#project cheery subjects please

[otherpeoplescreativity]

Alt text description included:

Inspired by Hell's House of Horrors ( @hellenhighwater ), I have acquired this item of furniture from my local thrift store. My artistic and mechanical skills are at minimal die codes regardless of the gaming system. I need to replace some handles and the baseboard inside the hanging garment side.

I am now taking good and bad advice for additional things I could do to weird it up!

Difficulty: no electronics.

Edit to clarify: I did not pay anywhere near that $180 price. That was probably someone's really lofty ambitions back before a potential buyer first noticed how many repairs needed to be made.

[otherpeoplescreativity]

The delivery in this line of "Yes, Boss!" has lived in my head rent-free since I saw the movie in the local cheap theater, in 1991:

Alas, not featured here in the trailer.

(Also the origin for the line "like disarming Germany!")

i mean this in an entirely platonic, slightly powerhungry way, but i love when people call me the friendly "boss." like "you got is boss" or "whatever ya say, boss." it's so fun. like we're in the worlds shittiest cartoon mafia

[yuyan]

The art of love

Kaveh x gn!reader (highschool au)

Fluff, angst, hurt/comfort

Tags: artistic/academic reader, bickering, academic rivals to lovers (but art class), Kaveh can't write essays, sumeru classes = honour classes, mild swearing

"Her nose is a little off-centre," you said absentmindedly.

"I know!" Kaveh said, "I'm fixing it."

"Just saying," you said in a sing-song voice.

"Shut up and focus on your own painting."

You let out a laugh and continued painting the hair of your character. Art class would be a peaceful class with the lo-fi music the teacher plays and quiet chattering as ambient noise, if it wasn't for the two of you's constant bickering.

"Thats not how you paint hair," Kaveh said, side-eyeing your piece.

"I'm literally blocking in the shadows. It's nowhere near done," you replied, agitation seeping into your voice.

"Weeeeeeeell, if you ever need help, I'm always here," Kaveh said. The light and cheery tone was clearly mocking you and made you want to pluck his hair out. "After all, I am the only one here who truly likes art," he added, swiping baby pink paint on your right cheek and leaning in so close, you'd kiss if you moved even a millimetre in the wrong direction.

Suddenly, he fell back, off his chair and many eyes gazed at the two of you. You still had your arm extended from when you shoved him away from you and Kaveh was on the ground, a little stunned.

"Aww are you blushing?" Kaveh mocked, referring to the paint still on your cheeks. "You know it's quite rude to push someone, believe it or not, this elite academy's uniform is quite expensive. Though it probably isn't worth a dime in your eyes," he mumbled the last part.

You wiped the paint off your cheeks aggressively while Kaveh picked himself up from the floor.

"You too!" the teacher yelled,"I don't care what's going on between the two of you but it needs to stop, you're both sumeru students for archon's sake!"

"But-" Kaveh dropped his head and just nodded, stopping himself while you simply ignored the teacher and turned to face your painting.

The two of you were the only sumeru students in your art class. Your other "scholarly" classmates had left when they got chance, talking about how "art's a waste of time anyways" or "I have other more important things to do." They probably gave your head teacher so much of a headache that she just let them change. Poor Ms Nahida. Most of the students in your art class were from the mondstat and Inazuma stream with some from Fontaine as well.

"You know you can just quit like all of our other academic classmates, are you just doing art to prove you're better or more cultured than them?" Kaveh asked. "It's no point, they think it's useless and I hate people like you who do it even though they don't like it. Go back to them and receive praise for being top of the class like a dog again." ("Class" refers to the sumeru stream which has roughly 150 students—your grade alone—and is the top 14.29%)

"Who says I don't like art?" you replied coldly.

"Well-"

"If you payed attention in language arts, you'd know it's a rhetorical question," you cut him off. "Anyways, why would I want to go back to them? They're stupid anyways."

"After you finish your painting, please write an essay on it, it'll be 50% of you final grade," the teacher announced.

Kaveh groaned. Hearing the bell ring you packed up and left for lunch.

The cafeteria was bustling with noise. Everyone excitedly talking to their friends, exchanging gossip or complaining about the huge load of work they had. Most sumeru students came into the cafeteria and left, too busy perfecting their assignments or doing an extra research project either for fun or extra credit. It wasn't uncommon to see students score above 95% in the sumeru stream so to be the top of the class

"I'm gonna fail," Kaveh said, slumping across the table.

"I'm sure you won't, art is your best subject after all," Tighnari reassured, eating his lunch.

"We have to write and essay and last time we did that, I just passed!" Kaveh shouted. "It dragged my overall grade to a B!"

"Stop shouting, you're so loud," Alhaithem said, turning the next page if his textbook.

Kaveh's biggest weakness were essays, analytical essays. He could analyse just fine and find the meaning easily but his structure, poor vocab and ability to never know how to write and explain something, led to him only just passing because of his analysing skills. To anyone else in the elite academy, Teyvat high, his skills would actually be quite good but he was in the sumeru stream and to get into a special architecture degree in the university of teyvat, he'd have to suffer in the sumeru stream. Unfortunate.

"Just ask (name), they're in your art class and is top of our grade," Cyno said. "And-"

"If you say one more horrible joke, I'm going to throw you out of this cafeteria," Tighnari warned.

"Fine..." Cyno said.

"Like they'd ever want to help," Kaveh said, "plus, I hate them."

"Don't you have a crush on them?" Alhaithem said.

"Shut up!" Kaveh shouted, "as if!"

Cyno raised one of his eyebrows while Tighnari mumbled a "whatever you say."

"I don't like them like that, they're just..."

~

"Cute? I guess but," you pondered, trying to find the right words.

"Oh so you do like him," Dehya smirked.

"Omg! (Name) has a crush on Kaveh!" Nilou squealed, all giddy. "How cute!"

"As if," you said, rolling your eyes. "And you didn't even let me finish my sentence! I can't find the right words for it," you said, the memory of this morning flashing in your mind. "Annoying? Yes but no...Dumb? No not really...Ah! Obnoxious!"

Your friends' eyes slightly widened, their eyes fixated on whatever or whoever was behind you. Swiftly, you turned around, only to see kaveh.

"Well hello to you too," he huffed.

"What is it?" you asked.

"Could you help me with the art essay and in return I'll... I'll leave you alone?" His heart ached at the sight of the twinkle in your eyes when he mentioned the last part.

You thought back to art class. You had left in such a hurry when the bell rang, you forgot your pencil case. When you had went back to go get it, you heard voices coming from inside the classroom.

"Kaveh, you have to lift your grades," your teacher said. Kaveh merely nodded. "You have so much potential but your writing grade keeps dragging you down, please put an effort to improve it this time?" You saw Kaveh clench his fists as his whole body stiffened. You couldn't see his face but the look on your teacher's was a disappointed one.

You'd seen Kaveh poor his heart into every essay whether in art class or not and he'd always just pass. It was like nothing he did could get him over that C. Stepping back from the doorway, you watched Kaveh come out with hot, angry tear in his eyes. He hadn't even notice you and just stormed off to the cafeteria. As soon as he came out, you went in, greeting the teacher, took your pencil case and left.

The journey to the cafeteria wasn't long but it had you thinking. Should you ask if Kaveh wants help? Or would he see it as condescending? You two clearly weren't on the best terms.

Coming back to reality, you nodded and you saw a soft smile grace Kaveh's lips. "You have my number, does the library after school work for you?" you asked.

"Ah yes," Kaveh said, smiling like an idiot.

You had Kavehs's number since he was friends with your friends and you all exchanged numbers but the encounters after that weren't the most pleasent to say the least.

The day went by fast and with the final ring of the bell, you made your way to the library, shooting Kaveh a text when you reached there. The library was two stories and with endless categories and books from fantasy to ancient languages. You secured a small booth in the corner of the library. It has a whiteboard to the left, a decent table that had a comfortable booth seat on each side.

"Hi," Kaveh greeted.

"Hi, let's start?" you asked.

Kaveh nodded in response.

You two started to plan each of your essays, discussing the meaning behind both you and kaveh's painting. The atmosphere was tense and you held you tongue for the sake of a civil study session. Kaveh accepted each tip you gave him, begrudgingly.

The study break ended 20 minutes ago. Refining your plan, you scribbled notes down to the sound of kaveh's typing. You looked up, only to see Kaveh still texting away. He'd been text for half an hour now and each time you told him to stop, he'd just say "I'm almost done."

"What is so important that has you texting for the last half an hour?" you asked, rather impatiently.

"Nothing, just heard that Sam got her hair pulled out." Kaveh said, putting his phone down. (I'm sorry if your name is Sam)

"She got into ankther fight?"

"Yep."

