#hate that bigger frames are kind of out of style

[bigwishes]

Forced Freak

Tyson was a uni drop out, nothing special about him other than his pretty face and dedication to his diet. He had no real hobbies and no real friends. The only reason people paid him any real attention was because of his body. However guys got pretty turned off after a one night stand with him when they'd wake up and Tyson would have written them critiques about how to improve their bodies and performance in the bedroom.

Tyson was the worst kind of gym bro, not because he had no real personality, but because he was an asshole with no real personality, in fact when he wasn't coming home from the gym, taking selfies in the mirror or scrolling on grinder for someone to bounce on his waist he spent a large portion of his time staring in the mirror admiring his own perfection.

"fuck yeah, I'm probably the hottest guy alive" he'd say as he rubbed his own crotch.

His arrogant attitude had essentially transformed him into a self obsessed autosexual, whilst he enjoyed sex and having a guy put in all the work whilst he laid back in pleasure he still preferred a night to himself and his mirror.

Tyson flexed his arm one last time, admiring the perfection before him before he turned off his alarm and got up to go to the gym.

"well, I'll see you when I get home handsome" he said winking at his own reflection and snapping his underwear band.

He threw on the folded red tank top and black gym shorts he had lying on his dresser, the ones he had steamed the night before. As he walked out the door he picked up his glass from his morning water and placed it neatly in the dishwasher before turning it on and leaving for the gym.

Upon arriving at the gym Tyson walked into the welcome area where he found 3 tall bodybuilders lined up at the key scanner. Tyson rolled his eyes and tried to avoid contact with them, he hated those freaks. The guys who willingly chose to inflate themselves with disgusting amounts of muscle. Who could barely fit in their cars and he huffed and sweat like bovine beasts when they got on the treadmill.

Tyson quickly got impatient and began tapping his foot as the 3 meatheads were holding up the line.

"are you beasts gonna scan in or am I just waiting here all day"

The three turned their heads to them almost in unison

"yoo you think we are beasts huhu" one flexed his enormous bicep that dwarfed Tyson's head

"hey Ty, what up lil dude. Wanna hit bench with us today? we we can help you grow that chest"

Tyson was disgusted at the thought of working out with the three of them and smelling their terrible stench or listening to them heaving for air.

"no thanks, its hard to improve upon perfection" Tyson said with a smirk

"aw come on dude, you can always improve and get bigger, you aint even close to your limit"

"and I dont want to be" Tyson said with a disgusted frown and one raised eyebrow

There was a loud ding and the three bodybuilders began waddling and shuffling their way through the electronic gate into the gym, having to turn sideways slightly to get their hulking frames in the turn gate.

"This is what I mean" laughed Tyson

"haha, can't blame us for being absolute units man"

"But doesn't it annoy the fuck out of you being like that?"

"no way bro, being this big is fucking awesome"

the three bodybuilders all began laughing and flexing

"I'm sorry I really dont see how turning myself into a...freak would be awesome"

There was a dead silence as the three bodybuilders stopped laughing and turned to him.

"that's a bit of a harsh word bro"

"yeah man don't diss the hobby coz you aint into it"

Tyson smirked flicking as he polished his fitness watch with the edge of his jumper "dude I dont think anyone is into it"

"what the fuck is that supposed to mean"

"umm being so big you have no style because you cant fit into anything, constantly covered in sweat marks, you reek after just a few minutes of exercise, you gulp down water like an elephant who hasn't drunk in a year, can barely fit in your cars and take up so much space, plus I like when guys find me attractive and aren't grossed out by my monstrous body" Tyson turned his back placing his gym bag in the locker completely unaware that the three men he had just insulted looked so red their heads could pop with anger.

"I'LL LET YOU KNOW MY HUSBAND LOOOOVVVEEESSS MY SIZE" the bodybuilder in the middle yelled through his teeth

"whoooaa jayce" the two others said in unison as they grabbed him by the chest and stopped him taking a step forward

"don't shoot the messenger buddy but Im pretty sure your husband wouldn't be disappointed if you lost 30-40lsb of muscle, pretty sure he'd enjoy date night without sitting across from a behemoth stuffing himself so full of protein like a slob"

Jayce threw his arms up in the air and pushed his two friends off of him turning around and walking away.

Tyson ignored the interaction implying pulling his towel and drink bottle out of his gym bag.

"You know what you need Ty..."

"and what's that Mark?" Tyson tiredly asked rolling his eyes

"A real good bulk, make ya real big, that'll change your mind" Mark smirked looking at his friend who was smiling back.

"whatever" Tyson groaned as he walked off into the gym.

---

A few hours had passed and Tyson was in the changing room admiring himself after his workout. It was enough to pump him to that perfect spot where he looked just slightly bigger and was a little sore, but not enough to make him sweat or stimulate the sort of growth a lot of gym guys were after.

Tyson flexed one bicep and ran his other hand down his thigh feeling himself get hard.

"Oh yeah handsome, just wait till I get you in my bed" He smirked at his own reflection.

Just then he heard the sound to the changing rooms open, his hand quickly shot up from his thigh, not wanting anyone to see his moment of lust.

He watched in the mirror as Jayce rounded the corner, his massive and wide shoulders causing him to bump into subway tiled wall. A massive smile lit up on Jayce's face as he saw Tyson standing there.

"Yep" Jayce yelled out

Dylan quickly followed behind and began walking towards Tyson, not that he thought much of it.

"Grab his left Dylan?"

"No worried Jayce"

Tyson was shocked as the two hulking bodybuilders suddenly grabbed hold of his arms and used what felt like all of their strength to sandwich him between them.

"h-HEY WHAT THE FUCK GET OFF" Tyson struggled and squirmed to get out of there grip but it felt like he was being pressed between two stone walls, he was unable to do anything other than pathetically kick his legs.

Just then Tyson heard the door to the changing rooms lock as Mark rounded the corner.

"Mark!, tell your fucking boys to let me go!"

The three bodybuilder's laughed as Mark walked closer holding a strange metal container in his hand that resembled a protein shaker.

"Hey lil dude" Said Mark with a big smirk across his face

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THREE WANT" Tyson snapped.

"to prove you wrong man" Jayce whispered

'w-what" Tyson continued to flounder and squirm to no avail

"you said being a bodybuilder sucked, well we are gonna prove you wrong" Dylan smirked tightly squeezing Tyson's arms

"h-how, Im not gonna start bodybuilding because you three threaten me"

"oh there is no threat bud, we have got something we want to try but dont know about the side effects wanna test it"

"ARE YOU GONNA JAB MY ASS FULL OF ROIDS" Tyson squeaked pathetically

"no dude, of course not" Said Mark

"we already know the side effects to roids" laughed Jayce

Mark grabbed onto Tyson's perfect hair and forcefully pulled his head back, Tyson couldn't see but he felt Jayce wrap his giant muscular arm around his pinning his between Jayce's bulky bicep and forearm and grabbing his cheeks forcing his jaw open.

"bottoms up pretty boy" Mark said as he flicked the cap off the contained with his thumb and shoved the mouth piece into Tyson's mouth.

"MMMMM -MMMM -MMMMMMM!!!!!!" Tyson tried to yell but his mouth was full of a strange thick liquid.

Mark dropped the contained and grabbed Tyson's nose still forcing the container to his lips

"gotta drink if you wanna breathe buddy"

Tyson couldn't hold it any longer

GULP...GULP...GULP.....GULP

Tyson sucked down what was in his mouth and what continued to pour from the container, when the last drop was drunk and all he could taste was air the three bodybuilders all let go in unison and Tyson dropped to the ground gasping for air.

"How long does it take to work Mark?"

"errr container says a few minutes for a start and a week for full effects"

Tyson couldn't concentrate on what the three were talking about, his body began to feel like it was being super heated, like his muscles and bones were being fried into pudy.

Tyson's hand began to tremble, as he looked at it pressed against the cold tiled floor he noticed his thumb enlarging, getting longer and thicker, it spread to all his fingers and his hand, at first he thought it was an allergic reaction but it wasn't puffy or fat, it was hard solid and defined, like all the muscles in his hands were suddenly expanding, he watched as his handed swelled up to the size of dinner plates as veins in his arms and forearms pumped in sync with his heart beat.

His forearms stared growing outwards and he felt his already tight and pumped biceps ache as they swelled even bigger. Seeing his reflection in the mirror he looked like a bad art project as different parts of his body were swelling with size and different times, his shoulders got wider as his calves got bigger, his pecs inflated as his feet grew out of his shoes, his abs bloated into a semi roid gut as his quads quickly filled with blood, and his ass pumped up into a big meaty globe as his traps crept up his back swallowing his necks.

after just a few minutes the three bodybuilders were stunned looking down at the sweaty bulky mess that was Tyson on the floor of the changing room.

Tyson had watched the whole thing in the mirror but still he couldn't recognise himself, what had happened, what they did to him.

He looked like one of them, a bodybuilder.

"w-what did you do to me" Tyson moaned, out of breath and out of energy

"damn, he got huge so quick, and he still has a week to go?"

"please, no, no bigger, turn me back"

the three bodybuilders began to have a conversation around Tyson like he wasn't even there as he tried to pick himself up off the floor. A few minutes passed and Tyson finally stood up. He felt uncomfortable, muscles he didn't even know where near each other rubbed up against each other like every aspect of his body was fighting for space.

Tyson looked at himself horrified in the mirror at the big bulky freak he had become.

"oh fuck..m..my perfect body" he turned to the three men behind him "please, please you gotta turn me back"

"you still got a week of growin left bud" Mark replied

"PLEASE I CAN'T GET BIGGER"

Jayce smirked trying to contain his laughter

"Look dude, we said we were gonna show you how being a bodybuilder is awesome, let it go for a week and we'll check back in and if you still hate it, we'll turn you back"

Tyson turned back to his reflection and flexed, freaked out by his bicep being larger than his own head.

"see, its already awesome, see you later dude"

The three bodybuilders started walking out of the changing room

"no WAIT!!"

Tyson ran over to his bag feeling the weight of his new body with every step and feeling his hard muscles bounce. He leant over and swung his bag over his shoulder. He watched as the door closed behind the three and he ran to catch up. Every step was a chore, it was like an entire workout for just one leg to hold up the weight of his new massive body.

By the time he reached the door Tyson doubled over gasping for air, he placed his giant meaty hand on the wall and slid down the the floor, he had only run a few feet but it felt like he had just done and three hours of cardio without a break, he felt the sweat running down his back and struggled to come up with a reason anyone would want to be this big, why guys would dedicate their lives to become titans.

it took 15 minutes, for Tyson to catch his breath and stand up again and by the time that happened the three he was after were already gone, he walked through the gym defeated hoping nobody would recognise him. He made it to the turn gate and as he went to go through he felt a hard pressing against his shoulders. Not at all used to his new size Tyson hadn't adjusted the angle that he approached the gate and found himself stuck between the two steel bars. Tyson pushed with his back leg but didn't realise the power behind his colossal quads as he easily pushed himself out but he couldn't stop the moment and he came tumbling forward face first onto the floor in front and multiple gym attendants.

"woah, you okay big guy" one of them asked,

Tyson looked up and saw the other two doing their best not to laugh.

"yeah I'm fine!" Tyson tried to get up as fast as he could but the sheer weight of his frame meant it was an awkward step by step process that took almost a whole minute.

Tyson quickly raced out the doors as fast as his could but once again misjudged his giant muscles and his two shoulders slammed into the automatic doors not realising they weren't wide enough for him. A loud bang rang out and Tyson looked back as the glass automatic doors wobbled and shook, and ounce more pressure and they would have surely crashed down around him.

Tyson waddled through the car park desperate to get to his car. Swinging open the door he quickly realised why he had never seen a bodybuilder in a sleek sports car, he didn't fit, just one leg stepped in and there wasn't any more room for him to squeeze in. He tried everything, moving the seat back, moving the wheel up, but still he didn't fit. After about 10 minutes of doing everything he could think of to get in he just decided to force his way in.

Sliding into the car he felt cramped, and when he closed the driver's door it bounced off his arm and swung back open denting the car next to him. Tyson tried again leaning all the way into his car and shutting the door. It shut but as he sat back up he found himself on an awkward angle to the wheel, he tried to adjust himself to roll down the window so he could stick his arm out and get more space but as he placed his arm down on the leather seat to push his own body out the way he heard a loud tearing. His clothes didn't feel loser and he couldn't see what had torn but it sounded bad...

When Tyson arrived home he squeezed himself out of his car, it felt like being freed from a sardine can but as he turned around to shut his door he had found the source of the tearing noise from earlier, in the centre of the seat, directly under where he was, was now a large split right down the leather, seats that cost over a thousand dollars to fix split apart like paper, and that wasn't the worst of it, he looked at the lower back of the seat to see how the leather had warped and swollen from the amount of sweat that had been pressed against it.

"AW MAN" Tyson moaned slammed his car door, not realising the force his arms were able to put behind it and as the door lodged into place his hand carried the momentum behind it straight into the metal of the car leaving a large dent from his palm.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME"

Tyson stormed over to his front door just wanting the day to end. He pulled up his keys to the front door and fumbled for a few minutes as he struggled to sort though them with his massive meaty fingers, finally he got in the door and shut it behind him as gently as he could which still resulted in a slam.

His stomach let out a loud groan, he had never felt so hungry so sudden in his life, Tyson tried to walk to the kitchen but realised it was more of a waddle has his massive muscular thighs slammed into each other. Arriving in front of his fridge he opened it up and grabbed one of his already made meals out and placed it in the microwave to heat up. He watched in spinning round and heard his stomach grumble as the 2 minutes felt like an entirety. Finally he heard the beep and opened up the microwave to devour his meal. What normally would have left him feeling full for hours didn't even make a dent in his hunger. Tyson opened up his fridge and moved on to his next meal without even heating it up, then another, then a protein shake to wash it down, then another meal and a couple apples, along with a banana or two, and of course he had to pull some of the muffins out of the freezer to defrost to have a bit later.

Tyson sat on his couch, feeling groggy and finally full. He looked around him, plates, protein shakers, wrappers and plastic containers were spread out all over his lounge room from the floor to the coffee table. He felt so heavy he didn't want to get up, he just wanted to pass out on his couch and go to sleep. As his eyes began to drift close...

