#my friend did a great job with the graphics and the design

[spaceacesoaps]

I've launched my own website! Come check it out, see how it looks, pick up some soap on sale now!

[russellsppttemplates]

I never knew anybody 'til I knew you (Lando Norris)

Your new job is allowing you to have new experiences, and your heart is not too mad about it either

Note: english is not my first language. After a long time in the books, I'm finally writing for Lando! This is my first long piece and I hope I did well enough!

Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!

my masterlist

Tw: curse words, mentions alcohol consumption

Tag list: @myloverjk-blog

"I'm just saying, it's closer that way. We can go and get the packages ourselves and sort out any issues with them straight away", Lando reasoned, opening his text message app so he could continue what he wanted to do. "Okay, fine by me. He's got a point, Y/N", Max raised his hands in surrender, looking at you for your opinion.

Working for Quadrant hadn't been a goal you had set out to accomplish in the strict sense of it. You didn't see yourself working for a massive company where people were stuffed in offices where the only way they could know their colleagues' names was when they had online meetings that took far too long and discussed the baseline of the issues. So, when you saw the job offer for someone in the Graphic Design area of work, you looked up the company name and saw their work, fascinated with how the guys had grown this business from streaming online gaming. Later, as you progressed in the recruitment process, you came to learn that Lando and Max also had a more public presence than you had initially figured out, despite all of your friends' insistence that "you can't be that clueless, Y/N, how did you not know that Quadrant was Lando Norris'? I thought you applied because of that", they would say as you shrugged your shoulders, "in this economy, do you think I am that picky about a job? I have my preferences, sure, but I know what I'm worth and I saw the offer was actually quite okay!", you defended yourself.

You ended up getting the spot and, so far, you couldn't complain. Most of the time you worked with Callum, Max and Tara, since your work overlapped with theirs, and every now and again, like right now, Lando would also meet up with you.

"Are you sure it's fine if I go? Your parents know Max, but they haven't met me before. Are you sure they won't find it weird?", you spoke directly to Lando, thinking that his idea, as lovely and kind as it was, didn't account for the facts you were stating.

"Max is coming because he's from the team, and you're from the team, too, so you're coming with us as well", Lando said simply, not seeing the problem.

"But he's been your friend for so long now, I'm a Quadrant Team member", you attempted again, "they don't have to provide for and give a roof to a stranger, I'll find an hotel to spend the night", you offered, wanting to be clear about it.

"You're part of the team, too! Don't worry about that, okay?", Lando said, "besides, mum loves having a full house, she's definitely the host of the family", he smiled, checking the item on his list nd carrying on the meeting.

"When we're there, we'll be able to get our hands on the embroidered Originals collection", Max began, "hopefully they're perfect and we can start working on the website", he gestured as you turned your laptop so they both could see, "this is the concept I've come up with, since this isn't as flashy or as colourful as past collections", you showed them the mood board, looking for disapproval signs but being met with looks of surprise instead, "I know it's not usually what you go for, so I also have another idea here, if you just let m-", you were about to change when Lando slapped your hand away from the mouse and holding it in his, "I really like this one, especially these posts here, I think the ideas are great!", he noted as he set your hand down on the table, "okay, then I can keep working on this", you said, closing the other tab, "do you have something better than this?", Max asked, "seems as good to me!", he offered.

"This is just a draft, I'll invest more time in this and I'll have it ready for the end of the week. That way we can have it ready when the clothes arrive. I'll text Tara to ler her know", you smiled, grabbing your phone as the boys flickered through the ideas, pointing out the different details they liked and wanted to keep.

.

"I'm way too young for my life to be just this, so please drive safely, Max", you said, buckling your seatbelt and exaggerating your hold on the door handle, "if you weren't such a crucial part of this team, I'd make you reconsider your jokes", he teased back, reversing out of the parking space and initiating the trip.

Lando was already at his parents' house since they had a family gathering the day before, so you and Max were driving up to meet him, "they're really nice people, really chilled as well", Max began, "Adam and Cisca, that is. I can hear you thinking and I'm assuming that is what's going on in your head", he stated.

"I don't want to step on anyone's toes, and I don't want to embarrass anyone or myself even. Can you imagine Lando's parents finding out their son's company has questionable employees? They'll mark me off as some sort of strategy fool or think that I want to take this company down, and I don't!", you uttered out, sharing more than you meant to.

Impostor's Syndrome was a bitch, and it often showed up the moment things got progressively harder, and while you knew you were able to deal with it, the little voice still nagged you.

"Y/N, you're one of the most valuable people we have on the team, and I don't say that lightly. This is Lando's baby, and yes, he's the face of it and that counts for most of it, but the work behind it is just as important and with the numbers we're having, it all comes down to you. Since you joined us the designing aspect of it, - obviously, you wouldn't be the one responsible for accounting, duh -, the compliments have been non stop, it has improved the interactions, too!", he said honestly, "you have nothing to worry about, truly", he comforted, "it's this exit here", he mumbled, checking the GPS and turning on the blinker, slowing down the car as they entered the city.

You didn't have to wait long before he pulled up to a big house, the gravel sound quieting down until it came to a halt when Max stopped the car, "Lando said he'd meet us at the door, I really don't fancy being mistaken by a burglar", he joked, getting out of the car as you did the same, stretching your legs and taking in the sight.

"Max, Y/N! Did you have a good trip?", Lando made himself be heard and seen, walking up to you and grabbing the bags his friend was taking out of the car boot, "I'll take these", he offered, picking up your luggage as you pulled on your backpack, "thanks", you smiled, following him as he led the way into his parents' house.

"My parents are in the kitchen", the Formula One driver said, ushering you to the roomy space after he and Max dropped the bags by the stairs, "Max, dear! We haven't seen you in so long, how are you?", a beautiful woman said. Her hair was brown and her skin was tanned as she hugged Max and Lando, "this is Y/N, she is our graphic designer", he presented you, the older man hugging you and his wife doing the same, "I'm Adam, it's so nice to finally meet you", he smiled warmly, "likewise", you smiled back.

"You can call me Cisca, darling. We've heard so much about you, it's nice to finally put a face to the name", she winked at you as you didn't miss Lando elbowing his mother as he closed his eyes, sighing at her, "thank you for having me over, I hope it's not too much trouble", you thanked again, feeling more at ease at their genuine welcoming greetings.

Lando quickly scrambled an answer, seemingly not wanting his parents to talk, "of course it's fine, no trouble here! Let's get your things upstairs so we can settle in and work!", he clapped his hands, walking to the corridor and up the stairs with Max as you excused yourself.

"This is your room, you have the bathroom on the next door", he pointed on the corridor after he placed your bag and backpack down in the small sofa, "Max is in the office, it's just across the hall and I'm at the end of the hall, if you need anything", Lando offered.

"Thanks, again. Do you guys want to begin now? I just need to put on some fluffy socks and I'm good to go", you said, "yes! Is the dining room okay with your parents? The table is big enough to layout everyhting", Max chirped in, whistling at your room as he looked around, "she got an upgrade, good move!", he tapped his friend's back.

After Lando cleared it with his parents, he was quick to remove the table runner and flower vase from the dining room table, extending it to its biggest size so you had all the space you needed, "you can sit here, Y/N, it's usually where the room heats up faster", he pointed out the radiator, pulling up the chair next to your and typing on his iPad.

"So this is the video idea? I like it, we just need to find some background music for it", Max asserted, grabbing his phone to check the time, "we should get going to pick up the order", he uttered.

"Do you need all of us to go?", you asked, saying the changes in your laptop as you did,

"You can pull your the backseats of your car down, can't you, Max? That way we can bring more boxes, and you and me go", Lando reasoned, looking over at you, "do you mind staying here while we go get them?", he asked, not wanting you to feel uncomfortable.

"I'll be fine, you go", you smiled, opening your notebook and writing down some notes.

"Oh, darling, you could've turned the lights on. Soon enough you'll be like me and need glasses", Cisca said as she stood on by the door, flickering the lights on as your eyes got used to the brightness, "I already wear them, or I should more often anyway", you blushed, suddenly getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar, grabbing your case from your backpack and putting them on.

When Lando and Max left, you decided to work on the website graphics, checking how the campaign would work with the current layout, that you lost track of time.

"May I see what you're working on?", she asked, "it's okay if I may not, I don't want to intrude", she smiled as you pulled up the chair next to you, "I don't know much about these things, but I always get quite fascinated with this part", she said, sitting down and looking at the screen.

Already driving back home, Lando and Max talked about the plans once they arrived, "and that way Y/N can also finish the social media stuff, and maybe you'll have more time to actually make a move on her", he teased.

Lando scoffed, "I'm not trying to make a move on her", he defended himself, "I'm glad to know, because if those moves were what you had, it wouldn't surprise it that it didn't go very far", Max yelped as his friend took the opportunity of the straight road ahead to hit his thigh, "so that's what you talk about? Here I am thinking about business and you're meddling in my love life?".

"I never said it was love life, but since you've admitted it, it's saving me time. So, what are you planning? I could help since this seems to be stalled", Max tried again, holding his hands in protection of his body in case Lando hit him again.

"I wouldn't know where to begin, I mean, it will make things awkward if this goes south, right? I'd never be able to look at her again, much less work with her", Lando admitted, "She's very kept to herself as well, I highly doubt that she'll want to be involved with me in that way. Whoever I date or interact with has to deal with enormous amount of public eye and I wouldn't spring that up on her", Lando mumbled, taking the road exit on his left.

"So you've given this some thought, too. Here we are thinking you're coming to the meetings to help and now you're just blushing when we talk about Y/N", Max joked back as Lando shook his head.

"We're back!", Lando announced, walking inside the dining room while pushing the boxes with Max, "don't worry, mum, we're not scratching the floors", he said, sweetly kissing the side of her head, "are you planning to work for us?", he noticed she was sitting next to you, notebooks of the projects open and sheets and fabrics all over the table in front of you.

"Y/N was kindly showing me the project you're working on, for the launch, and it looks really nice!", she complimented, placing a hand on your shoulder and the other on your arm, "she's been showing me everything, I've probably stolen some valuable time from you, darling, I'm sorry", she slumped her shoulders slightly, "not at all, it's all under way, don't worry", you smiled, easing her worries, "I'll leave you guys to it, how about I make some tea?", she suggest as the three of you nodded.

"We have the boxes here, they're sorted by colours", Lando opened the first box, "these are only for the Originals collection, right?", you checked over, peaking at the blue hoodie he pulled out.

"The sizing is right, right?", Max wondered as Lando stretched it out, "Y/N, can you try these, please? We need to check if the model is good for guys and girls".

Getting up from your spot, you grabbed the vibrant blue piece, feeling its soft texture against your fingertips, "I have wider hips that average, I'm not sure I'm the greatest test model for that", you shrugged your shoulders, "keep that in mind". Taking off your sweater so your torso was covered in a strappy top, you pulled the new garment on, adjusting the strings around the neck so you could pull it all the way down, "Oh, it's so soft", you noticed, "and warm, too. And feels quite good actually, it's not too tight", fumbling with the ribbed material on the bottom as you checked yourself out on the windows now that it was dark outside.

Lando gulped as you did so. Oh, had Lando noticed your hips. To anyone else, it would be another feature of your body, but he was enamoured by them. Your body's curvy outline enticed him and he would be lying if he said that it wasn't the first thing he noticed at first glance when you arrived for you last interview, especially with the tapered pants you had been wearing.

"Looks nice. What do you think, mate?", Max turned to Lando, hoping to get an answer but finding him looking at you, "is there something wrong? I told you I'm not the best mo-".

"It's gorgeous, looks gorgeous", he breathed out just as his mother walked inside carrying a tray with tea and some biscuits, "Here's the tea, guys", she said, setting it on the table, "wow, that's a very nice piece!", she complimented.

"It is, isn't it, Cisca?", Max said, covering up her son as he kept looking at you as you tested the front pocket, not noticing his gaze on you.

"You also have a very beautiful model, you can't ignore that factor in the equation", she complimented you while you grabbed a mug, taking a sip of the warm liquid and hoping it hid your pink cheeks, "thank you", you whispered.

While Lando helped his father with dinner, Max convinced his mother to show you both family albums, and once you had the delicious food they prepared, you excused yourself so you could use the shower, wanting to wash the day of travelling away. Max and Cisca stayed in the living room while Lando helped his father prepare dessert, checking on the apple crumble in the oven so it could get golden brown and not burnt, "so, any life updates recently?", the older man asked.

Lando wasn't around as much as they both would've liked, so often times his visits also came along with news and updates, "not much, racing has been good, it's nice to have a break now, even if it's just two weeks", he offered, looking at the oven.

"And nothing else? I mean, no one special? Your mother is usually the blunt one, but I'm going to try it myself: Y/N is just a Quadrant Team Member?", Adam questioned, noticing his son's cheeks become redder.

"Is it that noticeable? I just hope she doesn't see it as much as you do", Lando groaned, rubbing his cheeks, "maybe you should hope she notices, you know? Maybe she'll admit she likes you, too. You never know", Adam patted his son's back, grabbing the gloves so he could take the tray out of the oven, "she seems like a really nice girl, kind, good work ethic, intelligent, and she's beautiful", he finished as his son sighed, grabbing the vanilla ice cream from the freezer, "she's all of that and so much more".

.

"Kygo is doing a set tonight", you heard Max say as you walked inside the living room, taking the spot on the sofa next to Lando since his mother had taken your previous spot when you went to use the bathroom, "I've been meaning to ask you guys if you wanted to go, actually. He texted me saying to tell him if we were planning on going", Lando stated.

"Go and enjoy being young, life is not all about work if you can't enjoy yourself", Cisca shared, "dad and I won't complain if you make noise when you get back", she winked.

"Would you like to go, Y/N? You can say no, that's fine, too", Lando turned to you. He knew Max would be down on a heartbeat, but he didn't want you to feel pressured to do something you didn't want to because you were at his parents' place as a guest.

"I'm good, I like his music, too. I've been wanting to see him live for a bit, actually", you smiled, thinking about how lucky you were to be able to have these experiences because of your job and friends.

