#some more posters will be hopefully be posted here as well!

[bayjaruchel]

Underneath The Strobe Light

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Pairing: Mike Schmidt (2023)/AFAB Reader

Rating: Explicit

Summary: You're aware of your feelings for Mike, but you're unsure if he feels the same. A single late-night conversation changes everything. (4.2k | originally posted on ao3 | Masterlist )

Extra Notes: Posted October 29, 2023

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You know Mike, sometimes. Mainly in bits and pieces. 

You know he has that poster of Nebraska above his bed; you know he's got a soft spot for terrible eighties cartoons. You know he likes his steak well done. Maybe it's generally useless information — but you've tucked it all away in a dear corner of your brain, in a well-worn cardboard box with his name scrawled fondly on the side in Sharpie. 

He's been busy nowadays, especially with his awful new job at that abandoned restaurant. You've always been there if he needs someone to watch over Abby. It's a strange juxtaposition— spending more and more time at his house, but spending less and less time actually talking to him. But you know he's exhausted, both mentally and physically. 

You don't expect much. You don't need much. Even though Mike's always offered to actually pay you for babysitting Abby, you've always declined. 

However— needing and wanting are two very different things. 

And you want. So, so much. 

Sitting here, on the couch in his living room, your mind always wanders back to him. Abby's a really nice kid, even if she's a little on the eccentric side. Whenever you're sitting with her, watching her draw or watching the television, you can't really focus on Mike. But now, with her safely put to bed … There's nothing to stop you. Nothing to distract you from the empty spot next to you on the couch. 

You blink, already bleary-eyed from the hour. There's some mediocre sitcom playing on the television. It's practically white noise, and you can feel yourself slowly but surely being lulled to sleep. The stubborn part of you wants to fight it. The tired part of you wants to just let it happen. You fumble for the remote instead, switching the channel. 

World News Now? 

Not bad, you think wryly, slumping back into the pillows. You liked the guy playing the accordion and singing about the news, polka-style. Hopefully they'll bring that back. Maybe large broadcasting networks actually do know their audiences. 

Yeah, no. 

You stifle a yawn, tugging your blanket a little tighter. The room's dark, so the only real sources of light are coming from the kitchen and the bluish glow of the television. The only sounds besides that of the T.V. are the occasional car passing by, joined by the gentle chorus of crickets. It's quiet, but not in a discomforting way. 

It's kind of perfect. Like your own little bubble in the world. Untouchable. Not until the sun rises, anyway. 

Your bubble suddenly pops when a car pulls into the driveway, tires crunching on the pavement, and your heart skips. 

It couldn't be anyone else. 

About a minute later, there's the sound of keys turning in the lock. The door swings open and then shuts behind him. Softly. He knows Abby would wake up if he slammed it. Then there's the thump of him setting down his stuff— carelessly. 

The couch cushions squeak a little when Mike sits down next to you. Silently. He's gotten rid of that stupid security vest. 

"Hey," you offer. 

"Hi," he obliges. 

You're sure he's not really paying attention to the T.V. "How was work?" 

It's bland small talk at best, and brutally annoying at worst. But it's the only way to move into interesting conversation territory. And he didn't just trudge past you to go flop down on his bed, so you're assuming he does want to talk. You might pretend not to know, but you're well aware of his social life— or lack thereof. Everyone needs to talk, sometimes. 

"Pretty dull." Rolling his probably stiff shoulders, he lets out a small sound of discomfort. Sheepishly, he murmurs: "I kind of … I kind of just napped, to be honest." 

"Aren't you supposed to be a security guard?" You tease. "That's a really important job, you know. You have to stop all the dangerous teenagers from breaking in and spray-painting dicks on the walls." 

He huffs out something reminiscent of a laugh. "Honestly, the pay's too low to take it seriously." 

"And yet … " 

"There weren't any kids, okay?" Mike shakes his head. When you turn to look at him, though, he's smiling. It's faint, but it's there. "No dangerous teenagers that I had to fight off. It was fine." 

"Fine?" 

"Fine." 

You don't want to let the silence set in. 

"Oh, yeah, we finished the leftover spaghetti earlier. For dinner. I hope that's okay." 

"No, it's terrible," he deadpans. "I hate you." 

"Asshole." 

"Whatever." Mike snickers, and you bask in its gloriousness. "Yeah, it's okay. I know that I probably wouldn't have eaten it anyway. Did you, uh … " He pauses for a split second. "… Did you like it?" 

His tone makes you wonder, but you hastily brush it off. "Yeah, I did," you clarify, "the sauce was pretty great. Was it store-bought, or?" Because if it was, then where can I get it?

"Yup," he replies, popping the 'p'. "Great stuff, for something that's canned. But I always add a little more garlic powder, too." 

"Oh, really?" 

Mike hums an affirmation. "It's like magic, I'm telling you. Doesn't even take a lot to add flavor." 

"That's cool." You rustle with your blanket again, adjusting it more out of habit than anything else. That, and it's kind of cold. "I'll try and remember it for later." 

He's almost cheeky when he speaks. 

"It's life-changing." 

You can't help but snort. "You sound like an addict." 

Incredulously, he glances at you. "To what? Garlic powder?" 

"Pretty much, yeah." 

"I can't believe that you'd say that." He slowly shakes his head, for the second time in the span of roughly a minute. "Especially as someone who's experienced it firsthand—" 

"—you're the one talking about how life-changing it is—" 

"—you can't possibly ignore the irresistible savoriness of garlic powder." 

You look at one another for a moment. The sheer absurdity of the situation sets in all at once. And, well. He starts giggling, and you can't hold it in, either. How could you? Even though he looks at least part zombie, his eyes are still very much alive. Despite the blatant awkwardness and lingering shyness that always follows him around, he's still got a very contagious laugh.  

After you both calm down, he lets out a long sigh. 

"It's getting really late." 

You cling to what little stubbornness remains. "Yeah?" 

"Are you gonna head home?" 

Again, there's something there. Despite his nonchalant attitude, it's almost like— 

—but you're probably overthinking. Wouldn't be anything new. He has to get some rest, and so do you. The drowsiness repeatedly threatening to tug your eyelids closed is a testament to that. Normally, you'd just pass out on the couch or something, and take off early in the morning; before Mike and Abby wake up. But now, it's different. Now, you actually have to make a choice before your sleepy body makes it for you. 

"Um." You rub your eyes again. "I mean. I could, if it's bothering you—" 

"It's not." 

He interrupts you so quickly that it catches you off-guard. It seemingly catches him off-guard, too, judging by the way he promptly averts his gaze and pretends to care about the guy on the television going on about some sort of plumber strike in the city. 

"Oh." You need a second to process. "Oh, okay. Well, in that case … I don't really think that it'd be safe for me to drive right now." You laugh, a little too airily for it to be completely genuine. "I'd probably fall asleep at the wheel or something." At least that's the truth. "I'll just take the couch. As usual." 

"Okay," he says. He's back to murmuring. 

"And I'll be gone before you eat breakfast." Subconsciously, you're fiddling with the slightly frayed edges of the blanket. It's well-loved. "As usual." 

You think you hear him suck in a breath, seconds before: 

"Why don't you stay?"  

Your own breath stutters in your chest. 

"... what?" Is all you can manage, without horrifically humiliating yourself. 

"I mean," he rushes to correct himself, "you come by sometimes because you want to spend time with Abby— she likes you a lot, you know, sometimes I think she likes you more than she likes me . I think—" He's properly nervous now, his knee bouncing up and down. But he's already continuing before you can get a word in. "I think she'd like you to be here in the morning. And you don't accept pay, anyway. You just— won't." 

His nervousness is spreading to you. "Hey, I—" 

"Why are you here, anyway?" 

The question sounds like it's been a long time coming. He's demanding you now, brow furrowed and eyes sparking with emotion. "Is it out of pity? Do you feel sorry for me? Do you feel sorry for Abby? Because if you do, then— then you can just—" 

"It's not!" You exclaim. 

Immediately, you realize that there's a sleeping girl not too far away, and shamefully lower your voice. 

"... It's not, I promise. I just—" It takes a little while for you to gather the right words, and when you do, you don't drop your gaze from him. All of his previous frustration is all but gone, replaced by a slightly wide-eyed expression that's making your heart ache a little. "I genuinely really like spending time with Abby, okay? She's really sweet, and creative, and just a really great kid. And I—" 

You stop yourself. 

"And you what?" Mike asks, gently. 

Might as well, huh? 

"And I really like spending time with you, too," you admit, finally unable to meet his eyes and focusing on your lap instead. 

There's an incredibly tense beat, in which you swear your life flashes before your eyes. 

Then: 

He's barely audible when he speaks. His knee has stopped bouncing, but he's playing with his thumbs. Clearly, your confession— vague as it was— resonated with him, in some way. You hope he understands what you meant, because you couldn't possibly put it all into words in a way that would make sense. 

"Feeling's mutual," he mutters. 

Your head almost snaps up at that. Maybe you had expected it, deep down— you're not oblivious, duh— but it's one thing to have a hunch, and another to have that hunch proven. And out loud, no less. 

"Yeah?" You dare to ask. 

Slowly, he looks up. He meets your eyes. 

"Yeah," he repeats breathlessly, like the wind's been knocked out of him. 

You let your blanket fall from your shoulders, and it slides all the way onto the floor. 

You reach out. 

He lets you lace your fingers through his. 

Mike's palm is sort of clammy— and he's shaking a little— but he still squeezes your hand. On instinct, you guess. It still makes you smile. He doesn't return it, but his lips are parted a little, and you really, really like that. More than you probably should. You like a lot of things about him more than you probably should. 

You scooch a little closer, and he doesn't move away. You let your gaze drop back down to his lips again, making your intentions clear. Still, you don't know if it's clear enough. You lean in, just barely. 

"... Can I?" 

His reply is almost instantaneous. 

"Please."  

You swallow all of the witty quips you could make, and kiss him instead. 

