#but it would also be more comfy to play your own character than to try to carry someone else's story so this will be interesting

[fountainpenguin]

So I've been thinking about this ever since Gem posted the colors and hearts and honestly I will be very curious to see if she ends up in Traffic Season 5 and more importantly how she plays... I remember she talked about how she thought it would be super stressful to be in "improv brain" all the time, and I get that and I hope she has fun.

Martyn's also talked about how he tries to go out of his way to set traps or go for flashy kills instead of PVP, saying that he considers himself on the upper end of PVP skills, but he feels like the traps and the flair are more unique for the Life series and he wants to create something that's interesting and flashy to watch (and/or give others more of a fighting chance against him).

I'm not sure if the other creators make an effort to prefer traps - I just know they scaled back OP arrows and enchantments after 3rd Life - but since Gem's set up as someone with a powerful PVP reputation, I'm interested to see if she sticks to what she knows or if she experiments with traps... and how that might impact potential alliances.

Do you dare base with a powerful person who doesn't have the years of established social protocol, and therefore might whip out the skills and slay you for the bit??

I remember her putting in the grind to get diamonds when she was possessing Cleo, and Bdubs seemed a little surprised that she would spend her screen time on that (or at least that was my interpretation)... Is Gem super competitive and will she stock up on trap materials, putting in the grind for resources?? Will she successfully get stuff or will she be pressed for time?

I've seen her in SMPs where you can take your time with the grind and you enjoy plentiful resources, but in the Life series, everything from time to resources to space is super limited. Gotta wow the crowd so spending episodes mining would be risky. What will she do?? idk but this will be interesting

Entire Soup Group fighting to the death?? omg

[babyshoesnerdshit]

batkids high headcanons

CW: weed (duh), characters being high (also duh), slightly platonic yandere, and infantilization

Dick: absolute cuddle monster, he will grab which ever sibling is closest and hold on like an octopus, if the need to get something from the other room he will simply carry them there so they can get it. need to go to the bathroom? it will take 15 minuets minimum to convince him to let you go. some siblings will hit him for clinging but it doesn't stop him at all. he just loves you guys so much, and he will tell you this constantly. super affectionate, will kiss the top of your head, you cheeks, your forehead ect. some of the others with try and stab him for this others will give up and let him. will be the one to buy all of the snacks before the sesh. makes sure to get all the ones he know you like best.

Jason: anger issues? what anger issues? super chill and the most relaxed you've seen him. he will find you and will carry you around on his hip, he talks to you like your a child (only you not any of the other siblings) he has a firm hold on you so the only way you're getting down is if one of the other siblings manages to convince him. however he is super comfy and you might fall asleep. if this happens you will be cooed at and many pics will be taken (however that would happen no matter what you did so). tries super hard to make you laugh but keeps cutting himself off by laughing at his own jokes. totally makes his own edibles. will go along with almost any silly antic you get up to, the best at playing along with the bit.

Tim: becomes super quiet and doesn't make many expressions, observes the others for the most part. then out of nowhere he will say the most philosophical shit that makes no sense to anyone but him and he refuses to elaborate. one of the only times he will fall asleep willingly. he will also hug like an octopus but only to you, you can push him off much easier but less than half of a minuet later he's hugging you again. will randomly start petting your hair when hugging you. takes lots of pics of you, if you ask why he just says he's documenting important things. he will use the particularly good/cute ones as ransom to the other siblings (ex. "if you do [insert thing] for me ill give you this pic of (y/n) high [doing cute thing]" and it always works)

Steph: becomes an absolute comedian, constantly cracking jokes and finds the funniest videos to watch. smiles and laughs at everything. tends to fall asleep before everyone else tho (except Duke but more on that later) finds the most random things funny, one time you found her laughing her ass off at an egg just sitting on the counter in the kitchen. will bat at things like a cat, like hoodie strings or someone's hair (most likely belonging to Tim or Cass). defo the biggest stoner out of the whole group (followed by probably Jason). always has a bag of chips on her, no one knows where she keeps them she just pulls them out of nowhere to start snacking.

Cass: Cass has never been drunk or high or any form of intoxicated, and she plans to keep it that way. she likes being in total control of herself all of the time. she does however like to hangout with you guys while you are high, she thinks its very funny and she takes photos and records things to use as blackmail or to trade. stays silent in the corner the whole time just watching you guys be idiots, if she sees you're starting to get stressed/have a bad time she will instantly be by your side and knows exactly how to comfort you. she makes sure you guys always have enough water, before you even ask there's a water bottle right next to you. (depending on just how high you are it ranges from a glass of water to straight up a sippy cup)

Duke: doesn't really get high often but will hang out with you like Cass, he however talks to you guys more than just observing. the few times he gets high it always a really small edible because he has a super low tolerance and smoking intimidates him, and he usually only uses it to help him sleep. dude is knocked out almost as soon as it hits. if he does manage to stay up he just laughs at everything and smiles without saying much. he's just happy to be there :]

Damian: is too young to do anything so no weed for him. he claims he doesn't care and that he is superior for keeping his mind clear but will then go pout in his room because he feels left out. will hang out sometimes but not often because he is a common target for dicks octopus hugs/overbearing affection. when he is old enough I get the feeling he would still not partake out of spite and so he can say he's better than you.

Bonus: Alfred makes the best food for munchies, any requests will be made no matter how strange. Bruce knows but he lets it slide (only after doing several hours of research on it to make sure you guys weren't doing anything too harmful) because he's just happy to see all of his kids getting along and bonding. Bruce did give you all an hour long lecture about making sure what you had was gotten from a safe and regulated dispensary and how to get high in the safest way possible. I personally think he transformed one of the lounge rooms into a specific high room, it has no sharp objects and nothing that you could accidentally get hurt on, there's pillows and blankets everywhere. he will also make sure you guys properly clean any pipes/bongs. much like many of your siblings he will use this as an opportunity to baby you (he would tell you to hold his hand because you might be a bit wobbly or carry you to bed ect.)

[the-s1lly-corner]

slashers x autistic!fem!reader hcs if you're comfy with that!!! (idrc about the rest but please let jason and thomas be there 🙏)

Jason and Thomas x autistic!fem!reader

grrrgrr trying to speedrun writing so i can go work on other stuff but my fingers keep either going stiff or simply not following what i want to write raaaaah!! i used to be able to write like, 5-8 posts back to back but it seems currently im limited to 2 or 3 hisshiss notes: reader is fem, a lot of this is based around the admins experiences as an afab with autism, admins experience does not reflect everyones experience, something something admin headcanons both characters are on the spectrum albeit undiagnosed and likely unaware that theyre ND cws: mentioned bullying and/or ableism

JASON

doesnt mind your needs, and hes more than welcome to accommodate you and make living here with him easier for you

need your own space so you can unwind? hes already on it, just be sure to let him know if you need anything! need something to keep excess noise out, or to perhaps play music? he might be able to find a pair of headphones somewhere! can only eat certain foods due to sensory issues? hes sure he can find a way to help you!

if you ever open up to him about your struggles prior to moving in with him, hes going to feel for you... not only because hes reeling from the idea that anyone could treat you so poorly for trying to function the way the way thats best for you.. but also because he finds himself relating heavily to you-

actually him tending to you and your needs has him realizing that he hasnt really been tending to his own.. hes mostly been doing the basic "eat sleep clean repeat" cycle before you came around... he would just power through whatever else was bothering him

you both take care of each other, and in your case you help him find what works for him and what doesnt

if you ever mention any of his interests hes going to remember everything you tell him... and if it happens to be a media hes going to light up if he ever sees a camper sporting some merch for it... definitely going to yoink that to give you later

THOMAS

does his very best to make things easier for you, even helping you change up your room to better suit your needs

he doesnt really talk, but if you have an interest you want to ramble about hes going to let you talk for as long as you want! depending on what work he needs to do that day he might let you talk as he does his chores!

doesnt know anything about neurodivergency but hes willing to let you guide him so he can understand, you... may raise some internal suspicions in him that he may not totally be neurotypical

similar to jason you may end up helping him find what he doesnt like and does like, stuff that hes been ignoring and pushing to the back of his mind for the sake of keeping things running and doing what hes told

your room becomes a quiet space for the two of you to retreat to during the day to let your walls down and relax before heading back out into the world

[monkiesimp]

Hey Hey! Could I request Marriage Headcanons for Macaque, Wukong, and Azure Lion?? You could add any characters to this if you'd like to as well! <3

THAT'S SO SWEET, YES. I tried my best so 😭 I'm sorry if I suck at this

Wukong:

- Being married with Wukong and living with him in the Flower Fruit Mountain is very nice and peaceful

- Mostly it's just the two of you, if he married you of course he'd want you to stay near him as much as possible!

- Expect cuddles all day, every day 24/7 because once he hugs you he won't ever let go.

- He never gets tired of cuddling you even if you're married and still craves for affection, he just loves it. Can you blame him? It feels so warm and comfy.

- Besides mostly being alone with Wukong, Mk does visit to train but as soon as he's done Wukong would immediately go over to you to see what you're up to.

