#probably not because it was back when we could customize our themes

[ohisms]

✱˚｡⋆ ↪ 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐘 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐋𝐄𝐄𝐏 ! ( a collection of sentence starters from season  1 of nbc's “ good girls ”. adjust phrasing as necessary . will be updated in the future . mature themes are present . )

specificity is good , but that's over the top .

chill , i'm like two minutes late .

alright , everybody be cool and nobody gets hurt .

do you think i could make it in L.A. ?

i don't need all that . i just want to be super famous .

you know , i'm just not really much of a church person .

maybe next time you'll take security more seriously .

oh my god , can you please just listen to me for one damn minute ?!

shame on you . shame on all of you .

move it before i shoot your face off , let's go !

you should probably get yourself a lawyer .

why is it so crazy ? i mean , it's a victimless crime .

can't you have my back on one thing , ever ?

this is me helping you not ruin your life .

damn . that was a good sell .

i should have been more careful , i panicked .

no ! i mean ... i don't know . maybe .

we're gonna rob that store .

have you lost your mind ?

we can't sit back and let everything be taken away from us .

no one's gonna fix this . we have to do it ourselves .

[ name ] ... hello ? are you okay in there ?

how did you have the money for all of this ?

i'm here to clean up a mess , [ name ] .

it's not a knock , we all have our strengths and weaknesses . you're a beautiful dummy . it doesn't make you a bad person .

this is five grand . enough for a plane ticket , and to get you started .

i guess you won't mind if i go to the cops , then . right ?

i handled it because you couldn't .

you've got a little ... on your face , kind of looks like blood .

what am i looking at right now ? WHAT am i even looking at right now ?

[ name ] , this is life or death .

i choose death . GIVE ME DEATH .

i have ... sort of a favor to ask .

it's not like you can't afford it .

what do you need that much money for ?

thank you for making me completely humiliate myself for no reason .

this is what winning feels like .

i'm gonna need you to say it with me . we are winning .

it's not like you're gonna kill me .

you don't have the guts . you're not killers .

thought you'd pull a fast one , huh ? make a quick buck ?

girls like you , you never think things through .

you've done this your whole life . you make these big messes and expect everyone else to clean it up . then you just ignore it .

you can't leave me here forever .

you are an incredible liar .

when bad things happen to good people , everyone goes crazy .

if it could happen to us , it could happen to anyone .

roll the dice . tell them to pull the trigger . see what happens .

hey , looks like we've got a survivor .

i am going the speed limit . i don't wanna get a ticket .

where does he think he's going ? boy , this is hard to watch .

if you go to the cops , so will i .

i thought we were done with this .

oh ! you'd rather just declare a kilo at customs ?

– or we could just steal it .

are you hearing yourself right now ?

do not call me crazy .

what if we get caught ?

there's always a choice .

dude , it's never gonna end . unless we end it .

i'm not gonna shoot him , i'm just gonna scare him a little !

forgive me lord jesus , i did not mean to shoot that man .

are we supposed to knock or something ?

i wanted my music for the road trip .

how long has it been bleeding like this ?

i need to take you to the hospital , i think you need stitches .

i wish everything could go back to the way it was .

i had no damn idea how good i had it until it was gone .

i know you hate me right now .

i'm sorry . i suck .

i had to do something really , really important .

what's more important than me ?

is there something you want to ask me ?

just making conversation .

you know the tradition is jordans over a phone line , right ?

be outside in two minutes or you're dead , i mean it .

it's so crazy , even saying it .

you asked for this ? you ASKED for this ?

you can't sign people up for criminal activity like it's a bake sale !

that is NOT what i meant when i said i'd do another job .

so you think you get to pick and choose what you do and when you wanna do it ?

no , i'm sorry . that is not gonna work .

what's your gut say ?

i can prove it ! i mean i can't ... but i want to .

why should i apologize ?

chill out with the cayenne .

maybe we need like , smelling salts or something .

well , i want him to not die in my house .

i am so tired of almost dying .

hey ! ... don't be mad .

you're a dead man .

shut up , just don't say anything . i will handle it .

just say you're sorry .

i wanted to do something nice , so that maybe we could start fresh .

i'm not proud of my part in everything .

oh , yeah ? what does that mean ?

[snapscube]

In Dawntrail did you enjoy a different character playing the main role, or do you prefer when the player character is leading the narrative?

this is definitely a major point of contention in the fanbase rn and i can generally see valid feelings/criticism on both ends of the spectrum. i myself do fall somewhere in between the most extreme takes on this. i won't go into too much detail about actual events but ill tag this as spoilers anyway just in case. ok so my thoughts are:

firstly, i like Wuk Lamat a lot. i don't think she deserves even half of the pure unfiltered ire that she is receiving from a large subset of the community rn. the amount of people who have already turned being a wuk lamat hater into an advertised personality trait really frustrates me. i really enjoyed seeing her personal journey through the story and i was overall very satisfied by her inclusion. however, i do not think the story was perfectly paced or balanced, and i definitely do understand where people are coming from when they say that they could have used a little less of her in the forefront. honestly it did kind of ultimately disappoint me that we missed out on a lot of potential interaction/development with someone like Krile, who in spite of being promised a big breakout role in this expansion still somewhat felt like a SLIGHT (i have to stress slight) afterthought. she did get some notable moments of development and emotion, but i feel like there could have been more.

okay but, your question is about our role as a player in the narrative. i hold the opinion that for THIS EXPANSION SPECIFICALLY, the warrior of light taking somewhat of a narrative backseat actually made a ton of sense and fit the themes of the narrative as well as the promise of a somewhat breezy summer vacation for our heroes. now, i will say this: i really do not agree with the idea that the WoL should be in a mentor role indefinitely because our story is done developing and we need to give the spotlight to "the next generation" of heroes in the world. i appreciate the SENTIMENT of this, but like for me personally.... i don't want Pella's story to be done, yknow? i definitely would be disappointed if this was the DE FACTO role she played in every expansion past this. but i don't even think that is factually what's going to happen. we're currently in a setup phase! and, again, bringing it back to this narrative and the themes within, a lot of Dawntrail about the experience of entering unfamiliar places and learning about the customs and the traditions of people already within it to best help them without unwelcomely trampling on their culture in the process. i think a story like that is the PERFECT time for the WoL to take a bit of a backseat. wuk lamat is also somewhat unfamilar like us yes, but Tural is still her home and she is about to be tasked with leading it. i feel like centering our character in that equation would feel.... really disingenuous? it was kinda frustrating sometimes when it felt like hey.... there's a situation happening right now that can be solved by skilled combat and you have a literally god killer standing right here doing a frown emote, but at a certain point i could chalk it up to growing pains or necessary suspension of disbelief in the interest of the overall emotional hook of the narrative. a lot of those moments could be explained away with enough thought about the character motivations and culture at play, though sometimes it does feel like a stretch. again, far from a perfectly written MSQ. it starts slow and it's messy and it throws a LOT of stuff at you that doesn't always pay off like you expect or want. but i dunno! i think we're gonna see some really interesting stuff come to the forefront in the future, and i think especially now knowing that much of the playerbase thought we took TOO much of a backseat here CS3 will probably adjust their focus accordingly next time. so i can't be too upset really about the stuff i wasn't into. the rest of it was great imo!

[sirfrogsworth]

It's hard to be nostalgic about Tumblr without remembering my friend Tru.

Truett McGowan.

What a fantastic name.

We met each other because we were both tech geeks following Leo Laporte. He was the very first live streamer. Originally he hosted a TechTV cable show called The Screen Savers. But once G4 took over and focused more on video games, Leo's show was cancelled and he was looking for a new way to broadcast content.

So he built a studio near his home and created his own infrastructure in order to live stream video on the internet. He called his new show "This Week in Tech" or TWiT for short.

Along with his new streaming venture he created a TWiT community using an open source microblogging platform called Laconica. It was a form of Twitter that you could create specifically for a single community. Basically a custom niche Twitter feed. I was trying to be a web designer back then, so I created custom themes for Lacnonica.

This was my own personal theme for a website that I ended up never launching.

Leo called his custom Twitter, "The TWiT Army." And I was his graphic designer and webmaster. I made all of the cute little graphics for the website.

I also did fun holiday themes...

For the Thanksgiving theme, if you hovered over the Turkey it would change to being cooked.

I also took it upon myself to photoshop a little army helmet on the avatar of every single user of the site.

This was the zombie avatar I made for myself during Halloween.

The TWiT Army was also where I started posting my first attempts at Photoshop comedy. Many of them related to The TWiT Army.

And The TWiT Army is where I met Tru. He used a space invader avatar. I made him a couple of different versions.

You may have seen his avatar on the sidebar of my main Tumblr.

We became fast friends. We finished each other's jokes. We talked pretty much all day, every day. He loved Apple back then. I was strictly PC at the time. So we debated about that quite a bit. He would probably be astonished I have a MacBook and that I really love it too.

Our friendship lived in a little text box. We never talked outside of instant messages. But it was one of the most profound friendships of my life. I loved Tru just as much as any friend I've ever known in real life.

Tru started blogging on this brand new site called Tumblr. He reviewed apps for the iPod Touch. Not the iPhone, as that wasn't yet a thing.

I made the banner for his Tumblr.

He kept trying to get me to join Tumblr, but I was busy trying to create my own custom comedy website. But my site kept getting more and more complicated and I could never quite finish it. I was trying to arrange guest authors and create 3 months of content and I was always futzing with the theme and never happy with it.

I was getting frustrated that I could never launch my perfect comedy website and Tru suggested just making a Tumblr and posting funny stuff so I could be creative and have an outlet until my big site was ready to launch.

Little did I know Tumblr would end up being my big comedy website. Eventually I abandoned months of work and just stayed on Tumblr. All of my success here is pretty much because that little space invader pestered me to join when I was being stubborn.

Unfortunately, as some may have figured out already, the story gets sad from there. Tru mentioned briefly that he had a heart defect, but he never said it was serious. He acted like it was no big deal so I never thought too much about it.

We always talked through instant message and email, so we never exchanged phone numbers or addresses or anything like that. Tru was a very private person so he never even published an image of his face online. I only knew him as a space invader.

One day I woke up and sent him a message and got no reply. He usually woke up before me and answered as soon as I said hello. This had been our routine for nearly a year.

An hour went by. Two hours. Three hours.

It was odd for him not to respond for that long. I was really worried but all of my TWiT friends told me I was being paranoid. But there was a huge knot in my stomach telling me otherwise.

But then those hours turned into days. Days into weeks. Weeks into months. My worry grew exponentially as more time passed. I didn't know what to do. I tried finding his family. I even looked into hiring a private investigator. I don't know if I have ever felt a combination of depression & anxiety that intense.

In my heart, I knew what had happened. I knew that heart defect took his life. He was only 26 and it just didn't seem fair. But the not knowing for certain ravaged my mental health. Before all of this I had lost nearly 90 pounds and I gained it all back.

I think maybe a year or so later I found a friend of his who knew him in real life. They were finally able to confirm my suspicions. He passed away from his heart condition. That was my first real experience with grief. But I was so thankful for that bit of closure. I was finally able to let go of my anxiety and mourn him properly.

But Tru gave me such a wonderful gift. He pushed me to just start making things. To stop stalling and just create things to make people smile.

And you all probably know the rest from there.

[euclydya]

can y'all tell me about hatena? :0 i think it has something to do with flipnote animations but i never had a 3ds or anything, so i don't know much about it :'] but i see y'all talk about it sometimes!! :0

mhm! So flipnote studio was actually an app on the dsi! it was for animating indeed, and while it was very simplistic in design people made a LOT of cool animations with it! for example, a couple of flipnote artists we really looked up to back in the day were EpicGuitar and ShinyEevee:

they were SO popular on hatena dude. Epic especially, I think the two of em (they're brothers and they shared a ds to animate) were like The Most Popular animator on american hatena at one point but wdr Exactly fndndndjdjfjd

but ANYWAYS. Hatena was our first social media, it's where we met our bff of like. over 10 years? when did we meet exactly??? in 2013 I think JESUS IT'S BEEN LIKE 11 YEARS @primordial0riginator ??????????? I'm getting off topic but what the fuck time flies! so yeah hatena's pretty important to us cuz not only did it kickstart our love for animation and helping us take art seriously, we also met like. Our Best Friend In The Entire World there!

Back to hatena though it was like. Hell sometimes HDJSJSJDKDDKS you'd go to check the most popular flipnotes and of course see The Big Popular Famous Guys (Epic, ShinyEevee, Gizmo... God who else. I'm having a mind blank fbdhshxjfjdb) but also sooooo much spam because hatena worked on a. "give this flipnote Stars" system where you could just sit down and spam click a button and give a flipnote an infinite amount of gold stars? which were like... Likes fhdjsjdjdsjd.

