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gassydumbjocks · 2 months ago

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Its Good To Be A Man

Tyler close the door and throw himself to the sofa, exhausted after a day of work thanking it was finally over. He worked at a pretty good company, but being the only gay guy in his department and having to deal with homophobes and sexist co-workers was sometimes too much for him, so he thought about watching a movie or a tv show maybe to relax and sleep.

He started to look up in his VHS Cassettes' box and soon noticed that strangely, a new one was there, it didn't got any cover or stuff, and just had written "Its good to be a man" as the only title on it, he found it weird, but then supposed perhaps that his dumb jock of a roommie got it and put it with his stuff "I've told him not to touch my things like a million times, when is that brute gotta learn"

He had to admit the curiousity was hitting him, it was probably a home made video recorded by Connor and his gross buddies, but boy... after all, he was gay, and all of Connor's friends were toned ripped jocks from the gym (with a brain of a peanut size, but hot after all)

Thinking "maybe its just their excersizes routines... guess it wouldn't hurt to see" feeling a bit of a lust mood running in his body "ok, just a couple minutes...but i swear, if its just them having a belch off, im burning this" he said.

Putting the tape in the tv player, he clicked to put the video, and all of a sudden, the typical static sound shows, then a simple white screen, making Tyler raise an eyebrow, before what seemed to be a variety show intro plays, a smiling man in a suit which he supposed was the host, along a bunch athletic shirtless men with dumb expressions who followed next to him appeared in screen.

"Good to see ya again my brothers!" The host announces "this is your program where you learn how to be real MEN", as if it was a cue, the stud-bodied-like guys all grunted and beated their chests, like they were gorillas making a chanting "Uh!, Uh!, Uh!" and flexed their arms, making the audience laugh loudly, with those cocky grins Tyler knew so well, he rolled his eyes.

Making the host laugh aswell, he patted one of them in the back "That's what i talk about" he joked "Alright folks, tonight we'll indulge into an intense session of what it means to be a man, these guys here will serve as examples in showing you all stuff boys MUST do to become the alpha macho men they truly are" he adds, then, smirking, he takes a small device from his suit pocket.

"This little thing here made sure to leave them empty headed and obey any manly command given to them, just as it'll make sure to do the same for you, ma boy" he suddenly announces.

"...The hell?" Tyler said, arching his look again as he watched them "is this some bullshit hypnosis crap or?..." he asked

"That's right, dudes! Lets begin" the host shouted. "It's time to show off around what you're made of! We'll do something primal, no pun intented" he joked "We'll now do the first category: BURPING!, so, let's hear those nice bassy burps!" he says, turning to the group of jocks, as he pressed a button of that device.

Immediatly, they started to release loud and deep monsters of burps, at unison, as if they were in trance, still with those dumb expressions, and Tyler could swear he saw how one of them got his eyes crossed with a complete fool face.

Even worse, Tyler felt a strange urge to burp himself too. He tried to resist, but the feeling was overwhelming, he rubbed his gut hoping to calm it down, but he just letted out a loud, embarrassing belch, blushing immediatly

"Wha-BOOOOUUURRP?- Is happening?!" he said between belches, a little ashamed.

"Excellent!" the host cheered. "This is what i call a manly symphony!, but we also know there is another way to do that, right?" He asks the public with a mischevous grin "FARTING is a big part in the bonding among men, so, we just have to, let it rip right?" He asked again, as he pressed that little button.

Some of the guys turned around to show their butts, other simply proceed to lift their legs, but they all did the same, at the command of "letting rip" they instantly started a worthy orchestra of simultaneous farts, each sounding grosser and deepest than the last one

Tyler was grossed out and sick, he wanted it to stop, but as he bend over a bit over to approach the tv, his butt felt the need to drop a massive, and nasty monster of a deep fart, the loudest he've ever letted out, he could feel his butt vibrating at that one, sitting normally again, horrified and trying to cover his butt with his hands.

"This-BOOOOOOOUUUUURRRRRPP!" He belched "Is a nightmare!..."

PPPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRTTTT!!!

That last fart seemed to do something on Tyler, he kept one second silent before, turning his head to the tv again, now with a dumb and foolish grin adorning his face "hahaha, dudee, i need to quit the bean dip next timee" he said in a lower, more manly voice.

"Whew! Guys! Ok ok its enough! Hahaha" The always happy host said, as he waved his hand to make the smell go away, as the dumb bunch of men kept blasting bombs out of their butts "Geez, dont anybody here think on turning on a lighter" he said bursting in laughing, making Tyler laugh too at the stupid joke.

"But for now, this is all we got for today's emmision, bros, we're glad that you could come with us in this, stinky, foul and manly lessons that every man needs to apply in his everyday, till the next program! Boys? Would you like to wave goodbay?" he asked with a grin.

The camera showed each of them, now it was sure they all had that same cross-eyed look and dumb smiles, like Tyler did, the staff offered a can of a kind of soda to one of them, which he drank in a single gulp, before removing it from his lips "GOOOD BYEEEEAAAAUUURRRRRP!" A massive belch came out, as he succesfully burp-talked, gaining again the laughs and applause from all the people in the set.

Meanwhile with Tyler, at the same time he also relaxed his muscles, and lifted a leg as he felt some pressure in his lower abdomen, he knew very well what that meant "Bombs away!" he said proudly, before the smelly, big and long fart made its way out of his crack.

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTT!!!

"Hahah!" he chuckled "i think i just ruined my undies"

#male burp #male farts #iq loss #alpha jock #hyper masculinity #mind control

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noodlesarecheese · 7 months ago

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So Watcher is launching a Dropout (it's not called Dropout but they're clearly using the same template format platform thing idk what it's called, and the same pricing structure), and the reaction so far has been wildly different than what I remember from Dropout's launch. I was curious about why that was or if I was just misremembering the Dropout launch, so I went back to the Dropout launch video to compare them and I think I can see where some of the difference is coming from.

If you want to make the comparison yourself: Watcher's Video, Dropout's Video.

I wanna clarify first though that this isn't a knock against Watcher or the fans who are reacting one way or another or anything like that, I genuinely am just fascinated with how different the reactions are to what seems to be the same business decision. This also isn't a 'wow watcher sucks and dropout is so much better' I'm just using them for comparison because they did the same thing with different results. ALSO this isn't about the business decision itself, just the presentation! Disclaimers out of the way, here's the analysis.

Title and Thumbnail So the Watcher.tv announcement video is titled "Goodbye Youtube" and the thumbnail is Ryan, Shane, and Steven sitting on a couch looking serious, with a dark background. That really makes it seem like they're quitting (which, ok, they are quitting youtube but not quitting quitting). Viewers are already primed to be upset, and it's easier to go from upset to angry than upset to excited, curious, or neutral.

Compare to the dropout announcement video: "How the Internet is Ruining Comedy" - inline with other collegehumor video titles, might make you curious. Thumbnail - Big News! with Sam smiling and a bright background. We know its big news, but he looks happy, and the exclamation point let's us know they want us to be excited. Viewers are primed to be curious and excited.

Tone The Watcher announcement has 2 main tones. The first half is very sentimental, almost sad or wistful at times, and while there are parts that veer into pride at achievements, it's mostly bittersweet and sentimental. The second half is a bit more uplifting, but still quite serious. It reminded me of a tech announcement, like when they introduce the new iphone or something like that. Very professional, sleek, and serious, which isn't automatically a bad thing! But I do think that's not the vibe a decently-sized chunk of the audience expected or wanted. Many people watch Watcher for the cast's dynamic with each other, humor, and the more relaxed/conversational/friendly feel that most of the series have.

Compare to dropout - excited and comedic tone. Still professional, but also fits the expectations of the viewers. People watch collegehumor for the humor (it was in the name, after all). They also poke a bit of fun at themselves, which lightens the mood, shows self-awareness, and alleviates some of the bad feelings about paywalling.

Focus The Watcher announcement focuses a lot on the creative journey of the cast and company, as well as how this move will benefit them. Which isn't a bad thing, that's actually quite interesting! The problem here, I think, is actually more about what isn't here - a solid explanation of how this will also benefit the viewers and why the viewers should be excited. There's a brief description of one new show, and the promise that existing shows will get an upgrade, but we weren't given many specific details about how they'll be improved, and there's only one new show to tempt us into subscribing. Some people will be excited for that, some people won't, and some people will be excited but not enough to subscribe. Having 2 or 3 series (even if it's 1 fleshed out plus a few teasers of what's in production or what is being planned) plus some more details about how existing shows will be improved would've helped. Without that, it really does seem like it'll just be the same stuff viewers were getting for free, but now paywalled, rather than new and exciting stuff. That makes a big difference. I think with the fans not getting as much focus, this also led to some (accidental, I hope) hurt feelings. Based on what I've seen from fan reactions, all the talk about hitting the peak of what they can do on youtube and wanting more, translated for many people to 'youtube isn't enough' which became 'you (the current viewers) aren't enough.' Which I don't think was their intent! But I also don't think fans are wrong for feeling hurt by that.

Compare to dropout: They clearly explain how the move will benefit fans, and reassure viewers that existing content will stay where it is, and only new content will be behind the paywall. (Watcher clarified this too, but in a comment. It's not in the video itself, which is a huge problem.) They include clips of several new (at the time) series that would be premiering on dropout, including things that specifically could not be made on youtube (due to weed, violence, and sexual humor), so the reason for the shift is clear to the audience.

Advertisers Both videos contain the sentiment that being monetarily successful on youtube means working to appease the advertisers, and that over time what the advertisers want and what the creators want drifts further and further apart, putting strain on the creators.

However, I think the message gets lost a bit in the Watcher vid. Instead, it leaves viewers with the idea that the main problem is just ads are annoying instead of advertisers putting constraints on content. I'm not even sure what the specific constraints are for watcher, because they didn't give any examples. And the focus on ads being annoying leaves viewers frustrated because people typically either don't mind ads or they already have an ad blocker.

Timing and Size Okay, this isn't exactly about presentation, but it is still a factor that impacts perception so I'm tackling it. And I'm actually going to do dropout first. CollegeHumor launched dropout in September 2018. Pre-pandemic, but also pre-Sam Reich as CEO. The company was still owned by IAC. It was a Company, and while it wasn't huge it wasn't tiny either. So launching dropout was a Company Decision, a Business Strategy. Some people were upset about, but it wasn't a personal betrayal (generally, anyways). If I remember correctly, this was also not a high point for the company. They kinda needed dropout to do well to keep things running smoothly (which is why they shut it down and sold it to Sam just 1 1/2ish years later), so the sudden shift made sense.

Watcher Entertainment is a company, but it doesn't feel like one. Ryan, Shane, and Steven own and operate things, but they're also the faces, and they're youtubers. Which makes every business decision they make feel more personal to viewers, especially those who have been watching for a long time. They've also seemingly been doing well on youtube, which makes it more difficult for viewers to understand why the sudden change is happening now. They do talk a bit about it, about the company expanding and wanting to do things that advertisers don't like (which I've already covered). However, mostly the choice to start a streaming platform is framed as 'the next big step' without much clarification on why it's the next big step. Plus, it's post-pandemic, and a lot of people are still struggling financially with the ripple effects of that. Yes, $6 isn't a wild amount of money, but there have been some months where $5 absolutely meant the difference between paying all my bills or not, and I know I'm not the only one. This, coupled with a lack of clarity about why exactly they're doing this, leads to fans feeling hurt, betrayed, bitter, and frustrated.

