#it was so cool and we got to talk about the ways that turf is used traditionally by Inuit vs how turf is used in ireland

[jayswing101]

ᐃᖃᓗᐃᑦ，ᓄᓇᕗᑦ — Iqaluit, Nunavut

September 30th to October 5th, 2024

[gorbalsvampire]

D'you have any player-facing or secret ST-eyes-only systems that you like to use for tracking SI exposure in your games? Or (shunting you a soapbox here) for seeding and making good on consequences generally?

So in general, my absolute favourite way to generate The Quencies is Succees At A Cost. "I'll offer you a devil's bargain," to quote the Master, Mr. Carl.

Kick enough Successes at a Cost down the trail and you can have them escalate into something quite spectacular, whatever that turns out to be. The same for Messy Critical consequences. "There's been a Masquerade breach, but I need to work out the details, so it'll be with you in a couple of sessions' time." That sort of thing.

I also like to frame story beats as poison chalices and sadistic choices. Yes, you can have the Dunsirns' help in covering up the assassination attempt on that Baron you murdered, but they want her property, her territory, and you to know exactly who took the fall for you and what that's worth.

What else? Every chronicle needs a character who's talked about more than they are seen. Telegraphy is key, but don't go too hard on it - we don't want players going "we've got a BADASS over here" about them. I think the trick is having other SPCs be afraid of them, or answerable to them, or clearly dependent on them.

In my Glasgow game, Miss Drake the scourge didn't appear very often, but she was mentioned in the context of "what keeps this praxis running?" and "why doesn't anyone hunt in the West End?" Sir Thomas Dunsirn - Big Tam to his family - was the unseen hand of the nocturnal economy and, more to the point, the hand holding Alistair's leash.

There's this horrid old man who somehow gets you to do whatever he wants. You first met him when he physically and psychically assaulted his way into your turf and your crime scene. You owe him your continued liberty. And he has a boss. At that point, player imagination is doing the work.

But while we're here, I'm also going to talk about Nemesis Points. I took these a late-series Fighting Fantasy gamebook, Night Dragon, and I love them. As you quest to find the location of the titular Night Dragon and prevent its resurrection by the cult who worship it, you have various avenues of investigation to pursue, some of which are of course dead ends: you also have various bits of side business, in accordance with custom. Every prevarication, every attempt made, even the successful ones, adds some Nemesis Points to your tally. If you haven't found the Night Dragon's lair by the time you reach a given Nemesis score, Your Adventure Is Over in a sense far greater than "you got mugged by three pirates and died again."

When I was running face to face games, I'd sometimes put one of those spindown - or in this case spin up - life counters from Magic on the table. Whenever my players prevaricated, overthought, faffed about or otherwise didn't make the most of our time together, the die would spin up a little.

I think something like that could adapt to Masquerade cockups very nicely. People love a meter.

I find the Response Algorithm and Institutional Conflict systems in the Anarch and Camarilla books are a bit of a headache, but they're there if you need them. Of course, Second Inquisition also has a chapter explicitly for doing this, for running your SI presence as an active and hostile force with its own goals - almost a solo side game for the ST.

This isn't something I've used - yet - as Wild Roses was very much me finding the transitions I needed to make out of Revised era thinking, and one of those was vampire-focus, less interest in what mortals want and are doing. The SI there was a cool threat that warmed up in the third story when I wanted to raise the stakes and do a cool bank heist opening session, and again when a returning player gave me the opportunity to tell a story about collaborators and how they should die in shame. I had ideas for how they served the vampire story and they were only developed in so far as they did that.

I'm not actually very happy with how I characterised and played my SI characters, and I'd like to do them justice with another outing. One where they actually have a project. It'll be more work for me, but if I'm going to do this Spy vs. Spy chronicle concept justice, I'm going to have to do that work, aren't I?

[pumpkinsy0]

i need more silly/fluff hcs about the shepard gang interacting with pony pls

coming up anon🤵🏽‍♀️!!

•tim holds gang meetings at his house and sometimes pony is over, he doesnt rlly care cause he knows pony wont rlly do anything so while talking hes like “so gang, and ponyboy” and pony does THAT white guy smile, yknow that one they do when ur walking past em

•pony likes drawing the shepard gang, they have a certain look to them he finds interesting, kinda like how he feels drawing dallas

•theyve seen pony at a rumble a couple of times and theyve pat pony on the back and praised him a bit bc like, as small as he is, he can pack a punch with that scared looking kid” right by his side

•im like 70% sure its canon that they all have this whistle that makes the others aware that theyre there and i think it would b cool if the shepard gang actually saved pony from being jumped bc of that whistle

•id b lying if i aint say they do have something against pony bc the curtis gang won against the shepard gang in that one rumble, like how td did YALL win🤨 •angela and pony r like the shepard gangs resident nurses

•the curtis house is quite literally always unlocked for anybody to waltz in there ik at some point some of em walked in bc they got hurt and needed to get latched up badly

•but after darry found out, tim told them not to go there anymore, but they do feel at least a LIL in debt to pony

•technically the curtis gang have a turf, not offically, darry just says they live there, but tim basically made it there bc the shepard gang has fought soc’s for being there (if ur curious their turf is LITERALLY just their neighborhood lmao), especially after soc’s beat up pony in the neighborhood, cause in their words “if the curtis gang wont protect their own we will” or somethin along those lines

•the same way angela and curlys got sibling privliges in the gang, ponys got that “ur pretty much dating one of our ppl and ur cool so ur an unoffical member wether u like it or not” pony had mixed feelings bout that one

[arogustus]

Splatband Analysis - Hightide Era

So I was eating breakfast the other day when I found on the back of my milk carton this picture about a band being missing? Now, I think they’re exaggerating a bit on the “M.I.A.” thing. Sure, they haven’t been mentioned since Splatoon 2, where they got to cameo in the White Day artwork and are involved in the backstory for Ink Theory, but you know who else hasn’t been mentioned since Splatoon 2? SashiMori. And I don’t see anyone making a big deal about that (other than me, Nintendo, please), but I digress. Let’s talk about these losers.

The Band

Hightide Era is an indie band that developed a strong enough fanbase to get their music into the Turf War scene. The band started life with Taka performing on the street, before later being joined by Kuze, and then Nishida, in that order. One of the first things we learned is the meaning of the band's name, which refers to both the nature of the band's sound, brimming and full… and also the ecological realities of the world. Seems the band has environmental concerns they wanna draw attention to, enough to make it a part of their name. 

Taka

The band's pianist and vocalist, and the overall center of attention of the band, which is exactly what they want. They’re an incredibly talented musician, having practiced piano since the age of Four, and attended the same prestigious academy that Karen did, having been her senior while she was attending. After that, though, they grew tired of all this academic music nonsense and took to the streets to perform, which is where they met Kuze and Nishida. 

The most obvious thing to know about Taka, outright told to us in their own description, is that Taka is a shallow poser. Their main motivation for making music isn’t for any artistic merit, but just because it gets them attention and adoration. Which, considering they’ve been at it since the age of Four, is pretty concerning. Also very superficial beneath the surface. It’s an Ichiya situation, with a lot of surface level charisma concealing a superficial personality. It must be pretty effective too considering they have a dedicated fan in Karen. That desire for attention also keeps them from adding a bassist to the band, it draws attention away from the low notes they hit. What an ass.

White Day art time, we see our stinker leaning back on their chair, clearly spectating the epic battle between Tangle and Finn like a weirdo. They must get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing chaos going on around them. Or maybe they’re trying to peek at Finn? In which case they probably didn’t get to stay as a spectator for long. 

Kuze

Kuze is the drummer and a stone fish. He plays on cheap drums because it provides a very messy but powerful sound that compliments the other members trying to look cool. He probably just likes the way the drum sounds and thinks it looks cool. He’s also a fashion designer, he made the uniforms the band wears. Probably has a lot of talents in that area, too. 

He’s the third and final member of Underpass Bass Drum, so he’s an active turf player. It’d be cool if one day we got an idea as to what their weapon preferences are. Maybe they even wear a uniform too, what with him being a part of the team? Ah, I’m speculating.

White Day has him sitting with Paul and Jawn. He’s not playing the game, so he’s probably just hanging with them and watching, perhaps waiting for his turn. But there’s one thing you can see him do, and that’s giving Taka the side-eye. It gives the vibe that he knows about Taka and their shenanigans and doesn’t tolerate them too much. Or he’s just keeping an eye on them in case Finn notices and takes it as a challenge. 

Nishida

Nishida is a herring and a guitarist. They don’t like being in the spotlight, despite the stereotype revolving around guitarists. May or may not have something to do with the fact they are the youngest of 247 siblings. Like, yeah, that’s a huge ratio of sibling teasing, bullying and fawning, especially since they’re the youngest. Still, they don’t hate attention, they’ve apparently been featured in a serialized magazine that talks about their guitar skills. And apparently people they’re trying to “put on airs” (it means they act like they’re better than others, to be snobbish), when really they don’t do that… most of the time. Is it trying to say that they’re only occasionally snobbish and act egotistical?

In the White Day artwork, they are shown engaged in conversation with Taichi in the back of the bar. They’re more social than they appear, at least, but we may never know what the nature of their conversation is. #Nishida x Taichi Romance. They also brought their guitar for some reason, despite absolutely no one else bringing anything. Wonder what that’s about.

—

And that’s Hightide Era. I never cared about them until today, but I’m glad to say I’ve gained an appreciation for them as of this analysis. There’s something to love about everyone, even if some of them could probably use a little less attention (*cought* Taka *cough*).

We are down two bands. The Chips that Chirp, the neurodivergence squad Chirpy Chips, and everyone’s favorite band of fish freaks ω-3. I’ll go with the Chips first, and then finish with the Salmons. This is fun.

[sparklingsora]

I love your swap AU!! If it ain’t too much trouble can we get some more Vox x Vel headcanons for the AU?

Also... have you thought about... Velvette's version of Whatever It Takes?

some Cool Staticdoll Facts, coming right up! - they have seperate rooms at the hotel, on top of a shared bedroom (the bedroom later also becomes val's when they start dating him). it's best this way, because while they of course enjoy spending time together, they each also like having their own space (plus their tastes in interior decoration are completely different)

- they had a similar arrangement back in their old apartment

- speaking of said old apartment, it took them super long to confess to each other because of their living situation. basically, when they met, vox let velvette live with him since she was homeless at the time (her home got caught in the crossfire of a turf war shortly before the extermination where they met, it was why she was out during the extermination in the first place). so since they were living together they were both super scared of confessing bc if their feelings were not reciprocated then it'd be EXTRA awkward. - velvette eventually got a new apartment bc she values her independency, but ended up still living with vox most of the time anyway bc she liked it <:]

- velvette didn't really have any friends before vox. sure, she had mutuals, and acquaintances, but vox was her first true friend (she didn't have true friends on earth either - she was a popular mean girl type who peaked in high school and died in her 20's)

- vox is amazing at talking fast, patter songs, tongue twisters and the like. velvette is terrible at them. it pisses her off so much

- vox is self-conscious about the fact that he can't kiss people properly bc his stupid face is a flatscreen tv, but velvette LOVES his demon form. his kisses give that uhhh. fuck the english word for it escapes me at the moment, but when you take off a sweater for example and the electricity does a little 💥💥💥💥. they give that kind of effect and vel loves the sensation

as for whatever it takes, i remember deciding at one point to cut velvette from the veeswap version of that song and leave it as a carmilla solo, but for the life of me i cant remember why? so i guess i havent thought about it yet!

[bronx-bomber87]

Happy Monday all :) Some UC Lucy and overly protective Tim. Always a fun combo to watch. Also Aaron telling like it is and getting a puppy. This is a good one before our epic next ep. Let’s get started.

5x07 Crossfire

We start off with Lucy getting recruited for a UC Op. She is official now post school. It’s for an all girl gang. They’ve been extorting shop owners on their turf. One stood up and he paid the price for it. What they need Lucy to do is infiltrate them. Get in close and see if they can’t get confession or murder weapon.

Lucy looks a little intimidated by the task. Harper doesn’t let that doubt linger for long. Builds her up saying she’s a UC now. This is what they do. Come in where they’re not wanted to build rapport and trust. Lucy puts her feelings of doubt in check and says she will figure it out.

Tim and Aaron show up for a noise complaint. The lady tells them she was just arguing with her son. Aaron asks what the problem is? She says he’s not listening, mouthy and cutting school. That she’s worried he’s going to end up like his sister. That'll she lose him to a gang. He’s only 15 years old. Tim tells her they can’t arrest or do anything unless he’s committed a crime.

She said she doesn’t want that. Just wants them to put the fear of God into him. See if it’ll keep him out of trouble. Aaron volunteers to talk to the kid. He does such good job with him. I love watching Tim watch him do that. You can see he’s impressed with the cop Aaron is becoming. He’s got a Lucy level skill of connecting with people and being genuinely empathetic. Aaron ends up giving Tabin his card for whenever he needs it to vent.

It doesn't take long before he is blowing up Aaron's phone complaining about his mom. It's actually pretty cute watching Aaron reply to him. He is enjoying helping this kid out and you can tell. Tim makes a joke about how he has a puppy now. The same kind of speech he gave Lucy back when she met Tamara in 3x02. Aaron is having the same resolve Lucy did back then. I mean yes her puppy lives with her now but we all love that haha He is cool as a cucumber saying as long as his mom is a good cook. LOL Tim just shakes his head.

We get some more Harper/Lucy goodness. Nyla is bringing over all the intel on the Razors. The folder is embarrassingly light. Lucy is confused because all these women have heavy records. Tons of drug arrests including meth. Harper tells her no one takes girl gangs seriously. It shows in the amount of intel they have on these women.

Lucy once again expresses her worry about making her way in. Harper knows she can do this. Wouldn’t have tapped her for this if she didn’t. I love their cute bonding moment about Lucy being a threat herself. Hehe That is true. Our girl is a powerhouse to be feared really. Especially with UC. Learned from the best in the business. Really loved this moment with them. Looking forward to more in S6.

Lucy is looking for any kind of in and finds out about Tim's call this morning. The sister of Tabin (Aaron’s puppy.) is in the gang. Lucy and Harper approach them about the call. Tim is cute af saying the call was cute. That all puppies are cute LOL Lucy’s comment is adorable about Tamara. Stealing earrings and losing them. It's classic and you know she wouldn't have it any other way. Tamara stopped being a puppy and became their pseudo daughter long ago though. This is an adorable moment nonetheless.

They’re telling Aaron this kid could be Lucy’s way in. One she desperately needs to establish instant rapport with them. You can see Aaron’s hesitancy on the whole matter. Knowing the mom’s feelings on opening that door for her son. Everyone seems on board for this plan except Aaron.

Which sucks cause he’s the rookie out of all of them. So his opinion while respected doesn’t carry the weight he wants it to. Tim says they can stakeout the meet together. Watch over Tabin so nothing happens to him. It's the only thing calming Aaron in this moment. So he agrees to reach out. They need the mother consent first before anything else.

