#so happy they are going to keep this mode in rotation

[samarecharm]

Yay :)

[razzberriezz]

Fashion Dreamer Tips & Tricks

Some stuff only I found that isn't mentioned or in-game at all or is easily missed as far as I'm aware? I hope it helps some of you guys out :) It is quite image-heavy under the cut, fair warning!!

Colour Matching (Item Creator) Pressing down on the left stick changes the display from mannequin to the item itself, but pressing it again will show whatever item you're creating along with whatever your muse is currently wearing.

So if you've gotten a custom coloured item from someone else, this is great for making items and accessories to match with it! And you don't have to waste 120k points trying to match colours by guesstimation instead like me :'))) Or maybe I'm just dumb because I knew how to zoom in and out, just not the display switching OTL

2. Showroom Configuration (is stupid) This is for the Happy Home Paradise players... Make sure that any mannequins or clothing you display in your showroom is actually accessible, because you cannot walk under ceiling decorations, even if they are lighting. I have no idea why. You also can't change the camera angle, so it'd be best not to put the door/panel decorations all in a row at the front, because then players can't see what you're even displaying (unless it's just like a mannequin in the middle surrounded by lockers... Idk)

Taking the time to plug my showroom again before I swap out the outfits for the fancier stuff I have >o< Find me at a8xv4JW3Am!

3. Muse Advisors There are at least 2 or 3 advisors who are present at the Muse Mirror in each Cocoon in rotation. (e.g. Noz and Iris in HOPE) They can not only suggest colours and unique makeup that you haven't obtained yet* (I've seen a look where your character gets like a Batman/Robin mask lol), but also give you their own! If the one whose look you want isn't there, you just have to quick-travel (press down on the right stick) to another Cocoon and back. Otherwise, you can just keep talking to them and backing out until their option shows up.

Before & After (Iris ver.)!

(*Unfortunately, they won't give you unique eye shines/reflections.)

4. NPCs I've just learnt that the NPCs you start with are most likely random. I've seen others start with NPCs I haven't even seen or heard of! You need to raise their friendship level until you get a special event that says 'Friend Introduction' - and even then, I think the NPC who appears next might be random (unconfirmed). This may make it quite a pain for those who want the unnatural skin colours, since I believe they are only unlockable via NPC friendship rank... So just go into solo mode and spam some outfits :')

5. Camera Angles and Idle Poses This one is a bit useless, but I didn't know about it until now so it's going in. Most of the time, I use the drone camera to take photos, but could never really fit fullbody photos - turns out, you need to angle the camera slightly downwards (have your character looking up) to be able to zoom out enough to fit your Muse's whole body in. If the camera angle is level with your Muse, you will never be able to get a fullbody picture. Who thought this would be a good idea???

Level angle and tilted angle - the level angle is already at the lowest it could go.

Additionally, waiting for a while will let your character have the time to perform some idle animations, some of which (I think) are not present in the poses option, even via NPC friendship rank. The downside is that you'll have to crop out some parts of the UI and the quality will be a little lower - however, that can be fixed using waifu2x (which I tend to use anyways for aesthetic posts lol).

Before & After using waifu2x!

Since the game is so new I thought this might be helpful to some who are also just starting out. If anything here is wrong, please let me know and I'll fix it as soon as possible!

[carionto]

Predator mode

Big Thrasher was not a happy camper after his first encounter with Humanity. There is a certain exponential curve to simple ballistic weapons, whereas shields, which start off way above, progress on a geometric line. E in = E out (mostly, some charge is lost in conversion) vs E=MC^2. He learned that the hard way when three of his toughest cruisers were reduced to space dust by, as he later learned to his horror, a mid-sized transport ship using Human standard issue rail cannons.

Someone smart would move on and avoid Humanity. Big Thrasher isn't a complete idiot, but he is a prideful and narcissistic pirate captain. Thus his ability to make sensible decisions is handicapped severely. Now he has made a most dubious one indeed:

Infiltrate a Human science station and steal all their secrets and use them to get sweet, juicy, delicious revenge!

Finding one was disturbingly easy, there's so many of them. Like, at least one for each star system within eighty light years from Sol, one for each planet within thirty, and then it just gets ridiculous within Sol itself. Oddly enough, despite their size, typically there are no more than ten people aboard, almost all Human, only a few are joint Coalition.

Thinking long and hard (something Big Thrasher is not a fan of) he decided on his target - a lone station on the very outskirts of publicly known Human activity and furthest away from any major Coalition systems.

When his reconstructed fleet arrived behind the local gas giant, the station was sitting in mid orbit of the inner rock planet and was broadcasting something strange on open channels - a melodic chant of sorts:

"..live on a Yellow Submarine! A Yellow Submarine! A Yellow Submari.."

whatever that meant. No matter, Big Thrasher's fleet was moving in on the target, stealth drives on, weapons ready, numbers on their side, element of surprise - the perfect ambush.

...

Where did the station go?

Before Big Thrasher could register neural activity to try and answer that, it appeared. Behind them. And a small explosion happened moments earlier where it used to be, but the main concern was the station firing its stabilizer thrusters to rotate it at incredible speeds, then a long blade slicing one of his ships in two. Then it disappeared again. And another small explosion.

Once more, it suddenly reappeared behind another one of his ships and did the same thing, but this time used its thrusters to quickly move towards the vessel and impale it on a massive spike. Disappear. Small explosion in its place.

Three. Four. Five. They're losing ships by the second. A literal space station sized target and they can't keep track of it, let alone land a single hit. How is it teleporting? What are those explosions?

WHY IS A SPACE STATION ENGAGING HIS PIRATE SPACE SHIP FLEET IN MELEE COMBAT!

WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK TO DO THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE!?!

WHY IS IT WINNING!?!??!

Big Thrasher once again order an emergency retreat, what remained of his fleet scattered to randomly selected quick hyperjump coordinates, and would regroup in a few weeks time.

_______________________

Aboard the experimental development station Tree of Grating Whispers the crew of seven were hastily putting out fires and trying not to throw up from all the gee forces they just endured, kinetic dampeners be damned.

A few hours later, all in their environmental suits, as the life support system was dead, they convened for an after-action report:

"Right, so, good news and bad news. Good news - short range teleporter works perfectly. Bad news - each unit doesn't teleport with us and just explodes, further data has been unrecoverable so far.

Good news - rapid action thruster and kinetic combat mode works. Bad news - can't have biologicals onboard and even moderately durable systems break after a few swings.

Overall, I'd say this has been a success (unanimous nodding). Let's get to working out the kinks and we'll have a presentable version for the military. We'll also have to thank those pirates for not masking their engine heat trails, this was a great field trial guys, real proud of everyone!"

The chief says, while high on painkillers (and so is the rest of the crew), as another part of the station self-immolates.

[strayheartless]

Thinking about autistic Riku…

Riku who wasn’t diagnosed until after he became a keyblade master, and that was only because Merlin took one look at him and was like “oh my sweet summer child.”

15yr old Riku at the peak of his masking having actual fits of physical rage in his bedroom that he doesn’t really have an answer for other than “today was hard” that are actually meltdowns. We’re talking throwing things, braking shit, rocking and hair gripping. The whole nine yards.

Riku who struggles comprehending why his friends make plans and then don’t follow them through. Like building the raft. They said they were going to do it, so he was doing it. Why was he the only one taking it seriously?

Riku who’s grasp on humour and sarcasm is good up to a point. Meaning he knows how to do it himself, but if it’s directed at him it takes him a hot second to sus it out. He usually ends up giving actual explanations to people for their sarcasm, even though he’s registered what it was, and then gets told “I was joking”. Which fustrated the hell out of him because he KNEW that!!

Riku who has really bad light sensitivity and it’s part of the reason he keeps his hair long for such a long time. Sometimes he kind of wishes he could have the blindfold back.

Riku who despite purposefully keeping his hair long, spends nearly every day tying it back because it’s too much, then taking it down because that’s too much, then putting it back up and taking it back down until he seriously considers taking a pair of scissors to it.

Riku who doesn’t like to be touched unless he’s initiating the touch. Sora is the ONLY exception to that rule, but even then Riku has days when he moves out of Sora’s hold because it’s too much.

Riku who’s special interest is Gummi ships and is VERY happy when they go to see Cid and the RGRC because Cid is the only one that can keep up with his 1000mph rants about mobility blocks and rotation weaponry.

Riku who values silence, and no one can figure out how he deals with Sora’s constant stream of chatter, until he one day moves his hair back to show Mickey the earplugs in his ears. He felt guilty about it for a long time until Sora told him he already knew about the plugs and didn’t mind, he just like being with him.

Riku who likes to play with kairis hair but can’t abide having his own hair touched.

Riku who will usually eat anything but if you give him avocado he will have the biggest sensory ick moment you’ve ever seen. Same goes for mushrooms.

Riku who steadfastly refuses to sleep in fuzzy PJ’s because “no thanks I’d rather be flayed alive, it would be less stressful.”

Riku who, at aged 8, told kairi that if she put that scarf around his neck he would “absolutely start screaming” and then did when she insisted he’d catch cold. Scarfs are demon cloths.

Riku who would rather sit at the back of squalls office in the corner while the other man works, than sit in the science lab with everyone else because Squalls office is quiet and he likes that Squall says what he means.

Riku who ignored his own emotional, physical and sensory needs/wellbeing for months while looking for sora and ended up having a meltdown in front of Mickey and master YenSid.

Riku who now has an app on his Gummiphone that Cid, Squall, Even and Ienzo designed to help him build routine and regulate/track his emotional well-being.

He relies of the breathing exercises game a lot in Quadratum.

Riku who is the reason chip and dale created dark mode in phone settings because nobody could figure out why he barely used his phone until he admitted that it always felt like he was looking into the sun.

Riku who has keyblade related Stims, like tapping the flat of the blade with his nails or messing with the key chain when he’s stressed.

Riku who also has stims such as: flicking his tongue inside his mouth while he’s thinking; twirling strands of his hair incessantly; scrunching his nose; clicking his fingers when he’s distressed; tapping the toe of his boot against the opposite heel when he’s stood still; imperceptible swaying; holding his thumb knuckle gently between his teeth; soft popping noises with his mouth; tapping his palms with the tips of his fingers.

I have more but this is it for now.

[crownmemes]

House Sentences, Vol. 7

(Sentences from House (2004-2012). Adjust phrasing where needed)

"Physically, you're fine. Mentally, you're weird."

"You're losing it. That's what happens when you have kids. Ceaseless crying and nagging leads to irrational fears."

"Why do you even care if I have a baby? It's not like I'm ever gonna ask you to babysit!"

"I know this is awkward, but we need to talk."

"There's a reason that we've evolved a feeling of awkwardness. It tells us not to talk about things."

"The benefit of being boss is that I don't have to argue."

"Any relationship that doesn't end in a breakup ends in death. Everything falls apart in the end."

"Are you saying you want to date me?"

"Trust me, everybody will be happier if we aren't dating."

"You need to know everything because you're afraid of being wrong."

"Can you honestly tell me you've never done anything hypocritical?"

"Why do you try so hard to get my attention?"

"I think we're supposed to kiss now..."

"It's a bad idea to get into a power play with somebody who holds the power."

"Just tell her how you feel! If you won't, then I will!"

"You really passed your psych rotation?"

"I think you're confusing nice and evil again."

"Why do people get married?"

"You really don't have to keep buying me things."

"You act like you don't care about anyone, but here you are saving lives."

"I don't think you're looking for somebody to prove you right. I think you're looking for somebody to prove you wrong - to give you hope."

"Everything that happened to you can be rationally explained."

"I have issues with authority. You?"

"Why do you care if I'm happy?"

"You're afraid of change. The one thing you have is your intellect. You think if that's compromised, you have nothing."

"I don't mean to be abrasive, especially since you're such a pleasure to imagine naked."

"Your voice is no longer attractive to me with that note of disapproval."

"Has it ever occurred to you that when I don't share something, it might not be meant as a challenge? It might just mean that I'd like there to be one molecule of my life that goes unexamined by you?"

"Cat brains are always in alpha mode. The few scientific tests that have seemed to confirm psychic phenomena, that's where it takes place."

"I get it. You're a little nuts, aren't you?"

"God's mistakes are well documented."

"I'm proposing that you should propose to me."

"Being drunk doesn't change who you are - it just reveals it."

"Every time I go to one of your parties, I end up embarrassing myself in some new and unexpected way."

"Are you going to ignore me all day again?"

"Apologies aren’t supposed to make you feel better. They’re supposed to make the other person feel better."

"You want to kiss me, don't you?"

"Why is it always reasonable in your world to take an emotional problem and sidestep it by turning it into a mechanical problem?"

"You have the luxury of not caring about your image, but I do not!"

"I can smile through gritted teeth and play nice, but there are serious risks of violence involved in that choice."

"Are you ready to play nice?"

"I know you're scheming."

"Are you ignoring me, or are you just letting my charm wash over you?"