Now, presentation and framing isn't everything. No matter how perfect your announcement is, some people are still going to be upset. It's a big change, of course people will be upset! But I do think a more careful presentation would've alleviated some of the hurt and anger that fans are feeling. While I do think a lot of the reaction we're seeing is due to the decision, I think (based on what I've seen) that some of it is also based on the poor communication in the video itself, and that could've been avoided!

So I'm gonna get a little speculative and describe what I would've done. In this hypothetical, they've decided to launch the streaming service and brought me on just for the announcement.

Firstly, switch the title out. If they're married to Goodbye Youtube then add a (and hello...?) after so it's at least obvious they aren't fully quitting. The dark color scheme of the thumbnail fits their regular vibe, but they want everyone to be excited so they should look excited. Next, let's lighten the tone up. Being proud of what they've done so far is great, but we don't need the sentimental music and bittersweetness. Remember, the goal is to get viewers excited about what come's next - so let's focus on what actually comes next! Talk about specific show plans and mention why they wouldn't work on youtube. Then, take some time to reassure the fans. Predict a few likely worries and address them in the video. Acknowledge that it's a big change, that it will take time to get used to, and that not everyone will be onboard, and let the fans know that it's ok if they aren't onboard.

Like I said, this wouldn't fix everything. There are a few differences in between dropout and watcher that don't have anything to do with presentation. Dropout launched with primarily new shows rather than new seasons of existing shows, and they continued uploading to youtube relatively regularly in addition to the content behind the paywall, which I do think went a long way to keeping fans happy. At this point it's unclear if watcher will do either of those or not. But, while I don't think it would fix everything, I do think improved communication in the announcement would've helped.

#watcher #feel free to share your own thoughts but please be nice #I just like communication ok! And I really enjoyed the 1 marketing class I took in college #and it's pretty rare that you get such a clear comparison between 2 unrelated companies!

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celestial-grls · 3 months ago

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Party 4 You - Paige Bueckers x fem!reader

summary: you decide to go out with the women's basketball team and a certain member has always confused you - before now word count: 2.9k a/n: fav concept ever is #partypaige...title inspired by the best Charli XCX song ever. please leave comments / reblog if you liked this ok mwah <33

"It's my job that you come out with us tonight." A very out-of-breath KK Arnold informed you on the phone about her new job.

"KK, did you just finish practice? Why are you out of breath?" You'd started an internship about two weeks ago, and when you agreed to take it, no one warned you that interning meant piling on a ton of work that no one else wanted to do. It'd felt awful to be holed up inside, spending nights hunched over a computer when everyone else was only getting their summer started.

"Was just playing pick up with Paige and Ice," KK sighed, "So, did you make up your mind yet?"

"Ugh, I don't know. There's a ton of stuff missing in some of these documents they want me to edit. I still haven't even thought about what I'd wear if I did go out tonight—" You rambled on, pacing around your desk before KK interrupted.

"I already know you got something in that never-ending closet of yours. Does that mean you'll come out tonight?" An air of hope in KK's voice made you pause to consider it.

You mindlessly wandered all the way to your closet while you were on the phone with KK. Maybe it was a sign that your brand-new skirt was hanging on the door handle, begging to be taken out for a spin. You told KK, "Okay, I'll be there. But please, promise we will keep it contained, nothing crazy?"

KK let out a scream that made you rip the phone away from your ear before she started laughing and said, "Come by later to pregame! Bye, Pookie!"

You laughed at her excitement, "Bye, KK!"

The going-out section of your closet only served as a reminder of how crazy going out with some women's basketball team members can get. Between their boundless energy, how they seem to know everyone (including bartenders), and how they attract a crowd everywhere they go, there is no telling where the night can go once you join them.

You met KK when you partnered up in your communications class and immediately found her hilarious. Plus, it didn't hurt that she always got you better seats than the student section during basketball games. You knew that going out tonight meant you were going to see Paige, so it was crucial to keep yourself in check.

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Paige and Ice took a water break while KK finished her phone call with you.

"So Y/N's coming tonight?" Paige asked in confirmation.

KK teased, "Why? So you can stare at her from a corner all night?"

Ice added, "No, for real. Poor girl probably thinks you hate her."

Paige interjects, "Alright, alright. We've talked to each other before. Y'all just don't wanna remember it."

KK scoffs, "Girl, boo. Asking what her major is doesn't count. Especially because I already told you what it was before."

They all gathered their things while Paige advocated for herself, "Y'all really have no faith in me, huh? Trust, it'll be a different story when I come by later."

KK and Ice mumbled a combination of 'Yeah, sure' and 'Uh huh' before heading toward their building while Paige walked alone to hers. The truth was that she was a nervous wreck around you and always has been ever since KK and you became friends.

It was one of those things that no one but Paige understood. She was her confident, relaxed self around her friends, in a stadium full of fans, even at events she would've never believed she'd find herself in. She got it in her head that maybe you didn't like her very much. Not because you were standoffish, you were actually the opposite. Paige never felt that you liked her enough to be around her alone. They were always in groups with their respective friends.

At first, none of her friends caught on to her little crush; she tried to keep it discreet. It was going well until you came over to watch movies and see them fight over the Xbox controller in a pair of striped sleep shorts and a UConn hoodie, and she officially became a goner. Sitting four feet away from you while you looked like that and periodically pushing your glasses up made her sweat from her palms and make her think up an excuse for leaving movie night early.

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Ice's apartment was filled with chatter, and Paige's pregame playlist came from the speakers. Everyone's shot glasses were haphazardly crowded on the table while some girls mixed drinks.

You adjusted the bottle of Tito's in the crook of your arm before knocking on the door. When Ice answered the door, you could already tell you needed to catch up with everyone. She immediately wrapped you up in a hug and excitedly screamed, "We missed you, Pookie! And you came prepared."

"I always do," You told her as she took the vodka from you so that you could adequately say hi to everyone.

It was a natural relief to finally have a night out with friends, and any thoughts about work or deadlines didn't even cross my mind when I got to Ice's.

KK must've been just as relieved to see you because she said, "Y/N, finally, someone who can make a mixed drink. I can't drink any of Paige's mid-ass drinks anymore."

Paige looked offended and told her, "Call them mid, but they get it done."

It's not like you received any formal mixologist training or bartending experience, but making drinks became your specialty whenever you went out. You got straight to work making KK her favorite drink and handing it to her.

KK graciously sipped it and said it tasted "Perfect, as always."

You turned around to see Paige standing empty-handed and decided to ask, "Want me to make you something?"

Your pretenses were completely innocent, but how you softly smiled and batted your eyelashes made Paige's heart jump. Plus, she'd only heard five-star reviews about your drinks, so she couldn't refuse anyway. Once she gave you the okay, she was gearing up to ask you where you learned to make drinks like that until KK interjected, already half her drink downed.

"Don't worry, Y/N. She's not picky."

You were done with the drink and ran to the fridge, your little heels clacking on the wooden floor, to grab the jar of maraschino cherries. When you topped off Paige's drink and handed it to her, you shrugged, "I have a feeling she'll like it."

There it was again—your self-assuredness and complete ease in any situation made Paige feel weak and wobbly around you. The shiny red cherry on top, matching the shiny coat of lip gloss you were sporting, didn't make it any easier for her.

She usually hates anything that tastes like alcohol, so whatever you made her was incredible. "This is fire. What is it?"

"A dirty Shirley. You like?" You stood looking up at her, hoping the drink could be a peace offering or a way to make Paige like you a little more. You never knew why she seemed more reserved or conscious around you, but you knew it always drove you crazy.

"These are dangerous." Paige concluded with approval, and KK said, "Told you."

After everyone was tipsy enough and you caught up with what some girls had been up to in the last couple of weeks, it was time to get into the Uber to start your night. Time collapsed into a whizz of final lip touch-ups, shuffling clumsy bodies into one car and waiting in anticipation to let loose.

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There was a corner of the bar with a karaoke machine that KK and Paige excitedly ran over to like it was a toy. Everyone downed the shots you bought and got ready to hear their performance. They did their best rendition of 'Kiss Me More' and sounded nothing like SZA or Doja Cat, but since everyone was tipsy, they danced anyway. Paige and KK looked right at home, singing with their arms wrapped around each other and sassily dancing whenever they caught Ice or Azzi filming them.

When they finished, your little group applauded their effort, and Paige unexpectedly took her place next to you and Azzi. She looked a little smug, sipping the drink in her cup with her other hand resting in her pocket.

Azzi piped up, "Tone deaf and singing Doja Cat is crazy."

Paige scoffed, "Alright, Azzi, I don't remember asking." Azzi and Ice got up to sing next, and Paige shifted closer to you.

Emboldened by the drinks, she nods at you and says, "I like this skirt on you."

You feel it in your face first, flushing from having her eyes on you. You played it cool and told her, "Thank you, the skirt likes you, too." As you said it, you didn't exactly know what it meant, but it made sense in your drunk brain.

She laughs and nervously twists the bracelet on her wrist. "So what'd you think of my singing?"

You pretend to think about it, "You ball better than you sing."

Azzi and Ice are making an Usher song into a duo. You sip on your drink while taking a video of them that they'll definitely be humiliated by tomorrow.

Paige looks at you and asks, "Oh, so you've noticed?"

You don't know where this confidence came from. Usually, Paige avoids you whenever you're out. You figure it's because she's been drinking and having fun after an intense season. You're suspicious of it, but you like this version of her. "You know I come to games."

"Haven't seen you in a minute, though. You been busy?"

You repeat what she said right back to her, "Oh, so you've noticed?"

Paige laughs, touching your arm and lingering near your elbow. "I'm being for real. What you been up to?"

Her touch makes you feel dizzy, going straight to your distracted brain while you try to find an answer for her. "Got an internship, and they're already overworking me." Before Paige can respond, you shift closer to her to ask, "Can I ask you something, Paige?"

She steadies her eyes on you and says, "Sure, what's on your mind?"

You start, "I don't know…Normally, you don't talk to me much." You kept it lighthearted, teasingly asking, "Am I that scary?"

Paige looks down at her sneakers, "Nah, not too scary." She added, "M'glad you came, though."

You looked up at her as she wet her lips and said, "I'm glad I came, too."

When Ice and Azzi finished singing, they were exhausted from exerting so much effort. You rounded everyone up and announced, "Everyone's gotta do a shot, I'm buying!"

After another round of green tea shots, all hopes for a contained and calm night went out the window. Some girls broke off into different groups inside the bar as they ran into different acquaintances and friends. There was even more karaoke, only getting slightly sloppier and more tone-deaf with time. Sometime between you dancing behind the DJ table and your third drink, your exchange with Paige from earlier caught up to you.

You couldn't even precisely identify what you were feeling at the moment. You thought Paige was indifferent toward you, or at least not keen on getting to know you beyond being KK's friend. But when you remembered the feeling of her fingers grazing your arm, you felt confused by it. Suddenly, an emotional wobbliness started to creep up on you, and your next instinct was telling you to duck outside for a minute. You handed your drink to Azzi and told her you needed some air and would be right back.

It was cool enough outside to wrap your arms around yourself comfortably as you stood with your back against the wall. When you leaned your head back to close your eyes and take a breath, you tried to collect your thoughts. It was bouncing around a few things: deciding what to doordash later when you got home, mentally writing a small to-do list of internship work, and Paige.

You thought about how her hands looked around the drink you made her at the pregame, her long legs in a pair of cargos you liked on her, how she sounded so sincere when she told you she was glad you came. It was a lot, and your brain would overheat if you didn't duck out when you did. You were so startled when all you heard was, "Hey," coming from somewhere on your left.