Aaron is able to get Tabin's mom to consent. Telling her it'll be safe for him to do this. We find them next getting ready to send Lucy in. They’re posted outside a block party the gang is having. They spot Vina and signal Lucy to head in. She does so like a bat out of hell. Love her entrance and confidence she holds. Just handles that car like a damn champ as she drifts into the party literally. The concern on Tim's face from the moment she enters the scene is evident.

Tim looks anxious af the minute that gun is pulled on Lucy. He knows she can handle herself. Logically he knows that. It’s the emotional part that is flipping out right now. Even knowing she can handle herself doesn’t stop him from worrying like crazy. Doesn't ease the panic rising in his throat at the sight of her with a gun in her face. You can tell he is sick to his stomach watching this. Also look at Aaron he’s worried for Tim worrying. He can sense the tension coming off that man in waves.

Don’t tell me that man doesn’t know Tim Is gone for her. Aaron knows what's up. He has always sensed something more between them. Nothing he could put words to but he knows. Just like Grey, Angela and Harper know. Hence the look he’s doing right now for Tim. Worried Tim is a favorite of mine. We’re getting that right off the bat in this op.

Man is so in love and showing all his cards to Aaron. Doesn’t mean to be but he sure is. His whole body tenses up the minute that gun comes out. Legit panic all over his beautiful features. Lastly Lucy looks amazing btw. Like completely in BAMF mode. I’m as straight as an arrow. I’m sure you all can tell by way I drool over Eric. But damn if I don’t have a little girl crush on Lucy Chen haha

Lucy is smooth af in her verbiage. I love Angela and Harper smiling at her ‘Genes’ comment. They’re so proud of their girl. Makes me so very happy. Being the bad ass they knew she would be on this OP. Lucy holds her own the entire time. Doesn’t flinch once with that gun in her face. Shana comes up and has Vina stand down. Lucy says she’s gonna roll then. Acting like she doesn't need to be at this party. But she gets invited to stay for a drink or two. Mission accomplished. She’s in.

We watch Lucy lay down her backstory like a friggin champ. Saying she did a stretch at the same prison Shana did. Pulling out a name that will solidify her status for that. We watch Tim relax a little when she buys her story. Tells Aaron that Shawty is on the DOJ’s payroll and will back Lucy’s cover. Everything is falling into place like it's supposed to. Aaron says it time to pull Tabin then. He did what he was supposed to do. There is no need for him to stay at this party any longer than he has.

Tim tells him no. He’s fine where he is. Aaron presses it some more and says No sir he’s not. I said last episode Aaron had some serious balls with Tim. He for sure does in this moment holy hell. I remember gasping that he said that to Tim. I also said 'Excuse me.' with Tim when it happened LOL I was shocked Aaron would call him out like that. Tapping into Lucy from 1x03. Telling him like it is.

Tim is shocked too hence his reaction. He’s also mad that Aaron could not only see that but call him out on it. As we all know unless it’s Lucy and even then Tim doesn’t like to be called out. If looks could kill our lovely Aaron would be dead LOL Is Aaron right? Yes of course he is. Tim Is putting Lucy above this kid. That’s his first instinct is to protect her career and advance it. I love him for it truly I do. Doesn't mean Aaron is off base in what he is saying either.

Now even though I agree there is a time and place Aaron. Maybe don't call out your superior officer on an op like that lol But he’s definitely not wrong in this thought process. This is the thing Tim was scared of happening. Losing his objectivity based on Lucy alone. Now that’s been happening for years let's be honest. heh

Lucy Chen has been his blind spot for a long time. It’s just more prominent in this season. But Tim has always been putting her first since her early days. Now it usually has positive results. Unfortunately we see it has negative consequences this time around. Like what happens to this kid as we will see soon enough. Aaron’s fear of Tim wins out before the scene is up though. He says he shouldn't have said anything….Look at Aaron's eyes he is straight scared he just angered the beast ha

Sadly it turns out as badly as Aaron predicted it would. Tabin gets into with someone at the party and gets his ass beat. They break it up but not before he takes some serious damage. Lucy asks him if he’s ok Tabin says yes. Vina tries to get him to take the gun and he refuses. She makes fun of him and they take off. We can see how upset Lucy is he was hurt like that.

Unfortunately she has to compartmentalize and rejoin them. Harper says she’s in and they can leave now. Tim copies and they go to find Tabin. It’s super sad when they grab him up. Aaron looks so upset he got hurt. When the mom finds out she tears into them both. Can't say I blame her tbh. Aaron does jump in front of Tim (verbally speaking) during the whole thing. Doesn't do any good but I do love that.

Lucy gets brought along on a money run. I mean if nothing else Tabin's intro go her in real fast. Which is exactly what Lucy needed. It was the purpose of him being there. It’s so fun to watch her hold her own in these op's gotta say. Vina is a loose cannon and it shows. Lucy has to rein her in once again with being violent. It’s where we find out it was Vina who killed the owner not Shana. Harper’s original assumption was her not the sister. Which really sucks for Tabin and his mom. They had him be a CI to take her out not his sister…

Lucy meets up with Tim and Aaron outside Tabin's house. Vina is visiting her brother. Getting rid of the gun like Shana wanted her to by giving it to Tabin. Lucy lets them know it was Vina who killed store owner not the leader. Aaron looks so devastated. Lucy tells him how sorry she is but it’s true. That she probably has the gun on her right now. Tells them she doesn’t want to blow her cover so she’s gonna hang back. Tim understands and they roll up to arrest Vina.

She surrenders quickly but she already gave her brother the gun. Aaron see’s this and calls it out. We then watch Lucy all but bolt to Tim’s side. Cover blown because she thought he was in danger. Rolls up to back them in this arrest. I love that she had her cover protected then saw Tim was in potential danger. Said screw my cover my man is in trouble. Then launched to go protect him. Fantastic. Aaron gets him to drop the gun and hand it off. Tabin then says Aaron used him. It’s pretty sad tbh. They originally did this to bring her home not get her arrested because of their involvement. Sadly not how it worked out at all.

It’s confirmed the gun Vina had was the one that killed the owner. Aaron looks so sad about the whole ordeal. Lucy asks if his puppy has answered? He says no…Lucy reminds him they got a killer off the street. He replies sadly 'But it was his sister…' Her comforting skills kicking in telling him he’ll get it someday. As Tim and Aaron leave for night Tim and Lucy lock eyes.

Real subtle guys. The mini longing going on in this brief moment is primo though. Tim checking in on her but also sending heart eyes her way. Lucy doing the same thing in this gaze of theirs. The pining is real and evident in every episode. I adore that. Even one where they don’t have a ton of content. Testament to the amazing chemistry that Eric and Melissa have. Can take the smallest moments and make them explosive.

Also lord I love it when we get Tim Bradford in a Henley. Mmmm man makes something so simple so very sexy. Aaron apologizes to Tim for saying what he said. That he was out of line. Tim telling him yeah he was. Not in a place with Aaron yet to admit his faults. But it was good he saw how out of line he was in saying it then and there.

