#but I am used to either mouse+keyboard

[coldgoldlazarus]

I tend not to care about hardware stuff, and as long as Prime 4 is cross gen I'll probably just try and get a Switch. But if the "Switch 2" has not only backwards compatibility, but the full Wii-tier level of IR sensor + gyro for motion controls instead of just (what I understand to be) kinda cruddy gyro like the Switch, then I might be more interested in springing for it.

[cicada-candy]

If you're still doing art asks. A smidgen of your pacific rim Johnny? O-O

Prepare thyself for battle... ✨️In style✨️

This has given me a Mighty Need to draw more pacrim stuff,,,, hmm

[hongjoongsslvt]

ITS YOU -CHOI SAN (MDNI)

⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆

Click here for Part-2(Smut)

WC: 1.6k

Pairing: Roommate San X Roommate Reader Genre:University AU, childhood close friemds to lovers, Common best friends, Wooyoung and Yeosang, Reader is taller than San

Warnings: fem! Bodied reader, mild cursing, suggestive, reader is referred as kitten, MDNI

That's all i can think about ≽^•༚•^≼

⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆

I have everything I wanted, university's top student in academics, enviously good at both physical and E-sports, basically you name it and I am either too good at it to be called a beginner or I have already learnt about it in my life more than anything I had my childhood best friend and rival who is equally good at stuff.

For as long as I can remember, San and I have been together. We went to the same middle school, high school, and university, so it made sense for us to move into the apartment together. But I had a big problem because of this rooming together.

I've had a major crush on Choi San for a long time. I've had it since we first met, but I made the decision to keep it a secret and carry it into death out of concern that if I ever made a move on him, I would lose our friendship.

---------------------------------

"Ayo Mate! Hurry up! I'm eager to test out this new mouse and write a review". In our shared game room, I yell while reclined in my comfortable gaming chair.

We have saved up enough money to furnish a comfortable apartment with the newest gaming equipment thanks to our accomplishments in hackathons, martial arts competitions, and streaming.

"Dude-c'mere and help me get this!" He seemed to be shouting, but it was barely audible. I moved out of the room to assist him with whatever it was, and as I did, I noticed that the man was in the storage room. He was wearing gray satin pajamas with the top two buttons undone, exposing his muscular pecs, a face mask, and a head band on. He was also tiptoeing to get his new keyboard, which was high on the shelf. "So adorable," I thought.

He jolted forward as I inadvertently brushed my breasts against him as I walked behind him and tiptoed to grab the keyboard. For a brief minute, I swear it felt amazing not having to wear a bra because the dark-colored, slightly baggy pajamas I was wearing nicely covered up my breasts. However, I chose to act like nothing had occurred.

"Having a Giantess in the dungeon is mad handy!" He patted my shoulder in appreciation and said, "Let's review your mouse and keyboard before he leaves the room like a cat jumping."

Yes, I am taller than my crush, but it doesn't really worry me because my 180 cm height got me hired as a model for several local magazines, which helped me be paid for new electronics and gaming accessories. However, I doubt San, who prides himself on being powerful, domineering, and manly, will ever consider dating a woman who is taller than him.

I sighed as I entered the room and saw two familiar faces: Kang Yeosang and Jung Wooyoung, our lads next door. The first had jet black hair, a gorgeous birthmark at the corner of his eye, and a deep, honey voice. The other had brilliant red hair and laughed like a witch.

"Wasssap Female Titan!" Wooyoung said as he got off my gaming chair to dab me up while yeosang nodded and gave me a fist bump and wacked the red haired boy. At the start of the year, the four of us really clicked because they were both excellent game designers. We are currently working together to design and build an independent game.

As I posted the schedule for the weekend in our group chat, I added, "Let's hit the library and the gym after the stream ends." We all four gathered together and began to stream information on products and collaborations, with Wooyoung constantly dropping spoilers and Yeosang and San, as always, delighting viewers with their distinct brand of deadpan humor. and San's sporadic, for reasons I'm not interested in knowing, staring.

By the time we finished streaming, it was close to 5 o'clock, and Wooyoung and Yeosang had to leave me and San alone since they had to pass our study session at the library and attend a significant lecture. It was expected since they both frequently went to seminars to get ideas for their game designs.

As I go into my own room to change and get ready for the night, I playfully tell him, "You better choose your outfit quickly before I barge in and break your kneecaps." We unintentionally became identical in black tank tops and sweatpants, but it didn't bother either of us. Even though I was dressed the same, I felt quite different. His large biceps, slim waist, and broad shoulders were all well-represented by the attire.

I got the other person to laugh as I flexed my biceps, triceps, and lats in front of a mirror, saying, "Oh boy, look at my guns and wings," hoping to release some of the tension building up inside of me. I had the perfect amount of muscle and curves to my body, luckily.

"Bet" he said, flexing his muscles and standing directly in front of me. God, he looks so ethereal and Greek god coded that I've temporarily lost my ability to process things. The doorbell ringing was one of them. San moved back to confront the person at the door, forgetting that I was right behind him. I again felt him brush against my breasts accidently, jerking and acting as if he hadn't touched before continuing.

We have done whatever we had planned for the day, without much convos outside the work, and without knowing a week has already passed already, with the tormenting "accidental" brushing against my breasts and ass, cooking food, cleaning room, doing laundry and other chores despite it being my turn to do. All these felt as if he had some hidden intentions behind them, but i decided to play it dumb till he comes out clear.

I made the decision this Sunday to give Wooyoung a call and tell him about my predicament making it the perfect time as Yeosang had piano lessons to attend and San was preoccupied with grocery shopping.

"HE'S 100% INTO YOU TITAN, TRUST ME" Wooyoung screams making me instantly whack his head.

"What was that for?" Wooyoung snarled and rubbed his head as I struck him. "Do you really suppose San rubs against every girl's ass and tits, remaining courteous and refusing to accept confessions?"-" I could almost see his wolfy, naughty smirk as he was ready to continue when his phone went off. wondering why he did this.

"Titan! Do you have anything sexy to wear? I realize I sound strange but trust me eh?" His hands are already enthusiastically going through my clothes in the closet mid way of the question.

"I don't think I do?" I said "Mate, why all of a sudden?"

He was too preoccupied digging through my closet to respond. A few minutes later, his witchy chuckle took me completely by surprise.

"BITCH- YOU NEVER TOLD YOU OWNED A BUNNY COSTUME?" he screamed, making me go deaf almost.

"It's not that I'm insecure about my height; it's just that I've never tried stuff like that," I remarked, leaning onto the door. "I got that as a gift from a stupid friend of mine," I said.

"let me cook" He said.

After what seemed like an eternity, he made me wear a costume of a bunny, but with cat ears in place of the bunny ears. He also lightly styled my hair, applied smeared lipstick, and made me wear Yeosang's fishnet tights. Upon seeing my progress, Wooyoung seemed happy and led me into the living room, where the lights were dimmed a bit.

"Damn! dude, i thought you were flatboard-" Wooyoung was about to start talking when an obviously irate San stormed into the home, dropped groceries at the door, and came right toward us. I swear, in my twenty years of living, I have never seen San look so upset.

"Too bad, Mate!, too late" Wooyoung said as he gave San's shoulder a pat before leaving the our house.

"San-"

"Is it true that you are sending semi nudes to mr.Lee?" He inquired, obviously furious

I was so perplexed for a moment that I just stood there.

"Yeosang said that Wooyoung was helping you take pics"

Now that it was all coming together, it was clear to me why they were rushing to a lecture on Sunday in the first place—they never go to seminars on Sundays!

"I love you, It have always been you and only you,I loved you since the moment we met in the school"San said in a voice that seemed shattered."Why Mr.Lee? is it because he is taller and much more appealing than me, because he is caring and kind?, I swear atleast I never thought height was a thing to be considered to love a person"

My mind went blank listening to those words, is it for real? or am i tweaking? this must definitely be a dream, there's no way San loves me, but soon i was brought back to reality from my thoughts by the sudden hug.

"Dude, that's why you were fucking brushing against my breasts and ass the entire past week, coz you thought imma date Mr.Lee?" I questioned him "Bitch, no shit my nips were crazy sensitive"

He replied, his tone falling several octaves as he crept nearer and eye-fucked me till I hit the wall. "It's your fault for being irresistibly cute and sexy." He grabbed my neck, held me to the wall, and bent me slightly so he could plant a kiss.

"Kitten you are merely 4 to 5 cm taller, that doesn't mean that i can't lift you up, bend you over and fuck you senseless"

Oh boy, I hope i will make it out alive by tomorrow morning.

⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆

let me know if you want part two(Smut)~ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

Re blogs are appreciated

DO NOT REPOST OR PLAGIARISE

⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆

[junekissed]

packages, boxes and bags

day eight of junkissed's svt season's greetings event

member — boyfriend!seokmin x reader genre — the sweetest and purest fluff word count — 3.1k synopsis — you’re having trouble finding the perfect gift for your boyfriend on your first christmas together. maybe his friends can help. warnings — a little cursing, reader is called seokmin's girlfriend, pet names (baby, honey), they are so damn cute it hurts, when can i have my own seokmin god please i'm begging notes — lowercase intended. i apologize this is late but i was busy the past couple days and i also didn't have much inspo for this. so imagine my surprise when today i sit down at my laptop and boom three thousand words just. appear. but i am so happy with how this turned out and i hope you will be too. i must warn you all this is disgustingly sweet and precious and i definitely screamed into my pillow more than once while writing this. i hope you enjoy :) p.s. i promise this isn't an ad for kay jewelers— blame @duhnova for that

one reblog = one (almost) engagement ring

you shut your laptop closed and groan, putting your head in your hands. this was never going to work.

you’ve spent the better part of your day off on websites like amazon, macy’s, even walmart, trying to find the perfect gift for seokmin.

despite being together almost seven months now, it’s the first time you’ll be spending christmas together. and… you have absolutely no idea what to get him.

first you thought about getting him some little gadget for his computer at work, maybe a new keyboard or a cute new mouse pad. but then you remembered how he told you in passing the other day how he couldn’t stand how his job had him hunched over his computer all day, and he was thinking about looking for a new one where he wouldn’t have to be on it so much.

then you thought you might get him a nice framed picture of the two of you, something small to keep in his apartment for when you’re not there. but when you came over last weekend, the first thing he did was show you the digital photo frame he found in his closet that his mom got him for his birthday that he’d forgotten about. he was stoked to “finally be able to put it to good use” and had programmed it with dozens of pictures of the two of you.

you’d tried google. you’d looked at every gift-giving website under the sun. you’d even asked your best friend what she was getting for her boyfriend for christmas to see if it might spark an idea. 

but everything you come across is either something he already has, something he doesn’t need, or something he could easily get on his own.

so… you were stuck. thoroughly and completely stuck.

meanwhile, unbeknownst to you, seokmin is currently on the other side of town, running through the mall in a panic, trying to figure out what to get you.

he knows he shouldn’t have waited until three days before christmas to get his holiday shopping done, but he’s been busy– there’s a huge promotion up at his job, and he’s doing everything he can to get it. not only would it mean less sitting at his desk all day and more moving around, it would also mean a big raise, so you can finally move in together like you both have been wanting to. now that would be a perfect christmas present if he gets the position, but he won’t find out if he has or not until the new year, so that rules that out. 

