#lIke they're lost cats or something

[afarcryfrommymain]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Far Cry 5, Far Cry: New Dawn, Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Faith Seed Additional Tags: Kidnapping, Ficlet Collection, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Inspired by Dungeons & Dragons Series: Part 1 of Tales from Another World Summary:

First part to a bundle of fics (varying sizes) to a dungeons and dragons au for Far Cry 5. There isn't truly a main character in this so take that as you will.

It really is short so if you don't want to go to ao3 there's the whole thing under the cut. This whole this is an experiment so let me know what you think, constructive criticism is appreciated. 

They say she appears when you are at your most vulnerable, she whisks you to her brothers and you do not return the same. Something changes about you, something is different now.

He's trudging along, worse for wear, escaping imprisonment from the beast of the mountains, he prays to his God that what he had to do will be forgiven. He prays there is hope where he is going.

He heard of a safe haven from the angle, the beast, and the Baptist, no one warned him of the siren that stands in his way now.

In the distance he hears... bells? No- chimes, hooves crunching in the dirt, and a woman humming. Mist surrounds him and floating lights dance in his vision. A feeling of calm engulfs him, he almost doesn't notice the ever-present feeling of unease gripping his soul. It tells him to run, to hide, to get far away from it. He can't, he instead turns to the direction of the humming.

A woman with long blonde hair, and green eyes approaches on a white horse. She wears a white dress that almost floats, she looks ethereal. A gentle smile plays on her face.

Are you lost, little dove?

Her voice coos to him, and he almost cries, he is lost. Of course he is. There is no map, no compass, he can't eve see the stars. He tells her this, and she looks at him concerned. This feeling is the most comfort he's been given all day.

She reaches out a hand to him in response.

I can make sure you never feel lost again. All are welcome in the Bliss. All can be found in it.

He hesitates, even as he feels the joy he feels scared, why is he so scared? What could possibly be wrong? He asks her what the catch is. She giggles, like the very idea of there being a catch is silly. Her laughter is like bells.

So long as you have faith, you may walk the path without fear. Without pain.

Her hand is still outstretched. He is injured, and sore, and so so fucking tired. If all it takes is to walk...

He takes her hand she floats up, and he flies with her. Pain leaving him as he flies.He takes her hand she floats up, and he feels himself flying with her. He closes his eyes as he does, at peace.

He is never seen again.

[odo-apologist]

POV: You're a scientist and the little creatures you've been observing have discovered one of the hidden cameras you placed in their natural habitat

[bonefall]

You may have answered this before, but how are you handling characters that don't believe in starclan, like mothwing and cloudtail? Personally I thought it was interesting when reading the books, considering cloudtail, but only to a point because it's very hard to write atheist characters in a setting where there's undeniable proof of the gods/spirits/etc. Like, how did they explain the literal forces of heaven and hell battling on earth??

As An Atheist Myself ™ I have a lot of feelings about the two of them. I think the short answer is just that in a setting where gods are literally undeniable facts of life, "Atheism" looks more like Dystheism, the belief that they exist, but are not worthy of worship.

That seemed to be the conclusion at the end of Mothwing's... i forgor the name of her novella 💀Mothflight's Blaspheme Boogie. It's actually why it's one of my favorite novellas, I really like the way it closes out with Mudfur trying to sales pitch StarClan's goodness to her, she doesn't buy a fucking penny of it, and ultimately concludes that the comfort it provides to her Clanmates is valuable to them but doesn't have to be for her.

So that's how I want to handle them. They have an outsider perspective to the fact that this is a theocracy, based on gods that can be vindictive and vengeful. Scourge/Iceheart is also joining these two, he actually is going to have a minor but important role in Squirrelflight's Horror as a ghost basically giving insight to what happens when you don't worship StarClan when you die.

With him and Mothwing I really know what I'm doing. Mothwing is insight to Leafpool, especially in TNP where she is now a POV, and observing how the though of StarClan influences the behavior of the cats around her. Scourge is killed in the Great Battle and serves as a ghost to witness their trial. Cloudtail...

Cloud's still evolving. He's going to be a supporting character with Ferncloud in her SE and exploring the feelings he has towards Ashfur, now his apprentice, becoming a villain. How he did his job perfectly, raised him with a deep respect towards the warrior code, and that lead to the person he is today. How he couldn't have done things "better" because this DID raise him the way his society expected him to.

