#I very much recommend clicking on the banner to get a better look at all the details I crammed into it. There's a lot!

[stardestroyer81]

The Steam banner for Pizza Tower has been something I've always wanted to redraw for Star Tower, and while my first post of 2023 attempted something similar, this time I went all-in and included as much of Star Tower's cast as I possibly could all in one stylish banner! ⭐👾✨

[threewaysdivided]

New Desktop Dash, No Bueno

Okay so, new dash layout on desktop.

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

Let's talk about some of the issues:

1. Really visually cluttered

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

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

2. The activity pop-up now covers dashboard content

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well then, what do?

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

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

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

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

Go forth in disgruntlement to keep this hellhole a hellhome.

[sumerun]

do you have any tips/advice for a newbie in genshin that has no idea what they are doing?

ofc, anon! fair warning that this post is going to be text heavy bc i wanna cover as much as i can. i’m going in with the assumption that you have little exp with gacha games. however feel free to skip whatever u already know

if you have any more questions, send them my way, i’ll be happy to help! :)

GENERAL TIPS

- to be honest, the best way to understand what is going on with genshin is just to take your time and play. it’s the best way to get into the game imo! like for me, i didn’t fully understand the game until i was like AR 45+ and i’m still learning to this day! so that’s the #1 tip i will give you haha! nothing better than discovering things on your own and having it ‘click’

- take your time with the story, really. mihoyo (now called hoyoverse) is well-known for their elaborate lore and story so take the time to let that sit

- any character can be DPS so play who interests you the most! no characters are ever weak

- if you plan to be smart on who you want to pull for, i recommend looking at character leaks to help make an informed decision

- you’ll spend a large amount of time farming and improve your characters when you’re AR45+ so don’t worry about making your character strong ASAP. i’ll elaborate on this further

PLAYSTYLE

what kind of player will you be? and how will your previous experiences with other games fit into it? it can influence how you enjoy genshin

- meta player: live for unga bunga numbers, always striving to improve their characters or get the highest scores

- collector: collects all waifus/husbando

- free to play: don’t spend a single coin

- spender: spend every now and then

- whale: spoils their character and spends a ton of money

- avg player: a mix of everything

this way you can set goals and expectations for yourself bc this game can be very repetitive and grindy which can speed up burnout

WISHING FOR CHARACTERS

this is a huge part of the game so i will be more detailed here. i will be referencing the banner that is live as of this post, 2.5 or yae miko’s banner

so i just want to preface that genshin is a gacha first and it can be extremely predatory. therefore, always take precautions if you know you have bad impulse control. that being said:

- there are currently 3 types of currency: intertwined fates (pink, used on limited character banner, weapon banner), acquaint fate (blue, used only on standard banner), and primogems (used to buy a plethora of things but in this context, can be exchanged for the fates). 

- there are 3 banner type: limited (characters), weapon, and standard (weapon + characters)

- familiarize yourself with the pity system which is the # of time you need to wish to get a 5* character or weapon. know that you can literally get a 5* in your first pull EVER so know that it’s all RNG. the chance of you getting a 5 star is 0.06%

on character banner, the soft pity is around 76 pulls while hard pity is 90 pull but i have yet to know a single person that actually hit 90 pity. there is something called ‘50/50′, which is when you finally pull a 5* there is a fifty-fifty chance you get the promotional character. losing 50/50 means you got a 5* character from the standard banner pool (diluc, mona, qiqi, jean, keqing) and your next 5* is guaranteed to be yae, the promotional character. winning 50/50 means well... you got yae without having to another 76 pull! and pulling a 5* rests your pity :)

on weapon banner, soft pity is around 50-60 pulls and hard pity is 80 pulls. pulling on this banner is not recommended for f2ps or low spender bc it can take more than 200 pulls to get the weapon you want. pull here at your own risk. the pity system there is called epitomized path. i wish i can explain it simply but i’m not very good at it LMAO the in-game explanation is pretty clear imo

- pull on the beginner's wish banner (it has noelle on it)! that should give you some nice weapons/characters to start with

- never spend your primos on standard banner (the very far right, blue/purple banner). it is almost never worth it, even if you’re close to pity. you’re not guaranteed a weapon or character so it is a huge gamble

- make sure you pulling on the right banner!! i’ve heard so many stories of people converting to the wrong type of fates lMAO

- new 4* character/weapon gets added the following patch. none of the new 5* weapon/character have yet to be added and i don’t think it’ll happen for long awhile.

ADVICE FOR PULLING

- pull for who you like, like seriously. primogems and fates are hard to get so make sure you love the character you’re getting

- if you’re f2p, you will have to accept the fact that you will skip banners

- new character > getting constellations/best weapon

GAMEPLAY

- when you’re playing in overworld (the open world where ur free to explore), don’t worry about team composition and damage, the game will not punish you for having weak characters or wack team comps. the world is your oyster when you’re in overworld

- abyss is where you can challenge and test the progress of your team. you earn primos here. it can be very stressful and sweaty so i don’t recommend it until you’re fully prepped

- learn about elemental reactions. this is where the majority of your damage will come from. there is a domain in mondstadt that will teach you the basics of it!

- and of course, explore your heart out!

LEVELING CHARACTERS + RESIN USAGE

- confused about what to level up first? i recommend: character ascension > weapon ascenscion > talent

as for what type of character to prioritize, i recommend: main DPS > secondary > support/dmg buffer > healer

- level DPS up to level 90, supports/healers can stay at 80 OR ascend them without leveling them up so you can worry about talents. 

- resin is the little crescent moon thing you see on the top of the map. you generate 1 every 8 minutes, up to 160 resin. you will use this to farm materials for your characters (like literally EVERYTHING lmao) 

early game (lower than AR45), i just recommend you use your resin to level and ascend your character, weapons and talents. try not to farm artifacts because you will only get purples pieces when you actually want gold

- artifacts is a huge part of making your character stronger but it can be extremely tedious bc artifacts are also RNG-based and it can take you months to get good pieces

this is why i recommend you don’t focus on farming domains for artifacts until you’re AR45 or higher bc you’re guaranteed a gold artifact piece 

until then, use your resin to farm bosses or talent domains (if ur at the right level) to level up your characters

- if you want guides to help build your character, visit Keqing Mains’s website, their discord, and the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor discord because there are so many helpful guides you can find there.

CONCLUSION

so as you can see, there’s a LOT to take in. but don’t worry you will come to understand this as you play. once everything ‘click’ and in place, this game will be as easy as pie lmao. so just enjoy yourself. play however you want to plan and have fun!! <3 this is a PvE game so there is no pressure to be the best.

[writteninkat]

i - your grandma must have been strong

word count: 2,007

"I'll spend forever wondering if you knew I was enchanted to meet you."

index

You zipped your last luggage closed, huffing tiredly as you stood up. You looked around you- your empty room, your plain, pink walls that were once decorated with many posters and pictures, your floor that was once covered by a big fluffy white rug and some clothes and stuffed toys.

You sigh, smiling. You were surely going to miss this place. Your back tingles as you turn around to see your mother leaning on the door frame, looking at you with sad eyes.

"Do you have to go?" Her voice is soft and calming- it always has been. She's the only person who could ever calm you down especially when your father left the two of you to work at the Heroes Association in Japan.

"I want to be able to protect people. Children, women, the elderly... I wanna be someone people can depend on. Someone you can depend on." You place a hand on her arm which she covers with her own, he warm palm along with her soft smile about to send you to tears.

She nods, walking inside your room to help with your baggage. "The movers just finished loading up your other stuff. All we need is your excess baggage." She pushes the luggage towards the door, you mirroring her actions.

She cups both of your cheeks, looking you at you with adoring, glassy eyes. It's your first time being separated from your mother in you sixteen years of existence. The two have always been attached to the hip, you traveled everywhere together, even as the two of you had constant arguments you could never stay mad at each other for too long.

She was the only one you had.

"Stay safe in Japan, okay? If your father gave you a hard time, call me. I'll pick you up no matter what time it is, no matter where you are. I love you." She kisses your forehead and you finally let your tears fall as you wrap your hands around her thing wrists.

"I love you so much mom." You sob, hanging your head as your mother wrapped her arms around you. You hear a voice of a woman through the speakers, telling you your flight was taking off in a few minutes.

You quickly give your mother a kiss on the cheek before letting one of your guards assist you with your bags. You waved good bye to your mom and soon after, your trusted body guard.

You were on your way to Japan, to a new life, a new school, new friends and hopefully to reach your new goal: to prove yourself worthy of becoming a hero without your father's help.

You walk towards the giant gates of UA, taking a deep breath before finally taking a step inside the campus. Your heart thumped on your chest nervously as your palms began to prespire. You kept your eyes forward, not wanting to do anything with the teens around you as your only goal was to pass the entrance exam. You walked inside the building you were lead to, taking a seat at the very back in fear of attracting any unwanted attention.

"What's up UA candidates?! Thanks for tuning into me your school DJ! Just as your application said, today you will be conducting your exams in seven different locations! Your location has been assigned to you in the paper you were given." The loud blond man with long hair swept way to the back of his head announced, making you click your tongue. Not to be a mood buster, but isn't he being a little too loud?

You take the piece of paper he was talking about, eyes lower to read the letter that's written on it. Test Location: Battle Center C.

"Excuse me sir but I have a question." Your eyes fall to a purple-headed boy with glasses whose hand is raised. The blond teacher acknowledges him and he begins talking about how there are four villains in the paper you were given and not only three.

He then begins running his mouth about how a minor mistake such as this would be an embarrassment for a school such as UA. You scoff, muttering something about having a stick up his ass.

After the teacher ended his speech, you along with the other students began piling out of the room and to your designated battle centers. As you enter your specified location, you take out the black leather gloves from your pocket, wearing them. You clenched and unclenched your hands to make sure that it fit you well.

"Hey grandma." An unfamiliar voice catches your attention, unfortunately for you the rude nickname was directed towards you.

"Grandma?" You raise a brow, unsure what he meant by it.

"You white hair reminds me of my grandma's." He snickers, pointing at the white streaks of hair you have beside either sides of your face as a few other students chuckling behind him. He looks plain, very, very boring. "Why don't you give up on this exam, grandma? Your knees may start hurting."

The signal went off and the robots began moving behind you. As you kept a straight face, your hands begin glowing a blinding white light as a black with blue and silver accent claymore appears in your hands. You run to your left, applying your speed quirk as you ran towards the gigantic robots, swinging your sword vertically.

The slash creates the same blinding white light, the robots, the buildings and concrete ground that the light touches all disintegrating into nothing. You speed into the other robots, stealing the targets of other students as you accumulated your points. Once you finish and only a few robots are left, you return to your spot to where the plain-looking boy along with his little friends were still standing at, jaws hanging eyes blown wide.

"You grandma must have been very strong."

"I got in." You say into your phone and you hear your mother squeal in delight from the other end of the line. A smile breaks into your face and you feel your phone vibrate, signaling a new notification. As you pull your phone away to see what it is, your eyes widen in surprise as you read your notification banner.

'Mom' sent you $100.

"Mom what the heck is the money for?" You chuckle. "I'm not there with you but I want you to celebrate getting into UA. So go use the money and spoil yourself."

"Mom you don't have to-"

"Okay, mom mode off. I demand you go and award yourself eith the money I sent you." Your mom's tone switches from soft and caring to cold and demanding, making you chuckle. "That doesn't suit you at all." You laugh, you can practically /hear/ your mom pout at the other line.

"Okay, okay. I'll do as you say. Thank you, mom. I love you."

"I love you more my baby."

The call ends and you change out of your usual sweats and oversized tee. You put on a black spaghetti strap and high-wasted mom jeans. You hoop in a black belt and fold the ankles of your pants to show your white sock inside your checkered vans. You finish the look with medium-sized hoop earrings and a oversized red zip-up jacket which you leave unzipped with one shoulder hanging off.

You step out of your apartment, pocketing your keys and taking a deep breath in. Japan is just so beautiful, the scenery, the buildings, even the weather was perfect. You strut down your apartment building, scrolling through your phone as you searched for cafes nearby. It was a five minute walk of calm and relaxing vibes. You step into the cafe, eyes darting around the adorable cottage-core aesthetic it had going.

"Hey my name is Mio. What can I get for you this lovely afternoon?" The cashier beams brightly, your day becoming better and better with every move you make. "I'll have a strawberry shortcake as well as a strawberr frappe with extra foam, strawberry syrup and strawberries." You beam back at her and she takes your order with a bright smile, tapoing away on the computer's screen.

"Does your life depend on strawberries or something?" A rough and deep voice asks behind you, causing you to turn around. Once you do, your eyes widen at the sight of a young blond with vermilion eyes. He looked around your age.

"I like strawberries. Is it that big of a sin?" You ask, soft smile across your face as you cross your arms together. The guy had such piercing eyes, those red orbs looked like they could trap you in them forever.

"Not what I'm saying, but if you're that much of a strawberry fan, I recommend their strawberry pop tarts." His eyes drop to the display fridge beside you and your eyes follow his, landing on the adorable little tarts with red jam on top of them.

Just as you were about to order them, the cashier speaks up. "Your total is 1,500 yen." She smiles brightly, making you pout. You didn't want to cause more trouble for her seeing as your bill has already been printed by the machine.

You scan their QR code, paying virtually as she hands you your buzzer. "We'll give you a signal whrn your order is ready. You can find a seat and wait there thank you!"

You turn around at the blond who's looking at you expectantly, "I guess I'll have to try your recommendation some other time." You smile at him, walking off to the table catering two chairs. It was seated at the far back of the cafe, away from the many customers the cafe had.

You began scrolling through your social media, liking the posts of your past classmates and chuckling at some memes you saw.

A plate full of the same tarts with red jam is placed on your white table and you didn't have to look to see who it was. "Is this you way of flirting with me, rubies?" You ask, looking up at him with a teasing, smug smile. His face contorts into annoyance, "Hah? Flirting with you?" He scoffs, "Not a chance. And who're you calling rubies?"

"Your eyes remind me of rubies. They're pretty."

The blond's face relaxes and you push the seat across from you, silently telling him to sit down. He does as 'told', huffing as he watches you pick of a tart and bring it over to your lips. You bite on it, eyes widening as the flavor explodes in your mouth. It tastes sweet but not the sickeningly sweet kind, it's soft soft in the inside and lightly crunchy on the outside.

"You look like you just ate food made by gods." He chuckles, "You look dumb."

