#i just wanted to capture the essence of each relationship and let u know <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[verstappentime]

same anon as before!!! mostly just wondering - how did u know u wanted the anniversary/miami to be the backdrop, what was your favorite scene to write, what was the hardest!!! i’m curious about your most cherished parts of it bc genuinely i think the first scene was when i knew i would be changed. went back to read it today… it was so beautiful. the way u had max not so subtly touching charles to ground him was just ugh. i also thought it was so fitting for who max is. and balanced charles’ anxiety so well against. how new the relationship is, how much charles loves him and can’t tell him, the weight of their history. and for him to be navigating all of that during a race weekend too!! i think it was just beautiful. and i think ending it in the pool, just them, reflecting on those babies in karting. so perfect. oddly i haven’t read ENOUGH fic of them doing that for how much they bring it up when asked about it irl. i could just go on and on. i think for this being your first fic in f1, you have captured the essence of both of them and gently, beautifully teased out a dynamic for the ages. i’m glad you’re here and i hope you write more <3 sorry i yapped

oh my goodnesssss THANK YOUUUU for these questions literally nothing makes me happier than yapping abt my fics. DO NOT APOLOGIZE

why did i choose miami !! so i've actually been writing little ficlets about virtually every race this year. none except this one are finished and some probably won't ever be revisited, but i think we've got miami, sazuka, spain, hungary & austria. basically if i see a plot then i start to noodle on it. <3 i started with charles being sad after practice, i wasn't 100% certain i wanted to work the anniversary in there actually, but then i had the idea for max to say you can't be mean to be on our anniversary and it spiraled.

what was my favorite scene to write? hmmm this is a good question. i really love the pool scene at the end. i stole the bit where charles is seeing max all throughout his life from an earlier part where it didn't fit, and i waited until i was well and truly done with the rest to build that scene around it. i got the dialogue for charles's confession on the first try and i just really like the "i wish you were my best friend then" line. <3 re: my most cherished parts, that's certainly one of them. i also really like some little stupid things. max biting the lime charles just spit out is so dear to me. max saying "you are so stupid" when charles apologizes. charles saying "when i find out how to get you to leave me alone i'll let you know" was one of the first lines i wrote and i love that too. just the stuff where they're the most them.

the hardest scene to write.. tbh this fic was hard to write period, except like i said i think the last scene came easily. it was my first lestappen fic that i wrote through to the end and i really wanted to nail them. almost every scene had like one hundred iterations. it actually began with charles wanting to tell max he wanted to marry him. but then it felt like way too much rumination and i got to thinking -- maybe they haven't quite been together that long, and charles is struggling with something a lot more simple. so that led to a lot of rewrites once i changed my mind!

i think the one that i got stuck on the most was charles waking up in the middle of the night. i couldn't figure out how to make that transition where he asks max about his dad, and i still don't think it's ironed out perfectly. i also rewrote the club scene a ton of times even though it's short.

thank you SOOOO much for all the kind words :( max was a really nice contrast to charles here, he's so steady and just going about his race weekend while side eyeing his weird boyfriend. they're so opposite -- them knowing each other their whole lives is so simple and, like, just a given to max, while charles reads so much into it. i'm so glad his vibe came off the page well, he rocked to write <3

thank you SO much for the kindness! i know you said in your follow-up ask you noticed this actually isn't by first fic in f1, but it kind of is bc everything else i've written is so short.. and this was the first time i really gave them a full, beginning-middle-end story. and yes my first published lestappen!! <3 i love these two, i am actually posting a deleted scene from this fic soon from after max told charles he loved him for the first time.

sorry for the NOVEL of an answer, i am so glad you loved it though :')

[inkykeiji]

Hi Clari!!! I hope you're doing well and had an amazing weekend! I'm sorry if you've already answered something like this before! 😊

I was having big thoughts about the twins, but then I couldn't remember if you'd mentioned the other Todoroki siblings existing in this AU!?!

You may have done and I just missed it, but if the other siblings already do, and if not, did exist in the AU, what would the twins relationship be like with them?

I can imagine Touya being the more approachable of the two, I feel he'd click quite well with Fuyumi perhaps? They both give me those sort of caregiver vibes 😅

Natsuo and Dabi I can imagine being close, not quite as close as in the Touya - Nii series, but I can still imagine Natsuo looking up to both his big brothers because they're so cool! (Dabi is just that smidge cooler to him though 😌)

Would Shoto still be Enji's perfect poster boy, or would Touya have taken that spot?

Would the twins be open to sharing the reader with Natsuo like Touya-Nii did in the Snowman and Me series? Or is it strictly something kept between the twins?

Do the Todoroki family know about the reader and the twins relationship? Do they approve?

