#also like yeah they're shorter and use less editing

[calypsolemon]

imo some of the posts I've been seeing comparing amv's to fancams in a very negative way r kind of mean :/ particularly seeing the claim that fancams mostly don't match the character to the song, as if the majority of amv's set to bring me to life made by 12 year olds matched the subject of the video whatsoever.

[cripplecharacters]

oh yeah another question abt intellectual disability: what do people with moderate id speak like? i assume they wouldnt be perfectly articulate but i know making them talk like cavemen would be bad too. i do want it to be clear that they have language difficulties, but im not sure how to do that realistically. so what kinds of grammar errors are actually common? would it make sense to have them mix up words with similar pronunciation, or have difficulty discerning the differences in implications between words with similar meanings (like "pretty" vs "attractive")? do people with id ever 'imagine context' the way people(well, me) do when half-asleep where the brain mishears a statement as something completely unrelated? would spatial and situational awareness be impaired? also this is kind of a different question but if you can give advice on what to do with game mechanics for an id character in an rpg, that would be nice! i already have the stats figured out for every character and theres no stat that i think would be strongly affected by id but in terms of depicted fighting style and other mechanics maybe thered be some stuff informed by it (i cant do anything too complex though, im using rpg maker vx ace). idk! im spitballing here. main thing i need to know is how to write dialogue for a character with id ^_^

Hi! We have a post somewhat about this that you might find useful, I'll try to go over the other questions below!

Keep in mind my ID is mild (and on the milder side of that) so my answer will be all second-hand knowledge from talking to people with moderate ID in my SPED years.

A lot of it will depend on what condition causes they have. People with Williams syndrome have very “normal” verbal skills majority of the time and you can't really tell in my experience. On the other hand if they're autistic you can potentially guess from the tone of the voice e.g. they speak in a very loud and monotone way. People with Down syndrome are very likely to have a speech disorder, someone with cerebral palsy might slur their words, etc.

A lot of people with ID might be less talkative than your average person (there's definitely exceptions). So your character could use shorter sentences, simple sentences (in the grammar sense), prefer to use other forms of communication for things that don't require speech (e.g., nodding instead of saying “Yes, I agree”, or doing a thumbs up, etc.), or have to be prompted to actually answer/take part in the conversation.

I personally don't recall ever hearing the “mixing words with similar pronunciation” in someone's actual speech, maybe unless they learned the language from reading rather than hearing it? If that's the case, then ID could affect their speech more than if they didn't have it, otherwise I'd assume that the character might have brain damage or is maybe hard of hearing and simply mixes them up because they can't recognize/hear the difference between them.

Mixing words based on specific meaning makes much more sense in my opinion (probably because I do that myself lol). Synonyms or words that might make sense in one context but not the other are the worst. Your example here is great! When someone has ID they might take away the wrong meaning out of a word and use it incorrectly because of that. E.g., their parents used to take them camping to a forest with lots of bugs, they don't like bugs, they can later call something “foresty” to mean “with lots of bugs” even if it doesn't have much to do with an actual forest. This might make more sense for a character with more severe ID (or if they're just young) but using “attractive” when you'd normally say “pretty” makes sense for someone with moderate ID in my opinion.

Something that can also affect speech of someone with ID is word repetition. Not really in the echolalia sense (though it can be that too) but just using stock phrases that get repetitive over time. I try to edit it out from my posts but you can still kinda see it. For some people it will be ending most sentences with the same word, for someone else it will be starting two paragraphs with the same three words without realizing even though they're right next to each other or overusing “maybe” and “if” to start sentences.

As for the “imagining context” while mishearing something, I'm not sure if I know what you mean by it so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I don't do it lol

Situational awareness is definitely impacted for all people with ID but to different degrees. I don't know if it's part of the diagnostic criteria but it might as well be. When the person's ID is mild it might look like someone who's just kinda unaware of what goes around them, maybe don't recognize that they're doing something that could end up badly. The more severe the intellectual disability the more obvious it is, the person might elope (wander off) and not be able to find their way back, not be able to use cooking utensils safely because they don't recognize the risks in real time (not really in the “not realizing that the knife is sharp” way if they have moderate ID, more like “not realizing that you need to be careful when putting things on hot oil or you can get burned”), assuming that people are automatically safe to be around, things like that.

Spatial awareness doesn't affect everyone, but one of the biggest comorbidities of ID is dyspraxia, which does affect it a lot. There are people with mild ID with severe dyspraxia, and severely ID people with no dyspraxia. It varies.

Unfortunately I have never played any RPGS and I'm not really familiar with the mechanics. Here's an old ask about intellectually disabled characters engaged in combat, hopefully it's useful?

If you want some real-life resources for hearing how intellectually disabled people talk, I really recommend this playlist. It's a bunch of interviews with people with Down syndrome and you can see that they're all very different from each other despite having the same disability.

I hope this helps! mod Sasza

[arcadia-of-pluto]

Hey guys! So ToF updates tomorrow and I wanted to apologize for the lack of Divisa chapters.

It seems like I'm apologizing to yall a lot— but I digress.

Divisa isn't on hiatus or hold or anything, it's just a 'i post when I post' type of story and I haven't been writing in it. I've just been so hyper-focused on ToF lately since I've got a clear plan of what I need for it! I'm sure it'll be around 50-ish chapters until it ends, it may be more or it may be less tbh.

I might start making my chapters longer and I won't edit them nearly as much, or I'll edit them on another place that I post (like wattpad and AO3) first and hopefully the edits (like italics and stuff) will transfer 🤔

Anyways, for the plan, smut will more than likely happen after Xavier's myth– if I can fit it into the story, that is, but it'll more than likely happen! It'll be between Sylus and the reader, so if hope no one minds him getting the first shot, but the reader is going to be really stressed once these flashbacks/forwards are over and will need some help.

However, for those who don't want smut, I will post the smut as it's own separate chapter. I'll just make it a "2.0" or "chapter name +"! Which means the smut chapter will be considerably shorter, but if you don't want to read smut, the story will still flow the same regardless! For the non-smut chapter, I'll just have them insinuate the smut and cut it there, since I have plans for what happens after! 💜

But yeah, anyways, I have a clear cut plan for ToF, which means I also have an ending in mind! I want to complete the story before any new chapters or characters are added 🤔 however, if the story branches are canon, I will write those after the 'freak-out, avoid them all out of guilt' arc.

For the ending, I won't spoil much, but the reader will have children. Now, I personally don't want children and if I did, I'd be getting a surrogate, however I want the reader to have a child with each of the love interests. I already have the names and gender chosen. The children will be two sets of twins, one boy and three girls. (I'm sorry for not splitting the gender equally, but I never see baby girls in stories, I always only ever see baby boys. Especially in manhwa). Zayne and Sylus will be the fathers to one set with Rafayel and Xavier the other fathers.

And while it is highly unlikely to happen, it is possible for twins to have two different fathers and...it's gonna happen twice 🤷🏻‍♀️ Now while i already know what they're going to look like, the children will have their specific father's hair colour, but the eye colour of the other father. I would've had the children be an even split of you and the love interest but...I'm already doing that for Divisa (oops– spoilers ig), so i wanted to do something different!

