#so multiple fairly “popular” ones got left out

[maeism]

⤿ KENMA KOZUME ౨ glhf<3 ৎ

synopsis : kenma doesn’t believe in attachments, but maybe he’s been playing this one all wrong. after all, in a game where the rules keep changing, it’s hard to tell if he’s winning or just getting left behind.

cw : k.kenma x f!reader, inspired by "glhf<3" by MICO, very bad try at "gamer talk," angst(?).

word count : 1.01k

" oh, my god thought it was love // but then you broke my fall // fought for forever, got a couple months // want someone better? // baby, good luck, have fun "

kenma kozume has always been antisocial. he was always on his phone or using his nintendo. never seen hanging out with anyone other than kuroo. 

the boy spoke a few words and only did it when it was truly necessary. his gaze was always down. his eyes were tired and droopy. but that didn't stop him from being somewhat popular. the bleached haired boy was a starting setter on nekoma’s volleyball team, so his name was fairly known. 

at school he was a quiet, lonely boy. people tried to talk to him but his answers were always vague, empty, and not interested. so no one really knew him. 

the real him that was hidden behind the screen. 

late at night, the computer shined a bright light on kenma’s face in his dark room. as if it were a reflex, he opened riot games and launched valorant. his eyes traveled to his second monitor where discord was already opened. 

scanning through his friends list he saw the multiple notifications from people he did not want to reply to and the zoomed in, smiski profile picture of his favorite mutual. next to the unconventional icon was her name in white font, ‘y/n.’

kenma quickly clicked on the chat and typed out a message.

‘hop on valorant?’

no greeting, no small talk. he was always direct with his texts, especially those to her. he saw something in her, maybe it was the fact he had never met anyone as fun or that she was different from everyone else he had met before. but that's how it always was with her, simple.

except it wasn't, really. 

his eyes hovered over the message after sending it, the cursor blinking on the text bar as if awaiting for something more. something he would never actually type out. 

because there was something about her. something that gave him a slight impulse, a little rush in his dull life. maybe because she was fun without even trying, or how she did not force a conversation and try to fill in the silence with meaningless words like everyone else. or maybe, it's because she wasn't like the other girls he met online. no fake voices, no pretending to “need” him. she just was.

and he liked that. way more than he should.

“bloop.” the notification echoed through his headset. 

‘give me 5,’ she replied, quick and easy, just how he liked it.

slanting down on his chair, kenma’s mind went to her. the girl lived in hyogo, which was pretty far away, but he’s seen her face before, and follows her on instagram so he knows she's not a catfish. 

five minutes later, kenma was still staring mindlessly into his computer, lost in the thought of his online friend until the incoming call sound filled his ears. making him quickly answer it. 

“yo,” she said, casual like always, as if she hadn't just made him stare blankly at his screen for five whole minutes.

“hey,” he mumbled, inviting her to the party without missing a beat.

they queued up, the familiar click of the matchmaking sound filling the silence. it was comfortable. their kind of comfortable. 

the game loaded in. she picked a dualist. classic.

the whole match felt intense. she was doing reckless moves, some that always worked for her. kenma hung back, watching the kill feed light up with her name over and over. 

“you're playing like you've got something to prove,” he muttered, focusing on the game in front of him.

“i do,” she shot back, “proving i’m better than you.”

a smirk tugged on the corner of kenma’s mouth. he didn't say anything. just waited.

a round later, she died early, caught off guard in mid. kenma clutched the round, barely, his last shot shaky but landing anyways.

“lucky,” she said, voice dripping with mock disdain.

“skill issue,” he replied flatly, though he knew what she was capable of.

the next round, she carried again, top fragging like it was second nature.

“see? not luck,” she teased. “just talent.”

kenma’s lip twitched. he didn't let her win. he never had to. she was just that good. but sometimes, he wondered if he played worse on purpose. if only because her victory felt better than his own.

“yeah,” he let out a breathy reply while he bought his loadout for the next round. “guess i'm lucky to have you.”

it slipped out before he could stop it.

silence. just for a second. 

then she laughed. light, unbothered, easy.

“damn right you are.”

and kenma didn't reply. because if he did, he'd have to admit that wasn't exactly what he meant. 

they kept playing. rounds one after another, easy banter filling in the spaces between kills and callouts. it all just felt natural, like a habit. 

then, as the last round ended, a call sound went off from her end.

“oh,” she said, distracted. “i should go.”

kenma’s fingers went stiff on his keyboard. the room suddenly felt quieter, even though she hadn't left yet.

“already?” 

she hummed. “mhm. he's waiting for me.”

he.

kenma wasn't stupid. he knew what she felt. the way her voice was just a little softer. the way her focus had already drifted somewhere else.

he stared at her name in the game, wishing she wouldn't leave. 

“i'll catch you later though,” she added. “don't miss me too much.” and the discord ping echoed through his headphones. reminding him of her departure. 

kenma exhaled sharply through his nose. ‘don't miss me too much.’ there she was, teasing again. and somehow it helped the pit in his stomach. 

he went to the chat with her and typed out ‘glhf.’

a few seconds passed. maybe she wouldn't answer at all. maybe she already moved her whole focus towards that other guy. 

then, ‘thanks<3’

kenma blinked at the screen.

he dragged a hand down his face, exhaling into his palm. the little heart sat there, taunting him. a habit. a joke. a hook. 

he shut his computer quickly and leaned back on his chair, eyes closing. 

god, he hated this game.

[dullgecko]

(Journalist Riz)

When Riz gets nominated for an award, he gets a plus one to the ceremony. Who do you think Riz would invite?

As much as he loves them all, I think Riz would probably either pick Sklonda, Adaine or Gorgug; depending on who is available. Maybe Fabian, but it all depends. Fig and Kristen are no gos.

Riz had gotten home before his mom that day, stopping by the mailbox in the lobby of the appartment to grab their mail before heading upstairs. It was mostly junk mail, a couple of bills (which he pocketed so he could pay them himself before his mom saw them) and weirdly enough a letter addressed directly to him.

It was suspicious. No one ever sent him letters. Riz flipped it over in his hand to look at the back (no return address, hand delivered obviously) before he felt the envelope between his fingers. Noting the weird texture and thickness of whatever was inside before giving a slight bend. Whatever it was had multiple pages enclosed plus at least one or two pages that were shorter than the edges of the rest.... this warranted some investigation. He wasn't about to open a weird letter without checking it for traps first.

Once he was securely in his apartment he placed the envelope on the kitchen table, first trying detect magic before starting on the usual trap-detection routine he had to go through every time he got an info packet from his rogue classes. The goblin found nothing. It was just a normal, untrapped, suspicious letter.

Now that he was relatively sure it wouldn't explode in his face he ripped it open, Riz digging one of his sharp claws under the flap an tearing a neat line along the top so he could access the contents. He slid the thinner pieces of paper out first, surprised that he was holding two glossy VIP tickets to an award ceremony in Bastion City in his hand. The letter that accompanied them getting unfolded and read quickly as he searched for the reason why.

Oh.... well. Wow okay.

He glanced at the tickets again, quickly digging out his crystal so he could bring up the website for the ceremony and scroll through the list of nominees. Yep. There he was. 'Riz Gukgak - nominated for his piece exposing the unethical hunting of sapient species for level grinding in the Mountains of Chaos'.

There was a fairly substantial cash prize if he won too and he honestly didn't think he'd ever held that much money in one go before (saved for the cursed coins in Kalvaxus's hoard, and that didn't count in his mind).

The rogue flopped heavily onto his couch, still clutching the letter and tickets in one hand and his crystal in the other while he stared at the ceiling. Sure he was aware his article had been popular, the Bastion City Newspaper having bought it from him for a decent amount of money, but he didn't think it was that good. He'd written it on a whim, something he'd discovered incidentally while working a different job for the LPRTF that had left him with a lot of information buzzing around in his head but nowhere to put it other than into an article. This was... wild.

He glanced at the letter and tickets again, holding them up and snapping a photo before sending a text with the picture to his mom.

//Hey. I've been nominated for an award. You free Thursday night next week? They sent me a ticket for a plus one.//

//Honey thats amazing! Of course! I'll let work know I won't be free. We can discuss details when we get home. I'm so PROUD of you.//

Riz laughed, flicking over to the group chat as well to update his friends and getting a swarm of similar texts, though they were more packed with emojis than his mothers had been. It had been Fig that noticed the second ticket, the archdevil reposting the picture into the chat after circling the extra ticket in red.