But his dystheism is kind of secondary to that. I think the story I've got for him is fine so far, but it needs more of an 'ending' that I can't decide on until they finally kill him in the main books.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Baby boy brother birthday photos from last year that I just realized I never uploaded!

[moe-broey]

Why did I start like three other projects when I was already working on a big project when I just got hit with the autism exhaustion beam (requires. At least One Full Day just dead in bed, and then some more Taking It Easy time after)

[thesoundofmadness]

if I pretend it isn't happening then it can't hurt me

[oceanxveiined]

Honestly, even when I add a new verse for the oc(s) and work them into a still-expanding canon, I like to think their presence in the area/time of the narrative is best justified as essentially them running a B-plot in a sitcom to the main quests/protagonists' journeys. Or like. Half the shit Team Rocket gets up to in the movies-

[lastoneout]

Like I know we all love making ADHD seem cool but like, don't forget it's actually a disability? My ADHD is bad enough I've nearly been evicted for forgetting to mail the rent check to the property manager, I've forgotten to pay the utility bills and had my water or power get turned off or had to pay fines bcs I missed a credit card payment. Once I was supposed to cat sit for a friend and I lost the house key she gave me but didn't realize until she was already out of town, and she had to call the apartment office to get someone to give me the spare so her cats would have food for the week. When I'm unmedicated I can't even get myself to shower half the time, forget eating or cleaning. Before I started living with my fiance I'd just like, not eat for days because I didn't have anyone to remind me to eat or go buy me food. I've forgotten to turn the stove off so many times and ruined kettles and tbh been DAMN fucking lucky the house didn't burn down. I've done stupid, impulsive shit that's nearly gotten me KILLED. I can't remember to close the shower curtain reliably even through my fiance points out every single time I forget, and he's almost out of soap rn bcs for the last MONTH neither of us have been able to remember to order more once we get out of the shower.

I've had such bad memory my entire life that to this day someone suggesting I forgot something because I simply didn't care enough is a legitimate trigger that, in the worst cases, makes me have a breakdown.

I get that for some of you this is just something that makes studying hard or you forget to take a pee break when you're playing Minecraft or whatever, that's still a valid struggle and you do deserve help and understanding, but like, ADHD is a disability. It's disabling. It's not impossible to improve and learn coping skills, meds help a lot, there are great accommodations out there(LIKE CLEANING SERVICES), but not every case of ADHD is the same, and a lot of them are pretty ugly ngl, and just because you managed to do something doesn't mean someone else is gonna be able to manage it too, or that they're being lazy for struggling. And that obviously doesn't mean ADHD people have a free pass to never work on themselves and make everyone cater to their every need or whatever, but we do deserve some understanding when we explain that our disability is actually disabling in ways that aren't palatable to you. So like, idk, maybe don't immediately recoil in horror when you find out that someone with ADHD can't keep their house clean. And for fucks sake don't ridicule them for it.

[articskele]

PETRA WOULD HAVE A GLISCOR *receives one million psychic damage*

[enough-spider-noir-stuff]

If I may posit, it's gotta be strange to see a version of you that made it to being 'old'. Obviously I'm biased towards my own interpretation of Comics Noir Pete, but he doesn't seem the sort to believe he'll last that long. - @canary-song

oh Definitely. Pete is gonna take one look at Noir and then immediately make fun of him to hide the fact that he's having an existential crisis. And now that I've got lots of spider-folk together I really should throw in some spider goddess weirdness... just a little bit. for funsies.

[dravidious]

You're more amazing than a 0-3

Ah damn, yeah, that happens sometimes. The thing about competitive multiplayer is that for every winner, there has to be a loser.

Anyway here's some writings about the single player Path of Champions

Path of Champions - Dravid Version

Change 1: No progression. I went over this more in my "Path of Champions - Progressionless Edition" document, but tl;dr, the way the progression mechanics are done is bad for the gameplay experience, and progression serves little purpose otherwise. Thus, no champion level, no star powers*, and I'm removing legend level too. Certain things, like max nexus health and starting mana, can be altered by individual adventures if needed.

