#every time i move i change the way i put them and add some/remove some

[ent-is-indecisive]

Some of the moodboards ive tacked on the walls of my room (i hate white walls)

[elminx]

Magic for Recentering During Times of Conflict

Note: I am writing this immediately following the November 2024 election cycle, but this is not meant to be specific to this time. Nor am I inferring that magic can solve all of our problems. Please seek out help from a professional if you need it.

One of the deep truths that I have uncovered in my life is that when I am unbalanced (emotionally, physically, spiritually), I am of no use to myself or to others. When something rocks me to the core of my being as this election has, I need to feel all of the feels first and foremost. Then, I need to find a way to move on from the immediate (VERY VALID) emotional turmoil so that I don't get stuck in a pattern of rumination or pathological catastrophizing.

These are some of the ways that I do so. This list is not meant to be exhaustive and, of course, I do not expect every one of these to work for everyone. That is okay and expected. I'm also not including medical, psychological, or court-based interventions because I am not a doctor or a lawyer. Some of these tips are purely magical in nature and some are what I would call magic adjacent - they are mundane actions that are cleansing in nature.

Feel your feelings. I know I said AFTER, but I feel that I need to reiterate this. These steps are unlikely to work until you have worked your way through the first stages of rage, revolt, grief, name your emotion here. How long this takes will be different for everyone. Don't rush this.

Breathe. When I am really In It, I find meditation nearly impossible. I need to be reminded how to take deep breaths. This is when I get help—I use the Tide App for this. I set it to "Breathe," a fifteen-minute timer, and balanced breath. If you're new to breath work, start with five minutes. This is very simple: The app makes a sound for inhalation and one for exhalation. For many people, deep breathing helps to bring your nervous system into balance.

Change. This isn't a tip for everyone, but you know who you are. (I'm definitely guilty of this) If you've been wearing the same clothes for a week, stewing in your emotional turmoil, it's time to change them. Every single item you've been wearing. This may go to blankets or bedding, too. Put them all in the wash and give yourself a fresh set and a fresh start.

Wash. Take an intentional bath or shower. Wash every part of your body, focusing on removing the bad emotions with soap and washing them down the drain. You can add oomph to this by using soaps with cleansing scents (think lavender, citrus, lemongrass, sage, etc.).

Cut or Dye your hair. This is a deep take that will only work for some people, but if you're like me, cutting your hair can be a big release. It doesn't have to be a big change (though I find the bigger the cut, the bigger the release). Sometimes, making a visible change to your appearance can change how you feel. IYKYK

Small Cleansing Rituals. These will vary greatly depending on your practice and culture. If cleansing yourself with smoke or crystals really gets you, do it.

Clean Your House - stale energy is stale. Part of getting over an emotional episode, for me, is getting the energy in my environment flowing again. Open some windows. Wash your floors. Pick up the mess you created when you were too In It to do anything more than feel. This could be your bedroom, house, or space in which you spent the most time while you were down for the count. You can add oomph to this with Cleansing Vinegar.

Big Cleansing Rituals—When something is really stuck, we need the big guns. This could be cord-cutting or cleansing spells, whatever works well for you. I have a spell that works for this here.

Flush it out of you. (TW: alcohol) If you're the potion type, you can make a cleansing potion to move the emotions through your body until you eventually pee them out. This doesn't have to be alcoholic, though I like alcohol for its mild diuretic effects in this scenario. Think cleansing with citrus here, especially. My long-form lemonade will definitely work here, as would many types of tea. I have a seasoned cocktail specifically designed to do this here.

Banish it. There are too many ways to do a banishing spell for me to list them all here. But, since we are talking about explicitly banishing something from your own body - I suggest using food. Onions and black pepper are good banishing ingredients that taste great, too. I have a French Onion Soup banishing recipe here.

I want to reiterate here that if you are still dealing with your emotions stage of things right now, that is completely okay. This isn't meant to rush anyone through this process. We are all different people with different needs. It's also okay (and probably expected) that all of these things listed above won't work for all people - after all, they are things that work for me, specifically.

You need to find out what works for you. If don't know where to start right now, I hope this gave you some ideas. And, as always, if there's a method of getting through the hard shit that you'd like to add to this, please do! We could all use some new ideas for the hard road ahead.

[intpstyle]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review Pt. 3 - "How to move on?", On Community

DA:TV Spoilers ahead!

Pt. 1 is here, Pt. 2 is here

The capital-h Hero brings me to the second point: community. One could argue that Rook simply doesn’t have the luxury of breaking – there is too much on their shoulders. The game drops multiple hints in that direction, but (again) doesn’t seem to fully commit to the idea. Just one scene of Rook pacing their room, frantically going over battle plans, tossing in their sleep (even just staring out into their aquarium with a furrowed brow for a particularly stoic Rook - anything!) before a companion knocks and they put on their smiley/calm “Yes, I am the boss and have all the answers” demeanour would have been worth gold. What a fantastic opportunity, too, to have them break in front of their Love Interest and their Love Interest alone! As some other reviewers have already mentioned, I also would have loved ANY codex entry mention of the other companions being worried about Rook. As it is, Rook stands alone.

This is reinforced by the game mechanic that only allows Rook to eavesdrop on conversations in the Lighthouse rather than join them, the odd mirthless reactions when you buy companions gifts, the much-maligned book club that never asked you to join, etc. I was also missing a scene like the Inquisition card game that showed everyone just …hanging out. If there is enough time in-between the world saving business for a book club, there is enough time for a shared meal or two, maybe with storytelling and reflecting on the adventures the team has already overcome. Before the final battle, Solas says something to the effect of Elgar’nan choosing only pawns that grasp for power like him, while Rook has assembled a team of skilled professionals and invested in their skills, which is why they will win. And … yes. But for my taste, the game does not invest enough on either side of heavy is the crown; leaders stand alone // we win with the power of friendship; we’re like a family! When escaping from Fade Prison, we see the hands reaching for Rook and can piece together that they have been gone for weeks, but why not show us the moment Rook tumbles through, back into the Lighthouse, back home, and their team huddles around them with victory cries? Say what you will about The Dawn Will Come (or even the jailbreak scene in Origins!), but there is no scene that fullfils a similar function here. All we get are (hilarious!) snippets of Venatori fangirling over Rook, but when has Rook reached this level of prominence? Where are the in-between steps?

All that to say: once again mirroring Solas, but not in a great way, both Rook and Solas stand alone. While I appreciate the story for Solas we got, it is a shame that his vast elven network did not play any role in the plot, and it is a shame that Rook does not seem to be affected by the juicy parts of having to move on from anything ever, leaving them somewhat removed and in an almost supervisory position towards the other companions (which is also not explored in much depth). The main theme of Mythal relieving Solas of his sole responsibility and guilt, and Rook helping every companion with their quest is that “you don’t have to go through this alone. We can move on together.” I just wish this had been stressed more, particularly in regard to Rook.

One last thought on choices: another change that could have taken this game to the next level would be to commit to the follow-through of danger. I loved D’Meta’s Crossing and was so excited to get into “real” Dragon Age territory, but the fantastic build-up with shuffling through the dripping blight and people losing their minds left and right should have been a high-adrenaline boss fight or cut scene, not a rather tame moral decision on leaving the mayor to his fate or not. Same for Mila, the girl in Weisshaupt – she’s a brilliant character and adds real tension to the siege, but to not have a single scene where she’s truly in danger? Missed opportunity.

Anyway, it is easy to criticise a cake when it stands baked before you, and considering that the oven was malfunctioning, that the ingredients were hard to get, that the chefs were underpaid and overworked, and that the restaurant owner at some point wanted a soufflé, it is still a damn fine cake. Every creator puts themselves in their creations to some degree, so I wonder if there isn’t also a sad and rather obvious reason why Rook feels so under-pressure, unallowed-to-break, and alone, and why the catharsis is not included in the game itself. Respect to the Bioware developers that pulled through – may they be rewarded in the way they deserve and the industry currently does not allow.

So yes, all in all, Veilguard was a 7/10 for me, and I can’t wait to see where the series will move on to from here.  

[cenorii]

And here we are again… RE9 theory

It's time for another theory! I'll be writing these right up until the release of RE9, so apologies if you're tired of speculation. I had a theory about this Wesker concept once before, but it came out too vague + I tied the concept to RE4R, but it never made it into the game. So here's a new theory that has captured my brain.

What if, this concept never belonged to re4r? What if it showed up in early development of re9? Let me explain.

Imagine that Wesker is alive in re9. You can imagine the importance of keeping such a news secret, because it is quite a shocking information for fans. If this is the main intrigue in re9, the game would lose it if information about Wesker leaked to the public. If you were the designers and developers, you wouldn't let such news get out of the organization any way. So, put yourself in the shoes of a Capcom employee? Let's move on.