//Omg who are you taking as your plus one?! Do you have someone you want to ask out maybe? >:3//

//No. Dude. I've already asked my mom.//

//Lol figured. You'll have to tell us how it goes! Down to the second updates.//

The next few days had been hectic. Between school and work he had barely any downtime as it was but Fabian had insisted he get a new suit for the ceremony. Riz had protested that his normal suits were fine but he apparently had no say in the matter, the half elf saying it was a gift to congratulate him on his success and basically dragging him from store to store in his quest for the best. The girls had kidnapped his mom though, something he found out after he got home (arms overloaded with a new suit, and shoes, and socks, and cufflinks) and found his mother in a similar state of overwhelemed overshopped exhaustion surrounded by her own pile of clothes.

And so the day of the awards ceremony came, Sklonda getting a little teary eyed on seeing Riz in his outfit because he looked so much like his father. They were hustled quickly into the dark theatre once they arrived, the pair of them sitting through nearly an hour of speeches and awards before Riz's own catagory was announced.

He felt a little out of his own body when they announced that he'd won, heavy feet making their way up onto the stage to accept his award and cheque and got ready to make his speech. The rogue blinking in surprise when he noticed his party seated near the far back of the room waving wildly at him as he gave them a confused look.

Of course they were here. He shouldn't have ever doubted that they WOULD be. Between Fabians connections and Figs ability to get into places she shouldn't there was no way they'd miss out on this.

Riz shook his head in amusement, giving them a small wave back before clearing his throat to speak. Having to take a few seconds before he was finally able to get the words out.

[traffic-light-eyes]

Ninja as influencers

My previous post got me thinking, and now I have to write this down.

Kai:

He for sure has Twitter/Chirp and uses it regularly. Very popular. He also has the ninjago equivalent to Instagram and is also very popular there, too. I could imagine him having a yt channel and doing silly vlogs and the occasional game, but that's about it. The other ninja were a bit weirded out by the vlogs at first because they didn't really want to feed into the whole idolizing the ninja thing, but realized that they could show the world that they're just. People. Normal people who save the world sometimes but are normally just passed out on the couch. They all love being in his vlogs now. When he records something embarrassing, he makes absolutely certain that the person it's of is okay with it being posted. Like, he gives them weeks to think about it. He has a video of Zane singing let it go (due to Jay's programming skills), and he was ecstatic to be able to post it. He's also a tiktok star. He does the silly dances and lip-syncing.

Nya:

She has Chirp but doesn't use it for social media purposes? If that makes sense. Like, she mainly only scrolls through her friends' chirps and responds to those. She gets into the groove and made a really sweet and chill community once the people that were only there for the "inside scoop" of the water ninja's life left. Now there's just her friends and a bunch of nice people. She comments on and rechirps? a lot of fanart, though. She has an Instagram but only to comment on Kai's posts with a thumbs down. She has a tiktok. It's secret. She posts little edits about her artwork or mechanics. It's fairly popular. She sometimes uses the filters and makes videos using them but never posts them.

Cole:

Similar to Nya, he has a Chirp account but doesn't really use it much. He'll respond to fanart and fans, but he only really posts occasionally. His posts normally consist of song recommendations or riffs of his friends. He threads callouts when he feels especially petty. It's pretty chill. He probably has a secret second account for art. He doesn't want people to like his art just because he's the earth ninja, so he made a second account. He has a tumblr too. I don't make the rules. He tries to stay in the loop with everyone's thoughts and shuts down the gross people. He's pretty well-known on the site. He likes reblogging the ship content and misdirecting people because it's funny. Pixal found him drawing techno and he scrambled for an excuse but she silently put a finger to her lip, winked, and left. He was very confused. She was absolutely dying on the inside from laughter because she knew of his account but wanted to freak him out. He couldn't look her in the eye for a week because he thought she thought he shipped them or something. She purposefully spoke to him often. He kept trying to explain, but Pixal always had an excuse to leave or change the subject before he could say it.

Lloyd:

He has Chirp. He has tumblr. He has ao3. He's not allowed on Instagram. He has a yt channel where he exclusively talks about comics and games. On his Chirp, he is completely unhinged some times, and other times, he posts cute animals he finds on missions or on patrol. He found a stray cat once and named her mittens because a follower commented it. He has #mittensmonday, where he posts a picture of her. It's always trending on Monday. His tumblr is once again about games and stuff, but he has a semi-secret side blog for Ninja Shenanigans where it's theorized that it's him, but no one has proof and he doesnt give a direct answer. He has unknowingly reblogged and messaged Cole on multiple occasions because he doesn't know about the Secret account. Cole doesn't know what to do. His ao3 account is mostly to check up on what people are thinking. If he sees something unsavory, he immediately logs off because that's him. Avid tiktok enjoyer. He could make a video of just him staring at the screen, and it would go viral. He finds it hilarious. It's his goal to find the most obscure thing to post and for it to finally not get viral.

Zane:

He has Chirp, but he hasn't used it. Either that or he uses it so terribly incorrectly. I could be convinced that he has a cooking yt channel. He'd call it something nerdy or informational, but people kept chirping about it calling him cookingmama, and he doesn't get it? But due to Jay's persistence, he changed his @ to cookingmama.

Jay:

He has Chirp. He uses it to keep up with the world + just talk to fans. He has a gaming channel and a Twitch account. He streams at least once a week. He loves it! He has a pretty chill community, and he often asks his friends to play with him. He makes sure that the games he play with them are suited to them first. He doesn't ask. He just knows. He picks action-based games for Kai - maybe LoL or, like, Left 4 dead. He plays silly smart games with Nya, like Portal or Keep talking and nobody explodes (they are ridiculously good at this). He and Cole would play scary games. They exclusively play them at night; phasmaphobia has caused many of the ninja to awaken to a shriek. Comfy and typically non-violent games are his and Lloyd's go-to. They'll play Minecraft or stardew for HOURS before they realize the sun is coming up. He and Zane play semi-stressful cooking games, or Zane is just there for commentating. They'll be seen playing overcooked or cooking simulator (they always play that one with a challenge somehow). He makes silly follower goals, and he has unfortunately had to do many, many things because his followers keep rising.

Honorary Ninja, Pixal:

She has an account for every platform that the ninja have just to crowd control + to support them in their comments. She rarely, if ever, posts anything aside from commenting on her friends' posts. Hc that Borg owns every platform, so she uses that to weed out the weirdos by asking him to make the platform very buggy on their device specifically. It's only a matter of time before they delete the app, and she loves watching the downfall via their posts and complaints about the website. She knows of everyone's account, even the Secret ones. She never lets them know that she knows of them, even if they do something strange because of it (check Cole's). She loves messing with them. If someone posts something recently, she conveniently talks about it the same day and gives them whiplash because what are the chances that she said that today. She's the go-to gal if there are any tech issues on stream or during editing.

Here ya go! Hope you enjoy my brainrot <3

[frogfaced-wheeler]

I know the mike initiating a kiss or making the first move is a popular thing among bylers but i dont think that would be/should be the case AND HERES WHY 🤓☝ *mcyter with lists voice* (i get sidetracked so bear with me)

For starters; we've come to a conclusion that mike has internalized homophobia and there's plenty of evidence to back this up, he wants to be "normal" and in the 80s being gay was abnormal, this is a commonly known thing that's mentioned a lot amongst bylers and its precisely the reason i dont think mike would be the one to make the first move

Mike does everything in his power to be a normal person which is why i think he was willing to lie to el so easily in season 3

This is where i get sidetracked but really its just backup analyzing for this

Before gay marriage was legal, lavender marriages were everywhere or at least a fairly common thing, in case you dont know lavender marriages are marriages that were used to cover the sexuality of one or both of the people getting married, which i think ties in with mike and els dynamic (will get to that later)

Mike uses el as a cover or a way to be normal, its what he grew up around and its what he saw on tv gay relationships just werent considered normal

In season 3 mike lies to el so he can continue to see her, to continue to have a cover or something that convinces him hes "normal", and all they really did was make-out because "thats what couples do"

You have the season 3 rain fight which ive seen multiple people mention that mike was blatantly reflecting but ive never seen anyone explain it more - will says something about mike and el (seemingly) constantly kissing, referring to el as "a stupid girl" and while mike did defend el, he couldve just left it at "els not stupid", "its not my fault you dont like girls" did not need to be there. He felt like will was seeing through the amount of effort he had been putting into normal and panicked, saying something he didnt mean and we can visibly see he didnt mean it

In season 4 theres the rollerrink fight, another instance where mike says something he didnt mean or like to say - will complains about mike not sending him letters whereas el has "a whole book of them", mike tells him "thats because shes my girlfriend" to which will asks "and us?" Which mike once again saw as will seeing through mike and he panicked, feeling the need to clarify that theyre just friends and wont be more, wills follow up shows hes more upset mike doesnt treat him like theyre best friends than the idea of them dating, wills already accepted the idea that mike doesnt like him the way he likes mike

The letters isnt because mike didnt want to talk to will, he most definitely tried (sitting by the phone and whining about joyce being on the phone all the time making it busy) but its because EVERYONE in hawkins knows who will is and theyll hear about it him growing up, hes the boy who was dead for a week and came back literally all over the newspapers as "zombie boy"