To get yall excited, I'll reveal the names too! I'm feeling extra generous today ig 😭

Zayne's will be the boy and his name will be Jasper. It's not for its meaning though it does mean "precious stone" and "treasurer". It's because of the jasmine flower, "Jas".

Sylus's daughter will be Maevis. The name means "song bird", so i think it's quite fitting. The name also gives off kind of dark vibes and dark vibes fit Sylus to me!

Xavier's was a bit of a struggle, but i decided on Lucia. It means "of the light". I wanted a light themed name for his child and I really wanted to choose Marisela, but that name means "star of the sea" and i didn't want to use both Xavier and Rafayel's vibes for her, so Lucia it is!

And lastly, Rafayel's daughter is Cordelia. Now, at first, you might be like "but Pluto, Marisela!" Or "Myrena is right there!" Myrena means "of the sea" by the way. However, Cordelia means "daughter of the sea" and also "heart of the sea". Both of these meanings, especially the heart aspect, make so much more sense in my eyes and I hope you like the idea as much as I do!

They will be taking your last name since I can't recall any of the LI's having a last name 🤔 and I'm thinking of giving the children flower themed middle names. I'm not completely sure yet though tbh since middle names aren't necessary...but I also have an idea for what they'd call your baby bump 🥺 i won't share that though, since I'd love to see yalls reaction to it in the story itself!

Anyway, there's still a lot left of this story and I hope everyone is as excited for it as I am!

(I won't add too many tags, since this isn't an officially story update. That'll be tomorrow <3 but i do want this idea out there, because it's something im really excited for and I'm sure yall will love it)

[n7punk]

i was watching a video on plagarism in cosplay and the girl making the video managed to put into words something that i've kind of struggled with and tbh am still struggling to adapt to my "field" but. it bugs me so i want to try. also i should say this wicked isn't a problem it has happened to me all of Twice (one from each end) but someone finally summarized why it felt the way it did.

basically, a couple times people have commented on a fic of mine likening it to another that exists. sometimes these are innocuous and even lead me to people with similar headcanons and interpretations of the character as me. sometimes i don't like the other fic so it feels less flattering, but it's by no fault of how the comment itself is written. i've actually written a comment similar to this once and hope it didn't come across as naggy, but i found out someone else used the same prompt as me for catradora, so i basically left a comment about how funny it was that two people saw that inspiration source and went "ah yes, this could be catradora." it was supposed to be a "like sees like" kind of salute (as well as an acknowledgement that i hadn't seen their fic before as i don't go in the tags often), but i've since gotten comments that i think are trying to at least toe the line of doing the same thing and felt off (bitter, self-promotey, whatever) to me, so i retroactively worry about how they felt about it.

but really this post is about the time i had someone say "is this fic actually inspired by [other fic]" and it was 1) something i'd never heard of and 2) insulting.

so why is it insulting, what did the video finally put into words for me?

when someone accuses you of copying, using/having the same idea as someone else, etc, it is insulting the creative process and labor it took to make it. It's saying that you didn't/couldn't come up with that yourself, that you didn't develop and nurture it and plan out all the impacts this event/plot/au etc would have on the characters; that any time and effort and love you put into it never actually existed because you just stole it from someone else. it's essentially accusing you of being chatgpt, putting someone else's hard work in as input and cranking something cheap and less valuable out instead. they don't care about the work you put in anymore.

like, when i did the bachelorette au, it was straight up inspired by one that existed and i openly sourced that because it deserved it, but even then i still spent hours reading recaps of the show, previously had an interest in the franchise from podcasts, went and read interviews to get an idea of the general timelines, etc. I put a lot of work - my work, unique work, creative work - into crafting an au that, in reality, only shares the phrase "bachelorette au" with the initial source of inspiration (again, a source i love and am happy to credit anyway). if someone else wants to write a cosplay au for catradora, even if they think to do it because they read mine, as long as they're not copying the plot, backstory, etc, i think that would be super cool! honestly, i'd be flattered to be an inspiration source for that, just like i'm flattered when someone takes on one of my headcanons. it's just the basics of how creativity works. no idea, no matter how much it may feel like it, comes from nowhere. you start watching a vintage car tiktok and it puts you on a train of thoughts that eventually leads you to "lol but adora bent over the hood of her broken down car" and then you build that out until it is its own world with plot, backstory, and characters who have been tweaked by living in this different environment.

anyway, i know i've been incredibly unconcise but it boils down to creativity being a lot of effort and it doesn't feel good when people claim you didn't put in all that effort ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ man this post could have been so much shorter. should i edit it. aw fuck i have to be at work at nine tomorrow. yeah no lmao

[amyrafierceblade]

"Windrippers have evolved into two groups; Forest Windrippers and Cave Windrippers. The main difference between these two aren't so much genetics or inbreeding, because the two subtypes are not a separate species from each other, as much as build, flight type and dietary needs.

Forest Windrippers have evolved into being more stocky, stout dragons with wings better suited for distance flying and hovering, they have shorter snouts, smaller but broader ears, pupils that are more likely to be round instead of slitted, and a wider sclera/smaller iris to accompany their tendency to be in brighter areas, as well as the fact that they are more likely to live off of fresh game, common berries like blueberries and blackberries.

Cave Windrippers, however, are lean and lythe, disheveled and even boney/starving looks being common on a healthy specimen. Their heads are very narrow, able to fit into smaller spots for smaller prey, as well as defined cheekbones, double collarbones(present in both Forest and Cave, its just the first and second set of collarbones are more visible), and hind legs much longer than their front legs + wings are more built for acting as a second set of arms/stabilising/balance for when they stand bipedal instead of quadpedal. They also have longer tails, thinner wings built for gliding and darting, and they survive off of scavanged meat like bats, cave lizards, or, if they're lucky, a Maxillian Hell Beast(who's flesh is toxic and they've learned how to cook it enough with their flames to lessen/negate the toxin) as well as some cave berries(also semi-toxic, you have to stomach through those for years before being able to actually eat them comfortably) and, occasionally, halite rocks which are more used as a snack or supplement than anything else. Their pupils are larger, able to slit further and smaller while expanding wider with less sclera, more iris, and they have phenomenal night vision from living in low level light conditions on the regular.

The earliest known diversification of these two types is around ~18000 or so years ago (examples being: Phantom[Cave, and Gnash[Forest]) as the species started moving from the caves out into the world, however a regression occurred for the Windrippers who stayed(were forced) in the caves, and instead their evolution directed them for cave life instead of forest life.

Both types are wary of water, as it can soak into the stretchier part of their wing webbing(located between the furthest and middle "fingers" of the wings[not to be confused with the thumbs]) and cause extreme pressure + added weight and drag a Windripper to a drowning death in a large enough body of water."

I remade my species base, they kinda changed a lil since the last remake. I've given up on drawing sexual dimorphisim, whoever uses this base gets to hassle with that bit.

Semi-Open species, just ask my permission before making a character. I'll have you read the entire species information beforehand, but otherwise they're free to make, bases free to use, and fully editable per needs/requirements of the design. Don't sell/trade without letting me know though(not permission, just more of a heads up sort of thing), and I do get the option to buy back any character I sell that the purchaser decides they want gone(only if the person is selling the character though, I'm not gonna haunt your dms or emails going "i wanna buy that character back from you" if you still want the character)

At this point, I'm rambling, but uh, yeah, have a look.

