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capitalnineteen · 1 year ago

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Nancy Drew Rewatch

I've decided to rewatch the series now that it's done and why not blog my thoughts this time around, right? (Hi, Bethany!)

"Horseshoe Bay's most infamous sea queen wore her crown for just one night. People say she still haunts our town. But I don't believe in ghosts. I believe in looking for the truth."

I like that these were pretty much the first words of the series. I went into the show the first time expecting that to be the way it would be: like the books I read growing up, it would be pulling the ghost masks off evil real estate developers.

Wait. I'm thinking of Scooby Doo, huh?

Still. In those books, Nancy found the completely normal - albeit nefarious - reason that there were strange noises and secret staircases. And they were never ghosts.

So I admit it took me a little while to warm to the show. I didn't dislike it! I just didn't get what it was going for. I had the wrong idea and it took some time to understand the show wanted me to let that go.

So here we go: Season One - Episode One: Pilot

(More - much more - below... Also! This is a rewatch so there ARE SPOILERS.)

Books on Nick's shelf: A History of Western Morals by Crane Brinton and The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah. (We also see Plato on a higher shelf and other titles I can't make out, unfortunately. Excuse the blurry screenshot and understand why that's all I got.)

Having finished the show, those two titles in the screenshot do seem pretty appropriate. Especially 'Rethinking Identity' considering we're getting to know five characters and what we're given about them is maybe not the most relevant facts... or even entirely true.

And since those books are rattling on the shelves because Nancy and Nick are knocking boots, (No, wait. She puts on her sneakers after and his boots are on the floor by the bed.) let me go ahead and admit now: I liked Nancy and Nick together in the first go 'round.

Also? I liked the idea of Nancy Drew as intentionally uncurious. We're given such a quick punch of details here and I think they're presented well: "I never do this." "You say that every time." "Also never thought I'd be wearing this again." (Her Claw uniform.) "I'm not exactly where I thought I'd be, either. And that would be freshman tailback for University of Florida, which is where I'm from, if you're curious."

And of course there's her voice over just before that: "...when I'm with him, I don't think of anything else. And that's a good thing." Bookended at the end of her brief conversation with Nick by answering his "You don't ask a lot of questions, do you?" by saying, "What can I say? Girls love mystery." She says that like it means she doesn't want to solve them but of course it can read both ways. Nancy does love a mystery, she told us in her backstory. She's just sworn off solving them now.

At The Claw we get the rest of the gang introduced: George, Nancy's manager and former classmate with the bad blood between her and Nancy; Bess, the rich girl who's living in a mansion for the summer but inexplicably working as a waitress; and Ace NoLastName who I'll get to in a second.

Of course, having seen the whole show, we know how wrong or won't-be-true-for-long the information is. The 'bad blood' Nancy and George will become people who risk everything again and again for each other. (As they all will.) Bess isn't rich and certainly isn't living in a mansion.

And then there's Ace. The way Nancy presents his lack of last name makes it seem like Ace's choice. He's a one name enigma. But there's also a hint that she's intentionally not noting his last name in the way she goes on to imply that maybe it's not that he doesn't judge her for tanking her grades and bailing on applying to college, but instead just doesn't remember that she told him. And if he doesn't remember (or, as implied, care) that, then she doesn't remember (or, possibly, care) about his last name.

But it's easy to shrug it all off and not make much of it, especially when his 'my bad' on the lack of crackers and the 'sorry, I was thirsty' about the lack of wine as well as the 'it wasn't me' when the lights go out imply that her read on Ace's level of concern and accountability is pretty low as well. Though given that she's outright told us she's in the deficit on those herself, it seems a little hypocritical that she seems to look down on Ace for lacking them. (In minor ways that could just be a teasing coworker/friend sort of thing like with her "like a fungus" response to his declaration that he's "growing on her" about Bess.)

But let’s imagine for a moment, that scene where our newly uncurious and disinterested Nancy confesses that she’s ruined her senior year and her chances for college. Who does she confess all of this too? The implied flake whose last name she doesn’t even know? Hardly. Even then, Ace is far more important to Nancy than she lets on.

Rewatching this knowing the details about George/Ryan and Ryan and Nancy, it's nice to see there were hints there to be caught about George and Ryan at least. There's George's "We could stay open a little longer" when Bess tells him they're closed when he beats on the locked door. There's her strained tone of voice as she greets him: "Mr Hudson! Welcome to The Claw!" and the positively gritted teeth as she continues, "I don't believe that you've been in here before." And of course the "Oh, your wife is here?" and the quick change from retail-worker polite smile to I'm-going-to-stab-someone thousand yard stare as soon as she turns away from the table. And most of all, asking Nancy for help so she doesn't have to take the food out to Ryan's wife.

Yikes. Who could blame her?

And good grief, Ryan. Ask the teen you're sleeping with to bring food out to your wife. There's a long list of not great things you've done and that's hardly the headliner but it IS the first one we see, even if we don't know the significance yet.

To be continued because this is long and I'm only a quarter through the first episode! I'm sure they'll be shorter as this goes on. (If this goes on? Anyone interested in this?) But this is the first episode and I guess I was feeling wordy!

#cor rewatches nancy drew #includes spoilers - it IS a rewatch #part 1 of ??#cw nancy drew

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safe-ship · 2 years ago

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Heads up about the safeship creator everyone, they refuse to provide accessibility to screen readers despite being asked to multiple times & is generally ableist. Below are some screenshots + a transcript of a really long paragraph rant went on.

Context: An anon asked her to stop using ! and 0s to censor proship related things. This was her response:

Context: The same anon sends another ask that the OP screenshotted. (I cannot find the post as it seems she either deleted it or Tumblr's search feature is funky)

Their response is copied + pasted below. Content warning for NSFW mentions, sexual harassment (of the anon), and guilt tripping.

Listen dude i do know better you fucking insufferable misinformed prick. I myself need readability accessibility with ny fucking aphasia that is only getting worse. I already know firsthand how little people give a shit about this stuff becuz i need it. I already have difficulty writing legibly okay. And i get a lot of shit over this disability that i dont deserve. I made this fucking tag to help others to the point that i dont even block the few people weve had problems with so that even if i have to sed it at least the tag will work well for others. So if i have to put a 0 and ! In the forbidden word to decrease how much extra stress is gonna be on me from putting it straight up on their dinner plates then im fucking going to. Why dont you get off your high horse and grow the fuck up and stop making fucking assumptions. Cause im doing a hell of a lot more of kindness and effort for accessibility than you are for saying its immoral for someone WHO NEEDS screendreaders and is ashamed about it to choose a fucking single exclammation point over getting the regular bullshit i put up with from people who wanna be pedos x100 so that you can feel good abt yourself becuz u would choose the latter. Whether ur also a screenreader needer or not what you are is a fuvking asshole becuz i literally have two spine surgeries voming up with a huge threat of bevoming a paraplegic or dead before then and i have a shortened lifespan from all my disabilities. I come into this community to cope with how shit my life is and i try to make it better for others no matter if its a little harder on me and i get nothin but disrespect from invasive and presumptuous assholes like u behind anon who dont wanna have a real vonversation with me or actually think abt anyone but yourself and how good it feels to stroke ur moral dick over the dying woman and i have had it up to here!

U guys wanna keep coming in my inbox being assholes to me? No nuance in life im a bitch? So little thanks nothing but pussies on anon talking shit or invading my privacy? Maybe someone the fuck else should try and run this ship then becuz im fed the hell up and abt to deactivate.

And even despite being told twice to provide accessibility, they continues to be inaccessible even excluding shipcourse.

And in regards to more of their ableism, they told someone to "develop a frontal lobe" which is harmful towards those with intellectual disabilities. For context: calicofemme was their old main.

Anyway, do what you will with this information. If anyone wants to add more things to this regarding her behavior, go ahead & I'll reblog it. I made this post to raise awareness of how the creator is harmful and shouldn't even be in this community because of how they go entirely against their motive for making it.

#safeship #safeshipping #self ship #self shipping #negativity

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iamshay · 5 months ago

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Thread: Exposing Harassment on Parti and Their Lackluster Response 🚨read and look at the pictures

I will explain this and post all the pictures I sent to Parti, and their response was, "We will give her a warning." I am the victim, getting harassed, yet they chose to respond this way. I know for a fact that Trilla, after cowardly deleting his VOD, said on stream that he would make sure everyone is against me and tell everyone. This seems like an attempt to get a deal while he's in Kcip. Last time I checked, you're not allowed to be in Kcip and sign with another platform. The contract should reflect that. Kcip was made before Parti because Parti didn’t exist, but I’m pretty sure they will add that you’re not allowed to stream or be affiliated with both. You’ll have to choose either Kick's way or Parti’s downfall. Parti is a crypto platform, which many people don’t trust, and it’s not as secure as Kick. With Parti, you’re stuck without proper security like Phantom; you’re also at risk if you lose, as they only have 12 security phases which u can lose. at least kick has forgot password and 2fa and email phantom don't i lost access to my wallet. Kick, on the other hand, uses Stripe, offering better security and ensuring that your money gets paid. If anything happens, there’s real security behind it, and not many people want to mess with that.

Check the marked message I sent: "She thinks I want to be botted. She came to my chat and viewbotted me, then started talking shit. That's when Dilly started typing, saying, 'We're lurking, actually.' This dumb hoe thinks it's a flex to bot. What a loser. what unhinged deranged hoe that so desperate for attention she has to suck a d**k just get it.

Because I know they will lie about everything, I am going to leak all the horrible messages this person sent, and what Joker_RL did coaching her and pinning her against another woman because he is bald 58 old insecure old man sit on his chair with boring ass game play rocket league all the time hang around kids in their 20s. on what to do and how TheCreator would not touch her. She was already in his chat, talking about how hard it is to get banned on Parti. This was before she blew up my Discord, calling me 100 times and coming to my chat to harass me. I never engaged until she came and I answered her comment, then I just banned her. After that, she went on X and spammed, and I blocked her. At some point, she was spamming like crazy. She’s an unhinged crackhead. She’s on drugs, and Sam Pepper did a good job handling her. She needs serious help.

1/ Let me break down the harassment I’ve faced on Parti, starting with this screenshot. A user (SexyEliteDel$) openly sent me vile messages, including death threats and racial slurs, yet Parti’s response? Just a “warning.”

2/ In the first screenshot, the harasser says:

“I’ll murder you and your family.” Racist and xenophobic remarks like “Dumb Iranian” and “lazy immigrant.” btw "I’m fully educated, with a Norwegian passport, and my sister is a police officer!"

Comment Sending her minions to call me an immigrant, I was laughing my ass off and told them to go ahead. They'll just end up looking foolish. I've been living here since 1999, fully integrated into Norwegian society, and I’ve completed my education. This is what a crackhead does when they’re on weed and drugs they lose brain cells and drop out. She says I don’t have a job and just sit at home, but isn’t she doing the same? She doesn’t even make sense half the time. I had to read some of her messages 10 times because I was losing brain cells trying to understand them. Streaming from home is my job. She’s jealous because Woobabi and I actually was the big creators and had good content, me was gaming and her was gym an wood cutting and i had affiliate status, and she went out of her way to try to take that away because she felt a certain way. and was bitching why she dont have that. She flex on sam pepper having money and botted followers as she did on kick and she went her way to beat me by botting her following on aprti and and was greedy dont want to pay for Twitter’s blue check til told her if she want have something next to your name u got grow and network, she has zero clue how streaming world work, but now she’s making death threats. I doubt X will allow that kind of behavior, especially when she’s sending death threats and harassing people.

These are not just hurtful words; they’re criminal threats. If press charge she be in jail. Knowing my background come pretty much come from law and my sister are cop. I will be winning that and all screenshot i have.

3/ Despite providing evidence, Parti’s response was shockingly dismissive. They claimed the harasser would receive a warning. Let that sink in: death threats received only a warning, not a ban or suspension and this person they featuring.

As a platform creator, I should be allowed to criticize the platform when I witness bad behavior especially from creators who brag about having preferential treatment and getting deals for being just they been abit “helpful.” I been helpful, but receiving deals for just being helpful just so weird way give out deals, to nobody whom botting their following and going target people bot them so they can go point and blame them just for showing up is no different than what we see on Kick. Parti has only been around for a month, yet even Kick, which is also a new platform still and in beta , hasn’t seen this type of issue. there was requirement around getting kcip or affiliate

unfiltered or edit or cropped like she has with mine. Mine included discord layout and her own profile descriptio. She has her own shit cropped and zoomed pretty badly AI altered.

Joker_RL thinks she’s his friend, yet she’s in my DMs talking trash about him. What a moron. What’s her reason for badmouthing Joker like that when he and I had a falling out so i already got reason what is hers??? He doesn’t even realize she’s playing him. what stupid dumb viewbotter. lol

Kick is actually winning here. The same person who harassed me was banned on Kick for similar reasons, yet Parti recruits botters and banned individuals. I was even kind enough to help set up her wallet, and all I asked was how she, as a woman, allow one day knowing a man whom saying whom is this crazy bitch on discord call and publicly disrespecting her when I’ve done nothing wrong. Later, we see Joker_RL, who was apparently recruited by Parti, decide to harass me. He got a deal just for being in the right place at the right time—without putting in any real effort. Meanwhile, others who streamed the Mike Tyson match or also helped newcomers didn’t get deals. Just him admit show even more how obvious that is the creator are talking and he one getting all his intel from him and trilla

Once again zoomed out and not filter as she has. You see discord icon also match perfectly with discord actual font.

In here she is talking shit about joker_rl i had reason to but what exactly was her reason talking smack about them?

She was crying about wanting to get unbanned, and I tried to help at first, but after everything she did, I realized she actually deserves a permanent ban. I sent all the screenshots to make sure Kick knows she hasn't changed at all. She’s still the same person who shows her feet on camera and threatens people. She even admitted to using AI to write her appeal for unbanning which not even her own words and actual mean anything she say, claiming she struggles with grammar "like an American struggling with English."

4/ Now Trilla, on livestream, vows to turn everyone against me. They’re gaslighting and claiming I’m in the wrong, even though I’m the one being harassed without any regard for my safety. I’m forced to repeatedly explain myself while HenoseGaming lies to the staff, accusing me of threatening him without any evidence.

Even TheJoker, who preaches “Don’t be like Kick,” mocks people who dislike him, making it clear he has a personal agenda. Meanwhile, people who barely stream are gaining followers overnight most of it bot activity. The platform knows this, but when I bring it up, people dismiss me. Meanwhile, others surround themselves with two face friends, complain about Kick, and dismiss my valid criticism. I’m not out here making death threats, spam-calling people during their stream, or botting my views. Yet, for hours, staff ignored my reports, saying they didn’t want to deal with “drama,” even though I didn’t create it. They think serious like death threats are drama guys.

Joker_rl the viewbotter whom old bald man whom has nothing better to do talk with people in their 20s on discord and coaching her and pinn her against me say if report her she wont get unbanned.

Here he is, telling her it’s hard to get banned on Parti because he’ll vouch for her with TheCreator. This guy drags her to Discord, mutes her stream to twist the narrative, and watches me stream like a creepy stalker. I saw him lurking after I ended my stream what a weirdo.

Joker_RL, signed first times by the platform, has made Islamophobic remarks and encouraged people to unfollow me clearly he is insecure men has to pin another woman against another woman to make him himself feel better. TheJoker for his circle , helping him secure deals by bragging about his connections with staff. Trilla and Joker_RL have privately told me they think TheJoker is a joke, but they pretend to be friends with him publicly but behind ears they all said he is joke they got their own vods to proof of it.

As you can see, she’s claiming my affiliate status will be revoked because of people like Trilla, Joker, and others who were jealous and lied to staff. They don’t even ask for proof and play the victim while I’m the one being attacked. This platform enables childish behavior, using view-botters to push their crypto agenda. You can read it all. and staff did nothing when she saying all this how joker_rl their sign this what business model they call themself good model full of scammer and parti wont last and people will be dumb come over here. DO not go to parti. STICK TO twitch, youtube, kick, this platform make rumble look good LMAO. even think rumble is worst too but this take whole take this new platform.

These people misrepresent my character they just knowing me for 3 days, whisper behind the scenes, and act fake to my face.

5/ for two years, these individuals have trashed Kick, criticizing Andrew and the platform, yet they’re now doing the same things they condemned. Henose, TheJoker, Trilla, Joker_RL, and SexyEliteDel$ and trilla, etc are all in staff’s ears, lying because they feel threatened. I’ve worked hard, building my presence from scratch, without resorting to botting followers i was chat botted which i report it in i got dm to proof of that or viewbotting. like joker and SexyEliteDel$ and rest of them, for example, brags about botting her viewership and following make her relevant. I’ve told her..

“I don’t ever want to be like you.” She was so jealous when Woobabi and I started connecting all our connection was me connecting and help her with parti stuff not that deep to get jealous of. She went live and tried to flex her relationship with Woobabi, claiming they’re best friends, even though Woobabi stays in her own lane and doesn’t feel the same way. They just meet in event that's IT! she is fan girl so desperate for attention she has her following botted on kick to and parti aswell

I sent them proof and opened a support ticket on their Discord, but they haven't responded. They're watching this happen, doing nothing to stop it, and letting it escalate.