- You and Mk get along pretty well, if he's injured you'd treat his injuries. You see him like your own son, sort of, but you really do love him! He's a good kid.

- You also bond with the monkeys on this island and they seem to like you, the monkeys even gave you a flower crown. They probably think you're their queen. Oh, well, you technically are their queen by now since you married The Monkey King.

- Seeing you bond with monkey's is the cutest thing Wukong ever saw, and seeing it every time makes him love you even more.

- Though you love being in Flower Fruit Mountain, you don't like staying there for all eternity and Wukong does take you somewhere else whenever you wish to.

- He always picks the best places to go to like 😩👌

- He just knows places very well, and every time he brings you to somewhere it's always new and it's always beautiful.

- You two use a lot, lot of sweet nicknames on each other. Like wayyyy too much.

- Macaque would have definitely tried to kidnap you to get to Wukong at one point once he met you and realized how much you meant to each other.

- But that was in the past, nonetheless let's just say Macaque didn't try to the plan twice after that.

- Overall, you two are very sweet and still cuddle every night together, Wukong got so used to it that he can't sleep without you near him.

- You two rarely ever argue, you understand each other and work your problems out.

Macaque:

- Macaque loves you very very deeply, once you two get married he just *might* be affectionate towards you in public.

- Don't get your hopes up though, he does nothing more than hold your hand, just small gestures.

- He isn't very comfortable being all snuggly in public and showing too much affection.

- But once you two are alone, he never stops holding you in his arms.

- He doesn't hesitate to cuddle you anymore like he used to in the past, now he would take first action to hold you close to him when he wants to be near you.

- He still loves to tease you and mess with you, seeing you so flustered when he teases you makes him love you even more, you're just so cute when you're embarrassed.

- Yes, you still are flustered by his teasing even when married. Have you seen this man? The things he can say and do are just... Wow.

- Mostly you do tease him back and play along but he always finds something to say that leaves you completely speechless.

- By now he told you pretty much everything about him, so you know about his six ears and his past.

- Unfortunately, you two do have arguments from time to time and it's mostly about Macaque wanting to get revenge on Wukong. You don't like it, it's almost like he's obsessed with getting his revenge more than he loves you.

- You understand what Wukong did was horrible, but is there really a need for revenge after all these years instead talking it out?

- Of course, you do end up forgiving each other but it takes some time because none of you want to make the first move to apologize.

- After LBD thing tho, it's more calmer and the arguments nearly perished away.

- Macaque would often take you with him on adventures since he travels a lot, he shows you all the beautiful views he knows of.

- You're always impressed by the views you see, each is unique and magnificent.

- During those times, it's the most beautiful times with Macaque. It always stays in your memory, Macaque always does something memorable you'd never forget.

- He gets intimative with you way too many times 😭

⚠️ S4 SPOILER ⚠️

Azure Lion:

- Ok, we all barely know about the guy so don't expect this to be good but I'll try.

- Azure would do anything and everything to make sure you always feel safe and comfortable

- He has no problems of showing affection when in public but he very rarely does it

- He's not a guy to cuddle, but if you want it and crave for it? He'd hold you in his arms as much as you need him to

- He's usually very busy and doesn't have much time to be with you, he hates it too.

- But you understand, which makes him very grateful to you.

- He rarely shows any affection towards you, so it's kinda platonic between you two most of the time - yes, even if you're married

- But he does make sure to give you enough love for you to feel happy

- You never have arguments either, if you do end up having one (it's always you who comes up with a argument lol) Azure can quickly calm the situation down and come up with a good solution to both of your problems

- Azure is a very calm lion, he's not the person to let his anger take control of him.

- If you ever want to go somewhere with him, he refuses for you to tag along because it's too dangerous, and he doesn't want you to be hurt

- You do end up being disappointed after that, but Azure always does something to make it up to you, whenever that be taking you somewhere or gifting you something.

- Though it's mostly platonic between you two, he truly does love you with all his heart and whenever he takes any action of affection towards you, you blush like crazy

- THIS MAN RARELY EVER KISSES YOU, YOU WILL BE SURPRISED WHEN HE ACTUALLY DECIDES TO TAKE ACTION

- You simp for him hard. He knows it. You don't think he notices you glancing at his body? 🤨 He loves it tho and he finds it adorable and amusing.

[mazeinthemiroh]

I think watching a scary movie w ateez as ur s/o would be so cute cuz there giants so if get scared u can hide behind them but if they get scared then u would bd trying to calm them down like some big puppy or smth 😭

ateez watching scary movies with their s/o

genre: headcanons; crack, fluff

warnings: cursing

please like and reblog if you enjoy <3

hongjoong

so loud and for what

the only time he asks for cuddles is if he's watching a horror movie

otherwise, he just plays hard to get ahem

halfway through the movie, he starts criticising the acting/directing like why-

his anticipation of something bad happening intertwined is all too much but hongjoong can't help but comment on the cheesy music chosen for this particular scene-

seonghwa

cuddles up close to you

claims it's to comfort you but...

we know he'll need it too

arms around you at all times in some sort of death-grip

shields your eyes aware if there are any really horrible bits

but can't seem to tear his own eyes always and then he's traumatised

yunho

in my opinion, yunho is the safest option here

for one thing, he digs horror movies

he likes to cuddle in general so will totally let you snuggle up to him if you're scared

and he doesn't get particularly scared himself so he chill

will comfort you like the good man he is

just so <3333

yeosang

seems unbothered through most of it

but jolts and jumps out of his skin at the jumpscares

he's not particularly scared tho

doesn't let go of your hand throughout the movie but that's just cos he's comfy like that

it's what yall do!

prefers watching stuff like coraline and nightmare before christmas rather than actual horror movies

san

this poor man's nerves-

comfort him :( pretty please?

he questions his life choices bcs how on earth has he wound up watching a horror movie?

not happy, very sulky

buries his head into the crook of your neck

super clingy but very cute <3

you'll have to comfort him the whole night

mingi

scared and just not ready for this type of intensity

just wants a chill night, he didn't sign up for this

will talk during most of the movie to distract himself from the scary parts

even though he's a big boy, he's clinging onto you when it gets more tense

screams in your ear like a banshee

you'll probably be deaf by the end of the night

wooyoung

shrieks till his heart's content

you guys usually watch movies in his bedroom so every time you scream the members come in and tell you guys to shut tf up

which you don't.

likes making fun of the characters sometimes

and mostly telling them

"don't go in there it's a trap... you idiot??????"

jongho

not afraid of anything

will take the piss out of you if you're scared, laughing in your face because it's so hilarious to him

but also tells you to be quiet if you're yelling too loudly cos he wants to watch the movie

rude >:(

but makes up for it by letting you eat his candy and popcorn :)

[oddygaul]

Zenless Zone Zero

Well, I’ve been playing the shit out of this game, so fair warning, there will be significant brainrot ahead.

Overall, I really dig it. I’m a huge mark for character action games, and well-done life sims tend to suck me in; Zenless Zone Zero is nailing both those aspects pretty damn well. In fact, it’s nailing them well enough that… how do I put this… it starts to slip into the territory of being A Good Game Generally, rather than just a gacha. And while this is a big accomplishment for ZZZ, this also puts it into direct conversation with other full-price games, resulting in its gacha elements causing more friction than Honkai Star Rail’s ever did*.

*I’ll be comparing this to HSR a lot, because I play way too much of both and they’re made by the same developer. I recognize that it is pretty odd and potentially even problematic to A / B compare them when I could be looking at the game through the lens of, you know, Gaming At Large. But hey, that’s why this is a subjective journal and not a holistic review blog! It is what it is.

So, the aesthetic of this game fuckin rules - it’s like, late 90s to early 2000s VHS-core. The main characters run a Blockbuster, for Christ’s sake. Presentation-wise (and systems-wise, and, hell, music-wise), ZZZ is obviously borrowing a lot from the Persona series, but like… great? I’d love it if more things cribbed that style and made it their own, from the confidant hangouts, to the small but comfy explorable areas, to the dynamic menus with edgy character poses. The character design itself is all superb, all the way down to the crowd NPCs - some the shopkeepers here have cooler designs than the main characters of some other games. Even aside from the designs, ZZZ is doing a lot with lighting and color desaturation that really lends it its own unique vibe. They actually have a cohesive artstyle in here! wild.

The presentation of the story is also killer. Sure, a decent chunk of the conversations are just models lip-flapping at each other - although they at least emote and pose a bit here, unlike the Star Rail dialogue scenes with their demure princess waves. In the main story, though, we get not only a heap of fairly lengthy cutscenes, but also this really cool comic panel-style presentation.

I feel like there was a bit of a trend in the PS3/360 era of games to present a game’s story in this comic panel / storyboard style. I understood the motivation: games increasingly demanded a more involved, consistent storytelling approach, rather than the ‘One big rendered cutscene at the beginning and end’ they used to get away with, and the generation’s increased visual fidelity meant that doing even basic, in-engine cutscenes took a lot more resources to make something half-decent. In Spyro the Dragon on PS1 you could get away with a fun little 15-second gag with a barely animated polygonal yeti or whatever; in the PS3 era, you were going up against tryhards like Metal Gear Solid 4. Amidst this landscape, the pitch of having your illustrators pretty up some storyboards and put them in the game sounds like it’d save a lot of work - plus, consoles were finally outputting a high enough resolution that this sort of flat image wouldn’t be compressed to hell.