[neonponders]

Part 12 for @wrecked-fuse ‘s pocketverse 🍳

Part 11

(Part 9′s art 🌹) ( pt. 7′s art 🧁)

~ on ao3 ~

• • •

“Biwwy! I’m swipping!”

Small Billy sat on the top of the slide, and bent a leg to prop an arm on his knee. He laughed theatrically over small Steve starting to slide down on his tummy. “There’s a new king of the swide! See you on the othewr side, Hawwington - EEE!!”

Big Steve perked up in time to see his littler self grab Billy’s leg and take him along for the ride down. “Okay, you two. I’ve got Cheerios and strawberry cream cheese here - ” the front doorbell rang, “ - and there’s Billy and Max.”

The little ones ran over the dishtowel he’d set down to catch their water from the pool. He tried to keep an eye on them swiping cheerios over the cream cheese until he had to had to avoid slamming into walls. Upon opening the door, he greeted, “Hey. They’re eating breakfast.”

Max held up a toasted waffle and chewed, “Same.”

The little guys ran around the sink in the island counter to hop and wave at them. “Hi, Biwwy! Hi, Max!”

“Hey,” she smiled.

Her stepbrother eyed their swimming attire and returned, “ ‘Sup chipmunks. I see you started with out me.”

Small Billy ran through a sunbeam on the counter to pick up his Indiana Jones hat. Larger Billy scolded, “Keep running like that and I’ll get my whistle out.”

“The sun is bwight!” his smaller self reprimanded and got distracted by little Steve handing him something. “Thanks.”

“Welcome,” Steve smiled, donning his own doll sunglasses. Large Billy couldn’t help but laugh. His littler self looked like a prima donna at the pool: sunhat, orange-patterned linens, and big sunglasses to boot. Steve felt good about himself too, as he called, “Wow do we wook, Biwwy?”

“Like movie stars.”

Large Steve rotated from the counter along the wall to set a cutting board in the sink and a plate of fruit next to the dish of cereal and cream cheese. “Remember to eat real fruit.”

Small Billy complained, “Watermewon again? It’s crwunchy water, Steve!”

“Delicious crunchy water,” he corrected. “If you don’t drink the stuff I give you, you gotta get it somehow.”

The huff that came out of that little body was impressive as he grabbed a pice of fruit and crunched derisively. Steve sent a harmless glare at Billy with a shake of his head. “Do you hate watermelon too?”

“It’s not the best fruit,” he confirmed, but redirected, “How’d you sleep?”

“Great,” Steve replied, and then his features flattened. “Oh, you mean them.”

Billy gazed at him, mildly amused while Max otherwise intervened, “So, is the big pool available? Or am I stuck in here with you two?”

“It’s a good thing you brought your board,” Billy warned. “That’ll save you from walking home.”

Steve intervened, “Keep your fights out in the public where everyone can see them. You’re cramping out style in here.”

Although, it seemed that the little ones were thoroughly ignoring them, instead alternating lyrics of songs that vaguely matched up with the conversation.

“Stuck with you-ou.”

“Happy you’re stuck with me-e.”

“I was dweamin’.”

“In my bed.”

“Shoulda been with you instead.”

“Go go, Stevie!”

The chase down the slide and around the pool commenced. In the meantime, Billy tilted judgey eyes at Steve. “Wham, Steve?”

Unashamedly, he retorted, “I thought you’d be more upset by Huey and The News.”

Billy scrubbed his hands down his face. “It’s up to me to have taste.”

Steve planted a hand on his hip. “Huey and Wham are fine.”

“They have one decent song a-piece,” Billy disagreed. “One.”

He got cut off by the front door slamming open and closed. Robin hollered, “Where are they?”

“Kitchen,” Steve droned.

That prompted her to jog in, dump her stuff on a couch, and then rush down the hall for the garage. Max frowned, “What’s she doing?”

“Putting her bike in the garage,” Steve informed indifferently.

“Why’s she acting like it’ll get stolen in fifteen seconds?”

Steve shrugged. “Robin has two modes: the world can burn while she sleeps or she feels like she’s in New York City.”

Billy pushed off the island counter to go to the impressive entertainment unit taking up an entire wall of the living room. He helped himself to the shelf on which a record player sat, and perused the Harringtons’ collections. As he slid black vinyl out of its sleeve, he congratulated, “There’s hope for you yet, Steve.”

Said Steve gave him a mirthless smile and focused on Robin returning to the kitchen as the closing garage door vibrated a whole side of the house.

“Woooh,” small Billy exhaled with a piece of fruit in his hands.

“Earthqwuake!” little Steve cried, slamming into Billy to hold him close.

Robin laughed tiredly. “Just a short one. It’s already over. What’s breakfast?...Eggs? Again?”

“I’m cooking for three here, what do you want?” Steve sassed over the bowl and whisk.

Robin offered an empathetic sigh and opened his pantry. “Don’t get your apron in a twist. We’ll have French toast. Don’t put those eggs in the skillet yet.”

“Fwench toast?” little Steve piqued.

His bigger self promised, “You’ll have some when you take a break from swimming.”

Max brightened, "Oh! I brought something. They’re not much, but once upon a time, my mom shoved dolls at me. I don’t wanna think about how many of these wound up in landfills.”

She pulled out a few things from her corduroy shorts pocket and dropped them over the Barbie pool. Little Billy looked over the miniature pool noodles and asked, “What’rwe those?”

Big Billy navigated around Max blowing up a small inner tube and said, “They help you float. You can sit on them.”

The inner tube with primary colored stripes soon joined the water, and small Billy struggled to climb on and stay on. He fell off and came up sputtering, his hat floating away, “This is cwap! What is the point o’this?”

Large Billy consoled, “It’s just like the real thing. Here, drop your butt in there.”

He pushed it underwater with two fingers and waited for Billy to gain his courage. Turning around with a dubious glance over his shoulder, he sat down tentatively inside the inner tube. Billy took his strength off of it, and it floated up with the little one on it. Stable, for the most part. Little Billy smirked, “Okay. Not bad.”

Meanwhile, little Steve sat astride a noodle, happy as can be. “I’m widing a girwaffe, Biwwy!”

From the pantry, Robin emerged with a frown. “Hey big guy, where’s your sugar?”

Steve’s brows reached up but he answered, “Garage.”

Max frowned. “You store sugar in the garage?”

“My mom likes to bake, so she buys it in bulk,” he said as he pivoted to got get it, but Robin stopped him so he could stay put.

Billy teased while helping himself to the leftovers in the coffee pot, “Is your mom at a baking conference?”

Steve didn’t roll his eyes, so much as let them wander while he blinked slowly. A newfound freedom outside of high school: not having to answer to petty questions.

Except when Robin returned with the large paper bag of sugar, she informed, “Uh, Steve? The sheriff’s car is in your driveway.”

Max and Billy automatically exchanged looks, but they mirrored confusion at Steve brightening, “Hopper’s here? Good, I can finally hustle him to get these guys a bigger wardrobe.”

On cue, the doorbell rang. Big Steve went to answer it, and little Steve gazed up at Billy with large eyes. “Who’s Hopperw?”

“I think he’s the one who brought you to Steve in the first place.”

“Oh.”

“Oh,” little Billy growled. He struggled to get off the inner tube and ultimately rolled off gracelessly.

Large Billy asked, “You two got beef with the sheriff already?”

But all he got was a derisive, “Hmph!” as the small one went to sit on the pool stairs, much as he’d done in the video store when he wasn’t pleased to see Billy.

The greetings filtered into the house as Steve led Hopper into the living room-kitchen. “Yeah, they’re doing fine. They’re learning how to swim.”

The sheriff wore casual clothes today, looking like a lumberjack off duty in his plaid shirt that hung open over a t-shirt and jeans. “I see you wasted no time in telling everyone.”

Max countered, “Not everyone.”

“Good. Keep it that way. I already have the Wheelers on my case. One dating my kid and the other pestering the station for journalism every other day is enough. Well...I know a lack of forgiveness in that face.”

Both Steve and Billy furrowed their brows at Hopper approaching the island counter. The explanation came soon enough in Hopper saying, “Still not over that apple incident, huh?”

Small Billy stood up and accused, “You twicked me!”

Little Steve agreed, “It wasn’t verwy yummy...”

Big Steve came to stand next to Billy as the latter interrogated, “Apple incident?”

Hopper moved out of Robin’s way to make French toast as he explained, “I cut a piece of apple for them to eat. The station’s secretary is always trying to get me to eat green stuff.”

Steve’s eyes widened. “Not a Granny-Smith.”

Hopper nodded apologetically. “The little guys can’t do sour. What can I say?”

Small Billy had a lot to say. “You made my tummy uppy! And yourw apple was shit!”

Hopper lifted deadpan eyes at Steve and Billy. Steve shook his head. “No way. You delivered them talking like that. And Ellie’s, like, the pickiest eater alive. Why’d you give them something acidic?”

“I suppose I was still in shock at seeing both of you in tiny form,” Hopper responded. “The M&M’s made up for it, though. Right?”

That gave little Billy pause. He crossed his arms and scoffed, “Barwely! Cwunchy water’s shit!”

“Okay, sweet B,” Robin consoled over the sizzling on the stove. “You’ll have French toast soon.”

Max had approached the counter by this time and unconsciously set her hands on the granite. Little Steve sat down on her fingers to finish his cheerio, inducing small Billy to join him. Their heads were large enough that the proximity allowed Billy to nuzzle his hair against Steve’s. Their larger counterparts stood riveted to the display until they warily glanced at each other with weighted silence.

After the initial shock of their touch, Max recovered to ask, “Where did you get them, anyway?”

Hopper sighed, “I couldn’t tell you where they’re from. I assumed they were the original Steve and Billy just...shrunken. But they didn’t know who I was, and you can imagine my relief when Steve answered the door after I brought them here. Beyond that, I assumed they were safest with, well, themselves.”

Robin countered, “That doesn’t explain much.”

Hopper plucked a small piece of watermelon for himself and finished, “I don’t have any answers for you. I assume they came, in some part, from their original selves. Looks like I was right.”

Robin brought a plate and knife to the island and cut the first slice of French toast into strips as Steve informed, “They’re more expensive than you’d think.”

“People always are, regardless of size,” Hopper smirked, but Steve’s pursed lips and flat gaze made him realize, “You’re saying you need money?”

“I’m saying it’s only a matter of time before I lose a shirt or something. They only have, like, two outfits. Some pajamas and different shoes would be nice. The only store that carries their size is place on Magnolia Street.”

Hopper’s lips disappeared under his mustache. He didn’t like that at all. He guarded, “You seem to have made it out of there all right.”

Steve scoffed. “The shopkeeper watches me like I’ll steal something.”

Hopper’s gaze switched to Billy. “And you?”

“She likes me,” he grinned. That earned an openly disgusted grimace from Max and a nose wrinkle from Robin.

The latter realized aloud, “You don’t like being hit on by old Bettys, Hop?”

“I have every reason to be terrified,” he declared.

Robin laughed while Steve otherwise deflated somewhat. “Why am I the red flag customer?”

Billy responded as he took a bite of toast and tore off a couple pieces for the little ones, “You’re too pretty for her tastes.”

Steve pointed wide eyes at the counter with a sassy shake of his head. “I’m not the one with big blue eyes and pants that don’t fit.”

Max and Robin locked gazes but said nothing. They didn’t have to, as the little ones got their first taste of French toast.

“Woooh!”

“It’s like pancwakes!”

“Spicy! Cinnamn. Cinnamwon...”

Big Billy consoled his smaller self, “You got it,” and they watched the latest sugar rush run around the pool.

[crest-of-gautier]

EVP 999 reached on bone rattle arena! this makes my third gold map badge (my other two are jammin salmon junction + gone fission hydroplant!). i'm really happy to have been able to get this badge, it took 50 jobs starting from EVP 300 to get here.

the short of my thoughts is that it's important to take lots of breaks! but i have some other things related to salmon run and my journey with it in the past year that i want to share, so i'll put that under the cut 👍

i've only really grinded salmon run "seriously" since march 2023, and i only really attempt pushes on map rotations that i find favorable (it's important to have fun and having weapons you like help a lot!). and trying to get these map badges is a lot like a marathon, meaning that it's important to pace yourself appropriately.

i could go on about salmon mechanics that are important to learn. but salmon run at it's core ultimately tests your ability to quickly assess situations and make judgment calls. and the most important judgment call, to me is knowing when you need to step away from the grind because you've hit a skill wall.

the challenges i've faced with SR have changed over time as i've accumulated more experience with the mode. but generally speaking, i find that hitting a wall is characterized by repeatedly reaching a certain hazard level/wave, but not being able to completely clear it. i know i certainly found it annoying to reach wave 3 but not meet the quota.

when i started doing these pushes in 2023, i used to throw myself back into the queue because "we were just 1-2 eggs off! we'll get them next time!" and uh. here's the general gist of how that went:

(we failed again)

(i get increasingly irritated)

(my performance starts dropping from irritation)

(i get irritated that my points are dropping because there's only so many hours in a rotation)

("i need to keep playing otherwise i'll be stuck with the not as experienced players!!!")