[ladytauria]

<333 4, 8, 14, 18, 22, 35, 46, 58, 74 for the ask game pls!!

thank you mayaaaa <333

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

Everywhere! Fics and books I've read, random song lyrics (whether the rest of the song fits or not), random posts on tumblr, images, posts on twitter, prompt lists, prompt blogs, etc. etc.

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

Vastly depends on the story. I've had fics where I've had the beginning and ending figured out, but the middle is a mystery. I've also had fics where the middle was a breeze but the beginning and ending were both like pulling teeth!

I will say I tend to enjoy middles more on shorter fics (uhh, less than 15k) and beginnings & endings more on longform stuff!

14. how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

I try to put myself in the character's shoes as much as possible! Figure out what emotion(s) they're feeling and then draw on my own experiences with it, lol. Especially if I can feel it a bit myself <3

18. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

Yes.

Sometimes the fic title is the thing that inspired the idea, like when I'm inspired by a lyric. Sometimes it just comes to me in the planning process.

Sometimes a fic title comes to me during the writing process. I'll write a line that just seems to capture the core of what I'm going for, and use that or something like it for the title!

A lot of times I end up titling the fic after, though. I'll scroll through the song lyrics I have saved for potential titles, just in case one fits. I'll look up songs that may have the theme or a similar vibe to what I'm gong for. I'll read through the fic looking for a line. I'll summarize it, try to capture the vibe. It can take a bit!! But I get there eventually. After a lot of whining :P

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

Speaking specifically for fanfic!

Probs won't ever write first person again. It's not something I vibe with in fic, it's hit or miss for me in published fiction too, and it's just... Not a style I like?

Omniscient POV. When I try it it feels too much like head hopping to me, so xD

Can't see myself writing cheating or hard non-con. Dubcon, yeah; gentle nc especially if its nc-to-c, but not anything harder. I will do comfort after, though!! Hmm... Detailed torture scenes or anything gory bc that squicks me out a little lol ^^;

I can think of a few others but I think that's good for now xD

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

Good question.

Honestly, I haven't written them in fic a lot? But when I do, I generally try to keep in mind their motivations and like... reasons for doing what they do.

46. How would you describe your style? (Character/emotion/action-driven, etc)

Hmm... Character or emotion driven!

58. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc)

Hmm, I mean, all of them at various points! I guess I'll give brainstorming the top slot because I just have... so many ideas. Therefore I must enjoy coming up with them 😂😂😂

Although nothing compares to writing when it's flowing!!

74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

Does it feature two characters taking care of each other? A lot of focus on trust and vulnerability and willingly offering up the softer parts of yourself? Is there an overuse of "x says"? Can you tell fic was fighting not to be overrun with em-dashes? It's probably a Tauria fic :P

[ get to know your fic writer! ]

[eloquentgifs]

I'm going to say things bc that's how I cope.

As a person who thinks that if you're going to do something you should do it right, I can't help it, it bothered me how sloppy this season felt. Of course I fully blame HBO and their cheapness, but it stills bothers me. Not only we got two episodes less than s1, but the 8 we got were shorter, and you can tell. I also blame the budget cuts for the constant yet unnecessary flashbacks, and the weird editing, and the anticlimatic pace. In any case, I want to highlight the things I did like, because I fucking love this show and Im sure that after a rewatch or two I'll be less angry, so let's stay positive:

Since it seems they were having trouble to get the complete cast together in one plot, I do love they kinda let them have their spotlight one by one. Like, Frenchie in the first episodes, Wee John as Calypso, Lucius with his PTSD in ep5... It's not the same as s1, but it's something.

I've seen people complaining about this, but Im happy they didnt invest too much time on the forgiving process. I like it better when everyone gets along fine, and in the end they're pirates and they never seemed to be the kind of people who hold grudges, so yeah lets skip to the nice part.

I did like a lot what they did with Izzy. I don't care if it happened too quick or what, I used to feel indiference towards him and this season I actually enjoy his scenes a lot. I still dont know how I feel about his death tho. It bothered me a little that the whole scene was more about Ed than Izzy himself, but in the end I always saw Izzy as a narrative tool in Ed's arc more than as a character of his own, so I guess it makes sense.

Super happy with the music choices, and also the new outfits.

Really, the first five episodes were absolutely brilliant.

It made me so happy they got Bronson Pinchot as Ned Low.

Huge fan of Zheng Yi Sao and Auntie.

Im so fucking furious at Taika Waititi for his pro-Israel shit that seeing Pop Pop attacking him gave me some sort of inner peace.

Now, things I wished had been done differently: - There were a lot of paralelisms with s1, which is good, but I'd like they brought back more actual elements of s1 into play. Like, the lighthouse painting, the secret wardrobe, the pink robe, a third Badmington (he would have work better as big bad than this prince ricky guy I dont really care about?). Frenchie singing again. This oneis a reach, but I would love to have Mary Bonnet back. And I was really hoping they play with the fact that Stede is "dead". The guy doesnt even mention the Master Fuckery from ep10.

-On that note, I was a little dissapointed on Jim's arc. I was never that invested on them or their plot in s1, but it feels weird how this season it seems like none of that even happened. Even Jim felt like a different character. I feel it would worked better if some of the conflict was related to Siete Gallos stuff, so at least it would feel all of that subplot wasnt a waste of time.

-Little missing opportunities of making me happy: Anne Bonny and Mary Read mentioning Jack (to insult him, mostly); they kissing when the house is on fire; Ed finding not just one letter but the whole pile of them; a better narrative use for Seagull Buttons (well, any narrative use, really); developing the bombclocks thing in a way where Auntie was not deprived of her superhuman detective skills; having Ned Low as bigger villain, with several appearances.

-The general development of Ed/Stede in the final episode... It's just confusing to me. My reading of Stede's mind state was that he was on autopilot since he killed Ned Low, and being abandoned by Ed and having his ass kicked by Zheng would wake him up a little, but this episode he's still in PROBLEM SOLVER mode, zero regrets about anything, still hasn't talked anything through EVER, he's just fine. With Ed I dont even ask for coherence bc he's always been a wtf guy, but I dont understand the "just do whatever you're good at" thing in the beginning of the episode, and he claiming back his leathers and his pirate-self and going on berserker mode and fighting along Stede as equals and blablabla if at the end he's still chosing to be a fucking innkeeper. Also, having a shitty inn in the middle of nowhere sounds too close to the antique shop in ep4, didn't they learn ANYTHING from Mary and Anne? I mean, the innkeeping was a predictible outcome, but the setting up of the episode was really aiming to the opposite, so it feels weird to me. In any case, I'm happy they're together and if being absolutely on their own in the loneliest house in the world doesn't get them to improve their communication, idk what else they could do.

-Still think they should have been lighthouse keepers instead.

-Next season Im totally muting every OFMD tag as soon as they announce the trailer release, because the promo and bts content was absolutely TOO MUCH. Those fuckers had been showing us stuff from the very climax of the fucking last episode since weeks before the season aired. I get it's a me problem, but I do believe it ruined my experience a lot, so fuck that.

And well. That's it. Good season, could have been great. Im happy but sad. Let's just hope that, if there's a season 3, they gave them more money and time to do it properly.