"But it really does taste so good!" You've never felt this much excitement since you found out you got into UA. And that speaks a lot given that you've only ever felt this kind of feeling with your mom.

"I should have bought the entire stock if I knew you liked it that much." Your heart skipped at his words. What is this feeling? You felt nervous all of a sudden, you can barely contain your smile and somehow, you didn't want to go home yet. This is a very new feeling for you. It's kind of... scary.

"I'm L/n."

Idiot. Stop it.

"L/n Y/n." You extend your hand towards him which he looks at for a few moments before taking. You shake both of your hands with a soft smile, your thoughts going haywire at how soft his palms feel.

"Bakugou. Katsuki Bakugou."

You pull your hand away, finishing the last piece of strawberry pop tart on your plate before your buzzer turns on. You pick it up, standing up. "Thanks for the tarts. See you around, rubies."

"Call me that one more time and I'll blow your face up."

You snicker, smirking. "Whatever you say, rubies."

[vinceaddams]

obvs feel free to keep this private, but I got recommended the UFH channel by a friend of mine, haven't gotten around to watching anything from it. I trust your judgement on the content, but my friend considers it her main resource 🙃 of course, since you only watched a few videos you might not be able to answer this, but was there any specific really bad/unacademic approaches I should keep my eye out for that my friend might have adopted? we work on a historical festival together so im concern

(I was going to answer this privately but then it got really long and turned into a post I want to post.)

Oh dear! Well, It appears that the lady behind that channel only cares about the 20th century, so maaybe she’s got good stuff on the 20th century at least? I don’t know, but the 2 videos that I saw were so incredibly awful that I’m highly suspicious of all her stuff. 

The first bad thing about her channel is that her videos all have a one or two sentence caption and nothing else. (I clicked on a few more just to check) No sources listed, no links of any kind except to her merch store. I don’t recall her mentioning any particular sources for any of the things she said in the videos either, she just declared them very matter of factly. 

Good historians cite sources! Bernadette Banners’ video on the history of PPE has so many source links she ran out of room in the description box and had to put the rest of them on a page on her website.  (Oh poo, now I feel a bit bad because I love Karolina Zebrowska but she really needs to do better with leaving source links. But she does talk about doing research, talk in a more nuanced way, and doesn’t present herself as an expert or academic, unlike the UFH lady.)

Good historians also embrace nuance, and aren’t afraid to say “I don’t know” or “I was wrong”. Presenting things in a “this person did this one big thing, and then this happened, and that caused this” kind of way isn’t good because history is more like “all these things happened and as far as we can tell it appears to have influenced this, which was also connected to this other stuff that we don’t know all that much about”. History is foggy and complicated, no matter how much the general public wants it to be simple.

Her description of herself also seems a bit... misleading? In her about page on youtube it says “Amanda Hallay, a college professor specializing in fashion, costume, and cultural history.” but if you look at the CV linked on her website the only degrees she has are in creative writing and art history. I’m not saying a person can’t be really knowledgable about something without a degree, but her whole online presence is about being a “professor” who teaches this stuff so I find it weird.

And if the 1850′s-60s video is anything to go by, she presents things in a shockingly unprofessional way. She starts off by saying she thinks these fashions are ugly and ridiculous and that she has some “theories of her own” on them. @marzipanandminutiae has a post with a lot more about what was wrong with that video, and a few others I haven’t seen. She claims that hoop skirts were oppressive cages when in reality they were a liberating garment that allowed women to achieve full skirts without the heavy layered petticoats they wore previously. 

She posts a photo of a naked lady and says “Now lets start with a beautiful naked lady and cover her up with ugly and unflattering clothes. Now this sexy naked lady isn’t so sexy” I wish I was making this up but that’s almost word for word what she said. Along with a whole lot of untrue or exaggerated stuff about Victorian modesty. She says dresses with layered flounces were called “pagoda dresses”, which isn’t a term that anyone has ever used for those dresses. She says this is cut down from a longer video she uses for teaching class, and I find the thought of this being presented in a classroom quite appalling.

After spending about 95% of the video talking about womens fashion in an extremely condescending and disdainful tone of voice, she posts what appear to be the 5 biggest and most extreme examples of 19th century moustaches she could find, presenting them as if they were what every man looked like.

This part really grinds my gears, because she says “I haven’t said anything about menswear because there’s really not much to say.” She posts photos of suits from 5 different decades and says they’re basically all the same, and also basically the same as a modern suit. Excuse you, there is A LOT of difference between menswear of the 1850′s and the 1890′s. Yes the changes over the decades are more subtle, and the colours are often more subdued than in centuries past, but it is absolutely not (as she claims) “the century when men stopped doing fashion”.   I personally am not hugely interested in 19th century mens fashion, and can tentatively date things in the first few decades but after the middle of the century I can’t. But people who are interested and who study that era can tell the decades apart. Because they’re different. And there is SO MUCH to talk about! Suits for different levels of formality, accessories, waistcoats, sportswear, sleepwear, knitwear, swimsuits, loungewear, underwear, etc. are all extremely different from their modern equivalents. 

It’s perfectly fine to only study womens fashion if that’s what you’re interested in, but it is not okay to then declare that the history of mens fashion is worthless and nonexistent. Simply not being interested in a thing is no excuse for publicly shitting all over it. (I’ve seen people do this more than once. We already have so few men who do historical fashion stuff! Stop putting off newcomers who might be interested!!)

The fact that her online presence is so closed off is also highly unusual. Comments are turned off for her videos, and the only social media link she has is to a private facebook group. (There is also a link to a fb page, but it appears to have been deleted.) Turning off comments is of course the personal choice of the one posting the videos, but the fashion history side of youtube usually tends towards pretty decent comment threads, and people often have nice little discussions and learn stuff in them. Here it looks like she doesn’t want discussion, doesn’t want to be contradicted or asked for sources, doesn’t want to learn new things.

I had never even heard of this channel until I saw @marzipanandminutiae mention it, nor have I ever heard any of the many historical costumers/youtubers I follow mention it, yet somehow it has 55k followers? I don’t know the demographics that watch it (especially not with the comments turned off!) but I’d wager that videos like the 1850′s-60′s one I suffered through are mainly watched by people who like hearing things trash talked, rather than people who actually want to learn about fashion history. The same sort of people who loved that Beau Brummell twitter thread, which was also full of lies and unsourced garbage. People like to believe the past was way worse and grosser than it was because it makes them feel like we’re smarter and better now.

Lastly, the whole premise of the channel is just bad. Calling any one thing “The Ultimate Fashion History” is a bad idea. Her channel trailer says “Youtube’s number one channel for original fashion history content” “we’ve got it all, fifty thousand years of fashion history”. You can’t have one channel that’s the ultimate resource for ALL of fashion history! It’s a huge, HUGE subject, and even if she did do actual good research she’d barely be able to scratch the surface of fifty thousand years. That’s like saying one channel is the ultimate source for all of science, or all of music, or all of cooking. No one thing can come close to covering all of it. I will deign to admit that she’s at least right to call it “original”, because she has some very original lies I haven’t found anywhere else. 

Most people who study fashion history/historical sewing have one or several eras they like best and find most interesting, perhaps with occasional jaunts into other eras. This way we can focus and get a much better understanding of the eras that we find most interesting, rather than just a vague notion of everything. 

For example: I’m most interested in 18th century menswear, and so far have mainly researched and sewn 1785-95 stuff, and more recently some 1730′s. I usually focus on fashionable civilian clothing, so I don’t know as much about working class clothes, and next to nothing about military and other occupational dress. Even with this narrow area of interest, which I’ve been obsessed with for many years, I still have so much to learn! I could never make anything claiming to be the ultimate source for 18th century menswear, because I’m just one person focusing on some aspects, and there are other people out there who research other aspects of it and their work is just as important. It’s all so big and so much, even if you narrow it down to one era.

Amanda Hallay is basically holding up a bucket of saltwater and calling it the ocean.

I haven’t watched any of her 20th century videos, so maybe they’re better than the older ones I watched. I don’t know. (But even if they’re actually good they still don’t have source links.) Edit: okay, nope, turns out they’re just as bad! They appear to make up the vast majority of her videos, so if she’s most interested in the 20th century then maybe she should just... make her channel more clearly 20th century focused instead of trying to paint it as a channel for all eras?

TL;DR, the main bad things about that channel are:

Lying and making ridiculous claims, not citing ANY sources. Spouting easily debunked myths.

Stating things matter of factly without any nuance, even though history is foggy and complicated.

Being extremely judgemental about historical fashions and talking about how much she hates them and thinks they’re ugly, which really isn’t appropriate for a fashion history teacher. You can hear the disgust in her voice and it’s awful and I hate it.

Comments turned off on all her videos, leaving no way to communicate or have public discussions. Unknowing viewers are left to accept her statements as fact without any outside opinions.

Claiming one channel is the ultimate channel for an incalculably enormous subject. Says it covers 50,000 years of fashion history when it’s mostly just the 20th century.

I would like to add that I am not what I would consider an expert either, and have no formal education in fashion history beyond the one college class that was part of my 2 year sewing course. I have learned mainly from books and the internet, and as I said earlier I still have a huge amount to learn. I’m sure a more knowledgable historian could put things better than I have. 

But I’m confident in stating that primary sources are needed to back up a claim! Sometimes even widely accepted beliefs turn out to be entirely unfounded myths, like that one about doctors using vibrators to treat “hysteria”. Total nonsense someone made up in 1999.

Wow this post got way longer than intended. Anyways, yes, I do not like condescending slideshow lady.

[iliveiloveiwrite]

Haunted Forests // A Very Harry Potter Halloween (D.M.)

A/N: My fic for A Very Harry Potter Halloween held by the always wonderful @masterofthedarkness, @eleven-times-lively and @birdie-writes!! My chosen prompt was Haunted Forest. So here we are, I hope you like!! I hope you don’t mind me posting this a few days early, I really don’t have the time next week to write it and post it! I hope you all like! The first two pictures in my banner are in fact Pendle. The Pendle witch trials did happen and if you’re interested in that aspect of history, I strongly recommend reading about it!

Warnings: hauntings, spectres, ghosts, mentions of death and executions. Honestly this is a load of fluff about how Draco wanted to stay home even though the warnings don’t sound like that.

Word count: 2.8k

“Remind me, love,” Draco starts, closing the driver’s side door to his car, “Why did I agree to this again?”

You smile lovingly, “Because you love me, and you wanted to do something for Halloween.”

“Why did I want to do something for Halloween?”

You roll your eyes, “If I recall, it was you who mentioned that you hadn’t celebrated it since your Fifth Year at Hogwarts. It was you who brought up the idea of celebrating our first Halloween together.”

Draco glances between you and the dark forest that would be the setting for tonight’s entertainment. He gulps imperceptibly; his nerves beginning to get the better of him. His eyes refocus on you, “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Do I want to spend the evening in a supposedly haunted forest getting a history lesson?” You ask rhetorically; rubbing your arms to fight off the invading chill, “It isn’t how I planned my Halloween, but I don’t think this is something we can pass up, Draco.”

His eyes dance back to the imposing forest; the trees looking taller in the growing dark. His eyebrows furrow as he watches the last of the sun disappearing. “I don’t know,” He starts warily, “I would have preferred the movie marathon we had planned.”

You laugh lightly, “You just want to watch Hocus Pocus again, don’t you?”

He rolls his eyes, “It’s hilarious! Can you blame me?”

You rise on your tiptoes, pressing a kiss to his lips, “I don’t suppose I can blame you at all. How about a deal?”

“A deal? Now I’m intrigued.”

You point towards the forest entrance; starting to feel uneasy with the idea yourself but wanting to put on a front, “We get through this, then tomorrow, we spend the entire day in bed watching spooky films.”

His arms circle your waist, “Which spooky films?”

You smile up at him, “I’ll let you decide. How does that sound?”

Draco clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, “Spend a night in a creepy forest then spend the day after watching whatever films I want?”

You nod; watching him deliberate. Eventually, he smiles, “You have yourself a deal.”

Together, you both join the group gathering just to the side of the entrance to the forest. Draco’s hand does not leave yours as the guid introduces themselves; preparing you for what you could be in for, “Welcome to the Pendle Witch Walk,” The guide announces, “Tonight we will be following the trail of those executed in those fateful trials.”

Your hand squeezes Draco’s as nerves settle in your stomach. Your eyes flicker between the guide; looking as confident as ever as they explain the route for tonight and the entrance to the forest. You couldn’t quite tell what, but there was something out there, waiting. You could feel it deep within your bones.

A quick glance at Draco and a fond smile from him has the nerves dissipating, leaving behind a sense of calm that only Draco could ever elicit from you.

With an overdramatic swish of their arm, the guide begins to lead your group through the forest, stating, “The accused were marched on this very trail to their deaths. Convicted of the crime of murder... and witchcraft.”

Draco tenses beside you. His education at Hogwarts having provided the history of the magical community; he knew full well what happened in these woods over four hundred years ago. He knew what the men and women had been accused of, and he knew the penalty. It was less than seventy years later when the wizarding community was forced to go into hiding; needing to protect their numbers more than anything.

Twigs snap under feet as the group make their way further into the forest. The cold begins to seep through your jacket; raising goosebumps along your flesh. Instinctively, you lean into Draco, desperate to feel his warmth and steady presence against you. Draco smiles down at you as he feels you press yourself against him. He keeps his eyes on the guide as he leans down to you, “Regretting your decision?”

You huff; your breath puffing out in a white fog, “Not just yet, but I’ll admit I should have brought a warmer jacket.”

Draco laughs; his hand leaving yours to wrap around your shoulder. You hum happily as he tugs you closer to him; stealing a glance up at him to find him already watching you with a fond look on his face.

“What?” You mouth; not wanting to disturb the guide as they explain the warring families that met their demise on these very hills.

He shakes his head, “I’m just thinking of all we could be doing if we weren’t here right now.”

You roll your eyes and nudge him in the side, “Let me remind you Draco, it was you who wanted to doing something spontaneous for Halloween. Here we are, doing something spontaneous.”

Draco goes to reply, but he doesn’t get chance. You trip over a tree root, landing unceremoniously on the ground. Draco clamps his lips shut; repressing all manner of laughter as you stand back up and brush yourself down. Your black jeans now soaked through with mud and your palms scraped up after landing on a rock.

The air stings your scraped palms, but you don’t say a thing as Draco joins you by your side. The group is only a few feet from you; unable to lose true sight of them with the guide’s torch being as bright as it is. You frown as you stare down at your hands; wishing for a bottle of water to clean them.