(the cycle continues and i get a net loss of points)

fortunately, i don't do this anymore because it's largely unhelpful. it took awhile for me to get over the idea that throwing myself into another shift would get me back my points but. i did eventually!

these days i find that it's much more effective (and healing!) to take a 15-20 minute break (and sometimes an hour or longer!) whenever i notice signs of agitation or tension... any shifts that i do afterwards are MUCH easier.

the other reason why i think breaks are so important is because time away from the game helps you ask yourself better questions on what went wrong.

generally speaking if you can pinpoint why your shifts go to shit (thank you video footage and clips), you should be able to figure out a solution for that. and isn't that what learning is about?

i think a lot about how many shifts it took for me to get from EVP 300 -> EVP 999 on gone fission (124 of them). and when i think of that experience, i'm grateful that i learned the power of breaks since it took like half the jobs for me to get to 9's on bone rattle 💪

i definitely think that it's important to remember that getting through shifts will gets easier as you accumulate more experience. this is easier said than done but i think that if you can find ways to take note of your improvement, no matter how small, it will be easier to stay motivated!

i find this most noticeable with eggstra work... while i've only scored within the top 20% and never top 5%... i have gotten closer to the scores of the top 5% (i <3 marooners bay + jammin salmon junction eggswork) than i did at the start!

scoring aside, i cringe a lot at my spawning grounds eggstra work video, these have to be some of the most abysmal gameplay decisions ever and i'm happy to say that i wouldn't make that these days 💀! so if you've ever cringed at your old gameplay do not fret... it is natural and it's a sign of improvement!

anyway that's my lizz talk. while this is about salmon run i technically think this can expand to other pursuits in life. like creative hobbies. and sports! or maybe something else i didn't think of. learning is so wonderful and cool!

as a bonus, here's a notebook spread i made about golden rotation when i needed a break from the game... (did you know i really like my notebook... it's so fun)

[saiilorstars]

Ch. 31: Coming Together Again

[Story Masterlist] // [Aitana’s Masterlist]

Fandom: Criminal Minds // Pairing: Spencer Reid x OFC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag​​​​​ @arrthurpendragon​​​​​ @anotherunreadblog​​​​​ @maaaaarveeeeel​​​​​ @stareyedplanet​​​​​ @averyhotchner​​​​​​ @foxesandmagic @kmc1989 @midmourn​​​​​​

If you’d like to be a part of Aitana’s taglist, please let me know!

Also available on Fanfic ○ Ao3 ○ Wattpad

The first time Aitana saw Emily Prentiss well and alive, she turned went into ugly-crying mode in about a minute. She had tried to keep herself calm and use her words to express what she felt seeing a friend she thought died...but it all went south the moment she saw Emily in the conference room. She may as well have been her nephew Logan when he went into a tantrum. Incoherent words and sobs is how she greeted Emily. And hugs. Many, many hugs were given. Emily was kind enough to let her go through the different phases of her emotions but by the end of things, Aitana was still embarrassed she'd come undone like that.

The team was just happy that it seemed like everyone was coming back like before. Aitana had a long and serious talk with Hotch on her first day back at the BAU regarding her future. While the team had been suspended, Aitana had taken care of filing through the cases that had been sent to the BAU. She organized them as much as she could being on her own and now that everyone was back, they were going through them. Aitana was doing it "officially" as a profiler only. That was what she was being paid for until she graduated.

Hotch reminded her that she didn't have the obligation to perform any liaison duties until then, but Aitana insisted that it was what she wanted to do. She was determined to keep both sides of the job. But in the meantime that happened, all corresponding liaison files would be coming in through Penelope first — officially. Aitana thought it was fine, Penelope wouldn't mind sharing the duties outside of the official terms anyways. She'd already made it clear how much she missed her liaison partner. Everything seemed to be falling into place...until it wasn't. Nobody said anything whether or not it affected them directly, but they all saw and noticed. It was little things, sure, but nonetheless things they saw.

"So you finished the course?" Emily asked JJ DJ their way to the conference room.

JJ was ecstatic as the upcoming case would be her first as an official profiler on the team, finally shedding the probationary period. "Mm-hmm. And completed my case rotation!"

"Hotch says he's never seen a rookie profiler analyze and write up cases as well as you."

JJ blinked in surprise. "He said that?"

Emily chuckled. "Yeah. Well, after all the cases you presented over the years, I'm not surprised."

"Morning!" Aitana waited for the pair by the bullpen entrance. "Garcia is waiting for us in the conference room."

"Great," Emily said.

The elevator doors dinged open and Spencer came out in a hurry. He was already late but seeing who was blocking the way made him want to run right past them.

"Hey, where have you been?" JJ called when they noticed him coming. "I wanted to do brunch this weekend."

Spencer didn't afford her any look as he skimmed through a book in his hands. "I had to deal with some stuff with my mom."

"Morning," Aitana greeted him, "Have you—"

"I'm sorry, I need to find Garcia." Spencer went right past her without so much of a glance in her direction.

"Okay…" Aitana bit on her bottom lip as she watched him practically zoom through the bullpen to head on up the steps for the conference room.

"He hates me," JJ's remark pulled Aitana back to her and Emily.

Emily didn't want to admit anything and it was hard to act like there was nothing when there clearly was.

Aitana, however, sighed in acknowledgment. Everyone had noticed how quickly and easily Spencer avoided JJ and when he did have to talk to her, he was brief and quick about it. "He's just hurt. You're his best friend, after all."

"Was," JJ corrected. "He doesn't talk to me. Least you guys get a greeting."

"Do I?" Aitana made a face at the claim. "JJ, you know I don't like the way things are between you and Spencer — of course I want you guys to fix your friendship but…we can understand...why he would be...upset with you...right?" JJ knew where Aitana was going and assured her that she understood what she was trying to say. "But I didn't know anything," Aitana went on, "I was the last one to find out that Emily was alive, so...why is he mad at me? What did I do?"

That was the burning question that no one could answer. It was no secret why Spencer had put distance between him and JJ. JJ and Hotch had arranged for Emily's secret transfer out of the country while making everyone else think she was dead. JJ wasn't happy with what was happening but, like Aitana had said, she could understand why Spencer was upset with her.

But it was an outright mystery why he was seemingly upset with Aitana.

Aitana was forlorn each time Spencer brushed her off or made some excuse to basically be anywhere she wasn't. Even their study sessions had come to an unexpected end. She didn't expect him to help her each time, obviously, but why end them just like that? What had she done?

Maybe I finally bored him, she continuously (and bitterly) thought to herself. As awful as it felt, she could see it happening. She was nowhere near smart as he was so...maybe...he just finally saw that. Maybe he just didn't want to waste his time. He didn't want to be bored.

~ 0 ~

"All right, mes amis," Penelope addressed the team, clicker ready in hand, "You are jetting to Durant, Oklahoma, because in the last 3 days, two women have been found dead after being sexually tortured and then blinded with a sulfuric acid solution." She pulled up the photograph of a young blonde girl on the screen. "Abby Elcott is our first victim. 19-year-old art student. She was headed to campus for an advanced drawing class. She'd been missing for two days. Same goes for our second victim, Beth Westerly, 17." A second blonde girl's photograph popped up on the screen. "She had just finished her coffee shop shift and was on her way to a bar method class. Both low-risk victims."

"And physically similar," Morgan remarked. They could easily pass off as sisters. "How close are the two abduction sites?"

"Five miles apart at bus stops. Abby's cell was found near one, Beth's scarf near the other."

"And where are the dump sites?" asked Aitana.

"One in an alley, the other in a field."

"Sooo he stapled their eyes open, then he blinded them," Emily said, her nose crinkled as she perused through the morgue photographs in their hard copies. "It's about power and control. Maybe he didn't want them to watch while he hurt them."

"Or it could be about shame," JJ offered, and before she could add on, Spencer cut in.

"Perhaps the unsub is disfigured himself. Blinding the victims leaves them helpless, lost, totally dependent. It may be a manifestation of how he sees himself in this world."

"It is a form of enucleation, just without the scalpel," Rossi said, "His face is the last they see before darkness."

Hotch agreed with the others. "Garcia, come up with a list of jobs that would give the unsub access to sulfuric acid. The rest of us, wheels up in 30 minutes."

~0~

Once the jet had taken off, the team went over the cases in more detail to know what they were going to be looking at as soon as they landed.

"Victimology is very similar," Hotch remarked at the two pictures of the victims. "Blond-haired, blue-eyed teenage girls. We believe they were each abducted near public transportation stops."

Morgan found a picture of the second victim that seemed to have been taken without her knowledge. She didn't appear to be under any duress. "When was this photo taken?" He turned the picture around for the others to see.

"So Beth was caught on a bank surveillance camera 3 hours before she disappeared," Aitana explained. She'd gone over early details with Penelope before presenting the case to Hotch. "That's a recent photo of Abby," she said as Morgan went onto another picture of the first victim that also seemed to be taken in a moment of casualty.

"So she wasn't found in the same clothes she was abducted in," Morgan noted, because the pictures of the corpses had completely different clothing.

"Maybe he changed them because hers were burned by the sulfuric acid," JJ offered the idea.

"Sulfuric acid can turn human flesh into soap," Spencer remarked slightly quickly, enough to make JJ feel like she'd been brushed off again. "Garcia, any recent similar cases in the surrounding area?"

"Actually, yes," Penelope said. "Two months ago a prostitute and a runaway were both found raped and killed and they had stab wounds to their eyes."

"So maybe he practiced on high-risk victims first," Emily resolved. "And then advanced to chemical enucleation. Isn't that a rare paraphilia?"

"Well, the chemical part is," Spencer nodded, "It would exacerbate the pain."

"Like Ed Kemper, he's probably practicing on surrogates before going after the real object of his rage," said Rossi.

"Serrano, Dave, you and I will talk to the parents," Hotch said, though his gaze lingered on Aitana. He tended to do that more often now that she was meant to be profiling "officially". He wanted to be sure if she really wanted to stay behind in the precincts to do the liaison duties.

Aitana deeply appreciated it. When she nodded that it was what she wanted, he moved on to assign the rest of the team.

~0~

Later in the day, Spencer and JJ made their way down the blocks where their second victim was last seen. Once again, it was very clear that he would much rather be anywhere but there.

He walked fast down the street, forcing JJ to half sprint just to stay at his pace. "So Beth got off the bus here and headed northwest toward class."

"It's amazing no one witnessed her abduction," JJ said as she took note of the busy street. Cars were driving by almost every minute and there were several people waiting for the bus, not to mention waiting to cross the street.

"Emily was buried 6 feet under and wound up in Paris, so I guess anything's possible, right?" Spencer said curtly.

JJ's double take was done on automatic. It was very rare for Spencer to be so quick with a snap. It wasn't like him at all. "So that is what this is about." She wasn't at all surprised except for the fact that he'd finally admitted it out loud. At least now they could work on it.

"Maybe our unsub's a little bit like Bundy," Spencer kept going like she hadn't said anything, "He feigns injury in order to get her to help him."

JJ had to run to get in front of him and stop him from walking. "Look, Spence, if you want to talk about this—"

Of course Spencer then moved right past her and continued with his theory. The last thing he wanted was to give her the time of the day. "Maybe he tried other tactics, like, 'Wow, you're really pretty. 'You should be a model. I can take your photo.'"

JJ was forced to follow him, putting a pause on the conversation that would definitely need to happen in the near future. "Either one would disarm her. Charm is quite the killer."

"So are tears," Spencer muttered and looked around the street. JJ frowned are him. "Whatever his ruse was, the unsub mostly likely used it to get her into his vehicle."

"Well, if Abby was last seen at a bus stop a few miles away, then he definitely has a means of transportation," she remarked, bracing herself for the next jab. "Hopefully the disposal site will tell us more."

~0~

The one thing Aitana actually liked about being away from the BAU were the lack of horrified faces her words elicited from people. Here she was delivering horrific details to a victim's parents about how their daughter was brutally tortured for hours — days. This was this worst part of the job when the victims were already dead. The crime had been done; the grief was ineivtable.

"He had her for two days?" Mrs. Elcott, Abby's mother was truly horrified and terrified of what she learned. "I can't even imagine what she went through."

Her husband, Mr. Elcott, was in the same state. "Why did he blind her?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Aitana didn't feel any better saying that to them. What came next certainly wasn't good either. It was the last thing on the parents' minds. "I know this is difficult, but I need you to look at the clothes that Abby was wearing when we found her." She reached for a plastic bag behind her with Abby's clothes. She held it between them, patiently waiting until one of the parents took the bag. "Do you recognize them? Do you find anything odd about the specific clothing?"

Mrs. Elcott shook her head suddenly, nose crinkling in a manner that didn't seem to pertain to her grief. Aitana knew that something was off.

"They're not Abby's," the mother finally said.

Aitana hummed. "Are you sure?" Her eyes raked over the bag's label. It had Abby's name because it was what she was wearing when they found her.