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

The loudest belch he had ever heard forced him to jolt awake.

"aw fuc-uuuuUUURRPPP, this place is a mess"

Tyson finally realised he had trashed his lounge room in his feeding frenzy, he got up to try and clean but he didn't get very far. His body was so massive it was hard to move between his furniture and it was hard for him to constantly bend down to pick stuff up. On his second trip back from the kitchen to clean the last of the mess he finally noticed where he had been sitting, and the enormous sweat patch pressed into the fabric.

He pulled his tight tank top out from his body realising it looked like he had never washed it in his life.

"god, I need a fucking shower"

He made his way down the hall to the bathroom where he was shocked by his own reflection. He knew he had been turned into a hulking behemoth but, he looked like a completely different person now. His tank top was tight and clung to his body as his pecs hung out the sides. It was covered in sweat patches and strains from spilt protein shakes and food. His face was covered in a coat of sweat and his hair was oiler than he'd ever seen before. Tyson's gut churned as he let out another belch. He suddenly felt a tightness in his pants and he got hard.

"what the fuck..."

Tyson lifted up one arm to flex his bicep, he watched the sweat running down from his pits to his lats, he swallowed a quick gulp of air expecting maybe a small burp but was greeted with a massive room shaking belch. Tyson couldn't help it, he got rock solid staring at his sweaty body and hearing his own manly belching.

He worked his hand down awkwardly to his dick and started to pleasure himself.

He couldn't work it out, he missed his perfect body, he missed his old self, he was grossed out by being such a freak but god he was too horny to not please himself.

Right before his big moment he felt a wave of heat surge out into his body, his clothes felt tighter and suddenly the left strap of his tank top snapped as his shoulder, pec and arm practically doubled in size.

"AAH NO, NO NOT AGAIN"

Tyson watched as his dirty tank was torn to shreds by his growing body. His shorts felt tighter and tighter, soon he felt the sound of ripping fabric. As he turned to the side to inspect his growing legs he saw as his muscled ass split his pants in the back and the fabric quickly tore through making his shorts look like a bad loin clothe prop from a Halloween costume.

"OH FUCK NO, STOP, STOP AHHHH"

Tyson could only watch as his body continued to rapidly grow in the mirror...

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

3 weeks later

Tyson leant back on the workout bench groaning and gasping for air. It was the most he had ever lifted, not that he wanted to get bigger but it was the only thing he could do with his day at this point.

He heard the noise of 3 guys cheering as Mark, Jayce and Dyaln approached him.

"HEY BIG MAN" Said Mark

"oh great, what do you guys want"

"relax big guy, just wanted to bring you a snack" Dylan laughed as he pulled out a paper bag of drive through crispy chicken and handed it to Tyson.

"Dont forget to wash it down" said Jayce handing him a protein shake

Tyson didn't have the will power to hold back, his new muscle and size burnt so much fuel from simple existing he was practically starving constantly. He immediately reached into the bag and started eating as much as he could as fast as he could, washing it down with a swig of the protein shake, only taking breaks to gasp for air.

A river of chocolate protein ran down his cheek and dripped onto his XXXL tank top, which looked more like a medium crop top on him.

A young handsome gym attendant walked over to the group with a smile on his face.

"hey guys, just a reminder, you can't eat like that in here save it for outside okay" He smiled as he looked straight into Tyson's eyes.

Tyson's mind was racing, this guy was the most handsome guy he had ever seen in his life, we wanted to apologise for being such a slob, hell, he wanted to ask the guy on a date.

Tyson rubbed the crumbs and protein from his mouth away with the back of his hand and opened his mouth. Immediately he gritted his teeth and almost by instinct at this point cocked the side of his mouth open.

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPP!!

Tyson couldn't help but belch and burp as he struggled to get a word out.

"bro..that's nasty" the gym attendant laughed as he walked away.

Mark, Jayce and Dylan all erupted with laughter.

"DUUUUUUDDEEEE" yelled Dylan

"You aren't gonna get a date like that dude I tell you that" laughed Jayce

"They probably wouldn't date him even if he didn't burp every couple of minutes, I mean who wants to date a bodybuilder freak right guys" Mark laughed as he rubbed Tyson's shoulders

"Yeah, you're right Mark, nobody wants a freak like Tyson" Dylan chuckled.

Tyson couldn't control it, the sound of their laughter, the way the three called him a freak and a slob. His dick got hard and he felt as a mixture of pre and cum leaked into his underwear.

They were never going to change him back, he was going to be stuck as this good for nothing muscle pig, forever....

he threw himself back down on the bench..

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPP

[taesanluv3r]

latte art

kim leehan x reader

sort of love at first sight? barista!leehan improves his latte art just for his very first customer <3 those concept pics possessed me to write this hehe. super cutesy, i love u leehan! lowercase intended. pls excuse any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors! enjoyyyy

wc: 2,008

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖

ding!

the bell above the door rang as it squeaked opened, alerting the handsome barista that was busy setting up his fancy coffee machines for the opening of his tiny café. kim leehan looked up, eyes widening at the figure that turned around to reveal itself- or rather, herself. the most beautiful girl the boy had ever seen in his entire life that would become his very first customer.

"uh...? hello?"

he must've been too into his head, not realizing that the pretty lady had moved from near the door over to stand right in front of him at the register. "huh? oh! hi! um...what can i- uh" he didn't ever expect to stutter this way- especially not when he had already went through every friendly barista greeting the night before this grand opening, but the boy couldn't help it. not when the very first person to enter the shop was this stupidly gorgeous stranger in front of him.

leehan sighs, "i'm so sorry...today's the opening of this place and you're the first customer so..." she giggles, "no worries...i get it" they share a smile. "would you totally hate me if i asked you to walk out and back in again so we can restart this?" he asks, smiling until his eyes formed crescent shapes. the girl laughs, "if you insist"

the scene replays all over again. this time, he was ready to greet her with a friendly smile as she re-entered the café. "hi there! welcome to kim's coffee. what can i get for ya?" the stranger couldn't stop the giggle from escaping her lips, finding the cute barista's sudden bubbly-ness amusing. "hm..." she begins, fingers against her chin as she looked up at the menu on the wall. "well...uh, leehan..." the girl trails off, learning his name from the tag pinned onto his apron. "what do you recommend?"

the way his name fell out naturally from her mouth sent about a gazillion butterflies to roam free in his stomach, a light pink blush brushing against his pale cheeks. "well uh..." he almost stuttered again from the sudden shyness but quickly straightened his back and regained his almost cocky confidence. "for a pretty girl like you...how 'bout our signature cappuccino? i could do some incredible latte art too" she widens her eyes, shocked by the compliment. "incredible latte art you say? i'll be the judge of that" leehan grins at her playful personality. "iced or hot?" he asks, beginning to click on the buttons displayed on the screen of the register. "hot, please"

"alright...one hot cappuccino for...?"

"yn!" - "one hot cappuccino for yn coming right up!"

yn nods, watching as he retreated to his coffee machines before she allowed herself to explore the café. it was a relatively small place- but the pretty blue paint on the walls made the space feel a little bigger. "you must be really into fishes..." she says, staring at the framed paintings of all kinds of sea-life and spotting the tank filled with fish over at the corner near the bathroom. the barista guy laughs, "yeah...if i weren't a barista i'd be underwater scuba-diving right now" she nods along with his words, finally taking a seat on one of the chairs at the bar-styled table, giving her the clearest view of the working boy.

"so why open a café?'' she asked, revealing to the boy her curious personality. "it's fun!" he says, his voice a little louder now to overpower the buzzing noise from the milk frother. "and..." he said, mindlessly pouring the fluffy milk into the coffee. "there's a possibility i get to meet pretty girls like you" she rolls her eyes at his comment, watching as he adds finishing touches to the coffee.

"et voila, one cappuccino for yn~ enjoy"

the girl chuckles lightly when he dramatically bows, placing the cup of coffee on the table right in front of her. his head that faces the floor lifts up quickly when he hears her breaking out into a fit of laughter. leehan looks up confused, eyebrows furrowing and head tilting off to the side. "so much for incredible latte art..." yn says, still in between catching her breath. he's still confused, but one look down at his creation was enough to understand the girl's reaction.

"ah..." the boy sighs, looking disappointingly at the lame excuse for latte art he had poured into the cup. "i mean what were you going for here? a...an alien?!" the girl exclaimed, causing herself to giggle all over again. he rolls his eyes playfully, "i was actually going for a rose...but i see where you got alien from..." he clicks his tongue, "guess that's something i still need to work on" yn agrees with him, "but try it, as long as it tastes good..." he watches in anticipation as the girl brings the cup to her lips, blowing on the hot beverage slightly before taking a sip. her eyes widen, "oh my god..." leehan is nervous, "what? is it bad?" she shakes her head hastily. "no, no! not at all! this is the best cappuccino i've ever had ever! like seriously"

yn's comments make him sigh in relief, pressing a hand over his chest. "oh thank god...i thought you were gonna bully me like you did my latte art" she laughs, "it wasn't bullying...think of it as harsh feedback!" the sweet smile on her face contradicted the sharp words that she said, it intrigued the barista boy...there was something about her he just seemed to really like- apart from how pretty she was.

a couple minutes went by and soon the cup of coffee was empty. "thank you for the yummy coffee, how much do i owe you?" yn asks, rummaging through her purse in search of her wallet. leehan shook his head, "no! in honor of being my first customer, it's on me" she furrowed her eyebrows, "don't be silly! c'mon give me a price" but he only shook his head once more, "nope! think of it as compensation...for the underwhelming latte art" she sighs, giving up on arguing with the handsome barista. ''if you come again tomorrow though, i'll let you pay~" his smile made her insides melt like chocolate, and she sighs. "sounds good..." she trails off, beginning to get off the chair and closer to the exit. before she leaves she turns to look at him once more.

"better show me that incredible latte art you keep boasting about though!" he laughs, "trust me...i'll be up all night perfecting it...just for you"

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖

sure enough, the barista boy kept his word. the next morning rolled around and the boy begins to tiredly opened up his shop. slight dark circles evident under his eyes from the sleepless night he spent frothing milk at home and endlessly pouring them into cups of coffee. with a little more trial and error, and about a dozen more cappuccinos later, he finally perfected the art. the girl kept her promise as well, waking up bright and early so she could get dressed and head straight to the brand new coffee shop.

ding!

a feeling of deja vu washed over him at the familiar noise of the doorbell. "look who it is!" leehan cheered, clapping his hands together as the girl he was expecting entered the shop. yn smiled, "i expect you have perfected that latte art?" he nods, "well i promised you, didn't i?" she giggles, "ah yes...if i recall...just for me, right?" the girl teased, repeating the pretty words he had told her the other day. the boy blushes softly, scratching the back of his head.

"why don't you take a seat? one hot cappuccino with incredible latte art for the beautiful yn, coming right up!"

just like the previous day, the girl sits at the bar. patiently waiting for the barista to do his job. this time she notices the droplet of sweat that formed to the side of his forehead, his eyes narrowed like a hawk as he stared at the liquid he was pouring into the cup. "wait!" he suddenly says, frantically stopping himself and turning to his one and only customer. "what?" she asked, just as frantic as he was. "can you like not look at me while i do this...it makes me nervous" yn opens her mouth in shock, rolling her eyes once before she turned around in her seat, her back now facing him.

"okay..." she heard him whisper to himself, assuming he had finally begun pouring the frothed milk into a design on her coffee. then the girl hears him let out a breath, followed by his footsteps and a clink of a cup meeting the surface of the bar-like table. leehan clears his throat before beginning to speak.

"a hot cappuccino with improved latte art, for one pretty lady"

yn took his words as a signal to turn back around. honestly the girl had kept her expectations low, not really believing that anyone could perfect such art overnight. however, a look of pure surprise washed over her complexion as the cup of coffee came into sight. it was perfect. the foam in a clear rose shape, totally different from the alien-looking image she saw just the other day.

"what did i tell ya? perfect, right?" leehan grins widely, overly proud of his professional talent. he watches in amusement as his customer nods, "wow...this is amazing, leehan!" yn exclaims, pulling out her phone from her bag and snapping a couple pictures before she had to ruin it to drink. "and..." she begins, taking a sip out of the drink. "still delicious!" the barista smiles happily at her satisfaction.

"no but seriously, how did you manage to perfect it overnight?! you a wizard or something?" yn asks, editing the picture she had taken so she could upload it on her instagram story. leehan giggles, listening to her talk as he cleaned up his station in case other customers began showing up. "i'm starting to think you've always been good and just messed it up yesterday on purpose so you could get me to come back here" she states, making up scenarios for the boy's sudden perfection. he turns to her with a smirk, "and what if i did?" his teasing question makes her ponder for a moment before she displayed a similar smirk on her lips.

"well then it worked, didn't it?"

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"so how much do i owe you? you promised i could pay if i came back today" yn spoke, her wallet already prepared in the palm of her hand. "fine, it's $4.99" leehan says, pressing on a couple buttons on the screen. "okay, here...sorry, i don't have any small change right now" the girl pouted, handing him a $20 bill. "no worries..." he replied, opening up the cash register to collect her change. "oh shit....looks like there is a worry, i don't have change either..." the girl's eyes widen, "oh no!" she frowns, "what should we do?" they both look up for a minute, trying to come up with a solution. she could tell he thought of something when a cheeky grin takes over his face.

"say..." leehan begins, handing the $20 bill back to her. "you keep this...and you can just give me your number instead! pay me for the coffee at our date this weekend" the barista's sneaky solution surprises her once again. yn rolls her eyes, "now i'm really convinced that everything you do is a rouse to see me again" but her actions contradict the uninterested tone of her voice as she steals the pen from the pocket of his apron, grabbing a piece of tissue and beginning to jot down her digits.

"there...you better call me" he nods happily as he retrieves the tissue from her hands. "i promise, and you know i always keep my word" she giggles, "just for me though, right?" yn asks one last time before making her way over to the door. and right before she leaves leehan replies,

"just for you"

the end.

