#graphic design major here! i can confirm

[seros-girl]

something in the orange| fratboy!katsuki bakugo x f!softgirl!reader

summary: childhood competitive friends take a college cooking course together for fun. katsuki bakugo, our amazing frat boy, and y/n, our amazing soft hearted girl. katsuki has a soft spot for her, but because of his ego won't let it show. denki being denki, lets a secret spill out which can ultimately make or break your friendship with katsuki bakugo

authors note: reader is best friends with denki, sero, kyoka, and tenya!!

chapter 3: new friends & frat parties

you come out of your dorm and walk down the steps to the common room to find out all your other dormmates. it's a filled common room and you spot katsuki on the couch with eijiro, denki, and to your surprise hanta. he sits with a pink haired girl and you feel a tad bit uneasy.

she seems to have the eyes for eijiro, but you'll keep an eye on it. a tap on your shoulder catches you off guard as you turn around to see it was tenya. "greetings" he says and you giggle. "no need to be so formal tenya" you say lightly touching his forearm. "want to take a seat?" he asks you and you nod sitting on a couch not far from katsuki.

"so what's your major?" you ask as you cross your legs and look at him. "biomedical sciences and you?" he asks and you tell him it's dance. "so doctor route i presume?" you ask him and he nods. "i come from a family of doctors it's only right to add on to the line of many doctor iida's" he says and you nod.

"do you know what kind or is it all too new to know which specialty?" you ask and he shifts to move his body facing you. "i'm thinking more surgeon route if anything it's between pediatrics and neurology" he said and you nod smiling. "i could never do all of that too much memorization" you giggle and he nods. "well classes start tomorrow i already know so much is going to be on my plate already" he sighs and gives you a soft smile.

"hey dance major right?" you hear a girl say and turn around to see a girl with dark purple hair. "yea im y/n" you say trailing off to catch her name. "kyoka jiro but just call me jiro" she says kindly. "im a music major maybe we can collab at some point" she says and you nod excitedly. "yeah sounds awesome" you say smiling widely.

"hi im mina!" a girl said and you turn your head to see the pink haired girl. "im y/n" you say trying to be nice as she sits close to katsuki. "im majoring in journalism and im also officially apart of the UA newspaper so make sure to grab a copy on campus!" she says with a smile. she seems nice. "okay sure! i'm a dance major" you tell her and she nods. "kats over here told us" she says and your smile fades. kats?

"yea kats and i go way back" you say with a smile and the hint of jealousy that was in your voice. katsuki picked up on it and he smirked. "hey y/n!" denki said plopping down next to you and you smile. "hi denks" you say with a smile. "i love your pajama set where'd you get it?" mina asks eyeying you.

"kats' mom actually got it for me for my 18th birthday" you smile and she turns her head to katsuki. he nods confirming it and she lets out a huff. "whats your major denks?" you ask and he sits up straight. "communications" he says proudly and eijiro and katsuki stifle their laughter.

"hey whats wrong with communications? dont be mean" you lightly scolded the boys. denki pouts playfully "yeah dont be mean" he laughs and you join him. "and you eiji?" you ask and he flushes a bit red at your little nickname for him. "aerospace engineering" he says and you whistle. "we got the next man of NASA right here" hanta jokes and you all laugh.

you went around the room greeting everyone else. you learned yuga was a graphic design major. tsuyu was studying astronomy. ochaco in antrhopology. mashirao in criminology. koji in animal science. rikido in nutrition and food sciences. mezo in environmental. fumikage in psychology. toru in criminology. you obviously knew izuku was studying chemical engineering. minoru in film and media studies. momo in kinesiology.

you all stay down there for awhile, cooking dinner together. you all called it a night at around 10 to get ready for tomorrow's first set of classes. you walk into your dorm a cup of tea in hand, courtesy of momo, and a hand stops your door from closing. you turn to see katsuki.

"hey kats" you said smiling letting him in and closing the door. "you jealous of pinky?" he asks with a smirk and you tilt your head confused. "who's pinky?" you ask trying to piece together who the hell pinky is. "ashido?" he says and it clicks. "that mina girl?" you ask rolling your eyes.

"hah!" he says catching you off guard. "what?" you say turning to put down your mug down on your nightstand. “you rolled your eyes you are jealous” he pushes and you narrow your eyes. “dont worry she’s got the hots for kirishima she’s just messing with you” he assures you and you nod.

“not that i care but thank you” you smile at him. “whats on your schedule tomorrow?” he asks as he sits in your chair. “i’ve got math, english, and contemporary dance 101” you say sipping your tea.

“how long is that?” he asks as he eyes the stuff on your desk. you have pictures of your senior year pinned most of them containing katsuki and izuku. “3 hours” you said moving towards him.

“i remember this” he says pointing at a photo of you and katsuki. it was prom and you stood back to back throwing up peace signs with sunglasses on. “fun times” you said and rolled the chair so he’s facing you.

“get out im tired” you demand nodding your head towards the door. “yeah yeah” he grumbles getting up and looking down at you. he eyes your outfit and mentally thanks his mom for this pajama set. he looks around your dorm and lightly smiles.

“your room is very y/n” he says admiring the pastels and bows. “katsuki dorm tour soon?” you playfully asked opening your door letting him out.

“never” he grumbles and your smile fades. “goodnight kats” you said going to close the door. “night” is all he says as he walks down the singular flight of stairs to the 4th floor. you closed it and leaned against it, exhaling out a sigh.

you were going insane.

●~*

you changed into dark jeans (that have bows on it), a light blue long sleeve top, and topped it off with some uggs. you put your hair into two braided pigtails and smiled at your reflection. you walked out grabbing your bag and lock your dorm. "you look nice" you hear from behind you and you turn to see todoroki.

"hey shoto" you smiled and blushed a bit at his compliment. "heading to class?" he asks and you nod starting to walk down the stairs with him trailing behind you.

“how was the rest of your night?” he asks kindly and you give him a smile. “it was good! how about yours?” you asked him and he only nods his head. “it was good too” is all he says.

“what class do you have this early?” you asked as you grab an orange juice carton from the fridge in the kitchen. “english” he grumbles and you smile, shoto looking at you confused.

“with professor yamada?” you asked hoping he was in that course as well. “yes thats the one” he says sort of relieved to have someone he partially knows in the same class. “excuse me” you hear and turn around to see tenya.

“good morning tenya” you smiled at him but he kept eyeying the orange juice carton in your hand. “my apologies good morning y/n” he bows down to you and you blush. “i see you have an orange juice carton” he points out and you nod holding it up.

he clears his throat shifting on his two feet uncomfortably. “is something wrong tenya?” you asked as you looked up at shoto and he only shrugged his shoulders. “its just i bought those for myself- im willing to share though i can always go out and buy more!” he rambled and you widened your eyes.

“oh im so sorry i didnt know!” you said trying to hand it back to him and he shook his head pushing it back to you. “keep it i insist” he says holding your hands gently to stop you from handing him the juice back.

“thank you tenya” you smiled at him and he smiled down at you. “should we get going?” shoto asked you and you nodded. “bye tenya” you gave him a small hug and started walking out of the common room with shoto.

“hey” you heard and stopped walking. katsuki reaches you and eyes shoto up and down. “you gonna be in the studio later” he asks and you nod. “i have a room reserved for 5:30 why?” you asked and he only nods walking away.

“he’s a weird one isnt he?” shoto says and you nod walking out of the common area with shoto.

●~*

its 5 o clock when you reach the dance studio desperately wanting to get some practice in. your contemporary 101 class has you already working on choreography you’ll be performing for the class. you thought long and hard on which song to dance to.

you swiped your id card and opened the doors to the building. you went up the second floor and swiped your id card again to get into the private room. your phone dings and you move to grab your phone along with your speaker.

kats 🍓

you in the studio?

you reply with a yes and you see he starts typing again.

kats 🍓

be there in 5

you react with a thumbs up leaving him on read and you walk out to wait for him. you see him with his practice bag along with his school backpack. “hey grumps” you smirked at him and he scowls at you.

“let us in dork” he grumbles out and you swipe your ID card again and lead him into the room. “got some homework to do” he mumbles and you nod as he sets himself up in the corner.

“you wont bother me just dance” he says and you nod as you play the song of choice. no. 1 party anthem plays in the room as you move to the center of the room.

as you dance and figure out choreography along the way, you noticed katsuki was distracted. “you distracted?” you smiled down at him and he contorts his face into one of confusion.

“‘m not” he defends and goes back to scrolling through the spreadsheets on his computer for an assignment. you stop the music and go to lay down next to katsuki.

you sigh, tired. “theres a frat party this friday” he says typing on his computer and you turn to look at him. “already?” you ask and he nods. “yea my frat” he says it like its not new information to you.

“hold on you joined a frat?!” you said sitting up and he shrugs. “yea with the boys” he says it like its casual. “and who’s the boys” you mock still in shock. “kirishima, honenuki, iida, kaminari” he says still looking at his computer.

“wanna come?” he asks and looks at you. you thought about it. “sure why not” you shrug getting up and playing the music again as katsuki watches you silently in awe.

●~*

wednesday comes and you sit next to katsuki in a stool. your baking class being a weekly class held on wednesdays. your professor is going over the syllabus and the many recipes you’ll be doing this quarter.

you nudge katsuki playfully and he nudges you back. “okay class we’ll start off with an easy recipe, brownies!” she says as she pulls the recipe onto the screen. “you’ll be working alone for this one, but in future there will be group assignments” she says as you all got up to grab aprons and the utensils.

“mine are gonna come out better” katsuki says as he starts cracking eggs into his bowl. “nuh uh” you said and rolled your eyes playfully as you get to work making brownies from scratch.

katsuki gets distracted watching you mix the ingredients together. “take a picture kats it’ll last longer” you said looking up at him and winking before moving to grab a tray to dump your mix in.

he starts mixing his ingredients, embarrassed he got caught. you smirk to yourself as you dump your mix in and move towards the oven popping yours in and setting a timer on your phone. katsuki follows you shortly after and pops his in.

“now we wait to see who’s is the best” he taunts looking down at you and moving to clean up his area. between the time it takes to clean up your respective areas, your timer goes off. you happily move to get your brownies out carefully. you bring it back to your station and grab a knife.

you start cutting it into 8 even pieces as bakugo’s timer goes off and he grabs his out of the oven. “mine smell so good” you tease as you carefully continue cutting as katsuki starts cutting his.

you pull out a piece gently setting it down on a paper plate provided by your professor. once the class settles down and everyone’s done, she comes around to taste test them.

“your name honey?” she says waiting to write it down on the grading sheet she was giving out to students after grading their brownies. “y/n l/n” you smiled at her as she quickly writes it down. she takes a bite and she immediately hums indicating its good.

“you added a little something in here huh” she smiles writing down a 30/30 on your sheet and handing it to you. she moves on to katsuki’s. she takes a bite and she nods as she chews. “somethings missing” she whispers to herself.

she gives him a 28/30 and you stifle your laugh as he looks down at you as she walks away to grade other brownies. fuck you, katsuki mouths and you smile up at him. “class dismissed” your professor said and everyone got up taking their brownies in tupperware.

“wanna taste mine?” you playfully asked as katsuki held both of your bags and walked in the direction of the dorms. “fuck you” he looks the other way. he knows he’ll definitely steal one later.

●~*

friday rolls around and you slip on a small baby pink dress. you throw on a white cardigan and pair it off with white heeled boots. you spray your perfume and look in the mirror.

you smile at yourself and grab your purse walking out of your dorm, locking it. “ready?” you hear the familiar voice of katsuki bakugo and you turn around. he rakes his eyes across your body in awe.

“yea” you breathed out going red slightly and walking past him down the stairs. he walks you both there and upon reaching it, you instantly want to go back to your dorm. “do we have to kats?” you asked as you leaned into him.

“come on princess” he teases and leads you into the house. youre immediately pulled into the kitchen where katsuki’s boys are at. “hey!” denks yells throwing an arm around your shoulder. “drink?” he offers pointing at the assortment of liquor and tequila on the countertop.

“not made by you” katsuki grumbles as he pours himself some water. “you arent drinking kats?” you ask quietly playing with your sleeves nervously. he only shakes his head and you look at eijiro.

he smirks at you and katsuki and he wiggles his eyebrows at you. you turn red and look the other way. juzo smiles at you and you smile back. “want anything to drink?” he asks as he bends down slightly to say it into your ear for you to hear.

you nod your head and he extends his hand out to you, for you to take. you take it as he leads you to the countertop where all the drinks are. katsuki watches carefully, denki and eijiro catching on. tenya walks in and does handshakes with all of them.

“so heres vodka we can mix it with anything you’d like” juzo starts and you look up at him, nodding along. “rum with coke is another option” he points out and you nod your head again. “whats your pick?” he asks leaning against the counter looking at you.

you scan the options and eye the rum. “a rum with coke please” you smile sweetly up at him and he gets to work mixing it for you. you watch him intently and once he’s done, hands it to you. katsuki watches with his arms crossed and jaw clenched.

denki pats his shoulder roughly. “lighten up” he slurs and goes to dance with some girl that pulled him out of the kitchen. he comes back stumbling before he’s officially out of the kitchen. “dont let your ego get to you, admit you like her bro” and then he’s officially dragged out.

eijiro and tenya smirk at katsuki and nod and all he could do was scoff and rolls his eyes. “i dont” he grumbles. “dude the way you look at her says so much” eijiro says and katsuki only shakes his head. “dont miss out on it” tenya says passing by and shooting a small smile to katsuki.

he scoffs again watching you and juzo. you guys laugh at something he apparently said and his stomach does a flip. what’s so funny? “probably just 2 juz” you giggle as you watch him mix up another drink for you.

