as you both started to walk out to the car, Jack resting his hand on your lower back.

“Your presents.” You told him, both of you getting in the car, greeting the driver, but he already knew where to go so Jack didn’t figure out where you were going. 

“Baby, you didn’t have to get me anything.” Jack told you and you smiled softly, tracing patterns on the back of his hand as he rested his hand on your thigh.

“I wanted to. You spoil me all the time, so let me spoil you tonight.” You said. “Plus, I only have half of one of your gifts, the other half is in Louisville.”

“What did you do?” Jack asked and you laughed softly.

“You’ll find out soon.” You smiled softly.

As the car pulled up to the restaurant, Jack looked over at you. 

“I’ve been trying to book this place for a month now for our anniversary, how did you book it?” Jack asked. You had gotten a reservation at one of the fanciest restaurants in the area, with your anniversary being during one of the peak times to travel to the Bahamas, and the fact that you wanted to book the whole restaurant, it wasn’t an easy reservation to get.

“I have my connections.” You smiled softly, grabbing your purse as you and Jack thanked the driver after you got out of the car.

“I have connections too, but not as good as yours clearly.” Jack joked making you laugh.

“Well, I know the owner’s daughter, and I might have told them if anyone under the name Jack Harlow tries to make a reservation, say you can’t do it.” You told Jack and he teasingly shook his head.

“I love you, but damn, I tried absolutely everything I could think of. Had me all stressed out and shit.” Jack said, laughing, kissing you gently once you walked in. 

“Sorry.” You giggled, kissing him once more before you were led to your table by your waiter.

You had rented out the restaurant, so it was just the two of you, other than the few staff members who were working. Once you were both finished with dinner, you decided to give Jack one of his gifts. 

“Ok, so.” You started, sitting back in your chair, Jack sitting across from you, his hand resting on top of yours.” I have two of your gifts here, well, one and a half technically.” You pulled one of the boxes out of your bag. “Technically, this one is for our anniversary.” You said, handing Jack a box. 

“Baby, thank you.” Jack said as he took the box from you. He unwrapped the box before opening it, seeing a Rolex watch inside, pulling it out and seeing the date Jack asked you to be his girlfriend engraved on the inside. “This is so sweet, thank you.” Jack smiled, running his finger over the engraving before you handed him the other box, Jack putting the watch back in the box carefully.

“You’re welcome.” You smiled softly. “This one is technically for your birthday, not that it really matters, but the other part of it is in Kentucky, I couldn’t exactly get it onto the plane.” You said and Jack looked at you suspiciously.

“What did you get?” Jack asked.

“Just open it and see.” You giggled, sitting up, out of all of Jack’s gifts, even though it wasn’t the hardest to get, his third gift was the most time consuming, you were the most excited for this gift. Jack opened the box, seeing what was inside, looking between you and the box a couple times.

“No, I can’t let you get this for me, this is too much.” Jack insisted and you laughed softly. 

“It’s already parked in your driveway.” You told Jack and he continued to look at you in disbelief. 

“You really got me the Jeep?” Jack asked and you nodded.

“I did, it’s the one that when we see one you always talk about how much you want it but you still haven’t bought it for yourself, so I bought it for you.” You said and laughed softly when Jack stood up, walking around the table to hug you.

“I seriously can’t accept it but thank you so much.” Jack said.

“Nope, you’re keeping it, I’m not letting you give it back to me, you deserve it.” You told him, pulling away from the hug to kiss him. Jack continued to kiss you several more times.

“Thank you so much, I don’t even know what to say.” Jack told you and you shook your head.

“You’re welcome, and you don’t have to say anything.” You told Jack and he nodded, kissing you again. 

Later that night, you and Jack were sitting in the living room, when you got up, walking to the bedroom to get his last present. You walked back into the living room, handing him the box.

“What’s this for? My birthday or our anniversary?” Jack teased and you rolled your eyes, laughing.

“The watch was for our anniversary because it has our anniversary date on it, the car was for your birthday because I had planned on giving it to you on your birthday, but I didn’t think I could hide a car in your driveway for that long.” You explained and Jack laughed softly.

“You know, that makes a lot of sense.” Jack said and you shook your head, laughing again. 

“So, this is something I’ve been working on, it’s just a sample product, if there’s anything you want to change you can, I also figured you’d want to order some for your friends, so I can take care of that when I get home.” You told him, Jack was confused at what the gift could be, but he opened it up anyways.

When Jack opened the box, he saw two pairs of custom New Balances, one in red and one in blue with the title of his album embroidered on the back.

“Baby.” Jack said, his eyes tearing up. “This is the sweetest thing someone has ever done for me.” Jack said, your eyes tearing up now. “You designed these?” He asked.

“Well, I picked the color and put the album title on the back, but I figured you would want a pair for your friends, so just let me know what sizes and I’ll order them.” You told Jack and he leaned over to kiss you. “Though, you can’t change the album name now.” You joked, and Jack laughed.

“So that’s why you were so adamant about the album name not changing.” Jack said and you nodded, laughing softly. Normally, you wouldn’t have cared what Jack named his album, but once you started planning the shoes, Jack had mentioned changing the album name, which caused you to panic because if he would have, your gift wouldn’t have worked.

“Yeah, and I couldn’t say why without ruining the surprise.” You said. 

“Well, thank you.” Jack said. “I love you, thank you for making me feel appreciated and loved tonight, and every day.” 

“I love you too. That is all I want to do, you make me feel like a literal princess every day, so any time I can make you feel a little extra special is worth it to me.” You told Jack, leaning over to kiss him.

“I’m so glad we got to take this trip together.” Jack said, putting the shoes to the side before pulling you gently to his chest as he leaned back on the couch.

“Me too.” You smiled, kissing Jack softly as you ran your hands through Jack’s hair. Neither of you pulled away until Jack’s phone started to ring. Jack groaned as he grabbed his phone from the couch, seeing Neelam was calling him.

“It better be fucking important.” Jack muttered underneath his breath, making you giggle. “I’ll be right back.” Jack said, as you moved off him. Jack walked into the other room, coming back a few minutes later.

You could tell just by the way he walked back in that he was excited, a major change in his demeanor from when he walked out annoyed.

“Guess what?” Jack asked, holding back his smile.

“What?” You asked, giggling at his happiness.

“I got the part.” Jack said, smiling and you gasped.

“Really?” You asked, and Jack nodded, you smiled, jumping up from the couch almost immediately, hugging Jack as he picked you up and you wrapped your legs around his waist, his hands going to your butt to hold you up, even though he could have placed his hands on your thighs, Jack never missed an opportunity to place his hands on your butt.

“Really.” Jack smiled as you kissed him.

“I’m so proud of you.” You told him. “You’re going to do amazing. I already know it. Do you know anything else about it?” You asked, you had known Jack was auditioning for the remake of White Men Can’t Jump, but he hadn’t told you much more than that.

“Neelam said that Alexa Demie will be playing my love interest, but that’s all she told me for now. She said we can go over everything else once I get back.” Jack said and you nodded slightly.

Truthfully you weren’t sure how to feel about that, you knew it was just acting, just a role Jack was playing, but he had just said in an interview before you left that Alexa Demie was one of his top celebrity crushes. You trusted Jack, but you knew fans would go crazy with rumors. 

“I’m so happy for you.” You said, kissing Jack. “You deserve this. You’re officially a movie star.” Jack placed you down on the couch before sitting down next to you.

“A movie star huh?” Jack asked and you nodded. 

“My movie star.” You told him, and even though Jack would never admit it, your saw him blush.

“Hm, I like the sound of that.” Jack said pulling you back on top of him so you could lay on his chest. “Come with me?” Jack asked.

“What?” You asked, tilting your head up to look at Jack.

“Come with me. I know we’ve been talking about you moving in with me, or at least moving to Kentucky, but I’ll be in L.A. filming for a couple months, so instead of you moving to Kentucky just for me to leave, you should come to L.A. with me. I’ll rent a house, probably not as fancy as this one, because this cost a lot more than I thought it would.” Jack joked, making you laugh softly. “But we’ll be able to be together. A lot of your work is in L.A. right now anyways, so instead of getting hotel rooms, let’s just rent a house.

“You know.” You smiled softly. “I did just sign that lease at the last apartments we looked at.” You told Jack.

“Really?” Jack asked excitedly and you nodded. 

“I did, just for a couple months until we figure out what we want to do, but we both liked it, so I figured we could decide if we wanted to move into that apartment or yours. We can figure that out once we come back from L.A. because I’ll come with you.” You told Jack, who smiled even bigger if that was even possible. 

“I really am the luckiest man ever.” Jack said, his hand rubbing your back. 

On the last day of your trip, you and Jack had been running along the shore, for the last hour or so. You were collecting seashells and he watched you with adoration. 

You looked over at him, seeing his goofy smile plastered across his freckled faced. “What? What’re you looking at?” You smiled. 

“I just like the way that bikini hugs you.” He wiggled his eyebrow at you, you walked over to him, wrapping your arms around his torso. 

“You do?” You stood on your tiptoes in the sand kissing his slightly sunburned lips. He deepened your kiss, his hands migrating to your butt, just like you knew they would. 

You giggled against him, as he picked you up and you wrapped your legs around him. “What if I did this?” He smirked as he untied your top with one hand. 

“Jackman!” You gasped quickly pressing your breasts against his chest. 

“It’s a private beach baby.” He rasped. 

“Nothing private about the way you moan.” You winked, and he didn’t disagree as he walked you up the stairs and into the private beach house. 

“Shower?” You asked in a breathless tone. 

The two of you undressed one another quickly as the sand granules hit the floor. You were fixated on his toned arms and fit figure. You ran your hands through his messy curls as you waited for the water to get warm, your naked bodies pressed against one another as you continued to sloppily kiss. 

Jack walked the two of you into the shower, you weren’t able to do anything before he started to play with you. He had cornered you against the wall, facing him so he could watch as he took you by surprise. 

“Like that?” 

“Feels, feels good.” You moaned as he lifted your leg against his hip, making sure you didn’t lose balance as he continued to rub soft circles against your clit. 

“I just want to make sure you remember our last night here in the Bahamas.” He placed sloppy kisses against your temples as his curls continued to be completely soaked in water. 

You two hurriedly washed the sun and sand off your skin before quickly wrapping yourselves in towels and making it to the bedroom. 

“Sit” Jack commanded and you weren’t going to argue, you sat on the edge of the bed, he kneeled below you, his eyes still focused on you. 

“Jack, you don’t have to, let’s just fu-“ 

“Shhhh.” He put his finger to your lips. He leaned you back with the touch of his hand, using the other to spread your legs. 

At first, he made small strides across your folds, teasing you as his beard rubbed against your thighs. It was slightly painful but thrilling nonetheless. He sucked on your clit, he did it so softly that you could’ve come right there. Your fingers were entangled in his curls, he liked when you’d pull on them and you knew that by his growing erection. 

“Baby, I need you.” You moaned, knowing he loved the sound of that. “Tell me how much” he smirked as he stood up. 