"Serves her right, she's always been a bitch."

Kaveh laughed and you tilted your head to the side, a smile creeping onto your own face.

"Would you like to hear how it happened?" Kaveh asked.

"Yeah, that girl has been causing drama since her first day. Of course I want to know how karma caught up with her," you said.

"Ok, so..."

Time pasted fast as the two of you gossiped and chatted, work casted aside. Playful insults were thrown carelessly and eventually the librarian had to kick the two of you out because it was closing time.

The next day rolled around and both of you found yourself working on your essays, starting the first draft. Typing away, words flowed as you wrote about the composition, line quality and colours used in your piece. Finishing the first draft, you sighed as you saved it and glanced over to Kaveh who was dead asleep.

"I knew this would happend," you muttered. Your grey cotton blanket covered him while you snuck a small pillow under his head, careful not to wake him.

In return, you took his laptop and found he'd finish your first draft before you so you started editing it. Making little notes with the comments feature and giving feedback to pass the time.

"Hmm...how long have I been asleep for?" Kaveh asked, sturing from his slumber.

"Good morning sleeping beauty, you've been sleeping for just over an hour," you said, neatly placing your books and pencil case back into your bag. Kaveh watched you pack up intently. His eyes were still droopy with exhausten and his hair was fluffy and messed up. "I was going to wake you after I finished packing up but I guess there's no need."

You gave a sweet smile that made Kaveh melt into a puddle of water. He couldn't stand how adorable and innocent your smile was and how your eyes reflected it. The slight rosy tint to your cheeks was all it took for Kaveh to want to squish them and pepper them with kisses. He swore over and over again that he wouldn't fall in love with you no matter what he did yet here he was, completely whipped. Simp was an understatement.

"I also finished editing your essay and made notes on what I changed gave feedback so you can refer to it in the future," you said,"if you don't understand it, I can explain it tomorrow but I have to go now so bye." You saved and took your leave.

"Oh, oh ok, bye," Kaveh said, waving back with one hand while the other rubbed his sleepy eye.

Two weeks had gone by, the two of you either meeting everyday after school or the day after if it one couldn't make it. A week after your final meeting, all assignments and exams had been completed and handed in. Everyone let out a sigh of relief as the final week before summer holidays arrived. The final week was mostly preparation for next semester's topics, cleaning up and receiving marks back.

It'd been a week since Kaveh last spoke or argued with you. With the two of you sharing every class except one elective, it was easy to spot the two of you arguing with each other. Whether it was malicious or playful, no one really knew. The two of you didn't even know but an unsettling peace had made itself home in your classes. One that unsettled everyone because it must've meant something really bad happend, right?

You saw Kaveh receive his score on his essay, the look on his face showed he was estatic. In an instant he looked at you with a big heart-warming smile that made you smile even on your worst days but then he shut his mouth as if he remembered something and reluctantly turned away. It made your heart ache and all you wanted to do was scream at him that he didn't have to ignore you, despite the promise he made.

Kaveh: I got a full score!

Tighnari: Congrats!

Cyno: Nice, did you tell (name)?

Kaveh: Oh um...

Alhaithem: Did you forget Kaveh said he'd leave (name) alone if they helped them?

Alhaithem: Good job on your essay Kaveh.

Kaveh: Thanks

Cyno: Sorry, it slipped my mind.

Kaveh: Its fine.

Alhaithem: Well if that's all, stop texting in class, there's still ten minutes left.

Kaveh: Art teacher doesn't care and you're texting in class too!

(Read by Alhaithem, cyno and tighnari)

Kaveh: Don't leave me on read! Urgh!

Throughout the day, you caught Kaveh glance at you from across the class multiple times. Each time, his eyes would widened slightly and he'd whip his head back so fast you thought it might fall off one day. What you didn't notice was the small pout on his lips as he continued taking notes and the bright red that dusted his cheeks and ears.

Everytime you approached, he'd walk away. If you walked in the same room as him and he couldn't escape, he'd talk to someone, making small talk.

"What if he's seeing someone else and moved on already!" Nilou shouted from you left.

"Thats not helping nilou and I doubt that loverboy would move on so quickly," Dehya said from your right while you shrunk.

"Sorry," Nilou said.

"Its fine," you said, pressing the button underneath the traffic light. "This is where I part," you said with a smile,"Ill see you two tomorrow."

"Oh ok bye (name)!" Nilou said.

"See ya," Dehya called out, already walking the other direction.

"Hey wait Dehya! Wait for me!" Nilou shouted, chasing after her.

You looked to the ground and wondered for a moment. Kaveh had been ignoring you purposely and you even tried leaving a note one time on his desk saying you wanted to talk. Perhaps he really didn't like you and just said he'd leave you alone because he thought itd been a win-win for the both of you. Killing two birds with one stone. Getting a high score and also never having to talk to you ever again. Before you knew it, small tears escaped your eyes and you sniffed while furiously wiping the tears away. "No, no that can't be true. I-" words got caught in your throat. Words that wouldn't have been spoken to anyone in particular. The traffic lights beeping went off signalling for you to cross. You looked up staring at the green man start to flash red as you finished crossing.

"Whatever! Its fine!" a voice yelled. "Its not like I love them anyways!" a very familiar voice yelled.

You turned the corner, to see a blonde man standing next to his silver haired friend. Never would you have expected to fall in love University or that kaveh's words would hurt you so much but as you stood there and watched Kaveh's and alhaithem's retreating figure, as you watched Kaveh list all the things he hated about you, small cracks turned into big cracks as your heart started to fall apart and you couldn't be bothered to pick the pieces up.

Part 2 || Dont read part 2 if you don't want comfort and just want an angsty ending. || Requests: open

[otherpeoplescreativity]

My beloved Tumblrinas and Tumblrines, I have an early morning so I must depart the boopscape.

I love this hellsite; I love you.

I am staying opted in so even though I will not see the result or the final number, you are welcome to boop spam me with your boops, your super boops, your evil boops, and of course your boooooos. Get those badges!

[ponzien]

- REMEMBER ME

Summary: When you get stuck in the amazing digital circus the last thing Jax expects is to see and somehow remember the woman he loves…but why? Why only you? Why not anything else and how?

Pairing: Jax x fem!reader

Category: angst + fluff

Disclaimer: My interpretation of the lore is not rock solid and should not be taken as fact. I am not involved in the creation of the show and have limited information on subjects required to write this fan fiction. Thus I will be using what works best for the plot and information blatantly avaaible in the pilot episode of ‘The Amazing Digital Circus’. Enjoy!

READER PERSPECTIVE

The halls were dark and absent of light or color, at least to me. My co workers stared at me in pity and concern. As if I were a victim of a terrible accident. Then again what happened could hardly be an accident, I mean they all knew what happened to my boyfriend of 7 years yet they idly stood by and allowed it to happen. I hated them.

What sent me over the edge? A ring. We could’ve gotten married had it not been for them and their negligence. Stumbling towards the glass window where my friends were on display put tears in my eyes. The characters they’d created being their new bodies. My sorrow quickly transformed into something else when I saw the blood leaking from one of their mouths.

Kade had died. Apparently his body couldn’t handle abstraction like some of the others. While the mental damage was permanent there was a way out, you’d just have to be strong enough. Kade wasn’t, but it was okay because this was my one opportunity.

“Can I be next?!” I asked in anticipation. My boss stared at me intensely. “Why should I, I just sent in Poppy for this exact reason, to replace Kaufmo.” He rolled his eyes. “Well you didn’t know he was dead and you sent her anyways please let me replace Kaufmo instead!” I begged, I had to, anything was better than this. “Fine… boys set her up, she’s going in” I smiled, for the first time in a long time I was happy.

____

I sat down calmly as the headset was placed on me, a bunny, just like his, we’d designed them together for fun when we were 17, when the project had first released. People complained about lack of humanity in the characters, perhaps the company took it personally seeing as I am where I am right now. I felt my conscious slip as the IV was injected into me so I couldn’t feel the piercing pain I normally would’ve.

Was I an idiot? Maybe so. I wouldn’t remember any of this soon and want to return so why leave. Why not face it. Truth be told, a life without the boy id been with since 15 was no life at all. People do the craziest things when they’re in love…

___

Joyful music played as I entered the circus. I could hear someone speaking and then the singing began.

“As gangle, and Kinger and Pomni too, Ragatha, and Jax (Ah!) and then there’s Zooble! (Woo-Hoo) Many wonders can be found, send ya spinning round and round until you fly, to the moon and then the sun and we don’t know why! You won’t believe your eyes, prepare for a surprise, don’t touch that door there’s so much more you don’t know what’s in store watch out for the-“

Cheery music oddly theme song sounding stopped immediately…

—-

that’s the end folks! Let me know if this is actually decent or worth reading it was just a fun little Drabble

[otherpeoplescreativity]

It's a great, big universe; and we're all very puny! We're just tiny little specks -- about the size of Mickey Rooney. Though we don't know how it got here, we're an important part here: it's a GREAT universe, and it's ours!