Tim does compliment him and say he had his back with the mom earlier. Aaron stepping right into that compliment saying yeah she was gonna lay him out LOL Oh how far our Tim has come for him to have a convo like that with Aaron and have it end with a smile. So proud of him it’s insane. That’s all she wrote for this one. Not a ton but enough that we got some goodies.

~~~

Side notes-non Chenford

Elijah sucks LOL that’s it ha

Thank you forever and always to those who read, like and comment on these. Crazy ride it’s been doing these and you all make it worth it. See you all in 5x08 :)

[slutouttanowhere]

Pairing: Drew McIntyre x Desiree Simons™️

Warnings: work drama, toxic behavior, unprotected sex, light sub and dom switching, denied orgasam. NSFW, minors dni

a/n: hello beautiful heathens, normies, and Drew fans . I know it’s been quite a while since I updated this story, if you’ve been following me then you’d know I’ve been quite busy lol. There seems to be a one shot in particular y’all liked a lot, it’s in my master list if you’re curious. Buckle up because this chapter finally gets into a bit of drama, and spiciness. Some things in our past do come back to haunt us don’t they? Desiree Simons is my oc check out my pinned post for more on her. Likes and reblogs are highly appreciated, and follow me for more.

Chapter 3: Alley Cat

Wednesday afternoon

Somehow, Shawn roped me into coming down to the PC, and lending a helping hand to some of the younger talent. What I didn't know was that there would be others from the main roster there as well; Sheamus, Xavier, Mercedes, and to my dismay Mandy all stood around chit chatting waiting for the training to start. “Good to see ya kid, how's the old man?” Shawn greeted me with a warm side hug, then patted me on the head, and I was transported to the five year old girl gushing with adoration over The Heartbreak Kid backstage. The only time my dad allowed me to run rampant. I usually gave all the stars hell, whenever it seemed like I was about to get in trouble Shawn, and Hunter would back me up like cool uncles.

“Are you referring to my father…or yourself?” I joked, to which he let out a scoff holding his hand to his heart as if I shot him there. I held my own hand up to my lips feigning shock, but also to hide the grin on my lips, there’s not much you can say to Shawn to hurt his feelings. As we made our way towards the group, I caught the way Mandy looked at us. Envy settled deep within her eyes, I shifted my focus to my friends who sprung up to talk to me. Mercedes all but jumped into my arms, we hung out yesterday, but seeing as I’ve been gone for so long, five hours just simply wasn't long enough.

“Didn’t I just see you yesterday?” I asked playfully, her arm slung around my shoulder, and my arms wrapped loosely around her waist.

She shrugged her shoulders, “And how blessed you must feel to see me twice in one week.” She smiled smugly, I would have replied but Shawn clapped his hands together gathering our attention.

“Alright children, as you know there was a bit of a competition between you all to see who gets to partake in this mini bootcamp. Five NXT stars, and five WWE stars. Even though you all are here to take notes, and study the work from some of the main rosters finest, you’ll be partaking in the action as well. Think of it as a hands-on experience.” Shawn took a breath, as expected we were all hanging on his every word, because duh, it’s freakin’ Shawn Michelas.

“The first round will be our favorite drills.” He paused to let us all groan, and mumble complaints simultaneously. Just when I thought I’ve escaped those dreaded bump drills, I’m somehow brought right back to them years later.

“Oh yeah, that means you big shots as well, our turf, our rules.” He chortled playfully, but quickly got back on topic, he climbed into the ring, we all gathered around the apron giving our undivided attention. He had NXT run their drills first, they were amazing, and agile. They moved smoothly without a hitch, but when it was our turn, main roster, or ‘team retirement home’ Shawn so affectionately called us, I realized I had some work to do. Despite my internal complaints, I got through it fairly easily. Shawn paired us up to do more drills that he didn't think to mention thirty minutes ago, but it wasn't until we had to pair up, and demonstrate a cookie cutter, WWE factory made in ring scenarios, did the drama start.

“Here’s where the note taking part comes in, the main roster will demonstrate a variety of scenarios for you guys. Firstly, everyone’s favorite trope, good guy vs bad guy, and if I could get two volunteers.” Shawn had chuckled at my eagerness, my hand shot up, then I looked around seeing I was the only one. Mercedes snorted, “Try hard.” She mumbled under her breath, she playfully knocked her shoulder into mine.

“Oh good, we got one, Desiree, get in here kid.” I happily skipped over to the middle of the ring where he stood, looking very much like a father with his hands on his hips. He scratched his brow, then scouted the people left, and luckily for me he chose Mercedes. There isn't anyone I’d rather spar with more, she sauntered over to me with a haughty swagger.

“Sasha Banks, Desiree, who wants to be the bad guy?” He asked, looking between the two of us, a bemused expression on his face. I raised my hand, but Mercedes smacked it down.

“You wish you could be a bad guy.” She grinned, I scoffed causing everyone to chuckle, but no one defended me. I folded my arms over my chest, my eyebrows drawn together.

“I could totally be a bad guy, you’re just a bitch by design.” I argued back, I tried to fight the smile threatening to press against my lips. Shawn quietly instigated from the side, everyone else had already stepped out the ring.

“That’s Ms. bad bitch to you.” She quickly rebuttal not missing a beat, sassiness laced heavily in her tone. There was truth in our jokes, and as much as I hated to admit, she could turn on her attitude like a flip of a switch. If someone went low, I was taking it straight to hell, and there wasn’t an inbetween.

“Ha! Well, show us how it’s done ladies.” As soon as Shawn stepped out, Mercedes shoved me on the shoulders, and I was quick to return the favor. Considering we didn’t have any prep time, we’re doing our best to improve, so when she slapped me across the face, I was genuinely shocked. A course of “ohhh” rang from our audience, I grabbed her by the shoulders, and brought her into a tight lock up.

“Bet you’re awake now huh sunshine?” Mercedes taunted me, I tried to push forward and overpower her, but she stomped her foot down stopping me. With all her force she pushed me towards the ropes, and naturally my body relaxed so I could bounce off the top rope with ease. When I came running at her, she grabbed my arms, and Irish whipped me into the other side of the ring. Something, or someone had grabbed my ankle causing me to trip forward but Mercedes caught me before I fell. “Whoa, you okay?” Mercedes paused for a second, and helped me steady myself, I looked over my shoulder. My eyes scanned the onlookers, and while it could have been either one of them, the one who stood out to me the most was Mandy.

I could have sworn there was a flicker of deviousness in her eyes, I blinked and it was gone, and replaced with confusion. I shook my head, “Yea, just lost my footing..sorta. Let’s keep going.” Mercedes' gaze lingered at one me for a moment longer, but locked up with me again, we tousled for a while. We moved through various technical moves, all of which from Mercedes were explosive, and planted me every time. I gave her a good fight, as she went for a third pin I refused to give up, and now she was getting frustrated. This was usually where I excelled, one of the many things AJ Lee taught me was endurance.

“Stay down!” She screamed at me, her foot stomping my shoulder, I grunted then gripping my arm, and rolling away in pain. Mercedes shouted, “Some champion you are!” She taunted, our crowd booed her in response, and when I turned over on my shoulder to see her grinning at me I had to fight back my own smile. I crawled to the corner turnbuckles, and sluggishly hung off the second ropes, using them for support.

“Excellent selling, Desiree, you’re doing great ladies.” Shawn called to us from outside the ring, which only encouraged Mercedes more; she grabbed me by my braids, and pulled me back to the center of the ring. I started to give a bit of a fight back, but she beat me back down with forearms to the face. I laid there slumped as I leaned my back against her chest, my arms at my side. My chest rising and falling as I tried to suck in as much air as I could, and made sure to put on a good show.

She hooked her arm around my neck, roughly locking it in, and placing her hand on top of my head for good measure. I could feel her body weight leaning on me, I held my arms out trying to keep fighting. No matter how hard I tried to break out of her hold, she just wouldn’t give, but then I could hear our little crowd of people start to chant and clap for me. The energy fired me up, and I managed to get onto my knee, Mercedes still clung onto me. With all my strength being in my legs, and thighs I got up to one leg. The crowd started to buzz, as I’m sure none of them expected me to power out of this hold that way. Then I got up on my other leg, I was now squatting with Mercedes on my back, her legs came around my hips. I grabbed her thighs, and held onto her securely.

I stood up on my feet, letting out a warrior's cry, and fell backwards onto the mat, squashing Mercedes underneath me. “Ugh.” She groaned, the crowd cheered, and whistled for me. I went over to the ropes blowing kisses, and dusted off my shoulder feeling cocky. I turned to Mercedes who was struggling to get to her feet, I pulled her up by the shoulders, and hit her with a few punches. I hooked her arm around the back of my neck, then lifted her up vertically, and dropped her onto the mat planting her face first.

“Beautiful Falcon Arrow Des.” Shawn praised me, I rolled Mercedes onto her back, pinning down her shoulders. As Sheamus slapped the mat, and gave us the three count, my lips stretched into a broad, shining smile. I stood to my feet pulling Mercedes up with me, and she brought me into a tight hug.

“Wonderfully done ladies, they played their given roles perfectly. They decided to take a more technical approach to the start, but as a heel don’t be afraid to start things off dirty. Maybe rush your opponent by attacking them in between the ropes as they’ve entered, or even before the bell rings give a little cheap shot.” He paused for a moment to catch his breath, like earlier we hung on his every word, soaking up every bit of information he had to offer. Then, he continued. “The goal of the heel is to win by any means necessary, however Sasha did a great job at telling the story in a more physical aspect. She was rough, asserting her dominance, and manhandled Desiree. Desiree, as the face, did feel defeated at one point, but she let the crowd feed her. Listening to the crowd is very important, they control you, not the other way around. By the way, Des that was a beautiful power out, a wonderful display of power, and showing how the hero can prevail.” Everyone clapped, and slapped hands with Mercedes and I as we went into a quick break. I rolled out of the ring, to quickly jog over to my bag for water. I noticed Mandy a few inches away scrolling on her phone, but I didn’t say anything.

I figured if I just ignored her, she’d eventually leave me alone, but boy was I wrong. “That was a neat little party trick you did at the end there, wonder where you got that from?” Mandy snipped at me, I turned towards her, and she was fully facing me. Her arms folded, lips pursed, and her eyebrow raised. An accusatory expression etched across her tanned face.

I continued sucking down my water for a moment longer, at this point I hoped she just came out with why she had such a hostility towards me so we could get this over with. “What?” I chuckled, but my heart was pounding. The anticipation of the argument is killing me.

“That move you did at the end, I created that, and I’ve been doing it since my indies days.” She explained, but I was still confused. I glanced down at her thighs. I know I wasn’t built like Trinity or Bianca, but I for damn sure could lift more off my thighs than Mandy.

“Crazy of you to assume I watch you that closely, girl I don’t even think about you…like at all.” I switched the weight from one hip to the other, my hands opening and closing. I could feel my face twisting into a grimace, but my tone of voice was cool.

“No, you don’t think about me, but I know Drew still does.” My voice caught in my throat, all I could do was blink, because as much as I wanted to laugh that comment off, something in my gut told me it was at least partially true.

I took a few steps forward getting into her personal space, though her eyelids widened, she didn’t back down. “Your…services are no longer needed. Thanks for keeping the bed warm while I was gone hoe.” I said, smiling all the while, her nostrils flared, but I’m sure this hurt me more than it did her. I refused to show any signs of weakness though, but later, much later I will be crying about this.

“If it happened once, it’ll happen again, Drew seems to be a creature of habit. And there’s nothing you can do about it.” She whirled her finger around in my face, then touched the top of my nose teasingly. That was enough to finally piss me off, I snatched her hand roughly, and twisted her arm up behind her back.

“Hey hey, knock it off!” Shawn shouted, and I usually respect his dad voice, however, I was feeling irate at the moment.

“Try it if you want to bitch, you could never be me.” I growled in her ear, I was angry enough to rip her arm off, but fortunately for us both people were already pulling us apart. Mercedes and Xavier tried to hold onto me, but I squirmed around trying to free myself. Carmelo held onto Mandy.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, and her face pinched up into an expression of anger, “You bitch! You don’t deserve anything.” Her voice broke, and the tears wouldn’t stop.

“Don’t fucking play with me, I’ll slap the dog shit outta you!” I didn’t give a damn about any of those tears, play stupid games, win stupid prizes, and the next time she tried me I bet she’ll think twice. Mercedes’ grip on my arms tightened refusing to let me go she’s never seen me get this upset before.

“Separate them now, I want Desiree in my office, and Mandy, walk it off.” Shawn pressed his lips together, he stood in between both of us, and watched closely as Mandy was walked out of the Performance Center.

We made the king trudge to Shawn’s office in silence, we I was silent, Xavier and Mercedes were trying to talk to me, but I wouldn’t budge. Finally fed up with being ignored, Mercedes grabbed me by the arm, and turned me to face her.

“Don’t shut us out Dee, you know you can talk to us about anything.” Mercedes grabbed my wrist, her tone tender. My lips parted to speak, but Shawn’s voice over spoke loudly from a few feet away.

“I’ll take it from here guys, Billy’s gonna over take training, and no matter how many times he asks, do not bring up what just happened.” He warned giving the younger stars a stern look, the both of them silently agreeing, and gave me a pat on the back on the way by.

He then turned his attention to me, a disappointed expression etched across his face, he sighed heavily. “Now, what to do with you.” I had no idea what he was thinking, especially with his cowboy hat partially covering his eyes, but I hoped for the best as I stepped to the side to move out of his way. He unlocked the door to his office, and allowed me to walk in first like a gentleman. Then I took a seat in the chair in front of his desk, I took my time to look around the office as I’ve never been in here before. There were of course the obligatory posters of DX on both sides of the room; one poster with just Shawn and Hunter, and the other with the whole gang. By the time I swept the whole room, and came back around to Shawn, his eyes were already on me.

“You know who I’m seeing, looking at you right now?” He asked, I didn’t answer, instead I remained quiet. My heart was ringing in my ears, and now that I’ve calmed down more, I realized how ridiculous it was to pick a fight with Mandy.

“I see seven year old Desiree Simons who just tricked Big Show out of twenty dollars, and is now running to me for help. Because obviously you couldn’t let your old man know what you’ve been up to, though I think now would be a great time to key him in on all of your recent events.” Shawn’s lips pulled upward into a smile as he watched my face morph into a look of horror.

“He doesn’t even work for the company anymore, what’s the point of calling him?” I argued, mortified at the thought of my dad catching a flight to where I am, and popping up when I least expected it.

“Oh I know that, but I have a gut feeling that me letting you off with a warning won’t be good enough. I personally feel the need to bust out the big guns.” A smirk plastered to his face, he was joking, but I knew he’d actually do it if he had to. I felt betrayed, so much for our vow to never snitch.

“No, no, I’ll take a warning!” I shouted nearly popping out of my chair, to which he busted out into laughter. He leaned back in his seat holding his stomach, he sobered up after a moment, and then he got serious again.

“Is it something you want to talk about? It’s not like you, to start fights, you just got back off a year long recovery kid, and already you’re stirring up drama.” He waited for my reply, his hands clasped together on top of his desk, and his eyes searching mine.

I inhaled deeply, “Maybe, I’m a bit on edge since I’ve been away…a little insecure I guess.” I mumbled, I was too embarrassed to mention who Mandy and I were arguing over.

Shawn scratched his beard like a wise old mange, he thought about his own reply, his eyebrows drew together. A pensive expression on his face. “Desiree, being away from the camera doesn’t make you forgetable, not having passion, and desire is what can make you forgetable. See what I did there?” I couldn’t help but let out a small giggle, I pulled my knees up to my chest, and rested my chin on my kneecaps. There were so many thoughts going through my head, and often compressing myself helped to slow things down.

“I know it’s hard, trust me if there’s anyone around here that knows what it’s like to let the pressure get to you, it’s me. Now I’m no therapist, but you gotta get all those thoughts outta you, talk about it to someone, anyone. When you bottle it all up, ya end up putting someone in a chicken wing.” Another wise word from Shawn Michaels, but not without the comedy of course. He was right, no matter how much Mandy gets on my mother fucking nerves, I shouldn’t have put my hands on her.

“Thanks for going easy on me.” I smiled sheepishly, bringing my legs down, and inhaling air deeply into my lungs. Now I felt calmer than I did, and thanks to Shawn shifting my perception, I had a more positive outlook on my current journey here in the WWE.