There were other stars too though. Green stars, you got those for correctly reporting theft of flipnotes as compensation! There were also blue, red, and purple stars! Blue and red stars you had to buy, same with purple stars I think, but you could gift em all out after you bought em. Getting any coloured star was seen as a badge of honour or some shit, ESPECIALLY purple stars. If you got a purple star you were FUCKING. AMAZING. you were like, talk of the town for a bit. Those fuckers were EXTREMELY FUCKING RARE. probably because they cost a shitton.

Actually scratch that, I just googled it and apparently they were so rare because you could only get them in the most expensive stars pack (you could buy coloured stars in packs btw!) and they weren't even guaranteed to show up, what the fuck? Not to mention this app was full of children and young teens, barely any adults posting flipnotes, so you KNOW everyone's parents were like.... Nnnahhhhhhh to buying coloured stars HSDNSHSJSJDSJ. We vividly remember ShinyEevee getting a purple star and we were SO happy for him tbh

And!!! speaking of stars even more, they could be used not just on flipnotes but to buy custom themes for your creator room! A creator room was like. Your profile. You could customize it after you hit a certain milestone (something like having a registered active account for more than a week idr exactly) and good LIRD they had tons of themes to choose from HFDNDKDKDKXJZ i remember a fairly cheap one we saved up for iirc was a galaxy theme? it was. very pretty and only costed green stars. I'm sure there were themes out there that needed purple stars to be purchased but Whateverrrrr HDDHDJDHDJD

uhhhh what else. The most popular type of flipnote was the AMV, animated music video. You'd see tons of people's furry ocs lipsyncing to Whatever Popular Pop Songs have been playing on the radio recently and if you were lucky those flipnotes would be Unlocked, meaning you can download them and change them—obviously this was a huge sign of trust because people WOULD ABSOLUTELY STEAL YOUR FUCKING ART FHFHCJDJDDJFJ but anyway. People would leave their notes unlocked all the time so others could spin em off and use the audio to animate to.

There were AVs, Animated videos, which were like. not music videos obvs but short comedy tidbits? Like. using the audio from family guy or SpongeBob instead of music. Those were popular too ofc but not as much as AMVs; a few creators were known for their AVs moreso than their AMCVs though! and usually people did a mix of both cuz AVs didn't take as long to animate than AMVs did cuz people put E F F O R T into making AMVs usually JEHDJDSJDJDU

There were PVs, picture videos, where the animation was very limited. Nowadays ig those are called animatics! Usually set to music, and the music was generally vocaloid. Not much to say about em tbh

uhhhhjjj what else... We remember people would "import" flipnotes too. Usually really well animated Japanese flipnotes. Idk how they'd do it, but they'd get onto japanese hatena somehow and download tons of popular flipnotes from over there and repost them (with proper credit... sometimes.) to american hatena. those also got super popular usually!

I think that's it tbh! It was a nice and sorta niche community that made up a lotta people's childhoods. Hatena itself shut down in 2013 or 2014, and was quickly replaced with Sudomemo, which... Hoo lord. Sudomemo is its own can of worms HDDHSJDJDJDSIDK. Lotta good animators over there too but afaik it's either DEAD dead now (as in, not active at ALL) or it's also been shut down? Not sure tbh. But yeah! There's the basics of what hatena was, there's tons of video essays out there going into more depth if you're ever curious though!

-Jimmy

[asordinaryppl]

A3! Performance Event - Winter Troupe's Tenth Play: Nomadic Bartender - Episode 1

Customer A: I’d like a Gimlet, please.

Guy: Of course.

Customer B: … You’ve got such beautiful technique.

Customer A: Indeed. Each movement you make is smooth.

Customer B: It’s like you cast a magic spell whenever you make cocktails…

Customer A: Even just watching you work is fun.

Guy: Thank you very much. My apologies for keeping you waiting.

[Door jingling]

Syu: …

Guy: Welcome.

Syu: I think I’ll have a Gibson today.

Guy: Of course.

Syu: The Winter Troupe’s next performance is startin’ soon, yeah?

Guy: Yeah. We’ll be holding a meeting soon to discuss the direction we’ll be taking. I’d be happy if you came to watch again.

Syu: Seems like the rest of the troupes had the members who joined last playing as leads, so you’ll probably be next.

Syu: ‘Course I’ll come to watch the barkeep who always serves me such delicious drinks.

Guy: … Thank you for waiting.

Syu: It’s oddly relaxing in here, even though it’s got a lot of customers.

Syu: That reminds me, I’m thinkin’ of bringing an old friend along next time. I think I’ve told ya about him, he used to work with my father.

Syu: We lost touch after my father passed and he quit working for the troupe, but a while back we reconnected by chance. 

Guy: Feel free to use our store, then. We’ll be waiting for you any time.

-

Tsuzuru: For now, we agree that Guy-san will be the lead as planned. So next is the theme…

Tsuzuru: Guy-san, is there anything you’d like to do?

Homare: Guy-san, you too have gained a great amount of experience since our fourth performance, and have evolved into a good and proper theater nerd. You must have requests, I’m sure.

Guy: Truthfully, knowing my turn as lead was coming up, I’ve spent some time thinking about it in advance.

Guy: Could we do something that involves my other profession, bartending?

Izumi: Bartending?

Guy: I opened Journey because I wanted to spread Zahra’s culture in a different way than Citronia does, but it has now become an important part of my life.

Guy: That’s why, I would like to also incorporate it in the form of a play.

Tsumugi: A play set in a bar would have a mature atmosphere unique to the Winter Troupe.

Tasuku: It’d also overlap with Guy-san’s current self. I think it’s a good idea.

Izumi: If the play is going to be about a profession again, it’s going to be similar to the last one, so I’d like it to be different in some way.

Tsuzuru: How about giving the bartender a side hustle?

Izumi: A side hustle… like, owning both a bar and a food cart …? There was a manga like that, wasn’t there?

Tasuku: Or bartending and battling?

Hisoka: That reminds me… A customer the other day said that Guy’s cocktails are like magic.

Tsuzuru: Magic… How does a wizard bartender sound? 

Homare: There certainly has not been enough fantasy in the Winter Troupe’s repertoire.

Azuma: I think being a wizard also fits Guy’s mysterious image.

Tasuku: I think it’s a good idea.

Tsumugi: I agree, too. It’d also differentiate it from the florists in Blanc.

Tsuzuru: I’ll continue in that direction, then.

Izumi: Good luck!

Guy: I’ll be looking forward to it.

Izumi: (It’s been a while since Guy-san played a leading role, so he seems very motivated. I wonder what the next performance will be like.)

-

Guy: …

Azuma: It’s been a while since I last saw that charm.

Guy: I was letting my father know that I will be playing the leading role in our next performance.

Azuma: I see…

Guy: It may be impossible now, but I hope there will come a day when I can tell him in person.

Azuma: I’m sure those feelings of yours will reach your father.

Guy: … You’re right.

masterpost | next episode

[a-jaded-mirage]

Blue Beetle and El Paso

I would be lying if I said that I was not disappointed by the canonical home of Jaime Reyes being changed both in the movie and in recent comics. However, I would also be lying if I said that I absolutely detested the movie for whatever reason. I enjoyed the movie for what it was and what it meant to the Hispanic and Latinx communities. It is a huge deal, and I think it was done well. Going back to my original point, it is hard to be disappointed when it feels as though I am not missing out on much when Blue Beetle's relationship with El Paso was never done true justice anyway.

The West Texan Mexican-American experience is hard to fully encapsulate into one solid thought or idea. I can confidently say that the approach DC had in most iterations of the comics, cartoons, recent movie, and other forms of media always toned the experience down and made it a duller aspect of his story. I can not recall even a single time when El Paso was brought up or portrayed in a way that was recognizable to an El Pasoan across any of the aforementioned media. It always felt disconnected and out of touch, but I still held it close to my heart because it was something alluding to home.

In a way, I am happy that Blue Beetle is now from the fictional (emphasis on that) Palmera City, because it reiterates that heroes can only be super in Hollywood when they are superficially placed in a cookie-cutter big and flashy city. All I really have to say to that is, good for them. They did what they needed to in order to reach a wider audience. I am sure that the payoff for the corporate powerhouses at the end was worth it even at the cost of individuality. Come to think of it, my mind cannot really conjure up any mainstream superheroes that operate in any desert long term. Any time spent in the less "glamorous" parts of the Southwest is almost always smaller plot-driving settings that act as a stepping stone for bigger heroes and not as a home.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I understand why they did what they did with the setting. I even still happen to think the entire production team did a great job, but that does not stop me from wondering what could have been at any point in Blue Beetle's recent history if someone had used the beauty, culture, and complexity found uniquely in Sun City far more productively. There was so much more potential than the oftentimes vague and noncommittal nods given to the setting. It just was not utilized to its fullest potential, and if that would have been a continuous theme, then I am glad that they are no longer working with it.

Shifting to something less ranty, I absolutely suck at drawing. I am a STEM person through and through, but that did not stop me from visualizing all of the things I would have loved to have seen portrayed in a Blue Beetle story while experiencing being a teenager in El Paso. He was my absolute favorite superhero because he was one that I saw every single day in my hometown, and there were several things I felt he would have enjoyed doing.

For example, we have a ton of high schools. If I had to narrow down the ones I think Jaime Reyes would have attended, I would probably say my top three picks would be: El Paso High School, Bowie High School, or Austin High School. An interesting custom that schools in El Paso have is placing the first initial of a myriad of our high schools on the mountains. They are huge and visible, as well as a testament to our school spirit and pride. The Top 10 percent of most of our graduating classes wear different colored gowns at graduation than the rest of their peers, which is something I was told was not a common occurrence in most other states.

Homecoming is a huge deal, and people will buy, make, or sell Mums and corsages. It is kind of difficult to explain to people from around the states who may not be entirely familiar with what it is, but it is an old Texan tradition that is typically shared between sweethearts (dates) on the last day of Homecoming spirit week. It is something that a lot of people go all out for, and plenty of pictures exist on the internet of the various ways that they can be customized. I always thought it would be cool to see what Jaime Reyes would do for his Mum.

Prom is pretty much Prom wherever you are in the States for the most part, and ours are held at some great venues in the city, so there is not much more to say about that part of the high school experience. As far as colleges go, some of the most popular for teenagers at El Paso high schools to apply to are UTEP, EPCC, TTU, Texas A&M, and any of the other UTs (UT Austin, UT Dallas, and UT San Antonio to name a few). There are even several private universities like Rice, Baylor, and Trinity to name a few more. Hell, a lot of us even go to schools like NMSU in what is essentially our sister city of Las Cruces, there is also UNM, ASU, U of A, and CU. There are so many different choices for universities that are realistic and in the general area that Jaime absolutely could have chosen to apply to and attend. I think that seeing him initially as a Junior or Senior in an El Paso high school, and subsequently watching his transition into a college student in the city or elsewhere while grappling with his powers and responsibilities as Blue Beetle would have been so fascinating.

As far as places that it would have been nice to see him interact with at some point, it would be easier to just give a general list of my favorites. I wish that the following places could have been incorporated into the Blue Beetle story at some point long past: Chico's Tacos, Franklin Mountains State Park, Transmountain Road, Downtown, The Plaza Theater, Cielo Vista, The Fountains at Farah, Sunland Park, the Outlet Shoppes, Rosa's Cantina, Southwest University Park, Don Haskins Center, Concordia Cemetery, Scenic Drive-Overlook, the El Paso Star, Hueco Tanks, San Jacinto Plaza, St. Patrick Cathedral, any farmer's market or swap meet, any of our museums (Art, History, Archeology, Border Patrol, Science, Chamizal), the Coliseum, Ardovino's, Orange Cow, Burrito House, Bowie Bakery, Lucy's Cafe, any of our dulcerias, as well as literally any of our regional and national recreational chains. Obviously, there is so much more, but all of what I listed could have definitely been used for something whether it be a fight with a villain of the week, or opportunities to flesh out Jaime's character more socially and individually. That, and it tickles my funny bone to imagine the Teen Titans trying something like Chico's Tacos for the first time.

Unrelated, Jaime would totally listen to Khalid.

Naturally, there are so many other locations in surrounding cities and states that easily could have been used as well for any plot points that would have added even more Southwestern charm. I mean, part of New Mexico's tourism schtick is literally aliens (Roswell), and the scarab is in fact an alien now. However, for the purposes of this, I focused on El Paso. That is really all I have to say about all of this, if you stayed for my entire rant I appreciate it. If not, I totally understand, and I really just wanted to put my thoughts out into the world and write this love letter to my home city.