- Randy Rogel, "Yakko's Universe"

being cosmically "insignificant" doesnt even matter like its not important......... like literally lets enjoy a strawberry

[shidiand]

2023 year review

2022 review

Another long year -- the second year of funemployment. There were good moments, I think. But most of them were overshadowed by the glum, endless fog of the job search. I will come back to those good moments in a bit. First, the job search.

The job search It was bad. I am certain you know well that the job search in current year is steeped in misery, but please -- permit me to expound upon the horrors it subjected me to. I beg of you.

(Feel free to skip the following passage when the bleak misery of Darkest Dungeon-style narration starts to overcome (bore, or otherwise fill with unfun vibes) you.)

Gathering the resolve to emerge from the cocoon of joblessness was its own ordeal, but the weight of growing shame gave me no choice but to push forward. This was resolve I had gathered by the end of 2022, the first year of funemployment, as was discussed in 2022's review.

Despite this resolve, my ever-present sense of dread kept me from attacking the job search in earnest until March. Those first two months were spent on the first and most hopeful of my self-improvement projects, which, like the others, petered out and died a death too ignominious for me to recount in detail. This act would turn out to be a symptom of a deeper insecurity and impostor syndrome that would immediately attack me during my next hurdle, which was confronting, once again, the emptiness of my resume. Even working up the courage to look at my old resume was its own ordeal, let alone facing the lacking accomplishments and projects from the job I had run away from at the beginning of 2022, dredging up memories of two pandemic years filled with holes of depression, and forcing myself to curdle them into recruiter-friendly bullet point sentences, promoting myself with the excruciating dishonesty that the process of discovery demands.

Further subjecting myself to terror and shame, I then had to reach out to my colleagues and manager on L*nked*n to request the favour of serving as my professional references. What a mercy it was that I had somehow managed to part on good terms with all of them, without my fraudulent self coming to light, that they all jovially agreed to provide this favour. However, this meager blessing would only hang heavy around my neck during the long coming months, when the search truly began.

Slowly I began to settle into a daily routine of browsing of the Job Posting Sites, wading through those hateful, cheery descriptions with a sullen tread. I soon developed the eye with which to discern by a glance offers bearing promise from those without, well before I should try to read them in full and despair at my lacking qualifications. I developed many such mechanisms of defense, to limit the decay of my flagging spirits; filtering strictly, limiting the scope of my search and my aspirations -- fewer positions crossed my path, and the daily pains of trawling through them became all the more bearable. I could not bear to fake my way through writing a false and cheery cover letter for each hopeful spot, only to inevitably be greeted by silence: I bluntly sent only my resume, but sent all the more resumes for it. Thusly, I would play the numbers game; I whispered this to myself.

As you well imagine, it was not long until the doubts assailed me. Was the time I was investing insufficient? Was my fragile heart dooming my own efforts, just to save itself from despair? Would a hardier, more industrious soul have pushed through and sought more offers of worth, written more attractive cover letters, and have found a job already? Certainly my family took no shortage of pains to inform me of the success of my various family's friends and their children in jobs of significantly superior recompense and status while I, hapless captive audience, drove them to the produce market each week to purchase several bags' worth of delicious vegetables at competitive prices.

Every day that turned up little to no suitable results in my searches, every day I woke up to an empty inbox only served to drive home the bleakness of my search, a year delayed after the date of my last employment. The mistake of my depression, that I hadn't strength to turn away, was coming back to haunt me. But my networkless existence had no recourse to seek but this. I repeated this process for months without the strength or courage to change it. I simply drifted on.

I was not without luck, for I did receive a scant few interviews for my efforts. I tormented myself with preparation for the most common questions and further introspection about the memories of work from my troubled last job, working myself up with anxiety, and did my best to rally my sallow self into a front of appealing normalcy. Some calls were ruined by my own hand, other seemed to go almost well. A few led to technical interviews or online assessments. All ended with eventual rejection, or, worse, radio silence.

All the while, I remained caught in the cycle of madness and anxiety, paralyzed between the need for immediate results and the desire to undertake new projects and make something else of myself, an accomplishment to line my resume that would surely provide the edge I was lacking. I was crushed by the need to move forward without being able to decide how. Forcing myself into solitude, I passed the time endlessly, unproductively.

I made a number of attempts at self improvement throughout this year. None bloomed into full reward. But, I tell myself this, attempting them was a fruit in itself. I tried many things, some for my potential career, others for some distant resume-lining project, and many just for my personal interests. Gamedev ideas, full-stack curriculums, UI design, blog writing, reverse engineering, romhacking, video essay scripting; none of them culminated into something greater, but I can claim some pride in the fact that I was, each time, able to cobble together my determination long enough to attempt them at all. I created little, I despaired, but I endured.

I do not know if it was my efforts that bore fruits, or just my dogged endurance, but I received a hopeful portent in August that slowly opened the door to further interviews throughout the remainder of the year, and eventually struck a positive enough impression with an interviewer to advance to pre-hiring checks. I have yet to receive my offer from this organization, but things are going well, and I may be able to start working in January. What a welcome blessing. What a wretched journey.

I cannot provide much advice for other seekers on the path. I can only offer you the cold solace that the despair you feel was mine too. I cannot promise anything. All I can ask is that you endure.

This concludes the job search portion of the year in review.

The rest of the review There were also other things I was doing when I wasn't beating my head against the wall, or rather, avoiding the duty of doing so, the millstone that I had tied around my neck.

I finally built a new PC to replace my shit ass laptop that couldn't run most games good and didn't even have a working screen so I had to constantly keep it plugged into an external monitor and the W key kept threatening to fall out so I had to press it awkwardly every time, piece of shit fuck I carried with me when I left home in 2020 and then back when I returned home in 2022 that couldn't run any modern fighting games that my friends wanted to play without dropping frames that had me running 0 texture quality mods that made Guilty Gear Strive look like a .bmp file in motion. It was a great relief of a longstanding pain.

I drew very little, and wrote little as well. However, by the end of the year, I got excited to write again. While I was still in despair about the fate of my employment, I started working on some ideas for an original novel. This has taken a step back in favour of another set of ideas that I'm going to put into a fanfic. I've hashed out a lot of the planning already, and even finished the introductory chapter. It remains to be seen whether I will be able to follow through on it, or if I will let it fall by the wayside like my every major project before, but… I really want to write it. It desperately needs to be written. So, I think it will.

Twitter continued to decline, yet I stayed on it anyway. The sobering depression it enclosed me in granted me many thoughts as I languished in unhappiness. Alas, I will continue to use that site in my small and closed-off manner until it finally manages to drive me away, or it falls apart.

I somehow got roped into translating a Bandori doujin from traditional Chinese into English. It was a productive week of terrific pains that served as a reminder that I cannot read traditional Chinese very well. https://mangadex.org/title/f4971f28-fc7e-48a9-b103-970c692e91dc/bang-dream-sono-kamen-wa-ta-ga-tame-no

Did you know that 讓 (23? strokes) is the traditional equivalent of 让 (5 strokes)? I didn't, until I started translating. It's not the best translation I could have done. But it could have been much worse.

Um. Let's do the media roundup here.

There were many okay anime shows and manga I saw this year. At first I felt like there wasn't anything that was both complete and a life-changer that I saw, but there were a lot of pretty alright works that I enjoyed.

Hello Girl. https://malaises.itch.io/hello-girl 4 hour yuri VN entry for the indie VN Cup about Ana, a telephone switchboard operator, and her lonely life in a small town. Delightfully crafted showing on all fronts; art, music, writing, RenPy presentation.

Koi Yori Aoku (ongoing). https://mangadex.org/title/4a89da3a-ebf9-467b-94a1-beeb7d1bd3e8/koi-yori-aoku Slowly developing relationship between two girls from different schools who catch the same train one day after school and hit it off well. I'm kind of surprised the more vocal himejoshis in my peripheral circle haven't talked about this one. Its premise and setting may be mundane, but the execution of its writing and art, combined with the depth of the author gives their characters, really stand out to me.