Carefully, Draco takes hold of both your hands, looking over them with a keen eye. He brings them both up to his lips; placing delicate kisses to each palm before folding them into fists. “Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere else?” He asks; voice full of concern and worry.

You tuck your hands into your jacket pockets; blinking away the sudden tears that have sprung from the sting of your injuries, “I think I’ve hurt my knee too, but there’s no way to check until we get home.”

Draco sighs; eyes wandering towards the group who are waiting patiently for you both, “Are you okay to walk?”

You nod your head, “It’s probably just a bruise. Come on, the rest of the group are waiting.”

Draco rolls his eyes as you wander away, a few steps ahead of him. He watches you from behind; worry and concern still flooding his veins. Initially, he was all for the idea of a witch walk in October in Lancashire. He had complained to you a few weeks prior that he so rarely did anything spontaneously, and you had gone out of your way to surprise him with tickets to a witch walk – following the path of those executed in Britain’s most famous witch trials.  

He supposes he should be more grateful because he is. He is grateful, but as he watches you rejoin the group, not missing the way you shiver against the chill of the forest, all he wants to be is tucked up in bed with you and some hot water bottles.

If anyone asked Draco for what his ideal day would look like, it would be exactly that. You, him, films, and bed. He doesn’t want much more; he doesn’t need much more. All he needs really, is you.

Draco hurries to join the rest of the group; the guide picking up where they had left off on their account of the assizes that found the ten – eight women and two men -  guilty of witchcraft. Draco makes his way to your side; not missing the way you’ve tensed up with the discomfort of your palms and your knee. Gently, Draco pulls one of your hands from your pocket. He drops a kiss to the top of your hand before holding it gently in his. If he had to walk through a haunted forest on a dark and damp night in October, he would hold your hand all the way through it.

Further into the forest, the canopy of branches and leaves become heavier. It blocks out most of the natural light; creating an atmosphere perfect for a horror movie. Draco’s grip on you becomes tighter through this part of the forest; he feels like an overprotective partner, but he would do what he could to keep you from further harm.

You smile silently to yourself as you feel Draco’s arm tighten around you. “Are you okay?” You whisper.

He looks down at you, eyebrows furrowing, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

You shrug, “I just thought you might be scared with how tight you’re holding onto me.”

Draco represses another laugh, “I wouldn’t want you falling again, would I?”

You roll your eyes, “Sure, that’s why you’re holding onto me for dear life.”

Draco doesn’t reply; he only squeezes your side as he turns his attention back to the guide. Twigs continue to snap under feet and leaves are further trampled as your group make their way further into the forest; stopping every now and then for the guide to further the story – to dramatically explain the hauntings of the forest and the history behind the witch trials of the seventeenth century.

You watch the guide gesture animatedly as they explain this part of their story. The rest of the group remain enraptured, but your eyes wander. Your attention drifts from the history lesson to your surroundings; the dark green of the forest, only truly starting to turn with the arrival of autumn.

Your attention drifts to the man standing next to you; wondering just how much he loves you for him to agree to spending a night like this. In the middle of the woods in Lancashire in freezing weather. You couldn’t help but agree with him – the night could be better spent in bed watching films, but he wanted spontaneity and you provided it.

Your mind, however, doesn’t linger on the man you love for long. 

It’s a silvery flicker in the corner of your eye; the ebb and flow of light that has you turning towards it. Your curiosity piqued and your mind active with questions.

You freeze at the sight of a young woman; dressed in what could only be described as clothes of the seventeenth century. The ghost; she doesn’t move – she doesn’t walk towards you or call out your name. She only stands to the side; her dress swishing silently as she hovers just above the ground.

You open your mouth; lips parting, but you don’t know what to say. Do you greet her? Do you apologise for the deeds committed by narrow minded men so long ago? Do you explain to her that the magical community still exists? The evidence standing by your side; a solid presence next to you.

Her mouth is open; her lips forming words, but you can’t hear them, and you can’t make out what she wants to say.

Cold washes over you; seeping into your bones and freezing your blood. Your teeth begin to chatter; you want to look away but curiosity piques within you. Ever so slowly, you take a step forward. All the while whispering, “Dray… can you see her?”

Draco’s attention leaves the guide and their mysterious words to focus on you; your hand starting to slip from his grasp.

“Love, what are you doing?” Draco asks carefully.

You take one more step forward; only just entering the ghost’s vicinity, “I think she needs help, Dray. I think she needs my help.”

Draco’s hand tightens on yours; pulling you back slightly, bringing you back to him and away from the spectre. “Love, we need to join the rest of the group. We can’t help her now.”

Something in his words snaps you out of your trance. Your eyes meet his and Draco is relieved to see that they are no longer clouded with concern for the spectre.

Draco’s eyes do not leave the spectre until you have stepped behind him. He doesn’t sense any danger, but his wand has slipped into his hand regardless. In a brief thought filled with humour, Draco wonders how the guide would react to finding out they have an actual wizard in their group. It’s that humorous and happy thought that it has Draco stepping away from the ghost, practically dragging you along with him.

“I didn’t say it earlier, but I’m going to say it now: I told you so.”

“You told me what?”

“I told you that we should have stayed at home.”

You roll your eyes, teasing, “But we wouldn’t be having as much fun.”

“Fun? Darling, I love you more than life itself, but I don’t think we’re having fun.”

You pout, “Why not?”

He runs a hand through his hair; noting how close you are to the group now and lowering his voice, “So far, you’ve fallen over and scraped your hands to ribbons and we don’t know what you’ve done to your knee. And just now, you were in a trance caused by a four hundred year old ghost!”

You place a hand on the side of his face; your thumb rubbing across his cheekbone, “Aside from that, you really aren’t having fun?”

He sighs realising that he’s hurt you. Draco takes your hand from his face; kissing your fingers individually, “I am having fun. I’m with you and who doesn’t love a local history lesson, but darling, I think you’ve aged me ten years tonight.”

You snort, “I promise – I’ll watch where I’m walking, and I won’t fall into any more trances. How does that sound?”

Draco kisses you quickly, “That sounds like Christmas come early.”

“I’m sorry this hasn’t been more fun. I thought we would like it when I read about it online.”

Draco frowns, “I am having fun. I just don’t think we prepared enough for it. Next time, we bring warmer jackets for definite… and a first aid kit.”

“Next time?” You ask with a raised eyebrow.

Draco chuckles; throwing an arm around your shoulders as you finally rejoin the group once again. The guide throws a questioning look your way. You smile apologetically, “I think I met the ghost of one of the women executed here.”

The guide nods understandingly, “These woods are very haunted. It’s said that they stand on the side of the path; watching us take the same route they did,” They claps their hands loudly and unexpectedly; you jump at the sound, “We’re almost at the end of the walk! Just through those trees is the top of the hill in which the accused met their end.”

From there, it doesn’t take long to reach the end of your guided tour. At the top of the hill, the guide explains just what happened to those found guilty of witchcraft and you feel a wave of sadness wash over you as you think of Draco and how his education and essentially, his whole life had to be lived in secret in order to protect his community.

The early morning sun has begun to rise; painting the sky a pale pink as the day begins anew as the guide leads you back down the well-travelled track back to where you began. The both of you release a shuddering breath as you follow the rest of the tour from the heavy trees.

You turn back just once; hoping to catch a glimpse of the spectral woman you had seen, but all you could see were the pale green leaves of trees and the dark brown of the damp forest floor.

Draco’s arm tightens on your waist; leading you further from the forest, wanting nothing more than to head back home and get tucked up in bed.

In the light of the sun, you examine your hands. Scrapes cover the bottom of your palms and mud borders each scrape. You frown, unhappy with the state your hands seem to be in, knowing that they were going to be even more tender once you had slept properly.

The sight of Draco’s car has you smiling in relief, however. It had been an interesting night to put it lightly, but now all you wanted was to be laid in bed with Draco wrapped around you. You sit down in the passenger seat; buckling up and resting your head back, letting your eyes drift shut for only a moment. Letting yourself pretend that you’re already in bed with the man you love.

Draco slides into the driver’s seat gracefully; twisting the key in the ignition and immediately putting the heater on. He rubs his hands together, hoping to warm them up quicker. He sends an amused smile your way as he put the car in gear, “Next year we’re eating sweets and watching movies.”

You hum in agreement; haunted forests and spectral witches were not the sort for you.

*********

General (HP) taglist: @chaotic-fae-queen @obsessedwithrandomthings @harrypotter289 @kalimagik @heloisedaphnebrightmore @nebulablakemurphy @figlia--della--luna @idont-knowrn @birdie-writes @big-galaxy-chaos @black-lake-confessions @annasofiaearlobe @imboredandneedalife @levylovegood @mytreec @haphazardhufflepuff @teheharrypotter @chaoticgirl04 @accio-rogers @dreaming-about-fanfictions @lestersglitterglue @msmimimerton @izzytheninja @slytherinprincess03 @acciotwinz @kashishwrites @kylosleftbuttcheek @remmyswritings @xfirstfemale-marauderx @they-write-once-in-a-blue-moon @ria-rests-here​

Draco Malfoy taglist: @the--queen-of-hell @obxmxybxnk @obx-beach @sycathorn-slush @dracomalfoyswifey @kashishwrites @justmesadgirl @detroitobsessed @reaganwonders @sophia-gwendolyn @ravenclawbitch426 @fallinallinmendes

[latetaektalk]

hi there ^^' i'm... kinda new to this whole tumblr thing and have been wanting to write on here for a while but this huge place is kinda scary sometimes haha ;; do you have any writing tips or tricks that would be good to know for newcomers? (also your music taste is immaculate, i love it)

hey love 💕 first of all, welcome to tumblr!! its a fun place,, youre gonna love it, and learn to hate it lol second of all, thank you for complimenting my music taste 😳

now im not quite sure if you want only writing tips or writing blog tips, so ive included tips and tricks for both!

WRITING BLOG TIPS :

have a masterlist. this might seem stupid and obvious, but ive seen people with no masterlist. people are lazy, so if they cant access your writing easily, they will just click away.

have a clean theme. aesthetics are important. they are. people love clean and easy to navigate themes. again, people are lazy, so if you make it easy to click through your blog and get to your writing, youll increase the chance of people reading your stuff!

how to get your work show up in general. putting links in your fanfic might lead to your story not showing up in the search. ive also heard that a banner thats too big can cause that. even using too many tags can lead to your work not showing up. its complicated.

the first five tags. im sure youve heard abt this already but the first five tags are the tags that will actually show up! so if someone follows #bts fluff and you tag your fic with that, your fic can show up on people's dashes as a recommended post!

tag accordingly. speaking of tags, please tag accordingly! theres nothing more annoying than finding a jimin fanfic in the taehyung fanfic tag. i really discourage you from mistagging your stories. if im scrolling through the taehyung fanfic tag and find a jimin fanfic, it makes me want to not read it. just tag your fics accordingly.

reblog your fics. i mean it. seriously, reblog them as much as you want! people live in different time zones or sometimes forget abt wanting to read your stuff, so reblogging it consistently for a week or so to get it on people's dashes helps!

teasers and taglists. i recommend doing both! teasers help to get people excited for your story and taglists ensure that people will read it, or at least remember to!

dont stress abt notes. now, this is less of a tip but rather something i just really really really want to tell you! i know youve heard this before, but please do not stress about notes. tumblr fame does not exists! it doesnt matter if your writing gets 2 notes or 300 or 5k notes! i do understand how getting a lot of notes can be motivating (every fics deserve all the love in the world by the way!!) but in the end, it should not be your motiviation to write. focusing on notes will ruin writing for you. it will. the amount of notes your fic will reach has nothing to do with how good your writing is. dont let something as superficial as notes ruin the fun of writing for you. its seriously not worth it! write for you and no one else!

WRITING TIPS :

write self indulgent fics. i seriously think all fics should be self indulgent. writing fics should be fun, so please write whatever you want! also, theres no such thing as an overdone trope. if you want to write a fake dating enemies to lovers fic, please write it! you might think there are already a bunch out there and its not worth writing another one, but youre wrong! there isnt one out there thats been written by you yet. go write it!

make playlists. now this is a bit specific to me because im absolutely obsessed with music, but making playlists that fit the mood of the fic has always helped me while writing and gotten me out of writers block before!

take your time. writing is freaking hard and when writers block hits, theres rarely ever something that you can do. try not to stress too much abt it! it happens to the best of us!

balance dialogue and detail. its important to find a middle. if im reading a fic and theres paragraph after paragraph after paragraph of detail, the chance of me just skipping that part is really high. because even though i love detail, it does get boring. so use dialogue to spice it up!

reading. okay, this sounds weird because youre asking for writing tips, but reading seriously help your writing so much! if you wanna improve your writing skills, reading a lot is going to be key. now, im not saying reading is necessary, but i do think that it can help you to better! whats even more important though is that you try to analyse people’s writing while reading. when i say you should analyse people’s writing, i do not mean you should write an entire analysis of a book, but to take a second and think to yourself how the authors just did that. how did they convey oc’s sadness? why did they just describe the weather? whats the purpose of this scene?

switch up sentence/paragraph length. shorter sentences/paragraphs = emphasise something and pick up the pace. longer sentences/paragraphs = slow down the story and allow for more detail. its important that you do a mix of both. utilise the length to your advantage. a well placed short sentence/paragraph can pack a lot of punch and turn your sad story in a heartbreaking one.

outline your fics. look this is very personal again because some people dont like to outline their fics, but i recommend outlining your fics. and when i say outline your fics, you can do it as little or as much as you want! it can be a few notes, or a long list of every detail you want to include. i just want you to know where this story is headed. its so easy to write yourself in a corner and trust me, you dont wanna end up there.

allow yourself to be free. this connects to the previous point i just made. even though i do recommend outlining your fics, i am also a firm believer of taking the story somewhere else if you feel like it. ive scrapped complete outlines before. half of the scenes i write also arent in my outline at all. you dont have to stick to the outline. if you think that a specific scene would add something to your story, then please go ahead and write that scene. just always remember where youre headed and dont loose focus.

have fun. i just really wanna reiterate this point again. its just so important to me that you have fun while writing! seriously. its just fanfiction. it should be fun. go crazy. i support you!

okay bub i hope this was helpful 💕 if you have any other questions/want more tips/want me to elaborate on something, please just hit me up! my ask box is always open!

