#one day I will make a big spreadsheet and share it around lol

[hhonbun]

Sorry for asking this here and its totally ok if you dont answer this but...do you have any eremin fic recs 🙏 just your favorite fanfics. Im good with any Im just starving for more eremin content

please don't be sorry! if anything I should be the one to apologise for taking so long to reply to this 🥲 I hope I haven't left you starving...

I have sooooo so many to recommend, when I say I have MINED through that tag I seriously mean it! but I'll leave you with these for now and I hope you enjoy them just as much as I have

Summer Sunshine

Daffodils growing on ruins.

The Hiatus

Dog Teeth

I Said It Was Love, and I Did It for Life, I Did It for You

Lebeochka (this one is a personal favourite au of mine, the setting and their dynamic is so much fun)

Left out on the Ice **

A Stain, A Splinter **

**these two are written by Sarasti, one of the best eremin authors to me that no one knows of... ITS CRIMINAL !! I want to make fanart of their fics one day.

His Call

Cacoethes (A Star in the Knight)

And lastly, if you're looking for relatively quick reads and lots of fun aus reads check out grayqueen !!! their fics alone will send you into a rabbit hole.

[nationalharryleague]

Portfolio

Pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

Genre: AU, Angst, Boss!Harry

Word count: 3.5k!

Warnings: Domestic violence mention, boss/employee dynamic

A/N: Hi! I decided to write another fic after Overnight was received so well! Again, thank you to anyone who read and enjoyed it! I’m not sure how I feel about this one lol but I think it’s good enough to post. Please let me know if you enjoyed it and send feedback! Thank you for reading!!! More of my writing can be found in my masterlist! 

Part 2

You had always been a teacher’s pet. Growing up, you were the kid who worked hard to get a 4.0 GPA just for the rush of getting a compliment on your intelligence from your teacher. You craved that validation for all the hard work you put in and you just wanted people you admired to like you. And not for nothing, you deserved the compliments. At work, you were the first one there and the last one to leave. You loved your job and it showed.

You were currently working your first job with any real power at an up and coming public relations firm, Styles Public Relations. SPR was quickly growing in size and recognition and being brought onto the team was a dream come true. You loved everything about working there. The offices were beautiful, it paid well, and your ideas and proposals were finally being heard and brought to the public. Well, you loved everything except one glaring, irritating, and gorgeous problem: your boss.

Harry Styles was a striking man. He was tall, impeccably dressed, and obscenely attractive. His skin was perfectly tan and when it got warm in the office you could see  beautiful tattoos revealed by his rolled up sleeves. Those sleeves were worth more than your life and his head-to-toe Gucci ensembles usually showed his wealth off well. He looked like he should be on the front of a magazine, not behind a desk. Well, he was on the cover of Forbes that one time. While he was so nice to look at, the man was anything but nice. He had an abrasive attitude and not much care for pleasantries or mincing words.

Today, you found yourself on the opposite end of his brutal disposition. You had brought a campaign proposal to him for a newly acquired client and he began to rip it to shreds.

“I don’t know why you thought this campaign was a good idea, Y/N,” he told you sternly. “It’s childish, silly, and unprofessional.” Every word he said dug into you. You tried to attribute his harshness to it being Monday, but you knew he would say this to you any day of the week.

“The client said they wanted something more playful to soften their image,” you defended yourself. “I was doing what they asked for.”

“Well, you did a terrible job at it.”

That stung. You had dedicated your life for weeks to this proposal and had expected him to love it. You hoped this was finally the proposal that would secure your position in his good graces. Apparently, not.

“Okay. I’ll restart the project with a different angle.” You moved forward to grab the binder off the conference room table and flee the room back to the safety of your office. You were shocked when he put his own hands on the binder and slid it away from you.

“You’re off the account. I’ll have someone else do a better job,” he spat. Now, that really hurt. Your ego was closely related to your career and you knew you deserved better than this. You did everything you could to hold back your tears, but one betrayed you and fell down your cheek. You believed you saw his hard exterior soften for a split second before his ruthless demeanor returned.

“Fine,” you breathed, never breaking eye contact with the cruel man. “I’ll leave you now, your highness.” The words left your lips before you could fully register them in your own head. You turned on your heel and rushed back to your office, thinking about the insubordination complaint coming your way.

“Did I just get myself fired?” you asked yourself softly when you were finally in the safety of your own office.

The rest of your week passed in a blur. By Friday, you had accepted your fate and decided to get every passive aggressive dig at your boss you could before you carried your things out in a cardboard box. When you saw him around the office, you made sure to make direct eye contact and shoot daggers his way and you responded to his emails with one word answers. You were also producing the best work you had in years. Turns out, spite was a fantastic motivator for you. If he was going to fire you, he would feel bad about it.

As usual, you spent your Friday night typing away in your office. You were a workaholic and had no problem with staying at work late. Unfortunately, so was your new nemesis.

You caught your first glimpse of him after-hours on a trip to the copier. Your next was on your trek to the coffee pot. Later, on a walk around the office to stretch your legs. Each time you saw him, he was in the same spot. He sat at the conference table surrounded by spreadsheets and graphics and stared perplexed at the piles of paper encompassing him. You knew you could go in and ask him if he needed help, but you wanted to watch him suffer. According to him, you would just do a terrible job anyway.

It was about 7 o’clock when you heard a firm knock on your office door. You expected it to be the cleaning crew asking to vacuum your office. With a ‘come in’ your door opened and your boss’ large body leaned up against the door frame, careful not to enter the office he knew he wasn’t welcome in. While you were shocked he was coming to talk to you, you stayed quiet. If he wanted to talk to you, he would have to break the silence. After a few awkward moments, he did.

“Um, I was thinking about ordering dinner if you wanted to join me.” This was by far the nicest thing he had ever said to you other than ‘you’re hired.’

“Well, what are you getting?”

“I’ll buy you whatever you want for dinner if you take a look at the investor relations portfolio I’m working on.” You were taken aback. He was asking for your help. He needs me, you thought as you smirked to yourself.

“Make it the Italian place down the street and we have a deal,” you countered. You didn’t want to spend anytime with him at all but you were taking this as a sign that  1) he wasn’t firing you, and 2) he thought you did good work. Also, their spaghetti bolognese was calling your name.

Soon you were both knee deep in documents and investor information packets. You absolutely could not believe it but the two of you were collaborating well and making real progress on the portfolio. This was the working relationship you always wanted to have with your big shot boss; the opposite of his constant criticism and belittling of your work.

When the food arrived, you both decided to take a break and eat like an entire company’s stock shares weren’t resting on your shoulders. While your conversation stayed surrounding work, it inevitably steered towards the account he had taken away from you.

“So, how’s my campaign doing?” you asked. You knew it was a risky question but you two had been getting along and you decided you needed an update on the account that had become your baby.

“I gave it to Marcus and-”

“Marcus? Really?” You interrupted  him. “Marcus is a shithead.” Your baby deserved better than Marcus.

“You didn’t let me finish,” he said in a joking manner, with a small smile. The smile was just big enough for you to notice that he had dimples. He had never smiled in front of you before. “He’s doing a horrendous job and I was going to give it back to you on Monday.”

“Thank you. I appreciate the second chance,” you confessed. “Can you level with me for a minute?” you asked after a moment of silence. “Why did you rip into me like that? You could have just told me that it wasn’t right for me and taken it away.”

You watched him think for a moment. He scratched at his five o’clock shadow (that was more like a 9 o’clock shadow now) and you could tell he was searching for the right words.

“Because it got you fired up, but I could tell I hurt your feelings and I apologize.” You never expected an apology for the way he acted and you no longer regretted showing him your emotions. He had hurt you and he should feel bad for it. “I thought you were getting complacent in your ideas and you’ve been killing it since Monday.”

“Thank you for the apology. Here I am thinking you did it just to be a dick.”

“Is that what people in the office really think of me?” He looked genuinely hurt and you felt slightly guilty for being the bearer of bad news. But you hoped if he saw it from his fearful employees’ perspective he would lighten up a little.

“Do you want me to be honest?” He nodded his head. “You act like you have a stick so far up your ass it’s touching your brain and that you’re better than everyone else because your suit costs more than my rent.” If he never minced his words, why should you?

“Oh Y/N, tell me what you really think,” he said after a pause with a light chuckle. You were surprised by his reaction. You never expected him to take something like that so well.

“Listen,” you began again. “I understand and respect your toughness on us. But there is a line between criticism and just being mean.” You decided this was a time to call him on his shit, during this very very rare moment of comradery between you. You wanted to have a healthy relationship with him, maybe even a friendship.

“I understand that I can get a bit harsh. It’s just the whole ‘is it better to be loved or feared’ thing. I’ve always thought fear would be the safer option.” You felt like you were getting to pull back the layers of his hard shell and see the human being underneath for a brief period of time.

“But if you were truly loved, no one would ever betray you,” you whispered softly, always the romantic.

“Love has never been reliable, has it?” Your heart broke for him and you realized someone doesn’t become as hardened as he is overnight. Something did this to him.

“What about love being the most powerful force on earth?” you wiggled your eyebrows at him, referring to the slogan for an engagement ring campaign you were both working on.

“Well, when your wife tries to steal the company that you built together and run away to Spain with her personal trainer, love gets a little bit more complicated.” There it is, you thought to yourself. This was the first time he ever felt like a real person to you; not like a teflon shell of anger, wealth, and ambition. His features looked softer and he seemed less like your evil boss, and more like someone dealing with a painful trauma.

“I’m sorry, Harry,” you said softly, genuinely meaning it. “Oh shit, sorry. Mr. Styles,” you corrected yourself. He laughed at your mistake and you watched his dimples reach their full potential. He looked down at the table, obviously a little uncomfortable with his rare moment of vulnerability with the woman who was probably the biggest pain in his ass in the office. Before you knew it, you had decided to share your own uncomfortable vulnerability.

“My ex put me in the hospital while I was still living in New York,” you began, watching his eyes immediately jump to yours and listen intently.

“Oh Y/N, you don’t have to talk about this… I didn’t mean-,” he tried to stop you but you figured if he shared with you, you could share with him.

“No, it’s okay. It’s been a long time,” you reassured him, shaking your head softly. “We were fighting because I found out he had been cheating on me. I had packed a bag and was trying to leave when he pushed me down the stairs of our apartment building. I broke my arm in two places and I had to have a few surgeries.” You rolled up the sleeve of your blouse and showed him the scar that ran down your forearm. You scanned his face and it looked like he genuinely cared about you for a moment. You brushed it off. “After that, I decided I needed to leave New York.”

“Why London?” he said gently.

“I was obsessed with this English boy band when I was growing up,” you laughed. “I guess I romanticised London in my head and decided it might be a good place for a fresh start.”

“While I’m incredibly sorry you had to go through all of that to get to London, I’m very glad that you found your way to me,” he spoke tenderly. His face was serious, but not the seriousness you were used to while getting scolded about your work. It was gentle and like he meant every word he said. You were happy you found your way to this version of him too.

“To the firm, I mean,” he corrected himself and you felt a weird pang of sadness inside of you. You are just his employee, remember that, you thought to yourself.

“I’m happy I found the firm too. If only I could figure out how to deal with my hellish boss?” you asked sarcastically, rolling your eyes dramatically and laughing at him. You realized that this could definitely be taken as flirting, but you decided were okay with that.

“Maybe they’re just trying to push you because you are by far the best campaign director they have,” he said nonchalantly, leaning back in his seat and watching your every movement. You felt your cheeks heat and the rush of adrenaline from finally getting his validation. This was all you ever wanted from him.

“Oh, I know,” you smirked, leaning back in your own chair and studying him as well.

He really was gorgeous. His quaffed hair had fallen over the course of the day and a few stray pieces hung on his forehead. His black dress shirt fit him so well. You were fully able to appreciate the tailored fit after he had shrugged off his blazer and removed his tie, unbuttoning the top few buttons to reveal glimpses of two swallows that sat on his collarbones. A chain that you had never gotten to see hung around his neck, a cross and the Star of David resting on his chest.

“We should get back to work,” he murmured after a few extended moments of staring at each other.

“Probably.”

You two worked for another hour or so before you let out a small yawn and Harry insisted you both call it a night. Although you protested and told him you were fine, he was firm in his demand that you go home and rest. As you packed up your things in your office, he hovered in the room and watched your every move. Conversation was relaxed and casual, not stained with the malice you usually had towards each other.

He took your briefcase from your hands, offering to help as you struggled to carry a poster and a few proposal binders, and carried it as you walked in step with each other out of the office. When you reached the front doors and went to go your separate ways, you were met with a puzzled look on his face.

“Where are you going? The parking garage is this way?”

“Oh, I don’t have a car. I take the tube wherever I have to go.”

“Let me drive you home,” he offered. When you denied his proposal, you were met with a stern, “Let me drive you home or you’re fired.”

