#definitely up there as one of the gbs of all time

[suppenzeit]

nigel casey is the hottest greaseball ever you will never be able to change my mind

[arsenicflame]

ANGELA/SERA FROM THE MARVEL SNAP HERO ANIMATIC

[gb-patch]

GB Patch Games: Response About Sensitivity Reader

[Some of you might not have heard of this happening, but I wanted to address it across the board]

Hey everyone,

I want to make a post about the screenshots of comments from one of our sensitivity readers. The situation is that neither me or Rose want people to feel uncomfortable with Our Life: Now & Forever, but Rose hasn’t done anything terribly wrong and isn’t going to be punished.

The comment about OL MCs wasn’t meant to be genuine hatred towards all male players/MCs of OL. Rose wrote a reply about it-

"Hi everyone! This is Rose, I want to address the male MC comment since it was taken wildly out of context and without the lengthy discussion that was after it. I don't hate male MCs, in fact far from it, male MCs are integral to the story in OL:NF as female and trans MCs are. I think the relationship they could potentially have with Qiu could be a great asset in my opinion as they figure out their gender alongside the MC. The discussion itself was about how I noticed players were sticking to heteronormative norms by shipping Tamarack with a man purely out of societal norms than it was genuine thought into the characters and how I personally wished there was more sapphic relationships with Tamarack or just Tamarack with trans characters as a sapphic trans person myself. I didn't mean to offend anyone by it as no one but my friends who understood what I legitimately meant behind my message and it definitely wasn't meant to be seen seriously. I am sorry regardless to anyone I have offended and I love your male MCs regardless."

And most of the comments were about me. I’ve seen screenshots of the full conversations and they’re not as harsh as the cropped snippets made them out to be. It was longer discussions about not including Derek in any base game Moments for no good reason and not having any plus-sized love interests in OL1 because I was afraid players wouldn’t accept it. That’s not a lie, it’s what I decided for the game I created, and it is ridiculous of me. I’m the one who should be feeling embarrassed over how OL1 will forever be that way, not the people who remember that I did that. I’m not perfect and Rose actually cares more about the players than making me feel like I am flawless.

I also don’t want to tone police an employee venting about their boss in private, on their own time. Both the OL games deal with personal, important topics. This is sensitive work, and it can bring up frustrations. Sometimes people do use harsh words among friends, but they wouldn’t ever say it to a person seriously and directly.

I understand if you wouldn’t want to see anyone speak badly of a dev you like, but I promise it’s not a point of contention between me and Rose. I don’t feel mistreated in anyway. Rose genuinely cares about the Our Life series, and that’s why they get fed up with me over certain parts of the game.

Rose has never been unkind or unreasonable to me when working on the project, and their advice is detailed and well-explained. They do care about the game and want it to avoid having content that upsets people because of my own ignorance/shortcomings.

This being shared publicly from a private server is targeting Rose and seems to be a continuation of things that have happened before this. I don’t want this to continue happening. If you do still have concerns over the one comment about the community, you can let me know. But again, I don’t want people being mistrustful of Rose on my behalf for comments about me in conversations with missing context.

Do not send angry messages to Rose about any of this. We’ll do our best so that OL2 will be better than I was before. Thank you to everyone who reads this and participates in the community!

[kydrogendragon]

"And here we go, Robert Gadling gets ready for his third shot at the pole vault tonight," the announcers call out. Robyn and Orpheus sit on the couch at the Walker's, eyes glued to the television set. Rose, Jed, and Lyta crowd around the living room along with Lucienne and Jessamy and Matthew and even Jo and Rachel. Everyone had come over for the watch party.

"And here he goes. He needs to beat Sam Kendricks's score by at least three tenths if he wants to get a spot on that podium tonight. When we saw him back in Tokyo, he earned himself a silver medal. Let's see if he can earn himself a gold tonight."

Robyn leans closer. He grips the edge of the couch, eyes wide as his father takes a breath and races forward, pole in hand.

"And here he goes! Strong start there, good grip on that pole. Distance is looking good, maybe a bit short and oh!"

Their dad plants the pole down and thrusts himself up, up, up! He curves around the upper bar and...he hits it. He comes falling down, pole and bar alike as he crashes down onto the mat. Robyn deflates.

"Oh. Oh dear. I—" the announcer laughs. "Well, that's just unfortunate. Let's play that back. So you can see here—" the footage pauses as their dad's feet just begin to tip over the upper bar. "—he's got plenty of room here, lots of space up above. Robert is known for his strength and his ability to get good vertical height above that bar. But as he comes down—" the footage continues in slow motion. Their dad curls over the other side of the bar like they've seen him do hundreds of times before. It slows down until it stops right when he hits the bar. Matthew squacks.

"Oh my god!" Rose laughs.

"Oh, he is never living this down," Aunt Jo pipes off.

"So you can—" Even the announcer laughs again. "You can see where he hits the bar. And it's-it's really unfortunate because everything else about this vault was nearly perfect. But it looks like his, uh. Well. His lower half got a bit in the way there."

The camera cuts to their dad standing up from the mat, wincing as he gets to his feet. And then it cuts to Papa in the stands. He's doubled over, whole body shaking, and Robyn knows immediately that he's cracking up.

"Did dad really just hit the bar with his dick?" Robyn asks.

"Robyn!" Lyta cries.

"What! That's what happened, right?"

Jessamy chuckles before patting his head. "Yes, starling. Make sure to tease him about it tonight, okay?"

"There's definitely worse problems to have in life," Matthew laughs.

"Well, I can see now why Dream married him," Lucienne says.

"Please stop talking, I don't want to think about my cousin's junk, please and thank you," chimes Jo.

Orpheus turns to Robyn, frowning. "Dad's not getting a medal, huh?"

Robyn sighs. "No. I don't think so. Maybe in one of the other events, though."

"Hm. That's true."

The camera cuts to their dad, where he's standing at the stands in front of their papa. Dream's face is red from laughter, and even now, he's still giggling. Hob's laughing now, too, pressing a kiss to his lips. Hob whispers something to Dream, who bursts out laughing once more.

"Well, at least he seems to be in good spirits," the commentator says.

"As does his husband," the other chimes.

"Unfortunately for team GB, we won't be seeing any medals out of this event. Let's head over to the Men's Vault now."

"I cannot believe this is how you will be remembered, husband mine," Dream says, running his hand down Hob's chest. They're back at his hotel room, away from the villa for the night, much to Hob's pleasure. Those beds sucked.

"Don't remind me. My damn dick still hurts from that thing. I can't believe that happened. Christ." Dream chuckles, pressing a kiss to his jaw

"Well. Now everyone will know just how...well endowed you are. And how lucky I am to call you mine."

Hob shakes his head with a smile. "Guess you're the real winner from all this, aren't you?"

"If I have you? Then I always am."

Hob wakes up to exactly 46 messages from friends and family and co-workers alike, all commenting on his "performance" last night. Half sent him links to various articles, all labeled something along the lines of "Olympic Athlete Betrayed by his Penis."

Dream nearly pulls a stomach muscle from laughing so hard.

[corkinavoid]

Obsessed With You by Cosmicandy

Theater gothic/Phantom of the opera

(For some horrific reason I couldn't think of a trope)

DPxDC Phantom in the Opera

9/2 sat

Went to Gotham City Opera to see Eugene Onegin with B & Dames. The performance sucked ass (as modern takes on classics usually do), but during Tatyana's aria, some tech guy dropped a rubber chicken from catwalks right on stage. I bet it was on purpose since the lead's voice sounded much similar to the sound that chicken made. Wish I could shake the dude's hand, that was truly the crescendo of the whole scene.