it’s your first christmas together, so he really wants to go all out. winter is his favorite season, and now he gets to spend it with his favorite person, so why wouldn’t he make it something extravagant? except… he can’t find anything to get you.

so here he is at the mall downtown, ducking into every store and searching for something, anything that might give him an idea of a gift you might like.

he doesn’t wanna buy you clothes, because that’s lame, and also because he doesn’t wanna get something that’s not guaranteed you’ll like. what if you think the fabric is too itchy, or you don’t like the pattern? returning or even exchanging his gift would mean a big failure.

he doesn’t wanna buy you the trinkets he found at that one gift shop, because even though they are cute, they’re not special enough to get for you. these are the type of things he’d pick up for you on his way home from work as an everyday treat, or at the very most, a stocking stuffer; you deserve more than some cheap little thing he found on a whim.

he thought about getting you a new purse, because you said you’ve been needing one since the strap on your current one broke, but he’s pretty sure you already bought yourself one when your boss gave you an amazon gift card as a thank-you for all the overtime you’ve been doing lately.

it seems like everything he thinks of to get you is a dumb idea. so now he’s stuck. thoroughly and completely stuck.

you sigh, pulling out your phone and scrolling through your gallery, praying that one of the photos is hiding some kind of sign that’ll tell you exactly what to buy him. but as expected, there’s no magic word or wish list or qr code that leads to the perfect gift.

you’re just about to give up and call him and just ask him what he wants, when an idea hits you. calling him would be admitting to him you can’t think of something special to give him, but calling his friends… now that, that might get you somewhere. they’ve known him for way longer than you have, they must have some idea of things he likes or might want.

you quickly dial the number of his friend minghao. you’ve only met him a few times at some get-togethers, but he seems like the most responsible out of his group, and the most likely to give you a helpful answer.

he picks up on the first ring, but the voice that answers… isn’t minghao?

“hello seokmin’s girlfriend! this is minghao’s phone, how can i help you!”

“junhui, i told you to stop touching my phone!” you hear a voice in the background that you guess is minghao.

“fi-ine,” the first voice—junhui?—grumbles, and you hear a shuffling noise as you assume the phone is being passed back to its owner.

minghao sighs. “hi. sorry about him. what’s up?”

you try not to laugh at the phone mix-up. “just, uh, have a question for you.”

“mhm?” he prods.

“has… seok mentioned anything he wants for christmas? or, like, is there anything you know he needs?” you ask, hoping it sounds nonchalant.

he hums. “mm, not really. are you trying to come up with a christmas gift for him?”

you whine. “yeah. but i’ve tried everything, i can’t think of a single good thing to give him.”

minghao pauses. “he’s really sentimental, but you probably already figured that out by now. the best i can suggest is something homemade, or something related to some kind of memory you have together. he’d like that.”

you freeze. “i… i think i’ve got an idea,” you say jumping up from your chair. “you’re the best, minghao, i owe you big time for this.”

“don’t worry about it. merry christmas.”

you hang up the phone and open your laptop again. this just might work.

you hadn’t planned on spending this much on seokmin’s present, but why not go all out? sure, you’ll have to cut back on your morning coffee for a couple weeks, but it’ll be worth it to see the look on his face on christmas morning.

at the same time, across town seokmin’s just walking out of the jewelry store, a shiny velvet box tucked into his jacket pocket. it’s a lot more than he wanted to pay for it, but it’s better than showing up empty-handed. besides, if that promotion comes through like he hopes, he’ll pay it off in no time. it might have cost a small fortune, but he just knows it’ll look so pretty on you. he can’t wait to see you wear it.

christmas eve finally rolls around and you’re standing outside the door to seokmin’s apartment, your arms full of bags for the weekend you’re spending with him.

his entire face lights up the second he opens the door, and he squeezes you in a tight hug before giving you a soft kiss. “hi baby,” he says, almost shyly. “merry christmas.”

he grabs the bags from you to carry them inside, and you give him another kiss. “merry christmas.”

he takes your things back to his room to set them down, then comes back out into the living room, wrapping his arms around you again. “i’m so glad you get to be here,” he says quietly.

“mm. me too.”

the room is quiet, besides the faint honking of cars outside. you snuggle up on the couch together, picking out a movie to watch, the dim lights casting a soft glow around the apartment.

“do you wanna open your present now?” he asks when the screen turns black and the credits slowly roll past.

“seok, you have to wait until christmas! we can’t open all our presents tonight!” you giggle, and he pouts.

“please?” he says, looking up at you with those big, pleading eyes you adore so much. 

“fine,” you concede. “but only one! or else we won’t have anything to open in the morning.”

he grins and gets down on the floor beside the couch, crawling over to the tree to grab a small wrapped box nestled into the bottom branches. he comes back over and sits at the base of the couch, putting one knee up as he hands you the box.

he grins up at you as you tear open the wrapping paper, revealing the soft velvet jewelry box.

you look down at him, and he nods eagerly, motioning for you to open it. you hesitate. it definitely looks expensive, way more than you would’ve wanted him to spend on you. but you did pay almost $300 renting the place for his gift, so you write it off as being even.

you delicately pry the box open with your fingernail, revealing a breathtaking ring absolutely covered in diamonds and intricate silver gilding. it gleams even in the low light, sitting in its little velvet box, staring up at you.

you gasp, throwing your hand over your mouth. “seokmin, what the fuck is this!?”

his smile instantly drops, the color draining from his cheeks. “do you not like it? i can probably still return it, i have the receipt–”

“no!” you shout, and he jumps, eyes wide. “no,” you repeat, calmer this time. “no, i love it. it’s gorgeous. i just– i thought we were doing… small presents first?” you stutter, still in shock at the beautiful piece of jewelry in your shaking hands.

he blushes. “i… wanted you to wear it now,” he murmurs.

you study him, and suddenly you realize he’s still down on the carpet on one knee. and everything finally clicks.

you scream as you jump up from the couch. “seokmin, you’re not proposing, are you?” you gasp.

“no?” he stammers, confused why you’d think he is, before realizing himself that he looks… well, he definitely looks like he’s proposing.

he hurriedly puts his knee down, sitting flat on the carpet. “i’m not! i’m not. this is just a really nice ring, i swear,” he rushes to explain. “at least, not yet,” he mumbles under his breath, but you don’t hear him. you’re still focused on the fact that there’s more diamonds in this ring than you can count on one hand.

you’re still standing in front of him, mouth hanging open, and he’s starting to get worried because you haven’t said a word in a few minutes. “do you want me to propose?” he asks hesitantly. because, screw it, he’s already got the nice ring; if you’re ready, then he’s ready, might as well—

“no! i mean, yes, i do, i really do, but not right now, i…” you trail off, not sure how to continue.

the room is silent, both of you staring at each other. after a minute he stands up, taking his seat back on the couch. “oh no,” he says, finally breaking the silence with a groan. “i ruined this, didn’t i?”

“no,” you sigh, having recovered enough from the shock to sit next to him again. “no, of course not. i’m just… surprised. i wasn’t expecting this. it must’ve cost a fortune.”

“it’s rude to ask someone the price of a gift, you know,” he says, a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

“trust me, i’m not asking,” you laugh. “i don’t even wanna know.”

“can… can i put it on you?” he asks, his voice getting soft again.

you look at him, and then at the glittering diamond ring in his hand, and you can’t not accept it. you nod, letting out a quiet “mhm” in agreement.

your eyes start to water as he slides it onto your finger, and he looks up worriedly when you sniffle. “it’s so pretty, oh my god,” you whisper, more to yourself than to him.

“please don’t cry,” he says softly, and he looks so upset that you have to reassure him you’re not mad and you just really, really like your gift. 

you admire how it looks on your finger for a second before you scoot closer to him and wrap your arms around him.

“i love it, baby,” you murmur. “you really didn’t have to do this.”

he hums. “but i wanted to. i wanted to show you how much i love you.”

tears well up in your eyes again, and you bury your face in his neck to hide them. “you already show me. every single day.”

he sighs, a happy sigh, relaxing into your arms. “i’m glad you like it.”

you stay like that for a while, gently rocking back and forth on the couch, peacefully enjoying everything. the scent of his cologne wafts around you, a comforting, familiar smell, and the colorful lights of the christmas tree shine softly in the background. you wouldn’t want to spend christmas anywhere else.

you pull away a little, breaking the silence with a short laugh. “mine’s gonna look so stupid compared to yours,” you pout as you snuggle into his side, leaning your head against his shoulder.

“are you gonna make me wait until tomorrow to open it?” he asks, rubbing his hand up and down your arm.

“no,” you sigh. “it’s probably after midnight by now, anyway.” you lift yourself out of his arms, going back into his room to get his present from one of your bags.

it’s a lightweight little box, and you hand it down to him. the gift itself isn’t big in size, but you know he likes taking the wrapping off, so you put it in a box and wrapped it for him.

he waits for you to come sit beside him again, and he opens it, carefully tearing the red and green paper with a grin on his face.

he opens the box, revealing a small piece of paper. he looks back at you. “baby? what’s this?”

your cheeks heat up as you begin to explain, suddenly feeling shy about your gift. “well, i… i rented out the movie theater we went to on our first date, and i thought it would be fun to, just… spend the day there, i don’t know.” you trail off, looking down at your hands, until seokmin takes them in his own.

when you look back up at him, his smile is so wide, it almost looks like it hurts. “i love it,” he beams, his voice breaking a little. “that’s so thoughtful, honey. i really love it.”

he leans forward to squeeze you in a hug, and you can’t help but smile, too.

“this is the best christmas ever,” he sighs into your neck, holding you tightly against him. “love you so much.”

he sits back, pulling you onto his lap facing him. “do you know where i got the ring from?” he asks suddenly, locking his hands behind your lower back.

you look at him. “um, kay? it says it on the box.”

he grins. “and?”

you frown in confusion. “and… what?”

the tips of his ears turn pink. “y’know, their slogan? ‘every kiss begins with kay’? from the commercials?”

you blink at him.

he groans, rolling his head back. “can i just kiss you now, please?”

you giggle, throwing your arms around his neck and rubbing your nose against his. “fine.”

and just as he’s about to, his pocket vibrates, and he pulls out his phone.

“my… boss?” he says, confused, showing you the screen.

you whine, resting your chin on his shoulder. “what does he want that can’t wait? it’s one in the morning on christmas eve– well, technically christmas morning, now.”

he looks at you with pleading eyes, and you sigh. “you can answer it. quickly, though, please?”

he presses a kiss to your cheek in thanks before sliding the button to accept the call, holding the phone up to his other ear. “hello?”

you can’t hear what’s being said on the other line, so you close your eyes, worn out from the night’s big surprises. you have a lot to do tomorrow—today—and you’ll need sleep if you want to spend the whole day with him like you want to.

seokmin sits up suddenly, startling you. you lean back, looking at him, wordlessly asking if something’s wrong. but he’s beaming, his smile so bright you’d think he’d just been told he won the lottery, and you crease your eyebrows in confusion.

he stays on the phone for another minute, listening intently. “thank you so much. merry christmas,” he says finally, then hangs up, tossing his phone to the other end of the couch.