There are just too many thoughts for my one track mind 😩😌

It'd be really interesting to know your take! --- The anon who dreamt about living with Dabi on a ranch 🐥

hello sweetpea!!!! oh you’re so lovely <33 thank you bb i hope you had a wonderful weekend as well!!! <3

BUT ANONNNN I AM SHOUTING HAHAHAHA oh my gosh okay first of all you and i have got to be on the same wavelength today bb hehehe because i haven’t mentioned their relationship with the other todoroki siblings much on my blog but i do have (and have had) their relationships with each mapped out in my notebook for months now and i was literally looking it over when you sent this in!! <33

AH SO MANY GOOD QUESTIONS LET’S GET INTO IT WEEEEEEE <3

so first i’m going to link you to this post (which kinda just delves into their relationship with each other but touches upon other relationships in the family) and this post (which discusses dabi’s reaction to yelling and touches upon his trauma related to enji; pls heed the tws!!) but to reiterate and all that:

twin!touya pretty much gets along with all of his siblings in some way. he’s the perfect model of an older brother. as i mentioned in the first post linked above, touya is just really good at playing the part. twin!dabi, on the other hand, barely gets along with anyone other than his twin. he’s extremely difficult to be around about 97% of the time.

natsuo definitely does think both of his older brothers are super super cool, and he follows them around like a puppy when they’ll let him, but he’s actually closer to twin!touya than he is to twin!dabi, simply because twin!dabi won’t let him get too close; dabi’s extreme trust issues get in the way. still, natsuo was the only one there for dabi when touya had been taken from him, and that forged quite a lasting and deep bond, even if it terrifies dabi to this day, even if dabi tries his very hardest to shove natsuo away because of it, even if it’s still extremely complex; a jumbled, tangled mess in his heart. but natsuo understands, and he’s nothing if not resilient, so he kinda just bounces back from it each and every time. but twin!touya has a special soft spot for natsuo, because natsuo was there to take care of his baby twin brother when he wasn’t, and to touya, that means the whole world to him <3 touya hopes that one day his twin will let his guard down enough to let natsuo into his heart, too.

fuyumi is incredibly suspicious of twin!touya. she’s smart as a whip, just like he is, and she can read him like a book and knows when he’s up to something; and he’s always up to something. all she wants is for her family to get along, for god’s sake, and she knows touya’s a threat to that, because he knows how ridiculously manipulative he is, and how he’s planning something against their father—fuyumi is the only of the todoroki siblings that actually has sympathy for their father. thus, even though touya has told her time and again not to worry about it, that everyone will be happy in the end, she knows ‘the end’ does not include their father in any way, shape, or form. still, with that being said, they get along quite well, and they’re constantly throwing teasing quips each other’s way <3 when it comes to twin!dabi, fuyumi’s heart positively breaks for him. he shoves her away, too, because he doesn’t know how to deal with her overwhelming love, but that does not deter her in the slightest. she was there, she witnessed what happened to him, she helped natsuo take care of him in every way she could; in fact, fuyumi took care of that entire family after her mother left. but she has such a soft spot for twin!dabi in her heart, a special type of unconditional love and sympathy for him, and she’ll always be there for him, no matter how many callous insults he spits her way. she views him akin to a terrified animal, and she understands why he lashes out, and sometimes—very rarely, but sometimes—he will let her take him into her arms and hold him, hug him, shush him. she was pretty much the mother he never had for those years when he was without his twin, even though she’s a little younger than he is. so there’s a very interesting, very complex bond there as well.

shouto loves both of his eldest brothers so much. twin!touya loves him back, thinks he’s an absolutely brilliant kid and such a kind, beautiful soul, but he can’t help but feel some resentment towards him; residual feelings that have been transferred from his twin to him. still, he tries to bury them, because he knows none of this is actually shouto’s fault, and that their father is the true villain here, the true one to blame. as i mentioned in the first post linked above, twin!dabi hates shouto with a fierce passion, because he feels betrayed for his twin, betrayed by the way their father so quickly found an (inferior, in his opinion) replacement for touya—to mold into the perfect puppet—and he himself feels a little slighted, too, angry and offended that their father didn’t even try to mold him in replacement of his twin and just went straight to the next ‘perfect’ child, because twin!dabi was too much work, he’s sure. shouto is terrified of dabi, but he looks up to touya with absolute stars in his eyes <3

rei feels incredibly guilty. she likes to pretend that she doesn’t know why she took only twin!touya when she really should’ve taken them both, and will regret for the rest of her life seperating the two of them for a few years. it was incredibly selfish of her, to snatch touya up only because she knew it would hurt her husband the most, and to leave twin!dabi and the rest of her children there with such a brute for a father. dabi hates her for it, and she doesn’t blame him. she hopes one day he can find it in his heart to forgive her for such a horrible mistake, but she knows it’s a slim possibility. she is very, very close to twin!touya though.

i have already touched upon their relationship with enji in the posts linked above, but basically twin!touya IS still enji’s favourite, and enji only latched onto shouto after rei took touya away (during the divorce). touya is still first in line for the family business, and shouto acts as more or less of a back-up, in case touya fails. he’s also easier to control, which is quite appealing to enji, too.

and then, as you can tell, the twins themselves have a very, very unhealthy codependency on each other; they can barely function without one another now <3

ANYWAY LOVELY, THOSE ARE THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE SIBLINGS + THEIR PARENTS!!! to answer your last few questions:

would the twins be open to sharing the reader with natsuo like touya-nii did in the snowman and me series? or is it strictly something kept between the twins? 

no, they absolutely would not share her with natsuo, this is something very special and sacred and kept strictly between them <3

do the todoroki family know about the reader and the twins relationship? do they approve? 