15/2 sun

Came by GCO on the way to WE. Had some time to spare, so decided to go in and find the rubber chicken guy to thank him for the laugh last week. Thought he might appreciate the positive feedback since he was defo yelled at for the stunt. Turns out everyone blames it on a 'ghost'. Using 'Phantom of the Opera' as a cover story is poor taste, in my opinion, but on the other hand, it worked, and who am I to judge.

17/2 mon

Got curious and pulled up the records of GCO employees. No one matches the guy I've seen on the catwalks.

18/2 tue

Blackmailed Damian into drawing the guy. No match through the face recognition program. Should have expected that, really; the one cute guy with a sense of humor I meet (or see, actually), and he doesn't exist.

20/2 thur

Can't stop thinking about the rubber chicken guy. Might have to go back to GCO and ask about the whole ghostly rumor. Last time, no one bat an eye at the 'ghost' excuse, now that I think about it. Has it happened before? Is it a go-to explanation for any prank no one wants to take credit for?

26/2 wed

Visited GCO at night. Seen the guy, but the cam footage came back corrupted when checked downstairs. So maybe the fact that his hair was floating and glowing in the dark was not a hallucination.

27/2 thur

Definitely not a hallucination! Good news: got a sample. Bad news: after analysis, the data also came back corrupted. Weird news: the hair keeps glowing even after it's been cut off.

2/3 sun

The guy's name is Danny. Ghost story confirmed. I'm having a crisis.

4/3 tue

I'm not sure if I want to know absolutely everything there is to know about him or I want to forget everything I've already learned. But then, I've already got so far. Might as well commit to the bit?

8/3 sat

Was invited to see La Traviata tomorrow. Can I still call that reconnaissance, or am I in date territory?

10/3 mon

...it was a date. On an entirely unrelated note, Teddy Hyde ruined all my attempts at coming prepared.

18/3 tue

Heard a new rumor among GCO staff members. They suspect the ghost in their opera is having a crush on Red Robin. Not sure where they've got that idea, but it sure took them some time to notice.

19/3 wed

Damian keeps staring at me at dinners. Maybe I should take that portrait of Danny that he did down from the wall over my bed.

22/3 sat

Going on a date today, and this time, it's definitely a date! Feels like I should be having a crisis over dating a ghost, but somehow, I'm only having a crisis over outfit choices.

61/0° gBs

hEy, yoU're keEEpinG a DIary¡ aboUt Me!¡ ThAt"s cuTe FUCK OFF DANNY THIS IS PRIVATE INFORMATION GET OUT heHeheEhe no~

~•~•~•~

The thing is, I loved the song. And I loved the aesthetic. And I had such a goddamn hard time figuring out how to fit them together; I went through at least three different setups before deciding fuck it imma write silly boys being silly and wish for the best.

Dare I say it turned out cute as fuck, even though I still missed the mark on theater gothic aesthetic for the most part. Anyway, have a few pictures for general vibes!

[Just so you know, if you enter 'sex with a ghost' into google, the first few results will be the lyrics to 'Sex with a Ghost' by Terry Hyde, which is why Tim's research has been rather fruitless]

[dimplyowl]

😩 one of the main things I see about Izzy and why he’s an innocent little lamb who has done nothing wrong is that he’s got a lot of internalized homophobia going on, as well as issues with toxic masculinity. And yeah, OFMD is all about taking those toxic societal expectations and telling them to shove themselves up their asses. And I think having a character who has those internalized feelings and who holds onto them until being proven that they’re wrong is an interesting character arc. Growth is a great thing! We love to see it!

The problem comes when people use those characteristics as excuses for any of izzys bad behaviors, as if they give him a free pass to do whatever he wants to do. But that’s not how these things work. The problem I have with Izzy’s character arc in s2 is that he doesn’t do anything to make reparations until his deathbed apology to Ed. He just kind of…continues to be there, ignoring Ed, letting the crew extend kindness to him and still not really engaging until Calypso’s Birthday.

You know who has done some really shitty things and does actually work toward making reparations? Ed. And that’s another thing I see a lot of Izzy fans say: that gb people give Ed a free pass for everything he did because of his childhood and his trauma and his self hatred and broken heart. But babes, when we talk about these issues, you’re misunderstanding why we’re talking about them. I obviously can’t speak for all Ed fans, but the majority of us aren’t listing these issues as excuses, we’re naming them as reasons for his behavior. So we can understand why he feels the way he feels and did the things he did.

I am fully aware that he did some really shitty things to people who care about him and who he cares about. I acknowledge that. I also know why he did them. And knowing why doesn’t make it okay. It helps me understand him more, and to know that he wasn’t doing them because he enjoyed them and, most importantly, that they’re things he regrets doing. That’s obvious throughout the entirety of eps4-6, in his hesitance to return to the ship, in agreeing to wear a burlap sack and allowing Lucius to push him over the ship, in taking time to actually listen to fang about his own experiences during the kraken era. It’s part of the entire reason they have a party, it’s part of turning poison into positivity. Ed doesn’t have great apology skills. His “apology” speech was definitely lacking as far as our modern standards are concerned. That’s fine. Those aren’t natural skills to have, they’re learned, and he never really had the opportunity to learn them. But you can see that he wants to, and he’s trying and he’s learning, and that’s the most important thing.

Izzy doesn’t do that shit. In season 1 he uses his position of power to bully the crew, to go against Ed’s orders (his captains orders; that’s essentially mutiny right there); he loses and turns his captain and a ship full of queer and poc to the cops; he then becomes captain and it takes less than a day for the crew to mutiny on him because he’s a fucking asshole and no one wants to work for him; and to top it all off, he tells his boss—his friend, supposedly, his depressed and already established to be suicidal friend—that he would be better off dead than be like he is.

Where are his attempts at reparation? Where does he turn around and say “yeah calling the cops on you was fucking horrible and I shouldn’t have done it” or “I shouldn’t have said those things when you were already struggling” or “I’m sorry for taking advantage of my power and using it to bully and abuse my employees and another captain’s crew.”? He doesn’t do any of that. He doesn’t even try.

Internalized homophobia doesn’t make intimidating your gay subordinate or calling your friend a “namby pamby in a silk dressing gown” okay. Toxic masculinity doesn’t make repeatedly insulting someone for having traditionally feminine traits and interests okay. Doing those kinds of things can never be okay. But recognizing these as faults and actively working to improve yourself and grow and apologize to the people you’ve hurt and try to make things better does make it more likely for the people who care about you to forgive you.

[indigoflorals]

hi! can i request a smuit one jj with a reader that has a praise kink please

gravity (18+)

JJ Maybank x Reader

Sum: You and JJ get high and he reminds you what you’re worth.

Warnings: Unprotected sex, drug use, sex while under the influence of drugs, smoking, praise kink

𖥸

Your best friend handed you the makeshift gravity bong with a low laugh. “You’ve really never hit a gb before?”

Sticking your tongue out, you snatched the water bottle from his hand and inspected it. “Not everyone was a druggie in high school, JJ.”

“Okay, wow, hurtful,” He mocked you, “Anyway, let me help you,” he took the bottle from your hands, “I bet you don’t even know how to use it.”

You began to interject but silenced yourself. You didn’t know how to use it. He wasn’t wrong.

You watched carefully as his nimble fingers packed the small metal piece at the cap with what weed you had provided. After, he pulled a lighter from his back pocket and rolled it to a flame.

