#I've had this screenshot forever and it took me forever to figure out what it was his face reminded me of

[march-harrigan]

When Litwak plugs in a new racing game.

[xxoxobree]

Late Nitez

Miles Morales x Black!Fem!Reader.

Contents: You and Miles Stay up way past your bedtime on FaceTime

WARNINGS: Like one cuss word 🤷🏽‍♀️

It had become a hilarious routine for you and Miles now; every night at 8:30 after a long day of school and homework, you would eagerly open up the FaceTime app and call each other to talk about the most ridiculous things, really, until you both fell asleep, snoring in unison. And tonight was no different.

The blue light from Miles' phone illuminated his face as he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling and contemplating the meaning of life (or what he wanted for breakfast). He listened to your not-so-quiet breaths coming through the phone, bringing him a sense of comfort and the occasional laugh . It had been a while since you two actually spoke, and you were probably drooling on your pillow by now. But just to make sure, he decided to break the silence with a burst of obnoxious energy.

"Yo, you there?" he shouted, probably waking his parents in the process. Miles couldn't resist. You were in that awkward state between sleep and wakefulness when his voice jolted you back to consciousness, making you snort in surprise. Letting out a little groan (or was it a snore?), you sleepily responded with a soft "mhm". You yawned wide enough to swallow a small planet before speaking again, your voice still laced with drowsiness and the remnants of a dream about your favorite actor. "I'm here."

"Oh, hey love," Miles chuckled.

You let out another yawn, your eyes still closed, listening to his sweet voice. "Hey."

Miles rolled his eyes. "Is that all your sleepy ass has to say? Hey?" A smile tugged at his lips as he lifted his phone to his face, waiting for your reply. His smile grew bigger as he saw your sleeping figure, the light from the phone lighting up your perfect face.

"Miles, I'm barely awake. Are you taking screenshots?" you said groggily, using your hand to cover your face as you heard the snapping noises.

"Awe mama, come on, you look so cute," Miles responded. Another moment of silence passed before Miles switched apps, opening Instagram and posting the screenshots he just took of you two to his story, tagging you and captioning it, "I miss you."

Your phone buzzed, making you peek an eye and see that he tagged you in his story. You opened the notification and giggled. "Really, Miles? I miss you too."

Miles felt his stomach turn at your words, his breath picking up. A slight anxiety and guilt filled him. Was it wrong for him to be in love with his best friend? Miles' eyes flickered back on his screen to your face and the way the phone light highlighted all of his favorite features of your face, as if teasing him almost. He could look at you forever, even if you were asleep. Would you feel the same if he told you the truth? He thought to himself.

"Miles?" you called out to him, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"You're quiet, you mad at me?" you asked.

Miles took a deep breath, preparing himself up for the big reveal. "Mad nahh," he muttered under his breath, hoping it would go unnoticed. "But you wanna know what's up?"

"What?" you asked, awaiting his answer.

"I'm head over heels, babyyyyy!" he sang out, trying to mask his nerves with a touch of musical theatrics. You couldn't help but burst into laughter at his impromptu song.

"Seriously?"

"Yup," Miles replied, his voice cracking slightly as the effort of keeping his eyes open and staying up late just to talk to you caught up with him. "Wanna hear something else?"

"Sure, Miles," you said , your curiosity now piqued.

"I've got a major crush on you and I love you," he blurted out, finally releasing the words that had been building up inside him for weeks. The room fell silent as he anxiously awaited your response. "Miles..." he waited for your next words, his doubts starting to creep in. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything. Maybe you'd think he was a total weirdo now. But then, you said it.

"I feel the same way. I love you too."

It took every ounce of self-control for Miles not to squeal like a little girl. "Uh, cool," he managed to mutter, desperately trying to compose himself.

"Cool? That's all you're gonna say, Morales, after I just confessed my love?" you teased, unable to contain your laughter.

He joined in on the laughter. "So, uh, will you be my girlfriend, y/n?"

"Absolutely, Miles. I'd love to."

Copyright © 2023 Breeandhermunches. All rights reserved.

[katyspersonal]

I played more SOTE today!! I have mixed feelings because today just happened to be pure RAGE because of my awful skill issue.. but at the same time I feel so ALIVE xD (two parter)

1) So first of all, I got back to Specimen Storehouse to finish whatever was that business with Ansbach and Freyja! She gave an interesting dialogue about how yeah honor and shit but what Radahn would actually like is to live so he could wage war forever 💀 Definitely the character of all time gghguj

2) So I decided to explore a little more of that Church District below before I continue to seek my way to upper area! Turned out that Tree Spirit did NOT die due to a bug..... but it did now. XD

And dropped edgy (literally) sorcery lol

3) NEW NAMED CHARACTER!!!!!!!

Yeah, I've been noticing that this area has Fire Knights with another variant of the head piece! I even had an idea to grind these guys for it, but I just felt as thought it'd be pointless. And I was right! This mask dropped from non-respawning enemy! So yeah, the fire zombies raising in this area were given lore, I was pleased by such amount to detail yet again 🤔

4) So I kept looking for the way back in the Storehouse, but took the turn I did NOT try to take, and ended up in that weird golden-black area on the map that has been making me curious for a while!

5) ....ъ_ъ So, I was running around, surprised by how empty it was, and even questioned whether it was pointless sort of? So I decided to just check the giant flower and.. ..... oh my fuuUCKING God.

6) So it was another time where I kept howling about how awful/unfair/hard/etc this battle was and wanted to quit except I didn't! You see, at first I was playing as usual, and the stage 2 was a surprise. But the LEVEL of my skill issue started to show up at its finest here, because I absolutely could not dodge its briars attacks and I barely managed to heal in time!