EHEHEHEHE this is something i’m really really looking forward to exploring in the future of the series!!! because the angst potential is totally insane hehe <3 the answer is, it’s extremely complicated. enji doesn’t approve at all. like, at ALL. he hates to think what the press would think, if this ever got out, and he knows dabi would be more than willing to leak it; anything to hurt his father, right? natsuo thinks it’s SO awesome and super hot, fuyumi thinks it’s quite cute how they share everything, but worries for the poor sweet reader since she knows how her brothers can be, and shouto can’t even think about it without blushing and getting super embarrassed; he isn’t really sure what he thinks yet, but he feels like it’s more their business than his own. rei is on the fence; she wants her boys to be happy, but is this really the best and healthiest way to do it? does she even have a say in it at all? is it really her place or her right to step up and say something? she isn’t sure.

i hope this answers all of your questions bb!!!! thank you so much for asking aaaah i LOVE talking about stuff like this and i am super super excited to explore it deeper within the series!!!! AH EHEHE I REMEMBER U AND UR DREAM <3333 aw such a cute lil chick emoji 🥺🥺 i hope you’re doing wonderful my friend and i wish you many more touya dreams in the future <3

[hcazj]

made a cover for my whack af mchanzo nanowrimo 2019 novel. u can find it on ao3 via “finding you in the buckass of nowhere” lmao. prologue under the cut but after this i will be exclusively posting on ao3

PROLOGUE

The sun rises high into the sky, casting shadows on everything residing on the surface. Jesse gives a loud yawn before scratching his scrappy goatee and turning the page on a health textbook he was given by Angela by instruction of his residing commander. He didn’t know how the conversation had started, but during a debriefing on the latest mission in one of the meeting rooms, one of the punks on the Blackwatch team had decided to give Gabriel Reyes a run for his money and ask if he had a soulmate waiting back home. Gabe, of course, had laughed in that guy’s face. He laughed like it was the funniest thing in the entire world.

And just as he was laughing, something miraculous happened. The team was visited by none other than Overwatch’s Strike Commander, who not only served as a face for publicity stunts, but also was the head of operations. And the strike teams, hence the title.

“He better not.” Soldier: 76, better known as Jack Morrison, said as he practically kicked the meeting room door open with his boot. He looked pissed. And also had a stack of papers on him. It looked like someone forgot to get their morning coffee. “He’d have some serious explaining to do.”

There were a couple whispers across the table, a couple agents trying to understand the implications of what had just transpired. Jesse swore he saw some of his teammates starting to sweat. The band of Blackwatch agents saw Gabriel Reyes flash his most charming smile. The rascal could look good when he wanted to.

“Jackie, you’re backie. Not in blackie, though. I’m happy you’re openly talking about this, but didn’t we agree not to tell anyone? Also, hey, dinner at 8 in my room.” And then Gabe winked at Jack. Ew.

Jack sighed, crossing his arms, and not so subtly cueing to the assortment of medals pinned to the lapel of his cornflower blue coat. Subtle. He addressed Gabe. “Remember last night? Well, I’ve decided to become the possessive bastard you always wanted.” He gave an intimidating glance at everyone in the room. “How are you kids doing? I’m sure you’ve met me around. Though you probably didn’t think I’d be so involved with Gabe. Like, probably never expected in a million years that I was his soulmate. But yeah. That’s classified information, not a peep out of this room unless you want your life to being an even more visceral piece of hell.”

Someone gulped in anxiety. Someone sneered in ennui. But if Blackwatch owned anything, it was a pile of troublemakers.

Now, Jesse hadn’t been part of Blackwatch too long, but it never took him that long to make friends. Genji--Jesse’s best friend and second best troublemaker in Blackwatch history--decided it was his turn to say something. (Jesse liked to think of himself as the best troublemaker, but that was an entirely different discussion).

“And how are you going to do that exactly? Your boyfriend already has us running laps across the Mediterranean.” Genji sat proudly with his feet resting on the table, and Jack gave him a look of disgust.

Jack excused the moment of insubordination, and walked right past the table and into the arms of his lover. They shared a quick kiss after a moment of lingering in each others arms, much to the dismay of everyone else in the meeting room. And if Jack was good at anything, it was playing games with new recruits.

“What’s up, marido ? What makes my darling husband so sad?” Gabe said, combing his hair through the tufts of Jack’s pale blond hair. It was thin, very much unlike his own, but he liked to try.

Jack laughed, trying to materialize every ounce of theatrics he had stored in his body for this very moment. “My sweet love, I just don’t know how I’m going to live if you don’t assign your soldiers 50 more pushups each every morning before breakfast. They’re not super soldiers like us, but we must make sure they are raised right. They’re like our kids, to me.” Jack lifted a leg off the floor, like he was swooning for real.