“Now,” He made eye contact with you, “I’m gonna light it, take a deep breath, hold it, then breathe out.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ve smoked before, J.” You grumbled, pulling the bottle from his hands after he lit it. Exhaling sharply, you placed the cap to your lips and sucked in a strong breath. The smoke burned your throat and lungs but you held back the cough out of embarrassment.

You breathed out, coughing a few times and your eyes watering.

“Not so bad, huh?” He smiled, taking the bottle to hit it himself.

You coughed. “Not so bad.”

The rest of your night together was spent making corny jokes and passing the bong back and forth between you in his truck. You had never been in a hor box before but this time was certainly relaxing.

“And that’s how I broke Pope’s arm,” The blond laughed, sinking back into the drivers seat, “What’s your best story?”

“Shit,” You breathed, scanning your memory. “Oh I have a fucking good one.”

“Oh yeah?”

You laughed to yourself as the memory came to you. “I was seventeen. Seventeen and super stupid.”

JJ took another hit of the bong before offering it to you. “Weren’t we all?” He coughed.

“Well,” You took a hit, “I was like lose my virginity to Rafe Cameron stupid.”

JJ spun to face you in an instant and you burst out laughing at the shocked expression on his face. “No shit? How long have we been friends and you didn’t tell me?”

“It was embarrassing!” You protested, placing the water bottle in a cup holder, “I didn’t want you to think differently of me.”

He was silent for a moment. “Different? I’d really only feel bad. I’m sure he treated you like shit.”

“Fucking tell me about it. What kind of guy does absolutely zero foreplay?” You huffed, reclining back to put your feet on the dash.

The blond didn’t respond, only stared at you for a moment before looking away.

“What, JJ?” You asked, sitting up to lean toward him. “Jealous of me fucking Rafe?”

Okay. You were certain you were way too high now. This was your best friend. Why would you say that?

“Not jealous,” He turned to face you, eyes locking with yours, “Just upset he couldn’t make you feel good like you deserve.”

You felt a flush of heat to your core at his words. Certain that your cheeks were dusted pink, you turned away. “Fuck why are we even talking about this. I’m too high.”

JJ turned to you with an expression that only made your panties wetter. His face scanned yours and his eyes ran up and down the expanse of your body. “You’re fine, baby.”

At this point you were definitely shaking from the nervousness of being this close to someone so attractive. You had hardly thought of JJ as more than a friend before today. Suddenly the feelings of attraction were clearly mutual.

“Do you wanna get in the back?”

You didn’t hesitate to nod, scooting up onto your shins to climb over the divider into the bench of the truck. JJ followed immediately after and wasted no time pressing his lips to yours.

The kiss was like an attack. There was a hunger behind it. It was filled with lust and need and the feeling of doing something so foreign with someone so familiar was strange.

His tongue swiped your bottom lip and slid into your mouth. He tasted then of weed and mint, and you made a note that you liked it.

The blond pulled away, sliding his face into the crevice of your neck. “I’ve wanted this for so long.” He moaned, kissing your neck.

His hands slid up your chest to palm at your breasts. You leaned back into the door to give him more room, and he slipped a hand under your shirt to feel you over your bra. You arched into his touch, his palms cold on your sensitive skin.

Pulling away from from your neck, he leaned back to reach for the hem of your shirt. He pulled it upwards, careful to go slow over your breasts to drop them and watch them jiggle. When you were completely shirtless, he only stared, watching the way your tits pooled over the cup line of your bra.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous.” He groaned, leaning in to suck and plant love bites on the top of your chest. You reach behind yourself, thinking at the clasp of your bra. After a few distracted tries, you unclipped your bra, your tits falling outwards.

JJ places his face in between them and motorboated you. “Oh my fucking god they’re perfect.”

“Stop.” You giggled. “You’re so high.”

“Nah.” He kicked one nipple, sucking it and releasing it with a pop. “You just have the best fucking tits.”

He continued to suck on your tits while working to unbutton your shorts. He popped the button, and unzipped them full before releasing your nipple and pausing to breathe. “Can I take these off?”

“Please.” You moaned. “Need you to fuck me JJ.”

A feel groan erupted from his throat at your words. “Can’t say shit like that.”

You lifted your hips to allow him to pull your shorts and panties down, and he leaned back to undress himself. You watched as he exposed his muscular arms and chest, and pulled out his cock to slap back against his stomach.

“Bigger than Rafe?” He teased.

You slapped his face gently and he crinkled his nose. “Oh shut up.” You mumbled before scooting over fo straddle him.

“Look at you,” He reached a hand to fist at the fat of your ass, “So fucking gorgeous for me. My girl.”

You leaned down to kiss him, and felt his right hand slide to your pussy. Two fingers poked at your vagina while his thumb rolled circles on your clit. You moaned into his mouth as he pushed his fingers inside of you.

He pulled back and you hurried your face into his neck. “Does that feel good baby? You’re so good. Doing so good for me.”

You shuddered, whining quietly when he curled his fingers to rub your g-spot.

“That’s it baby. Just relax into me. Be my good girl.”

His pace against your clit quickened, and you felt a sensation begin to burn in your lower stomach. “J, I’m think I’m close.”

“Look at me.” He spoke softly, and a strong hand came to the back of your neck to pull you. Blue eyes locked with yours as you felt the coil begin to snap. “Cum for me baby. Be a good girl and cum all over my fingers.”

You sobbed as you felt your orgasm wash over you, and liquid rolled down his fingers and onto his thighs. “That’s it baby, so good for me.”

His hand contained rubbing circles into your back as you came down from your high.

The blond placed a soft kiss to your temple. “Think you’re ready for me?”

Your only nodded, too tired to respond.

He lifted your hips gently, lining himself up with your hole. Slowly, he dropped you down onto himself, and you came to life at the feeling.

You sunk your nails into his biceps. “J! Oh my god! Feels so good!”

He moaned your name at the feeling of you clenching around him. “Holy fuck. You’re so good baby. Feel so fucking good. Best pussy I ever had.”

You cried, leaning your face into his shoulder as he contained to fuck up into you. Before you knew it, your second orgasm washed over you in a warm flurry. As you squeezed him, you felt him throb inside you.

“Oh you feel too good I can’t last holy fuck. Holy fuck.” He moaned, whining a bit as you felt him pulse, starting to cum inside of you.

With a strong pull, he lifted you off of himself, cumming on your pussy and thighs. He lowered you down to relax into him, and you cuddled into his chest.

“You did so good baby. I hope I made you feel good.” He rubbed your head.

You hummed in response.

“As much as I don’t wanna move, we gotta go get you Plan B.”