Suddenly such an important detail is leaked by Wesker's voice actor and your intrigue risks becoming public, the game will lose half of its interest without keeping Wesker a secret. You, as a developer\designer need to solve something, somehow fix the situation so that no one will know about the return of this character in the new game.

Then you make a GENIAL decision, setting your sights on re4r, which is in the middle of development. You decide to add this Wesker design to re4r to ward off all suspicion and get out of the disadvantage. Well done, you succeeded in fooling the fandom, now everyone is convinced that this concept was originally made for re4r.

It would seem that everything is fine, no one will know the truth until the re9 release happens, but… Wesker's concept never showed up in re4r. That image is not inside the game or in the concept book. We, the players, are left to assume that this concept was trivially not intended for re4r.

To confirm this theory, I'll ask you to pay attention to a few details - the face (1), the hair (2) and the hand (3). 1. The face, to be honest, could be anything on these concepts, because they are made sometimes before the studio finds the right actor to give the appearance to the character. But I'm left wondering if his face here is taken from re5 and yet looks much older. If this was for re4r, wouldn't Wesker look younger? 2. His hairstyle deviates a lot from the usual style that every game has. Capcom couldn't change Wesker's hairstyle for the REMAKE of the game, because it's an important part of it. Changing his hairstyle is tantamount to removing his sunglasses. But that kind of hair is acceptable for a new game. I assume this is how his new style was planned for the future in which he is alive (?). If you've ever seen the "early" versions of re4r, you probably know that in them Wesker has that exact weird hairstyle, which Leon also has in the "hero" skin. I believe that when Capcom added the "hero" hairstyle to Wesker, they were trying to make him look even more like the concept to minimize information leaks among the staff.

3. In none of the games did Wesker suffer an arm injury. In Code Veronica, his hand was set on fire, but the wound is not serious and Wesker is able to heal his wounds in SECONDS. It doesn't make sense to emphasize his wound for a Code Veronica concept. It also doesn't make sense to do a wound for re4r, because in the original Wesker never left his chair at all, and in the remake he didn't get into any serious fights. This wound is something new that hasn't happened yet, but one day will. In all the games, Wesker heals any injuries quickly, but at the end of re5 he took too much damage, so he probably lost some of his strength, causing him to keep his wounds for a long time.

That's the kind of thoughts that visit me when I see this image but don't see it inside re4r. If it's a "discarded" concept, it too should appear officially, like Ada's concept for re8 that was never added to the game.

Thanks for reading, really looking forward to re9 to see how far I was from the truth. (Help me. I'm going crazy.)

[writer12]

Could you do a Lute (hazbin) x female reader with fluff and smut?

Okay, here! The character hasn't been revealed much at the moment, so there will be a lot of headcanons here.

One of the main problems is that Lute is very sticky to the rules and his sense of absolute justice.

As you know, the Bible is not very supportive of same-sex relationships and, given that heaven in the series is based on it, Lute may also be against it.

But if we look at history, there were often lesbians in private girls' schools and academies. Yes, it was against the rules of the Bible, so they hid their relationship. And considering that Lute commands exorcists, among which only women and Adam, it is likely that she has some kind of minor interest in women.

In any case, if she dates you, your relationship will be secretive or only the top ranks of Paradise will know about it. This comes not only from the rules of the Bible, but also from its title. She wants angels to respect her and demons to fear her, and a relationship with you can not only destroy this façade, but also put you in danger, especially if you are exorcists too.

She is very proud of her work as an exorcist and after Extermination she brings you small trophies of the demons she killed: horns, tails, heads and the like. But if you don't like it, then she can come up with something else.

Her favorite thing to do with you is relax. She works a lot both in Extermination and on regular days. She has a huge responsibility and often after work she just wants to lie down next to you and hug you.

If you are also an exorcist, then Lute will ask Adam and Sera to remove you from this position. Knowing that there is a possibility of not returning, Lute is afraid for you and wants you to stay in Paradise for the sake of your safety and her peace of mind.

Adam, Sera and Emily are among the few who know about your relationship.

Emily thinks your relationship is sweet. I believe that Lute is in some way the bodyguard of Emily, Sera and Adam, which is why Emily considers Lute her friend.

Although Sera knows about your relationship, she is neutral about it.

Adam loves to make fun of Lute and that’s why your girlfriend will never let him into your house after hours.

I see her as the same woman who has an average apartment with a simple design.

Before her relationship with you, she did not visit her home often due to a lot of work, which is why her apartment is so simple. After starting a relationship with you, she gave you every right to change and add whatever you want to the apartment.

Now let's move on to smut.

She's definitely a dominatrix, but she doesn't mind and is very good at giving cunnilingus to you.

She has low sex drive. She might not have sex for months because of work, but after starting a relationship with you, she might have sex 1-2 times a month.

She believes that sex is just a release after hard work. Therefore, especially after a whole day of slaying demons in hell, it might be a good idea to go for a few rounds and change positions a few times.

Нer favorite positions are scissors, face to face and 69.

She doesn't see the point in sex toys, but she can try them if you ask.

Adam once suggested a threesome to you both as a joke, but Lute sharply rejected him. She believes that sex should only be with lovers.

Prefers to do this in your common home and does not agree to do it in some other place.

She loves lingerie and doesn't mind if you wear a cute white lace lingerie set.

Аfter sex, she will naturally be tired, but she will try to bring you a towel and water before she falls asleep.

By the way, her inner wing is sensitive and if you stroke it, Lute will become embarrassed and let out a groan.

This is all! I hope you liked it and I will be glad if you write some more requests!

[coricoping]

CATS: The Jellicle Ball Summary

Sourced from my (admittedly imperfect) memory. I love this production, and this is an abridged summary of my memory of the events of the show. Specific/detailed character thoughts will be saved for their own posts, same with thematic deep dives. If there is any character/theme/question y'all want my thoughts on first, I can move them to the top of my queue of thoughts. That being said: on with the show!

Tumblr decided to post early, so this is just Act 1. I will add Act 2 as a reblog when I finish it

Pre-Show

The set for this show is really well done. Talked to one of the workers during intermission, and the whole thing (seating, stage, and all) is completely modular and movable. Floor levels are also all adjustable. It really inclines itself to audience interaction, both with the runway structure and the individual tables at the cabaret level seats.

Junior Labeija handles the pre-show announcements (put your phones away once you've googled me, cheer your heart out, don't film, etc)

Overture

Hearing this live for the first time made me cry

The DJ's introduction is great, he has a collection of queer and black artists' vinyls that he pulls out, followed by a Cats vinyl filled with glitter

The eyes (projected up onto the back wall/window panel) have the white cat solo animated inside of them

Shadow outline of a dancer (I think Primo/Tumble on the night I saw) starting out w/ ears and a tail doing classic Cats-style choreo blending into a removal of the ears/tail and a shift to ballroom choreo

Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats

Did the thing I love for this song where there are clear and well-timed spotlights on every cat as they sing their line, w/ everyone else in darkness

Cast appears throughout the audience (Tugger was behind me at his start, I think) before gathering into the area around the stage

Get onto stage for the Mystical Divinity section

The group catwalk is absolutely gorgeous, this show has great choreo

The Naming of Cats

The perfection of this song for a queer viewing of Cats cannot be overstated, and will likely be its own post eventually

Munk as an MC leading this number is lovely to me

"Man over there" is given to Macavity, as the first clear indication to his altered role in this version

There are spotlights on every cat whose name gets said in the song, not just Bombalurina, which makes me happy

White Cat Solo

Gets its own segment because Baby is that good. She is dance captain for this show and you can see why

The white outfit here is gorgeous, kinda sad she changes out of it later

Pink lighting is doing good work making this section feel ethereal

Was way closer to the vibes of the original than I was expecting from a vogue choreo. There were a couple moves I saw as clear references to the original

Invitation

Emcee Munk continues to be amazing, the rhythm of this was very satisfying

"COME OUT tonight"

They bring in guest judges to sit until Old Deut arrives

Gumbie Cat

Jenny is a tired single mother of three kids who cannot for the life of them get organized

Puerto Rican drag queen Jennyanydots has my heart, as does her stylist

The "sits and sits and sits" line here is not used to imply that Jenny is lazy, it is very explicitly saying that she has a lot of sex (as acted out jokingly by her choreo)

Cassandra is adorable here, both while dancing and after she realizes she's won

Category Is: Virgin Vogue. A category for people in their first year of doing vogue (or similar). Won by Cassandra of House Dots, other competitors are Tumblebrutus of House Dots, Electra 007, and someone I am currently forgetting

The Rum Tum Tugger

I think I've made my love for this setup for Tugger clear before, and will continue to do so in the future, so this is gonna be little moments I liked/noticed

There are some line/blocking switch ups. Bomba gets the "terrible bore" line (said reclined on the stage as Tugger leans over her) along with her standard. Victoria is the girl flirting with Tugger on his "No" drop

Tugger flirts with everyone here. His competition, the other cats, the audience, etc.