“Stop playing.” You giggled as he left wet kisses against your neck and collarbones, you were tired of his teasing and decided it was your turn now. 

You intertwined your hands. “Lay down.” You switch positions as you kept eye contact with him. 

“Let’s start with missionary since you’re so pretty.” You said half-jokingly.

“Well, I didn’t get the nickname missionary Jack because it’s my favorite position, but because I’m pretty so everyone wants to fuck me like that.” He smirked knowing you’d laugh but secretly love the sound of that. 

You straddled him, allowing him to stretch you out slowly. You threw your head back, making your breasts bounce. His dick twitched inside you as you felt his hip bones press into your thighs. 

You started slow, spelling your name as you continued to ride him. 

“You’re a tease.” He rasped as he changed positions on you.

You have no idea how you ended up bent over the balcony railing, looking out to the ocean while Jack fucked you, but you weren’t going to complain. It was your anniversary, and you deserved to watch the sunset while you orgasm. 

“Baby, you look so pretty.” He moaned, you knew he was close when he wouldn’t stop rambling. “Beautiful, take this dick.” He started to noticeably change the rhythm. He was thrusting into you, you kept your balance on the ledge of the deck. 

You wrap your legs around him, and he picked you up, thrusting into you mid-air as best as he could, you gripped onto him going as fast as you could. 

He almost lost balance as he filled you up, his semen dripping down your legs as you climbed off of him. 

“Nice sunset hmm?” You smiled.

“Yeah, the sunset’s totally what I’m looking at.” Jack laughed softly, reaching his hand down between your legs to collect some of his cum on his finger, holding it up as you wrapped your lips around his finger. A moment later Jack pulled his fingers slowly out of your mouth.

“I’ll be right back baby, stay here.” Jack told you, kissing the top of your head gently before making his way back into the house. You turned back to face the beach, sighing softly as you did, leaning into the railing.

In this moment you truly felt like you had everything, and not in some stuck up way where you thought you were better then everyone, you were just truly happy. You rarely had time to yourself, so you spent the few minutes Jack was inside reflecting on your life.

You had the career you wanted since you were a kid, you had the relationship that a year and a half ago was nothing more than something you dreamt about at night, you had everything that you had wanted your whole life. You had never been happier, you never wanted it to go away, you would do anything to stay as happy as you were in this moment.

“Damn, now this is a view I could get used to. Seeing you bent over like that is going to make me want to fuck you again. I should have fucked you against the railing the first night, then we would have been out here every night.” Jack said as you turned to see him now in sweatpants. 

“You always want to fuck me. And I guess that means we’ll just have to come back.” You said and Jack nodded in agreement. 

“As much as I love seeing you naked, it’s getting cold out here, and I don’t want you to get sick.” Jack said, slipping one of his shirts over your head.

“Thank you.” You smiled softly, tilting your head up to kiss Jack.

“Come here.” Jack said, sitting down on one of the lounge chairs, his hands on your waist guiding you to his lap. Jack leaned back so you could both watch the sunset. “We can clean up later, right now I just want to watch the sunset with my girl.” Jack rested his hand on your hip.

“I love you.” You told Jack, your back to his chest, laying your head on his shoulder. 

“I love you too.” Jack said, pressing his lips to the top of your head. 

You and Jack spent the last night of your trip staying up way to late because neither of you wanted it to end. You ended up falling asleep first, around two in the morning, but Jack couldn’t sleep.

Similar to how on your first trip to the Bahamas where Jack realized he loved you, Jack realized on this trip that he wanted to marry you. Jack spent most of the night looking for an engagement ring before he eventually sent a text to a custom jeweler that he had worked with previously and knew wouldn’t leak anything, asking for information about getting a custom engagement ring made.  

Tag list @jackharloww @harlowcomehome @nattinatalia @hoodharlow @itsyagirljaz @heavyhitterheaux @harlowsbby @awhore4moree

[sentientstump]

I have a question about your team Canada animatic, how did you decided which clips you were gonna animate? Did any get cut from your original plans?

This is such an interesting question, although I forgot most of my train of thought when creating that animatic 😭😭

Let's try to rember something:

So i took almost every series they have made. I didn't get Ruins of the Mindcrackers 1 and 2 because i haven't watched it yet, Drobnovian Knights montage was kind of small so i think i skipped it, i don't remember clipping Captive Minecraft 4, + Starblight and Final Paradox didnt exist, didnt know about their Don't Starve playthrough (although even if i did i think I would've chosen not to think about it, bc its a different game)

So with the basis of 8? series i decided to get the audio somehow. And tbh i have found a much better way to get audio now but 2 years ago it was: get a recording app, watch the entire video and if a funny moment happens that seems feasible to animate then you go and tap the "record" button (back then it didnt have a "start now" option so you had to wait 5 or 3 seconds for the recording to start), wait for the good moment to stop it and then look for another clip to take. I don't actually know the numbers anymore, it was probably in my twitter somewhere, or maybe I'm misremembering things... 😭

i don't remember throwing any particular clips, although it might have happened at some points. I do remember the times when i had to look for an additional clip (for the inbetween quick lines)

man, that must've been tedious, what was i doing LOL

i might have been like: "oh, this clip seems very difficult to animate, I'll force through it" wow! what a good strategy! 🙆🏻

here's some other stats i did when finishing it! I'm so glad i did these, thank goodness. I tried to store the frame images in a computer storage, but every time i look inside it doesn't have anything... So all of them are lost. In ibisPaintX, in Alight Motion, in phone gallery too. These images is all i have now

hopefully this answered the question somewhat!👍🏼 if something is still kinda unexplained i can try to go into even more detail, although i do need direction LOL

[blazehedgehog]

A Eulogy for my Playstation 4 Pro

So since I was a brain genius who decided to transfer all my fundraiser money to my bank account on a weekend, let's have a little eulogy for my poor Playstation 4 Pro.

I bought it in 2017 after a hellish move from Colorado to Nevada. We'd lived in Colorado for 26 years, and rented the same house for 24 of those years. I literally grew up in that house. Then our landlords got greedy (as all landlords eventually do), almost tripled our rent, and we had to move.

One of the last things I did before I packed up my computer was release The Definitive Way to Play Sonic Adventure on Youtube. That video was a modest success, but it had a secondary effect where a no-commentary gameplay video I'd uploaded for the fangame Sonic Utopia got picked up by the algorithm as a result, and that video suddenly took off like wildfire. I found myself sitting on a pair of videos that were about to pull in close to a combined 3 million views. It was the most I'd had a video blow up in a very long time.

I was now flush with a few thousand dollars of cash that I could do whatever I wanted with. That was great, as I got to help cover some moving expenses. I gave my Mom some money, I paid one of the deposits on our new apartment, paid to fix some stuff that got broken in the move, I bought myself a new desk, new computer chair, some storage shelves, a new bed frame, and still had about $700 left to spare. So I bought a PS4 Pro and a small handful of games (The Nathan Drake Collection, Yakuza Kiwami, The Last of Us Remastered, and Parappa the Rapper Remastered, I think). It was the first true next-generation console I'd bought in 11 years -- I'd had a Wii U, but that doesn't count.

Within that first year, I'd already run into my first problem with that Playstation 4. Back in the Xbox 360 era, I had a moment in my life where I was a psychopath that was running a media server off my PC. Every morning I'd wake up, download everything my Youtube subs had posted the day before, along with whatever GiantBomb had uploaded that day, and threw it up on the media server. The 360 could see the server, and those downloads would basically become my background noise for the day. I watched the entire GiantBomb Persona 4 Endurance Run that way: on the 360, through my media server. For context, these were the days before there was any way to watch Youtube on a television. There was no app. Youtube was just a website. So the Media Server was what I had to do to see Youtube on another screen.

In the move out to Nevada, I'd bought a cheap 32GB USB thumbdrive from the back-to-school section at Wal-mart and filled it full of movies and videos and stuff. With the PS4 set up, I plugged that thumbdrive in and tried out the PS4's media player capabilities, hoping it worked like the Xbox 360.

It did... for about 45 minutes. In the middle of watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie the media player suddenly crashed and refused to see the USB thumbdrive anymore. I reached down to pull it out only to find it was almost too hot to touch. I might have actually dropped the thumbdrive because it shocked me just how hot it was. I have never felt a piece of electronics be that hot before.

For the rest of that day, that USB port was dead. Nothing you plugged into it would be recognized. Eventually, it finally started working with controllers, but it never accepted any other thumbdrives, ever.

After about three years, I started to notice recordings were starting to get a little weird. Clips I'd record of my Fortnite matches would have huge 2-3 second chunks go missing, or the encoding would corrupt and smear. But then it went away, so I figured maybe it was just a problem with the game and not the console. It'd come back every now and then, maybe once a year, but it only ever happened with Fortnite, and only occasionally.

About a year and a half ago, I started to notice something else weird. Unless there was a specific game I needed to play for work stuff (like Sonic Frontiers or whatever), my PS4 was mostly just a Fortnite machine, and mainly because the PC version of Fortnite is a disaster.

But for months I'd left a disc in my PS4's disc drive. I think it was probably Balan Wonderworld or something, and as I booted up Fortnite for my daily founder's mission rewards, I noticed a sound. I'd been hearing it on and off for a while, but now I was finally paying attention to it. I realized: the console was sitting there scanning the disc, over and over and over, like it couldn't read it. I'd hear the disc motor spin up, the soft click-click-click as the read head scanned for data. It'd spin down, spin up, click-click-click, whirrrrrr, click-click, spin down, spin up, etc. Over and over. It'd do this for a good 30-45 seconds, then finally settle down and identify the disc.

The first time I noticed this, I ejected the Balan disc and put in something else; I think it was Dreams. PS4 read the disc instantly. I shrugged, figured maybe the Balan disc was just cursed and didn't think anything of it.

About a week later, I caught it doing it with the disc for Dreams. And then Sonic Frontiers. Then Sonic Superstars. Pretty much any disc I'd put in there. As the months wore on, it started taking multiple minutes for it to identify the disc.

A few weeks before it died, I ended up taking the disc out and basically resigning myself to only putting a disc in if I was going to play it, and removing that disc the moment I was done, because that scanning process seemed like it was making the problem worse.

A few months before it died, I got a full hardware crash on the console. The error code it gave me pointed to a hardware failure, but a google revealed that it was a generic error code that could mean literally anything. Right around this time, the video corruption in my Fortnite recordings came back around. I had a feeling it was the HDD.

Thus began the saga of trying to replace my PS4's HDD. I knew it could take SSDs, so I did some research, saved up $100, and bought a 2TB SSD that was compatible with the console. Followed Sony's official instructions on replacing the HDD, and...

It didn't work.

I vowed to get my money back and order a different HDD, but prices went up and realizing the other mounting problems with this machine (including the fried USB port), and my general mood overall, I just kept the money and figured I'd ride or die until the machine breathed its last.

8 months later... it refused to boot up at all.

Rest in piece, king. The only other console I've ever had straight up die on me like this was my Xbox 360, and if I'm being honest, I kind of smothered that poor boy a little bit hoping to get a sturdier console back from the repair center.

