#and then i found out a video game based on that movie came out literally today

[luckylunatix]

A while ago I had a bit of a clown fixation and these were some clown OCs I drew as a result of that

The first one is a clownsona named Mx. Haunting Jack, a horror/Halloween themed clown. You can find them performing at haunted houses, Halloween parties, and other such spooky events.

The other one is Prince Sugar Pop, a very sweet fella who's basically the clown version of that kind of dweeb that loves stuff like Ren Faires, DnD and LARPing. He comes with his own little pet, a sentient unicorn piñata named Konpeitō.

I actually had another clown OC in mind so that they could be a trio, but I haven't drawn her yet, so for now it's just these guys.

[pjflmga]

little things, alessia russo x reader

summary: based on little things by one direction (big fan yup) where r is a bit insecure about certain things and alessia makes sure to let r know she loves everything about r.

a/n: just smth random i came up w while i’m writing on chicago p2 bc i’m currently stuck lol. wrote this in the middle of the night so don’t mind eventual mistakes… send in recs if you want to :)

wc: 2,3k ish

enjoyy

—————————————————————

you and alessia had been together for a long time now, with your 2 years anniversary coming up in only a few weeks. you loved doing things together, watching movies or series, going out for a walk or shopping. literally anything

football might be your biggest shared interest though, whether it was watching a game or playing it. but it was not hard to see who was playing professionally and who played in a normal sunday league.

alessia played football for a living, her days consisted of training on and off the pitch and of course football games against big, top teams, weekly. whereas you were working as a chef at a restaurant and only had training 2-3 times a week plus a game on the weekends.

despite the big difference of professionalism you played in, you both were each others biggest fan and supporter. you were at all arsenal’s home games and even some away games if possible, and alessia was at yours. of course if you or her didn’t have your own game at the same time, which occasionally happened.

alessia never looked down at you for not being a professional footballer, rather the other way around. she was happy and proud that you got to the two things you loved the most, cooking food during the days and playing football in the evenings. but even if alessia never had an opinion about this, didn’t mean you nor especially the fans highlighted this at times.

as you were the girlfriend of the top player and front face of the lionesses and arsenal, people didn’t shy away from sharing their ignorant opinions. when alessia saw a rude comment about you she would always delete it, before she read half of it and especially before you got the chance to even know about it. but since you were together with alessia, you had around 30k followers on instagram yourself and a lot of the ignorant comments ended up in your comment section as well.

you knew you shouldn’t care, but you couldn’t help but read every single negative comment about you. it was everything from you using alessia for her being famous and having a lot of money, to not being good enough for her and being an ugly and bad person. the comments about you only “using” her didn’t really bother you, as you and not to mention, alessia knew that it wasn’t true. but it was rather the comments about you being too ugly, or not that a good enough person for her that made you feel like the smallest person on earth.

this had been going on ever since you got together and the public eye found out about it. at first it didn’t bother you, but as time went on it started to get to you. the blonde and you had talked about it before, but even if you weren’t, you always made sure to say that you were fine.

as of lately alessia had started to notice that you were feeling a bit more tired and down than usually. at first she thought it was because of your job and how hectic it was. but she shortly after realised it was because of all comments on social media.

and with that she started to make more efforts than usually to make you feel as special and loved as you deserved, not to mention how she felt about you.

————————————

as a person in general, you were a bit insecure about yourself. you didn’t like certain things with your body or the way you looked.

as time passed alessia started to figure out more of your small insecurities, how every time she tried to make a short video with you, you always stayed quiet because you didn’t like the way your voice sounded on camera.

how you never got changed in front of her, despite being together for a long, long time. because you didn’t like how your stomach or thighs looked. she obviously had seen you without clothes before, but it was different when you changed and got dressed. it made you feel more conscious about the way you looked, in a way you didn’t like and therefore didn’t want alessia to see.

but also how you recently had stopped coming along to nights out and dinners with her team, because you were insecure or what other people would think. despite alessia always telling you how much the team loved you and wanted you there.

alessia knew these things made you insecure, but these were also the things she loved about you the most. the way you looked, the way you were, the way you smiled and laughed. your voice, your body. everything.

at first she didn’t want these little things to slip out, in case it made you more insecure. but she quickly realised the best way to make you feel more comfortable and confident, was to bring your insecurities up, subtly and in a reassuring way, one by one.

every time you smiled you got small crinkles by your eyes and for some reason fans started to point that out, together with your freckled cheeks. alessia didn’t understand, as she thought those were two of the cutest things about you, but you hated them.

now when she started to see the comments more often, she realised that was the reason why you started to cover your freckles up with makeup, and at least try to smile less. not that it really worked when you were with alessia, who stumbled around and laughed all the time.

“babe, you’re so beautiful today.” alessia said as the two of you got ready to head out for a little walk in the park. “why are you putting on makeup? you’re just as beautiful without it.” she smiled softly.

“i dunno.” you mumbled. “don’t really like my freckles.” you said lowly. with that alessia walked up behind you, where you sat by the desk in your shared bedroom, and hugged you tightly from behind.

“you.” kiss. “are.” kiss. “more.” kiss. “beautiful”. kiss. “than.” kiss. “anyone.” kiss. “else. ” kiss. “in.” kiss. “the.” kiss. “world.” the blonde said as she kissed you freckles.

“stoppp less, you’re ruining my makeup.” you said, but couldn’t help but feeling a smile creeping up in the corner of your mouth.

“nooo!!” she said. “i’m just making sure your natural beauty is showing.” she continued as she bombed kisses on you again. you couldn’t help but laugh at that. “there’s the beautiful smile of yours.” alessia said simply.

it took you another 20 minutes to get ready before your headed out. instantly when you stepped out of the port of your stairwell, alessia grabbed you hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

“you know, your hands fits perfectly in mine.” the striker said softly.

“what do you mean less?” you asked confused, not quite catching what she meant.

“i don’t know, i just know it feels perfect to hold it in my hand.” she smiled with a chuckle. you nodded slowly, still not getting where she came from. but it was something with the way she had said it while squeezing your hand, that made you feel good. you felt yourself being thrown out of your thoughtss as alessia pulled you with her and started to walk towards the park, while babbling about her upcoming game against liverpool this weekend.

when you stopped in the middle of the park by a big tree alessia suggested that the two of you should make a tiktok together. a video where you’d have to rank her arsenal teammates.

“no i can’t do that.” you said with a laugh. “they’re gonna kill me.”

“noo, babe!! it’ll be fun, they will love it.” she laughed as she pulled up her phone.

“okay, just because i love you. but don’t post it!! i don’t uh, want people to hear my- to see what my ranking.” you said quietly.

“oh y/n, it’ll be fine. everyone will laugh at how pissed leah will be when she sees she’s not your number one.” alessia chuckled. “besides, everyone should get to hear that beautiful voice of yours when you explain your rankings.” she continued, subtly mentioning yet another insecurity. you instantly felt yourself relaxing a little when she said that. to be honest you hadn’t really realised that you had tensed up in the first place.

“let’s do this then, less.” you said as you grabbed her phone and started the ranking.

——————————

“i can’t believe you were about to put frida at number one.” alessia said with a grunt as you finished.

“well she is just the best, isn’t she?” you asked with a smile.

“well… no. i am supposed to be there, i swear if you weren’t with me right now, you would’ve put her as your number 1.” alessia answered with a unhappy voice.

“nooo babe, i’d never do that!!” you laughed. “you are obviously my number one!”

“and so are you y/n/n! you are my forever number one and i love you and everything about you.” the blonde said softly as she gave hugged you and kissed your cheek. “let’s post this and see how the girls reacts.” she continues as she posted the video.

just then she got a message from leah in the arsenal group chat, asking who’d be joining for dinner aka ordering food, and movie night at her place tomorrow night. a flood of “yes” and “me” came right away when alessia looked at you.

“you want to go?” she asked hopefully.

“uh i don’t know, don’t want to intrude your team bonding night.” you said lowly.

“no y/n babe, first you could never do that. the girls have been asking if you won’t being joining anytime soon anyways. and besides, it’s just movie night tmrw.” alessia explained as she took your hand and gave it a squeeze.

“well, okay then i guess.” you said.

“YESSSS!!!” the england forward squealed as she sent a quick “me and y/n are coming!” to the group chat and right away an even bigger flood of “yes!”, “wohoo” and “finally” came.

as tomorrow evening eventually came around, you and the blonde got ready together. since it was just movie night and leah’s, you wouldn’t dress up fancy. so you grabbed a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt as you headed towards your bathroom to get changed. but before you managed to take a step alessia grabbed your arm and hugged you tightly.

“you know i don’t mind you changing clothes in front of me.” she said softly as she hugged you tighter.

“i know, it’s just uh me. i don’t know, it’s stupid. of course i should be able to change in front of my girlfriend of almost two years.” you said while you let go of alessia to look into her eyes.

“baby, it’s not stupid the way you feel. i just want you to know that i love you and i love every single thing about you. i love your eyes, your smile, how you look and oh my god, have you seen your body?” she said softly and you can’t help but smile a little. “if you don’t feel comfortable to change in front of me, i won’t stop you. but i want you to feel comfortable with me, no matter what. i don’t care what other people say or think and you shouldn’t either. because you are more perfect than anyone else. okay?” alessia continued.

all you could do was just stare at your girlfriends. you realised where she was coming from with all of this, but to be honest, it made you feel better. she was right, the only opinion you really cared about was hers, and you knew how much she loved you.

“i know, i just feel so self conscious and insecure sometimes. i wish i didn’t but i can’t help but being affected by it.” you answered.

“you know love, those things you are self conscious about, are some of the things i love the most you.” she said as she once again gave you one of her famous “lessi bear hugs”.

“yeah i know less, thank you so much.” you said hugging her back. after some time you finally let go of each other and you felt truly safe and loved by the striker. you took a deep breath and actually felt comfortable enough to change in front of your girlfriend.

all alessia could do was looking at you with the proudest smile ever. she was happy that her little side mission had worked out the way she wanted to, that you felt better about yourself and also felt more comfortable around her.

what took her by surprise though was that you for the first time in a long, long time didn’t cover up your freckles with makeup. all you did was curling your eyelashes and put on some mascara. alessia once again looked at you with the biggest and proudest smile as well as heart eyes. oh, that girl was head over heels for you.

“you’re so beautiful, my girl.” alessia said with a grin.

when you 20 minutes later arrived at leah’s house and went to knock on the door, it was instantly opened by a not super happy looking leah.

“how dare you not put as number 1 and not even number 2, but 3 on your list, miss?” she said while giving you a stern look, but you could hear the teasing in her voice.

“told you…” alessia whispered in your ear lowly, with a laugh. “i’ll leave the two of you to figure this out.” she continued and walked into great the rest of the team.

