#i know it's some sort of social media platform? i guess?

[queerstudiesnatural]

confession i have no fucking idea what twitch is and at this point i'm too afraid to ask

[beepmon]

it’s not that i don’t think guys can be cutesy but there’s something that feels so manufactured about the why male idols are presented that makes it feel funny to me? like i’m not laughing bc i think guys can’t be cute or that male cuteness is funny or anything like that it just feels so performative that i can’t take it seriously? and obsvly i’m not talking about real idols i’m talking about fictional ones like en****st*rs or id**olish7 these characters i can’t take seriously bc they don’t feel authentic to me i can’t really accept them

[imagination-mess]

Reality Show: Pro Heroes Wives (Aizawa Shota Edition)

Reference to Rika from Bakugou and Pro Hero from Kirishima and Midoriya

*mentions you have 3 children (Eri/Shinsou/your own with Aizawa)*

________________________________

There is a reality show where pro heroes' wives are on television and paid to be there. It is filled with juicy gossip and pure drama. There are few wives in this second season who were kept out of the spotlight which adds mystery and theories to be created about who they were married to. 

The same winners who were in the group that couldn’t be identified are back this season as a surprise challenge.  Unlike last season, it wasn’t told in the very  beginning of this reason already revealed which Pro Heroes Wives will be featured

There are only a few left remaining without being matched, which were mostly underground heroes who people don’t typically pay attention to. Half of the cast already knew each other because their spouses have interacted on more than one occasion and are disqualified from participating in the weekend challenge of the show for those spouses. The others who do not know have to identify them, but the others did not spill any things that would clue who their spouse was. 

This weekend's challenge was the ones who didn’t get their rating from the public are put to guess their opponent chosen by the directors of who their spouses are, people are having a hard time guessing at home as well. These wives have pictures of other pro heroes which confuses the public about who their spouses were. It was a friendly picture to professional pictures that had been taken. 

The two members, Rika, and Pro Hero [Blank] who were also voted off from the show by their peers had made their decision. They make this decision based on their friends and notes taken throughout the show. 

 It was you, they had to guess who your spouse is. The two ladies stood on the platform while you were sitting on the red couch seat with a wine glass in your hands. There was a screen behind you with a black box with an enormous question mark. You were confident they wouldn't be able to guess correctly. You have been on the hot seat a few times. You also know they wouldn't be able to because they have very little information about underground heroes, which you have been told by your husbands’ former students' wives. 

“We chose Pro Hero Mindjack,” Rika speaks into the microphone while the screen reveals the pro hero at the latest picture of the Hero Gala beside them. 

There was an immediate reaction from you which was coughing on your wine with eyes widened. Your facial expression shows how shocked you were. and the crowd who were within the circle of the pro hero were screaming “HOW” to cough on their drinks.

“Based on the comment you mentioned this week was that your husband's quirk involves a specific muscle in the body.” Pro Hero [Blank] adding an explanation. 

“What do you say to that? Miss [Former Last Name]?” The host asks for your input. 

“Mindjack is a very handsome man, but he is way too young for me. Here is a clue,  I am a mother of 3. I am confident my oldest son is having some sort of reaction to this but don’t expect a reaction on social media. You are not going to find it. Additionally, my oldest son is around his age.” 

Meanwhile, on social media, people were going crazy about the fact you looked younger than your age to be a mother of three. No one could find the children that related to you, because you never did post them on your social media including your spouse. It was a very professional account which disappointed some fans of the show. They aren’t able to figure out who your spouse is.

Proherofan34 tweeted: All I am hearing is that [Name] is milf. 

Uravityfan89 tweets: I need her skincare routine! *attaches its mighty need. * 

There are videos of you including from seasons 1 and 2 clips of you with the audio sound of Mommy, sorry to step on me. Other videos of being a collaboration of your top moments of being unbothered along with your greatest comebacks from season 1. You humbled certain younger women. There were old videos of you throwing a man twice your size out of a nightclub along with videos of being a momma bear to those who needed help at the nightclub circling the internet. 

There were multiple pictures of you and younger Shinsou with a few others such as Bakugou, and Kaminari at different metal musician group concerts that circled around the interest taken from the Pro Hero Chargebolt account.

The clue you had given to the cast and to the public had narrowed the options to two options the Pro Heroes who have 3 children had mentioned in interviews and such. 

Pro Hero Eraserhead, Pro Hero Hawks, and Pro Hero Gang Orca. 

Meanwhile, Eri is holding out her hand out at Hitoshi who was pulling out his wallet for the money. He has lost the bet. Eri is glued to the show and watching too intensely to the point that she is rambling about her theories with her brother and father. 

Shota is just staring at them silently in disbelief with the toddler sleeping on his lap. 

‘I am not gonna even ask.’

Pro Hero Deku Edition

Pro Hero Dynamight Edition

Pro Hero Shoto Edition

Pro Hero Red Riot Edition

Pro Hero Hellfire (Touya) Edition

Pro Hero Mindjack Edition

Reality Show: Unmasked Pro Heroes

[clarkmied]

SMALL BUT FEISTY - caitlin clark x reader

It’s my first time writing again after a couple years of a hiatus, but i’m back in my caitlin clark obsession (i never left it 🤫), but bare with me cause it might be a little rocky writing. If there’s any spelling errors that make the story confusing let me know !

──────────────────────

Your relationship with Caitlin had started back when you were in Dowling Catholic with each other. You had been the new kid from Michigan, and Caitlin had taken a interest from you since the first day of your guy’s Sophomore year.

Caitlin had figured out very quickly that despite your height that you were quite feisty. Instead of being on the basketball team, you had played for Dowling’s soccer team as a CAM. Often you could be seen either arguing with the ref’s about another player not being carded for a foul, or a yellow card you had received.

Other times it was a player from another team, there was one time that the argument had turned physical leading to you being sent off the field with a red. The point being you had a problem with running your mouth (even though it was mostly justified).

Even though you had problems with arguing, your skills had managed to earn you a spot in the USWNT national camps before the 2019 World Cup, Jill had been very impressed with you and how you played that she had put you on the World cup roster. Managing to open the scoring for the United States during the group stage, with also managing to score the final goal against the Netherlands.

When you had won the World Cup, your initial thought wasn’t falling down on the ground in proud tears or celebrating with your team. You had B lined right toward the friends and family section where Caitlin, her family, and some of your family sat. Like a complete maniac you had jumped over a couple of barriers, before pulling yourself into the stands to kiss Caitlin in front of the world.

From then on your name had blown up all over social media platforms, and deals from all sorts of sponsors had flooded in. The picture of you on your tip toes in a passionate kiss with Caitlin had broken the internet for months (it was also in a small frame that you would end up taking with you to college.)

When decision day rolled around you had a few choices, University of Iowa (where you could be with Caitlin), University of Michigan, UCLA, Stanford, UW Madison, Purdue, or Rutgers. Obviously after seeing Caitlin’s choice, you had committed to Iowa.

So that’s how you found yourself in today’s situation. Facing off with UW Madison, a day that you hadn’t been looking forward too. With the Badgers knowing exactly how to get you to lose your cool, and the fact that not only was Caitlin in the stands but Monika and Kate were too.

“She does not look happy..” Monika mumbled, as she watched you get off the ground for what seemed like the hundredth time today.

“It’s not even halftime and she’s been on the ground more times than she’s had the ball.” Kate added, as she glanced over at your girlfriend.

Caitlin had been getting fed up herself with the Wisconsin players, every time she saw you go down she noted that it was starting to take a little longer for you to get back up again. Her hands running through her hair, as she watched you trying to keep your cool.

“They know how dangerous she is when the ball is at her feet, but I don’t know how much longer she can take this.” Caitlin told them, worry slipping into her voice. She knew when it came to Wisconsin that a potential red card could be coming your way, and no matter how hot you looked when mad, she worried about how far people would push you to your snapping point.

“Only a few more minutes before half time, Cait. After that it’ll be a home stretch.” Kate tried reassuring, as she reached over Monika to give Caitlin’s a reassuring squeeze to her hand.

“Hey Y/L/N !” Liv Curry yelled to you, as she came towards you. “I thought you were supposed to be some next big thing, but I guess your just another washout.” She told you, knowing exactly how you could doubt yourself.

“Why don’t you kiss my ass, Curry.” You growled, as you pushed her away from you. “Oh you got to be fucking kidding me..” You mumbled, as you saw the ref come towards you and holding a yellow above his head. “Yeah, I see. You keep booking us but not them.. sell out.” You mumbled bitterly.

“What was that?” The ref asked, as he turned back towards you with a slight glare.

“Nothing.” You told him through gritted teeth.

“This isn’t going to end well..” Caitlin sighed, as she watched your team and the Wisconsin team walk back to the locker rooms for halftime.

“What’s their problem with our superstar anyways?” Monika asked, as she turned her head towards Caitlin.

“Jealously for some, others just go at her because once my girlfriend gets the ball at her feet she’ll send it into the back of their net.” Caitlin replied, as she turned her head to look at her friends. She was so happy that her best friends treated you so well, and that they saw you as their own as well.