“what? what is it?” you ask, still concerned despite his giddy expression.

he settles back, his hands sliding to your waist and holding you up on his lap. “i just got some news,” he says, and you know he’s being vague on purpose to draw out the suspense.

you pout. “well, are you gonna tell me, or not!”

he giggles, unable to hold it back any longer. “i got the promotion!” he yells.

your mouth falls open. “what promotion?” you ask, tentative.

“i didn’t wanna say anything unless i was sure, but there’s been a position available at the company, and they wanted to hire someone from within,” he says excitedly. “it wasn’t guaranteed that i’d get it, but i did! i got the promotion!”

“aw, seok! i’m so proud of you, baby,” you smile, leaning down to kiss him.

he pulls away after a second, and you look at him expectantly. “i have more news,” he says with a grin.

“and?”

“and… it comes with a big raise, so we’ll finally be able to afford a place together,” he beams, rubbing his hands up and down your back.

you bite your bottom lip to stop it from trembling, and feel your eyes well up with tears, spilling down your cheeks.

he calls your name softly, and you look up at him. “are you… what do you think?” he asks, his big eyes searching your watery ones.

“i– i’m just so happy,” you stammer, leaning down to hug him again. “i love you so much. this is more than i could’ve ever asked for.” you bury your face in his neck, letting your tears of joy fall onto his sweater.

“merry christmas, honey.”

taglist | @foxdaisy @tinkerbell460 @merrykyeomas @just-here-to-read-01 @ny0sang @pepperonidk @noraehey @squiishymeow @pearlygraysky @baekhyunstruly @tenn87 @raevyng @aceofvernons @odetoyeonjun @dkakapizzaboy @enhacolor @highkey-fangirling @baldi-2 @kcxjae @onlymingyus @variety-is-the-joy-of-life @potatofrieswithketchup @skzzooyaaa @wonuziex

join my taglist here!

thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed! if you liked this, reblog or leave an ask or a comment, it shows me you enjoyed this so i know to write more like this in the future!

[don-dake]

So I've been playing around with Cāngjié…

And I thought a post like this (similar to a post on Zhùyīn done by linghxr) may be of interest to some.

Edited: 10 Sep 2023

This post has gotten a little popular lately and on scrutinizing my own post again, I've come to the conclusion that I had made some mistakes in my given character examples.

Amended now. Namely, 「唔」 and 「龍」 have now been swapped over in the examples.

「唔」 is really the “3-parts”, and 「龍」 is indeed a “2-parts” character! Amendments are reflected in orange.

What (and who) is Cāngjié?

For those who may not know, Cāngjié is another way to input 漢字/汉字 (Hànzì — Chinese characters). It is way less popular than Pinyin (or even Zhuyin) but it still has its fans, and has a few advantages over the other two.

Cāngjié is also the name of the mythical figure in Chinese legend who is said to have been the inventor of 漢字/汉字, for which Cāngjié (the input system) was named after.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, if you think you have already acquired a good (enough) understanding of 漢字/汉字, and/or just like a new challenge.

(TL;DR at the end)

Why am I learning Cāngjié (and why you may like to, too)?

1. Mostly for fun.

Have long been intrigued by both Cāngjié and Zhùyīn, and since I finally mustered up the courage to tackle Zhùyīn not too long ago, I thought I'd finally give Cāngjié a try.

While learning Cāngjié does require more effort than learning Pinyin or Zhuyin, it can also be really fun! Inputting 漢字/汉字 with the Cāngjié method is almost like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

The euphoria derived from figuring out and piecing together the radicals that make up a word is something that learning Jyutping (Cantonese equivalent of Pinyin), Pinyin or Zhuyin can't quite match.

And while I know I'll never be as adept with Cāngjié — my knowledge of 漢字/汉字 is nowhere near good enough to ever use Cāngjié efficiently — as I do Jyutping or Pinyin (or to some extent, Zhuyin), it'll still be fun to use Cāngjié every once in a while!

2. Helps with thinking and typing in Chinese.

The upshot of relying too much on using Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin is, I'd tend to think in Roman letters or ㄅㄆㄇㄈ before I'd even think about the actual 漢字/汉字.

But with Cāngjié, because it's based on knowing radicals and joining them together to form actual characters, it'll encourage thinking of 漢字/汉字 first, so I think that would help some with 漢字/汉字 memory retention.

Now you may be thinking, why not just you know, practise actually writing then? That is the tried and proven method to better remember 漢字/汉字 after all?

Yes, of course I can do that — and am doing so occasionally — but we live in a digital age now, and the probability and opportunity to type things out is much higher than actually writing stuff by hand.

The idea here is, more looking to think of and envision characters fully in my head, and trying to lessen over-reliance on Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin.

And this is where I find Cāngjié can be useful, which leads to my next point…

3. Haunted by “What if” scenario.

What if there comes a day (however improbable) where I'm presented with only a Cāngjié keyboard to use for typing Chinese? It has happened with Zhùyīn for me!

That means, no Pinyin or Zhuyin keyboards, no Handwriting tools/touchscreens to write with fingers/mouse, no speech-to-text, and no option to copy-and-paste characters from somewhere else either! What then?

4. Able to type without knowing pronunciation, and with more accuracy.

Cāngjié is shape-based. Unlike Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin, where you have to know what a character sounds like before you can type it out, with Cāngjié, you can type out (again assuming no Handwriting or other tools available) characters without needing to know how to pronounce them at all.

With shape-based typing, you'd also get more accurate hits in the first few 漢字/汉字 that show up, versus sound-based methods like Pinyin where for e.g., typing out “wan” will get you a whole list under the same sound and you may have to scroll through a whole lot to get the exact “wan” you need.

You can also type both Traditional and Simplified characters without having to toggle something or switch keyboards.

So how does one begin learning Cāngjié?

Install a Cāngjié keyboard.

Duh…but of course! Heh! Gboard offers one, banded under Cantonese language input (Android user here, don't know about iPhones, sorry).

There are two versions of Cāngjié that are prevalent currently. Cāngjié 3 and Cāngjié 5. Cāngjié 5 is supposed to be an improvement over version 3 but I don't find there's much; having a slightly altered version just adds to the confusion and unnecessarily complicates matters, in fact!

If you have a choice, I'd recommend selecting Cāngjié 3 as that is more supported. Some operating systems may not be too compatible with Cāngjié 5 still, for some strange reason.

You may also come across something called “Quick” (速成) aka, “Simplified Cāngjié”.

This is simply a scaled down version of Cāngjié, it's still based on Cāngjié's formula. So you still need to know how Cāngjié works in order to use “Quick” efficiently.

You'd then need a chart like this. ↓

* the 重 (Z) key doesn't really come into use. I don't really know what it's for, but it seems to be used (paired with other keystrokes) mainly to type out various punctuation marks.

There are variants out there, some having a little more, or less, radicals shown than in the above example, but I'll say the chart here is one of the more comprehensive ones I've found so far (and sufficient enough) — other charts often fail to highlight the 難 (X) key and what it corresponds to.

You don't have to memorize the chart all at once. Just always have a chart like this on hand to refer to and with enough typing practise, you'll eventually remember which key corresponds with which radicals.

Remember the rules. ↓

“1 part” character (e.g. 寫) = first 3 & last (radical).

“2 parts” character (e.g. 唔龍) = first & last, first 2 & last.

“3 parts” character (e.g. 難) = first & last, first & last, last.

e.g. 寫 ↓

With radicals 宀，丿，臼 (first 3) and 灬 (last).

Corresponding keys: 十，竹，難 and 火。

寫 → 写 ↓

With radicals 冖，卜，㇆ (first 3)，一 (last).

Corresponding keys：月，卜，尸 and 一。

e.g. 龍 ↓

With radicals 亠，月 (first & last), 卜，コ (first 2)，ヒ (last).

Corresponding keys: 卜，月，卜，尸，and 心。

龍 → 龙 ↓ (Simplified 龍 → 龙，a “1 part” character)

With radicals 丶，ナ，ヒ (first 3).

Corresponding keys: 戈，大，and 心。

e.g. 難 ↓

With radicals 廿，人 (first & last)，亻(first & last)，土 (last).

Corresponding keys: 廿，人，人 and 土。

難 → 难 ↓

With radicals ヌ (first & last)，亻(first & last)，土 (last).

Corresponding keys: 水，人，and 土。

Occasionally, you may get a character that looks like a “2 parts” but is actually a “3 parts”. ↓

e.g. 唔 ↓

With radicals 口 (first & last)，一，一 (first & last)，口 (last).

Corresponding keys: 口，一，一 and 口。

Or looks like a “1 part” but really a “3 parts”. ↓

e.g. 奪 ↓

With radicals 大 (first & last)，亻，土 (first & last)，丶 (last).

Corresponding keys: 大，人，土，and 戈。

奪 → 夺 ↓(Simplified 奪 → 夺，a “1 part” character)

With radicals 大，寸 (first 3; the 丶 is the 3rd component).

Corresponding keys: 大，木，and 戈。

But these are exceptions, and don't occur that often.

And you can start practising!

You can try out this pretty good app called 『五色學倉頡』 (learning Cāngjié with 5 colours), for practise. It's on Playstore, just search for “Cangjie Dictionary” and it should show up.

You have to pay to unlock higher levels, unfortunately. ↓

Anyway, each character comes with colour coded hints and you can opt to turn them off if you like more of a challenge. There are also hints (提示) and the chart (字根表) to refer to if you're really stuck. Also has a dictionary component (查字典) to check out the Cāngjié input for characters.

Another option would be a website called HKCards. ↓

You can use it to check the Cāngjié input for any 漢字/汉字, and there's section for practise (倉頡輸入法練習) as well. After inputting your answer with Cāngjié keys (手田水口廿卜), you can click on the “Answer” (答案) button to see how right or wrong your answers were. ↓

There are 8 characters each time, and you can just hit “Practise Again” (再做練習) to refresh for another 8 to practise with. I've yet to hit a limit.

Unfortunately, this website has lots of ads popping up. And it only supports searching in Traditional characters (Cāngjié was initially catered more for Traditional).

Or you can just try practising randomly with a Cāngjié keyboard and check for mistakes with a Cāngjié dictionary (『五色學倉頡』 app's dictionary comes in really useful here — it appears to support searching in Simplified too).

TL;DR

Cāngjié could be useful (and fun) to know if your 漢字/汉字 knowledge is already adequate, and/or you just like a new challenge.

And if watching videos is more your thing, here's a really helpful YouTube tutorial on how to use Cāngjié (has English subs)!

[housewifebuck]

hi everyone! I've gotten several requests to make a tutorial on how to make gifs for someone just starting out and I finally got around to slapping a tutorial together.