And before I post this and run away from tumblr, Im checking out how much of my wishlist had been fulfilled: - LUCIUS IS ALIVE - Stede Bonnet, berserker era [Not as I imagined, but hey] - The Queen Anne’s Revenge, either being captured or coming back as the ship Ed left behind when he went to The Revenge - The Blockade of Charleston (and make really absurd) [Still might happen in the future?] - Anne Bonny and Mary Read(as middle aged women who kinda mirror Ed and Stede, but they did it right) - Since he was already mentioned in s1, it would make sense introducing Hornigold, maybe as a new antagonist or something. - A rip off of that wwdits episode with the Vampire Council, except this time is the Pirate Council and its members are pirates from other movies and shows [I was really dreaming big here] - On that note, a really weird episode with every person who has played Blackbeard in recent years [Fully tripping] - More women and more asian characters. And more people speaking their mother tongues [So many Chinese gals, not one chinese word :(] - Ed finding out about Stede’s death and believing it [It did happened but not how/when we thought] - Ed meeting Mary and getting along [Never losing hope on this one] - Frenchie adopting a cat (and singing a song about it). - More info about everyone’s pasts. - I would LOVE having Bartholomew Roberts in the show. [YES PLEASE]

[whining-ylthin]

I kinda screwed up as Tumblr won't apply the "keep reading" edit to the 1st post in this chain but fuck it, we ball.

3. Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (Steam version, THQ Nordic/KAIKO 2016, original THQ/VIgil Games 2010)

It's a video game I sincerely wanted to like since I first played it at 14, and now that I've beaten it close to my 30s... yeah, I'd love to like it more than I actually do.

Darksiders gets dragged down by two things: the scale and ambitions of its creators, and their relative inexperience with game design. On paper it's a competent, if derivative 3D Zelda clone with DMC/God of War-inspired combat and gritty, hyperbolic fantasy aesthetic straight out of a late 90s comic book, but in practice it's plagued by a host of small but increasingly jarring design issues, bad number balancing and severely bloated runtime.

Maybe a fifth of the 20-ish hours you're going to spend with it are dedicated to overly weighty and overall kind of shallow combat where two of your weapons are nearly useless (they either don't deal enough damage or just don't work within this combat system, and the hit-based leveling up system is... uh, bad) and your dodge will usually get you locked into an enemy combo instead of taking you to safety. The rest is mostly decent, if occasionally a little janky or tedious platforming, puzzle-solving or (mercifully short) TPS/rail shooter sections... and unfortunately all of it tends to overstay its welcome due to the stages simply being too long and too big to traverse.

Yes, you get a horse. Three dungeons and TWELVE STAGES into the game. That can't be used in half the areas (I assume due to either weird load zone shenanigans or developer oversight bordering on active malice) and for some godforsaken reason the damn thing can't jump even over the tiniest of ledges, making it officially just as bad as Kaithes in Warframe, my go-to example of bad steeds in video games. For those of you who haven't played Warframe - they're basically one step above being the Mass Effect 1 Mako of video game horses, and that's only because they have marginally more weight and you can't flip them upside down on a slightly more steep hillside.

This game also had the misfortune of coming out after Devil May Cry 4 and Bayonetta, both games that not only featured shorter, snappier (if not necessarily great all the time, I'll readily admit there're Some Fucking Bullshit-tier stages) levels with less dragged out metro tunnels and ruined highways to run across, but also a truly revolutionary feature: a way to make your character haul ass faster. In DMC4 you can buy an upgrade that makes your run speed increase after X seconds of going forward, and Bayonetta unlocks a fast-running animal transformation early within story progress. Darksiders, meanwhile, effectively leaves you stuck with War's dainty tippy-toes, unchainable dashes with slow-as-balls recovery and very limited vertically crippled horse for its full runtime.

You know what DMC games also had? And since the PS2 days at that? Better checkpointing/store placement and healing mechanics! A game series that emphasizes not dying or getting hit gives you: special powerup mode that heals you, better access to Statues of Time (they are both checkpoints and store in which you buy moveset/character upgrades and items), as well as doing this little convenient thing of converting excess healing orbs to currency - compared to Darksiders' Chaos Mode doing nothing for your health, life-leech weapon augments being downright useless, Abyssal Armor being a late-game upgrade that (for a change) absolutely trivializes the combat, and several dungeons locking you out of Vulgrim's little emporium for most if not all of their duration which forces you to rely on manually placed chests (the devs must have noticed this was an issue in testing - but it was probably too late to implement extra spots for Vulgrim's store with fast-travel option disabled), as well as green/yellow souls getting completely wasted if your health/Wrath bar is already full. Also, while some upgrades could be grindy to get, DMC games from at least 3 onwards gave you the convenience of freely replaying missions on one save, which allowed you to get that 20.000 Red Orbs (or however many Proud Souls it was in 4-- 2000, I think? And Special Edition massively boosted all currency gains just to make the catchup faster) for that optional double-jump within maybe 10-20 minutes of rerunning one short mission. By comparison grinding in Darksiders is a slog, with enemies dropping absolutely pitiful amounts of souls (from 3 to 400) compared to how much is required to upgrade your moves or buy items (cheapest healing item is 500 souls if you already have an empty vessel for it, otherwise it's 2000+500; weapon moves stay below the 3 thousand souls mark but some optional upgrades required for a 100% run charge you for as much as 10-12,5 THOUSAND souls), and the best (and by that I mean "the only one that won't make you crumble to dust and waste hours of your life") soul farming technique being a goddamn exploit taking advantage of unrestricted enemy spawn and bad AI/limited enemy moveset.

Also, I hope you don't intend to 100% the game without using a guide - the number of collectibles, combined with the slow traversal and vast maps that you'll have to return to several times to grab everything, makes it a genuine chore even with the modern convenience of YouTube playlists and numerous written guides. In case you do go insane (like I did), keep in mind that the game lies to you a little - the only points of no return are two of five boss rooms (Tiamat's and Strega's) which contain nothing of value anyway, Azrael is full of shit and you can return to the endgame location he tells you you can't come back to.

Speaking of - the story! The writing is honestly middling - pompous and trying (but failing) to come across as something more profound - and the cutscene direction is noticeably rough around the edges, with awkward camera angles and shot transitions. While the core idea for the setting is yet another very 90s "loose Bible fanfic", I'm willing to give it a shot and not immediately knock it for unoriginality - shame that there's not much going for it in this game. The characters are hardly memorable, mostly acting to move the pieces of the story and not much more, and the story itself sways from "go to a place and kill some goon" to "guys, I think you forgot to write these characters enough for this big twist to make sense in the game's own context (and make me give a damn)". Its decisive-yet-cliffhangery ending sure didn't help with writing the sequels.

The voice performances are baseline-good across the board, but they often fit into a specific, repetetive mold of "raspy, drawn out and 'epic-sounding'" (think the delivery style of Dawn of War games, but with weaker script and less Scott McNeill, for better or worse). Liam O'Brien certainly did get his fair share of aggressive grunts, to the point that I'm genuinely worried if he didn't strain his vocal chords with his role as War. Mark Hamill is unfortunately wasted on The Watcher - good performance for a nothing-character. Phil LaMarr's Vulgrim is fun to listen to, but could use a better variety of barks and voicelines, and for what little Samael I got to hear, Vernon Welles' voice is definitely on point. Sadly the direction for the bosses is just "generic demon voice", with Tiamat and Silitha sounding almost the same to my ear. Straga isn't much different to larger demon mooks, and two of the bosses (Griever and Stygian) don't even talk.