Thing is, I always kinda hated that approach. In some cases, I think that’s the popular opinion - I fuckin love Bayonetta, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone defend its weird slideshow cutscenes. Even in games where the execution is perfectly fine, though, it rubbed me the wrong way. I think of Infamous - objectively, the art’s solid and fits the tone of the game, and the motion graphics aim to capture some of the dynamism typical cutscenes would provide. Despite all that, it still feels cheap to me - all of the panning, effects, and graphic imagery feel like they’re trying to polish up something that inherently doesn’t fit.

In ZZZ, though, I’m loving every one I come across. It’s obviously still done for efficiency reasons - there’s already a handful of characters that exist only in these panel scenes, saving the team the effort of having to model and rig them. But the freedom this allows for staging and storytelling is huge; the characters are more expressive here than anywhere else in the game, and we’re able to see situations with huge crowds and new locales much more often than would be possible in typical cinematics. And the illustrations are genuinely good, too - full of character, cool poses and creative compositions/angles.

if everything actually had to be modeled, there's no way we would've gotten Legally Blonde Nicole

Plus, the cutscenes are constant, and boy do I love the animation here. It feels so rare nowadays for a high-budget game to do stylized 3D animation of this ilk. Your biggest budget games are all going for the cinematic look, and pushing realism as much as they can - and while I know an immense amount of work and craft goes into animating something like The Last of Us, boy, I just could not care less about something so lacking in flair*. Even bigger properties that use a stylized artstyle these days, like Breath of the Wild, still tend to lean towards fairly naturalistic animation. Zenless Zone Zero’s cutscenes, on the other hand, spin and stretch motherfuckers around like we’re back on the PS2, are filled with forced perspective, and I am absolutely living for it. It’s not even reserved only for bombastic action scenes, either - we get honest to god character acting-focused conversation cutscenes.

*Seriously, take me back to the Naughty Dog that animated Jak & Daxter. Jak’s hero animation is top tier to this day

Of course, the combat animation slaps too; each of the playable agents is absolutely dripping with character. Even characters whose designs initially left me cold won me over once I saw the amount of care put into their movement and combo strings. It’s honestly shocking to me that this is the same studio that made Genshin Impact, a game I dropped after about 2 hours because of how lifeless all the animation felt*. Unique run cycles for every character, actual non-human designs, the flourishes everyone has when stopping mid-combo to snap them back to idle, the absolute synergistic audiovisual bliss of the parry… it’s really impressive stuff from a young team.

*Same studio in name only, totally different team, I know, but still

Mechanically, I have some mixed feelings about the combat as a whole. Zenless Zone Zero is, without a doubt, aiming to present complexity and depth as a team battler - that is to say, it’s more about team synergy, tag combos, and knowing who to use when, rather than soloing as any particular character. Nonetheless, I really would’ve appreciated individual characters having a bit more depth to their movesets; a jump, a launcher, cancels, anything. As outstanding as all the animation work is, there’s some characters that only have a normal attack string on square and one special attack on triangle. Like, sub-Dynasty Warriors level of complexity here. It’s rough.

This is where ZZZ’s gacha nature gets a bit ugly: so far, more complex kits and skill expression are mostly locked behind rarity, which is kind of scummy. In Star Rail, for the most part, 4-star characters are defined as such due to their numbers: they still have mechanics and complexity, they just aren’t tuned as high as the limited characters. Hell, in some cases they have more complexity. Ruan Mei is an almost incomparably stronger unit than Asta, but Ruan Mei’s play pattern is fucking boring: you use skill every three turns when it runs out. Asta, meanwhile, basically has her own risk & reward minigame that demands more thoughtful SP management.

In ZZZ, on the other hand, the lower-rank characters straight up have less going on in their kits. Nicole has like… one tech, sorta. Anby has one single animation cancel to chain her normal into her special quicker. Lucy’s only skill expression is choosing whether to tap special or hold special. Meanwhile, Zhu Yuan, a limited character, has a normal string that bounces between melee and ranged attacks, can be dodge-canceled at any point in the combo to branch into variations of the string, and a hold-normal attack string that’s completely different and has the same branching dodge-cancel tech.

It’s one thing to lock raw damage and meta viability behind a gacha, but locking the characters that are mechanically more interesting to play straight up sucks. If I hadn’t been lucky enough on the standard banner to pull exactly the two characters I find the most mechanically satisfying, I don’t know that I’d still be playing - and this is the point where ZZZ begs comparison to other, non-live service character action games. Sure, it’s probably not fair to compare a random A-rank’s moveset to Devil May Cry V’s iteration of Dante, a feature-creeped nightmare of a kit 3 console generations in the making. But what about Sengoku Basara Sumeragi, my personal character-action GOAT? By all accounts a mid-budget title, yet it offers 40 full characters chock-full of more unique mechanics and animation cancels than you can shake a stick at.

Fuck, can we please get a new Sengoku Basara? Please? I’m desperate out here. I’ll take anything, y’all.

There’s also the inherent issue that plagues every action RPG (usually deftly avoided by the character action genre), which is the delicate balance of player success depending on the numbers vs actual mechanical skill - a balancing act made even more noticeable due to the gacha genre-standard of characters taking weeks of grinding to level up. This is a topic for another day, but suffice to say, a big part of the reason Honkai Star Rail works for me as a very pretty version of Cookie Clicker is because of the Autoplay option. In Zenless Zone Zero, if you’re not willing to grind out the same mob fight for a week or two, you’re gonna hit an endgame roadblock of doing chip damage to a boss you’ve mechanically mastered because you’re underleveled, and boy, that never feels good.

For all those issues stemming from the gacha, I will say, it’s great that the story missions let you use the characters that are actually supposed to be present for those missions, even if you don’t own them. Aside from how nice it is to have an opportunity to put the whole roster through their paces, it goes a long way for actually getting invested in the story. Honkai Star Rail’s storytelling is a hot mess for many reasons, but it’s always particularly jarring rolling up to a sidequest at like, a local theater troupe with a wanted space criminal, the sitting president of a completely different planet, a ten year old child, and a shirtless cyborg cowboy, none of whom have canonically met each other; ZZZ’s approach sidesteps this issue. The proxy angle even provides a pretty valid diegetic explanation for why agents that don’t know each other might be working together.

Now that we’ve sort of meandered back to the story after talking about animation led us on a long detour - the story is surprisingly solid. In particular, I really appreciate how straightforward the writing is. I don’t know if the issue lies with the original text or the localization, but Star Rail’s dialogue, even in simple missions, tends to be incredibly meandering and overstuffed; ZZZ is a lot better about letting all its characters talk like actual humans. It also helps that the plot so far is a lot more grounded, and spends more time focusing on each faction’s group dynamics rather than the overarching plot. These games live and die by their characters, so leaning into those strengths is a smart move.

Zenless Zone Zero is, unfortunately, fully in line with Hoyo’s weird conservative politics - in particular, 1.0 and 1.1 are absolutely stuffed full of copaganda. With how many safety regulation jokes they made at the construction company, I initially hoped they’d lampoon the police faction a bit, or make a commentary on how comically heavily armed New Eridu’s police force are. In a vacuum, Zhu Yuan shouting combat lines like “Stop resisting!” or “Freeze, hands up!” while blasting someone with her gigantic, ‘JUSTICE’-emblazoned rocket launcher shotgun feels like it ought to be satire. Every time we talk to the officers, though, it’s just line after line about their solemn duty to protect the people of the city, how essential and important they are for the community, and so on and so on.

This wholehearted embrace of the world’s current power structure is something Zenless Zone Zero approaches in nearly the exact same way as Star Rail. In both games, your playable character is someone that’s sort of operating outside the law - in Star Rail, as the maverick organization that is the Astral Express, while in ZZZ you work as an illegal proxy. Despite this setup, any time the protagonists come into contact with a governing body, they are no less than thrilled to help them enforce the will of the law.

In Star Rail, you aid the local governments (one of which is an undemocratic monarchy) in committing massive cover-ups to hide their failures from the populace not once but twice. In ZZZ, you aid the police to an obsequious degree - playing along with them to not arouse suspicion is one thing, but helping them organize a fucking community day on Sixth Street? Fuck that. Hell, said community day is even shown to initially be DOA because none of the local residents trust the police - and you best believe we get two full scenes of the MCs changing the resident’s minds, resulting in them spouting shit about “Oh, it was our fault for judging the police too harshly - they really do have our best interests at heart!”

is it tho

There’s an argument to be made that the N.E.P.S. are a little different, given that they exist in a post-apocalyptic world with monsters popping up every day - and ZZZ’s copaganda is certainly a little less flagrant than something like Spider-Man helping the NYPD install civilian surveillance networks in Insomniac’s Spider-Man. And, sure, perhaps this can help excuse why they post fully armored, rifle-wielding soldiers in the Lumina Square DMV, and provides some justification that their existence is more helpful than the real world’s civilian-murdering property guards.