6/ I misjudged Woobabi initially because of the trash-talking from others, from kick also these low blow incels in my ears that simp but after they talk badly about her, but I apologized to her personally. I wanted to make it up by offering her exposure and inviting her to a podcast. She has no clue about all the drama. in

@woodbaabi i never i self-promoted to her, she asked if I was a streamer and if i am on kick and she want to follow me on Kick. I could tell dels by her body language that she was feeling jealous, she was watching our interaction i dont need act like crack head and crazy i just talk normal and being decent human being. She did this with sam pepper too and kick has her ban for reason

They said, "We'll give her a warning." This is their response to criminal death threats, like her saying, "I got shooters in Norway." This is the platform you're joining where threats are tolerated due to favoritism and secret simping.

7/ Creators deserve platforms where they can thrive without fear of harassment, death threats, or racial abuse or deal with islamophobia from their signing. Parti’s failure to act shows they prioritize botting numbers and recruiting troublemakers from Kick right after get staff power over the well-being of creators. and they pick same people whom kick got rid of for good reason. pretty sure

@she_akilla3 also comment on their post. She also notice weird stuff on parti. They featuring people for flex and i had been seeing because people came from nowhere got hand to them like joker whom never streamed and other creator told me i just reach out it.

and she send me her granny onlyfans idk why she send me her grannny onlyfans ngl. She clearly cant see that herself. She actual so retard think i open any dumb links. all i did was block her because i was busy actual making content and streaming unlike her crackhead on drugs always high. Immigrant bf not even legal on USA. with her for green card.

8/ This is how they try to convince Kick streamers, Twitch creators, and YouTubers to join a crypto-based platform that already has a reputation for being a scam. They’re looking the other way when harassment occurs, giving only a slap on the wrist with a warning or a short ban.

It seems they copy-pasted rules from another platform without enforcing them, thriving on degenerate behavior by bringing in figures like Jack, Fousey, and SexyelietDels. They're out of touch with reality, lacking morals, and believe this flawed business model will elevate them alongside major platforms. With crypto rife with scams, their system rewards staff deals and hires based on biased agendas and power trips. This is how they choose their staff. by with each deal it comes with staff role where therefore be streamer ban and have personal agenda.

9/ I want to warn everyone: Don’t risk your Kcip or Kick bag status for a platform that harbors the worst kind of people botters, fraudsters, and those with hatred in their hearts who make death threats. In just two weeks, Parti has shown its true colors. When I first saw Joker_RL on the platform, I knew something was off. His account had zero followers on IG and twitter super low, but he was already signed, and it was heavily botted. Each time I got chat botted, I reported it, but they encourage it and refuse to tell staff that they're getting botted. How does that happen overnight unless the platform is full of bots? Joker_RL admitted he got signed because he has The Creator, who always hangs out in his stream.

dilly_dilly watching all that happen and his comment. to her. and share his point of view. and he saw all it taken place i was just mind my own business and actual streaming.

10/ They constantly criticize Kick, but I’m starting to suspect that the same people who are now in staff’s ears about me are the ones who have been causing trouble from the start while pretending to be my friends on kick. i didn't notice parti cuz of the jokers or any of these clown it was more myself because i was look at lot around crypto

As an affiliate, I suggested bringing Fresh and Fit to multi-stream and secure a deal since they attract real viewers actual bring a lot eyeball idk how much people try dicredit that. They claimed being outspoken is risky but allow death threats against affiliate creators and affiliates, influenced by bot-users like Joker_RL, who has only 81 followers on X, with botted followers and viewership. Regrettably, I even helped him fix his social media links and streaming setup. Yet, they ignore truly significant creators, acting as if they're special. I'm posting this to expose their extreme censorship. They removed as their creator cuz i said i will speak out what happen to me, i said i dont care if they ban me i will forever warn people never join their platform and people have this a reminder what and how they lack of morals and principles me as a victim enduring two weeks of harassment and death threats yesterday , which they deem acceptable while claiming everything else is wrong. DO not come when there zero free speech there censorship

And my respond to them about censorship.

Final Thoughts: Be very careful before joining Parti. Is it worth ruining everything you’ve built on Kick or twitch or the platform u grind on for a month-old platform that doesn’t care about your safety? I doubt many women creators would want to be part of a platform that ignores harassment and makes excuses for abusers. Parti claims they support creators, but when you show them proof of harassment, they dismiss it. They’re only interested in protecting the people they’ve handpicked for deals. Because they doing the vouching each other and flex how thecreator in their parti private message and they say we in your dms. parti told me well in not about influence you give out deals.

It’s funny how someone goes behind my back and does everything in their power to come after me, playing the victim, when I’m the one being harassed and botted by them.

[Link to video]

but they sit there say "oh i should have freespeech but when i do free speech critizing parti that called mispresenting the brand when i point out the shay business they praticing botting their own leaderboard

@Big_E

When he and others tried to warn me, they said the people around me could be the reason others don’t want to mess with me and i should stay away and he is piece of shit all he care is about himself. Now, after seeing what’s happening with Parti, it’s clear these people who pretended to be my friends are actually the snakes. When Henosegaming and these people are in staff’s ears, talking badly about me, my criticizing the platform is misrepresented, while hypocrites like them have done nothing but cry and trash-talk other creators on Kick and

@Svntvmvriv

They filled my ears with lies about these people, and I went against others because of them. I learn the hard way. The fact he never gave other OG aka me and other the mic, They start glazing and then when he lost his kcip he start go back straight where he was doing. One time he say oh we can be wrong another side he on again still talk about kick. from mouth that fed him and whisper going around just right after what happen today just showcase everything. It took him while get live on stream he was busy find botting software for parti. I have been direct and seem stuff adding up.

Stay away from this platform. its crypto scam

they never pay all tip i earn

They dont care about your safety. They dont preach their own rules and have viewbotters and frauder running their platform its entirely a joke. Affilate badge dont mean a shit. uhh wow they own. Retard think they won. Have badge on X not giving you money at all. This platform a lot creator already mocking it and worst of the worst kick streamer that got kicked out and banned or removed from partner program are going to parti. Finally worst of the worst are gone from kick. Stick to twitch and kick. parti is weirdo creator give deals to bunch of nobody whom viewbot. Soon Next year when that FTC coming i be file in thoes botter whom trying fraud company to make money.

Stay away from this platform, it's a crypto scam. They never pay the tips I earn. They don’t care about your safety, don’t enforce their own rules, and allow viewbotters and fraudsters to run their platform. It’s a complete joke. The affiliate badge doesn’t mean anything. Oh wow, they own it. People think they've won, but having a badge on X doesn’t make you any money. A lot of creators are already mocking the platform, and the worst part is that they ban or remove streamers from the partner program, only for them to join Partii. Finally, the worst offenders are gone from Kick. Stick to Twitch and Kick. Partii is full of weird creators offering deals to nobodies who use viewbots. Next year, when the FTC comes for them viewbotters, I’ll be filing complaints against those bots who are trying to defraud companies to make money.

#streaming #gaming #twitch #shay #rumble #kick streaming #criminal case

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gildedmuse · 4 years ago

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Hey, everyone.

So recently I've (predictably) very not well. Actually, whenever I don't post for long periods, just assume my body is trying to kill me. But I've gotten messages from three people asking if I. Okay, which is super sweet. I am actually trying to work on the next All Hearts, a really long ZoLaw post and two request fics, but mixing chronic kidney pain and capitalist society's mandate to work 40+ hours is not recommended.

But to prove I'm okay and still me, here is some Shanks antics with him being a total slut while Mihawk and Beckman just roll their eyes and go along with it. [Shout out to @jhaernyl who not only listens to me ramble about this stuff, but actively encourages it]. I also have many thoughts on the latest episodes and so many screenshots it's embarrassing. Hopefully, when I'm in less pain, I'll get around to actually posting those. Otherwise I just look like an insane person who literally takes by the second frame shots every time Zoro is on screen.

.... What is that? I look like that anyway? Fair.

Shanks Is A Bad Influence

It feels like Buggy and Shanks split up after Roger's death (the crew was told to, and they are the only ones who went to his execution) and I find it impossible to think Shanks didn't immediately set out and find a crew; like, pirating is the only thing this kid knows in life. This means two things:

He set out from East Blue. Also, he seemed at ease and familiar with the East so it's possible he spent like a year there getting everything together. Maybe he even played around in the other blues for a while before heading back to the Grand Line. I say this because his crew is from all over so either he found and recruited them in the Grand Line or visited various blues. Either way, I'm gonna say it took him about two years before getting a 'proper' start. In that case, he would have started out properly at the age of 17 and we know One Piece likes it's parallels.

That still puts Shanks at 17 to Benn Beckmen's 28. How the fuck did Shanks manage that? I'd call it grave robbing, but let's face it, the little tyke probably got up to some actual robbing of graves as well.

My point being everytime Shanks teases Mihawk about keeping this 19 year old kid on his personal island, mostly shirtless, Benn Beckmen just lifts an eyebrow.

Excuse me, captain, who had prefected the 'opps still don't have my sea legs' trip-and-fall into their first mates lap by the age of 17?

Shanks: Beckmen, you caught me! *Shamelessly nuzzles up* Thank goodness! I could be a devil's fruit user after all and - Ahh!

Benn: *Drops Shanks straight over the side of the ship into the water*

Shanks: *Sputtering* What what that!?

Benn: Checking to see if you had eaten a devil's fruit on us, Capatin.

Benn: You didn't.

Smart ass. But he can't resist Shanks forever. Shanks will wear him down eventually.

Next time Mihawk tracks him down for another match - because you know he gets bored way quicker than he'll ever admit and Shanks is at least amusing a challenge - Shanks makes a big deal out of how Mihawk follows him around, "accidentally" revealing they slept together, sighing about how it's so hard to resist him.

Benn Beckmen is just leaning against the side of the ship, sipping his booze.

Shanks: -and I can't stay for hours like last time!!

Mihawk: Are you quite done?

Shanks: *whispering* Does Benn look jealous?

Mihawk: He looks bored. Much like I am. Is this some strange attempt to get out of my challenge, Akagami?

Shanks: What? No, come on I told you I was game. But, hey, could you do me a favor? Maybe like try and kiss me or something? Like take a swing like your going to hit me but then stop shot and grab me by the waist instead.

Mihawk: .... Trickery is beneath you. Besides, you're absolute rubbish at it.

Shanks: Oh, come on, I would totally help you get laid if you asked!

Mihawk: .... *Sigh* I want a proper match afterwards.

Mihawk: *In a forced, monotone voice* After this I will take you to my lair and have my way with you, Akagami.

Mihawk: ... My lair? Really?

Shanks: *Holding up cue card with quickly scribbled line* What? That is how you talk.

Mihawk: I can't believe I wasted precious hours of light tracking you to this atrociously rural port.

Shanks: See? Now, read the next one.

Benn: Captain? If this is going to take all night, I am going to go join the rest of the men in the tavern.

Shanks: Huh? Wait! Benn! What if Miha really stabs me this time!?

Benn: *Salutes Shanks with his bottle* Sounds like that is his plan captain. Have a good 'challenge'.

Shanks: What? No... *Reaching out hand, like he might die if Benn leaves, looking completely devastated* Not even a little jealous...

Mihawk: You couldn't have thought that pantomime would actually work.

Shanks: Benny, don't leave me.... *Turns to Mihawk, immediately brightening* Oh, well, there's always tomorrow. Hey, Miha, guess whose free all night and horny as a pirate in the calm belt?

Mihawk: .... *Sigh* Very well.

Mihawk might as well get something for the trip he made. Although, he's reconsidering if the sex was actually worth the trouble after he ends up listening to Shanks worry half the night that Benn is shacking up with someone else (after a couple hours of rough and raw fucking, admittedly).

Is it the hat? He likes his captain's hat. Miha, you think his captain's hat is sexy, don't you?

Mihawk: It's utterly ridiculous.

Shanks: ....

Shanks: *Smile* Ahh, Miha, I knew you liked the hat!

Shanks: What do you old Northerns find sexy?

Mihawk: I am only four years older than you.

Mihawk: And silence.

Trying to convince Mihawk to go spy on Beckman for him. Shanks doesn't actually care if he does sleep with someone else, it's more that Beckman didn't immediately turn angry and jealous like Buggy would have that has him paranoid.

Mihawk is going to fuck this annoying red head again just to shut him up.

Mihawk: Maybe he doesn't like red haired boys who don't know when to be quiet?

The next morning Shanks is pacing among his poor crew that's gotten stuck listening to Shanks obsess about Beckman again. IS IT REALLY THE HAIR!?

It's not even a matter of Shanks's age (or obvious immaturity). I mean, Beckman got on board and stayed, didn't he? Beckman just enjoys watching Shanks try so hard to get his attention. Like Benn's attention isn't constantly on Shanks. He had to when his captain is always one step away from disaster.

He only left him with Mihawk because it was clear Dracule is not a real danger to Beckman's captain.

Except maybe insulting him to death. But Beckman is pretty sure Shanks can handle it. He's met Buggy. He's suspects Shanks LIKES it if anything.

It gets to the point where when they dock somewhere and see Mihawk waiting, or come back to the ship and spot his familiar silhouette, most of the crew goes off somewhere for another drink (sometimes the newer kids will stay to watch such an awesome fight, everyone else is like... Look, you'll have plenty of opportunities later. This is not a one off.)

Benn just takes a look around, nods to Mihawk (a silent signal for, "he's all yours, do with him as you please, if anything happens to him I will track you down and make sure your last few hours on this blue world are as painful as humanly possible") and heads off.

Oh, it's just the Hawk boy.

That's fine then.

Benn use to be a sailor on a trade ship between the North, East, West and Grand Line. He's seen it all.

They called him The Gun Slinger BEFORE he joined Shanks's crew and became a pirate.

So this young, broke ass kid from the streets of some near artic northern island trying to pass himself off as a Lower North rich type has a thing for his captain? Not really enough to keep Beckman up at night, no matter how good at swords he's supposed to be

Besides, he's pretty sure for the kid to keep tracking down Shanks, he must be bored out of his skull. He's not going to do anything to endanger their captain.

Not if Shanks is the only thing he can find to keep him entertained.

One day, Mihawk is going to be waiting on the dock when a bunch of Red Haired pirates are stumbling home, laughing and chattering amongst themselves (Shanks's crew always seems to be in a good mood). One of them will catch sight if Mihawk and walk by with a smile, patting him on the shoulder.

The captain's occupied. Seems likely he'll be 'occupied' for a good while, too.

Mihawk won't smile, but he will think "So you finally warmed him up to you, Akagami?" and snort lightly.

Poor Benn, though. Mihawk could never imagine being with someone so much younger than him. Shanks is only four years his junior and already it strains Mihawk to put up with his occasional moments of "youthful whimsy" (aka being an annoying, immature child)

"A young, cocky pirate with strangely colored bright hair"

Mihawk just putting that on his Not To Do List.

That lasted until Roronoa.

(Mihawk just looking at Zoro knowing this is bad news.)

Mihawk: *Takes list from Benn*

*Cross out, scribbles*

*Hands back to Benn*

Do Not Do:

- A young, cocky pirate with strangely colored bright hair a silly hat, who is overly dramatic and in any way, shape or form related to Gol D Rogers.

Ace: Hey what's up?

Mihawk: *Takes list from Benn*

Go ahead, Benn, laugh it up. Mihawk is aware he has a type. Young, pretty, and utterly insane.

After that night where Shanks was otherwise 'occupied', it's over six months before Mihawk sees his friend his rival again. He is, as expected, far too smug and proud looking.

Shanks: Oh, Miha, so sorry you came all this way, I'm-

Benn: Well, I'm off, captain.

Shanks: What!? But we, you, I... Benn, hessoeexyarentyouworriedforyourcaptain?

Benn: *patting Mihawk on the shoulder* Have fun with him. Don't forget to return him by noon tomorrow, we have a schedule. Oh, but if you can babysit him for at least four hours? That would be great.

Shanks: BABYSIT!?

Mihawk: I suppose I can be troubled to do so.

Shanks: TROUBLED!?

Benn: Thanks, Hawkeyes. I owe you.

Shanks: *Fake tears clinging to his lashes* You two are so mean!

No, don't feel bad for him. Shanks is just trying to guilt the two of them into bed at the same time, and they both know it.

Thanks no thanks, they're not into that. But Shanks can be pretty cute when he's trying so hard (Benn) and at least he's not as boring as everything else in this world (Mihawk) so they allow him to keep up the act

Shanks: *looking at Zoro's wanted poster over Mihawk's shoulder* But I feel like you'd gladly go to bed with him and his captain if he asked. That doesn't seem fair to me. You'd never go that far with me and Benn.

Mihawk: *Eyes Benn*

Mihawk: *DEAD. ONLY.*

Mihawk: I have my reasons.

They can and do agree on plenty of things, including reciprocally not being that attracted to each other.

Shanks: Sounds fake to me

Shanks: But guys!

Shanks: This isn't about you

He's gonna need you guys to drop the egos and focus on what HE wants. I.E., being in the middle of two sexy Northern men.

Honestly, so mean to poor Shanks!

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thequeenofmyownscreen · 2 years ago

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Sixteen things I noted about CR2E115 “Fetching Fables & Frosty Friends” and the Talks Machina about it :

Whyyyyy French again ??? At least I know Sam knows a little French, so I'm somehow less offended when it's him. But yeah at the of the ad, I felt this screenshot IN MY SOUL :

Matt, to Travis, about Beau who's running way ahead of Fjord : "She's a monk, she's faster than you." Travis, immediately and petulantly : "You don't know that !" Matt, not impressed, deadpan : "Yes. I do. It's on her character sheet."