Change 2: No champion cards for the player. Champions cards do 2 things in Runeterra: They're stronger than the rest of your deck, and they reward you for playing a specific playstyle. The first is just a terrible idea; the amount of games I've lost solely because I didn't draw my champion are only outnumbered by the amount of games I've steamrolled because I DID draw my champion. The second is terrible for Path of Champions specifically, as a major aspect of the mode is improvising a strategy with the random cards and powers you find during the adventure. So, no champion cards for the player.

Change 3: No champion cards for the enemy. Champion cards for the enemy can reduce the game to "do you have removal?" It get especially infuriating when the opponent draws multiple copies of their champion. The purpose of randomness in card games is to create variety, not to screw you over for reasons outside your control.

Change 4: Champion playstyle design philosophy. Champions, both the cards and the playable characters, often mechanically encourage the player to do a certain thing, such as Annie rewarding you for playing lots of spells and skills. This conflicts with the "improvised strategy" aspect of Path of Champions, and should not be done. Some champions' playstyles give you certain tools, such as Gwen giving you lots of units with hallowed. These tools can be used for a variety of strategies, and work much better as playstyles. Champions' starting decks, card reward pools, and star powers will give the player versatile tools, rather than asking the player to use a specific strategy. This allows different playable champion to have a unique playstyle, while still allowing for improvised strategies.

Change 5: Star powers. Each playable champion will have one star power, not linked to any sort of progression mechanic. Just like the champion's cards, the star power will provide a versatile tool that doesn't push the player into a specific strategy. A good example is Mordekaiser's "Twice Slain", which lets the player grant Deathless to their units. A bad example is Mordekaiser's "Thrice Born", which rewards the player for reviving units. A good star power (and card pool) gives the player a tool to be used however they want. A bad star power rewards the player for doing something specific or playing specific kinds of cards.

Change 6: No support champions. The removal of champion cards leaves support champions quite bland and boring. Mixing up the champion's normal card pool with an additional card pool is good for creating variety between different adventures with the same champion, but I'm adding another thing to take on that role.

Change 7: Region card pools. Each (adventure) region will have a large card pool themed around its respective (mechanical) region; Ionia will have stuns, spells, elusive, etc. while Targon will have support, healing, invoke, etc. Most of the cards will be versatile tools, such as Mountain Goat, and there will be a handful of cards in each region that gently reward each of the regions's themes. Since the region is only half the card pool, these rewards have the be low in number and easily splashable into decks that only slightly use the theme.

Change 8: No decking out. When your deck is emptied, it fills back up to its original state. There's already ways to infinitely fill the deck, so the deck out rule serves no purpose. This also lets starting decks be smaller, allowing them to be quickly replaced by new cards.

EXAMPLE CHAMPION

Gwen

Star Power - Snippets of Song: Round Start: If you don't have the attack token, summon a Ghastly Band.

Boisterous Host x2 Phantom Butler x2 Redeemed Progidy x2 Conductor of the Mists x2 Strike Up the Band x2

Also I did more

Level Up Animations

The level up animations in Legends of Runeterra are boring, particularly the modern animations that cut away to a 3D scene to show the champion doing something. They're usually not very exciting or interesting; Yuumi jumps through a portal and then meows, Ilaoi gently swings a tentacle around, Bard flies through some portals and then blows his horn, etc.

The older level up animations were more low budget and didn't use 3D scenes. Sometimes they were pretty boring like Garen and Darius, but other times they made creative use of the card; Nautilus floods the screen with water and an anchor plunges into it, rising up to reveal the level 2 card; Jinx zooms across the field in an instant, writing her name in graffiti and flipping into the level 2 card. That kinda stuff is cool and creative, and doesn't try to make you forget that you're playing a card game. I want more level ups that are at least kinda creative, because the 3D scenes aren't cool.

YUUMI The Book of Thresholds opens to reveal her level 1 card, then the page turns to a hand-drawn sketch of her card art. The pages start turning rapidly to play a flipbook animation of Yuumi jumping through a portal, finishing by revealing her level 2 card.

SAMIRA Six targets appear, and Samira's card strikes each one in sequence with her weapons, building up her combo rank until she destroys the last one with a spinning slash, flipping her card around to the level 2 card.