Later that night, you're getting ready in your room, sitting on the carpeted floor and applying your make-up for the occasion. The dressier outfit you had brought with you consisted of a burnt red top and some pants as it had become the outfit you had felt the most comfortable and confident in to go out. The top complimented your chest and your midsection as your pants looked really good around your hips and butt, your legs elongated by the small heeled shoes you had spent years looking for. They were comfortable, pretty and functional, ticking all the boxes for what you needed for tonight.

"Y/N, can I come in?", your heard Lando knock on the door, welcoming himself when you said he could, "we are leaving in about ten minutes, if that's okay", he said, taking a good look at you as you fiddled with your earring, "yes, fine by me", you smiled looking back in the mirror propped on the bedside table and finally clasping it, looking back at him.

You took his breath away. It was as simple as that. Your hair had your natural curls he loved so much, your makeup complimented your naturally soft beautiful features and your outfit made you look incredible.

"You guys ready?", Max patted the door, propping himself on it as you grabbed your shoes, "I'll put them on downstairs", you said, carrying them in your right hand as you had your small purse on the left.

While you did the small, dainty tie on your shoes, Lando's eyes went straight for your chest, the slightly bent down position granting him an agonisingly teasing angle as he tried his best to look away, "you might want to be less obvious, you don't need to creep her out to get her to be yours", Max whispered in Lando's ear.

As soon as you arrived, Lando and Max walked with you to the VIP area, asking you what you wanted to drink before they went up to get it.

Lando looked great on his white shirt, the light coloured shirt looking great against his tanned skin as the relaxed fit complimented his back, prompting you to make sure you weren't drooling in public. You worked for his company, it would never be a good idea to get romantically involved with him, no matter how many times your heart leaped.

"A very weak Gin and Tonic for you, as requested", Max said as he pushed the cup towards you, carrying nother drink for himself, Lando sitting next to you on the booth and empty handed, "you're not drinking?", you asked, "I'm driving us all home today, I'm want to do it safely", he stated, tapping his hands on the table when he saw Kygo, signalling him to approach you.

"Hey Lando, Max", he smiled, "I'm Y/N, I work for Quadrant", you smiled, greeting him with a half hug as he introduced himself too, "my set is in a few minutes, you got here just in time. If you want to see it up close, Y/N, let me know and I'll make it happen", he winked at you.

The wink was not missed by Lando or Max. While Max wanted to laugh at his friend's jealous expression, threatening to send the norwegian DJ to a place that was less than nice and sunny, Lando couldn't believe his eyes. Yes, it was only fair that others, too, saw your beauty and noticed you, but to put themselves out like that, that was a different story. You didn't seem to bothered by all of it, sipping on your drink as you spoke to Max, pointing out different people you remember from Silverstone earlier that year.

"Kygo's starting, I want to dance!", you said, getting up and gesturing for the boys to join you. While you were used to having a lot less space to dance in, the welcomed freedom was appreciated as you playfully placed your pointer finger on Max's head, making him do a little spin, "now, no need to be jealous, Lando, you can twirl, too!", you yelled over the music blasting from the speakers, doing the same and sinking your finger on Lando's curls.

"I'm going to get another drink, want anything?", Max asked, excusing himself when you shook your head, "you know you can drink, I'm the designated driver", Lando offered, "I know, thank you for that. I just don't want to drink more", you smiled, recognising the next song, feeling brave and pulling Lando by his hand so he could dance with you.

I never knew anybody 'til I knew you

I never knew anybody 'til I knew you

And I know when it rains, oh, it pours

And I know I was born to be yours

Lando twirled you would face him, chest flush against his as his colourful eyes looked into yours intensely, "I know this is very forward, and very unlike me to be fair, but I need to get it out", he gulped as he spoke loudly in your ear, looking for any sign of discomfort from you, "I really like you, like, a lot. And I would like to know if you feel the same. Because Max and my parents seem to think you do, but all I know they're just saying so that I shut up about how much I love you and how much it would mean to me", he spoke loudly against your ear as the song played.

You were struck by his confession, not expecting it to ever happen, much less like this and in these circumstances.

"If you consider this a hostile work environment, I didn't want that, but I had to be honest with you", he gulped, "just say you don't feel the same and I'll drop the subject, okay? I might have to pretend to go somewhere else so I can be away from you a bit until things are not awkward, but don't worry, I won't drink because I'm driving and-", Lando belted out before you interrupted him, moving your face closer to his neck this time and speaking into his ear, "It's not hostile if it's consensual, right?", you smiled, a glint in your eye as his own widened, chuckling as he sang the the words in your ear, taking the opportunity to kiss your cheek near your earlobe.

"Took you two fucking long enough!", Max yelled as he approached you, tapping Lando's back in congratulations, "you know what this means, Y/N? I won't have to listen to him mope about how he thinks he was made for you and you were made for him, and that the universe would have to be playing a very bad joke of you two didn't end up together!".

"What makes you think I'll stop that? I just got the girl of my dreams, now I'll have the confirmations of all I've said! You'll just hear how amazing all of it is!", Lando smiled, hugging you close to him and kissing the top of your head.

[transparent-peach]

English is totally not my first language and i hope i spelled everything perfectly. I hope you enjoy it.

(Please be nice.)

James McAvoy x Reader

words: 1500

Romantic, isn’t it?

You were so close to getting insane, considered to the fact that you were all alone in North Scottland in a huge property. You had so many things to do but your social skills were all out and you haven’t got any energy lately. You felt the psychical pain of being alone, being without him. You felt terrible every time you saw him on tv, wishing he could have been there with you. But you knew it was impossible. If he wasn’t in the set of the “X-Men: Days of Future Past”, he was out there doing interviews, talking about the movie, promoting all of the little piece of it for the world. Your caffeine addiction went on another level, your mental health was falling into the nothingness. You always knew there was this risk of being with James but this never really affected your relationship. It’s been six months since he left.

————————————

It was a rainy morning of a thursday. It was almost templated how i went to work every weekdays, how i made my coffee and breakfast and headed out to the town. I sat down to my desk and made my day better than nothing with paperwork and telephone calls. I was exhausted by doing almost nothing but sitting down and force my mind to calm itself down was really doing something to me. In my early days i was working as a designer a graphic designer and a set designer at all in once. I had three jobs as i quit the graphic designer one. I was so full of ideas and things that i had to do for the sets and the movies but in that exact week i was doing some manager work. Some celebrities were almost like children when it came to their jobs and careers but i enjoyed working with them. I was helping them apply to work and put their life in order.

"Hello, love. It is your man on the television, isn’t it?"

My friend asked me with a lowered voice. She was nearly whispering.

"Yes, indeed."

I said it with a monotone tone, heading back to my desk. It was four in the afternoon that meant that i almost finished for that day. Excellent.

"What is wrong with you?"

She asked. Curiosity rushed through her eyes and she furrowed her brows.

"It’s just… You know… Work…"

I looked into her eyes.

"Can’t lie to me. Now tell me the real ‘wrong’."

She was following me to the desk. She was standing there, staring at me like a freak trying to read my mind.

"I miss him."

"Oh, love. I understand that."

The pity… That was the ultimate reason for me to not tell anyone about it. I am not a silly teenager anymore. I can handle this. At least that is what i thought. She knew from the very beginning, i told her first that we were a thing with James. We tried hard to hide from the world. We did great since in our four years of relationship there was only rumours about us. James’ manager did great with hiding things from everyone. I put my phone on the charger in the corner of my office. When it started to buzzing like hell, i raised my head up and started to feel a little bit anxious.

"Hey dear!"

A familiar voice came from the other side. My heart dropped and i sat down as i raised the phone to my ear.

"Hi James. How are you?"

I couldn’t help but smile to myself.

"I’m alright love. I am fine. What about my precious woman?"

He asked with a calm voice, made me feel warm from the inside out.

"I miss you."

I pursed my lips together and biting them in anxiety.

"I miss you too. But hey! It’s alright. At least you won’t get bored of me ."

He said jokingly. I heard his keys jingling in his hand. He opened his car and i heard a big sigh of exhaustion.

"Don’t be ridiculous James.”

I cleared my throat.

"You know it was a joke. Baby i need to go now. My manager set the date of my interview for 17.20 and i am nowhere to be found."

He chuckled a bit at his own words.

"’Kay. Love you."

"Love you too, Y/N. Take care."

He said softly as he hung up the call.

Devastated maybe, that is the right word to use for my situation in my head. I put down the phone started to pack my things up. Another day without him. Another night. I slept a bit better knowing that he is safe wherever he was. He sent me a picture of himself enjoying travelling. I felt the butterflies in my stomach as i looked into his eyes on the picture. I was like a girl who stalked her crush’s instagram. At least that was i did that morning. What can possibly be a more joyful project than this at seven in the morning when i almost just woke up from a coma.

jamesmcavoyrealdeal

🩷115K 💬1 956

It’s a little funky isn’t it? We are halfway there you don’t need to wait for too long.

I smiled at the mobile. I was totally in love. Until i realised i was late from work. I was in a hurry i didn’t even packed anything for the day. I was messed up but when i walked into the office i acted like i was a complete collected and mindful young lady with an attitude. I needed to go to the theatre to set some things right. I thought i must do some of my costume work. At reality i collected myself at almost one in the afternoon. I was stressed, anxious and never recovered from the fact that i was so tired that day. There was so much material, needle, threads, my ideas sketched on papers and stuff like that. I needed to make some tidying up because the room was a mess. I almost finished the costume, as i sat back down to my chair. It was dark out there already. I felt the coldish wind rushed through the room. I packed my things. I deemed the costume ready for that day. I headed home. It was pitch dark in the house as i walked in. I made myself a nice dinner and poured a glass of red wine. I sat down in the bedroom and started to watch an interview with Graham Norton. It was cosy to be honest it felt like some sort of meditation. There was Hugh sitting on the red couch. Next to him there was Michael and James. Hugh was beyond excited and kind as he enthusiastically talked to Graham. He had a lot of laughs with him and Michael. James seemed a bit off that day. I saw the problems on his face. I chuckled a bit at his attitude. I lighted up a cigarette near the window and i looked out to the busy street for a moment.

I sighed in discomfort. I was listening to their chit chat and laughs on the television. When they started to sing 'Afrika' by Toto. I zoned out a bit but when i heard James’ laugh i immediately looked back to the screen.

I heard the door opening and i tossed the cigarette stub out in fear. I almost spat out my heart in fright my pulse was racing and my head started pounding. The door opened and i saw a huge bouquet of flowers. The head was slowly peeking out behind the flowers and i nearly fell over the window.

"Oh god…"

I gasped in disbelief as he walked over to me. I looked at the tv and then to him in awe just like it was some kind of a lucid dream.

"Hello love."

He handed me the roses and gave me a kiss to my forehead while i enjoyed the scent of the flowers.

"Hi."

I whispered to the thin air. I put down the flowers and i gave him a thigh squeeze.

"I think i told you a million times not to smoke in here."

He smiled at me and poked my nose.

"Well, i think you should be at London shooting interviews and chatting with famous people."

My sassy attitude came in handy for the moment. I held him closer, and gave him a kiss.

"That was a bit cocky… but i guess you are right. I missed you."

He looked into my eyes with his cold blue ones, and spinned me around.

"You look cute with Michael."

I teased him a bit before i gave another kiss on his forehead.

"Thank you love."

He laughed with nothing but pure joy.

"I am thinking about inviting him over for dinner someday."

"We are free this weekend. You should give it a shot."

He teased me back while leading me to the bed.

[sometimesanalice]

I’m so curious about ‘Like I Can” and reader’s childhood/high school background!! Could we get some little flashbacks? Your work is amazing btw❣️❣️❣️

Ah! This was such a fun message to get! Sorry it took me a minute to respond, I wanted to make sure I had time to sit down and give it the attention it deserves!

What do you want to know? My inbox is always open, so please feel free to send thoughts or questions in any time they pop up! 🫶🏻

But here’s more about Sweet Girl for you! (i might have gone a little overboard, lol)

Sweet Girl was a bit of a shy girlie and a bit of a late bloomer in her younger years. It wasn’t until high school where she really started coming out of her shell.

She spent a lot of time at the Bradshaw house growing up and felt like it was hers too. Carole was the one who first gave her the “sweet girl” nickname and they had a really close relationship (sg still has the locket Carole gave her for her 13th birthday). And SG’s favorite nights were the ones where they’d get to have sleepovers. The moms would be upstairs having their own (wine, brownies, and romcoms), and her and Bradley would have free rein of the living room. (she famously isn't a fan of movie theater popcorn while Bradley is the extra butter kind of guy, but she does like the kettle corn kind.)

After her parent’s divorce, she had a complicated relationship with her dad. SG never saw it coming and then he moved very quick with a new wife and step siblings, and she felt really betrayed there for a while.

She had a few close friends in her grade, but Bradley was always who she considered her best friend. And because of that she did get picked on sometimes mainly by shitty boys who didn’t understand why they were so close or why he’d want to hang out with her (especially since they have a 2 year gap, so they’d call her his shadow or a tagalong). Bradley made it clear that anyone who messed with her wasn’t cool with him, but there were still some comments under breaths that she’d hear sometimes chose to keep to herself.

She’s always been artsy (she doodled some very detailed fireballs on the page of the sheet music book with Great Balls of Fire that she gave Bradley for his 12th birthday). But her favorite classes in high school were AP history (preferred euro over us) and computer science. (She originally wanted to be a graphic designer, and focused on pursuing her freshman year in college before later changing her major.)

Tennis was her sport of choice, and she was pretty decent at it. Her mom, Carole, and Bradley (baseball schedule depending) were always in the stands to cheer her on (the moms had to sit through so much spring sports, those opaque tumblers were definitely filled with wine, lol)! Both SG and Bradley had shirts they’d made as self professed #1 fan of the other when they were at each other’s games. The year she almost made it to the state playoffs was the year after Carole passed away, and after that happened and seeing her mom there alone in the stands without Carole or Bradley, she quit playing.

Miss ma’am is a smart cookie, and was one of three valedictorians in her class. (She did not audition to give the speech and let one of the others do it because she doesn't like a lot of attention directed at her.)