Everyone but Misto, who is off to the side mocking his riffs

Sillabub is the one to faint during the ending bit

Category Is: Realness. Ability to pass as a (in this case) a cishet man in a variety of categories (pretty boy, thug, schoolboy, executive, etc). Won by Tugger, other competitors are Tumblebrutus and Mungojerrie

Grizzabella the Glamour Cat

I really like the interpretation of the Jellicles' relationship with Grizz in this show. They aren't angry at her, more...distressed? It seems like her being around is making everyone worried both about her and for her, so they react differently

Munk tries to give her money, she refuses

She comes in holding a trophy that is clearly old, showing that her glory days were a while ago. She also looks like she's likely been homeless.

Demeter's voice is gorgeous here, and she looks really conflicted about Grizz

There is a Demelurina vibe to this whole show, which I started noticing here

I have a lot of thoughts on Grizz and her relationships with the Jellicles here, which will probably be a post pretty soon after this one.

Grizz tries and fails to convince the judges to allow her to compete, and is far more determined/steely in this first appearance than usual.

Sillabub. Making them a giant Grizzabella fan was such a good choice. This is one of the most sweet and genuine through-lines of the musical. They're so genuinely remorseful and excited to see Grizz, but still back off when Demeter warns them.

Bustopher Jones

I know I gave Jenny my heart earlier, but it's been stolen. Nonbinary Bustopher Jones as played by Nora Schell is, I think, the ideal Bustopher. This is what this character was meant to be, for me

Oh gods the costumes. Tugger has a sparkly leopard print jockstrap. Bustopher has a full bustier situation covered in a bedazzled Union Jack. Mistoffelees and Demeter both have lovely sheer situations going on. This is amazing, and I've been informed is even better if you're bi

Nora Shell has pipes, y'all. Their voice is so strong and clear

This number has almost no true choreography, it's just the competitors showing off how hot they are (posing, strutting, stripping, grabbing their asses and shaking them at the judges, etc)

The amount of offense Tugger takes to losing is hilarious to me

Category Is: Body. Usually divided into Femme Queen and Butch Queen, but competed as an Open-to-All for this show. How good does your body look, and how well can you show it off? Won by Bustopher Jones, other competitors are Tugger, Demeter, and Mistoffelees.

Macavity Scare 1

Flashing lights and sirens

Demeter is so done with this. I have rarely heard a clearer "bitch really?" tone than I did in her calling Macavity's name here

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer

Making them come from Jersey is amazing, top tier choice paired with some amazing accent work

Costumes are again amazing, Mungoteazer have a lime green/neon pink color scheme going on here

They spend a long time behind some changing racks, and I spent that whole time watching Munk as he got more and more annoyed with every passing second

I really love the dancing in this song, they get very up in each other's faces

Y'all, they steal the trophy when they lose. It's perfect

Category Is: Tag Team Performance. Vogue performance done as a pair. Won by Victoria and Tumblebrutus, stolen by Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer.

Old Deuteronomy

Munkustrap: a professional, on his shit, announcing his House Father right

Tugger: unprepared, eating a snack, oh god why is he giving me the mic

I love the setup for the duet here, Tugger is so surprised to be picked and is both nervous and honored. They sing into the same mic y'all

Andre De Shields, what more do I need to say?

His presence, his voice, the note he held for a solid 30 seconds, he deserves that throne

Jellicle Ball

Macavity again! In his dressing gown, with his bags of stolen stuff, looking like a deer in headlights when the spotlight catches him

The dancing continues to be absolutely gorgeous

Grizzabella is up on an audience balcony for this number looking tragic

The Jellicle Moon is a disco ball and it brought me so much joy

Munk has a killer egyptian look, including full-size wings

There are giant complicated cat face wigs and a giant hat made of hair

Category Is: Bizarre. Fashion category judged on the quality and strangeness of the outfit. Munkustrap was the only competitor, and Old Deut chopped him

Category Is: Hair. Not a category I actually know, but clearly in this show is judging based on the size, design, and quality of wigs. Won by the House of Dots, as sole competitors

Probably other categories I didn't notice clearly enough to remember

Memory

Grizzabella comes on and everyone walks off annoyed, except for Old Deut who comes and hides behind a riser. He's right in front of me, so I'm watching this number over his shoulder

Grizz recreating her dance moves is painful for my heart, as usual

Tempress has a gorgeous voice

Sillabub re-enters and looks so starstruck, then runs off again

Comes back with a sparkly dress to offer to Grizz

Grizz sees the dress, starts crying, and runs away. She grabs her coat, but leaves her scarf

We go to intermission on the image of Sillabub holding the scarf to their face and crying

[average-hyperfixator]

Hi. I'm here to learn everything about Aubrey, please infodump all you want about her using this ask. WHO IS THIS DIVA.... 💖💖💖

HOORAY HOORAY YIPPEE YIPPEE okay this is gonna be a long post, also brief cw/tw for suicide mention! It's part of her lore but I wanna properly warn people, stay safe chat

with that, alllll the info dumping is below!!!

AUBREY!!

updated ref image, only thing that really changed was her age- the original age sheet was made (I think) before I knew Ted's canon age (44 if we follow the game's backstory timeline for him. 19 when he met that woman (ew) 5 years in Europe and then 20 years of conartistry = 44). I wanted to make them closer in age + this makes more sense for her LOL. She was previously 29, now 37, improvements babyyy.

For some Pre-AM lore, she's Mexican-American (just like me fr fr) and became a nurse (previously had her as a doctor buuut I realized that wouldn't fit the time period as well. so, nurse!!) She's very happy about the career decision, she likes helping people, and she copes fine with any discrimination tossed her way. (one reminder that she controls their medication and people usually back off)

As for the reason she's wearing roller skates: she enjoyed sports a lot, especially roller skating! She was originally celebrating a minor promotion with some skating. And then the world fucking ended, oops. (at least she looks happy here)

Post AM lore: From what can only be described as several crisis' (mortal crisis, mid-life crisis, the works) she cut her hair and her clothes. She also thanked herself for having a single roll of bandages in one of her pockets. It wouldn't help much but it was something.

she falls. a lot. Downside of being stuck in skates for eternity; one pebble and it's over. She struggles a lot skating through rock, sand, mud, and ice. The roll of bandages came in handy here.

Those are more funny things I wanted to add before getting into the more angsty meat of her story, so HERE'S THAT!! While the 5 survivors were AM's experiment on human behavior when stuck together in harsh conditions, Aubrey was the solo test. What would happen to the human mind and body when completely and utterly alone, in a post-apocalyptic earth, stuck in the core of the planet, tormented by a machine? Well, AM didn't get the exact reaction he wanted. Aubrey already had a pretty high pain tolerance and seemed to like the loneliness for the most part. That second part became less true over time, we are a social species after all. She wanted other humans to talk to, she knew they were out there, AM always complained about them. But he never let them meet. Unfortunately for AM, Aubrey is smart. She didn't want to live this miserable existence, she didn't want to be this machine's doll, and so she made a plan. 50 years into everything, she made and carried out a plan.

Every day, slowly, she gathered a pile of rock, metal, and shrapnel, putting it in a pile. AM thought nothing of it. Why would he? It didn't look suspicious. That was until, on a small rock pile she amassed, when AM wasn't looking, when he diverted his attention onto the others, the others she was sure she'd never see, she jumped. Plummeting the left side of her body onto the pile, it shredded through her skin and broke some of her bones, causing harsh damage to many organs. She knew she'd bleed out, and had accepted that death.

AM would not allow such a thing.

Though he wasn't able to stop what happened, he was quick to act. Removing her limp body from the pile he immediately began to "fix" what was "broken." Snapping bone back into place, sewing up organs, hooking up wires to her heart to send electrical currents so it'd keep beating, moving wires to replace missing and ruined flesh- he couldn't save her eye, but he didn't mind it. It was a miracle her brain was almost completely undamaged, rattled sure, damaged? Not really. After some work, when she was in stable condition, he strapped a spare monitor to the left side of her face, the final piece of the puzzle.