He's very tentative at first. Like he hasn't done this for a while. But you ease him into it— and before long, he's got one hand on the back of your neck, the other somewhere near your waist. He tastes like coffee and something else you can't really put your finger on. It doesn't really matter, though. Because you are kissing him, damnit! 

His eyes are still shut when you part— with a soft smack — but they flutter open after a second. You're not sure if you're supposed to say something meaningful. Luckily, he leans in instead, and your thoughts are immediately transported elsewhere. 

You kiss like this for a while. It's really nice, and you know he needs it. So do you. 

However— when you start losing track of time, lost in the moment, he makes a noise. 

It's quiet, definitely. But it's nothing like the little hums and sighs he's been making so far. It makes you shift closer, pressing more insistently into him. And he responds, enthusiastically wrapping his arms around you, closing the little distance between your bodies that there was. You can practically feel his heart jackrabbiting in his chest when you slip your tongue past his already kiss-swollen lips. 

He moans.  

You indulge yourself. For a little longer. And Mike chases you when you part. 

"We shouldn't do this in the living room," you whisper, nearly panting. "The couch is a little—" 

"Okay," he whispers back, already sounding wrecked. "Okay." 

You've been in his room before. You've sat on his bed— you've even laid on it before. But you've never straddled him on it before. It's a position that makes your head spin a little, and you occupy yourself with kissing him again. His hands fit perfectly on your hips, but they don't stay there for long, tragically— they trail upwards, up your waist, to your back. To your shoulders, and then back down again. It's as if he just can't get enough. You can't either. You need more. 

So, you tug at his shirt. He gets the message right away— hands scrambling to pull it up and over his head. He's still rather slim, but with a slight softness, mostly located in his midsection. There's a light dusting of dark hair on his chest, as well as the provocative happy trail leading down from his navel. You drag your eyes downward, admiring him, and then decide that you're wearing too much clothing. Your top comes off, dropped onto the floor near his. 

Mike takes more time to admire you when your torso is completely bare. His hands are warm on your bare skin, and slightly rough. Like before, he's hesitant at first, but when you encourage him— either literally or with physical indications— he grows bolder. His stubble scratches gently against you when his lips find your collarbone. 

You squirm a little, not even realizing it— and you feel him. Simultaneously, you both gasp. He's not fully there, but he's at least half-hard— and it can't be comfortable in those jeans. 

"Should I—" 

"Yeah—" 

With steady fingers, you unbutton his fly, and then unzip him. It's a little awkward when he shimmies out of the jeans, and when you wriggle out of your bottoms— you both snicker a little, but he's back to comfortably breathless when you settle back onto his lap. Under normal circumstances, you would tease him again. And yet, you can't bring yourself to. Not right now, at least. 

All you want to do is keep going. 

You roll your hips, testing the waters. His breath audibly hitches, and his hands fly up to settle back on your hips. He looks up at you, eyes already half-lidded— and they close when you grind down again. And again. His lips are clumsier this time when you kiss him, but he still reciprocates all the same. The sensation of him directly underneath you like this is intoxicating. You can feel every little twitch and every little jolt. 

"Fuck," he breathes, long and drawn-out, " God, I can— I can see the spot on your—" 

"Yeah?" You encourage, grinding down again, drinking in his answering groan. "You like that?" 

  "Yes —" 

"You want me to take 'em off?" 

Mike's pupils are blown wide, even though his eyes are already dark as is in the dimness of the room. He nods, once, then twice. "Yes," he murmurs. "Please," he adds, for good measure. 

He stares openly when you get off him, just enough to peel off your last remaining layer of clothing. And when you sit back down, well. It's obvious that you'll have to give him a second. "Can I," he says, finally, "can I touch you?" The way he's looking up at you again is just so sweet, so needy, that you consider saying no. Your throbbing core quickly shuts that idea down. 

"Go on," you encourage. 

He helps you move so he has easier access, and—  

His fingertips find your slit, already wet for him.

"Look what you did to me," you murmur. 

He visibly flushes— and then carefully works one finger into your slick heat. The feeling, combined with his thumb brushing against your clit— it's relief that you've needed this entire time, and you can't help but let a quiet sound escape your lips. It's apparently enough incentive for him to quicken his pace a little. Deliberately, he continues massaging your sensitive nub in a firm but easy pattern as he gently pushes a second finger inside you. 

Mike may be out of practice, but evidently, he still knows what he's doing. He peppers kisses up and down your neck, some more open-mouthed than others. Crooking his fingers, he maintains his diligent rhythm. A thought floats through your mind, unbidden— he must have strong hands, if he's been able to keep up like this—   

Two becomes three, and you're spreading your thighs a little wider for him. He's still transfixed, but speeds up at your urging, breath hot against the divot between your neck and shoulder. You chance a glance down, and you can see the visible outline of him through his boxers. You did that to him. He's desperate— for you. 

"Mike," you gasp, "nnh—" 

"Yeah, c'mon," he mouths, against your neck, "c'mon—" He's not letting up in the slightest, and when you tell him to, he speeds up again. He needs to see you cum just as much as you need to feel it. Your needs and wants are rapidly blending into one. You squeeze your eyes shut, but open them to look at him. His dark curls are a mess, his hand working tirelessly between your legs. 

  "Mike —" 

He says your name in return, like he's the one in the vulnerable position. 

"Mike , 'm gonna— 'm gonna—"  

"Please," his breaths are ragged, debauched, "cum, please, c'mon, lemme see it—" 

"Oh —" 

The tension snaps, and you spasm around his fingers. Your hips twitch, and you moan, your mouth falling open as you ride out your orgasm. You're rising— falling — molten honey pooling in your core, before flowing throughout your body. And Mike keeps going throughout it all, letting you enjoy the sensations until you're fully satisfied. 

Nearly boneless, you sag backward. His fingers, soaked with your glistening release, slip out of your cunt with a wet noise. He doesn't waste any time in bringing them up into his mouth, cleaning them off with his tongue— at the taste of you, he groans, even though it's muffled. Your mind takes a moment to catch up again with the world, but another thought manifests itself— how would he react, if you let him use his mouth on you? How would his head look between your thighs? He would be noisy, wouldn't he? Enthusiastic, pliant, and—

Your desire, although it waned for a short minute, comes back tenfold. But you take one look down again and— you can do that later. Right now, you want him inside you. 

Mike lets you tug him down for another kiss. He lets you feel the worn fabric on his thighs, almost playfully. When you palm him through them— he hisses through his teeth, hypersensitive even though you've barely touched him yet. You're going to fix that, though. Hooking your thumbs into the waistband of his boxers, you tug them down. 

You were right. He's desperate. As soon as his overheated skin meets the cool air, he lets out another quiet hiss. And when you take him in hand— 

"Mmh —" A firm stroke from base to tip, and you've already got him. He's average in length, but a little girthy. You know he'll be perfect. There's a little drop at the head of his cock, and you resist the urge to lick it off, focusing instead on warming him up a little. He whispers your name, once, when you pump up and down, twisting your wrist. 

"Got a condom?" You ask, stilling for a second. His eyes snap to you. 

"Oh my God, " he quickly mutters under his breath, before raising his volume, "uh, yeah, I think so. Lemme—" And he's already scrambling off the bed, opening the drawers of his nightstand with speed, but somehow simultaneously managing not to make much noise. He rifles through them, but soon emerges victoriously with what he was looking for. It's a little funny, how he doesn't waste any time in ripping it open and tossing the garbage into the mostly-overfull pail near his bed. Hastily, he rolls on the condom. You think he's expecting you to lay back or get up on your hands and knees so he can fuck you like that— you wouldn't be entirely opposed to it— but that's not what you want right now. 

You place your hands on his chest and push him back down so he's sitting against the headboard. He goes without complaint, even shifting when he understands what you want to do. He's flushed almost down to his neck. 

When you sink down on him in a smooth slide, still slick from earlier, you both moan. He sounds strained— he's biting his lower lip, squirming until he finally bottoms out. You have to take a moment to catch your breath, too; the fullness is just how you imagined, but it's so, so much, especially because of your lingering sensitivity. 

"I'm not—" He audibly swallows, hands tightening on your waist when you move just a little, "oh, fuck, I'm not gonna— I'm not gonna last long." He's babbling a little. "You're tight, fuck." 

You rock back and forth, once, and it's enough to force a choked noise from his throat. You watch his face, observing every little twitch, the clenching of his jaw. You can't hesitate for much longer, though— so you begin lifting yourself and dropping yourself down on his cock. Just in little movements at first, so you can get used to the feeling. His eyes squeeze shut— 

"Look at me," you demand, and he does. He doesn't try and thrust up into you when you really start to move. Up and down, up and down, with lewd plaps that accompany your sounds; his grunts—  you swear you hear him whimper .  His eyelashes flutter open and closed, as he struggles to follow your command, wanting to be good. For you. Even though you can see his thighs flexing as he holds everything back. You ride him for all you're worth. 

True to his words, you can tell when he gets close. Maybe he's been on edge this entire time. You thread your fingers through his hair— he buries his face into the crook of your neck, maybe out of embarrassment. You can feel how flushed he is, a thin sheen of sweat covering both of your bodies. Your muscles are aching, but you're determined to make him cum. You're determined to do this for him. 

He says your name, but it's more of a whine. "Please — I'm gonna— I can't — "  

"Go on," you pant, "you can. Don't hold back." Your arms are wrapped around his neck, now, holding him tight; just like his arms around your waist. The contact is almost too much, but somehow it's still not enough, despite him being inside you. "Go on," you repeat, after he whines again, the sound sending white-hot heat straight to your core. "Cum." 

Mike twitches, and you can feel him pulse— the sound he lets out is high-pitched, muffled into your skin. You slow your movements— the aftershocks of his orgasm last longer than yours. It might've been a little while for you, but it had definitely been longer for him. 

He doesn't let go, even after his breathing's slowed down. 

Gently, you pull his head back so you can look at him. He looks up at you with slightly wet eyes. The kisses you press to his cheeks and forehead make him scrunch up his face. 