I love that Blue Beetle is now further into the general public's eye, and that his character means something for the entire extended community. He now has room to change, grow, and evolve from what he was before in a way that is far more defined by the expectations for a mainstream hero. Even if the El Pasoan Jaime Reyes can only exist truly in my mind, it is an okay price to pay for a narrative that touches my heart specifically. I am most certainly not a writer, so I hope that the next time we have a hero from El Paso, some of my city's charm can truly be done justice. After all, the only person who can characterize an El Pasoan correctly is an El Pasoan.

[punsmaster69]

25/DEC/20XX

wooooooooooooooo.

that day.

the one.

the twenty fifth.

the holiday.

if i list what everyone got from everyone, i'll be here all night, so just the most notable stuff.

got some new books. and socks. and a giant blanket. and a sweater.

i'm feeling very cozy.

frisk shrieked when they got one of those rock excavation kits from my bro.

(little known fact: frisk has an innate fascination with rocks.)

asgore gifted them an art kit.

alphys got them a mini salt lamp. they immediately licked it.

i got 'em a tungsten cube.

"Why are you so excited over a hunk of metal?"

"It's not a 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘬, it's a 𝘤𝘶𝘣𝘦."

"It's a hunk of metal."

"I'm gonna 'hunk' this at your face in a second."

"Do you WANT to kill me?!"

"No. But stop calling it a hunk of metal. It's a tungsten cube."

"Why do you care, anyway? It's MY cube, not yours."

"It's boring."

"Not to me."

"You underestimate my ability to find entertainment in shiny objects."

"Whatever. Suit yourself."

a lot of us had similar ideas, because flowey got a decent amount of (mostly dinosaur related) brick sets.

it's hard not to notice the pieces constantly strewn about flowey's half of their room.

walking over there's like a spike trap.

might be purposeful.

tori also got him some simulator game. he apparently already had the others in the series, so it makes sense.

papyrus has been using the same pots and pans for ages.

they're a bit charred and dented in places.

so, paps got gifted new cookware.

undyne got him utensils, and alphys got the pots.

tori gave him new oven mitts that don't have holes in them, unlike the previous pair.

i got him a giant puzzle cube. it's got so many rows.

it'll take him forever to solve.

he seems excited.

mettaton got him a robe, because apparently paps been admiring his. they match now.

got asgore some new teacups.

his current ones work fine, but didn't have many ideas outside of that. besides, when have extras hurt anyone?

undyne gifted him a book on slang and how to use it.

alphys' face dropped when she saw it.

"have fun with that."

(some kind of disgruntled lizard sound.)

alphys was ecstatic about receiving a manga she's wanted for ages from undyne.

tori got her some t-shirts. the one alphys liked the most is printed with a ramen brand.

undyne was gifted another giant foam sword.

that was the most exciting one for her.

they've been into collecting these specific stuffed animal things lately, so i got alphys and undyne matching ones.

mettaton had a similar gift, but luckily we didn't end up on the exact same stuffed animal.

something i'll probably regret was getting mtt a tub of glitter.

i know he likes the stuff, but i'm realizing now how this is probably ending.

already preparing to have glitter stuck to me every time he's in the vicinity.

...so not much will change, actually.

papyrus gave him a pillow custom-altered to have mettaton's branding on it.

giving mtt an mtt themed item...

he loved it. suggested that paps could help design products with him at some point.

alphys' gift was apparently done earlier, as it was an adjustment that enabled him to sign things without having to worry about carrying pens.

because his finger turns into the pen. kinda neat, honestly.

napstablook's headphone cord was looking a bit rough, so that's what i got them.

simple, but they smiled.

must not have been too bad a choice.

mettaton gifted tickets to a live band. they'll go together at some point.

me and tori, being old nerdy bookworms, exchanged exactly that: books.

frisk gave tori a cutesy handmade card, signed "by frisk and flowey but mostly frisk" on the back.

asgore gave her a necklace.

she stared at it and flatly thanked him before tucking it into her purse.

undyne gave a pie tin. self-explanatory.

probably exactly as expected, grillby was gotten a lot of various kitchenwares.

we have a lot of cooks in our friend group, i realize.

anyway, he was fond of the sturdy glass mugs i picked out for him.

that's the notable stuff gift-wise.

as for stockings, i went with chocolate bars for the other adults.

plain, simple, don't know anyone who doesn't like it.

safe bet, y'know?

got frisk a bag of those fake rock chocolates. the ones that look exactly like real rocks. they always talk about wanting to eat certain rocks; figured this would be a better alternative to shattering their teeth on real ones.

gave flowey a bag of fake coal.

"for being a butthead this year."

"Jokes on you, I'll gladly take this. And I'm STILL being the same next year!"

"didn't expect any different."

"besides, that's why you got coal last year too."

"Does it even count if it's chocolate coal? Not much of a punishment."

"it's the idea."

"The idea?"

"that you're eating rocks."

"Frisk is the one eating the rocks."

"you want real coal next year?"

"No!"

"Give that to Frisk instead."

"wouldn't be a punishment to them."

there's a lot of candy in each stocking, and most have forgotten who got what anyway.

the certain thing was everyone getting a bone in their stocking.

you know who from.

he gives 'em every year, this being no exception.

——

previous rock-paper-scissors decisions on who brings what dish collaborates now into a holiday feast aplenty.

or whatever jolly terminology i'm supposed to use to say: there was a lot of food. it was good. asgore overcooked the rolls a little. edible enough though.

——

somehow still full of energy, paps, mettaton and frisk are belting holiday songs.

napstablook's dj-ing for them.

undyne and alphys are chatting quietly beside the tree.

asgore is trying to help flowey put together that brick set.

his big hands aren't doing great with the small pieces.

grillby's trying to help him help better.

leaned against me, tori is chilling on the couch. i think she's convinced everyone else she's asleep, but under the blanket, her hand lightly tightens around mine every once in a while.

might be that she doesn't want to draw any attention to it.

...

i don't either, so i'll close my eyes too.

[synthient]

15th Doctor Season 2 predictions

Spent this morning mapping out a vague direction of where I think the show is going (more on the level of "themes" and "emotional stakes" than specific plot beats, which I mostly handwave as "meanwhile, alien antics ensue"). Because I love to look for Patterns and Signs and things of that nature :)

Christmas special:

This is what I wrote in my notes app on the train this morning, before I even knew about the comic-con trailer:

We see "what the Doctor gets up to when he's alone." Which, I predict, mostly consists of him trying to convince himself that he doesn't need companions and he's fine on his own, while being obviously miserable.

And I think the trailer basically confirms this lol. Joy is a Doctor mirror. Her efforts to mask her loneliness under a plucky attitude are exactly what the Doctor is doing.

Anyway, at some point during or after the Joy-Doctor bonding session (if she's not going to be a companion, then hopefully nothing happens to her that reminds him why he was trying to be alone ☹️):

The Doctor runs into the new Varada Sethu character. He notices that she looks like Mundy and goes "oh weird! this is an impossible girl situation, just like Clara" (the intitial seeding of Clara-exposition for new viewers, a la the Doctor-Donna stuff or the Toymaker's puppet show. This Is A Surprise Tool That Will Help Us Later).

The mystery offers him a self-justification to bring her along (maybe he's not even endangering her! maybe she's already tied up in some supernatural shenanigans, and his presence could protect her, if anything. Is that why he agreed to bring Ruby along, when he thought she was at the center of a mystery? And is that part of why he left her as soon as he realized she wasn't?)

S2 E1:

Meanwhile, Ruby is becoming disillusioned with her ordinary, post-Doctor life. She's working a thankless customer service job. Her bio parents aren't as perfect as she always dreamed they'd be. She has new, more complicated family dynamics to navigate (and probably has to face the uncomfortable truth that, in the rush of finding her "real" mom, she hasn't been treating Carla great).

Some crisis bring the Doctor back to 2020s London. Ruby is thrilled to see him - but then, when she realizes he replaced her with another companion almost immediately, hurt and resentful. She thought they were best friends. She thought she was special. Are his human "friends" just interchangeable props to him?

A mid-alien-crisis emotional confrontation ensues. The Doctor tells Ruby that it's because he cares about her that he left. When he doesn't push people away, they get hurt. Clara is brought up as an example. (She's still fresh on his mind from the Impossible Girl/Mundy lookalike thing. More exposition is fed to new viewers).

Ruby declares that she cares about the Doctor too much to let him push her away, even if it's for her own good. And she loves their adventures enough for it to be worth the risk. With mixed feelings, the Doctor lets her back onto the tardis team.

(The Ruby/Sethu Companion dynamic becomes ?? Are they friends? Are they still competing to be the Favorite Companion? Will Mundy Sunday happen as foretold?)

Next few episodes:

Our Three Heroes set out on a series of one-off adventures. I won't try to predict the details, but I'm guessing the episodic stories won't have much literal connection to the Main Plot, but will tie in subtextually and thematically.

In S1, there were two big thematic throughlines: 1) abandoment issues, and 2) cultures that echo Gallifrey. Ruby was a Doctor mirror on the abandonment issues front. So my prediction is that Sethu Companion will somehow be a mirror on the "Doctor re-evaluating his relationship with his home" front. We have no idea what time and place Sethu Companion will be from - but Mundy's "soldier indoctrinated into an ideology that was all a violently-exploitative lie" background certainly tracks.

What is The Main Plot?

Again, I won't hazard many specifics. I'm going more for Themes than the exact way those themes are executed. But the big two reveals I'm gambling on are:

1. Rogue is the Master

2. We get a long-delayed payoff for why Missy introduced Clara to the Doctor (something to do with the hand that picked up the tooth?)

And with those two reveals, we unify our main themes: 1) The cycle of abandoment (the Doctor is abandoned by his parents, abandons the Master, abandons Susan and his future companions). 2) Re-evaluating his relationship to Gallifrey. And 3) What kind of relationships should the Doctor have with his friends? How much closeness can he afford? Is he a bringer of death? Of life? Of joy? What's the right time, and the right way, to say goodbye?

Not to get too Clara centric, but I am getting a little Clara-pilled re Mrs. Flood? I think it'd be fun if Clara spent a few centuries adventuring, eventually figured out how to undo the frozen heartbeat thing and start aging again, and came back to see the Doctor, with their old person/young person dynamic now reversed. Her Missy-coding fulfilled via an ominous, convoluted, yet twistedly-loving way of expressing her friendship. But I think there are multiple answers to the Mrs. Flood question that could still fit The Themes. Any timelord would work, for example

I'm also kind of leaning toward the "big bad" being not Mrs. Flood, not Missy or Rogue-Master, but Rogue and the Meep's boss. Who's some third party we can't really hope to predict, any more than we could've seen Sutekh coming. Assuming there's one at all - maybe Sutekh already met our "big bad" quotient, and we'll get more heaven sent-style personal stakes this time?

Entirely possible that there's some storyteller trying to craft a narrative out of the Doctor's life, put "perfect companions" in his path, etc. Mrs. Flood is the obvious suspect....but too obvious? What if the Doctor is subconsciously narrativizing his own life, and his story "ending in terror" is actually something Mrs. Flood is trying to disrupt

If Susan shows up, I think it'd be really funny if she was trying to parent-trap her two grandpas

Anyway, I think the biggest hole in my analysis is that the cue at the end of S1 was to look into Clara, Missy, and Romana. And I still haven't started my Romana Studies. Gotta get Romana-pilled

[remimibanana]

Nintendo 3DS Retrospective Part 2: A System’s Function

The beauty of this handheld is that there are so many things you can do on this system without even having a game. I think it's what gave the 3DS its charm, giving you a reason to keep playing.

As a kid, I didn’t have any internet. The closest I had was this Telstra Prepaid Wi-Fi stick where I used to waste all the internet downloading Sailor Moon videos. There was a short period where I was able to connect my 3DS to the internet so I got to experience at least the heyday a bit!

Anyway, I spent most of my time on the system itself, the lovely Home Menu and all its built in software. I have a lot to say about all these!

Part 2 is under the cut!

I had three 3DSs at the very end, to which only one works properly. The other two have issues but I still kept them for the precious memories. It's crazy to think how long this handheld has been in my life, and how many memories it gave me.

Without it, I don't think I would be who I am today. I really don't know we will live in a world without it...

For as long as I can, I will keep playing on it! I’ll be 50 and still be on my 3DS lol

How did I get my first 3DS?

It was out of nowhere. I didn't know I was going to get this life changing handheld. My dad and I were driving to our family friend’s house as we always did back in the day, while I stared out the window blissfully unaware.

Once we got there…my dad stopped the car and pulled out a box from under the seat and handed it over to me, telling me that he had a surprise.

