#but i was complimented on the tips i provided my teammates

[navybrat817]

I know you said you’re short, but you really do give off tall girl energy🥹😂 you also give off don’t mess with me vibes but in the sweetest way☺️ like “try your mama not me🙅🏾‍♀️”

giving Tall girl + golden retriever and I’m here for it 🤩🙌🏾

He was lookin a little too delicious so ofc I had to add him😮‍💨

BAHAHA. I love it! I did actually post something here about my height because my manager said I gave off tall girl vibes. We have "seen" each other via Teams video, but she assumed I was taller.

A teammate said recently in a one-on-one chat that I'm always confident and self-assured, even if my answer to something is, "I've exhausted all my resources and I'm still not sure how to fix this, but we'll figure it out!" 😂 And she added that she loves asking me questions because I'm friendly and I don't make her feel bad for having to ask. 😭

Don't mess with my loved ones. The mama bear in me gets very protective. I may be tiny, but I'm mighty and will do it with a smile on my face.

Sir, that tongue. He knows exactly what he's doing! Can he get me out of my next training?

Love and thanks! ❤️

[rocorambles]

It's Always Been You

Pairing: Semi x Reader

Genre: SFW, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff (I swear it’s more fluff than hurt/comfort), Getting together

Summary: You’ve always known Semi was your first choice. Now you just need to convince HIM that it’s true. Easier said than done.

Prompt: “When will I be someone’s first choice? Tell me, when?”

A/N: This is my contribution for the HQHQ SFW collaboration. There are so many talented writers on the server and I highly encourage you to check out the collaboration masterlist here to see how everyone decided to run with this prompt. (Also this is an AU where the boy’s and girl’s volleyball teams practice in the same gym. Just go with it. LOL Please and thank you.) Thank you for beta-ing @sawamooora~

There’s a certain sense of pride and anxiety that comes from being accepted to Shiratorizawa as a student athlete. Pride from knowing your athletic prowess has been recognized as being at least notable. Anxiety from not knowing if that’s all it’ll amount to, talent that’s forced to remain seated on a bench as other, even more capable athletes surpass and outrank you. But as wide-eyed first years, Semi and you don’t feel that full weight yet, not as you watch and learn from your senpais in awe, and it’s that curiosity, that love for the sport that brings you two together.

Semi’s always been on the quieter side, but when he sees you in the corner of the girl’s side of the gym all by yourself, practicing setting a volleyball against the wall, recognizing you as a fellow newbie from his class, he takes his chance. It’s an easy friendship, one that easily crosses from the court, to the classroom, to after school study sessions and hangouts. And even though it sucks to still be set aside on the bench, left to cheer on your upperclassmen while the both of you hone your skills, it brings both of you comfort that you’re not alone, that you have someone else cheering you on, growing and improving right alongside you.

It’s hard work trying to stand out among all the hopeful first years at Shiratorizawa, but the endless hours of hard work and encouragement you give each other, the shouts to keep on going, the careful bandaging of each other’s fingers before and after grueling practices, it all pays off. The two of you proudly stand side by side in your second year as your parents snap a photo of both of you donning your brand new team uniforms, marking you as starting players.

The adrenaline of the cheering audience, the exhilaration of being in a real game, it’s everything both of you have wished for and more. But through the excitement, a nagging worry tugs at Semi as he watches the new rookie setter, Shirabu Kenjirou, from afar.

There’s nothing wrong with Shirabu. He’s a smart kid, albeit a little short tempered and rude at times, but aren’t they all in high school? But it’s not his attitude, not even his shitty haircut that bothers Semi. It’s the ease with which he connects with the rest of the team, the natural skill and talent he possesses, the way Coach Washijou stares at the younger male with interest, that has Semi striving harder, his desire to stand out and prove himself only hindering him and the team more.

And reality comes crashing down around him one day as a shrill whistle jars him from his razor sharp focus, the paddle with his number being held up by Shirabu making his heart drop to his stomach as he’s subbed out, face heating with humiliation and embarrassment as his teammates eagerly high five and clap the younger setter on the court, welcoming him into the game.

Just like that, he’s been replaced.

It hurts, but he knows it’s to be expected. He had seen it coming, and acknowledges that it’s the better decision for the team. But that doesn’t make it sting any less. And he watches with steely eyes at how effortlessly Shirabu melds in with the team, the ball easily and smoothly connecting.

He thinks this is the worst of the heartache, vowing that he’ll just work harder, at least be a useful pinch server. He’ll be the best setter he can when he’s needed. But what he isn’t expecting is the lancing stab to his heart when he sees you rush over to Shirabu after the match is over, the way you’re practically bouncing on the soles of your feet as you fawn over the younger setter, congratulating him on his first game, complimenting him on a job well done, not even sparing a glance in his direction. In your defense, you do make your way towards him eventually, but he can feel the pity in your eyes, the way you approach him as if he’s a wounded animal, and he slaps your hand away before it can come in contact with his arms, storming off, leaving you gaping in his wake.

The situation was poorly handled and he knows he owes an apology at minimum, but those words get stuck in his throat when he spies you chatting one-on-one with Shirabu at practice the next day while the boy’s and girl’s teams share the same gym. It’s vaguely reminiscent of watching a horror film and despite the way he freezes, heart clenching, Semi can’t tear his eyes away as you demonstrate some setting techniques and drills to Shirabu. And when your bandaged fingers carefully wrap around the younger male’s forearms to adjust his posture, Semi rushes off, unable to bear watching how once again, he’s become irrelevant.

He wonders— hopes that it’s just a one off thing, that things will return to how they once were. But they don’t, and he watches as Shirabu and you laugh and joke, high fiving and cheering each other on as you help one another practice, time and time again. He tries his best to ignore it, gritting his teeth and using more strength than necessary in his practice serves, brushing off the concerned questions from even usually stoic Ushijima. But it all comes to a head when Shirabu is absent from practice one day and you cheerfully walk up to him like no time has passed, like you hadn’t turned around and instantly betrayed him for a better version of himself, grinning as you ask him to practice with you.

There’s a sick satisfaction in how quickly your smile disappears, the flash of hurt in your eyes when he sneers at you, thanking you for “gracing him with your presence”.

“Glad you could find it in yourself to make some time for me. Thought you’d skip out on practice to take care of your little boyfriend.”

“What-”

The whole gym stares at both of you as his harsh voice echoes throughout the area.

“When will I be someone’s first choice? Tell me, when?!”

Semi and you don’t talk to each other for the rest of that year, although not for quite the same reasons.

For Semi, it’s a completely burned bridge and, as good as seeing you feel some of the same pain he feels is, there’s an emptiness inside of him as he goes home that night. The belief that he’s ruined everything between the two of you heavily weighs inside of him.

For you, it’s a medley of hurt, shock, and confusion. You give Semi the time he needs to cool off, give yourself the time and space to ponder and think into the late and early hours of each night, wondering where everything went wrong.

Shirabu? Boyfriend? How could Semi possibly even believe that?

Being an upperclassman means mentorship and guidance. So when Shirabu had come up to you one day after he became the boy’s team’s starting setter, you had graciously offered up some tips, let him know that you’d practice with him if you were free, encouraged him. You had missed your easy banters with Semi, missed how in sync and in tune with each other you were. But how could you turn away an underclassman in need?

Yet, the more you think about it, the more you really try and understand Semi’s perspective, guilt gnaws at you, clawing at your heart.

Had you meant to neglect your closest friend? An emphatic no.

Could you see why he had felt abandoned? ...A begrudging maybe laced with remorse.

Do you want him back in your life? A resounding yes.

You know it’ll be hard work to regain Semi’s trust, know he has a stubbornness that’s hard to crack — especially when it’s been hot glued together by seeming betrayal. But you’re just as determined, just as headstrong, and to both the dismay and amusement of both your teams and classmates, you twirl together in a chaotic dance.

To say he’s caught off guard when you knock on his door one morning to walk with him to school is an understatement, but when realization comes crashing down on him, he scowls, and his parents watch while shaking their heads and hiding a laugh as you scramble to keep up with him while he pointedly ignores you and speed walks a few steps ahead of you.

His mom points out to his father the way their son slows down just the tiniest bit when you stumble in your haste to catch up.

Ushijima watches in uncomfortable confusion as you sit with them at lunch, plopping down in the empty seat beside Semi, chatting away at your old friend despite the way Semi resolutely stays silent, not even sparing you a glance.

But if the ace notices the way Semi doesn’t snap at you or pull his bento box from you as you grab a piece of fish Semi’s mom had cooked, he doesn’t say anything.

Shirabu pouts when you completely bypass him, fondly ruffling his hair as you stride towards Semi, volleyball in hand at practice. And both your teams watch in exasperation and fascination at the unintentional comedy show the two of you provide as you waddle after Semi like a baby duck following its mother, quacking your head off and never giving up even though Semi pretends he doesn’t see you in the corner of his eyes, mimicking every drill he does.

Coach Washijo and your coach wonder if they should slap both of you on the heads for this madness, but when they observe the way Semi painstakingly slows down and exaggerates his form when you struggle with an exercise, they roll their eyes, turning their attention to the other players lounging around.

Yet as amusing as it is, all shows must come to an end and your grand finale arrives with the devastating loss against Karasuno, the chances of going to Nationals again ruined just like that for the third-years.

Even for you, a bystander in the audience, just another spectator in the crowd, it’s a hard pill to swallow. Unshed tears glisten in your eyes when you see the years of hard work they’ve all put into the sport go down the drain, the slump of Semi’s shoulders as they walk off the court. You can’t even begin to imagine how the players themselves are feeling, don’t know a single word you could say to make this alright. Yet your legs are sprinting, wobbling and shaking in their frantic need to comfort your long-time friend, to try and soothe him, to tell him how proud you are of him, how this doesn’t change how you think and feel about him.

It’s more than a little awkward, panting to catch your breath as the entire dejected team stares at your sudden appearance in confusion. But Tendou’s always been a little quicker, a little sharper than the rest, and he grins, practically shoving Semi in your direction, playfully waving farewell at both of you before slamming the locker room doors shut before Semi can process what’s happened.

There’s a tense silence as you try and wrap your suddenly dry mouth around words.

“I’m sorry for your loss-”

You jolt at the cold scoff, the way Semi quickly spins on his heel, set on re-entering the locker rooms, turning his back on you.

“I don’t want to hear that from you. Go comfort your little boyfriend. I’m sure our star setter would eat those sweet words right up-”

“SHUT UP!”

This time it’s Semi’s turn to clamp his mouth shut in shock, hesitantly turning around, eyes wide as you storm towards him, jabbing your index finger into his chest.

“I swear to God, if you mention Shirabu’s name one more time while I’m talking to you, I’m going to muzzle you until you can’t say ANYTHING.”

(If either of you hear Tendou’s giggle from behind the closed doors, neither of you mention it.)

“I came to talk to YOU because I miss YOU. I like YOU. And if you could take just a minute to get your head out of your ass, you’d know that you’ve always been and always will be my first choice.”

Your chest is heaving, blood rushing in your ears from the exertion of your passion. But the reality of your accidental confession comes crashing down around you and your face heats in embarrassment, heart plummeting at the way Semi just gapes at you, speechless. You turn to rush away, mortification triggering your flight response. But a gentle, but firm tug on the hem of your shirt keeps you still.

You brace yourself for the rejection you know is coming, nervously turning around, slowly lifting your head to meet Semi’s gaze. But your heart flutters at the hope and disbelief in his eyes.

“But I thought...You and Shirabu- OW!”

You roll your eyes, a satisfied smirk on your face at the way he gingerly rubs his head, shooting you an accusing look.

“I did warn you about mentioning him, didn’t I?”

But before he can open his mouth to retort, you gently peck him on the cheek, giggling at the flabbergasted and stunned expression on his face, cooing at the faint blush that radiates across his skin.

“Hurry up and get your things. You owe me a popsicle for being such an ass this past year.”

There’s a lot more cheering and celebration in the locker room than there should be for a team that’s just lost their shot at Nationals as Semi re-enters the space, his already packed bag (courtesy of Ushijima) shoved into his arms by a gleeful red-head.

[nexyra]

RWBY's Love Language - Part 2

Hello friend ! I'm back at it with a second part and whatever character I can think of ! (Among which best boy Oscar because he deserves it, and also more adults)

Let's go !

***

Oscar Pine

So ! While I love Oscar with my whole heart, honestly guessing his Love Language is no easy feat. One thing for sure : touch isn't is thing even if it's how everyone else chose to communicate their love.

I saw a post a while back detailing how Oscar is always putting his hands up as a barrier when he's scared or uncomfortable and that makes me cry a little instead but it's true TT. Anyway...

In the latest volumes we've got quite a bit of comforting Oscar-talks but I have to wonder how much of that is due to Ozpin's influence really. As a result I've decided to settle on... Acts of Service or Quality Time ! This is based on a few details : when people are upset with him in one shape or form, Oscar was always very eager to prove himself useful, give some aspect of concrete help (such as cooking a Casserole, ringing any bell ?). Plus I imagine that's the exact brand of help his Aunt would have needed most on a farm. Added to that, he always seems fairly happy to be included, be with the others no matter what's going on. Training ? Yay ! A movie with Jaune & Weiss ? Smiling puppy look. Fancy party ? Shenanigans together ! So yea, I love seeing my boy loved and hugged but please everyone settle for the loving he's most comfortable with <3

“She made a choice! A choice to put others before herself! So do I.”

“Oh, uh, yeah. I thought you guys would appreciate a hot meal after... spending all day looking for me, apparently.”

“No, it's okay. These past few days, I've been scared of the same things you were. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be... me. But I did some thinking, and I do know that I want to do everything I can to help with whatever time I have left.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Ozpin

For our favorite immortal wizard aka not quite dead Headmaster... I think the answer is rather obvious. When you're so careful with your words, but also so fiercely devoted to humanity, Words of Affirmation is a must. Ozpin constantly does his best to calm, to reassure. He's good at controlling the conversation and getting people where he wants... Except he more often than not use it to make them think and help them reach an healing ore motivating conclusion. This man is so insisten on giving and cultivating hope, so painfully aware of just how much words can change... There's no doubt in my mind that it's through these very same words that he tries to fight the darkness in others' mind, even when they don't want to let themselves be persuaded. And with some help from the farmboi, Ozpin is gaining in honesty and earnestness. And that can only help in giving comfort.

But to be honest... If you offer him a hug I doubt he'd refuse, and he definitely deserves one. Also therapy. For Oscar too. Everyone in therapy 2k21.

“Ruby. I've made more mistakes than any man, woman, and child on this planet. But at this moment I would not consider your appointment to leader to be one of them. Do you?”

“It's not every day that friends are able to come together like this. Time has a way of testing our bonds, but it's nights like these that can help keep them stronger than ever. Nights like these are ones we'll never forget.”

“Don't worry, Mr. Arc. Your journey is far from over, and the same might be said for all of you. Unlocking your Semblance isn't the end. It can still grow and evolve. Providing you are willing to put in the work, who knows what could happen?”

- - - - - - - - - -

Emerald Sustrai

Now here I'm gonna go ahead and say that the way Emerald has been taught to express her love and the way SHE would rather preffered to be loved most likely do not align. At the side of someone like Cinder, and even Mercury who isn't exactly the most emotionally vulnerable person; the only brand of love that gets an easy pass is Acts of Service, and that's probably what Emerald is the most used to. I can go on a mission with you. I can help. We go right back to the "I can be useful" mentality and I'm not sure she's been shown any other way honestly. Let's be real though : if someone offered a hug or some gentle words ? She'd probably pout & fuss but I hardly doubt she'd object.

“I don't care about Salem! But I owe Cinder everything. You want to fight her that bad? Be my guest.”

“I just... Cinder was the only family I ever had. She cared about me, taught me things... But without her here, I don't know if what we're doing--”

“I've been working on my Semblance. I can help. I won't tell anybody.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Pyrrha Nikos

What's with everyone and dedicating their whole love toward just helping their teammates anyway they can ?! Stop ! But any way, you guessed it. I'm pretty sure one of Pyrrha's top way of showing love is Acts of Service, and nothing means quite as much to her as Quality Time. For someone who's been put on a pedestal and has a hard time relating to people; both touch and words can be a bit awkward. But if they're wrapped up neatly in a training session or semblance explanations ? Well that's already a more familiar area. Pyrrha gives her whole to her friends and those she cares about. And in exchange, if anyone can simply... be there and spend time with her... May it be at the ball or simply sitting in the courtyard... I'm sure our girl would be delighted.

“Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask.”

“I'm constantly surrounded by love and praise; but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long, you become separated from the people that put you there in the first place. But thanks to you, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime.”

“I'll do it. If you believe this will help humanity, then I will become your Fall Maiden.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Qrow Branwen

If I say Gift Giving for the corvid, is someone gonna hit me ? Come on it's fun ! Okay, more seriously... I think this kind of love conversation is kind of a necessity for Qrow. With a semblance such as Bad Luck, making everything complicated... Qrow tries to keep his distance from those he cares about. And since he's an emotionally repressed (but caring) asshole on top of it... Well that kinda narrows down his option. You know what DOESN'T put anyone at risk but can still bring smiles on their face ? GIFTS. Shiny things, souvenirs from his missions all over the world to give to 2 smol nieces. Sounds safe right ? That said, as any good emotionally unavailable character in this show, I gotta say Qrow probably has a thing for helping out and making himself useful in relation to Oz, Tai or the rest of the inner circle. So you know what that means *whisper* Acts of Service.

That said ! When it comes to receiving some love back... Qrow probably likes everything he doesn't allow himself to have. Soft touches, loving & comforting words, spending time with a friend without his semblance making everything complicated... We know that's all he wants.

“You idiot. I know you didn't do this.”

“Look, pal, I'm not sure who you are, but you need to leave my niece alone.”

“No one wanted me... I was cursed... I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world... I thought I was finally doing some good...”

- - - - - - - - - -

Clover Ebi

And among our newbies (and gone too soon) friends we have Clover ! Clover was a very good contrast to our dusty old crow but also a great help. Kind-hearted, perceptive and honest; he knew just how to put Qrow's self-loathing in his place and push him to give himself some credit. He always had a nice word or a joke for everyone, and visibly the rock of the Ace Ops : an expert a keeping the moral up and the mood companiable. Evidently, Words of Affirmation was his expertise. Had things gone differently, I'm sure we'd have had time for many more earnest and helpful conversations with this teal-eyed fisherman.

“It's a good thing they had someone to look up to and get them through it. Not everyone is so lucky.”

“I meant deflect a compliment. Those kids wouldn't be where they are without you. You've had more of an effect on them than you realize.”

“We don't have to fight, friend.”

- - - - - - - - - -

Winter Schnee

And today in the "emotionally unavailable" category we have... Winter Schnee ! TALK ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS PEOPLE ! Just - I would say look at Ruby but even she doesn't talk about her bad vibes... Nor does any of the "Words of Affirmation" peeps. Honestly what's wrong with y'all people ? Anyway Winter cares so much. Is it hidden behind professionalism and a stern *big sister* demeanour ? Sure. But it doesn't negate just how much she loves her closed ones. She's fiercely loyal, and even if she doesn't let her personal feelings get in the way of her duty and doing what needs to be done, no one is allowed to say she doesn't care. Countrary to Weiss, Winter doesn't seem as good nor as aware of the love that exists in simply *being* with people. Rather, she's dutiful and ready to help any way she can when given the chance. You guessed it, yet another Acts of Service kind of love... Maybe I'm doing this wrong XD. I'm on the fence about Words of Affirmation as well. Despite her standoffish looks, Winter has always been very open & reassuring during her discussions with Penny. But she's more stern when it comes to Weiss so I dunno x)

“I don't recall asking about your ranking, I'm asking how you've been. Are you eating properly? Have you taken up any hobbies? Are you making new friends?”

“You've grown up a bit, haven't you? You're not the little girl clinging to the family name anymore.”

“You can't just buy trust like everything else! You have to earn it!”

And that's it for Part 2 ! I might do some other characters if people suggest some but I don't have a pressing need to right now. I have many ideas of songs to apply to various characters however so that's prob what my next posts will consist of (or fun templates)

If anyone has tips to create RWBY gifs or links to download the eps in good quality I'll take it ! Good day everyone !

[cottoncandyjester]

My toy (yandere Sugawara x male reader)

Prompt: a boys night out landed with the karasuno boys hanging at a perverted adult host club, with you being their host for the night but suga doesn't like the attention it's giving you

This story contains: toxic yandere behavior, sprinkle of degrading, male reader in knee high socks and panties, anal sex, timeskip sugawara

Sugawara watched as you bent over daichi's lap wiggling your ass before looking back at the dark haired male seeing his face fluster as he watched you, your skirt rising up and exposing your pretty pink panties.