I had to die MANY times, learning from my mistakes and just trials what to do and slowly adapting.. You see, it SHOULD have been obvious that hitting the "face" was the most effective, but nope! I only figured many attempts later! Just as how """pointless""" critical hit before phase transition was not pointless at all! At least I learned to 1) block strike attack and roll magic attack 2) that I can't use magic so it'd be better to place all 14 flasks at Crimson 3) figured to summon mimic in a creative way; since it gets summoned in the equipment I had at THE moment of summon but AI can't be trusted with blocking normally, I summoned it while two-handing the weapon so it hits stronger and then got my shield back XD

7) .........

I swear, sometimes I regret not being able to stream, because y'all should have seen my reaction when it turned out that this enemy had THREE stages, not two...... :')

8) I actually died just just JUST the very last moment ;-; I screenshotted it, it is on PS for now, it was SOOO infuriating. I can't even explain how I resisted the urge to scream and throw my controller because that required inhumane willpower. But hell if I didn't feel ALIVE at that moment xD

9) AND I KILLED IT EVENTUALLY FGFGCGGB

^ Got genuinely surprised by this drop!

10) I came back at Storehouse, FINALLY, and THIS TRAITOR @val-of-the-north IS NO LONGER MY FRIEND!!!!1

I asked him about this symbol being here since as I said earlier, I assumed that the reoccurring symbol with a fire and a circle on flags and such found here and there represented Messmer and Rellana; an impression I've got because I first saw it in her castle!

....but then Val, this RAT, casually said that it is actually likely another symbol of Messmer: snakes rather than fire. And of course. God of course it makes much more sense. It is all over this Storehouse. Yes we found a shield Rellana used for the ritual to prove loyalty to the Erdtree once here, but the overlapping circles straight up coil like snakes. And yet you TRAITOR never corrected me when I wrongly assumed that the symbol of fire + two circles overlapping meant Messmer and Rellana being allies. Goddamit STOP LETTING ME LOOK STUPID ON PUBLIC *bonks you with the newspaper*

11) So after some running and collecting (got a golden spell that some Fire Knights use), I've found my way out and first ran into some really strong knight that used GRAVITY MAGIC! I attempted to fight him but like, no. Nope. So I left him for later, and Val recommended me to use 'O, Mother' gesture to finally open the secret passage to where I was actually looking.

12) And hoooo boy... I already suspected where this was going because even on the map there were depictions of Golden leaves (on the Finger Ruins) part.

It was THE spoilered area itself!

13) What instantly struck me was that I could SWEAR it had to be the exact same flowers as on the painting of 'healthy' Midra Manse. I did not have a good image as I hit it early by a mistake, so I asked Val to fetch me the image, annnnd....

Look, sure, it could simply be blue curtains and obviously just a 'normal' flora of this realm, so of course it still exists in THE one place Messmer didn't burn, but dead everywhere else. (Here because of Frenzy + no sunlight). But also Hornsent Inquisitors did bully Midra and his followers (which did lead to Frenzied Flame business), and Ymir mentioned something about Marika's roots being placed in madness? Who the hell knows anymore...

14) NOOOOO WAY, WHEN YOU GET TO THIS POINT, A FRAGMENT OF THEME OF MARIKA/RADAGON STARTS PLAYING ;-;

THE IMPACT

15) Definitely visiting this place by myself felt more impactful than simply reading/watching this part of the lore..

16) I got SO angry at the Tree Sentinel though that for the first time EVER I decided to try and fight while on Torrent! And it was so effective that it gave me an idea to not follow further today but go and get that boss' ass from earlier like this! Which was the start of a big waste of time, but perhaps I am getting ahead of myself.. -_-

(Will share in the next post because Tumblr doesn't respect the way I choose to share screenshots for the girls ( @heraldofcrow ))

[glennsparadice]

Do you want to talk about the ending of AOAS? I saw you posted about it and same same same. It's been years for me and I'm still devastated. On one hand, I'm so proud of Greyson because he did the right thing for his future and his character arc, but on the other the Thunderhead needs a massive hug so bad 😭

What did you think of "53 seconds to sunrise?" It's my favourite scene and I will never get over it, and it hurts so much because the Thunderhead got to see one brief, perfect glimpse of everything it could never have and then it had to force itself to let go, knowing Greyson would probably end things the way he ultimately does. Also, what are your thoughts about Cirrus?

yes! yes! I love talking about books :3

for the final hundred pages of the toll, i could NOT put my book down, i was so deep into reading, everything was so vivid. and i was very entertained, as well as nervous, as well as curious. the only moment i had to pause for was when uh Greyson and the Thunderhead had their little talk

i genuinely did not see that coming, my heart started racing (and i cried a little) Tbh before I started reading the series i didn't even know there would be an AI character, but sometime during the first book, when Citra spoke to the thunderhead, I thought....oh my god... possible new AI added to my favorite AI pile??? It quickly became my favorite character during the second book, and I loved the Thunderhead and Greyson's dynamic.. so sweet, so wholesome,, I WASNT EXPECTING PAIN

makes it sadder cuz of how compliant the thunderhead was to greyson's demand. it didn't beg for forgiveness or ask greyson to think things through. it knew greyson had made a choice, and this choice - despite the pain it brought them both - was the correct choice. a truly benevolent and loving AI.