She woke up, disappointed and confused. How the fuck was she not dead? AM explained it all, and noted the monitor was for surveillance. She'd never be able to pull a stunt like that again because he'd be able to stop her. She immediately tried to break the monitor, but then he told her about the wires attached to her heart. He could stop and restart it as he'd like, grant her the sweet release of death just to bring her back. She sighed. "Anything else for me you psycho?" "YOU'LL FINALLY GET THAT WISH OF YOURS."

AM sent her to the others. The other survivors. The 5. It took three days and two nights but she made it. The first impression was... rocky. No one trusted her. Especially one special paranoid, who immediately questioned if she was another one of AM's AI, sent to mess with them. She drew some blood from her arm to show she was, in fact, human. This only made them slightly less jumpy. Thus began her rocky integration

Now see the funny thing about her and Ted and the fact they eventually end up together.

They HATTTTEEED each other. For a decade. Ted's paranoia worsened around her, and she didn't feel like dealing with his shit. He was whiney, and always pointing fingers, and she'd always have a snappy comeback. Aubrey had even taken one of his roles, the youngest. Now SHE was the youngest, and Ted was terribly spiteful about that. One of the only things he had going for himself, gone. Not only, in his eyes, was she a disrespectful toy of AM's, but she was stealing his place. In her eyes, Ted was a bitchboy, and she couldn't fathom being that miserable. Thus a tension formed that didn't go away until...

One particularly bad panic attack. Ted was no stranger to these of course, and the group had grown accustomed to them. He'd scare himself half to death, run off, and usually Ellen would go get him. Aubrey never understood why she did that to herself. Until one day, she was the one who went. She didn't want to, no, but what the 6 had just endured was a particularly bad torture session. Ellen was busy calming Benny, and Gorrister and Nimdok were in no shape to try and comfort Ted. Reluctantly, Aubrey went looking for him. She made her way rather far, wondering how his skinny weak-looking legs carried him so far... and then she found him. Now, she had seen him messed up before, many many times actually. But she had never seen a proper breakdown of his. She wasn't a monster, she had empathy, and what person wouldn't immediately feel bad upon seeing a man curled up sobbing and shaking? Once she made her way to him, she did her very best to calm him. He was jumpy and hesitant at first, after all he still didn't trust her, but the comfort of another human was all he wanted at that moment. Well, it's kind of hard to see someone the same after they go limp in your arms sobbing, mumbling apologies and lamenting their current feelings. After who knows how long, Ted had calmed down, but was still shaken up. Aubrey still held him, comforted him, and ran her undamaged hand through his matted, dark hair. Safe to say something became much different between them after that. The air had shifted. There was less animosity, more openness. Ted was never open with any of the others, but something about having a blank slate, someone new to talk to- it made it a bit easier. Aubrey was just happy to be able to talk. They interacted more, talked more, and learned more about each other. They stopped despising each other and, well

LOVERS!!!!

The enemies-to-lovers arc completed after about 5 years of a song and dance between the two after that initial moment. The morale of the group boosted just a bit, because they were happy, and the others got some benefits from that; Ellen didn't have to deal with any of Ted's shit anymore, Aubrey basically took over on that front. And the others didn't have to sit through his paranoid ranting. All in all, it was beneficial.

AM hated it. Greatly. There was nothing he could do about it though. No matter how much he tried to fuel Ted's paranoia, no matter how much he manipulated Aubrey- they stayed together. He was furious that the morale of the team went UP. And seethed over the fact he couldn't do a damn thing. As for how the ending changes with her there; she's the first to die. Stab from Ted, right through her monitor, he couldn't risk AM stopping him and Ellen. It was quick, painless, through the skull and into the brain. Impaled to the ground when her corpse landed. After Ellen's death, he couldn't help but take one last look at her- her face was just as distorted from shock and pain, but he knew she was happy upon death. Her body jerked a few times when AM tried to revive her, no such luck. He regrets not being able to hold her. Aaaaaannnddd that's everything so far chat, I didn't go into how she interacts with the other five, but that can be delved into later. Consider this the big Aubrey info post, she is in fact a diva, thank you for the ask :DDDD

Yap sesh over, thanks to everyone who read this far!!!

[goqmir]

so ive been thinking about "responses" in trading card games. specifically, wren and i have been off-and-on designing our own trading card game for a theoretical roguelite deckbuilding video game we like to daydream about creating together. this is a piece about reaction systems, their purpose, and theoretical reaction systems that can be implemented into our card game :) more of the post is below the cut.

as we are both magic the gathering players, this game is based heavily on magic the gathering. and thats okay! every tcg is based on magic, and there's no reason not to re-use tried-and-true mechanics. our game has creatures that attempt to deal damage to four resources that each player controls, and the player loses when all four go down. there's deckbuilding, graveyards, removal spells, creature blocking assignments, the works.

however many things are very different, and the game is still being created actively so things are very liable to change! creature positioning, for instance, plays a very vital role in the prototype we've been constructing for the last few months.

anyway. "reaction" systems. cards that can be played in response to other cards, in magic the gathering, use a stack system. a card is played, and then another card can be played in response, putting it on the stack, having its effects resolved before the original card. another card could then be played in response to that one, and cards are resolved in last-in, last-out order.

i frankly do not know how other trading card games handle "response" systems, or if they even do, nor do i know what magic did before the creation of the stack a few years into the game's history. i do know that some games delegate a specific response phase, in which the opponent can perform actions when it is not their turn, but not only is that kind of clunky for multiplayer games if we ever decide to make rules for those, but that system just doesn't quite feel right to me-- i'd prefer a different system if one exists.

so, our game is designed around some cards being able to be played on opponents' turns. notably, there are two kinds of cards that can be played in decks at the moment, creatures and spells. creatures are permanent cards that take up presence on the board, and spells are nonpermanent cards that have their effects take place then immediately enter the graveyard when played.

at the moment, we'd like all creatures to be only able to be played on your main phase, while spells can be played on both you and your opponent's main phase. cards cannot be played during combat or the move step, for instance, unless directly specified, only on main phases.

so, spells can be played on any main phase. this means that both players will be casting spells at the same time, requiring a novel system to handle responses, such as magic's stack system.

our game, notably, does not and doesnt intend to add counterspells, cards that are played in response to other cards that negate their effects. while i love a good counterspell, the game is meant to be played in the context of a roguelike video game, where having your cards countered would really suck for the player.

instead, we're moving toward stax pieces as the main way to slow the game down for players, which are cards that prevent or punish actions that players take (such as damaging a player if they cast more than one card per turn). the theory is that it gives unexperienced players a target to disrupt with removal to free the game back up for them, while still requiring resources. stax pieces create frustration, but can often be dealt with or pushed through, while the frustration with counterspells is usually at the futility to prevent them. we think it would make for a better player experience.

so, no counterspells. magic's stack was created largely because there were counterspells, and they needed to design rules that dealt with them concisely. yes, the stack has myriad other benefits, such as being able to draw answers, gain life, or remove pieces in response, but the main purpose of the stack in my eyes is to enable counterspells. and we don't have those.

what we do have are removal cards, stax pieces, and more restrictive timing (such as the inability to play cards during combat). so, what if cards and any activated abilities of permanents can simply be played after each other in order? for instance, the player whose turn it is produces energy to play a creature card. the opponent says "i will play a spell after that" and after the creature comes down the opponent plays a resposition card that allows them to move their creature in front of the creature the first player just played. the player whose turn it is then has the option to play another card "in response" to that card's resolution. if they decline that option, the opponent can respond to their own spell by playing another spell or activated ability after it. this goes on until neither player responds again, at which point the turn continues like normal. this is essentially the antithesis of magic's stack system; a queue system, in which players may place themselves in a first-in, last-out queue that gives them the priority to play a card or activate an ability.

so, what is different about this response system? well, for starters, pieces cannot be removed before the opponent has the chance to play a card. for instance, if an opponent has a creature that says "when another creature enters, deal one damage to every other creature", you could not play a removal spell in response to another creature entering without that creature's ability triggering. instead, to prevent that, you would have to use that spell before the opponent even revealed they had another creature in hand, at the end of the previous turn.

that example shows that our system, the queue system, rewards proactive play (killing that creature as soon as possible) and punishes reactive play (waiting as long as possible before killing that creature). is this a good thing or a bad thing? hard to say. notably, this game will be in the context of a roguelike deckbuilding video game. i would argue that this system that rewards proactivity is less punishing for players who are unfamiliar with card games. it rewards a gameplay pattern of early and safe threat assessment and interaction rather than rewarding the player who waits to interact until the very last second, which could give less experienced players leeway in the game.

furthermore, the AI bots would be decentivized to wait as late as possible to react. as a player playing the deckbuilding video game, it might be frustrating to have the bot opponent draw cards in response to find their removal spell and generally play reactively. this would incentivize the ai players to play proactively too, possibly resulting in a less frustrating gameplay experience.