[johntayjinf]

i caved in and bought renoise

also sorry tumblr i constantly delete this because i have way too many mixing hiccups to fix... was being too hasty haha

for a tracker with daw features like track mixers, vst support, automation, filters etc., it's pretty impressive what you can do with it. finally i get to do hq music without having to wrap my head around more conventional daws; i like the inconvenience of modern tracker interfaces myself, actually.

the first time i had to arrange for something hq like this, the biggest obstacle and wake-up call i had to face was the fact that uh, my mixing skills weren't up to snuff. fixing it was a nightmare. biggest thing i didn't know at the time of arranging was that sidechaining the bass was really important, otherwise the bass drum (kick) wouldn't be heard and be overpowered by the bass. this was pointed out to me by a server member of ours, lolwe. they've been mixing for about 7-8 years and counting so they understand it pretty well... and actually the final mix was made just this morning to actually fix the entire mix lol.

other more minor mixing issues were ironed out with eq-ing, which i have a bit of experience of, though it was pointed out by dinebon_, yet another (new!) server member, who was primarily a bassist. they also pointed out some unwanted dissonance i had put in for the arrangement.

i understand that mixing is pretty much subjective and everyone does it differently, but it should be worth pointing out that there are some rookie mistakes that someone like me _can_ make. i may be a good arranger but this mix wouldn't have sounded better if it weren't for people giving me advice and pointers on how to fix things. i definitely think that getting input from a variety of artists who have different strengths helps to put a mix together and give listeners a more comfortable listening experience, so from now on, i'll be at the very least, sidechaining my basslines with the kick for better mixing. sorry if this doesn't sound great for everyone lol

the vst i used on the other hand, has _a lot_ of technical problems.

i think we all here love the sound canvas series of midi synthesizers, but i unfortunately do not have the money to buy the physical hardware (yet), so i stuck to the roland cloud sc vst. god, it is a terrible technical mess...

obviously the sc is sampled beautifully, and is iconic in the video game music world, but how the hell do you mess up a vst _this_ badly? it has _inverted stereo_, which is, a fad from waaaaaay back when. i'm happy i got to simply fix this through audacity but good grief, man. i had to export each instrument one by one just so i could identify which instruments were cancelling themselves out on mono and which ones weren't. genuinely horrifying stuff. there are also the in-built low-end and high-end boosters, but what about the mids? i'm going to assume that it's just a feature of the time but god i honestly wish they added middle frequency knobs. not that i can't fix that with eq post-production, but i'd rather not do that (especially for the main melody) unless if the problem really is a big deal. again, i love the sound canvas, but i wish that the vst were better; the technical problems i had to work with ended up souring the experience. i wish people could actually fix it some day and turn it into something greater. i'll likely use the vst again but i also want to mix in other instrument and sample libraries as well!

in the meantime, this arrange gave me a crave for kirby again. i love kdl3 sm, it is my favorite game of the gb - snes era of games. idk how but jun ishikawa writes these intoxicating songs for kirby and i am just left to rot listening to them. they are waaaayy too good.

[niko-sasaki-dbd]

So, I've seen several questions about this, so I'm gonna try to do my best to share my explanation of the:

THREE FLIGHTS AND ONE FERRY RIDE LATER

FIRST IF ALL: THE DESTINATION

Port Townsend is a city, located at the Quimper Peninsula, in the Jefferson County, Washington, USA.

There's several ways to get there, and one of them is by ferry, in the following map, you can see the geographical location, and the ferry route (Coupeville – Port Townsend).

Now, let's go back to the start!

FROM LONDON TO WASHINGTON (THREE FLIGHTS, I GUESS)

Here, the questions are not about the route, but the money. For a lot of people, the logical and immediate answer is that Crystal used her powers to get into an airplane, but I think is plausible that she didn't use them exactly to avoid paying, and if she did, she felt very guilty about it (I'm gonna explain this later).

What is certain is that she used her powers to avoid security and registration at the airport (all the airports), because there was no way a minor was leaving the country, or jumping from one jurisdiction to another without documentation, a passport or an ID.

About the route, there's a lot of options here, but if I believe Crystal didn't use her powers to avoid paying for the tickets, is simply because there were better options than taking three flights, and if she was going to stole the tickets anyway, why no choosing a direct flight? Or at least, a faster one?

I mean that could have saved her a lot of trouble, because going from one airport to another with Charles and Edwin quarreling around her is not exactly the definition of a holiday vacation.

I'm sure she would have chosen any flight that could take her to Washington the fastest, the thing is that she didn't.

She got into a flight with two connections, and secured herself a headache too, so I guess she used the money she had on her, or most logically, her money + the money from the agency (let's give the boys some credit, at the end of the day, they're good at their job, and they care about getting paid).

Now, the route could have been something like this (based on a real flight itinerary):

London, GB -> Frankfurt International, DE

Frankfurt International, DE -> Calgary Intl Airport, CA

Calgary Intl Airport, CA -> Seattle Tacoma Airport, US

[I'm using ISO 3166 country codes, instead of the airports abbreviations]

Which translates into:

First flight: 1 hour and 30 minutes (+1h 30min)

First layover: 2 hours (+2h)

Second flight: 10 hours (+10h)

Second layover: 5 hours (+5h)

Third flight: 2 hours (+2h)

All of these sums up 20 hours and 30 minutes of dealing with Bert and Ernie, without a possible escape.

But the point is, that there are faster routes; a direct flight, or even a flight with only one connection, has a duration of 14 hours or less and is only €100 more than the journey of nightmares I just described, so why did she pick the longer flight if she wasn't going to pay anyway? quality time with the boys? weren't they supposed to be in a hurry?

Obviously, is possible that the flight they took was the first available, or even that they took a flight to a different state, and then travelled within the US, but in either case, I'm sure they didn't pick the fastest route available and the only reason for that is the price of the plane tickets.

Additionally to that, Crystal didn't have much money left to pay for rent when they arrived, and she was the most worried about getting money out of the cases all the season.

FROM SEATTLE TO PORT TOWNSEND: WE'RE ALMOST THERE.

There's no direct way to get from the airport to Port Townsend, they need to get to the ferry terminal in Coupeville first.

Don't worry, is not that hard to get from Seattle to Coupeville, is a two-hour bus ride and the buses leave relatively often, and you can take one from the airport.

So, here we are, back at the beginning. Welcome to Port Townsend, you will surely be enchanted by its beautiful Victorian architecture and the witch kidnapping little girls.

Isn't it the coolest small town ever?

FINAL NOTE:

Clearly, I just did this for fun, but if it is helpful for some of you, that's great!

Doing this also made me think about some headcanons, and I'm gonna be analysing them for the next three business days.

[dykexpress]

please can you read some first time greasedinah hcs/blurb

greasedinah first time hcs lets gooo!!

okay so we obvs know that in canon greaseball is emotionally unavailable™️ (and dinah thinks with her downstairs) so i’m pretty sure that their first time was definitely just a casual hookup

greaseball arrives at station 24 bc theyre hosting a race, and she’s also kinda scouting out a new yard bc her current one sucks ass

she wins the race ofc (it’s not a championship one just a standard race circuit one) and hosts a party afterwards in the temporary shed she’s been given

she’s like definitely a player. she’s very used to girls falling over themselves to sleep with her, but as much as she does enjoy the validation, she mostly likes the chase.

so dinah appears, and she catches greaseball a little off guard - because this girl is so obviously into her and basically chucking herself at greaseballs feet, but she’s also not gonna just roll over and lie down for greaseball that easily. and she’s nothing like the girls greaseball normally goes for. greaseball is intrigued

greaseball starts laying it on thick. dinah is like fawning all over her but also like Not just giving in. greaseball thinks she’s getting somewhere, and then dinah just turns and walks off.

greaseball thinks dinah is playing hard to get, and suddenly she’s a little bit obsessed. little does she know that dinah is so not playing hard to get, she just suddenly got very flustered and needed to collect herself phaha.

greaseball is just like dead confused because what. why has this girl just swivelled on her heels and walked away. so greaseball leaves it, and she’s a little annoyed, because this girl was something else and she’s kinda into it.

the night goes on a bit, and greaseball is waiting for dinah to come back and fawn over her again, but dinahs decided she doesn’t wanna embarrass herself again, so she doesn’t.

greaseball is thinking about this girl like way more than she would like for the rest of the party, and eventually she just says fuck it. she’s aware she’s losing her cool girl image slightly by the way she walks straight up to dinah, but she doesn’t care. she always gets what she wants.

so greaseball marches up and is intending to be dead smooth and flirty. instead she just stumbles over her words upon seeing dinah, bc holy shit this girl is so pretty, panics, and just blurts “you should fuck me.”

