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sanfangirl-cynicalromantic · 11 months ago

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Ooooh hi! I’m always ready to talk Hiccstrid fanfiction. Let’s go over some of the classic fandom staples before moving on to the more hidden gems.

*Apologies for the choppy language this was not all written at once*

So I’m sure we all know the iconic Persephone by @thatsnicebutimmarried and also Scars We Gave by @hiilikedragons. Those ones were kinda the OG sacrifice aus. But I just want cover my bases. Both contain mature content.

Crossing The Line by AvannaK is so, so good. It takes place after the first movie and incorporating characters from the books mostly Cami. Their writing is kinda reminicent of @e-wills-afterhours's in the best way. Oh, and check out @e-wills-afterhours's stuff as well like Sweet Tea And Road Dust.

There’s also Walls We Build by the beautiful and talented @katergator84. A beautiful modern au with sassy Hiccstrid that makes you weak in the knees plus therapeutic healing. Might I add the hot smut is also top tier.

And while we’re on the topic of masterpieces we have to mention @tysonrunningfox’s Ripped and all of their other work. Hiccstrid is so iconic and unique in this story, yet not out of character at all. You truly get to appreciate this newer side to them as they fall in love again in the middle of multiple murders happening all around them both from the past and present. Oh and the rating is mature because murder plus romance

Back to my FF.net days, one bookmarked story everybody had was Only At DragonTech. The classic billionaire CEO story. It’s so sexy, you’ll love it. It’s rated mature as well, but there isn’t anything explicit, just heavily implied fill in the blanks.

And of course I must include the obligatory mention of @harrypanther and all their fics. Since you're asking for underrated ones let's go back to the really old classics of theirs and so Captain Fury: Pirate of Berk and If are some beautiful longfics that derserve to be appreciated more often.

I saw in the comments someone recommended For The Love of a Princess (rated M) by @shipmistress9 and I couldn’t agree more. If you’re into Royalty Hiccstrid, might I recommend Murphy’s Law by @impracticable-dreamer (the best retelling of a typical fairytale ever), The Imposter by @harrypanther which gives us the Knight!Hiccup we deserve (both rated T). Bird Set Free by @msdownwithlove - you don’t understand I just found this series recently and I am OBSESSED!!!! Where has this been all my life?!!! The hot smut, the political tension, the arranged marriage, the forced proximity, the reluctant slowburn and past love … I need you to just message me out of the blue when you’ve read it so we can rant about it together. And, I mean, I could also nudge you towards The Lady Knight by yours truly featuring Astrid oblivious to her very obvious feelings because she is too focused on being the knight in shining armor herself. It has friends to lovers, tending each other’s battle wounds as romantic gestures… I’m not desperate for validation or anything at all. Those were all hidden gems right there. Take note. And since it appears I’m getting all the medieval aus out there at once we can’t forget To Suffer A Witch by @triumphantfury

If you want angst combined with a supernatural understanding of Astrid’s fear, I shall excitedly bring forth got you mesmerized while I die but Double_Trouble_36 on AO3. I’m serious I was so surprised at the quality. The r style is simplistic, but in such a way that it just highlights the points they making better. Oh, and they human have five different flashbacks going at once without taking away from the story, but giving you that “ah,” moment of realization when all the emotions finally come crashing on you like tidal wave.

Another severely underrated gem in Wingless and Warbound by @bi-bi-want-dragon and all her other beautiful fluff.

If you like post canon, A Guiled Appetite by Lady Haddock, while not exactly very Hiccstrid had me dying with laughing so definitely give that perfect diamond a try.

For the Photographer Hiccup au my favorites are objet d’art by @impracticable-dreamer , Glamour Shots by oh-you-pretty-things on AO3, (I know they have a tumblr but I can’t find it so), and Photoshoot by @heathenvampires

To build on that, there is artist Hiccup. While I know there are so many, the ones that I can find the links to right now are Nude by BlueberryToasterTart and Girl in the Charcoal Sketch by FrozenJinni.

And if you liked the last story, I really recommend Coppélia by the same author and it is CRIMINAL that it's not as famous as it deserves to be.

I'm sure you know of @wilderwestqueen's Hiccstrid masterpieces (you may know her from You're Everything I Want (And Nothing I Can Keep) one of the most iconic fake dating Hiccstrid fics I've ever read), but let's once again throw out A Pinch of Sugar and A Dash of Spite - these haters-to-lovers have me frothing at the mouth from feral enjoyment - and Don't Tell the Bride which is a wonderful, hilarious Hiccstrid on a reality TV show and all her other stories, but Don't Tell the Bride is a story that I specifically remember being surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

Don't forget Dishonor by @blueteehood because God this is so amazing it just leaves me speechless each time I read it. I want to cry at how good it is.

I also love Hiccup Found by hiccupfound. It's gritty and zombies and . . . it's so good. I read it once and thought it was good, but made the mistake of forgetting to bookmark it. A year or so later I madly tore through my AO3 history desperately searching for it again after craving that story more that sugar.

There are so many more but I really need to work now so I hope you enjoy and let me know what stories you've read and which ones are new!

HTTYD fans I have milked all the old, classic and iconic fics out there (Thank you authors for giving me these literature pearls). Do you have any recs from the last fews years/present time? Thank you <3

#Hiccstrid #Fic rec #Hiccstrid recs #Hiccstrid au #HTTYD modern au #HTTYD canon divergence #Haters to Lovers #Hiccstrid modern au #Hiccstrid royalty au #Hiccstrid medieval au #Photographer!Hiccup #Artist!Hiccup #Hiccstrid dystopian au #how to train your dragon #HTTYD #Hiccup Haddock #Astrid Hofferson #Hiccstrid angst

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mandospace · 4 years ago

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Allure (Boba Fett x Reader)

Request: Hi! I love your writing! 🖤 May I request something with jealous Boba? 🙏🏻✨

Requested By: @kat-r-in

Word Count: 4,224

Warnings: Strong language, jealousy

A/N: Sorry if this kind of sucks :( But maybe you don’t think it sucks, so enjoy, anyways! **gif not mine, credit to the creator!**

MASTERLIST

“If we come in from the side, he won’t suspect a thing.”

“No, that’s too obvious- he’d spot us from a mile away.”

The constant bickering between the two Mandalorians was becoming old, and fast. They were surrounding a table that had maps scattered over it, gloved fingers pointing at different areas. A single puck sat between them, hologram shining the face of the quarry that the two hunters were after. The three of you had tracked the quarry to Canto Bight- one of the richer and more frivolous cities the three of you had ever been. You were positive that he was hiding somewhere in one of the many bars and casinos- the question was which one.

After some light scouting done by the two hunters, the pair determined that the quarry was hiding out in the largest casino that Canto Bight had to offer. Go figure.

The three of you- more accurately the two bounty hunters- were trying to come up with a plan to capture the quarry effectively and as quietly as possible. Drawing attention in a city this big was never good, and the two Mandalorians already stuck out like a sore thumb in their beskar armor.

“Well we can’t just walk up to the guy,” Boba huffed, thick arms crossing over his chest in exasperation. The bickering was giving you a headache. You tried to tune them out as best as you could but their deep voices seemed to echo in the hull of Slave One. Rubbing your temples for some form of relief, Din spoke up.

“Why not?”

Boba gave Din an annoyed glance through his black visor. His irritation radiated from him in waves. “I don’t really have to explain why that is a stupid idea to you, do I?”

“No,” Din shook his head. “Not us. Her.” He swung his arm out in your general direction, casting the Mandalorians’ gaze on you. You squirmed in your seat at the attention.

“Me?”

“No.” Boba spoke at the same time you did, voices overlapping. Embarrassment at being called out soon turned to frustration at Boba’s quick dismissal of you. You could feel your metaphorical hackles raise in defense.

“Why not?” Din cut in before you could argue for yourself. “She’s perfect. Put her in a pretty dress and she’d blend in with the wealthiest of the crowd. She could saunter right up to the quarry and seduce him like that.” Din punctuated his sentence with a snap of his fingers. You could feel the blush rising to your cheeks at his suggestion of you seducing someone- you couldn’t do that. “She tempts him out the back door where we will be waiting to get him. It’d be over in an hour.”

Din’s words hung in the air as Boba contemplated the plan before answering with a resounding ‘no.’ Anger flashed hot in your veins.

“I can do it,” you shot a glare at the green helmet before turning to Din’s silver one. “When do we start?”

“I said no.” Boba’s tone was dangerous- the threat very clear. Before Din could argue for you again, you hopped off your crate and stormed up to the older hunter.

“You don’t get to decide what I do or don’t do,” you jabbed a finger into the green cuirass. Pain radiated through your finger, you forgot just how hard beskar was.

“It’s too dangerous,” Boba grabbed your wrist to push away your hand. Hurt flashed through your eyes at his motion. “You could get hurt.”

“Then one of us will protect her,” Din interjected, disrupting the tense glaring match you and Boba were having. “Follow her from a distance, watch out for any problems. And if she needs us, we’ll be there.”

“I’ll be fine, Boba,” you switched tactics, trying to appeal to his more gentler side. If he even had one. You reached your hand out and rested it on the green beskar covering his chest. This time he didn’t push you away. “Din will step in if anything-”

“I’m going to watch you.” Boba cut you off and settled his gaze on your face. You couldn’t be sure, but you were certain that he was looking you in the eye. “Din will wait out back to catch him. If anything goes wrong, I will step in and protect you, even if it means the quarry gets away. Understand?”

Din spoke his understanding, nodding along to the plan. You were frozen to the floor of the ship, trapped under Boba’s gaze. While his words were meant for Din, you couldn’t help the shiver that ran down your spine. He was willing to give up the bounty for you? He was willing to give up the job that would keep them comfortable for a month for you?

“I still don’t like this,” Boba grumbled, breaking your gaze to look at Din. He took a step back from the tense bubble the two of you created before turning to walk to the cockpit. “Get ready. We’re doing this tonight.”

Boba left the two of you in a flurry before the doors leading to the cockpit slammed shut. Din laid a tentative hand on your shoulder and you jumped in surprise. “Don’t worry, you’ll do great. Boba is just being dramatic.”

You were still frozen to your spot on the floor, staring at the sealed doors of the cockpit. “There’s just one problem.”

“What?”

“I don’t own a dress.”

———

After storming off, Boba passed the time in the cockpit, silently fuming by himself. The anger was like a raging sea in his chest, waves battering against his ribs. Logically, Boba knew that the plan was good and that it would work. The quarry would get one look at you and would fall at your feet in adoration, maybe even cuff himself if you asked in just the right way, just the right context. He knew that you could handle yourself and that you would be okay, and if not, he’d be there.

Realistically, though, the idea of some sleazy guy putting his hands on you made his stomach turn. Just the idea of another man touching you- no, even looking at you- made Boba see red. The anger and hatred for this quarry and his imagined slights against you rose up in his throat, leaving a sour taste in his mouth. His grip on one of the dashboard’s levers tightened before the lever snapped from the pressure. Boba looked at the metal object in his hand, disgusted.

“Great,” Boba grumbled to himself before tossing the broken lever to the corner. “Now I’ve got to fix that.”

Boba knew he shouldn’t feel this way about you. Feel this insanely possessive feeling that gripped his heart every time you walked into a room or smiled at him. You weren’t his, you didn’t belong to him, and you never would. Even if you had wanted him too, Boba reasoned with himself that he would turn you away for your own safety. You were too gentle, too kind, too pure to get wrapped up in his bloody life. He wouldn’t make you go through that, even if he desperately wanted you by his side every step of the way.

The watch on his vambrace beeped, signaling that it was time to leave. Boba stood up with a sigh, strapping his blaster to his hip. The sooner he left for this mission, the sooner he could get back to sulking by himself. He met Din in the hull of the ship who was waiting, ready for the mission. Din leaned against the wall, fingers messing with the whistling birds on his vambrace. Boba had always wanted some of those.

“Is she ready?” Boba asked while settling in next to Din. He crossed his arms over his chest with a sigh.

“Almost,” Din responded. “She had to run out earlier, so she is a little behind.”

“Run out?” The words left Boba’s mouth in confusion. What did he mean, you ‘ran out?’

Before Din could answer, the soft sound of clicks against the floor made the two Mandalorians look up in interest. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Boba’s heart almost burst through the hard beskar strapped to his chest at the sight of you.

You were absolutely breathtaking. Boba was glad for the helmet that hid his face, or else you and Din would’ve seen his gaping mouth. He couldn’t take his eyes off you- each glance sent a trickle of heat running south, pooling low in his stomach. The silvery-white fabric draped over your curves deliciously. A slit ran up the side of the skirt, showing your leg with each step. Boba couldn’t help but stare at the skin revealed before his eyes. You were ethereal, reminding him of the angels that lived on the moons of Iego.

“Wow...” Din let out a shaky breath. Boba’s gaze immediately snapped to Din who was currently drinking in your form. Anger and jealousy flared inside of Boba. “You look...”

“Beautiful,” Boba finished Din’s sentence, drawing your gaze to him. He hadn’t meant for the words to slip out, but they did, and his face was red under the helmet. The way you looked at him, a nervous smile gracing your features as you tucked a loose piece of hair behind your ear made Boba want to reach out and touch you. Before he could do something he’d regret, Boba turned around and opened the ship’s ramp. “Let’s go.”

The walk to the casino was long, the three of you trying to make your way through Canto Bight’s bustling crowds. Din walked beside you, making light conversation while Boba trailed behind to watch out for any trouble. His mind wasn’t focused on scanning the crowd for dangerous people though, instead it was focused on the dip of your back where Din’s hand rested. Boba knew that it probably wasn’t anything other than friendly- the logical part of him told him this- but that still didn’t stop the animalistic urge growing inside him to snatch you away from Din’s grip with a snarl. Your dress draped low on your back, revealing even more skin that Boba longed to touch. You looked so soft, he was sure your skin would feel like the silk you were wearing. Din’s thumb continued tracing lazy circles into the exposed skin on the small of your back. With each brush, Boba’s vision tinted redder with ire.

“We’re here,” Din’s voice snapped Boba out of his thoughts, red haze fading when you turned and looked at him. Just one look from you and he could practically feel the anger melting off of him. “I’ll be waiting out back for the quarry. If you need me,” Din tapped the side of his helmet twice, a silent way of saying ‘call me,’ before he turned with a swirl of his cape. He vanished into the crowd, and Boba was left alone with you.

“Here,” he grabbed your wrist, bringing it closer to him and having your palm face up. He placed a small piece of technology in your open hand. “This is your communicator. Put it in your ear. It lets me hear what’s going on around you, and lets you talk to me if you need me for any reason.”

You looked at the small piece in your hand before putting it in your ear. It was slightly irritating, the little communicator. Boba pressed a button on his vambrace and a small little beep sounded in your ear.