Her respect for the library (and why she won’t make out with Bradley in the stacks, even though he’s always trying to get her to after they get together, she won’t but she does let him carry her books, lol) is because she used to spend her summers volunteering there. Bradley would either drop SG off or pick her up depending on his baseball camp schedule and his job scooping ice cream. (Which Bradley has a struck ‘no milkshakes’ in the montero rule after she spilled hers one time, and he never let her forget about it)

I do have plans for a couple longer oneshots about their younger years! Including one about the night at the homecoming party where Bradley got his scars, and then also about the period after Carole died and Bradley's self destructive era (when he tried to implode their friendship).

As for some little flashbacks, I think that sounds like so much fun! I love their dynamic so much and have fun weaving in things from their past into the stories I write when I have the chance to do it! If there's specific things you're interested, send them my way! I'm happy to keep a little list and work on them when the time and inspiration hits!

[turtle-bun]

“This iteration of the Turtles and this iteration of the Turtles wouldn’t get along cuz of this!” “These two iterations wouldn’t get along because of that!”

FUCK YOU THEY ARE ALL BEST FRIENDS THAT SUPPORT EACH OTHER CUZ I SAY SO!!

(Please note I wrote this BEFORE watching Mutant Mayhem which is why they aren’t in it. I just forgot to post it lol 😅)

Rise!Leo: You all are so stern and serious. I feel like I should start being more stern and serious. Should I?

BatmanVs!Leo: Please don’t, it’ll be hell on your already waning mental health. /hj

Bayverse!Leo: I feel we need at least one funny Leo to break up the collective seriousness of the rest of us.

87 Leo: I thought me and my brothers counted as the “funny” version of all of us?

12 Leo: You guys are more of a “silly” version of us…sillier? Like the concept of turtles being ninjas is already silly as it is. Which there is nothing wrong with that, just that your cartoon logic is just very hard to keep up with sometimes.

87 Leo: That’s understandable.

Mirage Leo: I’m just jealous that you all get to be in color. Black and white gets so boring once you learn there’s color!

07 Leo: But your universe does have this cool graphic design to it that I’M very jealous of.

03 Leo: Of course, you fucking would be you dramatic edgelord. /j

07 Leo: I know the fucking EMO of the group did not just call me an edgelord! /j

Rise!Leo: Omg we love an E-girl!

12 Leo: *wheeze of laughter*

---

87 Raph: I just don’t think it’s fair that you guys get to be tall, is all! It’s discrimination! /hj

12 Raph: Practically working against your own kind! /j

Rise!Raph: *snorts* I don’t think that’s a bodily function we can control you guys!

Bayverse!Raph: It was a conscious decision on my end.

Rise!Raph: *chokes with laughter*

87 Raph: You goddamn bastard! /j

Bayverse!Raph: Cope and seeth my dude.

07 Raph: Now look, 87 I know it’s very difficult, especially for you, but we gotta be the bigger person here.

87 Raph: I will kick your goddamn ass, kid!

03 Raph: Well, good for you in being the bigger person. I will continue to be small and petty my entire life!

*Collective snorting laughter from all Raphs*

87 Raph: No, no, wait! You are not allowed to be funnier than me!

03 Raph: Tough break, shorty, I have to have SOMETHING other than punching shit.

87 Raph: Take up knitting! I don’t care! Just keep away from my bit! That’s like my entire personality! /hj

03 Raph: See you joke about that but I am fucking GREAT at knitting!

Bayverse!Raph: Amen to that! I ain’t spend half my damn life in the Hashi and NOT be able to knit a fucking epic scarf!

---

07 Donnie: Are you saying I worked a 9 to 5 job FOR NOTHING!

BatmanVs!Donnie: I honestly did not think that embezzling funds from rich corporate assholes plus the Shredder and his Foot Clan was an actual option we had!

12 Donnie: I am actually so mad that I did not think of that!

Rise!Donnie: Honestly, I didn’t think of it until like a few years back because our dad is still, somehow, getting royalties from his Lou Jitsu movie days. But I also have expensive taste in equipment and needed a little pocket change.

03 Donnie: I could have actually bought a Play Station when it came out instead of having to fix up the broken one Mikey found in the dump!

87 Donnie: I’m just now realizing how much stuff we had to make from scratch just because we couldn’t afford it.

Rise!Donnie: That’s true. But like also you guys still made a bunch of cool stuff with JUST junk you found! That’s amazing!

Bayverse!Donnie: Thanks but we could have made even cooler stuff if we had your type of funding. I mean, look at this shit! *excitingly pointing at Rise!Donnie’s battle shell*

Rise!Donnie: Please understand that YOU have made holo-screen, intercom, wrist watches, that connect to your motherboard home computer. All of which you MADE WITH JUNK! How is that not amazing?!

07 Donnie: Amazing for you probably. But if I were to do that shit myself I wouldn’t sleep for a week!

BatmanVs!Donnie: I second that! One sugar daddy please!

Rise!Donnie: *wheeze of laughter*

---

03 Mikey: I still can't believe you met freaking BATMAN! Like holy shit dude!

12 Mikey: *sobbing* I’m so jealous! I’m forever jealous!

BatmanVs!Mikey: Yeah, it was pretty cool. But YOU (03 Mikey) met the entire Justice Force! And became a member! Your legacy was so awesome Silver Sentry’s grandson took up your name!

03 Mikey: Yeah but you road in the BATMOBILE and got to press all the buttons!

Bayverse!Mikey: *sulking on the floor* LIFE ISN’T FAIR AND I HATE IT HERE!

Rise!Mikey: *pouting* I never get to meet my heroes! And when I do they turn out to be insane!

12 Mikey: Bro same! Chris Brandford was just a giant jerk!

87 Mikey: Bugman was pretty cool, though maybe a little weird. Still, he was no Justice Force or Batman!

07 Mikey: *whining* I just want the life you have! Why does god ALWAYS have favorites?!

Ronin!Mikey: *dramatic sigh of jealousy* He truly does.

[daydream-believin]

Like a Boiled Frog (you don't even scream) [Ch. 4]

[ start here!] + [next chapter]

Chapter summary: first day on the job. fazbear employees get free pizza. and here comes the boy

Warnings: if you didn't know what the word yiff meant im sorry, innuendo (unrelated to the yiff conversation), wait guys come back. i promise the yiff line is only like a "let me give you a tidbit of cursed knowledge" thing. just trust me. lmao

Word count: 4066

A/n: oopsie looks like i never properly put this up on tumblr lol sorry. ch 5 is basically done, just needs editing. it'll be out tomorrow maybe

Taglist: @spirit-of-the-hollow (sorry bout that wait, but hey, there won't be a wait for the next one if that helps)

“First off, you need to meet the band,”

“Okay…” you let Michael lead you into the dining room.

It’s now officially your first day here at Fazbear Entertainment. Strangely, those two other employees Mike mentioned were not here, just like they weren’t here yesterday. Thus, you were beginning to suspect he had been lying about their existence. Guess you’ll see tomorrow, when the restaurant officially opens to the public.

“The leading man is Bucket Bob,” he pointed to the mop bucket sculpture.

“Hello Bucket Bob.”

“Mr. Can-Do on the side,” he pointed to the garbage can with a balloon head.

“Hey I’m not sure I’m comfortable with him after what you said yesterday—“

“And my personal favorite, No. 1 Crate,” he waved to the sculpture with a flourish.

“Hello, No. 1 Crate,” you grinned.

“Together, they are ‘Trash and the Gang’.”

“Uh huh. Okay. Did you,” you tried your best not to giggle about this, “did you also make these all by yourself, Michael?”

“Yes, I did, thank you. I think they are a perfectly adequate placeholder for the band until Uncle Henry finishes the real animatronics,”

“These are trash sculptures,”

“They are fun and silly and great for children’s entertainment.”

“At least there’ll be Helpy,” you glanced towards the back room in which the little robot resided in for now.

“If he works…,” Michael grumbled as he left to go gather some papers from his office.

“He’ll work,” you fruitlessly called after him.

Sitting at the centermost table of the dining hall, you stared into the drawn-on eyes of Bucket Bob. You had the best seat in the house, after all. Perfect view of the entertainment.

You were warming up to them. They were silly and fun. Just not what you expected to be here at the infamous Freddy’s. And Mike made them, which was cute. Even if he obviously reserved his real talent for work on Helpy.

Still. Maybe y’all should put up a sign, a very big sign that’s hard to miss, that says “these characters will very soon be replaced with the real ones you actually associate with this place,” or maybe “Freddy’s gone on vacation, he’ll be back soon” so as to not ruin the magic. But seriously, that needed to be clearly stated if Mike had any hope at getting people to come back after the festival.

The kids might like No. 1 Crate, but you doubted the parents would…

Michael dumped an armful of promotional material on the table in front of you. You straightened your back,

“Like I said, Uncle Henry hasn’t finished the main four yet, but you’ll still need to know their names,”

He slapped down a poster onto the shiny surface of the table. There before you was a colorful lineup of four mechanical anthro characters and the slogan “Where fantasy and fun come to life” in a nicely shaped font. You could appreciate the retro design and artwork. Back when graphic design was good.

“That’s Freddy,” you pointed to the bear in a top hat nervously.

“That’s right Y/n, very good,”

At least you knew that.

“Do I get a Scooby Snack?”

“No, but I can go grab a handful of loose cheese real quick if you need that kind of incentive,” he snarked.

“That’s alright, I’m good…”

Looking down at the poster, you had this weird feeling in the pit of your stomach, but it was familiar, like an old friend. Didn’t make it a pleasant feeling in the slightest. It seemed like each time you came across this bear, the worse you felt.

Freddy’s smiling face was a beloved sight of many southwestern children, so you don’t know why his grin just made you feel like he wanted to hurt you. Must be Michael’s awful gory stories getting to your head.

Moving on, you sized up the rest of the half-body mascots, “now, who are these other bitches,”

Mike pointed to the blue— purple— blurple rabbit, “this is Bonnie,”

You clicked your tongue, shaking you head, “Oh, I’m going to slip up and call that thing Bunny all the time,”

“You just need to remember it for a couple days, it’ll be fine. Bonnie,”

“Bonnie,” you repeated.

“The chicken is Chica,”

“I see, because we have to make sure everyone knows she’s a girl to reassure them that whatever muppet relationship she has with one of the others is strictly heterosexual,”

Michael stuck a finger in the air, very excited at a chance to tell you that you were wrong, “Actually no! The only relationship we’ve established is in fact a loving gay partnership between Freddy and Bonnie,”

“WHAT,”

“See, because Freddy was Uncle Henry’s walk-around suit and Bonnie was Father’s. And those two were totally shagging,” he stage whispered this fact to you like it was hot gossip.

“Oh my god,” ah, the intrigue of old man yaoi, “so what, real messy divorce lead to your dad snapping?”

“No, the messy divorce was because of my dad ‘snapping’, as you put it,”

You placed your hand on his shoulder very seriously, “Okay, I need deets,”

“No,” he pointed towards the poster to bring your attention back to it, “We need to get back to work,”

“Come onnnn, you cannot just put out a hot steaming pot of tea and only let me have a sip.”

“Nope, work time,”

You put on the thematics, “Im dying of dehydration here, Mikey!”

He scoffed at the nickname, but didn’t tell you off this time, “Maybe later, okay?”

“Fine. Tell me about the pirate guy,” you crossed your arms, pouting.

Michael chuckled, “That’s my favorite. Foxy.”

“Oh, okay. That one should be easy to remember,” you tapped your finger on the face of the fox on the poster, “What makes him your favorite?”

“Because pirates are hella sick and foxes are objectively the coolest animal on the planet, with a range that spans the entire northern hemisphere, because the universe knows they’re totally righteous and deserve to be everywhere,”

“Wow,” so, an animal that’s both European and American, interesting, “It’s cute how you talk like Bill and Ted if they were a pleasure to have in class,”

He didn’t pay any attention to you and your bad flirting (if that’s what you call it), too busy having a staring match with the poster. He crossed his arms, holding them tighter against his chest. Some kind of comfort thing, you guessed.

“Foxes eat rabbits for breakfast, you know. They’re tough like that… Top of their food chain. Rabbits are nothing but weak, scared prey.”

Okay. Curious thing to say. Not sure what he meant by that. You followed his line of sight back to the poster. Was his dad the rabbit or the bear? You hoped it was the rabbit. Probably going to be a toxic work environment if he’s fighting with Henry.

Looks like things are getting a little introspective. While you’re at it, might as well get in some quality annoying Mike time. Because why be uncomfortable when you can be funny.

“…is Foxy also gay or?”

“No comment,”

Suspicious. Kay. Marking him down as possible bisexual disaster.

“Is he your fursona?”

“Is he my what?” his brows furrowed.

“Your fursona,”

“I— gesundheit?”

“… Do you have like, any concept at all of what a furry is?”

Micheal clenched his jaw, “No, I cant say I do?”

“Okay then. This can be a teaching moment,” you started grinning wide like a cheshire cat, and Mike just knew this was going give him the nastiest headache.

“Fine. Tell me while we hang the posters up,”he growled at you as he gathered up the papers from the table, along with handing you a roll of tape, “Come on, let’s figure put where we’re putting these.”

———-

Last night was a bit awkward, but at least you’ve got a roof over your head. You tried your best to be quiet on the ride to Michael’s apartment, but you could only keep your mouth shut for so long.

You tried not to annoy him, as he was currently opening up his home to you. For now anyway. You knew you weren’t the most pleasant person to be around, but at least that seemed the case for him as well. It was kind of comforting. You both seemed get along swimmingly but also easily push each other’s buttons at the same time.

In your defense, it’s not like the radio was playing anything good. The only non-mormon station was a top 40’s hits, so you were stuck with it. At least, that’s what Michael said when you started fiddling with the knob.

“So like, how does being a zombie work? Do you have to eat a bunch of chocolate so you don’t crave brains? Like Venom?”

“No. I don’t really have a stomach. But it’s fine. It’s not like I’m hungry or anything,”

“Hmmm. And you own a restaurant?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“You wouldn’t know if your food’s good,”

“Oh, it’s Not. I don’t need to eat it to know that,”

You chuckled, “Great. Love your confidence in your business. I should invest on ground floor,”

“Oh, trust me, Fazbear stock is totally going to go sky high soon. It would be smart to just put your whole life savings into it. You will surely not regret investing in Fazbear Entertainment,” he said sarcastically, with a sardonic grin to match.