“I wouldn’t be surprised that the Wisconsin coach put a little money into the ref’s pocket for the lack of fouls and cards called.” Kate sighed, as she glared at the ref’s talking in the middle of the field. If she could she would’ve stormed down there to give them a piece of her mind.

“It’s not going to take much more of them pushing her before she gets herself sent off.” Caitlin told them, as she played with the chain around her neck.

“Caitlin!” You called, as you were jumping up to catch her attention. And when you did, you waved her to come down to talk to you for a few moments. Once she was looking down at you at the barrier, you jumped up to pull yourself up so you could be somewhat eye level.

“Shouldn’t you be in your locker room?” Caitlin questioned, as she tucked a piece of your hair behind your ear.

“Coach D let me come talk to you for a few minutes, said that if it helped me that it would be worth me missing out of some of the locker time.” You admitted, a slight bitterness filled you as you thought about the Wisconsin team.

“Speaking of helping.” Caitlin raised a brow slightly, before pulling you up over the barrier so you were in the stands with her. “What can I do to help ease that frustration?” She asked sincerely, as she held one of your hands while rubbing small circles over your knuckles.

“Help me murder them after the game?” You asked, mostly joking.

“I can’t believe i’m saying this, but don’t focus on the bogus stuff. Just worry about putting that ball in the back of the net.” Caitlin told you, ignoring the way your eyes gave away that you were somewhat serious about murdering the Wisconsin girls.

“Who are you and what have you done to my girlfriend?” You mumbled, before leaning your forehead into her chest.

Caitlin chuckled softly, wrapping a arm around your waist while the other rubbed your back slightly. “I’m proud of you.” She whispered, before pressing a kiss to the crown of your head.

“I love you.” You mumbled, feeling somewhat better with the comfort Caitlin brought you. But you knew once the game was done and you were back in Caitlin’s arms that everything would be okay again.

“I love you too, baby.” Caitlin told you sincerely, as she pried you from her chest so you would look at her. “So so much. I love you more than you know.” She admitted, before moving to lean in to kiss you before being interrupted by one of your teammates.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Samantha told you both, before giving a kind smile. “But, it’s time for the line up again.” She told you, before jumping down and walking back to the tunnel.

“That’s my cue.” You mumbled, before leaning up to press a kiss to Caitlin’s cheek. “Kate. Monika.” You gave them a small smile, before jumping down from the stands and moved towards the line up.

Everything had gotten messier in the second half. More tackles were made not only against you but now the rest of the midfield were receiving the most of the ground. The refs had called a few fouls against Wisconsin this time, but they mainly called it against your team.

Your blood was basically boiling, just waiting for the right thing for the kettle to set off. The anger had only pushed you into scoring a hat trick, leading the team into a lead of one point.

It’s when the 85th minute hit is when you had snapped. Curry had made a comment about how you didn’t deserve Caitlin and then proceeded to almost take your ankle out in a bad tackle.

“What the fuck, Curry!?” You yelled, as you got up on your feet. “You could’ve almost ended my season!” You growled, as you came up to her.

“You should’ve been watching yourself.” Liv told you with a small smirk on her lips. “But then again Y/N you don’t really matter in this world.”

One minute you had been listening to Liv’s words, the next you found yourself punching her straight in the nose. Liv had taken a few steps back, before punching you straight in face. The two of you had basically charged each other, taking each other to the ground throwing punches at the other. The Wisconsin girls had been quick to try and come to Liv’s aid, but hell even some of them got into it with your team.

It was about another five minutes of both teams trying to break up the fight, when Samantha had managed to pull you off of Liv and away from the Wisconsin players. Once the Badgers had seen that the main source of danger had been taken away the fighting had died down.

The main ref had showed a red card to Liv, and then turned to you before holding up a immediately red to eject from the game. Along with holding yellows to a few members of both teams.

Kate and Monika basically had to hold Caitlin back from getting onto the field to run to you during the fight, both of them surprisingly struggling to stop your girlfriend. Once you had been taken off the field and to medical, they had let her go so that she could go find you.

After a good ten minutes of searching she had found you sitting on one the physio’s tables with a ice pack to your lip and nose that was clearly broken.

She moved to stand in between your legs, so that she could look you over herself. A hand brushing the messy pieces of hair out of your face.

“You scared me back there.” She admitted, as she placed a hand against your cheek gently. “Watching you get hit by Liv and those other players really scared me, Y/N.”

“I’m sorry..” You mumbled, as you looked down at the floor.

“I know, sweetheart.” She reassured, before putting her hand under your chin to make you look at her. “But, I know that it wasn’t your fault. I still love you, Y/N. Nothing will ever change that, Okay?” Caitlin raised a brow slightly, keeping her hand under your chin.

You nodded your head, as you kept your eyes on hers. Your face contorted slightly as a small wave of pain hit you.

“What’s wrong? Am I hurting you?” Caitlin asked worriedly, as she retracted her hand.

You shook your head slightly, before moving the ice pack away from your face. “I have a minor concussion.” You admitted, before leaning your head against her chest.

“What am I going to do with you?” Caitlin chuckled softly, as one of her arms wrapped around you while the other held the ice pack to your face.

“Take me home and cuddle with me?” You mumbled, a slight pout on your lips as you pulled away to look at her.

“Whatever you want, babe.” Caitlin chuckled softly, before kissing your lips. She pulled away from you, before turning so her back was towards you. “Hop on, Princess.”

“Yes ma’am.” You said teasingly, as you got onto her back.

“Ready?” She asked you, as she held onto your legs.

“Ready.” You nodded, before ducking your head as Caitlin carried you out of the physio room and out of the stadium.

“Look who it is!” Monika laughed softly, as they watched Caitlin carry you out.

“Damn Y/N, they got you good.” Kate told you, as she stood in front of you and Caitlin.

“You should see the other girl.” You grinned at her, despite your busted lip.

“We put your bags in the car.” Monika told you, before pointing towards Caitlin’s car. “Samantha brought it to us while Caitlin went to go get you.”

“Thanks guys.” You nodded, a small smile on your lips.

“I gotta get this one home, concussion and all.” Caitlin laughed softly, before beginning to walk towards the car with you still on her back.

“We’ll see you guys later!” The two called out, before walking to their own cars to leave.

Once both of you were settled in the car, Caitlin had started the journey back to your shared place. The car ride had been pretty much silent, seeing as you had fallen asleep pretty quickly in the passenger seat exhausted from the match and the fight. When the car was parked in the parking lot, Caitlin had left yours bags in the car and carried you inside bridal style.

You groaned lightly as you felt yourself being placed in bed, your eyes slowly fluttering open. “Baby?” You mumbled, as you reached out towards her.

“It’s okay.” She reassured, as she came back into view with some clothes in her hands. “Let’s get you into something more comfortable, yeah?” Her tone was more of her telling you than asking, and you had zero energy to argue with her.

You slowly lifted yourself up and with her help you had been able to change into one of Caitlin’s shirts and a pair of shorts.

“I’ll be right back, baby. I’m gonna go change into something more comfortable.” She pressed a kiss to her your forehead gently, before walking away to get changed.

You were about to whine that she was taking to long, but then you felt a dip in the bed and Caitlin wrapping arm around you so she could pull you into her. One of your hands moved to interlock with her hand that was wrapped around you.

“You’ll take care of me right?” You mumbled sleepily, as you glanced over your shoulder at her.

“Of course I will, whatever you need i’ll get it for you.” Caitlin told you honestly, as she rubbed your back with her free hand.

“Just hold me for right now?” You asked, as you felt your eyes fighting to stay open.

“Whatever you want, baby.” She told you, before pressing a kiss to your shoulder. “Get some sleep, baby, i’ll wake you up when it’s time.”

“I love you.” You mumbled softly.

“I love you too.” She told you, watching as you fell asleep in her arms.

Caitlin had done what she had said. She was there for you every moment, when you were startled awake before rushing to the bathroom, Caitlin had sat with you holding your hair as she rubbed soothing circles on your back. When you asked for something to eat, she had left to go make you something that you could keep down. She made sure to wake you up at the intervals, before making small talk to keep you up before letting you fall asleep again. Despite getting little sleep herself, she didn’t mind it at all. You were her everything, and she would always take care of you.

[cacti-are-like-flamingos]

Better Than Gold

Gojo Satoru x Reader x Geto Suguru

The Cursed Trio | Simple Pleasures

...

Gojo LOVES to take pictures --- he's the sort to have an aesthetic theme when it comes to his MySpace page (Instagram only came out in 2010 bro i feel old as shit rn also I have no idea how myspace works so ye)

(Side Note: Gojos had never really been interested in social media until the day Suguru made an account, back in early-August. Intrigued by the idea of connecting with his bestie over a new platform, he made one. It's quite frankly one of the worse and best decisions ever.)

Gojo has spent an insane amount of time refining both his feed and his page to perfection. Surprisingly, he has a small amount of pictures posted --- around two hundred or so; however, almost all of them consist of the three of you hanging out at random places around Japan

To be honest, you're that one person in the friend group that ends up in random places at the most random of times while Suguru is just one to go with it and Gojo is the one to encourage it.