“There,” Boba’s voice was much deeper through the earpiece. Even though he was only a few feet in front of you, it felt like he was right beside your head, whispering in your ear. “Now I can hear everything.”

“Everything?” Your mind drifted to what was about to happen. You knew you had to seduce the quarry, and that was already embarrassing as is, but now Boba gets to hear it too? “Even...”

“Yes,” Boba nodded. He already didn’t like the plan. Any plan that put you in harm’s way was a bad plan to him, but he still knew this would work. Didn’t mean that he had to like it.

“What if I...” you trailed off, heat flooding your cheeks in embarrassment. Maker, you were so bad at this. “Nevermind.”

“What?” Boba prompted, stepping closer to you so he could avoid the moving crowd.

“No, it’s too embarrassing.”

“Sweet girl,” Boba sighed at the look of nervousness on your face. You had tugged your bottom lip between your teeth, and he desperately wanted to free it with a brush of his thumb. “If you don’t want to do this, we’ll just turn around and head back. Din and I-”

“No,” you cut him off. You could do this, no matter how inexperienced you were in the art of seduction. “I can do this. I may just... need help.”

“I’ll be watching you and will jump in if anything goes wrong-”

“No, not that,” you dismissed him with a wave of your hand. Kriff, why was this so awkward to tell him? “I’ve just... never seduced anyone before. What if he doesn’t even follow me out back, and this whole mission is a bust?”

For the second time that night, Boba was thankful that his helmet blocked his features from you. He was dumbstruck at your words- you had never seduced anyone before? Stars, Boba thought, you seduce him with just a smile.

“Boba,” your voice pulled him out of his thoughts. He hadn’t realized that he was silent. He was too busy fantasizing about you actually trying to seduce him- you were already incredibly sexy to him every day. You weren’t even trying to make him feel all hot and bothered every time you looked at him. You were just that effortlessly alluring.

“If you really need me,” Boba tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. Kriff, if he didn’t know any better, he would have sworn you were trying to seduce him right now with that innocent look in your eyes, just begging for him to- “I’ll give you some pointers,” he cleared his throat. “But I don’t think you’ll need my help.”

You exhaled shakily. “Thank you, Boba,” you rested your hand on his green cuirass, right over his heart. Maker, you were going to make him come in his pants if you kept looking at him like that. You had barely touched him, barely said anything to him and he was already wanting to push you up against a wall and have his way with you. He could imagine it vividly with how close you were to him right now, your sweet scent filling his head. It would be so easy, Boba thought, to just grab your hips and pin you to the wall. To hitch your leg up and around his waist- leg bare from the slit in the silvery fabric of your dress- as he pressed his hard length against you and buried his face in your neck. So easy- “I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.”

“Of course,” he shifted awkwardly on his feet, trying to adjust himself discreetly. “Anything for you, sweet girl.” The tracking fob clipped to his belt started beeping, noting the hunter that the quarry was close. He silenced it with a push of a button. Boba turned back to you. “It’s time.”

You sucked in a deep breath, trying to steady your racing heart. Boba desperately tried not to stare at your chest when you did that. “Wish me luck.” You turned with a swirl of your dress, silvery fabric billowing out behind you as you made your way into the casino. Boba just stood there, transfixed on your fleeting image. He hated to see you walk away, but he loved to watch you leave.

___

The casino was bright and loud- people surrounding various tables and shouting with glee over winning or yelling in fury at losing their entire fortune. Machines flashed blinking lights, tempting the patrons to waste their money at a chance to win. You tried to push the noise to the back of your head whilst your eyes scanned the crowd for the quarry. There were so many people, you weren’t sure if you were ever going to find the quarry until your eyes found him at the bar. He was leaning against the counter, talking to some pretty Twi’lek who did not seem that interested. You drew in a shaky breath before making your way to the bar.

“Spotchka, please.” You settled in against the counter right next to the quarry, raising your hand to catch the bartender’s attention. You could feel the quarry’s eyes on you when you gave the bartender a dazzling smile. His gaze sent shivers down your spine- but not the good kind. It wasn’t the delicious shivers that raked over your body whenever Boba looked at you or brushed his hand against your skin. This gaze made you feel uncomfortable.

“Any luck tonight?” The quarry sidled up next to you, forgetting the pretty Twi’lek. You forced yourself to give him a smile and turn towards him like you were even remotely interested.

“Unfortunately, no, not yet,” you brought the blue drink up to your lips and took a slow sip. Your eyes drifted over his form, acting like you were actually checking him out. “But I have a feeling my luck is about to change.”

The man smiled at you and his eyes settled on your cleavage. Fighting back the disgusted feeling you felt, you pushed out your breasts ever so subtly, trying to entice him even more.

“I think you’re right, gorgeous.”

___

Boba hated this. He hated sitting in some corner of the casino, watching you flirt with this scum. His hand was constantly clenched in a fist, other twitching to feel the smooth metal of his blaster. Boba desperately wanted to shoot the quarry down where he stood as he tucked a loose piece of hair behind your ear. You laughed at something he must’ve said, head tilting back with laughter displaying your neck and more of your chest. Even from this far away, Boba could see that the quarry brazenly looked at your breasts and licked his lips in hunger. What was even worse was watching this man touch you and hear your words that were egging the quarry on.

“So,” you had trailed your hand down the man’s chest. Boba couldn’t help the hate and jealousy for the quarry that rose up in his throat like acid as he watched you. Boba wished it was him that you were trailing your hands over, wished it was him that you were looking at beneath your eyelashes. “Do you have any plans tonight?”

“Not at all.” The quarry dragged his hand lazily up and down your arm, seemingly trying to entice you. You had flushed at the man’s touches. Boba hoped that it was just a fluke- that you weren’t actually attracted to and turned on by this garbage. He could feel his finger twitch towards his blaster again. “What about you, gorgeous?”

Boba watched you pull your bottom lip between your teeth like you did earlier that night as you looked the man up and down. He almost launched himself from his seat when the quarry brushed his thumb over your lip, releasing the pillowy flesh. Boba should be the one doing that, not him.

“Well,” you looked shyly up at the man, hand trailing down his chest. “I was hoping you could do something for me.”

“Yeah? What’s that, angel?” The quarry had wrapped his arm around your waist, tugging you closer to him. Boba’s chest was heaving as he tried to calm himself down. You didn’t actually want the quarry, Boba had to remind himself. You were only doing this to help him and Din.

You had leaned in closer to him, mouth moving to whisper something in the quarry’s ear. Boba was able to hear what you said because of the earpiece.

“Me,” you whispered seductively before pulling back slightly to crash your lips against the quarry’s.

Red was all Boba saw. A growl ripped through his chest at the sight of you kissing that trash, that garbage, that scum. He launched from his seat and was making his way towards you so he could tear you from the man’s greedy grip.

“Boba, don’t.” Din’s voice cut through his earpiece. “Let her lead him outside first.” Boba stopped in his tracks at Din’s words. “You’re going to tip off the quarry if you mow down half the casino to get to him.”

Boba didn’t realize that the crowd had jumped away from his warpath. Whispers of “Mandalorian” and “bounty hunter” floated through the crowd while Boba stood there, fuming. He tried to take deep breaths to tamper down the fury that threatened to boil over at the image of you wrapped in the quarry’s arms. Only when the quarry took his lips off yours was Boba able to stop shaking from his anger.

“Let’s get out of here,” the quarry started to tug you towards the exit.

“He’s headed your way,” Boba gritted out through the comm. He trailed behind the two of you, watching you follow the quarry out the door. Within moments Boba was out through the exit, and fury swirled in his chest at what he saw.

The quarry had pinned you to the wall of the casino and had his hands and lips on you. Boba couldn’t wait for Din to swoop down from the shadows and get the quarry. He was going to put a stop to this, now.

Boba grabbed the back of the man’s shirt and ripped him off you. Anger flashed behind his visor as he slammed the quarry’s back against the wall. The man’s eyes widened in fear when Boba drew his fist back, poised to slam it into his face. Before he could break the man’s jaw, Din had finally revealed himself and put himself between the quarry and Boba.

“Don’t you ever fucking touch her again,” Boba seethed. He couldn’t even get any satisfaction of watching Din cuff the bastard. He had never wanted to kill someone so badly- not since he watched a jedi cut down his father.

“Boba.” Your soft voice had pulled him from his red-tinged thoughts. He looked down at you as you placed your hand on his arm. Boba almost melted into your soothing touch. “I’m okay, he didn’t hurt me.”

“I know, but-” Boba’s head turned to look at the scum again but your hand on his helmet directed his gaze back to you. He could feel his cheek heat up under your touch even though you weren’t directly touching his skin. The look you gave him made Boba weak in the knees- he could hardly feel the anger he was just raging with only minutes ago.

“Everything I said, everything I did, was all a lie.” You had your hands on either side of his helmet, cupping his face. “I need you to know that.”

Boba could only nod at your words. He knew that they were true, but jealousy still lingered beneath his skin at the memory of your lips pressed against the quarry’s. “Guess you didn’t need my help after all, sweet girl.”

“Trust me, I most certainly did.” You unknowingly held his gaze under the black visor. “If I didn’t pretend that it was you that I was talking to, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

Your words made Boba pull up short. “What?”

The heat that flushed over your cheeks was beautiful. “I, umm, pretended that I was, ah, trying to seduce you.” You stumbled over your words, but Boba’s heart swelled with them. Before he could stop himself, Boba was tearing off his helmet from his head and pushing you back against the wall, large hands on your hips.

“Sweet girl,” Boba sighed as he brushed his nose against yours. Not wanting to waste another minute, he crashed his lips against yours. Your lips were so soft beneath his own, even better than he dreamed. A soft sigh slipped from between your lips and Boba almost let out a moan at the taste of your breath on his tongue. You even tasted sweet, Boba thought. He wondered where else you would taste sweet.

“Boba,” you moaned against his mouth. He just continued to kiss you, pulling you tight against his chest. Before he could make the kiss any deeper, you pulled away from him, much to his dismay. “We can’t do this.”

That certainly made him stop dead in his tracks, cold fear pulsing through his veins. He had thought that you wanted this, wanted him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-”

“No,” you cut him off, hand cupping his cheek. “You misunderstood me. We can’t do this, not here.”

Just as your words had stopped his heart, they revived it just as easily. He couldn’t help but press a bruising kiss against your lips. “Thank the Maker.” His grip on you tightened. “You’re mine, sweet girl. Don’t you forget it.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” you smiled up at him before you pulled him back down to your lips. “Not in a million years.”

#boba fett masterlist #boba fett x reader #boba fett x you #boba fett x y/n #boba fett imagine #boba fett drabble #boba fett one shot #boba fett oneshot #boba fett fanfic #boba fett fic

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shelby-love · 4 years ago

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SIRIUS BLACK

A little Bit of Amortentia

Requested: yes

Prompts: none

Warning(s): none this is a certified fluff piece (2.3K words)

Author’s note: I had so much fun writing this! Harry Potter is such a great world, and I’d love to explore more of it. Requests for HP are OPEN!!

P.S for everyone wondering Remus is actually my favorite out of the Marauders

"Well I still think you're missing out," Lilly stated after a long rant and because of how sweet she was, she had decided to stop her mouth right at that sentence.

You only laughed lightly, pushing through the student body with Lily Evans hot on your robe. "Sneaking out to Hogsmeade is something I'm fine with missing out on."

She shook her head, determination settling hard in her brow. "That's beside the point."

"Then what is the point?" You asked, hugging your textbook closer to your chest. When you noticed that the auburn-haired girl was no longer by your side you bunched your brows together and turned around. "Lily? Lily, what are you doing?"

Her eyes were wide, bright green eyes blazing at you. "You seriously have no idea?"

You had idea of course. So much so that you felt embarrassed by the mere thought of it…

Him.

"Come Lily. We're late for Potions."

She shook her head and followed you reluctantly, only because she knew that your professor would surely be disappointed if you two showed up late. Lily and you were after all, Horace Slughorn's favorite students.

"This isn't over," She mumbled.

Perhaps for her it wasn't. Lily Evans tended to see the best in all people. It was the good in her that made her give in to James Potter little after Christmas this year after hating him her entire schooling at Hogwarts.

"He matured a lot," she would tell you, and while that might have been true for James it surely wasn't true for the boy you laid your desires upon.

Sirius Black.

Either he was purposely ignoring you, or he really was a dimwit.

***

"Amortentia is the most powerful love potion in the world. It is distinctive for its mother-of-pearl sheen, and steam rises from the potion in spirals." Horace Slughorn informed, keeping a safe distance from the steaming love potion. The rest of the girls in the class not so much. Each of them neared the potion little by little with a boy in mind. Lily and you both shared the same thoughts as those love-obsessed girls – only you didn't show it. Despite having boys in mind, Lily and you stood put.

"Lily, dear, how about you come here and tell us what you smell?"

You hard-pressed your shoulder against hers as she smiled shyly, obvious to what she was going to smell. James Potter stood at the other end of the assembly of students, looking at his lovely girlfriend with pure adornment.

For a second, they had you wondering if you could ever find love like that.

"Do you know why I asked Lily to tell us what she smells?" Horace asked, sending you a look that had a simple meaning.

"Because the potion is supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us…" You answered quickly, just like he wanted you to.

"Marvelous Y/N. Good job," Slughorn praised you whilst ushering Lily to tell you all what she smelt. From the corner of your eye you managed to catch James' sly smirk as his eyes darted from you, to his very uninterested friend.

Sirius Black.

You swallowed, focusing your eyes on your best friend that stood in front of the potion, holding her hair so it doesn’t fall into the potion with a face as red as a tomato. "Vanilla, freshly cut oranges and –"

He cheeks flamed even more if that was even possible. She dashed away from the love potion and stood back next to you without revealing the third thing, although everyone knew already. James was grinning like an idiot. "What was the third smell?"

She shyly turned her mouth to your ear, "James' quidditch uniform."

You laughed out loud before Lily shushed you down frantically.

It was all fun and games until Horace called out for you, "Y/N would you mind telling us what you smell? Don't be shy now, come."

A part of you wanted to say "Yes, professor I would mind." but the other more rational, and smarter part of you had tied your hands behind your back in defeat. Lily gave you a push and sooner than later you found yourself standing over the love potion.

"I-I smell…" You inhaled slowly, the potion's fumes filling you up. Several different scents found their way into your nostrils, making you have a hard time deciphering them because of the sensual overdrive they gave you. "Roses…the smell of sea and-"

"Oh no," you mumbled, barely audible for everyone but yourself.

"Was there something you wanted to say dear?" Horace asked, having heard your mumbling barely.

"No…I um, smell petrichor," You stated somewhat awkwardly but very, very quickly. "You know, um, when the r-rain hits the ground…"

"Ah, yes," realization dawned upon your professor. "A lovely smell. A lovely smell indeed. Very well, miss Y/LN thank you. You may go back to your place."