It was a red original 3DS?! I took it into my hands, staring at the box in disbelief. I remember the box so vividly, and the awe I felt at the fact my dad got me this?! My dad looked real happy to see me so happy.

I remember wanting to rip it open right then and there. My dad told me to wait until we actually got into the house since he also had another one for my family friend. At the time, I only had my DSI which I used be on all the time.

I remember rushing in and opening my 3DS with my family friend who opened theirs, plugging in the handheld and turning it on for the very first time. The setup music is so nostalgic to me for this reason, I spent some time setting it all up and exploring the home menu.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t charge well to this current day, you have to press down on the charger in order for the system to charge at all. I think something is wrong with the charging port but I was never able to fix it.

This was the first 3DS I ever modded, because I was too afraid to mod my 2DS back when. If I bricked my main 2DS, I would have cried. I nicknamed it my “Luma 3DS” after the custom firmware and installed a whole bunch of games on it! I even got a custom theme with the Luma 3DS logo.

I put it somewhere but I don’t know where it ended up aha

How did I get my second 3DS?

My red 3DS lasted probably a year or two before it decided to stop working out of nowhere. The blue LED would turn on, and then a small pop sound could be heard as it turned off. I remember I was really upset, because I loved this handheld.

I was out of a 3DS.

For my birthday shortly, my grandma bought me a white 3DS XL, the same one as above! It came preinstalled with Mario Kart 7, which is why its my favourite Mario Kart.

I remember pointing at it in Big W when she asked me what I wanted, and my grandma didn't look as happy as I was. I think the price displeased her but she still bought it for me, hehe.

This was my main handheld for years, where my brother used play on it from time to time despite how much I didn't want him to. I still have it to this day, although it is worse for wear. One day, it refused to boot into the Home Menu.

No matter what I tried, it wouldn't boot. It would either be stuck on the Black Screen of Death or it would be stuck on the Home Menu transition you would get when you pressed the home button. It was really devastating for me, I had so many memories on here that I couldn't access anymore.

My red 3DS started working out of nowhere, by the way. One day, I tried turning it on and it booted into the home menu without any trouble. I remember showing my dad and he wondered why I even got this white one if the red one was working.

That’s when I dubbed it my dad’s 3DS since he liked to play Mario Kart 7 with my brother and I from time to time and he would use this one. I actually wiped the whole 3DS for him since I wanted my dad to have it (even though I didn’t have to do that lol).

How did I get my current 2DS?

Surprisingly, I got out of gaming for a while. At least on the 3DS side, which is utter blasphemy to me now. I can't believe I'd ever stop playing this handheld! I feel like it makes me a fraud, you see how much I harp on about this handheld and yet I stopped playing it lol

In 2019, I made a friend who really liked Pokémon. He would often bring his 3DS XL to school to show me his games and all the Pokémon he caught. He would ask me if I had any of the Pokémon games and I said I did. This prompted me to find my red 3DS and buy Pokemon Moon so I could play alongside him.

But alas, since my red 3DS has those issues as you know, it was really hard for me to have a fully charged handheld. I felt so bad when my friend wanted to battle me, but I couldn't half the time since the 3DS was either dead or about to die.

He were kind enough to give me his charging dock for the 3DS, but it still didn't solve the issue.

That’s when I decided for my birthday, I would ask for a new 3DS! I wanted to play with my friend! It was harder to find a new 3DS on sale in the shops at this time, so I went to my local pawn shop. I remember wanting an actual 3DS, but my mum wanted to get something a bit cheaper.

This is why I have my 2DS! It came with its own case, which was one of the reasons I chose it. I didn't mind not having any 3D functionality, since I never used it anyway on either of my previous 3DSs.

It still works to this day, and fully modded! I finally got over my fear of modding it, nothing happened. It really is easy to mod your 3DS, by the way.

I do plan on buying a Japanese New 3DS LL one day, the pink and white one! I've always wanted it for myself!

A sad story...

I used to keep all my games in this case right here, since I didn't like keeping them in their original boxes for some reason. It's a decision I regret to this day, since I really like the boxes!

As I mentioned above, I got out of gaming for some time. It seems like during all that, I misplaced the case. It was gone from sight, no matter where I thought I left it. I looked everywhere, but it was nowhere.

To this day, I have no idea where it is. It's been years...perhaps its gone forever. It's really sad to lose something that meant a lot to you, although I don't blame anyone but myself for this. I should have taken better care of it.

I lost all the games I had physically, and that was practically all my games. I had so many I received over the years, all in a poof. I hope I can manage to find it one day, there are a lot of precious memories in it!

I have a fun fact with this that I’d like to share!

I had two copies of Super Mario 64 DS in here because I lost my first copy and asked my grandma to buy me another one, but then my mum found the first copy some time after lol

Now I take better care of things, but if it ever shows up, I will cry profusely. I hope I can find it!

Home Menu

When you turn on your 3DS, you are met with the Home Menu in all its glory.

It's probably one of my favourite menu designs, alongside the Wii. It's simple yet so effective, the BGM is one everyone will never forget and it's also customizable! I feel like Nintendo peaked here, and then just ditched it when the Switch rolled around.

I used to love scrolling all the way until the very end of the menu, and making the icons bigger or smaller! I also loved making folders to store my games. Ever since my white 3DS, I have a folder for the system titles and a folder for my games and demos!

Themes

With the Home Menu, you were able to customize it with themes! These could be bought from the Theme Shop, which sadly stopped working when they shut down the Nintendo eShop.

I’m using Pokemon Sun and Moon— Tropical currently, but I like swapping them out from time to time. Some have their own BGM and sound effects, while others simply change the background.

Here are some of my favorite ones I have!

Splatoon: Squid Sisters

Senbonzakura/Kurousa

ACNL: Paw Print Room

Kirby Copy Ability Global Poll

Sonic Boom Shattered Crystal

Persona Q2 Theme

Badges

To go with themes, they made badges that you could obtain and add to your menu!

When they released, I remember downloading the Nintendo Badge Arcade when I had the chance to. I'll be making a special post just for it, so please look out for it!

I used to put badges anywhere and everywhere I could! It didn't matter if it looked good or not, I just wanted to have as many as I could!

You could even put them on folders! The absolute peak of this feature.

My favourite badges are the ones that act like software icons, where you could click on them and it would open the software! As you can see, I have ones for each of the built in software. The original titles have been put in a folder at the very end, out of view.

Streetpass Mii Plaza

The iconic plaza that everyone knows! You can’t go hearing Streetpass without the Streetpass Mii Plaza!

I've spent a lot of time on here during my time on this handheld, from its initial stage to what we have now with all the DLC! I have always loved the concept of Streetpass, and I wish they brought it back for the Switch.

Alas.

Let’s talk about each of the things you can do in it! I come from Australia so I'll be using the European names for everything, by the way.

I feel like we can't overlook the main plaza area. The iconic BGM, the sea of Mii characters that you can look over as you increase your plaza population and all the various options and games you can choose from!

Puzzle Swap

I love this little game so much.

As the name suggests, you swap puzzle pieces with the people you Streetpass with to complete various puzzles and gain new ones!

I remember trying very hard to complete all puzzles I had, especially excited when I met new people who had the puzzle pieces I needed! I love the BGM and the little tweet of the bird that swoops in to deliver the pieces you got.

With my 2DS, I have loads of puzzles to complete since I always choose pieces from puzzles I don't have when I get Streetpasses. They are really rare nowadays after all. I want to try to do as many puzzles as I can.

Otherwise, I use Play Coins to buy pieces. This takes forever since you can only buy one at a time, and you aren't guaranteed a piece you don't have. I like to sit there and do this from time to time while watching something.

I have over 500 left to collect...I hope I can complete every single puzzle one day! That will be one of my life goals!

Streetpass Quest

Saving the world has never been so much fun.

This was the first game I ever completed fully, and probably will be the only one. You have to save the King who looks exactly like your Mii from the evil Dark Lord who kidnapped them by recruiting soldiers!

I originally beat this on my white 3DS, slowly progressing through all of the floors. There are many enemies and many types of floors that require certain abilities that are based off the Mii's colour. Very simple but fun!

I remember there was a floor that was bright white which required a Mii with black to darken the floor and a floor that was pitch black, requiring a Mii with white to brighten the area.

The only issue with that was I never got a Mii with those colours. I would buy soldiers with Play Coins, and yet I never got black or white for some reason.

There is also a sequel to this game, where you have to save the Princess and the Prince too! I remember being really surprised when there was more to play.

Later on, they introduced new games, as well as the concept of Streetpass VIP! It was a one time payment and you would receive all of the games available and have added bonuses, such as the ticket system!

I have played every single one, but I'll just talk about the one I enjoyed the most!

Streetpass Garden

This is my favourite game out of all of them. I remember choosing this as the free game that the Streetpass Mii Plaza was offering on my white 3DS.

I love how simple and yet fun it all is. You plant a seed into a pot and the people you meet water the flower and make it grow. It takes a lot of people to do so, more than you would expect.

Once it blooms, you can germinate for seeds! Each seed can either be a new breed or an alternate colour of a breed you already bloomed. There is a percentage for each of these, and I always chose the ones that guaranteed a new breed!

Your goal is to fill up your planter handbook and become a master gardener! I think I was very close to doing so on my white 3DS, while I’m still trying to on my 2DS.

For some reason, I chose the Streetpass Slot Racing game on my 2DS for my free game and I remember regretting it since I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

I just wanted my garden back man.

Activity Log

It's so simple yet so charming.

I love the grid aesthetic they chose, it reminds me of my school notebooks I used to use.

All your titles are shown in this little book and I think that’s so cute. I love flipping through all the pages and seeing every single title I’ve ever played appear on there.

Even Homebrew appears on here, which I found really funny. You see normal titles and then you have the FBI manager.

I loved just looking through each the days, seeing what I played the most!

This reminds me of the Wii, where you would get an envelope with your play time. I actually didn't know this was a thing until I looked at the Activity Log recently.

System Settings

I really love the System Settings. I suppose that might be a weird sentence, but it's true!

The BGM is an absolute banger, sometimes I love to boot up the application to simply listen to it all! Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this.

My favourite one is the Internet Settings, Nintendo didn’t have to go so hard on something like this but they still did. I could listen to this for hours happily and vibe.

The little guy helper is the very best, I never really needed any help to connect to the internet, but I still used the helper anyway. I wish we had something like this guy on the Switch.

I would often visit Other Settings, particularly the Profile section. You can edit the User Name, Date of Birth, Region and go onto the Nintendo DS Profile, and that’s all you could do on there.

Nothing truly special, and yet here I am mentioning it for a very specific reason. It’s probably really odd and weird, but I still want to share it with you all!

I might be the only one but…I like to vibe to the Nintendo DS Profile.

It’s basically the DSi Settings but only having the ability to edit the Message and Colour. The sudden change from the light yellow to black as you see this on your screen….so good.

I love the BGM of this so much, it’s unfunny. It makes me feel things, so much nostalgia for something that most people overlook. I vibe so hard.

As soon as I found out that this existed, I was always there. I still do this from time to time in fact, whenever I’m on the System Settings.

I can hear it even now….

To be continued!

With that, Part 2 is done! We're far from done though, I still have more things to blab about in Part 3! Can you tell how much I like the 3DS?

Hope to see you there!

[aalissy]

Online Games

Sorry this chapter is a little late. I had a busy day today :). I hope you guys enjoy this lil AU even with the tiny bit of Ladynoir that crept in here haha. Lemme know what you think!

AO3

Adrien winced as once again his character died. Their session today was not going well at all. Out of the five rounds they had played earlier, they had only won two. He could hear Nino shouting at his other teammates through his headset and anxiously awaited his respawn. 

It was too late, though. By the time he did finally respawn the game was over and his team had lost once again. Pushing a hand through his hair angrily, Adrien released a frustrated sigh. Maybe he should just call it a day. His father would probably send his assistant up soon to demand he do some photoshoot or something.

“Hey, Nino. I think I might call it a night.” He sighed once more, wishing futilely that they had better games.

“Aw come on dude. One more then we can call it quits, I promise. We’ve gotta end on a high!” Nino’s chipper voice made the frustration ebb away slightly.

With a chuckle, Adrien scooted his chair in closer to the screen, hoping that would increase his reaction time a little. With a nod of his head, he replied, “Alright, Nino. One more game but that’s it.”

He heard Nino shout happily on the other end and that last bit of anger completely dissolved.

“You won’t regret this, dude! I promise!” he shouted happily. “Like I said before our luck’s about to change.”

“Alright, I believe you.” Adrien snickered, hoping that Nino was right. It would be good to end on a win today.