Although you fought him the entire walk to his car, asserting that you were fine to take the train, you climbed into his beautiful jet black sports car with a huff and a pout. He had a triumphant smirk on his face that you were tempted to slap off, but decided to take this as a sign from the universe that you just weren’t meant to get blisters from your heels walking home tonight. You watched as his long fingers gripped the steering wheel skillfully and you both sat peacefully, the silence between you only interrupted when you gave him occasional directions to turn right or left. The soft sounds of a Fleetwood Mac song you couldn’t remember the name to flowed through the speakers and his mouth silently lip-synced the words. You admired him the whole drive home and you didn’t want to get out of the car when he pulled up to your building.

You both departed the car, walking around to the trunk where he had stashed your briefcase. Your casual conversations had long passed, both of you beginning to mourn the night you had together. You had enjoyed this night far more than you anticipated and you hoped this would be the first of many late nights at the office that he would join you for. You looked up at him when he handed you your briefcase and you both stood there in silence for just a few more fleeting seconds, neither of you wanting to be alone yet. You were first to break the noiseless night.

“Thank you for dinner and the ride home, Mr. Styles.”

“Please call me Harry,” he said with a subtle smile, stepping up on to the curb, closing much of the space between you.

“I can do that, Harry.” His first name felt foreign on your lips but it was a welcome change.

“Thank you for all your help tonight. I needed your fresh set of eyes on that portfolio.” This interaction felt so intimate; his words hushed and complimentary, intensified by his body’s proximity to yours.

“Whenever you need me,” you breathed, refusing to break the eye contact you were both desperately holding on to.

With one swift step he pressed your bodies and your lips together, backing you up until your body pressed against his car. You dropped your briefcase to the ground and your hands flew up to the base of his neck. He tasted like the lemon cookie he had ordered for dessert and you smelled his intoxicating cologne as you drank each other in. His hands snaked their way under your blazer and rested on your hips, pulling you impossibly closer to him. His kiss was deep and demanding and you weren’t sure if you ever wanted it to end.

This morning you couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him and mere hours later you were ready to bring him up into your own. He was infuriating and rude and knew just how to push your buttons. But, he also seemed to be gentle, kind, and thoughtful when he wanted to be. Harry Styles was an enigma. You couldn’t wrap your head around him and it drew you to him even more.

Your bodies flowed in perfect sync with one another and your open-mouthed and hungry kisses were so hypnotizing you couldn’t think. Harry was the only person that existed to you anymore, tuning out the murmurs of a passersby, and anywhere your skin touched his was lit on fire.

Finally coming up for air, you breathlessly peeled your lips away from the other. You both refused to break your eye contact, your hands gripping tight to his biceps to steady your weak legs, and scanned each other’s faces.

“You have a little something,” he murmured, reaching to wipe your smudged red lipstick from your bottom lip with his thumb. You leaned into his touch and smiled up at him.

“So do you,” you panted, staring at his lips that were now stained red.

You both just stood there for a little while, soaking up the other’s company before you pulled away and things got more complicated. He was your boss after all, was this even allowed? Did he want to be something more than coworkers? If things ended poorly, would you still be able to work together? Would he be nicer to you now?

“It’s late. You should get some sleep,” he eventually broke the silence and your spiraling thoughts.

“I agree. You worked me real hard today,” you smirked at him, unable to pass up the innuendo. An amused grin spread across his lips and he took a step back from you, releasing you from his grip against the car. He gathered your things you had dropped on the ground during his assault and handed them back to you.

Harry leaned forward and pressed a kiss to your cheek that lingered a little too long to be considered friendly. It made your cheeks burn.

“I’ll see you Monday, sweetheart” was the last thing he said to you before he climbed back into his car and drove off into the night.

Part 2

[imaginesofmtl]

The boys reactions to accidentally falling asleep with/on them?

Oh, this is such a sweet one! Thank you! (Also I feel like it’s so obvious which characters are my favorites to write for, I’m sorry lol)

Nathan feels your head thump down on his shoulder and looks at you in confusion. You fell asleep? So early? The two of you had been watching TV and sharing some junk food. He shrugs and tries to wake you up, but you’re out. Instead of turning off the TV, though, he clicks the volume lower and puts an arm over you. Once or twice you wake up for just a second when he laughs too loud at something, but otherwise it’s a peaceful rest and you feel secure with his heavy arm around you.

You and Pickles are smoking in his bedroom and having fun, sprawled out on his mattress and giggling together. You’re resting back on his stomach, using him as a pillow, when suddenly you just feel so tired. Pickles is in the middle of rambling on and on about some old band he used to party with, and when you don’t crack up at the end of the anecdote, he peeks down at you and realizes you fell asleep! A nap sounds pretty damn good, actually, so he puts out his joint and decides to doze with you.

Skwisgaar is playing his guitar in the back of the limo as he and the guys and a few friends of the band drive home from a long night out. It’s quiet and dark back there. The excitement is over for the day, and most everyone in the car are nodding off in one way or another. As Skwisgaar continues to softly play he notices your eyes closing and your posture relaxing. Just as you’re about to fall asleep at some weird angle, he pauses his playing to draw your head down onto his shoulder, and that’s where you stay until the limo pulls up at Mordhaus.

Toki wore you out big time today. An amusement park, dinner, dancing and drinking afterwards. Now the two of you are back at the hotel playing video games on the suite’s TV. Toki’s showing no signs of slowing down or getting tired, but you want to sleep so bad. You tell him you’ll sit the next round out and just watch him play, but you make the mistake of putting your head down on his lap. Within minutes you’re fading in an out, missing chunks of the game, but his thigh is just too comfy. Just before you really go under you feel a hand petting your hair like a cat.

Murderface has no idea what to do when you fall asleep on his shoulder. You’d been helping the guys with the new album, offering a fresh pair of ears on a few problem spots, but before too long Pickles and Nathan got into a long conversation and brought the rehearsal to a standstill. Skwisgaar and Toki went off and practiced their parts together, which left you and Murderface on the sofa, and now he’s blushing and silently panicking because your cheek is smooshed against his arm. He tries to raise his arm up, but that only invites you to snuggle in closer and put your head on his chest. He keeps trying to whisper “Guysch? Hey guysch?” as loud as he can in the hopes of getting some help, but to no avail. He’s stuck with you.

You and Charles don’t often pull all-nighters, but sometimes the work demands it, and you don’t mind helping him. But it’s tiring, monotonous work, with papers and folders spread over the table by the couches. Around 1 AM both of you start yawning despite the pot of strong coffee Charles has a klokateer bring up to the office. Finally he concedes...”Perhaps we should, ah, sleep in shifts. By all means, you go first.” You feel a bit guilty about taking a nap and leaving him to work, but you curl up beside him on the couch with a throw pillow. Before too long, though, you stretch out in your sleep and unknowingly drape your legs across his lap. An hour later when you wake up, there’s Charles, going through receipts and spreadsheets, using your shins as a second table.

The latest Klokikon was a bust, and Magnus is beside himself in anger as you help him pack up his stall. All the way back to his apartment he’s complaining, ranting about the band, the fans, anything and everything. And it doesn’t stop. Long into the night he’s still trying to hold your attention with conspiracy theories and rumors and whatever else his mind grasps at in its desperate rage. He sits at the edge of the couch, hunching over his laptop, furiously typing on some forum or another. You don’t know what to do to calm him down besides just listening to him and being there and waiting for him to run out of steam. You run out first, though, resting against his back where you’ve been looking over his shoulder at the computer. In the morning, you wake up on the couch covered in blankets. And there’s Magnus sitting on the coffee table, exhausted, the wind finally blown out of his sails, with a box of apology donuts.

[junkshop-disco]

For the asks meme: 7. Your favourite ao3 tag / 26. What would you describe as OOC? / 28. Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

Ooh these are good. I got wordy, sorry.

7. Your favourite ao3 tag

Friends to lovers, slow burn, idiots in love lol

26. What would you describe as OOC?

One of the things I look for in my own writing in terms of OOCness is whether I'm writing what I think should happen in an ideal world or what a generic version of the scene would be, or if it's actually what these specific characters would do in these specific circumstances based on what we know of them from the source material. A really common example of this is them saying 'I love you' for the first time or at a point of peril or tension. It's often used as shorthand in films, TV, books and sometimes I'm so used to seeing it at certain story beats, I'll write it and then be like... hang on. Would this person actually do this at this point? Is this actually consistent with their character or just convenient for me so I don't have to do more work? Is there something they can say or do instead that's more in keeping with their character (and potentially more meaningful than just using the phrase 'I love you')?

Normally just asking myself the question is enough to kickstart a process of finding something that's more in keeping with them and what I'm trying to achieve, which is specificity. Even if I'm writing the tropiest trope to ever trope, I want it to feel specific to these characters. Like yes it's a coffee shop AU but only these two idiots would be drawn to this specific coffee shop and have this specific conversation in it and fall in love in this specific way over these specific lattes. To me, that's in-character and OOC is when I write something and think 'this could be anyone.'

28. Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

Most of my advice is quite practical in nature:

Don't trust yourself to remember good ideas. Write them down. Immediately. And fully. Put a reminder to yourself in your calendar that you had a good idea to solve the problem that had been keeping you up at night for when you're likely to be near your computer to drop it into the document.

Make a spreadsheet. Look, I'm a production manager. I run literally my entire life on Excel and my fic is no exception. Are you doing NaNo? Or a Big Bang? Do you need to finish your epic before the next season drops? SPREADSHEET. Divide the word count you need to hit by the number of writing days you have available to create a goal word count per writing day. It will make the whole thing less daunting and the number of words per day is probably smaller than you think. Put your daily word count in a column. Write a simple formula that totals your daily word counts and then divides the total you have left to write by the days you have left to do it so you can adjust your daily goals if you need to in order to stay on track to make your overall goal. I promise you, this is a game changer.

Scrivener. This is worthwhile investment. It allows you to dump all your research notes, all your stuff to remember, all your character thoughts and location notes and pictures and links and EVERYTHING into one document you can also write in. My go to tools for fic are: the split screen option to have my outline open in one half and the text box I'm writing in in the other, so I can easily look at the outline if I forget what I intended to write next; the cork board where I do scene notes and can easily move them around to see how they work in different places; and the notes sidebar, so I can leave myself passive aggressive comments like 'yes you already fact checked that' and an incomprehensible commentary of quotes, song lyrics, or random facts that sparked something or made me go 'that's the vibe'.

I probably have loads more but those are the ones that save my ass most regularly.

Questions here if anyone wants them.

[chubbydino]

Fun fact I think like many others I didn’t want to read fool’s gold because it was really intimidating, cheating is eek to me, and obviously the endgame pairings are mystery and I just didn’t want to deal with that…. but then I procrastinated on my exam (everytime George mentioned his love of math I cringed a little inside) and because everyone keeps talking about it I’m like yeah why not

Now I’ve just had to walk around my house muttering to myself “oh my God” because of this quote and you’ve had incredible quotes but this one really shocked me

“And it means less and less every time I say it.”

“Good,” Max said. “Now you know why he says it to you so much.”

I’m really curious how you’re keeping track of everyone’s motivations like do you have a spreadsheet? it is all just in your giant brain? how are you doing it!!!

I am also a sebchal rat and I love mick with all my heart so I am pretty biased when I say “look at my baby going off to conquer the fia and ruin everyone’s lives😍😍😍” I also routinely practice my mental gymnastics as to how sebchal nation can still win this

I love mick but everything is so messy and nobody can be trusted and now I really do understand when people say they ship everyone/therapy because it’s like seeing gossip tabloids on steroids, your fic is so so so incredible!!! I just sit here amazed at how you’ve juggled all the personalities and perspectives

omg thank you for sharing! i'm always interested to see how people have been convinced to read this crazy thing. especially since it's a pretty much 200k WIP 😅

i definitely don't keep it in my brain - i take notes every race and kind of hold onto story threads. but the reason the story works is because i shape the plot based on "feel" more than specific actions. i know what things i want to happen, but sometimes they don't happen when i originally planned. or a completely new plot idea pops up as i write and those end up being some of the best plot points that feed into the main story (lando's press conference in chp 12-13 for example).

i don't worry too much about making up plot things, I just decide that "something good/bad has to happen to ____ here that's small/big" and then as i write they boys kind of take over lol it's hard to explain.

we have SO many races left. i'm more or less plotted up to present day but god there's still so much. i have my endgames, but there are planed relationships that haven't even started yet (not necessarily romantic) so never lose hope LOLOL.

thanks for reading and for sharing with me!!

[finnishfun]

Language learning survey - results

A huge thanks again to everyone who sent me answers in such a short time. I think getting almost 50 reponses is great, even if it might not be a lot. But I hope it will be good for something, at the very least, providing us with some numbers! :)

As promised, I’ll share some of my findings and crazy statistics.