Lily Evans waited for you, beaming, "Mind telling me what the third smell was?"

"Shut it Lily."

"But I told you mine!"

***

You glanced at the sign above the pink looking door and sighed. Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, it said. You had known about this small tea shop that was located on a side road off the High Street in Hogsmeade Village even before you had arrived at Hogwarts. A boy from Hufflepuff had taken you there on a date once, sometime during your fifth year. It wasn't an especially pleasant memory, being cramped and surrounded by snogging couples at only 15 with a boy you didn't particularly like that way. Nevertheless, it had happened, and there was nothing you could do about the lingering memory.

The overall cute place was owned by Madam Puddifoot; the same woman who dearly welcomed you in the moment you stepped through the door.

You hoped to spot Lily there, after all that's why you were there. When the front of your little notebook changed under the influence of the Protean charm, you knew it was Lily instantly. While the Marauders had their own tricks, maps and such, Lily and you had thought of something far more practical. It would do you good, the charm, as it was expected to be known by every student that wants to take the N.E.W.T.

A win-win situation that was.

But although Lily Evans was nowhere to be seen, you still decided to sit down, trusting her not to pull any tricks on you. Save for the snowy weather, your day has been good so far and you didn’t want anyone to disrupt it.

Cautiously, you sat down and leaned against the plush sofa, discarding your scarf and coat along the way.

"What can I get ya lovely?" A sweet woman asked, hearts practically swimming within her irises. A pale pink apron with daisies was secured tightly around her waist, dolling her up prettily.

"I actually won't be staying, I'm waiting for-" You started, although you were sure in the fact you were going to have to buy gilly water at the very least. Even waiting comes at a price here.

But that didn't seem to be the case as the bells jingle and a dark figure waltzes through. The ladies' man, a member of the Marauders that had the most beautiful features pursued by impeccable dark hair and grey eyes walked in without a care in the world. Sirius didn't know it, but he had your toes curling every time.

You immidiately glanced around the cute shop, seeing nothing but loving couples.

No lone girl in the shop save for you.

Realization struck you in the gut and you swallowed, wanting now more than ever to disappear into a hole…or turn into a little bird and fly away.

His eyes swept across the stuffed shop, getting attention of several girls who were obviously there on a date. Boys exchanged distasteful glances between themselves, sensing Sirius to be an equal competitor that could easily give them a run for their money. "Y/N?"

You dared to say his voice softened upon seeing you. "Sirius."

Sirius' smile widened teasingly. It looked like the smile he would give his best of friends.

But you didn't want that. Not that you would tell him that.

He glanced around the shop once again before slipping into the free chair opposite of you. Without a care in the world, he stripped his snowy coat off his shoulders, his muscles tensing under the movements.

You swallowed.

"I'll have some butterbeer thank you," Sirius said, pulling out a generous amount of sickles for the waiting waitress you forgot was even standing there.

"And the lovely lady?" She mused, giving you a wink.

"Pumkin juice." You choke out.

Like a real gentleman, Sirius halted your attempt to pay for your drink with a raised hand and a wink.

Why does everyone keep winking?

You shook your head at the rogue thought.

"4 sickles young lad."

Sirius handed her the coins and she disappeared, leaving a trail of literal hearts whisking underneath her steps. "Talk about exaggeration."

Sirius' low chuckle at your random comment had you flustered immediately.

"So –" You both voiced at the same time.

"No, you first." You said quickly, brushing some misplaced strands of hair out of the way.

"You can go fi-"

You gave Serius the look you would usually give Remus and James many times on many different occasions; the one that said not to argue with you. Only this time it felt like a completely different look. It intrigued the stubborn boy even more; dragging him deeper into the pit of feelings he had for you.

"Fine," he said, casually twining his fingers atop the table. "I have a question."

"Um…o-kay."

He smiled at your nervousness and decided at that moment to just blurt out the question that's been nagging him since it happened. "What did you smell during potions yesterday?"

"Y-you mean when I smelled the Amortentia?" The strongest love potion ever created that had the ability to reveal ones biggest attractions with a simple sniff. “That potion?”

"Mhmm," he said. "If you tell me what you smelled, I'll tell you what I smelled."

"You must be bloody joking," You exclaimed. Almost everyone knew that you smelled someone. Not just the rain and roses. Someone.

Unlike with Lily, they had no idea who it was.

No one knew save for Lily who probably told James.

Who probably told Remus?

Remus, Peter…

Sirius.

A million thoughts raced through your head. What at first was a blind date will turn out to be the biggest prank the Marauders ever pulled on someone. The biggest prank in Marauders history. You were sure of it.

"I-I should go," you muttered, grabbing your bag and coat in a haste to get out.

Sirius' eyes went wide in alarm, "What are you doing, Y/N? Where are you going?"

"Away from you," You said sternly. "I don't plan on being your new plaything so just leave me alone."

"Woah, woah, woah. Why would you think that?" He asked with what looked like genuine confusion as he held your hands in a vise grip to stop you from leaving.

"B-because…" Words stopped coming once you realized.

Telling him the reason behind it would ruin everything.

"Because you like me?"

You stared at him in shock, eyes widened to the size of a quidditch snitch. No, a bludger. "I don't know what to say to that."

Sirius outright laughed at you and your attempt to conceal what you both already knew, "Look…"

You swallowed.

"I like you too Y/N."

"I know, so let's just forget this ever happen- Wait what did you just say?"

The two of you were, unbeknownst to you in that moment, holding hands atop the cute table, looking like a real couple at that moment to anyone who walked into the shop.

"I like you," He repeated slowly, more audibly for you to comprehend this time. "I know I've been a…"

"Bully," You butted in quickly.

"No I wasn't!"

"Severus begs to differ," You reminded.

"Whatever," Sirius brushed you off, tightening his hold on your two hands. Warmth seemed to come off him in waves, making it all the more comfortable to be in his hold. No wonder girls fawned around him. "What I'm trying to say is – the four of us were idiots, and you were the girl I thought I didn't deserve."

You almost melted.

"So, when I saw what James has with Lily," He confessed. "I wanted that…but with you."

"So why didn't you come up to me?"

"Thought you'd reject me," He said quickly.

"True."

The way he looked at you had you tumbling down your brain for word, "B-but you've changed… And I like you too Sirius."

"I'd like to take you out somewhere else," Sirius proposed. "If you'd have me."

"Of course," You smiled, for the first time freely. "I'd like that very much."

Never in a million years would you have guessed this would be happening; Sirius standing behind you, helping you with your coat…

And holding your hand on the way out.

"You still didn't tell me."

“Tell you what?”

"What you smelled in the Amortentia."

The question didn't sound so attacking as it did 10 minutes ago, and you felt like you could answer it with more ease. "You really want to know?"

"Yes, I would like that very much."

"Fine," You stopped somewhere in the middle of the square, feeling quite brave and bold. "You."

He didn't look surprised, maybe relieved more than surprised. The relief shone in his grey eyes, you could see it. His long black hair blew against the wind that swept through Hogsmeade in a wildly matter. Sirius seemed closer now more than ever as he gazed into your eyes. Whilst you probably looked crazy in the cold wind, the weather only seemed to compliment the once a big troublemaker before you.

"Good."

You creased your brows, "You didn't tell me what you smelled."

Sirius chuckled, "You of course."

Pleased with his answer, you let him do something you've been dreaming about for quite some time.

He kissed you.

The kiss felt electrical, making your body go haywire. Sparks, as cliché as they sound, they were there, present from the moment the kiss started and until it ended. Sirius had his warm hand against your cold cheek, bringing you closer than ever before.

You hadn't shared this with any other boy save for the one you were with right now.

You didn't have what Lily and James did because their love was theirs and theirs only.

Sirius and you will build a love of your own. Something characteristic to you two only. Here in Hogsmeade, or wherever in the world. A long life was ahead of you and you, now more than ever, felt like you could do anything.

Even pass the N.E.W.T.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years ago

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Disneyland kills annual passes

The early Disney company had several near-death experiences, some due to exogenous shocks and some self-inflicted (bad labor practices, weird technology choices), and all through it, a power struggle between "Roy people" (finance) and "Walt people" (tech/art).

After WWII, the company was transformed, with Roy ascendant and financial discipline the order of the day. Walt - who struggled with depression - sought desperately for an escape from the company.

He came up with plans to outfit a train with traveling exhibits that he would drive around the country, putting thousands of miles between him and his brother.

Another plan called for Walt to build an ambitious model train system and transform his role in the company to showing people around his trains.

In 1953, Walt came up with the plan that stuck: a park called "Disneyland" that would be his own fiefdom, a commercial project that would justify the kinds of R&D and experimentation that Walt doted on and Roy looked on as high-risk, potentially ruinous follies.

There was only one problem: Roy wouldn't authorize the company to bankroll it, so Walt had to fly to New York (far from his brother) to court the Wall Street banks and ask them to foot the bill.

Walt worked with legendary artist Herb Ryman to create an eight-page prospectus with a gorgeous painting to accompany it, and had three copies typed up in the Disney company steno pool and he flew to New York with them.

Only one copy of that prospectus exists today. In 2013, it changed hands at auction, with the winning bid going to noted asshole Glenn Beck, who offered no plans to allow study or exhibition of it.

During that process, I came into possession of a high-resolution scan of that document. I made sure that the Imagineering archivist got a copy - they'd never seen it before - and deposited a long-term public archival copy with the Internet Archive.

https://memex.craphound.com/2014/05/20/disneylands-original-prospectus-revealed/

It's a strange and curious document, but one striking feature is that it conceptualizes Disneyland as a place you might go to not to ride any rides, but just to walk around and enjoy yourself, soaking in the atmosphere (and buy a tropical bird or fish) (no, really).

Reading that, I thought of Walt, with his anxieties and his fraught relationship with his workers and brother, the factionalism that divided his company and his longing for escape, and that iconic photo of Walt strolling through an empty castle, looking perfectly at peace.

From 1955-1982, Disneyland operated on a ticket system. You paid a low price for admission, and then paid for each ride using ticketbooks that rated the rides from A (boring) to E (main attraction) (the system ended due to competition from nearby Knott's Berry Farm).

That low-priced admission ticket meant that locals could easily afford to slip away to Disneyland, stroll the park, maybe buy some junk food or watch a parade, and go home again.

The advent of unlimited-ride admission created demand for annual passes, and discounts for kids and locals made DL into an after-school hangout. Early Disney message-boards raged with arguments over the Orange County goths who hung around Tomorrowland, smoking and glowering.

Annual passes grew and grew. When I first moved to LA in 2006 for a Fulbright chair at USC, I used to teach my classes then drive to Disneyland with my cheap LA resident's pass. I'd park, get a Fastpass for Space Mountain, ride the Haunted Mansion.

Then I'd write part of the novel I was working on in a quiet bench in New Orleans Square, ride Space Mountain once my Fastpass ripened, then I'd go home for dinner.

Annual Passes grew too successful, selling so well they crowded out vacationers on a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

A series of price-hikes did not dampen Annual Pass sales. While repeated doublings of the price raised a lot of revenue, it also created a large cohort of troublesome customers who felt all that money entitled them to white-glove treatment.

Then came a suite of baroque tiers and restrictions on passes, with blackout dates - which made people entitled, confused and cranky.

Then came the pandemic...and the end of the Annual Pass program altogether.

https://www.micechat.com/279966-breaking-news-disneyland-annual-pass-program-ending/

There's lots of reasons that killing the Annual Pass makes sense, but one that's not immediately obvious is that DL is a "happy place" for a lot of people who struggle with the world, like Walt did. Most of us just find a moment of peace in a quiet corner of the park.

But some people exhibit pathological behavior. One family sewed their own Disneyland employee costumes and tried to entrap a ride attendant into an arranged marriage with their daughter!

Most of the problems generated by Annual Passholders aren't that extreme, of course.

But even the smaller problems grow in significance by dint of repetition: the mildly troublesome customer who comes *every day* and makes trouble can quickly grow more than mildly troublesome.

I understand the logic of killing the passes. But I can't help think of Walt, wanting an escape from a bad situation that he'd made worse through his own screw-ups, and then, incredibly, actually pulling it off.

A lot of us have been missing our various happy places since the lockdown, and Disney doubtless anticipates a massive rush when the vaccines have been distributed (they are tapped to be Southern California's largest distribution site).

It feels like someone at Disney thought about just how intense and freaked out some of those returning Annual Passholders were likely to be and decided that the costs (for employees and other visitors) of coping with that outweighed the benefits.

#pluralistic

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writing-fool · 4 years ago

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mlqc | let’s hit rewind

What kind of videos would the MLQC guys make if they were YouTubers? I think this is a youtube!au, but to be fair, Kiro probably has a YouTube channel in canon. See it as you will? I won’t really talk about their life outside of YT/internet so you can decide for yourself whether this is an AU or not, and whether they’re a full-time YouTuber or not.

As always, enjoy, and requests are open!

Love,

Warning(s): none

Victor

Victor probably has a cooking channel

scratch that. he absolutely starts as one of those Aesthetic™ cooking channels like Cooking tree, HANSE, Sweet The MI or Nino’s Home.

his channel is called Souvenir because he’s not THAT original you can’t expect everything from a man, people.

he starts off doing these voiceless cooking videos, but after a voice and face reveal at 2 million followers where he cooks something for his followers as a thanks...well, who wouldn’t want more of that sultry voice and glorious face

currently has about 4 million subscribers

Victor’s channel is kind of comparable to Junskitchen, a rather relaxed, casual atmosphere combined with exquisite, refined cuisine

if he feels like it, he does a voice-over, otherwise he just puts calm jazz, blues or r&b over his cooking

HAS done an ASMR special. low-key dislikes the video because he has to whisper voice-overs but people LOVE it

likes making all kinds of foods, but his channel features quite a lot of sweet foods and desserts because a certain dummy has a sweet tooth

a pretty popular feature during quarantine is Cooking w/ Sou, essentially a live stream where Sou (aka Victor) cooks a whole three-course meal while talking to and instructing his followers

his subscribers notice that he doesn’t really need editing to look clean during cooking because his technique is IMMACULATE

by the end, he’s made a themed dinner for two...which always raises a question mark

is Sou single? does he have a roommate? a girlfriend? a kid? WHAT?

after getting your explicit permission, Victor addresses the situation in one of his recent Q&As

“Why do I always make dinner for two? I have a fiancée, she edits my videos in her spare time. She works as a producer. *you wave your hand over the lens* Dummy.” he breezes over it like it’s no big deal even though he’s a tad nervous about exposing something personal like this

his fans blow up the internet, baffled but not entirely surprised that someone like Sou isn’t a bachelor

of course, some leave hate under the video honestly, people who do this to celebs who start dating are HORRIBLE

most subscribers are super supportive of your relationship and thank you for the editing that makes Souvenir such a well put-together channel...also did he seriously call his fiancée a dummy? such a tsundere!

sometimes, you’ll (well, your hands...we’re keeping a bit of privacy here) even be in the end shot of videos, munching away at the carefully plated food

one day, Sou will be making a video titled Wedding Cake.

