#but even MORE so that after spending SEVERAL SESSIONS of grinding that game I found out that I can't even EVOLVE my porygon

[thedanceronthestreets]

PEDRO PASCAL GQ GERMANY - OCTOBER 2020

Original text by Esma Annemon Dil

Fotos by Doug Inglish

Styling by Simon Robins

Translated by @thedanceronthestreets

Intro: A broken tooth could almost have been the reason for our meeting with Pedro Pascal to be cancelled - and with that our conversation about roots, his new movie and times of change. 

Interview: It is almost eery how empty the streets of Los Angeles are under the gleaming sun. While Europe is finding its "new normal", people in L. A. are cutting their own hair even without being neurotics. Many of them have not seen their friends in half a year. The pandemic is out of control. So are the reactions to the situation. Inviting someone to a "distance drink" in the backyard can lead to the same consternation as proposing a relationship partner exchange. 

All the more of a surprise was Pedro Pascal's immediate confirmation. To the drink, not the partner exchange. He is one of the winners this year - and if Corona had not forced the movie industry to go on a holiday, he probably would not have had the time for this drink. After "Game of Thrones", the series in which his head was squished, followed 2015 the leading role in "Narcos" as a DEA agent on the hunt for Pablo Escobar, and now the leap onto the big Hollywood screen. As of 1. October the Chilean will appear in the blockbuster "Wonder Woman 1984". Furthermore, the second season of the "Star Wars" series "The Mandalorian" will start in October with him as the main character - unfortunately underneath the helmet. But we all seem to be under the same helmet in 2020. It is this man we want to meet, who worked as a waiter in New York a couple of years ago. Whose parents are political refugees that settled in Texas, and one day their son decided to walk into a drama club in high school. 

And then the cancellation. While we were preparing the house and garden for Pedro's drink and fashion shoot, which isn't an easy task under L. A.'s restrictions, his management called in with terrible news: Pedro has - no, not Corona - had to receive emergency surgery due to a sore tooth and is now lying in bed with a swollen cheek, making talking or shooting impossible. The sun shines onto empty streets. And our empty garden. 

A few days later, he stands in front of the door anyway, no huge bulge in his face, but stitches in his gum. No limousine service that dropped him off, he arrived in his own car and picked up his makeup artist on the way. He helps her to carry in all the equipment and states first and foremost: "I've got time today!" What a star! It does not seem like we are about to ask him how he managed to become a Hollywood sensation, but rather him asking us that question. Pedro Pascal! So, what kind of star is he then? 

Pedro Pascal: Sorry for ruining your plans. The operation was a total emergency. 

GQ: Really? We were wondering whether the swelling was the result of a secret trip to the plastic surgeon. Apparently, because of the quarantine in Hollywood, their schedules are packed. 

Sorry to disappoint you. A few days before our appointment I raced to the hospital with a tooth fracture and the worst pain I've ever felt - a hospital where the severe Corona cases are treated. I was unable to contact any dentists! Right before I parked, a specialist called back. I'll spare you the details of the surgery, gruesome. The pain was excruciating despite the 10 anaesthetic shots. The doctor said I wasn't the only one going through this, a lot of people grind their teeth at night thanks to stress. 

What are you most afraid of at the moment? 

The way the government is handling the pandemic scares me more than the virus itself. The lack of intelligent crisis management is a moral disgrace. The leadership crisis makes orphans out of all of us - we're left to fend for ourselves. 

How have you spent the last few months? 

With frozen pizza in jogging trousers in Venice Beach. I live in a rear building that's in the garden belonging to a family. In reality there are enough good takeout restaurants around that area, but for some reason I like salami pizza from the supermarket. 

That doesn't exactly sound like the movie star lifestyle. What does it feel like to be forced from top speed to zero? 

Considering the things happening in this world, my own state really isn't the top priority. But I would have to lie, if I said I wasn't disappointed. The entire cast and crew of "Wonder Woman 1984" put so much heart and soul into the production. We had so much fun on set. I had hoped to carry this feeling of exuberance around the globe to the openings of this movie. 

You are part of a political, socialist family that fled the Pinochet regime in Chile. What do you remember from back then? 

My sister and I were born in Chile, but I was only nine months old when we claimed asylum in Denmark. From there, we moved to San Antonio in Texas, where my dad worked as a doctor in a hospital. 

Texas isn't exactly considered to be socialist utopia. How well did you settle in? 

San Antonio isn't a cowboy city but rather very diverse with large Asian, Afro-American and Latino communities. In my memory it's a romantic place, culturally inclusive. The cultural shock only hit when we moved to Orange County in California later. Suddenly, the environment was white, preppy and conservative. 

How were you welcomed in California? 

To this day I'm ashamed when I think about how I let my classmates call me Peter without correcting them. I'm Pedro. Even without growing up in Chile, the country and language are part of me. I was quite unhappy in that place. At least I was able to switch schools and visit one in Long Beach, where I felt more comfortable. With its theatre programme, I found my path. 

Could you visit your family's homeland as a child? 

Yes, after my parents ended up on a list of expats that were permitted to re-enter the country. First, there was a big family gathering, then me and my sister were parked at some relatives' place for a few months while my parents returned to Texas. They probably needed a break from us. They'd had us at a very young age, had a vibrant social life, and my mother was doing her doctorate in psychology. 

Was your mother a typical young psychologist that tested her knowledge at home? 

You mean whether I was her lab rat? Absolutely. I can remember weird sessions camouflaged as games, where someone would watch my reactions to different toys. Even though I couldn't have been older than 6, I knew what was happening. My favourite thing was to be asked about my dreams. That was always a great opportunity to make up fantastic stories. 

Was that your first performance? 

Definitely! My strong imagination alarmed my mother, because I'd rather live in my fantasy world than in real life. I didn't like school. I ended up in the "problematic kid" category. At some point the subjects got more interesting and my grades improved. So many children are unnecessarily diagnosed with learning disabilities without considering that school can be daunting. Why is it acceptable to be bored out of your mind in class, when there are more stimulating ways to convey knowledge?

With everything happening in the world this summer: Do you believe that social hierarchy structures are genuinely being reconsidered? 

Hopefully. After the lockdown my first contact with people was at the Black Lives Matter protest. The atmosphere was peaceful and hopeful until the police got involved and provoked violence. At least during these times we can't avoid problems or distract ourselves from them as easily as we usually do. It seems that the pandemic provided us with a new sense of clarity: we don't want to go on like this. 

The trailer of "Wonder Woman 1984" represents the optimism of the 80s. That almost makes one feel nostalgic nowadays. 

That holds true. It's two hours of happiness. Patty Jenkins, the director, managed to make a movie full of positive messages. We shot in Washington, D. C., then in London and Spain - which now sounds like a different time. 

Do you miss travelling? 

I've only now realised what a privilege it is to just pack up your things and fly anywhere. With an American passport you can travel freely. And that's why the small radius we live in now is kind of absurd. Over the last few years I often retreated in between takes, because I was always on the road and overstimulated. Friends complained about how comfortable I had become. We all took social interactions for granted and realise now how reliant we are on human connection. Now, I wistfully think about all the party and dinner invitations I declined in the past. 

In L. A., people spend more time indoors or in nature than in other metropolises. Could this city become your safe haven after New York City? 

My true home is my friends. Ever since I was young I've lived the life of a nomad and haven't set roots anywhere. Until recently, my physical home was a place for arriving and leaving and hence I didn't want to overcomplicate living by owning lots of things. The opposite actually: Without having read Marie Kondo's book, I got rid of all the stuff that was unnecessary and lived a very minimalistic lifestyle. 

Is there something you collect or could never say goodbye to? 

Books! I still own the literature I read during my teen and university years. Recently I found a box of old theatre scripts and materials back from my uni days at NYU. I can't separate from art either, same as lamps or old pictures. Furniture and clothes are no problem though, they can be chucked. 

Do you remember any roles that were defined by their costumes? 

Yes, "Game of Thrones" comes to mind immediately. During that time I first understood what it means, as an actor, to be supported by a look. I owe that to costume designer Michele Clapton. She developed these very feminine robes and brocade cloaks for my role that looked very masculine when I wore them. I felt sexy in them. And very important were of course Lindy Hemming's power suits and Jan Sewell's blond hair for the tycoon villain Maxwell Lord in "Wonder Woman 1984". Relating to the style, I couldn't really see myself in the role since the shapes and colours of the 80s don't really fit my body. My type is the 70s.

Do you adopt such inspirations into your private closet? 

At this point in time, I'll choose any comfortable outfit over a cool look. Sometimes I mourn the days when I defined myself with fashion. It's a bit mad when I think about how, in the 90s as a teenager, I would go to raves; a proper club kid with crazy outfits: overalls, chute trousers, soccer shirts and a top hat like in "The cat in the hat knows a lot about that!" by Dr Seuss. Later in NYC I was part of a group that placed immense value on wearing a certain style. The fact that I only walk around in joggers nowadays is actually unacceptable! 

Normally, actors who work on comic screen adaptations become bodybuilders and eat ten boiled chicken breasts per day. You don't? 

My body wouldn't be able to handle that. I find it difficult enough to maintain a minimum level of fitness. As of your mid 40s, you suddenly need a lot more discipline. Until the tooth incident happened, I worked out a couple of times a week with a trainer to keep the quarantine body in shape. 

What would annoy you the most, if you were your own roommate? 

I can be very bossy. I have to gather all my goodwill not to force my movie choice on to everyone else. When I want something, I'm not passive aggressive about it, I attack head on. Also, I can get caught up in tunnel vision: When i feel down, I can't imagine that I'm ever going to feel better again. I have difficulty with seeing the bigger picture when experiencing problems or emotions. Method acting really wouldn't be my thing. That's why I try to only work on projects that feel good and where people encourage and lift each other up. 

While you were trying on the outfits you pointed out a lack of self-esteem. How does that coincide with your career? 

Isn't it interesting how traits and circumstances go hand in hand? Self-esteem comes from the inside, but it's also influenced by what society believes. We use critical stares from the outside against ourselves. I lived in New York for 20 years, I studied there and worked as a waiter up until my mid 30s, because I couldn't live off acting. It was always so close. The disappointment of always just barely missing a perfect part or opportunity is exhausting. When is the right time to stop trying and what's plan b? That's not just a question actors ask themselves, but anybody who struggles to earn a livelihood - unrelated to how much potential they have or how close their dream may seem. We are beginning to see now how our narrow definition of success is destroying our communities. At the same time, it's becoming obvious that, until this day, your family background and skin colour determine your chances of living a dignified existence. 

What are the positives of becoming a leading man later in life? 

I have the feeling that I've got control over my life - without the pressure of having to accept projects or be a social media personality. That surely also has to do with the fact that I'm a man. Women are surely pressured to appear quirky at any age. 

Life is always a management of risks - especially at this time. For what would you risk losing something? 

Usually, if you don't play the game you're not going to win anything. That applies to friendship, love, work, creativity. Anything that really means something to me, is worth the risk. 

Wonder woman 1984 will appear in cinemas 01.10. The 800 million dollar earning DC comic franchise is moving into the New York 80s with its sequel. It looks spectacular - only Pedro Pascal with blond hair in a three piece Wall Street suit looks better.

[getitinbusan]

97 Line :

Jungkook finally gets a night off to hang out with his friends. Fluffy, Smutty One Shot.

•97•97•97•97•97•97•97•97•97•

Jungkook was trying not to let his nerves get the better of him.

Coming back from tour he finally had some downtime and was looking forward to going to the club. It wasn’t just spending time with friends he didn’t see very often, it was getting to see you again.

97 Line Group Chat:

Bam Bam: We’ll be pre-gaming at my place and then heading to the club. I’m bringing Yugyeom, Jackson and his girlfriend and her friend Y/N so Jungkook you’d better be prepared.

Jungkook: You’re sure she’s coming? I haven’t seen her in months. Do you think she remembers me?

Mingyu: I know she doesn’t like me, I tried hitting on her 2 weeks ago and she shot me down. Good luck my friend.

Bam Bam: Jackson says she asks about you all the time. Pretty sure she has a crush on you JK.

Jungkook: Ahhh, I’m so nervous. You all better be good wing men tonight.

Yugyeom: I’ll make sure she has a few extra drinks before we go😉

Mingyu: So 11pm?

Bam Bam: Yep

Jungkook: Let’s Get it

Private Text:

Jungkook: Please make sure Yugyeom doesn’t get her drunk, I like this girl…a lot.

Bam Bam: I’ll watch him.

It was about 10:30 and the meal had just arrived. Jimin always ate fast but Taehyung liked to take his time.

Jungkook sat impatiently knowing it would take at least 20 minutes to get to the club.

What if someone else caught your eye? What if you got too drunk?

Jimin couldn’t stop laughing, “JK, how could she not like you? Just relax.”

Taehyung chewed slowly, “I’m not leaving food on my plate so you’ll just have to wait.”

Taking that as a challenge Jungkook reached over and grabbed his garlic bread shoving it in his mouth.

“I hope your happy, now we’re late and I have gross breath.”

Breathing deeply he got out of the cab. He’d thought about this night for weeks, did he look okay? Was his cologne too much? Did it even matter? You probably weren't even into him.

The door opened and he could feel the pulsing bass through his body, the lights and fog were immediately disorienting.

Was everyone already here or did he have to wait longer to see you?

Walking to the bar the three of them ordered  drinks and started to look around for the rest of the group.

We are bulletproof began playing and the dance floor went crazy. Jungkook felt a surge of pride that everyone was feeling it, he hoped you were here to see.

His eyes skimmed over the crowd, there you were.

At the front dancing, you spotted him too. Pointing directly at him and coming closer you sang in time, “The name is Jungkook, my scale is nationwide.”

He couldn’t help but laugh as you approached singing his own lines to him. God he wanted to kiss you. You kept singing and dancing in front of him until the song was over.

“Hello Jungkook.” spilled from your lips as you smiled. “I was hoping I’d see you tonight, it’s been too long.”

Should he? He put his arm around you in a makeshift hug, “I’m really glad you’re here.”

Yugyeom appeared, slipping in between you he handed you both a shot.

"To friendship", he toasted.

Your glasses clicked in cheers and the shots were downed quickly.

Bam Bam's voice rose over the crowd, "Let’s VIP room!"

“Are you coming Y/N?”

You looked around the room, “I don’t know where Jackson and Y/F/N are, I’ll come after I find them.”

Shit did he just blow it?

“Ok, I guess I’ll see you in a bit”

Walking in seperate directions Jungkook felt his heart drop, he was sure you didn’t see him as more than a friend.

Monitoring the time closely it was a least 45 mins later when you appeared in the VIP with Yugyeom by your side.

Stopping at the bar you were both laughing while taking another shot.

"What an asshole," Jungkook muttered under his breath.

You perused the room until you saw him sitting there frowning. When your eyes locked he managed a smile but what little confidence he’d walked in with was gone.

The waitress followed behind you with several shot glasses and bottles meeting the group at the table.

“Shots for everyone!” Yugyeom called out.

Everyone grabbed one and cheersed, except Jungkook. Feeling tipsy you decided to leverage your liquid courage and take the lead.

“Come dance with me Kookie.”

Off to the side, Yugyeom made drinking motions and threw Jungkook a thumbs up.

Following you to the floor he was hesitant. He wanted nothing more than to be pressed against you but didn't want to take advantage of your state.

“Don’t be afraid to touch me Guk, this is just dancing, we don’t need formalities.”

It was now or never, if he didn’t make a move he’d end up back on tour masturbating to thoughts of how he’d feel inside you.

Wrapping his arms around your waist he pulled you in until your bodies were pressed together. Face to face he stared into your eyes.

“You know I like you right?” he whispered.

“I do,” you grinned, “Do you know how badly I want you Jungkook?”

He started blushing, “I guess I do now."

You began moving with the music, hands exploring each other, trying to make up for lost time.

Turning your back to him you pressed your ass into his crotch swaying to the music. Moving up and down grinding into him you could feel his bulge growing.

Closing his eyes he imagined you doing this in bed. He couldn’t control his erection so he subtly tucked himself into his waistband.

Turning to face him, your hands wandered, moving under his shirt your fingertips traced his abs. Continuing your path you dragged them lower feeling the tip of his cock sticking out his pants. It was so smooth and hard you just wanted it in you.

His mouth came crashing down on yours like he couldn’t wait a second longer. His fingers were in your hair, your head was back and your tongues met in a soft sensual dance.

It felt so good to finally break the anticipation but the taste of liquor was distracting.

How much have you had to drink, was this taking advantage of the situation?

“Jungkook, I’d like to leave with you if that’s ok?”

He nodded in agreement.

“I’ll be back in a minute i’m going to let Y/F/N know we're leaving.”

The minute you walked away Yugyeom approached Jungkook.

“You can thank me later, she’s had at least 10 shots and you can probably do whatever you want with her tonight.”

Shit, there was no way taking you home was the right thing to do. Disappointed and upset Jungkook went outside to clear his head.

He’d waited so long for this night and now you’d only kissed him because you were drunk.

Maybe he should just leave? Sitting alone on the steps outside of the club Jungkook was internally wrestling his desires against his morals.

You looked around the club and couldn’t find him anywhere. Fuck, maybe you’d been too forward with him. You knew Jungkook was a gentleman and now you were cursing yourself for coming on to him so strongly.

You’d already told everyone you were leaving so you might as well just head home. It had been weeks of anticipation for tonight, you were finally going to make your move and now it was ruined.

How did you even fool yourself into thinking that Jeon Jungkook could be interested in you 

Opening the door into the cool night air you found him sitting by himself.

“Hey Guk, I’m sorry if I scared you off.”

You sat down beside him, "I’ve just been fantasizing how this night would play out for a  long time and I got carried away."

He looked at you and reached for your hand.

"Do you really like me? I’m worried that the alcohol is making think you want me more than you really do.”

You couldn’t help but laugh out loud. “Jungkook I think I can handle my liquor a little, I’m no lightweight”

“Yugyeom said he was giving you shots all night?”

You rolled your eyes, “Yugyeom is a dick, he told me he liked me and kept trying to hit on me a while ago. I gave away most of the drinks he bought me because I figured he was trying to get me into bed.”