Moving onto the bosses - they're a low point, unfortunately. Most of them are either gimmicks, poorly designed or some combination of both, with Stygian taking the cake (why yes, I'd love to run in circles around a large arena waiting for the boss to expose its weakpoint so I can deal a tiny amount of damage to it with my plinky peashooter of a handgun instead of hitting it with my sword in the SWORD SWINGING GAME), and Destroyer earning the developers a retroactive slap on the wrist for introducing two annoying button-mashing QTEs in a game that previously featured them only once (for mashing out of a this game's Barnacle stand-in's grab). Tiamat is annoying as she relies on this game's jank aiming mechanics against a fast-moving target, Griever is a forgettable damage sponge, Silitha is a tedious wait-and-dodge game which often makes you feel like you're playing the game wrong, Straga is an easier gimmick fight than the PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT ASS FUCK THIS SHIT FUCK OFF golem minibosses in his dungeon, and Destroyer is hardly a fight if you figured out how to ride the horse (then dodge/block his decently telegraphed attacks).

Other enemies aren't really shining points, either - most of them end up being forgettable demon fodder or mildly annoying range-based Angels who get trivialized by AoE attacks and the Abyssal Chain. I genuinely despise two mook types, though - the overly tanky, uninterruptible armored undead types and the big titty ghost enemies who keep phasing in and out of reality while ignoring half of your own attacks, making them needlessly obnoxious to kill. This kind of enemy design sucked when DMC3 did it in 2005, and it sucked just as much five years later.

Is there something I can praise? Well, the visuals are neat, even without the Warmastered upscaling the textures and bumping some graphics options up. The 3D models hold up really well, and while a chunk of the game is spent in gray- or sepia-colored tunnels and wastelands, the level of detail is still impressive even in the most boring of location and there are some absolute standouts - Anvil's Ford is an absolute treat even if the location itself first holds a rather annoying enemy gauntlet setpiece, then becomes an abridged shortcut to a dungeon you should have little reason to revisit. The aforementioned dungeon, The Hollows, also stands out to me as surprisingly pleasant despite large amounts of overlong tunnel exploration, train cart puzzles and the middling boss at the end of it all - better than the mega-corridor of Ashlands, sepia-and-orange dungeons of Twilight Cathedral, samey-looking spiderweb maze of Iron Canopy or dark and obnoxious Black Throne.

Overall Darksiders is... okay. It has a solid enough foundation, but it's also stretched too far and too thin. It tries to swing for some really tall fences while doing the run-up on legs that are clearly too short to make the jump. It takes clear inspiration from some really big names, but fails to learn all their lessons. And all of it comes together to form a game that will embody "seven out of ten on a good day" in my memory. Now I'm obviously a bit jaded and overly negative from 100%-ing it in one go (because if I drop a game for even a little bit, I'll forget most of it, lose the muscle memory and ultimately won't be coming back to it), but talking to other people who'd played it closer to recent memory, it seems to be a shared sentiment - the game is just a good few hours too long and merely "okay" at best even without tedious treasure-hunting and soul grind.

Ylthin's Media Thread thingy for the tail-end of 2023 and 2024:

Normally I'd do it on Twitter but I fully expect that site to collapse in 6 months.

Glen Cook, "Czarna Kompania"/"Cień w ukryciu" ("Black Company"/"Shadows Linger") (Rebis, 2009 Polish edition, 2022 reprint)

I'm starting this list somewhat off the curb - I've finished the 2nd novel from this omnibus release just now, but I've also read the first one earlier this year... and I don't have much to say about either, honestly. The prose is kind of clunky and awkward in a way that takes a moment to adjust to, and without directly comparing the Polish translation to the English original I can't tell how much of this unwieldiness is due to poor translation job and how much of it is just inherent to Cook's style. You're not reading this book for its characters, either - most of them are memorable only because of constant exposure, as names that you eventually learn to map to a broad role in the story or one, maybe two vague personality/appearance traits. What carried me through was what I can broadly describe as "vibes" and long-term significance of Black Company books - or maybe the wave of genre-fiction they were a part of. It certainly wasn't the first grim and gritty fantasy series out there, and the backside blurb's boasts about how Cook "brought the fantasy genre down to the level of common men" are very overblown (the books are literally about an evil sorceress' plan for world domination clashing against her messy divorce with her Dark Lord husband and a prophecy about the "divine savior" figure coming back further pissing into her breakfast), but I can still notice the seeds of interesting ideas being planted here and there (thank you MandaloreGaming for making me aware of Myth games, shame that they're downright impossible to legally obtain anymore), and the grit (while going for a very predictable "everyone is utterly miserable and the whores will give you all the STDs" route, and feeling more like catnip for 14-year-old boys rather than genuine "maturity") fortunately doesn't cross the line into unbearable edgelord territories yet. It was a part of the same wave of dark fantasy that either molded me directly (through Sapkowski's The Witcher novels and "Berserk"), indirectly (through a thousand imitators years down the line, from local fantasy authors of the 2000s to video games - Heroes of Might & Magic 5 in particular was retrospectively very blatantly inspired by Warhammer Fantasy), or infected me with sudden-onset brainrot in my mid-20s (Warhammer 40.000), and I can definitely feel and appreciate it even if I find these books to be rather mediocre so far.

I just wish I could get my hands on Moorcock's Elric books without going through a dozen hoops, but I guess I'll make do with Cook, Erikson and the odd Warhammer novel for the time being.

Oh, and this cover art? That tattered "dashing rogue" look, that borderline fractal leather-and-cloth patterning, the random spiky structures in the background? The long bob hair and goatee look straight out of the music video for "Imperium" by Machine Head? A cover that makes you think not even of actual early 2000s buttrock, but of Stuart Chatwood emulating it for Prince of Persia: Warrior Within's soundtrack? Hillariously mismatched with the actual novels. I haven't seen a choice this baffling since reading my dad's faded mid-90s pulp booklet edition of Ursula LeGuin's "Rocannon's World" paired up with either Vallejo or Frazetta sword-and-sandals artwork.

[barcatchatter]

Do it Mod. Tell it to us straight! (hehe, straight :p)

You've been warned hehehe..

**MOD TALKING**

Ok! I'm gonna brief it all up the best I fucking can.

Charlie looks like she's fucking cosplaying a female version of Alastor with her fucking new outfit. The full suit of the light red, borderline pink is not working for her cheerful ass. Maybe if it was just the top and different pants then sure, it could work better. But I fucking hate how it is. Her hair looks better but I don't know if i love or hate how her eyes look now. I feel this is just a subtle hint that they're gonna make her have a stupid fucking crush on Alastor and it pisses me off.

As for Alastor, WHERE THE FUCK IS THE TAIL?! I demand to know that fucking doe has a fucking tail and I refuse to believe anything else. And what the fuck is with the picture anyways?! He didn't even have his full body! And his hair is more on the pinker tone to it too which is fucking bullshit. The original solid red was much better. And I don't know how to feel about the white on his suit. Cause, unless his shoes are matching or some shit then it doesn't go really. But we will find out.