Joining a new game, he looked at his teammates. Nino, of course, and a few people he recognized from previous matches. There was one player that stuck out to him, though. Her username was Ladybug and she had a custom red-and-black-spotted skin to match. 

It felt fitting. After all, his own username was Chat_Noir and he had custom black kitten ears on his character. 

Before he could get to lost in his thoughts of trying to persuade Nino to get a custom skin to match their animal theme, the game started. Perking up to attention, Adrien instantly sat up straighter, heading straight for the middle to get easy access to the enemy team.

The first thing that he noticed was that Ladybug was good. Like really good. They were getting headshots left and right and even saved him from getting downed a couple of times. 

“Wow, Ladybug, you’re really good at this game,” Adrien practically breathed out over his headset in awe. 

“Thanks, you’re not so bad yourself.” A bright, happy, adorable voice responded to him. 

Even her voice was absolutely perfect. 

“On your left!” Ladybug shouted, shooting at an enemy player he hadn’t noticed crept up on them. 

Adrien blushed, scolding himself for getting distracted by a voice of all things. They were finally winning! He couldn’t mess this up for the team. And, a small voice in the back of his head chirped, definitely not in front of Ladybug. 

“Huh, maybe I was wrong. Maybe you aren’t so good after all, Chaton,” Ladybug teased, a smile evident in her voice.

She rocket-jumped away, heading over to the next point that looked to be in more trouble than the one they were currently standing on. Adrien frowned, resentment pouring through him even as a shiver of excitement raced up his spine at the nickname.

“Hey!” he called after her, about to jump after her before deciding against it. Defending this area would help them win the game. He’d just stick up for his skills after the game. 

And, if that prolonged his contact with Ladybug, well that was purely because he needed to demonstrate his expertise with the game. No ulterior motive whatsoever.

 The game finished quite quickly after that. With Ladybug winning the other point and with him staying and defending his area, they managed to get that win Nino had promised him.

When they made it to the game menu, Adrien cheered along with his other teammates, congratulating each other on a well-deserved victory. When most of the players logged out, he called over to Ladybug, “I think I proved I was pretty good that game, wouldn’t you say?”

She giggled and he could practically envision her shaking her head at him. “You really need my validation that badly?”

“Well, you were definitely the best member on this team by far. We wouldn’t have won without you.” Adrien practically beamed.

There was a long pause where he thought he’d said something wrong before Ladybug commented, “Thanks Chat. That was very sweet. And, yes, you played very well, too.”

His beam grew wider with the praise before he quickly said, “Wait, what’s your name?”

“Huh? My name is Ladybug?” He could hear her frown over his headset. “You can see that... can’t you?”

“No, no, your real name.” 

There was another long pause and Adrien once again wondered if he had pushed too far. 

“And why would I tell you that?” Suspicion was clear in her voice and he wanted desperately to erase it.

“Because, buginette, I’ll tell you my name first.” With another long stretch of silence for dramatic effect, he said, “It’s Adrien.”

Ladybug giggled and instantly he felt another bit of relief hit him. He hadn’t completely ruined this, then. 

“Alright then, Adrien...” God, even his real name sounded absolutely delightful coming from her lips. “You were actually quite close with Buginette. My real name is Marinette.”

“Marinette,” he breathed out, testing to see how her name rolled on his tongue. 

Such a pretty name. 

“Alright, I’ve got to log off now but it was really nice talking with you, Adrien,” Marinette’s voice held a note of finality in it.

Panic seized his chest briefly before he shouted, “Wait!” Blushing at his own overeagerness, Adrien quickly shook off the embarrassment. “I, uh, wanted to know if we could add each other to our friend's list? That way we could play again sometime?”

He desperately wished he didn’t sound too hopeful.

“Course we can. I already sent you a request, Adrien.” With those last words, her character logged off.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, he scrolled over to his friend's list and saw her request. Joy flooded through him as he added her back before logging out of the game as well. As soon as he did, though, he was flooded with many teasing messages from Nino.

With a small quirk of his lips, Adrien sent out a reply. After all, meeting Marinette was definitely worth the annoying texts from Nino.

[zutraeumen]

The Second Course

Darkness fell. The restaurant, bay windows aglow with warm light from afar. Out here, amidst the water and trees, all was quiet save for the lonesome, distant call of a loon.

Adele was actually prepared for the next clap! of hands from the Chef, you would never catch her unprepared twice!

"Is he gonna keep doing that?" 

I fear so dear Margot.

This time, he didn't even wait for his customer's attention as he began another fancy monologue, "Bread has existed in some form for over twelve thousand years. Especially amongst the poor. Flour and water, what could be simpler? Even today, grain represents 65% of all agriculture. Fruits and vegetables? Only 6%. Ancient Greek peasants dipped their stale, measly bread and wine for breakfast. And how did Jesus teach us to pray if not to beg for 'our daily bread'? It is and always has been the food of the common man. But you, my dear guests, are not the common man. So tonight... you get no bread."

Now THAT was how you politely say 'fuck you' to the rich kids.

That was a devilishly wicked move and she loved it.

"He must be joking..."

"What?"

"It's gotta be a bit... wait, are you fucking serious?"

The worst part was, they still thought it was all in jest; a prank. Oh, how wrong the Chef proved them with his next words, "In this spirit, please enjoy the unaccompanied accompaniments."

Oh, this was better entertainment than South Park. 

Watching them looking incredulously at their plates and not even realizing the Chef had just made fun of them. The level of pretentiousness and obliviousness was best described in Tyler's words as 'next level'.

The plate itself and the small accompaniments resembled a painting pallet painters used for their colours, and instead of bread was a note that read: The bread you will not be eating tonight was made from a heritage wheat called red fife, crafted with our partners at the Tehachapi Grain Project, devoted to preserving heirloom grains.

Slipping a chewing gum secretly into her mouth, the amount of chatter doubled significantly at the outrageous course of events and her amusement rose to such an extent that she could almost forget that the Chef wanted to kill her. 

"This is insane," Felicity let the paper fall from her hands with a shake of her head.

"Hmmm... because the shit around the total absence of the bread is like, really good."

How could someone enjoy savoury oils and emulsions on their own when they couldn't stand without bread? George could, and Tyler as well, but he insisted it was part of a greater theme nobody of them could grasp. 

Strange of him to say that, it was almost as if he knew something the others didn't. But hey, this was Tyler we were talking about, he was the type who probably knew how Slowik liked his coffee in the morning.  

"I mean it's a little outrageous, isn't it?"

The blonde food critic leant back against her seat, "That's fiendish really. I mean he- he's always been keenly aware of food and its history of class I mean, as have I..."

"-Sure." Somebody shoot that sycophant in the head.

"... though I will say," she picked up her glasses once again, "that this emulsion does look slightly split."

At this point, the assassin wouldn't take anything seriously from that woman. That food critic was a joke. A woman insatiable, and so full of herself she had to criticize something to appease her own ego; as the one food critic who had discovered and later re-discovered the famous Julian Slowik.

What a bitch.

Madam Elsa thought so too, because it was only seconds before she abandoned her temporary post next to one of the hearths to put a whole ass bucket of orange, 'broken' emulsion in front of her, the very same one she had complained so viciously about. She looked so positively shocked that she couldn't even do anything else but take the L and push out a strained smile. 

"Um, excuse me." 

Madam Elsa was beckoned by Bryce to the larger table where the finance bros sat, "Is everything to your liking, sir?"

"Um, well, actually no, thanks for asking. I mean look, the food's great and we totally get the conceptual stuff but can we please get a little bread? Some gluten-free for my friend as well?"

"No."

Shit's about to get real. 

"No?" Bryce replied, surprised.

Madam Elsa dropped the friendly facade and levelled him with a gaze that very much told him she would not budge no matter how many times he asked.

At the shock of being denied twice in a row, the table shared a round of exasperated glances before Bryan found his voice again, "This is all very clever, and I didn't wanna pull this card, but you know who we are, right?"

Oldest trick in the book.

"Yes."

"You do? You know who we are?" Soren joined in, looking patronisingly at the lady butler. 

The maître d' continued to speak politely, as if she was speaking to children, "I know who you are."

Soren let out an irritatingly childish noise of disbelief from his tight-lipped mouth that further proved what a man-child he truly was.

"You know we work with Doug Varrick, right?"

"No, you work for Mr Varrick." The viper struck again. Yikes.

"Exactly so you know we all play on the same team so just, slip us a little bread, please."

"We won't tell a soul lady, I promise."

Their nerve was astounding. Entitlement at its finest. There was no way in hell they were getting what they wanted.

"No."

"Did you say no?"

"I said 'no', yes."

The tension deflated as they gave up, receding in their seats with equal expressions of undignified rejection. Adele smirked in triumph, served them right! But then the lady butler whispered something into Soren's ear and the man had gone paler than a white sheet in the matter of second. 

Adele would have paid money to know what Madam Elsa might have said to him. 

The Chef until then, presided over the kitchen with a downright menacing gaze, surveying both staff and customers until a loud, unexpected noise popped the bubble in the restaurant.

A glass was shattered and Slowik was onto it like a panther in waiting.

"You haven't touched your food." The Chef remarked to Margot, eyes devoid of passion. Where had that subtle malice gone?

"There is no food."

Hit the nail right on the head.

"No, this is food."

And then the chatter renewed and now there was no way she could continue listening in any more than that. Looking around to see if anybody would notice, Adele watched on as they talked and boy did it seem like Margot was telling him off. Tyler visibly fidgeted in his seat, mortified that he had somehow offended his idol.

Then a truly dour expression took over Chef's taut face, He half-smiled and half-grimaced. No one talked to him like this. Then he walked away. Tyler looked sick.

Adele had said it before and she would say it again, that woman had some guts to tell that to the head chef, even when she wholeheartedly agreed. The courses were horrendously empty of proper food and filled with superficial words that soured the mood to eat altogether.

And Adele was likely to get poisoned if she ever listened to her stomach- WHAT THE HELL WAS HE DOING HERE?!

The Chef suddenly stopped at her own table. Alarmed, she thought he would confront Adele the same way he did with Margot but he did no such thing. The patrician with clean-shaven cheeks, and trimmed brown hair completely disregarded her presence and gently lowered his forehead onto the madam's sitting with her. 

There was warmth, there was true affection in this act, but even such raw moments were over in but a fraction of a moment if one blinked too many times, and soon the Chef was back marching into the kitchen, overseeing the preparation of the next course.

"I want plating in three, my friends!"

"Yes, Chef!"

[maryellencarter]

So I've been tussling with how to write this post for some time now.

Uh, the background good news first? I appear to have worked almost an entire pay period and also March is a three paycheck month, so I'm making some very solid progress on getting caught up on my bills, and it seems like this might even continue. I know I tend to be more optimistic than is usually warranted, but 70 hours in my time clock when working all my scheduled hours would put me at 72 is pretty damn impressive, especially compared to how I've been doing for a really long time.

So then I was poking around and trying to figure out what one even does with disposable income. I've been going to a knitting group at a local yarn shop recently (I forget if I mentioned here but a friend was able to get me some KN95 masks and some helpful information about transmission rates so I can socialize safely again! This is probably a big factor in me being less depressed and more worky again also), but I don't really enjoy owning yarn I don't have A Plan for, so right now I've got a cable sweater for Leia, a fancy silk lace scarf, a puffy hexagon blanket, and a crochet baby blanket going, and I just really don't want any more yarn until I finish with one or two of these projects.

Recently, though, as y'all have probably seen, there was an announcement going around about the American Girl doll brand announcing a pair of 1999-themed Historical Character dolls. Because Tumblr is the "we are getting old" website at this point, there were Noises. (They have a Pizza Hut "Book-It" reading program playset. I have never been smacked in the face with nostalgia so hard in my entire life.)

As some of y'all may also remember, I used to have a whole collection of American Girl dolls and furniture and whatnot, because I was trying to do the whole "believe you can be safe and stable now and have the things you were never allowed to have as a kid" thing with a reasonable part of the money I'd inherited from my then recently deceased grandmother (a lovely human being, and by extreme genetic good luck the relative I take after physically, so that I don't have to deal with the whole "growing up to look exactly like my abuser" thing that some people have to suffer through). Then the 2016 election happened, I had a horrible depressive spiral, was unable to work, sold 90% of my collection to pay the rent, eventually became homeless anyway, and lost the other 10% by trusting the wrong person to keep my stuff safe when I had no other options.

ANYWAY! Not the point. The point is that I started poking my nose back into the American Girl website, and then the wiki in order to try to figure out what all I'd missed, and I'm kind of being like "hey, I could hypothetically afford some of this stuff again now".