“well hello to you too leah…” you laughed. “i guess i just don’t love you as much as less.”

“okay that’s fair BUT YOU PUT FRIDA OVER ME??” leah shouted.

“well, if it makes you feel any better, i almost put frida above lessi. but then i wouldn’t have had a place to sleep in.” you laughed.

after some back and forth you finally settled on a fair ranking where, spoilers, leah ended up as your number 1. then leah finally let you into her house and let you in with a happy smile over a face so you could greet the other arsenal players there.

the night was amazing, just what you needed. you felt safe around alessia and her teammates and you didn’t feel like you were in the way and disturbing them. they made you laugh all the time, and now the crinkles by your eyes didn’t bother you anymore.

even if alessia’s mission was accomplished, she didn’t stop reminding you how much she loved you. everything about you. that the little things you were subconscious about, made you to the amazing person that you were and the person alessia loved so much.

[carmsgarms]

just wanna hug you for the jkr post bc my former friends made me feel insane for not validating their continued engagement 💜

Bestie listen youve unzipped me and im about to go off. Harry Potter was my entire life until she literally couldn't shut the fuck up about trans women being perverts and infiltrators. I was a lonely neurodivergent weirdo and Harry Potter brought me solace as a kid. I read each of the books at least 7 or 8 times, that shit is INGRAINED in my brain. One of my best friends of 10+ years is my friend today because the first thing we bonded over was seeing the last HP movie. I used to be deadset on my 2nd tattoo being my pottermore wand with my hogwarts house. I wanted a fucking HP-themed wedding. The first funko pops I bought were Harry Potter ones. My first serious boyfriend told me he wanted to propose to me in front of Hogwarts castle (this was something he said to guilt trip me when i dumped his ass) ((also thank the gods that never happened he was a shithead and so is jkr)). My mom for some godforsaken reason let me help her name my youngest brother when he was born because she couldn't think of a name and my 10yo ass fuckikg picked DANIEL because of Daniel Radcliffe. I was in DEEP.

And you know what? Aside from the books I camped out to buy on release day and the DVDs that are crammed in a box somewhere in a storage unit, I have gotten rid of every single Harry potter thing I owned because I grew the fuck up and found better things to like. Sure I'll watch the DVDs again every few years to feel the nostalgia again because a good chunk of the cast are great people (we fucking stan Dan Radcliffe and David Tennant in this house ) but I'm not giving jkr another cent of my money or an inkling of my time beyond that.

You are so valid and you are allowed to be upset if your friends continue to engage with Harry potter content.

Anyone who days "uwu my nostalgia" ask them if they still sleep with their fucking baby blanket too.

My former boss wouldn't shut the fuck up about the new video game when it came out. At least once a week he'd ask me if I'd played it yet and every single time I would tell him "I'm not engaging with that franchise anymore. JKR uses money to fund anti-trans legislation." And he'd always spout some bullshit about nostalgia or "but it's SO good" or "yeah I just try to separate the art from the artist / oh but the devs who worked hard on the game! / but playing the game doesn't actually support her! (yes the fuck it does if the game does well it boosts her platform)"

And especially now that my wife has come out, I'm extra ready to fight the next grown person who tells me they ~separate the art from the artist~ like fuck off. There are better things to spend your time and energy on. I hope everything JKR makes flops hard. Everything shes done since the last movie has been a disgusting cash-grab and none of it is even good. I'm beyond thrilled that BG3 has had a wild runaway success and a longer-lasting player base than the fucking game she put out. Nothing has ever disappointed me more than JKR being the way that she is.

Oh but the lore and world building? The ability to make your own character in such a fun and magical immersion world?bDnd has better lore than Harry potter ever did and the lore adds up and makes sense. If you look at her shit beyond the surface level she is actually fucking TERRIBLE at world building especially when she tries to do it without being a fucking racist ((does anyone remember when early drafts for the American magic schools that were using Native American imagery and it was all REALLY FUCKING OFFENSIVe and let's also not forget "no-maj" being the least fucking creative thing she ever came up with)

"But my hogwarts house" PLEASE choose a better Personality.

I have more nostalgia for Avatar the Last Airbender these days since i got into that when it first started airing when i was 12 (and look if you're really into the fuckin houses as your Personality you can get that with ATLA! Water tribe forever bitches)

"But the characters!!!" Please. There are better characters ALL AROUND YOU. pick up a fucking comic book. Yknow Superman actually has a similar structure, he's got the nerdy Normal friend and the love interest and it's a goddamn shame none of the movies include his bestie Jimmy because he's just as important as Lois Lane is.

"But all the strong female characters!" It is 2024 please I beg you to find other female role models (I will again point to Avatar the Last Airbender and Literally Any Comic Book Featuring A Woman. Captain Marvel is actually really good. Battlestar Galactica is also chock full of strong female characters and that came out in the early 2000s!)

Bestie i genuinely feel bad for all the fucking white people who can ignore all the bullshit JKR has done and said and all those sad saltine cracker flavor type people whose entire personalities are Watching The Office and Enjoying Harry Potter And Star Wars. Grow up. Move On.

If it's that important to you (and i mean the general you here not you specifically), please do what I did and Marie Kondo that part of your life. You don't need to hold onto the safety blankie you had as a child. You don't have to hold onto the pair of shoes that got you through high school and are out of fashion and falling apart. You give it a sendoff. Say "thanks for getting me through that part of my life but I'm moving on" and you move the fuck on.

I did something really sappy for my 30th birthday - I said goodbye to the franchise. I mourned what could have been. I went to Universal studios ((also bc Simpsons land and fast and furious ride and ET and a bunch of other stuff are there)) but I stopped into Harry potter world to do everything once and say goodbye to that part of my life since it was something I had wanted to do for most of my youth, and my friend who i became friends with because of harry potter was there with me. We drank the fucking pumpkin juice, had breakfast at the three broomsticks, appreciated all the little easter eggs around hp world, rode the hagrid ride, and ate a chocolate frog I wore my trans rights shirt and dressed gay as hell, my friend is trans so he just ~existed blissfully~ . I think every Harry potter fan needs to acknowledge that the franchise was good for them in the 90s, mourn that part of their life, and move on.

Bonus: me being Gay as Fuck in front of the castle. I hope JKR fucking rots and fades into obscurity and people come to realize she's worse than HP Lovecraft.

[mecchantheotaku]

Why I Love The Voices

I decided that regardless of the poll results, this is something I will be posting.

If it results in a yes, this will serve as an explanation for my weird fixation and why I will continue to post about them for the way I see them.

If it results in a no, this will be my last post about them, and will explain and apologise for my obsession.

Flash back to sometime in 2023, my boyfriend messaged me on Discord and invited me to watch him play a demo of a horror-romance visual novel.

I watched it and saw him pick his decisions, and instantly fell in love with the game.

I looked at the other paths we didn't get online and I decided I had to at least see the full version when it came out.

I even had a waifu picked out (it was, and still is, The Adversary).

Now at the time, I wasn't too focused on the Voices. I liked Contrarian and thought Stubborn was based, but I didn't really dwell on them too much. I was more focused on the different versions of the Princess.

Later that year, the full game came out and me and my boyfriend were hype. We got into a Discord call, and he streamed the game. I was fascinated by all the routes we went through. All the Princesses, all the Voices, and all the moments with the Shifting Mound.

At that point, I was starting to see the appeal of the Voices and even yelled in excitement when Contrarian showed up in The Fury, like "Hey! It's our old friend!" I found myself seeing their points of view more than most people would have their first time playing.

My boyfriend played, and I watched intensely like it was a movie at the cinema. I hadn't figured out what made the Voices so appealing to me yet, until we got to the ending. Literally, the moment the Voice of the Hero showed up, I finally understood.

Him, and the other Voices, felt like a connection deeper than the romance we had with the Princess. They felt like family to me. And that's why I love them.

I looked up the other routes online and eventually bought the game for myself so I could explore it. It's one of the few games I've managed to 100% complete. I started posting about it on Tumblr and now my blog is filled with nothing but my brainrot.

Why, though? That's... complicated. During November of 2023, I had gotten a different game I was hyped for all year, but because the controls focused on moving your body, and I was out of shape, I could only do a little bit of it the day I got it, and then I got sick and couldn't play it for a while.

And then things got really ugly for me.

My Internet had decided to fizzle out to the point that it was cutting out by the minute and when it did decide to connect in a semi-stable way, it was so bad I could only watch videos at a maximum of 480p. Yes, that bad.

Not to mention I was suffering from stress coming from my real life family, preparations for Christmas and money troubles.

I needed something to cling to. Anything to cling to. And as if I could hear them in my own head, the Voices were there when I needed them.

That's when I started posting about them. I was just getting my thoughts out there, and before you knew it, I had become a regular poster in this wonderfully weird community. And it was so much nicer than other communities I'd been part of.

Thinking about them and sharing my thought about them helped me get through a hard time, and if you've seen my posts, you know just how hard this time has been for me even recently.

I hope you can forgive me for being so selfish. Regardless of the poll results, I will still continue to love the Voices.

Thank you for reading.

[vegitoswife-archive]

A/N: New indefinite fic project since, based on the last poll, a lot of people liked the idea of it! Certain parts may be chronological (which will be specified if so) but will in general be disconnected. Some parts may be lengthy, others short. It really depends on the prompt of them and what I can think up!

TAGLIST: @carnal-lnstinct / @yeowangies / @enayru (Like this post to be added to my tag list!)

Part 1 - Spending Time Together

CW(s): None.

★ VEGITO

-Despite how much he loved to train and exercise, you two actually got a lot of opportunities to hang around one another. Unfortunately, Vegito wasn’t really…used to it that much.

-All of Goku’s past friends very rarely sought him out for his company, his and Vegeta’s children all had their own lives, and he refused to go near Bulma or Chi Chi if he could help it, so he adapted to being alone virtually 24/7. Until you came along into his life, of course.

-He tried to hide it underneath his cocky and playful demeanor, but his fondness of you was incredibly obvious with how he sought out your company almost every day. You found it a little cute, but it additionally took on a different meaning when you learned that the chances of him being truly lonely were incredibly high. Too high. Even if he brushed off the questions, you could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn’t the happiest. Overall, it would likely do you both some good if you spent time getting to know one another better.

If you’re a practicing marital artist or someone who simply likes fighting, bonding with him over either or will be easy. Vegito would even be thrilled to spar with you, and see just how you’d fare against him.

If you have absolutely no combat experience, you could still have some engaging conversations with him over his own love of it. Being a Saiyan, he’s quite literally built for it. Vegito would easily get wrapped up in discussing his techniques and style, whether you understood the terminology or not, that he’d basically ramble with an enthusiastic shine to his eyes. It’s endearing.