Suga wasn't sure they chose a place like this to hang out, maybe it was cause of the drinks or the cute boys but seeing you behave in such a way to someone other than him made him want to bash daichi's stupid head in.

They could have chose any club but nope they had to go the one you worked at, you were his and his old teammates were just drooling as you laid across the male's lap talking to hinata who was busy feeding you pocky since you didn't mind too much and touching like this was allowed as long as you were alright with it.

Sugawara knew exactly what this place was, the familiar smell of sweetness made his head spin as memories of coming here after a hard day of work flooded him, he met you here and fell in love as soon as he ssaw you. Your theme was that you crossdressed and was the most physical host here when it came to clients.

Sugawara could remember all those soft kisses you would plant on his cheeks as you sat in his lap, he never saw you kiss any other clients so it was obvious you like him the most. Even if you didn't it didn't matter cause in his eyes you were all his, this was making his blood boil!

"hey [y/n], can you sit in my lap next? I'm feeling neglected over here!"

Nishinoya's loud voice made suga flinch as he watched you move from daichi now walking over and plopping down in nishinoya's lap feeling his arms wrap around your waist and his hands played with those frilly knee high socks you wore, his fingers trailing around the fabric as you struck up a conversation with yamaguchi now who was just sprouting compliment after compliment.

Stop it. They are mine, so back the fuck up.

I found them first

Back the hell up!

Suga's thoughts on a his brain and he shot up fast when he saw you plan a kiss onto nishinoya's cheek causing him to blush and grin widely.

Sugawara's breathing became heavy as he watched your expression turn to confusion and he tried to relax himself before he did something stupid, with a shaky laugh the male rubbed the back of his neck as he innocently smiled your way.

"sorry, can you show me to the bathroom? Sorry again for bothering you"

"hm? It's fine, follow me"

You hopped up and walked towards the back soon walking to the male bathroom but you were not expecting to be yanked inside but before you can sfream suga slammed you against the wall his hand covering your mouth.

"you're so rude, y'know? Cheating is such a bad trait"

Suga uncovered your mouth his hands now busy throwing your shirt and skirt off your body as you tried to push him away with a shaky breath. You were confused, scared, and disturbed all rolled into one but the look in suga's eyes told you he was serious

"c-cheat? What are you talking about?"

"we both know you're mine, yet you act like a slut with the others? Did you want to fuck them or something?! How disgusting"

That sugary sweet tone suga normally uses was gone and replaced with a tone only described as rage and disgust. All those months of being an angel to you and this is how you repay him?

He honestly didn't want to be sweet anymore since that clearly wasn't working, suga yanked you away from the wall now dragging you by your hair to the sink and he forced you to bend off his eyes landing on your panties.

"you always dress so cute like a little doll, I don't want anyone else to see you like this, guess you'll have to quit your job. I hated the fact that you worked here anyways, if you needed attention you can come to me"

"b-but we aren't da- Ah!"

Your words turned Into a shocked moan as suga slapped your ass watching it start to redden as his slid your underwear down, he licked two of his fingers before shoving one inside of you with a low hum.

"I could be so sweet to you, a true sweetheart but you have to do everything I say baby. After all, why would you ever need to work when I could provide for you?"

His sweet tone returned as he leaned in close his chest against your back and his mouth hot against your ear while he pumped his finger in and out of your tight asshole, your small moans making him even harder than he already was.

"when i first saw you, I thought you were so beautiful. You were wearing that white dress and cute heels, you looked like an angel. We talked for hours and I was then that I wanted you, it was impossible to not follow you outside of work to see if you are the same and it's amazing how vulnerable you are, like a frail baby"

Suga's voice was getting more and more excited as he spoke, he shoved his second finger inside of you making sure to kiss your neck when you gasped and whined from his forceful touch.

"shhhh, I'm speaking don't be a rude boy. As I was saying, you were absolutely perfect. I thought of so many different ways to make you mine, I was going to do it tonight but things turned out to be different. thats okay, cause you're mine now and I'll prove that to them don't worry"

Your mind was starting to zone his words out but the feeling of his fingers pulling back and the sound of him unbuckling his pants made you tense up as you now struggled only for suga to reach out and grip your waist with one arm tightly, as he lined his throbbing cock up with youe hole he could hear your tiny whimpers.

"aw are you nervous baby? Is it your first time? What a sweetie! It's okay, I'll try to not make it hurt but I can't promise that"

"p-please.. we can't do-"

Suga cut out off by moving his hand around your waist to touch your hard cock, he smiled against your neck as he slowly pushed himself inside you with a shaky breathing.

"you shouldn't complain about this when you're just as hard as I am, you love it so much I can feel your precum just oozing out of your tip, after all it's natural for lovers to make sweet love even if it's in public"

As suga started to move in and out of you, your complaints and pleas for him to stop slowly transformed into moans and begging for him to keep going, this was so wrong but you found yourself filled with pleasure as suga slammed his cock deep into your hole hitting your prostate to the point where you were seeing stars.

"a-ah! Please s-sugawara! Harder!"

"ngh, baby it's koushi, say my name we're lovers now after all"

You ignored his lovers comment since you just wanted him to keep going so you decided to just play along, moaning his name to the point where he snapped.

Hearing you mewl out his name like that only proved that you were in fact his so he couldn't help but grip your hips now mercilessly slamming in and out of you before his mouth found its way digging into your neck.

"g-going to cum! Please! Ahhh don't stop!"

Your cute pleas was music to suga's ears and he knew he couldn't stop even if he wanted to, this was way too good for him and his head was blanking as he felt his own climax building up.

"fuck- baby I'm going to cum inside, yeah you want me to do that! You want me to fill you up like the slutty boy you are"

Your eyes rolled back and drool rolled down your cheek as your moans became loud cries and before you know it both you and suga cummed, you could feel your ass being filled with hot cum as you bucked your hips and cummed both in the floor and yourself.

The room soon filled with heavy breathing as suga pulled out and simply slid your panties back up making sure not a drip of cum spilled out. He turned you around before trapping you into his arms with his eyes locking with yours as his tine became low

"we are going to go back out there and you are going to stay in my lap, give me all your attention. After it's time to go you'll be coming home with me, you are my boyfriend after all so it's normal okay?"

A feeling of dread filled you as you stared into suga's dark and serious eyes but his chsrming smile for some reason was the thing that terrified you the most.

[wakaoujisenhime]

Hi! Can I ask scenario about Rakuzan manager? Rakuzan (and Akashi) female fans attacked her, but Rakuzan team protect her.

A/N: I’m writing this while imagining Rakuzan’s fans to be those typical hardcore ones you sometimes see on SNS, and oh boy... (☉_☉) Also, I hope you don’t mind that I changed the concept of attacking the manager a little bit and made it go into the direction of bullying. 👀  Now, I know that Mayuzumi isn’t really visible in the image below, but this was the only one I found that fit the description of them looking intimidating, so sorry for that (っ◞‸◟c) hope you enjoy it nonetheless! ♡  

Tags: Rakuzan x reader ✅  SFW ✅  friendship/camaraderie ✅  slight fluff ✅

━━━━☆ ━━━━☆ ━━━━☆

A capable manager - Rakuzan x reader

Being Rakuzan’s manager wasn’t an easy task. Not only were you burdened with the team’s immense success and reputation, but also with five problematic personalities who also happened to be the club’s representatives.

It took you quite some time and effort to get to know them, and have them trust you enough with their personal training regimen, let alone their private affairs and problems. However, you still managed to overcome all these difficulties and became quite close with the five young basketball players. The more you interacted with them, the more you realized just how helpful and pleasant their company actually was, especially Akashi’s.

He was quite notorious for his perfectionism and for the way he treated his teammates. In the beginning, you were also treated as one of his minions. Still, after you spoke up about how he might lose the entire team if he continued behaving like that, Akashi luckily listened to you and decided to pick a new approach. You expected him to change himself, but instead, he went ahead and recruited people who were actually able to keep up with his antics. It frustrated you a little to see just how incorrigible he was, but the fact that the captain was sticking to his ideals impressed you quite a bit.

The team respected you very much. You had joined them the moment you enrolled in Rakuzan high and always made sure to give it your all, no matter what. Naturally, you made the members and their wellbeing your first priority, so whenever someone decided to disrupt the harmony of the team, you were always the one to protect and upkeep it. This was one amongst many other reasons the club members adored and looked up to you. It was really fortunate that you had earned such a status, it made many tasks less difficult to fulfill since you knew these boys on a personal level, but not every problem was that easily overcome.

Rakuzan’s fans were one example.

They would always cheer while the entire squad entered the gym and went to the benches to discuss the plan for the game, but you couldn’t help and overhear some comments that were addressed to you.

Is that their manager?

Yeah supposedly...

What the hell, she doesn’t even look like she knows what this sport is about!

Totally! Just look at her!

You’d try and ignore them as good as you could, but the fact that your back was literally facing the stands didn’t help out at all.

“(Y/N)-chan, is everything alright?“

Reo always had a knack of noticing when something was bothering you, and he’d always make sure to ask you about it so that he could figure out a way to help you out somehow. You appreciated the gesture, of course, but what you wanted to avoid the most right now was distracting them from the upcoming match, so you brushed it off, put on your typical fake smile, and nodded firmly.

“Yes, no problems here!”

Luckily he knew that one of the things you hated most was when people pestered you about something you didn’t want to talk about, there were times when you welcomed it, but now wasn’t one of them. Pushing your slightly hurt feelings aside, you gave the five players a quick rundown on their enemies’ playstyle and preferred modus operandi.

While they were out there scoring one point after the other, your concentration was disturbed multiple times by the permanent gossiping of the fans, who had now moved on to questioning your strategic abilities, claiming that some of the boys weren’t in their top form today and who was to blame for this? You, of course. In an attempt to block their constant chatter out, you closed your eyes for a moment. The coach, who noticed your short moment of frustration, asked you the same question as your black-haired friend, and the moment you opened your mouth to answer with the exact same words as before, something light hit your shoulderblade, startling the both of you in the process.

“Oops, sorry, my friend pushed me, I didn’t mean to throw that at you!“

Another forced smile and a slight shake of your head were your answer to the obviously fake-sounding ‘apology’ you’d just received. With a disappointed and slightly annoyed face, Shirogane picked the paper ball up from the ground and looked at it with disgust.

“(Y/N)...maybe we shoul-“

“It’s ok coach, I’m fine so please don’t mind this.“, you said as you bit your lower lip in frustration, “Let us continue observing the match...and please don’t mention this to the others...them not playing at their full concentration because of something as trivial as this, is the last thing I want right now.“

His dark eyes rested on you for a short while, but he soon averted them and continued watching the young men play. So did you, but what just happened still lingered in your mind.

It was quite frustrating to see that some people let their jealousy distort them to such an extent that they would start harassing you just because of your position, gender, or whatever other reason they might have. All they saw was the way you entered the gym alongside the boys, talked to them, gave them drinks and towels, and that’s when they start to think that this is all you do. You were quite disheartened that people with such limited views on things were supposed to represent your clubs’ fanbase, but that’s just how things were.

While you were lost in your thoughts, your teammates were out on the field completely dominating the game (as always), but some of them had noticed what went down a short while ago, and they didn’t like that at all.

The halftime whistle is what brought you back to reality. Typically, it was you who provided the players with drinks and towels, but this time the coach had assigned this minor task to one of the underclassmen. He thought that he might help you out with it, but he only made all of it worse.

Oh my god, do you see that?

She calls herself the manager, but can’t even do her tasks right.

Pathetic, ‘ain it?

Just as you were about to sit up and speak your mind, someone placed a towel on top of your head and patted it. You didn’t feel the need to look up, since such a massive palm could’ve only belonged to one particular player. Instead, you just looked at the ones that had surrounded you. 

“Alright then, what’s your next brilliant plan manager?“ asked Kotaro with his typically loud voice. 

The others joined him and began talking about different and pretty much trivial stuff they usually avoided, making it plainly evident that their main objective was to distract you from the spiteful comments of the spectators.

You had to admit that the kind words they occasionally mixed in were indeed making you feel better, and after a while, you had succeeded in forgetting about it for the time being...you had a team to manage after all.

After a short while, the referee announced that the game would resume shortly and warned both teams to wrap the talk up. With an encouraging smile, you motivated each of them to keep up the marvelous play, have fun but also be cautious of possible tricks from the opponents. When Akashi’s turn came up, you simply smiled at him, unsure whether to try your luck with motivating this seemingly invincible player or not, but before that happened, he spoke up first.

“(Y/N) I know what happened.” 

His statement threw you off quite a bit, but there was no time for you to question its meaning since the time to get back on the field drew near.

“I know it’s frustrating and painful to hear something like that, but you shouldn’t mind such useless comments from commoners like them. You should ask yourself on which basis they are actually making all of these assumptions about you. Do they know how much effort you’re actually putting into our team? Have they seen just how late you always stay behind just to make sure that everyone leaves? Are they aware of the amount of knowledge you needed to obtain before you could even give us tips on how to play? The answer is always no, so make sure to keep that in mind.”

“Sei-chan, it’s time.“, whispered Reo as he gently caressed your back, flashed you a quick smile, and entered the court. Said man barely nodded and placed his own slender hand reassuringly on your left shoulder.

“You’re doing a perfect job as manager (Y/N)...thank you.“

And with that, he left you standing there, blushing lightly at his sudden and unexpected compliment. Hearing something so reassuring as that coming from such a capable person like Akashi puts you instantly at ease.

H-He’s right...what am I even doing at a time like this? Doubting myself while my team’s out, there is really not suitable for my title. 

Alright (Y/N)! Get yourself together and watch them play, that’s the least you could do at the moment.

While you were hyping yourself up, you failed to notice a peculiar group amongst the other spectators that were looking at you with malicious intent...

——

After the game finished, you congratulated your five boys for the expected victory and promised to wait for them at the main entrance, so that you could invite them to a small celebratory meal.

You checked your phone for any possible missed calls or messages when suddenly someone slapped it away from your hand.

“What the hell w-“

“Shut up, you damn witch!“

As you looked at the group of girls standing in front of you, you frowned, wondering just who they actually were and what kind of problem they had with you that they needed to throw insults at you as well as damage one of your most valuable possessions. Upon closer look, you noticed that they wore some kind of fanmade shirts which had Akashi’s face plastered all over them.

So these are his fangirls..?

One of them stepped up to you and grabbed your jersey’s collar, almost scratching your neck with her absurdly long fake nails.

“We are very busy women, so make sure to listen up, missy?”

You scoffed and tried to pull her hand away from you as quickly as you could, and when you finally succeeded, you proceeded to pick your phone up from the ground.

“Hey, are you even listening?“ asked another one whose entire face resembled that of a clown, that’s how much makeup she had randomly put on. 

You stifled your laugh before answering: “No, I’m not really listening to you, since you appear to have quite enough time to come out and trash-talk me, despite being so busy, as you claim.“

The smug grin that adorned your face wasn’t well-received by them, and just as they opened their mouth again, a familiar calm voice called out your name, stopping them in their tracks.

A tall, grey-haired young man approached the group and stood there with his hands in his jacket’s pocket, his eyes entirely focused on you alone, completely disregarding the others.

“So, that’s where you were (Y/N)!”

“We’ve been looking for you manager!“

Two arms wrapped around your shoulder from each side, and as you looked up to see who the owners were, you couldn’t help but smile. 

Kotaro and Nebuya...

“W-What is Sir Akashi’s team doing here?“

“I-I don’t know..“

“Weren’t t-they supposed to be at the aftermatch meeting?“

As if on cue, Reo joined Mayuzumi and flicked his hair back dramatically.

“Oh, sweetie...it seems like you not only have no clue on how to properly put your makeup on, but also have no idea of what we’re doing.”

She was about to retort something, but a certain man’s voice stopped her.

“The manager is an essential part of these meetings.“

You turned your head and saw your team’s captain picking your phone up from the ground. Both arms that rested on your shoulders released you so that Akashi could take the item, the captain was about to hand to you, back. He gave you a warm smile that instantly darkened, the moment he looked at the women who had now been surrounded by his entire basketball team. His eyes looked at each and every single one of them, and he quickly caught up that they were his fans.

Well...isn’t that convenient.

With a firm nod of his head, he signalized the other four to leave; you, on the other hand, stayed behind. If there was something you knew about this young man, then the fact that he’d always speak to you if he needed something.

“S-Sir Akashi! It’s such an honor to personally meet you!“

“We’ve been your fans for so long an-“

“Silence.“ he hissed. That cold demeanor was something his ‘fans’ had no idea existed, but you as the manager had known about it since day one. He took another look at all of them and sighed.

“Listen up. I don’t care if you are my fans or not, I couldn’t care less that you’re cheering me on or if you’re working multiple jobs so that you can afford tickets for all of my games. I have no need for such useless gestures...what I need is results: clear, flawless, and indisputable results. People like you cannot give me that, but this woman right here..“ he took a short break to point at you “..she can, and she does. If you have any problem with the fact that she has earned this position by hard work, pure dedication, and conviction, then that means that you also have a problem with Rakuzan’s success so far. How else do you think are we able to be that victorious? Don’t tell me you thought that it all depended on talent?“

All of them just cluelessly looked at each other, trying to figure the answer out, but before they could even begin thinking about it, Akashi just continued with his speech.

“There is indeed a part of basketball where you just have to rely on talent alone, but it’s mostly strategy and the team’s combined power. And how do you think are we able to achieve that without a capable manager like her?“

They were left completely speechless, and without even waiting for their answer, the young man just gently took you by the wrist and began walking away. You couldn’t deny the fact that your situation was very much the same as theirs, you were confused yet impressed by the way he had stood up for you, he even went as far as to insult his own fans. The happiness you felt at that moment was a little inappropriate, but considering the hassling you went through today, it was a good payback.

And like that, the two of you joined the other four and began walking toward the restaurant, where you promised to celebrate their victory at today’s match.

[bittysvalentines]

5 times Jack failed at flirting

From: @leahlisabeth

To: @b1ttle

Summary: Jack is new to Providence which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't put his foot in his mouth/run away every time he runs into the Falconer's gorgeous, blond, PR person.  

Rating: none

Tags: Bitty does PR for the Falconers, Bad Flirting, Awkward Situations

Content warnings: Very brief mention of intended non-con

Message: Thank you so much for your prompts! I had a lot of fun writing this fic and I really hope you like it.

1.

Providence is a nice place.  It’s a decent sized city; it would have to be to have their own NHL team, but it has a small town feel.  He can go jogging around his neighbourhood instead of in a cold, sterile gym or even worse, on a treadmill going nowhere.  But it’s not so small that he’s going to stand out and he’s going to get mobbed wherever he goes. Jack thinks he likes it.

He hasn’t really had too many chances to explore, even though he’s marked a few places on the map that he’d like to check out. He’s always been the kind of guy to be a regular, to show up at the same time and get the same thing, predictable and reliable.  It’s already past time for him to establish his Providence routine.

He passes by a sweet little coffee shop as he’s jogging.  It’s getting close to the end of his five- mile run and it is in the perfect location for a post-run snack.  Making a split-second decision, he diverts his path and heads inside.

He isn’t paying attention, already looking to see what’s on their menu, when he feels scalding hot liquid soak his running shirt.

“Oh my lord, I’m so sorry.” A much shorter man is standing in front of him and waving a handful of napkins in his face.  On reflex, Jack grabs for them, stilling both the waving napkins and the hands of the man standing red-faced in front of him.  “I hope I didn’t burn ya.”

“Euh, just a little steamed,” Jack says, finally succeeding in liberating one of the napkins from the man’s grasp and soaking up some of the rapidly cooling liquid on his chest. The man stops waving his arms and tries to help with the napkin he’s still holding.

With that handled, he takes a closer look at the person in front of him and he nearly swallows his tongue.  The guy is gorgeous, with blond hair and brown eyes so large they wouldn’t look out of place on a cartoon.  He’s small but holds himself like someone who is used to complete physical control over his limbs.  His chest is also splashed with coffee even though Jack had taken the brunt of it.  

“At least coffee is your colour,” Jack says.

The man stops mopping at Jack’s chest and looks up at him with a quizzical expression and Jack suddenly has the urge to run.  “Uh, goodbye?” he says before turning around and practically sprinting from the coffee shop.  Guess he can’t ever come back here again.

2. 

Jack’s been busy since moving to Providence.  He’s had near-constant practices and other team meetings as he’s getting to know his new teammates and they’re getting ready to start their season.  He’s heading out early in the morning and coming home late at night with barely a chance to inhabit his new home beyond the bedroom and the bathroom.

Finally, he gets a day off.   He starts it off the same way he has been so far, going for a run and only stopping in to buy coffee once he’s sure he’s not going to run into that blond man again.  

But once he gets home, he’s at a loss.  He bought a couch for the living room but he doesn’t have a TV and his books are all in storage until he has the time to go get them and unpack them.  It’s a little depressing.

