#harry potter cursors

[rthidden]

AI Agents: The New Coding Wizards in Town

Move over, Harry Potter. There's a new magic in town—AI coding agents.

Why it matters:

Small business owners can now conjure up custom apps without waving a wand (or knowing how to code). This AI revolution is making software development accessible to muggles and wizards alike.

The big picture:

AI is reshaping the tech landscape faster than you can say "Expelliarmus."

From Cursor's spell-checking LLM to Repl.it's full-blown AI coding sorcerer, these tools are turning ideas into apps at lightning speed.

Overheard at the water cooler:

"Dude, I just built an app during my lunch break. My coding skills? Nonexistent. My new AI assistant? Basically Hermione Granger with a computer science degree."

By the numbers:

• 73% of US companies are already using AI magic in their business (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2024) • The demand for AI talent is hotter than a fresh cup of Butterbeer (TechTarget, 2024) • AI is set to boost workplace productivity by automating mundane tasks, freeing humans to focus on the fun stuff (Coursera, 2024)

The bottom line:

Whether you're a tech whiz or a complete novice, AI coding agents are your ticket to app development nirvana.

So grab your metaphorical wand (aka keyboard) and start building. The only limit is your imagination—and maybe your WiFi connection.

[ntrider]

lego harry potter for the wii? i think? my memories of it are kinda bad. i got stuck on an early puzzle with a rat and never played it again. didn't have the actual game-remote for the wii, so it mightve been that

I played that and while I also gave up early because it's kind of eh and I never watched or read HP (I really did just download it because it was lego) but I genuinely do not remember it ever having motion controls.

but all lego games on wii were built for the wiimote and nunchuck, just with the pointer as the cursor and the buttons stayed the same (you can also play all the wii u lego games with wiimote and nunchuck as well)

[benefits1986]

Dopamine & Lo-Fi Beats For Lunch

Last night, I napped at around 7 and woke up at midnight. I checked my phone and got a live update of ina’s final stats. 47/32 BP. Breathing is going down even when the oxygen tank’s pumping at a 10. Funny how I chose to stay home so that I won’t get details about her last two minutes, but, there it goes, again and again and again.  SEEN.  SEEN.  SEEN.  Typing...  SEEN.  Cursor blinking at me.  SEEN. SEEN.  I almost forgot to take a pee but my 37-year old bladder nudged me to get up and take a fast break.  SEEN.  SEEN.  SEEN.  Plugged in deep sleep PL on lo-fi to hopefully calm my numbness. Yes. I calm my numbness, because I’m still managing my PTSD 11 years back. I stared back at the friggin’ uncalled for live updates. UUAP ba ‘to, mhie? Ano na?  I tried scrolling through IG Harry Potter and shih tzu reels then went back on r/astralprojection and r/luciddream. Such a fail attempt. Turned up the volume of my supposedly soothing PL, but, no. My numbness is taking over.  DOPAMINE  The cocktail of my ina’s last weeks. Hello, dopamine! In my 8 years of taking care of mother dragon, never did I come across dopamine as a prescription. I slid a DM to my soul sister who is the half of my Polaris for anything palliative care concerns.  ME: So, dopa can be on IV?  HER: In SG, we do that too. Depends on the case of the patient and of course, the consent of the family.  ME: Can I get a dopa x sero x oxy cocktail even when I’m totes fine?  HER: ‘Yan ka na naman. OD girl na malala ang saltik.  ME: Just a curious question.  HER: I know you too well.  ME: I know me too well.  HER: How are you?  ME: Very sharp q right there.  HER: Hug.  ME: Oks. Usap tayo soon. Bwelo muna ako. HER: Mag-leave ka na.  ME: Tignan ko.  HER: Don’t tell me “work is your drug” era ka na naman?  SEEN. Twisted humor aside, dopamine really put my ina on a palaban meets happy high. She even managed to speak straight English at times. I joked na lang that I was teaching her some English millennial slang during my graveyard shift with her. Dopamine caused her too much energy that she was not able to sleep. When in pain, she shouted out AYOKO NA so many times. One second, she is still, the other she’s at whatever hallucination heaven she zooms in and out on.  Since I was interfacing with her doctors, I asked hard questions like, what’s the end state? We have 1 millennial doctor and 1 senior, so that replies kind of varied but, are in unison with the truth... my ina’s stage lights are going down once the full effect of dopamine is lifted. Most likely, coma then organ failure.  By the way, I was in the sidelines when the whole dopamine or no dopamine shebang was ongoing. But, that’s another story. Just want to put it out here, so I am super duper clear.  Dopamine, you little trickster, but, ‘wag ako. Tabi.  LO-FI (HEART)BEATS One of the tasks I give to her care team is to send me ina’s vital stats several times of the day plus a few more stuff. I know that she’s not gonna be better, but numbers make me see what I can try to troubleshoot, still.  Dad is amazed and annoyed everytime he sees me making calls and sending texts to ina’s doctors. Bashing and bleeding vibe siya for the past weeks since he tells me that I am but making my ina’s endgame a more painful one. To add salt to the already oozing wound, he also consoles me saying na anak nga ako ng nanay ko. Translation: Never say never. Ahoo. Ahoo. Ahoo. And syempre, all out sa giving kahit ubos na ubos na ako. :D OWEEMM. He told me that the more I troubleshoot, the more some family members will feel a fake sense of comfort that things are going better.  I chose to stay as silent as I can because, I know exactly what he means; however, I am lining up my ina’s best version of her endgame, the one that she deserves after 8 decades and 8 years of being with a family of over 60 people and counting.  Next stop: Inception x Dad Edition  I forced myself to share hidden stories about how I handled mother dragon’s grand finale. Damn. Damay na naman ako, but, doon tayo sa HEAL TOGETHER mindset. Honestly, I told dad na yes my control freak x empath mode is on a high, but, more importantly, I am guided by a single thing: WWMDD --what would mother dragon do? I said na what I’m doing for my ina is so basic kasi if mom was here and now, naku, tumabi kayong lahat. Siya na.  Because I’m trying to be a better hybrid version of mom and dad, I gradually stopped troubleshooting. Gah. Those tiny little details, those moments when I can alert people to a sharp left or a smack right. I need to let go. I need to take off my control freak baby pink bucket hat because no matter how hard I work my ass off, ina is going down.  It’s not about the pneumonia, bed sores, fever, or UTI. Her lymphoma reminds me of Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs --’yung lumaki na sila ng hindi mo inaakala and nagtawag pa sila ng tropa. She can no longer swallow because the lump in her throat is getting bigger and bigger.  I told dad that this is his last two minutes to make worthwhile memories with ina. I didn’t force or mandate. I simply shared with him the crap that I’ve gone through but how I don’t regret any missed year I could have devoted to work or love life (LUH) because my timer is expiring sooner rather than later with mother dragon.  A little over a week, he packed his bags and said that he is coming home, para sa life. CHAR. And today, he called me and my brother with a smile on his teary eye. Dad said na tapos na. Pahinga na siya. Okay lang ako dito. Uminom na ako ng gamot. Bike ako ulit mamaya.  47/32.  Breathing is slowing.  Vital signs are on lo-fi.  4 last breaths.  And gone.  Forever.  12:25 am  March 23  All six children stayed with ina until her final game. Held her hands. Prayed with and for her. One of the most epic troubleshooting projects I’ve conceptualized, executed and optimized. EMS. But, in all honesty, the past weeks have been a totally life-changing... humbling, nakaka-isod ng kaibuturan and of course, with stories worth sharing. TEDTalks x MNL na pala ‘to.  I hope this time around, I would allow myself to feel instead of succumbing to doing. I hope that I choose to grieve even when my emotion spells numb all over. Even my LSS is Defy Gravity which is soooo weird and too problematic. Hindi ko matanggal sa sistema ko. I sincerely wish that this loss will be the beginning of something wonderful. Multiverse, ikaw na bahala.  Back to regular programming.  Not bad for a lunchbreak thought fart, noh? Sorrnuh lungs my dyslexia is on a high, too! :D 

[spikybanana]

@wolfstarmicrofic - june 6th - prompt: explore - this is a nobody dies au okay??

“And this is called the Internet Explorer.” Harry said tiredly, running a hand through his hair, “basically, you can type in that box and search up whatever you want.”

“Fascinating.” Remus said with stoic amusement, and continued to haphazardly poke around the interface. Sirius stood behind Remus’ chair, hands on his shoulders and leaning in close to share a view of the screen.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend searching up yourself, though. That was— an experience.”

For the last hour, Harry had somehow been roped into introducing his godfathers to the Potter’s family computer. Which, really, he should have expected to be difficult, given it’s muggle technology and middle-aged wizards who barely even left the Scottish village. But it wasn’t even that— Sirius, the resident hapless pureblood, was clearly more interested in staring at his husband in reading glasses than the actual screen— but Remus. Remus was, frankly, even worse than Teddy. Ever the curious professor, he insisted on clicking his way through every nook and cranny that no sane computer user should even think to explore. Harry already had to restart the computer twice because Remus accidentally killed a dozen system processes. Though at this point, Harry half-suspected that he was doing it on purpose.

Sirius was, of course, of entirely no help at all. “Come on, you brought this entirely onto yourself, son,” he’d said with a smirk, “What was all that complaining about us never leaving the village?”

Harry watched as the two of them talked and laughed softly between themselves, while Remus scrolled through sketchy-looking articles on the browser homepage.

“Yeah, um... Remus, maybe don’t click on random stuff on the internet, you could accidentally get a virus—”

“Nothing the healer can’t fix, hm?” Sirius said, nudging him with an elbow.

Harry rolled his eyes, “Look, I’ve got some folders in the bookmarks— here— you guys could look through those if you want.”

“Amazing. Thank you, Harry.”

“No problem...” Harry said, thoughts drifting off. He had a smile on his lips, in spite of all the overt annoyance. Ever since graduating Hogwarts, he’d not nearly seen enough of his godparents, but every time, they made him feel full over-the-brim with love and warmth anyway. Harry marvelled at how he’s always trusted them— in his entirely life, there’d been almost no secrets, nothing to hide.

“...Harry?” Remus said after a while, with suspicion enough to thoroughly alarm Harry. His eyes snapped up to see the cursor hovering over a folder. “what in hell is—” Harry’s eyes widened, and felt his stomach drop through him— “Wolfstar?”

“UHM NO DON’T—” Harry lunged forward, but it was too late. The click was made, and the catalogue of arts and edits and links to novel-length fanfictions had spilled onto the screen. Harry turned a panicked look on the unfortunate victims: Remus’ whole face froze, looking terribly bewildered and mortified, but it only took a few moments before Sirius realised what it was, and broke down into roaring laughter.

Harry groaned, running both hands under his glasses. None of this was even his! “I’m going to kill my dad for this.” He muttered.

[hetacakes]

snow white.

all haikyuu x reader (the gender isn't really specified in the story but in the summary below i used her as a substitute)

shapeshifter au

in which all the haikyuu characters are shapeshifters and fall in love with the reader, but she only meets them in their animals forms. will they all get to become hers?

this is supposed to be a oneshot/twoshot (if you want a second part!!) but i can add extra sort of spinoffs for specific characters so please let me know your thoughts!!

also in the gif below they look super intimidating but in reality they're all babey

word count: 8,148

   You were definitely a night person; the hooting of owls and voices of other night birds didn't bother you half as much as waking up to the sun in your face and birds chirping their hearts out. Any other person would love to wake up to such a beautiful fairy tale morning, but then again, most people didn't have the most irregular sleep schedule possible.

   You were an up and coming author, and your first book was somewhat of a success. It was definitely far from being as popular as classics like Harry Potter, but it had its fair share of fans. You wrote for the creepier, mysterious and suspenseful side of literature. The building of anticipation, the blissful yet terrifying feeling of being in the unknown, the resigned feeling of realizing going forward into whatever conflict awaits is the only choice left; those elements of writing were ones you enjoyed immensely, both in reading them and writing them.

   Your first novel was about a girl who was absolutely sure a monster lived under her bed, and tried desperately to convince her parents that the monster was there, and only came when it was bedtime; her parents always ignored her, as if she didn't even exist. It was a truly captivating story, and the climax came when the girl peeked over the side of the bed, coming face to face with the monster. Except the monster was the one that screamed, and when the so called monster ran out to find her parents, she and her parents returned only to scream in horror, yelling at the demon child sitting on the top bunk. The protagonist was actually the monster, and was actually trying to take the girl's place and influence her parents, but the way you described it in the first half was so believable, and the foreshadowing wasn't too obvious, yet revealed themselves like small epiphanies, one after the other.

   Yet apparently it wasn't good enough for the public, and many critics called your story too abstract and vague to truly be considered horror: after all, excessive description of detail is what makes it just that much more interesting. Fans of the book argued that too many facts ruin the guise of suspense and the fear of the unknown, but the number of fans the story garnered was not high. You saw your name across headlines maybe a few times, then were quickly drowned out by more popular stories.

   But this time, you were sure you were going to make it. Using the recognition you got from your first work, you planned to take advantage of the few eyes on you by publishing a newer, better story. The first novel paled in comparison, and seemed like little more than a simple warmup!

   If only you could write it.

   The past three days had been a slump, and no amount of hair pulling at any ungodly hour of late nights and early mornings was able to fix it for you. Your document stayed blank, cursor flickering on the screen.

   And waking up to a morning fit for a Disney princess only made it worse.

   "Shut up!" You cried, looking out the window. A tree that grew tall enough to reach your apartment on the third floor extended its branches outward, a few making it right in front of your window. Sitting amongst the leaves were a group of bluebirds, along with some robins and sparrows. A few of the birds, the color of the sky on their feathers, turned to look at you, as if those select few somehow heard and understood you, before turning to the others and resuming their incessant chatter, as if they were actually having a real discussion.

   "Stupid birds and their chirping and their soft feathers and their cute round bodies and their little wings," you cursed, walking unsteadily to your bathroom, reluctantly getting ready for the day.

   You had plans to meet up with your friend Haiba Lev, a Russian that was born and raised here in Japan. He offered for the two of you to go to a nearby cafe and talk for an hour or so, before he had to leave for his final year in university, and you didn't have anything else to do, so you agreed. You yourself had graduated a year early, at the cost of working yourself into the ground and writing paper after paper after paper.

   You found it odd that Lev specifically mentioned a pet-friendly cafe, and when you suggested another that was a little bit closer, he adamantly refused, insisting that the pet-friendly one was a better option, for an unknown reason.

   But you shrugged it off, not really caring.

   As you locked your apartment behind you, you tucked the keys into the inner pockets of your denim jacket, the light blue seemingly extra pale compared to the dark colors of your shirt. It was one of the first days of autumn, and while it was still quite warm, you pulled a jacket over your striped t-shirt, just in case. Stooping down to tie your shoes, double knotting to be sure, you pulled out your phone from your back pocket, turning it on and searching for the location of the cafe. It was quite a long walk, but you planned ahead and left early to have enough time to make the trip.

   Stepping out of the complex and into the sun, you took in a breath of air, feeling the contrast of the slight chill in the air and the warmth of the sunlight. Making your way down the sidewalk, you began your journey.

   About halfway to the cafe, you were at the end of a block, with a dumpster in an alley next to you. A soft meow made you turn around, searching for the source of the noise. Another meow made you crouch closer to the dumpster, the throng of people you had been waiting with now walking, walking away.

   There, curled in between two garbage bags, was a tortoiseshell cat. It had a white underbelly and an orange back with dark grey spots in some places. When it turned its face towards you, you saw that one half was grey, and the other orange, including the ears. Its eyes were a golden color, and they stared into yours, as if it knew something you didn't.

   "Hello there, mister cat. Are you a mister?" You greeted, thinking in the back of your head how insane you must look right now.

   The cat mowed in response as it stood and stretched. 

   "I'll take that as a yes. Would you like to come with me?" You asked him. You were going to a pet-friendly cafe anyway, might as well take advantage of it. The cat walked over to you, rubbing his head against your knee. You pet him gently, before gingerly lifting him in the air, holding him in your chest. He purred, shifting into what you assumed was a more comfortable position. Squeezing him softly, you picked back up where you left off, taking the cat with you.