This tutorial will cover:

software recommendations

choosing what to gif

creating a gif step by step with probably a lot of unnecessary detail

some tips and tricks:)

(This particular tutorial will not cover how to find tv and movies to download and gif, or any specific instructions on coloring. only the basic gif making process.)

so for the purposes of this tutorial, we will be using Adobe Photoshop, which is the most common program for making gifs, and the one I recommend. the version you have doesn't make a major difference in terms of capabilities but the interface may be slightly different looking if you have an older version or a different type of device. you cannot make or edit gifs in any mobile version of the photoshop application. Optionally, we will also be using Adobe Premiere Rush/Pro or another video editing software of your choice. wherever you are downloading Photoshop, whether from Adobe or a third party, you should easily be able to acquire Premiere as well. I am aiming to be as detailed as possible in this tutorial, so it may sound more time consuming than it really is. once you get the hang of things, it goes fast. the most time consuming part by far is the editing and coloring. in my opinion, one thing that majorly saves time while giffing is knowing your keyboard shortcuts and using your mouse/trackpad as little as possible. I will be going over these in this tutorial as well.

before we begin, some general tips:

gifs of single shots that do not cut between angles or subjects generally will look the best, barring exceptions

for a single gif set, choosing scenes and shots with similar lighting will be easiest to get to look uniform when compiled together, since editing wildly different looking scenes to have similar coloring and lighting is hard and takes some practice!

avoid shots that will require you to majorly crop or zoom to properly frame the subject, as this will greatly diminish quality

speaking of quality, gifs will look best using 1080p video, but you can get away with 720p as well. I would not recommend giffing with anything lower resolution than that

Tumblr's upload capacity for image and gif files is 10mb. be sure when exporting your finished gif that it is under that size. if it is a bit over, you can try trimming a few frames off your gif in the video timeline.

if you get frustrated, don't give up! giffing is hard and complicated especially if you are new to photoshop. I tried to make this tutorial as detailed as possible so it's easy to understand (although im sure I still forgot some stuff)

ok onto the tutorial!!!

STEP ONE: choose what range of frames you want to gif, and how.

once you have decided what you want to gif, there are two main way to convert your episode into a range of frames to make into a gif. the first is by screencapping. this involves downloading a program like mplayer or vlc which can be used to convert video files into "stacks" of screencaps, which can then be separated into whatever range of frames you want and imported into photoshop. this is seemingly by far the most common method I have seen amongst gifmakers*, but personally I don't care for it and I think it's more confusing and time consuming overall, so I will be explaining the second method: importing video frames to layers.

now, normally what this would mean is opening the full episode in photoshop and using the pathetic little playheads on either end of the scrub bar to trim the file into a clip. this is where your video editing software comes into play.

open whatever episode or movie you want to gif in your program. if it is a large file like a long movie in 1080p, this may take a few seconds. like I said, I am using Premiere Rush. I will be using a random episode of 9-1-1 for my example gif.

in your media browser, hover over whichever episode you want (you can also just add the whole episode to your project and scrub through, but that can take longer unless you know what time stamp you're after). click the fullscreen button by the bottom righthand corner.

now you can scrub through and trim the episode before you even import it to premiere. this makes trimming your clip even easier.

use the trim bar (yellow outlines) to trim as close as you can around the scene you want to gif.

then click this plus, and then "add" below. this will add the clip to your project.

now, move the blue playhead up to the frame you want your gif to start on. then, use the scissors button off to the left to slice the clip. select the portion before the playhead, and delete it.

now move the playhead to where you want the gif to stop. a good length for most gifs is around 1.5-2 seconds in my opinion. some may be shorter depending on how long the shot is, or longer if you plan on making them smaller (remember, the uploading capacity on Tumblr is 10mb per file.) trim again, now delete the portion after the playhead. you can also use the left and right arrows beside the play button to move frame by frame, and you can adjust the side of the horizontal scroll bar below your clip to “zoom” in on it and make scrubbing easier.

once you have your clip, go up to where it says "share". your clip will be rendered, and then you can click export to save it.

repeat step one as many times as you want for each gif. I know this may sound complicated, but like I said above once you get in the rhythm this step takes only a few seconds.

STEP TWO: create your gif!

close premiere. open photoshop. head to the control bar at the top. select file > import > import video frames to layers.

navigate to whatever folder you exported your clip to. select it, and hit enter. a second popup will appear asking you to select your range of frames. since you have already trimmed your clip to your liking, simply hit enter a second time.

now your screen looks like this, and we are going to crop and resize our gif! (troubleshooting: if you do not see the timeline bar at the bottom, select window from the control bar, scroll down, and make sure timeline is selected as part of your workspace. Adjustments and layers should be there automatically but if not add them too).

Tumblr posts are 540px wide, so in order to make my gifs as small as possible while maintaining quality, I typically crop my gifs to be around 550-600px wide, with varying heights depending on what shape I want the gif to be. experiment with this a little and decide what works for you. just don't make the width lower than 540px. once you have the portion of the frame you want inside the cropping grid, hit enter again. sometimes you have to hit it twice.

here are the measurements I am using for this gif

now in your timeline, select frame 1. hold down the shift key and scroll to the end to select the very last frame, thereby highlighting them all. from here we will edit our frame delay rate. photoshop will automatically set it to .03s, which will make your finished gif awkwardly fast. I typically use .05s, or .06s if I want a gif to be subtly slower (this comes in handy if the shot you are trying to gif is very short). anything longer than .06s will look weird though. choose "other" from this menu and type in your delay rate. make sure not to miss the zero after the decimal.

once you've set your frame rate, go to the other end of your timeline and click here to convert your frames into a video timeline.

then press option + command + A (on Mac) or windows + alt + A (on PC) to select all layers. then right click (control + click with a trackpad) on any one of the highlighted layers in your layers tab off to the right. scroll down in the popup menu and select Convert to Smart Object.

THAT'S IT!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! WE HAVE GIF!!!

from here comes the fun part!! you will begin adding action filters like sharpening as well as adjustment layers to color and edit your gif. experiment with different adjustments and styles until you find something you like. too many adjustment layers will up the size of the finished gif though, so I tend to keep mine to 3-4 layers max unless its a really hard to color scene. if anyone is interested in a separate coloring tutorial, please let me know!

once you are finished editing your gif, click file > export > save for web (legacy) OR hit shift + option + command + S. play your gif in the export window to make sure it looks okay, and then hit save!

I hope you guys find this helpful and informative! please hit up my in box if you have any questions or if anything doesn't make sense. happy giffing!!!

*one reason people seem to prefer screencapping to this method, is saving all the individual clips as video files does take up a lot of space on your scratch drive, which in turn can cause your computer to work slowly or crash programs. this can be rectified by making sure to delete the clips from your computer once you are done making the gifs. another space hoarder to look out for is the proxy files of your episodes that will be automatically saved to your hard drive whenever you add an episode to your project in Premiere. Periodically, go through your storage and delete all the .proxy video files. this will not delete the original episode files, only the proxy files created by Premiere.

tagging some mutuals to sb hehe: @shitouttabuck @lover-of-mine @honestlydarkprincess @eddiediaaz @compactdiscmp3 @eddiebabygirldiaz @bigfootsmom @callaplums @athenagranted @firemedicdiaz @sibylsleaves @loserdiaz @buck2eddie @diazass @eddiediaztho @giddyupbuck @monsterrae1 @icecreampotluck @sunflowerdiaiz @swiftfootedachilles @singlethread @aziraaphales @911onabc

[moonshoon]

Gamer Boyfriend

MASTERLIST

pairing: gamerbf!riki x reader genre: fluff word count: <1k.

summary: riki doesn't pay attention to y/n while he's gaming, they sit on his lap, kiss him and then go to cuddle.

warnings: kissing, sitting on riki's lap, kinda metion of hickies

shortenings: none

i watched as my boyfriend was playing his online games with friends. i didn't even care what game it was, i just wanted him to pay attention to me, and honestly a glance at me would already be enough right now. but no, he was too focused on his games to even notice my presence behind him.

as i moved behind him, wrapping my arms around his figure and leaning over his shoulder to look at what he was playing – some war game or whatever – my gaze fell onto his hands

oh boy. you don't know how much of a sucker i am for riki's hands. generally, if a man has nice hands, he already has half of my heart, if he's tall and has nice hair the second half. and my amazing boyfriend got everything, even the long fingers and slight veins.

his fingers were moving fast on the keyboard of his pc, pushing every right button to get closer to his win. one, two more clicks on his mouse and the screen showed "WIN" in big, bold letters. i took this as my sign to walk in front of him, since he wasn't playing anything right now, he couldn't complain. his arms and hands were resting on his lap with the controller as i lifted it up and made my way through the hole it formed to plant myself in his lap, one leg on either side of his as i let my head fall and placed a kiss onto his bare shoulder.

it didn't take him a second to put away his controller, get the headset off his head, placing both items on his desk and wrapping his hands around my waist.

"darling?" he asked. "why are you sitting on me like this?"

"i need some affection, please. you haven't even kissed me since i came here like two hours ago..."

and just like that his hands found their way from my back to my shoulder blades, up to my neck. god... he knows just how much of a simp i am for his hands. i can tell by the way he is using them to tilt my head upwards to face him right now.

"my baby wants a kiss?" all i could do was nod my head as he was looking at me.

"and what do we say to ask for something nicely?" he asked teasingly.

silence reigned in the room for a few seconds, i couldn't utter a word since it was honestly embarrassing how much i would do just for him to kiss me.

a silent 'please' left my mouth.

"that's my baby."

then he captured my lips with his, swiftly carefully moving his lips against mine. he tasted like strawberries, his favorite lipbalm.

the taste made me shiver, it made the kiss even more exciting, it made it feel even more 'riki' to me. one of his hands was still on my neck, the other one was back on my hips, holding me down onto his lap.

out of nowhere, his hand brushed my throat, and my breath hitched.

"cute..." he mumbled, lips still ghosting over mine, never moving away too far from mine.

i just nodded.

"i need words, babe, or else i won't continue."

"please kiss me some more..." i quickly said, impatient to have his lips back on mine again.

"so desperate for kisses..." he whispered as he left one last kiss on my lips before trailing down over my jaw and neck till he reached my collar bones. he pressed some light kissees around my neck, before sucking a little. riki did wonders on me sometimes, making me go crazy with just the smallest of things.

"rikiii~." i giggled as his lips were tickling me.

his mouth left my skin, trailing back up to my ears and whispering. "i love you so much, baby... can you stay still a few more minutes until i finished this next game? then we can go cuddle."

he went back to playing his stupid game. i couldn't help but let out another whine, making his attention snap back to my face.

"didn't i tell you to wait?" his tone was kind of harsh, hands caressing my sides a little bit.

"let's move to the bed and cuddle. i think this game doesn't need my attention as much as you do, hm?" he said, lifting me up.

before he took off his headset, he quickly said "bye guys, i'll be off now, someone needs my attention." with a light chuckle and then logged out.

"now we cuddle."

i giggled excitedly.

[moedull]

LIKE

A/N: This is part of my AO3 series where my favourite characters represent different times (and ways) to say I love you

this was written waaay back in 2021? This is rewritten ofc, but, quite hastily in my opinion! It may not be the best, but, hey, it's cool

also.... dont be afraid to comment... help artists survive by showing ur love through comments or sharing their fics!!!!! >_o thanks!

AKA. Posted from my ao3 once again!

words: 1273

tags: NOT BETA READ, mild hurt/comfort, gender neutral reader, established relationship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy: TSUKISHIMA KEI!

“Oh you’re still going on about that?”

“Yes.” 