Thing is, though, at every turn you’re hit with dialogue and situations which make it clear that, no, they’re the normal cops. Every other sidequest seems to involve calling the N.E.P.S. in on somebody or helping with an investigation, and for every time we see them handle ethereal activity, there’s two instances of them being called in for petty property theft or something similarly minor - even the playable character has heaps of dialogue choices threatening to call the police on someone*. Much like Star Rail’s reactionary politics were strangely at odds with the ‘blazing a new path’ ideals of the trailblaze, Zenless Zone Zero’s obsession with the police puts a damper on its underground, counterculture aesthetic.

*Including a case where both options threatened this, leaving me without a non-narc dialogue choice.

illustration by Lv01KOKUEN

And finally… I don’t know where to fit this in, so I guess it just goes in its own little section at the end here. Lots of people, myself included, have touched on the Persona inspirations - and they’re certainly significant. One thing I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention as a huge influence is Yasuhiro Nightow’s Kekkai Sensen / Blood Blockade Battlefront. From its sense of style to its worldbuilding, ZZZ damn near feels like fanfic to me. Hell, it’s right in the name - BBB? ZZZ? And this is on top of the dimensional crossover / big city vibe, the retro fashion, the different factions. Victoria Housekeeping might as well be Libra 2.0 - Von Lycaon is a damn near perfect 50/50 expy of Klaus and Stephen Starphase. And then Belle / Wise, who assist these powerful fighters in a noncombat role just like Leo, also turn out to have some sort of special magical eyes granted to them by untold powers from within the dimensional rift??

I’m here for it, don’t get me wrong - love Nightow. But that can’t be coincidence, right?

[ghost-proofbaby]

I would love a Getting to Know Eddie with your coffee shop blues Eddie. (I’ll let Abi ask for Maroon). 😘

(oh i don’t think i could tell abi much more about maroon eddie than i already have. the space under my desk when im writing maroon literally has her name on it <3)

alright. so. COFFEE SHOP BLUES EDDIE. first and foremost, that eddie is from my purely self indulgent barista!au for those of you who don’t know. for legal reasons, it’s totally not based on true experiences or a very real company. totally not. for legal reasons. but, the entire premise is this eddie entirely untouched from the upside down — non-canon compliance so we can be happy for once baby ! — and just playing around with who he is without all that. he gets the job as a barista, he’s a damn pessimist, and- well, i liked to play around with what would happen if he was the grumpiest barista to ever exist and got reality checked by a sunshine-incarnate barista. and, spoiler alert, the boy would probably melt. he does melt.

my inspiration is drawn entirely from uh… well… can i have a lawyer if i admit this? nah im just kidding he’s based on my own experiences! and contrary to what plenty of people have said to me (if i had a nickel every time said they imagine me as reader i’d be far richer than i am which makes me so 😭), eddie is the character based around me. i think he’d react very similarly to how i do most of the time at work. being grumpy, being so easily inconvenienced by every small thing, always huffing and puffing and wanting to be better. and i think reader is what i’d like to be. at the end of the day, it’s just a nice way to romanticize life, i guess. <3

my favorite headcanon that i’ve never shared in the story is that everyone actually finds that he’s very good at his job. it’s emphasized he isn’t necessarily friends with the other baristas, and there’s a whole lot of him internally comparing himself to the people he thinks do the job better (*cough* reader *cough*), but that whole “i can do better. i have to do better” mentality has led him to being quite good at the job actually. he puts himself down, says he isn’t that good, etc. but he is. customers like that feline grumpiness (the girls that come in regularly for frappucinos in the afternoon are always secretly hoping he’s there, definitely living their ‘i can fix him’ fantasy despite reader already having set sail on that boat), his coworkers admire him albeit they get a lil scared of him due to resting bitch face, and all that. he makes a mean fucking cappuccino. his drinks always just taste better. he’s just good. he’ll never admit it, but damn is he good at his job.

on a casual day, this man is living in comfy clothes. big band tees, plaid pajama pants or sweats. the only time he puts on jeans these days is when he works. which, i mean, listen — he works often. he lives his days by what shift he has, not by days of the week. weekends are nonexistent to him. he’s earned some damn comfort when he’s just at home, ya know? (also, most of his clothes that aren’t graphic tees or comfy pants just stink of coffee these days. ugh.)

his favorite food is probably the cake pops at work. he’s a sweet tooth fiend with them. someone accidentally breaks one when opening the packages? oh no !! he’ll take that off their hands. all of his free food mark outs? 50% cake pops. he’s on food? he’s definitely accidentally bagging and slipping one or two off to the side for himself. sometimes coworkers will try to convince him when he’s on the food position to slip them a free cake pop as well, and every time, he’s flipping them the bird and a quick “steal on your own time, bud”. (unless it’s reader. unless it’s sunshine. then, he’s caving, handing over the birthday cake pop he just marked out for himself without second thought. even if he rolls his eyes as he does it — he’d give her the world if she just asked).

his family situation is pretty close to canon — wayne. and obviously he has hellfire, he has corroded coffin, but all of those are just… small things. he’s finally graduated in this universe, so hellfire doesn’t meet as often. corroded coffin’s members are still in their senior year, so sometimes studying for a calculus test is overriding band practice for them. which i mean, was a bummer and led to him needing a distraction like a part time job (also — money) but it’s all good now, cause he gets to bug Sunshine on his days off when he’s bored. they’ve definitely exchanged numbers, and they’re definitely sending each other an obligatory dumb meme a day. sorry, i don’t make the rules.

he likes pop music. don’t ever ask him about it, he denies it, but Sunshine got him into all those radio hits. he’ll find himself humming along to the radio at work constantly too. and, the one time he and Sunshine worked a very rare, LITERALLY only happened once close together, they definitely were belting out britney spears’ “hit me baby one more time”, dancing around the closed stores and eddie using the mop as a mic while Sunshine tried to stock up all the cups. the shift on duty was unamused, to say the least.

he’s pretty pessimistic in all avenues, but there’s something deep inside of him that’s just a bit hopeless romantic. especially after meeting Sunshine. he listens to her prattle about her romance books all day, and he hates the fact that he finds himself smiling at some of those different scenarios she’s gushing about. but it’s cute, okay? besides, it’s only giving him more ideas about how to wow his favorite barista. sex, on the other hand, he’s still pretty bland on. he’s had one or two one night stands, names he’s forgotten at the Hideout after shows, and he’s not really got the energy to be some sex-crazed fuckboy. listening to his coworkers’ hookup stories and relationship problems work pretty well to remind him he could be doing far worse (but if anyone were to ask him what he thought of Sunshine in that context? oh. oh the poor boy. the scary dog facade fades, and his ears have never been pinker as he’s stuttering about having to grab something from the back that he just stocked. he’s just grateful she never seems to have her own escapades to talk about — he probably wouldn’t survive the world-ending jealousy that would cloud his vision.)

pessimistic. so so pessimistic.

a couple months ago, he would have said his room. alone. or practicing with cc, on his guitar. or behind his dm screens, watching as his little sheep panicked over the latest twist he’s revealed for his current campaign.

but now? maybe he’s just gone soft, but the first place he thinks of is a rainy afternoon in the back of his van, his head in Sunshine’s lap as they listen to the slight drizzle bounce off the roof. he swears if he closes his eyes, he can still feel her fingers against his scalp.

---

JO. JO. I DON'T HAVE THE ORIGINAL POST FOR THIS. I DON'T KNOW WHAT PARAGRAPH IS ANSWERING WHAT PROMPTS. but honestly, even now that i'm free of the siren, i wanna post this. i love prattling on about our little grumpy barista. i luv him.

[pigeonpeach]

saw your yandere post and made me think about yandere Jean. What you your take be on her? Oh this isn’t a fic request just wanted to know your thoughts more.

My take on a yandere Jean follows closely with the protector/ morally ‘righteous’ yandere concept. Where the Yandere tries to rationalize their behavior with things like their paranoia or try to minimize their actions to themselves. How this would manifest with Jean to me is that she wouldn’t kill a competitor unless she had to. More likely than not she’d chose to sabotage or threaten whatever suitor or obstacles come in her way and considering her rank she can easily get away with it. Who in their right mind would bother competing against the ACTING GRAND MASTER OF THE KNIGHTS OF FAVONIUS? Not many would. (Unless it was someone like Diluc who also has alot of status themselves and this wouldn’t easily back down)

Jean is easily a very charming lady. She’s known for being helpful and kind and there’s hardly anyone in Mondstadt who dislikes her. So to me she qould very likely win over her beloved’s heart. She’s a romantic too so she isn’t oblivious. Worst case scenario would be if you kept denying her and trying to date others which would ultimately lead to the typical basement jail scenario. But again, Jean is the Acting Grand Master, in the eyes of any who would know, they’d hesitate to rescue or even try. Jean’s such a hard worker and surely if its just one person held captive its not that bad right? You aren’t being tortured or harmed in any way, she’d never allow such a thing. Any long term disobedience or repeated escape attempts would drive her to other methods than abuse but possibly drugging. She does have Lisa at her disposal afterall. But ideally she’d like to win your heart naturally rather than forcibly. But if she already had to kidnap you and has to restrict you more and more to prevent escaped, she’ll consider you a threat to your own safety.