It was just Paige, who currently had her hands on your shoulders after you almost jumped out of your skin at someone coming up to you. She apologized profusely before she said, "Wanted to see if you were good."

Your eyes soften at this. You forget that you were concentrating so hard on your shoes that you were about to burn a hole in them. It was replaced by Paige's presence, comforted automatically by her taller frame blocking out the view of the street at night.

You straightened up, adjusting the purse she was touching on your shoulder, and evening your voice enough to say, "I'm good; I just needed a second."

Paige looked down and nodded, "Good, good. DJ booth looked empty without you dancing."

You shook your head and laughed, "Been a minute since I could dance until my feet hurt."

"You think you'll feel it tomorrow?" With how Paige looked at you, you thought she was much more sober than you probably were.

You shrug, eyes feeling heavy as you lean into the wall, "Think we all will."

Right as you say that, all the rest of your friends start shuffling out. They were clearly tired. You remember they all decided to play an entire pick-up game earlier and announced they were ready to call it a night. No one disagreed. All of you had fun, but it was time for the drunk food and pajamas part of the night.

Paige urgently needed to spend more time with you. One of those game-time decisions seemed to come out of nowhere when she said, "Y/N and I should take a separate one since our buildings are close together and everything."

Thankfully, all your friends were gone enough to not question it and felt safe in knowing it was best everyone went home in a group instead of alone this late. It sounded sensical to you, even though you hadn't remembered that you and Paige lived in neighboring apartment buildings. But then again, you haven't been anywhere but work or home, which felt like forever, so maybe you hadn't noticed.

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Something about being in this car in the backseat with Paige felt right. She spread out in the back while you crossed your leg, shifting your weight so the tip of your shoe would brush against her leg whenever the car stopped.

It was a short ride from the last bar your friends hit to your apartment building. There were hardly any red lights, but you wished for at least one or two more.

You turned to question Paige, "I didn't know you lived close to my building."

She pressed her lips together, "KK didn't mention it?"

You shook your head, more wide-eyed now that you sobered up.

Paige added, "I got a bigger place after the last semester ended."

You nodded and teased, "Okay, big baller, I see you."

Paige snickered and thanked the driver while you guys got out. She walked you into your building and even rode the elevator with you. When you asked what she had planned for the night, she mentioned some Advil and a big glass of water. When she asked you the same question, you told her about door-dashing some Taco Bell and taking your makeup off.

She felt like you guys made it to your door too soon. You each stopped before it as you fished for your keys inside your purse. When you turned to tell her, "Thanks for walking with me. Text me when you get to your building."

Paige got that look again as if she was about to say something to you, the same one she made when you plopped the maraschino cherry into her pregame drink. She scratched the back of her neck, "S'no problem. And I will."

You said, "Night, Paige." as you leaned against the door frame and kicked your heels off into a corner, shrinking in height and making Paige even taller than you for a moment.

She paused to tell you, "Night, Y/N."

When you changed into your pajamas and got your cotton pads out to remove your makeup, your phone chimed with a text from Paige that read: Home. Remember to take that makeup off

You loved the message and wrote back: Doing it right now. Drink a glass of water for me!

You knew Paige had to go through group chats with all the girls in it to select your contact and text you personally since you guys had never texted each other before. It felt like too much to process in your state, and you thought it best to deal with it tomorrow. When you went to hang up your skirt, you ran your fingers over the fabric and silently thanked it for whatever magic it might've done for you tonight.

#my writing #yall i need to make a masterlist but ive never done it before #bc i've written a few things at this point i feel like its time to make a masterlist ...lmk #please rb or comment if you liked this it would mean sm to me #paige bueckers #paige x reader #paige bueckers x y/n #paige bueckers x reader #uconn wbb #uconn huskies #uconn women’s basketball #uconn x reader #uconn lives #rpf #womens basketball #uconn #wnba x reader #wnba basketball #wbb

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stellayuta · 5 months ago

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Love on The Grid - Formula 1 AU! Yuta Okkotsu - Pt 1.

synopsis: One-night stands were nothing but a necessary painkiller for your inability to cross paths with true love. Your most recent find at a Vegas Club was no different. He was boring, obedient, SLOW! You leave him high and hanging hoping you'd never see him again until you find yourself gawking at a supersized billboard of him on a Vegas highway with the title 'LEGEND RETURNS TO VEGAS'.

genre: smut

content: 18+ only. Formula one driver! Yuta x f! reader, nasty intercourse and everything it includes, swearing, unprotected sex, use of alcohol. and a lot, lot, lot of s*xy stuff(like it's everything, a long list, so not gonna write it), reader is downright filthy ngl

word count: 2.8k

a/n: Ah this is my dream come true and this is totally to feed into my fantasies Dx

WARNING: always use protection!

"A bit to the right." you gasp, biting your lips but unable to hold on for long enough to make way for an uncontrollable moan.

"Ah, fuck! How are you so good at this! I thought you were a virgin?" You gasp, coming on his face with a squeal and taking some minutes to put your dazzled mind back into order. You sit up and clear your throat while the man appears from under the blanket and your thighs, face slick and shining with fluid. You gulp at the sight.

"What made you think I was a virgin?" He asks, smiling at you kindly, as if he didn't just devour your pussy.

"I don't know... really." You say, running a hand through your tousled hair, picturing how you two first met. It was a rave night at one of Las Vegas' upscale clubs. You and two of your friends happened to be bar hopping and ended up there at the recommendation of a previous bar's bartender. This club happened to be hosting a major celebration for an event that took place in Vegas that night and it was filled with howling men and skimpily dressed women, dancing to the heavy bass and vibing through the strobe-rainbow lasers. This was exactly your type of place.

"Tonight's your night Y/N." One of your friends cheered while the other made a tiger claw impression at you. "Go get em' tiger!"

You let your girls handle the drink orders and in a half-high state, wandered through the crowd, trying to look for men to chat up. That's where you saw this man, tucked away into a comfortable corner, with what looked like a nice orangey cocktail in hand. He was surrounded by a few men chatting with some very eager women, but he didn't partake in the conversation. That man was going to be your lay today, you had decided.

You cut through the dazed crowd and approach their group with your martini in hand.

"Hi there, got room for one more?" you say charmingly, the other men smiling encouragingly at you and the women smiling apprehensively. The men are clearly better looking, taller, with posher clothing than the wallflower hiding behind them, but the women can have these men.

"Oh, hey you!" you call out to the man, and he looks at his peers before making eye contact with you.

"Yeah, you." you pout at him. "Come out, I need a partner, I love this music." you reach for his hand, and he takes it hesitantly. You see the girls relax a bit as you seem to have chosen the worst pick of the group instead of the shiny men but you're happy to excuse yourself from their company and take your new arm candy to the dance floor.

"You frequent this place?" you ask the man, in order to break some ice. You have no interest in knowing his name.

"Well, I'm just visiting." He replies shortly, training his gaze to be glued to the dance floor. So, it'll be a challenge.

"Want some of this?" you ask, offering your drink.

"Nah, I'm on a cut, sorry." he replies. You give him a sharp smile trying to mask your immense irritation.

"Why the fuck are you in a club then?" you ask, discarding your martini on one of the drink tables and wrapping your arms around his shoulders, staring into his eyes. You catch a glimpse of his drink it may as well be orange juice for all you know now.

"Well, I -"

"Actually, never mind, don't answer that. Do you have a girlfriend?" you get to the point now. Because if he does, you're going to back off.

"Um, sorry, I don't." He says, confused. He stands absolutely still as everyone around him including you continue to groove to the music.

"Well, if you don't like drinking or dancing..." you smirk at him. "Want to do something more fun?"

You were almost certain this lad would say no but to your immense positive astonishment he agrees, cupping your waist and dragging you out of the club. The rest was history.

*****

"Anyway," you say, eyeing the rising sun out of the window blinds of this random hotel room of a random hotel he picked out. It had been a long night and the two of you had been going at it like rabbits. You started near the doorway with him pounding into you from behind. After you came once, you made him pull out and got down on your knees, sucking him off like a thirsty wreck. Then you had a round in the bathtub of the suite with you on top of him. He wasn't limp yet, so you got on top of him on the toilet again and bounced your way till his climax.

He still wasn't done because you ended up on the bed and he decided it would be a good idea to eat you out. You're just glad none of you were drunk out of your minds and everything happened consensually. He had an amazing dick, perfect girth and just long enough with a wicked curve, it's a pity you'd have to let it go today. Yet, you can't help but eye it hopelessly as it hung limp in front of you, almost begging you to caress it again.

"Aww you little-" You coo at his dick, reaching out in front of you to take it in your hands. You feel its weight and its fleshy texture and relish it. "I just can't leave it alone." you tell his soft length as he smiles at you.

That was one good thing about this guy. He didn't say awkward things. He was to the point, very kind in his after care, naughty but not excessively and oh my god are his groans out of this world. He is a looker too. I couldn't tell in the horrendous lighting of the club but now with steady lighting and even in the majestic rays of the rising sun, this man looks hot as hell.

You slump down to take his warm cock into your mouth gratefully and start sucking on it, feeling the length gradually increase and harden inside your mouth.

"Mmm.." you hum and grab a hold of his ball sack and fondle them, not wanting them to feel left out from the action.

You pay special attention to the underside of his cock as he grabs a hold of your hair with his shivering hands and makes you sink down on his length till it hits the back of your throat.

yummy.

You let his cock feel the merciless squeeze of your throat cavity as you go cross eyed from the sensation of being used like this. You moan and hum some more to add to his pleasure and grab a hold of his thighs with force. You look up at him with teary eyes to give him the green signal to let go and with a gasp, he looks up.

You are able to appreciate how thick and veiny his neck is as his seed paints your inner throat white, shooting warm liquid down your throat. He keeps thrusting and doesn't stop until his balls are dried out. You keep his limpening dick in your mouth for a while longer, collecting some of the cum in your mouth, intending to play with it for a bit when he pulls out.

"God. Just wow." He says after leaving your mouth as he watches you blow bubbles with his cum and let it drip down your lips only to scoop it with your fingers and force it back into your mouth.

"Shit. You'll make me hard again."

You blow a big bubble from his cum and wait for it to pop before speaking.

"Why, you're turned on again?" you ask, with half lidded eyes.

"Can you tell me your name?" He asks hopefully. Does he want this to be something? does he want more of you?

Well, he ain't getting any.

"Mouth's full." You reply teasingly, dodging his question and grinning with your teeth covered in his cum.

Your conversation is suddenly interrupted though by a long beeping noise coming out of your digital watch and you check the time.

6:15AM.

Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!

The man sees your mouth form a big O as you stare bleary eyed at your watch, the cumming almost dripping out of your mouth. At this point he felt it was ridiculous you hadn't swallowed yet, nasty.

But swallow you did, and very quickly. You moved with such pace that it was a blur in front of him... and he had seen many fast things in his life.

"I-I'm sorry." you say, pulling your pants on and buttoning up your shirt. You opt to leave your bra and panties; he can have them for all his good work.

"I gotta go!" you say.

"Hey wait! At least tell me your name... or your number, anything!" He pleads. You make the mistake of turning back to look at him. Blushed, with sleepy eyes and puffy lips, locks of dark hair falling beautifully on his delicate face. He looked so vulnerable and needy that you almost feel bad, but your boundaries were clear from the start.