(I personally find it hilarious that the brand is trying to walk a line between "Addressing trans and nonbinary identities in our helpful book on puberty for preteens? Sure, we'll do that, we're progressive! Also did you say Harry Potter collaboration? That's a license to basically print money from customers who are nostalgic for the same era we were most popular in, let's do this", which is exactly the kind of seesawing I expect from Disney -- who owns American Girl via Mattel.)

So *anyway*, and this is the part of this post I'm really struggling with: I also used to be heavily involved in the part of the American Girl adult collectors fandom that describes itself as "queer-friendly and socially conscious". That part of the fandom runs the wiki (which is an extremely useful and well-constructed resource). I don't know who-all from those days may still follow me on Tumblr, and I'm actually not looking to cause drama, just sort of thinking out loud as I so often do on the tunglrs, but after five years away from the fandom and having poked my nose back in, I'm running into a royal shitton of memories (and a little new information) that's making me go "Holy fuck, this place was *incredibly* toxic, no wonder I got utterly burned out on trying to interact with the dolls and items the way they demanded everybody should. No wonder I still feel like I'm walking on eggshells to even say anything or post a picture related to this fandom."

So. Let's be real. I'm saying "the way they demanded". It's one person, backed up by other mods who don't create their own separate demands. This particular section of the fandom is ruled with an iron fist by one self-described Angry Black Woman who... the very kindest way I can find to describe it is, she's a walking talking demonstration of how you cannot create a single safe space that's safe for everyone. I made a post several years ago that went a little bit viral, where I pointed out that being uncomfortable with a very verbally aggressive black authority figure can actually be because of the "very verbally aggressive authority figure" part, say if you're a survivor of emotional abuse *koff koff*, and doesn't have to mean you're "uncomfortable with black anger" Because You're Racist. That post was a direct reaction to multiple instances of seeing this person tell people "you're pushing back against me being verbally abusive, that's a racist action on your part".

That's the kindest, most nonconfrontational way I can come up with to talk about the situation. Less tactfully, after going to look over the forum rules for this subsection of the fandom -- hoping to realize I'd just been an extremely sensitive tortellini at the time and they weren't that bad, because I know I was an extremely sensitive tortellini in other matters -- in actual fact, I've been reminded very loudly that these rules are a 13k essay on topics such as You Must Be Okay With Verbal/Emotional Abuse If It's Directed At You By People Of Color, All Cultures Of Color Are Closed Cultures Now (So Don't You Dare Put This Black Doll's Clothes On Any Other Doll), and the real kicker for me, Only Selected Queer Identities Are Suitable For Public Discussion (subsection We're Redefining Queerness To Exclude Polyamory, new since I was last here, with sub-subsection Oops We Didn't Mean To Exclude Asexuals Only Those Icky Cishets, and fun guessing game Are We Excluding Aromantics Or Did We Just Forget They Exist, Ask And See If You Get Banned).

I... genuinely didn't mean to go on that long. But this is exactly why I'm making this post. Because I have a *lot* of trauma from trying to figure out what's actually racist or offensive and what's not, while being in a community where anything the main mod doesn't like can suddenly be declared an offense against social justice, and if you ever step on her toes, you're likely to be relegated to the ranks of the damned (aka the white Christian mommybloggers who own more than six white dolls or less than 50% dolls of color). And as probably all of you know, I do a lot of thinking out loud about trauma. Which is a PROBLEM, because this person definitely still follows me here (I don't know who else from the fandom does), and Tumblr blocks don't keep people from seeing your posts, only interacting with them.

So. Uh. There's probably going to be... more of this. I'm making this post now because I'm almost done sewing a doll skirt, I want to show it off here, and I'm also having a really nasty anxiety attack over how this person is definitely going to metaphorically rip it to shreds in the dedicated forum thread for mocking homemade doll clothes (mostly from Etsy) that don't live up to her exacting standards of Historically Accurate Doll Costuming. (The skirt is gathered instead of using 1800s-style "cartridge pleats"! The horror!)

Yeah. So. Um. I guess... if you follow me from when I was last in AG doll fandom, here's where I stand, at least right now. I'm not going to name any names, but you likely know who I'm talking about. I'm not going to go after anybody or cause trouble on their blog, but I'm not going to pull any punches when I'm talking about the ways they and their policies have made me feel unsafe in the fandom. And I'm not going to follow their byzantine rules based on the concept that a single doll can only have one ethnicity and one backstory. A doll, in its essence, is a shapeshifter the way a character actor is a shapeshifter, and not all of us want to create 50+ fixed individual characters that can't wear each other's clothes.

If you can't live with any of that, feel free to go commiserate with each other. I'm not planning to go back to the forum, so don't worry that I'll see anything you say there. (I'm not even planning to publish the rules publicly, since they're not viewable when logged out, although they are a trip and a half to read without the context of the dramas that shaped them.)

If you're scared what will happen to your standing in the fandom if you like my posts or keep following me, though... maybe that's a place to start thinking.

[duckwithablog]

The lurker anon reappears! Thank you for answering my questions, and I’d love to hear the backstory of your macaque theme!

Also, I forgot to label myself. Silly me. Mmm 🤔… perhaps peach🍑 anon if it’s free? Because- unrelated to the cute and cheeky monkey man- I really, really love peaches!

YOO hello again!! And yeah, 🍑 anon is free!! I haven't tried eating peaches but they look so aesthetic,, the only peach flavored thing i tried was a peach drink and i ordered it PURELY bcs of LMK HHAHSHSAH

time for some blog lore..... THIS IS GONNA BE KINDA LONG AND RAMBLY SO BE WARNED-

Before this account was made, I actually had a different tumblr account for personal use (I never log into it anymore though lol) instead of writing. I was in the LMK fandom at the time, so I was reading x reader fics EVERYWHERE I could, from wattpad to tumblr to ao3.

And wouldn't you know it, when I was scrolling through the tags on tumblr I saw someone promoting their newly written fic they made on ao3!! I read it, loved the premise, and left a kudos and a comment (I think I left a comment? I'm not sure, I was a lurker as well when it came to reading HSDHSD).

Not too long after, I was scrolling through their blog and saw a post of them asking for any possible writing friends to interact. I thought 'hey!! i can write!!' and promptly sent them a dm. We chatted over our brainrot of the stinky monkeys and we grew to be pretty close writing buddies!! I even got to come up with a ship name for a pairing in the fic (the pairing was Macaque and Y/n, and Y/n in the fic was a baker, so I proposed the ship name 'Mooncake'. Still super proud of that ngl!! I'm pretty sure I made one for Wukong and Y/n too, but I forgot what it was </33 Mooncake was just so iconic to me).

We bounced off ideas from each other, and I sent them posts about Wukong (they were a Wukong Apologist and honestly, slay), and one of them actually managed to influence their characterization for him in a later chapter!! I was even writing my own LMK x reader fic at the time, and while I gave up on it after a while, they were the first person to ever read the first few paragraphs and gave me their thoughts.

Eventually, I had an urge to make a whole blog dedicated to x reader writings because I was inspired by them to make one, and when I told them they told me to go for it!!

Here's where the important bit comes in: This person's blog was themed around Sun Wukong. They're a Monkey King lover, they fucking love that stupid smelly monkey man!! So I told them "hey wouldnt it be funny if my blog was Macaque themed so we could match?" and they went "DUDE"

And boom!! That's the reason why my blog is Macaque themed!! I went through a LOT of custom tumblr themes (you know where you open someones blog and instead of being the regular tumblr blog layout its a totally new one that they customized themselves? Yeah that was me), meanwhile my friend just stuck to a simple 'Wukong pfp + header and orange background'. I think that matched our character themes really well HAHSAHSAH

Unfortunately, I'm sure that my friend is not working/active anymore. Their last post on tumblr was them apologizing for the lack of updates because of art school, and that was it. I don't know how long it's been since I checked up on the fic, but when I did, I found that their ao3 account was orphaned. So it's probably safe to assume that theyre not coming back to their tumblr acc either.

But still... I kept my Macaque theme. Even when my LMK interest started to fade and other media took over my brain, I refused to change it. Idk why, sentimentality I guess? It just felt wrong.

I have no idea where they are now, honestly. I just hope theyre doing okay. They were a super cool person, and I loved their fic and I loved talking to them and I loved being their friend!! Even if they probably wont see this post, I just want them to know how much of an impact they had on me. It was because of them I made this account, and got into writing requests and fics. And even if that didn't work out, they got me back to writing in general! They were an awesome person and they deserve everything good in life!!

Augugh this got sentimental... My bad!! Ngl, I've been secretly waiting for someone to ask me why my blog was Macaque themed, but the chance of that happening was really slim so I held the Blog Lore™ in. BUT NOW I CAN FINALLY SAY WHAT IVE BEEN HOLDING IN FOR YEARS RAHHH

Thanks for asking this, btw 🍑 anon!! Sorry if this was so rambly and long, my mind do be like that (incomprehensible to decipher sometimes). I'd love to see you pop in some more, if youd like!!

Oh!! And since ur a Wukong lover as well, you should read their fic!! It's unfinished, but I think you should give it a shot. The chapters are long, the writing style and interactions between characters are great, and the development and pining is well done!!

I realize that this sounds biased, but ermm..... IDC GO READ THEIR FIC!!! (/nf) Kudos and comment bcs they deserve it!! Even if they dont get to see it, I'd like to at least cheer them up on the off chance that they do.

Here's the fic!! And their tumblr acc too, because they make some pretty banging drawings for their writing!!

@butternut-zippersqaush

[perplexedflower]

Love On The Rocks - Chapter 3: Mojito

Fandom: Supernatural.

Category: F/M.

Relationship: Crowley x Female Reader.

Type: 5-chapter fanfiction.

Summary: Being the King of Hell has its ups, but it also has its downs. And these downs lead Crowley straight into a bar, where he finds something far greater than just a glass of whisky: the love of its bartender, a young woman who is oblivious to the demon's nature. But one evening, he does not show up at the bar at his usual time, and his newfound love finds herself exposed unwillingly to everything that has been hiding under her nose this whole time…