   You spotted his head of silver hair before he saw you. Given his insane height, you could easily see his head from the door, even though the place was fairly busy. He waved you over, and you took a seat across from him.

   "I ordered for us already, and I got you a caramel macchiato, is that cool?" Lev asked, and you nodded in agreement.

   "Oh, you made a friend?" He asked again, eyeing the cat, still in your embrace.

   "Yeah!"

   "When?"

   "Today," you answered with a smile, placing the cat on the table.

   "He doesn't like me," Lev stated matter-of-factly, just as the cat glanced towards him before turning away, hopping off the table and into your lap.

   "How did you know? Aren't you curious if he's mine or not?" You questioned, looking at him suspiciously.

   "Oh! Well, you see, it's because I met him already, at a park! Yeah! And he doesn't like me because he says I'm too energetic and he's lazy," Lev huffed, glaring as the cat meowed at him.

   "He said that?" You said with an indulgent smile on your face, as if you were speaking to an imaginative toddler.

   "Yes! I mean, no! I just figured, you know, because some cats sleep a lot and he's sleeping right now." Lev gestured to your lap, and sure enough, the cat was dozing off, purring softly.

   "One caramel macchiato and one cup of freshly squeezed orange juice," a waitress said as she smiled at the two of you, setting your drinks down from her loaded tray.

   "Thank you!" You called after her as she walked away, before turning to Lev. "Really? Just an orange juice?"

   "Someone told me that I had too much energy this morning and that if I drank coffee, I'd become 'out of control'" he said, air quotes on the control part.

   "I bet it was the cat," you joked as the cat shifted, purring louder.

   "You'd be surprised," he grumbled, taking a sip of his juice.

   You waved goodbye at Lev, wishing him good luck at university. You turned your attention to the cat, still in your arms, but awake.

   "You want to go now little guy? Or do you want to come home with me?" You asked him, petting him between his ears.

   He stared at you, as if contemplating your question, before jumping out of your arms. You expected him to scamper off, but he stayed by your feet, looping between your legs. Getting the hint, you started walking home, the cat right at your heels.

   "Okay, kitty. This is my apartment complex," you gestured to the building, standing out of the way of the entrance. The cat stared up at you.

   "I live on the third floor, on the right side, near the corner," you explained, as if it mattered to a cat where you lived, if he even understood you at all.

   The cat continued to look at you, before jumping on the steel handrail you were leaning on that closed off the concrete entrance from the grasses and trees. He rubbed his head against your arm, before jumping off, and walking away.

   Smiling to yourself, you walked into the building. Maybe the morning wasn't so bad after all.

   "I hate you, past me," you complained, waking up to yet another morning of tweets and chirps after having stayed up late again, with no progress, last night. Looking out the window, you noticed an eagle flying over head, before it landed on a branch. The chirping of the birds grew louder as they surrounded the eagle, who did nothing but look down on them. It gave one caw, which silenced the bluebirds, which you suspected to be the same ones from yesterday. Then the chatter restarted, only this time, the noise was tenfold. One bird rose and flew around the eagle, chirping nonstop. The eagle shook its feathers before lifting its wings and flying away, the smaller bluebirds still yelling after it.

   "Pfft." You stifled a laugh behind your hand, smiling at your window. You had originally woken up grumpy, as you usually did, but the show the birds had put on was enough to lighten your mood.

   Two of the bluebirds noticed your laughter, and one flew to your windowsill, pecking at the glass. You opened the window, cupping your hands and offering them to the bird. It hopped in happily, chirping in a way that you found cute, and not annoying, for once.

   "Aww, well aren't you such a pretty little bird. I can't believe I told you to keep your lovely little voice quiet," you cooed, using your finger to pet its head, smoothing its feathers. It seemed to soak up your praise, spreading its wings and wiggling a bit. The other bird, which had landed on the windowsill, flew into your hand as well, pecking at the first bird.

   "So this is the second show, I suppose," you laughed, looking at the birds in amusement. The second bird turned towards you, before looking away, as if in embarrassment.

   "Well, I'll have to use something to give to you guys, so I can tell which is which. If you come in, I'll go find some ribbon to tie around you guys. Don't worry, I'll try to tie as gently as possible, and you can chirp if it feels uncomfortable, alright?" You offered, looking at the birds in your hand. The first bird chirped eagerly, hopping around your hand, while the second bird seemed to hesitate a moment, before chirping softly.

   "Alright! Stay wherever you want, I'll be right back," you said, expecting them to perch on a table or counter. Instead, they flew to your shoulder, one on each. You chuckled, smiling fondly.

   You walked into your kitchen, opening your drawer of miscellaneous stuff, better known as the "random stuff goes in here in case you need it" drawer. Sifting around, you found two spools of thin ribbon, wider than string but no thicker than the width of a pencil.

   "Okay, who wants the light blue ribbon?" You asked. The first bird, who had perched on your left shoulder, hopped down eagerly, chirping away. You gently tied a loose bow around the bird, loose enough to be slipped off by its claws, but tight enough not to fall in flight or by accident. The bird stayed quiet, indicating that he had no qualms against the ribbon, which matched his feathers of sky blue and white. The other bird flew down too, shifting from foot to foot. You pet its head softly, cooing when it rubbed its head against your finger. You tied the green ribbon around its neck in the same manner, humming when they kept silent, pleased with your work.

   "I'll just refer to you as guys, is that fine?" You asked them, much like how you asked the cat you found yesterday, with the "looking crazy" and everything. They both chirped once, which you decided was a yes.

   You glanced around, spotting your empty bookbag draped across the back of a chair. You grabbed it, before speaking out loud, "I'm going to a cafe today, to work on my novel. Do you wanna come with me? Don't worry, it's pet-friendly."

   Walking into your bedroom, not really expecting an answer, you grabbed your laptop and its charger, and a portable charger, just in case. You tucked it into the laptop pocket of your bag, along with a notebook and a few pens. Putting the chargers in the front pocket, you looked through your closet, searching for something. You made a happy noise in the back of your throat when you found your old scarf, creamy white in color and huge in size. A friend had bought it for you as a joke, knowing it would be either impossible to wear it as an actual scarf, or absolutely hilarious. You put it in the empty space of your bag, making it comfortable enough for the animals to rest inside.

   You closed the door of your bedroom behind you, half-expecting the birds to have flown out the open window, long gone. To your surprise, they had stayed where you left them, watching you eagerly. You grinned, before crossing over to the window and shutting it. Slipping your phone and keys into the side pocket of your bag, which was meant for the water bottle you promised yourself you'd take but never actually did, you opened the bag, motioning for the birds to hop in. The blue ribboned bird hopped in, chirping away, which you had already begun to become used to, with the green ribboned bird following quietly. You pulled the flap over, making sure not to click it shut.

   As you walked out of the building, a familiar meow caught your attention. Looking down, you saw the cat from yesterday, only this time he brought friends.

   "Oh! Hello again. Who are these?" You asked, gesturing towards his company as you sat on the floor with him.

   The tortoiseshell from yesterday stayed curled up on the ground, while another cat, this one black with a mess of fur on top of his head and over his eye, walked over and rubbed himself on you. Following him were two baby crows, one with glasses-like marks on his eyes, and one with spots across its face, almost like freckles. Relaxing with the tortoiseshell were two more crows; one had bright orange eyes, while the other had blue eyes. You did a double take, not having seen such unusual, but extremely cute, animals before.

   "Er, do you guys want to come along?" You asked, half hoping they'd walk away and act like actual normal animals. To your slight dismay, they all stood and gathered around you, the two cats pawing at your bookbag.

   The two ribboned birds flew out, chirping loudly at the offending cats. They settled on your shoulder, tucking themselves into your neck. Seeing the two of them be so close to you must have sparked something in the other animals, for they all clambered onto you.

   You made an "oof" sound as you fell back on your elbows, the two birds still curled into your neck while the crows crowded into the pockets of your jacket, peeking their heads out of both pockets in pairs. The two cats slipped into your bag, and curled up with each other, making use of the limited space. The two birds flitted from your shoulder to your hoodie, nestling in there instead. Accepting your fate, you pulled the bag over your shoulders yet again, continuing on your way to the cafe.

   "Hey! You have any room over there?" A voice yelled at you from a distance. Looking up from your laptop, you saw a head of buzzed hair sit across from you. For the past two hours, you had been sitting in a corner booth, finally making some progress on your story, the plot loosely sketched out on your notebook. The cats had shared the space of your lap, resting their heads on each of your thighs. The crows had moved from inside your pockets to inside your sleeves, their feathers soft against the back of your hand. The bluebirds were still happily tucked into your neck, occasionally chirping conversationally into your ears.

   When Tanaka sat down, two of the crows, the orange and blue one, jumped up to greet him, cawing softly.

   "I take it that you guys have met before?"

   "Yeah, you'd be surprised at how similar we are. They hang out with me a lot," he mentioned casually, before looking at the rest of the animals cuddled with you. "Wow, you just attract all of them, huh?"

   "I guess so. At first I came here with Lev and this cat came along, then this morning I met these two birds, and then when I left my apartment this guy brought all his friends," you explained, motioning to the tortoiseshell sleeping on your thigh, then to the birds perched on your collarbones. "Thanks for the dumb scarf, by the way. I put it in my bag to carry all these little ones."

   "It's only one in a million for a gag gift to come in handy, and I knew it would."

   "Yeah, right. You'd have no way of knowing how many of these animals have begun to visit me."

   "Watch, when nighttime falls, you'll get two more owl visitors," Tanaka said wisely, taking an exaggerated sip from his coffee as if it was tea.

   "Yeah, sure," you said, taking it as a joke, not realizing that he was only half kidding.

   "Well, thank you for coming guys. I think your company blessed me with writing powers today, and I really appreciate it," you told the animals, as you sat in an outside table of the cafe. You had called it a day just ten minutes earlier, packing your laptop and chargers away, as well as the notebook and pens. The animals were spread out on the table in front of you, and when you thanked them, they all spoke once, a chorus of what would've been "you're welcome", had they been people.

   "Well, I'm heading home. You guys better get to your homes too," you told them, cracking a smile when not one of them budged. The black cat pawed at the blue ribbon around the bluebird's neck, and as the bird hopped away, chirping indignantly, you realized, "Oh, do all of you want ribbons?"

   Again, they all chorused in agreement.

   "Watch, you guys will become mine soon if you keep this up," you joked, not noticing how all the animals perked up at that, as if that was their goal all along.

   "My apartment has never felt so full," you said aloud, watching as the cats curled up on the counter, with the crows sitting near them. The bluebirds were already on the windowsill, no doubt needing to go back to where they actually belonged. You opened the window, saying goodbye to your bluebirds, watching as they preened at the word 'my', before taking flight.

   "Okay! I have red ribbons," you said, pulling it out. It was wider than the other ribbons, and you knew it would only fit on the cats. They both lowered their heads obediently as you tied theirs as gently as you had tied the bluebirds' ribbons. You pulled out a light orange ribbon, the same width as the blue and green ribbon. "You guys don't look like each other that much, so do you all want to have the same ribbon?" You asked them, watching as only one crow hopped forward. You sighed at their behavior, realizing they didn't want to match with each other. You tied the ribbon to the orange-eyed crow, and did the same with a dark blue ribbon to the blue-eyed crow. You tied a yellow ribbon the color of honey around the glasses crow, and searched for a green ribbon a shade darker than the one you used earlier, remembering how adamant the crows had been on no matches or twinsies. You opened the window for them too, and they flitted away as you called your goodbyes. Motioning for the cats to jump down and follow you, you walked them all the way to the entrance, waving goodbye as they ran off.

   Determined to keep up the writing streak you had earlier, you opened your laptop again, pulling up the document, no longer blank and was now satisfyingly filled with words and letters.

   An hour and a half had passed since you started typing again, and you were at least halfway through the rising action, the climax and turning point only a few chapters away. Satisfied with your productivity, you decided to stop there, for fear of overworking yourself. From past university experiences, work you made when you were past your limit was never good work, and would've gotten a better grade if it was done late, but well. Plus, you felt like you had compensated for the three days you spent having writer's block, and were confident you could get in touch with your editor and publisher by the end of the year.

   Deciding to treat yourself, you saved and closed your document, before opening up Netflix. Hooking your laptop to your TV, you used your remote to browse for something to watch, settling on a true crime documentary. If you needed justification, you could always brush it off as research for writing mysteries and horror.

   As soon as the movie started, you were entranced, amazed and interested in the narrator's words, taking note of the phrases he used to set suspense and keep his audience on the edge of their seats. Just as the big moment was going to happen, the strike to seal the victim's fate, pecking resounded from your window, just like it did earlier that day. Confused, you stood, walking over and peeking out, the TV screen playing in the background, volume lowered as the characters moved in silent actions.

   It was dark outside, and you could barely see much more than the branch in front of you. Your bluebirds weren't anywhere to be seen, and none of your crows' ribbons were showing, swimming in the sea of navy blue and black.

   All of a sudden, a huge white owl flew to your windowsill, pecking vigorously. You jumped in surprise, before thinking back to what Tanaka had told you, so you opened your window, watching as it eagerly flew in.

   "You make one, and I bet another one is coming soon, right?" You asked the owl, watching as it jumped around your carpet floor. It swiveled its head to you, before hooting loudly, answering you enthusiastically. Sure enough, the sound of wings flapping made you turn back to your window, and another owl was there, a cute barn owl of browns and greys with adorable, big dark eyes.

   "Aww, aren't you just the prettiest owl? Come here," you cooed, wondering if cooing will become one of your quirks or something. You stretched your arm, and the owl flew to you, settling gently on your forearm. You pet his head, smoothing the feathers down from the top of his head to the middle of his back, right in between his wings. The owl hooted softly, appreciating the attention you were giving it.

   The moment was ruined when the first owl flew at you, making the other owl take flight as well. Your head spun as you watched them fly around each other, before they both flew towards your couch and settled in the middle. The white owl, with feathers all shades of grey among the snowy feathers, hooted loudly, this time as if it was complaining or whining. You plopped down on the couch, leaning against the armrest. The first owl, with feathers on his face replicating the look of eyebrows, jumped on your leg immediately, looking up at you. The other stared at the two of you, before looking down, as if embarrassed by the other's antics.

   "Awe, it's okay, you're also a very nice owl. So handsome," you said, petting his head, smiling as he nuzzled your hand. "Huh, Tanaka was right, I got two owl visitors."

   The owls hooted together, one softly and the other loud and proud. You turned to them, "So, what brings you here?" You already accepted that animals either somehow understood you and answered in chirps and meows, or you were completely off your rocker.

   The two owls looked around, before crowding towards you, nestling into your sides.

   "I'll bet you got word from some birdies that I'll coo over you and give you attention for free," you remarked, laughing as they both looked away, as if ashamed.

   "Well, I'm going to sleep soon, but I know you guys will stay awake for much longer. I'll open the window for you," you said, getting up and starting for the wall. A loud, sharp hoot froze you in your tracks, and you watched, puzzled, as the white owl flew to your kitchen, hopping on the counter. The brown owl quietly joined it, looking at you expectantly. 

   "Oh yeah, how could I ever forget the ribbons?" you sighed, before making your way to the drawer. Not bothering to choose specific colors, you picked up the first one you saw and hadn't used yet, which turned out to be a shiny gold ribbon. The owls hooted happily as you tied the ribbons around them, and they flew and nuzzled your cheek before flying off, back into the darkness.

   You had long since passed the point of being a pet lover, and were on the verge of becoming a zookeeper. Shutting the TV and your laptop off, closing the finished movie page, you gave up trying to fight off being a crazy animal lady, distant relative of the typical "crazy cat lady next door".

   You accidentally woke up early the next morning, early enough that the sun was barely rising and none of the birds were around to sing their songs. Missing the chirps of your bluebirds, you leant against your window, watch as the sun slowly rose, painting the sky with hues of red and gold.