dinah just bursts out laughing, but she’s honestly kinda into weird offputting girls, and so she takes greaseballs hand and leads her to her shed.

greaseball manages to shake it off a bit and goes into sex mode. she’s not expecting dinah to be so… active though. greaseball had always thought of herself as more of a service top, but dinah is by no means a pillow princess, and greaseball is a little surprised when dinah flips her and heads south.

greaseball thinks fuck it, i’ll go along with it, but then suddenly she’s realised a lot of things about herself. turns out she does like receiving too. a lot. she’s slightly embarrassed by how turned on she is by dinah.

the sex is great. for both of them. like a little scarily great given how they don’t know each other, but they’re just so in sync and attuned to what the other wants that it’s kinda freaky. greaseball has previously seen sex as like a bit of a chore to keep up her image. she loves it, don’t get her wrong, but this is the first time she’s really realising how much she loves it.

normally she’s out the door immediately after, but when dinah curls up behind her, she suddenly feels weirdly comfortable. she hasn’t stayed the night at a girls ever. but she does. it’s the best nights sleep she’s ever had.

that’s not to say she’s not immediately gone as soon as she wakes up. she wakes up, weirdly comfortable, and then freaks a little. she panics bc she’s realising a lot of shit she didn’t know, and also she’s feeling some type of way and it’s scaring her.

dinah wakes up to find not only has gb left the bed, she’s left the entire yard. no one knows where she’s gone, and dinah doesn’t think she’ll ever see gb again. she’s pissed off.

that is until a week later, a transfer request is put in to momma. greaseball cites superior facilities, better racing opportunities, and better pay. definitely not because she just had the best sex of her life.

[sweatinghoneybee]

Drew out what Glowburst would look like in the fic! Since there hasn’t been any concept art on what Glowburst looks like i’d like to take a crack on what she would probably look like by the little description that we do get of her!

I drew out her past, present and future looks cause since it’s confirmed that Glowburst looks differently from what she looks at present time at the fic and a future look cause i feel like it’s all set and done when she has her family whole again after reuniting with sire again, she’ll have a healing arc where she’s taking herself and gets to spend some quality family time. Even tho there’s a hint that she’s gonna die, but for now i’m gonna be an optimist and just hope that MC will not be tortured by the plot traumas of the future (i know this is in vain but a girl can only wish ok!!)

But disclaimer tho, some of the things i put on Glowburst’s design is sort of headcanons from me with the ideas i come up with the things that are hinted about Glowburst and hasn’t been said yet in the fic, so no one better tell me that i’m off track when future chapters are added cause this design is just what i THINK she’d look like not what she DOES look like at the moment! And I’m honestly just having fun with her design kay? Plus i sort of kind of re-using a failed draft of my version of MC when she got older.

I mostly start with the present one since we got a description from ms.seacucumber that Glowburst looks old and that her paint is faded and since it’s said by MC that she looks like her carrier i got a pretty good draft on what she’d probably look like. I tried to base her off of MC but with slight differences since the sire’s genetic also got inherited so i didn’t want MC and GB to look too similar, and also i sorta made her look like she’s covered up cause i feel like the modification that got hinted in the new chapter 23 would be put over her past armor somewhat like trying to contain the fire in Glowburst to prevent it from well, bursting. And sorta like a symbolism that she’s being constrained and forced to being something she’s not. Also little funny reason on her color picking, i got the idea from A.B.A’s new design in guilty gear where there’s like a theory of sort that her hair is made of copper and that’s why her red hair is now greenish blue because of time and the other theory that it’s because A.B.A tried to dye her hair but ended up coloring it wrong, and since it’s confirmed by Spring that Glowburst has ember color scheme in her past and ember has reds in them i just roled with that color idea. Tho i wonder if i put enough greenishnest in the fading blue paint tho. . . . ? Maybe i’ll meke it more greenish in the future with the blue. . .

And with the present done it’s easy to think of past and future since i just need to branch it out. The reason why I thought of 80s type of inspiration for the past look cause of the description of Glowburst being old and since transformers has already existed since the 80s, I thought that it’ll be a good fit! Tho also fun fact, to get some some ideas on 80s look i looked up 80s cartoons and one of the cartoons that i found on that 80s cartoon list is Jem and the holograms, and i was like “hey MC likes to sing, that could be a good inspiration fit for her mama!”. Also i just really want an 80s based look for Glowburst cause i wanted to give her the poofiest big bursting flames ponytail like those poofy hairs back in the 80s that were popular at that time! And come on her name is Glowburst! Her flames gotta be “bursting” from those “glowing” hues of flames of her’s!!

And the future look i just sort of mismatched both the past and present look since i feel like Glowburst would definitely want to look like back when she was in her past look but with how she’s grown she’s now matured better then her past, and hey blue ain’t a bad color for her just that she never took care of herself that she pretty much neglected her paint till it’s faded so i thought a more vibrant color of the blue symbolizes that she’s now healing since she’ll maybe reunited with her conjunx and now has met Nebula plus having grandkids so she’s a happy elderly now! Also i thought of Glowburst getting accesories that MC made since i thought that Glowburst would love to experiment with her looks plus 80s have some over the top exaggerated accesories so why not? Plus the transformation that i saw with the femmes in G1, their vehicle modes usually only have their chest and thigh parts showing on the outside so i believe that the accesories could work! Plus i mean there’s no way they haven’t figured out how to make accesories right? They already figured out spacebridge portals to teleport them threw galaxies and even multiverses but they couldn’t figure out how to make accesories for fun?

I’ll probably update on her design in the future cause i feel like Glowburst looks will be described more and who knows maybe i can add alittle more things in her design or just feels like that something could suit her more! This was a fun challenge tho, can’t wait to see what sire would look like so that i can make a draft blueprint for him too!

X - X - X - X - X

If anyone is curious and wants to read the fanfic that i’ve been rambling above on the fanart i made, here’s the link to the fic made by a lovely friend of mine!

Spring (the author) works hard to make this lovely work of theirs so please give them some love kay! They’ve been really sweet to answer my questions on what Glowburst looks like and oh darn are they just so sweetly patient with me cause i wanted to not miss a detail of Glowburst’s design since this is an old oc she made that she hasn’t even drawn yet so i wanted to give her design the justice it deserves!! Man can’t wait when Glowburst’s mystery gets revealed along with her conjunx!! I’m so excited!!

[emlan]

Everyone look at my beautiful Bootleg Figurine 🥰

I've been having a lot of fun with [Livly Island] lately, if you like dress up, decorating and/or clicking on cute little critters that squeak when you pick them up I definitely recommend it! As an artist I really enjoy seeing all the creative Island design concepts, and how you can mix and match pieces with other sets.

You need to be able to handle gacha mechanics though… I'll talk more under the cut.

The FOMO levels are definitely high since there are SO many good banners and also "these items will not return" shops/events now and then so you will surely get rinsed if your defense stats are low. However, normal banners stay for 6 months and there's a trading feature if you pull dupes, so it's possible to get the things you want even if you ignore specific banners! fwiw it's decently generous when it comes to giving you currency...

Trading also means Player Economy stuff is part of the game, perhaps other pet sites has taught you it's fun to invest in hot items to sell for a lot later? As a fresh f2p it'll take a while until you have good enough trade fodder to truly play around on that front tho.

The actual gameplay otherwise is just "visit other people's islands to water their tree or pick their fruit" rinse repeat. Riveting stuff I know, but the low time investment is a plus in itself.