(I did not, but that's a story for another day.)

[all-the-things-2020]

Late Night Talking - Chapter Nine

Summary: Things don’t go as well when Em takes her turn at Dieter’s new game, and angst ensues.

Rating: R (reference to sexual acts and several f-bombs)

Word Count: 6500

My own attempt at the game was not as successful as Dieter’s. The massage portion went well. It was magical being able to run my hands over Dieter’s body and he truly seemed to appreciate my limited skills as a masseuse. And the second half of the game started out nicely — until I worked my way below his waistline.

”I’m so sorry,” I apologized for the hundredth time. 

Dieter caressed my face. “It’s fine, babe,” he said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

”It’s just … I used to always gag when the doctor used a tongue depressor on me. I have to be careful brushing my back teeth.” I was absolutely mortified. 

Dieter kissed my forehead. “I get it. I understand. We’ll just put that on the list of ‘not gonna happens’. No biggie.”

It felt like a biggie. I’d tried it once before, years ago, with similar results. The guy in question had made a federal case out of it. We’d broken up not long afterward. 

“I just … wanted to make you happy,” I mumbled.

”I am happy,” he said. “Any time I spend with you makes me happy. And there are still a lot of ways you can make me extra happy.” 

****************************************************************************

It didn’t help that Dieter left on a press junket for his latest movie that Monday. The cast was doing group interviews as well as single interviews, taking turns appearing on various talk shows, and recording promo spots for local entertainment news programs. They were spending most of their time in New York, but would fly to Chicago and a few other cities for media blitzes. It would end in Los Angeles, where they would do the rounds of the West Coast based talk shows and attend the premiere, but that wasn’t for almost three weeks.

He managed to call me most evenings, but we didn’t always get to talk for long. Sometimes he was in between interviews and only had a few minutes to spare; other times, he was back in his hotel room but exhausted from the day and not really in the mood to talk much. I understood, but I missed him.

About a week into the junket, my phone pinged. I picked it up and saw a text from an acquaintance.

Have you seen this?

I tapped on the link and opened a video on YouTube. It was an interview for a New York news outlet, with Dieter and one of his co-stars, a very attractive young woman named Erica, who played his character’s lover in the movie. They were somewhat minor characters, and of course, his character ended up dead by the end, killed by her jealous husband. Dieter was still working his way back to the leading man role.

The video started off innocently enough, with the interviewer asking them a few generic questions about the film. Then they cut to a clip, a steamy love scene between the two of them, which I hadn’t seen before. The interviewer asked if it was hard to shoot scenes like that. Erica giggled and shook her head. “Not with him,” she said. Dieter put his arm around her and laughed. 

I clicked the pause button. I’d seen enough. This particular “friend” liked to stir up trouble, so I wasn’t surprised that she’d sent me this video. 

I put the phone down, then picked it back up. I Googled Dieter’s and Erica’s names as well as the name of the movie and found several more video interviews online. Two were of just the two of them, and while one was innocent enough, in the second, Dieter laid his head on her shoulder while laughing over something the interviewer has said. The rest of the interviews featured the entire cast, and in all of them, he was seated right next to Erica. He had his hand on her knee in one, laid his hand on her arm in another, and leaned against her in a third. 

I closed the browser and put the phone down again. Less than a minute later, I picked it back up again, and pulled up the first video again, the one my co-worker had sent me. I copied the URL and sent a text to Dieter:

explain this?

I had no idea when he’d have a chance to answer. He was terrible about texting, and most likely wouldn’t get back to me until he had a chance to call. It was just after 5:00, which meant it was just after 8:00 in New York, and he’d been getting back to his hotel closer to 10:00 most nights. Or at least, that’s what he’d been telling me when he called me. 

Calm down, I told myself. Wait until he has a chance to explain himself. It was hard, though. It had been over two weeks since I’d seen him in person, and things had ended on a slightly sour note, at least for me . I missed him, and he said he missed me, but …

I tried to watch a movie but couldn’t pay attention. I read the same paragraph a dozen times before giving up and putting my book down. In the end, I just sat and stared at my phone, willing it to ring but simultaneously dreading it.

Finally, just before 7:00, it rang. It was a FaceTime call and I took a deep breath before I accepted.

“Hey,” he said when the app opened. “What did that text mean?” He looked tired, but that day I had no sympathy for him.

“It meant what it said,” I told him.

He frowned. “It’s an interview,” he said. 

“With Erica,” I said.

“Um, yeah, she’s in the movie, too,” he said. “So what?”

“Oh, please,” I shot back. “Just tell me, are you sleeping with her?”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said, “where is this coming from?” He really did look surprised, but I was tired and had been fretting over this for hours and I had the bit between my teeth.

“I’m not blind,” I said. “You’re all over her, and not just in that interview. And I’ve seen the film clips.”

“First of all, I am not ‘all over her’ …”

I cut him off. “I don’t think there’s one interview where you aren’t touching her,” I said. 

“I touch everyone,” he protested. “You know that. Hell, I’m touching Rick in half those interviews. Do you think I’m sleeping with him, too?”

“You aren’t kissing Rick in the movie,” I said.

“Okay, back up,” he said. He was starting to get angry now. “We shot that movie before I ever even met you, so you can’t be jealous about that. And there were probably thirteen people in the room when we shot those scenes, so there was absolutely nothing erotic about it, trust me. Besides, you knew I was an actor, you’ve seen some of my previous work, this can’t come as a surprise to you. It’s my fucking job.”

“Yeah, okay, so you didn’t know me when you shot those scenes,” I shot back, “but you know me now and people are sending me these videos showing you flirting with another woman …”

“I am not flirting with her,” he shouted. “For fuck’s sake, she’s married. I’ve met her husband; in fact, he was here last weekend and he was sitting just off camera for half those interviews. They’ve got two kids.”

“Then why are you acting like that?”

“Because I’m bored as hell with these fucking interviews? Because she’s my friend? Because I miss you?”

I snorted. “Oh, yeah, right, you miss me.”

“I do,” he insisted. “Well, maybe not right at this moment …”

“Fuck you,” I said.

“Hey …”

“Just stop pretending, okay? We both know you can do way better than me, so why do you even bother?”

I hung up before I started crying. I had always known in the back of my mind that this wouldn’t last long. Our lives were too different, and I was nowhere near good enough for someone like him. Our last weekend together had proved that.

My phone rang but I ignored it. After it rang five more times, I turned it off. It wasn’t even 8:00 yet, but I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.

****************************

I avoided my co-workers the next morning, and the day dragged on and on. My eyes were still puffy from crying when I woke up, and no amount of makeup could completely disguise it. Finally, the day ended and I headed home, wanting nothing more than to take a huge dose of ibuprofen for my headache and eat a pint of ice cream, the traditional cure for a breakup.

I had known going in that things with Dieter wouldn’t last. How could it work? He was an A list actor (well, currently B list but working his way back up to the top tier) and I was a nobody. Our lives were too different. Still, there had been moments when I truly thought we could do it, that we could exist in a bubble where he was just Deet and I was Em and Dieter Fucking Bravo was a character he played sometimes.

When I got home, there was a strange car in front of my house, but I figured the neighbors had company and didn’t think anything of it, until I unlocked the door and stepped inside. There was a bouquet of roses in a vase on my coffee table and the kitchen light was on.

“Hello?” I called out tentatively, my phone in my hand, ready to call 9-1-1.

Dieter stepped out of the kitchen. “Hey,” he said softly.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought you were in New York.”

“I flew home,” he said. 

“What about the press junket?” I knew those things were usually written into the contract when an actor signed on for a movie, and were nearly impossible to get out of.

“Told them I had a family emergency,” he said. “And I’m flying back on the red eye, so I’ll only miss one day of interview hell.”

I shook my head. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re here.” He had a key to my place; maybe he wanted to return it in person and get my key to his place.

“Well, you wouldn’t answer my phone calls, so I figured this was the only way to get you to talk,” he said. “And we definitely need to talk.” He took my hand and led me to the couch.

“I think we said everything last night,” I said, pulling my hand away from him.

“No, you said everything last night,” he said, grabbing my hand back. “You didn’t want to listen to me.”

“There’s not much to say,” I said. “It’s pretty clear it’s over.” My voice caught a little in my throat but I managed to keep myself from crying.

“Why do you say that?,” he asked sadly.

I sighed. “Because it’s true,” I said. “I saw the videos.”

“And I told you she’s married,” he said. “And we’re just friends. I hadn’t seen any of them since we wrapped. These press junkets are stressful and we’re all thrown together for hours and hours day after day.” He took my hand and started stroking my palm. “You know I’m pretty touchy-feely, especially with people I know. That’s just how I am. It doesn’t mean anything.” He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it softly.

“I wish I could believe you,” I said.

“Why not?”

“Because,” I said.

“Because why?”

I guessed I’d have to spell it out for him. “Because look at me! I’m not like Erica. I’m  not a size two, I don’t have perky boobs, I don’t look like I stepped off the cover of Vogue.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” He frowned. “I don’t give a shit about any of that. I don’t want Erica, or some fake-ass model. I want you.”

“Yeah, right,” I said. “I can’t even give you a blow job.”

He grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. “Listen to me,” he said. “Look at me.” He hooked a finger under my chin, lifting my face so I was looking him in the eye. “I. Love. You. You understand?”

I wanted to believe him. I really did. I said so.

He pressed his forehead against mine. “Sweetheart,” he whispered. “You can believe me. You have to believe me. I love you. I love you so much.”

”But …”

”No buts.” I knew he was being serious because he didn’t make a butt joke. “Sex is great. I enjoy it a lot. But I’d rather be celibate with you than have a fucking orgy with anyone else in the world. Got it?”

“What did I do to deserve you?” I whispered back.

“Hell if I know,” he replied. “I’m still trying to figure out what I did to deserve you.” He chuckled and slid his arms around me. “I missed you so much,” he said in my ear. “These press tours suck. I wish you could go with me, baby.”

“Stupid job,” I said.

“Yours or mine?,” he asked. I laughed.

“Both,” I replied.

“My flight doesn’t leave until 1:00 am,” he said. “What do you want to do until then?”

“Oh, you think you can say you love me and I’ll tumble into bed with you?” I teased.

“Pretty much,” he said, winking. “But you haven’t said it back yet, so maybe I don’t want to.”

I grabbed his chin and held his face still. “I. Love. You,” I said, punctuating each word with a kiss.

“Now was that so hard?,” he asked.

”That’s what she said,” I teased. He laughed so hard he started wheezing. 

“That’s my smart ass girl,” he said once he could breathe again. “Anyone could suck me off, but only you can make me laugh like that.” He kissed me, hard. “Now, how about some dinner? I haven’t had anything to eat since last night. My stomach has been in knots since you hung up on me.”

”Would some In-n-Out be a sufficient apology?”

“You know I’d do anything for In-n-Out, baby.”

”So would I,” I admitted. 

“But I won’t do that,” we both sang, off-key. 

