#as if i had the skills to program an entire game lol
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ghost-bxrd · 6 months ago
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I did not expect this to get so many notes 🤣
Obviously, there would also have to be a storyline you can unlock where you can become a member of the Court of Owls. Or even another vigilante, working with Batman or Red Hood 👁️
Ooooo, how about during the time that Red Hood first debuts… possible Titans Tower storyline depending on which path you go down!
Imagining a point and click game focused on Gotham ambience and atmospheric music, having you navigate life as either a Gothamite or someone who recently moved there, with the option to get in contact with the bats, become one of the rogue’s goons, or even join Red Hood’s gang and work your way to the top 👁️
Each choice you make influences the story, and by then end of it you could be a rogue worse than the Joker, or the catalyst that brought the batfam back together 👀
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b0tster · 1 year ago
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What’s your short auto bio?
How did you learn the game making stuff? How do you have time/money? How did you find your style?
oh yeag sure i can give u a lil summary
i wanted to be a game developer my entire life after getting an n64 with zelda and mario when i was like 7 years old
that lead to me taking an experimental 3d course in high school that used blender cuz they had no budget and just used a free program (lucky me that blender eventually turned into the juggernaut that it is now). They didn't have any game design classes but i sated my curiosity by playing games with heavy customization like halo forge and little big planet
in college i took a game design class that introduced me to the Unreal Development Kit (what came before Unreal 4) and, while the classes didn't really teach me much just having access to the engine is what really sparked my drive to start a career in the games industry
few years later I got into the industry during the 'vr is the future lets open up 104599034 game dev studios this bubble totally wont burst' craze of the early - mid 2010's and quickly climbed the ladder due to my skills. on my free time i finished my first self-published game Arcus and released it.
but of course the bubble burst and i got laid off (this coincidentally(?) happened at the same time i came out as trans. lol.) After that I stuck to working indie as, surprise surprise, crunch was a thing at my big industry job. I worked at a few studios for a couple of years, during which bloodborne psx (my second self published indie game) was developed and released on my free time.
all my indie jobs ended with being let go due to the reality of indie development having worse job security. i decided to stop doing "professional" work altogether and became the self publishing indie solo dev that you see today 💙
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jemjams02 · 3 months ago
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One of the funniest things to me about Baldur's Gate 3 is that I barely hear a word from The Straights about it, until I looked up mods to see if there was a website besides Nexus that has a bg3 mods library, only to find a forum post called "Anti-Woke Baldur's Gate 3 Mods". When I tell you I was pissing myself because why are you so offended that 2 undatable characters are lesbians that you had to turn one into a man? Why are you so far, so deep in the closet, that you spend hours of your time editing out Astarion's bulge and butt-crack so he's less alluring to you? Literally hilarious that you ruin an entire game just so you can say "haha LIBERAL CUCKS my genius is so LARGE and AWESOME that your ALPHABET no longer has a hold on this fantasy game. NO LONGER is Baldur's Gate for the QUEERS! Now it's heteronormative and extremely boring in character creation, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER GAME EVER!!!!!! ALSO NO MORE PINK HAIRED ORCS!!!" Like the amount of people that get outright angry that a character from a fantasy game programmed to react to the love meter asks them to dance, even though they can say no. They're so deep in the closet that the mere thought of another man even TALKING to them romantically, even if it's a FAKE MAN, sets them off so deeply that they had to put skills that could be used to make the greatest mods ever to use in order to ultimately create the world most boring-est heteronormative romance system.
P.S: you can find this forum post by simply googling "anti-woke bg3 mods", genuinely gave me a good laugh lol
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review-anon · 1 month ago
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Here is a question. What is your favorite relationship (platonic or romantic, does not matter) from every DR game you’ve seen?—Timeline Anon
A wholesome question I can do, I like it!
Trigger Happy Havoc: Aoi and Sakura. These two are so sweet together as yes they are the athletic duo, and it’s not as in your face as some of the others but I just like they are vibing with each other in the background, wish we saw more of it. This friendship of course drove most of the drama in Chapter 4, but I think it’s because of said friendship the drama was so raw.
Goodbye Despair: Sonia and Gundham. It’s obvious why these two are often shipped together as on surface level they get on because Gundham likes to pretend he is a supervillain and Sonia loves the occult, but then dig deeper and you see it’s because both are often treated by people due to their status, whenever it be Sonia as a princess or Gundham because he was born out of wedlock, and wanting to be seen for who they are. This is why I cringe at people who think Kazuichi has a chance with Sonia, because he never respected Sonia for who she is, whereas Gundham does.
Killing Harmony: Kaede and Shuichi. It’s short and it doesn’t last long, but I wish it did as while Chapter 1 was brilliant as well as heartbreaking, it really shows the characters of these two. Shuichi is a very nervous and unsure person due to past experiences and Kaede wants him to be more confident in himself and his skills. Probably because I had a feeling Kaede had to endure some abuse from her skills when she was younger so she sees a bit of her old self in Shuichi. Of course this ends tragically since it’s Danganronpa, but it’s very telling in a franchise where most character deaths are forgotten by the middle of the next chapter, Kaede’s legacy lingers over the entire game.
Danganronpa Another: The Rainbow Trio, this being Teruya, Haruhiko and Satsuki. This chaotic group forms quite early on and they are a source of much light hearted relief and wholesomeness. I like how this contrasts Tsurugi’s rapidly deteriorating authority over the group as the others wake up to the fact he is not a good person. While sometimes their antics can be tone deaf, it helps to keep the game from being too depressing, and though the group falls apart in Chapter 4 because trios never last, their legacy lives on in Teruya as his SDRA2 outfit incorporates clothing from his fallen friends, and I feel his attitude is him trying to honour their memory which is the best way to go about it. Especially as I think he feels responsible for their deaths if he didn’t act so selfishly.
Super Danganronpa Another 2: Sora and Yoruko. It’s low hanging fruit but these two are soooo good with each other. Due to Sora’s programming it’s hard to tell if she actually likes Yuki or if it’s Mikado telling her to, but since Yoruko always seemed to be someone he shoved in last minute, her relationship with Sora is genuine. Yoruko shows she might be a hostess, but she has depth and layers to her, and seeing how Sora was learning throughout the game, you could say Yoruko was a major influence on her future behaviour. Yes they have a falling out in Chapter 5, but this is resolved once Yoruko realises how immature she was acting and Sora was undergoing serious identity crisis at the time. And the fact that though Sora sacrifices herself at the end, Rei promises Yoruko she will bring her back, is some actual Hope that these two could be reunited together in the future. Maybe they will have a happy ending.
Despair Time: Charles and Whit. Didn’t think these two would get on, but lol and behold they do. Whit is an amazing character all around and the fact he stood up for Charles in Chapter 1’s Class Trial, helped to dethrone him from Asshole Quadrant and make him a compelling character. They are like a comedy duo where Whit is the funny man and Charles is the straight man. It’s also very clear these two might have feelings for each other as while we know Whit is canonically bi while I don’t know where Charles swings, the amount of blushing sprites he has is sus. I sadly don’t think these two would stay together forever and if Whit is the mastermind then this is gonna be a Akane situation all over again, but let me enjoy these two for now.
Tetro Pink: Mai and Yanagi. It might shock you for me to say this since I’m not the biggest Yanagi fan, but I cannot deny these two are great together as Mai realises that Yanagi isn’t a bad person, he’s just very naive and needs guidance to stop being taken advantage of, both in the past and in the present. There’s also the fact that since Mai is the one girl who doesn’t tolerate the Prince act Yanagi puts on, it means interactions between the two are more genuine, plus the fact Yanagi blushes a lot when Mai puts on a suit? Damn I dig. Seeing as it seems Yanagi is getting better now, I hope Chapter 3 continues this.
Some titles were skipped either because there isn’t many relationships or there weren’t any I liked all that much. Either way hope you enjoy
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nukenai · 4 months ago
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So I never beat Fallout 4 and I never will, and it's entirely for weenie reasons where I want to be friendly with everyone. The Institute is objectively the worst out of all factions, and any other opinion I consider insane, but also... it is full of like, just, people. People who were born down there and don't know anything. And tons of innocent, enslaved synths. And like what are you expecting of people who are born in that isolated environment who grow up being told Synths are just machines? No shit they don't know better. I think just completely exploding the Institute is a little fucked. Even the Brotherhood, fuck them, is full of decent, sometimes very hot people. And I guess there's kids on the Prydwen, but more importantly, a cat.
The actual real reason is that I have a very big crush on X6-88 and want to continue being his friend. "Nuke just get a mod". I don't want to. I'm scared of mods exploding my game bc I have extreme paranoia about game data. I have a mod that cleaned up Danse's face but that's like it.
Anyways the craziest thing that ever happened to me in the game was because I have remained friendly with all factions and not picked an ending. It wasn't that crazy but it was to me and made me rethink my "actually blow up Institute lol" opinions.
I was on Far Harbor and did the quest where a Courser had tracked Chase back to the Island and I had to go confront him to protect everybody, because I would literally die for Acadia in real life. Anyways I went and found the Courser, expecting a fight.
He turned to me and said "Hello, Ma'am."
Because I'm still friendly with the Institute, and he is programmed to know who I am and be nice to me. He even made a comment about X6-88 speaking highly of my skills, because I could talk to him like a regular NPC Courser in the Institute.
And I stood there with a gun pointed at him.
I shot him four times before he became hostile. Then I obviously killed him.
I have not been the same since that encounter and it fucked me up lmao. Many of the choices I made in that game were pretty easy because I'll defend Synths over anyone else 99% of the time. That one was hard and screwed with my brain.
But at the end I'll still shoot anyone to protect Acadia. Because I'm normal about it.
Also I love blowing up the Vertibirds that my shitty neighbor, a 20 year old nazi in a blimp, keeps sending to my Castle house. It's hilarious. Maxson, stop. It's been like 5 years. You need to get over the Danse thing.
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aita-blorbos · 5 months ago
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(Hey, quick note, this is a Relatively Newer OC, if you recognize me from the singular RP I’ve done that wasn’t a quick training moment/light lore build for her, hey hi hello don’t be afraid to approach me in the game’s discord/rp servers and say “I saw you on the judgement blog” I will in fact actually befriend you when I stop screaming lol.)
AITA for allying with corrupt beings because I hate my (reformed body and) life?
Let me get this very, very straight. I (RB,F) have nothing against the common program. I in fact wish to defend them, and my hatred for my home comes from the problematic system of which we are trained on. I’d very much prefer if the defenses were gone in honor of teaching programs to use weapons. I mean no genuine harm towards them, but only the firewalls, of whom have taken me as their own.
I’ll start the actual explanation by saying that when I donated my body to the computer, my expectation was that my body would be shot, and that I had at least attempted to make it clear I didn’t want to be reborn due to the stress it’d cause me. This didn’t get clear enough though, as SOME OF THEM decided it’d be a good idea to make me reborn.
I simply refused to work, to try and give them an easy way out by decommissioning my heart completely (what would be certain death) and using the hull to make a generic unit. They saw me as not a coward, but a terrible person to take my privilege of being reborn, given a second life to defend my computer and waste it. As such, they decided to send me to an entirely different computer.
The computer I was sent to is, to all of our kind, deemed torture, and wouldn’t be okay in most cases, only for the most stubborn to try and change their minds. I wish I would perish each session they had with me, beaten for refusal until worn out in an attempt.
To put the sob story part short, someone who climbed the ranks purely to survive and maybe put an end to the issue visited me and it gave me an idea I followed through with and still follow to this day.
Upon getting home, I proceeded to put on a front around firewalls, but became very relaxed and even counterproductive to the computer’s needs when the others weren’t around. I’ve grown to start teaching my defense skills to others, showing them how to use weapons I would’ve handled for fun in the past. I still train when nobody is around, as seeing a unit with a massive battle axe isn’t the best idea when you’re trying to keep a reputation.
I’ve ended up growing a good reputation around corruptions, and some even hand over allyships. I am starting to believe I may be destined to ally with them and bring unity, but I think I know very well that isn’t the case and I’ll die anyways.
In the end, we all die, myself included, so even if a deal goes bad, I’ll at least have what I want. What I always wanted before being reborn by a bunch of stuck up idiots who don’t listen to anyone.
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paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 1 year ago
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Wow that’s was quick! lol got some more if that’s ok?
1: was Chris always Nightwing phantom or was he superboy 2?
2: before teaming up with Jake, was he in a duo with Jon? I can see them as superboy blue & red.
3: how did starknights became a group?
4: does starknights have a rivalry with the titans of tomorrow? Like dance offs
5: what’s some headcanons do you have for the members of both groups? (Besides the duo of course since I’ve mostly been asking questions for them.)