If you do give it a go here's a couple tips for early on: After you've decided on a Livly buddy and they show you some pre-made hom avatars to choose from, pick the one with prettiest hairstyle and/or eyes since it'll most likely take a while until you can collect better options. (btw, you can both change your Livly or adopt more later so don't get too stunlocked by the big list of choices)

There's a lot of banners active at once, make sure to click More-> to view all of them when it's time to do your freebie 10-draw. (Also make sure it's the right tab so you don't accidentally pull the Island side if you want Hom dress up items!)

Here's a nice FAQ (WIP) website, if you like discord there's an official server too: https://ludicrous-sherbet-89f.notion.site/Livly-Island-Guide-ENG-dc95853cc748414b83b25d9d3726bcbc

Most important to keep in mind as a beginner is the Revive Ticket tip mentioned under "Shops & Special Events" (ie after grabbing it from your final rookie quest, leave it in your inbox until you have saved up enough for a soul-link (pity/"spark")

/move to Park and do Borodo's riddle ASAP, answer pre 16th is (rot13.com): tb gb zhyyre fgerrg jneq avar naq pyvpx npbea

After picking up the ugly xmas stocking from your inbox, put it on your island and you'll get some Livly hats on Xmas day

Anyway feel free to add me if you're playing: x7f7f8v4 If you're allergic to official discord servers you can message me here on tubmlr if you have questions about the game and I'll do my best to help you…

[luigiblood]

An interesting view of Retro NSO Patents

So a bunch of patents from Nintendo recently got published and got my attention: They are related to the retro Nintendo Switch Online service and how it works and it brings a bit of an interesting view of it, with features that are DEFINITELY not inside the apps as of now.

As I went through them, I decided to also go back a little bit to earlier ones.

Just in case, for every reader:

At no point this describes the future of NSO! Let that be clear!!

Unlike most people who reports on patents, I actually will LINK the original patents.

US11003312B2 - NSO User Interface

You can find this patent here: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11003312B2/en

This seems to be among the earliest ones, it's from 2018, right before the launch of NES NSO that happened in September 2018.

This is an exact description of how the NSO UI works, where each image (or box arts, as they are usually used) are scaled roughly equivalent to each row so it always fits perfectly.

They had planned initially for details to be basically on the box art, thankfully they changed that completely for a full window in the final version.

They also had Special versions / Extra versions also nailed down already at that time, which are just games with preloaded save states, which the patent does explain. And the whole NEW thing where a new game is packaged like a gift and you just open them as you select them, that's already in the final app as well.

But here's something cursed:

This is a full vertical version of the user interface, which we've never seen so far.

US20240165505A1 - GB/GBA Multiplayer

This patent can be found here: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20240165505A1/en

This existed since late 2022 in Japan, but got a US version the next year, then published this year.

This patent explains how multiplayer works for GB and GBA NSO, as in emulating multiplayer between different linked systems, whether through LAN or online.

It gets complicated to read, but it's really about different ways to handle emulation of multiplayer, from one way where each player run their own emulator on their systems, to what I believe to be actually used: Running up to 4 emulators on each player's systems at the same time and keeping them synchronized through each player's input, but only display one of them corresponding to each player.

I believe this last way is used because all data sent through link cable is expected to be instant, you cannot delay this data, because this is asking for constant lag, but emulating all consoles on each player's system does solve this problem.

There also some quick algorithms in there about how to handle connections, disconnections and so on, but at this point it's not too interesting to explain because it works just like the apps.

US20240181342A1 - NSO User Interface (Save System)

This patent can be found here: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20240181342A1/en

It's dated just like the previous one, actually.

It might sound like the first one, but this one is more than meets the eye. Some articles talked about this as like, new Switch OS UI which is just bullshit (hi GameRant), or as GameCube NSO (wtf are you smoking to think of that straight up), but this one is actually about saves!

This image is actually having the main game on the left side, and everything to its right are all save states! You can see 2 saves for the first game, and 5 saves for the second game, it even has two rows for a single game which never happens on NSO apps. Of course, each save are just essentially having a screenshot of when the save state was taken at that moment.

This can very well be an alternative way of things, as I think this looks quite a bit cumbersome in how much space it uses.

But what's interesting is the Auto Save feature, which is not a feature of retro NSO currently. It is explained that the auto save can be enabled or not, and can happen anytime, including within a repeated time interval. This would be very nice in case of crashes.

And then, the elephant in the room: Yes, this looks like you could do more than 4 saves, with a peek of the suspension menu with a way to scroll through saves, the first option being to create a new save, without necessarily having to choose a numbered save state ID.

US20240173627A1 - Mission Play Mode

This patent can be found here: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20240173627A1/en

Now, this one is really sad because this shows an actual mission mode for retro NSO apps with objectives and rewards!

This has a new mode included called Mission Play, and you are provided with a mission that you can enter.

In this case it's about hitting enemies, keeping a count for a mission, but also even keeping a count of every single player in a region, and then the world!

This is really cool! I really think they should be doing this, but it seems Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition might do it instead.

That said, this being planned for retro NSO systems is definitely not entirely news for me, because I had noticed a long time ago that the SNES NSO emulator definitely kept track of specific game information as you play, it wasn't necessarily sent anywhere, but they were thinking about it, for several SNES games.

Funnily enough, these are real examples of detections for Super Mario Advance 2 specifically. This is pretty much how the memory and code looks like for the game.

I want to insist though: These are patents, these are for ideas, so this patent might have been publicly published because of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, but through experience, most of the time, as much as they describe stuff for illustrative purposes, it is usually describe a real example that was in development at one point or another.

Again, though: At no point this describes the future of NSO! Let that be clear!

But it gives us a view of what Nintendo and NERD had in mind for development. And, at least, I actually give links unlike a few who loves to tease bullshit through those.

[phopollo]

Tell us about the other characters in Rusty and GB's photos!

TEEHEE IM SO GLSD YOU ASKED (this is going to be a long post)

Also just for anyone who's curious about the mentioned photos becsuse you may have missed the post, fear not, you can just check it out right here 👍

So!! Let's start with Rusty's photo! I think it's pretty clear thst we've got Rusty in the center there, little baby man style, just a little guy-- but of course, he's not the only one there-- so let's talk about Rusty's little parental polycule!

To his left is Momma!

A bit younger than she's appearing in the actual rest of the story, but there she is! Momma is pretty much the same as the musical version-- previous world champion racer, retired in her old age, etc etc

Above Rusty though, is Poppa! That's right, I say both Momma and Poppa rights for Rusty

Poppa is a steam engine switcher like Rusty. He ran a few races back in his younger days, but he never really won any-- and while he's about the age that he really probably should be retiring, he's still working hard!

And then to Rusty's right is Memphis!

Alternatively, the original Belle! I've decided to use just Memphis, since there 2024 Belle already, and I wasn't planning any connection between them, so making them Jr/Sr just didn't feel right. Memphis has a roughly similar story to her canon one as well! She's an old sleeping car who used to race with Momma, and was even her coach for many of Momma's years as champion!

It may not be as obvious because he calls her by name, but Memphis is absolutely also one of Rusty's parents! Unfortunately, they as a family got separated when Poppa and Memphis got assigned to another station/train yard when Rusty was younger-- it's been maybe a whole decade at this point. Rusty will always volunteer to bring something to the other station when they send requests for help though, just for the opportunity to see his other two parents

So then! Now let's talk about Greaseball's family photo!

In case it wasn't entirely clear, because I used the like.... draft version of her wig; on the left is Junior!

This one's our little baby girlball! She is not having a good time :(

On the right is Virtuoso!