Mike would not be able to get away with being seen as "normal" while writing and receiving letters from another boy, especially if someone found out because for all he knows they could be the wrong person and suddenly all the work he puts into being "normal" has been washed away

With all that said; mike and will both have internalized homophobia on different ends, will knows and accepts it knowing he cant change it but he also hates it, and mike knows but denies it - i dont think mike would be the one to make the first move, i think it would be will

Idk thats it thats all i got

Will byers making the first move 🙏🙏

[shiveringgroovy]

bsd social media hcs who uses what/ what do their profiles look like

HELP oh my god. i'm gonna do the ADA and maybe later on the other organizations :3

Atsushi

got really into the internet after being picked up by the ada but lost interest in it after a while

probably browses tumblr casually and likes cat videos or things of that nature

dazai made him a twitter account that he never uses

basic/default account style, he's not flashy about it and doesn't care to personalize his account. if he did, his pfp would probably be a cat or a low quality chazuke pic

inat casual. just there to see cool animals (i headcanon him as a naturalist so hard nobody understands)

Dazai

twitter user and not ashamed. posts the stupidest shit and has like 20k tweets. probably didn't use socials at all until he left the port mafia but this guy is always tweeting

he's got some stupid ass layout like my priv twitter.

either 3 followers or 5k followers. no in between

has gotten sussed multiple times

Kunikida

HE'S AN EXPERT ON BRAINLY TRUST ME ON THIS

Casual reddit user and once did an "am i the asshole for punching the shit out of my coworker for being suicidal" and got put in one of those subway surfer text to speech things

and dazai found it, IMMEDIATELY recognized who it was, and would not let kunikida live it down

he's afraid to post anything now

same as atsushi, default settings

Yosano

not a big social media girlie!!

probably has instagram and posts stuff she likes on her story, only two posts on her profile

pfp is a picture of a butterfly with blood on its wings because it goes hard

Kyouka

LOVES the internet. specifically pinterest and the girlie side of tumblr (naomi introduced her)

pins are very aesthetically pleasing, she's got a nice following on pinterest for posting pics of her snacks from outings and such

let her be happy and girlie and full of whimsy she deserves it :3

Naomi

i'm tired of naomi slander. she's the victim of HORRIBLE writing and i hate asagiri for making a character that's otherwise a sweetheart into one unfunny "joke."

sorry rant over

she introduced kyouka to the internet and helped her set up a pinterest and tumblr (also warned her to stay off tumblr because shit gets icky QUICK)

same sort of stuff as kyouka, but likes posting her fit checks rather than food

Jun'ichiro

has a twitter, doesn't use it often

idk what to say about him i don't think he's into socials all that much

Ranpo

BRAINROTTED TUMBLR USER I SWEAR TO GOD. HE'S THE FUCKING WORST /affectionate

voted for sans

fairly popular on tumblr, has a picture of karl in a chip bag as his pfp

has insta only to follow yosano

pfp on insta is probably a cute picture of him and poe :)

Kenji

considers the mycelium network a social media

but yeah he has an inaturalist

identification GOD. like holy hell how did you guess the exact species and sex of that spider little farm boy

also another one of my naturalist headcanons except it's like?? basically canon idk

Haruno

you thought i was gonna forget a woman didn't you. no girlie left behind it's women's month

has the most aesthetically pleasing instagram ever

large following on insta, pinterest, and twitter

she's just a really positive person :)

shares pics from the agency that she thinks are cute

Fukuzawa

bro

what do i even say here

he has whatsapp that's fucking IT

[littleeyesofpallas]

Been meaning to go back and take stock of my "score" on the ongoing @bleach-smashorpass, I've grayed out anything where my personal pick didn't match the popular outcome, and left the ones where I fall into the majority vote in color.

Look, I'll be real, I'm not above monsterfuckery, even if I don't consider it ""my thing"" but I'd have voted smash on Ayon if he didn't have his weird secret muppet face. Also Aaroniero was an extremely light smash, i really had to flip flop on that one a few times before making a choice. I'll be honest, I liked original Chapter25 epilogue Aisslinger way more than what we got in the Arrancar Arc, and if I could split the vote I'd smash original and pass on final design for him.

Bambi is just such a boring design, and honestly Batsuunsai isn't much better, but the glasses are cute. She was really close to being a pass.

I was actually surprised that I had to stop and think about Choe but his giant chin and tiny bowl cut were not doing him any favors. Also as much as I like Cyan as a character, there is just something about hime cuts that are an automatic off switch for me. the rest of these felt fairly obvious.

not gonna lie, little hurt by the lack of D-Roy and Dordonii love

Confused that people were so lukewarm on Findor, although it was a close split. Also oddly I could have sworn I passed on Furofushi... I'm not really a fan of pigtails, with very few exceptions, but when I went to check the poll results it said I voted smash. Maybe I was thinking she was feeling Hiyori adjacent enough to count it at the time? I.... I don't remember voting smash on Entetsu...

i feel very scandalized by having voted unpopularly on all these old men... I'll be honest, Gremmy is a very lukewarm smash, and the potential of the Visionary power as a sex thing was very much the deciding factor.

boy bleach fans really don't like moustaches, huh? So funny enough it wasn't until the anime that I realized Hidetomo has his multiple earrings and somehow that changed his whole vibe for me, but prior to that it would have been an easy pass. I absolutely cannot abide characters whose whole thing is being someones dead wife/girlfriend, even if she otherwise looks exactly like Rukia, who'll be a smash for sure once we get to the Rs.

i figured i'd be on the wrong side of the fence with the kurosaki men but it's a real hard no on all the above. I'll be real, I'm kinda surprised Ikkaku was so popular. The rest of these felt obvious. Oh wait no there was like no love for Izumi Ishida. Boo to that.

okay so hear me out... Jugram is too blond. I know that sounds like nonsense, but like, he's too fundementally blond. Like most of Bleach's blond characters could have other generally light hair colors, and it wouldn't super change their image or aesthetic, but Jugram has to be blonde because the alternatives don'teel the same, and that's too much blond for me.

i know i voted pass on ichigo, which might make smash on kaien seem weird, but it's between the personality difference and the eyelashes. People not smashing on Kiyone is a catastrophe

and with that i'm all caught up with the letters where all the polls that have already closed. i'll be back to update these as the rest keep rolling along. I dunno why I really did this apart from the compulsion

[mudstoneabyss]

can you make a list of your top indie horror game recs ::3

yeah! so these wont be in order of what i like the most, they're just going to be here in whatever order I think of them. i'm also trying to go with what I think are more lesser-known ones, and if one is more popular it'll because I think it's one people write off that are actually good. as i'm writing this i'm going back up to say the descriptions for these will become less detailed because i got tired and cant keep repeating the art!! the atmosphere!!

Scarlet Hollow: A heavily choice-based horror mystery visual novel about going back to Scarlet Hollow- a small town in south historically ran by your family- for the funeral of your late aunt. its episodic and there are currently only 4 of the 7 episodes out. even with just them it is my favorite game. I love the writing and the art and the whole atmosphere of the game AND the soundtrack brought Brandon Boone (the composer) into my top 5 artists in my spotify wrapped last year

Slay the Princess: Another choice-based horror visual novel (and dating sim!) by the creators of Scarlet Hollow where you are tasked with, well, slaying the princess to prevent the destruction of the entire world. It's only a demo right now-releasing q3 of this year- but I'm excited for the whole game! my selling point for it with my followers is that the narrator (and some other characters) are voiced by Jonny Sims and hey podcast fans you like him check out this game

Endacopia: A click and point horror game inspired by Humongous Entertainment games such as Pajama Sam. Currently also a demo and set to release in October of 2024, I can not emphasize enough how excited I am for it. The game's style is so fun and there's lots of little details and the music??? There's two musical numbers in the demo alone. Some of the style and writing also reminds me of Undertale and even Homestuck somewhat (I say as someone who hasn't read homestuck)

FAITH: The Unholy Trinity: This is an 8-bit style horror game inspired by the 1980s Satanic Scare coming in 3 chapters with multiple endings, a very good example of games not needing high-end realistic graphics to be scary