The house was modest but actually really nice. Like. It was small and probably only had one bedroom, but that wouldn’t stop this thing from going for $600,000 nowadays. Maybe more, considering this was a tourist trap town.

“So like. I’m guessing you got this place before the housing crisis, huh?” you asked as he fumbled with the lock.

This was a pretty quiet neighborhood. There were scarecrows and pumpkins already up decorating stoops. You wondered if Michael knew any of them or if he avoided neighborhood barbecues like the plague.

“Oh yeah. Signed this mortgage in 2010,”

“Damn. That’s smart. And there I was stupidly doing my homework instead of becoming a real estate mogul,”

“Hindsight is 20/20,” he opened the door and ushered you inside.

Once inside, Mike flipped on a light that flooded the entire area in front of you.

“Wait,” he commanded.

He held up a hand, and you took your cue to stay behind him. The first thing you noticed about the interior of the house was how open it was. His focused glowing eyes scanned the room cautiously. And you guess he didn’t find whatever he was looking for, since he put the hand back down, and shuffled out of the hallway, expecting you to follow.

“So, here’s the couch,”

You nodded, taking in the piece of furniture in front of you that was to become your new bed. You weren’t expecting the green floral pattern, didn’t think Mike would be the type of guy to have an old lady’s sense of interior design. But this thing is probably ancient. Maybe he got it half-off at a Salvation Army in 1992 or something.

Michael removed the cushions, starting to transform it into a bed.

“Oh, it’s a pullout.“

“Comes in handy occasionally,”

“Co— OOF”

He had thrown a throw-pillow (pun not intended) at you, hitting you square in the stomach. But effectively shutting you up.

“Shut up,”

“You didn’t know what I was going to say,”

“Yeah I did.”

You let your eyes wander over the room, getting used to your latest temporary home, as you helped Michael set up the bed. His decor style was pretty mid century modern, beyond the couch, not that you were complaining. It matched the vibes of the place, clearly having been built in the 70’s. The wallpaper and shag carpet were charming and probably original to the house from the evident wear and tear.

He kept it tidy, by the looks of it, but the kitchen table was still covered in mechanical parts and a stack of books. Suppose he didn’t eat, so that was more his desk than anything. There definitely wasn’t any food in those cabinets, just books, which you could easily see because they had had their doors removed. Nothing could hide in those things. It reminded you of…

There was a glass door behind that table, letting blue moonlight shine through. But he had covered the thing in chicken wire, effectively barring anything from getting in or out if the glass was ever broken.

Off to the right was a hallway with three doors. One of those was probably the bathroom. You’ll ask Mike which it is once y’all are done with the bed. Because you needed a shower yesterday.

You looked over to Michael, who was staring at his kitchen. You followed his line of sight. There was no hum from the fridge, it probably wasn’t even turned on.

“We can go get some groceries tomorrow morning. So you don’t starve,” he looked apologetic, “I don’t really have anything here,”

“That’s okay. I wouldn’t expect you to, unless you had…” you fumbled for a non-offensive word because ‘normal’ definitely wasn’t it, “…not-dead people over all the time or something,”

Michael went and opened one of the doors in the hallway, revealing it as a closet. He had a substantial amount of bedding in there. Guess even zombies like to be comfy in cozy blankets.

“I don’t. Uncle Henry stops by every now and then but he brings his own food when he does,”

You fiddled with the quilt he had handed you as he dug around for a fitted sheet, “So… No partner? Or kids, or… anything?”

He laughed, “I’m a corpse, Y/n. Who in their right mind is going to be in a relationship with me,” finally having found the fitted sheet, he piled into onto the stack you were holding, “And if I had kids I’d be sending them to a boarding school as far away from here as possible.”

“That’s. Probably reasonable. The kids thing at least.”

“This door’s the loo, by the way,” he opened the door on the left to show you as y’all carried the blankets back to the couch-bed. Guess the one on the right’s his bedroom, through process of elimination. You wondered what a zombie’s bedroom would look like, but you got the feeling he wasn’t exactly going to give you a tour.

“All right, let’s finish this up, shall we? I didn’t get to sleep today since somebody was passed out on my floor,”

“Literally not my fault here, man,” you rebutted as you took the other end of the fitted sheet from him.

Not gonna lie, it was hard to fall asleep at first. New place, new spaces to feel uneasy about, new shadows to keep an eye on. Thankfully Mike seemed to be of a similar mind, and had eliminated a lot of points of worry. But despite this, you were still lying in a big open area with limited visibility. The darkness enveloped you like a thick blanket, tucking you in for the night, but being swaddled was never a good thing. A loss of motion, a loss of autonomy, sometimes suffocating.

Suffocating. That was the word. This darkness was oppressive.

You willed yourself to close your eyes and at least try to drift off. As uneasy as you felt, Michael had probably made it worse by demonstrating that he was sleeping with one eye open, so to say. At least he had obviously taken thorough steps to minimize danger in this space, the pale grid pattern shone onto the walls from the moonlight serving to remind you.

You took a deep lungful of air. This place smelled like a workshop, with motor oil, cigarette smoke, and gasoline being among the scents you could pick out. A comforting aroma then, almost like home. You tried your best to focus on that.

———

“And yeah, so fox furries are so common that the term ‘yiff’ just took off to mean any furry porn at all no matter what species. Anyone can yiff, theoretically. Which is kinda inspirational, when you think about it.”

Michael stared unblinking at the poster of Foxy y’all had just out up. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it. After looking at the floor for a few moments, he tried again,

“…I think we need to go take a little time to teach you how to make pizza. You’ll be working the kitchen as well as the dining room,”

And he marched off towards said kitchen. You followed like a puppy. While we’re in the spirit of talking about furries.

“So no comments, then?”

“I think I’m just going to pretend you didn’t say.. any of that to me. The whole conversation. Strike it from the record.”

“That’s. Completely fair,” you admitted as you ducked through the door he was holding for you.

“We’ve actually just been working in silence this whole time, didn’t you notice?”

“Must have spaced out,”

The kitchen door swung back and forth a little before closing. The hinge squeaked. That was going to get real annoying real fast.

“Okay, this is probably going to be the most exhausting part of either of our days, so let’s get this over with,” Michael grumbled.

You looked around the sparse little room. There was a refrigerated shelf stacked with dough balls in preparation for tomorrow’s grand opening. Hopefully you don’t ruin too many of them and have to spend all night here because Mike would have to make up for the lost dough.

“Start with dough, right?” you tentatively asked.

“Yeah, here, I set out one of the large ones earlier, since that’s the most common order,” he handed you the ball of dough he retrieved from the counter, after dipping it into a bowl of flour. You gingerly took it. Shit. How do you do this again?

“Um,”

“Here,” he took it back from you, placing it on the counter, “give me you hands,”

He opened his palms expectantly and you didn’t hesitate to place your hands in his. He turned his wrists, coming on top of your hands to hold them. It’s been a while since you’ve had skin contact, and you kinda hated how you couldn’t think about or feel anything else momentarily. Not now, brain.

“Now, first we’re going to divide the crust, like this,” you watched intently as he gently guided your fingers in a circular pattern, poking the dough ball.

“Your hands are cold,” you teased.

“Sorry,” he apologized but kept his hold on you, “now we’re going to stretch it out like this for a bit before “tossing” it,”

Michael guided your hands in an arcing pattern. He let go before gently picking up the dough to lay over a closed fist, stretching it out and moving it with the other.

“Like this, right?” you carefully watched Michael’s movements like there was going to be a test later, “now put up your dukes, it’s your turn,”

“Uhh,” you nervously did as Mike said, and he unceremoniously dropped the dough onto your hands.

You followed along, trying to replicate his actions. You actually weren’t half bad at this. Or at least you haven’t broken a huge hole in the disk yet. Thank god, because Michael watched you intently, and you were kinda feeling some performance anxiety with him over your shoulder like this.

“You’re a natural,” He continued to focus on the movement of your hands, relieved that this wasn’t going as bad it did with the last trainee, “Think we can try throwing it?

“Oh no. Unn-uhh. Do Not let me do that. It’ll be on the floor in record time.”

“Eh, this is Fazbear’s. You can just pick it back up.”

You looked a little disturbed, “That’s a joke, right?”

“Of course it is,” he patted the top of your head with his flour covered hand. Probably got a white handprint on there now. Gee thanks Mikey.

There on the counter were common food prep stainless steel containers with various pizza topping, and a big vat of sauce.

“What kind are we making?”

“Anything you want. It’s your lunch and dinner.”

“Do we have pineapple?”

“No,”

“I see,”

Michael took the ladle of that red stuff that was supposedly tomato sauce, pouring a few scoops onto the now properly sized dough disk, “So, we want about 4oz of sauce for a large, and thankfully the ladle is 1oz, so it’s easy to measure,”

Should you be taking notes…

Michael shifted the ladle to his other hand, grabbing your wrist with his now free dominant hand, and put the ladle in your grasp. And then he didn’t take his hand off of yours, guiding you to spread the sauce evenly. Completely unnecessary. You could spread things with a spoon just fine on your own, thanks. But your head felt fuzzy with him holding your hand, so you didn’t protest. Just how it be sometimes.

“And we want an even layer of cheese while also using as little of it as we can,”

You tried hard to mask the disappointment of him finally letting go of you in favor of grabbing a handful of cheese. Time to be jealous of (checks notes) some probably-fake shredded mozzarella.

“Man, this is a real classy joint, huh?”

“The classiest in town. Fuck Jeff,”

“I don’t personally know Jeff but yeah, fuck ‘im,”

You exaggeratedly held up your hand for a high five. Michael rolled his eyes but did indulge you. Even if it was the most half-hearted high five ever.

“So normally we put exactly fifteen pepperoni on a large pizza, but you can have one or two more this time,” he said with an inhumanly big fake smile.

“Wow, I feel soo special,”

“Very special, indeed,” he said sarcastically as he tapped his finger to your forehead. Asshole.

——-

You weren’t entirely sure about just leaving the pizza in the beat-up old pizza oven that Mike probably got from an unclaimed freight store, but he assured you it would be fine. And if you’re working both kitchen and floor then you have to leave them unsupervised anyway. Only a 20% chance of something catching on fire. It’s fine.

You watched as Michael tinkered with Helpy. It didn’t matter if he could get the robot working tonight or not, y’all needed to clear this table for customers to use.

The cutesy little white robot with his little pink cheeks still stared lifelessly on. Michael had wired and re-wired a bit for quite a while to no avail. It was actually getting kinda really frustrating, even as spectator.

Well, the pizza’s done anyway…

It was in fact mediocre at best! Good thing you like trash pizza because you got the feeling you were about to be eating a whole lot of it. Fazbear employees get free pizza, apparently. But Mike told you not to tell the others that. Maybe you are special after all.

“Oh good! Just in time, come here,” Michael called to you when you reappeared in the doorway, slice of pizza hanging from your mouth.

Guess he hit a breakthrough while you were gone?

“You ready? Moment of truth,” he rambled as he flipped a switch.

He held his hands frozen in the air, ready to put out any fires or catch any parts flying off. You both held your breath.

The robot came to life, the lights in his eyes quite literally lighting up.

Phew.

A curious one already, Helpy looked all around the room, taking in his surroundings. Guess he had an AI. Funny, you hadn’t taken Michael for a programmer. Maybe he was more tech-savvy than he let on.

Like a child, Helpy motioned for Mike to pick him up, which he gladly did. The little robot embraced him, and Michael awkwardly patted his back. Father and son. Adorable.

Reminded you of The Madonna, the way Michael gently held Helpy to his side. Hopefully that comparison stays with that.

The robot then turned his attention to you, and maybe it was scanning you. You had no clue the extent at which this thing was programed.

“Hi Helpy,” you waved to the bear, who waved back at you, “He works, Mike,”

“He works!” Michael’s grin was as wide as could be, “Welcome to the world, Helpy.”

[mostofthingsmostofthetime]

I just finished the first episode of Heartstopper, so here are some of my thoughts in no particular order.

The opening song is cool (will probably look up the shows soundtrack like I did with XO, Kitty).

Why did the camera focus so much on Charlie's bag & Elle's drink? Is it product placement?

Wow, no hate to the actor, but Charlie's eyebrows are THICK!!!!

Tori is beautiful but also kind of looks like a ghost (I think she’d be great for the role of  Violet Baudelaire from A Series Of Unfortunate Events) & why was she so pushy about the "dream guy" thing? Like let the poor boy breathe.

Is Nick's actor that much taller than Charlie's? I hadn't noticed.

I’m sorry, but knees are so weird to me lol. Also obligatory, 🎵 she's a runner she's a track star🎵.

Wait, is that PE teacher that will later interrupt the team theorising about Nick & Charlie's relationship? It's crazy how they’ve found actors who look so much like the characters in the graphic novels (other casting directors should take notes).

Ok fair enough about wanting your team to be good & wondering if the quiet, skinny, nerdy, boy is even into sports but the shit about him being gay is so stupid (bet it was Harry that said that).

Glad Charlie didn't get injured learning rugby, lol.

Nick's shorts seem a lot smaller than Charlie's ones do, but maybe that's the costume designer's way of helping Charlie’s actor look more skinny?

Omg Stephen Fry, what are you doing here lol?

Wow, people weren't kidding. Olivia Colman really did show up just to say one line. What a legend, lol.

Ben, did you really make Charlie walk all that way for such a lame ass kiss? Also, let him talk about his Christmas, you jerk!

I don't think that Form tutor is very good at his job (while Nick thankfully turned out to be nice) it’s usually not a great idea to put the skinny, gay, nerd that has already been bullied with the bigger, popular, seemingly straight, athlete, especially at an all boys school!

Ben, you dick. Like I get wanting to keep your relationship secret, but you did not need to pull the 'who the hell are you!' card. All you had to do was say hi in a confused/uninterested tone (then apologise later). If anything, your reaction came off more weird than what Charlie did.

I'm sorry, but I don't get the leaf animation. I mean, I GET it, just why leaves? Why not flowers or hearts or something? It just doesn’t seem that impactful to me, but maybe they have a deeper meaning that I'm just not grasping yet? If so, please let me know.