Background to the project: my task for a job interview is to get some data (I was supposed to use some official statistics, but own data is good too) and make various stats, charts, etc, imagining a business scenario. So I made up a situation where a software developer company wants to create a new language learning app, and showing how to use this data to help them decide how to start building the app.

I didn’t have a lot of data, and having text responses had its difficulties, but here are some results for everyone’s benefit if you’re interested :D

You can look at the original responses here, I also added calculations per language for each category, and a summary of the 10 most popular languages by native speakers.  (It’s open for sharing again, but I disabled editing in case I will need this on the interview)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jBCFr2YZSOzpcTfcrm2qPmT7DySwr2VF62R3Bevgsag/edit?usp=sharing

Overall numbers

I had 49 responses (my fail, I realized only later than the first row is the header, so technically I would’ve needed one more)

45 of 49 people are actively learning a language (some of the reponders aren’t, but they answered the other categories)

The number of actively learnt languages is 30 (out of 53 languages mentioned overall)

Most learners (31 out of 49) are learning more than one language actively.

These are the most popular languages. Since I had a small group of people to work with, I mostly used percentages in the other example, as it looks kinda better than saying 3 people are learning a language :’D

Overall French is the most learnt language, by over 24% of learners.

I also looked at the top 10 separately and how many people are learning them. (I guess my data is influenced a lot by e.g. the fact that possibly more Finnish learners participated, but let’s say it’s real data for the sake of the exercise :’D)

I think this kinda represents what I know about langblr these days, but of course it depends on which people answered.

Next I looked at how the interest in languages increases, based on the responses about future language learning plans.

A lot of languages not in the above Top 10 seem to have a high interest in the future. I guess it’s good to see we have some variety. :)

Then I also looked at the changes between past and present.

Seems like most of the popular languages had a big change compared to the past numbers (but the question was specifically languages you’re no longer learning, so not sure it’s the best comparison) - especially e.g. Finnish or Norwegian.

Looking at the other side, I compared which languages’ interest has decreased from the past. I also brought in the future numbers here - for this chart specifically I thought it made more sense if the future numbers showed the sum of future and present, assuming people currently learning the language will be interested in the future too.

In general, it shows that even if the interest has decreased in certain languages, many people still want to learn them in the future.

After playing around with the languages a bit, I also wanted to use my other data to see what else we can compare.

I looked at which native speakers are learning the top 5 languages. Of course English is mostly dominating - I had a lot of responses from the US and the UK. (Also I think I actually summarized not just native, but fluent languages - and almost all responders are fluent in English)

But also German, French and Spanish speakers are in majority, which is probably not too surprising. I think it’s interesting to look at the other languages - again, Finnish and Hungarian might be special in this case.

Native language (excluding English) of learners (looking at all languages)

Finally I also looked at where people are from, this was a bit more challenging to put together since I had 3 columns of data for all responses.

I had some technical challenges here so this possibly includes a few duplicates.

Doing a quick count from the original table:

US - 16

UK - 12

Germany - 8

Finland - 7

Hungary - 4

So the result is the same even if the numbers are wrong :’D

Of course most responses came from Europe (outside the US). There were also responses from Canada, Japan and South Africa.

This would have been nice to summarize on a map but for some reason it didn’t look too good so I dropped that idea.

At the end I also made some cute charts to show what languages have most interest in the future (excluding the current top ones):

And the bottom ones, since it’s interesting to see what other languages people want to learn. Maybe these will have a bigger interest in the future.

I hope this makes some sense! Let me know if you wanna know anything else I might be able to dig out from the responses.

And I hope this won’t look too stupid on my interview lol! I guess at least they will appreciate I did some extra work on it and the topic I chose... maybe being crazy enough to learn Finnish will benefit me here?

Let me know if you need any explanation or further numbers! :)

[rataltouille]

4, 11, 14 and 16!!

4. what are some of your favorite tropes?

oooh!!! found family [bonus points if they’re actually the “bad guys”], enemies to lovers, exes to lovers [with very specific elements!]. also arguably the best trope: teenage girl goes feral. also unhinged women in general 🥰😍♥️

11. share the last paragraph you wrote.

i wrote a poem last so i checked my current project, except the last thing i wrote in that was also??? in verse???? confused. anyway this is the most recent prose i could find:

Your vision clears periodically—every few minutes? Hours? You’ve been walking and walking, it feels like a day, a week, a month, and your limbs haven’t grown heavy, your eyelids haven't flickered with sleep, and you don’t know if it’s because it’s not been that long since you started walking or because your body’s simply cut off from feeling exhaustion. Whenever the dark clears, it makes you stop and observe. You’re in a forest, with different trees every time you look. You’re in a forest, with a canopy shedding shadows all over your arms. It’s dark and cold and comforting. Like the quiet nook you always ended up finding in every temple you visited, a gift, as your mother called it, something to shelter you from godhood and ugly priests who’d simply want you indoctrinated into their routine.

at this point this wip is just one big stream-of-consciousness dump. also that paragraph is actually twice as long and it uses the word dark around seventy times, i cut the first half off because it literally makes zero sense without context

14. how long does it take you to write 500 words on a good day? On a bad one?

on a good day it takes around half an hour, on a bad day i would space the writing sessions out throughout the day so i’d say around an hour but uncontinously. i can’t focus on writing for more than half an hour at a time so that’s probably for the best.

16. what’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done in the name of outlining/worldbuilding (timelines, research, maps, spreadsheets, etc.)?

lol things that involve properly organising details like outlines, timelines, spreadsheets and all that jazz do not like me so i do not keep them! in terms of research i do,,, it’s mostly sane things. once was up all night researching whether axes can act like a boomerang and turns out they can’t so there goes potential cool scenes involving them that i imagined for my fantasy wip :’)

[purplesurveys]

1220

The person you had the strongest feelings for dies, do you care?  I imagine so, yeah. I’d check up on her family and help in any way I can, if it’s still welcomed.

Is there something you’re happy about at the moment?  I share this all the time in surveys at this point but I’m just really giddy that it’s a Friday evening hehe. Also, I’m seeing Angela, Hans, and (finally!!!) Reena later! We’ll be going to UP to shoot some photos since Angela and Reena are graduating this year and we wanna take pictures with the sunflowers in the campus before they die out. I also never got to take sunflower photos when I graduated last year, so it will be my chance to do so as well.

Do you want someone dead?  Wow, no.

Do you ever wonder what your ex is up to?  It almost never crosses my mind, honestly.

Have you ever fed or taken care of a stray animal?  I’ve fed many of them before, yup.

What is something you tend to worry about?  Pending deliverables at work, especially ones that are out of my control.

What is something you do that is unhealthy?  Be in front of a screen as soon as I’m awake until the second I turn in.

What is something you do that is good for you?  I’m no longer afraid to prioritize myself when necessary.

What last caused you to force a smile?  Ooh I’m not sure. I haven’t had to do that in a while, which is a good thing. What was the last video game you played? Was it fun?  Probably Mario Kart on the Switch, but it’s been a WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIILE. Yeah it’s one of my favorite series for a reason.

What is something not many people know about you?  The fact that I’m obsessed with anything classic Hollywood and I’m a big Audrey Hepburn fan. The topic never gets brought up so I don’t really get the chance to say anything about that interest of mine.

What word describes your basic style?  Casual, laidback. I’m more than happy with just a simple t-shirt and denim jeans these days and I think I’m over my jumpsuit/romper phase haha.

Have you ever been told you were going to Hell?  It was referred to/threatened to me, but not directly with these words.

Have you ever wanted to kill yourself?  It was a regular occurrence before.

If yes, what convinced you not to go through with it?  I think overall I was just scared of fucking it up and fucking up my brain for life as a consequence. Also I knew no one was going to take care of Kimi as well as I do, and I would never leave him behind.

Have you ever rejected a guy, only to have him push the issue by asking “why?” and insisting that you just need to get to know him better?  Nope.

Is there something that you believe everyone should do and you can’t believe that some people don’t do it (e.g., recycle or go to the dentist regularly)?  It’s definitely an Asian thing but it will sometimes hurt my chest when I see people wear shoes in their homes.

Regarding the last good choice (healthy choice, kind choice, selfless choice, etc.) you made, what was your real motivation behind it?  I wanted to be kind to myself and finally let go of what had been keeping me from starting to be happy and pleased with where I am and have.

What is something that you have had to practice at to get the hang of it? If you can’t think of anything, that’s okay, what’s something you are currently practicing at and trying to master?  This is such a shallow answer lol but I’ve recently gotten into this rhythm game called Rhythm Hive that I found impossible to master at first, but after weeks of practicing I now breeze through all the songs at their hardest level.

Have you ever gone to the store to buy something, like a video game, when it came out at midnight?  I haven’t done that, but I’ve watched a movie premiere at midnight - for both times the Breaking Dawn movies came out.

Regarding the last novel you read, was there a romance included? If so, was it central to the plot?  Yes and yes.

Have you ever done relaxation meditations or listened to relaxation guides or positive-thinking/healing recordings?  Nope, they don’t really work on me. I have my own outlets that help me relax.

Do you have any interests that are also often shared by children?  Coloring is one. Also animated movies; I never grew out of those.

Is there something that could be a solitary activity but you really only like to do it with other people (e.g., watching movies, playing video games, etc.)? Definitely eating out. I’ve done it a couple of times before by myself and it does feel nice, but I also always can’t help but think it would be a lot more fun and that I would be much happier if I was sharing the experience with someone else.

Are you satisfied with the interior design or decoration in your home? Or do you think it needs a total home makeover?  Ugh god I need to rearrange and upgrade my room STAT. My K-Pop merch are starting to pile up but they’re all currently in just lazy heaps scattered around in my room since I don’t have any shelves or anything to properly display them on.

Is there something that you’d like to own but you can’t find it anywhere? If not, can you a remember a time when you wanted something? Did you ever end up finding it or did you eventually stop wanting it? This is always me with BTS merch...

Who makes you smile the most?  My friends.

What piercings do you want/have?  Just one on each earlobe. I’m not looking to have any more.

What's your favorite website?  Twitter.

Do you own a fish tank with fish?  We never had one, no.

Do you like the movie 300?  I’ve never seen it and will probably never have plans to. It’s not my cup of tea.

Do you pop your knuckles?  When I feel stressed or when my knuckles feel strained, yes.

Do you have Photoshop?  Nope, I have no use for it.

Do you use tinypic or photobucket?  Way back in the day. I’m not even sure if those websites still exist.

What’s your favourite song from the 1980s?  Heaven Is A Place On Earth.

How about the 1990s?  I’m not sure I have one.

Have you won anything recently?  Yeah we played this online game over Google Meets with my co-workers just this afternoon, before clocking out. My team won twice.

How often do you make Excel tables? What for?  Oh everyday. I work on a handful of sheets every single day at work, but I also like making spreadsheets for personal use haha. Right now the one I’m currently super invested in is my tracker for all the merch I’ve been buying so I can keep note of my pending payments and which ones I should already be asking for updates on.

What was the last baby animal you saw in the wild?  Not sure, I’m barely outdoors.

Are you always available or online?  Yup.

Do you have dietary restrictions? Or do you just eat what you like?  No allergies or restrictions.

Do you prefer gold, silver or steel jewelry? Or no jewelry at all? Silver.

Have you been binge-watching any shows lately? If so, what?  Not really. I’ve stopped watching Hwarang for now, but I do have plans to come back to it someday. I guess I just haven’t been in a K-drama binge-watching mood lately.

If you dye your hair, do you do it yourself or go to a salon?  I’ve never had my hair dyed.

If you have any, do you like your in-laws? I don’t have any. < Same.

Would it bother you, if your partner had cut contact with their parents?  It depends on the story behind it, but mostly no. How close they are with their family isn’t a priority matter for me.

Have you ever wondered whether you were adopted? All the time, especially as a teenager who wasn’t getting any emotional support at home.

What’s the best physical feeling in the entire universe?  When you work on something and expect mediocre results and feedback, but it ends up getting praised instead and you feel all the hard work pay off.

Have you ever grown a berry bush?  Nope.

Have you done something new to your hair recently?  It’s been untouched since the very start of the pandemic. My sister actually suggested that since I had it cut right when the pandemic started, I should wait out till the end of it and see how long it’ll reach. It sounded intriguing enough so now I’m indefinitely growing it out hahaha.

Do you have bad anxiety? If so, do you take any kind of medication for it? I’m sure I have it, I’ve just never been diagnosed before.

One thing you’ve experienced that you thought you never would have?  Managing to get over a rough breakup quicker than I ever expected to.

What was the last thing someone said to you that kept repeating over & over in your head?  It was when I was leaving Angela’s house yesterday and an “I love you” to her parents rolled out of my tongue so naturally I almost didn’t notice it; and when they said it back in a heartbeat. It’s when I realized that her parents are really like my second parents and that her house is a second home at this point. My heart was filled the entire drive home.

How often do you have late nights out?  Never because we still have a curfew.