Lowkey, kinda just made him up, because Greaseball strikes me as having really complicated family relationships. They're kind of age gap siblings, they never really had anything in common aside from their father's racing desires for them, and admittedly, in what turned out to be a golden child/black sheep situation, Virtuoso was very much the black sheep. He is very much what I'd consider as a "season 2" kind of character-- one mentioned a couple times or that you visually see the photo of some time during season 1 (shortly before the events of the musical through Rusty becoming the champion), but you wouldn't actually hear about or meet him until season 2

And then finally, in the middle, we've got Senior

Everyone say hello Greaseball Senior, who's inspiration came from the very first iteration of Greaseball. He sustained a pretty serious injury pretty early on in his racing career, leaving him unable to get up to speeds to keep up with those around him. And while he could still work, he wasn't satisfied with that-- as a result, he ended uo pushiny his dreams and aspirations of racing on his kids pretty hard

As I mentioned earlier, the family dynamic and relationships are kind of.... rocky, to put it politely. Virtuoso is completely out of the picture at this point, and I definitely wouldn't say Jr and Sr get along. Jr will go out of her way to avoid him, but Sr keeps going out of his way to track her down because of the vicarious glory of being her, the current reigning world champion's, dad. Admittedly, Jr's view of family and what family is supposed to be is a little messed up because of all of this

[essvea22]

Hot take: Seamus never thought Harry was lying in fifth year

This is my most controversial opinion but I think canon backs me up!!!!!!! If you actually go through the scene, there's not all that much to back up that Seamus genuinely thinks Harry is insane, but there IS an awful lot to back up that Seamus is saying stupid things because he's getting upset and defensive.

Starting at the very beginning... Dean is the one who starts this fight, for apparently no reason? Not sure what his problem is tbh x

Obviously you can just read this entire next bit as just Seamus being thick but to me, his body language (yellow) and speech patterns (pink) indicate hesitation that is usually super out of character for Seamus... almost like he's not confident in his stance.

Seamus gives Harry the opportunity to explain himself and it obviously makes sense why Harry doesn't, but that's more to do with Harry trying to process seeing someone die rather than Seamus saying anything that's explicitly provoking/doubting Harry.

Throughout the scene Seamus stays on the defence; he's not accusing Harry of anything yet, whilst Harry (again, understandably for what he's been through) is using fighting language and actions - I didn't bother highlighting because the entire thing would be highlighted.

When Ron asks what's going on, Seamus' accusation isn't (yet) that Harry is a nutjob who's pushing his Voldemort conspiracy theories. He's still on the defence and the accusation that he is making is objectively true... we've just read half a page of Harry having a go at Seamus' mother. Again the body language is super tense and explosive. Harry stays aggressive and it's only after all this that Seamus calls Harry mad, but he's doing so in agreement with Harry. The only time in the entire book where he calls Harry crazy is when Harry continually insists that Seamus thinks he's crazy.

Seamus spends the rest of the book basically just avoiding Harry but notably when he apologises to Harry (in the loosest sense of the word) he never actually says that he didn't believe Harry before, just that he DOES believe Harry after the release of the Quibbler article, and has sent it to his mam to convince her to believe Harry too. Obviously Seamus is a very proud character (evident even in just this scene 😂) so it's perfectly likely that he just doesn't want to admit that he was wrong. But I don't think a reading where he always believed Harry (and was just holding a grudge) is unreasonable either, and this is definitely how I read it.

!!! Extra Context !!! Again, obviously, this wasn't the most tactful thing for Seamus to do. Maybe he shouldn't have backed his mother so hard. But from the fourth book onwards, it's a really difficult time for everybody, not just Harry. In regards to Seamus specifically, there's a lot of things that I think are important to bear in mind. He's one of only a handful of Irish students at Hogwarts during a time where hibernophobia was really bad in GB and there was a civil war going on in the north, so I think it's only natural that he retreats back to his family for support and safety. Also, as far as I've gathered, rural Ireland is quite a tight-knit, community oriented society. I think the mindset of deferring to your parents and representing your community before your own views, however toxic, makes perfect sense in this context although obviously Harry - not to pull the orphan card here - wouldn't understand it.

It's not even like Seamus seems to agree with his mother most of the time 😂 Obviously it's clear that he doesn't want OTHER people having a go at her, but we can go back to the first extract where Dean literally says that Seamus has had a crappy summer - he's clearly not been gleefully plotting to throw this all in Harry's face. In year six, as well, Seamus has a very public argument with his mother about being allowed to stay at Hogwarts for Dumbledore's funeral (they come to a compromise, which I read as their relationship healing...)

Conclusion: Seamus doesn't think Harry's a nutjob, he just thinks he's a dick and can hold a grudge like a motherfucker.

[yourlocaldilemma]

Golden thoughts {part 5} (ln4)

Lando Norris x fem!sprinter!reader

Word count: 2.2k

Part 5/7 part one part two part three part four

Warnings: none really, Charles is kind of a dick sorry

A/n: sorry this took so long to get out 😭 school is so busy. This is more or less a filler chapter, but the next one is going to get spicier i promise. As always, feedback is appreciated

—————————————————————————

The night time city life of downtown London glows and rushes beneath you. The view from your top floor penthouse gives you the perfect vantage point of the thousands of lives intertwining and bustling on the ground.

Great Britain was definitely one of your favourite meets of the season. The city, the views, the bright people and homey food. You would argue it had always been this way, that you had always had a sweet spot for the British air.

Your friends on the other hand, would argue that it was a recent development, caused by a sweet spot for a British boy.

You would be lying if you said Lando hadn’t become a pretty regular part of your days, but he was just a friend. Another person who got the Jetlag, the pressure, the constant training. Nothing more than a late night “how are you’s?” and sarcastic exchanges from across time zones.

After a personal best and first place finish in Monaco, you had made your way to Great Britain for the 10th track meet of the year. Your eyelids were heavy with the day of travel, but you had strict instructions keeping you up for another three hours so that you were ready with a full nights sleep for training tomorrow.

This was only your second year sprinting professionally, and the reality of it was still partially unfathomable. Sometimes you’d lie awake late into the night, insomnia from a deep fluttering joy keeping you from drifting off because finally, finally, your reality was better than your dreams.

The phone lying hot in your pocket vibrates against your leg. When you scan the notification, the edges of your lips flit up into a small smile.

Lando: I see you’re in GB huh? Need a tour guide?

He attaches a screenshot of your instagram post from earlier today, a picture you took in the airport and captioned with the U.K’s flag. You roll your eyes at his eager message.

Sent: Hi Y/N, how was your day? I know flying is stressful for you. Are you excited for the track meet this weekend?

Lando: sorry

Lando: how are you?

Sent: I’m absolutely lovely Lando, thanks for asking

Lando: how come when you use sarcasm it’s ok but when I use it I’m “immature”

Sent: Because I said so :)

You click off your phone and turn it face down on the nightstand. The wood floors and expensive looking tile echo your steps sleekly as you walk into the huge master bathroom.

Water flows from the articulate gold tap as mascara runs down your face, mixing with your foundation before dripping off your face in a swirling mess of makeup. Once you’ve washed the evidence of the day down the sink, you turn to the all white shower and let the water run until the glass is steamy enough to write on and just hot enough to scald the airport off you you. The hotel soap leaves a heavy scent of Eucalyptus in the bathroom as you cover yourself in thick suds from head to toe before working shampoo through your hair. By the time you’re done, and clad in a heavy white robe, the sun has completely set and you have to stumble through the pitch black bedroom to find the light switch.

Flopping down onto the bed, you pick your phone up again. You groan at the one and a half hours until you can let sleep take you before scrolling through your socials to pass time. You empty out your inbox, responding to a few important emails before selecting multiple instagram posts to respond to and posting a message about the race weekend before you.