I think the thunderhead's ending is sadder than most AI stories I've read (so far) because of how strongly it feels love. Hate is a strong emotion, but so is love. The thunderhead loves humanity and does its best to make the perfect choices. It calls itself perfect, and it is, in a way.. just like it has imperfections, in a way. I think it realizes how much it longs for and how much it lacks. And it also definitely knows that its love for Greyson has influenced its life so much. So, to take that all away, and simply live with the fact that you love still, and love always, and love patiently, but hurt much worse... "I will be alone. I will be alone, but it is right that I should be. It is necessary." ARRRGHHHHWAAAHHH

anyway, i miss the thunderhead's thoughts in between chapters, but if we had gotten one for this chapter... i would be heartbroken forever

53 seconds to sunrise had me giggling... and tearing up. very bittersweet. imagining the thunderhead able to truly experience was so sweet, i thought if it had gotten a hug, it might have started screeching. (i mean it was already running in circles, my poor baby hasn't experienced everything, yet a simple sunrise and touch of a cheek makes it so giddy)

cirrus was so cute! i figured the iterations were the thunderhead (technically) speaking to itself, but like the characters, it took me a while to figure out exactly what was going on. in my head i read cirrus's voice as higher pitched than the thunderhead's, with more energy and youth. if a voice could have a color, Cirrus's voice would be yellow (at least that's how i see it.. idk if they share a same voice) i love that little AI and its constant saying of "actually, no."

great series but I fear I’ll always be a little sad because of it 😿

+ some screenshots from my insta spam of my live reactions to these scenes

[futureworkplace]

Progress Update #6

What's been happening

I've been doing final polishes on my demo. I got some worthwhile playtesting done this past week from a couple of peers that gave great feedback. It's gotten me to fix up some parts of the demo that seriously needed attention, either grammatically or outright game breaking (causing crashes and unintended actions), the playtesting was 100% worth it.

What's Next?

Further polishing of code and maybe some last minute playtesting. I want to see if I can get some final art put into the game, but it seriously isn't my main priority. If I can't get it in on time, I did what I could and I'm overall satisfied with what I got.

I also plan on including audio, but it is also not as much as a priority as the coding is, but it is in second place for priority.

Hiccups, Hurdles and AHA! Moments.

Okay, so a major hiccup AND hurdle I came across was a genuinely game breaking bug that wasn't allowing the demo to end properly. The combat minigame I have in the game was looping on itself during THE ENTIRE runtime of the game, so it was causing it to never finish and resulted in an outright crash. It took me multiple tries to figure it out, but that's what led me to my AHA! moment: Stop the "while loop" (which I intentionally coded in at the beginning) and just force the game to loop in a dirtier way that makes the game function better. Maybe if I had more time and knowledge, I could have gotten the minigame finished the way I wished, but the way I fixed it will do.

I ran into multiple hiccups while I was observing my playtesters that I can't even list here without the post going on FOREVER. So, just know that I ran into MANY hiccups and I managed to deal with all of them.

Where I am on my Timeline

At best, I'm still a full week behind. At worse, I'm still a month behind. I didn't really get my playtesting started whenever I wanted, the demo isn't entirely finished or completely in a place where I wanted it, I didn't get to start coding until Spring Break, and I didn't have the knowledge needed to make the game happen until Spring Break. I definitely went into this... ambitiously. I heard somewhere that ambition is an artist killer. While I am not dead, I definitely took some fatal wounds from this entire process. I've had to scrap A LOT of things from my documentation, workback plan, and other things to get the game in a decent place. I hope my demo satisfies in the end.

Some Visual Documentation

I don't really have any visual documentation from many of my playtesters, but I do have some screenshots from one of them at least. I don't want to post so much that it'd reveal a lot of the demo, but here is what they reported to me.

Game breaking crash I was talking about

[veebs-hates-video-games]

I'm not entirely sure what to say about Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. It's good?

I first attempted to play it forever ago, but I only made it like 70% of the way through. I never had a GBA or anything else I could play GBA games on, but my ex had gotten me a Dingoo. Picture basically a GBA Micro, except with four face buttons and an SD card slot, and also it had emulators for basically every 2D platform from the NES through the GBA (and there was a third-party PS1 emulator you could install that worked ok with a decent number of games too).

It worked pretty well for most stuff I played on there, and it seemed to be going perfectly with Aria of Sorrow too, but I eventually managed to get it stuck in a weird state where no matter what I did it would crash ~30 seconds after loading my save. I never could figure out why or how to fix it, and I just kind of gave up after a while and never touched it again even though it had been a lot of fun.

And then finally a couple years ago Konami took a break from releasing shitty low budget spinoffs of formerly good series and making pachinko machines and put out the Castlevania Advance Collection, and then finally more recently the Switch version was on sale when I wasn't in the middle of a bunch of other stuff and felt up to playing through the entire game again.

It's still one of my favorite metroidvanias (and definitely my favorite Castlevania) up there with stuff like Super Metroid, and it holds up pretty well. I did a 100% souls run and had a good time with it. I know I've complained multiple times recently about Squenix trying and kinda failing with their attempts at proper real time combat that actually feels good in stuff like Harvestella and NEO: TWEWY, but here's this GBA game from like 20 years earlier running on a potato that feels tight and crisp and has good feedback on stuff.

I can tell something does that stuff well when I start picking up on things like noticing you can cancel out of the recovery lag from attacks if your attack is a few frames before you land from a jump, letting you attack again almost immediately. I never figure things like that out when they're so mushy that it's not obvious or hardly makes a difference.

And of course the pixel art still looks good and the music is still fun, and the writing is obviously still complete nonsense just like it's always been in Castlevania games. I probably won't ever get around to the other ones in the collection, but this one is still definitely worth it after all these years.

And just to show how far behind I get on making these posts sometimes, I screenshotted that when I saw it on Steam because it was almost the same day that I got it, and I saved it as a reminder to poke @ion-somnia about it because it was a funny coincidence and I hadn't in a while. And then obviously I didn't, and then even more time passed after I finished the game before getting around to this, so I'm totally doing great at doing all sorts of things before I half/completely forget about them, which is really useful when I try to write these posts so I can remember later what I thought about things when someone asks me. Might work better if I remembered to write them before I forget playing them...