   To your surprise, when you turned to the branch to check if anyone was there, there sat the eagle from before, the one who was bothered by the bluebirds. You quickly opened your window, motioning for it to come inside.

   "Usually, it's the animals that ring the doorbell, but right now I'm inviting you in to apologize for my bluebirds," you explained as the eagle stared at you, before flying in, staying on the windowsill.

   "I really don't know why they're so persistent on annoying you, mister eagle. Can I call you mister eagle?" You asked, as if it really mattered what you called the eagle. Of course, as normal eagles do, it stayed quiet, sitting and staring. "Anyway, it's funny that little birds like them think they can pick a fight with such an incredible eagle like you. May I?" You held out your hand hesitantly, not wanting to scare him away. Sure, the birds that frequented the trees have already become familiar with humans, but you had a feeling an eagle, an impressive bird that you've always admired, wouldn't be living in a city along with crowds of bustling people. Maybe he was just passing by.

   The eagle again did not respond, but he didn't move away as you came closer to him. You scratched the feathers under his beak, grinning when he tilted his head back, asking for more. "Wow, are you being cute?" You teased, pausing as he turned his head to the side as if your teasing had actually got to him, before he tipped his head again, allowing you to continue to pet him as you chuckled at his endearing behavior.

   The sun was already in the middle of rising in the sky, and you knew your birds would be flocking to your window soon. "Hey, the rest of the birds are coming soon. You might wanna escape while you can, unless you want them to start an argument with you again," you laughed, the scene replaying in your head. Yet the eagle stayed still, looking expectantly at you.

   You facepalmed. "Right, the ribbon. I never thought a special eagle like you would want one of my ribbons," you remarked, sifting yet again for a ribbon in your drawer. You quickly snipped a piece of maroon ribbon, and the eagle stayed still as you tied it around his neck, as you had done many times before. The eagle cawed once with finality, as if both thanking you and saying goodbye, before it took off, flying away.

   "He makes nine birds in total," you sighed, turning away from the window.

   While you were still alone and without all your animal companions, you quickly slipped on a thin hoodie and joggers, before making your way to the door, keys and phone in pocket. You stopped for a second, before you went to your drawer and picked up a yellow ribbon, the color of the sun.

   You slouched, holding on to your knees to support yourself as you looked around the park in front of you. You had nothing else to do so early in the morning, and since you kept making half-hearted attempts in getting yourself to exercise and actually the sun again, proven by the full bottle of water that you still kept in your fridge and still did not carry with you, so you went out on a walk. Unfortunately, a trip to the park would have been very difficult had your little friends came along. It wasn't like you didn't like them, you loved them as if they were yours, but going from no pets, completely alone, to suddenly managing a pet store was quite a big change, and putting leashes on nine birds would've been quite the scene.

   And it didn't really help that a golden retriever was bounding towards you.

   "Oof!" You gasped as the dog crashed into you, pushing you to the floor and eagerly licking your face. You couldn't contain the laugh that bubbled out of you as you lightly pushed on the dog, wiping your face as you sat up. "Hey there big guy."

   He was definitely far from being a puppy, being way bigger than your cats, and he couldn't have been any older than them. His coat was a smooth golden colour, and his tail was wagging at the speed of light.

   "Where'd you come from?" You asked searching for a tag or collar. You found none, and looked behind him, seeing if anyone was running after a stray dog. "Huh. Who do you belong to?"

   The dog paused, looking at you, before he leapt again, licking at your face. You protested good-naturedly, petting him around his neck, shaking him lightly. "How do all you animals keep finding me?"

   The dog, of course, did not answer, but only barked happily.

   "Please tell me you don't want a ribbon as well," you teased, making a pitying noise in the back of your throat as the dog pulled a sad face, looking down shamefully. "It's alright, something told me I'd be needing this ribbon," you reassured, pulling the bright yellow ribbon out of your hoodie pocket. The dog barked loudly, smiling and wagging his tail as you tied the ribbon around his neck.

   "Bark twice if you're planning to follow me home," you said, expecting silence. Instead, you were met with two ecstatic barks. "Well, you're gonna have to keep up," you scoffed jokingly, turning and starting to jog back to your apartment. The sound of paws and panting made you smile fondly, peeking over your shoulder to see the golden dog chasing you eagerly.

   The crowing of birds caught you and the dog's attention, making you grab onto the steel handrail in front of your complex and peer into the trees above you.

   Four crows, just a little bit older than the baby crows, flew out and lined up on the rail next to your hands. The first had a brownish head and stood firmly, as if it was the leader of the group. The second had a grey head, and cocked its head at you adorably. The third had a brown head and streak reaching the middle of its back, and he shuffled on its feet, hopping from foot to foot. The last was normal, save for a streak of blond in between its eyes, and the way it hopped up and down excitedly, mere seconds away from jumping up and flying in your face.

   The dog barked once, a protective, "back off or else" bark. The first crow cawed in response, as if saying it meant no harm. That seemed to satisfy the dog, as he sat on the floor, waiting for your next actions.

   "What a good guard dog," you cooed, rubbing his head, ruffling his fur. "Looking for four more crows?" you asked, watching as they stared back at you, having no answer, as they were, of course, birds. "Might as well follow me," you decided, leading the dog and four birds into your apartment building.

   "How did all of you get here?" You asked, softly closing the front door behind you. The four crows you were with joined the other four, and they grouped together, as if reuniting. The dog ran to one of the cats lying on your sofa, nudging the black cat excitedly. The white horned owl joined the cat and dog, hooting loudly. The brown owl watched its perch on the back of the coach, the tortoiseshell cat sleeping underneath him. Your bluebirds flew to you immediately, perching on your shoulders. A caw from your windowsill caught your attention, and you saw the eagle sitting there, the slight breeze from the still open window ruffling his feathers.

   "I'm going to change," you said offhandedly, before being stopped in your tracks by the streaked crow and orange crow flying in front of your face, cawing loudly. They settled on your kitchen counter, and the streaked crow pecked at the orange ribbon around the other crow. You sighed good-naturedly, "All four of you come over here, this is the last time I ribbon another pet as mine."

   You looked fondly at the four new crows, ribbons around their necks. The first crow, the leader looking one, had a black ribbon, almost the same color as its feathers. The grey crow had a fitting grey ribbon, and it hopped happily, a small jump in its steps. The nervous looking crow looked more confident with the chocolate colored ribbon around his neck, and the streaked crow jumped vigorously as soon as the bright orange ribbon was safe and secure.

   "Now I'm changing," you called, walking into your bedroom and slipping your hoodie and joggers off for a simple tee and sweatpants.

   "I really don't know how I suddenly got a bunch of pets, but I might as well start calling you all mi-" you said as you walked back into the living room, expecting the animals to be exactly where you left them.

   Except there were no animals in sight.

   Lounging on your sofa were two guys, one seemingly napping and the other staring at you with a smirk, amusement in his eyes. On the armrests were two more, one calmly sitting on the rest, looking at you with the prettiest pair of eyes you've ever seen. The other was leaning towards you, head next to the bedhead boy on the couch, wide-eyed and looking like he was about to burst from excitement. Sitting on the floor leaning against the furniture was yet someone else, the glint of a tongue ring flashing at you as he stuck his tongue out playfully.

   On your coffee table were four boys, all leaning against each other, back to back. The tallest had glasses and the typical "I'm going to push my glasses up while scoffing at you" face, and behind him was someone just a bit shorter than him, with freckles and a sheepish smile on his face. The shortest had the brightest orange hair, reminding you of the sun, and he looked at you as if he was looking at his favorite thing in the whole world. The last had an ever present angry face, but you could see a soft expression in his deep blue eyes. Leaning against your kitchen counter were four more guys, the first being broad, standing in a self-assured stance, looking at you fondly. The second had grey hair and caring eyes, which closed when he smiled sweetly at you. The third had long hair tied back in a bun, and he looked up at you, obviously not one of the most confident people around, but definitely getting there, smiling at you as well. The last was short with a streak of blond in his hair, with fire in his eyes and endless energy radiating from him. The shutting of your window drew your attention to the last one, tall with a stoic face, but you could see how he softened at the sight of you.

   "Call me your birdie again, please?" A smooth voice whispered in your ear as an arm rested on your shoulder.

   "Don't listen to that idiot," a husky voice spoke to your other ear, leaning on your remaining shoulder. Looking from side to side, you could see the first voice belonged to a boy with chocolate hair and eyes, both because of the color and because of the sweetness in his appearance. The other belonged to a broader, stronger guy, with arms you could drool over for days. He too had an intimidation-prone face, but the way he looked at you was far from intimidation and closer to adoration. 

   Like any normal person, you freaked out.

   "Who the hell are you guys and what are you doing in my apartment?!"

   All of them looked towards you, before chorusing in a familiar way, "We're yours!"

   "So you're saying I babied and tied ribbons onto real people?!" You asked, blush spreading like fire across your face. You had sat down in the middle of your sofa, which greatly pleased the two already sitting on it, as they tucked themselves into you, one sleeping quietly on your shoulder and the other sitting behind you, arms around you and head on top of yours.

  "Awe, but I liked it when you called me handsome," the face said on your right thigh, pouting as he spoke. The face leaning against your left thigh turned away, redness in his ears and cheeks, since you had also called him, quote, "the prettiest owl".

   "You even said I was your very good guard dog," the one sitting in between your legs said as he tilted his head back to look at you, looping his arms around both your legs and holding them over his shoulders.

   "I don't even know your names!" You exclaimed, reality sinking in.

   They all remained quiet.

   "Well, can you guys tell me?"

   "You have to ask properly," the voice from your shoulder piped up softly, holding your hand as he drifted between awake to asleep.

   "How do I ask properly?"

   "The same way you asked us if I was your pretty little bird," the one tucked into your other side said matter-of-factly, snuggling into you happily as you wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

  "I'm not doing that!" You said hotly, fully embarrassed by everything that you had learned and everything you had done.

   "Awe, come on! Please? We used different colors for a reason!" The short, orange-haired kid pleaded from his seat at the table, pointing at the ribbon around his neck.

   "Oh, right. I'll take these off for you now," you said absentmindedly, lifting your hand from around the boy's shoulder and towards his neck.

   "No!" He cried, holding your hand with his, lacing your fingers together, successfully keeping your hand away from his ribbon.

   "Why would you want to keep that?" You groaned, looking down, wishing the ground would eat you up.

   "Because it means we're yours," the one behind you said, holding you tightly. The rest of them agreed, nodding their heads.

   You relented. "Fine, which ones are my bluebirds?"

   "Us!" The one snuggled into you and the one sitting beside the coffee table said, arms and biceps on display for you. "I'm Oikawa Tooru, but please keep calling me all the cute names you gave me," the one in your shoulder said, light blue ribbon around his neck, looking at you both pleasingly and teasingly. You blushed, turning your attention elsewhere. "And I'm Iwazumi Hajime," the one at the tableside said, green ribbon on his neck, a faint blush on his cheeks.

   "Who are my cats?"

   "Me," the voice behind you purred, rubbing his cheek on your head. "Kuroo Tetsurou, cutie."

   "And me," the voice from your other shoulder whispered, looking up and resting his chin instead of his cheek, red ribbon against your arm. "I'm Kozume Kenma."

   "Who are my crows?"

   "All of us!" Eight people stated, making you sigh inwardly. Why do you have so many crows?

   "I'm Hinata Shouyou!" The orange-haired boy stated proudly, with a matching ribbon, sitting slightly diagonally in front of you. "I'm Tsukishima Kei," the one next to him said, pushing up his glasses to hide the blush that had appeared on his cheeks, golden ribbon on him. "I'm Kageyama Tobio," the blue-eyed boy leaned over, looking over Tsukishima's side, the loop of a dark blue ribbon peeking out. "Yamaguchi Tadashi," the last said, leaning over on the other side and rubbing the back of his neck, dark green ribbon shifting slightly.

   "Nishinoya Yuu!" The other short one declared, bright orange ribbon as bright as the wearer, as he stood proudly. "Asahi Azumane," the bun boy said softly, playing with the end of his chocolate brown ribbon. "I'm Sugawara Koushi, it's really nice to meet you in person," the gray-haired one stated sweetly, matching ribbon on his neck as well. "And Daichi Sawamura, the sort of leader of these crows," the last said, looking over at the younger crows the same way a parent looks proudly at their child, black ribbon turning with him.

   "My owls?"

   "Here!" A loud voice from your right thigh said, gold eyes and wide smile pointed towards you. "Bokuto Kotarou, your handsome owl!" He said happily, gazing at you adoringly, gold ribbon rubbing against your thigh. "Akaashi Keiji, your… pretty owl," a softer voice from your right thigh side, facing upwards towards you but eyes shifted away, pink prominent across his cheeks, gold shining on his neck.

   "My dog?"

   "Me! I'm Terushima Yuuji, the bestest boy, of course!" The one in between your knees said, twisting around to face you, infectious smile on his face. As he twisted, his ribbon moved as well, as yellow as his coat, when he was a dog. "If you have to say it then it's probably not true," Kuroo retorted, hugging you closer to him. "Hey!" Terushima exclaimed, offended.

   You laughed at their playful bickering. "And my special eagle?"

   "Over here," the tall one said, leaning on the back of the sofa. You craned your head to look at him. "I'm Ushijima Wakatoshi," he said, tilting his head downwards to look at you, maroon ribbon on his neck, contrasting with his appearance, making you turn away with a heavy blush on your cheeks.

   "Hey, why is Ushiwaka special?" Oikawa complained, rubbing his face into your neck, "'s not fair."

   "I mean, he is an eagle after all. I never expected to actually see one for myself," you admitted, looking at Ushijima with stars in your eyes. He held your gaze for a second, before turning away in embarrassment, the same way he did as an eagle.

   "Hey hey hey! I'm an owl, that's cool, right?" Bokuto whined, looking at you desperately. You thought about it for a moment, before agreeing, "Yeah, owls are cool too, but I hear hooting every night. The only eagle I've ever heard is Ushijima."

   "But you said I'm a pretty little bird," Oikawa grumbled softly, still tucked into your neck, the same way he did as a bird. "And you are," you assured him, squeezing his hand.

   "You let me follow you home! Technically, all these other guys are intruders, so I should kick them all out," Terushima said protectively, living up to his self-proclaimed title of your guard dog.

   "No! We came in with you too!" Nishinoya piped up, voice loud as he gestured at himself and the other three next to him. 

   "Hey, it's alright. All of you are mine anyway, right?" You cringed at your question, it sounding awkward to your ears. 

   To the others, though, it was their favorite thing to hear. "Yours!" They all chorused, excited voices accompanied by softer ones.

   "Well," you clapped your hands together, "I don't know about you but it's eight in the morning and I was up at at least five thirty, and suddenly all my pets are people, so I think I deserve a nap. Wake me up when it's twelve," you announced, standing up and walking to your room.

   To your dismay, all the voices said again, "We're coming too!"

   And that's how you got to your current situation. Kuroo was at your back, arms around you waist and head on top of yours. Oikawa was at your front, face buried in your neck and arms around you in a hug. Terushima was curled up by your feet, snoozing away as a dog. Kenma was curled on your thigh, somehow balancing on top of you using cat magic or something. As you wrapped your arms around Oikawa, holding his head softly, your other arm, the one supporting his head, stretched out, and your crows had gathered around it, their feathers soft against your skin. In the palm of your open hand was Iwaizumi, and you curled your fingers to squeeze him gently, watching as he snuggled into your hand. Your owls were nested at the space between your knees, pressing themselves against your calves. Your eagle was perched on your headboard, observing, before deciding that you were safe, and he tucked his head into his wings.

   You pressed a soft kiss to Oikawa's forehead, smiling fondly when he shifted impossibly closer to you, placing a kiss of his own on your neck.

   Kuroo rubbed his cheek against your head, the same way he does as a cat, before deeming you had enough of his scent on you.

   You slipped your eyes closed, realizing there was no way all of you would actually wake up at twelve.