His thumb rubbed the back of your hand, “So you’re not really drunk?”

You leaned in and kissed his cheek, “Jungkook I’ve had my sights set on you for months, I didn’t want anything to ruin tonight. This has all been planned since I knew you’d be coming here...right down to my lingerie.”

That was all he needed, his lips found yours again and you were immediately lost in each others lust.

The Uber pulled up and honked, startling you when you failed to notice its arrival.

“Who’s place is closer?”

“Too many people at my place,” he moaned. “I don’t want to have to be quiet, can we go to yours?”

Pulling up to your complex Jungkook led you out of the car and up to the door. Digging through your purse you couldn’t find the keys. growing impatient he latched on to your neck and dragged long deep suctioned kisses over your collarbone.

“You’re distracting me Guk, fuck we need to get inside!”

Finally locating them you made it into your apartment and clothes immediately began coming off.

“Bedroom?”

“That way”

Refusing to break contact you fumbled your way towards your room. Once in the door you steadied your feet as he halted the make out session. He cupped your chin and tilted your head to look at him.

“I need you to know how much I like you. I’ve thought about you for months, I've imagined being with you... it kept me going when I was lonely on tour.”

He slowly took off the dress you were wearing and revealed the lingerie you’d bought just for his eyes.

“Fuck, so much better than my fantasies”

Blushing your eyes took in his bulging cock. His black Calvin Kleins were straining to contain his erection.

“Kookie, do you know how many of your damn V-Lives I’ve watched just so I could see you?” 

He ran his hands up your arms and reaching around, unclasped your bra.

Tangling his hand in your hair he kissed you, hard. He moved his lips inch by inch lower and lower stopping at your breasts, kneading and sucking until you were moaning under his ministrations.

Lower again down your stomach, down your abdomen until he got to your clit.

Stopping there he sucked deliberately light enough to tease you, coaxing the juices from your already wet entrance.

Softly pushing into you with his tongue he moaned, “you taste so good, you’re so beautiful”

Your legs shook, struggling to stay on your feet while your body felt like it was floating. You held tight onto his shoulders as he spread your folds and twisted his finger inside you.

“Maybe you should lay down.”

He guided you backwards to the bed, laying you down so your knees were bent over the edge.

“Do you want to cum like this? Should I keep going?”

You could barely find your voice, “please keep going.”

He moved back in, two curled fingers dragging against your soft spot and his tongue flicking your clit relentlessly. It only took a minute to have you hyperventilating. Repeating his name you came on his lips.

He gave you a moment just to be still and catch your breath as he placed small kisses on the insides of your thighs.

“Are you ok?”

“I’m so much better than ok.”

He got up from his knees and you sat up, face to face with his six pack. Sucking red marks onto his abs you hooked your fingers into his underwear. Slowly you pulled them down exposing him bit by bit lowering your mouth with them until you’d taken him all in.

You could hear him slowly releasing his breath as you slid back up to the tip. Popping him out of your mouth you looked up at his face.

“I can’t believe you’re real Jungkook, you are so incredibly perfect.”

He reached down placing his hand on your cheek and smiled.

Putting him back in your mouth you began sucking him until he was hitting the back of your throat. His hand slid from your cheek to the back of your head where he grabbed your hair and pulled slightly.

Moaning at the tension, he clutched it harder, angeling your mouth to make it easier to thrust into.

His hips picked up speed and he was about to cum when he stopped completely.

He held your head still while his cock sat in the back of your throat cutting off your air.

“Don’t move, please don’t move, I don’t want to cum yet”

When he was under control he pulled himself away from you.

“I want you so badly you can’t possibly even know. I just want to fuck you so hard and fill you up until you’re screaming my name... but I’m not going to do that.”

Confused and waiting for an explanation, you moved up the bed to lean on the pillows. Crawling up to lay beside you, his rock hard cock pressed into your leg.

He kissed you, “I only have one chance to be with you for the first time and I want to make love to you."

He kissed you for what felt like an eternity, until you both reached the euphoric feeling of seeing stars in the black void of a blissed out mind.

He moved on top of you until he was positioned at your entrance. Looking you in the eyes he pushed slowly while watching your face for discomfort.

Finding nothing but pleasure in your reactions, he began moving himself, rolling his hips into you.

Neither of you could control your sounds and you found yourselves sweaty and moaning in an act of pure ecstasy.

Bringing your legs up around him his cock hit you over and over rubbing your g spot while his pubic bone rubbed over your clit with each stroke.

Picking up his speed he was reaching his high.

"Can I cum in you Y/N”

Pulling his hair you came for a second time.

“Yes, Yes, Kookie…please."

You could feel the spurts of his release spill inside you before he collapsed on top of you.

Holding onto each other, you rested. Post coital quiet took over the room as you lay trying to regain your strength.

His phone suddenly broke the silence, going off with incessant notifications. He snuggled closer into you not moving to look.

"Just check it already Jungkook it's making me crazy. What if something's wrong?”

97 Line Group Chat:

Bam Bam: JK? Where did you go?? Lol, hope you’re having fun brother.

Mingyu: I can’t believe she’d pick you over me, I’m way better looking. Must be your money.

Yugyeom: You're welcome, I had to get her good and drunk before she’d consider going home with you.

Jungkook: You guys can just shut the fuck up. Have some respect for Y/N.

Bam Bam: It’s…

Mingyu: About…

Yugyeom: Time…

Jungkook: How long did it take all of you to plan that clever response?

Jungkook: You’re all assholes.

Jungkook: Stop texting me.

Jungkook: I'm busy.

Jungkook: WITH MY GIRLRIEND.

[edwinmuch]

overachiever ✧ {zion}

summary: in which straight A student riley takes a break from her procrastinating to help pretty boy zion with more than just his homework

author’s note: @softhottie‘s submission for @temperaryheart‘s 700 follower challenge! literally posting on the last day but better late than never, right? (haven’t written for leisure in a while so fair warning)

prompt: prettymuch lyric (bolded)

warnings: mention of drugs, smut (oral, daddy kink, overstimulation, edging)

word count: 3.5k

No on-campus college experience is complete without the following things: sleepless coffee-driven nights, at least one blackout drunk party experience, and a casual hookup or two. Third year Sociology major Zion could definitely say he’s checked off all of the above (several times, he might add). He was especially well-versed in the collegiate sport of hooking up. In fact, he would probably be considered something of an MVP. He’s had his fair share of players in his game. But like with any sport, it takes strategy. There was a secret artform to finding the most opportune times for intimacy when in college. Shared rooms and thin walls don’t exactly allow for privacy, especially when the room in question is shared with a nosy Italian business major named Nick.

This is why Zion decided to make every second count when he discovered his best friend and roommate Nick would be out of their dorm room for a few hours. According to Nick, his abnormal psychology midterm was “going to be the death of him.” It was his last exam before finals week, and he knew he couldn’t afford to fail so he announced that he would be spending that entire Thursday evening in the library studying for it. Zion tried to hide his excitement at his friend’s departure.

“Damn bro, that sucks. Happy studying though,” he managed to utter on Nick’s way out, feigning concern.

When the door finally shut, it took him all of 30 seconds to dial up his favorite girl as of late: Riley Williams, this fiery Women’s and Gender Studies major who resided in his building on the floor above his. They had met in his 10AM sociology class about two and a half months ago. She was hard not to notice when her hand shot up for almost every question, portraying herself as someone who obviously reads over the required text after class. But unlike others, Zion actually paid more attention to her cute tendency to absentmindedly let her pen linger between her glossy lips when she found herself concentrating deeply and her seemingly never-ending collection of flattering outfits. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t notice the way her curves looked in one of her cropped cardigan and plaid mini skirt ensembles or the hypnotizing glint of her signature “B-A-B-Y” silver link necklace that adorned her collarbones so well. Despite her engagement in class and endearing mannerisms, she still came off as standoffish, working alone during paired in-class assignments and rolling her eyes at less than intelligent answers from other students in response to the professor’s questions. But, after the fourth lecture of her sitting in her unassigned assigned seat next to his, he decided to take a chance and strike up a conversation, relieved to be met with her dimpled, wide tooth smile; the rest was history.

He doesn’t really know how their current arrangement really came to be. It started off as occasional study sessions in Zion’s room since she obviously knew her material. Then, it had quickly become invitations to binge-watch Bojack Horseman, a show Riley prided herself on introducing to him, or to share a blunt with him and Nick at the end of a particularly stressful school week. But eventually, a few lines had blurred when an innocent smoke sesh (sans Nick) had a salacious end involving her on all fours and her clothes long discarded on his bedroom floor. With this new dynamic between them, he’s made a habit of calling or texting her when late night thoughts of her became too enticing to resist. He hadn’t been hitting her line lately though, the stress of studying for exams and completing assignments keeping them apart. But with midterm season coming to a close and Nick finally being out of his hair, the eager boy was aching to finally invite his favorite girl over once again.

“Hey Z. What’s up?” Riley answered on the second ring, the mellifluous sound of her voice already getting him worked up.

“Hey beautiful. So, Nick is out of the room for tonight,” Zion boasted, the smirk on his face apparent even through the phone.

She waited for him to continue, thinking there was more, but he never did.

“…Okay, and? What’s that gotta do with me? Why should I drop everything to help you get a nut? I’m in the middle of writing a paper, you know,” she replied as she flicked through Netflix titles. He didn’t need to know that her “paper writing” actually equated to television streaming. Her point still stands.

“Babyyy come on, stop playin’,” he whined, “You know, I’m never selfish. Besides, the post-nut clarity of an orgasm or two will help you focus on your paper. Just gimme an hour, please?”

“Ugh I don’t know.” Although the specificities of their current relationship (or situationship, rather) had never been fully discussed, Riley must admit his sweet delivery of “baby” really made her insides scramble. At this point, she was ready to be laid up in Zion’s bed (preferably under him), especially since she wasn’t actually doing anything productive anyway, but she was also ready to hear him beg for it.

“Please baby, it’s been weeks since I’ve had you to myself. I’ll make it worth your while. Nick’s probably gonna be gone most of the night too so when you show up, m’gonna put this time to use,” the insatiable boy persuaded, the seductive rasp of his voice prominent in his last few words.