[alteriius]

Colors

FANDOM: Final Fantasy XIV PAIRING: Krile & G’raha, Scions & G’raha, Mentioned WolExarch WORD COUNT: 1,474 LINKS: AO3

Summary: Krile was going to celebrate G'raha's Nameday, even if it wasn't the one on his birth certificate. All of his friends help.

Written for @writersmonth. Trans G’raha lives in my head rent free.

G’raha Tia had never had much in the way of family. His mother wasn’t around, his father was long gone and Miqo’te traditions were hardly inclusive enough to care for his extended family. Thus, when it came to celebrating anything, Krile had found him sorely lacking. When they’d met in their second year of college, she distinctly remembered him spending the entirety of the winter holiday in the dorms. And he had decided to forgo informing her of his nameday until it had already passed.

Krile had done everything after that to ensure he was included with her own family and though they welcomed him, she was not fool enough to think he’d allowed himself to well and truly be part of her family.

But this year, much had changed. The young lady she roomed with in college came out as trans, had begun taking testosterone, had blossomed in the light of support offered by a rapidly growing group of friends.

And so, Krile had elected to celebrate not the nameday of the young lady she had met years ago, but the young man she’d been introduced to just last year and she had recruited his new friends to aid her in this effort.

Unfortunately, she had forgotten what the lot of them was like.

“It’s not straight.”

“I thought that was the point.”

Krile paused to pinch the bridge of her nose, wondering why Nymeia had cursed her with these two.

“I believe I am the one who’s colorblind, Thancred,” Y’shtola says from her spot at the counter, where she’s finishing up icing the cupcakes, freshly baked by the joint effort of Ryne and Lyna.

“He is gay, too, I’ll have you know.”

He sounds so smug , as if he’s won some battle, even as he does as Krile asks and straightens the banner before taking the hammer from Urianger’s waiting hand to finish his side.

“You weren’t the first he came out to, I’ll have you know,” Krile says, clicking her tongue as she turns to help Tataru smooth the wrinkles from the triple-toned table cloth. She runs her hand across pink and blue and white stripes until they’re flat against the table, a smile easing its way onto her lips as she takes a step back to inspect their efforts.

What had once been Raha’s front room had been transformed into a paradise of pride, swathed in the same pinks, blues and whites that were represented on the flag. The overhead banner, the tablecloth, the cupcakes, even everyone in the room had changed clothes to match the theme.

Not that all of them were particularly happy about their apparel.

“Is it truly necessary for me to wear white?” Y’shtola asks, eerily close to reading Krile’s mind.

“Yes! Blue for boys, pink for girls and white for all those in between, lest you wish to mix and match!”

“It is hardly my color,” she mutters, bemoaning the usual black that she wore. And while she was correct , Krile did not particularly care , not today! “And I am icing cupcakes.”

Oh, yes, that white shirt would be stained with pinks and blues before she was done, certainly. All the better, Krile would say, not that she gets the chance to.

Ryne surprised them both by rushing to Y’shotola’s side to deliver another batch of cupcakes, to await cooling before they could be topped with icing.

“You look beautiful in any color, Y’shtola!”

The smile Ryne wore was hard to argue with, even for their monarch of sass. It proved infectious, melting away Y’shtola’s exaggerations in favor of a gentle smile of her own. But there is no time to offer a response before Ryne rushes back to Lyna’s side, the giddy chatter between the two barely audible to Krile’s pointed ears.

“I hope you’ve a solution for the nameday boy, unless you managed to conn him into wearing blue today.”

Oh, but Krile had done no such thing! She couldn’t risk tipping him off and it was G’raha’s boyfriend that had recommended a solution to her. So she paused to retrieve it from the box she’d set in the bottom of his hall closet, where it would be considerably safer during their reconstruction of Raha’s home.

She lifted the top off the box and could feel the heat of a great many gazes on her back as she brought the object in question out of the closet and into the air to show all its majesty. Bright blue with a hint of white dusting at the top was—

“Is that a paper mache crown ?”

"Oh, yes, yes it is! Lovingly handcrafted by the one and only Tataru!"

Alisaie laughs , doubling over with tears of mirth in her eyes at the dramatics of it all. Alphinaud does not grace her with even a glance in her direction, a wide grin on his face that’s just as polite as is his norm.

“He’ll love it, I’m certain,” he says, even as Tataru turns to explain to him that the time allotted to her for its creation had been limited by how hard it was to coordinate all of this when G’raha was all but outright glued to Krile’s side. Between being roommates and working together, that was no small surprise.

Krile is partway through laughing at their antics when Lyna hushes all of them with a hiss under her breath.

“He’s coming!”

Everyone’s reaction is instantaneous. They scatter, scrambling to find a spot to hide in. They bump into each other, curse, the chair Thancred had been standing on earlier gets tipped over. It's sheer luck that the bouquet that was lovingly prepared by their very own hero was not lost to the destruction.

And oh dear, the haste at which a key gets pushed into the lock and the door swings open when the chair clatters loudly to the ground.

“What in Azeyma’s name?”

As soon they hear G’raha’s voice, a trainwreck occurs. A cacophony of voices begin yelling out of sync. “Happy Nameday!” “Surprise!” Urianger whacks his forehead by rounding the too-short-for-Elezen door frame too quickly as they slowly descend into chaos. Alisaie accidentally elbows Thancred, Ryne nearly slips on a stray bit of icing, Lyna nearly topples to the floor trying to save her from impending doom.

And when finally, finally the moment passes and the room descends into stillness once more, it is G’raha Tia who interrupts it once more. He laughs , tears of mirth springing to red eyes as he reaches for the table to steady himself—and misses.

When he hits the floor, still laughing, it spreads to the rest of them.

Krile bursts into laughter, as do many of the others, bolsters when Twelve only knows who lets loose a snort. It makes helping everyone to their feet a struggle that nearly ends in them faceplanting again, Krile having the hardest time of all. Trying to get a man twice her size to his feet was, well, quite a feat!

“Wha— What is all this?” he asked through his laughter, freckled cheeks already wet from watering eyes. “My Nameday isn’t for months !”

“We’re celebrating G’raha’s name day, not G’rahlia’s!” Krile says, face aching from the wide smile and warm laughter. His cheeks flush and the grin on his face shifts from amused to the familiar, sincere glee that she could still vividly remember from a year ago, when he’d come out to her.

“Thank you, Krile,” he whispers, words heavy with a burden that he had long carried, that he could now share with the lot of them without fear of being judged or rejected or any of that ilk.

Red eyes moved from her to take in everyone in the room that had joined them, from the smallest of their efforts to the largest before settling on the bouquet of flowers that sat on the table. He reaches out to touch one of the pink petals, then the white before finally settling on the blue. At last, he finally looks to the small crowd gathered in his apartment, from his foster daughter that loved him with all her heart to young Alisaie who made a show of being cross with him.

“Thank you, everyone,” he finally says, his grin full to bursting, “For…”

He pauses, gesturing into the air at some of the decorations, unable to find words to convey what he wanted. A pleasant laugh follows when Krile reaches out to hand him the crown, ridiculous as he looks the minute he positions it atop his head.

Krile finds her gaze turning from him to the others in the room, to the family he had crafted with his own hands, without the need for something as trivial as blood.

When he speaks again, watery words are warm with affection.

“I love you all so very much.”

[oneletteredwondered]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, I just have a question. I just joined tiktok and am thinking of creating a mascaraed Roman au, but I have no idea how to start or if I should or if it’s too soon... I absolutely adore your high school au and was wondering if you have any tips or wisdom?? Thank you!! 💜

It's never too soon to AU XD

My suggestion would be, if you have some sort of storyline you want your AU to follow, make a word doc and start writing out little plot points/scenes you would like to include in your story.

For example

Roman wears gold

Janus wears red in 'revenge'

Roman freaks out

Get your base down first so you know what you're working with.

After that it's a matter finding audios that fit your scenes. Scrolling through tiktok for audios or songs you like or think fit your AU, keep an open mind cause ANYTHING can be twisted to your story if you think about it. This does not mean find anything and try to shove it in, but find things close and keep your AU in mind when audio hunting. Once you find a sound you like, copy link of the audio itself or video that gave you inspiration, or write down what audio you want, and add it to your doc.

For example

Roman wears gold - dissolve - link here

Janus wears red in revenge - so this is love - audio needed

Roman freaks out - he was very charismatic! (princess and the frog audio) - link here

Keep doing this until you have close to if not all of your sounds necessary for your scenes. There's no rush to complete this. You will most likely find things that fit your AU half way through filming or planning, do not be afraid to put them in your doc.

When hunting for audios or finding sounds that work, change up the length of your videos. Do NOT only make 45 seconds-minute long videos. And do NOT only make quick 5-15 second videos. When thinking about your AU, figure out which parts needs quick moments and which parts need to be drawn out. You are telling a story and a movie, make it cinematic.

For example

Remus never ending pick up lines are goofy and hold no weight to the story other than funny. Can be short.

Remus figuring out he actually has feelings for Logan is a major point for Remus, it holds weight to their arc and development. Longer time frame.

Sophie suggests: if you have the ability to do so, video/audio editing skills or app, so this way you can make or change audios to fit your needs even better, or add more flare to your videos.

If need be, or just for brain purposes, you can always add a choreography bit, possible dialogue options, or a brief description of what you want to happen in the video to your doc so things that happen near the end, you know what you're supposed to be doing or planned originally.

For example

Roman wears gold - roman walks by janus, slo mo, petty- dissolve - link here

Janus wears red in revenge - looks at the camera, dialogue 'see something you like pretty boy?' - so this is love - audio needed

Roman freaks out - roman having a MOMENT - he was very charismatic! (princess and the frog audio) - link here

Then you can film to your hearts content!

You can film all of them in one go, or split it up how you want, and save multiple drafts. Try to put them out in order as best you can, that's the whole point of the doc and plot map. Once you put a video out, copy link of your own video, and add it to your doc to keep track of what you need to film/is out already/sitting in drafts ready to go.

For example

Roman wears gold - posted - link to video here

Janus wears red in revenge - in drafts - so this is love - link here

Roman freaks out - needs filming - roman having a MOMENT - he was very charismatic! (princess and the frog audio) - link here

Save the audio link until the video is posted just in case you decide to refilm a scene.

I would recommend making a hashtag for the AU so people can find your story easier. Something that is simple and not too long but gets the point across.

For example

One sanders sides high school alternate universe = onesshsau

It'll be tempting to make your AU hashtag like Romanmasqueradeau but that's long and you only have so much space in your description. Shorten words, make it sweet and simple. Tag all your videos appropriately.

In your description of videos, put a little quip about the scene itself.

For example

In the roman wears gold video, the description is "when you wear your totally not a crush favorite color to get his attention but you're still petty".

Which is.. very long to be fair but lol and in return:

In the janus wears red for revenge video, the description is "two can play at that game".

Something that gives the viewers a little more to the story to hold on to.

Sophie suggests: you can always put backstory in the comment section to give yourself more space to talk about a scene, tell the viewers where to find it. "Backstory in comments" works pretty well.

For the cover clip, choose a banner to go with the clip. Keep the banner the same throughout the whole AU so people know which videos are and are not a part of your AU. If you plan your videos out well enough, you can even add 'parts' to your banners so people know where to look next.

For example

The banner for the hs au is... : HS AU.

If the AU was planned better, the banner would have been : HS AU pt 4. And for duets: HS AU pt 4.2.

This way people who join the AU mid way can click your hashtag, see the part markers, and know exactly where to go next to get the full story in order.

In the event you find an audio you want to use for your AU but the timing has passed(aka you already put out videos that come later timeline wise) you can still use the audio. In the description/comments you would put something along the lines of "what happened after/when -insert moment here-" and for the cover clip banner add .5 to the number marker.

If you plan on doing this AU on your own, caption videos properly, make things duettable if you want to encourage interaction, but make sure that they are stand alone available so people who don't see a duet can still get the full story. You can always duet yourself and add captions to the blank space above the video should you wish.

Something I've seen other creators do is put a poll or "what should they do?/pick an option" in the video captions or description. I would recommend NOT doing this. You may want the interaction from the audience, but then you'll need to make sure your plot map and audios match up with the choice and that it's something you want to happen as well. Also. If you don't get a lot of audience interaction, you may be disappointed, and that uh, sucks.

Something else I've seen is self duets where the duet part is all black and has a paragraph of the scene so people can have the story line more fully that way. That's a personal choice to make for yourself if you want to use this method. Snail(1_1snailxd) has used this method before if you want an example. They do plenty of AUs too if you want to see another creators process.

Keep your outfits and lighting consistent unless necessary for change in the story arc.

Since this is your AU and your page, you can post the videos for the AU whenever you want. Every day, every other day, every specific day. It does not matter. I would space them out if you can, or at least not post more than three videos for your AU a day. Give the viewers something to anticipate in your story line and a schedule that works for you.

Remember you are making this AU for you and it's what you want to see come to life. Be proud of the things you create.

[wtnrscap]

Cursed Words- Furnace

Pairings- Bucky Barnes x Reader, Natasha Romanoff x Bruce Banner, mentions of past Natasha Romanoff x Clint Barton.

Summary- Avoiding saying the words is a lot harder when you don’t know what they are. It’s rendered you silent around Bucky. Bucky knows he’s doing better in the sessions. Allison talks highly of him now. When a nightmare strikes him, you bring the deal forward.

Warnings- (18+) Mentions of blood, death, injury detail, PTSD, panic and anxiety attacks. Fluff. Swearing. Dirty talk, dirty fantasies. Eventual smut.

A/N- Sorry this took so long! A nice long chapter for you. It’s a bit deeper as well. What do you think?

This could be considered a songfic as I wrote this listening to ‘Inside Out’ by Andrew Austin so I would really recommend putting it on while you read this. I’ll put a link in. Also, the bathroom scene is inspired by BBC’s Bodyguard when David attacks Julia. This chapter is full on Bucky having bad dreams, PTSD, panic and anxiety attacks at the start but hopefully it gets fluffier towards the end. Taglist is open.

Cursed Words Masterlist

Bucky jumps awake at the gunshot that echoes in his head. Breathing heavily, he sits up and wipes sweat off his brow. The dream... it was so real... The gunshot sounded like it could’ve been in the compound. 

He’d decieded on a early night after a rough mission and left the common room at 4PM, missing his therapy session and ignoring the worried looks from you and Steve. Sleep had come surprisingly easy and he’d been fine until the dream.