[stabbyapologist]

Skyrim VS Writing My Harry Potter Fanfic

So between the times of 12:00 AM and 5:00 are the peak hours of creativity and also when my husband decides to go to bed, which leaves me with ample amount of alone time, right. Well, I be wanting to play Skyrim something awful, and the whole time I’ve been playing (roughly around two hours), there’s a nagging part in my brain that has come up with two very good one shots for my fanfiction that I’ve been writing. 

I want to enjoy playing Skyrim, but I get that sensation in my stomach that feels an awful lot like “Hey. Hey, that’s a good idea. You should write that. Hey...Hey, that would make a great next chapter.” And I’m just still trying to finish a quest in the Thieves Guild like “I will in a second, just hold onto that thought.”

Brain: But it’s such a good idea!

Me: I know. But I’ll get to you in a second, we’ve still got time.

Brain: But it’s so great. 

Me: I know. I’m the one that thought of it--

Brain: Just play the game tomorrow. C’mon, write your story. You won’t regret it!

And so here we are: Game is off, TV is playing comfortable white noise. And I’m about to open Microsoft where I hope to God that I’m not just staring at the cursor blinking.

[kotikaleo]

hey um what does the russian in your most recent post say? sorry for bothering you, its just that i only speak english.

Yeah, I'm sorry! (◍^ᴗ^"◍) Just got too exited.

Okay, I was telling about Heroes of Envell - russian movie series.

You know, russian movies aren't the best. And by "not the best" I mean COMPLETE TRASH. Most of the times. But this. This movie is an exception.

First season came out at 2017, second at 2020. AND IT'S SOOOO GOOOOD. It's about some kids getting into super new cool virtual game with full immersion and blah blah blah. AND THIS IS SO GOOD! They acting like normal kids (dumb sometimes but that's ok) The antogonist is just LOVE! He is great, smart, handsome and BOI HIS STORY I WANT YO HUG HIM EVEN THOUGH HE IS TRYING TO KILL THOSE KIDS AND TAKE OVER THE WHOLE WORLD!!!! (im not gonna mention that he is also hot as hellfire)

AND THE ESTER EGGS!!! DUUUUDE THERE SO MANY ESTER EGGS!!! I've found some for:

Heroes III & V

Bloodborne

Mario

Portal

Mortal Kombat

Gravity Falls

Sonic

Castelvania

some comon things like Batman and Spiderman

Warcraft

Halflife

Minecraft

AND THIS IS ONLY WHAT I HEARD AND SAW!!!

Every new location in game are shown as big letters in the sky.

For every mission they complete they gain AN ACHIEVEMENT like in games!!! It's shown in bottom right corner, and I'm pretty sure every of them is an ester egg too but I was to lazy to read them all.

SOMETIMES 3D GRAFICS SWITHCES TO PIXELART AND IT'S AMAZING LOOOKING!!!

AND THE OPENING!!!

LOOK AT THE LAST FRAME OF IT.

Do you see that cursor? That not mine, that's part of an intro.

DUUUUUUDE I JUST LOVE IT.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT MAKE ME SCREAM OF JOY?????

THEY MADE AN ESTER EGG FOR HOLLOW KNIGHT!!!

ONE OF MAIN CHARACTERS ARE FAN OF IT AND HAS A WALLPAPER WITH HOLLOW KNIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------

Okay, to be true this movie has a lot of problems. The studio (which makes it) is new in this kind of things, and there some really bad cliches and dumb series, and some times I just want to facepalm me and the characters, but with each new episode it's getting better and more interesting and it's just

12/10 bellisimo

for russian movie series.

I really hope that studio understood their mistakes and second season is better, but I'll see.

-----------------------------------------------------------

I'll update the list of ester eggs because...

Harry Potter

PacMan

Matal Gear Solid and Kojima are mentioned

Matrix

Quake is mentioned

Witcher

[louisaland]

PSOLC ( Criminal Minds AU) drabble- based on the amazing themetaphorgirl’s fic

«Oh my goodness, have you all been living under a rock all your life? » Penelope exclaimed, having commandeered the comfiest armchair of the seventh floor common room, where she was sitting regally, wrapped in a blanket as if it were a cape and brandishing the remote like a sceptre.

« James Blake, how are you the only other person in this room who has actually read the Harry Potter books? » she continued, visibly surprised.

Emily shrugged, muttering «  Uh, because we’re not nerds!» just loud enough to be heard,  then resumed painting her nails a distinctly non regulation electric blue, sitting cross-legged on a cushion.

«  Just pick a movie, Penelope! » , Hotch grumbled from the table across the room, briefly glancing up from his History essay, eyebrows knitted together and his lips forming a tight line.

« OK, OK, but before I do, let me go get something! ». She got up and rushed off in a blur of pink fluffy slippers and glitter. She returned minutes later, brandishing her laptop and a mysterious-looking, brown, crumpled and patched piece of material.

Glances of confusion were exchanged, until Derek broke the bemused silence from his spot on the floor where he was lying, with a puzzled «  Baby girl, what the hell is that? ».

«  Ta-da! » Garcia replied, showing off the item with visible pride. «  Uh, James, a little help here, and some enthusiasm wouldn’t go amiss either, especially if you’re a true Potterhead! » she added, seeing everyone’s bemused faces.

«  That’s the Sorting Hat, guys, it tells you which house you’ll be in at Hogwarts, Harry Potter’s school », James explained, as Penelope nodded enthusiastically.

«  So, there are 4 houses, each with their own distinct character traits, and the Hat decides where you should go. Obviously it takes your preference into consideration, and you don’t necessarily have to possess the qualities of your chosen House, they can be ones you admire or want to have... So everyone’s going to take the test before we start the movie, OK? ».

“ Sure, Penny!” JJ chirped, uncurling herself from the couch to go over to her friend. «  Could you just remind me of the different Houses and their traits, please? ».

Penelope quickly explained the differences between Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin before placing the Hat on JJ’s head. She pulled her fishtail braid over her shoulder and sat in the armchair.

Penelope deftly flipped open her laptop, tapped a few keys and then cleared her throat.

«  I, of course, will be reading the questions so no-one will be tempted to cheat! » she declared.

After several questions, everyone started suggesting the answer they thought JJ should choose.

«  Well, that’s the last question, Jayje! Which House do you think you’ll be in? «  Penelope chirruped, clearly pleased.

«  Um, Gryffindor, I guess », JJ volunteered shyly.

«  Oooh, I hope you’ll be in Hufflepuff, like me! But you could be a Ravenclaw, and yeah, Gryffindor would be a good fit too... » Penelope said, swiftly moving the cursor to the « Reveal my House » button on screen!

After a few seconds of waiting, Penelope glanced at the screen and looked up, visibly crestfallen.

«  What’s up, Pen, did I do it wrong? I swear I answered honestly! » JJ said, evidently upset at her room-mate’s distress and removing the wide-brimmed wizard hat from her head.

« Alas, we have a Hat Stall, you’ve tied between Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor! So you just get to pick. Don’t feel obliged to say Hufflepuff just because I’m there! » Garcia explained.

JJ deliberated for a moment before deciding on Gryffindor. «  Thank God, the suspense was killing me! «  Emily sighed sarcastically.

«  Good choice, always trust your first instincts! Now, who’s next? ». Penelope’s gaze swept over the group. Alex and Spencer were huddled together, heads bent over a thick novel at the opposite end of the couch that JJ had returned to, Dave was focused intently on his laptop screen, James was half asleep in the other armchair, Hotch was scowling at his History book, surrounded by crumpled up pieces of paper and several pages of notes. Derek was absent-mindedly spinning a basketball as he perused his phone.

Her eyes met Emily’s.

«  Alright, Garcia, let’s get this over with! «

At Emily’s words, everyone looked up.

«  Yeah, I’ll go after Prentiss, baby girl! » Derek promised. «  Sorry, got distracted by my fantasy football league choices! ».

Emily got up, picking up the hat and plonking it on her head as she seated herself in the armchair. From her nest of pillows and blankets on the ground, Penelope reset the quiz page and began.

«  OK, first question: black or white? ».

«  Black, duh! » Emily responded.

Penelope continued through, before finally announcing that Emily was officially a Slytherin.

«  I bet I’m Gryffindor, sweet girl! » Derek guessed when his turn was almost finished.

«  Right you are, my hunk of Hershey’s chocolate! » she trilled, having checked his results. He bent down to hug her before letting the next person go.

Alex, James and Spencer all followed, and were all, unsurprisingly, placed in Ravenclaw, though James and Alex both had strong Hufflepuff scores too. Spencer had had to take the Hat off half-way through, as it kept falling down over his eyes and even completely covering his face.

Dave had to be dragged over, but high-fived Emily when he too was placed in Slytherin.

«  Hotchy, it’s your turn now! Everyone else has had a go, even Dave and Emily! Pleeeease let me find out the inner workings of your mysterious mind! » Penelope pleaded, eyes widening with a butter wouldn’t melt  expression spreading across her face.

«  We’ll even stop waving and shouting «  Hey, Haley! » at random times during the day, especially if she’s not actually in the vicinity. Oh, and Prentiss won’t get dress-coded any more this week, and JJ will eat greens with every meal without complaining too, promise! » she begged.

Hotch sighed deeply and rolled his eyes. The «  Hey, Haley! » game was absolutely no fun.

«I have wily ways to bend you to my will, you know! » she mock threatened, approaching him as if to tickle him.

«  Fine, I’ll do your quiz. Just keep it clean! And.Don’t. Call. Me. Hotchy! » he replied tersely. He gingerly placed the silly accessory on his head. Penelope beamed at him and began.

This time, everyone joined in, trying to influence his answers, gently teasing him.

«  And that, Hotchy, was the final question! Where do you think you’ll end up? »

«  Uh, I don’t know! Everyone thinks l’m ambitious, so Slytherin? Can we please just get it over with as we haven’t even started the movie yet? »

«  Well, the Hat has spoken! You’re in... ».

Penelope paused for dramatic effect.

«  Hufflepuff! Yay, you’re with me! We’re a seriously under-represented House, there’s hardly any merch for us, but at least our emblem and House colours are correct, unlike poor Ravenclaw! Oh, and our common room is near the castle kitchens, perfect for midnight feasts! » she babbled, flinging her arms around his neck, knocking the hat off his head in the process. He patted her arm and then went to sit on the couch. Spencer had fallen asleep in Alex’s arms, and he took the sleeping child from her onto his lap.

Garcia put a DVD into the player and pressed play.

As the first Harry Potter movie started, Hotch looked around at the diverse group around him and smiled. Alex had joined James on the floor, he was adjusting blankets and pillows to ensure she was comfortable, Emily and Dave were bickering amicably over the correct pronunciation of some Italian word, Morgan and JJ were tossing Cheetos in the air and trying to catch them in their mouths, whilst Penny was now wrapped in a blanket, on the armchair, mouthing the words along with the actors, staring intently at the screen.

He shifted a snoring Spencer in his lap, smoothed the boy’s hair off his face and settled in for what was going to be the first of eight films.

[rthidden]

AI Agents: The New Coding Wizards in Town

Move over, Harry Potter. There's a new magic in town—AI coding agents.

Why it matters:

Small business owners can now conjure up custom apps without waving a wand (or knowing how to code). This AI revolution is making software development accessible to muggles and wizards alike.

The big picture:

AI is reshaping the tech landscape faster than you can say "Expelliarmus."

From Cursor's spell-checking LLM to Repl.it's full-blown AI coding sorcerer, these tools are turning ideas into apps at lightning speed.

Overheard at the water cooler:

"Dude, I just built an app during my lunch break. My coding skills? Nonexistent. My new AI assistant? Basically Hermione Granger with a computer science degree."

By the numbers:

• 73% of US companies are already using AI magic in their business (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2024) • The demand for AI talent is hotter than a fresh cup of Butterbeer (TechTarget, 2024) • AI is set to boost workplace productivity by automating mundane tasks, freeing humans to focus on the fun stuff (Coursera, 2024)

The bottom line:

Whether you're a tech whiz or a complete novice, AI coding agents are your ticket to app development nirvana.

So grab your metaphorical wand (aka keyboard) and start building. The only limit is your imagination—and maybe your WiFi connection.

[jane-penvellyn-of-blackmoor]

Nancy Drew #33 Midnight in Salem Game Review

So I gave in and paid the damn $30 to play the dribble that HER's pawning off as their latest game. While there has been major controversy within the fandom over the latest Nancy Drew Game and HerInteractive in general, I'm going to stick to just the game here. My thoughts and opinions on how HER managed the fandom after Penny Miliken came onto the scene have been made clear on my sh!tposts on my blog lol. So we're talking just the game here, nothing pre-start menu - that includes real world HerInteractive drama, none of that. So let's begin...

The Start Menu - Tbh I hated the start menu. It was like a FNAF game's opening menu, clearly made in Unity and the grass textures were nightmarish. If this were my first Nancy Drew game and this was the first sight I saw upon booting the game up, I would never buy another one again.

Voice Acting - Now before ya'll go off on "That's just your nostalgia talking, give it a chance" I will have you know that I tried, I really really tried to like the new voice actress for Nancy but ugh I can't stand it. She sounds like someone pretending to be Olivia Benson off Law & Order: SVU. Like I get they wanted Nancy to sound more like a modern teenager and less "Barbie voice" like Lani's voice would stray towards but letting go of Lani was their biggest mistake. If they had kept Lani as Nancy's voice - especially for such a drastically different game setup - would have helped keep fans fixed within the Nancy Drew world that we've been following for years. Everyone else was great, I especially liked Mei and Lauren's voices and the emotions expressed within them. Also Tourist Girl outside of the Town Hall needs to be brought back in the next game and have her lines recorded on actual recording equipment because what you did HerInteractive was hysterically pathetic and unfair. I don't know if that was a place holder that got overlooked or what but for a $30 game released by a company with so many quality games under it's belt - I expect better.

Storyline - Was pretty good. Fire, robberies, political unrest, sabotage, fraud, hidden wills, all things we've seen before a dozen times but they never get old. I think it's safe to say that the storyline itself is actually what kept me playing, however about half way through I did know it was one of two suspects who was the villian and the very next reveal ensured me which one it was. Still though good story.

Script - Whoever was in charge of the character conversations, for the love of all that is holy please water the interactions down! I felt like 99% of the game was never ending conversations about crap that wasn't useful to the plot. Like filler and fluff is great but conversations that drag on and on and on aren't fun. Have a character say a line or two, then it's Nancy's turn - all this monologuing has me flying through conversations just so I can move onto the next thing. Also some of the way the lines are written make it hard for the actors to read and sound authentic. Like "I can not." (versus "I can't.") levels of unauthentic lines.

Characters - Loved the different characters, would have appreciated more that had models you could interact with.

Puzzles - Needed way more puzzles. Like WAY more. It felt like there was less than 10 puzzles in the game and the majority were stupid easy, the only 'difficult' ones were easy once you understood what they wanted you to do which for some reason wasn't made clear at the start of the puzzle.

Mini Games - Loved making Johnny Cakes and mixing herbs.

Graphics - Horrific. I played on the highest settings of graphics on my HD computer, I had zero issues with it rendering or playing through as intended and smoothly - the graphics were still shit. I've seen better graphics in Barbie's Horse Adventures or The Sims 3. If you're entire argument of shifting onto Unity was for better graphics, HerInteractive, then you need to deliver and you failed miserably at that.

Navigation - I actually had zero issue with the 'swoosh' way we moved around. At times it felt a little restrictive (like in Town Square getting around the stage) but it was fine. I just actually didn't care for the camera tilt feature, it made things ten times more complicated trying to figure out what nooks and crannies they wanted you to notice and which they didn't. I'd happily go back to the old navigation and old engines but I'm fine with the new one so long as they work on making it better.

Cursor - Hated the new cursor, bring back the magnifying glass plz.

Location - I felt that the location of Salem, MA. wasn't utilized to it's fullest potential and that the layout of the town square and the maps of the city were surprisingly unsimilar to IRL Salem. I liked the aesthetic of Lauren's Shop, The Cemetary, The Hathorne House, and Olivia's Store but all of those locations fell victim to the game's graphics, still though props to the designer of those locations in the game.