6: do they watch YouTube? Do they like YouTubers that most kids today like, markipiler, vanoss, game theory, etc…
I’m a faster typer @gothicghost2000 It just matters on if I’m busy that moment or not lol
But anywho, onto our main program,
1. Chris was nicknamed a ‘Superboy’ by the press during his first few weeks on Earth (Conner was unavailable to comment at that time; probably due to Chris landing at an earlier point in the timeline like prior to the emergence of Doomsday, or due to Conner being lost in another universe at that time) but he himself never truly claimed that mantle, letting his adoptive brothers split said mantle evenly between them while instead fairly splitting the Nightwing mantle with Dick
2. More or less the two operated together side by side during some weekend days when all the Supers were on patrol across Metropolis. They’d even sit next to each other for lunch breaks on the clouds. As Metallo can attest, once the two of them tag teamed during a brawl, the chances of getting humiliated during a super beat down jump up by 200%.
3. It happened timeline wise sometime after Zod’s invasion and Chris’ reconciliation with the Kents; the HIVE had reformed as an Academy for supervillains in training, hiring long time Titans villain Brother Blood as it’s headmaster. Severel of those villain students were sent out to test their abilities a wide assortment of heroes, mainly either the Titans or their children. While the individual attacks were repelled, it spurred the heroes affected, Cerdian, Jasper Logan and Jai West to launch their own investigations to find where those villains originated from. The Starburst Duo, who were already in the middle of finding Brother Blood prior to the attacks, had infiltrated the HIVE Academy, disguised as junior villains themselves to gather evidence and information for Blood’s plans and schemes.
All of these heroes soon gather together when Cerdian, Jai and Jasper launch a direct assault on the HIVE Academy. However, thanks to Blood’s enhanced abilities and prowess, the three are left at the ropes. Just then the Duo reveal themselves, aiding the three heroes in defeating Blood, sending him and the HIVE scurrying. With the Academy taken down and realizing their potential as a team altogether, the five heroes gather at the Fortress of Fotitude and after much talk between them all, agree on a candlelight pact of friendship and partnership with each other, vowing to stand together in times of need against the forces of evil, like their parents before them.
Thus was born Team StarKnights
4. A friendly, familial rivalry, but a rivalry nonetheless. Both teams are very committed to helping one another as superheroes and as family but when it comes to small contests of skill, strength, power and teamwork, basically simple games and friendly contests that way to find at a family reunion, they are fierce contenders that are determined to win fair and square. And yes, fierce is an apt way for describing how they go about with the games, ranging from dance offs, races across the entire planet between Irey and Jai, hot wing eating contests, tug of war, and many more.
The fact, with the exception of Robbie Long on the Tomorrow Titans, it’s also technically a battle of the sexes further adds competitive fuel to the fire. Though to be clear, no one in either team has the pettiness of saying “Boys are Better than Girls” or vice versa even during the most heated moments of their contests. They’re respectful to each other in spite of the fierceness
5. Cerdian, his sister Tula and Jasper have a strong dislike for fish being served for dinner, for similar yet different enough reasons. Cerdian and Tula, being Atlantean, prefer not seeing friends they make during their time in the water being cooked while Jasper is a firm vegetarian, inherited from both of his parents.
Lian and Jai often are the ones to help Irey when it comes to finding people to vent out frustrations she’s having a school. In turn they too engaged with venting out how their days had gone. The way their individual teachers can be quite sarcastic, crude and rude in their classes frankly a common complaint they all have.
Team StarKnights insist with fire in their hearts as a whole that Superman is the leader of the Justice League. The Titans of Tomorrow counter just as passionately that it’s Batman. Except for Lian who actually knows the true leader….Oracle.
6. Yep, the Duo and their many friends and loved ones are YouTubers, mainly with video game walkthroughs, music videos, and cute puppy and kitten videos. None of them though watch Game Theory though; they see that guy as problematic.
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made-nondescript · 3 years ago
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i redid my entire template to make this as rainbow as possible. click to enlarge! more below the cut!
Hello gaymers! These were collected using a python program and   Twitch/YouTube API.  Graphs are labelled in BST and the axes in 24-hour UTC. (19:00 ->  8:00PM.) Enjoy!
Total Viewership Over Time
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Peak  viewership was 383,101 viewers at 8:42PM on the cusp of Parkour Tag and Survival Games, the second and third games of the event.  Viewer retention was about  95.50% (383.1K -> 365.9K). There was no significant Dodgebolt drop off. Beautifully consistent!!
Team Viewership Over Time
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The only real notable thing is how many viewers Pink drops during the break. Congrats to them on a likely successful rigging of the audience breakout lol. Red gains 21.4K viewers from the start of Dodgebolt to their highest point, roughly a 14% increase! Aqua meanwhile experienced a boost of 3.6K viewers, a 230% increase.
Individual Viewership Over Time
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Important to note that players streaming on YouTube have their viewership collected through a more sensitive API which is why Grian and the YT Partner Streamers have comparatively sporadic lines!
The first interesting thing is the way Jacksepticeye's viewership shoots up during the break. Rarely is there an increase during the break! Second is the jump Sapnap has during Ace Race. Did people just want to see him play that game? Or was something else going on? It's also funny to me the only game that Grian noticeably dips on is Survival Games.
Viewership By Game
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Trying something new again! Disclaimer still applies: game start and end times are approximate since I take them by hand. Don't put too much stock on Grid Runner's average viewership since it's the first game and people were still filing in even by the time it started. For a similar reason I removed Dodgebolt altogether. Game order also plays a significant role.
Otherwise these should be fairly accurate. Build Mart is 2/2 on being a low viewership game which could be a fault of it normally being a latter half game more than being generally disliked. I have a hard time thinking people close stream and then open it again during the next game. Ace Race is the latter half championship which is pretty amazing!
Median % Viewership
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This is notably Grian's first top five appearance for median viewership (as far as the MCCs I've recorded go). Not just top five, but fourth. I was also surprised by just how big the YT partners (Valkyrae+Sykkuno+LazarBeam) were, which I probably shouldn't have been lol.
Median % By Group
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Wowie new subgroup just dropped! The YT Gaming partners included three players, Valkyrae, Sykkuno, and LazarBeam. Everyone else is beating the DSMP back with a stick - not even 70% this time! lol
Individual Peak Viewership
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Dark  sections represent median viewership, and the light section is the   difference between median and peak. Entire red team easily making top ten, super team viewership wise (and skill wise apparently?!).
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There's a joke to be made about Valkyrae having the least change lol. Loyal viewers! I've done this about three times now and so far I'm not seeing much consistency on who tends to be in the top and bottom for fluctuation. Maybe it's entirely chance? It is really interesting though that not a single member of Red made top five for the most fluctuation, because previously both Dodgebolt teams have had a presence there.
Individual Median Viewership
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This is THE closest two medians have been to each other!! I have pretty much no basis for this but in my head Ranboo and Dream have the least overlap in viewership at least as far as the Mega Creators go. They are always much more neck and neck than even Dream and Tommy are.
Thanks for reading!! Finally here! As you hopefully saw above I was busy revamping the TL;DR graphic, which I'm really happy with :D It's now much more customizable and less of a thrown together mess. Huge win! I'm also a bit sick rn so sorry if any piece of this sounds like nonsense it probably is
Feedback, critique, questions, and your own observations are appreciated! Data is best analyzed as a team :]
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makeste · 4 years ago
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BnHA Chapter 314: ...Or You Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain
Previously on BnHA: Some random assholes were all “let’s throw exploding spears at All Might and see if it activates his Conqueror’s Haki” and SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKERS, IT DID!! Elsewhere, Lady Nagant confusingly tried to capture Deku alive by shooting him in the stomach, but to be fair I guess that’s what happens when you send an assassin to do a bounty hunter’s job, so yeah. Deku was all “ouch”, and then because this is a shounen he basically just straight up forgot about it, and did a big fancy Smokescreen thing, and then activated his mildly incomprehensible new ki-blasting quirk which he got from the Third. En and the Third were all “hey Deku maybe let’s not just impulsively activate all this shit in the heat of battle when you don’t know how to use it yet and you’re already injured,” and Deku was all “thanks for the quirks guys but I’ll take it from here” and snuck up on Nagant and grabbed her arm and so now what’s going to happen I wonder.
Today on BnHA: Nagant is all “[shoots Deku again]” because of course she is lol. Deku is all “tell me about AFO!” and Nagant is all “why would I tell you anything?” and then proceeds to tell him her entire life story which is FILLED WITH SO MUCH MURDER, YOU GUYS. Holy shit. So basically she was an assassin for the HPSC, which we already knew, but somehow it’s one thing to know that, and another to actually see her running around capping dudes in the forehead and being covered in more blood than the elevator from The Shining. Anyway, so you’ll never believe it, but all that murder had a negative impact on her psychologically, and eventually led her to question everything she believed about hero society, and so she killed her creepy boss and was promptly sent to Tartarus. This extremely fun chapter ends with Overhaul showing up all “HI, HELLO, I’M STILL HERE”, because for some reason he is still here. Why are you still here, Overhaul.
“the beautiful Lady Nagant” oh you know your audience don’t you Horikoshi
well all right then! so I’m guessing this means that she is not, in fact, going to roll over and die just because Deku’s out here all “GOT YA!” like they’re playing a game or tag or something. ffff may the manga gods have mercy on our young suicidal protagonist
lmao so Deku is all “GOD I’M SO SMART, WHAT A GOOD STRATEGY I HAD, CAPITOL JOB THERE OL’ CHAP, CAPITOL” and lol, okay. I mean, it was a good plan though. but I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop here
“I’ll make you give me information on All for One” well there you go, lol. Deku Angst arc still fully engaged. still no light in his eyes either of course. just a lil chaotic ball of sleep deprivation and rage
lol, fucking THANK YOU though
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oh my god what the hell did she do to him lol
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did she shoot him with her elbow??? fucking look at this?? THIS IS WHY WE LISTEN TO HAWKS oh my god Deku are you dead
WHAT’S HAPPENING, IS THIS GOOD OR BAD, WHO’S WINNING
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things that I wish I could tell from this panel which I unfortunately cannot tell
did she stab him or shoot him?? can you imagine if it was the former lol. why does Horikoshi keep stabbing all my kids. look Kacchan now the two of you can match
did she actually hit him or did he get away??
or did she hit him and then he jumped away?? just, what
well anyway, so now Deku is asking her why she sided with AFO, but he seems a lot more pissed off than when he was interrogating Muscular, though. probably because she shot him three times. fair enough
oh my god
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does Lady have a blog here on tumblr dot com?? -- does Horikoshi have a blog here on tumblr motherfucking dot com?? why do I suddenly feel like this man is out here sneakily reading up on all our discourse
oh my god Deku it’s almost like getting up close and personal with someone who can shoot custom bullets from any distance and any position with deadly accuracy was a terrible fucking idea
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IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD WARNED YOU NOT TO ENGAGE WITH HER AT ALL COSTS. IF ONLY SOMEONE HAD HAD THE FORESIGHT TO DO THAT sob. can you imagine how much shorter this series would be if characters actually listened to Hawks. Hawks, and Momo. why do we even let anyone else run the show ever
OH MY GOD
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DEKU, RUN
OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING
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this looks a lot like what happens to me whenever I play One’s Justice. those fucking combo attacks that you can’t fucking escape from and so your character just has to stand there getting their ass whalloped repeatedly while you wonder why you paid $40 for this
but anyways though. so Lady who did you kill?? I bet they deserved it, don’t worry I forgive you
(ETA: ANYWAY SO FRIENDLY REMINDER THAT LADY NAGANT DID NOTHING WRONG EVER IN HER ENTIRE LIFE. aside from murdering all those innocent people and shit. but there were CIRCUMSTANCES, and THEY WERE EXTENUATING, OKAY.)
-- holy shit
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looks like the HPSC arc is back on the menu boys
so are we about to learn that the HPSC was going full Hydra on people’s asses? secretly dispatching anyone they deemed a threat to society?? “taken care of” as in you fucking shot them??
so then was the “hero” she killed actually one of the guys who was giving or carrying out these orders?? holy shit Lady, up until now I’ve mainly just been stanning you for your flawless eyebrow game and metal af quirk, but this shit could actually get real very quickly, and I am prepared to genuinely and sincerely love the shit out of you depending on what we learn next about your backstory
oh my god?!?