GWEN Gwen's card is covered by cloth, and her sewing tools work and cut the cloth into her outfit and pose it into the pose in her level 2 card art, then in a flash the cloth and outfit are gone and her level 2 card is revealed. OR Gwen's card is covered by cloth, and her sewing tools work and cut the cloth faster and faster until in a flash, the cloth is gone and her level 2 card is revealed.

[yoshistory]

alright here's my final lineup of guys as of right now. i remembered that Kindheart became a cat named Blackflower (i thiiiiink thats what her name was) in later roleplays i had with her. i'll add her later

i ALSO made a dupe of this clan under a different name and ran a couple months of generation for fun without touching their relationship to see how they'd naturally develop from here. some notes:

Woolflower and Bearstep were mates in the roleplay i was in. Woolflower initially was to die pregnant with her children because Vultureflight killed her, so they never got to be born. Vultureflight's reasoning was that she was probably going to die anyways in her kitting and didnt want her children to suffer the same way Vultureflight herself did. upon giving birth in the generation, Woolflower died.

Cloverpaw immediately decided she was a girl and Ashstar decided he was a boy

Cloverpaw deciding she's a girl is funny 3x to me because this cat was both Kindheart and Blackflower reincarnated as a tomcat apprentice and she went "actually i'm still a girl. you got that wrong" to me

Lost and Frogpaw/leap became mates when they grew up and had 2 litters of kits together. after the 2nd litter, Lost realized he was a boy actually

Blindfox and Thornheart became mates and had 3 litters of kittens together, which is funny, because I made Thornheart as the girl version of him in later roleplays

Cloudwisp had a crush on almost everyone which was cute. in the original roleplay she was in, two toms had a crush on her and she was trying to pick between them. this time, i dont think anyone had a crush on her, but she was really into everyone else.

[danithefangirlbunny]

everything is fine until you lose your tuxedo cat

[handbellanon]

I'm sorry people are saying such hurtful things to you. You did everything you could for Oreo and clearly loved (and still love) him very dearly. It sucks so much that cancer took him early and you did nothing wrong. But like you said, you and Onyx and Pudding are still here, and I have always been delighted to see Pudding being an insanely smart little crazy sass-master or Onyx being the more dignified lady with you in addition to Oreo (and his gorgeous eyes). Please take your time to grieve and lean on your support people- we'll miss Oreo, but this channel is just as much made up of you three as him. Sending e-hugs and comfort, and looking forward to anything else you decide to share in the future

Words Hurt

This was a difficult video to make. Thankfully, Tumblr isn't one of the platforms that I ever experience hate. Since the beginning, this has always been the most comfortable places to post. Some of our other platforms are breeding grounds for hate and it can get to you sometimes. So much so that I had to make this video.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Folk were really into the post I made about Tandie, the zoo lion with a (then) undergrown mane due a period of time on testosterone blockers. He's having quite the glow up this summer.

But!

Did you know that manes are hormone dependent in both sexes of lion?

Let's talk about maned lionesses!

To recap the previous post quickly: the existence of a mane, and it's color, appear to be pretty heavily androgen-dependent. Neutered males or males put on testosterone blockers, like Tandie was, will drop their manes - but like Tandie, if taken off the meds, it will generally grow it back. Darker manes are indicative of higher testosterone levels, and long/lush manes are generally a good signal of a male's fitness and mate quality. Females seem to show a preference for males with longer, darker manes and other males will preferentially avoid scuffles with them. (Yes, as many comments have pointed out, that means Scar was actually a hunk. Do with that as you will.)

The fascinating thing about androgens being linked to manes in lions is that it goes both ways - females with higher levels will also grow manes!

Mane growth in females lions is most commonly seen with elderly animals who have stopped cycling and are basically in lion menopause. And they have to get pretty old for it to happen - captive lions generally only live into their late teens and early second decade, and most of the maned ladies I know about started growing manes around like, seventeen.

Not all old female lions grow manes, but some of the career cat people I've talked to said it happened to about a quarter of the females they've worked with over the years. Which... is an interesting contrast to the news articles about Zuri, who we'll meet in a bit, that breathlessly reported in 2022 that her mane growth "left scientists baffled."

Old lady lion manes are just... precious. They grow in first at the chest and then around the sides or on the back of the head, but they don’t normally get the length, density, and connectivity seen in the mane of an adult male. It leaves the lionesses manes kind of awkward, in the way I associate with very young males, and they're absolutely adorable. Prepare yourself for the photo spam.