Doki Doki Literature Club: Glances at my icon. who could've seen this one coming. I feel like most people know about ddlc by now, even if they don't know anything past "horror anime dating sim". It starts off for a long while a seemingly normal, if bland, visual novel dating sim until-seemingly suddenly- twisting into psychological horror. There's, however, a lot of foreshadowing once you see the beginning again after knowing what will happen. Honestly I think this games brilliant and its such a shame it somehow got lumped in with "cringe" mascot horror (its not even a mascot horror game?). For me a lot of the horror comes from the amount of scares left up to a random percentage- and how subtle a lot of them are. You can replay it and have a fairly different experience than you did the first time- and be scared by completely new things. There's also this existential and cosmic horror element that is less one you experience while playing it, i think, and more thinking about it afterwards. This isn't even touching on a lot of the secrets and easter eggs. a few years after the original game came out, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus was released, and it leaves the og game experience essentially untouched while adding a new vn experience the length of the og game (thats seemingly horror-less) as well as some more lore to the world, not of the game, but around the game, and builds more on the existential/cosmic horror. Needless to say from the length of this, I adore this game. also take the content warnings seriously, in the (free) og the game opens with warnings and a link to a page with specific tws, and in ddlc+ you are given the options to see those warnings listed before starting the game, as well as the ability to turn on tw pop-ups before game events

Home Safety Hotline: Also currently a demo, a horror game where you work for a home safety hotline, answering calls to help people deal with pests and other household problems. as the game progresses you get some more... off-putting calls and access to more unusual problems. I love games that put you into the role of someone who works a mundane job dealing with horrifying shit (similar reasoning to why I like the I'm On Observation Duty games, which I think are more popular rn than I want to put on this list)

NiGHT SIGNAL: By the same creator of Home Safety Hotline, this one's a short one about getting a new tv set and finding some strange channels during the night, inspired by The Twilight Zone and a 1995 game, The Dark Eye. A lot of the art in the game is done with clay which creates this really nice uncanny look and atmosphere- details about which you can see in an artbook you unlock after playing the game, which is REALLY cool I adore seeing the creativity behind and what goes into games like these.

and there's a bunch more I like, these are just the ones off the top of my head and I also dont feel like typing a bunch more dfnafnsk I'll also say if yall haves one you really like that I havent mentioned feel free to send an ask talking about them

[archivxx]

✯[0.02]✯

Previous || Next

Note: Any rumour about my love life will spread at a speed which correlates with my desire to keep said rumour a secret.

Brainstorm. One of the biggest up-coming bands in the music industry, an industry that housed many millions of people all fighting for a child on the pedestal. No pressure. You had no idea the exact number of people but the almost of discourse and drama you’ve seen online you could probably hazard a guess; far too many. Therefore, you reasoned that you would probably never have the misfortune of running into Clyde again, considering that in your two years within the industry you’d only ever crossed paths with him once, which was The Night (it had been only a handful of days since the kissing incidents, but you already knew that every time you thought back to last Friday you would call it The night and it would stay that way for the rest of your life), it was highly unlikely that you would ever cross paths with him again. In fact, you were fairly sure that not only did Clyde Donovan have no idea who you were he also had no desire to learn—and had probably already forgotten all about what happened.

Unless, of course, you were incredibly, so unbelievably wrong and he did end up filing a complaint. In which case you would be seeing him again, when you pleaded guilty in court.

You figured you couldn’t wait for time fretting about any of it and focus on the more pressing issues; like how you had to start pitching ideas for upcoming music videos, looking at ideas and making board to show the team. Or the note Kyle had left on the fridge this morning, telling you he had seen a cockroach scurry under the fridge, despite the dozens of traps you’d lay out. Or the most crucial one; the band was getting big and more attention was on you, you were becoming nervous with the amount of pressure. You were bound to crack at any moment, you could feel it coming. On top of that you were getting low on money again and you couldn’t find it in yourself to ask people for help with it, it just felt wrong.

You opened you laptop with half a mind to google, “Organs you can live without” and “How much you can earn for donating them.” but got sidetracked by the twenty new emails you’d received in the time it had taken you to get to the coffee shop, order your coffee, get it and find a seat. They were almost exclusively reminders of subscriptions, Nigerian uncles and a few newsletters you’d signed up for multiple years ago. You quickly marked them as read eager to work on some business things Tolkien had asked you to help with, and then you noticed one message was actually a reply. A reply from…holy shit. Holy shit.

You clicked it so hard you almost broke your pointer finger.

Your heart skipped a beat. Then it started galloping. Then it slowed down to craw. You could feel all your blood pulsating in your ears and eyelids. Surely that wasn’t healthy, but yes. Yes! You had potential business. Only potentially, so maybe. Definitely maybe. He had said great. That had to be a “great” sign, right?

You frowned and scrolled down to re read what you had sent him several weeks earlier.

Well if Pete Thelman, one of the most popular artist at the moment and the lead in the cancer awareness campaign, came to Denver and gave you even 10 minutes off his time you were positive you’d be able to convince him.

Well…maybe.

You were better at actually doing campaigns then pitching yourself for them. Communication was probably your biggest weakness. Okay, definitely your biggest weakness. But you had a chance to show the world how important this cause was to you and the other members. You could practically jump for joy. This was something you’d allayed been passionate about after all.

You sighed and packed everything up and head for your the record company, to discuss the new music video, plus you needed to be out of public or you’d end up screaming.

When you got to the company you made a beeline for the kitchen.

You stood at the kitchen counter and working out ways you’d tell Tolkien, you’d done this as a surprise for him since he’s wanted to do it so bad but was afraid of looking like a fool. You turned around to so someone scowling at you.

You startled you’d almost dropped your coffee.

“Fuc-Jesus!” You clutched your chest and took a deep breath. You held on tight to your coffee cup. “Nichole. You scared the shit out of me.”

“Y/N.”

Thats definitely wasn’t unnerving. Nichole never called you Y/N, not unless you were being reprimanded for biting your nails or damaging your hair.

“Hey! How was your—“

“Friday night.”

Fuck. “—weekend.”

“Donovan.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“I saw the two of you together.”

“Oh, really?” Your surprise sounded painfully playacted even to yourself. Maybe you should of gone into drama in high school instead of band.

“Yeah at the party.”

“Oh, cool! I didn’t see you or a I’d of said hi.”

She frowned at you. “N/N. I saw you. I saw you with Donovan. You know that I saw you, and I know that you know I saw you because you’ve been avoiding me.”

“I have not.”

Nichole have you one of her formidable “get real” looks. It was prolly the on she used when she would argue with other students back in school. She was in the debate team. She knew how to argue, and how to manipulate, that was a fact. She for fearsome and indomitable, one of the things you love about her—but now right now.

“You haven’t answered any of my messages. For the past two days. We usually text like every hour.”

she was right, you did, multiple times. you switch you'd cup to your left hand for no other reason then buying time. "I've been...busy?"

"Busy?" Nicholas eyebrow shot up. "Busy kissing Donovan?"

"Oh. Oh, that. that was just...uhm."

She nodded, as if to encourage you to finish the sentence. When it became apparent to Nichole that you wouldn't, she finished for you.

"No offence, N/N but that was most bizarre kiss I've ever seen."

Stay calm. Stay calm. She doesn't know. She can't know. "I doubt that," you retorted weakly. "Take that upside-down Spider-Man kiss. that was bizarre. More bizarre than—"

“N/N you said you were on a date that night. You’re not dating Donovan are you?” Her face twisted in a grimace.

It really could have been so easy to confess the truth. Since the very start of your friendship you and Nichole had done more moronic things, together and separately; the time you panicked and kissed Clyde Donovan would become one of them. One they would laugh about during “girls night” over some form of alcohol.

Or not. There was a chance that if you admitted to lying now, Nichole would never trust you again. Or she’s never go out with Tolkien. And as much as the idea of your best friend dating your ex made you shrivel up inside, the thought of your best friend being anything but happy made you shrivel up even more.

The situation was depressingly simple; you were alone in the world. You had been for a long time, ever since high school. You trained yourself to not make a big deal of it. You were due many people were alone and found themselves having to write down made-up names and phone numbers on their emergency contact forms. During collage music had been your only way of coping and you were perfectly ready to spend the rest of your life making music for yourself and your own baselines as your faithful companions till you ran into an old acquaintance from when you were younger—Nichole.

In a way, it had been love at first sight. You entered the dorm room, she was the only person there, and also the only woman you’d come across in the little time you’d been at the collage.

When you were in the communal area and all the other people around you, who were only guys and predominantly white, you’d started to regret going to into music production.

That was until the girl with curly dark hair and a pretty, round face plopped into the chair next to you and muttered, “so much for inclusivity, am I right?” That was the exact moment everything changed.

You two could have just been allies, as the only non-males potentially in your entire year. You could have sound solace together when some bitching was needed and ignored each other otherwise. You had lots of friends like that—all of them actually, circumstantial acquaintances who you thought fondly of but not very often. Nichole though, has been very different from the start. Maybe because you found out you both enjoyed spending your Saturday nights eating junk food and falling asleep to rom-coms. Or maybe it was that she had insisted on dragging you to every debate group and wowed everyone with her bullseye comments. Maybe it was her opening up to you and explaining how hard she had worked to be here. The way sometimes her family hadn’t even supported her, truly they didn’t believe she could make it as far as she has. Or when one of her professors for music making asked her if she was in the wrong class and truly, was confused. The fact that people still didn’t trust that, despite the evidence through grades, she was more then capable of being here. They thought she was less than that, much much less.