Angel. No. His gloves are bullshit. If you have to be asked if his lower arms are his gloves or his skin then that's just poor editing on your part. Yeah, we know they're gloves now but still. Least they finally got his fucking tooth right! But he needs more pink and less salmon color to his outfits. Make the fucking clothes work! It's not that hard!

Vaggie so far is the best change. I'm glad they kept her in a skirt and I find it funny people are so excited about how she's now "the pirate queen". I love what they did to her hair and I'm SOOOO happy they made that change but I don't feel she needs leggings. I like the gloves but I think they could also work if they were shorter. Either way, I can see her being the manager of the hotel. So far, she's had the best changes added to her.

And if you all have different opinions then fuck off with them cause I don't wanna hear about it cause I didn't fucking ask. You asked for mine. I didn't ask for yours. There. Ya fucking happy?

[katatonicimpression]

There was no point to Moira's character assassination tho. Even at the start of Hickman's run. Even at the end of it. The plot would still feel shallow with or without her involvement. Also I dunno about you but most of the comic fans I'm close to had less of a "le gasp" reaction and more of a "of course they would ruin her character too eventually" one at the twist. Cuz a good twist needs buildup and there was none here as it basically ran on nostalgia for her og persona only to stump it down

Well yeah it does feel shallow but I was trying to be nice lol

But yeah exactly what I meant by "especially in comics". Comics fans are so accustomed to character reveals that they're rarely ever that surprising. It doesn't make any difference if the character is dead (because when has that stopped them) or if what they're doing doesn't make sense. We're used to it.

(Pretentious ramble under the cut)

OK so in general the reason "dun dun dun it's... This Guy" is such a staple of the genre is because of the medium. You're drawing pictures of all these impressive looking little dudes and you to compose the panels in a way that shows them off. This creates that distinctive pacing to superhero media: everything occasionally stops to just go "look at them!".

Honestly this is a fun thing and I love it but...

Combine this with the demands of serialised media (i.e. you need to keep people interested so twists and turns and cliffhangers) and the fact that you've got a whole lineup of different series that you want to cross promote. So, duh of course you'll do a "gasp - it's spiderman" panel in your captain America comic.

Then add the fact that marvel is a massive corporation that wants to increase profits every year. It needs shock value and spectacle and everyone to reup their subscriptions etc. So more and more new titles, shorter comics and more shocking twists. They also don't want to spend the time and money on a large, diverse, long-term writers' room and give everyone the time, freedom and constructive editing needed to make good stuff.

So both comics series and the comics themselves get shorter and worse while the stunts and crossovers continue at increasing rates.

You're left with a genre that consists so heavily of "gasp - it's so-and-so!" that it barely leaves an impact. Other kinds of twists can still be effective: the dawn of krakoa itself is, if nothing else, a memorable surprising turn of events for example. But you're never going to get much mileage out of an identity reveal.

It's just not how you leave an impression. It's like expecting fish to be surprised by water.

[crossdressingdeath]

counterpoint: if the genre is romance instead of fantasy, you will almost NEVER see a paperback more than 400 pages long. and I can definitely see seven seas choosing romance as a better fit than fantasy, especially if they're using these works/mxtx as a blueprint for further danmei publishing

and on a personal note, I hate doorstopper paperbacks, the spines look terrible immediately and they're awkward to cart around.

I guess, but my thing is... these books aren't being written with a certain page count or genre in mind because they already exist, and honestly the summaries I've seen do not look like romance summaries to me. The summaries read like fantasy, maybe that's just me but that's what I'm getting from them. Frankly I'm concerned that they're going to use these as a blueprint for further publications, given they're taking over a year to release one book and releasing it split into more parts than it's designed to be split into with each volume costing market price; if nothing else I'd rather they translate the whole thing and release it as a box set with a slightly reduced price. Honestly my main reason for concluding that the number of volumes is just a bit of a cash grab is the cost of each volume, because... yeah, 1/8 of a book should not cost the same as a whole book, I can buy these being more expensive because of translation and illustration and the cost of multiple volumes but they're essentially charging for TGCF eight times; it's not unreasonable to charge market price or close to it, but in that case they should be trying to minimize the number of volumes, not maximize it.

I feel like the best way to do it would be to have multiple sets with different volume lengths; people who prefer shorter volumes and are fine with paying so much can get the sets they've been advertising, and people who would prefer fewer, longer volumes (both to minimize the inevitably awkward end points of each volume and to reduce the cost) can get a different set with the books split only as much as is absolutely necessary. Because like... the thing that gets me is that in every situation I'm aware of where a book has been split into multiple volumes for some editions, it's possible to get the entire thing in one volume if that's what you want. That's physically impossible here, but I feel like there should be an option for As Few Volumes As Possible for people who prefer that over such short volumes. To put it another way, it's not the fact that each volume is so short that bothers me; it's the fact that if I want these books I have to buy so many short volumes even though I'd prefer something longer even if they weren't all supposed to be one book. It feels like they're forcing me to pay the price of four or five or eight books for a single book if I want to read them even though it could be considerably less. If nothing else a hypothetical ebook release should be the whole book in one, because there's no reason to split up an ebook. Like... if someone would prefer four volumes for SV, five for MDZS and eight for TGCF more power to them, but I don't want to carry four books when one would do, or five when there could be two. I definitely don't want to carry (or pay for) eight whole books when it could be less than half that. You want to talk awkward, I don't think a few doorstoppers could possibly be more awkward or heavier than eight books. (Also re doorstopper fantasy, I will admit that they're very awkward to carry around but if you're careful with them the spines last fine; they're a bit delicate, that's all!)

[roommatesandwiches]

Smash and Run

So!!! This one!! I remember having a lot of fun writing this one and I enjoyed rereading it too. There's actually more to it, but I actually have some inspiration to finish this so I cut it up. This is more like a preview compared to the other WIPs I post here. I'll post the rest of this one on Ao3 when I (hopefully) finish writing and editing it.

This particular one-shot features some *special* demons, and is set probably more than a few weeks after Reader first met Vox. They've got an established relationship and Reader considers him a friend. An annoying friend, but still a friend nonetheless.

Without further ado, here you go!

-----

Vox You home yet? Home yet? Vox How about now? Vox Dollface Did your car crash? Vox How about now? Vox Are you dead yet? You No You huff exasperatedly, blowing a strand of stray hair out of your face. You reach up and tuck it behind your ear with one hand while the other one holding your phone scrolls up through your and Vox's chat history. You go through a long line of "Are you home yet?"s, "Are you at work?"s and "Done with work yet?"s, before reaching flirtatious messages that quickly devolve into more pestering of your whereabouts.