I have to start with Daisy, because she's the only maned lioness I've had the privilege to meet in person.

I don't know exactly when she started growing her mane, but she was over 20 years old when she passed in 2019 with these luscious locks.

Here's another female at the same facility, named Adeena. On the left is a photo of her from 2021, on the right is from this spring (I think she's mid-sneeze in the photo). She turns 20 in October.

If you've heard about maned lionesses before, it’s probably because of Zuri, at Topeka. She’s the most recent one to get media coverage and she went a little viral.

(Just a side note here, but I have some strong feelings about knowledge loss in the exotic animal management world due to political/philosophical schisms. This is one of those topics where it's clear: Topeka told a reporter that the zoo had “never" heard of this happening before, but it's common enough to be well known as a thing in other sectors of the exotic cat world. There's so much expertise and knowledge being lost due to infighting between accrediting groups, and it drives me up a wall).

Anyway. Zuri had one of the best manes I've seen on an elderly lioness. It grew long and lush and she totally could have done shampoo commercials. I mean, look at this.

Zuri lived with her sister, who didn't grow a mane in her old age. Here's the two of them together, Zuri on the left, Asante on the right.

We don't completely know what's going on with these golden girls to cause them to grow manes. It's theorized to be related to the end of estrus and higher levels of androgenic hormones, although it's not clear if that's just due to lower levels of other hormones during "meownopause" or if there's something else also going on.

There was some speculation with Zuri's mane growth that it was caused by the death of the male she lived with, in some biological need to "take over the role." The zoo dismissed that idea pretty quickly, and it makes sense, although there is one other instance where I've heard of that happening before.

The cat people I've talked to say that older lionesses who grow manes don't tend to act differently - they're not taking over new social roles in their prides or anything. Sometimes they can be less active, or be a little more nervous around males, and want to be left alone more, but it was emphasized to me that those behaviors could also just be associated with the fact that manes tends to develop in elderly lionesses.

The mane growth can happen pretty quickly, as we saw in the photos I've posted of Tandie over the last year. Here's Bridget, from the Oklahoma Zoo. The left photo was taken in March of 2017 and the right in November - look how much hair she gained over six months!

The zoo did some research into what might have cause Bridget's mane growth, and found that she had elevated levels of androstenedione, which is a hormone that can be converted by the body into either testosterone or estrogen, depending. In AFAB people, it's known to have a masculinizing effect. The zoo theorized that this was the cause of her mane growth, and that the elevated levels might have been caused by a benign tumor. Fascinatingly, though, blood draws revealed that her testosterone levels were the same as her mane-less sister, Tia.

Tia is on the left in the photo below, Bridget and the beginnings of her mane are on the right. Bridget was 17 when her mane started growing in.

I don't think there's any formal hypothesis that there might be a genetic component to lionesses growing manes in old age, but it's interesting to note that one of Tia's daughters, Zari, also grew a mane. (And she grew it young! It started around age 13, interestingly, also right after their male died). She's on the left in the photo below.

And to circle back around to where we began: Tandie is related to a number of maned ladies! His father, Xerxes, was Bridget's son; Zari was Xerxes' half-sister.

Here's a few more beautiful maned ladies to leave you with. In order, Ngala, Pepper, Skye, and Dandy Lion.

Next up, and last in this lion mane series, is the story of five younger lionesses in Botswana who not only have manes but also express a range of masculine behaviors.

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A huge thanks to all the folk who shared photos of and stories about their golden girls for this post: M. Townsen, S.W. Simpson, E. Day, S. Cook, M. Stinner, M. Paul, K. Vanaman, D. O'Halloran, R. Simpson, D. Souffrant.

[xinganhao]

🪐 boy best friend!mingyu.

@tubasebongs → "I WOULD LIKE MINGYU CLINGY/POUTY BOY BEST FRIEND WHO LIKES YOU AND HE TRIES TO HIDE IT BUT FAILS AND STILL TOO PAINFULLY OBVIOUSLY 🙏🏻🙏🏻"

⌗ ┆threw in another trope because mingyu is childhood best friend coded (⋟﹏⋞) lost the ask in my inbox (i'm so sorry!!!) but i hope this still hits the mark :'-)

‧₊˚✩彡 includes: boy best friend!mingyu, childhood friend!mingyu, fluff fluff fluff!!!, cussing, pining/idiot in love/etc., confession -ish, headcanons under the cut.