Another hiccup occurs at lunchtime.  He decides to splurge and make his favourite chicken tenders. But since he’s mostly been eating out since he moved, he doesn’t even have a baking sheet.

He decides to go and buy at least a few things: a TV, a bookshelf that he can start filling, and the bare minimum for the kitchen.

He’s wandering a department store in the area and comparing two baking sheets, trying to decide if it matters that it’s nonstick, when he hears a familiar voice.

“I wondered if I might run into you again.”

Jack turns and sees the small blond who’s coffee he had spilled. He’s just as cute now and Jack isn’t finding it any easier to look him in the eye. “I was hoping I wouldn’t.”

“Oh,” the blond says, a strangely disappointed look on his face.  “Sorry, I’ll leave you to your shopping.”

“No...that isn’t…” Jack protests but he’s not entirely certain what to say and he can feel the red rising in his cheeks.

“I’d recommend the stainless steel pan.  It’s higher quality and I know they say that nonstick is safe but I’ve also read it leaves bits of Teflon in your food.  If you really want easy cleanup, just use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat,” the blond says, pointing to one of the baking sheets that Jack is still holding.

“Euh, thank you?” Jack says, but the blond man is already gone.

3. 

“Jack, can I meet with you for a moment in my office?” Georgia asks him after practice.  “It’s nothing bad,” she reassures him when she sees the look of apprehension on his face.

“Sure,” Jack says.  “Should I shower first or do you want me right away?”

“By all means, shower first,” Georgia smiles at him and leaves him there.  Even with her reassurance, Jack feels a pit open up in his stomach, just like the one he’d had every time in childhood when he had to talk to any sort of authority figure.  He knows they’re not going to fire him.  They have a contract.  But he’s a little afraid anyway.

A familiar blond man turns to face him when Jack enters the room.

“Jack, I want you to meet Eric Bittle,” Georgia says.  “He’s in charge of PR for the Falconers.  He’s here to talk about your Twitter account.”

Jack frowns.  “I need a Twitter account?”

Bittle turns and smiles at him.  It looks a little forced and Jack really wants to run away from the conversation he knows he needs to have.

“Eric will explain all about it.  You have a choice how involved you want to be but you will have to have at least one public social media account,” Georgia says.

“Oh,” Jack says.  “Um…”

“It shouldn’t take too long,” Bittle says.  “We don’t need to do it right now but we should set up a meeting.”

“Coffee,” Jack blurts out.

Bittle turns red.  “Do you think that’s safe?” he asks.

“No,” Jack says.  “I know it’s not.”

Georgia looks between them, a slight puzzled look on her face.  “Are you going to need my office or are you going to meet elsewhere?”

Bittle takes a card out of his wallet and hands it to Jack.  “Here, you think about it and when you’re ready, you can send me an email and we’ll set a time to meet.”

Jack nods.  Georgia and Eric are both staring at him.  He doesn’t know what they expect from him so he awkwardly turns and leaves.

4.

Jack hasn’t emailed Bittle yet.  He feels bad because he knows he is making Bittle’s job harder but every time he picks up his phone or his laptop, a cold sweat covers his body and he has to get out.  He doesn’t remember the last time he’s been so out of sorts in someone’s presence.  He thinks maybe it’s because Bittle is so completely his type and he hasn’t even entertained the thought of dating another man since Kent.  It shouldn’t be a big deal but it is.

It’s getting late and his stomach is growling. He hadn’t eaten anything after practice and he is paying for it now. He doesn’t feel like cooking or ordering takeout.  Maybe it’s a little weird, going out to eat alone, but the alternative would be to ask one of his new teammates and the anxiety at the thought of reaching out makes him more than a little nauseated.  Eating alone, it is.

He sits down and looks through the menu.  There are a lot of choices and most of them sound awful.  He regrets choosing this restaurant and he’s thinking about walking out.  He’s only ordered a water so far.

He can hear someone talking loudly from the next booth over.  “Oh yeah, sounds totally like a serious job and not an excuse to ogle hockey players in the buff.  I know your type.”

“Excuse me?” Jack recognizes Bittle’s Southern accent and suddenly, he is hyper-focused on the conversation happening behind him.

“Seriously, whoever hooked you up for that sweet gig, tell him I want to run PR for some of the local figure skaters.  That’s what gets my motor running.” The guy’s voice is loud and slurring and Jack can see looks of disgust from the other tables in the restaurant.

Bittle’s voice is frosty and nearly unrecognizable.  “I don’t think I like what you’re insinuatin’.”

“Aw, come on, it’s a compliment.  I way prefer that tight ass to some big muscle-bound goon,” the man laughs loudly.  Jack’s fist clenches.

“I think this date is over,” Bittle says.

“Don’t be like that.  Let’s cut the bullshit.  I know you’re gagging to go back to my place so I can pound that tight ass.”  

Jack can see Bittle standing to leave and he is about to relax when the man grabs Bittle’s wrist and pulls him in close to his side.  Jack hardly knows he is moving before he is looming over the man and prying his hand off Bittle’s wrist.

“Who the fuck are you?” The man blinks up at him, eyes glassy and unfocused.

“Hi, I’m a big muscle-bound goon.  I think your date said no,” Jack growls.

“This is none of your fucking business.  Leave us alone,” the man slurs.  He tries to stand up but thinks twice about it when Jack stares him down.

“Excuse me, can I get this man’s check?” Jack hails the nearest waitress.  She scurries away to get it.

The man tosses down some cash to cover the check.

“Tip too,” Jack says, counting the bills at a glance.  The man curses but throws down another $20.

“Did he drive?” Jack asks Bittle.

Bittle nods.  “He’s my ride.” He winces.

Jack holds out his hand.  “Keys.”

The man’s face grows apoplectic with rage.  He staggers out of the chair and tries to take a swing at Jack.  Jack easily dodges it and dumps him back in his chair. This time the man meekly holds out his car keys.

Jack hands them to the waitress.  “Call a cab for this man.  I’ll cover it.  He can pick his keys up here tomorrow when he’s sobered up.”

The waitress nods and stuffs the man’s keys into the pocket of her apron.

Jack drops another couple of bills on his table and guides a now trembling Bittle out of the restaurant.

“Lord, that was dramatic,” Bittle says.  

Now that the adrenaline has faded, Jack is suddenly tongue-tied again.  “Euh, Bittle...Do you like food?” he asks.

“Um...yes?” Bittle says, looking up at him in confusion.

“I mean I can just drop you at home if you want to go but I didn’t get a chance to eat and I noticed you hardly touched your dinner and then I don’t have to eat alone and the evening isn’t wasted,” Jack says in a rush.

Bittle’s face goes from confusion to a sunny smile.  “Jack, honey, that sounds absolutely perfect.  But if we’re gonna be friends now, you’re gonna have to start calling me Bitty.”

5.

Things are easier now.  He and Bitty meet up once or twice a week, sometimes to discuss new posts for his rapidly growing Instagram account, but mostly just to have coffee or dinner.  Jack’s never been much of a texter, but now, his phone is blowing up all day, every day.  He can’t help smiling every time he sees Bitty’s name pop up in his notifications.

Something is happening to him.  He thinks he’s been in love before.  Kent was all fire and passion and danger.  Camilla was all safety and comfort and security and routine and, if he’s honest, a tiny bit of boredom.  

But this is something else.  

There is passion, but he doesn’t want the side of secrecy that comes along with it.  He feels like he and Bitty have known each other all their lives, but he can’t think of anything he wants more than a lifetime to discover more about him.

The team teases him mercilessly.  Jack denies it but a little pit of sadness grows inside him as he tells them that he’s texting Bitty and of course he’s just a friend.

They go out for dinner and something feels different.  Bitty smiles up at him.  He touches his arm when no one is looking.  He touches his foot to Jack’s under the table and Jack lets him, maybe even presses right back.

Bitty blushes and Jack asks the waiter for a glass of wed rine.  Bitty laughs and Jack wants to make him laugh forever.

“Do you want to come up?” Bitty asks when Jack drops him off.

Jack nods.  Bitty’s apartment is as warm and cheery as the man himself.  Jack likes it.  He immediately feels more at home here than he has almost anywhere since he first moved to Providence, excluding only the feeling he gets in full gear at centre ice.

Bitty brings him a cup of tea and a slice of pie, maple apple and the best thing Jack has ever had in his mouth.

Bitty sits next to him on the couch and for once he’s quiet, content to sit next to Jack and enjoy his company.  

“Bits,” Jack says.  “I…”

Bitty leans in a little closer and Jack wants; it’s terrifying just how much he wants. 

“I…have to go,” Jack says.  “Thanks for the pie. It was delicious.”

He’s outside the door by the time logic kicks back in and it’s too late to go back inside.

+1

Bitty looks sad.  For the first time in several weeks, Bitty wasn’t the one to text first.  Jack knows he did something wrong and he wants to fix it.  But a small part of him also wonders if maybe this isn’t for the best.  Bitty makes things complicated.  He can’t come out anytime soon and Bitty deserves better than that.  Plus, there is the whole ethical dilemma of him dating a member of the team.  What if Georgia fired Bitty for this?  He couldn’t have that on his conscience.

It might be too late anyway.  Bitty doesn’t look at him when he enters the locker room.  He’s there talking to Tater and he keeps his focus steadily on the big Russian’s face.  He leaves without a look at Jack.

“Your boy mad at you?” Tater asks.

Jack’s heart skips a beat.  “What are you talking about?”

“Little B.  He not flirt with you or make googly eyes.  No maple apple pie in nook this week,” Tater says, clapping Jack’s shoulder with one big hand.  “Is lover’s quarrel, right? You say sorry.  We get pie.”

“You think Bittle and I are…” Jack’s voice trails off.

“Boyfriends, right?” Tater asked.

Jack is practically ready to pass out.  Tater talks so loudly and surely the rest of the team can hear this.  He looks around but no one seems to care.

“I thought we weren’t getting involved,” Marty said with a raised eyebrow.

“That was when they happy and flirting.  Not when Little B look like he might cry,” Tater says.

“Jack, we haven’t said anything because it’s not our business.  But we’re glad you and Bitty found each other,” Marty says.  “If you need to straighten something out, better to do it now than to take it on the ice.”

Jack nods and runs out of the locker room to find Bitty.  He catches Bitty in the entrance way, heading to his car in the parking lot.  He’s breathing hard and he realizes, staring at Bitty, that he has no idea what to say.

“Jack, are you alright?  Did you need something?” Bitty asks, holding his clipboard like a shield in front of him.

“My team just informed me we’ve been dating for weeks?” It comes out like a question and a shutter falls over Bitty’s eyes.

“I’m sorry.  It’s my fault.  You were so nice and we spent so much time together.  I really thought...but it’s okay.  Message received, loud and clear.  I won’t get you in trouble with your team.  I should have known better than to fall in love with a straight boy,” Bitty says, misery on his face and in his voice.

“I’m not,” Jack says.

“Not what?” Bitty asks.

“I’m not straight.  And I’m not in trouble.  And I really wasn’t sending you a message, at least not that message,” Jack says.  He takes a step closer to Bitty and Bitty drops his arms.

“What message were you sending?” Bitty whispers as Jack takes another step.

“I…” Jack still can’t get the words out.  Bitty is waiting, hope in his eyes, but that hope is fading with every second that Jack can’t find the words.  He forgets about words entirely, leans down and kisses Bitty.

When he pulls back, there are tears standing in Bitty’s eyes.  “Oh,” he says.  “Good.”

Jack just has to kiss him again.

[salemsarc]

i’m not even my own - ao3

It was rare to have anyone other than Tadashi watching Kei’s games.

Kei was running off of a slight adrenaline high walking off the court. The Sendai Frogs had just won against a formidable rival, and Kei was a part of that team. Warmth pooling in Kei’s gut didn’t disgust him anymore, he accepted his passion for volleyball long ago.

Before the match, Kei was opening his texts before confining his phone to his gym bag for the duration of the game.

From: <3Tadashi<3

good luck tsukki !! i’m in the front row

A smile crept up onto Kei’s face, which surprised some of his teammates who were glancing around the locker room. Sure, he was a lot less cranky since high school, but he was nowhere near Hinata’s level of enthusiasm. Kei only sent a short reply to Tadashi before he was about to turn off his phone, another text had caught him off guard.

From: Akaashi

Hey. I’m watching your game. Can we hang out and talk after?

Kei didn’t pretend that those words on the screen didn’t cause him some unease. It wasn’t like he wasn’t on good terms with Akaashi, rather the opposite. They texted frequently (under Kei’s standards) and still made time to go out to brunch or watch a movie occasionally. Just slightly strange that he would request to see each other so suddenly, especially right after one of Kei’s games.

Now that Kei had thought about it, Bokuto didn’t have any games for that week. Akaashi attended every one of Bokuto’s games, the beefcake claiming that Akaashi was his good luck charm. That man was a saint for being able to deal with Bokuto’s antics on such a frequent basis.

Thinking time was over, one of Kei’s teammates slapped his shoulder roughly, causing his phone to clatter to the floor.

“You can text your girlfriend later, Tsukishima,” said his teammate with a teasing lilt in his voice.

Girlfriend, sure. Kei picked up his phone from the ground and shoved it into his bag. He could worry about Akaashi later.

Tadashi was waiting for him, of course, right outside of the gym. Kei’s teammates were still inside, probably doing some stupid locker room ritual that Kei had no interest in. The way that Tadashi’s irises were sparkling in pride still made Kei’s insides swirl around.

“Congrats, Tsukki!” Tadashi threw his arms around Kei’s lanky body despite the fact that Kei was pretty sweaty. “You kicked their asses! God, I’m so lucky to have such a cool boyfriend.” Kei’s insides swirled a little harder at his words.

Tadashi followed up by pressing a chaste kiss to Kei’s lips, having to go onto the tips of his toes to reach his excessive height. Kei didn’t make any fuss because he was feeling particularly sappy for Tadashi at that moment, and his teammates probably weren’t around.

“Yeah, well, everyone else also played the game too, you know,” teased Kei.

“I hate you, just take the compliment!”

“Fine, thank you for the compliment that is definitely the truth.”

Tadashi smacked Kei’s shoulder lightheartedly at that, but he knew what Kei was thinking. He always did.

“Oh! I was sitting with Akaashi during the game, are you guys going to hang out now?” Kei didn’t pay any mind to the stands during his games, regardless of Tadashi’s presence. But he did remember getting a brief glimpse of Akaashi’s emotionless resting face.

“Mm. He said he wanted to hang out and talk.” This time, Kei tried to hide his unease.

“Stop worrying so much, he probably just wants to catch up.” Hiding was pointless.

“He’s by the parking lot, I’m going to go now.”

Kei chose to ignore Tadashi’s remark on his nervousness and instead leaned down to slot their lips together. He held it there for a few seconds, just to be safe.

“Oh, wow, Tsukki. This bold in public? I’ll be waiting for you when you get home!~” Tadashi made a point to drag his pointer finger down Kei’s chest before leaving. His finger carved sparks and tingles in its path of destruction.

He should go find Akaashi.

Akaashi was, indeed, waiting for him at the parking lot entrance. He was by no means short, standing only seven centimeters below Kei’s own stature. But, the jacket he was wearing (or vice-versa) made Akaashi appear Tadashi’s size.

“Ah, Tsukishima. Thanks for agreeing to this so last-minute.” Akaashi had peered over his phone to regard Kei.

“It’s not that big of a deal. I would have just spent some time with Tadashi,” uttered Kei. He didn’t include what he thought that time would ensue, he also chose not to think about it.

“I feel bad for interrupting your time with Yamaguchi, are you sure this is okay?” Akaashi asked. He was shifting his weight back and forth between his legs. It made the oversized jacket sway back and forth, and make a small sound when the zipper collided with a nearby car. Akaashi looked nervous about something and it made Kei’s insides swirl in the opposite direction.

“It’s fine. Seriously. I spent a lot of time with Tadashi as it is,” They did live together, after all, “I don’t mind going somewhere with you for one afternoon.” He couldn’t make his face look any more pleased, as much as he tried. Kei prayed that Akaashi would pick up his sentiment so he wouldn’t have to admit it himself.

“Okay, thank you,” Akaashi’s lips curled up briefly before he showed Kei his phone screen. “Can we go here?” It was a small coffee shop he went to with Tadashi on occasion. Kei simply nodded before beginning to navigate.

Almost no time had passed when the two boys arrived at the coffee shop, it was only a small walk away. Upon receiving their drinks and Kei’s slice of cake (It was most definitely for Tadashi, not himself, grump master Kei would never consume sweet, sugary confections.), they found a table to sit at.

“You did a good job today. A lot of your blocks only had a brief window of decision, I admire your analysis,” complimented Akaashi.

“Coming from you, of course. I’m sure you overthink how you tie your shoes.”

Small talk felt empty when it was obvious that another matter was gravely present. Akaashi just chuckled before taking a long sip of his hazelnut coffee. He took a deep breath.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you some things,” muttered Akaashi while he threaded a hand through his obsidian hair.

“I assumed as such. Why else would you voluntarily spend time with my joyful demeanor?” The sarcasm came from Kei as deadpan as ever.

“Do you mind if I ask something about Yamaguchi?”

“Not really, no. Unless it’s something weird and perverted.”

“How did you realize you were in love with him?”

The question cut through the tense air like a dull butter knife. Kei certainly wasn’t expecting such an emotionally-charged question from Akaashi. Did he want romantic advice? That wouldn’t be like Akaashi, it had to be deeper than that.

“I guess it was right before graduation. Tadashi was really upset over leaving the volleyball team, especially as captain. I didn’t really mind, but I suddenly felt myself feeling upset because Tadashi was. It was when I realized that I didn’t have some silly crush on Tadashi for all those years, but that I was just in love with him.” Kei recalled the moment as if it had happened the day before.

“In hindsight, it was stupidly obvious how in love with him I was. All the signs were there. Even the dumbass freak duo figured it out before I did.”

Akaashi was listening intensely when Kei met the boy’s eyes once again. Now it was clear why Akaashi asked him to hang out, really it should’ve been a lot sooner.

Kei thought about how Akaashi’s mood dropped whenever Bokuto would go into his emo mode during a game. He hid it extremely well, but Sugawara had pointed it out to Kei once, and he never unsaw it. Akaashi’s sets were still precise as ever, but the way the ball sprang off his fingertips made it feel like Akaashi was the one getting his spikes constantly blocked.

“What signs.” Akaashi asked immediately with a sideways cough right after.

“I would sacrifice a lot for him. Tadashi sucked at English so I always would teach him whatever he struggled with after practice, no matter how much work I had. In general I gave all of my free time to be with Tadashi. What’s that song? If I had to choose between him and the son, I’d be one nocturnal son of a gun. As embarrassing and nauseatingly cheesy as it sounds, it’s true.”

Kei thought about how many plans Akaashi cancelled to go to Bokuto’s games. He would always provide the same reason, that he had to be there so Bokuto wouldn’t go into emo mode. Tadashi asked Kei if he was being held at gunpoint.

“The jealousy, too. Sometimes girls would confess to Tadashi after school, and he would come to practice feeling self-confident, but still describing how bad he felt for rejecting their feelings. I was happy that he felt more confident in himself, but some ugly part of me wanted to kiss him right in front of those girls. I guess showing them that Tadashi wasn’t available. But he was. I didn’t want Tadashi to date anyone. Turns out I didn’t want him to date anyone that wasn’t me.”

This time, Kei didn’t think about Akaashi. He thought about Bokuto talking to him during the training camp. A girl confessed to Akaashi that morning and he responded with a simple rejection. Kei may be taken, but he sure isn’t blind (with his glasses). Akaashi was really fucking attractive. It was surely a common occurrence but Bokuto was still dejected. Bokuto didn’t bring his voice volume above a respectable level the entire morning. His mood brought down the whole warm-up. Even Kei felt his arms stinging just a little bit more from the ball.

“Oh, okay. That was really detailed.” Kei had finished his answer and met eyes once again with Akaashi. He appeared more somber than anxious like he had before in the parking lot. Dark eyes were zigging and zagging to find some imaginary answer in the coffee shop.

“I mean, you asked. So, I answered.”

“Yes, I guess I did. Wow.”

“Did that help you realize that you’re in love with Bokuto?”

It was a little too blunt, even for a person like Kei, but he felt like he needed to state the everloving obvious. Akaashi’s eyes blew open like saucers and his mouth stood slightly agape. Only for a fleeting moment, however. He quickly composed himself into emotionless-Akaashi-mode and took an even longer sip of his now cold coffee to solidify his composure.

“Yes, it did. Thank you Tsukishima,” stated Akaashi flatly.

“No problem. When are you going to tell him?” Kei had no desire to press further into Akaashi’s personal feelings.

“I’m not. I can’t.”