“Don’t take it for granted, I do have old Ron Simons number on speed dial kid.” He grinned, then stood up from his desk, and I mirrored his movements standing from my seat as well. He clapped his hand on my shoulder, and in combination with the hair ruffling, it transported me back to my kid self again.

Before I left the office, I had to tell him just once, “I’m happy you’re still around Shawn.” I said as I stood in between the threshold of the doorway, he seemed a bit taken aback by my statement. His eyes were glossy, but he blinked it away.

“Duh, who else is gonna bail you out?” He rolled his eyes, his office phone began to ring, pulling his attention away from me. He smiled apologetically, “Hate to cut it short Des, but this old man does have business to handle. Stay out of trouble.” He waved me goodbye one last time, before sending me on my way.

Our conversation wasn't long, but it was needed. That was the first time I admitted, out loud to someone other than my cats, how the recovery was affecting me internally. Today it blew up in my face, while it was perfectly normal for me to be upset, but I don’t pride myself on resorting to any unnecessary violence. Especially with someone so insignificant as Mandy, the training seemed to be over for the day. The only people left hanging around were Mercedes. She sat in the middle of the ring, a bored expression on her face as she doom scrolled through her phone.

“Jail wasn’t as bad as I thought.” I joked, I hopped up on the apron of the ring, and took a seat. She smiled at me, the corners of her lips turning up ever so slightly.

“Never took you for an alley cat, but this wouldn’t be the first time you’ve surprised me DeeDee.” Mercedes sat next to me, our shoulders touching, but neither one of us spoke. My watch buzzed several times. I glanced down to see Drew had been texting me earlier, but the training held my attention.

“Apparently I stole her move, and she was mad about it.” I said, my tone nonchalant, and my eyes staring straight ahead at nothing in particular. It all sort of blurred together.

Mercedes turned to me, I could see the confusion on her face in my peripheral. “What?” She chuckled. I spared myself the embarrassment of telling her the other half of the argument, the last thing I wanted to hear was a lecture from Ms. Bad Bitch.

“Exactly my reaction, but it’s whatever though I’ll handle her at a different time.” I laughed, she watched me with a weary expression, her eyes squinting at me, and I suddenly felt nervous under her gaze.

“Was that all? Because you was about ready to knock her head off.” She turned to me sitting on her knees, her lips pressed into a thin line, and her arms folded. It was slightly intimidating, but I stood my ground.

“Yes, that’s all, I swear.” I lied, I couldn’t take her scrutiny, so I stood up, stretching my arms. She followed my lead getting to her feet, she parted her lips to say something but decided against it fortunately for me. We climbed out of the ring, and I made sure to gather my things that were left on the apron.

“Alright, I’ll let it go, for now.” She sighed in a defeated tone, she smiled, and held her arms out to me. I pulled her into a hug, we squeezed each other tightly before letting go. We walked out the Performance Center with our arms looped together talking about our sparring match, and making plans to hang out later in the week. We said our last goodbyes with another tight hug, then headed off in our separate directions.

By the time I got home, showered, and changed my clothes, I was exhausted. I was thankful for being in Florida this week, even if you get used to sleeping in hotels, nothing beats the feeling of sleeping in your own bed. I plopped down on the couch in the living room, and instantly Andrew and Sadie came to cuddle underneath me. Sadie being the neediest, buried her body between my arms, happily purring all the while. Andrew however, sat next to me, snuggly at my side, and happily made biscuits out of the couch.

I looked at my phone, scrolling through the endless list of text messages, a few from April, which is shocking because she doesn't text me all that often. Mainly because she knows I don't always have a chance to respond in an appropriate amount of time, but also because she likes to talk on the phone. I, however, despise phone conversations.

2:30 pm April: Why did Mercedes tell me you got into a fight?

2: 35 pm April: Are you okay?

2:40 pm April: Did you get in trouble?

I let out a breath of hair, then made a note to text her back later. If I forgot to do that, I’m sure she’ll blow up my phone some more. Then I opened Drew’s messages.

8:00 am Drew: get your ass up, we’re going for a walk

10:50 am Drew: hey wanna get breakfast? My treat.

3:15 pm Drew: call me later when you get a chance.

I felt bad for not going on that walk with him this morning, I texted him back in my head, but clearly that message hadn’t translated into my phone. The phone barely rang three times before he answered, the volume of his tv turned down before he spoke. “Okay so you’re not dead, nor have you been kidnapped.” He said half heartedly, though there was a genuine worried undertone in his voice, and I don't blame him. I’m usually very consistent with texting back. But today it just slipped me, especially after that little spat with Mandy. I grimaced at the thought of her, and my expression only deepened when I remembered the original reason I called him in the first place.

“Hey, can you come over?” I mumbled, tears rolled down my checks, and onto my sweater. My throat felt restricted, and my heart began to skip, every part of me wanted to crawl into the deepest hole. Drew hadn’t said anything yet, knowing him, he’s racking his brain trying to decipher why I sounded like I’m dying.

“Of Course sweetheart, want me to bring you anything? He asked softly, I could hear the jingle of keys, and shuffling on his side of the phone. I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand, inhaling deeply, I tried to gather myself.

“Mmm, maybe chicken nuggets.” My voice cracked, giving me away, but it’s not like I tried very hard to hide my emotions today.

“Shit.” He cursed under his breath, “Just stay where you are, I’m leaving the hotel right now okay?”

I nodded my head, “Okay.” He didn't hang up the phone, I could hear his engine roar to life, and the sound of the city streets. About half an hour passed by the time he finally made it to my house, the doorbell rang, and the cats perked up from the sound. I could see Drew’s large tall frame from my side of the stained glass door, pulling it open, and stepping back so he could come in. I closed the door behind him, Drew made his way into the kitchen to set the food on the counter, and Sadie followed quickly, now interested in the large man that just entered our home.

“Des, I got you the usual six piece spicy nuggets, and a fruit punch juice.” He said, upon entering the kitchen, Andrew was being more vocal than usual, practically singing to Drew. He turned on his back, puring, and meowing. Drew, not one to turn down the attention of a fur-baby, scratched Andrew’s chin, and rubbed his belly gently. Sadie pawed my ankle, she didnt wanna be left out, so when I bent to reach for her, she leapt into my arms with ease.

“Thanks…” I trailed off, I wasn't sure how to start this conversation, or if I should even bring it up at all anymore. The anger I had earlier has long since vanished, but I was still upset about it. That bitch tried to embarrass me, and who knows what else she’s been saying, or laughing about behind my back, meanwhile Drew knew this the whole time and didn’t even tell me.

“Did you and Mandy fuck?” I asked, cutting straight to the point, he slowly turned his attention away from Andrew, and onto me. I stood next to him at the kitchen island, a good amount of space between us, but I wanted it that way. I didn't need him to distract me.

An expression of culpability washed over his face, but he met my furious glare head on. “Yes.” He answered, as big as he is in stature, he seemed to have shrunk just now. His shoulders slumped, hands at his sides, and strands of his hair had fallen into his face. “I’m guessing she told you?”

“She didn't just tell me, she rubbed it in my face, then proceeded to claim she could have you anytime she wanted.'' I explained. My hands balled into fist, the thought of that hussy all over Drew like she owned him, pissed me off all over again.

“That’s not true, not even in the slightest, I’d never go back to her now that–

“Now that I’m back to entertain you? Well what happens if I leave again? What then?” I argued cutting him off, which I knew pissed him off, and he was right on my heels when I turned to walk off.

“C’mon you don't honestly believe that do you? Desiree.” He begged, I whipped around stopping him mid stride, and causing us to nearly collide into each other, his eyes widened in shock.

“I don't know what to believe, you had me walking around that stank ass bitch looking stupid. Smiling in her face trying to be nice to her, and you had your dick all in her!” For once he was stumped, but he was quick to recover, talking so fast that his accent took over his vernacular. I barely understood him.

“We only had sex once! That was a year, and a half ago at this point, I didn't even finish on top of that. I couldn't finish, god it was so stupid.” He mumbled the last part, his voice dipping lower just then. “What you give me, I can't get from any other woman, and I know that now.” Drew McIntyre, 6’5 275 lbs, is on his knees, in the middle of my living room. Begging for my forgiveness, his arms wrapped around my hips, and his face pressed to my stomach. A hot ass mess.

I rolled my eyes, “Please get up Drew, you're a grown man.” I breathed heavily, he put more of his weight onto me, he had an iron grip around my hips.

“Does that mean you forgive me?” He asked, a hopeful look on his face, and his bottom lip poked out.

“I’ll think about it.” I mumbled, my arms crossed over my chest, and my nose turned upwards, he let out a defeated breath, reluctantly he let go of me. Standing to his feet once again, he went over to the kitchen, shooed the cats away, who had snuck back into the kitchen, and had begun to sniff the plastic food bag. He brought it into the living room where I had plopped down onto the sofa, my legs folded together, and my elbow digging into my thigh holding up my head as I surfed the channels on the tv I barely watched.

There still was one thing that bothered me, “Why didn’t you just tell me? At least a heads up, this was the worst surprise of all time, it was embarrassing, and the worst part was I reacted violently.”

“You what?” He looked up at me, shock evident in his eyes, he stood up from his kneeling position, then I took him by the hand, and led him over to the sofa. I didn't sit too close still wanting to have my own space, he noticed it, but did not speak on it.

“Today Shawn Michaels had me and some others from the main roster do some sort of a wrestlers digest for the NXT kids.” I said rolling my eyes, I was ready to put the whole day behind me, but since I brought it up, I decided to continue on. Drew came and sat beside me, he had kicked off his shoes, and was sitting with one of his legs tucked under the other. I offered him a chicken nugget, but he declined.

“Anyways, it was going pretty okay, but then afterwards Mandy just ripped into me. First, she accused me of stealing her drop move, which I did not because what the fuck does that bitch thinks she can teach me?” I explained as I munched away, abstinemindly Drew massaged Sadie’s head, while Andrew snuggled next to my thigh.

“Then she’s all like, ‘Drew thinks about me all the time’ and then she was like ‘And I’ll do it again if I want to’ ugh I should have strangled her.” It hadn’t occurred to me that I was gripping the Wendy's bag until Drew’s large hands wrapped around my wrist.

Drew hooked his finger underneath my chin, and gently turned my face back to him, his gray-blue irises looked like a stormy sky. His eyebrows drawn together, he said, “She never took me away from you.” He declared, I stared into his eye trying to find a flicker of dishonesty, or regret. All I could see was sincerity, and shame, the pain in my chest soothed as the minutes went by. I closed my eyes focusing on my breathing, finally I made my decision, no longer upset with him, and Mandy long forgotten, I launched myself onto Drew’s side of the sofa. My arms wrapped around his broad shoulders, and my face nuzzling into the crook of his neck.

A strong stent of tea tree mint wafted into my nostrils, my lips turned upward into a smile for the first time today. Just as he was wrapping his arms around my waist I pulled back, “Are you still washing your hair with the same hair company I recommend?”

“Of course, why would I change it?” His lips curled into a playful grin, my fingers played with his soft, dark hair. He never let it get too long, he usually kept it trimmed at his shoulders. His hands crept underneath my sweater top, caressing my skin, slowly moving up, and down my back. I startled his waist, my knees on either side of his thighs, and I stood up on my knees so that I now towered over him.

“I love seeing you like this, so fucking beautiful.” He breathed, a dark sensation washed over me, and I was suddenly in the mood. My fingers gripped his hair with authority, and pulled his head back. Drew let out a deep groan, his nails digging into my flesh, but the stinging sensations sent a tingle down my spine and right between my legs. “I liked it when you begged me, you should do it more often.” I whispered, my lips just barely touched his, and when he tried to move his head to meet me halfway, I yanked his hair.

“Relax sweetheart.” I teased, I trailed kisses down his neck, licking, and sucking his skin as I went. His body melted under my lips, I pulled his shirt over his head, and continued to pepper kisses across his broad chest.

When I get past his belly button he starts to make a fuss, “We don’t have to–

“Don’t speak unless I say so, you deserve this.” I snapped at him, Drew’s lips pressed together agreeing to be compliant. I understood that he could physically overpower me if he wanted, and since he didn’t I continued to play.

“Look at where acting like a slut got you, right back to me.” I traced the line of hair that ran from his bellybutton, and disappeared underneath his jeans. The hairs across his chest, and stomach were soft. Such a drastic difference than when we first met, he was damn near hairless.

“Take off your jeans.” I ordered him, nearly jumping up off the sofa, and doing what was told. The cats had long since abandoned us, and my food had gotten cold as it sat half eaten on the glass coffee table. He kicked his jeans off, “briefs too cowboy.” I teased, he was hasty with his movements not wanting to waste a second, I patted his spot where he was sitting. “Sit.” My voice dropped to a whisper, I moaned out upon seeing his semi hardened cock. It was thicker than I remembered, fat even, it flopped around as he got back into a comfortable sitting position. The sound of his flesh slapping against flesh made my pussy tingle with desire.

He reached his hand down to wrap around himself but I smacked his hand away, a look of annoyance flashed in his eyes. “Oh I know that’s not an attitude?” I folded my arms over my chest, daring him to challenge me, but he didn’t move off the couch.

“Desiree please—

I cut him off before he could continue, “Do it again.” I smirked, my heart beating excitedly, I was getting a rush of adrenaline from the power I was feeling.

“Say…please.” I mocked in a melodic voice, I sat perched on my knees beside him, I placed my hand on his thigh. His eyes slid closed, I leaned in, tucked his hair behind his ear, and softly kissed the tip of his ear. “I hate to have to ask twice.” I whispered huskily, my hand crept up his thigh, and up to his lower stomach. He still didn’t give, his eyelids snapped open, they sparkled with defiance. I bit my lip to hold back my laughter.

“Always thought you were more of a brat than me but that's fine.” I shrugged, my hand ghosted over his tip, I watched his face closely as I gently swiped the pre-cum off with my index finger. He watched as I brought my finger up to my lips, flicking my tongue out, and licking the stickiness off. I licked my hand, then reached down again, this time gripping his dick in my palm; not too tightly, but just the way he liked.

“Shit, please, I just need to feel you. I missed you so much, please.” He begged, his breathing deepened, and his bottom lip pulled between his teeth.

My unoccupied hand reached up to wrap around the top of his head, I caressed his long, silky dark hair like a pet. “That’s a good boy, now, was that so hard?” I pulled my sweater over my head revealing my bare breast, Drew’s eyes dropped to my chest, I could feel his fingers twitch against my thigh where his hand rested. His eyes darted back up to my face, and back to my chest, wordlessly asking me for permission. I lifted an eyebrow questioning him.

“Can I touch you?” He blurted out as if he had been holding his breath, I stifled a laugh, and wondered to myself if this was how I looked when our roles were reversed.

“You can touch me anywhere you want.” I caved, though I’m proud of myself for getting this far, and astounded Drew allowed my shenanigans to ensue. I missed the way he touched me, he’s always gentle as if he might break me.

His hand slid from my thigh up the side of my hip, and around to my lower back. The other grasped onto my hand, placed it back around his dick, the tip of him peeking out more and more as he became more aroused. “Fuck, you always know how to stroke me princess.” He groaned, he grabbed me by the chin, and met me halfway in a deep, heated kiss. Our lips intertwined as we moaned into each other, wordlessly begging for more.

“Tell me what you want from me first.” Drew mumbled between kisses, his hands caressing my body, and found their way to my breast. He took my nipple between his thick fingers, at first he squeezed gently as if testing his own strength, but then applying pressure.

My back arched, the sharp sensation traveled down to the core of me between my thighs. “My pussy, I need it.” I whined, I held on to his large shoulder for balance. Drew sucked on my skin, following up with wet sloppy kisses, then repeating the same with my other breast. He presses his face into my cleavage then breaths me in, his hands on my back, nails digging into my skin as he drags them down. I let out a shuddering breath, for a moment we just stayed there in the moment.

“Lay back.” He murmurs against my skin, then kisses me one last time before letting me go so I could reposition myself. I rest comfortably on the sofa pillows, my hands found their way to my breast, and lightly ghost over my nipples. The tickling causes them to tighten, almost painfully; I open my eyes to see Drew already staring down at me, slowly stroking himself. I place my feet on his thighs, and slide them up, replacing his hands. “Fuck, that feels good princess.” He moaned as I gently brushed my toes against him, his eyes closed for a moment, and his breaths deepened. Grabbing me by my legs, and pushing them back further, and spreading me open wider. He lowered between my thighs pressing his lips softly, and leaving a wet trail of kisses down to my core.