I love Dagen so much. He tries to do a little bit of polite conversation, and Veth is like "Are you asking if anyone of us is single ?" and Jester doubles down with "Are you secretly in love with me ?", and then he calls them "colorful". He has worked with Vess and Ludinus before, so yeah that must be a change of pace for him.

Dagen, recalling the worst group he ever traveled with : "There was this rowdy bunch out of Syrinlya, Uthodurnian folk. Too boisterous. Too loud. When you're trying to make your way across landscape like this, you want to keep quiet. Just a bunch of fucking dwarves singing about what they had for breakfast, about what they had for lunch, tales of mysteries to the north ! They had beautiful voices, but they just wouldn't shut the fuck up. One day we got ambushed and they all got torn apart. I was the only survivor... I just feel bad for the poor halfling they dragged along." Me slowly realizing Matt is describing the first Hobbit movie : AMAZING !!

Caleb, 20 minutes after Veth and Jester started getting real with Dagen and are creating what I can only describe as an elaborate fan-fiction of Dagen and one of the travelers possibly named Sheila he might have fallen in love with - and named his axe after : "Hey, are we the worst ones yet ?" Dagen, through gritted teeth : "Gettin' real close..."

Laura looks so cute with her unicorn hoodie on.

Love that they knew they were messing with POWERFUL NECROTIC MAGIC, and that Liam pointed out that this kind of trap "pivoted the entire campaign one" (which to me was a clear indication that he wanted to do it, because this is Liam and he loves this kind of stuff). And still they went for it. For an hour. Man, did Caleb try. The last attempt, dramatically casting Dispel Magic while walking away, because he couldn't let it go, and still the stone rests, is an very funny visual.

Oh Beau read Yasha's poem ! Which was not a poem, but a wonderful letter. I love how Marisha was overjoyed as Ashley was reading it (as the voiceover).

Oh my god, the story of the Katzen Prince is everything. The revelation that Liam wrote that in a day, just before they were paying, is the cherry on top. Look, I fucking love fairy tales, and I had a book when I was young where it was all of the original versions (aka the dark endings, and even when it was a good ending for the hero, there were some brutal elements, like when birds pierce the eyes of Cinderella’s half-sisters at the end !!). So I LOVED this tale !!! It was sweet, melancholic, had a dream-like quality to it, and still a happy ending. I also want to see all of the art.

Awwww, I love when the monsters turn out not-so-monstery after all ! The Mighty Nein chose to be kind, even after they were ambushed, and so they got precious intel : finally, someone saw Lucien and his group, not but one day ago !!!

Travis broke. They invited the yetis to dinner in Caleb's tower, and they even read them a Zemnian bedtime story, and it broke Travis so much. This is so awesome. I love this visual of 4 yetis, being inside a magic tower, in a grand and warm hall, under tents for them to sleep like they usually do, surrounded by small cats and the Mighty Nein, listening to a man reading them a story in a language they don't know, and falling asleep in 5 minutes.

I trust Beau, Beau is always right and she should say it. And the way Marisha made her pitch was wholesome.

It's true, Brian is right to recall it, every time there is a Talks Machina with Liam and Taliesin, the vibe is "whatever the fuck is the opposite of toxic masculinity" - I think it's what he called it one time.

Dani is being tortured this episode, what will all the Fartist and chest hair re-growing stories.

Taliesin, about the pillar with the necromantic emerald : "I was amused. I could have possibly stayed a little longer... Until we had to resurrect someone !" HAHAHA the little shit (affectionate)

OH. Oh. This is the episode before the 2020 American election ? Aka, the Destiel Putin Election crazy night we had over here on Tumblr ??? IT'S SO CRAZY TO THINK ABOUT !!!

#my thoughts #critical role #cr campaign 2 #CR2E115

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onewithnomightypowers · 4 years ago

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clandestine (chapter 7)

PAIRING: Tom Holland x fem!Reader

SUMMARY: Y/N is an up and coming actress, married to a once hotshot actor, Harrison (Haz). What happens when her co-star, Tom, makes her realise that she is stuck in a loveless marriage. A marriage starts crumbling and a new romance stars brewing.

chapter 7: rabbit hole

A/N: i do not encourage cheating. omg THE LAST CHAPTER!!!! i hope you guys like this chapter!! feedback is always appreciated. thanks for reading <3

warnings: drinking, cursing, hate comments

word count: 1.6k

important: bold and italic are character thoughts

series masterlist main masterlist chapter 6

Love, easy it comes and easy it goes. Y/N and Haz’ calamitous love had no tracks ahead of it. The only thing they could do was jump off the train before it crashed and burned. Y/N took that step and fell on Tom’s doorstep. When Haz saw her leave, he understood that hurt couldn’t save a dying soul, so he jumped too, causing their marriage to fall off a hill.

They left the hobbit’s room with a sea of change in their aura. Both had bloodshot eyes from all the rivers they swam through. “I will go settle the tab”, Haz said without meeting her eyes. Y/N walked towards her driver, Arnold, who was standing near the main entrance, eager to tell her about the situation outside.

“There is a herd of paparazzi out there, ma’am”, he said.

Y/N hummed in acknowledgment.

“Shall we go?” Haz walked over to them.

“Yeah”, her voice was small and dry.

Arnold opened the door and stayed ahead to make way for them in between the storm of people. They were all screaming something over one another, making it hard to understand. Haz and Y/N had their heads down, trying to hide the stained cheeks from the blinding lights. Haz clutched Y/N’s hand protectively, out of habit.

They made their way inside the car, parked not so far away from the pub.

“You can stay with me tonight, you’re leaving for New York tomorrow morning anyway”, Y/N said looking outside the window.

“It's fine Y/N, I can get a hotel room”

“No, I insist”, her eyes focused on the lamp heads passing them by.

“Okay, I’ll take the couch”

“You can sleep on the bed, with me”

Haz found Y/N’s hand in the dark backseat and squeezed it affectionately.

That night was the last time they slept together in the same bed. When Y/N woke up the next morning, he was already gone. He left a note on the refrigerator that read, ‘thank you for everything’. A bittersweet smile took over her face.

Y/N needed some time to herself, but she also needed to inform people about her decision. She craft an email to her manager, agent and her lawyer. All of them were sent the exact same email.

Harrison and I have decided to end our marriage. I would like to file for divorce as soon as possible, and the process should be civil. I will be unavailable for a few days, so do what you have to with the news.

Y/N

She also sent her parents that email but as a text on the family group chat.

It’s short and to the point, let’s hope they don’t call me with a million questions.

When it came to Tom, she noticed that he had sent her an image a few seconds ago. It was a screenshot of a TMZ article. The headline was, ‘Y/N left her movie premiere early to meet her husband’, it wasn’t jarring but the photo underneath the headline was. Haz was holding Y/N’s hand as tightly he physically could, both of their bodies looked tired and Y/N’s makeup was all messed up. She hadn’t noticed any of that in the moment, last night.

Tom sent her another text.

Tom: Are you ok?

Y/N: not really, I’m filing for divorce

Tom: oh, do you want me to come over?

Y/N: I think I want some time to myself right now

Y/N: I’ll probably watch Gilmore girls the whole weekend

Tom: ok, I’m here if you need anything

Tom: love you

Y/N: you too

---

On Monday, the news broke. The whole world now knew that their marriage was over. The news outlets tried their best to be creative with headlines.

‘Their kingdom has come and gone: Harrison and Y/N file for divorce’

‘Harrison and Y/N, Hollywood’s perfect couple not so perfect anymore’

These were some of the most impressive ones according to Y/N’s management team but they decided to keep it to themselves. No one had heard from Y/N since Saturday. Even though she had told them that she would be unavailable, they still sent emails, warning her to stay off social media sites, especially twitter, the creator of hate wagons.

Twitter was not kind to her at all. Their divorce was trending in the entertainment section. Many people thought that it was their right to comment on this situation. They had a lot to say, mostly about Y/N.

Y/N would often find herself diving into the rabbit hole of her trending tag. She would read almost everything they had to say about her, the good and the bad, but the bad overwhelmed the good.

‘She was only in it to get famous’

‘She ugly if I was Harrison then I would drop that ass too’

‘She is so fake’

‘Harrison is better off without her’

‘She was def cheating on him’

‘Why would someone even love Y/N’

She didn’t notice, but this was getting to her. She would constantly stare at her reflection, picking her appearance apart because someone on the internet called her ugly. Y/N would rethink everything she ever said in front of the media wondering whether she sounded fake or not. She would wake in the middle of the night, pacing like a ghost, thinking she didn’t deserve Tom at all and that he would realise soon enough.

All would be lost.

Even though she thought no one noticed that she was slowly losing her mind, Tom did. He would look at her touching her face, getting lost in deep thoughts. He could feel her tossing and turning in the bed, every night. He would look through her while she’s looking through her phone. Her leg would never stop fidgeting while at rest. He noticed everything.

He took it upon himself to save her from the demons. It was late evening, Tom picked Y/N up from the set. The whole ride home, Y/N was on her phone, mindlessly scrolling through her twitter, reading every inch and every corner. No words could escape her.

When they reached home Y/N informed Tom that she was going to take a shower. Tom was in the kitchen getting the food ready, when he saw Y/N’s phone unattended on the kitchen island. He was tempted to go through with his plan.

He picked up her phone and unlocked it, he knew her password. He went on deleting every social media app from her phone and also changed his contact DP on her phone. Earlier it was an embarrassing childhood photo, he changed it to a scanned Polaroid photo of them together.

Y/N came out with a towel tied up her head. She grabbed two plates from the cabinet and set them on the island.

“What are you making?” she asks him.

“Rice paper rolls”

“So we’re having Vietnamese today, interesting”, she grabbed her phone to check her Instagram.

Where the fuck are all my apps?

“I think my phone has some defect, the Instagram and twitter apps got deleted”, Y/N says vigorously swiping through her phone.

“That’s not a defect I did that”, Tom served the dinner.

“You did what? You have no right to go through my phone and delete apps without my permission, Tom.”

“It’s for your own good, all of that shit was getting to your head”, he said calmly.

“No it wasn’t” she poorly defended herself.

“Yes it was, you were letting some random divs tell you what you are worth. That’s fucked up, babe”

She lets out a loud grunt, filled with frustration.

They both ate in silence, only the crunch of vegetables audible.

After Tom was done with his dinner, he got up, placed his dish in the sink, picked up his coat from the sofa and walked towards the door. Y/N’s eyes never stopped following his figure.

“I think I should go back to my apartment”, before Y/N could reply, Tom was out of the door.

They didn’t talk for a day but Y/N realised how peaceful she felt without having other people’s opinions being fed to her constantly. She felt less insecure about her body, her personality and especially Tom.

He loves me so much that he was ready to invade my privacy to help me.

She decides to call Tom, noticing the unfamiliar photo on his contact. The phone rung, he picked it up on the second ring.

“You little shit changed your photo, huh” her smile was audible.

“I did and I’m sorry”

“No, I’m sorry. You were right, I do feel better with all the noise gone, but you know what would make me feel much better, you, here with me”

---

Tom came over almost instantly, it was like he was already halfway to her apartment when she called. They were on the couch, watching a movie on Y/N’s laptop. Y/N had her head on Tom’s lap and he was playing with her hair.

Holding her breath, Y/N slowly said, “You didn’t need to save me, you know”

“I know”, he replies nonchalantly.

“But the real question is, would you run away with me?”

“Of course, where to darling?”

“Somewhere no one can find us and it’s only the two of us”, she scrunches her face.

“Do you remember the first time we kissed, at the pub?”

“Yeah”, she replied, fondly remembering that moment.

“You said we should go to Ireland together and I said don’t make empty promises”

“Well, do you want to run away to Ireland with me?”

“Yes”, he bent downwards and kissed her softly.

THE END

@mysticapples17 @storybookholland @flqwsome @hollandstanevans

#tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland imagine #tom holland x actress!reader #tom holland smut #tom holland fluff #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n #tom holland self insert #harrison osterfeild x reader #harrison osterfield #harrison osterfield x you #marvel #marvel fanfiction #taylor swift

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thatgamefromthatad · 4 years ago

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Mobile Life Simulators, Ranked (Part 1)

I downloaded a whole ton of mobile life simulator games over the past couple weeks and I realized it wouldn’t be plausible to rank all of them in one go so I’m breaking it up into parts with more similar games grouped together (can’t say when the next part will be made but I’m definitely planning on doing more at some point). Thank you to @creativeghost51 for recommending I cover the Sims games and other life sims!

It’s hard to define what ties these Part 1 games together (as opposed to some other groups like idle life sims and text-based life sims) but I guess the biggest similarity would be that all of these games involve your sim characters living in a home where they can freely walk around, and can interact with objects and each other. With the exception of Virtual Families Lite you can also decorate, customize and expand your home.

Something I noticed about all of these games is that you don’t really have as much freedom to experiment and build your own storylines and such as you do with, for example, the Sims computer games. While the games aren’t completely linear and there is a variety of things you can do in each of these games, they don’t really have the same sandbox quality that I think about when I think about the Sims. Which is understandable - these games are free to play and they’re made to be played mostly on people’s phones so they are expectedly more on the casual side. But I just wanted to point that out in case anyone was looking for something like the Sims to play on their phones or tablets. I haven’t really seen a mobile game in existence yet that is going to give you that same life sim sandbox experience.

Anyway, here’s the ranking rubric for these games (I’ll go into more detail about all of these scores under the read more):

***

1. Home Street

Developer: Supersolid Ltd

Release Date: Oct. 10, 2017

I was actually really surprised by this game - while it is more marketed as a home design game than a life sim it has a lot of similarities to games like The Sims Mobile; you have a character you can customize and dress up in a wide variety of outfits, you can interact with and build relationships with other characters/players (although only friendships, not romantic relationships, and you can’t have kids) and you do hobby-like activities such as painting and cooking.

While there aren’t personality traits or careers in this game, you save up “ideas”corresponding to different emotions or attributes, which function as crafting materials to go toward your hobbies. Through your hobbies/crafting abilities you can complete jobs for other characters, like selling them vegetables from your garden or giving them something you’ve cooked.

🏡 Character Design: 3/4 (while the ability to customize your character’s facial features and such isn’t as advanced here as it is in The Sims Mobile, it still has a wider range of options than The Sims FreePlay and I prefer the art style of Home Street compared to FreePlay; there’s also a wide range of outfits and accessories and you can set different outfits for different activities)

🏡 Home Design: 4/4 (although you’ll probably notice from my screenshots that I’m not exactly a home design aficionado, I found placing decorations, walls and floors etc in this game to be a smoother and easier process than in any of the other games and I like the art style of the objects as well. There’s a good range of items, including ones your character can interact with in different ways, and I like having the various hobby workstations embedded into the home where you can place them wherever works best for you, which is also how it is in the Sims games. There’s a lot of potential for someone who’s more adept at home design than me to create really fun themed rooms and whatnot)

🏡 Gameplay: 9/10 (I really loved the gameplay concept in this game more than in any of the other games, I love leveling up to get new workstations and crafting items to fulfill tasks for other characters. The task concept kind of reminds me of Animal Crossing in a way. While the main screen can be a little busy at times, overall the game is really easy to navigate and does a good job of guiding you with goals and tasks without making it feel like you’re restricted to only following those exact tasks. The characters and dialog are also charming and make you feel like you’re progressing through a story as you level up)

🏡 Playtime vs. Wait Time (without paying to speed up tasks): 4/4 (while you do need to wait for your hobbies/crafting tasks to complete, they don’t really take that long and you can save time if you craft things ahead of time; also there are a lot of things you can do while you’re waiting. The wait times might get longer as you get further in the game but I played for about two weeks and so far I haven’t felt really stalled at any point)

🏡 Total: 20/22

2. The Sims Mobile

Developer: Electronic Arts

Release Date: March 6, 2018

I was also pleasantly surprised by this game, since I had played The Sims FreePlay years ago and didn’t really like it, but this one I liked a lot more and had quite a bit of fun with. As I mentioned before, it doesn’t have the same sandbox quality as the computer Sims games, but the character customization is the best out of all the life sims I played and there’s such an enormous catalog of different clothing and home design items to choose from, there are definitely a lot of fun possibilities.

There’s a fairly wide range of things to do although I did feel a little more confined to the tasks the game set out for me - for example I went with the careers that I had objectives for rather than picking careers I’d really want my character to have, plus you need to wait until you level up to unlock careers so you have less freedom in that aspect.