Gojo has a list of places you or Suguru have shown even the slightest of interest. Although, a few places are added so that the two males can give you a tour of Japan.

Ah, Gojos is the one who likes to take you to trendy places such as Shinjuku Sky, where the views are absolutely spectacular. Especially during sunset. Your face is squished between Suguru's cheek and Gojo's shoulder as the three of you look up to the camera, a sunset in the background as the three of you go down the escalator.

(Side Note: Gojo is the one to take all the group pictures because he has the longest arm, ensuring the best of angles. Shockingly, Suguru is banned from taking pics because he doesn't really know how to. He always gets the ugliest angle. The only type of pics he can take are nature shots. Half of his page is composed of stray cats he finds on the way to Jujutsu High.)

(Another Side Note: While in Shinjuku you were absolutely obsessed with the giant cat billboard. Gojo and Suguru teamed up to tease you the rest of the trip since you wouldn't shut up about it. Suguru took a video of you gazing up at the billboard with a stupid look on your face. He loved it so much, he made it into his profile picture.)

Although not a trendy spot, Gojo likes to take you to see the hundreds of vending machines around the area. It's like a fun little game between the two of you where you have to guess what the next vending machine is selling --- the face you make when you saw the panty-selling machine was absolutely to die for.

Whenever you walk by a particular vending machine (a very specific one too. The machine looks somewhat ragged and old, it's always hidden in a dark corner which is so sketchy but like whatever), you'll buy something for Gojo. Specifically those sugary coffee cans that he likes so much along with whatever sweet treat it sells.

(Side Note: 1. You swear you're like the only person who buys from that machine. 2. Originally, you had dared Gojo to try something from the sketchy machine and, being a man of pride, he did. He ended up loving them so much he bought 10. You had to pry the drinks out of his hands so he wouldn't die from a sugar overload or something. 3. The machine has different flavors, so every day you get him another flavor.)

Suguru likes to take you both to hidden gems like a lovely sushi shop tucked away in some narrow alley deep in some random abandoned street or something (that sounds so sketchy, plz don't do this unless you're in a large group and have some form of defense.)

There's this one shop he showed you, they only serve one specific meal that you never mind considering how well they cook it. Suguru had admitted that he frequents the little shop (since he was a child), so much so that the owner knows him very well.

The owner is this very kind elderly man whose restaurant has been in the family for years, and every time he sees Suguru fast approaching --- he stops whatever he's doing and runs outside to greet him.

When the owner first saw you, he had this wicked grin on his wrinkled face as he teased Suguru for bringing his little lover over. Cue a blushing Suguru desperately trying to explain your relationship while you just smile like a cheshire cat whose been gifted new blackmail material.

Anyways, hanging on the walls of the small shop are pictures of Suguru over the years. There's this really cute one where he's barely 5 years old. His clothes are all stained from the food yet his mouth is open wide to devour it. His hair in a small bun. You liked how he hasn't changed much throughout the years. You just hoped his tired expression would fade away soon

Suguru once took Gojo to a narrow street called Omoide Yokocho, which was lined up with bars and yakitori restaurants. Unfortunately, Suguru had to call you so you could help him with a very drunk white-haired who couldn't hold his alcohol to save the life of him. When you arrived, Gojos greeted you with a tight hug as he kept shouting about how he got you some yakitori to try.

You took a video unbeknownst to him

(Add-on: Gojo really dislikes alcohol so you have no idea what made him want to drink that night. Plus, he obviously knows that he can't handle his alcohol so wtf bro)

Whenever one or the other can't join you and whoever you're currently with, you'll FaceTime the missing person ( yes yes, I know. FaceTime came out in 2010 but like for the sake of me not re-doing this bit, we advancing technology just a bit)

Your MySpace page, while private, was primarily composed of screenshots of these sorts of situations. With either Gojo or Suguru in a corner, posing for the screenshot. (The same goes for when you're not there!)

It should be noted that you were the type of person who posted pictures of others and not yourself. So seeing your own face on your page was a rare sight.

I have no idea how myspace works again

There's this one where you're hanging out with Haibara and Kento at a restaurant surrounded by rubber ducks --- while on a subway train, Haibara had heard whispers of a restaurant that only accepted rubber ducks instead of money. He already knew you'd be down for it, any excuse to explore. The only one who took convincing was Kento, but he quickly agreed Haibara's puppy eyes.

You hung onto both of their elbows the entire way there, joyful at the idea of having your own set of personal bodyguards

Moving on

There's this massive Ferris wheel located in Tokyo where one can karaoke while up in the air --- let me be the first to say that you and Gojo went absolutely ape shit for this while Suguru was just happy to be there.

Considering that you haven't been in Japan long enough to know any of the true classics, actually that's a lie. During those knitting Friday classes with Yaga, Yaga would play classic Japanese hits from the 90's. Either way, the sight of you trying to figure out the lyrics to every song earned you quite the number of cackles

Gojo always chose the catchy ones whilst Suguru chose the cheesy romance ones --- you were the backup singer for the most part

Suguru hit his head alot as he came out of the carriage

I don't remember if I added it or not, but in the beginning, you had this habit of holding onto either Gojo's or Suguru's shirt whenever you guys were walking around crowded areas. (I swear I wrote this somewhere) This little habit of yours had appeared fronting off on Suguru because he now does it. The three of you will be walking through an area and the crowds of people will just watch in amusement as three teenagers walk in front of them holding each other's shirts like a train. You holding Suguru's and Suguru holding Gojo's.

Ah, of course you had to take the bullet train at some point during your whole exploration. For this you were accompanied by both your boys AND Ieiri, who only came along due to Gojo promising to pay for all of your meals at your soon-to-be-reached destination (yep what a sugar daddy)

You were obsessed with how sleek the train looked. The seats were nice and comfortable, mainly because Gojo had bought First Class tickets.

Eventually, you wanted to explore more of the train so you bid the group a temporary farewell as you headed out to the other parts.

Oh my god, there must've been some promotional event on the train because, next thing you know, you're standing in front of some red panda mascot dancing in the aisle while giving out flyers and small plushie keychains of its figure.

Wanting one of the keychains, you approached the giant mascot-wearing person. Tapping their plushie shoulder, the Panda turned around with a soft noise only to stiffen up at the sight of you with a shriek in tow.

"Hi, could I have a key-" In an obvious frenzy, the Panda pushed the merchandise into your hands before barreling through you to the next cart

"Oi! What's the matter with you?" You screamed at the Panda.

And the Panda accidentally gave you three.

"Wait, you gave me two extra!"

But they were already gone

This is an obvious reference to Bullet Train. Fuck you Brad Pitt, hello Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Can't wait for meemaw to let go of you 😏

"Excuse me," a deep voice called out from behind you. Glancing over your shoulder, you sent the light green soul a polite yet questioning look.

His outline is strange. It's fuzzy in some places yet clear in others.

"You dropped this," he said as he held up your wallet in the air. You silently noted how a bag of fish hung around his other one.

(Side Note: You have a recognizable wallet thanks to Kento, who gifted it to you. The wallet itself is in the shape of a black maneki-neko, so everyone in the group knows that it's yours the moment they see it.)

"Oh! Thanks!" Grabbing the item from his grasp, you settled it into your uniforms pockets. You politely smiled at him as you stepped away only to stop when you heard his voice call out for you

"Wait!" Licking your lips, your fingers twitched at you sides as you, once again, turned to meet the guy. "Yes?"

The man actually seemed to squirm upon receiving the end of your rather unnerving stare, almost as if you were staring into his soul

Ha!

"I couldn't help but overhear, they gave you an extra, right? I, uh, know a kid and I figured the twerp would like one."

That is so fucking sus

But like, not your business

Upon hearing his words, you quickly acted, "Oh! Yeah sure! Here." Placing the keychain into the palm of his hand, you strutted away. Heading back in the direction of your friend group.

On the way to your friend's, you came across a Train Attendant who seemed to be having a little argument with a young man who looked dead on his feet --- even his soul had dark circles around his eyes. Might also explain why he's slurring his words all over the place and why the train lady is beyond confused

The closer you got, the more you understood the situation and well, you might as well help while you get the gang some snacks

"Excuse me, I think he's asking for some coffee?" You snorted at the sight of his eyes twinkling at the fact that someone actually managed to decipher his nonsense.

Cute

The scene only got funnier when the lady handed him his cup of coffee and he, out of sheer desperation as well as sleep deprivation, dropped his briefcase onto the floor after reaching out for the cup with his two hands

A literal mess, you mused to yourself.

You had to help him with his briefcase. Plus the fact that he could barely reach his seat without tripping over literal air. He'll, you even helped straighten out his suit, going so far as to rub the golden button on his left lapel to bring it a bit of shine back --- he thanked you profusely.

He offered to give you money in return for your aid but you refused, "You have a kind soul, which is rare. So, don't worry about it. Think of it as me giving back all the good you've done."

Mans was gobsmacked as he watched you leave the train car after ordering a few snacks from the lady

FINALLY YOU REACHED THE BESTIES

As always, Gojo loves to drape himself over people. Specifically, you or Suguru...or both! Both ire better in his professional opinion.