"Hey," he rasps, "I gotta throw out the condom. Hang on." 

"Yeah, okay." 

When he slips out of you, you both sigh a little. With unsteady fingers, he ties up the condom before chucking it into the pail. 

The sheets are cool on your skin when he pulls them over you both. The room reeks of sex, but both of you are too exhausted to care. When you turn to lay on your side, he's behind you, throwing an arm over your waist. Tugging you closer. Almost absentmindedly, there's a kiss pressed to the back of your head. 

"Thank you," he mumbles. 

You stare at the far wall, unable to close your eyes just yet. 

"For what?" 

"For—" A pause. "For everything, I guess." 

The awkwardness is back. But you let it in. You smile. 

"You're welcome." 

He doesn't respond, but shuffles nearer, chest pressed up against your back. It's not long before you're both fast asleep. 

[greenfiend]

The Significance of Lover’s Lake and Byler (Theory) Part 2

Sequel to this post

(Warning: mentions of sex and drugs)

Okay so first of all, if you haven’t seen my previous post on my theory involving Lovers Lake and Byler, please read it first. I go over my theory and predictions for Byler and the heart shaped lake. This is a secondary post to it, outlining some VERY interesting details involving the owner of the lakeside house, the lakeside house itself, and all the romantic and sexual elements present. I’m saving the best for last here.

Let’s start with the owner of the lakeside house.

Reefer Rick

So I recently made a silly post arguing that the most queer coded character in Stranger Things is not Mike nor Will (nor Robin, Henry, Eddie etc), and I stand by this statement. The most queer coded character is: Reefer Rick. Now, I know we never see the guy, but literally all the information we have on him is either queer coding or drug references.

Synonyms of his name are literally f*g Dick, with a shared last name with the famous tea company founder who so happens to have been a homosexual: Lipton.

We know he doesn’t have a family, thus he’s a single man who occasionally has his buddy/fellow dealer Eddie stay over. Hm, not very heterosexual of him.

Then we have his movie list.

Now, as many of us know, the movie “Fast Times” is used within Stranger Things as a way to gage if someone is attracted to women or not. We have Steve, Dustin, Lucas, and Vickie all confirmed to have enjoyed this movie… specifically for that shot at 53 minutes and 5 seconds. Sure, Reefer Rick rented the film, but why is it the only movie he rented that was returned on time? For context, he’s the only character who had films listed as “late” returns. So, he obviously enjoyed Cheech & Chong a lot more. Two guys doing drugs is more interesting to him than a sexy lady. Okay, noted.

Now, how is he perceived by the people of Hawkins?

Oooof. Okay. He’s not well liked it seems. He apparently is causing some fear and anger amongst the Hawkins residents. Kind of similar of a reaction these people would have towards an openly gay man during the 1980s.

Also I have to include @/conflictofthemind ‘s excellent point that injectable drug use and unprotected sex (specifically between two men) were both commonly associated with HIV/AIDS… a major epidemic during the 80s and a major subtextual theme within the show.

Now, where’s this guy live while outside of jail?

I don’t blame the guy for “hiding” when the town is not too fond of him. Of course he is a drug dealer so there’s that as well. But interesting they used the word “hide”, which has been associated with queerness within the show already (plus this line was said by Robin (featured in the middle of the shot!!!) who is queer herself).

(Both of these screenshots are from 1x02 interestingly enough.)

Wouldn’t it make sense for these two “hiders” to hide out in “a perfect place to hide” together? Seeking refuge in a fellow gay man’s secluded house?

I will say it’s also worth noting that he does not have any women featured on the walls within his house. Also, he has a phallic shaped bong (we’ll get back to that soon).

Phew okay so that’s Reefer Rick. Are you still with me? Hopefully I didn’t bore any of you with this. I promise you this all leads back to Byler.

So, moving on to his house.

So as @/therainscene kindly pointed out, this poster with the smiley face can be related to rave culture and ecstasy in the 1980s. So a drug reference, in a drug dealer’s house… shocker I know. But I gotta say, ecstasy is also a term often related to sex. I also have to add this little tidbit from one of our favourite directors of Stranger Things, Shawn Levy. Keep in mind, he knows what’ll happen in the next season… and he’s directing episodes after 3 and 4…

Interesting word choice, no?

So, back to the symbolism within (and near) the house.

Let’s talk about the phallic symbolism that appears in pairs in these shots. It’s a choice, isn’t it? With two males in each shot. We know the Duffers love details and foreshadowing… I doubt it’s a coincidence. Also, anyone else notice that phone in the background? Just had to mention it, since our boys are frequently associated with phones and calls.

Then, of course, I gotta bring back this shot.

The bed. Blue meets yellow. You know it! We all heard it a thousand times by now. Let’s look at what else is in the shot. A closed closet. Another reference to our boys. To the right, you’ll see a toilet paper roll. Now, if you have a brother, you might see the same thing in his room. Sure it can be used as a tissue for your nose but let’s just say there’s usually another use for it. I’ll call it “self love”. So, basically, another sexual reference.

To sum up this house: lake/water, drugs, and ecstasy/smiley face. Now, let’s go back to a scene featuring our boys with all these elements in the background.

Makes you wonder doesn’t it?

I must also point out the “Paris” poster in the background. City of love, anyone? Plus the fireworks. They’re really trying to tell us something here.

Also, @/foodiewithdahoodie pointed out how Paris specifically was one of the first places to decriminalize sodomy.

You know, I also wouldn’t rule out every aspect of Murray’s prediction here.

Shout out to the Hylers out there!

Perhaps after a lot of stressful days of fighting interdimentional demons, these boys want to wind down and de-stress in their hiding spot. I can see Reefer Rick as a fellow Nintendo player, leaving his console behind, as well as his weed, for our boys to use. I also wouldn't be surprised if Eddie left a few of his beers behind. I mean… Murray has a pretty good track record for predictions. This would also really double down on the message that Mike and Will “aren’t kids anymore.”

Also, wouldn’t it be fun to look back at Murray’s predictions and realize that they’ve all come to be?

Okay, now let’s finally get to the romance elements!

First thing I want to start with is this shot:

So… they had to show us a mailbox, didn’t they? With that name “Lipton” which as I mentioned in my previous post… is associated with Thomas Lipton who had a lover named William Love.

1 point for #lettergate

And…

“Hope Our Love Lives/Lasts And Never Dies”

WWII solders used the acronym H.O.L.L.A.N.D. to convey a love message in a letter. The whole love letters association with Mike and Will never end, do they?

2 points for #lettergate!

As for the “2121”, I think it’s possible that it’s referencing multiple things… number references are tricky like that in my opinion. But I will say that @/thestrangestthing89 brought up the fact that “2121” could be a reference to “Twin Flames” which is yet another reference to romance.

Continuing on with the romance…

Let’s return back to the scene where Reefer Rick is first mentioned. After Max mentioned him, we are cut to Steve talking about a movie.

A movie filled with action and romance, you say?

So… Doctor Zhivago.

Basically a tale of two people in love during a difficult time (Russian Revolution) being separated, with other people, then finally reunited. Not completely unlike our boys. Notice how the “adult” sign is noticeable in the background. Not kids anymore.

He mentions action, which I’m sure there will be some of as well at the famous lake.

Okay enough with the silly details, let’s stop and look at the bigger picture.

Our beloved lake. Look how gorgeous it truly is. Plus the fact that it’s a literal heart? You can’t get more “on the nose” than that.

Now, who else is known as a heart? (Tough question I know…)

This boy is, without a doubt, narratively tied to the lake. He is “the heart”… he is THE LAKE (symbolically).

Thank you to @/everaster for bringing attention to the fact that after Mike was pushed to deliver that monologue to El by Will, Max “died”, then the gates opened WIDE. One of those gates, as we know, is located within Lover’s Lake… known was “watergate” (term coined by Dustin).

So, as of now in this story… Lover’s Lake is literally broken in two. A broken heart in need of mending.

Who better to accomplish that task than the boy who has known him for a decade and loves him completely and selflessly?

💌📬❤️‍🩹

Hope you enjoyed these posts as much as I enjoyed making them! It’s honestly so much fun looking for evidence and finding such interesting stuff. Some of it may be reaching, and that’s okay because it’s all in good fun! That’s what fandoms are all about.

The level of attention to detail in this show never ceases to amaze me! There’s so much depth and clues to look for and play around with. I hope to have sparked some inspiration and creativity for some people! 💛💙💚

As always, would love to know your thoughts!

[bleue-flora]

***UPDATE***

I did some snooping of my own as well as had people find or rule some out (I’ll probably continue to update this as we go on so to check the updated list return to the original post instead of the reblogs)

Alright, by popular demand here it is. There are likely things on here that may not exist yet because the map is from before the finales or don't exist at all or aren’t on this map (these items will be marked DNE - does not exist). I don't know, but that's part of the fun I suppose. :) Feel free to leave the answers in my asks, tag me, or just use the tag: #dsmp scavenger hunt so I can find your posts. <3 Good Luck!

DSMP Scavenger Hunt

Places

1. Staged Duo Island [related post]

✔️2a. Map #1 - Found ✔️2b. Map #4 from Dream’s wall in his bedroom cell [related post] (hopefully they are oriented right, I based it on the other wall maps’ orientation) - Found

2b. is Sam's Base at -3803 70 -3926 [post] (seems the map was oriented wrong oops, my bad... apparently it was right on his wall)

2a. has been determined by @sumwan to be a map of a more completed version of Sam’s handmade retirement island [post] (which is not actually shown in its completion on the dsmp map we were given, but is another mystery solved nonetheless :D)

✖️3. Quackity's storage room (what is in the chests?) [clip] - DNE

Given the look of this room and the presumed general area based off of the stream, I searched everywhere and am going to say this no longer exists and must have be changed since April 2021, perhaps it was part of a Las Nevadas building during construction… so no new torture method lore I guess :[

4. Quackity’s birthday poster (does it really say he’s 28? Or that his birthday is on December 28?)

5. Dream’s house (does he actually have one that’s not the prison or his old secret base)

✖️6a. Revival Book Lab [clip] - DNE ✖️6b. Punz's secret underground room - DNE

6b. The finale secret room has been confirmed to not have been built yet [post]

6a. It is a general consensus at this point that because Punz's tower does not appear the same as in the video that the video was filmed on a different map so there is no lab.