“Spread it open for me sweetheart.” He instructed huskily, his chest rising and falling. His eyes watched mine as my hands moved down between my soft, squishy thighs, I slipped two of my fingers into my vagina. “That’s my good girl.” He moaned, his eyes were intently focused on my hand, when I slowly pulled my fingers out, and spread myself wide for him. He licked his lips, then gently, he pushed himself into me. Not only had it been two years of not being with him, but a long two years of not having the touch of a man at all. I had hit a depressive low causing my desires to fully leave my body, I didn’t want to be looked at or touched by anyone but myself. Drew stretched me in a way I had forgotten about, he slowly, and carefully slid into me. At first the pain was unavoidable, my hands gripped his sides, and I couldn’t help the way my nails dug into his flesh.

He grunted, then let out a deep breath, “fuck, that’s right princess, grip me just like that.” On command I tightened around him, his hips picked up a steady rhythm, one that I had missed. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and my hands cupped his face. I gripped his beard pulling him to me, and kissed his lips hungrily. “Harder.” I demanded he slowed to a pause then looked me in my eyes, those beautiful stormy eyes of his piercing my soul.

“Are you sure?” He asked, the pain of my nipples tightening caused me to arch my back, and let out a whine.

“Yes, please, please.” I begged, he lowered his head between the crook of my neck, and pressed his lips to my pulse. He roughly slid back into me once, then twice, and after the third time he kept that pace. Relentless thrusting into me, my pussy throbbed deliciously as I took him in, “just like that, give me all that dick baby.” I breathed out greedily, I hung onto him for dear life as he rocked into me.

“You take all of me so well princess, fuck you fit so perfectly.” He moaned into my ear, I was right on the edge of a long overdue orgasam, and I damn near couldn’t take it.

“Oh– fuck Drew I can’t.” I cried, my eyes screwed shut, and my head was thrown back. Nothing else mattered right now, I didn’t care if the police were banging at my door, they were gonna have to see this.

“Let it out princess, fucking scream it in my ears, I wanna hear you.” He didn’t stop till I came squirting all over him, myself and my very expressive sofa making a mess of everything.

“Oh!” I shouted, my muscles tensed, and tears sprouted from my eyes. How fucking embarrassing. As if my convulsions weren’t enough to indicate I was basically dying and couldn’t take anymore, Drew felt the need to swipe his tongue between my swollen lips.

“Look at this fucking mess you made, I guess I’ve gotta clean it up.” He grinned devilishly, he slurped the juices that slid down my thighs, and worked his way up to my clit. He sucked me into his mouth then let me go with a pop of his lips. He chuckled deeply as he watched me lie there to catch my breath, “you’re not dead yet.” He laughed, which was an asshole move considering I can’t even feel my legs right now.

“Fuck you.” I rebuttal childishly, which only made him laugh harder causing his dimples to become more prominent, which is how the fuck I got into this predicament in the first place. His silly little grin was my weakness. I stood up from the couch, and collected my clothes.

He chuckled then slapped me on the ass as I bent over, “where was all that shit talking energy a moment ago?” I could feel from the vibrato in his voice that he was indeed proud of himself. We’ll see who has the last laugh though.

“Haha, you’re sleeping on the couch…asshole.” I laughed dryly, then side stepped him, he scoffed in disbelief. His eyes having a hard time looking me in the face in his current state, my nipples stiffened from the friction of the soft cotton sweater I held against my breast. I swallowed my desires, my nose upturned, and my lips pressed together. He may have won the battle, but he won’t win the war.

“You’re joking?” He asked, I stood at the bottom of the stairs, then turned to look at him. He stood in the middle of the living room, a desperate look in his eyes, and his dick still hard as rocks. I ached for him, but he had to be punished somehow.

I shrugged my shoulders, “if I were joking, wouldn't you be laughing?” On that note I swiftly turned and made my way up the stairs, had it not been for the banister holding me up my knees would have buckled underneath me. Once I made it to my room I threw my clothes in the hamper, then ran myself a bath. I soaked until I became wrinkly, then I got out, pulled on one of Drew’s shirts he definitely didn’t know I still had, and threw myself in the bed. My phone rang on the nightstand, I groaned, turning over to grab it, and blindly answering not bothering to check the caller ID.

“Hello?” I asked, my voice already laced with sleepiness, and my eyelids heavy. I suddenly sparked back to life if only for a few moments when I heard his voice.

“I can’t sleep.” Drew spoke into the phone, and though we were in the same house he felt miles away. Just then Sadie had found her way into my bed, and Andrew was in his usual spot in the window, keeping watch till he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore.

I snorted, “it’s only been thirty minutes.”

“So? Don’t you miss our late night talks?” I could hear him shuffle on his end before he settled, I didn’t fight the smile that turned upward into my lips.

“I do…” I confessed, that’s all he needed to hear before he started telling me stories about his childhood, and Scotland. I didn’t chime in, I just loved hearing his voice, and how thick his accent got the more comfortable he was. Soon enough I got too sleepy to even indicate to him I was dozing off, and the next thing I knew I was dreaming.

[analog-smiles]

Could i hear the headcanon you were talking about related to the little white flecks you put on mckrakens skin? (I got curious + love your yapping 🙏 ^▽^)

oh boy you are opening a Can Of Worms [ this is a good thing, i like to yap, this is just me thinking way too hard about something that was probably just meant to look really cool ]

ok so in ykw1, the presence of mckraken [ and maybe white yokai in general ] had this really weird effect on the world around them, right? like the yokai world faded to white as you encountered more white yokai and approached lord's gate, and mount wildwood experienced the same when mckraken was up there

but there was never really any explanation of why that happened, and it all just sort of Went Away and never happened again

on a similar note, it's never really explained Why the white yokai are white, other than it being an obvious indicator of mckraken's more dedicated supporters. and they also just Go Away after ykw1 and we never see them again [ except for in blasters i guess but i hesitate to consider any part of blasters canon, other than the fact that the blasters teams Do exist ]

for a while i thought that maybe the faded patches in the world were connected to why white yokai were that color, like spending too long in a faded area would start to cause the colors of a yokai to fade, and that's why the yokai who hang around mckraken so much look Like That. but mckraken kind of threw a wrench into that concept because he doesn't exactly follow the color scheme of his henchmen - he Wears a lot of white, and some parts of his body match, but overall he's not Completely White like the others, despite residing in the area of the yokai world that's most affected by the fading. plus that theory kind of didn't answer the question of Why the world was fading in the first place. my original thought on that was that maybe mckraken was marking his turf splatoon-style, but then i remembered that he has normal black ink until he transforms in the human world lol.

so then i messed around a little with the idea of it being the other way around, with white yokai causing the world around them to fade out

as a quick recap/clarification of my personal headcanons/lore, a 'white yokai' is a yokai that has abandoned their medal, and by extension a fragment of their soul. this process is sometimes referred to by other yokai as 'going blank', and the name for yokai who do such a thing alternate between 'white' and 'blank' depending on preference

now, a blank yokai doesn't ditch their medal somewhere and immediately turn white. it's a gradual process, and how long it takes tends to vary depending on the overall power of the yokai in question. for a rank-E yokai, it might only take a few hours, but for rank-A yokai [ like most of mckraken's followers. i think there's one exception who's rank-B ], it could be a few days or even a couple weeks

eventually, this weird affliction starts to spread from the yokai themself to their surroundings - they sort of just radiate this feeling of something being Wrong, because something is Very Wrong. affected land isn't dangerous to yokai, and it returns to normal after a little while once the yokai causing it leaves, but it's considered a sort of bad omen whenever it's seen, and most yokai won't go anywhere near it to avoid potentially encountering white yokai.

and now we get to the part of this whole speculation/yap session that actually pertains to mckraken himself

not only is he a high-ranking yokai, he's also a boss yokai - pretty much the strongest there is at the time of ykw1, with the exception of the inferno dwellers. it takes a Long Time for him to actually fade out like his followers on account of that - his tentacles and a few patches of skin are the only parts that have actually turned white thus far. which is pretty impressive, considering he was one of the first to actually 'go blank'

but the little flecks and patches on his skin are the signs of that slowly going on over time. in theory, they would spread and cover more area over time until he more closely resembled other white yokai [ or until something somehow convinced him to reclaim his medal. in that case, some of the fading would reverse, leaving a few markings and faded areas - this is what i imagine happened to most of the white yokai after mckraken was assumed dead at the end of ykw1 :-) ]

[mikefaistinfo]

Interview: Mike Faist Tries to Keep His Cool as Riff in ‘West Side Story’

by: New York Times. Dec. 27, 2021

The actor, a star of Broadway musicals like “Dear Evan Hansen,” talks about playing the leader of the Jets in Steven Spielberg’s remake.

He’s the menacing gang leader who fights, frolics and finger-snaps his way through “West Side Story”: that’s Riff, the frontman of the Jets, who commands a cadre of lost boys in their turf battles against the Sharks, and takes center stage in numbers like “Jet Song” and “Cool.”

In Steven Spielberg’s remake with a screenplay by Tony Kushner, the role of Riff is played by Mike Faist, a 29-year-old veteran of the New York stage. Faist earned a Tony Award nomination in Broadway’s “Dear Evan Hansen,” where he originated the role of the title character’s would-be friend, Connor Murphy; he also performed in “Newsies the Musical,” understudying its hero, Jack Kelly.

Despite his theatrical pedigree, Faist said it was not so easy to keep calm and collected for this “West Side Story” — he did not necessarily think he had the required dancing skills and wasn’t sure of the project’s intentions.

As he explained in a recent video call, “I was nervous going into it, because of the Hollywood of it all. I thought it was maybe going to be this overproduced thing, and I was just going to be told what to do and where to stand and how to say it.” But, Faist said, Spielberg “allowed me the freedom, quite frankly, to run wild and to be liberated.”

Faist is garnering strong reviews for the performance and he is considered to be a contender for the coming awards season. He spoke further about the making of “West Side Story,” learning the choreography for “Cool” and being a leader to his Jets both onscreen and off. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

How did you find out that Steven Spielberg was planning a remake of “West Side Story”?

Tony Kushner came to see us Off Broadway at “Dear Evan Hansen” and mentioned it. At the time I just thought, well, that’s cool. Congratulations. Best of luck with that. That was six years ago. Casting wanted me to submit a tape and then another tape and then come into the room and dance. I didn’t really want to. I do remember asking specifically, “Do I have to dance?” And they said, “This is ‘West Side Story.’”

Hadn’t you danced on Broadway?

The only dance show that I’d really done in New York was “Newsies.” For the most part, really, I just pushed around sets. I danced as a kid and I like dancing at weddings, that’s fun. But I wouldn’t say that I speak the language.

As you started to audition for the film, could you see yourself as Riff?

Originally they asked if I could put a tape together for Tony. I sang “Maria” and I read a scene or two. Months later they called me in and said we’d like you to put together a tape for Riff. I got excited. But you can never invest too much. After reading for the part, there was just this energy and this realization that this shoe fits. And, oh crap. [Laughs.] Now I have to do it.

Once you had landed the role, did you talk with Kushner and Spielberg about how they envisioned Riff?

We talked about the relationship between Tony and Riff. Tony wants to be a different person, someone better than who he was. And it’s nearly impossible for Riff to let go of who Tony was for him. It’s like going home for Thanksgiving. “This is who I am.” And your family’s like, “No, you’re this.” That’s the simpler version of what I’m trying to say.

Were you also considered for the film adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen”?

I was approached about being part of the film. But the truth is that for me, I just felt like I couldn’t do it. I had already given everything I could to that role and I had already left it at that point. I didn’t feel like I could do it justice. It was something that I really grappled with. I came to the realization that you can’t go home again.

Once you started work on “West Side Story,” where did you begin?

Early in the rehearsal process, it was just Ansel [Elgort, who plays Tony] and I and handful of Jets, and we started to work on “Cool.” There wasn’t a script yet, for that first month of rehearsals, so it was mostly for them to get Ansel and me into shape — learning this choreo, then explaining the story and the context of that number.

Did you film that sequence on a soundstage?

That was a set in Sunset Park in Brooklyn over the East River. One of the Jets, Harrison Coll, who’s in that number, his father had passed away recently. We had been rehearsing that number for four or five months at this point, and when we finally finished, on that last day of shooting, Harrison brought his dad’s ashes and we went to the East River right there. We actually sang “Jet Song” and Harrison said a little something and thanked his dad and then he released his dad’s ashes into the East River. It was something that was transcendent and we really valued the experience.

“Jet Song” is one of Riff’s iconic numbers. What did that mean to you, particularly as it’s depicted in this version of the film?

Where we start with the Jets, they are on the brink of destruction. They are done but they just don’t realize it yet. They’re saying, “When you’re a Jet, you stay a Jet” — on top of a mound of rubble.

Did you feel particularly bonded to the other actors who played your fellow Jets?

I felt it was my personal obligation that we become a tribe. After the first day of rehearsal, we all went out to the bar down the street. Sans Baby John [the young gang member, played by Patrick Higgins], because he’s not old enough. [Laughs.] And I said, “Look, this one’s ours. This is our story and this is our version. You guys are a part of that.” I handed out assignments; “Jet-tivities” is what I called them. And no matter what it was, we all had to do it. We did a whole bunch of shenanigans that summer.

Are there any you can safely discuss?

We went to upstate New York and bought a full arsenal of Nerf guns. There’s video of us setting up this relay race in a house, having to shoot all these red plastic Solo cups from different angles. We did LARPing. It’s brutal, man. It looks like something totally nerdy, but then you’re there and you’re getting tackled by someone and shot in the private areas by arrows. We played laser tag once. I wanted them to feel like they were a part of something bigger. That way, when the cameras rolled, they just were there.

Did you have the opportunity to confer with Russ Tamblyn, who played Riff in the original film?

He did come to set and hung out for a day. He told us anecdotes, what the experience was like for him. But in terms of approaching the work, I’m not Russ Tamblyn. Only Russ Tamblyn is Russ Tamblyn. I can’t try to emulate or mimic what he does. And I didn’t want to. I think it would have done a disservice to try to incorporate him. It would have been an insult to what he brought.

The new film’s release was delayed by a year because of the pandemic. How did you feel when you learned it was being postponed?

I actually was relieved. Steven and I had a phone conversation last year, around September, when they were deciding whether they were going to release the film. At the time, I said to him, if no one ever saw this movie, it wouldn’t change anything to me. The experience of making the movie was everything. I meant it, but I’m an idiot and I take it all back now. Because if we’re going to show it, you want people to see it. After I had seen the film at the New York premiere, I ran into Steven in the lobby. And I said to him, I got to relive the experience of making the movie. I think when people see this, we give them a taste of that. I think this movie is a real testament to why a theatrical experience is important.

Interview by: Dave Itzkoff

Find here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/27/movies/mike-faist-west-side-story-riff.html

[deerskewl]

Mrow meow talk about your guys

thank you i love you its squid time. this got long so its all under the read more

Three Cuttlefish

pov you are craig cuttlefish. you find a weird autistically nonverbal 14yo orphan boything. you bring him to your grandchildren and say "this is your new brother". your granddaughters once again remind you that they're cousins, not siblings, despite being called the Squid Sisters. they adopt him as their shared brother anyway

it's more surprising that he has no idea who the Squid Sisters are to begin with and doesn't even blink when he finds out their idol identities

Three didn't even really have a name he just chose to take his agent number as his name because he thought it was cool

his day-to-day outfits are either bougie shit that Callie and Marie bought for him or literally the most threadbare clothing that he's worn to death because its comfy