This vegas trip was your medicine to heal from a broken heart. You weren't going to leech on to someone emotionally again. Never!

"Looks like our time here ends..." you say, trying to sound as sorry as possible.

"I don't know if I'll ever meet you again baby boy, but hey! you made me cum. That's brownie points!" you smile at him encouragingly before fleeing from the hotel room with your phone, wallet, and no underwear.

You take quick steps in your kitten heals and head for the receptionist's desk, hoping and praying that here is no white goo on your teeth. First, you locate where this damn hotel is and next, you ask for a pharmacy which luckily, they happen to have.

You book your cab as your Plan B and water bottle gets billed. You check your clock again. 6:23AM.

Ahhhh!!!

You urge the cab drive to max out on his speed and he tries his level best to achieve super-car levels of pace while you down your plan-b. You make it to the hotel you and your friends were staying in just in time and only get 30 seconds to yourself to wash your wrecked face before you have to hop on to your work meeting on your laptop.

"Hey guys, how's it going? Everyone ready for today's standup?"

As a Principle Software Developer at a Megacorp, it's hard to take days off for Las Vegas on demand, at a short notice. Work from home was the only negotiation.

You grind for the rest of the morning and a large part of the afternoon as your friends and their boyfriends wake up from their sleep at their own pace, ask you about where you've been and grab some lunch for all of you. They have a lot of questions to ask but you're willing to answer absolutely none.

Once you're finally done with the day's work, the sun is beginning to set, and you take a minute to meditate and finally retire to the shower. This is the first time since yesterday morning that you truly have a chance to clean yourself thoroughly and to think clearly.

What were you thinking?

The reality of the situation drones in on you as the unforgiving cold droplets assault your skin. You still feel his dick on your tongue, his cum clumped in your throat, his veiny neck, his firm arms on your hips, his legs intertwined with yours.

God, what did you do?

This is... this is all Megumi's fault. If it weren't for him, you wouldn't be this broken today.

You let a few tears slip out in the gracious masking of the shower.

When you finally emerge fresh, your friends are waiting for you.

"We're going out!" your friend, Momo, exclaims.

"What? Where?" you ask. There were no plans for today.

"Well Noritoshi here wants to see one his fancy car races. Apparently, they do that in Vegas. There's a track and everything." your friend explains as her boyfriend, Noritoshi nods in excitement.

"It's Formula One, Momo! I have been dying to see one race live, at the circuit." He mumbles, more to himself than to us. "Initially, I only booked the tickets for Momo and me but I was able to get three free ones!"

"You guys can come along if you want to." Momo tells me and my other friend, Miwa and her boyfriend, Kokichi.

We all look at each other and before I can protest, they say yes on my behalf too.

Motorsports huh. I've heard of it yes. Though I appreciate a good quality car, I have never been a fan of racing as a sport. Isn't it a rich people exclusive anyway? I mentally scoff at the thought of my cheering on from the stands at a circuit and definitely catch Miwa narrowing her eyes at my expression.

"Dress up well. The crowds are all bigshots." Kokichi tells Miwa. "Not that you don't always look good, babe."

"Oh stop you!" Miwa blushes, putting her cheek on Kokichi's shoulder.

Ugh couples.

All of us get dressed to the best of our abilities with Noritoshi absolutely decking himself out in his formula one merch. He is wearing a teal accented and black leather bomber jacket with the words "Mercedes" stamped on it. He also carries a cute little plushie of what I assume is a current driver. The plushie looks soft and limp just like...

I widen my eyes in lieu of publicly slapping myself. Fucking. Get over it. Y/N!

Kokichi eyes the plushie with disgust.

"Bruh come on. Him, really?"

Noritoshi isn't having it though. "He's one of the greats. If you don't believe it, you're in denial. Thank you very much."

"He's not as great as my man Geto Suguru. The beast in his Red Bull!"

"Suguru, that ass? He's a cheat and you know it-" Noritoshi wants to continue but Momo stops him.

"We're getting late! Let's get going." The five of us leave the hobby and hop into our convertible (Kokichi won't let us rent anything else).

Kokichi drives, with Miwa in the shotgun handling the music. Momo, the shortest sits in the middle with Noritoshi to the right, making sure the tickets and everything else is in place. I am in the left, zoning out, happy to look at the twinkling lights of evening Vegas. This city is like an anti-depressant. Fast acting and temporary.

"Hey, Y/N." Momo suddenly pulls on my arm.

"Mhm?" I ask, keeping my eyes shut.

"How was it last night? With that guy you went off with?" She asks, curious.

"Don't wanna talk about it." I admit. Because I will then never stop thinking about his stupid dick.

"You will have to tell me some day!" She yells in a hushed voice.

"Not that I'll ever see him again, Momo." I remind her.

"You didn't even get his number?" She prods.

"Nah."

"Okay what's his name?"

"...."

"You can't be seriously, Y/N!"

I raise my hand to shut her up for a bit. I don't want to have this conversation after a long night of fucking and a long day of work.

Miwa must be forgetting why I came on the trip because she starts vibing to some slow, romantic song, holding Kokichi's hand as I try to play deaf. I place my head on my folded hands atop the window, gazing out at the passing light poles on the highway, in front of a pinky-purple sky. The sunset today is ethereal.

I almost begin to hear Megumi's voice in my head when Noritoshi suddenly laughs out, holding his plushie in the sky.

"Kokichi, would you look at that!" He says sarcastically pointing in a direction which makes us all turn our heads.

I follow his line of sight and spot a huge billboard approach us. It is so massive that I can clearly see what's on it from like half a mile away. It is made to stand out with blue and teal led lights framing it.

What catches my eye isn't the billboard decoration though. It's what's on it.

I nearly let out a choking sound but catch myself just in time.

On the billboard, larger than life is the human version of Noritoshi's plushie, clad in black and teal with a shining helmet in hand and standing proudly in front of his wicked Mercedes accompanied by the tagline which Noritoshi chants now.

"The Legend of Vegas returns to conquer for the Third Time! KING Yuta Okkotsu!"

Continued here in Part 2

Your likes, comments and reblogs really encourage me to write more! So do interact with this post and let me know your thoughts 🧡

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staybabblingbaby · 6 months ago

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W.I.P Glossary and Master List

Ok, so, I'm gonna start posting w.i.ps here shortly, but like. As writing process archives? I just think it'll be fun. I'm posting this in advance bc my organization system is a bit weird. SKZ fics will be here at @staybabblingbaby and BTS fics will be at @babyarmybabbles. I may make another side blog for other fandoms I write for, but we'll see. All fics are xReader unless otherwise indicated. Stuff and Things under the cut :D

Bear w me bc I don't usually do text posts and have no practice with formatting yet lol

Glossary:

Attempt - A draft with major changes. Wording changes of a paragraph or more (not including completely new material), changes in POV, setting changes, characterization changes, etc, are included in this. Abbreviated as a(#) [e.g. Title a(1) d(4)] Draft - A manuscript that has been edited. Even minor edits like grammar and spelling corrections are a new draft. These are labeled, but only saved as new files in intervals of 5. Abbreviated as d(#) [e.g. Title a(1) d(4)] Addition - A manuscript that has been added to enough to warrant a new post.

My intent is to upload all new Attempts, Drafts in intervals of 5, and Additions in intervals of 1,000 words or more. My hope is something of a progress log? I think it'll be fun, help me keep track of what I've done, and help motivate me.

Master List:

Coordi AU: Current Total Word Count - 5,469

Intro Part a1 d3 - 1,178 Words, Posted 5/12/24 Han Part a1 d4 - 2,190 Words, Posted 5/12/24 Chan Part a1 d4 - 640 Words, Posted 5/12/24 Lee Know Part a1 d4 - 639 Words, Posted 5/12/24 Hyunjin Part a1 d4 - 854 Words, Posted 5/12/24

Felix Tinder AU: Current Total Word Count - 3,123

Felix Tinder AU (First Date Part) a1 d1 - 1,543 Words, Posted 7/22/24 Felix Tinder AU (First Date Part) a2 d3 - 1,580 Words, Posted 7/22/24

Fan Day AU: Current Total Word Count - 1,399

Fan Experience with SKZ a2 d2 - 1,399 Words, Posted 5/12/24

Janitor AU: Current Total Word Count - 1,293

Janitor AU (Ambush Part) a1 d2 - 1,293 Words, Posted 7/22/24

Bangchan/Youtuber AU: Current Total Word Count - 1,258

Chan/Youtuber (idea drabble) a1 d1 - 296 Words, Posted 5/12/24 Chan/Youtuber (Discover Part) a1 d1 - 962 Words, Posted 7/22/24

Childhood Friend SMAU (Best Friend Protocol): Current Total Word Count - N/A

Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Intro Part) - N/A Words, Posted 7/15/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Plead Part) - N/A Words, Posted 7/16/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU(Bridge Part) - N/A Words, Posted 7/18/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Meet Part) - N/A Words, Posted 7/22/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Plan Part) - N/A Words, Posted 7/26/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Worm Part) -N/A Words, Posted 7/29/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (STAY Part) - N/A Words, Posted 8/9/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (SLEEP Part) -N/A Words, Posted 8/9/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Bet Part) - N/A Words, Posted 8/31/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Angst Part) - N/A Words, Posted 9/8/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Filler Part) - N/A Words, Posted 10/04/24 Best Friend protocol SAMU (Blackmail Part) - N/A Words, Posted 11/03/24 Best Friend Protocol SMAU (Crush Part) - N/A Words, Posted 11/10/24

Soulmate Garden AU: Current Total Word Count - 13,954

Soulmate Garden AU (Idea Drabble)a1 d2 - 209 Words, Posted 8/02/24 Soulmate Garden AU (Prologue) a2 d4 - 1,308 Words, Posted 9/02/24 Soulmate Garden AU Ch.1 (Dahlia) a2 d5 - 5,368 Words, Posted 9/02/24 Soulmate Garden AU Ch.2(Anemone)a3 d2- 4,218 Words, Posted 9/21/24 Soulmate Garden AU Ch.3 (Daffodil)a2d2 -3,060 Words, Posted 10/04/24

Extras/Old Versions: SGAU Ch.1 (Dahlia) Editing Sacrifices - 928 Words, Posted 10/18/24 SGAU Ch.2 (Anemone) Editing Sacrifices - 127 Words, Posted 10/18/24 Soulmate Garden AU Ch.2 (Anemone)a2d1 -4,075 Words, Posted 10/18/24 SGAU Ch.3 (Daffodil) Editing Sacrifices - 254 Words, Posted 10/18/24 Soulmate Garden AU Ch.4 (Lewisia) a1d1 - 237 Words, Posted 10/20/24 Soulmate Garden AU Ch.4 (Lewisia) a2d2 - 1,558 Words, Posted 10/20/24 Soulmate Garden AU Ch.4 (Lewisia) a2d3 - 2,866 Words, Posted 10/25/24

#masterlist #w.i.p fics #skz fics #stray kids fanfic #skz x reader #baby babbles #baby writes

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flickering-nightfall · 8 months ago

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Happy rain day! And congrats to Nightcat/the Watcher for finally becoming a Real Slug™️

I wonder what their campaign will be like. Seems like there's some rot and nature stuff going on in their title text.

I wonder if it'll be connected to, or independent of Downpour? Since Watcher's grouped up with the other three vanilla slugs (or referred to as the fourth) it's possible it'll have nothing to do with DP. It is another DLC with modders involved, but I hear Videocult will be more involved this time.