🦙 Character Design: 4/4 (This game actually uses sliding scales to customize different facial features and body types and such, and although it isn’t as advanced as in the computer games it is much more advanced than I’d expect for a casual mobile game and makes it a lot easier to make the characters look how you actually want them to. The catalog of things to dress your sims up in is also enormous and there’s a fun special fashion feature that creates unique clothes that boosts your stats for certain activities, which is why there are hearts floating around my sim in the screenshot. Oh and there’s a social feature to give other people’s sims stickers based on their outfits, which makes dressing up your sim more fun and exciting)

🦙 Home Design: 3/4 (The home design here is pretty fun and there is a wide range of items, and I also like how there’s a score that goes up as you add more items and complete furniture collections. However I personally found the controls for placing a moving things a little wonkier than in Home Street and FreePlay, i.e. I kept moving things on accident or couldn’t get things to easily snap where I wanted them to, and the collections and goals did make me feel a little confined to selecting certain objects or adding things I didn’t need to fulfill the goals rather than going with my own style, although I suppose you could just ignore the goals if you wanted to)

🦙 Gameplay: 7/10 (This game is fun although it can get quite repetitive since one of the main things you’ll be doing is “events,” which mostly involves just tapping things or waiting a certain amount of time for the tasks to complete themselves. The “events” in this game kind of reminded me of the tasks in the Kim Kardashian game which I also played years ago lol. However there are things to do besides events and the events do have a little more to them than just tapping; when I say tapping I mean tapping task options that sometimes have quirky, funny names and there are also “risky” tasks that have bigger rewards but a certain chance of succeeding or failing etc. There are little bits of dialogue as you progress through your career, relationship and hobby chapters and there are also seasonal/limited time activities you can do that add more fun and variety and chances for rewards. However I still wish there was a little more variety and flare to the “events” aspect, which made up the bulk of my playtime)

🦙 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 4/4 (Like in Home Street, there is waiting involved if you’re waiting for events to complete and you run out of energy to do the tasks that speed them up, but you can choose whether to have a longer event or a shorter event and you can also have one sim be running an event while doing something else with the other sim. I was able to choose shorter event times if I wanted to stick around for a bit and then run a longer event when I was logging off for a while so I could reap the rewards when I came back. The amount of time you can spend playing continuously here is much better than a lot of other mobile games that involve an energy system)

🦙 Total: 18/22

3. Virtual Families 3

Developer: LDW Software, LLC

Release Date: Sept. 17, 2020

(Note: Please disregard how barren my home looks here, this was the last game I started playing so I didn’t progress very far but I feel I can still base my scores on what I’ve played so far and what I can see available that I just haven’t unlocked/can’t afford yet)

The Virtual Families games are all pretty similar to each other to be honest, but the most recent version is definitely the most fleshed out and the least ugly. There are more things to do, more variety in the sim designs (here they’re called “adoptees”) and there are actually nonwhite characters which I’m pretty sure there weren’t any or were barely any in the last two games. You still can’t customize your adoptees though, just flip through the options to pick the ones you like the most.

I kind of struggled with the Virtual Families games because they run on real time and my adoptees would end up severely neglected when I just didn’t have time to play, but there is an option to pause when you’re away, I just didn’t want to and wanted the game to progress naturally.

What I do really like about Virtual Families is that the adoptees have minds of their own and you can kind of watch them lives their lives and imagine little personalities for them. It’s a lot more casual than the other games and you probably have the most freedom here to do whatever you want although there are not as many things to do.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Character Design: 2/4 (You can’t customize your own characters but there’s more variety here in the randomized designs and the art isn’t as ugly and janky as in the previous two Virtual Families games)

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Home Design: 2/4 (Home design isn’t as big of a thing in the Virtual Families games but there is a decent variety in furniture and objects to put in your house and you could probably have some fun with it if you’re creative. The art style isn’t that great though)

👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Gameplay: 7/10 (Like I said, what I like is watching the little adoptees go about their lives or dropping them around to pick up the debris on the floor to look for collectibles. In this game there are also a lot of little funny random events like getting random phone calls or being given random choices to make that can have positive or negative outcomes. Occasionally you’ll be given problems to solve like needing to repair or hire someone to repair something, or once I lost the TV remote and had to look around my house for it then send someone to retrieve it. It makes the experience more varied and engaging and makes you feel more involved in progressing)

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 3/4 (You can pretty much play indefinitely watching your adoptees except that can get boring especially if they’re just eating or sleeping. My adoptees kept getting really tired and I would just send them to sleep and exit out, then when I came back they would be out of bed and still extremely tired lol. But once they did get enough sleep I got to spend more time with them until they had to do something else boring like work or eat)

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Total: 14/22

4. The Sims Freeplay

Developer: Electronic Arts

Release Date: Dec. 15, 2011

This game was pretty disappointing when I played it years and years ago hoping to be able to play the Sims while on the go, and it’s still pretty disappointing now even though I have more understanding of why they can’t put the actual full Sims game on my phone, especially not for free.

The most disappointing thing about this game is not just the long wait times, which are annoying on their own, but the constant ads that pop up any time you do a task that’s more than like 3 minutes. Some of these ads aren’t even skippable. This made it pretty much unplayable for me up to a point, until I figured out how to strategize to do the shortest tasks possible, and until a limited time special event thing came up that gave me something else to do without having to constantly wait or dodge ads.

That being said, this game does have the unique charm of being a lot more similar to the classic Sims computer games, with a similar art style and even the same or similar music and sound effects. If you have patience (or if you pay to play) I can see this being a lot more satisfying and I’ve seen people do really cool things on this game as far as building storylines around their sims and building really impressive houses. But I don’t think this game really works as a casual free-to-play game, it’s much too frustrating and monotonous for the average player.

💚 Character Design: 2/4 (limited options for facial features and not as many options for clothing as The Sims Mobile, plus the low-poly look is not very appealing; I know it’s an older game but since it’s still being maintained I’d think they would have upgraded it a little and added more variety over the last 10 years)

💚 Home Design: 4/4 (editing your home in this game feels a lot like in the Sims 3 and like I said I’ve seen people build awesome mansions in this game so I think this is definitely one of the best aspects of the game)

💚 Gameplay: 5/10 (I was going to give it a worse score given the insufferable, unskippable pop-up ads but I did give it credit for the limited time/seasonal events which are easier to play uninterrupted and add some variety to the game, at least the one I played did. I was able to find this game somewhat tolerable also by only doing the shortest tasks possible to avoid ads and then exiting out whenever an ad popped so I could just come back a little later, although the need to do that was also annoying in itself)

(Note/Edit: A very nice anon pointed out that you can avoid ads in games that don’t need a constant internet connection by turning off your wifi/internet while playing, and this seemed to work with FreePlay as long as you are connected to the main game before you turn off internet! You won’t be able to do everything in the game but you can still play in the main world with your Sims in their houses and do longer tasks without getting an ad pop-up if you temporarily disable internet on your device. I’m not going to fully change the score and ranking since I don’t think that’s how the game was intended to be played and needing to turn off wifi to play is kind of inconvenience in itself but the game definitely is definitely more like a 6/10 or 7/10 if you do this.)

💚 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 2/4 (Absolutely would have given it a 1/4 but the event saved it from that, you can play for longer stretches of time when there’s an event, but of course that only applies to playing the event and not the main game)

💚 Total: 13/22

5. Virtual Families 2

Developer: LDW Software, LLC

Release Date: Dec. 6, 2012

All of the Virtual Families games are pretty similar overall so I won’t go into a lot of detail for these last two but basically Virtual Families 2 has more variety in things to do than the first Virtual Families, especially in terms of home design and things to unlock throughout the game. It also has a slight visuals upgrade, although the character designs are still pretty janky for something that came out in the 2010s imo.

Also this game has a bug where if you do something the tutorial was supposed to teach you before the tutorial is over, you’re forever stuck in tutorial mode unless you completely start over, just a heads up.

👨‍👩‍👧 Character Design: 1/4 (While the janky character designs do kind of give it a retro charm for me this game really didn’t come out all THAT long ago and the designs and animations are pretty wonky. I know Last Day of Work/LDW isn’t an enormous company like EA or anything but from what I understand they had relatively good amount of success in the early casual mobile games sphere, and since this is a sequel I’d expect a little more of a visuals upgrade than this but that’s just me)

👨‍👩‍👧 Home Design: 2/4 (Same deal as Virtual Families 3, more furniture options and opportunity to expand your home but art style is lacking and doesn’t feel like a central aspect of the game)

👨‍👩‍👧 Gameplay: 6/10 (Just a little less varied than VF3 and a little more than VF1)

👨‍👩‍👧 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 3/4 (Same exact deal as VF3)

👨‍👩‍👧 Total: 12/22

6. Virtual Families Lite

Developer: LDW Software, LLC

Release Date: June 3, 2009

Phew, you know a game is old when it has “Lite” in the title. This is one of the first smartphone games I EVER played (though when I first played it I didn’t have a smartphone, just a 1st gen iPod Touch); in fact, I’m not 100% sure, but this might actually be the first smartphone game I ever played, and I do remember it fondly. I want to make it clear that I’m rating it now on the experience of playing it today in 2021 relative to the other mobile games I’ve played and reviewed, being that the purpose of this blog is to hopefully give people an idea of what games they’d like to play, and hyping up a 12-year-old game as though it holds up more than it does for nostalgia’s sake doesn’t fulfill that purpose imo.

That said, this game does hold up fairly well, but definitely pales in comparison to its sequels and other options now available. This game is still worth playing if all you want is to have a little virtual family to check in on from time to time and don’t really want to do much else. Otherwise it doesn’t offer anything that its sequels doesn’t save for its nostalgic charm and uniquely terrifying art style.

👩‍👦Character Design: 1/4 (Same as VF2 but uglier)

👩‍👦Home Design: 1/4 (The house already has everything in it and you can’t rearrange anything, which is convenient but boring. You can upgrade your work stations though)

👩‍👦Gameplay: 5/10 (Same as VF2 but a little less variety)

👩‍👦 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 3/4 (Same deal as the other two, although watching your family is arguably more boring when there are less things to do, but it’s also more convenient when you already have all the furniture and appliances you need right off the bat so it balances)

👩‍👦Total: 10/22

If you got here to the end, even if you just skimmed through, thank you so much for reading 😍 Follow me for more mobile game reviews, articles and commentary 🥳

#life sims #sims #the sims mobile #the sims freeplay #sims mobile #home street #virtual families #life simulation games #home design games #games ranked #full review

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not-so-mundane-after-all · 4 years ago

Note

hand-holding, 33, Dick & Gar

Locked Myself In a Cage and Threw Away The Key (But Your Gentle Hands Had Set Me Free)

Hand-holding | 33. bandaging the other’s hand and not quite letting go - for @undertheknightwing

Gar walked into the Tower's kitchen humming softly, his eyes focused on the phone he held in his hand. He was scrolling through endless pages of recipes, trying to find a perfect smoothie combination. He loved experimenting in the kitchen ever since he was a little kid, his mom would usually assist. At Chief's house Larry has always been very protective over that specific area and wouldn't let him touch anything so the boy never got the chance to do it again but when he arrived in San Francisco with his new friends a little over a week ago and basically started drooling at the sight of a huge kitchen island and shiny appliances, Dick walked up to him with a smile, patted his shoulder and simply said "Go ahead. It's all yours."

"Aha!" he exclaimed triumphantly as he dropped on one of the stools. He found a perfect recipe, a combination he never tried before. He needed kale, an orange and a lemon, a cucumber, coconut water and honey. "Wait, do we have all of that?"

Leaving his phone on the counter he made his way around the kitchen island to the fridge. He found a cucumber (that was already withering so it was the last chance to use it) and some honey. There were a few lemons in a bowl on the counter but no oranges. Other ingredients from the list were missing as well.

Damn it.

Gar quickly grabbed his phone, took a screenshot of the recipe and sent it to Rachel with a note of what he needed. Dick took her out for grocery shopping (apparently his idea of quality time which Gar honestly loved but wouldn't admit it, at least not to Jason), they left like 20 minutes ago so there was still a chance she could get this stuff for him. A minute later she responded with a thumb up emoji and he let out a sigh of relief.

Now all he had to do was wait.

***

When he got the text from Rachel that they'll be back home in 5 minutes (he still couldn't quite get used to calling this place their home - Rachel on the contrary had no problem with it, probably thanks to Dick), Gar dragged himself from the couch in the living room and set to work. Soon the elevator door let out a loud ding sound and she walked in, carrying a huge paper bag filled to the brim in her hands.

"Got everything you asked for." she said, smiling, as she set the bag beside him on the kitchen island and started unpacking it.

"Sweet, thanks." he replied, starting to chop the cucumber into pieces. "Where's Dick?"

"Still in the garage." she sighed, then dropped on the stool next to him and opened a bag of sour jelly beans. "Want some?"

"No, thanks. Why?"

"Car started acting weird." she explained, chewing on the candy. "Apparently something's wrong with the engine or something, I dunno. He's looking into it."

Gar lifted his eyes at her, brows furrowing in concern.

"Ouch, I hope it's nothing serious. I have a feeling Donna wouldn't be happy if it turned out we broke her ride- agh, shit!"

He felt a jolt of stinging pain on the inside of his left palm, setting his nerves ablaze and instinctively pulled his hand away, trying to escape the sensation. Rachel's eyes grew wide and she gasped, staring at it. He slowly lifted his hand back up, looking down and suddenly he felt dizzy, the floor crumbling under his feet.

There was so much blood.

It wasn't really the sight that made him feel this way, or the pain of the cut. It was the touch of the warm liquid creating a puddle inside his palm. The bitter smell of metal that hit his nostrils. The Tiger inside of him came awake, letting out a restless growl and started clawing at the walls of its cage, demanding to be set free.

The cage. Like the one they locked Gar in at the asylum. Suddenly he was back there, curled up in the corner naked, afraid and bloody, staring at a pile of disembodied body parts and internal organs ripped apart. He could feel the taste of crimson in his mouth, sour and disgusting, while the Tiger was roaring in pleasure, demanding for more. Gar heard someone calling out to him, some part of his brain registered a gentle touch and a surge of energy, but the Tiger was quick and shut it all down with one single growl. It wanted to take control, to put Gar in the cage instead. The boy was too close to letting it. As much as the cage terrified him, it also felt somewhat safe and if staying inside meant he could be free of the Tiger for a moment at least, then-

"Gar? Gar, c'mon. Come back to me, buddy."

He snapped back to reality so quickly he started feeling dizzy again. Or maybe the dizziness didn't go away at all, he didn't know. He gasped like he just came out of water and when his sight sharpened again he found himself gazing into Dick's concerned brown eyes, feeling the man's fingers gripping his arms tightly. Rachel was peering over his shoulder, nibbling at her lower lip in worry.

"I tried to heal him but it didn't work." she said, her voice quiet and hesitant. "I don't know why."

"It's okay." he told her, although his eyes never left Gar's. "Go grab the first aid kit. You know where it is, right?"

"Yeah." she nodded and disappeared from view. Dick focused on the boy again.

"Gar, breathe. It's just a little blood. You're okay."

He followed his instructions. Deep breaths. Slow and steady. It's just a little blood. The Tiger is asleep.

"You're not there." Dick spoke softly, as if reading his mind. "You're not in the cage anymore."

They kept breathing together for a bit longer and Gar started feeling better. He risked looking down at his hand. It was covered in smudged blood and a deep cut ran across the inside of his palm. It stung when he stretched his fingers.

"I, uh…" he started, his throat suddenly feeling dry. "I think I didn't notice. The knife slipped and-"

"It's alright, kiddo." Dick comforted him, sending him a warm smile. In the meantime Rachel came back with a small red box in her hand and set it down on the counter. Dick thanked her quietly and looked back at the boy. "Why don't we patch it up, huh?" He let go of his arm and offerend his hand to him. "Can I?"

Gar hesitantly put his injured hand in Dick's hold and instantly relaxed feeling the warm touch of his fingers on his skin. The man cleaned the cut with a disinfectant (it hurt like a bitch), smoothing a damp cotton swab over it, then started wrapping a white bandage over it. His movements were slow and careful, he kept holding his hand gently, turning it to the sides whenever he needed to. Gar observed him quietly, feeling somewhat hypnotized by the process. It was calming down his shattered nerves.

When the dressing was done though, Dick didn't let go of the boy's hand like Gar expected him to, but instead he clasped it between both of his own and held it firmly, looking into his eyes again.

"You good?" he asked and Gar knew he didn't mean the cut.

"Yeah." he answered, his voice sounding a bit croaky. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "Sorry I spaced out."

"It's okay. It triggered you, didn't it? The blood."

Gar took a deep breath and felt his shoulders trembling.

"It did. I know it's silly, but-"

"It's not silly." the man interrupted him and squeezed his hand in comfort. "It's your body and mind reacting to trauma. It's completely normal."

Gar looked down at their hands, feeling his eyes burning.

"I was at the Asylum again…"

"I figured." he heard Dick say quietly. "But thankfully it wasn't real this time. You're safe, Gar. With us, with me. You're at home, not there, remember that."

They stared into each other's eyes for a few long seconds before a smile finally broke onto Gar's face.

"At home."

Dick grinned back at him, relief flooding his face.

"Yeah."

Someone's hand rested on his shoulder. Rachel.

"I'm glad you feel better now." she said. "How about we finish this smoothie?"

Gar lifted an eyebrow at her.

"You hate green smoothies."

"But I am willing to try this one. You bled for it after all."

All three of them chuckled at her joke.

"Save me some for later." Dick said as he stood up from his chair. "I gotta get back to the garage."

That reminded Gar of the car issue.

"Hey, what happened? Is it bad?"

Dick was already halfway to the elevator when he shouted back.

"Nah, I just need to tweak a few things, that's all."

The elevator door dinged and he was gone.

Gar turned to Rachel.

"You said you tried to heal me?"

She shrugged, a look of confusion appearing on her face as she went back to unpacking the groceries.

"Yeah, but somehow I couldn't."

He scratched the back of his neck, thinking.

"I think the Tiger stopped it. I felt something, but then it was abruptly cut off. I don't know, maybe I was imagining things."

"Maybe." she closed the fridge and turned back to him. "So what do you need next?"

"Give me that coconut water."

"Gotcha."