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AAAAAAH i loved writing this fic sm :3 also i luv barista leehan LIKE THOSE PICS FROM YESTERDAY #needthat 🤤 also cant wait for this comeback heehehsgegehhe i hope u guys liked this! reblogs and feedback r greatly appreciated as always. tysm for reading! love, kona.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

CHI-CHI (DRAGON BALL)

1.) okay so to start at the beginning, she was introduced as a young kid but they put her in a super revealing bikini styled outfit. pretty sure it was supposed to be armor too, so besides just being a disgusting design choice even in-universe it’s impractical. but besides that she was pretty charming as a kid, she was cute and funny and pretty tough, and had a cool gimmick in her blade/ laser helmet. even when she reappeared in late Dragon Ball, she was a bit abrasive but was overall rational and kind. she was strong enough to make it into the World Martial Arts Tournament, one of only 16 to qualify.

but come Dragon Ball Z and on, she’s reduced to just a shrill, nagging, aggressive wife and mother. all she gets to do is cook, worry, and berate her husband and sons. her physical strength is only used so she can comically hit Goku. sure its played for laughs, but he’s shown to be afraid of her. I only recall her leaving her house once or twice in DBZ. just the worst mother character stereotype, with nothing left to make her likeable. she’s portrayed as irrational but despite her aggressiveness, half the time her wants are completely reasonable. can’t blame a woman for not wanting her husband to die every other day!! her writing us ass but I still love her and she deserves better!!!

2.) So in Dragon Ball she wasn’t the BEST character to start out with. Toriyama hasn’t ever been the best at writing women or not making stupid fucking sex jokes about them. So she had to deal with that. The outfit she wore as a kid was… NOT GREAT. Let’s say that! Then in late Dragon Ball her entire character revolves around Goku and trying to marry him, which she gets by tricking Goku and getting beaten by Goku in a tournament in one hit. Not off to a great start. Then Z started and Toriyama just… gave her an ENTIRELY NEW new personality, and that new personality was just a stereotype of a tiger mom. Regardless of how correct she might’ve been about letting Gohan fight (and she WAS completely correct, he was 5-6 for a HUGE chunk of Z) the narrative frames her as a hysterical and unreasonable woman nagging at the menfolk and not letting them do things. So naturally people hate her without even considering why she’s upset because the story itself frames her as in-the-wrong. The whole franchise also just forgets that she’s a martial artist and never has her DO ANYTHING.

This is only scratching the surface, there’s a LOT more because the franchise is like 40 years old and we’d be here all day.

3.) GODDDD okay so full disclosure i guess shonen is such an easy pick but like. out of every shonen wife she was and is THE most hated by the narrative and creator (maybe tied with sakura omfg). shes always made out to be a beast, got her fighting skills shafted after she got married, was always played like she was hysterical for worrying about her kid dying in battle, and not to mention the creator actively HATES her. like toriyama just straight up hates writing her. its bad. its really bad. shes just “bitch wife” but for no reason :(

BUMBLE (WARRIOR CATS) (CW: Domestic Abuse)

1.) Back with another Warriors submission, I bet you’ll be getting a lot from other people too LMAO. Bumble is a kittypet (housecat) who befriends the male protagonist Gray Wing’s girlfriend, Turtle Tail, and lets her stay in her house. This gets Gray Wing all pissy because he’s controlling of Turtle Tail and shares most of the wild/clan cat’s proclivity for looking down upon kittypets. Turtle Tail gets pregnant by another kittypet, Tom, who tries to control her by hiding the fact that humans take away kittens after they’re born. Eventually Bumble comes clean about it so Turtle Tail returns to the forest. Some time later, Bumble is found in the forest seeking refuge because Tom has been physically abusing her, scratching her where the humans can’t see. So, she’s CANONICALLY ACKNOWLEDGED as a domestic abuse victim (unlike Squirrelflight who meets all the textbook signs but the narrative and authors deny it). How do you think our good guy protagonists, i.e. Gray Wing “The Wise” and Turtle Tail, respond to an abuse victim seeking refuge? They tell Bumble to go home, thinking to themselves that she’s fat and soft and therefore would be useless in their group. Bumble stands up for herself and asks to speak with the leaders of the group. One of them asks if Bumble could just get along with Tom better (bro???) and when Bumble says it’s not within her control, the leader suggests being nicer to the humans instead. Another rival leader butts in and verbally abuses Bumble again by ripping into how fat and lazy and useless she would be. Despite Turtle Tail having been friends with Bumble and Bumble had helped her through her own hard times, to Gray Wing’s approval Turtle Tail chooses not to intervene as Bumble is forcibly escorted back to her abuser. But that’s not all. Later Bumble is found in the forest maimed and dying, and it seems likely that Gray Wing’s brother Clear Sky, a male with a long history of violence, is the culprit. Rather than mourn the dying innocent cat, Gray Wing’s primary concern is how other cats might be mean to Clear Sky if they think he’s a murderer, and reassures himself that refusing to help Bumble in her time of need was still the right decision.

2.) I have no idea how she managed to be written so horrifically from an abuse victim and woman (/she-cat I guess) standpoint but here we are. Okay so my memory is a bit fuzzy but basically Bumble was a character in Dawn of the Clans and a close friend to Turtle Tail, a major character, as well as a character who lived close to Tom, an abusive dickhead of a cat. Bumble was largely depicted as just a really sweet cat. Turtle Tail was very briefly the mate of Turtle Tail, but once she got pregnant, he became super violent towards both her and our gal Bumble. Tom actively hid the fact that, once her kits were old enough, Turtle Tail’s kits would probably be taken from her, and made Bumble keep quiet about this too, but Bumble eventually told Turtle Tail the truth, Turtle Tail left and Tom became extremely violent towards Bumble because of this, and was extremely abusive towards her. Eventually, Bumble ran away from him to where Turtle Tail and co were and begged to stay, since the wilderness as a whole was genuinely more safe than being around Tom was. Naturally, this meant kitty xenophobia from cats who had only arrived in that area recently, because everybody was insistent than, since she was a kittypet/house cat, things wouldn’t work out, and even her friend Turtle Tail denied her on this, insisted she was too soft to live in the wild and only sent her towards a cat Bumble wanted to convince because she was absolutely certain she’d be denied. Also our good old protagonist Gray Wing got to spend this scene being all upset about this soft cat wanting to join them to escape an abuser and was all bitter about the fact that Turtle Tail lived with her for a short period of time, and he also got to have a sweet romantic moment with Turtle Tail after denying an abuse victim an escape from her abuser. Also as much as I like Tall Shadow usually she sucked ass in the following scene because she was essentially telling Bumble to go find a way to make peace with Tom as if she was not the one being abused (Bumble pointed out that Tom was the one who would need to make peace for it to happen, not her) and that she should just make life better by going back to being a housecat and being spoiled despite the fact that she was actively at risk with her owners because of Tom. Then she leaves after being threatened by several cats there and is called soft on the way out. The next time she appears she is literally dying, and her death is just a plot device to create a stupid little mystery which is solved in a very stupid way. Also her abuser does continue to be a shithead and for some reason is fully permitted to kidnap his own children but he also gets a heroic death and the only reason I will not rant more about him is because this is too long already. Long story short Bumble deserves the world and everybody who decided not to let her escape her abuser just because they thought she was soft sucks

3.) Is nice to the group of starving, feral wild cats that left the mountains so their friends and family could have more food to eat and befriends one of them to the point of opening her home to her after she leaves the group because the guy she likes is too dumb to notice she likes him and keeps falling for his brother’s love interests.

Unfortunately, because Bumble is a house cat who lives in a house with people and not a Wild and Free cat, this is a grave and horrible crime (luring a wild cat into the safety and comforts of domesticity) and is villainized for the rest of the arc, including for things wildly out of her control

I.E.

Her owners taking in an aggressive male cat that bullies and abuses the two female cats already living there

When Bumble’s friend leaves and goes back to the wild cats, Bumble leaves her home (as the abuse as has gotten worse) to see if she could either get help or have her friend return so the abuse isn’t as bad again)

Bumble eventually dies in the wild because the feral cats all hate her for ‘stealing’ their friend and tricking her into becoming a kittypet for awhile and refuse to help Bumble adjust to wild life or even teaching her how to hunt.

They are littl e to no hard feelings at her death beyond ‘good riddance’ but the aggressive tomcat that chased her out of her home is later regarded with good feelings and regret at such a ‘good, heroic cat’ passing when he dies despite him literally never doing a good or kind thing in his life and actually causing trouble for the wild cats right before dying

[greenishghostey]

Glass Gorgon

Pairing: Eddie Munson x fem!reader

Summary: Eddie made sure to only wear his glasses at home and when he was in a quiet corner of the Hawkins public library. Hellfire campaign planning called for him to be on top form; therefore, his browline glasses were a necessity. You had taken notice of Eddie's weekly library visits and his new bespectacled look. It was a good look on him.

Word Count: 3,339

Warnings: None! This is a fun little fluffy one-shot because one man wearing some reading glasses. Also, the stories of Cu Chulainn are really cool bits of folklore, here's an overview if anyone is curious!

DO NOT REPOST OR EDIT MY WORK

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Eddie had needed to wear reading glasses since he was eight years old. After years of reading and drawing late at night, with only a shitty flashlight as a light source, his big eyes were more than a little bit messed up. 

After one too many comments from teachers about Eddie potentially being “dim” after he couldn’t read the board properly, Wayne took him for an eye test. Crappy eyesight was just another cross to bear for the Munson men, so Wayne knew he was going to be shelling out for some glasses. Eddie got to pick whichever frames he wanted, but damn, was the little boy annoyed about having to do it. He huffed and grumbled the entire trip to the opticians - so much so that Wayne bought Eddie some ice cream to cheer him up. Wayne didn’t like it when his nephew wasn’t his usual smiley little self. 

Since then, Eddie had tried out a few different styles of glasses. He tried to find a pair that didn’t make him look too dorky or take away from his metalhead exterior. Eddie had a reputation as the town freak, and as much as he disliked being labelled as that, he had to keep it up. 

Eight-year-old Eddie had thought wire-framed glasses were a good choice. But after getting that pair broken by an “accidental” football to the face, Wayne suggested a sturdier choice. Sturdier meant thicker, which meant Eddie was going to be getting more sports equipment aimed at his face. 

Bad eyesight just wasn’t metal. Eddie quickly learned that there was next to no chance of him pulling off reading glasses. They made his eyes look even bigger. Every pair did make him look like a dork. Plus, if he didn’t wear them consistently, then his eyes would only get worse. Eddie kind of hated that he had to sit in the back of every classroom to maintain his attempt at being a “cool, bad boy”. In reality, he was squinting enough to get a headache just so he could read Miss O’Donnell’s handwriting. 

Like hell was he wearing those glasses, though.

-

The Hawkins public library was always a bit of a ghost town. Eddie loved it for when he needed time away from the trailer but still needed some quiet. 

Not a lot of people knew that the fantasy section in the library was so varied. But Eddie did. He’d read almost all of the books in the section cover to cover. Wayne didn’t always have the means to get Eddie new books when he finished one, so a library card was the best option. The old librarian back then had been so excited to see such a young kid so eager to devour any book that he could. Wendy was her name. Eddie found himself missing Wendy during his library trips. 

The history section was tucked away in the back corner of the library. Far away from any prying eyes and close to a big window where the sun streamed in just right. This was the other area where Eddie could be found when he made his weekly visits. While the main American history books weren’t his speed, the range of dusty, heavy mythology anthologies that were crammed onto one shelf certainly were. Comparing mythology and fantasy books was a hobby of Eddie’s - it sparked a lot of D&D inspiration and helped him pin down the whirlwind of ideas already in his head. The day he noticed that Tolkien lifted much of his work from Irish Mythology, he almost lost his twelve-year-old mind. Wayne got his ear talked off about the stories of Cú Chulainn.

Black browline frame glasses were perched on the bridge of Eddie’s nose as he hunched over one of the three notebooks he’d brought with him. After forgetting his walkman and headphones last week - and suffering through the droning background noise of the library - he had made sure to bring at least one tape with him at all times. The first one his hand had come to was a new one he found in a bin at a music store in the next town over. The band was called Manilla Road, and they were pretty good - weird castle art as the album cover and heavy guitar solos. Eddie was easy to please. 

The weekly library visits were purely so that Eddie had time to plan for upcoming Hellfire sessions away from the distractions of his bedroom. But also so that no one would stumble upon him wearing his glasses. He wouldn’t be caught dead wearing them within a mile radius of school - his time there was bad enough, and the added taunt of having four eyes just wouldn’t be worth it. 

However, the bespectacled Eddie Munson had been seen by someone he knew somewhat. You had been working at the Hawkins library since graduating two years prior - the same year when Eddie was supposed to have paraded himself across the stage too. You had been working every time Eddie came in and took up his usual space at a desk by the history section. 

You never knew he had to wear glasses. He looked good with them. Really good.

-

Eddie had been digging the heels of his hands into his eyes for the last minute. You had been silently observing him as he appeared to be more stressed than usual. There was a Greek Mythology book open in front of him - you knew because he had been picking it up every visit for the past three weeks. Pieces of paper with numbers and drawings on them littered the desk. Pens and pencils sat beside his hand, bunched together with a rubber band. You had no idea what he was doing, it definitely wasn’t studying, but it seemed to be causing him a lot of trouble.

“Hey? You okay?” You hadn’t meant to startle him; you really hadn’t. Eddie could be jumpy and skittish at the best of times. He was often off in his own world when in the library. No one ever tried to talk to him - he even made sure to be absolutely silent so he wouldn’t risk being kicked out. 

Eddie almost jumped from his chair as he ripped his headphones off and turned to glare at whoever had scared him. The heated glower on his face faded quickly when he met your soft, concerned gaze. 

“Are you okay? You looked stressed, a little grumpy too.” You repeated, giving him a slightly awkward smile as a peace offering for spooking him. You, scaring the big scary town cult leader, no one was going to believe that story for a second. Hell, you didn’t believe it, Eddie was a little intimidating at times, but he was far from scary or capable of all the rumours that clung to him like a bad smell. 

Eddie cleared his throat and turned to you properly, “Uh yeah, ‘m fine. Just stressed, as you said.” He grumbled. So, he was grumpy about something. 