Lucien

Lucien’s channel LucidLight is a tad bit all over the place

he’s a man of many talents, and his channel reflects just that

i’m not saying it’s a disorganized channel, because the theme is very much there - the uniform theme in Luci’s content is a cozy background, a cup of tea and a soothing thumbnail

i mean that content-wise, his subscribers don’t really know what they’re going to get next...he has a slightly similar style to the YouTuber simon plant

his content varies from interesting science theories to poetry reading sessions to ASMR to painting/sketching to cooking and much, much more

he has an heavenly soothing, smooth voice. it’s his trademark since Lucien doesn’t show his face on camera. ever.

doesn’t have a TON of subs, because his channel is a bit of a niche thing, but I’d say he has 1,2 million subscribers and 400k followers on his added ‘business’ Instagram

he holds a lot of live streams on Instagram/YouTube (i know Moments exists in the game, but that’s more like a Facebook or Twitter kind of app...) and is always shown with just his torso and neck in frame. the lives usually include some poetry reading and generally just having a nice, relaxing chat with his followers. they can last up to 5 hours at once, and YOU know it’s because he doesn’t need sleep like a normal human being, but his fans are still asking questions about his timezone

his subscribers are strangely fascinated by his mysterious, gentle nature and also incredibly obsessed with his large, elegant hands

his ASMR videos are often roleplays of Librarian Lucien or Professor Lucien explaining to people why their rest is important

other times, they include soft affirmations, positive whispers, finger fluttering, hair touching and maybe kissing sounds...

Lucien paints a lot too, although he works primarily with ink and pencil sketches. you’ll find a watercolour or oil painting somewhere, but they’re not his most prominent media

his art videos are usually silent, although he might say something once in a while. there’s always some type of solo instrumental music playing in the background.

he does educational videos about biology and universe theories, but will also have reading sessions about scientific books

not intentionally secretive about your relationship, but he’s not one to mention it either

the first time you appeared on screen was when he was doing another live stream. he’s in his office talking about a play, when you come padding in to bid him goodnight.

“Yes, indeed. Laura’s glass menagerie, as the play suggests, is a symbol of fragility. Laura herself is very frail, but her favourite—”

“Good night, darling.” your soft voice rings through the room. viewers see Lucien’s torso turning a little bit, a hand on his shoulder and a curtain hair appearing from the top of the screen. his hand moves, presumably to cup the person’s cheek, before a soft kiss is heard through the mic. “Sleep tight, my love,” he murmurs.

“Ah. Laura’s favourite glass figurine is the unicorn, which...”

people are in uproar, but Lucien is a strong-willed man who refuses to explicitly announce the nature of his relationship.

his subscribers stop asking after a while, because it really isn’t any of their business, and they now know Lucien’s a taken man

you kind of appear on live streams accidentally a couple more times, but nothing’s really changed about Lucien’s content

the only thing he WILL say, and this is purely to give you credit, is “Ah. The background instrumentals in my art videos are played live. Yes, my lover’s very talented.”

you guys are the mysterious, talented, soft-voiced power couple of YouTube

Gavin

Gavin’s channel probably starts as a joint channel with you, something like Rachel and Jun

it’s relatively obvious from the start that Gavin from Birds&Cops is in a relationship, since you guys have a vlogging-style channel

your channel is filled with gym vlogs, travel vlogs to other countries and a lot of self-defence and sport at home videos.

you guys also post a lot of funny vlogs talking about your day, going on fun dates, of course food vlogs in restaurants, all that stuff...

you often sit down and talk about your life, and maybe you’ll even do a mukbang during it for someone so fit, Gavin does eat a lot of food.

Gavin’s channel didn’t blow up right away, because vlogging channels aren’t exactly unique, and he looks like the typical ‘straight boy with a girlfriend’

but he started gaining followers after people noticed how cute and blushy he acts, and how incredibly respectful and caring he is towards you

one of the most popular videos is Boyfriend Does My Makeup and it’s adorable. Gavin’s handling your face with so much care, and comments like “I know what this is, I’ve watched you do it many times.” or “Babe, does it hurt? Should I be more gentle? I’m sorry...my hands are rough.” make everyone SWOON

toxic masculinity left the chat. Gavin loves taking care of you in any way, whether it’s getting pads, chocolate and hot packs during your period or braiding your hair

in those yoga/celebrity fitness routine challenges, subs get to see Gavin in a tight singlet and sweatpants/shorts, and it’s HOLY

you’re very much aware of the attention Gavin receives from female fans, and how lucky you are to have found such a sweet partner

Gavin will usually see this type of comment while scrolling and will turn to you and go “Babe, you know I’m the lucky one here, right?”

anyways, a feature that you do to show fans the extent of Gavin’s sweet personality is Pranking My Boyfriend, where you set up the camera for a harmless prank like pretending to have a nightmare (similar to channels like Farina Jo)

that particular video was so fun to shoot, because it ended up with Gavin softly singing a lullaby to calm you down in his arms

“Baby, wake up. I’m here, you’re safe.” Gavin knows how to deal with panicking people, but he hates this prank afterwards because ‘he didn’t like seeing you in pain’

fans squealed. Birds&Cops gained like 50k subs through that video. the channel’s currently at 999k subscribers

overall, it’s just a really lovely, family-friendly channel

Kiro

Kiro knows his way around the web, alright?

not even just as Key, but he’s had a YouTube channel since the age of 15

his channel, CtrlAltChips is a hit with many people of many, many ages

he streams gaming sessions on Twitch and posts them on his YouTube channel afterwards

other content includes (primarily) covers & original songs, simple talking videos, thrifting & fashion videos, mukbangs and candid dance videos in a studio

think of chloe moriondo, doddleoddle, Victor the Drum Destroyer and Cat Strat

alternatively, for the ARMYs here, think of Jeon Jungkook as a YouTuber

Kiro has about 18 million subscribers, which is A LOT, but he’s been on YouTube for 7 years and he’s made a name for himself as a super likeable and bubbly guy with an angelic voice and killer moves

you’d think he’s just a cute boy when he sings acoustic covers, but his dance moves suggest that he’s not THAT cute

also how does he stay so fit with all those snack mukbangs?

he has a segment named In Our Kloset where he talks about social issues (because our boy uses his platform for good) around the world while customizing (not just pins. we’re talking patches, sewing, painting, embroidery) thrifted clothing to his liking. at the end he holds a little fashion show with his new outfits

after a while, you’ll see many of his outfits in giveaways or on sale for charity. Kiro tries to give back to his fans as much as he can, and how better than by sharing a piece of his unique clothing with them?

a great singer and performer. has held actual concerts before and has an actual music career (author-nim leaves it up to you readers to decide whether this is his idol career or some other musical project)

keeps his private life PRIVATE. he knows how the internet works, and he knows there’s no way he can keep your relationship a secret forever, but he’s not about to expose it to the world because of that reason

keeps tabs on information or rumours regarding you and makes them vanish

he’s simultaneously the most open and the most secretive out of the four boys. his fans know his favourite colour, what type of underwear he wears (trunks. Kiro wears trunks.), his birthday,...

but they know nothing about his past, his location, his close social circle or his family (teeechnically he’s an orphan but ig we’re talking about his mentor here. the blood of the covenant blah blah blah...y’know?). Kiro protects his loved ones fiercely

for someone who’s kept so secret, you’re actually really involved in Kiro’s virtual persona. you’re usually behind the camera during his In Our Kloset videos and are in charge of extra research regarding topics so he doesn’t spread any misinformation

you also give pointers during filming (of course, these bits are edited out) because Kiro tends to trail off and get distracted when sewing

another way you’re involved is setting up the food during mukbangs. you have a great sense of aesthetics, so all of his videos in general will go through you.

while you like being low-key in Kiro’s life, you don’t want him to feel like he has to protect you from all the hate.

he doesn’t particularly love keeping you a secret either, and it makes him feel guilty because he doesn’t want you to think he’s ashamed of you. he could never be.

you guys give it a good chat over how you’re going to announce it, and he just ends up making a video titled Miss Chips where the two of you sit down and talk to the camera

“Hello my little chips! Uhm, as you can see, there’s someone sitting next to me today. Maybe you already guessed from the title, but this is...my girlfriend, Miss Chips,” cue the cute jazz hands in your direction, “We’ve been dating for a long, loooong time, right, Miss Chips?”

“I just wanted to share this with you guys, since it felt wrong to keep such an important person in my life private. I hope you’re all kind to her, because I love her dearly, even to the point of giving up my snacks...so it’s serious.”

it really is that serious, hm?

Hope you enjoyed reading!

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z-iridest · 4 years ago

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Can you do hawks and todoroki reaction to meeting their s/o for the first time after months of long distance online dating🙇🏾‍♀️🙇🏾‍♀️🌸

(A/N: This is such a cute idea! :3 Hope u don't mind headcannons again)

Online, Long Distance Dating: First Time Meeting In Real Life

Shouto Todoroki

To be fair, Shouto Todoroki hadn't even known what Instagram, or any other social media platform even was besides Facebook.

When he was first introduced to Instagram, the account made for him by his friends, he had instantly gained 1 million followers almost overnight. (He says it's only because of his father, but c'mon, ladies, he's just that hot)

The account posts page is filled with tagged, sneaky pictures from his friends, all of them adorable, pictures of soba, his mother (totally appreciation posts for Mamaroki) Fuyumi and Natsuo

But, one follower of his in particular caught his herochromatic eyes.... Y/N L/N. They had liked every one of his posts since day one, always leaving a friendly "hello" in the comments or leaving a comment about how wonderful his family seemed to be. If only Shouto knew just how whipped he was about to be....

The specific post that started it all popped up in his feed one fateful day was a picture of you that had been taken at the perfect moment. Your h/c floated in the breeze, your e/c shut as you were caught in an open mouthed laugh, Shouto finding your smile to be not only infectious, but bewitching. Yet, he yearned to hear what your laugh sounded like.

Before he knew what the hell he was even doing, he had -How would his friends put it?- slid into your dms, saying hello.

Since you lived in America (and were a light sleeper on top of being a slight insomniac), you weren't expecting a dm before the sun could wake up, so the minute your phone went off with a notification, you nearly fell out of bed due to the earbuds in your ears... That notification was LOUD!

When you looked at the message, it was from DamnIcyHot (that username was all Bakugo) and read: Hello, I'm Shouto. You looked beautiful in your recent post, and I thought you deserved to hear that. I hope you have a wonderful day

You blushed and that dm... Well, let's just say it wasn't the last.

Just two months after talking to you, Shoto asked you out.... On a video call, dressed in a tux with a red tie, and holding a half white and half red rose. (Pic above, folks)

Poor baby is so nervous, he's shifting and fixing his tie every few seconds and it's all you can do not to start squealing.

Y/N... I never thought it was possible to fall in love with someone I have yet to meet in real life, but, I have. I've fallen hard for you, Y/N. Everytime I see you post, it brings me so much joy and makes me smile everyday, and... I don't want it to ever stop. Y/N, I want to be able to video call you every night, to tell you how beautiful and perfect you are in my eyes until you fall asleep. I want to be able to see you every night and wake up to your beautiful face every morning. If I may have this chance, I promise, you will be treated like the princess you are, and I will never let you forget how precious you are to me.

The poor, half white, half red haired baby is now stumbling over his words as a blush darker than the red half of his hair appears on his face. Y/N... I was wondering... Would you... Maybe... want to be mine?

You had blushed and hidden behind your hands, a sight that Shouto still remembers as the cutest thing you've ever done, and nodded in response. If you had dared looked up, you would have seen the relieved look on his face as a laugh, a genuine laugh of relief, spills from his lips.

And that was only the beginning...

It only took a couple days before his friends noticed that their herochromatic eyed friend was acting a bit... Stranger than usual.

He was grumpier on certain days, happily smiling down at his phone, excusing himself to go to his room for hours on end.

Nobody knew what was going on, or why he was on his phone so much.

Kaminari had suggested spying on Todoroki, but Izuku had gone with a more... Direct approach.

When asked why he was on his phone so much, Todoroki had just blinked and said matter of factily, I have an S/O. The whole class, except for Yamomo, is shocked by this. This one of those, "I thought it was obvious" moments for Yamomo.

Speaking of Yamomo, she asks who the lucky person is. Instead of answering her, Shouto shows her the screenshot he unashamedly took of you.

In the screenshot, you're sporting a bright smile, e/c eyes filled with adoration and love, the look you had given him before calling him your Peppermint Baby for the first time, that baby boi was soooooo flustered by it. (What? He couldn't help it, it was too cute of a moment to let pass). The girls instantly squeal and ship you two together while some of the boys (*cough, cough* Kaminari and Mineta *cough*) are wondering how the hell you guys had even gotten together.

That same night, he called you and told you about the day's events, which honestly had you in fits of laughter.

Shortly after that, you were informed that you were being moved to Japan. Were you excited? Yes! You get to meet your boyfriend face to face for the first time, you were nervous and excited at the same time.

Did you tell him? Nope. You were waaaaay too giddy with the thought of how surprised he would be to see you.

Since you were being moved to Japan, that meant being transferred into U.A. High. Your Class being 1-A.

Shouto was talking to his friend group when you arrived, and thankfully for you, his back was to the door.

A green haired boy was the first to see you, his green eyes going a little wide while his friends were unawares, discussing who the new student could be.

Just as he opened his mouth to say something, you quickly put your finger to your lips, silencing him.

Thankfully, the Broccoli Boi gets the hint and schools his features before his friends can notice.

You quietly tip toed until you were directly behind him.

Covering a giggle, you covered his herochromatic eyes with your hands.

The second his eyes were covered, he jumped

Just as he was about to react, he read an all too familiar voice. "Hiya, Peppermint." It couldn't be....

Hands trembling slightly, he gingerly took hold of your hands and turned around, surprised to see a pair of e/c eyes looking back at him. "Y-Y/N?" You were so much more goregous in person....

"Surprise!" You giggled before you felt his arms wrapped tightly around you, a laugh leaving you as your feet left the ground as he picked you up, slightly spinning you before setting you down.

"Is this the girl you were telling us about, Todoroki?" A girl with big brown eyes and floating brown hair asked. The excitement in Shouto's eyes was evident as he finally turned to his friends, realizing you from his hug but still keeping his arm wrapped around you.

"Ururaka, Iida, Midoriya, this is my s/o, Y/N. Y/N, meet my friends Midoriya, Ururaka, and Iida." Shouto introduced you to his friends first. Iida's loud greeting captured the attention of your fellow classmates, and pretty soon, you were surrounded by a bunch of new friends.

It took a while for the excitement to die down, but when it finally did and Shouto finally got you alone, you suddenly found his lips on yours. Your first official kiss with Todoroki... Scratch that, your first one ever.