As for Jean’s mentality, while she would deny being entitled or selfish, she ultimately is. That’s at the core of every Yandere character. Yes she doesn’t burn or scar you, your bed is comfy, you are fed tasty and lavish meals, she won’t force intimacy or anything like that, but ultimately you’re still being held against your will with no sign of rescue in sight. So the best option might just be to play along. Or plan to disappear entirely into the wilderness and never surface again.

[sh1-n0bu]

✿ 𝙤𝙝 𝙝𝙚𝙮, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩'𝙨 𝙢𝙮 𝙞𝙙𝙞𝙤𝙩! ✿

@lufenianwol asked: can i request a bosacious x male!reader headcannons or one-shots? whichever you prefer!

characters: bosacious x male!reader

warnings: fluff, a different AU where everyone is alive and well, nothing bad happened i swear, bosacious being a himbo, reader is zhongli’s child. whether adopted or not can be up to your interpretation, reader is half-dragon but can disguise as a human

notes: currently writing from inside my casket. kinda comfy in here ngl

art credits to: apol on hoyolab!

lucky you, lucky you

how in the name of celestia did you got so lucky that you ended up together with this fine ass himbo?

like what?????

well, it all started with your young, mischievous, troublemaker of an ass decided to play a prank on your dad AKA the geo archon

it was another simple day, morax calling upon his yakshas and adeptis to hold a their weekly meeting on top of mount hulao

everyone was present, serious, standing ready as they all attentively listen to the dragon’s words. that is until you decided to play a prank on your old man and dump a bucket of cold water with ice over the geo archon. immediately, you felt a large hand pull you down from the tree branch you were on by your throat and slam you down on the ground harshly

grunting and groaning under your breath, you glared up at your attacker, ready to hit them with a nice vile threat, did you saw your attacker

“…well hello, sailor”

“who?”

and that was how you and bocasious first met

of course morax had to explain to every adeptus and yakshas there that you meant no harm and was simply playing a prank. also a certain adepti, cough cloud retainer cough, may have fainted when she found out that you were the geo archon’s son. and yes bocasious immediately apologized and bowed and even suggested he would kill himself for offending his lord’s son

cue the rest of the yakshas trying to hold back the himbo from jumping off of the top of mount hulao

that was how you two first met. comedic, a bit aggressive but certainly memorable and nice to recall on and get a good laugh out of

since then bosacious has started to be a bit more gentle towards you. at first it was because you were his lord’s son, he must stay respectful and keep his manners in check after all

however as more time passes and the two of you interact, the more genuine bosacious’ feelings for you became

what started out as “he’s my lord’s son so i must respect him and stay close to him” slowly morphed into “he isn’t so bad after all. i kinda like this guy” to “oh… oh! i like this guy!”

and yes bosacious still haven’t figured out that he had romantic feelings for you until an incident happened

an incident where he got heavily injured and bled out a lot of blood and i mean a LOT of blood. of course in standard injury trope, bosacious had started to shake and tremble the night he gained his injuries. as a half-dragon, it would mean your normal body hear is higher than the average and so deciding to help the poor twitching and groaning yaksha through the night, you decided to cuddle his bigger frame close to yourself

heat can be transferred very quickly through physical touch, that was all you kept mumbling to yourself as you held him close. as the night passes on, it had become comfortable to simply just… lay there in each other’s arms

“perhaps this human act of cuddling isn’t so bad…”

famous last words, [name]. famous last words

the next morning when the rest of the yakshas had arrived at bosacious’ own nest, it was literally the perfect epitome of that one vine

indirias: “WAKE UP SLEEPYHEAD!”

[name], barely awake, peeking up from bosacious’ nest: “what the fuck-“

cue the screams

xiao is just standing there with the most annoyed look on his face stfu babybird, we know you’re happy for your big brother indirias and bonanus are happily screeching while menogias is rubbing his temples and rambling to himself on HOW on teyvat did his big brother ended up together with his lord’s son

at first, when morax heard of the news he was incredibly overprotective and always throwing the electro yaksha the “i’ve got my eyes on you” look

but as centuries pass and the archon war finishes with the yakshas alive and well, the geo archon and his son being revered together alongside the god of dust, eventually morax comes to trust bosacious in taking good care of one of his sons

after morax had officially gave his blessings for the two of you and his approval, bosacious got a little bit too excited and called the geo archon “father”

no one lets him live this down and i mean NO ONE. not even xiao

as time changes and liyue prospers more and more, after morax and his loyal illuminated beast followers retires into the peaks of the many great mountains of the nation of geo, did the electro yaksha asked the half-dragon to be his betrothed and mate

it definitely took an incredibly long time of pining and stealing looks over each others’ shoulders but it was all worth it

[kulai]

I don’t know if it’s just me but I noticed a lot of artist will make Wednesday shades darker almost as to not make her seem to pale and risk being accused of “white washing”. To me as a Latina, the actress that plays Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) is on the lighter side of skin tones for Hispanics.

Also, Jenna is such a cutie and it makes drawing her as Wednesday so adorable to me. People will try to make her look completely different as in rugged but I wish people could draw her up as more feminine. At the end of the day she does have the cute nose, big brown eyes, and a beautiful smile. (Don’t get me started on the dimples) It’s damn near canon that when Wednesday lets her hair out of those braids she damn near makes Enid want to faint.

I love your art btw I just wanted to let my opinion out there and see if others agree without getting attacked.

omg thanks for loving my art!! your opinion on this is valid, and id like to share my own art in regards to how i personally draw wednesday and her colors bc i dont get asks often LMFAO PLS ask more (yapping ahead!!!!)

if you see all my fanart of wednesday side-by-side, i would say i have an inconsistent art style bc i heavily rely on visual iconic cues (her braids, dark clothes, glare) to draw wednesday!

and thats bc i dont heavily base wednesday off of jenna ortega. i don't really associate characters with their actors, i see a character they portray and then when drawing, i take the most basic elements. (costume, color scheme, overall character design)

this doesn't mean i don't draw weds based on Jenna Ortega at all. while i do draw her skin tone tanner than Jenna's (some will draw her darker, some maybe even very lighter) i still draw her relatively close to her shade as well as Jenna's dimples Jenna's height too lol

It's what makes drawing fun! I'm here for the concept of wenclair, wednesday and enid. this makes having headcanons less stressful and more freeing! it's also why im not comfy shipping jenna and emma T__T

thank you for sharing your opinion!! id like to hear what others think of this as well, from artists n the fellow fans :DD

[skelebellie]

no i definitely haven’t been not drawing because i’ve been playing baldurs gate…. (yes i have)

anyways here’s a long log of my tav/persona Cyris! a gueer tav w/ autism that hasn’t socialized with anyone outside of three people that they themselves have hired. being thrown into a bandwagon of complicated characters, including themselves, has been a difficult challenge. and unfortunately for them, they rolled a nat 1 for insight. (also we need more conventionally unattractive tavs bc i said so.)

if anything could describe Cyris, its the emperors words, “you are… conflicting”. they don’t seem to have any qualms with taking jobs or loot (rouge), but seem keen enough to help others as long as it benefits them (cleric), sometimes even when it doesn’t. though, it may be because they find it easier to solve other peoples problems than their own.

as a *cough cough*, person in intelligence, they’ve accidentally wormed their way into being the leader. hopefully trying to balance out the teams gold and make it back to their home city before they turn into a mindflair. though, they have a lot of difficulties with understanding why people stand on certain sides, let alone why anyone would want to spend their day taking over humanity. all they want to do is go back home to their comfy bed and grandpa withers.

most of their background involves rising out of an urchin background in order to track down the cult members of bhaal who killed their mother, taking Cyris as an unfortunate sacrifice for later use. though… it seems like something else resulted out of that. now they begrudgingly cary the title of kelemvor’s chosen, a win win for the both of them as of right now. with an odd knack for killing others- they seem to either be constantly calculating, observing the the world around them. Or- completely in control of themselves, a flitter of a laugh only worming out with a pint of ale. luckily getting to build actual relationships with other people has been getting them to open up. their story has one main lesson- let yourself succumb to the desires of others, or tell fate to suck your dick.

in conclusion- they did kill the entire goblin camp and no they did not regret it.

[fallenhanari]

Hello! Sorry if this is abrupt, but I’m a new follower of yours, and I’d love to hear more about all of your Amnesia WIPs if that’s alright! It’s one of my favorite otome games and I love to see it getting new fan content 😄

Plus I’m also considering starting to write fanfic for it myself (but am still nervous about putting my writing out there lol)

Omg anon, you just made my day. I've been getting back into tinkering with a couple of these WIPs this past week actually, so they're fresh in my mind too. Amnesia was one of the first otome games I played when I was getting back into them after a break a few years ago, and I'm so attached to the worlds and characters honestly. And Shin unexpectedly became a big muse for me for a while, though I do have stories for multiple other characters even if he features most often lol. He's not even my favorite overall, but something about him just absolutely compels me to write, it seems. I'd also love to see if you get to putting any future writing you do out there!! Honestly, just the act of writing can be really fulfilling if you're not ready to share - I have some WIPs for other fandoms that probably won't ever see the light outside my docs since they're more for me than for posting - but there's such fun in sharing with the community too. Fandoms for specific console/PC otome games tend to be on the smaller side since most players spread themselves across many games with time, so all the writing we can get out there is exciting imo. Anyway, moving to what you're here for haha. So for Amnesia I have four WIP documents in various states of worked on. I'll break them down under a cut since I might just ramble on a bit much, knowing myself lol. Also heads up for mild smut discussion though there won't be much detail.