************************************************************************

The day after our reconciliation, I was dragging at work. A student commented that I looked tired, and I wouldn’t have said anything, except Eileen was standing right there.

“Yeah,” I said, “I didn’t get much sleep last night. My boyfriend’s been out of town on business and he flew back yesterday to surprise me. But he had to fly back to New York on a red-eye, so by the time he left for the airport and I got to bed, it was well after midnight.”

I turned to Eileen. “By the way, that reminds me,” I said casually. “I’ll be taking a couple days off the week after next.”

“Oh?,” she asked. Even though she wasn’t technically part of the library team, she was very interested in our comings and goings. I think she even kept a spreadsheet of how often the textbook clerk and I were out so she could complain about our doors being locked.

“Yeah, Dieter’s movie premieres that Thursday, so I’ll need that day off to get ready for the red carpet, and then there’s at least one after party that night, so we’ll probably spend Friday sleeping.” I smiled at her and then turned away to help another student. Take that, you gossipy bitch.

Before he’d gotten into his rental car to drive back to Ontario Airport, Dieter had asked me if I’d accompany him on the red carpet. It wasn’t something we’d planned on doing, but he said that he wanted to prove to me — and the rest of the world — that he was officially off the market. “Taken. No longer in circulation. Unavailable. End of story,” had been his exact words, each one accompanied by a kiss on the tip of my nose. How could I say no?

**********************************

Dieter had gotten back in town Sunday night. The cast had spent every day since doing interviews in L.A. and I hadn’t had a chance to see him, but after work on Wednesday, I drove to his house. He wasn’t home yet when I got there, but I let myself in and rummaged around in the kitchen to see if there was anything worth cooking for dinner. It looked like he hadn’t had time to go shopping since he’d gotten back, though.

I texted him to ask what time he thought he’d be home so I could arrange for food delivery. Surprisingly, he texted right back.

Maybe 7, not sure. If too late I’ll call you. Eat when u want, save me leftovers. Love u.

I opened up GrubHub and browsed through the restaurants that were available. I decided on Chinese food, since that was easily reheated or could even be eaten cold. I placed an order to be delivered at 7:30. If Dieter wasn’t home by then, I’d go ahead and eat if I was hungry.

I flopped on the couch and turned on the TV. He had cable and subscribed to almost every streaming service there was. I opened up Disney+ and started a binge of my favorite old school animated Disney movies. I’d made it to Robin Hood when I heard a key in the door.

“Hey,” Dieter said, his face lighting up. “What are we watching?”

I paused the TV and crossed the room to hug him. “Old Disney movies,” I said. “Dinner should be here in about twenty minutes. Golden Pagoda.”

He kissed me. “Good, I’m starved. Did you remember to get those cream cheese wontons? I love those things.”

“Yes, I did,” I replied. “And egg rolls, and that horribly spicy chicken you love.”

We settled on the couch and he unpaused the TV. “Oh, man, I remember this one,” he said.

“It was my favorite when I was little,” I said. “I had the hat and everything.”

“You aren’t one of those girls who had a crush on the fox, were you?”

I shrugged. “Guilty,” I admitted. 

He shook his head. “What is it with that fox? Is it because he doesn’t wear pants?”

“Half the classic Disney animal characters don’t wear pants,” I pointed out. “Nobody’s crushing on Donald Duck or Winne the Pooh, though. I think it might be the accent. And the hat.”

“I’m gonna get me a hat,” he said.

It felt good to just be together, watching a movie, being silly, and waiting for our food to arrive.

“I’m glad you’re home,” I murmured in his ear.

“Me, too,” he said, pulling me a bit closer. He kissed my cheek. “And I’m glad we’re good.”

I laid my head on his shoulder. I’d done a lot of thinking since our fight and reconciliation. “I’m sorry. I was an idiot.”

“Nah, you were just being human,” he said. “Love makes people crazy sometimes. I’ll probably do some dumb shit at some point, and then we’ll be even.”

We snuggled and watched the movie until the doorbell rang. Dieter fetched the food while I got some plates out of the kitchen and we covered the coffee table with takeout containers. We ate until we were full and there was still a ton of food left.

“This’ll last us the whole weekend,” he said as we packed everything back up and shoved it into the fridge. “Which is good, because after the premiere, I just want to crash for a few days.” He yawned and stretched his back.

I glanced at the clock; it was only 8:35. “What time do you have to be up in the morning?,” I asked.

“We have an interview at ten, so I need to be out of here by nine, so … 8:45?”

“Let’s make it eight,” I said. “I’m not sending you out into the world without a shower and a decent breakfast.”

“But I don’t wanna get up that early,” he whined.

“I’ve got to get up early, too,” I said. “I have an appointment at the spa at ten for a mani/pedi, facial, and something called a seaweed wrap?” I checked the calendar on my phone. “Then home to change, makeup at one, hair at three, and we have to be there at what, five?”

He nodded. “Have you decided which dress to wear?” 

I’d spent the previous weekend with a stylist who had overwhelmed me with designer dresses in a million colors and styles. We’d narrowed it down to three choices, which I’d taken photos of and sent to Dieter for his vote. Annoyingly, he’d said he liked them all and to pick the one I liked best.

“Yeah, the green one,” I said. I stepped into the bedroom and took the dress, in its garment bag, off the back of the door where I’d hung it when I got in. I unzipped the bag and pulled the dress out. It was a deep hunter green satin, sleeveless, with a fitted waist and a deep slit in the skirt. The back of the skirt trailed on the floor in a short train, and there were two drapes of material hanging from the shoulders. It was elegant and simple but the color and the satin made it look horribly expensive, which it was. I’d about fainted when I saw the price tag, but the stylist had assured me we were only renting the dress and anyway the designer was giving us a break on that just to get her name out there. 

“I even got you a little something,” I said. The stylist had rummaged around in her closets and found a silk tie that almost exactly matched the color of the dress. I pulled it off the hanger and handed it to Dieter.

“I love it!,” he said. “It’ll go great with my brown suit.” He disappeared into the bedroom and I heard him digging around in the closet. He reappeared with a gorgeous chocolate brown suit that I hadn’t seen before.

“Where have you been hiding this?” I asked. 

“In the closet, duh,” he replied. I smacked him and fingered the fine wool cloth. “I bought it in New York. Bespoke splurge. We are going to look so good tomorrow,” he said.

************************************

I had been poked and prodded and pampered until I wanted to scream. At first it had been fun, lounging in a chair while three different aestheticians worked on my hands, feet, and face, but then I’d had to go lie in a hot room with slimy layers of seaweed wrapped around my body to “reduce puffiness and draw out the toxins.” I was sweaty and gross by the time the spa attendant came back for me and shoved me into a freezing cold shower “to shock the system and kickstart the metabolism.” 

I barely had time for lunch — a salad with no dressing and cucumber water; spa cuisine sucks — before heading back to Dieter’s place to get dressed. He’d arranged a driver so I didn’t have to worry about traffic, at least. I struggled into the Spanx and uncomfortable push up bra the stylist had made me buy, then gingerly put the dress on, afraid of tearing it. It had been altered to fit me and while that made it look much better, it meant there wasn’t much leeway. I’d just gotten into it when the doorbell rang and I shuffled to the door, holding up the long skirt that dragged on the floor when I was barefoot.

It was the makeup artist. She schlepped in several tackle boxes of supplies and a fancy lighted mirror. She set up a workstation in the kitchen, spreading her things out all over the island. 

“Okay, sit down, relax, and let me do my magic,” she said with a grin. She swathed me in a sheet and clipped my hair back away from my face. The kitchen chair wasn’t the most comfortable seat in the house but every time I squirmed, she gave me a look and I did my best to sit still while she powdered and painted and blended and smudged and plucked away at my face. Every once in a while, she’d frown a little and get out the makeup remover and start over.

Finally, she nodded. “Voila,” she said, turning the mirror so I could see what she’d done.

Holy shit, I thought. That can’t be me. I looked like I’d stepped off the cover of a magazine.

She laughed. “Yeah, the magic of makeup,” she said. “You wouldn’t recognize half the women in Hollywood if you saw them without professional makeup. The photographers are going to eat you up.”

She was still packing up her things when the doorbell rang again. She motioned for me to stay seated while she answered it. The hair stylist bustled in, hauling her own array of equipment.

She moved me to the kitchen stool, which was taller than the chair, and draped me in a tie-dyed cape. She spritzed my hair with water, and started to blow it dry, working it with a round brush. She paused, worked in some mousse and went back to work with the hair dryer. Next came the curling iron, then the hair dryer again, then the curling iron yet again. She sprayed me with hairspray until I sneezed, then kept fussing and teasing and pinning and curling until I was ready to scream. Finally, she seemed satisfied and gave me a hand mirror. 

My hair fell in soft, sexy ringlets around my face. The sides were swept up just a bit and held with glittery bobby pins. I had insisted we not do any color or add extensions, but it was amazing what she’d been able to do with my hair. My gray streaks looked like fancy highlights and my hair had a bounce to it instead of just hanging there like it usually did.

“You like it?”

“I love it,” I said. 

She packed up and left, just as Dieter was coming home from his last round of interviews.

“Wow, you clean up good,” he said when he saw me. 

“Shut up and get dressed,” I told him. “We have to leave in forty minutes.”

He laughed and disappeared into the bedroom. He’d had his hair done that morning before the interviews, but I’d probably have to fix it before we left, since he had a bad habit of running his hand through it and messing it up.

Twenty minutes later he reappeared in the brown suit, with a tan shirt and that vibrant green tie. He hated wearing a tie, and I knew that by the end of the evening it would be in his pocket and he’d have the top few buttons of his shirt undone, but for now he looked like a proper grownup.

I slipped on my shoes (beautiful strappy heels that were incredibly painful after five minutes) and found my purse. It was a tiny clutch that barely held my eyeglasses but I knew that if I didn’t take them with me I’d have a headache by the end of the movie. I could see without them, but I very rarely took them off. Walking the red carpet without them, and in brand new heels, was going to be an adventure.

“Ready?” Dieter offered me his arm and I took it.

“As I’ll ever be,” I said. 

***************************************

“You look amazing,” he said softly when we were tucked into the back of the town car. The partition was closed, so the driver couldn’t see us as Dieter kissed my neck.

“Stop it,” I chided him. “You’ll mess up my makeup.”

“That’s why I’m kissing your neck,” he said, trailing little kisses down from my ear to my collarbone. “I’ll mess up your makeup later.”

“This isn’t fair,” I complained. “I can’t kiss you back because I’ll smear my lipstick.”

“Mmm,” he hummed, face buried in my throat. When he was done, he lifted his head and said, “Life’s not fair, get used to it.”

“I hate you,” I said with a laugh.

“No, you don’t,” he said. “You love me. You said it and you can’t take it back.”

“You’re in a good mood,” I said, fixing the stray strands of hair that were falling into his face. 

“It’s almost over,” he explained. “These promo tours and premieres are a pain in the ass. We do the red carpet, watch the movie, go to the party for a while and then we’re done.” He threw his head back and laughed. “We can just relax for a while. I’m turning my phone off this weekend, it’s just you and me and all that Chinese food.”