You found out that day that the Peppermint nickname you had given him... It was well deserved. That boy's lips tasted like sweet peppermint, and his kiss had been so gentle but passionate at the same time, it had taken your breath away.

Let's just say you guys shared a lot of firsts after that..... ;)

Keigo Takami (Hawks)

Hawks? On Instagram? Bitch, please...

This motherfucker is always on Instagram when off duty or taking a break from hero work. He's the number 2 hero now for crying outloud, like he's gonna just ignore the fans that hit him up?

The Instagram he uses for his hero work is officialhawks, set up by his management that he visits every once in a while. That's the one the fans usually float to, and when fans dm, that's when he goes on it.

His personal Instagram, though? That's where the fun really begins.

His personal Instagram? Spice-E-Wings

Only follows a select few on it, and honestly, it'd be a lie if he said he didn't follow Endeavour's accout...

When your profile popped up under his suggested, he got curious....

Seeing as curiosity killed a cat, but never a bird, he satisfied his curiosity by checking out your profile.

Dis Bird Boi was not prepared for what he found.... And he instantly wanted to dm you...

Since you were used to your phone not going off, you were startled when your phone went off. Your roommate, who had seen you jump, teased you about it, to which you simply waved them off as you unlocked your phone to check the messages

Spice-E-Wings? What kind of a username was that?

Nevertheless, you accepted the message and saw this:

Hey there, wyd? ;) Jk, how r u?

The conversation started from there and took the most random turns, eventually turning into you two trying to one up each other on memes

He revealed who he was about a month after talking to you.

You... freaked... out....

You'd been talking to the Hawks the whole time?! Hawks was the one pro hero you had a crush on!

Just months later, on your bday, he asked you to be officially his.

Hey, dove, I gotta be serious here, okay? I really, really like ya, and I wanna get to know ya better. So, with that in mind.... U wanna be mine?

You have never squealed so loud in your life.... Once you were composed, you accepted.

The minute he saw your dm back, his heart exploded, ngl: Only if I get to call you my baby bird ;)

Month after month, it was like the two of you had an unexplainable chemistry despite never seeing each other in real life. Every morning started for you with a G'mornin princess 😘 from Keigo, he never wasted the day when it came to showing you affection over the phone

Despite having never seen your face, Bird Boi was whipped for you.

Did he want to see what you looked like? Hell yeah! But, he knew just by talking to you all this time, that it wasn't something you were ready for.

Imagine his surprise when on his birthday, he received a picture....

When he opened it, it read Happy Birthday Baby Bird, featuring the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life! His jaw dropped a little, ngl

Those beautiful e/c eyes, your silky h/c hair... Don't even get him started on that bod of yours... That man could praise you like a goddess for hours if you'd let him

His message back to you after that picture?

😍😍😍 Best. Birthday. Ever.

About a year after the two of you started talking, you ended up being transferred to a different city to work.... 12 hours away from your hometown.... To the very same city Keigo patrolled and was responsible for!

Instead of surprising him, knowing he was a Pro Hero, you told him about what was happening and the day you were moving.

Keigo was beyond ecstatic when you told him. He was finally gonna see you in person!

I have an idea, princess, as soon as you're settled in, meet me at the cafè Leblanc. I'll treat you to some coffee jelly on my break.... Leblanc's got the best coffee jelly in Japan. I wanna see you in person, and the sooner the better.

You felt nervous, but agreed to a time to meet up at

When you moved about two weeks later, you moved into your apartment and found that your place was only about a 10 minute walk from the cafè Keigo mentioned.

Now... If Keigo wasn't whipped for you before....

He certainly was now.....

The minute he spotted h/c hair in the crowd, he moved up into the air, his amber eyes easily finding you in the crowd.

You were soooooo much more beautiful in person, and it made him extremely happy to see you.

But, all of a sudden, Hawks felt nervous... What would you think of him when you saw him in person? That baby bird watched over you from the skies until it was time to call it quits. When he finally got everything done, he flew back to the cafè, where you were still waiting for him

No backing out now, Hawks... That's your baby down there, go see them. No big deal.

The mental peptalk did nothing for him... His body wouldn't move...

After an hour, you were getting worried, your brow furrowed as your mind raced through the horrible things that could have happened to him. You decided to text him, Hey, where r u?

And what was this bird brained bastard's reply?

Look up, princess

When you did, you saw him. Big red wings, amber eyes, messy blond hair and all. You watched him as he gracefully glided to you despite his nervousness.

The look in his amber eyes was so soft, a look of pure, unadulterated adoration and love for you clear as day. He immediately wrapped his arms around you

"I'm so sorry I kept you waiting, princess... Forgive me?"

You answered by kissing him, threading your fingers through his soft blond hair as he held you close to him, his wings wrapping around you too. When the two of you pulled away, a goofy grin was smiled before the first of many dates at that cafè took place

His Instagram post that day consisted of a very adorable kiss over coffee jelly with the caption: Finders Keepers, and I found a keeper :3

(A/N: A big thank you to @prismaroyal and @sadistiks for helping me out with Hawks' part :3 hope you guys enjoyed!)

Taglist: @fakeanimefanntnt @lxvely-mha @bnhabookclub

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phantastus · 4 years ago

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Is there any symbolism behind the bird scientific names tags representing Silent Hill characters? Like, did you pick them for any particular reasons? 👀

Oh man, well, I guess I never went into detail about them anywhere. They definitely were picked for a reason but the reason is related to a currently-unwritten fanfic and literally who knows when that’s going to happen (Gravity needs to get finished first and who knows when that’s going to happen :’]), so I might as well try and do it now.

When I was in college I started coming up with concepts and symbolism for a fic project and because I’m obsessed with birds all of it involved birds and the title of the fic was appropriately “Four and Twenty Blackbirds”, with the ‘four’ specifically referring to Harry, James, Heather, and Henry (because they were the main characters). Each of them had a different ‘blackbird’ species representing them.

So when I decided to make separate aesthetic/inspo tags for individual characters (I already have a #silent feels tag for general SH inspiration, but I am crazy and it was NOT CONVOLUTED ENOUGH FOR ME), I decided to use the scientific bird names since it was conveniently already cemented in my brain. THIS IS GOING TO BE VERY, VERY LONG SO I’M PUTTING IT UNDER A READMORE. Click for pretentious Silent Hill fan analysis.

HARRY MASON | CORVUS BRACHYRYNCHOS (American Crow)

Harry Mason is the “”generic”” all-American protagonist who rises to a heroic status pretty much out of sheer determination and a commitment to his loved one. He’s not an unusual person, in fact he’s deceptively normal-- so the American crow felt right for him since they’re so common. You see them so often you don’t even think about them, but they’re smart, resourceful, and resilient survivors (something that especially comes into play with Harry post-SH1 when he’s eluding the Order). Harry is underestimated because of his normalcy but he’s capable of incredible things.

Also crows (and other corvids) have deep, almost humanlike family bonds between parents and offspring. They’ll maintain relationships even after the babies grow up and become fully self-sufficient, with the adult children regularly visiting their parents and socializing or helping to take care of younger siblings.

In the context of the fic Harry’s symbolic/prophetic connection to such a common “pest” species is sort of a derogatory assignment on the part of the Order/the town, as he’s seen as a heretic troublemaker (CULTS HATE HIM!! LOCAL MAN STEALS MESSIAH AND THWARTS FATE WITH ONE COOL TRICK!)

JAMES SUNDERLAND | CORVUS CORAX (Common Raven)

Ravens are like the most symbolic corvid, every gothic poet/novelist/artist and their grandma used them to represent death, grief and malaise, and James’s story is nothing if not filled with all three of those things. I mean, come on: “By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore— Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore— Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.” Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.” -Edgar Allen Poe, u know where it’s from.

Also in college, I got very interested in the myth “Raven Steals the Sun”, which has a number of different variations (it’s a story shared across multiple First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, there’s no one clear origin-- you can read about a couple of versions here!) but most involve the titular Raven delivering the Sun to the world after stealing or freeing it from a dark place where it was kept. Depending on the version, Raven's motives can either be purely selfish or more benevolent, and sometimes starts the story as a pure white bird who is stained black with soot in the act of taking the Sun. The duality of Raven’s intentions as well as the theme of light/warmth being hidden in darkness until it’s brought out felt fitting for a character whose motivations are complex and left a little ambiguous in canon (James grapples with whether his own act was purely selfish or one of love/mercy) AND someone who is naturally warm and caring but slipped behind a cold, dark wall of depression and self-isolation. The theme of being permanently marked/transformed by an act, whether for good or for bad, felt fitting too.

(Obligatory Disclaimer That My (Very White) Personal Interpretation Should Not Remotely Be Considered An Authentic Take On The Myth And Is Not Intended To Be Appropriation. For fic purposes the story would only have come up as an interesting symbolic parallel/running motif among many others, not a Literal Connection. James is a clueless white dude and Silent Hill doesn’t even take place on the west coast.)

“BUT WAIT! Doesn’t stealing the sun from a malevolent party and freeing it sound sort of like Harry rescuing Alessa/Cheryl/Heather??” Yes, this was going to be a source of in-character confusion and a surprise twist when it turns out they got their birds mixed up. Blah blah nothing is as it seems and destiny is mutable.

One time while I was walking on a foggy beach I got followed around by an enormous raven who was just sort of waddle-hopping after me looking forlorn and scruffy and the experience stuck with me and now all these years later my enormous galaxy brain is just like “That was Big James Energy”.

Wow that was long, I’m sorry.

HENRY TOWNSHEND | CORVUS FRUGILEGUS (Rook)

The most obvious symbolism is probably the chess piece with the same name-- that felt fitting for Henry since he’s probably the protagonist who has to do the most strategizing. Between his limited inventory and his progressively-more-cursed apartment and escorting Eileen and his five billion trips across multiple fractured Otherworlds, my poor guy has a lot to mentally keep track of. In the fic, he was going to wind up being the one to keep track of all the weird complicated bullshit items and rituals they had to complete to get through the Otherworld.

The rook chess piece also resembles a castle, and unlike the other protagonists whose stories progress in a linear fashion, Henry operates from/returns to his home base shitty cursed apartment.

BUT ONTO THE BIRD the rook is a corvid like the crow and the raven, and shares their pest/death omen status in popular culture. Just appropriate for SH protags in general since they keep getting in the way of the cult’s business and also misfortune follows them.

In the SH3 Crematorium Puzzle (I’ll talk more about that in Heather’s section), there is a poem: "The black Rook is the praying sort Who hears the gods in the skies His whispered petitions go on without end And glassy and dim are his eyes" Obviously this does NOT describe Henry as a person, but it IS eerily reminiscent of the title that was thrust upon him: Receiver. Maybe if Walter’s plans had succeeded, this is how Henry would have ended up.

There is also an old belief that if rooks abandon an established “rookery” (place where they regularly roost), it’s a sign of calamity to follow. If Henry the Certified Homebody (tm) bursts out of the apartment complex and goes staggering down the street, you should get out of that apartment complex.

HEATHER MASON | AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS (Red-Winged Blackbird)

Oh boy this one’s probably the weirdest but here we go.

The first obvious thing is that unlike the other three, the red-winged blackbird is not actually a corvid (it’s from the Icteridae family, not the Corvidae family). In-universe, this was supposed to represent Heather being inherently different from the rest (like... she basically is an iteration of the Silent Hill deity), even if she seems to be a normal human. Harry’s act of stealing her from the Order and changing her appearance/name to hide her was going to be depicted as “dousing Her in black ink, but [the ink] not able to fully conceal Her radiance”. The red and gold shoulders of the blackbird visually symbolize her “””true nature””” peeking out.

I also associate her specifically with the MALE red-winged blackbird (the female looks completely different, hooray sexual dimorphism) because gender is a fuck and Heather understandably has some really intense and complicated issues with womanhood/femininity. One of my favorite aspects of her as a character is how she blurs the line between masculine and feminine, especially since she’s been through so much... extremely gendered violence, to put it lightly. Heather Mason says FUCK YOUR GENDER BINARY.

As a fun side-note, Heather is also represented (or appears to be, ymmv) by a bird in canon! The SH3 Crematorium puzzle (on hard mode) features a series of poems each about birds, and each one represents a character if you squint. Heather seems to be referenced in this one: "The Wren, with pure heart as yet unrefined Makes us laugh with his feeble lip-smacking But still we all know he shall never grow old And he knows not how much he is lacking." Heather’s role as a brash, foolhardy youth who talks tough to cope is pretty blatantly summed up in there, as is the fact that she’s... functionally immortal and keeps fucking reincarnating. The wren, a plucky little bird, is perfect for her. The part of the main riddle that references the wren is also... ominously on the nose, given Heather’s backstory: "Burn the one who knows no death Pure, adored by those above No prayers within, just simple love.”

YET ANOTHER CREMATORIUM POEM could be construed as representing the town’s God (or the spiritual force of the land, w/e), damaged/corrupted/turned malevolent by All The Bullshit: "The Kite, hot, crazy, and panting mad Sweet shackles that tease and excite Death itself would drive him wild Red blood that turns milky white" Heather is a pure-hearted protagonist in one sense, but there’s plenty of not-so-subtle hints to a bloodlust and desire for violence just waiting to break free (ESPECIALLY when Heather does certain things that could be considered taking on the role of God). So to me the Kite is what happens when Heather gets sick of being nice and decides to go apeshit.

“BUT WAIT what does this have to do with the red-winged blackbird?” The inherent trinity of Heather’s character (Alessa/Cheryl/Heather, the Mother of God/Daughter of God/God Herself) deserves a bird trinity too. I’M GREEDY, I WANT *ALL* THE BIRD METAPHORS!

Red-winged blackbirds are bold little shits who will straight up harass birds of prey. Kind of like Heather does to God.

The fact that “phoeniceus” was part of the scientific name was a VERY delightful coincidence-- but I’m not complaining about how satisfying I found it that my Bird Choice (tm) inadvertently connects her to the concept of the phoenix, poster child of pyrogenesis.

That was even longer than James’, I’m so sorry.

SO THAT’S THE META BEHIND THOSE CHOICES FOR THE FOUR MAIN CHARACTERS. If you’re still interested after all that BS, I can write up another (probably much shorter) post for the other characters. Thanks for the ask!

#Silent Hill #Harry Mason #James Sunderland #Heather Mason #kit rambles about silent hill #my dumb fanfic #poppycrowns

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radramblog · 4 years ago

Text

Pokemon Quartz

I have a confession to make.

I fucking love Pokemon Quartz.

Okay, context. Pokemon Quartz is an infamous Romhack of Pokemon Ruby, finished in 2006 by a young Spanish developer going by Baro. It was possibly the first completed romhack that completely replaced the entire set of the available 386 Pokemon with a set of newly designed Fakemon, and while lots of the replacements are pretty obvious analogues, there are some pretty interesting designs and the sheer effort required to do this solo as a teenager is something to behold.