“You doing a project on mythology monsters or something?” You asked, gesturing to his book that was open to a page about Gorgons. “Didn’t think they’d cover that sort of stuff in school. Times’ve changed since I was there.” 

“God no, this isn’t for school. Nah, I should be reading up on the industrial revolution for that.” Eddie relaxed, letting his shoulders drop, and a small smile worm it's way across his face.

He remembered you from school. The two of you hadn’t really talked all that much, but when you did, you talked to him rather than at him. You didn’t speak about him in hushed whispers. Once, you had actually snapped at one of your friends, Vanessa or something, for saying “he might have rabies” when he was your chemistry lab partner. Eddie remembered you pretty well, in fact. You were the library girl now, but he knew you as that one nice girl. 

“I didn’t think you’d be coming in here to study, no offense.” You snorted.

“You been keeping tabs on me when I come in here?” Eddie asked, a mischievous lilt returned to his voice. He was genuinely curious if you had been watching him, but he also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be slightly suggestive.

“I have, actually. You come in here and sit in the same spot. You’re the only person who even looks at these books. Colour me curious, I guess.” A similar glint could be heard in your voice. You remembered that Eddie was big on getting under the skin of others in any way he could. He didn’t always mean it in a bad way - part of you had wished a scene like this one had happened in school, maybe in the chemistry lab. 

Eddie hadn’t expected you, of all people, to match him beat for beat with the… flirting? “I, uh, I come here specifically for those books. Pretty much all of the myth and fantasy stuff. This is, like, my unofficial Hellfire planning office.” Eddie chirped, knocking his fists against the desk. Him stumbling over his words slightly didn’t go unnoticed. You had forgotten how much of a nerd he was. You were glad he hadn’t changed. 

“Ah, yeah, the D&D club. You know, a lot of middle schoolers come in here looking for those big game guidebooks.” You explained, watching Eddie’s eyes widen almost comically. The glasses made the sun bounce into his eyes quite nicely. “I know, right? You’d think their mommies and daddies would have told ‘em all about the scary Satan game.” 

Eddie surprised you when he pulled out the chair beside him with his foot, gesturing for you to join him. You couldn’t remember him being quite so open to chit-chat back in the day. Well, you also hadn’t ever mentioned D&D to him before - that probably would have helped. 

“Pull up a pew. I can tell you all about the Satan game and why I’m here.” Eddie smirked, huffing out a laugh. You also couldn’t remember him being this smooth. The addition of him looking up at you over his glasses just topped it all off. “I’m surprised you still remember Hellfire…” 

“You guys had cool club shirts, so that helped.” You grinned, sitting down beside Eddie and sneaking a peak at what he had been working on. There were three drawings of Gorgon-like women. Hissing hair and jagged teeth made them appear a lot more monsters than pretty ladies. Eddie had scribbled a note beside the drawings, “keep scary or make hot for distraction???” 

“Cool, huh?” Eddie was now the one coloured with curiosity - you were strange in the grand scheme of Hawkins. His shirts? Cool? Unheard of. “You know, I designed these bad boys myself. Jeff tried to make some creative suggestions, but he fucking sucks at art.” Eddie gloated, itching his nose under his glasses. Finally, he got to brag about the shirts. 

You noticed that he was wearing one of those Hellfire shirts. It was Wednesday, so it wasn’t a game day. Maybe the tee got him in the D&D headspace? 

“Between the little demon guy there,” you poked Eddie’s sternum. He cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. “And the gorgons. I’d say art is very much your thing. I like that you kept the gorgons a little more monster-y like they’re supposed to be.” 

Eddie’s eyebrows had disappeared under his bangs, molasses eyes still widened. “Thought I was the only person that looked at these books?” He chuckled. Eddie knew that you must have read anything and everything, but the Greek mythology knowledge was a nice little shock to his system. 

“Ah, yeah, um - only for cataloguing a few months ago.” Eddie was sharp, sharper than anyone gave him credit for. You had started browsing the mythology books after seeing his fascination with them. It was time for a subject change before he caught on more. “Are the gorgons going in your game?”

“That’s the plan anyway.” Eddie nodded. He quickly gathered together his pages of notes in order. You were getting the campaign rundown whether you wanted it or not. 

You did. Definitely. Eddie had to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose again. It was something so mundane but endearing to see on him in particular. 

“I wanted to keep the ladies as monsters since they’ll be in a swamp forest kinda place.” Eddie gestured to a small, rough map layout of the landscape. “But, but, buuuut Gareth and Wheeler’s characters are huge virgins, so hot girls that can kill them would just be fun.” 

“How about having them look hot when you first see them, then they go full monster mode and start turning people to stone?” The thought had tumbled from your mind to your mouth before you could stop it. “Sorry. I don’t know enough about this to make any comments. Ignore me-“

“No, no. That’s good. Repeat that.” Eddie interrupted. “Wait, I need my red pen.” His hands scrambled around for the pen that was resting against your forearm. You poked his bicep with the pen, and he itched his nose again. You were comfortable with touching him, and he actually enjoyed that. Enjoyed it because it was someone good - you. 

“Okay. So, they look hot initially, but then when the guys get close enough,” Eddie slapped his hand against the desk as quietly as he could, “then bam! Hair starts hissing, and they’ve gone full creature from the Black Lagoon style!” He said, full of excitement. It had been so long since he’d been able to brainstorm ideas with anyone. 

You couldn’t hold back a giggle at how happy he was. You were talking about something so niche and more than a little odd, but that was Eddie’s thing. He never seemed like the type for small talk - he probably hated when people tried to talk about the weather. You admired that about him. His quirks and the fact that he was upfront with them. 

“I’m glad I could help with torturing your friends’ characters.” You giggled, now trying to focus your attention on a spray pencil. You weren’t sure looking at bubbly, bespectacled Eddie would be a good idea. You were still on shift, after all. 

Eddie pulled off the aforementioned glasses and rubbed at his eyes. He had been sitting at the desk for close to three hours - barely moving an inch the entire time. “Wheeler’s probably gonna bite it, to be honest. Hope you’re okay with that on your conscience.” He laughed. The laugh was soft but still a touch loud, too loud for a library, but you weren’t going to tell him that. 

“It’ll be character-building for him. A learning experience with women.”

“Hmm, kid’s got a girlfriend already, somehow. Poor little lady.” 

You continued to chat about his campaign ideas and the goings-on of your lives. The last time you had talked that much was in the chemistry lab in senior year - well, your senior year and his first attempt. 

Eddie told you about the power scaling for the gorgons and how they were going to fit into his overarching story. You listened intently, nodding enthusiastically - his words were like they were taken straight from one of the fantasy books on the shelves in the library. 

Eddie had taken to fiddling with his glasses. Rubbing at the lenses with his sleeve, spinning them in his hands. He was doing everything to avoid putting them back on, it seemed. The lenses caught the sun, and you saw they were quite smudged. 

“You can put your glasses back on, by the way.” You offered, trying to make him feel a bit less nervous about the object. Browline frames were a bit more physics nerd rather than a metalhead. Eddie hummed at your comment. He was still hesitant. Once he’d realised that he had been wearing them for so long already, he was a bit mortified. 

“Hmm, nah, I’m good. I can’t get them clean anyway, so they won’t be any help.” Eddie rambled. You weren’t going to be able to sit by and let him feel insecure about something so outside of his control. Maybe that’s why he was so worried about wearing them. He didn’t really have an option about it. 

You started digging in your large cardigan pockets for your own reading glasses case. “Well, you’re in luck because I have a wipe in here.” You pulled the small, silky plum cloth from the case, along with your round tortoiseshell glasses. Eddie had taken to looking at you like you were insane, even though all you had done was put on glasses. He blinked a few times before taking the wipe and rubbing at the lenses - making sure to get rid of all old and new smudges. 

“The glasses look good on you. Not the usual metal vibe, but you make them work with the hair and the outfit.” You were grasping at straws for how to compliment Eddie. Of course, you wanted to make him feel better, but you didn’t want to make it painfully obvious that you thought he was cute with the glasses. 

No, he was hot with the glasses. 

“You’re bad at compliments; you know that?” Eddie laughed, allowing his smirk to spread across his face once again. Much better. 

“No, I do know. But take it or leave it.” 

Eddie laughed again, his face heating up in an unfamiliar way. He placed his glasses back on. Clean lenses now let you see his eyes in all their chestnut-like glory. 

“Thanks - um, for not laughing at ‘em. I know I look ridiculous wearing these,” Eddie started fidgeting with his rings again before he rested his gaze entirely on you. “But, never thought I’d be hearing; what was it? They look good on me?” No matter how flustered he was, he wasn’t letting you off the hook with that comment. 

“I’m still on my shift. I’ll leave right now.” You threatened as a blush crawled up the column of your throat. 

“Okay, okay, that was pushing it, I know,” Eddie yielded. You swore you heard him giggle. This man was insane. 

The laughter had drawn the attention of your colleagues, Janet and Vince. Janet was winking at you like a proud aunt. Vince was glaring at you and tapping his wrist. He always was a spoilsport, but he was right. You were still on the clock. 

You had been waving both of them off when Eddie spotted them too. His smile faltered slightly, “you need to get back to work?” 

God, he made it sound so sad. The emphasis on his big, molasses eyes just made everything worse. 

“Yeah, Vince is tapping his wrist at me. I’ve got some middle school study guides that need filing by tomorrow.” You said dejectedly. The clock above the desk read 3:03, and your mood immediately picked up. A new idea had formed in your head, it was a shot in the dark, but you were feeling brave. 

“Are you still gonna be here for like another hour? I finish at 4, so I can come back,” you asked. “If you want the company, totally understand if no-“ 

“I’ll be here,” Eddie stated, nodding and nearly staring a hole through your skull. There was that blush coming back again. 

You clapped happily - god, you were going to humiliate yourself very quickly. Eddie did the nose itch again. That had now become a staple for him. It was strangely adorable on him. In reality, it was a means of fidgeting because you made him a touch nervous. Good nervous. 

Eddie had worn glasses since he was eight years old. He hated almost every second when he wore the frames. He was convinced that he made him look ridiculous, more dorky or just plain dumb. 

But the nice girl in the library, you, said he looked good. He made the glasses work for himself. Maybe they weren’t so bad. 

[arthuluart]

Hiii - wanted to say first thing first I love your art style, it's so dynamic and fun and those color palettes? Stunning ^^

And second thing second, just some food for thought if you ever want to get angsty about Jerry and Dean, coffee by Chappell Roan sounds like it was written about their break up specifically and I can't stop thinking abt it dndnden

*Cue me losing my mind*

Hiii- they say flattery gets you everywhere and turns out with me, it gets you animatics- jkjk but I do appreciate the kind comments ^^

I’ll put up the animatic separately and take the opportunity to leave the preamble here to keep the video post neat bc until someone tells me to shut up and just post art- I’m gonna ramble… So here’s the commentary you didn’t ask for along with my favourite panels:

First off- You turned me into a big time Chappell Roan listener which is great bc I need music recs to fix my listening habits before Spotify wrapped drops. My roundup last year was shameful… Red Wine Supernova is my new dish washing song.

Even tho it’s not the song’s vibe I kept the content as silly as I could for my own sanity. I don’t love getting too deep into the serious/sad side of M+L for a few reasons but I do find it all very interesting. Point being this song was too good to pass up doing something a bit bigger for.

Ngl tho- this did have me pulling out hair at multiple points. I never colour animatics, rarely even tone them- but you mentioned colour palettes and I was determined to deliver so pardon the messy colouring but (that was the tradeoff) I did not have it in me to stay in the lines. I’m choosing to be kind to myself and opt to call it an artistic choice and not midway burnout. And nothing was gonna get me to open after effects/premiere not even the janky ass golf ball OML this only makes sense if u watch the video.

There are parts of this I’m SO happy with and others I hate. I think it’s really obvious which sections I started losing steam on but overall I lowkey like the end product. Nothing I make will ever be good/perfect- this was one hell of a practice in accepting that lmao- but I can still be ok with the work problems and all yknow? I very nearly shelved this completely bc I got so worked up about the maybe 5 panels I dislike out of 106 total. Counting them was eye opening to ask myself: you’re gonna let that small a ratio stop you from sharing this after putting in days and days of effort? The insecurity goes deep and TBH getting asks has been a nice way of working through it since I post the art I make for answers no matter what only bc I KNOW someone out there wants to see it. It might not sound it but it’s actually quite positive.

Also, although I feel I’ve done my fair share of reading, I’m no expert. So if anything is really off point- sorry my bad (I won’t fix it tho bc I cannot physically stand to look at this another second lol)

I tried to stick to real things found in articles/books/photos/interviews etc bc outside of obviously fictional AUs I’m not super into making stuff up about them (and who needs to I mean the legit stuff is already insane enough) Sure I framed the events in specific ways to suit the song and some aspects are fictionalized (mainly bc the referenced written accounts lacked detail to draw 100% faithfully from anyhow) but otherwise I got my sources cited.

ANYWAYS… sorry for hijacking this answer I need to learn to chill out. Irl I’m a pretty reserved talker so you can tell I’m in a comfy place when I let loose and blather on endlessly lmao brevity is not a skill I possess.

You were probably expecting illustrations or smth but I hope what I came up with is still somewhat alright AND please don’t let my complaining fool you, I genuinely loved making this.

One FINAL Relevant Note: the line “nowhere else is safe every place leads back to your place” is gut wrenching. You’re so right about this song perfectly describing the break up. They always came back to each other and there’s something so devastating about that kind of haunting human connection.

OkAY I’m done promise- I thought I’d implode if I didn’t get all that out

[bathalafiction]

Just finished Demon: Recollection and I absolutely LOVED it! There were quite a few typos here and there, but it didn't take away from the experience for me. I was hoping the suit would have more customization options (along with what weapons and armor we could afford for our army).

What could have used more fleshing out though is the MCs powers. Having slayed thousands (and having their powers) yet still getting punched around like a bag by the God of War wasn't adding up to me (though having an invincible MC would be no fun if they couldn't be defeated and grow).

I'm hoping for the next book, our MC also has the option to use black market items (like the mutant serums or military grade bombs and gadgets) to improve her mortal body, base strength and prowess. I'd also like to see the heroes have more presence (kind of like My Hero Academy) because in spite of there being different classes of them, we only ever see and hear of a handful and their presence is basically non-existent in relation to other villains.