✖️7. Dream’s bed for respawning in the disc confrontation (it had to be close for him to get there so fast [related post]) - DNE [post]

8. Warden’s prison stasis chamber on the outside [clip]

9. Does Quackity have an in Minecraft calendar? (that Dream mentions [clip] & is shown in vod)

10. Did they make a replica of the cell for the scrapped lore and just never filmed it?

Items

✔️11. Books Dream gave to Techno in prison (are they all empty?) - Found

No, the one labeled Dream says “dear technoblade” and the others also have things in them, not necessarily super notable but not nothing [post].

➖12. Dream’s letter to Techno - Maybe?

There is a world in which it could perhaps be the Dream book with “dear technoblade” in it [post] because that is what the scene ends on [clip].

13. Revival Book

14. Are there multiple Enderboo prison waivers for multiple visits?

➖15. The OG pink bed (shown in old enderchest [from this post] but not later) - Unfindable

So there are actually a shit ton of pink beds on the server a result of Eret’s ‘you matter <3’ pink wool no doubt. So I think this will be pretty impossible, unless we find something that seems like Dream’s house which has a pink bed.

✔️16. Does Dream have any named possessions? - Yes

A fish named J DAWG, good on Sneapeekay for giving Dream a pet, our boy has an attachment now :) [post]

17. Dreamrider [clip]

18a. Dream’s blue shield 18b. Smile shield from staged finale

40. Bonus Addition. Sam’s missing Warden items including: WARDENS WILL, his armor and his trident Wardens Mercy. [related post]

Enchantments

✔️19. Enchantments of Quackity’s netherite low durability axe - Found

Efficiency V and Mending [post]

✔️20. Enchantments of Quackity’s diamond sword - Found

Sharpness I [same post as axe]

✔️21. Enchantments of Quackity’s diamond pickaxe - Found

Fortune II and Efficiency III [same post as axe]

✔️22. Dream’s armor enchantments after prison (how does it compare to Nightmare?) - Found

Pretty comparable as far as main enchants go, but definitely missing the extra frills [post] (thank you to @sumwan for finding Nightmare)

Questions

✔️23. Would Techno and Dream have been able to escape from under the cell? [clip] - I think EVENTUALLY Yes

I’m gonna probably do a separate post about it

✔️24. Is the End completely untouched? [related post] - Yes

@blockgamepirate has made the observation that no End file exist so presumably they never went to the end before the finale.

✔️25. Are the cow and sheep still at the disc confrontation vault? - No

Just For Fun - Where are these?

✔️26. KSI portraits from sex class (are there any still around?) - Yes

I do not have the plugin but all maps seem to still be in the school.

27. DEFINITELY NOT PENIS

✔️28. Dream’s Diary - Found

It was still in the cell.... [post]

29. “thanks for visiting” prison book

30. The :) book Sapnap gives to Ranboo from Dream in prison

31. Sam’s book that says "I am not an idiot "over and over

32. The L’manberg photo from the finale [clip]

✔️33. Are there any Tales of the SMP sets? - Yes

@feyscape has found the City of Mizu at 13979 70 12937 [post]

@feyscape’s website notes that The Town That Never Was is at 843 97 -296 [link]

✔️34. Egg - Found

Oddly, near Bad and Skeppy's mansion and the prison, not the banquet room, at 325 11 -884 [post]

35. Bones and Skeppy’s house (in Egg Finale) [clip]

✔️36. Antarctica Tommy got teleported to when he was banned on his first day [related post] - Found

@feyscape website coordinates at 2000 64 2500 [link]

37. The ocean monuments missing elder guardians (for prison build)?

38a. Fundy's house in mesa 38b. Fundy’s nightmare set in mesa biome [clip]

✔️39. Dream’s parrot’s grave [Dream's parrot] - Found

@oduvany has found it at 237 2309 [post]

Helpful Resources

@sumwan’s post [here] tells how to access inventories

And @seriousbusiness4130 left some helpful replies on my post about finding the loaded chunks of a map:

@feyscape has set up a helpful coordinates archive [here]

[nieded]

#RainbowRoad for Rainbow Railroad Charity Drive

CLICK HERE TO PREORDER

Hello, everyone!

As you may know, a couple of years ago I wrote a Good Omens fic called Sit Tight, Take Hold. It kicked off an amazing friendship with a group of people who have now come together to organize a fundraiser to support an LGBTQ+ non-profit.

I'm really excited to announce that we are running a charity drive to support Rainbow Railroad alongside the release Good Omens Season 2 and the third and final part of the #rainbowroad series, Fools Rush In.

What is Rainbow Railroad?

Rainbow Railroad is a non-profit organization that works to relocate at-risk LGBTQ+ individuals to safety globally.

"As a result of Rainbow Railroad, more LGBTQI+ individuals can access lives free from persecution, and ultimately, we envision a world where LGBTQI+ people can live lives of their choosing, free from persecution."

If you've read STTH and AALS, you may remember that Formula 1 visits a multitude of countries that have poor human rights and are unfriendly to LGBTQ+ individuals. I vacillated between many charity organizations before settling on this one, which encompasses the global nature of the #rainbowroad universe and some of the challenges the characters face. Thank you, @kookaburra-laugh, for suggesting this charity!

Great! How can I help?

@dustandhalos, @blairamok, and @cinnabarmint are releasing prints of their art for #rainbowroad on Etsy. Art options include:

a. A 5x7 postcard pack of 6 prints featured in STTH!

b. An 12x18 poster of Crowley's C8ZR1 from part two, Accept A Little Spin

c. And last but not least, an 18x24 print of Ezira's signed Anthony Fucking Crowley poster.

[Preview images are protected with anti-AI cloaking technology Glaze, and may depict slight pixelation and/or distortion. Printed art will not depict this distortion.]

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. WE ARE PRINTING SIT TIGHT, TAKE HOLD. Thank you, again, to @blairamok, who made the astounding cover art.

I will update everyone once I get the physical proof, but the book includes 428 pages incorporating the tumblr posts, news articles, and text messages. The dimensions will be 6x9x1, printed in color on 80lb matte paper.

How does this work?

CLICK HERE TO PREORDER

Preorders open TODAY and will run for a month until Friday 9/1. Once preorders close, we will submit the orders to the various printers. All proceeds will go to Rainbow Railroad, minus the cost of printing and shipping orders. We hope to start shipping out merch mid to late-September. Depending on how many orders we get will depend on how quickly we can ship everything out, but we will keep you posted once preorders close.

Hopefully, if you order something and live in the US, it will arrive by the time Fools Rush In finishes posting on 10/13.🤞🤞🤞 We will be shipping internationally as well!

What if I can't afford to order anything?

That's okay! Please reblog this post so more people can see it. It will bring more attention to the charity drive and more attention to Rainbow Railroad!

What the heck is #rainbowroad?

#rainbowroad is a trilogy about our favorite Good Omens characters reimagined as Formula 1 drivers. I have no idea how this came into my head beyond binging Good Omens and Drive to Survive at the same time. The final part of the main trilogy, Fools Rush In, is currently posting and slated to end on 10/13. It is COMPLETE.

Thank you to my friends and all the readers who have made this possible! I am so excited to share this with you. Please reblog to boost awareness. If you have specific questions, shoot me an ask!

Massive thanks to @dustandhalos, @blairamok, @cinnabarmint, and @kookaburra-laugh for making this possible!

ni <3

[averagepoyoenjoyer]

Calmest Reader In Society | Yandere V For Vendetta

This is my first post. Hopefully it's written well enough.

Warnings: V being a menace to society. Just mentions of killing and abduction.

• There was something about you that made his heart skip a beat. Something about you that made him hear his heartbeat through his ears. It reverberates through his entire mind every time he sees and stalks you, whether you know it or not.

• Originally, he didn't know what he was feeling. More as if he thought he didn't have enough room for this feeling, considering how stacked in schedule he already was. However, you changed his schedule somewhat.

• In his time of stalking you, he figured out just precisely who you were in society. He figured out details about you. He figured out those that like you, those that dislike you, and any in between, even.

• He didn't know why he was doing it. But his heart yearned for you. It pulsed faster for you, and pulsed more intensely than before, even if not concentrated enough to harm him.

• It started to get worse as well, especially when he started to remove those that disliked you from this world. If he so much as knew that someone was sending rude looks your way, they might as well be left with a warning or a cruel fate.

• He takes his role of protecting you quite seriously, and if he ever failed in it, he felt as if he would never forgive himself in such.

• This earned you a somewhat bad reputation with those around you. But it didn't exactly seem to deter you. Instead, you kept working and kept doing your part without paying attention to what others were saying about you.

• "Ignorance is bliss" or so they say...

• Your exterior was always seemed as unapproachable. For some reason, you never broke your blank expression. You never broke your silence. Not many have heard your voice. No one has ever seen you smile. You were only... blank.

• Even so, you had friends of your own. Those that had gotten rather close to you, even if it wasn't in a romantic sense.

• He understood that they weren't anything to be worried about unless if he made things obvious when he finally put his plan to fruition.

• So that's why when enough time had passed, he finally had to meet you in the darkest of alleys with intent to keep you without any trace of where you went. Even if he knew you may not understand, he knew what he wanted, and he would be sure to enact this decision.

• You had gotten caught walking into an alley by a trio of Fingermen. And this was his precise chance. He immediately slipped in to get rid of the men that had disturbed you.

• And even after, he saw your blank expression through the dim light the moon provided. You never gave any indication or hint that you had given emotion during the time of disturbance or murder that took place right in front of you.

• Even then, you gave him soft words of gratitude, even if you never broke your completely calm exterior.

• This was it. He could finally interact with you.

• He introduced himself as V.