Akaashi’s visage was inflicted with a familiar pain. Kei had felt the same emotion himself, he saw those cracks festering onto Akaashi’s state of mind. He could see the doubts swimming into Akaashi’s eyes that would leave him dizzy and longing.

“Akaashi.”

He met Kei’s gaze, and promptly gave in. Akaashi was not about to start crying in a coffee shop where he could feel the stares of a family behind him. Instead, he spilled out all the thoughts that were imprisoned in his mind.

“It’s the classic ‘ I don’t want to ruin our friendship! ’ kind of deal, I know. In the stories and movies the person ends up confessing anyways and of course, the other person feels the same way because this is a romance, coming-of-age movie after all! But this is real life! Just because it worked out for you and Yamaguchi doesn’t mean I get a happy ending too!” The subtle jab at the end, most likely unintentional, made Kei feel a dull guilt.

“I’ve known that I’ve been in love with him, I wish I was that stupid. This was just my reality check. I go to all of his games no matter what, just because he wants me there. Do you know how much I’ve missed out on from loving him? Koutarou could ask me to give him the world, for fuck’s sake, and I would do it. Yet, I feel like throwing up every time he asks me to set to him with that godforsaken confidence in his eye.”

“Yes, I’m in love with Bokuto, but I can’t fucking live like this!”

Kei had never seen Akaashi express so much emotion in his years of knowing him. It was more than every year combined. Kei cursed the emptiness he felt. He couldn’t understand what Akaashi was feeling.

Venting his emotions did nothing to stop the tears already dripping down Akaashi’s face. Upon realizing this, the setter shamefully wiped the wetness from his face with his jacket sleeve. No, Bokuto’s jacket sleeve. The player gave it to Akaashi the previous day because it was cold outside and Akaashi didn’t bring anything to keep him warm.

“Keiji! I can’t let you get sick! I would be a terrible person if I let you suffer like this,” screeched Bokuto. The same excitable man ended up getting sick and Akaashi took care of him because he felt guilty.

An uncharacteristic hand grasped Akaashi’s shoulder. Kei had reached out to him, just like that. Akaashi couldn’t help but halt his downward spiral and look up in complete surprise.

“Just tell him. If he rejects you, whatever. Then you can get over him and stop giving him everything. If not, then there you go.” Kei said firmly.

While it was just a hand on his shoulder and some words of common sense, the gesture being from Kei created a new level of authenticity. Kei felt uncomfortable as all hell for doing this, but he couldn’t watch Akaashi dig himself into such a deep hole. It was by no means a gesture of comfort, but rather of desperation.

“Text me how it goes, okay?” Kei moved to get up and leave. He felt terrible for leaving all too suddenly, but he knew this wasn’t his area of expertise.

Akaashi understood.

Akaashi picked up his emotions that he had scattered all over the table and neatly put them back inside of his head. He dusted off the crumbs of emotional vulnerability from the table. It was a moment of instability, but Akaashi had managed to pack it all down. No more troublesome Akaashi burdening his friends with his useless feelings. Everything was back in its rightful place in the universe.

“Goodbye, Tsukishima. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.”

[pucksnsticksnhockeyboys]

it’s what you deserve - pt. two

summary: you’re reunited with Brett at the charity gala, but life still finds a way to remind you of reality

word count: 2.1k

link to the rest of the series 

Part of you had been annoyed when Bee dragged you through store after store on your day off, but now that you were looking at yourself in the mirror, waiting for Adam to pick you and Bee up, you were glad you went. 

The dress you had picked was a perfect color, and the fit did wonders for your body. Bee had done your hair in an elegant style and even your makeup looked really good. Long story short, you were feeling yourself. Bee noticed, too, because as soon as you left your room to meet up with her in the living room she was gasping at how good you looked.

“Bee, you literally just saw me. All I did was put on the dress.” You waved off her dramatics, but the smile you wore as a result of her compliments was obvious. She went to respond, probably only to hype you up some more, but cut herself off when there was a knock on the door. A big smile bloomed on her face, and you assumed that her boyfriend had arrived. Your suspicions were proven to be true when the door swung open and one of the top line defensemen for the New York Rangers stepped into your apartment.

Introductions with Adam weren't uncomfortable, and you certainly didn't fawn over the fact that he was a hockey player—nor did you even mention the sport. He was simply the guy that had been making your best friend extremely happy, and that meant he was good on your list.

You didn't feel any nerves until you were actually at the venue, seeing flashing cameras and mobs of people. You were used to crowds, having lived in New York City for a considerable amount of time, but usually the people didn't care about the ones around them. Even if you knew the cameras weren't really on you, it was still unnerving to have them pointed in your general direction.

“Just keep walking, Ryan's already inside so we can meet up with him.” Adam explained as if he could sense your panic, something he and Bee seemed to have in common. He was looking between you and Bee despite the fact that you had no idea which Ryan he was talking about. There were two on the team, but Bee seemed to know who he was referring to so you decided to follow her.  

The cameras were a little intimidating, but Adam kept making jokes as you walked into the venue to lighten the mood and you could tell that he was going to be a good friend.

“Foxy, Bee. There you guys are.” An unfamiliar deep voice sounded, gaining the attention of the couple walking slightly in front of you. Following the source, you spotted a blonde—Ryan Lindgren—greeting his defensive partner Adam with a bro-hug. Bee shot you a look, one that was purely teasing, and in retaliation Adam tugged her into his side in good fun. You looked to Ryan, fake gagging to draw a laugh out of him.

“You're just jealous.” Bee teased, blowing a dramatic kiss in your direction that had you playfully rolling your eyes. Adam then introduced you to Ryan, and shortly after your small group was joined by Filip Chytil, Czech accent obvious even in his simple greeting.

For a while, you were able to hang out with the boys and get to know them, and it was fun. You got on well with the guys, able to keep up with their chirping and even firing back with some teasing of your own. But eventually they were pulled away, their older teammate Chris Kreider coming to collect them from the table you had snagged, but they promised to return. Adam gave Bee a parting kiss and Ryan jokingly shielded your eyes, earning a laugh from you. As soon as the boys were out of earshot, you turned to your best friend to find her already looking at you.

“I like Adam. He's nice.” You told Bee, knowing that she had been dying for your opinion on him since the moment you had been introduced. Your best friend smiled widely, clearly happy with your answer. You chatted with her for a moment longer, before your attention was drawn to the stage at the front of the gala hall.

A middle aged man came on stage and thanked everyone for their donations and expressed gratitude for the New York Rangers for supporting them. Then, the Rangers filed out onto the stage, smiling awkwardly with having the attention on them while they just stood there. Your gaze scanned down the line of players, and only did you stop your perusing when you landed on a particular brunette.

“Oh, my god.” You started, feeling your cheeks heat up once you remembered what had happened between classes a few weeks ago. You had told Bee, but nothing more came of it other than a joke between the two of you and a new sweatshirt hanging in your closet. “I forgot about Brett.” Bee looked at you questioningly, but then a look of realization crossed her face and suddenly she was laughing loudly at you. You weren’t sure just how you managed to forgot him, his was devastatingly handsome. “It's not funny.”

“It really is.” Bee giggled, ignoring your pouting. You turned back to the stage, listening to the man talk more about the charity and the events auction of signed Rangers merchandise and equipment that will be available throughout the night, clapping when you need to. Your focus was mostly on the tall boy standing behind the announcer, the one who had been kind enough to give you his sweatshirt after accidentally knocking your coffee all down your front.

Like he had promised, Adam returned after escaping a media frenzy, saying that he wanted to introduce you and Bee to the rest of the guys on the team. He led you through the crowd, arm wrapped protectively around Bee as he walked leaving you smirking at the fact they were so blatant in their affection. A large part of you was happy for him, but you still couldn't help but think about how things between you and Max were never as good as it was with Bee and Adam.

You smiled politely as Adam introduced you and Bee to the crowd of Rangers players. Some had been pulled away to talk to press, so they weren't all there, and you were slightly glad for that. It would've been a bit intimidating to meet the whole Rangers roster at once. Everything was going smooth until Adam waved someone over.

“It's you!” The newcomer gleefully shouted, and you felt the tips of your ears burn red as you recognized Brett. Bee laughed outright, while you chuckled nervously with a nod under the confused looks from the boys.

“You know each other?” Adam asked eyeing his girlfriend to try and figure out why she was reacting the way she was. You were a little thrown by the fact that he actually recognized you from such a small interaction, and even Brett seemed caught off guard by his own response to seeing you again.

“He kind of hit me with a door when I was leaving a cafe and I spilled coffee on myself.” You were full on blushing by this point, not sure if it was from the embarrassing memory or having so many sets of eyes on you. A beat of silence passed before the whole group was laughing, and it took you only a moment to realize they were laughing at Brett instead of you.

“Good job, bud.” Ryan Strome said between laughter, clapping Brett on the shoulder. You glanced up momentarily to see that Brett was blushing too, and that sight alone had you smiling down at your feet.

After that, the boys dispersed, having various people they were supposed to talk to and some even had interviews they had to finish. You found yourself sitting at the bar counter, having split from Bee and Adam to give them some alone time. You weren't by yourself long, though, because a figure that was rapidly becoming familiar joined you.

“I didn't know you knew Adam.” Brett started. You glanced at him, seeing him and his breathtaking smile already looking at you. For a second you didn't respond, too caught up in the fact that he was choosing to talk to you instead of anyone in the whole gala hall. Maybe you had been overthinking it, but it was a nice thought.

“I mean, I only actually met him tonight, and when you hit me with a door I was a bit distracted.” You teased, and somehow his smile got even wider. You turned your attention to the drink in your hand, tearing your attention away from Brett. You were basically openly staring at him, and you really didn't need him thinking you were weird.

“I'm still sorry about that.” He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. Like you had done in the cafe, you waved him off. You weren't one to hold a grudge, especially over an accident. It provided you with a story, one that if no one else, at the very least Bee found to be incredibly amusing.

“No big deal, though my shirt is ruined.” You giggled, knowing that the white fabric was permanently stained no matter how much you tried to clean in. Brett winced, clearly still upset that that he had spilled on you. “I mean, I got a new sweatshirt out of it, so I think it was worth it.” At this, his smile returned and he leaned against the counter beside you.

Conversation with Brett flowed easily after that, and it was a little unnerving with how quickly you were comfortable with him. You were laughing at nearly everything he said, and your responses kept him smiling. You talked about everything from your schooling to his favorite hometown ice cream parlor. You were in the middle of telling an animated story about your childhood dog that had him gigging like a fool when Bee and Adam decided to make an appearance. You didn't have to address the teasing smirk she was donning, looking between you and Brett with a mischievous glint in her eye, because your phone started vibrating to indicate an incoming call.

Checking the caller ID, Max's name and photo appeared. You showed Bee the phone, and she did nothing to hide the roll of her eyes. You ignored her, a habit you had been forced to develop ever since you starting bringing Max around.

“Hey? What's up?” You questioned, turning slightly away from the small group you had formed to take your call.

“Babe, I'm coming over soon so we can hang out.” Max spoke through the phone and you furrowed your brows. You had a hard enough time getting him to hangout on the nights you were free, but the one time you tell him you had plans he suddenly is coming over.

“Max, you know I'm out.” You heard Bee scoff behind you, letting out a ‘Typical’ that you pretended not to hear. You felt three sets of eyes on you and desperately wanted to end the call as soon as you could.

“But I want to see you.” Max pleaded, and you caught yourself from scolding him like a child.

“I can come over later, but I'm not leaving early.” You decided, not letting him dictate your night like had you before. You were having a genuinely good time at the gala, and you were making friends with a professional hockey team. Max could wait.

“Forget it. Don't bother.” He huffed, hanging up on you before you could get another word in. You looked at your phone in shock for a moment, but then you clicked it off and set it on the counter. You were right in your suspicions when you turned around and saw that not only Bee was looking at you expectantly, but also Brett and Adam.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Brett asked, a hint of something in his tone you couldn't quite pinpoint, making it different than how he had sounded earlier in the night. Before you could respond, Bee scoffed loudly and attention was shifted to her.

“Max doesn't do relationships.” She mocked, repeating what you had told her when she asked why you weren't official. You stayed silent, cheeks flushing in embarrassment as Brett analyzed at you with a confused and... sad look in his eyes. You weren't sure what he could've been upset about, but you were just as confused as him about where you stood with Max.

“No,” you started, fiddling with the napkin the bartender had given you with your drink. “not my boyfriend.”

[ikesenlemonadestandstories]

Level 9

Can you believe we’re almost all the way through January? One more day left and we’ll be a full month into 2020. How’s it feel gang? We all doing okay?

Tagging: @loudartanimeeclipse​

Master List here or search Ikesen AFK tag

Warnings: None

Happy Reading, T~

Level 9

You were here, it was nine, and you were starting to get annoyed. Had you been played? Were you about to be ambushed? Jumped? Hacked? As your mind raced nearly a thousand pop up windows flooded your chat screen as you were thrown into a brand new group chat, this one titled “Team Azuchi.” Interesting. 

4myLord → Seriously, though, how do you not know where they are? You just met her last night. This is horribly rude.

OneEyedDrag0n → Nope, see? I remembered her username! She’s in the group chat! @WildCyt0m3try you are in the group chat right. /;3;/ Please tell me you’re in the group chat!

Present, though, I’m not super sure where you are? You said 9 sharp but never specified where... ← WildCyt0m3try

Betrayal_is_real04  → He’s as helpful as ever I see. 

Your answer was equally unhelpful… ( - . - )  ← WildCyt0m3try

D3vilK1ng  → I like her @OneEyedDrag0n, she’s got spunk. 

OneEyedDrag0n  → Right! Almost beat me in that tournament too! 

EdoPorcupine5661 → Oh? No surprise there. 

OneEyedDrag0n → Hey! I resent that statement 

Betrayal_is_real04 → You resent most of his statements. 

EdoPorcupine5661 → Is everyone here now? Except for @WildCyt0m3try? 

4myLord → No. We’re missing @B00kOfLife7. You can find us near the South gate @WildCyt0m3try. 

Thx! I see you now! ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → Does it matter? Can we start without him? He’s probably reading and forgot we were supposed to meet. 

4myLord → We cannot!

B00kOfLife7 → We cannot what? 

EdoPorcupine5661 → Nevermind… 

D3vilK1ing → Glad you could join us, shall we head out now that everyone’s gathered?

In a matter of moments, your screen warped, and your character and her new teammates were whisked off towards the southern dessert. Excitement bubbled up inside of you, this was your chance to shine. Sure, you barely knew these people, but if they fought anything like OneEyedDrag0n had, you didn’t want to look incompetent. Fortunately, the battle conditions were a perfect way to showcase your stats. 

The dessert terrain made it nearly impossible for anyone on foot to move, and cavalry or armored units had almost no chance at advancing more than a single space at a time. You, on the other hand, were a flier, meaning terrain that diminished that particular stat didn’t apply to you. Giving you the range to quickly traverse the battlefield and assist your allies. Which is precisely what you planned to do. 

Everyone had spawned in one of two groups; truly, the game seemed to be out to get you. Both of the warlocks had been pushed together in the back corner of the map with the sniper. Everyone else in your party was in the top corner with you. Meaning all of your long-range fighters were too far away to provide any sort of backup to the poor guy on a horse and your swords.

So...this is unfortunate ← WildCyt0m3try

OneEyedDrag0n → We’ve honestly gotten worse, this ain't too bad 

You’ve got to be kidding ← WildCyt0m3try

4myLord → We wish. We’ll have time for that story later. @B00kOfLife got a plan yet? 

B00kOfLife → @D3vilK1ng and @Betrayal_is_real04, please proceed towards the center of the field to become the central targets. 

B00kOfLife → @EdoPorcupine5661 and I will cover the exit point down here to the south so bandits cannot escape. 

B00kOfLife → @OneEyedDrag0n, please do your best to cover @4myLord since he doesn’t have a large range of movement. Fend off enemies as you make your way toward the center of the field. 

B00kOfLife → @WildCyt0m3try, please make quick work of the chests around the field then chase down any enemies that attempt to flee. You are quite capable of fending them off on your own, I presume?

Everything but archers, though, I’m usually good with dodging, and I’ve got plenty of herbs on standby jic. ← WildCyt0m3try

B00kOfLife ← Wonderful. Message if something should go wrong. Good luck. 

With the plan out, the chat went silent. This was nothing like your other team, no microphones were used for in battle communication, not a single word was typed unless something was direly wrong. You had been provided exactly 3 chest keys to do your job, but you knew that at least three of these bandits had keys of their own, so you shouldn’t have to dip into your stock unless someone called you for backup. 

Just as OneEyedDrag0n had stated last night, everyone here was a capable fighter. The plan was being executed beautifully, and you marveled at how the CPU’s seemed to go down one after the other. It was like the computer wasn’t even paying attention to the stats anymore. Why would you go after an enemy that you only had a 16% chance of doing 4 damage to when they had a 98% chance of doing 36 damage twice? It didn’t make any sense. You'd take what you were given, though. 

In half an hour, all of the chests were successfully looted, the enemy had been routed, and EdoPorcupine5661 was named the MVP. You’d never seen that before, granted you hadn’t been playing that long, but it was rare for a bowed unit to take accolades like that. Being a ranged unit seemed to have its perks on terrane like this, you supposed. Prize money was divided, and the weapons and armor were awarded based on participation and usability. It didn’t make much sense to give something to someone who couldn’t make use of it. After thanking them for letting you play with them, you were about to log off and head to bed when you got a private message. 

EdoPorcupine5661 → OneEyedDrag0n said you were in the market for a bow. 

I am. Not sure where I’d find one this late in my game, though, sort of hard to reclass and start over.  ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → You fought well, and you aren’t completely annoying, so here, it was part of my loot today. 

Are you sure? That’s a really nice bow! ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → It is, which is why you’d be stupid not to take it. I’ve already got one. So here. 

Thanks! UwU You’re the best! Now I’ve just got to get the skill up so I can use it! ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → If you’re free tomorrow at 5, I can meet you for some quick tips. Don’t need you shooting yours or anyone else’s eye out. 

Is that what happened to OneEyedDrag0n? Training accident lol? ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → No. It wasn’t an accident.

Omfg, you didn’t xD ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → I didn’t, but it’s always fun to imagine. 

So 5 tomorrow? ← WildCyt0m3try I should be down for that as long as I get off work on time. ← WildCyt0m3try   Are you going to give me any hints about where to meet you, or is that part of this team’s quirks? ← WildCyt0m3try Make the newbie guess where you’re meeting? ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → You know, I was going to tell you, but I’m not feeling quite as generous anymore. 

Noooo! Please! I don’t like wandering around like a lost CPU! Someone tried to buy stuff from me today, you know! ← WildCyt0m3try That’s how idle I looked waiting for you goons lol ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → Maybe you should evaluate the face your character is making? It’s not my fault you look like someone who sells cheap spears. 

I would not sell cheap spears! Only the highest quality merchandise is sold here! ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → Whatever you say. 

I’m glad you’ve come to your senses and decided to agree with me.  ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → Sure, we’ll go with that. 

Okay, well, thanks for the bow. I’ll see you tomorrow around 5. I’ve decided I actually need to get some sleep tonight! Work has been a H A U L lately. ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → You don’t need to explain yourself to me. Just go to bed, weirdo. 

Roger that, weirdo. ← WildCyt0m3try

EdoPorcupine5661 → That wasn’t a compliment. 

Sure it was. Laters~ ← WildCyt0m3try

You smiled as you shut down the console and powered off your television, that had been fun. It was so different from your other team's dynamic, but it added something different to the experience beyond solo playing. Besides, you had totally just scored a kick-ass bow, and a training date tomorrow. You couldn’t wait; if you kept going at this pace, you were sure it’d be enough to push your team to the winning slot next tournament! Real-life prize money here you came!

[hometownrockstar]

Ok by popular demand (aka me wanting to info dump about my main) here is my epic splat brella guide!! follow this guide and you will be a brella pro hopefully! :) remember that you can succeed at anything with a little bit of practice and dedication, and you’ll need that if you wanna use a brella bc it is... a difficult weapon. i will put this under a cut bc i wrote a lot of stuff! but if you check it out then thank you!

The Brella’s Shots: I tend to compare the brella’s shots to a blaster in my mind due to the shape of its shots and that it almost has indirect and direct shots, though it still functions differently. Indirect shots are when you hit the opponent with a fall off shot or with your aim slightly off, making not all of the pellets in your shot land their full damage. This can make a splat either a 2 shot kill (2 directs or 1 direct and a close enough indirect) or a 3-4 or more shot kill based on how close your other shots hit. There’s also a 1 shot kill where you hit the opponent with a direct and hold your brella open right after it and walk into them with it open, splatting them with the brella shield’s 30 damage hit. A very fun and quick way to splat opponents, but pretty situational as its super close range, good for ambushes and flanking though.