Mrs. Elcott nodded her head. Aitana noted how sure the woman looked. Not even the grief was making her rethink things.

"I saw her that morning. She had on a brown and pink sweater."

Aitana nodded. She didn't press any further. She thought the parents deserved some rest.

~0~

Morgan and Emily returned shortly after the interviews with the victims' parents had finished, both rather dejected with the little they'd gotten from the second crime scene. Aitana had busied herself in the borrowed conference room in the precinct. She'd already started the evidence board for both victims and was eager to add anything new to get them to their Unsub.

"Hotch and Rossi went to the morgue," she told the pair, "They'll be back later."

"Reid and JJ?" asked Morgan.

"Local thrift store. Since the unsub seems to have a fixation with 80s clothes, we figured that's where he'd most likely find these types of clothes."

"So we're on waiting duty 'til then?" Emily presumed.

Aitana nodded and moved around her. "So I've been thinking," she started, busying herself with some papers on the table, "About why Spencer could be upset with me…"

"Oh, don't even worry about that," Morgan said, though he like everyone else would love to know what reason Spencer had to be mad at her.

"But I will, and I am," Aitana said, planting her hands on the table, "I've been thinking about this, really thinking, and I can only see that maybe I crossed his boundaries? I-I think about the study sessions and maybe he got fed up with me." Both Morgan and Emily exchanged glances, both clearly doubting this was the reason. "I focus a lot on my studies, okay? And I scooted too close to him or something various times. Maybe that's it."

"Okay," Emily decided to cut in before Aitana went into a full ramble, "I really don't think that's it. You shouldn't think about that."

"It's the only thing I can think of," Aitana insisted. "I annoyed him until he snapped."

"Sprinkles, calm down," Morgan gestured for her to bring it down. She'd been rising in volume. "I'm with Emily. I highly doubt being too close to him was the problem. If you haven't noticed, he's very comfortable around you."

"But I'm still the new girl," Aitana chewed on her bottom lip. "I'm not Emily, I'm not Penelope and I'm definitely not JJ. You've all known him for years. I've known him for about one."

"It's not that, I can almost swear it," Morgan said.

"Okay, then maybe I bored him? Maybe I literally bored him to death!"

"'Bored him'?" Morgan couldn't stop the chuckle that slipped from him. Emily whacked him on the arm and walked over to Aitana to reassure her that was not the case.

"I'm just — I don't get it!" Aitana exclaimed in the end, frustrated. "I wasn't even part of the team when all this shit happened! If it's not to do with that, then it has to be from our studying sessions! You guys gotta help me because I really don't want to end up like JJ...as bad as that sounds."

"Hey, hey, it'll be okay," Emily said, giving her a hug. Morgan came to rest a hand on Aitana's shoulder with the most reassuring smile he could produce for her, but it was difficult to believe them at that moment.

~0~

Later that same day, another dead victim was discovered in an alley. Being the closest to the site, Spencer and JJ met with the detective on the case, Mosely.

"Again he's disposing in an area frequented by homeless people." Moseley gestured to the street behind them. It wasn't frequented by many people. "It's equidistant to the last two dump sites."

JJ stood closer to the corpse, bending down to note the chemical reaction on the victim's mouth. The skin was angry red with multiple large bumps, and that was just on the outside. "He burned her tongue with the chemical this time. He removed her ability to taste."

"Why would he do that?" Mosely asked.

"Historically this kind of torture was used to prevent someone from revealing a secret," Spencer explained. He didn't get too close to the victim like JJ had.

"Maybe she offended him," JJ theorized at the top of her head only to get another sour remark from Spencer.

"I wonder what that's like," he said in his usual quick-paced tone. "Her lips are extremely chapped. She was probably forced to repeatedly participate in some sort of kissing fantasy. And when things go awry, he takes the offending sense away." He observed the odd 80s clothes the victim wore; they were in the same style as the other two victims. "He tortured her in these clothes, which means the eighties are essential to his delusion."

"Maybe that's when this rejection occurred and he held on to the clothes all these years," JJ said, pausing to hear whether or not Spencer would agree. He pointedly ignored her. JJ straightened up on her feet, pushing past her growing irritation to keep it professional. "And now he's attacking girls who remind him of women from that time. He's fixated on her type and remakes them fit his fantasy."

"But why start now?" asked Mosley, still looking between the two agents.

JJ felt like she had the perfect answer. "Something probably triggered it, and instead of dealing with it, he's acting out."

Spencer still very much ignored her, her words and her sharp look.

~0~

Knowing what they knew now, the team felt like it was highly time to deliver the profile. They had no doubt the unsub was going to strike again on the same day so time was of the essence.

"We believe the unsub or unknown subject that we're looking for is a white male in his 40s," Hotch began, "This is someone who's reacting to rejection by a woman when he was a teenager in the 1980s."

"He's punishing his victims for their reactions to him by taking away their senses with sulfuric acid," Spencer said. They'd been able to identify the specific acid very quickly but without much luck of where it was specifically coming from.

"We believe our unsub could possibly work part-time as a janitor or a mechanic, which would give him access to this chemical," said Rossi.

"And after studying the disposal sites, we think it's likely that he is homeless," Morgan said. "Now, how do we typically react toward the homeless? We judge them by their looks and smells. It's that same negative reaction we believe that a woman had toward the unsub at some point in the eighties."

"The unsub's fixation on this woman is now all-consuming," Aitana went on, "It's caused him to develop obsessive love disorder. He most likely has tunnel vision and believes that she holds the key to his happiness." She almost shuddered thinking back to the unsub she still felt responsible for creating in her brother's precinct. "He will stalk her in an attempt to win her back…"

"He will do whatever it takes to be near his love interest," JJ said, unknowingly helping her colleague, "But her rejection will spiral him into a depression."

"Which would lead to rape and murder of the surrogates who represent her," Spencer said, "And it's only a matter of time before this rage and anger causes the unsub to go after her directly."

Hence, time was of the complete essence.

~ 0 ~

"Spence. Look, we gotta talk about this!" JJ trailed after Spencer into the conference room. She was done with the petty remarks from him and she genuinely feared that the more time she wasted being upset herself, it would be even harder to get Spencer to forgive her.

"I don't want to talk about it," Spencer kept making rounds at the table, gathering papers he had no idea about.

"I get it, ok? You're disappointed with the way we handled Emily!"

"Listen, I have a lot going on, all right?" Spencer finally stopped near the open doors when he saw the look on JJ's face. It was anger. How could she be angry? It was her fault. "What?" He demanded to know.

"You know what I think it is?" JJ could feel the stinging tears in her eyes. She was absolutely done handling his behavior when she had just done her job to help Emily. "You're mad that Hotch and I controlled our micro-expressions at the hospital and you weren't able to detect our deception."

Spencer scoffed in her face. "Seriously? You think it's about my profiling skills? Jennifer, listen, the only reason you were able to manage my perceptions is because I trusted you. I came to your house for 10 weeks in a row crying over losing a friend, and not once did you have the decency to tell me the truth."

"I couldn't!"

"You couldn't? Or you wouldn't?"

"No, I couldn't!" JJ said in exasperation, though she pulled herself together as much as she could when she saw somebody coming nearing the door.

"What if I started taking Dilaudid again—"

"Spencer—"

"Would you have let me!?" Spencer went on, louder to go over JJ's voice.

"Spencer, stop—"

Spencer shook his head at her and turned to leave, only to crash into a smaller figure. It was Aitana, wide eyed and stunned. Behind them, JJ sighed. She'd tried to cut Spencer off but he was just too angry to listen to her. It all connected fast for Spencer. Aitana had to have heard everything, at least the important stuff he would've never really talked about.

"I was not supposed to hear that!" Aitana exclaimed once she'd found her voice. She gripped the papers in her hands even tighter, enough to make her knuckles turn white.

"Aitana—"

"N-no, I'm going, don't worry!" Aitana spun away, eyes getting even wider once they were hidden. He'll be furious for sure, she thought to herself as she rushed off.

"Aitana, wait, Ai-Aitana!" Spencer tried to grab her arm but she was too fast for him. "Great!" He would've yelled had he not held onto the last shred of professionalism being in the precinct. He turned back to JJ, face red with newfound anger. "Absolutely great! That's great! This is absolutely what I wanted her to know about me!"

JJ grew incredulous at his insinuation. "This isn't my fault! Look, I get why you're mad at me but I don't know what the hell you got to be mad about with Aitana! And not talking about it is what got you into that" — she gestured in the direction Aitana went off in — "mess so don't blame that on me!"

"Oh please," Spencer scoffed. "Like you and everyone else don't know!"

"Know about what?" JJ said, confused. "If you, for a second, even think that she knew what Hotch and I did—"

"That's not it!" snapped Spencer. "Maybe mull it over with Morgan or something. You both love to think that I'm a-a girlfriend stealer!"

"A what!?" JJ had to have heard wrong. She had to. There was no way that's what he said to her.

"You and Morgan, even Garcia sometimes, you all love to tease me about Aitana even when I have repeatedly expressed my discomfort about it!"

"Spence, we didn't mean to—"

"Yes, yes you did mean it! You've all meant each and every one of your teases and I'm sick of it!"

"I'm...I'm sorry, I just...we all just think you would make a nice couple," JJ shrugged awkwardly. Maybe this one was her fault — hers and Morgan's apparently. "You guys clicked in the beginning—I thought things would for sure turn into something when she took my position."

"Nothing would happen!" Spencer snapped, growing even more angry the more he listened to her. Actually, 'anger' wouldn't even be the right description for how he felt. He was disgusted. That's exactly what he was. Because his friends didn't seem to know who he was. "When have I ever given you, or done something, to give you the idea that I would make a move on Aitana?"

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't think…" JJ was rather speechless on the matter. She honestly never considered that Spencer would react like this to something that seemed so innocent. She genuinely thought—and still thought today—that she was just helping to push two people who would be good together. She liked to think that she knew Spencer best so she was sure that Aitana would be a good fit...

Apparently, she'd been wrong.

"So I'm done giving you, Morgan and everyone else the ammunition to keep teasing me. I'm putting distance between us to stop the teasing," Spencer said, backtracking from JJ. "Because the last thing I want is for Aitana to think that I was only her friend to get her to go out with me!"

~ 0 ~

—

this at cm45 on google docs

Aitana made it her absolute mission to stay clear of Spencer for the rest of the case. It was ironic that she was now doing the avoiding, though it was definitely easy when Spencer didn't exactly try to talk to her. Aitana was smart enough to know that he eventually would, at least to clarify things and she didn't feel like she was apt for that conversation yet.

Of course, that didn't mean JJ wouldn't try to step in.

Aitana made herself scarce from the conference room when the team was there and since Spencer, Hotch and Rossi were currently in there...she was not. In fact, she'd been in the restroom for a good twenty minutes now. It was probably why JJ had come in.

"Don't say anything," Aitana warned when she saw the blonde through the sink mirror. "I don't...that was not my conversation to hear at all."

"I know," JJ said, unable to imagine how Aitana must feel at the moment. "But...you did hear it and you really only heard the worst of it."

"I wasn't supposed to hear anything," Aitana shook her head. "If he was mad at me before, he probably wishes I was dead now."

"You know, I don't really think Spencer could ever think like that about someone," JJ offered her a little smile.

"There's always a first," Aitana mumbled.

"Look, Aitana, Spencer was never mad at you. We talked about that—it was back and forth but we talked about—and it has nothing to do with you. It's sort of my fault too."

"C'mon JJ," Aitana sighed. "I did something bad and then I did something worse. Spencer is going to hate me, if he doesn't already."

"No, he's not. I think you and him are overdue for a conversation…"

Aitana cracked the first genuine smile the team had seen in a while. "That's rich from you, JJ."

JJ swayed her head. "I know but between you and me, he's going to come to you first. I see it."

Aitana turned away from the sinks, facing JJ with a saddened smile. "You're his best friend. He needs to come to you first. And, if by any chance he asks, tell him I'm not saying anything. The pieces that I heard — I'm not saying anything."

"I'm sure he knows that." JJ had no doubt about it. All Spencer could think about was the fact that Aitana now knew one of his worst past moments, and out of context too. Even if he was angry with JJ, she could still read him like a book. And the situation with Aitana was making him hurt.

~0~

With some help from the local group home in the neighborhood, the team was now tasked with interviewing 19 potential unsubs. Morgan and Emily were out scoping the area which left the team a bit shorthanded.

Aitana kept her attention solely on the men on her list. If she even for a second thought that Spencer might come near her, she bolted from the spot. She had no idea what to expect no matter what JJ said. She had a reputation for barging into conversations—her older brothers used to complain about it growing up—but this time seemed like the worst of all. She would have to set it aside after getting word of another potential victim gone missing.

Detective Moseley introduced the picture of the young girl to her in the bullpen. "She's been missing since last night."

Aitana nodded. "Okay, and the parents?"

"They're at the house. We're bringing her friends in for questioning."

"Good, yeah, um, I'll let the team know but you should get a start on the friends." Aitana took the rest of the information on the girl then turned fast for the conference room to relay the situation to them.