"You were gone a while! Where the hell were you?!" The white haired nagged, brows knitted together to display annoyance only to quell as Suguru drew his long fingers through Gojo's hair.

He'll need a hair cut by the end of the week, Suguru noted.

"Got you something, Ieiri." You threw her the red panda keychain, earning you a delighted squeal from said woman.

"What about us, hm? Don't neglect us now~!" Sugurus teased with a sly close-eyed smile.

And for that, you threw the snacks straight at his face...although, you did feel something else in your bag when you went to throw the snacks

Plopping yourself beside Suguru, who immediately drew his arm around your shoulders as he laid his head on your shoulder, you pulled out the piece of paper from your bag

A simple little thing

Barely any words on it

Fancy though, considering the shiny gold metallic paint adorning it.

"What's that?" Gojo asked, looking up at it from his place on Suguru's lap

You shrugged, "Dunno, must've grabbed it by accident when I paid for the snacks."

As expected, both your boys paid little attention to the card as they started to bicker about something irrelevant to you

But still, the little card in your hands captured your attention. Turning it around, you observed the image painted onto its canvas, your thumb running over it.

Oh, there's a phone number under it.

Huh

Crumpling the piece of paper in your fist, you threw it into your bag to be long forgotten under the pile of random shit you have in there.

(Side Note: Prior to these items ending up in your bag, they'd be with Ieiri, who swore she'd end up finding some use for them. She has this strange tendency to consume trendy things only to never use them in the end, so she'll just give it to you for safe keeping.)

You seriously have to purge your bag now because of that bitch

Suddenly, Gojo smacks the side of your face after having tried to get your attention for the past ten minutes

You look at him, he looks at you.

Iridescent vs. Pearlescent

It gets eerily silent before you shove him to the ground, earning you an angry hiss from the albino Pomeranian.

Suguru is holding you back, albeit struggling. Who knew you had such strength

While Ieiri cheers 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' in the background

What a way to end the day

...

(A/N): August 4 me: This chapter took so bucking long to write. When I finally got to writing, the Benadryl I took started hitting and I had to stop before I passed out on the spot lol

August 5: I just did exercise and my legs are fucking killing me rn.

August 6: I just woke up. My legs don't hurt as much so that's nice. Also I know I dreamt of something interesting but I can't remember so meh. At least, I woke up with an idea of how I wanted this episode to be written.

Originally:

This chapter was going to open with a whole different scene inspired by something I read while researching a bit on Japan; however, I realized that it would be best to postpone the original scene until a later chapter, specifically Artificial Paradise.

You were supposed to come across a certain someone on the Bullet Train; however, I chose against it and decided for the next big thing. Can you guess who it was?

"What about us, hm? Don't neglect us now~!" It was supposed to have been said by Gojo; however, Suguru felt like having a teasing streak so he said it. Additionally, Suguru already knew Gojo rather well so he beat him to it.

Originally, Gojo wanted to give you a pink maneki-neko but he refrained from doing so.

Being a Red Panda mascot is actually Ijichi's part-time job. When Ijichi saw you, he panicked because he knew how close you were with Gojo and he didn't need that idiot of a man to have more ammo for his bullying. Yes, you instantly recognized Ijichi. You were so going to give him a piece of your mind later.

Gojo previously noted how exhausted you seemed after all those missions, and how Suguru was more quiet than usual so he decided a few days of hanging out doing dumb shit would help brighten you two up. Aw, Gojo is trying really hard bro. I almost feel bad for him.

A drunk Gojo must be a funny sight. Poor guy, something must've been stressing him out if he ordered a few drinks.

I missed your interactions with Ieiri so obvs I had to include some here. She's number 1 girl bestie.

Isn't it strange how fuzzy outlines put you on edge, to the point you'd easily defer to instinctive violence at the sight of it?

Who do you think the guy with the briefcase was? His appearance is actually more of a cameo ncjcj --- I'll give you a hint, he recently graduated from law school 🤪

What's the weird image on the back of the card? Who would answer if you called?

Maneki-Neko's are those kitties that wave their arm, they sit in front of shops. Usually. A black Maneki-Neko is designed to ward off evil and provide better security.

No, your eyes are not Pearlescent. In fact, your eyes are whatever color you want them to be, just with a little glow to them. Though, it should be noted, it's just like Gojo's eyes. His eyes are actually blue, but his soul's eyes are iridescent. So while your physical eyes are one color, your soul's eyes are another. (This only applies to cursed techniques that involve the eyes)

Drop a comment!

Feel free to buy me a 🦩

Hope you enjoyed!

[justali-anne]

Come to think of it, Sans and Papyrus are both TERRIBLE sleepers!

Papyrus never truly sleeps, definitely an insomniac. He even calls sleeping "NAPPING ALL NIGHT". The dork. I worry about him, though. (Come to think of it, do skeletons even need sleep?)

Since Papyrus seems just fine with his lack of sleep, I tend to just headcanon him as having Short Sleeper Syndrome, just a weird kind of insomnia edition. Like, he said that he "CRUISE(S) WHILE (HE) SNOOZE(S)", so I'm guessing he does at least take short naps, enough to dream, anyway. Maybe that's what the bedtime stories are for?

What does he even have to do during the night anyway? Everyone else is asleep! All the shops are most likely closed! Seriously, what does he have to do? Does he have some sort of secret double life or something? Does he just clean the whole house? Go on his social media platform? Work on his puzzles?? WHAT DOES HE EVEN DO??? (I swear, Papyrus is just as enigmatic as Sans is, if not more so.)

And it seems like skeletons ARE capable of getting tired, because, well, Sans exists. So what even is Papyrus??? Why can he fly, why can he break the laws of physics, why doesn't he sleep??? (Wow, this is a weird rant, I'm gonna pause right here.)

Speaking of Sans, he's... not really much better when it comes to sleep. Papyrus mentions in a phone call that Sans "TIRES EASILY", and we see him napping during the Undyne fight too... And then he falls asleep at the end of his own boss fight (who does that???), but even then it's kind of strange because I don't know if he's faking it or not. Like the few times we see him asleep, he's up literally in the very next moment (in genocide, it's justified because we do try to slash him, but he disappears straight after the Undyne fight too). So it's either he's a very light sleeper or he was faking it.

Papyrus mentions that Sans "naps all night", so at least Sans doesn't stay up all night like Papyrus does... But there's also the many, many midnight snacks that Undyne mentions during a phone call. I think she said that he keeps getting up in the middle of the night to get snacks? That doesn't sound like a healthy sleep schedule. And if Sans keeps getting up in the middle of the night to get snacks, and Papyrus apparently doesn't know how to sleep, then that means that the Skelebro household is still very active at night! If you want to have a sleepover at their house, you better prepare for a sleepless night.

Side note - Sans doesn't have a real bed, it's just a mattress on the floor. Without sheets. That doesn't look very comfortable. Papyrus has a cool race car bed, but Sans just has a lumpy old mattress. Something's not quite right there. Like, shouldn't a lazybones like him have a super comfortable bed? Or is he just too lazy to get a proper bed? So many questions.

[normalestenstars]

misc. things i found interesting from the form but didn't feel it was worthwhile to mention on the results post. long post warning

Counter for the amount of times a specific thing was said (For the record, not everyone filled out the optional questions. 67 people skipped the reasoning question, leaving 75 written responses) - Aira being a fan of idols: 6 - Midori depression: 4 - Some sort of comment about Tomoya being normal: 10 - I could meet someone like this IRL: 7 - Didn't do anything illegal: 2 - Variation of just some guy comment: 25

Favorite characters section - Almost everyone got at least one vote! The only ones who didn't receive any are: Makoto, Midori, Shinobu, Hinata, Leo, Jin and Akiomi. - Anzu (surprisingly, to me at least) got two votes! And to the person who wondered if she was placed after Mao because trick5tar, you are correct! They are her friends =) - Character who got 5+ votes: Niki (10), Shu (8), Mayoi + Ibara (7), Hiiro + Aira + Mika (6). Kind of interesting how Tatsumi is the only character missing from the alka lineup, receiving two votes in comparison. - I am surprised by the lack of Knights though. Are all the Knights fans just on different platforms 🤔? I guess tumblr is a relatively niche social media site though

Some passionate responses list

Adonis He’s just a really nice guy who wants everyone to be healthy and happy. He literally got engaged to someone on accident because he was too nice to them, and he knows sign language. He’s never done anything illegal (as far as I know), he’s not particularly eccentric in any way, he’s just chilling out and enjoying the company of his friends. Him being the most normal person in ES would be considered an insult to almost anyone else, but to Adonis it isn’t because he’s like the saving grace of the company.

Mao Don’t get me wrong, he’s a weirdo. But his weirdo behavior is balanced. He has a carefully constructed balance on the scales of weirdo and it hasn’t yet fallen over. It’s still precarious but slightly less so than the rest of these creatures. Go for it Mao!! Gain your normalcy if only by relativity!!