Shin/MC Sequel (E-rated, PWP, post-canon Heart World) This one is the oldest file, but I haven't actually worked on getting down concrete ideas for it until literally this week, woops. Last year I posted my first Amnesia fic which was a PWP/smut oneshot for these two involving Shin initiating a kind of sex game to try to ease MC into more direct intimacy then getting in over his head by the end with her. Right after finishing writing and posting I decided I wanted to do a sequel fic where MC proposes a similar type of game and gets a bit of a taste of her own medicine. Where the original focused on edging, this one would focus on overstimulation. At the time I quickly got distracted and in too deep with another WIP in this list, but I reread the posted story recently and got back in the mood for exploring those two in that vaguely post-canon verse. If the smut writing wants to cooperate with me I might be moving forward with this one soon enough~ And though none of them have documents yet, I have started considering some other ideas to explore in this series, mainly one for their first time having penetrative sex and one where Shin bottoms for MC for the first time. I just find the particular dynamic I wrote them with here weirdly comfy to settle into, so it makes me want to explore their evolution of intimacy more and more! Math Fools (E-rated, PWP, poly, tentatively Spade World but probably doesn't matter if there or Clover World or AU) This one has the least meat to it so far, but it's probably obvious who it's featuring by the name lol. There's a particular scene in Ikki's story in Amnesia Later that I was reading and made me stop to create a new document. Ikki, Kent, and MC engage in silly roleplay shenanigans and all get hilariously into it, so of course my brain went and extrapolated that into a potential smut scenario. In its current state the document is a literal single sentence: "So y’all are into roleplay now huh? Ikki, Kent, MC, I see all of you." And that basically is the extent of my thought into this one so far. I have no idea what kind of roleplay they might get up to, and it's even possible I'd turn this into a sillier comedy fic instead of smut if that's where the characters took me when I started writing. But they're all absolute goofballs together, and I think it'd be fun to explore one way or another! Not Even a Real Idea TBH (G-or-T-rated, post-canon Spade World, pre-poly, fluff and silliness) Despite the title, this is moderately more developed than the last one! I just didn't have a title idea when I made the document and have yet to change it since I still don't have one and didn't want to just make it a throuple title only lol. Since it's post-Spade World, Ikki and MC are our established couple here. Near the end of Ikki's Amnesia Later story, there's this part where the best way I can describe it is Shin being very earnest toward and observant and fond of Ikki and MC's relationship, while Ikki is a complete menace toward Shin in every capacity. I don't even remember the exact content of the scene as I think about it right now, but that was the whole vibe that came across to me. And I just think Spade World MC totally has the capacity to become a bit of a menace toward Shin too if she wanted. So these two start teasing Shin in various slightly flirty ways after talking to each other about their mutual interest in him. And Shin isn't really getting it for a while, too much a shipper on deck to realize they're individually and together flirting with him and sort of courting him in their strange roundabout ways. So they probably eventually end up having to be direct with him, and then the throuple antics can begin. This one truly is vibes-based and not so much concrete writing/scenes/ideas yet for me, but I think it'll be neat lol. It could be a longer oneshot or a smaller multi-chapter thing; I haven't fully decided for it yet. I think I'll need to go back and replay the scene that got me thinking on it to iron out their dynamic before I get into it.

And I'm now hitting a new character limit I didn't even realize Tumblr had, so uh. Look to a quick reblog to see the last WIP and the end of my message to you anon! Sorry for the weirdness lol

[fangirlingfromdownunder]

22nd Day of Christmas

Lonely Christmas Invite

Summary/Prompt: The reader is set to spend Christmas alone in an unfamiliar city until they get an unexpected invitation

Pairing - Jensen Ackles x Reader

Warnings: implied smut

Christmas Masterlist | Masterlist

You’re the new guest star, playing a recurring role as an angel trying to con the Winchester brothers, on the newest season of Supernatural. You’re loving everything about the role, except that Christmas is fast approaching and you’re miles from your family. This is your first big, international role. There was no way you could turn it down, even if it meant you would be stranded in Canada, on the other side of the world from your family at Christmas. So, you jumped on the plane and never looked back.

You’re grateful that all the cast and crew are so friendly and welcoming, especially the sexy lead. You and Jensen have been working together closely since day one as his character has been the main focus of your character. But you also started hanging out a little more unprofessionally offset. You never meant for it to happen, but you’re glad it did. It all started with a few welcome-to-the-cast drinks, but once everyone else went home for the night you somehow ended up back at his apartment and in his bed. You both swore that no one could know. You’re not overly proud to say (despite how amazing it’s been) that you’ve spent more than a few nights in his apartment throughout the season. You always remind yourself that it’s just a fling, but either way, it’s a great distraction from the loneliness.

After a long, draining day of filming, Bob Singer finally calls cut. You stretch out your tired limbs and stow your character as you head back to your trailer to change and clean off your SFX makeup. Shortly after you’re back to your own attire and feel clean again instead of stiff and sticky from the fake blood, you hear a soft knock.

“Come in!” you call out.

You hear the trailer door creak open and Jensen slips inside. “Any plans tonight, Sexy?”

You hush him as you pull him into a hug. “You can’t say that here. We’ll get in trouble for being unprofessional. I’m only a guest star they can write me out whenever they want.”

“Jared married a guest star. It’s different here, that’s what I keep telling you. We could go fully official and no one would complain.”

“Still…You’re the lead, you’ll be fine. The show can’t go on without you, but me…No one would notice if I was gone.”

“I would.”

“Yeah, you’d miss the mindblowing sex.”

“That I would. But I’d also just miss you. But speaking of mindblowing sex…”

“You’re unbelievable. I’ll meet you back at your place in an hour?”

“I was actually thinking we could get dinner first? Let me take you on a proper date, please.”

“Not yet. I want to establish myself first. I don’t want people to think I’m just sleeping with you to get famous or anything. I want to get on the front of a magazine for who I am, not who I’m sleeping with.”

“Fine. Let me at least cook for you then.”

“That I can do. I’ll meet you over there.”

“Good.” He kisses you quickly before pulling away and sneaking out of your trailer.

You take a deep breath as you lean against the closed door. You wait a while before you pack up and head home. You shower quickly and change into a comfy outfit, you also pack a quick overnight bag since you figure you won’t be coming home tonight. You then head over to his apartment. Your stomach growls on the drive over and you couldn’t be more thankful that he’s cooking.

You knock on his door and wait. After a few minutes he opens the door. “Hey…” he looks you up and down with a small frown. You notice he’s dressed in a nice button up and jeans with his hair brushed back. “Well, I feel overdressed…”

“Sorry, I didn’t…I thought I was coming over for a relaxed meal and hot sex, not a formal date.”

He nods but can’t hide his disappointment. “Right. Uh, yeah. Yep. Uh, come in.”

“I can go home and change again…”

“No, don’t be ridiculous. Come in. It’s okay. Dinner’s almost ready.” He disappears into the kitchen and you’re riddled with guilt.

“I’ll be right back, I just left my phone in the car,” you call out as you open his front door again. You desperately hope you left a dress in the car from one of your other sleepovers where you’ve gone straight to set after. You check your back seats and then the trunk. In an old shopping bag you find a simple black dress and a pair of heels. Sure he’s probably seen and stripped you out of this dress before and this time you unfortunately won’t have matching sexy lingerie underneath but it’ll have to do. You take the bag upstairs to his apartment and slip inside and into his bathroom as quietly as possible. You strip out of your sweater and jeans and into the black dress and heels. Then you let your hair out and run your hands through it a few times to liven it up. You’re still missing the makeup but you think you did well considering.

You come out just as Jensen is finishing to set the table. When he turns around he checks you out. “How did you?”

“A woman is always prepared. This better?”

“I’d take you however you come, but yes it does feel more like a date now. But I need to know before this goes too much further, because I’m falling too hard and too fast…Is this just meaningless sex to you?”

“I thought it was,” you say. “But now I’m not so sure. Things are moving faster and differently than I expected. I just don’t know. You’ll be going home to visit your family soon and I’ll just be waiting until the next callback or audition.”

“How about we start with dinner and just keep seeing where this goes then? No pressure, no labels. Just fun and following the tide.”

“I like the sound of that. Thank you.”

“Come on, it’ll go cold.” You both sit down and share the delicious home cooked meal.

As you’re eating Jensen says, “I haven’t decided by the way…”

“Have decided what?”

“Whether I’m going home for Christmas. My parents are traveling, enjoying their golden years and my siblings are doing their own thing. I’m on my own for Christmas too.” You nod as you take another bite considering what he said. “Would you like to spend Christmas with me Y/N? We can hang out here or I can take you to see Texas. You said you haven’t seen much of the USA yet.”