"Tammy Bradstone is similar to the previous 3 vics," Morgan said as Aitana pinned the blonde teenager's picture to their board.

"In appearance and age," JJ agreed.

"Apparently, she was at homecoming last night," Aitana stepped back from the board, "And said homecoming spot was right smack in the comfort zone."

"Morgan, Prentiss, you head over to the parents' home to start the interview," instructed Hotch. "We'll need to canvass the homecoming site too." His eyes flickered to the remaining profilers and internally sighed. Three out of the four were in awkward distances from each other. He nearly shook his head. "Reid, Rossi, head over now."

The relief was ever so palpable in the air. Unsurprisingly, Spencer was the first one to leave the room (and quickly). Rossi walked out a couple seconds later, expression bearing the 'I'm not dealing with this' on his face.

"I will fix it," JJ promised Hotch.

"Overwhelming him isn't going to do the trick," Hotch warned her. "Best to give him some time." His gaze soon drifted to Aitana who caught it in a second.

"I...heard something I shouldn't have," she explained in a quiet whisper. "And keeping true to my word—" she looked at JJ for that, "—I will not be repeating anything. I'm going to go see the friends' interviews." She couldn't possibly leave the room any quicker.

~ 0 ~

All other potential unsubs were dropped from the list once Morgan and Prentiss discovered that the victim's father had a brother who fit the profile perfectly. Cy Bradstone was their guy and now they needed to find him. And given that Cy had a deep obsession for the victim's mother, Lilah, it was fairly easy tricking him into coming to the house. As soon as he was there, he was arrested and brought back to the precinct.

"How's it going?" Morgan approached JJ at the interrogation window.

"Not well," JJ said, watching Hotch and Rossi practically yell at Cy in vain. "He's not giving anything up. Has Garcia found anything?"

Morgan shook his head. "No. Cy doesn't legally have any properties. If he has something, it's got to be old enough not to even register as property. Aitana's trying to help Garcia by going through Cy's history growing up, local places he may have visited."

"I think I should help," JJ said, deciding it had to be better than just watching the interrogation.

"Actually," Morgan said, blocking her way, "I sort of left her and Reid in the same room so, um, let's give it a minute...or ten."

JJ sighed. "Not going to work. You know that's also why he's upset with me, right? And you, for that matter."

Morgan made a face. "What did I do?"

"It's what we've been doing regarding, um…" JJ took a quick scan of the hallway to make sure there wasn't anybody nearby, "Our teasing about him and Aitana."

"What? We always do that. We do it every time there's a girl he might be interested in…"

"We struck a nerve with Aitana apparently," JJ shrugged. "I didn't mean to upset him…"

"Neither of us did," Morgan said, "But, frankly, I don't understand why we made him mad."

"I don't know either. I might be a little offended on behalf of Aitana, honestly, because she's been nothing but sweet."

"That's not like Reid," Morgan said confidently. There had to be something they were missing, something that no doubt was the reason Spencer was mad enough to put a heavy distance between himself and Aitana.

~0~

It took one short conversation between Cy and his brother to get the location of Tammy. As soon as the team had it, they moved out. They secured the small cabin before going in. Sure enough, Tammy Bradstone was lying unconscious inside.

"Look at her hands." Aitana's eyes had widened with horror. Tammy's hands were red, bumpy and throbbing.

"She's got a pulse," Emily said quickly after checking. She pressed a finger over her ear comm. "We need a medic in here!"

"This is downright horrible," Aitana mumbled to Emily when the medics rushed in. "To think it was her uncle…" And yet it wasn't even the worst they had seen.

They rushed Tammy to the hospital and while they had to head back to the precinct to clear up their stuff, they kept a close ear on Tammy's condition. By the time they were heading home on the jet, they were relieved to hear Tammy's high chances of getting back her sense of touch in her hands. Emily decided to inform Spencer herself since everybody else has fallen asleep on the jet. She slipped into the chair opposite of him to tell him.

"That's good. We got there in time," Spencer said, briefly raising his eyes from the book he was reading.

"I...heard Mr. Bradstone wants to watch the tape," Emily said after a moment.

Spencer didn't look as surprised as the others had been. "People have an innate curiosity to see things in order to confirm them."

Emily's eyebrows raised. She should have figured that he would say something like that. "Well, that explains why I'm going to Rossi's tomorrow night. I want to see if he really can cook. You coming?"

"I don't know. I'm not so sure I can make it," Spencer flatout lied and he knew it just like Emily did.

"Look, Reid, I know you're mad at us because we didn't tell you what really happened, and I understand that. But I promise you, we had no choice. You mourned the loss of a friend. I mourned the loss of 7." Emily's gaze was hard and at the same time weak in front of Spencer. "This whole thing gave me an ulcer. Please don't give me another one."

Spencer had to wonder in that moment if his anger was really worth causing that kind of look. He was caught up in his whirlwind of feelings that he never considered what Emily had to go through from her end of the situation.

"Please, talk with JJ again," Emily pleaded, "It really wasn't her fault. The situation required absolute discretion."

"We'll see," Spencer mumbled, eyes landing back on the page of his book.

"By tomorrow…"

"Mhm…"

With a sigh, Emily left the conversation at that. For the rest of the trip, nothing else was said nor done.

~0~

If somebody had told Spencer that he would be the one to go find JJ to talk, he would've called them crazy. But...here he was, knocking on JJ's front door the next day. JJ's shocked face was definitely something that reaffirmed Spencer's feelings.

"You're not busy are you?" He asked, feeling awkward as JJ led him inside the house. It was quiet.

"No, no, Will took Henry out for a boys' day."

"Okay, um, good…" Spencer swallowed hard, "I, um, Emily and I spoke last night. I get that you had to do it, not say anything, but…" How could he say 'you couldn't have told me?' without sounding selfish? The answer was: there wasn't a way. The realization hit him hard. "I'm sorry," he finally said. "As much as I would've wanted you to tell me, you really couldn't have."

JJ's eyes were quick to tear up. "I couldn't," she affirmed. "And I'm really sorry about that. You had no idea how hard it was to have you here hurting and there wasn't anything I could do."

Spencer nodded. "Wasn't a picnic on my end either. I'm sorry…"

JJ hugged him and to her utter relief, he hugged her back. She had her best friend back.

"Are you coming to Rossi's tonight?" she asked him, drawing away from him. "You know he'll be on you if you don't."

Spencer managed a small smile. "I don't know."

"The way to get better is to try," JJ reminded him. "It'll be our first gathering together since everything with Emily happened."

"I know," Spencer said, only just now realizing it too. "Maybe."

"You know…" JJ started, tilting her head, "Aitana said she for sure wasn't going."

At that, Spencer wasn't the least bit surprised and he couldn't at least pretend to be. What she must be thinking about him genuinely scared him. It was ironic that he had spent so much time being cautious in order for her not to think lowly of him and now it had blown up in his face.

"Spence, I understand why you were mad at me because of the situation with Emily but I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what is this disdain you have for Aitana. Morgan couldn't figure it out either."

"Please don't hurt my feelings." The fact Spencer had requested so earnestly left JJ even more confused.

"I don't understand, do you hate her?"

"No, of course not! I wouldn't have gone to such an extent to avoid her if I hated her."

"What?" JJ sighed. "Spence, you're going to have to walk me through this because I'm not getting it."

"You don't get it?" Spencer couldn't help the angry huff that came out of him. "JJ, what's not to get? I hate the idea that the people who know me best — my best friend," he gestured at her, "would think that I'm the type of guy who goes after a woman who already has a boyfriend!"

"What!?" JJ was absolutely sure that she had heard wrong. She had to. He couldn't think that she was trying to set him up with somebody who wasn't available. That would make her a terrible friend! Which is why he was irritated with you and Morgan...Now everything made perfect sense.

"C'mon!" Spencer turned away, taking a few irritated steps from her. "I take the teasing when it's harmless but you and Morgan took it to another level with Aitana. To constantly make jokes and try to push me to do something with her when she has a boyfriend speaks to what you think of me."

"You think Aitana has a boyfriend!?"

"She does! And it genuinely scared me thinking about what Aitana would say if she found out about this." It really did terrify Spencer. He loved spending time with her and the fact he had to stop them hurt more than he expected. "That's why I've done my best not to be so close to her now."

"We've noticed," JJ said, "She's definitely noticed."

"It's not my intention to make her feel bad," Spencer said, turning slightly to meet JJ's gaze. "It really wasn't. I just didn't know what else to do."

JJ rubbed her forehead. She might be getting a headache...or she might be wanting to laugh instead. The second choice might give Spencer the wrong idea, though, which was why she was resisting the urge. "Okay," she said after a moment in which she'd sucked in a deep breath, "This is one huge misunderstanding. Spencer, Aitana doesn't have any boyfriend. I don't know where you got that idea from."

"I didn't get the idea from anywhere—I know she has a boyfriend. It's fine, I don't care," Spencer said just a tad quick.

"No, she doesn't!" JJ exclaimed. "I would never push you to act if I knew that she had a boyfriend. That's not you, alright? I know that."

Spencer wanted to be relieved to hear that his best friend didn't think he was a girlfriend stealer, but things weren't making complete sense. "But...she does, JJ. I've seen him. We all have."

"Who the hell have you been seeing, then?" JJ asked, confused. "I speak to Aitana on a regular basis; I have since I talked her into joining the team. She doesn't have any boyfriend."

"Then what about Angel, then?" Spencer said, thinking that he'd challenged her. Now it was harder for JJ not to laugh, and this time she didn't make it. "It's not funny!" Spencer frowned.

"It kind of is—this whole thing is so horrendously funny!" JJ shook her head. "Spence, Angel isn't Aitana's boyfriend. He's her brother! Half brother but brother nonetheless! She's his little sister!"

Time slowed down for Spencer. JJ's words replayed in his head at least twice before he was able to form a coherent sentence. "He's...her...brother?"

JJ nodded slowly. "Yes! Aitana's father had a son with another woman before meeting Aitana's mother. Angel is the oldest brother out of three. It's him, Mateo, and then Aitana. Siblings."

Spencer brought a hand to his forehead and slowly pushed his hair back as he thought. Aitana's relationship with Angel always did seem to be on the playful side. He thought it was a nice atmosphere between the pair but it definitely made more sense knowing they were siblings. "This whole time...they've been brother and sister?"

"Yeah," JJ smiled softly at him, "Angel moved in with Aitana when she came out of WPP to help her out. He's been looking after her."

"I never considered…" Spencer released a breath, "I'm not...oh my God."

JJ patted his arm comfortingly, her smile still warm and kind. "Hey, it's a mistake anybody could've done."

"You didn't! Nobody else did!"

"Well...you've never been the best at social queues…" JJ said, offering him an apology afterwards. "If I had known that's what you thought, I would've set the record straight. Of course I know that you wouldn't go after somebody already in a relationship."

"I'm sorry," Spencer shook his head. "I'm an idiot." With all the degrees under his name, he didn't see this?

"A smart idiot," JJ amended. "But listen, we are good. I don't need an apology but I think that maybe you might want to go talk to Aitana."

"I don't know what to say to her," Spencer said quickly, the fear already rising at the idea of meeting with Aitana. "She heard me, JJ. I can't…"

"She heard a piece, not the story, and if you don't want to tell her that it's fine. You just need to clarify things," JJ said. "You can do that."

"What if she's scared?"

"She is because she doesn't have the story."

Spencer sighed. "Yeah..."

"C'mon, you fixed things with me. What's a little more talking going to do to you?"

"Bad things," Spencer didn't hesitate to answer. JJ laughed. "I have made a fool out of myself, JJ. She's going to be angry with me apart from already being afraid."

"Then you best get going. I'd like to see her at tonight's dinner. We want the whole team together."

Spencer knew it was the fair thing to do — the fair thing that Aitana deserved.

~ 0 ~

It would take a little bit of research to find out where Aitana was in the afternoon. On the rare off days that they had from the BAU, Spencer didn't really know what Aitana got up to.

He was a little surprised to hear that she had a class at a dance studio. Of course, he knew that his surprise wouldn't compare to the shock that Aitana probably felt when she came out of said studio and saw him waiting. This time, she didn't have anywhere to run to. The studio was closing and her duffel bag weighed down on her shoulder.

"How'd you know where to find me?" It was the first thing that came to her mind once she was able to think a little more clearly.

"I, uh, I went to your house first. Angel was there and he told me." Spencer offered her one of his awkward smiles. He didn't want to seem like he'd been going through her life again, not with that journal incident still hanging between them.

"Oh, right." Aitana never really considered the fact someone might go looking for her during her lessons and much less that her big-mouth-brother would say something.

Spencer's eyes flickered over her to see the studio. "You're taking classes?"

"Sort of," Aitana cleared her throat. Her hand began gripping the strap of her duffel bag. "When I quit the FBI, I had some more time on my hands and Elia convinced me to come here to take some folklore dance classes again. Of course this wasn't really a normal class. Now that I'm back at the BAU, I sort of have like individual classes to catch up on what I've missed."