Aira Aira !! he's literally just a little fanboy. All he's doing is following his dreams. He has insecurities and he's working through them. The only-non normal thing about him is his insane knowledge about idols, but it's *normal* for him because of his obsession with them. ALSO!! ALSO Aira. Aira is just normal. He'd be chatting about idols and then someone would drop insane lore and he would REACT NORMALLY ("WHAT??! they did WHAT??! are you SURE??!") instead of just dismissing like half the cast would, I think.

Tomoya The buildup of his character is created around him being "normal". To me, his main quirk is that he is too good to be normal. Even at his worst moments, he is never hateful or unkind. Even with Eichi, who openly hastes him (Like in Sanctuary and in Grand Slam), who destroyed Nazuna's reputation and life in the past, he still is friendly and nice to Eichi. Wataru himself said at Sanctuary that Tomoya would never hate him, because he is too good for that. Even other kind and nice characters, like Hajime or Sora, have expressed anger and lasting resentment before, but Tomoya would never have such lasting animosity towards anyone. I chose him because his most wild quirk is something as subtle as that. Compared to other 'normal" ones like Midori and Kaoru, he can pretend to be normal, while the others eccentricities will shine through, since no one in this game is a healthy and normal person.

Passionate RYUSETAI essay (also I agree op re:shinobu 🤝) Midori is NOT normal. Put him in the near vicinity of Yuzuru or a cute mascot and he loses his mind. I think he's the only one I got upset over (even if I did raise an eyebrow at Tsukasa. No he's not, the boy likes his guns a bit too much)! I argue Shinobu is the most normal in Ryuseitai, as his quirkiness is not more intense than, say, Aira's or Tomoya's. Shinobu is the heart of Ryuseitai, taking the best parts of those around him. Much like Mao is for the student council, he is keeping all the strong personalities of his unit working together. Much like Kanata, he is perceptive of the emotions of others. Much like Chiaki, he values his passion so so much, keeping the ninja association going despite being the only member. Much like Nazuna, he doesn't let anyone step over him just because he is small and cute. More people need to know that under his childish appearance, he is quite mature as of ES!!. An argument for Tetora being the most normal can also be made, but even he has his moments. Glad to see everyone agrees neither Chiaki nor Kanata are normal.

[simnostalgia]

If KOSA doesn't pass, something else will.

ugh, this whole KOSA thing makes me roll my eyes. I'm sorry I KNOW I'm just a sims blog but I need to say something and it's going to be long, skip if you want to-

I get it I do, call your reps if you want to. I honestly could see it getting struck down (yet again) but honestly? It's probably gonna get through eventually in our current political and cultural climate. Do you know why? Not because of wanting to protect kids, obviously, but because they can't easily shape the narrative. And children, being blank slates, are obviously not as scared of upturning power structures as their X/Boomer parents. Not that I super needed to tell you any of this, I mean it's obvious.

And I mean, don't be naive, this was cute when it was like 2015 or whatever and we all banded together to stop SOPA but obviously this isn't going to stop. This isn't just a whiny lament about how we can do nothing (Which, total sidebar, isn't it weird when these sorts of things come up and people show up in the comments all "Oh no, there's nothing we can do!! I guess we'll just die!!!" like, get a grip)

ANYWAY, when was the last time you watched something illegally? Probably pretty recently, when was the last time you got a hold of something you probably weren't supposed to have. Do you know easy it will probably be to bypass these measures? You really expect me to believe that they're capable of censoring the WHOLE internet?

Our government. Which cannot do anything competently besides war crimes (and even then...), is really going to plug *every hole* in that regard? The trillion dollar Hollywood machine has been dumping endless amounts of money and time into stopping piracy and they STILL haven't done it. The closest they got was just trying to give us a better option, and they even fucked *that* up. And let me tell you, trying to search for a way stop people from finding very specific files you can create bots to look for is WAY easier than trying to automate a system that just searches for nebulous concepts like "dangerous content".

Like I said, do what you feel like you need to do but it's obvious that those in charge are more and more willing to make increasing machiavellian decisions to try control and public whose opinions are quickly spiraling out of control. And I REALLY doubt that calling your rep all "UwU swir, can you pwease not impede my abiwity to rwead supwernatural porwn onwine??" is going to sway them.

And the thing that they're really trying to stop, a changing worldview among youth driven by online discourse, is bound to fail because it's going to be hard to put *that* particular genie back in the bottle. If they wanted to curb the amount of sway that the internet could have over young people's opinions they needed to kill social media in its cradle in the mid-2000s. It's WAY too late for that.

You can be mad and disagree all you want but, how about a plan B? Just in case this, or any future law, gets pushed through by the stone age baby boomers. Try things like not using only the 5 largest social media sites for all of your needs. Learn how to use tor. Protect yourself online. Use platforms that can't be easily tracked. Back up shit you like so you have copies.

Alls I'm saying is MAYBE instead of playing the dumb game of "Maybe if we ask really nicely they'll do the right thing" we make a plan to use decentralized platforms that are far to large and varied to effectively police in any meaningful way. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have come to use large platforms to criticize power structures when the heads of those power structures also use those platforms. It just seems like bad planning.

Stop expecting that you can fight EVERY bill and start planning to do some illegal shit online.

[39oa]

have you ever asked yourself: “hey, wouldn’t it be nice if i could quickly browse all the special warm-up jerseys that nhl teams have worn in collaboration with local or independent artists?” the answer to this is probably no so Don’t answer that, but... if you were ever to randomly stumble upon this train of thought, you would now be able to do so @ nhlwarmups.github.io! 

i created this website out of personal interest and an enduring love for beautiful jersey designs; i love art in all forms and really just love looking at it, so in my inability to find an existing project that fulfilled my desire of browsing through all these jerseys in a centralized location i somehow... singlehandedly motivated myself to take on the task? LOL but otherwise i also wanted to make this database because... well, i feel like even though a lot of league-wide inclusion initiatives ultimately rely on/benefit teams’ commercial interests, and even though it feels like there’s recently been an overabundance of dialogue re: player action or inaction, theme-night dissent and sociocultural pressure, the culminating breaking points of bisected fandom, etc.... art still kind of matters! to me, to the designers, to real people who attend games and who coordinate events and who run media platforms and do what small facets of work can still be done.

Anyway. this site itself is sort of meaningless and doesn’t really accomplish much at the end of the day, but i guess i wanted to (try to) refocus the concept of a “warm-up jersey” back on the people who actually create them, and ultimately to reattach the positive components of theme nights in a way that felt slightly tangible and concrete. the site itself isn’t very complicated so hopefully it’s fairly self-navigable, but some quick notes on content and functionality:

as of april 4, 2023, this database displays 82 special jerseys from 21 different nhl teams

i’ve currently only included special jerseys designed with a highlighted artist in my set. that is, while some teams have worn different pride/heritage night/etc. jerseys with either stock-template designs or artwork otherwise created in-house, those jerseys weren’t logged unless an artist was specifically named. for example, the penguins pride jersey from 2022-23 isn’t included but the ducks lunar new year jersey (which was created by a ducks graphic designer) from 2022-23 is.

there are different sidebar options to help quickly search for a specific type or style of jersey: you can sort by team/event/date and filter by category/team/season/base color

lastly, clicking on one of the preview cards will bring you to a details page with additional information on each jersey, including social media links to support the artist, notes on charity benefits, an image gallery of the design, and embedded tweets highlighting the artist when available:

that’s basically it! this was a labor of love so i tried my best to not make the entire experience a functional piece of garbage, but at the end of the day i am Just Some Guy and i never know what i’m doing so please lmk if anything is super wonky. and also if your team has a past design that fits the criteria but i missed it :)

[insertdisc5]

Devlog #16: Answers and Questions

Hello everyone! Welcome to this month’s devlog!

If you just stumbled upon this, I am Adrienne, also known as insertdisc5! I’m the developer, writer, artist, main programmer, etc of the game. The game being In Stars and Time, a timeloop RPG, which is also the next and final game in the START AGAIN series, following START AGAIN: a prologue (available here!).  You can find out more about In Stars and Time here!!! 

LET’S GET TO IT. This month is Q&A: Cohost edition!

“A Q&A again?” Heheh well I don’t have anything to talk about this month ✨ We’re working hard on finalizing the localization! And on porting to consoles! And on secret stuff! You know, the usual!!! Get excited!!! So, Q&A again 💖 And see, I asked questions for Q&As on Twitter. On Tumblr. On Discord. But some new social media platforms have entered the fray. SO.

Welcome to Q&A: Cohost edition. (Follow me on cohost and/or read this post I wrote about why I think cohost is neat teehee) (and follow me on bluesky if you want. I like it way less though. Sorry bluesky)

@ItsMeLilyV asks:

One of the bits of advice that gets tossed around by indie devs is to avoid making RPGs, especially for your first few games, because they tend to be large in scope, difficult to prototype, and easy to underestimate.

Was this ever a fear for you in making START AGAIN, or In Stars and Time? Did you take any special precaution to keep these games within a scope you could handle, and did you learn tricks from START AGAIN that carried over to ISAT when in came to keeping things manageable? Thank you!! ✨

I had no idea that was a piece of advice given, but yep, that makes a lot of sense! Since I didn’t know, I went in blissfully aware, teehee.