Oh also the fake out intro for the Balore boss fight is too good:

[randoimago]

I have a question for you, what's some advice you can think to give to other fanfic writers?

Oh jeez am I qualified to give advice 😖 I'll write some things down that have helped me or things I've noticed. Note that you don't have to do any of this, this is just some advice.

I mean, the number one thing is write what makes you happy. It took me a while to figure this out, but don't force yourself to write something that you just don't have inspiration for or something that isn't your thing just to make your readers happy. Write what you like.

This one is for tumblr specifically I think, but I have found a few fanfics that I really liked but had like no likes or anything on them which confused me. When I tried to find out why, I realized the tags. Tumblr is a sight where you need to tag everything. Seriously, go crazy with tags (but keep them relevant, I forever get annoyed when I look in one character tag and see a completely different fandom because someone just threw all the popular tags on it).

Don't be scared of the block button. When I first started, I didn't like blocking anyone even if I got some mean messages. It's so much easier to just block an anon in your ask box than reply to it (or if you want to be petty then you can screenshot and put that in a new post while blocking the original message). It's just not worth your emotional/mental health to respond to all the annoying anons.

This is something that I'm still learning to do, but reblog/share other writer's works. They worked hard on their stuff and it deserves love too, especially if you really enjoy it. I know you might be shy about the idea of the author seeing any comments you leave, but it's worth it! (I have never seen a writer say, "How dare you reblog my thing" it's almost always "Thank you so much!" or something along those lines).

These are a few main things I can think of. If I come up with anything else then I'll make sure to add them!! Thanks for the question, anon!!

[leffee]

Minka: “Vinnie, hey Vinnie!”

Minka: “Vinnie, are you even listening to me?”

Minka: “Vinnie, seriously, I've been trying to talk to you for the past five minutes. Are you even here?”

Minka: *Sighs* “Unbelievable. You're like a statue, except with drool.”

Minka: “VINNIE!!!!”

Vinnie: *Snaps out of it momentarily* “Huh? Oh, uh, sorry Minka. What were you saying?”

Minka: *Raises an eyebrow* “You know, Vinnie, if you put half as much effort into our conversation as you do into ogling Shahrukh, we might actually get somewhere.”

Vinnie: *Blushes* “It's not like that. I just... um... appreciate his dedication to lawn care..”

Minka: “Right. So much dedication that you're practically drooling.”

Vinnie: *Sheepishly* “Can you blame me though? Have you seen those abs??”

Minka: 😒

Vinnie: *Looks guilty* “You're right, Minka. I'm sorry. I'll try to be more present.”

Minka: *sighs* “Just try not to burn your retinas staring at Shahrukh for too long, okay?”

Vinnie: *Grins* “No promises, but I'll do my best!”

Bro, you don't understand how many times I reread this one because it makes me so happy, bc yes yes, for once Vinnie gets to enjoy finer things in life :))) his obsession with muscles, yet he's such a skinny boy, goood good, size difference, you know? *screenshots the shit out of it*. Let me just...

"Vinnie, hey, Vinnie!" Minka has been yelling into her friend's ear since what felt like forever, yet even in spite of the sheer loudness of her pitch, Vinnie didn't show any signs of reacting to her. “Vinnie, are you even listening to me?” But his eyes were still stuck on the figure in he distance going at a leisurely pace around the huge area covered with grass. “Vinnie, seriously, I've been trying to talk to you for the past five minutes. Are you even here?” Physically, yes, but mentally? Minka wasn't convinced. She sighed. “Unbelievable. You're like a statue, except with drool.” She took a deep, deep breath and... “VINNIE!!!!”

That finally made him jump in place, his facial expression turning from a dreamy to a distressed one in a flash.

"Huh? Oh, uh, sorry Minka. What were you saying?” His gaze was still glassy, but at least there were sparks of recognition in his eyes again.

“You know, Vinnie," Minka raised her brow, "if you put half as much effort into our conversation as you do into ogling Shahrukh, we might actually get somewhere.” She didn't come here all this way to stand in place, they had a task to do! Honestly, she could never understand how anyone could stand in place motionlessly, doing nothing, let alone for so long.

“It's not like that." Vinnie blushed furiously and turned his face away. "I just... um... appreciate his dedication to lawn care.” He returned to staring inensely at shirtless Sharukh. He felt like his eyes were about to bulge out, but he couldn't stop himself. Ah... lawn care... he loved... lawn care.

“Right. So much dedication that you're practically drooling.”

“Can you blame me though?" Vinnie hurriedly brought his hand to his mouth and wiped away the saliva spring slowly forming there. "Have you seen those abs??” Despite himself he couldn't stop the red hues appearing back on his cheeks. He had such a need to squeal right now. Still, from the corner of his eye he caught sight of Minka's half-lidded eyes and corners of her mouth slightly down. “You're right, Minka." He shook his head and looked away from Sharukh. "I'm sorry. I'll try to be more present.”

Minka sighed. “Just try not to burn your retinas staring at Shahrukh for too long, okay?”

“No promises, but I'll do my best!” Vinnie grinned, making Minka huff out in satisfaction. Maybe they'd be able to do what she came here for after all. However, as soon as she looked at Vinnie's face again his eyes were repeatedly escaping in the direction of shirtless Sharukh.

"Oh, jeez." She slumped and then simply wrapped her arms around Vinnie from behind and began dragging him towards the inside and safety of the walls were Sharukh would, hopefully, not be seen. Vinnie wasn't helping her whatsoever, but at least he didn't protest either. Slowly, with a little extra weight in her arms. but steadily she made her way towards the door.