(Look at Lileep, it’s a dodo now! I think its cute.)

The hack shows it age pretty well these days, with the sheer development made in GBA hacking especially in the last couple of years obviously showing it up- obviously something like Clover or Radical Red is going to make Quartz look ancient, and limitations in available tools are pretty obvious if you know where to look. The game’s region, Corna, is blatantly just Hoenn with some modified route themes, and its pretty clear that the designs for each Pokemon are limited to the replaced mon’s colour palette (as with Torido above).

(The map is kinda pretty though imo)

Quartz is infamous for a few reasons ultimately linked to the developer’s youth. For one, the dialogue tends to be a mix of poor English and weird humour and plenty of cursing, along with some jokes that don’t really fly these days. (To Baro’s credit, the writing and English does get better as the hack progresses.) The plot is utterly nonsensical as a result of shoehorning the Electric themed Band Ambar as villains into vanilla Ruby’s story, and involving the very 00s teenage idea of CHAOS vs ORDER and the pseudophilosophical musings that go along with it. Also like some of the designs are extremely ugly, to be frank. Lots of people are aware of Babos, the Skitty replacement, but that’s only really scratching the surface- the Llamayama line (aka Numel) and Berchi line (Clamperl) are pretty awful if you ask me.

(ew)

(…sis you are literally standing in a centre)

(hey can we take this from a 10 down to like a 6 or so)

I first encountered Pokemon Quartz as part of a bootleg multi-game cartridge picked up in my time living in Kuala Lumpur. The version of the hack on that cart was either very early or just broken, since none of the doors in Golden Island or the nearby Broke Cave (Dewford Island/Granite Cave) would actually let me in and therefore I couldn’t progress especially far. (I understand there was another broken ROM running around the internet that just had legendaries and Master Balls running around the first few routes, for some reason,). My trying to find a walkthrough or a fix led me to one Let’s Play of the hack by Zorak, which I suspect considering his association with fellow early LPer Chorocojo is the reason a fair few people are aware of Quartz at all. While I absolutely wouldn’t recommend reading that LP these days- its very late 00s, enjoys a certain R-word way too much, and to his credit Zorak has a comment on the archive stating that he considers it “immature and severely unfunny!”, but it was the only way for me to consume the remainder of the game at the time, having not figured out emulators at that point. I could go on for a long time about those early Lets Plays, but I’ll save that for another day.

(Oh also I’m ganking a bunch of the screenshots from that LP since my file is in endgame, cheers mate)

Okay but why do I like this game then? Well, aside from tickling my nostalgia bone something fierce, there’s a lot of cool things in the hack that make it stand out. While the lore behind the main legendary Pokemon is pretty bad and some of their designs are godawful, the Braille puzzles from Ruby have been converted into an entire original runic alphabet and is expanded to be present in the encounter events for Kaomare and Karendi (Kyogre and Jirachi). I had a lot of fun translating all of the script by hand, even if the actual text is a bit edgy. Speaking of Karendi, the game has a very JRPG style item chain sidequest to get to the encounter, which is pretty fun and something that to my recollection hasn’t been seen since. It has some little ideas in the dex that took Game Freak years to try, such as an evolving legendary (Ordkip->Tanord, replacing Latias and Latios) and the hack’s replacement for the Kanto starters having a 4th evolution (replacing the legendary beasts in the dex). The player is actually offered a second starter from the trio replacing the Johto starters late in the game at Muddy Island (Pacifidlog), which while a bit useless at that point is still something that took GF until X and Y to try. (Emerald doesn’t count imo)

(I’d translate the Cornan, but I lost my notes. Find the key yourself, cowards)

I can’t really explain beyond that why I love Quartz so much, but it’s the type of attachment that doesn’t really make sense and can’t really be explained. With that in mind, please believe me when I say never play Pokemon Quartz.

Most of the Pokemon are reskins of the original mon without changing the stats or learnset, and some of the ones that are make zero sense (As an example, the Water starter gets Aeroblast of all things, but only if you overlevel it in the second stage). The 3rd Gym leader’s ace, an overleveled Groundoe (Sandslash), has 4 ground moves, so any Flying type beats it outright, except 2 of those moves are Earthquake and Fissure, so if you don’t have a bird you are S.O.L. . The 4thleader has an absurdly overpowered ace in the form of Freech, one of the few mons to be completely overhauled, being the Milotic equivalent except its Dragon/Ice with overpowering STAB moves and Speed Boost. Basically, the game balance is completely out of whack.

Instead give a look into Pokemon Ultra Quartz (I refuse to type Let’s go Blobbos more than once). Released in 2018 by the developers for the excellent if also problematic Clover, UQ fixes just about every issue with the game’s balance, expands the encounter tables to include many of the Quartz mons that were implemented but unobtainable, and re-enables missing features such as the Battle Tower, while leaving most of the rest of the Quartz experience untouched- in this sense, I’d argue it’s the superior Quartz experience. It does still have issues- the labyrinthine route and cave design is untouched, Blobbos is here but is pretty pointless, and TM availability is as shitty as Quartz (which is the same as vanilla Ruby, but still). It does also add a few events of varying quality- Blobbos is as adorable as ever if a little pointless, the endgame developer battles are neat and decent grinding, and the postgame dungeon added is pretty sick even if the secret boss is… unique? The direct 1:1 import of the Deadly Seven from the infamous Pokemon Snakewood is both unnecessary and obnoxious, so try to keep in mind its origin when suffering through that forced segment of the game.

(My final team- Dotori, Psimouse, Rubygon, Mazalon, Oceadino, Kaosune. Or, Flying/Fighting completely overhauled Cradily, Serene Grace Gardevoir, Split evolution Vibrava, Ghost/Steel Banette, Water/Flying Swampert, and Fire/Dragon Groudon.)

It’s a good game despite this, ok? Give it a shot, experience some Romhack history but not quite as shit as it was in ’06.

Wait shit I forgot to mention how Baro put his name everywh-

#ramble #pokemon #romhack #pokemon quartz

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well-shit-im-a-morosexual-now · 4 years ago

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Do you have like a list of prompts you’ve received? I’m kinda curious to see what other people have sent in.

Sure do! Let me know what you think or what you'll be interested in seeing posted first!

WRITTEN & POSTED

1.) this regular is so cute that I (purposely) wrote wrong name on their order so we could chat for a while" (changed it to Mammon forgetting MC's name cause I didn't want to write anything close to an actual name for MC so that it'd be easier for people to imagine it as their MC)

2.) "I know my boss said to not to serve this batch today bc it'll be for tomorrow's special menu but they look drOP DEAD GORGEOUS AND I CAN'T RESIST THE URGE TO HIT ON 'EM NOBODY CAN STOP ME"

3.) Mammon seeing a bug and freaking out, asking MC to take care of it would be really cute.

4.) MC stealing his clothes and wearing it

5.) MC telling Mammon how appreciative they are of him and how glad they are that they were put under his care over anyone else.

6.) "Wait are those - are those bruises?"

PLANNED WITH DATES

7.) mc’s love language is expressed by giving gifts - 10th Sept

8.) imagine MC giving Mammon a ✨ c u t e ✨ crow plushie - 10th sept

*7.) & 8.) are going to be combined*

9.) when Mammon and MC start dating, he 100% calls them "his treasure" (I don't think this was a prompt but I'm writing it) - 10th Sept

10.) dragon!mammon kidnaps royal!mc for ransom, but ends up discovering not all treasures are made of glitter and gold - long 10chap fic planned - after 18th sept no concrete date

11.) Pillow fort with Mammon?? Maybe a movie night??? Bonus if it's a horror movie and he clings to MC????? - 31st Oct

12.) MC gets possessed by a lower demon - 31st Oct (shortened here but original prompt is longer/more elaborate)

13.) Mammon flirting with the MC to steal their wallet. - 28th Aug

HALF WRITTEN

14.) "I've never seen that scar before"

15.) "You're the best thing that has ever happened to me"

16.)"Talk to me please"

*15.) & 16.) are set to be combined with 14.)*

NOT WRITTEN

17.) It was said before that since Mammon is the avatar of Greed, those he loves are very wealthy and those he hates go broke, so if his self esteem is really low it explains why he's broke and asking for money all the time. (Probably not a prompt but fuck it I want to write it)

18.) him singing & dancing to La Bicicleta with MC in the kitchen (I actually wrote an 'imagine' kinda thing as the reply for this ask cause I don't think it's an actual prompt but I liked it so much I wanna flesh it out into a short fic)

19.) Mammon with Crow feathers (it's more elaborate than this but too long to write here) (Not a prompt but like the previous one I wrote an 'imagine' type thing as a reply for the ask and I wanna flesh it out because GIANT BIRD DEMON BOYFRIEND™)

20.) Mammon consistently spelling MC's name wrong on their cup? Or Mammon leaving pick up lines on their drinks? - gonna do the second one cause again I don't wanna write anything close to an actual name

21.) Mammon coping with the realization that MC's never coming back to the original timeline?

22.) "this person is the love of my life but sometimes I wanna strangle em hoW DARE U DO SMTH ADORABLE DO U KNOW U R THE DEATH OF ME SWEET CHEEKS ILYSM❤️️"

23.) "I rlly hate the fact that ur babysitting ur niece/nephew (but I love this lil fella can we adopt them) but I overheard a couple say WE R A PERFECT FAM I'M-"

24.) “You bake when you’re stressed and sometimes you give me cookies, but recently you’re giving me whole baskets each day, now I’m not complaining but are you okay?”

25.) how's Mammon feel about MC dying from Belphie considering how he told MC at the beginning that if they were in danger, he'd be the one to save them, and if he couldn't save them, they should just die?

26.) him realizing he has a second with the new MC after his MC dies in lesson 16

*25 & 26 were one prompt but I broke it into two fics*

27.) Like, say MC makes it really obvious Mammon’s her favourite and Belphie tries to sabotage him, but it just keeps going wrong. (More elaborate prompt but shortened here)

28.) au where the demon lords are instead revered as local deities. Mammon falls for human MC. (More elaborate prompt but shortened here)

29.) really angsty mc x mammon fic. maybe something with mc sobbing “please don’t be mad at me” or “i can be better, don’t leave” due to accidentally swallowing a hysteria potion or something?

30.) "This is nice. You and Me. Against the world."

31.) "If anything happened to you--I couldn't..." "Will you stay with me? Tonight? I just--I'd feel better knowing that you're near..." "I can't stand the thought of seeing you hurt." All have massive Mammon-after-Belphie-killed-MC vibes.

32.) MC being troubled about dying and mammon being the only one to notice

*31.) & 32.) are going to be combined*

33.) “You’ve done the unthinkable, you know. You’ve made me fall in love.”

34.) mammon and mc are doing a movie night and mc fall asleep and they basically confess in their sleep without knowing it

Fics that don't have planned dates are going to be released on a weekly basis. The fic that I write & post will depend on which prompt makes my imagination go nuts each week. After sept 18 I'm hoping to write & post at least two fics a week.

** nothing is gonna have a sad ending or be a tragedy (I can't hurt myself like that) so at most it'll have a bittersweet ending

**MC will always be gender-neutral (they/them pronouns) and unnamed with no defining features. They will have somewhat of a consistent personality though because I always imagine my mc when writing these and I will probably use headcanons I have but nothing will be overly specific so that you can read the fics with your mc in mind

Because I like to suffer I'm still accepting prompts/requests despite all this so feel free to send them either through asks or dms or feel free to come scream at me about anything because I will scream back

That's it✌

#asks #answers #long post #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me mammon #mammon x mc #mammon x reader #obey me!#shall we date? obey me!#swd obey me #swd mammon #om! mammon

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life-0r-death · 4 years ago

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DAY 18: HEART OF THE DRAGON

(for @ygo5dsmonth2020: Envoy of love and justice! This energetic machinist has as big of a punch as his heart! Today is all about Rua/Leo!)

Today, I have created a short that include Luka and Lua’s siblinghood! And yes, I spell their names with the L since whatever subbed version I watched gave them the L instead of the R and it’s stuck with me ever since lol

But enjoy this cute drabble feature Lua/Rua/Leo!

“Woah!”

Lua cried out, his arms waving back and forth as he tried to make himself like a bird and fly. He and his sister were tumbling down toward the Spirit World, the very one that Luka always travelled to in her dreams. But they weren’t dreaming this time. No, they were fully awake and plummeting straight toward the ground in a sudden rush.

Lua was terrified.

“Lua!”

Twisting in the air, he found Luka by his side, falling with him. She stared at the ground in fear, tears clinging to the edge of her eyes. So falling wasn’t a normal occurrence for her either.

“Luka! Hold on!” Like a fish, Lua swam across the air until he and Luka could reach for each other. They locked fingers, falling and watching as the ground came up closer and closer. He quickly looked to his sister, his teeth biting his lip. He was scared. Really really scared, but he had to be strong for her!

“Look at me!”

Luka did, tears flying upward. Forcing a smile on his face, Lua tightened their fingers together. He made sure he grinned and that he was so full of confidence, Luka couldn’t question it.

“It’s gonna be okay!”

Luka studied his face. He could see her fears and her trusts all within her bright eyes. Slowly, she nodded, more tears flying upward.

“Okay!”

Lua pulled his sister forward, pressing their foreheads together as they continued to fly down toward the ground. Luka closed her eyes, her hands trembling against his own. He was no better, choosing to also shut his view. They were going to fall and splat on the ground, but at least they would do it together.

It was strange that an average notebook had caused all this trouble. Lua and Luka had thought it was beautiful with its leather binding and vine-like etchings. Lua had been the first to add a small story into the book. Something about a fantasy world where a knight and princess were to battle the evil Orc King with their powerful steeds at their side. They had until dawn to defeat him, else darkness overtake the land.

Luka had added to it, something about making sure none of the townsfolk were harmed and that the knight and princess were young children with strange markings on their arms. She’d laughed, saying the princess was the claw of the kingdom, holding them together while the knight was the heart.

Lua remembered saying something about that being the opposite of most stories. Luka had remarked saying that their story wasn’t average.

And with those words, the book shuddered through pages and created a vacuum, sucking the siblings within and hurtling them toward their falling doom.

With all of their adventures, all of the trials they had faced, Lua had never thought splatting on the ground would be his end. Rather, he imagined he’d fight some dark force like the Dark Signers, die again at the hands of a man like Aporia, or even crash his D-wheel in a horrifying accident. Not something so mundane.

He locked his fingers tight on Luka’s. The end was here.

“Luka! Lua!”

His air was pulled from him as he bounced against something both soft and firm. Luka mimicked his gasp, both of them opening their eyes and finding themselves suspended within the air. Glancing down, Lua cheered. Lifestream Dragon had appeared at just the nick of time, catching both of the siblings only a few meters before death.