Splatting Strategy: The best strategy is to get in close to your opponents, not playing based on your range unless your trying to pick off fleeing opponents as that lowers the damage of your shots, and if you dont land/dont believe you’ll land your second shot then you start to open your brella while your opponents shooting at you, closing it and shooting when you predict they’ll stop shooting, rinse and repeat. its somewhat risky unless you make sure not to let them flank you while your brella’s open, or if they run out of ink, or they happen to miss their shots, or you predict their movements correctly. Getting your shots to land is similar to chargers (and probably blasters) in my experience, in that you have to shoot where you’ll predict your opponent is going to go. if you can master this then you’ll be a brella master! I’d also recommend playing on low sensitivity if you use motion controls as it makes your shots easier to aim, i play at around -2.5!

Weapon Advantages/Disadvantages: Weapons to watch out for are blasters (their shots will usually ignore your brella if they shoot slightly to the side or up. Flank them from the side or the back), sloshers (not the biggest problem unless they shoot at you from above), other brellas (theyre gonna try to predict when your shield is down, try to do the same to them but get the upper hand on them! Getting the first shot on them is crucial) and dualies (their rolls can cause issues when predicting where to shoot. Using the 1 shot/brella kill is recommended for them). Weapons you have an advantage over are rollers (easy to predict when they’ll stop attempting to hit you, allowing you to block and shoot efficiently) chargers and splatlings (you can block their quick-killing shots and hit them while theyre charging, but make sure to time it right) and shooters (watch out for close range and fast firing shooters however as they might splat you before you can even get your shield up.)

Maps And Terrain Advantages: Corners and tight corridors are your friends, and your friends are your friends as well! Shooting at opponents while in a corner or corridor can prevent the enemy from flanking behind you, and backing an opponent into a corner can be an easy 1 shot/brella kill. Some good splat brella maps are Blackbelly Skatepark, Moray Towers, Walleye Warehouse, and Port Mackerel. If you’re being overwhelmed by an opponent or two, try keeping your brella open and let a teammate splat them while theyre shooting at you. This weapon is a major support and assist weapon, its recommended that you dont go out of your way for kills unless theyre retreating or you have an advantage over them. Also be careful about getting into 2v1s, you’re basically certain to get splatted if youre outnumbered and dont have a teammate nearby. If you need to retreat try sending out your brella and superjumping back to base or swimming backwards, otherwise sending out your brella is mostly useless. i’d recommend getting the timing for when your brella automatically sends off so you can maximize how much you can hold it open. 

Game Modes: this weapon excels in splat zones, tower control and turf war the most, it paints very well and is good at charging its special to provide support with ink storm (or splat bomb rush if you use the sorella brella). this may sound obvious but this weapon is a defensive weapon in ranked, youre gonna wanna stay in the zone or on the tower and block any enemies from trying to get in. be sure to move around a lot and have a easy path to retreat in case multiple enemies try to come for you at once, though since tower control and splat zones are restricted to small areas retreating doesnt always have to be an option cause your teammates might be close enough to give you a hand. also always get on the tower! always!!! you can aim upwards and shoot your pellets over the tower to scare off anyone trying to climb on from the other side, and when you get on you can stop them from climbing on with your shield. try to block shots instead of shooting at opponents while the tower is moving, unless they are distracted and within splatting range. enemies swimming towards you and not shooting are very easy to pick off however.

Specials: For specials, i dont have much to say about the sorella brella bc i dont use it, i much prefer the more defensive splat brella kit as it compliments the weapon’s playstyle better imo. Try to throw your ink storm as soon as you get it as you’ll charge it pretty steadily with your sprinkler and with how good the brella is at painting, but if there are no enemies around try to wait till several opponents are in one place or when theyre trying to make a push in ranked and throw it to support your teammates. After your rain has been going on for a while you can look for damaged retreating opponents and catch them off guard with an easy 1 or 2 shot splat.

Tips: A tip regarding superjumping is that you can hold your brella open as you land back into the fray, meaning that chargers can’t splat you as you come in, and it can allow you to either retreat from other spawncampers or try to splat them back instead! 

a fun tip is that bombs blow up automatically on your brella but dont splat you (they can splat your teammates if theyre in front of your brella tho so watch out!), so you can hold your brella open and pop the bomb on it before its supposed to go off, its very good for suction and autobombs and a good way to clear a path in ranked when the opponents are trying to suppress your push. your shield will be destroyed by 2-4 bombs usually. it’ll also break if youre in close proximity to a splashdown or a baller explosion, so if you find yourself in a situation like that just retreat or superjump back to base, cause you wont win without your shield...... unless its a charger, like the kensa charger or goo tuber, in which case you might be able to splat them assuming they dont retreat fast enough!

another tip is with tentamissles, you can sort of block the damage from them if they dont fall directly on top of you and as long as theres not too many, if you find youself backed into a corner bc ur teammates ran past you and the missles surround you try holding your brella up! wont work everytime but its saved me from dumb splats countless times.

EDIT: another tip regarding sprinklers that i forgot to add! you can throw a sprinkler on top of an enemy superjump point and easily splat them with 1 direct or the brella shield as they jump in! sprinkler is really good for bait as well to use to ambush people, as stealth is very important for getting splats with the brella. you can also throw a sprinkler in a certain place where the enemy can come through to keep watch, if you see your sprinkler being destroyed you can alert your team where theyre coming from. i use this technique on the enemy side alley to the right on Ancho-V Games most often!

Gear Abilities: As for gear recommendations, ink main saver is a must due to how many times youre gonna be repeatedly shooting at an opponent, and how you lose ink when you hold your brella open. Special charge up is good for both the splat and sorella brella to allow you to always have a trump card when you need it. Run speed up may be good for strafing while shooting, but i prefer swim speed up to make flanking and chasing retreating opponents easier, as well as retreats. Quick super jump is good as well to allow you to get into the action quickly and to retreat back to spawn fast. Ninja squid is a pretty good ability as well seeing as stealth is your main asset in splatting opponents, but i personally dont run it as i prefer being fast (also i dont have any ninja squid shirt that fit my outfit) Main power up makes your brella come back faster after it’s been destroyed or after letting it go, and with enough you can even regain your brella before your sent-off umbrella has despawned. Though I wouldnt recommend it too much but it might be good for ranked and especially tower control. this is my gear setup, and the only thing i’d recommend is not using a main of quick superjump like me, one or 2 subs would work just as well. i just love quick superjump and those shoes fit my outfit :3c

[nneefa]

fic: linda

fandom: xiaolin showdown

characters: raimundo/kimiko, clay, omi, the tohomikos

summary: if raimundo hadn't known kimiko better, he'd think she was fishing for a compliment, given that omi and clay had just sung her praises. as it was, he did know her better, especially if the glint in her blue eyes was anything to go by, and he suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

notes: ooh, boy. let's see where to start: 1) "linda" means "beautiful" in portuguese; 2) the park our teen kiddos are at is "Shinjuku Gyoen." i highly recommend y'all google it. it's very beautiful; 3) kimiko's yukata is based off this image; 4) this is like headcanons gone wild, but most importantly, credit goes to @sunbirddtellsstories for "Tomoko." i can only hope i portrayed her the way she was intended to be. 5) dedicated to the anon that asked me for raikim. i hope to the heavens that i portrayed the characters accurately.

[[MORE]]

❀

Raimundo barely had time to brace himself as the chilly spring air cut past the defenses of his layered clothing, right down to his bones.

He fought the urge to shiver as he sunk lower and lower into his coat, pulling his skull cap further over his ears before burrowing his hands into the safety of his coat pockets. He watched Clay shake like a pair of maracas on the ground, Omi pressed close to his side, like a squirrel clinging to a tree, in an effort to provide him warmth. He almost wanted to join them, anything to get rid of the goosebumps settling on his skin, but there was hardly any room on the blanket they sat on, with Clay's massive body taking up more than half the space, and somebody had to keep an eye out for Mr. Tohomiko for when he came back. The elderly man had insisted on getting them all hot drinks while they waited for the girls to show.

If only Kimiko were here; she could heat things up in an instant.

Speaking of Kimiko… leave it to her to take a long time, especially when this whole thing was her idea. Okay, maybe it wasn't her idea exactly - more like her sister's - but still. Japan was ridiculously cold. Where he's from, anything below sweltering was foreign, and even if he did spend the better part of three years training in the mountains of China, that didn't mean he was used to it.

Raimundo breathed a deep breath, watching it fade in the frigid air, and turned his gaze away from his friends to survey the park they were in.

Tokyo really was a beautiful city, especially in the spring. The only things he'd seen since their last visit were skyscrapers, shops, and shrines, and while those were nice and all, they paled in comparison to the city's blooming cherry blossom trees.

Sakura, Mr. Tohomiko had called them, stretched as far as the eye could see, the pink and white flowers breathtakingly beautiful against the bright blue sky, like something straight from a painting. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people, families and couples and loners alike, scattered across the large expanse of the park with blankets and baskets and cameras, some seated in the sun having picnics, some relaxed beneath the shade of the trees on the petal-laden ground.

There were women, children, and even some men dressed in elaborately designed kimono for the occasion, though the bulk of them wore regular, civilian clothes, and he wondered briefly if Kimiko would be wearing hers. (He quickly banished the thought). Raimundo was pretty sure he saw at least three ponds on their walk across the park, two different sections of landscape with their own sets of flora and fauna, a pavilion located across a bridge, and from their spot beneath a Sakura tree he could even see a tower in the distance.

If it weren't for the fact that he was waiting for the others, he definitely would've gone exploring by now. What did Kimiko call this festival again? Hanabi? Hanami? Hababi? Whatever! It was nothing like he'd ever seen, and he was thankful the Tohomikos were kind enough to let them join their family outing.

Though I'd truly be thankful if they hurried up, he thought to himself as another gust of wind blew through the park. Any longer out here and I'll be a human popsicle.

Just as he was about to ask Clay and Omi to make room for him, he saw Mr. Tohomiko slip through a gap in the crowd, carrying two cup holders full of piping hot drinks. Raimundo immediately moved after him, his hands already on the drinks before the man could react. "Here, let me help you with that."

Toshiro blinked at him, surprised, but then he smiled before relinquinshing his hold on the items. "You have my gratitude, Pedrosa-san. By the way, I hope I didn't take too long. Japan's spring can be a little unforgiving at times."

"Nah, it's okay," Raimundo replied with a smile of his own, following him to where Clay and Omi were seated. "Though I'm not sure if I can say the same for our pal Clay."

"Forgive me, Bailey-san," Toshiro apologized with a slight bow of his head and a sympathetic smile once they'd reached them. "I wasn't expecting to encounter so many Goo Zombie fans in one place."

"That's quite alright, sir," said Clay, nodding his head in thanks when he handed him a drink from the tray. "If anythin', I should be the one apologizin'. Had I known you'd be swarmed, I'd gone with you."

"With your station, you must get attacked a lot," Omi said, making a grab for one of the teas. "I can't imagine what it's like to be a famous person in such a big city."

"You certainly like to try," Raimundo teased, grinning when the young boy shot him a glare over the rim of his cup.

The Dragon of Water blew into his tea before taking a sip, sparing Toshiro an earnest look. Genuinely, he added, "If you'd like, Mr. Tohomiko, we can accompany you until we return to the temple. We'll make sure no harm befalls Kimiko's papa."

Toshiro let out a hearty laugh, his smile as kind and warm as ever. "What kind young men you are! But there's no need to worry over an old man like me. Kimiko and Tomoko help me plenty already."

"Now that you mention them," Clay trailed off, curling his knees to his chest with a swig of his coffee, "what d'ya reckon's keepin' 'em?"

Toshiro fished into his coat pocket for his cell phone in order to check the time, his brows knitted in confusion. "I'm not sure," he answered. "It has been quite some time since we were scheduled to meet. Perhaps, I should call them."

"Knowing Kimiko, she probably lost track of time doing her nails again, right, Omi?" Raimundo joked, elbowing him with a wink after placing the trays on the blanket. "It wouldn't be the first time, now would it?"

"Nor the last," the younger monk agreed, recalling the time where their friend forgot the Ancient Scroll of the Shen Gong Wu over her panda faces.

"What d'ya think it is this time?" Raimundo asked with a grin, pilfering a cup of hot cocoa from the tray before opting to lean against the tree. "Giraffes or smiley faces?"

Omi shook his head. "She did smiley faces last week." Then he smiled and said, "My butt's on teddy bears."

"Uh, that's 'bet's,' bro," Raimundo corrected him with a raised brow. "I think she'll settle for something simple this time, like french tip."

"My wager's on flowers," Clay added, gesturing to the pink petals on the ground with his cup. "It'd certainly fit the theme of this here's festival."

As the boys continued to ponder over Kimiko's possible nail designs, Toshiro watching the exchange with a hint of amusement, none of them noticed the girls making their way through the crowd, towards their group. Not until one of them called out to Mr. Tohomiko.

"Papa!" Tomoko exclaimed, earning everyone's attention.

She looked completely out of breath as she came to a stop in front of her father, though that did nothing to stop her from smiling, and she hugged him just before launching into an explanation in Japanese. Apparently, her fans had swarmed her on the way here too, and wouldn't let her leave until she'd signed every single autograph and taken every single group photo there was to offer. It was thanks to the efforts of Kimiko that they even made it at all.

Raimundo heard a series of footsteps from behind father and daughter, followed by a chain of frustrated grunts, and knew it was Kimiko and her friend Keiko. Clay and Omi stood up, eager to finally see their teammate after what felt like hours in the cold, dusting cherry blossoms off of their clothes in the process. The Shoku leader smirked into his cup before closing his eyes and taking a swig of his cocoa, relishing in the sweetness just as Kimiko came into view.

"Geez, Kim. It took you long enough," he teased after swallowing his drink. "D'you have any idea how long we've been waiting for y-" But the faux complaint died on his lips when he finally opened his eyes and saw her, and in that moment only one word came to mind.

"What," Kimiko shot back with a raised brow, a smirk dancing across on her face. "Cat got your tongue? Say something!"

If Raimundo had thought Tokyo was beautiful in the spring before, then that was nothing compared to how Kimiko looked now. While a tiny, fleeting part of him had hoped she was wearing a kimono, he hadn't really expected her to go the whole nine, considering how much she'd loathed them in the past, but then again, it wouldn't really be Kimiko if she wasn't constantly proving him wrong.

She stood out like a flower all on her own in her black kimono, a dark swirl in a sea of color. Small pink and white petals adorned the top half of it, much like the cherry blossoms surrounding them, including the sleeves, though the closer it got to the bottom, they varied in size and shape until it was bursting with color, and holding it all together was a bright, gold sash and red string. Of course, her outfit wouldn't be complete if she didn't have a purse to match. Her hair was fashioned with both the Tangled Web Comb and Changing Chopsticks in an elaborately braided bun, her face framed by the loose, black curls that managed to escape her updo.

Had it been him three years ago, he'd have acted like an idiot and teased her on the spot, anything to downplay his attraction. But now, at 16-years-old, Raimundo found himself, not for the first time, speechless. She was- Kimiko was-

"Beautiful!" Omi had blurted at the top of his lungs.

Raimundo hadn't realized he'd been gawking at her like some kinda dopey, cross-eyed schoolboy until the small monk was no longer at his side, but fluttering about Kimiko with all the tenacity of a 13-year-old boy in love. Quickly, he averted his gaze to Keiko, whom he acknowledged with a nod of his head, as heat settled in his ears and cheeks, and for once since he'd arrived in Japan, he found himself grateful for the cold. He didn't trust his voice and he was pretty sure he looked like a tomato right now.

"Look at you! Well, aren't you 'bout as pretty as a magnolia in May?" Clay remarked, tipping his hat up with a finger to get a better view of their friend.

Omi nodded his head with a flourish as he admired her apperance from head to toe. "You look very pretty, Kimiko. You've even managed to incorporate the Changing Chopsticks into your wardrobe this time!"

Kimiko's cheeks darkened, though she beamed at their compliments, and she touched the aforementioned Shen Gong Wu with her free hand. "You like? At first I wasn't going to add them, but it went too well with my outfit to pass up. Plus, you never know when it'll come in handy."

"And look!" Omi cooed excitedly, taking her hand and holding it up like he'd just uncovered a new Shen Gong Wu. "She even styled her nails after France, just like you said Raimundo."

Quietly, she looked to Rai, who hadn't said a single word since she'd first arrived and raised a brow at him, her cocky smirk ever-present. "Well, Rai? What do you think?"

If Raimundo hadn't known Kimiko better, he'd think she was fishing for a compliment, given that Omi and Clay had just sung her praises. As it was, he did know her better, especially if the glint in her blue eyes was anything to go by, and he suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She'd purposely put him on the spot. (Granted, Omi did it first; he'd have to have a little talk with him about this later). He was vaguely aware that the guys were staring at him, anticipating his next words, but thankfully Tomoko had latched onto her sister's arm before Raimundo could loosen the knot on his tongue and speak.

He released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when the older Tohomiko girl had pulled her, and by extension Keiko, towards Toshiro for a group photo, with Omi as their photographer. Clay put a hand on Raimundo's shoulder as the group huddled together, a soft, yet knowing smile overtaking the cowboy's lips.

"That pretty, huh?" Clay asked, dropping his hand when Rai looked at him.

Though his hot cocoa was long gone, Raimundo felt a warmth settle in his stomach as turned back to face the group, just in time to see a genuine smile break out over Kimiko's face. For the first time ever, he found himself admitting a very obvious truth: Kimiko was beautiful.

"Yeah."

Clay blinked, taken aback by his best friend's gentle admission, but it didn't last very long and soon he found himself smiling too.

[theshinobiway]

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This Blog is managed by one mod (Pumpkin) as of right now. Headcanons will not take very long, but scenarios might! I try to have things done within a few weeks of their submission, but if life happens I’ll post about it on the blog to keep you updated.

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It’s officially canon™ that none of the members of team Gai engage in pedophilia, non-con, abuse, neglect, etc. I won’t write scenarios that include them doing these!

Part I Neji’s calloused treatment of Hinata and early cold demeanor towards his team which was shown in brief in the anime, but Pre-Exams Neji would not engage in the systematic abuse of any other character. Genin!Neji would verbally put down other characters, threaten/belittle them if they pressed on his insecurities, or give them a swift but impersonal beat-down if they challenged him. His murderous anger would only be reserved for the main branch (or enemy-nin), and only exuded in situations that are within the rules and guidelines. Instances of his anger outside of this would be shut down by Gai or by having his curse seal activated. Remember that Genin!Neji is still a 13/14 year old boy with anger issues and trauma. He is, at worst, a teenage bully who might take things a little too far.

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About Me:

Name: Pumpkin (She/Her)

Age: 24 (I’m an adult, so minors please keep this in mind!)

Loves: Pumpkins, Coffee, Team Gai.

Dislikes: OLIVES.

Favorite Character: Neji. I always go for characters with emotional depth and he has so much of it. Also, Hyuga politics are incredibly compelling and should have had their own arc in the series. I am not a fan of how his arc ended overall and I have complaints about Naruto’s talk-no-jutsu in the chunin arc (because it didn’t actually address Neji’s major problems), but overall I find that Neji is a character with the perfect balance of strengths, flaws, motivations, and his stoicism is balanced by his good heart. 

Lee is a very close second, followed by Tenten and Gai who are tied for a close third.

Least Favorite Character: Sasuke. While not technically my “least” favorite, I find the Uchiha as a whole to be extremely…boring. Sasuke’s character and motivations weren’t very compelling or consistent (and while inconsistency is pretty human he isn’t humanized well) and the last arc did not do him justice and did not fully redeem him. 

I’m also not a fan of how he turned out in the epilogue. In general, he wasn’t handled well as a character. As a main character for the series, I felt like I was always expecting more. I dislike him because of the inconsistent writing, but I do believe he had potential.

Favorite Ships: Naruhina. Naruto has someone who literally only wishes for his happiness and success, Hinata has the support and affirmation she’s always looked for. They have a very sweet and fluffy dynamic, and their characters are almost perfect compliments for one another.

While the series failed to do them justice, “The Last” as a standalone arc for them was lovely and should have been inserted in the actual series, preferably sometime before the last war arc. I really wish they had more in the series to further their relationship.

Least Favorite Ships: Oh boy. I do not ship NejiTen or LeeTen and I oppose both ships. 

I ship Tenten only with herself. In the shinden novels it’s mentioned that Tenten has never had any romantic goals. A major character development piece is her finally coming to terms with the fact that she’s fine being as she is without the societal pressure of having to marry or pursue romance. Shipping her with anyone is a huge disservice to her character and a core part of her identity, and disregards a major part of her personality. Also read: it’s OOC.

Tenten’s bro-ship with her teammates is golden and a wonderful portrayal of how guy/girl friendships can be extremely deep and comfortable while still being platonic. That needs representation!