If you could, would you work from home? Do you think that would make you more or less productive?  I don’t have a choice; it’s the set-up we’re required to live in. I’m pretty productive here at home but then again I don’t have a point of comparison considering I got my first job already in the midst of the pandemic.

If you had the ability to change the weather, what would you change it to right now?  I would like to bring snow to the Philippines.

Is there something that you really need to do, but can’t seem to get motivated to do it?  Upgrade my room and invest in shelves and other home decor/interior design stuff that would make the space more comfy and homey. Right now it just looks like a warehouse with my merch piled up in scattered places.

Most disturbing movie you have ever seen?  Eraserhead or I’m Thinking of Ending Things.

Has a life goal or dream ever come true for you yet? If yes, what is it? If no, do you think you’ll achieve it?  I have multiple life goals - some of them I’ve achieved, like getting into my dream university and simply getting employed, and some of them I’m still working my way towards, like getting a promotion. Yeah I feel like I’ll achieve my goals someday. I don’t like losing LOL so when I want something I usually put it above everything else.

Have you ever had food poisoning?  Yup.

What are you listening to?  Blue & Grey by BTS.

Do you think there will be a WWIII? I find it inevitable at some point down humanity's future. People are too hateful for it not to eventually. < Yeah, let’s go with this too.

Has anyone ever asked you if you were emo?  No.

Has someone ever liked you that you never thought would?  Yes. Tbh I never expect anyone to like me so I’ve always been surprised when I hear about someone who does.

In all honesty, can a person be too nice?  Yes, especially if they’re starting to be taken advantage of.

Has one of your friend’s boyfriends ever tried to cheat on them with you?  No.

Is mental abuse really as bad as physical abuse?  Any abuse is bad. :/

Do you shop at Sephora for make-up?  Nope.

Zelda: Twilight Princess or Ocarina of Time?  Twilight Princess only because I grew up with it and never got to play Ocarina of Time.

Do you own a rosary?  I did - I went to Catholic school. But I lost mine all the time because I didn’t really care for them lol I always had to buy new ones at the school bookstore.

If you were homeless, how would you cope? I don’t know.

[lgcrp]

GREETINGS, LGC SUPERSTARS!

we are officially ONE ! to celebrate the occasion we come bearing gifts !!! everyone who is in the roleplay as of today will receive freebie points as follows:

ACTOR / MUSICAL ACTOR MUSES : +20 ACTING ; +6 NOTORIETY

BAND MUSES : +20 PRIMARY INSTRUMENT ; +6 NOTORIETY

ENTERTAINER MUSES : +10 HOSTING / MCING ; +10 VARIETY ; +6 NOTORIETY

MODEL MUSES : +20 MODELING ; +6 NOTORIETY

PRODUCER MUSES : +10 COMP ( MUSIC ) ; +10 COMP ( LYRICS ) ; +6 NOTORIETY

ALL OTHERS : +20 PERFORMING ; +6 NOTORIETY

if you’re confused about what your muse has received, you can also check out the spreadsheet here. please let us know if there are any errors ! and also, you can link directly to this post or the linked spreadsheet as proof of points in your own spreadsheets !

below the cut we have messages from each of our admod staff !!! thank you all again for a wonderful first year ! we love you !!!

from admin l (el):

her message will come in the next post !!!

from admin * (kristin):

“wow! one year! funny how time passes so fast, huh? so much has happened in this past year: i graduated college, landed my first full-time job—not to forget the whole pandemic, too. but lgc’s always been the constant throughout these big changes in my life, and i’ve never been more grateful. i think i speak for a lot of people when i say that roleplaying, like any other hobby, is less about the actual roleplaying and more about the community—i mean, don’t get me wrong, i love my characters and the development i’ve had with them since their creation, but there’s just something about lgc that’s the reason i’m excited to log onto this terrible website everyday: and it’s you guys. i’ve been in the krp community since 2012, and it’s sad to see that it’s devolved into having more downs than ups throughout the years. i can’t remember that last time i stayed in a roleplay for more than a month or two, nor the last time i’ve created online friendships and connections as strong as i have here. i’ve been a member longer than i’ve been an admod, so believe me when i say: so whether you’ve just joined us or you’ve been here since the beginning, thank you. thank you so much for fostering such a welcoming and fun environment for everyone here. thank you to always bring such love and creativity to the dash, and thank you for constantly inspiring me. thank you for the excitement and the commitment, and thank you for understanding when i spend more than two months replying to a thread (lol). thank you for giving me and the rest of the admod your trust to ensure that our atmosphere’s only further expanded upon, not erased, and thank you for all the suggestions on how to make lgc a better place. it’s important to remember that lgc wouldn’t be what it is today without our members, so this anniversary is as much of achievement for us as it is for y’all. we have so much in store for this group—we promise, we’re not going anywhere!—and i personally want to honor the torch leo and ori have passed onto me as the new graphics admin. expect bigger and better things, lgc. it’s only the beginning!”

from admin g (grace):

"how has it already been one year since we’ve opened??? it feels like just yesterday when the three of us decided that we wanted to go through with opening up a new roleplay. i’ve admined many roleplays in the past, but usually, that initial lull of getting apps or the disinterest that ends up plaguing many roleplays in the early months has always left me disenchanted at the whole thing that i give up even before the six month mark so to hit such a milestone is really something remarkable for me. needless to say, it’s also just been amazing for me to be working with such a dream team who really fill in the areas in which i lack. however, at the end of the day, we also wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for all of you members. without you, lgc simply wouldn’t exist. thank you for helping this place thrive. thank you for always being excited about the events that we plan. thank you for being so willing to share your thoughts and ideas ( we’ve had so many wonderful events come to life because of our members’ suggestions and we’re always excited to receive more of those that we can incorporate ). from the moment we started brainstorming about this place, our vision has been for lgc to be an interactive community that would be shaped by its members and less by us as admins. we hope you’re able to see that vision come to life, and we know that we might be lacking still, but we hope to continue to refine our systems so that we can allow for more of that. finally, thank you all for loving my muses as well and for being so willing to plot with them. i know i’ve also been personally overwhelmed lately that i haven’t been able to plot with everyone, but i hope one day that my muses will get to meet all of yours. thank you again to all of you ( and also to all of those who have passed through lgc in this last year! ). love you all!”

from mod a ( cloud ):

one year already?? i’ve been in this rp for almost half of that and a lot has changed in those months! from joining the rp around march to becoming a mod, i have to say that it has been a pretty crazy journey! during my time in lgc, the one thing that always impresses me time and time again is the community that has been created and developed during the past twelve months. from a mun standpoint, it warms my heart knowing that the community is so welcoming towards each other. every time a new ( or returning ) muse is being brought to this lovely community, i love seeing how engaging and friendly the members are. not only that but there are also the posts that i see on the dash and while it can be a lot to go through sometimes, it’s reassuring knowing that people are willing to take the time to participate in these events and develop their muses! to me, these elements are what makes lgc what it is today and i hope that this continues in the future as well! i know that there are a lot of people i want to thank for but at the end of the day, there are two groups that i want to give my shoutouts to. the first is the admod team because they have entrusted me with this role and even though it’s only been a few weeks since i was appointed as a mod, i can attest to the amount of passion and hard work the whole team has with making sure that everyone has the best experience possible! i know that we can’t be a perfect rp, but we really do appreciate all of the feedback that has been given to us since that is what motivates us to become better. and ofc my second shoutout is to all of the members ( both past and present )! thank you for the support and effort you have given to the admod team! whether it’s posting on the dash to reading your reactions to the events, we appreciate all of that! i hope that this rp continues to prosper for many more years and once again, HAPPY ONE YEAR, LGC! 🎉

from admin c ( marie ):

“one year. it might not seem like a lot to some of you guys but when we created this project we didn’t even expect to last until christmas and that’s if we even got enough members to open. even though we’ve always planned for the long haul we didn’t think we’d be writing a first anniversary message in 2020. what a year, right? so many events happened both within our small community and in the outside world. i won’t lie, legacy requires a lot of work, organization and dedication. but we’re proud when we see you guys participate in everything with so much enthusiasm. i wanted to write a long and touching message but i can’t really find the proper words right now so i’ll just leave it as simple as possible. thank you for trusting us, for investing time and energy in your wonderful character, for choosing us and sticking around, for sending suggestions on events you’d like to see, for being respectful of us and the other members too. we could work our hardest and none of this would be possible without you guys interacting with it and being excited about it. thank you for being patient and understanding with us, and for taking minutes of your time each week to read all of the new events because we truly don’t give you any rest i’ll admit that LMAO. we’ve always wanted for lgc to be a peaceful, fun and stimulating writing environment for everyone and we hope we were able to be that for some of you. we’re still lacking and by no means perfect but we’ve always tried our best and will keep doing so for as long as you guys are on board with us ( or until we get a life maybe idk hghgjfdk ). i don’t know what the future holds but no matter what, i can say i’m proud of this project and how it turned out, not only with the admod team ( past and present ) but with every single person who helped build this place by just becoming a part of our community. i love you all and look forward to see your muses grow in the upcoming year!”

from mod y ( lissa ):

“thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all. thank you for putting your faith in us. words can never describe how much we appreciate you guys. ily all.“

[exeggcute]

Would you mind elaborating on your job search experience? I found your sankey chart really interesting and informative!!

Did you get something related to your degree?

In my experience most job applications I hear back from turn out to be spam or BS. Which is SUPER exhausting and SUPER disheartening. What are some warning signs you have learned to look out for that something is sketchy or exploitative or scammy?? Thanks for anything you’re willing to share 🥺

yeah for sure! I'm glad you liked the chart, tracking my job applications in a spreadsheet finally paid off lol.

I may be a bit of an outlier in the typical millennial experience of Job Search Hell (at least this time around) because I finally managed to get a foothold in my field and have pretty concrete experience for a specific job title that (1) has consistent hiring demand, albeit with a fair amount of competition among candidates and (2) was already remote-friendly prior to the pandemic so it's somewhat easier to scour job listings when you aren't restricted to your immediate geographic location. (granted, the wider selection of remote roles to choose from is somewhat offset by the fact that everyone else in the applicant pool is also unrestricted by location, so you have more choices but also more competition. the ratio likely evens out overall). I exclusively applied to (or considered) remote roles, but there's a handful of on-site jobs in my area (at least in the Before Times)—though those only crop up sporadically and are also hypercompetitive.

for context, my 2018-2019 job search (immediately after graduating college) spanned nine miserable months, although not continuously; I had three separate false starts where I quit a shitty internship, quit a shitty online job, and got fired from an in-person job, but over the course of those nine months I probably sent in like four hundred applications total and had about a dozen interviews, most of which were fucking bananas. nearly all of these job applications were for in-person roles, and I was applying for stuff pretty much at random—unlike this last time around, when every single job I applied to (or was approached to consider) either had the same title as my last role or was functionally identical in terms of job duties but had a slightly different name. all of this is *related* to my degree, broadly speaking, but in practice almost nothing I studied in college applies directly to my job. it's a weird situation because you can technically major in this exact field (or enroll in certification programs for it) but very few people do. having SOME kind of degree is pretty much a requirement (undergrad at a minimum, grad school is nice but not necessary unless you're really specialized), but having a BA in english or communication is about as common as having a BS in comp sci or engineering. (literature major here.) the preference for a BA or BS varies between company and specific sub-industry (more specialized roles generally prefer people who have a degree in that particular area), but once you have a few years of experience under your belt people stop caring for the most part.

getting my foot in the door with experience was 100% the most difficult part of this—and honestly, was the main differentiating factor between this job search and the last. I did have some pre-graduation job experience that I was able to leverage at the end of my nine-month search that landed me my last job, but I didn't figure that out until way too late in the game. it's not a one-to-one analogue with what I do now, but it was close enough that I figured out ways to classify it as relevant experience and boost my "years doing X role" number from 0 to Not Zero. (the "you need experience to get experience" paradox is only solved by a bit of creative reframing, lol.) once I had that purported experience under my belt, I was able to get a job that gave me actual tangible experience, which blows the whole thing wide open on future job search cycles.

which is all to say: there's nothing wrong with twisting things a bit for your benefit, so long as it's not something that'll bite you in the ass later. reframing particular skills or experience to suit a potential role is a workable strategy as long as you know you're actually capable of doing the things that role requires. don't lie about knowing how to build rockets if you’re applying to a job at NASA.

the spam shit is way too common with job applications these days, whether it's outright fake listings or vaguely scummy shit masquerading as a cool place to work. specific red flags vary, but some things I look out for:

job listings that don't clearly name the company you'll be working for. exceptions obviously apply, like if you apply through a specialized job board or staffing site that anonymizes its clients, but if a listing just says it's an "exciting opportunity" or "fun workplace," it's probably not. if there is a name, google it.

check out glassdoor ratings from past employees. if a place has a really shitty rating or reviews that consistently mention egregious shit in the workplace, you're better off saving the effort. certain places will also have ratings from applicants and interviewees, which might give you more insight into whether it's worth looking into.

anything that requires you to pay the employer for the privilege of working there.

for writing gigs specifically: any freelance gig that requires you to submit fully-completed work but doesn't guarantee that they'll pay you for each submission, only the ones they approve, and you won't know if it's approved until after you already wrote it. content mills suck across the board but these are the worst of the worst.

general corporate bullshit speak like "work hard, play hard," "fast-paced environments" where you "learn on the job," any indication that you'll "always be in a working mindset" or that "you're never truly off the job," or job listings that make it sound like you'll be doing completely random things on any given day with no consistent job duties.

any place that lists "free coffee" under a list of employee benefits. it doesn't sound like a big deal, but I swear it's a huge red flag... if cheap instant coffee is their best shot at convincing you it's a good place to work, it's gonna be a nightmare.