“good call” he nods finishing it up and handing it to you again. “you look really pretty” juzo says staring down at you. katsuki hears this and scoffs again. you look absolutely fucking stunning in his eyes. you blush and look down letting out a small thank you.

juzo wraps an arm around your waist cautiously and leads you out of the kitchen. you smile at katsuki on your way out giving him a small bye and he tries to give you a smile, but fails. you sit on the stairs all night talking with juzo.

you got to know each other and when katsuki comes to collect you to walk you back to your dorm, you give juzo a smile, a hug, and your number. “goodnight juz” you smile down at him and he lets a goodnight with the biggest smile on his face.

katsuki leads you out of the house and begins the walk across campus. “kats i did it!” you said excitedly shaking his shoulder. “i see” he says sarcastically. you push him lightly “come on be happy for me!” you said with such excitement. “let me know if i have to beat him up” he mumbles and you nod your head.

“you gonna start looking for someone?” you nudge his arm and he shakes his head no. “dont have the time for it” is all he says and you shut up the rest of the way back to the dorms. you unlock your door and look up katsuki. “how was it?” he asks indicating your very first party.

“loved it, will go again sometime” you smiled up at him. his heart tugs at your smile. he moves a piece of your hair behind your ear and smiles softly at you. “goodnight” he mumbles hesitantly moving forward to plant a kiss on your forehead.

“night kats” you smiled up at him and he moves out of the way so you can close the door. he stares at your door and mentally curses himself. the idiots are right.

taglist:

@arc6021

hey lovelies!! let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist 🫶🫶

[wc-confessions]

I’ll do a full breakdown of why the news surrounding the Tencent animation disappoints me.

Disclaimer: while you can have criticisms about Tencent as they seem to be a controversial company, don’t use it as an excuse to be sinophobic. If your thoughts ever go to “well of course a Chinese production would suck” or something of that ilk, please stop right there. The main issues are corporate greed and laziness, not China. Got it? Time to carry on.

Firstly, it strikes me as more of a proof of concept than an actual announcement. It’s the most minor problem IMO, so I’ll let them off the hook. They probably wanted to make sure people knew it was being worked on.

Secondly, AI. Warrior Cats is an art-centric community; it’s no wonder fans are pissed. I don’t like AI art, you - a (probable) Warriors fan reading this - likely don’t like AI art, your father doesn’t like AI art, everyone here doesn’t like AI art. Which means I’m going to argue on a more technical side. Looking at the confirmed and possible AI art, I have a question. What do they achieve? They don’t fit with the style of the hand-drawn illustrations, they resemble galaxy cats in space, while that Yellowfang generation is just a bootleg of the reprinted Rising Storm cover. Their existence in the presentation is a waste of time and resources (literally, AI prompts use up absurd amounts of water). I’d rather them show exclusively human art because you can tell they’re going in a direction, even if it’s uninteresting.

Speaking of the presumably human art, oh boy. To start off mildly positive, I’ll say a majority of the illustrations are decent. You get some character designs and scene concepts. They’re clearly playing with art style. I don’t find them particularly ugly, so… good job! I suppose! Now, to address the elephant in the room: anthro cats. For the love of StarClan, I’m begging on my knees, don’t make these cats anthro in the final product. It would fundamentally break the entire series. They call humans “twolegs” for a reason! Go work on the Redwall movie if you want anthro animals.

Finally, my last concern. As of writing, there hasn’t been confirmation of the Tencent animation being a movie, TV show, or other. My opinion on a TV show is “it’s fine.” Warrior Cats is a long series, making it suitable that it gets a longer adaptation. Meanwhile, my hope for a Warriors movie is as big as a single grain of sand. 

Warrior Cats is borderline unadaptable when it comes to shorter-form media unless you want to dish out a pretty penny. We can already see this with the Prophecies Begin graphic novel; it’s transparent HarperCollins or whoever is in charge of these things didn’t want to pay for six TPB comics, so they had to hastily mash two books together in one. If the Tencent animation is a movie, I’m afraid some concepts already have signs of this. Multiple pieces have what can be assumed to be Fireheart and Tigerclaw fighting. I’m sorry, but that happens later in the books. Are they going to scramble the narrative worse than the graphic novel adaptation? Are we seriously going to wait 20+ years for an official animation, watch at least one high-profile fan project get canned, only for it to be about as accurate as evil snipers in an action movie? If it’s not a movie, ignore what I’ve said. If it is a movie, sigh.

TL;DR: Should’ve made the Little Dragon Studios series official instead of forcing them to cancel, guys.

.

[springlock-suits]

Nonbinary William Afton rambles which I'm now making their own post 👉😎👉

The idea mostly comes from Springbonnie! Often referred to in the fandom as William Afton's fursona, it's at the very least undeniable William enjoys and has a strong connection to the character

This is mostly seen and backed up by the novels! I've added pics of the graphic novel for ease. But in one scene he literally can't talk when confronted until he has the Springbonnie mask back on

As William opened the restaurant with Henry and played and wore Springbonnie back in Fredbear's Family Diner, it's safe to assume he had strong influence on the character

Now for the important part, Springbonnie is nonbinary, or some variation, as seen in a fnaf world loading screen!

Now this could of course just be seen as Scott making a small comment due to how much fans would debate characters genders in this era of fnaf. But it's seen rather fondly by Springbonnie fans, who take it to mean good ol springy is nonbinary, and doesn't care about gender, or uses it/its pronouns. Fnaf World is also Springbonnie's first and currently only 3D appearance to actually appear in games

There's also the Sister Location animatronics! Who we know William had a major part in creating and designing, which of course includes Funtime Foxy in the roster, who canonically goes by he/she pronouns! So at the very least William is supportive. I personally enjoy seeing Funtime Foxy as a projection of William, due to their similar theatrical personalities, and enjoying preforming

Edit: Funtime Foxy has had They/Them pronouns added as well from Help Wanted 2!

(And as Mangle, he/she, when fixed is also known "Funtime Foxy" instead of Toy Foxy, it's possible William had some type of influence there)

(Additionally, while I dont have the time to look through and confirm it right now, I do believe Lolbit uses they/them)

It honestly mostly boils down to the fact most animatronics with multiple sets of pronouns have some (usually major) connection to William!

And, fun fact, though I personally don't take it as 100% canon, Youtooz refers to Springtrap with they/them pronouns in the figure description! Edit: The Springtrap plushie is referred to with they/it pronouns by Youtooz! This is a consistent decision!

I checked around some other Youtooz fnaf items just in case, and I can confirm not all get the they/them treatment. Glamrock Freddy, for example, is very consistently he/him across all items

Purple Guy items feature a very short description, such as "The Purple Guy" and "William Afton" and thus pronouns like we are looking for are not present, and Glitchtrap, if counts here, has they and he/they descriptions

And for a more fun/silly reason, you can color pick 2 of his sprites to make the nonbinary flag, Springbonnie is nonbinary flag colored too

If anyone has any more additions or notes to this, I'd love the hear them!

[patiann345]

I'm flabbergasted, I'm shocked, I'm disappointed, and frankly? I'm indignant.

In a series with so, so very little in terms of representation in canon, a series that had what I THOUGHT was 2-3 confirmed POC (we'll get to that 2-3 bit btw), 1 Jewish man, a handful of women who's writing is hit-or-miss, and no queer characters because according to one of the creators "their identities don't matter"... (Tell that to the straight characters like Henry, Thomas, Allison, Susie, Linda who's not even a character and didn't need to exist in the first place-)

Preview for that graphic novel dropped! Spoilers!!

Norman Polk is white.

I'm. astonished. For the record, because I know someone will likely bring it up, I am aware that there was never a point in the series where it was ever actually confirmed that Norman was a black man. But it was very much the consensus for most people that he was coded to be POC. To see this is just.. it's disheartening.

Dreams Come to Life seemingly (egg on my face for thinking Norman was black ig???) had 3 POC characters; Norman, Thomas, and Jacob. This was... maybe changed to 2 later on, as JDS went back on coding Thomas as a black man (an announcement they made in a Discord server of all things?? Never publically???) which they may have gone back on again later since the wiki (not official, for the record) recognizes him as black.

3 characters, and we're now down to possibly one; I say possibly because it depends on how Thomas is represented in this book. If he's black, we've got 2. If he's white?

One. One character who's never made an appearance in the games; only in spinoff material in a book. One.

In the simplest way I can put it, I'm upset. There's lots more I can talk about here; how I think this opening is a disservice and bastardization of the original writing for cutting so much out, how while it can look worse (I've read a good handful of fnaf books I KNOW it can look worse) I can't say it really looks any good, how Buddy looks like he's 12, how the yellows are garish and piss-looking. But what has me the most upset is Norman, because he was 1 of 2-3 POC characters, out of a cast of dozens upon dozens. And sure, there could be more. But we only had 3 confirmed. Maybe 2.

And now we may be down to one.

I actually spoke with my partner a few nights ago about how nervous I was about the graphic novel. Because of how the cover looked, I wasn't expecting anything great. But I knew there was a chance they'd double down and be like 'Nope, actually Thomas is white, always was' I was anticipating that, and I still am. And I looked at them and told them something roughly along the lines of- "I can live with them making Thomas white, cause of them trying to back-peddle once, I wouldn't be surprised, but I don't know how I'd handle them whitewashing Norman."

I still don't know how to handle it. To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. People have done amazing designs of Norman for AUs and personal headcanons. Hell, all the staff really. And a majority of them, you'll find, are black. Almost everyone thought he was black. Not this pale Afton knock-off (seriously his hair looks greasy as hell, I know it's a stylization of the lighting but it looks gross)

I'm just throwing my thoughts out here for anyone who cares. Maybe most people won't mind, and fine. Again, it wasn't stated, it was seemingly coding, but clearly, we were wrong because he's paler than the fucking moon. But this is upsetting. This is genuinely upsetting to see. We have so little rep in this series, and the number is somehow dwindling.

What. the Fuck.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

The whole Haitian Grill Hoaxes.

Warning: Talks about Haitian history of slavery briefly and of cooking animals.

Not my usual line of posts, but meh, I kinda want to so some solidarity, education and attempt at least to weave in some talk of anthropology and worldbuilding with it.

First off, Anthropologists are required to take as undergraduates Physical Anthropology. We have to be able to tell the difference between a carnivore, an herbivore and a omnivore. And also are taught things like how to tell the difference between human bones and animal bones. No lie, this was one of the most difficult classes I took and I spent for probably the first time in a long time studying my ass off. I usually don't study, but for this one I studied really hard. 'cause you have to memorize the names of bones and how they differ. (Cue me crying because I still remember frontal parietal and occipital and semi-have nightmares about this class. I still have mandible, but then semi panic about the names of all of the nose bones.)

This isn't what I thought I'd be using my degree for, but here we are.

Next, I 100% do not condone and 100% condemn everyone being AHs to Haitians who've had enough crap in their history, such as, but not limited to Columbus depopulating the Island of Taino (It's a word that starts with G), enslaving a bunch of Africans, and then people getting upset when they overthrew their slave owners. This is designed as a defense against the racist who accuse them of eating an animal rarely eaten in human history especially WITHOUT ANY FLAVOR. WTF. Only people who are from the Europe do that. Did you really get insulted by Tim Walz making fun of the white American Palate and then confirm he was correct? Yes, you did.

I'm pulling out my love of food anthro for this too. lol Did I almost write a book about it? Yes, yes I did. Also, I have graphic design knowledge to be able to tell things.

***

This is the image. Those are chickens, whole, not free of their internal organs.

Might be 3-4 chickens, but this is my best guess:

That's the anatomy break down.

Basically, the tail is not a rabbit tail. The tail is also not a cat tail. It matches a bird tail.

The legs are not rabbit legs—they are too long and there is a claw. There is a wing in the picture. Cats don't have the anatomy. They have longer tails and it wouldn't look that way.

For reference, the Sphinx Cat. (which is really expensive, BTW. They've been catnapped before.)

The red in the picture is glare from a window because the person is standing and as the video goes, if you focus on the glare you can see it is a white person taking the video—or at least very light skinned wearing a red t-shirt and dark pants. Might even be a Trump T-shirt, but I couldn't confirm it on repeated viewings. This means the window is pretty big. It's not a car. The way the person shifts within the video means they are likely in their own house. There is a level of comfort there. This was also likely taken with a phone because the resolution is terrible. The way the camera shifts as the person shifts their position, etc and the bad camerawork, suggests amateur with a phone. (Also didn't expect to use my graphic design knowledge for this)

Dude, just go outside your house to film.

The second reason this isn't from a car like some people suggest is there is a fence that goes along the back of the property where the beveling of the fence suggests it's to protect the current yard. This means the fence likely goes the entire perimeter of the yard which would mean it's not visible from the street. The majority of grills are set up to face the house, not the street, unless you're planning on selling it.

Sphinx is an all furless cat. This looks nothing like what is in the picture. Those are birds.

It was pointed out to me that it might be stewing chickens, i.e. after they've been retired from egg laying. The kind you make into something like Dak Komtang. This means the picture was 100% faked.

Now, why is it a badly faked image: Cultural Anthropology and food anthropology here.

In order to cook any animal in a BBQ setting, every culture I know of where you are physically using a grill: You would have to chop it up so it cooks evenly and if you don't do that, put it on a spit to cook it whole. It *is* possible to cook a whole chicken, however, one would have to have taken out the giblets, and then dressed and marinated it thoroughly so that the breasts are correctly tied, plus you would have to tie it up so that the wings are tied to the body: https://bluejeanchef.com/cooking-school/how-to-truss-a-chicken/

Truss it tight. This helps the chicken to cook evenly. Similarly with rabbit you'd have to empty the main cavity of the innards.