Additionally, neither ship has a real foundation. With the exception of Chouji/Karui, all romantic connections were stated explicitly in the anime/manga OR in the Gaiden novels (Chouji/Karui was alluded to in Sakura Hiden.) Tenten, when she IS in Konoha Gaiden, explicitly mentions she is disinterested in romance. This is consistent with her character and a perfectly acceptable choice for her narrative, which is why I support it.

Neji and Tenten only bond over being too mature for Gai/Lee shenanigans and training together when Lee/Gai are off. In the Chunin arc she comments that both Sasuke and Kakashi are cute, but makes no mention of Neji aside from her admiration of his abilities. Neji comments on her abilities as well during her fight with Temari, but Lee is the one who gives her open support. Their relationship is shown as friendly, but is strictly a Nakama bond. Most of their interaction in the Chunin exams is related to, or entirely revolves around the absence of Lee. There are no allusions to their relationship, even as a joke. In a shounen anime, romance is almost always explicitly mentioned or alluded to. In Naruto, this was also true for virtually all pairings and love triangles. Neji and Tenten never had this. Any development is purely-fan made or fan-imagined.

I especially dislike this pairing because from a narrative/storytelling standpoint and the way they are characterized, they do not (and would not) contribute to the other's personal development in any significant fashion. Tenten trained with Neji in the Chunin exams for two reasons; her abilities were most suited for training Kaiten, and she was his teammate--therefore the only reasonable choice to secretly practice a technique that Neji was not supposed to learn. She was his primary supporter in the stands because she trained with him and Lee/Gai were both absent to also comment on Neji. Even though Kishi made a lot of questionable choices when it came to romance, not having Neji and Tenten together was not one of them. It made perfect sense for both characters to work together when necessary, but they have zero shared themes or development arcs. The only one, "Getting stronger," is a Team Gai-wide theme.

Even if Tenten was given more personal development in the series, her development would have revolved around herself and the development of her own abilities as a shinobi. She was never a character that was meant for romance. And it's perfectly fine for her to be that way.

Lee and Tenten have more personal interactions and far more relationship building moments in both canon and fillers, but they especially don’t have romantic chemistry--more brother/sister. They are confirmed as not together in Boruto for this very reason. They are fiercely supportive of one another and a fantastic duo. This does not mean they need a romance, either.

Feel free to ship who you like, but please do not request character x character on this blog, the request will be summarily deleted. This is not a shipping blog, but there are others out there that can cater to your needs. Thank you!

[the-battle-tower-blog]

Umbreon

Umbreon #197

The Moonlight pokemon

Height: 3 feet 3 inches

Weight: 59.5 pounds

Weaknesses:Fighting, Fairy, Bug, 

Resistances: Ghost, Dark,

Immunities: Psychic.

Hp: 95

Attack: 65

Defense: 110

Sp. Attack: 60

Sp. Defense: 130

Speed: 65

BST: 525

Umbreon evolves from eevee after level up at night with max friendship.

Umbreon is the definition of a cool pokemon. A silhouette in the night seen only through the glimpses of moonlight. This funky little dude offers a rock solid 130 base special defense, and with good HP to boot umbreon will consume any special attack thrown its way,  even if its super effective it's unlikely they’ll net an OHKO. Thats backed up by a respectable 110 defense meaning you're not dead in the water for physical attackers as long as you're opponent isn't a fighting type. And finally any wall would be happy having the synchronize ability, it will make any pokemon not immune to their own status think twice before throwing a toxic out on this precious little moon baby.

Curses, Foiled again!

Moves:

Curse

Moonlight

Payback

Heal Bell or Toxic

Ability: Synchronize

Nature: Careful

Item: Rocky Helmet

EVs: 252 HP, 48 Defense, 208 Sp. defense

Curse is a great move for Umbreon, with such stellar sp.def, one curse puts it’s defense on the same playing field while boosting your attack, and with such low speed already the drop is negligible. I recommend bringing umbreon in on a special attacker with no super effective moves, and setting up as many curses as you can. If it’s checks have already been dealt with you’ll find it astoundingly easy to max out your attack and defense, as little will be able to stop umbreon from swearing like a sailor and grabbing those stat boosts.

Moonlight is a great self healing move that will allow umbreon to stay in the game for as long as you need, breaking your opponents hearts after they spent the last 4 turns whittling it down to 50%.

Payback doubles in power, provided you move last. This will let us take advantage of the speed drop umbreon will be suffering everytime it uses curse. Umbreon will almost always go last giving us a 120 power stab move. A Lot of people like to run foul play however this can be unreliable and does not take advantage of the attack boost curse provides. After a couple of curses payback will begin to pack quite a punch.

For the last slot there are two options. Heal bell is very nice for relieving umbreon (and the rest of your team) of any pesky status conditions that could bring about its downfall even if its defenses are god-like. It's nice when synchronize inflicts your opponent with the status they just inflicted on you, but it's even better when they status you and you heal it away, laughing at them joyfully as you do so. Toxic can be run over heal bell if you're not as concerned about status, this can make the match move much quicker, however one must make sure they're not gonna get badly poisoned as it leaves no time to set up.

Ain’t I a Stinker?

Moves:

Wish

Protect

Confuse Ray

Toxic

Ability: Synchronize

Nature: Bold

Item: Leftovers

EVs: 252 HP, 252 Defense, 4 Sp. Defense

Okay here’s my question. What animal is umbreon? Is it supposed to be a fox or cat or something? It just doesn’t make much sense. Anyway, this is a set that requires really careful prediction to work, as well as no small amount of luck. Umbreon is very hard to kill, and we can use that to drive our opponent crazy.

Wish and protect are a combo that’ll keep umbreon in tip top condition, as well as allowing umbreon to heal it’s teammates in a pinch. Send up your hopes and prayers, get like healing back. Makes sense.

Confuse ray is the real special thing about this set. Y’all remember Mt. Moon? And how confusion never, ever works when it’s on your side? We’re going to use that to our advantage. With just a little luck your opponent will be dazed and confused and you’ll be sitting there laughing evilly.

Once your opponent is stuck punching itself in the face, well timed toxics and protects will knock out the opponent, while leftovers fills umbreon up to the top. This will turn you weird fox cat dog rabb... OH IT’S THE MOON RABBIT THING OH MY GOD. Like with monster carrot from dragonball? Yeah so this will turn your edgy moon rabbit into the bane of your opponents existence. Refusing to die since 1999.

team members:

mega alakazam, and tapu lele: both these pokes are resistant to fighting types moves, the bane of umbreon’s existence. Tapu lele is 4 times so and neutral to bug allowing it to switch in on a would be super effective hit, however either will send any fighting types packing.  Clefable, mega audino, and zapdos: all 3 of these funky dudes resist both fighting and bug, effectively covering umbreon's weakness and providing a solid physical defense to compliment umbreon’s special defense. Clefable gets a notable mention because its unaware ability allows it to switch in carelessly on any poke that sets up on umbreon (that umbreon cannot take care of itself)

azumarill, mimikyu, and granbull: these fairy types offer a strong offense, while still covering umbreon's weakness. Mimikyu especially as it can switch in for free on a fighting type attack and keep its disguise, plus they enjoy cleric support from umbreon to remove burn and other status.

togekiss, hawlucha, and swoobat: these three pokemon, while once again resisting bug and fighting, offer some unique and fun offensive options and benefit from receiving a wish from umbreon as they set up. Togekiss can paralyze opponents, this is especially brutal if you're running confuse ray on umbreon. Hawlucha unburden gives him unrivaled speed after he drops his item, and swoobat’s simple ability makes its calm minda force to be reckoned with.

tentacruel, scolipede, forretress, nihilego: these pokemon are immune to poison and can handle the likes of toxapex, mega beedrill, and volcarona with ease, while backing umbreon up with more defensive support or strong offensive power to remove his checks.

Smeargle: smeargle can learn any move, how could he not be the perfect partner to ANY pokemon?

Check and counters:

Toxapex: This spiky poison boy doesn't get poisoned by synchronize and quite frankly doesn't care about payback, even at +4 atk

mega sableye and taunt users: umbreon doesn't appreciate taunt users very much. if mega sableye is running taunt then umbreon doesn't have a leg to stand on here… well maybe just one. If you're running toxic on umbreon, sableyes magic bounce will badly poison umbreon, and then umbreon’s synchronize will badly poison mega sableye, although obviously this comes at a cost.

Quagsire and clefable: both of these pokes pack unaware making umbreon’s curse completely useless.

Mega lopunny, and other any physical fighting type: big stronk punch moon rabbit hard, ouch.

tapu lele, mega beedrill, volcarona, scizor, scolipede, ribombee, and vivillon: all of these pokemon are incredibly powerful and pack super effective stab moves that quickly overwhelm umbreon, and outspeed him often doing irreparable damage with just one attack.

Ferrothorn: ferrothorn just doesn't take enough damage from payback, you’ll like end up hurting umbreon more on iron barbs, and without being able to toxic him leech seed makes any damage inconsequential.

[williamlwolf89]

Writing Inspiration: 99 Ways to Get Inspired to Write in 2020

Need some writing inspiration? You’ve come to the right place.

Ugh, it happened again.

Another week or month has passed, and you’ve made zero progress on your writing goals.

Deep down you know your writing is important, but you can’t take consistent action.

What’s really going on here?

The truth is, you don’t feel inspired.

You can’t help but marvel at other writers who do persist, and have a large body of work you can’t even fathom achieving.

How do you get there?

How do you find the inspiration you need to stay the course long enough to become the prolific, popular, and successful freelance writer you dream of becoming?

The Dirty Little Lie You Tell Yourself About Writing Inspiration

If you’re struggling to find writing inspiration, you might be guilty of “believing in magic” when it comes to your writing process.

People who fail to do the things they say they want to do believe in fairy tales, like this one:

One day, for no reason whatsoever, I will find the ultimate source of inspiration that will carry me through to the end of the writing career rainbow. It will happen in an instant, and I’ll never have to “start over” again.

They believe successful writers have “made it,” and have no problem staying motivated because they’ve “arrived.”

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Regardless of how successful you are, there will be days you feel uninspired. In fact, what once seemed like a passion-filled calling can turn into a bit of a slog after a while.

Professional athletes love the game, but they don’t necessarily want to train their bodies every single day.

Business owners love money and recognition, but they don’t necessarily enjoy the process of getting their business off the ground.

You love expressing yourself with words, but you won’t necessarily enjoy each and every writing session.

You have to learn to inspire yourself every day if you want to turn pro and become a popular author or successful writer. To keep your inspiration fresh, you’ll have to find various unique ways to get inspired.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar

Fortunately, I have 99 different writing ideas — use them whenever you’re struggling to turn intention into action.

So here’s how to get inspired to write:

1. Do the One Thing They Always Tell Writers Not to Do

Watch T.V. Some of the best writing in the world can be seen in the scripts of your favorite shows. Pay attention to the dialogue, listen for the clever storytelling methods, and use them in your own writing.

Use the ideas of the show creator and the personalities of the characters to get inspired. Think about what goes through Don Draper’s mind when he writes an ad on Mad Men or the way Carrie Bradshaw wove her own life into her daily column on Sex and the City.

Once I paid attention to the writing in my favorite shows, I drew inspiration from the stories and turned a seemingly useless activity into creative fuel.

2. Read Your Old Love Letters

If you’ve been writing for a while, you must have gotten a compliment or two about your work. Keep a file with positive comments you’ve received about your writing. Whether they’re emails or blog comments, reading over compliments you received and hearing how you’ve helped people will motivate you.

3. Embrace Your Insignificance

Realize the universe doesn’t care about you. Oftentimes, we lack inspiration because of fear. We’re afraid because we feel like the world is waiting for us to fail, like there’s a spotlight shining on our inadequacy. We live on a planet that’s one of billions of planets in one of billions of galaxies, each of which contains billions of stars.

In the grand scheme of things, you’re insignificant. Nothing you do “matters,” except that it matters to you. Go for it, because you have nothing to lose.

4. Make the Subtle Shift from Goal-Setting to Habit-Forming

Goals give you inspiration by providing an end point, but habits weave inspiration into the core of your being and make it automatic.

Instead of saying, “I want to finish my manuscript,” say “I want to write 30 minutes per day.” The second statement comes without the pressure of expectation. You’re just putting yourself in a position for continual inspiration.

Habits trump goals every time. The most prolific writers aren’t the most goal-oriented. They’re built to show up every day and do the work.

5. Tell Yourself You’re Not Good Enough

I once heard a story about a successful real estate agent who was constantly asked about how to break into the industry. He gave them all the same answer, “Don’t get into real estate. You’re not cut out for it.” He gave that answer because he knows it acted as reverse psychology for those who were cut out for it, and filtered out those that weren’t.

Try a little reverse psychology on yourself. Try to convince yourself you’re not good enough, and then get offended. Of course you’re good enough! You were born to write. Trick yourself to put a fire in your belly and get inspired.

6. Start a Chain Gang

Buy a calendar. Mark an x on the calendar each time you complete a writing session. When you complete a few days in a row, the x’s start to form a chain. The longer the chain grows, the more inspired you are to keep writing. Picture a calendar with 29 days marked off. You’d almost certainly write on day 30, right?

Visuals and imagery are powerful. Seeing a representation of the work you put in will inspire you to keep working.

7. Become the G.O.A.T.

Focus on becoming so great you can’t be ignored.

Most writers are worried about what the competition is doing and idolize their favorite writers. Instead, you’ll focus on being so good the competition will start to watch you. Embrace the attitude of Michael Jordan in his first few seasons. He knew the league was going to belong to him before it actually did. He put his head down, did the work, and demolished the competition to become the Greatest of All Time. You can be the same.

Put your head down, write, and one day people will say “Who is this?”

8. Take a Dump

Have a bowel movement. I first learned this unusual writing tip from James Altucher. He says if your body isn’t “clear,” your mind won’t be either. You may also come up with some interesting ideas while you’re, erm, indisposed.

9. Embrace Your Inner Hulk

Get angry. Anger is easy to express. When you’re angry you know exactly why something pisses you off. What pisses you off about the world, your niche, or life in general? Vent your frustrations and your powerful words will pour out.

10. Become a Better Writer Without Becoming a Better Writer

Have you ever seen a professional athlete who’s in a slump? Nothing about his routine changes, he plays with the same quality teammates, and the team is run by the same coaching staff. Later, you find out he was having personal issues and that was the source of his decline.

Look at Tiger Woods. He never recovered from his personal scandal. What does that tell you? It tells you life outside your craft is just as important as practicing it, if not more.

Think about how many aspects of your life can affect your writing. Your diet, exercise routine (or lack thereof), relationships with friends and family, and stress level are a few among many factors influencing your writing. When you lack inspiration for writing, look at other areas of your life. If those aren’t going well, your writing will suffer.

11. Make It Impossible to Edit While You Write

Write with the monitor off or with white text. This is the definition of writing a crappy first draft. When you can’t even look at the words on the screen, you won’t be able to enter into self-editing hell while you’re writing. You’ll let loose and write with reckless abandon. Afterward, you can clean up the carnage and make it pretty.

12. Imagine Your Worst-Case Scenario

Think about the worst-case scenario in terms of your writing career and decide you can handle it. Fortunately, the negative consequences are more emotional than tangible or financial in terms of things like writing a book. At the very least, you’re out of a small investment and your ego will get a little dent. You can’t sell negative books. Your worst pain will be the feeling of rejection. Although rejection is a tough pill to swallow, you face bigger dangers in life without fail, like getting in a car and driving it, without batting an eye.

13. Start Acting Like a Child

What advice would a five-year-old give you about your writing? Would they tell you to focus hard, create solid outlines, and hit your daily word count? No. They’d tell you to have fun.

Remember fun? When you were a child, you only cared about exploration. You didn’t waste time worrying about the future. The present was all you knew. I get it. You have “big dreams,” but if you take yourself too seriously, writing will get rote.

If you’re feeling stuck trying to edit your manuscript, write something ridiculous. Write something totally unrelated to your niche for pure fun with no intention of publishing it. Act like a child and watch your curiosity and creativity flourish.

14. Dumb It Down

Stop trying to sound smart. Once you realize you don’t have to write with tons of flowery language and words that could be replaced with simpler words, writing gets easier. People enjoy straightforward writing better anyway.

15. Make Money Your Muse

Take writing jobs as a freelancer if you’re looking to get writing without having to come up with your own blog post ideas. As a freelancer you’ll work within the guidelines of what your client wants. This offers the benefit of making money, plus you’ll develop a writing habit along the way.

16. Use your 9-to-5 to Fuel Your 5-to-9

Scott Adams, most known for his cartoon strip Dilbert, used real-life experiences from his job as inspiration for his work. Charles Bukowski wrote a novel loosely based on his own experiences as a post office employee. Even mundane jobs like these can inspire you to write something interesting about them. Some say you should write what you know. What do you know better than the activity you perform 40 hours per week?

17. Discover the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Create an immaculate space for your writing. A cluttered environment clutters the mind. When you’re in a clean space, you can feel it. That feeling can translate into a calm and focused state of mind while writing.

18. Don’t Believe the Myth

Remember this phrase from Jerry Seinfeld: “Writer’s block is just a made-up excuse for not doing your work.”

19. Sign Your Life Away

Create a contract with yourself. Make an actual signed document stating what you’re going to accomplish with your writing and place it somewhere prominent.

Imagine you’re sitting down to write and you look up to see an agreement you made with yourself, not just mentally, but physically. Wouldn’t that inspire you to hold to your commitment?

These little “nudges” might seem trivial on their own, but combining them changes your environment and makes it more conducive to productivity and creativity.

20. Make Your Writing Career a Family Affair

Communicate your goals with your family and friends. Writing takes up time, and if you’re not clear about your intentions, your spouse or loved ones can start to resent and even become jealous of your writing. Let them know it’s important to you, set boundaries for when you’ll write, and when you’re not writing make sure you’re 100 percent off, meaning you’re spending time with the people you love and not in your head.

21. Get Meta

Write about how you feel about your writing. One of the most successful posts I’ve ever written talked about my struggles with writing. It was meant to be a venting session, but I realized it was worth sharing. Like anger, frustration leads to expression.

22. Converse to Create

If you listen carefully, the conversations you have with other people can inspire you to take something they’ve said and run with it. Listen intently, and see if there’s anything in your dialogue that sparks interest or could be used as a writing topic. Cormac McCarthy said he used actual conversations with his son in the bestselling novel The Road.

23. When Inspiration Fails, Try Desperation

Turn your pain into passion. If you feel the dull monotony of sitting in a cubicle every day pushing papers, working in a factory on the assembly line, or any other job that isn’t being a full-time writer, use that desperation as fuel. Sometimes inspiration isn’t enough. Sometimes you have to get fed up to do the work.

24. WWJD

Ask yourself, “What would Jon do?” If you’ve been following Jon Morrow’s work for any amount of time, you know he has a no-excuses attitude and is driven to succeed. Would Jon give up on a writing session if he wasn’t “feeling it?” Would Jon cry in the corner about someone leaving a negative comment on his blog post? When in doubt, do what Jon does and bang out 1,000 words per day no matter what.

25. Create to Connect

It’s easy to get caught up in numbers — how many subscribers you have, how many views your website gets per month, and how many comments you receive — but remember, you’re writing for real people.

Even if you have just a few readers, get to know them. Send out an email to your tribe telling them they can each get 15 minutes on the phone with you to talk shop.  Add prompts to your blog posts to encourage readers to share their lives with you.

When you create with the intention of connecting with other human beings, it inspires you to work that much harder, because you can feel the person on the other end of the screen.

26. Become the CEO of You, Inc.

Come up with a name for your publishing company. Perhaps you don’t have to go as far as creating an LLC, but do something to establish what you do as an actual career and not just a hobby. If it means spending $25 to get business cards printed, so be it. Something in your mind has to transition into feeling and acting like a pro.

27. Don’t Follow in the Footsteps of Great Writers

Let go of your need to be the next great author. When you compare yourself to the likes of Hemingway, Plath, or Murakami,  it’s hard not to get discouraged about your own writing. Focus on becoming the best writer you can be. There are plenty of successful — and financially independent — writers who aren’t legends, but are pretty damn good. Become pretty damn good.

28. Do the Math

Remind yourself: each time you sit down to write you’re ahead of 99 percent of other aspiring writers. Most people do nothing. They talk, wish, and wonder. The mere fact that your fingers are touching that keyboard makes you special.

Inspire yourself by reminding yourself you’re part of an exclusive club — the doers. I get inspired when I realize the steps I’ve already made go way beyond those of most people. Once your foot is in the door, step all the way through.