Night has fallen and the compound is dark when Bucky leaves his room. His breath rises in the cold morning air and goosebumps decorate his skin as he makes his way down the corridor towards the kitchen. 

He doesn’t feel it until his finger connects with the metal button for the lift. The hairs rising on the back of neck. The feeling that someone is watching him, following him. Instinctively, he turns his head around and scans the empty corridor but sees nothing. The lift opens and he dismisses it as aftershocks of the bad dream he’s just had.

When the doors open to the kitchen, the smell hits him first. It’s putrid, rotting, and a smell he knows so well. His breath hitches and he takes a slow step forward, trying to hold his breath. He rounds the corner from the lift and the smell is impossibly stronger but the sight makes Bucky’s blood run cold.

Steve is sitting on a chair, his head lying on the table, arms hanging limply by his side. His eyes are glazed over and his mouth hangs open, frozen in permanent terror. A hole in his forehead leaks blood and Bucky throws his hand over his mouth in disgust and grief. 

Who could have done this?

On the chair opposite Steve, Sam lies in a similar position. A walk around the table finds Wanda on the floor, her hand inches from Vision’s, his body grey.

Bucky flees the kitchen and ends up in the common room only to find Tony and Pepper lying on the floor, wrapped in each other’s arms. Three gunshot wounds litter Tony’s chest and Pepper has one in her lower abdomen. Rhodey and Bruce lean against each other on the couch, their blood flowing onto the carpet.

Bucky staggers into the corridor, heading towards the training room. Lying a few feet in front of him is Clint and Bucky notices flies buzzing around the archer’s head. Bucky trips round the corner to find Thor lying by the open door to the training room. Just as he thinks he’s going to throw-up, a voice wavers into the corridor, “No! Please... Please...We can talk about this! No... No!!”

A gunshot and scream, “Natasha! No!”

Silence. 

“Are you going to kill me, or you going to stare at me?” your rings through the empty training room and Bucky’s heart pounds. A deep gravelly voice that Bucky doesn’t recognise responds, “I’m trying to figure out why he likes you.”

“I couldn’t tell you.”

Bucky peers into the room and spots you, sitting in the middle of the room hunched in a ball. Natasha lies a few feet away, blood seeping out of her chest. A figure walks around you and Bucky has to bite his tongue when he sees the black mask wrapped around the figure’s face, “How did you figure out that I wasn’t him?”

“He wouldn’t kill his family.”

“Family...” the Winter Soldier muses the word before barking a harsh laugh, “You don’t know what he’s capable of.”

“I know excatly what’s he capable of. The worst he can do is kill someone. And he wouldn’t kill his family.”

“You’ve said that. What do you mean by ‘the worst he can do is kill someone’?”

“You torture people. You make them beg for death and them don’t grant them that small mercy.”

“I didn’t make your friends beg for death...”

“Your mission, Soldat, was me, wasn’t it? You wanted me and now your stalling in killing me. Why?”

The Winter Soldier yanks you into a standing position and a knife glints in the dawn, “I was waiting for an audience. I can kill you now.”

You scream as the knfie is pushed into your lower abdomn and Bucky yells, rushing forward. As you collaspe, you see his face and tears erupt out of your eyes, “It’s not your fault. It was never your fault.”

Bucky turns on the Winter Soldier as the life leaves your eyes, “YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO KILL HER!”

“Wow. You really liked her, didn’t you?” taunts the Winter Soldier, “I was trying to prove a point.”

“Which was?”

“I’m back, James. I’m taking control.”

“My name isn’t James!” spits Bucky angrily. The Winter Soldier laughs nastily, “You are James. I am the Winter Soldier. Bucky is the middle ground. I am Bucky when I’m not on mission and you hide behind the mask that is Bucky.”

“Your not taking control. I’m strong enough to beat you.”

“We both know you’re not. I know how to defeat you. It’s the same way you can defeat me,” chuckles the Winter Soldier. Bucky snarls, “Tell me.”

“I’m going to kill you in a minute, so fair’s fair. Embrace James, embrace the soldier. Create Bucky and live peacefully in the middle ground. Your fear is helping me to take control. Thank you, James.”

“I’m not scared of you.”

“Prove it. Save your own damn life,” the Winter Soldier hurls the knife at Bucky. Bucky freezes and snaps his eyes closed. When he wakes, his body won’t be his own, his mind won’t have control-

Bucky feels himself pushed to the side and his eyes open to find you on top of him, “Bucky! Wake up, your having a nightmare!”

Bucky stares at you, then at your dead body lying a few feet away in shock. You shake his body again as the Winter Soldier howls, “Wake up! It’s a nightmare!”

You slap his face and Bucky jolts forward, an invisible hand pulling him out of sleep.

-

Bucky’s wet blue eyes snap open to you. You’re lying underneath him, your hands wrapped around his wrists as you struggle for air. In the split second before Bucky realises what’s he’s doing, he notices the scratches on your forehead, blood dripping into your eyes, and the dried blood beneath his fingernails. He releases you and as you cough, you scoot back on your bum, falling into his bathroom and closing the door on him. Bucky pounds a fist against the door, “Y/N! Y/N... Sorry doesn’t even-”

A few sobs interrupt him and Bucky collaspes against the door, his head resting on the wood, “Doll? Do I need to call a doctor? Are you okay?”

A sniffle.

“I’m okay.”

“I am so sorry...” Bucky whispers, tears dripping down his face. 

Silence. 

Then a whisper, “Bucky... I know you didn’t mean to hurt me...”

A few more seconds of silence before the lock clicks and Bucky feels your hands wrap around his body. He lets you comfort him as the sobs start. You sigh, carding one hand through his sweaty hair and resting the other against his forehead, “Jesus Bucky, you’re burning up like... like a furnace...” 

Bucky jumps violently and you almost fly across the room, but he manages to tug you closer to him at the last second. You look at him with shock and alarm, “Did I say a word? Goddamn it!”

Seemingly, Bucky ignores you, picking you up, taking you back into the bathroom and setting you on the counter, He pulls out a first aid kit from a draw and you sigh, “Bucky, I said I was fine... Please...”

“Sshh... Your head is bleeding...” Bucky mutters, dabbing an alcohol wipe to your head and making you hiss, “I think I did it... I think I scratched you...”

“I heard you screaming and realised that you were having a nightmare. I tried to wake you. I tried to help. I tried-”

“I know, doll, and I’m sorry, I really. am...”

“It wasn’t your fault... Do you wanna tell me about it?”

Bucky shivers, “It was a dream in a dream. I woke up from a nightmare to be in another. I dreamt that everyone in the compund was dead. Steve, Sam, Tony, Wanda. I went to the training room and watched... a man tease you and kill you.”

“Who was this man?”

“The Winter Soldier... He taunted me when I confronted him. Said I must’ve really liked you. He said he was taking control. Tried to kill me. You pushed me out the way. I was confused, looking at your dead body and your very alive face. The Winter Soldier screamed, you slapped me and I woke up, my hands around your neck...”

Bucky puts a plaster on your head before moving to the sink, washing his hands and splashing cold water on his face. He looks into the mirror and your heart breaks for him. He looks so tired, with black rings around his eyes and light stubble. You want to help him, you just don’t know how.

An idea hits you.

“Hey, Bucky... come here...” you flash a weak smile as Bucky trudges over to you, “I wanna move our proposition.”

“Our proposition?”

You nod your head, “The date. Allison and Steve have been giving me extremely positive feedback. I think you’ve earned it so I’m moving it forward... If you want...”

Bucky’s eyes are suddenly wide with hope, “Are you serious? It’s all I’ve wanted for weeks! I’ve been trying so hard in therapy, I feel so much better for getting off my chest!”

Laughing, you wrap your hands around his neck, “I’m glad Bucky, I really-”

A tight kiss quietens you and squeak in suprise. Within seconds, the kiss is getting more heated and you never want to stop. You want to savour this beautiful moment, kissing Bucky with everything you have but he pulls away, “No. No! You have to go!”

“What?! Why?!”

Bucky hoists you off the counter and shoos you out the room, “I have a date to plan! Out, out!”

“Bucky! Bucky, stop!” you swivel round and put your hands on his waist, a laugh on your lips, “Bucky! You don’t need to make a big deal about the date. A day, a night... with you would be enough. I promise.”

He pauses, staring into your eyes and you almost get lost in his blue hues before another quick peck is pressed to your lips, “I know but after everything I’ve put you through... You deserve the best date ever. Now go! I have a lot to plan!”

More shooing till you’re standing on the otherside of his door, your hand planted against it. A smile lights up your face and you turn around, heading back to your room. A voice calls out, “I’m happy for you.”

You turn to see Steve with a small smile on his face, “Thank you, Steve. I’m happy too.”

As you turn to leave, Steve grabs your hand, “Seriously. I felt terrible, not being able to help my best friend. We used to be so close but we’re different now. He’s been through things that I can’t even begin to imagine... He... He does deserve happiness, despite what he thinks.”

“I know...” you sigh, looking into Steve’s happy face, “Steve... I could really do with a hug right about now...”

Steve wraps his big arms around you, enveloping you in a big hug. You bury your head into his chest and a small tear slides down your cheek. You can’t tell if it’s happy crying or sad crying. But you do know things are falling into place. Bucky is getting better, everyone is alive and the Winter Soldier has been kept at bay.

Also.

You have a date to get ready for.

Taglist

@indecisivedolly

[kcube]

Free Tools For Your YouTube Channel Growth

60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second. Wow! This makes the competition very high! But what if you could succeed in this amazing platform despite this high competition? In this article, we will present 6 free YouTube tools that can boost your channel growth and provide you with new subscribers every day.

Of course, we are not here talking about buying subscribers to grow your channel. If you are already doing this, please stop it. This is totally wrong.

Instead, let's start looking to really grow your channel.

Don't know where to start? Here are the 6 Free YouTube Tools that will help you grow your YouTube channel Today.

6 Free YouTube Tools to Grow Your Channel

Morningfa.me

You can get access to this tool through their website Morningfa.me.

Morningfa.me helps you understand and analyze each of your videos and helps you create videos to grow and rank on YouTube. We have mainly two services in this application.

The first one is the analytics, you can see in-depth analytics, and it will show your videos and your channel in a different way than traditional analytics.

With Morningfa.me you can understand what kind of videos to create next, how to rank, how to promote and how to grow your channel in a different way.

Another free YouTube tool Morningfa.me uses to grow your channel

Morningfa.me also has a keyword tool that helps you plan for your next videos by searching for topics or selecting a video of yours to emulate (or create similar videos of) to grow.

You can select a video from YouTube, and it will give you the best tags and titles to rank.

This free tool will aid you in growing your YouTube channel.

H-Supertools

This is one of the best applications I use to help me rank my YouTube videos better and earn me more money.

H-Supertools' SEO tools and YouTube keyword tool help you with mainly two things:

In content research, you get and search for content ideas for your videos.

Helps you rank on top of YouTube by getting the best keywords.

For example, if you search for email marketing, it will show you around 247 topics or keyword ideas about it.

You can search for whatever you want and what’s nice is that it will give you monthly volume and difficulty for each keyword.

So you can select a keyword with high search volume and low difficulty to rank on YouTube. You can also use the SEO keyword research tool to get the CPC (Cost per Click).

So H-Supertools helps you earn more money with Google Adsense. Here's a screenshot from my analytics.

You can see in revenue that my CPM is $54, so advertisers pay up to that much for every 1000 views in some cases.

It is very important to select the correct keywords with high CPC so you can increase your Adsense revenue.

So be sure to visit H-Supertools to help grow your channel.

Social Bluebook

Go now and sign up because what’s nice about this tool is that it will give you the value of your YouTube channel!

For example, if you want to sponsor a service or someone on your channel, you'll know what to charge with the help of Social Bluebook.

You can see that the price is around $263 per upload for my channel and it can range up to $434 per upload in my case. You can add your own channel and see your suggested value of uploading a video and advertising someone on your channel.

It is very important in case you want to sponsor someone and earn more money on YouTube.

Canva.com free youtube tool

One of the best tools to create YouTube thumbnails, YouTube channel arts, and any banners.

Canva has a big library of templates that you can choose from and edit how you want.

Canva has a lot of features, tools, effects, photos, libraries templates to help you create an awesome YouTube thumbnail and you can start for free.

If you want to get more templates, more elements, more images, some more effects, you can go with the paid version which is like $11 per month.

It's a must-have tool that makes creating images for your YouTube thumbnails and channel arts super easy. In fact, many of the images here are created with the help of Canva!

TubeBuddy

Next up in the list of 6 free tools to grow on YouTube is TubeBuddy, it’s one of the best tools to grow your channel, analyze it, and much more.

TubeBuddy has a feature to track your keywords, so if you provide your keywords, it will give a weekly report of the keyword rankings on YouTube.

Tubebuddy helps grow your video SEO.

Their A/B split test allows comparing different thumbnails and seeing which one is working better for future videos.

It is an awesome tool and I highly recommend it to grow your channel.

Fontjoy.com

Fontjoy simply helps you choose fonts if you want to create an awesome thumbnail. Clicking on “generate” will give you a combination of different fonts.

Check out a few fonts and if you like some of them, you can use them in your own thumbnails.

It will redirect you to Google Fonts where you can download the font family to use it in whatever software you create thumbnails with.

Conclusion

So these are 6 tools to grow your YouTube channel, I use them every day to grow my channel and make it look like the way it is now. My channel grew 80% more than when I started using all these tools together, so please check them out.

If you found this helpful make sure to let us know in the comments below. Feel free to ask me anything!

[davidmann95]

How'd you like the new Death Metal special (and, more broadly, this week's comics)?

pretenderoftheeast said: Comics this week (12/9/2020)?

Batman: Black and White #1: The first of a platter of anthologies today:

* The Tynion/Moore story is predictably fire.

* JHIII is JHIII. Also he does a really nice surprising story about how Batman’s relating to this moment of the time, but let’s be real, you’re here because JHIII, and be assured he is JHIII as helllll here and it’s great.

* Dini/Kubert plays as the former building a story around accommodating requests by the latter, but that’s not a bad thing, and glad to see Kubert’s kept up the pace since his DK3/Up In The Sky creative rejuvenation.

* Ok I’m a philistine who has no idea what that Emma Rios thing was about but it was certainly pretty.

* Wilson doing Batman is surprisingly disappointing, but Smallwood doing Batman definitely isn’t.