I wonder where in the timeline they'll sit. Maybe post-Saint, if DP is relevant? Or even if not (post-Monk in that case). It could also be a different timeline.

"Unknown creatures stalk and climb and dive and hunt. New breeds rip and pluck and burrow and hide. Predator and prey redefined." So there's definitely new creatures... the phrasing makes me think it could take place after Surv+Monk, but I'm not sure.

"Journey beyond to something, somewhere only ever glimpsed." Are all the regions new? It would be really neat if this didn't take place on Pebbles' and Moon's territory, though I'm not sure how feasible that is. I'd love to see more of the world outside of their grounds, and I'm not sure what else can be done with their stories other than AUs. They could also be dead, like completely dead, in this campaign. Ice age passed, growth overtaking everything. Perhaps the void sea would have risen. That would be bittersweet...

If it does take place in an entirely new setting, then the timeline wouldn't matter as much, I think. But the suggestion of rot makes it seem like it'll still be in the same area to me. Rot is a very "Pebbles thing" at this point, even though other iterators may have gotten it before too. I feel they'd need to come up with a new twist on it if they wanted to explore it with another iterator.

Quotes are from the Steam DLC page description by the way: [link to page]

#text #rambles #gif #saint spoilers #dp spoilers #rw spoilers

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jovial-thunder · 3 months ago

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Downtimes, module editor, water temple

Happy summer! There's smoke in Portland but it's not too bad. Bless firefighters. Work on Lancer Tactics continues apace.

This month has been mostly focused on the largest heretofore-untouched section of the game: downtimes and the module editor for designing the sequences between combats. We're not planning on doing anything particularly innovative or new in its design — if you've played Banner Saga, Fire Emblem (gameboy versions), or Rogue Squadron you'll recognize what's going on here.

Repair, level up, have visual-novel-style conversations with companions, do some light choose-your-own-adventuring, and pick & launch the next combat. All pretty standard downtime fare — games have pretty thoroughly explored these patterns as vehicles for narrative at this point.

The unique thing that Lancer Tactics is offering on this front is an editor to make your own entire campaigns. Classic games like Warcraft or Age of Empires had incredible scenario editors, but making anything more than a one-mission map was solely the domain of modders. Over the last few weeks, we've gotten a full basically-visual-novel-editor working ingame where you can orchestrate NPC story arcs, clocks ticking, branching paths, and triggered events for all the stuff that happens between combats.

All of the campaigns we ship with the game are going to be made with these same editors, which'll force us to really make sure that they're solid tools. I think it'd be very funny to someday see someone like completely ignore all the mech stuff and just make a visual novel in this engine.

There's no new preview game build this month because adding this big section of the game means too many things are under construction. I'm happy with how fast we've been able to get this going, but making ingame editors is a lot of unglamorous UI piping and data refactoring work. Fingers crossed that it'll come together enough that we'll be able to get the first version of this editor in your hands in time for the next update

Other Changelogs

Carpenter has started re-making the tutorial level from the demo in this new engine, which is pushing us to add a bunch of stuff to the combat editor. I added triggers for playing arbitrary effects on the map, moving the camera, storing arbitrary data to the battle/module states, enabling/disabling/triggering other triggers, AND/OR conditions, and putting execution limits on triggers.

Triggers can highlight UI or actions (so it can be like "use the boost to get through!" and the boost button becomes all shiny)

New "camera start" zone type

Added a "hotspot" zone type that has a little floating title, and plastered the names of other zones on the map (visual style stolen from some Foundry VTT modules)

Added water, whose level can be set via the editor or triggers.

Added unmounted pilots who can mount up into Shut Down mechs. We continue to plan to not have pilot combat be a part of the core game, but it'll be useful for scenario or scripted sequences.

Added activation pips and template icons to the mini healthbar on units.

A bunch more portrait editor assets from Martina, including facial hair. Here's a check Carpenter did where he tried to recreate some official Lancer art ingame. ✨

Schedule update

Taking a look at our original date for the "bones" of the game ("finishing the battle engine, basic character creation, 2 mechs per manufacturer, and an a 'instant action' mode"), we estimated being able to get it done by the end of November. The emotional milestone for me on this front is getting the game to a complete enough state that I feel OK about swapping it in on the itch.io page.

I've been saying that the 3D cataclysm has pushed us back back about 3 months, and I think that's still holding true. Carpenter and I haven't officially made the call yet, but I think it's likely we'll need that time to port more mech content; here's a graph they made that shows about where we're sitting on the PC and NPC mechs for the "bones" target in terms of mechanics and action icon/sprite.

(This data is pulled from a big table they made that includes ALL talents/gear/traits where we've been marking things off as we've implemented them. Very handy for tracking where we are.)

That's all for now. Tata!

#lancer tactics #lancer rpg #indie game dev #made with godot #godot 4 #tactics rpg #mecha

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no-name-publishing · 9 months ago

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Kill the Director by erikschampion

My part in a gift exchange taking place in Renegade's California satellite server. This was a lot of fun and very experimental for me. My idea was to pursue something a little grunge, a little smudged, to go along with the early 2000s Brit punk vibe that the fic gets its title from. Spray paint, screen printing, some blood, some tears, and it's to its new home. Glamour and process shots under the cut!

The yellow base is a plain linen bookcloth that's been coated with acrylic. The pink accent color is a combo of spray paint and smudges of pink Golden Fluid acrylic paint. The endbands are sewn with Gutermann polyester florescent sewing thread, and the endpages are my attempt at an italian vein marble with pink, yellow, and black paint.

Some shots of the typesetting, and a video showing the book as a whole. The fic has some exposition written in a script format, so I typeset that to reflect. And it's always fun to include text message bubbles and emails and stuff.

The graphics on the case were done with screens and waterbased screen printing ink! I went through a few iterations and even tried to set my kitchen on fire in order to get it right before settling on the screens. I'm very very pleased with the result. (The fire was from my DIY attempt at making my own gelli plate with gelatin, glycerin, and rubbing alcohol. All the instructions were telling me to be careful about how many bubbles I was stirring into the mix but I was like, it'll be fine. I'll use my heatgun or a lighter to pop whatever bubbles are there. It works with resin so it should here. Yall alcohol is flammable lmao. Why did I do that. I put my lighter up to those bubbles and lost my vision for a moment at the flash of light. I've never done something that stupid)

The freshly marbled paper hanging up to dry in my kitchen; the screen for the front of the case; my practice piece including the spine design; the case drying on my shower rod (along with some pieces of fabric for another project lol). I have fewer process pictures than I thought lol.

The graphics on the front and back were also partially designed by hand. I printed images of the characters then cut them vertically, and alternated the slices. Copied that, then did the same horizontally. Scanned that, and then did some cleaning up digitally on my computer. Here's some shots of the steps and the pieces themselves.

The third picture shows my first attempt, as I actually did this process twice. The first time I didn't feel like the first pass was pixelated enough, so I cut it again both vertically and horizontally and alternated them once more. This was a mess, and ultimately I didn't like the finished result. Round two (second image) was the final round, and what wound up using in the project instead.

Thanks for looking!

#fanbinding #fanficbookbinding #bookbinding #succession #kill the director #erikschampion #no name publishing

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bakuhatsufallinlove · 9 days ago

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Hope you’re well. Do you know how much extra content volumes usually have compared to the number of weekly pages? Apparently we’re getting 60 extra pages. Is that a lot more than normal?

Hello! Thanks for the well wishes.

You've come to the right person, because I'm a weirdo who has done a ridiculous amount of research on Shueisha's tankōban releases and how they differ from WSJ serialization, so I have a good idea about how some of those pages are going to be used. I'm also gonna compare what we know about this final volume to those of other series.

Strap in for the spreadsheets and data party, pal!

First, here's a look at a selection of MHA volumes.

EDIT: These numbers come from Shueisha's official listings of the volumes and their table of contents, cross-verified with the MHA fanwiki's chapter page counts, some of my own physical copies, and online fan scans.

As you can see, roughly 20 pages is typical. 58 seems wild in comparison. I wanted to know what those 20 pages were usually used for.

So, I went through my copy of volume 37 and did a breakdown of its contents.

Now lemme explain some things:

Every tankōban will have between 4-6 pages for legal disclaimers ("this is a work of fiction", etc.), table of contents, and copyright information.

A "door" is a printing term for what one might call the volume title page or chapter title page (example in link). Not all chapters have "doors," most have their titles integrated into the first page, like so:

The vast majority of tankōban have page counts that are divisible by four. This is related to the physical mechanics of printing and binding books, so it is unusual to find ones outside this format. Volume 11 is an outlier in this regard with 210 pages; in fact, the English language release cut those two surplus pages.

Tankōban may have dust jackets. MHA tankōban with dust jackets often have a second, internal "sketch cover" and a final page promoting the next volume. These are not included in page counts, and are thus not included in my breakdown.

Manga is of course read right-to-left; this means if you hold a tankōban open, odd-numbered pages will be on the left side and even-numbered pages will be on the right.

In professional publishing, chapters are structured so their first page of actual story content is on the left. Page planning, which is taught to new artists and enforced by editors, involves the odd-numbered page ending on some sort of "pull." Basically, page 2 might be drawn to lead your eye across the book, but page 3 has to make you want to turn the page and find out what happens next.

Basically everything published in Weekly Shonen Jump has chapters with an odd-number of pages, so it'll have 15, 17, 19, or 21 pages, instead of 16, 18, 20, or 22. This allows the chapter to both begin and end on the lefthand side; even-numbered pages before and after the chapters separate the different series with promotional ads.

What we think of as bonus material is mostly what I personally call adjustment pages: in order for every chapter to still begin and end on the odd-numbered page in the tankōban, they must be separated by at least one page that fills the even-numbered gap.

Sketches, quotes, doors, all that extra stuff is really just there to make the structure of the tankōban a little more appealing to the reader. In my breakdown, "adjust" refers to an even-numbered page that is totally blank except for a MHA logo in the bottom corner.

So, 4-6 pages for legal stuff and at least 1 page separating each chapter (typically 8-12), plus a few pages of extra art like character pages or chapter doors, you can see why we end up with roughly 20 pages more than the total of the chapter pages combined.

With this information, let's imagine what Volume 42 might look like.

In this estimate, I just guessed it would have the same pattern of extras as Volume 37, since we know the final volume will have the results of the last WSJ popularity poll. This totals 146 pages, so basically, even accounting for the inter-chapter sketches, that's 38 pages of new, unknown content!

I've seen people guessing that the final volume will include the 2008 one-shot Horikoshi used as the basis for My Hero Academia, but I can basically guarantee you that won't happen, because when it was published in Akamaru Jump (which is now called Jump GIGA), it was 47 pages long. Yes, I went and found a Japanese blog post from January 2008 to verify this page count.

126 chapter pages + 4 legal pages + 8 adjustment pages between chapters + 4 pages for popularity poll + 47 one-shot pages = 189 pages, 5 pages too many. They would have to remove the adjustment pages to make it work, which totally fucks the flow of the manga.

Furthermore, the word used in the WSJ ad to describe the bonus material for the final volume (描き下ろ��) specifically refers to drawings newly made for a special purpose. They simply would not use this to refer to a previously published manga being included.

For comparison, I researched the tankōban releases for a number of other WSJ series.

Dr. Stone and Mashle's final volumes were basically identical to their regular volumes in terms of extras and content. I also researched The Prince of Tennis and Naruto as older comparisons, but I couldn't find information exact enough to warrant inclusion, but what I saw more or less matched Dr. Stone and Mashle.