I was kind of hoping to become somewhat of a Robin Hood (killing heroes or corrupt officials but not being feared and hated by the public - or at least some of them). It'd be nice for our MC to use more of their powers, I was thinking along the lines of being able to change up their offensive and defensive fighting styles and using powers of different elements depending on the enemy being faced.

More options to genuinely hide the MCs identity. I find it funny that no one that they know made the connection, despite not using a voice modulator, wearing contact lenses, using body bronzer, changing their hair colour or wearing androgynous costumes to obscure their body frame and using the exact same persona they have in their unmasked life as they do in their villain one. I mean even a wig would do to throw them off their scent and make it hard to pin down their identity.

Please create a Poly or Open Relationship route! My heart jumped to my chest when Blur wanted to know what we were after sleeping together (because up until that point I'd totally been dropping the rizz on his brother Ember). All these men are too fine, how could 1 possibly satiate my lustful appetite? Especially since the MC is immortal and most of these dudes will probably kick the bucket before the end of the century anyways. More sexy time options! Being a villain is hard work and what better way to unwind than in the arms of a hottie with the stamina of a stallion?

Another idea, was the option to strengthen Godsin (so that the less corporeal they are, the stronger their might as a weapon becomes and perhaps the ability to awaken new skills or abilities).

Also, seeing that the MC supposedly has multiple personalities, why is it that we only ever see Azazel and Godsin? And why can't we channel Azazel's strength and ferociousness into our main identity without them taking over? I was hoping that by not allowing them to take over, I gained more conscious control over them, thereby subjecting them to my authority rather than being subjected to theirs.

I also saw that you mentioned the MC being imprisoned on another planet, if that's possible, then perhaps you could introduce some DBZ style characters from outer space to stir things up on Earth and give the MC a run for their money? I want to see more cyborg hybrids! And creatures of the deep and of space that were either slumbering or watching from the shadows! And I want to see more betrayal (between other heroes or dismantling of relationships due to ulterior motives or force of hand)! I want my conscience to scream and to be presented with options truly villainous and horrific!

What's interesting is that Sentinel is part of a bigger group, yet didn't see fit to call in reinforcements from other cities or countries for aid against all these varying threats. Moreover, just as the MC saw fit to create her own group of vagabonds, surely there are others similar and alike who may be preying behind the cicada to reap the benefits or planning to establish themselves as a competitior to Sentinel via mutant-cyborg hybrids?

I really hope to see you resume writing for the sequel! I know that you're busy with Forsaken, but would you be able to give a time frame for when we could expect to see the next installment in the series?

Sorry for this long wall of text! It's so refreshing to play an IF where I can be an actual villain. Kind of hoping to deepen the villain arc and reign terror among the masses in the next book! If I'm going to be called Demon, I want to be tearing my enemies limb from limb, painting the city walls red with their blood, littering the roads with their ashes and hanging their bodies for all to see as a warning cartel-style (I'd also like to use the Aegis shield! Would be a waste not to tbh).

Thanks for this awesome piece of fiction and I'll be keeping an eye on your other works!

I appreciate this long wall of feedback. I already wrote something similar of to your suggestions (maybe like half, mostly about the underworld/crime org mechanics and MC's hidden identity stuff), especially the plot holes. Oh God the plot holes. I thought I had 10 at most, but I remember it reached 20. It felt like the story was caught in a crossfire between two Wild West outlaws.

The alien invasion one is interesting. I wrote something similar, but it was about MC's severed pinky (or toe?) regenerating, becoming a body of its own that evolved to survive the planet's harsh environment. It was driven by pure instinct, memories it never had, and a twisted obsession of reaching a blue planet that it had never lived in—and I tossed it in the "trash under the rug" folder.

I got a lot of crap in my folders I have to sift through to get to the actual decent stuff.

As for the poly route, I had a plan for that, but it doesn't allow for the MC to date the twoms simultaneously. Some of the non-immortals aren't open to the idea (if I recall correctly) though.

Anyway, I really like your suggestions. It narrows some of the things I wrote (mechanics-wise) down. I really appreciate it.

[lucabite]

Finally finished up some outfits and names for the other half of the New Orphidian Wrestling Federation. They might be the biggest wrestling org in the country, but damn if it's not a small country.

General plotline thoughts and gimmicks under the cut

NOWF (not the best acronym) is the national wrestling federation for New Orphidian, which is a tiny little island nation. A tax-haven of an island nation, mind you, so it does have some stars, but it's nowhere near the biggest league around. It's got a decent budget, but is sufficiently gimmick-heavy.

The current major storyline features relative newcomer, Chromium Mono, styled as The False Idol. He was a massive get, and is effectively playing a fictionalised version of himself. It'd be hard not to, given his prior celebrity.

He came in swinging as a heel, doing a Dr Jekyll-Mr Hyde style bit, where he is a malevolence overtaking the sweet and corporate pop musician he was previously known as. What helps supremely with this, is that his real-life husband, Tabitha Boss has been folded into the story too, being quite literally his old manager-- And, a relative of the skeevy owner of NOWF, Casper Jr.

(Guys who didn't make it onto the picture vvv. Lightning strike is long retired after a... legal scandal.)

Playing the part of an evil corporate overlord, Tabitha mostly just stands there and looks scary. In Kayfabe, Chrome was literally manufactured as part of their schemes, and his lab-grown nature is what has lead to his eeeevil side.

He is presently involved in the 'brainwashing' of several other wrestlers, and must be stopped before the whole establishment loses their free will...

Next up, an even more recent newcomer (who is not long for the business), is Weapon M. Scouted out by Chrome himself, they were quickly snapped up by the establishment after demonstrating honest-to-god super-strength. Kid can bend a steel pipe without breaking a sweat.

They're a bit of a clumsy liability, being rather untrained, but they fit in perfectly with the whole supersolider narrative they're starting to build, so a rather generic costume was quickly altered to fit them and into the ring they were tossed.

Now, as for more established wrestlers...

Baron Prince, a guy who is so averse to breaking Kayfabe, it's honestly unclear if they are even doing it. This might just be the way they act for real.

Speaking and acting like 18th century nobility, Baron is not really a Heel, moreso just the kind of coward who always tries to pick the winning side. Obviously, this means they get their comeuppance for their treacherous nature quite frequently, and is a great guy to love to hate, even if sometimes. they're on the 'good' side.

Now, poor Bunnyhop is just a regular ol' face. They just also happen to be a jobber, given their skittish demeanor and lanky frame. You always feel bad watching them get thrown around-- and quite often, betrayed by Baron-- but they do a really good job selling it.

The Fence was once a heel, being as imposing as they are-- but sometimes a guy is so lovable outside the ring, it bleeds into their image. They, along with Miracle, are the most prolific in terms of charitable acts and appearances.

In the ring, their actual moveset hasn't changed much since their heel days, still acting as an immovable slab of raw muscle and fat. They aren't all too much taller than their opponents-- in fact, being shorter than bunnyhop and several others-- but their presence is overwhelming. Much like their name would imply, they act as a barrier, stopping anyone from getting past.

Miracle Okami, however, is The Big One. He's the face of the company, and if he didn't have such upstanding moral fibre, would've been snapped up by bigger and better circuits long ago.

Beloved by children across the nation, Miracle too never drops kayfabe-- Since he's just that cool in real life too. The only thing that really changes are his soft jelly-plastic shades being swapped out for real ones.

He is practically a superhero, and has obviously won many a major tournament, only ever tapping out to give someone else a well-deserved win. He even has superpowers, often being allowed to "control electricity" and "create sparks from his hands" via use of light pyrotechnics and lights shows.

He's just impossible to hate (unless you're an edgy teenager, of course, but that's more on them than him).

5-tonne and Bug-squasher are, traditionally, a tag team, albeit one with slightly unaligned goals. 5-tonne is a rude little man, who isn't opposed to fighting dirty, where Bugsquasher is a brute with a heart of gold.

She is, however, often allowed to bring the severed plane tail fin into the ring to use as a weapon.

Allegedly, 5-tonne is similarly a pain backstage, too, and is thus not super good friends with the rest of the performers-- a spot that would otherwise be taken by Baron Prince. Even Bug-squasher, who has been partners with him since the local leagues, has started to take umbridge with him, though she's keeping it civil.

Harley "Heartstopper" Sorell is yet another face, though she's very much the scary kind. A bringer of justice, she's probably best described as being a cop. It helps that she hangs out with them in real-life too, which is, uhhhhh. She rides motorcycles okay.

She's obviously a bit of a fan favourite, as people love cops who Take Justice Into Their Own Hands, but backstage she's seen as a major narc, and will be the first one to tattle on you to management if you start badmouthing them. She's a suckup, but unfortunately she's also one of the few in the federation who comes from an MMA background, rather than theatre, making her a force to be reckoned with.

Diamond-eye Jack is presently here on loan from halfway across the world. A bit of a peace offering between corporations, y'know.

He's the butchest woman in a 500 mile radius, and plays a traditional western cowboy. Very exotic for New Orphidian-- They don't have those here. He can even use a lasso! How exciting.

He is however, acting as an excellent foil for Chrome right now. Pop music vs Country is a classic little culture war, and Jack's cool, calm and suave demeanor plays great against Chrome's ruthless posturing.

They've also got a kind of, cowboy-ninja thing going on with Miracle. A beautiful alliance between cultures. Love wins.

Selene Dulcibel is not yet in the ring, but will be soon. One of Chrome's genuine ex-girlfriends from back in his 20s, the two had a viciously public breakup that was the talk of tabloids for months.

They were also, however, both deeply traumatised people. While Chrome has gotten over it by becoming numb to the whole ordeal, Selene is still very, very hurt. She knows, logically, now, that none of it was his fault-- But-- Well--

A good friend of The Fence outside the ring, when she found out Chrome was back in the country and had become her bestie's co-worker, she kind of, maybe, suggested the storyline.

The Fence thought it was a bad idea (it is), since Selene isn't in a great place mentally, but Casper Jr. LOVED the idea. You can't manufacture bitterness this real and true. She'll be making her debut soon, and it's probably not going to go well for anybody.

The Mad Doctor is not really a wrestler, but is allowed to be gently picked up and thrown around by Chrome. It's all in good fun.

They aren't really canon, being, under the mask, Ali Alighieri. A character who only exists in Purrgatorio. In this continuity however, they are basically Chrome and Tabitha's weird adopted teenager that they found, and so they play a supplementary character to their acts-- The Mad Scientist who 'created' Chrome in the first place.

(The Mad Doctor and Weapon M are effectively mutually exclusive, Chrome only has the capacity to mentor one nonbinary teenager per timeline, oops.)

... Mostly though, Casper's writing quality tends to come out a bit like a guy smacking action figures together, so the circuit isn't held in much high regard by international fans. Everybody loves Miracle, though.

[argumentalist]

My first Real Grade kit was Char's Zaku II - so, of course that had to be my first Master Grade kit too.

I've been kind of hesitant to try a Master Grade kit for a while. They're bigger, more expensive, more complicated... It's a big step up from the High Grade kits I usually build. It's kind of intimidating.

But, at the end of the day, it's still just gunpla.

I don't like painting miniatures much. They're so tiny, my eyes are bad, and my hands shake. I hate waiting for layers of paint to dry. And then I feel frustrated when it doesn't all turn out the way I want.

But it felt wrong to leave these pilot figures completely unpainted. I think they turned out OK? They look fine from a couple feet away.

This K-runner quickly became the bane of the build.

It's a neat idea. The grey is some really soft, flexible, polycap-like plastic. The pink is normal, hard plastic. They're molded together so you just have to slide the pink bits into place.

But that pink plastic was stuck pretty tight. It didn't want to move. And there isn't really any good way to grab the individual pieces. I cracked two fingernails working with this runner.

The internal details are fantastic.

Of course there's the seated pilot figure in the cockpit... But there's a tiny little reactor that I'll never see again now that the kit is built. And there's terrific detail all over the inner-frame.

Unfortunately that inner-frame is almost entirely ABS, so I couldn't do any panel-lining on it. Although, given how detailed it is, that's maybe a good thing. It probably would've taken me a month just to panel-line that inner-frame.

I used my favorite metallic pink Gundam Marker on the monoeye. I just love how that looks. And it seems perfect for Zeon monoeyes/cameras.

This kit again has the neat gimmick where the monoeye moves when you turn the head - just like the RG.

I really didn't love the simple, clean, anime-accurate aesthetic.

I guess that's what it's "supposed" to look like... But after building the RG and the Origin kit - this one just looked awfully plain.

This kit came with some sticker-style decals and some dry-transfers. I tried one try-transfer, but I wasn't happy with it. I used one of the stickers on the reactor, but I didn't want to use them all over the place.

So I picked up some G-Rework waterslide decals.

So many decals!

I thought it would be easier since the MG is larger? But they're still just as tedious. And since I was using third-party decals there wasn't a nice guide to follow. Just lots of squinting at pictures and agonizing over which decals to use where.

I think I like the G-Rework decals better than the Bandai decals I've used. They released from the paper much faster. And the decals themselves seem thinner. I didn't have to use any Mark Softer at all - they all stuck great and conformed to all the curves fine.

Very fun build.

The MG is obviously bigger and more complicated... But it really isn't any harder. It's still just gunpla. The instructions are fantastic. Everything went together just fine.

It's very nicely articulated. Very poseable. Maybe a little too articulated? It's got the articulated hands, which I don't love. I'll probably wind up buying some fixed hands to replace them eventually. But it still feels very solid. Much less fragile than the RG.

And it looks fantastic up on my shelf.

[fangirleaconmigo]

It looks like she's using tempera paint, which is a water based and similar to H²O colour paint.

Paint is made from a few ingredients, pigment (the colour which usually exists as a powder before mixing), binder (holds the pigment suspended, in this case I'd assume it's gum arabic), and the vehicle which in this case is water, it gets the pigment+binder moving around (in the olden days egg whites or yolks were used as a binder, the Last Supper was painted in egg tempera!).

Tempera dries quickly, is pretty translucent, but is not that great for mixing paint directly on the page. Mixing on a pallet (wax paper it great!) then applying colours in layers and letting them dry inbetween will be a useful approach. A thicker paper might help with curling, cardstock or H²O colour paper.