"That sounds great," Spencer said, "I remember a picture that Elia showed me the first time we met. You, uh, you had a competition?"

Aitana smiled slightly. "Yeah, um, we did. I won second place. If this goes well…" she gestured back to the studio, "We might enter the competition they're hosting for the Day of the Dead this year. Months away, I know, but practice takes forever."

"Commendable considering everything else on your plate," Spencer remarked, earning a small hum of agreement.

"But could you...could you keep this to yourself for now? I-I don't really want the team knowing. It's something I'm not entirely sure I want to keep doing yet…"

"Of course, yeah," Spencer nodded. It was the least he could do for her after everything. "Um, Aitana, I need to talk to you."

Aitana expected as much. It just didn't mean she wasn't nervous about it. "You don't have to," she said weakly. She wasn't saying it entirely for his sake. She was afraid of what he would say to her.

"I do," Spencer insisted. "What you heard...about the...the um…" He struggled so much to say the damn word as if he didn't used to crave it all the time.

"You don't have to say anything about that, Spencer," Aitana whispered. She could see the conflict in his eyes and she didn't want to be the reason for it. "I'm no one to judge nor to demand stories."

"You're my friend," Spencer corrected. "And I have been a pretty lousy friend in return."

"Did I...did I do something to make you angry with me?" Aitana couldn't help herself from asking. It was the question that she kept thinking about every day for a while now. The possibilities were driving her crazy.

"No, no," Spencer said fast, "It was...I thought...you know what? It doesn't matter what I thought. I had some issues and I took them out on you." It was close enough to the truth.

"But what did you think?" Aitana pressed for a better answer. "I mean, it would be better to know so that I don't make you think that again."

"It's nothing to do with you, Aitana. It was something personal. And, like I said, it was very unfair of me to take it out on you. I'm really sorry."

"It's alright, as long as...well...as long as you're not mad at me anymore?" Aitana said nervously. "Because I have to say that I really miss you. And I'm not talking about study sessions. I miss my friend."

"Me too," Spencer smiled down at her. He missed being around her and having their study sessions. He didn't really think about how much it had helped him when he came to JJ's place to stay over. Aitana had the talent to lift anybody's mood no matter how down they were, and he had been very down for a while.

"And about...what I heard...you don't have to worry about that. It's not coming out of my mouth ever," Aitana promised him.

"I know you wouldn't but everybody already knows," Spencer said, biting down on his bottom lip. "It was...it was a long time ago. I didn't choose to take it the first time. This unsub, he had a dual personality, and he kidnapped me. One of his personalities injected me with Dilaudid so many times to help me get through those hard moments, his way of helping me. Of course it didn't really help me in the end...I became addicted."

"Oh Spencer, I'm so sorry," Aitana whispered. She couldn't really say anything else but that. Her own traumatic experiences were nothing like that.

"When I said...that to JJ, it just came out. I shouldn't have said that at all," Spencer continued. He had started and now he would finish it. "Addictions are not dependent on someone. It's just...when Emily's supposed death was just recent, I felt terrible."

"Did you go anywhere near it?" Aitana asked him.

"No," Spencer shook his head. "That's also why I kept coming to JJ's. I was afraid of what I could do during the nights if I was on my own. I needed help, I just didn't know how to ask for it."

"But you did, in your own way," Aitana pointed out, expressing her pride in hopes that he would feel the same for himself. "I think you should focus on that because it speaks to your determination to not fall again."

Spencer smiled softly at her. "Thank you," he said. There went her talent again. His mood was definitely being lifted. "Really, thanks." Aitana nodded. "If you're feeling up to it, you should come by Rossi's tonight. He's making dinner."

Aitana chuckled. "Yeah, I told them I couldn't make it. I had dance and, um…" She didn't want to outright say that she wasn't going because of him but Spencer figured that out long before.

"I'll go if you go," Spencer proposed.

"You're going?"

"Yeah, I mean...I've never really seen Rossi's house—mansion."

"Is it really a mansion?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm…" Aitana bit her bottom lip, feigning a pensive moment, "I mean...if you go...maybe I can too…"

"Great! I'll meet you there, then?"

"Yeah, okay!" Aitana finally agreed. It would be completely different if they were both going on good terms.

~ 0 ~

Everyone was nearly gathered in front of Rossi later that night. He had several bowls of ingredients and one whole pot of spaghetti noodles ready to go. Glasses of red wine were placed on the isle in front of the team but were not to be drunk before the food was ready. JJ found that out the hard way when she dared to take a sip. Aitana was second to last in arriving and even though it was a little late, she was still welcomed.

"I see things are almost done," she hummed. She eyed the several cups and plates with the yet to be added ingredients. "All this, Rossi?" she asked, causing a break of laugh from the others when Rossi deadpanned her.

"You all asked me to show you the right way to make spaghetti," he reminded, "Yes, you need all of these spices."

"Rossi," Aitana giggled, "I'm Mexican. I eat, sleep and breathe spices." The laughter increased by tenfold. "I'm serious! Even our candy has spice in it!"

While Aitana had a little back and forth with Rossi, Spencer arrived. He was a little startled with the room but since everyone else was laughing, including both Aitana and Rossi, he figured he'd missed a joke.

"You know what, Rossi? I am not questioning your clearly authentic spaghetti," Aitana said with her hands raised in front of her. "I was just saying—"

"Zit!" Rossi pointed at her with his wooden spoon.

The others snickered again while Aitana ducked her head much like a reprimanded child would. She felt a nudge on her side and glanced to her right to see Spencer. He was smiling but he was struggling not to outright laugh at her like everyone else.

"Shut up," she rolled her eyes and whipped her head away from him. That time, Spencer did laugh a little bit.

[rtgame]

why does everyone hate overwatch and especially overwatch 2? i know ppl hate it but i never see anyone say why. if anyone else wants to offer opinions in the notes i'd love to hear them. i'm not defending the game(s) i'm just curious

ok so recovering from surgery has fucked up my sleep schedule so bad i'm actually up and at my pc to answer this at 7 am on a sunday bc i have a lot to say and i didn't want to type this all out on my phone lol. (also i have to take my antibiotics in an hour so i might as well get up) this is going to be LONG because i have a lot of thoughts and a lot of reasons

i think the biggest one, just to get it out of the way, is that blizzard had a MASSIVE scandal over sexual harassment. this basically changed everyone's opinions on every blizzard property, but from what i understand, the overwatch team actually didn't have a harassment problem (FROM WHAT I KNOW), but obviously it still affected people's perception of the game and i'm not defending blizzard on this issue. i think several people should die over this.

anyways, i think one of the big things was blizzard randomly announced overwatch 2 back in 2019 to distract from them banning a pro hearthstone player over supporting the hong kong protests in an interview. the development of overwatch 2 brought overwatch 1 to a COMPLETE fucking standstill like. there was literally no actual update for 3 years because they moved the entire dev team to overwatch 2 so overwatch 1 was updated by a skeleton crew, which a lot of people weren't happy about (me included). the only real difference between 1 and 2, when 2 was announced, was that it was gonna have PVE, which was already weird because in the past they said PVE was going to be in overwatch 1 and now it's not?

and then overwatch 2 finally comes out and it's like. there's no PVE. it's "coming later." they later admit that the PVE campaign was cancelled back in 2021 (remember overwatch 2 came out late 2022) BUT THEN KEPT ADVERTISING THAT OVERWATCH 2 WAS GONNA HAVE THE PVE CAMPAIGN? THEY LITERALLY JUST LIED TO EVERYONE FOR A FUCKING YEAR?

it took like 3 years for overwatch 2 to come out and at launch, all it had to offer was 3 new heroes and a few new maps and its like, if they just kept developing overwatch 1 we would've had way more by 2022.

overwatch 2 is also free to play, which is like, that's fine on paper, yay everyone gets to play it, but in practice it means that overwatch 2 is rife with microtransactions. skins cost like $26. new heroes cost AT LEAST $10 depending on when you buy them (or you can spend a ridiculous amount of time unlocking them for free) and its like. i fucking bought overwatch 1 for $40, these characters and skins would've been goddamn free in overwatch 1, i'm not spending money on this. ALSO I SPENT $40 TO BUY THIS GAME WHY THE FUCK AM I SPENDING MORE MONEY TO UNLOCK CHARACTERS???? there's some PVE missions available in game now but they're nothing like what was promised and they. also. obviously. cost. fucking. money. and i already spent $40 on the first game.

also there's a battle pass now for monetization reasons and i fucking hate most battle passes. the microtransactions in this game are fascinating because they make the overwatch 1 loot boxes look good.

also, they started the overwatch league in 2018, which is like, professional overwatch gaming, and i really liked watching it (and even went to some games irl) (i won a raffle there once!), but then they started balancing the game around the pro competitive scene which kinda made it hard for casuals to enjoy because they would keep changing the casual game mode (quick play) to be more in line with competitive, which was getting balanced around like 0.001% of players, which just made it less fun lol.

+ when they released overwatch 2, it went from 6v6 to 5v5 which was a change i never liked because my usual team was 6 people so this means that we have to rotate someone out, and they removed the 2nd tank role when switching the game to 5v5 which was uh... my main role was off tank... which they fucking removed.... because the game's 5v5 now. my main (dva) feels borderline unplayable in 5v5 because she kinda just sucks now lol. idk i don't really like the flow of the game or how short team fights are with 5v5 and i absolutely hate being the only tank. i think 6v6 was the perfect balance for overwatch but that's been thrown out the window.

ALSO they removed capture point maps which i actually did enjoy and im still salty over this

tldr basically it's like. overwatch 1 died for 3 years and blizzard killed its momentum for overwatch 2 but then overwatch 2 has literally nothing new to it and it's just overwatch 1 but worse. we waited 3 years for literally nothing.

although, i will say i saw a lot of people online make fun of the game when they announced lifeweaver because he's, iirc, a pansexual thai man, and honestly, that never sat right with me because like. it was a bunch of online leftists making fun of the game for being.... too diverse? or feeling like it was checking off a list and i was never comfortable with it because like, even just 6 years ago we would not have gotten a character like him in an AAA game. i think it's because one of the studios under blizzard posted their "diversity tool" that they used to diversify their game and it was really fucking weird and gave points to characters depending on their race and sexuality and etc, and i think they even used overwatch characters as an example, which was REALLY weird, because the tool was being used by king and not the team developing overwatch and even the dev team called it out like "we don't fucking use this, what is this shit lol, stop using our characters for this"

also lifeweaver was made by a thai person on the team to represent his own culture so i genuinely don't think he was made with the diversity tool lol.

idk i still think representation is important and i think making fun of him was weird since like. pan thai men definitely exist irl. idk. it was weird as fuck and this is probably the only thing i'll actively defend overwatch on. #LeaveLifeweaverAlone or whatever. i mean he sucks in game but that's bc his abilities are lame and his healing is shit, not because he's pan lol

but also why do they keep making their japanese characters ninjas lol. i like playing kiriko but man why can they all wall climb.

also like, the final thing, regarding everyone else hating it is like, im gonna be blunt, i think a lot of times the internet will just randomly turn on something it loved (marvel (rightfully honestly), borderlands, someone provide more examples) and say it sucks/its cringe/etc because loving something is #Cringe and hating everything is #Cool or whatever, and overwatch has reached that phase of its life, and all the issues i mentioned above really didn't fucking help. the internet adores its hate trains yknow

idk genuinely my relationship with overwatch is super fucking complicated as someone who loved/loves the game. i really do like a lot of the characters and i think the game is still fun SOMETIMES, but it's definitely lost that spark it had in 2016 thanks to shit management and blizzard focusing on the wrong things. i think a lot about a world where blizzard didn't suck and overwatch never had all this shit happen to it.

also WOW IM SORRY this is so rambly i've had like 4 hours of sleep and this is just something i do feel strongly about since the game is/was important to me and quite literally changed my life, so it sucks to see how it turned out. when i was 16 i really was enamored by this game where the whole premise was fighting for the future and it was just optimistic about the future, and i think that really was important for me at the time, as dumb as that is. a game being like "hey, the future's gonna be awesome" during a year that was really nerve-wracking for me was something i did need at the time. it really does suck that overwatch's own future wasn't as bright as the future it was envisioning.

[soullessjack]

Happy friendly Friday, Cal!

This is related to your Jack-as-caretaker-protector ramblings. In 13x20 Unfinished Business, we get this little nugget from a very green, overconfident Jack and Mary about protecting people.

MARY: I don't know how we'll keep everybody safe. On Jack-- that weighs on him. These are HIS people. Then--

Interestingly, not too long after this, Jack comes to a very Cas-like conclusion. Once the refugees are safe with Sam, Dean, and Cas and on their way to the rift, Jack puts on his little backpack and tries to sneak away to confront AU Michael on his own.

///

There's also this line from 13x20 that speaks to Jack's drive to keep the group safe. (He's learning a lot of this from Mary! She's his vizier and guidepost when it comes to learning how to fight for others.) Although Jack is a mirror to Sam's impatience in 13x21 Beat the Devil, his focus is still very much on the idea of safety, even if his way of going about it is foolish and arrogant.