No one leaves the chicken feet on in that case. It's better to take off that part of the legs and do something else with them, like say Chinese Chicken feet for dim sum.

Nunzio pointed out that the chickens were likely stewing chickens, i.e. retired breeders.

based off of this picture. i.e. terrible for grilling on the barbecue because it's much tougher meat.

In addition, while there are cultures that do eat chicken heads, often to make the chicken cook more evenly, they are cut off of the body and grilled/cooked separately because the rate at which the head cooks is faster than the rest of the body. In the picture you can see the chicken combs.

The next point of clue that this is a faked image is that there is NO FUCKING FLAVOR ON THE CHICKEN.

White food travel shows, Haitians themselves when making their food, my own mouth is going to tell you, that is is packed to the gills with flavor. OMG, some of the food is so spicy, even this Asian feels like they were crying. C'mon now, that's a crime to say that Haiti people are going to cook anything on the grill with no flavor.

You know the only cuisine in the world that gets close to doing that? Europeans and people of that direct descent. And I've eaten my way through South America, Central America, North America, Texas BBQ, Louisiana, NE America, South West America, Italy, France, England, Germany, Poland, Russian, Hungarian, Iranian, Armenian, Tunisia, Nigeria, Ethiopian, Greek, Chinese (Northern and Southern, BTW), Japan, Korea, most of SE Asia, Philippines, and some of the South Pacific (Working on it). There is only one continent that does not flavor their meat before putting it on the grill—effing Europe. WTF.

The rest of the world is begging you to at least marinate your meat. !@#$ Even effing Texans are begging you to marinate your meat.

Anyway, no self respecting home chef or any type of cook would cook their meat this way.

Food experience

I've eaten and cooked whole rabbit, whole chicken, whole turkey, whole goose, venison (legally hunted and shot), beef, lamb, goat (not whole), and !@#$ there is no way someone is cooking it that way without any heat on the grill first. In order to grill anything, you need a lot of prep time to make it work, even for smoking. You need to heat up the grill.

Let me tell you as a kid when I first arrived to the US, my mom would serve up crap meals which consisted of mediocre rice, fish sticks, and carrot and celery sticks. God, I hated the cooking. And she kept saying how she would not ever put in more effort into our meals. Having some semblance of foundation about cooking, I watched cooking shows, read cook books, and managed to get the foundations of cooking from asking and doing.

This meant by the time I was a teenager I was making the majority of the meals for the house. In fact, my parents made me do the majority of the cooking some nights AND clean the dishes I cooked with sometimes because they were seriously assholes.

They also would have me heat the briquettes for the grill ALONE. --;; Unsupervised. Yeah, not recommended, and I would never ask kids to do it on their own. Don't do as my parents did.

On the list of things they had me cook was things like venison and goose. When I flunked out of college the first time due to lingering trauma, they also had me do all of the cooking for rent and made unreasonable demands on me.

Fuck. Go back to your fucking fish sticks.

The point is that I know the foundations of cooking meat very, very well. I got so good at it, I could sense the difference in smell to know when it was cooked versus not cooked.

I made up recipes too.

Anyway, there is NO way you would be cooking meat like that with the head still stuck on. For the cultures like Ireland that eats things like brains, the head is ALWAYS cooked separately from the body. The brain is squishy in there and can make the skull explode in some cases because it cooks at a different rate from the rest of the body. The same with the internal organs. Those are removed in every culture or taken out, rinsed and carefully placed back into the cavity of the animal to cook *with additional* things added (sometimes rocks, sometimes extra meats, etc.) Again, if you don't do that, the inside will explode. (And in some cases make things really bitter like gall bladder tastes nasty. You can see people eating the gall bladder on Youtube.)

This is why this is a faked picture.

In addition, the cultures that do eat things like cats are usually ravaged by imperialism, therefore, poverty. And I know how much imperializing nations like to make fun of other cultures they imperialized to the point of crippling their food supply and their inability to get new technology like refrigerators.

This is why I think it's best to not ridicule other culture's foods.

And don't believe hoaxes like this. Including the whole This is a dog without canine teeth video hoax. It's simply not worth it.

And I'd also beg you to fact check, fact check before you perpetuate rumors. But I suppose this is a lesson in racism and xenophobia too.

[oakdll]

i finished persona 4 golden !!!

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 4 GOLDEN AHEAD

It’s lowkey insane that they made the final villain a gas station employee, but it was super cool. I really love the story, almost as much as P5R, although the gameplay was definitely worse for me.

Obviously there are differences because of the release dates, but there were a lot of quality of life issues and inconsistencies. The last 5 dungeons or so felt comically easy, none of them took me more than 2 hours, especially with Marie and Izanami’s dungeons which took me less than an hour each, even with exploring every floor to the max.

The lack of Safe Rooms really hurts the level design here. You basically have to do every palace in one session (at least I did because I don’t like Goho-M’s). Being able to have save points before different sections in each P5 Palace was a stroke of genius, and returning to P4 where every floor is basically identical is just boring. I like how each floor is randomly generated, but it also really takes away from the individuality of each dungeon. Pretty much every dungeon has the same random layout, the only differences are the visuals and occasional conditions like with Adachi not allowing you to fight shadows in one of his floors. Compared to P5, the lack of puzzles and insight into the characters really hurts. In P5, the design of each palace gave you insight into its rulers psyche. In P4, you really only get the occasional confrontation with the character and some dialogue at the start of each floor.

There were also WAY too many chances to mess up your ending. There isn’t anything really wrong with having a lot of endings, but having so many points where you can accidentally get a bad ending because you picked an option that wasn’t obviously wrong was ridiculous. I had heard there were a lot of chances to get a bad ending if you aren’t careful, so I used a spoiler free guide. Having to pick like 7 of the right answers in a row to get a good ending is insane.

If I wasn’t spoiled on Adachi before playing, I never would have guessed it. That is good for the story, but having to deduce it yourself is a bit too much to ask of the player. I think P5 did good with prompting you to save your game before game changing events happen. A mix of that and confirming with the player when they are going off-course from the true ending makes the game relatively simple to play through with no guide. with P4, you basically have to look up a guide for the true ending. Having to say “no” when prompted to leave Inaba to get the true ending is insane, if I didn’t know beforehand I would have messed up my entire playthrough. It makes no sense unless you know the story beforehand, especially when no other Persona game asks you to do something like that.

The game is also shockingly bigoted, which goes entirely against the themes of the Persona series and the game itself. Ironically, in a game about pursuing the truth, the made Naoto deny his truth of being trans. They wrote such good queer characters and then came to entirely the wrong conclusion and ruined it all. I still think if you can look past the homophobia and transphobia, the game has phenomenal writing, but it gets really uncomfortable at times.

The nostalgic feeling Inaba gives off and the PS2 graphics really help the vibe of this game. It feels so much warmer than P5, and I am ALWAYS a sucker for a murder mystery. The fog is such a good visual element to the game, and I have a strange obsession with electrical poles, so having those be a frequent set piece is awesome.

The characters are so wonderful, I really wish I had more time to max out all of the social links here, but I think I would have had to skip out on helping Nanako with her homework and I would never do that to her. Nanako and Kanji are both some of my all time favorite Persona characters, they are both so sweet and I would do anything for them. Marie is also one of my favorites, I have no idea why anybody could hate her. Yukiko is amazing, Chie is a lot of fun, and Yosuke is hilarious. Teddie is a freak but I love him but I HATE his blue eyes, Rise is super nice, and Naoto is so cool. The Investigation Team is debatably better than the Phantom Thieves as a main cast, but they are so close for me. The main characters are all just great.

As for social links, I think P5 still has it beat here. The social link cast in P4 is still good, but there aren’t any benefits like in P5 and some of the characters here I REALLY don’t like. Sayoko is an outright pedophile. With Kawakami at least if you don’t choose to romance her in-game she isn’t as much of a creep, while Sayoko actively sexually harasses a high schooler. I also did not like Eri, I didn’t get to spend much time with her but she really could have treated her kid better. I know she’s struggling but she would lash out leave her kid at daycare because he was having more fun there than at home. Naoki was cool, I barely got to spend any time with him but from what I did see he was nice and seeing the grieving process of one of Adachi’s victims was super interesting. For the club social links, I chose Kou and Ayane. Kou was great, one of my favorites but I ended up prioritizing party members and couldn’t max him out. Ayane was nice, I like her arc but her voice acting really ruined a lot of the social link for me. Ai was also nice, but I couldn’t spend too much time with her and I didn’t like her romance subplot. I actually liked Shu a surprising amount, he was one of the few I maxed out because I had extra time in the evenings and I really liked how his arc ended. Hisano was one I really missed out on, I only got to rank 3 with her and from what I saw she was one of the most interesting in the game. Dojima is one of the best social links in all of Persona. He is very similar to Sojiro, but he’s a lot darker. There’s a lot more drama with him than with Sojiro, both of them are amazing, and Dojima’s relationship with Nanako is so sweet. Nanako as well might be my favorite Persona character. She is the sweetest thing ever, and I would do anything for her. Marie’s social link was also great, but I really didn’t like Margaret’s. I don’t like any Persona social link that requires you to go on quests. I didn’t like the Strength confidant in P5, and I don’t like Margaret or the Fox in P4. The fox is better by default because he’s a fox, but neither are super interesting to me.

The music is phenomenal because it’s a Persona game, but the P4 OST might be my single favorite Persona soundtrack. Pursuing My True Self, Signs of Love, Heartbeat Heartbreak, Heaven, Alone, Your Affection, Like a Dream Come True, Youthful Lunch, Reach Out to the Truth, Time to Make History, and Omen are some of my favorites. The only Persona game soundtrack to compare with P4 is P5, Whims of Fate, Beneath the Mask, Alleycat, Our Light, When Mother Was There, Price, and Butterfly Kiss are also up there. P4 is more nostalgic for me, so I think it might take the edge for me.

The story of P4 is also much more complex and interesting than P5. If it weren’t for Maruki’s palace being so good, I would say that P4 definitively has the better story. Adachi being the antagonist was such a phenomenal twist, and I loved him so much up to that point that it hurt even more. His social link is a phenomenal addition, I can’t imagine the game without it. Having so many endings is partially a result of flawed game design, but also the depth in the story. It really feels like an investigation team solving a mystery. Pushing further and further towards the truth throughout every suspect, from Kubo to Namatame to Adachi, and even Izanami if that counts, the game really accomplishes its goal. I haven’t done the accomplice ending, but I might do another playthrough to get it after I finish P3R.

P4G is a really great game, I think it’s a bit more flawed than P5R, but it’s still phenomenal and it’s not like P5 has no flaws either. P4 really excels with the story and I think the primary issues with it are just a byproduct of being over 10 years old at this point.

[mutantjellybeans]

Not to go on about this again but like it does get a little frustrating sometimes when people incorrectly announce that something is 100% canon for real in the comics based solely on like a single panel they saw someone else post online, it’s mostly harmless because, yeah, they’re fictional comic books but yall should know by now people can make jpegs do anything they want so next time you see a panel with someone insisting that its contents are 100% canon for real:

Have you read the comic the panel came from? The panel could be taken out of context and have an entirely different meaning within the story itself or it could actually say something completely different all together

Did the OP provide a comic name and issue number? If OP doesn’t provide an issue number that’s a major sign that the panel could be edited, especially if the character is saying something particularly outlandish

Speaking of outlandish: is the text in the panel a reference to another piece of media or do you think it might be a reference to another piece of media? This could be a sign it’s taken from an incorrect quotes account and not an actual comic

Does the text look weird? Is the text different sizes/fonts or weirdly spaced in the bubble? This one might be hard to notice if you’re not into graphic design or typography so no judgement if you don’t but things like letter/word spacing, text size, font, bubble shape, etc is something that’s taken very seriously, bubbles need to be easy to read, pleasing to the eye, and take up as little space as possible, that’s why lettering is a whole separate job in the comic book industry. For example, in these panels “sons…” would not be left on it’s own in one line, “ya basic” would be given more impact, and all the text in the bubbles on the second panel are way too squished together (notice how the words are basically touching the outside of the bubble and how “devastating” is squished and small)

Similarly, is the text a higher quality than the rest of the image? In the infamous “I know you’re here Dracula, where’s my goddamn money?” Moon Knight image that a lot of people thought was real, for example, there’s a certain graininess to the image that doesn’t extend to the text bubble, which is notably clean-looking, in higher quality versions of the image you can even see the pixels of the text bubble that was slapped over the original text (which shouldn’t be possible considering the comic came out in the 80’s)

Did you look at OP’s page? Are they a fanartist? Some extremely talented fanartists dedicate a lot of time and effort to mimicking the comic book style, and they can be really good at it, though unfortunately these fanartists’ work are often reposted without credit which can lead others to believe they’re canon when they’re not, in this case remember: 1. look for an issue number, 2. reverse image search to see if you can find where the panel came from, and 3. keep in mind…

An A-list superhero being canonized as queer is a huge fucking deal, like mainstream news big deal, if an A-list character was confirmed as queer it would be absolutely goddamn everywhere, from IGN and comic book YouTubers to fucking Joe Rogan and late night talk shows, you wouldn’t be able to hear the end of it, so if you think “hey, shouldn’t this be a bigger deal?” stop and investigate further

And finally, the most annoying question: are you sure this is the right version of the character? Comics are filled with alternate timelines, parallel universes, clones, shapeshifters, and so on, are you absolutely positive that the panel you’ve found is the classic character from the main timeline? For example, people frequently used to use Harley and Ivy’s kiss in Bombshells as proof that their relationship was canon in the main DC timeline (it wasn’t, but it is now!), and people still use Logan and Hercules’s relationship in X-Treme X-Men #10 as proof that Wolverine is bisexual in the main 616 universe, which he is not, though it is kind of implied sometimes

I know a major part of this is me being an annoying, nit-picking comic book elitist and, yes, this is all mostly harmless BUT I also think this could be a really great way to exercise your media literacy skills as well as a good, harmless lesson in not taking everything you see online at face value and, hey, it might even get you to read some really great comic books in the process!