Lando: How long are you here for?

You swipe the notification off the top of your screen. You have not even half enough energy to deal with the cheeky comments about taking you out that you knew were going to follow.

Lando: Y/N

You ignore the text again, but smile slightly at his boyish persistence.

It’s not minutes before an instagram notification comes through.

Lando Norris: Y/NNN

Your smile grows wider and you open the message, only to close instagram after making sure Lando would have gotten the notification that you read his message. Not even 20 seconds later, a twitter notification pops up.

Lando Norris: Y/N I know you’re reading this you little shit

You leave him on read again, practically kicking your feet with laughter as you picture Landos face pinched together with annoyance. You wiggle deeper into your pillow, preparing to spend your last conscious hour this way.

WhatsApp comes next.

Lando: Y/N don’t make me call Charles

Then comes a FaceTime request, which you let ring 6 times before accepting with defeat.

“Hah!”

“Low blow Lando.”

“I’m not as stupid as you think.“

You smile sweetly at him, the light from your phone illuminating your face in the mostly dark hotel room. His smile softens as he takes you in.

“You look cute.”

“Cute?”

“Yeah all wrapped up and sleepy in your robe like that.” He clears his throat as you don’t say anything back to him. “You never responded to my tour guide question.”

“It’s not my first time in the UK.” You rest the phone on your knees and stomach, bring your hands up to your eyes so you can slowly pick the polish off your nails.

“But it’s your first time with me.”

“Don’t you have a race to be getting ready for? I don’t think your team will be happy if you waste your precious training time showing some random girl around.”

You can hear Landos phone scuffing against the desk he’s seated at as his head dips out of the frame. When he returns to the picture, he has earbuds in.

“You’re not just some random girl.”

“Then what am I?” You raise one eyebrow and quirk the other, making eye contact with Lando through the phone.

“You’re Y/N.”

“That is insightful. Merci.”

The simple French makes him scrunch his nose up. “Mhmmm?”

You smile. Lando smiles back, running a hand through his curls.

“Silverstone isn’t until next week anyway. I have time. Anyway -“

He gasps, a drawn out, high pitched noise in the back of his throat.

“Y/N! You should come to the race!”

“The F1 race? I don’t think so.”

“Give me one good reason why not. You’ve been friends with Charles forever. I’m actually surprised you haven’t been to one already.”

You wince slightly at the second reminder of Charles. You hadn’t been on the best terms with him since you became friend with Lando, which was hard for you both. You had been friends for longer then you were able to remember and to not text each other every day gave you a sinking feeling.

The same sinking feeling, that you felt grow in your stomach when you thought about those small little moments with Lando. Braiding his hair, cooking dinner, falling asleep on him. The moments you never talked about, but continued to happen none the less. You hadn’t seen him in person since Monaco, but one too many late night conversations had ended with a comment a little to boyfriend-ish.

“You know exactly why Charles never invited me to a race.”

“Because he’s a selfish French asshole who keeps you under lock and key because he knows that he treats you like shit but wants you for his own?”

“Good god Lando.”

Just then your phone buzzes, the vibrations pushing it off its precarious balancing point on your body.

It’s the last person you expect to be texting you right now, seeing as Arthur Leclerc was currently on the other side of the world for a training camp.

“Earth to Y/N? What happened?”

“Um wow,” you whistle under your breath, “Arthur just invited me to the race. Courtesy of him and Charles.”

“The race as in silverstone? You’d go for Charles but not for me?”

Your mind didn’t have to capacity to handle Landos comment. You had half a mind to turn on the news, to check if the sky was caving in.

The Leclerc brothers had never even contemplated inviting you to a race. There were good reasons as to why, and it worked just fine for all of you.

“Why would he be inviting me?” You mumble. Landos eyes soften.

“I don’t know princess.”

“What do I say?”

“Do you want to go?”

You take a moment to really think about the offer. You love F1, you love the Leclerc’s, and while you’d dreamt of going to a race it had never became reality. Something about the offer sat sour in your mind though, because the hesitant feeling in place of what should be excitement had you with the judgment to turn the offer away.

“Something about it feels off.”

Lando just nods in agreement. Feeling like you’re reading his mind, you think back to what he had said about Charles earlier, when you were safe and protected and drunk on the night. The words echo around your head.

“Charles knew that anyone who met you would never want to leave you alone, meaning he would lose more of you. So he kept you to himself.”

“Princess?”

You scrunch your face at the name drawing a laugh out of Lando.

“I don’t think I want to go. I think you’re right, what you said about Charles, and if it’s because he’s scared then we can work through that, but now; if he’s inviting me to a race to prove a point,” you pause. “Then I don’t want to go. Right offer, wrong reason.”

Lando bobs his head in agreement through the phone. He open his mouth like he’s about to say something important before decisively closing it again.

“Spit it out Norris.” You tease with a grin.

Your relationship with him has seemingly gone in reverse order, becoming more and more platonic as you grow closer. So when Lando open his mouth again, the words that fall out of it come as a shock.

“What if you accept Charles’ offer, his tickets, but in your mind you’re there for me?” He meets your eyes. “I would offer you my tickets but I don’t know if you want that and I’ve already promised them to my family, of course.”

The silence between you grows louder the longer you toss the idea around in your head without saying anything.

“Isn’t that using him?”

“It’s using your recourses. Plus, you’ll still be watching from Ferrari hospitality. In your heart you’re still there for Charles.”

“But I’ll also be there for you.”

“So you’re coming?” The precious gap between his teeth show as Lando smiles at you through FaceTime.

You groan and end the call.

~~

6 days later, with the temperature rising steadily throughout the week, the paddock is unbearably hot. A concrete jungle of cars and people and buildings, your hair was sticking to the back of your neck as you sit in the Ferrari hospitality. The small balcony had no shade cover and you could practically see the heat coming off the metal railings.

You hadn’t seen Charles all day, and Aurthur had barley talked to you, preoccupied with asking endless questions to the engineers.

You were fine to be there alone. You spent most of your time like that anyway, and you were finally at an F1 race. The atmosphere was electric and seeing all the drivers preform was amazing. The camera could never capture the true speed of the sport.

Your phone vibrates on the table.

Lando: I’m assuming you’re not busy, seeing as Charles is down here on his phone.

You could sense his distaste.

Lando: come meet me down by the media pen

You had half a mind to tell Lando he had better things to be doing, but you were getting a little restless waiting for the race. And plus, he needed his braid right?

Sure enough, when you found Lando sitting in a bench in front of the empty media pen, he greeted you with a smile before stating “I need a braid.”

Giggling, you sit down beside him. There are bushes on either side of the bench and the ground is dark from the shade of a looming building to your left. As you begin pulling his hair into a braid, you see Charles walk over your way. You feel Lando tense in front of you as Charles meets your eyes.

You can see him look at you with a hurtful amount of disgust before walking away again.

“Just ignore him.”

You tie off Landos braid. “It’s just a little tough.”

“You’re allowed to feel that way.”

Someone in a bright McLaren shirt emerges from behind a trailer, head spinning around, quite obviously looking for something.

“Shit. I have to go.” He stands up and offers his hand to you. You better be cheering for me today.”

“I was actually planning on cheering for Yuki”

Lando flips you off with a laugh and a wink before heading off in the direction of the McLaren employee.

“Podium?” You call after him.

“For you princess? Seven days a week and 62 times on a Sunday.”

—————————————————————————

TAGLIST: @laneyspaulding19 @ssararuffoni