_________________________________________

Fandom: DC Titans

Title: Locked Myself In a Cage and Threw Away The Key (But Your Gentle Hands Had Set Me Free)

Series: Physical Affection - Tumblr Prompts

Pairings/Relationships: Dick Grayson & Garfield Logan

Summary: It wasn't really the sight that made him feel this way, or the pain of the cut. It was the touch of the warm liquid creating a puddle inside his palm. The bitter smell of metal that hit his nostrils. The Tiger inside of him came awake, letting out a restless growl and started clawing at the walls of its cage, demanding to be set free.

CHECK OUT THE PROMPT LIST | REQUESTS OPEN

#dc titans #titans #titans season 3 #dick grayson #garfield logan #gar logan #rachel roth #tumblr prompt

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amy-issen · 4 years ago

Audio

ok so here it is!! i spent the last week solely making and listening to this playlist like i was POSSESED because this ship is lovely and deserved a nice playlist! if anyone wants to know why i picked each song, i’m going to ramble about it extensively in the read more, so check that out if you want! hope you enjoy it! also thanks again to @birbwell for letting me use her art for the cover!

i divided this playlist in a few sections so let’s start with the first one (section one: first meeting/pining) i. in the rain - joe hisaishi i wanted to start with a short instrumental track to set the mood, and i looooove howl’s moving castle score, so i had to pick this one! the fact that it has rain in the title also helps to reference how their relationship began! ii. with every breath i take - frank sinatra “every breath that I take is a prayer that i’ll make you mine” my sister is a big sinatra/jazz fan (and also a yakuza fan) so she helped me with picking a few of the songs here! this one is very romantic, elegant and beautiful and i thought it fit the mood (and it’s what i think tachibana listens to in his free time lmao).

iii. gold rush - taylor swift “what must it be like to grow up that beautiful? with your hair falling into place like dominoes my mind turns your life into folklore i can't dare to dream about you anymore” this one is my FAVORITE song on this playlist, and one of the first i picked because this song just fits them like a glove. it’s basically pining 101, and i love that what taylor said this song is about “daydreaming about someone then snapping out of it.” i feel like the first part could be from tachibana’s perspective and the second one from kiryu’s (also giving a bit of a glimpse into the future, with the mention of a coastal town they’ll never find together) iv. first love/late spring - mitski “so please, hurry, leave me, i can't breathe please don't say you love me mune ga hachikire-sōde (my heart seems like it’s going to burst)” this one was another song i picked very early on because i love mitski, and i needed to include her here. i just wanted something to symbolize the trust that tachibana and kiryu have to share to work together, and the feelings that emerge from it, if that makes any sense. i don’t think this has a specific perspective, because i feel like this could work from both kiryu’s and tachibana’s (mostly kiryu though) v. real estate - adam melchor “every time I wonder how i'd carry on without you i'm runnin' out of real estate tryna make all the right moves i don't wanna hesitate i would bet the house on you “ do you UNDERSTAND how satisfying it was to find a song named real estate for them?? come ooon. ok that’s not all of my reasoning for it but it’s like. most of it, lmao another song i felt was about trust and feelings. (also a bit of a glimpse into the future, because i’m sad) vi. i get a kick out of you - ella fitzgerald “i get no kick from champagne mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all so tell me why should it be true that i get a kick out of you?” another one my sister recommended. i originally was gonna go with sinatra’s version of this, but i love this one and it just wouldn’t leave my brain. again, one from mostly tachibana’s perspective, get this man to sing this on karaoke night right now. vii. like real people do - hozier “i will not ask you where you came from i would not ask and neither would you honey, just put your sweet lips on my lips we could just kiss like real people do” this is one of my all time favorites from hozier and, again, it just fit perfectly. tachibana and kiryu have both lived some very... troubled lives so far, and while they’re depending on this trust they have in eachother, none of them really care to know about what they’ve done or who they are. this is mostly from kiryu’s perspective, specially with this metaphor of being rescued/dug up from the earth with the whole being found in the rain and saved by tachibana and his poor driving skills. viii. delicate - taylor swift “this ain't for the best my reputation's never been worse, so you must like me for me... we can't make any promises now, can we, babe? but you can make me a drink” y’all are going to have to forgive me for picking TWO taylor swift songs but COME OOOON this is another one that i picked early on because i could draw so many parallels between the lyrics and things that they both said in that car scene on chapter 9 (mostly tachibana though) and i kept harassing my sister with screenshots to prove my point and i’m gonna do it again

ANYWAYS i’ve made my case, and now we enter the second section of the playlist at last ( section 2: actual romantic/fluffy songs because this is a ship playlist) i. good old-fashioned lover boy - queen “dining at the ritz we'll meet at nine (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 o'clock) precisely i will pay the bill, you taste the wine driving back in style in my saloon will do quite nicely just take me back to yours that will be fine” is this a bit of a cliché? yes. did i want to include it because it’s very cute and i’d like to imagine kiryu and tachibana having a nice date night with no people trying to kill them all the time? also yes. i love this song.

ii. stay with me/mayonaka no door - miki matsuraba “you in your gray jacket with that oh-so-familiar coffee stain just as you always are the two of us reflect in the window display stay with me knocking on midnight's door i beg you not to go home tonight” (translated lyrics) is anyone not obsessed with this song lately? this is the only song here i’m blaming tiktok for making me listen to it lol. in any way, this song is deceptive because it sounds really happy but is actually quite melancholic. i thought it fit their relationship well, and it seemed like a good addition to the playlist with it’s 80′s city pop vibes.

iii. on melancholy hill - gorillaz (covered by matt forbes) “just looking out on the day of another dream where you can't get what you want, but you can get me so let's set out to sea, love 'cause you are my medicine when you're close to me" this is a gorillaz song but i went with this cover because it fit the feeling of the playlist a little better. another song that i just love very deeply and i thought fit the sentiment of kiryu being like “hey i know we have Big problems and you’re very sad in the moment but i’m here for you” iv. (i love you) for sentimental reasons - nat king cole "i think of you every morning dream of you every night darling, i'm never lonely whenever you are in sight" surprisingly, not one that my sister recommended, but one i found for myself while looking for quiet romantic songs. i feel like this is tachibana's reply to kiryu being there for him and helping him. plus, idk i just wanted to imagine them slow dancing to this. v. positions - ariana grande (covered by travis atreo) "perfect, perfect you're too good to be true but I get tired of runnin', fuck it now, i’m runnin' with you" i picked this cover because i felt like using ariana's one would be a little goofy for this section lmao, but i really like this song and how it's about commitment and doing everything to make a relationship work. i just wanted to throw some sexy vibes before this playlist delved into depressing stuff. also if you telling me tachibana wouldn't absolute body a tiktok set to this song you're lying to yourself. (section 3: oh no this is getting sad) i. forever - labrinth "i'll live forever" i love everything labrinth makes, the euphoria soundtrack lives in my mind rent free and this is my favorite one. this barely has any lyrics so, again, mostly a track i picked for its intrumentals and feeling overall. mostly preparing you for the sad stuff ahead. ii. hong kong - gorillaz "you swallow me i'm a pill on your tongue here on the nineteenth floor the neon lights make me calm" this is my favorite gorillaz song, by FAR, and i think it's introspective vibe really fits tachibana's character. not really a song about relationship but i really wanted to include it because it's just such a GORGEOUS song. iii. fragments - severon another instrumental track! this one i stole from a playlist my sister made for a fic i wrote last year. again. sad vibes. iv. sign of the times - harry styles (covered by LANY) "remember everything will be alright we can meet again somewhere somewhere far away from here" i loved the synth-y vibe this cover had, while still keeping this song's sad "our lives are dangerous and i'm about to die" vibes. i mostly wanted to evoke the vibe from the scene where tachibana agrees to go with lao gui after kiryu gets shot. just really sad all around. v. so close - jon mclaughlin "we're so close to reaching that famous happy end almost believing this one's not pretend let's go on dreaming though we know we are so close, so close, and still so far" me? picking a song from disney's enchanted??? for a playlist??? it's more likely than you think. idk this song just gives me that vibe of being so close to being happy and together, almost reminiscing and wondering what could have been. but it just... won't happen. vi. as the world caves in - matt maltese "yes, it's you i welcome death with as the world, as the world caves in" oops, yes, i had to go there. just couldn't resist including this song, and i feel like it's really self-explanatory. vii. places we won't walk - bruno major "neon lights shine bold and bright buildings grow to dizzy heights people come alive at night in places we won't walk" again, i feel like this song speaks for itself. a bit of a meditation on kiryu's perspective on things that could have happened, things they would have done, that kiryu will just have to do alone from now on. viii. carry me out - mitski "i drive when it rains at night, when it rains, i drive and the headlight spirits they lead me down the styx so black it shines and carry me out carry me out"

possibly the saddest and the most powerful song in this playlist, because i just had to put a mitski song again. the image of kiryu carrying tachibana's body is just constantly in my mind when i listen to this, but i could also see this song being from the perspective of tachibana's spirit. ix. arms tonite - mother mother "i died in your arms tonight i slipped through into the afterlife it was nice" lmao this felt a bit like a cruel joke to include, but i didn't want this playlist to end TOO depressingly. it's a nod to tachibana dying in kiryu's arms, sure, but also it's romantic and possibly a little hopeful (tachibana lives au!!! orpheus and eurydice au!!! fuck it, idk!!) xi. everybody wants to rule the world - tears for fears "there's a room where the light won't find you holding hands while the walls come tumbling down when they do, i'll be right behind you so glad we've almost made it so sad they had to fade it everybody wants to rule the world" not a recommendation from my sister, but it is her favorite song, and she was happy that i included it. another 80's bop with sad lyrics! i feel like this is a lovely summary of their story together and it feels like a nice little bow to wrap up the playlist. i hope you enjoyed my long ass explanations! i might add songs later (or make an entire second playlist altogether for the fic i'm writing rn, but let's not get ahead of ourselves)

#tachikiryu #yakuza #ryu ga gotoku #kazuma kiryu #tetsu tachibana #playlist #audio #THIS IS SUCH A LONG POST I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE ALL THIS ARRRRGH #praying this shows up in the tags lmao

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randomestfandoms-ocs · 5 years ago

Photo

So, since I got a couple of asks about making a manip tutorial, I’m going to walk you guys through how I made the Sofia Martinez x Diego Hargreeves gif that you see above! I use photoshop on mac for all of my gifs, so it may look different on other computers, but the theory is the same (I don’t know what version of photoshop it is lmao, I got it free through school)

This is admittedly not my best gif ever but it was less complicated than a lot of what I make so it seemed like a good one to make a tutorial for! Details are below the cut since this is super long

1. So first I start by loading the first of the two gifs! If you’ve never used photoshop before, you can do that in “file”

NOTE: If you already know how to get a gif loaded then you can skip ahead to step 4, and if you know how to get the gif to only include the frames that you want then you can skip to 6!

(Ik most people will use premade gifs but I make all of mine from scratch so I included that in this)

2. So I know that different people load gifs differently, but I always go with import video frame to layer! It opens my files and I find the mp4/mov file that I want to load from!

3. So I forgot to screenshot this originally which is why you can sort see the final result lmao but anyways then I go and select what part of the file I want! Now I’ve used this Diego scene in a lot of edits so I know exactly where I want it, but finding the exact moment sometimes takes a bit more time/attempts before you get exactly what you want!

4. So now that I have a gif, you can see my timeline at the bottom! The first step to making an actual gif is to go through the timeline and delete all of the frames that you don’t want! In my case, that includes all of the Luther frames that came before this scene! And I decided to make this a 50 frame gif, so once I had 50 frames of Diego, I also deleted everything after that!

5. So once you get just the frames that you want, go to your layers on the side and delete all of the layers that are no longer in your gif! After that I make the remaining layers into a group because I find gif making a lot easier when everything is in groups lmao!

6. Then I like to create the curve layer! This may look different on pcs but on mac you go to the layers dropdown into new adjustment layer to curves!

7. For creating the curves that I want, use the highlight (circled pink) and lowlight (circled yellow) eyedrops! I start with the highlight and I click on what I want to have as the lightest point of the gif (in this case, Diego’s neck), then I use the lowlight and click on what I want to be the darkest point (in this case, his harness)

7b. Now, if you want to change any of the curves from there, you can click on where it says RGB and choose which colour to adjust! If I want the entire thing to be brighter then I’ll go through each colour and increase them all by the same amount; if I want to make one colour stronger or weaker then I only change that one!

7c. in this closeup you can see where the numbers are on the bottom! I only ever adjust the input number, I don’t touch the output at all! Once you’re on a specific colour, click on the square at the top (highlight) or bottom (lowlight) of the curve to determine what you’re adjusting!

NOTE: Don’t assume that these will be your final settings! Once you combine the gifs and we get to the real colouring, they will definitely be changing! But I personally prefer having the base curves already done and then adjusting things later rather than trying to start it later!

After that, I repeat the process to make the second gif, and now we get to making the manip!

So my Diego gif is bigger (1920x1080) than my Sofia gif (1280x720), so I’m going to be moving his gif onto hers!

8. So to copy the gif you’ve made, select all of your frames and then click the three little lines on the bottom right of your timeline! Make sure you’ve selected all of the frames

9. Then, you can choose the copy frames option!!

Note: I should have done it sooner but I forgot; at this point make sure that your curves layer has been moved into the group so that it copies with everything else!

10. So then we move to our other gif, and again we make sure that we’ve selected all the layers, and we click the three little lines again! Make sure that you’ve selected the top layer of the gif so that the layers from the other gif will go on top of it!

11. This time, we’re going to choose to paste frames, and when the pop up appears, make sure to select “Paste Over Selection”! That’s what will put the gif you copied on top of the gif you have selected!

12. so now we this! At this point I can’t see the gif underneath it, so we’re going to create a layer mask (circled in orange in the second screenshot) and get to really making the manip!

NOTE: this will actually say add layer mask, but when I press the command key to take a screenshot it switches to vector, sorry about that!

12b. Circled in orange here is the layer mask! This is the layer that we’re going to do all of the editing on now to make the other gif visible!

13. Now, because of the size difference between the two gifs, I decided to move the Diego gif to be fully centred to start! So I used the free transform tool and just dragged it over! This won’t be its final size or position, but it means that when I go back to editing the layer mask, I’ll be able to see more of the Sofia gif to know what I want to change!

14. So now that it’s more or less where I want it for now, it’s time to get my brush! I always start off with a big brush (better for the fast, imprecise work that I do to start) with 0% hardness! I almost always use 0% hardness unless I need a really defined edge. Make sure that your foreground colour is black and then just paint on the layer mask until you can see the bottom group! If you accidentally hide more than you meant to, just switch your foreground colour to white and paint over it, which will re-reveal it

15. So now that I can actually see the entire Sofia (Lindsey) gif, I’m going to go back to the free transform tool and resize/move the Diego gif until they’re roughly the same size! Then I’ll go back to my layer mask (still with black as my foreground colour) and paint over the mask until it’s as visible as I want!

15b. Now I found the entire gif was too far to the left for my liking, so I selected both groups and went back to the free transform tool and just moved everything to the right until it was more centred!

16. So now I have a manip that I like, but the lines are still harsher than I want them to be!! So I go and right click on the layer mask and choose the Select And Mask function!

17. Now this brings us to a new menu, where we can work more on the mask! I like to use the feather function (you can see where the box is highlighted blue) to soften the edges of the manip! I usually start with 50px and either lower or increase the number until I like the way it looks! I can’t describe exactly what it does but it makes the edge softer and the manip looks more blended

18: Now it’s time to colour the gif! So I have my psd open here, so I right click on the group and choose duplicate group, and then for the destination, I choose my manip (untitled 3, in this case!)

NOTE: I use a colouring PSD that was shared with me, but you can find colourings all over tumblr and deviantart — you don’t even need a psd, you can make your own or just play around with different adjustment layers until you like it!

19. Now I go back to my manip file and oof, if looks way worse like this! So I go back to those curve layers from the beginning and adjust things until it looks better and matches better! For Sofia, I made the green and blue curves stronger, and for Diego I made the red stronger! For Diego I also added a brightness/contrast layer to lessen the harsh contrast!

20. Now it’s time to resize the gif! Tumblr limitations don’t allow gifs wider than 540px (no height limit that I know of), so that’s what I set mine to! Then it automatically changes the height to keep the ratio the same!

21. Now when I make my gifs smaller, I always end up with this awkward little empty space on the edge, so we go back to our layer mask, now with white as our foreground colour, and just using a small brush we will that in again so it looks normal!

22. then we save!!! Go to file > export > save for web, and then you’ll get the first save popup (the big one), click save, and then you get the smaller one and you can name it whatever you want!

23. and now we have a gif!!!!

I really hope this tutorial helps at all! If you ever have any questions about this tutorial, feel free to shoot me a DM or an ask and I’ll try to clarify; and if you’d ever like to know how I do another type of edit or a specific edit, shoot me an ask and I’ll try to put together a tutorial!

Happy creating y’all!!!

#maddie talks #*tutorial

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smutfanfictionlover-blog · 4 years ago

Text

Sangyeon - Hidden job - M

WARNING: DETAILED SMUT SCENES AND FOUL LANGUAGE AHEAD!