Yuri is Forbidden for Yuri Otaku (YuriOta). https://mangadex.org/title/6e4ad3f8-9304-49e1-9b45-821488e9bc60/yuriota-ni-yuri-wa-gohatto-desu Die-hard himejoshi Watanabe Fuyu has finally made it into her school of choice: catholic girls' school, the yuri heaven of all her favourite stories. She understands that she has no part in this world of yuri, and contents herself with watching from the sidelines. But when cheery, unladylike gyaru Yoshiokari Rika threatens to destabilize this delicate ecosystem with her extremely trendy demeanour, only Fuyu can preserve this school's yuri! But can she do so without falling into the trap of breaking her manga-titling credo? Laugh out loud gags, charming art style. Then it hits you with the good stuff. Wonderful execution.

Urasekai Picnic volume 8 (novel). This series has taken a couple of directions over the course of its run, but this one was a surprise to me. There are some unforgettable scenes in this one that really feel like the culmination of every volume prior. Very happy with this one; the series could end here and I would not be too unhappy with this as an ending point.

Hirogaru Sky Precure (ongoing but almost finished). Hero girl from the floating island country of Skyland falls through portal into Japan to save a mysterious baby, she becomes Precure and helps stop darkness guys in both Japan and Skyland. Some unusual Precure decisions like a boy Precure and a young adult Precure. It's my first full airing precure viewing experience, and I'm sharing it with a friend, which has been quite pleasant. I think it's pretty decent. Not highest peak, but it's been a pleasant weekly show to share with someone else.

Girls' Frontline story events up to Chapter 13.Z via cutscene viewer https://gfl.amaryllisworks.pw/ I ended up muscling through this from beginning to 13.Z (this is the first decimal scheme I've seen that's weirder than touhou) over like a month. GFL's story is messy, hard to keep track of, and the military squad stuff wears on you; in many ways I find it lacking compared to Arknights', although they're both guilty of making me sigh and steel myself for oncoming Chinese Novels. However, it has SOP and RO, and I love SOP and RO. I'm not sure I can recommend that other people put themselves through this. But I think I had a good time. So. Sure, on the list it goes.

Lobotomy Corporation LP, then the game itself https://lparchive.org/Lobotomy-Corporation/ This is a really fun and informative LP that's like 75% composed of dialogue acted out by the agents, who the author gave their own personalities and backstories. I think it builds on the narrative of the game in a wonderful way, and it's extremely informative and strategically helpful to boot. It is very long though. A great time all the same.

I also played through the game after reading it. It's a game full of personality, love, and emergent interactions. But I have certainty that it would be horribly stressful to play blind, so you really need to consult the LP or have some friends to guide you as you play. This game is actually pretty relaxing when you're informed and feeling in control. Pretty good time.

Siren: Blood Curse (LP) This game is weird. It's an alright Siren game, I guess. It has its great moments. There were things that put me off, like I thought the protagonist was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal for the whole game, only for the credits to say otherwise. Sorry Mr. Stephen Fisher.

Pudding (Pudding and Shield Lyre) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2424240/Pudding/ Shmup-like story game. Lyra, you have to save the kingdom from the demon king with your Shield Lyre! I can only read like 50% of this game, but that which I can read, combined with the Katatema pedigree, assures me that I will love it all the more when I can read the rest of it. A game that's not as long as it seems, tragically, but it still delivers a fascinating narrative in full. As always, watson's music is a delight.

World of Horror It's pretty neat, but there's no keyboard support, so I'm clicking tiny squares all the damn time and I don't like that. Got maybe 20 hours of play out of it before I felt like I had my fill of the runs and scenarios.

Tetris There was a few weeks' stint where I got pretty into stacking tetronimos on Tetrio and really put some effort into trying to improve. But then I stopped feeling the drive to practice and learn techniques, and I haven't touched it since.

vivid/stasis (free game) https://store.steampowered.com/app/2093940/vividstasis/ Some girls in Japan investigate a weird mystery. It's also a rhythm game.

Pretty nice showcase of songs on a four key rhythm game. I appreciate the passion project production, and I played it a lot during the summer. My scores have taken a backslide after a long break, which is a bit depressing. The initial Ch.1 story wasn't quite enough to hook me, but Ch.2 has shown some more cards, so I'm a little more invested in it now.

OBAMAQUEST: The Search for the Melon Slurpee (YT video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6_puHKl_UY Travelogue of MajinObama's bullheaded bike ride from Tokyo to Asahi. A culmination of Obama's many stories about his earlier years in Japan, fighting games, and the death of the arcade. I watched this live on stream and it was a spiritual experience. This cut is only a portion of that experience, but I think it's still quite good.

I also revisited some media from my past with my abundance of time, just to confirm whether they were as good as I remembered.

Starwish: RPG Shooter (rewatched all cutscenes on YT because i cba to play that shit) Flash side-scrolling shmup with a significant VN component. I remember being really impressed by the surprising scale of this Flash-era story, and to some extent I still am, but upon reviewing all the endings, almost all of them were not that good. Only Ginny's was alright. This soured my nostalgic impression of the game greatly.

Super Paper Mario I like the story and characters a lot. The game is kind of whatever. It looks like it has more depth than it does.

Yagakimi It was enriched by a reread. Still good.

DEADBOLT Very clean stealth game about a reaper doing hits in the underworld. I think it pulls off a 2D stealth game and a 2D shooter incredibly well, it's very satisfying to land headshots but just tricky enough to require good execution to perform consistently. Game has a good length on first playthrough, but streamlines to a nice short length when speedrunning. I spent a few weeks going for the deathless clear but never got there before I gave in. Stylish presentation and bumping Chris Christodoulou (Risk of Rain) OST.

Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition WH40k board dice strategy game about scifi fantasy bloodsport football. Features long-term team building and perilous RNG. Reasonably entertaining in single player for some time. Got my fill of it after achieving a reasonably developed Orc team and not feeling much resistance from the AI any longer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQB5aandpf4 An authority I follow has recommended not playing this game.

Fallout: New Vegas I mean, it's good, it's full of fun stuff, but the combat lost its luster for me after some point. I went through some pains to curate a big list of recommended mods and such but I still fell victim to loss of momentum eventually, didn't make it through the full DLC lineup. I like the character of the New Vegas wasteland and its quests a lot though. Not bad.

Helen's Mysterious Castle https://store.steampowered.com/app/418190/Helens_Mysterious_Castle/ Extremely cleanly put together RPGMaker game with a really nice take on turn-based combat. Worth just to see what it does. Simple but doesn't overstay its welcome. I'm glad I went back to finish it.

Bones of an Invisible Person (reread) https://mangadex.org/title/0717cb7b-b36f-49df-baa5-70a8006099b7/the-bones-of-an-invisible-person A girl who endured family abuse for too long discovers she has the ability to turn invisible. She kills her dad without being caught, and then must live on. It's still quite good. Some motivations I didn't understand on my first read made more sense to me this time. There's an omake chapter floating around on other sites, but I recommend that you don't read it and just let Chapter 22 stay your pleasant last memory of the story. It will only remind you that this author was the author who wrote Semelparous OMEGALUL

Healer Girl (mostly complete rewatch) Girls train to become medical healers who heal through song. This may sound corny, but the writing establishes vocal healing as a new emerging field that intertwines with modern medical practice, it's quite well done. It's still good. Delightful musical bits and very fun characters. And I still was moved by the episodes that moved me when I first saw them.

Titan Souls I tried it a while ago, and I tried it again. As echoed in other reviews, the runback time is unacceptably long for a game where you die in one hit. Reflushed.

End of Goldfish Kingdom https://mangadex.org/title/bf238392-168e-48b4-af02-2d78a413d568/end-of-goldfish-kingdom Story about a young girl who decides to give up eating meat, and the ordeal of stubbornly clinging to this pure ideal. As a manga, it's delightfully drawn and quite well-written. Well worth the read.

This concludes the media portion of this year in review.

Not much left to discuss. I think I've accepted that I'm in Touhou retirement. I got excited when I saw the 19 announcement, but by the time it released I no longer cared to play it or read about all the cross-dialogues within. I feel a bit estranged from the community these days. I've made my peace with that. I'll still read the works of authors I know, and reflect fondly on works I remember, but I'm hibernating once more as my focus shifts to some other fandom.

I'm cooling down on fighting games somewhat too. One of my potential resume projects was fighting game-related, but as it died I've lost a lot of my passion to write about them. I don't watch Will It Kill any more, nor Sajam livestreams (although I still enjoy watching his edited pieces on YT). And I don't think I really ever had the drive to grind and improve on any particular character for any particular game. I still enjoy doing cool combos in training mode, and they are still fascinating and meaningful to me, but I've accepted that I'll probably never become a cool expert at them. That's fine.

I made new friendships, rekindled old ones, deepened others, let a few drift away. By my own standards, I think I did alright socially. When I'm bored, I sometimes read back through my Discord DMs and smile.

Was I funny? Was I good to other people? Did I create things I liked? Did I grow as a person?

I think so. So, it was an alright year for me. Despite the agonies.