As you can see, Demon Slayer is the weird one here, and it's obvious why. The series ended during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Gotouge mentioned having a family member they needed to care for; a lot of people felt these issues contributed to Gotouge not being able to end the series as they had originally intended.

Demon Slayer chapters were typically 19 pages, but the last two chapters were 26 pages and 24 pages, uncommonly even-numbered. If you look at the final chapters and the epilogue in the tankōban, just numbers-wise, the ending could have been four 19-page chapters. But for whatever reason, that wasn't how it went down during serialization.

It's worth noting that the pages added to the tankōban do not change the ending, they merely provided greater emotional closure.

Side note but if anyone's gonna try and bring up Attack on Titan, I'm just gonna point out that AOT was a monthly manga published by Kodansha, a different company entirely. I imagine they have their own approach to marketing tankōban or special releases. You also have to consider the tastes and intentions of the creator, and hot take but I have absolutely no fucking positive opinions on that dude or his work, so it was no surprise to me that anything he added just made the ending worse.

TL;DR: Yes, it's a lot more than regular volumes! Content-wise, we'll probably get beautiful new illustrations and some revised page art that add details which improve pacing or themes. We might get a few extra chapter pages where a single serialized page gets turned into a big double-page spread, like we saw for Katsuki's fight with AFO.

There could be a couple new panels that bring more closure to things that were hinted at in the final chapters, who knows.

The only thing I personally want is a true bkdk handhold.

I'd love a double-page spread of Izuku taking Katsuki's hand and beaming up at him. Just insert it right there at the end before we see them all scampering off to make the world a better place. That would do my heart good.

#bakuhatsu asks #anon asks #bakuhatsu shonen jump guru #okay can everybody chill out now #BE COOL #whatever's in there is gonna rock #have a little faith in the guy who worked his ass off for a decade to make something beautiful hopeful and heartfelt

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sydsaint · 10 months ago

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Please! I just wanna give him a big ol' hug

Summary: The reader makes an attempt to comfort Max after the incident at Worlds End.

There isn't a feeling in the world worse than having to stand by and watch someone you care for get their heart broken by someone they trusted. But that's what you're here doing. AEW's Worlds End PPV special is closing out and you're stuck between Excalibur and Nigel watching Max get the crap beaten out of him by the man that was supposed to be his best friend. Adam Cole.

"I have to say, I feel a bit bad for the lad." Nigel admits as he begins gathering up his papers from the desk.

"Yeah, me too." Excalibur agrees while doing the same.

You fidget with a pen in your hand, trying your absolute best not to vault the table and rush to help Max. "A bit?" You shoot a glare at Nigel.

Nigel shrugs and slips off his headset, ready to head backstage. He walks away from the desk and Excalibur does the same. You watch the pair walk off chatting with one another and scoff. Sure, Max isn't exactly popular with either of them. But for them to not even offer the fallen champ a consoling glance is utterly ridiculous. In your mind anyway.

Cautiously you make your way around the commentary table and head toward the ring. Adam Cole and his new posse of goons have slinked back into the darkness for the moment and Max is sitting defeated on the floor near the ring steps.

"Do you need some help up?" You walk over to Max quietly with a sympathetic smile. You have no idea how Max will react to the offer of help. Not after everything that's happened to him. But you have to at least try.

Max looks up from the floor with red and puffy eyes. "Y/N? What do you want?" He asks you, shifting his body to point away from you.

"I just wanted to see if you're alright." You reply. "That beating you took looked rough. And the thing with Adam..."

Max scoffs and shakes his head. "I shouldn't be surprised at this point." He sneers. "No one ever stays. Not my fiancé, not my friends, or people I thought were my friends. No one." He sighs deeply. "I'm just a loser that's destined to be alone. And I'm not even a champion anymore. So there goes the fans as well." He looks out at the crowd now starting to spill out of the arena.

"I'm here now." You reply and kneel down so you're not towering over Max. "And I know that we don't know each other that well. But I want to help if I can." You offer Max your hand to help him up. "At least let you know that you're not 100% alone."

Max looks at your hand and then back up at your face. He repeats this a couple of times before reluctantly taking your hand. You pull him up to his feet and walk backstage with him.

"I'm sorry that you lost." You speak up while you're walking. "I know what it's like to have a friend stab you in the back like that. In fact, I'll never wrestle again because of it." You laugh at your misfortune.

"You used to wrestle?" Max glances at you.

You nod, briefly recalling the painful memory in your head. "Yep. I worked for ROH before Khan bought it out. I was helping out this new girl. Showing her the ropes and stuff. And she stabbed me in the back during a ladder match for a title opportunity. Threw me off a 15 foot ladder and into a pile of smaller ones." You explain. "She went on to win the title, and I damn near broke my spine."

"Damn." Max replies. "I had no idea. I just thought you had always been in commentary and backstage stuff." He admits.

"It's fulfilling enough work." You shrug. "Sure, it'll never beat being in the ring. But at least it's still a part of it, right?"

Max nods and the two of you come up on the locker room area. "Thanks for talking with me." Max stops in front of his room and turns to you. "I...I needed that." He admits.

"No problem." You nod. "I know when it happened to me all I wanted was someone to talk with. Someone that knew what I was feeling. So if you ever need some company, just shoot me a text or something." You offer with a soft smile.

"I think that I'll take you up on that, thanks." Max nods. "I'll see you later, Y/N."

You step back from the door with another soft smile. "Mhm. Take care, Max. And hey, try not to beat yourself up too hard." You add before you turn and walk off.

Max lingers at the door and watches you disappear down the hall. That sinking feeling in his chest lightens a bit as he watches you walk off. No one has ever shown him kindness and an willingness to just be there for him before.

It's addicting.

Max finds himself smiling a bit as he heads inside his locker room. He's lost everything tonight. So why the hell is he smiling? What have you done?

Given him hope, that's what. And hope is a dangerous thing for a man that's already lost so much.

#wrestling #aew #all elite wrestling #aew fanfiction #aew fanfic #mjf #mjf x reader #wrestling fanfiction #wrestling fanfic #wrestling fic #maxwell jacob friedman #mjf aew #syd's wrestling fics #aew wrestling #baby needs a hug #i will protect him at all costs

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thescarletnargacuga · 5 months ago

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Art: @iamespecter

CHAPTER ONE

The Amazing Digital Raceway is a Mario Kart-style racing AU filled with mystery, drama and romance! Featured ships being Showtime (Pomni x Caine) and Gangle x Zooble! (Other ships are possible but indeterminate)

WARNING: none

"Welcome, to the Amazing Digital Raceway!" A crowd of thousands were on their feet clapping and cheering in the stands around the starting line. Five racers stood next to their karts as the booming voice from above announced his welcome. "My name is Caine! I'm your trackside host and it's a beautiful day for a race! Isn't that right, Bubble?"

Caine removed his hat with a flourish and a bubble with a shark's smile emerged. "That's right, Caine! I can't wait to see what kind of race you have set up for today!"

"Then let's not waste any time and get right to announcing today's racers!" Holding his cane like a microphone, Caine flew over the crowd to the track. "Up front, is Gangle! Our winner of yesterday's race! Let's hope she can hold that title!" Gangle waved shyly to the adoring crowd, her happy mask giving the crowd her best 'happy to be there' smile.

"Next, Zooble! Master utilizer of shortcuts! I haven't been able to hide one from them to date!" Caine laughed as he flew past Zooble, who just leaned nonchalantly against their kart while waiting for Caine to finish his spiel.

"Then there's Kinger! A veteran racer who knows his way around every corner, tunnel and cliff! It's hard to trick this guy!" Kinger was face down in his kart looking at the mechanics before being startled by Caine's presence and slamming the hood shut. He spun around as if he suddenly realized where he was.

"Next is the darling doll crowd favorite, Ragatha!" Caine tipped his hat to her and he floated by. She enthusiastically waved to the crowd. "She's struggled this season, but let's hope the track is on her side this time!"

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Chuckled the last racer. Ragatha kept waving but glared at him.

"And we have Jax, another crowd favorite, whose drifting skills go unmatched! Despite the fact that he hasn't won a race all season." Caine said the last sentence under his breath. Jax chuckled and sat sideways in his kart's seat, amused by Caine's huffiness about his lack of proper participation.

"And last, but not least, we have Kaufmo! ....Kaufmo?"

Kaufmo was not next to his bright yellow clown themed kart. In fact, he was nowhere to be seen, but the crowd cheered on as if he were there. Caine covered the top of his cane-mircophone and leaned in to Bubble. "Where's Kaufmo?"

"I dunno, boss. Want me to look for him?"

"Yes, and be quick about it. The race is starting! We need our full roster!" Caine nearly hissed between his teeth in desperation. Bubble drifted away.

The other racers all looked to the lone kart at the end of the line. Ragatha frowned and looked at Kinger and Zooble, silently asking them if they'd seen Kaufmo. Both shrugged and shook their heads. None of them had seen Kaufmo that morning, which was strange. Usually he was the first one out of bed and trying to amp everyone up for the race, trying his best to make their lives there bearable.

"BOSS! I FOUND A CLOWN!" Bubble's shout got all of their attention.

"Wha- what? Who are you- where am I??" A short humanoid woman in a blue, red and yellow tracksuit and jester hat suddenly stood not far from where Kaufmo would've been.

"EXCELLENT!" Caine exclaimed. He swooped down to her and got a good look. "Hmm, you're not Kaufmo, but you'll do. We need a sixth racer."

"A what? What is this??" The newcomer looked around in panic. She was surrounded in saturated colors and lights and sounds, it was overwhelming. She manically stared down the line of racers in front of her, their expressions ranged from apathy to pity. They knew what she was going through, however, she was the first to show up right at the start of a race. "Who are you people!?"

Ragatha approached with her hands out reassuringly. "Easy, new stuff. It'll be al-"

"Get this headset off of me!" The newbie tried taking off her hat but it may as well have been her hair, it wouldn't budge.

Ragatha winced as she watched the new girl pull at every part of her own face. "Please, don't do that. You'll hurt yourself."

"Nah, let her tear herself apart. It'll be funny." Jax watched from his lounged position in his cart.

"What the [&@#$] is going on!? ..huh?" A loud BOING sound drowned out the newbie's swear.

"Now, now, my dear. We can't have any of that foul language on the track. The Amazing Digital Raceway is to be enjoyed by all ages, no matter how much road rage you experience." Caine chuckled to himself.

The newbie then proceeded to go through every swear she knew. Even ones she didn't personally think could be swears. Weird sound effects covering up each and every one of them. "...oh my god." She whispered to herself in disbelief.

Caine tugged at his collar awkwardly and addressed the crowd. "It seems we have a NEW racer, folks! Everybody put your hands together to welcome-..." He looked at her expectantly.

"Uh...uh- UHHH! MY NAME! WHY DON'T I REMEMBER MY NAME?!?" She grabbed her head in even more panic.

Caine patted her on the back. "It's alright, nobody can remember their name when they enter the Digital Raceway. Your name can be whatever you want! Care to spin the roulette?" Caine didn't get a reply so he snapped his fingers and gestured to the giant screen over the crowd. He'd been eager to try this out anyway, he'd been working hard at improving the name randomizer since last time took nearly fifty tries just to get a legible, human-approved name.

Letters spun like a slot machine, stopping one after the other. P-O-M-N-I, that doesn't seem too bad. Caine looked at the shaken and confused newbie. "What do you think of Pomni?"