“But the paparazzi…”

“We don’t have to leave this apartment if you don’t want to.”

“Go with the flow, remember. You make your own plans and I’ll fit in where I can. You shouldn’t have to hide inside because of my fears.”

“Just come over for Christmas dinner then. The rest we can work out as it comes, but let me have that to plan.”

“Alright. You’d better make it delicious then.”

“Did I let you down tonight?”

“Not at all. This is delicious. You’re an amazing cook.”

“Thanks. I’ll make sure not to let you down.”

After dinner you help him with the dishes and then you both sit on the couch and watch some trash reality TV until your eyelids grow heavy. But instead of falling into bed with him, you insist on driving home.

[nikatyler]

✨ Ross Goes to Baldur's Gate ✨

Welcome, Ross enthusiasts! I'm currently on my second bg3 run and I'm sort of livetweeting it. But, since I like to look back at what I play, I decided I'd archive those threads here. Yeah, I could make a thread on twitter, but honestly, reading it here is more comfy.

So yeah, enjoy, and warning, these are going to be long! ✨ Also, this goes without saying but obviously there will be spoilers, so proceed at your own risk if you haven't played yet and would like to in the future. (Please play in the future. And say it was my influence. Pretty please.)

Trying balanced difficulty this time... we shall see if I was too confident

Okay I'm already too damn indecisive about what he should look like, this is harder than I thought 🙈 I'm spoiled from the sims. With Zeph it was easy because they were a completely new character

I don't like any of the faces for him help 💀

Folks I don't knowwww, what do we think

It's probably the jump from his usual sims maxis-matchiness to this artstyle that makes me feel a bit 🥴

Also, I couldn't decide what body type to go for…one is too slim for him imo, other too buff…I'm overthinking this I know I know…maybe I'll eventually take a look at some mods for him. Not tonight tho

Actually no, I'm looking at some sims pictures of him and this body type is ok, see I told you I was overthinking it

should I make the catfish -- errr, the guardian resemble Caleb? for funsies and as a reference to where we started? 🤭

teeheee yes we're doing that indeed. I'm gonna call him...Fakeleb. Like. Fake Caleb. Caleb from Wish, if you will

THERE'S MY BOY he's alive for now

Of course we fail the very first check 💀💀 not the smartest tool in the shed, I know buddy, I know

BAE'zel time 😗😗

I'm taking a lot more screenshots this time around

he's growing on me btw, i'm starting to like his face

worst hangover of his life, last time he checked he was a happy little sim guy, how did he get here?!

he didn't pin him to the ground? where's the fun in that 🥺

Anyway, time to stop today, it's late. I really enjoy being back in act 1 though!

Original thread.

[microwave-core]

Oh God it's more Headcanons

To prepare for XC3 (because the DLC drops at like 9pm for some reason) I wrote more headcanons, mainly because I didn't have a specific character in mind to drabble about.

Sonia my beloved. God, Galar has so many great characters and yet I just don’t have the time to write for all of them… even those with banger designs. Anyways, Sonia. Where to even start with her.

Her hair is a mess. Humidity is her worst enemy. She spends dozens of minutes a day attempting to detangle it when the weather goes to shit. She would be forever indebted to you if you brushed her hair for her. Please just be careful, she will complain if you tug too hard.

Also be careful if you sleep next to her at night, because you very well may end up choking on her hair. Even just cuddling is risky business. You are never safe, not even if you are the little spoon. But it’s worth it because Sonia runs very warm, so it’s always comfy to hold her or rest in her arms.

Speaking of hair, she wants to style yours. Doesn’t matter what kind of hair you’ve got, she’ll find a way. Straight or curly or coils or braids or what have you, she will play with it. Doesn’t matter how long it is either. If you ask for a specific style, she’ll do it, but at some point she will weave little hearts into it to match her own. Don’t ask how she does it, it’s a secret.

Anyways, enough about that. I am absolutely obsessed with the idea of a kid rocking up to get their first pokemon from the Professor and her wife and their adopted son assistant. She’s just… so powerful I love her so much. 

Hop loves you. He ships you so hard with Sonia it’s unreal. He is Galar’s best wingman and will do everything in his power to get you two alone together. You guys could literally be married already and he would still be trying to set you guys up. And Leon is no different. Sonia’s his best friend and she talks about you all the time. This guy knows how much Sonia loves you and wants nothing more than for you two to be happy together. Sometimes a family is just a professor, her wife, their assistant, and his brother.

Not enough content for Big Sis Plumeria. She’s gotta take care of basically all Team Skull because they would never get anything done without her around, so she’d be immensely grateful if you either helped corral them or help her relax after constantly chasing after them.

She’s very much an “asshole to the world, sweetheart to her girl” type of girlfriend, mixed in with some tough love. She would never raise her voice at you or seriously insult you, something she does often with the grunts. The most she’ll do is mildly insult you for doing something stupid (as in she would call you an “idiot” or something along those lines), but it’s always evident that she’s more concerned than upset.

As long as you're her girl, no one is going to mess with you. Especially if you have a storied history. Asshole ex? Shitty family members? Straight up enemies? You don’t have to worry about those people anymore. 

Oh also all of the Team Skull grunts look up to you and would literally die for you. You’re Big Sis Two, their third favorite person. Also, if anything happened to you on their watch, they would have to face Plumeria’s wrath, which might as well be worse then Guzma’s

Slightly older contest-star Shauna who, despite being pretty girl-crazy, attempts to navigate her first serious relationship. I realize that I like Shauna more than most people, but hear me out.

When she went on a journey through Kalos with her friends, like stated above, she was completely girl-crazy. Literally every girl she met was the absolute prettiest woman she had ever seen (especially Diantha). But she never ended up getting into a relationship, despite wishing otherwise.

When she meets you, she is absolutely smitten. When you’re just friends, she dreams about you every waking minute. She really, really wants to hold your hand and kiss you and go on cute little dates to restaurants and picnics and do contests together and go shopping together and and everything else girlfriends do. She is obsessed. 

But once you start dating her, she’s a mess. She has all these things she wants to do with you, but she doesn’t know how to go about doing any of them, so sometimes she comes off as a little awkward in the most endearing way possible. She’s a little clumsy and hesitant when initiating affection, but every little thing you do together makes her so happy. It’s got the energy of a cute high school romance, just two dumbasses in love with each other.

Also she’s super supportive of you. Like Marnie, she is your personal cheerleader. She’ll bring up your achievements to everyone she comes across because she needs everyone to know how great you are and how lucky she is to be dating you. Please be supportive of her in return, she would actually ascend to heaven if she saw you in the audience of one of her contests.

Zisu… big woman. I don’t even have words to describe this absolute unit of a woman. She is far too powerful to fully put into words. Her strength is seemingly unending. She canonically trains with pokemon with her bare hands and could absolutely fuck all of them up.

She can bench press your ass, no matter your size or stature. She’ll carry you anywhere you want whenever you want, she’ll get anything you need off of the top shelf, she will lift up anything you need for whatever reason, and she will give you a little kiss on the forehead because she loves you very much.

If you’re afraid of Pokemon (which is pretty likely given the time period), she will do whatever it takes to help you get over your fears. Zisu is all the protection you need in Hisui. No Pokemon will ever get past her. But she would also like to help you get more comfortable with them, if nothing more than for her peace of mind. She can’t be there all the time, given her position in Team Galaxy.

But if you have a strong team, she would love to train with you. If you managed to beat her, she would love you forever. She’s hella strong, so she finds you being stronger than her in one aspect incredibly attractive. And if you managed to beat her in hand to hand combat? She would never recover.

I think Larry is objectively the funniest gym leader, but I whole-heartedly believe Iono is right behind him. I just think she is a funny little guy with an absolutely banger design.

As the most popular streamer in Paldea (I think), people across the region are going to know that you're dating. There is nothing you can do to avoid it. And Iono doesn’t want to hide your relationship. She wants to show you off.

Showing up on stream at least a few times is a mandatory part of dating her. Both Iono and chat love when you’re there. Sometimes Iono will warn you about what she’s planning beforehand, but other times she’ll leave you in the dark. Don’t worry, though, she won’t ever do anything that will make you uncomfortable.

More importantly, when dating Iono, you get to see the normal her, without the energetic streamer persona. Not to say that she’s completely different on stream, she just amps everything up for the camera. Off camera, she just wants to lay down with you and chill out. Let her complain about the weird people in her chat while you hold her close, she desperately needs it.

Outside of that, this girl loves to gossip. Tell her all about the drama you're dealing with or about the people you just don’t like, she eats that shit up. Likewise, she’ll also “spill the tea” as the kids say. She’s got a lot of people and things to tell you about, both big and small. Just promise to not blab to others about those she complains about. She already has to deal with too much weird shit to have time to deal with additional drama from other people.

Flannery is, like, an og waifu, or something like that. Anyways I like her because her design is sick and so is her gym aesthetic (at least in oras). Girlypop is confident in her abilities but she also only has a vague idea of what she’s doing and is just trying her best.