Improve your media literacy and critical thinking skills one edited comic book panel at a time! K thx, love you, bye!

[jayfrost-designs]

Well, I already had the majority of this all typed up and then somehow deleted all of it. That's annoying. :/ Well, here it goes again. Up next for the cats I headcanon as queer is another aroace girl, Mousefur! Admittedly I'm not as fond of her as I am of Drizzle, that whole meeting she and Dustpelt called just so they could complain about ThunderClan "becoming too mixed" always really rubbed me the wrong way. She's a cool character otherwise, but that's just a really major ick for me, sorry.

You can find the reverse side of her design here.

For her physical description, Mousefur is described as a small, wiry she-cat with thick, glossy, soft fur. Once again, I made her more boxy and compact than overly wiry, but oh well, she's still wiry, kinda. :P The  scars along her side are from the BloodClan battle (she's described as having deep claw marks stretching along one side during the fight), and the scarring on her other shoulder is from the battle at Sunningrocks in the Into the Wild prologue.

For her pattern, Mousefur is described as a dusky brown she-cat with eyes the color of sunlit ice. Her eyes are listed as blue because of their appearance in the recent A Thief in ThunderClan graphic novel, buuuuuuuuut that's not the same for me as having it confirmed in one of the text novels, and since her eyes were yellow in the recent TPB graphic novel adaptation, I feel justified in my decision to make them a really pale yellow that almost looks very light blue at its lightest point instead of blue. :P

She's a plain brown cat now rather than a tabby, since that was only ever said once rather than all the times she's been called just dusky brown.

Overall, I'm really happy with how she turned out.

[angelofthepage]

Okay, so lately I've been seeing a lot of mixed feelings (namely on Twitter) about the announcement of Bendy: Dreams Come to Life getting a graphic novel iteration. There is a LOT to talk about when it comes to this thing, and maybe I'll discuss it more another time, but today I wanna talk about the thing I've been hearing the most: strong feelings about having canonical designs for the human versions of some of our favorite characters.

In Dreams Come to Life, we have physical appearances from the following BATIM characters (that I can remember off the top of my head, I may be missing some):

Joey Drew

Sammy Lawrence

Norman Polk

Thomas Connor

Allison Pendle

Bertrum Piedmont

Wally Franks (this one I'm unsure on, it's been a hot minute)

This means that for the first time, we're gonna know what all of them look like as humans in the minds of the game developers, since, let's be real, if they're doing this thoughtfully, there is likely a lot of communication with the artist they got for this book. Making sure these characters fit their vision is a very probable priority.

In this fandom, we have had the freedom to design whatever the heck we want for the human versions of these characters. And that has been so much fun. You've had all sorts of takes, from characters mirroring their voice actors to completely original things that you never would have expected. Some things would pop up consistently in fan designs, and others would be an occasional pleasant surprise. We've seen a lot of things tweaked over the years, sometimes because we latch onto designs we like from artists we've met in the fandom and incorporate them into our own. Sometimes it's because we get new information in the canon, like Sammy confirmed to be blonde in The Illusion of Living (EDIT: I was extremely wrong on this, he is not confirmed blonde in this book, but he does have long and floppy hair that Joey thought should be slicked back more, and also Jack had some wild fashion), Allison is platinum blonde in DCTL, Wally having a hat as of his YouTube audiolog, Shawn and Tom wearing belts as of Boris and the Dark Survival, Tom being a wall of a man, Bertrum being a bear of a guy, etc. But even before Wally was confirmed to have a hat, a lot of us gave him a hat anyway, because the idea of him with a hat is fun! Bertrum being large, Tom being really tough! Heck, I saw a number of blonde Susies and Allisons before we got that bit on Allison, because it's fun to contrast their looks with that of Alice. That's the spirit of all of this, we make these designs because it's fun! You have characters all across the board in terms of race, sexuality, gender identity, age, body types, etc, because it's fun to imagine the possibilities for all of them with this cast that we love (and sometimes connect with them on a personal level), regardless of what's "canon" or not.

One of the things I'm hearing a lot is that some people don't want canon designs, and it sounds like it stems from a fear that they can't make their own designs anymore. And for those people, I'd like to ask, when has that ever stopped us? I mean that as a genuine question, I'm not here to mock anyone. Like, my first big fandom experience was over with Sonic as a teenager, and I never dreamed of deviating from the canon because I just, did not have any experience with that at the time. Bendy was really good for showing me that there's a LOT of ways the fandom experience can go, especially on this front. When Bendy and the Dark Revival came out, and we got two really major reveals for character designs: Memory Joey and Henry Stein. Henry, a character fans have been designing for YEARS, a character shrouded in mystery, finally got a confirmed design, and you know what happened? We started drawing this new design, but we didn't stop drawing our fan designs just because we got this new one. BATDR Henry has kind of been adopted into the fandom the same way we do designs for AUs, he's just another AU guy that happens to be canon to the sequel game. Heck, I love seeing art where fandom takes on Henry are interacting with BATDR Henry, it's really sweet honestly.

And that's exactly the attitude I have towards this graphic novel. It does not matter how these characters are designed, we are still valid and allowed to make whatever the heck we want. And if people really try to gatekeep it and scream that you're only allowed to draw the canon, I think that says more about them than it does anything else. Go draw what makes you happy (so long as it's not hurting anyone, obviously there is some nuance here but that is a whole other can of worms)! The only thing that this actually changes (or at least, what I'm guessing will change) is what's gonna fly when it comes to stuff like the fan art contests and challenges/what the devs might choose to retweet in terms of fan art. But that's only one part of the fan art scene. Otherwise, go fandom your way! No one is stopping you, draw what makes YOU happy. I am still going to draw a pointy blonde disaster of a music director however I please, even after we see Sammy in canon. Because darn it I like my Sammy, he is my strawberry blonde (depending on the world, sometimes it's more ashy) buffoon, and one new version of a book doesn't change my love for that.

That said, I am really curious how the teams behind this series imagine these characters. I feel the same way about it that I do my fellow fan artists. To me this really is just another AU, the DCTL AU. I think I'm less curious about the game characters and more about the characters native to this book, and that's got more to do with, well, I don't see a lot of people designing them! There's some, but they're not flooding my timeline like the game characters do. Like, I've designed the DCTL art department before for a Sims game, but I haven't gone much farther than that. I wanna know what Abby looks like, give me her fashion! I wanna see Buddy, Dot, and Jacob! I'm still keeping my Jacob design regardless, I love playing with him, but gosh do I wanna know what Jacob looks like in canon. Same with Dot. I have a lot of hopes for both of them, and I'm trying to lower my expectations so as not to be disappointed if it doesn't turn out that way. Like Dot has potential to be our first plus sized Bendy character given how she's described (also the first to wear glasses), of COURSE I want to see that! She's my writer girl that's super sus and incredibly interesting to me personally, I love her! And then I have more information to consider when I go to design my dolls (because believe you me, dolls based on the books have been on my list for a LONG time). I'm curious how much input Adrienne Kress will have here as the author, like I would love to know what's going on in her mind with these characters!

Whatever happens next, the most important thing to remember is that you're free to create whatever you like. Go make things that make you happy. That's all the devs are doing in the end, and if it's good enough for them, it's more than good enough for us. Bendy is made the way it is (hopefully) because that's what they wanted to make. Like why make an indie project that makes you miserable, you know? I don't know what to think of this new graphic novel, but whatever happens, I'm gonna take it with a grain of salt and keep doing what I always do: make my own fun out of what we're given. That's what fandom is, a place to enjoy a piece of media. And everyone enjoys this sort of thing differently. Find what works for you.

[shinysamurott9]

Alright so now that it's been a day and I've had some time to collect myself, I want to give my thoughts on Xenoblade X Definitive Edition.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. How is this real.

Ok so, I'm a pretty big fan of Xenoblade X, though I wasn't as much when I first played it in a Xenoblade marathon in the months leading up to 3. I didn't think it was bad or anything, it just didn't click with me the way the rest of the trilogy did at the time.

That is until I played it a second time roughly a year later alongside Xenogears and Xenosaga leading up to Future Redeemed. Before I got to it, I had made an effort to try and figure out the game and avoid the mistakes I had made in my first playthrough.

And I loved it.

Compared to the first time it was crazy, I didn't want to put the game down at all. Naturally after that, I really wanted to see some kind of follow up or for X to get some kind of second chance. Being a late Wii U game in a series that was at the time quite niche meant not a lot of people have gotten to play it. So a remaster on the level of Xenoblade 1's Definitive Edition felt like something X sorely needed as a way for more people to have a chance to play it and as a way to follow up on some of it’s infamous cliffhangers. People have wanted it for years for those reasons as well as the prospect of having the entire series on Switch.

And then Nintendo decides to come in on a random Tuesday out of nowhere and just drop the insane bombshell that a Xenoblade X Definitive Edition is real, is coming to the Switch and seemingly doing all of the above. I genuinely did not think it would ever happen. Monolith have put out statements before talking about how difficult and costly porting X would be, understandably so given how demanding that game was for the Wii U. Between that and just how late we are into the Switch's life, I felt like X on Switch was a pipe dream at best. Plus with the supposed Switch successor rumored to be a notable leap in power, I expected that if an XDE was on the table it would be saved for that to take advantage of the improved hardware.

But, here we are, Monolith have pulled out something I never thought possible. So far it seems like the graphics aren't overhauled as much as 1DE, which is fair, X holds up way better, especially in comparison to Xenoblade 1. But of course there are obvious changes to the character models and geaphics overall, so far everyone is looking pretty good so I'd say I'm already pretty happy on that front. There do also seem to be some minor tweaks to character designs, nothing major for the most part namely Lin only has one Monado hairpin instead of two.

What may be the most notable thing here is that finally after nearly a decade, they are finally following up on some of X's hanging threads with confirmed new story content. We can also see here the character people have called The Black Knight up until now. We never get anything close to a proper look at them in game but datamined models have shown us his model from the ending cutscene. He's we can already see he's been pretty heavily changed from the datamined model which makes sense. That model uses recolored grenada armor with a hood added so it was probably more of a placeholder than anything. I am very much looking forward to seeing where this goes.

What I am most curious about though is how this game will perform on a technical level. The original version was already struggling to run well on the Wii U even after the 15GB worth of performance patches, so I can't help but wonder how this game will turn out on the Switch. There's really no way to know til people get their hands on it.

That's about all we know for certain til we hear more, but there is a fair bit I would like to see from this game, a lot of it being general qol stuff, such as let me change my party or the time of day on the fly, give me better inventory management stuff like that. More options to customise my character would be nice too but given the precedent set by 1DE more armor pieces is probably a given. I would like it if some of the outfit pieces that differed between genders became available to both just to have more options, especially in regard to casual wear.

The biggest thing that I hope they implement though, that personally I think is borderline required for this game is some actual explanation for how the game mechanics work. The main reason I had such a hard time with X the first time is because most of its mechanics are never properly taught to you and they're just not intuitive enough to figure out on your own. Most egregiously this includes Overdrive, not just the cornerstone of X's combat system but an incredibly fun mechanic unique to X that not a lot of players got to fully appreciate because they didn't understand how it works.

I know the Wii U digital manual explained some of these things but people weren't really reading manuals in 2015, much less digital ones that are somewhat disconnected from the actual game. As far as I'm aware the Switch doesn't even have digital manuals like the Wii U so actual tutorials maybe something they need to add if they want any of the presumably many new players to figure out how to play the game.

Other than that though I'm very happy with what we've seen so far. I'm really looking forward to playing this game again with hopefully a much more active online playerbase for things like squad missions or nemesis battles. Will certainly make getting reward tickets much easier and more fun.

[chirpsythismorning]

The fact that Noah tweeted about shipping Byler over anything during the pride month, specifically in in the "gay day" (July 3rd), was totally intentional. He and his team knew exactly what they were doing.

And the fact that a Netflix account juxtaposed it over a TikTok edit of their talk in Will’s room… I’m sure behind the scenes it was something along the lines of him being advised to do it and a graphic designer being advised to play around with it for one of their few very overt byler posts.

If the goal was to not lead people on with a queerbait that will never happen and with an audience that for the most part wasn’t open to it initially anyways, they failed.

If the goal was to hide in plain sight to get people warmed up to it bc they were scared no one in the audience was ready for this upcoming revelation, they succeeded.

What’s so hilarious is that antis discredit it bc it’s Noah and they hate Noah so anything he says or does they downplay or discredit pretty much entirely.

Like i remember seeing someone get so salty on Reddit in a post bc of Noah saying stuff on his lives recently. They were like UHH can he stop messing with people!! They have to convince themselves that he’s disrespectful and breaking the rules and completely unserious, to comfort their own doubts.