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so wait, hold up. am I reading this right?? basically the HPSC started murdering vigilantes because they were worried they were gaining too much of the public’s favor?? holy fucking shit???
oh my GOD oh my god
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“it’s been a while since I scarred you all with the dead dog and the graphic slaughter of an entire innocent family, huh,” Horikoshi says thoughtfully. “anyway so what do you all think of my new creation, the Spaghetti Bullet.” well, Horikoshi, so you know that squished-up face that Kermit the Frog makes sometimes? yeah. that’s what I think, if you must know lol
holy hell the juxtaposition
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I’m actually kind of surprised to learn she had a lot of fans? what with her M.O., I was expecting her to have been an underground hero like Aizawa, but apparently not? then again I still have absolutely no idea how any of that works. I really need to read Vigilantes already
oh snap
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nothing like a sweet dose of assassin trauma to finally round out our BnHA Trauma Bingo!! well done guys, we finally collected all of the traumas! hooray!
noooo Ladyyyyyyy
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holy shit what a fucking chapter. like, this man promised us an assassin, and went and fucking delivered. I was not expecting it to be this dark, lol, but holy shit I am here for it
you know, at some point you have to start questioning the logistics of this, though
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I mean, how do I put this... her quirk isn’t exactly subtle. that murder scene from a few pages back looked like the first season of Dexter for fuck’s sake, that’s not exactly “disappearing” people now is it?? and I mean, her bullets are literally made from her own fucking hair; it seems like it would be impossible not to leave any evidence behind. did no one start to wonder who the fuck was going around murdering all these people? or did the people who asked too many questions wind up getting conveniently “disappeared” themselves??
and hey, speaking of asking too many questions
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holy shit is he blackmailing her??!? or no, wait -- what the hell is he reaching for in his pocket boy you better not
(ETA: what exactly was this man expecting fdslkjd. “uh oh my unstoppable hair trigger assassin who is literally always armed is asking questions, better announce that I am going to shoot her and then reach into my pocket veeeeeery slowly while she stands there all of two feet away.” how did this guy ever function as the head of a shadow government with these decision-making skills, I’m genuinely baffled.)
OH MY GOD LADY YES
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this. right here. is why “run the fuck away” was damn good solid fucking advice. oh shit. but my god did this dude have it coming
so wait lol has she just been narrating all of this out loud to Deku this entire time
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okay but can we just stop for a moment and appreciate the fact that they’re having this deep conversation about the dark secrets of hero society right in the middle of their intense mid-air sniper free-for-all lol
holy shit you guys, Nagant’s the one that should have made the tell-all video. I mean, no offense to you, Dabi, I’m sure you worked very hard on your video and did a ton of crunches every day so that you would look good with your shirt off while you told the world all about how your dad was a jerk. but seriously...
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this is already like 100x more convincing than what he put out. also, gasp, is it another flashback
yes it is oh my gosh
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so the HPSC Chairladyperson whom ReDestro killed used to be this guy’s direct subordinate, huh? I wonder if she kept the whole assassin program going after she took over. can’t say I was feeling any particular kind of grieving way about her death before, but certainly not now lol
but unfortunately Nagant has finally lost me at the same place where all of the villains inevitably do, which is to say when they somehow make the dubious mental leap from “society sucks and is bad” to “let’s just be openly fucking evil lol, worth a shot.” because when heroes murder innocent people and cover it up, that’s obviously bad (and I mean, it absolutely fucking is lol, don’t get me wrong); but when villains murder innocent people straight up out in the open without giving a fuck, they’re righteous revolutionaries? just -- is there really no non-murdery middle ground here?? I guess that’s what Deku and co. are for, hopefully
anyways oh shit Deku seems to have spotted something?? and he’s doing something weird with Blackwhip what
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oh, he spotted her, I guess
lmaooooo
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new favorite Deku panel right here. a masterpiece
oh my god you guys our little boy is starting to grow up before our eyes
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you love to see it. and you can tell with those elipses that he’s gearing up to say something really cool and determined and badass like the shounen protag he is, yes please, Deku ilu so much please do your thing
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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IS THAT A TEENY TINY LIL EYE SPARKLE THERE OMG. still not anywhere close to his usual standard, but that’s some clear resolve there in his eyes there at long last! it always shines the most clearly when he’s being true to himself and his ideals, so I love that it finally shows up again here, when he’s reaffirming his resolve to help others no matter what
uh oh so what’s Lady going to do now
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is it time for a trump card?? kinda sounding like it’s time for a trump card
???
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I lied btw, this is my new favorite Deku panel. but anyways what is she up to now lol
ohhhhhh, lol
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why does she seem shocked, lol. here I thought this was part of her plan, but apparently she forgot all about ol’ “Look Ma, No Hands” back up there
and so I guess that’s it for this week! so we’ve learned basically everything now about Lady and her quirk and her history with the HPSC and why she agreed to work for AFO. pretty much the only question that still remains is why the hell she decided to drag this asshole along for the ride! because I still cannot figure that out dsklkjlkf
(ETA: actually now I’m kind of wondering if they maybe have some past connection we don’t know about yet. when exactly was Nagant sent to Tartarus? is it possible she was ordered to track down and kill Overhaul at some point before that, but never got around to it? or something else along those lines? idk but now I’m curious.)
anyways Deku, I know that your empathy has no bounds and that you’re on a “saving villains” kick right now, and good on you... but also, if you decide to just like, skip all of that shit just this once, absolutely no one will hold it against you, I’m just saying. just, all I’m asking here is maybe let’s think twice before we start trying to reform guys who imprison and torture little girls for profit. I think maybe that’s a good place to draw the line. next week is going to be a very interesting chapter lol
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bleedingviolet · 2 years ago
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Munday Questions
@silver-blooded-synthetics​ asked: What aspect of your muse’s personality is most important to you? What aspect of your muse’s personality do you think is most important to them? Is it the same? Why or why not? 
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Harper: 
I value how Harper effortlessly nurtures others around her. “Mother Hen Harper” was one of the first consistent tags on this blog for a reason lol. She isn’t overbearing, but she notices things about others and will gently support you from a distance, stepping in when she’s needed, and never expect a thing in return. I don’t think Harper even notices she’s like that, it’s just a seamless part of her. 
If you asked her, she’d tell you she values her self-reliance. It’s a skill she had to learn under fire, losing her entire support system so suddenly, but she’s damn proud of what she’s managed to build for herself despite everything.
Blue:
I adore his curiosity. Roleplaying him is so fun because I get to imagine what it’s like to experience things for the first time--things I otherwise take for granted. Like Blue seeing the sunrise for the first time? Or receiving his first hug? Ahhhhh
Listen here. I hurt myself trying to think about what Blue would like about himself. Because? He doesn’t know. He barely gave himself a name. Eventually though, I think Blue would like the remnants of his caretaker programming, being able to be useful to others would be important to him. It would give him a sense of purpose.
Phoenix:
I love his playful nature, the way he takes everything in stride and is still able to laugh even in the face of a stressful job. He effortlessly cheers his crew up after a tough day just by being himself. 
Phoenix would jokingly tell you the way he absolutely smokes his crew at video games, even without interfacing to cheat. But really, this boy is proud of his work and how well he does his job.
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cheri-translates · 4 years ago
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[CN] Shaw’s Creative Date
🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for a date, 创意之约, which has not been released in EN! 🍒
This date features S2 Shaw, but contains no spoilers for S2!
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[ This date was released on 13 May 2021 ]
Removing the VR headset, I rub my slightly sore eyes. Seeing the familiar modern furniture leaves me in a momentary trance.
MC: I finally cleared it - this game about the ancient times is pretty immersive.
Aside from completing missions, the game also has a rich plot written in a classical literary style. As a “workshop apprentice”, I successfully created a string of wood carved persimmons.
Rotating my aching wrists, it’s as though the sensation of carving products is still lingering on my hands.
MC: It’s a shame that I could only do that in the game...
Just when I’m about to continue grumbling, my phone suddenly rings.
Tapping the answer button, a familiar voice drifts lazily to my ear.
Shaw: Not a sound from you even during the weekend. What are you up to?
MC: I just played an immersive game, and it’s pretty fun.
At the other end of the line, Shaw makes an “oh” sound, then continues asking.
Shaw: Are you planning to stay at home today?
MC: Mm. I finally finished a big program, so I’m pretty comfortable playing games at home.
Hearing my response, Shaw’s tone lifts slightly at the end.
Shaw: It’s just a game. You can play it anytime, can’t you? The weather outside is great. Staying at home is such a waste. Why not take a stroll outside?
My gaze sweeps over the VR headset. While I’m hesitating whether or not to agree, a thought suddenly flashes across my mind, and I have an idea. 
MC: Shaw, why don't you accompany me somewhere?
Shaw pauses for a moment, his subtle breathing drifting over the phone along with the electric currents.
Shaw: Where do you want to go?
MC: I’ll keep it a secret first. You’ll know when you get there. It’s definitely a place you wouldn’t expect.
Shaw chuckles softly, and he seems to stretch.
Shaw: All right. Since you invited me with such magnificent hospitality, I’ll reluctantly keep you company.
-
Soon after, the both of us stand at the entrance of a wood carving studio. Shaw tilts his head, looking me up and down.
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Shaw: You sure we’re not at the wrong place?
I nod my head.
MC: How is it? I already said you definitely wouldn’t expect it. 
Shaw arches his brows, a somewhat surprised expression in his eyes.
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Shaw: When did you get a new hobby?
Not giving Shaw a direct response, I lift my hand, raising my phone to his face. The picture on the screen features the string of wood carved persimmons I made in the game.
MC: Look at this string of persimmons. I carved it bit by bit in the game. Looks good, doesn’t it? I plan to carve a replica based on this later.
Shaw leans closer to give it a sweeping glance, his expression a little subtle.
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Shaw: ...the object in the picture isn’t too bad. But do you like it that much that you must carve a string of persimmons?
MC: Don’t underestimate this small string of persimmons. Slow work yields fine products. The smaller something is, the more patience and carving skills are tested. Also, this is the first wood carving I made in the game. Furthermore, “everything will go according to one’s wishes” is a wonderful message and well-wish. Making it myself will feel very meaningful.
[Note] For the translation of “everything will go according to one’s wishes”, What MC says is “柿柿如意”, which is a pun based on the popular well-wish “事事如意” (“everything will go according to one’s wishes”)
“Persimmon” is 柿 (“shi”). “Everything” is 事事 (“shi shi”)
Shaw: But based on the level of complexity, you can’t make it without having a foundation in carving.
Predicting that Shaw would say this, I make a fist, lifting my head up confidently. 
MC: Don’t underestimate me. I think I’m naturally talented in handwork. If I can make it in the game, I might be able to in reality.
Hearing my “lofty aspirations”, the corners of Shaw’s lips hook upwards, and he elongates the tail of his sentence coolly.
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Shaw: Fine, I’ll wait and see. 
-
Probably because it’s the lunch break, only the boss is in the shop.
After telling the boss my purpose in coming, he very quickly prepares the wooden block and burin, then comprehensively explains some matters I should take note of.
[Trivia] A burin (刻刀 - “ke dao”)  is a handheld steel tool used for carving metal or wood
MC: Draw a design first, then trace a copy onto the wooden block, then...
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Hearing me mumble to myself, Shaw can’t help but arch his brows.
Shaw: It’s no use simply memorising the steps. You’ve got to get started to get the feel of it. 
...that make sense.
Very soon, I successfully draw a design based on the picture. However, I keep sensing that something’s missing when I look at the picture of the string of persimmons in my hand.
Darting a glance at Shaw, who occasionally looks at the drawing paper in my hand, I turn my body to the side, displaying the drawing paper in front of him.
MC: Shaw, didn’t you brag about being the “best in hand-drawn sketches” in your department? Want to take a look and make adjustments for me?
[Note] For those who are unaware, Shaw is the only graduate student in the archaeological department of Loveland University, so... of course he’s the best in everything LOL
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Shaw’s brows arch slightly. Grabbing a pen on the table casually, he starts making amendments quickly.
Shaw: Done.
Unexpectedly, with just a few strokes, the fullness and lushness of the persimmons are outlined, and the entire picture instantly becomes much more vibrant.
Once all the preparatory work is done, the next step is to saw the sides of the wood carving. Placing the wooden block on the machine, I test out suitable positions.
All of a sudden, Shaw presses on my hand.
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Shaw: Didn’t the boss mention that it’d be safer to place it a little beyond the peripheral line?
While saying this, he pulls on my wrist, causing the wooden block to shift to the side slightly. After verifying that it’s in the right place, he releases my hand.
Wood carving in real life is much more difficult than I imagined. The more I tell myself to be calm, the more my hands refuse to obey.
I take a deep breath - 
Shaw: Tch, aren’t you going a little too fast?
Right after he finishes speaking, my hand suddenly trembles, and I saw a small hole into the wooden block.
Shaw pauses for a few seconds, then bursts into laughter mercilessly.
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He leans over, pointing at the small hole, his eyes gloating over my misfortune.
Shaw: Heh. Did someone take a bite out of the persimmon? It’s actually pretty creative.
Faced with Shaw’s mockery, I pout without saying anything. Then, I mimic his usual tone and glare at him.
MC: Why are you laughing so loudly? My hearing is good, okay.
Shaw casually props himself on the table with his elbows. He turns his head to the side and watches me, eyes filled with interest and a smile.