-Outside of fighting-related activities, both of you would spend a lot of downtime in the comfort of your home. You have your own hobbies that you could try introducing to Vegito, but there’s a moderate chance depending on what they are that he either won’t understand them much or will think they’re a bit strange. Goku’s hobbies were very construction-based (the Son family’s home needed regular upkeep) and Vegeta…didn’t have hardly any hobbies at all, so Vegito wasn’t exactly dealt a deck of cards that helped him view the world outside the lens of a recluse. He was admittedly technology-inept on top of it.

-Don’t get him wrong, he likes to join you in doing things you find personal enjoyment in regardless of how weird or pointless they might come across as to him, but you’ll have to expect Vegito to be somewhat awkward with them…initially anyway. For example, he’s not going to be the best at playing a video game with you at first, but you’ll be surprised at how fast he can learn the ropes.

-If you’re an avid movie watcher, one activity you can always fall back onto with Vegito is sitting down on the couch and showing him the films you either like or think he’d get a kick out of. Especially those of the horror genre. He would be very amused in getting to see what typical things Earthlings define “horror” as being.

★ GOGETA

-If he’s not training, then chances are he’s with you.

-He honestly doesn’t really try to hide how much he likes being around you. He wouldn’t show it much on his face as he’s the stoic type, but if you ask him if he enjoys your company he’ll bluntly answer with something like “Yeah. Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

-He doesn’t talk to Goku’s past friends hardly ever, and he overall is a very reserved person. Being alone frankly doesn’t bother Gogeta much, but with you, the realization that ‘hey having someone else around is actually kind of nice’ lit up like a light switch had been flipped on. On certain days, he might even act like a puppy in a way. Just…following you around or just observing you quietly with a rather soft look.

-He’d like to learn about your hobbies, but if they’re tied to social media, he’ll definitely be staying out of them. He really values his privacy. If you’re into them: the only video games he’d ever be remotely interested in are puzzle games (especially the innovative types), but since those usually aren’t multiplayer you can’t count on him to play anything with you unless you catch him on a real good day & he feels like humoring you.

-Sure, it’s easy to discuss matters related to fighting with him, but you’ll find that he’s surprisingly very introspective; if not philosophical. There’s a lot on Earth and out in the cosmos that’s either barely known or utterly unknown. It’s not an uncommon thing to find the mysteries of life and existence itself engaging, and despite being one of the most powerful beings in the universe who has personally dealt with supernatural things, the same goes for Gogeta. His nature as a fusion already throws what’s accepted as “natural life” into disarray.

-It might be cliché, but he would greatly enjoy settling down with you somewhere quiet at night to stargaze or the like and chat with you about your own feelings about a variety of things. You can be a ‘deep thinker’ too or the sort who maintains a simplistic view of life, it won’t matter. He just wants to put in true effort to understand you, like how you do with him.

-Something else you may find surprising is that Gogeta does like to read. Have any books? You could lend one or more to him (don’t worry he’ll take good care of them) and see if they catch his interest. After he potentially finishes them, you could have discussions with him over them. Maybe he’ll have the same opinions as you, maybe not, or maybe you both could have fun ripping into the terrible story or characters.

-In general, your time with Gogeta will primarily be you both enjoying one another’s presence. Unless he feels up to talking, he’s content to merely sit or lie in silence with you. He doesn’t care for small talk, and definitely doesn’t need it to remain keen on sticking around you if you both aren’t doing anything at the moment. Expect most days to be relatively chill.

[nicotinzwei]

February

Hello, February was stressful but okay. The last months I picked a song to listen to parallel to reading but I literally didn’t listent to new songs this month.

Book

Krabat from 1971 is a short novel by Otfried Preußler based on an old sorbian story. It describes 3 years in Krabats life in which he originally wants a summer job at a mill but then accidentally does dark magic. The audio book is only 3 hours long, one for each year, and is on youtube for free. It’s narrated by the author who describes scary or fantastical moments is such a casual manner that sometimes makes me want to scream at him, but also really adds to the mood of the books and Krabats seemingly dead-end situation. After finishing I found out that they built some sort of themed area in the place the story is set. There you can find all sorts of fun attractions for kids like a haunted mill, places of deaths of the characters, a sunken carriage and a graveyard. You can also rent the location for company events or weddings so you already know what I’m gonna do.

Movie

This month I went to my first cult movie screening. I saw a very cleaned up version of Rocky Horror as a play before which was also filled with audience participation but seeing The Room in a small old Viennese theatre with drunk students for its 20th anniversary was just so much better. I love the concept of audience participation and am kind of sad so few movies got the cult status needed for it. For this movie there are a bunch of callbacks pointing out weird details, famous lines you can quote, props like spoons or footballs you can throw or you can just scream at the characters for being so fucking stupid. Some people even came in a suit. I think after like two decades of going to the cinema this was my favorite experience. In an age of Netflix I really think this is how you keep cinema and communal watching alive.

Game and Videos

A double feature category! I started playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons again. I already had like 300 hours in this game and thought I was through with it, but then I started watching the Amanda Files and she got me hooked. The first video of her I saw she visited some horror themed island and described the plot of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 in her valley girl voice and it’s the funniest thing I ever heard. She could talk about literally anything for 2 hours and I would listen to her while playing animal crossing.

Website

I didn’t know what to call the category because it’s not really about the website but more about the concept of buying second hand directly from people. The vintage fashion thing got so big over the last few years that especially in Vienna second hand stores are selling the stuff so overpriced that even if you only do it for environmental reasons you just can’t afford it anymore. But after I got two harmonicas second hand earlier this year I really started looking through willhaben religiously. This month I picked up a table only like 4 minutes away for 20€ and two days later I sold my old one for the same amount. If you live in an area where a lot of people are using it and you have a friend to carry stuff this is such a cool opportunity to basically just swap your stuff for free if you play your cards right. Now every few weeks on my lunch break I go somewhere, pick up a picture for 3€ and get in a little walk. Highly recommend it!

[proceduralpassion]

Ten Books To Know Me

Thanks for the tag girlie @celestemagnoliathewriter

I'm a book girlie to the core, so I could talk all day about my favorite novels or spend an entire day at Barnes and Noble lol. Anyway, here are ten books to get to know me.

Jade City- Quite possibly one of my favorite trilogies of all time. I just chose the first installment in the Green Bone Saga, well, because it's the first, but all three books are masterpieces. If you're an urban fantasy girlie like me, pleaseeeee read these books. I'll never get over the world and family dynasty Fonda Lee created with this series.

Hide- I will read any single genre you put in front of me, but I'm absolutely a sucker for detective novels. And Lisa Gardner is one of the queens of writing detective thrillers with the perfect amount of romantic suspense. She has like over twenty novels in this genre, but Hide is my favorite. Seems to be a fan favorite too, because they made a TV movie based on this book.

Working Stiff- the only non-fiction book on this list despite the fact that I read a good mix between the two. It's somewhat of a memoir of Judy Melinek who's a forensic pathologist. This is my future career so I enjoyed reading about her journey to get to where she is now.

The Bride Test- my comfort romance novel! Helen Hoang is just one of those writers who I'll read anything from. Most people have read her debut novel, The Kiss Quotient (and that's a damn good book!), but I just reallllyyyy love the Bride Test. Khai and Esme have my whole heart.

Nancy Drew- A CHILDHOOD BANGER. Classic. Went #1 on my childhood Billboard for 18+ weeks. Smashed every record. Lol they could write 1000 Nancy Drew books, I'm gonna read every single one. They were my first foray into being a book girlie at the ripe age of 8, so they'll always have a special place in my heart. (SN: I realllyy have the urge to go out and re-buy all of the Nancy Drew video games).

Six of Crows- Best found family dynamic in a book me thinks? The twists and turns were everything and I loved every single character in the Crows.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown- Another romantic fave! I'll never not love a sassy female lead. And then the male lead was lumberjack height grump?? Sign me up! You'll always be famous, Chloe and Red!

Princess Diaries- Another childhood fave? GASP. Meg Cabot knew the hell what she was doing when it came to teen girl fiction. And she's still writing books for the series! The Quarantine Princess Diaries literally came out THIS MONTH.

TTYL- Okay last childhood banger, I promise. This was a Lauren Myracle series told ENTIRELY thru IM/texting and I loved it. I was in middle school reading these books and lowkey they were a lil too grown for me at the time, but I snuck and read them anyway. Another win for the teen girlies.

The House on Mango Street- OK, a lot of these books have been about being my fave to read. The House on Mango Street, while I definitely enjoy reading, was probably the first book that inspired me to write. We all know this is a modern literary classic, but there's just something so magical about the way she writes. I read that book and thought, yo how cool would it be to write something as awesome as this? Therefore, it deserves a place on this list.

No presh tags for the gworls: @drabbles-mc @tallulahchanel @asirensrage @darqchilddaydreamz @thesirenrealm

[polyphonic-brains]

How To Name Your Collective

By Stuart Phoenix

Note: When I say “you” throughout this, I mean you plural.

After a long time, we’ve finally figured out a name for ourselves. We will be going by The Phoenixes collectively. We chose this name because of its symbolic meaning. The Phoenix represents death and rebirth, which is something we connect with both metaphorically and literally. We also wanted something related to birds, because our connection to birds is one of the things we have in common. 

I want to share what we’ve learned during this process. Here are some things that will hopefully guide you through choosing a name for yourselves. 

Do We Need a Collective Name? 

Naming your collective is very common in the plural community. It provides a way of identifying yourselves amongst others, and can also provide a sense of collective identity. However, you do not need a special collective name. You can just use your body’s name, if that is what you’d prefer.

How Do We Choose a Name? 

There is no right or wrong way to choose a name. What matters is that you all can agree upon it and tolerate it. 

Be Patient, Don’t Force It

I spent a long time trying to research words we could use. I got somewhat stressed about this. I made a Google doc and wrote down words I found online that we liked, but nothing I had found really worked for us. Despite my hours of searching, the name just came to us. I’ve also heard similar stories where a system searches for a name to no avail, and then it simply falls into their lap one day. The point of this isn’t to not search for a word. You may search for words online and find something that clicks. The point is not to force it. Also, be open to it coming to you when you aren't expecting it.  

Experiment If You Need To

You may need to try the name on for a bit. I’d say that once you try it on, give it at least a few days before you see if you like it or not. We have a thing where trying on new names (like usernames or nicknames) will feel weird until we get used to it, no matter how much we actually like the name. I imagine that this is common. 

Be Aware Of Change

Keep in mind that some things about you may change. Your headcount may change. Your interests may change. It is okay to change the name later if it no longer resonates or is true to you, but you may want to play it safe and choose a name that you are less likely to grow out of. 

We have changed our name a few times, and every time it has changed it has gotten closer to being a better reflection of ourselves. 