Ok, so I'm torn over the gay teacher. Like artistic? That's cool. Those glasses? Cute. Him giving Charlie a safe space to eat lunch? Great. Him being worried over Charlie potentially being bullied again? Awesome (take notes, Form guy), but his advice to Charlie seemed slightly lacking. Obviously, honesty & communication are important in relationships, but I'm a little surprised that possible safety concerns weren't addressed at all, especially from a fellow gay guy. Like I get that he doesn’t know the kind of guy Charlie's "dating" & that just because someone doesn't want to come out yet doesn’t mean they should be labelled as dangerous but internalised homophobia can make some people lash out & after everything Charlie's been through his clearly more likely to be vulnerable to situations like that.

Nick is a golden retriever in human form, they're 100% correct 😊.

Isaac? What happened to Aled? I hope he still shows up. He may be quiet, but he was so cute during Charlie's 15th birthday in the graphic novel.

Interesting to get to see Elle's time at Higg's (fuck that transphobic teacher & whoever was throwing sandwiches at her). Sad she doesn’t have any friends but I'm sure that'll change when she meets Tara & Darcy. Wow, is it strict over there, though, like you can't even be on your phone at lunchtime? Damn! Surprised they did it this way, though, as I was assuming they'd just make Truham co-ed so all the characters could be in the same place.

Tao, my guy, the drink thing is sweet but that hair is.....certainly.....a choice 😅.

The shots of Charlie looking at food, without eating, make me ☹️.

I gotta be honest, the montage of Nick & Charlie saying hi to each other was a little cringy to me compared to how it came across in the graphic novel, but they're meant to be teens, so I'll let it slide. It's also an effective way to highlight how differently Charlie's "boyfriend" treats him compared to an acquaintance.

Ben's hand covering up Nick's smiley face got me like ☹️/😠. They're not even together yet & I already felt like telling him to get off Charlie, like that boy is not for you! It’s ridiculous, lol.

Ben what you did was fucked up but it's hard to be scared of someone who looks so much like a meerkat in a wig (no hate to the actor) also did it seem like he just....skidded away when Nick pulled him off Charlie? Like, was the actor wearing Heelys lol? Or had someone just mopped the floor without telling anyone? Also, it's lame to wear a coat when you're cold? What in the toxic masculinity are you fucking on about Ben?

Omg the bathroom scene was so adorable, but I wanna know what kind of pen Nick was using because being covered in that amount of ink is crazy 😆.

Overall, it's very cute. I like Nick & Charlie. It’ll probably take a bit longer for me to really care about the other characters. Ben can catch these hands! And I’m looking forward to watching the Narlie relationship develop.

So while not overly ground breaking (though obviously important for LGBTQ+ rep) it's definitely enjoyable in a comforting sort of way which (considering medias fascination with marginalised suffering) is obviously important for queer youth but also must be quite healing for queer elders. Because you deserve wholesome, cheesy, romance just as much as anyone else.

[severalforraelee]

WikiHow: Elias Pettersson x Reader

Photo credits to DocSports

Word count: 2,189

Written by raelee / Posted August 8

Masterlist

NHL Masterlist

I watch the two players through my phone screen, their polished shoes carrying them past me. My finger turns off the recording and I watch as it replays the scene.

“How’d it turn out, Y/N?” Nils asks, briefly stopping next to me to watch the video.

“Probably the same as every other video that she takes of us,” Elias mutters.

I can practically feel the disapproving look that Nils gives him.

“It’s kind of my job,” I murmur back, adding a quick caption on the video about Sweden before posting it.

My soles push me into a standing position and my body turns around. Nils is still paused next to me, probably waiting for me to start walking so that we can walk in together, while Elias is standing a few feet away, shifting from one foot onto the other and glaring at me with impatience.

I look around for a saving grace- and I find it in the form of a 5’10 defenseman.

“I, uh, I actually have to talk to Quinn about something,” I stutter out an excuse.

Nils frowns at me, clearly telling that it’s a lie, but Elias is already moving before anything else can be said, and Nils is forced to follow behind his friend.

I breathe a sigh of relief as soon as the taller Swede enters through the doors into the building and a laugh echoes through the parking garage.

“You don’t actually have to talk to me about something, do you?” Quinn questions.

“No,” I confess, “I just needed to leave that situation ASAP.”

“He’s Swedish, it’s just how they are,” he responds to my unanswered question.

It’s his response everytime Elias is rude to me- which is often. Ever since I joined the Canucks last year as their social media coordinator, Elias has been cold and distant towards me.

It started small at first. He wouldn’t respond to my hellos, he would begrudgingly agree to be in videos and photos to post online, then comment that he was only doing it for the fans. But over time he’s become ruder. He’ll make snide comments whenever he gets the chance and at times he’ll even decline being in photos or videos just so that he doesn’t have to interact with me.

I don’t know what I did wrong.

I’ve been kind to him since the beginning, even now when he’s being mean to me I won’t be mean back to him.

Quinn doesn’t know what I did, Brock doesn't know what I did, and Nils doesn’t know what I did wrong and they’re his three closest friends here. They keep telling me that I should ask him and have an honest conversation with him about our feelings, but I’m a non confrontational person, so that’s my last resort.

For now I’ll just deal with the little quips here and there.

“Good luck tonight, Quinn.”

“Thanks,” he grins at me.

What I don’t see is Elias standing across the room from us, eyes locked on the interaction and gleaming with jealousy.

~

“Great job tonight, boys,” I hear Conor cheer from all the way across the bar. It’s obvious that he’s already had one too many drinks.

Samantha, the graphic designer for the Canucks, and I roll our eyes with smiles at the interruption, returning to our conversation about our plans over the short winter break.

“Hey, Y/N,” Conor shouts.

My eyes shift back to the tall man, watching as he holds up a pink drink and shakes it around with a cheeky smile. I give him a thumbs up with a laugh.

“What’s that about?” Samantha asks.

“I’ve been trying to get him to try this drink for months now, it’s really good,” I explain.

“Looks like someone’s a little jealous,” she sings.

My lips curve downwards at her words and my eyes scan around the room for someone who looks jealous. They pass over Quinn and Nils playing darts, then Brock ranting enthusiastically to a few of his teammates, and over Elias who sits quietly next to Brock, gaze downcast while he sips on his drink.

“Who?” I question, confused.

“Elias,” she says, like it’s obvious.

I watch Elias as his gaze flickers up and onto Conor, eyebrows scrunched and teeth clenched like he’s studying him. He stares at the right winger for a little bit, then his eyes flicker over to me. As soon as his blue eyes connect with mine, they flit back onto his drink, like he was caught doing something wrong.

Now my eyebrows scrunch, and I’m even more confused.

What would he be doing wrong by looking at Conor? Or looking at me?

“I don’t get it,” I breathe out.

“It’s because he likes you.”

My head snaps towards Samantha. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I got caught in the moment, so focused on Elias that I forgot that she was sitting right next to me, or the words that left her mouth that catch me off guard more.

“Elias doesn’t like me,” I deny, rolling my eyes at the mere thought of it.

“You are so oblivious,” she groans.

“He’s mean to me, he doesn’t like me,” I repeat.

“He’s mean to you because he likes you,” she explains.

“What? That doesn’t make sense, we’re not in middle school anymore, we’re adults.”

“It doesn’t have to make sense,” she shrugs. “Sometimes boys are so stupid that they think being mean to you will make you like them. Playing hard to get or something.”

I shake my head, wanting to get the thought of Elias liking me off my mind. It’s not something that I’ve ever considered before, and it’s not something that I want to consider now. I thought that it’s common sense to treat those that you appreciate with kindness and respect, but he treats me the opposite of that. “Let’s talk about something else.”

A few hours go by before I’m ready to head home, wanting to slip into bed and give my body a well deserved rest.

“I’m heading out,” I inform the table consisting of a few players, everyone else gone already.

“Alright,” Conor rises to his feet, pulling me into a hug. “Text me when you get home.”

“I will,” I tell him, “Bye, everyone.”

They all give me drunk goodbyes as I head towards the front door of the bar. As I walk, I can’t help but feel eyes on my back, as if someone is watching me. While my hand yanks open the door, I glance behind me, locking eyes with Elias. He watches as the door closes behind me.

~

“Can you skate?” Brock asks, watching over the boards as Quinn finishes tying my laces. 

“Not at all,” I shake my head. “But I did read WikiHow’s instructions before coming here today.”

It’s the day of the family skate. Last year I was able to get out of skating by using my work as an excuse, but today I was told to put the phone down and just enjoy the family skate.

I mentally cursed at my boss when he told me that.

“Quinn’s probably the worst person to teach you how to skate,” Ethan comments as he skates past.

Quinn curses at his teammate before holding his hands out, helping me step onto the ice.

“Push off with the left foot,” Quinn instructs.

“WikiHow says to march.”

“Well, as a professional hockey player, I’m telling you to push,” he snarks.

“This is going to be good,” Brock leans against the boards with a smirk, crossing his arms over his chest.

Nils and Elias stop next to Brock, watching as I fall for the fifth time in less than a minute.

“Is he teaching her how to skate?” Nils inquires.

“Yeah. It’s not going well so far,” Brock responds.

Elias doesn’t say anything, he just watches as I fall again.

Ethan’s right, Quinn is an awful teacher. He gets frustrated after ten minutes, storming off to skate some laps to cool down. Brock tries next but has to stop because he laughs so hard every time I fall down- which is often. Nils is too nice to correct my techniques or form, so his teaching style fails. Conor tries as well, before deciding that it’s no use and I just don’t have the skills to learn how to skate, and even poor Ethan tries before I tell him to just leave me.

“What are you doing?” A Swedish accent asks as I place one foot on the pavement to step off the ice.

“Going to sit down,” I say it like a question, confused on why Elias wants to know my whereabouts.

“You’re going to give up? Just like that?”

I sigh. “I’m just not meant to ice skate, Elias. It’s okay, it’s not a skill that I need to have.”

It’s his turn to sigh, like what I said really annoyed him. He holds a hand out towards me. “Come on.”

I stare at him in disbelief. “What?”

He gives me a blank expression. “You heard me.”

I reluctantly put my hand in his and he tugs me back onto the ice. He moves behind me, hands resting on my hips.

“Push off gently with your left foot only using your toes,” he instructs.

My foot does as he says and I stumble before one of his hands moves to my stomach, straightening me back up. Then it slides back to my hip.

I look up, knowing that if I stare at my feet any more I’ll lose balance. I accidentally catch eyes with Samantha, who smirks at me and mouths ‘I told you so.’

I roll my eyes at her.

“Are you even listening to me?” Elias questions.

“Yes.”

“What did I just say?”

“... I don’t know.”

He huffs, repeating the instructions. I move forward, slowly but surely. After ten minutes of almost falling down but Elias catching me everytime, the frustration begins to take over my body.

“Elias, really, it’s alright, you don’t need to help me with this,” I attempt to reassure him.

“No, you’re going to learn how to skate.”

“Why do you want me to learn how to skate so badly?” I ask him the question that I’ve been wondering since we started this lesson.

“Because you’re so determined with everything, you can’t give up now.” The tone of his voice is almost harsh, but his words are kind. I want to ask him why he cares if I give up now because he hates me, but I don’t want to irritate him and cause him to leave me in the middle of the ice by myself.

I’m sure Brock would love to see that, though.

So instead, I ask, “You think that I’m determined?”

He pauses, stopping me as well. “Do you remember the team's Halloween party last year?”

“Yeah… You, Brock, Quinn, and Nils dressed up as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, right?”

“Yeah,” he nods, “And you spent a long time trying to get the perfect photo of us in the right poses, like a really long time, like a super-””I get it, Elias.”

He chuckles at the interruption. 

“I just remember watching you look at the poses, adjusting Nils’ arm or Brock’s leg, and thinking about how determined you were to get a good picture. And if you were that determined to get a good picture of a Halloween party for Instagram, I couldn’t help but think about how determined you would be in other aspects of your life. And over the past year or so, you’ve really amazed me.”

I’m frozen in place, breathless. I didn’t realize that such a simple question would cause Elias to become vulnerable with me, much less compliment me. He noticed and admired my personality despite not liking me.

His skates glide him in front of me, and his hands move from my hips to grab my gloved hands.

Like he read my mind, he says, “I don’t hate you, Y/N. I’ve never hated you. In fact, I admire you, a lot. But I’ve never had the confidence to tell you, and you’re just so smart and pretty and too good for me and-”He stops, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.

His cheeks are turning red and a bashful expression takes over his face.

“I like you. I really like you.”

“Elias,” I say softly, “Why couldn’t you have just told me that instead of being mean to me?”

“Because I’m childish,” he murmurs.

“We’ll have to work on that.”

“We?��

“Yeah,” I smile gently at him, “I like you too. I really like you.”

His lips move forward, resting against mine and moving slowly. My lips move in sync with his and my arms wrap around his neck, pulling him closer to me as his hands gravitate back towards my waist.

It would be a romantic moment, it really would be, if we weren’t surrounded by a bunch of hockey players.

The cheering and hollering breaks the intimacy of the moment, but it sparks smiles from both Elias and I.

[archoneddzs15]

Super Famicom - Shin Kidoh Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Duel

Title: Shin Kidoh Senki Gundam Wing: Endless Duel / 新機動戦記ガンダムW(ウイング): ENDLESS DUEL

Developer: Natsume

Publisher: Bandai

Release date: 29 March 1996

Catalogue Code: SHVC-AEDJ-JPN

Genre: 2D Fighting

No. of Players: 1-2

Gundam Wing was the first Anime that I watched that was not kid-focused like Dragon Ball Z or Pokemon. When I saw it on TV, I was blown away by how amazing the robots were, how cool the art was, and how it blended war drama with awesome space combat. How cool would it be to play a game where these giant robots could battle each other?! Little did I know that in Japan, a Super Famicom game was released that allowed this very thing. It is a crying shame it never saw a Stateside release.... that is until this very game got an English fan translation. Nice!

The game does a poor job of explaining what the actual story is – mainly because it is in Japanese (which is a language that I do not speak), but it doesn’t really matter because giant awesome-looking mechs are fighting each other all over the place. This is a fighting game built around the design of Street Fighter 2 or maybe Super Street Fighter 2, perhaps? Players select their own giant robot to do battle with against one another. There are a total of 10 robots to do battle with, with each one having unique button combinations to do special moves. In addition, they also have different stats like speed, defense, power, and weapon strength. I played many of the characters and they all felt quite different with lots of cool moves for each.