Groaning broke out around the table, and Jesse wasn’t sure if his teammates were groaning at the obviously satirical display of affection, or at the thought of actually being assigned even more pushups every morning.

It was Gabe’s turn to laugh. “Aw, Jack. We’re going to have a conversation later on why you’re so touchy today. Let me kiss you goodbye, though.” He planted another kiss on his husband’s nose before resuming business as per usual. Jack begrudgingly peeled himself off of his husband, but not without greeting their personal pet project. He smacked the stack of autopsies in front of Jesse and gave him a wink, before ruffling through the kid’s hair.

Gabe cleared his throat, as the door shut. Radio silence. He looked at Genji, who was making paper triangle footballs to send flying across the room. Genji looked up at him and discarded the paper football into the recycling bin. Gabe swore, some of the people on this team had the attention span of gnats.

“Ok, amigxs. Before we get into the details of the upcoming mission abroad, Jack was serious about our relationship being confidential. Think of the absolute horror you would cause if the UN caught winding that I’m fucking their Strick Commander. Like, maybe it’s funny. Actually, that’s pretty fucking funny. Can I get a laugh track going here?”

Jesse was the first to start hooting and hollering. A round of applause followed. If Gabe getting laid meant a happy Gabe, who cared, really? Sure, it could cause an international scandal, but Jesse liked to take it a day at a time.

“Thanks, caballero. Ok. It might be the funniest thing ever, but let’s be serious. I don’t want to fire any of you, but if wind caught that I’m soulmates with Jack, that would probably raise some suspicions of nepotism. Now we all know that I’m a very accomplished man, with a great piece of ass too, but it could potentially mean getting the pink slip from the higher higher ups. And all of you would probably also be out of the job, since Blackwatch technically does not exist. Really. So please don’t, if you value your paycheck.

“Alright, anyways. Any questions before we begin reviewing these autopsy reports like a pack of lawyers from a video game?” Gabe asked.

Jesse McCree had a question.

He partially raised his hand like a kid in a classroom, but then put it back down as he was contemplating if he should ask it at all, but then fully raised his hand as he thought ‘fuck it’.

“Hey, son. What’s bothering you? No, I don’t have any Nature Grain bars to feed you right now, please wait until after the meeting,” Gabe said. That aroused another short round of laughter from the people at the meeting.

Jesse chuckled too, because he had actually asked for a Nature Grain before in the middle of a mission. But he had a question to ask, and that was very important. “Hey, so, uhhhhh. I don’t know if this is relevant, or important enough, but what in tarnation’s a soulmate again?”

And Jesse kind of knew too, but only vaguely, like the word ‘esoteric’.

Of course, ‘esoteric’ is a word that is used to describe when something is only understood by a small set of people. Like you could call string theory ‘esoteric’, because who the fuck knows what string theory is? But it comes around often enough that people have heard of string theory, if only by name. You could even consider the word ‘esoteric’ esoteric. That was kind of funny. But Jesse was raised in the pit of the South with a single mother, before he found himself living a life of crime. He reconsidered how esoteric the word ‘soulmates’ was.

Like ‘esoteric’, ‘soulmates’ was not a word that came up when Jesse was robbing trains for a living, nor running from the police after a shooting with an opposing gang, nor in the middle of jewelry heists in the heart of Santa Fe. ‘Soulmates’ wasn’t necessary by any means of the word, that word, necessary. But maybe while he had only heard it a handful of times, with no definition to attach to the word, maybe everyone else had.

He felt like he was the odd duck out, and that was hard to do in a group of mother fucking misfits. Like, come on, Genji was basically a fucking cyborg. Gabe had gone through that freak of a soldier enhancement program that probably fucked with his biology in ways Jesse would never understand. Moira, their resident evil scientist, shot floating orbs out of her hands in the middle of combat. What the fuck was that about? Did she hone the essence of Orbeez for the inspiration behind her primary weapon? Jesse had some real mother fucking questions.

And a lot of the times, he asked them too.

But out of all of the unprofessional and obscure questions he had asked in his life, and even just in his short stay at Blackwatch where he could ask some pretty weird things, he had never asked a question that just about floored so many different people all at once. It’s like, he asked the question about soulmates, and the question took the cake. It took the cake and ran away with the spoon and like, eloped with the dish. And fucked the moon. Jesse didn’t think there was a reason for everyone to look so scandalized, though.

Because questions didn’t take cakes, or run with spoons, or elope, or fuck.

Gabe had a face that betrayed emotions Jesse knew Gabe didn’t show often: remorse. Of course, ‘remorse’ kind of sounded like ‘Morrison’ and that was funny for 2 seconds. But it was downright scary. Jesse was the type of person that was always starting something.

2 days ago, he had snuck into the mess hall at 3:30AM to steal a bag of doritos. Last week, he got captured on a mission and had to be rescued from an abandoned warehouse. Yesterday, he accidentally passed a stink bomb so bad, Gabe started coughing and moved their weekly recap meeting outside. And it was raining, too.