[dizzidoom]

So, I’ve been a little obsessed with animal crossing lately. Who hasn’t, lol. But it got me thinking on how the bey characters would play the game. So here’s a stupid list I made. Enjoy~

Takao/Tyson is time skipping so he can get Drago. He’s also arguing with other bladers who do have him and refusing to give him up. Inviting everyone to his island constantly. He abuses the emote wheel. Max hordes the ugly villagers because he loves them and feels bad that people throw them away. His island is very brightly coloured and full of flowers. Rei/Ray’s island is a perfect zen garden. He traded a cat with Kai for Bianca and spoils her. He just needs to find Rolf and he’ll be perfectly happy. Kai’s island is just cats. He may or may not have actually paid real money to get Raymond. He won’t confirm or deny this rumour. Kenny has it all optimised. He has spreadsheets, island maps, the whole lot. He researched well before the game came out and has barely put it down. He’s even made a website to track turnip prices and such. Daichi is slow with the game. Taking his time, enjoying the relaxing nature of it... for like 15 minutes. Then he gets bored and does something else. He also has a Drago, much to Takao’s utter annoyance (and no. He won’t give the villager up) Hiromi/Hilary’s island is almost perfect. Just a little more landscaping by here, little more flowers there. Wait, no. Flowers would be best over here, that house should be down there. No. No, perhaps over here... Hitoshi/Hiro has no idea what the hype is all about but gets excited when he finds fossils. The owl is his favourite character and when he’s invited to people’s islands he goes to their museum first to see what they have. Yuriy/Tala with his village of wolves. Pristine island where everything has its place. Do not question his choices. Boris/Bryan has a messy island and weird blood splatters all over the place. His animals are barely talked too. He only opens his game up when Yuriy tells him to check his turnip prices for him lol Ivan/Ian likes to ruin other people’s island. He’s been banned from Yuriy’s after the axe incident. Sergei/Spencer doesn’t understand what’s going on but the music is nice and relaxing. He still has only one room in his house but he’s getting there slowly.

Rai/Lee gets a little frustrated with the whole ‘take it slow’ aspect of the game. It’s a little too slow at times for him (no-ones told him about time skipping yet). He also doesn’t like any of the lion villagers and wishes they looked as cool as the tiger ones lol Kiki/Kevin. Monkey island basically. He managed to horde as many monkeys and apes as he could because he has a brand he needs to keep up with. Sometimes joins Ivan in trashing people’s island. Stopped when he received a death threat from Yuriy. Mao/Mariah has the other cat island but there are a tiger or lion in the mix. She’s trying to make it look like her home village too. Getting close. Gao/Gary barely plays it. Mostly only when Mao prompts him to visit her island, or if Kiki makes him play. Micheal is a tarantula/scorpion hunting pro. He gears no hissing bug scuttling after him and has yet to be bitten. He also won’t admit it but the duck villagers are his favourite. (And yes, he has apollo. How could he not?) Emily helps Kenny out with his turnip database website. She also loves the alligator villagers and takes any people don’t want. And yes, she refuses to give up Drago to Takao and refuses to listen to the argument that Drago is a dragon, not an alligator. He’s classed as one online and that's good enough for her. Eddy has several scorpion statues around his island. He’s also tried to make the tallest island but found he can only build so high... So it’s a little difficult to get around his island for newcomers. Steve as you can guess, he’s got quite a few bull villagers. He also loves any jock villagers because they remind him of friends from his football team. And also, maybe a little like the All-Stars at times. Rick doesn’t care but it’s the easiest way to get in touch with Max right now. He refuses to let people visit his island coz it’s a mess, yet is too lazy to actually play the game and make it presentable. Ralf/Robert’s village is incredibly tidy. Like, a little too tidy. Trees are all in order. Flowers cornered off behind fences. The villager houses are all in neat rows. Untrustworthy friends are not allowed to visit lest they ruin his work. Johnny doesn’t give a shit but he really, really loves the bug lizard. So he only plays at night to hunt the tarantulas and scorpions so when Flick visits he can make the lizard super happy. He admits this to no-one. Oliver’s Island is a rose paradise. His little villager is dressed up like a chef most of the time. He also really enjoys the design feature. He finds the limitations a little exciting so can spend hours crafting masterpieces in-game. Giancarlo/Enrique likes to show off for his girlfriends and gift them too many bells and nookmile tickets. He does this to Oliver too, of course. He runs around with the mini crown on his head and loves to emote too much in Johnny’s face. Mariam wants shark villagers but understands it can’t happen. A girl can hope though. Instead, she just has them in tanks around her island and refuses to sell any she fishes up. Ozuma doesn’t care too much for the game. He likes the relaxing nature of it but the way the villager's talk can get on his nerves after an hour. Joseph’s villager has big creepy eyes and he likes to try and sneak on other peoples islands when they least expect it and stalk them. Dunga has an island full of ugly apes and he loves it. He traded for them fairly easily, obviously. Reluctantly gave Kai a cat villager for one too. Salima is really into making her house perfect. Each room has a theme and she’s been on twitter for hours chatting to others and visiting them to share DIY recipes or buy from their shop. Kane is oddly lucky at travelling to the rare mystery islands. Most of his bells are from the bell island if he’s honest. Jim charges a lot of bells or nookmile tickets to visit his island and sell turnips. He’s made more money doing that than actually selling his own turnips. Goki is a little too generous at times and always likes to help out other people. As a result, he’s not really managed to upgrade much on his island yet, but he’s getting there. Zeo doesn’t want to talk about Ribbot and Sprocket, and no you can’t have them, they like his island very much thank you. Queen and King cheat together. They go to people’s islands and scam them. Offering items for bells but quickly taking both when the items are dropped. Many of the other bladers now refuse to let them visit. Raul likes the horse villagers best but has only got one. He’s forever on the lookout for them. He is also afraid of the tarantula’s and is constantly being bitten by them. Julia is far more interested in making interesting clothes. She’s made nearly everything she’s owns so her in-game villager can match her all the time.  Mathilda is constantly catching the butterflies. She can’t get the hang of fishing but her insectopedia thingie is full for all the bugs she can get. She adores the Able sisters. Claude spends all his money buying stupid clothes for his villagers to wear. After seeing Giancarlo’s crown though he plans to buy one for each villager. If only he had the savings... Miguel’s island is like a beach resort. He also takes a lot of in-game selfies or stupid screencaps and posts them on twitter. Aaron loves fishing a lot. Like, a lot a lot. He has a room full of each fish he can get so Mathilda can take them one day to fill up her museum since she’s so crap at fishing.  Garland doesn’t care too much about the game. He plays a little each day, does the daily chores he needs to do and then stops. He does love to visit people and interact though. Will spend hours island hopping. Went to Yuriy’s island once and spent ten minutes getting smacked in the face with a net. He never went back. He hopes it was therapeutic for the Russian though. Ming-Ming owns nearly all the clothes. She has her team send screenshots every day of what is in their clothes shops so she can buy anything she doesn’t own yet. She may, or may not be a little obsessed with the animals singing too. Brooklyn refuses to weed and refuses to cut trees. He’ll hit them for wood, but if a tree grows it stays there forever. As you can imagine, it’s like a forest and hard to navigate. Except for Brooklyn. He knows his way. Mystel’s island is full of fruit. Like, it’s just fruit trees because he wants to always have some to give to visitors. There are also many rivers because who doesn’t like using the pole all the time? Moses/Crusher plays with his sister. He’s also currently being guilt-tripped by Takao to give up a Drago. But Drago really likes his island so how can he send the alligator away?

[sunflowerblondeuwu]

Briar Roman ( see what I did there ;) )

Unfinished but will be when I want to lol- tell me if you want to keep reading- based off @underdog-arts CC au- which I adore and need more of.

Roman’s P.O.V: Roman was feeling horrible. The others were all playing outside and he was stuck inside on the couch all because he was sick ( given he did feel awful). He had been watching sleeping Beauty on the TV and thinking about how normally he’d be the brave prince Philip but today he was like Aurora. What did Aurora ever do? Sure, she was beautiful and a princess and sang good songs but all she did was sleep- he couldn’t see the point in a heroine with no heroism. Just as it was getting to the part where sleeping beauty pricked her finger Roman felt his eyelids starting to droop he fought to stay awake for all of ten seconds before falling into a deep slumber the plush rose he was cuddling still entangled in his arms.

Remus’ P.O.V: Remus was loving this. Without Roman around to fight him he was able to do as he pleased throwing rocks and sticks and having a great time though he did admit he missed his brother’s great ideas and how he would always make him new crowns. Just as he was about to talk to Janus about it ( who was drawing on the pavement with a yellow piece of chalk) He heard a loud cackle from the window and saw that Sleeping Beauty was on the TV and his eyes then fell to brother who had fallen fast asleep with his rose plush still nestled in his arms. Suddenly Remus had an idea- Not a bad idea like everyone always told him ( except for Janus) but a good one- a really good one in fact. Remus ran back over to the group and called for a group meeting at Roman’s “castle”. Once they were all inside the fort Logan started off “ Why did you call us here Remus? Please don’t tell me you killed another bird” “ He’s killed birds?” Patton answered timidly his eyes filling with tears. The others all then glared at him. Poop this was not going how he thought it would. After he had assured Patton he would never kill another bird again the others finally settled down enough for him to tell them his Brilliant idea. “So you guys know how Roman always is the prince and Hero in our games right?” Remus started “ Well duh” Said Virgil rolling his eyes “ Precious Princey never lets anyone else have a turn”, Logan nodded in agreement “ Historically only knights fought not princes yet only Roman seems to get to be the hero” The others all joined in with “ Mhmms” and “Yeahs” and “You’re right”. “Well” stated Remus who was so excited he had started bouncing on the balls of his feet “ Today as we all know Roman is sick and Roman has just fallen asleep”. The others all gasped in excitement they had been waiting so long for a day like this- Finally they could do a real sleeping beauty storyline! After checking with Thomas that it was ok Janus and Remus crept inside. Remus had never seen his brother sleeping before. Sure they shared a room but Remus always fell asleep first while roman would stay up reading fantasy books under the covers. He looked so peaceful and happy and Remus was glad that they weren’t trying to play a prank on him for once. They each grabbed one end of roman’s little body and slowly made their way into his and remus’ shared room placing him delicately under the covers of his beautiful Disney spreadsheets. With roman tucked safely in bed and still sleeping silently ( lucky duck- remus always got told off for his loud snoring) they put their plan into action. Patton was the next to come into the room. He was carrying a big box of makeup, a beautiful red and gold nightie and a glimmering tiara. “ Wow Patton those look fabulous” Janus stated actually impressed “ I’ll take it from here though” and with that he pushed the two boys out of the room and slowly shut the door.

Janus’ P.O.V: To be honest Janus was excited. Even though he liked Remus now he had still had the biggest crush on Roman for ages when they were little and finally having a chance to be an antihero fighting for Roman was fulfilling all his little fantasies. Janus was really good at makeup as he often practiced on Remus drawing his moustache for their games. Once he had done a pretty good job he moved onto the nightie and tiara. He awkwardly slumped roman upwards towards him and threw the nightie over the top placing the tiara lightly on top of his head and then positioning him so he wouldn’t get hurt by it. Janus was so proud of himself. He had turned the stubborn prince into a sleeping princess.

Virgil’s P.O.V: Virgil was annoyed- deeply annoyed to be correct. He had honestly been excited to for once be the hero instead of just Roman’s sidekick and he had even gotten Thomas to make his knight sword even more heroic looking adding purple gems and black glittery spray paint. However he hadn’t expected it to take soooo looonng.

[theda-rison]

Camp Nano July 2020 - Results, Discussion, and Conclusion

the Like, wow, Scoob! 

Camp Nano July 2020 is done, and here are some thoughts:

I always knew that writing a comic script was going to be a learning experience - I’ve never written a comic script so it really couldn’t be anything except for a learning experience - but hoooooo boy, was it ever!