I laid my head on his shoulder, careful not to disturb my hair too much. “That sounds wonderful,” I said. My feet already hurt and I was counting the minutes until I could get out of those damnable Spanx.

We arrived at the theatre. The studio had gone all out, booking the Chinese Theatre (formerly known as Grauman’s; we were both old enough to think of it as that) in Hollywood. Our car pulled up to the curb and a smartly dressed young man opened the door for us. I slid out as gracefully as I could and waited for Dieter to climb out after me. There were hundreds of people lining the walkway to the theatre, which was actually covered with a red carpet, albeit one that had seen some use. There were a few threadbare spots and stains scattered over it but it was still nice.

“Dieter!!” Fans were screaming his name as he emerged from the car. 

“Show time,” he whispered to me before turning to the crowd with a brilliant smile and starting to wave at the fans. “Just follow my lead,” he said out the side of his mouth.

We walked slowly along the red carpet, as fans shouted and cheered. Some had signs, others waved autograph books or photos or Cliff Beast action figures at him, begging for a signature. I watched him as he graciously acknowledged everyone he could, signing things, asking how to spell names so he didn’t make a mistake. I just stood beside him, my hand tucked into the crook of his elbow, mostly ignored by the crowd.

When a young woman asked for a selfie, he obliged, even though it meant I had to let go of him. She giggled and kissed his cheek while they took the picture. He looked up at me and winked. I rolled my eyes and he laughed. “Get in here,” he said, pulling me into the next selfie, his arm tight around my shoulders.  After that, he declined any more selfies, except for a young boy with a Cliff Beasts t-shirt and the hairless head of a cancer patient. We stopped and chatted with him, took several pictures, and I asked his mom for their address, which I typed into my phone while Dieter was moving down the line. 

“I’ll make sure he gets something really cool,” I promised the boy’s mom, who had tears in her eyes. Then I hurried to catch up with Dieter; we were almost to the wall of cameras, as he’d called it.

There was a huge backdrop covered with the logo of the movie, the name of the studio and several sponsors. Opposite it was a horde of photographers, all jockeying for position to get the best shots of the arrivals. “Here we go,” Dieter said as we stepped into the line of fire.

Photographers were shouting his name, all trying to get him to look directly at their camera. Others were calling out directions. “Turn to the left! Look up!” An assistant gently guided us to the first of several marks on the carpet, predetermined places where the photographers could get good shots. I’d been practicing poses in the mirror, trying to keep my chin up so my neck looked longer, turning my body slightly so they would get a three-quarter angle, smiling until my cheeks ached.

“Look at me!,” one photographer shouted.

“Look at her!,” another demanded. 

“Look at him!”

“Look at each other!”

I was confused and Dieter laughed. “Just do whatever the hell you want, they’ll figure it out,” he said. He ducked his head down and kissed me, very lightly so as not to mess up my lipstick too much, and I heard a barrage of shutter clicks. “That’ll make ‘em happy,” he said.

We finally made our way past the gantlet of photographers and into the lobby of the theatre, where everyone was gathering to wait for the doors to the auditorium to open. Dieter dragged me over to meet the director, and one of the producers. “Always talk to the big shots first,” he’d told me earlier. “You have to do a fair amount of sucking up in this business, even with people who don’t like suck ups.”

We exchanged pleasantries, Dieter’s arm comfortably around my waist. I knew I was just there for decoration.  This was part of his job, and my job was to smile and nod and shake hands and make him look good.

Then we walked over to Erica and her husband. Erica was wearing a gorgeous beaded dress that skimmed over her curves and shimmered when she moved. Her husband was in a navy blue suit with a spotless white shirt and a navy tie.

“Hey!” Dieter said, hugging Erica and shaking hands with her husband. He introduced me and I shook hands with both of them. It was a bit awkward for a moment, but then Erica took over.

“It is so good to finally meet you,” she said to me. “He would literally not stop talking about you the entire press tour.” She tucked her arm through the crook of my elbow and leaned in. “I’m sorry about the interviews,” she whispered. 

“It’s okay,” I told her. “I overreacted. I’m new to all this.”

“You’ll get used to it,” she said. “He really is crazy about you, you know. You have nothing to worry about.” 

She let me go and Dieter and I moved on to chat with some of the other cast members. Finally the auditorium doors opened and we were ushered inside to our seats, then the rest of the audience was let in. Friends and family and others with sometimes extremely vague connections to the studio and the cast filled out the audience. Dieter and I both put on our glasses as the lights dimmed and he pulled my hand into his lap, playing with my fingers as the movie started.

I really couldn’t pay attention to the film, between my aching feet, the Spanx that made it difficult to take a deep breath, and Dieter doing things to my hand that made me look forward to the weekend.

After the movie ended, Dieter and the other cast members had to go up on the stage, while the director, producers, and several studio execs gave speeches.  Finally, we were free to go, but only to drive a few blocks down the street to the party venue. As I predicted, once we were in the car, Dieter undid his tie and unbuttoned the top three buttons on his shirt.

“Not fair,” I said. “I don’t have anything to undo.” I squirmed as my Spanx started to ride up and give me a wedgie.

“We could skip the party and go home,” he said.

“You know we can’t,” I said. There would be more photographers at the party and more people to schmooze with. 

He sighed. “Yeah, I know, but we don’t have to stay too long, I promise.”

The party was loud and without my glasses on, I quickly developed a headache, but I gallantly followed Dieter around and smiled at everyone while I sipped on a weak drink. I couldn’t blame them for watering down the drinks, because these people were hard drinkers. I watched one studio exec down seven drinks in the space of an hour.

Finally, Dieter whispered, “Ready to go?”

“I’ve been ready,” I whispered back. He smiled, and pulled out his phone to text our driver. We slipped out and dodged a few die-hard photographers before piling into the back seat of the town car for the ride home. The car had barely pulled away from the curb before Dieter was shrugging out of his suit coat and I had my shoes off.

“Oh, that helps,” I said, rubbing at the blisters and pressure spots on my feet. Dieter pulled my feet into his lap and started massaging them. It was sweet but also an excuse to slide my dress up so he could run his hand up my thigh. It didn’t take long before I was in his lap and half my lipstick was on his face and throat.

When the car pulled up in his driveway, we stumbled out and into the house. 

“Get me out of these Spanx,” I said, throwing my shoes into a corner. I never wanted to wear them again. Dieter obliged, helping me carefully take off the dress. I wrestled myself out of the shape wear and unfastened my bra. They joined the shoes in the corner of shame.

We left a trail of discarded clothing from the front door to the bedroom until we finally collapsed onto the bed. “Can we just run around naked for a few days?,” I asked, as I stretched, exhilarating in the freedom to just breathe and move without the constriction of foundation garments.

“Sounds good to me,” Dieter said. He started to pull me close but I shook my head. 

“I’ve got to get this makeup off before we go to bed or I’m going to ruin your pillowcases and my face will be a mess,” I said. I staggered into the bathroom and scrubbed at my face with cotton pads and makeup remover. By the time I got back to the bedroom, Dieter was asleep, sprawled on top of the comforter. 

I pulled the pins out of my hair, laid them on the nightstand, and crawled into the bed. I tugged at the covers and shoved Dieter around until I had him under the covers as best I could. I didn’t want him to get cold during the night. It was still warm during the day but the nights were starting to get chilly this close to the ocean. Finally, I gave up when he was mostly covered up and let my own head drop onto the pillow. There would be plenty of time to fool around during the next three days. Right now, what we both needed most was sleep.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-11-27

Snow

Listening: Someone on IRC linked me to 3Blue1Brown's Hallelujah Parody about the vicissitudes of apparent patterns in sequences.

Reading: You Want My Password or a Dead Patient:, a paper about information security and the lack thereof in medical contexts. Paper linked here, but I first heard about it in this Choast.

A very good deep dive into the extremes of classic reasons why information security is bypassed: it's just much more important that you have access to resources Right Now in a hospital context than it is that they are secure against hacker, most of the time.

Hospitals process a lot of private information, so they are often beholden to the security standards imposed by regulations agencies. If you've engaged with mandatory security regulations you'll know a lot of them are, uh, bad?

(Famously if you want to meet US FIPS Government Standards you cannot use the Good Elliptic Curve ed25519 and instead you have to use a different, less well secured curve.)

Anyway what this means is that you have a significant conflict between the very high stakes and fast paced world of hospital medicine, and a system that wants you to log back in every time you step away from the x-ray machine.

Watching: Nothing.

Playing: As you may know if you're following me, I started Dark Souls this week. I am having a great time in Dark Souls! It's a lot of fun. I am still where I was yesterday, having just beaten the Belltower Gargoyles.

There are definitely notes that I have. It is for sure a 12 year old game. Some of the opacity is definitely intentional difficulty, like requiring you to just feel out the parry timing, but I it probably wouldn't make the game any easier if it had reliable indicators of when you're in position to backstab or riposte someone and it would make parrying much more fun. I like parrying but so often you parry someone and then just hit them normally instead of going for the cool finisher riposte.

Making: Like ten minutes ago I reopened Cinnabar and Calcite and did a little hardware swap, moving a new network card into Calcite and Calcite's old network card into Cinnabar. Everyone is settled back in. Wifi card upgrades are not really essential but it is nice to have wifi on a desktop even if you don't use it because a) someday you will and b) it's free bluetooth.

Also: Wrote some very bad bash to use my motherboard RGB as a tally light for recording these Dark Souls clips, since I've lost a few clips to hitting the wrong record button a few times.

Tools and Equipment: Original Tuesdayposter @girlfriendsofthegalaxy had a video on marinara sauce this last Tuesday and I was inspired to try some tomato pasta bakes. I usually make Mornay sauce based pasta bakes because it's what my parents usually made, but you gotta try a really spicy tomato pasta bake.

I got some habaneros and jalapenos from the farmers market and made a big pot of spicy tomato tuna bake and especially with the weather being How It Is that was great, I'm making a mushroom one sometime soon it kicked ass. That recipe was loosely based on this one, although I put in a bunch of extra vegetables.

[remy2fang]

So about them Season 2 SF6 Leaks

If you’re curious what the leak is, it can be seen here:

https://x.com/daryo1989/status/1769861372740042895?s=46&t=iEGeYIIN_aP028wRnoVcUQ

There were a mixture of reactions for this. The people who main those characters are happy while everyone else, which I think it’s the majority, were really upset. The leaker is supposedly Vergeben, who actually had a hit or miss record in leaking info. But his leak for the SF6 season 1 characters was almost 100% accurate, down to “Cammy wearing pants.” To me, if there’s a short written description of the characters’ appearance, they tend to be true as oppose to just naming the characters. But I read that this Vergeben may be an imposter because that’s not his real Reddit account. His real account is DasVergeben while the most recent one is shinvergeben. But the DasVergeben account hadn’t posted anything in the past 2 years, so who knows if shinvergeben is the same guy or not, but created a new Reddit account.