:D

[moonyslove78]

I'm sorry this took me longer than I expected to get done and posted, but as I mentioned, the Tumblr mobile app was being absolute trash and I ended up having to transfer all my screenshots for the fic to my laptop and re-type everything into a word document because...technology. 😮‍💨😑

But I've finally gotten around to getting it all finished, so here it is!

** "DOHO: PETER'S POV" SPOILERS UNDER CUT!! **

(If you haven't read it yet, do not continue on until you do!)

I wanna start by saying that the original "Dancing On My Own" had to be one of the most heart wrenchingly beautiful fics I've had the pleasure of reading. I can't remember the last time I cried throughout an entire fic, but that one did it to me. And in such a perfect way.

To get a bit personal, I grew up without my "father" because he was an abusive asshole who my mom ended up getting away from when I was 2 years old. (I had my grandpa, who helped raise me while my mom was a single parent working 2-3 jobs to support us & then my step-dad when he came into the picture, so I had a "father figure"...but still a missing piece to my puzzle of life) Needless to say, I've always felt a connection to a character when it comes to them having "Daddy Issues" of any kind.

This one really resonated with me because as far as I was concerned, this made me appreciate my mom that much more for getting me and her out of that situation and away from him. There could've been so many different ways that my life could've went had she not done so and as I read what the character was going through with her own deadbeat father, I couldn't help but think, "Damn, that could've been me..." And for those that were in that situation, I hold a special place in my heart for.

Okay, so now onto the rest... 😁❤️

I absolutely love that at such a young age, Peter sees all that potential in her. No matter what could be holding her down in her life, he believes this girl could move mountains with her smile. Bloom flowers with her laugh. Chase away the rain clouds and bring out the sun with the love in her heart. It's a perfect mix of love and adoration that springs forth the feeling that they're meant to be and they're only in Second grade. And the fact that his devotion to seeing through anything she wants to accomplish, even if she can't physically accomplish it, is the sweetest thing and most freeing feeling to her. So even when she can't make it over the bar, she still is as happy as if she would've been succesful.

When he finds out exactly what has been happening to her through his own oncogene, the rage he felt and the protection he wanted to show her was so damn heartbreaking. He wanted so badly to help her right there and then, but was too worried of what the consequences of his actions were because he was at such a young age still. My heart broke for them both. 💔

This scene was the sweetest damn thing ever! The fact that he could've thought up anything in his mind to "make into a constellation" but he chose a castle in the stars. One that could house her when she needed it. That would keep her safe and feeling loved and at home. And that he wanted to live there with her, so that they would never be apart and he could be the one to protect her. UGH!! 😭🥰

I had to giggle at that line about him being short forever. Like oh, Peter... if you only knew the changes you're going to go through in a few years... 😂 And the fact that he's starting to notice her changes in a different way. At that stage in life, that's really all a girl could ask for! A cute boy who's your best friend to look at you and see your beauty shining through all that pubescent non-sense. Find yourself a boy who can do both and keep him! ❤️

Owwww!! My heart is aching! ❤️‍🔥😮‍💨 That is all I have to say here.

The fact that after all that had gone on. Her shutting down and becoming cold and mean towards everyone including him, her still going through the motions of life in general, being jealous and neglected because of his obsession with Gwen as well as him losing his "affections" towards her, (which I had been curious, had she not closed herself off and been cold towards him, would that still have happened? Would he still have turned to Gwen and away from her? Or was it merely his feelings for Gwen at the time that made him pull away from his love for her?) Then to them basically becoming non-existent and hardly even speaking half the time. This boy still ran to her for the comfort he sook. He needed her, regardless if it was in a selfish way, since he was the one who ultimately made her feel abandoned (though she was half at fault, I sympathize with her more because he totally could've tried a little harder to break through her walls she was building). He still went to her immediately for support. And she didn't hesitate once to give it to him. 😭❤️

This part broke me. I know he was going through all this alone when he didn't need to. Had he just went to her for the support he needed then, he may not have ended up turning down the road he did after Gwen died. But he let his fear drive him, so he didn't go to her. And the mistakes me made following were detrimental to how his life would change once the guilt of it all kicked in. Knowing that and watching him fold in on himself hurt my heart so much.

This broke my heart into a million pieces! The second he said "I an not your boy!" I lost my mind. I have never had the urge to reach through my screen and strangle Peter Parker as much as I wanted to here. I understood his emotions in that moment, bur for him to say those words to May specifically, I just couldn't handle it. Then all I wanted to do was hug May and throttle Peter. I was almost glad he "left" when he did, cause if I were May, I may have knocked some sense into him. But I also couldn't get the thought out of my head that no matter the words he said to hurt her, she would still spend her time wondering and worrying about where he was and what he was doing. So I was then brokenhearted again.

Okay, I may have lied above. NOW I wanna reach through the screen and strangle him more. The fact that he justified his actions in his mind as "It's okay to fuck them and then let her take the heat for even bringing him here because now they'll leave and it'll just be the two of them. And besides, they didn't like her anyways.... they were rude and talked shit all the time about her." Okay, Peter, so your first choice of retaliation is to fuck them both and when they find out, all hell breaks loose for her?" I was reaching my boiling point with this situation. I almost thought (even though I knew how the first version ended) he wasn't going to redeem himself for just this alone. And there was still so much story left to go!

Just when I thought his brain couldn't make him do even more non-sensical things... Things were going so well Peter! And yeah, you may have been just skating through school because you're grades were passing and you were at least attempting to lighten the load on her shoulders with that. Let's just fuck everything up here because she can't love you, or else she's going to die. And you can't lose her like that. So better choice is to do something like this to make her feel inadequate again. Then, she may not physically be done...but emotionally, for you, who could blame her for straight up checking out? I think her next step was her best move yet...