Author’s note: Merry Christmassy to all The Bs! I hope you will like my scenario for my ultimate bias, Sangyeon! :)

Note: L/N/Y/N - it means insert your “ your last name/your name”

Y/N, together with her friend named Minje are both erotic novel writers. but even though Y/N is an erotic novel writer she still a virgin and didn't have any relationship before because she was just fond of reading those kinds of novels that made her think to try to be a writer. Then Y/N has a guy roommate and his name is Lee Sangyeon and both of them are close to each other and there was one time, Sangyeon came home early and Y/N was shocked because he has so many foods that he ordered for just the two of them.

“Have dinner with me, Y/N!” Sangyeon said as he smiled at her and Y/N smiled brightly at him and nodded and while Sangyeon is preparing the food for them.

“It seems your job really pays you a lot of money, huh?” Y/N said and Sangyeon just chuckled.

"I think so! Also, I just saved some money and that made me think that I should buy food for us since sometimes, we don't have time for us to hang-out and this is the only way I can do for you as my roommate," Sangyeon said and Y/N blushed.

“But, I am curious what is your job because you never told me about it since we became roommates,” Y/N said as she looked at him with curiosity and Sangyeon tried to smile at her.

“Ummm… I am a full-time model of a men’s magazine,” Sangyeon said and Y/N was surprised at his revelation.

“Oh! No wonder you have a perfect body build and your job really suits you,” Y/N said as she smiled at him and Sangyeon just chuckled at her words.

"So, you are checking me out? Is that what you are saying?" Sangyeon asked as he looked and smirked at her.

"Me? No! You know sometimes, I just saw your upper body and you have a good body built. But I don't stare or drool over your body, okay?" Y/N said and Sangyeon just laughed.

"Okay! Okay! By the way, you also didn't tell me your job and I am curious," Sangyeon said and it was Y/N's turn to try to smile at him.

“Gosh! I think I shouldn’t tell him my real job and he might get the wrong idea even though I am an erotic novel writer,” Y/N thought.

"I am a novel writer. That's why I am very focused on my laptop almost every day to think what story I should write," Y/N said.

“Oh! Now I understand why sometimes you are still up until dawn. But what genre are you writing?” Sangyeon asked as he looked at her and Y/N gulped.

“Ummm… A romantic novel,” Y/N said as she smiled at him.

“Oh! Just romance? That’s all?” Sangyeon asked.

“Yup! Why? Do you have any other genres in mind?” Y/N asked.

“Ummm… You are not also writing an erotic novel, right?” Sangyeon asked as he smiled at her.

“Gosh! Sangyeon is really something! He even thought of that genre,” Y/N thought.

"No! I never wrote those kinds of novels because I don't have any experience when it comes to that thing and I don't have any idea to write those kinds of scenes too," Y/N said as she tried to calm down and Sangyeon smirked at her.

“Oh! It means you are a virgin?” Sangyeon said and Y/N blushed at his question.

“Oh well, It seems I don’t have anything to hide from you from now on,” Y/N said as she blushed.

“But you didn’t have any relationship before too?” Sangyeon asked.

"Yup! Before I just focused on my studies and now, I am focused on my job. That's why I didn't have time for dating someone," Y/N said.

"Oh! Now I understand. But did you know that I heard some writers in an erotic novel genre don't have any experience at all because some of them just read it in a book and suddenly made their book?" Sangyeon asked.

“Gosh! That’s exactly me!” Y/N thought.

“I didn’t know that Sangyeon. I am kinda surprised,” Y/N said and Sangyeon laughed.

"But you are not fond of reading those kinds of books, right?" Sangyeon asked.

"Nope! I don't have an interest in those kinds of novels and why should I read those kind of novels if I don't have a boyfriend?" Y/N said.

"Wait. It means if you will read those kinds of novels, you will probably do the sex scenes with your boyfriend?" Sangyeon asked bluntly and Y/N almost choked at his question and Sangyeon just laughed at her again.

“Well, what should I say? It seems you’re right,” Y/N said as she blushed.

“Oh! Okay! Don’t worry I will not judge you by that, Y/N,” Sangyeon said as he smiled at her.

“Thanks for treating me for dinner tonight, Sangyeon! I have to continue writing my novel,” Y/N said.

“No problem, Y/N! I am glad we finally had time for us to talk and hang-out here in our place,” Sangyeon said and both of them smiled at each other and Y/N just went inside her room and continued writing her erotic novel.

"What if Y/N will know my real job? What will be her reaction? I hope she will not ignore me," Sangyeon thought and sighed and he just went to sleep. Then the next day, Y/N is in the publishing company office with Minje and she is working on her novel. As for Minje who is searching for some other references to make a sex scene in her novel, she suddenly saw an advertisement that is showing on a website and she was shocked at what she saw.

“Is this really Y/N’s roommate?” Minje thought and gulped. Then while Y/N is still working on her novel…

“Y/N, you are roommates with Lee Sangyeon, right?” Minje asked.

“Yup! Why? Are you interested to date him?” Y/N said while she was still focused on her laptop and Minje slightly laughed at her statement.

“If I could only be his roommate and I will date him but you are lucky enough to be with him, Y/N,” Minje said.

“So, why are you asking me about Sangyeon?” Y/N said as she looked at her.

“Ummm… how’s Sangyeon as a roommate?” Minje asked.

“He’s a great roommate and he even treated me a food for dinner last night in our place,” Y/N said.

“Oh! Why did he treat you for dinner, yesterday?’Minje asked.

“Well, he just told me that he already saved money from his job and it seems his job really pays him a lot,” Y/N said.

“By any chance, did he tell you his job?” Minje asked.

"Yup! He told me that he is a full-time model in a men's magazine," Y/N said and Minje was kinda surprised.

"Why did Sangyeon didn't tell her his real job? Or I think he is just scared to tell Y/N?" Minje thought and looked at her.

"Oh! Is that so? That's somehow a high-paying job though," Minje said.

"Yup! You're right!" Y/N said as she smiled at her and Minje smiled back at her and went back to work. As for Sangyeon who is on a day off from his job, he went to a bookstore and went to an adult section of books and as he read some books, he noticed a book on the shelf because he suddenly saw the title and author's name and he was surprised and it was…

“Loving you harder by L/N/Y/N”

"What? Am I seeing this, right now? She is the author of an erotic novel? Did she just lie to me? I should tell her about this and I will definitely read this too," Sangyeon said to himself and he just bought the book that was written by Y/N and went back home to read the novel. As he continued to read the erotic novel in their place, he smirked.

"Wow! It seems Y/N read great erotic novels before and she did great at those kinds of scenes in making her novel. Should I do it also to her?" Sangyeon thought and just smirked at his idea and just continued to read the novel. As for Y/N who is now on a break but still searching for some other references to make great sex scenes for her novel…

"Gosh! These advertisements are really disturbing!" Y/N said and then when she saw one of the advertisements, she was shocked at what she saw.

"Oh shit! Are you kidding me? Is this really Sangyeon? I should talk to him later," Y/N thought as she still staring at the ad that is showing on the website and Minje saw her reaction.

“OMG! She already saw it!” Minje thought.

“Y/N, is there something wrong? Let’s go and let’s have lunch now. I am hungry!” Minje said and then Y/N suddenly closed the browser.

“No! Nothing's wrong Minje. Let's go I am also hungry," Y/N said and both of them went to have a lunch break.

FAST FORWARD…

After a few hours of working in a publishing company, Y/N went home and as soon as she went inside, Sangyeon's eyes darted at her, and Y/N was surprised at his sudden gaze.

“Why is he looking at me like that?” Y/N thought.

“Sangyeon, we should talk,” Y/N said.

“Me too! I really want to talk to you. But ladies should go first,” Sangyeon said

“Okay! Are you really sure that you are only a model of a men’s magazine?” Y/N asked in a serious tone and looked at him.

“Yes! I am telling the truth,” Sangyeon said and Y/N just chuckled.

“But what is this? Explain it to me,” Y/N said as she showed a screenshot of the advertisement and Sangyeon was surprised.

“Oh shit! She knew it!” Sangyeon thought.

“Tell me now, Sangyeon. You are just telling a lie, right? To be honest, that was not just an advertisement, it was a video clip of your porn video!” Y/N said in an angry tone and she glared at him and Sangyeon just stared back at her.

“So, what if I am a porn star? Also, if you were in my shoes, are you going to tell other people that easily? Huh?” Sangyeon said in an angry tone and glared back at her and Y/N suddenly can’t look at him.

"Well, Sangyeon is right. If I were in his shoes, I will probably not tell my job to others too," Y/N thought and she looked at him with apologetic eyes.

“I am sorry, Sangyeon. Now I understood where are you coming from. Don’t get mad at me,” Y/N said.

"Fine! To be honest, I discovered something about you too. I will forgive you. If you will explain to me about this," Sangyeon said as he put the book on the table and Y/N was shocked at what he was talking about.

“Shit! How did he know about the erotic novel that I wrote!” Y/N thought as she blushed and he smirked at her.

"Ummm… I am sorry Sangyeon that I also lied to you. But I am telling you that I really don't have experience at all and before I really read an erotic novel and just decided to try to write my own novel. That's all," Y/N said.

“Okay! Okay! I will not judge you being an erotic novel writer since that’s your job,” Sangyeon said.

“But to be honest, I am really shocked when I knew that you are a porn star,” Y/N said and Sangyeon slightly laughed at her.

“Don’t tell me, that it was also your first time to see a video clip of a porn video,” Sangyeon said.

“Nope! I always see those kinds of advertisements while I am still searching for references to make a great sex scene in my novel,” Y/N said and Sangyeon smirked at her and he went closer to her and Y/N’s body is suddenly tensed because of his sudden action.

"You know, I read a few chapters of it and I liked the way you wrote the novel and it was a steamy one. By the way, my favorite line in your novel is "I want you so bad!” and to be honest, that line suits my mood tonight. Why don’t I make you experience those sex scenes in your novel? Sounds hot, right? ” Sangyeon whispered to her and he slightly grazed his teeth and licked her earlobe that made her moan and she suddenly realized what she did and she slightly push him but not too hard as Sangyeon’s face is still close to her and Y/N blushed and gulped.

“Oh shit! It seems his wild and beast side will come out tonight!” Y/N thought.

"That's not a good ----" Y/N was cut-off because Sangyeon kissed her hungrily and he suddenly bit her upper lip and Y/N moaned into the kiss. Then one of Sangyeon's hands went to her back and put his hand underneath her shirt and suddenly unclasped her bra.

“Shit! He's really fast and he just undoes my bra, just now!" Y/N thought. Then one of Sangyeon's hands went to her breast and squeezed it roughly that made their kisses deeper. Then his lips, went to her neck as he licked and bit it that made Y/N moan his name softly. Then he suddenly licked her earlobe again and…

"You're mine, Y/N! I will never share you with anyone. Are we clear about that?" Sangyeon whispered at her and Y/N nodded and he smirked then he traced some kisses in her jaw and sucked her exposed collarbone and Y/N just continued to moan his name and suddenly he stopped and he stared at her with lust and Y/N just gulped.

“Clothes off, right now Y/N!” Sangyeon said as he still stared at her like Y/N is the prey. Then she obeyed Sangyeon’s command and his eyes were watching while Y/N is removing all her clothes and he just licked his lips at the sight of her being naked.

“Fuck! You are sexy and hot as hell, Y/N!” Sangyeon said as he smirked at her and Y/N blushed at his comment.

“That’s unfair, you don’t even remove your clothes too,” Y/N said.

"Oh! Someone's eager to see me naked, huh?" Sangyeon said as he smirked at her and he pulled his shirt up and throws it on the floor…

"His upper body is really a masterpiece!" Y/N thought as she continued to drool over his upper body and Sangyeon saw it.

“Staring too much, baby girl? You know, I am not done yet, right?” Sangyeon said seductively.

“Damn! I should prepare myself!” Y/N thought and her thoughts were cut-off when Sangyeon is now removing his pants together with boxer shorts and when he was completely naked in front of her, Y/N’s jaw dropped as she saw Sangyeon’s cock.

“Oh fuck! How will it fit that to me!” Y/N thought and Sangyeon walked closer to her and pushed her in the bed and hovered above her.

"I am sure after this, you will be able to write another erotic novel and of course, I will read that novel too," Sangyeon said as he smirked at her and Y/N gulped. Suddenly he held her hand and make her touch his chest, abs, and finally into his cock that made Y/N blushed because it was her first time to touch a man's cock, but she suddenly did a stroke into his cock and Sangyeon moaned her name but he stopped her and looked at her.

“You can do that next time, baby girl. For now, I will be the one who will pleasure you tonight,” Sangyeon said.

“Oh fuck! He's making me wet just with his words! Damn!" Y/N thought. Then Sangyeon dived into her breast as he sucked and licked her nipple delicately that made her close her eyes and moan his name softly and she pushed his head more and Sangyeon smirked at her.

"So, sensitive! I love that!" Sangyeon said and then he suddenly bit her nipple and slightly pulled up that made Y/N moaned loudly his name. Then after Sangyeon gave attention to her breast, he kissed her stomach and kissed and licked her navel and when his lips reached her thighs, he spread it widely to see her dripping core and Y/N saw him between her legs and it was a hot sight for her and he suddenly looked at her.

"You're so wet for me baby! I like that!" Sangyeon said and slightly pulled upwards her thighs closely to his mouth and he suddenly plunged his tongue to her core as licked it at a fast pace and Y/N throws her bed back in the pillow because of the new sensation she felt and when Sangyeon sucked her core roughly, one of Y/N's hands went to his hair and slightly pulling him more into her core and arched her back.

“Shit! M-more Sangyeon!” Y/N said.

"Needy, are we?" Sangyeon said as he smirked at her and he decided to put his tongue more into her core and Y/N moaned loudly and her thighs are going weak while Sangyeon is still holding tightly her thighs.

"So, hot when you are like that, Y/N!" Sangyeon said and as he continued to eat her out wildly, Y/N cum in his mouth and he sucked all of her juices in her core that made a slurping sound in his room and he stopped and looked at Y/N who is now catching her breath.

“You’re so tasty, Y/N!” Sangyeon said as he smirked at her and he put her thighs down on the bed and put a condom in his cock and hovered above her again and both of them made eye contact.

“Are you ready for a one of a kind experience with me, Y/N?” Sangyeon asked.

“Yes, Sangyeon! I want you to wreck me this night!” Y/N said and he smirked at her words.

"As you wish Y/N! I will have no mercy to you this night!" Sangyeon said and he inserted his full cock into her and Y/N yelped in pain.

“Don’t worry, Y/N. I will make you feel so good as ever. I know you can bear the pain,” Sangyeon said as he suddenly thrust his cock to her at a fast pace and Y/N screamed his name and held tightly his biceps.

“Shit! You’re so tight!” Sangyeon said as he continued to pound at her at a fast pace and that time, Y/N already adjusted to him as she moaned his name non-stop.

“Sangyeon! H-harder please! ” Y/N said.

“I will give you more than that Y/N! Prepare for yourself for me!” Sangyeon said as he thrust his cock to her with a mixture of hard and rough pace that made Y/N screamed his name and Sangyeon lifted her two thighs and put in his shoulders and he continued at a hard pace to her that made his cock thrust to a different angle and hit her g-spot.

"Fuck! You feel so good deep inside of you!" Sangyeon said as he gripped her thighs that are still on his shoulders and he also saw that Y/N was in pure bliss as her eyes closed, she arched her back violently and gripped tightly the bed sheets because of his cock that continued to wreck her walls. But as time goes by, Y/N felt that she is close to orgasm same with Sangyeon where his thrusts are becoming unstable and…

"Cum with me, Y/N!" Sangyeon said as he continued to pound at her and Y/N nodded and in a few thrusts of his cock to her, they moaned each other's names as they cum. Then Sangyeon put down her thighs in the bed and pulled out his cock to her that made Y/N slightly moan and he removed the condom to his cock and threw it in the trash bin and went back to lay beside her.

“So, how’s the experience with me?” Sangyeon said as he winked at her and Y/N blushed.

"I don't know what to say, Sangyeon! But it was a mind-blowing one and I can really say that you are a sex god and no wonder why your job really fits you!" Y/N said and Sangyeon laughed at her.

“I can do other things to you next time because you know, this is only the basics,” Sangyeon said as he winked at her and Y/N was surprised at his statement.

“Oh shit! Are you kidding me?” Y/N said and Sangyeon looked at her.

"Nope, I am not! But of course, I will not do it for you now since it was just your first time tonight. So, are you still going to research other references making your sex scenes great in your novel?” Sangyeon said and Y/N blushed.

“I think I don’t need it anymore since I already have you. It’s just that I have to write the right words for the scenes,” Y/N said and Sangyeon smiled at him.

“That’s great! But I want to tell you that, for me, this is not only just for fun or you might think that we will be just going to be fuck buddies or in a no strings attached arrangement,” Sangyeon said.

“What do you mean?” Y/N said.

“Don’t you really understand? Or are you just pretending not to know what am I talking about?” Sangyeon said and raised one of his eyebrows.

“I am sorry sometimes I am not quick-witted,” Y/N said and Sangyeon slightly laughed at her.

“Okay! For the past 3 years of being your roommate, I have fallen in love with you,” Sangyeon said as he looked at her lovingly in her eyes and Y/N was surprised at his confession.

”Really?” Y/N asked shockingly.

"Yup! I am dead serious, Y/N! But because of my job I know you are thinking that I have probably fallen in love with those girls who I worked with. Also, if you want, I can quit my job so that, it will not bother you and I think it will be good for me to have another job too or I can help you write your novel. Sounds good, right?" Sangyeon said as he smiled at her and Y/N smiled back at him.