Austrian Castle - This was jarring. To have a game so drenched in it's location of Salem then it starts off in Austria, it was weird. I get it that they were like "It's connected to the Salem Witch Trials cuz of da Judge dude" but it was super unnecessary and felt like a strange sub-plot location to a game set in Salem, MA. 

Music - I liked the music, felt a little Harry Potter-ish at times and the 'indie rock' music they had that had zero lyrics was annoying but overall it was fine.

Witchy Stuff - I myself am a real practitioning witch, I am an ecclectic pagan wiccan and I know I am in the minority here but some of the puzzles were obnoxiously easy if you know anything about witchcraft. Like even the most basic level of witchcraft. If you ever skimmed through a wicca book in highschool with your edgy friends than you already know more than this game expects you to know. What pissed me off is that it's never actually explained to you. Like they bring up Samhain and fling the word around so it's all spooky and mystifying but they never once have a book or person discuss real Witchcraft with you. Like yeah Olivia is a 'real witch' or whatever and Lauren teaches you about mixing some herbs but it's still not like "Here is The Wheel of the Year, These are Sabbats and Esbats, This is an Athame, This is what we use brooms for we call them Besoms, etc" like the fact that we didn't get a wise old lady who was a clear rip off of Laurie Cabot teaching us about real Witchcraft in a very censor friendly and warm way pisses me off to no end. MISSED OPPORTUNITY HER!!!

Nancy's Behavior - So many times in this game Nancy behaved out of character to me. Like I get it, ya wanted to be all like "let's challenge her belief in ghooooosts!!" but it wasn't done correctly. Nancy wouldn't react to seeing ghosts like Scooby Doo and Shaggy.

Call Backs/Easter Egg - I appreciated the Easter Egg in this game being a literal colorful egg but it was a lame spot to hide it considering it was in plain view. However I appreciated the call backs to previous games with KoKo Kringles, Robotic Cats, and the Dear Sweet Charlotte jack-o-lantern.

Ghosts and Jumpscares - 10/10 best aspect of the game by far. The witch ghost over the bed actually got me really good and the ghosts in the underground tunnels were the best graphics of the game.

Pumpkins - Another charming part of the game that I actually enjoyed more than I anticipated. It was really cute and a fun stupid little thing to work on through out the game to find all the candles and put a pumpkin on each one.

Hardy Boys - PLEASE BRING THEM BACK FOR MORE GAMES AND NEVER STOP THE FRANCY SHIPPING. Also I could be tempted for Joe/Deirdre shipping js.

Overall - I'd rate the game a 4/10 and that's being nice. I liked it more than RAN but that’s really not saying much. It doesn’t come close to classic Nancy Drew Games.

Final Thoughts - I can't see any person who isn't a die hard Nancy Drew fan playing this and being like "Yeah I'll buy more of HerInteractive's future games!" like no. But I do see potential. I can see this as a beautiful beginning on a new platform making more immersive games. Or you know this could be the last game we get from HER and they close and go bankrupt and get flushed away and then the Miss Clue crew buys the rights for Nancy Drew and they make new Nancy Drew Games on the old platform with the old team....whichever works just fine for me :)

[honeyedhoseok]

Don’t You Need Me?

Genre | Angst, Taehyung x Female reader, friends->lovers->friends? au

Word Count | 9.6K

Summary | “Send me back in time, to those nights when we had it all / Will this come out right?” Set 1 year into Y/N and Hongbins relationship; You and Taehyung timidly rekindle your friendship online and then in person when Taehyung moves less than fifteen minutes away–which leads to dinner, wine and a sensual moment that was never supposed to happen. 

Warnings | Language, slight smut (dry humping), mentions of weed and alcohol

A/N | Here’s the next part of The V2 Series, a flashback that details the first time Y/N and Taehyung ever hooked up after breaking up in high school. Thanks @sleevelessparkjimin for being my plot coordinator & helping me soooo much with this, you’re the best :* Enjoy! <3

— Set 1 year into your relationship with Hongbin —

You stare at the blinking cursor on your screen, fingers hovering over the keyboard of your laptop, stomach twisted in nervousness. The feeling either stems from the venti caramel macchiato that you just chugged on an empty stomach—which has been known to leave you anxious and trembling on more than one occasion—or, more accurately, it may have something to do with the decision you are currently contemplating.

Your eyes graze over the home screen of your Facebook, where you stopped scrolling in awe at a status update from a former . . . friend.

Kim Taehyung is feeling accomplished—with Kim Eon Jin and 2 others.  

Underneath is a picture of Taehyung in a graduation cap, his parents flanking him on either side mirroring his signature smile with ones of their own. Taehyung had a reason to feel proud—in high school he’d sworn he wasn’t going to go to college; he’d said it wasn’t for him, it was for people who had done better than him and who actually had a chance at surviving two more years of education.

Like you, he’d said. You’re smart. You should definitely go back to school, baby.  

The nickname echoes in your head. You can still hear the soft tone of it, the way sometimes he’d caress your cheek when he said it, the way he’d whine the word when he wanted you to get off the couch and get him something to drink because he didn’t want to miss a minute of the game, the way he’d make it come out of your own mouth in a more wanton way when you two were—

This, you think, is why after you break up with someone, you should delete them from all social media. And if you were at all smart like Taehyung thought you were, you would have done it a long time ago. Because then you wouldn’t be thinking of sending a congratulatory message to a person you hadn’t spoken to in over two years.

It could be simple, right? Just a “congrats,” nothing else. That wouldn’t hurt anything, would it?

Your fingers jump over the keyboard, itching to write the message and get it over with, so you place your hands under your legs. You glance around at the Starbucks cafe, trying to catch any suspicious eyes averting to yours, wondering why you are concentrating so hard on the tiny screen of your computer.

When your gaze is unmet, you look back at the screen, at that god damn blinking cursor that is mocking you in the comment section of Taehyung’s status. Why were you so scared? Two years was a lot of time to mature—and if you did it in a mature, nonchalant way, Taehyung would also take it as a mature compliment . . . right?

But then, who all would be able to see it? Everything that you commented on or liked on Facebook and any other social media always ended up on your friends timelines. A public comment wasn’t a good idea. A DM, instead? Or was that too personal? Too closed off? Too secret?

You groan outwardly, leaning back in your seat. A woman to your right reading a novel at a small table glances over at you, but doesn’t say anything.

“This is stupid,” you murmur to yourself quietly. “Just do it!”

You quickly pull up your chat and type Taehyung’s name into a new box and start your message:

Hey, congrats on graduating

Too brief. Do it again.

Hey, an Associates! That’s awesome! Always knew you would get there one day. Remember in high school when

Too long-winded. And too fucking happy. Again.

Hey, uh, just wanted to say congrats on the achievement

“UH”? Were you a bumbling moron?

Hey, long time no talk

You pause, biting your lip. That was casual, right?

Hey, long time no talk. Just wanted to congratulate you on getting your degree, and I hope you’ve been doing well :)

You let out a long breath of air from your nose, reading the two lines over and over again until you finally hit ‘Send,’ and close out of the app as quickly as you can. You close the lid of your laptop too, realizing for the first time that your heart is beating rapidly in your chest, pulse singing in your veins. It feels good, but you’re worried it won’t last long. What if he didn’t even answer back?

You don’t give yourself much time to dwell. You pack up your things, throwing away your empty venti cup in the trash can beside the door as you exit the cafe. You decide to give it twenty-four hours before you check to see if he read it, just to save yourself from disappointment and from looking over-eager to reply to him—if he decided to reply .

But Taehyung doesn’t care about either of those things, obviously, because as soon as you are settled into the front seat of your car, your phone buzzes with a message:

Y/N! Thanks so much. I never thought I’d get there, honestly. & it HAS been such a long time . . . how are you?

— 1 month later —

“Can you pause it?” you ask Yeonwoo. “I have to pee.”

She rolls her eyes. “This is like the third time!” she groans, but pulls the remote from underneath her blanket and hits pause. “We’re never going to finish the HP series at this point.”

You two were having a movie marathon during a dreary Saturday—as the movie paused, you could hear rain splatter heavily against the windows in the living room—and Yeonwoo had insisted you start the Harry Potter series from her favorite, The Goblet of Fire. You were actually a fan of The Prisoner of Azkaban, but when you suggested watching it first, Yeonwoo had acted like she hadn’t heard you.

“It’s the margaritas!” you yell, already halfway down the hallway to your bedroom. “Stop judging me!”

As you round the corner into your bedroom, you whip out your phone from your hoodie pocket, tapping twice on the screen to make it light up.

The first message you have is from Hongbin, an email sent thirty minutes ago:

I have a meeting tonight after work. I’m sorry I keep cancelling our anniversary dinner, but I promise I’ll make it up to you.

-Hongbin

He wasn’t allowed on his phone during work hours, so he’d resorted in the last few months to a distant, formal mode of communication that the computer on his desktop would allow him. You hated it, mostly because a message from work meant the inevitable—Hongbin was telling you he was getting off late and/or cancelling plans. Today it was both.

You use the bathroom and wash your hands, drying them off on a towel next to you before picking your phone back up. You bite your lip, reading over the message once more. Your anniversary was three weekends ago, and Hongbin and you still weren’t able to celebrate because of his demanding schedule. You just wanted some time with him, but Hongbin insisted on getting dolled up and taking you out—which led to reservations and a special time allotted that he, in turn, kept being unable to make.   

You sigh. There’s nothing you can do—sending back a biting remark or getting mad would do nothing. Hongbin was working hard at his firm, determined to climb the ladder after his father. Who were you to complain about that process? He had drive, ambition, goals—and what did that matter in the face of his girlfriend wanting to spend a little time with him after a year of dating?

As you exit out of the email app, your phone vibrates in your hand, alerting a new message in a private Facebook chat. You click it open, revealing a smiling picture of Taehyung standing beside a road sign—one that you recognize well. Underneath the caption reads:

Guess who has two thumbs and just moved all their shit into an apartment here?

You break out into a grin instantly, fingers flying over the keyboard.

Shut UP! No fucking way! You got the job at the library???

Taehyung is typing . . .

Duh! Those fuckers want me to start Monday

I don’t have a bed frame or a comforter

My mattress is sitting on the floor with just a navy fitted sheet on it

You breathe out an airy laugh before sending your response.

Lmaooooo, poor kid

Congrats tho

That was so quick, you’re insane

It was too good of an opportunity to pass up!!

& thnx :) How’s your day going?

“Y/N, this century, please!” Yeonwoo yells from the living room. “Jesus.”

You send a quick movie marathon w/ Yeonwoo. Harry potter to Taehyung before tucking your phone back into your hoodie and walking back to the living room. You fall back on the couch, bundling up with your blanket and margarita glass.

“Sorry,” you say, giving her a smile. “Press play!”

Hongbin 9:36pm

Just getting home. I’m so tired

You roll your eyes at the message, throwing your phone back down onto your bed. You were cuddled up in a blanket, catching up on shows on your DVR while Yeonwoo was getting dressed for a night downtown. It was still raining, so you’d decided to stay in—but your roommate obviously didn’t care about her hair or herself getting wet whatsoever as she stepped into your room donning a short, black skirt.

“Is this cute?” she asks, turning around in a circle. “Maybe with a jean jacket or something?”

You nod. “What about that rugged one you just got from the thrift store a few days ago?”

She disappears again, some rustling coming from her room as she searches. “Are you sure you don’t want to go?” she calls. “We can pick one place and stay there, so we don’t get soaked!”

“I’m fine,” you say back, eyes trained on the TV. “I’m not really feeling it, just gonna watch some shows or something.”

Yeonwoo comes back into your room a few moments later, hair curled in pretty, loose ringlets and outfit complete with a skirt, floral top, jean jacket and boots. 

“Good?” she asks.

“Cute,” you say. “You leaving now?”

“Yeah, I just called the Uber. I’ll let you know when I’m on the way home, okay?”

You nod, listening to the sound of her boots clunking down the hallway before the front door opens and closes. You sigh. You probably should have went with her, knowing how she gets, but you hope that for once she can handle herself without you. Or that one of her friends is playing the “mom” card for the night. You wanted to sulk for a little bit; if your boyfriend was going to cancel plans, you might as well sit inside and do nothing and it be completely his fault.

You settle back into your blankets, trying to refocus on your show when your phone vibrates again by your thigh. You’re thinking it’s Yeonwoo, saying she forgot to lock the front door, or Hongbin, wondering why you haven’t responded to his earlier messages—but it’s neither.

Video Call from Kim Taehyung…

You stare at the screen, bewildered. Looking back at you is the reflection of someone who should not be seen in video form—but you find yourself hitting the ‘Accept’ button, anyways. Taehyung and you don’t video chat, so this is new.

Taehyung’s face fills the screen immediately, and your heart jumps at the sight. He’s wearing a dark beanie, his ashy blonde locks sticking out from the front and sides a little. In an awkward silence, he blinks twice into the camera, making sure he isn’t frozen from his side of the connection.

“Y/N?” he says with caution, and your breath hitches quietly at the sound of your name coming out of his mouth after so long.

Of course, with you and Taehyung having reconnected on social media a month ago, you’d done your fair share of stalking his profile—looking at pictures, status updates, his tagged content—but seeing his face on the screen of your phone was something else entirely. You find yourself speechless.

His eyes, pretty and brown, search the camera unsurely.

“Are you frozen?” he asks again, shifting in his seat. “Hello?”

You finally break out of your trance, opening your mouth and shaking your head a little. “Hi,” you say quietly, watching Taehyung’s face brighten at the sound of your voice.

“Hey!” he says, grinning. “We had a bad connection for a minute, there.”

“Yeah.” You laugh lowly, nervously. “The internet here sucks, sometimes.”

  “Yeah, same.” He moves around with his phone in his hand, placing the camera lower so that you get more of his chin and neck, the strong line of his jaw. In the background, you see plain white walls and kitchen cabinets, making you realize where he is, finally.

“Is this your new place?” you ask, sitting up in bed. “Let me see.”

“Yep!” He taps his screen twice, turning the camera around to the kitchen.

It’s a small, cozy room with dark granite counters and white walls, giving it a modern feel. Taehyung gets up from his seat and walks into the living room, giving you the tour. A small, dark couch sits against one wall with a ton of boxes surrounding it.

“I haven’t gotten much done,” he says, laughing nervously. “Moving by yourself is so hard. I had no idea.”

“You did everything alone?” you ask. “Your parents didn’t help?”

He doesn’t answer, moving past the living room to his bedroom, which is exactly like he explained earlier with a single mattress sitting against one wall, a night stand placed beside it and a desk on an adjacent wall.

“I was thinking of putting my bed in this corner,” he explains, “then it wouldn’t be up against that window and I’d have some space to do stuff in the middle.”

“Like what?” you tease. “Dance?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Taehyung says, laughing. He taps the screen again so the camera is back on his face, and your stomach clenches at how he prettily smiles into the camera. “You never know what can happen at casa de Taehyung.”

You roll your eyes, which only makes his smile grow brighter.

“But yeah, my parents helped me move the big stuff and then they left.” He frowns. “Now I have to unpack everything before I work on Monday.”

You shrug. “Well, you don’t have to. But I guess that would make the most sense, huh?”

“Yep.” He sighs. “Oh! I have a reason for this phone call that I keep forgetting to ask you.”

A little part of you feels relieved. It felt odd but good talking to Taehyung, but you were beginning to wonder why he’d chosen videoing instead of a text or phone call—either way, you were happy he was taking your mind off of other things for the time being.

You watch him walk back through his apartment to the kitchen, where he turns the camera on a bouquet of flowers sitting on the table.

“How do I keep these alive?” he asks. “Someone gave them to me as a housewarming gift—don’t ask why, I have no idea. I mean, seriously,” he turns the camera back on himself, quirking a thick eyebrow, “do I look like a flowers kind of guy?”