Ngl, when I saw the list, I was kinda sad. F.A.N.G’s purpose in Street Fighter 6 is to revive Bison and Shadaloo. This was known since the TOXICITY story was released in 2018. I’d like to see how his revival journey would unfold in his Arcade or World Tour Mode because it sounds like a compelling character story. But if Bison comes back as a DLC before a playable F.A.N.G, that could mean FANG’s moment to shine in SF6 would become unlikely because his goal had already been met, so what’s the point. Sure, we might see FANG’s revival journey through Bison’s story, but it would be much better if it was through a playable FANG. It would give more meaning and significance to his story. Alas, I guess I’ll just accept FANG as an NPC for the entirety of SF6. FANG would be happy for Bison’s return, at least. But I’d still be salty that Capcom decided to steal FANG’s thunder. It would be nice if both FANG and Bison were to some back to SF6 in the same season…preferably FANG coming before Bison. Oh well. Dee Jay and Ed spoiled me so much because they proved that characters don’t have to be super popular in order to come back to a Street Fighter game.

Anyway enough of my rant. Regardless if the leaker source is true or false, I personally believe the Bison part is true. Back many months ago in October, I found unused voice clips for F.A.N.G. I had a feeling they’ll eventually be used in a later dlc. At first I thought they would be heard in the Ed DLC, but that didn’t happen. So I have a feeling they would be used in the Bison DLC instead. F.A.N.G did say Bison’s name twice in unknown contexts, and they were not heard during the AKI dlc. I’m assuming he either thinks about Bison or he finally sees Bison alive again. You can listen to extracted unused voice audio here, starting at 0:39 :

Now I have my own thoughts on what may happen during the Bison DLC. Based on the voice lines above, I think the avatar would be helping F.A.N.G in finding resources to revive Bison and Shadaloo. Unused lines like “You have my gratitude” and “Splendid job” sounds like you’re doing some tasks for him. I did mentioned about this in an older post:

If the avatar is indeed helping F.A.N.G revive Bison, then the avatar is both hero and villain!

[mariacallous]

The recipe sold itself as “unique.” Toward the end of March, an anonymous blonde woman appeared on the TikTok page @foodfuns3 and committed a culinary crime. First, she poured an entire box of angel hair pasta into a blender, then she blitzed it into dust, added a couple of eggs, and rolled the resulting dough into new pasta strips. Gamely, she took a bite of the thick, grainy Frakenpasta after cooking it; unconvincingly, she ended the video with the words, “Mmm! It’s like the perfect consistency.”

Despite this onscreen bite, it’s probably safe to assume this pasta dish ended up in the bin.

It’s no longer news that disgusting food videos on TikTok are intentional rage bait, designed to rile up viewers and gain comments, shares, and views for creators. Yet while no one eats the food in these ridiculous recipe videos, they do feed an entire online ecosystem.

Shortly after the blonde woman blended her pasta, The Washington Post tested her recipe on its own social media channels, while the British newspaper Metro made its own video about the “dish.” On TikTok itself, multiple creators responded, superimposing themselves over the video and adding their own commentary. Thanks to the sheer number of hideous recipes that now populate TikTok, a new job has emerged: Recipe Reactor.

Chef Reactions is not the name recorded on Chef Reactions’ birth certificate. Despite the fact that he has more than 3 million TikTok followers, Chef Reactions closely guards his real name and identity because, he says, “I get death threats every single day.” Fiercely protective of his family and a carer for his 88-year-old grandmother, he’s only been recognized three times in public since he exploded on social media a year ago, and he wants to keep it that way. “I’ve worked in kitchens my whole life,” he says. “I didn’t start this with the intention of becoming famous.”

What provokes the death threats? Multiple times a week, Chef Reactions picks an online recipe video and—it’s in the name—reacts to it. He is known for his deadpan delivery, liberal use of swear words, and very evident culinary knowledge. (He really is a chef with almost 20 years’ experience.) The 40-year-old creator reacts to everything from genuinely delicious-looking chocolate sculptures to people cooking inside their toilet bowls.

Some have accused him of bullying, “which I didn’t understand, because most of the videos that I talk about are purposely made for shock value.” (Some recipe videos are also fetish content.) The chef’s angry reactions are unscripted and authentic: “I come from a background of not wasting food, both in my professional life and my personal life. When I was a kid, I was forced to sit at the kitchen table until I finished everything on my plate, so wasting food is a pet peeve of mine.”

Chef Reactions created his TikTok account in May 2022 because, he says, “a dishwasher that worked for me had a video go viral … and it was really stupid, it was maybe the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” Deciding that if she could do it, he could do it too, the chef created his first video, a silly three-second clip in which he makes eyes at some butt-shaped dough.

The Chef Reactions channel grew quickly. He recently quit his job; brand deals, merchandise sales, and Patreon supporters enable him to recipe-react full time. “I’ve been a chef for so long that it’s hard for me to think of what I do now as work, because I worked so very hard before,” he says. He notes that while he is by no means rich or “set for life,” he could afford a year off to be with his family if he stopped making videos right now. “This has changed my life in ways that I never thought were possible,” he says.

Yet in the year Chef Reactions has been creating his videos, he says the number of rage bait (and fetish) recipes on TikTok has grown. “These accounts are multiplying like gremlins,” he says, “And now people say that I’m partially responsible for that.” Some viewers believe that gross food creators are making videos specifically for the chef to react to, meaning he’s taking the bait and feeding the baiters. While he says it would be “egotistical” for him to believe that videos are made specifically for him, he does acknowledge his part in this strange new ecosystem.

“Without them, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today, so it’s kind of a double-edged sword,” he says. Equally: “I’m not the only person that does food reactions.”

Tanara Mallory is perhaps currently the most famous and quotable recipe reactor on TikTok; her catchphrase “Everybody’s so creative!” now regularly pops up in the comment section of food videos. The 47-year-old, Philadelphia-based production cook is—as Chef Reactions himself puts it —“hilarious”; her faux-enthusiastic response videos have earned her 3.4 million followers.

Unlike Chef Reactions, however, Mallory has found it hard to profit from her fame. She told The Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this month that the money she has earned so far only covers “gas and groceries,” even though the hashtag #everybodysocreative now has 486 million views. It’s a problem as old as social media itself: the ability of any creator to monetize their content often depends on their race. “Mallory’s situation,” journalist Beatrice Forman wrote in her profile of the TikTok star, “is all too common for Black social media creators, who have shaped internet culture for decades.” (Mallory didn’t respond to interview requests for this story.)

Yet while recipe reactions may not always be profitable, they do remain popular. Beyond comedy value, why do people like to watch?

Zoë Glatt, a digital anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft’s Social Media Collective, argues that “​​what makes bad recipe videos so perfect for reactions is the ambiguity around whether the original content is made sincerely.” Numerous disturbing recipes have been reported as real trends over the years, and therefore it is undoubtedly satisfying for audiences to hear a straight-talker “reflecting on just how bad these recipes are.”

Glatt says that “reaction videos have always existed as a sort of meta-economy that feeds off of and into the genres of content.” While some reactors do “the bare minimum,” riding the coattails of an original video’s popularity, the best reactions, she says, “offer meaningful or entertaining commentary, reflecting and reifying the feelings that audiences have toward the video and helping to create a sense of community and shared understanding.” Arguably, shared understanding is crucial when you’ve just watched someone blend angel hair and you have to decide if the world’s lost the plot or you have.

It’s unclear how long recipe reactions will continue to be popular. Chef Reactions says, “I think of myself always as on my 14th of 15 minutes of fame.” He is branching out onto YouTube because of rumors of a TikTok ban, and he hopes the world will continue to have an appetite for his content. But being uncertain about the future doesn’t trouble him too much. “If you were to ask me a year ago what my retirement plan was, I would have said, ‘Having a heart attack hovering over an empty deep fryer.’ I didn’t have a retirement plan,” he says. He still doesn’t, but he does now have a flourishing online career. “If it all goes away tomorrow, I can always fall back onto my skill set and continue being a chef.”

[elizabethplaid]

feb 15 notes, part 2!

Today's a game of good-news/bad-news, but I'm feelin' pretty chuffed (not my usual slang, but it feels right). Notes from earlier in the day are here.

Starts with some bullet-points, then into slightly longer discussion of the near-future.

G- Was in bed and horizontal before 7:30am, phone down before 9am

B- Woke up a couple-few times, maybe got 4 hours of sleep total.

B- Woke by realizing I was picking at my skin in my sleep

G- Put on lotion instead of picking at my skin more, to help me calm down. Somewhat helpful? Clearly, I need to stim, but I need it in a more positive sense than picking.

N- Up and out of bed around 1:30ish. Little jittery but mentally fine.

G- Used acetone to remove my nail polish, then clipped my nails. It's been like 3-4 weeks since the last clip. (Should help with picking, I hope)

N- Nearly out of acetone. Considering I got that big bottle 10+ years ago, that's pretty good. Will need to get another bottle of that and maybe some non-acetone nail polish remover, specifically for non-hobby use.

G- Our late-xmas Amazon order items are arriving. Today was a new camera remote (for the dslr) and a Breaking Benjamin cd

------------

I plan to knit this evening, hopefully catch up with the YT videos I've been avoiding. (I'd wanted to be in a certain mindset while making the bracelets, so I limited what I'd watch during those instances.)

Need to revisit some of last night's music. There was a fun compilation of 90s music, and a few songs were delightful nostalgia. Got misty with a few, too. Those and the ASMR thing from earlier are things I want to make separate posts about. Not quite a "crying log" like @champagnemanagement does, but at least wanting to note things for this time period (eg February, the time I've set aside for mental health).

I've asked to have stew for dinner on Sunday. That day marks 11 years since mom has passed. I had some metaphoric connection of her passing/my grief and stew, but I've forgotten the exact words. It's a comfort meal; it's got more veg than other things I eat. Dad was always more of a cook than mom. He likes to do all the work for this meal, but I enjoy getting to chat with him while he chops veg and such.

Phone friend has expressed interest in visiting, which I've mentioned to dad before. I hope to discuss these plans with my dad, while he's busy prepping the stew. I think dad and phone friend would get along well in person. But we're gonna hang out in Ellsworth for this visit, rather than hanging out in my town. (I still plan to inflict the "Pledge of Allegiance" Burma Shave signs on them, muahaha.)

Amid all our texting, I've had some good insights - stuff worthy of recounting to my counselor. So I'm thinking of taking screenshots, then transcribing the images. I have another week until the next session, so I have time to at least skim for notes. I like having that record, for better recollection and processing of info for later.

Revisiting older notes from previous years earlier has been helpful. Certainly gives me perspective and comfort about how far I've come. When going through some books a couple days ago, I found my copy of Steven Levenkron's "Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation", including some notes I stashed between the pages. I'm curious to observe my growth since those days (ie 2009). Though I didn't cut, my skin-picking has been similar.