"But are you willing to quit your job?" Y/N asked.

“Yes, I am! I already thought about it so, that it will not be hard for me to tell other people my job. But Y/N, do you also love me?” Sangyeon asked.

“Yup! I love you too Sangyeon!” Y/N said as she smiled at him and Sangyeon hugged her and Y/N hugged back.

"I am glad that both of us are on the same page and I love you so much Y/N!" Sangyeon said as he cupped Y/N's face and kissed her lips passionately but both of them pulled away immediately and Y/N blushed.

"I am sorry I have to stop because I might not control myself again to you," Sangyeon said as slightly laughed and Y/N looked at him.

“Then don’t!” Y/N said and Sangyeon was surprised at her words.

“Wow! Are you serious? But it was just your first time tonight,” Sangyeon said.

“I don’t care! I still want you so bad!” Y/N said.

“Oh! No! You will be in big trouble this night with me, Y/N!” Sangyeon said as he smirked at her. Then he suddenly kissed her lips passionately again and they went for a few rounds until Y/N was completely exhausted.

“I don’t regret to love him so much and he is just too good for this! Damn!” Y/N thought.

Thank you for reading my one-shot smut fan fiction of The Boyz’s Lee Sangyeon!

끝 THE END

Stay tuned for the next member! :)

고마워요 여러분! (Thanks, Everyone!)

34 notes · View notes

koyofruit · 4 years ago

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a word on a year without one of the best people i’ve ever known

I never remember my dreams. Typically I say that I don’t dream, but after the nearly 30 years I’ve lived, I’m no longer in the business of accidentally baiting absolute geniuses who like to chime in and say things like “well, actually, you do dream you just don’t remember it.” If someone says they don’t really dream and they look to be over the age of sixteen or seventeen years old, I promise you that they know technically what is actually going on.

When I was younger I used to dream a lot. I dreamed really vividly - in that colorful, hazy way that I like to believe all kids dream before dreams start to “mean something.” I don’t exactly remember when I stopped dreaming like this, but all I know is, if I remember a dream it is most often a nightmare because despite the fact that I am a textbook definition of a water sign, my initial gut reaction is always to compartmentalize. Think of a bottle of soda that you’ve handled a little too roughly: you start to open it, the fizz shoots up faster than you’d like, and you screw the cap back on as quickly as possible.

Except in the most literal and figurative way, I’ve never actually been the best at this. One of my favorite self deprecating jokes is saying that I don’t ever move with purpose, which is why I’ve never been good at sports. It also is just a loose way of saying that I’m clumsy and also accident prone. So even though I’m moving as fast as possible for me, a little bit of soda spills out before I can get the cap closed. I like to think of my nightmares as little drops of soda-emotions leaking out. Is this metaphor stupid? Is this even a metaphor? I haven’t taken an English class since 2011 and I don’t really care, but I promise I have a point.

A few days after Liz passed away I had a dream about her. I dreamt we were together somewhere in some dream-place that I don’t really remember because the minute details don’t mean anything, here. The only thing I remember, and the only thing that mattered, is that I was walking around with her just feeling so deeply that something was wrong. Something was off. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me, and it consumed dream-me’s every thought no matter what we were doing. Then suddenly, in a brief moment of lucidity, I remembered that she was dead and that this couldn’t be real. And as lucid-me was thinking it, dream-me said it out loud, and Liz said something to the effect of wishing I wouldn’t have said that. And then she was gone. It is, to date, the only dream that wasn’t a nightmare that I’ve remembered as an adult.

The actual nightmare has been living the past year without one of the best friends I’ve ever had.

Death’s permanence is something that has never quite been lost on me, which is why I’ve always feared it. I’ve lost people in my life in that we’ve stopped talking, or stopped being as close, or whatever else you can imagine. But that’s life. That’s me being able to pull up their instagram after 5 or 6 years of losing touch and seeing that they went on vacation with their family last week. They’re gone from my life, but alive in someone else’s, and that’s okay.

There was a time where I thought Liz and I were gonna be one of those friends that lost touch. When someone dies, out of respect, nobody wants to talk about the hard times, but the fact of the matter is that our friendship wasn’t perfect. We didn’t live in the same state, and we became friends through a shared interest - and anyone involved in ‘fandom’ type spaces will tell you that you will either meet some of the best people you’ve ever known this way, or you will find people that you think are gonna be your best friend until you run out of werewolves to talk about and realize you actually have nothing else in common outside of that. But even when she and I realized that we could be good friends outside of fandom and convention spaces, our “real” life and very real problems snuck in anyway. We went through a rough period where we didn’t talk for months, only for her to reach out and make the first step towards mending things.

And I’m so glad she did. I wouldn’t trade the years that followed that for anything, good times and bad.

She was one of the handful of people in my life that really appreciated pop culture in the way that I do. It felt like we spoke the same, secret language. I would see something absolutely fucking wild trending on twitter and a minute later, would get a text like “lmao did you see??” and it would become a competition to see who could make the best joke about it. We were constantly screenshotting our texts and posting them out of context. The internet was 100% a mistake, but for brief moments in time, it can be fun - and she was one of the people who made it fun.

She loved being online and being tuned into memes. She had more side accounts than anyone I know. If you ever saw one of those viral “Steve Harrington dancing to-” videos, that was probably from her account. And god, did she write. She took the idea of “write what you know” and pushed it even further - she wrote about everything that she loved. She had published articles, who knows how many GBs of fiction on her google docs, viral tweets and everything in between. If she had an idea for something, she was expanding on it, and nobody was going to stop her.

And that applied to everything. Even outside of her work and her writing, she enriched her life in so many ways. She was always baking, played trivia with her friends, learned dances with her brother, and so many other things. It wasn’t until this past year that I understood that she was way ahead of me in understanding just how much hobbies can improve your life. They’re cinnamon sugar on your toast.

So, today I woke up early and baked a cake that I’m going to share with my friends later. After I’m done with this, I’m going to wipe my tears and open another document to start outlining a story I’ve been thinking about for weeks. I’ve got Captain America: The Winter Soldier playing in the background and am idly thinking about what Liz would have said about the twist they gave Sharon’s character in Falcon and Winter Soldier.

I don’t know what I’m going to do after that. I just know that I miss my friend, that I will love her always, and that I’m doing my best to live the kind of life she would want me to live.

#death cw #i feel like this goes without saying but don't reblog

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whelvenwings · 5 years ago

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3k, College AU. In which Dean attempts to scam Castiel over text, with... mixed results.

read here on AO3 if you prefer!

Castiel sat in his apartment, scrolling listlessly through his phone. He’d tried to stop doing this recently. The hours he flipped down the wishing well of his Instagram feed just weren’t rewarding him with the perfect life he wished for, and at a certain point it was time to stop making the wishes. But even though he’d put his social media apps in a folder marked Don’t Do It, and even though he knew he didn’t want to melt through his days like this – slumped on his sofa with phone in hand – he ended up doing it anyway.

He stared briefly at a picture of a dog. Then someone’s baked goods. Then someone else’s throwback picture to their time in Greece.

None of it was particularly exciting, but he couldn’t seem to will himself away.

Inside him, a little voice was saying, you know, you could be doing something that you actually enjoy right now, like going for a run or reading a book or watching a TV show or, and I mean heaven forbid, but you could possibly start doing that paper? You know, like, work?

Castiel scrolled some more. The voice in his mind was very loud but outwardly, he was just sitting in his living room, eyes fixed quietly on his screen.

Move! said the little voice. You can’t just sit here forever! What are you doing? Your minutes on Earth are slipping out from under you while you do things you don’t even like!

With a little sniff, Castiel kept going. It was like his thumb had a mind of its own, traversing his Instagram like a lone journeyman, while the sky-gods above in Castiel’s mind begged it to stop.

A white box unfurled from the top of Castiel’s screen.

He blinked. A notification – a text. He tried to pull down the notif to read what the text said, but he accidentally closed it instead. Treacherous little journeyman thumb, he thought. Maybe if it spent less time overexerting itself on social media scrolling, it’d be able to open a text message.

A text message. Weird. No one texted him anymore, not really – all his friends used WhatsApp, and his professors only ever contacted him via email. To just get a plain old text was unusual. He flipped over to his texting app and opened it.

>> Your phone is now hacked so do exactly what I say and I’ll remove the hack. If you don’t I’ll destroy all your phone data. If you try to block me or report this I’ll destroy all the data instantly send your home address or I’ll hack you and share everything

When he started reading the message, Castiel felt a cold clutch of worry grip his stomach. His phone was hacked? How was that even possible? He ran anti-virus and anti-malware apps all the time, even though they slowed down his phone. He took care not to visit any sites that looked suspicious. How could –

He read it again, and then frowned, and sent a message back.

<< I have to send the address or you’ll hack me? I thought you already hacked me?

There was a pause. Castiel could feel his heart beating a little fast. His phone was supposed to be a safe island that no one could get into, his own private space; having someone text him that they were inside it, had hacked it, felt like having someone in his bedroom rooting through his things.

After thirty seconds, the text came back.

>> Yeah I’ve definitely hacked it so send the address or I’ll destroy your data and share it

Castiel squinted. He typed back,

<< How are you going to share the data if you destroyed it?

Another pause, and then –

>> I’ll share it first

With a more suspicious expression on his face than ever, Castiel responded,

<< What phone do I have? What OS?

>> You have thirty seconds to send the address or I’m going to share the data

<< You didn’t answer my question.

>> I don’t have to

Castiel actually had a small smile forming on his face as the last text came in. The person on the other end of the phone clearly had no idea what they were doing. He wasn’t sure if this was just a prank from one of his friends, or if it was a genuine attempt to scam him, but it definitely wasn’t an actual hacker.

With that same little smile on his face, Castiel typed out,

<< It’s been more than thirty seconds.

>> Yeah and I have your data now so I’m gonna share it

It was almost endearing, Castiel thought.

<< You really didn’t plan ahead for if someone actually questioned you, did you?

>> Yeah I am prepared. I’m gonna destroy everything on your phone

As Castiel considered how to reply – and if he even should, or if it was better to leave the supposed hacker to their own devices – he felt his stomach growl. Lost in the endless scroll of his Instagram feed, he’d completely forgotten to eat for most of the day. The texts from this person had finally broken the spell.

<< Alright. Enjoy yourself. I’m going to go and get some food.

>> Copying all the content now

Of course you are, Castiel thought. Of course. He wandered through to his kitchen and started browsing through his shelves. He had rice – plenty of rice, and also a bottle of soy sauce that was going out of date, and a slightly withered onion. In the fridge he found a few more limp-looking vegetables that needed eating up before he next went shopping.

Ten minutes later found him watching a pot bubbling to cook his rice, with a frying pan sizzling beside it.

When he picked up his phone, the hacker hadn’t responded. Castiel took a screenshot of their conversation, and then flipped over to WhatsApp. Opening the groupchat he had with his friends, he sent the screenshot.

I’m getting hacked, he wrote, and then put a terrified emoji. Charlie responded immediately with four cry-laughing emojis, and a few others sent some gifs. Castiel watched along the top to see someone typing a response – a number he didn’t have saved to his phone.

Sounds pretty scary you should probably send it, said the person. Castiel checked the name in grey next to their number, the one WhatsApp displayed automatically. Dean Winchester.

Dean Winchester? Castiel felt a little flip in his stomach. He’d been hoping to get to chat to Dean for months, now – they’d shared a class last semester but somehow had never got to talking, just traded looks across the room. Castiel had thought he’d lost his chance when the semester had ended and their shared class had been over – but then Charlie had added Dean into the chat at the start of the new year, introducing him as someone she’d met in one of her computing classes. Dean had been quiet so far, though, just lurking and reading messages.

Now, for the first time, Dean had actually said something to him.

And it was something ridiculous. Dean wasn’t actually taking this seriously, was he? Those computing classes couldn’t be focusing in on hacking as a topic, if he was this clueless.

Castiel didn’t want to leave Dean hanging without a reply, but he also didn’t want to embarrass him by laughing at the idea of the hack being scary. Instead, he switched over to his texting app again. Maybe if he got more evidence that the “hacker” had no idea what they were doing, then Dean would realise on his own that it wasn’t anything to worry about.

He thought for a second, and then sent,

<< How’s it going? It can’t take that long to steal all my data. I only have like 4 pictures on my phone and they’re all accidental selfies.

>> I’m getting all your credit card details you should definitely just send the address

<< Isn’t my address in the same place in my phone where you found my credit card details?

A pause, and then –

>> Yeah it is but you should tell me anyway

Castiel pressed his lips together to repress a laugh, and took another screenshot, and sent it to the groupchat.

I think I’ll be okay, he said. Dean started typing again immediately, while emojis rolled in from the rest of the people in the chat.

Dean said,

I don’t know dude seems legit to me

Charlie sent a message that said,

Dean… are you reading the same thing I’m reading?

Castiel was glad that Charlie was the one questioning him, because someone had to. Surely Dean was just kidding around, though. There was no way he really thought that this terrifying “hacker” represented a serious threat.

Dean was typing again. Castiel stirred his vegetables in the frying pan.

I had a friend who got the same message, Dean said, and he didn’t send his address and the hacker totally ruined his life so you should probably just send it

The message sat there in the WhatsApp groupchat, and was met with silence. Castiel read over it, shook his head – and then he noticed his rice was definitely cooked, and went to drain the water away in the sink before it went mushy in the pot. A frown was growing on his face as he did so. When he was done, he stirred his vegetables some more and then came back and read the message again.

His eyes narrowed.

He switched to his texting app, and read over the texts the hacker had sent him. And then went back to WhatsApp, and read Dean’s message.

The style was undeniably similar.

Was Dean pranking him? Probably not, right? Why would he? But then again, Dean was trying to convince him that the hack was real over WhatsApp in a way that was stylistically similar and just as unconvincing as the hacker themself over text… Castiel wasn’t sure what to make of that. Attention from Dean would feel kind of good, but given that the attention he was possibly getting was some kind of attempt to scam him out of his personal details, the good feeling was definitely not boundless.

After some thought, Castiel turned down the heat under his frying pan, tapped through his phone, and hit Call.

Bzz, bzz. The dial tone hummed in Castiel’s ear. He found that his heartbeat was actually pounding a little hard.

Bzz, bzz. Maybe this was a bad idea. Probably he should just hang up, and try messaging instead –

“Hello?”

Castiel went still as someone picked up. Their voice was comically low and growling, as though the person who’d answered was putting on a voice.

“Hello,” Castiel said.

“This is the hacker. Tell me your address.”

Castiel pressed his lips together, very hard, so he wouldn’t laugh.

“I said, tell me the address.”

“Um,” Castiel said. “No, thank you. Dean, what are you doing?”

There was a pause, and some kind of hurried rustling on the phone, and then the voice said,

“Dean? Who’s Dean? I don’t know anyone with that name. Just send over the address and your data won’t be shared and destroyed.”

“Dean,” Castiel said, “I called you on WhatsApp. I know this is you.”

The silence, this time, was significantly more protracted. For a few seconds, Castiel thought that Dean was actually gone, or that maybe the line had gone dead. Instead, after an incredibly pregnant pause, Dean said in his normal voice,

“Fuck.”

“Can I… ask you what’s going on?”

“Uh…” Dean hesitated. “Shit. Oh, god. Okay. Look, man, uh, buddy, I’m – I’m really sorry if I freaked you out with the whole scam thing –”

“I wasn’t freaked out,” Castiel said, trying not to sound too much as though he was enjoying himself. It felt good to hear Dean’s voice down the phone. Dean Winchester, the most handsome guy in Spanish 101, was actually on the end of the phone. They were actually talking. Under circumstances that made no sense, obviously, but still.

“Right… right. I just – I’m sorry, it was this idea I had and I thought I could just…”

He broke off. Something about the tone of his voice took the silliness and hilarity out of the situation, and Castiel’s slight smile dropped to be replaced by a little frown of concern.

“Are you in some kind of trouble? Do you need a place to come to?”

“No, no, nothin’ like that. Oh my god, this is the worst.”

“Dean… is something wrong? If you need my address… you know you could have messaged me and just asked for it?”

Dean groaned.

“I don’t… I mean, yeah, but like, no,” Dean said. “Look, I’m just gonna go. I’m sorry for… whatever the hell this was, and –”

“Wait,” Castiel said, “wait, don’t go. You can’t try to scam me for my address and then not give me any answers, I…”

“Sorry,” Dean said, and then hung up.

Castiel took his phone away from his ear. There had been something so wretched and barely-concealed in Dean’s tone that Castiel himself was upset, his stomach twisting. He looked down at his phone screen.

After a long minute of thought, Castiel went to his texting app and opened the text chain with the “hacker”.

<< 401 Lazarus Rise SW, Apartment 67

He considered the text for a long moment, and then sent it. Dean didn’t text back.

But two days later, there was a knock at his front door. Castiel, sitting at his desk and reluctantly typing out some words on his paper, frowned and looked over at the clock as though its face calmly showing 5pm would give him some kind of answer about who was outside. Receiving no wisdom from it, he decided to go and see for himself.

Opening the door, he saw a delivery person wearing a big smile and carrying a bunch of flowers.

“Here you go!” they said, handed him the flowers smartly, and then marched off down the hallway. Castiel stared after them, wondering how they’d even managed to get inside the building without being buzzed in. Probably Mrs Tran down the hall leaving the door open again, so that her son could get in even though her buzzer was broken.