29. Answer Random Questions from Total Strangers

Answer questions on Quora. Users on Quora ask questions about topics ranging from personal development to health to what Kim Kardashian’s favorite color is. Other users on Quora answer these questions. Many authors and bloggers use Quora to practice their writing by answering questions. You’re also allowed to leave links in your Quora responses, and many people drive traffic back to their websites through using Quora.

30. Get Zen, Then Pen

I meditate for 20 minutes every morning before I write. When you wake up, you usually start the day feeling anxious. The practice of meditation helps relieve stress and clears your mind of negative thoughts. You’ll feel refreshed before you pen your first word.

The headspace app comes with a series of guided meditations you can use to start fresh every day.

Leo Babauta of Zen Habits has a great introductory post on how to form a daily meditation habit. He also happens to be one of the most prolific and successful bloggers in the world. Coincidence? I think not.

31. Choose Quantity Over Quality

Write ten ideas per day around your writing. They could be ideas for new blog posts, book titles, and book sections or chapters. By the end of the year, you’ll have 3,650 ideas. Most of them will suck, some will be good, and a few will be amazing. Your creative muscles will be strong, and you’ll have endless material to write about.

32. Teach an Old Draft New Tricks

Revise an old piece of writing. This has a two-fold benefit. First, you’ll realize how much you’ve grown since writing that piece, which will give you the confidence to know you’ll improve in the future. Second, if you really add some beef to it, you’ll have a brand new piece of writing to share with the world.

33. Surround Yourself with Great Work

I once visited an art museum that had a photography section. It was filled with famous photos of famous people by famous photographers. I lost complete track of time and was immersed in the photos. When I left the display, I felt almost dizzy. That day, I went home and wrote a couple thousand words in a way that seemed effortless. Seeing great art in other forms can inspire you to create great writing yourself.

Visit a gallery, go to an opera, or watch a play. Feel the passion and inspiration from the artists you just watched, and use it in your own writing.

34. Put a Pot of Gold at the End of Your Rainbow

Setting writing goals doesn’t often work. The reason why they don’t work is because we don’t like to work! We want results. It’s why workout DVDs are called Beach Body or Six Pack Abs in Six Weeks instead of Exercise Regimen for your Core. You know you’ll have to do the work, but the results are what compel you to get started.

Create statements around the rewards you’ll reap from your writing and the results you want, e.g., “Writing my book will give me the money, attention, and sense of accomplishment I’ve always longed for. ” When you think of setting goals and building habits in terms of  the rewards they’ll afford you, you’re more likely to follow through.

35. Drink Rocket Fuel to Skyrocket Your Inspiration

Drink coffee. Coffee has fueled the creative inspiration of writers for centuries. I’m not sure if it’s even possible to write well without it.

36. Journey into the Wild

Go for a walk in nature. There’s an odd connection between walking and inspiration. There’s something about wandering about that stirs up random thoughts in your mind. Ideas come to you when you aren’t so focused on them. A walk in nature will distract you with its beauty enough to make room for the muse to sneak up on you.

37. Switch Your Scenery

Imagine you’re lying back in a hammock in Bali.  You’re surrounded by warm weather and a fresh breeze with a coconut by your side to sip on. You also have your laptop in your lap. That sounds like an inspiring environment to me.

There has long been a link between travel and writing. Seeing new parts of the world is inspiring in and of itself, plus it will surely give you new material to write about as well. Or, heck, just go to your local coffee shop to switch things up.

Even if you can’t make a physical trip, just spending a few minutes visualizing an exotic destination can provide valuable writing inspiration.

38. Devour People’s Brains

Read. Read. Read. You can’t be a great writer without being a great reader. Read a wide range of material. If you write non-fiction, sprinkle some fiction into your reading and vice versa. Reading widely opens new doors in your brain and helps you make odd connections between ideas.

I just finished my second book. I pulled and wove in ideas from billionaires, dead Roman emperors, and Harvard psychologists. I didn’t go searching for the information. I conjured it from the recesses of my mind while writing, because I’ve read 100 books in the past two years. It’s like Neo in The Matrix where he “downloads” the ability to fight in Kung Fu style.

With reading, you can “download” hundreds or thousands of years of human experience and use it at your disposal.

39. Write in This Insanely Inspiring Environment

Write in a bookstore. Writing in an environment surrounded with words is inspiring. Go to your favorite section and browse the titles. Seeing the names on book covers will cause you to picture your name on your first or next book, and you’ll be ready to pen your masterpiece.

40. Put a Gun to Your Head

I submit guest post pitches to various blogs before I feel ready to write them. Once my pitches get accepted, I can’t quit. As you know, it’s a big no-no to flake on a guest blog owner, and I’d never want to ruin my reputation. Finding situations that force your hand can keep you from sitting on the fence.

41. Search for Instant Inspiration

A quick Google search can give you inspiration by spoon-feeding you endless ideas for your writing. If you’re stuck on a topic to write about, do a search about your subject and run with the results. You don’t have to come up with new ideas by yourself all the time. You don’t even have to use the ideas you find to create a finished result.

The process could serve the purpose of getting your fingers moving, which is the most important step.

42. Chase the Muse

Inspiration can be tricky to capture.

To maximize your chances of spotting the muse, come up with clever writing prompts. For example, you can come up with a writing problem you’re trying to solve right before bed, let it stir in your subconscious mind while you sleep, and wake yourself up in the middle of the night and jot down what comes to mind in your hazy subconscious state. You can set prompts on your phone to randomly write whatever comes to mind at the exact time.

Carry a pen and paper with you everywhere you go to capture ideas as they come. It seems mechanical, but careful planning can inspire you to create more.

43. Star in Your Own Montage

Visualize yourself putting in the work it takes to become a great writer. Visualizing the type of outcome you want is effective, but visualizing becoming the type of person capable of achieving those outcomes is even more powerful. Take a few minutes every day and visualize yourself being in a state of flow and writing effortlessly.

It’s like picturing yourself hitting the game-winning shot. If you can see it, you can believe it.

44. Find a Tango Partner

In a rut? Find a writing partner to keep you accountable. Working with someone who’s “in the trenches” like you will help both of you inspire each other. There’s strength in numbers.

45. Find Inspiration in Your Rear-view Mirror

We’ve all had moments in life we cherish. Why not use those moments as inspiration for your writing? If you’re feeling stuck, try to remember an amazing moment in your life — time spent with your children, a vacation you went on, your wedding day — and write about that. The moment will inspire you to write because the moment itself is inspiring. If it was a pivotal moment in your life, you can recall how you felt and what the atmosphere was like.

46. Eviscerate Your Excuses

Find examples to eliminate your excuses. The undisputed heavyweight champion of blogging, our very own Jon Morrow, isn’t able to use his hands, and has written blog posts read by millions. Stephen Hawking moves his cheek muscles to write. You have writer’s block? Boo hoo.

If seeing examples of people with legitimate obstacles thriving at what you do doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what will. You’ve been blessed in one way or another. Regardless of what you don’t have, you have something someone else would kill for. Be grateful and use your gratitude as a well of inspiration to create.

47. Join a Local Gang

If one partner isn’t enough, you can join groups of writers to increase the effectiveness of group support. I’m part of a local writers’ club where we meet in person, and I’m a member of an online community of writers. We share insights and tips, and keep each other motivated.

48. Fake Your Own Death

Write your obituary. This exercise provides a two-fold benefit. First, you’re putting words on the page. Second, you’re thinking about the type of legacy you want to leave. My guess is you want “renown writer,” or at least “writer,” somewhere in the description. It will remind you of your ultimate mission and the fact you’ll regret it if you fail to follow through.

As best-selling author Stephen Covey says, “Begin with the end in mind.”

49. Tune In to Tune Out Writer’s Block

Listening to music boosts your effectiveness in many areas such as exercise. It’s also a great tool to inspire your writing, as long as you don’t make it a distraction. Some writers have been known to play the same song on repeat while they write, saying it gives them a calming sense and the music fades to the background while they write.

Music has been known to “set the mood” in more ways than one. Pick an inspiring song and let it inspire you to write.

50. Choose the Opinion You Like Best

Have you ever looked at the same piece of writing at different times and had two different opinions?

We’re quick to look at the negative opinions of ourselves and our work and believe them to be true. We accept negativity with alarming ease. Our mind can just as easily believe the good things we tell ourselves about ourselves. The next time you swing between both opinions of your writing, choose the one that inspires you.

It’s okay to toot your own horn (in your mind) when you’ve penned some damn fine words. In fact, you should do it every time you feel good about your writing to keep the inspiration going.

51. Let Your Fingers Do the Talking

Get your fingers moving. The act of typing itself can lead to a flow state and productive writing. Sometimes, I’ll start a blog post by typing “I don’t know what to write about,” just to get my fingers moving. The staring at the blank page without typing contributes to writer’s block.

52. Get Back in Touch with Your “Why”

Remember your why. Did you get into writing because you wanted to improve people’s lives? Do you have interesting stories to share? Do you want to entertain people? Go back to the source of inspiration that made you want to write in the first place. Revisit it often.

53. Find Writing Inspiration in Dark Places

Life throws curve balls at you. While you can’t avoid certain situations from happening to you, you can use them as sources of inspiration to create.

In an extreme example, Viktor Frankl used his experience in a Nazi death camp as inspiration to help others through his writing with his book Man’s Search for Meaning. You can let negativity overwhelm you, or you can use your experiences to inspire yourself in a cathartic way through your words.

54. Remember that Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Have you ever had a loved one go on an extended trip? When they come back, you’re overjoyed to see them, and you cherish the moments you have together a little bit more than usual. Why not create instant inspiration by doing the same with something you wrote?

Take a draft you’ve worked hard on and “lock it away” for a week or two before you revise or add to it. If you distance yourself from it for a bit, you’ll be inspired to jump back into a relationship with it, just like a loved one coming back from their trip.

55. Look Back and See How Far You’ve Come

Think about something that was once hard for you to do, but you now find easy. When you’re struggling to put together an introduction, edit the chaff from your sentences, or transition between points, remember that practicing these things will lead to a point where it becomes second nature.

56. Picture Your Name on a Best-Selling Book

If you’ve never written a book before, go to Canva’s free book cover maker tool and create your own custom book cover. Stare at it and imagine how it will feel to have a published book with your name on it in the future. The first time I held a copy of something I created, I was euphoric. I continue to chase that feeling each time I write.

57. Let Life Inspire Art

Many imagine successful writers as people locked up in cabins with typewriters, toiling away at their work in isolation until they resurface with their manuscripts. Some of the best writers, like Hemingway, spent as much time living and adventuring as they did writing.

If you want to make your writing more interesting, make your life more interesting. If you’re feeling frustrated, step out into the world, enjoy it, and let your experiences compel you to write again.

58. Keep Your Eye on the Prize

Enter a writing contest. Writing contests often pay for top prize winners. There’s one incentive.

The popular writing blog The Write Practice hosts writing contests multiple times per day. During its most recent contest, the blog partnered with Short Fiction Break, which displayed every single piece submitted to the contest. They encouraged writers in the contest to comment on each other’s pieces and get to know each other, which created a hotbed of inspiration.

Knowing you’re a part of something larger than yourself can be inspiring. Use a writing contest to show the world what you’ve got.

59. Act Like a Hollywood Script Doctor

Rewrite a dissatisfying ending of a popular movie, short story, or book. It’ll get you in the mood to write because you’re familiar with the subject matter. If you have the gall to rewrite a popular story, you should be confident enough to create your own.

60. Don’t Fall into the Routine Trap

Write when you’re most creative. You don’t have to be a morning person to write well.

Some people are more creative at eleven at night. Blindly copying routines that don’t suit you is a surefire way to fail. Create an environment and schedule that aligns with your strengths.

61. Make a Creative Pilgrimage

This may seem a bit drastic, but moving to another city can inspire you to be more creative.

In his book Where Good Ideas Come From, Stephen Johnson claims that moving to a more populated city fosters creativity through “superlinear scaling,” which is a fancy way of saying that the more people you’re exposed to, the more creative you are. Maybe you’re not in a position to move, but if you’re young and mobile, perhaps you should take your talents to the Big Apple or out West.

62. Exercise Your Neurons

Your brain needs exercise like any other part of your body. If you’re not feeling inspired, try playing some games that involve words. Hitting a triple word score in Scrabble can remind you of your creative writing prowess. The education company Lumosity has a line of brain games that help you increase your vocabulary.

One of my inspirations for writing is the words themselves. I was one of the weird kids who looked forward to vocabulary tests, because new words excited me and stimulated my brain. Play brain games with words to inspire yourself to pen them.

63. Cast Yourself Away

Go on a thinking retreat. Bring books to read, but no electronics. Spend time alone to be with your thoughts and consider what steps you want to take in your writing career. Bill Gates does this for two weeks every year to crystallize his vision for Microsoft’s future as well as his charity foundation. You’re not a billionaire with unlimited free time, so a day or two will suffice.

64. Use These Two Words as Inspiration

Interesting questions lead to interesting answers. Many of the best pieces of writing started with the phrase, “What if?”

Use hypothetical questions to inspire new ideas. For example, you could ask, “What if I wrote a piece saying the exact opposite of what most people believe about _____?” or “What if we lived in a world where everyone was bluntly honest all the time?” These types of questions create open-ended areas to explore, giving you new material to think about and write about.

65. When in Doubt, Ship

Seth Godin has written 18 books, and has been quoted as saying, “I feel like a fraud as I read you this, as I brush my teeth, and every time I go on stage. This is part of the human condition. Accept it. Now what?”

Other creative people like Neil Gaiman and Tina Fey have reported feeling the same way, regardless of the amount of work they’ve put into the world.

What’s the difference between them and the people who let their inspiration die? They ship.

They put their work into the world regardless of how they felt about it, and it paid off. If they can create while plagued with doubt, so can you.

Look far and wide for examples of successful writers and you’ll find one common denominator — and it sure as heck isn’t procrastination. It’s shipping. Let their stories inspire you to do the same.

66. Let Technology Lend a Helping Hand

Use idea-generating tools from companies like Hubspot and Portent’s Content. With ready-made ideas and headlines, you should have everything you need to get started.

67. Be a Little Creepy

Have you ever looked at a couple across the room at a restaurant and wondered what their lives were like?

Have you ever walked past an older person at the park and thought about what crazy experiences they’ve had?

People-watching can be great inspiration for writing. You can observe people you don’t know, and let the mystery of their lives inspire you to write a story about what they could be like. It’s part writing exercise, yes, but knowing you can draw material from anywhere is inspiring.

68. Eat a Sh** Sandwich

Charles Bukowski once said, “Find what you love and let it kill you.”

He was referring to what many, including bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert, call a “shit sandwich.”

If you don’t love something enough to go through pain for it, you don’t really love it. Your shit sandwich is the one thing you cherish so much you can endure for it. How is that inspiring? Well, if you’re capable of going through heartache for something, it has an inspiring quality drawing you to do so, or else you wouldn’t do it.

Is writing your shit sandwich? If so, get really hungry, because life is going to give you an all-you-can-eat buffet.

69. Say “Hi, My Name Is _____”

Attend a conference for writers in your niche. You have to be careful with conferences because they’re a waste of time if you go without any predefined goals, but they’re great for meeting and affiliate yourself with industry insiders and the atmosphere of the event will make you want to perform well when you get home.

70. Go to the Source

Reach out to your favorite writers and ask for advice. Many people do this, but they do it the wrong way.

First, send them a message simply thanking them for the work they’ve done and leave it at that. Tell them how you’ve implemented something they’ve taught you. After your initial outreach, come back later and ask a specific question regarding a situation. Don’t just say “let me pick your brain.” Most are willing to help if they’re not too busy.

Some won’t respond, but others will. Use their words as inspiration, follow up with their advice, and let them know when you’ve implemented it.

71. Get Yourself Some Education

Take an online course on writing. I took Smart Blogger’s Guest Blogging Certification Program. Before taking the course, I wouldn’t have had the guts to pitch big-name blogs. I thought they were “off limits.” Seeing examples of people who went through the course, some of whom built million dollar businesses with the course being the catalyst for their growth, inspired me to level up my game.

Finding the right online courses by the right instructors makes a world of difference. Having a laid-out blueprint for success gives you confidence to follow through with the steps required to build something valuable.

72. Pat Yourself on the Back

Take a piece of writing you’ve done and evaluate it based solely on what you like about it. Even if it’s just one sentence. Find something to highlight as inspiration to keep writing in the future.

73. Follow The Artist’s Way

Use stream-of-consciousness writing like Julia Cameron’s famed morning pages to get your creative juices flowing. Many writers swear to this strategy, saying it unlocks the creativity hidden in their subconscious minds.

74. Find Inspiration in Everyday Heroes

I once listened to a podcast by serial self-publishing author Steve Scott. He was recapping the strategies from his latest book launch, which resulted in $60,000 in royalties.

Hearing his story was inspiring because he isn’t Malcolm Gladwell. He started self-publishing books and kept doing it until he figured out how to become one of the best. He’s what you would call an ordinary person doing something extraordinary in the publishing world. There are many examples of self-published authors you can use as inspiration. Find them on Amazon and read their stories.

Once you know it’s possible to make a killing without the gatekeepers, you’ll be inspired to do it yourself.

75. Embrace Your Inner Barbara Walters

Interview people in your niche about a topic you’re interested in. Creating profiles of other people might seem less daunting than coming up with a topic from scratch. You can use their stories in your books or blog posts.

76. Dare to Be Different

Embrace your inner weirdo. Your idiosyncrasies and strange ideas are what make you you. Don’t be afraid to show them. The more personality you put into your writing, the better.

77. Throw Your Big Hairy Goals in the Garbage

When I encounter someone who has a puffed-up chest and talks about what they’re going to do, I know they’re going to fail. Most “grand missions” end abruptly. To stay inspired, gain momentum. To gain momentum, create the smallest goals possible. Your brain likes to “win.” If you set laughably achievable goals and succeed, your brain equates it with making progress. A series of small wins is better than no wins.

For example, if your goal is to write 250 words per day, and you reach it every day for a week, it will inspire you to either write at the same pace again or up your word count. If instead, you’d started out by setting a goal of writing 1,000 words per day, you could’ve gotten discouraged and quit. The first goal inspires you to continue, while the second is demotivating.

78. Stop When You Hit the Sweet Spot

Cut your writing short right when you’re in the groove. Pick up where you left off the next day. You’ll be inspired to dive back into the page because you’ll have been thinking about where you left off.

79. Sleep with the Enemy

Make friends with fear. The sooner you stop expecting fear to go away, the better off you’ll be. Remind yourself that fear is a sign of you doing something amazing with your life — something most others won’t do.

Fear is the enemy of inspiration, but thriving in spite of your fear is inspiring. If you’re afraid of being criticized, hit publish anyway and feel inspired from overcoming the hurdle. If you fear your writing won’t be captivating, press through and ship, because one day you’ll write something people will love.

Action is the best deterrent to fear, but it never erases it. Each step you take forward alongside your fear will inspire you to do it again and again.

80. Bore Yourself to Death

You stare at the blank page and nothing comes to mind. You feel blank and stuck. You’re bored.

Good.

Boredom filters out the pretenders from the contenders. Sometimes inspiration won’t sneak up on you until you stop looking for it. If you stop trying to force the situation and let the words come to you, they’ll come. Those writing sessions where you’d normally quit after ten minutes of boredom may bring a creative breakthrough at the eleventh minute.

81. Literally Write for One Person

The idea of writing for one person has been offered time and time again, but what if you went into insane detail about the person you’re writing for?

Instead of writing for “a member of your target audience,” come up with a customer avatar even an experienced marketer would find a bit obsessive.

Something like:

“Mary Elle Christiansen is a forty-year-old woman with two children — Jeremiah, 14, and Deanna, 11. She lives in Cranston, Rhode Island. Every morning after dropping the kids off to work she visits her favorite breakfast spot, Harriet’s Kitchen, and has a pecan maple danish with a Venti caramel iced macchiato — with an extra “half pump” of caramel.

After her meal, she settles in, opens her computer, and writes. She’s working on a memoir. Her late husband, Jim, was an air force veteran. She was an air force wife. Her entire family traveled the world together, moving from base to base. The constant motion was turbulent at times, but Mary was a supportive wife through and through. She wouldn’t be happy if her husband wasn’t. After Jim died — during a tragic flight exercise gone wrong — Mary was left with a large life insurance settlement, a pit of loneliness in her stomach, and an unrealized dream of becoming a writer she suppressed for her family. It’s just her, her children, and her laptop now.“

It wouldn’t be hard for me to write a blog post to inspire Mary Elle. Get insanely specific about who you’re writing for to the point of absurdity, and get inspired to benefit that person’s life.

82. Have an Affair

Many of the world’s most successful creators had extra hobbies that had nothing to do with their main craft. Try drawing, playing music, or making pottery. Take time to express yourself creatively without writing. Creativity fuels you regardless of its source. Add some creative gasoline to your tank to use in your writing.