DC’s Very Merry Multiverse: Not a very merry time! I hate to say it given this should be so geared to my interests, but this is the weakest overall effort we’ve gotten from one of DC’s quarterly anthologies in a good long while, at least among those I’ve picked up. Not to say it’s a dud, there are several nifty little stories in here including the much-hyped first appearance of Kid Quick (destined to become the Flash of Future State) and really almost everything here reaches ‘pretty okay’. But for $10, and a creative space that should reach so much more than ‘pretty okay’, I don’t know that this is a justifiable recommendation unless you’re understandably desperate for all the President Superman content you can get your hands on.

Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Flashpoint: I’m surprised I got it too, but the preview grabbed me and in practice it was a fun, mean little high-concept adventure of Reverse Flash being a total cock.

Wonder Woman #768: Credit where it is due, this has been getting a bit better in its closing stretch.

Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Last Stories of the DC Universe: This ruled. Obviously there was the one story folks are most interested in, but almost all of the tales in here lived up to being a ‘final’ story of sorts for their leads.

* The Titans bookenders were pretty nice even if it’s hilarious that their big rallying cry basically amounts to “by god, our book may be shit, but we’re valuable IP so we’ll never be cancelled!”

* Green Lantern is basically an epilogue to Johns’ run sans the baggage of bringing back Johns (that we get in two weeks with Secret Origin and god forgive me I’m so looking forward to that), and definitely one of my favorite efforts from Lemire.

* Wonder Woman’s the stinker in what’s nominally her own event. I can parse the roots of most bad Superman stories one way or another, but I just can’t understand what’s behind most bad Wonder Woman stories beyond that the people handling it simply don’t give a shit.

* Astonishingly, the Green Arrow and Black Canary chapter in here might be my favorite of the bunch? Simone at her best, a really sweet slice of playful, sincere romance about two characters I’m not by default invested in but ended up quite caring for here.

* This Aquaman story is everything I generally hate in Aquaman stuff, a big long maudlin speech about the weight of the world as he swims through a black featureless ocean, except here between the real heart Sebela brings to the script and the mood artist Christopher Mooneyham manages to evoke, it all clicks together.

* The Batman Family story feels like it can’t quite make its pacing work, but it’s still a heartfelt little ode to the theoretical power of the concept.

* Hey, that Mark Waid guy? Turns out he can write him some Superman. It’s not perhaps the total barnburner you might have expected - I imagine he’s saving his biggest hits for later - but it’s a very solid execution of a gangbusters concept, and Manapul steals the show with absolutely sensational, gorgeous scenic Superman imagery. I’mma say 60/40 in favor of them doing a Superman project together on either a main book or Black Label (I know Manapul was supposed to be locked into a creator-owned thing with Scott Snyder but that was ages ago), because this is a paring that’s yielded some immediate results and I imagine everyone knows it. And given my upbringing, nice to see a big, iconic, beautiful Superman story with him rocking the mullet.

Anonymous said: Haha holy shit Crossover is literally Cates taking that page where Spawn meets all the corporate heroes locked up and spinning it out into a series

Anonymous said: Does Crossover #2 hold the crown for the funniest, dumbest, most baffling opening page ever?

Crossover #2: Readers I’m not too big to admit I laughed my ass off at the first page, and at least a little bit for the actual reasons intended. The sense of homaging that Spawn scene in the context of a book about “Gosh, isn’t IP the best folks?”, or Cates’ dialogue...(shall we say) proving why he likes the concept of ellipses enough to name a character after them aside though? That it’s already crossed the line with its central metaphor from “indefensibly insensitive in its ridiculous self-centeredness” to “out-and-out cartoonishly offensive” somehow actually makes it more rather than less palatable; there’s no longer the secondhand embarrassment of waiting to see how bad Cates is going to handle this, it simply is the worst it could possibly be and readers have to accept and perhaps revel in the sight of him stepping on rake after rake. I cannot wait for him to finally give an interview on this book where he explains what the hell he thinks this looks like, and I hope my dad keeps somehow enjoying it forever because I totally wanna see what pit this descends to next.

Penultiman #3: This is absolutely agonizing and probably the most relatable take on a ‘superman’ ever.

Home Sick Pilots #1: A new creator-owned book from Dan Watters (whose big two credits include the stupendous “Afraid of America” with John Paul Leon in the last Batman Secret Files, and the upcoming Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman) and Peter Cannon’s Caspar Wijngaard, this new book set against the backdrop of a Californian high school’s punk scene in 1994 describes itself as “Power Rangers meets The Shining (yes, really)”. The former influence isn’t much in play yet, but thus far this is a book that merges building tension and freewheeling dopey teen bullshit to an extent that’s subtly impressive as hell, and seems likely to proudly take a place among the current horror comic renaissance.

Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar #3: Ok again I don’t have any experience with this franchise but you’d better believe that cultural osmosis was enough that I popped for BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

King in Black: Namor #1: Kurt Busiek’s return to Marvel...sucks? Such is the power of Knull I guess even if he doesn’t manifest within the actual story here, this is a complete nothing of a comic and I’m not tuning in for issue #2.

Avengers #39: Eh, I’m not liking Aaron Avengers when it gets remotely serious nearly as much as when he’s doing stuff like having them finally help Blade with all those vampires or Captain America assisting with the delivery of an exploding space-baby in the back of a muscle car.

Anonymous said: That new Guardians of the Galaxy was something else. What do you think the odds are that Comic Books, with a decade or two of hindsight, recognizes Ewing as one of the best to ever do it?

Guardians of the Galaxy #9: I lack much context here beyond recalling from an interview that this is Ewing’s way of grappling with the ideas from Steve Englehart’s original unrealized vision of Star-Lord’s character arc, but wherever it stems from this is a hell of a comic.

S.W.O.R.D. #1: This is everything I’ve wanted from the non-Hickman X-books since the moment HoXPoX ended, and so much more, and also it is basically hilarious that Ewing is all but explicitly using his clout to force Marvel to let him to Ultimates3 under a currently cancellation-proof banner. Most importantly of all, Ewing has already mastered the subtle art of writing not merely Magneto, but the infinitely superior Jonathan Hickman Magneto. And good lord Schiti and Gracia, I already knew they were top-tier but these pages’d make a grown man cry.

[coldasyou]

How to gif without photoshop

Hello! By popular demand (of like 4 people) I am going to write out a tutorial of how I make gifs when I’m on my personal laptop and don’t have access to photoshop. There is another method I use with a different software that is a bit more complicated and if people are interested, I will make a tutorial of that method as well. I’ll do my best to keep this concise, so let’s get started. 

Warning that this is VERY text and image heavy because I know how frustrating it can be when a tutorial feels like it’s skipping steps and I want this to be as clear as possible. Also please read this on desktop, tumblr mobile kills the quality of gifs inside text posts.

This is the video I will be giffing and here is the gif I will be making!

What you need:

 A video to gif

For the best results, I recommend a video that is either 720p or 1080p (basically the higher the quality, the better). Videos with good lighting and bright colors also turn out the best. Unfortunately for me, I gif the TV show Prodigal Son a lot and that show has neither of those things, which is why my gif example is from that show; if you can make a scene with zero lighting or vibrancy look even somewhat decent, you can make anything else look good.

A video downloader or screen recorder

This is the video downloader I use and this is the screen recorder but basically any youtube video download website or screen recorder program works. Keep in mind that ezgif has a pretty low upload limit for videos, so if you want to gif something longer than like ~4 minutes, cut the video down to the specific parts you want first on a website like this one. 

ezgif

A very straight forward website that anyone can access. You don’t need to download anything, it’s all online. 

Bonus: Online Image Editor (not required, but I use this website to add text to gifs)

1. Making the gif:

Once you have a video downloaded, you go to ezgif.com and go to the section video to gif. Click choose a file, scroll to your downloaded video, and hit upload video. Your screen should look like this now.

There are two ways to pull out the sections of the video you want to gif. You can either write in the start and end time in the little sections (you have to convert them to seconds: for example, if my gif started at 1:16 and ended at 1:20, it would be 76 seconds and 80 seconds respectively). Or you can do the method that I feel is easier, where you go to the section you want it to start on, hit pause, and hit the blue button that says “use current position” then let the video play until it hits your stopping point, hit pause again, and click on the second “use current position” button.

Once you have the start and end time recorded, scroll down to the next part of the screen with the size options. For size, select “540xAUTO (for Tumblr)” since tumblr gif sizes start at 540p and go down the more gifs are in a row. For frame rate, try to do either 20 or 25; the higher the frame rate, the smoother the gif will look. If you are trying to gif something in 540p that is longer, you might need to chose 10 to keep it under 5mb, which is the tumblr gif size limit. For method, leave it on FFMPEG. Then hit, convert to gif.

your gif will now look something like this!

Now, this gif is currently 5.7mb, which is above the size limit for tumblr (5mb or above gifs will still play if I recall, but the quality will be really bad when you post them). If I was planning on keeping the gif this size, I would go back and change the frame rate to either 20 or 10 to get the size down. However, I am going to resize the gif to 268p, so I don’t need to worry about it being to big.

Using the correct gif size for tumblr is one of the easiest ways to make sure the gif looks good! For gifs that take up a whole row, the size should be 540p wide. For two gifs in one row, the size is 268p each. For three gifs in one row, the sizes are 177p, 178p, and 177p in that order. Here is a visual of it. 

The next step would normally be resizing the gif, but Prodigal Son youtube videos come with a black banner on the top and bottom that I need to crop out. You will see a menu full of options under your gif, and you want to click on “crop.”

Cropping is pretty straight forward; you just move the little box over the part you want cropped, then hit the “crop image” button. Make sure width stays 540p!

Your gif now looks like this

Next, you look at the options under your gif again, and go to “resize.”

Again, resizing is pretty straight forward. I just put in 268 into the “width” section and leave the “height” section blank since the site will automatically resize the height. You can ignore the other menu options.

Your gif now looks like this

Next step is optional, but I usually do it. Once again, you go to the menu of options under your gif and select “speed.”

Speed is also super straight forward. I almost always reduce the speed of my gifs somewhere from 90% to 80% no matter what, just because I think it makes it look smoother. For gifs that are of short scenes that go really fast, I will reduce it to anywhere from 70% to 50%. You can try different speeds to test out what you think looks best. For this gif, I’m going to put it at 80%.

Here’s what we have so far. Congrats, you have made a gif!

Now for the fun part!

2. Coloring the gif

Go to the “effects” option, in the menu under your gif. You will see a LOT of options, but the panels I’m going to focus on are “colorize”, “brightness and contrast” and “color presets”. This section is going to vary a lot depending on what specific video you are giffing so remember to be flexible and try lots of different options out! It took me a while to get to a place where I can just eye a scene and know what settings to use. It’s super easy to go back and tweak a setting if the gif doesn’t look like how you want it the first time, but it’s a lot of trial and error. 

The main option I focus on in the “colorize” section, is “saturation.” This is what will make all the color in your gif pop out. The saturation I use varies a ton; for scenes that already are colorful/bright, I usually keep it around 120 to 150, since you don’t want it to be over saturated. If I’m making an edit that is supposed to look toned down or more grey/neutral tones, I’ll decreases the saturation in the range of like 90-40. For a show like Prodigal Son, where there is basically zero color vibrancy, I tend to go full out with saturation, usually in the 150-200 range. For this gif, I have it all the way up to 200.

Next is brightness and contrast. This also varies wildly, but a good rule of thumb is I always try to keep my contrast at least 5 points higher than whatever my brightness is, it just makes the lighting more even. You need to find a good balance; obviously, the darker the scene, the higher you want the brightness and contrast, but if you go too high, the gif with be staticy/grainy. For Prodigal Son, which has horrible lighting, my brightness is anywhere from 10-30 and my contrast is anywhere from 15-35. For this gif, my brightness is on the lower side since the scene is outside in natural light; brightness is 16, contrast is 26. 

After you get those settings, I go over to “color presets” section and click on the “tint” option. It will pull up a color chart that looks like this

You ALWAYS want the intensity up to 100. This part is where the most trial and error occurs; there isn’t any one color option that works for every gif. The shade I use most often is light red/pink or light blue/light purple. For scenes that are lacking warm tones (which is almost all of Prodigal Son) I tend to go to the light reds, and for scenes that are lacking cool tones, I go to the light blues. The light reds are best for making characters skin tones look more...like actual skin tones and not totally washed out. To select a color, you just move your mouse around the chart. This is the range of color codes I tend to use.

Again, intensity should be up to 100 (it automatically starts at 50 and I was too lazy to move it while getting screen shots :P). 

For this gif, I actually used a new technique I’ve been trying out where I start with a light blue tint to even out the color tones, then once that gif is done, I go back to effects and add a layer of pink to make the colors brighter. Usually, one color works fine, but sometimes it’s hard to find a good balance (the red colors can get too red and the blue sometimes brings out too much of a yellow shade). For now, I have my color tint set at #eeebff. 

Ultimately, this is what my effect settings look like and this is what the gif looks like now. 

Now, like I said before, I added another layer of tint to this gif. All you have to do is go to the menu under your gif, and click on effects again.

It will take you back to the panel you were just on, expect now your colored gif is on the top and all the settings are blank again. The only setting you need to use now is the tint option; go there, and select a light red shade. I used #fff0f0.

And here is the final gif! To save it, just right click and hit “save image as.”

I know it seems like a long process, but once you get a hang of it, it goes by super fast, especially if all your gifs are coming from the same video.

BONUS: Adding text

If you are trying to gif something with dialogue or you want a quote to put over your gif, you will want to put text over it. ezgif has a “text” option that you can use if you want, but I personally don’t really like their font options, so I use the website Online Image Editor.

This is what it looks like. You can either hit “upload an image” and upload your saved gif, or you can go back to ezgif, right click the gif, hit “copy image url” and paste that url into the “upload from url” option. The web page should now look like this.

It’s pretty straight forward from here; click on the “add text” button and a menu will appear on the left hand with options for the text. 

Type whatever you want the caption to be in the “type text here” box. This website has a ton of font options you can play around with, but when I just want to caption a gif, I stick with “Arial Bold Italic.” For a 268p gif, the font size should be 10-12, depending on how much writing you plan to put on each gif (if some gifs are going to have more writing than others, pick a smaller font size so it stays consistent!) When I make a 540p, the font goes up to 14-16.  I use white for the color and black for the stroke. I make the strokewith 3 because it makes the caption stand out more. Once all these settings are selected, hit the “preview” button under the text box.

