#just for starters the list is endless and surely you all posted them by now lol

[evangelineartemiasamos]

All those small moments Tobi came up with like

I totally wondered myself when in concert what he did when he ran off the stage every time and look, it's all part of the movie! He planned it all along

He even makes fun of all the costume changes

Like when he's confused about the sudden Year Zero outfit and makes Eww when he sees he holds the cross UP lol

The way his parents seem to scare him about death only to scare us

How you barely notice all the times he throws the mic from one hand to another by the way the movie is edited UNLESS you give that special attention and see how it's suddenly in the other hand (I watched it twice okay)

That time when he's on the drum pedestal and we see him from the back as he looks over his shoulder to us

"When I first came here to be an entertainer ... well, that wasn't ME, but you know what I mean ..." Might be me but I love how he lets his own self shine throw the personas sometimes. He's so touching and caring beneath all that

Tress Biyan for fuck's sake

My utter confusion about the red demon windows during Square Hammer, what does that mean?? They were monochrome white the other events -

Remembering the striding away after the finale was the sexy teaser when the movie webpage was first announced only to learn he falls on his face next thing (his self irony is so charming)

[storiesofraen]

Updates on this page!

Good evening everyone, hope you’re all alive and well. This post is meant to be an update to what I can and will put on the blog and since I love writing so much and always have so many things to say, I thought I should at least give you a proper update.

My daily driver phone

As you all know I use a Redmi Note 10 Pro and I really enjoy using android in general, but lately the phone has given me endless problems and I don't think I can keep up anymore. Why is that?

For starters, my phone was already giving out last year with the MIUI 13 update. When I updated it last year I already began facing problems that quite disturbed my daily routine both in my personal and professional life. For example, the keyboard stopped working and I had to reboot the phone everytime this problem occured. A real kick in the nuts, but I managed to pull through.

Then, I had to wipe the data off the phone completely because for some reason one day when I was off to work my phone stopped working altoghether. Furthermore, when I rebooted my phone it got stuck in a boot loop so I couldn't ever contact my colleagues at work nor tell them I arrived on site.

And finally, the same thing happened again but I managed to mitigate the disruption in a very, very ungodly manner and this happened just today. Luckily I could use my phone to call my mom and whoever was to be called today, but that was when I put my phone in safe mode.

Now that you know about all the phone's history, what does all of it lead to?

Decisions are to be made, and as of right now I'm looking forward into buying a new phone, more specifically the iPhone 11. I know, there are newer models but I just need a phone that works and that will work long-term, and I know damn well the iPhone is the perfect fit.

I also am considering other phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S22 which is in the same price range but I don't want another android phone because having lived with android phones for a lifetime I must say everyone is too quirky and all have their skeletons in the closet. For instance, Samsung tends to be really pushy with their ads, Xiaomi has beefy hardware paired with unoptimized software and so on.

But to be fair, Samsung is the only android phone I could ever trust again because from the Galaxy S10 onwards I have seen only improvements over improvements.

The criteria that is currently leading me to choose a phone is all listed below:

it is powerful enough to produce content on social media such as Instagram, tiktok, twitter and perhaps even facebook.

it has a good enough battery to last me a full day of work (i usually work shifts but you get what I mean, in case you didn't let me put it this way: it gets me through the day without a charger).

it has good enough cameras to take really good pictures and videos.

it has enough storage to store whatsapp, telegram, instagram and other chats.

it can call without having to pray for it to work.

I am not a man with a lot of demands but I sure need the basics covered. A compelling argument would be to be able to use 5G, but as it stands right now I don't even need 5G. I'm quite content on being able to access the internet without a computer. 5G is quite gimmicky and it doesn't work everywhere.

The next best thing I'm about to tell you is...

The next best thing I'm about to tell you is I'm actually giving it all I've got in the things that require all of my focus. I won't disclose what, since it is all personal to me, but just know that my conscience is telling me that I am indeed doing a good job.

One thing I can tell you is that I'm losing weight and my ex colleague showered me with compliments today because he saw that I shed some fat and now I'm slimmer. It's also thanks to my job that I am able to keep up with the weight loss.

What else can I tell you? This is already a long post, but this is a blog after all, so since you're reading this I might as well spill out every ounce of news I can.

Now, with all of this going on will I ever get the much coveted new computer?

To be quite honest with you, the computer became less of a priority for me right now because since my computer is still up and running and I'm not relying on it much as of right now, I can manage using this old laptop of mine. I have no qualms using an old computer as long as it is a working computer with Windows 10. This used to have Windows 11 but it proved to be too much for this 11 year old machine, so I downgraded.

The computer is to be bought when the funds and the circumstances are met. As of writing I don't really see a need for a computer, nor am I considering the idea of it because I'm always away from home and I do a lot of computer stuff on this old laptop that I personally repaired and saved from obsolescence. As for many other things I'm using a 9th gen iPad and it proves to be more than enough.

Conclusions

Dulcis in fundo, I have learned that I should nice things to not buy them twice.

Buy it nice, or buy it twice.

Honestly I don't remember from which Youtuber I got this quote from but he's absolutely right. My old Samsung Galaxy s10 is still going so strong after almost 6 years and is used by my mom for many, many things.

That quite concludes our little talk and I hope I can give more updates, either from a video perspective or maybe some other way. Cheers!

[spruceplank]

I told you I was brave but I lied

AN: based on this post by @blocklasagna

Or the AU from the time after Wilbur’s death and before Tubbo’s peaceful driven presidency can really begin because rebuilding has just started: The universe takes Tommy from Dreamsmp and asks the admin of Hermitcraft to help him heal. Cue Tommy now in Hermitcraft re-learning how to live again and not just survive because he deserves a chance to be a kid again.

ao3 || 4k words || First | Current | Next 

It's warm. He can feel cool air on his skin but for some reason he feels the warmth more. He feels safe. Safe in a way he doesn’t remember feeling for a long time now.  He can hear the whistle of wind and the occasional sound of flapping wings. There’s a steady heartbeat he can hear clearly nearby. This is the best dream he’s had in a long time. He doesn’t want to ever wake up.

When he wakes up he’s in a place he doesn’t recognize. It's bright but only in the way the sun catches on the yellow and white block pallet around him. Where is he? It's warm here, warm and bright. His hands catch on the grey blanket around him as he slowly sits up, hesitantly eying the area around him. The sound of footsteps catches down the hallway and he freezes in place. No, no, no, please not again. His hands curl into the fabric of the blanket and his panic is all but halted when he realizes there’s something on his wrist.

There on his left wrist is one of Phil’s wristbands. The red heart seems to help keep his own steady even though it's merely a picture. At least he thinks its only a picture, Phil had magic he didn’t usually understand on a good day. He slips a finger under the band and spins it around his wrist, making sure it's actually there and not some sort of hallucination. He catches the feeling of a piece of paper on the inside part of the wrist band. Slowly he turns his arm over and pulls out a small, folded up piece of paper from the space between his wrist and the band. Ignoring the way his fingers tremble slightly, he begins to unfold the paper to reveal a message.

Tommy,

I’m sorry to do this without asking you first but I feared that if I did not get you out of this smp asap I would lose another one of my bois to whatever has infected this server. I cannot say for certain where you will be once you wake up, but you will be safe wherever you are. I wish I could say all I want to let you know but time grows short and there is much to do. I will get your brothers back to normal I swear it. When it's safe again I will come for you. By wearing my wristband I will know you are safe and you are alive, just as you will be able to tell the same of me. I love you Tommy, and I hope wherever the universe has decided to send you will give you a chance to remember and experience the world as it should be, unaffected by whatever has dream’s smp. A world full of all the things you think are merely dreams. I love you Tommy, please never doubt that, and I'll come bring you home soon. 

Ph1lza

His heartbeat is echoing in his ears. Phil, Phil abandoned him. Something was wrong on the dream smp, no one actually hated him. Phil loved him. His brothers were in danger. His friends were in danger. Wilbur was dead and Techno had killed him. Phil left him to keep him safe. Phil loved him. He was all alone now.

Someone clears their throat way too close to him. Immediately he crumples up the paper and swallows it whole. Ow, his throat is scratchy already before eating paper so that doesn’t help it in the slightest. 

“Oh my goodness me, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” An unfamiliar voice apologizes. He turns his head to look at a tall person in some sort of bed outfit? Yeah no, that's a bee outfit alright. It's a weird one, like it's painted armor of done sort but the colors don't lie. Especially not with an actual bee hovering next to the person. He narrows his eyes to try and make out the details of this person who isn't even that far away from him. Why is his vision blurry? 

He blinks rapidly, trying to get his eyes to focus but it doesn't seem to be working. He's so confused. Where is he? Why is he here? Who is the bee person? Someone is talking to him or maybe he's just hearing voices again. The entire world blurs together and his head throbs. Everything goes dark. 

Waking up again is painful. His head hurts, his throat hurts, and he feels so weak. Is he sick? He doesn't remember the last time he was sick. 

"Are you back with me now?" There’s that unfamiliar voice again. It's soft and warm like one of Wilbur’s sweaters he used to wear when he was small and they were much too big for him. He manages to open his eyes enough to make out the weird bee themed man at his bedside. Two bees over the man’s shoulders can be seen flying away out of the room when he starts to move.

"...hhhh?" Is all he manages to get out in some sort of whine. His mind nor voice wanted to cooperate with him. He felt like absolute shit.

"I'm assuming you have questions for me, yes?" The bee man asks and he nods slowly. He very much so would like some answers to whatever the fuck was going on. The bee man's expressions are hard to read through the dude's helmet with only the visor really giving him a glimpse of what bee man's expressions are. He thinks that the bee man is worried about him though because the bee man keeps talking, "Well I'll be happy to answer them if in exchange you could eat some of this food and at least drink some of a regen potion."

The bee man brings a pink potion and some bread into his field of view. The bee man looks at him expectantly and he is hungry and he feels like shit but he can't. Bee man has only been nice to him but he doesn't trust anyone. Not after Wil blew up L'manburg. Not after Techno killed him and his friends. He manages to get his voice to work enough to rasp out a response, "...No…" 

"No? Do you not feel like eating? You surely have not been eating enough with how light you are, never mind how pale your skin looks." The bee man looks worried and he feels bad for making the bee man worry. The bee man keeps talking, "Well I would rather you don't pass out on me again, gave me quite a scare there earlier. Is there something wrong with the food? Do you not like bread?" 

He loves bread. Bread reminds him of L'manburg in the very beginning. Of Niki's bakery and laughter. Of better and more peaceful times. He's dragged out of his thoughts when the bee man keeps talking. 

"I promise you it's rather good, I just baked it fresh myself earlier. It wouldn't hurt to at least give eating a try would it? I promise you it's edible, I'm not that horrible in the kitchen." Bee man looks at him and he feels like the bee man can read his mind because the bee man asks, "Would it make you feel better to see me eat some of it first?" 

He nods as much as he can without making himself dizzy. Which isn't very much sadly. Bee man doesn't take it personally though because bee man chuckles and he finds he doesn't mind at all because he knows the bee man isn't laughing at him. 

"All right then give me a moment," The bee man says and he's confused for a moment before the bee man lifts his hands to the sides of his helmet, flicks some latches, and pulls it off. There's a soft hissing noise as the bee man removes the helmet and sets it to the side. He watches the bee man pick up a piece of bread and rip a chunk of it off to eat. Purple eyes seem to glow slightly just like the purple freckles on the bee man's face that he hadn't seen before because of the helmet. The bee man eats and remains completely fine after the fact. He feels better about this now and the bee man offers him some bread while saying, "See, perfectly fine. I'd be happy to brew a new potion right here in front of you if you're worried about it as well."

"...Thanks.." He says as he slowly starts to eat the bread. He's starving but he knows eating too much too fast will only hurt in the long run so he forces himself to eat slower. There's simply silence that is strangely not uncomfortable while he eats the first loaf of bread. He thinks the bee man leaves the room for a moment, because when he looks back up after eating the bee man has out a brewing stand and potion materials. The materials for a regen potion. With the man is another few bees that the man waves away out of the room.

It's when he's handed the second loaf which he takes with another quiet thanks that the bee man breaks the silence, "You're quite welcome. Ah goodness me where are my manners, I did say I'd answer your questions. Well for starters my name is Xisuma and I'm the admin of the world we currently both are in which is called Hermitcraft."

The bee man, Xisuma, is the admin of this world. Hermitcraft is not a place he's ever heard of before. He only has more questions now, "How…?" 

"How did you get here?" Xisuma finishes, looking to him before continuing at his nod in response to the admin's question. "Well to be honest I only know so much about that myself. About two days ago I found you in the middle of nowhere in the deep End. You definitely could not have gotten there on your own nor could you have survived there on your own. I was tasked by the End itself to help you and keep you safe until your father could come for you. That is all I know."

That answer only makes him more confused, "The End?" 

Xisuma stops paying attention to making the potion and turns to him, the admin's helmet still being off allows him to see the expression of hesitation on the man's face before he asks, "What do you know about the End?" 

What does he know about the End? He has to think and recall all the vague memories he has of it as he lists them off slowly, "... Other realm… endless void… endermen… Dragon legend… Dad likes it there…" 

"Does your father have magic?" Xisuma's sudden question nearly makes him jump but he manages to only flinch instead. The admin doesn't comment on his reaction even though Xisuma has been watching him while he was listing things off.

Does Phil have magic? He has to actually think about the things Phil has or does that he's just accepted are a part of Phil that are probably not normal. There are only a few things he can think of off the top of his head for sure, "Wings… World walking… This is his…"

He holds up his left wrist to Xisuma so the admin can see the wristband he's wearing more clearly. Xisuma looks at the band for a moment before coming closer to inspect it. 

"May I?" Xisuma asks. He nods and goes to remove it but Xisuma holds up a hand to stop him, "You don't have to remove it, don't worry, I just want to get a closer look."

Xisuma gently takes his wrist and stares directly at the wristband. It's kind of weirdchamp but he doesn't find it all that awkward actually. After a few moments Xisuma hums in understanding, "Hardcore? So your dad's an ascended player then. An old one too at the likes of it. That explains it."

"Wha…?" He questions, not really processing what he's being told. How did Xisuma know Phil was a hardcore player? What was an ascended player? He knows Phil was old but he wasn't that old was he? 

"What do I mean?" Xisuma asks, once more chuckling at his rapid nod in response. He doesn't think Xisuma is making fun of him though and he likes the admin solely for that alone. Xisuma hums for a moment before beginning to explain, "Well not only did I find you, a human, out in the deep End where the air should be too thin for you to breathe normally. You were completely unharmed and not even seemingly aware of the coldness in the thin air of the void. The End, my home, went out of its way to call me back there and lead me to you. Something that no doubt cost quite a lot both from the universe and your father. The fact that you were not only there but alive and guarded by the void itself, means your father is loved quite a lot by the End. And because he loves you so dearly that means the End adores you just the same."

That's a lot to process at once. He finds himself blankly trying to make sense of all that information until he feels a warm potion bottle being pressed into his hands. He takes it without thinking and drinks some of it before stopping. Bleh, he forgot how bad these tasted. Thankfully it kicks in rather quickly and he manages to get enough of his brain back in working order to ask a full question this time, "... Then why, why am I here?" 