he needs to wear a Special limiter, as he has access to multiple Special Moves naturally, instead of most inkfish having only one or two and needing Canned Specials in Turf Wars and such. because of this he gets tired so so easily. he can and will just lay down anywhere to sleep

he gets paparazzi a lot due to his idol persona DJ SANGO. if he's approached in public by fans he will just swim form into the nearest drain. he gets uncomfortable with the attention unless he's with Callie and Marie.

has a permanent Sanitization scar over the right side of his head and right shoulder

Macaroni "Mac" Tako

Grizzco survivor. Worked there for 3 years until his entire crew got killed in a thunderstorm on the way back and it was ruled an accident, despite them being forced to work through the storm. a then undiscovered King Salmonid breached the surface of the water, dressed in the thunderstorm's electricity, and sunk their ship. with no spawnpoints to catch them and bring them back, and too much electric interference to even bring them back to begin with, they were all lost at sea. it's unknown how Mac even survived to wash up on shore, heavily injured by a direct lightning strike. He's still covered in the scars from the incident to this day.

Anyway now he's so much happier screwing around in Turf War and doing odd jobs :)

has the biggest fucking crush ever on Lanark and even made his own Lure to wear around and show that he's available, though since Lanark didn't wear one, he figured that he wasn't interested in relationships. in reality, Mac has no idea that it was a Inkling Culture tradition, not an Octoling Culture thing. we love himbo gays here

also had no idea who the Squid Sisters are. didn't even listen to music until after meeting Marie. now he just listens to Everything Anytime without even learning lyrics or anything, he just listens to nice tunes.

he collects cool cloth facemasks and has been learning how to make his own!

Lanark Pierce

the only agent who ACTUALLY knows who the Squid Sisters are and idolises them so much to the point that he forgets that Pearl and Marina are like, also famous, and gets surprised when he's hanging out with them and suddenly fans are wanting pictures????

trans gender <3 and amnesia

he still doesn't have all his memories back, but writing poetry helps with this, especially with the Deepsea Metro PTSD

like Three, he has a permanent Sanitization scar on his back from being exploded when he fails tests

he still has panic attacks whenever he screws something up, but they've gotten better over time. especially with help from his friends.

pining so fucking hard for Mac but he doesn't know how to initiate anything. he can and will ramble to anyone about Mac if they even give him a moment of time.

probably has the most weapon experience out of all the agents, since he was part of weapons testing back in the Octarian Army. he even has experience in fixing them! he hangs out with Sheldon sometimes and they come up with the MOST illegal weapon designs ever

Cube, "The Faithful Inkfish Born of Two Worlds"

Half octoling, half inkling, raised by salmonids after being discovered abandoned in the Splatlands as a young whelp. They were hidden from the Octarian Army during arms trades, just in case they'd try to take them away from their family.

They're completely fluent in Salmonid, and when speaking to other Inkfish, they use a barbaric mix of Inkling and Octoling, much to everyone's dismay. Big Man offered to be their tutor, despite not having much free time himself, since he knew that Shiver and Frye would teach them every single swear word possible first, but thankfully the other agents took over that responsibility.

Covered in various scars and thinks it makes them look cool as fuck. Claims they're from battles with other Salmonids, but they're mostly from getting injured while scavenging for materials.

Smallfry is their little brother, especially so after being given ward of him due to his advanced ability to switch forms like an inkfish.

Every time they see anything to do with Grizzco they either destroy it (signs and the like) or spit on it (buildings). Doesn't actually care that Mac used to work there since he's aware of how fucked up and corrupt it is.

Smallfry, "The Youngling Smallfry of the Ascended Generation"

literally just a tiny baby man. who devoured a bear. he's so talented <3

the first discovered Salmoling, at least in his and Cube's tribe. like young inkfish, he struggles to go between swim and humanoid form, and tends to stay in swim form and snooze in his big sibling's backpack

got those big autistic eyes and loves putting inedible things in his mouth much to Cube's dismay. he has been banned from many stores.

loves to just worm his way into anyone's arms or lap and take a nap like a big cat. has often been spotted flopped on Three while he naps. Cube has SO MANY PICTURES OF THIS

sometimes sits in Cube's locker while they're off playing Turf War eating cheese snacks and watching splatoon-version-of-youtube. splattube??

[seffien]

how i think the promo kids feel about each other because i can: the post.

veronika (ronnie)

on annie: we were...something in elementary. don't know what her deal is now

on yarr: cool dude. can clean the hell out of a weapon and is a good tableturf opponent

on steph: friends til the end. i help her, she helps me. i've only known her for a few months, but it feels like i've known her forever

cal: suuuper good cook and pretty skilled at chargers. i gave him the nickname cal and he really seems to like it.

on kay:

on hiro: he was the first person i met when i got to the splatlands. ever since then, we've had a pretty strong bond.

on tako: ...are you okay?

anenomeno1 (annie)

on ronnie: i will destroy you every chance i get and i hate you.

on yarr: you’re a nerd and a loser. also your glasses are stupid mine are better.

on steph: meh. (condescending)

on cal: you’re such a baby. i cant believe hiro put you as 2nd in charge. it should be me! IT SHOULD BE M

on kay: you’re so pretentious and i hate you. i hope your favorite thing gets as rating on some random rating site so you have to stop liking it.

on hiro: i just know youre a loser who pretends not to be. i know it. i know it. i could beat you up. (could not)

on tako: you get me. we’re best friends for life and forever. …maybe something even more?

yarrwhal (yarr)

on ronnie: i don’t know why she’s a casual player. she could totally rock the field with a just a jammed up splattershot.

on annie: …you can’t even see in those, dude.

on steph: 🤝

on cal: how is he so good at chargers? shouldn’t he be, like, in school? he’s like 12.

on kay: do not touch me do not look at me i don’t want to be associated with you sorry

on hiro: turf master to turf master—you’re cool. we should play in a tourney together.

on tako: the enemy of my enemy is my friend…? actually no that doesn’t sound right.

stephanie (steph)

on ronnie: yo!!!! it’s always so nice to see you! friends til the end.

on annie: you should get help. (well-intentioned)

on yarr: 🤝

on cal: you should cook for me us more often. please? please.

on kay: annoying.

on hiro: we could kill so many people together.

on tako: why do you keep staring at me?

c4l4m4r (cal)

on ronnie: i appreciate the compliment, but i’m really not good at either. luck, i guess?

on annie: hiro told me not to talk to you. sorry :(

on yarr: do you really think i'm that good? :0 you're way better!

on steph: ehehe i'm glad you like my cooking! i'll make sure to always make seconds for you! :]

on kay: (indifferent.)

on hiro: i'll do my best!

on tako: i am NOT a BABY!! :(

kayoss (kay)

on ronnie: oh, of course, the skilled spunky tomboy teenage girl who thinks she's 'just average'. sigh. boooring.

on annie: lol you'll like or dislike anything tako likes or dislikes, you shouldn't be speaking.

on yarr: ugh. i wasn't planning on getting near you anyway. you're stupid and i'm worried your stupidity will infect me

on steph: don't worry, i think you're annoying too

on cal: you're nothing but a baby. don't try and step to me.

on hiro: stop trying to be me. also ronnie will never love you back kthankbye <3

on tako: ugh. you again. get a life, girl

hirooooo (hiro)

on ronnie: hey girl are you. are you a girl because. are you you because. because i love you. i dont think im doing this right

on annie: no you could not beat me up and no i'm not putting you in charge.

on yarr: i agree. we'd make a good team. as long as i get to play with veronika...

on steph: true.

on cal: you're a natural leader! i know you'll go far in life, so don't ever think you won't

on kay: dude if i was you i would **** ******

on tako: what...happened to you?

takotruck (tako)

on ronnie: filthy casual not worth my time. you could never be me or compare to me, so stop trying 💖

on annie: you get me. it's kind of us against the world atp.

on yarr: don't speak to me. i do not respect you.

on steph: hey do you like girls. don't ask me why i'm asking.

on cal: you're a baby LMAOOOOOOO idk why hiro put you in charge

on kay: kys before i come to your house and do it for you.

on hiro: don't look at me. don't touch me. don't speak to me. i hate you and everything you and your little girlfriend stand for. i should kill you with my bare hands you fuc

[djsangos]

“Cod, I’m gonna be sore tomorrow,” says the rookie in between shoveling pancakes into their beak. “Buddy, too. They’re gonna be whinin’ about it all night.”

“Don’t throw them at me next time,” you retort. “Those targets were made specially for them. They’re edible. I’m not.” You lift your heavily bitten and bandaged right forearm, hand holding your fork spearing a bite of waffle, for emphasis.

“According to Lil’ Buddy there, you’re delectable, Captain,” Four pipes up, giving you a sly smirk over the horrendous pile of french toast, eggs, and syrup he’s eating like a madman. ‘French egg sandwich’ he calls it. Cod.

“Yeah, you’re just leftovers right now. We’re savin’ what’s left of you for next time,” Rookie snickers. Lil’ buddy, perched on their shoulder, looks at you so innocently, and so, so hungrily.

You roll your eyes, and turn your attention fully to Four. “So how’d finals go, anyway? You got your grades back, right?”

They hesitate for just a moment too long, and seem just a bit too uncomfortable, before snickering and waving a hand dismissively. “You know me, Cap,” he says. “Obviously I aced it all! Piece of cake, as usual.”

“Really, huh,” you say, before you can really stop yourself, then add, “I mean, obviously I knew you’d crush it, but you just seemed really frustrated today, so I thought I’d ask just to be sure.”

“Pfft! Post-semester jitters, no need to worry about me.” There’s that dismissiveness again, and you’re starting to wonder…

“Alright, I believe you. I’m just saying, it’d be totally okay…”

...Why is this attitude so familiar?

“...If you didn’t crush it,” you finish.

Four’s grin is growing noticeable strained, and he seems to notice it, too, because he covers it up with a laugh so loud that people at other tables in this IPOP start to turn your way.

“That’s really sweet, Cap,” they say, wiping an invisible tear from their eye, “and I appreciate it! But I did, so we don’t need to have this conversation. Okay?”

The desperation in his voice is fucking palpable, and you have to break your eye contact with him, glancing to your right, only to meet gazes with the rookie, who looks like they were in the middle of trying to tell you something, right hand not-so-subtly shielding their mouth from Four as they seem to be mouthing ‘-for eel?’ Their expression is about as incredulous as you feel.

You turn your gaze back to Four, and throw your hands up in mock surrender. “Okay, cool,” you concede. “Look, you can’t blame a squid for worrying, alright? I already had the whole ‘school whaleshit breakdown’ episode, I just wanna make sure it doesn’t happen again.” You shrug and take a gulp of your coffee.

“Wait, for eel?” Rookie repeats, out loud this time. “I didn’t know you ever went to college!”

“Yeah, this is news to me, too,” says Four, and you think he looks relieved that the conversation is turning away from his school whaleshit and towards your school whaleshit. “I thought you didn’t even go to high school?”

You set down your mug. “I went, I just didn’t finish. I dropped out at like fifteen, it was a whole thing. I guess it was before your time, but I honestly thought Marie might’ve told you,” you add to Four specifically.

Four shakes their head. “Nope. I just thought you never enrolled.”

The rookie seems super fucking invested in your major academic blunder, for probably the wrong reasons. “What happened?” They lean forward, chin propped up on their hands, an intense gleam in their eyes. “Did you get expelled? Get in a fight? Kill a classmate and had to leave to cover up your crime? Spill the tea, Cap! And make it hot!”

“Can you cool it, Rookie?” says Four. “Maybe they don’t wanna talk about it.”

“If they didn’t wanna talk about it, they shouldn’t’ve mentioned it!”

“It’s fine,” you say. “It’s honestly really stupid in hindsight. I was flunking like all of my classes and couldn’t keep up with them between turfing to make rent and agent work anyway, so I just stopped going. Thought I was too stupid anyway.”

The rookie boos you. “Lame!” Four claps them on the back of the head and very narrowly escapes a Smallfry bite.

“So you just dropped out?” he says. “Like, just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“Couldn’t you have just told Gramps that you needed to take time off for school? That’s what I did. Same with you.”

You groan. “You know how I am, man. I thought I could handle it all myself, but I didn’t want anyone to be mad at me for dropping out, so I just didn’t say anything. Lied my way through another like month and a half until one day Marie just randomly decided she was gonna pick me up after school, and then I wasn’t there. That’s how everyone found out.”

Four hisses through his beak in sympathy. “Were they mad?”

“No,” you say. “’We’re not mad, Three. We’re just disappointed.’ Okay, that was mostly Marie.”

“Wait,” says the rookie. “How did the old man not know you weren’t going to school if you were there working with him during school hours?”

“I, uh. Told him I had off periods.”

“Plus I don’t think he’s been to school in about a hundred years,” Four adds. “He probably doesn’t even remember when school’s supposed to be in session.”

“...Anyway,” you say. “That--”

“Is everything tasting alright?” The sudden fourth voice startles you all back into reality, and the waiter jelly has materialized right next to your table. You have to bite back a shout.

“Uh. Yeah,” says Four.

“Great! Here’s the bill, and I hope you three have a great day. Thank you!”

All of you thank the waiter before they disappear as quickly as they appeared.

…

…

…

The rookie is the first to break the silence. “Now all of IPOP knows you’re stupid.”

You can’t help but let out a snicker.

“But. Uh. My point is,” you continue, turning to Four, “I know you totally aren’t struggling with school like I was, you’re way too smart for that, but if you’re having problems, with like anything, let me know. Or someone.”

“Let the old people help you,” Rookie adds.

“Yeah,” you agree. “Let the old people help you. We’re so old and wrinkly and wise.”

“That’s where their wisdom comes from,” says the rookie. “The wrinkles.”

Four laughs, again, but it still seems strained. “Okay, I get your point. But really, I’m okay! I’m not that stupid-- no offense.”

“What offense?” you ask dryly.

“But I’m totally killing it and I’m ready to get my summer on! You guys wanna hit up the mall after this?”

“I should work today,” says the rookie with a groan. “Those doors can’t dive themselves.”

“We can walk you to the station,” you say. “I’ve just gotta pay first.”

Four snatches the bill off the table while you’re reaching for it. “I got it! You guys just go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”

“Uh, no, you’re fine. I got it.”

“No, I got it, Captain. Go on! I’ll see you at the station.” With that, you and the rookie are unceremoniously ushered out of the restaurant and on the way to the rail station.

After several agonizing minutes of awkward silence with a backing track of shoes and crutches on pavement and the occasional Smallfry warble, the rookie finally pipes up, “So do you actually believe his shit?”

“I want to,” you say. “But I don’t think I can.”

“Why didn’t you just straight up call ‘em out? Like what was all that even for?”

“Wanted them to know they’re not alone when it comes to school shit. It was also just to distract him for a minute, he seems really on edge. Also I’ll save the calling out for when it’s just me and him. No offense.”

“So you’re leavin’ me out of the good drama? I’m hurt, Captain!” they exclaim in a tone that is so not hurt.

“Good. Bleed out and die.”

“I will!”

When you drop the rookie and their little buddy off at the station platform, they give you a mock salute. “Keep me posted, will ya?”

“Depends. See you later.” You give them your own two-finger salute, and it’s only as you’re watching them go inside that you realize Four never caught up to you. When you take out your phone to call them, you notice a few unread messages.

From: 🏈4️⃣🦑4️⃣🏈 Hey cap i know i said id meet up with you but i think im just gonna head home sorry

Ive had some time to think about what you said while i was walking alone

Long story short i flunked hard and im not sure i can stay in this major or school

Im sorry i lied

...Shit. Before you can even think, you’re typing, hands shaking.

To: 🏈4️⃣🦑4️⃣🏈 are you okay do you wanna talk

i can come over

From: 🏈4️⃣🦑4️⃣🏈 No and not right now

I think i wanna be alone

Sorry

Those are... probably some of the last things you want to read right now, and as much as you don't want to leave him alone right now, they know themself best.

To: 🏈4️⃣🦑4️⃣🏈 okay

im here whenever youre ready

let me know ill be there immediately

stay safe

From: 🏈4️⃣🦑4️⃣🏈 Thanks 💛

You don’t know what else to do other than head home yourself right now, as much as you just want to break into Four’s apartment, suplex the whole truth out of him, and then come up with a game plan together.

Before you start walking, though, you remember the not-promise you made to the rookie.

To: smallerfry yeah fours not doing too hot he just texted me

but i let them know im on call so dont worry

From: smallerfry LOL I KNEW IT

To: smallerfry not funny jackass

With that final message, you make sure your ringer is turned on for Four’s number, stuff your phone back into your pocket and make your way back home. You’ve let them know you’re here to help, and you can only hope that they’ll accept your offer.

Cod, you really hope they accept it.

[octoooo]

It’s time for me to ramble about my Splatoon characters <3

Gonna be a long post, I can’t stop talking about these squiggly guys

First up is Yuki <3

He’s actually my in-game character and has been since I started playing Splatoon 2 in 2019.

ANYWAY He’s 19, aro/ace and uses he/they pronouns. Proficient with Dualie Squelchers and Heavy Splatling but do Not put a charger in his hands he will let you die (accidentally)