Before starting I couldn’t find anything on how long comic scripts normally are; I don’t know why, that just seems information that isn’t really shared? (If anyone knows of a resource, please send it to me!) I’m guessing it has a lot to do with there just being less comic writers than there are say, book writers and movie writers. That’s probably what happens when your interests are niche in some way, it’s just harder to find anything about them.

FORTUNATELY, I have the fancy library-bound volumes of The Sandman, and there’s excerpts of the scripts in the back. Which like… thank you @neil-gaiman​, or whoever made that decision, because being able to look at an actual script and see how it’s formatted and what’s included has been the biggest help. Even the “How to Write a Comic Script!” videos I found on YouTube didn’t have example scripts which... I don’t know, I don’t get it. Please include examples, comic YouTubers. I am confusion.

Now is the time for a sexy graph, because we are the kind of people who keep Excel spreadsheets of word counts and make graphs for fun.

Anyway, let’s look at…

[Good. I was listening to As The World Falls Down by David Bowie over and over, and now this is stuck in my head again. I don’t know why I do these things to myself. Also, I love Peter Tork’s face during some of the “AAAHHHH”s lol]

I can’t remember if I stated this before or during Camp at any point, but my goal was 60k words. I dislike aspiring for un-round numbers like “1667″ every day. Any number I could possibly pick is arbitrary, but for some reason the classic Nanowrimo number of 1667 seems even more arbitrary. “2000″ is a much better number. And, I can generally write 2000 words in two hours before running out of steam, so it works out well. It also divides better.

Having said that, you might be thinking, “Theda, the end Actual number on your graph is a lot closer to 90k than it is 60k,” and you would be right, good eyes. Were I Brandon Sanderson and you were one of my students, I would toss you a gummi bear. As it is, you’re not my student and I have no gummi bears and I’m not even Brandon Sanderson… so life is just upsetting I guess.

[But I am back to listening to As The World Falls Down, so I suppose it all works out.]

Back to the graph: The Actual. Look at this wavy-fucking-scalloped-fucking progression. Look at it. I can’t tell if it makes me happy or angry or what, but I know it gives me some kind of feeling. I think I like it from a purely aesthetic point of view, but from the point of the view of the person who made it, it annoys me.

I had a couple of days where I - in my infinite stupidity - didn’t really elaborate on what was supposed to happen in some of the scenes in my scene list and so I spent my “Writing!” time (as it’s labeled in my planner) not writing, but looking at the page cursing myself for not having written any directions for me, a directionless person.

You may also notice that the Goal bars suddenly jump up on the 24th day,. That’s because - in my infinite wisdom - I redid my goals after reaching 60k. It just makes more sense to me to be like, “Well, I punched that goal in the face. Let’s try and go WAY overboard,” because I have the Too Much gene and as Henry Rollins says: “Don't do anything by half. If you love someone, love them with all your soul. When you go to work, work your ass off. When you hate someone, hate them until it hurts.” I wouldn’t say that’s a personal philosophy so much as a Thing I Am Compelled To Do Or I Will Die.

But that’s just me.

As for the trend line, I prefer it looking more steep because that’s way more gratifying, but that’s what I get for writing parts of my scene list like, “That’s okay, Future Me will take care of it!” Past Me, you are a dick and you need to stop doing these things. You are a bastard.

Now for the table! 

[I’m sorry if that’s very small.]

And this time I’m showing you the actual table I use to write down my words. Complicated? Yes. Sexy? Very yes. A little annoying? Also yes. Do we get a little worried that she works too hard and refuses to take a vacation? We do, but we also know that she does it because she loves her work, and we love and support her and bring her snacks throughout the workday to keep her going. What a great table.

First of all: Yes, my first writing block is at 4am. It’s because I have a day job and if I write from 4-6 I can use my brain right when it’s freshly slumbered instead of using it for nonsense at work all day and being unable to write and aggravated because my mental capacity is nil and I no longer know what words are. In an ideal world I would be able to write all day but, here we are.

You might notice there’s a lot of 0’s in the 4am block, especially in the fourth week, and that’s more so because - in my infinite infiniteness (infinity?) - I am secretly an ice giant (but like, smaller) and it’s summer and the northern hemisphere is Too Hot and I literally will not be able to sleep at night until about December. Until then, I am forced to understand what it’s like to be a jacket potato for half of the year so I can empathize with their starchy pain because this is, for whatever reason, Important.

It me. (Recipe)

Anyway,

My record day was 7519 on the 10th, which is just sexy and fun and cool and everything we want, and my lowest was a big fat 0 on the 16th.

I felt super motivated for reasons I don’t remember on the 10th. This is because I didn’t have my planner yet and was not keeping notes anywhere else at that time. (It’s an undated Daily Passion Planner, in case you’re also a slut for planners and wish to know ;) ). I think I was trying to do a 10k day just for funzies? Which, technically, at 2k words in 2 hours I should be able to do 10k in 5, but cell phones exist (and are too distracting), and until I shed my corporeal form I still have to do things like “make food and eat it,” and “get up to pee,” and “experience all the vagaries and horrors of human existence.” I’m hoping it clears up soon. 

The 16th was the day that Future Me took Past Me by the hand and said, “My good bitch, you need to stop doing that thing where you leave shit for me because you run out of motivation or executive function or whatever the fuck is happening where you decide you don’t want to do something anymore, seemingly at random. You deciding to leave school before the day even started because you were bored may have been cute when you were a kid - and also annoying for everyone around you, and just alarming that time they had to pry your hands off the door molding as you held on to it and screamed - but as an adult you are both the cause of and the person who has to deal with this bullshit, and you need to stop.”

On the 16th I went to the Shrine of the Self (sorry, I’ve been reading a lot of manga lately) and made an offering for forgiveness, and then hunkered down and added a TON of notes and partially written scenes to my scene list. You can see how much that helped; it’s almost like having direction is actually useful, lol.

BUT, despite all that direction and despite punching my goal in the face, breaking it’s glasses, and taking it’s lunch money, the script is not finished!

Here’s some math as of the 23rd:

There are 124 points in my outline On the 23rd, I had completed 44 of those points, at 363 pages or 59,601 words 124 / 44 = 2.81 Now we check: 44 * 2.81 = 123.6 (close enough) So as of the 23rd, the projection for completing the script was: 363 * 2.81 = 1,020 pages 59,601 * 2.81 = 157,479 words

Now, I don’t know what the fuck that means because I don’t really do numbers, but at the time of the 23rd it looked an awful lot like I wasn’t going to finish this Camp project. And uh… hey, that was correct.

So I’m going to be continuing Camp Nano July 2020, but also in August 2020, over about 20 more days (providing I hit my goal every day.)

So:

IF -> I need to get up to 158,000; 158,000 - 86,000 = 72,000 words need to be written. (I'm rounding the total up because I canNOT imagine this script being somehow smaller than that at this point, and I’m rounding my Camp total down because who cares about 72 words?) I divided 72,000 from a few numbers until I got a word goal I was okay with, that I think I can do, here’s that one: 72,000 / 20 days = 3,600 words a day (This would mean I can either do 2k in the morning and then 1600 later, or the reverse. You know, whatever way I feel spicy that day.) THEN -> I need to write 3,600 words a day for 20 days to (hopefully) finish this script before work picks up at the end of August.

And then I’ll chill from the end of August - October (except for maybe some short stories or essays. I have a lot of Thoughts and they need to be purged from my brain for my own good). And then I’ll use Nanowrimo Classic (November) to edit this fucker.

SO… that’s some stuff.

As I said at the beginning this endeavor was only ever going to be a learning experience. Having to write 158k words total doesn’t scare me, the longest thing I’ve written yet was something like 190k words. Trying to finish it before the end of August is the daunting part. Especially since being able to be creative right now just keeps making my brain puke out more ideas, and then there’s too many ideas and I’m just writing them all down and hopefully I can get to them later.

Anyway, good job on Camp Nano July 2020 everyone! We did it!

And if you didn’t do it: don’t worry, you’ll do it next time :D

[yuthoe]

Schedule Changes (PENTAGON: Adachi Yuto)

HELLO, IT’S 12:48AM AND I COULDN’T HELP MYSELF.

I had to churn this out because it won’t leave my head. I’d like to thank my irl friend @shiiiiiiiiinwun for inspiring me to write this collection (yes, I’m gonna be doing one for all of ot9). And for someone who’s been watching anime since she figured out how to use the internet, you’d think I could’ve come up with better names, and faster.

EDIT (06/29/20): Hi! it’s my first time making an edit like this, so i’m kinda insecure abt it lol, i hope it’s okay. this is the 2nd yuto version i did, so it’s slightly better than the first one. tumblr rlly doesn’t want us to go overboard on image size huh

WARNINGS: n/a; some angst, maybe? who’s proofreading idk her. WORD COUNT: 3,314 it’s so fucking long.

---

Minister Sakaguchi,

Unfortunately, Her Majesty will not be available for your meeting today at 3PM; urgent matters have arisen that need her immediate attention. If you would like to reschedule with her, please reply to this email.

Thank you very much for understanding.

Regards,

Y/N L/N

Secretary to the Queen

You sigh, wondering if the email you’ve typed is in the appropriate tone that won’t offend Minister Sakaguchi; in all the years you’ve been working for the royal family it doesn’t get easier writing and replying to the emails of government officials, invitations to interview Her Majesty for magazine features, requests to attend public functions like galas and balls. The ridiculous amount of mail she gets, that are automatically forwarded to you, is mind-boggling, in anyone else’s eyes. It doesn’t surprise you anymore, though.

The queen as a monarch takes the backseat to running the kingdom, to any foreigner that decides to take a look at articles from international news sources. Her name isn’t mentioned as much as the king’s when it comes to referencing big developments in the state. Rather, the local newspapers and online sites have her name and face on some article at least once a week. The queen takes care of the little things, smaller projects that delve more into social welfare than her husband’s institutional programs. She is a strong advocate for women’s and children’s rights, as well as a figure in health outreach programs for the poorer sectors of society. Her compassion and dedication to her job is what made you want to work for her; she was like a role model to you, along with her husband.

It was a stroke of pure luck that got you this job; your first day as the secretary for Minister Yamazaki turned into you being his substitute with only a day’s notice. He had gotten sick with the flu and you were immediately thrust into a role you knew almost nothing about. So you took all the files related to the subject of the meeting and studied up on them the night before, turning up the next day and pulling out opinions as if you yourself spearheaded the project. The queen, upon finding out that you were new, was so impressed and had talked to Minister Yamazaki (who was still in his sickbed) over the phone about enlisting you under her employ.

It’s been five years since then. Five fast-paced, fulfilling, exciting years working closely with the royal family. At this point, your relationship with the queen is more of a friendship than strictly professional, and you’re grateful for it. The people you interact with on a daily basis are mostly considerably older than you--ministers, program leaders, the palace staff--and the talk is all business. So you’re grateful for your weekend teatime with the queen, sometimes with her children joining you, who are some of the only people your age you talk to on a regular basis, apart from the younger maids and kitchen staff. The afternoons out in the garden are the queen’s time to unwind and review everything that happened the previous week, as well as scheduling the succeeding weeks. The stress of planning therefore comes to a head on Saturdays so the week can sail by calmly.

Today is one of those Saturdays. Minister Sakaguchi had scheduled a dinner meeting with the queen yesterday--something about the upcoming fair for disenfranchised women, although you suspect Minister Sakiguchi will try to sneak in pitches for other programs she has in mind. The queen had agreed, so you penciled in the meeting into your schedule. However, the queen seemed under the weather when she came out earlier, that you had advised her to cancel it, assuring her that Minister Sakiguchi would understand. 

The queen takes a sip of her favorite rosehip and lemon tea, fingers delicate on the porcelain, and you send the email, huffing out a sigh. You place your phone facedown on the glass table and take a sugar cookie from the plate. “Just sent the email, Your Majesty,” you say. “Now you can just focus on resting tonight.” You smile as you take a bite.

Your boss smiles as she replaces the teacup on its saucer. “Thank you,” she says, relaxing against the lounge chair. “To be honest, I didn’t think Minister Sakiguchi would talk so much about the fair anyway. She probably suggested a meeting to tell me more of her ideas for the women’s sector.” You smile. Bingo. “Is anything else scheduled for tomorrow?”

You glance at your open laptop, as well as the printed-out spreadsheet on your lap. It’s an organized mess of colors and times and places and people. “Just the charity gala tomorrow night. I’ve coordinated with Subaru and she said the king will be late by an hour. Will you go alone?”

She tilts her head in thought and hums. “I don’t want to be late. Is there anyone available?”

You click through the several pinned tabs on your laptop to the tab for the royal family’s shared schedule. “It seems Princess Akari is free, as well as Prince Yuto,” you say after a moment.

“Ah, Akari will be busy designing something for the fair, I think, so maybe she won’t want to go,” the queen muses.

“So you’ll just take the prince, then? I’ll contact Daiki and ask him to notify the prince.”