Make It Meaningful

Consider choosing a name that has meaning to you. The meaning should ideally have a positive association. At best, it should make you happy. At worst, you should feel neutral about it. Though, if you're like how I used to be and always feel like the names you come up with are bad or off in some way, this may be different. My advice in this situation is to try not to worry about finding the perfect name. 

I would recommend avoiding anything that has a negative association or implies brokenness. It may be how you feel, but it may make you feel worse to refer to yourselves as something upsetting. If you are a survivor and your plurality comes from that, consider a name relating to strength or victory instead of something about being broken or shattered. 

Your name doesn’t have to be super meaningful. You can also choose something because you think it’s funny. The most important thing is that you all feel comfortable with it. If it makes you smile, it probably isn’t a bad choice. Just make sure it isn’t self (or selves) deprecating. 

Things You Have In Common

Is there anything that you have in common? Consider basing your name around that. Is there a song, movie, or book you all like? Do you all like to draw? Or maybe you’re into video games? Perhaps you’re fans of animals and wildlife? You could make a list of what you have in common and work off of that.

Format

Your collective name does not need to be conventional. You don’t have to follow the popular formats. You can even come up with your own if you want. You should do what makes you all the happiest. 

Here are some unconventional formats: 

Your body’s name+&. This would look like “John&” or “John Doe&”. This is an older one that was more popular during the earlier days of the online multiple community. If you are trans and have not gotten your name legally changed, you obviously don’t have to use your body’s name. You could come up with a new, gender-affirming name to use collectively. 

Your body’s name+s. This would be like “The Johns” or "The John Does". 

The (Inset Name Here)s. This is a bit like a team name. This is the format we chose. We also use it as our last name. You don’t have to do that, unless you want to. 

House of (Insert Name Here). This is another older one. Individuals would usually sign off as (Member name) of (House name). So if the collective was called "House of Roses", an individual would sign off as "Jane of Roses". Though, this could probably be done by anyone who wants to, regardless of what format you choose. You also don't have to use house, you could come up with a different word if you'd like. 

Team (Insert Name Here). This is probably something that has already been done, but I don't recall seeing it anywhere. It feels fun and lighthearted.

Using Alternatives to System/Collective. There are many words you can use instead of system or collective. Some examples include flock, squad, troop, crew, pack, etc. If you want some inspiration, consider looking at what groups of different animals are called. This could give you some fun and unique options. For example, a group of ravens is called a conspiracy. 

Be In Agreement

It is best that everyone that you are aware of agrees on the name, or at least tolerates it. Allow the other headmates to make suggestions and consider what they have to say. 

How you handle everything is up to you, both as an individual and as a collective. Make sure that everyone feels heard.

[dangan-kagura]

Why I Don't Like the Gold Third

This isn’t a rant or anything, but it’s one of those opinion blogs about why I don’t like this one thing. This time, I’m gonna talk about the Gold Third from the Neptunia series and why I don’t like them.

I just found out that the Gold Third will be returning for Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution and suddenly I’ve lost all interest in wanting to try the game out. Literally, these characters are the one reason I probably won’t play it. Part of the reason is because I simply don’t like their games, specifically C-Sha and S-Sha, but also because some of them, specifically B-Sha, are just too confusing because I don’t quite understand what game publishers they represent, but it’s just B-Sha, the other three I already know.

Who is B-Sha really?

Is B-Sha supposed to represent Bandai Namco? Let me clarify that Bandai is the toy company owned by Toei, the anime studio best known for anime series’ like DragonBall, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Digimon, Naruto and One Piece, as well as the studio that does the live-action series Super Sentai (or it’s Americanized version the Power Rangers). Bandai pretty much also does video games based on Toei anime. By the mid 2000s, Bandai ended up joining with Namco, the publishers best known for games like Pac-Man, Tekken, the Tales Of series, Ridge Racer, Time Crisis, Soul Calibur, Katamari, Dark Souls and Idolm@ster.

I’ll get to the point, I think it makes better sense if B-Sha was instead named “N-Sha”. That way, she can represent Namco instead of Bandai. Now that I have a better look at her, that thumbs-up pose does make her look like Pac-Man, the official mascot for Namco. But I’ve read that her interests include toys, robots and superheroes, are these all references to Gundam and Super Sentai? I just feel like Namco would be a much superior gaming publisher then Bandai. If B-Sha was named N-Sha, it would be much cooler to see her make MORE references to some of Namco’s best games like Pac-Man and Tekken. That’s just my opinion.

I never did think C-Sha and S-Sha were cool.

In C-Sha’s case, at the time Megadimension Neptunia came out, I was fed up from having to see Capcom take all the glory since the early to mid 2010s. I was annoyed by things like…

The live-action Resident Evil film series.

Resident Evil 6 and the series’ bad spinoffs.

Street Fighter getting more praise than my favorite fighting games.

Mega Man being a fan favorite in Super Smash Bros.

Akuma’s appearance in Tekken 7.

Ace Attorney getting special editions for the 3DS and the original games being ported to the PS4. Like, how many more ports are they gonna keep making?

The popularity of Monster Hunter. Seriously, I never understood the hype about that series.

It was enough to make me want to not play Capcom games and instead boycott them. Doing this meant that I had to quit playing Devil May Cry which was the ONLY Capcom game I’ve ever appreciated. It was just annoying to see people think of Capcom as number 1 but I had the opposite opinion and thought Capcom was just sold out. Even to this day, I’m still not over it.

As for S-Sha, well, I’d rather not get into too much detail as to why I’m not into Square Enix games, but the constant popularity of games like Final Fantasy was just too annoying for me to handle, simply because I was bad at Final Fantasy and thought that it’s popularity as the number 1 game series was more like peer pressure. And having to hear S-Sha say “I’m not interested” that one line Cloud had in that CG movie Advent Children is not really funny. Like, why did they have to make it sound cliche?

K-Sha is probably the only one I thought was good enough for my tastes.

I got nothing against Konami and I don’t mind the Metal Gear references K-Sha makes. But after learning about the shady stuff the company’s been doing for the last decade, it made me think that maybe K-Sha should’ve made those kinds of references. Here's what I think.

Since the early to mid 2010s, Konami has had a lack of interest in wanting to keep making big AAA (triple A) games and instead showed interest in wanting to make cheap mobile games, the kind of games that involve either microtransactions or gacha mechanics. However, games designers like Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima didn’t like this shift, so what did Konami do about it? Fire Kojima as soon as he was done with Metal Gear Solid 5. I had an idea for a joke that K-Sha should’ve appeared in Sisters VS Sisters and befriend Maho, whose favorite games are mobile gacha games, and that K-Sha had a close friend important to her, but fired her because her friend wasn’t into mobile gacha games.

Likewise, I feel like I would’ve liked K-Sha more if she made more then just Metal Gear references and made MORE references to some of Konami’s other great games like Frogger, Castlevania, Contra, Silent Hill, Dance Dance Revolution, Zone of the Enders, they could even have her make Yu-Gi-Oh references if they wanted. Or better yet, they should have K-Sha marry Peashy or Yellow Heart, that way, their new marriage can be a reference to Konami’s acquisition of Hudson games like Bomberman.

Who is F-Sha?

So I just ended up learning that Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution has a new character to the series, calling themselves F-Sha. I literally have no idea who this character represents. She dresses like a knight in silver, but the name or design doesn’t give me any idea as to what sort of game publisher she’s named after. Like, what company in the gaming world do I know that starts with the letter “F”? Odds are, it’s probably a Japanese publisher that does Japanese RPGs I’m not familiar with, you know, because I’m a Westerner and I don’t normally play RPGs. I could just look it up on the fan wiki, but I don’t think I’m gonna like this character based on the other members of the Gold Third.

If Neptunia really wanted to impress me with the Gold Third, they could’ve included members that are based on other kinds of game publishers. Like, I would love it if there was a member called “U-Sha” who would represent Ubisoft. But of course, Ubisoft is based in Canada, not Japan, so they can’t do that. Heck, I had an idea for a joke that K-Sha is married to someone called “T-Sha” and the two of them represent Koei Tecmo and this is to reference Koei’s joining with Tecmo. And as I mentioned, it makes better sense if B-Sha was named N-Sha and should instead reference Namco instead of Bandai, otherwise, you can make a joke saying that B-Sha actually represents Bethesda (I hope that’s how I spelled it).

In Conclusion

Overall, if I had to name the worst Neptunia characters, it would be the Gold Third. I realize that the reasons I don’t like them is simply because…

In C-Sha and S-Sha’s case, I don’t like their games.

I think B-Sha should’ve been named N-Sha and have her represent Namco instead of Bandai.

They should’ve had more members, like a member called U-Sha named after Ubisoft.

I don’t want to say I’m not excited about this new Neptunia game, but depending on what gaming references this one makes, I probably won’t be that interested if this one makes references to games I’m not entirely big on. And it's worse because the Gold Third is making a return. But sooner or later, I’m probably gonna have to suck it up and deal with it.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Smokey brand Select: Ghetto Fabulous

On a whim, i googled Hood Movies because i was curious what would come up. As a black kid who grew up in the Nineties, there was a cultural recognition to what denotes a “hood” film. These things can run the game it of genre. Some are thrillers, some are comedies, the vast majority are some form of crime dram, and a good portion are just straight up exploitation; All of which are, quintessentially, black. I googled the term because i was curious if what i understood a hood flick to be, jived with what the greater public outside of my very melanated experience and culture. I was mildly surprised that our definition was only partly accurate, mostly from the late Eighties onward. Apparently, “hood” films go back to the Fifties, which doesn’t even make sense to me, but whatever. Going over this list, i saw classics; Films that informed my worldview and expressed the reality i experienced everyday, in rather poetic ways. I wanted to take a look back and kind of present a list that, i think, is a solid entry into this rather eclectic sub-genre of film. Also, Denzel Washington is all over this sub-genre. Seriously, i can make a list of hood movies that just star him!

8. Belly

Belly is ridiculous, that’s why it’s so low on this list. It is, without a doubt, unabashedly, trash but it is wildly entertaining trash! Hype Williams basically made a feature length music video and it shows. I always liked dude’s use of the frame and his eye for color in all those music videos he directed back in the Aughts so to see what he could do with a proper feature run time was well worth the price of admission for me. It’s unfortunate that the film, itself, is mid at best. Pretty as sh*t, and some of the dialogue is just chef kiss, but, overall, Belly ain’t great. What it is, is a guilty pleasure of mine that absolutely had to make this list.

7. Do the Right Thing

This is, for my money, the best Spike Lee has ever been. Do the Right Thing was a whole ass vibe when it came out. You have to understand, at that time, race was a huge deal. To see a young, upstart, director basically confront that sh*t, the sh*t no one in the mainstream talked about, the sh*t we lived every day, and do it in a way that was accessible, digestible, and understandable to those without our melanin? It was a shot to the heart, to say the least. Do the Right Thing made waves like Get Out did, but damn near two decades before Peele even thought about Chris Washington. Do the Right Thing is a classic and I'd be hard-pressed not to include it on this list.

6. Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Much like that ridiculous title would lead you to believe, Menace is a straight up satire of all the hood flick dropped in the Nineties. And it’s a great f*cking send-up. Long before the Wayans found success with Scary Movie, Don’t Be a Menace was testament to their ability to spoof literally anything. Menace is legitimately hilarious and became just as influential as the content it was lampooning. I’ve always been a fan of whatever the Wayans clan drops but this flick definitely sits on top.

5. City of God

Yo, this film is no to be f*cked with. Seriously, poverty is a cruel mistress that breeds straight up monsters. My personal experiences when i was deep in that lifestyle were startling but they paled in comparison to the sh*t happened in other parts of the world. City of God takes a look at what ghettos looked like in Brazil during the Sixties and holy sh*t!  This film is visceral, aggressive, and unapologetic with it’s reality. I was shocked the first time i witnesses this straight of malice but, over time, i came to understand that this was the reality of Paulo Lins, the author of the book  from which this whole ass pain-train of a film was based.

4. Dope

Dope is a classic. It’s basically a spiritual successor to Friday and you better believe that sh*t is making an appearance on this list. I love how Dope took everything i knew about this genre, everything i grew up experiencing, and basically just brought it into modern times. Or, at least, modern for that time. Watching dope for the first time really gave me the same feeling i had when i first watched Friday and that, alone, secures it a spot on this list. It just so happens that Dope is a great film on it’s own. It also has the benefit of introducing me to Kiersey Clemons.

3. Juice

This was one of those flicks that everyone saw when i was a kid. It was one of three: Juice, New Jack City, and Boyz n the Hood. Now, for my money, Boyz is the better film and Juice has the iconic Nino Brown but i always had a soft spot for Juice. I don’t know what it is, but i just adore this movie. Maybe it was the young Omar Epps? Maybe it was  the delightfully deranged Tupac? I couldn’t say but, given a choice between those three films, I'd choose Juice every time. That’s why it’s on this list and the other two are only getting mentions. You should definitely watch them, though. They’re really good, too.

2. Training Day

I have mixed emotions about Training Day. I absolutely adore this film, strictly because Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris is one cold motherf*cker. That said, as dope as this portrayal was, it shouldn’t have won the Oscar. The Academy reward Washington for portraying the worst version of who we are as a culture and that sh*t sucks, no matter how f*cking captivating the performance was. Training day is a goddamn masterpiece, no argument there, but it’s a portrait of why people see black folks as cruel, ruthless, villains. In that respect, Washington killed it and this films deserves to be on this list but i f*cking hate that it is. Harris is absolutely irredeemable and that’s rare in a Washington film. Still, Eva Mendes is naked in this so, i mean, there’s that...

1. Friday

I adore Friday. This film captured exactly what it was like to grow up in the ghetto during the Nineties. I was only eleven when it came out but i recognized the absolute accuracy this film had to my reality. Crackheads, security doors, and drive-bys. All of that was very real but, at the same time, this film was able to capture the heart of the hood, that comradery you have with your neighbor. No one in the ghetto has much but we do have each other and that rang truer than anything with Friday. More than that, it’s chock full of great comedy, fantastic performances, and real, enduring, characters. Seriously, my nickname, Smokey, is literally derived from Chris Tucker’s character in this film.

Honorable Mentions: New Jack City, Boyz n the Hood, Fences, American Gangster, Colors, He Got Game, Fresh, 8 Mile, Hustle and Flow, Menace II Society, Hoodlum, The Wood, American Me, Set It Off, White Men Can’t Jump

[smokeybrand]

Smokey brand Select: Ghetto Fabulous

On a whim, i googled Hood Movies because i was curious what would come up. As a black kid who grew up in the Nineties, there was a cultural recognition to what denotes a “hood” film. These things can run the game it of genre. Some are thrillers, some are comedies, the vast majority are some form of crime dram, and a good portion are just straight up exploitation; All of which are, quintessentially, black. I googled the term because i was curious if what i understood a hood flick to be, jived with what the greater public outside of my very melanated experience and culture. I was mildly surprised that our definition was only partly accurate, mostly from the late Eighties onward. Apparently, “hood” films go back to the Fifties, which doesn’t even make sense to me, but whatever. Going over this list, i saw classics; Films that informed my worldview and expressed the reality i experienced everyday, in rather poetic ways. I wanted to take a look back and kind of present a list that, i think, is a solid entry into this rather eclectic sub-genre of film. Also, Denzel Washington is all over this sub-genre. Seriously, i can make a list of hood movies that just star him!

8. Belly

Belly is ridiculous, that’s why it’s so low on this list. It is, without a doubt, unabashedly, trash but it is wildly entertaining trash! Hype Williams basically made a feature length music video and it shows. I always liked dude’s use of the frame and his eye for color in all those music videos he directed back in the Aughts so to see what he could do with a proper feature run time was well worth the price of admission for me. It’s unfortunate that the film, itself, is mid at best. Pretty as sh*t, and some of the dialogue is just chef kiss, but, overall, Belly ain’t great. What it is, is a guilty pleasure of mine that absolutely had to make this list.

7. Do the Right Thing

This is, for my money, the best Spike Lee has ever been. Do the Right Thing was a whole ass vibe when it came out. You have to understand, at that time, race was a huge deal. To see a young, upstart, director basically confront that sh*t, the sh*t no one in the mainstream talked about, the sh*t we lived every day, and do it in a way that was accessible, digestible, and understandable to those without our melanin? It was a shot to the heart, to say the least. Do the Right Thing made waves like Get Out did, but damn near two decades before Peele even thought about Chris Washington. Do the Right Thing is a classic and I'd be hard-pressed not to include it on this list.

6. Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood

Much like that ridiculous title would lead you to believe, Menace is a straight up satire of all the hood flick dropped in the Nineties. And it’s a great f*cking send-up. Long before the Wayans found success with Scary Movie, Don’t Be a Menace was testament to their ability to spoof literally anything. Menace is legitimately hilarious and became just as influential as the content it was lampooning. I’ve always been a fan of whatever the Wayans clan drops but this flick definitely sits on top.

5. City of God

Yo, this film is no to be f*cked with. Seriously, poverty is a cruel mistress that breeds straight up monsters. My personal experiences when i was deep in that lifestyle were startling but they paled in comparison to the sh*t happened in other parts of the world. City of God takes a look at what ghettos looked like in Brazil during the Sixties and holy sh*t!  This film is visceral, aggressive, and unapologetic with it’s reality. I was shocked the first time i witnesses this straight of malice but, over time, i came to understand that this was the reality of Paulo Lins, the author of the book  from which this whole ass pain-train of a film was based.

4. Dope

Dope is a classic. It’s basically a spiritual successor to Friday and you better believe that sh*t is making an appearance on this list. I love how Dope took everything i knew about this genre, everything i grew up experiencing, and basically just brought it into modern times. Or, at least, modern for that time. Watching dope for the first time really gave me the same feeling i had when i first watched Friday and that, alone, secures it a spot on this list. It just so happens that Dope is a great film on it’s own. It also has the benefit of introducing me to Kiersey Clemons.

3. Juice

This was one of those flicks that everyone saw when i was a kid. It was one of three: Juice, New Jack City, and Boyz n the Hood. Now, for my money, Boyz is the better film and Juice has the iconic Nino Brown but i always had a soft spot for Juice. I don’t know what it is, but i just adore this movie. Maybe it was the young Omar Epps? Maybe it was  the delightfully deranged Tupac? I couldn’t say but, given a choice between those three films, I'd choose Juice every time. That’s why it’s on this list and the other two are only getting mentions. You should definitely watch them, though. They’re really good, too.

2. Training Day

I have mixed emotions about Training Day. I absolutely adore this film, strictly because Denzel Washington’s Alonzo Harris is one cold motherf*cker. That said, as dope as this portrayal was, it shouldn’t have won the Oscar. The Academy reward Washington for portraying the worst version of who we are as a culture and that sh*t sucks, no matter how f*cking captivating the performance was. Training day is a goddamn masterpiece, no argument there, but it’s a portrait of why people see black folks as cruel, ruthless, villains. In that respect, Washington killed it and this films deserves to be on this list but i f*cking hate that it is. Harris is absolutely irredeemable and that’s rare in a Washington film. Still, Eva Mendes is naked in this so, i mean, there’s that...

1. Friday

I adore Friday. This film captured exactly what it was like to grow up in the ghetto during the Nineties. I was only eleven when it came out but i recognized the absolute accuracy this film had to my reality. Crackheads, security doors, and drive-bys. All of that was very real but, at the same time, this film was able to capture the heart of the hood, that comradery you have with your neighbor. No one in the ghetto has much but we do have each other and that rang truer than anything with Friday. More than that, it’s chock full of great comedy, fantastic performances, and real, enduring, characters. Seriously, my nickname, Smokey, is literally derived from Chris Tucker’s character in this film.

Honorable Mentions: New Jack City, Boyz n the Hood, Fences, American Gangster, Colors, He Got Game, Fresh, 8 Mile, Hustle and Flow, Menace II Society, Hoodlum, The Wood, American Me, Set It Off, White Men Can’t Jump

[doodlesfromthebird]

Hi, Canary! It's really nice to see you back. You've been one of my favorite internet artists since I found your work a few years ago, and I really admire your sense of character and costume design! I found you through KH, but I've since fallen in love with your original characters and story ideas, which are lovely. I was wondering if you had any advice for someone hoping to develop their own original characters and worlds. I've been trying to for a few years, but it still feels pretty daunting.

Hello!! Oh my goodness, thank you so much. I'm so glad! ^u^ I absolutely can give some pointers!

Here's a little guide with a few methods I've used to creating characters and developing the world they live in. I'm by no means a writer of any kind (I rarely create stories, and struggle with plot) but I am passionate about developing funky little dudes who live in your brain.

Designing a Character - Make a list. I somewhat recently compiled a document full of design elements, tropes, personality types, aesthetics I generally really liked to help build a small cast of characters I knew I’d have fun designing for. Think about your favorite characters in media and what you like about them! It could be a great jumping point to creating an OC you’re passionate about. That goes for relationship dynamics, too! 

Grab a handful of things from that list, 5 or 6 maybe, and there ya go!

- Make a moodboard. I’ve used this method to create characters based on A VIBE and building off that.