“Kid, did you ever take a health class before dropping out of school?” Gabe asked.

Jesse didn’t know how to answer that. “Well, I know how my body works, thank you. Uh, but t’answer your question…. No. What’s that got t’do with soulmates?”

Gabe scrunched his lips, wondering how he could quickly remedy the situation. This is why they paid him the big bucks. Not the biggest bucks, but more than large enough bucks. “Ok, everyone settle down for a hot second. Jesse, I’m going to comm Angela for a textbook you can read. And you probably need some one-on-one lessons on other stuff--yeah, I know you know what sex is but what about STIs? That’s half the battle. How about taking a break this week and just getting through health class?”

“But boss--”

“Trust me, this is way more important.”

Gabe took out one of his comms, one that only a limited amount of people on base had access too. It was mostly used for emergencies, but other times, was used as a quick way to contact anyone on base.  

“Hey Angela! How are you? It’s Gabriel Reyes. I’m great and so is Jack-o’-Lantern thanks for asking. Do you have a this week to give some health lessons to one of our agents? I know you’re friends with our little Jesse. Great. Yeah? Perfect, please put that textbook on reserve. I’ll send Jesse down soon. Ok. Awesome. Over.” Gabe clipped the comm back into his belt. “Ok, anyone else skip health class?”

The room, for once, was a resounding silence. Moira raised her hand.

“You didn’t take health class, O’deorain? Aren’t you a doctor?” Gabe asked.

“Very funny, commander. I was wondering why you did not just ask me to prepare some lessons and generic information for Jesse, and instead contacted Angela Zeigler.” She brought a hand up to her face, and rested her cheek on her long purple nails that looked like talons.

“Hey, doc. You’re coming with us on this mission. You can help out later if Jesse wants.” Gabe sighs and turns to Jesse. “Alright, cowboy. Sorry to do this to you, and don’t let this go to your head, but I can’t just let you go gallivanting into a foreign country with no knowledge about your own body parts. Trust me. Soulmates isn’t something to mess around with. I know you’re stressed about it. Consider yourself on hourly while you lax away while hitting the books this week, ok?”

Jesse sighed and pulled his cowboy hat off of his head. He was disappointed he wouldn’t be going to Japan, but there would definitely be more opportunities for travel in the future. Filling the cracks in his education wasn’t something that he would have completely expected out of Blackwatch.

In fact, he was still reeling over getting fed 3 square meals a day. Being treated with any semblance or respect. Being valued not because he was probably the greatest sharpshooter of his generation, but for his personality and interests. Though playing old Hollywood flicks on movie night annoyed his teammates to no end, people stuck around and watched with him. And that was more valuable than ransacking a jewelry store.

“You can stick around, but I suggest getting around early since the textbook Angela has for you is several hundreds of pages long.” Gabe grinned, trying to whisk away Jesse’s problems.

Jesse replaced the hat on his head, and yawned as he stretched his arms above his head. “See y’all later, suckeroonies. Y’all hear that? I’m being paid to stay on base this week!”

More laughter from the gallery. Jesse got a few pats on the back. Genji flicked a paper football in his direction, and it smacked Jesse straight in the forehead.

“Text me” Genji said with a salute. Gabriel cleared his throat and held out his hand.

Genji sighed as he was caught red handed, and surrendered his stash of paper footballs. A beat passed, and Gabriel remained focused on Genji. Genji took the paper footballs out of the pockets of his sweatpants and handed those over too.

That Genji.

Jesse snuck out the door as the team started talking about the autopsy reports, and was off to find Angela.

And not to say he wasn’t disappointed at not being able to travel with the rest of the team this time, but he tried to stick to the silver lining: gorging on breadsticks. Sometimes they were stale, but hit those babies with an unearthly and disgusting amount of ranch dressing, and Jesse would eat them like there was no tomorrow. Being paid also wasn’t half bad. And getting his question answered certainly wasn’t that bad.

He walked past the kitchen, one of the larger living rooms, and some of the barracks before taking an elevator up a few floors to the right area. Why wasn’t the med bay in the middle of the building?

Angela “Mercy” Zeigler was one of Overwatch’s doctors. She was at the top of her field at a young age, and a dear friend of Jesse’s. While the two could not have come from more different worlds, they bonded over some obscure things like miniature scented soaps. Besides, Jesse got injured so much on missions, they practically had to become friends. Angela was huge on doctor patient confidentiality, but that didn’t stop her from chewing Jesse out every single time he came back needing a cast.

If taking health classes was urgent enough for Gabe to kick him off of the latest mission, it had to be some level of important. How important could the whole soulmates thing be ? The elevator dinged and he followed the path he knew by heart to Angela’s office. He knocked on her door.

“Come in!” someone called from the other side.

He stepped inside. The examination room was just like he remembered it. White walls, with neat stacks of papers and books sitting in the corners by a computer desk. He was always impressed by how Angela worked, nothing seemed to get by her despite the clear lack of organization she subjected her belongings to. “Angie! Reckon you have a moment to spare for an old cowboy?”