But I should've known (or remembered at least lol) that there was no way Peter was going to allow her to be happy without it being with him. His indecisive feelings with her were written so perfectly, Katie! I could feel the tension he had within himself as he battled with what he needed to do. With him trying to do the right thing, but also needing to be selfish because as much as he didn't want to risk losing her to death... he also couldn't stand the thought of anyone but him making her happy. And I was kind of vindicated when he realized that she was probably having those same feelings (actually worse, Peter because her home life was also something she was dealing with in that time period) when he was obsessing over Gwen. I was fairly sure he could've done something a lot less violent then tasing poor Gabe, but in the moment, Peter is still Peter. And he isn't that great at making rash decisions in the moment. So I suppose at least he didn't kill him or harm him to the point of no return... 👀😬

I reacted kind of instantaneously here... Like, I knew what happened following, but it was that initial reaction of him thinking of Gwen while they were kissing and his first reaction was that he "Couldn't do this" and pulled away. My brain needed to catch up with the plot cause I was like "NO! DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE WALK AWAY FROM HER NOW, PETER BENJAMIN PARKER!!" But then it shifted when he spoke... I was able to calm down and breathe again. And I realized then that he was doing the absolute right thing. She needed to know EVERYTHING in order for them both to freely and fully give each other the love they deserved.

The description of this "new beginning" was perfection. I just had to throw this in there. No other words to describe it. 🥰❤️

When I say I bawled... 😭😭😭

First, the fact that he still hadn't called and apologized to May, after all of that time... ugh!! I am still mad at you for that, Peter! But I'll forgive him... because the amount of time he's let fear drive him to his actions, I can totally feel the pain and heartache he, himself, was feeling that he did that to them both. It's going to take a while before he can fully forgive himself for those actions. Hell, tbh, I see the two of them forgiving him before he forgives himself.

But it didn't matter because "Only for now", they would work through it all together. They would learn to forgive some of the hardest things one could seek forgiveness for. I loved that you ended it so much more realistically then them just falling into each other's arms and immediately forgiving him of all he's done.

I also was so happy she was strong enough to tell him that they both needed to make a stop at the hospital and apologize to poor Gabe. Because I was still a bit salty about how Peter handled that whole situation.

Your writing never ceases to amaze me, @blooming-violets! I didn't know I needed Peter's POV of this, until you mentioned it being a thing in the works and that's when I realized how much that could explain. This was just as perfect, if not more so since we were getting the information we missed out on in her version. They go so well together, but I also didn't feel like I was reading the same story again just told by Peter. Which unfortunately is what happens a lot in those kind of "sequels". There wasn't a bunch of repetition and it was almost like reading a whole new fic.

To be completely honest, I wouldn't mind seeing a third part of how their lives ended up after therapy and forgiveness. Even in a smal drabble form later on down the road. But where you've ended it now was perfect. Then, no matter how anyone views their relationship, there wasn't any "true" ending (whether it be happily ever after or them just becoming friends again in the end... ) That's a great way to have this type of fic end. (Even though I'd like to think therapy and forgiveness came easily for both of them and they end up married and having babies and living a simple, carefree life together... because I am a stickler for a good happy ending too. 😅)

Anyway, I'm done rambling on and on... just know your writing is amazing and this part really told the story from a different perspective, allowing us that glimpse into Peter's mind, soul and heart. A way to be able to tell where he was coming from in his decisions he made, even when they were infuriating most of the time. 😅

Thank you for this one, Katie! ❤️❤️

[tasm!peter x nameless she/her character] 

Summary: Unrequited love, heartbreak, and fear of the unknown. Every relationship can be seen through two different sets of eyes. Peter has his own memories of his best friend, his own story to share, and his own mistakes to make. (10K words) 

[The parallel fic to Dancing On My Own, please read that one first as this  heavily weaves through the original story, some parts towards the end might not make complete sense without it]

Warnings: Gwen’s death is a key part of Peter’s later personality, angst, depression, losing of one’s sense of self, mild PTSD flashbacks, guilt and self hatred, familial physical and verbal abuse of a minor, descriptions of potentially disturbing rough sex scenes bordering on the line between abuse and consent at the hands of Peter, brief murderous intent of a woman during sex 

Second Grade: Over the Bar 

There was something so enticing about the way she would throw her head back on the swings. Her hair would flow out behind her and catch in the wind. She would lean her entire body back with her legs out straight. Her eyes would close and her face would relax into a blissful serenity. She was flying. He knew that’s what she imagined inside her mind whenever she got on the swings. Flying away from everything that shackled her to the real world. Once she told him that when she got high enough, she was going to let go, and soar all the way to Norway to visit the trolls that lived there. He wasn’t sure if trolls were real or imaginary but she believed in them so that meant Peter did too. She always loved her fantasy stories and he never got tired of listening to her talk about them.

Keep reading

[whats-the-story-tc]

21st of April, 2020

"The One with the Fairy Tale"

(Pssst! If I were you, I'd read this post first before starting this new one!)

I cannot believe this is my life.

A couple minutes before the 8 AM rush hour, a Google Classroom notification from V arrived. Then another. Someone likes a spam, I thought, before opening the first one.