I know that this isn't LiveJournal, and I don't reveal all my thoughts and secrets like I used to on that platform. But I hope some of these discussions might help others, as I have been helped by others' writings over the years. The shame and stigma of mental health adventures will still linger, even as our cultural understanding develops over time. Sharing these bits of our inner-selves with others gives me hope that we'll be okay in the end. Progress is progress, even in tiny bits and steps.

[monmuses]

angelicgentleman asked: 1, 2, and 3 from "canon questionare." for the multiple Leviathan class lifeforms on the blog! ; canon questionare. 1. What made you pick up this character? 2. How did you get into this franchise/fandom? 3. What’s the best thing about the show/series/books/comics/etc.?

it originally started with T'iamat, but ended up growing to four more muses to add! something about her being a sentient sort of "anti-boss" character you meet in the game was just icing on the cake. and how she speaks to you, plus reading her whole story? you feel sympathy for what she had gone through. her entire story was essentially over a thousand years of being a self-made puppy mill. then over time, once i finished the game and kept playing on my own, i picked up more ideas on what these creatures could be. like, what if they were also sentient? and could speak telepathically? or had different worlds you could really put yourself into when swimming with them? just stuff like that is... huge to me. the possibilities of what else could be discovered in the world of Subnautica.

the game was bought for me YEARS ago when it was in early access. roughly around 2015-2016? and i knew of the game, but didnt have the proper specs to actually run it, unfortunately. but i learned more of the lore w/ @f--hawk some months ago and finally pushed myself to actually play it a couple of months ago. it was absolutely worth playing on my own and i even recorded some funny clips (some of which were made into a simple video i crafted together in an hour :P). never regretted getting into it. its SO much fun - it was like rediscovering minecraft!

the atmosphere and music. my god, i was... in absolute awe. every part of the world was so goddamn pretty. it was easily like rewatching Finding Nemo (it used to be my favorite movie as a toddler for a long time) and just looking out into the ocean. the horrors of it are just as beautiful as its outside view. the music itself was so relaxing and so beautiful to hear; easily one of the most PERFECT soundtracks to sleep to. i loved everything about it! but the scenery sold it for me.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Taskmaster s15e01 was an exciting start to the new season, and capped off with a top quality podcast episode, one of the best. Dara O’Briain is an excellent podcast guest for the same reason he was an excellent contestant: he’s ridiculously, genuinely competitive. Like in his previous podcast appearance, he analyzed the whole thing like it was an actual sport, took it seriously, got annoyed about things, had good insights, just everything I want in a contestant.

I love how much of this episode was spent on Dara just trying to settle his own scores. Throwing them in there even when Ed Gamble didn’t specifically give him the opportunities to do so – Dara just had to get that in anyway. Arguing with something Sarah Millican said on this same podcast months ago. Talking shit about John Kearns. Complaining that no one else thought it was as big a deal as he thought it was when he won Taskmaster.

Okay, that bit actually got me because, like, I know he was joking. I know he does understand that Taskmaster is not actually a thing where it matters who wins. But he described that phenomenon so accurately that I think he must have genuinely experienced it, at least a bit. The phenomenon where you win something you’ve wanted to win so much, and when it happens, no one will ever care as much as you did. And then you just have to go about your life the next day, as though it didn’t happen, and it feels weird, as though the world should have changed now that you’ve accomplished this, but it hasn’t. That’s a common thing to happen to athletes after they win a major championship, I’ve seen it a lot and experienced it a couple of times myself. And okay, okay, I know that didn’t literally happen to Dara O’Briain after he won Taskmaster, because it’s Taskmaster, and I know he’s aware that it’s only a comedy show. I’m just saying, in his rant near the beginning about being annoyed that people didn’t care enough that he’d won, he described that phenomenon pretty accurately for someone who was completely joking.

You can also hear the ambition in everything Dara said in that podcast, linking so many things back to Champion of Champions III. Doing it more often than would make sense, by just enough so you can see that’s genuinely on his mind, not just a thing he was putting on for the podcast recording. Watching this season to scout the competition.

So I love that Dara O’Briain sees the show pretty much exactly the same way I do, as a substitute for high-level sport to be approached and analyzed in a similar way. But I really liked the clip I uploaded here, because it shows he’s on my wavelength in another way as well. Last year when Mock the Week got canceled, I knew that my instinct to shape everything into a narrative was kicking in a bit too much, as I talked about Frankie Boyle, after every fucking thing that happened there, outlasting them in the topical comedy show game after all. I like playing “look where they started and look where they are now”, that’s an especially weird game to play with old Mock the Week episodes, when you consider that Russell Howard is just about the only comedian left with his own topical comedy show at this point. He should not have been the one to win that battle.

Because Frankie did outlast them, but not for long. And Dara’s right! Oh, I could tie so many narrative threads together if those two ended up together in Champion of Champions. Were both there for this whole thing on Mock the Week years ago, Frankie works his way back to rival Mock the Week at the top of the topical comedy show game, both shows get axed within a few months of each other by the BBC, now they face each other again on a very different battlefield.

Really, Dara thinking along the same lines as I am when it comes to this isn’t all that different from him thinking along the same lines that I do when it comes to the how competitive Taskmaster should be. They both come from the same basic idea of wanting to fit the show into a sports narrative, and it’s always a powerful sports narrative if it follows the basic structure of “these two people started out together, went in different directions, grew and developed and passed each other, traded off who was most successful at given times, and now they come up against each other”.

I mean, it would be a shocking turn of events if Frankie Boyle did win this season and get into Champion of Champions III, which is where this whole idea falls down. But I just like that Dara thought of it. I’m not the only person putting that stuff together for no good reason.

[modded-xcom2-aar]

The Tutorial: Part 1

Dan's Notes: Due to the more cinematic, cutscene-heavy nature of the opening tutorial mission, the whole of it has been depicted in video form. This will not be the case with most missions. It should also be noted that the tutorial is skippable, as are the DLC missions, but for the sake of storytelling, I have enabled them. In addition, this update will be a fair bit longer than most updates will so I can get all the tutorial stuff out of the way.

Operation Gatecrasher After Action Report

After 20 years of struggling and acting underground, XCOM was finally able to perform Operation Gatecrasher, a combined effort by XCOM and the Reapers to locate and rescue Commander , the original operating commander of XCOM. Due to the high-priority nature of this mission, XCOM was forced to execute the mission through unusual and unconventional means.

Operating in this mission were rookie-level soldiers Jane Kelly, Peter Osei, Ana Ramirez, Reaper soldier Elena "Outrider" Dragunova, and Central Command Officer Bradford. Osei and Ramirez were killed in action while the surviving rookie, Kelly, was promoted to a Squaddie-class Ranger. In accordance to XCOM's agreement, Dragunova fled the scene before the deployment of XCOM's forces, rejoining with the nearest group of Reapers.

Thanks to the distraction created by Bradford and Kelly, as well as the efforts of Dragunova, city center forces were minimal during the rescue operation, limited to a handful of troops and a group of reinforcements.

Tutorial Geoscape, Part 1

Dan's Notes: During the recording, this cutscene stuttered, causing audio lag and making it a pain to watch. I have taken this footage from a compilation of cutscenes from the vanilla game. Credit to LFP Gaming for creating the original video, XCOM 2 All Cinematics / Cutscenes / Movie. All other cutscenes posted in this update were taken from my personal recording, and any future instances of outscourcing cutscenes will be noted.

Excerpt from Central Officer Bradford's Journal:

While I was acting undercover, I noticed a lot of commotion about it being the 20th anniversary of the "formation of the ADVENT Coalition". That's a load of bull. Just about any world leader that didn't willingly turn on humanity was being manipulated into doing so, usually with psionic mind control. 20 years, huh? You know, they say you get older your perception of time starts to speed up, but I remember every agonizing moment that led up to this point. Years of travelling and scraping by, slowly finding any other wandering survivors, hearing word of resistance groups until ultimately forming my own and branding it with those four letters I held onto to remember what once was. Osei and Ramirez might have just seemed like just another dissident to the ADVENT troops that slaughtered them, but I'll always remember their parts in reassembling XCOM.

One shower and a set of fresh clothes later, the Commander was ready to go to the science labs.

Dan's notes: The Commander is never given a canonical name, gender, speaking lines, or appearance. The Commander is effectively you, the person playing the video game. I think it's fun for players to create some kind of commandersona, so I have decided to create one. The core idea was to make someone comically unassuming for their elevated status within the fiction. One thing to note is that there isn't really any way to make a fat character in this game, and I'm pretty sure it would be a pain for a modder to pull off without serious clipping issues. As such, I decided to make the Commander fat.

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's Journal:

Gosh, it's all so darn confusing. It felt like I had been on the longest war of my career, but then one day I find myself getting pulled out of a spacesuit and I'm told the whole thing ended 20 years ago. Jeez, I really hope maybe I can turn things around this time.

At the behest of Chief Science Officer Tygan, Commander ordered the Science team

Excerpt from Commander Stumpe's journal:

Dunno why he called himself a Chief Science Officer when it was really just him and any guy he trusted enough to handle equipment. Odd fellow, that guy. Wonder what happened to Vahlen.

Having survived Operation Gatecrasher, Jane Kelly was promoted from Rookie to Squaddie. Kelly had decided to specialize as a Ranger.

Dan's notes: Although they served as scout units in the vanilla game, their real specialties are their shotguns, which have a higher crit rate than other weapons, and goes up the more up close and personal the Ranger gets. Reapers and Templars outdo them on both stealth and melee terms.

Shortly afterwards, Commander Stumpe was invited by Central Officer Bradford to come to the research labs.

END OF PART 1

[yukihime242]

I can't remember when was the last time I did a general update of my gaming progress but let's not fret about that, yeah? So, here comes a new update and to be honest, it's not going to be a good one.

(GIF Source: Tenor thru' Google Image Search)

My exams are coming. In TWO WEEKS. And I am fretting over the lack of studying because honestly, my parents just does not get that I need to study. Funny thing is that they keep nagging at me to do well and pass my exams so that I can graduate faster but yet they are the ones pulling me away from my studies.

What irony.

(GIF Source: Tenor thru' Google Image Search)

Because I need to study, it also means that lesser time for my games.

(GIF Source: Gifer thru' Google Image Search)

Anyway, let's get down to it.

Firstly, it's finally the time to say GOOD RIDDANCE to the one game that has been very frustrating.

(Picture Source: Switch Player thru' Google Image Search)

That's right, I have completed Death's Door and I have never been any happier to place that little cartridge into the box of completed games.

I will do a game review of it for my end of year games, though I may have done it last year. But, this time, it's going to be a proper one since I have already completed the game.

(GIF Source: DukeEngage thru' Google Image Search)

I am now onto my next Switch game which is Pokemon Scarlet. Yep, I did not complete it and have restarted the game. I kinda forgot some of the mechanics and had the need to go through from scratch again.

My sis, on the other hand, completed hers a long time ago and I am following her advice to raise my Pokemon to be as high level as possible so that the battling would be a breeze.

(Picture Source: Polygon thru' Google Image Search)

The current plan is to go for as many raids as I could to get those Exp materials and I could plonk everything to the one pokemon in my party which is a lower level. So far, I have managed to get a variety so battling should be no problem.