In terms of controls, each mech has a strong and weak punch, and a strong and weak weapon attack. Each mech also has a counter of 300 power below its life bar which shows how much backup energy for attacks they have. Power attacks take between 100 and 200 power, and shooting a machine-gun-like attack takes it down one at a time. Without this power, you cannot do all the cool fancy destructive moves. It gained be regained though! If you block or use regular attacks, it will refill, and you can unleash some new devastating attacks. There is one last cool feature – you can jet around in your mech! While mechs are somewhat sluggish, if you hit two buttons at once (I think strong punch and strong weapon) plus a direction, you can jet in any direction. What’s even cooler is that do a second jet at the end of your first, so you can jet up, then towards your enemy, and do a dropkick on his head all in one attack. This ability really made me feel like I was fighting in a mech!

While there is the traditional arcade mode where you battle against the computer against all ten mechs, the main fun of this game really is the awesome multiplayer. There are no special options, but it is just a blast bashing each other into the ground! In terms of graphics, this is one of the most beautiful 2D games that I have ever seen. The animations are smooth and there is little to no slowdown! I don’t know how they did it, but they did! The special attacks and beam swords all look great too, and the set pieces for each level really help to see the scale of how large these machines actually are! In terms of music, this game also dominates. I can’t count how many times I looped the intro song when writing this review. Most if not all of the songs help produce a sci-fi war atmosphere that suits this style of game. The sound effects also make it even more satisfying to pummel your friends into the ground.

Next to Street Fighter Zero 2 and maybe the SFC version of Fatal Fury Special and World Heroes, this is my favorite fighting game on the SFC. It’s beautiful, fun, and has giant mechs that battle each other! With a bunch of pals over, this game is endlessly replayable. While the game was never released stateside, there are numerous game sites that produce reproductions of the game. 

[foxsoulcourt]

Snapshots from Foxy (not Harriet) on this last day of 007 Fest 2024

WHAT A MONTH!

Thanks to mods @castillon02 + @spiritofcamelot for designing a CoMpLeTeLy different framework for Fest this year! From my perspective your work behind the scenes helped support a lighthearted energy throughout the event, a gift I didn't know I needed until I experienced it. Loved how C A L M the event was 💜

While I didn't have the spoons to keep on top of what I felt like I was supposed to do in response to The Big Sleep, nor did my alter ego (Harriet the unassuming cheese-monger) make an appearance after her introduction, it didn't matter. Because you all made it fun to play along anyways! I had a GRAND time.

DEAR CREATIVE HUMANS, here's how I invested in Fest this year:

Thoroughly enjoyed reading and commenting on as many fics as I could read

Laughed, gasped, sighed at your many Tumblr posts and then reblogged them

Ditto for all the headcanons by new and familiar authors

GASPED, GahhHHhed, laughed, wept at all the song-related content from RADI00Q to others who did their own version of song + graphics

Admired all.the.posts with photo manips, moodboards and art and then reblogged those.

Watched Casino Royale and peeked in Discord + Slack occasionally

All y'all created a LOT of FABULOUS content! My heart has been stretched, broken, repaired, and more.

Thanks to all.of.you who participated this year for the first time! Enjoyed getting to get to know you a bit through your work.

Thanks to those of you who are long time Festies! It was a delight to see your work on my dash + in my inbox.

. . . . . . . . .

During Fest in my corner of the world Life did a lot of Life-ing: went back to work after a nearly six year sabbatical, COVID round 2, family stuff, etc. Minus the COVID it's been great, but definitely a drain on the life force energy battery. I created nil original Fest content, but I took a lot of pictures, so here you go:

A song I heard today which immediately made me think of 00Q

Flowers and sights from around my fair city, including a shot of the cold box where --in my new cheese-monger and grocery job-- we store perishables, including the cheeses I get to order and sell to customers

Snaps from a L o V e L y visit to The Big Sky state where we visited friends, saw M A N Y birds, and got to spend a lot of time in, near, or on water

Signing off for a bit. However, we’re gonna keep fanperson-ing and reblogging each other’s post after Fest, amirite? 😉🤣🤭

[sugar-phoenix]

unfinished rought unedited short story about vampires

alright so the winning vote out of the polls was "yes" so I'm deciding to post my unfinished short story draft here because I'm too impatient to wait until i finish it to post it

My new roommate is a vampire.

How do I know this? Simple.

Johnny Robert-Mulligan told me, about a week after he moved in.

“Now you seem like a respectable man, Daniel, so I'll tell you straight up: I'm a vampire.”

I nodded, thinking that he was joking or high or something.

“I will be having blood packets delivered to me each week. You need not make dinner for two. And don't invite your friends over on nights of full moons unless you want them to be sucked dry.”

We stared at each other for a moment. It was then that I realized that he was being completely serious. And then, he laughed, quite loudly, which scared the wits out of me.

“I'm just kidding, of course,” he said, chuckling.

“Oh, thank God. I thought you were actually a vampire there for a moment.”

“No I am, I am a vampire. I was joking about the full moon thing. That's a werewolf thing, not a vampire thing.”

I only stared at him in shock again.

“Oh, don't tell me you believe in werewolves? Those are completely made up.”

“Well,” I responded, “until five minutes ago I didn't think of the possibility of either vampires or werewolves being real.”

And thus began our odd friendship, of which I learned a great deal about vampires. As it turned out, vampires were a lot less untouchable than I had previously thought.

“Is it true that vampires die from a stake to the heart?” I asked one lazy Sunday afternoon, while we were watching the game. The ads were rolling, and I was eager to take this chance to ask my new roommate more about himself.

“Technically speaking, a stake to the heart could kill anything. You could also kill me by stabbing me, shooting me, running me over, throwing me off a cliff,” Johnny proceeded to count off his fingers. “Anything that would kill you would kill me.”

“Oh, I see. I guess that makes sense.”

“We're not immortal either,” he added, taking a sip out of his Coke can. Although soda did nothing for him in terms of sugar intake or energy, he told me that he had gotten quite hooked on the taste.

“You aren't?”

“No, we're just extremely long lived. I think my great grandfather lived for almost 600 years.”

I let that sink in.

“How old are you, Johnny?”

“I think I'm turning 197 this year.”

I turned to look at him.

“That would mean you've lived through both of the World Wars.”

“Oh yes, I did. I don't remember anything though, I was too young. You see, vampires only reach adulthood at around 150 years of age.” He took another sip of his soda. “You know, come to think of it, my parents might have stolen blood from the opposing sides to keep us fed. I think there was a movement or something. ‘Make The Nazis Paler’ and all that.”

“I see.”

And then the ad roll finished, and we were back to watching the game.

 I neglected to mention that Johnny was roommates with me because we were both enrolled in a local college. I was undertaking my bachelor’s in graphic design, which meant that I was more often than not buried under design projects, the likes of which could run from posters to redesigning entire corporations. Thusly, I would often have myself shut in my room during the busier weeks, specifically midterms and finals.

Johnny told me that he hadn’t decided what his major was, and that he was simply experiencing what college was like. He doubted that he’d have a use for it, to which he told me his mother disagreed, since he would at least need to take a job of some sort and make money, but what was the use if it was only going to last him so long and in about 300 years it would probably become obsolete?

I only nodded and hummed to his explanation. I didn’t quite like thinking about these things. Everything seemed so impermanent when you were a vampire, and as a relatively short-lived human, it was creepy to think about.

Thankfully, Johnny got along quite well with my friends. He didn’t have any friends of his own, which I thought was strange, but it’s possible that he drove them away with his casual talk of things that happened long ago. If you didn’t know he was a vampire you’d probably think he was a freakish nerd of some sort. But because Johnny was my roommate, and because he got along with my friends, they were apt to invite him along with me whenever they had parties.

It was at one of these house parties that Johnny met Cynthia. She was a psych student, and she often twirled her hair around her finger like as if she could will it to curl just by doing so. She always had one or two girlfriends around that she talked to, and rarely did she talk to anyone outside of them. But for whatever reason, she caught Johnny’s eye.

“I think she’s a vampire,” he said to me one day, as I was trying to work with the pressure-cooker in our kitchen.

“Yeah?”  The contraption hissed steam at me, and I prayed it wouldn’t take my eye out. “What gave you that idea?”

“I think—no, I know she’s a vampire. She’s got that quality about her.”

“What quality?”

“Vampire quality. You know, we can sense each other out.”

“I see.” I didn’t particularly believe him, but I wasn’t going to say that either. What do I know, perhaps vampires did have a sixth sense for each other, and perhaps this was what was happening, rather than my initial theory that Johnny had a big fat crush on Cynthia and was secretly hoping she was just like him. Of course, I kept all this to myself.

“Go and speak to her then,” I said.

“What? No. Women must be approached carefully, Daniel, otherwise you risk spooking them away.”

“You speak as though they’re skittish deer. I think you’re just scared of talking to her.”

“Scared? No. I’m simply being strategic.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Strategic, scared. Either way, you haven’t talked to her yet.”

“I will talk to her. Soon. Next chance I get. I plan on it.” I nodded, gingerly lifting the lid of the pressure cooker to reveal the pasta and sauce within.

divider by cafekitsune!

[sschmendrick]

ok i've been meaning to send this ask all day but never caught the time. I see so much haikyuu on your blog lately! Tell me more! (funny thing is we are doing a rewatch at home too!) tell me your story and EVERYTHING you want. And also!!!! i can see you shipping hinata and kenma?

OK ok, strap yourself in because I cannot guarantee that this will make any sense. But I’ll do my best.

To be off to a great start, I do not remember how I got into Haikyuu. One day it wasn’t and the next it was. From pictures I have I can say that I was into Haikyuu in my last year of middle school (so 2015-2016). By then I already had mangas but I’m pretty sure I was first attracted to it by the anime so I’d already seen the first season (and maybe the second too) and I had started buying the mangas.

(I shall put a read more here cause this post is LONG, beware!!)

Pictured below is one of my productions during my mandatory stage de troisième. I was in a graphic design agency and I was shy so I’d eat real fast at lunch time and use the rest of the time drawing and my supervisor saw me one day and offered to give me an exercise around it that would make me both enjoy what I was doing and also understand more stuff about graphic design. He was awesome. He really went with all my little cringe interests and encouraged me. The exercise he gave me was to create a cover for Haikyuu. I had a lot of fun with the lettering, understanding the dimensions and everything. He then made me create a brand, understanding why brands are called what they are, making my own logo, and then I worked on one of their (maybe) projects.

(top is the cover I did, the second one is what I was working on when he gave me the assignment, last on is me being crazy and drawing yaoi in a room full of adults at 14 and them going good job, you wanna keep drawing ?)

Yes I already had a favourite character but it will become more apparent soon. I got really into volleyball because Haikyuu made it look so cool. I was never a sports guy so it was really hard to want to have fun while being so bad with endurance and athleticism. All I had to my name was my flexibility because of dancing for years. Once again I think I was very lucky with the people I met. My PE teacher was really nice and could have just let me skip the class but he didn’t. Wait no, this needs more context. I didn’t have many friends in middle school. I spent the first year with nobody. The second year someone approached me and more or less dragged me in the world of people and friends (once again, I met an amazing person that was just selflessly nice to me). She got me speaking to people and I met my friends through her. My best friend from elementary had abandoned me in a matter of days after we started middle school so I felt very awkward in all situations. Anyway, I had a few people I hung out with but that was about it. I wasn’t exactly the bestest of friends with them but they accepted me even if I was awkward and didn’t talk much. They all knew each other for a while and were much closer (and popular), so when PE would come around I didn’t have anyone to pair up with. SO, my teacher instead of turning a blind eye offered to help me with the volley practice (this was in quatrième (before last year of middle school) if I remember right ? but it must not have been before I learned about haikyuu). He took the time to make me practice everything and explain everything and honestly I think that helped a lot with my general technique cause otherwise there’s a lot I would not have understood or just learned wrong and would have to readjust when I got to high school.

Back to last year of middle school. My mind has been overtaken by Haikyuu cause it’s brilliant. I dabble in cosplay and I have no money I can use to buy an aliexpress one (yes the dreaded website but we would go there at the time haha) but I want to cosplay Haikyuu. Lucky me, I have found a group of cosplayer on Paris for the next Paris Manga that’s doing Haikyuu ! I was so pumped up. And they didn’t have my character but they did have his partner so we were all excited about it :) My parents were not very thrilled about it all because I was still just 14 and they were mostly adults but my mom still helped me make my own jersey! I still have it but I’m 100% sure it doesn’t fit anymore :’) Here is me starting to fall for the sport and the cosplay progress pictures I still have

(still so proud of it, I did everything by hand !! and last pic is me with a volley ball cause I was a little deranged already)

Yes I was Akaashi, I loved that character. Acting all polite but an overthinker much with a dash of mischievous and admiration for the people around him. Also nothing grand about him like so many of the characters, but he could still hold up with them. I think I have somewhere on my computer a picture of our group but first I don’t know where it is and second you can only see my face on it so I have no picture of my finished cosplay haha. The con was amazing, I had so much fun with these people, we started hanging out a little more often and going to all the anime cons around Paris as a group and we did more group cosplays. I loved it. However at this con I lost my phone and it was in February so when I needed my dad to come pick me up I had to wait for 45 minutes in short shorts and a thin jersey :’)

After that I kept enjoying Haikyuu as one does, and high school started. Oh high school, a lot happened there. First thing I did was being reborn ! And even though it wasn’t much and only social it helped me be a little more free already. Free enough to allow myself to pursue a certain sport I was looking forward to. Yeah I got the volleyball bug. I was so happy my high school had a volleyball “club” and the first day of it we were only two. It was me and another guy, even smaller than me, who had also loved Haikyuu but we didn’t talk much about it. He was just as fired up about it as I was and we really pushed each other to become better. I don’t know what he’s become now but I hope he kept playing volleyball.