You, who’s path here had been a struggle but no where near as much of a struggle, was befuddled. Then enraged. Then in absolute awe of her perseverance and ability to harness her doubt and turn it into fierceness.

And for some unimaginable reason, Nichole seemed to like you just as much. And when your budget hadn’t quite made it to the end of the month, Nichole had shared her instant noodles with you. When your computer had crashed without backups, Nichole stayed stayed up all night helping you recreate the baseline that was apart of an assignment due the next morning. When you had no where to go over the holidays, Nichole would being you home with her to Colorado and let her family ply you with delicious food. And when you had felt like you weren’t good enough to be in a band and produce for the world, Nichole had talked you out of it.

The day you had met Nichole’s rolling eyes, a life-changing friendship was born. Slowly, you’d began to include Kyle and become a trio, but Nichole…Nichole was your person. Family. You hadn’t really thought it was even possible for someone to like you.

Nichole never asked for anything herself and in the few years you’d known her, she’d never shown interest in dating anyone—until Tolkien. Pretending that you had been on a date with Clyde was the least you could do to ensure her happiness.

So you bucked up, smiled, and tried to keep your tone reasonably even when you asked, “What do you mean?”

“I mean that we talk every minute of every day and you never mentioned Donovan. My best friend is supposedly seeing the superstar singer Clyde Donovan, and somehow I’ve never heard of it? You know his reputation, right? Is it some kind of joke? Do you have a brain tumour? Do I have a brain tumour?”

This is what happened when you lied. You have to tell more lies to cover the original lie, it was like the domino effect, each lie got worse and worse and less and less convincing than the previous. There was no way you could fool Nichole. There was no way you could fool anyone. Nichole was going to get mad, then Tolkien would get mad, and Kyle too. And then you’d find yourself utterly alone. The heart break would make you flunk out of everything, you would lose your visa and your only source of income and move back to Canada where it always snowed and people ate moose and—

“Hey”

The voice was deep but squeaky. It came from behind you and you didn’t even have to turn to know it was Clyde. The fuck was he doing here? Just like you didn’t need to turn to know the warm weight steadying you, a firm but barely there pressure applied to the centre of your lower back, was Clyde’s hand.

About two inches above your ass.

Holy crap.

Masterlist

[five-star-stay]

Hi!! As a hanji stan I fully agree with you and I bring you at least one more thing to fairly complain about!! Screen time. It happens very very often that when they are performing and it’s HIS PART, the cameras just. Don’t film him. They zoom out, they show the audience, sometimes they even focus on a different member (hyunjin or felix usually). I used to gif him a lot and this got me so angry so many times!!! What else does he have to do to get a tiny bit of attention??? He has shown multiple times (all the time tbh) just how insanely talented and charismatic he is! There’s literally not one single thing he can’t do. All rounder is not just a silly cutesy nickname thing here. He’s the real deal… literally one of my reasons for biasing him is just how amazing his overall performance as an idol is. He can sing, he can rap, he can dance, he sounds even better live, he has stage presence, he’s funny, he’s sweet, he’s cute, he’s good looking, and so much more that I’m forgetting right now…

As far as I know the only thing he deliberately actually stood away from was getting his solo Instagram account when the rest of the members got theirs…

It’s been very frustrating to watch as the other members get amazing solo opportunities and he gets literally nothing…

Hi anon, I completely agree with what you said and yes I completely sympathise with your frustrations. Even in music videos, he's never been made a thumbnail and that makes me so sad like not even on HIS songs. He's not getting the chance to be the face of it. And a lot of times in mvs too like social path, his screen time is literally just what they showed in the teaser even though he has the most beautiful bridge in it the focus isn't on him in mv during that part at all.

I understand that felix and hyunjin are pushed more as the faces of the group and the most popular members, and I have no ill will towards them. But why does pushing them come at the cost of han never even getting the bare minimum?

They also plastered an ot7 Tommy Hilfiger campaign all across their stores and it felt maddening that people were calling han stans rude or childish for asking why han didn't get accommodated and wasn't given a separate solo shoot on a later date so he could've been part of the campaign in at least solo shots. And the way they could've done a billion things to include him but all they did was qrt a skz post and said "❤️❤️ HAN" and getting thanked for it by "stays" while they hid replies about being called out for zionism and not tagging han on insta and tiktok as if he isn't part of the group is SEARED in my brain. And they couldn't even spell skz right... i hate that brand's social media team but also you need two hands to clap, div1 is just as at fault.

Another instance was not promoting lee know and han's instagram on their group instagram stories, they had 29 million followers then and 30 million now. When other 6 made their ig it was big news and shared on the stories so everyone knew. But minsung made it on skz anniversary day which was a day filled with a lot of posts spammed on the group account, making it so nobody knew about the group account tagging them in the caption because it was after the "read more" and most people don't click that button especially on days with so many posts to catch up on. Results: the other 6 hit 3 million in 24 hours and minsung took a couple months and han has just now reached 4 million. It's frustrating because at every step, the company has let Han down and it's always coupled with excuses from so called stays that just don't care about Han individually. I'm honestly so concerned about how jype will handle their solo careers if they don't even realise or care enough to make sure minsung don't get left behind in terms of followers on private instagram (which will affect their engagement and brand deals) just because they took their time and waited for when they felt ready. They're literally being punished for doing what's right for them.

I hate it all!!!

I wish han can negotiate a better deal for himself in a new contract and if he decides to stay on for the group but join some other agency for solo promotion, I would not blame him because jype just tries to bury his individuality and doesn't let him create a brand for himself. Literally the only thing he has is his hanpop and even then it's months of him sometimes asking on live for stays to tell skziji that they want certain songs released. Please God, give Han a management that appreciates him.

Proof:

[dukeofriven]

Once again thinking about how Windblade and Chromia had the misfortune to be in the half of the IDW Transformers comic line that just consistently, grindingly sucked shit. While John Barber and Carlos Guzman were redefining not only how you could tell a Transformers story but making fairly radical moves in a branded IP space, with queer characters, politics, humour— intentionality!— poor Windblade had to sit in the murk of the warmed-over-third-rate Simon Furman-esque blundering conflicts that was Robots in Disguise. I think in the rear window of MTMTE its interesting to note the degree to which it argued that not only was 'war' played out as plotline for the franchise, it might well be the least interesting mode for Transformers as a whole. Ironic for a franchise built entirely on the toyetic appeal of robots fighting, but anyone's who has slogged through IDW's ups and downs knows that the fighting was always ths story at its weakest, and this hold true across multiple artists and writers. This is not to say that every Transformers storms needs to be a workplace dramedy—rather MTMTE was continuing a tradition present in the early Furman era, which was at its with stories during Infiltration, the disguise and covert operations. Across all incarnations of the comic, whenever things went into 'cinematic scale' mode and everyone had to team up for a big throw-down fight with some combiner or Galvatron , everything just got tedious. IDW's doom was that of a lot of legacy franchise IPs: inevitably, somebody would come along and go 'well this doesn't match our core brand identity' and inevitably try and drag everything back to more closely resemble 'the thing as was popular in its original form,' which in Transformer case means no one being allowed to move on from a forumalic eighties cartoon with its episodic quota of punch-em-ups. Anyways, that's a long way of saying of Windblade and Chromia deserved to be in a comic that had better things to do than faff about setting-up hot garbage like Dark Cybertron and walking back character beats every five minutes so as make sure characters never left franchise stasis.

[apphiarothowrites]

Modern MAS Musician Au ]

this has been poking my brain, will I ever write it who knows?

Ace Punk Rock; Machine gun Kelly- very mainstream and adored for his music

Sabo alternative punk; YUNGBLUD - less mainstream but very popular in the UK and with lgbt/marginalized groups

Now Ace and Sabo have collaborated and have some.. feelings but that ain't gonna be looked at too closely cause both of them are focused on their careers. Anyway they end up getting contacted by Whitebeard records (a huge deal, Edward newgate was known as the father of rock for a reason)

SO they come in and are met by Newgate himself, Basically the deal is they are to collaborate in a album to re-launch Di-Angels Return.

Now for those who don't Know Di-angel or for those who were fans Marci Diangelo was a HUGE deal back in the day. Like Joan Jett mixed with Lady gaga. The woman was the beginning of the punk rock scene, aggressively making out with both genders for paparazzi and generally being an absolute menace. Ace and Sabo of course say yes, (Sabo was inspired to start his own music career by her and Ace just thinks she's neat.)