Tsukishima sighs, sitting behind you as you smash the letters on your keyboard. You hear the bed creak and suddenly, he’s sitting next to you. He gently grabs your hands and holds them tight. 

“Hey.” He starts casually.

You look him in the eye with a huge frown, and furrowed eyebrows. “What?”

“Come here.”

‘Here’ is the soft bed you wish to lay on with no worries in the world. Of course, with your boyfriend, Tsukishima Kei.

“Why?”

“Why not?” 

“I’m busy right now…” You try pushing him away. 

“You don’t look like you’re in the best condition.” He says matter of factly, rubbing circles onto the back of your hand.

“So what if I am? I have to finish my thesis.”

He looks at you, sighs, and rolls his eyes. “I know that but it doesn’t change the fact that I worry about you.”

“I can take care of myself.” You hushed. “But thank you.”

“Are you ever gonna let me help? Or just go along with everything because you have too much pride for your own good?”

“No.” You huff. You suppose it was a habit from when you first met– always reaching for the top, showing everyone who really deserves to be up there– and, you do. You try hard everyday, working and caring for so many different things.

You just seem to be out of luck as it always feels like your efforts are unnoticed. In such situations, perseverance is key– but that kind of mindset may quickly turn sour when they’re left to linger and turn into stubbornness. 

You should probably hate Tsukishima Kei– strong-willed, cool and collected, and of course, smart. You would never have expected to hit it off with him, but he's one of those people who could easily get under your skin and get you to crack.

“Well, I know you can handle yourself, but don’t forget to eat.”

You roll your eyes (no malice is intended, of course). “You don’t need to baby me all the time.”

His eyebrow twitches, and he rolls his eyes in exasperation (no malice is intended here as well). “Whatever. But you need to sleep. Okay?”

“Yeah yeah.” You wave his concerns away, already turning around to resume typing.

Tsukishima huffs, gets up and moves over to your desk. He places his hands on either side of the laptop, leaning forward slightly as he studies the screen. 

“It’s not good to stress yourself out like this.”

“I don’t stress out.” You argue.

“Right, cause you always make sure you’re not stressed out.”

“I am not stressed out.” You insist.

“Fine.”  He relents. “But just remember I care about you. I can’t help it if you act like an idiot sometimes.”

The corners of your lips twitch up. “You’re cute.”

“Shut up.” 

“And sweet.”

“Stop saying that.”

“Don’t you think I should use more than two adjectives when talking about someone I like?” You ask with a smile, tilting your head.

He grins smugly down at you, crossing his arms over his chest. “Maybe.”

You chuckle, but it stops right away as you turn back to your work. Tsukishima still hangs around, not entirely convinced of your claims of being fine. He is especially convinced when you simply stare at your blank page, trying to find the right words to make the right sentence to make the right point of the right argument and–

“Okay, so what’s the problem?” He asks, taking a seat next to you. He scrolls up with your mouse, trying to read the rest of your document. 

You see the reflection of his face; His eyebrows knit together, lips pursed as the cursor moves underneath a few words. He lingers on a few sentences for unknown reasons that make your hands sweat and your heart beat faster. Flustered? Hardly, it’s the ache of anxiety. Your problems, right now, are far from school-related. 

“Mm.” Tsukishima hums, resting his chin on your shoulder. “You have the idea, so that’s good.”

But,

“You’re not being straight to the point about it.” He scrolls back to whatever page you made some stupid mistake on.

When did mistakes matter? I mean, seriously, at which stage of your life, did you begin to wallow over your mistakes? You were only in 3rd grade, scraping your knee on a cement pavement from running and that was one of the worst things that happened to you. 

Now, you read back on all of your essays and tests and feel your heart drop when you see that red ‘X’, the teacher encircling a specific part, or some harsh comments at the side. You want to blame the system, the adults, the economy or whatever God is up there– but, you can’t help it– You look in the mirror, thinking: Fuck. Was this all me?

Someone flicks your forehead, and you let out a wince, rubbing the spot.

“Hey.” Tsukishima says, tilting his head to look at your face. “You were zoning out.”

You glance back at him with an almost confused, somewhat dazed look. Here’s another big question: When did Tsukishima Kei matter? It’s incredible that you looked at someone for 304 days, talked, fell in love and somehow, it’s your life and his. You can’t put it into words right now; the questions that grow inside the empty pit of your stomach, because, right, you haven’t eaten yet, and you can’t tell if it really is a question, or if it’s screaming at you. 

You feel like you’re going to vomit–Fuck, that anxiety was just building up inside of you.

“I..” You pause, swallowing a non-existent lump in your throat. 

 “I didn’t think..” You pause again, taking a deep breath. “I didn’t think you’d like me back.”

He sits straight up, and stares down at you, furrowing his eyebrows with narrowed eyes. “What do you mean?”

You shake your head. “Look, I wasn’t expecting any response from you when I confessed.” 

You pause, feeling your eyes burn slightly from the tears that were building up, “I was just.. someone. You were one of the smartest guys in school—still are—but, out of everyone....” you start to trail off. 

“Out of everyone, why did you choose me?” You continue, forcing yourself to speak slowly, slightly tensing up at the evident sound of your voice breaking halfway.

He doesn’t respond. He slumps his shoulders, seemingly taken aback and bewildered.

“Why does someone like you pick me?” You laugh bitterly. Your heart aches even at the thought of it.

You watch him closely, as if looking for some sort of reaction or sign of how he feels. A flicker in his eyes, anything.

Tsukishima’s face remains blank for several moments before opening his mouth slowly to say, “Because I like you.”  

It takes you a minute to process what he said and you blink owlishly. You’d been prepared to hear something like ‘You’re a dumbass’ or something along the lines.

”But why?” You manage to blurt out, unable to hide a frown.

There’s a long silence as you hold his gaze. You stare at each other, neither willing to break eye contact, not until he leans in and presses his lips against yours.

“Was that answer not enough?” He whispers into your ear, his fingers gently caressing your cheek.

You feel lightheaded, your entire body buzzing and your heartbeat drumming against your ribcage.

You can’t speak, so instead you shake your head.

There's silence as he begins to cradle you in his arms, resting his chin on your head.

“I love you.” He tells you again.

[wastelandwhisperer]

MySims Em*lation Tutorial

Are you like me and really nostalgic for the old Sims games? Then this tutorial is for you!

Note: these are for the Wii versions of the game which take a little bit more to do with configuring the wiimote. I am using my xbox one controller, but you can use a slew of other ones or just mouse and keyboard. Tutorial below the cut!!

Download the latest version of Dolphin here

Find a ROM of either or both games (I cannot link them cause my post and shit would probably be reported)

Load up Dolphin

For graphics and config, you shouldn't have to change too much unless your game is running oddly (due to a lower end pc/laptop)

Controllers: THIS PART IS SUPER IMPORTANT I recommend these settings

Click configure next to emulated Wii Remote (sorry it's dark flux was having a fit lmfao)

make sure you tick extension: nunchuck otherwise it won't work!

under motion simulation it's necessary to have something for shake (I used Rt bumper), and point. These settings are what work best for me! You'll click the little box and map it with your controller or m+k.

Under extension, this part with simulate the nunchuck so I found these settings worked best for me.

Now that everything is mapped, you should be able to load up your game and play!

You'll unzip the ROM and on Dolphin hit open and look for your downloaded game. Have any questions? My ask box is always open!!!

PLEASE NOTE: the hacking minigame in Agents is really difficult with controller, or for me it is cause I have shaky hands, so I went to my mouse and just used that for that portion.

You will go under here to just use it right quick then switch back to gamepad

And there you have it! I hope y'all find it helpful!

ALSO: you can take screenshots and they'll be in your folder like this 😁

[omeletcat]

Hey! I recently started following your blog and I'd like to ask you some rather important questions before I start offering advice and my thoughts.

Why are you making a game? And for who?

Cause I don't wanna get in the way of your creativity just because you're not making "a game for me".

Like, as an example, I mostly play games on controllers, when I play games, and you tying so many of the mechanics and controls to the mouse means using controller input will not be very easy to add, if possible at all

But ... If you don't like playing games with a controller, and wanna see how much you can do with the keyboard/mouse inputs, then it is definitely the right decision to tie all these mechanics to that! But if me pointing this out makes you go "Oh right! There are people who mostly use controllers and I definitely wanna make my game work for them as well!" then it's a valid thing to point out that your game could prove hard to make work with a controller as input.

This is, btw, important to keep in mind when receiving critiques from others from your end, are they giving you tips/ideas/etc. that align with your vision of what you want to make, and following their advice will help you? Or are their points valid from their point of view, but would just muddy your vision and trying to accommodate it would mean falling into the trap of trying to please everyone, failing to make a good game for anyone?

Ty for asking! I'm mostly making this game because i think its fun and i rly wanna make something cool that people will enjoy. My ultimate dream is to make something so cool that it would be worth making fanart for! For the who part idrk, for people like me who like the kind of game i am making? ALSO TYSM FOR TELLING ME ABOUT THE CONTROLLER THING I had a rly small thought about smth like that ages ago but brushed it off thinking i should focus on making the core mechanics first. But yea you're totally right! implementing this combat system with a controller would be hard, especially since i mostly grew up playing with the wii.. and like a playstation controller three times. What i usually play is in random free stuff i could find online. I am unsure how it would work/how it even works when you apply a controller to a computer to play a game with it but i am definitely gonna think about this!! The core idea is the aiming, i could either change the mouse aiming to aiming with a joystick and moving a mouse like thingy around but i feel that wouldn't rly work.

The current aiming mechanic works kinda like this the screen is divided into 8 area's (4 directions and one for close and long range attacks) to attack you press either left or right mouse click and depending on if the mouse is in the central area or outside of it it will give a different attack for attacks that have a specific direction, the 4 area's decide where the attack will be aimed thanks to the mouse position. I could make it so that the player selects the area's like an option button? I can't rly explain it, imagine a list of buttons and moving the joystick to go down, imagine that but with these area's! This would work best for attacks are directed to a certain area like Rae's blast attack.

It has 4 directions and only aims at those parts. So for this attack it would work great. You move around the selector and switch around between them to aim pick a direction and if its far or close. But for some other attacks like Luca's main it aims towards the mouse position and doesn't pick a direction depending on where the mouse is, I am unsure how i would do this if i pick the idea of switching between zone's. I may just make it so the direction the player is moving while attacking is where it is aiming. Because when the player is attacking you can't move. I think that would work out. HOWEVER I am unsure how I would add this, how to detect if the player is using a controller, and a bunch of other things, i'm pretty sure i can add controller inputs in the settings and make those work for basic movements and attacks, but i would need to add a few extra things to fully make it compatible for controllers.

Sry if this rambling is kinda messy but they are the first idea's that come to mind how i would make the game playable for controller!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THIS!! I would have never thought about making it playable for controller if you wouldn't have helped me!!

You said you had more advice/thoughts so if you want to please share!! Any advice is be insanely helpful!

[wjbs-aus]

Fuck It, I Am Breaking My Silence: a Mario headcanon based on a game that almost everyone has played and one that almost no-one has played.

Warning: this headcanon will

and may leave you

So be warned.