You know that all of his pestering and constant texting and calling is done just to annoy the crap out of you... And it's working. He'd text and call you, every night, every day, every hour, no matter where you were and what you were doing and you had to reply or pick up. If not, he'd just keep spamming you until you did or punish you by using his demon magic to make your phone pick up the call and put himself on speaker. That happened once at work and you never want it to happen again. You pocket your phone and roll your shopping cart down the aisle. You drop a few packages of bread into the cart. Following them are an assortment of jams, some vegetables and you even restock on condiments. You consider getting some butter, too, but you estimate that you've still got some left to last you until the next shopping day so you decide not to. Going into the snacks aisle, you make a beeline for the Oreos. Demons really like them for some reason, so you always make sure that you're fully stocked up on them. Bags of chips also join the pile as well as some chocolate for yourself. You almost forget the microwaveable popcorn but remember just as you're about to check out. Your full cart earns a few glances from other grocery shoppers and you don't blame them. It looks like you're stocking up rations for an apocalyptic outbreak. It looks almost impossible to push, too, but you manage. As you wait in line, a kid in front of you gapes at your cart. He tries to get his mother's attention, but she's too occupied with paying at the moment. Your phone has another seizure. It has been buzzing gradually since a few minutes after you've last replied, but you had ignored it. He's spamming you now, so you have no choice but to reply or suffer further. You Please chill Vox Haha I wish Wyd? You Groceries Aren't you working rn? Vox I am but it's nothing important Just supervising I can leave if I want These assholes know that if they mess up they're getting fired but I'm not really up for dealing with dumbassery later if I do You I'm not either so Please stop spamming me Vox Ooh you angry? You angry at me doll? You I'm not angry I'm The old lady behind you clears her throat. You look up from the phone with a start and realize that the mother and her son had already moved on. You throw a sheepish apology at the old woman behind you and she angrily mutters something about 'nowadays'. The cashier doesn't question your overflowing cart. They silently scan all your items but they do become more and more bewildered as the products appear to be neverending. You wait patiently, casting the old woman, who seems less patient, an apologetic smile. She doesn't say anything in response but the expression on her face gives you the impression that she'll be gossiping to her old lady friends about this like how Hellborn royals gossip about Overlords. Vox Dollface you still there? You I'm paying rn The old lady behind me got mad cause I was texting you and holding up the line Vox She's old screw her Are you getting home soon? You I have to pay and drive home yeah Vox Get some rest when you do You're probably tired after running through my mind all day You ? Oh That one took me a bit The cashier tells you your amount and you pay. You hang all your bags on carabiners and push the shopping cart back in its spot with the other shopping carts. You carry all your groceries by the carabiners through the parking lot and unlock your car before you carefully arrange them inside. You sit in the driver's seat, pull on the seatbelt and ignite the engine with a turn of your key. You quickly text Vox before you pull out of the parking lot. You Driving Texts and calls will be ignored until I get back The phone buzzes once you put it down so you don't pick it up again just to read his response. If you say that you're ignoring him but read his response immediately after he'll expect a response and get pesky. The drive home is uneventful. Your phone is buzzing so much that you're sure that it would try to kill itself by vibrating off a surface again. When you drive up to your house, you don't tell Vox that you're home yet. You made that mistake once and don't intend on doing it again. You park your car, take out the grocery bags and lock it. Your keys jingle as you fumble with them to find your house key and unlock the door. You enter, lock it behind you and place the bags on the coffee table. You're about to text Vox when there's suddenly a knock at your door. The knocks become more insistent the more time you take answering it. "Coming!" you call out when you almost trip on your feet trying to hurry to the door. Who the Hell could be at your door at this time?? You unlock the door again and come face-to-face with a demon. You blink. So does the demon and the smaller one standing next to him. They both look like the typical, basic demons depicted in media—red with horns and a spiked tail. The taller demon has striped horns and a white spot over one eye while the smaller one has shorter, similarly patterned horns and white fur that framed his face. Glancing down, you notice that they're both wearing suits. So, there are business demons at your door. Unusual, but not strange. "Hello," you say. "Do you guys want a sandwich?"

[onebangtanstan]

Power Style - Chapter Eleven : The revenge

A/N : Ok this is shorter than the previous chapters but DYNAMITE CAME OUT so that's what I've been doing. GO STREAM! 💜

He notices me staring him down. He scoffs before coming my way. We lock eyes and start an unspoken staring contest, just like the other day. As he's getting closer to me, I feel the muscles in my body tense up. His presence is enough to piss me off.

"You're late Namjoon." He's now standing right in front of me, forcing me to look up.

"It's M.Kim to you." His eyes are shooting bullets at mine, and so are mine, but neither of us looks away. We're both way too proud to do so.

"I don't have time for this." I turn away from him, starting to feel dizzy from keeping my head up to look at him. "Go get your make up and fitting done, we're all waiting for you Namjoon." I refuse to give into his twisted game, we're here to get a job done, whether we like it or not.

He executes himself, but I sense he's not happy with that. We can all see that he's stalling, and trying to annoy us. Thank God my team knows what they're doing and isn't giving into him either. 

We can finally start the shoot an hour and a half after the original time. He stands in front of the camera, and I don't recognize the man posing right now. He turns into this extremely professional guy. The harsh lines he usually wears on his face have completely disappeared, making him look even better than usually.

Even though he annoys the shit out of me, I have to admit that he is a beautiful man. He's the stereotype of the ideal guy : tall, well-built, perfect amount of muscle, a jawline that could cut you. Even when he's the biggest asshole, his clenched jaw and frown make him look good.

To my surprise, we actually finish the shoot quite quickly. The team packs up and starts heading back to the office. I'm about to do the same when I'm turned around by a firm hand on my arm. I am facing Namjoon once again. I mean, I am being towered by him once again.

"Listen to me" He spits, talking only a few centimeters from my mouth. "It's the last time you talk to me like that, do you understand me?"

I set myself free from his grip by throwing my arm down. "No, you listen to me." I feel the fury raising in my body. "We have to work together, and I couldn't care less if you don't like me. The thing is, I am in charge of this campaign so you're on my turf now. You listen to me and do what I say. Am I making myself clear enough for your tiny brain?" 

It looks like he wasn't expecting this reaction from me. He's about to answer but I immediately turn around and start storming out of the room.

I walk back to the office, feeling the need to clear my mind. I can't have him disturbing my schedule, and I most definitely can't go into the meeting with the mindset he put me in.

By the time I get back to work, the whole team is already sitting in the conference room, working on the editing. We do that all afternoon and plan the group shooting for the next day. We're going to have to take unit pictures, group pictures and shoot the commercial. We will be there all day, so I let everyone go early to get enough rest for tomorrow.

I decide to chill at home for the evening. I still have a bit of a bad mood because of today, so I put on yet another cheesy rom-com.

Just as I sit down with a bowl of popcorn, I receive a text from Jin. For once, I don't have that tightening in my stomach. I open it :

J : Hey, how are you doing? We haven't talked lately..

G : Hi! I'm good, how about  you? I know, I'm sorry, I had a lot going on..

J : No worries, I've just been thinking a lot about you..

We end up texting the whole evening, catching each other up on our lives, and it feels really good. We eventually start talking about deeper stuff. Jin tells me that he really likes me and can't stop thinking about me, making me blush. Thank God he can't see me right now. I start typing and send a text without thinking too much about it. I have to give him something.

"Jin I need to tell you something. One of the reasons I have been distant with you is because I have issues with relationships. I'll explain it to you eventually but not by text. I hope you understand that it has nothing to do with you, and that I appreciate the time we spend together."

A few minutes -that feel like an hour- pass before he answers, making my heart pound. 

"That's okay Gina, I understand. I'll go at your pace." I smile at his text.

We say our goodnights and I end up falling asleep with a warm feeling inside of me.

I wake up in a good mood, but the group shot pops into my mind, bringing my mindset down just a bit. I feel very pressured and anxious about it. Everything has to go perfectly, because we won’t have time to redo it.

I do the usual, get ready and head to the set. I stop on my way to get a cup of coffee and also get a big bag of french pastries for everyone. We'll be needing a bit of sugar before the day starts.