Anyway the day comes where they are supposed to meet Her, Di- Angel, Marci and of course Sabo is kinda fanboying and Ace may or may not be very jealous cause come on, she was hot back in the day but she's in her 40s now. Instead of the busty blonde who once screamed into the microphone about flying away. They are met with a blonde man in a leather jacket.

"Uhm, excuse me?" Ace wants to be irritated but damn the guy is smokin hot. "We were supposed to be meeting Di-angel here."

The man blinks sleepy blue eyes, "yeah, I know."

Sabo bites his lip eye twitching, "You- Marci, we are meeting with Marci Diangelo, the singer."

The blonde man sticks a cig in his mouth, the corner quirking up. "Just said, I know. But you obviously are a bit behind the times." The man stands towering over both of them, "I go by Marco now, call me Marci again and I'll send you both through the door got it?"

Oh shit, fuck yeah, this is GOOD SHIT right here raccooon.

Ever since Pops suggested relaunching Di-Angel, Marco's been nothing but a roll of anxiety in human skin. While their family was fairly accepting, and the punk-rock community as a whole generaly was too, the larger scene is...well. Not quite the same. With most of the people of Marco's generation reacting across the entire spectrum from acceptance to hard rejection, Marco honestly didn't think it would be a good idea.

Yes, his voice and range dropped by a few octaves. Yes his old favorite dresses didn't fit the same any more (not that he wanted to put on most of them any more, just the shiny leather number but he had to get it tailored for the new dimension of his chest and hips). Yes, he's different now and that difference is something that he's gotten shit for from people he thought were friends and something that people he thought hated him were supportive of. It's been a roller coaster of strangeness and that was before Pops suggested relaunching his music career.

He left music because he knew the reactions would be. Mixed. once things got off the ground for his transition. Music never left him-Pops has multiple videos of him humming melodies and tapping beats from doctors' offices and one in a hospital bed-but the scene? He assumed the scene left him well behind.

Then Pops came to him with this insane idea and told him that these two young pups, rising stars and rough diamonds the both of them, were jumping and chomping at the bit. Marco didn't know what to think. He told Pops he'd reserve judgement until they met, but even then the hotcold churning in his stomach of anxiety was steadily eating his confidence of this whole thing working.

Then he meets them and despite the fact that neither of them knew who he was now, they were adorably eager just as Pops said. And, just as Pops said, they're talented if a bit raw. Unrefined, somehow. Both have a similar feel-rough voices in a slightly high medium range, but what really grabs Marco's attention is that they both actually play. Something that's fallen out of fashion in newer bands, that their lead vocalists know what to do with a guitar in hand, they both pick up an axe during the experimental jam session and they aren't too bad either. They know classic riffs and stings, whole lead lines from classic and punk rock staples.

Then something of a miracle happens. Ace picks up a bass and smacks out a fairly simple beat on 5, jumping octaves, and Sabo picks up Marco's old stage piece and. Oh.

That's the lead and bass of "I Feel Fine" and Marco's nothing if not a perfectionist for the classics. He grabs the mic they rigged up for his studio, coughs to clear his throat, and-

Ace does something to the bass beat, a lick or two to change things juuuuust a little and Sabo slips a few 16th and 32nd notes here and there, little twangs to change the key down a half step and suddenly its not The Beatles any more, it's something a little rougher, a little less refined, it's something from the back alleys of a queer bar that Marco used to dress butch for where he got called a good man for the first time. It's like being in love, if love were a dirty suckerpunch and a cigarette after-if love was two men who might not always be men-if love was a little less straight.

That ends up being the second song on the album a year later, a fucking Beatles cover that rockets them right to the top of the charts in multiple countries and forces Marco back into the spotlight no matter how much he tries pushing the younger stars forward and blames them for the majority of their sound. Three vocalists who trade off is definitely strange, especially since Marco is....well, not 'Marci' any more.

But it works, somehow Pops' insane idea doesn't explode in their faces, and if there's maybe a little charged something that happens in the limo ride home from their first awards show, something that's been building for months and months over heated eye contact and falling asleep on each other in the studio and appreciative whistling during the set and costume set-up of music videos, well.

That's their business and nobody else's. And if that charged something results in Ace stumbling down into Marco's kitchen in the middle of the night only to scream at Thatch who's in the tradition of making Marco breakfast after award shoes (started before Di-Angel and 'Marci' ever got big), who then screams right back at him which draws both Sabo and Marco down to see what the goddamn noise is about. Well.

That's also their business and nobody else's. (yes Thatch even you, get the fuck out of my kitchen, goddamn-yoi)

[junkdyke]

ok so here's my situation with the twink who will not leave me the fuck alone.

Backstory, I'm in college, I had a gen ed class and this guy sits next to me (call him P) He always wants to talk with me during breaks, waits for me after class, once he got my IG he'd message me during the class as well. Just very clingy off the bat. I saw him at a party, and he asked if I'd ever wanna hang out. Just really wanted to go out, party, whatever, and at the time I was all about it. Like yeah, let's go to the club, go bar hopping, w/e

Flash forward to The Pajama Party. I live-blogged about this during that time and talked about the situation, talking about P in a very affectionate way at the time. Here's the rundown of everything that happened and where the shitshow begins.

P wants to throw a house party. He has never thrown one before, but he wants to throw a party to "annoy his neighbors". I assume the neighbors are old people that he has beef with. A few days before his party I get an invite for a pajama party from E. E is fairly popular, really well liked and extremely sweet, and he throws parties often. He and his roomies are graduating that weekend, so of course people will want to go. It's the same day as P's party, so I KNEW there was no way in hell people would go to P's over E's. So me being nice, I let P know and tell him "I think you should resched to next week!" I get no acknowledgment from P, he just texts back something irrelevant. Ignored warning. Okay!

Day of the party comes. I go out with some friends, we're having dinner before E's party, and my friend 'S' (who was also in that class with me and P and got similar "we should go out" sentiments from him) and I are talking about P's party. It's revealed that the neighbors he wanted to "annoy" with his party are actually 2 girls that also go to our college, are friends of mine and ONE of them is the ex of one of E's roommates (call her D). This becomes very important later LOL.

In that moment, I get a call thru IG from P. And this mf tells me "Everybody is canceling on me, no one is coming to my party, I'm so pissed cause i already bought snacks, can you give me the address to E's party cause I wanna crash it." So I tell him "i tried to warn you!" but of course i'm thinking there's no harm in having him come to E's party! Let me be nice! So, I give him the deets.

I arrive, he's already there and immediately he's chatting me up, I don't even have a drink yet. He's talking about his party flop, how only 3 people came and left, and tells me that one of his best friends flaked on his party because "she went to have dinner with her bf's parents" and said this with SUCH disdain and an eyeroll as if..prioritizing your partner's parents over a house party is a shitty thing to do? Hm. The party goes on, I'm mingling with different people, and multiple times he comes to find me. At one point I'm having a one on one, and he comes up and says "there you are." But it gets to a point where anywhere that he shows up...everyone dissipates and goes into another room, and I'm doing the same. A girl I met says to me "he kept talking about how rich his parents are and it made me uncomfortable so i left". E's roommates are whispering to each other that he's making people uncomfortable and they're not sure what to do.

Party comes to an end, we go home, P posts on his IG about how the whole ordeal fucked with his mental health and he's gonna have a breakdown. I send him a lil check-in message, see if he's okay. Then I get a DM from one of E's roommates. He says it was good to see me, and he's not sure if I'm the one of invited P but just as a heads up, he made people uncomfortable and in the past he was very close with D (this roommates ex gf/P's neighbor) until he really freaked her out. He didn't give details as to what freaked her out. But continued on just to say that P was not invited in the future, and to watch out for my sake as well. I of course apologized, explain about his party being the same day and i wanted to be nice, and he was understanding, everything was cool. But after that night and how weird P had been, I distanced myself more than I already had (P messaged me constantly and I'd rarely answer even from the start)

Time passes, P constantly spams me with tiktoks and messages, i never reply. At some point he asks "is something wrong, you haven't been replying!" I still don't answer. At 1am, I get a message from S saying "P is asking me why you won't answer him back". Mind you, S and I aren't SUPER close, we're not constantly talking back and forth either. So both of us are extremely weirded out at the fact P is trying to find out through her why I'm not answering. So she and I talk about how weird he's been, and this is where the actual floodgates of "what the fuck" come out.

So the day after E's party, P's neighbors had a party as well (D and her roommate). P was not invited, but knew that S was going so he tried to convince her to get him into the party since she's friends with the hosts. S already knew about the weirdness and his history with those girls, so she didn't get him into the party. At fucking 2am, they're out on the balcony and look down to see P stalking outside the building. Weird enough to do this once...but apparently he has done this before. Multiple times. The reason he wanted to "annoy his neighbors" with a party is because they never invite him to theirs, so he wanted to throw one and not invite them back. Now why did P and his neighbors have a falling out to begin with? What freaked D out so badly? Now I'm taking this with the hugest grain of salt. I still don't fully believe this myself, but never put it past a white man. APPARENTLY...D and her roommate both either saw or knew of P killing small animals for entertainment purposes. Again, HUGE grain of salt, that's some real life serial killer shit that baffles me, I really can't just go ahead and say it's fact. But fuck me, if that wasn't enough to really solidify the weirdness that is this fucking kid.