• You listened to his every word in silence and watched as he cut up a Government poster on the wall. To you, he seemed like a somewhat different Anarchist. And honestly, it gave you slight interest, even if you never showed it.

• This masked man was a gentleman filled with anger. Simply put, you never wanted to get involved with the one thing his anger was aimed towards. Luckily you weren't, but were just unfortunate to catch the eye of the man that would later become a hazard to the government.

• You introduced yourself as well, hearing him speak of how he knew your name already, as well as everything about you. Surely, nothing was a coincidence. Everything here was due to perfect alignment.

• Very understandably, you had no idea what he was talking about, even if you shook his gloved hand. He seemed to hold onto it more than necessary though, so you looked down at his grip.

• It was soft yet firm. A gentleman's hold, but somewhat twisted with a firm grip that didn't want you to pull away.

• So you kept listening while letting him hold your hand, even if it was a little odd. Eventually, time passed before you requested for him to let go so you could return home.

• And that's when it twisted to something you didn't want.

• The only thing he could do was abduct you and take you to a place he knew you'd be safest. With him and his own abode. He knew you'd catch the eye of the government with how much you've been stalked and how much you've been on his list to do... something with, in their eyes.

• He knew you would be at least slightly confused, and even expected you to want to escape. But you adjusted to your situation without complaint, but questions. You even didn't seem to mind him when he tried advances on you. Yet, that could just be you being oblivious.

• You never broke that expression of blankness, and you never broke your exterior of extreme calmness.

• If he got you a gift, you'd either hold it with extreme care or stare at it in silence with the blankest expression. But, your way is simply thanking him for it was admiring it, even with your own blank and silent exterior.

• You were gentle, even if you looked unapproachable.

• If you wanted to go out for something, it only took him one attempt to usher you back and tell him what you wanted or needed. He would get it for you. He would get anything for you.

• But if you wanted fresh air, potentially no chance.

• If you didn't accept his feelings, even with what he's done, he'd understand. After all, no one would just trust a masked man that tried to get them to fall for him. But he still wanted to try.

• Perhaps drastic measures would be in order if you still don't get wooed by him by then.

• But if you are charmed, even in the slightest way, he would be ecstatic. If you felt a heat on your face even once with how he did something with you, he'd know. And he'd be euphoric.

• Somewhat, he's breaking down your exterior more than your own friends ever could.

• He even started to break down some of his walls as well, bringing up tiny bits of his past. He knew you wouldn't mind being told anything, but he didn't know if you'd be okay seeing what he truly looked like.

• You may be entirely blank in expression alone, but you're still Human. You're still a person with emotions. What would you feel if you saw what his hands looked like? What of his face? What of his entire body? Would you judge him for it? Would you feel disgusted by it? Would you want to leave him and the Shadow Gallery for it?

• This always made him hesitate with showing himself to you. You only saw his singed hands once, and that was when he was cooking. He rushed to put his gloves on right away, and apologized for if he fouled your appetite. You only shook your head while you walked to the table.

• Once again, nothing about you showed the breaking of your character.

• It both relieved and made him hesitate even more. Did you not see or notice it? No, you definitely did. You may not look as if you didn't care for it, but you definitely noticed it?

• His hesitation is noticeable to you whenever he's thinking about ways to approach you more. So, you finally decided to approach him in your own way.

• When you snapped him out of his thinking with a simple and gentle tap to the shoulder while asking if he was alright, he replied with a nod and the natural words of how he was fine. When you asked if he was sure, he felt as if his heart was going to speed up more.

• This was a chance to find things out. This was a chance for him to actually be able to do something.

• So, he laid his insecurities down once, and showed you what his hands looked like again. He questioned you if you felt distaste. Anything of disgust just by seeing it while saying what happened to him.

• And yet, no reflection of such an emotion laid in your eyes. Instead, there only laid small sympathy. You seemed to want to do something, but instead, you restrained yourself and spoke of how you felt no disgust for a sight like that.

• He could only shudder when you left him to himself.

• Eventually the time came of where you finally broke your character. Time had passed since he first abducted you, and since you two actually started to connect with each other. For once, you finally smiled. No matter how faint it was and how quick it was to disappear, he noticed.

• V has noticed everything about you. Every change and every stagnant thing about you. He noticed anything just to be on that side of you. Your unapproachable but gentle nature was finally crackling from his advances, and he couldn't be more happy to see it.

• So the fact that you smiled at him.

• His heart immediately sped up. He's been keeping it in his mind ever since he saw it. And it's been bothering him for a while. Not in a bad way, naturally, but his feelings were getting in the way again.

• Ever since you said you never felt disgust for the sight of him, and ever since you smiled at him for the first time, it's been occupying his mind so much that he couldn't focus on his true goal.

• You've been occupying every detail of his mind.

• So, he finally decided to ask you something to determine whether he could focus or not. He questioned your feelings for him.

• Depending on your answer, he'll confess, or he'll retract what he'd say for later so he can finally work.

• If your feelings revolved around love, he'd visibly let out a slightly relieved sigh.

• But if your feelings revolved around to that of a friend, his mental disappointment would be immeasurable.

• But considering we'll be focused on the fluff, we'll be looking on the side of you liking him back.

• He's always thought of himself as unlovable. He's always had the thought that even if he loved, that the one he felt such infatuation with would never reciprocate his feelings.

• So to have you with him, and to have you accept him, even despite what he's done (whether you know or his actions for you or not), has him stunned.

• But he's glad. He wouldn't have things any other way. If you never existed, he was sure he would have done things just fine without you. But having you was something he would have wanted.

• Seeing as how he thought he was someone that was incapable of being loved, he's touch starved. He doesn't exactly get hugged into your chest very often, but if he does get that treatment, he'd lovingly listen to your heartbeat.

• Hearing the gentle thumps of your heart against his ear, whether masked or not, is still music to his ears.

• Speaking of that mask, he still has yet to show you his face. He may have shown you his hands, and may know you're entirely fine with how he looks, he's still insecure about how he looks.

• And to have someone as silent or as blank as you somewhat has him reconsidering your reaction. He might overthink, but eventually, he does realize that you're genuine with how you are.

• This helped him reveal his face to you.

• His love for you could only skyrocket when he knew you didn't mind his face. Even with how burned or singed he was, the fact still remained that your love was fortunate enough to be blessed upon him.

• Somewhat, he wondered that if things were up to coincidence, what were the chances that you would appear in his life again?

• But now, he didn't mind it at all.

• The one who kept his heart beating was here, even if they were... sometimes intimidating with their blank reactions.

[yullalightk]

WOTFI IS HERE!!!!!!! WHOOO!!!!!!

I'M SO SORRY I'M LATE! But! I watched it after the livestream countdown, and, BOI! Do I have a lot to say!! and I'll make a part 2 of the WOTFI review cause, I don't think I'll be able to fit everything in one post. And with a lot of school projects on the line. So, I'll work on pt 2! and post it tomorrow!

!Also, spoiler warning!

So... we good? Okay! strap in!!

First off the thumbnail looks AMAZING!!!!! It really got me excited as soon as I woke up at 1 in the morning lmao😂

As soon as I watched it I was actually surprised they decided not to go with the horror route like in the trailer.. But personally, I'm not gonna complain I mean that should've been expected imo.

Also, the poster is soo fricking cool!!!! Like, I can't get enough of this art style and THE WAY IT WAS ANIMATED WAS LIKE A MOVIE INTRO!!!! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!✨

The intro/Puzzles' backstory

So, I'm glad that Mr Puzzles gave us a more clearer explanation to his backstory. Even though it was something a lot of us knew already. None the less it was nice! I'm curious about the mother though, like, what was she like to Puzzles? Was she someone who didn't believe in her son's dreams as well? Or maybe someone who encouraged him to keep trying? Idk honestly, but maybe we'll get that answer in next year's WOTFI!

I also don't think he just sat in his room all day to adulthood, maybe he left his home to chase his dream but failed on multiple occasions. (Kinda like in the series where he tries to kill the crew but fails all the time) or, he watched TV all day as a coping mechanism. Trying to escape the cruelty of the world he lived in.

Also, wdhm when he said "The rest is history" like, we need more. Like how you got godlike powers? maybe that'll be explored more in WOTFI 2025!

Side note: Leggy's face when she dropped little Puzzles was funny for some reason help! IT HAD NO REASON TO BE THIS FUNNY!!😂😂

HE SWORE!!!!! YESS!!!!!!!! I swear he needs to let his anger out more, You gotta give kudos to him for enduring Mario's chaos😂

The casts!

I really LOVED the character designs! I can see how they are freaks now!

My all time favorites are SMG3, Bob, and Karen! They're designs stick out the most in the cast and I do like how they are all under Puzzles' control, like the PV movie!

Wish Saiko had more screen time though, I'm just a little disappointed at that. They could've done something interesting for her. Heck, they even gave the rest of the main cast more screen time than her.

But, maybe we'll see that in the next WOTFI? Hold up- wait a sec, I'm seeing a pattern of sorts... are, the stuff that felt lackluster in the 2024 WOTFI coming back as something better in WOTFI 2025?? That could be a possibility. I might make a theory on that, but hopefully when I'm not busy.

Side note: I swear this episode made me ship Mario and Puzzles so much!!😂😂 I mean- It's just hilarious to me!

Like when he said "Dear Mario" I know he hates him but like the way he says it made it feel like he likes him, or just toying with him!! Marware fans are eatin' good today! And he also complimated Mario on his performances on the fire perfomance!!! I know... he was doing what a judge does, try say something nice to the performers. But! That won't stop me from shipping them! And don't forget! Mario also still wanted to stay despite the hell Mr Puzzles put them through, in the rap Mario still wanted to have some fun in the amusment park! But, also glad he attacks him when Puzzles harms Mario's friend. And can be scared of him sometimes.

Now listen, I know he was trying to get Mario back so he won't ruin his show again but to me it also looks like he wants Mario to pay attention to him! kinda like a yandere😂😂 I'm just letting Marware infect my brain at this point haha.. it's becoming a curse.