I will say that I am familiar with working on big projects from working on comics, and with seeing big webcomic artists always mention to never start with your magnum opus… And I could tell ISAT had the potential to be way bigger than I imagined, which is why I decided to start with creating the prologue to get used to RPGMaker as well as making games. Kind of a pilot of sorts!

Again, thanks to comics, I know to keep my scope pretty small, because even if you keep it small it WILL balloon into something way bigger than you thought. Just for the prologue, I imagined it’d be a 20mn game, and it’s easily a 2-3h one! Keep your scope small!!!

As for tricks, when I catch myself thinking “wow what if I added this cool thing”, I try to always keep in mind those two things: 1. How long will it take to implement (including bug testing), and 2. Does it add something important to the game. I know we always want to add a fishing game, or a fun minigame, but do you Need It. Does it add something substantial to the story, to the Themes. Or are you just adding it because you like fishing games. Which is a valid reason, but also, maybe just make a fishing game instead. You are not the Yakuza series!!!! You are a small indie gamedev!!!! Think about you in 4 months who has to fix all the fishing game bugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@stem asks:

how is it to have a piece of art that's basically done (as far as i understand) that you can't share yet? like how do you personally bide the time until it's finally ready to release, or is it not really a challenge to wait? :0c

It’s so weird!!! The game has been done for so long!!! I’m very glad I asked some friends to playtest the game, so I could at least get some feedback before the game is out… In some ways it feels like the game will be done twice: once back when I finished making the game, and once when the game actually comes out. It’s just a very strange experience. Sometimes people tell me they’re excited to find out more about this story beat, or about this character, and a part of me is like… Wait, haven't you played the game? Oh, yeah, it’s not actually out. Guess you’ll find out later.

EDIT: My god. I just checked on my private devlog for when I completed the Alpha of ISAT. It was in August of last year (I lay down on the floor and look at the ceiling) (I still had to finish all the illustrations so really the game was Done Donezo in October but still…)

anon asked:

What role did Armor Games play in creating the final product?

SO MANY THINGS. Here are some of them: support when it comes to porting/marketing/social media/localization, feedback on the game and how to make it better, community guidance, testing support, QA/internal testing… The game couldn’t be the way it is without them.

For more small details, I have a weekly meeting with my producer, Dora! We talk about the game and how everything is going. A couple months back, I also was checking in with the internal QA team fairly often to fix any remaining bugs. They also helped me find ISAT’s additional programmer, Isabella, and she is a godsend because coding is hard. They also take care of communicating with press, finding more opportunities to showcase the game in conventions, talking with the localization/porting teams… I am probably forgetting a thousand little things they did to help out!!! THEY’RE SO GOOD OK

Anon asked:

So obviously the skills/spells/what have you are based off of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Did you design each "type" to be like a certain style? Rock being heavy damage and defense buffs, scissors being speed and quick attacks, like that?

Absolutely! I just went with the obvious. Rock is physical damage, defense focused, Scissors is swords, attack focused, and Paper is magic, mind focused. It was fun to develop a spell system around those! I’m excited for people to find out more about Craft…

@nickshutter asks:

I really loved START AGAIN (streamed it for a small handful of friends) and was super happy to hear about a follow-up! The cast is so much fun and their personalities are really well-balanced—did any of the characters change pretty drastically from their initial conception during development of the game?

I’m so glad you streamed it with friends… I hope you had a good fun time…

And for sure! Isabeau and Mirabelle were pretty set from the get go (himbo and shy wallflower), but Odile started as more of a gentle teacher type, even if I very quickly went the snarky old lady route. Siffrin and Bonnie were harder to pin down– I wasn’t sure how to portray Siffrin’s despair in the prologue, and started showing them more overtly depressed, but I thought it’d be Very Yummy to have them show a happy facade to their friends. And then, for ISAT, I had to figure out what a non-depressed Siffrin would be like, for the first couple acts of the game before the despair sets in. As for Bonnie, I had a lot of trouble figuring out what they’d be like, what kind of kid they were, what their relationship with everyone else would be like, and then I thought about what their past would be like and then their characterization was set in stone. Sometimes you need to figure out One Thing to unlock a character’s brain. I’m very excited for everyone to find out more about each character in ISAT!

@SuperBiasedGary asks:

What games (or other media) lit a fire under you to create your own?

It could be stuff you liked so much it inspired, something you found frustrating because you felt an itch to do it differently, or something that made you realise humans make things and you could be one of them.

I found a lot of indie games inspiring, but I think Umineko might’ve been the one that made me go… Oh, anyone can just make a massive video game narrative. And you can make it very simple, with kinda goofy sprites, and still manage to make an incredibly touching story!

As for frustrating games that lit a fire under me, I think I’d say in general, I found issue with the classic trope of the “main character helps people and doesn’t get anything back”. What often happens in some games is that you help NPCs with their problems, sometimes helping them with very intense, complicated problems! For a very long time! And, in exchange, you get… A cool item? A nice new skill? And that’s it?

I know this might be complicated to implement on a narrative perspective, but I remember playing Persona 5, and your character just went through a very harrowing experience (like, oh, being INTERROGATED AND TORTURED BY THE POLICE) and you help your friends during social links, and they go “thanks for your help! Bye~” like WHAT ABOUT ME. WHAT ABOUT MY PROBLEMS. CAN YOU GIVE ME A HUG

So on a certain level, I wanted a game where instead of the characters around you having problems, the main character also has problems. And is subconsciously screaming “CAN YOU PLEASE NOTICE I HAVE PROBLEMS AND GIVE ME A HUG.” And hopefully, the characters notice. Winks

Hm. I do want to say I wrote most of the prologue/ISAT during the pandemic, and I felt very lonely and not supported. But then guess what. I told my friends about how I felt. And most of them told me they had no idea, and vowed to support me more. And now I’m closer to them. So the moral of this answer is, yeah, it’d be nice if people noticed, but also, you need to tell people when you’re feeling bad. LOOKS AT SIFFRIN

Anon asked:

Is there a song you listen to in order to put yourself in the sasasa/ISAT mindset?

I have a whole playlist baybee. Before you ask: there aren’t any hidden meanings behind those song choices. It’s about the Mood, and also my personal tastes in music I listen to when I need to concentrate. I like songs that go WUB WUB

 In no particular order, here are five random songs I played on repeat when making the prologue:

Future Club (Arcade Version) by Perturbator (in bold because this was THE song I listened to on repeat. I believe I gave it to Lindar for inspiration lol)

Arcades by C2C

Wake Me Up by Para One

The First Wish by DROELOE

Les Enfants du Paradis by World’s End Girlfriend

And here are five random songs I played on repeat for In Stars and Time:

Down by Chloe x Halle

Nonsense Bungaku by Eve

Non-Breathe Oblige by PinocchioP

Gentle Heart by Jamie Paige

Ready For The Floor by Hot Chip

It’s interesting, the songs I listened to for the prologue are generally more heavy and frenetic, while the ones for ISAT are more hopeful… I made sure to listen to more lively songs for ISAT, since that’s the feeling I wanted to give off…

That’s all the questions I have! In other, non related ISAT news, I have started a new project and having a lot of fun. It’s a visual novel this time. I’m hoping to get some screenshots ready in the next few months, but also I’m taking it easy on this one. If it takes years with many breaks in between to get it done, it’s fine. What matters to me right now is the process!

That’s all I have to say for today! Let me know if you have any questions, or if there’s any aspect of the game development struggle you’d like me to talk about! See you next time!!!

AND DON’T FORGET TO WISHLIST THE GAME ON STEAM ALSO IT REALLY HELPS BECAUSE STEAM’S ALGORITHM IS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW OFF GAMES WITH A HIGH AMOUNT OF WISHLISTS THAT’S THE REASON WHY GAME DEVS ALWAYS ASK TO WISHLIST!!! OKAY BYE!!!!

[necrotic-nephilim]

i’m feeling messy. for the new ask game, 5 :)

for the choose violence ask game!

5. worst discord server and why

of COURSE you would choose to be this messy, you lil rat. <3 i will be kind enough to not name the server, it's a general Batfamily server i found on Disboard. most Bafam discord servers tend to be... anti leaning so it's something i sort of expect, but this one has a "ship advisory list", including ships you're not allowed to share media of (like fanfic or fanart) and if you discuss the ship you can be told to stop talking about it. and there were the typical ships you'd expect like Joker/Harley, BatJokes, and ofc a "no proships" umbrella ban. but some of the ships fucking baffled me. like canon ships were on this list. ships i to this day can't figure out why they'd be banned. the top ships of the list that just *got me* in terms of "... what is bad about this ship???" were

DickBabs

DonnaDick

Barry/Diana

Barry/Dinah

JayRose

Catwoman/Penguin

Talia/Bane

some of these i didn't know were shipped in the *first place* but even if they are, i can't fathom what's wrong with them. some of them are canon, normal ships? like what did JayRose do wrong. it's one of Jason's healthier relationships. and DonnaDick somehow gets me the most. my only guess is that antis heard them referred to as the Wonder Twins and thus decided the ship was incestual. bc otherwise how. why. i laugh everytime i think about DonnaDick being problematic.

on one hand i do think it's fucking hilarious of a list and it always makes me laugh bc i cannot fathom the mentality. but on the other hand it is sort of depressing that so many public social platforms for discussing the Batfam are becoming *so* anti-leaning that ships can be banned simply bc the mods of the server decided they were problematic for some unforeseen reason. it was the biggest depiction of "i don't like this ship so it's problematic" i've ever seen. like where does the goalpost stop moving? when does it somehow become problematic to ship things in general? it was wild even for anti stuff. truly the most baffling server i've been in.