Chronology: Season 10.

~~~~~~~~~~

And there it came again: that regular day of the week that had become so special to me. The last day of the week, yet the one that held the most promise. Sunday.

He'll surely drop by once again, a third time, just as he has done twice already...

With this thought in mind, I made the bold assumption that he would come, and so I decided to get his drink ready beforehand: by then, I was already used to his habits and expected him to once again ask me to fill his glass with Glencraig whisky.

I did not have to wait long for Crowley to walk through the bar's front door and make his way to the counter while he bore a smile directed my way; but as he sat down, and before he could even engage in a conversation with me, I turned around to grab his drink before I turned back to face him and set it down on the counter in front of him.

"Here's your Craig."

Upon seeing me serve him, his eyes widened a little, and I could tell by his expression that he had not anticipated my behavior.

"I haven't even given you my order yet." He said as he smiled at me curiously.

I stared into his eyes, set both of my elbows down on the counter, then rested my chin on the back of my hands.

"You don't have to." I told him with a smile of my own.

And after that, the rest of our night went down exactly the same way the first two had: the two of us became more familiar with one another while I filled his glass with the same liquor every now and then. That evening, I even confessed to Crowley that I did not know a single thing about Scotland - despite working at a Scotland-themed bar - aside from classic Scottish alcoholic drinks. To this, he said he could tell me all about Scotland, all I needed and had to know, and so he did; I was so interested in hearing what he had to teach me that this branch of our conversation occupied quite a significant part of our night. And during that entire time, I watched him speak, charmed by how passionate he was to tell me about this country he seemed to be so attached to.

By the end of the evening, he had left the bar after having left me a tip, as he had done twice already; deep down, I was sad to see him go, because I had not met someone like him in a long time, and I had come to cherish these Sunday evenings we spent together. Deep down, I was saddened by the thought that I would have to wait another week, another Sunday to see him again. But to my surprise, something I had not expected happened the next evening: he came back again, breaking his pattern of Sundays. And this was when I truly understood he was no longer coming to the Golden Cross for his Craig anymore, but for me.

And so, he came back again the next night. And then the next. And then the next. And then the next. Until he didn't.

By then, the two of us had set up a routine we were both aware of: Crowley came down to the bar every evening, always at the same hour, sat at the very same seat, to order the same drink every time. But one night, he did not show up; I waited for him to walk through the front door at the usual time, as always, but when I looked at the time on my phone I saw a minute had passed, yet he still was not there.

He may just be a bit late... which is no big deal at all. Everything's probably fine.

After having given myself reassurance, I went back to serving customers, all while I waited for him. But as the minutes passed, he had still not arrived, and I started to grow worried; at one point, I stood still as I took my phone out to check the time once more, then I clutched it tight in my hand.

I know there's something between us, I can feel it... and I'm sure he can feel it too... so... what if he's already taken, and has realized flirting with me every night is wrong?

I hated to think of this possibility, yet I could not help but think about it: I then told myself it must be something else, it had to be something else, because I wanted it to be something else.

But if that's not it, then... why isn't he here? What if something's happened to him? What if he's had an accident, or if he's in trouble?

I realized this explanation was not much better, so I shook my head in hopes to try and quiet down my imagination, which was running too wild.

Or... he's just busy. Yeah, I'm sure he's just real busy this evening, and had to work overnight, so he can't make it to the Golden Cross... that's it.

While I stared at my phone, I wondered whether or not to give him a call, or even just text him, to ask him if everything was alright on his end, but I did not dare for fear of coming off as nosy: the previous evening, he had asked me for my number, which had surprised me because this had been the first important step he was taking toward the development of our relationship, but not as much as when I had asked for his in exchange and that he had replied to me his number was '666'. I theorized he had somehow gotten his number custom-made, for the fun of it. But no matter what his phone number was, I did not dare make a move: although we had not yet texted each other since we had exchanged numbers, I did not want to ruin my chances with him by showing him how paranoid and clingy I could be.

I turned my head to the counter on which rested a lonely glass filled with Glencraig whisky, and my expression turned sad as I looked at it. I set my phone down on the counter and reached for the glass, before I slowly brought it up to my lips: the taste was peaty and sharp, with a long finish of citrus and tobacco notes, and upon tasting it, I thought it suit Crowley very well and somehow matched his personality. Just as I was closing my eyes to fully take in the drink, I heard my phone go off with the sound of a notification: I immediately opened my eyes back and set the glass back down as I picked my phone up with both hands. My screen lit up and I could read a text from Crowley himself: "Ambassador Hotel, penthouse suite. Could use your help."

My eyes had barely finished reading the end of the text I had already put my phone back inside my jeans pocket and was making my way to the coat rack near the front door; I removed my jacket from it then turned around, and I did not have to search for long before I spotted Ed, who I called from afar. He turned around upon hearing my voice mixed in with the numerous others resonating throughout the bar, and as he started to walk towards my direction, I put my jacket on while I told him I had to go right away and leave the bar on the account of an emergency: and before he had time to reply anything back to me, I opened the door and stepped out in a hurry.

I know Ed won't be angry at me for leaving work so early, we've known each other for a long time now and he's a good friend, I thought while on the way to my car, I'll make it up to him by working longer the next few nights, I'm sure that'll be enough for him. But right now, I have no other choice. I had to leave. Crowley needs me.

The word 'help' kept echoing within my mind: I had no idea what kind of trouble he was in, but if the word 'help' needed to be brought up, then it had to be something of grave importance.

I got to my car and hopped in then quickly started the engine; I did not need to set up a GPS course to the hotel's address, given I knew where it was, and I also knew it was about 20 minutes away from the Golden Cross. While on the road, my thoughts only grew more and more tangled, until my brain was nothing but a mess; but I was lucid enough to understand that time was of the essence.

If Crowley sent me a text instead of having called me, it must be because he wanted to let me know as quickly as possible. And if he couldn't even take the time to write a properly structured message, then he must be in some kind of danger.

After having driven for 20 minutes, I arrived at the hotel and parked my car as fast as I could, then I made my way inside the building: I soon arrived at the hallway entrance, and I quickly realized I was way underdressed for a place such as this one. Around me were all fancily-dressed customers, either checking in or out of this 4-star hotel, and I felt out of place. But it did not matter to me, and I pushed these thoughts aside by walking up to the front desk and asking on which floor the penthouse suite was. After having been told it was on the last floor, I thanked the receptionist and made my way to the elevator; fortunately for me, I was the only one inside, which meant I could allow myself not to contain my stress and let it out. I pressed the button to the last floor, and the doors closed as the elevator went up. Once the doors opened again, I stepped into the large empty hallway: my rapid footsteps were muffled by the long purple velvet carpet which adorned the wooden flooring.

Once I got closer to the penthouse suite's front door, I slowed my pace until I came to a stop when I arrived in front of it. Up until this very moment, a knot had been forming and tightening in my stomach, but it tightened even further when I looked down at the handle and noticed the door was not closed all the way. A part of me got the feeling something was waiting for me inside the room, something bad, but I found it in myself to be brave and grabbed the handle decisively: I swung the door open and took a determined step inside, then a second one, then a third, but before I could walk any deeper into the suite, I was stopped dead in my tracks.

There he was. Crowley. On the floor. Somewhat sitting, somewhat lying down. In a pool of his own blood.

"Jesus Christ!"

The horrifying sight made me press both of my hands against my chest as I took a step backward. But what troubled me even more was to see Crowley was still alive: when he heard me scream, he turned his head to me and bore an expression that seemed way too casual for the situation.

"Ah, I see you got my text, good."

I remained frozen, my eyes fixed on him, but I still managed to process what he was telling me, and only then did I realize I had not replied to the S.O.S text he had sent me; I had been so worried and afraid that I had not even taken the time to let him know I was on the way.

"... Well?"

His voice pulled me out of my thoughts and I snapped back to reality. And what a reality it was. My gaze had not moved from him, and I could see him raise his eyebrows at me while he moved his arms with slight difficulty.

"Are you gonna stand there all evening, or are you gonna give me that help I asked for?"

When I finally understood he wanted me to come his way, I blinked a couple of times repeatedly before I gulped.

"Well— I— Uh— It's— I—"

I could not help but stutter while I shook my head slightly: everything about this was simply too crazy, weird, and bloody. But as my eyes were still connected to his, I could read in them the way he was calling me to him, and I finally managed to take a few steps forward. While I walked, I looked around me a little and noticed Crowley was not the only thing in the room that was out of place: the furniture had also been turned upside-down and was either damaged or broken.

"What... the fuck went down here?"

By the time I finished asking my question, I had reached him and had stopped right in front of him: I looked down at him, the scarlet red puddle so close to me now. He stared down at the ground while sighing before he turned his head to the side with an angry expression.

"I got attacked by a group of—... Of guys. They broke down the front door and barged into the room like madmen. I put up a fight—"

"Yeah, I can see that." I interrupted him as I looked at the shattered glass table nearby.

"But these bastards had to play dirty, and they shot me."

"Yeah, I can see that!" I interrupted him again, this time with my voice raised and while I looked down at him.

He closed his eyes and exhaled a deep breath.

"I'll be fine, don't worry."

"Like hell you will!"

I was so on edge that I was not able to control the volume of my voice and expressed all my emotions without any filters: and by the look in Crowley's eyes, I understood he could easily interpret them as they were. I felt my heart pounding in my chest, fear and anxiety spreading throughout my body, but by silently staring into his eyes, their gentleness and affection helped me calm down a little.

"... The guys who jumped you, where are they now?" I asked after I had caught my breath.

"I don't know, they forgot to pass me a note telling me where they headed when they left the suite." He answered me with a hint of sarcasm.

"They bailed?" I asked with my eyebrows furrowed. "They just left you to die on the floor and ran away? Why didn't they finish you off while they were at it?"

It was only after I had finished my sentence that I realized my last question had come off as quite blunt and inappropriate; I leaned toward him in an attempt to apologize.

"I-I mean—"

"Look." He cut me off before I could continue. "They're not here anymore, you are, everything's peachy. Now, will you give me a hand?"

"You keep asking me that, but what exactly do you want me to do?" I questioned him with confusion. "I'd prefer not to move you until we wait for 9-1-1 to get here..."

A somewhat awkward silence settled between the two of us.

"... We're not calling 9-1-1."

He spoke as though he was stating the obvious, with a hint of judgment, but upon hearing him say this, I lost what was left of my mind.

"... What?!"

I could feel the muscles of my face contorting as I looked down at him.

"Crowley, you're— You're fucking dying!"

The atmosphere in the room became heavy as my words were left to hang in the air. And I suddenly felt tears run down my cheeks, tears I had not felt coming. Tears which betrayed the way I truly felt.

"I'm not—" He said with a soft tone. "... Not really."

I closed my eyes while I shook my head.

"This is nuts, it's fucking insane... What the fuck's happening?"

"[Y/N], look at me."

At the same time as I heard his words, I suddenly felt a moderately strong grip on my forearm, which made me open my eyes: I looked down at him, as he had asked me, and despite my blurry vision, I could see the tenderness in his eyes.

"I wish you hadn't been involved in all this, but now you are, and you're the only one who can help me."

I kept staring into his eyes and could read sincerity and honesty within them.

"So please, help me out."

I could feel his grip on my arm progressively loosen, and I soon understood it was because he was having trouble maintaining his strength; I took a deep breath in while I looked to the side.

"Fine."

I slowly kneeled down in front of him, which inevitably stained my clothes with his blood.

"What do you want me to do?"

He exhaled a sigh of relief to see I was finally willing to give him a hand.

"Do you have your pocket knife on you?" He asked me as he accompanied his question with a sign of the head.

"The one my father gave me?"

Before I left him time to answer my rhetorical question, I reached for the back pocket of my jeans and pulled out the said pocket knife.

"Of course, I always carry it around with me." I replied as I presented it to him.

Without a word, he reached for my hand, took the knife from me, and unfolded it.

"Now..." Crowley started while he looked down at his left shoulder, in which was a bullet wound.

He steadily held up the blade in his right hand before he looked straight up at me.

"You're going to help me remove all these."

My eyes widened upon hearing his request and I opened my mouth while I put my hands in front of myself.

"And before you start panicking again, I'll show you how to do it." He continued before I could speak.

My mouth remained open yet silent for a few more seconds.

"... I'm a bartender!" I finally said. "I've never done something like this before, Crowley!"

"And that's precisely why I'm going to show you how to do it!"

I could hear by the tone of his voice that he was upset with my stubbornness, but I noticed that aside from annoyance, he did not necessarily express any kind of physical exhaustion.

How can he keep on talking and moving given his state? And even more so, how hasn't he dropped dead yet, even though he seems to have been in such poor shape for way over half an hour now?

Although it was extremely odd to me that he was still kicking, I decided to use this as a way to remain calm and gulped before I exhaled.

"A-Alright."

Crowley proceeded to show me how to remove the bullets from his bullet wounds: you dig the knife into the flesh and keep digging while you search around for the tip of the bullet, then once you can feel it, dig it out with the point of the blade, and help it out with your fingers if need be. Listening to him, he made it sound so easy, but when I looked at him do it, I felt as though I was going to throw up.

After having removed the bullet from his left shoulder, he moved on to his right, which was also wounded, then his chest, then his arms. And he seemed so calm and collected every time, as if he had done it a million times before. And the more times I looked at him doing it, the more comfortable I became with the idea of doing it myself. Once he was done removing all the bullets that had riddled his upper body, he handed me over the bloody knife, and I could swear he was already looking much better physically now that they had been dug out.