Xisuma looks at him expectantly and he drinks more of the potion without even thinking about it. Xisuma smiles with an approving nod and he ignores how he feels about that. He does not have the time he needs to unpack all of that right now because Xisuma starts talking again, "I don't want to make guesses or speculate on a situation I don't know anything of, but while I said you are unharmed I only meant physically and even then really only unharmed currently. You have a number of scars that some of the players in this world don't have despite a history of fighting. I was told to watch over you until your dad could come for you and while I can only make guesses as to what that entails I'm fairly certain your father wanted to make sure you were safe in his absence. As for what your dad would currently be doing, well I'd wager a guess it has something to do with all this corruption clinging to your code like pollen to a bee. Goodness me I haven't even really tried to deal with it because I know people are sensitive to having others digging through their code but this is ridiculous."

Phil wanted him to be safe. He doesn't know why but he believes it more when Xisuma says it than when he read it in Phil's letter. Phil wanted him safe while he was fixing something with the smp. But what was wrong with it? Corruption? Code? He has no fucking clue what Xisuma is talking about, "My code?" 

Xisuma nods at his question, "Yes your code. It's what makes you, well you. It's the thing that allows you to come and go between worlds at ease. To respawn upon dying and travel between overworld, nether, and end."

"I don't see anything." He says looking down at himself curiously. This is the first time he's ever heard of this code shit. 

"Would you like to?" Xisuma asks and it's not even a making fun of him question, but a genuine offer. He feels excited about learning something new and can't help the smile that breaks out on his face when he nods. Xisuma shakes his head amused but gestures to the half drunken potion in Tommy's hands, "Drink the rest of that potion and I'll show you."

"Bleh." He complains after finishing the potion. A small price to pay for cool new knowledge. Xisuma laughs at his response when the admin takes the empty bottle from him and he feels embarrassed about it. 

"You're right, they're not very good but trust me they used to be worse. Give me a moment to readjust the settings here for you." Xisuma explains, picking up his  discarded helmet from earlier before he fiddles with it. At least he wasn't making fun of Tommy's response or telling him he was just being a big baby. He decides to ignore those thoughts and thankfully is given the opportunity to when Xisuma says, "Alright, go ahead and put this on then."

He takes the helmet which isn't as heavy as he thought it would be. It's certainly not as heavy as netherite or even diamond. He swallows his sudden anxiety and sticks in on before he can overthink it. He looks around the room confused, "Nothing looks different?"

"Give me a moment here… " Xisuma says, trailing off as a screen pops up at the admin's finger tips. It just looks like a translucent blue screen which glows white wherever Xisuma taps it. It looks like the admin is typing but he can't see anything on the screen so it just seems random. Xisuma stops tapping at the screen finally to ask,"How about now?" 

He's confused because nothing changes at first. Then like a furnace roaring to life suddenly there's a flash of purple across the visor as everything suddenly gains a slight glow around it. It's pretty pog to see, "Woah"

"Okay so look at my arm here, what do you see?" Xisuma asks, holding an arm out between them. 

"An arm? Wait it's got all these little numbers popping up around it…" He watches amazed by the numbers. They radiate off the admins arm, briefly glowing white before vanishing from view. 

Xisuma nods,"Now look at your own arm, what do you see?" 

"It's also an arm. Wait the numbers, why are they all glitchy like that? What's this weird glow?" He likes this. He thinks it super cool right up until he looks at his own arm and it does not pass the vibe check. The numbers coming off his arm are like vibrating in the air. Appearing like static in a mess of colors before vanishing much sooner than the ones around Xisuma did. 

His attention is pulled away from it when Xisuma talks again and he turns to look at the admin who watches him with a look he can't decipher, "That, my friend, is the corruption."

"Oh… wait, the wristband…" He nods mutely and goes to pull off the helmet when the wristband catches his eye. It's surrounded in a soft, solid green glow with no glitchy numbers but rather opaque blue boxes. Like the screen Xisuma was tapping earlier but this one has white text on it. He looks at it and starts to read, "Health bar, monitors player's health and displays it. Currently tracking,... Dad."

"If you look at the details of how it works, you'd find it's a set. One wristband out of two. The other, is connected to you." Xisuma explains, tapping on the floating description next to the wristband. Indeed there is a whole description he doesn’t bother to read but he does notice the 1/2 in the corner of the tiny screen. 

That’s why he has one of Phil’s wristbands? So Phil can make sure he’s still alive? He hesitates for a moment but asks despite feeling stupid for asking, "So if I died he would know?" 

Xisuma hums, considering it before answering, "Not quite? Because your dad's a hardcore player it's set directly to his code. Hardcore players take damage directly to their code, or well a subsection of their code. Your dad has it wired so if either your own code or his code starts to become so corrupted then it will be displayed on the corresponding wristband. It's a genius design in these bands if the other makes the matching set I'm assuming it does."

He has no idea what they’re currently talking about. He has so many questions, "But he doesn't stay in his hardcore world?" 

"Even so, his base code is written for a hardcore player. It'd be the same as a hybrid player, where their base code contains their hybridness? That didn't work quite the way I wanted it to." Xisuma explains. When the admin looks at his face though it’s very clear that he has no idea what Xisuma is trying to tell him. He thinks about hybrid players, people who aren’t human, usually part mob or something and then thinks about the bee theme.

"Are you a hybrid player?" He asks before thinking about it. 

"That's quite the personal question." Xisuma answers looking surprised. 

"Shit my bad, … I wasn't aware it was personal. I just can't tell if the bee thing is an outfit or not." He explains hoping Xisuma won’t be too mad.

Xisuma looks even more surprised by him swearing, "Does your father know about your language?" 

"You sound like Bad does! Yes he knows and he doesn't care!" He groans, waving off the concern. He wasn’t twelve, what was wrong with swearing?

"Alright, alright just asking." Xisuma assures him before saying, "As for the bee theme, it is just an outfit."

"It is? But the bees seem to like you more than they even like… A friend…" He trails off looking down as his thoughts drift to the people he’s left behind back on the smp. Even if it had felt like a rift had been forming between him and Tubbo, they were still best friends. 

Xisuma doesn’t comment on his weird sentence thankfully, "Hmm well I can't give away all my secrets to someone whom I don't even know the name of." 

"Tommy."

"What was that?"

He looks up and repeats himself, "My name is Tommy."

"Well then Tommy, allow me to formally welcome you to Hermitcraft. I'll show you around and such tomorrow when I'm sure you won't faint on me, though for now I will be needing my helmet back." Xisuma says, gesturing to the helmet still on his head.

He pulls the helmet off and hands it over, "Oh shit, sorry." 

"No need to apologize, I did let you use it after all." Xisuma tells him, taking the helmet back and fiddling with it for a moment before putting it back on. It was strange to see the admin with the helmet on again but he guessed this was the usual norm. Xisuma stands up and checks something on his communicator. Idly he wondered where his own communicator had wound up before his train of thought is derailed by Xisuma offering, "Well if you feel up to it I could show you around my base here for today so you're not bored in bed all day."

That sounded so much better than being bored in bed all day. 

Xisuma's base was incredible. Not only did he base stretch through multiple tower buildings full of so many different redstone contraptions he had never seen, but he was the only one who even lived here! It was entirely his base and his base alone! And it was full of bees! They were so cuddly and soft! He didn't know bees could hang around people so much! Even Tubbo's bees got bored of them eventually and went back to doing bee things. And Tubbo's bees loved Tubbo! 

Not only that but the amount of resources the admin had! It was ridiculous! Phil was the only person he knew with this many resources. Well Phil and Techno but he didn't want to think about Techno so only Phil. 

At some point Xisuma went to go check something or whatever, he had stopped paying attention to the admin when a couple bees flew over and started buzzing around him. Eventually he sat down in this grassy area with the same bees who all piled around him. A fuzzy bee pile. It was nice. He really was curious as to why these bees were so friendly. But for now he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Its warm, soft, and safe. He doesn’t even realize it when he falls asleep. 

[yayeetsonny]

Big surprise~USWNT x Baby reader

Prompt: Team finds out baby r is dating a famous person via instagram live.

Requested by: @khiaraaa-in-spacee​

Y/N PRO

Being a professional soccer player and playing in both the NWSL for the Orlando Pride and at the national level for the USWNT at the age of 18 is a great honor and privilege, I got to play the sport I loved nearly everyday and I was able to make a living from it, but it can be exhausting at times. Which is why I’m glad that we have a few weeks off before I have to report to the next national camp for our next set of friendlies. I live in LA with my girlfriend Billie Eilish and being able to spend some quality time with her after months of being on the go is great. The only drawback is that the team has no idea I’m dating someone famous, I have kept that part of my life private, It’s not that I don’t trust them, I do; they’re like sisters to me and the older players even sometimes act as parental figures, but Billie and I agreed to keep our relationship as private as possible and agreed that when the time was right, she would meet the girls.

Speaking of Billie she and her brother Finneas were working on some music in the little studio like set up she created in our basement so I decided to bring them a snack.

“Hey babe, I thought I’d bring you guys a snack since you’ve been working so hard.” I said, handing her the bowl of berries, and handing Finneas a bowl of popcorn.

“Aw, thank you baby. That was very sweet of you.”

“How’s the song writing going?”

“Slow but we’re making progress.” Finneas said

“Good to hear.”

I spent some time with them looking at what they had written out so far and listening to some of the beats they thought of using before excusing myself to go do an instagram live. Even though I was technically on vacation I made sure to still engage with fans and I looked forward to the weekly lives. I had previously sent out a tweet and posted on my instagram story that I would be on live soon so I knew a substantial amount of people including some of my teammates were bound to be on fairly quickly.

“Hey guys! How’s everyone doing today?”

I watched as the comment section was flooded with people telling me how they were or sending in heart and heart eye emojis.

“I’m doing great, can you say happy birthday Abigail?” I said under my breath.

“So glad to hear it! Happy birthday Abigail!” I said

I continued to read the comments as they came in, squinting as I did so and laughed when I saw a familiar name pop up.

“Hey Alex, no I’m not blind. I’m squinting because the font is small.”

She sent several laughing emoji’s in return.

“Hey Pinoe, Jess, Abby, Julie, Moe, Christen, Tobs, Tierna, Mal, Sam, Emily and Rose.” I said, out of breath after reading all their names off in one go. My eyes widened when I noticed several more of my teammates had joined the lives.

“Ah, and Hi Becky, Carli, A.D., Lindsey, Crystal, Allie, Ashlyn, Ali, Alyssa, and Kelley.”

I was practically wheezing by the time I finished listing everyone’s names.

“The gang’s all here I see.” I laughed.

I saw several of their comments popping up, all of which seemed to be referring to the same thing.

“Breath little one.”

“Drink some water, please.”

“Are you okay?”

“That wheezing doesn’t sound too good.”

“Go get your inhaler.”

I rolled my eyes playfully at their fussing, even from miles away they found a way to baby me. I was the youngest on the team so they felt the need to be protective.

“Guys relax, I’m perfectly okay. I just forgot to breath for a sec. And I’m 18 years old Chris, I’m not little.” 

Several of them sent comments back disagreeing which I chose to ignore.

“Okay guys send in your questions and I’ll do my best to answer most of them.”

Comments began flowing in and I started to answer some of them.

“What’s your favorite holiday?”

“Well I’d have to say Christmas for sure. Not only is it a time for me to spend with family and the food is great I’ll admit I like getting and giving presents too.”

“ Who would you want with you if you were deserted on an island?” “I’d have to say… Alyssa and… Julie. I’d want those two with me because Alyssa would keep mostly to herself and not drive me crazy like Kelley or Emily would with their endless energy but she would be a great conversationalist and she would share her warmth by cuddling with me, and Julie because she’s tough as nails and I feel like she would be good at gathering food and finding a way to provide shelter.” 

Alex, Pinoe and Tobin voiced their offense at not being chosen while the others, minus Christen just said they would let me fend for myself if we ever got stranded together. Christen said

“They are excellent choices and I agree.” 

Julie and Alyssa gloated 

“Ahaha we’re her favorites.”

“Now we know who the favorites are and I can’t say I’m surprised that I’m one of them.”

I continued to answer questions, they ranged from asking what my favorite color was to what my best moments the field was. I was in the middle of answering a question about my most embarrassing in-game moment was when Billie suddenly came running into the room, excited to show me something.

“Hey babe, Finn and I got down this amazing chorus, wanna hear it?”

I tried to find a way to mute the live while I talked to her but it was too late. She realized what I was doing, and her eyes almost popping out of her head. She looked at me worriedly while I just laughed nervously. I knew everyone had heard her call me “babe” because they began asking who I was dating and begging to see them. Emily commented

“Yeah Y/N spill the tea.”

Billie and I just stared at each other, slightly communicating with our eyes before she nodded and made her way over to sit next to me. We were both nervous but knew that everyone had to find out sometime, and while this wasn’t the way we had planned for the girls to find out I hoped they were cool about it.

“Guys… I’d like you to meet my girlfriend Billie. Billie Eilish.” I said to the camera.

“Hey guys, this wasn’t planned but I’m glad to be here.” She said

What followed was an outpouring of support and joy from the fans and I was incredibly relieved, we both were.  I didn’t see any comments from the team and that was slightly concerning. I knew they were all still on and paying attention. Did they not like her? Were they mad at me for hiding my relationship from them? 

I smiled at the camera, both Billie and I thanking fans for their love. I hadn’t told her this yet but I was starting to worry about what my teammates really thought of Billie. After answering a few more questions we decided to call it a day and promised to do lives together often.

“That was fun! Sorry for putting you on the spot like that I totally forgot you were doing a live.” Billie said coming up to hug me.

“It’s okay, everyone seems to love you and support us.” I said absentmindedly scrolling through my phone waiting for something, anything from the girls.

“You okay Y/N?”

“Yeah I’m okay, I just haven’t heard from the girls since you came on the live and none of them said anything after.

“Wait the whole team was watching?”

“Yeah they were.”

“And they didn’t say anything after I came on?”

“Nope.”

“Do you think they have a problem with us being together?”

“I’ll be honest, I’m not sure.”

After some more waiting I finally got a text from Morgan in the group chat.

“Group Skype in 5, be there.”

Yikes that was a little cold. I wasn’t one to be afraid of my teammates, except on the rare occasion one of them was in a mood but I couldn’t help but be nervous to talk to them. I told Billie what was going to happen and I could tell she was nervous too but she decided to wait in the other room to give us some privacy, only joining if requested.

“I’m sure it won’t be long. I love you.” I said kissing her.

“I love you too.”

As soon as I joined the call it was silent.

“Hi guys.” I said timidly.

“Y/N.” Kelley said

“So… A famous girlfriend huh?” Megan said

“Yeah… she’s really talented and I’m so proud of all she’s accomplished. Our relationship is really special to me.” I said more confident than before.

“She seems very nice.” Chris said

“She is so kind and sweet.”

“Does she make you happy?” Mal asked me in a serious tone.

“Incredibly.”

“Then that’s all that matters to us.”

“I-I thought you guys were mad at me or didn’t approve of her.”

I saw several of the girls’ eyebrows furrow and they all looked confused and concerned.

“What made you think that?”

“Well for starters, none of you commented anything after she came on the live and then after no one texted me for over an hour. I really thought you were upset or something.” I said sadly

“Aw, bub. We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to make you feel like that. Looking at it now, we see how it looked but we were just texting each other, trying to plan a way to fly out and surprise you and meet her in person. We got caught up in taking about how you, the baby of the team; our baby is dating someone as famous as Billie Eilish, much less dating anyone at all.” Alex said, everyone else agreeing

“You guys didn’t think I could be dating anyone?” I asked slightly offended 

“No, no. We didn’t mean it like that. We just meant that you did such a good job at hiding it from everyone and you never talked about liking any girls or boys or non-binary people that we thought you weren’t interested in dating at the moment.” Ali said.