Perhaps because we’re too close in proximity, I seem to feel his warmth encasing my surroundings.
Smelling the scent of peppermint at the tip of my nose, I subconsciously turn away, muttering softly.
MC: Stop crowding over here... it’s a little warm.
The corners of Shaw’s eyes lift upwards slightly, and he sweeps a gaze over my face. He chuckles, sitting down on the chair behind in a wilful manner.
Not long after, I painstakingly saw the overall outer shape of the wooden block. After that, I start using a chisel to carefully craft the outline and thickness.
Probably because I’m unfamiliar with the techniques, the thickness of both sides of the wood carving are very different despite me putting in a lot of effort into correcting it.
I steal a glance at Shaw who is behind. After some hesitation, I clear my throat.
MC: Erm, could you help me with a little something?
Shaw loosens his shoulders.
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Shaw: You want my help?
MC: Since you look like you don't have much to do, why not adjust the thickness of the outline with me?
Shaw doesn’t respond immediately. He folds his arms and leans against the wall, both legs placed casually.
Beneath the sunlight of the scorching afternoon sun, the corners of his lips tilt upwards, revealing a mischievous smile.
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Shaw: Someone made a solemn vow earlier that she could do it by herself. So, in order for you to experience this fully, I refuse.
I don’t even spare Shaw half a glance after this, heart sinking as I lower my head in silence, focusing on the wood carving alone.
Perhaps grasping some tricks, my actions are gradually much more proficient than before, despite slow improvement.
The doors to the shop are suddenly pushed open. A parent walks in with a little boy.
The boss greets the new customers. Shaw suddenly lifts his arm and waves, walking over to the boss.
Shaw: Boss, give me a burin too.
Thinking that Shaw was suddenly “pricked by his conscience” and is planning to help, I lift my head to look at him in anticipation.
Unexpectedly, after getting the burin, Shaw picks up the leftover linden wood that I had sawed off earlier.
He stands near the window, lifting his hand leisurely. Against the light, that head of bluish purple hair is even more eye-catching.
Shaw: It’s boring to wait. I’ll try it with you, and give you some competitive motivation.
He reveals a confident smile, his tone not at all humble.
Shaw: I’ll also show you what it means to be “naturally talented”.
Shaw deliberately sits down at a table that’s further away from me.
Seeing that my gaze continues to linger on him, Shaw lifts his eyes, asking teasingly.
Shaw: Why are you staring at me?
MC: ...you already know the answer. Also, you’re pretending to be mysterious. What exactly do you plan to carve?
Shaw: You want to know? All the more reason not to tell you.
With this, he lowers his head, the tip of the pen making rustling sounds. He’s likely drawing a design on the rough paper.
Pursing my lips with a “hmph”, I decide to throw myself into crafting the wood carving.
Just as I strive to painstakingly carve the appearance of the wood carving, the little boy who accompanied his parent here seems to be restless.
He runs around the shop, and finally scuttles to Shaw’s side.
Little Boy: Big Bro, your hair’s really cool!
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Shaw releases a “hmph”, paying no attention to the boy. But the little boy is fearless, and continues curiously.
Little Boy: Big Bro, what are you carving?
Unintentionally hearing this, I hurriedly perk up my ears, turning my body towards Shaw secretly.
Shaw glances at the boy from the side, placing the prototype wood carving on the table and leaning it from side to side.
Shaw: Make a guess.
The boy stares at it for a while, then exclaims excitedly.
Little Boy: I see it now - it’s a fish! Big Bro, did I guess correctly?
Shaw doesn’t deny it, revealing an expression which says “you’re pretty knowledgeable”.
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Shaw: [aww he sounds so affectionate] Little Imp, your eyesight isn’t bad.
Little Boy: But why do you want to carve a fish?
The boy doesn’t seem to understand, and is also slightly disdainful.
Little Boy: Fishes are so unimpressive. If it were me, I’d carve a big tiger. It’s the king of all creatures, and it’s so impressive!
While the boy speaks, he chuckles in satisfaction.
Shaw laughs, then purses his lips.
Shaw: A wooden carved fish is much more interesting than your big tiger.
The boy has an expression on his face which reads “nonsense”. Shaw casts a sidelong glance at him, scoffing softly.
Shaw: Forget it. You wouldn't understand even if I told you.
Little Boy: Who says I wouldn’t understand? I’ve already learnt many things!
The boy grumbles in dissatisfaction, his arms akimbo, pestering Shaw unflinchingly.
I try my best to control the smile at the corners of my lips, and suddenly have an idea. Clearing my throat, I pretend to be a bystander, inserting myself into the conversation.
MC: What this little boy said is correct. Young man, you can’t look down on others just because you’re older by a few years.
Little Boy: Hmph! That’s right!
My “encouragement” enables the boy to be even less willing to back down, and he purses his small mouth.
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Shaw: Oh?
Hearing my response, Shaw lifts his eyes, a mischievous smile curling the corners of his lips upwards.
Shaw: What is it? You also want to know?
MC: Since you started it, it’s only right for you to talk about it more.
Shaw: Since the both of you are pretty eager to learn, I’ll broaden your knowledge.
-
Next to the window, the rays of light are bright. Shaw arches his brows wilfully.
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Shaw: To put it simply, this is related to the history of “fish culture”. Since ancient times, fish have represented auspicious signs and well-wishes.
Little Boy: I know about this! Is this how people wish each other “may you have abundance year after year”? I heard my teacher mentioning it before. It’s because “鱼” and “余” are homophonic!
[Note] The well-wish the boy is referring to is “年年有鱼”, which is a pun based on the proper saying “年年有余”
“Fish” is 鱼 (“yu”), while 余 (also “yu”) means abundance
Shaw: In that case, your teacher only told you half of it.
Shaw fiddles with the burin in his hand, spinning it casually.
Shaw: Fishes are an embodiment of luck. Patterns of fish can often be seen on antiques.
MC: What’s the origin of wooden carved fishes then?
Shaw pauses for a second before responding.
Shaw: Over seven thousand years ago, the most ancient wooden carved fishes were in the Hemudu culture. Based on conjectures, they were likely used for praying and well-wishes.
[Trivia] The Hemudu culture was a Neolithic culture spanning from 5500 BC to 3300 BC, located south of the Hangzhou Bay in Jiangnan in Zhejiang, China
Shaw speaks indifferently, but the boy listens at the side, his eyes wide.
Little Boy: Big Bro, you really know a lot! You’re even more incredible than my teacher!
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The corners of Shaw’s lips hook upwards with pride.
Shaw: I guess so. Little Imp, remember to read more books and learn properly.
The boy runs away contentedly. My gaze lands on the wooden carving in Shaw’s hand that I can’t see quite clearly yet.
I didn’t expect the wooden carved fish to have the same symbolism as the string of persimmons. I tilt my head, feeling slightly emotional.
Time flows by as the seconds and minutes pass. Before realising it, the sky dims, and the studio lights are bright.
Swinging my hands which have almost lost all physical strength, I release a long sigh.
At the other side of the table, Shaw lifts his chin towards me.
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Shaw: Progress isn’t going smoothly? 
Looking at the half-finished product with uneven contours next to my hand, I shake my head a little despondently. 
MC: Looks like I won’t be able to finish it today, and would have to come back next time. Also, the actual wood carving is light-years away from what I expected...
Hearing my soft grumbling at the end, Shaw arches his brows.
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Shaw: Just by looking at it, the string of persimmons isn’t easy to make. But you dug this pit yourself, so I’ll wait and watch you fill it up.
Ignoring the teasing tone in his voice, I purse my lips.
MC: I definitely won’t give up. What about you? Are you done with the carving?
Shaw has an expression which reads “of course”, and he nods unhesitatingly.
Shaw: It was done a long time ago.
I’m stunned for a moment, both surprised and curious.
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One hand supports Shaw’s cheek lightly. With a stretch of his long arm, the wooden carved fish is brought before my eyes.
This is a bright coloured wood carving of a fish. It has a roundish head and a chubby belly, and looks extremely adorable.
I lift up the wooden fish sculpture with both hands, as though instantly struck by its adorable shape.
Shaw: Excellent workmanship with profound symbolism. Your goal has been overtaken by me.
Behind the table, Shaw arches his brows in satisfaction, casually twisting the burin, his pose utterly flamboyant.
Even though his carving is indeed not bad, the moment I lift my eyes and see Shaw’s insuppressible pride, I can’t help but remain silent.
With the sudden impulse to sing a different tune, I deliberately purse my lips, speaking calmly.
MC: It’s just like this I guess. In terms of exquisiteness, I’d give a passing mark at most.
The smile on Shaw’s lips retracts slightly. While looking at me from the side, he releases a “hmph” from his nose.
Shaw: You have the nerve to criticise me? Why don’t you look at your own standard. Also, this is my exclusive design. It’s much more creative than you making a duplicate from the game.
Hearing the unwillingness to back down hidden in his tone, I can’t help but smile secretly.
Shaw glances at me indifferently. He seems to catch the secret smile on my lips, and an indiscernible light flashes across his eyes.
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Shaw: Hey, shouldn’t you return it to me after touching it for half a day? You don’t like it anyway.
MC: Who says-
Almost making a slip of the tongue, I hurriedly change my words.
MC: Actually, on closer inspection, it seems that your carving is pretty okay.
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Shaw: Just “okay”?
MC: ...I’ll add one mark for its symbolism and origin then.
Pleased with this, Shaw rolls his shoulders, chuckling softly.
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Shaw: You still have some taste.
He crosses his leg over the other, his eyebrows suddenly furrowing. He seems to blurt out what’s in his mind.
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Shaw: But the head of this fish seems a little too round... Hm, it’s a little irksome. Looks like I need to make some corrections.
MC: No it isn’t? It looks just right like this!
Afraid that Shaw would snatch it back, I hurriedly fold my hands over the wooden carving, and notice a hint of slyness in his eyes.
He leans closer abruptly, instantly closing the distance between us.
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Shaw: Looking at your posture... What is it? Can’t bear to return it?
Specks of bright light reminiscent of daytime dance on Shaw’s bluish purple hair, outlining his expression and making it look even more triumphant.
I blink my eyes.
MC: Since you’re already done, I think I should observe it for a while longer, and have some “luck” rubbed off on me. I might even be able to quickly and successfully finish my wood carving too.
Shaw turns his head, the corners of his lips turning upwards relaxedly. A pondering smile surfaces in his bright eyes.
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Shaw: You’ve got taste. If you really like it, it’s not that I can’t give it to you.
My heart stirs, eyes widening as I look at him. But I have the feeling that there should be a second half to his sentence.
Shaw leans back relaxedly, stretching casually.
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Shaw: But I need to make up for the costs.
...just as I guessed.
Cradling the wooden carving in my hand, I lift my chin towards Shaw.
MC: Go on, what’s the “fee”?
Shaw lowers his head, pretending to deliberate for a few seconds. Then, he lifts his eyes, meeting mine.
Shaw: When you’re done with your wooden carving...
Shaw: It belongs to me. 
[Note] There are actually two ways one can interpret this line because it’s kept purposefully vague. It’s simply “归我”, which means “belong to me”. This means we can’t be sure if he’s asking for the wooden carving or MC herself :>
Shaw: How is it? Isn’t it very fair?
Light falls on the tips of Shaw’s hair, reflecting a bright and sly smile in his eyes.
Before I can react, he has already stood up.
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Shaw: All right, that’s how it’d be.
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🐟 Phone call: here
🐟 Support the cafe by dropping by the tip jar!
110 notes · View notes
thatgamefromthatad · 4 years ago
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Seen these ads? (Obey Me! Review)
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This is a visual novel/otome/gacha card RPG game with the same characters and themes as featured in the ads.
As stated in many of the ads this game centers around seven demon brother love interests (as well as some other potential love interests) although the game has a lot of plot elements other than just romance. Most of the ads that I’ve seen feature real art that appears in the game one way or another, and the ads tend to be focused more on the characters and theme in general rather than specific gameplay. Of the ads that do appear to show gameplay, most of the time it’s not really what you’ll see in the game but still follows fairly close to the actual game (for example, the “kiss, free, whip” ad on the top left doesn’t show real gameplay, but you can kiss or whip that character. But that specific art comes from a gacha card I believe and isn’t what you see when you do the kissing and whipping).
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A few notes before I get into the full review:
I’m a lesbian, so I’m definitely not the target audience for this game, but I always try to be objective and open-minded when playing any game I’m not the target audience for (other examples I’ve reviewed in the past are Moments, which was also primarily targeted toward women who are attracted to men, Immortal Taoists, which involved a genre I had never heard of before and really had no interest in, Time Princess, which also wasn’t my favorite genre but was still a great game, and various Genius Inc. visual novels, which are targeted more toward high-school age boys as far as I can tell).