"Now's your turn, darling." He said as he pointed to his legs with both a sign of the head and his right index finger. "There are only two bullets left for you to remove, one in each leg."

I looked somewhat upset and blushed slightly while I grabbed the knife from his hand.

"Wow, introducing pet names in such a moment. Is now really the time you want to take our relationship somewhere?"

I could hear him scoff as I looked down at his left leg: I had been mentally preparing for this moment to come for many long minutes and was expecting to surely freak out, but with the sheer mention of our 'relationship', my stress diminished greatly, replaced by thoughts regarding him.

"God... I wish you'd never walked through that door." I spoke softly, with a sigh.

My words may have sounded harsh, but with the gentle tone in which they had been said, Crowley knew as well as I knew that I did not mean them.

"Alright, tell me if it hurts. And sorry if it hurts."

I slowly dived the point of the knife into his skin and tried my best to follow the explanation he had given me; while I was searching around for the bullet, I looked down at his leg and shook my head lightly while my brow furrowed.

"Goddamn... The fuckers really went to town on you."

He kept silent, but he did not need to speak for me to understand he felt great resentment for his attackers; in silence, I found the tip of the bullet inside the wound and dug it out, sending it to fly and hit the ground with a clink.

"Done!"

I felt proud of myself, not only to have overcome my stress, but successfully so at that.

"Now, remove that last one and I'll finally be able to get back on my feet."

I was about to get to work when a thought crossed my mind.

"Say... why do I have to remove these two for you? You dug out all the other ones, why couldn't you have taken care of these last two as well?"

Crowley seemed somewhat perplexed by my question and looked as though he was searching for an answer.

"These bullets are... not regular bullets." He finally said after a few seconds. "I'll tell you about them in detail later."

I was not fully convinced by his ominous answer, but now was not the time to question what he was saying.

I'll ask him to be more specific after we're out of this situation.

I leaned forward to be closer to his right leg and began to work on it in silence. The room remained quiet as my bloodied hand fished around for the presence of metal within his flesh.

"... Listen, [Y/N], there's something I've got to tell you."

I listened to him but did not reply anything back and simply let him speak, too focused on my butchering.

"There are things you don't know about me... Things I should've told you sooner..."

My blade came in contact with the last bullet still present in his body and I flung it out in one flick of the wrist: the second it exited the bullet wound, I looked up at him with a smile, ready to tell him we were finally done.

"[Y/N], I'm—"

But before he could finish his sentence, and before I could even start mine, a loud bang was suddenly heard behind the two of us: I quickly turned around and saw a group of men had barged into the suite and was now making its way to us.

"Hey, what the—"

But before I could continue, I suddenly felt multiple pairs of hands grab me all over and pull me up from the ground, which made me drop my pocket knife to the floor.

"Hey, let me go!"

I struggled to try and get out of their grasp, but their collective strength was far greater than mine: all I managed to do was extend my arm at Crowley, whose figure was growing more and more distant as the men dragged me away from him.

"Crowley—"

My shout was cut short by an excruciating pain I suddenly felt in the back of my head, and through my blurry vision, I could make out his silhouette trying to reach out for me.

"[Y/N]!"

Then everything went dark.

[thmgau]

CHAPTER 2 - BANANAS & BOOKS [wattpad link]

---

“So.. this is the place?”

Cherry was driving in her minivan. Kalani called dibs on shotgun so he could direct Cherry on where to go, while everyone else was in the back. They had just pulled into a parking lot.

“Yup! This is it!”

The five of them hopped out of the car & looked at the restaurant. It was called Banana Man’s Banana Land. It looked kind of tropical-themed, which kind of made sense for a banana restaurant.

“Banana Man’s Banana Land.. what a corny name.” “It’s not the worst name for a restaurant.” “True. Let’s head in.”

The group entered the restaurant & was instantly greeted with a surprisingly nice interior. The walls were painted a light blue, with some light yellow to represent sand, & some palm trees painted on as well. The chairs were all banana-shaped, & the tables were round & yellow. Up at the counter was a short man wearing what the group assumed was a banana outfit. He seemed to be the only employee.

“Hi!” he smiled. “Welcome to Banana Man’s Banana Land! The name’s Pim, how may I help you 5 today?”

They all looked at the menu. As Kalani had said, there were plenty of banana-themed items on the menu. Nobody really knew what to get. Eventually, they decided on what to get.

“Alright, so that’s 5 banana smoothies, two banana nut muffins, one banana bread, & two banana puddings!” Pim typed some stuff into his cash register. “That’ll be.. $16.99!”

Juniper whipped out xyr credit card. “Don’t worry, I’ll cover it,” ae nodded, swiping aer credit card into the card swipe machine & punching in aer PIN number.

“Thanks!” Pim smiled. “Y’all go find a seat while I prepare your food!”

The group looked at all the tables available in the restaurant, which was all of them, because they were the only customers. There was only one table that was able to fit 5 people, so that was the one they all sat at.

“So.. what do we do now?” Nora asked, sitting down in the banana-shaped chair. “I guess we just.. talk? I dunno.” Leslie shrugged. “The book is still kind of a big subject.” “True. How are we even supposed to tell where it is?” “If these necklaces just magically appeared on us, then maybe the necklaces would just.. signal us if we’re close, right?” “Magic isn’t real, so probably not.” “Oh, c’mon. This again?” “Remember back in high school when Leslie got really into ghost-hunting? & we never found any ghosts?” “Well, that’s DIFFERENT. Those are ghosts. These are necklaces that some shadow person in our dreams gave us. Whole different scenario.” “Oh, whatever.” Cherry rolled her eyes.

Pim approached the table with everyone’s food. “Breakfast is served!” he announced, setting the food onto the table. “Hope you enjoy!”

As he walked away, the group started digging into their meals. Surprisingly, it was actually very well-made!

“Oh, this food fucks.” “Holy shit, yea, this rules.”

The group was munching down on their food, savoring every bite.

“This is so good! Why aren’t there more customers here?” Juniper grinned, taking a bite out of their banana nut muffin. “Exactly! You’d think there would be some advertising at least.” “Kalani, you were the one who told us about this. How did you find out about it?” “Oh, I saw it a couple days ago while driving. Opening day.” “Huh. Strange.” “How many people were here during opening day?” “I saw like.. 3 or 4 people, I think.” “Only 4 people on opening day? No advertising?” Cherry mumbled. “This place sounds kinda sketchy, don’tcha think?” “I mean.. yea, but the food’s good, so who cares?” “Alright, whatever.”

As the group finished up their meal, Leslie checked the time on the clock (which was banana-shaped) on the wall.

“It’s 8:30.” they said. “Wow. Earlier than I thought.” “Yeah. Maybe we should, like.. do that thing we were gonna do?” “The book thing?” “Of course! What other thing would I be referencing?” “I have a film project due in 3 weeks. I thought we were referring to that.” “Well, I digress. Let’s go do that thing!”

-

The group was back in Cherry’s car, driving down to their university’s library. If there’s anywhere a weird book would be, they guessed it’d probably be in some old, dusty library.

“Again, how are we supposed to tell if we’ve found the book?” “I guess we’ll find out, huh?” “I guess so.”

They arrived at the library. Cherry parked her car right near the entrance. They hopped out of the car & headed inside.

The library was quite warm inside. Despite the winter season, there was only a mild chill outside, but from how warm it was inside the old library, going back outside would make the weather feel below freezing. Some people sat around studying, or reading, or hanging out with their friends at the library’s cafe.

“Alright!” Nora grinned. “Where do we start?” “Uh.. I literally have no clue.” “I assume they wouldn’t have a book like this out in the open, right? Must be in the library archives.” “How do we know it’s an old book, though?” “Archives aren’t necessarily for old stuff, you know.” “Archives are typically associated with old things.” “Whatever. Let’s just get to the archives.”

After a few minutes of looking around for the archives, the group realized they had absolutely no idea where the archives were, so they had to go ask a librarian.

“Oh, it’s just in the back over there.” The librarian gestured over to a door in the back labeled “THE ARCHIVES”, which kind of made the group feel stupid, but they thanked the librarian regardless & went over there.

“I still can’t believe it was that obvious.” Kalani sighed, opening the door to the archives. “Sometimes the things that are most hidden are in plain sight!” Leslie mentioned. “If that was true, I would have found my missing essay paper weeks ago.” Cherry chuckled.

The group entered the archives. Compared to the warm atmosphere of the library, the archives were like a haunted house. Everything was dusty, & the only light flickered every few minutes. It wasn’t even that bright.

“There’s a lotta shit here.” “It’s an archive. Of course there’s a lot of shit here. C’mon, this book isn’t gonna find itself.”

There were 5 rows of folders & old books, which was perfect, so they could split the work evenly among themselves. They all split up & started looking for the book.

The archives were a lot bigger than any of them had expected. No wonder this place was so dusty.

A few minutes had passed.

“HEY, YOU GUYS FOUND ANYTHING YET?” “NO.” “I HAVEN’T EITHER.” “DAMN.”

The fact that they have to yell across the archives to communicate just shows how big it is, if I haven’t made that clear yet.

However, something happened. Something.. unexpected.

“HEY!” Leslie yelled. “I THINK I FOUND IT!”

All at once, the other 4 ran over to where Leslie was standing. The sudden movement in the room made the single light fall down, but it was fine. As they approached Leslie’s location, the group noticed that their necklaces.. were glowing.

“What’s up, Les?” “My necklace! Look!”

It pointed at its necklace. It was glowing, just like everyone else’s necklaces. They all looked down at their own necklaces as well, which were also glowing.

“That’s weird. Maybe the necklaces detect if it’s dark?” “I don’t think that’s quite it,” Leslie said, pulling a book out of the row they were standing in. It was a leather book, colored in a dull red, yellow, gray, green, & blue, in vertical stripes. There was also a crystal on the cover of the book, shaped like a tie. It was glowing all sorts of colors.

“Holy shit.” “That’s.. kinda cool, actually.” “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s see what’s in it!”

“Don’t you think we should read it in a more lit-up space?” “Oh, maybe you’re right.. Luckily, I know just where to go! We’re headed to-” “Don’t say the abandoned Pizza Hut.” “-The abandoned Pizza Hut!!”

Cherry sighed. “Fine. We can go to the abandoned Pizza Hut.” “Yay!” “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s hit it!”

[talkativeanxiousturtle]

If I won the lottery, here's what I would do.

First I'd invest. I know that answer's boring, it's a dread, but I can't help believing in the future, even more so in a future where people will still need help. Grow your funds so you can help others down the line. Be the greediest of capitalists until you're powerful enough to make meaningful changes. No one at the top got there by caring for others, so the most influential people of our society are all cupid and evil. Even a single semi well intentioned fool amongst them would be radical. Be evil until you can afford not to, but never cruel. Remember, cruelty rhymes with stupidity. Never be stupid.

Second, I'd buy myself a home. Not Victorian, not exactly. After all, my Wonderful Girlfriend™ prefers mid century, and who am I to argue with one that has the heart of an architect (and over 200 GB of Sims CC)? And I am saying a home, not a house. Sorry, Doctor House, it's nothing against you, it's just that I know what it's like to spend your nights in a place colder than your heart, as freezing as your father's loveless gaze when his little girl amounts to nothing more than a woman. Never again.

There'd be plants, plants everywhere. Plants that are safe for our two sphynx cats, and perhaps some that are edible for us. Basilic is essential for Her™ favorite recipe, after all. And there'd be a room, a room that's all mine, with the biggest rat cage you've ever seen. And an ant farm, oh! An ant farm! One Ants Canada would blush to! And there, pinned on the walls, insects I bought, or found myself, I'd have a station to dissect whatever creature to my heart's content... But back to the kitchen. It'd be full of light, of love, and I'd have all the tools I need to bake. Everything would be neatly organized, and we'd never run out of milk.

There'd be a room, one of our own design, filled with our childhood fantasies. A wooden boat, themed after pirates, filled with colourful foam cubes. Our babies would be anything but beige. As I have always said, my child will be whatever they will be. They will have times where, no matter what I do, they will be unhappy, where my job won't be to fix and scold, but to sit and keep company. There is a chance that my babies, no matter how well I treat them, will be sick. And I refuse to make them feel guilty for it. No matter how long it lasts, no matter how well meaning the sentiment is, they will never hear "as long as you're happy, as long as you're healthy". Those are temporary states. And my love for them is intemporal. No, for me, the key will be, "as long as you're yourself. As long as you allow yourself to laugh, to be a little odd, to be so very flawed". That will be what I consider success. Someone that can look in the mirror and find more love than hate. Be odd, be normal, be you, be colourful. Always remember you are more than one shade.

If I won the lottery, I'd probably want to travel a bit. Norway, perhaps, on our honeymoon. Because begs it mention to say that the first thing I would do is marry Her™? Of course not. That could be read in my palm even after both my hands would be thrown in a wood chipper. I'd have that dress, that suit, that mix of both fitted right for me. I'd have the rings custom made for our fingers, the way our hands were for each other's.

I'd make sure to wear what I want, to order a binder, a cure for indecision. I'd get pregnant, three times as we planned, I'd perhaps wait a bit to see if science can make us both into one. I'd go to university, they'll take anyone for enough money, even with my frail body and bad history. I'd make something of myself, something worth being proud of, worth being as proud of me as She™ always is.

If I were rich, I'd rent a castle, and organize a fancy ball, one where the tickets are as cheap as I can make them. The guests would be fitted to wear that would suit their greatest desires, would get to look like royalty without spending a penny. The profits would go to charity, there would be auctions from young aspiring artists, in all kinds of mediums. People of all ways of life would be invited, all cultures, all tax brackets. It'd be possible to pay for more than one ticket, to allow a stranger in, in exchange for minor perks throughout the night.

If I were rich, I'd open a shelter for abused kids, the ones that are in the process of getting their legal emancipation from their tormentor. I'd help guide them through what life is like, after the worst is over.

If I won the lottery, I'd learn LSQ, ASL, I'd learn Russian, the piano, the violin. I'd go back to horse riding, I'd produce a stage play, maybe a movie, so many TV shows. I'd hire an artist to draw that comic I'm done writing. I'd try to go into voice acting.

But frankly, my chance in life is that, for most of this, I don't need to earn the lottery. So get ready for me, world. I haven't won the lottery, only passion and a heck of a lot of determination. Bring it on.

what's your "if I won the lottery I wouldn't tell anyone but there would be signs" thing? mine is getting a fully green kitchen