“Oh.”

 I understood now why they thought that, I had never shown any interest in anyone but it was simply because I was already taken and saw no reason to entertain, think about or talk about the idea of anyone else.

“We love her as an artist and are sure she is a great person, especially if she makes you happy.” Allie said.

“Would you guys like to talk to her right now? She’s just in the other room, I can go get her.”

“OMG YESSSS”

“ABSOLUTELY”

“WHAT KIND OF A QUESTION IS THAT?” Crystal, Sam and Abby all boomed 

“And everyone else who isn’t trying to break your eardrums agrees too.” Ashlyn said giggling.

“Next time warn earbud users will you? Geez” Megan said rubbing her ears

“I’ll be right back.” I said chuckling at their antics.

I went into the room next door to get Billie so she could say Hi to the girls.

“Hey babe.” I said

“Hey, how’d your call with the team go?”

“Actually it’s not over yet. They want to meet you.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, they were never mad or upset. They were just planning to surprise me and come out to meet you in person.”

“Oh wow. Not what I was expecting to hear but that’s very nice of them.”

“Yeah, you ready to meet my “moms” and sisters?” I said giggling

“As I’ll ever be.”

When we reentered the room we could hear them all chanting 

“GO, GO, GO, GO.”

When I looked at the screen I saw Mal chugging a giant bottle of sprite.

“What in the world? I’m gone for all of 5 Minutes and come back to see… whatever Mal is doing.”

“We triple dog dared her to chug the bottle of sprite after she pulled it out and took one measly sip of it.” Tierna shrugged

“You’re all so weird.”

“But you loveeee us.” Emily said 

“That I do. How you holding up, Pugh?” I said looking back at Mal and seeing she didn’t look so good.

“Moms, I don’t feel so good.” She said referring to Christen and Tobin

“Well baby, maybe you shouldn’t have chugged the whole thing.” Chris said pouting at her sympathetically.

“You were chanting with everyone else!” Mal said annoyed

“didn’t want to be a buzz kill.” She shrugged

“Wait a little bit and then heat up yourself some chicken noodle soup.” Tobin said

“Okayyy.”

Mal flopped dramatically back on her bed as some of the girls gave her props and others laughed at her very apparent sore stomach.

“I’m so sorry. They’re always like this.” I said turning to Billie 

“It’s cool. Props Mal, that was impressive.”

“Thanks Billie.”

“So Billie, how long have you and Y/N been together? Who kissed who first, and have you guys had sex yet?” Kelley asked

Of course she’s gonna be the one to put my girlfriend on the spot. Classic Kelley O’Hara

“Umm…” Billie looked at me uncomfortably

“We-we’ve been together for 7 and a half months. I kissed her, and no we haven’t.” I said covering for her as she froze.

“I see.” She said scratching her chin.

“Kelley, cool it with the grilling. We just met her.” Alex said coming to Billie’s defense.

“You’re right, sorry about that. I just want what’s best for Y/N. We all do.” She said sheepishly

“Nah, it’s cool. I totally get it.”

We continued to talk and the girls got to know Billie pretty well and they hit it off. I was relieved that they approved of her and that they were happy for me. They told me when they would be arriving in LA and how long they would be staying and we all got excited at the idea of seeing each other soon.

//

Sorry for any mistakes

-N

[ducktastic]

2020 Gameological Awards

Over on the Gameological Discord, we have an annual tradition of writing up our games of the year not as a ranked list but rather as answers to a series of prompts. Here are my personal choices for the year that was 2020.

Favorite Game of the Year

I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into Paradise Killer. I knew that I liked the vaporwave resort aesthetic from the game’s trailer and figured I was in for a Danganronpa-style murder mystery visual novel with an open-ended murder mystery at its core. Those assumptions were… half-right? The game definitely plays out like the exploration bits of Danganronpa set on the island from Myst but with far simpler puzzles. What I didn’t expect was to fall so deeply in love with the environment—its nooks and crannies, its millennia of lore, its brutalist overlap of idol worship, consumerism, and mass slaughter. It makes sense that the world of Paradise Killer is its strongest feature, since the cast of NPCs don’t really move around, leaving you alone with the world for the overwhelming majority of your experience as you bounce back and forth between digging around for clues and interrogating potential witnesses. And despite what the promo materials indicated, there IS a definitive solution to the crimes you’re brought in to investigate, the game just lets you make judgment based on whatever evidence you have at the time you’re ready to call it a day, so if you’re missing crucial evidence you might just make a compelling enough case for the wrong person and condemn them to eternal nonexistence. Am I happy with the truth at the end of the day? No, and neither is anybody else I’ve spoken to who completed the game, but we all were also completely enthralled the entire time and our dissatisfaction has less to do with the game and more to do with the ugly reality of humanity. I’ve always been of the mindset that “spoilers” are absolute garbage and that a story should be just as good whether you know the twist or not and any story that relies on surprising the audience with an unexpected reveal is not actually that good a story, but Paradise Killer is a game about piecing together your own version of events so I feel that it’s vital to the gameplay experience that people go in knowing as little as possible and gush all about it afterwards. Just trust me, if the game looks even remotely intriguing to you, go for it. I’ve had just as much fun talking about the game after I finished it with friends just getting started as I did actually solving its mysteries myself.

Best Single Player Game

I honestly missed out on the buzz for In Other Waters at launch, so I’m happy I had friends online talking it up as Black Friday sales were coming along. The minimal aesthetic of his underwater exploration game allows the focus to shift more naturally to the game’s stellar writing as a lone scientist goes off in search of her mentor and the secrets they were hiding on an alien world. It only took a few hours for me to become completely absorbed in this narrative and keep pushing forward into increasingly dangerous waters. In Other Waters might just be the best sci-fi story I experienced all year and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sci-fi novels, regardless of their experience with video games.

Best Multiplayer Game

Look, we all know this year sucked. 2020 will absolutely be chronicled in history books as a fascinating and deeply depressing time in modern history where we all stayed inside by ourselves and missed our friends and family. It was lonely and it was bleak. Which is why it made my heart glow so much more warmly every time I got a letter from an honest-to-goodness real-life friend in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Knowing that they were playing the same game I was and hearing about their experiences and sending each other wacky hats or furniture, it lightened the days and made us feel that little bit more connected. Sure, when the game first launched we would actually take the time to visit one another’s islands, hang out, chat in real-time, and exchange gifts, but we all eventually got busy with Zoom calls, sourdough starters, and watching Birds of Prey twenty-two times. Still, sending letters was enough. It was and still is a touching little way to show that we’re here for one another, if not at the exact same time.

Favorite Ongoing Game

Zach Gage is one of my favorite game designers right now, and when I heard he was releasing a game called Good Sudoku I was sold sight unseen. The game as released was… fine. It’s sudoku and it’s pleasant, but it was also buggy and overheated my phone in a way I hadn’t seen since Ridiculous Fishing (also by Zach Gage) seven years ago. Thankfully, the most glaring bugs have been fixed and I can now enjoy popping in every day for some quick logic puzzle goodness. Daily ranked leaderboards keep me coming back again and again, the steady ramp of difficulty in the arcade and eternal modes means I can always chase the next dopamine rush of solving increasingly complex puzzles. It’s not a traditional “ongoing” game the way, say, Fortnite and Destiny are, but I’m happy to come back every day for sudoku goodness.

Didn't Click For Me

With Fortnite progressively losing me over the course of 2020, finalizing with my wholesale “never again” stance after Epic boss Tim Sweeney compared Fortnite demanding more money from Apple to the American Civil Rights movement (no, absolutely not), I dipped my toe into a number of new “battle pass”-style online arena types of games, and while Genshin Impact eventually got its hooks into me, Spellbreak absolutely did not. With graphics straight out of The Dragon Prince and the promise of a wide variety of magic combat skills to make your character your own, the game seemed awfully tempting, but my first few experiences were aimless and joyless, with no moment of clarity to make me understand why I should keep coming back. Maybe they’ll finesse the game some more in 2021, or a bunch of my friends will get hooked and lure me back, but for now I am a-okay deleting this waste of space on my Switch and PC.

"Oh Yeah, I Did Play That Didn't I?"

I remember being really excited for Murder By Numbers. Ace Attorney-style crime scene investigation visual novel with Picross puzzles for the evidence, art by the creators of Hatoful Boyfriend, and music by the composer of Ace Attorney itself?! Sounds like a dream come true. But the pixel-hunt nature of the crime scene investigations was more frustrating than fun, the picross puzzles were not particularly great, and the game came out literally a week before the entire world went into lockdown which makes it feel more like seven years ago than just earlier this year. I remember being marginally charmed by the game once it was in my hands, but as soon as my mind shifted to long-term self care, Murder By Numbers went from hot topic to cold case.

Most Unexpected Joy

I was looking forward to Fuser all year. As a dyed-in-the-wool DropMix stan, the prospect of a spiritual sequel to DropMix on all major digital platforms without any of the analogue components was tremendously exciting, and I knew I’d have a lot of fun making mixes by myself and posting them online for the world to hear. What I didn’t expect, however, was the online co-op mode to be such a blast! Up to four players take turns making 32 bars of mashups, starting with whatever the player before handed them and adding their own fingerprints on top. It sounds like it should just be a mess of cacophony, but every session I’ve played so far has been just the best dance party I’ve had all year, and everyone not currently in control of the decks (including an audience of spectators) can make special requests for what the DJ should spin and tap along with the beat to great super-sized emoji to show how much they’re enjoying the mix. Literally the only times my Apple Watch has ever warned me of my heightened heart rate have been the times I was positively bouncing in place rocking out to co-op freestyle play in Fuser.

Best Music

Only one video game this year had tunes that were so bumpable they were upgraded to my general “2020 jams” playlist alongside Jeff Rosenstock, Run the Jewels, and Phoebe Bridgers, and that game was Paradise Killer. 70% lo-fi chill beats to study/interrogate demons to, 20% gothic atmospheric bangers, 10% high-energy pop jazz, this soundtrack was just an absolute joy to swim around in both in and out of gameplay.

Favorite Game Encounter

It’s wild that in a landscape where games let me live out my wildest fantasies, the single moment that lit me up in a way that stood out to me more than any other was serving Neil the right drink in Coffee Talk. Over the course of the game, you serve a variety of hot drinks to humans, werewolves, vampires, orcs, and more, all while chatting with your customers and learning more about their lives and relationships. The most mysterious customer, though, is an alien life form who adopts the name Neil. They do not know what they want to drink and claim it doesn’t make a difference because they cannot taste it. Everybody else wants *something*. Neil is just ordering for the sake of fitting in and exploring the Earth experience. It’s only in the second playthrough that attentive baristas will figure out what to serve Neil, unlocking the “true” ending in the process. Seeing the typically stoic Neil actually emote when they tasted their special order drink? What an absolute treat that was.

Best Free DLC of the Year

It’s still only a couple of days old at the time I’m writing this, but Marvel’s Avengers just added Kate Bishop, aka Hawkeye, and THANK GOODNESS. Almost every character in the game at launch just smashed the endless waves of robot baddies with their fists and that looks exhausting and uncomfortable. Hawkeye (the game calls her Kate Bishop, but come on, she’s been Hawkeye in the comics for over 14 years, let’s show her some respect) uses A SWORD. FINALLY! Aside from that, I’m just having a blast shooting arrows all over the place. She and Ms Marvel are the most likable characters in the game so far, so I hope they keep adding more of the Young Avengers and Champions to the game, and if the recently announced slate of Marvel movies and tv shows are any indication (with America Chavez, Cassie Lang, and Riri Williams all coming soon to the MCU), that seems to be what Marvel is pushing for across all media

Most Accessible Game

Nintendo is, first and foremost, a toy company. They got their start in toys and cards long before video games was a thing, and they still do more tests to ensure their video game hardware is childproof than anybody else in the industry (remember how they made Switch cartridges “taste bad” so kids wouldn’t eat them?). This year, Nintendo got to rekindle some of their throwback, simplistic, toys-and-cards energy with Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, a Switch collection of timeless family-friendly games like Chess, Mancala, and Backgammon, along with “toy” versions of sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis for a virtual parlor room of pleasant time-wasters. The games were all presented with charming li’l explainers from anthropomorphic board game figurines, and the ability to play quick sessions of Spider Solitaire on the touch screen while I binged The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix made Clubhouse Games one of my most-played titles of the year. Plus, local play during socially-distant friend hangs was an excellent way to make us feel like we were much closer than we were physically allowed to be as friends knocked each other’s block off in the “toy boxing” version of Rock’em Sock’em Robots.

"Waiting for Game-dot"

I get that everyone loves Disco Elysium. I saw it on everyone’s year-end lists last year. I finally bought it with an Epic Games Store coupon this year. This year was a long enough slog of depressing post-apocalyptic drudgery, I didn’t want to explore a whole nother one in my leisure time. I’ll get to it… someday.

Game That Made Me Think

Holovista was an iPhone game I played over the course of two or three days based on the recommendation of some trusted colleagues on Twitter and oh my goodness was I glad that I played it. What starts as a chill vaporwave photography game steadily progresses into an exploration of psychological trauma, relationships with friends and family, and the baggage we carry with us from our pasts. In this exceptionally hard year, I badly needed this story about spending time alone with your personal demons and finding your way back to the people who love and support you. Just like with Journey and Gone Home, I walked away from Holovista feeling a rekindled appreciation for the people in my life.

[noxtms]

AFTER THE OVERNIGHT SUCCESS of rita skeeters second biographical novel, the boy who lived & other tragic tales, the audacious blonde tells us here at the prophet that she very briefly considered fading into anonymity. ”it was the perfect time,” she admits, that charming smile never fading, “and my publisher certainly would have had me do it. get out at the height of it, rita, and leave them ALWAYS wanting more. that’s what he told me, and that was the plan. put down the quill. move to france. write... travel blogs, maybe, for the rest of my days.” she LAUGHS, and it’s difficult not to laugh with her. the image of this woman ever leaving down that iconic peacock quill is laughable. “but you know better than anyone : once i get a hint of a story that needs to be told, there is nothing, not even that desire for sandy beaches and endless sunshine alongside a strong cocktail, that can pull me away from it. and that is what this is. ‘SEVERUS SNAPE: SWAN SONG’ might be, perhaps, my own... i won’t say. but it is also a story that deserved to be told.”