You giggle. “I mean, maybe?” you say. “Remember in high school when Mina asked you to prom? She went all out with it, too! She got someone to record it and she brought you flowers—”

“And I had to gently let her down because I’d just asked you out a week earlier?” he finishes for you, cringing at the thought. “God, that was terrible.”

“Hey, I told you to go with her!” you counter, laughing. “I didn’t care about prom whatsoever, but you made me go anyways.”

Taehyung shrugs, giving you a soft smile. “But you were so pretty in your dress, so I don’t wanna hear it.”

Your next laugh dies in your throat, but you manage a smile at Taehyung’s compliment. You two are quiet for a beat, eyes focused on each other in the camera lens as you relive the moment in your memories.

“The flowers need a vase,” you say, finally. “Do you have one?”

Taehyung cocks his head to the side. “If I’m not a flower guy, why the hell would I have a vase handy?”

You resist the urge to roll your eyes again at his ever-present sarcasm. “Shut up.”

“Should I put them by the window?” he asks, getting up from his chair. “In the morning, they can—”

“No!” you say, a little louder than you mean to. Taehyung freezes on your screen. “I mean, direct sunlight will make them wilt faster. Don’t you know anything?”

“I know you’re being very unhelpful to my situation,” he says, tsking. “Do you have a vase?”

“Yeah?”

“Then bring it to me.”

You pause, feeling your heartbeat increase as you ponder the offer. Bring it to him? As in to his house? As in seeing each other for the first time in two years?

“Oh, uh—yeah,” you stutter, eyebrows furrowing. “I guess I could. I mean, you said you needed help unpacking . . . before Monday . . . right?”

Taehyung nods, keeping his expression even. “I’ll make it worth your while—I can make us lunch or dinner or something. Whenever you’re free to help tomorrow.”

You’re still quiet, so he tacks on: “Don’t feel like you have to or anything!”

“No, no.” You shake your head. “Sunday is good.” Hongbin was going on a golfing trip with some coworkers and Yeonwoo would be passed out until the afternoon time. “I can come, and I’ll bring you a vase.”

You’re glad you agreed, because the way Taehyung’s face brightens—a wide smile splitting his face—makes you feel like you’d do anything to see it happen more often.

“Great,” he says. Then he sighs, and looks past the camera around at his apartment. “Well, I’m going to try to get some stuff done in the kitchen tonight so we have somewhere to eat tomorrow.”  His eyes meet yours once more: twinkling, hopeful, a little mischievous, but that’s just Taehyung. “I’ll see you then?”

“Yeah,” you hear yourself say, “See you then.”

His voice is a soft hum to your ears, “Goodnight, Y/N,” right before he disconnects the call.

The screen goes back to Facebook, and you stare at it for a little while, relishing in the excited rush flowing through your veins, at the familiarity of it all, at one thought turning over in your brain for the rest of the night: you were going to see Taehyung tomorrow.

You tell Taehyung you won’t be headed over to his place until after lunchtime, but your excited nerves have you awake at eight. You stare at the ceiling fan rotating in the center of your bedroom for a while, watching a single blade spin while your mind reels similarly until you feel dizzy and have to close your eyes again. It was just Taehyung, and you were just doing him a favor. So why did it feel like you were keeping a secret?

After watching a little TV in the comfort of your bed, you get up and take a shower, going through your normal routine at a leisurely pace to help waste some time. You grab a granola bar off your desk and eat it while you pick out an outfit. When you finally step out of your room and into the living room, you’re surprised to see Yeonwoo stretched out on the couch, a white sheet mask covering her face as she watches TV.

“Hangover?” you comment, snickering. “You’re up early.”

“So are you,” she snaps back, but her usual biting remark is softened by the stiffness of her mouth as she tries not to move too much and disturb the mask. “Where you going?”

You decide to tell the truth, seeing if it helps ease the building anxiety in your stomach. And to cover your tracks for later, whatever later was. “I’m helping an old friend move into their apartment.”

Yeonwoo sits up, eyeing your outfit—a pair of plain jeans, a crew neck sweater and sneakers. When she’s satisfied with your believable clothes, she relaxes, shrugging her shoulders. “Sounds like a shitty way to spend a Sunday, but okay. Have fun.”

You laugh with her, trying to sneak out of the house without any further questions. Just as you open the door, she hits you with another: “What’s with the vase?”

“Housewarming gift!” you quip, stepping outside. “Bye!”

You realize on the way over that you’re making a mistake.

You should have told Hongbin. You weren’t just going to help an old friend, you were going to help an old ex. A person who, foolishly, in high school, you thought you were going to spend a good portion—if not the rest—of your life with.

You look down at the housewarming gift in the passenger seat of your car: a bottle of white Riesling with a gold bow around it, and your stomach twists in nausea. As the GPS directs you to make a u-turn because you just missed the exit to Taehyung’s house, you find yourself pulling off onto the side of the road.

Hongbin answers on the fifth ring.

“Hey,” you say timidly, biting your lip for a second. “I just wanted to call you—I’m like, I don’t even know what I’m doing right now—”

A roar of laughter erupts in your ear, cutting you off. You hear Hongbin excusing himself and some rustling before he finally addresses you. “Y/N, hey,” he says, rushed. “What’s up? I told you I was busy today with work.”

It’s a response so fucking typical of him you can’t even give him the satisfaction of getting mad. Here you are, trying to give him some insight on your worries and he’s too busy chasing a promotion to care.

“Seriously? You’re not at work, Hongbin,” you remind him sourly. “You’re on a golfing trip kissing ass.”

“And if we ever expect to move in together, I’m going to have to get back to kissing said ass, Y/N,” he snaps back just as easily. “I’ve got to go.”

“Fine. Forget it. Bye.”

You hit end on the call and throw your phone down in the seat next to you, listening to the harsh sound of it smacking against glass. You wince, and although you don’t want to, you glance down to make sure you haven’t broken the two gifts beside you.

Taehyung. Your annoyance at Hongbin drains and nervousness replaces it—but it’s a feeling you’d rather have a thousand times over than one of neglect. So you put the car back into drive, make the designated u-turn the GPS is telling you to, and get back on the road to Taehyung’s house.

Which building/room?

Taehyung is typing . . .

1100/425!

You grab the wine in one hand and the vase in the other, making the short walk from the parking lot to the building lobby. You take a deep breath as you step into the elevator, letting it fill your chest, lungs, stomach, and letting it out through your nose only when the shaft lurches to a halt. A ding sounds as the elevator stops on the fourth floor, and all too quickly you are standing in front of room 425.

With your heartbeat pounding against your rib cage, you rap your knuckles softly on the surface. You hear heavy footsteps and clicks of the lock, and then Taehyung is swinging the door open, his face full of delight to see you standing on the other side.

He’s traded the beanie and sweater from yesterday for freshly washed hair that sits in voluminous, messy pieces on his forehead, a grey zip up hoodie, and black sweats. He looks so reminiscent of times when you two were in high school hanging out at his house that you feel relieved—if anything, he was still the Taehyung that loved to be in baggy, comfortable clothes.  

“You made it!” he says, grinning. “And you brought the vase!”

He steps back and gestures for you to come inside, which you do, cautiously. You glance at the floor, following his bare feet into the kitchen, watching as they come to a stop in front of the oven.

You set the vase down on the table, still gripping the wine awkwardly in your left hand. “I um—brought this, for you,” you say, holding the bottle out towards him. “Hope you still like sweet white.”

Taehyung smiles softly, taking the gift from you. “Of course I do. Maybe we can crack it open after dinner.”

You nod, and the space between you two falls into an uncomfortable silence. Taehyung tries to make it not as obvious that he’s taking you in—eyes trailing from your head to your toes and back again, taking note of all the changes—but you can feel his gaze on you even as you look away, bringing an embarrassing heat to your already warm face.

You clear your throat. “How much did you get done last night?”

Taehyung seems to remember why you are there, finally, pushing off his relaxed stance against the counters and walking into the living room.

“The kitchen is pretty finished, I think,” he says. “But there are so many boxes in the living room that need to be unpacked.”

Your eyes trail over the ones stacked on top of each other on the couch, blocking any and all possible ways of relaxing in front of the flat screen TV already perched on an entertainment stand.

You sigh. “Well, let’s start with those, then.”

You two fall back into your old rhythm quickly. You’re grateful for this, because the first thirty minutes are spent quietly unpacking, neither of you being sure what to say to the other until Taehyung finally starts talking about his library interview.

You catch back up on what each other have been up two since high school: you, working full time and just recently deciding to go back to school, and Taehyung, living with his parents while he took day classes and saved up money to move out. In two years time, both of you have grown up so much; but also not, by the way you still reminisce about the past, teasing each other about old embarrassments and times together.

Taehyung has matured. He has hardened in places—the line of his jaw and playful glint in his eyes both sharper, body filled out and lean underneath the thin t-shirt that you see after he sheds his hoodie, voice sultry and deep, an air of confidence that follows his movements that you aren’t used to seeing. You wonder what changed him, but you’re fine with whatever it was because this is a good look for him.

“We’re so stupid for moving out so early,” he says later, flopping back on the now-cleared couch. His face glows with a radiant warmth, his hairline a little sweaty from moving furniture around in the living room. You’d offered to help but you couldn’t lift much—and Taehyung had insisted he could do it by himself.

“Hey, Yeonwoo and I are doing just fine,” you counter, frowning. You take a seat on the opposite end of the couch, pulling your legs underneath you. “You should have gotten a roommate. It would make everything easier.”

“I don’t want to live with anyone, though,” he replies.

“Why?”

He shrugs. “It’s hard.”

“So is paying rent by yourself,” you add, laughing. “I think you’re hard to get along with, and that’s why you don’t want a roommate.”

Taehyung raises a questioning eyebrow, crossing his arms. “Explain.”

“Well for starters,” you begin ticking each point off on your fingers, “everything has to be neat and tidy. You hate mess.”

“This is true. Go on.”

“And,” you add another finger, “You survive off of coffee and chicken wraps like a weirdo, so a roommate would starve going grocery shopping with you.”

Taehyung rolls his eyes, but lets you have that one. “Mhm, and?”

“And, you smoke. Not everyone likes that.”

Taehyung smiles, knowing he has the one-up on you. “That, my dear, is where you’re wrong,” he says. “I quit.”

You sit up a little. “What? For real?”

“It’s too expensive,” he says. “I do something a little cheaper, now.”

“Cigarettes?” you say, unable to hide the disgust in your tone.

Taehyung reaches in the pocket of his hoodie thrown over the back of the couch. “Cigars,” he says, brandishing a rectangular box.

You furrow your brows. “But you used to smoke these before.”

“And now they’re weed-less,” he counters, giving you an impish grin. “Here, smell.”

He takes one out and hands it to you. It’s skinny—not the giant ones that mob bosses smoke in movies—and you bring it to your nose with caution. On the inhale, your senses are flooded with a sweet, smoky smell, something reminiscent of fruit and maybe, firewood.

You hand it back to him and he digs around in his pocket for a lighter. You reach for the box instead. “Summer blend?” you read.

“Yeah, they’re pretty good.”

He lights it up, takes a long inhale. You watch the tip glow red, watch the way Taehyung’s mouth purses around the end before he blows out a continuous exhale of smoke. Even though you’re on the other end of the couch, the smell hits you immediately and you realize it’s one that has been floating in the air since you got there. Earlier, when Taehyung brushed past you to get another box you would smell it, and you thought it was just the scent of his deodorant or body wash. Somehow, knowing it comes from a cigar makes it more enticing, and you watch curiously as Taehyung takes another slow drag.

His eyes meet yours through the skinny smoke hovering in the air and he raises an eyebrow. “Want to try?”

You feel yourself reaching for it before you’ve entirely made up your mind. You smoked a cigarette, once. You hated it. But that wasn’t with Taehyung watching you intently from the end of the couch, so you find yourself more inclined to like cigars as you bring the plastic tip to your mouth.

You cough a little on the exhale, but otherwise it doesn’t feel like anything. You find yourself wishing for something a little stronger, and your eyes drift to the unopened bottle of wine on the table as you hand the cigar back to Taehyung. His eyebrows raise questioningly at you, but otherwise he doesn’t say anything.

You gesture to the kitchen. “What’s for dinner?” You pause. “Or late lunch, rather?”

Taehyung scratches the back of his neck lazily. “Umm—”

“You didn’t buy anything, did you?” you guess with a sigh. “So typical of a chicken-wrap-and-coffee guy.”

“What? No.” He laughs. “I said I was going to cook for you but it’s going to take a second. Is that okay?”

“Oh.” You perk back up. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Great.” He gives you a smirk. “But you’re right about the chicken wrap thing—I'm also a dying-vase-of-flowers guy,” he adds jokingly, getting up from the couch and walking towards the dining room table. He puts his cigar out in a little ash tray on the table, touching the wilted bouquet before spinning on his heel to look at you. “Can we salvage these?”

“I suppose I can work my magic,” you say playfully. “You start cooking.”

“Deal.”

While Taehyung pulls pots, pans, and ingredients from the cabinets, you work on cutting the stems on the flowers shorter. As you run them under cold water in the sink, Taehyung looks on from your side.

“Girls must be born with the ability to take care of things,” he hums appreciatively.

You smile a little and try not to let him see it as you pull dead leaves and wilted petals off before finally, sticking all the stems in the clear, glass vase you brought from your apartment.

“Pretty?” you ask.

Taehyung turns around from where he’s chopping vegetables at the counter. “Perfect,” he agrees. “You’ve earned a glass of wine.”

“You say that like I didn’t buy it,” you snort, rolling your eyes.

“Hey, it’s my housewarming gift,” he says. “But I’m willing to share.”

You grab a glass from the cabinet Taehyung points to, thanking every instinct under the sun that you thought to get a bottle that had a screw-on top. Without looking for it, you know Taehyung wouldn’t have a wine opener.

“What are you making?” you ask.

“Stir fry,” he says. “I figured it would be quick and easy. That okay?”

You sip quietly and stand beside Taehyung as he chops, looking at the graceful way in which he handles food. His hands, big and tan, work with a knife flawlessly. You can’t help but wonder where he learned the skill—in high school he hadn’t known how to cook eggs properly.

He gets you to pour some wine in a separate glass for him that he sips on occasionally. You’re glad you thought about buying it—somehow having a drink in your hands eases the awkward staleness in the room that seems to creep back in during silences. He asks you a few more questions while he prepares—what was the best place to eat in town, what was the nightlife like, what was there to do for fun—and you rattle off what you little you know.

Lastly, he pulls out a small package of white mushrooms and begins slicing them. When he sees the uneasy expression on your face at the addition of a certain hearty vegetable, he shakes his head.

“I’m cooking them in a separate pan, love,” Taehyung murmurs quietly, brow furrowed in concentration. He doesn’t even look at you when he says it, casually tacking on the old pet name onto the end, but you’re glad he doesn’t, because the shock on your face would tell everything.

He hasn’t forgotten anything about you or your preferences. The thought pulls at invisible strings on your insides, but it’s not the same anxiousness as earlier. It’s more of a warmth, an appreciation, a heartfelt emotion that has been silently gnawing at the back of all your interactions since you stepped foot in his apartment. You missed this.

You down what’s left of the wine in the bottom of your glass, hoping the alcohol will take that tight feeling in your throat with it as it travels to your stomach.

“Shit, I forgot to cut up the broccoli!” Taehyung says suddenly. “Y/N can you do that while I get these mushrooms frying? They’re going to take longer.”

You nod, going to the refrigerator. Taehyung puts a pan on the stove and turns on the burner, digging around for a spatula to cook with as you grab the knife and get to work. Somehow, you forget everything you’ve ever learned about cooking or cutting, and a few seconds into slicing the broccoli stem, the tip of the paring knife goes right through the tip of your index finger.

“Ow, fuck!” you say, dropping the knife immediately and cradling your injured finger with your other hand. It oozes blood and you step back from the cutting board to save the food.

Taehyung is at your side immediately. “You okay?” He cuts off the stove burner and rushes out of the kitchen. “Run it under some water, I’ll get the first aid kit!”