83. Create a Monster in Your Lab

If you’ve been writing for a while, you have a hefty list of unfinished drafts. Instead of discarding them for good, you can find inspiration by taking pieces of each unfinished post to build a “Frankenstein piece.”

84. Don’t Trust the Opinions of Losers

Fear of ridicule kills inspiration. If you’re worried about what a reader will think of you, consider this question from the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius: “You want praise from people who kick themselves every 15 minutes, the approval of people who despise themselves?” People who don’t even think highly of themselves don’t have the right to hold a negative opinion about your work.

Get your inspiration back by seeing “trolls” for what they really are — people who hate their own lives so much they want to criticise what you do in yours.

85. Stop Telling Yourself You’re a Writer

Stop only identifying with being a writer. If your identity is closely tied to being a writer, you’ll take your failure in writing as cracks in your personal character. You write, yes, but you do lots of other things, too.

86. Turn Trials into Triumph

You know what’s more inspiring than believing you can overcome obstacles? Actually overcoming them, because knowing you have the strength to do it inspires you to do it again.

Most writers fail because they avoid difficulty. Most don’t grasp the hidden inspiration in defeat. When a team loses by one point in the championship, they work even harder the next season, because they know they’re on the cusp of victory.

When a piece you write gets rejected, get inspired to prove the editor wrong. When your blog post or book falls flat on its face, get inspired to write ten times better the next time.

Real inspiration isn’t warm, fuzzy, and cute. The truly inspired are gritty, tenacious, and walk directly into the flames of disappointment and setbacks.

87. Con Your Way to Success

Become an impostor. Impostor syndrome is the feeling of being a fake, phony, or fraud who doesn’t deserve success. A great remedy for impostor syndrome is embracing the idea of being one. Write under your guise of falsehood. Realize nobody knows exactly what they’re talking about, and give up your need for appearances. Fake it till you make it.

88. Appreciate the Fortunate Timing of Your Birth

Consider the fact it’s ten times easier to become a successful writer than it used to be.

A few decades ago, to get published you needed to throw your needle into the haystack of the publishing world and hope someone discovered you. Now you can publish your own books. With the click of a button, your words can potentially reach millions of people. Technology has empowered us all.

I call this the excuse-free era because there are more opportunities than ever to find exposure.

89. Realize You’ve Already Put in “10,000 Hours”

Think of how much writing you’ve done in your life. From papers in school, to emails, to social media updates — you write all the time. When you focus on building a writing career, it’s more of a focused effort, but it’s writing just the same. Remember how much you effortlessly write in other areas of your life, and take some pressure off the writing you do for an audience.

90. Make a Mountain Out of a Molehill

Focus on doing one thing a little better each time you write. If you only get one percent better every day, you’ll be 37 times better by the end of the year.

Growth in writing is exponential, not linear, which means your practice won’t just make you better little by little. One day, after several weeks and months of getting better inch by inch, your skills will explode. You’ll enter a higher plane of creativity and the words will come out of you as if possessed by a wordsmith demon who scorches the keyboard with its fingers.

91. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Making an investment in your writing inspires you to create because it shows you’re serious. Being an “amateur,” isn’t always inspiring, but “turning pro” is.

How do you turn pro? You do the work, but you also treat your writing like a business instead of just a hobby. Making financial investments in your craft inspires you to live up to the image you create for yourself.

A telltale sign of someone who isn’t serious about their writing is a lack of willingness to spend money. Invest in tools to grow your website. Invest in your writing education. Invest in tools to create high-quality books. The more you invest, the more you’ll feel invested in your work.

92. Stop Robbing the World of Your Creativity

Think about your readers.

What if the scientist who was meant to cure cancer decided medical school was too hard? She isn’t only robbing herself, but the world. Your writing belongs to your readers. Your words can help educate, entertain, and inspire people. I once had a reader comment on a lull I had between blog posts. They were relying on my words to help their career.

Your words matter, and we need them.

93. Pay Your Debt

Earlier we talked about the idea that your writing isn’t for you, but for other people. This is true, but at the same time remind yourself that you owe yourself. Sure, writing can be a bit of a slog at times, but you owe it to yourself to push through the pain and see what’s on the other side, especially if you’ve already invested time into your writing career. Don’t let what you’ve done go to waste.

94. Harness the Curious Power of Envy

Have you ever been jealous of another writer for their accomplishments?

You can use your envy as fuel to inspire yourself to improve. Oftentimes when I see someone else do something I want to do but haven’t done, I turn my envy into curiosity. After seeing green for a bit, I think to myself, “How did they do it?” Then I trace their steps and reverse-engineer what they’ve done.

I’ve used this strategy to get featured on popular blogs, come up with headlines for blog posts, and add more substance to my work. Don’t just get jealous, get better.

95. Hit the Reset Button

I once wrote 15,000 words of a book and quit. I just wasn’t feeling it. I struggled over the words over and over again, but the project just didn’t seem like a good fit. I started over completely and wrote my second book.

The experience of having a fresh start was inspiring because I was re-energized with new material. You don’t want to fall into the perfectionist trap, but you can inspire yourself by carefully choosing when to start over.

96. Create Your Own Turning Point

In every book or movie, there’s the moment where the unassuming protagonist takes the call to adventure. For most of her life, she’d been somewhat of a nobody, but opportunity arises, and she finally begins the chapter of her life that changes everything.

Will this moment happen in one instant for you? Maybe not. But you can embrace the idea of taking action and starting your journey today. Get inspired by the moment, or the idea that life is fleeting. Dig dip inside yourself and conjure up whatever energy is inside you and make today the day that’s different.

97. Curate an Inspiration “Museum”

We come across inspiring material all the time, whether they’re quotes, places we visit, pieces of art, or experiences we have.

What if you created a place to document and store all of this inspiration, so you could use it later in your writing? This could be in a form of a journal or scrapbook where you collect inspiring ideas. You could keep track of things you’ve thought to yourself or heard from other people that inspire you.

When your creative well runs dry, you can look to your journal for the jump-start you need.

98. Set a Finish Line

With the first book I wrote, I gave myself a specific deadline to publish it. I woke up every day, hammered away at the keyboard with reckless abandon, and looked forward to the last lap.

I relaxed a bit on writing the next book. I told myself I’d get it done without any pressure of a deadline. The result? I worked on it on and off instead of being consistent. I didn’t get back into the swing of writing until I put a deadline on my work again.

Give yourself deadlines for your writing projects. They might seem arbitrary, but deadlines help you stay motivated to push through, and they make you treat your writing like a business instead of a hobby.

99. Boil it Down to This…

Each one of these points ties into the central message behind becoming a great writer. You have to write. Get inspired by your own deep love and need for putting words on the page. You’re the best source of inspiration for yourself.

You have the itch, the pull, the call. Use it.

Get Busy Writing, or Get Busy Dying

If you really have the itch to write, it’ll never go away,

You have two options — get inspired and get to work, or let your anxiety and insecurities grow and fester.

I know what it feels like to get stuck between the feeling of knowing you have something important to say and wondering whether you’re cut out for the task at hand.

It’s been two years since I started, and I never imagined I’d be where I am today. The same can happen for you, but not without putting in the work day in and day out until you get what you want.

Remember, whether you write or not, the time will pass anyway.

You are cut out for it.

You can make all of your writing dreams come true.

You got this. Now go.

The post Writing Inspiration: 99 Ways to Get Inspired to Write in 2020 appeared first on Smart Blogger.

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Evil Within Review

Developed by Tango Gameworks

Published by Bethesda Softworks

Played on: PS3

Also Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows

Detective Sebastian Castellanos and his teammates Joseph Oda and Juil Kidman respond to a gruesome mass murder at the Beacon Mental Hospital. The security cameras show a mysterious hooded figure with supernatural powers quickly dispatching the security guards before moving to eliminate the patients and nurses. Who was that? Detective Castellanos is interrupted by an ear piercing noise before waking upside-down in a meat locker. After running for his life, Sebastian escapes the hospital. Sebastian and his teammates find each other and quickly escape in an ambulance with one surviving patient and caretaker as the entire city falls apart and reality itself seems to bend at someone's will. Find the truth, and discover who or what is truly in control.

Shinji Mikami returns to the triple A games industry with a new survival horror title. He already has great hits such as Resident Evil 1 and 4 as well Dino Crisis under his belt with this being his newest horror endeavor. The Evil Within was released in late 2014 in that odd coming-of-age period where 7th generation consoles still had large fan bases while 8th generation consoles were becoming popular but still lacked large, diverse buying groups. I thought I would review this game on the PS3 to see how the game holds up for those who never decided to upgrade or who find a good deal for an older device.

The Evil Within is a stealth-action horror game with many similarities to Resident Evil 4. Levels mainly consist of the player wandering through linear stages populated with enemies that are similar to zombies but aren’t zombies while in the third person camera view. These enemies tend to only have melee attacks but later in the game get guns and other weapons to attack the player. You in turn have access to a revolver, shotgun, sniper rifle, Magnum, and the Agony Crossbow which is a crossbow with custom arrows (i.e. ice, harpoon, explosive, electric, and flash arrows). You also have melee attacks but they don’t do much damage. You spend most levels taking out enemies with these weapons and slowly finding your way to the boss battle. The player can stealth kill an enemy by sneaking up behind them and performing a stealth kill. However, just stabbing the monster in the head won’t do the trick sometimes. To ensure that enemy doesn’t come creeping up on you in the next area you can burn bodies of the enemies you just “killed.” In addition to the regular shambling monsters you encounter in every level, you also have mini-boss opponents. These include massive, deformed beings with blades for arms that screech as they chase you around and masses of tissue with legs that lunge at you. These enemies may not sound scary now, but when you play the game they are absolutely terrifying.

The levels really compliment this by being claustrophobic and dark. Enemies lurk around every corner as they hit the walls and open doors to confuse you on where they are at. The real terror comes from two experiences in the game. Chase sequences and boss battles. I’ll talk about the chase sections first. These involve the player running away from some type of monster in cramped corridors. At first these sequences are heavily scripted but later in the game become far more user dependent. One time I was being chased by a humanoid spider through a factory and had to shoot valves to redirect flames to escape. This became incredibly frantic, as I had to aim carefully all the while avoiding this creature. Even after shooting the valve I had to wait 30 seconds for the flames to dissipate, making it a game of tag. Except if you lose you get your head ripped off.

Boss battles are probably the main selling point of this game however. Instead of the player simply running away from some horrible abomination now they have to fight it. Bosses are difficult but never feel unfair and always provide a unique challenge. Bosses in this game aren’t beaten through brute force, they are beaten through fast thinking and tactical decision making. For example, without giving spoilers, let me share one of my experiences. There is a boss that keeps coming alive after you kill him with traditional small arms. So how do you beat such a boss? You kill him by leading him towards a ceiling of spikes. You have to run through a disorienting, noxious gas room to get there however. As you navigate this room and try to turn off the gas, the boss chases you and strikes you down. It may be the scariest thing I’ve experienced in a video game having to deactivate a gas system as the camera angle turns to show the boss slowly walking up behind me just as I push through the last bit of resistance the gas valve is providing. These battles alone are the best reason to buy the game.

Now something that really shocked me about this game is that it lacks puzzles. This really caught me off-guard, as almost every relevant survival horror game has its fair share of puzzles. But after completing the game I feel this is a good thing, as it helps the game establish its own identity from horror games of the past and carve out a new realm in the survival horror matrix. Something else that may shock others is that this is a game where stealth, action, and running away from fights are all viable options. In most modern survival horror games stealth/running away or full on blockbuster action seem to be the only options the player has. But The Evil Within really blends these together allowing for all kinds of play. In the stealth sections you are given a small icon at the top of the screen. When the pupil moves back and forth and the eyelid is somewhat closed that means the enemy is nearby but hasn’t spotted you yet. When the eye is fully open that means the enemy has spotted you. In most horror games of our time you would either have to run and hide in the closest closet or pull out your fully automatic machine gun and mow down everything that moves. But with The Evil Within you can either pull out your gun and shoot the enemy or run away and find a place to hide and wait for them to stop searching to save ammunition. Both are viable options with pros and cons and you have the power to choose which tactic (at least most of the time).

During the game you will kill enemies and sometimes find piles of green gel you can collect. You can also find jars of green gel around the levels. You use this green gel to upgrade you weapons and abilities. You can upgrade the amount of health you have, how much health you get back from healing items, how many rounds your guns can hold, and so on. These upgrades are vital and are really the only way to beat the game without getting your ass handed to you every five minutes.

Graphically this game looks incredible, especially when you consider it is running on a PS3 and that the developers had to make the game on four other platforms. But when you look beyond the graphical detail the game starts to show cracks in its technical integrity. Textures can take up to 3 seconds to load even when staring directly at them up close. The load times are unbearable in this game. It takes an average of twenty seconds to load up the level after you have died. Even though the frame rate remains at a constant 30 FPS with six enemies on screen and with various actions going on in the background it drops considerably when nothing happens. Usually the frame drops occur when Sebastian is walking along a path as the wind blows leaves off a tree and there is a lighting effect from a nearby fire going on at the same time. I guess it's good that the frame rate stays steady during the action but why does it have to drop so often because of environmental effects? Something else that really pissed me off is that the game has lined up some great voice actors such as Anson Mount and Yuri Lowenthal but has each of them speak just a handful of lines. Most of the story is explained through in-game text but this is just stupid. Why hire top class talent and not use it?

As a tip to players let me remind you that this is a very, very hard game. Even while playing on easy mode I still got my ass kicked I died a total of 41 times. (I know because the game told me at the end). I would recommend playing on easy and unlocking new game plus before attempting any of the harder difficulties. When playing on easier modes you tend to find more green gel and ammo. You also take less damage from attacks and do more damage. But keep in mind that even on easy mode there are still multiple one-hit kill enemies and sections where one wrong turn could kill you. Once you have beaten the game on any difficulty you unlock new game plus. This lets you replay the game from the very beginning but with some new perks. You retain all the upgrades you got from your last playthrough in addition to two new weapons (machine gun and rocket launcher) and 50,000 in free green gel. You also unlock a model mode where you can look at the character models for every person in the game. This is cool but the ability to rotate the camera to see the full model would have been nice.

Overall The Evil Within is another great game from Shinji Mikami that will provide you with 10-15 hours of gameplay depending on skill level and difficulty. It brings all sorts of terrifying creatures into the fray and adds extra tension with its tight level design and ingenious boss battles. The gameplay is satisfying and always feels good no matter what section of the game you’re playing. But the game is held back by poor usage of the PS3’s CEL architecture. Even though I never encountered a bug in the game, I found all sorts of texture issues and infuriating load times.

I am giving The Evil Within an 8 out of 10

Pros:

Awesome boss battles

Tense, tactical stealth sections

Well done chase sequences

Cool upgrade system

Great level layouts

Cons:

Some texture issues

Long load times

[digitalmarketingcourses]

Top 10 linkedin invitation message samples

Every time you log in to your LinkedIn Profile you notice connection requests from other members wanting to connect with you. This could be from the Recruiters, your friends, and complete strangers.

But you could be probably wondering:

Why the exact same message pops up every time – “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

Isn’t it boring as you miss a chance to create a first impression, that you are keenly interested to network with. Most of the guys either don’t take advantage of this or not aware of, The LinkedIn customized feature lets you create personalized message each one of them whether it may be professionally or casually.

Look:

The 300 characters of the LinkedIn personalized message can make a great impression.

If you’re connecting with the person you know well then it’s great opportunity to reconnect and reinforce relationship. If you want to connect with the person whom you met at the industry event, then you have a wonderful opportunity with just one click away reminding of him/her how we met and to connect with them.

Here are some effective ways to write “ LinkedIn Invitation”

As said the 300 characters is the only opportunity to create an impression when you want to connect, here are basic key elements that you need to give an eye while personalizing the message

Spruce up your profile The first thing that’ll be seen is your Profile – make sure your profile picture looks professional and of a good quality. Make sure to update all the profile information. In Addition to that make sure to update employment history so you’re are not considered as a spammer.

Personalize the Invitation Make sure to personalize the invitation specifically to the target. It is also important to mention how you know them and specify why you’d like to connect. This motivates the recipient more likely to accept the invitation and gives you chance to connect for future communications.

Flatter the connectee Everybody loves to be flattered every now and then, isn’t it? Personalize the message with praising the person’s strengths and achievements. This is considered to very important as you could find it on their profile, so spare the time to do research.This can include any compliments you have about their company, their position or their experience.

Here are the Top 10 LinkedIn Invitation Message Sample

A Colleague Everyone loves to connect with their colleagues and get to know their strengths,projects that they have worked on and interests. This is a ideal way to grow a professional relationship with your colleagues. It may even be just the prompt they need to endorse you or write you a LinkedIn recommendation.Hi %Firstname%, Although I’ve never gotten the chance to work with you directly, I’ve heard rave reviews about your sales techniques and ability to work with tough clients. Hopefully one of these days I can see you in action! ’Til then, I’ll catch you in the break room. Best, %Your name%

A New Colleague It’s always a tough time to get along the new teammates. It’s a great way to send the Linkedin invitations and let them know that you’re looking forward to working with them.Hi %Firstname%,I’m so happy to have been able to join your agency. I look forward to being part of such an innovative and dynamic group, and I’m excited to be able to contribute. See you around the office!All the Best, %Your name%

A Former Co-worker The best way to connect with the co-worker of your’s is to give quick reminder on when, where and how you have worked with them. This ables to strike a right chord and reconnect with them on a professional level.Hi, %Firstname%,It was a pleasure to have been able to work together at XYZ Agency from 2005 to 2011. The office wouldn’t have been the same without your knack for dealing with tough clients! Maybe someday we can meet up for coffee – I’d love to hear about your new job at ABC Agency.Hope all is well, %Your name%

Someone You Want to Work With LinkedIn provides an excellent opportunity if you want to connect with a person with particular skills set to contribute and work along with you on a project. Let the intentions be clear and offer the future course of actions and make sure if the person is interested.Hi %Firstname%,I saw the projects you did for XYZ Agency, and I’m impressed with your work. My business is looking to work on a similar strategy, and your skills would be a great help. Let me know if you’re interested in working together – I can be reached at sampleemail@gmail.com.Thanks, %Your name%

A Recruiter I am sure recruiters would have a maximum number of connection requests. They would never bother to have a look at your profile. LinkedIn personalized message helps you out. Be sure to mention how do you know on this professional network and would be an advantage if share your strengths and skills, and to give some background information on your career experience, in order to show how you could be an asset for their company.Hi %Firstname%,I see that you work with ABC Agency – I’m also in the marketing industry, and I’ve been working professionally in the field for five years. If you have time, I’d love to talk about whether my background would make me a fit for any openings in your office.Thanks! All the Best,

Someone You Met at a Networking Event It’s a great opportunity to connect with the person that you met at a networking event.Give them a reason for connecting – whether you want to meet to trade tips, help with projects or meet other people in the field, mention that in your request.Dear %Firstname% ,It was great speaking to you at the XYZ Conference in last month. The mapping and charting work you do for airports sounded fascinating! I’d definitely like to stay up-to-date on your career.Thank you, %Your name%

Someone You Know Casually The main reason for LinkedIn is to connect with people professionally. For people you know more a personal basis, it’s okay to use casual tone.Hi %Firstname%,It was great meeting you at XYZ dinner party recently. If you have the chance, I’d love to get in touch and hear more about what you do at XYZ Agency.All the Best, %Your name%

Someone You Admire It always great to reach to the person whom you admire, but make sure to include some brief background information and also mention who you are and why you want to connect and at last don’t forget the reason for connecting. Hi %Firstname%,I’ve been following your work with ABC Agency for the past year, and I’m impressed with all you’ve accomplished. I’d love to hear more about your work – if you have some time, I’d be interested in speaking to you about how you got to your current position.Thanks, %Your name%

Someone in the Same LinkedIn Group When you are trying to connect to the member of the Linkedin group, make sure to mention that you’re both part of that group. Additionally, take the time to provide a personalized reason as to why you’re connecting with them specifically and also appreciate their work.Hi %Firstname%,I’m also a member of the XYZ Marketing LinkedIn group and I always find your posts to be incredibly helpful and thought-provoking. I’d love to be able to keep in touch and hear more about your work.All the Best, %Your name%

An Alumnus Connect to the person with the sense of school spirit.Introduce yourself with some background information on your professional experience and goals. Don’t forget to mention the reason for connecting.Hi %Firstname%,I saw you graduated from NYU. I’m currently in my senior year there, and I’m excited to earn my degree (I’m sure you recall the feeling!). If you have time, maybe we can meet up to discuss your role at XYZ Agency – as a fellow marketer, I’d love to hear more about what you do.Thanks, %Your name%

So next time when you send connection request on LinkedIn make sure to personalize it. Using the tips and templates mentioned will be beneficial.

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