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE :  

rita skeeter’s book launch, being held on june 10th, 2020, includes a questions and answers panel at flourish and botts ( please clear your questions with miss skeeters publicity team in advance ), after party in the leaky cauldron ( booked out entirely for the event ) & discounts and special treats in shops all along diagon alley itself ( madam malkin’s is giving out imitations of miss skeeters iconic spectacles, amanuensis quills is providing quality peacock quills at a 20% discount and fortescue’s ice cream parlour promises your ice cream, free, if you promise you didn’t purchase and don’t plan on purchasing a copy - unrelated to the event, but they’ll never know if you lie ! ). 

to date, she has now written three books : 

the life & lies of albus dumbledore : a tell all exposé on albus dumbledore and his young life, that ‘stripped away the popular image of serene, silver bearded wisdom, revealing a disturbed childhood, lawless youth, lifelong feuds and guilty secrets carried to his grave’.

the boy who lived & other tragic tales : a biographical book claimed to be the true life stories of a number of the victims of the battle of hogwarts ( among them fred weasley, padma patil, colin creevey, remus lupin, vincent crabbe and, for some reason, cedric diggory ) but focusing a frankly INNAPROPRIATE amount upon harry potter himself. rita had initially been intending on writing a biography for him along until her publisher convinced her otherwise, but some of her ‘hot takes’ could be pried from her cold dead hands. it sit on the bestseller list in england and america for several weeks.

severus snape, swan song : another biographical book, the blurb of which reads ‘severus snape was known by many as the ill temptered and largely unliked potions master at hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. his highly publicized role in the death of albus dumbledore and his brief period as headmaster at the aforementioned school during the time it was run largely by the dark lords most loyal followers painted a narrative of a man dedicated to the wrong sides cause : but what if i were to tell you that despite the story spun all these years... we were wrong? through the lens of severus snape’s own ( verified ) memories, i, rita skeeter, bring you a new narrative. one of a boy raised in a volatile home in spinners end, a teen who made a mistake, a young man who lost the love of his life... and a war wearied individual who tried his whole life to save her son, and played the role of villain so that no one else had to.’

OUT OF CHARACTER:

she’s sure gone and done it now ! rita skeeter has proven to be quite the master of dropping bombshell level books when the wizarding community least expects them, and let me confirm what i’m sure you’re all wondering, right off the bat : she really HAS revealed severus snapes life story to the wizarding world, with this new book of hers. rita’s unregistered animagus form came in CLUTCH, for her, as she fell into possession of memories that were lost in the cleanup of the war ( and subsequently verified by the ministry of magic themselves, papers confirming which will be released through the prophet on the morning of her surprise book release ). memories that harry potter watched before heading off to the forbidden forest. memories that changed everything : told him the real role he was to play, exposed the truth about severus snapes role in everything, and revealed just how far albus dumbledore went in his striving to defeat the dark lord. i know. it’s a doozy ! 

 rita skeeter now possesses the most valuable information of all, and unfortunately for everyone, she hasn’t kept her big mouth shut : though colored by the vapid voice she employs to write her greatest hits, the information is now out in the world. public opinion is naturally going to shift on severus snape as more and more people read / hear about her work, but since the book is heavily biased against dumbledore, opinions are going to change there, too - and many might begin assigning to the idea of one man being an unsung hero, while the other was an over glorified VILLAIN. the only person getting off easy is harry potter, who of course, is just yet another tragic sidenote. 

the event is beginning NOW ( june 15th ) and will end in a week, or there abouts - the end date might change based on wider involvement, but you’ll be informed in advance if it does !

for the purpose of the event, i’ve set up a sideblog @skeetertms - you read it right ! rita skeeter herself is making an appearance, and her open starter is right here for you to reply to if you so choose ! depending on how fun it is, and whether i can come up with a good reason to justify it, she might be sticking around a while past the event - we’ll see ! 

the book release ( including the early morning q & a session, the late night party at the leaky cauldron where there will be live music, an open bar and free food & of course, the wider event upon diagon alley ) is an open event, meaning that while press was invited, everyone else is just sort of.. turning up. your character might just stumble upon it, while on diagon alley. they might genuinely want to be there, as a fan of rita skeeters work. really, it’s up to you - but given the fact this is not an intensive event, you are more than welcome to continue your older threads in addition to starting new ones ! 

speaking of event starters : they should be tagged as nox.event003 ! the location is diagon alley, but feel free to specify where ! 

if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to message the main ! please reply to this post with ‘beetle’ once you’ve read it ! 

[howtohero]

#288 The Center of the Earth

It’s the summer, and so you’re probably feeling about as hot as a lava monster right about now. But you should know that you’ve actually got it pretty good, relatively speaking. At least you’ve got the occasional breeze. At least sometimes it rains. At least sometimes an ice villain shows up and tries to form a glacier in the center of town. (For some reason they only show up to do this in the summer, when it is, statistically speaking, the most difficult time of the year to try to form a glacier.) There are people and creatures and entire civilizations that don’t have that luxury. They live beneath the Earth’s surface, deep within the mantle and the crust and all the good stuff. They live in the Center of the Earth, and let me tell you, things are weird down there.

The Center of the Earth is one of those strange and mystical realms that’s really a lot bigger than it has any reasonable right to be. I mean we know how big the Earth is (it’s got a diameter of 7,917.5 miles). We know how big the Earth’s core is (it’s got a diameter of 1,520 miles). And yet, somehow, the Center of the Earth contains way too much to be able to fit into that small an area. I’m pretty sure there’s more going on in the Earth’s core than there even is on the surface. But that’s magical locales for you. They don’t play by your rules. Since it’s such a weird place, and since you’re a superhero, you’re probably going to find yourself having to journey to the Center of the Earth a good many times. Don’t be surprised if it looks completely different every time you’re down there. They remodel a lot. And there’s like 20-30 different realities fighting for supremacy and existence down there at any given time.

For starters, let’s talk about how you would even get to the Center of the Earth. Naturally, there are the obvious routes: teleporters, wishes on shooting stars, wrestling control of the Ferry to Heck away from Charon the ferryman and taking a left at the fork in the River Styx. But let’s imagine for a minute that you aren’t buff enough to take on the steward of the dead and don’t have enough small change to pay for even the skeeviest of public teleportation chambers. Let’s say all you’ve got to rely on are your own wits and muscles (and this muscular and witty guide). As most physics students would tell you, if a tunnel was drilled all the way through the Earth a combination of factors (gravity, wind resistance, thinking light thoughts) will allow you to fall all the way to the other side of the planet in only 42 minutes and 12 seconds. So, it stands to reason that if such a tunnel existed, it would take only 21 minutes and 6 seconds to get to the Center of the Earth. That’s not too bad. It takes me longer than that to get out of bed in the morning. Lucky for you, there are actually several tunnels through the Earth. Who knew? Well, we did, and now we impart this secret knowledge on to you dear reader(s?). 

You see, since the dawn of time brave explorers have attempted to reach the Center of the Earth under the assumption that it holds great treasures and wonders (and they were right, at least on most Tuesdays and every fourth Thursday). Some of those explorers were even successful, and they left a trail of maps and clues to aid others on their quest to find the mystical realm (well, finding it isn’t actually all that hard, we know exactly where it is... It’s in the Center of the Earth). And then dozens of other explorers took the time to assemble all those disparate clues and map fragments. So now it’s really very easy to find your way there. Sure, your quest will be a lot less epic than those of explorers and adventurers past. You won’t have to dig for decades or suffer betrayal at the hands of your estranged uncle who you thought was dead but has now returned to conquer the mole-monkeys of the Center of the Earth, but it will be quicker, and honestly, I feel like that’s better. As of this writing there have been reports of tunnels to the Center of the Earth in the Bermuda Triangle, the Himalayas, the Dead Sea, Los Angeles, the moon somehow, Antarctica and approximately one fourth of the apartments in the Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights. 

What you’re going to find when you reach the Center of the Earth varies from day to day and minute to minute. Quite frankly it would be virtually impossible for us to properly prepare you for what you’re going to see down there. So it’s best to be prepared for literally anything. As a professional courtesy to you we’ve compiled a list of things that we’ve seen:

Dinosaurs: If you get down there and it’s just a bunch of dinosaurs I honestly recommend just leaving. They’re not gonna want to hang out with you. For the most part, dinosaurs aren’t interested in whatever superheroic quest you’re on. (Unless you run into Inspector Ankylosaurus, he’s always down for a classic superhero mess around.)

Tarkavia: As we’ve explained in our post on snow missions, Tarkavia is a magical realm that sometimes exists in the Earth’s core. There they love two things, war and cheese. If you wind up there, please pitch them our innovative combination of the two concepts “Cheese War” which is a war fought with, over, and by, cheese. We have a feeling they’re gonna love that idea so much that they make whomever suggested it their king. (We’re gracious enough to give this kingmaking idea to you because we are banned from Tarkavia after the horrible “War Cheese” incident.)

New Zealand: Think of New Zealand. That is what we’re describing.

The Realm of the Lost: Have you ever lost a thing? Your keys, a toy, your mind, the Eiffel Tower (it’s happened to all of us, don’t even worry about it). Well the Realm of the Lost is where all of that stuff eventually winds up. (If you manage to find your junk within two months of losing it you get to keep it, but after that it gets sucked into the Center of the Earth). Superheroes often have to venture there in order to track down some supervillain-built device that they need to stop some other threat. 

Just a big ol’ ball of molten lava: This another situation where you’re gonna want to start climbing back up that tunnel. Clearly your schedule was off, it’s the lava monster’s day, you’re gonna have to come back another time.

A bar where everyone you knows gathers to talk smack about you specifically. As tempting as it might be, I really recommend not sticking around for this either.

Endless riches and treasures: As we said, Tuesdays and every fourth Thursday. Bring a large sack and watch out for the golden crab/shark that eats anybody who tries to take anything.

The Swirl: The Swirl is an endless loop in an endless loops. It loops and it swirls and swirls and it loops. It is every color and no color and yet some colors but seriously no colors. It swirls. It loops. It drives those who are foolish enough to gaze upon it to completely madness. It is the Swirl and soon, the Swirl will be you.

The past: Sometimes the Center of the Earth is just a time vortex. You spend all that time trying to get down there only to have your consciousness shunted back in time. There’s no telling how far back you’ll end up. If you’re lucky you’ll just end up at the beginning of the day. If you’re unlucky your mind will be shunted all the way back to when you were a baby. That would suck.

Shmendrick: Shmendrick knew you would arrive. He’s been expecting you. He’s a little bit disappointed that you’re so late but no matter, you’re here now and that’s all that matters. You’re not really confident you know Shmendrick, but he seems to know exactly who you are and it seems like it would be rude of you to not just go along with it. So you and Shmendrick will have a nice dinner, just the two of you. To your surprise the conversation flows flawlessly. Shmendrick is actually a pretty interesting guy. Did you know he invented the can-can? You have such a lovely time with Shmendrick that you make plans for the very next day. You wake up that morning more excited that you’ve been in a very long time. You can’t wait to get back to the Center of the Earth to spend some more time with your new pal Shmendrick. You hurry over to the tunnel, rappel down it, pry open the door to the Center of the Earth, only to find that its dinosaurs today. Shmendrick is no longer there. You may never see him again.

The Center of the Earth is a strange and mystical and magical place and you can never be quite sure what to expect. So just pack up everything you can and hope it’s not dinosaurs or lava! Good luck!

[gildedhq]

THE SOCIETY WELCOMES YOU.

When the last of the invitations have been sent out, thick envelopes sealed in red wax and stamped with an emblem that means so many things so as to mean nothing at all, there is only the air of careful expectation. For many, this is the chance that they’ve all been waiting for, the history of their families drummed up for them since childhood onward; for others, it is an invitation to a strange and unknown world, one that is beyond their wildest imaginations and could eat them alive if they aren’t careful. Whatever the case, their lives will never be the same ever again.

THE SOCIETY IN ROME.

SETTING: Rome, Italy // pre-22nd of April 2020 

One by one, they gather unto Rome, that ever-eternal city that has been the cradle of their society ever since the beginning. It receives them fully, wholeheartedly, and the city opens up before them in a way that it doesn’t for anyone else, as if eager to welcome her children back home. Both members and initiates are allowed special access to places of history, privileged loci of authority that seem to speak of a brighter and better age, where they occupied the halls of power in a more visible position. It is these monuments and these artefacts and these buildings that impresses upon them the legacy which they are heirs to today, the duty they must carry if they are to do justice by their birthright: they are the torchbearers and the luminaries of their age. Power and wealth has been given to them for their enjoyment and perusal, yes, but noblesse oblige compels them to use this power for the greater good—for why else would they be blessed with such privilege? They are the beautiful and the chosen, equipped with authority and the right to rule and the adulation of the masses, and this is the time to mark what is theirs.

THE EVENTS.

A mass at St. Peter’s Basilica: For all those faithful (or professing to be faithful), a mass at St. Peter’s Basilica has been offered, with the Pope himself reportedly to give indulgences to any who seek it immediately afterwards. Let it not be said that the society has forgotten its roots, its special relationship with the Church, and the soft power that the institution still wields.

Exclusive tour of the Vatican Museums: After the mass, the members and initiates of the society are invited for a privileged tour of the Vatican Museums. Members and initiates alike can spend any number of hours inside, free to come and go as they please, with the Museums closed for a whole day (supposedly for ��maintenance”) just for their own leisure.

Fine dining at Pierluigi: Pierluigi has transformed from trattoria to tourist spot, claiming world leaders and celebrities as its clientele. Serving fresh fish caught daily at the nearby comune of Ostia, this trattoria offers several seafood-based plates that is sure to be the talk of any who taste its fine maritime delights—and the society has managed to capture a permanent reservation for any member or initiate who wish to experience one of Rome’s best restaurants.

A tour of Rome underground: Above ground, the capital of the world is a majestic many-splendored thing, awash in the glory of the dawn; below ground, it is a mysterious, snaking, sly thing. Swaddled in darkness, there are labyrinthine crypts that can prove one’s end if one is not careful, each turn seeming like the other, the rows of bones in crypts almost haunting. There is the Capuchin Crypt, the Roman Catacombs, and the San Clemente Basilica—all of which can be freely explored with a competent and knowledgeable guide should any daring member or initiate wish to do so.

THE NEW MOON GATHERING.

SETTING: Palazzo della Fraternita // 22nd of April 2020

Here, at last, the culmination of their stay in the eternal city, the reason for their moot in Rome in the first place. The events prior have only been a taste of the vast control that the society could offer them, and now the curtains have been drawn. All masks are off. The tables have been set and all that’s needed is for them to find their place in the tableau. The dawning of the day comes like any other, but it would be wholly a lie to say that this day hasn’t been anticipated. For most of the initiates, this marks their first entry into the society, a journey that will hopefully take them from their middling rank of today to established archons that wield power with the full authority of the society.

Yet for all its love of tradition, the society itself seems to be on a precipice. Never before have they welcomed a batch of initiates this large, and the presence of new money is an unwelcome change for some who wish to keep the identity of the society static and unchanging. The Grand Archon sits on his throne, unmoved and unmoving, as if blind to the whispers and recent developments of the society itself. He is barely even there: a wisp of a shadow of a memory. Blink, and it is as if he disappears. Yet it it is through his machinations that the society has somewhat democratised, he the sole reason for the mass influx of new initiates. There is the feeling of something inevitable, but who knows what?

Through it all: the clinking of wine glasses, the twinkle of crystal chandeliers, the soft lull of piano music in the air. There is the air of civility and sophistication that abounds in the air, forced smiles and laughter like bells resounding in the rooms of the palazzo. All dressed up as they are, it is as if there is nothing wrong with them—a common habit of the privileged, one that has chosen to bare its venomous fangs for this special day. 

THE TIMELINE OF EVENTS.

An introduction of the society: The day kicks off with the society gathering in the Palazzo della Fraternita. It is meant to be a quiet event that would take up most of their time up until their luncheon, allowing initiates and members alike to get to know each other a little better in quiet conversation. Some of them might already know each other from before—after all, the society is populated by a cast whose last names are familiar with one another—but there are some whose claim to both power and wealth are evergreen and new, a fact which seems to bring a scowl to some of the society’s more established members. Elsewhere, there are cards and board games, decks made from when rococo was still in vogue and even older, and the chessboard pieces are crafted as crystal and hewn with precious gems, as if every display of wealth and power is to be ostentatious as possible, never once letting a single one of them forget the privilege that the society offers its members. 