I also intend to go for the Titans first so that my Koraidon would have all of the abilities and that would make the exploring so much easier. I have managed to defeat up to the Sky Titan. Thus, no more worries about scrambling out of water scenario.

(Picture Source: COGconnected thru' Google Image Search)

The next game in the list is Sky: Children of the Light. To be honest, I feel as though my relationship with this game is hot and cold. There are times when I just had enough of the game, and there are times when I just want more of the game...

(Picture Source: X.com thru' Google Image Search)

In one of my older post, I did mention about the Aviary project which the developers were doing and planning to bring into the current game. It is now the location of the current season known as the Season of Revival.

Not much is happening because the season started not too long ago but players get to see the village in a much clearer setting after completing the third seasonal quest. I am looking forward to seeing more of what the village has to offer.

(Picture Source: Sky Children of the Light Wiki Fandom thru' Google Image Search)

I have also not record any videos from Sky for a long time, mostly due to lack of any inspiration. I do have one video idea in mind but I could not find the time to record, much less edit, the necessary clip. Guess all of these has to wait until after my exam.

The third game in the list is Honkai Star Rail (HSR). I feel as though I have not touch this game for ages 🥴

(Picture Source: PlayStation.Blog thru' Google Image Search)

It goes without saying that although I have been recording and uploading the stories of HSR, I may have missed some previous events... that is, I am not sure if I even missed any past events because they seem to be kept at a separate folder in the game which allows you to visit it even after the event is over...

(GIF Source: Tenor thru' Google Image Search)

Anyway, I have more or less edited most of my HSR videos so all that's left is to upload them and create the thumbnails for the videos. But, as I said earlier, I am going to be busy studying for my exam, so all of these will have to wait until after my exam... For now, it's more of grinding, farming, and building up my characters in the game.

Finally, it is down to my Genshin Impact. A lot of things are happening in the game and I have to find new ways to increase the levels of my characters.

(Picture Source: Game Rant thru' Google Image Search)

First off, I have finally managed to finish building a few of the characters: Tighnari, Ganyu, Xiangling, and Albedo. What is really motivating me to continue is Raiden. When I first got her, I was kinda coerced to level her up to a decent level because some bloke wanted me to use her and test out her skill. But I have thank that player because my Raiden is so good that I can technically use her to do domains despite her talent levels still at level 4 (the rest contributing to her damage are maxed out).

Excuse my humble bragging... 😳

Second, I am now struggling to get materials to level up both the character levels and their weapon levels. Not the ascension materials but the exp materials. While it is easy to get for the character by just running around and doing ley line farming, it is not so for the weapon. I am quite worried about the weapon because honestly, I don't want to resort to pulling on the weapon banner just so that I can feed the pulled weapons to the ones I am building. Also, I know I can just explore and try and get the ores, but those are gatekeep by the time. I really need to figure out how to get some weapon exp materials...

(Picture Source: Polygon thru' Google Image Search)

That's it for now for games I am currently playing. For upcoming ones, I am technically waiting for the Black Friday sale to see if Hogwarts Legacy will have a major discount.

Anyway, I will post another blog talking about my goals for each of the games and hopefully that will help me to smoothen the process of each of the games I am playing (and possibly manage the time well).

Wish me all the best for my exams... 🥲

[madhattersez]

K-POP BIAS CHALLENGE: JAN 2023

(PART 2 OF 2 BECAUSE I'M RIDICULOUS)

Again, I should start by saying that this is a two-parter because I'm a doofy Pan that can get attached to members of groups even if I just casually listen to them (Seriously, though - K-Pop is a wonderland for Pans because there are just SO many incredible personalities out there, UGH).

I made all the gifs below to show you the exact moment I knew they were for me. Enjoy!

Yunjin (Le Sserafim) Solar (Mamamoo)

Starting with my newest bias on the list - Miss Yunjin of the extremely talented new-ish group Le Sserafim.

She was in America for most of her life, and that has given her a large distinction - She's just as talented as her groupmates and syncs perfectly when it comes to dancing and singing, but it's obvious that she's completely unfazed by things that culture shock the others, and has made it her personal mission to challenge a lot of issues in the industry.

A prime example would be this solo music video that just came out a few days ago, which she also did the art for, about the fucked up things about pop fandoms:

I was taken aback by this and have been sharing it like crazy since.

Other than pushing boundaries, a special talent she has is professional opera singing, which is pretty unique in the industry.

I was undecided on a bias until I saw the Studio Choom performance of "Antifragile" shown above, withher just lighting up the whole video with all of her facial expressions and the dopest denim outfit, haha. There's a lot of "good trouble" in those eyes.

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And now, the smollest (but eldest) member of Mamamoo - Solar!

For quite awhile, Hwasa was my bias in Mamamoo after a very short, initial trial with Wheein. :P

This was another one of those "switch flip" moments where I was suddenly like "Shit. Solar has been here THE WHOLE TIME. What was I thinking!?"

She is so good with her super-powerful voice, no matter the genre. In a group like Mamamoo (that are basically the best vocalists in the entire genre), standing out as the best is a hard thing to do. But, here she is, doing just that for me.

Her solo tracks are what started sparking me over to her side, but the clip from the above video is what came in like a wreckin' ball - When she spent a bunch of time learning the choreography for a song in a body-tracking arcade game called "Dance Evolution," even while being (playfully) dissed by her members, and then went into an arcade and just owned that shit. And look how happy she was to accomplish it!

Won me over, right at that moment.

Here's another example of her playful personality - A clip of her recording part of a Jazzy song about how much she wishes she had a big ass (because big asses are awesome):

Taeyong (NCT-127) Taeyong (SuperM)

This shit cracks me up so bad.

While making a list of known biases for this post, and not a second before, I came to the realization that my (casual) biases for both of the groups mentioned above... is the same dude. Hahaha. Wow.

I know practically nothing about these groups except that SuperM was a combined group of other groups' idols (a lot like GOT the Beat is), and that their "Super One" album is nothing but bangers, but that's about it. And I've also picked up several NCT jams over the years.

Never did I expect that the guy that caught my eye in both groups was the same person, though. It's hilarious, and it makes a lot of sense. This is Taeyong, y'all.

Jesus, the swag on this guy. Look at him prance-glide sideways in that first clip. Look at him growling in that second one, which I definitely understand is a weakness of mine now.

Talented dude. Attractive as hell. That's all I know, but that's all I -have- to know right now, yeah?

Check out the first video I saw him in, a song from that no-skip "Super One" album:

Rima (NiziU) Kyujin (NMIXX)

Okay, okay, I get it. This is a K-Pop bias list and NiziU is a J-Pop group. I understand that, but I'm also a hapless JYP fangirl and I just had to include them on the list because Rima is a bias to talk about regardless.

Am I about to say "swag" again? Sadly, yes. She's one of the rappers in the group and definitely has the highest swag level. This is somehow evened out by how adorable she is at the same time.

We've established that I gravitate towards rappers, but she's got it in her lineage - She is the daughter of the super-famous Japanese rapper Zeebra. That bit of story made her interesting from the get-go and I've dug her ever since.

It was the rap break from "Chopstick" pictured above that sparked everything for me for sure, though.

I'd like to include the video because it's super catchy and because I want to see if you find her sticking out throughout the video like I did:

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Next up? Yup, another rapper. It's Kyujin, who is also (surprisingly) the maknae of JYP's most recent group of ladies: NMIXX.

Her English, while adorably misplaced sometimes, is so confident and wonderful. Her singing is so pretty and her flows are so fresh. Don't worry, I Won't say "swaggy" this time. She has, I think, the most vibrant and unique personality of the whole group, and that's from a group that aimed to be quirky right out the gate.

She's incredibly talented, and only trained for about three years before recording the first songs for the group.

I'd like to showcase one of her pre-debut, live vocal videos where she was originally qualifying to be a part of the group. She's too rad:

Seulgi (Red Velvet) Sieun (STAYC)

I first saw Red Velvet's music video for "Ice Cream Cake" in my earlier K-Pop adventures, but I'll never forget how much Seulgi stuck out to me.

She hit me with a combo attack - The radar-jamming, hard-to-read, slightly... angry(?) eyes, her polar opposite of a sweet voice, the bright colors she was wearing in the video, and the fact that she kicks off the whole song as the center. Yup, hooked right from the start.

And did you see her and Irene in their sinister lil' duo track "Monster?" Geezus:

Seulgi was an easy choice. Except a flicker of nanosecond time when it was Joy. But that was just a flicker. HOLD!

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Holy shit, it's Park Sieun. Sieun (not Seeun, who is in the same group... yeah) is from STAYC. STAYC, I hear, is a real, reeeeal hard group to pick favorites from, much like Itzy - They're all immeasurably talented on equal levels.

Sieun's got the edge for me, though. She debuted as an actor originally, and that comes into play with the subtle emotions and fades in her singing. The performative lines and precise, but soft details in her movements. Her effortlessly natural facial expressions. She's absolutely flowing with personality and that all wraps into an ethereal combination of visuals to go along with her honestly angelic voice.

Positively dangerous. Troublesome, but not in a "good trouble" way. In a mischievous way.

And, oh my goodness, her (again, effortless) high notes:

Felix (Stray Kids) Jooyeon (Xdinary Heroes)

Would you just peek at Felix. Lookin' like a mix between Link from Legend of Zelda and Alucard from Hellsing or some shit.

He hails from Stray Kids, which I consider to be the most talented group of dudes in K-Pop right now (Sorry, BTS stans, I know, I know - Remember, I'm all about that swaggy rap stuff, and BTS isn't that as much anymore).

Felix is one of the Australians in the group, so he's got that accent, which is always bizarre in juxtaposition when around his members. He can move like a basilisk. His voice goes hella deep and toasty. And, my god, he's got freckles.

Aside from all the seemingly thristy statements that just tumbled out of my keyboard, he just seems to be a genuine good guy that would sit down with you and hear you out, heart-to-heart for hours if you needed him too. A "do anything to make your life better" type of friend. The duality is incredible.

Here's a bunch of silly clips of him conversing in English with the other Stray Kids:

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Another casual bias - Hey, it's Jooyeon from JYP's rock group Xdinary Heroes. Don't make me pronounce that out loud, let's just focus on Jooyeon, damn it.

He's got such a pretty, haunting singing voice in the beginning, then you can listen to him hit American-Emo-band overdrive on his vocals at about 45 seconds into this video and during the chorus, and then you can hear yet another style tone at around 1:38. Versatile and awesome:

I really dig his looks and that shadowy / shady / emotionless thing he's got going on.

Oh, and, uh, he plays bass too, huh? Yeah, I suppose so. Haha.

--------------------------

So, did you dig this? Lawl, I'm acting like this is a trend that will catch on or something. Who knows? If even one person other than me does it, I'll be happy. Besides, I'm just here to have an excuse to gush about my favorites anyway! Everything past that is all plus. 😅

If you want to do this, too, you in no way have to go as HAM as I did creating this long-ass post. I just got super passionate about it and got carried away. As usual.