“No need,” a deep, disembodied voice comes in from somewhere in the hedges before Prince Yuto pops his head into view. He walks towards the table as you clear up a space for him, closing your binder and putting that on top of the clipboard among other printouts on one of the spare chairs between you and the queen.

The prince strides across the grass in his black dress pants and long-sleeved shirt, to greet his mother. He places his hands softly on her shoulders and leans down to give her a kiss on the cheek. The queen smiles and accepts the kiss, patting a hand over one of his; her mood instantly lifts, and her posture relaxes further. As the youngest son, she dotes on him a lot; he in turn always keeps his mother company and can rarely be seen in public not by her side or his father’s. You think their relationship is sweet, and so do the many news articles posted online about it.

Prince Yuto takes a seat on the only empty chair and fixes himself a cup of tea while saying, “What’s the gala for?”

“The orphanages in the farther provinces,” the queen says as she takes a saucer and stacks it high with dark chocolate-coated cookies, pushing the small plate at her son’s direction. “Some dignitaries from other kingdoms as well as celebrities will be attending. And I will announce the new scholarship program for our state schools. There’s a chance your father won’t make it, so I’d like a companion.”

“Of course I’ll go with you, Mother,” Prince Yuto says after swallowing a bite of cookie. He turns to you. “What time is it?”

“Call time for the royals and major government officials is 7PM, and the program starts at 7:30. I’ll contact Daiki with the details as well,” you say.

The prince shakes his head, but there’s a smile on his face as he turns to the queen. “It’s such a shame, I thought you two were talking about Y/N transferring to my office,” he jokes. It’s a bit that he’s brought up many times before, and both you and the queen take it as a joke since you figure he just wants someone closer to his age with more experience than Daiki, who is about four years older and has only been working with him for two years.

The queen lets out a laugh and takes her teacup again. “What’s the matter with Daiki? He seems to be doing a good job.” Her eyes meet yours as she takes another sip, glinting in amusement.

Prince Yuto is smiling his bright, beautiful smile that the camera loves as he looks fondly at his mother. He probably got wind of her feeling run-down and hurried here to try to distract her. You know the queen is the most important person to him, and the queen may not know it, but it’s obvious to everyone else. “Well, as you know, Y/N is better,” he continues, “and Daiki-san is a stick-in-the-mud.” The teasing makes you huff out a laugh, immediately raising a hand to cover your mouth; Daiki is truly a stick-in-the-mud, even more than you are.

The queen laughs boisterously, throwing her head back. “Oh, you’re such a jokester, Yuto.” She sighs, fully relieved, and you’re thankful he decided to stop by. The queen finishes her tea and says, “Well, this was a fun teatime. I have some paperwork I have to sign, so Y/N, you may go.” She turns to her son. “It’s so nice of you to stop by, sweetheart,” she says, and leans down to drop a kiss on the crown of his head. “I’ll be seeing you both.” The queen glides away, and you briefly wonder how she can walk that gracefully in heels over damp, unpaved grass--but then you remember she’s the queen and has been doing this for years. She turns around the corner of the hedge and disappears.

You sigh and shut down your laptop, gathering your stuff as you message Daiki about the charity gala. You slide the laptop in your bag, and put all the printouts in order into a folder, before slipping everything else inside. You’re just about to get up to leave before Prince Yuto’s voice stops you.

“You sure you won’t consider transferring to my office?” you hear the prince suddenly ask. He’s looking at you, piercing eyes that make everyone in the kingdom, young and old, swoon. And if you didn’t talk to him everyday and your self-control had been any less, you would probably give in to whatever he wanted.

So you try to mask your rapidly beating heart behind a fond, teasing smile. “Well, I don’t really have a say in it. Don’t think the queen wants to let me go, anyway,” you say, taking a proffered dark chocolate-covered cookie from the prince and biting into it. The rich, slightly bitter punch of the chocolate explodes on your tongue.

The prince looks at you with a small smile. “I was serious, you know,” he says simply. “I mean, you won’t be as busy so you’ll have more free time, and the stuff I do is just small, as a minister for cultural arts. I split it with another person.”

You’re already shaking your head. “I like my job. I love working for the queen and seeing the results of what she’s done. You know she’s been my role model since I was a teenager, so this is a dream for me. And as much as I want a break sometimes, I can’t let this opportunity go.” You sigh, heart heavy now, and stand. “I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

He stands with you. “I know I’ve told you to call me just ‘Yuto’ before, didn’t I?”

“But decorum--,”

“Yeah, fine, practice etiquette in public, but when we’re alone you can just call me by my name.” You don’t answer, and hesitantly purse your lips. And then the prince begins to pout. “Come on, if you don’t wanna work for me, at least call me Yuto.” He presses the tips of his index fingers together and says, “I miss you,” so cutely, with his big puppy dog eyes and hilariously deep voice that’s sorely out of place for the cutesy thing he’s trying to do.

You have to laugh, bending down at the waist and steadying yourself with the table as you cackle. “Fine, fine,” you relent. “I’ll call you Yuto in private from now on.” You heave your heavy bag up onto your shoulder with a smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

***

“You look beautiful tonight,” someone says behind you. You turn carefully, eyes meeting Yuto, in another black ensemble: turtleneck under an overcoat with black dress pants and boots. His hair is slicked back artfully, apart from the stray locks of hair that insist on falling over his eyes. Simple, but very handsome; the paparazzi and journalists must be having a field day with that outfit.

And you look down at yourself: standard black satin-and-chiffon off-shoulder gown that you usually wear to these types of stuff. Your shoes are your everyday pair, and you’re thankful that the dress comes all the way to the floor because they are getting scuffed at the tip. Your hair is wavy, the result of sleeping in a braid through twelve hours, but you manage to tame it into a loose bun that’s mostly out of your face. The only accessory you have is the necklace you’ve worn since your mother passed down to you six or seven years ago. Makeup is minimal because you are here to assist, not be the center of attention. Everything you put into your appearance tonight is just to make sure you look clean and professional. And invisible.

You roll your eyes at the prince. “Your Highness, I look like this everytime the queen needs to go somewhere fancy. I don’t think ‘beautiful’ is the right word.” You know he means well, but you’re just plain, from your shoes to your face to your position in society, you’re just simple, unremarkable.

The prince furrows his brows and takes his place standing beside you. “You are, though. You may not see it, but I do.” He casts you a quick glance before turning his focus to the stage, where a popular singer is performing one of her new songs onstage as an opening act. “And those photographers over there see it, too.”

You whip your head at him before scanning the event hall for any cameras pointed at you, heart pounding hard in your chest. You don’t spot any, but you still say, “I think you had better take your seat, Your Highness. I bet those people just want to make a scandal out of nothing.” Prince Yuto may be the youngest out of the royal children, but that does not mean he is risk-free. He is being trained for the position of Minister of Culture and the Arts; he has a large following of young people who look up to him as a leader and as a person; he is one of the most important people in your life, and you can’t bear for anything bad to happen to him.

The work tablet you brought is getting crushed in your folded arms from how tight you’re clutching it. “I’m going to find Daiki--,” you say softly, making to leave, but getting stopped once again by the prince.

He’s holding one of your arms gently, but strong enough to pull you back beside him. “It’s okay,” he says. “Let them. It’s fine.”

You pull your arm away. “Your Highness, it’s not fine. You can’t risk a scandal blowing up on you right now. Everyone has eyes on you, even if you don’t think so.” You’re worried. The last thing you want is for him to get in trouble because of you.

The prince sighs. “Y/N, there’s not gonna be a scandal if we’re actually together.”

You take a moment to think. “What? You want us to pretend to be a couple? I don’t think it’s a good idea; people might get the misconception that you’re slacking off, or--,”

“No, I mean--,” he sighs frustrated, more at himself than at you, but he keeps his composure and his face remains stoic; you both are still in public, after all. “I’ve wanted to tell you this for a while now, but I just didn’t know how to say it, and I certainly didn’t plan on telling you at a charity event where hundreds of people could hear.” He’s rambling--a sign that he’s nervous, unprepared.

Prince Yuto takes a calming breath before fully facing you. “I like you, Y/N,” he says softly, aware of the number of ears that are possibly listening in. “I’ve liked you since the day you started working for my mom, and I liked you even more the longer you stayed. You’re a hard worker, you’re dedicated to your job, you genuinely care for the queen and the things she does for the people. And I’m thankful that I got close to you as much as I have because you do mean a lot to me. I know I don’t show it, because I’m not sure how to show it, and I don’t know how you would react to it. But I do like you. Very much.” He releases a breath and looks you in the eye. “So will you try? To be with me?”

All this you take in with wide eyes and a shocked-open mouth. You know the prince is not the most outgoing person; he’s most relaxed when he is with people he knows, which are limited to his family and their secretaries, along with some of the senior palace staff. You’ve never seen him in a pickle of trying to get someone’s attention, but you do remember him offering to carry your heavy work back once or twice and you insisting on carrying yourself; him telling you that you look beautiful even if you wear the same plain things all the time; him giving you a box of (really expensive) chocolate for Valentine’s Day on the excuse of “I gave all the royal family’s employees chocolates”; him giving you a piece of his favorite chocolate cookies, even though you’ve never seen him offer them to anyone else.

All this time he’s been telling you how he feels and you’ve never noticed. And you yourself can’t even tell him the same because you don’t want to risk the prince getting hurt, you getting hurt, the queen getting hurt because of your selfishness. Your work is important to you, and you can’t jeopardize it for your happiness.

But here he is, Prince Yuto. Being brave enough to know the uncertainty of what lies ahead and being prepared to face it, if you answer him; if you push aside your fear of messing up and tell him you like him back; if, for once, you look to your heart instead of thinking of your work.

He stands tall beside you, an imposing figure of grace and compassion. A man people look up to. A leader who is innovative, yet respects traditions. A role model for young people who are inspired by his music, his acts of service to everyone. A son that is loved by his parents, a brother that is loved by his siblings. A friend who listens and is always there, but always pushes you out of your comfort zone.

How can you not fall for him?

How can you say no, when everything around you points to yes?

You’re nodding your head before you know it, still too shocked to properly process the last five minutes. “Yes. Yes, I’ll try being with you.”

The blinding smile is back, and you can’t help but return it. The prince nods, unable to suppress the grin on his face and gestures to the audience, milling about finding their tables. “I’ll be on my way, then. Find my mother.” He clears his throat, fidgets about with his coat and pockets. “Good luck for the rest of the night,” he says with a nod, before leaving.

You just curtsy, still beaming and your heart is drumming in your chest like crazy, but it feels light. Like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders and you can take flight at any moment, straight into his arms.

[ladylillianrose]

You’ve Got SPRQS a Max Richman/Zoey Clarke Fanfiction

Summary: Time passes, Max and Red get closer but so do Max and Zoey....

A/N: Apologies for the delay in an update, school started back up for Summer so I’ve been busy diving into homework! So there may be delays but I promise I’ll update as frequently as I can!

As always thanks to aubreyrichman for dealing with random middle of the night inspirations and ideas, and for tweaking my mistakes!

Chapter 11

Chapter 10

Chapter 9

Chapter 8

Chapter 7

Chapter 6

Chapter 5

Chapter 4

Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Chapter 11

3 months later

"I went on a walk earlier today and I saw some sunflowers in a shop window. They made me think of you, if I knew where you worked I would send you a whole vase of them."

Max smiled as he messaged Red. It had taken them some time, but they had finally gotten back to how they were before they tried to meet. Their messages had become more flirtatious as of late, which Max took as a good sign for the near future. He still hadn't sent her any more songs, he had thought about it, but something always seemed to hold him back. 

"Morning, Max," Zoey said, smiling at him.

"Hey, Zo, you're in a good mood this morning," Max observed.

"Just feeling good. We still on for drinks this evening?"

"Yeah, where is it again?"

"It’s that new place down the road the one called, The Club Around The Corner. Though since it’s not around a corner from anything I don't even know why they called it that, " Zoey rambled.

Max smiled at her, "Maybe it used to be around a corner, and then they moved?"

Zoey shrugged, "Anyway, Mo said he and Eddie would meet us there after work."

He nodded, "Sounds good."

________________________________________________________________

Zoey read the message from Max and smiled as she composed her reply. 

Sunflowers are my favorite flowers, they're so friendly-looking. They look, at least to me, like they could just burst into song at any moment. You know, like the flowers in Alice in Wonderland.

She heard Max chuckle as he received her response.

I can see that actually. They'd be the Altos, less showy than the Sopranos, but still just as important to the song, rounding it out with their warm rich tones. Now, I'm wondering what voices the other flowers would have. Which would be the Basses, Baritones, and Tenors….

You know that kind of music talk goes completely over my head, right?

Lol. Sorry, you got me thinking about it and now I'm rambling about fictional flower voices in a children's movie.

I don't mind, I think it's cute.

Zoey tried to convince herself that it was Red who was flirting with Max, and not her, but she knew better. She had spent the better part of the past few months trying to push aside her romantic feelings for Max, a task that was becoming more difficult as time went on. 