Luncheon at La Pergola: Come lunchtime, the society is ushered towards atop a towering hotel. The society’s luncheon gives them a privileged place upon which to gaze at the whole of Rome and the Vatican, offered up to them like the oysters that now decorate their fine china plate. They are served course upon course of sumptuous meals, each plate upstaging the last, and offering every sort of cuisine that the mind can imagine—though, of course, there is a certain tendency towards Italian food, a proud emblem of the eternal city’s nourishment of the society seemingly materialising on their plates.

A showing of Mozart’s Don Giovanni: After their luncheon at La Pergola, they are led towards an exclusive showing of Don Giovanni at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, blocked out just for them, with endless champagne and scrumptious hors d’ouvres served on scintillating silver plates during the intermission.

Dinner at the Palazzo: The day ends where it begins. The society congregates once more to the Palazzo to cap off their whole day. Yet another sumptuous feast is provided; but the restrictions on decorum and etiquette are eased somewhat. Conversation flows just as easily as wine from the vintage bottles sourced from the nearby vineyards. 

OOC NOTE.

And that officially starts the first event for GILDEDHQ! Just to recap: all members and initiates have been invited to Rome for the 22nd of April, 2020. However, as the society understandably realises that most members will probably be arriving a few days before the actual day itself, it has deigned to organise a very many number of things with which your muse can participate in to pass the time as they wait for the 22nd of April to come. These events are not mandatory, but they should serve as easy starting-off points for starters and the like should you wish to plot out your characters meeting before the Gathering itself. Of course, you are not limited to these events should you so wish to set up a starter in some other place.

The New Moon Gathering itself takes the course of one day. Members and initiates alike are expected to come to the Palazzo della Fraternita to mingle with one another and “formally” acquaint themselves with one another—even if they already know each other before! This is one of the intricate rituals of the society, passed down since time immemorial, and there’s nothing the society loves more than tradition. The schedule is tightly packed and there are almost no opportunities to diverge from the list of events as dictated by the society. Theoretically speaking, your muse can diverge from the event—walk out of Don Giovanni, for example, or disappear completely after the luncheon—but this will have quite significant repercussions for your character and will need admin approval beforehand.

You are encouraged, but not required, to post starters, photosets of your muse, and anything at all related to the event with the tag gilded:new moon. Please only write starters set up until the 22nd of April, as there will be a second part to this event.

————— THIS EVENT WILL RUN FOR ONE WEEK FROM  [ 22ND OF APRIL 4PM GMT / 12NN EASTERN ]  TO  [ 29TH OF APRIL 4PM GMT / 12NN EASTERN ]

[raptorsandpoultry]

Hii, I have four chickens and your posts about hens have been useful for me. Right now I'm worried with two of my chickens because one keep pecking the other when they go search for food. Also she now is very scared of me and the others too, she often stay alone and far away. Also I noticed she eat less and she is smaller than the others. Her feathers and eggs are always is a bad state :c I worry about her a lot but Im not sure what to do, I tried separating her a few times in the day

Hi anon, I’m so sorry to hear about your poor little hen.

Unfortunately it wouldn’t be responsible of me to give you too much advice without knowing more details about the situation. How big is their coop/enclosure? Do they free-range? What’s a normal day like (for all four of them)? Please don’t be afraid to DM me, I’m happy to try and help!

For starters though, feather-pecking (abnormal behaviour in which more dominant chickens peck at the feathers and/or skin of their less dominant flockmates) is a very multifaceted anomaly - similar to human psychiatric disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, there are many genetic and environmental factors at its root. Chicken behaviour and welfare scientists who have been studying this behaviour for decades still aren’t 100% sure why and how exactly it develops. My honours undergraduate thesis project was on feather-pecking, and despite the months of work that I put in, I probably didn’t even scratch the surface of just one of the contributing factors (I have been meaning to write a post about it)!

What the research community seems to agree upon so far though is that feather-pecking is 1) a learned behaviour, 2) in part, re-directed foraging behaviour, and 3) can be triggered or exacerbated by crowding or a lack of space.

So, without being there in person to see your chicken’s living conditions and how they all interact with each other, I can give you some very general solutions. Since feather-pecking is a learned behaviour that might be a result of a lack of foraging opportunities, this means that chickens can learn to re-direct this behaviour away from their “victims”, as long as you set up their environment for this. Generally in animal training, the best way to “get rid of” an undesirable behaviour is to replace it with something else through training, or re-direct it onto another stimulus, which is usually enrichment. Enrichment is anything that encourages natural behaviour (such as pecking while foraging for food) in a healthy manner. This can include toys, a pile of leaves, food items like lettuce heads to keep the chickens stimulated and occupied...The list is endless, but what this will do is provide an opportunity to re-direct your chickens’ pecking behaviour away from their victim to their toys, food, etc. People often think it’s enough to just let their chickens out to peck around in the grass all day - it’s not. They will get bored, just like any other animal, and thus they need a variety of ways to keep themselves busy and just have fun. Lastly, if #3 applies to you, then you can do whatever you can to give your chickens more space, especially places (nest boxes, high perches, etc.) that each one can retreat to and hide in when they need to get away or have some private time to themselves.

I’ve written about enrichment a few times before, so hopefully these can give you some ideas: https://raptorsandpoultry.tumblr.com/post/182984461607/what-are-some-good-chicken-enrichment-items

https://raptorsandpoultry.tumblr.com/post/182964422255/for-todays-bonus-round-of-enrichment-ft-birds

https://raptorsandpoultry.tumblr.com/post/182895619761/manipulative-toys-are-a-type-of-enrichment-that-is

Last but not least, training is a form of enrichment too! This will definitely give your chickens some extra mental stimulation that might tone down their motivation to feather-peck, and if you focus on the little one who’s getting bullied, it will also help build her confidence and strengthen her trust in you: https://raptorsandpoultry.tumblr.com/post/175377508102/for-those-of-you-who-dont-know-i-have-been

I hope this helps. Again, please feel free to message me if you want to discuss more in detail. It’s clear that you care about each of your chickens very much, and the fact that you’re looking for advice to make things better for them is a huge step in the right direction!

Sources:

Blokhuis HJ. Feather-pecking in poultry: its relation with ground-pecking. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 1986 Aug 1;16(1):63-7.

Hughes BO, Duncan IJ. The influence of strain and environmental factors upon feather pecking and cannibalism in fowls. British poultry science. 1972 Nov 1;13(6):525-47.

Kjaer JB, Sørensen P. Feather pecking behaviour in White Leghorns, a genetic study. British Poultry Science. 1997 Sep 1;38(4):333-41.

[nightshadedawn]

Persona 6 Concept Part 4

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It’s been a little while, huh? I got a little stuck here, but here’s some more plot! And other things of interest, of course. 

Has anyone noticed how I try to add pictures to all of these to keep away the drab and boring of long text posts?

Group Events/Hang Outs

Unlike in Persona 5, group events and hang outs will be a thing you can do, though only with your party members. Most of the time, you’ll be invited to go on them or take part in the group activity, but you can also start one just by gathering your party members like you would for any kind of infiltration. Here are some examples of group hang outs.

Waterfall - Considering that the waterfall is basically your own little hideout anyway, meeting up just to hang out away from anywhere adults or irritating people could find them seems like a thing these kids would do. Hence, the lake at the bottom of the waterfall. Though it’s no ocean, it’ll be a great spot to hang out and relax and swim with your friends during the summer. In the winter, you’ll probably be stuck in the cave or by a bonfire, but I’m sure you can find a way to have then too.

Birthdays - Was I the only one who thought that it was weird that they all have cannon birthdays, but none of them were mentioned in game? Not even in special, non-event dialogue (like how you’d mention the weather)? Well now, if a party member’s birthday will come to pass after you’ve met them, you’ll be messaged a week before about it by another friend. They’ll ask you to help plan the party, and if you agree, a week later you’ll automatically go to the party. If you agree, you’ll also get the option to buy that character a birthday present, and it’ll boost your relationship with them and get you closer to completing their next social rank.

Studying - The week before exams, an option will become available when the group meets up to study together. Everyone will convene at your place to do the studying, and it’ll boost your knowledge and may even have the chance of helping your classmates getting a higher score. (don’t count on it for the bigger idiots in your group)

Test of Courage - Going to the temple’s graveyard and participating in a test of courage with your friends would be a good way to spend a night that you don’t have anything else to do. You’ll be asked the night before, so the next day you’ll be free to do as you will, but that night your group will go to the graveyard. 

Other - Things like going to the movies, exploring the forest, or going out to eat can all be turned into group activities as well. Unfortunately, things like the dojo, pond, and music store will be restricted to only one. You can go to the the hot springs with a group, but only with the team members who are your same gender. 

Friends vs Lovers

I understand that some people have a problem with every love interest just automatically falling in love with the MC and seeming depressed when the MC rejects them. And I’m sure that Atlus would deem it too much work, but I’d like to add the possibility to not have depressed characters when they’ve been rejected. Stick with me, I hope I’ll be able to explain it better.

Some characters will be easy to romance no matter what gender you choose. Hoshiko is bisexual, Yūdai just likes the MC (could count him as demisexual if you’d like), Sayaka is easy because she’s the best friend, and Masaru is just extremely easy going about it (could count him as pansexual if you’d like). Characters like Masahiko, Jun, Akemi, Miyako, Natsuki, and Yato will be hesitant about dating someone their same gender and are not automatically attracted to both. 

The way to working around it? During Rank 9 of your romance social links in Persona 5, you’d have to choose very specific choices to date them. Well, if we want to do this, we’ll have to extend that. Starting at Rank 5, we’re going to start romancing your love interest. Unless, of course, you’re trying to romance someone who’s straight.

There will be options with different points attached to them. Three points (+++), two (++), one (+), and zero (0). Obviously, +++ will make it easier to level up, but as you will see, you may prefer to use the + or 0 options. Have the same arcana on you as the character you’re trying to romance is, as always, beneficial and will likely work the same as it did in Persona 5.

Romancing characters who are unused to dating their same gender will require you to CONSISTENTLY get the highest points possible with each interaction from the get go. It would be best, and the easier option, to have the arcana when trying to romance these characters, though it’s not necessary. If you’ve chosen +++ options up to Rank 5, the romance route will be unlocked. 

For all the romance options, from Rank 5 on, you’ve learned something big about your potential love interest, and now they’re closer to you than ever. For love interests that are open to dating both partners, ++ or +++ options will cause the love interests to fall in love with you (though, of course, the others will still need to be +++). + or 0 answers will lead you down the romance path. Interactions won’t change drastically, as that would be a LOT of extra coding, scripting, and general work, but tone, actions, and manner will change depending on whether you’re going down the lovers route or not.

If you choose to romance characters up to Rank 9, but then reject their confession, they will still be disappointed. Rightfully, this time. Because you made that choice.

Example time: Romancing Jun (male)

Rank 1: Choice 1 (+++), Choice 2 (+++), Choice 3 (+++)

Rank 2: Choice 1 (+++), Choice 2 (+++), Choice 3 (+++)

Rank 3: Choice 1 (+++), Choice 2 (+++), Choice 3 (+++)

Rank 4: Choice 1 (+++), Choice 2 (+++), Choice 3 (+++)

Rank 5: Choice 1 (+++), Choice 2 (+++), Choice 3 (+++)

Rank 6: Choice 1 (+++), Choice 2 (+++), Choice 3 (+++)

Rank 7: Choice 1 (+++), Choice 2 (+++), Choice 3 (+++)

Rank 8: Choice 1 (+++), Choice 2 (+++), Choice 3 (+++)

Rank 9: Choice 1 (Romance), Choice 2 (Romance), Choice 3 (Romance)

Rank 10: Dating

Because you are male, and Jun does not actively like guys, if you get even one of those choices any less than +++, then you’re not gonna be able to date him. Not choosing the corrected (Romance) options will result in failure and you will not be able to date him.

Example time: Romancing Jun (female)

Rank 1: Choice 1 (0/+/++/+++), Choice 2 (0/+/++/+++), Choice 3 (0/+/++/+++)

Rank 2: Choice 1 (0/+/++/+++), Choice 2 (0/+/++/+++), Choice 3 (0/+/++/+++)

Rank 3: Choice 1 (0/+/++/+++), Choice 2 (0/+/++/+++), Choice 3 (0/+/++/+++)

Rank 4: Choice 1 (0/+/++/+++), Choice 2 (0/+/++/+++), Choice 3 (0/+/++/+++)

Rank 5: Choice 1 (++/+++), Choice 2 (++/+++), Choice 3 (++/+++)

Rank 6: Choice 1 (++/+++), Choice 2 (++/+++), Choice 3 (++/+++)

Rank 7: Choice 1 (++/+++), Choice 2 (++/+++), Choice 3 (++/+++)

Rank 8: Choice 1 (++/+++), Choice 2 (++/+++), Choice 3 (++/+++)

Rank 9: Choice 1 (Romance), Choice 2 (Romance), Choice 3 (Romance)

Rank 10: Dating

Because you are female and Jun is attracted to females, it’s easier to romance him and you have a bit more leeway. Remember, though, in order to romance him, you’ll need at least 6 ++/+++ to get the romance options in Rank 9, and on top of it, you’ll need to answer all (Romance) choices correctly.

The Virus

The virus is ultimately something that makes or break the storyline of this story. It’s this virus that causes the MC to go out trying to save everyone, it infects all of the main party members and ultimately brings them together, it’s infected the entire town and is killing everyone.

Even your confidants.

Several confidants will not be able to die from the virus, such as your party members, as they’ve already been infected once. But others, such as Yuuki, Haruka, and possibly Dr. Ueda and Natsuki are integral to the story, and are needed for cutscenes and stuff. However, characters like Masaru, Akemi, Tsubasa, Hiroki, Mizuki, Hiroko, and Sayuri can all join the regular runs through Padure Nesfarsita. And if they die… well, no more confidant ranking, huh?

You’ll be informed by Dr. Ueda about different people infected by the virus if you go to the hospital and ask him about it (it’ll be an option along choice screen you get to up his confidant rank). Alternatively, there could be a list somewhere that you can look at.

The difference between regular infected and your confidants is that, if you know them already, Dr. Ueda will call you to inform you that “Your friend is sick, it’s the virus, and their prospects don’t look good.” If you don’t know them yet, I’d say it’s Natsuki who would call you about them.

As with all infected, once they start showing heavy signs, you only have three weeks to cure them, or no more confidant. 

Masks

Unlike Persona 5, the masks of Persona 6 will not be used to hide, they will be used to protect. A much more practical use for this particular setting. They will be the biggest difference between the real world and the endless forest, since you won’t be getting full uniform changes in this one. The masks used in the real world will stay stagnant, but I feel like in the other world, if you bought special masks, it would show up different on the character. (like you do with weapons). 

Some might not even use the regular face masks, but instead the handkerchiefs (or whatever they are) and tied them around the bottom half of their faces. Or do the leather mask thing like that guy in Tokyo Ghoul (I’m trying to watch it, okay? There’s a lot of anime). That would have to be a thought for sometime other than 3AM, and likely deliberated with several people. Another way to signify them, though.