If mixing two paints to get a desired shade it is way easier to mix little amounts of a darker hue into a bigger portion of a lighter one (mixing dark into light can get frustrating and takes a long time using a lot of paint!!). When building up your composition it's advantageous to paint the lightest areas first and gradually make your way up to the darkest ones at the end. Also the white of the page behind the paint helps makes colours pop!

Adding white to a colour makes it lighter but, it will also help to keep it on the more opaque side (a good trick for yellows if you're finding them too see though). Wrangling tempera can be tricky!! That's why I don't really use it. 😉

Drawing a light sketch in pencil can help immensely and get your niece's composition closer to her reference photo. I'd encourage her to look for the shapes she sees in the photo and try to draw those. Each area of colour could be a shape, e.g. the mountain is like a white triangle but the dark shadow makes a smaller trapezoid shape within the snowy peak. Looking at the shape of negative space around your subject helps just as much as looking at the positive space.

To get your paintings to imitate nature, you often have to break things down in an unnatural feeling way. It all comes down to experimentation and every experiment holds value! Even if you hate the result and think it's ugly don't throw them away, it's really useful to refer to and see what worked or what you want to try different next time.

And I find a lot of times an experiment will come out better than even your original idea. I feel it's the accumulation of 'happy accidents' which can grow and bloom into your own completely unique style!

End of ramble <3

Thank you so much! That makes so much sense. I don’t really know about the different kinds of paint but knowing how they behave differently helps.

I’m thinking about finding a video tutorial for the kind of landscape she wants, buying whatever paint they use, and and following it.

I think as long as she gets to do a pink and blue sky with snow in the frame (she kept calling it a polar sky) she’ll be happy.

I have the suspicion that I’m also gonna learn to paint a thing or two from this process. It just hurts my heart to see her so upset by her own work. I’m like…you’re a kid! This is supposed to be fun! But I also get it. And hopefully a little improvement will encourage her.

It took me this long to realize that anyone can learn pretty much anything with guidance and practice, and hopefully she can learn that sooner than I did.

[less-than-three-3]

you NEED to play jedi survivor (if it gets patched) (please respawn)

I finished jedi survivor and my eyes are bleeding please help

oh those are tears

Performance issues aside, I really liked the game, it was a great evolution on Fallen Order while kind of taking a new direction design-wise. It’s very “traditional 3d zelda” in many ways, much more than it is metroidvania like Fallen Order was, and I think it works wonders. Combat and movement get built upon for sure, there’s a specific upgrade I love (and wish got more), but it’s much less the focus. Story and characters I felt developed fairly slowly, or at least it felt aimless for a while, but everything very quickly crashes together and really clicks. I don’t know if I agree with the pacing, but damn it still hit hard. 

If you liked Fallen Order, I’d highly recommend getting this game (maybe after it’s confirmed to be patched if you want it to actually play at 60 fps). Performance issues are prevalent, but if you’re fine with sub-60 fps gaming, then consider it. Full thoughts below, with massive spoilers towards the end so don’t click if you haven’t finished it!!

I just wanna get this out of the way first because I don’t have any way to smoothly include it in the rest of the discussion - yes, the music is still as good as it is in Fallen Order. There are a couple key moments that draw from Those Star Wars Songs for very important reasons, and those bang, but even the original tracks keep that core feel so well. If there’s one thing that I think anyone who plays these games should agree on, it’s that the presentation is very star wars.

Speaking of the presentation, I really think there’s no way to not discuss the biggest issue the game currently (as of a week after launch) has - performance. For me, personally, on a mid-range PC build, I was kinda struggling to get 40-50 fps in the bigger areas, though I definitely maintained 60 in smaller/more isolated areas. And honestly, for me, it wasn’t a huge deal, I don’t really feel that it negatively impacted my experience because I just kinda got used to it. But I think it’s very understandable that some people do hate that, especially if you expect your beefy rig or console to handle these things. If that’s your reason for avoiding the game until it’s fixed (or forever, I guess), then I totally think that’s fair. But I didn’t mind it much, honestly. Outside of that I didn’t really encounter many actual bugs, it really is just primarily optimization.

It’s just a really big shame that it’s getting a bad reputation because the gameplay is just so damn good. Well, it’s in a lot of ways just more Fallen Order, but that’s something I was chomping at the bit for as soon as I had finished the first game. He doesn’t lose any of his powers, which I really love to see, and just builds more or less on what he had by the end of FO (plus dual blade stance, one of my go-to stances). And this feeds into why I felt this game was much more 3d zelda than it was metroidvania, because you aren’t really becoming a super powerful jedi from scratch like in FO, but rather you are a knight who travels through dungeons, occasionally getting a new traversal tool that lets you better navigate the dungeon ahead of you instead of backtracking to things you saw earlier. I mean hell, he pretty much gets hookshot and bomb flowers. 

One such upgrade is airdash and can I just say I love that so many games are incorporating airdashes? They’re so fun to use, and with the electron wall resets felt super satisfying, especially in that one escape sequence. You know the one. My only complaint is that there could have been so much more airdash reset platforming, celeste-style. But oh well.

The world design is the second biggest part of this change in direction, because, outside Koboh (the big giant hub planet that also shreds your frames), and even within the branches of Koboh, the places Cal explores are pretty much straightforward dungeons as opposed to the “labyrinths” from FO. Whether or not that’s a plus, minus, or a side-grade are up to you ultimately, but I think it’s a nice change of pace, and I’m wondering if they’ll keep it up for the last game in the trilogy.

Combat is phenomenal as it was in FO. It’s no Sekiro for sure, but comparing it to the pinnacle of swordfighting gameplay it’s always gonna come out on the bottom. But the new stances are all very interesting and cool, plus there are meaningful upgrades to your original 2 stances too, that there’s a good amount of gameplay expression built on top of the already great combat freedom that the force powers gives you. Perks also encourage “builds”, with massive air quotes around that. I personally ran with the dual blades and lightsaber throw perk, which kinda shredded even the double oggdo fight.

Oh yeah, the bosses in this game are kinda killer. I think it’s definitely something that will turn some people off, but I thought that their turning up the difficulty in optional fights was pretty nice, though I wish more of them could be more than just like, 2 big guys that put you into a checkmate situation sometimes. Otherwise the enemies and bosses were great, especially the 2 main antagonists. I’ll talk about them later though.

If there’s one gameplay element that I was kind of iffy on, it was the whole tavern-hub-recruitment shtick. I think it’s just not a thing for me, and I’m happy for those who enjoy this aspect of the game, but I felt that it sorta bogged things down for me. It made the early game feel pretty slow, on top of the whole “having to rediscover your crew slowly”, it just felt like not too much was really happening.

(MAIN SPOILERS START HERE)

Yeah, the pacing. I don’t really know if this is an actual issue or just my perceived issue but I really didn’t feel too compelled by what I figured was being presented to be early on, up until pretty much getting to the shattered moon. I think in Fallen Order, they also planted seeds fairly early on that really grew later, but in that game we were meeting everyone for the first time and the stakes felt so much higher. For the first half of this game, and really honestly the entire actual plot except for one very key sequence near the end, the stakes just kinda felt mostly inconsequential. Ok yeah we have to find Tanalorr. Cal struggles to find his own meaning, but I don’t think Tanalorr is helping that? It’s a place he can run away to, “if it exists,” and it’s not until he reconnects with Cere that he has an actually compelling reason to find Tanalorr. Just an aside, but it’s odd how unceremoniously Cordova was presented to us in that moment.

I think part of the reason it felt that way is that the characters we’ve gotten to know from the first game, who have all had fairly compelling character arcs of their own, play more of a static role, and none of the new characters really develop either, leaving pretty much the only character developments to just Cal. And that’s a little lame, but I think understandable given they’ve been away for so long and have done their own soul searching. But part of the amazing part of FO’s character writing is that Cere is a “master” but very much struggling with her own demons, Merrin has to quell the darkness caused by the massacre of pretty much her entire race, and Greez is... in a lot of debt. They guide each other, but no one is really complete, everyone is learning alongside each other. Very much the same strength God of War 2018′s writing had. This isn’t really the case in Survivor, and it’s a shame to see that.

Moment to moment, though, the action was definitely there and the main thing keeping me really involved in the early part of the story. Even though I was still unconvinced, the escape on Jedha is easily one of the top 3 moments in the entire franchise. The other 2? Well... (SPOILERS, AGAIN)

Dagan Gara, the Old Republic dude, singlehandedly carried the entire first portion of the game. He’s such a cool and hot character, from his very introduction. His essentially immediate transformation into a Sith was raw as hell, and all of his fights are awesome. His and Rayvis’ motivations are unclear but quickly become very clear, one driven essentially by obsession with a sanctuary and one driven by oath, and their plights are what Cal could easily fall to as well. Any time he was on screen was a time I was pulled back in.

But he’s not the big bad. You recover the compass from him, but you get betrayed by Bode, a secret Jedi who’s become obsessed with protection of his family. You get a whole speeder chase sequence that’s neat, but then you fight him and BD isn’t there so you can’t possibly compete and you die. Respawn?

You respawn. As Cere, holding off the Imperial forces. What an incredible moment. They’ve come for the archives, and even worse?

Darth Vader’s back. Ok, like I said in my Fallen Order post, the outcome of this moment was a little foreshadowed by the fact that, yknow, Darth Vader stays alive so he can be in the main trilogy. But this boss fight was incredible, and the climax is an absolute gutwrencher.

The ending is super reminiscent of the conclusion of God of War 2018. I don’t think it hits quite as high of a note as that game, but it hits hard nonetheless. I had heard murmurs of people not really liking the ending, and I really disagree. I think, for what it is, this ending represents an incredible culmination of Cal’s internal struggles throughout the game. I think their issues probably lie somewhere in the realm of my issues explained above, where it just doesn’t feel right because Bode doesn’t really ever grow, he remains so overly devoted which leads to his ultimate downfall. No one really grows, except Cal. It definitely feels a bit weak compared to the conclusion of the first game, but their aim was likely for this game to purely focus on directing Cal’s path forward into the last game of the trilogy.

And that path will have a lot of Merrin, evidently? I think this part kind of bothers me in part because it feels like an odd development after Battle Scars, the book between the two games (which might be debatably canon, I guess?), but also in part because where is this going to go? Surely they can’t be together. There’s an entire prequel trilogy about what could happen if they do, and even Cal’s encounters with the dark side in this game seem to be fueled by his love for his crew, but that shouldn’t be encouraged, right? The conclusion kind of leaves that hanging, I assume it’ll come to a head in the 3rd game, but it feels like he “uses the dark side of the force for good” and “that’s good”? That’s surely not what they’re going for right?

Jedi Survivor has built on and continued a saga that, despite some criticisms, I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend. And with the note the game ends on, I’m curious as to where this saga is going to end. He isn’t going to defeat the Empire or anything remotely close. I assume he’s going to meet some demise, or maybe go into permanent hiding Kiryu-style. I can only hope that it at least runs well. 

[ashsocsandrps]

HOGWARTS LEGACY OC 💛🦦

ELDER JOY

`**GENERAL**

**Name:** Elder Joy

**Gender:** Male

**Job (If appliable ,House)**: Hufflepuff!

**Age**: 18

**Other infos (Are they muggleborn? Animagus? Parseltongue? Anything else that stands out?):** He has both pure-blood parents. Tho he was adopted from a muggle family.

**APPEARANCE**

Hes around 6'0, hes pretty tall. He's not very buff, but not skinny either he has more of a masculine frame. Almost like the type who looks like would kill you, but would bake cookies for you if you were sad.

BODY TYPE :

(Credits to whoever the face claim is!)

**Facial features (hair, nose shape, etc):**

He has short black hair, a bit spikey/curly, yet straight in a way, his hair is long enough to put it into a small bun or ponytail if he wanted. (He normally sides with the bun) He has blue eyes, like the ocean. Tons of freckles, his body is somewhat covered in them. About 85% of his body is just freckles.

HAIR : (Credits to whoever this is!)

**Distinguishing marks:**

He has big red birthmarks on his chest, and back.

He was born with big red birthmarks on his chest in back, not completely covering his whole chest in back, but it fills about 65% of his chest and back, it's not usually seen, due to it being hidden by his clothing, but if he was to wear no scarf that day, it could be seen on his neck, just a little bit if you look close enough.

**Fashion:**

I'm not sure what to call it, but he wears normally baggy clothing. Like a nice brown/tan vest, with a white undershirt the sleeves a bit longer as well, he wears scarfs typically, or some sort of coverage around his neck, so a sweater vest. He wears some tan/brown/back ripped jeans, with a tan belt around his waist (simply for style) boots! Always wearing some type of thick boots.

CLOTHING :

**PERSONALITY**

He's very shy, he doesn't talk much, but he's always there for his friends and family no matter what he's going through, he protects those he loves, with his life. He may not talk too much, but he definitely looks scary on the outside, but he's definitely a sweetheart. He can sometimes show anger, but he tries not to around the people he loves cause him being angry isn't him, and he hates that side of him when it's shown. He would still never hurt anyone he loves. No matter how angry he could get.

**Strengths:**

He may be tall, but he's very agile, constantly on the move never being able to sit still. He's surprisingly very good at handling plants around him, he uses them in battle, constantly.

And cause of his height he's able to run pretty quickly and get wherever he needs to go with ease

**Weaknesses:**

Since he's a bit on the taller side, he's a bigger target for spells. And since he's a little clumsy, dropping his wand isn't the best thing to do, mid-fight.

**Morality:**

He's very much a goodie goodie, but he would never snitch on a friend.

Snitches get stitches.

**Likes:**

He enjoys reading, writing, flying on his broom, beast class, exploring Hogwarts, spending time with friends, sitting at the three broomsticks, taking care of his beasts, farming his magical plants, helping others in need, and overall he just loves to listen to his friends talk about the things their excited about. It never hurt to be a good listener.

**Dislikes: **

He hates poachers, people who try to hurt others on purpose, clowns, a bad ending to a book, tripping on his own feet/dropping his wand in a panic, and crowded spaces, it just makes him very anxious with having so many people around.