Horrors abound in the world around us. I feel quite powerless, all the time. So all I can do is focus on doing what I can for myself, for now. I will continue to move forward once more in 2024.

"There's no guarantee that I will reach the peak that is preserved for me. I may get cheated out of it; I might cheat myself out of it."

This quote comes from James Booker, and is used in the song "Peak" by Windmills from their album "Stay Golden". Windmills is a hip-hop group whose output ranges from pretty good to sort of whatever. Mostly whatever. But thanks for the quote.

As I write, I am currently doing idle game cocaine at the end of the year again, but this is kind of a recent thing so im going to leave it out of the formal count. I have chosen not to disclose the identity of the idle game in question for the safety of my followers. This shit is spreadsheet crack. I now choose to optimistically believe that my avid play of this game will not portend ill omens from myself in the coming year, as I magically develop the discipline and focus to set it aside when I need to.

We're all going to make it. That's what I choose to believe.

[tmkutawrites]

A COMMON BOND - FREE SAMPLE!

This is a free sample of my debut lesbian romance novella, A Common Bond, which comes out November 7, 2023. Please enjoy :)

Note: There may/will be some typos in this sample. We like that, it confuses the Overlords of Zon so they don't strike me for contract infringement. I promise in the final, purchased version the typos have been fixed :)

Now, on with the sample!

RFI 1

To: Josie Basurto (May 3, 5:34PM)

From: Carneline Triana

Subject: Site Visit for Mobilization

Josie,

I will be on site with my management team most of Monday morning. I’m sure we will run into each other at some point.

Carneline

***

From: Josie Basurto (May 3, 5:39PM)

To: Carneline Triana

Subject: RE: Site Visit for Mobilization

Looking forward to it!

J

***

Carneline had known Clover Hill’s old town hall was in bad shape from the bid documents. On her walkthrough with Rio a few weeks ago, even more suspicions had been raised. But now, the disintegrating chunk of limestone that had fallen off the cornice and into her hand confirmed it: she was going to be spending a lot more time in Clover Hill than she had initially planned. “Jesus Christ.”

“I’ve never seen limestone this bad,” Bruno murmured. Oceanic’s chief masonry superintendent carefully set the piece of stone down on the scaffold. “This whole cornice is going to have to be checked.”

Checking the structural integrity of a city block’s worth of limestone was definitely not covered in their contract. Carneline chewed on the inside corner of her mouth as she ran a hand across the sugaring stone and watched millennia-old sand crumble into her palm. “Is this the only bad news?”

“Oh no,” Bruno said in a voice far too cheery for her liking as he pushed to his feet. “This mortar is definitely hot.”

Asbestos remediation was also definitely not in their contract.

She cast a desperate glance along the joints. “Are you sure?”

“Yup.” He pointed to an area where the mortar was exposed. “Look close. You can see the fibers.”

Carneline looked and, sure enough, there were the telltale threads amongst the cement, lime, and sand. Fuck. “Does Rio know?”

Bruno shook his head.

She snapped a couple of photos on her phone and turned for the scaffold stair. “Are xe still documenting in the lobby?”

“I think so.”

“Good. I’ll send xem up.”

The metal stairs squeaked as Carneline made her way down them, eyeing the brick and stone of the Romanesque Revival building with far more suspicion than before. The facade clearly hadn’t been washed in two decades. The window sills were covered in black atmospheric discoloration, and the blue-green haze of cupric staining streaked down major crevices. On the brick and stone walls, there were long stretches of jointing completely devoid of mortar and one of the brackets was missing entirely.

She stopped two decks down and took a moment to admire the town. This was Oceanic’s first project this far south. They mostly stuck to projects in Baymill, but her dad had wanted to expand into other markets, so here she was forty feet in the air above a town she could see the other side of from the scaffold. The five-story town hall towered over most of the rest of the buildings, but fit in perfectly amongst the clusters of various historic structures downtown. Its renovation was long overdue, but Carneline hoped Clover Hill would find it worth it in the end.

From her perch, she could see the expanse of the park, with its quaint little gazebo and beautifully kept grounds. A bit farther she spied the currently unlit marquee of an old movie theater and a neon sign belonging to local diner. It was a beautiful town, and as much as she could lean on the scaffold railing and look out over the little town covered in the fresh leaves of spring for hours, she had a job to do.

She tore herself away from the view and continued down the scaffold to the lobby. The first time she’d seen it, Carneline had been struck almost speechless by the beauty of its wrought iron doors, scagliola-clad pilasters, and massive crystal chandelier. Now it barely registered. She hurried through the plywood-covered lobby until she found her assistant project manager sprawled indelicately across the floor.

Rio was an acquired taste Carneline wasn’t quite sure she had acquired yet; mildly competent, incredibly anxious, and graced with the aggravating tendency to lose the plot at the slightest provocation. Still, xe tried, which was more than Carneline could say of half of Oceanic’s field staff.

“Good morning, Rio.”

Rio startled, and practically levitated off the floor in a cloud of dust almost definitely from the plaster demo. Xe was absolutely covered in the stuff, and Rio hurriedly stuffed xemself back into xyr gloves and sheepishly brushed down xyr front. “Good—good morning, Carneline. I—I didn’t know you were on site.”

“I was walking the cornice with Bruno.”

“Oh.”

“How is it going down here?”

Xe grimaced and gestured at the ground. “It’s—uh. The stone’s really cracked.”

Bits of torn painter’s tape crawled across the marble below them like blown blue cherry blossom petals. Carneline crouched, and Rio angled the beam of xyr flashlight so she could see the spidery lines coursing through. Great. “These are going to shatter the second Bruno tries to take them out.”

“That’s what he said, too.”

Another expensive change order for the growing pile, I suppose. She stood, dreading the prospect of the unending raft of paperwork in her future. “I’ll speak with the NCK team. Have you been up to the cornice yet?”

Rio shook xyr head.

“When you are done down here, I need you to go up and document everything before we touch it. Do you have your profile gauges with you?”

“They’re in my car.”

“Good. Bruno will be up there for a little bit. Find…” She hedged, thinking of the worn-down status of the cornice. “Find the least broken stone and take a profile.”

 Xe nodded. “Okay.”

“And wear an N95. The mortar is hot and everything up there is crumbling.”

Rio’s dark eyes got comically wide behind xyr safety glasses. “Oh shit.”

Her sentiments exactly. “Do you have any questions?” Xe shook xyr head again. “Alright. Call me if something comes up.”

“Will do!”

Carneline left Rio to xyr marble documentation and slipped out the west entrance to find the jobsite trailer. When she pulled the door open, she found Josie bent over the conference table—which was really just four folding tables pushed together in the center of the room—studying the reference drawings.

“Good morning,” she greeted as the door snapped shut behind her.

“Good morning,” Josie replied as she turned the page of the drawings. “Headed out? Help yourself to some coffee before you leave.”

Carneline startled at the kind, but unexpected offer. “Oh. Thank you.”

“To-go cups are on top of the fridge.”

“I actually don’t drink hot coffee,” she replied sheepishly.

“Don’t drink hot coffee?” Josie asked, looking up from her drawings with a grin that Carneline had discovered seemed permanently glued to her face. “Don’t tell me…you’re like Baylee and only drink cold brew.”

Carneline gave an awkward little laugh, not liking the familiarity with which Josie talked to her about her sister. People always did that, acted like they knew her because they knew her sister or father. Another one of the ‘perks’ of a family business. “Guilty as charged.”

 “Well, I’m one step ahead of you. There’s cold brew in the fridge.”

The offer was tempting. Carneline considered for a moment, but finally decided against it. If she got caught in traffic, which was likely considering the time, she would definitely have to stop and pee. “Not today. I have to drive back to Baymill after this, but thank you.”

“Any time.”

Josie finally straightened up fully and leaned casually on the white plastic folding table, hooking her thumbs into her jeans. She was an unreasonably attractive figure, taller than Carneline, with kind brown eyes and a sharp fade that put every short-haired worker on the site to shame. In some universe she might have been Carneline’s type—if Josie hadn’t worked for the general contractor paying them to fix Clover Hill’s historic town hall.

Carneline hedged. “I…actually wanted to talk to you about something.”

Josie’s voice remained impressively neutral. “Oh?”

“Yes…” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “We have some problems.”

“Define ‘problems.’”

“That depends, do you want the least expensive issue or most expensive issue first?”

“Least expensive.” Josie flashed a luminous smile. “Warm me up.”

Carneline pulled up the photos she had taken of the floor and passed her phone over for her to see. “The marble in the foyer is full of cracks. It’s going to shatter when we try to take it out.”