there are downsides. this reaction system that rewards proactive play might force players to use their resources early, giving them no resources to use later to interact with the board. as said earlier, drawing in response like in magic is not a viable option with our queue-structured response system.

notably, there are some combos in magic that are frustrating to deal with that the queue system would alleviate some frustration with. for instance, in magic, a player can play a creature or planewalker and activate its ability before a removal spell can be used to destroy it. this use of the stack system is being used in magic's standard environment right now to play and activate the ultimate ability of a planewalker immediately winning the game, making planeswalker removal inadequate to disrupt the planewalker-based combo. the queue system would allow interaction with the planeswalker, as the player would play the card, then the opponent would get a window to enter their removal spell into the queue before the card's ability can be queued, allowing it to be interacted with.

is that use of the queue a positive? depends on the person you ask, im guessing :) one notable thing is that in our game, there are creatures with activated abilities, but there is no summoning sickness, allowing them to be activated immediately. furthermore, any creature can be tapped at any time for creature mana, basically giving every creature an activated ability by default. is a queue-structured reaction system more appealing when this is the case? i'd say so!

i guarantee we are not done exploring the reaction system of our card game, so this post was more than anything a way for me to jot down and talk out ideas in an organized way. thank you for reading! if you have any ideas at all about the game based on this post and you wouldnt mind potentially having them integrated into the game please share them, id love to hear :)

[jiminjeonging]

i suddenly thought of bratty mj being all annoying during practice or sth, irritating everyone around her but specially jm, being unreasonable and challenging her every decision. They make their way back to the dorms in complete silence, jm looking elsewhere and serious face on her. They get home and don’t exchange a single word while having dinner but when mj goes to her room jm follows, quickly throwing her on to the bed, topping her and tying her hands to the bed, while they start making out aggressively after. Jm is so rough with her, biting her and groping her harshly, leaving red marks from the beginning. She starts teasing mj by kissing her neck, playing with her nipples, sucking them roughly and flicking them til mj is bucking her hips like crazy on the mattress. Jm moves down to her abs and spends a considerable amount of time worshipping them, nibbling on them and ignoring mj’s pushes to go lower. She finally does go lower and removes mj’s soaked panties, only to linger on mj’s inner thighs, driving the younger girl absolutely insane. She finally goes to her center, lightly lapping her up a couple of times before teasing her entrance with her tongue, mj’s moans filling up the room bc of how needy she is, but jm quickly moves away, only to come back with a blindfold she puts on mj. Mj is disoriented for a moment and feels jm disappears, a faint sound of buckles in the background. A few moments later she feels jm’s hands spreading her thighs and jm’s strap being guided to her extremely wet center. Jm puts a couple inches inside to mj’s whimpers and rolls of her hips seeking for more friction, but jm keeps it shallow as she pumps up a couple of times and retracts. Mj starts whining when she feels jm move away again, not knowing what she is up to until she hears jm’s phone light up with her gardenscapes sounds. Mj cannot believe she’s being edged like this and abandoned over some stupid phone games and starts whimpering and whining ever more, turning to begging when is met by silence. Unbeknownst to mj, jm is smiling cockily but she is determined to teach mj a lesson so when her noises are too much, she moves to put mj’s soaked panties in her mouth to shut her up. Mj keeps trashing and whimpering for a another 30 minutes until she starts to sob from her desperation. Jm finishes up the game and taking pity on the deflated sobbing girl on the bed walks over and puts her 8 inch strap in one thrust inside of the blonde girl, mj flinching at the sudden harsh intrusion but blessing her change of luck. Jm sets a fatal pace fucking mj into the mattress with all she has, removing the panties so she can hear mj’s pretty and loud moans. She keeps the blindfold on, only taking it off when mj is about to come, wide brown eyes unfocused as she pulls jm closer with her legs around her waist and blacks out from the best orgasm she’s had in months. After she’s come down jm keeps thrusting into her like a rabid dog, kissing up her neck and chest as she whispers into mj’ ear that hopefully this will teach her how go be a good girl, mj a boneless heap underneath jm’s considerable bigger frame, blissed out expression on her face as she keeps being treated like a ragdoll.

GIRL GAWD DAMN!! thank you!! I really have nothing add- not sure if you want me to- other than jm unstrapping herself once shes finished with mj and making her clean the juicies off of it while shes still tied up aaand the next time they went to a party jm puts a toy in her to ensure she will be good!

[thejokig23]

Thoughts on some of the quality of life improvements in Monster Hunter:

Control improvements: I cannot believe the controls were like that. It sucks, and I can say it sucks after playing 40 hours of Dos using the right stick to attack and using all of my brain power to translate my characters orientation relative to the camera. You get used to it, but it doesn't add to the experience in any meaningful way, and especially not in any positive way.

Less limited storage: I'm weird and like inventory management, especially in Monster Hunter. I miss having to think before buying thousands of any given item. Having just the one page in the original was definitely too limited, but in Dos you get more pretty early on - enough to not feel suffocated, but not too much that you never think about it until you're in G Rank and collect a Kushala Daora Lash and realize you have like, ten thousand large monster bones or some shit. However, limits on equipment storage are NOT as fun to work around. I also think item stacks only going as high as they do in the field while in the box makes item management more interesting, and that all items stacking to 99 should have been a later upgrade.

Sending items directly to the item box: Honestly not an issue either way. It's pretty easy to reserve inventory space to account for it, but it's also such a small thing that not needing to reserve space isn't the end of the world. Although with how many items you get in current games, it's probably best this was changed early on.

Farm: In Freedom Unite it was an alright bonus you'd need to interact with after each quest, which got pretty tedious, as well as not helping much for mushrooms. In Tri, you needed to spend points (which were harder to come by than they are in current games) and optionally an item related to the item you're multiplying. However, in every game since, points are effectively free, so it's rare you won't constantly have an abundance of whatever you need.

Gathering spot changes: In Tri, it started off fine enough, being more distinct from their environment, removing the "nothing found" message, having the gathering point fade out after they're emoty instead of showing "there's nothing else here", and allowing you to use gathering tools with the A button instead of through the item menu. I'm completely fine with all of these. Generations allowed you to hold the gathering button to gather repeatedly, which is much easier on the hands. My issues come with the changes brought by World and Rise: a bright green glow highlighting gathering spots, the removal of gathering tools, and gathering spots always being one-and-done (or usable three times with ore and bones in World). Being able to quickly gather one item is a great addition the encourages you to gather at least a little while out on quests, but everything being so fast in 5th generation games just makes it less relaxing, along with sound design changes.

Item use: The overall good changes were allowing the use of some items while crouching, items not getting used if you don't need to use them, and you can aim throwable items. I think every other change takes away from the experience - moving while using items, no flex, and dodging out of item use are all antithetical to the deliberate feel of the games. I also think the slinger is lame as fuck and needing to put flash and dung bombs in it is SUPER lame.

Whetstones: Showing sharpness on screen is fantastic, although we don't really need to see every level of sharpness at once. How it looks in World is just about perfect. I also like whetfish being faster, given how they're harder to get. What I'm NOT a fan of is regular whetstones being infinite.

Camps: With open maps and travel taking longer, being able to start closer to a monster's preferred area is welcome. Fast travel is a bit too strong imo, but it coule be worse. What I DO take issue with is resuplying. I could see it being fine, but it's just wayyy too strong.

Meat: Who has cooked more than one steak in any game after 4? Alternatives to getting well-done steak or rations in subsequent games are just so much more convenient, and the Motley Mix in Rise gives dango tickets. Like, a LOT of tickets - 9 tickets for every 20 meat. Add on that you can buy meat for Kamura points, which are not hard to get by any means, and you have a situation where there's no point in cooking meat yourself.

Dodging backwards (forwards for lances): I like it. I especially like that it sucks lmao. Rolling backwards has twice as much recovery as sideways or forwards, and hopping forward goes half as far, encouraging a different course of action.

[that-wizard-oki]

Oki I'm begging you, I just found out that they're planning on removing the furniture sets from the crowns shop and when I tell you I will cry if they do so, idk if you have any pull in these decisions but please if there's a way to make them stop then please do something 😭😭😭 sorry to ask this but those are some of the best items in the game and I love decorating houses, it won't be the same without it 🥺

Hey anon! So I can kind of answer this concern, but please know that whatever statements I make in this post may not be 100% what will happen- I am a character animator, so I don't normally know of/ any crazy changes to the crowns shop or other items for sale.