"What? Uh, yeah, sure, whatever..." Pomni held herself in an attempt to ground her mind. This couldn't actually be happening. It was a dream. Had to be. It was too weird not to be.

Strange beeping and whirring sounds came from a device on Caine's wrist. "Gadzooks! We're running behind! We need to get this race underway! Racers! To your karts!" Everyone except Pomni got in their karts. Caine snapped his fingers and Kaufmo's banana yellow clown kart turned into a sleek, red and white kart with a top hat symbol on the front. "Since it's your first race, you can use my kart. Now, get in! The race is about to begin!"

Pomni reluctantly got behind the wheel. "But I don't know how to- I don't know what I'm doing!"

"Not to worry! I'll pilot you through your first lap! You'll get it in no time at all!" Caine flew high up and away as she shouted more questions that he didn't have time to answer. It was time to race. "Ladies and Gentlemen, NPCs of all ages! Today's race is through the Lair of the Gloink Queen!" He gestured to the screen and a preview of the upcoming track played. It was dark and rocky, covered in glowing underground crystals. The track curved and weaved through the caverns, silvery translucent boxes with question marks dotted the landscape. The crowd 'ooed' and 'awwed'. "Today's objective is to defeat the Queen by making the high jump over her nest and hitting the mid air target. But watch out! Her minions lurk in every corner! If they hit your kart, they'll steal your items! Remember, the only thing more important than coming in first is completing the objective! Racers, you have three laps to achieve your goal! Now! START! YOUR! ENGINES!!"

Caine's kart roared to life without Pomni touching anything. The others revved theirs in response. Bubble hovered over the front of the line with a traffic light hanging from their mouth. Pomni's heart hammered as the final countdown began.

The first light lit yellow.

The second light lit yellow.

The third light lit yellow.

Then all three light turned green.

The screeching of tires drowned out Pomni's screams as all six karts took off. After the first turn from the starting line, the track dove down underground, plunging them into darkness.

"Pomni, my dear, good to hear you're already having a good time! Haha! Now, If you can spare your screams of excitement for a moment, I'll tell you how things work around here." Caine's voice came over the kart's radio. She wasn't sure how she could hear him over the engine and the rushing of wind, but that didn't matter at the moment. She had a death grip on the steering wheel that moved on its own as it drifted through the sharp curves effortlessly. "On the track, you'll see some floating surprise boxes. Go ahead and drive through one." The kart maneuvered itself to a box and Pomni shut her eyes out of reflex. The box exploded into confetti and a small indicator light lit up on the dash. "Congratulations! You successfully collected an item! The items from the boxes are completely random! Even I don't know what you'll get each time you hit one! Anyway, these items can range from boosters to weapons to traps that can assist you in the race if used strategically. Click the flashing button to see what you got!"

Pomni opened her eyes and could barely get her hand to let go of the wheel. She hit the light and a party popper appeared in her hand.

"Lucky you! You got a popper! Those can be dropped on the track as explosive surprises for those behind you! Unfortunately, it's not too much use being in dead last. Let's change that! There's a speed booster up ahead! Flashing orange and red, can't miss it!"

"Woah! Wait, what!? Faster!? But-AAAAAAAA!" The kart accelerated into a flashing lane of red and orange. What already felt like top speed was suddenly mach speed. She quickly caught up with and flew past Zooble, who just watched her go by.

"WOOHOO! There's nothing like the rush of a good boost!" Caine's overly excited voice came through the radio again. "Now that you're in front of someone, drop the popper on the track."

Pomni's shaking hand refused to let go of the popper.

"....any time now..." Caine said, a little worried.

Pomni struggled to get it together.

"Uh... I wouldn't hang on to that popper too long, if I were you. Please, drop it on the track."

Pomni was nearly hyperventilating. This was all too much. So much was happening at once.

"Pomni! Drop the popper before it-" BANG!

The popper exploded, causing the kart to spin out of control. She hit the side wall and the kart came to a dead stop. Amazingly, she and the kart were unharmed. She felt dizzy and saw literal stars spinning over her head.

"Pomni! Are you alright? I didn't think you would hold on to it that long or I would have told you sooner that some items work against you if you don't use them quick enough! And don't worry about the crash, it happens to the best of us. No need to be embarrassed. Let's get you rolling again!"

"No! Please, wait-!"

The kart quickly gained speed and rejoined the race just in time for Zooble to catch up. Zooble looked at Pomni, sighed and shook their head. This was no way to introduce a new comer. Only Caine would be so focused on the race that he wouldn't realize just how scared Pomni was. She seemed so panicked she may abstract same day. Now that would be sad.

"Hey! New-blood!" Zooble called out, their kart even with Pomni's.

Pomni looked over. Tears welled in her eyes.

"Nothing out here can actually hurt you. Just finish the race. You'll be fine."

"Help me! Please!" Pomni begged.

"I am. Just relax. Don't worry about winning or the stupid objective." Zooble's monotone delivery was actually convincing in the moment. Like all of this really wasn't something to worry about. Pomni slowed her breathing a little and wiped her face. She gave Zooble a thank you nod which they returned.

"STUPID!?" Caine's shouting over the radio almost gave Pomni a heart attack. "This may not be my best work but it was work nonetheless, Zooble! Don't you have any respect for the creative process!?"

"Not yours." Zooble retorted.

"Well, I never! Come on, Pomni, let's get away from this party pooper." Caine's kart angrily accelerated away, leaving Zooble in the digital dust.

Each curve and swerve of the track took them deeper down until the tunnel opened into a vast cavern. The cavern wall was lined with glowing crystals all the way to the top Where they could see the track winding up the nest around the Queen to the jump over her head where a slowly rotating target hovered.

"There it is! It doesn't look like any of the others have got it yet! You could win your very first race! Go get it!" Caine encouraged enthusiastically. "Ooo! Another box!"

This one gave her a cupcake.

"Go ahead! Eat it! This item will also give you a boost, and don't worry, it doesn't explode."

"Interloper!" The long, slug-like body of the Gloink Queen emerged from the shadows. She raised her tail and spat Gloink minions on the track in front of Pomni. There were too many in the way to avoid, even with Caine's assistance. The kart smacked into no fewer than three Gloinks, one which absconded with Pomni's cupcake. Without it, Pomni just held on for dear life as the kart lunched into the air. Because of the Gloinks, the kart barely had enough momentum to make it to the other side, let alone go high enough to be anywhere near the target. The kart came down on the sloped track on the other side and started winding out of the cavern.

"That dastardly Queen! Don't worry, Pomni! We'll get her on the next lap! I know I said I would just help you with the first, but I must admit, I'm having a little too much fun! It's been awhile since I've been involved in a race myself, and, if I may say so, you're a fantastic addition to the Raceway! You've only crashed once! Many can't get past the first turn their first time!" His laughter echoed out the tunnel as they surfaced to cross the finish line and complete the first lap.

Pomni finally realized she really had no choice in the matter. Panicking and screaming wasn't helping, so she focused her energy on to what was right in front of her. She was gaining on another racer. A tall figure in a purple and white kart. Pomni took a breath, adjusted her grip on the steering wheel and floored the accelerator. The kart lurched forward with power one only thinks a kart can achieve. Gold flames flew out the tail pipes and she passed Kinger like he was standing still.

Kinger gave her a friendly wave as she flew by.

"WOAH, MAMA!! That's more like it!" Caine exclaimed.

Pomni crossed the line with the leaderboard saying she was in fourth place. She rocketed back down into the caves and started making ground on the next racer.

Gangle only saw Pomni after she dropped a bar of soap. "I'm sorry!" She gasped. "Look out!"

Pomni swerved just in time to avoid the soap, only barely missing the wall because of Caine. "What was that!?"

"Other item!" Caine answered. "Get the next box! Let's see if we can return the favor!"

Pomni pressed the glowing button and opened her hand unsure of what would happen. A fountain pen appeared. She looked at it with confusion.

"Perfect!" Exclaimed Caine. "Throw it!"

Without hesitation, having learned her lesson from the popper, Pomni threw the pen and it flew like a javelin at Gangle. The pen swerved around Gangles' head and she only had time to make the smallest squeaks of surprise before the pen inked all over her face.

"My eyes! I can't see!" She moved too far the right and hit the divider in a fork in the track. Her kart crashed and Pomni kept left, going back down to the main chamber of the Gloink Queen.

"Excellent work, Pomni!" Praised Caine. "You're a natural!"

Pomni half smiled, half grimaced. She still wasn't sure what to make of any of this. She was just doing her best to tread water after being thrown into the deep end. An explosion ahead kept Pomni's head in the race. She heard shouting and cackling and a mixture of strange sound effects that we're certainly the censors of a few choice words.

"Be careful. That was a purple seashell." Caine voice sounding strangely serious.

"A what?"

"A purple seashell. It's one of the most powerful items in the game. It flies directly to the person in first place and blows them up, heavily delaying them and often drastically changing the game. There are three different types of seashells; white, orange and purple. Only the purple ones fly. The white ones just sort of frisbee around and hit anything in around them, including you, so use them wisely. And the orange ones target the person immediately in front of you."

Pomni wasn't taking any of this in. Seashells, pens, soap, party poppers, cupcakes?? What??

"LOOK OUT!" Caine's warning got Pomni to swerve away from a Gloink. "Focus, Pomni! We're almost at the jump!"

Ragatha would have tried for the target first but Jax beat her to it thanks to his shell. "You'll have to try harder than that, Rag-head!" He accelerated into the jump and passed just right of the target. He didn't touch it but puts his hand out like he could just to taunt Ragatha.

Ragatha was going too slow and had to bypass the jump entirely. She roared with frustration and slammed her accelerator to try and catch up with him.

"This is your chance! GO GO GO!" Caine was full on cheering for her to win at this point.

Pomni got around the Gloinks much easier this time and accelerated into the jump like a pro. She reached....but she was too short. She flew just under the target and away from the Gloinks.

"You'll have to use a boost to get the target, Pomni! And don't worry, I am making a note right now to lower the target next time I use this track. That won't happen again just because someone's arms are too short. You're still doing great!"

One the way back up, Pomni caught up close with Ragatha who was still fuming. Ragatha went through a box and a red pepper appeared in her hand. Pomni watched her down it in one bite. Her sky blue tracksuit turned red and her hair caught fire. Pomni could swear flames were shooting from Ragatha's eyes as well, but that could have been a hallucination.

"Oh, this outa be good." Caine subtly moved his kart further away from Ragatha.

"Wh-what's happening to her?"

"Chili pepper! Does exactly what you think it'll do."

Not a beat later, Ragatha took a deep breath and sent a stream of red hot flames from her mouth to the kart ahead. The flames hit Jax hard and make him spin out. Pomni and Ragatha pass him and Ragatha's fire fades. She turns her head to look at Pomni and gives a wave and a smile. Pomni nervously waved back. They cross the finish line tying for first. Bubble had a sign that read "3/3 laps."

"This is it, Pomni! It's do or die! The final lap! It all comes down to this!!" Caine's voice increased in pitch with each sentence. He was nearly indistinguishable from a squeaky toy by the end.

Ragatha smiled reassuringly at Pomni. "Don't listen to him. It's not that serious. Just enjoy the ride and go around one more time. Win or lose, we're all having fun."

Pomni gave a small smile back. Then something flew between her and Ragatha. A white shell.

"[§%&#]" Ragatha swore under her breath. She looked back and saw the glare of absolute malice in Jax's eyes. "I'll handle him. See you at the winner's circle!" She brake checked Jax, causing him to swerve away from Pomni.