Speaking of lesbians, this game weirdly censors the word “lesbians” but not any other LGBTQ+ terms (that don’t include the word “sexual”) as far as I can tell; I decided it was enough of a one-off thing that it wouldn’t factor a huge amount in my overall review of the game, but I think it’s still something to take note of and not let off the hook since it definitely shows bias and can be offensive to players.
This game is rated 12+ on the Apple App Store, and I was pretty harsh on Crush Crush for being rated that way because I thought it crossed the line with some of its sexually suggestive content. I kept that in mind while playing this one, and personally I don’t think it crossed the line in the same way, at least not from what I’ve played so far; although it does have sexually suggestive content (most often when interacting with the character Asmodeus, who is literally known in the game as the “Avatar of Lust”), it’s much more occasional through tidbits of dialog as opposed to in Crush Crush where it involved a whole section of the game and was more interactive in nature. I would definitely still cringe at the thought of a 12-year-old reading some of this dialog, but I think it fits fairly within the App Store descriptors of “Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity” and “Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.”
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Last note - there is a character in this game (Luke) who has the appearance and demeanor of a small child who you can interact with in a similar way to the other love interest characters, which concerned me for obvious reasons. I looked more into this, specifically reading into all of the different dialog options involving this character, and his responses never seem to be more than platonic, which is good. He still blushes when you give him gifts and stuff, which is kind of awkward, and it seems weird to throw a kid character into an otome game, but all considered I wouldn’t say the game is promoting anything inappropriate (unlike one of the Genius VNs that clearly involved relationships between an adult and minors).
Sorry I know that’s a lot of notes and disclaimers but I just wanted to that all out of the way as general concerns anyone might have trying this game or reading this review!
Without further ado, read my full review below:
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(I’m trying a new color-coding system to help highlight some of the main points of my review if you don’t want to read my entire essay word-for-word lol. Pink is a positive aspect of the game, red is a negative aspect/criticism and purple is not necessarily positive or negative but just something I wanted to highlight.)
😈 Is the game actually fun? Yes! Just in terms of production value, this game is top notch: the art and character designs are very appealing, the transitions between characters’ poses and facial expressions during VN scenes are actually animated (which looks much smoother and more natural than switching between still images), the voice acting is great (although the VN scenes aren’t fully voice acted, some parts like phone calls are and the characters say different phrases during scenes and battles as well)(Note: all the voice acting is Japanese), and the music is FANTASTIC and perfectly sets the vibe throughout the game.
The best parts of this game in my opinion are the different personalities of the characters and the overall plot; although some of the characters’ personalities can be a bit one-note at times (for example, one character’s entire personality that I’ve seen so far is that he likes to eat and is always hungry), the characters each have their own charm and play off each other well. I found myself getting invested in each of the characters’ desires and goals throughout the story, even the characters I didn’t particularly like. The story is also chock full of humor which is always fun, and the whole world and backstory built around this game (the “Devildom” setting and the idea of an exchange student program with angels, humans and demons) are also unique and impressive.
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I really enjoyed the multiple modes of storytelling i.e. how the VN chapters are supplemented with text messages and phone calls from characters and an Instagram spoof with additional side stories to unlock. I know this isn’t a new thing in mobile games (even Gardenscapes and Homescapes do it to an extent lol) but add the compelling characters and overall production value on top and it’s a really enjoyable experience. Since the home screen of the game is set up like it’s your phone, with the different parts of the game represented as “apps,” the game kind of creates a feeling like you’re really living in this world with these characters where you can freely scroll through their Instagram feeds and check the messages you get from them on your own time. The shop where you can buy items and premium currency is called Akuzon (an Amazon spoof) and the place where all your gacha cards are is called “contacts,” which further adds to the immersive effect.
The “dating” part of the game is pretty cute although I haven’t gotten super far so I’m not sure of the full scope of the romantic interactions. From what I can tell, in addition to the dialog, blushy faces and bedroom eyes you get from characters when you give them gifts and touch different parts of their body (above the belt lol), when you raise your intimacy level with them you get additional phone calls and messages from them (I haven’t played a lot of otome games but I think that’s how a lot of them go). I wasn’t that invested in this part of the game but I think there’s some strategy that goes with using the right combination of gifts and touches to maximize intimacy boosts and get certain dialog, which adds a whole other aspect of gameplay in addition to the main game. I also noticed that occasionally your choices throughout the VN chapters will give you a small intimacy boost with a certain character; I kind of wish this was even more integrated since most of the time I felt like no matter what I chose it didn’t make any difference in my relationship with characters. Also, I don’t think there’s a way to “officially” date a specific character, it’s more about raising the intimacy level to earn more interactions but it doesn’t actually affect the main plot.
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As far as the main mode of progressing through the game, which is winning “dance battles” with teams from your gacha collection, this part of the game has its own positive qualities such as the cute chibi forms of the characters that appear on screen and the fact that some of the special attacks show a little anime clip of the character (of course it’s less exciting when you see the same clip every battle but I still thought it was a nice touch). I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a rhythm aspect as the “dance battle” name would imply, and your main interaction during the battle itself is basically just tapping hearts that pop up and tapping the characters when their attacks are ready, but you also have the option to skip that whole interactive sequence and just get a result based on your team’s stats, so there’s not much to complain about there (especially since the battles are sort of a side note compared to the storytelling aspect of the game despite being the main element of RPG-based gameplay that allows you to progress). If you are interested in the RPG aspects, there’s plenty of that to work with (building teams, balancing attributes, managing resources/rewards to level up cards and progress through skill trees of sorts, all that good stuff) although you’re limited to an extent by how difficult it is to get a lot of gacha draws without paying real money. It’s even harder to be able to focus on both strategy and character relationships while playing for free when the same scarce currency is used for both gacha draws and gifts.
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👿 Is this a free game or a “free game”? Despite what I just said, I would still consider it a free game - you can gradually save up some of premium currency the game gives out through tasks in order to pay for more gacha draws and other items, and as far as I can tell you can access the main story and the other parts of the game without hitting a paywall. I only got to the fourth chapter so far though so don’t take this assessment as gospel. Like with a lot of other freemium games you might feel pressured to pay (especially when you run out of gifts to give your lover boys, which was the biggest downer for me, or if you’re obsessed with wanting to collect a lot of cards or get a specific card) but since you don’t actually need to pay to progress I still consider it free.
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There’s also an energy system where you hit a wall and have to wait if you run out, but I never ran out because of the huge amount of energy the game dumps on you when you first start, and it seems like there are a bunch of other ways to get extra energy as well. There also aren’t pop-up or watch-to-earn ads in this game that I saw.
💀 Features
Main visual novel scenes and storyline (the visual novel scenes come between dance battle stages and there are a few short side routes that branch off but still one main route as far as I can tell, I don’t think your dialog choices really make a different except for in how the characters react to you immediately afterward. Still the main storyline in itself is fun to follow and it’s fun to get different reactions out of the characters based on what you say)
Dance battles (I’m not fully knowledgeable about the minutia of the RPG system at play here but in general the outcome of the battle will depend on the level, rank and attributes of your cards compared against the difficulty and attributes of the stage you’re playing. There also “memory cards” that can be assigned to support your team and expendable temporary boosters called “glow sticks” that boost your stats for one battle. During the battle itself you tap hearts that appear to earn extra points and you can tap your characters when their power is charged up to “attack” your opponent and use special skills. There are guides online that go deeper into stats and strategies and such if you’re interested. Different stages have different rewards for completion and you can quick complete levels you’ve already beaten to mine resources you need)
Gacha mechanic and cards (the gacha area of this game is called “Nightmare” and there are a few different pools along with event pools each with their own odds and sets of cards you can get. For the default pools you get free draws periodically and I believe you get one free draw for each event pool IIRC. You also get a bunch of vouchers for draws when you first start the game which got me handful of SSRs and a couple URs to build a couple of solid teams right off the bat. In addition to drawing directly from gacha pools you can get some cards by collecting card pieces as rewards from stages and events until you have enough to get the actual card. Each card has its own set of stats/attributes, can be leveled up and has a skill tree of sorts that can be progressed through with resources mined through beating stages, although it’s more of an attribute tree than a skill tree since most of the branches just add points onto one of your card’s attributes. Some cards, the rarer ones, have special skills that can be used in battle)
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One-on-one characters interactions and intimacy i.e. the “dating” part (there are two ways this occurs: 1) you can set a specific character to your home screen that allows you to enter into an interaction with them, with a refresh period in between interactions 2) the main way, which is through “surprise guests” after dance battles. These surprise guests show up frequently but not always, and they’re always one of the three team members you used in battle, selected randomly. For each one-on-one interaction you can do three actions - either give a gift, touch the character or ignore the character. Sometimes the character will also offer you a high five which counts as an action if you oblige. Different characters have different favorite gifts and touching different parts of the body can get a different reaction depending on the character and your level of intimacy I believe. Your intimacy level with a character increases depending on the combination of actions you perform, and sometimes the character also gives you gifts back like more energy or resources. There are guides for this online as well)
Text messages and phone calls (text messages are the main mode of storytelling outside of the main VN scenes - you get messages from characters or multiple characters in group chats that you respond to with preset messages or stickers similar to how you make choices during the VN parts. Some of the text messages correspond with the main plot as you progress, ex. A character texts you to be in a certain place at a certain time and next VN scene is of you two meeting at that place. I think other text messages also come up when you reach certain intimacy levels with characters. There are certain group messages that you don’t respond to where you’re basically spying on a group chat among characters and just get to see what everyone’s saying. In addition to written messages and emoji stickers characters will also sometimes send pictures. Phone calls are fully voice-acted dialog you have with another character and they seem to pop up when you reach certain intimacy levels - I’ve only gotten ones so far with the two characters I have the highest intimacy with)
Instagram spoof/“Devilgram” (Devilgram is an in-game photo sharing social media app similar to Instagram and the photos on there correspond to gacha cards. When you acquire the gacha card that corresponds to a Devilgram post you unlock a side story, but you also need keys to unlock further scenes from that story, which can be gradually earned through completing tasks and such)
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To Do tasks (completing tasks on your To Do is the main way to earn premium currency in the game along with other rewards and resources. There are daily tasks, overall tasks and tasks specific to each character. Examples of tasks are completing a certain stage or number of stages, beating a stage using a team that includes a certain character or reaching a certain intimacy level with a character. There are also beginner missions when you start the game that I think stay available until you complete all of them)
Events (there are sometimes side story events called “pop quizzes” and gacha events that are available for a limited time, or sometimes an event has both a corresponding pop quiz and gacha pool. The pop quizzes are separate chapters with their own dance battles and VN scenes, and the battles will come with reward points that you can spend on different prizes. Sometimes there are unique cards you can only get from an event. Other minor types of events include log-in bonus events and events where you can get special types of gifts for your love interests. There’s also a feature where you can “time-travel” back to old events at some cost but I haven’t explored this much)
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Jobs (you can assign characters to passively complete jobs that earn you a small amount of non-premium currency over time and also increases your intimacy with the assigned characters by a small amount)
Customization (you can unlock avatars of different characters to use for your profile and set the name you want characters to refer to you by throughout the game. You can also change the outfit of your homescreen character, change the homescreen wallpaper and change the homescreen background music by making purchases in the Akuzon shop or acquiring certain gacha cards)
⚖️ Ad Honesty Rating: 4/5 (just from the ads I’ve seen, especially the ones that appear to be running currently, there don’t seem to be blatantly fake ads and the ads show real art and do well conveying the theme and characters in the game. However some of the ads are misleading about the actual mechanics of gameplay and may also lead you to believe there are actual romance routes with the characters which is not really the case)
⭐️ Overall Rating: 5/5 (I definitely didn’t want to give this game a great rating just because it’s super popular on Tumblr but I can definitely see why it’s so popular. There are lots of things to do, the characters are very lovable, it’s funny, the art is great, the music is great and the lore and overall vibe are compelling and unique. It’s a high-quality game with a good story and I’ll probably keep playing it)
▶️ Ad Example:
▶️ Gameplay Examples:
Dance Battles
youtube
Surprise Guest
youtube
If you got through this review bless your heart ❤️ Special thanks to @human-watching-ads-from-devildom which is where I was able to view some of the ads since I was having trouble finding them elsewhere online and viewing some of them on the Facebook ad library.
Follow me for more reviews of those free mobile games you’re always getting ads for! Thanks for reading! 🥳
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rigelmejo · 4 years ago
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notes to myself basically, on how i study languages (so far, there’s always gonna be better ways i don’t know of yet lol):
learn 500-1000 common words asap, read a grammar guide that provides overview asap - like the first 3 months. If a full grammar guide doesn’t exist that’s concise (hi japanese ;-;) find a basics grammar guide at least and read that (pimsleur, websites, genki, tae kim, youtube). Specifically within the common words, at least look at the ‘300 common word tumblr to say things’ language vocab list. That list is good for me starting some kind of active vocab/expressing ideas.
if its got a different writing system, look up the alphabet in 1st month (kana for japanese, cyrillic alphabet for russian etc, pinyin for chinese). listen to pronunciation guides, and write and/or mnemonics to learn those asap.
if its got characters (like chinese, japanese), learn 300-500 super common characters ASAP (first 5 months). 