**Fears:**

He fears he won't be remembered if he were to disappear, he's terrified of ending up along, or even dying alone. He hates being alone in general.

**Hopes/Goals: **

He wants to be a very strong wizard and show that being strong doesn't make you evil, even if you look the part.

And to make friends along the way, showing that anyone can be kind even if they look scary. Dont judge a book by its cover.

**BACKSTORY**

Elder joy, he was being adopted by muggles. Yes it was a big mixup, being a pure-blood, and then being adopted by two muggles.

But elder wouldn't change the mixup for the world.

He loves his parents like they were his own blood relative, but they were as close to family that he's got.

They raised him with only kindness, love and respect.

They were shocked to find a letter addressed to Elder himself, to such a private school they had never heard of.

Tho he would miss his parents, he was excited to be around such people, it was exciting to be around magic and beasts.

It was a bit overwhelming at the start, he was lost 90% of the time, and well growing up without any magic whatsoever or any idea of what it would be like, he adjusted very well surprisingly.

He was warmly accepted to Hufflepuff, and was a very smart student, never failing one test, he did it without studying surprisingly.

He was a natural with everything at Hogwarts.

FOR RP! : small starter <3

Elder was peacefully tending to the gardens after class, everyone had left but he sometimes got extra credit for the extra work he did after class.

He got lost in thought as he was nicked by the comping cabbage, he gasped a bit as he stepped away, seeing the small cut, he sighed a little as he grabbed some of the medical supplies from his bag, sighing in annoyance as he wrapped up his finger, thankful he wasn't losing a finger or worse.

He paused when he heard footsteps approaching, he was a little shocked to see somebody in the gardens so late, I mean he was always in the gardens, but nobody else really comes to the gardens.

STARTER 2 :

Elder was walking along the streets of hogsmeade, yawning softly as he looked into the windows of stores, he never really had the money to go shopping or to get much stuff outside of necessities, by his own choice of course, he didn't want to seem to be "flaunting his wealth" or anything like that.

He paused when he saw somebody in the distance just entering hogsmeade, he hasn't seen them before.

Voice claim : Liliac cookie run (Park Gyu-bin)

[the-firebird69]

Easy Rider - Intro - Born to be wild!

They said it's all worth it being waiters and so forth helping us to get food and things cuz he said it looks like a nice ride and a nice time and that was it and they're looking around having a great time. They're commenting on the bikes how the frame looks thick and then it looks thin and they know it's a hard knock kicker 5150 it's going to be very famous and people are going to want them and they're all going to build the Softail and it does have a lot around corners you have to be careful when you're going fast we'll go around a nice bend at 90 without too much trouble unless the road is a mess so it is all about what they're talking about it's a ride it's really about being a rebel and the motors have significance now they give up the watch is a bit much it's over the top and they're not really doing that style it's not their style their style is hard not kicker 5150 and it's saying not even but okay it's still over the top and the discovering something it's a way to see it and they said it's way too much and it really is and they couldn't seem to shake it but they're not good I think we have records to say they buy and make tons of these bikes a ridiculous number because whether they hate it or not it's information that comes to them but it's not like the watches if you're with the washer have it on all the time you get beat up but the bike in your office you're on the bike and you're off the bike the bike is somewhere else stuff like that it's out of sight out of mind with the watch is always on and our son says the watch is always on but with the max I guess you get a break if you're not in their face and they say it too it kind of works now this is going ahead and we needed it to and our son and daughter did a great job it's the birth of a revolution and it's on Harleys sort of no but it's on a son's bike and daughter's bike that they designed and we helped with and it's intense they know it too and it's part of the gig they have evil plans for hours but they kind of suck at it really bad but they have plans for their father and if they get the stuff it's going to be different it's a lot of stuff to get they're going to start this this Old McDonald's farm in westborough Massachusetts and that's where they are that's where Randall text Cobb was and he's missing they said they checked and he is missing and his wife's missing and she was nasty and mean and bigger and she didn't like her son now that's wrong so she is also entombed and in Italy of all places who would have thought Italy but that's why I might end up and they wouldn't have checked and they think that he was entombed somewhere in westborough and there are tombs and they're going to check and see if he's there

Thor Freya

I guess I've been collecting people and doing a lot of evil stuff it's very wrong and it's not working out and our friend says I'm on my own I can't deal with it anymore we need to have things my people need stuff too and I'm carrying on like we don't and I'm making like we don't too and I'm not doing stuff this isn't going to work if I'm not doing things he wants to do a bunch of stuff and I don't want to do anything and we're just sitting here screwing around with each other it was proven today and yeah it's hard and it's nasty and yelling and screaming at each other it didn't do anything for any of us and what happens to him he gets in the middle and somebody tries to help him just calm down and we saw it too this is poor girl two of them surrounded by us bothering them for an accident we planned bothering him it looks pitiful and I did something later is wrong and and I'm paying and it's awful it's painful

Tommy f

So don't do it and a whole lot of you started up again but really you're not busy and this would make you busy he says it's going to happen and Tommy F chiming in wants to look like he's changing his ways when he's probably up there at the bikes

Kenneth

We're going up there now if he's up there

Bja

Olympus

And my husband has a joke and I guess I'm jumping in and saying it. The guy's name is Peter Fonda and it doesn't make any sense until you look over to the side and you see Peter and that's the name of Brad that's his name too Peter and then it says Peter Fonda and says Peter is fond of Peter Fonda and it's kind of how he is it's a little odd but bja is riding and it's his father and it means that too and Peter Fonda is fond of Peter so it's a little bit weird cuz they're talking about their weiner and it means weapon or gun and they really have to get one and a bigger one and a better one that's where the writing too and what the right is about is to find these big guns and it's not the low desert but it's close by no that's that's where they're going but they're trying to take over Harley-Davidson again and it's after Trump sells which is already done and it also going to go up to Massachusetts and we believe it's tomorrow and they're going to use the Golden corral as the method which is stupid it doesn't do anything it's just like meeting there and like horrible idiot stuff to do but it's going to be fun and it's going to be something to do and it's going to light it all up and we really need it this is a doldrum even though things are happening

Hera

They're going to start doing stuff and be less s***** right now they're building a crematorium and that's pretty much what they're up to

Duke nukem Blockbuster

So you said to him why don't you cut the s*** and go over and do your real job and build that for yourselves they looked over as a crematorium and they said you're kidding this is what we're doing and it is and Tommy F pointed it out and he means it but that's what it really is

Frank Castle hardcastle

We can't wait until someone climbs that mountain they're still trying to get there they're competing and it's going to be a hell of a time there's a bunch of Latin Americans who want to do it and Spaniards and yeah his grandpa from Spain is going out there he says it can do it his grandson says 8 miles is way too far for me to walk especially uphill you have to carry a lot of oxygen and he says wow that's going to be heavy it's true too you have to decide whether the litter or not he says I've had enough of this s*** and shut up he's going to take care of the wraith up the hill so you said okay it would have to be outfitted specially but no shut up. It's going to be fun you're going to attract a lot of attention if you go down there plus it looks like you get kidnapped by Billy or other. As far as says I have to do this now but it doesn't look like someone else in my body you have to get me out it says great that's my job to sign your kids to try and join up in Europe and make rescue rangers they love that stuff it's like nato in the UN I'm going to do that inform it cuz this is ridiculous that was Salazar and he's there too but this is going to be great it's going to work

Thor Freya

Having said something for a long time but we did help with the z tire and really the thing is great and it works and he's surprised he really is but he did a lot of work too afterwards cuz it wasn't doing anything he got mad he said this is me on my bike with my tires and they won't have the original tires for his but they have to they say and they're about the same size they need to be shrunken down somehow so I was wondering how the hell do you do that and it says you kind of melt them in a mold how the hell that's done I suppose you spin it and he says wow that's interesting so they know how to do it some people and they're going to try and do that so they're going to get to it and they're going to get to it right behind the bike at full price now I helped with this project and it was really good and it went on very well we're getting to work now and they're right we have to hire them and we took the job and it's to hire our people. These things help and they're very interesting and they work and it shows we're working with the hero of ours and these people took to it and for Christ's sake of doing it again and a big way and they put that company up and they want us to piggyback and make the cars and we're going to help and we're going to do it and they decide what parts go in and they're going to make the Vader which is evil but it works and on the firebird and it will start that process and real plantons

I'm very pleased with what happened this is much better and it's working and he's pushing all sorts of buttons and Thor and Freya were overworked and he said to them you're overworked and to others and finally we're getting help we are overworked and we have different culture and we need people to come to us

Zig Zag

It's a joy and a pleasure to go there you have some trepidation and severe and they want that but really it's great it's like going to the mountain and to talk to greatness and you go there and dress from appropriately with what you're going to say ready and it makes a big difference they used to respecting each other because of each other's power we need to show them respect and we need to show them that we care and that they're loved for what they're doing and they need to get it out and they need help doing that a lot of us have some maniacs systems and you can use them but you get to let him know you're doing it after LOL

Zues and Hera

We have a lot to say about that about that but will let you guys know when you try that kind of stuff

Thor Freya

Olympus so he shows his humongously muscular bear approaching Thor his gigantic and yeah that's kind of what it's like

[meditating-dog-lover]

Personal trainer meeting

So I met with my personal trainer again today and I went over some stuff.

For me, it's a combination of different things that help me burn fat, not just 1. It's the following:

Eating healthy and limiting my consumption of high fat and high sugar junk foods.

Brisk walking - it puts my heart rate int he fat burning zone and it burns a lot of calories, and from fat.

Strength training circuits - strengthens muscles which boosts metabolism and helps you burn fat even when not following a low calorie diet. But it still needs to be done in conjunction to cardio (both brisk walking and HIIT).

HIIT - boosts metabolism and burns a lot of calories, but likely not from fat because it's an intense workout that will surpass the fast burning zone heart rate. My PT said that doing it 1x a week is plenty.

My PT likes these workouts and said they are helpful, and I even asked if I can come in for another session for some sample strength and HIIT circuit workouts.

So overall I need all 4. It's better to do all 4 consistently and slip up every now and then than to do 1 perfectly and ignore the rest.

This is what helped me lose fat from July to September 2021, and from September 2021 to November 2021. After November 2021 things went kind of downhill because I lost track of my fitness and life got in the way (got concerned with my health, work, and finances and was comparing myself to others and felt shitty and had body image issues). So I put on weight which made me feel shittier and my mom and sister called me out on my weight gain which made me feel even shittier.

I looked pretty good in November 2021 because I worked hard. I have pictures from that time and I looked good, at least compared to May 2022 where I put weight back on during my sister's college graduation. It's frustrating as someone who has struggled with their weight growing up and had issues with being consistent. I am also tall with a wide athletic frame so even at a low body fat percentage I will always look bigger next to people. I need to figure out how to accept that and how to find clothes that flatter me.

I've been dealing with a lot of shit ever since COVID where I became so depressed that a ton of things triggered my childhood trauma and made me feel worse. I still feel shitty and am in pain, though better than before. And one of the things bothering me is my weight and body image. Because the above 4 help, I'm just going to suck it up and power through them until I feel better and healthier and develop a healthier and fitter body. This won't solve very problem I'm dealing with and will have to deal with in order to heal my trauma, but it's a great step in the right direction.

I still have teeth trauma, relationship trauma, poor style due to poor body image, and general anxiety I have to deal with. It's almost 2024 and I hope to successfully dedicate the year to healing from these issues. I did a lot this year (continues therapy, did great at work and learned a lot of new experiments and lab methods, learned a lot about financial responsibility and opened a HYSA and IRA account (I have almost 30k in savings), went through a holistic healing journey by correcting nutritional deficiencies, met with a dietician and personal trainer which is something I would avoid in the past because I hated people commenting on my diet and fitness, finally met with doctors especially with a PCP and did blood work which is another thing I held off because I have health anxiety over this stuff despite my blood work being very good - especially my lipid profile as I have low cholesterol and triglyceride levels, did some self-care by styling my hair and getting a professional skin treatment and improved my style and appearance which is big for someone with body dysmorphia, etc...

I'm still healing from the COVID and post-COVID pain and it will take some time. I don't want to feel like my 20s went to waste because of it, and I want to fill in the void I feel by making and accomplishing goals. And even if I don't achieve 100% of all my goals, I have my 30s to look forward to.

[gascoignephotography]

Thomas Wynne

Through photography, installation, moving-image and sculpture Thomas Wynne’s practice revolves around the conceptualisation and examination of a post-Earth epoch, The Promittocene. By interrogating representations of fictional futures through photography, installation and sculpture, Wynne’s work seeks to question the human condition and humanity’s position within the greater world ecosystem.

During Uni he hated taking portraits due to social anxiety however, his first job after uni was taking portraits for a front cover. While this was out of his comfort zone, he did have some examples on his website which caught the eye such as magazines like the Financial Times.  He personally prefers to work on analogue for his work and this goes with commissions too.  The only difficulty he finds about analogue is how the turn arounds can be quite tight and unachievable but he persists and is able to do it as he’s familiar with the processes and equipment he needs to use. 

On his online portfolio, everything is off line or off centre a bit as that’s how he built up his portfolio on paper and he likes to keep it that way. He’s also included images that could be considered as errors to show improvement and how analogue can have errors within the work.  Make your final selection of images as broad as you can within reason so you’ve got more options to narrow down in the final exhibition. This also means you’ll have more work along the same narrative to show publishers and any possibly work opportunities.  His degree work has also been able to be produced into different formats of work which he can use at any opportunity such as different gallery spaces and exhibition shows. This results in having to have work which is stored safely, backed up on a plethora of hard drives and available to have ready to hang pieces if any chance comes up. 

The best way to get out there in the photography career is to keep chipping away at applying for open calls, attending shows, networking so photography companies know who you are.  Some of his exhibition shows that he’s been in, the work hasn’t been the exact way that he would’ve wanted them to be. Some companies follow the artists requests with how the work is portrayed, some companies don’t. While this can be frustrating, Wynne describes it as access for him to be able to see his work in other presentation ways that he might’ve not thought of. He stores his work in a garage which are protected by bubble wrap etc. His unframed prints are in plastic sleeves in a portfolio box in order to protect them from hand prints when they’re being looked at. His big framed works he keeps in bubble wrap and glass to glass, unless they’ve got a thin frame which could warp, he keeps them stood up. He also keeps his negatives in a negative ring binder folder as you can keep adding more sections in as you go rather than buy several folders. 