JACK: I'll keep us safe. I promise.

///

Anyway, I think there's an obvious callback both to what Sam says about Dean in 13x02 re:protecting people and what Dean says to Death in 15x18:

13x02 The Rising Son:

JACK: Why would he be afraid? SAM: Because Dean feels like it’s his job to protect everyone.

15x18 Despair:

DEAN: It's over. Call it off. Stop killing my people! BILLIE: (panting with effort and pain) I didn't hurt your friends. DEAN: What? BILLIE: (laughs) You're in the wrong place, Dean.

Also, in the beginning of 15x18, we got this:

JACK: (crying) God, The Empty, Billie... Everyone's so mad at us, and I don't have my powers. There's nothing I can do to protect us. Castiel looks away, nodding. He knows Jack is right. JACK: I'm scared, Cas. CAS: I know. Me, too.

///

But back to season 13. There's Mary, who feels so drawn to helping the people in 13x22 Exodus that she wants to stay in the AU world! I think Jack definitely inherited her value system a little bit, too.

MARY: I'm not going back...I fought beside these people. I respect them. I respect their cause. You can’t expect me to just abandon them.

///

Lastly, I think we've talked a little bit about the Dark!Kaia and Jack parallel, but I think of Kaia's line in 14x09 The Spear to Dean and Cas (who are both obvious, well-established family protectors).

DARK KAIA: You have people you feel bound to protect-- to save. So do I.

///

(Text Attributions// Supernatural scripts here via @spnscripthunt. Transcripts are located here via SPNWiki. Visit their Tumblr to donate.)

///

Anyhoo, the question! I know that the main characters rotate with who's battening down to protect large groups versus who's committing to protecting small, close-knit family units, but I do think these lines speak to some of Jack's inner drives to protect everyone. This strong protector-drive is why he overreacts to the poor gas station worker and nearly chokes him to death after Maggie is murdered.

I feel like Jack tries to embody Dean's batten-down-the-hatches caretaking model, "everyone work together to keep everyone safe," and Cas's lone wolf protector model, "go out there on your own if you have to in order to keep threats away." I'm not leaving Sam out, but although Jack is shown to be very observant and good at thinking on his feet when it comes to casework, when he's backed into a corner, he doesn't seem to naturally reach for Sam's problem-solving mode the same way he does the other two. Sam's model is to be rigorously academic and consult the lore to an obsessive degree. Sam wants to be the man with the (sometimes balls-to-the-wall-insane) plan.

I think that's why in Ouroboros, Dean-Cas-Jack hilariously bail on research to go eat in a diner, and they leave the fussy details to Sam and Rowena. I think characters like Patience Turner and even Harper Sayles would probably hunker with Sam and Rowena and (as Cas so dryly puts it in Ouroboros) "their many, many books."

But I think Jack prefers to do his "book reading and hunting homework" ahead of time, not so much during. During the case, he seems like he prefers to be hands-on: he studiously assess the situation in front of him. Examples: noticing Athena's boyfriend in a photo, checking out Harper's apartment in a hands-on manner, noticing details about the cursed girl and the witch, etc.

:-)

hi shal!!! ooh, this is a juicy one! you never disappoint 🫶🫶

I think Jack’s need to overprotect is, shockingly, rooted in his own self fear, and a product of the many complexes sam and dean accidentally gave him—this one, particularly, is the savior complex sam instilled with his 13x02 line “We need to protect you, but we might also need to protect others from you.” It’s a confusing and upsetting dichotomy to process, and to me it echoes back to Sam’s demon blood arc when he felt that saving as many people as he could on various cases would keep him good; if you can find a way to be The Savior, then you can avoid becoming The Monster. and of course, after Sam and Jack’s subsequent falters into becoming The Monster in their own respective arcs, they strive to be The Savior again as a way to amend for being The Monster. It’s a continuation of their shared complex (another vicious cog in the abuse machine), and it only continues further and further with every falter; every act of monstrousness has to be amended with an act of saving, whether that’s to save your own soul or to apologize or both.

It’s also a good addition to the idea that Jack attaches their sense of identity into fulfilling roles and purposes; they don’t want to be what they think they truly are, they’re scared to death of who they are and everybody else hates him for it anyways, so he might as well just be what everyone wants and soak up the affection–even if it’s conditional (not to mention the added bonus of further distancing himself from Lucifer in the process). That brings me back to Sam and his many complexes.

// I don’t mean to give Sam so much flack for his parental shortcomings, but at the same time I don’t think he’s given enough flack for them, so viva la vida, baby! Sam sucks at being a dad too!

This time, it’s the can-opener complex: the one where having a purpose (opening a rift to save Mary) and being useful (digging up graves) are the grounds for basic respect and humanity, rather than them already being inherent to Jack as a living person. Ergo, Jack feels that he has to be useful to be considered “good” or loved, and that coincides perfectly with his savior complex, because now he has a role to play and a purpose to justify him existing! And yet again, this is made even worse with Jack’s personal failings and Acts Of Monstrousness, especially the ones done while he’s soulless. By this point in time, he’s literally a guilt-stricken post-psychotic fully jaded shell of a half-human, completely traumatized and utterly despaired over the sheer destruction he continuously wrought despite his intentions, and the capacity for violence he’s always held as an innate part of what makes him a monster / like Lucifer.

While still fighting to be useful as a bomb, Jack has completely lost faith in the idea that he can be Good or a Savior anymore—even though his S15 sacrifice was outwardly meant to save the world, it was really just an act of suicide and amendment for his monstrousness. Even their final purpose as a literal living weapon is just the begrudging acceptance of his true nature; he’s a monster, a weapon, something that will forever hurt and destroy the world around him as is innate to him. So, why not make some scrap of good on himself and just direct the blast towards someone who deserves it?

[desktopdisko]

Desktop Disko's A-Rotation Top 50 (2024 #04)

Youtube Musicvideo Playlist: DD's A-Rotation Playlist 2024 #04

01 Ão: More 02 Yard Act feat. Katy J. Pearson: When the Laughter Stops 03 Depeche Mode: Before We Drown 04 Phoebe Go: 7 Up 05 Luna Shadows: Little Rituals 06 Sevana: Keep Going - Chosen 07 Still Corners: The Dream 08 The Mysterines: Stray 09 Abigail Rose: Run Girl 10 Kali Uchis & Peso Pluma: Igual que un Ángel

11 Grace Cummings: On and On 12 Drahla: Default Parody 13 Dua Lipa: Training Season 14 Another Sky: I Never Had Control 15 Britti: Lullaby 16 Kacey Musgraves: Deeper Well 17 Purple Disco Machine x ÁSDÍS: Beat of Your Heart 18 Bolis Pupul with Salah Pupul: Ma Tau Wai Road 19 The Lemon Twigs: My Golden Years 20 Rachel Chinouriri: Never Need Me

21 Yard Act: We Make Hits 22 Amatorski: 20/04 23 Ibibio Sound Machine: Got to Be Who U Are 24 Raven Numan: My Reflection 25 Sunday (1994): Tired Boy 26 Magnets: Speak 27 Lo Moon: Water 28 Vampire Weekend: Capricorn 29 St. Vincent: Broken Man 30 Dua Lipa: Houdini

31 The Beatles: Now and Then 32 Jessica Pratt: Life Is 33 Rosie Frater-Taylor: Give & Take 34 English Teacher: Albert Road 35 Novastar: Look at You Now 36 Billy Joel: Turn the Lights Back On 37 Beth Gibbons: Floating on a Moment 38 Norah Jones: Running 39 The Last Dinner Party: Caesar on a TV Screen 40 DellaXOZ: Don't Do It

41 Caroline Polachek feat. Weyes Blood: Butterfly Net 42 Low Hum: Only If You Say So 43 Kevin Holliday: Brown Eyes 44 Bat for Lashes: The Dream of Delphi 45 Leona Naess: Tailspin 46 The Blinders: Swallowing Static 47 Maggie Rogers: Don't Forget Me 48 And They Spoke in Anthems: Leave (Leave, Leave) 49 Bwana: Lonely Happy 50 Lauren Eve Scheff: Nothing to Prove (NEW)

[vertebreakher]

Hello! I've been looking for projects on Godot that have rail grinding mechanics to understand how to do mine (I'm developing a 3d platformer, and I'm new to coding). I was wondering if you could explain some of your process. My approach so far is having a rail scene to then import it to the main scene with the player. In this rail scene, my tree hierarchy goes like this: Node3D, then Path3D as a child of Node3D, and lastly, pathFollow3D and CSGPolygon3D as children of Path3D. I'm very lost!

Never! I'll take my secrets to my grave! (Kidding, I'd be very happy to explain.) Currently I have a Path3D node as the root of the rail scene. Keeping the Path3D as the root is important so that when you place it within your level you can select and edit the path itself easily. You should also enabled "Local to Scene" in the Curve3D resource of the Path3D so that each instance has a completely unique path.

I have a CSGPolygon3D node as a direct child of the Path3D, with its Mode property set to Path and the Path Node assigned to its direct parent. I've also enabled "Path Local" which keeps the location of the rendered CSGPolygon consistent with its parent.

That's the basic setup for the path and its visual component, which should apply to whatever your goals are just fine. Beyond that is actual functionality, and its worth noting I went for a very atypical physics driven system so while my knowledge is probably applicable to what you're trying to do I might have takes that are pretty different from the recommendations of others.

The typical approach I see often would be to add a PathFollow3D node as a child of the Path3D. It's important to note that the PathFollow node does not change location or have any easy function for providing a location along its parent Path. Instead, PathFollow nodes directly alter and effect the location of their own children based on the "progress" variable. So the ideal hierarchy for them would be Path3D > PathFollow3D > [The Node3D you want moved]. Generally people make a RemoteTransform3D a child of the PathFollow3D, then assign their character to that. Personally I find that implementation to be very cumbersome. It might be because I desire more complex behavior from grind rails but I prefer path following behavior to be handled by the character rather than the path itself. And I don't like the process of coupling and uncoupling a character to a RemoteTransform because it won't necessarily play nice with the state the character was already in or be useful for providing information when the character wants to leave the path. However If you aren't keen on working with vector math and you're trying to minimize the amount of complex code needed to get a working result it will probably be ideal, which is likely why its the most recommended method.

My preferred implementation is to instead assign the Path3D node to a variable in the character when they begin railgrinding. The Curve3D resource in a path 3D can be accessed from the "curve" variable, and has a number of very useful functions for getting information on location along a path, offsetting that location, and getting the orientation/angle of a path. Namely: * get_closest_point(): which takes a point in local space and returns the closest matching point on the curve * get_closest_offset(): which is similar but returns a float representing progress along the length of the curve * sampled_baked_with_rotation(): which takes a float and returns a transform with rotation (optionally with tilt)

So if you wanted to go for the simplest implementation possible you could use get_closest_offset() and add or subtract from it, then provide that to sample_baked_with_rotation(), to get a destination transform your player character could move towards.

There is an additional challenge which is you need to know when the character is close enough to a rail to starting railgrinding. This can be accomplished easily by adding an Area3D node with a sphere shape as a child of your Path3D. Then make the Area3D move to the closest point along the path to your character with code very similar to this:

This way the character will intersect with the Area3D when close enough to the path, and you can set up the exchanging of information between the path and the character using signals. I'm not especially used to being asked for advice but I feel happy to be sought out, so hopefully I've provided some helpful information!

[sarandipitywrites]

Hi Saran! Happy Blursday right back! (Loved your ask btw but I'm gonna have to get to it later. I'm in drafting mode haha)

What would be your blorbo's villain origin story? What things would have to happen, what beliefs of theirs would have to change, to turn them evil?

Or if your blorbo is already evil, what might get through to them, make them see the error of their ways?

i have been rotating this question in my head so aggressively.

so i've been thinking about this for Lienzo (from The Art of Empty Space) and at first i was thinking that so, so much would have to change for him to go dark side. i mean the entire premise of the story only works because of his complete inability to take advantage of other people. but, as it turns out, i think that could easily have gone the other way for him.

little bit of backstory: Lienzo's father, Xiro, left the family when Lienzo was about 16. Lienzo stayed behind with his parent, Phi. Lienzo has since tried to distance himself from Xiro, and tried to model Phi's traits and beliefs instead.

but what if he'd left with Xiro?

Xiro takes care of others for as long as it benefits him, but finds it difficult to stay when he perceives that he's putting more in than the other person is (or can). So he probably would have allowed Lienzo to stick around for a while (as he'd already taught Lienzo the basics of trapping game during his childhood), but as Lienzo became more proficient at trapping and, later, hunting, he would probably get tired of Xiro's flighty nature and go his own way. on his travels he would certainly encounter untethered monsters - crossroad dealers, dracolisks, and the like - and find that people are willing to pay him to kill such things.

when the news of the curse on the capital reached him (especially the rumors of monsters in the forest), he would go investigate to see if there was a monster to be slayed. he would meet Gerania, but he wouldn't question faer assertion that the beast in the keep needed to be killed to end the curse. he would catch the beast, as he does in the true storyline, but this Lienzo wouldn't hesitate.

thanks for the ask (and fun thought experiment)!