However, I am the animator specifically involved with the product team at KI- meaning, when I'm not working on stuff for the mainline wizard release, I'm the one who normally animates mounts/pets and some other stuff that's coming to the crownshop or will be in a bundle/pack/so on. If it Moves, i probably know a bit about it, but if it doesn't Move (so, furniture stuff lol), I usually don't.

I had no prior knowledge they were planning to remove some of the furniture packs- HOWEVER, I did talk to my product coworkers about it, and what happened was that **these packs were probably removed because a good many of them haven't sold AT ALL on over a year or more.

If something's not selling in the CS, we normally want to replace it with something that will. (kind of like how, if you're running a restaurant, and customers haven't bought your tomato soup bisque in six months, it might be time to take it off the menu and add a new soup to attract more customers & keep revenue/business going).

However, it sounds like their plan was to bring the furniture packs back for a limited time every so often, like for holidays or throw back Thursdays, etc.

Again, this is not an official statement by or from KI, so please don't treat this is fact. It's just some information i wanted to share because I totally get why it seemed like a sudden choice, and please feel free to (RESPECTFULLY) provide your own criticism- it defo helps us in decision making, or reconsider choices that have been made.

**Just a side note, we keep track and actively look at what is & isn't selling in the CS, among like, sooooo many other things. It's very rare that we (or, any company selling anything, really.) just "randomly" make choices on what to put/take out of the CS. It's not part of my job title to know/do that of course, but i do know our product team looks at these numbers every week to predict what we should do next, both short term and long term speaking.

Anywho, i hope this quells your anxiety anon! Just speaking as a player, those furniture sets are SO good so i was also nervous when i first saw the post xD But yea it (so far) sounds like they will return every so often and aren't going to be gone for good!

[emeraldcatears]

Another walk sprite thing.

It's been a while since I did anything focusing on the graphics side of making a game, huh? Let's change that.

Now, I'm not all that experienced with making sprites. I just sort of make them when I'm in need of a little art project so this isn't really a guide to making a good sprite. It's more of a compilation of tricks I've learned for the sake of completeness of this sideblog.

Of course, there's the overview I did ages ago over how RPG Maker animates a set of sprites into a walking character and how to put a png of your character into the game. But even if you're making your own sprites from scratch the Generator can provide some starting points to study from.

Not every character you want to put in your game can be made with the built-in generator, especially if you're not into the default generator's aesthetic. But you can get the general principles of what makes a sprite work from there.

One way to get started is to look at the generator characters at their base. No frills, just a character set that gives you a look at poses and shading. If you want to use the generator's style but don't like the outfits it comes with you can just draw your own outfits over a naked sprite in your art program of choice!

But I'm not doing that. I'm going to create this guy.

So let's look at what we can learn.

It may not be obvious at first glance because it's only a pixel of difference, but a quick study of the generator's sprites shows that the stepping images are actually one pixel shorter than the standing ones to simulate the bobbing of the character's head as they walk.

At the same time whether walking or standing still, the sprites' feet are on the ground. Which makes sense...

... because the height gets distributed into the legs when the character walks.

In other words, once you've built yourself a workable front-facing sprite then making the stepping sprites is a matter of copying that one over and moving it one pixel down from the original height. From there, erase the legs and redraw them in the walking pose.

You can make the back from a copy of the front, too, in order to get an easy pose to work from!

The same trick of removing the parts that need changing (arms and legs) of a copied sprite works for the back and side stepping poses as well. Just remember to make them the same height as the front-facing ones with the stepping ones one pixel down.

Another thing you can learn from the generator sprite?

There's a lot that simply copying and flipping can do. Save yourself time - especially if you're making a lot of original sprites. If the generator sprites look good enough that you don't notice the light source flipped between the right and left facing sprites until it was pointed out then you don't need to worry about it either!

You can test the sprite in the game before it's even done, too. For example to test how the stepping animation looks in game for the front sprite before you've even made the other directions, all you have to do is add the png to the game's character images (as detailed in a previous post) and create an event with the stepping animation turned on.

Then simply save over the test version with your adjustments as you make them.

Now one thing of note about that the finished sprite...

A sprite in one style won't always play nice with the rest of the tiles. Stegrow here is way paler than the tiles and sprites that come with RMXP. If I wanted to use them together I'd change up Stegrow's colors with deeper greens, likely color picked from the greens available in generator sprites or the tiles that came with the base package.

The style is also different in other ways: the generator-created player is a chibi sprite with a large head that takes up as much as the rest of the body while Stegrow's head is more proportional by comparison. Stegrow is pretty much vertical while the barrels from the default tiles are shown to be at a slight angle.

If you're adding to an existing tile/sprite set, you'll want to study it's style and adjust your own work to fit in. Otherwise, you can always make everything in your own style from the literal ground up.

I'll admit, I've kinda been stalling on the next bit, which will be beginning to explore the battle system. I never did much with XP's as Pokemon Essentials had it's own highly customized version so getting used to the one that's built into MZ will be completely new for me. Not all games need a battle system but I have decided that this is a learnalong so I will indeed be learning things instead of just playing with stuff I knew from XP but in MZ this time. Now I just need enough oomph in the tank after work....

[pocminiseries]

When He Comes|3

3|Hold Me ♡

The bathroom was foggy and heated as Julianna stared back at her reflection. Her skin glistened under the light as she stood in nothing but a white fluffy robe Jaehyun had left out for her.

She was tired, it was evident in her face. But not just from the lack of sleep but from life in general. All she wanted to do was to get away for a while to ease her mind and not think for once. To maybe feel some type of peace if she could.

Not even in her dreams she had that type of pleasure.

Shit, maybe she just needed to get some good dick to fuck her worries away, even if it was only a temporary fix. Either way, lord knows she's been craving it for weeks. Her body desired to be catered to. Maybe then the peaceful sleep she's been wanting would actually happen.

Shaking her head, Julianna began to wonder if her sister was even worried about her. If maybe she was out looking for her.

"Yeah right." Julianna snorted, pushing away from the sink. It wouldn't even surprise her if Adonis told her not to even bother. But then again, he didn't want Julianna to go anywhere either. He liked how he had control over every part of Mia's life and was slowly trying to do the same with her.

God, she couldn't stand him.

Reaching up, she removed the towel she had wrapped around her braids, letting them fall freely around her face. "I like your hair like that." Spoke a voice from seemingly out of nowhere. Julianna visibly jumped when she heard it because she didn't realize she was no longer alone.

Looking behind her, she watched Jaehyun step inside the bathroom, making his presence known. "How long have you been there?"

Releasing a low chuckle, Jaehyun grinned showcasing those dimples of his. "Don't worry, I wasn't watching you. I just came in to check on you." He reassures her, sensing that she was still a bit nervous around him which he understood completely. "I left you some undergarments and PJs on the bed. They should be your correct size."

Folding her arms under her breast, she stared back at him with slightly narrowing eyes. "And how do you know my size?"

Jaehyun remained silent as he took his time to look her over from head to toe before meeting her accusing gaze. "By looking at you." He states rather bluntly. "You can change and meet me in the kitchen or keep on the robe, whatever makes you comfortable." He encourages then disappears back into the darkened bedroom, leaving Julianna alone once more.

Licking her lips, she released a breath she didn't know she was holding. She couldn't pinpoint it but there was just something so mysterious about him. She knew nothing about him other than his first name and that he clearly had money but that was it. No last name. No information about what he does. Who he was. Where he was from...nothing.

Yet here she was alone in his condo with no phone or personal information of her own on her. How fuckin dumb could she be?

Stepping out of the bathroom and into the bedroom which she assumed was his because it smelled just like him, Julianna chose to stay in her robe for now and made her way towards his kitchen as he instructed.

Jaehyun's place was nice and...manly. It seemed cozy but definitely brand new as if he had just moved in not long ago. "Here, drink this. You'll need it." He advises, placing a steaming cup in front of her. "And no I didn't put anything in it, you have my word." He adds, seeing her open her mouth to ask.

She playfully rolled her eyes but picked up the cup and gave it a quick sip, ignoring the burn to her tongue. "What is this? It tastes different but sweet." She comments before taking another sip, loving how warm it was going down her throat.

Leaning on his forearms against the counter across from her, Jaehyun smiled as she sipped on his one of his favorite drinks. "Chamomile tea with extra honey. It'll help relax you and sleep better. You seem like you could use some good rest."

"I looked that bad huh?" Julianna chuckles softly, placing her almost empty cup back down.

Jaehyun shook his head. "Physically no, you don't. However, your body language is screaming for you to relax." He reveals to her. From the night at the park where he had first seen her high as a kite to spotting her again standing soaking wet with nothing on her, he could tell she was trying to run from something. Something that always seemed to leave her restless.

And for some reason, he wanted to help with that...and with whatever else Julianna may need. He just had to be smart about it.