See, you say that now, but when you find me creating a spreadsheet to classify different flowers and their singing voices….

Zoey laughed at the mental image that created.

Tobin glanced over at the two of them, shaking his head at his stupidly oblivious they were.

________________________________________________________________

Zoey had been thinking about sunflowers ever since Max had mentioned them to Red. It was silly but she could use a pick-me-up, so she decided to run to the flower shop on her lunch break and buy a small arrangement of them. 

Max did a double-take as he saw Zoey holding the very bouquet he had messaged Red about that morning.

Tobin jumped in before he could ask about them, “Ooooo, somebody has a secret admirer? Do tell, Boss Lady!”

Zoey laughed, “Sorry to disappoint you, but I bought them myself. I love sunflowers, they’re just so friendly looking. So, when I saw them while I was at lunch, I just had to get them.”

Max watched as she placed them on her desk, his brow furrowed in concentration.  Was it possible? Could Zoey…..

“Everything okay, Max?” Zoey asked, glancing over at him.

He shook his head, and smiled, “Yeah, everything is great. I never knew sunflowers were your favorite.”

Zoey smiled, “Yeah. I fell in love with them when I went deep into research mode for a role in my first and only school play.”

“You were in a school play?” Max grinned.

She shrugged, “The whole second-grade class was required to be in it.  It was a science play about flowers and pollination.”

He chuckled, “So, you were a sunflower? That sounds adorable.”

Zoey blushed, “I didn’t have any lines, but I was so terrified of being on stage that I hid behind one of the trees.”

“Ooh, I wonder if your mom has pictures….” Max pulled out his phone teasingly.

She groaned, “I’m going to regret having told you about this, aren’t I?”

“What? I think it’s sweet that you were such a shy little flower!” 

Zoey shook her head, taking a seat at her desk and focusing on work.

Just as she was getting ready to shut everything off for the day, her e-mail pinged with a message from Max, she glanced over at him suspiciously.

Max was completely focused on his computer screen, not bothering to look up.

When she opened the message she rolled her eyes, she should have known he’d ask her mom about it. It was a picture of her dressed as a sunflower, peeking out from behind a tree on stage, but it was the next photo that made her grin. It was a photo of a very different school play, one where Max was front and center on stage, dressed as a turkey!

Max caught her eye and they both started laughing.

"I can't believe you were a turkey!" Zoey managed between giggles. 

"I'll have you know I was the best turkey in that play!" Max defended himself.

"Just how many other turkeys were in the play?" Zoey teased.

"Okay fine, so I was the only turkey, but that still makes me the best," Max admitted. 

"But I was right, you were an adorable sunflower," Max smiled at her, and Zoey felt her cheeks redden.

"Come on, Mr. Turkey, we don't want to be late," Zoey said as she grabbed his arm, trying to hide her blush, as they walked to the elevators. "For what it's worth, you made a pretty cute turkey," she grinned at him.

"Yeah, well, I managed to forget my one line. I was so nervous," Max confessed.

"What line was that?" Zoey asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Gobble, gobble," Max mumbled, embarrassed.

Zoey threw her head back and laughed. Max couldn't help but stare at her as she laughed. It had been so long since she had really laughed at something. She was beautiful, her eyes sparkling with tears of mirth, her cheeks flushed and her lips turned up in a big smile. Max felt his heart race as he looked at her. If only….no, she wasn't interested in him like that...The sunflowers thing was a coincidence….right?....

Zoey wiped tears from her eyes and patted him on the shoulder as she finally caught her breath. "That beats me for ‘embarrassing acting story’."

"Needless to say, that was also my first and only play," Max grinned.

"Well, that settles it. Neither of us will realize our childhood dreams of acting," Zoey joked. 

Max laughed, "Aww man, and here I was hoping I was just a late bloomer ."

Zoey shook her head, "Really, Max? Flower puns?"

"What can I say, they can really start to grow on you…it's not like I had planted to have this many"

Zoey groaned loudly, "That's it. I'm walking away now," she headed out the door and in the direction of the club.

Max grinned and quickly ran to catch up with her.

________________________________________________________________

As they walked through the door, Mo and Eddie waved them over to their booth. Max gestured to the bar and Zoey nodded, heading towards their friends.

“Zolene, you made it!” Mo smiled as Zoey slid into the booth. “Where’s your Piano Man?”

Zoey glared at Mo, “Shhh, keep your voice down! He’s grabbing us drinks.”

“Child, he is at the bar in a noisy club, you know he can’t possibly hear me!” Mo nudged Eddie and rolled his eyes. “Besides, Eddie knows all about your online dilemma.”

“Mo!” Zoey hissed.

He took a sip of his drink, “What? This story was just too good not to share!”

Zoey dropped her head on the table and groaned in embarrassment.

“For what it’s worth, I think it’s adorable,” Eddie chimed in. “You two are clearly meant to be.”

“Who’s meant to be?” Max asked. Zoey quickly sat up and thanked him as he set her drink down in front of her.

“Oh, uh just some teenagers on a show that Mo is obsessed with,” Zoey covered weakly, taking a sip of her drink.

“I didn’t have you come here to disrespect my love Bevi love! Come on, girl,” Mo dragged Zoey out on the dance floor.

“Ummm….Mo, you know I don’t really dance,” she glanced around nervously.

“You and I both know that, Zoldilocks. We’re out here so you can fill me in on things with you and Max.” Mo gestured for Zoey to follow his lead on the floor.

“There isn’t any me and Max….”

“And whose fault is that? You’re in love with him, he’s in love with you, make it happen!”

“But Mo, he’s not in love with me. He’s in love with Red!” Zoey explained, frustrated both with the conversation and trying to keep up with Mo’s “simple” dance moves.

“Zoey, you and Red are the same person….no matter how much you try and convince yourself otherwise. The person Max has fallen in love with is you!” Zoey started to interrupt and Mo quickly cut her off. “So help me, if you say that he will be “disappointed that it’s you” one more time, I will play Macarena nonstop for a week straight!

Zoey held up her hands in defeat, “Alright, I won’t say it….no need to play dirty.”

Mo grabbed Zoey’s hand and twirled her, “Whatever it takes to shake you out of this ridiculous denial. It's time you stopped hiding and realized that some things in life that are worth risking everything for. Tell him the truth about Red, I promise you he won’t be disappointed.”

Zoey opened her mouth to respond when they were interrupted by Max and Eddie.

“May I have this dance gorgeous?” Eddie grinned offering his hand to Mo.

“You can have every dance, as long as you keep calling me that,” Mo glanced meaningfully at Zoey as he and Eddie made their way to the center of the dance floor.

“Do you want to go back to the booth? I know you’re not a huge fan of dancing,” Max offered.

Zoey smiled at him, “Actually, I wouldn’t say not to a dance or two. I can’t promise that I’ll be any good…”

Max’s face broke into a grin, “It’s a good thing I’m familiar with your dancing skills.”

He led her out onto the dance floor just as the song changed to a slower number. His face fell, “Oh, we can wait for a faster one if you want.”

Zoey took in a deep breath, here was her chance to prove to Mo that Max didn’t feel anything but friendship for her. She shook her head,  “No this is fine.” She placed her arms around Max’s neck and stepped closer to him.

Max swallowed nervously as her fingers grazed the back of his neck. He placed his hands on her waist and they started to slowly sway to the rhythm of the music.

Giving in to temptation she closed her eyes, leaned against his chest, and smiled softly. She felt his fingers flex against her back, a slight shiver running through her as she thought how they would feel running along the rest of her body. 

Max glanced down at the woman in his arms, she fit so perfectly against him, as though they were made for one another. 

He let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Zoey glanced up at him, her eyes searching his face questioningly.

Her lips parted slightly as she realized how close their faces were. She could feel her heart racing from the look in his eyes.

"Zoey?" he whispered, leaning forward slightly.

She started to lean towards him, only to be interrupted by a tipsy young couple stumbling against them.

The was spell broken, she quickly pulled herself away from Max, unable to meet his gaze.

"Woah, sorry bout that," the inebriated couple apologized with a giggle.

Zoey waved them off, quickly making her way from the dance floor to their booth. Max trailed behind her confused as to what had just happened.

Quickly downing her drink, Zoey grabbed her jacket and turned to Max.

"It's getting kind of late. I think I'm just going to head home," she explained, trying to calm the flush on her cheeks. 

Max opened his mouth to say something but then thought better of it. "Sure. I'll let Mo and Eddie know," he sighed. "Thanks for the dance."

Zoey managed a weak grin at him and nodded. "See ya," she said, racing for the door, needing to put as much space as possible between her and Max.

As she waited for her ride she thought about what had just happened between her and Max. If that couple hadn't bumped into them would he have kissed her?

She was more confused than ever, was Mo right? Did Max have feelings for her?

She felt her heart skip a beat as she remembered how he had looked at her on the dance floor.

Mo was right about one thing though, she needed to tell him the truth about Red, and soon.

[theoriginalladya]

Mass Effect questions: please pick 7 of your choice because I totally lost track who did which while I was sleeping. :D

from this prompt list

thank you!  Now, let me see ...

1.  How did you get into Mass Effect?

Kicking and screaming, basically! lol  I’d been playing Dragon Age for four years, met some good friends online through a Dragon Age rpg site and heard them talking about Mass Effect.  They kept trying to convince me to play, too, but I refused.  When I looked at it, all I saw was a shooter game and that wasn’t for me.  (Dragon Age at least made sense because a) my background playing D&D and b) my Master’s Degree in medieval history kind of tied in.  Space shoter game? not so much)

Then over Labor Day weekend of 2012, my (then) husband was at Dragon Con and I was stuck home with the kiddo who was 13 (and this wasn’t the first time this had happened) and one of those friends got on Skype where we all hung out and mentioned Origin had the games on sale.  ME1/ME2 for $10 each and ME3 for $20.  I’d hit my breaking point, so I said why the hell not and I got them and started playing while talking to them over Skype.  I was hooked from the moment I set foot onto Eden Prime and I’ve never looked back!

2.  Have you finished all three games?

Oh god, so many times I’ve lost count.  I played first on PC and later on my PS3 (my preferred method) and at some point in all of that my Shepard spreadsheet began because damn, ALL THE POSSIBILITIES!!!  It’s like Pokkemon:  Gotta play them all!

4.  First Shepard: Paragon, Renegade or Neutral?

First time through, Paragon.  That’s just sort of how Serafina Shepard worked out.  On later playthroughs, I started experiementingmore.  Hell, on later playthroughs for Serafina (I think I’ve completed about 6 different games for her, counting NG+?) she becomes more Renegade, especially in ME2.  By the end, she’s mostly Paragon, but there are definitely some Renegade moments for her!

6.  Preferred Shepard backstory (colonist, earthborn, spacer)?

There was a point when I’d have said Colonist, hands down.  More recently, I’ve added Spacer to that list.  I’ve played all three, and the only reason Earthborn hasn’t been at the top of the list yet is becase I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. (getting much closer these days!)   My first, Serafina, was Colonist - she’s a character I created in Dragon Age rpg and it was the closest I could give to her that fit her story in my head.  It’s my default backstory for Shepard and probably always will be.

9.  Share a pic of your favorite Shepard. 

Oh let’s see if I still have one ...  

Can’t find one of Serafina at the moment, but this is my Little Engineer That Could, Jayce Shepard.  She’s Colonist/Sole Survivor like Serafina.

Bonus picture:  Caleb Shepard - seriously, the first male Shepard whose image I’m sooooooo pleased with out of the character crator from the games!

13.  Favorite ME1 squad combo?

I love EVERYone, but when the Citadel DLC came out and we got to pick from all of our old buddies from ME1, I automatically went back to Shepard/Kaidan/Wrex.  I hadn’t realized just how much I missed Wrex until that moment!  (I have this tendency to pick characters to make sure that MINE stays alive because while I can play video games fairly well, I know I’m squishy! lol  Plus, Wrex’s banter is some of the absolute BEST)

51.   That One Headcanon that hurts to think about?

Commander Bailey manages to get the Council off of the Citadel before TIM and the Reapers arrive in ME3 and then move it to Earth, but that’s about it.  But, what about everyone else who is there?  Permanent residents?  Refugees?  The teenage girl in the holding area talking to the C-Sec officer at the desk?  The Salarian (from ME2) at the shop on the lower level of Zakera Ward (can’t recall his name or the company)?  The Japanese noodle stand?  What about Dr. Michel in Huerta?  There’s soooooooo many people there, maybe a few get away if they’re lucky, if they’re in fortunate positions when the alert comes (IF it comes?), and they can get away, but maybe not.  The docks are filled with refugee ships, remember, so that’s a hinderance as well ...  

Wow, that got very dark all of a sudden, but yeah one of my big headcanons is thinking about the Citadel at the end of ME3.  I’m weird :P  (actually, I’ve used part of this headcanon in a story already)