“Welllll, when you put it like that,” she began, smiling to herself as she was almost able to hear Zion’s excitement through the phone, “I’ll be there in 20.”

~~~

Riley stepped off the elevator and trodded down the RA-decorated hallway in her pink fuzzy slides to Zion’s dorm room door where she placed a soft knock. She barely had time to collect herself before the door swung open revealing a shirtless Zion leaning against the doorframe, his platinum-dyed dreads braided back into two cornrows and his dark gray cotton sweatpants hanging low enough to reveal almost the entirety of his happy trail. He wasted no time pulling her into the room. She couldn’t help the smile that crept onto her face at her observation of the atmosphere Zion had created for her. His Himalayan salt lamp lit the room up in a sensuous coral hue while Next Town Down’s Lovers Theme (Interlude) played in the background.

“Next Town Down, huh?” she teased with a quirk of her lips, knowing she put him on to the musical group.

Zion smiled down at her with a set of dimples to match her own. “Yeah I know you like them. Thought it might help put you in the mood,” he shrugged smugly with his devilish smile still present on his face.

“Oh please! I know you bump them when I’m not around,” she giggled, poking him in his chest as she made her point.

“Yeah whatever,” he chuckled, his hands falling to her hips. He slowly backed them up towards his plush loveseat in the corner of the room. Once the back of his calves touched the suede material of the couch, he plopped onto the cushion. Riley followed suit, climbing onto his lap with her knees digging into the cushion on either side of him and her freshly manicured hands finding their way wrapped behind his head.

Zion made sure the dainty girl was comfortable in his lap before his large hands snaked up her luscious thighs, rubbing her up and down before finding their place on her derrière with a squeeze.

“Mmm I missed you baby.”

“Oh really? How much?” she whispered in his ear, sending chills up his spine.

“Don’t worry, imma show you.” And with that, he started his determined campaign on her neck, kissing up the area of exposed flesh even going as far as to flick his tongue out as he reached her jawline. She pulled away for a moment to slip her cropped sweatshirt over her head, fluffing out the resultant curls of her day old twist out once it passed over her head. She was left with nothing covering her upper half as she had made the deliberate decision not to wear bra to come over.

She couldn’t contain the soft moans and content sighs that escaped her lips. As he sponged wet kisses to the sensitive spot under her earlobe and his nimble fingers worked her hardening nipples, she instinctively ground her hips into his for some added friction between them.

“Need these off you too ma,” Zion whispered, snapping the waistband of her sweat shorts. And with no hesitation she complied, getting up briefly to slide them down her supple legs. She silently thanked herself for her lingerie selection; the pink and navy blue lace of her panties graciously highlighted the warm bronze undertones of her golden brown skin as well as the generous curve of her ass.

She sunk back down onto his lap, hands carefully placed on his shoulders as she returned to grinding against Zion’s ever hardening member with a little more fervor. Before the boy could utter another word, Riley pressed her lips against his in a feverish kiss.

Zion reciprocated with the same amount of enthusiasm, accepting every sloppy collision of their tongues and sensuous bite of his bottom lip with a gratified squeeze of her thigh with one hand and a rub of her lower back with the other. She quickly began her descent down his neck. Nipping, licking, sucking from his jawline to his collarbone.

A lazy smile crept upon Zion’s face as a chuckle passed his lips. “For someone who ain’t even wanna come over here, you sure are eager, huh?”

“Shut up,” she smiled against his skin, “Listen, you promised me ‘an orgasm or two’ and I intend on getting it.”

“And I’m a man of my word baby girl.” And with that challenge, Zion hooked his strong hands under Riley’s thick thighs and hoisted her from the couch, allowing her to lock her legs around his torso. Without pulling their lips away from each other, Zion walked them to his extra large twin sized bed.

He lowered her onto the bed so that her legs dangled off the end. He slinked between her legs before dropping to his knees in front of her. Riley rose off the bed slightly to lean back on her elbows; she watched as he ran his soft hands up her awaiting thighs, never losing eye contact as he did so. His nimble fingers stopped at the elastic waistband of her panties. He smirked as he mentally took note of the ever-growing wet spot in its crotch area before deftly slipping the cloth barrier down her legs and onto the carpeted floor.

“Mmm so wet for me baby,” he wasted no time hooking her legs onto his shoulders.

“Just for you,” she breathed out as a shuddered moan while Zion left lingering kisses up her inner thigh until he reached her throbbing center. He hovered there for a bit, blowing lightly against her folds. She hissed at the sudden cold air hitting her soaking cunt.

“God Zion, do something,” she whined, absentmindedly pushing his head further toward the area she needed him most.

Her wish was his command as he kissed and sucked on her folds before dipping his tongue in between them to lick a stripe at her opening. He took this time to admire her and take note of how cute she looked laying there with her bottom lip drawn between her teeth. That’s when his eager tongue found her sensitive bundle of nerves, flicking figure eights into it before sucking.

“Ahh feels so good,” Riley moaned in a whisper, grabbing at his blond locs as he lapped at her bud. Her hips began instinctively lifting slightly off the mattress as she was nearing her peak. Zion’s large hands took hold of them to anchor her and continue his gluttonous feast.

It wasn’t long before she was met with the all too familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach as she gushed into Zion’s awaiting mouth. Her eyes screwed shut and her mouth fell open allowing a loud stream of obscenities to flow from it.

Once her thighs stopped trembling, Zion released their hold from around his neck and rose from his place on his knees. Riley backed up toward the headboard so her entire body could spread across the bed and she could watch Zion’s every move. In two swift motions, Zion’s sweats were removed from his body to reveal that he was wearing nothing else underneath. He crawled on top of her and placed a wet, needy kiss to her lips. He licked into her mouth sloppily, allowing her to taste herself on his tongue.  

“What next baby?” he uttered breathily between messy kisses. She placed her hand on his chest to signal for him to pull away for a moment. He complied looking down at her flushed face and swollen lips.

“Can I sit on it?” she said softly in the most innocent tone possible. The sight of her plump lips pulled into a pout and her doe eyes peering up at him through her cascading lashes were enough to make his dick twitch.

“Course baby,” he punctuated his confirmation with a kiss to her lips before climbing off of her and landing on his back. He laid comfortably against his pillow, waiting for her to make her next move.

Riley sat up and swung her leg over his body. She hovered over his length before Zion helped her sink down onto it. She winced at the initial stretch but released a satisfied sigh once she finally bottomed out.

After taking a moment to adjust to his size, she began to rock her hips back and forth. Once she found her rhythm, Zion got comfortable, hands clasped behind his head watching her titties bounce as she moved above him. She placed her palms on his chest to steady herself and give herself more leverage to bounce on him more quickly.

“Fuck Daddy, you feel so good,” she drawled out with each swivel of her hips. She praised herself internally at the coy slip of the pet name, knowing how much it riled him up during their last rendezvous. As she expected, the sweet phrase flicked a switch for the boy whose large hands found themselves grabbing at her sides hungrily. It was always a surprise to him when she was vulgar during sex as she was usually prim and proper in any other scenario, but his surprise was most certainly not a complaint.

“Say that shit again,” he growled, beginning to thrust up into her.

“You f-feel so good insi-ide me, Daddy,” she moaned, falling forward in response to a particularly forceful slap to her ass. Zion took this opportunity to capture one of her breasts in his mouth, sucking and swirling his tongue around her erect little bud.

Riley began to fall apart above him, the sinful sound of their skin slapping against each other and the full feeling of him thrusting into her so deeply were taking their toll on her. She could barely form a coherent sentence through her incessant whimpers.

“So cl- close,” she stuttered, digging her nails into his shoulders as she prepared herself for a second orgasm, the buildup much more intense than the last. She loudly cried out a chant of “Yes daddy”s, uncontrollably clenching around him while he continued to rail into her from below. She rode out her high, the longest she’d had in a while. Before long, she fell forward onto her lover’s chest in exhaustion with a drawn-out exaggerated sigh.

Just as she was ready to roll off of him and call it a night, Zion reached up and grabbed her by the throat, whispering in her ear, “You ready for number 3 baby?”

Her eyes widened as she weakly replied, catching her breath, “You said one or two. I already came twice.”

With a mischievous smirk, Zion eyed her naked body with the same hunger he had when she first walked through the door. “Yeah well I also said I’d make it worth your while. What can I say? I’m an overachiever,” he chuckled darkly, easing her off of his length. She winced at the newfound emptiness.

“All fours for me baby,” he rasped, sitting up and allowing her to spread out on her hands and knees in front of him.

“Yes daddy,” she did as she was told. Her glistening core and the remarkable roundedness of her rump on full display. He palmed a large handful of her ass, earning a sharp inhale from her.

“So good for me baby,” Zion whispered, palming more of her flesh into his hand before winding it back for another good slap across her right buttcheek. She moaned loudly in response, falling forward on her elbows from the impact.

He lined himself up, teasing her entrance. The tickle of his squishy head rubbing against her opening was becoming unbearable as she was aching to be filled up for a second time. At the sound of Riley whimpering with her bottom lip caught between her teeth, Zion pushed into her slowly, egged on by her surprised gasp. Just as he was about to fill her to her hilt, he took a moment to admire how he seemed to fit inside her so perfectly, almost as if he was the sword to her sheath.

He started off slow to allow Riley to adjust and to ensure that he didn’t bust immediately. He’d been holding off from his release to make sure his girl had gotten multiple. So, needless to say, he was at risk of busting very soon.

His slow thrusts eventually stilled to a complete halt. Before she could open her mouth to complain, his hand came down to spank her bottom once again. He kneaded the area he just slapped as he grumbled to her, “Throw that shit back for me, mama.” And without skipping a beat, Riley began to rock herself back and forth, allowing her ass to crash against him continuously. The sound of her cheeks clapping against his front and her strangled moans at the feeling of getting herself off on him was like music to his ears.  

“Who’s making you feel this good baby?” Zion questioned with yet another smack to her rear.

“You daddy, only you,” she drawled on, speeding up slightly out of an eagerness to please him.

He was so blown away by her ability to take him so well. But he was not surprised when her movements eventually lost their rhythm, knowing she was probably close to her peak. So in an attempt to regain control, he roughly locked his hands at her hips before ramming into her at a relentless pace.

“Oh my god Zion!” she shouted, leaving her mouth hanging wide open. Her strained cries became louder with every snap of his hips.

If this assault on her insides wasn’t enough, not only did Zion dig his knees further into the sheets, allowing himself to lean back and pound into her at a deliciously pleasurable new angle, but he also skimmed his fingers down her front to ferociously rub circles into her pearl. The sensation was almost too much to bear, especially considering the two orgasms she already had under her belt. Her eyes flew shut as she hit her forearm against the bed repeatedly in a motion that most wrestlers would recognize as a “tap out.”

“Ah fuck, m’not gonna last daddy!” she screamed, legs beginning to quiver.

“Me either baby,” he grunted shortly before she pulsed around him so deliciously, milking him for every hot spurt he had in him.

They languidly rode out their climaxes together until Zion gently pulled out of Riley allowing them both to lay back against his satin pillowcases. She clung to his side nuzzling her face into his chest, appreciative of the post-orgasm high he provided her.

“Okay, ‘Mr. Overachiever’,” Riley sighed, still a bit out of breath as she looked up at him with her bright eyes and lazy smile.

“Mmm, I like the sound of that,” he hummed, smacking an obnoxious smooch to her cheek, “Where’s your phone? I’m changing my name in your contacts to that right now.”

He eyed her brightly colored, flower pressed phone case from across the room and attempted to climb off the bed to retrieve the girl’s smartphone from the couch where, until that moment, it had been forgotten.

“No, stoppp,” she giggled, slinging her leg across his torso and pushing his shoulders into the mattress before he could even make a move. He playfully grabbed at her waist, tickling her sides to try to overpower her. She squirmed under his grasp.

“Nah, I’m changing that shit. Maybe people will see it and think I’m tutoring you for once. Whatchu think?” he joked, his hearty laugh combining with her pleading giggles.

Their tickle fight continued until it devolved into a soft, comfortably silent cuddle between them, thoughts of paper deadlines or interfering roommates being long forgotten, and Zion wouldn’t have it any other way.

[starside-selfships]

Take a Break (short fic)

Author’s note: I have a more fluffier, vanilla (and semi-saucy) fic I really wanted to write and that I feel comfortable sharing, involving some sweet stuff with a hunter and his werewolf boyfriend. Hope you enjoy! (Also, I may or may not have kept the saucy bits secret, if you guys wanna see that part, just let me know!)

Setting my controller to the side with my soft smile growing into a wider one overtime, my boyfriend reappeared right in front of me, almost out of thin air as he dusted himself off and looked at me with disgust in his eyes. “I swear, that stupid housecat is always on my nerves, I don’t know how you’re friends with that beast,” He berated, obviously talking about one of my closest friends, the manticore that was dating the angel, earning a snicker from me. “C’mon, Kaz, she’s not that bad,” I joked as I pictured the usual quarrel between my boyfriend and my best friend. The ongoing rivalry and hatred between those two was just unpleasant at most and if I wasn’t friends with the manticore, Kaz would’ve probably let loose and would not hold back against her. “Not that bad, yeah right,” He hissed before letting out several huffs of air before slinking over to my side on the couch, my body shifting into it’s half human and half wolf state, in short, an anthropomorphic wolf. My werewolf state, well, that’s for another time. “It’s alright, princess,” I said sweetly, pressing my lips against the side of Kaz’s head, wrapping a fuzzy arm around him and bringing him closer to my form for him to relax. “We have the rest of today to relax, it’s okay.” I noticed the edge of his lips curling into a soft smile as he began to emit those lovely and soothing purrs, to me it was literally a drug. “Mmmmmhhh~” I released from my muzzle, closing my eyes and leaning my head back as the sound of Kaz’s purring, the crisp winds outside, and the minimal background noise, it was wonderful. It felt perfect.

“How’s my big, handsome puppy feeling? I meant to ask you earlier, but I got a little distracted,” Kaz questioned and this time, I was finally able to give him a simple answer, nothing complex, unless he asked for details of course. “I’m good, I’m really good, Kaz,” I answered honestly before looking back down at him and feeling my smile widen. “Like, I don’t want to go into details if you don’t want to hear them, heh,” Before I knew it, Kaz was on my lap in like seconds, his arms worming around my neck, causing my body to shiver from the touch, his emerald orbs locked onto my brown ones. “Tell me everything, Elijah.” And so I did. I told him about how I took the time to get my thoughts in order, how I kept focusing on the stupid and insignificant things happening around me and inside of my head. It was unhealthy and only filling me with intense amounts of despair. I explained the reasons behind it all, what caused it and among other things, how I dealt with it by listening to my favorite music, playing my favorite games, and turning off all my communications, taking a break from them to be able to spend time with him and him alone since being with him made me genuinely happy and relaxed. To have Kaz close to me or in my eyesight, it fills me with joy and makes my tail wag to no end. Nothing else in the world makes my tail wag faster. “So, that’s, heh, that’s my story.” I finished, realizing that I had been crying this whole time, feeling the tears from my eyes flowing down into my fur. Before I could even wipe my eyes, Kaz did it for me so I could easily see the tears in his eyes, the two of us becoming sappy messes after I explained how I was taking care of myself after the endless hours of sadness and negativity that surged through my mind. To be honest, seeing him teary-eyed was probably the reason why I was crying for Kaz wasn’t one who usually cries.

“I’m glad,” Kaz began as he was clearing choking on his words before he leaned closer and pressed his warm lips against my wet snout, closing his eyes in the process and pulling back so I could see the familiar look of love in his eyes. “I’m very glad. Hearing that, it...it makes me so happy to hear that, Elijah. I’m really happy you’re learning to take care of yourself more.” The look on Kaz’s face was precious, adorable, lovely, just perfect. It was a look I would cherish forever, that sweet smile, his eyes shining and gazing down into mine, his black and green hair that I loved running my hands through, along with his ears at the top of his head that he enjoyed me touching and playing with. Kaz was perfect to me. Yeah, a few people, including a friend or two, weren’t too fond of him and his personality, but to me, I loved that about him. How protective and defensive he would get, he would make me swoon majority of the time and whenever he walked by each other on our way to our different classes, my tail would go insane. “I love you Elijah.” The Hunter said to me, one of my wolf paws reaching up to massage his smooth, delicate face, being careful of my sharp claws, heck I’m pretty sure his were sharper than mine to be honest. Upon contact of my paw on his skin, the sound of his purring grew louder, filling my sensitive ears and putting me into a high, it was incredibly addicting, I couldn’t get enough of it. “I love you too, Kaz.” I replied, feeling myself getting excited at the sweet sound of his cat-like noises alone and it certainly didn’t help with how Kaz was beginning to glide his hands all over my form, probably sensing that I was starting to get lustful, all thanks to him. Thankfully, I managed to get control of my urges and returned back to my human form, my wolf ears and tail still at my head and backside, respectively. What came next was surprisingly, but expected.

“Hey Kaz, do you think we cou-mmmff!~” I couldn’t even ask him a simple question as he began to attack my lips with his own, my eyes fluttering and my body twitching in reaction. The contact of his tongue slipping into my mouth, searching for mine to gain dominance, his hands gripping and talons clawing my shirt so he could pull me closer to him as he kept himself planted on my lap as we continued to engage in our growing and rising heated makeout session. My hands found themselves gripping Kaz’s back, holding onto him as his bottom half began grinding against my lap, my arousal definitely beginning to show in the form of my tent that was poking at the hunter’s backside. The sound of our passionate smooching and moaning filled the room as Kaz’s warm tail wrapped around my leg, earning a shiver from me, which made Kaz softly giggle. Minutes had gone by and the two of us were, without a doubt, eager and horny messes. The craving of his lips increased once he had pulled away to breathe and speak, my hand secured on his legs that had been surprisingly wrapped around my body, I didn’t even notice when he did that. “Hey,” He said, trying to get my attention as I was lost in his eyes, of course, snapping out of my daze as best I could. “You think we should take this to the bed?” He questioned, earning a reaction from my heart pounding out of my chest loudly to the point where I was certain that he could hear it as well. Obviously, there was another part of my body that reacted in a similar, but very different way and I’m positive that he knew it too. “That sounds like a really good idea~”

[creativityworks-sx]

5 of the Best Alternative UK Rap Albums of 2019 by Dwayne Wilks

With us all home-bound for the foreseeable future, there’s no better time than now to catch up on the music, film and television that might have passed us by in recent times. When it comes to rap in all its forms, the UK took it to new levels in 2019. Dave delivered a seminal album early in the year. Headie One might have established himself as the star of the drill scene with Music x Road. Through Kano and Wretch we saw the scene’s OGs continue to push themselves and cover unchartered territory (can we also acknowledge the crazy feature run Ghetts has been on). Amidst all the heat and the D-Block Europe clones that 2019 has provided us with though, a lot of sick projects from established artists didn’t get the shine they deserved. Here are 5 of the best that fall within that category: 

Blood, Swvgg, Tears/Youngs Teflon

For the past 10 years Youngs has consistenly delivered quality UK rap. Now a veteran, Blood, Swvgg, and Tears sees Tef’ continue with gritty tales of the trap and the South London streets, while sounding hungrier than a lot of the scene’s newcomers. The sample driven Aaliyah and the conceptual Broken Safety exhibit Young’s vintage storytelling abilty, the latter inspired by his favourite rapper, Nas’ classic track I Gave You Power. Being a decade deep in the game, Teflon, (aka ‘Jimmy’) has sharpened his pen to the point that almost every bar comes packaged with a punchline and those punchlines don’t (often) miss. Couple his wordplay with the overall sonics of the project; hard-hitting drilly beats that align the album with the current sound of the scene, and Blood, Swvgg and Tears establishes Jimmy as a stalwart of UK hiphop. That’s if he wasn’t one already. The best thing is, it looks like he’s still getting better. 

(Best Tracks: 3AM In Brixton, Clout, Rehab, Survivor Stories Pt.2)

Kojey Radical/Cashmere Tears