You can now drag your text anywhere you want on the image! The only bad thing about this website is that it doesn’t automatically center text, so you either have to eyeball it, or if you’re picky, like me, open up one of those online ruler applications and use it to measure out the center. For captions, I move the text just slightly above the bottom of the gif. 

Finally, you hit apply. Once your gif has the text on it, all you have to do to save it is right click it and hit “save image as.” And here is the finished project!

That got a lot longer than I thought it would, but I hope it was informative! If anything was unclear or if you have further questions, feel free to send me an ask. Thank you for reading.

[marvel-download-tutorial]

How to Download Marvel comics for free!

I’ve been thinking about writing this for a while especially since we’re all stick inside but last week Marvel made the shitty decision to transition various print titles to digital only, meaning they’re directly taking revenue away from local shops rather than delay the titles, so since Marvel thinks digital comics is such a cool idea I’m gonna show you how to download as many as you’d like! (oh also this is for windows only, idk how to do it if you own a mac but also you’re rich anyways so who cares buy the comics richie)

I don’t want to take money away from the people that need it, not the actual companies of Marvel and DC fuck them they’re dying and they deserve it, but for my own rationalizing I want to take a minute to plug the Hero Initiative, basically what it is an organization that provides for comic creators that are having hard times, comics are a rough industry and you don’t get into it to get rich, I won’t go into it too much you can read for yourself but it’s been endorsed by Stan Lee, Justin Ponsor, Mike Grell, Skottie Young, Rags Morales, a lot of big names, so I’d ask if you do follow this guide and download some comics for free please consider donating to the Hero Initiative (they also sell autographed prints and you can commission some really famous artists)

anyways onto the good stuff! I’m going to be doing a fairly brief but easy to follow guide, there will be links at the bottom of the post so look for those, I’ll probably be making a few other posts with some more info so also check back for those if my blog is still here

What do I need?

You’re going to need 4 basic things if you want to do this as easily and safely as you can 

1) a good anti-virus

2) anonymous web browser (Tor)

4) a safe and reliable source for the comics

4) a torrent program to download the comics

Also optional: VPN

Anti-Virus 

it’s good to remember when torrenting that no one is your friend, everyone is out to trick you and no one cares, honestly you should also have a good anti-virus though, I’m not really gonna tell you which one you should have but Norton 360 is pretty good but say that in a room of CS majors is the quickest way to start a fist fight, honestly just google it, you’re gonna have to do some research, but really you’re good as long as you don’t go with Avast or Kaspersky, I’m going to go over typical tricks and traps later to ensure safety, this is just basic overall security thing

Anonymous Web Browser (Tor)

next we’re gonna download Tor (you can do this before getting a VPN, like I said either one is going to put you on a list but using one to cover you getting the other at least mitigates it lol) Tor is a great open source project that allows for basically complete anonymous web browsing, it’s a project dedicated to privacy and disruption of corporations ability to control every aspect of our lives, also a friend of mine bought K off silk road with it once in highschool, really not too much you need to know about it before using it, just download it, let it configure and you’re good, also use Duck Duck go that it comes with, don’t switch it to chrome or anything, Duck Duck go is anonymous search service which better lends to Tor’s protection

Where to get the torrents

Now this is really important because you can have everything else set up but without a safe reliable source none of this is gonna do any good, but this is the dangerous part, torrent sites are notorious traps (I bricked more than on family PC on limewire) and this is why I said earlier to remember these people are not your friends and are out to hurt you, don’t click banner ads, don’t believe pop ups, make sure your virus protection is on and it’s a very good idea to have an adblocker on, also look out for another post I’ll be making on what download buttons to trust for different popular torrent sites

when talking comics (and remember specifically only Marvel comics) there’s no other name out there than Nemesis43, he is a god and he’s going to be your new best friend, there are groups and sites out there that do comic scans that you have to pay to join or like apply to join, that shit’s dumb as hell and I’ve never used them once and I’ve got more comic than I can read in my lifetime, you don’t need em and you especially don’t need to give them money, donate to the Hero Initiative instead

Nemesis has moved around a bit in the past (if you remember the WWT debacle) right now the main site for him is ettv (there will be a link at the end of the post) sites a bit barren but he’s there, he also has a reddit he gives updates on very rarely, generally if he moves he adds where his new home is in a text doc in his recent uploads, I fully trust him and his uploads, he’s been doing this for years and I’d never have a second thought downloading from him, also because he uploads so much he’s often very highly rated and verified on whatever site he’s on

The second place I’d recommend is getcomic (again there will be a link at the end), now this is very important, never donate to them, they kinda suck, basically they’re plugged into a bunch of different scanner groups and just steal those scans and put them up and then ask for donations, basically they’re just an aggregate (Nem kinda is too but he doesn’t ask for donations and stuff), they usually use browser downloads which are a complete pain so I’d really recommend Nemesis over them but they do have TheComicGuy on torrent galaxy for larger files but that updates a lot less frequently then the main site, again I trust these guys (as long as you’re on the actual site) but don’t trust any banner ads or pop ups, also for downloading they give multiple options, a lot are very sketchy, just use the main server

also there’s other sites like readcomics or newcomics, never used em, don’t like em, use at your own behest 

On sites like ettv you’re gonna want to use the magnet, someone years ago told me it was safer and I just believed them and have always used em, not sure if it’s true but it’s worked so whatever, really you shouldn’t be too worried about this stuff and if you follow this guide you’re going to be way over prepared to download comics, really no one cares about comic torrenting, movies, video games, tv shows that’s the stuff people really get caught on, this is just nerd shit

I’m going to be making another post showing how to use these sites, and other sites comic can be found on so look back at my blog for that

Torrent program

This is pretty basic, just get utorrent, it’s what I’ve always used, it works, whatever, definitely look this up with a VPN on or on Tor, it’s simple to use, I’ll be doing a short tutorial on how to make it even safer

Lastly this one is optional but a pretty good idea, for more than just this

VPN aka Virtual Privacy Network

honestly you can get the anonymous web browser (Tor) or the VPN first, their both going to help cover you downloading the other and honestly both are going to put you on a list for googling them (which is why I suggest looking for someone who just already has the .exes ((I always keep them on a thumbdrive for when I have to reset one of my computers)), I might try to make a google drive with em but also I might not bc that sounds like work and I’m already typing all this up), anyways I’m not really gonna explain what a VPN is, there’s a lot of resources that can explain it better than I can but basically it masks what you do on the internet, there’s a lot of choices when picking a VPN but the big thing I looked for when choosing mine was 1) non-US based so it’s harder for US investigation agencies to request stuff for them or get anything from them 2) one that doesn’t keep logs, honestly they all do even if they say they don’t, but you wanna look for one that hasn’t turned over many logs to US agencies and 3) unlimited peer 2 peer connections which is complicated but basically means you can torrent stuff anonymously and with decent speed. Like Anti-Virus there are a ton of different VPN’s out there, you really have to do research because there are actual accounts of FBI agencies crating VPN’s telling people they’re anonymous when really they had direct access to all the info, I haven’t done any research but NordVPN seems kinda like one of these, really the more they advertise the more suspicious I am, Just google “best vpn 2020″ and look at like 5 lists and read the the stuff, personally I use IPvanish which unfortunately is US based and while it gave over logs in 2016 even thought they said they didn’t keep any but now they’re owned by a new company that super double promises they don’t (again who cares they all do) but they’ve allow P2P and use 256-bit AES encryption

I wanna take a second to mention that this isn’t going to be free, this is the only place you’re going to be spending money (besides donating to Heroe Initative of course), a good VPN is about $100 a year which all in all isn’t terrible, technically you can just get by on the anonymous browser but this gives you an extra layer of security to pretty much ensure you won’t get caught and plus in the ever worsening internet hell world a VPN is becoming more and more important, I’m sure you can find articles about it but yea you don’t technically need a VPN but it’s useful for more than just this

How to work it all

Ok so this is gonna be a little stream of consciousness, as this all kinda has been, so sorry but I’m gonna try and explain it as best I can and also feel free to ask any questions on this blog, I’ll check back eventually I’m sure

So first thing first, make sure you’re virus protection is on and you’re connected on your VPN if you’re using it (you can google “what is my IP” to double check it’s working) then load up Tor, let it load and connect up and whatever, then go to https://www.ettvdl.com/user/Nemesis43 (I’m just gonna show this with Nemesis43, maybe I’ll make another one for getcomics but that’s pretty straight forward, also nem is better)

now remember we’re only here for Marvel comics, so scroll past all those thousands of other comics this would work exactly the same for, I’m gonna go for Ant-Man #4 which was released on the 13 as a digital only comic despite the first three issues being physical copies and now sit on my shelf forever unfinished making me look like a complete penis

it may take a while but it’s going to look like this, click on the blue words, it’s gonna take you to a page that looks like this

now from here we’re going to get the magnet link, right click and select copy link address, I like doing this because it limits my interactions with the page, note the advertisement at the top telling me I need a VPN despite thinking I’m in Guadalajara (which for legal reasons I am)

just copy that and then go to utorrent and click the add link

it’ll open a little box, it should add the link automatically, if it doesn’t just hit ctrl+V

hit ok and it’ll load it up, it might need to download some metadata but after that it should be good, oh also it might bring up a window basically asking where you want to save it and what to name it, you can set all that up in preferences, I did so I just turned that window off and can’t be assed to turn it back on, just hit ok if you don’t wanna bother with that stuff, it’ll go into your downloads by default

and that’s it really, it’s that easy, I might make another thing talking about how to make utorrent more anonymous or whatever so look for that, but stock it’s fine, also when it’s finished downloading it’s gonna start seeding (like uploading to someone else) I’ve always been a scumbag and I never seed but Nemesis seeds stuff so much you really don’t need to anyways, just select it and hit the stop button (the black square on the tool bar)

here are all the links I could think of

Hero Initiative

download Tor

here’s a guide for VPNs

download utorrent

song I found recently that I like

getcomics

Nemesis

so yea that’s pretty much the basics, be smart, be safe, any viruses you get are on you but I hope you found this helpful and feel free to ask any questions

oh and also this is all parody and I’ve never actually torrented anything, I don’t even own a computer

[rexcoatlarchive]

Story

So it's actually been vaguely 2 years since I first got into fgo and Fate as a whole and I've decided to share how exactly I got into it in the first place. Now I will say before I get started that I don't recommend anyone to get into anything like how I did with Fate because there's a definite starting that people should really start with and I didn't so there was plenty of confusion when I first started, it's better now but still. So before I got into fate I was already aware of it, the main concept and fgo specifically but wasn't super interested at the time, and I was scrolling through this hellsite back when I only had 1 blog and I was following some fate fans but for different reasons and would see posts about fgo occasionally on my dash. So 1 day I'm scrolling and I see a post with pictures of a few fgo characters for whatever reason, I don't remember it's been 2 years, and then I saw 1 special servant who for whatever when I first saw them it's almost like something clicked in my head. This sounds kinda sad cause it's an anime character but it was like the closest I ever felt to love at first sight I guess, and if you couldn't guess who they were it was Quetzalcoatl. After looking at more pictures of her on here (not much then, still not much now) and finding out who she was, I decided to say fuck it and play the game just to get her. Now if you know even a little about fgo and Quetz specifically you know that that's pretty stupid, that she's story locked behind fucking Babylon and it was going to be a while till I could even think to get her normally, however I guess I had pretty good luck because there was a banner at the time that let you get the Babylonia characters regardless of story progress, so I had a chance to get her while still in fucking Fuyuki and after a few ten rolls and at least 2 Gorgons (whose been my 2nd fave ever since) it seemed like I wouldn't be able to get her (I was f2p at the time so buying Sq wasn't an option) but then after getting like 9-12 Sq I decided to do a few single rolls and them BAM there she was, Quetzalcoatl, I had gotten who I wanted and felt relieved as all hell. Unfortunately in the 2 years playing she's still np1 but I will get her np5 lv 100 10/10/10 on both rider and ruler because I love her.

And like I said getting into fate like this wasn't very smart and I wouldn't recommend anyone get into it or anything else like that but it's how I got into it and I don't really regret it because I love Quetz too much for that and I find the story too interesting as well.

[fandomfanfics12]

10,000 Hours-Part 1

Title: 10,000 hours Pairings: Steve x Tony Warnings: swearing, fluff, angst, slowburn. Summary: Tony’s a hotshot lawyer in upstate New York. Steve’s a single father in a small town out in North Carolina. When Tony’s law firm suggests he takes a year off after his Uncle Jarvis passes, Tony and Steve’s lives entangle themselves together. But their time together is limited, and their lives are so different that it may be impossible to ever make it work.  A/N: A new fic that i’ve been working on, hope you like it. 

Tony stared out of the window of his big fancy office, and admired the skyline of New York City. It would be the last good Friday night he’d get to have for a while. In exactly one weeks time, he had to defend his client of the charge of first degree murder. He heard the door open and sighed, Pepper’s heels clicked on the hardwood floor.

“Tony.” Her voice was calm, stern and he spun around in his chair. he plastered a smile onto his face, her blonde hair tied back in a tight bun.

“Hey Pep, is the car ready?” he asked and watched as her eyes darted down to the opened bottle of whiskey on his desk.

“We need to talk.” She said and Tony rolled his eyes, she knew how to ruin a good mood.

“Can we leave it for Monday? It’s eight o’clock on a Friday night, what are you even doing here?” Tony asked and she sat down across from him, a deep frown set upon her face.

“This is serious Tony.” She told him and he shrugged. It was always serious.

“Did dear old dad call?” Tony asked and stared up at the roof, not able to stand Pepper’s disapproving and pitying frown any longer.

“He did, actually.” Tony sighed and looked back to her. His father owned the law firm that Tony worked at, and it was nothing more than a royal pain in Tony’s ass.

“And what did Howard have to say?” Tony set the glass of whiskey down on the oak desk and Pepper glanced down at the tablet which she was holding a little too tightly in her hands. “Pep?” Tony asked, frowning and she looked back up at him.

“It was about your uncle Jarvis.” Tony rose a single brow.

“Uncle J? what about him?” Tony began to rifle through a drawer, looking for his phone which he’d dumped that morning.

“Tony he died.” Tony’s hand stilled in the drawer. He didn’t know Jarvis all that well, but the man had been nothing but kind towards Tony.

“Oh.” Tony looked back to her, her eyes shone with tears.

“I’m so sorry.” Tony shook his head, he didn’t want her to pity him.