[aureliacetinn]

Differently designed: Barbra gordon as Chariot

Elseworld Gotham knight:

Chariot.

Chariot Combat is based on the idea her chair is

Her transport

Her weapon

&

Her symbol of justice

Chariot uses wayne tech inspired by batwing armour as well as the batmobile and nightwings bike to protect gotham.

The chair has 2 modes: pursuit and combat

Pursuit mode is inspired by racing wheelchairs as seen below. Transferring powerful jolts of kinetic and electric energy stored in her gloves(Gloves designs inspired by wheelchair racing gloves), Chariot can achieve high speeds by simply pushing her chair in either mode.

360 grapple hooks and projectile shooters.

The 3rd wheel is based on existing collapsable wheel prototypes, and stores underneath her chair's seat when not in use. When shifting into pursuit mode, the 3rd wheel extends to the front of her chair, while her seat adjusts to a racing position. Her seat tilts forward while her non-functioning legs are tucked and held underneath, giving her more control while allowing more energy with each push.

Chair mounted grappling hooks allow Barbara to handle anything from gaps to sharp turns, to elevation. While not used in pursuit mode,

the smaller rear support wheels are able to quickly disperse smoke pellets from behind. The chair also has electrified panels similar to the batmobile, along with a reinforced front cover for protection, but also a clear view of the targeting and computer system. For chariot pursuit mode allows her to travel farther faster and even take out vehicles. We went through many designs before we were happy, integrating ideas from paraplegic designs adapted for motorbikes and racing cars and speaking to people who have made such things and own personal experience with adaptations..

Combat mode is more similar in design to rugby and basketball chairs; The combat mode uses the concealed 3rd wheel to help with rotation and can adjust its size to help with more precise movements. The same weapons available in pursuit mode also exist here in combat mode.

In addition, the armour is more compacted and focused on protecting and securing Chariot while still allowing her to use her signature new weapons the dual staffs.

For any wondering how you fight in a chair, I recommend googling wheelchair boxers, breakdancers, and fencers. Along with my personal experience, I can tell you although it's harder to hit someone in the face you are still dangerous and capable if you know how to fight.

Now onto to chariots outfit and design herself.

(barba outfit showing a purple with yellow hue highlight race suit with better                  placed weapon and bataragns and showing her now atrophied legs and her helmet having the kind of bat ears her cape and the like and her weapon that comes out of gloves.)

Barbra Gordon has SCI a spinal cord injury not much other detail is explained, though it seems she did not develop lose of movement in her other nerves across her body which can often occur. So, going on this I was disappointed with oracle design, as she would develop loss of muscle in her legs and her body shape would change, so I implemented that design as shown.

Onto her gadgets she has her utility belt heavily kept loose but connected to prevent nerve compression and clots inside she has all standard gadgets, her thigh holsters are for her batarangs places there so in either chair form she can fire easily. Now on to the gloves the main charge literally, the can be used as a stun as a way to overcharge the chair and opponents, it also is where her extendable and eject-able polearm lies allow her to reach anyone she needs, there are also gas pellets able to be projected and even batarangs if she so chooses.

(Gauntlet have bat spikes arms but also show that they reveal pole-weapon but also function as projectile)

Cape wise you need to have a cape, but we kept it short and simple hardens as she rides to protect her back literally.

All in all, I feel this design keeps her connection to the bat family while also being more as to what a paraplegic hero needs. Also, I'd like to point out, while Barbara was Oracle, her chair design was terrible for her spinal injury.  Without a strap belt, she would be constantly falling out of that chair. I  DO understand the reason why chairs can be hard but it still vexes me. Most of us can agree that Barbara was thrown in the fridge during the Killing Joke, an issue that persists in comics. Even so, I feel how her character was handled afterward, confining her to the “wheelchair-bound hacker” was an even bigger waste!

We could have had a disabled icon, something you rarely see, a tech-heavy hero with endless creativity, and just maybe Barbra could have had a real story and a real fight, not just slight moments till she was suddenly fixed. Which by the way is quite offensive. But I know DC the universe reboots and status quos maintained, which is why I offer an Elseworlds alternative.

The only comic I could find was the oracle code by Marieke Nijkamp which was an Elseworlds story, I liked it for showing that disabled people are forgotten and the medical world still has a very eugenics view still of disability. However, she still only became Oracle, and she wasn’t connected to batman at all. Then there was her choosing to stay inside her world and not be in the outside world which is a shame. So many of us disabled people are trapped inside, and it feels like a missed opportunity to not show her in the outside world striding along with her friends. But, she wasn’t fridged though that was a nice change.

What I'm trying to say with all this is: We had a chance a real chance to have a hero in the mainstream that still fought alongside DC's greatest heroes and wasn’t relegated to behind the scenes, or something to be pitied. Now I know some people loved it, and I'm not saying if a disabled person felt inspired by Oracle that’s bad, she isn’t. I'm just trying to explain that we are forgotten, and media has yet to reflect us positively, being productive members of society. Barbara as Oracle brings this point home to me and it’s a shame. So many times, I have felt offended by Barbara's treatment and characterization, only finding enjoyment in the shorts birds of prey run. But even then, I still felt her seen as inspiration porn when used, instead of a real person.  Of course, I understand why the decision was made, why would an able-bodied creator think this? Especially with the reason, it happened was to do a joker story. I get it, that’s why we made this, there are other options there are different designs we can do, and we hope this shows you how awesome we can be with just a different perspective.

Theses opinions are my own and since this was a big load of work id like to thank @gaminghippy for his help especially with chariots outfit, support and input into mechanical designs crow, cj, vinnie, sassie and slug and the disabled community whom I spoke to for research. But there are 2 I want to specially thank @mgiht_be_evil for been my co designer and who edited this speech minus here I may do all the art, but this never would have happened without you none of this series would. And, to my amar who is the one whose always deemed our disabilities as superhuman. All opinions are mine and my teams we bare no hate just alternatives.

[chinzhilla-main]

Hi! Would you share some tips on how to achieve the colouring of this gif set maybe? /720060252150808576/for-pscentral-event-16-pride-colorsand It looks so beautiful! I love how you coloured Buck so much! Have a great weekend!

hi!! first of all, sorry this took a minute. life, you know. anyways thank you so much for your kind words, i'm so glad you liked the set!! and i'm always happy to share techniques and resources so never hesitate to ask!

since you asked for tips and not a tutorial, i'm going to assume you have a handle on the basics and try to keep this fairly general. if you want a more in-depth explanation for anything just let me know!

so most of this was achieved with a combination of adjustment layers (mostly the love of my life selective color) and color/gradient layers, and a whole lot of layer masking. my first tip is use timeline mode and familiarize yourself with the stopwatch controls, particularly the layer mask position stopwatch. i'm just gonna direct you to the first half of this tutorial if you're unfamiliar. this set would've taken me waaaay longer if i'd had to rework the masks frame by frame, since i was moving the masks for multiple layers on each gif

now for the colors themselves, tip #2 is don't rely only on solid color/gradient layers for colorful gifs. it's certainly possible to get something decent with just a base coloring and a fill layer set to blending mode>color, and that may be what you want depending on context (that's exactly what i did with poker buck in the first gif!). but that's gonna be a really stark (heh) effect, and for the brother, babygirl, and bisexual gifs i wanted them to look soft and warm and glowy, so for those i adjusted the backgrounds to fit with my blue/purple/pink palette AND used color fills and gradients on top of that

for example, on the gif of buck and maddie hugging, in addition to my base coloring i have two selective color layers to shift the background from yellow/red closer to pink and bring out the blue in buck's shirt, a violet photo filter to tone down the reds even further, and and pink solid color layer set to soft light at 49% opacity (all of those were masked so that maddie's face wasn't bright pink or whatever)

that's all under the gradient layer that went on top (which is set to hard light, 50% opacity). below on the left is that same gradient set to color, 100% opacity, without any of the other adjustment layers underneath. it certainly doesn't look bad, but it's a very different look to the one on the right, which is the one i went with

this brings me to my next tip, which is play around with blending modes. i'm sure you know they all have wildly different effects, but don't shy away from any of them, cause today might just be the day that hard mix gives you the look you want. like normally when i'm doing a glowy gradient on top of everything i go for lighten or screen, but i happened to mostly use hard and soft light in this set (this video is a godsend for understanding the different blending modes - if you have a free afternoon i definitely recommend browsing this guy's channel. you will learn so much)

the last thing i'll mention is the gradient i used. rather than generating a gradient fill in photoshop i took this texture (which i wish i could link the source to but it's from a pack i downloaded ages and i have no idea where i got it):

made it bi:

and then stretched/rotated it differently in each gif so that there was some variation. having that softness and slight variations in vibrance and luminosity helped with the overall warm glowy feel i was going for, which i don't think i would have have gotten just by using a gradient fill layer

and that's about it for the colorful gifs in that set. as for the others, the first gif really is as straightforward as it looks: a blue->purple gradient set to color on poker buck, and a pink overlay on buck in turnouts, blended so that the colors overlap and mesh together.

the black and white ones were also very simple. this tutorial explains how to do the colorful outline thing if that's new to you. that's all i did for the small b&w gifs. for the baby boy and braincells gifs i used the same technique only instead of using a a black->color gradient map in the group set to lighter color, i used the same gradient as above set to multiply over the black and white gradient map

i hope at least some of that was helpful!! again if i need to elaborate on anything i'm happy to. my 'process' is really more me throwing things at a gif to see what sticks so i may not always be able to give the most coherent explanation but i will try! thanks again for the ask anon and have a great rest of your week 💖

[giransbunnywife]

ღ BunnyChet Hcs ღ

Your bun is having massive brainrot for these two still and it is literally all consuming. So y'all are gonna get some more random and cute hcs about them that's still as rambly but less about specifics and more just CUTE THINGS LOL. Because this ship is like filled with it, as cringe as it may beeee

Warning(s): self insert x canon, fluff, some highly suggestive mentions throughout

As I've mentioned before Chetney is her fucking yes man. Anybody disrespects her or talks down to her in any way (even if it's in just a disagreeable way) is met with him as pretty much her attack dog. He comes to her defense over the smallest of things to "defend her honor" whether that's strangers or others in the group. Something that is always met with a giggle from her.

There might be times that she might use this to her advantage or to have a little fun. Plus she does think it's a little adorable to watch him jump to her defense in such a feral way. And she rather feels a bit too powerful telling him to back down, especially if he's shifted into wolf form.... some of her favorite sites to see for particular reasons.

Chet never addresses her with the same nickname twice, unless by accident lmao, and is always coming up with new ones for her. Each one is cornier than the last, and if it makes her giggle than it's one that might be used when it's just the two of them. Though, he likes to keep her guessing, and she finds it endearing enough to humor it. Looking forward to hearing what the next one is going to be every day.

Some honorable mentions include: his 'lavender rose', floppy eared angel, and sweet bunny pie

The flirting between them is about much worse than you'd expect after things developed between them. Just as insufferable and cheesy as one would think, and somehow much worse than that on a good day. Bunny likes the attention a bit too much and is kind of weak for it, indulging in his quips with her own just as aggressively.

God forbid anyone is around her during a fight bc she will be thirsting after him when he's gone wolf mode and it will be a fuckin tiiimmeeee

Given that Bunny is a side sleeper that typically means that when they bunk together he's going to be between her thighs and using them as pillows (it's either that or just... between the tits lol). Sometimes he'll end up hugging them throughout the night, which is both adorable but also going to end up with her squeezing him in the middle of the night lmao

She occasionally wears accessories in her hair that were gifted from him, including a flower pin that is one made from a flower that was given to her the night that they had their "what are we" conversation. Even though she rotates from time to time to showcase different gifts from other gifts she's been given, that flower pin is one of her favorites and most notable.

Everywhere they visit he always has to give her something, whether that's something specialty made or something that he found for her. More often than not it's accessories that can go in the jewelry box that he made, making sure that she has plenty of options to choose from. And he can see her in them when they're together.

Chet can be a bit more extra himself if it means making her giggle. Anything to make Bunny happy and smiling and keep that goddamn adorable sparkle in her eyes. He might take it a bit too far or like all the fucking time which will only lead to Bunny getting annoyed and overprotective. But it was worth it for him lol

And to that end, Bunny is ridiculously protective over him. Both in any instance in which he is being his impulsive self, or if anybody were to try and fuck with him. Absolutely no one fucks with her gnome and gets away with it.

And my god if there's ever a time for her to be intensely protective she's gonna have to deal with his ass being all over her for the entire fucking day

She also likes to be extra cute and sweet when she wants something from him. It works every single time too, with him absolutely weak for her when she's being cute. Especially when it's directed at him. And now that she's his, it just means that he is like a moth to a fucking flame with her. And the dangerous part is that she knows.