That’s also why Noah was sort of the perfect scapegoat for introducing most fans that are hoping for it now, to be open to it in the first place. Bc people that are open to the possibility, are going to see stuff he says and be intrigued. Whereas the bulk of hardcore antis are going to convince themselves it’s nothing deeper bc to them Noah has no importance beyond frustrating them, bc in their eyes his character ruined all milkvans scenes. All he’ll ever be to them is a nuisance that doesn’t know his place…

Let’s remember this is a multi-million dollar production. He wouldn’t be out here saying stuff over and over and over cryptically unless he was given permission to. He wouldn’t be met with silence at con’s when byler comes up, only to keep bringing it up more defensively, like they’re building that up so definitely ship that… that was so fucking obviously his first attempt at subtle damage control bc he was getting in person confirmation most fans were not ready for byler incoming. Why get defensive about it otherwise? He could have took that as an opportunity to avoid queer-bait allegations?

But now look where we are? All bc Noah couldn’t keep his mouth shut. And they HATE him for it.

And that tweet was the most obvious ploy of all. Yeah most will discredit it, but plenty will start looking deeper as a result of his very obvious byler advertising. And that has continued to snowball deeper ever since, to the point where milkvan isn’t even liked by the majority anymore while byler is being more and more acknowledged as a possibility every day.

[superthatguy62]

Final Fantasy III Followups

Square-Enix is no stranger to development shifts and changes. Sometimes their games can influence other games; The nature of game development means that a concept or idea that went unused in one game can be reworked into another. And then, of course, there are games that include key staff members on them. Thus, it is unsurprising that there are numerous games that can be considered follows ups to certain Final Fantasy games. For example: Final Fantasy III has:

Final Fantasy IV

The most clear case is Final Fantasy IV as the second sequel to III, IV’s primary form of influence is in its jobs; Most of which were in III in some fashion and those that were different would grow into their “traditional” forms here. Dragoon, Bard and Summoner, are some of the jobs introduced in the previous game

Interestingly: FFV is probably the clear cut case for a game that would be influenced by III... but I have yet to see interviews that actually state that specifically. It clearly is, what with the return of the job system, some of the job designs, such as Krile’s White Mage getup being inspired by the Devout. Heck Bartz’s Blue Mage outfit is reused from Dark Knight’s intended design. But at the time of this writing, I haven’t seen an interview directly confirming it.

Secret of Mana

And speaking of FFIV

One that may not be as expected is Secret of Mana: The second in the Mana/”Seiken Densetsu” series. Released for the SNES, it was the first game in the aforementioned series to be disconnected from Final Fantasy, as the first game was titled “Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu” (or “Final Fantasy Adventure” in the west).

But not entirely.

Secret of Mana was originally intended to be Final Fantasy IV before blooming into its own project: a massive game targeting the SNES’ CD add-on (which ended up getting canned). Eventually however, the project got split into two different projects: The game’s code name and some of its ideas were reused for Chrono Trigger, while the game itself was condensed and eventually turned into Secret of Mana.

Hiromichi Tanaka, a key member of the original Final Fantasy III dev team who was also an executive producer and director of the remake, initially worked on FFIV, but when the project shifted, he went with the Mana team (hence him only having a “special thanks” credit in the final version of IV). Secret of Mana would also use the proposed battle system for the original SNES IV, being a seamless overhead system. Tanaka has said that Secret of Mana always felt like a sequel to III to him as a result. It should be noted that Koichi Ishii, the graphical artist of the original III was also heavily involved with Secret of Mana (and the Mana series in general).

Final Fantasy XI

And speaking of Tanaka and Ishii

Final Fantasy XI is an MMO based on the series (y’know, before That Other One). It is notable for being the first game since the original Final Fantasy III to have both Koichi Ishii and Hiromichi Tanaka involved with the Final Fantasy games, having worked on the Mana series in the meantime. Ishii in particular feels that XI is close to the view in his head of what he envisioned the Final Fantasy he wanted to make.

As for III, Tanaka credits it with being a major influence. In particular, the job system in XI is said to have been born out of a reflection of III’s job system and how to improve it. In an interview, Tanaka also acknowledges that FFIII and FFXI have similar “worldviews”, citing how they were originally most heavily involved with I-III as the reason. In a twist of recursive fate, he also reveals that an intention was to reuse models for the Final Fantasy III remake; While it didn’t pan out and new models needed to be made, the remake does still have a complete list of XI weapons in the code, presumably a remnant of this idea.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

And speaking of the FFIII remake

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light was the third Final Fantasy title produced under Tomoya Asano, but the first and last original one. More notable are the directors: Hiroaki Yabuta was a planner on both of the previous 3D remakes while Takashi Tokita is a co-director; Tokita has a long, storied history with SE, having worked on games like Live A Live, Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy Dimensions. For the focus on our topic, however, he has largely worked on everything directly FFIV-related (so original game, After Years, and the 3D remakes of both).

The 4 Heroes of Light proper harkens back to the Famicom-era FF games. While there are cutscenes, they aren’t elaborate and the plot is told in a somewhat loose manner compared to the SNES-era FF games (sort of somewhere between FF2 and FF3). The party dynamics are also reminiscent of the FF3 unused text where the Warriors of Light were somewhat dysfunctional, although the dysfunction here is to such an extent that the party splits shortly after the first real dungeon and doesn’t get back together until the end of act 1. There are nods to both games (and various other ones) scattered throughout the game.

4 Heroes of Light might be somewhat obscure now, but has had a significant legacy. The game’s sequel turned into its own IP, Bravely Default. The game also established Team Asano’s gameplay quirk of Boost: having the player manage a resource they can build up over turns, a system that would be utilized in both Bravely (with turns themselves) and Octopath Traveler (with boost points). Bravely itself includes nods to 4 Heroes of Light (The Adventurer returning and bosses returning as optional bosses, complete with a remixed medley of 4HOL’s battle and boss themes) and to a lesser extent, FF3 (the Water Crystal chapter has some nods, Tiz gets an Onion Knight outfit, some of the jobs are inspired by FF3′s takes, etc)

Final Fantasy III is not the only SE game to have far reaching influence. FF2 famously was a heavy influence on the SaGa series and with how many employees cite FFV as one of their favorites in the series, there’s no doubt that it and many other Final Fantasy games have inspired others. Again, that is simply the nature of game development: Sometimes one game can lead to a slew of games for different reasons, whether they be direct sequels or something new entirely.

[doamarierose-honoka]

As Marvel gears up to unveil its reimagining of the X-Men section of the Marvel Universe, the publisher has officially unveiled the next three mutant-centric series. In a press release Monday, the House of Ideas confirmed X-Force, Phoenix, and NYX will all be their own series in the new X-Men world. The three series joined the previously-announced X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and Exceptional X-Men as titles that will be included in the publisher's new X-slate.

Although no creative teams were included in the titles' announcement, it was revealed they'll debut this coming July in a post-Fall of X world. The three titles were also included on a graphic released as part of the initial SXSW announcement last month. Also on the graphic were teases to new X-Factor, Storm, and Wolverine series as well.

"The X-Men are fractured in the aftermath of the end of Krakoa, scattered across the globe without a central base of operation," Marvel Comics VP Executive Editor Tom Brevoort said in a statement at the time. "What that means in practice is that all three titles carrying the name X-MEN are core X-MEN series-they all center around one of the major aspects of what the team has been about at different points. This is very much by design. We want to field a wide assortment of X-titles with different styles and tones and approaches, an X-MEN book for virtually any taste."

Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman are leading the charge with the flagship X-Men book, while Gail Simon and David Marquez are paired together on Uncanny X-Men. Eve Ewing and Carmen Carnero will then be charged will bringing the Kitty Pryde-led Exceptional X-Men to life.

"Long-time fans of Kitty Pryde can count on the kinds of adventures you expect from her as a classic favorite, while I hope new and old readers alike will get to love this all-new team of young mutants," Ewing shared at the announcement event. "Kitty, the one-time kid sister figure of the X-Men, has to reckon with her own memories-good and bad-of being a child of Xavier as she navigates a role as leader and mentor for a new generation of mutants who are trying to make their way in a time of crisis. I always try to strike a chord between appealing to veteran comics fans and new readers, but since so many people fell in love with the X-Men as teens and this book is about a team of young folks, that feels especially important to me here. I hope that for some 13- or 14-year-old readers, this might be the first comic book they pick up. Working on this series has been a ton of fun already, as Carmen Carnero's art is bringing so much dynamism to these pages and the entire X-team of writers is in a flurry sharing scripts and feedback and ideas."

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for the latest news on Marvel's X-Men relaunch.

[elite-agency-consultant-blog]

How to Create a Website with WordPress? Step-by-step Guide

How to Create a Website with WordPress? Step-by-step Guide- Website Designers Walvis bay

Website designers Walvis bay. One of the difficulties many business owners without coding knowledge face nowadays is the inability to create a website with WordPress. This is mostly attributed to the fact that they think creating a WordPress site is rocket science and only for developers, designers, or geeks.

However, that is not the case. Now, anyone can build a website with WordPress easily in a matter of minutes by simply following instructions. It requires no technical skill whatsoever.

Therefore, to help many small business owners get online, we prepared this step-by-step guide on how to create a website using WordPress. With this article, you will be able to set up a WordPress site for your business or clients in under 60 minutes. So, please stay with me!

There are about 8 major steps when you want to create a website with WordPress. Here, I will explain all the steps in vivid detail and provide helpful graphical guides.

Step 1: Choose a Suitable Domain Name

The first step to take when creating a WordPress website is choosing your domain name. A domain name is the most important part of a website. Many webmasters refer to it as a business’s online address.

Your domain name is what users or visitors type into their browser’s address bar to reach your website. It is a unique identifier, and no business can share it with you at the same time. So without this, no website can exist or be created.

It would help if you considered certain factors when choosing a domain name for your business. These factors are:

Deciding on a Name

This is the first step regarding domain name when you want to create a website with WordPress.

When choosing a domain name, it is advisable to consider your business or brand name. As a general rule, it is easier for visitors to link your site’s address to your business name rather than an alias that they do not know.

For instance, if your business name is Example, customers that haven’t heard of your website before will naturally think your domain name is example.com, example.org, example.net, or any Top Level Domain (TLD). When this happens, and they are right, it works in your favor since they will visit your site to perform their intended transaction. As a result, it is advisable to go for the TLD domain extensions when you build a website with WordPress.

Furthermore, if you are building a niche website on WordPress, choosing a name that hints at what your site is about is always advisable. For example, seeing a domain that says Hostinger gives people an idea of what the sites are about. Most people can deduce that the first is to test hosting services, while the other is to test domain-related services.

Confirm the Availability of the Domain Name

The next step to take regarding domain names when you want to build a website with WordPress is to confirm the availability of the name you chose.

Confirming the availability of a domain name comes in two ways. The first has to do with the name’s trademark, while the second has to do with the domain name itself. To confirm the availability of a domain name, you need to try registering it using a registrar. We will show you how to do that in the next part.

When choosing a domain, especially as an infant company that is probably not registered yet, you must do some research. It is critical to make sure that the name you have chosen is not used by any other registered or established company.

If the name is already registered, then that company may have the trademark to any top-level domain that uses the exact letters of its name. Thus, you may be in a dirty and unnecessary future lawsuit if the company decides to register that domain name.

In addition, sometimes, the domain name you have picked is already registered, especially the .com TLD extension. When this happens, it is usually advisable to choose another domain name. This is because the .com extension domain is very popular, and people subconsciously add it to a company’s name to find its website. Thus, your customers may mistakenly land on another company’s website.

So, it is more advisable to either change your brand name entirely to match an available domain name or use a popular alias, variation, abbreviation, or acronym of your business name.

Generally, when building a website with WordPress, we recommend getting the .com domain extension as it is better and easier for visitors to remember.

Choosing a Registrar and Registering the Domain Name

Once you have decided on a domain name, the next course of action when you want to create a website with WordPress is to register it. To do that, you need to use a domain registrar. The best domain registrar in the industry is Hostinger, and you can get a domain for as low as $0.99 per year.

You can use the Hostinger domain name search tool to choose a good name or even check the availability of the one you had in mind. To use it, navigate to the domain checker tool page, type your domain name in the search box, and hit the search button.

If your preferred domain is available, click on Add to cart beside it and Continue to cart afterward. This will redirect you to the payment page where you can choose your registration or subscription period between 1 to 3 years.

Once you have chosen that, input the email address you want to associate with the hosting account or connect using your Facebook or Google account.

Then, choose your preferred payment, type in the details, and click Submit Secure Payment. This will process your payment and create an account for you.

On the next page, if you used an email address, you will have to set your password and fill in other personal details to finalize your account creation. Hostinger provides free privacy protection for all its domains, so you do not have to worry about information leakage.

If the domain name is unavailable, the tool will let you know it is taken, and you may choose a similar one with another domain extension.

However, that decision is up for debate, and you may refer to the availability sub-step above to know what to do. But in our opinion as always, building a WordPress website with the .com domain extension is quite better than using another extension.

Step 2: Choose a Good Hosting Plan/Company

No website can exist without hosting. It is another important part of a website. So, even if you already registered a domain name, you need a host if you want to create a website with WordPress.

Hosting is more like online housing. It is the term that encompasses how and where the files, photos, and databases on your site are stored. While your domain name is the address, hosting is the building or warehouse. So, you need to buy a hosting account as well.

The web hosting company that hosts your site has a great impact on the success of your online business. Hence, it is advisable to always go for the best one to avoid regrets later. There are so many out there, but we have prepared an article on the best web hosting providers to choose for your website projects.

Based on the quality of service and the general experience we had testing these hosting companies, Hostinger is our top pick. Thus, we will be using it for this guide on how to build a website with WordPress and recommend it to you too. Read our Hostinger review to have a glance at the quality of their services.