She looked up from the paper she was reading and instinctively scanned the length of his body. “What appears to be the problem, Jesse? Ah. You’re here so early. Health lessons?”

“Correcto-mundo.”

She stifled a laugh and motioned to the examination table. “Feel free to take a seat, I’ll set up one of the projects. I have time to give you a quick lesson today, but otherwise believe you are just going to have to read a textbook and call me with any pertinent questions. We should also have a quick quiz at the end of the week just to see if you have retained any information. Where would you like to start?”

Jesse started swinging his legs back and forth, and took his hat off to get comfortable. This would be the closest he’d ever gotten to college. “What the hell’s a soulmate, Angela?”

“Ah, yes. That is a fun topic. Let us begin.”

And that is how Jesse finds himself reading through what has got to be the densest book he’s ever laid his pretty brown eyes on. Reading this thing is like trying to breath in a chunky soup. There’s just too much going on for it to be possible, but some find a way to make it happen. Not many, but some. The sun, now past noon, has travelled lower into the sky during the course of the afternoon. He sits on a cliff by the Overwatch base in Gibraltar, after thoroughly being lectured this morning by Dr. Zeigler.

Jesse rolls over, book in hand, and takes a moment to look over the cliff he’s been sitting at the whole time. The sea beneath him crashes into the crook of the precipice, leaving sparkling moisture behind to glitter in the sun. Who needed to go to Japan for a mission anyways? He sighed.

He glanced back down at his textbook. Jesse swears he’s never read so much in his life.

The connection between soulmates has not yet been properly explained by the lengths of modern medicine .

Great. Just what Angela said.

However, there is one documented process that occurs between a pair of soulmates. When an individual instigates skin-to-skin contact with their soulmate for the first time, their touch will leave a mark in the shape of the touch. For example, if a person accidentally bumps into their soulmate and the two touch shoulders, the initiator of the touch (IOT for short) will leave a shoulder shaped imprint on the receiver of the touch (ROT for short). Though the receiver may not see the mark form on their skin automatically, they will automatically feel a connection to their soulmate. However, the IOT will not feel anything short of some shoulder discomfort during this exchange.

Individuals in Markwell’s case study report that a forming soulmate connection feels like being “stuck in a movie montage” (Markwell 40). The ROT will automatically reel through a selection of events from the IOT’s life, and thus, gaining a better understanding of their fated person .

Hm.

When someone first receives their soulmate marking, Markwell reports, “it is common to freeze up as the memories are being transferred from person to person” (Markwell 41). In order to seal the bond and make it permanent, the ROT must then instigate skin-to-skin contact with the original IOT. Otherwise, any received soulmate marks will slowly fade over time, though never completely disappear.

Soulmates do not have to be romantic couples. Some opt for friendship, or other types of relationships. However, the majority of soulmates do end up spending the rest of their lives together in some form, due to the depth of their unique connection.

It is possible for soulmates to never meet, because before initial skin-to-skin contact, there are currently no medical tools available that accurately predict the existence of a soulmate connection between two people. The next section is a photo gallery of soulmate marks .

Ok.

Some of these were pretty funny. There’s an image of someone with a neon purple pair of lips, indicating that their first contact with their soulmate was a kiss. It was so embarrassing Jesse laughed. On another page, someone just had an imprint of a dark yellow hand on their shoulder. That looked kind of cool. 

Next page.

Soulmate pairs with an incomplete set of soulmate marks are another story. Individuals that have received a soulmate marking, but whom are unable to reciprocate the marking on their respective soulmate, have a greater chance of developing anxiety or depression. Individuals studied have repeatedly reported feeling listless. This has not yet been thoroughly studied. Psychiatrists predict that this is due to a mixture of reasons.

Scary.

Jesse hoped that this would never happen to him. He hoped to god, the gods, the sky, the flowing rivers and the tall mountains. He hoped this would never happen. But fate had other plans for young Jesse McCree.

[bilbos]

hey alyx! can i please have a matthew tkachuk imagine? literally any plot is good, i love everything u write. thanks mom!

Maria!!! I really hope you enjoy this Take Me There by The Ready Set and Kaptan. (I would suggest listening to Hi by Speaker of the House while reading because that’s what I listened to while writing this. While the song has no words in it, I still feel like it captures the essence of what I wanted to be the relationship to be!)

~ ~ ~

Youand Matt had been dating for almost a year now. It had been a little roughbecause the both of you had to get used to being apart for so long during theseason. But the both of you have persevered and you are so glad that the two ofyou are still going so strong. Now there is the summer to look forward too anda lot of plans to just hang out with each other.

It’sa warm day and the two of you are just lounging in Matt’s backyard. There isn’tmuch motivation to do much else and that is perfectly fine with you. Being ableto just exist together proves to you that there is something worth fighting forand keeping around. You know you love him, but you haven’t said anything yet.Even though it’s been almost a year, it doesn’t feel quite right to say it outloud for some reason.