Cashmere Tears gifts us with Kojey’s usual intricate and poetic flows, introspective content and performative delivery. As he has been for some years now, he gives us finely crafted bars about steeped in introspection, but this time they are delivered over warm sultry basslines and endorphin-inducing horns. On Can’t Go Back, producer Swindle’s joy-filled funk is married with Kojey’s lyrics celebrating his re-emergence from a dark mental space. This is the formula that carries much of the project; candid, vulnerable bars atop infectious instrumentation. When it comes to levels of funk, the album resides high up in the stratosphere. I’m not sure there’s a rapper in the UK that’s as comfortable up at those dizzying heights. Don’t believe me? Do yourself a favour and listen to Kojey glide over the album’s title track Cashmere Tears.

The warm basslines and brass sections are repurposed later in the album, matching the more sombre topics Kojey tackles. Case in point being the track Eleven which sees Kojey grieve the death of his close friend. The vulnerability showed on songs like this and the choir assisted closer Last Night has an endearing effect on you as you listen; you can’t help but appreciate the raw honesty in the act of exposing your lowest moments. Cashmere Tears is an example of how music can offer a view into an artist’s conscience and psyche. When it comes to pushing the boundaries of the UK music scene Kojey Radical is at the forefront, his workload far outweighing his acclaim. 

(Best Tracks: Cashmere Tears, Eleven, Feel About It)

Money Over Everyone/P Money

P Money has never made the most humble music. Moretime he’s spitting bars soaked in arrogance over grime instrumentals, and it’s this arrogance that makes Money Over Everyone 3 so hard. P Money revels in his longstanding refusal to comprimise from the grime genre, taking every opportunity to tell everyone that doubted his and grime’s staying power, “hate to tell you ‘I told you so’… but I told you so”. Countless times on M.O.E.3 P Money shamelessly champions his own integrity, like his boasts about touring Australia for the fourth time on Shh Hut Yuh Mout which has JME repeat one of his classic refrains all over the hook. There is a deliberate attempt to align himself with JME who is featured and name dropped at several points on the album and P is fully deserving of the type of recognition that the BBK legend recieves, especially after an album like this. Amidst all the boasy talk, M.O.E.3 does have its more reflective moments; Live This Twice has P show that he doesn’t at all take his success for granted and on That’s Air Manga St Hilare assists in explaining the mindset of the kids on road that have nothing to lose and move accordingly. 

(Standout Tracks: Where & When, About Grinding, Live This Twice)

Little Simz has recieved a lot of praise this year, mainly for starring in the latest season of Top Boy on Netflix. While she’s fully deserving of the acclaim for her acting, her muscial endeavours might have gone slightly under the radar. Grey Area is Simz’s best work yet; at times vulnerable and at times aggressive, at times sombre but always honest. The raw drum break and distorted bassline underpins Simbi’s boasy, hostile tone in the opener Offence. Within no time it’s clear: Little Simz can rap. So as impressive as these aggresive moments are, it’s elsewhere on the project that Simz really shines. 

There’s a dope moment of nostalgia on the song 101FM; nostalgia both in the sonics and sentiment of the track. From this, the mid-way point of the album, Simz gets into her personal bag. On Therapy she opens up about attending therapy sessions to cope with the burdens of fame and relationships, but unexpectedly declares the practice of therapy ineffective and unhelpful. Unexpected because the next track, Sherbet Sunset, is a rambling confession of the pain of a broken heart. Lines like “ Still it hurts tremendously, can’t bear the intensity”, “ Lost part of myself, and I can’t get her back”, “ Who am I? I’m a mess, more sinning, more spending” paint a picture of someone in dire need of therapy. It seems though that Little Simz’ prefers to heal through her music, putting her pain in her lyrics provides all the catharsis she needs. And long as it works for, I’m here for it. The blessings and burdens of fame, the contrast of her introversion and her intensity, it all makes for Little Simz’ Grey Area.  

(Standout Tracks: Selfish, 101 FM, Pressure)

Not Waving But Drowning/Loyle Carner

Not Waving But Drowning feels longer than its 45 minute run time. The record’s generally slow-tempo and Carner’s easy flow don’t make for the most thrilling of listens. Carner’s effortless delivery might even be enough to send the more passive listener to sleep. Animated and energetic it is not, but Carner’s magic is found in his deeply personal lyrics, full of feeling. In his patented fluid rhyme style, he tells of a train journey that spurs thoughts of a future family in Ottolenghi, the track made all the more touching by tenderness of Jordan Rakei’s singing on the hook. There are a host of touching moments on the album like the song Desoleil (Brilliant Corners) which features elusive UK singer Sampha and is a perfect fit for the vocalist, with its ballad-like pace and fleeting drums that hide in the back of the track, allowing the piano riff to lead.

The personal, touching moments continue with songs like Loose Ends (for which Jorja Smith lends her vocals) and Krispy, an attempt to amend a failed friendship. Maybe the most intimate moment is Looking Back where Carner explains his feelings of being lost because of being mixed race. This song isn’t the contrived and corny stuff we hear from some (*looks in the direction of Logic*), but is as earnest as it is honest, exemplified by the hard-hiting line “I’m thinking that my great grandfather could’ve owned my other one/ And yo, that shit is weird”. Despite the reminiscing on times less certain and existential struggles of Not Waving But Drowning, the album doesn’t feel negative or depressive. Even though much of the instrumentation is melancholy in feel, much is also pretty feel-good. There is a lot of optimism about the future and there is a lot of talk of love, whether it’s directed towards his friends, family or partner. Loyle Carner probes around in his own feelings in this project and invites us to join the search.

(Standout Tracks: Ice Water, Ottolenghi, Desoleil (Brilliant Corners), Looking Back)

Written by Dwayne Wilks

[party-of-rpg-muses]

Oh boy. I’m really late in this. Not only that, but I had multiple sessions that I’ve neglected in talking about as I recently returned from my vacation at Disney World and had to acclimate back to the climate and being home. And work has kept me incredibly busy and practically exhausted. And I’m also balancing that with FFXIV.

Anyway, I eventually returned to playing after returning from my vacation. Picking up where I left off in Yaschas Massif 010 AF, only to realize that I was in the wrong area to get a Graviton Core. But I managed to get a Behemoth Fang. After that, I resolved to go to Academia 400 AF, having to deal with a number of enemies as I got the Graviton Core Delta and attempted to try my hand to the giant Geiseric... only to get defeated shortly thereafter. I also found the Wild Gate I could use to access a different area, but not Wild Artefacts. But before leaving, I went ALL the way back to around the beginning of the area to drop off my completed maps. I also went to Serendipity to try and get the Chaos Crystal, but to no avail. I ended up using the slot machine for about 20 minutes in its best mood and I lost way more coins than I gained. So... yeah. I then went to Yaschas Massif 100 AF to see if I could find a path forward, doing what I could to assist the Ruby’s of Grief. It didn’t take long before I got them all. Even got Graviton Core Epsilon along the way. After that, I saved and turned off the game.

Quite some time later, I returned and with the Wild Artefact I got while there, I opened a Gate to the Sunleth Waterscape 400 AF where I partook in finding lost Flans before fighting against them. After fighting them, I made sure to pick up the Graviton Core Eta before leaving. Also, I kinda did some exploring in other locations and completed some sidequests. Since I couldn’t win coins, I decided to farm them by spending my gil to get more. Upon finally getting enough for the Chaos Crystal, I bought it, saved the game, and turned it off.

Several days later, I picked up where I left off. I also learned that I didn’t need to get all Graviton Cores, so I just decided to give what I had to Hope. 6 out of 7. And with that done, I was given access to a mysterious Time Gate in Academia 4XX AF. Jumping through, Serah got separated from Noel and Mog was mysteriously missing while she ended up in the Void Beyond. I ended up talking to the various Yeuls (and got interrupted a few times because of the enemies). I saw items, but I was expecting to go back for them once I got Mog. Regardless, I found against Caius, only for Serah to get run through and sent to New Bodhum. I won’t lie, I was confused for a bit, thinking a made a mistake somewhere and got some kind of bad ending. But I still couldn’t help but smile when I saw Lightning and Snow in their original clothes from FFXIII. Speaking of Lightning, despite her offer to stay, I decided to reject it, as I already came far enough. Afterwards, I voice called out. I initially thought it was Mog, but after listening more and more, I came to the conclusion that it was Vanille, a voice I haven’t heard in a while. It led me to where the Gate was initially and it was there that I met up with none other than Vanille and Fang. I was so happy to see them! Honestly, I missed them a lot throughout this adventure. Fang opened a portal to go through, but before leaving, I picked up some items; Fang’s Crown and Vanille’s Fruit before jumping through and entering Noel’s dream; a desolate, depressing world. Before long, I was playing as Noel and fought against Caius. I did decently well, but ended up losing the fight. Thankfully, there wasn’t a game over. I continued to follow and watch Noel’s life, see his Yeul die in his arms, and follow after him in the wastelands before Serah pulled him back to reality. I then found myself fighting another Gogmagog (haven’t fought those in a good while) and defeated it with ease.

With newfound resolve, I returned to the Farseers’ where Yeul was and found myself reunited with Mog. Only to learn that Caius was a l’Cie like Lighting, Snow, and Serah! His Focus being to protect Yeul. But Etros freed him and granted him immortality to protect the other Yeuls. I also learned that Serah has the Eye of Etros, which slowly kills her with each vision of the future she sees. And with nowhere left to go, I made my way to the Time Gate and made my way to New Bodhum 700. It was there that I finally got to see Lightning face-to-face! She gave quite a bit of exposition before leaving. But not before giving Mog a new and improved Mog Hunt, which I put to great use while in the area before leaving. I also fought a few enemies and even happened across a Metallicactuar. But it ran away after knocking and freezing Serah and Noel into the air. After that, I left and went to Academia 500 AF. There, I performed that platforming puzzle. Many enemies were a pain to deal with. Most notably the Proto-Behemoth (which I could not defeat in any way and it would defeat my part with little effort. There was also the Apkallu, which I was able to beat, but it was time-consuming and nearly defeated me. I also ran into a few problems with platforming, most notably with Serah circling and falling off as a result, rather than turning on the spot. And occasionally I would undershoot a jump. As this happened later in the area, that meant having to press the switches again after failing. But eventually, I reached the end.

By the way, around this time, it was around midnight, so it was technically March 31st, meaning that Persona 5 Royal was released. I pre-ordered the game on the PS4 store and let the game download while I continued playing XIII-2. I went onward to the final battle and watched in awe as Hope arrived, still using his boomerang from XIII-2 (he also did this in his introduction cutscene) and even meeting up with Sazh and Dajh. I then found myself fighting Gaius’ Chaos Bahamut form, which proved incredibly difficult. I may have lost about 5 times before I eventually won. But after that was a direct battle with Gaius. That one was much easier. After that was another battle with Gaius, which was time-consuming, but I managed to beat him. Follwing a brief cutscene, I found myself fighting three Bahamuts. I decided to focus the Amber Bahamut, since it seemed like the main attacker while Garnet Bahamut was the buffer. Once both of them were down, I attacked the Jet Bahamut and in a brief assault, got him down to about 75% health before Amber was revived. Despite my best efforts, it wasn’t long before Garnet was revived and all three used Exaflare, defeating my party. Another attempt went better, lasting a bit longer, but I was eventually defeated as I struggled to keep up. I may have tried 10 times in total before giving up. I figured I was underleveled, so I decided to do a bit of grinding.

I returned to the Dying World to explore a bit, fighting enemies and getting stronger while also finding items. I happened across the Farseers’ Relic again and upon using Mog Hunt, got a Live Reaction, which gave me an Artefact. I also ended up in Yaschas Massif 110 AF and found more Rubies of Grief. These were also not too much of an issue to deal with, even if some required out of the box thinking. But I managed to complete them before getting one from an ancient Yeul, requesting me to fight the Ugallu. Honestly, that fight was quite difficult. First time went decently well, having a Bunkerbeast provoke it while Serah healed and Noel weakened the Ugallu, but after a while, I lost my footing and lost the fight. And for the second attempt, Bunkerbeast’s Provoke wouldn’t work for some reason, leading to another defeat. But after the third or fourth time, I managed to defeat it. Later, I went to the Archylte Steppe and properly explored the area, even fighting the Gigantuars. I also managed to reach the Vile Peaks 010 AF, but couldn’t figure out what to do. I fully explored and encountered a mysterious figure, but couldn’t affect it in any way before I found myself back at the beginning of the area. I think with a bit more work, I should be able to win and finish this game. Hopefully it won’t be too long. I want to finish this game before starting the FF7 Remake.

[cutiesaeran]

MCYooSeven thoughts!

Alright so I’m being forced to face the fact that the odds of me actually writing this - as much as i want to - are extremely low considering my lack of energy lately, my kids being sick, me getting sick, busy life, etc, so here are some mcyooseven thoughts I have floating around my noggin today. I’m thinking this will be a two-part post, this first part is mostly YoosungxMC buildup. The second part will focus on them bringing Seven into the fold.

This is pre-game, so Unknown hasn’t hacked and placed MC in the messenger yet. It takes place shortly after Rika disappears, and the “MC” is my OC Summer - a college student at SKY. Summer is there to get her teaching degree and aims to teach ESL someday. :)

They don’t have any of the same classes currently, but Yoosung has seen Summer around because she’s kind of hard to miss. She’s got an undercut that she keeps exposed on the left side, her candy cotton hair kept to her right side by a braid serving as her part. She’s usually seen in black skinny jeans and some sort of band t-shirt, sporting a leather jacket covered in patches and pins on the cooler days. She’s got a hoop in her nose and a star on her lip, her messy makeup somehow working with the ‘I just rolled out of bed’ vibe she has going. She’s also only 4’9”.

But since he keeps to himself mostly, she hasn’t really noticed him.

However. She is a huge video game fanatic and plays LOLOL in her free time - which isn’t much, because she works part-time in a cafe and actually focuses on her school work. Still, against all odds, she landed herself in the ShootingStar server and would be remiss if she didn’t know who SupermanYoosung is. While she’s not #2, she proudly holds her mantel as #10 because it’s hard to keep her life in check and that position, so anyone who has something to say can eat her entire ass.

Anyway. That’s that. Onward.

It’s a particularly bad day for Yoosung, but he’s at school. Well… for the last half of the day, at least. It’s rainy and gloomy and he’s stuck in his dark, moody thoughts as he’s rushing from one class to the next, not paying any attention to where he’s going until he slams into something. Staggering back, he’s horrified to find Summer on the ground, half-drank iced mocha covering her clothes and her umbrella crumpled beneath her. He barely manages to stutter through an apology before she stops him, holding up her hand and standing. She insists it isn’t a big deal - can’t bring herself to be angry at this blushing, obviously upset man - and makes a wry joke about needing a shower anyway. He ends up insisting she take his umbrella, saying she could return it some other day. When he says his name, she raises an eyebrow and says with a smirk, “Thanks, Star Prince,” before trudging onward. Yoosung’s left in shock; no one's ever called him that before.

Later that night, he’s telling everyone who will listen about the girl with the rainbow hair.

A few days later, Summer manages to track him down to return to umbrella. He’s spent this time amping himself up, trying to work up the courage to ask her out. (Of course a girl as cool as her would never like a guy as lame as him, but he can try). He’s sweating and nervous and his face is all the wrong colors as he tries to mumble an invitation, but again, she cuts him off - this time with a chuckle. He’s so cute, she can’t say no to an innocent boyo who’s trying so hard. She gives him a day (Saturday) and a time (3pm) to meet at a cafe she frequents (not her workplace), scribbling her phone number on a very shocked Yoosung’s hand before walking away with a “Later, Star Prince.”

A date. He’s got a date! He spends the night gushing about it, missing all of the subtle signs indicating Seven’s sadness.

The day comes, the date goes pretty well. Summer spends it teasing him kindly, enjoying how easy he is to fluster. But she’s taken by how undeniably sweet he is, and fascinated by the shine in those galaxy eyes when he’s excited. There’s something blocking the starlight within him, keeping him from lighting up the world. She’s sure it has something to do with that deep sadness she saw in him that first day.

He’s totally smitten, and they agree to another date. And another. And another. Soon, Yoosung can brag that he has a girlfriend and she’s happily keeping him under her arm, wanting to both protect him and help him grow. They’re opposites but in the best ways.

Their first kiss happens on the third date. They’re walking in the park at night after catching a movie. Yoosung stops to watch the stars and Summer’s taken by the look on his face; hopeful, longing, and so, so beautiful. When he notices her staring, he flushed a lovely red and she grins, grabbing his shirt and yanking him down to press their lips together. It’s everything he always dreamed of and nothing like he imagined; soft but insistent, sending fireworks shooting through him and when they part, he has the goofiest grin on his face.

For a while, he asks permission before kissing her and she just rolls her eyes, teasing him but always saying yes. She jokes, but it’s actually really nice to be treated like a human for once.

They take things decently slow, Summer content with making out without expectations and Yoosung happy with how things are. He’s scared to move too fast and ruin things, his inexperience a bane in his mind. She’s always there to coach him, to help when needed. But she’s the first to make a move sexually after a particularly intense make-out session that has them grinding. He stops the kiss and holds her in place, trying to hide under his hair because he’s embarrassed. It doesn’t take much for her to figure out he was close to orgasming, and so she goes into full-out tease mode:

“Do you want to come?”

A nod.

“Can you tell me what you want?”

He tries, but words are hard when both your face and crotch are on fire.

She’s experimented a bit with praise already and has found how susceptible he is, so she decides to try something.

“You’ve been such a good boy for me. You deserve a reward. Do you want me to reward you?”

Another nod.

She starts kissing his neck, fingers under his shirt. “Tell me if it’s too much, okay?”

It isn’t, and soon enough her Star Prince is coming apart in her mouth. Once he recovers, he insists on returning the favor and she ends up riding his fingers, gently coaching him through where to touch and how.

He’s a quick learner, she finds.

Six months into their relationship finds him at the door to her apartment. It’s maybe a week after he lavished her in the most ridiculous amount of gifts for dating for half a year, but of course, Summer soaked up the attention.

Today, though, something is wrong. She can tell the moment she opens the door, hair mussed from sleep and in a tight tank top and sweats. His shoulders are slumped more than usual, his eyes rimmed with red and lacking any life. She ushers him in, worried, and sits him on the couch, tucked in a blanket and with hot chocolate. She sucks at comfort, always has, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try.

It’s Rika’s birthday.

Yoosung’s mentioned her, of course, spoke about her as someone he admired, even mentioned her death. But he’s never dove fully into the subject, always too scared that showing that side of himself would send Summer running. But today he can’t, can’t hide it, can’t be alone. And so he spills. All of his worries, paranoias, anger. She lets him talk until the words are gone, then holds him when he cries. Hushes him when he apologizes. But it isn’t until he make an offhanded comment about how “he’s just being dramatic, that’s what his friends tell him” that she gets angry. Very quickly the entire atmosphere of the room changes and she’s facing him, cheeks cupped in her hands as she tells him that every single thought he has in valid. These feelings? Valid. The anger toward V? Valid. His suspicions that Rika isn’t really dead? Valid. Whether or not he’s right doesn’t change the validity of how he’s feeling, because he’s feeling it and he’s allowed to feel things. She’s ranting and raving and going on about how amazing of a man he is and that these “friends” aren’t really friends if they’re so unsupportive, not even noticing how his facial expression shifts from surprise to shock to utter adoration, so caught up in making him realize that it’s okay to feel like this sometimes. Grief is different for everyone, anyway, and who has the right to tell him he’s grieving wrong if what he’s doing isn’t hurting anyone? (Well, technically, the video game habit hurts himself but he’s been studying more, since he can use it as an excuse to hang out with her)

Which is why it’s a surprise when he kisses her in the middle of a sentence, hard, his arms wrapping around her to pull her into his lap. He’s filled with grief and sadness but also love and a feeling of acceptance - something he hasn’t felt in a long, long time. The combination is making everything else feel so much more intense and he can’t find the words to tell her how much he appreciates everything she’s done and said for him, so he chooses to let the kiss do the talking.