Anyway we were off to a great start with…two players. But still our coach/PE teacher was kind enough to teach us. We managed to have a few more people to come now and then but it was rough the first year. In my three years (well two but that’ll come later) we never had 6 “full time” people in the club so any kind of competition, even to get completely massacred by the other teams, was out of the question sadly. We would play on a concrete court ! It was REALLY rough haha ! But these courts were situated in a sort of closed courtyard space that was surrounded by school buildings and on the top floor were the Prepa classes (preparatory classes to get in higher education schools like engineering private schools for anyone not French reading this). Unlike the rest of my classmates, they liked playing volleyball. They were soooo tall compared to us but they would play with us and teach us some stuff and they were really good compared to us. Thanks to them we got the actual practice we needed cause you can’t learn enough by just playing 3x3 or worse 2x2 with people who can barely keep the ball in play (I was one of these people, I get to trash talk past me).

In my first year of high school I was taking riding lessons at the military school since we wouldn’t be able to go to our family’s house village with the more apparent divorce and moving out and other difficulties. It was an experience and I don’t regret doing it but it wasn’t a great place. I stopped the next year. And then…then I have memory problems. I cannot remember if it was during my second or last year of high school that I did it, but I would say it was during my second year of high school, that I entered an outside volleyball club. It was a Sunday lesson, it was all adults and it was for beginners. We would mostly do matches but sometimes they would focus on serves or hitting (I only remember one lesson about it though lol). It was super cool, I got to play volleyball on the Wednesday with my school club, whenever at lunch break when the Prepa were playing, and the Sundays at my outside club. By then, I don’t think I was reading or watching much of Haikyuu. I think I might have gotten my adhd ass hooked on something else while waiting for the next season and I had fallen in love with volleyball for the playing not just Haikyuu by then. Also something that I’m working on (and I’ve noticed it has gotten better already) is that I have a hard time appreciating watching people do something I love (usually a sport) as much as I appreciate doing the sport. For example, I never enjoyed watching any horse jumping competition even though I love doing it. I think it might come from the fact that I am bad at the things I love and therefore cannot truly appreciate what’s going on. As of right now I watch volleyball matches and rallies and really enjoy it.

Last year of high school rolls around the corner and…our PE teacher/coach tells us that they are closing the club down cause we aren’t enough and she would rather not run from our practice to the badminton’s practice (that she also coaches) and only work with the badminton’s club. After all they had the regional and potential national champions there meanwhile we had no hope of ever participating in a competition. And I had learned at my last lesson at my outside club that since we weren’t enough coming to the practice they would close down their beginner lesson. It was a bit of a shock to go from two practice per week to none at all. I missed volleyball. I accepted to participate at the badminton’s practices (cause it’s also a sport I like but at leisure, not on a competitive level, and less than volleyball) but it was just to keep me doing something. What happened though is I got to choose which sports I wanted for my BAC (high school diploma) since I was in a club the year prior and I chose the one with volleyball and I aced that. I only resented the top players of our group a little cause it wasn’t their sport at all but since they were pretty athletic and good at sports in general they had no problem being good at it when it took me sooooo long :’) yes I am petty.

Then I don’t know what the heck happened. Well yes I know but I don’t know why when I arrived in Montreal in my school I didn’t try to get into the volleyball club. Anyway, I didn’t play for a whiiiiile, years ! And the only reason I did again was because my best friend’s parents ( @nyaoi-warrior ) invited me to play with them and their friends when I visited. I was bad at communicating when I was playing in France (I often forget to say “j’ai”) but this was in Czech Rep, and we couldn’t communicate in English. It was HARD but I had so much fun !! My team lost all of the sets but it was so cool :D

Recently I was looking for something in my old stuff in the basement of the building. I didn’t find it but what I did find were my old Haikyuu manga. And oh god the flame it awoken in me. So anyway here is me a few weeks later with a volley ball in my hands, I’ve found a place I can sneak in just for the end of the year and I’ve been looking at clubs I can enter (and hopefully get better and then do some competition).

Now more about Haikyuu. What an amazing sports manga/anime it is. Of course, with the protagonist being a spiker most people when they start volleyball because of Haikyuu want to spike. I was lucky enough to be in the tall half of my year in high school but now I am tiny compared to most volleyball players. And a thing I love in volleyball I quickly discovered is diving for the ball. I’d be running far back or on the side, sliding until my knees burn to keep that ball in play. I thank Haikyuu for giving each role a time in the spotlight in almost every game they play, cause with what we learned in my school club or outside club I would never have heard of the libero. Ofc when you play for leisure having a libero is a bit meh but now I know that if I ever want to play competitive this is the role I should gun for (or maybe setter but I’m still pretty small so idk).

I just finished watching the season 4 recently and I’m on my way to catch up, and then finish with the scans (and then buying the mangas too). I got spoiled about what happens at the nationals after season 4 and what happens after, the time skip etc but just in the grand lines and I’m fine with that. I don’t think that it takes away from it too much. And (IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AFTER/DURING TIME SKIP DON’T READ BUT ALSO WE WON’T HAVE A FULL TIME SKIP ANIMATED SO IF YOU’RE JUST WATCHING THE ANIME I’D SAY MIGHT AS WELL READ IT BUT ALSO IT’S EVERYWHERE SO YOU MIGHT KNOW IT ALREADY) I freaking love Hinata in Brazil. It’s very funny to me too cause here is this little dude who got me into volleyball, with whom I had an anime-level betrayal and tragedy with my clubs, and now I’m learning Portuguese because of my Brazilian friends and I wanna go to Brazil and HE WENT TOO ?? That was hilarious to me. Maybe I should look into beach volleyball hehehe.

About the ships; I started with the “basic” ones, the most obvious ones that come from the strong bonds and non-stop interactions and how they are shown as more or less pairs by the manga/anime (so kagehina, asanoya, daisuga, bokuaka, etc etc etc) but I am a multi shipper now. I don’t know I have a much more relaxed approach to shipping now, especially for big casts where there isn’t clear cut villains, same with one piece. They all have great relationships with everyone around them and I like many of them. And yeah I stumbled upon kenhina recently and I really like their dynamic. I love kagehina just as much, and also the hilarious way Hinata seems to fascinate all setters. I have seen some really funny tsukkihina fanarts too. I’ve put a lot of stuff in my queue so you got some yakunoya coming soon as well haha. Also from what I’ve heard (haven’t got to see it yet) (yes the premiere was Sunday and it’s only out today) that the movie has big kenhina energy so I’m here for it.

This little red-head guy just makes me so happy. I’m so glad I got to discover one of, if not my favourite sport out there (and that says a lot coming from a horsegirl) and I want to keep it in my life. I’m asking around for clubs and selections and I hope I am accepted. And I’ll be celebrating my birthday watching Olympic volleyball matches :D

OH ! Another thing. During my intensive studying period for my current school’s diploma, I was with friends and before we started studying each morning we would put on music or some kind of stuff, and we put anime opening blind tests and one of them had the first Haikyuu opening (which is still my favourite cause yk…it’s the one that started it all) and I was hit with a wall of memories…yeah :’)

I think that’s all I might have forgotten a few things, I don’t know at this point.

I can’t believe you got me writing more about volleyball, in English, in 2 hrs than I’ve written for my THESIS in a WEEK. This is 5 word pages WITHOUT THE PICTURES.

[omegaplus]

# FINAL POST.

Ask me if there was one moment in my life that changed everything for the better. I’ll tell you: it was discovering both Cold Cave’s “Confetti” and Prurient’s Cocaine Death. It’s the Summer of ‘11 when the worst decision of my life was still being played out. I was suffering in a place I never imagined I would be; the product of the late Oughts’ economic crash when I went broke and bounced from job to job. I had no choice but to wave the white flag and take the first thing offered to me. I lost everything a few years prior that made me: a radio show, music shopping, graphics design, writing, and more. When I heard the opening notes to “Confetti”, I felt magic. It gave me a vibe and showed me a beauty I was going to look for in the years to come. Cocaine Death was created by Brooklyn noise artist Dominick Fernow who had a vision and aesthetic that intrigued me so much that I was curious to see what other things surrounded his origins. He was the reason why I discovered Cold Cave. Months passed and despite living through a personal hell at work, “Confetti” and Cocaine Death signified a new beginning for me. I got back into the habit of burning music, resumed Photoshop, and started writing again. I had enough momentum that I decided the time was right to get back into radio. I had a show during my stay at Stony Brook University, which ended when my tenure did. I had just enough music to give it another shot. Finds from Geneva Jacuzzi, Washed Out, Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Glass Candy and Italians Do It Better made me feel something. I got in touch with the current general manager and on December 12, 2012 (12/12/12) Omega WUSB was born.

Around that time, I made friends with some of the other co-workers who were more on my side and knew a thing or two about respect, privacy, and personal space. I helped my ex- moved into a new residence, I caught up with co-workers from previous jobs who gave birth to their first-borns with their deadbeat dads nowhere in sight, and re-united with old classmates from the Brentwood era whom I haven’t seen since. If that wasn’t enough, an all-too-special interest during the Stony Brook era decided to reach out to me - by total surprise - wanting to pick up where we left off. I was finally back into it. The following Summer, that potential and I were getting closer, and I finally got myself a second job to leave the consequences of the first. It’s not even halfway into my first year back that I was going crazy with Omega WUSB, and I was already enjoying it; being back in my element of playing music over the airwaves from a tattered control room with broken antiquated equipment which none have been replaced since the late Sixties. It felt great to be back. For the next ten years, Omega WUSB took me places, taught me things about myself I never knew, and showed me what it took to keep ongoing projects running. Since I’d be constantly finding music to keep my show fresh, why not start a blog and tell my listeners how enthusiastic I was about it? On December 2013, I started Ω+. What really made Ω+? It was a literal reflection of myself; a personal music diary of radio shows I played, releases in my library, purchases, mixtapes, live experiences, random things I listened to, listening habits and more. This was the place where I had no shame telling everyone what I was into, and I did it to prove a point. I aimed to make this blog stand out over everything else here. To do that, I posted about every genre I got my ears on because I truly enjoyed everything I listened to. It’s why you saw everything from indie, hip-hop / rap, post-punk, d.i.y, noise, industrial, shoegaze, d-beat, reggae, jazz / fusion, jungle, and much more to list.

There were also other ideas I had that no other music blog had: numbered posts, seasonal mixtapes, extensive year-end lists and best-of posts, personal insights, and tons of candor - much more to my benefit. Our favorite months were our ‘second issue series’ and ‘clearance sales’ where we posted heavily about alternate covers, colored vinyl and cassettes and other rarities which drew our largest amounts of followers. Plus, plenty of receipts of years past and many from two ‘record store victory tours’ (‘18 and ‘22) covered here. Wanted to know what was on a mix cassette or CD-r my friends gave me, or what played off of my iPhone or iPod during a train ride or walk through Central Park? The song that played on the overhead as a potential, and I sat over ice cream? What I listened to during a specific point in time, or what band tees people wore at a certain show I attended? It was all here. It got off to an inconsistent start (one which I’ll never get over when you see the archives), but eventually it got rolling when I made it a point to post consistently and have a presence because that’s how you got likes and followers. And Christ did I hammer at it. But without Omega WUSB, Ω+ wouldn’t have existed, and you wouldn’t be reading this now. For 10 years it gave you something not many or no other music blog gave you. Now, after lots of consideration, I’m making the decision to finally end Ω+ once and for all. This is our final post. ********************** It started during the pandemic summer when someone I met here left a poisonous impression on me. My anxiety and depression came back and totally threw me off. I couldn’t think straight as I was too busy figuring out the hurt and pain she just created for me. I wasn’t focused and wasn’t posting as much in as I used to. The pushback was enough that I started feeling different about lots of things and seriously wondered what I was still doing here. That was when Ω+ started to suffer.

Up until this point I’ve been falling behind and that’s not good. Once you fall behind on a music blog like this, it’s almost impossible and time-consuming to come back. And to come back, you have to short-change yourself. Cheat, cut corners, and be inconsistent with what’s being posted. After posting at least (on average) 38+ times a month, coming up with new ways of saying the same things over and over and over and over and over again, and writing in a way that keeps readers attention, then after all is said and done, what was I / Ω+ getting back in return? It used to get 250 followers a year, and I had to pull teeth in order to get them. When you put in so much work to show your followers how awesome and crazy an album or single is, only to get an average of 10 likes on each post (barring some of Omega WUSB’s playlists), and see others post the same exact thing for ten times the amount, it does get rather discouraging. I always felt, with millions of readers on here and with music being a universal thing, how and why was it so hard to get more out of what I do?

Some say you don’t do it for the numbers, you do it for personal satisfaction. Getting that personal satisfaction was never an issue by simply running this page because I always loved staying in touch and finding things in common with my followers. Only then I wanted all the numbers coming to me. Not getting that consistency that I wanted, even after 10 years of Ω+, feels like a letdown. I was hoping to have exactly 22 entries per month this year. Then, this happens: instead of privately posting entries on the spot before the month was over, I ended up queuing them at the last minute and miscalculated. Only 11 entries for August were posted, with the others after the fact in September, so there’s zero chance of getting the others back. I fucked up. The final straw was when I have seen my perfect format slightly altered as the header images now became smaller and wasn’t fitting the text column width entirely. It’s bad enough having to spend hours trying to find a working theme, only to see it messed around with no rhyme or reason. I reached a point to where I felt I was throwing my time away for less-than-desired gain, and what was once one of my favorite things to do became tiring and heavy-headed. In short: I’m massively overwhelmed with no end in sight. I’m too exhausted and don’t have it in me anymore in this capacity to keep this going. ********************** I’m in a much better place than I was ten years ago, financially and ambitiously. I still have everything I took back and more. I still have the radio show, and still do graphic design, sound editing, and photography. But there are still things left on the backburner. I haven’t written or created anything in months but want to again. There’s a backlog of music I’ve yet to listen to from last year’s massive island- and city-wide record-store shopping spree that left me 560+ vinyl records, tapes, and CDs richer and $3,000 poorer - and also from another shopping spree on top of that.

There are plenty of books I bought that I need to read up on, and tons of cassettes and VHS tapes I need to digitally transfer. I just started learning Italian thanks to one of the best people ever. I purchased a coding book six months ago that I’ve yet to even open. I’m still recovering from the retail-hell climate that took a daily toll on my mental and emotional health so heavy that it was depleting me. Now, I work at home and managed to stay with the company; essentially keeping my 401K, medical, and my time-off. Total game-changer. Since my dad left, I’ve been practicing self-care in ways I wasn’t allowed to. I took the time to step back, re-assess myself, and be the person I always wanted to be, with no constant surveillance of people keeping tabs on me. I’ve enjoyed many moments - arcades, travels to New York City, holidays with my family, live industrial-music shows in New York City, and meeting specific people - when I have them. My company has changed. Though I parted ways from some of the best co-workers I had, I also did the same from separating myself from the daily cast of the undesirable public.