[taffywabbit]

I've currently heard about Dreamwidth, and I'm keeping a pin on it in case I find more info and more recommendations for it. Same with neocities, but i guess people could argue that some people don't have the time to make their own websites and learn httml and CSS and stuff. No idea if neocities has templates.

Cohost come back to meeeeeee

all i know about Dreamwidth is that their staff (maybe specifically the owner?) kept trying to spread weird conspiracy shit about Cohost when it first started gaining traction, to scare people away with claims that cohost would steal their data or owned all the art they posted or whatever (y'know, the same kind of stuff people freak out about with EVERY social media site whenever they look at a TOS page for the first time and assume the section that permits the site to resize/transmit/share your media outside of its original post format means THEY OWN THE COPYRIGHTS TO ALL YOUR ART OH NO!!). which is obviously the sort of thing random people do innocently all the time and it goes viral before someone can correct/clarify it, but it's a little different and more blatantly bad-faith when you are running a direct competitor website and KNOW that's not actually how any of those clauses work. it's scummy and immature

besides that incident, and a period of time where the Dreamwidth twitter account kept popping up out of nowhere in ppl's replies to recommend their site whenever someone complained about another platform, i have literally NEVER heard of a single person actually using the site. i AM loosely curious if it's any good or has any decent features, but i gotta admit their behavior re: deliberately trying to smear Cohost's reputation a couple years back keeps me from wanting anything to do with them personally

[formulatrash]

What do you think about team accounts using ship names? Williams has started posting about Loscar a lot but do you think they know what it means?

I have a bunch of thoughts about this but to start off with: yes, I am absolutely sure they know what it means.

the Williams social admins will have seen thousands of Loscar edits on TikTok. they will have read lots of comments and replies about Loscar on their other social platforms. beyond their official, professional commitments to monitoring the Williams stuff they're also F1 fans and they may well be on here or even AO3. you would be surprised how direct the pipeline from WattPad to PR is.

(a fair number of people who started off writing fic on livejournal are also quite high up in engineering these days and other technical roles obviously, just using WattPad to PR as an example there; basically, some people in F1 absolutely know about this sort of thing)

it's pretty innocent for social media admins to play on trends, especially if they know they get more interaction if they post Loscar than if they just post Logan. at the end of the day, it's a metric-based job and their task is to make numbers go up, not wonder if this might feel weird to some of us on tumblr. when I ran the F1 account I never would've used the word Maxiel but did definitely speed right on over to post anything that I thought might get picked up that way. was this kinda dirty cheating? yes but I had engagement targets to hit and the niche knowledge to know this was one way to do it.

(also technically my most unhinged work was creating this gif in staggering high definition for 2019. anyway!)

I do think there's two ways it's quite problematic for teams to lean into shipping, though. the first is that shipping is fictional and they're team accounts that are, well, real. the little guys that they have a sandbox to play with (coming up with sponsor content ideas and convincing the drivers to do them) are different from the dolls people make kiss on AO3.

the other is that it's queerbaiting, innit. we know how poor LGBTQ+ representation is in racing in general and how homophobic a lot of fans are - look at the abuse directed at Matt Bishop. or me, I guess but people (entirely reasonably, he's an absolutely brilliant man) like Matt more. anyway, the point is motorsport does not like LGBTQ+ people and therefore, probably shouldn't be allowed to use the idea of fictional versions of us for marketing.

[romandaandromeda]

How Azumanga Daioh tells the difference between the "Old Web" and "Modern Internet"

a content warning for mentions of rape, pedophilia, and ableism (well, better safe than sorry!)

i had an entire thing written before this, but i decided to scrap it for when spacehey comes back online

so, the old web. we know what it is, we know how we see it, geocities, crunchy gifs, flashes and whatever. but have you ever seen the difference between its societies scattered across websites whether it be an imageboard, geocity, or forum against our discorded societies on major social media platforms?

a while back, i had begun watching azumanga daioh as a result of a sudden reinterest in the anime in this decade. this reminded me of how prevalent anime was on the internet as a whole 2 decades ago (and more or less, azumanga's iron grip on anons and lurkers alike), which led me to searching for how different this era was with memes.

memes, or a fad, wasn't very accessible as they are today, while some could be laughed at as an outsider (think awesome face, shoop da whoop, nyan cat, impact font memes), memes outside of the public conscious were mostly inside jokes spawned from forums like something awful or imageboards like 2chan or 4chan.

out of those many, azumanga was one of the more popular ones. think about it, funny teenagers do funny things and combine that with a major love from anime communities, you get things like these:

now what i've noticed about these memes from pre-2010 is their inside joke nature. ask the modern user what a sticky is or why they think osaka is pretending to be a nazi, they wouldn't know or be a bit offput. plus using kaorin's little lesbian crushing on sakaki to project their straight love for sakaki would probably be looked down upon now but that was just normal. if you couldn't handle it then it was either hit the road or deal with it.

you can probably guess that kimura was probably the most relatable character ever in those days, don't even get me started on the normalization of pedophile/rape jokes back then.

now that's fun and all, but how about nowadays? we no longer have a scattered culture, everyone is using one single site for entertainment and posting, and all of the forums and imageboards have been designated a hazard zone as their users have mutated into despicable folks that have been shunned away to the point where they seem more depraved than their past. AKA, they no longer care for relating over a character or talking about a show, they'd rather argue about their nitpicks of a specific character or show and just skulk on what used to be a thriving community. well, nowadays it seems you don't need to be part of a specific community anymore, just see a meme and laugh without any context. with azumanga's revival in interest, this has sort of spawned what i like to call "azumanga autism memes" (TO CLARIFY: I AM AUTISTIC, FEEL FREE TO MAKE UP YOUR OWN NAME IF MINE DOESN'T SOUND RIGHT!). as they've mostly just become the most nonsensical and silly images ever, you practically don't need to watch the show to understand because its so disconnected from the source material it's like a cup of coffee, just pick it up and have a taste.

some examples:

notice anything? suddenly, osaka takes the center stage! with exception to the one chiyo image, osaka has become the face of azumanga as the modern internet knows it. compare that to how every character had about the same love through different edits in the old web, and it seems that most people would think that osaka is the main character of azumanga instead of the multiple characters' stories spread through the series. this has seemed to piss off many a gatekeeper, who are mad that this series is only gaining interest because of one character and her vague memes. to which i believe gatekeeping such a building block of the internet like azumanga is like trying to defend an unstable shack, it's useless.

so, what can we tell from the differences between ye olde and the new? to cut to the chase, the old web's fad culture was built from inside jokes outside of the "webcore/y2k-integrated" memes used for aesthetics. and nowadays people have publicized memes to a point where context is thrown from the picture and anyone can enjoy a meme instead of enjoying its source.

which is better? i can't tell you, you don't see much enjoyability and genuine appreciation in editing in today's memes than you did with old fads (you have to make people laugh, lest you be banished to the "reddit" label hell) but the normalization of taboo topics like racism, rape, and ableism should definitely be left behind in the old. it's just personal preference, really.

that's the end of this post, please enjoy kasuga.swf:

[sarahblueskyyyy]

Night

Dewdrop x Rain, fluff, romance, friendship, etc.

It’s not really a rocket science to figure out Dewdrop’s emotions, really. ["I can't sleep."] Well. Mountain, Phantom, and Swiss are not really surprised.

It’s not really a rocket science to figure out Dewdrop’s emotions. Most of the times, anything he feels or thinks are easily seen through his expression. Crystal clear—even the siblings of sin have no difficulty guessing his train of thoughts.

Funnily enough—he doesn’t recognize that aspect of his. He doesn’t think he show that much of a reaction when he’s faced with something. And a lot of times he doesn’t even realize why he feels the way he does.

That’s why, Phantom, Swiss, and Mountain are not surprised when Dewdrop barges into their room, all frowned and seems in a bad mood.

The three ghouls are throwing looks at each other.

“I can’t sleep,” Dewdrop kindly provides the explanation before anyone could ask. He closes the door behind him.

Obviously, Phantom thinks to himself. But he tries his best to not show his smile. He’s sitting on the swivel chair, leans his chest against the backrest cushion. While he’s continuing his game, fingers swiping all across his phone’s screen, he humours Dewdrop by asking a question with faux innocence, “I think it has to do with the caffeine you consumed.”

Dewdrop rolls his red orbs, gets closer to Mountain who’s sitting on the bed and lying down on the Earth Ghoul’s thighs. Instantly, the gentle giant brings his fingers to brush over the platinum strands out of Dewdrop’s face.

“I’ve always been fine drinking it,” Dewdrop says defensively. “Besides, it doesn’t do much to our metabolism.”