“Ancient Fairy Dragon!” Flapping her translucent wings before them, Luka’s ace monster regarded them with a motherly adoration. One where she was happy to find her companions well and safe. At his side, Luka squeezed his fingers while she waved. He smiled at her, then at his own ace dragon. He pat Lifestream Dragon on the head, feeling tears gather behind the back of his eyes.

“Thank you, Lifestream Dragon!” The dragon released a cry, an answer to his tears. Sitting up, Lua quickly wiped his cheeks, letting his grin make them sore instead. His heart was pounding, but no longer with fear of their demise. Rather, he was elated at the adventure they had dreamt up. It was obvious what the book had wanted from them. It wanted them to complete their story.

“Well, Princess. Ready to take on the Orc King?” Lua held his hand up like he was wielding a sword. Glitter and magic formed until he was indeed holding a weapon. He hooped and hollered. This was just like a dream!

“Only if we do it together.” Luka tightened her hold on Lua’s palm. He smiled, lowering the weapon and staring directly into his sister’s eyes, giving her all the confidence he had.

“Of course! No one can stop us, not when we fight together!” Luka giggled. Lua smiled. Yeah, they had until dawn to escape this strange world they’d entered, but he knew they could do it. With Lifestream Dragon and Ancient Fairy Dragon, they had all the power they could ever need. Plus their bond was stronger than anything else in the world. Fueled by friendship and by sibling trust, Lua would do all he could to protect his sister and get them free.

But he’d have fun along the way, too.

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andorwhore · 5 years ago

Text

Saudade (preview)

a six part Cassian Andor story

story summary: a year in the life of a rebel with a cause and a rebel in search of one...

preview summary: of all the days for a slicer to break into the wrong ship, today was by far the worst.

author’s note: this idea started out very different from what it is now -- originally i wanted a quick Cassian x reader, but the plot developed into something so much bigger, and i decided i needed a fully fledged OC to tell the story!

also! it’s worth mentioning the pronunciation of the name Jai that’s featured -- it’s not Jay, but rather Ji (like pi). i’ve heard it both ways, and something about that second pronunciation has always charmed me.

pairing: Cassian Andor x OC

preview word count: 1,052 (but the full chapter is over 10k srrynotsrry)

rating: T, eventual R

warnings: none (yet)

The starport on the Ring of Kafrene was every thief’s dream. Ships of traders, merchants, and everything in between were left relatively unattended, any security could be bought off if one had the right connections, and, if one was smart, they could make off with thousands of credits worth of goods. As ships improved and as droid security began to take over, it became more and more challenging for the average thief to get out of the port without being caught, but that meant less competition for the slicers amongst the Ring’s residents.

Slicers weren’t all that easy to come by on the trading colony. Actually, good ones weren’t easy to come by -- any amateur that somehow managed to get their hands on scramble keys suddenly started calling themselves slicers. And those were the same amateurs that got themselves thrown into a cell within hours of proclaiming, with severe overconfidence, that they had the skill to hack anyone’s computer. No, the thieves drawn to the Ring of Kafrene very rarely had the aptitude for hacking, but then again, the colony wasn’t exactly a prime destination for codebreakers to begin with. Slicers were far better suited for the Outer Rim Territories, on planets like Cantonica or Nevarro, where their skills could be put toward big jobs, where they were less likely to be harrassed by any kind of authority. To be a slicer in the Expansion Territory was practically asking for trouble, asking for stormtroopers and the Empire to toss one behind bars without mercy.

However, there were a rare few slicers that could get by particularly well on the Ring of Kafrene. One of those infamous slicers, who managed to somehow be renowned in the slums of the colony and yet never encounter any trouble from the Empire, was named Tillian.

Tillian was a man known only by that one name, and very few had the pleasure of learning anything about him beyond that. As far as slicers went, he was arguably one of the best throughout the entirety of the Expansion Territory; and despite his criminal activity, Tillian had the consideration to share his skills with a select few that he saw potential in through the years. And one of those few was Jai’ren Tillian.

Jai was a young woman of unknown origin, but of well-known talent among the underbelly residents of the Ring of Kafrene. She may not have been a strong thief in comparison to all the competition that loitered around the colony, but where she lacked in pickpocketing, she excelled in hacking. Of the half dozen or so that Tillian had trained through the years, Jai proved to be the most apt for the talent of slicing, even from an early age.

Currently, Jai was taking the risk of breaking into multiple ships crammed into Kafrene’s overcrowded starport. This wasn’t her first, nor did she intend for it to be her last, visit to the port, slicing her way onto ships of all classes and sizes; Jai found that, for her, it was far easier to focus and get a job done when she wasn’t distracted by the hussle and bussle of the cramped trading streets, and the risk of sneaking into the parking port was well worth the quiet she needed to get her task done.

Jai had just unlocked a third ship, stuffing her scramble key into the inner pocket of her coat while pushing a stray strand of ashy brown hair back up into her cap, careful to avoid shifting the goggles situated atop it. She threw a cautious glance back over her shoulder, bird-like eyes searching and ears listening to ensure no one had taken notice of her. With a satisfied expression she quickly ducked into the U-Wing and closed the door behind her to avoid any unwanted attention.

Jai stood in the hull, realizing that, despite the appearance from the outside that the ship was large, it’s interior was actually a rather cramped space. Nibbling the inside of her lip, she eyed the hull left then right; she realized within a few moments that it didn’t look like there was all that much lying around that would be worth anything to her. There were hardly any compartments or cubbies for storing goods, and it looked like the only serious computer aboard the ship wasn’t used for much more than tracking whereabouts and sending messages. She let out a derided sigh while sliding her hands into the pockets of her worn pants, fingers toying with a small box she’d grabbed from the last ship she broke into just minutes prior.

‘What a waste,’ she thought, her eyes scanning the ship again in slow consideration. It looks as if she put in a lot of effort for a whole lot of nothing. But she might as well search for something, anything, to at least deem said effort reasonable -- maybe, despite appearances, she could get her hands on something good.

“Right,” Jai spoke aloud to herself, extracting her hands and lazily cracking her fingers down in front of her hips. She climbed up the couple of steps into the cockpit, eying the equipment briefly before checking every crack and crevice for some kind of valuables. After a minute, she stepped back down into the main hull of the U-Wing, eyes scanning more astutely to make sure she hadn’t missed anything obvious. This ship’s interior was so small, there was hardly space for much of anything; Jai noted that it would probably have felt cramped if there were any more than four or five people aboard.

As Jai considered the size of the ship, she looked down at her feet, studying the metal floor for a few long moments before her lower lip pushed out appraisingly -- unless her eyes were deceiving her, it looked as if some of the floor panels lifted. Jai dropped to one knee to test her theory, finding that there was, in fact, a handle that she twisted to unlock. But she was all too quickly disappointed, finding that what was hidden under the floor was nothing more than a row of collapsible seats. With another frustrated huff, Jai pushed back down and locked the handle back in its place.

And at that same moment, the door to the U-Wing suddenly slid open.

#cassian andor x oc #cassian andor x reader #cassian andor x original character #diego luna x oc #diego luna x reader #rogue one fic #star wars fic #cassian andor #ca #fics #fics*#saudade

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dgcatanisiri · 5 years ago

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For the love of...

Look. Let’s address the obvious first off: Fandom has problems with women. We all know this. We also know that “has problems” is putting matters rather mildly.

That is a fine premise. Plenty to go on from there.

What is NOT a fine follow up is defending the idea that “fandom hates women” by pointing to the reaction to R*ylow. Because that entire ship? That is a dumpster fire in its own right even before getting to the whole dust up where, because of him making a harmless joke about sex, specifically his character in Star Wars and Rey, another fictional character in Star Wars, having sex, there’s a movement within that group to discredit and tear down John Boyega.

Like, we’ll get to that business in a bit. But let’s address the fact that the majority of R*ylows are shipping CHARACTERS THAT ARE NOT SHOWN.

The whole business of this ship is to use Rey to “redeem” “Ben Solo,” a character who metaphorically killed himself in TFA through the literal killing of his father. The two meetings of Rey and Kylo Ren in TFA were first him rendering her unconscious and kidnapping her, and then her attempting to kill him for his murder of Han Solo and attack of Finn - killing her mentor and attacking her friend.

But those who ship this transplant the characteristics that defined Finn onto Kylo Ren, who they refer to as Ben Solo, a name he rejects until about the last hour of the most recent movie. They make him into a tortured character who is tragically torn between the light and the dark, has not made a decision on where he stands and needs to be pulled back. EXCEPT Kylo Ren was introduced ordering the slaughter of an innocent village - a slaughter that Finn refused to participate in.

All of this is, let’s not mince words, based off the fact that Kylo Ren is a white man and Finn is a black man. Because we saw, back before TFA released, a heaping TON of abuse hurled towards him purely for BEING a black man - I remember vividly all the anti-blackness going around when we had no more than a trailer for the sequel trilogy.

I am not - let me repeat this NOT - shaming anyone, male, woman, enby, whatever you identify as, for wanting the narrative of “saving the monster.” As a queer person, yeah, I get that, considering that a lot of my narratives growing up that I can identify with have all kinds of queercoding throughout them, even when involving straight pairings. But the defining difference has always been that in those stories, the monster wanted to be accepted as a person. TFA gave us a monster who chose to be monstrous.

And TLJ only added into this narrative - Rey refused to join Kylo. ONCE AGAIN, he spurned her offers of coming back to the light, choosing to take the leadership of the First Order. We also saw in flashback that he chose to respond to Luke briefly flirting with the idea of killing him by BURNING THE ACADEMY TO THE GROUND. Whatever you want to say about Luke’s moment of weakness, that is definitely overreacting, that is taking out your pain on innocent others.

TRoS even brings this to a conclusion, a similar one to the redemption of Anakin Skywalker, being unable to live in the world that he saved, that no act he could do could balance the scales to allow him to be a part of that world, considering the deaths and pain at his hands in specific.

So that - THAT - is who Kylo Ren was on screen.

The R*ylow version of him, however, is some scared teenager/young adult, who has been ignored, emotionally neglected by his parents, nearly murdered by his uncle, and drowning in the darkness, in need of a rope.

The canon version of him, to sum up, is a roughly thirty-ish adult man, raised by loving parents who had a galaxy to rebuild and couldn’t devote every second to him, his uncle had a moment of weakness where he pointed a weapon at who he perceived as a threat (I can give this, or I would, had Kylo stayed and even TRIED to get answers, but the indications are that he ran and proceeded to destroy the academy), and at every turn gave in to the darkness until his mother gives her life to drag him back to the light side.

I don’t care what your fantasy is, what bothers me is the ignoring and VERY HIGHLY SELECTIVE reinterpreting of the on screen material to justify this idea of Kylo Ren being a broken and abused bird in need of kindness. Because on screen, he spurns all the kindness he gets until Leia sacrifices herself. And THAT I only accept because of the filming limitations of Carrie Fisher’s last content.

And then we return to the issue of this backlash to John Boyega’s tweets. All of this is because he made a joke about sex, implicitly his character and Rey - the character that R*ylows have designated “belongs” to Kylo - having sex. And this has led to him being harassed (and not for the first time, because TFA did seem to be building to something between Rey and Finn), and by these same people.

We led with “fandom has problems with women.” This? This is “fandom hates black people.” And “fandom REALLY hates interracial couples.”

Like, take a stroll through AO3. How often do you see interracial M/F couples in the top of the listing of pairings? About the only serious example I can come up with off the top of my head is Sleepy Hollow and Ichabod/Abbie, which ended up never being canon. Because of the white showrunners and producers getting cold feet about it and deciding to repeatedly throw white women at Ichabod while continually sidelining Abbie until her actress finally decided to leave - given that she hadn’t even been invited to be part of the special features for the season two DVDs, and the fact that she’d already gotten reduced to the sidekick on a show where she should have been the lead.

Or even on a show where a non-white man is the lead - let’s look at Teen Wolf for another fine example. The show’s lead was a Latino teenager. The favored fandom pairing involves two white guys who, the initial episodes featuring them interacting showed, didn’t particularly care for one another. This led to the fandom turning that dynamic into “they secretly want to fuck,” and, as we see with Finn and Kylo, transplanted characterization and dynamics onto the other characters to prop up their ship.

I repeat myself above. I am not judging fantasy. Hell, I’m not even against writing alternate universe variations where the good guys are bad guys and vice versa. The problem I am seeing here, the reason that I cannot abide R*ylow, the reason that I see that specifically as a toxic fandom element, is because it actively diminishes the black man involved in matters - MANY fics will either downplay or completely trash Finn’s canon character in the name of making him the villain who Kylo must defeat to claim Rey.

These people claim to love “Kylo and Rey,” but frequently they are treating her as his redemptive sexy lamp, her purpose is to be his reward for reaching the bar that is basic human decency, having no interest in her beyond her being there to reward him for finally rejecting the darkness, when she has no canonical romantic interest in Kylo and only knows Ben as an idea. Even when the canon has her trying to reach to him, she is NOT doing it because of her intense love - love is not a switch, it is not some snap decision. It comes about because of knowing a person. Lust is instant. Attraction is instant. Love? That requires time. The ideal of Ben as a person could be attractive. But Kylo is not who Rey is or would be attracted to.

All of this is still secondary to the fact that, because of an actor making a joke about his character and another character - a character who repeatedly has an inherently far kinder dynamic with his - having sex, there is a group of this fandom who has decided that this was an attack on them, and they must respond in kind.

Whether or not you agree with ANY of what I have said of the interactions of Kylo and Rey, PLEASE tell me that you agree that THAT behavior is unacceptable. And THAT is the group that people are referring to when they speak so derisively about R*ylows.

Because that is the group that speaks loudest. They’re who come to mind when the topic turns to this ship. You may not be part of it, but guilt by association comes into effect, because this group is hostile to anyone who doesn’t implicitly agree with them. And when you get this hostility from what comes across - whether it’s fact or perception - as a massive wing of total strangers, strangers who decide that, because you disagree with them, you are The Enemy, and you must be destroyed... Yeah, your reflex becomes “That group is trash, do not listen to them, do not engage with them, and god, aren’t they pathetic for devoting themselves to this ridiculous thing of made up characters.”

You want to go after the issue here? Root out the bad behavior that is the cause. Not the symptom. The symptom might be hating on women. But the cause is still the racism that started all of this.

You want to talk about how fandom hates women? Fine. Go right ahead. But don’t use a topic that came about because of racism to do it.

#dg gets pissed #dg rants #'pissed' barely covers it really...

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akocomyk · 5 years ago

Photo

Twenty-eight books read in 2019. Sixteen longlisted books. One person who wastes his time writing sh*t as if they really matter.