So anyway! Time passes, P continues to spam me with messages, and continues to ask S why I don't answer. S rarely answers him as well. It's been weeks at this point. I post about my friend passing away, he gives condolences, I hit "Like" on the messages because the sentiments were sweet, but didn't actually write back. S sends me a screenshot of P saying "Sam won't answer back and we were supposed to go party. Ugh and now that her friend died, she's definitely not going to be in the mood to." are you fucking kidding me.

Brings us to last night. I go out to a house party annnnd in walks P. The moment he sees me, he cocks his head and his expression is....almost like "Oh. Well look who's here" a little upset, a little like he's finally caught me. I fucking pound my drink, and I am nice! Very nice, like I always fucking am, I chat with him like nothing ever happened and everything is normal. I'm able to break away throughout the party, but he continuously finds me. At one point I'm outside talking to 2 friends, he comes out, and 30 seconds later, my friends go inside. P says "It seems people always vanish when I show up, I swear I'm cursed". Most of the party goes smooth, he made a few comments hinting at me dodging him, saying "Aren't we still gonna go party? We should go out for pride" and I'm like yeah yeah, of course we should, uh huh, I'm just soooo busy with work yanno and traveling! End of the night, he's leaving and says to me "You know we should really stay in contact. Like REALLY stay in contact cause uh...ya kinda ghosted me!" And I say yeah sorry you know just been busy and he says "Yeah but, even at the end of last semester you....kinda ghosted me." and his tone is not sad, it's not hurt. He's bitter, accusatory, like i'm in the wrong. Like I did something bad, something malicious. Edit: in this moment he also said "oh are you faster with texting? Maybe give me your number?" and I said "AHA i actually think IG is faster i don't really text!" bc no way in fucking hell is he getting my phone number.

This whole time, I never had a say in growing a friendship with this guy, there was never an opportunity for some organic growth. It was like he just decided "you" and made me his friend with all the obligations that come with that. What started as just annoying overbearing clinginess now feels kinda dangerous. Like what happens when I continue to not answer and I see him at another party? I don't want to avoid my friend's gatherings on the chance that he might be there. I don't want to have to hide that I'm going out and didn't invite him. I don't want to be part of this forced 'friendship' that's he's decided I need to be a part of. And I also don't want to hurt his feelings by telling him I do not want to be in contact. Even if I told him, he'd find a way to make me the villain, I'd be in the 'wrong' in his eyes, just like every other person he's complained to me about. Where he stated things as if he was the victim when the whole time I'm thinking the other person was in the right.

So anyway, this has been ongoing for ~2 months and I never expecting things to escalate the way they have. I don't know WHY he is so hung up on me in particular, but I just want to shake him off clean.

[avocado-frog]

hey this is chance and here’s week 4’s prompt. how do strangers within the world view your protagonists? how would they describe them? and how does this contrast against how the protagonist views themself?

!!week four's prompt!!

Logan- gives kids at lemonade stands 100 usd. bakes cookies for new neighbors. he's well-liked and fairly well-known. he likes to think the rest of the neighborhood likes him, but he gets surprised at how many people Know him

Leo- banned from most public spaces. Makes children cry on purpose. Canonically she broke an old man's knees with a golf club. Rummages through people's trash for stuff. She's aware The other kids think she's a wet cat

Cass- adored by all. she's got the healing magic so people go to her instead of doctors sometimes bc she doesn't charge. Leo steals from them regardless. Makes flower crowns for people at the park probably. Hangs out with Dylan at the garden so the garden people know her. Very modest about this

Kai + Marcy- richest family in the whole goddamn town. Kai is a lot more polite about it than his sister. Marcy is Awful

Lily- That specific brand of hot cheeto girl who tell kids off for being disrespectful to the teachers. I think she's popular at school but because people like her/they like Logan and Jaxon and know they're siblings. She's confident + i think she's aware that the other kids like her. Leo does not believe that she's liked

Jaxon- he's soo friendly actually. Somehow, he's made friends with every kid in the city, and he volunteers at the library, and he also gets into fights a lot. Aside from that Reputation in school, people like him <3 hope nothing happens to him. Jax knows how good he is at making friends and uses his power for good

Dylan- my favorite fact about them is that they do community garden work with the old ladies and so i think the grandma community adores them. Dylan goes to bingo thursdays.

Ryan- very shy. he doesn't like to talk to people he doesn't know, and he hasn't made many friends in school, especially after he left with Leo in dahlia. He thinks he's the most hated child in the whole world

Sam- Nike kid. Sports boy. If a parent has a child who does multiple sports, they Keep Seeing Sam, because he's in karate, basketball, baseball, track, and soccer. No one knows how he does it Middle child syndrome

Elliot- Elliot's favorite hobby is making intense eye contact with strangers to make them uncomfortable and he likes to say just the most obscure shit. He just goes up to people and tells them about the rat in his pocket. Sometimes he hangs out with Dylan, so I bet he goes to bingo thursdays too lol. He also thinks he's the most hated child in the whole world

[anxiouslyfred]

Fleer

Summary: On a day hanging out in town, Janus Remus and Virgil get harrassed by the same person multiple times. Eventually Janus decides to give them some new thoughts.

Authors Notes: The prompt I wrote myself for today was "Janus needs to fleer in a story, and leave with a geck too" According to An Emotion Dictionary a Fleer is "To mock; to smile snidely" and to geck is "to scoff: to flounce off" I did what I could to describe the action enough to be understood while writing but guessed actually including them in my notes would be helpful.

Warnings: Homophobia and Harrassment

/\/\

Speaking their mind was normal to Janus. They would do so at will, quite randomly, and usually do their best to ensure nobody around them knew if it was their true opinion or one echoed in order to gain something.

Today Janus didn't mind if their friends understood what they truly meant. What they cared about was if the asshole who'd kept running into them, insulting and threatening them felt insulted.

He'd started the first time they passed, noticing the rainbow sash that Remus had insisted on wearing, yelling a slur, but nothing more as their group headed into a shop. Janus hadn't cared then; Remus was laughing it off, and saying that he'd pass the compliments on to his brother when Roman demanded the sash was returned.

Then, after Virgil had caught up to them and insisted on dragging them into the music store; the jerk was there again. He'd followed them around the store, loudly declaring that he'd never listen to gay bands, and was making a list of who to avoid.

Remus had responded by that, going around the store to get all the most popular artists latest CD's, following the nods Janus made whenever the guy muttered about some specific artist would never support or be liked by the gays. They were fairly sure the guy would have to completely change his music taste if he really were to stop listening to every artist Remus brought a CD of that day, also that the likelihood of the card Remus was using to pay actually being his was lower than 0%.

After that shop they'd deliberately waited until the git had left and headed in the opposite direction, now without any distinct goals for their afternoon in mind they could go wherever they wanted.

Unfortunately, apparently the same angry moron turned up when they decided to indulge in some of histories horrors at the museum, and this time Janus had had enough.

“Yeah, come to hear about how dead you all should be.” The guy yelled over at them as soon as they moved into the art gallery that had been there for years, just rearranged over the time.

Janus fleered, back straightened, and eyes judging. “Actually we're learning about how much better the world is because of trans people. Perhaps you could do with paying attention to the exhibits here.” They stated, gesturing vaguely to the room before this.

“Yeah right. You a blight on humanity-” The guy attempted to counter, but they didn't let him.

“Who are part of the community responsible for computers as they are today. Completely responsible for numerous works of classic literature, and indubitably better citizens than a hate-filled, useless, layabout who hasn't done anything with this day and doubtless many more beyond criticising strangers.” The sneer widened on their face, and a glance at Virgil made them realise how empty their gaze must be. He always stepped further back if their gaze was too harsh.

The asshole was gaping, clearly trying to formulate another insult. “Don't stress yourself. I know you only have slurs in that brain of yours, nothing original worth hearing at all. Now we've got to carry on to learn about the queer influences on Theatre. I've heard there's some unmissable revelations about Shakespeare in the exhibit.” They turned with a flounce.

Janus tugged Remus and Virgil off with them. “Honestly, even the harassment nowadays is mediocre.” They mocked.