"Why were you there that night I saw you at the park?" Julianna suddenly blurts out, letting her curiosity get the best of her.

"I was there on family business." He answered simply. Keeping his response short and vague but of course that wasn't enough for her.

"Are you a drug dealer?"

Tilting his head slightly to the left, he eyed her curiously. "Why would you think that?"

"Honestly? You seem like one. The clothes. The car. The money that you clearly have. Plus you were in the middle of the hood that we both know you've never lived in." Julianna lists off, seeing no point in beating around the bush, She was determined to get answers before the night was over with.

Looking off to the side for a bit, Jaehyun stared back at Julianna for a good ten seconds. "A little bit but not quite. I was there as a favor for my father. He's an...entrepreneur of some sort and from time to time I help him out on the business side of things."

"Are you a drug lord?"

"No, but my father is...kinda."

Julianna eyed him, trying to figure out if he was lying or not. "Right. So what exactly do you do?"

Jaehyun could only smirk at the beautiful woman in front of him. He loved how she wasn't afraid to ask him anything. He enjoyed it. "To put in simple words...when there is a problem, I come and fix it."

"Fix it how Jaehyun?"

"I like that." He professes, eyes darkening as he stared back at her. "Say my name again."

"Jaehyun." Julianna quickly obliges watching him closely.

"I give them a warning..."

"And if they don't do what is expected?"

"They die." He says truthfully. Seeing no point in hiding what was obvious.

"By your hands?"

Leaning up to his full height, Jaehyun crossed his arms over his chest. "Sometimes...yes. Does that bother you?"

Downing the rest of her tea, Julianna pushed the now empty cup back towards him while wiping her mouth clean. "No. I'm used to living amongst killers." She confesses, thinking of one in particular.

"Is that why you didn't want to go back home?"

Placing her chin into the palm of her hand, her eyes teared away from his and onto his sleek countertops. "Yes. And it's not my home. It's just a place where i lay my head from time to time." She briefly explains, lowkey hating how she literally had no place of her own like she wanted.

"I see. Well, you're more than welcome to stay here for as long as you like. I'm barely here as I'm sure you've noticed." Jaehyun states, noticing the way she paid attention to not only him but her surroundings as well.

"Why are you being so nice to me? You don't even know me." She may have sounded a bit irritated but it wasn't Julianna's intention. She was just weary of a stranger's kindness. She wasn't used to it.

"Because as I told you before Julianna, I'm here to be whatever you need me to be. That's solely up to you as to what that may be." Jaehyun voices, going back to the night they first met at the park. She clearly needed someone and he was willing to fill that void for her.

Julianna smirked a little at that. She could probably use him for a lot of things but that wasn't who she was.

Instead, she asked him something that sounded so foreign leaving her mouth. "If I asked you to fuck me, you would?"

"Depends."

"On?"

"If you wouldn't mind cumming on my tongue and my dick..." He informs her in the most silken tone Julianna had ever heard.

Standing to her feet, Julianna could feel her pussy throb with need with what she just heard...however, she wasn't ready to cross that road just yet. "That sounds tempting but for now, can you hold me until I fall asleep?"

"Of course." Jaehyun nods, following close behind Julianna as she made her way towards his bedroom. It was still dark, with the only light coming from the bathroom until he turned it off and closed the door.

Removing her robe, Julianna pulled back the comforter and slid underneath, with Jaehyun doing the same. Pulling her close to him, Jaehyun wrapped his arms tightly around her, leaving no space between them as he lay behind her. She felt nice in his embrace and her quiet sniffles didn't go unnoticed.

Nuzzling his head into the crook of her neck, he placed soft kisses along her skin until he felt her relax against him. And although she didn't know him, she had no clue she was in the safest place she had ever been.

[stardustsunny]

WHITE LOVE;

Words count: 1067

Pairing: Yeonjun x gn!reader

Genre: fluff, best friends to lovers;

Warnings: kissing, pet names.

Song rec: TXT - Ito

Soobin  [Yeonjun]  Beomgyu  Taehyun  Kai

series masterlist

“Uuuuhh..it’s mid-December and there is still no trace of snow! ” you whined, lying on the floor of your room “Juuunn, what do you think, when it will be snowy?” you looked at your friend who sits on your bed scrolling through his phone. “I don’t know Y/n, it’s unpredictable. Who knows maybe we will wake up tomorrow and everything will be covered in white or there will be puddles oceans” he shrugged and you sighed dramatically. “It’s late already, I’m gonna leave” he smiled at your pouty lips. “Fine..see you tomorrow, dude.” you sit up and high-fived him “Mhm, see you!” 

Yeonjun left your house a few hours ago and suddenly it was so lonely without him and to add here your sadness over the snow's absence you felt not well. Summing up all of these factors, you decided to go to sleep early, that’s your own way to fight those feelings.

The next morning you woke up quite early, and you could sleep even more if it’s not your phone ringing with no stop. You grumbled but still took the device from the nightstand and picked up the call, not even managing to check the caller’s ID. “What?” the first and the only thing you said with closed eyes. You heard a giggle in response to “Look out the window” the voice seems very familiar but your sleepy brain can’t process it. “Why? I’m getting my beauty sleep and don’t plan on leaving the bed in the next few hours” you said yawning in between. “I guess the sight out of the window will definitely remove any of your sleepiness” you heard the boyish laugh after his words. Yeonjun? He sounds like Yeonjun. Your head is still in a sleepy haze so you barely recognize his voice. You sigh and get up from the comfort of your bed and go to the window. As you open the curtain your eyes are blinded by the brightness outside, when your eyes get used to this brightness and you slowly opened them you can’t hold a scream. From the happiness of course. “Oh my god! Oh my god! Is it snow outside? I’m not dreaming? Wait I’ll pinch myself” and you did what you said, then you hissed “Ouch..at least now I’m sure it’s for real.” you hear a laugh on the other side of the line. “Come on darling, get ready and let’s go play with snow! I’ll be here within 10 minutes” Yeonjun said and hung up instantly. You were still gazing at the snow, the phone beside your ear and you didn’t move even a bit. After a few more minutes you come to your senses and hurry to change from your pajamas and get ready to go outside. 

Right when you opened the door you met with your friend smiling face “Good morning, darling! Have you eaten anything?” Yeonjun asked you, he knows you so well, when you get too excited you can skip your meal for the sake of it. “Um..well you know..I ate a few crackers and-” you didn’t finish your sentence as the boy put his hands on your shoulders and turned you back to your house. “We won’t go anywhere until you have a proper meal. You know how important it is, right?” you heard him smiling as he said this and guided you to the kitchen. It’s always like this, Yeonjun cares about you like your mom. He asks you about the meal at least four times a day and if you say that you haven’t eaten he will immediately offer you a take-out or go with you to some cafe. When it’s cold he makes sure that you are dressed warmly and if it’s too cold outside he takes your hand in his to get them warmer. You care for him equally but recently it has been harder because you feel like you are catching feelings for your friend. Yes, it might sound like a cliche but you can’t do anything about it.

Finally, when you finish with your breakfast both of you head to your favorite park. The walk to the park wasn’t calm at all cause at every opportunity you tried to throw snowballs at Yeonjun, he got mad playfully and threatened you that he will take revenge once you reach the park. Actually… he stays true to his words, once you reached the park the boy started chasing you with snow in his hands and you tried your best to run as fast as you can, throwing some snow at your friend. A few minutes later you get tired and can’t run as fast as before so you let Yeonjun chase you, but he used too much force to turn you and both of you fall to the pile of snow behind. You laid on top of Yeonjun, your face bumped into his chest, and Yeonjun’s hands resting on your waist. You heard his quiet laugh and giggled too. “Are you okay?” even though the situation is funny, you still worry. “Yep, I’m perfectly fine, you?” he asked looking into your eyes. “Me too,” you whispered, unable to take your gaze off him. This moment feels like forever, none of you tried to end it. The longer you look into each other's eyes the bigger smile grows on Yeonjun's face and you feel his hands slowly moving to the small of your back. You didn't notice how your face dangerously got closer to his until his warm breath hit your cheek. “Y/n..can I?” the boy eyed your lips. The only thing you are able to do is nod because you know that you won’t be able to make any sound right now. 

Have you ever thought that you will kiss your friend? No. You could only dream about it. His lips were soft and cold just like the snow beneath him, but the kiss was sweet like honey and you wish it never ends. “Well..I guess it’s time to reveal something...I really like you, Y/n” Yeonjun whispered to your lips. “Hmm..in this case, I should tell you my secret as well..I like you too, Choi Yeonjun” you giggled and pecked his lips one more time. What a perfect day you thought to yourself, you get the snow and the boyfriend of your dream.