Anyway, here are the ideas I have for starter masks;

MC - Basic, like our main character. Though of course, like I said, there will be other choices you can purchase and have show up on the MC. Legit, I think it would be pretty cool if there was a minigame or something where you could actually CUSTOMIZE your own mask. That’d be pretty sweet.

Sayaka - Sayaka is a little bit (a lot) of a dork, and I feel like having a mustache would totally be something she had. (Was it only an America thing to be obsessed with mustaches for a little while? They seemed to be everywhere, but I’ve never been able to leave America)

Yudai - Yudai, the most cheerful and relief from the doom and gloom in the beginning, deserves this big smile that matches his own.

Miyako - Being like Miyako and suffering from depression, I know how hard it is to feel like you can talk to people… and how often it feels like they don’t want to hear it anyway. Thus, the zipper.

Masahiko - I don’t know ‘bout you, but this one looks smug as fuck. And therefore fitting of Masahiko.

Hoshiko - In all honestly, Hoshiko’s would likely have a much more wobbly line (suggesting fear, anxiety, or nervousness), but I couldn’t find one in this group.

Jun - Out of all the ones in the group I found, this one looked the most devilish. And don’t anime boys kinda get this smile when they’re being lecherous?

Shinju - Not gonna lie, this one is mostly because she’s the little sister and it’s cute.

Plot/Playthrough

May 7 - May 10: You’ll be free to do as you like.

May 11 - May 14: Exams.

May 15: Natsuki takes you to Miyako’s house, and you find Miyako in bad shape. Investigating Padure Nesfarsita will guide you to Miyako’s Shadow, but The Plague takes her away.

May 16: The team checks on Miyako again, only to find her in the middle of attempting suicide. She’s placed in the hospital under suicide watch.

May 17: Miyako has escaped from the hospital and the team goes looking for her. They find her in the forest, and chase her to the waterfall. She goes through her own door, almost dies again because of her Corrupted Depression, and awakens her Persona.

May 18 - June 8: You alloted time to complete Miyako’s Palace.

June 10: Miyako returns to school and thanks the rest of the team for saving her life.

June 11: Celebration party! And news of a new transfer student?

June 12: News spreads around town that a child has died from the virus.

June 13: 15: You’re free to do as you like.

June 16: Masahiko enters the fray, and Miyako isn’t happy about it.

We return to our story on June 17. 

June 17 - 20 will be free days to do as you like, however, you will not be able to interact with Masahiko. You can ‘listen in’ on students talking just outside the second year classroom, and occasionally catch Masahiko complaining during these conversations. 

June 21 will also be a free day, but Masahiko will be standing outside the classroom and you’ll be able to engage in dialogue with him. He’ll say that he can tell just by looking at the MC they don’t belong in this backwater town, they’re a city kid too, and really, the only one worth salt in this shitty school.

During lunch June 22, Natsuki will run into the classroom and beg help because Miyako and Masahiko are going at it again. When you follow her to the classroom, you’ll find that Miyako and Masahiko are physically fighting each other while shouting at the top of their lungs. Masahiko said something terrible and offensive about Tomomi, and Miyako got angry, and now they’re duking it out.

Sayaka, Yūdai, and MC will have to physically get in between the two of them, fighting to get through the circle that formed around them, to get them to stop fighting. Whispers from their classmates about how they’re about to get chewed out by the third years circle around them, and they are chewed out by Sayaka and Yūdai, but neither will bow and apologize, both too stubborn.

The situation is left unresolved. 

That night, you go home and dream. A strange dream. It looks like the Velvet Room, and feels like it does when you’re in the velvet room. But it’s black, crumbling, with greenery overgrowing on everything. It’s got an all around creepy feel to it.

The Plague sits in the same place Igor tends to. He talks in so many circles and riddles it makes Igor seem coherent. The point he gets to is that he calls the you The Cure, and that he plans to keep watching you, even though he’d much rather prefer you didn’t mess with the results of his experiment. Otherwise, the experiment just might be you… 

A bright light pulls you out of The Plague’s room, and suddenly you’re in the Velvet Room, both Igor and his attendant will be worried. Gilbert/Lucius will ask you about what The Plague said to you, but even if you choose to answer, no words will be uttered. It’ll be worrying, but not enough for anything to be done at the moment. Gilbert/Lucius will tell Igor that he’s going to talk to his brother and sisters about strengthening the defences of the Velvet Room (thus referencing previous Persona games) so that won’t happen again. 

You’re sent back to the real world after a brief conversation, and I suppose you can put it out of your mind for now. When you wake in the morning, you’ll be uneasy about your visit from The Plague the night before and go explore Padure Nesfarsita. 

And a good idea, too. Because when you go through the forest, you come across Masahiko’s Shadow, its core heavily corrupted, almost to the point of dying, in such a short time, it’s super weird. 

The MC will be able to go and heal it a little bit, but the entire situation will go downhill when they’re attacked and forced to leave him behind. The Plague will whisk him away shortly thereafter, as the team runs away.

The next day, it’s a nice day out and the team meets and decides to try to get into Masahiko’s Palace, because he’s got to have one now that The Plague has taken his Shadow. But Masahiko is getting suspicious, and annoyed, because everyone keeps looking at him but whispering. 

So he confronts the team, demands to be included, but Miyako snaps that it’s none of his business. He retorts with the facts it’s obviously about him, and therefore is his business. Miyako goes on to tell him that not everything is about him, you flipping Narcissus. And, you know, that pisses Masahiko off more than anything and he stomps away.

Only for there to be a cutscene of him hiding in a corner after school, coughing and getting sick and looking like he’s about to keel over. But then the team walks past him and right into the forest, and he follows them. Without their notice, of course. We then return to the main team once they reach the waterfall and deliberate about which door could possibly be Masahiko’s. There’s an argument against it being the pink door, as that’s far too girly, but then Miyako claims it’s perfect for a sissy like him, and the argument is immediately shut down. 

But it is the pink door, and you all go through. And all that’s on the other side is desert. Nothing but sand and the sun in sight. But there’s gotta be something, so you continue forward. Right up until one of the party members falls into a sand pit and oh look, it’s actually some sort of cave and there’s a water source and shade.

So you all go down, and whelp, no idea what to do now, let’s follow where the water source is going, because those always lead to good things, right? So you follow the river, and come out next to a huge… cavern, almost. Up top, there’s a large hole, enough to fit the entire town in. Stepping out of the cave you followed, you can find that there’s a path that spirals around the outside until it reaches the bottom. 

The bottom that has a figure chained to a throne with water from several different water sources filling the place up. 

You know the drill. Masahiko finds you before you can start going far, and you’re confronted by his Corrupted Narcissism/Greed and he awakens his Persona. Wonderful, my dears. You’ve now got an official navigator, who knows what they’re doing better than Avis!

Anyway, you’ll have to leave after the encounter, because Masahiko does keel over and isn’t looking so hot, so they have to take him out of his Palace.

Everything gets explained to him while he’s recovering, and now that he has a Persona, he can see the cores. His is extremely dark and corrupted, but MC can’t do anything about it without directly interacting with his Shadow. Sayaka also mentions how weird it is that he was infected so fast, and corrupted that quickly, when he was new to town. Sayaka had been in town for six months before she started feeling the effects of the virus, and the MC still has a pure white core. It’s weird that Masahiko is the outlier.

He agrees to help them get to his Shadow (more like invites himself on this quest, much to Miyako’s despair), and this time, you’ve only got two weeks to do it, just to be extra safe. So, from June 24 to July 8 will be your period to save Masahiko.

The path to the bottom of the cavern, where the water rises and Masahiko’s Shadow lies, will be anything but linear. You will continuously go downwards, but will be prevented from going forward one way or another, meaning you’ll have to enter the caves and go through them to reach the next level. They’ll be riddled with Shadows, traps, and riddles you’ll have to solve to make it to the bottom. 

Throughout the entire run through the Palace, Masahiko will be sick, and he’ll show symptoms of it much more clearly than Miyako or Yūdai did. Pale, the corners of his eyes red, coughing and choking up, weak and unable to fight. (This will be the main reason he is delegated to Navigator for the duration of his Palace. Even after being cured, he will stick to being the Navigator because it makes him feel useful, and it’s a job he can do and do well)

Eventually, you will find your way to the bottom of the cavern. It’s not just pure sand at the bottom, as it looked from above. It has a distinctive Arrabian feel to it, looking perhaps a bit like the throne room of a castle, if it were built underground. 

But the water is slowly rising, and flooding everything. There is a throne on a tall dais, with Masahiko’s Shadow chained to it, looking dead already.

You’ll have to defeat the Corrupted Greed/Narcissism, but getting out will prove to be a challenge. Water starts filling up faster than before, and though your team floats with the rising water, the Shadow Masahiko does not. The real Masahiko starts choking on water, drowning with his Shadow, and the MC swims down and cures him, sending the Shadow away and saving Masahiko, from drowning that way at least.

You’re still not safe yet, and then someone has a brilliant idea that involves flooding the place even faster and going up that way while holding on to the drifting wood. The plan works, and the entire team is basically spat out of the cavern by a geyser and shot out of the door. 

Masahiko collapses after you return to town, and is immediately taken to the hospital, where he shall stay until July 10.

July 10 will be his return, though unfortunately you won’t be able to talk to him that day either, as everyone in his class (save for Miyako) bombarded him as soon as he entered the classroom that morning and has not left him alone since. Miyako will find the third years and explain the situation with him, and you all just kind of accept that he’s not in the mood to do any talking after school, still feeling like shit and exhausted form his classmates’ hounding. 

July 11 you’ll be able to talk to Masahiko again, and you’ll all gather either outside where you usually do or up on the roof during lunch. There’ll be an argument between Masahiko and Miyako, and from the result of it, Miyako will explain why Tomomi is so important to her and why she’s so pissed at Masahiko being so nonchalaunt about him. Their discussion will end with a bit of playful banter, and nowhere as much hostility, though they will continue to argue and act as rivals for the rest of the game. It’s how they work.

July 12, 13, and 14 will be scripted events relating to family stuff and tutoring from Yuuki. At night, you can invite friends over to do more studying, but July 15-18 will be exam days. Afterwards, you’ll be able to celebrate Masahiko’s release from the hospital and him joining the team.

July 19 officially starts your summer vacation, that first day being your celebration day, to be ended on August 14, and I will write about that… next time.

As a side note, I’m running out of things to put before the plot and shit, so if you guys got questions or things I’m totally blanking on, remind me and I’ll add those in in future installments. 

{First} {Previous} {Next} {Last}

[hiddenwashington]

before the sun rises and even the earliest of risers start to stir, the city streets are already elaborated in patriotic ribbons. signs plaster the ground and hang on phone poles, not a single block of the city left untouched. the work was done quickly and quietly and as the early glow of the sun tints the sky of the east coast, the message becomes clear that the summer festivities have begun in the city of washington, d.c.. the steadily growing heat, typically heavy and oppressive, hasn’t stopped the life in dc. if anything it seems to encourage movement and joy as residents go out and notice the new decorations. july has sprung and with it a wave of red, white, and blue, and the city is buzzing with ideas, and the excitement of what they could possibly do to top last years festivities. in an ever growing city stuffed full of exciting and vastly different people celebrations can only become bigger and better than the last, right?

the national summer carnival has taken up its home in dc again for this week, signs plastered around with red letters calling out for help from anyone and everyone. their usual staff mostly calling out due to travel issues, and they need the helping hands of the citizens of washington. face painters, food vendors, ride operators and game masters are needed to keep the holiday traditions alive. they’re taking the help from anyone, and hoping for the best. but will it all work out just as they want? will things go off without a hitch or will vendors disagree, will those thrown into a booth get along with each other, or even those around them? or will it be no problem at all, each day running smooth as butter? only time will tell, and desperate times call for desperate measures.

the carnival continues throughout the week, but on the fourth, please join the masses as a free concert is held on the mall, popular musicians from all over coming to perform, familiar faces making their way from their floats in the parade and to the stage. the president’s speech will kick off the day, bringing us just one step closer to the firework display over the washington monument, a spectacle no one wants to miss. camp out for the day with tents, coolers and friends and experience why this holiday is one of the biggest in the country. you never know what could happen when the night becomes lighter than the day, when lights fill the sky and summer heat bringing everything to a boiling point. will you be there having the time of your life, or lost in the thick of it all?

tldr ; the fourth of july has come around to the nation’s capitol once more, and the city is alive with celebrations. there will be a fireworks display, free concert, parade, carnival and so much more throughout the city. there is something for all ages (in numbers and in their minds)! you are free to join in and run a booth at the carnival, their workers were unable to make it through to the city, and they need your help. will your muses be of use, or a nuisance? will they join in on the helping end or just enjoy the festivities with no responsibilities holding them back? only time will tell! whatever way you choose to celebrate this week, all we know is it’s time to ring in the summer and enjoy the city we all now call home!

OOC INFORMATION

hello guys, gals and nonbinary pals of hiddenwashington !!! we are so excited to bring you hidden’s sixth event and cannot wait to see what you all make of it !! it’s a little different from the wild death and despair that we throw your way, but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be some drama that comes from it!! it’s all what you babes make of this! the fourth of july is a huge deal for the u.s., especially in d.c, so how could we miss the opportunity for this event? so, enjoy being american for a day (the fun parts at least) and see what d.c. has to offer for the nation’s birthday! 

dates ;

july 2nd - july 7th

the event will last 5 days in and out of character!

festival attractions ;

here is where you will find all of the information for what your muses can be doing during this event! we will have everything from carnival games, to a parade to fireworks on the night of the 4th! anything and everything you could think of to have an amazing summer festival is coming to your city! if you have any questions about what there is to do, please shoot the main a note and we can elaborate even further!

carnival ; the national summer carnival is returning once more with its multitude of game booths, rides and food! it’s free to enter and enjoy, and if your characters are looking for a little extra cash, or just something to fill the time, read on to the section below to find out how they can get involved with running a booth of their own!

capitol riverfront ; the neighborhood of riverfront will be open for the public to go and enjoy the day at the splash parks, kayaking, and plenty of shops and stalls to visit throughout the day!

parade ; the national independence day parade is already preparing for its return on the morning of the 4th of july! this may be a lovely way to spend some time watching floats and balloons and enjoying what this city has to offer, or even an inconvenience as it blocks off areas upon areas of the city and making traffic a nightmare! either way, you’ll be able to hear them coming from miles away, so why not set up a chair and watch? they won’t be going anywhere too quickly!

live concert ; a free live concert, “a capitol fourth”, will be setting up on the mall following the parade and leading us into the amazing fireworks display later that evening! it’s open to anyone who would like to pass by and catch a glimpse or to set up for the day! 

fireworks display ; the pièce de résistance, the moment we have all been leading up to! the iconic 4th of july fireworks display! the city has been gearing up for this moment all year, you do not want to miss this! make sure you get there early as there will be plenty of people lining the area around the washington monument to get a good view! there is plenty of space to set up a tent, blankets, chairs and bring your food and friends! a party is starting in the city, you don’t miss the culmination of it all!

fair booths ; 

the national summer carnival has returned to the capitol and is looking for your help! you can sign up now by sending you character’s name to the main and they will be given a booth/ride to run for the duration of the event! of course you can send an idea of what you would like them to do ( ie ; ride operator, food vendor, face painter etc ) but we can not guarantee any spots !! you will receive your character’s position before the event begins, as well as a list shall be posted on the main ( and updated throughout the week ) to make it easier to know who will be operating with you! please use this opportunity to plot and make new connections and earn a little extra dough for the summer months to come!!

these spots are open to everyone and anyone, but please if you have multiple muses, do not send all of them at us! we are going to be limiting the amount of characters per mun, so please be reasonable about the amount you send in! if you have 20+ muses, please send in only about a 3rd! 

we will be sure to send you out all of your characters’ jobs within a day, and you can always send in for new/different characters ( especially any new members ) during the duration of the event so they could have a job as well!

some will be paired with other muses, so please, reach out to your booth partners and see where it goes! will they have fun together, hate it, or even sabotage other booths? the opportunities are endless!

you can find the current list of jobs and booths here !

tagging, posting and plotting ;

please feel free to being plotting with everyone, and throwing out event starter calls/event plotting calls, and plotting with your booth partners once the list is sent out!

once the event begins, please hold any and all non event threads!! you are free to pick them up after the event ends or start fresh! it’s completely up to you!! but while the event is running please only post event related threads!

feel free to have your characters ( in threads leading up to the start of the event ) start talking about the festival, discussing plans with friends, etc! the city is buzzing and alive with the preparation and everyone should see the tents being set up/practice runs of parade beginning, etc.!

please remember to send your characters in to the main if you would like them to join in on running a booth, and an idea of where they could be if you’d like! remember that you may not get exactly what you are looking for but it definitely is a possibility!! 

we will not be having any memory altering options for this event ( a shock i know, friends ) !! of course, you’re free as always to alter your characters’ memories however you wish, but there will be no outside sources causing the shifts for this event!

as always, once you have read this, please throw a like on it so we admins know !! and as always, have fun, enjoy and let’s mix things up !! ♥

[naughtyxstories]

Body Modification Universes

OOC Notes:

all of my male muses are available for these universes

looking for partners writing female muses primarily

consent in this universe is dubious at best so please do not write in this universe if it would be triggering for you

recommend an OOC chat prior to the first starter to discuss nature of modifications [physical and mental] to be made to your muse

Plots:

Version One

In this alternate universe, body modification has become the societal norm. Once their romantic relationship has reached a certain point, her lover/boyfriend/partner has the right to simply take her to the “Centre” for the modifications. He completes the forms and ostensibly she consents by signing them as well. However she doesn’t get to see what modifications were requested or what exactly will happen to her once she goes through those doors. 