After month 3, learn up to 2000 common words (hi srs flashcard programs like anki and memrise, common word lists, graded readers), and up to 2000 characters. Not all these need to be done with srs flashcards/focused study, but get TO recognizing this many as soon as u can. Goal is get to this by month 8-10. But depending on how much i can overall understand without doing this, i may not learn All of these words by then (but ideally i should).
By 500-1000 words (and 500+ characters if needed), so after 3-5 months, start trying to immerse in what I WANT to do - so reading, watching (maybe listening, maybe games). I don’t have to do it much, but do it a bit to remember what I learned and also motivate myself to study more.
Months 5-8 somewhere between 1000-2000 words, start trying to write/say basic things to myself or on apps with others. Probably will be a mess, don’t have to do it much. Do it enough to have motivation to study more - see where I’m lacking skills. I may need more grammar explanation, or more vocab, or notice a big issue in my pronunciation etc.
Around month 8-10, around 2000+ words studied (although it may be less or more depending on what I’m comfortable with), ramp up immersion a lot. As soon as its mildly tolerable, ramp it up a LOT. Look up words when immersing as often or not often as desired, goal is to always follow at least the bare minimum main idea (and more details if possible/if I wanna put in the effort to look more up). Now I can start learning new words primarily from this. 
Reading skills - during immersion do intensive reading to learn more vocabulary quicker, extensive reading to improve overall comprehension. Do SRS flashcards/focused graded readers/word-list prep for stuff I read as needed, to speed up how much vocab I learn (if I’m learning too slow for my preference lol). Ways to make extensive reading easier: read graded readers, read show subtitles in target language while watching show, textbooks built to increase info taught in context, read stuff I’ve read translations of first, read stuff I have prior context for (I saw the show/heard already with english transcript etc), Listening reading method, read extensively what I’ve read intensively before etc.
Listening skills - start extensive listening to audio (for overall comprehension improvement). Start intensive listening where I hear words and lookup definition and/or learn word pronunciation with explanations. So start listening to audio flashcards for building a base of learned words/phrases (chinese spoonfed audio files, japanese core 2k audio, japaneseaudiolessons.com, SRS flashcards if they have audio only ones too, Coffee Break French, audio for Francais par le methode nature etc). To make extensive listening easier: start with watching/listening to shows I’ve already seen subs for, shows in general (visual context helps), comprehensible input audio (like comprehensible input french youtube, Learn Korean in Korean youtube, Dreaming Spanish youtube etc), listen with a transcript then listen without, Listening reading method, listen to things I have prior context for like audiobook of something i read/audio drama of show i’ve seen. Do some shadowing (shadowing audio flashcard files is easy and reliable tbh). 
Production skills (I am not here yet) - in general I’ve found making myself write more, talk more, to myself (like journals and practice convos) and to others, tends to improve my active vocabulary. Especially when I try to communicate about topics i’m bad at (so making myself look up those words and write/say them to put them back into active vocab). At this point I’m guessing more explicit grammar drill practice might help, people correcting me, shadowing a lot. Maybe practicing translating to that language/from it, to practice building active vocab? I’m not sure what will help most here tbh as I’ve never gotten far in this area. (For chinese, studying pronunciation more in depth and doing more listening/shadowing, and pronunciation apps, helped a lot with pronunciation itself but not active production yet). 
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i’m currently mostly just doing 8-9 for chinese right now - building reading skills, building listening skills. Varying what i do. For production skills i’m guessing there’s a ton of varied things i can do right now or later, i’m just not entirely sure what they’d be. i have not tried/troubleshooted those skills much before when studying. All i know for sure is the more i make myself use the language in Varied topics, the more i get an active vocabulary (aka writing journals, making self-convos, and doing language exchanges help in a basic way). No idea how to improve grammar though in ways that’d work well for me. so right now my skills lean heavier toward comprehension, less skill in any production. Studying chinese taught me a lot about how i learn listening skills though...which is valuable as i barely had practice learning HOW to study them when i studied french or japanese before.
troubleshooting wise - this is the rough trajectory i went through in chinese, that has worked okay for me. looking at it helps me see where i ‘slowed down’ my progress in other languages i studied.
for french - i did very LITTLE listening practice, and had few ideas of how to work on it at the time. Now I would probably do listen with transcript then without, and shadowing, to work on listening skills. And watching shows/videos with subtitles (if possible), then without subs. And very little speaking practice - same deal as listening, i did a little at some point realizing it was a weak area but not enough work on it. I also did very LITTLE production practice like language exchanges. i had few reasons to produce language, and so the few times i needed to i could mostly rely on super common words or look things up when writing. i know i’d need to do more to work on production. so i was very unbalanced - large reading comprehension, low pretty much every other skill.
for japanese... i did a lot in retrospect i wish i’d redone different. and i do it different now. i did not read/watch a grammar guide - and i still freaking need to (or at least get clear grammar exposure like nukemarine’s LLJ course’s tae kim portions). japanese has grammar i find very hard to figure-out through exposure so this holds me back a lot. and lack of immersion to both motivate me to study MORE and to practice reading/listening skills. ALSO lack of common words - i learned like 800 hanzi rough-meaning through RTK, and maybe 500 words in genki... and no wonder it wasn’t enough lol! i think nukemarine helped back years ago, because it forced me to study grammar and vocab, listening and reading, in a structured way (similar to how genki helped me in the very start before i quit using it). and japaneseaudiolessons.com helped because it made me practice listening and gave me comprehensible listening with definitions. that in combo with me really starting to immerse and TRY to read/listen at year 2+ is when i finally made some progress because i was doing things that work for me - finally. and now that i’m coming back to japanese, i’m starting to apply all those things again that were finally working. 
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anyone have any tips on how to improve production skills? Both active vocabulary, and how to both practice speaking/writing broadly AND how to fix grammar errors. 
For active vocab and general writing/speaking I know just talking more/writing more helps. But I can only tend to catch grammar errors if I run it through a translator first to compare how the translator phrases it to how I did (which can create a LOT of errors if the translator is Wrong), or if someone corrects my grammar error (which relies on other people - and preferably a tutor since i dont want to bother people who aren’t paid to correct - so what can i do on my OWN?). 
The big thing is with grammar, I can only think to either go through beginner courses Again from the start and do the writing drills and copy the patterns to internalize them? So I could correct my basic writing/speaking but not necessarily when I start speaking/writing creatively, unless I find textbooks/workbooks that eventually go into intermediate material (and of course finding textbooks/online exercises that provide correct answers so i can compare my attempts to the correct ones). Aside from either a tutor, or trying to find well made free online courses with exercises with answers provided, i’m not sure how to improve grammar production. If I write out sentences i read, would that internalize being able to ‘copy their grammar correctly’ when i write? if i shadow correctly said speeches/videos, would that help drill ‘correct grammar’ when speaking? (And be less boring then doing FSI speech drills). Basically I’m trying to find some ways (creative or not) to improve grammar in production. Improving active vocabulary seems pretty straightforward to me (make myself use it, look up words until they come natural to me - but if u got any other fun ways to improve active vocab i’d love to hear!). But I don’t know how to improve grammar when you are NOT in a class structure, have no teacher/tutor, and already have a base level of comprehension. As in like? I can read fine, but when writing I can’t tell if what I produce is grammatically correct or not - and again I can run it through a translator sometimes to try and ‘check’ but since translators make errors, my ‘corrected example’ isn’t always reliable to use as something to emulate for ‘correct form.’
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sanstropfremir · 3 years ago
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hii! I was watching some aespa stages recently and had a very odd feeling about them in regards of stage presence, or lack of it to be honest. I know you've talked about 4th gen and their need to look pretty and effortless while doing hard choreo and for a while I tried to associate that with the girls but honestly it's not even that. Karina is the only one who sometimes gives me sassy or some very toned down emotion I can't point out, the other ones just look almost robotic-like (maybe they're taking the concept too far lol). which I guess is an A+ when it comes to making the choreo and song feel easy to perform, but also its boring to see. now, I do want to know if I'm being too picky on them and what you think about their stage presence, as well as see if you think there could be a correlation to that and the fact they debuted during the pandemic and thus the lack of an audience makes it harder for them specifically to grow that on stage persona. I know more groups have debuted after music shows stopped having audiences, and pretty much the entire kpop industry is still serving through only online contents, but there could be a chance that once aespa feeds off the energy of a crowd, their performance will reach another level (pun intended)
hi hello!! as far as aespa goes, i think there are a couple of factors. one is yes, you're right, there's going to be a change in their presence when they actually get a chance to perform at length in front of an audience. this is definitely an sm specific thing though, since their mode of training is for stadium shows. tours are where sm groups really shine and they tailor their idols for that kind performance, which means strong vocals + stamina first, and then any charm and charisma takes a little longer to develop and usually comes out more in concert. you can see it in any live clips of sm artists, back when not online concerts where a thing. i think aespa is likely to have a similar trajectory as red velvet, where their music show performances are fine, but the live shows are where it's at. i also think aespa is also sm's experiment in order to try and catch gen z/the tiktok crowd, so they're adopting a slightly different method. remember, sm hasn't actually debuted a new group since 2016, where kpop was a very different environment than late 2020. i went back and watched some black mamba stages and i don't find them that uninteresting, but there is a slight change between their debut and next level/savage. there's a marked increase in small hand and head movements in the choreo and dramatic camera choreography, which are both common to tiktok style dancing, where you can actually have those kind of movements and focus because you have a narrower eye and better control. sm even released a 'camera guide for creators' for savage, which.....telling. to be fair they also did this for sticker but i don't think it worked the same since that isn't really the ncity bag. but i think it's working for aespa. however they haven't made the leap as well as they could have, because sm has trained such strict resting model faces on them that now that we're seeing their faces up close a lot, we can see there's not a lot going on (where it was a little more disguised with black mamba). again - this is definitely an sm specific training technique, where they want their idols to have flawless straight resting faces and that they have to maintain that flawlessness through anything. sm has been in this game the longest and they're going to be very reluctant to bend their tried and true methods, especially because they are the gold standard, even though the trend has been heavily listing to 'relatable' (read: ability to make semi-stupid expressions) idols for the last couple of years. if i were to hazard a guess as to what the sm training program looks like, i would say their order of skills priorities are:
vocals
media/face/body language training
specialist skills (dance/rap)
group dance + cohesion
-> debut
settlement period
development of personality/charisma
aespa is still in this settlement period, as it hasn't even been a year yet, and i bet their coaches have been saying the same things about 'how it will all change' when they get in front of an audience.
so yes? i guess i could say that you're being too picky on them? but also if they aren't vibing with you that's also very fine. however, i will say that the whole no audience music shows situation has actually produced some new groups that i think have a lot of stage presence/character and promise, and will likely only improve if they manage to stick around. purple kiss had a fantastic debut and an even better first comeback (also both their eps are no skips which is ILLEGAL for a group that only has two eps). i found blitzers by youtube algorithm chance and their debut is pretty good (and ridiculous) but their first comeback is excellent and you can see the improvement even in four months (teenage boys really are sponges). also see my previous post about e'last, they debuted at i think the same time as aespa (late 2020) and although there's so many of them, they have a pretty strong group presence already.