Also all images used in this post are from the Mario wiki. I'm not replaying all of Yoshi's Safari just to make one Tumblr post that it's likely that no-one will end up seeing.

Ok so first we need to talk about Yoshi's Safari.

Yoshi's Safari is. A weird game. I've played it before (using Retroarch, with my mouse and keyboard in lieu of the lightgun). It's an officially-licensed Mario FPS (more specifically a rail-shooter), and it's genuinely kinda fun but also very fucking strange, like there's a light and dark world, and bowser wears a suit of power-armour that never shows up in another game:

None of that is important, however. I want to bring your attention to this character:

This is Prince Pine. He's the prince of Jewellery Land, and the game's main damsel (gender neutral) in distress.

Does he, in any way, look familiar? Let's skip ahead 11 years to 2004, and the release of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. And specifically, to Chapter 5, where we meet the character of all time, Flavio.

Do you notice anything? How about we compare these two side-by-side.

Now, they aren't like. Identical. But they do kinda look similar. Therefore, my hypothesis is thus; Flavio is either A. from Jewellery land, or even B. a member of the royal family.

[lemmetreatya]

Gojo x Geto x Reader | Short JJK Scenario #2

Modern AU/Non-Sorcerer

Contains: Strong language, Mentions of Sexual content

Idk I found this hilarious 😭😭 I envision all three of you’se as good friends who just get on each others nerves! Enjoy sdcvjkbfg <3

“Shiiit.”

Gojo repeatedly clicked the power button at the top of your currently blacked out computer keyboard, each time the ‘Sticky Key’ noise sounding. Geto, with no intent to help, stood behind him with a stoic face.

“Yeah, shit.” He echoed.

“Don’t ‘Yeah, shit’ me.” Gojo hissed at his friend but in the direction of your desktop, his attention still divided. “Either help me the fuck out or sign a waiver to take the fall.”

Squinting over his seldom panicked colleague, Geto could only send infrared daggers into his hunched over back. How he wishes they would impact physically damage.

“What an imbecilic thing to say. Why should, or would, I take the fall for something you’ve done?” He took a sip of his InstaCoffee. Eughk. Bland.

Geto swished the murky maroon liquid around in his styrofoam cup before painfully adding: “I didn’t even assist you this time, you royally fucked up on your own.”

Gojo stabbed another button along with a short curse underneath his breath. His irritation was evident within every action he produced.

“Why you should take the fall?” Gojo briefly muttered. He tried shaking the mouse, attention still on the blacked-out computer, before speaking louder this time.

“You should take the fall because one, you’re my boy. My homie. My dawg, my fucking ride or die. You’re supposed to do time for me without me even asking, that’s how it works.”

With an accented groan, Gojo hit the mouse against the desk a few times before scratching rapidly at the top of his head.

“And B, she’s always liked you better than me so if you say you did it she won’t fuck either of us up.”

Rolling his eyes, Geto took this time to pitifully look over at the widespread row of windows that lined the right office walls. The office was situated on the 27th floor of the infamous JK Telecom skyscraper. He now wonders, or more so hopes, that if he was to fling Gojo out of it from this height, he wouldn’t survive.

However, knowing Gojo and how he was undoubtedly created to make Geto’s life an insufferable hell, he’d find a way to survive the fall.

Finishing the last drags of the worst drink he’s ever had, Geto squashed the foam cup up with ease before dashing it into the grey wastepaper bin besides Gojo’s leg.

“Gojo, if you want me to take the blame simply because she’ll react to me better then I personally think that’s an indicator to reflect on your debauched personality.”

Finally, Gojo whipped around to face Geto, his usually easy-on-the-eyes face clearly distraught with offence. His mouth was ajar, opening and closing in small jabs as it was clear he was stricken with shock.

Now Gojo was in no means a stupid man when it came to numbers and logistics. However, he definitely was the most and least self-aware person at the same time.

When his voice and brain finally caught up to each other, his voice was pitched a tad bit higher than usual.

“Geto, that’s such a bitchy thing to say. D’yknow that? That’s bitchy. Very bitchy, that’s something only a bitch would say.”

Geto watched Gojo with an unamused look. The black haired man wiped his mouth with the palm of his hand, removing any coffee stains that were previously left over.

He’d definitely have to take a mint for the aftertaste.

“For your misinformed information.” Gojo carried on, “My personality needs no work whatsoever. I am literally perfect in every aspect God intended. If he had a Holy portfolio of all his best work, you’d have me — on the first page — right after Mount Fiji, Chris Hemsworth and Idris Elba.”

Geto was about to roll his eyes again, unamused by his colleague’s hubris, until he analytically realised what Gojo had just said. With a perplexed expression, he cocked his head to the side before saying:

“It’s Fuji.”

The random words threw Gojo off-guard, disarming his violently audacious rant. He gave a face riddled with annoyance.

“What?”

“You said Mount Fiji.” Geto clarified.

“Yeah, and? What, you think God isn’t proud of Mount Fiji?” Gojo’s expression clearly showcased judgemental jeer but Geto knew what he was getting at. Shaking his head, he corrected his friend.

“There’s no Mount Fiji, Gojo. It’s Mount Fuji.”

Now the white haired male was just confused. He looked down at the floor in steep thought before looking back up at Geto.

“What? No, I swear it’s Mount Fiji.”

“No.” Geto sniffed. “There’s Fiji, the island, where you get Fiji water, but there’s no Mount Fiji.”

There was a period of silence between the two as the both of them mentally warred within themselves. Gojo stared at Geto with a piercing stare, his turn to now send bright turquoise daggers into his colleague. Geto only pursed his lips and looked everywhere but at Gojo.

The beeping finish of a fax message from the photocopier across the room made Geto quietly finish his explanation as he cleared his throat.

“There’s only a Mount Fuji—”

“—As I said, you’re a bitch.” Gojo sneered.

“Who’s a bitch?”

The two men turned their attention towards you who had just come back from your lunch break. You looked between the two, definitely sensing hostile tension between them but unsure why.

However, within a breath of your light question, Geto fully turned his body in your direction, and snitched.

“Gojo logged into your computer to try and frame you for watching inappropriate content at work but whilst doing that, he realised it was a bad idea but as soon as he did, he accidentally pressed a key that shut off the screen but kept on the monitor so now he’s here trying to log back into your computer and delete it but he’s failing.”

Taking out a mint packet from his pocket, Geto nonchalantly popped a singular white sweet into his mouth like he hadn’t just aligned Gojo’s head in direct pathway of a guillotine.

“What?” You plainly said.

You slowly turned your head in Gojo’s direction, your face void of emotion.

The white haired man didn’t waste a second in flashing you a dazzling pearl smile. He leaned a hand on top of your desk as if he’d just been commended for stellar work. Prick.

With a shrug and his hands now in his pockets, Geto added:

“But to answer your question, I’m the bitch because I corrected him in saying that Mount Fiji isn’t a thing.”

As if that was the worst offence he had been exposed for that day, Gojo gave Geto a look of disappointment.

“Wh—Ah, man. Fuck you, for real.”

Ignoring the small feud the two had going on, you moved forwards past Geto to wake up your computer and see for yourself the damage done. You might as well have pushed Gojo concerning how he practically flew (himself) out of your way and yelped in surprise. He really could be dramatic.

Waking up the computer with the click of several shortcut keys, you were near enough mortified at the obscene screen that flashed onto the monitor.

Behind you Geto sighed. Hiding behind him, Gojo snickered childishly.

“AMBW category— really, Gojo?” At this point, you just sounded tired.

“Best there is.” He chortled back.

With a kiss of your teeth, you started to quit the multiple (12 tabs?!) worth of adult content riddling your screen. You vanquishly shook your head as you spoke.

“There’s no such thing as the best porn— No, Whatever. My question is how did you even bypass the network adult filter in the first place?! That’s literally there for security and anti-virus reasons, Gojo.”

The white haired male had no words. He only continued to hide behind his friend, his mouth imitating duck lips.

“In my defence, I did tell him it was a bad idea.” Geto looked on with a face of slight concern. Now that you mentioned it, maybe Gojo disarming the network protector wasn’t the objective fun prank he thought it out to be. This was a literal data protection breach.

Turning your head around to eye the pair, you wore a worried pout.

“You may have told him it was a bad idea but that’s all you did, Geto. You’re a bystander. An accomplice by association. I’m ashamed of you.”

Geto’s faced crippled into one of aggravated annoyance. So this is what he get’s for warning you of Gojo’s dirt? Looking out for you in light of the current gremlin behind him?

Said gremlin started snickering behind Geto's back. This man was genuinely a thorn in his side.

“Told you we’d both the schtick for it.” Gojo snickered.

With a forceful manoeuvre, Geto lunged his elbow backwards which earned a rather minecraft-esque ‘oof’ from the white haired male.

He was so going to start looking for another job.

[autumnalwalker]

Find the Word Tag

Thank you for the tag, @ahordeofwasps.

My words to find were never, night, nail, & need.

Passing the (optional) tag to @theimperiumchronicles, @sarahlizziewrites, @druidx, @blind-the-winds, and the usual open tag to anyone else who wants to join in.

Your words to find shall be muscle, morning, matter, & message.

Never: Empty Names - 23 - Compression

She waits a second for any objections and then places her palm on the bare skin between his shoulder blades.  He’s warm.  She feels the surrounding muscles reflexively tense on contact and then slowly relax.  He’s all muscle beneath the robes, but it feels different from what she’s felt through Eris’s tank tops when pulled into an embrace.  Leaner.  Less bulk but still toned.  She’s heard of mages tapping into their own metabolism for fueling magic to burn excess fat and retain figures in defiance of diet, but that doesn’t build muscle mass.  The skin on his back and arms doesn’t look like it could ever be anywhere near as sickly pale as hers is, but it is noticeably lighter than his hands and face, even accounting for makeup.  She wonders when the last time was that he wore anything with short sleeves.  Does he even have other clothes?  She’s never seen him wear anything else.  

Still less distracting without the robe on than with.  Probably says more about her than him.  Do all wizard robes on Orthon look like sleek dresses with wide sleeves, or is it just because he copied his mentor’s style?

Night: Empty Names - 23 - Compression

“No vertigo, nausea, or other adverse reactions to the counterseal,” Ashan reports once he and his double return to Lacuna.  “This illusion feels as natural to create and control as my conjurations.”  He glances over at said illusion practically bouncing up and down in excitement.  “Well, almost as natural.  Thank you, truly.”

With those last words Ashan lightly puts a hand on Lacuna’s shoulder.  When his double tries to do the same it passes through her slightly and becomes both there and not there to her vision, like an object only visible through one eye.

“You’re wel- whoa, that’s weird,” Lacuna stumbles her words in surprise.

Ashan pulls his hand back with a puff of exhalation and the illusion throws its head back in silent laughter.

“Ah.  My apologies.  Illusions can be like that when exposed for what they are.”

“It’s fine.  Kind of cool actually.  Do they normally reflect the caster’s emotions like that too?  That’s not something I’ve read about.”

Ashan’s reflection has just enough time to blush hard enough to be seen through the perfect makeup before flickering out of existence.

“Merely a random aberration born from tiredness, I am sure,” the real Ashan says coolly and evenly.  “It must be well after midnight by now.”