Passionate, longing, and mildly desperate, the kiss hits Summer like a brick. The longer it goes on, the more those hands roam and she finds herself wanting, but she refuses to take advantage of him. So she pulls back several times to make him pause, barely able to hold it together at the way he looks at her - equal parts desire and love - but asking him if he’s sure this is what he wants. And each time she’s met with a smile way too soft for how charged the air is between them, a gravelly voice somehow still managing to sound utterly lovestruck as he tells her he’s never wanted anything more than to show her how much he loves her.

And for the first time in her life, she makes love instead of just being fucked. It’s every bit as amazing - if not more - and she could just melt under him with how he treats her like a goddess.

Fast forward a few weeks. Yoosung hasn’t forgotten the remark she made about his friends and decides he wants her and Seven to meet. Yeah, he’s a bit of an ass sometimes but he cares about him, right? And besides his parents and sister, Seven is the most important person in his life. So he manages to talk Seven into letting both of them come over. Seven’s… surprisingly hard to convince, a plethora of excuses flung out about why he can’t (and shouldn’t) hang out with them together, each one tough to fight but Yoosung manages. It’s weird that Seven’s so adamantly against it, but Yoosung figures maybe he’s just a bit busier than normal. They won’t take much of his time.

Summer isn’t thrilled, either, still holding the lack of support against this “friend.” But. She’ll give him a chance.

To be continued. :)

[getitinbusan]

97 Line Group Chat

Jungkook was trying not to let his nerves get the better of him. Coming back from tour he finally had some downtime and was looking forward to going to the club. It wasn't just spending time with friends he didn't see very often, it was getting to see you again.

97 Line Group Chat:

Bam Bam: We'll be pre-gaming at my place and then heading to the club. I'm bringing YuGyeom, Jackson and his girlfriend and her friend Y/N so Jungkook you'd better be prepared.

Jungkook: You're sure she's coming? I haven't seen her in months. Do you think she remembers me?

Mingyu: I know she doesn't like me, I tried hitting on her 2 weeks ago and she shot me down. Good luck my friend.

Bam Bam: Jackson says she asks about you all the time. Pretty sure she has a crush on you JK.

Jungkook: Ahhh, I'm so nervous. You all better be good wing men tonight.

YuGyeom: I'll make sure she has a few extra drinks before we go.

Mingyu: So 11pm?

Bam Bam: Yep

JK: Let's Get it

Private Text

Jungkook: Please make sure YuGyeom doesn't get her drunk, I like this girl...a lot.

Bam Bam: I'll watch him.

It was about 10:30 and the meal had just arrived. Jimin ate fast but Taehyung liked to take his time. Jungkook sat impatiently knowing it would take at least 20 minutes to get to the club. What if someone else caught your eye? What if you got too drunk? Jimin couldn't stop laughing, "JK, how could she not like you? Just relax." Taehyung added, "I'm not leaving food on my plate so you'll just have to wait." Taking that as a challenge Jungkook reached over and grabbed a handful of his fries shoving them in his mouth. "I hope your happy, now we're late and I have gross breath"

Breathing deeply he got out of the cab, he'd thought about this night for weeks. Did he look okay? Was his cologne too much? Did it even matter, you probably didn't even like him. The door opened and he could feel the pulsing bass through his body, the lights and fog were immediately disorienting. Was everyone here or did he have to wait longer to see you? Walking to the bar the three of them ordered  drinks and started to look around for the rest of the group.

We are bulletproof began playing and the dance floor went crazy. Jungkook felt a surge of pride that everyone was feeling it, he hoped you were here to see. Eyes skimming over the crowd and there you were. Right at the front dancing, you spotted him too. Pointing directly at him and coming closer you sang in time "The name is Jung Kook, my scale is nationwide" He couldn't help but laugh as you approached singing his lines to him. God he wanted to kiss you. You kept singing and dancing in front of him until the song was over.

"Hello Jungkook" came from your lips and you smiled. "I was hoping I'd see you tonight it's been too long." Should he? He put his arm around you in a makeshift hug and said "I'm really glad you're here." YuGyeom appeared slipping in between you handing you both a shot, 'To friendship", he toasted. Your glasses clicked in cheers and the shots were downed quickly. 'Let's VIP room" Bam Bam called out. Concerned, Jungkook asked "Are you coming Y/N?" Not answering right away and looking around the room you answered "I don't know where Jackson and Y/F/N are, I'll come after I find them." Shit did he just blow it? "Ok, I guess I'll see you in a bit" Walking in seperate directions Jungkook felt his heart drop, he was sure you didn't see him as more than a friend.

Monitoring the time it was a least 45 mins later when you appeared in the VIP with YuGyeom. Stopping at the bar you were both laughing and did another shot. What an asshole Jungkook thought. You perused the room until you saw him sitting there frowning. When your eyes locked he managed a smile but what little confidence he'd walked in with was gone. The waitress followed behind you with several shot glasses and bottles to meet everyone else at the table. "Shots for everyone" YuGyeom called out. Everyone grabbed one and cheered each other except Jungkook. Feeling tipsy you decided to leverage your liquid courage and take the lead. "Come dance with me Kookie" off to the side YuGyeom made drinking motions and a thumbs up towards Jungkook. Following you to the floor Jungkook was hesitant, wanting nothing more than to be pressed against you but not wanting to take advantage of your state. "Don't be afraid to touch me Guk, this is just dancing we don't need formalities." It was now or never, if he didn't make a move he'd end up on tour again masturbating to thoughts of how he'd feel inside you. Wrapping his arms around your waist he pulled you in until your bodies were pressed together, face to face he stared into your eyes. "You know I like you right?" he whispered. "I do", you grinned, "Do you know how badly I want you Jungkook" He started blushing, "I guess I do now". You began moving with the music, hands exploring each other, trying to make up for lost time. Turning your back to him you pressed your ass into his crotch. Moving up and down grinding into him you could feel his bulge growing. Closing his eyes he imagined you doing this in bed, he couldn't control his erection. He didn't want to embarrass you so he subtly tucked himself into his waistband. Turning to face him, your hand travelled to his bulge, moving over the fabric of his jeans and up under his shirt your fingertips traced his abs. Dragging your fingers lower you felt the tip of his cock sticking out his pants. It was so smooth and hard you just wanted it in you. His mouth came crashing down on yours like he couldn't wait a second longer. His fingers were in your hair, your head was back and your tongues met in a soft sensual dance. It felt so good to finally break the anticipation but the taste of liquor was distracting. How much have you had to drink, was this taking advantage of the situation? "Jungkook, I'd like to leave with you if that's ok?" You propositioned. He nodded in agreeance, "I'll be back in a minute" you said "I'm going to let Y/F/N know I'm leaving." The minute you walked away YuGyeom approached Jungkook "You can thank me later, she's had at least 10 shots and you can probably do whatever you want with her tonight" Shit, there was no way taking you home was the right thing to do. Disappointed and upset Jungkook went outside to clear his head. He'd waited so long for this night and you'd only kissed him because you were drunk. Maybe he should just leave. Sitting alone on the steps outside of the club Jungkook was internally wrestling with his wants and his morals.

You looked around the club and couldn't find Jungkook anywhere. Fuck, maybe you'd been too forward with him. You knew Jungkook was a gentleman and now you were cursing yourself for coming on to him so strongly. You'd already told everyone you were leaving so you might as well just head home. It had been weeks of anticipation for tonight, you were finally going to make your move and now it was ruined. How did you even fool yourself into thinking that Jeon Jungkook could be interested in you.

Opening the door into the cool night you found him sitting there by himself. "Hey Kook, I'm sorry if I scared you off." You sat down beside him, 'I've just been fantasizing how this night would play out for a  long time and I got carried away." He looked at you and reached for your hand "Do you really like me? I'm worried that the alcohol is maybe making you...want me more than you think you do." You couldn't help but laugh out loud "Jungkook I think I can handle my liquor a little, I'm no lightweight" furrowing his brows he questioned you "YuGyeom said he was giving you shots all night?" You rolled your eyes "YuGyeom is a dick, he told me he liked me and kept trying to hit on me a while ago. I gave away all the drinks he bought me because I figured he was trying to get me into bed." His thumb rubbed the back of your hand, "So you're not really drunk?" You leaned in and kissed his cheek "Jungkook I've had my sights set on you for months, I didn't want anything to ruin tonight. This has all been planned since I knew you'd be coming tonight.. right down to my sexy lingerie."

That was all he needed, his lips found yours again and you were immediately lost in each others lust. The Uber pulled up and honked, startling you when you failed to notice its arrival. "Who's place is closer?" you asked. "Too many people at my place," he moaned "I don't want to have to be quiet, can we go to yours?" Just the suggestion of loud sex had you soaked through your new purple lace panties.

Pulling up to your complex Jungkook led you out of the car and up to the door. Digging through your purse you couldn't find the keys, growing impatient he latched on to your neck and dragged long deep suctioned kisses over your collarbones. "You're distracting me Kook, fuck we need to get inside!" He stopped with a giggle and helped look. Finally locating them you made it into your apartment and clothes immediately began coming off. "Bedroom?" He asked. "That way" you pointed to the only room up the hall. Picking you up he carried you to your room. Setting you back on your feet he halted the make out session. He cupped your chin and tilted your head up to look at him. "I need you to know how much I like you. I've thought about you for months, imagining being with you kept me going when I was lonely on tour." He slowly took off the dress you were wearing and revealed the lingerie you'd bought just for his eyes. "Fuck," he said out loud "so much better than my fantasies" blushing your eyes took in his bulging cock. His black Calvin Kleins were straining to contain his erection.

"Kookie, do you know how many of your damn VLives I've watched just so I could see you?"  He ran his hand up your arms and reaching around unclasped your bra. Tangling his hand in your hair he kissed you, hard. He moved his lips inch by inch lower and lower stopping at your breasts, kneading and sucking until you were moaning under his ministrations. Lower again over your stomach, down your abdomen until he got to your clit. He sucked deliberately light enough to tease you coaxing the juices from your already wet entrance. Softly pushing into you with his tongue he moaned "you taste so good, you're so beautiful" Your legs shook, struggling to stay on your feet while your body felt like it was floating. You held tight onto his shoulders as he spread your folds and twisted his finger inside you. "Maybe you should lay down" he guided you backwards to the bed, laying you down so your knees were bent over the edge. "Do you want to cum like this? Should I keep going?" You could barely find your voice but managed to let out a whispered "please keep going" he moved back in, two curled fingers dragging against your soft spot and his tongue flicked your clit relentlessly. It only took a minute to have you hyperventilating while you repeated his name cumming on his face.

He gave you a moment just to be still and catch your breath as he placed small kisses on the insides of your thighs. "Are you ok?" He asked "I'm sooo much better than ok" you answered. He got up from his knees and you sat up, face to face with his six pack. You slowly sucked red marks onto his abs and hooked you fingers into his underwear. Slowly you pulled them down exposing bit by bit and lowering your mouth with them until you'd taken him all in. You could hear him slowly relesse his breath as you slid back up to the tip. Popping him out of your mouth you looked up his face "I can't believe you're real Jungkook, you are so incredibly perfect" He reached down hand on your cheek and smiled. You put him back in your mouth and began sucking him until he was hitting the back of your throat. His hand slid from your cheek to the back of your head where he grabbed your hair and pulled slightly. When you moaned out at the tension he grabbed at it harder angeling you to make it easier for him to thrust into you. His hips picked up speed and he was about to cum when he stopped completely. He held your head still with his cock sitting in the back of your throat cutting off your air for a minute. "Don't move, please don't move, I don't want to cum yet" when he was under control he pulled himself away from you. "I want you so badly you can't even know, I just want to fuck you so hard and fill you up until you're screaming my name but I'm not going to do that." Confused you moved up the bed to lean on the pillows . Crawling up to lay beside you, his still rock hard cock pressed into your leg he began kissing you. "I only have one chance to be with you for the first time and I want to make love to you. He kissed you for what felt like an eternity, until you both had that feeling of seeing stars in the black void of a blissed out mind. He moved on top of you until he was positioned at your entrance. Looking you in the eyes he pushed slowly while watching your face for discomfort. Finding nothing but pleasure in your reaction. He began moving himself rolling his hips into you. Neither of you could control your sounds and you found yourselves sweaty and moaning in an act of pure ecstasy. Bringing your legs up around him his cock hit you over and over rubbing your g spot while his pubic bone rubbed over your clit with each stroke. Picking up his speed he was finally reaching his high. "Can I cum in you Y/N" nodding while you pulled his hair you came for a second time "Yes,Yes, Kookie...please. You could feel the spurts of his release spill inside you as he collapsed on top of you. You held onto each other in silence trying to regain your strength when his phone started going off with notifications. He didn't move to look, but worried, you thought maybe something had happened. "Just check it already Jungkook."

97 Line Group Chat:

Bam Bam: JK? Where did you go?? Lol, hope you're having fun brother.

Mingyu: I can't believe she'd pick you over me, I'm way better looking. Must be your money.

YuGyeom: Your welcome, I had to get her good and drunk before she'd consider going home with you.

Jungkook: You guys can just shut the fuck up

and have some respect for Y/N.

Bam Bam: It's...

Mingyu: About...

YuGyeom: Time...

Jungkook: How long did it take you to plan that clever response? You're all assholes, stop texting me i'm busy, WITH MY GIRLRIEND.

[asfeedin]

The Best Mother’s Day Gifts to Keep Isolated Moms in Good Spirits

When I was growing up, Mother’s Day celebrations always took place at my great uncle David’s house. We’d sit at a big round table, eating heavily buttered Lender’s bagels. The conversation was often over my head, which didn’t really matter because I’d escape as soon as possible to play my uncle’s ancient Frogger, pretty much the only video game I’ve ever played in my life.

This year, I find myself looking back on that time in black-and-white, so unattainable that I almost can’t believe it ever happened. I’d love to spend Mother’s Day sitting around the table with my family and eating wonderfully crappy bagels. But this year I’m in quarantine in Brooklyn, with my mom in Boston and my family spread out all over the country. Many of you, I’m sure, are feeling the same way, longing for the chance to hang with your mom but unable to do so.

It’s also likely that there are those of you who might be quarantined with your mom and wishing you could have a little more distance. So this year, whether you’re 100 miles or 100 paces apart, we have a few gifts in mind to make this difficult period in history a little more celebratory and comforting.

A few tips: If you’re in quarantine with your mom, try using this new equipment or enjoying these tasty snacks together. And if you’re apart, have a Zoom session to experiment in the kitchen with each other. Of course, it’s possible your mom relishes her time in the kitchen because it’s the only moment of alone time she gets in the day. So, in that case, give your gift. Then give the woman some privacy.

For Cooking and Baking

Tagine

A new piece of cooking equipment is a nice way to help Mom expand her repertoire. This beautiful tagine makes for an impressive cooking vessel and serving dish. Pair it with a printed-out (dare I say, laminated?) recipe for a flavorful North African stew for cozy nights in.

This particular tagine, which is handmade in Tunisia, comes in a few different colors, so you can select whichever one suits your mom’s preferred color palette. Better yet, pick one to match her kitchen, and she can keep it on display all year long.

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Rice Cooker

Whether it’s burned, gloopy, dry, or just plain glued to the pan, a bad batch of rice is a deeply disappointing experience. But a good rice cooker takes all guesswork out of the equation. The Cuckoo model shown here is our favorite for cooks who regularly purchase and eat lots of different rice varieties (you can see our other picks in our full rice cooker review). If that’s your mom, she’ll enjoy all of the custom presets the Cuckoo has to offer. What’s more, this machine has a small footprint, which will be appreciated by apartment and house moms alike.

Pick one of these up for her, and save her from disappointing-rice hell for the true gift that keeps on giving.

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Vitamix

Maybe Mom’s a smoothie person, or maybe she’s into milling her own flour (what with flour being out of stock these days, maybe we should all do this). For that, she’ll need a kick-ass blender. Our exhaustive testing of high-powered blending lands on the Vitamix as a go-to for blasting through everything from wheat berries to fibrous kale.

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Quality Wooden Cutting Board

Like the Vitamix, a quality wooden cutting board is an investment piece. While the price may be high, if you take care of this board, it will take care of you—and your knives.

For a really nice board, we look to The BoardSmith, a small, family-run company that makes all its boards by hand. Its maple end-grain board is thick, solid, and long-lasting (Daniel’s been using his for years!). It comes in a few different sizes and offers some customizations like a juice groove and feet.

If you’re worried about your mom handling the upkeep, we’ve got her covered. Just print out our cheat sheet for cutting board maintenance, and she’ll be good to go.

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Chef’s Knife

Like my mom, maybe yours has been using the same knives for years. To remedy that dull situation, grab her a new chef’s knife. You can go Japanese or Western—Western blades tend to be heavier and more curved than their Japanese counterparts—but these two took home the top prizes in our chef’s knife review—out of a whopping 27 candidates! They’ll revitalize your mom’s knife skills and make slicing and dicing much safer.

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Mortar and Pestle

If she’s all set on knives, I’d recommend a mortar and pestle. There’s a wide variety of styles and use cases. Sure, they’re ideal for grinding up sauces and pestos, but no matter what style you opt for, they’re guaranteed to help Mom work out some stress and anxiety, too. *Take that, quarantine!*

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Piping Tips

There’s lots to get for your mom if she’s into baking. If she already has the essentials, treat her to some decorative tools like piping tips. These large ones are perfect for piping out creamy Oreo filling and dollops of chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream onto cakes. The set comes with several different shapes like swirls and stars, so she can get as creative as she’d like.

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Marble Pastry Slab

This marble pastry slab isn’t just a pretty base. It’s a smooth and cool surface for rolling out buttery pie crusts, laminating dough, and even tempering chocolate. It’s also good-looking enough to act as a serving platter for all those baked goods. And what mom doesn’t love a multitasker?

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Scale

If your mom is just starting out on her baking adventures, she needs a good scale. We’ve said it time and again, but measuring cups aren’t accurate enough on their own. Sure, she should have some, but a scale is indispensable if she’s going to produce beautiful breads, pastries, and treats.

We especially love this pull-out scale from OXO because it’ll show measurements even if there’s a big bowl on top of it. And lord knows we’re into batch-baking right now. The bigger the bowl, the better.

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Baking Dish

This Staub baking dish is another multitasker that Mom will love. The “splurge winner” for our baking and casserole dish review, it’s nice and heavy, it’s oven-safe at up to a whopping 575°F (300°C), and with excellent heat retention, it’ll keep what she’s made hot longer than the average baking dish. With a four-quart capacity, it’s large enough to hold not just brownies but roasts and big, holiday-friendly casseroles.

Maybe instead of wrapping this one, make a huge Hasselback potato gratin, serve it, and tell her it’s all for her.

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Baking Steel

Maybe now’s the time to get Mom into pizza-making. (That’s what’s happening to us, anyway.) For better, faster pizza at home, pick her up a Baking Steel to get that crust extra-crispy. Upon trying his own, Kenji noticed that his New York–style pizza dough even got those traditional oven-charred spots and a super-crisp bottom that’s hard to achieve, even with a pizza stone.

The Baking Steel will also prove useful if Mom is into baking bread, since it can measurably improve the performance of her oven by adding thermal mass. This means it’ll keep her oven hotter, ensuring those loaves get a full rise.

In layman’s terms, a Baking Steel is a piece of kitchen badassery that anyone would love. Plus, it’s too heavy to return, so she’ll keep it forever no matter what.

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KitchenAid Pasta Roller Set

For homemade pasta and ramen noodles as good (if not better) than what you’ll find at restaurants, pick up a KitchenAid pasta roller that will attach right to her mixer. You can even print out our exhaustive walk-through of how to make fresh pasta from scratch. It’s more reliable than anyone else in the family.

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A Supportive Floor Mat

It might not seem critical, but having a supportive mat on the kitchen floor can make cooking (and dish-washing) much more comfortable for cooks of any age. These GelPro mats are nice and squishy, providing good support for feet and knees. Maybe it’s not glamorous, but it’s a gift she’ll appreciate after a long day in the kitchen.