Since it has become the societal norm, everything can be found in this world such as wings, capable of flight, enhanced breast size and shape, physical alterations, mental alterations (to make them smarter or more stupid, crave sex or certain kinds of kinks they wouldn’t do before but now beg for). Some women come out with fairly minor physical changes or even improvements to their health and well-being (such as no longer needing glasses). But those are few and far between. Given free reign to change their woman to taste, so to speak, most men have taken full advantage of the situation.

After the completion of the mods, the young female must spend the next week at the Centre to ensure she is fully recovered before she can leave. Also her first sexual interaction after the modifications must occur at the Centre to ensure medical staff are available to treat someone whose mods did not take for some reason.

Plotting options include hitting that point in the relationship where the next obvious step is the trip to the Centre, a modification gone wrong and taken in by a sympathetic soul, the post-modification-surgery interactions including first sexual interaction post-mod and the list goes on. 

Version Two:

The world did not end with a bang or with a whimper. It was just slowly swept away, one kilometre at a time. It started in the middle of the ocean so no one noticed for far too long. By the time it was picked up it was over 100 kilometres in diameter. A round circle that shimmered in the light, impenetrable to the eye. Anything that passed through it did not return. They sent in drones and navy units. They sent in diplomats. They sent in cameras, animals and ships. Nothing returned. 

Once the barrier was passed through, all communication ceased. They were simply erased.

Countries rallied and global research teams formed to investigate the Shimmer, as it became known, and how to stop it. Every twenty-four hours it grew by another kilometre in all directions. They tried to detonate weapons to blow a hole in it, they tried to communicate with it, and they tried to wall it in. Nothing helped. 

Soon it was devouring entire islands and coastline. People fled. The Shimmer was coming. A mindless, voracious, unstoppable enemy that seemed to have no plan, no purpose, but to consume the world.

But the leaders of the world had a back-up plan. A last resort that had been in development since the reality of the threat had been made clear. There was only one hope left - to abandon Earth and try to find another world on which they could survive. 

As the end grew nigh, the citizens of the world put together a life-raft of survivors, their best and brightest, their children, their scientists and loaded all of their knowledge and their hope into a trio of space ships. They launched in time, each ship carrying the last of humanity into a different direction, each hoping to find a habitable world.

Does humanity deserve a second chance?

Life on one of the ships, the Acheron, took a twisted turn.

It was a skeleton crew for a long time as the bulk of the ship’s inhabitants lay in stasis. Just a few crew and the ship’s captain. Lost in space and unsure of their very survival, the crew occupied a ship which was designed to be inhabited but it was not. Not really. The waking crew grieved and thought of their home world. They received no communications now. Nothing current. Just old television and radio programs, bouncing around the universe endlessly. Canned laughter from the long dead. The world was gone. They were alone.

Over time a sort of madness grew. The Captain and his first officer were the first infected, entranced by their power and the lack of oversight.  The scientists initially resisted. But over time, even they grew curious. With tens of thousands still in stasis, a few experimental losses surely wouldn’t be so dire. They started with one. Everyone knew she was only on board because her father was extraordinarily wealthy. He had funded a great deal of the components and bought berths for many noteworthy artists on the condition that his daughter got to go as well. 

So they moved her to a separated stasis pod, unconnected from the others. Curious to see what they could do, they started simply and each time, they pulled her out of stasis to see if it worked. The experiments took months but there was little else for them to do. Even those that initially resisted, that disdained what was occurring, began to collaborate. The moral sway of their home world grew weak and distant as they grew more and more isolated. By now they had lost communications with the other ships. They truly felt like they were the last of humanity. 

Once they had done all they could to their first ‘patient’, they added a few others to their collection, each twisted by the experiments inflicted upon them.  The modified human beings were changed such that they mentally couldn’t recognize themselves, even in a photograph, or have any recollection of their past lives. They became known as the “Companions”.

For some the scientists had changed their skin, hair or eye colour to unnatural shades. Some were merely perfected and exaggerated versions of the various cultural reflections of beauty from home but still within the realm of ‘normal’. They added secondary features, larger breasts, tightened their holes so it always caused the Companions to cry out in pain when they were used. Some craved the taste of a man’s cum, a woman’s pussy or even piss. Some begged to be used, often and thoroughly.  Some craved pain. Or the sweet metallic taste of blood. Some lost the ability to walk and were obliged to crawl everywhere. Some grew wings and could fly around the cargo bays, perching high in the rafters. A few seemed to hold onto their humanity for too long, becoming enraged. Those failed experiments were ejected into space.  

Some were silly and cutesy, exaggerated little fuck-dolls who were charming and adorable but didn’t have two whole brain cells to rub together. 

An Elite member of the crew could choose the Companion’s changes from a laundry-list of options. A menu of genetic tortures and modifications. Did you want your companion to tolerate pain or experience unending pleasure, with no loss of sensation? The options were endless from physical modification to mental reprogramming so that they would serve their selected “owner” with all appearance of willing submission.

[archiveacademics]

Histories and the first Spotlight

Earlier this week I looked at what the definition of fanfic is. It’s a topic of endless debate and one I will doubtless return to again and again over the course of this study. But for today I’d like to do a little look back at the history of fanfic and, more broadly, of fandom itself.

“First there was “Star Trek,” the original series, whose viewers—many of them women in stem fields—organized conventions and created self-published journals (a.k.a. fanzines) with fiction about its characters, a small but notorious slice of which included sexy doings between Kirk and Spock. Or: first there were fans of science-fiction novels and magazines who held conventions and traded self-published journals as early as the nineteen-thirties. Or: first there was Sherlock Holmes, whose devotees, hooked by serial publication, pushed for more stories, formed clubs, and wrote their own. Or: first came Virgil’s Aeneid. Or: first, the Janeites. Or: first there was you, and your friends, age ten, making up adventures in which Chewbacca met Addy Walker, and writing them down.”

So opens “The Promise and Potential of Fan Fiction” by Stephanie Burt, which, if you didn’t read it when I linked to it in the last post you really should. The history of fanfic, if we wanted to be really broad, could go all the way to the ancient Greeks writing plays based on The Iliad and The Odyssey which are based on oral stories of a real war that (probably) happened around 1180 BCE. 

But we’re not going to do that, because, as Jill Bearup explains in the first of her “History of Fanfic” vlogs, The Aeneid and Iphigenia at Aulis and Trojan Women were not technically fanfic, but derivative works. As I discussed before, fanfic is about intent*.

To find the true beginnings of fanfic, you need to only go as far back as the eighteenth century.

“...popular authors such as Daniel Defoe started protesting that his work was being "kidnapped" and bowdlerised by amateur writers who reduced the value of his creations with inferior impersonations,” writes Ewan Morrison in an article entitled “In the Beginning, there was fan fiction: from the four gospels to Fifty Shades.”

1913 saw the publication of Old Friends and New Fancies – an Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil Brinton, the first piece of published Janeite fanfic. (Janeite, of course, being the name of Jane Austen fans at the time. Much like Swifties or Beliebers today.)

I myself own a book called Mr. Darcy, Vampyre, and though I’ve yet to read it (my shelf is over full, you might say) I’m sure it’s delightful.

From the Janeites of the eighteenth century we move forward to the Sherlock fans of the nineteenth. This genteel group of readers was so dedicated to Sherlock Holmes that they managed to raise him from the dead. Well, they annoyed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so much he raised Sherlock from the dead. 

From there, the literary club of the Baker Street Irregulars was established in the 1930s and they are still alive and active to this day. Apparently, there’s a lot to discuss, as “Conan Doyle generally wrote the Holmes stories quickly and with a minimal amount of editing, and as a result the canon contains a huge number of mistakes and inconsistencies. It was from these that the practice of "Holmesian speculation" arose, which consists of pointing out discrepancies in the canon and devising (sometimes reasonable, sometimes extremely outlandish) explanations for them.” (Fanlore.org)

From Sherlock and the Irregulars we move to the modern era, and what you could potentially call the birth of modern fandom. That’s right folks, it’s time for some Star Trek.

“The shape of those [early 2000s] fandoms, in turn, was due to those that migrated out of meatspace onto the brand new baby internet, which of course owed their structure to the zine-based fandoms of the ‘70s and ‘80s. All of which can be traced back to – you guessed it – Star Trek.

Star Trek: The Original Series is often looked to as the origin of modern fandom, and many of the networks and communities those fans established continue to influence fan interactions to this day, as does the example they set in using fandom as a means of social awareness and political action.”

In “None of This is New: An Oral History of Fanfiction” Jordan West discusses why you shouldn’t be surprised when you draw the card “Harry Potter erotica” in Cards Against Humanity and gives a quick overview of the history of fanfic. However, West argues that writing such as Shakespeare and The Aeneid count as fanfic which, by this blog’s definition, they don’t.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that everyone has their own ideas of what fanfic is and where it really began. I’m sticking with the Janeites as my point of ignition. 

Now that’s settled (insofar as anything on the internet is every “settled”) let’s move on to this week’s Spotlight. Every week, I plan on putting a platform, a person, or a particular story in the spotlight to show off the practical side of these academic headaches I’m giving myself. (I’ve gone back and forth on the definition of fanfic at least fifteen times since I posted the first blog post, much less when I was writing the damn thing.)

This week’s Spotlight is on two of the earlier homes of fanfic: LiveJournal and Fanfiction.net. 

LiveJournal was created in 1999 by American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick as a mixed blog/social media site.  It was purchased in 2006 by Six Apart and then sold in 2007 to SUP Media, a Russian media company. (Wikipedia.com)

“LiveJournal encourages communal interaction and personal expression by offering a user-friendly interface and a deeply customizable journal. The service's individuality stems from the way highly dedicated users utilize our simple tools, along with the instinct for individual expression, to create new venues for online socializing.

Because of LiveJournal's unique combination of platform and social media, LiveJournal has a unique personality in different parts of the world. In fact every national community in every country is unique in its own way. Where a user in the United States might focus their attention on communities dedicated to topics from the popular to the esoteric, users in the U.K. may tend to rally around entertainment-related issues. In Russia LiveJournal makes up the vast majority of the blogosphere, hosting over 80 of the top 100 Russian blogs. In Singapore LiveJournal revolves around collaboratively purchasing overseas goods. And that's just for starters.” (LiveJournal.com)

Fanfiction.net was created in 1998 by Los Angeles programmer Xing Li. The largest archive of fanfic on the internet, fanfiction.net comes in second in popularity to Archive of our Own**. It has over 12 million users and hosts stories in over 40 languages. Unlike LiveJournal, fanfiction.net is not a social networking site, but a site specifically dedicated to fanfic. Users can choose from a number of categories for their work and they can rate their work as well. The site also hosts forums for fans and writers alike, and registered users can apply to be beta readers. (Wikipedia.com)

I have never had a LiveJournal (I’m honestly not even sure if I’m capitalizing that right), and if I did have a ff.net account I had to have been, like, 12 when it was created and 13 when it was last opened. Still, these are two of the earliest archives of massive amounts of fanfic from hundreds of different fandoms (just check out this list of book fandoms that have stories written about them of ff.net. And that’s just the book category!) 

A history of fanfic is always going to be a little bit messy around the edges, in part because the definition of fanfic is so personal and changeable. All I can hope is that you’ve learned something new today while reading this. If so, I’ll count that as a win.

*And as I haven’t discussed yet, it’s also about copyright and ideas of authorship. Again, this is a topic you’ll have to look forward to.

**AO3 will be the subject of a future spotlight, don’t you worry.

[reallifehq]

Admin Update

Hey guys, so I wanted to post this here to let everyone know of yet another little shift we are making with our rules and admissions. When we opened this place it was with the intention of being a super relaxed environment, with limited rules, limited banned face claims, and just a place for people to come have a good time. And while I hope for the most part this hasn’t effected to many of you, my own muse has been effected by watching this place change into something I didn’t recognize. I wanted to make an RP that mimicked the real world and had endless possibilities with the unique twist of playable NPC’s, weekly events, and certain freedoms that you don’t find in a lot of RP’s. All while keeping in mind that this was made to be a mature environment. I think we’ve made ourselves pretty clear if you can’t act that way, you can see yourself out. So that being said the changes that I will be making will be listed below. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in an appropriate manner. 