Mattbrings you over a glass of water and holds your gaze for a moment. It’s easy toget lost in his eyes sometimes. He smiles at you briefly as he sits down nextto you because he knows what’s going through your head right now. You look backto the book you’re reading with a small smile on your face.

Sometime has passed before Matt had grabs your hand and starts rubbing his thumb upand down your hand. You glance over at him, confused. He smiles hesitantly andlooks at you briefly, before looking away. Obviously, something was going on,but you know Matt needs to bring it up in his own time.

Aftersome time, Matt asks, “Babe, do you love me?”

“Ido,” you whisper. “I do love you, Matt.”

“Oh,”he says. “I think I love you, too. But I’m not really sure yet. I’ve never beenin a serious relationship like this before so I don’t really know what I’mdoing.”

“Well,you’re doing wonderfully so far, babe,” you reply. “And there’s no pressure,Matt. I don’t expect you to rush on saying anything to me because I know youcare for me.”

Hekisses your hand and thinks for a minute. “I feel bad not being sure yet, but Iknow I want to be with you for a long time.”

“Thisbetter not be a proposal, Matthew,” you say jokingly.

Helaughs and kisses you quickly. “God, could you imagine? Proposing before sayingI love you?”

“Thatwould be one hell of a story to tell,” you reply.

“AsI was saying,” Matthew says,laughing. “I know I want to be with you for a long time and I feel soincredibly safe being around you. So, that’s why I think I might love you. ButI might need you to show me.”

“Matt,that was lovely, but also if that was an innuendo…” you threaten.

“Ohgod, I promise that wasn’t supposed to be sexual,” Matt replies quickly. “I wasjust trying to be cute!”

Yousnicker. “Only you, Matt.”

Mattsighs and let’s go of your hand while rolling his eyes. “I can’t believe I putup with you.”

“It’sbecause you-” you start to say, before cutting yourself off. “Um, never mind.”

Mattraises an eyebrow as he says, “It’s because I what?”

“Iwas gonna say it’s because you love me but considering the conversation we hadliterally two seconds ago,” you reply.

Laughing,Matt playfully shoves you. “Well, you might not be wrong. Just haven’t figuredit out yet.”

Youroll your eyes, as you wonder how you fell in love with such a dork.

[disx2000-blog]