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A Chic Apron

This linen apron from Etsy is as functional as it is good-looking. It has a big pocket for thermometers and tongs, and it doesn’t have annoying ties, which is perhaps its greatest appeal. Mom can just slip it on and get cooking.

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For the Home

Robot Vacuum

It’s an indisputable fact that the worst part of cooking is cleaning. That’s why this year we’ve added a good vacuum to the list. And not just any vacuum, but one that requires almost zero energy from your mom. It’s an iRobot Roomba. Plug this baby in, turn it on, and let it go. It’ll pick up all of those stray crumbs in the kitchen and living room. And if your mom is anything like me, she’ll name her robot vacuum, start to talk to it, and by the end of quarantine, she’ll have made a new, very helpful friend.

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Wine Glasses

While mom is sitting back and relaxing, letting the Roomba do the work, make sure she has everything she needs for a nice self-care session. That should start with a nice glass of wine. (Yes, the wine should be nice, but the glass should be, too!) These reasonably priced (for crystal) glasses from Riedel did exceptionally well in our tests, impressing professional sommeliers (and yes, the casual wine-drinkers among us) with their ability to capture the aroma of red, white, and bubbly wines.

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Otherland Candles

Pair that glass of wine with a nice candle, and you’ll really be in business. For candle-gifting these days, I’ve been using Otherland, a company founded by an old high school friend of mine. The candles smell wonderful, they’re handmade (and free of parabens and chemicals), and the packaging looks like a gift unto itself.

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Breville Espresso Machine

If your mom is an espresso drinker, help her sip in style with a fancy espresso machine. This is actually the machine we use in our office (not that we’ve been there in what feels like an eternity). It produces beautiful espresso, is easy to use, and can even whip up frothy milk! Sure, it costs a whole lot, but Mom’s worth it.

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Jono Pandolfi Espresso Cup

So maybe you won’t be splurging on that espresso machine, but you can still help her sip in style with a Jono Pandolfi espresso cup. These beautiful little cups are all handmade. Plus, they’re dishwasher-safe, which as far as I can tell, is the best gift anyone could ask for.

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Parlor Coffee Subscription

You could also treat your coffee-loving mom to a subscription from Parlor Coffee and support a small business in the process. They source their beans from all over the world, offering single blends and origins, plus weekly and monthly shipping.

Better yet, grab yourself a subscription as well, especially if it’s been hard finding coffee at the grocery store.

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Powerful Coffee Grinder

If you’re going to treat Mom to good coffee, make sure she has a good grinder to match. Baratza’s Virtuoso coffee grinder was a favorite in our review. The conical burr produces a wide range of grind sizes, the machine is solid (made from both metal and plastic), and the customer service is excellent, which is important when your caffeine intake is on the line.

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For Eating: The Sweet Edition

Beautiful Caramels

Our new features editor, Daniela, says that while pastry chef’s Susanna Yoon’s chocolates are some of the best in the country, her soft caramels are the sleeper hit. They come in rich flavors like raspberry, brown butter macadamia nut, sea salt, and salted peanut, and they’re available in 10- and 20-piece gift packs. Each luscious little caramel is individually wrapped in cellophane paper for a delicious little treat far more elegant and elevated than any supermarket brand.

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Raaka Chocolates

If you do want to go the chocolate route, pick up some Raaka chocolate bars. This trio pack comes with wild flavors like pink sea salt and bourbon cask–aged. What’s more, the wrappers are a piece of art themselves. They’ll make Mom’s chocolate break all the more glorious and exciting.

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Real-Deal Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

We’ve long championed this chocolate-hazelnut spread from our friends over at Gustiamo. It’s rich, luscious, and might just ruin the original. Is that a bad thing? Perhaps. But once Mom’s hooked, you can make sending her a jar of Gustiamo’s concoction a regular thing. Birthdays, holidays—send a jar, and you’ll be all set.

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Pistachio Brittle

This Iranian toffee from Persian Basket is flavored with saffron and cardamom. It’s nice and sweet, just like English toffee, and it’s topped with toasty pistachios. The buttery hunks are packaged in a lovely, colorful box—and the website says the toffee pairs well with wine. No mom could say no to that.

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Pistachio Spread

Our founder, Ed, is constantly praising Gustiamo’s pistachio spread (which we hope he shares with his wife when he has it!). While it’s a pricey everyday purchase, this pistachio spread makes for a very special gift, made with Italian pistachios and little else.

While you could obviously just dive in with a spoon, this rich treat would also taste excellent spread over your morning toast, smothered on a sticky bun, or drizzled over ice cream.

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Frog Hollow Citrus Basket

I suppose citrus would fall under the sweet category as well. If Mom always has lemon in her water or is constantly digging into grapefruits, get her a gift box from Frog Hollow Citrus. This farm has been practicing regenerative agriculture since your mom was in her early days. Giving her one of its boxes packed with citrus is an excellent way to send a little sunshine even in the depths of quarantine doldrums.

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Bergamot Marmalade

Of course, if she prefers that citrus on her toast, then add some bergamot marmalade to her Gustiamo order. For the uninitiated, bergamot is a citrus fruit that’s sort of a cross between bitter oranges and lemons. In other words, the perfect pairing to hot biscuits and English muffins.

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For Eating: The Savory Stuff

A Great Spice Mix

My love for this particular spice mix is undying. Filled with pink Himalayan sea salt, grains of paradise, shallots, garlic, and more, the World’s Fair Barbecue Rub is versatile and delicious. It transforms everything it touches, from eggs to steak to tomato sauce. Whenever I feel like a dish is just a little bit bland, I add a few sprinkles, and it turns the whole thing right around. Starting at $6.99, a bag or glass jar of this mix from The Spice House is an excellent, affordable, and useful gift for Mom. (She’s over tchotchkes and so are we.)

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A Spice Set

I happen to know some moms whose pantry is full of old spices that have basically lost all of their flavor and are now just dust particles. If this is your mom, consider getting her a new set of spices to revitalize her collection. We’re particularly enamored with this gift set from Burlap & Barrel, which has all of the essentials. As Daniel puts it, these spices are not just fresher than what you’ll find elsewhere, but they’re “er-er,” which is his way of saying that they’re “better in every way from the ho-hum stuff on supermarket shelves.” If that isn’t an endorsement, then I don’t know what is.

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Sichuan Peppercorns

Málà is that wonderful flavor you taste and feel when you’re eating Sichuan cuisine. And that hot and numbing sensation comes from Sichuan peppercorns. If you want the good stuff, look to Mala Market, a small company that imports all of its ingredients straight from China. Their Sichuan peppercorns will give your chili crisp more buzz—and will be your mom’s gateway into the wide world of Sichuan cooking.

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AeroGarden

Whether your mom has a green thumb or a black thumb, she’ll revel in an AeroGarden. Especially during this time of quarantine and limited grocery trips, having an AeroGarden is not only satisfying but useful. Without much effort at all, your mom could have all the herbs she could ever want growing just about anywhere in the house, regardless of her natural-light situation.

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Lots of Pasta

We cannot get enough pasta here at Serious Eats. (Did you even see Starch Madness?) While we’re perfectly happy eating pasta from supermarket brands, sometimes we like to splurge, and the splurge is almost always at Gustiamo, which imports Faella dried pasta from Italy. During Covid times, Gustiamo is offering five-pound bags of certain shapes, including penne. While mom is trying to stay home, there’s probably nothing better to gift her than a gigantic bag of pasta. The fact that it’s from Italy and is really, really delicious? Well, that’s just icing on the pasta cake.

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Meat From D’Artagnan

Now it’s time to talk meat. Our culinary team has long looked to D’Artagnan for specialty meats, like porcelet collar and duck. And when shelves at grocery stores are bare and you want to fill your freezer, D’Artagnan is a great place to look. While the steaks and specialty meats can be pricey, I’d look to the ground beef as a gift. Sure, it’s not sexy, but wait, what am I talking about? A good burger is definitely sexy.

If you’re quarantined with Mom and you decide to go the duck route, you’re in luck. We have all sorts of recipes from our duckstravaganza. Maybe go for a group project and dry-age your duck for the best duck breast either of you will have ever had.

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Pantry-Friendly ‘Nduja

You’ve also likely seen us talking a lot about ‘nduja lately. Why? It’s an affordable pantry ingredient that can amp up all sorts of dishes, from casual beans and greens to mac and cheese and even eggs. Better still, ‘nduja lasts for ages in the fridge, so Mom can take a scoop whenever the mood strikes.

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All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.

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Tags: day, Gifts, Good, Isolated, moms, Mothers, Spirits

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[genovera942vbucks-blog]

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[cosmosogler]

hi.

today i got up at 9:10, which is pretty good! i went to bed on time, too. my dreams weren’t very productive... more driving and more difficulty driving.

i waited until 10 for lisa to call. up until then i was afraid to be anywhere i couldn’t reach the phone, so i occupied myself with checking the updated comics i follow, and popping on youtube for a little bit, and starting to take things off my shelves. when she didn’t call at 10 i decided i had waited long enough and took a shower. she didn’t call while i was in there so it was fine.

i got lunch around 11:30. just reheated my mexican food and had some salsa. i got really nauseous and couldn’t finish my leftovers... i was turbo disappointed.

then i kept waiting and organizing my room until i started getting jittery around 12:15. i kept the house phone on my desk. at 12:35 i couldn’t take it any more and called her myself. 

insurance decided that they had not received lisa’s paperwork for me and so wanted her to turn it in again. so i would be missing three sessions in a row and thus have to be discharged from the program. so i just cleaned my room until 4 and then headed out to the center. the process wasn’t bad or anything. lisa said that if i felt like i needed to come back after my vacation, and if my insurance had been approved, then i was welcome to participate again for a few weeks.

so then i went and picked up my meds, and then i drove to the bank to deposit stuff. then when i was trying to go home the car broke down in the bank’s parking lot. it wasn’t responding to the gas pedal, and also was rolling forward when i had it in reverse. and the power steering was out. and also the ac unit. i had to call dad for help. he’d wanted me back home by 5 and i would’ve made it by 5:15 so he could leave for work at 5:40. but, you know. he sounded super annoyed on the phone. then when he got to the car he basically touched it and it started working again. annoying.

when i got home dad told me that that happens to him all the time when he takes cars in for repairs. i had a cup of salsa with some chips and went back upstairs.

i finished up my shelves pretty quick... the longest parts were organizing the photo albums and shoving loose pictures into the laminated pages, and also figuring out which earrings i wanted to keep. and i also went on a video game case hunt which took a little bit. there’s no cartridges without cases now, but there are several cases without a corresponding game. i dug through my brother’s room a little bit but i try not to spend a lot of time in there, and also it was dark, so i didn’t find a lot. i think his light bulb needs to be replaced.

then i took a break and had another snack. and i fiddled with my pokemon game. i have a new outfit and a battle-ready team for the next competition. not going to adjust my battle pose though. “reverent” is just too perfect.

then i cleaned out my dresser drawers and put all my winter socks in one of the empty compartments i had freed up. so now i can actually close my dresser. my room looks about 92.4% more tidy with the dresser in order. then it was like 10:30. so i did some financial stuff and planned a day out with asher. we’re going to see wonder woman on sunday. i haven’t seen it yet, so i’m excited.

and now it’s 11:30. i still feel very restless. i will try to direct that energy toward working on my self esteem worksheets that i got from lisa as a parting gift. i have 7 of them, and i would like to finish up before i see my individual therapist kelley again in two weeks. that should be fine.

oh yeah, i also finished cleaning and putting away the stuff on the kitchen shelves mom asked me to do like a week ago. that took forever. poor wiley’s going to explode because i haven’t taken him on a walk in two days. but it’s seriously too hot to go outside until the middle of the night, and there’s not enough street lights in the neighborhood for me to feel very comfortable.

while i was organizing my dresser i found my swim suit and board shorts. i realized that my shorts will fit more loosely now... maybe i could bully my brother into hopping in the pool for a while tomorrow. 

i kept too busy to really think about much besides what was in front of me. but i was grinding my teeth all day, and now my whole head hurts. teeth, eyes, jaw... i’m scheduled to see the dentist in a month. hopefully that will help.

now i got 20 minutes before it’s time to do the pokemon stuff. it’s hard to think or move because my head hurts so bad, but i still feel like i need to be up and working on something. i’ll find some busywork. drawing is going to be too hard right now. 

i hope your evening is ok. please take care of yourself.

[deanssexplorations]

German in Beijing

Last year I had a trip that took me to China for about a week, first to Shanghai (for business) and then to Beijing (to play tourist). When I was in Shanghai I was with a group of colleagues and we had plans most evenings, so it was hard to sneak away for shenanigans. But my last night I was there alone and managed to arrange a booty call with a native Chinese woman I met (that night) on the Chinese “equivalent” of Tinder, an app called TanTan.

As I’ve blogged about before, I love traveling to new places, and even better, I love exploring the sexual mores of the countries to which I travel. How does the dance of the sexes work, and what happens when you throw a foreigner who is new to all of it into the mix? I love discovering the answers. And even though I’d been to China before, it was decades ago, before I began my more recent run of sexcapades and I had no points of reference from then.

The woman in Shanghai was very nice, she had a great body, and we had a hot, sexy encounter. She spoke very little English, but it was better than my non-existent Chinese. Fortunately TanTan has an English area, where we met and arranged the date. It was very late, about 11:30 when we connected on the app so we disposed of the niceties and arranged that she would come to my hotel and straight up to my hotel room. Sure enough, 20 minutes or so later there was the knock on my door.

We had a fun evening, fucked well, and she was on her way. She worked as a tailor at a local factory and was as excited to connect with me as I was with her. She probably had as much curiosity about fucking an American as I did about fucking a native Chinese woman. It was cool.

But my sexual trip was (hopefully) just beginning, as I had four upcoming nights in Beijing, all to myself, and I was hoping to make the most of it. As is my custom, I had begun recruiting for the trip online several weeks before. OK Cupid, my go-to resource for long-distance date arranging, yielded a number of women, but most were expatriates. That is, they were not native Chinese. I nevertheless followed up with them and had a few who had expressed interest, including a German woman named Amelie. I had also researched Chinese dating sites and apps, which is how I found out about TanTan. But no websites in English at least, so I had to rely on OKC for my pre-trip planning, and TanTan when I hit the ground.

When I arrived at the Beijing airport, I fired up TanTan and began swiping. Being Beijing, there were a great many Chinese women, and before I knew it I began matching with some. Since I was on the English area of the app, I was able to converse with all or most of them fairly easily, and before I knew it I was setting up dates for later in the week.

I had arrived on a Wednesday and by the time I got to my hotel it was after 11:00 p.m., so I didn’t realistically expect to meet anyone that night. But for fun, I decided to cause a little trouble and message Amelie, the German woman (there in Beijing) who I had met on OKC. Amelie and I had exchanged a number of messages leading up to my trip, and while she told me she had had her share of casual sex in the past, and did seem a bit interested, she was focused primarily on Beijing relationships that would be long-standing (friendships and the like) and that she “didn’t think she could give me what I was looking for.”

No problem; for every “successful” sexual connection I have had, many others have turned me down, and I had no problem with where she was coming from. But now that I had a couple of dates in my pocket, I decided to poke her a bit and see how she would react. She was online and we began a banter, during which I was quick to let her know that her services would no longer be required as I was getting my share of takers beginning the next evening.

This seemed to pique her interest. Human nature, such a funny thing. We don’t want what is right in front of us, and once it’s taken away, that’s when we most want the thing. I suspected she might have a reaction somewhat along those lines and I was having fun with it. I tried to convince her to come over to my hotel room right then; after all, I had that night free, but it was too late for her and she declined. But she did tell me that if I changed my mind about tomorrow’s date and wanted to have dinner with her instead she was free.

The next day I spent playing tourist - the Forbidden City is amazing - while juggling possible dates on my phone. I was greedy and wanted to squeeze in each woman I had met so far, including Amelie. Or rather, I wanted to squeeze into them. It turned out that the woman I had originally had plans with the Thursday night was available on Friday as well, so I pushed her back to Friday and told Amelie I was up for dinner that night. By the way, put a pin in Friday night’s date as there will be more to come about her later.

Amelie was lovely. She had recently moved to Beijing from Canada, where she had broken up with a long-term boyfriend and decided to make a giant life change, hence Beijing. And yes, she was German, originally from Germany, and all that. She was excellent at languages and worked in the arts, and ended up finding a job in her field in Beijing. She was refreshingly straightforward and intellectually stimulating and we instantly hit it off. 

After dinner I invited her to my hotel for a drink, and she agreed. We got a drink in the bar and took it up to my room (well, we got one drink each, so I guess we got two drinks and took them up), and before long we were kissing, and I was stripping her clothes off.

We had a gargantuan, marathon sex session. I found her incredibly sexy in every way. I’m lucky in that I have a lot of sex, and I have a lot of really great sex, but this was sex at the top of sex’s game. Not that we did anything all that unusual actually. It was all very vanilla. But incredibly hot, passionate, and for hours on end. I fucked her and fucked her. I went down on her and felt her vaginal walls expand and writhe as she came. She went down on me. It was all quite delicious.

Finally I came. She had already come several times, and we collapsed in a heap. Because I was traveling we had the luxury of her being able to spend the night, which she did, then we woke up again at 6:00 or so and began fucking again. Just as passionately and ravenously. Which migrated to showering (and playing) together until she had to break away and grab an Uber to get home and get dressed for work.

I still had my Friday night dinner date, which I kept, but in the end I spent the night with Amelie again. And it was just as hot. And again the following (Saturday) morning. Again, put a pin on that Friday night date as there’s more to that part of the story, but I’ll save it for a future blog post.

Amelie had a party that Saturday night and had invited a bunch of friends over. She asked me to come as well, which was sweet, but partly because I didn’t know any of her friends, and partly because the Friday night date wanted to see me again on Saturday, along with a girlfriend of hers, I decided to skip the party and see the two Chinese girls instead.

After the Chinese girls left my hotel room late that night (longer story than that and probably different than you’re thinking - wait for that future post) and after Amelie’s guests had all left, about 12:30 or 1:00 a.m., she decided to come over for one final hoorah, as I was leaving late Sunday morning. Again we had a marathon, gargantuan, amazing, entirely vanilla sex session, both that night and again after we woke up. 

That Sunday morning I packed and we shared a taxi to her apartment as it was more or less on my way to the airport, and we bid each other farewell. We continued to remain in contact and maintain a long-distance friendship - and occasional video-chat masturbating relationship.

:-)

So many amazing and fun memories from those three nights, but for me probably the most memorable was waking up at about 4:00 a.m. one morning in a sort of spooning position and with a giant erection. She was facing away, curled up, and I had access to her beautiful back, ample hips, and delicious ass. Recalling a fantasy she had shared just the night before, I decided I’d wake her up with a cock in her pussy. Which I did. A little lube to get started and I slid right in. 