Family was part of the Octarian group forced underground post-Great Turf War. He grew up in Inkopolis Square after escaping. I say his family is “part of” because I’m pretty sure not all of the Octarian race was forced away. Some of them had to have escaped.

Being a pro ink-battler would be cool, he was a pretty decent soldier underground,but back then he battled for survival and recognition. Turf and Ranked made fighting fun. Took the games too seriously at first. He was used to the harsh training underground and knew that either you had what it took or you didn’t. And if he didn’t (aka being discharged from the military) then what else was he to do?

Certainly there were other jobs underground; the food hunters who scavenged the barren lands they lived in, “scientists” and “electricians” who worked in ways to keep their world alive & running despite the circumstances.

(It’s in quotes because,,,,I mean I can’t really say they’re qualified. Their knowledge would be helpful but not equivalent to a scientific or engineering degree up in Inkopolis)

He's a little ashamed to admit that, for quite some time, he harbored hatred for his related species (Inklings). They have everything, took everything from his own people yet still have the nerve to complain and be ungrateful. But he worked through this & doesn’t think like that anymore.

Had a lot of reflecting to do. Often would throw himself into Ranked to forget about it, but that wouldn’t last long. He had to come to terms with the fact that he has nothing on the surface. It’s what his people dreamed of, and he’s not trying to be ungrateful, but it’s not like he had a family, or anywhere to go at first. Technically he had it all in his old underground home; stable income, amicable neighbors, decent reputation due to his military service & status. But up in Inkopolis he has none of that. He lived in the shadows of alleys, no money and no way to get it,

Honestly if Inklings knew of his Octarian military service they would likely only distance more from him.

Speaking of Inklings; they were,,,alright. Some of them couldn’t even tell he was an Octoling from underground until he spoke. Those who could tell showed him nothing but hostility. It doesn’t help much that he didn’t know a lick of modern Inklish.

(The most Inklish he knew was of the old script used 100+ years ago that they teach underground, so he talks like a grandpa)

He spent his early days hiding in alleys watching the locals go about their days. He would always notice the younger Inklings with weapons going to and from the Great Zapfish Tower (we know it’s the battle lobby but that’s what he’d call it) and a weapons shop.

He went to the Battle tower first, but quickly realized you need both a weapon and gear to play (play what though? He had no idea but he’s interested now). After being pointed in the right direction, he was freshly equipped with a splattershot jr, basic gear and ready for turf war.

For a while, he kept losing because he was focused on getting kills, and his teammates did Not like him. It doesn’t help that he can’t understand them either, so when they say to play objective (ink the ground) he doesn’t listen.

It took him some months, a lot of awkward hovering around inkling convos, and a good amount of teammates yelling at him, for him to learn more modern Inklish. When he did, he finally got to read the rules of turf war & gave it another shot. Things got better from there; he earned money for a small apartment, got more weapons, became more social (he still talks like a grandpa most of the time), but he still has that self-reflecting to do.

His first Splatfest was a bit of a disaster? It was Pancakes vs Waffles and he thought there was an absolute correct answer. Making decisions in the military is more cut & dry and each option has consequences so it’s important to pick the right choice. He tried getting people to understand that pancakes were the better choice and that something bad would befall the people who chose waffle (then waffle won and he had to eat his words. He kinda panicked thinking something bad actually would happen)

What drew him to the Splatlands was that people kept asking him if he was from there. The inklings on the surface eventually kinda learn that Octolings live in the Splatlands, but few know that many of them survived underground. When he answers that he’s from the underground they give him a weird look. Eventually he decides to visit the Splatlands and loves it!

It’s an organized mess and there’s a bigger presence of his own culture there compared to Inkopolis Square. It’s a little different but still of the same roots.

-

I also wanna touch on why he’s trans since like,,it wasn’t just a random choice to add spice to his traits. So back when I got Splatoon 2 in early 2019, I played & beat Octo Expansion. I usually used the male character. Something about him just made me go “yaaayayay.” At this point in life, I knew I wasn’t trans but I had recently experimented with chest binding and he/him pronouns, and decided that it wasn’t the right fit for me. Maybe that’s why I used the male model? Maybe not, it’s not important really.

I used that male Octoling kind of as a persona. If I wanted to draw a Splatoon doodle about me and some friends then I would use our in-game characters rather than us irl. Makes sense. But drawing him was kinda,,,odd. I wanted him to be the In-game model but I am a female irl and have a fairly large chest, so I wanted my drawings to reflect that. All I did was slap in a bump for the chest when I drew him, but that was enough for me. And since the character in-game is male, I kept referring to him as such.

Over time (and moving into Splat3) my character became less of me. I drew and imagined him as confident and loud and in all these scenarios I wouldn’t be in. Once I started feeling disconnected from him, I knew something had to change (and I had become more open with online friends, so I had no need to hide behind my character anyway).

I decided to separate entirely(?) from him. While some things that I am (aro/ace) and do (play dualies & heavy splatling) remain as part of him, he is no longer an extension of me. I gave him a backstory, along w/ Redd who I will get into later, and I drew him as the character I wanted him to be rather than who I am.

That was a lot, and I’m not done because now it’s time for:

Redd <3

(I don’t have as many drawings of her </3)

Despite the outfit and outward demeanor, is not outspoken or brave like her cousin. She’s soft spoken & introverted & would probably cry if she were yelled at.

Currently pro-ish ink battler, happened on accident though! She was doing some turf & ranked for fun but in a few matches she ran into her soon to be teammates who wanted to hang w/ her more.

(In my mind there’s like,,pro ink battle leagues. Like how we have NFL, NBA, etc, Sploon world would have professional Ink Battle leagues. The turf/ranked games they play as young squid-kids is similar to playing football or basketball in school. It’s a hobby/interest that could lead you to the big leagues one day. Unless that’s all canon to Splatoon already)

Yuki is like,,,lowkey jealous bc Redd has all this natural skill & doesn’t even want to be a pro battler. Also it’s a little embarrassing and emasculating that he (a well ranked and respected soldier) performs worse than his squishy cousin.

As I said; she’s not even into ink battles. They’re fun and all but doing it long term is not what she has planned. She had a hard time telling her teammates this & struggles to find excuses to skip practice. (Yuki is helping her become more confident & outspoken, but progress is slow).

She’s Interested in making music, and enjoys upbeat jams. She’s inspired by, Deep Cut, ChirpyChips & Squid Squad (“Kraken Up” is her Song)

Her teammates aren’t rude or forceful about their practice, they just don’t know that Redd isn’t all that interested. They'd still be friends & even support her music career.

-

As for her and Yuki’s connected history; Redd was born and raised in the Splatlands. Her family used to live around Inkopolis but when word spread about Octarians fate post-Great Turf War (going underground) they successfully fled to the Splatlands where they’ve been living ever since. They were unsuccessful in bringing the entire family, having to split in order for at least half the family to escape.

It isn’t until Yuki is 19 and visits Splitsville that they meet. I don’t really know how or when or why this next part happens; but they open up to each other & as they talk abt their family they realize that the missing pieces of their own family history is filled in by the other’s story. (Lmao I imagine Yuki talking abt his great grandma like “yea her brother kinda left her for dead.” (he’s bitter about it) & Redd just thinks “hm. Reminds me of my great grandad who felt like he left his sister for dead,,,”

(Specifically Redd’s great grandfather escapes w/ his kids but has to leave his sister behind, who ends up being Yuki’s great grandma. (I think I have these familial titles right?)

Anyway yeehaww Yuki & Redd are distant cousins!

(While their shared backstory serves as a good amount of evidence, they do some further genetic testing to prove it for sure.)

[t2t-tawa]

Tawa’s Splatoon Headcanons #23 Scars and Tattoos

I gotta write this down so I don’t forget it but I do have some headcanons about Splatoon that I gush about to friends! Let’s begin with my current fixation- how do scars and tattoos work for inklings?

I’ll preface this with I use “Inklings” to refer to both Squidlings and Octolings because typing Cephalopod Children is too difficult and Inklings is a cute word. So let’s begin!

SCARS

They a canon thing that exists on Inkling bodies, most notably on DJ Octavio’s arms and Cap’n 3′s tentacles. Sure, this sounds like a normal standard because it is. But lemme throw you into a loop.

It is known that inklings do this absolutely wild thing- they can be Splatted. They will literally lose their physical form, become a spirit, and then recall their body on a Spawn Point. Death is a fuzzy concept for inklings as long as there’s a Spawn Point close enough for their spirit to latch onto. This also heals any physical damage they took, such as getting smashed by a Splatana Stamper. They’re back and on the ground running in mere seconds.

What does this mean?

Inklings have the uncanny ability to recover their physical form after being Splatted. With this idea in hand, an inkling who has a scar gets splatted, they could hypothetically heal the scars away when they reform. But making those cool scars go away that easily from a casual Turf War sounds like an easy cop-out. So how or why would they stay?

Because of the mental imprint a scar leaves upon their body.

Think about a scar or injury you’ve gotten. You remember what caused it, how it happened, the mark its left on you. We’ll call that a a core memory. It’s both active consciously and subconsciously similarly to knowing how many fingers and toes you have. An inkling will always remember how their physical form looked and was dressed when they reform at a Spawn Point. It’s a very remarkable ability that gets handwaved for the traditional Respawn game mechanic. But tonight we won’t handwave, we will be grabbing it and shaking it about.

What gets included in this memory when respawning for inklings are also their scars. Bruises, a smashed nose, or a wild ride into the pool on a Reefslider all get cleared up and healed because they are fast brief moments before being splatted. Yet a scar will remain because it is an injury that lingered. It became a core memory. Each time Dj Octavio or Cap’n 3 get splatted, Octavio will have the scars on his arms and Cap’n 3 will have the scars on their tentacles because they remember that is part of their physical appearance.

A fairly determined inkling could try willing away the scar but that would possibly take a long process of having less and less of a scar similar to how we heal from a scar.

Now with this theory we have in hand, why don’t we go a bit deeper and talk about a unique point for Squidlings- their hair tentacles. I am excluding Octolings because they don’t trim their tentacles in the same way that Squidlings do and it sometimes ends up making little Octarians. So we’ll focus on the Squidlings.

Squidling tentacles grow and are trimmed very similarly to hair.  They’re able to simply cut it off whenever they need a trim. So with this, we’ll assume that their tentacles are always in a state of growth. It might be a fairly rapid growth or it might be very slow, who knows?

Now, let’s have a thought exercise- what would happen if Cap’n 3 got a haircut? When they regrow their tentacles would it be scar-free or would it eventually show the scars when it reaches the length where the scarring occurred? My theory is that initially the tentacles will grow to its previous length but the surface would be unmarred. But the moment they do the transformation from Squid form to Kid form, the scars would return as a subconscious core memory. It’s a strange process but it follows the same idea of the physical reformation after being splatted. Cap’n 3 will always have their scars no matter how many times they are splatted or get haircuts all because of the memory of the scars.

So to review on the scars-

They remain because they are a core memory of an injury the inkling received. It is very closely related to how an inkling can reform their appearance after being splatted or going from celephapod to humanoid mode.

Now, lets go to part 2!

Tattoos

With the groundwork I laid out for scars, Tattoos will share a very similar theory. As we know, tattoos are done by injecting ink into the skin through being poked many, many times with a pigment filled needle to get it deep into the second layer of skin. When an Inkling is getting a tattoo, it would be the same initial process.

But how would you get a tattoo to stay on a being whose whole concept is being able to change color, wildly transform, explode from Flyfish missiles, and resurrect?

We’ll use the same concept we used to explain retaining a scar. The process of tattooing is quite similar to getting a scar. The body remembers that the inkling got a tattoo of a star their shoulder. It’s not an injury like a scar but it’s a new feature like a beauty mark. The sensation of being tattooed becomes ingrained into their core memory. The tattoo will be there after each transformation or splating.

Now lets have some fun because tattoos can come in colors! With inklings natural ability to change color at will, these tattoos can also change color when the inkling wills it. Think of the area that was tattooed as a drawing made in invisible ink. When it is heated up, the drawing appears out of the blank canvas. For an inkling, rather than heat, it would be their own ink being the source of the coloration of the tattoo. It can be as colorful as they want, or it can be a single color. From what we’ve seen on band members, having a different color for each tentacle is possible. Playable characters don’t do that for gameplay reasons.

The tattoo process gives an inkling a section of their skin access to revealing a portion of their ink. Without the physical sensation of a tattoo gun or another needle-like device, it would be like trying to pick up a marble while wearing giant woolen mittens. But with it, those mittens are removed and picking up that marble is an easy as it can be. That’s the way a tattoo forms known pathways and channels for an inkling to reveal their body art through their own ink rather than the initial ink used by the tattooing process. That ink gradually fades away from their transformations or resurrections as their natural ink replaces it.

A fun thought about these tattoos supported by an inkling’s natural ink is that it could be possible for them to suppress the appearance of a tattoo by willing their ink to not flood their tattooed markings. An inkling could show up unmarked to present themself for a fancy interview, or they could tear off their shirt Yakuza series style and dramatically flood their tattoos with ink to intimidate an opponent. This process calls back to the unique ability that real life cephalopods to change the color and texture of their skin as camouflage or visual communication. It requires a bit of help of the tattooing process for an inkling to get that sort of control of their ink in a similar fashion.

So to review on the tattoos-

The physical process of tattooing puts in new physical markings on the skin of an inkling. It also applies a new core memory that is retained after transformations or splating. A tattoo gives them an area to flood their ink into to display the design in whatever color they desire. These can be always on display or hidden at will as inklings have quite the control of their own ink to give a call back to the camouflage ability of their ancestors.

[iri-scrublord]

Chill Season! 2!! Weapon Review!!!

Alright so I'm going to put my faith in the fact that this god-forsaken site is going to put most of my shit under a cut so your dash isn't inundated with my stuff, so here we go. I'll put my overall thoughts in the tags in case you can't be assed to read what's probably going to be a hell of a post.

I'm going to ramble for a bit about accessibility here so if you don't give a shit about that look for the next big heading.

If you know me at all, you know that I'm a weapons guy. I'm disabled, I've got dwarfism, which means I'm way shorter than the average inkling at 3' even. I've got shorter limbs and (importantly) smaller hands/shorter fingers than the average squid does.

Now anyone who knows Squidforce knows that at the best of times they can be kinda fuckin' ableist. Remember the fiasco with Kraken Poisoning seven years ago? Or, hell, to foreshadow my thoughts on the weapons now, the Splattercolor Screen?

I mod weapons. I do them in my garage, Mr. Grizz is my hero and role model. But unlike him, who just takes the safety off of literally anything he gets his hands on, I mod my weapons to be usable by squids with different body types (sometimes I also take the safety off for fun). And before the De-Recall era, where the pro leagues moved to Splatsville (represent), what I do was considered illegal for tournament rules.

And people are going to tell me that we have the Extra Leagues, and sure. I've participated in those. And honestly they're really cool, especially because all things considered I'm one of the lucky ones who has a splat's chance in hell to participate in Turf and Anarchy. Some squids and octos have ailments that make that literally impossible, but still want to compete. I'm not knocking the Extra Leagues here. Hell I make weapons for the damn things.

What I am saying is that I know modding weapons. I know how it works, I know how much of a pain in the fuckin' ass it is to get synergies to work right, and I lose my fucking MIND every time some drooling idiot goes "This weapon needs a Burst Bomb"

BITCH EVERY WEAPON NEEDS A BURST BOMB, YOU THINK EVERY WEAPON'S GOING TO TAKE ONE? SOME KITS ARE GARBAGE FOR A REASON

Anyway, accessibility and modification possibility are things that I rank pretty highly in weapons, and while SF's been cleaning up their act since the De-Recall FOR THE MOST PART, there's still a few stinkers in here I'm going to be docking points from.