Anyway that's part 1 for now. Part 2 will hopefully come out tomorrow as well, and I also have some projects to do so I know I said I will post every Saturday but that may be a little difficult, I'll get part 2 out tomorrow and I really hope that'll be the end of my review of this year's WOTFI!

Thanks for reading! hope ya'll enjoyed my WOTFI 2024 review pt 1.

[omorimodreverie]

Reverie Dev Log - 2024 January + February

Overview

January and February saw ups and downs in activity, but overall significant progress was made. The start of the year was initially slow due to breaks, but activity picked up slowly. You may have noticed that there were less promotional posts or updates in general during this time, as we were focused on development. Thanks to these efforts, though, we’re fairly optimistic that this will be the final dev log for Chapter 3.

As for me (Stahl) personally, I have not been able to do much this time round as I have been busy (hence lack of public updates), but this time round invaluable progress was made by others in the team.

Quick rundown:

First round of playtesting has been done - This was a very rudimentary one aimed at finding basic bugs

NPCs are now mostly finished, and our writers are now working on flavor text and side writings

Portraits are all done and implemented

Battles have been planned out in more detail

Various organizational changes

Extra writers and RPGMV members have been recruited

Updates

The first round of playtesting is complete! This one was rather rudimentary, containing only basic story points. The aim was to test progression and to fix major bugs, both of which we’ve now finished. There are still some major aspects missing, like flavor texts and quests but vital components to main progression like cutscenes and maps are completed and being tested. Hopefully, this round of playtesting should wrap up soon, and more will follow. 

Minor and Side contents

There’s still a lot of design decisions to make, mostly regarding seemingly minor aspects of the game that actually take large amounts of resources. A lot of thought must be put into whether these features, like flavor text and shops, are worth the amount of time needed to make them, and if so how much. 

Due to this chapter being a real world section and story centric, the remaining gameplay would be left to mostly side quests. This is an interesting challenge, as unlike base Omori, Sunny is not familiar with the city like back in Faraway town, meaning it’s more challenging to find opportunities to give him quests. 

As for Reverie specific side content, battles won’t completely be abandoned in the real world. They’ll be taking forms in various challenge battles found throughout the city. For a rough idea, think of the Jackson poster found in Hobbeez from the base game.

Miscellaneous Changes

Another thing yet to be done are tweaks to previous chapter content. They will mostly affect quality of life, but some will also be major gameplay changes. Here’s some examples of planned changes (not exhaustive):

Picnic allows the player to change difficulty mid game (Trust me, later dream world chapters will feature major difficulty spikes and players may get stuck)

Hit Rates on equipment changed, mostly heavily nerfed. This makes evasion buffs actually relevant (and also, 300% hit rate is just silly).

Some skills entirely changed (e.g. Spaceboy Preserve will change into another Attack skill instead).

In game info to indicate that emotion influences Enemy AI very strongly in reverie compared to base game.

Conclusion

Overall, development on chapter 3 is reaching its later stages, reaching the first round of playtesting. This should hopefully be the last dev log in relation to Chapter 3 development.

As thanks for reading this far, here is a remade portrait of real world Sunny! It’s a bit more softer than the previous one, and the proportion has been improved as well.

[warmaidensrevenge]

It's not a never

Pairing: Eddie x friend!fem plus size reader

A/N: Hi! So I lied. This is gonna be a three part series. I was getting a little carried away with everything I wanted to put in this fic. So that pushed it out to one more part. Tonight's part is basically filler. Just a heads up this is a slow burn. So if you don't like that kind of fic, this one is not for you. Anyways, thanks for reading. As always love ya. Byyyyeeeee

I do not give permission for my work to be posted anywhere else. Please respect all creators. Also, all pictures and songs are from a Google search and found on Spotify. A credit to original posters and artists. Thank you for your work.

Word count: 3,230

Warnings: 18+ no minors please. Language, angst, pinning, slow burn, slight fluff and not proof read.

Summary: A trip to be remembered and a confession that leaves Eddie puzzled.

Part 2

Bags were packed and loaded. Snacks and drinks were bought. A Ziploc bag full with coins for tolls and a map were in Eddie's glove box. And hours of music were picked. All that was left was to wake up at the ass crack of dawn. 

This senior ditch day was going to be epic. Months and months of saving and scrimping was all going to be worth it. 3 days of total and complete freedom. The road trip of a lifetime. One last hurrah. Together. 

Only this was gonna be tough. Being in close quarters with you for 3 whole days. How was he gonna deal?

Lately he was doing pretty good at keeping his feelings at bay… well that wasn't true. You had left for a week after the senior outing to visit the college you got into.

He missed you more than ever. But over those few days, he reflected back on everything. Sure how he now felt about you came unexpectedly. Still, he never wanted to be with anyone more. Especially since he realized you were perfect for each other.

However if he decided to make a move, there was no certainty that you would be up for it. Also, what would it do to the friendship? You guys had been friends way too long. It would be awkward. 

So he chose to push all that he felt away and enjoy this last trip with his friends.

… 

It was 4 am on Friday and everyone was ready to hit the road. You had just hopped in the passenger seat with a huge thermos of coffee. 

“ Sorry. Thy birth giver wanted to pray for safe travels and a safe return.”

Eddie smiled. “ Welp, hopefully one of the pagan gods heard her.”

You turned around and offered up some coffee and donuts to everyone. When you turned back, you pulled out the map.

“ Okay Eddie. Please for the love of all that is holy. Please don't kill us.”

He chuckled. “ Ye have little faith kid.”

You rolled your eyes and took a bite of a donut and pointed forward. “ Let's do this.”

Everyone whooped and hollard. “New York! Here we come!”

-

3 hours later

“Oh crap! Munson please!” Jeff whimpered.

Gareth backed away a little. “ Man oh man. I told you not to have that second cup of coffee.” 

Eddie shook his head while you were laughing your butt off.

“ Calm down.” He said. “ The next gas station in 3 miles out.”

“ I-I don't think I- I can hold it!” Jeff stammered.

“ YOU BETTER!” Grant yelled.

You turned around. “ Guy, guys guys!” It's gonna be fine. Jeffrey. 2 ½ minutes. You can do this. Just squeeze.” 

You looked back at Eddie and just grinned away. All he could think about was how nice your eyes looked. 

As soon as he pulled into the parking lot, Jeff kicked open the back door and ran into the store.

Once Eddie turned off the engine everyone sat there quietly for a few seconds before laughing like crazy.

When it died down you guys got off to move your legs around.

Eddie went to fill up while the other guys went to see about some real breakfast. 

He had just put in the gas nozzle and turned to find you doing toe touches.

He shouldn't have done it, but he did. He checked you out. Loving how your leggings hugged your round bottom. How beautifully wide your hips were.

When you stood back up you walked towards him.

“ Eddie? Can you pop my back?”

He nodded and took a step closer to you. “ Turn around and cross your arms around your chest.”

Once you did as you were instructed, he stepped behind you and wrapped his arms around you. He then took a deep inhale in and caught a whiff of your shampoo. He instantly got goose flesh. 

Stop it! He told himself.

After lifting you up for a second, he quickly put you back down. Your bottom brushed his lower half in the process. 

Fuck!

His hands fell down to your hips. He mentally had to tell himself to not pull you to him.

“ W-was that okay?” He nervously asked.

You turned around and nodded. Bodies only inches apart.

“ So much better. Thank you.”

He stared at your lips as you spoke. Were they always so full? They definitely looked incredibly soft.

“ G-good.” He stuttered as he kept looking at your mouth and thinking.

“Eddie? You okay? Do I have something in my teeth?”

“ Hmm?” He met your gaze. “ Yeah. No. Yeah. You're good. I just ummm…sorry I was just trying to decide if I should take a leak.” 

“ Alright dude." You held up your hand. " Too much info. Go, I'll finish pumping.” 

With that said he practically ran away. Rushing into the first stall that was empty. While sighing deeply he cursed himself. He really wanted to kiss you.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a god awful stench.

“ UGH! Jeff what the hell man?! Ever heard of a courtesy flush?”

“ S-sorry man.”

…

Eddie smiled when he saw the buildings in the distance. He looked at you and your eyes were so big. 

“ Guys look! We're almost there.” You said excitedly. 

Gareth moved between you and him. “ Awwwww yeah baby. Just think, in a couple of weeks we're moving here.”

Eddie caught a sad look on your face. He knew how bad you wanted to go to Columbia. To be close to them while they followed their dreams to be rockstars. But things didn't work out. Instead, you were going to a college on the west coast. 

It was a good school. Everyone knew that. It had a great biology and geology department. Something you were excited about. Still, you were scared because you didn't know anyone there. Everyone you knew and loved would be on the other side of the country.

That's why Eddie understood the sad face. He remembered conversations he had with you about it. He remembered wiping away your tears as you told him about your rejection from Columbia. And though he was the one to talk you into getting some California sun, he now realized he didn't want you to go either.

He tapped your knee and started writing.

‘ okay?’

You peered out the front windshield and slightly shook your head. Then you put your hand on his and squeezed it gently. Letting him know you would be fine. 

He knew you would be. You were awesome and you would make friends easily. It's just now he didn't know if he would be okay without you.

…

You put your finger against your lips.“ Shhhh! Guys I know you're freaking out, but I need you to trust me.”

Everyone was following you down these concrete hallways for a good 5 minutes now. After checking into the hotel and getting food, they had all found themselves sneaking into a building.

Jeff was the first to doubt you. But as soon as a security officer came close to catching you guys, everyone tried to convince you to turn back.

Eddie looked into your eyes and nodded. “ Okay.” He whispered. “ If we go to jail, it better be worth it.”

You held out your hand for him. “ It will be. I promise.”

Your hand was everything he thought it would be. Soft, warm and fit perfectly in his. He swore he would follow you anywhere if it meant that he could hold your hand. 

Once you guys were finally in the spot, you told them to stay put. When you let go of his hand, he now felt like a part of him was missing. 

You were only gone for a second. But in those few moments they had all realized where they snuck into.