I grabbed her hips and gyrated in and out. I sensed her returning to a state of wakefulness, while her body simultaneously and seemingly unconsciously welcomed the warm embrace and began to move in concert with mine. Before I knew it the two of us were gyrating together, silently, seamlessly. After a few minutes I turned her onto her back but stayed on my side and continued to grind away. Eventually we both came in a massive explosion of sensation, then we curled back up in the spooning position and fell asleep.

All without saying a word. 

[operationrainfall]

Title Persona 4 Golden Developer Atlus Publisher SEGA Release Date June 13th, 2020 Genre RPG Platform PC (Steam) Age Rating N/A Official Website

A few years back, when I was convinced to buy a Vita, there was one game everybody said I had to own. Despite chafing at being told what to play on my consoles, I eventually took the advice to heart. That game was none other than Persona 4 Golden, and it astounded me. Prior to playing it, I hadn’t been patient enough to play through Persona or SMT games, and got especially frustrated with the difficulty of Persona 3. But after P4G, I learned what to expect from the series, and with that knowledge came a greater appreciation for these games. The grind was just part of the experience, and it complemented a wonderful and twisty story. So when I discovered that Persona 4 Golden was coming to Steam, I jumped at the chance to cover it for oprainfall.

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After I started playing Persona 4 Golden on Steam, the weather fittingly took a turn for the worse, and it began raining hard for several days. There were intermittent breaks of sun, but the wet weather kept coming back. Which is my way of saying there’s a chance you’ll see my bearded face on the Midnight Channel not long after you finish reading this review. In the meantime, let me tell you what to expect from the game. After all, even many years later, I acknowledge not everyone is intimately familiar with the adventure. And since I’ve already beaten the game a couple times on my Vita, this review will mostly be focusing on the differences between the versions, as well as giving a synopsis of the plot and characters.

The story takes place in the rural town of Inaba. You’re the unnamed hero, a young man with strikingly gray hair moving in with your uncle and his daughter. While the purpose of your visit is primarily to attend Yasogami High, things quickly take a turn for the strange. Bodies start piling up, and suddenly Inaba is known more for murder than the local Junes store. And since this is a Persona game, you quickly discover you have a special knack for summoning your inner self to battle monsters as well as jumping inside a hidden world within TV screens. Thus starts Persona 4 Golden, and I promise you it’s a wild ride with many delightful twists and turns. While I won’t spoil any of them, I will focus next on a key component of any Persona game – the characters.

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The fabric of the game universe is woven tightly by the bonds established between this eclectic cast of characters. And while you could certainly make the same claim for any title in the beloved Atlus series, I have a special fondness for this cast of characters. Even years later, they still make me laugh, groan and cry at their antics. Whether it’s the spunky carnivore and lover of Kung Fu Chie, or the fiery diva with an odd sense of humor Yukiko, or even the awkward goofball Yosuke, it’s a really fantastic group. There’s more main characters than those I just mentioned, but I probably should let you discover the rest. I will say, they’re all well developed and quite distinct. One of my favorites is a certain bad ass who wields desks and chairs as weapons and is much more nuanced than you’d imagine, but there’s no duds here. Even the NPCs you encounter wandering the streets of Inaba add something to the mix. And the side characters bring a lot to the table, such as your adorable cousin Nanako or your gruff uncle Dojima. Your connection to the cast is important, since the bonds you cultivate between your hero and others not only expands your understanding of them, but it empowers you via Social Links.

I’m not sure if the folks at Atlus are fans of Freud, but the Persona games definitely focus on concepts of identity. This game in particular also confronts many gender issues, but in such a way that it’s up to the player how much attention they devote to that. As the game progresses, your characters confront those sides of themselves they repress, and only by accepting them, ugly bits and all, can they truly grow. In the process, your team slowly earns their own Personas, one for every main character. The only exception is your hero, who can utilize any Persona at your disposal, those encountered while dungeon crawling or fused in the Velvet Room. Another way the game addresses these concepts is via the Social Link system. As you spend time with others, you learn their hopes, dreams and fears. As those friendships grow, your rank in their corresponding Arcana increases, based around Tarot cards. For your teammates, that lets them learn new abilities and grow stronger. An example is acquiring follow up or team attacks, surviving critical damage once per battle, or even helping downed allies recover. For side characters, you’ll just gain bonuses when you fuse Personas of their Arcana, such as Hierophant, Empress or Star. Depending on their rank, you’ll garner more or less of added benefits. It’s complex, but also very well streamlined. Every Persona in the game belongs to a particular Arcana, so you actually have a lot of control over your team’s growth.

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Besides the bonds you forge, you can also improve your hero’s attributes such as Courage or Understanding. Your level of growth will determine certain choices you can make during dialogue, such as courageously telling that special someone you’re attracted to them, or explaining death to a child with compassion. Attributes are improved through a variety of methods, such as reading books, doing well in class, attending clubs and even taking on part time jobs. The longer you play, the more options open up, and it all makes for a very dynamic and addictive loop. Your time is pretty much yours to use as you see fit, though you’d do well to spend it constructively. Keep in mind that once you encounter the next major story arc, it’s best not to wait too long. Because if you don’t save victims of the mysterious culprit fast enough, it’s game over. But that’s only if you’re really dillydallying. Just remember, if you get a forecast of rainy weather for several days, you’d better be ready to save the day. As a result, I often would go dungeon crawling on sunny days just to get my feet wet and level up my characters a bit.

More P4G on Page 2 ->

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Speaking of leveling up, one of my favorite elements of Persona 4 Golden is the combat. It was definitely an inspiration for later games I’ve enjoyed such as Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Persona Q. Essentially, each dungeon is procedurally generated every time you enter it. That means the overall layout will be slightly different, though key events will occur at predetermined floors. For example, mini bosses have to be slain or keys to locked doors must be found. As you explore the dungeons, you might find something handy like a treasure chest, but more frequently you’ll encounter roving Shadows. Many appear like angry puddles of oil with grasping hands and theater masks, though on occasion you’ll find rare ones that look like scurrying hand monsters with comical faces. If you hit Shadows from behind, you’ll get advantage in battle and be able to attack first, but if they catch you off guard, they’ll instead get an uninterrupted turn to wallop you. Once battle is initiated, you select attacks for characters, at least if you like to directly command your team. I love controlling every aspect of my strategy, so I quickly turned off the auto battle tactics. Though if you’re feeling lazy, you can always let the game auto battle.

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Your goal is to hit foes with an attack they’re weak to. This could be a physical attack, status effect, or more frequently an elemental attack. Once you’ve discovered their weakness, it will be displayed via the Analyze command. When you hit a foe with their weakness, they’ll become downed. If you down every foe, then your team of heroic ruffians will rush them, doing significant damage. You might also trigger optional attacks from your allies if you’re friendly enough with them, even ones not in your immediate party. It’s really fun and dynamic, and the tides of battle can turn rapidly. Whenever you see red Shadows, get ready to run or muster your courage, cause those are the extra hard monsters. Perhaps not as hard as FOEs from Etrian Odyssey games, but no pushover either. If you do especially well in battle, you’ll get to play a mini game with Tarot cards to acquire various benefits, such as increased experience, money, ability cards and even new Persona. If you manage to grab every card, you’ll get a Sweep Bonus, which lets you pick more cards the next time. I love the combat, and the Tarot mini game made even the hardest battles a real treat. Simply because you know that if you went into battle with the right tactics and equipment, you’d be able to beat anything. Even the incredibly challenging bosses you’ll face in the game.

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Now, most of you are probably familiar with Persona 4 Golden already. As such, I want to spend a little time talking about how it plays on Steam. First things first, it’s really nice to play the game on a bigger screen. Everything just bursts with color, especially the animated sequences. I actually noticed minute details in the background that I completely missed the first time around. The music is also fantastic, and the voice acting has never been clearer. While you have your choice of Japanese or English audio, I am really happy with the talent from the English VA team. It’s great how they spur you on during battle, as well as bringing the story to life through their energetic conversations. Though I will say, it’s important to check your display settings. I’m far from experienced modifying settings for PC games, so it took me some time to tinker and get it where I wanted. Initially the display was set to 1280 x 720, while my screen is 1920 x 1080. As a result, the character models were deformed initially. Thankfully, once I adjusted it accordingly, the models had the normal proportions I remembered. Funny enough, the squash effect only applied to in-game models, not the animation or static art for character heads.

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As for the controls, you have a couple options for playing Persona 4 Golden on Steam. If you have an Xbox controller, you’re more than welcome to use one. I purchased a new one right after I received this version of the game, and it worked pretty effortlessly, with one proviso. I don’t like how the camera controls were set to airplane mode, AKA inverted. Though if you want, you can use the bumpers instead of the right joystick to slowly pan the camera. But, if you’re a dedicated PC gamer, you can also play Persona 4 Golden with keyboard and mouse. At first I was worried about this setup, but I actually really grew to appreciate it. Though the game doesn’t explain all the controls for keyboard / mouse, they’re pretty intuitive. You can use WASD to move, F to access shortcuts, Z for map, C to return, click to select options, press spacebar or enter to investigate things, and Tab to go to the menu and adjust settings. And quick note, though I didn’t rely on the shortcuts feature much on Vita, it was invaluable this time around. While gamepad is probably the best way to play, I often was too lazy to dig it out. In the 30 something hours I played the game, more than half was spent playing with keyboard and mouse.

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While I like a lot of how Persona 4 Golden played on Steam, there were some small hiccups. One is that the graphics blur a bit during character movement. Whenever they’re running or gesturing, it’s very noticeable. I checked, and that’s also the case on the Vita. It’s just much more noticeable on a bigger screen. Even though I tweaked the V Sync and other settings, I couldn’t get the blurriness to completely go away. Thankfully it was something I was able to ignore for the most part. Something I’m less forgiving about is a small glitch I encountered multiple times. I would load up the game after hours of playing it, and suddenly the display wasn’t how I had set it. I managed to fix it by quitting and restarting, but I’m a bit surprised it persisted. Hopefully that will be addressed soon. The biggest surprise for me was that there wasn’t any new content in this version of the game. Granted, it’s hard to improve near perfection, but I half hoped there was a new dungeon or something. Or even just a graphically improved port. But, it’s hard to complain when I’ve been having so much fun.

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Visually, the game holds up really well. Especially considering it’s a Vita port of a PS2 game. Though the character models are a little rough, I love the design of all the characters, Shadows and assorted NPCs. Take the creepy flair of “The Nose”, or the eye catching design of Teddie. Everything looks great, and that goes double for the animated sequences. On the topic of audio, it actually held up even better. The voice acting is sharp and clear, and the music is outstanding. Every track fits the action perfectly, and the dungeon music is especially entertaining. It keeps you motivated to keep playing and playing, which is good considering how long it’ll take to get the best ending.

It’s always hard improving on something like Persona 4 Golden. And while you can debate if this port succeeds, it’s still a joy to play Persona 4 Golden on Steam. Especially if you’ve always been interested but didn’t want to buy a Vita to play it. You can own the game for only $19.99 for the standard edition, or $24.99 for the deluxe with digital artbook and soundtrack, either of which is a bargain for 50+ hours of content. Put simply, the must own title for Vita owners is now a must own title for PC gamers. It’s a treat to cover this release, and I hold out hope there’s more on the way soon from the fine folks at Atlus and SEGA.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Persona 4 Golden on Steam Title Persona 4 Golden

[ciathyzareposts]

Lords of Time: You Knew Just What I Was There For

If The Realm has the phrase, “once in a blue moon,” it must mean “quite often.”

            When we last checked in with Major Thom, he was trying to get into the Druid Temple but didn’t know how to determine whether it was a night of a blue moon. It turns out that the game tells you quite explicitly in the text that the moon is blue, so I needed have worried. On the night of the blue moon, at midnight, I burned the four sacred plants in the four braziers, and the way to the temple opened.

The temple started off easy enough. The first level had a little shop and a library. At the shop, I bought a druid cloak. Books in the library confirmed that the world of The Realm is flat, and said that the Druid Book of Life holds the most powerful spells in The Realm and must not fall into the wrong hands. 

On a conference table, I found a memo that indicated that the Council of Druids had declined to help Bessak. “He will have to fight Kruel alone,” it said. Unfortunately, there was no word on where Bessak went after that.

             At first, I thought the game was making an homage to Maurice Sendak, but now I see that it’s “Senoak.”

              The second level of the temple got a lot harder. It was a giant maze with four different entrances, swarming with druids who attacked me with some kind of force lightning. I hoped the druid cloak would disguise me, but it didn’t do anything. I swiftly started to run out of clear and blue potions, which restore health and spell points respectively. Enemies respawn as quickly indoors as they do outdoors, so there’s no way to clear them all and yet fewer ways to run away from them.

             One of the books in the library notes that druids have an inexplicable love for mazes.

        At the same time, another problem became clear. I hadn’t slept since waking up that morning. Since the Druid Temple requires you to stay up until midnight to even enter, you’re bound to run into fatigue problems unless you plan accordingly by staying up the previous night and then sleeping until dusk on the day that you go to open the temple. There are no beds in the temple, and I later confirmed that you can’t open the temple on one day, then go away to sleep, then come back to enter. The door closes while you’re away.

Still, I pushed forward. The second level maze (a book said that druids love mazes) led to a stairway to a third level, where a bunch of twisting corridors–again swarming with hostile druids–led to the shore of an underground lake. Since you can’t swim in this game, the only way I could find to cross the lake was to quaff a green potion, which polymorphs you into a frog. I had two green potions at the time.

            Where’s Baba Yaga when you need her?

           I soon discovered that there were two “exits” from the lake, both leading to small caverns with large spellbooks on pedestals. One cavern was blocked by a wall of fire, but the druid cloak protects against it. The first spellbook had something called “Mascar’s Spell of Protection”; the second had a “Mage Annulment Spell.”

               Getting one of the druid spells on my second visit. I forgot to take a shot on my first.

          Unfortunately, by this point, I was dead on my feet from exhaustion, I had no way to keep fighting the druids, and because I had used both green potions to get to the two chambers, I had no way to get back to the exit. I had to reload a saved game from before entering the temple.

Upon reloading, I had a plan: grind a bit; buy more clear, blue, and green potions; take the rest of the training courses; return in four days and try again. A commenter had said that blue moons occurred on nights 2 and 6, and I had entered the Druid Temple on night 14, so naturally I assumed they came along every 4 days. I planned my return for night 18.

In the next few days, I accomplished most of my list. I spent a little time fighting random enemies and got my experience points over 11,000–the highest value needed for any of the training courses. In Murkvale and Castleguard, I took “Advanced Lockpicking,” “Transformations,” “Advanced Swordplay,” and “Advanced Spellcasting.” With the money I made while grinding, I bought about a dozen of the blue and clear potions. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any place that sold green potions. But I figured I’d try again and perhaps find an exit or some other resource that I missed the first time.

           The final guild course, which requires 11,000 experience.

         Then the blue moon came unexpectedly on night 17. I was nowhere near the temple. To make sure this didn’t happen again, I saved the game and then burned a few days in Castleguard, watching for the next blue moon. It came on night 22, as I would have expected. So I’m not sure why night 17/18 was the one weird departure from the pattern.

Anyway, that gave me four days to screw around, so I decided to revisit some of the mountain locations. I originally set out hoping to find the dragon’s cavern and kill it with dragonsbane, but I couldn’t find it again. I couldn’t even find a cavern of the same shape as the image in my last entry, so it wasn’t just a matter of the dragon not being there. I stopped at the occult shop and sold my wyvern eggs, hoping their absence would stop wyverns from dive-bombing me with rocks, but it didn’t do anything.

But while searching the mountains, I was surprised to find that my lockpicking skill now worked at Lord Dertak’s Holde. (The game map has it as “Dervak,” but all the text in the castle gives it as “Dertak.”) Entering, I found a large dwarven keep of two levels. Among the books in the library and the few NPCs in the tavern, I learned that dwarves are the original inhabitants of The Realm. Humans encroached later, and the dwarves “deeply despise” the human settlements. The dwarven population has been declining for centuries, forcing them to abandon the “island keep.” Dertak, meanwhile, is said to be an amiable dwarf who bears humans no particular ill will. He has been known to grant humans favors in return for gifts. He particularly likes jewels.

             I get some lore from a bartender . . .

. . . and more from a book.

          When I encountered Dertak, he wasn’t impressed by anything I owned, including the several jewels. But the trip was useful for other reasons. A shop in the keep sold enchanted swords and armor, and I had enough to purchase one of each. Moreover, I found both a third green potion and something called “Grorph’s Spell of Exiting,” both of which sounded like they’d solve my problem getting out of the Druid Temple. A couple of skeleton keys led to a winding series of caverns where I found a treasure hoard and something called “Kruel’s Winterblast Spell.”

I still had a couple of days, so I returned to the mines west of Castleguard and employed my pick axe. Sure enough, I found a few generic jewels but also one that the came called out as a particularly large jewel.

          This seems promising.

         When I took the large jewel back to Dertak, he gave me a letter of recommendation for the dwarven high king, whose “holde” is in the mountain range north of Dertak’s. With one day remaining before the blue moon, I went there.

              Dertak is pleased with my offering.

         I had to bribe the guard to get through the first level. On the second level, I ran into some kind of golem who dissolved into mud when I defeated him.

           No idea what this was about.

       The third level had the living quarters of the hold, but unlike Dertak’s, it was swarming with (respawning) hostile dwarves who attacked me. (They’re the same dwarves who attack on the surface.) Fighting my way through them, I reached the dwarven high king, who didn’t seem to mind that I’d made my way to him by slaughtering his subjects. He took the letter and gave me in return a jeweled key that unlocks the door on the abandoned island keep. He then “expelled” me from his hold, which took me back outside automatically instead of forcing me to fight through dwarves. That was nice.

             I think the bodies behind me are evidence of “my own valor.”

           I had just enough time to make it to the Druid Temple–and again through that damned maze–before midnight. I did the ritual again and opened the door. This time, things went a bit easier. I got the two spells from the books and decided to use the exit spell (rather than the third green potion) to get out.

               I really hope I don’t need that somewhere else.

         I checked my statistics and was surprised to find that my “score” had risen from 10 to 110 (out of 190). In one session, I went from 5% game completion to almost 60%.

I returned to Bessak’s keep, thinking he might show up there now that I’d found the spells he wanted from the druids, but he was nowhere to be found. So the only thing I can think to do at this point is to try the island keep.