“It’s alright Pepper. Death is a part of life.” Tony shrugged and she sighed.

“That’s not all I have to tell you.” Tony nodded and leaned back in the chair, Pepper tucked a piece of hair back with a trembling hand.

“It’s alright Pepper, do you need a moment?” she shook her head and Tony nodded.

“Jarvis had this big beach house up in North Carolina, he’s left it to you.” Tony nodded and tapped his fingers on the desk. He had no use for a beach house.

“Okay I’ll have it looked at and put on the market.” Pepper sighed.

“The funeral is next Friday.” Tony sighed and squeezed his eyes shut.

“Could it be pushed to Thursday?” he asked and when he opened his eyes, Pepper was tapping away at her tablet.

“No it can’t. Friday is the funeral.”

“But I have to be in court.”

“The other partners have put it to a vote and you’ve been kicked off the case.” At that, Tony snorted.

“Kicked off?”

“They’ve given it to Bruce.”

“Banner?” Tony shrieked and Pepper nodded her head. Tony swore, anger radiated throughout him.

“it’s non-negotiable Tony.”

“But doesn’t Banner have his own cases to work?” Tony asked and she shook her head.

“The other partners also agreed, upon your father’s recommendation, that you should take some time off.” At that, Tony snorted.

“Time off?” he lived and breathed his job. Time off was a foreign concept to him.

“A year.”

“A year?” his brows rose and she nodded her head.

“They’re all worried about you.”

“They’re my colleagues, it’s not their place to worry.” Tony said and Pepper sighed.

“You’re twenty-seven years old and you act like a toddler.” She told him, it was rather blunt but Tony took it in stride.

“And?”

“And the partners want you to clean your act up. If you don’t then it’s more than likely you’ll be pushed out of the company.” Tony sighed, he really didn’t have a choice then.

“So what? I just stay at home for the next year?”

“No. Your dad had the locks changed today.” Tony rose his brows.

“are you fucking serious?”

“He emailed me, he wants you to spend this time in North Carolina. Get some perspective.” Tony shook his head, this couldn’t be happening.

“Perspective?”

“I think it will be good for you. take the year off, come back hungry for the job.” Tony looked at her and then nodded.

“Alright, but only because I literally have no other option.” Tony ran a hand through his hair and Pepper visibly relaxed. Obviously she’d expected more of a fight from him.

“Great, your flight leaves in three hours.”

“three hours?”

“I sent someone to pack your bags earlier today. Happy will take you to the airport.”

-

Steve started the engine, the truck sputtered to life and he relaxed in his seat.

“Seatbelt.” He said as he put his own one.

“you really should get the engine looked at.” Peter said and Steve nodded.

“Yeah I know.” He thought of the jar of money he had underneath the bed, he’d get it looked at as soon as he could afford it.

“Dad?” Steve reversed out of their driveway and began the route to school.

“yeah Pete?”

“Are we going to Jarvis’ funeral on Friday?” Steve sighed and stopped at the red light.

“I dunno, I’ll see if I can get off work.” He promised and Peter looked out the window.

“so that’s a no.”

“Peter…” Steve trailed off and Peter shook his head.

“he was our neighbour dad.”

“We didn’t know him that well either kid.” Steve said and Peter sighed.

“I know, but Jarvis kept to himself. What if no one goes to the funeral?” Peter glanced over at Steve.

“people will go to the funeral Pete. Besides, you have school so you can’t go anyway.” Peter rolled his eyes and Steve pulled into a parking spot at the school.

“We should go.” Peter said and Steve looked over at him.

“since when did you care so much about Jarvis the next door neighbour?” Steve asked and Peter unbuckled his seat belt.

“It’s stupid.” He got out of the truck, Steve grabbed Peter’s bag before he could take off.

“Pete?” Steve rose a brow and Peter stared down at his shoes.

“I guess I was just hoping that we could go see mom while we were there.” Steve let go of the bag and sat back, he stared straight ahead and took a deep steadying breath.

“We can go see her on Friday if you want.” Steve’s voice was strained and Peter groaned.

“Dad-“ Steve shook his head, then cut Peter off.

“You should get to class, you’ve got that math test right?” Peter nodded and then slammed the door shut. he only looked back at Steve once. Then disappeared into the crowd. Steve rested his head on the steering wheel and forced himself to calm down. Now wasn’t the time, and it wasn’t the place. He pulled out of the school parking lot and drove to work, pushing away any thoughts about his dead ex-wife.

-

Tony had to catch a bus into town. Then he had to walk with his suitcase trailing behind him to the house with dodgy instructions from the bus driver. The house, was large, wooden and sat right on the beach. But it was also a mess, completely falling apart.

“Well this is just great.” Tony grumbled as he approached the front door. Only his father would be capable of not only shipping Tony away, but shipping him off to an inhabitable nightmare. Tony climbed up the rickety steps, dragging his suitcase up behind him and stood before an ancient door. Tony sighed and then shoved the rusted key into the door and unlocked it. he then had to throw his shoulder into it and the old door groaned as it swung open.

“Hello?” he called out, even though he knew that the house would be empty. There was no response and he stepped inside, leaving his suitcase on the old and rotting porch. It was worse on the inside. everything was covered in dust, and a foul smell hit Tony’s nose.

“Oh that’s disgusting.” He grumbled and pulled out his phone. He called Pepper and she answered on the third ring.

“Tony?”

“Hey Pep, I’m inside the house and I am telling you that I have learnt my lesson. Very funny. When’s my flight out of here?”

“In three-hundred-and-sixty-two days.” She said and Tony let out a humourless laugh.

“That’s funny. But seriously Pep I need to get out of here. This house is…” Tony trailed off and heard Pepper’s impatient sigh.

“Tony I told you that Jarvis hadn’t actually lived in the house for three years leading up to his passing.” At that, Tony snorted.

“That explains a lot.” The windows were covered in a gross film that made Tony second guess himself.

“I had the house checked before you arrived. It’s been given the all-clear.”

“Of what? I’m probably breathing in toxic fumes as we speak.” He shook his head, were they really forcing him to live there for the next year?

“I wouldn’t let you stay there if it were dangerous. You’re being overdramatic. Try and relax, or fix the house up. I don’t have time to listen to you whinge.” Pepper said and Tony sighed.

“Fine, I’ll let you get back to helping Banner on my murder trial.” He flicked on the lights and flinched at the sudden brightness.

“Bye Tony.” And then she hung up on him. He shoved the phone back into his pocket and looked around the house. Fix the house up. He shook his head, he could head back into town and see if anyone would do it for him. Or Tony could do it himself. He had vague memories of helping his uncle build up old cars when he was a kid. He had enjoyed being a handy man mechanic at the time. But rebuilding and fixing up an entire house?

But then again, it wasn’t like Tony had anything better to do.

“There must be at least one clean room in this house.” Tony grumbled to himself and then ventured further in, hoping to find a space he could dump his stuff.

-

When Friday rolled around, Peter had stopped talking to Steve. Steve had promised he’d take Peter to the cemetery but said he couldn’t pull Peter out of school for the funeral. But it was dead quiet at the hardware store where Steve worked, only him and his co-worker, Sam, occupied the place.

“Do you mind if I pop out for a couple hours?” Steve asked and Sam shrugged.

“you going to the funeral?” Sam asked and Steve nodded his head.

“Yeah, Peter made a big deal about it and he was my neighbour.”

“Steve you don’t have to reason with me, just go. I’ll makes sure the place doesn’t burn down while your gone.” Steve smiled and nodded.

“thanks Sam, I’ll see you later.” And then Steve was out the door, climbing into his truck. The funeral had started at two, and according to the clock on the dash it was now two-thirty. He might be able to catch the tail-end of it. Steve hoped no one would mind the old jeans, black t-shirt and blue flannel that he had on. He pulled into the funeral home and noted that there were only two other parked cars.

“Peter had a point.” Steve grumbled as he climbed out of the truck. He slipped inside to the funeral where there were only four other patrons. Steve sat down in the back, a part of him regretted coming in the first place. Three of the four people were unfamiliar to Steve. There was an elderly couple who had probably lived with Jarvis in the old-people’s home. Then there was Doc Strange, who had looked after Jarvis in all the hospital visits over the last few years. And then there was the man up the front.

Steve couldn’t really see him, but from the suit alone he knew the man wasn’t from around here. Jarvis had never mentioned any family. But then again, maybe they weren’t that close. Steve wondered what Peter would think of the man. Probably be relieved to know that at least someone showed up for the funeral. No sooner than two minutes since Steve had sat down was it over.

“I would now ask that everyone leave the room so the family can have a moment.” One of the attendants announced. The man at the front hunched over, was he crying? He looked over his shoulder and surveyed the room, and then his eyes met Steve’s.

Holy shit.

-

Tony wanted this to be over with. As soon as the funeral was done, he’d go to the town bar for a drink and tell Pepper to send him back home. He turned around in his seat to thank the doctor and the old couple for coming when he saw the man in the back. The guy had let his hair grow too long and it desperately needed a cut. The dirty blonde hair stood out on odd angles. Then there were his clothes, jeans and a flannel? Tony really did need to get the hell out of here.

-

Steve’s breath was taken away by the man’s face. He was hot, and he seemed arrogant enough to know it. there wasn’t even a hint of sadness on the man’s face. But he had to be family, otherwise why was the attendant ask everyone else to leave? Steve got to his feet and the man turned back to the front, was Steve supposed to say something to the guy? He decided it was better not, and stepped outside. He needed to pick Peter up from school soon anyway.

-

Tony sat down at the bar, beer in hand and stared at his cell phone. The first three times he’d tried Pepper, she hadn’t answered. He’d texted Bruce on how the case was going and got no response. How was he supposed to get out of here, if no one would answer their damn phone? Tony didn’t want to go back to that nightmare house of his, not tonight. He hadn’t expected the funeral to be so emotionally draining and he felt exhausted. He just wanted to turn off his emotions for a little while. He brought the cheap shitty beer to his mouth and took a swig, wishing for the scotch back home.

“Shut up!” someone yelled across the bar. Tony glanced over and recognised the dirty blonde mop of hair from the funeral. The guy was heavily intoxicated, but in better shape than the drunk he was yelling at. The drunk in question wore a dirty old baseball cap and an oversized shirt that was covered in grease stains.

“Everyone knows it was your fault that she died, did you kill the neighbour too?” baseball cap slurred his words, but they were loud enough to silence the room.

“I said shut up Benny.” Blonde guy snapped and Tony frowned. They needed to calm down.

“is the kid next? I bet he’s next, you’ve never treated him right.” baseball cap laughed, blonde smashed his fist into baseball caps nose.

“Steve!” a bartender cried but it was too late. The two men were on the floor, landings punches and kicks into one another. Tony stepped forward before he could think his decision through. He grabbed the blonde by the back of his shirt and dragged him back.

“Alright buddy you’ve had enough. Walk it off.” Tony told him and he scowled but didn’t argue.

“I hope you know that you won’t get away with this! I’ll be pressing charges and that kid will go to someone better!” baseball cap called after them. Tony walked the blonde outside and noticed the blood on the blonde’s knuckles.

“You alright?” Tony asked and the blonde glared at him.

“Do I look alright?” he snapped and Tony shrugged.

“You look drunk, where’s your kid?”

“At home.”

“you left your kid alone at home?” Tony asked, suddenly feeling a little apprehensive to the blonde.

“Peter, he’s sixteen and his friends were coming over. there’s this girl he likes so I thought I’d give him the house and…” Blonde trailed off and shook his head.

“Teenager.” Tony said and Blonde nodded.

“Yeah, drives me crazy sometimes but I love him.” Tony looked down at the concrete between them.

“Thanks for coming to the funeral today.” Tony said and the guy tensed beside him.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Tony’s head snapped up at that.

“How’d you know Uncle J?” Tony asked and blonde rose a brow.

“Uncle J?” he shook his head and Tony tilted his own.

“Something funny about that?”

“No it’s just, the Jarvis I knew wouldn’t answer to anything other than Jarvis.”

“Sounds like uncle J.” the night grew silent around them, Tony eyed his left hand where the knuckles had all split open.

-

“Jarvis was my neighbour.” Steve said at last, remembering that the brunette had originally asked Steve a question. His hands was killing him and he felt incredibly embarrassed for losing his temper. He hoped Benny would forget to lodge a complaint tomorrow, this would blow over. Peter would lose it at Steve if he knew. Steve had spent the whole afternoon in the cemetery with Peter, sitting at Peggy’s grave. Peter had told Steve he had friends coming over and Steve had said he’d stay out, Peter had argued but Steve had wanted a drink.

“You’re the neighbour?” Brunette asked and Steve nodded his head.

“I’m Steve.” He held out his hand and the brunette shook it.

“Tony.” Steve smiled and let his hand drop back to his side.

“Nice to meet you Tony.” His head was starting to pound and Tony’s eyes darted back down to Steve’s swollen and injured hand.

“Well, since we’re neighbours, walk back with me?” Tony asked and Steve nodded his head.

“Yeah, alright.” He glanced at his truck in the parking lot and Tony shook his head.

“Nope, you are in no state to drive and I’ve had one too many. Hand me your keys.” Steve rose a brow but did so.

“I wasn’t going to drive.” Steve told him and Tony nodded.

“Sure you weren’t. so were you close with uncle J?” Steve shook his head and they began to walk back home.

“No, he mostly kept to himself.” Tony nodded his head, there was a light breeze and it was warm. Nice weather for a walk.

“That’s uncle J, even I didn’t know him that well.” Steve nodded and then silence settled around them.

-

They arrived at Steve’s house and Tony noted that the lights were still on.

“Well, thanks for the walk.” Steve said and Tony nodded his head.

“Well we were going the same way. Put some ice on that hand.” Steve laughed and nodded.

“Yeah, will do, thanks for pulling me off the other guy, I’m not usually that aggressive.” Steve scratched the back of his head and Tony shrugged. He could already tell that, Steve seemed so calm and collected. He didn’t seem like the type of guy that just randomly exploded.

“Anytime.” Tony smiled and Steve nodded. A solid five seconds passed and Steve still didn’t move.

“my keys?” he asked and Tony felt his cheeks flame with embarrassment.

“oh, right, sorry.” He let out a nervous chuckle and dug through his pockets. He found the keys and handed them to Steve and Steve nodded.

“alright well, guess I’ll see you around?” Tony nodded his head.

“Yeah, see you around.” And then Tony headed back to his own personal monster house, suddenly not hating this town as much as he had originally.