Castiel stood in the doorway of his apartment, holding onto the bunch of flowers. It was a simple enough arrangement – just twelve red roses, nestled in brown paper. When the delivery person was gone, Castiel blinked and looked down at them. Surely these had to be for someone else in the building – he could just check the label and try to figure out who.

The label was a piece of brown card tied to the roses with string. In a messy scrawl, Castiel read,

Hey sorry again about what happened hopefully these make up for it. Never really tried to do anything about liking a guy before so don’t know what I’m doing. Didn’t know if you’d find flowers embarrassing so tried to get your address and send them anonymously but I guess that plan sucked ass huh? Don’t feel like you gotta say anything just wanted to apologize. Dean

Castiel’s eyes went wide and soft. He read the message through one more time and then once more after that, and then tilted the roses up to look at them, and then read the message again, and then smelled the flowers. He leaned back against his doorframe. He could feel his heart just about ready to burst out of his chest.

He went into his apartment, feeling as though he were walking on marshmallows. His legs were fuzzy with his happiness. Finding his phone, he pulled up WhatsApp.

Bzz, bzz.

Bzz –

“Hello?”

“Hello, Dean.” Castiel still had the roses in one hand. He looked down at them again, and closed his eyes because the happiness was just a little too much for a half-second.

“Uh.” He heard Dean swallow. “I did put the part where you didn’t have to say anything to me, right?”

“I know. But I wanted to thank you.”

“Uhhh.” Dean sounded floored. “Okay. Well, you’re… welcome?”

“And I wanted to ask you for something.”

“Oh. Okay?”

Castiel smiled.

“Your address,” he said.

––

The next night, Castiel stood outside the door of a slightly shabby-looking apartment, and knocked.

After less than three seconds, it was opened. Framed in the doorway stood Dean Winchester, wearing a nervous smile and nicer clothes than Castiel had ever seen him wear before to class.

Castiel breathed out.

“Hey,” Dean said. His hands looked awkward and clumsy, and Castiel’s heart was full enough looking at the confused shy man in front of him that he couldn’t stop himself – he reached out and took one of them. And it wasn’t supposed to happen this way, it was all in the wrong order, they were meant to go out for dinner and then Castiel would drop Dean back at his apartment and walk him to the door and then they were supposed to do this – but somehow Dean was close, and Castiel was leaning in a little closer still, and then their lips met.

Dean kissed so gently.

When Castiel pulled away, he saw the colour flowering inDean’s lightly stubbled cheeks.

“Uh,” Dean said gruffly. “Uh, good, okay. Yeah. Good.”

“Good?”

“Good,” Dean confirmed. “Good.”

“Good,” Castiel said.

For a second, they stared at each other. And then, moving at the same time, they both leaned in again – not so gentle, now.

They didn’t make their dinner reservation.

“We should call and tell them we’re not coming,” Castiel said at one point.

“They’ll be okay.”

“We should tell them,” Castiel insisted, giving Dean a little dig in the ribs. “It’s rude not to.”

“What, you think the cops will come for us if we don’t?”

“They’re already coming for you anyway,” Castiel said. “This has all been a ruse to catch the biggest scammer in town.”

Dean dropped his head onto Castiel’s shoulder, and laughed.

“Never gonna live that one down?”

“Never,” said Castiel, and kissed him again.

#whelvenwingsfic #destiel #deancas #destiel fic #thebloggerbloggerfun #with my new and very tenuous digital drawing skillz #I made the banner with the phone on it!#I'm so oddly proud of it #I'm sure there are 10000 mistakes but hey they're my mistakes in a art what I did??#I did an art!#anyway #here endeth the three-day downpour of fics from me #lots more in the works though!

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tswiftdaily · 5 years ago

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In the 2010s, she went from country superstar to pop titan and broke records with chart-topping albums and blockbuster tours. Now Swift is using her industry clout to fight for artists’ rights and foster the musical community she wished she had coming up.

One evening in late-October, before she performed at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, Taylor Swift’s dressing room became -- as it often does -- an impromptu summit of music’s biggest names. Swift was there to take part in the American Cancer Society’s annual We Can Survive concert alongside Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Camila Cabello and others, and a few of the artists on the lineup came by to visit.

Eilish, along with her mother and her brother/collaborator, Finneas O’Connell, popped in to say hello -- the first time she and Swift had met. Later, Swift joined the exclusive club of people who have seen Marshmello without his signature helmet when the EDM star and his manager stopped by.

“Two dudes walked in -- I didn’t know which one was him,” recalls Swift a few weeks later, sitting on a lounge chair in the backyard of a private Beverly Hills residence following a photo shoot. Her momentary confusion turned into a pang of envy. “It’s really smart! Because he’s got a life, and he can get a house that doesn’t have to have a paparazzi-proof entrance.” She stops to adjust her gray sweatshirt dress and lets out a clipped laugh.

Swift, who will celebrate her 30th birthday on Dec. 13, has been impossibly famous for nearly half of her lifetime. She was 16 when she released her self-titled debut album in 2006, and 20 when her second album, Fearless, won the Grammy Award for album of the year in 2010, making her the youngest artist to ever receive the honor. As the decade comes to a close, Swift is one of the most accomplished musical acts of all time: 37.3 million albums sold, according to Nielsen Music; 95 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 (including five No. 1s); 23 Billboard Music Awards; 12 Country Music Association Awards; 10 Grammys; and five world tours.

She also finishes the decade in a totally different realm of the music world from where she started. Swift’s crossover from country to pop -- hinted at on 2012’s Red and fully embraced on 2014’s 1989 -- reflected a mainstream era in which genres were blended with little abandon, where artists with roots in country, folk and trap music could join forces without anyone raising eyebrows. (See: Swift’s top 20 hit “End Game,” from 2017’s reputation, which featured Ed Sheeran and Future.)

Swift’s new album, Lover, released in August, is both a warm break from the darkness of reputation -- which was created during a wave of negative press generated by Swift’s public clash with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian-West -- as well as an amalgam of all her stylistic explorations through the years, from dreamy synth-pop to hushed country. “The skies were opening up in my life,” says Swift of the album, which garnered three Grammy nominations, including song of the year for the title track.

She recorded Lover after the Reputation Stadium Tour broke the record for the highest-grossing U.S. tour late last year. In 2020, Swift will embark on Lover Fest, a run of stadium dates that will feature a hand-picked lineup of artists (as yet unannounced) and allow Swift more time off from the road. “This is a year where I have to be there for my family -- there’s a lot of question marks throughout the next year, so I wanted to make sure that I could go home,” says Swift, likely referencing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, which inspired the Lover heart-wrencher “Soon You’ll Get Better.”

Now, however, Swift finds herself in a different highly publicized dispute. This time it’s with Scott Borchetta, the head of her former label, Big Machine Records, and Scooter Braun, the manager-mogul whose Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group and its master recordings, which include Swift’s six pre-Lover albums, in June. Upon news of the sale, Swift wrote in a Tumblr post that it was her “worst case scenario,” accusing Braun of “bullying” her throughout her career due to his connections with West. She maintains today that she was never given the opportunity to buy her masters outright. (On Tumblr, she wrote that she was offered the chance to “earn” back the masters to one of her albums for each new album she turned in if she re-signed with Big Machine; Borchetta disputed this characterization, saying she had the opportunity to acquire her masters in exchange for re-signing with the label for a “length of time” -- 10 more years, according to screenshots of legal documents posted on the Big Machine website.)

Swift has said that she intends to rerecord her first six albums next year -- starting next November, when she says she’s contractually able to -- in order to regain control of her recordings. But the back-and-forth appears to be nowhere near over: Last month, Swift alleged that Borchetta and Braun were blocking her from performing her past hits at the American Music Awards or using them in an upcoming Netflix documentary -- claims Big Machine characterized as “false information” in a response that did not get into specifics. (Swift ultimately performed the medley she had planned.) In the weeks following this interview, Braun said he was open to “all possibilities” in finding a “resolution,” and Billboard sources say that includes negotiating a sale. Swift remains interested in buying her masters, though the price could be a sticking point, given her rerecording plans, the control she has over the licensing of her music for film and TV, and the market growth since Braun’s acquisition.

However it plays out, the battle over her masters is the latest in a series of moves that has turned Swift into something of an advocate for artists’ rights -- and made her a cause that everyone from Halsey to Elizabeth Warren has rallied behind. From 2014 to 2017, Swift withheld her catalog from Spotify to protest the streaming company’s compensation rates, saying in a 2014 interview, “There should be an inherent value placed on art. I didn’t see that happening, perception-wise, when I put my music on Spotify.” In 2015, ahead of the launch of Apple Music, Swift wrote an open letter criticizing Apple for its plan to not pay royalties during the three-month free trial it was set to offer listeners; the company announced a new policy within 24 hours. Most recently, when she signed a new global deal with Universal Music Group in 2018, Swift (who is now on Republic Records) said one of the conditions of her contract was that UMG share proceeds from any sale of its Spotify equity with its roster of artists -- and make them nonrecoupable against those artists’ earnings.

During a wide-ranging conversation, Billboard’s Woman of the Decade expresses hope that she can help make the lives of creators a little easier in the years to come -- and a belief that her behind-the-scenes strides will be as integral to her legacy as her biggest singles. “New artists and producers and writers need work, and they need to be likable and get booked in sessions, and they can’t make noise -- but if I can, then I’m going to,” promises Swift. This is where being impossibly famous can be a very good thing. “I know that it seems like I’m very loud about this,” she says, “but it’s because someone has to be.”

While watching some of your performances this year -- like Saturday Night Live and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert -- I was struck by how focused you seemed, like there were no distractions getting in the way of what you were trying to say.

That’s a really wonderful way of looking at this phase of my life and my music. I’ve spent a lot of time recalibrating my life to make it feel manageable. Because there were some years there where I felt like I didn’t quite know what exactly to give people and what to hold back, what to share and what to protect. I think a lot of people go through that, especially in the last decade. I broke through pre-social media, and then there was this phase where social media felt fun and casual and quirky and safe. And then it got to the point where everyone has to evaluate their relationship with social media. So I decided that the best thing I have to offer people is my music. I’m not really here to influence their fashion or their social lives. That has bled through into the live part of what I do.

Meanwhile, you’ve found a way to interact with your fans in this very pure way -- on your Tumblr page.

Tumblr is the last place on the internet where I feel like I can still make a joke because it feels small, like a neighborhood rather than an entire continent. We can kid around -- they literally drag me. It’s fun. That’s a real comfort zone for me. And just like anything else, I need breaks from it sometimes. But when I do participate in that space, it’s always in a very inside-joke, friend vibe. Sometimes, when I open Twitter, I get so overwhelmed that I just immediately close it. I haven’t had Twitter on my phone in a while because I don’t like to have too much news. Like, I follow politics, and that’s it. But I don’t like to follow who has broken up with who, or who wore an interesting pair of shoes. There’s only so much bandwidth my brain can really have.

You’ve spoken in recent interviews about the general expectations you’ve faced, using phrases like “They’ve wanted to see this” and “They hated me for this.” Who is “they”? Is it social media or disparaging think pieces or --

It’s sort of an amalgamation of all of it. People who aren’t active fans of your music, who like one song but love to hear who has been canceled on Twitter. I’ve had several upheavals of somehow not being what I should be. And this happens to women in music way more than men. That’s why I get so many phone calls from new artists out of the blue -- like, “Hey, I’m getting my first wave of bad press, I’m freaking out, can I talk to you?” And the answer is always yes! I’m talking about more than 20 people who have randomly reached out to me. I take it as a compliment because it means that they see what has happened over the course of my career, over and over again.

Did you have someone like that to reach out to?

Not really, because my career has existed in lots of different neighborhoods of music. I had so many mentors in country music. Faith Hill was wonderful. She would reach out to me and invite me over and take me on tour, and I knew that I could talk to her. Crossing over to pop is a completely different world. Country music is a real community, and in pop I didn’t see that community as much. Now there is a bit of one between the girls in pop -- we all have each other’s numbers and text each other -- but when I first started out in pop it was very much you versus you versus you. We didn’t have a network, which is weird because we can help each other through these moments when you just feel completely isolated.

Do you feel like those barriers are actively being broken down now?

God, I hope so. I also hope people can call it out, [like] if you see a Grammy prediction article, and it’s just two women’s faces next to each other and feels a bit gratuitous. No one’s going to start out being perfectly educated on the intricacies of gender politics. The key is that people are trying to learn, and that’s great. No one’s going to get it perfect, but, God, please try.

At this point, who is your sounding board, creatively and professionally?

From a creative standpoint, I’ve been writing alone a lot more. I’m good with being alone, with thinking alone. When I come up with a marketing idea for the Lover tour, the album launch, the merch, I’ll go right to my management company that I’ve put together. I think a team is the best way to be managed. Just from my experience, I don’t think that this overarching, one-person-handles-my-career thing was ever going to work for me. Because that person ends up kind of being me who comes up with most of the ideas, and then I have an amazing team that facilitates those ideas.

The behind-the-scenes work is different for every phase of my career that I’m in. Putting together the festival shows that we’re doing for Lover is completely different than putting together the Reputation Stadium Tour. Putting together the reputation launch was so different than putting together the 1989 launch. So we really do attack things case by case, where the creative first informs everything else.

You’ve spoken before about how meaningful the reputation tour’s success was. What did it represent?

That tour was something that I wanted to immortalize in the Netflix special that we did because the album was a story, but it almost was like a story that wasn’t fully realized until you saw it live. It was so cool to hear people leaving the show being like, “I understand it now. I fully get it now.” There are a lot of red herrings and bait-and-switches in the choices that I’ll make with albums, because I want people to go and explore the body of work. You can never express how you feel over the course of an album in a single, so why try?

That seems especially true of your last three albums or so.

“Shake It Off” is nothing like the rest of 1989. It’s almost like I feel so much pressure with a first single that I don’t want the first single to be something that makes you feel like you’ve figured out what I’ve made on the rest of the project. I still truly believe in albums, whatever form you consume them in -- if you want to stream them or buy them or listen to them on vinyl. And I don’t think that makes me a staunch purist. I think that that is a strong feeling throughout the music industry. We’re running really fast toward a singles industry, but you got to believe in something. I still believe that albums are important.

The music industry has become increasingly global during the past decade. Is reaching new markets something you think about?

Yeah, and I’m always trying to learn. I’m learning from everyone. I’m learning when I go see Bruce Springsteen or Madonna do a theater show. And I’m learning from new artists who are coming out right now, just seeing what they’re doing and thinking, “That’s really cool.” You need to keep your influences broad and wide-ranging, and my favorite people who make music have always done that. I got to work with Andrew Lloyd Webber on the Cats movie, and Andrew will walk through the door and be like, “I’ve just seen this amazing thing on TikTok!” And I’m like, “You are it! You are it!” Because you cannot look at what quote-unquote “the kids are doing” and roll your eyes. You have to learn.

Have you explored TikTok at all?

I only see them when they’re posted to Tumblr, but I love them! I think that they’re hilarious and amazing. Andrew says that they’ve made musicals cool again, because there’s a huge musical facet to TikTok. [He’s] like, “Any way we can do that is good.”

How do you see your involvement in the business side of your career progressing in the next decade? You seem like someone who could eventually start a label or be more hands-on with signing artists.

I do think about it every once in a while, but if I was going to do it, I would need to do it with all of my energy. I know how important that is, when you’ve got someone else’s career in your hands, and I know how it feels when someone isn’t generous.

You’ve served as an ambassador of sorts for artists, especially recently -- staring down streaming services over payouts, increasing public awareness about the terms of record deals.

We have a long way to go. I think that we’re working off of an antiquated contractual system. We’re galloping toward a new industry but not thinking about recalibrating financial structures and compensation rates, taking care of producers and writers.

We need to think about how we handle master recordings, because this isn’t it. When I stood up and talked about this, I saw a lot of fans saying, “Wait, the creators of this work do not own their work, ever?” I spent 10 years of my life trying rigorously to purchase my masters outright and was then denied that opportunity, and I just don’t want that to happen to another artist if I can help it. I want to at least raise my hand and say, “This is something that an artist should be able to earn back over the course of their deal -- not as a renegotiation ploy -- and something that artists should maybe have the first right of refusal to buy.” God, I would have paid so much for them! Anything to own my work that was an actual sale option, but it wasn’t given to me.

Thankfully, there’s power in writing your music. Every week, we get a dozen synch requests to use “Shake It Off” in some advertisement or “Blank Space” in some movie trailer, and we say no to every single one of them. And the reason I’m rerecording my music next year is because I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies, I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it.

Do you know how long that rerecording process will take?

I don’t know! But it’s going to be fun, because it’ll feel like regaining a freedom and taking back what’s mine. When I created [these songs], I didn’t know what they would grow up to be. Going back in and knowing that it meant something to people is actually a really beautiful way to celebrate what the fans have done for my music.

Ten years ago, on the brink of the 2010s, you were about to turn 20. What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time?

Oh, God -- I wouldn’t give myself any advice. I would have done everything exactly the same way. Because even the really tough things I’ve gone through taught me things that I never would have learned any other way. I really appreciate my experience, the ups and downs. And maybe that seems ridiculously Zen, but … I’ve got my friends, who like me for the right reasons. I’ve got my family. I’ve got my boyfriend. I’ve got my fans. I’ve got my cats.

#taylor swift #interview #billboard #women in music #woman of the decade

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