Being a rookie gym leader is hard, even if she is highly skilled. More importantly, it’s stressful. Thankfully, Lavaridge has a hot spring, giving her a perfect way to relax at the end of the day, and she is borderline desperate for you to join her. Listen, she just radiates disaster lesbian. Being in your presence helps her unwind as is, so pairing you up with the hotspring makes her melt. 

She is very dedicated to her training and would love it if you were to join her sometime. Be warned, it gets uncomfortably hot and you will most likely regret it almost immediately, so be prepared. She doesn’t ask you to join her because she doesn’t want you to accidentally strain yourself due to how rigorous it gets, but she’d let you if you asked (after warning you of how difficult it would be, of course).

She seems like someone that would enjoy hiking. Conveniently, there is a volcano right nearby to track up. Flannery desperately wants you to come with her because it would give her a chance to share something she loves with someone she loves. Don’t worry about getting tired, she will carry you up the remainder of the track, no sweat. When you make it to the top (or just find a clearing to rest at), you get to gaze at the beautiful scenery with her. 

Okay I now realize that I didn’t do much outside of the first point to show how much of a disaster she is but she just like… is. I cannot explain it, that is just the vibe she has. So even if she seems confident and held together in your presence, she is screaming in her head because you’re so pretty and she loves you AAAAA.

Oh shit I forgot about Tymeand Ryme for the gilf section of the last headcanon post fuck. Uhhhhh, I like them in the same way as the other gilfs in that they’re cool but ultimately they are funny little grandmas, so here comes your grandma posting.

Like the others, Tyme would totally bake you cookies and while eating them would help you do math. I don’t care if you’re not taking some kind of math class or if you're a student at all, she is going to help you do math. Someone has to teach you how to do your taxes, right? If that is not enough to entice you, then perhaps you would like to see her very cool rock collection, because she would totally have one, and a big one at that. Unrelated, but if you give her any kind of rock she could identify it immediately and would also cherish it dearly.

Ryme is the cool grandma. She doesn’t have time to bake cookies (she isn’t very good at it), but she makes up for it in other ways. You want to see a band or artist live? Just tell her, she’ll find a way to get you to that concert. She’d also let you get away with a lot of things, letting you off easy where others would be upset. Like, if you got into a fight with someone, she would lightly scold you then immediately ask if you won. She’d be really proud if you did and would comfort you if you didn’t. Also teaches you how to rap, but that much should be obvious.

Hopefully this is the last of the grandma posting because if I do this again it means I forgot someone else and I don’t think I did. I guess if there’s one major appeal to the gilfs it’s the domesticity of them? Like, you get the ideal of living your life alongside one another for such a long time, which is the dream, really. Girl I don’t know I’m gonna get back to regular unhinged scenarios sorry about this.

One professor was not enough for one post apparently because I wanna talk about Professor Juniper, the original hot professor. Ever the reliable woman, she will do all she can to lend a hand should you need it, but in return you need to put up with her deciding to do things before confirming with the other people involved beforehand.

Unlike most professors, Juniper has another professor to rely on, that being the other Juniper, so she does have a bit more free time on her hands. That being said, she is often doing things for other people, so she is pretty much as busy as the others. But because she’s just helping out other people and not completing research, she is definitely more accessible. Not going to say that she would hold off on helping someone to come help you if you were to need it, but she would do that (assuming that what she was doing before wasn’t urgent).

She loves to travel around the region, and would love it if you joined her. It’s not really a date, but it’s good quality time. Most of it is taken up by her rambling about the Pokemon that can be found in the area. She would also love it if you lent her a hand in her research. It’s a fun and cute little bonding activity, and it means you can spend more time together afterwards.

Like Sonia, the idea of rocking up to a lab only to be met by the professor and her loving wife is a very powerful one, but Sonia remains more powerful. After all, Juniper doesn’t usually give kids their starters in person, nor does she have an assistant whom she and her wife can semi-adopt.

As a side note, I considered using her first name because she has one, but I don’t know if that is common knowledge. It pops up at the very beginning of B2W2, but I didn’t realize it was there until, like, two days ago. 

Oh my God I forgot about Professor Magnolia because she isn’t even on my list of characters. I am so upset. And no I’m not going to fix this my moving her up to be with Tyme and Ryme because I need it to be known that I fucked this up here’s your grandma posting again and if I mess this up for a fourth time I’m going to be so upset with myself.

Magnolia is just a chill grandma. She always has cookies in her kitchen to give to Sonia. I’m pretty sure they live together so it’s not like she’s visiting her, but she feels that her granddaughter should always have access to finely made cookies. If you were to come over, she would break them out along with tea and have a surprisingly intellectual conversation. She may have given the professor title to Sonia, but she continues to delve into research, if nothing to fulfill her own self-interest.

These visits are especially interesting if you were, say, dating Sonia. She would give you all kinds of stories from when she was growing up. They aren’t particularly embarrassing, per say, but they usually embarrass Sonia anyways. She’s happy that her granddaughter has found both a path in life and someone to spend it with. In general, she would be interested in you as a person. She wants to have a good relationship with her future granddaughter-in-law, after all!

I swear to God if I forget another grandma (besides Cogita because I already write about her plenty) I’m going to lose it.

Let’s end this one with Misty. She’s normally sweet and bright, but she has a tendency to get snappy when annoyed, which tends to leave a greater impression on people than her regular nature since she easily gets frustrated.

Like all gym leaders, she has lots of responsibilities and is busy and also has an affinity for the type she uses. This is especially true for her since most of her designs are just swimsuits (good for you girlie). She will take you on walks all over Cerulean, as well as swimming in the water surrounding it. It’s her happy place, and she gets really annoyed when people interrupt the tranquil moment.

Sorry to say that it usually falls to you to keep her temper down in those situations. Remind her that it’s probably just a challenger looking to continue their journey and that you’ll get to continue your little date when she’s done. She’s still going to be annoyed, but it’s hard for her to remain bitter when she knows she gets to spend more time with you soon.

At some point, she wants to leave Cerulean and its gym for a while in order to go on a journey of her own. When she does, she wants you to come with her. Nothing sounds better to her than getting lost (metaphorically, she can’t stand actually getting lost) in nature with you by her side. Hopefully you don’t have something that could fry her bike because that would be pretty unfortunate.

I would say her sisters are supportive but they aren’t really there enough to know much about you. Sorry Misty. It’s a shame that they’ve been on the same cruise for twenty years. Someone should really check in with them.

[sweet-honey-tears]

💝 Gifts To and From💤

Shōta Aizawa x Gender Neutral Reader Part 3 2 1

I really enjoy do these and this time it’s for Aizawa! I took a different approach this time. A more emotional one that I hope makes sense. Leave a comment or ask for which character would you like next! The numbers above should bring you to the past ones I’ve done! Thank you all for the support! 🤍🌸

Aizawa is not a big fan of presents, like really not into materialist stuff. He has you, Eri, Shinso, his students, and his family- the staff.

If he does buy you stuff, it will probably be more so comfy stuff. Like a wool shawl(or sweeter) for your shoulders on those chilly mornings you go outside with Eri. Trying to help her escape from a nightmare. He’s caught you wrapping her up in it too, having Eri lean into your side while you both sit on the front steps. You calmly tell her about the stars and planets till she’s able to fall asleep peacefully.

Or maybe he’s buying you some sturdy, soft, warm boots for those morning/evening walks you’ll take with Shinso. Where he talks about random stuff in school since he can’t sleep but can’t stand staring at his ceiling anymore.

But he rarely buys you jewelry after the uh incident. Yeah, that ring got returned once he realized he has no real clue what to get you in terms of jewelry.

But Aizawa and your main focus on gifts is not a physical thing, it’s a concept. It’s time. Good quality time. His life is mostly hero work and his students. It’s a gift to have time with you. And you him. Even if it’s just the two of you reading. Or having your legs over his own, while you both do your own thing on the couch.

He’s also kinda sentimental: your presence in his life is his favorite gift.

He finds it to be a gift whenever you get an actual gift for Eri. That melts his heart more than anything. To watch you care so much for his daughter- for Eri. When you come home, holding a new doll or a candy for Eri. His heart damn near melts.

He loves to watch you sit down with Shinso and just chat. Or watch him play games. He knows you know a secret about some lould blonde his son- Shinso has told you.

His favorite memory is of you learning new braids for Eri. But you wanted it to be a surprise so you didn’t practice on her, instead, you practiced on him. He would sometimes come into school with very intricate braids. Strands of his black hair sticking out every which way. But damn was it worth it for you to just play with his hair.

His students call you the Weaver FWI. And they freaked the fuck out when they first heard of your existence.

Your Home Screen is of him and Eri with matching braids. Her bright smile seemed to be brighter than the sun. In the background is Shinso, holding one of the cats up to the camera with a lazy happy smile.

You get him books, and pens and you help patch him up and take care of the bruises he comes home with. You look for tea to help with his stress and pain when you can.

You two don’t look for random stuff, just stuff that can help each other life better in your crazy world. Sometimes gifts can be books and other times just essential items.

You both have gotten each other bandaids- for the sole purpose of being used on other people.

And you both love that fact.