1. We will be removing acceptance days. Apps will be accepted as soon as they can be received and reviewed. 2. I have already started the process of removing a majority of the names off the banned face claim list. This may be a bit taboo to some of you but at the end of the day we are not playing actors. We are playing characters and like it or not these people exist in real life. We will be leaving a few of them up but denying apps based on face claims will be based on a case by case basis. Life isn’t fair sometimes.  3. AND LORD DO I MEAN THIS ONE. Moving forward I will have 0 tolerance for OOC drama. Any disrespect towards each others, or towards an admin will get you kicked. Any harassment towards each other, or towards an admin will get you kicked.  4. Some of you may have noticed that for a short time I disabled the Voice Chat feature in our Discord group. This was because of the fear that some might have had that it was causing cliqueness and bubble RPing. You’ll also notice I’ve brought it back. This is because the Voice Chat feature is open for EVERYONE. There are some people who really enjoy it and some people who don’t. Don’t like it? Don’t use it, but I’m not going to take it away from the people who do. And if you’re having a problem feeling like you’re not fitting in please message us off of anon. Any anons complaints about discord will be trashed because I can’t help if I don’t know who you are.  5. This kind of goes along with 4 but basically just addresses threads on the dash and starters. The reply to 2 before you do you rule is STILL IN EFFECT. That’s not changing. Just gotta do it. If you’ve been in the RP for more than 3 days the rule now applies to you. If you’re picking up a second character and it’s their first day, the rule still applies to you. Make sure you’re checking for starters with fewer than 5 notes. The amount we have buried in the tag right now is unacceptable. I want this place to be relaxed but I need you guys to work with me so I don’t have to start rolling out consequences for simple shit.  6. Communicate with each other. Be respectful. If you’re going to drop a thread because you aren’t feeling it, let that person know. Communication is always a two way street. If it’s been a few days and someone hasn’t responded, send them a quick “hey I was checking in to see how you’re feeling about our thread or if you want to try a new one?” Disappointment is a part of life but how we choose to deal with it is on us.  7. This is a place to have fun so lets try to do that. People lose muse when this starts to feel forced or like a job. I don’t want that for any of you. We’re all here to have a good time and enjoy and get really into some crazy ass plots so moving forward lets try to keep that in mind.

Love, Admin Trees

[whoisleft-rp]

WHO IS LEFT’S SECOND EVER… AU WEEK !

Alterative Universe: a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one’s own. Other people might know it by “alternative reality.”

In other words, what would happen if the biggest thing that has happened to your character…didn’t? What if they had never kissed that person? Walked in that room? Been taught what they believe? Been born into the same family, even. The possibilities are endless.

Playing the ‘what if?’ game has never been so fun! We hope that this gives players and characters who haven’t interacted before more room to plot and play together, as well as gets us a look inside the minds of all of our characters. New love interests, new histories, new chances to make even worse decisions than usual– with no plot consequences!

THE PRACTICAL:

While this is easily one of our favorite events, AU week is completely optional. During the days this event lasts, you are ALLOWED to post AU starters (whether open or closed), but normal starters may still be posted and canon threads may still be continued. This is just for fun alternate threads!

These AUs can be as close to or as far from canon as your heart desires - if you want to create an entire universe for your character for others to jump into, you’re free to post an open starter! Just make sure you spend a little bit of time, either separately or in the starter exposition, giving a rundown of what makes it an AU. And don’t hesitate to reach out to your fellow writers and ask them to plot with you and/or jump on your open starters!

The AU event will last from right now, DECEMBER 24TH through 11:59pm JANUARY 5TH, 2020 [EST]. Yes, we know that’s technically longer than a week. Shh. We’re all busy with the holidays and this is a fun way to add a little variety on the dash while we recover from holiday hangovers and wrap up our various vacations!

You must make it VERY CLEAR that the AU starters you posted are AU. It must be IN THE POST TITLE to avoid confusion. Starters may be open or closed. If they are open, please include information in the post about your AU, whether it be in the introspection via your character or by way of a short, OOC description at the top. 

Admin Lauren and Admin Amanda understand that this can be confusing! So please blow up the main’s inbox with any questions you have. They will be tagged with AU ASK so that you can easily locate what we’ve already answered.

THE TAGGING SYSTEM

Normal, canon starters taking place during spring 1978 will still be tagged as whoisleftstarter. To avoid confusion, please DO NOT tag AU starters with that tag.

ALL AU materials (including starters, self-paras, edits, playlists, etc.) should be tagged whoisleftAU so that we can all enjoy them!

OPEN AU starters should ALSO be tagged: whoisleftAUopen

CLOSED AU starters should ALSO be tagged: whoisleftAUclosed

OTHER RULES

Read the above sections!!!

Plot with your fellow writers

Jump on other peoples’ starters, don’t just post your own

Mind the tags

HAVE FUN, GO NUTS!

As stated above, The AU event will last from right now, DECEMBER 24TH through 11:59pm JANUARY 7TH, 2020 [EST]

AU SUGGESTIONS

We know it can be daunting coming up with AUs that you want to write about! LINKED HERE is an amazing list from @perfectlyrose that we encourage you to browse through as you brainstorm ideas! 

[theodorasutton]

Digital Anthropology and Formula 1

This blogpost starts with my entry to the DHL competition, which offers my own way into Formula 1, through the drama and personalities of the sport. After my entry, I’ve written my ideas for researching Formula 1 from the perspective of digital anthropology.

My Formula 1 Moment

A few months ago I entered a Formula 1 competition to describe my best F1 moment. I wrote a really heartfelt description and went to submit it, only to find out it was about 5 times too long. I cut it down, submitted, but knew it wasn’t any good. I decided to share the original version and describe my way into the sport which I absolutely never expected myself to like - here it is:

March, 2018. My boyfriend had been watching the Formula 1. The qualifying had ended, and now there was a press conference.

I had never been interested in sport, certainly not one that was so clinical and confusing as Formula 1. For me, all the drivers blurred into one, some seemed to wear red, others wore white, and all of them seemed strangely keen to wear logo embellished headgear. Here they were, three of them, herded behind some microphones, giving stilted answers to press questions. Distracted and on my phone, I was impatient for the end of the program so that we could watch something interesting. "I can assure you we don't have a party mode,” one of them was saying. "I used the same mode from Q2 to the end of Q3. There was no extra mode, no extra button I engaged in." "What were you doing before, then?” The guy in red asked him, taking a sip from his drink and smiling mischievously. "I was waiting to put a good lap in…” The guy in white said, “to wipe the smile off your face,” he added under his breath, with an extra dash of sass. Was he angry, or was he joking? It was hard to tell. The two of them seemed to be rigid with tension, but keen to put on a good show for the cameras. The guy in white patted the guy in red’s arm, insisting that he was only joking. The awkwardness was palpable, and the exchange had my full attention. The other guy in red, sitting on the right, however, seemed to be daydreaming. Who was this guy in white, who my boyfriend told me was winning everything? What planet had he landed from, that gave him the ability to win races with robotic precision? The guy in red with the mischievous smile seemed to be the underdog, and was endearing. The daydreaming one was pure comedy. “Do they have brawls in the bars after a race?” I asked. “I don’t know,” my boyfriend said. “I’m not sure they can drink. They have to maintain almost no body fat.” I frowned. “I hope the guy in red punches the guy in white,” I said. I envisioned him chucking TVs out of swanky hotel windows. I live for the drama. This was the moment that got me into Formula 1. For the first time I saw inside the machines that zoomed predictably around faraway racetracks. I started to realise that Formula 1 wasn’t just lap times, numbers on a screen, and a choice between hard or soft tyres; it was fundamentally about the people. There were egos, eye watering pay checks, glamorous locations, and a whole lot of pressure. There were feuds, confrontations, and tears. It wasn’t until much later that I realised the physical toll of driving a Formula 1 car, and the gym regime that accustomed drivers’ bodies to immense forces while going round the track. I had thought drivers were just pressing buttons inside a machine, but these were athletes putting their lives on the line. Lewis wasn’t always so sassy. He usually spoke with the measured words of a religious guru, emphasising gratitude and hard work. Meditating, praying, exercising, and listening to the right song before a race were apparently what helped him achieve his super-human results. We jubilantly listened to a Christina Aguilera where he was rumoured to perform a hilarious and cringeworthy rap. “Imagine all the other drivers teasing him with it,” I said. It took me a while to realise that Sebastian was a four-time world champion. His voice was low and disinterested while he gave clamouring journalists a run through of his race. In Bahrain, in 2019, Lewis seemed to make him spin on the track through pure intimidation. After races, we watched eagerly for the private moment when the top three drivers would meet in the break room, wipe the sweat off their faces, shake hands, and grimace after two hours of ruthless competition. Was the loser completely crushed? What would they say to one another now that they were face to face? But it was Kimi who became the most entertaining of the three from the press conference that day. Often giving nonsensical answers to journalists (that started with the sound “bwoah”) or pretending to not hear them, he, too, was mischievous and clearly hated any kind of ceremony that stopped him either driving very fast, or going home. His elusiveness made me increasingly curious, and I searched for entertaining stories, finding ones about him napping on piles of tyres, drunkenly diving off a stage with no crowd to catch him, or screaming “gloves and steering wheel!” to a bewildered pit crew. Since that moment in March 2018 I’ve learned more about what really makes Formula 1 tick. I’ll be honest, I still switch off when people start talking about technical specs. But I love to watch the drivers, team principles, and pundits, when they find a way to say everything with just a look in their eyes, or a quiet dig at a competitor. I love it when there’s gossip and wild predictions, and memes to be made. I never thought I would love a sport like I love Formula 1 now, but it was the people - and Lewis’ sass - that got me where I am now.

Digital Anthropology and Formula 1

Through getting my head around F1, I’ve unsurprisingly thought about it in terms of my own research into digital anthropology - or how technology is part of our social world today. I truly know nothing about sport, so I may be wrong, but it seems that F1 is the most technologically mediated sport there is. Rather than athletes who test their physical capabilities, the drivers’ abilities are mediated through a machine, which could be working well, or could be crawling round the track. That machine has been built from the ground up, bolt by bolt, by engineers constantly trying to improve on the vision of the four-wheeled vehicle. They don’t simply drive the same car at each race, it’s continuously evolving and being tinkered with by the team and its engineers in-between weekends.

F1 car aerodynamics Rather than watching the race directly, the teams themselves watch a row of television screens. For starters, the circuit is too big to see in one go, and the noises are too loud to expose your ears to. To experience F1, even for those participating, necessitates cameras and microphones and screens. But the teams are not only watching footage of the race, but endless numbers dancing in front of their eyes, listing speed for each sector, tyre wear, temperatures, and predictions. What secret software do they rely upon to give them an advantage over others - what algorithms are at work, invisibly measuring and shaping the race? Do they have the problem of too much data - data saturation or InfoObesity - where they can learn no more, or they struggle to store, protect, or analyse the information flying at them?

Renault’s Pit Wall, Singapore GP

Pit wall display screen, from Reddit

While the celebrity drivers of F1 plummet themselves around a track several centimetres away from the tarmac - sometimes losing up to 3 litres of water and 4kg in one race - F1 is equally a mathematical sport. This interplay of bodies and technology, personality and data, is fascinating. If I were to design a research project on F1, it would ask how these aspects of the sport are reconciled. What relationship do the teams have with their technology? Are strategies based more on digital information - “The computer says we should do this, so we’ll do it"? Or do they put their faith in people like Hamilton, knowing that his judgment in split seconds would prevail?

Masculinity and aggression would be important themes. Comparing Formula 1 to my limited knowledge of football or rugby, where frustration can be taken out with shouting, running, tumbling, or even brief fights, I wonder if F1 is more of a restrained, poised sport, played behind a veil of respectability, where resentment comes out not physically, but in catty, underhand plays, spies, cutting people out, or perhaps insistently pronouncing your name wrong. My suggestion that Hamilton might throw some TVs out of a window was an attempt to understand where that necessary frustration ends up. A clip of Ricciardo screaming with his helmet still on, Verstappen shoving Ocon, or Schumacher marching furiously up the pit lane towards Coulthard, pulls back the curtain. Behind the scenes, what dastardly behaviour lurks? I also wonder how the teams would take failure differently if they were all women. After both Red Bull cars were taken out of the same race, I remember saying to my boyfriend that “I wouldn’t want to be in a room full of those angry Red Bull workers.” When Haas repeatedly have outbursts on their radios, they seem to be transgressing an invisible rule of Formula 1, that anger is a private matter. What other invisible rules are there that shape team behaviour, and create friction between them?

Haas team principle Gunther Steiner’s outburst at Sochi, for which he was fined $7500

At the same time, while teams seem keen to control their presentation, moments of intense emotion, and authentic reactions of the drivers and pit crew, give fans something to go on. How does Formula 1 balance its primary purpose - the need to be entertaining, with the teams' clear desire to maintain professionalism and secrecy? In 2017, F1 released YouTube videos of the post race driver briefings, which featured drivers sat in rows like bored schoolboys. The videos are extremely entertaining, mostly due to the comedic camerawork and Grosjean attempting to get other drivers into trouble - but the uploads have since stopped, possibly because it was too much of an invasion into the meetings. Netflix’s 2019 series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” gave us a behind the scenes look, and helped us meet the personalities in F1 and empathise with their stories and struggles. In the recent On The Marbles podcast, Lee McKenzie explains that one reason why AutoSport is going out of print is the on-brand messages from the teams are too bland and repetitive for the price of the magazine. My own entry to the DHL competition displays my feeling that the sport needs drama to continue. This tension plays out everywhere. As the stewards continue to penalise small errors in driving, they curtail more of the scrappy, fight-y racing that the drivers seem to enjoy as much as the spectators, resulting in races that are “boring” and “processional.” Rather than relying on printed interviews, fans may be turning to social media to connect more closely with the characters in the sport. Through Instagram, Reddit, and YouTube, fans create memes based on the funniest moments on and off track, some of which endure for months.

Left: A fan’s take on Haas’ “I think Ericsson hit us”. Right: The radio message to Kimi Raikkonen when his drink was not connected The McLaren driver Lando Norris, only 19 years old, posts stories on his Instagram most days, and welcomes the playful Internet world of memes and ridiculousness in a way that breaks with the usual “robotic monotony” of drivers. It turns out that in his spare time, when he’s not racing in real life, he enjoys racing Verstappen on a video game. In this way, through following them on Instagram, fans can see relationships between the drivers - in a recent example, Ricciardo and Leclerc teased each other on their own respective Instagram accounts during a shared flight. Technology is playing a role, then, not only in the broadcasting of sport, but in the way that fans can relate to F1 and its personalities, by viewing mundane and everyday moments that span much further than the race weekend. 

Left: Ricciardo’s selfie with sleeping teammate Verstappen Middle: Norris’ Instagram, teasing his teammate Sainz Right: Leclerc jokes about a misspelling of his name

Research Outline

Taking an academic view of Formula 1 Absolutely Totally Seriously, I would propose viewing it through the idea of Rationality. Rationality has come up in my work on digital detoxing, where in a “Disenchanted” modern world, we perceive that technological progress explains the world down to neat facts and figures. We can bend the world to our own ends, since everything becomes calculable. To act rationally would be to do things for the intended goal, without the need for guesswork or fate. 

Interpreting Formula 1 in these terms, the sport splits into its Rational and Irrational aspects. On the one hand, teams design machines using cutting edge technology, and sensors and numbers tell them how to optimise the car to be more likely to win. On the other hand, the teams are made of people, who are emotional, or rather irrational - who might in fact be the key ingredient for winning (like the magical je ne sais quoi of Lewis Hamilton or Ayrton Senna), or who might require motivating, might cause problems, or make mistakes. 

I would hypothesise that the teams themselves prefer a rational view of F1. They want everything to be predictable, structured, cool, calm and collected. However, in order to survive, in order to entertain, the sport requires Irrationality - drama, friction, emotion, personality. Also under this heading would be fate, luck, the driver’s own headspace and personal life. A research project of Formula 1 would look at how the teams manage tension between these two aspects - and I would aim to answer questions through an ethnography of team culture.

My research questions would be something like this. 

How do the teams incorporate digital technology into their work, and do Formula 1 teams rely more on technology, or on human skill? 

What norms are there around emotion in Formula 1, and how is emotion managed by the teams?

How do Formula 1 teams balance the need to be entertaining with the need to win, and how is social media changing their relationship to this?

I better get back to my thesis.