Eddie was speechless. There were absolutely no words that could describe how he felt. 

A few spot lights turned on. Pointing directly in the middle of a huge stage.

You returned on top of it. “ So?”

“ Shit!” They all said in unison.

You gave them a huge smile. “ I know right? Obviously you guys can't perform or anything like that. But I wanted the first time you step foot in here, that it's with your biggest support. Cuz I know one day I'm going to be standing right there… screaming my head off.”

They looked at the spot where you pointed. It was right in front of the platform.

You locked eyes with him.“ So get up here and take it in.”

The guys looked at each other then ran to get up too. Once up there you asked for help getting down. You then watched them laugh and wrestle playfully.

“ Alright freaks!” You announced. “ Imagine this.  Every seat is full. And the floor is packed with bodies. All waiting for you.” 

They all stared at you after moving to their respective place. As if they're standing by their instruments.

“ The crowd is chanting. Corroded Coffin. Corroded Coffin….Then the lights go out. The ones that are sitting jump up and everyone screams in anticipation. But then... it goes silent…”

Eddie pictured everything. It was all him and the guys ever wanted.

“ Then they hear you.” You point at Gareth. “ Then you.” You looked at Jeff. “ Then of course you bud.” You nodded towards Grant. “ And finally the strum of a guitar along with oooooohhhhs and awwwws from you.”

Eddie finally had your eyes on him. And he knew right then and there that he was in love with you. It wasn't just a silly crush anymore. It was the real thing. The can't eat, can't sleep, the winning touchdown, the home run, the one in a lifetime love.

He loved you because you loved them. You believed in them. And the way you laid out the scene with so much conviction, it had him convinced that they were gonna make it too.

You smiled at him and continued. “ And while you blow off the roof of this place, the crowd sings and sways with you."

-

Later that night everyone settled into the shared room. Gareth and Jeff in one bed, Eddie and Grant on the sofa bed. And of course being the only female of the group they gave you your own bed.

Eddie has just come out of the shower to find everyone asleep. Except you. You weren't even in the room.

He looked at Grant who took up the whole bed and he sighed. Looked like he was gonna sleep on the floor. 

He waited a minute to see if you would come back but after about 5 minutes, he went to look for you.

You weren't far though. He found you sitting on the steps reading something.

“ Hey kid. Whatcha doin?”

You gave him a quick little smile before looking back at your book. “ Uhhhh nothing really. Just checking out courses.” 

He sat next to you and pulled out his pack of cigarettes. Before he could light one you plucked it from his mouth.

“ No you promised. No smoking on this trip.”

He gave you a thin lip before taking back the smoke and returning it to the carton.

“ You really should quit. I don't want to see you end up with an oxygen tank.”

He put the pack back in his pocket. “ One day. I promise.”

You flipped a page. “ I'll keep you to that.”

You guys sat quiet. Listen to the bustle of the city. Eddie was trying to gather the courage to tell you how he felt. But he was scared. What if he took a leap of faith and it turned ugly? What if you did like him the way he liked you and things didn't work out? Or what if his confession lead to you guys not being friends anymore?

Doubt filled his thoughts. But then a bit of hope shined on him. What if it did work out? What if you guys made it past the long distance thing and were truly happy together? What if this love was meant to be?

“ Eddie?”

His inner rambling came to a halt. “ Y-yeah?”

You closed your book and started fidgeting with the corners. “ You know you're my best friend right?”

He softly cleared his throat. “ Yeah.”

“ And we always tell each other everything.”

He nodded. “ Yeah.”

You sighed a little. “ So you know that I have family out here….well my uncle actually works as a security guard at the garden. He worked tonight…he knew we were coming and he did me a solid…we wouldn't have gotten in trouble if we got caught.”

For a second there his heart sank. He thought you were gonna say that you liked him too. But then he smiled and wrapped his arms around you. 

“ I'm really gonna miss you.” He said softly.

You hug his waist. “ I think I'll miss you more.”

The hug lasted a minute or so, but it was the best damn hug he had ever had. And when you tried pulled away he hugged you tighter. Making you giggle. 

When he finally loosen his grip, you stared deeply into his eyes. The way you sat there, it was like your eyes were trying to tell him something your mouth couldn't. It was almost as if you were asking him to kiss you.

He was gonna go for it. He was gonna take that leap. However the second he leaned in you yawned. Pulling completely away from him so you wouldn't do it in his face.

“ Wow I'm beat. We should get some sleep. Big day in Time's Square tomorrow."

He frowned at the fleeding moment that seemed to be fate. 

“ Yeah you're probably right.” He conceded to it. “ You think you could lend me a pillow and that blanket you brought?”

You looked at him and raised a brow. Silently asking why?

“ Gonna crash on the floor. Grant's a bed hog.”

You laughed lightly and yawned again. “ No. You can sleep with me.”

His breath hitched in his throat while asking a shaky. “ W-what?”

You grinned and stood up, holding out your hand. “ Like when we were kids. If you're worried that I'll get handsy then we can make a pillow barrier.”

He chuckled. “ Maybe I like handsy.”

He regretted it as soon as it came out.

The silence that followed his comment nearly made him shit a brick. You stood there with an almost visible question mark above your head.

Shit! He thought. Shouldn't have said that.

You then shook your head and laughed. “ Stop being weird and take my hand.”

He practically wiped his brow and said whew before grabbing your hand. Allowing you to lead him back.

He laid there for a while thinking about all that happened. He couldn't believe he was gonna kiss you before telling you how he felt. That wasn't the guy he was. He always made sure he got consent. And with you it would be no different. All he had to do was get some real alone time with you so he can finally say something.

When we get home. He said to himself. 

He heard you sigh and felt you move a bit. Then he felt your arm sliding across his stomach. Without thinking he lifted his arm and gently pulled you closer. Slipping his arm under your head. 

Both of you sank further into the bed. He smiled and his last thought before falling asleep was how much he loved you.

…

The next day and a half was the best in his life. Exploring the city, eating the best pizza and getting some information about playing at clubs when they moved there. It was fantastic. 

Now it was time to head home and finish up the school year.

The drive seemed longer this time. More quiet. And he knew why. In exactly 2 weeks things were going to be different. Everyone was going to graduate and their adult lives were going to start. For a long time he couldn't wait to get the hell out of Hawkins. So did his friends. But now that it was happening, it was so hard to see the next chapter. Well with this little monster of love inside him.

When it was time to switch off. Jeff and Grant traded places with you and him.

You guys crawled in the back with the sleeping Gareth and tried to catch some z's. 

You leaned your head on his shoulder and started to hum a familiar tune. He put his hand on your knee and started tapping to the beat. He caught a small smile from you. 

“ Hey Jeff? Could you drop me off first when we get into town?” you asked.

“No problem.”

You went back to humming and Eddie was trying to figure out what exactly he was gonna say. Before he knew it he was sound asleep with you. 

Until he heard the vans break squeak to a stop. 

He opened his eyes and saw they were in front of your house. You had just opened the door and hopped out. 

Though he wanted this to be a private moment, it was now or never.

He sat up and followed you. “ I need a minute man.” He said to Jeff. “ Hold up kid. I'll help you.”

You tried to refuse his help in carrying your duffle bag, but he could see you were too tired to try.

You stoped on at your doorstep and reached for your bag. “ Thanks Eddie.”

He handed you the bag and took a deep breath. Just as you turned to open the door he said your name.

“ Yeah?”

His eyes fell to the ground as he rubbed the back of his neck. “ Uhhhh nevermind. I'll tell you later.”

You cleared your throat gently and took a step towards him. “ I hate when you do that.”

His gaze shot up to yours. “ D-do what?”

You put your free hand on your hip. “ When you look like you have something important to say then just brush it off…Just tell me because I'm gonna be up all night wondering what you wanted to say.”

He looked away and stood quiet for a few seconds. “ I-I’ve been acting different lately.”

“ I know.”

He met your eyes again. “ Yeah?”

You didn't say anything, but he knew that you did.

“ So I-” he cut off. Suddenly his nerves were getting the best of him. “ I don't- ummm shit…I- well the reason…damn it! I cant- I don't know-”

You grabbed his hand and lightly squeezed it. Letting him know that it was okay. To calm down and take a breath.

He took a deep inhale and slowly let it out. “ I think possibly, maybe I’ve fallen for you.”

Your expression after that gave him a sinking feeling. You didn't feel the same.

Your frown said it all.

“ I'm sorry. I-I just needed to say something.”

You nodded but surprisingly you didn't let go of his hand. You were actually staring at his hand in yours.

“Eddie…I want to talk more about this. But I can't even think straight and my knees are about to give in.”

That wasn't what he was hoping for. 

“Right! Umm yeah. Sorry, just forget I said anything.” He said trying to walk away. 

But you held his hand firmly. Preventing him from taking a step further. “ No. Don't do that.”

He looked back at you and you had your eyes closed. 

“ Eddie, this is important. If it wasn't then you wouldn't have said anything at all…This deserves a real conversation that I can't give you right now. So please don't leave thinking that I don't feel the same way."

He was in disbelief. Did he hear that right?

You gave his hand one last squeeze before letting go and going inside.

He stood there staring at the door. Did he dream that? You like him too?

Gareth rolled down the window. “ Munson, let's go. I wanna go home!”

He sighed and smiled to himself. " Y-yeah. Okay."

…

@salenorona23 @browneyes528 @ohmeg @eddiesguitarskills @crookedcrone

[hannahssimblr]

can you put on your creative director / marketing hat and talk about the cover art for lucky boy (and/or both) 🎤

!!! I've actually never been asked about visuals before this is so fun!!

Okay! So here's the cover in question

Honestly I love this and I was really proud of how it turned out.

The raw & more detail is below the cut

Alright! so the idea for this was that it's simply an image of Jude: finally free!

Here he is backpacking in Thailand which he hasn't done yet as of the date of this post, but Lucky Girl readers will know that he eventually Does Do That.