I’ve even figured out personalities just based on the “aesthetic text” I found associated with a color. Part of Cherri’s backstory and personality came forth simply because I kept finding Marina lyrics in pink. - Try using online dress up games! I used to use Dolldivine all the time to get creative. -  In addition to mood boarding, pinterest can also be a good resource for design inspiration with official concept art for movies/games and assets of those sort of dress-up games readily available. CocoPPa is a good example! [Let’s please respect the wishes of individual artists and either give credit when posting for inspiration or respect their wishes if they state not to repost their work at all.]  - In depth character creators in video games! Or simple ones! I’ve built up such an affection for even a few of my stardew valley farmers with their own personal bits of lore, they could probably be stand alone characters separate from the game at this point. Sometimes developing a character from an established setting can be a good base. Dig some of your old fan characters out of the closet, even!

Get to know your character

Getting to know your OC is one of my favorite parts of the process, and is something I find really important if you want to get attached to them. And you should!! The more these guys are on your brain, the more you start asking questions about them, and the more bigger details start to fall into place. - Go broad. Say you have the base concept of a character with their situation, their goal in life, their goal in the present moment, and the past/future that will effect them. What lies do they believe as truth? How has their childhood effected their habits and views? What's one secret they keep to no one but themselves? Who are the most influential people in their past and in their day to day life? - Go detailed. They're practically a roommate living rent free in your mind, so think about what a day in their life is like. Observe how they do small things. What are they eating for breakfast? How do they carry themselves when they walk? Nervous habits? What are they wearing to go to get quinoa from trader joes??? Detail what a few hours of what it'd be like to observe them, doing what they do every day and how they'd do it. - Give them an interview. Here's a blank bio sheet with a detailed list of questions that could be fun to fill out at your leisure! A lot of good questions to chew on. - Or quite literally give them an interview. Pretend they're sat down to answer some questions and think about how multiple characters would answer the same question. Do they overshare? Are they curt and to the point? Do they frequently lie and contradict themselves? What questions take them off guard? - Write about your own experiences. Giving characters traits and experiences you can speak from in a detailed  can really flesh them out as people and gives them that relatability. Even if they’re decidedly different from you as a whole, there’s that point of connection that anchors them to you.

Worldbuilding...ish

Developing a world is a little less easy for me to give advice on, as I’m very character oriented, so my worldbuilding is more of starting with the bigger picture and then filling in details that would affect the character directly, while some other things aren’t as fleshed out and water tight. (I’m working on it!) Some universes have more to them than others simply due to how much time I’ve spent with them over the years. But it’s important, a lot of fun, and gives all the more weight to the universe you’re developing.

- Research. If you’re like me and either have no writing experience or have difficulty pulling key world-building aspects from imagination, there’s a PLETHORA of resources to learn from, a lot of it free and on youtube, even. Make yourself a playlist, grab a notepad and sit yourself down to gather info, and map things out. If you’re, say, creating a country from scratch, look into places with a similar climate and how it affects what species live there. I’ve been researching dining etiquette and shipbuilding lately! It would be of great help to learn from writers as well, if you aren’t one yourself. There's A Lot of advice out there. - Ask cause and effect questions. I create a lot for the fantasy genre, so I get to ask questions like...”What does a world being shaped by the gods/guardians look like? How has their presence influenced the mortals they look after? Their culture, their customs, the way they communicate?  What’s the actual truth of ancient happenings and what has been passed down through a long, long game of telephone? What is the truth current day people believe about magic, technology and historical events? What kind of questions could you ask from the world you’re creating? -Appease your inner child. Think back on what captured your attention as a kid and how you experienced them through your eyes at the time. What sort of things did you feel experiencing your favorite games, movies or books that you can still tap into through a nostalgic lens? I feel incredibly attached to my The Spiral OC universe when I’m playing Legend of Zelda games, especially Wind Waker. The mood, the sense of adventure. The feeling of sailing the seas, the quietness of Windfall at night, the reverent silence when arriving at Hyrule frozen in time.  Those feelings have lent an atmosphere to the world I’d go on to create for myself, and still illicit a strong emotional response when I visualize aspects of it. the adventure, the monsters, the sweet and emotional tone, and the heaviness of ancient legend lost to time. - Immerse yourself in other people’s worlds. Get into a tabletop game podcast of your preferred genre! You’ve got high fantasy dnd, but there’s also plenty of sci-fi, modern fantasy, post-apocalyptic, and more. Listening to multiple people work together to build their world (sometimes as they go a long!) can really get that creative juice a-flowing.  Critical Role and The Adventure Zone are big ones, but I also recommend SkyJacks, Friends at the Table, Dimension 20, Dungeons and Daddies and JemJammer! Worldbuilding prompts/generators!  X X X I hope ANY of this was helpful, I’m happy to answer specific questions as well. 

[vinnieswife]

Hey could you please do a Vinnie imagine where y/n is was in a toxic relationships before vinnie so she has trust issues. They get into a fight and she ends up crying and vinnie reassures her that he would never do anything to hurt her.

Trust issues

Vinnie Hacker x reader

Angst, fluff at the end Vinnie being a cute baby

Words:

Warnings: mentions of toxic relationships

Your past relationships had gone well, everything was happy, healthy relationships as everyone would see, but, in your last relationship, everything was different, when you saw it you thought it was a somewhat strange but normal behavior, but from the outside everything looked Extreme and disconcerting, when both of you went out you had to always be by his side, you had to give him the passwords of all your social networks and you could not publish things without his permission, he reviewed all your conversations with any man, whether friend or family member.

Every time you were going out, you had to send your location in real time and send photos of you and your friends, you thought that he only cared about you, until one day he cheated on you, and how he had led you to believe that without him you were not nothing you fell into his horrible arms again.

So you kept forgiving him over and over and over again until you got tired and finished with him, based on screams, tears and a thousand notices from your friends, you got it, you managed to end the relationship.

After all this you took a break from relationships and men in general, until Kouvr introduced you to Vinnie, you both met at one of the parties at the Hype House, you started talking realizing the amount of things that you had in common, you both exchanged numbers and started talking day and night, making long video calls whenever there was time, meeting at the skate park or just watching movies in his room, when suddenly Vinnie confessed his feelings for you, which you corresponded (who didn't? really)

You both started dating 3/4 months ago, with which you made it public, to your surprise people were already shipping you and they accepted you quickly.

Vinnie had taught you everything that a healthy relationship entailed, and he was surprised when you wanted to give him the passwords of your social networks, refusing to accept them assuring you that it was completely fine since you should have privacy

I also taught you that you shouldn't tell him where you were all the time, or ask if you could post x random photos or videos. "Sweetheart you don't need to ask me that things, you control that, it's your decision not mine"

I assure you a thousand and one times that any item of clothing would fit you perfectly, and that you should not ask her permission to go out with your friends, “why do you ask me that? Im not your father, you can hang out with your friends everytime you want love ”or to meet friends since he had full confidence in you. Everything was fine, and it made you feel safe with yourself, reminding you every day how Precious you were, how much he loves you, leaving soft kisses anywhere on your body whenever he has the opportunity, taking an interest in your tastes, hugging you when you are afraid , teaching you everything your ex deprived you of, making it an everyday act.

One afternoon Vinnie went to a party at his old house, the Sway gaming, everything was fine with that, you decided to stay home since you didn't feel like going to a party surrounded by people you don't know or just don't You wanted to get out of the comfort of your bed.

"See you later, I'll text you as soon as I get there, okay?" "Mhm" Vinnie placed a kiss on your forehead stroking your cheek in the process. "I love you" "I love you more" he replied making your heart jump with joy, finally being able to feel that happiness in you.

15 minutes later your phone buzz, you caught it by flipping it over, seeing Vinnie's message on the wallpaper.

"I'm here, I'll see you in 2 hours, I love you <3"

To which you replied with a "okay, see you later, I love you <3"

You lay back on the bed, refocusing your attention on the series you were watching, some time later you fell asleep for the tranquility and comfort, you woke up with a call from Maddy, you and she had become very good friends since Jordan and Vinnie were like brothers.

~ on the call ~

"Hey Y/n"

"Hey Maddy! Is everything okay?" You Asked

"Have you not seen it yet?" She asked

"What? See what Maddy? "

"Just enter the TikTok room"

"Give me a minute"

~ End of call ~

You quickly opened your Instagram, typing the TikTok room user in the search engine, in which you saw a photo of Faith (no hate on her, just her name) being so-so close to Vinnie, too close, he was talking to Jordan while that Faith was clinging to his arm, you trusted Vinnie, of course, why wouldn't he do something like that to you, right? All your insecurities began to surface, and if just going to the party was an excuse? just to fool you? No, impossible, Vinnie wouldn't do that.

You waited for two more hours, eating your head, turning it over and over to try to make sense of it, you started to pen- Knock knock on the door.

You went down quickly and opened the door to find a smiling Vinnie.

"Hello beautiful" he leaned down to kiss you, but you moved away causing him to kiss your cheek.

"Y/n, is everything okay?"

"I don't know, ask Faith"

"What are you talking about?" He asked in clear confusion and with a frown.

You took your mobile from your pocket showing him the TikTok room publication with a description of:

#Vinniehacker with his new girlfriend? What happened to Y/n, have they broken up? Or maybe Vinnie is cheating on her?

He looked at the photo in amazement.

"Y/n is not what it seems, I promise you, it is not so bad"

"As it is not so much apart, Vinnie I am your girlfriend and I would never think of approaching one of your friends like that, besides Faith? Seriously? Of all the girls at the party, did you have to get close to Faith? The girl who hates me and who humiliates me every time she can or comments horrible things in my videos? That Faith? "

"Y/n, she is just a friend, nothing will ever happen between her and me, why you don't understand it?”

“Be-because I am afraid that you will do the same as him" you said with a shaking voice, tears running down your cheeks, and little sobs escaping from your mouth "I am afraid that you will use me, that you make me believe that you love me and then make me damage, that's what scares me "

Vinnie quickly hugged you, pressing you against his chest, one of his hands traveled down to your lower back, pressing you,even more, if it’s possible, while the other hand went up to the back of your head stroking your hair, giving you gentle caresses.

"Hey, hey look at me." He took her chin in one hand, forcing you to look at him.

“Y/n, I want you to know that never. Can you hear me? I would never do something like that to you, you are literally the best thing that has ever happened to me,being with you is like living a little adventure every day, because you are the first person I want to see when I wake up and the last person I will see when I go to sleep, Y/n you make me feel like no one has ever done before, you make me feel good, and I want to do the same for you, yes, that guy filled you with insecurities and you know what? That I will not stop until I eliminate each and every one of them, because I love you Y/n, I love you with everything I have” With each new phrase that came out of his mouth, more tears fell down your cheeks, but these were of happiness and not of sadness and fear. You had finally found someone who loved you in the same way that you loved him and that is happiness.