Sigh of relief. It was only the essay I'd already sent her. On to the next one, the detailed info on what we were covering today. The play on the table is both figuratively and literally a fairy tale. V, pretty critical of the play and its character work itself, made sure to bring one particular monologue to our attention, which tackles a rather difficult topic in a pretty simple play about love and longing — human mortality. "(It's my particular favourite, too, but don't let that influence you.)" She wrote after explaining what it was. The last paragraph though, now that was something else. "For those of you interested in an A level (here you imagine me looking at certain people)" she began, and my eyes widened as I read it. Sure, there are literature buffs in both classes, but... I can't help but think it was first and foremost an indirect to me. I mean, I'm probably the biggest nerd out of all of us, and she's always looking at me anyways... I want to dream big and say she wanted me to see it most. I mean, it's a link to an incredibly long essay. The situation speaks for itself.

"Look at this silence," V said as she entered our server at around 11 AM. Once she was here, we (as in all of us) started chatting about the break and quarantine. "It has been Sunday for two months." I declared, V immediately continuing the thought: "That part of Sunday, no less, where the line between the previous week and the next one blurs." Couldn't have said it better myself.

As V spoke about the story, I just leaned back on my bed, letting myself get immersed in the explanation and the sound of her voice while trying to imagine everything. After a while, it all started sounding like the plot of Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute — especially when V said that our protagonists, a human boy and a fairy girl, both had companions of the same sex along the way. And as soon as she said those companions are actually married, I waited for her to take a tiny break in speaking and said "How surprising." According to Bookworm Friend, she laughed, but I couldn't hear it clearly because someone made a noise. Then she said "Obviously..." and basically shaded the whole plot line, though I don't remember the rest of the sentence. And guess what she brought up immediately? That's right. The Magic Flute. I was floored! "That's what I was thinking, too!" I chimed in immediately. She took the words out of my mouth! And, soon as I said that, I got a text from Bandana Friend.

BanF: "Wow the twinning"

It's official, folks. Even from a distance, V and I are sharing a braincell.

Serious shit went down in class, including pointing out some... very suggestive imagery that caught us all off-guard because the thing she mentioned isn't inherently suggestive, but okay, V, you do you. (Obviously, I'm not going into detail here, nor sharing the conversation Bandana Friend and I had here because... this is simply not the platform.)

But what I can share is a really funny bit that caused a bit of a pandemonium in the separate class chat none of our teachers are in. You see, about half an hour into class, The Boyfriend sneezes with what is probably the volume of a medium-sized family house collapsing. About five seconds of absolute comical silence follows, then we just hear V saying "Sorry. I'm sorry." before carrying on. All this caused quite the stir, featuring texts like:

BanF: "The whole house just quaked"

and

Classmate: "Jesus who was this 😂😂"

Classmate: "Tell me it wasn't [V]"

S: "No, her man"

Classmate: "Good heavens I thought it was her 😂😂"

and

S: "I laughed so hard that I thank God I was on mute"

So yeah. That's on that. Bit later, with the words mentioned here, V ended class, and there I was, on Cloud 9, dancing around my room and humming Disney songs from the sudden serotonin charge. That was probably the moment I decided to read the play V spoke about. You see, she didn't assign it because the wording is quite difficult (the text is quite old) and students usually struggle with it, but she said that we wouldn't lose anything by reading it, if we wanted to. And thus it happened that I sat down on my balcony at around 5 PM with the first chapter open on my phone, ready to read.

I knew she'd be right. I trust her opinion and my reading comprehension skill suffers at the stake of my absolute inability to concentrate for longer than 10 seconds. But guys. Some of the longer sections I had to go over at least three times before I understood what was going on! An hour or so must've passed when I read the last line of the first chapter, and the butterflies in my stomach took flight. It was time to text V about it. It was my original plan, anyway. Figure out how right she was, then tell her about it. I was already incredibly nervous, trying to stick to what I'd planned on writing. My fingers typed on autopilot and as soon as I was done, I could barely believe I was actually going through with this. But alas, you only live once, carpe that fucking diem. One big breath. Two biiiiig breaths.

Send.

S: "Well, Miss, I'm not saying you were right about the text of [the play], but I've only read Chapter 1 and I'm already doubting if I even speak [my native tongue]... 😅"

I immediately tossed the phone on my bed and ran away panicking. What will she say? How will she react to seeing it's me again? What does she think? Am I funny enough? Am I bothering her? When will she reply?

Half a minute later (!!!), I see the icon of The Platform That Shall Not Be Named on my screen. No. No. No. Nonononononono. I picked the phone up and unlocked it with a shaking hand. I was not prepared for what I was about to read.

V: "Hahaha, well, babydoll...You do. You're just not used to [the old-timey wording]."

I only had the time to sink to my knees, eyes wide, lips agape, when the next message followed.

V: "Though, once you're already through it, I'm curious about your opinion on the play's stageability. 😄 (given such a word exists)"

You bet your asses all air left my lungs. Not only did she call me babydoll again, now in a way that I could forever remind myself of it, but she basically just prompted another conversation! She wants to talk to me again! And I'll have you reminded, V's basically trusting my judgement based on the scriptbook I showed her at the dawn of time, that she'd never actually seen in action! I wonder what I did to earn all this trust...

S: "I'll see at the end and tell you :)"

V: "Alright :))"

Then, all brave from the double smiley, I had a really stupid and impulsive thought. (Don't yell.) Me being the little shit that I am, I googled stageability and took a screenshot of no results having been found. I took a screenshot, cropped it and sent it to V, my head being completely empty as I did. I acted purely from gut feeling.

S: "Tough luck this time, it seems😄"

V: "i thought so!"

(I can only hope she took it as a joke. But, the way I know her, she probably understood. Still, the me of right now, exactly two days and two minutes later, wouldn't do it.)

And this is where it ended. This is where I ended. My hands, my legs, even my lips were trembling as I tried to process the sudden load of emotion overcoming me. What did I just do. What did we do. What happened here. All this just echoed in my head, and I went ahead and texted every friend I wanted to tell in all caps.