#aespa#aespa w#kpop questions#of all the kpop companies i would describe ONLY sm as an institution with a methodology#because the arm of their apparatus is much more apparent than even with yg or jype#like i can tell that sm has a massive internal structure and very specific methods that have been honed over a long period of time#i don't get the same kind of read of consistency from any other company#hybe might make the most money now and aesthetically their stuff looks the same but they don't have the same structure.#i also think sm is reluctant to change because they know they're going to be able to go back to doing stadium shows at some point#and then theyre gonna RAKE it in#i read a crazy stat a couple days ago that even though they only did SIX shows in jan 2020#tvxq was in the top 10 highest earning touring artists for all of 2020. i cant even imagine what a shinee tour would have been#OH and the cancelled taemin tour..........we could have had it all.......#honestly i think when aespa starts touring they're going to change the savage and probably the next level choreo so that it reads better#check back to this post in the next few years and let me know if im right#someone ask me another question about aespa i wanna talk about how sm is bringing back the 2yk first gen kpop futurist aesthetic!!!!!#text#answers#the blitzer boys are my children i was geniunely so surprised at how good their comeback was#im so sad it was only a week of promo!!!! a crime!!!! but also these boys are like 17-18 they should be in school#and the purkies....my girls...........i would lay down my life for them#i actually screamed out loud listening to their second ep it is SO good#cast pearls before swine soty
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dr-nero-is-god · 4 years ago
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i felt the urge to riff on the hive streams for a little bit since discussion came up on the hive discord, namely, holding issue with the idea that the alpha stream is inconsistent in that it is about leadership when otto is the only leader, and that it’s also possible that the alphas are just kids with specialized skills, and not actually bonded by any particular unifying element.
and, in response, @vulpix-sinistre brought up a quote from the abridged hive fanfic, that goes something like: “there are four streams: main characters, stereotypical bullies, ?, and nerds.”
and i disagree with the first two ideas, but almost completely agree with the abridged fic quote. that is pretty much how the streams work, and it is IMPORTANT that that is how the streams work. 
in the end, you may conclude that the streams system still doesn’t make sense. you won’t be like “well clearly dr. nero was just logically dividing the labor of his students to reflect a specialized training program” because it’s more complicated on that. i  hate to do this to y’all, but a lot of everything streams-related requires an out-of-book explanation to get where you’re going, but i can promise that i will at least try to go
first, let’s think about why h.i.v.e. would have streams at all
on the one hand, it’s inescapable to consider that one primary reason that hive has streams is because harry potter had houses, and for the same reason that percy jackson had cabins, the 39 clues had branches, hunger games had sections (or counties, idk), divergent had factions, and so on and so on. the rise of fandom spaces on the internet was concurrent with a big ya/mg boom in the post-2005 world (after twilight was published), and within those fandom spaces it became important to identify with an aspect of the fantasy world as part of your personality. that became a very marketable thing for a while, and so separating children into streams would, to a publisher, seem like a pretty solid storytelling choice.
however! the alpha stream is not the same as gryffindor house. on the one hand, it seems easy to make an alpha/gryffindor and henchman/slytherin parallel, because one group is good (relatively) and one is bad (or at least antagonistic). but it doesn’t work because while slytherin has a reputation for constituents of poor moral character (which has been largely revised in fanon), being a henchman is where you go, according to the books, if you are unintelligent and burly. it’s not a really sexy stream, is what i’m trying to say. and though there are undoubtedly some readers who would look at the henchman stream and see themselves, i think the majority of readers would likely find the henchman stream a completely undesirable stream to be in. 
and, given how little importance the role of streams have after the first book, i will go out on a limb and say that mark walden knows that the henchman stream is unsexy. we aren’t interested in the hopes and dreams and motivations of the henchman stream; as we learn in book two, the ideal henchman is weak-minded and easily led—so what dreams would they even have? this leads me to conclude that while mark walden might have sold h.i.v.e. on the “there are personality-based groups in the school!” idea, he had something completely else in mind when he started writing and that, I think, is actually far more interesting.
but really, why would h.i.v.e. have streams at all
a few things about mark walden: 1) he studied english lit in school, 2) he has a background as a video game producers, and 3) he likes james bond. i know the first two things because i have read his bio and i know the third thing because i have read his books in conjunction with seeing all the james bond films. so we will call 1-3 facts. 
if you are wondering what a lit degree, video game production, and the james bond franchise all have in common, then let me connect those dots: all three of those things depend heavily on the study and understanding of repetitive structure in storytelling as an interpreter and creator of meaning. each one of these fields requires an understanding of how stories and words work to create meaning in order to be successful. 
and, to quote mr. walden here directly (sourced from this here link):
“So, I was playing with this cat one day and it got me thinking that those old-school Bond villains always just seemed to appear out of thin air with very little back story and that got me thinking about how they became world- conquering megalomaniacs in the first place.  It was only a short mental walk from there to HIVE.”
so, imagine you’re a writer trying to tell a story about a school for villains like those in james bond—you’ve studied storycraft and you have a lot of experience in a job finding believable and compelling obstacles for people to interact with in video games. you have noticed patterns. and you need to make those patterns work for you.
enter: streams
i have watched all the james bond movies (all of ‘em) (i mean it) (just not the unreleased one yet lol) and you know what? 
there’s probably just about four kinds of villains in those movies.
henchmen include the likes of jaws, oddjob, and tee hee. often physically disabled in a cinematically interesting way, these guys are the muscles and the machines in every bond film. they are the ones who tail bond as he takes long train rides and who try to personally throw him into shark tanks. they are the hands and feet of their evil masters and they don’t have a lot of emotional depth or backstory. 
politicians/financiers abound in the james bond franchise because he is a government employee who often hangs out with other government employees (he has no friends). these people are like colonel rosa klebb, georgi koskov, prince kamal khan. there are a lot more, as a matter of fact, because the whole point of james bond is that they are in the cold war and even people without titles have political and financial motivations for screwing around with stuff. these types of villains depend on being well and truly embedded in an existing infrastructure or hierarchy, somebody who worked their way up from being a foot soldier or clerk into a powerful leadership position that gives them a lot of state-sanctioned trust and authority.
technicians and inventors include folks like henry gupta and boris grishenko, who use technology as their primary weapon. they are often inventors or innovators and are really good at making high-tech stuff. however, i think this stream is also a direct result of the character Q, someone who is actually on James Bond’s team and who runs an entire department of people who test sometimes outlandish gadgets for Bond to use in the field. (but we love the gadgets. they are fun.) in other words, Bond arguably has a technical stream at his disposal in MI6, which means the idea isn’t necessarily evil, but, likewise, our James Bond School also needs Qs. it’s the rules. if you are familiar with Q from James Bond at all then you understand
and that leaves us with alphas... the “supervillains.” these are the famous ones. dr. no. mr. big. scaramanga. le chiffre. blofeld. max zorin. emilio largo. goldfinger. these are the ones with the master plan, the dreams to recreate the world as they see it, the passion to see their desires to fulfillment and the resources to make them happen. they are rich. they are fancy. they are larger than life. is it weird that karl stromberg tries to incite a nuclear war between Britain and the USSR so that a lot of people can die so that he can colonize the ocean? yes. but by god, it’s fancy and dramatic, and that’s what counts. 
are there other kinds of villains? oh, definitely. lots more. but you have to understand, that those kinds of villains generally don’t appear in Bond. sometimes! but it’s not a staple. for example, not many people in the bond films are motivated by revenge because each movie is kind of designed to function as a one-shot. villains don’t come back and so there is no revenge. the villain who gets the most notable reprise, jaws, actually ends up finding his true love in space. 
compare: every movie is going to have henchmen. every movie has government stooges making morally questionable decisions. (almost) every movie has Q, or some gadget stuff going on. and every movie has a big bad that has to be better than the last. 
so that explains why the streams are what they are. 
it was a jumping-off point for mark walden to figure out what this universe might look like and how different character types need to function. consider that while the core four are all alphas and are kind of insulated as a group, the teachers all kind of roughly align with one of these groups. colonel francisco, raven, and chief lewis are henchmen types, doing on-the-ground work to get stuff done. ms. tennenbaum and the contessa are political af, they are all about the corruption and infiltrating institutional power. ms. gonzales, ms. leon, and professor pike all have technical skills that help keep an organization moving forward. and over them all is the singular alpha, dr. nero, who is coordinating and monitoring it all for his own evil plan: to run a high school.
honestly, dr. nero’s hive idea operates just like a james bond villain plot! it works, or it does when pitching the idea. the problem is that the books continued after the pitch did, and with worldbuilding came some complications. namely, the fact that the megastructure of james bond villainy does not replicate well into a small friend group on which the narration focuses. so let’s return to the question presented at the beginning:
how can alphas really be alphas when not everyone on the field trip can be a mastermind?
i’m gonna give this to you in two ways. one, the way i personally interpret it as an in-universe explanation, given the background premises we have already established. and the other, why the stream system kind of ruins the structure it sets out to create.
so, for me, the alphas can be alphas because there is more to villainy than being a mastermind and there is more to being a mastermind than being in charge. as i think about it, this novelization is actually the backstory for every one of the students, who will go on to do great and scary things. they will manage big projects and come up with interesting ways to terrorize the British government, because that is what James Bond villains do (and James Bond does canonically exist in their universe). much like your actual teenage years, this is not the main event.
as students, the core four need to learn to do a little bit of everything. you gotta learn some lock-picking, that’s essential. everyone has to be able to climb a rock wall. it’s the rules. and everyone needs to be able to do some programming. that’s just the way school is. though everyone has a different personality and a different way of looking at the world, their education has to cover the basics because the fact of the matter is, none of them are villains yet. will they become one? that remains to be seen. but they are being given the tools to become the greatest villains if that is something they choose. 
the main problem that remains when holding this attitude is that the specialized skills of otto and his friends might be better suited to other streams, in which case, what is an alpha anyways?
here’s the facts: if everyone were assigned to a stream by talent, then there wouldn’t be an alpha stream.
franz? political/financial stream. 
nigel? laura? otto? technical stream.
shelby? wing? henchman stream. 
you can debate me on the specifics of those assignments, but the point is this: all the other streams are based on hard skills. franz can manage a ledger and that is a financial skill. laura can build a computer from scratch and that is a technical skill. wing can do martial arts, and each martial art is a physical skill that can be taught and performed in a measurable level of proficiency. 
the idea of being a “mastermind” is a much softer skill—which is to say, there’s no one recipe that will make it work. my manager at work has coached me by saying that leadership is often about having a “style,” and working at it that way. leadership requires interpersonal flexibility, being able to stay organized and to make important decisions rapidly, it is about being able to prioritize and delegate. and it’s very much open to interpretation, every day, all the time. 
let me tell you something else about james bond: there is a lot of classism, racism, and sexism embedded into every aspect of those films, but that goes for double when it comes to the villains in the show. to vastly oversimplify that very concept, it shows up in the bond films like this: henchmen are working class folks, the villainous equivalent of “the help,” and the supervillains are (usually) rich and glamorous and powerful. henchmen are uneducated (read as: stupid) and ugly and poor. no one cares if they die. (there’s more complexities, as always, but this essay isn’t actually about james bond so we’ll fast forward through My Opinions to the end)
the problem with replicating james bond in your villain school universe is that some of the biases of the james bond universe get replicated in there, too. poor and uneducated folks get turned into disposable henchmen whose lives are irrelevant. people who are educated and talented get fast-tracked to a more glamorous and interesting stream that will catapult them to the top of the ladder as soon as they graduate. if you look at the dialect with which block and tackle are written, they are clearly meant to be seen as a different social class than otto, despite the fact that otto is coming from basically nothing. and we understand that when otto graduates, he will be able to do basically anything that he wants to at all.
so, if you’re asking why wing has a role in the alpha stream when he doesn’t seem as leader-y as otto, there’s a simple answer: because dr. nero believes that wing can be more.
the climax of book one is dr. nero explicitly telling otto, wing, laura, and shelby that they are in his school because he believes in them and he wants to see them grow. they are given an elite status other students do not have despite the fact that they have just literally tried to escape. as we see in the case of duncan cavendish, the main way to get on that highway to a guaranteed career is to convince him that you’ve “got it.” for those who are not believed in, there is no way to make up for the special grooming. you’re stuck with the stream you’re placed in, doomed (perhaps) to be a second-in-command at best.
is all this intentional? probably not. but it is implicit in the structure of the story and, alas, that’s the way it is.
all i can think to say in conclusion is that while the stream system tends to replicate some of the unfair and classist realities present in other media and the world we live in, i think part of the reason we read h.i.v.e. is because the alpha stream is so appealing. imagine! you are competent and you have a desirable, specialized skill as well as a proficiency in many general skills and you are certain you are going to do good things—and all because someone believes in you. to receive someone else’s support and confidence can be life-changing. the magic of h.i.v.e. is that yes—lives are changed and ordinary, boring people were elevated to the level of supervillains. we are only left to wonder, are they the only people who deserved that honor?
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shhhlikeme · 5 years ago
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hi can u do a headcanon when a fem reader moves from karasuno to aoba johsai and still is friends with the karasuno boys.Iwaizumi falls for her because of her skills as a setter and also for being independent and not crushing on oikawa lol.She occasionally smiles at him and likes him too but shes too scared of relationships because of her past one and, scenario where iwaizumi is watching her lead her team and making fun of the other team lol after that he confesses to her
This is the first request I’ve received that is this specific and while I found it harder to write than the rest.... it was a fun challenge trying to follow your plot! I had so much fun! Thank you anon youre awesome💜
TRIGGER WARNING: this story slightly explores themes of abusive relationships. Please tread carefully.
Iwaizumi Hajime x “The Spicy New Girl” Crush
Iwaizumi x Reader
———————————————-
After 2 1/2 years on the Karasuno’s volleyball team, you kind of figured that if you were really serious about getting a volleyball scholarship for University, you had to get on a better team.