Okay that shit's out of the way here we go.

Foil Squeezer (w/ Autobomb and Splattercolor Screen)

Right out the gate I alluded to something that I'm going to need to talk about right away. The special of this thing terrifies me. The hell was Squidforce thinking?? Sure, the structure of the thing's impressive. Throw a sippy cup and you've suddenly got a huge strangely shaped wall of liquid.

What's that liquid do? It gives you goddamn achromatopsia. Who thought this was okay??? Who the hell looked at something like that and said it was fine?? There's already been several complaints I've heard about it around my circles, and I wouldn't be surprised if this thing got banned or reworked in the coming months.

Anyway this is supposed to be about the Foil Squeezer not the Screen so.

The Squeezer is already a pretty solid weapon, two firing modes, hell of a mechanism in the thing to have two separate compartments for the different pressurization levels of the ink inside. Pain in the ass to mod. As far as kits go, we don't know how much it sucks to get the Splashdown or Screen onto them yet (haven't got my hands on a devkit yet) but autobombs are pretty reliable. In terms of synergy? You can throw the bitches through the screen to put pressure, so that's good. Pretty costly for an already ink-hungry weap, but I'll say it's decent, if with a scary scary scary special.

Nouveau's Snipewriter 5B (w/ Splash Wall and Ink Storm)

Remember when Snipewriter first came out and we thought it sucked

hahahaha

This thing's synergistic as all hell. A wall to protect it. A Storm for chip damage which Snipewriter thrives off of. And to top it off a nice red finish. I think they used a different type of wood for it too, which I can appreciate it. Softer.

Fun fact: the origin of the 5H and 5B for the Snipewriters are from the ancient rating system the humans used to use on pencils way back when. 5B uses a much softer graphite for the pencils than the 5H does - art more than writing. I'm not a huge history buff compared to some of my friends but I thought that was neat.

Anyway this weapon's horrifying but I still respect it more than the E-Liter.

Enperry Splat Dualies (w/ Curling Bomb and Triple Splashdown)

You're as beautiful as the day I left you.

In all seriousness I've got a soft spot for curling bombs. And like, not as a traversal tool which like yes it's very useful in that. I like killing with it it's fun

For Triple Splashdown...it's public knowledge that its daddy sucked. That it's one of the worst specials in history, rivalled only by the Reef Slider. So how is the Triple version? It's...

good I guess. I mean like, it's hard to shoot the guy down and not die yourself. So like that's cool. With the Enperries they've got okay synergy? I mean it's no Inkjet, but it's fun to roll in and then pop the special if you've got someone pinned up against a wall.

So like...passable! Which is good!

Undercover Sorella Brella (w/ Torpedo and Splattercolor Screen)

Alright, I'm going to address the mormyridae in the room and talk about the basic Undercover Brella kit. It's awful. Of course it's awful. But nobody really talks about why because nobody talks about the actual logistics for kits.

I kind of alluded to this earlier but one of my pet peeves is like when someone goes "bluuuh why don't they just give this burst bomb" "weh weh Inkstrike would be way better" "why don't you give this thing a wall why does it have a mineeeee"

Giving a weapon a kit isn't as simple as 'This weapon would be good with this sub and this special'. A weapon's infrastructure has to support the sub and special. Think of them like puzzle pieces - the more you try and shove the Suction Bomb piece into a Bamboozler, the more you're going to have to mod it to make it fit.

And as we've been over, Squidforce fucking hates modding.

Put more seriously, tournament regs say that for a weapon alt to be legal, the base weapon itself's gotta perform exactly like the vanilla variant. No differences in ink efficiency, accuracy, spread, ink calibre, nothing like that. So the more you mod a weapon to fit a heavy sub like a Suction Bomb, the less likely you'll get it to work exactly like the base weapon.

That being said: the reason the vanilla Undercover's kit sucks is because it's literally just an umbrella. It's not even a heavy duty one it's one you can pick up at the dollar store for 500G. Weighs five pounds at most, and they shoved an ink chamber into the shaft. Ink Mine and Reef Slider are light as hell additions, and frankly out of the ones that we've got tournament standard are the only ones I would bet you could actually be fitted onto the weapon to begin with.

Which makes the Undercover Sorella an engineering miracle. A middling, mediocre engineering miracle.

Custom Blaster (w/ Point Sensor and Triple Splashdown)

Keeping it short and simple, don't have a lot to say about this one. The Point Sensor's a good support weapon for a blaster, but makes it lack a good poking tool to make people move once they're marked, meaning you're more reliant on your team to poke for you by basically saying 'over there!' Not necessarily a bad thing, but makes it hurt for inking power.

Triple Splashdown....I dunno. I don't see anything for it? It's alright as a panic button, I guess, but the Blaster doesn't have the tools to corner someone, which is where the Splashdown excels.

Special ain't great for it, but the sub changes the weapon's role in an interesting way.

Nintendo's S-BLAST '91 (w/ Burst Bomb and Booyah Bomb)

I went off on how amazing the base weapon is on this a while ago, before I forgot to review the Dread Wringer and the Heavy Edit. I'm not reviewing those until/unless they get alt kits. Fuck you.

I went off on how tough Burst Bombs are to get onto kits a while ago, which...I mean if you asked me before this season I would have told you you were INSANE for saying that something as complex as the S-Blast would get a Burst. But here we are. Some-fucking-how Nintendo worked a goddamn miracle.

Is it effective?

...kinda? Kinda.

Booyah's Booyah, not much to say about it. It's decent on basically everything that gets it as far as I'm concerned.

Painbrush Nouveau (w/ Point Sensor and Tenta Missiles)

Painbrush is another weapon I never really got around to reviewing the base of. It's a scary thing. The Dynamo of brushes except it's actually pretty effective because it only takes a week to come out swinging instead of seven happy years of marriage. I can't imagine a time you'd actually be skating with the thing unless you're in a bad spot, and if you're in a bad spot you're dead anyway.

Unlike with the Custom Blaster, I really like the Point Sensor on this thing. Brushes are meant to be annoying little bastards, and constantly marking people with a weapon that has three times as much range as you think it does makes you the biggest little bastard on the map at any given time.

And if it wasn't bastard enough, you have Missiles for extra bastard.

Painbrush Nouveau - a weapon for the bastard in you.

REEF-LUX 450 Deco (w/ Splash Wall and Reef Slider)

*fucking chokes and dies*

Nouveau's Neo Splatana Stamper (w/ Toxic Mist and Crab Tank)

Probably one of the more interesting kits we got. The original Stamper's got the Burst Bomb and Zipcaster. And as everyone knows before the Burst got its infamous capacity nerf, this thing is FEARSOME with the damn things. So when we saw the new kit with Toxic Mist all the Burst Chuds lost their goddamn minds.

What are they going to do, give it Burst Bomb again? Get over yourself.

This version of the weapon's definitely more support based - sensing a theme with a few of the kits this season honestly - but not as much as you might think. Toxic Mist is important soft area denial, but more than that, it makes landing your Vert-Hori combo a LOT easier, because anyone moving through it will be moving slower than your vertical slash, which is saying something because that thing's nearly as bad as the Grizzco Slosher.

This leads the weapon to a much more thoughtful, methodical style compared to its hopped up brother, which I ended up really liking while testing the weapon out. You're not going to be getting quad after quad like Pro Bigboy Chara or something, but with Mist and Crab you're going to be doing your team a service by playing this weapon well.

And that's it. This is the first time I've actually done a real-ass weapon review on tumblr, so...if anyone other than Astral sees this I'll be happy.

Maybe I'll do another one next season? Who knows.

Feel free to shoot me asks or reply in the comments if you've got any questions or dissenting opinions. I love talking shop about weapon shit with anyone who isn't Astral because her opinions fucking suck.

Please someone give me other opinions to go off of I only have hers someone help

[huanglong-diyidou]

Just Dance and Romance (Arataki Itto x gn!reader) (pt. 1)

4:46 pm

The day’s classes are over for you and Itto. You’re currently sitting with him and Kuki Shinobu at the cafeteria. She has her laptop open, working on an assignment. You’ve been loudly chatting with Itto about all sorts of stupid things, since neither of you have anything better to do. You suggest, “Hey, I’ve been thinking… we should totally go to my house and have a sleepover. Plus, I’ve been meaning to try out a Just Dance game with someone~”

“OH! Hey, that’s the best idea ever! I am so gonna beat your score, just you watch. They don’t call me Arataki ‘dance master’ Itto for nothing!” You roll his eyes at the new nickname. Itto being Itto, as always.

“Never heard that one before,” you reply. He makes an exaggerated incredulous face.

“What do you mean, you never heard that one before? Don’t you know about my super awesome and amazing dance skills?” he says.

“I’ve never even seen you dance before.”

“Well, you would’ve if you ever came to any of my frat parties!”

“Please.” you cross your arms. “I’m never going into one of those hell holes, like ever.” Shinobu was having trouble focusing.

“Can you two please pipe it down..?” She stretches in her chair. “I actually have work to do, unlike you two.” You and Itto share a look.

“Sorry, Shinobu…” you say.

“Yeah, sorry! You’re so cool for being so hardworking! I could never do all that”, Itto vaguely gestures at the screen. You felt kinda bad for interrupting her studying. Being a law student wasn’t easy, after all.

“Just.. go talk elsewhere. Please. We can hang out, but later .” she says, massaging her temples.

Itto just stares at her, loudly slurping his boba drink. Out of pity for the law student, you decide to drag him to the store to buy supplies for the sleepover. If you didn’t, this man would simply never shut up.

5:28 pm

“Okay, what do we need for a sleepover? Snacks, obviously… but what else?” you are lost in your thoughts. Itto calls out your name and you turn towards him. He’s holding up a cat plush with a weird, stretched out face. With a stupid grin, he says that it looks like you. Jesus… You have half a mind to just throw a bag of chips at him. “No, you” is the best comeback you can come up with. It’s okay though, it is very effective against Itto specifically.

“Heeeey, I do NOT look like that! My face is too handsome. Cmon, have you even looked at my handsome face? It’s nothing like this… weird, alien cat’s face!” Itto comes closer and makes the stupidest face you’ve ever seen. He’s grinning, eyebrows raised and eyelids half closed.

“Wow. Yeah, you really do look like that plush.” you answer. Itto’s jaw drops, taken aback. He was… slightly hurt that you didn’t think he was handsome. Of course, he could never let you know that. Ultimately, you picked out some popcorn, Doritos and Mountain Dew. Itto got ice cream bars and beef jerky.

5:59 pm

Arrived at your home already, a place Itto’s been to many, many times. You have been best friends for so long now. Your parents have gotten used to him bursting in like he lives here. But not tonight, no, they’re away on vacation. You’re slightly jealous of them being in the sun while you have to toil away to get to campus in the cold. “All right! Just Dance time!” Itto loudly announces after setting the ice cream in the fridge.

“What..? We just got here. Don’t you wanna do something else first?”

“Nope! Just Dance time! I said I was gonna beat you, and I’m a man of my word.” He pounded on his chest with his fist.  “Arataki ‘dance master’ Itto will show you who’s the real boss here.” You scoffed.

“You think I’m gonna let you beat me at Just Dance? Right here, in my own domain? Hah! Not. A. Chance!” you cross your arms.

Itto’s already diving for the Wii remote. You scrambled to get the 1P remote. No way you’d let him have the 1P remote. This was your turf! You successfully grab the remote, which was hidden underneath some blankets. Itto turns the console on, and you start the game. You’ve had this console for a long time now, and you know it’s outdated. But you could never get rid of it. Too many precious memories were made on it. A lot of those memories had Itto in them. You mostly had competitive games, so it made sense. Having no siblings to play them with, he was all too happy to play against you all the time. He absolutely had to be the best at every single game you had. You were honestly impressed at how much time he spent in your house just trying to get better than you. Little do you know, there was perhaps another reason why Itto came over so often.

Just Dance 2014 was booted up, and he was practically jumping in excitement. You could swear you saw stars in his eyes. Remote in hand, you set the ground rules. “All right. So, we each pick out two songs, and best two out of three wins! Got it?” you yell out. Itto aggressively nods and holds out his thumb.

“I get the home advantage, so I’m picking first!” you say. Itto has no oppositions. This had become a habit with the two of you, with how often you came over at each other’s place. You quickly pick out one of your favourite songs, Starships . The choreography was super girly, and you knew that. You are an evil gremlin and wanted to see Itto dancing ridiculously. Surprisingly, Itto just looked super serious the whole time. It was quite a sight seeing a bulky, 6’8 guy dancing to Starships with an extremely focused expression. He seemed dead-set on beating you, but you weren’t going down that easy.

After the song was over, you were anxiously watching the score meter to see who won. The bars are going up, up, up… until Itto’s stopped and yours kept going up! He dropped to his knees and yelled out, “NOOOO! How?! How could this be?”

“HAH! Told you I’d win!” you say, almost out of breath.

“This… isn’t over yet. I’m going to beat you, just you watch!” he spat back, unable to accept his loss. Itto swiftly moves closer and grabs your remote, still attached to your wrist. You couldn’t help but blush, just a little. There really isn’t much space between the two of you. Plus, his hand totally dwarfs the remote, which seemed normal-sized in yours. You kind of forget just how big he is sometimes. “There!” his voice pulls you out of your stupor. He moves away. For a split-second, you felt slightly disappointed. Wait, disappointed? No, no, it was nothing. Shake it off. You didn’t feel anything . You were so distracted you didn’t even notice the song was about to start. What song did he even..? Wait, Moskau ?

“Heeeey, come on, pick the character so we can start already!” Itto was getting impatient. You scrambled to click on the girl character since he already took the guy. The dance started out relatively normally. It was a bit silly, and you couldn’t really manage too many of the russian dance moves. Weirdly… Itto was executing each one perfectly. You were impressed, but also a little suspicious. Did he… practice for this? Nah, that’s not possible. You only bought the game yesterday and didn’t tell him about it till earlier today. He then did something you could never have anticipated. As the girl on the screen was picked up and spun around by the guy, Itto did the same to you. With no warning, he grabbed you by the waist and lifted you in the air, spinning around. You yelped out of surprise but held on tight. You barely even had to anyway, with how steady his grip was. Your heart was beating so fast, the result of a combination of dancing and whatever it was that just happened. Before you even know it, Itto puts you back down and continues dancing like nothing happened. You stare at him, struggling to catch up to him. By the end of the song, you could barely move anymore. Itto seemed just fine, though. I guess that’s what you get for being less active than him… “Hey… Hey, what the hell was that? Why’d you lift me up like that?” you say in between gasps for air.

“Huh? Because… because of the dance, obviously! I’m not a chicken! I’m gonna follow exactly what the dancers are doing. No slacking! There really isn’t any excuse!” Itto replies, a little too fast. You didn’t buy it. Something was fishy here. Unsurprisingly, the screen showed that Itto had won. “WOO! Got my revenge, finally! Hahahaa, haha!” he guffaws.

“Gloat all you want, buddy. There’s still one last song.” You chose the final song, and danced like your life depended on it. Unfortunately for you, so did Itto. As the song ended, you ran to get a glass of water, the thirst being unbearable. While you were drinking, the game announced the winner… Itto! “HAAAH! I won! I totally won! You see that?!” he points at the screen. “That-- is the sign of a true dance master.”

“I can’t… I can’t believe it… Haah… I’m dying over here.” you say, truly out of breath. You collapse on your couch. Itto collapses next to you. “Well? Will you admit it? Will you admit that I, Arataki Itto, am the real, numero uno dance master?”

“Okay, okay, fine! You’re the dance master!” you roll your eyes and playfully punch his chest. “Ah, ew! You’re so sweaty! Go take a shower!”

“Ugh, no way! You go take a shower!” he lightly shoves you. Chaos ensues as the both of you play-wrestle over who should shower first. Wild laughs reverberated through the living room. You had the illusion that you actually had a fair chance of taking him over, but you really didn't. Itto was being very generous by holding back all of his strength. At some point, you manage to grab his wrists and topple him over, getting him underneath you. “Hah! I win!” you exclaim.

…

…Ah, this position…

Itto was just staring at you with a blank expression.

It took you embarrassingly long to realize just how awkward this had gotten. Back when you were kids, it was fine. You always wrestled like this, not thinking too much of it. But now… the both of you are grown-up. What was once an innocent game now felt so very… different. You could feel his muscles a little too much under your thighs. His wrists felt too big. His stare… You finally couldn’t take any more and got off. “Uh– well, then. I’m gonna take a shower first, I guess. Bye.” you say, practically running away from the couch.

Itto didn’t miss the blush that had crept up on your face. He just looked at you leaving, amused.

What was he gonna do with you..? “So adorable.” he said under his breath, slowly shaking his head.