BanF: "WOAAHHHH"

BanF: "you guys have really warmed up to each other"

Even now, as I was typing, I got the chills just thinking about this conversation. If it wasn't for the 'Miss' and my use of formal pronouns in the very first text, it would've just felt like two friends, who happen to both love literature, talking. And this really warms my heart, because there's this fantastic woman, who I genuinely think is one of the best influences on my life and... she just likes me for me. She immediately answers when she can, comes off genuinely happy to talk to me, prompts another thing I can tell her about and all but tells me that my opinion matters to her. Because this is her. I'm almost convinced that I will never hear her outright say that she likes me or she's proud of me, but, should I have any doubts, she does everything to let me know. I just misunderstand her sometimes, not knowing where to look.

When I tell you all this still doesn't feel real...

~ S ♡

[Every story I share here, no matter how specific I get with my wording, depicts actual events from my own life.]

[retphienix]

Man, no real idea why but I'm guessing the internet just doesn't like that it's currently frozen solid outside, but this took forever to upload which defeated the original purpose of me recording instead of taking screenshots to save time- :(

ANYWAY.

This dungeon was a riot, like legitimately, I had a great time the whole way through.

Theming was nice, my payday scorched brain appreciated robbing a bank, the villain is CRUSTY- like- The previous 2 were horrible, that's pretty consistent, but the failstate wasn't half as worrying as this one, er, at least for our party specifically I mean.

Fail against Kamoshida and a pervert keeps doing gross abusive shit (horrendous!) and we get expelled and probably sent back to juvie.

That sucks!

Fail against Madarame and a slimy fuck who lead to the death of multiple people in the name of stealing their art for his success will keep stealing Yusuke's work, that sucks, we'll also all go to jail in some way for breaking in to his home, that REALLY sucks!

Things stepped up a tiny bit in terms of our immediate consequences there, though Kamoshida has a grosser angle.

This guy though?

Fucking lord. He's SLIIIIIIIIIIMY and the supposed fail state would be roughly the same as Madarame, kinda, but with the added FUCKING SHITTY consequence of like Sae and Makoto being sold into prostitution or the like. Like the implications were GROSS and I appreciate the slimy step up in consequences!

Enough of that though, I've lost a lot of what I wanted to say because of the ridiculously long time I endured uploading a simple clip, my bad, so here's what I remember and really wanted to praise like a LOT!!

HIS DESIGN IS FUCKING INSPIRED.

I don't care if you disagree, this fuck has a goddamn grand metamorphosis into a greedy little fly. Seeing how his new fly-like mannerisms so neatly fit into the greedy way he already acted, after all the false flags of pig imagery, was REALLY NICE.

Just seeing him rub his hands like mad or rubbing his new fly eyes felt *chef kiss* Sublime.

Maybe I'm unaware of flies being used to demonstrate this kind of behavior, so maybe take a grain of salt with this as me being naive because this was a first of sorts and I dig.

Second his boss fight was GREAT. A nice step up in complexity from Madarame that brought back interesting unique mechanics like Kamoshida even!

There's literally only one(1) moment I didn't like, and that's me being unfair because I might (not sure) have needed the advice given because my brain might have been too small to consider it (maybe, not sure).

That being that in the final phase Morgana just up and stops you to say "Hey, here's the intended answer to this phase! I know we're dozens of hours in and this is the 3rd boss so you should be allowed to figure things out yourself with only the most scripted moments explained, but I'm here to say SHUT UP AND USE SLEEP so good luck!"

That was kinda lame. Not egregious just "I'd prefer fucking up and learning"; Also it felt unneeded when the enemy uses sleep against YOU which should have (and might have with me, again, it didn't trust me enough to let me see!) clued you in to use sleep.

I wanted to figure it out myself, damn it!

BUT, FORGETTING THAT, THIS WAS A GREAT FRIGGIN' FIGHT!

Big beefy main phase with AOE damage to manage, and even another charge and burn mechanic like Kamoshida's Killshot which is ALWAYS appreciated because there are so many ways to tackle such a mechanic (INCLUDING A UNIQUE ONE FOR THIS FIGHT WHERE YOU GIVE HIM AN ITEM TO SKIP IT!!!).

An add fight where the adds are beefy and actively defend the boss demanding you find a way around them. To encourage you to not just burn them down they are BEEFY and will regularly get buffed or otherwise supported by a 'mostly untouchable' Kaneshiro, meaning it naturally encourages you to crowd control them rather than attempt the slow and most likely deadly strategy of killing them outright.

Just like Kamoshida he has a nice fluent fight too- a lot of smaller phases kind of blend together; You can argue it's 2 phases (Pig and Fly) but honestly you have AOE Pig, Rolling Pig, The mini-pig-burn phase you get when you give an item, Adds, and even a desperation attack where he drops all his money on you.

Fucking SUBLIME boss fight to cap off a dungeon I had a lot of fun exploring.

Oh, and then other notes would be that I guess I should have expected it considering how slimy he is but his shadow had a lot less remorse.

A scumbag dodging blame and taunting us to the very end, which does make me nervous on how our change of heart plays out. Well, not fully. I suspect it 'worked' it's just interesting to see that unlike Shadow Kamo and Shadow Made who both kinda broke down as shadows- Shadow Kane just kinda loses.

He sorta comes to moral senses, and then immediately tosses it aside to say "I'M the victim, and also you guys suck and will lose to the evil person using the metaverse, nah-nah-nuh-boo-boo"

Interesting! Again I don't think it'll impact his real world counterpart- we still stole his desires- it's just interesting that his shadow was so thoroughly corrupt that even dissipating as we steal his desires he doubles down.

What else...

Oh, the funny money was a really funny scene, I adore the voice acting in this game.