A full-ride athletic scholarship was very important because you knew your parents couldn’t afford it otherwise and you’d just love to take that stress away from them
You were already in 3rd year and time as ticking
Not that anyone knew it, but your parents couldn’t afford your post secondary education because they had to tap into/empty your entire college savings fund in order to afford your lawyer expenses
The money had been used to fight a case against your abusive (all types), much older ex-boyfriend. You were susceptible and groomed in middle school by a 20-year old volleyball coach and you fell for him. It went how it usually goes for girls who stand up against their abuser who has power and was known as a stand-up coach in the community. No one believed you. The restraining order never worked or stopped him and the last time he found you he had beaten you so badly that you were able to put him away for battery only.
Your parents and yourself decided to pick up and move to the countryside of Japan in the hopes of starting fresh. You got to start high school at the charming Karasuno High School since the beginning.
They had a volleyball team, and you would be damned if you let your ex ruin your love for volleyball like he tried ruining your life
Each summer you trained like crazy and even though you were your own judge, you knew you were a force to be reckoned with as a player.
Of course you made the team and you were pretty happy
But you soon realized ‘happy’ did not equate to ‘scholarship’ not even close.
The Karasuno girls volleyball team wasn’t like the boys team, where it took shaking them up, new first years and determination to make them a killer team....
Your team didn’t even garner a 20% turnout at practices.
While your teammates are nice, none of them really saw volleyball as more than a club to satisfy a credit
Which meant you would constantly go over to the boys’ practice and wait until Ukai thought it was fine for you to set some spikes for them....
Kageyama, who became like a little brother to you, would bitch at you for stealing his reps while Sugawara (who was more like a twin brother since you were the same age) would give you corrections
While you had a strict personality by nature, It was great to watch talented setters like them
Improving was imperative because you just had to get that scholarship & if Universities were going to recruit you then you’d need to get to Nationals, at the very least
This was not going to be possible on your current team at Karasuno
Even though you adored your captain/bestie Michimiya —or what you liked to call her: Daichi’s dickrider who was always the only other girl at practice — even she had mentioned to your parents at a sleepover that they should look into other volleyball programs at other schools
She had known of your story because you trusted her so she was set on getting you that scholarship also
Your parents listened to Michimiya and sent your highlight tapes out.
Before you knew it you had been invited to multiple crash-tryouts mid-semester
Soon your parents received many offers, but they believed the best one was from a wealthy private school called Aoba Johsai (aka Seijoh) because they not only had an amazing team, they offered their daughter fully paid room and board on campus.
You immediately agreed because that meant even more money your parents could save after emptying their bank accounts on your awful lawsuit
So, after saying goodbye to your lovable Karasuno boys team and Michimiya, you traded your Karasuno high school uniforms much to Nishinoya’s displeasure for Seijoh’s turquoise accented fits
One week went by
You settled into Aobo Johsai school pretty quickly. The team was practically a shoe-in to win Nationals, especially with you, and your teammates were a little boy crazy but SO intense which you kind of loved.
The intense not the boy crazy .
You could get aggressive when it came to volleyball because you had so much on the line so it was nice to know the girls could take your attitude
Your team and coaches really got your head in the game to the point where you would caught yourself not even thinking about your past relationship some days
You made budding friends especially your roommate who was also on your team and everything was going smoothly for the first week
On your first Friday after move in you and your roommate were running late for practice
On the opposite side of school, Seijoh setter and Ace Oikawa Toru and Iwaizumi Hajime were making their way over to the gym too
They had just finished eating and were asked to run some errands for their coach, which included giving some time sheets to the girls volleyball teams head coach who they knew very well
Their coach happened to be the old captain of the boys team when Iwa and Toru were wee little first years
Iwaizumi had a little pet peeve of long treks with his best friend .... because they would be stopped 50 fucking times by his fan girls for shit-all.
It’s not that Iwaizumi was jealous of his best friend, not really. He knew he was a pretty good looking guy and he was sure Oikawa would die if he didn’t receive that kind of attention so it didn’t matter
It didn’t bother him most the time
But when it interrupted even a simple 10-minute walk to the girls gym it got pretty damn annoying
Granted, he would probably like for the hot girls in school to fawn over him as much as Oikawa but even when girls saw Iwa first and thought he was attractive, they would then see his best friend approaching and Iwaizumi would ultimately be eclipsed by his pretty-boy of a best friend
Oikawa’s bitch of an ex girlfriend once said that if Toru was “The Great King,” then Hajime was the attractive Lord Commander of the Kings Guard. Not as good as the king but, definitely still good.
He hated her lol. ❌ She really thought this was Game of Thrones or something
Iwa’s analogy was better:
It was kind of like that singing group The Pussycat Dolls...... while the other 5 members were smoking hot and talented, Nicole Scherzinger was the main event.
Toru was Nicole.
Maybe he should start calling him “Pussykawa” as a commemoration
Back to the present
Iwa-chan waited with his hands stuffed in his pockets like he always did while his friend thanked his admirers profusely for the compliments and gifts
The girls squealed and told him they’ve been trying to accidentally run into him all day
Yuck, are these chicks not embarassed to admit that? Iwa thought in disgust.
He’s heard worse before though. And then some. Even when they go off-campus on a normal outing to the movies or something with just the boys - Oikawa would be recognized from that volleyball magazine and tv and consequently get swarmed by cute girls. It made a lot of guys unable to even be around Oikawa because they were so insanely jealous
Over the years, Toru lost a lot of friends because of it
But Iwa-chan was a better friend than that. While everyone ditched annoyingkawa.... he endured the eclipse that was his best friend’s so-called peak-attractiveness because he was a real ass friend. They’ve been inseparable since they were kids. So, as much as he hated to admit it, and as much as they tease each other: he’d take a bullet for shittykawa and shittykawa would do the same tenfold.
Anyway, in double the time it should have taken, the 2 boys finally made it to the gym to deliver the sheets to the coach
Iwa walked over to the coach coolly while the girls team mostly stopped to wave and bat their eyelashes at Toru.
“Hey ladies, I saw your last game. Amazing pinch serve Natalie. Leah, awesome receives and—“
Iwa drowned him out as the coach began talking to him.
“Hajime, I thought I told you to keep Mr. Oikawa out of my practices? He distracts my players way too much.”
Iwa shrugged. “I’m not his keeper, coach.”
- Iwa squinted his eyes when he noticed there was one girl on the team that wasn’t gushing over shittykawa. She was setting herself in perfect sets, looking up at the gym ceiling so he couldn’t see her/your face.
Hajime looked away when the other squealed at something Toru said. He sighed. “You need someone on the team that will whip them into shape coac—“ Iwa started to say but he was interrupted by the yelling of that mystery girl. You had your back facing Iwa now because you were facing the group of girls who should be bloody practicing surrounding a boy who just walked into the gym. Getting PTSD from the times when your last team wouldn’t take volleyball seriously, you snapped at them.
“LADIES!” You belted. All the girls jumped from being startled. “I KNOW I’M NEW BUT YOUR AMAZING PARENTS DO NOT PAY 30K A YEAR TO THIS SCHOOL FOR YOU TO BE OVER THERE BEGGING FOR LIKES IN REAL LIFE. WE SHOULD BE PRACTICING! GET YOUR ASSES BACK HERE! NOW.”
The girls looked back with widened eyes before they jogged away from the boy, muttering their apologies to you and getting straight to drills.
“You were saying.....?” Laughed Seijoh’s coach to Iwa. He cupped his ear like he was listening. “I need someone on the team that does what now?”
Iwa barely heard because he was too busy staring at you in awe.
“W-wh-who is that?” Iwaizumi asked the coach as he crossed his arms in front of him.
“Meet Y/N L/N. 3rd year. New recruit. Used to be a crow, can you believe it? Tryna get a last minute scholarship. But she’s good. Very analytical. Setter. Brilliant and—“
“Gorgeous.” Iwa finished for the coach, finally gifted with the luxury of seeing your face as you let your bouncy hair out of its ponytail only to do it up again. His throat went dry temporarily.
“Iwa-chan, the new girl is pretty cute right?” Iwaizumi jumped out of his skin when he heard his best friend’s voice right beside him.
“Wha-when when did you get here?!” Hajime accused in surprise.
Oikawa studied his best friend with an amused smile. “Iwa-chan...are you blushing while you stare at our girls team’s new starting setter?!” He clutched his heart for dramatic effect. “I can admit that she’s almost as good looking as me but.... I don’t think I’ve ever seen you blush before. My little boy is discovering the joys of the fairer sex.”
Iwaizumi was just about to punch the lights out of his friend for saying something so embarrassing before a volleyball did it for him. It hit Oikawa smack in the head and he fell to the ground.
You ran over in panic because you totally didn’t mean for your flying receive to go that far!
“Oh my God, oh my God I’m soooo sorry!” You ran past another tall boy and attempted to help the one that was on the floor back onto his feet.
Iwaizumi was on cloud nine when you brushed past him because you smelled like citrus. He openly stared at your ass as you bent down.
ya he was definitely going to be attending all of the girls games from now on just to see you
To Iwaizumi, you weren’t just gorgeous with a drool-worthy body, you were athletic, you put your team in their place just like he did without caring about being mean
which ultimately made you a fantasy of his
He wanted to know more about you
He wanted you to choose him.
For the first time, Iwaizumi silently held his breath because now was the part where you would come face-to-face with “the great kingkawa” and fall in love with him like every other girl did.
Iwa braced himself for dejection because for all he knew you hit Toru on purpose to have an excuse to talk to him
It was a volleyball players pick up strategy number #1
I’m serious lol
Well, if you did, at least she is better than the “we tried to run into you” girls, -__- thought Iwa.
“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” You asked, genuinely concerned.
Iwaizumi caught himself staring at your lips as you spoke to his friend. Keep fucking talking, he thought, as he felt himself get a little aroused at the mere fact that you were so close. Blame him as you may but he wanted those lips of yours to move against his lips, and on his chest, and on his.....well, you know.
Iwa mentally slapped himself. God, he’s already having day dreams about you?! And he had just seen you for the first time 10 minutes ago??!! He needed to get it together.
Oikawa shook his head and blushed in response to your question. While he may get tons of female attention, he was still a guy, and he still recognized that you were really beautiful. Standing up, Oikawa smiled down at you. “I’m fine. No need for alarm, new princess. I can still attend the boys vs. girls game next week so there’s no need to cry or worry....”
You looked up at the boy curiously.
No one could have prepared themselves for what you were about to say to Oikawa next:
“Oh, are you on the boys team? Are you the manager?”
“World Stop.” - *Beyoncé voice*
..........
ummmmmmm
ummmmmmmmm
err-what’s worse than saying RIP Oikawa?
‘Sorry that you just ceased to exist’, Oikawa?
Iwaizumi froze when he heard what you said, instantaneously falling in love with you.
it’s possible ok? fight me
If there was ever a time when fast love was possible it would be now aight
Stunnedkawa, on the other hand, had frozen too.... but for entirely different reasons than his friend’s. He drew into himself, shutting his mouth and walking away like he was in a trance. He muttered something about going back to the room he and Iwaizumi shared and Iwaizumi watched him pass a few girls who were calling to him like he couldn’t even hear them.
“Strange guy.” You shrugged, turning your attention to the other guy who you thought truly looked like a volleyball player. “Can you make sure to tell your manager that I’m sorry for hitting him?” You ask hopefully.
Iwaizumi nods as you two maintain eye contact.
She’s perfect, he thinks
This man is so fine, you think. Tall, broad shoulders, brunette, looks like he could go for rounds, yes ma’am!
You snap back out of it, giving him an apologetic smile before running back to the court to finish the drills. Iwa melted at your smile. You yelled some more at your teammates who looked to be flirting with some more boys who came in.
Iwa’s gaze followed you as you moved out of earshot, unable to take his eyes off of you as you yelled again.
He thought you were beyonnnnd sexy when you yelled like that
Hajime didn’t know he had a type before today but he knows now that his ideal type is whatever comes closest to you
The girl’s coach, who was still standing beside Iwaizumi, nudged him lightly with his elbow.
“You stare at Y/N any harder and I think you actually will manage to ask her out telepathically.”
Iwa let a small smile grace his face. The desire to ask you out had taken off when he saw your little ponytail release. Now it was about — “Hey, thanks for the advice.” He mumbled sarcastically. “But, hey coach?” Iwaizumi asks in his deep voice, clearing his throat and still not taking his eyes off of you.
The coach turned to Iwa.
“Yeah?”
He smirked to himself. “Know any good jewelry stores in the city? I’m ready to buy your new setter an engagement ring.”
—————————-
Let me know if you guys want a part 2 to this bc I couldn’t get to the confession in this post obviously.... I was writing too much. In part 2 I’m thinking you and Iwa run into your ex one day? And we see that Seijoh boys vs. Girls volleyball match? You decide!
Ps. I almost titled this story Iwaizumi x “The New Girl That Fucked Shit Up” lmao
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