Pomni accelerated away, more shouts and explosions fading. It was oddly quiet in the tunnel to the Lair. Just her and kart. The engine pushed to it's limit, the tires screaming on each tight turn, the chime of the item button after going through a box. All the chaos. All the madness that was suddenly her life. It all felt so simple now.

Race.

The pistons were her heart beat. The wind was her breath. The world around her blurred as she burst into the nest cavern. She held out her hand. A cupcake.

She ate it. Candle and all.

She hit the ramp at maximum speed. She flew so high and fast, she didn't even register she hit the target. She couldn't hear Caine over the adrenaline. The kart raced so far ahead of everyone else, she was waiting a whole twenty seconds at the finish line for anyone else to show up.

Caine congratulated her in person. Shaking her hand so vigorously, her whole body shook with it. Confetti rained down from the sky. The crowd of faceless and nameless NPCs was on its feet. The other racers stood with her and waved at the crowd.

Pomni couldn't remember her name. She couldn't remember how she got here. But one feeling was familiar to her. Victory. Turns out it tastes just as sweet in the digital world....and it was addicting.

~~~

Behind the finish line was the garage. Inside the garage were private quarters for the racers. Inside one of these rooms was Kaufmo, or rather, what was left of him. A black disjointed mass of eyes and limbs splayed out on the floor. The cheering outside sent it into a flying rage, crashing against the wall, trying to force its way out.

The voices. The noise. The ceaseless, endless noise. Make it stop!

MAKE IT STOP!

M̷̤̙̦̼͇̩̖͍͔̒̈́͗̍͊͂̔A̴̦͗Ḳ̵̰͙̮̻̂͂̓̐̉̓́̈͒̈́̚͠Ȩ̵̈́͛̏̿͑ ̵̢̣͎̲̭̲͔̖̱̔̔̈́̀̐̃̚͘͠Ĩ̴̧̨͉͇̟͙̌Ţ̴͈̞͉͕̭͓̰͔̏̋̈́̈͐̈́͆̔ͅ ̶̻̰̪̠͙͓͗̌̓̏̈́̈́̀S̴̛̠̻͙̼̫̼̱͚͛̈́̔̊́̊͑̿̊̀Ţ̵̖̳̻͙̲̮̺̹͈͈̯́͝ͅO̷̠̖̤͈̚̚ͅP̶̧̨̼̣̤͇̮̣͔̻̹̩͒̏̌̔͗̇̄̒̓́̚

~~~

Ch2

#the amazing digital circus #tadc #tadc caine #tadc pomni #tadc ragatha #tadc jax #tadc gangle #tadc kinger #tadc zooble #tadc fanfiction #tadc showtime #slow burn #tadc au #the amazing digital circus au

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slugtranslation-hypmic · 2 months ago

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Hihi slug, I love your work, and thanks for everything!! Since Matenro season is nearly upon us, I was wondering if we could get your opinion on the solo snippets🤞🤞

Matenro's new solo previews are SO GOOD, what do you think of them?

Thank you both for notifying me about them! Taking a look now...

(The album is probably already out now, but... better late than never...)

Jakurai's A Majestic Figure

Title note: 4-kanji compounds are like the SAT vocab words of Japanese; they're not super common in everyday speech and can evoke a literary or sophisticated feeling. This one is...interesting. To the best of my knowledge, it isn't a standard compound (I'm also not getting any hits when I Google it) and I wonder if that's significant. It's just two words strung together to make the appearance of fanciness, perhaps. I couldn't say for certain. At any rate, both 威風 and (especially) 颯爽 describe a majestic, often captivating appearance. This isn't to say that such qualities of dignity or majesty aren't real, but I definitely feel like both terms are defining a subject from an outside perspective. These aren't terms I would ever expect someone to describe themselves with, which makes the song title sound like it's an outside observer commenting on Jakurai instead of Jakurai talking about himself. We see this happen a lot in Hypmic, with people putting Jakurai on pedestals or Jakurai struggling to see himself as the same grand figure others perceive him as. As a result, I wrote the song title as "A Majestic Figure" to emphasize the appearance of majesty, whereas the character of the figure is unknown. Anyway, let's dive in and see what this is all about.

(10 seconds in) Vibing with these instrumentals

(19 seconds in) Not vibing with these "ah"s... but we can't have everything in life

(43 seconds in) I'm a little too tired to fully keep up (I'll look up the lyrics when I'm done) but I REALLY like the urgency in the delivery, which is so at odds with the flowing, dignified background music. In JPN fiction as a whole, flusteredness/desperation is contrasted with calmness as a synonym for imperfection and perfection. Jakurai is, honestly, really kind of a desperate character...yet one that appears outwardly calm/perfect to most of the rest of the cast, so it's interesting that we get to see his desperate nature on full display right at the start of the song.

(1:26 in) Hand motif mentioned *Cinemasins ding* (of

(End) Thank you uta-net for having the lyrics up already; ily. Let's see now... Interesting. I'll have to read them again in more depth later, but it looks like a call to forgive past wounds and seek out a better, less painful way of existence--in a societal sense, a religious (as in like, ascending or becoming enlightened) sense, and a personal sense. All great things to see Jakurai expressing. Again, it's interesting to see Jakurai expressing this with such urgency, even if these are things we know he really, really cares about. That coupled with the background music seems to match a bit in the lyrics that says "And [to end war within society, paraphrased] I take grand, dignified action mixed with the discord and noise of Shinjuku, a samsara spiral of cacophonous echoes." Mixing the stately and the chaotic, the "imperfect" and the "perfect." Really interesting stuff!

Hifumi's The Beginning of the Last Song

Title note: "Last Song" is English and written in katakana, which is a sharp contrast to the style of Jakurai's title. Creates a much younger and casual feel appropriate for Hifumi. Not much else to say here, so let's jump in.

(10 seconds in) Modern indie pop song on the radio feel. I'm not a fan of autotune in general so I'm not in love with this, but I'm hopeful it'll pick up soon.

(22 seconds in) I listen to so much "soft hiphop" (for lack of a better term) during work that my brain instantly catapulted itself into work mode and stopped paying any attention to the words. Coffee mug? Check. Emails? Check. Anxiety? Check. Let me rewind and listen to this properly.

(32 seconds in but for real this time) So far, very Hifumi. Opening verse has some fun figurative language but essentially says Hifumi's suit is pure courage he dons like a suit of armor. In doing so, it masks him and makes him become like a whole other person. From there, he switches to addressing a listener: "I want to soothe your mental wounds. I want to change your frown into a smile. I won't let go of your hands, and no, I'm not doing this for a reward." It's something that Hifumi should be saying to himself (something Hifumi wants to hear, maybe?) and yet he says "To [Host!]me, this is happiness."

(59 seconds in) Hmm... I was going to say this song feels sad to me, because all these positive messages of "Keep going! You're safe now!" are framed as being directed at other people, and I was like..."Hifumi, who's going to say that to you? Who's going to help you feel that way?" but then the line "You made me realize I'm not alone" radically flips the framing so that it DOES become things Hifumi is saying to himself, too. How nice. :) I would not want to translate this, personally... Haha it's using the vagueness of Japanese grammar and lyrical conventions to great effect, but I don't feel comfortable touching that personally.

(1:02) Hell yeah, belt that shit, homie

(1:32) So it's a last song in the sense that it's a farewell or the final song of his old self. Now he's the new, healing Hifumi. We love to see it 10/10 bravo. The song is also a happy, heartfelt thank you to the unspoken listeners (presumably Matenrou) who helped him feel less alone. That's cute! I like it. I probably shouldn't go here, but I find it intriguing how the vagueness of listeners is utilized. The first time the listeners are addressed, the language is...if not borderline romantic, pathos-filled to the point where it's definitely evocative of his host job (hence why he's not seeking compensation for handholding, an often romantic gesture). Yet it's borderline enough that it wouldn't be inappropriate to imagine it being addressed to Matenrou instead of his patrons. Hahaha. Again, another reason I don't want to go near this one.

(Overall) I like it! A nice ballad for Hifumi.

Doppo's Andante

(5 seconds in) For a song called Andante, this has a faster tempo than at least one other song on this album lol. But it's much less frenetic than Doppo's other solos, so there's that, I guess.

(7 seconds in) This delivery is giving me anime ending made by a 2010s rock band vibes lol.

(14 seconds in) Damn there's a baller line here that I'm stumped on how to convey in Eng in a way that's both baller and sensical. Meaning wise, it's like "I want to take back the things I shouldn't have said and give them as a present to you" and in figurative language it's like "Once, I used to fire words into the air [speak things in anger or carelessly]. Now, I want to gather them up [esp. like a bouquet of flowers] after their flight and use them to decorate you [again, like flowers or like a piece of jewelry--it's a positive connotation]" Pop off, Doppo

(40 seconds in) Oh this is killer and also going to need some major explaining. Doppo's name is literally "he who walks alone" which is usually considered a positive thing--someone who "walks the path of life" alone would have gotten there by outstripping the rest of the pack. In Doppo's case, though, this is a negative thing. I think it's not as obvious to Eng-only fans, and I know I didn't really think about it for a long time myself, but Doppo considers himself a "loser" bc he didn't follow a conventional life path. It's considered atypical to switch employers, especially very early on in one's career, as he did when he stood up for Hifumi and got himself fired at his first job. Part of why he puts up with shitty treatment at EL Medical is because it's one of the few places that would hire someone who switched employers at such a young age. (Sidebar: My (probably flawed, as I don't live in Japan) impression is that this is becoming less and less of a thing as time goes on and the economy goes to shit, but I think it's the self-stigma more than anything else that's affecting Doppo. To me, it feel similar to the societal pressures in the US to attend and graduate from a four-year college. Plenty of people don't for all sorts of reasons, but because that's so ingrained as the default life story for Americans in a lot of communities, Doppo's dealing with the kind of disappointment and self-hatred someone who dropped out before getting a four year degree might feel.) Doppo beats himself up about that a lot, but here we get that lovely line of "In the waves of people (hitonami) passing all around me, I no longer see anyone who looks like me. It's a shame, because I always wanted to be just like everyone else (hitonami)." Outside of that beautiful wordplay on hitonami, we're also treated to the figurative language of hitonami being literally "in line with others." Doppo, a character who walks through life alone, wanted to walk through life at the same pace/reaching the same milestones at the same time as everyone else.

(1:04 in) "Life is a tightrope act; it's like walking a balance beam [lit. "average beam" aka a beam where everything is averaged/balanced]. In a country where not everything can be average (narasarenai) and where even if the things that [I] can accomplish (narasareru) don't matter [in the eyes of society], sometimes the sounds I want to make don't come out right (narasarenai). When that happens, I can call myself pitiful--or I can feel the breathing of the beautiful flowerbed that is this city, and when someone's humming under their breath disturbs that short break [lit. breath], I ask them 'So, what is this happiness thing anyway?'" I would rather die than TL this song but I'm LOVING the creativity and depth of the lyrics.

(1:27) WILD! FUCKING! CHEERING!!! "You fake smiles in a mirror to make other people happy and call it love. It's a form of hypnosis, and I've made a go of falling under its spell because I just want to be equals [on par with, balanced], and so if you and I can walk these crowded streets together, then I think I don't mind as much that I'm always walking alone." THE GROWTH! THE GROWTH!!!!

Damn, this album's lyrics go hard. What a feast.

#not a translation #asks #hypmic asks

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