Here it is. The best books I read in the past year.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The unfortunate books that I had to let go since I only had ten spots to fill.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (2017)

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934)

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera (2017)

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)

Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott (1994)

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (2014)

*Ratings range from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

10th Place

56 by Bob Ong (2018)

Rating: 4.300

Bob Ong makes a comeback on my list with his latest novel. His other book, Si, ranked 10th last 2015. This is the second time a Filipino book enters the list and is also the second nonfiction book ever—after Into the Wild last 2016.

In his latest release, Ong returns to the writing style that made him famous— reminiscent of his earlier books like ABNKKBSNPLAko. 56 is like a 300-page commentary or editorial about the issues of the present Filipino generation.

Other readers have found the book a little too preachy. I find it enlightening as it serves as a wake-up call to the Filipinos who are turning their blindsides to the harsh realities of our nation.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

9th Place

Mga Kirot ng Kapalaran (Kikomachine Komix blg. 11) by Manix Abrera (2015)

Rating: 4.445

This is a long-overdue recognition to my favorite comic strip artist (Fun Fact: I met him quite a few times already). For many years, I've ignored the chance to even put his works in the list of contenders. I'm not throwing it away again. Now, I have my first book to enter the top 10 classified under comics and graphic novels.

In this collection of strips by Manix Abrera, his work remains as humorous and as satirically laughable as the first time I saw his comic. Themes have changed to reflect the new trends and issues of our present society.

For as long as Manix draws and publishes his work, I will continue to read them as I know he gives an intellectual yet amusing input to our society's problems.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

8th Place

Mga Batang Poz by Segundo Matias, Jr. (2018)

Rating: 4.450

“Beautiful and relevant, but not flawless,” this is what I said on my review for this YA novel.

Mga Batang Poz is the third Filipino book on this list. Having three books on the list is a first. Furthermore, this is also the first time in four years that a Filipino book enters the list.

As previously mentioned, I have certain problems with regard to the overarching narrative of the novel. I wish that Matias could’ve written something more elaborate or something that doesn’t feel forced.

Nevertheless, the book accomplishes its goal of being a story that advocates HIV awareness, especially towards the youth.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

7th Place

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (2012)

Rating: 4.485

In this book, you'll see both the cruelty and the compassion of humanity through the eyes of a gorilla named Ivan who is the narrator of the story.

Ivan is based on a real-life gorilla who was being used as a live animal attraction in Zoo Atlanta.

It is quite obvious that the book is meant for a younger audience, but despite this, I know anyone of any age will be able to appreciate it. Ivan is a gorilla after all, and I think the simplicity of how it was written suits his character, making the tone of the story more natural.

Overall, it was very touching. Although it mirrors pretty much what happened to the real-life Ivan, it efficiently delivers its message for animal welfare.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

6th Place

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (1939)

Rating: 4.525

This is a mystery novel filled with suspense and everything that'll make you love and hate it at the same time. The horror it gives chills you to the bone for every page you turn.

Agatha Christie is insane—and I mean that in a good way. The plot was so well-thought out that even when nearing at the end, I had no clue who the culprit was. When it was revealed to me, I was like, “Yeah. That makes absolute f*cking sense.”

For a book that has ten major characters, it does well in handling them. You know when a piece of literature is brilliantly made when even if its length isn’t considerably long, it doesn’t sacrifice the characters’ backgrounds and the narrative of the story.

Despite the novel’s inhumane and despicable acts, it also addresses issues about criminal injustices that are still prevalent today. In our country alone, criminals—corrupt officials, master drug dealers, rapists, murderers—are still roaming around the streets, evading the consequences of their actions. At times when the law is not enforced properly, people resort to their own type of justice.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

5th Place

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram (2018)

Rating: 4.590

In this debut novel by Adib Khorram, the titular character Darius suffers from clinical depression. Also, he's a Star Trek and Lord of the Rings fan.

This book demonstrates the fact that real depression is not simply cured by positive reinforcement and bible verses—as what most overly religious people think.

The novel highlights Darius' relationship with the other characters—most especially with Sohrab. It shows how he copes up with them while he struggles with his mental disorder.

There are also subtle hints of homosexuality, which added to the overall tension of the story since the main characters are Muslims. It wasn't blatant but it was obviously present—in the right and necessary amount.

To me, this is a spiritual brother of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz—one of my favorite books. It gave me the same feeling of awe, beautiful pain, and joyful nostalgia. There were parts that broke my heart—I was ugly crying while riding a bus—and by the end, I was a complete mess, although I'm utterly happy.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

4th Place

Moonrise by Sarah Crossan (2017)

Rating: 4.595

What I love most about this book is how it was written. Instead of being in paragraphs, it was written in verses—like poetry. I thought it was creative and oddly fitting for the story.

Even though there are more blank spaces on the pages than letters, those words are enough to draw me into the story.

The novel is about Ed whose brother was up on death row. I found myself rooting for him, and I was hoping similarly to how he was hoping in the story. When the end came, I couldn't help myself from closing my eyes.

The narrative was fairly simple, it matches the way it was written. The characters—although few and also written with the utmost simplicity—feel so human and are not flat, cardboard cutouts.

In the light of all the flawed justice systems and abuses of law enforcers not just in America but everywhere else in the world, it's good to find a book that's bold enough to address such issues and an author who's brave enough to write them.

Lots of murderers are on the loose, yet there are innocent people being slaughtered for crimes they didn't commit.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

3rd Place

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (2018)

Rating: 4.605

Just when you thought Angie Thomas couldn't write anything as good as The Hate U Give (THUG), she gives us this. If it's not better, then it sure is as brilliant as her debut novel.

This is Thomas' second consecutive year in my list, with THUG bagging the top plum last year.

The novel is proof of Thomas’s writing prowess. It successfully immersed me into the life of her protagonist, a life filled with hope, angst, and ambition. And the dialogue… Especially the rap battles. They were amazing. Seeing as Thomas herself was a rapper, you can feel the ingenuity in her words.

Moreso, this is one book that we really need in our present times. It reflects all of my sentiments regarding social media and how it can make or break a person. And how much the oppressed and marginalized communities lack representation, and how they are still subject to much prejudice.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

2nd Place

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (2007)

Rating: 4.680

This beautiful novel demonstrates the horror of domestic violence towards women. It also provides a glimpse of the people and culture of Afghanistan during the times of war.

I'm in love with how Khaled Hosseini's characters flesh out from the pages. You'd love them. You'd care for them. Their agony becomes yours. Their pain drips out from the corners of the books as your tears trail down your cheeks.

And on their sweet, small victories, you'd give a sigh of relief as the anxiety is slowly drained from your body.

In the two years that I've read a book by Hosseini, it didn't fail to shatter my heart. The Kite Runner ranked first in my 2017 list, and now this. If ever get to read another one of his books, I've no doubt it will also be a contender for that year's list.

━━━━ ☆ ━━━━

1st Place

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman (2018)

Rating: 4.765

This book is also up on my shelf for the best sequels ever—be it for any medium.

I read this earlier this year and it remained unbeatable until 2019 ended.

This is the second book in Neal Shusterman's Arc of a Scythe trilogy, the sequel to Scythe—which placed 3rd in my 2017 list.

Growth and expansion. These are the things I love about the sequel. Ronan and Citra, the two main protagonists of the trilogy, are older, wiser, and better people, despite the fact that they're teenagers. You can feel their struggles with their respective endeavors.

Also, the universe is bigger. The Arc of Scythe novels feature a world where death does not exist and everyone is biologically immortal. In order to balance the earth’s population, there are these so-called Scythes whose life-long job is to assassinate anyone they choose.

In this sequel, you get to know more about the mechanisms of their world. There’s a new main character, Grayson, who takes you deeper and gives you a view of what it's like to live as a normal human.

The book deals with the adverse effects of the ways power-hungry people want to achieve their ambitions.

But that's not why I went gaga after reading the book.

IT. WAS. EPIC. The plot twists within the plot twists. The narrative. And the ending. My god, that ending. I COULD HEAR MY SILENT SCREAMS. After the last page, the only thing I thought of was, "GIVE ME THE THIRD BOOK RIGHT NOW!"

Thunderhead isn’t flawless, but it’s a very fine piece of literature that I recommend to anyone who loves to read.

• • • • •

I hope I won't regret putting Thunderhead in first place after a few years. I regret giving the top spot to I'll Give You the Sun last 2016. After pondering about the books I've read in the past years, I've found that Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See is one remarkable and memorable book, and the one I should've given the highest honors.

Books with relevant themes dominated my shelf but the book that won my heart was the one with intricate plots and a phenomenal ending. It feels weird but I hope for the best.

Happy New Year, everyone!

#Top10books

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thefallenofbajhiri · 5 years ago

Text

Character Details: Toshinaku

Full Name: Toshinaku ‘Bajhiri’ (Coeurl/Crystal Data Center) Formerly: Sozoh’a Bajhiri

Pronunciation: TOW-SHiy-nah-koo | ba-JEE-ree Nicknames: "Toshi” for the most part by anyone who has a hard time pronouncing his name Gender: Male Height: 8 fulms 9 ilms Age: Unknown Zodiac: Menphina, the Lover (IRL: Aries the Ram) Languages: Common, Huntspeak (Both Keeper and Seeker), Dragon Speak, Ancient Allagan, Voidsent, and various other languages.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS Hair Color: An interesting shade of burgundy that sometimes looks like it has a purple-ish hue in certain lightings. Has a slightly dark purple hue at the tips of his hair for highlights. Eye Color: Matching his hair in that similar burgundy shade while having a bright pastel lavender limbal ring color. Skin Tone: A fine sort of dusty off-white or a very pale silver coloration. His scales are a bright white and shine like gemstones with a brilliant iridescence to them. Some compare his scales to white cat’s eye moonstones, opals or white sapphires. Body Type: Mesomorph, he is muscular and well built for the most part. Abs for days and his arms are quite muscular and look like they could crush a skull. His legs, while muscular seem to stand out compared to the rest of his body as if they shouldn’t be there at all. Accent: Toshi has a slight accent but it is barely noticeable unless someone is truly keened in on it (Sounds like a very slight Allag Accent). He has been known to roll his R’s like Miqo’te as well as to purr like they do, one interesting thing to note about him is that he will carry out his S’s in a way that some ‘snake’ like characters have been known to. Dominant Hand: Right Posture: Confident and almost proud. He tends to stand with his head held high and a glint in his eyes that show he is obviously up to no good so to speak. He’s generally smirking and has this... air about him that something is again not right. He sometimes comes off as he is hiding something or has something to hide. Scars: His body looks almost unnaturally pure and devoid of any scars what-so-ever. Like some sort of magic was used to keep his body pristine. Tattoos: A very intricate marking that is on his forehead done in a purple similar to the highlights at the tps of his hair. His body is also littered with a heavy amount of tattoos that look almost like they are magically imbued by white magic from Conjurers and White Mages, while he may call them tattoos they are far from such. Most noticeable features: There are so many things about Toshinaku that just make everything feel ‘off’ about him. Between his rather massive size compared to even the tallest of Au Ra, his Aether being extremely strange and almost suffocating and the many ‘tattoos’ on his form there is so much to notice about him and draw in ones attention. He has very dragon-like feet compared to most Au Ra. His horns also have an interesting golden sheen to them while they have that similar white shine like his scales do. He’s extremely mysterious and hard to truly pin down but it’s obvious that there is something different about him.

CHILDHOOD Place of Birth: Unknown, thought to be somewhere in the Northern part of the Shroud bordering Coerthas. Hometown: Unknown, tends to wander and has never truly had a ‘home’ so to speak of. He’s nomadic so to speak. Birth Weight/Height: Unknown Manner of Birth: Unknown, thought to have been natural but also given how he is it’s hard to say. First Words: Thought to have been ‘snake’ or ‘ba ba’ which some suspect to have meant Bahamut. Siblings: Unknown Parents: Unknown, seriously he’s a mystery in every sense of the word. Parental involvement: What parents? He didn’t know them and certainly doesn’t know how involved they might have been. ADULTHOOD Occupation: Master Alchemist and Engineer, studies genetics and genetic altering as well as being a chemical creator that will alter a beings appearance/genetic code.. Tends to spend most of his time studying ancient Allagan technology as well as chemicals of some description. He is also an ‘entertainer’ of sorts... can we just say he’s a very good belly dancer and tends to help... relieve stress with certain methods. (IE: He does sexual favors for money basically) Current Residence: Nomadic, honestly he’s always wandering about the world. He spends most of his time in inns in various location. Close Friends: None Relationship Status: Open, Poly Financial Status: He has to pay for those inns somehow. Most of his money is likely earned through his ‘entertaining’. Driver’s License: He gets around mostly on foot, he doesn’t understand these ‘horse birds’ as people call them. Criminal Record: None, for now. Vices: Conjuring up dangerous chemicals, drinking way too many ‘unknown’ substances, tinkering with allagan technology, tinkering with augmentations for himself, using others for his own personal gain. Drinking way too many temporary fantasias is another one.

SEX & ROMANCE Sexual Orientation: Homosexual (But will potentially go with woman if the desire/mood is right) Romantic Orientation: Panromantic Preferred Emotional Role: submissive | dominant | switch | unsure Preferred Sexual Role: submissive | dominant | switch | sex repulsed Libido: While Toshi does a lot of entertaining his drive is not as high as one might think. It’s there but it doesn’t really show as much as some others might. Turn Ons: Neck Bites, Biting in general, Scale Massages, Touching his horns, touching at the base of his tail and also touching or yanking his tail. There are many things that can turn him on really and he’s quite sadistic as well which also gets him going. Turn Offs: Most of the usual things really. Love Language: It’s hard to really say if this guy has any sort of love language or not. He’s honestly so ‘devoted’ to his work that he hasn’t really ever experienced love. We’ll come back to this later I think. Relationship Tendencies: Being an entertainer in some regard, Toshi tends to have tendencies that will please his partner first and foremost. Those who hire him on for the night will get the best out of him and all they have to do is tell the guy what they want most. He often ‘boasts’ about how he can give anyone whatever they want and he is more than willing to oblige. MISCELLANEOUS Mental Disorders: Unknown at this time. Physical Illnesses/Disabilities: None that he is aware of. Left or Right Brained: Can be a bit of both however seems to be more Left brain dominant. Fears: He doesn’t discuss his fears, his fears are not truly known as he is quite good at hiding them. Self Confidence Level: As mentioned with his posture he is fairly confident in himself but there are times where he’ll slip up and show some weakness. Usually however he keeps that head up high and proud. Vulnerabilities: Extremely Sensitive to White Magic, Healing Magic, etc. and prone to potential Aether Sickness if exposed for too long to any White Mages/Healers. There could be various others here but they haven’t been documented yet.

#FFXIV #FFXIV RP #Crystal Data Center #Crystal Data Center RP #Crystal RP #About the Muse #Toshinaku #Toshinaku Bajhiri #Au Ra #Au Ra Raen #Raen #Voidsent #Demon #{ The Fallen of Bajhiri }

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