Purchase a Hosting Account/Plan

Hostinger has different hosting plans, including shared, managed WordPress, VPS, and cloud. The best one to choose when you create a WordPress website depends on the needs of your business, but we recommend getting a shared plan as a beginner. You can upgrade the plan as your business scales.

To purchase a hosting account, go to the Hostinger website and choose your preferred shared hosting plan. You can get the Single web hosting plan for as low as $2 per month for a 4-year subscription. This package has many features that will help your WordPress site and business grow. It includes SSL certificates, a free custom email address, SSD storage, and great bandwidth.

Alternatively, you can purchase the Premium plan for as low as $3 per month if you have many sites to create. You will enjoy a free domain registration for the first year. That saves you about $10.

After you click on Add to cart, choose your subscription period between 1 to 48 months, and provide your email address to open an account. Alternatively, you may use your Facebook or Google account.

Then, you should choose your preferred payment method, type in the details, and click on Submit Secure Payment.

Afterward, you may set your password and log in to your hPanel to continue creating your WordPress website.

Step 3: Install WordPress on Your Domain

Here is where the fun begins. Now you have both a domain and hosting account for your site. The next step when creating a WordPress website is to install WP on that domain. Do not fret, Hostinger makes building a WordPress website pretty easy.

To do that, log in to your control panel (hPanel). If you are on the Premium shared plan upwards, you can claim a free domain.

Thus, click on the Claim domain. On the pop-up window, enter your preferred domain name and choose an extension from the list.

Afterward, click on Check availability. The tool will let you know if the domain is available or not. If it is not, it will suggest that you search for another domain name.

If it is available, click Claim domain. You may then proceed to install WordPress on that domain.

Note that no matter when you claim the free domain, it will expire after the first year of your subscription and you will have to renew to keep it.

Once on the Hostinger hPanel, click on Website from the top menu. Then click on the big box that says Create or migrate a website.

Since we are not migrating a site, select the Create a new website option.

On the next page, select the WordPress option since we are trying to create a website with WordPress. The Hostinger website builder option does not work with WordPress, so do not make the mistake of selecting it.

Afterward, specify the email address you want to use for your administrator account and your preferred password. Then, click on Continue.

On the next page, you can choose a list of plugins you would like to pre-install with your WordPress installation. These plugins are for SEO and Analytics. Afterward, click on Continue.

If you do not wish to include them, click on Skip, and I will manage plugins later.

Afterward, you may choose a starter theme from the list of templates available. You may preview them to see if you like them or not. Click on Select the template you want.

If you decide to choose no template, click on Skip, I don’t need a template, and Twenty Twenty-two theme will be pre-installed for you.

Now, you can choose the domain you want to install WordPress on. If you have one registered already, select Use an Existing Domain. Afterward, type the domain name in the box provided and click on Continue.

If the domain is registered on Hostinger, the installation process will provide a drop-down where you can choose it as an alternative method.

On the next page, click on Finish setup. This concludes your WP installation, and you have been successful in building a WordPress website to a point.

You can now log in to your wp-admin area using the username and password you set during the installation.

Visit Hostinger Website

Step 4: Choose Your Preferred Theme

Themes are the skins of your WordPress site. They determine how the WordPress website you create will look, and they come in various designs and different features. If your preferred theme was not part of the available templates during your WordPress installation, you could change it now.

There are a lot of themes that you can use to build your WordPress website. Some are free, while some are only available as paid themes. At the same time, some themes have both free and paid versions.

The right theme to use when building a WordPress website depends on the purpose of your business, personal preferences, and the features you need. Also, you should consider the general performance of the theme regarding speed and SEO.

According to our tests and review of WP themes, we can recommend Astra as a great theme to use when you want to create a website with WordPress. Astra is a noteworthy theme that comes in both free and paid versions. It is fast, lightweight, and optimized for SEO. It has a lot of layouts that are suitable for use for different types of blogs.

Astra WordPress theme is also very eCommerce-friendly as it supports many features that can help you make money with your site. This includes out-of-the-box support for WooCommerce and its plugins and Learndash. Learndash is very useful if you want to create a website with WordPress in order to sell online courses.

Even with the free version of the Astra theme, you can fully customize most parts of your website. You can set the menus and design the layouts how you want, customize your widgets, and change the style of your site. If the customization in the free version isn’t enough, the Astra theme is compatible with many page builders like Elementor so you may use it for further customizations.

With the Astra Pro theme, things even get better. Your designs and customizations are limitless. You will get many professional website templates you can choose from and edit with your content. The pre-designed layouts of the menus also increase, and more eCommerce functions are unlocked.

Conclusively, Astra is a powerful theme recommended for beginners to build any type of WordPress website easily. The free version of the theme is great, and the Pro version is even better. You can get the Astra Pro theme for as low as $47.

Install the WordPress Theme

Once you have decided on the theme you want to use to create a website with WordPress, the next action is installing it. To do that, navigate to the wp-admin menu and click on Appearance.

This will take you to a page where you will see all the installed themes on your site. Look at the top left of the page and click on Add New. This will take you to the page where you will see more than 5000 WordPress themes that you can use.

On this page, type the name of your preferred theme in the search box or a term related to it, and it will display all relevant themes below. In our case, we are installing the Astra theme since it is one of the best WordPress themes to use right now.

If you do not already have a theme in mind, click on the Feature Filter. This allows you to filter the themes using Subject, Features, and Layout parameters. This way, you may find the relevant theme you have pictured for your website faster.

You may also preview how your website will look when you use the theme. Do this by hovering around the theme’s name and clicking on Preview.

Once you have found the right theme, move your cursor on top of the theme and click on Install. Wait a few seconds for the installation to complete, and click Activate to make it your site’s theme.

Customize the Theme (Site)

Once you have activated your theme, the next to take when you want to create a website with WordPress is to customize it and make it yours. This includes but is not limited to setting your logo, site name, and tagline and customizing your site’s header and footer layouts.

Set Your Header and Footer Layouts

Sometimes the header and footer layouts that come with the theme we use to create our WordPress website are not very good. Hence we may change them into what we like or what works for our business.

To change your header and footer layouts, click Appearance on the wp-admin menu, then Customize.

Once on the Customizer page, navigate to Header Builder and click on it.

In some themes, it might just be Header. This opens the built-in builder of the header, and you can rearrange the elements or blocks on it.

You can change the position of the elements, delete existing ones and add new ones. To do this, move your mouse to the editor and hover over it to check where you can add elements or blocks.

Once you see a “+” symbol, it indicates that you can add or move an element or header item to that position. If you click on the “+” symbol, you will see the possible elements or blocks you can add, so click on the one you want in that position.

After adding an element to the header, you may customize it by clicking on it. You will see all the possible customizations available in the left Controls sidebar. The one shown in the screenshot below is for the Primary menu.

You can also customize the design of the entire header by clicking on the “Settings” icon beside it.

The same process goes for customizing your footer layout. However, the controls are at Appearance >> Customize >> Footer Builder. Once you are done customizing them, save or publish your changes.

Choose a Site Icon and Logo

To set an icon for your site, navigate to Appearance and click on Customize.

Click on Site Identity and then Select a site icon from the left sidebar.

Afterward, upload it from your computer and publish the changes in the Customizer to your live site.

The site icon is the little image browsers display alongside your URL or page title in the tabs. The recommended size is a 1:1 aspect ratio, and the least dimension is 512 by 512 pixels.

After you have set a site icon, the next one is your logo. However, there is no rule about the one you must set up first.

The method of changing logos for your website solely depends on your theme. However, most of the time, you can change your site’s logo using Customizer.

To change the logo in the Astra theme, go to Customizer and navigate to Site Identity.

On the next screen, click on Site title & Logo Settings.

Then Select Logo.

Choose the logo file from your media library or computer and upload it. Afterward, publish the changes to your live site.

Set Typography and Colors

The typography and color of your site are part of your branding. Hence it would help if you changed them. If you do not have any brand colors or fonts in mind, test many variations of them and make sure they are visible well enough.

To change the typography, go to Global >> Typography in WordPress Customizer.

Then navigate to BASE FONT.

With the Body Font control, you can set the typography for all HTML tags on your site, excluding the headings. You can choose your preferred font family, weight, height, and transformation (letter case).

Also, you can use the Headings Font control to set the typography for all the heading tags on your site. Furthermore, using different typography, you may customize the h1 to h6 tags separately. However, this is not advisable since using too many fonts slows down your site’s loading speed.

Go to Global >> Colors in your Customizer to change your colors.

You can change the color of your site’s background, body text, headings, buttons, links, etc. If you mess up the colors while trying to customize, you may reset to the default colors using the reset icon beside the controls.

Choose Your Preferred Homepage or Frontpage Setting

When you build a WordPress website, you have two options regarding how you want your front page to be.

The Your latest posts option is usually recommended for sites that are blogs or magazines and publish posts daily. This makes the recent blog content available and easily accessible to visitors from the homepage.

On the other hand, if your site is not primarily about blogging, the general rule is to make the most important page on your site your homepage. Hence, choosing the “A static page” option is recommended. You may now link to the page containing your recent blog posts from your header or footer menu. No matter what the former URL of the static page was, once it is made your homepage, you can access it through the site’s URL only.

To set your front page, navigate to Appearance >> Customize >> Homepage Settings.

The default for most themes is Your latest posts, so if you prefer A static page, choose it. Upon clicking on it, it will ask you to choose the Homepage and the Posts page.

Choose the page you have designed specifically for the front page as the homepage from the drop-down menu. The Posts page is just like the page for your latest blog posts, but it is not compulsory. But if you want your blog posts to be on the front page just below your main content, choose a page you created specifically for that purpose from the drop-down menu. Publish or save your changes afterward.

Step 5: Add Plugins to Increase Your Site’s Features

When you create a website with WordPress, like every other site builder or Content Management System (CMS), some features will be unavailable. As a result, we have to use plugins to add some functions.

There are thousands of plugins on WordPress for use by any site, and they offer different features. Like WordPress themes, some plugins are free, and others are paid. At the same time, some have both free and premium versions.

To add plugins to your WordPress site, navigate to Plugins >> Add New.

Afterward, type the name or keyword of the plugin you wish to install. After the results have been automatically loaded, hover your mouse on the plugin card, and click on Install Now. Wait a few seconds for the installation of the plugin to complete, and then click Activate.

You may now start using the plugin for the purpose you installed it.

Recommended Plugins for a WordPress Website

Here are some of the plugins you need to build your WordPress website to function effectively:

SEO plugin: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plugins are essential for a website interested in organic traffic. That is, getting traffic from Google and other search engines. They will help optimize your web pages, content, images, etc. Examples of WordPress’s popular and very effective SEO plugins are Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All-in-SEO, etc.

Analytics plugin: An Analytics plugin is a tool that helps to simplify your traffic reports. It records your site’s traffic and breaks it down into many metrics you can understand better and use for marketing purposes in the future. Examples of this are Monster Insights, Site Kit by Google, etc.

Security Plugin: A security plugin is a tool that secures your site against cyberattacks like malware injections and brute force attacks. They provide 24-hour monitoring, malware scans and removal, firewalls, site backups, login security, etc. Examples of popular and effective ones are Wordfence, Sucuri, etc.

Page builder plugin: A page builder plugin is very important, especially when you have reached the limits of the built-in customizations of your theme. Most WordPress page builders are equipped with drag-and-drop editors. Hence they are sometimes tagged with the WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get term. That is, whatever you customize using the page builder will show the same on your live site. An example of an exemplary page builder for WordPress websites is Elementor.

Contact Form Builder: Contact forms are a way of getting users’ information on your site. This will help you to gain a high volume of email lists and prospective customers. You need a contact form builder plugin to build the forms that will collect this information and save it for you without coding knowledge. An example of a contact form builder is WPForms.

Step 6: Finalize Some Basic WordPress Settings

Just before you start writing content or commence the concluding parts when trying to create a website with WordPress, there are some WP settings you need to do. I will explain them below.

Set Your Permalink or URL Structure

Permalink refers to the general structure of your site’s URL that every new post and page will inherit. For instance, if our permalink structure is domain+date and name. Then our blog post titled Sample Post will have the URL “https://01nethosting.com/2022/12/10/sample-post/”. This is the URL structure all our future posts will also take.

Generally, it is advised that blogs like news websites have the URL structure “https://01nethosting.com/2022/12/10/sample-post/”. At the same time, sites for niche topics or other types of non-timely content should use the URL structure “https://01nethosting.com/sample-post/”.

It is important to ensure that you change your permalink structure before publishing your first post or page.

To change your URL structure, go to Settings >> Permalinks.

We strongly recommend choosing the Post name structure since it’s more practical and popular. However, if you have something else in mind that is not available on the list, you may create a custom URL structure.

You can also change your category and tag bases if you would like. This will change the URL structure of your category and tag pages.

Once you are done setting your permalink structure, click on Save Changes.

Check Your Blog Posts Settings

This is under Reading Settings in your WordPress admin dashboard. Here, you can set your front page to either a static or the latest post page. So it is an alternative method to using the WordPress Customizer.

The important settings we need here are regarding the number of posts per page before pagination and your search engine visibility.

The search engine visibility setting directly alters your robots.txt file. Depending on your choice, you can send an instruction to search engine bots regarding whether to crawl your site for indexing. You cannot work on SEO if you choose to discourage search engines from indexing your site.

To change these settings, go to Settings >> Reading.

You may now alter your settings and click on Save Changes.