“Architects were ridiculous to think we could salvage the whole floor,” Josie said with a disbelieving scoff. “A-hundred-and-twenty-year-old marble doesn’t come up like that.”

“No, it does not,” Carneline confirmed.

Josie handed her phone back, her face suddenly all business. The shift was jarring, to say the least. “How much is this going to cost?”

“I can’t say for certain, but it will be a decent amount.”

Josie sighed. “Great. You submitted replacement marble, right?”

“A few weeks ago.”

Josie ran a hand through her hair. “Submit an RFI and we’ll see what the architects have to say.”

“Was planning to.”

“Thanks.” She took a sip from a nearby thermos. “What’s the bigger, badder bill?”

Carneline gave Josie a significant look. “Have you been up to the cornice?”

“Recently?”

“Yes.”

“I walked it at the beginning,” she replied with a frown. “Is there something wrong with it?”

If only. “The mortar’s full of asbestos and the stone is crumbling. A piece fell off in my hand.”

Josie inhaled in shock. “Oh fuck.”

“I don’t want anyone from my crew touching it until the town knows.”

 “Understandable. Do you think it’s going to need to be replaced?”

Carneline glanced around the trailer to make sure they were alone. “Off the record, I think you might want to figure out where Clover Hill has a million dollars stashed for a rainy day.”

 “It’s that bad?”

“The building is a hundred and twenty years old,” she said with a shrug. “I’m surprised it lasted this long.”

Josie’s face went grim. “Got it. Thanks for the heads up.”

“Not a problem.” She hesitated, not sure if Josie could handle a third thing on her plate. “There is…one more thing?”

“If there’s a massive structural issue that means we need to evacuate the building, please turn around and leave now,” Josie joked weakly. “Let me die in the collapsed building in peaceful ignorance.”

Carneline gave a dismissive snort. “Nothing so drastic.”

Josie brightened considerably. “Great! What’s up?”

“You need to have someone go into the main hall and put down sweeping compound. Rio’s rolling around on the floor in there looking like the Ghost of Christmas Past. To say nothing of the silica hazard.”

Josie was already grabbing her hard hat off the table. “I’ll do it myself.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”

“See you then!” Josie trotted off out the door, Carneline close behind her.

She checked her watch: three-o’clock.  Plenty of time to make it back to the city without hitting traffic. She pulled her hard hat off the second she hit the parking lot, shaking her curly red hair out so she could tie it back up once in the car. She’d get out of town, update her dad on the way home, then spend a quiet night with her plants before she had to go to bed.

Her phone rang. The song barely got four notes in before she picked up. “You’re psychic. I was just about to call you.”

“Are you done at Clover Hill?” Warren Triana asked gruffly.

“About to head home now, just have to throw my stuff in the ba—” She stopped dead a few paces from her trunk, eyes taking in the noticeable sink to her right rear bumper. “Fuck.”

Her father’s business tone instantly switched to fatherly concern. “What? What is it?”

She scowled and threw her hard hat in the back a tad more aggressively than was necessary. “It’s nothing,” she sighed. “I just have a flat.”

[END RFI 1]

Did you like this sample? If yes please consider buying my novella? You can preorder A Common Bond HERE!

[heaven-s-black-box]

To kill an Uenoyama- Mafuyu x Uenoyama

Return to File

Recovery date: July 2nd, 2023

Description: Uenoyama, Haruki, and Akihiko go to support Mafuyu's class in their summer festival... Uenoyama nearly has a heart attack.

Notes: N/a

Word count: 880

Back to directory

Uenoyama froze, still grasping his outdoor shoes and crouched in front of his shoe locker, and did a double take of the whispers behind him. He turned the words around in his head. Maybe he had misheard the girls, his head was halfway in the locker after all and he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings. But he swore one of them had just said, The boys in class B are dressing up as maids.

Mafuyu was in class B.

Mafuyu was wearing a maid dress.

Why was Mafuyu wearing a maid dress?

He stood up so fast he made himself dizzy. He slammed his hand against a nearby locker to steady himself, and the loud noise startled everyone around him. The girls behind him jumped, stopping mid conversation, and scurried off. Not that he noticed though, he was too busy short circuiting as the council of Uenoyamas had an emergency meeting. A slideshow of Mafuyu in every possible style of maid dress was being projected, and they were getting progressively less appropriate.

A loud slap sounded as Uenoyama squished his cheeks between the palms of his hands.

---

Mafuyu has always encouraged communication in their relationship, and that was something Uenoyama respected. Even if Mafuyu never outright told him, he wasn’t dense enough to miss how important it was to his boyfriend.

Boyfriend… that word nearly made him short circuit. Mafuyu really was going to kill him.

But no matter how much he loved and respected Mafuyu, this wasn’t something he could communicate on. He tried.

The first time he tried to broach the subject was walking Mafuyu home from school that very same day. He’d almost had the words out, just an off hand question about his class’ station for the school festival. A simple, what is your class doing, was all he needed. But Mafuyu had grabbed his hand to pull him towards the convenience store, and all thoughts left his head. Attempt one, failed.

The second time had been during a break during band practice. He’d just stepped out to grab the singer a drink from the vending machine, and when he returned Mafuyu was going over some strings with Haruki. Attempt two, sabotaged.

His last attempt before the festival was thwarted before it even started, as he always seemed to just miss Mafuyu the entire week before. Attempt three… does it count as a fail if you don’t even try?

So here he was, on break from his class’ booth, with Akihiko and Haruki, standing in front of the home EC room. A grand sign reading Maid Cafe presented by class 1-B, hung above the door.

He was going to die.

“People really do this kind of thing at school festivals?” Akihiko asked.

“Maybe there’s some kind twist?” The twist was that this would be the scene of a murder. “Do we just go in? Or do we knock?” Haruki asked as he and Akihiko turned to Uenoyama.

“I-I’m not sure.” His face felt like it was on fire, damn his imagination. “I think we can just go in?”

If his face was as red as it felt, the two older men said nothing. Instead Haruki pushed the door open, and held it for the other two.

The class was nicely decorated, with pastel streamers hanging from the windows and a pale blue curtain sectioning off the cooking stations from the dining area. There were a good few tables set up, with seating for four each, decorated with a pink and white checker table cloth and a white vase of daisies. It was kind of nice.

“It’s very pink,” Akihiko mumbled, just loud enough for the other two to hear him.

“Hello and welcome to class 1-B’s maid cafe, table for three?” A girl in a butler’s outfit asked, smiling bright and cheery.

“Please,” Uenoyama coughed out as the other two looked around for any sign of maids.

“I thought this was a maid cafe,” Haruki commented as they sat down. “It seems more like a butler cafe, not that I’m complaining.”

“If they need maids you should apply,” Akihiko snickered, earring a sharp smack to the arm from Haruki.

Uenoyama ignored them as he instead cautiously glanced around the room.

Another group was being seated, and once they were the butler set a sign outside and headed back behind the curtain.

Then the maids appeared.

Nine boys awkwardly shuffled out from behind the curtain, each in a short frilly maid dress, headband and all. Fortunately or unfortunately, Mafuyu made his way to his band mates table.

Uenoyama stayed frozen, eyes boring holes into his boyfriend as he stiffly approached.

“What are yo-” Haruki turned around mid question, cutting off in surprise. The sudden stop had Akihiko turning around as well, and the three slowly followed with their heads as Mafuyu came up beside their table.

Akihiko was the first to break the silence with a stifled laugh, choking on his own spit and breaking off into a coughing fit.

Mafuyu’s face was a bright red as he pouted.

How Uenoyama wanted to kiss that pout away. Definitely one of his nicer thoughts of the day in his opinion.

“We-” Mafuyu cleared his throat, “Welcome Masters.”

Oh Mafuyu would definitely be the death of Uenoyama.

[lrialthewriter]

Future Extra: Studying the Past

Word Count: 2,500

Note: This happens DECADES after the ending of the story, and will give hints to what could happen on Reign of Voices, please keep that in mind. This part of the story will be a recurring thing that I might post every now and then.

Fawn ran across the halls and managed to get to her class hall on time, sitting at the back of the angled room before catching her breath. She's really lazy when it comes to preparing to go to her classes and sometimes she would intentionally miss it as long as she’s attending enough times. However, this course is a different case as they have found themselves fascinated with the subject, which goes through the history of humanity. While history itself is really tiring to go through, the last few lessons have tackled the Era of Prosperity.

Just as Fawn started to open up her bag to review their notes from the last meeting, professor Terry walked into the big classroom, all the students had shushed down and began preparing their pens, papers and laptops for the upcoming lecture. They were immediately greeted by the usual cheery mood that the professor has but instead of projecting their usual slide presentations, they took their marker and started to write something.