“Sure it is.” Lacuna grins and chooses not to poke more fun at the matter.  “Let’s call it a night.  Morning?  Whatever.  Either way, I think we can call this experiment a resounding success.  What do you say?”

“Indeed,” Ashan agrees.

Nail: Empty Names - 9 - Test Run

Just a little further to climb.  Not a bad warmup for her, really.  As long as she’s burning Sullivan’s money, maybe she should add a rock wall to her equipment request along with the other training gear. 

One more stretch.  Grab the main pole of the bowsprit.  Heave.  Swing herself up.  Nail the landing.  Dust off her hands.  Nearly lose her balance when she hears Sullivan slow clapping and sees the others already on the deck.

“What the Hell?”

“I conjured a ramp,” Ashan says matter-of-factly. 

Of course he did.

Need: Empty Names - 23 - Compression

She bends over to use the keyboard and mouse, foregoing sitting down for fear of not wanting to get back up again.  She stops the recordings and takes a brief glance at compiled readouts.  Nothing catches her eye as out of the ordinary, but she’ll need to check it again in the morning when she’s more awake.  She shuts down the test chamber, starts to shut down the computer, and then remembers she forgot to check her email all day.  Nothing urgent, thankfully, but there’s an unexpected message from RevaTech asking if she’d be interested in scheduling an interview and reconsidering working for them.  Weird.  Maybe someone from her old team heard it had taken her a while to find a new job?

She nearly deletes the email but then thinks better of it, flagging and archiving it instead.  Not that she has any intention of leaving where she is now.  Still… It’d be a heck of a coincidence, but with what she gathered yesterday evening and this morning over breakfast about Sullivan and Road looking into something involving robots, it couldn’t hurt to keep open as an avenue to explore later.

[mumms-the-word]

Hi! I found your blog through your post about new DA fans in the tags! So I played through Origins and DA 2 as a mage for the first time and absolutely loved the combat and the gameplay, but I'm really struggling in Inquisition. It feels so choppy and like I have no control over anything, and on PC, you can't even see what the spells do when you hover over them on your toolbar. Do you have any tips or advice or know of any good add-ons?

Yeah I don't think DAI won game of the year for combat reasons, let's be completely honest here.

I can give you some advice but warning it is HEAVILY colored by my personal preferences when playing the game, which I mostly did on console (I only got the PC version a few weeks ago and haven't had much time to tinker around with it because I've been replaying DAO).

I'll put random bits of advice under the cut!!

Controls

First bit of super biased advice: If you're using the tactical gameplay mode and you hate it--just don't use it. Just don't! Unless it's a skill you want to keep pouring into, I'd just abandon it for now. It's terribly configured and I hate it so much. It's moderately better on PC but on console it was super un-fun to me and I think the only time I used it was to move party members out of the way of AOE attacks because their AI is wacky sometimes.

(That said, if you are a micro-manager who is like "No I need absolute control over this team" then the tactical camera IS for you. I am just a lazy gamer who plays DA games on casual or easy most of the time because I dislike the combat and want to get to cutscenes and dialogues faster. From what I remember about using it, though, it's definitely more like a "set up your next attack and then press play, then pause and set up the next attack, then press play, etc" kind of thing, which sucks for big group fights but works for big dragon fights or whatever.)

To me the game plays much better in live combat mode, but that was on console, where all I had to do was hold down the right trigger for endless attacks and then use the shortcut buttons. This is not the case for keyboard and mouse, because holding down a right click or R is tedious and isn't fun after a while.

Having messed around a tiny bit with DAI PC controls (and being a staunch console player for decades) I can say that I hate the PC controls, but I always tend to hate keyboard and mouse controls. I guess my advice here is to either remap the keyboard to suit you, which you should always do anyway for any game where they make that possible, or try playing with a console controller (which is what I'm planning on doing).

Controls aside, my issue with the combat is that if it isn't choppy, due to controls, it's...boring? At least until you get more abilities and specializations. I definitely played on casual for most of my multiple playthroughs because I just couldn't be bothered to learn the combat system forwards and backwards. I was playing the game because I loved the story and the banter and the open world concept, which was new to DA at the time.

The combat DOES get more fun/better once you start unlocking more abilities to use, but that does take a small bit of time. I'm not sure about any mods at the moment to help with the ability descriptions but maybe someone in the replies will know! For me, I think I just got used to memorizing them...which, now that I think about it, is poor accessibility.

Battle Advice

I can come back later with some PC-specific advice but for now, I can say that if you switch to live-combat mode, then it's a matter of playing the game as a damage control strategy. You're going to get hit, because there are no robust evasion options and no blocking at all (from what I remember), so you have to adapt with that knowledge in mind.

Keep up your Barrier and Guard abilities, because the temporary HP they give you is essential to surviving a fight. Potions suck. There is no healing. So it's better to tack on as much temporary HP through Barrier and Guard before enemies start chipping away at your actual HP.

Focus your efforts on crowd control (freezing enemies, stunning them, etc) and taking down distance fighters (archers, mages) first, because like I said, you're going to get hit, and every distance fighter has a near-perfect homing beacon on you with their projectiles. The squishier mooks need to go down first so they don't pester the hell out of you when fighting bigger things. Bigger things are slower, they can wait.

Also, adjust your companion's tactics (this is worth doing in any DA game) so that they use the abilities and spells you want to see more often. Having Barrier set as a preferred spell so your mages use it more often is honestly an essential tactic choice, and I'd say the same for upper-level Guard abilities.

A balanced party can make or break a battle encounter. The AI isn't always great (I guess that's what tactical view is for) but in general you always want a warrior to be up front taking hits while at least one mage and one other distance fighter (another mage, or Varric/Sera as an archer) is staying out of direct damage but still dishing hits and status effects. Your fourth companion (or you) can make up any difference that needs filling after that.

If you're playing a mage, use Fade Step to get out of range quickly and then get used to being the battlefield controller--you can deal damage, but you can also more quickly apply status effects (freezing, burning, etc) than anyone else. Fade Step + Tactical Camera to readjust + see what's going on the battlefield + then make your next move = might end up being your best friend, if you're a tactical mage player lol

Status effects and elemental damage do way more than you think. Way more than you think.

Don't be afraid to use grenades. They're more effective than they seem, and Jar of Bees is just fun in general.

And lastly, keep up with your weapons and armor. Schematics will be your best friend because they allow you to craft and upgrade weapons and armor until they're almost OP for your level. Nothing you find as loot will top a Masterwork version of a high-tier weapon or armor you make yourself.

I don't know if ANY of that helped, but maybe!! Hopefully you'll hit your stride soon and enjoy various aspects of the game!! <3

[sociallyanxiouscryptid-writings]

Their Favourite Hobby part 3

This may or may not be very cruel, you decide once you finish reading. If it helps I have part 4 already in the works. Sorry but also not. 

Part 1

Part 2

~

By the time Villain made it out of that tunnel and back to the main building Hero and Superhero were already gone. Urgency surged through Villain’s veins, they had their phone out in seconds, dialling a number.

Two rings.

“I need a track on Hero and Superhero immediately.”

No reply on the other side but the sound of a keyboard and mouse was enough. Villain couldn’t stand waiting, they went to the car, connected the phone and took off at a dangerous speed.

“I can’t find them sir,” a voice said.

“What do you mean you can’t find them, they just left,” Villain yelled.

“They aren’t appearing anywhere. No CCTV, phone signal, mind sweep, nothing. They must have some sort of guard.”

“That is impossible. They can’t have just disappeared I was with them both ten minutes ago.”

“I am sorry sir.”

Villain growled, knuckles white against the steering wheel.

“I want a team sent out to Superhero’s house and the compound.”

“But sir that goes against-”

“I don’t care,” they yelled, “I will deal with Supervillain, send them all now.”

“You’ll deal with me hey?”

Villain just about crashed the car as Supervillain appeared in the passenger seat. They slammed on the breaks, and for a moment the car slid out of their control. Everything did. They couldn’t help Hero, couldn’t protect them from Superhero and now they can’t stop their car going into a ditch.

Well, the side of the road at least.  

Supervillain watched Villain casually, just another day in the job while Villain struggled to catch their breath, pressing their head against the steering wheel.

“Thank you, Nigel, but you can cancel that request. I will manage things from here,” Supervillain said.

“Yes sir.”

Supervillain leant over and hung the phone up before returning to their seat. They shifted themself to better face Villain, leant an elbow up by the head rest.

“So, what’s going on here?”

Villain closed their eyes, where could they even start? Their mind reeled, their mouth was full of words and yet, at the same time, empty of them. They didn’t know, not fully. All they had were snippets and ideas and feelings, and all of that wouldn’t be enough. Villain was supposed to be the one with the hard facts, the one who gets information. How could they admit they had willingly and knowingly omitted to do so with one of Superhero’s top enforcers?

In the Silence Supervillain kept talking.

“I was curious as to who would be going and activating such an old safehouse, I hadn’t even thought of the old mansion in years. I can honestly say thought I didn’t expect it to be you, and not with Hero either. That was a decent surprise.”

Villain opened their eyes and stared.

“How-”

Villain stopped themself, the cameras, of course. They sighed, resumed their original position.

“Quite the predicament you have got yourself in here. Fraternising with the enemy, getting yourself caught up with Superhero, you’ve been busy behind my back.”

“I’m not fraternising with the enemy,” Villain snapped.

“You’re right, fraternising would actually be productive, instead you’re using my resources for quirky little kidnappings that really aren’t that subtle.”

Villain scoffed, “don’t pretend you care about that, sleeping with Hero’s is basically a side hobby of yours.”

Supervillain’s brows knitted, “I haven’t slept with that many have I?”

“Enough that I knew you wouldn’t care about this,” Villain said.

“Fair,” Supervillain nodded. “My question then, is, well, I have many, but my main question is how did Superhero find you?”

Villain frowned, that was a good question.

“That place is before Superhero’s time, and I know for certain they didn’t know about it before now. So, how did they find it? And so quickly too? You and Hero were only there a couple hours at most.”

Villain stared down at their feet, their grip was a little more relaxed, mind a little more clear as Supervillain’s words shooed away the fog.

“They can’t be free…” Villain whispered.

“Pardon?”

Villain sat up.

“Superhero has a tracker on Hero.”

Supervillains brows rose, but their eyes said they were already at that step.

“Huh, that’s weird, I thought Hero was meant to be Superhero’s most trusted enforcer?”

Villain eyed Supervillain.

“What do you know?”

“Enough that you should report to your boss before deciding to go on a suicide mission against one of the most powerful people in existence.”

Villain ignore them.

“What do you know?

Supervillain sighed, “I know that things aren’t as La-de-da over there as we have been led to believe, and that Superhero goes to great measures to keep something a secret. I don’t really know what, but I know it’s bad, and it involves Hero, all the heroes in fact.”

“All of them?” Villain frowned.

Hero feels trapped, they are scared, of Superhero clearly. But if that’s the case for everyone… what does that mean? That level of fear, it has to be some degree of abuse for sure, but then why stay? And if all of them are experiencing it why not speak up about it? They are all powerful people, together they could do it surely.

And then a wild idea entered Villain’s mind, what if none of the heroes are willingly heroes?