If you enjoyed the story, please consider reblogging it to help its promotion. Feedback will be highly appreciated <3

Do not steal/copy/repost thx.

[exterminator-of-bots]

to all blank blogs

Hey there! Chances are if you’re a new tumblr user or a lurker who doesn’t post, your blog will be blank with absolutely no posts, no bio and maybe the default tumblr icon as your profile picture.

However, I’d like to share some tips because tumblr currently has a rampant spam / porn bot problem which is only getting worse.

Most of the time, at least 20 something of this bots are made every day. They post inappropriate / spammy links to dodgy websites with malware in completely unrelated tags such as #asexual, clogging up other users’ dashboards and causing more trouble for others.

Many of these bots, when they start out, are blank.

Which is why, if you are a blank blog, you may find yourself getting removed from other people’s follow lists, blocked and even reported! That’s terrible right? But why do they do this? The answer is because they think that you’re one of these annoying bots.

So, I’d like to share some tips in distinguishing yourself from these bots and making your blog seem more like a real person behind the screen.

Firstly, what’s a blank blog look like?

Most blank blogs look like this.

take this profile as an example. It has 0 posts, a default tumblr avatar and no bio or banner. However, it’s likes and following are exposed and they are all follows or likes on pornographic spam bot accounts, which makes me think that this is yet another new bot in the spam bot army.

Profiles like this are likely to get your tumblr taken down and reported. Many people purge their follow lists of these bots, so if you’re following any other people, they might block you.

So, to prevent this from happening, here are the tips.

ONE. Change your avatars, please! Even a simple silly cat photo or anime character, or a random piece of paper with a face works. Like the default avatar? There are actually picrews out there to alter your avatar! They’re really cute, you can give the circles and squares moustaches, monocles, hats and bows. Usually these little things help to distinguish a bot account from a human account. Also, why not change your banner while you’re at it?

HOWEVER! Be warned that you should not use a picture of yourself or a human girl / boy as most of the time, porn bots use these pictures. Others may think you’re another one of them, block and move on.

TWO. Add your description. Even a simple [ name | interests | age (optional, but some people don’t like ageless blogs) ]. This will help others to see that you’re a real person. Another thing is that you may end up getting blocked by others, especially if you’re a minor, but it’s alright, do not worry and don’t take it personally.

These people who block you most likely post 18+ content and are wary and don’t want to expose their content to minors.

THREE. Posts. Some people may still think you’re a bot, so if you don’t really want to customise your blog, at least leave a simple post saying that you’re not a bot on your profile and pin it. Even a simple “hey! I’m a real person, I just lurk / don’t post” or “im not a bot, just don’t like posting” is fine. But if you really are new and want to become part of tumblr culture, the thing to do is reblog.

Why? Because reblogs are mainly how tumblr users support others. Instead of a like / comment, which is only viewed by others, a reblog can help to spread someone’s post and help them to get more popular, for instance an underrated artist who doesn’t get much attention. If you’re shy you can also comment in the tags, which are the little hashtags at the bottom of a post. You can put something like #omg this is so cute! or #love this in the tags, or you can simply reblog without tagging, either way is fine.

the point is, people can tell you’re real if you’re actively reblogging others’ posts. You don’t even need to reblog every day, just one or two on posts you like / posts that catch your eye.

Some blogs reblog others’ things and post web hooks to their malware scam sites in it. However, it’s nothing much to worry about, people will not think you’re a bot as these bots tend to reblog things by other bots. Reblogging things by other human users is completely fine.

In conclusion, I hope this helps! To all new blank blogs and old, thanks for reading :]

[hetafluidtexan]

How Many Ships & Trios exist within Hetalia?

Howdy everyone!

As we all know as Hetalians, shipping is a key part of fandom space, with many of the most famed writers and artists in the fandom being known for their ships!

And as we know, there are many many ships, sometimes it seems like an endless number of them! However, there are a very finite amount of characters in Hetalia, and only so many ways you can arrange any set of characters in a duo or trio.

This of course naturally raises the question, how many ships can possibly exist within the fandom? 50? 100? 250?

That there, my guys gals and enby pals is what this post hopes to answer!

The key to answering this equation without manually listing every possible ship is a little known thing called the Combination Equation. What is the Combination Equation?

It is this beauty! Now, for those of yall who aren't familiar with Combinations and Permutations, this may seem like some complex abomination. But in reality, it is a very simple equation!

To explain it, imagine you have 6 fruits - an apple, orange, pear, grapes, kiwi, and banana - in total but can only fit 2 into you lunch bag. How many Combinations of fruit can you have? Rather than manually calculating it by counting every single combination, you can just use the equation!

You have 4 fruits, so you put n = 6, as n is just how many of whatever you have, be that fruits or Hetalia Nendoroids. Next, because you only have enough room for 2 fruits, you put r = 2, as r just means the size of your combination groups, be it space for fruits or how many Nendoroid stands you have. Then you just put it in a calculator and hurrah! You have 15 possible combinations of fruit! It is also very important to note that the difference between Combinations and Permutations is if order is important; Combinations view ABC, ACB, and BCA as all the same, while Permutations view all three as seprate.

Now we understand the basic math, we can move onto the core question: How can we use this to find how many possible Hetalia ships are there?

Well to begin with, we need to figure out our n value, which in this case is just how many characters are in all of Hetalia! Well, almost. In Hetalia, if we include only canonical characters and only those that are 1pHetalia ones, we have a total of 71 Characters. However, 8 of those character, meaning we really end up with 63 characters! So our n = 63!

Now for the r value, to start, we will just say r = 2 to represent ever 1x1 ship!

But before we can put it all in, we need to add one thing: - s. Why? Well, because at the moment we have one issue, that being this equation has ALL possible ships, which also means it includes less savory ones. However, we don't want to remove one character and their dozens of ships over just a single unsavory one, so we can set s to equal however many ships we wish to disregard. In this case, I will set it to s = 6, meaning 6 will be removed from the final total.

So what number do we get from this?

DRUM ROLL PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE

ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FIVE!

Meaning, if we set ourselves to 1pHeta and 1x1 ships, there are 1,885 ships! That's a lot You have to admit, but l can't help feel that's a bit small, and that's largely because we put on very strict restrictions; So how about we try some more generous ones?

To start with, how about we double our n value so instead n = 62, we set it to n = 124! Afterall, Nyotalia or 2ptalia are very common in the fandom, so how about we account for them in our ships as well? Doing so, and setting s = 12 to account for the doubling, we wind up with this equation

And from this we get...

7,614! Now that's a hell of a jump I'd say! Certainly, our 1x1 shippers out there will have no shortage of ships for a long long time!

But what about our polyamorous and trio loving friends? Fear not, you have not been forgotten, as by changing r from r = 2 to r = 3, even with just the original n = 62, while leaving s = 12 just to be safe, this will undoubtably make a difference as our equation now looks like such

And how many lovely polyamorous loves and bff trios are we rewarded with?

Even more than before at 37,808 trios! It really goes to show there will never be any shortage of ships or trios for a long long time, and that if you pick any three characters at random, chances are you'll have a trio no one has ever made before, that's crazy!

Now, how about we break this?

If we multiply 62 by four, we get n = 248, accounting for every single 1pHetalia, 1pNyotalia, 2pHetalia, and 2pNyoCharacter based off canon ones that exist, a truly massive number. To show some mercy, let is return to r = 2 and double s to s = 24, which seems like a very harsh restriction and gives us the equation of

So what do we get from this equation?

...well that wasn't supposed to happen, lets see if we can figure out what went wrong

248 - 2 = 246, and since its a factorial, lets plug it into another site to see what we get from this

Ah, well them... Perhaps Scientific Notation will be able to clarify this?

Well no wonder Desmos broke, at *10^482, that's a number bigger than the amount of atoms in the universe - quite literally, as its estimated there are 10^80 atoms in the universe, not even a fifth as big as the number we got as the total number of atoms in the universe vs 246! is 16.598%, or in otherwords, if ever atom in the universe was a number from 1 to 246!, you would only get 16.598% of the way there before you ran out of atoms.

Its crazy to think our little fandom can literally create something bigger than the number of atoms in the universe! And, if you want to toy around with possibly universe breaking numbers, or something more mundane just like how many lesbian ships exist in Hetalia or how many European squads there are, I present to you: The Hetalia Fandom Ship Calculator

Entirely free for anyone to use, just follow all the attached note info, and use it as you please to learn as much as your heart desires!

But for now my lovely guys and gals and enby pals, I must go, I promise to return soon, and until then, drink some water, get some food and rest, and have a most lovely of days!