Before I go, I have to spend some more time complaining about the combat system. It’s not just bad; it’s exhausting. The animated .gif below shows what happens when you stop and pause for just a few seconds.

          The hero makes the mistake of pausing by the riverside.

          Enemies spawn constantly, and stopping to fight one is just an invitation for others to swarm you. You never really “end” combat; you just finally decide to break away. Getting from one place to another becomes an extremely tedious affair.

The combat system itself makes it worse. Victory and defeat are a matter of pixels–in a game where the graphics and controls aren’t quite good enough to find-tune your alignment. And upgrades in equipment don’t seem to make things much easier. I hardly notice a difference between wearing enchanted armor and wearing nothing. All the guild courses, attribute increases, and investments in increasingly-better weapons have only marginally improved upon my character’s performance with a pocket knife at the very beginning of the game.

Offensive spells don’t help much. “Fireball” (which you can equip like a weapon) doesn’t do any better than physical attacks and it’s very hard to aim. (The same is true of missile weapons.) “Pinok’s Paralyzing Spell” (which freezes every enemy on the screen) and “Fistak’s Fear Spell” (which causes them to run away) are theoretically useful but have such a high cost that you can’t rely on them.

         The “Fear” spell sends enemies scurrying away but costs 50 points.

          Still, experimenting with spells for the purposes of writing this entry led to some interesting results. At some point, I collected a spell called “Wyvern Morphing Spell,” which transforms you to a wyvern. It only works outdoors, but it’s probably my key to getting to the island keep, unless I want to rent a raft and paddle it all the way up from the delta. I otherwise don’t know the purpose of renting rafts, though.

“Kruel’s Winterblast Spell” sounds like an offensive combat spell, but instead it’s more akin to Ultima‘s “Armageddon,” turning the whole world to ice. I don’t know when I’ll need such a spell, but it doesn’t seem like something I want to cast randomly.

             The spell froze the sea serpent that was on-screen at the time, but that didn’t stop a wolf from spawning and attacking while I was taking this screen shot.

           The uses of “Grorph’s Spell of Darkness” are equally mysterious–it blankets the area around you in darkness, making it impossible to see. Two others–“Mascar’s Spell of Protection” and “Portal Activation Spell”–never seem to do anything no matter where I use them.

Lords of Time has some decent moments when it comes to exploration and puzzle-solving, unfortunately marred by the enemy and combat systems. I’m ready to enter the home stretch. I just hope that by the end, the game delivers some kind of explanation for its title.

Time so far: 20 hours

****

If anyone has played and gotten anywhere with the 1989 text-RPG hybrid Advanced Xoru, I’d appreciate a line. I thought it would be a quick one, but I’m hopelessly stuck.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/lords-of-time-you-knew-just-what-i-was-there-for/

[gabriellakirtonblog]

Are You Making Yourself Rich, or Poor? Here’s Why Every Choice You Make Today Matters

I come from a frugal family. My parents taught me to make smart money choices from an early age. Now that I’m an adult—and successful by many measures—those habits have proven so useful that I can’t imagine being any other way.

It wasn’t until I started hiring and mentoring other trainers that I realized just how much money people waste on unnecessary stuff: designer clothes, takeout food, top-of-the-line equipment, supplements. Their lives look great on Instagram, but what you won’t find in their profile is that they’re still sleeping under their parents’ roof because they can’t afford their own place.

I once had a trainer request a pay advance—for $300 jeans. One gym owner I know orders takeout for every meal and pays a $7 delivery fee each time. Factor in food and tip, and that’s easily $1,000-plus a month.

Thanks to the rising cost of living and our culture’s general penchant for extravagance, learning to manage your money early is more important than ever. For young trainers in particular, what you do with your earnings now can mean the difference between struggle and success later on.

A stock trader once told me that wealthy people feel valuable when they save money, and poor people feel valuable when they spend money. That resonated with me because it highlights the true secret to money management: confidence and self-belief.

As the founder of Female Trainer Society, I’ve seen so many young trainers unable to reach that next level because deep down they don’t truly believe they can. They don’t take themselves seriously enough, and that leads them to spend their money on superficial things instead of investing in themselves.

But you can do this. You can make six figures. You can live the life you imagined for yourself. You can achieve anything you want as long as you’re willing to work for it. (Mom and Dad taught me that too!)

It all starts with the right mindset—and a few simple tips.

READ ALSO: “How to Get Started as an Online Personal Trainer”

1. Sell something before you buy something

Look, I love Lululemon too. But when it comes to clothes, my rule is if I want to buy something, I have to sell something.

Trainers get Lulu apparel at a 25 percent discount, and that stuff retains its value. So if you sell it, you may make back almost what you paid for it. I do this all the time on Facebook Marketplace, and I find that brand-name fitness apparel sells quickly.

Just be sure to price it right. Often sellers will overestimate the value of their item. You wouldn’t believe how often people list products at prices that are the same—or higher—than what you’ll find in stores. If it’s available brand-new for cheaper elsewhere, no one’s going to buy it used from you. (And you do want someone to buy it, right? That’s kind of the whole point.)

2. Invest in yourself

There are a couple ways to accrue wealth. You can save. Or you can put your money to work so it makes money for you. That’s what I try to do.

When I see young trainers failing to invest in their business or their self-education, they always give the same excuse: “I can’t afford it.”

If that’s you, I have news: Yes, you can.

When I was 14, I wanted a snowboard. My dad told me that if I could earn enough to pay for half the cost, he would cover the rest. I did laundry, dishes, mowed the lawn … Okay, fine, my dad paid my allowance for those chores, so technically his money was footing the full tab. But my dad was teaching me a lesson: You can afford anything if you work hard enough.

Several years ago, I wanted to sign up for a coaching program. The course was $2,000. At the time, I was making $1,500 a month. (You do the math.) With just a week before the cutoff date for registration, I was selling off everything I could think of—snow pants, shoes, whatever. In the end, I raised enough to fund the course, and I guarantee that investment has paid off many times over since then.

I recently spent $500 on a Facebook ad that brought in $30,000 in revenue. That seems like a no-brainer. But many young trainers will say they can’t afford that initial investment (though their designer boots suggest otherwise).

Entrepreneur Russell Brunson has talked about a concept called “lead or gold.” If you absolutely had to make $500 by tomorrow or you and your whole family will die, you’d find a way to make $500. If you’re serious about your career, pretend that the stakes are that high.

READ ALSO: “What I Learned from 15,000 Training Sessions in a Commercial Gym”

3. Gamify your finances

My partner and I like to make a game of finding deals. We make a competition of it, and that helps us both stay on track. After all, if there’s one thing that motivates us fitness pros, it’s tapping into our competitive spirit.

Tech gives me the edge: I love Flipp, which searches circulars and coupons to find the best deals for all the items on your weekly shopping list.

I also like Mint. It links to all your accounts so you can easily see what you spend money on. It lets you create a budget and sends you notifications if you’re coming close.

I do my food shopping at the end of the day, when near-expired food gets discounted. Just the other week I snagged $100 worth of antibiotic-free meat for $38! Believe me, the rush you get from a deal like that is way better than fancy jeans.

I take the game further by establishing rules. For example, I refuse to throw out any food. At the end of the month, I clear out my cupboards and fridge and eat everything that’s about to go bad. I’m like Pac-Man eating pellets.

Level up!

READ ALSO: “Forget About Setting Goals. Do This Instead.”

4. Set aside money for taxes

I have friends who gross six figures a year, and because of that assume they don’t need to worry about saving. Then tax season hits, and they understand why that’s a mistake.

If you, like many trainers, are self-employed, you should be setting aside at least 25 percent of your income for taxes. If you make about the same amount each month, you can have your bank automatically transfer a stipend over to savings.

You should also be using accounting software like QuickBooks. For a small monthly fee, you can see how much you’re actually making after expenses. And that’s a number you should know.

5. Treat one client as your pension

If I have one financial regret, it’s that I didn’t start saving for retirement in my early 20s. I convinced myself I couldn’t afford it then, but I’d get to it eventually. When I think about the amount of exponential growth I missed out on, I can’t help but get annoyed with my younger self.

Research shows a way to think more seriously about your future: In one study, people who viewed aged images of themselves contributed more of their earnings to a retirement plan than those who viewed images of their current self. When you relate to your future self, you’re more likely to make good decisions for that person’s happiness and well-being.

Setting aside a couple hundred dollars a month can make a huge difference. Try this easy hack: Take the revenue from one client and put that into a retirement fund. So if you’re charging one client $300 a month, consider that your retirement money.

READ ALSO: “Why You Should Have Dinner with Your Clients”

6. Take your own advice

Trainers are always preaching to their clients about the importance of meal prep—right before they grab another takeout meal.

And I get it. I still remember when I first started and was working all hours, taking on every client I could. By the time I was done working, the only places that were still open sold fast food. I was spending $150 on takeout every week, and it wasn’t even quality nutrition.

Those meal-prep tips we give clients aren’t just lip service. They work. And you can save a ton of money following them.

I make sure to keep quick, ready-to-go foods in the freezer, and I always have cooked chicken prepped and ready to go. After a recent long day, I used that chicken, some frozen peppers, and frozen tortilla shells to whip up fajitas in about five minutes.

As a trainer, you’re setting an example for your clients. When you advise them to avoid takeout, be sure to follow your own advice.

READ ALSO: “A Trainer’s Guide to Protein”

7. Realize something is better than nothing

Thinking about opening your own training space? Good for you! Just don’t feel you need to start out with the works.

I remember one new gym owner who dropped six figures on equipment alone. The gym looked beautiful—they even had brick professionally installed on the walls—but I cringe to think of the sheer number of hours they’ll have to work just to pay off those bills.

A lot of people have an all-or-nothing mindset. I like to teach that something is better than nothing.

Opening a gym with over $100,000 worth of equipment is a big jump. But you can get a solid start by renting a small space inside a larger gym for a fraction of the price. And don’t assume you need the shiny new equipment, either—I’ve found great deals for used equipment online.

People tend to misjudge what will have the greatest impact on their career. Truth is, more than any amount of fancy clothes or equipment, grit and personality will take you much farther. And those are free.

READ ALSO: “Three Mistakes that Could Cost You $100,000 and Sink Your New Gym”

    More Habits of Highly Wealthy Trainers

When it comes to your career and financial success, every choice you make today matters. Learn the two habits you need to break free from the daily grind when you pick up your copy of Jonathan Goodman’s limited-edition, two-book box set The Highly Wealthy Online Trainer.

Compiled here for the first time, these books will empower you to think and act differently, and reap the rewards. Why a box set? Because marketing strategy is worthless unless it is acted upon, and that requires good habits. The two go together.

What you get:

Book #1: Habits of Highly Wealthy Online Trainers

Book #2: Marketing Breakthroughs of Highly Wealthy Online Trainers

Don’t wait –> Order your copies today.

    The post Are You Making Yourself Rich, or Poor? Here’s Why Every Choice You Make Today Matters appeared first on The PTDC.

Are You Making Yourself Rich, or Poor? Here’s Why Every Choice You Make Today Matters published first on https://onezeroonesarms.tumblr.com/

[fitono]

Are You Making Yourself Rich, or Poor? Here’s Why Every Choice You Make Today Matters

I come from a frugal family. My parents taught me to make smart money choices from an early age. Now that I’m an adult—and successful by many measures—those habits have proven so useful that I can’t imagine being any other way.

It wasn’t until I started hiring and mentoring other trainers that I realized just how much money people waste on unnecessary stuff: designer clothes, takeout food, top-of-the-line equipment, supplements. Their lives look great on Instagram, but what you won’t find in their profile is that they’re still sleeping under their parents’ roof because they can’t afford their own place.

I once had a trainer request a pay advance—for $300 jeans. One gym owner I know orders takeout for every meal and pays a $7 delivery fee each time. Factor in food and tip, and that’s easily $1,000-plus a month.

Thanks to the rising cost of living and our culture’s general penchant for extravagance, learning to manage your money early is more important than ever. For young trainers in particular, what you do with your earnings now can mean the difference between struggle and success later on.

A stock trader once told me that wealthy people feel valuable when they save money, and poor people feel valuable when they spend money. That resonated with me because it highlights the true secret to money management: confidence and self-belief.

As the founder of Female Trainer Society, I’ve seen so many young trainers unable to reach that next level because deep down they don’t truly believe they can. They don’t take themselves seriously enough, and that leads them to spend their money on superficial things instead of investing in themselves.

But you can do this. You can make six figures. You can live the life you imagined for yourself. You can achieve anything you want as long as you’re willing to work for it. (Mom and Dad taught me that too!)

It all starts with the right mindset—and a few simple tips.

READ ALSO: “How to Get Started as an Online Personal Trainer”

1. Sell something before you buy something

Look, I love Lululemon too. But when it comes to clothes, my rule is if I want to buy something, I have to sell something.

Trainers get Lulu apparel at a 25 percent discount, and that stuff retains its value. So if you sell it, you may make back almost what you paid for it. I do this all the time on Facebook Marketplace, and I find that brand-name fitness apparel sells quickly.

Just be sure to price it right. Often sellers will overestimate the value of their item. You wouldn’t believe how often people list products at prices that are the same—or higher—than what you’ll find in stores. If it’s available brand-new for cheaper elsewhere, no one’s going to buy it used from you. (And you do want someone to buy it, right? That’s kind of the whole point.)

2. Invest in yourself

There are a couple ways to accrue wealth. You can save. Or you can put your money to work so it makes money for you. That’s what I try to do.

When I see young trainers failing to invest in their business or their self-education, they always give the same excuse: “I can’t afford it.”

If that’s you, I have news: Yes, you can.

When I was 14, I wanted a snowboard. My dad told me that if I could earn enough to pay for half the cost, he would cover the rest. I did laundry, dishes, mowed the lawn … Okay, fine, my dad paid my allowance for those chores, so technically his money was footing the full tab. But my dad was teaching me a lesson: You can afford anything if you work hard enough.

Several years ago, I wanted to sign up for a coaching program. The course was $2,000. At the time, I was making $1,500 a month. (You do the math.) With just a week before the cutoff date for registration, I was selling off everything I could think of—snow pants, shoes, whatever. In the end, I raised enough to fund the course, and I guarantee that investment has paid off many times over since then.

I recently spent $500 on a Facebook ad that brought in $30,000 in revenue. That seems like a no-brainer. But many young trainers will say they can’t afford that initial investment (though their designer boots suggest otherwise).

Entrepreneur Russell Brunson has talked about a concept called “lead or gold.” If you absolutely had to make $500 by tomorrow or you and your whole family will die, you’d find a way to make $500. If you’re serious about your career, pretend that the stakes are that high.

READ ALSO: “What I Learned from 15,000 Training Sessions in a Commercial Gym”

3. Gamify your finances

My partner and I like to make a game of finding deals. We make a competition of it, and that helps us both stay on track. After all, if there’s one thing that motivates us fitness pros, it’s tapping into our competitive spirit.

Tech gives me the edge: I love Flipp, which searches circulars and coupons to find the best deals for all the items on your weekly shopping list.

I also like Mint. It links to all your accounts so you can easily see what you spend money on. It lets you create a budget and sends you notifications if you’re coming close.

I do my food shopping at the end of the day, when near-expired food gets discounted. Just the other week I snagged $100 worth of antibiotic-free meat for $38! Believe me, the rush you get from a deal like that is way better than fancy jeans.

I take the game further by establishing rules. For example, I refuse to throw out any food. At the end of the month, I clear out my cupboards and fridge and eat everything that’s about to go bad. I’m like Pac-Man eating pellets.

Level up!

READ ALSO: “Forget About Setting Goals. Do This Instead.”

4. Set aside money for taxes

I have friends who gross six figures a year, and because of that assume they don’t need to worry about saving. Then tax season hits, and they understand why that’s a mistake.

If you, like many trainers, are self-employed, you should be setting aside at least 25 percent of your income for taxes. If you make about the same amount each month, you can have your bank automatically transfer a stipend over to savings.

You should also be using accounting software like QuickBooks. For a small monthly fee, you can see how much you’re actually making after expenses. And that’s a number you should know.

5. Treat one client as your pension

If I have one financial regret, it’s that I didn’t start saving for retirement in my early 20s. I convinced myself I couldn’t afford it then, but I’d get to it eventually. When I think about the amount of exponential growth I missed out on, I can’t help but get annoyed with my younger self.

Research shows a way to think more seriously about your future: In one study, people who viewed aged images of themselves contributed more of their earnings to a retirement plan than those who viewed images of their current self. When you relate to your future self, you’re more likely to make good decisions for that person’s happiness and well-being.

Setting aside a couple hundred dollars a month can make a huge difference. Try this easy hack: Take the revenue from one client and put that into a retirement fund. So if you’re charging one client $300 a month, consider that your retirement money.

READ ALSO: “Why You Should Have Dinner with Your Clients”

6. Take your own advice

Trainers are always preaching to their clients about the importance of meal prep—right before they grab another takeout meal.

And I get it. I still remember when I first started and was working all hours, taking on every client I could. By the time I was done working, the only places that were still open sold fast food. I was spending $150 on takeout every week, and it wasn’t even quality nutrition.

Those meal-prep tips we give clients aren’t just lip service. They work. And you can save a ton of money following them.

I make sure to keep quick, ready-to-go foods in the freezer, and I always have cooked chicken prepped and ready to go. After a recent long day, I used that chicken, some frozen peppers, and frozen tortilla shells to whip up fajitas in about five minutes.

As a trainer, you’re setting an example for your clients. When you advise them to avoid takeout, be sure to follow your own advice.

READ ALSO: “A Trainer’s Guide to Protein”

7. Realize something is better than nothing

Thinking about opening your own training space? Good for you! Just don’t feel you need to start out with the works.

I remember one new gym owner who dropped six figures on equipment alone. The gym looked beautiful—they even had brick professionally installed on the walls—but I cringe to think of the sheer number of hours they’ll have to work just to pay off those bills.

A lot of people have an all-or-nothing mindset. I like to teach that something is better than nothing.

Opening a gym with over $100,000 worth of equipment is a big jump. But you can get a solid start by renting a small space inside a larger gym for a fraction of the price. And don’t assume you need the shiny new equipment, either—I’ve found great deals for used equipment online.

People tend to misjudge what will have the greatest impact on their career. Truth is, more than any amount of fancy clothes or equipment, grit and personality will take you much farther. And those are free.

READ ALSO: “Three Mistakes that Could Cost You $100,000 and Sink Your New Gym”

    More Habits of Highly Wealthy Trainers

When it comes to your career and financial success, every choice you make today matters. Learn the two habits you need to break free from the daily grind when you pick up your copy of Jonathan Goodman’s limited-edition, two-book box set The Highly Wealthy Online Trainer.

Compiled here for the first time, these books will empower you to think and act differently, and reap the rewards. Why a box set? Because marketing strategy is worthless unless it is acted upon, and that requires good habits. The two go together.

What you get:

Book #1: Habits of Highly Wealthy Online Trainers

Book #2: Marketing Breakthroughs of Highly Wealthy Online Trainers

Don’t wait –> Order your copies today.

    The post Are You Making Yourself Rich, or Poor? Here’s Why Every Choice You Make Today Matters appeared first on The PTDC.

Are You Making Yourself Rich, or Poor? Here’s Why Every Choice You Make Today Matters published first on https://medium.com/@MyDietArea