But Hero has stood up to Villains of all calibres, the worst of the worst that even Villain couldn’t stand up to. What could Superhero be possibly doing to cause Hero of all people to be so afraid, that would keep them anywhere they didn’t want to be?

“Now that you are a bit calmer,” Supervillain said, “I need you to stay calm, no rushing off into this situation. You aren’t going to find Superhero today.”

A shot of panic went through Villain.

“What do you mean?”

Supervillain held out a hand, “I said remain calm. If Superhero doesn’t want to be found, they won’t be found. They have people whose specific job it is to hide them from all detection.”

“But-”

“I know, I heard, Hero is in trouble, I am willing to help you, but we have to wait. Superhero’s people can only keep complete guard up for a week at the most, after that it begins to falter and if we keep a fine enough net out it will pop up immediately.”

Villain turned in their seat.

“A week? That’s too long. Something is wrong, and I can feel it.”

“Villain, I know. I understand you want to protect Hero, but this is the best we can do. You will get yourself killed if you try anything today and I can’t let that happen.”

Villain shook their head.

“No, I can’t, I won’t.”

“Villain, this is an order.”

“Fuck your orders, I am not leaving Hero there for another second when I know they are in danger.”

Supervillain sighed, “I thought as much.”

In that moment Villain’s door opened and hands reached in, grabbing them. They struggled, but the hands were strong and skilled and once Villain’s arms were out of the way, a needle pierced their neck.

“I’m sorry Villain. We will get them out, I promise.”

The words began drifting away as Villain’s eyes grew heavy. The hands vanished, Villain’s head lolled to the side, seatbelt holding them up as the world faded to black.

~

A week was too long. Far, far too long. Supervillain kept Villain couped up at the compound, restricted to a very small area that remained in Supervillain’s area of awareness. They couldn’t blame Supervillain, they were right, without the appropriate supervision Villain one hundred percent would have cooked up an insane plan and headed out without a second thought. They wanted to very badly.

But they didn’t, and it felt like they were burning from the inside out. It was a unique experience. For the longest time Villain had seen Hero as a game. A fun little game that made them feel good afterwards. But at some point, the game was no longer a game and an excuse to be around Hero, because it wasn’t the game that made them feel good, it was Hero.

And now that Hero was in danger, now that they had seen how afraid Hero was, seen them cry, something else shifted inside of them. The world was a little less black and white, and now Villain saw red too.  

“I’ve never seen you like this,” Supervillain said, watching Villain from across the table.

Villain stared down at their plate of barely touched food.

“You never really get close to people,” they continued, “does anyone here other then me even know your real name?”

Villain shifted food around with their fork.

“I mean it’s perfectly fine if you are the type of person who just likes being alone, but you don’t really strike me as that type of person.

Villain shrugged.

“People just get in the way.”

Supervillain scoffed.

“I don’t believe you actually think that, if that’s the case you wouldn’t have let Hero get close, unless you are going to try and tell me romantic love is the ‘one true love that breaks through anything’,” Supervillain mocked.

Villain glanced up at them, back down at their food. Supervillain’s smile faded.

“Ok, now I am getting the sense this is a trauma thing and you don’t need to talk about it.”

Villain shrugged.

“Have you talked to anyone about it?” Supervillain asked.

An awkward glance.

“Hero,” Villain said.

“Ideally I meant a psychologist, but that’s something I guess.”

Villain shrugged again, “Hero was there with me when it happened, they understand which helps.”

Supervillain’s eyes widened. “It was recent? It wasn’t… oh… Other Villain?”

Villain nodded.

“I’m not a person who has many friends, just had one really good one.”

And Villain let them down, let them be killed painfully and slowly. It was one of the first times Hero went against what Villain thought was their nature, went out of their way to help Villain, tried to save Other Villain. Villain remembers them covered in blood, stitching up their friend, taking them to a safe house. But neither of them knew about the poison, and by the time they did it was too late. Other Villain died in Villain’s arms.

At least they got to say goodbye.

Villain put down their fork.

“I’m going for a walk,” they said, standing.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring anything up,” Supervillain said.

Another shrug.

“It doesn’t matter. I just hope I don’t lose another person,” Villain couldn’t keep the bitterness out of their voice. It wasn’t Supervillain’s fault, they were doing what had to be done in this situation, but it didn’t hurt Villain any less.

Another sleepless night went by, another day. Villain lay in their bed staring up at the ceiling, hating Supervillain, hating Superhero and eventually the world in general. If the world wasn’t such a shitty place, Villain wouldn’t be a villain, Hero wouldn’t be a hero and maybe they would have never met, but at least this wouldn’t be happening. At least they wouldn’t be suffering.

Villain’s bedroom door flew open, Nigel.

“We found them.”

Villain shot up and rushed out of the room.

“Are they ok?”

“Can’t tell, but we think they are at some sort of safehouse, or at least a building Superhero went to great lengths to keep secret.”

“That seems to be a common theme lately,” Villain said.  

“Supervillain has an extraction team already ready and a second suiting up, Supervillain is waiting for you at the car.”

Villain nodded and the two split off. The moment Nigel was gone Villain took off into a run, navigating the halls of the compound until they were at the garage, Supervillain waiting.

“You need to prepare yourself for what might happen next,” Supervillain said.

“Don’t say that, they’re gonna be fine.”

“I don’t mean that, I mean for the chance of this being an ambush,” Supervillain said. “If it turns that way you are to evacuate with me immediately. I am only letting you come in the first place out of curtesy, but you are far too valuable to get captured. The information you have in your head, what they could do with your abilities, I am not going to risk that kind of compromise for anything, understand?”

Villain nodded, but neither were convinced.

“Let’s go then.”

The extraction team got into a car behind them, and the two cars took off down the road, slowly their pace only once they got off of private property.

The address wasn’t where Villain expected it to be, which perhaps worked in their favour. It was on a more remote side of the city, an old, abandoned building four storey’s tall with a basement below.

“This smells very fishy to me,” Supervillain said.

“We aren’t turning around,” Villain said.

“No, but we need to be careful.”

They parked two blocks away, the extraction team interspersing between the buildings as they approached the target. Villain and Supervillain led, Supervillain grabbing Villain’s arms as they approached a door and they both vanished.

They appeared on the other side, Supervillain on high alert but no guards stood there. Supervillain unlocked the door, let the team flood in.

“High alert everyone, the chances of an ambush are high, recognise your nearest teleporter and be ready to get out, if need be,” Supervillain said as the team walked by.

The extraction team split up, each taking a floor, three of them went down. Villain and Supervillain followed those ones.

“Now Villain, don’t go rushing in. Stay by my side, no matter what happens.”

Villain didn’t answer. This entire time, this entire week they had been fighting their own mind to remain logical, to be the calm strategic person they usually are. They hated running on impulse, being purely reactive but the fight was getting hard. When they see Hero, they don’t know what they will do.

The basement was locked, Supervillain grabbed Villain’s arm again and they vanished, appearing on the other side.

The room smelt like blood. Old and dried and rancid. An intense nausea hit Villain and if they had eaten at all today it would have come straight back up. The room was large and dark, Villain took out their phone and turned on the torch.

“Villain wait here while I unlock the door,” Supervillain said.

Villain took a few steps but forced themself to stop walking. It hurt to, but logic, they had to remember logic. The light didn’t reach a single wall around them, just a few metres along the cement floor.

And then the lights turned on.

A bright and blinding flash that seared their eyes. Villain grimaced, eyes watering, covering them in an attempt to adjust. After a moment they regained blurry vision and the blinked at a black blur hanging across the room. They didn’t need to see to know.

“Hero,” Villain breathed and rushed over.

Their vision returned and they stared at Hero’s hanging form, chains around their wrists keeping their toes just on the ground. They were covered in blood, no wounds to see but the bruises on their face and redness around their wrists.

“Hero,” Villain said, gently nudging them.  

Hero startled, jerking aware as their eyes snapped to Villain, grimacing as the chains swayed, pulling against them, rubbing their wrists.

“Hey, it’s ok, it’s me,” Villain said.

Hero started, breath easing, but they said nothing.

“I am so sorry,” Villain said, “I tried but Supervillains wouldn’t,” they stopped, took a breath. “I am going to get you down.”

Villain moved behind them to where the chains were fastened.

They undid it, easing them down as slowly as possible, Hero standing shakily the moment they could. Villain released it faster then, until everything was completely slack and quickly rushed back to Hero’s side, pulling out some lock picks.

“Why are you here,” Hero rasped.

Villain stopped, frowned.

“What do you mean why am I here? I told you I am not leaving you with them.”

Villain watched anger seep into Hero’s features.

“Has my point not already been proven? You can’t help me, and you are only making things worse by trying.”

But something seemed off, Villain didn’t see it reach their eyes.

“We can protect you, fighting superheroes and heroes is what we do.”

Hero’s hand shot out, chains rattling as their fingers wrapped around Villain’s neck so fast and sudden, they choked. Hero snarled.  

“You need to give up on this childish endeavour. I am not a damsel for you to save, and you are not a hero. You are a worthless villain, and I am done with this game of yours.”

“Hero-”

Villain’s words were cut off as Hero squeezed tighter and tighter.

“I was never interested in you,” Hero said, “how could I? You are nothing and I am a hero, we are opposites.”

Villain’s vision was fading, black dots dancing, their face changing colours.

“I hate you,” Hero said.

Villain’s neck snapped and the world vanished.  

~

Let me know if the tags work cos I still can’t tell

@hollowgast1

@leafamaranth

@pigeonwhumps

@laffy-taffy-creations

@paintedpigeon1

@empathyraven

@enigmawritesstuff

@psychiclibrariesquotestoad

@thedeepvoidinmyheart

@painless-and-colourful

[sssammich]

Hiya! :D 16 and 28 of the 'these are sure some asks' meme. *waves*

hahahaha hello!

16. They say you can tell a lot about a person from the state of their desk… Do you have a desk? Can you describe it?

i do have a desk! because i live in a small apartment, i had to downsize from a 5x2.5ft desk to a 3x1.5ft desk so it's been an adjustment even after two years after having it. i do like that it's easy to disassemble because it's literally 2 parts, the fake wood slab and the foldable metal legs. perfect for small apartments.

on the surface there's only room for an oversized deskmat where i put my mechanical keyboard on. i have 2 speakers on either side of the monitor and a subwoofer and my pc tower underneath. and i have a mac mini behind the monitor.

mm let's see i have an ikea lamp clamped, and my monitor on an arm clamp as well. i have an mx master 2 mouse and a roccat gaming mouse for the pc and a trackpad for the mac (i sound like a bougie douche when i lay this out but it is what it is) but i shelf the trackpad or the mouse when i'm using the other system.

right now i have a black hhkb topre keyboard on it

this is the most egregious bit though at my desk is my chair which is just a cushioned folding chair because i am a) in the market and b) need a small chair and haven't found one

28. What about life makes you smile?

most everybody who isn't stuck in the toxicity of the internet are literally just living their lives. they're just trying to make the train, trying to hang with friends, trying to buy groceries, trying to just do their own thing. it makes people watching on the train or at the park much more fun since people are just doing their own thing.

ask meme