Then he leaned down and kiss you properly, his tongue dancing with yours in a passionate lovely kiss,one of his hands cupping your cheek and the other one on your waist,your hands traveled to the back of his neck,pulling him closer to you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AAAAHHHH I hope you like it like that 🥰

I also want to notify that my orders are open, in case someone wants any special one💕

[writingwithcolor]

Arab Character Joining Corrupt Superheroes, Police Parallels

Anonymous asked:

I’m writing a story with a Arabian diaspora main character. The story is about corrupt superheroes, and how they affect an oppressed superpowered minority. The main character is one of these superheroes, naively joining them in his teens believing he’s going to help people. Doesn’t help that his parents are having money trouble. Eventually he ends up fighting a superpowered crook, and gets a bystander killed.

1)I know portraying an Arabian character committing violence is a pretty touchy subject, even if accidental. Is there any way I can write this that makes it clear to the reader that the action itself is messed up without the unfortunate implication that Arabs are violent? 

2)A large part of the story is the MC’s parents reaction. They are loving parents, however after this incident happens, they are confused and ashamed. While they still love him, they temporarily cut ties with him. Eventually they reconcile and start to be a family again. In my research (they are diaspora Saudi Arabians), Family is very important and tight-nit. Shame towards the family is to be avoided at all costs. However I’ve also read that disowning a family member rarely ever happens. Is there a way to write this kind of narrative with respect to this aspect of Arabian culture?

Let us begin with some terminology.

- If a person is from Saudi Arabia, they are Saudi Arabian, or more commonly, Saudi. This is their nationality.

- They may or may not be Arab. Arab is an ethnicity. Not all Saudis are Arab. Not all Arabs are Saudi.

- Arabic is a language. Lots of people across the world who are neither Saudi nor Arab speak Arabic.

- Arabian on its own is a word used to refer to a specific breed of horses.

If you are referring to humans, you want to either say "Saudi Arabian" (both words) or “Saudi” to indicate nationality, or "Arab" to indicate ethnicity. If you’re looking to describe your character’s culture, you probably want to call it Saudi culture. (While grammatically correct, talking about “Arab culture” doesn’t make much sense because Arabs are an incredibly diverse ethnic group and there is no such thing as a single monolithic Arab culture).

Now for the first question. In my mind, the issue is less about the character committing violence, and more about the premise of the story and how it mirrors real-life oppressive structures. You have an organized group of superheroes who think they are doing good by fighting “crooks” but in reality are enacting systemic oppression upon a marginalized group. This immediately brings to mind police violence, racial profiling, and the way that policing in North America is used as a tool of white supremacy while glorified in propaganda as a force for good. Essentially, you are telling a story about a character who joins an oppressive policing force, enacts violence upon a marginalized group as a result, and (I’m assuming) eventually realizes that they are not, in fact, the good guys. This is very close to being a “bigoted character learns not to be bigoted” story. I recommend re-examining your premise in light of the real-life parallels and asking yourself whether this is the story you want to tell. 

The issue is compounded by the fact that your character is an Arab teen, who in real life is more likely to be the one facing racial profiling from the police. Taking this character and making him the oppressor in your story makes the already flawed premise even more problematic, especially if the characters in the oppressed group are white.

As for your second question, it seems believable to me that a teen’s parents might reject him if they learned that he committed a crime. However, when the family in question is Arab, you are suddenly feeding into harmful tropes about oppressive and violent Arab parents. You are asking if there is a way to write this respectfully. I believe that there is, but it requires a great deal of care, nuance, and cultural awareness. While it is possible to write a Saudi Arab character grappling with the consequences of violence and familial estrangement in a compelling way, the way your ask is phrased leads me to believe you are not equipped to do it justice. 

- Mod Niki

Think about why Arab people committing violence is a touchy subject, and then think about the general propaganda narrative that came about from the act that made things so touchy. 

It’s going to sound one hell of a lot like what you have here.

Military and police use buckets and buckets of propaganda to continue hooking in young, impressionable teens to commit state-sanctioned colonialism and oppression. That propaganda looks suspiciously like “we have health insurance, we will pay for your education, you just have to do what we tell you even if that means hurting or killing others, but it’s okay because you get to be the hero in the situation.”

Now, propaganda is a very powerful tool. I was taught, in my media classes, that controlling the message means shaping reality. The media is built as a propaganda machine, and when you start to see who owns what media properties you start to see some really disturbing patterns (Rubert Murdoch owns a lot of right-wing sources across America, the UK, and Australia, and he’s too rich to investigate his culpability in spinning terrible narratives found in right-wing publications. He owns the big names).

As Niki said, this situation mirrors police violence and police-sanctioned terrorism. And the very, very unfortunate implications of making the target of police violence be in that wheel. But I want you to look at the media situation that has made the plot happen.

Because even if you swapped out ethnicities, you’d still have a reckoning to do with the American culture that their primary social safety nets involve killing people.

I am not kidding.

Some of the most well-funded unions in the country are police unions. These people have pensions. They have health insurance. It’s damn near impossible to fire them. They get overtime very well mandated, and it’s a known thing among defence lawyers that arrests happen right before a cop’s shift will end so they get the overtime of filing the paperwork. They absolutely go into poor neighbourhoods and recruit based off people needing an escape, and them having the money to provide it.

A similar sentiment is true for the military, except they push for college education a bit more and don’t really have overtime, but they do have deployment bonuses. So the way to get extra pay for yourself is to go out and do colonialism outside the borders. The military doesn’t necessarily like it when the economy is doing well, and don’t like the idea of college being affordable, because they rely so heavily on poverty and fear of college debt to recruit. 

The story you’re telling here goes so far beyond an individual’s actions and instead taps into America’s single biggest cultural investment: that oppressing others makes you a hero. 

The Pentagon funds most military media out there as a propaganda tool, including most superhero movies and a large number of video games. This is in their budget. They will also go so far as to literally commission the games to exist. Part of getting that funding is you cannot critique America’s military, basically at all (the only exception I’ve seen is Ms Marvel, but that’s set in the 90s). This turns any sort of military-using media into a potential propaganda tool.

And the thing is? Even if you fall for that propaganda and were part of the military or the police, you still have to reckon with the fact you put whatever your own desires were above a huge track record of those groups being terrible. You still have to reckon with the fact you didn’t realize they were wrong, and were complicit in a lot of crimes.

This goes very far beyond “the action is terrible” and goes into “the system is rotten to its core, and you chose not to believe it, or to believe you could change what was built with blood.”

“Good” police officers get fired. If you try to question anything, if you try to say this action is wrong, you will absolutely get destroyed. Military’s much the same. You need some degree of buy-in to the concept of white supremacy to sign up for the military or the police, because you need to see their actions as not deal breakers instead of actions that violate multiple international laws. 

In short: you need to see the people being oppressed as deserving of being oppressed to some degree in order to participate with police and the military.

Marginalized people can hold this belief, it happens. But that is a very sticky situation that outsiders shouldn’t touch. 

It’s possible but difficult for you to write a white person having this sort of arc, but it would be extremely challenging to have it not come across as a white guilt story. To not have a socially aware audience roll their eyes at how long it took. You’d definitely not be writing a story with a diverse audience in mind, because you’d mostly appeal to those who saw the propaganda as just fine and not that bad.

This isn’t even getting into the oft-cited adage that boys who bully others become cops, while girls who bully become nurses. And the more police atrocities become mainstream news, the less and less people can convince themselves that becoming a police officer is a good thing.

Which brings me to the point of: how well-documented is this oppression? Is this character walking around in an oppressive situation like, say, pre-social-media where there was no direct access to the oppressed groups and you could close your eyes and look away even if it made national news? Or is this in a media connected world where these oppressed populations have a voice in the narrative?

The former has an angle of the character slowly realizing the horror and it’s slightly more forgivable for their early ignorance. But in any sort of world where there’s access to the people getting hurt? Things get more and more “ignorance is indistinguishable from maliciousness.” And keep in mind, these stories are read in the real world, where police brutality and war crimes go viral, and a lack of knowledge is getting harder and harder to defend as a position.

Media plays a huge role in shaping our perception of what’s happening. Cameras on a situation makes different activism tactics work, as we can see with how activism changed in the 60s and 70s as tv reached the masses. Social media has made it possible for you to look up firsthand accounts of discrimination within seconds. 

This is a factor you are absolutely going to have to consider, when you want to look at how nice your hero is seen by marginalized or otherwise socially-aware people. If there is a way to find out how bad this superhero organization is before you sign a contract with them? Then that doesn’t look particularly good on the “hero”. You’d really have to establish them as super idealistic, super sheltered, super desperate, and/or just swallow the knowledge that they really don’t see anything that happens “over there to those people” as that bad. 

All of the above is more than possible. And they’d still be seen as complicit no matter what justification you gave, because they are.

Does this mean all corrupt organization stories are off limits? No. The reason these stories have such deep cultural resonance right now is because of the propaganda I outlined above. 

But you as the author are going to have to examine your own engagement with the propaganda narrative and do your own private reckoning so your own sense of guilt and compliance doesn’t bleed through the narrative too strongly, so you can tell a good story instead of an overt message story that’s you working out your own feelings.

By all means, write a story where police and the military are taken down, where propaganda is weaponized and the media is controlled (because that’s sure as hell the modern world). 

But know that stories where the hero discovers the corruption already have a ticking clock because we, in the real world, are slowly being faced with a mountain of apathy instead of ignorance. The knowledge of oppression is out there so much that marginalized people are tired of the ignorance defence. 

As the saying goes, “privilege is the ability to ignore the oppression of others.” 

Propaganda, centralized media, and strategic cultural investment made it possible for police and the military to have a chokehold on their public perception. But that’s changing. The chokehold is starting to fade, people are starting to question their beliefs. 

The past year has shown that knowledge isn’t the issue; it’s white supremacy. People don’t want to believe that any of this is that bad. People want to believe that oppression is justified, that if people just followed the law they’d be fine. They don’t want to question themselves. And marginalized people are tired of these narratives where, suddenly, people snap out of it. Because there was so much evidence to show it was bad, but it was only when you do one of the worst crimes imaginable that you realize this is bad? It’s only when it becomes personal that things are worth looking at critically?

No. And you need to examine where you are in processing your own complicity before writing a story where you’ve swapped around the ethnicities to try and distance yourself from the problem, where in the end you made the target the oppressor.

~Mod Lesya

[lofitojii]

REACTION: I Think I Love You

Summary: You just told him how you felt after holding back feelings for what seemed like an eternity. This is how it went.

ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ.:♡ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ.:｡♡ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ.:｡♡ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ. 

A/N: Soooo I have these feelings for a friend that I didn’t think were real and after I finally sat down and thought about it, turns out this shit real. Here’s another imagine for ya based on the things i’m feeling lol. enjoy xx

ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ.:♡ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ.:｡♡ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ.:｡♡ﾟ.:｡+ﾟ.