The boys haven't arrived yet, but we are already going through the schedule for the day. I talk with each person to make sure they know what they're supposed to do. Of course they do, I'm just doing that to calm my nerves.

Tae and Kook are the first to arrive. They're very clingy towards each other which makes me smile at them.

"Hey guys" I say as I hug each of them. "How are you guys doing?"

"We're very good." Tae tells me, making Jungkook blush. My heart could burst, they're so cute. I haven't gotten to a point where I can talk to them about whatever is going on between them, but I feel like that will be coming up sooner than later.

"Perfect. I need you all in a good mindset today."

"Well, we'll see about that." Jungkook starts, making me raise an eyebrow. "Yoongi is riding with Hobi and Jin, he spent the night there. And to be honest, we never know what to expect from those sleepovers, especially about where their minds are set."

Tae elbows Jungkook in the arm, making him realize he spilled something he shouldn't have. He opens his eyes wide.

"Shit" He says, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

"It's ok, I had figured something was going on there. I won't pry, don't worry." I wink at them. 

I notice relief on their faces. I offer them to get something to eat before getting their makeup done, making Jungkook run towards the bags of pastries. 

While they're picking out what to eat, I hear the door open. Jimin enters the room and boy, does he make head turns. He has that je ne sais quoi about him that makes his presence noticed. He barely looks at anyone, heading straight for Tae and Kook. I see him take a pastry, only eating a few bites, and leaving towards the toilet straight after. "JIMIN" Tae starts running after him.

I quickly look away, feeling that I shouldn’t be witnessing whatever is going on, and notice the door open. Yoongi, Jin and Hobi enter. Jin is first, and comes straight to me, giving me a warm hug. It feels good to be circled by his big arms. He breaks the hug with a peck on my forehead. There must be an army of butterflies in my stomach at this point.

Hobi comes in for a hug next, being his usual charming self, but something is off. The spark in his eye is not there. It almost looks as if he's cried? I hold on tight to him, sending some love through my arms. I feel him sigh. 

"Fancy a drink tonight?" I ask him. He needs someone, I can feel it.

"I would love that." He speaks in a low, appreciative voice. I can see his eyes twitch for a second.

"Your coat is amazing!" I quickly change the subject, sensing he's about to breakdown. He smiles back at me and goes to say hi to the boys.

Yoongi, who was already with them, came towards me as Hobi arrived. Shit, there's going to be tension today.

"Hi Gina" Yoongi is near me now, and he looks.. Well, he looks like himself. Nothing is being let through by his face, nor his eyes.

"Hey! How are you?" I ask, trying to hide the fact that I know something is wrong.

"Okay, I guess.." 

We both turn our heads as we hear Jimin's voice coming from the other side of the room.

"V, I said let it go!" 

Tae walks behind him, arms hanging on each side of his body, a powerless look on his face. All the boys turn around to him with an empathetic smile, almost as if they were telling him « it’s okay, you did your best ». They seem know the struggle he’s just gone through. The whole crew is looking at them too, which is exactly what Jimin wanted. He knew that by coming in here, the conversation would stop.

"The only one that could talk to him right now is Joon" Yoongi tells me. I scoff, having trouble seeing Namjoon comforting someone. Yoongi turns to me "He's actually lovely to the people he cares about. He helped me through a lot."

"Yeah, well he made it clear that he doesn't care about me or even about making my life easier."

Yoongi is about to answer, but a loud bang resonates. It's the front door.

Namjoon appears with his leg still in the air. Everyone has stopped what they were doing to stare him down for kicking the door open.

But I couldn't care less about that. I've noticed something else. Something that could fuck up the entire shoot. 

Seeing it sends me in a state of rage so intense that I clench my fists, feeling my nails press into my palms. He stands tall in the doorway, his hands in his pockets. He's proud of himself, and he's now looking at me with a defying smile.

HE IS FUCKING SMILING AT ME. I am dumbfounded by the nerve this man has.

It might not seem like a big deal for everyone else, but I know that he did this on purpose to delay the shoot as payback for what I said yesterday.

He dyed his hair white.

A/N : White-hair Namjoon is back. Hands down his best era, no argument on that (second best, now that we have Blue Namjoon)

I mean LOOK AT HIM.

[ujustwaitsunshine]

Idk if you read the whole thing but what he said was a shit take for someone he calls a friend. He basically said how he would never change and then his team don't try to change him, which okay fair, but then he goes on saying 'unlike other driver like George who let their new team change them and make them less fun.'

Then he said it would be better if people could see the old him, that he would be more popular 🙄 if he was the old George. Like George already has fans turning on him for being at Merc and PR63 kinds of jokes about him being fake, he doesn't need a friend to basically traah talk him in a magazine because he's doing better than at Williams. Lando talks a lot about his struggles with fame and stuff but then turns around and does this... like why..

Also merc fans can multi task, we can care about both drivers and the shit show that is this sport.

ok ok im really not qualified to make much of a comment on this, i read the interview thing that someone posted and was like ok 🤷‍♀️

i mean i wouldnt even call myself a fan of lando? i dont really have anything against him i just dont think about him unless its a team thing so before you say anything im not biased at all. infact i probably prefer george? the thing is these are two drivers i dont think too much about in the first place.

i mean idk? listen im not a mercedes driver and im not a mclaren driver, im not in the positions they're in. maybe thats just the way the teams work, i mean it makes sense.

mclaren are more chilled, obviously still focused on winning or getting good points but their naturally going to be more chilled out.

mercedes is a massive team, most probably more pr stuff more media coverage, and with them used to being at the front, paired with the issues they’ve been having, theres probably a much more serious approach? Mercedes are really knuckling down at the moment so its no surprise to anyone that their drivers are maybe affected by that. Lando’s never had much of a way with words so i guess he’s just trying to get that across.

i will agree with you on his popularity comment, it certainly wasn’t necessary, it isnt a popularity game, especially from a drivers point of view as well, the aim is to win and drive well, not to see how funny you can be. Like i said i think lando can be a bit like that sometimes with his words and sometimes i feel like he can be a bit, idk, cocky? i cant think of the right word but im sure you’re aware that sometimes he can be a bit like that, i dont wanna say sometimes he thinks hes gods gift necessarily because i dont think its to that extent but its one of the reasons why i dont really like him as much as other drivers.

i feel like, i mean ill give him the benefit of the doubt, stuff like this happens all the time with the media, i highly doubt there was any bad intent there, the first part i get, the second part was a bit pissy of him to say but im sure it was in a jokey way like something you would say to your mate like “ohh maybe if you didn’t have your nose stuck in a book we’d be having more fun and you’d be a bit more popular” kinda thing yknow? but it doesnt really justified the comment. it was a stupid thing to say

i do totally get where you’re coming from, i really didnt like lando for a while over the no sympathy for daniel comment he made last year but at the same time lando and daniel are good friends now, im sure he didn’t want to intentionally upset daniel as im sure he doesn’t want to intentionally upset george

i think at this point maybe just accept lando really doesnt have a way with words, maybe i just think that and brush it off bcuz i dont tend to think about him but yeah.

idk 🤷‍♀️

edit : ok on later speculation, yeah ok he was a bit cuntish ill give you that. second shorter comment on it that probably makes more sense