‘History Paper Project’

Professor Terry looked at the entire class and smiled, “Good day my dear students, as much as I would love to talk about our recent past and walk you through the history, I have decided to make this the final project of your class,” a lot of murmuring have started in the room, while some sounded really worried, Fawn herself felt excited by the idea.

“Fear not,” the professor continued, making the class go quiet again, “as long as you pass what you have found out, regardless of how common or detailed the information you had with regards to the topic, I will pass you in my class. Think of it as some sort of reward for sitting through some history lessons you can find online, though of course efforts will definitely be rewarded, but we will talk about the topic of your paper,” and with that, professor Terry has written more things at the board.

‘Era of Prosperity’

“Any part! Want to focus on one of the two wars? Or do you want to dig deeper on the history of our first Council? Do what you want as long as it’s on the times new roman, font size 12, double spaced, you know the drill by now.” The professor laughed as he wrote those details on the board, “You want to go by group? You want to go solo? Be my guest, just make sure that you write your names in the group.” This made some students start to look around the class and even type out messages through their laptop.

“Well if you have any questions, you can ask now or email me later. Other than that we would not be having any classes for the rest of the semester, our last meeting will be the deadline of this paper, so about… two months? Now, onto the questions.” After Professor Terry finished, a couple of students raised their hands.

“What type of sources can we use?”

“Any, as long as you have proof that is reliable, don’t forget to use APA 22th edition for it”

“How formal does the paper have to be?”

“You wouldn’t be defending it, however I want it written in an orderly manner, introduction, separation of data depending if you are taking different points of view or going through a sequence of events. I just want it to look formal and definitely have no subjective writings on it.”

“Can I partner with someone from a different section but is a student under your name for this course?”

“Email me their names before you start for me to check on them, but yes as long as you inform me at most 2 weeks before the deadline”

Fawn was the last one to get called on to ask her question, “What was the reward if we actually put the effort into this project?”

Professor Terry grinned, “That is a good question! The Regalient University of Innovation would actually be the one providing it, though they refuse to tell the professors themselves what the reward would be, they have mentioned that the Council is involved.” A lot of mumbling has happened within the room.

“The Council are alumni of the school right?” One student blurted out.

“You are correct! Even the former Supere Fuantei have learned their major in our mother university, That can be a full on paper on itself,” Professor Terry laughed, “That does remind me, if any of you needed a proof that you would need some information for educational purposes, email me so I can ask the university to help you out. Apparently they will give the students whatever is necessary to help for this project, so don’t hesitate to email me about it.”

“No limits huh…” Fawn mumbled to herself as she wrote that info down before going through her phone and messaging Jace, ‘hey r u in the class rn?’

Her phone immediately vibrated upon sending the message, ‘yeah I am, also yes we can pair up’, making Fawn chuckle at the idea of Jace already writing out a message to ask her.

“Very well, if there are no further questions, class dismissed. Email me or meet me at the faculty every Wednesday if ever you need help with the project.” And with that the professor left while everyone else started to pack up and leave.

Fawn giggled at the idea of being able to research a lot of things for the paper, while they aren’t too interested in actually claiming the winner over the best paper, they still wanted to give it a shot. She texted Jace to meet her at their usual place before bolting out, they want to get some library books before everyone else gets the idea.

==============================================

Jace arrived at the cafe he and Fawn frequent over, while it’s close to the campus, it is somewhat of a hidden treasure due to how unknown it was for a good amount of students. Besides, a lot of the students would have preferred staying in the campus or one of the more luxury cafes nearer. This does make the cafe really calm to stay through for study sessions, which Jace assumed they would be doing in here once Fawn arrived. The duo have studied, drawn and even slept in this place so they were basically regulars at this rate. As soon as Jace entered the cafe, the owner and bartender of the cafe, a friendly old man named Nilson, waved at him and started to prepare something behind the counter.

“Hey well if it isn’t Jace! You want the usual?” Nilson smiled, which makes Jace shake his head given he can see that Nilson is preparing the drink already.

“Well, you are already preparing it already, so I might as well, oh and prepare Fawn’s favorite as well, they are just currently getting something done but they should be here in a moment.” Jace said, making Nilson give a thumbs up as he also started working on a second drink.

As Jace walked towards a table by the corner of the cafe, Fawn bursted out of the door with a lot of books on hand. He immediately went to help her out, with Fawn mumbling a quick thanks, before they walked to the table where they dropped a lot of the books they had on-hand.

“Oh thank you so much Jace! I’m sorry I didn’t ask for help earlier, I just got too excited and bolted out to get the books as fast as possible.” Fawn explained while catching her breath, letting her head rest on the table as she does so. “I have so much ideas for our paper”

“I can tell,” Jace laughed nervously as she looked at the books that she brought with her, all of the books were connected to the Council one way or another apart from two of them. "Club album 2024… Alumni 2025 and 2028… These are like, nearly 6 decades ago! How did you got these?" He asked as he started to flip through the pages of the Club album.

"Well, Prof. Terry did said we are allowed to ask the university for help, I approached him as soon as he left the class hall and asked if he could help me retrieve some books from the restricted section!" Fawn explained as she sat upright and took the Alumni book "They were also kind enough to let me drag it out of the university, though if we damage them it is a great trouble." She then pulled out a set of documents, "I don't really like scaring you, but I'll just say I can get expelled if these books are heavily damaged."

"Expelled?!? Are these the only copies left???" Jaze asked in fear, RUI doesn't like expelling their students nor is very strict about the restricted section of their library, so to hear that makes him fear for Fawn.

"Not really and they have digital copies too, but they told me that these are the copies specifically for the Literature club–" Fawn said as she pointed at the Alumni albums "–and this one is for the Art Club," Fawn said as she pointed on the Club Album. "Why those specific clubs? I don't know either, frankly I am terrified of holding them on the way here." Fawn said, shrugging as Nilson walked up to them with their drinks in hand.

"Hey fellas, I see that there are a lot of books here. I'll just put your drinks on this other table here–" Nilson then went to drag a nearby small table beside the bigger table the duo was using and placed their drinks there "–there ya go, I heard something along the lines of 'expulsion on damage' so I'll just assume y'all don't want that, right?"

"Y-yeah!" Jace answered, "Thanks for the drinks"

"Anytime, these ones and some snacks are on the house. Seems like both of you will be on a nose dive into those books" Nilson said, laughing as he turned around to go back to his station, "Have fun reading!"

"Oohhboy okay, time to see why they specifically gave you the one for the art club…" Jace gulped as he started actually skimming through the club album, there were definitely far less clubs available back then but it was still plenty enough that it took a while to find the Art Club section, "No fucking away."

"What is it?? Did you discover something??" Fawn jumped over and looked at the page he's in.

'Perlad Hiro, Club President'

The two stared in awe at the information in front of them. There it was, the leader of the Supera Council back when he was just around the same age as them, staring right back at them with a gentle smile on his face.

"Holy shit," Fawn said as she then went to whip out her phone and search for the oldest image of their Leader. Upon finding one she then went to put it side by side with the college photo.

The image of Supere Hiro that Fawn showed was one of his first public portraits right after he was previously put on the second seat back when the Supera Council was just created. The serious face almost sent chills to both of them compared to his college photo where he looked so friendly and welcoming, seemingly content and proud to be featured as the president of the club. Meanwhile Supere Hiro was known to be extremely strict for the first few years after the Resistance war had ended, and his controlling demeanor definitely leaked out of his portrait.

However, the one that stood out the most for both of them was the difference in his glare. While his college picture has so much glow, enthusiasm and warmth in his eyes, his portrait as a newly seated leader has a glare of its own yet it felt empty. It was almost as if his soul was sucked out of his body as he doesn't seem to focus to anything that was happening in front of him

This made Jace take out his tablet and search through newer photos of the Leader. Supere Hiro himself is almost turning 90 at this time, however due to how fast medical advances were, the average lifespan of 90 back in the 2020s has doubled by the 2080s. Looking at the newer images for the Council, they still looked like they were just in their early 40s. Jace zoomed in to Supere Hiro and saw that he had the focus in his eyes once again, like how it was when he was at college.

"He looked so… different" Fawn said as she looked at the pictures between her phone and the album. "The wars probably dented him hard…" she sighed and sat down, taking out her holographic computer and turning it on and started setting up documents to jot down some notes.

"I mean, he ended up needing to hold leadership so early as well, I'm surprised he isn't so scarred" Jace shrugged as he went to place his tablet right beside the album and as he was about to say something, he saw something neatly written on the page, right under the Leader's portrait.

'Proud of you Per

-Sai'

"W-wait" Jace nudged Fawn to look at the page, "is THIS why they specifically handed us this copy???"