Set Your Comment Preferences

Another basic setting to attend to when you create a website with WordPress is comment or discussion. Commenting is very great, but your need for it depends on what your website is for.

There is no need for comments for a brand or company website with no blog option. However, if you are running a blog, you need to allow commenting on your posts. This helps to create engagement on your posts and may help your SEO.

You can also change other comment settings, such as moderation, avatars, etc., to your preference.

To change your comment preferences, go to Settings >> Discussion.

You will see all the options and settings you can alter on the page.

To prevent spam, we recommend defining your disallowed comment keys or words. Also, ensure every new comment passes through moderation for approval before reaching your pages.

Step 7: Create Relevant Pages

When you create a website with WordPress, you need to create some pages depending on its purpose. Generally, every website should have important pages such as About, Contact, and Privacy Policy. If you are running an eCommerce store, you may need to create pages for Terms and Conditions, Refund Policy, Disclosure, etc.

Furthermore, the method of creating pages on WordPress also depends on the features you wish to include or the designs you prefer. Using only the Block Editor will suffice for simple pages with texts and images.

However, if you wish to create pages with more sophisticated designs on your WordPress website, you may need to use a page builder like Elementor. You can install the free version of the plugin and start designing your pages.

To create a new page using the simpler method (Block Editor), navigate to Pages >> Add New.

Once on the editor screen, give your new page a title.

If you are using the Block Editor (WordPress default editor), look for the boxed “+” sign and click on it. It will pop up a window of elements or blocks you can add to your page. You can click on the Browse all button to see all the blocks.

For texts, you can add a Paragraph, Heading, List, Code, etc. You can also add media blocks like an image, gallery, video, file, etc. There are so many blocks on the list.

After choosing which element to include, click on it, and it will be added to your page. You can then repeat that process for every element you wish to add. For paragraph blocks, clicking the Return button on your computer in the editor will create one for you each time.

When you are done writing the page’s content, the next thing is to add a featured image by using the control on the right toolbar. You can also choose to either disallow or allow comments on the page from there.

Lastly, from that toolbar, you can choose if this page is a parent page or not. A parent page is a page that treats a broader topic related to other specific articles. If your new page has one, choose it from the drop-down; otherwise, leave it and publish your page.

Like that, your first page on your WordPress site has been published!

Step 8: Improve Your Site’s Navigations

Navigation is very important when you want to create a website with WordPress no matter what kind of site you build. They help users to find important parts of your website faster. Thus, they boost great user experience.

The two types of navigation you need to worry about at this stage are menus and widgets.

Create Your Menus

Menus are very important and must-haves for any WordPress website you create. They make navigation very easy since they contain links to important pages of your website. Sometimes, they may also link to sources outside your site or domain.

To add new menus, go to your wp-admin dashboard and navigate to Appearance, then Menus.

On the menu page, you will see two screen elements. The first is “Add menu items.” This is where all the items, like links, pages, etc., that you can add to your menu are. The second one is “Menu structure.” You can use it to create menus and assign them to different locations in your theme.

To create a new menu, type the name of the menu you wish to create in the box under the Menu structure text. Choose the display locations under the Menu Settings, then navigate to click on Create Menu.

Once the menu has been created, the elements under Add menu items will be available. You can now add pages, posts, categories, and custom links to your menu.

For every category you choose items from, click on Add to Menu under it. You may then rearrange the items as you like by changing their order and turning some into sub-menus if necessary. Once you are done, click on Save Menu.

Add Widgets to Your Site

Widgets are another way of offering easier navigation on your site to visitors.

Unlike menus that allow you to add only links to pages, posts, sites, buttons, etc., you can add any block as a widget. That is, you can add images, videos, texts, codes, galleries, etc., to your widget areas.

Therefore, they serve not only as navigational parts of your site but also as design elements. The only issue with them is that their positions are fixed and defined by your theme. Thus, if you ever wish to change their positions or add more widgets, you need to do that at the code level.

To add blocks to your widgets, navigate to Customize >> Widgets.

Afterward, click on the position you would like to edit. This will open the location and display a big button with a “+” symbol. Click on this button to add the block you wish to put in that widget area. You can also customize the blocks or edit them from this screen.

Repeat this process for each block you add for every location. When you are done, click on Update to publish the change.

Bottom Line: Can a Beginner Build a Website With WordPress?

Yes, a beginner can build a working website with WordPress, which is what we have shown in this guide.

WordPress is a very easy CMS and website builder, even though you know nothing about code. It has many opportunities, like free themes and plugins, that will help you achieve your desired site even without having technical skills.

Therefore, a beginner or anyone who can follow this guide meticulously can create a website with WordPress within 1 hour.

[tobiashwn]

s̠҉͍͊ͅc͕͗ͤ̕̕R͉̜̎͡͠Ḛͭ̉̇͟ā̤̓̍͘M͉̅ͮ͒ͤs̠҉͍͊ͅ ỉ͔͖̜͌N̺̻̔̆ͅT̨͈͗̌ͥo̯̱̊͊͢ T̨͈͗̌ͥḣ̖̻͛̓Ḛͭ̉̇͟ A̷͙ͭͫ̕B̩͎͍̾ͅy҉̃̀̋̑s̠҉͍͊ͅS̵̙͕̀̃

hello everyone ! it has been a long time running since i’ve been back on the tumblr rp scene ! i am here with my boy ‘tobias moon aka toby’. i’ll say the traits on his graphic should be a dead giveaway to what type of insufferable asshole he is and proudly lives as. check the tldr below! i’ve been horrid at plotting lately so what i will offer up front are random starters for the plots below if anyone interested, just comment with the number !

also always forget this part,,, here’s his profile and background ! everything else is wip rn ( plots and wanted connections ). 

rich, smart, handsome, what else do you need?

tobias moon, also goes by toby, that goodlooking guy, asshole, you name it

go ahead and deny it and say you hate him all you want, he knows deep down you like him and definitely had a crush on him at least once in your lifetime

born in machester, uk on august 15 1995 ( if the leo sun doesn’t give a sure fire sign idk what will )

currently 27 years old and thriving at his age

his parents have continued to reside in manchester while he’s lived in hwando for the past few years for his studies in geumdal village, hanok 102

graduate student and choose to major in defense against the dark arts with a minor potions

proud jujak house representative

captain of the jujak quidditch team and competitive beater

despite being a fucking haughty bitch, where he talks big he walks as well. doesn’t back down from a challenge and knows he’s good at what he does ( highlight confident )

plans to go pro with quidditch

the moon family and the matriarch

comes from a long line of prominently pureblood dark wizards

his father was speculated to be a death eater, however, this has never been proven or confirmed

mother is famous fashion designer in the wizarding world

despite the family’s history with dark arts, they maintained a suspiciously powerful influence within sections of the wizarding world that keep them rich and affluent to this day

after the passing of his grandfather, his grandmother became the head of the family line ( referred to as the matriarch )

the matriarch: as any scary intimidating grandmother with only expectations she can meet is

has disowned relatives and her own children who have turned against the family or disgraced the moon name

has a tolerate-hate relationship with tobias 

although his mother is also pureblood, she came from a much less noble family and the matriarch has never truly accepted her

when tobias does something good, she acknowledges him as his father’s son

and when he does something she doesn’t approve of, he’s known as his mother’s child

like the back of your hand

currently on the island for ulterior motives ( you can’t actually believe he’s there just for his education can you? )

instructed by his father to learn everything he can about the island and the hwangmun organization hence furthering his graduate studies into defense against the dark arts

no better way to learn about the enemy than pretending to be one of them right?

his education and quidditch are just to pass the time and make things easier

the matriach resides on a magically protected mansion sobaeksan near danyang, away from major cities 

tobias frequently visits ( aka heeds her every call ) 

eyes on me

okay felt the need to make this bec it’s actually a big part of his character

despite being a haughty deviant, tobias is actually very serious about his gameplay, strategies, and reputation as the captain of the jujak quidditch team

he’s not unfair but will hold you accountable

will not lecture or be stern but that’s because he expects everyone to act like actual adults with brains. give him respect and he gives you respect. give him trust and he gives you trust. 

if you ignore practice, his words or instructions as captain, or do anything to jeopardize anyone on the team or the team in general, he will put his foot down and you will deal with the consequences ( he will bench you or put you on suspension )

he doesn’t go out of his way to intimidate his teammates of these expectations. they are what they are - expectations that everyone should be aware of

in all, can promise he’s a good leader and captain whether you’re actually friends with him or not

wanted connections 

people who don’t get along with him ( whether it be because he doesn’t deny his family background or because he’s an asshole there’s so many reasons pick one lol )

neighbors from hanok village!

old roommate from jujak dorm days?

quidditch teammates ( hmu let’s figure out dynamics! )

you have/had a crush on him? and he openly flirts with you with this knowledge ( or without :shrug emoji: )

tutors you in dada or potions

he’s loaned you money

actual friends? lol

random starters

you’re rich... but you still eat at the school cafeterias? maybe this prompts tobias into taking you out to an expensive dinner ( probably him just showing off tbh )

you can’t stand him but you’re professor told you to get help from tobias for the subject your struggling in

you spill your drink on tobias and it stains his shirt... man oh man is it your unlucky day because that shirt was FUCKING expensive

you’re practicing spells and one backfires, almost hitting tobias but he deflects just in time... uh oh... will he believe you weren’t trying to attack him?

you’ve heard about tobias and his family but this is your first time actually running into him and interacting with him and wait... he’s actually kind of cute?

you’ve been studying in the grand library for a few hours and notice that tobias keeps staring at you... what the fuck stop sTARING

that’s all for now folks, i will update with official plots and connections when i get to those. if a random starter did not interest you and you drop a like, i will slithery slide into your dms later! if you read this far you’re a chump. i mean champ. IM JOKING REALLY PLEASE. will catch you guys on the flipside!!

[sgtjbbhasmyheart]

Drunk Texting Is(n’t) Bad for Your Health- Chapter Six (part 1)

Series Summary: Talk about your unconventional meet-cute! Bucky receives a text by mistake requesting he prove he's not Reader's sister. The easy dialogue between Reader and Bucky sparks a natural friendship, but could it lead to more? Bucky still deems himself unworthy of any form of affection or love. Reader is hellbent to prove him wrong. With the help of some (meddling) friends along the way, Bucky may get his happily-ever-after after all.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Word Count: 3293

Warnings: ANGST, bad language words

A/N: Tumblr sucks. It forced me to split this chapter up because I exceeded the text block limit. That’s just how I write! Link to part 2 at the end.

A/N 2: Thank you again to everyone for showing this story so much love! And thank you to everyone for your patience and support as I struggled to put this out. As you can tell from the multiple parts, it was a doozy. 🥰 divider credit- @firefly-graphics​

In case you missed the update, I will be publishing a new chapter every other Saturday from here on out. Schedule is in the Masterlist in my header.

DO NOT copy or replicate without my permission.

Monday morning rolled around, and your good mood from the weekend followed you into the office. Spending all of Saturday and the majority of Sunday texting James had lent to this early morning cheerfulness. You couldn’t help the smile on your face. You had even managed to arrive before most of your team.  

You hummed a sweet melody as you booted up your computer and organized a few files for Timmons to peruse. They were statements intended for the press needing his approval about a particular prominent CEO or A-list celebrity client. The firm was not confirming nor denying any knowledge of said client’s whereabouts the previous week or why there was photographic evidence of them coming out of FlashDancers NYC. Other files included those seeking rebranding approval for existing companies looking to revamp their image.

Most importantly, today was contract signing day for Stark Industries. 

You had compiled the document from a generic template the company used for all its clients, manually plugging in Stark Industries’ information in the correct spots and changing or omitting any services rendered or not. E-signing contracts were not only environmentally responsible, but they also saved a lot of your time from printing out numerous copies of a single agreement.

All you needed now was Timmons’ go-ahead to email the contract, and Pepper Potts could plug in her Jane Hancock.

Seeing Timmons enter the workroom, tweed coat draped over his forearm and attaché in hand, you rose from the seat behind your desk. You shuffled into his office after him.

He hung his jacket from the coat rack in the corner near a bank of expansive windows and placed the small, leather case he’d been carrying on the sturdy oak desk. He pulled out a stack of papers and tapped the pile against the desktop to straighten them before setting them down. Looking up at you briefly, he tugged out his laptop next.

You positioned a mug of coffee on Timmons’ desk, turning the handle just so, making it easier for him to grab. You cleared your throat gently. He glanced up at you again.

“Here’s the media statements for today,” you said, handing him a group of manila folders. You smoothed down the hem of your cardigan, smiling at the reminder of Bucky. You wished there had been a way to apologize to him again. He had left your apartment with such a pained look on his face. Maybe you could ask Peter. “And the Stark contract pdf is ready to go. I can email it over to you for final approval.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Timmons replied absent-mindedly, lifting the organized piles on the desk as if looking for something.

“Oh, okay,” you returned, nodding your head diminutively. “Do you want me to forward the contract on to Ms. Potts, then?”

“Ah-ha!” Timmons exclaimed, plucking a pen from underneath a stack of envelopes. He twirled the writing implement in his hand and peered at you, finally taking in your presence for the first time that morning.

An uncomfortable feeling washed over you as he evaluated you from head to toe. What was he looking at? Your hands tensed into fists as you continued to wait for his answer, growing impatient.

“Should I go ahead and do that, then, sir?” you asked, folding your arms across your chest like a protective suit of armor to deflect prying eyes.

“Yes, yes. That should be acceptable,” Timmons answered.

It threw you off balance. What had gotten into him? Timmons always had to have the final say on everything. It was so unlike him!