My vision and state of mind have changed due to anti-depressants, focusing on some specific valuable people, and not having to think about the worst as much. Different things made by different people have happened. I’m welcoming and embracing the changes I’ve made for myself, and there’s plenty more I need to do. Right now, I’m still simplifying my life and focus on what I want to do from now until the day I cash it all in for good. ********************** What Ω+ leaves behind is ten years in the life and diary of one person’s lifetime listening habits and acquisitions of music. Decades of personal mixtapes, gifts from friends, giveaways, and the evolution of listening habits. Plenty of quarterly personal seasonal playlists, playlists of the day, and past WUSB shows when they happened. A roadmap of two record store victory tours, various receipts, and almost all live experiences ever attended. How about those ‘second issue’ series focusing on rare, out of print, and mispressed releases plus alternate covers, color vinyl and cassette editions? A multitude of year-end and even end-of-the-decade best-of lists. Documents of Omega WUSB’s anniversaries and all-out Summer broadcasting seasons. Locales, venues, and what t-shirt everyone was wearing. An enthusiasm of hip-hop’s golden age, post-punk / d.i.y., hardcore / metalcore, industrial, sampling culture, and vinyl treasures. Practically almost every genre, decade, and format Ω+ got it hands on.

Every song, album, purchase, listen, experience, interaction, broadcast, mixtape, playlist, purchase, and venture has all been documented here - and with all the utmost honestly and openness. All of that stops here. We (at Ω+) say this right now to save you the uncertainty: we’re not like those other blogs who abruptly stop posting without a heads-up and leave you hanging for months (or even years) waiting for another entry or at least announcing a hiatus, then decide to pop up once more and swear that things get rolling again. Guess what? You never heard from them again after that. What a surprise. Like unreliables, most promise but don’t deliver. Not us. When we say we’re done, we mean it. We’re done. We’re not posting again after this. There’s no coming back. No false hope or waiting for a day that will never come. (I’m sure you wouldn’t like being lied to or short-changed by anyone, either.) But, I’ll still be filling in the blanks from last year for completeness, as lives up to its name with this final post - in its current form. But, here’s a catch… There’s one follower of Ω+ who happens to be as obsessed and crazy about music as I am. Imagine that. She doesn’t have a dedicated music blog like this, but instead, has loads of Spotify playlists, plenty of audio and video posts all across many different accounts and social media. Between us, we’ve given each other CDs, records, and cassettes for holiday gifts and birthdays. We’ve traded MP3’s, and mailed out entire boxes of tapes from personal collections. We’ve been turned on to other’s recommendations. Our enthusiasm with finding and sharing music is unimaginable; perhaps more than what any normal human being is capable of. We have lots of artists, bands, genres, and even specifics in common that it was almost improbable to have found each other, but we did. She started following us not too long ago, so she’s going to be disappointed to learn that this music blog has come to a full stop. But, I’m not the one to disappoint. That is a total non-negotiable. So, I decided to re-invent it. Ω+ is now dead. Long live ΩRMX.

ΩRMX is a revision of the original with all the seasonal mixtapes, Omega WUSB playlists, personal posts, record-store receipts, live experiences, and other important stuff that made it. Instead of reviews, they’ll be replaced with now- or currently-listening. Tagging will be minimal and not specific, and some other details like numbered posts have been left behind. Everyone passing through will know what I’ve been listening to in real time. It’ll be simpler and faster for me to post without having to spend too much time and be constantly under the gun to do so. Problem solved. As much as I’d love to, I can’t continue with this specific music -blr with how it’s currently done. I really don’t want to completely give up on it altogether. I’ll be doing things a little differently. I’m still curious to see who’s paying attention to what I’m listening now or did XX years ago, or if anyone had experienced what I have. I’d also like to know if what I’m doing still separates myself from the others - if those types of -blrs still even exist. ********************** At this point, Ω+ stays here for posterity’s sake and becomes a curiosity for anyone who accidentally discovers it. I only hope future visitors get what I’ve done and how I’ve done it differently than the other music -blrs found here, or anywhere. To everyone who have followed us back, liked our entries, reblogged, supported, or even messaged us to see what happened to us, I appreciate it all. As we always say, we hope you took something with you.

-

Ω+: December 2013-December 2023.

[archandshri]

Creative Intentions for 2024 from Shri - 02/Feb/2024

Hi Archie! Yesss returning to the humble sketchbook is always such a joy! Especially when working through an artistic or personal problem.

I totally agree with the anatomy thing you mentioned, it’s so boring (and unrealistic) to learn something in one sitting, so implementing it slowly when you can, is great! 

I actually don’t work on anatomy unless I find I’m struggling with a specific bit in my final work e.g. I'm drawing someone and their hips don't look right, I’ll go and do some quick studies on it to solve that problem. I'm not sure if this is the right way to do it but it's how I do it and it works for me.

Definitely a bit existential for the first post but it's always good to keep a critical mind about your practice, always checking in with it. Because if you know why you do things, you can do it with more intention than before. In both your creative practice as a whole and your whole person-nes. Knowing why you do things is so important.

Quick update on my endeavours

I’ve got a few projects on the go at the moment, 

A short 8-page comic for a publishers

T-shirt for a friend’s t-shirt design

Plymouth Comic and Zine Fair which is around the corner (which I still need to prep for *sweats profusely*)

Continuing on my comic Again.

I’ve just finished a project for my sibling's friends making ten emoticon reactions for their YouTube channel (it’s a League of Legends channel). I’ve put a few below of my favourites. :)

What I did well in this project was - The nose, God I love drawing noses so much! The hands a looking pretty good too.

What I can do better for next time - Do a few more studies on the person I’m drawing and really look at how I can translate their unique features into my simplified style; diversifying my characters and drawing.

Anyway to the actual post, I thought my first actual post could be about the intention I want to set for my artistic practice this coming year. With a small overview of last year in terms of my creative practice

Overview last year

Last year was basically my first year out of uni (out of education completely *gasp*) which was a huge adjustment and it took me a long time to pick myself up from the post-uni sad boi hours.

Once I got back on my creative feet I jumped straight into my projects intending to fill the gap in my portfolio and update it, as well as making dummy books/pitches.

I managed to complete one dummy book, made one self-published picture book and go to Thought Bubble!!! With a few single illustrations, testing single image storytelling.

I had a gap between July and November, where I was working on two big projects, which is great but it would be a lot better to stagger work a bit more effectively, making sure I have only one big project while working on smaller ones to keep work flowing smoother.

This year I’d like to:

Complete the first volume of Again comic

Death is relative pitch set-up and ready for pitching

Complete my cover project (finish the last two covers)

Be a bit more confident in graphic design

Start the habit of sketching in life more

Learn a bit more about how to use a Carma

Doing small ‘final’ illustrations for socials and experimentation.

Be a bit more confident in graphic design

I want to be a bit more confident in graphic design within my illustration. This has been on my to-do list for years! So this year I’ll actually give it a go this year!

Start the habit of sketching in life more

I would like to do more life drawing in my day-to-day life. This is to record the smaller moments in my day-to-day life both for inspiration/ideas and practice/learning. So I'll start keeping a sketchbook in my pocket more often so when I commute to and from my day job or go about my day I can visually record more of these small moments.

Learn a bit more about how to use a Camera

I want to set myself this year is be a bit more confident around a camera. This had less to do with illustration but more my overall practice. But for so many years I've been hopeless with cameras all my life. So I finally want to be able to practically use a camera for both product photos and adding to my overall creative practice

Doing small ‘final’ illustrations for socials and experimentation.

This last one is something I’ve only briefly thought about, and it's come mostly from the fact that working in publishing you work on such long turnarounds, so to keep things fresh and creative I thought it might be fun to do some really small 'final' illustration more often. in the past, it's these sorts of things that are the original inspiration for my books and other projects. :)

And finally, I mention this in my recent endeavours but I’d love to continue improving in capturing subtle fetchers in my characters, as for a long time I had a terrible case of same-face syndrome. I’m a bit better nowadays but I still want to develop things like face shapes, eye shapes and placements because using only different skin tones in characters is not really diversifying anything.

Lats notes is the one thing I have in the last year fallen head-over-hills for is NOSES! God, I love drawing all the different kinds of noses, At the moment my favs are the Roman Nose, the straight-down nose and the Hooked Nose.

Anyway, that's it for me for this week, hope you all have a lovely week and a good dinner!

[flowerandblood]

To add some explanation to my new Glass Cut Deepest series, I will tell you about my experience with the art university.

Let me start by saying that in my field of specialization, graphic design, I had a wonderful team of professors who, although sometimes mean and unpleasant, cared about us very much and kept a healthy distance. I have great memories of the time I spent with them and they taught me a lot, both young and old.

However, this was not the case in all specializations. There was a professor in the graphic arts workshop who had a long-term affair with his student, even though he had a wife at the same time.

However, this is nothing compared to what was happening at the stained glass specialization. As I wrote, thanks to my friend who was in this specialization, I got permission from the professor to make my own stained glass window.

The professor my friend had an affair with. He was 35 years older than her. I tried and failed to cut her off from him and he acted so innocent and sweet that I wanted to vomit just looking at him. Once, when I told him privately that I didn't trust him and that he couldn't hurt her, he stroked my cheek and said that he would never do that.

I moved away from him and asked him what he was doing, it turned out that he once told my friend that I had an interesting appearance.

Anyway, Jason Lannister, even though he's not that old in my story, is inspired by him. Unfortunately, even though it was bad, when my friend recovered and stopped sleeping with him, other students immediately started to flock to him. I will add that he, of course, has a wife.

From the very beginning, I wanted this story to be complicated and, to be honest, I am surprised by the reactions of some people who are able to read about how Aemond spits or slaps the character during sex, but only under the condition that outside of bed he is a bad boy with a soft heart who wouldn't do anything to anyone. The desire to dominate does not come out of nowhere, nor does the need to release it.

Neither he nor Jason should teach, but as in my case, university won't do anything as long as they earn something from them. Money is #1, students are far more below on the list, so don't be surprised that he kept his job. Of course he fucking did, he make great money for them from church fundus.

This story is closer to reality than to fiction, to be honest.

Anyway, there is always this fight between female students that just want their professor to just teach them and be their hero and the ones who want to cross the line, fuck them and profit from it.

That's why when some drama is going on you never fully know what really happened until case will go to the police and that why my female character assumed right away that something more happened that this girl was saying.

There is always something more.

I myself know girls that been groomed and harassed and the one who were happy that their professor found them pretty and fucked them, hoping for better grades.

This is sad reality. And that what's this fic would be.

[transxfiles]

gonna go on a little mini tangent about nimona movie adaptation. it's gonna include lots of spoilers for the graphic novel so if you haven't read it yet (and you should!!) you can just scroll past spoiler free <3 anyways,

first off i am SO fucking pumped up about the nimona movie this is doing things to my middle school heart you have no idea <3 <3 <3 they're definitely branding it in the area of that kind of edgy but family friendly movie vibe that's been popular with certain projects lately (low key some parts of the trailer were giving me mitchells versus the machines while others were giving me the same energy as the bad guys, which is an interesting mix imo they're both good animated movies from the recent past but at the same time they're both tonally different in many ways not to mention very different tonally from the original nimona comic imo) and basically where i'm going with this is i hope they keep the original tone of the comic. the graphic novel does a really great job of shifting between lighthearted comedy and the complex emotions of the characters really well, especially with the twist at the end where we find out that nimona has been lying about her past the entire time (OGH that ending is SO GOOD it gives me chills just remembering the panel where we find out the story about the dragonslayer going after the shapeshifter and the rumors that the shapeshifter TOOK THE DRAGONSLAYERS PLACE??? AUGH those panels are burned into my mind forever). basically i am a little worried because of the marketing that they might soften the darkness associated with nimona's past/backstory or even change it entirely, but of course that's all speculation bc they could literally just be doing what the comic did which was market itself as really upbeat and silly modern fairytale twist and then turn around and make everything really fucking dark as the novel approaches the end of the second act and the beginning of the first act.

also when it comes to the character designs i am OBSESSED with blackheart and goldenloin the designs are SO!!!! not to mention the setting itself, they're definitely leaning into the futuristic aspect but i hope they keep a lot of the down to earth fantasy elements from the comic as well, i feel like nate did a really great job creating a world that is such a unique blend of ren fair fantasy tropes (for lack of a better term) and magical high tech inventions and it's something that i really hope doesn't get lost in the translation to the screen. obviously i can imagine that the show-y-ness of a cyberpunk-esque world is very visually appealing and also probably pretty fun to animate but i'm hoping they're teasing a lot of those dystopian sci fi visuals for the trailer because they get ppls attention and then they bring in a similar mix of the ren fair fantasy elements from the comic.

i hope they maintain nimona's whole gender vibe as the same sort of fluid energy that i got from her in the book, idk if it was just me but nimona reads as not only gnc but as a very nonbinary/genderfluid character and i always thought it was really cool how ready she was to shapeshift to different gender presentations in the comic.

this is more just on the curious musings side but i also wonder if they'll do the little bit where she dyes her hair purple?? its such a weird little moment in the comic i could see them deciding not to put it on screen but i think it'd be a cute nod to the book. or maybe they do a little bit of dialogue where she mentions to blackheart that she's thinking about changing her hair color and mentions purple, it'd just be cute i think <3

uhhh yeah i guess my biggest wonder about the movie rn is just how dark they're willing to take it, tonally? because the book gets DARK and ofc it's also aimed kinda at middle grade, just like the movie is, but what's allowed in middle grade books is very different from what's marketable in a middle grade family friend film. i really do hope they do the whole dark underbelly of the kingdom reveal, though, and the second act arc where nimona's true violent and chaotic nature starts to spiral out of ballister's control, and of course the unethical experimentation and the legend of the shapeshifter and nimona's entire story to ballister being a lie.....

AUGH i am going to get so emotional about this movie but yeah <3

basically. NIMONA MOVIE AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!