[cocoeclipse]

A Separate Interview

I took a deep breath as I entered the building. It felt off-putting to be the one entering the building rather than dropping Finny off in front of it; for me to be the center of attention and nobody else. The entrance room was small with a brown carpet and couch. The walls were a simple off-white color with pictures of the student radio hosts. On the wall to the left of the door– the side the couch was facing– there was a large window into the recording room, bordered by a simple wooden frame. On the opposite side of the entrance door, was a wood door with a clear window to see into the room and above it an “On Air” sign, which led to the recording room. As I sat on the couch, I couldn’t help but reflect on what got me here; writing that novel. A Separate Peace was only meant to help my patients understand the impact of lack of communication; not be an award-winning book. It was meant to explain the complexities of jealousy, admiration, and friendship as well as how they intertwine with one another; not a popular story simplified down into something unrecognizable. Most of all, it was to display how war affects the mind; not encourage people to force themselves or their kids towards war.

I was never supposed to be interviewed over it.

“Mr. Forrester,” someone called, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts. I looked up and saw a student standing in the doorway. He looked to be an Upper Middler– so about 16– and was wearing a black suit and white undershirt; fairly standard attire for a radio show host. “We’re ready for your interview,” he continued. I stood up and walked into the recording room. It was pretty small with a desk and a pair of chairs in the center. On the desk, sat a panel with buttons and knobs; probably controlling the radio’s music and talking segments. In front of the chairs were microphones, one preset to a specific height and one unadjusted. The host sat in the chair with the preadjusted mic, so I sat down in the other chair and pulled the mic down to my height.

“So, Mr. Forrester,” the host began, “my name is Todd. Are there any specific questions you would like me to ask once the broadcast starts?”

“Nope,” I replied, “as long as it doesn’t pertain to my personal life, you can ask me anything.”

“GREAT! We’re going to go live in just a few minutes, so I hope you’re ready.”

I sat in the chair composing myself for the next five minutes, this was just an interview. Finny does these all the time and I’ve done multiple to get to where I am today; so why were my hands shaking? Why was I so nervous? I took some deep breaths while I waited for Todd to announce that the radio station was live 

“Welcome back to WPEA with your host, Todd!” he announced. “As always, today we have an alumni interview, if you could introduce yourself,” he continued, switching the focus over to me.

I took a deep breath before beginning, “Hello students of Devon. My name is Gene Forrester. I’m an author and psychologist who was part of Devon’s class of 1943.” I took another calming breath before continuing, “My most recent and most popular work is A Separate Peace.”

“Thank you for coming Mr. Forrester; now, my first question is, what inspires you to write your books? I’ve read a few of them and they’re quite good.”

“Thank you, I’ve worked quite hard on them,” I admitted. “Most of my books are written to help my patients or their families understand mental health problems. Some are more specific while some were primarily passion projects, but overall I wrote my books to help the public to understand how different actions are caused by or affect people’s mentality,” I explained nervously.

“That’s quite interesting to learn, sir. Now, pertaining to your most recent book, what most heavily inspired the novel?” Todd inquired.

“Well, there are a few things I wanted to touch on in A Separate Peace,” I started, conjuring up confidence I didn’t have. “First was the importance of communication in a relationship, specifically friendships,” I continued, omitting that Finny and I began dating later that summer. “Another important topic was jealousy. The combination of these things is what causes the main conflict. Finally– and I think most importantly– was how war affects the mind. Most of my patients and friends have experienced the effects of World War Two, and I feel that it is important to show how much it affects people, especially those who are younger.”

“Wow, Mr. Forrester, that’s quite a noble reason for writing your book,” Todd replied. I felt myself blush with a bit of embarrassment. Out of all my pieces, A Separate Peace had been the least noble. While the book may appear admirable, I wrote it as more of a self-dissection and reflection than anything else. A passion project, if you will. “Moving onto the plot of your book, what inspired the specific scenes in the novel? And were any of them based on your real life?”

I chuckled, thinking about the most important moments. “Well, most of the scenes in the summer were real events with some slight discrepancies of course.”

“Could you elaborate on those changes for us? I’m sure our listeners are eager to hear the details,” prompted Tom.

“Of course!” I replied, “The main changes include a slight change to the dialogue of the beach scene, the spiraling over Finny hating me during chapter 4, and jouncing the limb. The dialogue change was done to further explain the importance of communication and the other scenes were the byproduct of that,” I explained.

 “During the scene at Finny’s home, there were two changes, though neither of them were particularly important, so I don’t think I need to go into detail over them.” I paused here, thinking of other important scenes. “The ordeal with Quackenbush was based on interactions some of the other boys had with him, I don’t remember which exactly. Most of chapter 7 is the same except for the application to the war. The inverse can be said about chapter 8, as the only real event is when Finny told me the winter loves him and that whole conversation.” I took another pause to think about what to say next, and avoid mentioning anything about my relationship with Finny.

“Chapters nine and ten– that’s the Winter Carnival and my talk with Leper– are mostly unchanged except for Finny’s leg being broken. Chapters 11 through 13 on the other hand are almost complete fabrications. To be honest, the end of my time at Devon was actually pretty nice; the novel’s ending was written solely for narrative purposes. I guess a slight inspiration of mine for the key scenes in those chapters would be the time I was on jury duty while writing the novel, which really helped with the trial scene of chapter 11. I’m fairly certain those were all the scenes that had inspirations from real-world events,” I finished. Part of me thought I talked for a bit too long, but it was an interview so that should’ve been okay. Thankfully, Todd reassured me with his reply.

“It seems like most of the novel was based on real experiences. This being said, are the characters based on real people?” Todd asked.

“Yes, each of the characters are real people from Devon with the Gene in the novel being a stand-in for myself.”

“Now I’m curious, have I or another host interviewed any of them?” Todd asked. I had to think about this for a bit; other than Phineas, had the other boys been interviewed at all? Well, I think Brinker was interviewed last week. I believe Chet had one last month too.

“I believe three of them have been interviewed, then again a few more may have but I can’t remember,” I finally gave as my reply.

“I’m a bit curious as to which ones, but I want to try and guess.”

I chuckled, for it was probably pretty obvious, but I let him try anyway. “Go right ahead, Todd.”

“Let’s see,” he began, “I believe I interviewed Brinker Hadley this time last week. Then a few months ago I interviewed another 1940s alumni, what was his name again… oh! Chet Douglass! They were a CEO and an orchestra member respectively,” he exclaimed. “As for the last one, I’m not entirely sure. I can’t remember interviewing anyone else from the 1940s years, much less the 1943 class specifically. Maybe it’ll come to me later, so let’s continue with the questions. Who is the person that inspired Finny?”

I gave another chuckle. “Phineas, of course.” He was clearly a bit confused here, as he raised his left brow and gave me a curious look.

“But who is the real person behind Phineas?” Todd inquired again. “You gave most of the characters’ last names, but not Finny’s.”

With a short laugh, I commented. “I didn’t realize that I never mentioned Finny’s last name, he’s always been so distinct that someone not knowing who I was talking about just seemed wrong. Anyways, Finny is based off, well, Finny. His full name is Phineas Pell.” Todd went silent for a minute so I looked over at his face; it was filled with shock. I guess that was a big surprise.

Upon recovering from this Todd inquired incredulously, “The Olympic Gold Medalist in hockey?”

“Aey-uh,” I began as an homage to Finny, “We talk nearly every day.”

“That’s quite the bombshell to drop, Mr. Forrester. However, I now know who the last interviewee was– one of my co-hosts interviewed him right after the Olympics. Anyways, did any of your friends know that you wrote this with their real names?” Todd asked to get the interview rolling again.

“Most were vaguely aware, although many did not know the plot of the novel, with the exception– ironically enough– being Finny. He had a hand in making sure I did the characterization of pretty much everyone properly. I was not the most attentive person towards my peers back in school,” I explained, slightly embarrassed. After all, I am a psychologist these days; my job is paying attention to other people and their emotions.

“Well, Mr. Forrester,” Todd began again, signaling that the interview time was up, “thank you for providing us some insight into your most popular work. To all the students, let us know if you would like to hear him return to the interview table in the future. For now, let us listen to "Ticket to Ride” by everyone’s favorite British band, the Beatles!” 

Todd then pressed a few buttons on the panel. From the window to the waiting room, I could see the light from the “On Air” sign turn off. “Ticket to Ride” then began to play faintly from the speakers. We both turned our microphones away before Todd turned to face me.

“Again, Mr. Forrester, thank you for the interview. You know the way out of the building, and I need to stay and make sure the music is played properly. We will send you a letter if we want you back for another interview,” Todd told me with a smile. I gave him one in return as I stood up and headed toward the door.

“Thank you for the interview, Todd. I hope to see you again in the future,” I replied. When I walked out of the building, I gave a long sigh of relief. The interview was nowhere near as bad as I had assumed it would be. I got into the Ford Mustang convertible that Finny had convinced me to buy; excited to return home and tell him all about my latest adventure with my new-found fame.

Cross posted links:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63999970

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14453573/1/A-Separate-Interview