🪐 headcanons .ᐟ

because of course kim mingyu is the boy next door. your mothers are friends and that's how you meet him, how you essentially grow up with him, even. he's a lively kid— loud and sociable, fond of roughhousing and buying candy at the corner store.

mingyu is the type to have defended you on the playground, his little hands balled in to fists as he plants them at his hips. at the age of six, he's not really capable of inciting fear, but he'll damn well try. as early as then, he's already referring to you as 'my best friend.' "yah, that's my best friend!" "don't make my best friend cry!" "what did you say about my best friend?!"

mingyu's overbearingness wanes a bit as you grow up, as you begin to insist that you can fight your own battles. the title is the one thing that doesn't change. it doesn't matter if you go on to not be classmates anymore, if you run different circles. you are mingyu's best friend and he's yours.

it's a fact that mingyu makes abundantly clear to everyone he meets. hell, even strangers aren't spared by the casual ways in which he manages to bring you up. "excuse me, but your hat is really nice and i think my best friend would like it. may i know where you bought it?" "oh, my best friend loves that artist too!" "you think my shoes are nice? thank you, my best friend got it for me."

mingyu is the picture perfect cliché of the best friend. he lives to annoy you, to rile you up and test your patience, but he also knows you like the back of his hand. it's something that you reciprocate— the cat and dog fights belied only by the deep concern and consideration that you both undeniably have for each other.

if he's honest, mingyu isn't all too sure when things shifted. (the answer: somewhere around adolescence, on an unassuming weekend spent at an arcade.) he just found that he kept wanting a little more. wanted to annoy you a little more so you would keep looking his way. wanted to talk to you a little more so you would think of him, too. mingyu isn't sure when his feelings started, but he knows they're not about to end any time soon.

it drives mingyu absolutely insane, initially, because he's seen how these things go! he's sat through all your favorite romcoms, has idly watched his mother's weekly dramas. falling in love with your best friend only ends well in fiction. in real life, in his life? he's not so sure.

mingyu isn't about to start avoiding you, though. isn't going to run from his feelings like a bunch of other people do. you always say he's dramatic when he says so, but he's at least half-serious when he says he can't live without you. and so he gives himself a stern talking to, a set of rules to follow— he won't tell you. he won't put you in that position, where you have to choose. he'll just go about things as he always does.

and, most importantly: mingyu refuses to look at your friendship as a consolation prize. it is not a silver medal, not a second-best to a potential romantic relationship. it is the best thing, being your best friend, and he's not about to put that on the line.

one thing mingyu fails to take in to account: just how painfully obvious he is. he doesn't have to confess to you. it bleeds in to everything he says and does. everyone knows, from his family to his friends to your family. they're all not so sure, either, when the exactly mingyu went from just acting friendly to being at your every whim without you even asking, but it's as clear as day.

mingyu thinks he's slick. on the rare occasions he's called out, he'll scoff and deny. "me? in love with my best friend? that's crazy." deny, deny, deny. that's mingyu's game for years and years, until people just give up on asking and wait for one or the other: for him to crack or for you to notice.

being best friends with a mingyu who's hopelessly in love with you is a carousel of moments: a dozen pouty selfies a week, incessant texts blowing up your phone, facetime calls where he's drunk and whining to be picked up. and more: the smell of his cologne on almost all of your things, the passport photo of you that he keeps behind his clear phone case, a specific smile that he reserves for when you're not looking.

really, it's just like mingyu for his eventual confession to be unceremonious, unprompted. all it takes is for you to make one offhand joke (time for you to confess to me, kim mingyu) and for mingyu to take that just a little too seriously (holy shit, have i been that obvious).

mingyu thought he'd take this 'secret' to the grave, honestly. or maybe he'd bring it up when you're both old and gray, and you can hit him over the head with a cane or something. but now it's out in the open, now it's something he can't take back— and, well, there's only one last thing for him to do: hope for the goddamn best.

extras 📱 texts from mingyu ➤ friends.