Fawn smiled so wide, "oh my fucking god that HAS to be from the former Leader holy shit," she started to make squealing noises, the thought of discovering how close the two Council leaders were is giving her so much hope for the project, "they are definitely not beating the allegations and historical theories that they used to have a relationship before the government overturn" she laughed as she started to type out on her computer.

"Wait, I have a theory." Jace said as he then started to look for a different club in the album and it even threw him off more as he somewhat violently shook Fawn.

"Wh-wha woah calm the shit do- holy fucking shit what?!" She gasped seeing the club album opened up to the Literature club's officers.

'Saimin Fuantei, Club President'

"What the fuck how come we never learned these." Fawn said as she admired the portrait of their deceased former Council Leader, who looked vastly different with his short ponytail and much more calming stature.

"Well, we ARE learning right now, aren't we?" Jace said, grinning as he looked at the other piles of books on the table.

Fawn shook her head,"Well you better be taking down notes, I think we are onto something here," she said as she started a new document for the project. "Hmm… how about tentatively we focus on what we can find about the connection of our Council leaders before they have taken their seats?" She asked while scratching her head.

Jace nodded, "I feel like the librarians were setting this up on us…"

[otherpeoplescreativity]

This is the best meet-cute of 2024!

At the gate for my flight home from visiting friends and there's a woman here with a service Shiba Inu. No pics because he has a Do Not Disturb vest and taking pics of strangers is illegal but I need to stress how ON DUTY this animal is. Ears up. Eyes doing Lazer scans of everything. Examining everyone who passes within 10ft like a security guard. Ass planted on her feet. I have never seen a dog with such intense chivalric guardian energy before. He has tiny eyebrows and they are FURROWED with concentration.

[ashthehermit]

Happy December first!

I’m writing a fiction advent calendar for myself, because I’ve got no other project to work on at the minute, so why not?

Here be a link to sign up for free

Here be a segment from today’s post:

To: Arabella West

From: Faye Adams

Subject: Bad news

01/12/2022

Dear Arabella,

I turned on the radio just now and was pleased to hear Mariah. Of course, I’ve heard the classic ‘and IIIIII….’ for months now, but at last the timing is appropriate.  I’m sure you’re tormenting your neighbours by singing in your best-worst Mariah voice.  I haven’t been as cheery here.  I’ve listened to driving home for Christmas on repeat.  If only it were so easy.  There isn’t a hit song about sledding home for Christmas.

I should’ve left with the rest of the crew. Hindsight is a vengeful creature. You’ll probably know that the others are home by now.  I wanted to stay.  I thought, ‘when will I ever get a chance to be in a place like this?’.  The answer is never, but the answer should be never. There’s a storm that’s kept me in the research centre we were staying in.  I’m alone apart from the scientists who are stationed here, two Swedish lads called Lars and Lucas.  I suspect they find me odd, for which I forgive them.  

[otherpeoplescreativity]

Beloved Tumblrines all, I have had a lovely time. The mind is willing to keep boopin' away but the old lady eyes and the old lady fingers are now wobbly with weariness.

Have a lovely Festival of the Boop!

[otherpeoplescreativity]

It's Always on Taungsdays (656 words) by Project0506 Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: CC-1010 | Fox, CT-7567 | Rex, CC-6454 | Ponds, Ensemble CCs Additional Tags: gen - Freeform, Humor, Chatting & Messaging, chat fic Series: Part 87 of Soft Wars, Part 11 of Shebnanigans Summary:

Fox is having a rough morning. He's going to make it Rex's problem. Chatfic

Bookmarker's Notes:

Dear entire New Jedi Council:

I found this log while investigating the rumor of some old "Clone Wars era criminal records".

Please explain!

Sincerely yours,

VN Ysadora, private investigator, now popping extra popcorn

[otherpeoplescreativity]

I'm about to wax enthusiastic about the Original Post, but I don't want to derail the original topic, so have a ReadMore!

I have so much respect for OP's work at communication here.

Everything about this post is so effortless to me, the recipient, that I can see the HUGE amount of 1) skill, 2) labor, and 3) diligent thought that went into it.

I could talk about the videography for that short bit up top, where the fuzzy jetstreams and the soft cloud in center of a blue sky serve the purposes of

creating a star effect above and behind the SLS core stage that is the topic of the post

matching the stripey linear effect of the waving grass in the foreground

and the video rises to give us a pretty view AND some perspective, because look at the sizes of those people standing below and behind the core stage! And then it swaps to an aerial view looking down, so we can grasp even more how huge this thing is. If the core stage is the size of a string cheese stick, the (trailer? shuttlebus? white thing with wheels and a window and a long shadow, anyway) is the size of a corn kernel. And the people are barely flakes of dried oregano.

(I might be hungry. Sorry.)

But wait! We have fantastic Alt Text for the video! Mostly for the opening shot; the aerial view is summed up in the "as technicians lead it towards NASA’s Pegasus barge" bit, because for people whose communication needs are not "visual imagery", the opening half-second is the important and useful communication.

This entire post makes fantastic use of headers to help the reader or listener break up a complex topic into processing chunks. The part before their ReadMore gives us all the info we need to decide if we want an infodump, with creator credits and not one but two links to additional info if we want to get especially in-depth.

The last line, its own paragraph, before the ReadMore is all the prep we need to know that the ongoing theme of today's infodump is "lots and lots of numbers". Sergeant Detritus would be delighted, as would Grover and The Count.

Below the ReadMore, we get six more animated images, each no longer than a couple of seconds, each with a thoughtful Alt Text installed onto the image. Each image supports a header with a number, then a paragraph of approximately sixty to seventy-five words.

You know what? Even the ellipsis (specifically "…" in the "8.8 Million" section) is a single character, not a cluster of three periods. Screenreaders are more likely to know what to do with the first than the second.

The entire OP essay is so well made! It's passionate. It's informative. It's considerate. It lets us get into the topic as far as we want, with options to go further if that suits us, while giving us plenty of easy ways to not get overloaded. Want to just skim it? Headers, a few underlined links, i still feel like I understood what was being communicated. It does not talk down to audience members who lack a scientific background. It does not exclude the knowledgeable ones who want meaty new details.

This is just really good communication, y'all. I adore it.

ALT: This video shows blades of grass moving in the wind on a beautiful day at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. In the background, we see the 212-foot-core stage for the powerful SLS (Space Launch System) rocket used for Artemis I. The camera ascends, revealing the core stage next to a shimmering body of water as technicians lead it towards NASA’s Pegasus barge. Credit: NASA

The SLS (Space Launch System) Core Stage by Numbers

Technicians with NASA and SLS core stage lead contractor Boeing, along with RS-25 engines lead contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, are nearing a major milestone for the Artemis II mission. The SLS (Space Launch System) rocket’s core stage for Artemis II is fully assembled and will soon be shipped via barge from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once there, it will be prepped for stacking and launch activities.

Get to know the core stage – by the numbers.

Standing 212 feet tall and measuring 27.6 feet in diameter, the SLS core stage is the largest rocket stage NASA has ever built. Due to its size, the hardware must be shipped aboard NASA’s Pegasus barge.

900 miles

Once loaded, the barge – which was updated to accommodate the giant core stage -- will travel 900 miles to Florida across inland and ocean waterways. Once at Kennedy, teams with our Exploration Ground Systems team will complete checkouts for the core stage prior to stacking preparations.

18 Miles + 500 Sensors

As impressive as the core stage is on the outside, it’s also incredible on the inside. The “brains” of the rocket consist of three flight computers and special avionics systems that tell the rocket what to do. This is linked to 18 miles of cabling and more than 500 sensors and systems to help feed fuel and steer the four RS-25 engines.

8.8 million

Speaking of engines… Our SLS Moon rocket generates approximately 8.8 million pounds of thrust at launch. Two million pounds come from the four powerful RS-25 engines at the base of the core stage, while each of the two solid rocket boosters produces a maximum thrust of 3.6 million pounds. Together, the engines and boosters will help launch a crew of four Artemis astronauts inside NASA’s Orion spacecraft beyond Earth orbit to venture around the Moon.

733,000 Gallons

Achieving the powerful thrust required at launch calls for a large amount of fuel - 733,000 gallons, to be precise. The stage has two huge propellant tanks that hold the super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that make the rocket “go.” A new liquid hydrogen storage sphere has recently been built at Kennedy, which can store 1.25 million gallons of liquid hydrogen.

Four

The number four doesn’t just apply to the RS-25 engines. It’s also the number of astronauts who will fly inside our Orion spacecraft atop our SLS rocket for the first crewed Artemis mission. When NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover along with CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen launch, they will be the first astronauts returning to the Moon in more than 50 years.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[otherpeoplescreativity]

I see that PVP has been declared here, in my own house!