It isn’t bad, but it’s going to need a band-aid if you expect to carry on the night without a huge mess. You watch the dark red liquid start to run down your finger so you walk out of the kitchen to avoid getting blood in that sink and opt for the bathroom connected to Taehyung’s bedroom instead.

“I know the first aid kit is around here somewhere,” he murmurs as you walk through, his back to you as he bends over a few boxes stacked in the corner of his room.

You turn the sink on and rinse off the blood pooling at the end, blotting it dry with a square of toilet paper. Taehyung walks into the bathroom with the first aid kit just as you are closing the lid on the toilet, sitting on the seat as you apply light pressure to the cut.

“Is it bad?” he asks, crouching down in front of you. He pulls some ointment out of the kit and flips your hand over, cradling it with his much bigger one as he inspects the damage.

“It’s fine, I think,” you say, trying hard not to show the way tingles are shooting up your arm as Taehyung spreads a small amount of ointment on your finger, hands dancing and caressing your skin with care as he tends to it. “Sorry that I’m so awful at using a knife.”

He looks up at you, giving you a pretty, genuine smile. “It’s okay, I should have remembered—last time we tried to cook together it ended in a disaster, too.”

There’s a beat of silence—partly because you are racking your brain trying to remember the specific time Taehyung is referring to, and partly because suddenly, his face is close to yours for the first time of the entire night and you can see everything that you missed about Taehyung: the chocolate irises that stare happily back at you, the freckle that dots the tip of his nose that you used to kiss over and over, the softness of his pink lips and the way they pull back over a set of straight, beautiful teeth and send a warm smile your way.

And then his head is bent again, the moment gone as quickly as it came as he focuses back on the task at hand. He grabs a thin band-aid from the kit and works on unwrapping it, letting go of your fingers for the time being.

“Thanks for this,” you say, finally. “And thanks for inviting me over, I’m really—” you pause, licking your dry lips and trying to swallow the lump that’s suddenly formed in your throat, “I’m glad I got to see you.”

Taehyung doesn’t look up immediately at the confession—instead, he lets it linger quietly in the air of his cramped bathroom as he peels the paper strips off the sides of the bandaid. He wraps it around your finger gingerly, dropping the trash in the waste basket that sits beside the toilet. Still crouched in front of you, Taehyung pulls your hand up, fingertips aligning with his as if measuring your hand sizes before he intertwines them between yours. He gives your hand a squeeze like this, and you find it hard to look away as your eyes meet.

“Me too, Y/N,” he says softly. “I missed you.”

The quietness of Taehyung’s apartment lays easily on the conversation, covering the confession like a warm blanket. Your face is hot, and you can’t tell if it’s because of the wine or the intensity in which Taehyung is staring at you, still crouched in between your legs and holding your hand with his own.

When his eyes lower from yours finally, you realize you had been holding your breath the whole time, and you let it out quietly through your nose. Taehyung seems to deflate in front of you as well—deciding against whatever was rolling in his mind and making his eyebrows furrowed, as he loosens his grip on your hand and moves to straighten up.

But you don’t want him to move yet. You want to stay in this atmosphere, in this pulse-racing closeness with Taehyung because it’s a feeling that hasn’t coursed through your veins in a long, long time. You tug him back into place and he stutters at the movement, opening his mouth to say something but you don’t let him.

You just want to touch him, to feel him underneath the weight of your fingertips, to run your hand across the tan, smooth skin of his cheek. The feeling is so strong you can’t decide a solid reason why you shouldn’t. So you untangle your hand from his and rake it through the long, blonde strands of his hair, scratching lightly at the back of his neck where you know he likes it. Taehyung’s eyes close from pleasure, familiarness—and when he opens them, you know he’s lost the battle with himself from the fire lit behind his brown irises. You don’t mind, because you lose the same battle when you decide to lean in, using your hand resting on the back of Taehyung’s neck to guide his lips to yours.

The kiss is timid at first, a testing of the waters with closed mouths pressed against each other because neither of you are sure what is happening, or if it should be happening. But when Taehyung brings his hands up to cup the sides of your face, breaking away for just a second to reposition so that his lips are slanted across yours in a harder, more urgent kiss—all sensibility you had leaves the room.

Taehyung pulls you up from your sitting position as he straightens his legs from crouching, using the opportunity to bring you closer and wrap his arms around your waist while his lips graze feverishly across your own. It’s been  over two years without pressing your lips against his, but the moment they touch, everything comes back. Taehyung kisses you to leave you breathless, his tongue easily slipping in after a few moments, lacing with your own in a way that is familiar but exciting and new at the same time.

You’re reminded of the mushrooms suddenly, and that Taehyung hasn’t forgotten anything about you like this, either, despite some time apart: the way you loved it when he cradled your face with one hand while his other wrapped around your waist, cocooning you in his warmth and pressing you against his lean body; kissing you slow, but hot and needy to where your body can’t help but feel like melted ice cream in his hands; the way you loved it when he pulled back and looked at you, gauging your reaction to it all, even when he knew exactly what he was doing to you before diving back in with eagerness that made your heart skip.

When you break away to get some air, Taehyung only moves his attention to the skin of your neck, peppering kisses down your jawline until he reaches your pulse point, suckling on the skin lightly there. You close your eyes, tilting your head back to encourage him further, a breathy sigh releasing from between your lips at the warmth of his mouth.

Somewhere along the sucking and nipping and feverish, open-mouth kisses on your skin, Taehyung begins walking you back through the bathroom door frame and into his bedroom. You stumble with him towards the bed, unable to take your hands off of each other for fear that the moment will be ruined and unable to be recaptured with quite the same amount of passion. Neither of you speak, either, for the same reasons, you suppose--but you couldn’t say anything if you wanted; Taehyung doesn’t give you a chance with the way his mouth dances across yours.

Taehyung lightly pushes your shoulders once you’re at the edge of his mattress that sits on the floor—sans bed frame—and you lower yourself down as he follows you, covering your body with all of his. He positions himself perfectly between your legs so that his hard cock sits right against your center, placing pressure on your most sensitive bits, and Taehyung milks a slight moan from your mouth when he ruts against you.

Your clasp the sides of his face, bringing his lips back to yours with fervor unmatched to any time you’d been kissed in the past two years. While Taehyung licks inside of your mouth, your hands roam underneath his thin, white T-shirt, fingernails dragging along the skin of his back in a light scratch that has him groaning in the back of his throat. He leaves your mouth again to nip along your collarbones, bringing one of his hands up to pull down the collar of your sweater and give himself more access.

It’s hot in his room, and not because the A/C isn’t working—in between closing your eyes, you see the vent on the ceiling right above your heads—but your skin is warm all over your body, a feeling that only comes with the circumstance of Taehyung between your legs. You roll your hips upward  to meet his, making his mouth stutter in the marks of distinction it was making along your chest. He sits up, kneeling between your legs and looking at you with curious eyes. Taehyung’s lips are swollen from all the kissing and his hair is mussed from your fingertips running through it, but in this moment, you’ve never been more attracted to him.

You tug at the bottom of his shirt and Taehyung snatches it over his head with ease, smirking when your eyes roam over the tan, lean planes of his chest and stomach. His shoulders have widened and broadened, but he’s still managed to keep a slender, boyish figure over the years; you want to run your hands over every crevice of his body and re-remember all the lines so that when this moment between you two is done,  you can revisit the memory over and over and over.

When Taehyung leans back over you to connect your lips again, you roll over his body before he can, pushing him flat on his back and swinging your leg over so that you’re straddling his waist. Though Taehyung looks surprised at first at the sudden dominance, his eyebrows slowly return to their normal position on his forehead as you lean down to kiss him once more.

He melts underneath the brush of your mouth, his hands rubbing up and down your thighs caging him on either side of his body. While you trace the underside of his jaw with your tongue, he breathes out, “God, I missed you,” while his hands roam upward, grabbing what he can of your ass through the jeans you have on. The movement makes you jump in surprise and Taehyung laughs a little at the way you pull back from him to look at the playfulness in his eyes before he leans up and kisses you on the mouth chastely.

With his hands spread across your backside, Taehyung pulls your hips towards him, causing you to grind against his hard cock that sits beneath the crotch of his grey sweats. You close your eyes as Taehyung’s tongue sneaks out to tease against yours, coaxing you with the warmth of his mouth and his lap to continue your ministrations.

“Tae,” you breathe out, bowing your head as you continue to grind on him.

Your panties are slick with your wetness, sticking to you uncomfortably underneath your jeans but you’re too lost in the haziness of the moment to do anything about it. You realize how pathetic you might sound, moaning because of the friction between so many clothes, but when you open your eyes and look at Taehyung, staring half-lidded back at you and breathing heavily—you couldn’t care less. His gaze sends a knot coiling in your stomach, tightening with every roll of your hips.

When you moan his name again shamelessly, Taehyung sinks his teeth into his bottom lip, closing his eyes as if fighting with himself for what he wants to say—but then he loses when the words escape his plump lips.

“What is it, baby?” he murmurs. “Why don’t you take these off?” He pats his hands where they rest against your butt, squeezing once again through the material.

The thought flashes in your head of what underwear you wore today—certainly not a fuck me pair—and try to think of how Taehyung would react to seeing your simple, baby blue cotton panties.

“Hm?” he asks, letting his hand come down on your ass in a harder smack this time—still encouraging the roll of your hips against his cock. “Take them off, I want to touch you.” He pauses, fighting the groan building in the back of his throat. “Wanna—make you feel good, Y/N.”

Hongbin is never this forward with you—he wasn’t much of an ass guy in the first place, so he would never do this—and since it had been a while since you two shared a passionate moment because of his work schedule, you couldn’t remember what it was like with Taehyung overpowering those memories with his sensual, fiery touches and narrations.

You want to get completely lost in the moment, but you can’t. Hongbin—he floods back into your brain, unwarranted and at the utmost wrong time he possibly could. It’s all happening so fast—but not fast enough. Your mind takes over instead of your body, your wants, and you open your eyes from their closed state, taking in the sight before you:

Taehyung, underneath you. Shirtless. Small, pink marks covering his neck and chest from your mouth. From your mistakes. From your infidelity. You snatch your hands back from where they rest on his stomach, guilt flooding your system as the fog in your brain thins. Taehyung’s eyes open to anxiously search yours, and he knows immediately what has happened in the last few, precious seconds.

“Taehyung—” you gasp, moving off him and scooting away, off the mattress and toward the wall of his bedroom. When the cold, hard material presses against your back, you realize how far your shirt was pushed up—how close you were to taking it off with your pants following shortly after, and it only makes you feel worse.

“Y/N,” Taehyung says, rushing to crawl after you on his hands and knees. He cradles your cheeks between his hands, brushing away trails of tears you didn’t even know you were crying. “Y/N, I’m sorry—fuck, I’m so fucking sorry. I—” he pauses, running a hand through his air, looking past you with far off eyes. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, god. Fuck!”

You run a shaky hand through your hair, blinking away tears and moving your head side to side in disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” you murmur, pushing his hands away. “I have to go—I have to leave, I’m—” you push up from the floor, walking on shaky legs towards Taehyung’s bedroom door.

He grabs his shirt and is after you in a flash, reaching out to capture your wrist in his before you can make it far. “Y/N, wait a second, we should talk about this.”

You pull out of his loose grip and he lets you, watching you with worried eyes as you put on your shoes and jacket by the door.

“Y/N, please,” he says, and you can hear the hopelessness in his voice. It makes you pause and look up at him, but then your eyes zero-in on the marks on his chest, at the shirt in his hand, and your eyesight blurs with tears again.

“There’s nothing to talk about, Taehyung,” you say. “I’m sorry, this was—this was a mistake.”

Taehyung flinches at the sound of the word, but he nods slowly in understanding. “I’m sor—”

You manage a soft me too, cutting him off before he can say it and then you are rushing out, pulling Taehyung’s front door shut behind you. Just before it closes you catch a glimpse of his kitchen, at the pans on the stove sitting with the cold, forgotten remainders of a dinner that never should have happened in the first place.

— One week later —

“You all right?” Yeonwoo asks as she sits across from you at the kitchen table, setting a mug of steaming hot coffee in front of your tightly clasped hands. This is about the millionth time she’s asked since you got back from Taehyung’s last Sunday—it’s annoying, but at least you’re getting to practice your lying by having to convince her over and over.

“I’ll be great as soon as I drink this,” you say, giving her a smile right before the cup touches your lips. You welcome the burning feeling of the coffee, coating the lies and guilt that keep building up in your throat whenever she asks you.

Yeonwoo hums in agreement, naively, and takes a sip from her own mug.

Of course, you couldn’t tell her what had happened—you couldn’t even process the thoughts yourself, much less explain to someone else what made you cross such a terribly huge line in your seemingly stable relationship. You know you’d wished for it in the moment, but now you want the unrelenting memories of Taehyung to stop flashing through your mind at any given moment and give your poor, guilty heart a fucking break.

“Want to go shopping today?” Yeonwoo asks, not looking up from scrolling on her phone. “I need a new pair of boots.”

You take another sip of your coffee in contemplation, glancing at your own phone sitting a few inches away on the table. Taehyung hadn’t contacted you once since then, and it was eating at your nerves a little bit—shouldn’t he have something to say about it?

“We can go,” you say, finally. “But I need to make a phone call, first.”

Yeonwoo nods and doesn’t look up as you leave the room. You walk in your bedroom, phone in hand and shut the door behind you. For good measure, you lock it, just in case Yeonwoo decides to burst in while you sit Indian style in the middle of your floor and try to figure your conflicted emotions out.

You tap the Facebook app on your home screen and type ‘T’ into the search bar—the first person that pops up is Kim Taehyung from your incessant checking of his timeline within the last week. All he’d posted was a few normal pics of himself sightseeing around town and going to work; it was all boring, mundane things that didn’t help the insatiable craving to reach out to him, but at least he looked cute in his new work button-ups.

You pull up your chat, staring at the last message between you two:

Which building/room?

1100/425!

You knew where his house was, you could just have this conversation to him in person—the thought has you shaking your head before you even finish it. If you couldn’t control yourself last time, how the hell would it be any different during a second round of being alone together?

But, deep down, did you really want it to be any different? The thought had been scaring you for a week straight.

You drag both of your hands down your face in anxiety, pressing your knuckles against your eyes until you see black and static stars. You cross and uncross your legs, pick your phone up and put it down a few times before you finally click in the space to type and let your thoughts formulate freely:

Taehyung, I’m sorry that I left last Sunday and we didn’t really get to talk about what happened. But I’ve had some time to think. Honestly, I think the only thing we can do is put it behind us and move on. I’m sorry that it happened and it shouldn’t happen again. But meeting up made me realize how much I’ve missed you, and I think I kind of need you around as my friend. I’m really sorry, and I hope you still want to talk to me after this. I understand if you don’t, though.

You press send and throw your phone away from you, pulling your knees up to your chest and burying your face in the space between your legs and chest. You breathe out shallowly, thinking over in your head what you just texted and hoping it didn’t make you sound like a pitiful, stupid, selfish idiot.

You knew it was wrong of you to ask Taehyung to come back in your life after what happened between the two of you. Hell, you know it was wrong to bring him back into your life after two years of radio silence between the two of you. What happened was more than just a moment—it was a melding of hidden feelings, of unfulfilled desires and the unrelenting urge to be with someone who knew your body better than you did.

You loved Hongbin. But Taehyung set a fire within your ribcage that billowed outwards and swallowed everything you thought you wanted in your relationship with your current boyfriend; Taehyung, in just a few short hours, had made you forget all of it, made you cross lines you swore you never would because you knew what it felt like to be cheated on. But something about it had felt so right in the moment—

No. If you were going to do this, you had to do it right. You had to be Taehyung’s friend. You had to bury the moment you two shared along with all your dirty desires and do what was right.

But then again, you never were the best at making decisions. The thought passes through your mind as you hear the distinct, vibrating hum of your phone across the floor a few feet away from you, and you snatch it up with sweating palms, a racing heart, and an unrelenting sense of hope blossoming in your chest.