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp REVIEW

This game has become kind of irrelevant by now, but whatever! I still play it daily, and I’m gonna review Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp because I want to, dammit! So after New Leaf hit the 3DS in 2013, the Animal Crossing series has been on a string of spinoffs and side games, with the Wii U not even getting a mainline installment. The first two spinoffs, being Happy Home Designer and amiibo Festival, were admittedly pretty lame (ESPECIALLY amiibo Festival). So will this 3rd spinoff on mobile be another dud, or do we finally have a good game on our hands? Let’s get into it! Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is by far the closest to a mainline game the spinoffs have gotten. Pocket Camp is exactly like it sounds- a pocket-sized version of the Animal Crossing we all know and love! I’m surprised at how well the game captured the essence of the gameplay of the series, while at the same time not devaluing the mainline games! Most of the main things in an Animal Crossing experience are there, such as… Furniture/decorating! The main objective in the game is to deck out your campsite with a bunch of cool stuff for visiting animals to chill out in! A lot of the furniture from the main games is here, but with a new twist- you can craft furniture! Instead of waiting for something to pop up at Nook’s Cranny one day, you can simply have Cyrus craft whatever you need, as long as you have the materials. This really makes the game feel more controllable, which might turn off some hardcore fans, but personally I love it! I just want to make the perfect setup with a little bit of labor, and crafting is the perfect solution to that! It takes away a little of the grind-y luck that the series has been plagued with, and makes it a lot more enjoyable overall. And besides the campsite you can decorate your very own motorhome! You can have a custom paint job done on the outside, and decorate the inside with your favorite furniture! And, in classic Animal Crossing fashion, you can expand the space and in your motorhome and add more floors by taking out and paying off loans! It’s a cool way to add a pinch of personal spice to the game, and it’s a nice retooling of the classic Animal Crossing staple! But where do you get the materials? From the animals of course, ya big dummy! Helping animals by giving them fruit, bugs, fish, or seashells will grant you with crafting materials like wood or cotton, as well as bells. This creates a nice reward system for helping animals and getting some nice furniture in return! Besides gaining materials, helping the animals also raises your separate friendship level with each of them. And each time your friendship levels up, you get bonus materials and special rewards like that villager’s shirt or their portrait. And leveling them up also allows them to move into your campsite, so you can craft the perfect little community! But, to have them move in, you also have to craft certain furniture that they like, which is my first complaint about the game. If I want a certain villager to move in, I have to craft furniture for them, which most of the time isn’t all that cool! So I make a bunch of shit for someone to move in, only to hide it the second they settle down because it doesn’t fit my tastes! I get that from a design standpoint this makes sense (because there needs to be a little more work to have an animal move it to make it feel earned), but there must’ve been a better way to remedy that. And so as a result of that, I don’t really like most of my furniture, because I’d rather use my materials to make things for villagers than something that I personally like! I just wish these two aspects of the game weren’t as supplementary to each other. To meet and help out the animals, they randomly show up at four locations every 3 hours. These include a tropical island, a beach, a riverside, and an orchard. And all of these locations cover how you get the things the animals want, such as fruit and fish. Having this relationship of gaining supplies that the animals want is really smart, and also makes the game feel less like a chore (sometimes). And besides the four spots, there is a little market, a quarry, and a mechanic shop for your motorhome. The market is fine for getting clothes, but the furniture they provide there is never good, and I think it’s all uncraftable, so no animals never want it either. And I found out early on that the quarry is useless, because you have to use Leaf tickets or gain support from 5 friends to even gain access. And when you do get in, the rewards are shitty, with the most you’ll ever earn being like 1000 bells or 5 bundles of wood. And the mechanic shop just lets you paint your vehicle and expand, so it’s pretty self-explanatory. And since I brought up Leaf tickets, I guess I should cover those. Leaf tickets are how this game makes money, because like most other mobile games, they cost real money through micro-transactions. You can use them to speed up crafting times (which takes real-time hours) mainly. BUT, Leaf tickets can also be acquired in-game through achievements and such, and so I personally never had any reason to buy them. I’ve proudly spent $0 on this game, and it’s given me hours and hours of enjoyment! And I also mentioned friends earlier, which is yet another aspect of the game! You can exchange friend codes with people you know, or meet strangers at the four locations animals hang out at! Having a lot of friends is a lot more beneficial than Super Mario Run, because they expand the game a lot! As mentioned earlier, friends can help you get into the quarry, but besides that, they can also visit your campsite and give you kudos, which makes you pop up in more people’s games and gives you more exposure to make new friends! But, more important than that, it also grants you access to their market boxes. Each player has a couple of market boxes where they can sell supplies like fish or fruit for any price they set! This makes it a lot easier to get some hard-to-find supplies to give to an animal villager to gain your friendship level! And because there isn’t much to spend your bells on besides loans, the market boxes are a great way of making the game less frustrating and grind-y! One thing I forgot to mention is that you also have an overall player level separate from the friendship levels. This goes up when you gain friendship levels, and this brings the best rewards by far! When you level up, you can gain Leaf tickets, bells, new craftable furniture, but most importantly… access to new villagers! For the first 30 or so levels this really kept me enticed to play and level up, because I wanted to get my favorite villagers! But, notice how I said the first 30 or so levels. That’s because after a certain cutoff, leveling up doesn’t give you access to new villagers! This is really lame, and probably my least favorite thing about the game. There isn’t much reason to level up once all of the villagers have been unlocked, and even worse, there aren’t very many cool villagers! I know that’s a very individualistic complaint, but there are like 2 or 3 really awesome villagers, while the rest range from okay to borderline atrocious. There are still so many villagers not in this game that I have no idea why they cut you off so early! Luckily they introduce new villagers through updates, but it sucks because they’re just immediately accessible and don’t tie to your level at all! I hope they add more level-up-based animal villagers to really make me want to level up, but as is, I hate it. Also added in the update is a new gardening feature, which I personally don’t understand the appeal of. It involves cross-breeding and watering and harvesting and… ugh. It’s too convoluted for my simple mind. The graphics, UI, controls, music, and sound design are all what you’d expect and great as always. The polish in the dialogue is also as strong as ever, So far, it might seem like this is a 8, maybe a 9 out of 10 game, right? Well, there is one final gripe I have with the game that more general and spreads throughout the entire experience. The whole game doesn’t really have that Animal Crossing mood. What I mean is, this game is very routine, predictable, and manageable. And while I think this helps the game in some aspects, it really muddles the game down and makes it not really feel like a true Animal Crossing experience. Pocket Camp lacks that aura of mystery, that sense that you’re not in complete control of everything and the comfort that comes packaged with that. I know that this is a mobile game so it should be snappy and easy, but I kinda miss that real, raw feeling prevalent in the mainline games. Friendship levels and Leaf tickets kind of go against the series’ mentality. This isn’t really a game you can whittle at for years; instead it’s a quick, personalized experience that feels a little too tailored for you. I wish it was just a little more Animal Crossing-y in that way.

But overall, I liked Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. It managed to capture the main gameplay of the series in a fun, easy-to-use mobile package. Crafting furniture is a very cool concept that I hope gets transferred into the main series, and some of the transformations made to have this game on mobile are smart, especially with the friend system. But, the game lacks that Animal Crossing feeling of uncertainty and going with the flow, industrializing and cannibalising almost every aspect of the game. So with everything I mentioned in my review taken into account, I’m going to give Pocket Camp a 7.3/10. It’s definitely my favorite mobile game Nintendo has made so far, but this game made it more obvious than ever that I REALLY want a new mainline Animal Crossing game on the Switch.

Posted by Captain Luigi on 2018-01-07 00:39:21

Tagged: , Animal , Crossing , Pocket , Camp , REVIEW , mobile , nintendo , app

The post Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp REVIEW appeared first on Good Info.