“Right,” Swiss chirped. He’s tuning his acoustic guitar. “Maybe you ate something wrong?”

Dewdrop shakes his head in frustration. “As I said—I don’t think it’s something I ingested.”

Mountain smiles softly. His green eyes are glinting dimly. “Maybe we should call Rain?”

“What? Why? He’s busy,” Dewdrop sighs and closes his eyes. “He’s still in the practice room with Papa and the others.”

Phantom chuckles. “Okay, then. Want to try some method to make you fall asleep?”

“…. Huh. Do things like that work?”

“Well, we don’t know until we try.” Swiss puts his guitar back into the case. “So, what are our options?"

“Oh, right.” Phantom switches the game application to a social media platform. “Okay, so—according to this video—there are several ways to fall asleep easily. Guaranteed, it says.”

Dewdrop feels like this is a trickery or some sort, but—he sighs and asks, “Okay, what is it?”

“Drink warm milk.”

Dewdrops gives his middle finger to the youngest ghoul. “‘M not a toddler.”

“Hey! Milk contains tryptophan which is an amino acid that can help make you feel sleepy."

Mountain laughs when he sees Dewdrops knits his eyebrows. “Okay, let’s try the other alternatives.”

Phantom let his thumb scrolling on the screen. “Listen to ASMR and try to empty your mind.”

Okay, that one is worth the try. Swiss turns off the light and Phantom plays a raining ASMR. Dewdrop, still rests his head on Mountain, can hear the faint, gentle, lullaby-like sound of raining. It’s as if there is a real rain outside the building and its spatters are being muffled by the walls. It sounds calming.

Dewdrops wants to relax the working mind of his—he really does. But it keeps wandering around, like a kid jumping on one place to another. First, he’s imagining his own, comforting room. Inside his head, Rain is showing up, lying on his own bed. He remembers the way he scooted over on Rain and the ghoul once complained—saying something like, “You go to your own bed, Dew!”

But of course, Dewdrop never one of following orders. He knows Rain will surrender and let him annoy him, squeezes the blue-eyed ghoul with all his might. At the end, Rain will scoff but never shoo him away.

Wait, this is not helping him at all.

Dewdrop fusses, “I still can’t sleep.”

Swiss boos. “And here we are trying to be as quiet as a rock.”

The Fire Ghoul hisses.

“Okay, how about breathing exercise?” Phantom suggests another trick. “Slowly inhale and counting to 4, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds.”

“Why do I need to breath manually?”

Mountain grins and ruffles Dewdrop’s hair.

Swiss rolls his eyes. “Do you want to sleep or not?”

Dewdrop does as he told. He takes a deep breath for a solid 4 seconds, then hold it, let the air sits on his lungs, before he finally breathes out. He repeats this, hoping he’d fall asleep. But, seriously—why is it so damn hard? He never had this problem before.

Well, it’s not like he’s always have a perfect slumber every day. There are some times where he tosses around for a while. But it was never this severe. It’s like no matter what he’s doing, the whole universe and every cell of his body are collaborating; alerting his nerves, as if telling him that he can’t fall asleep yet.

What did he do when he can’t sleep before, anyway? Went to Rain? Then—what?

Dewdrop opens his eyes once more. “Swiss, can you hug me?”

Swiss squints and then nods. “Sure.”

He crawls up to the bed, snatches a pillow, and put it on Mountain’s thighs. The drummer simple question is ignored, “Can we not do this on my legs?"

Phantom chuckles. The big man is going to have a muscle cramp.

Swiss sighs tenderly before wrapping his arms around Dewdrops. He gives him a light, but firm squeeze.

Dewdrop frowns. Amongst the others, Swiss’ figure is the most similar with Rain’s. Swiss has this comforting fragrance, like a mixture of mild soap and ocean.  But somehow—this doesn’t feel right. It feels weird. It’s like pushing a piece of a puzzle in a wrong spot. It works somehow, the whole picture is finished, but—there will be a small, micro gap, and it just feels … incomplete.

“Okay, off you go,” Dewdrop says in irritation—a tone he directs mostly towards himself. “I want to go back to my own room.”

Swiss nods and letting Dewdrop go. 

Dewdrop lifts his head, gets up, and ready to leave the room. But before he does that, he turns his head first to the others, and says genuinely, “Thanks anyway.”

Some replies are echoing throughout the room and Dewdrops goes out from there.

.

The moment he opens that door, Dewdrop is greeted by Rain’s blue, sky-coloured eyes. The Water Ghoul just taken a bath—Dewdrop can see the towel still anchored to his head.

Rain smiles, sitting on the side of his bed. “Oh, welcome back. Swiss said you were hanging out in their room?”

Dewdrop doesn’t answer. Instead, he shuts the door, and walking towards Rain. His strides are fast, but not rushing. Then, Dewdrop plunks himself to Rain, makes Rain swaying and fall backwards; head bumps to the pillow.

“Hm-mn?” Rain’s fingers are slipped between the filaments of Dewdrop’s hair. “What’s wrong?”

Dewdrop’s body is relaxing, letting all his limbs sags and rests. He could feel gravitation is pulling him softly, drags him to the world of dreams, as if it’s doing a rock-a-bye to him. Dewdrop smells a petrichor—and it’s lulling him away.

“Sleepy,” Dewdrop answers, half-asleep. His eyelids feel ridiculously heavy.

“Why didn’t you sleep first?” Rain looks at his phone. Exactly midnight. “Papa, Cirrus, and I were discussing new choreography.”

The question is not answered. When Rain takes off his attention from the phone—he snickers seeing Dewdrop is already falling asleep. Rhythmic breath, un-knitted eyebrows. Dewdrops sure looks peaceful when he’s not awake or throwing fits.

Despite Dewdrop puts all his weight on Rain, Rain tries to get up a little; bring his lips and kiss The Fire Ghoul’s forehead. Then, Rain picks up the towel on top of his head and flings it to wherever it may land.

“Goodnight, Dew.”

.

.

.

Is he asleep?

Yeah? The minute he flops down on the bed.

What, why? He couldn't sleep??

Nah, nothing. You get rest.

Swiss looks up at his phone and scoffs. Then, he places the electronic on the top of his nightstand. He turns over his body and hugs Phantom—who’s already snoring faintly.

[lean-mean-demon-genevieve]

Hi! I’m not sure if this has been asked before but is there a reason she moved her bookclub to Charlie’s platform? Also, does she get paid for these talks with the authors? I’ve always wondered that. Thanks!

The answer is ALWAYS money.

My guess is that it’s some sort of a circle-jerk type of deal where she moves her thing to his platform and in turn he does some sort of work for her/Jared like managing their social media.

Remember that Momentus was charging for attending her bookclubs live with the ability to chat and ask questions. Momentus then reportedly gave an undisclosed percent of that fee to charity of choice. Gen probably pockets a portion of the remaining profit, but I don’t know that for sure.

Not that long ago, you could also buy her bookclub picks through the Momentus website, but I don’t see that anymore. Instead, if you click her “link in bio” link on IG, Gen now has her own affiliate link with a site called Bookshop.org. This site has marketed itself as an alternative to Amazon and as an advocate for independent bookstores. Which all sounds great until you do a little bit of research.

Bookshop.org basically acts as a middle man between a wholesale warehouse (named Ingram) and indie bookstores. Bookshop doesn’t even take from the indie bookstore’s inventory. Shops can set up an account, customers order books, they are shipped from an Ingram warehouse, and the site gives the indie seller a 30% cut of the profit…but indie bookstores are concerned because they would make more by cutting out the middle man. Duh!

(Read more here and here)

And when individuals like Gen can become an affiliate and earn 10% on sales, indie bookstores lose out even more.

“Publications that review books can earn much-needed financial support”…nope, that’s not Gen. “Book clubs can earn sustaining funds on each pick”…that doesn’t feel like it fits either. “Instagram influencers can earn revenue”…theeeeere it is!

You see that running total at the top of that website? Gen didn’t contribute to that. Her 10% goes right in her pocket. Remember a couple weeks ago when Gen posted a reel about her favorite local Austin indie bookstores? And how important it is to support them?

She cares about her own bottom line even more.

But I bet she would love for you to believe that this was yet another altruistic, pious choice in the name of small businesses and sustainability. Most fans won’t look this deeply into her connection to this site and company itself. They just see that giant number at the top and their heart eyes for Gen dilate that much farther.

Amazon is an evil organization. I use it too, but it is evil. It just is. Amazon has put a lot of small businesses in the ground with their ability to charge less. I appreciate alternatives, and Bookshop is that, but Bookshop isn’t innocent. Even though they’re up-charging for books, remember how many extra people have to get their cut. This company boomed as it launched in 2020 and much profit has been made. And any time major profits are made…someone is getting exploited.

(It should also be noted that Gen’s link in bio also has her Amazon affiliate link. She doesn’t care which shifty brand is paying her, as long as she’s getting your money.)

I wonder what the people at the distribution warehouse get paid? How do authors make money? How much is the creator of Bookshop worth at this point in comparison?

Hey Gen, can you answer any of that?

Gen, wait!!

…I don’t think she wants to talk.