Before the message even pops up, you know, without a single fucking doubt in your mind, that this moment is going to change everything.

Taehyung is typing...

[sixthofhisname]

— answer these questions then tag 20 blogs you’d like to know better!

Tagged by: @scndor

Tagging: @ofwintcrfell @misplacedheroics @corditeheart @materxdracones @sunny-explosions

Nicknames: HMR, Ferret

Zodiac: Pisces

Height: 5’5”

Time: 11:52 pm EST

Favorite band / artist: Yes (the band, I’m not being cheeky)

Song stuck in my head: Bon Jovi “Livin’ on a Prayer”

Last movie I saw: Super Mario Bros.

Last thing I googled: The name of a specific George Michael song (“Careless Whisper”)

Other blogs: (in order of creation) @jollyrogerjones (Once Upon a Time), @heyxtherexjuliet (Riverdale), @hartofbalamb / @angelsrebellion / @prideanddiscipline / @sharpxshootin / @headmasterkramer (Final Fantasy VIII), @willowguarded (Harry Potter)

Do I get asks: yeah sometimes! But I’d always love more.

Why did I choose this username: Because Reasons™

Following: 89 people currently

Average amount of sleep: 8-9 hours

What I’m wearing: underwear... I’m in bed

Dream job: working for WETA

Dream trip: Kyoto during cherry blossom season

Favorite food: sushi

Play any instruments: I dabble in a lot of instruments but primarily piano and vocals

Eye color: brown

Hair color: Auburn

Languages you speak: English, some Japanese, minimal ASL

Most iconic song: Fuck... I have no idea. Probably the song I play during the opening of my Twitch streams - Seven Lions “Days to Come”

Random fact: I can’t stick out my tongue. I am literally tongue tied (ankyloglossia)

Describe yourself as aesthetic things: Eraser bits on textured paper, giant robots, the glow of a computer screen in a dark room, fuzzy blankets, a blinking text cursor, unfinished bottles of water, stacks of books on the floor, Summer thunder storms, piles of colorful dice.

[onsauron]

hello, it’s me, dani, with another trash muse under the cut. if ya wanna plot just give this a like and i’ll come skadoodle on over to ya! 

°✧｡ [David Castañeda, male, he/him] IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE EYE_OF_SAURON JOINED VELIA FROM SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. APPARENTLY THEIR NAME IS SANTIAGO FLORES AND THEY’RE A ROGUE. THEY HAVE BEEN FIGHTING AS A SOLO MEMBER FOR A WHILE NOW. DIDN’T PEOPLE SAY THEY WERE A BETA TESTER? I HEARD THEY TURNED TWENTY-NINE THIS YEAR. LET’S HOPE THEY MAKE IT OUT ALIVE. 

name: eye_of_sauron (sauron) (santiago)

level: 55

cursor: red

class: rogue

mood: worried

ALRIGHT SO! his username is eye_of_sauron, which should tell you all you need to know about him: he is a giant lame nerd. 

no really he’s a big nerd, he was a D&D playing, lord of the rings watching, LARPing fool. 

his life is relatively uneventful. he had a great fam, he has two sisters, one older and one younger, and he grew up in lower to mid-middle class monotony in tuscon, arizona. he was always a dork, and he got this kind of love for fantasy worlds from his mother who was a writer. honestly, he was into your typical stuff. lord of the rings, harry potter, star wars. big titles. he was also a pretty avid gamer and that childhood led him to seek a career in video game development

do you see where this is going

anyway, he got a degree in computer science in college, and was planning on getting an additional degree for video game development. but he needed some money first. he was pretty determined to take care of himself, despite the fact that his parents were willing to support him through another degree if he needed it. but he didn’t want them to have to do that. so instead of seeking out that degree right away, he worked as IT for a lot of big developer companies. 

including one run by a mister aspens, who was working on some breaking and cutting edge stuff

he was kind of bummed at the time that he was just tech support, called in when the coders had issues with their computers. he wanted to work on the game. but it was fine, all was forgiven when he got early access to the game as a beta tester. 

he went hard in those pre-release days. a LEgEND, dammit. he went full into the aesthetic. see, santiago was uh...not very cool in real life. he was nice and all! but cool? no not at all. so being some sort of badass rogue in velia? oh, he leaned into that hard. he was among the top beta players, and his cursor was red before the game even released. but it had been FINE back then. you know, before everyone got locked in here, when he killed a player they’d just respawn in a safe zone (this is something he will explain to people many times over)

mostly, he and some of the other beta testers would just mess around and battle and fight together and fight each other and now he really regrets all of that because this whole red cursor thing makes it difficult for him to seem like a nice guy.

because once the game officially launched and people realized what was going on? he didn’t kill a single person. and won’t. not even in self defense. it’s just not how he wants to go.

after all, he’d only gotten really into his CHARACTER in velia. but now that he was trapped here? oh my god, the stress. who was taking care of his bulldog back home? he hoped his roommate was. 

santiago is actually a very cautious and nervous guy, friendly and always open to new friends and experience...but all of this is betrayed by both his pre-launch reputation and his red cursor. eye_of_sauron looks tough and has a history, and he’s been trying to shake that for the past three years. 

he hasn’t told anyone that he worked for/with velia in any way. even though he was just IT he has some pretty strong guilt about it and is too ashamed to really offer up that information to anyone. 

he will still sometimes complete quests, but for the most part, his level growth has stopped because he doesn’t want to...die. he used to be such a legend and now he just wants to his in his lil shack and grow his tomatoes. in his words: it’s not a game anymore. 

he hasn’t participated in a boss battle since they unlocked floor 40. 

he never joined a guild because he was worried that joining a guild, even one like unity, would automatically put him at odds against certain players. he wants to be a Friend To All, even circus. 

sometimes he goes to push up his glasses, because even after three years, he still forgets he doesn’t have them. 

in case you didn’t know, he’s worried about you. yes, you. he’s just worried period. just please, please be careful because he’s not equipped to handle the drama of near death experiences. you know. REAL near death experiences. 

his best skills are cooking and farming and crafting and he does a lot of things for free. 

he misses his polos. polos were so practical, why didn’t they code polos into velia. 

you can call him sauron he knows his username is a mouthful but he’ll also tell you his name right away he doesn’t guard it. 

he’s got a tiger mount named tigger and a golden eagle named legolas.

tldr; he was a really badass beta player that was not ready to be trapped here and is now a ball of stress and valid worries. there’s more that i’ll add to this as time goes along but rest assured he will be your friend and if you want to be his enemy he’ll frown deeply about it.

[quietlysatan]

Year Three: The Year of Reconnection - Lady Angel (dameange) AO3

Link: Here!!

Rating: T

Favorite Quote(s): Okay, that’s valid Severus

When he saw who was in the office, he turned right back around.

Albus is just,,,, really fucking tired of your shit Severus

“I believe you know our new DADA teacher for this year?” The old man had to be laughing at him, had to be torturing him for amusement, there was no other explanation for it.

Severus chose to remain silent.

“Severus, do we have the ingredients to brew the wolfsbane potion?”

He mentally cursed, using every word, phrase, and expletive he knew. His face remained impassive as he nodded.

“Excellent!” The old man actually clapped. “Then it won’t be difficult for you to brew the potion once a month for Remus.” The old man peered at him over those ridiculous half-moon spectacles. “Will it, Severus?”

He moved his head an inch to the left then an inch to the right.

“Good, good.” Albus shooed them both away. “I’m sure you boys have plenty to do before the students come back tomorrow.”

References to previous installments are always a plus

Thankfully, due to his efforts from the previous year, very few of those who had understood the boggart’s words spread tales. Those who did were quickly shut down by others who liked Harbin and were grateful to him for suggesting the extracurricular activities that were being continued this year. Sometime during the summer, someone had found out that Harbin had been the one to suggest the activities to the headmaster, and thus the popularity of the activities had spread to include Harbin. And his friends in Slytherin, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw were making doubly sure to quell any more talk of that DADA lesson.

Familial support is Always a plus

Harbin was grateful, of course, but did not truly feel better until he had snuck away during lunch to use the enchanted cell phone that Gavin and Professor Flitwick had charmed. While electronics would not work in or around Hogwarts, Gavin had figured out a way for the phone to work with the professor’s help. His call to his parents, after confessing about his fears, had well and truly soothed his nerves. He came back to the Great Hall in much better spirits and it seemed to relieve his friends. To show them his thanks, he kissed each of the girls on the cheek (Hermione took it as her due, Ginny had blushed, and Luna had kissed his cheek in return) and shook Ron and Neville’s hands. Draco, of course, he hugged.

I wonder what it’d feel like to have this sort of support from someone who I chose, and, someone who chose me in turn...

Draco leaned against Pansy, feeling her fingers carding through his hair, messing it up, but he didn’t care. On his other side, Hermione was leaning against Ron. Neville was sandwiched between Ginny and Luna. Every single one of them was silent as they waited for their friend to wake up. Pansy was here more for him than Harbin and Draco was grateful.

This is just really sweet...

“Come, my lions.” Her smile was stern, but loving. Like some kind of benevolent dictator. “And you, young raveness.”

This is really sweet in a Slytherin sort of way...

Tea and scones assuaged hunger he didn’t even realize he had, but when he started blinking sleepily, when he saw the way the others were also blinking and listing to the side, he knew. “You drugged us.”

“Of course.”

Sweet dungeon bat who cares despite what he says

Severus did not want to answer that question. His godson was too young to be asking such questions, too young to be thinking about such things. He could still remember when Draco had first been born and Narcissa had asked him to be there when she gave birth. He remembered seeing the pale pink, wrinkly thing that had screamed his lungs out when the healer had cast the lung clearing spell. He remembered seeing Narcissa coo over the little gnome and Lucius beaming with pride. It hadn't been until later, at Draco's naming and inheritance ritual, that Severus saw the boy that would be become his godson and actually cared about his future. It had been the moment clear silver-blue eyes had latched onto his dark ones and held them without fear. Out of sheer curiosity, Severus had cast the most gentle legilimens he could. The baby's mind was filled with images of his life: the smile of his mother, the strong hands of his father, the flopping ears of the house elf that played nursemaid. But it was the shock of seeing his own eyes and nose in those memories that caught him unawares. The child had already imprinted on him.

And now that child was growing into a young man whose feelings for his best friend were starting to grow, mature, into something Severus was not ready to handle. He idly wished for one of Draco's parents to be here. "You are both young. There is no reason for there to be more."

Words & Chapter(s):  24,355 words, one-shot

Summary: An escaped prisoner brings a connection from Harbin's past. And secrets to light.

(Remember, in this series Harry was raised by French diplomats, and they changed his name to Harbin, or Hari for short.)

Score: 13 ofc, this whole series is a 13, and I can’t wait to get it all up

Pairing(s): Eventual Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter does not happen until entry four of the series, Wolfstar!!!

Background Sophie Chevalier/Uncle Jonah/Yves Chevalier

Eventual Wolfstar(!!!)

Hinted possible eventual Severus Snape/Gavin Gresham (OMC who’s pretty freaking awesome, and hella likable)

Warning(s): FOR TRANSLATION OF THE FRENCH, HOVER YOUR CURSOR. A TRANSLATION WILL APPEAR.

Now that that’s outta the way, Hari Versus Dementors still happens y’all, except they notice the fall a little later, and Hari ends up in a magical coma regrowing his bones for a bit, nothing to gruesome HP-Canon verse wise

Mentions of canon Mauraders era actions, i.e the anomosity between Snape and The Mauraders

Severus intends to obliviate dangerous information from Draco and Hermione

Manipulation for a good cause

Temporary character catotnia???? The Dementors get Severus and Sirius, but they’re fine I swear!!!

The Quidditch match happens, but no worries, everyone you love is perfectly fine!!!

Pros: “He could withstand the Dark Lord’s rages. He could withstand Albus’ ridiculous efforts to socialize him. He could withstand years of humiliation dealt at the hands of the Mauraders. But he could not withstand sweet pleas for noble help from such beseeching eyes.” This is something I truly love about this fic, Hari is the Epitome of everything Slytherin and gods does it show, every time, always, it’s truly refreshing and particularly lovely to see

Anyways, since I’ve probably ranted about about my love of this fic enough I won’t repeat myself much more, it’s just that this is literally one of my favorite books that I’ve ever read in my life and I’ve read SEVERAL THOUSAND stories. This one I don’t think I’ll ever truly move past as it just grabs me in a way few other stories have, and yes I’ve rated it 13, and every fic with that rating is something I either would, or more likely already have, read again, but this one is, special ya’know? It means something to me, and I’m really happy to share it with all of you.

Gif Aesthetic: Severus,  upon seeing Remus, without hesitation

Severus upon seeing Snuffles Noir without hesitation

Severus, every time Hari and/or Draco give him The Look

Hari, plotting and taking charge of the entire school yet again, without hesitation.

Everyone, well aware of what’s happening here, and happily going along with it

Everyone @ Hari

Hari @ everyone

[chainsawgirlfriend]

It is a hell beyond misery - a pain so great numbness has taken its place. However, it is with great joy that I may inform you that given enough patience and malice you can do stuff like this to your windows computers still, to this day :)

You can’t see it but my cursors are different magical girl wands.

Rate my setup, I got

Ramen Noodle Recycling Bin - when you empty it, the broth drains <3 🍲 thinkin’ about retitling it “My Life” which I saw a thirteen year old girl do when I was ten and I was like. “Wow! Nietzsche who??”

Horror Movie File Folders (my interior folders like pictures and documents are different dessert .ico images and my system folders are the fuckig… sailor moon heart artifact things

Pink rims 😎 you can change this easily and ASAP in the system settings

REG Edited pink select options (not shown) making both my text and mouse drag highlighter pink <3

Magical girl mouse pack (complete with running nyan cat loading mouse) (not shown) there are some great default ones as well (same with the icon options) already on your windows computer but I had to go above and beyond

CUSTOM Pink Windows Media Player Skin your computer will let you change this in the windows media player menu. Did you know that Josey and the Goddamn Pussycats did a cross promo with windows or something? There is an (I think officially licensed) Josey and the Pussycats themed Windows Media Player Skin as well as a transformers, Harry Potter, and The Mummy ones. I am using a custom one from a website for windows computer mods!

Shimej-ee / Shimeji sylveons. Easy to install desktop pets that wander around freely and do stuff. These ones scream constantly and I hate them 💕 It’s like having two trans flag colored parakeets.

Ghost I was working on making a “Ghost” which is a more complicated desktop companion because I want to reenact Her but not be a tool like that dipshit main character.

Not pictured: custom pastel Lock Screen that matches my desktop, custom chrome browser background, browser custom colors, Ren’Py game software to Make Da Games I Wanna Play, interior folder icons, weather and calendar widgets

Like yes I know the point of this post was accessibility of customization and all of these things took some time to find and learn how to do, but like, inspo, right? Things may not be perfect but hopefully you can beat it into being better suited for you. I figured this all out on my own and I think you should take time to do the same :) I feel happier with my aggressively pink busted up laptop. Working on these things was also a great way to distract myself, combat anxiety, as well as the depressing numbness of living. You’ve probably seen the advice that if you’re feeling down - change something. Your computer font, your underwear, your room. It really does help!

And if you ever get sick of your theme, you can pretty quickly change it!

I miss when computers and websites were just wildly customizable in ridiculous ways. when I was a kid I was messing around and randomly found a little running horse cursor that was just there for some reason and changed the hourglass to that. and then got yelled at by my dad because he assumed I’d downloaded it off the internet but yknow.

nobody does shit like that anymore. I can’t just put “the 5th moon of jupiter” as my facebook location anymore because they decided to be killjoys so they could stalk people better and windows won’t let you customize your whole interface in stupid ways and they treat their user base like idiots.

like not to be a salty old man but there’s no joy in it anymore I’m just resigned that even if I customize shit I’ll still be forced to install the next mandatory update that will put it all back to its pristine bullshit original state and also break my system volume control for some reason.