Hawks:

You had been friends since your training days, he was quite literally your number one everything; friend, support, hero. You went to him for everything, anywhere between personal issues, relationship problems, all the way to the little things like what sweater to order from your favorite artist. The time came where you could no longer hold back your feelings, you had to tell him. The night you decided to express yourself was a night that you had already made plans to watch movies and play video games at your house. It was normal, so you knew you would feel comfortable finally telling him how you felt, knowing that if he rejected you, you’d still be okay. You knew he loved you for who you were, and if he doesn’t feel the same, you could at least thank the universe for bringing you two together. 

“Keigo,��� you started, fiddling with the controller in your hands. Your palms were sweaty, mainly from gaming for so long but also from how nervous you were. “I gotta tell you something.” 

“What’s up?” He asked, giving you his full attention. You had fallen in love with those eyes, the way they were so soft and gentle when he interacted with you. His expression was innocent, completely ready for whatever it was you had to tell him.  

“Fuck…” you cursed, trying to spit it all out. It felt as if you were visibly choking on your own words. 

“Well come one now, spit it out! The anticipation is killing me!”

“I don’t want this to ruin anything…” You started, hoping he would catch the hint at where this conversation was going. 

“Nothing can ruin anything if you really think about it.” 

“What?” That was actually the most confusing statement that could be made right now. 

“I mean, like nothing can be ruined if I don’t let it be ruined, ya know? To be honest, you can’t ruin anything for me. Unless you’re about to tell me what happened in the new Attack on Titan chapter, then I might actually have to commit a crime.” You rolled your eyes at his statement, taking the opportunity to just kiss him instead of telling him how you felt. This way you were able to get your point across without actually having to tell him. 

You pulled away, your cheeks hot to the touch, Keigo’s mirroring your own actions. “Wow,” he breathed, placing his fingers to his lips. You pulled your own bottom lip in between your teeth, biting down so you could numb your nervous feelings. 

Keigo reacted before speaking, pulling your head again, his lips caressing yours. When he pulled away, he placed small kisses on your cheeks, noise, lips again. “I’ve felt this way for a very long time so thank god you kissed me first.” 

Dabi:

He was unreadable most of the time, and honestly it’s been quite the mission to get him to open up to you. It’s been years since you first met him and within those years, you had slowly broken down the walls he had built so high around his heart. You felt like you were closer to him than any other friend he had, which in itself was a personal accomplishment. The only trial left was to express to him how you’ve felt all these years. You saw a side of Dabi that he refused to share with others, a side you found beautiful. The night you told him, you hadn’t really planned on it panning out the way it did. It was just you two, walking home from a bar together, drunk, clumsy, emotional. 

“Dabi,” you slurred, resting a hand on his shoulder. “You’re amazing, you know that?” 

“Shut up,” he laughed, wrapping his arm around your waist. “No other person in the world will compare to you when it comes to being drinking buddies. You’re amazing!” 

“I think I love you,” you blurted out, only after realizing what you had said. “Emphasis on think,” you tried to save yourself, but you knew you were already too far deep, there was no going back. 

“Well I know I love you,” he responded, stopping in his tracks. You looked up to see he was already looking down at you, his smile visible due to the illuminating street lamps. “I literally hate everyone. You’re the only person I’ve ever felt comfortable opening up to. I’m surprised you were the person to admit it though. You hate confronting your feelings.” 

“So do you! If I didn’t do it, who knows how long we would’ve held back.” 

“Probably forever.” He leaned down, pressing his lips to yours. You could feel his chapped lips intertwine with yours, the kiss feeling like everything you had imagined it to be; warm, comforting, exciting. “I’ve been loving you.” 

Bakugou:

You would say you and Bakugou are friends, despite the fact he refuses to admit he’s friends with anyone. You were the one person he honestly enjoyed hanging out with, even though he would never tell you that to your face. You were always the first person he would call when he wanted to do something or to just talk. He also would yell about how stupid everything was in front of you, immidatly shutting down if someone else were to walk in. No one understood that about him, they all thought he was just angry and yelling for no reason. But there was a reason and you were the person Bakugou had chosen to express himself to, even if it didn’t make sense. When you had decided to tell him how you felt, it was something that you had to force out of yourself due to the fact you had grown distant, trying to avoid your feelings. 

“You owe me an explanation. You’ve been quiet and distant and you have me fucking worried. What the fuck is wrong?” He bursted out, confronting the uneasy feelings in front of you. 

“I can’t.” 

“Like hell you can’t! Why is it that when I’m having trouble, you force me to tell you but the minute you have something to say, you shut the hell up! It’s not fair Y/N!” 

“Want to know what’s not fair?” You finally spat, choking on threatening tears. “The fact that every day, I watch from afar and see that the man I’m in love with completely ignores the feelings I have for him! I know you know and you haven’t done shit about it! That’s why I decided to stay quiet! I can’t take rejection from you because I know it’s going to fucking hurt!” Your breathing became uneven, the tears you had so desperately wanted to hold back finally exposing themselves. “You’re a piece of work Bakugou. I can’t fucking stand you sometimes.” 

“Then come here.” He yanked at your arm, embarrassing you into his chest. He rested his head on top of yours, letting out a deep exhale before pulling away to look at you. “I know you feel this way because I feel this way too. I don’t know how to express feelings like that so I just waited until you did. When you shut down and stopped coming around, I knew something was up.”

You pressed your head against his chest, hiding your tears from the man standing in front of you. “Why do we have to be so difficult?” He placed his hand under your chin, lifting your head so you were looking into his eyes. He swiped his thumb across your cheek, catching a tear before it had a chance to fall. 

“You’re difficult as hell. Super moody, bossy, sometimes bitchy. But I love those things about you.” He pressed his lips to yours, the taste of salt lingering from your tears. “You taste like salt.” 

“Shut the hell up.”

[zero00kiryu00]

MHA Unhealthy Habits Headcanon Pt. 1

▵ This headcanon dawned on me while I was thinking about my own unhealthy habits.

▵ You don't have to agree with what I'm about to say here, but please be respectful.

▵ TW for topics relating to mental health and dysphoria. ▵

▵ Deku never allows himself to be a priority. Why would he? As the successor of the former number one hero, Deku has an immense amount of pressure and expectation resting on his shoulders.

▵ Everyone else is more important than him — everyone else’s needs go above his own.

▵ For Deku, coping with stress and anxiety is practically a non-existent concept. The boy doesn’t know when he needs to take a break and refuses to do so when other people suggest that he should relax for a while.

▵ Everything, including himself, is a project for the benefit of others based on external expectations.

▵ Bakugou needs to hydrate, and he knows he does — his quirk is reliant on his body’s sweat, which of course is produced by the water in his system — but he rarely drinks water at all.

▵ He will drink literally anything else before he drinks water, making him the most dehydrated out of any of the other 1-A students.

▵ He won’t get angry when someone reminds him to drink it, but he will absolutely do so begrudgingly and glare at whoever it was the entire time he’s swallowing down the glass of water like a kid after playing outside on a hot summer day, gulping and gasping when the glass is empty.

▵ He won’t drink a second glass of it afterwards for at least a while.

▵ Uraraka likes to give herself small rewards when working on tasks. One of these is food.

▵ She uses it as motivation to complete a task, but because of the nature of things, her so-called motivation is more punishment than anything.

▵ “I’ll eat as soon as I finish this assignment!” She’ll say, working on an essay for class that takes twice the usual amount of time because she can’t stop thinking about Mochi and grilled eggplant, listening to her stomach growling as her focus disappears.

▵ She eventually finishes the essay and goes to eat, but it took way longer than it should have.

▵ Denki’s internal body clock is practically non-existent.

▵ His sleep schedule is so horribly messed up that he can nap anywhere at any given time because of how exhausted he is.

▵ He finds himself staying up late, initially to work on schoolwork to help his grades or to keep socializing with friends.

▵ He doesn’t realize that what he’s experiencing is revenge bedtime procrastination — he just thinks that the nighttime is the only time he can do whatever he wants.

▵ He stays up playing video games, reading comics, or just about anything else to delay his sleep to avoid acknowledging the reality of needing to go to hero training in the morning.

▵ Kirishima’s experience at Fat Gum’s agency was definitely one that helped advance his career as a hero, and he was very thankful for the opportunity.

▵ But with that advancement into his career came a change in his body type — to the point where it was noticeable to other students at UA who commented that “Fat Gum must’ve taught you to eat well!”

▵ Kirishima hates when people point out that he had gained some weight. He knows that it was actually beneficial for his quirk not to be pure muscle, but he can’t help but feel less manly with the bit of pudge on his stomach now.

▵ So he resorts to yo-yo dieting — off and on restricting certain foods in order to keep his muscle mass up and his body fat down, switching to “healthier” alternatives that really just disregard the necessary amount of nutrients he needs.

▵ Iida has an immense amount of respect for himself and the people around him. He admires his fellow classmates, other heroes and mentors in his life, consistently striving to be a better version of himself and a better hero.

▵ On top of that, Iida holds a lot of responsibility, both to himself and to his classmates as class president, which makes it difficult for him to decline something when his plate is already overflowing.

▵ Setting boundaries for himself, letting both others and himself know that he has too much going on, is one of the most difficult tasks.

▵ He'll miss out on social interactions with his classmates to get through whatever extra chore he agreed to do, putting himself at the top of the pedestal for reliability and responsibility, but well below the lowest rung for social growth.

▵ It started out as a joke. A petty way to get back at his dad for being a generic douchebag with lots of cash sitting away in a bank account. Taking Endeavour's platinum credit card didn't seem like that big of a deal.

▵ Todoroki would treat his friends to lunch one day, flashing the bright silver coating on the credit card as he handed it to their server that day.

▵ From there, it became treating his friends to lunch more often, buying things for them that they would complain about needing no matter the cost (especially for Uraraka, who had only basics due to her home life), which then spiralled into buying things for himself that he liked purely on impulse and without thinking it through.

▵ Todoroki's impulse spending became an even bigger problem when he graduated UA and became a pro-hero, spending every last cent of his paycheque on mundane items after paying for his basic necessities.

▵ After all, he has an issue with impulse, not responsibility.

▵ Mina does very well to keep herself presentable and stylish when spending time around people. Her bubbly and flashy outfits are proof enough of that.

▵ But what Mina projects -- a bubbly outgoing personality and a clean appearance -- is not necessarily what takes place behind her bedroom door.

▵ While she keeps herself clean, her space is always a mess, to the point where walking through her bedroom is impossible, unless she's the one navigating through it. There is just enough space for her to walk through an endless sea of school books, costumes, outfits, accessories, and takeout food packets strewn all across the floor.

▵ Since Mina enjoys spending time with friends in their rooms or homes, or at the mall or movie theatre -- literally anywhere aside from her bedroom -- she never cleans her space.

▵ Her school desk, locker, and even her purse are an absolute disaster zone. Denki swore he found a two-week-old sandwich in the back of Mina's locker once.

▵ Part 2 can be found here. ▵