“Just so we’re clear- I will be sending the Stark Industries contract via email to Pepper Potts to e-sign,” you said, seeking clarification. You wanted to dot all i’s and cross all t’s because you weren’t going to lay your ass on the line for a misunderstanding. Especially not with something as crucial as the Stark Industries account.

“What? No, there’s been a change of plans,” he corrected.

You stared at him dumbfounded. Was he purposely trying to give you mental whiplash?

“Change of plans,” you affirmed. “Has Stark Industries decided not to use the firm, sir?”

“Oh, no. They’re still going with us,” Timmons said, rearranging the clutter he’d made on his desk.

You dropped your arms to your sides, although inside, you felt like throwing them into the air in frustration. Why was he so vague? He was usually wholly transparent with you. “Would you mind explaining it to me, please?” you asked, borderline annoyed. “Last time I checked, Stark Industries’ contract signing was still on the calendar for today’s agenda.”

“And it still is,” Timmons acknowledged. “It’s moved to an in-person signing.”

Your stomach plunged to the floor. Shit! You hadn’t printed out the contract! When was the appointment? How much time did you have? So many questions flew through your head.

How could Timmons keep something like this from you? Your heart hammered in your chest. You practically wobbled on your feet. Were you going to be sick?

I’m going to get fucking fired over this, you thought, trying to steady your breathing.

“Will you be ready to go in twenty minutes?” Timmons questioned, sitting down in the comfy desk chair and opening his laptop.

“Go?” you squeaked, attempting to recall how much you had in savings. You shook your head, trying to understand his words. Was he already asking you to clear out your desk?

“Yes. The car will be here at nine,” he said, keyboard clacking as he typed something.

“Car?” you asked, finding great difficulty comprehending the situation. Your head felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

Timmons regarded you in bafflement. “Have you been drinking?”

“What? NO!” you declared. You didn’t need that added to “the inability to perform required tasks” as a reason for your firing.  “I’m-I’m just really confused, sir.”

“About what?” Timmons asked, sitting back in his chair, folding his hands in his lap.

“Well…” you started. “What do we need a car for?”

His chocolate brown eyes shone with what you imagined might be excitement. “To drive upstate, of course.” He smirked as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the desktop.

Upstate? What was upstate?

Timmons’ smile broadened as realization crept across your face. “Are we-”

“Yup!” he interrupted gleefully. He was like a child in a candy store. “We are headed to the Avengers Compound with a personal invitation from Tony Stark himself!”

You blinked several times at your boss, not entirely computing what he’d said. You were usually a lot quicker on the uptake than this. Why were you having such an off-day? 

“We?” you asked, shaking your head clear of the cobwebs. Why on Earth would he bring you along?

“I need someone who knows the ins and outs of these contract signings,” he said, fiddling with his pen again.

Wasn’t that his job?

“I’m just the schmoozer- the people-person,” he admitted, shrugging. “You’re the real brains behind this whole operation.

You nodded your head in agreement. He wasn’t wrong. The office would collectively collapse without you, and it felt good to hear your actual boss say it out loud.

“You better not forget it, either. Especially when my job performance evaluation comes around,” you asserted.

Timmons swiftly saluted you as if he was the subordinate. You huffed a laugh at him while shaking your head with incredulity. You took a step or two toward the office door before looking over your shoulder at him.

Timmons had turned back to his laptop screen already and started typing again. “So, twenty minutes?” he asked with an air of levity.

You faltered, nearly tripping over your feet. “Wait? You were serious about that?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Timmons wondered, looking up hurriedly from his laptop.

“I need to print out the contract and make copies, for one thing,” you mentioned, almost accusatory. Maybe if he had warned you ahead of time, you wouldn’t be so defensive.

“Already taken care of,” he soothed.

“What do you mean it’s ‘already taken care of’?” you asked, raising your hands to make quotation marks with your fingers.

“I had one of the other grunts do it last night.”

You gaped at Timmons like a goldfish, mouth popping open and closed. Did you hear him correctly? Timmons did something to make your job easier? You could hug him right now! You felt like pinching yourself to make sure it wasn’t a dream.

Once you gathered your wits again, you glanced to your feet bashfully. “Oh,” you spoke, absently fingering the bottom button of your cardigan. “Thank you.” You smiled gratefully.

Timmons returned the smile with one of his own. “You’re welcome.”

“Nine o’clock, then,” you agreed, moving further toward the doorway.

“On the dot!”

Words couldn’t even begin to describe the Avengers Compound. You’d seen it on the news, sure, but that didn’t compare to seeing it in real life. It was grandiose, imposing. You felt dwarfed in size looking up to the high rooftop. 

It was almost ostentatious in a way. Much like the man who designed it. Larger than life.

Tony Stark.

Tony had insisted he take you and Timmons around on the tour of the compound. You still hadn’t seen the need for a tour.

“When Tony Stark invites you to tour the Avengers compound, you don’t say no,” Timmons had said in the car-ride up when you questioned why it was necessary.

It was all superfluous, really. Like Tony was trying to woo the firm to sign them, not the other way around.

A headache was forming at the base of your skull as you waited in line at the reception desk to return your visitor security badge.

The tour of the facility seemed to have been drug out longer than it needed. Tony had appeared overeager to show off every little gadget or trinket. Or maybe he just liked to hear himself talk.

When Timmons excepted the lunch invitation after the tour was completed, you felt the urge to run down to the armory, grab a gun, and shoot yourself in the foot. You were kicking yourself for ever agreeing to come on this dumb tour.

As the line slowly dragged forward, the muffled noise of men’s voices caught your ear. It sounded like an argument. Your line of sight followed to where the altercation originated.

Standing twenty feet away was Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, clearly disagreeing.

Your breath stilled as you watched the two super soldiers quarrel in a near-stage-whisper. What could they be fighting about?

From your place in line, you saw Bucky shake his head adamantly, his chestnut hair swishing about his shoulders. He might have even stamped his foot like a child, but you were too preoccupied with the look of abject horror on his face. He turned away as if to flee, but his friend caught him by the shoulder to stop him.

Were you causing this reaction from him?

You looked to your right to see if there was possibly someone else. All you noticed, though, was an empty space. Had you hurt Bucky’s feelings that badly? Your stomach clenched. The last thing you wanted was to be on an Avengers’ shit-list.

Glancing back to the two men, you caught Steve gesturing Bucky forward with short sweeping motions of his hands. Bucky shook his head again, stubbornly.

Even at this distance, you could feel the frustration rolling off Captain America.

Like a sucker-punch to the gut, you suddenly became very aware you were eavesdropping on Captain America and his best friend.

Your cheeks heated instantaneously, embarrassed of your staring. You shouldn’t be spying on them, you admonished. No matter how much your curiosity is piqued. 

It was none of your business.

You turned away from them, facing the reception desk again.

As hard as you tried not to pay attention, you could still see what looked like wild gesturing from the corner of your eye.

What if they started fighting? Shouldn’t you be conscious of your surroundings for your own safety? You fidgeted in your spot as you debated your moral compass.

Fuck it, you thought.

As you peered over to the two super soldiers, Steve shoved Bucky forward gently, causing the latter to trip over his booted feet. Bucky glared back at his friend, his hands clenching into fists. Steve shooed him further. You could barely make out the word “Go!” on his lips.

As if in slow motion, you eyed Bucky taking step after step toward you. Was he coming over here?

Once you realized what was happening, your heart plummeted to your knees as your head whipped around to the front of the line.

Bucky Barnes was definitely walking over to you. 

Had he noticed you staring?

You tried to stabilize your heart rate with slow, easy breaths, but Bucky was beside you much sooner than you could imagine.

A waft of aftershave hit your nose- woodsy and deliciously masculine. Your stomach swooped.

God, he smelled good.

Without having to turn your head, you could feel his brawny mass hovering near you.

How do you play this?

Perplexed? 

“Oh, my gosh! I had no idea you’d be here!” Of course, he wouldn’t believe that. This is where the Avengers lived. He’d probably think you were a stalker.

Apologetic?

“I’m so sorry Peter and I made fun of you! Will you ever forgive me?” Nah, too needy or clingy.

Or--

Before you could think of any other ways to portray the situation, you heard a large gush of air escape from Bucky. Was he nervous?

“Hey-hey, (Y/N),” he said, voice shaky.

You gazed to your left. Bucky looked as white as a ghost. Had his ego taken that big of a hit?

At that moment, you wanted to do nothing more than wrap him in your arms and tell him sorry, and everything would be okay. You couldn’t, of course. You didn’t know the guy. So you settled for the next best thing.

You smiled at him beatifically. “Hello, Mr. Barnes.”

Like a veil had been pulled, his demeanor changed instantly. He returned the smile. “Ja-” he started but scrunched his nose as if he’d made a mistake. “Please. Call me Bucky.”

“Okay, Bucky,” you replied.

Timmons turned around, ahead of you in line, and eyeballed you. You gave him a dismissive look, praying he wouldn’t butt in.

“So, you here visiting?” Bucky asked, observing the badge in your hand.

“Sorta. It’s a work thing,” you remarked, waving the plastic fob in the air. “Stark Industries has hired my firm as their PR representative. It was signing day.”

“Ah,” Bucky said, nodding in understanding.

“And I got the tour and lunch courtesy of Tony Stark,” you added.

“Oh, yeah?” Bucky’s eyebrows raised in interest. “What did you think?”

“Honestly?” You watched Bucky shake his head in agreement. “It was extremely overwhelming. How do you not get lost in this place?”

Bucky laughed. Crinkles appeared in the corners of his eyes, yet he looked so boyish. He was beautiful.

“When I first got here, I did several times,” he huffed. “Every hallway looks exactly the same!”

“Right?!” you exclaimed. “I kept thanking my lucky stars that I had a tour guide!” 

Timmons rolled his eyes and pivoted, facing front.

“Steve had to draw me a map to help me find my living quarters after the third time,” Bucky confessed, running a hand through his hair.

“Oh, no!” you empathized, bringing a hand up to cover your mouth. “That must have been so embarrassing!”

“Bird brain caught wind of it and gave me shit for weeks,” he lamented.

You gave him a confused look, not understanding who or what he was referring to.

Realizing his mistake, Bucky corrected, “Sorry. Bird brain is Sam.”

“Because he’s Falcon?”

Bucky bobbed his head yes, looking a little sheepish.

“It’s clever,” you grinned. “I like it.”

Bucky reciprocated the smile, and your chest warmed. It was a feeling you usually felt while texting James. Light and airy.

Finally making it to the reception desk, you relinquished your security badge to the pretty blonde in the too-tight sweater set. She handed you a clipboard to initial and fill out your departure time.

While signing, you surveyed the blonde as Bucky stepped closer. Her eyelashes fluttered rapidly, and she bit down on her bottom lip. Was she giving him bedroom eyes?

A new kind of warmth flooded your body. It felt a lot like jealousy as it snaked its way up to your ribs and circled your collarbones, which was absurd because you had no claim to this man. You’d met him one other time. Why would you feel this way?

Shoving the clipboard back at the receptionist, you spun toward Bucky. He regarded her politely and nodded, “Ma’am.”

Her shoulders slumped, and a frown slithered onto her painted lips. Somehow you felt triumphant, but not sure why. Bucky hadn’t picked you over her.

Your heart thumped harder in your chest as you walked side by side with Bucky, nearing the exit. You were suddenly overcome with the feeling of apologizing. What had you told James if you ever saw Bucky again? Apologize profusely and ask him to coffee.

You smiled at Bucky once again as he rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. The sound of a throat clearing resonated nearby. It wasn’t until you glanced up did you register Timmons standing so close. You had nearly forgotten about him.

Trying to gather your courage, you glimpsed between the two men. Bucky was squinting suspiciously at Timmons, and it made you chuckle lightly. “Easy tiger,” you assured. “That’s my boss, Roger Timmons.”

Bucky’s blue eyes widened a fraction, and he raised a hand in hello. “Sir.”

Timmons raised his chin in acknowledgment before looking down at his watch. You took it as his way of telling you to hurry up.

Okay, it’s now or never.

“Would you like to go to coffee with me?” Bucky blurted out, cheeks coloring pink.

Your eyes roamed across his handsome face. The boyishness was back, along with a touch of uncertainty. He was sweet, regardless of what the media claimed about him. Your lips curled up into a broad smile. “You read my mind,” you revealed, then winced. “That’s not one of your superpowers, is it?”

Bucky tittered. “No, no mind-reading.”

“Good,” you said, relieved.

“Whaddya say? Coffee?”

You dipped your head in a slow yes. “It’ll have to be after work, though.” You motioned over your shoulder with your thumb. “The slave driver over there is taking me back to the office to put me to work.”

Giggling, as you heard a scoff come from behind where you were standing, you reached into your purse and pulled out a pen and an old receipt. You quickly jotted down your work address. Handing it to Bucky, you began moving towards Timmons. “I get off at five,” you called. “I’ll meet you in the lobby.” You waved goodbye.

Bucky smirked. “Don’t work too hard!”

You flashed him one last smile before disappearing through the exit door.

You had a coffee date with Bucky Barnes!

You couldn’t believe it! The giddiness swelled inside you.

You gazed at Timmons’ profile as you walked to the waiting car parked at the curb. He had that look on his face.

It was a long drive back to the city. There was no way you could endure it if he started up now.

You gave a stern look before you stated, “Whatever you’re thinking, keep it to yourself.”

Timmons threw his hands up in mock surrender. “I wasn’t thinking anything.”

“Uh-huh,” you said dubiously. Timmons smiled smugly as you both climbed into the town car.

Chapter Five | Chapter 6 (part 2)

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