After Uni he applied for the New Art West Midlands and got a micro bursary which he used to produce work along things that interested him such as Sci-Fi etc. This was polar opposite to the Uni work style as you get set projects and have to stay within some guidelines on what kind of work you wish to make. 

Here is a selection of emerging artists opportunities:

East Midlands CVAN

artrabbit.com

Art Council England Artsjobs — includes teaching assistant jobs, marketing etc. Pretty much anything that has a job including the arts 

Artists Network

Artquest 

AXIS — when you sign up for the registration fee, you get public liability insurance which is useful to have for a photographer. 

Curator Space — bit of a hit and miss but worth checking in occasionally for random jobs. 

New Art West Midlands

Arts Hub

Format

Grain — located in Birmingham and did a collaborative project called “East meets West” alongside Format Derby. 

East St. arts 

Residencies are a great way to gain a free project space while allowing you to meet new people.  Depending on the space, it’s good to be able to have a bigger space to allow you to layout and plan your exhibition space, it also is great for putting up your work and having a few people come and look at the work and give you constructive criticism. 

“Don’t chase the grade, chase the work” 

AA2A scheme - residency after a gap year, has a wide variety of opportunities for teaching roles, workshops etc

Invest in your own URL  - Format and Cargo for websites

Look into online exhibits especially with ones with a low or no interest fee

Go along to portfolio reviews or virtual talks to show your face and get people to know your name and work 

Possible Websites to use -

format.com

wix.com

cargo.site

squarespace.com

ionos.co.uk

portfolio.adobe.com

Silver Print, AG Photographic, Morco are good for analogue supplies, portfolio supplies etc. Amazon are good for portfolio sleeves/ portfolio boxes but always start with a reputable photographic website. Think about what you want to gain from any review or interaction from a professional before you present your work

[angelatsumu]

endearing things hajime does.

in which dating hajime is full of love.

warnings: none, just sweet little fluff ; author is a little unrealistic about bf!haji but it's for a good cause.

he’s always been an attentive lover, but he hasn’t been the best at words. he’s never nonverbal, but he does struggle to come to your level of talkative sometimes. when he gets off work, he’s so tired (of athletes and scolding them) that he can barely muster words aside from “mhm” and “oh yeah?”. even if you’re being intimate after a long day apart, haji can have moments where he’s just not verbally equiped. it was something he hated about himself, but you found it cute. you liked to think of it as his ‘himbo hours’, and he kinda loves the term. he’d never admit to sometimes engaging himbo hours on purpose because he knows how endearing you find his short quips to be after a long day. he also lives for your sweet little “oh, you’re just head empty aren’t ya baby?” as you finish your spiel about your day.

haji has always been stronger and bigger than you, more looming no matter what he does. he towers over you in all he does, big frame taking up a little too much of your personal space. despite his big size, you always manage to corner him in the bed, forcing him to the edge as you take up all the space. haji gets used to this, unable to sleep without the soft pressure of your arm or leg splayed across his chest or abdomen. he also loving clutches whatever limb you sling on him, humming softly as he drifts to sleep.

haji demands the two of you share a spotify account. you think he’s being frugal, but really he just likes to know what you’re listening to throughout the work day. every morning around 9 or so, you kick him off of his training playlist, and he grins as he looks down to see what you’re listening to. he also enjoys having a record of what you play the most, and he even more so enjoys your shared “Spotify Wrapped” at the end of the year. every year he saves a screen cap of your top five, and he compares them from year to year.

haji loves date night. date night is like his met gala, and he loves to wow you with new places, looks, and surprises. haji takes pride in his venue selection and outing itinerary. he usually likes to set out an outfit for you the morning of, promising to meet you at the venue because he finds it more exciting to do this grand reveal; it reminds him of your wedding day. you find your husband charming no matter the attire, but he’s always sure to surprise you even more than before. haji also likes this tradition when you can manage to record a ‘Vogue Beauty Secrets’ style video for him to enjoy later.

speaking of those Vogue Beauty Secrets videos, haji loves to watch them with you as you do your skincare routine. he initially griped about how lame celebrities all look the same or use the same shit, but the more you watched the harder it was for him to ignore. it was really just background noise for you, but haji became invested. he started encouraging you to record them for him whenever he was away traveling for work, and he even began filming some for you to enjoy. he pretends to be upset with you when you leak one to the team and their fans.

rb's + likes appreciated.

i was just dumped, and i am still in pain so please be kind and indulge with me <3

xx

[watchmegetobsessed]

PINK PANTS

a/n: you could bet i would write more about that pink outfit and this time... it's steamy!

pairing: Harry x reader

warning: smut

word count: 2.2k

masterlist

There are so many things you love about Harry.

You love his kindness that sometimes feels way too endless for this world that tends to chew him up and spit him out. Even with the rudest people who treat him like shit, he is able to be the bigger person and only give back the good. Sometimes, you think he is too good for this world, that it doesn’t deserve him.

You love his humor. It’s not always the best, but he never fails to make you smile or laugh even on your worst days. He is especially good at making dad jokes, the kinds that make you palm your head while he laughs at his own puns. His humor is not for everyone, but it definitely is something you adore.

You love how he treats his loved ones, how there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for a friend or family member. Anne could call him up in the middle of the night and ask him to fly home and he would do it without a question. He is always there for Mitch and Sarah, his friendship with Nick is just fantastic and he always has so much to give. The same goes for you. It didn’t take you long to realize that he is the kind of man who will be right next to you through thick and thin, no matter what happens. He was there when you had to put your old cat down, he held you as you cried for hours on your couch and he even got a picture of you and Garry, your cat framed for your birthday later that year that brought tears to your eyes again. He always offers to drive you even to the grocery store that’s two streets away from your house and he keeps reminding you to eat and drink enough, even when he is somewhere across the globe. He cares for the people he loves and you can only hope you are able to give him back enough.

You love how passionate he is for the things he loves doing. Singing or acting, cooking or learning to sew, he always gives his one hundred, no matter what. His heart and soul is in everything he creates, a piece of him made by him.

And you love his love for fashion. Men hate to admit that they might be into something that’s mostly labelled feminine, but Harry couldn’t care less. You’ve been dating him for three years and you’ve seen him bare his soul through his style and it’s been a privilege to witness it from first row. Early in your relationship, you were able to travel with him on tour, perform in a different custom outfit every other night and the two of you made a little game before every concert. After he got dressed, he wanted you to be the first person, after Lambert, to see him in his outfit. So you waited for him to be done with your eyes closed, then he stood in front of you and let you feel him up at first, touching the fabric, running your fingers along the lines of his body before you opened your eyes and finally saw him. He always took your breath away, but in all honesty, he could put on a potato sack and still look amazing.

Through the pandemic, he didn’t have many chances to put on new outfits, only a handful, like the Grammy’s that is surely one of your all-time favorites now. But today, after so long Harry is returning to the stage and it means that he’ll have another exciting fit to put on and you’ll play the game again.

He is sitting in front of the vanity in his dressing room, the hairstylist fixing his curls up as he stares at his reflection with an intent gaze.

“Nervous?” you ask him from the sofa, his eyes jumping to you in the mirror.

“Yeah. It’s been long,” he hums. Standing up you walk over to him and then squat down next to him laying your arms across his lap, his hands coming to squeeze them gently, like he is kneading them.

“You’ll be amazing. You always are,” you tell him, kissing his bicep right under where the sleeve of his shirt ends.

The hair stylist finishes up and Lambert appears, clapping his hands together in excitement and you know your favorite part is coming up.

“Ready to change, superstar?” the stylist grins widely and Harry just chuckles nodding, following him while you sit back on the sofa and close your eyes right away.

You hear them moving around, the fabric rustles and you can’t wait what he’ll wear to be back on stage. You know it’s something fantastic, it always is, because Lambert is a genius and Harry can wear basically anything.

“Okay, eyes still closed?” Harry asks and you nod your head.

“Yep.”

“Alright, stand up, I’m ready,” he tells you and you hear the excitement in his words. Jumping to your feet you listen to his footsteps getting closer until you can sense him standing right in front of you. “Okay, go for it,” he chuckles softly, giving you the green light.

After the Grammy’s, your first move is to press your hands to his chest to feel if he has a shirt on. When your palms get in contact with his naked chest, you gasp at the feeling, already wanting to see him, but you want to feel the rest too.

“Nice first touch, you minx” Harry chuckles and you feel it rumbling in his chest.

“You are the one who keeps forgetting to put on a shirt,” you shrug with a smirk.

Moving your hands to his shoulders you feel the unusual touch of whatever is on top, it’s hard to decide what it is. Perhaps a vest covered in fringe? But what does it look like? Just the touching is not enough to make up the picture in your head. So you move your hands down and feel the vest all the way down his abdomen until you reach his pants. The touch feels nothing special, no different from what he often wears. It’s high wasted, of course and as you move your palms to his butt, stepping closer to him, you can feel that it’s nice and tight on him, so you give him a little smack.

“Oi!” he jumps, his hands finding your waist as you giggle with your eyes still closed.

“Okay, I think I’ve felt everything, I’m very intrigued about it,” you say, biting into your lip.

“Yeah? Then open your pretty eyes.”

Taking a step back, you inhale deep before opening your eyes and… your jaw hits the floor. Your boyfriend is standing right there in front of you, all smug and handsome, wearing his bright pink outfit that is no doubt Gucci, as always, his vest covered in sequined fringe, no shirt underneath it and he looks… so fucking hot.

“Harry,” you breathe out as you step back to him, feeling up the vest once again, this time looking at it as well. Your core pulses as you take him in completely, the sight of him reminding you just how crazy you are for him.

“D’you like it?” he asks with a boyish grin and you can tell he is dying to know your thoughts.

There are so many things you want to say. How amazing he looks, how sexy this pink color is on him, how fucking great this whole outfit is and how the fans will completely lose their mind over this look. You want to jump his bones right then and there and quickly peeking around you see that Lambert has left the room so it’s just the two of you.

“Take your pants off,” you order in a hushed voice, as if someone could hear you. You see his face fall as he glances down at his pants, then back at you.

“W-what’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing, but take them off. Now!” you urge him, your breathing getting heavier with each second you spend staring at him.

“Baby, I—“

“Harry, your pants are fucking amazing, but I want to suck your dick, now, and that requires your pants to be off!”

He gasps at your words, eyes widening as he stares at you for just a split second before his hands start to work fast on his pants. While he does that, you quickly run to the door and make sure it’s locked. Wouldn’t want anyone to walk in on you with Harry’s dick down your throat. When you turn back he is throwing the pants to the sofa and quickly gets rid of his boxers too, his dick already half hard.

“Sit,” you tell him, nodding towards the sofa and he eagerly obeys, wrapping a hand around his cock as he makes himself comfortable, his eyes practically burning as you kneel in front of him licking your lips. “I’ll show you how much I like this outfit,” you breathe out, hungry to please him as you shoo his hand away, taking its place with your own.

Harry whimpers as you wrap your palm around him, giving it a gentle squeeze before pumping it a few times. Leaning closer you don’t waste any time licking his whole length up so your hand can move a little easier on his skin. He is throbbing for you and it amazes you how hard he can always get in such a short time.

“Love, I’m not gonna last,” he breathes out when you suck on the head, your hand pumping the base.

“Good, we don’t have much time,” you murmur before sliding his whole cock into your mouth and start bobbing your head.

He keeps moaning and groaning, his fingers coming to lace into your hair on the back of your head. Your name falls from his lips like a prayer to the angels and you could almost cum from just the way he enjoys you sucking him off. Though you’d love to take your time with him, tease and edge him, he has to be on stage soon and it’s already a miracle no one has tried to barge in here yet. It’s just a matter of time someone comes looking for him.

“Shit, your mouth feels so fucking good!” he moans, his head falling back as his dick twitches in your mouth. Your hand that’s not wrapped around the base of his cock moves from his thigh and starts playing with his balls that gets him shaking a bit under your touch. He is lucky he took his pants off, because it’s getting messy, precum and saliva is dripping from your mouth, but you don’t stop, not until he comes undone right into your mouth.

You look up at him and your eyes meet his gaze, he looks like a vision, his cheeks flushed and glistening, the vest is sliding off his shoulders, leaving his chest completely bare. You move your hand from his balls to his tummy and slide it up his abdomen, over his butterfly tattoo until you can dig your fingers into his right peck. One of his hands finds yours, he grabs it tight, it’s his way of letting you know that he is close.

You come up for air, your hand taking your mouth’s place and you take a few deep breaths as you stare at each other, his chest heaving, lips parted and his green irises filled with lust and passion.

“Come on, I want your cum dripping down my throat, H. Give it to me,” you pant before going down again, sucking him even harder and faster.

You hear voices outside the door and it excites you even more, knowing that people on the other side of the door have no idea what’s happening in here.

“I-I’m gonna cum. Y/N, I’m gonna cum!” he whimpers, so you hollow your cheeks before taking him as deep as you can and it finally does it for him.

He moans your name over and over again as his hot cum shoots down your throat. You milk him to the last drop, swallowing it all, letting him ride his high to the fullest before you let go of him, his cock slipping out of your mouth with a popping sound. Sitting back on your heels you watch your fucked out boyfriend in only his pink vest and you swear this is the most beautiful view you’ve ever seen.

“Styles! Ten minutes!” Someone bangs on the door, making you both jump.

“I’ll be right out in a sec!” he calls back, quickly rushing into the bathroom to clean himself up and you just giggle when you see his bare ass as he runs.

When he comes back, he quickly puts his underwear and pants back on, helping you up from the floor, but he doesn’t let go of you, instead he pulls you to him, kissing you hard on your lips.

“I can’t wait what your reaction will be when you see the rest of the outfits,” he murmurs against your lips with a cheeky smile, and you just smack his bum again, grinning into the kiss. “Or should I wear the pink pants every night for the rest of the tour?” he teases.

“Well, you already know that I love the pink pants. Do whatever you like with that information,” you chuckle, kissing him one last time before you push him out the door since he has a whole arena waiting for him.

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