You can tell by his hair here too that he's older. He has this haircut when he reunites with Evie briefly in 2012, so I imagine this trip took place sometime around summer-autumn 2011.

To be honest the whole purpose of Lucky Boy was as sort of an extension of the original story for Lucky Girl readers who wanted more in-depth detail about Jude's life, more than what he ever had the time to tell Evie during her portion of the story, so for that reason the story is filled with little hints of what we know will happen, as well as nods to specific things about him that some have already learned - Like, how the story opens with him getting both ears pierced. The fact that he was a boy with two (and eventually 3) piercings was something that Evie found particularly cute and unique about him, and it's something he references in jest from time to time. ("haven't you seen my cute little earrings?")

Anyway, Thailand is where he gets that rather meaningless forearm tattoo, but it's also a place where he spends a lot of time alone. He does travel with a friend, but said friend is holed up with food poisoning for a significant chunk of the trip, which makes me quite certain that Jude spent a lot of time doing a lot of thinking. I'll explore this more in the actual story when I get there, but it's worth pointing out that when Evie meets him after this trip she notices a certain calmness in him, and like he's lost a lot of the boyish energy ("I realise I am looking at a man"). I feel like this trip is somewhat responsible for that.

He's also, clearly, facing away from the camera, which is probably self explanatory. In the chapter with Jen's birthday, as they take the train to the aquarium in Bray he waxes lyrical (as usual, yawn!) about his preference to sit facing the engine, never looking back. It's the same in this image. He is always moving forward.

YET - that is his school bag. (It is the wrong colour, yes, i didn't have the recoloured version when i made this poster lmao) so there's a sense that he's still in some way tied to childhood, to the things that are unresolved. Lucky Girl readers already know what (and who) those things are but I'll develop all that further from my controllers seat here inside Jude's brain.

"It seems like we wanted the same thing (...) Not to grow up too quickly, like, to be allowed to just be a kid.”

Also - the toy attached to it represents Ivy. It's never explicitly stated in the story, but I think it's probably not in his character to have something like that on his bag unless it was gifted from someone important. So, he's carrying her with him too on his travels.

Now, for the artistic stuff (eek!)

I chose this pinky purple as the base colour by messing around with some hard light blending and the colour balance adj. because it creates that kinda fantasy feeling, like wonder and/or enlightenment is ahead, which hopefully for our dumb boy, it is. Purple is also often used in graphic design to indicate creativity, which is apt, seeing as he's an artist and all that.

I slapped in some sun in the corner ala 3 year old child's drawing, and added the text in yellow for no reason other than it's a complementary colour, and it picks up some of the yellows in the image.

Then added a text gradient to blend it in better and a little drop shadow effect

And finally some grain, paper texture and rounded corners because I wanted it to feel tangible, that sweet, nostalgic 35mm camera effect, or like a postcard.

and that's it!!

This was so fun, you know I love 2 yap and you gave me a platform to do so.

Thanks so much for your question!

[sushiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

Hello, I'm Sushi and I'm a representative and staff of the Bully Breasts Discord server. First of all, I'd like to say that before going into this, our server owner and my close friend @emrekchu has already replied to the recent concerns by bullyworthlol. I encourage everyone to go see their original post for context - including the images of them reaching out directly. It is also important to note that communication is key, but it seemed like the original poster didn't go out of their way to message our staff to clarify before making explosive claims about our community.

Part 1:

First, let me address the accusation concerning our open server for all aged persons. That is absolutely not true. We do have rules concerning age, and we want to keep all members safe. Second, there is an accusation about what is going on in our NSFW channel. The jokes being shared are light and in the spirit of friendships; there has not been a single person taking offense, and to say we promote inappropriate content is completely misgiven.

Part 2:

That is not the worst part, however-what is, is the fact that bullyworthlol decided to project onto our server without so much as joining and experiencing first-hand the community that we have here. Their sources were indirect, leading to a gross misrepresentation of what our community is. As I say, borrowing from somewhere, those who do nothing wrong should be cautious not to throw stones without grounds, because this does show a lesser quality in one's reasoning.

Part 3:

I am completely aware that conversations in our server sometimes border on mature humor. That does not mean we support any life-threatening or harassing behavior. Even I have participated in taboo topic conversations myself, but these have carried absolutely no intent of harm or discomfort to anyone. Where the line has been tested multiple times, we've taken action. Rules enforcement has kept our goal intact: that of making a light-hearted environment of people with the same appreciation for the game in particular, Bully. More importantly, according to what was pointed out by my fellow staff member Keith @creepyjealousy in his own response, members within our server have shown decency enough to call each other out when needed.

Part 4:

With respect to the attributes of our "NSFW" channel, let me make one thing clear: there is absolutely no actual NSFW content in there. It is not a place for pornography or improper imagery. Our rules are very dear to us, and we have directly claimed zero tolerance for sexualization regarding minors. Most recently, we have also pursued server rule changes, such as expanding our age requirement to being 14 and older, and making sure sensitive channels are only kept open to members who have been verified.

Part 5:

Moving forward, Emrek, Keith and I are more than glad to take responsibility where it is due. We invite constructive conversation about our community, and we want to clear up misunderstandings. Please, if you have something to say, reach out to me on Discord @isushik, Emrek @emrekchu, or Keith @keithcobain so that we can iron out misunderstandings and hopefully regain some trust in what we are trying to build here.

Part 6:

Finally, I really want to reiterate: We are proud of our identity on our server and of the friendships that make it so special. We are aware that some topics may be delicate to touch, but a responsible and, most importantly, fact-based discussion about such topics would make it far easier for others to learn who we are. Sniping from the sidelines with no clear evidence does not serve anyone well, let alone those who have enjoyed the Bully Breasts Discord.

Thank you for your time.

[preservationofnormalcy]

OOC: hey folks! Just wanted to give an ooc message. It’s a little late for new year’s, but still.

Thank you for following this little project. I’ve been consistently blown away by the following I have here. Thank you for supporting me both with likes, reblogs, and fun tags, but with merch as well. It means so much to me. I have like 300 asks in my inbox and so many of them made me laugh when I got them, or made my mind go crazy with ideas. I’ve developed a lot of this setting in large part due to submissions making me think about it.

I’m on the last day of a week long PTO I booked. I got a lot of stuff done behind the scenes, a couple projects I’m keeping secret for now but I hope you’ll see before too long. I also adjusted (hopefully for the final time) the button designs (including all the poster styles that weren’t available before), and did some writing. I wish I’d been able to sit down and just queue dozens of asks but alas - life and time don’t stop when you’re on vacation. Thank you all for your patience, and I hope someday I can do this full time (along with some other OPN-related things) so I can have a faster turnaround on that stuff. Going forward I might be a bit more choosy simply due to the amount.

I have a lot of ideas for things I want to do with this project and I hope I get to do even half of them. We’ve hinted at one of them already. I’m really excited for the future of this, and I hope you will be too.

As a final note, soon I’ll be adjusting the prices of the stuff in the shop. The stickers and buttons may increase in price by about 50 cents a piece, but sticker shipping cost will decrease. That may be in the next few days. Check out the ko-fi for prints of my posters, stickers, or buttons, or to just send good vibes.

Thank you all for your support and love. Reading tags is my favorite thing in the world currently. Over the rest of today, please feel free to send me any ooc asks you like (or reply to this post) about the setting or requesting something you’d like to see - more about a certain topic, or the interview for a certain poster, whatever. I’ll try and get to them sooner rather than later.

Finally - thank you so much to my co-writer for helping and being a sounding board. I appreciate you.

[that-gay-guy-from-hell]

So on the TLT Discord, after posting the sketches of Zero and Rust, Nethie and Cage both mentioned swimsuits (context: I censored Rust in his boxers because i didnt know if it was too risqué)-- Nethie saying specifically the official tour posters. To be honest, i forgot about those outfits and wanted to do something with them so here's a WIP (I put a divider cause this is long-ish):

For this post I'm going to use he/him//his pronouns for the Tombsonas btw!

Contexr: While taking a break from surfing, Zero found out the hard way why Tesla avoids going into water that has living creatures in it. So, Zero being Zero, decides to poke the sleeping bear (quite literally) even more and enjoys being shocked by Tesla.... Who is debating if he wants to see if he can kill Zero using a ballpoint pen.

Rust helped Armstrong out of the water and found out that Army had made a few new friends; much to Army's excitement and dismay (he can't get them off of his diver's suit)

Also debating what tats. to add to Rust, so im open to ideas! Nothing on his arms or neck-- otherwise all my old art would bother me lmfao [This also reminded me that I've gotta make a ref for his piercings and scars--and where he has grey body hair (because it's where there was old scaring!)]

Spoilers for Doc's section of the "Chosen" comic, by the way, so skip this section if you don't want spoilers lol.

After seeing Doc just staring out at the water; not in a gazing in awe or fun way either, just staring. Zelimir decided to ask if Doc wanted to, quote, "-join him". Not being specific enough with his words, Zel finds out that Doc can manipulate water*. After a few moments, Zelimir explains that he meant to join him swimming not... whatever Doc was doing. Of course, Doc knew that Zel wanted that but figured it would be fun to mess around with him (plus, Marshall may be a tad bit afraid of swimming).

Drawing Doc as the canon model is so strange-- or well mostly canon (I'll never draw him without hair unless it is for a shitpost). Like having his normal outfit is so weird to me lmao

*During the Chosen comic "Survive" , when Marshall ends up joining with Doc, the mob who'd been attempting to murder Marshall (... let's be honest here, less normal just murder and probably more like linch Marshall) was drowned to death by Doc. Meaning Doc has to have some sort of water/muck manipulation abilities--even if it just cause Doc was living there. (Here's that panel btw- this is why I love Marshall and Doc)

So yeah that's about it! I plan to add more to the drawing (hence the weird cropping) and will *probably* resketch all of these but I figured it was worth sharing lmao

I also found out that i struggle less to draw feet if i draw animal paws eith the raised heel (like where they are on their front toes ina fursuit type thing) and then add a heel 💀 lmfao

Thanks for reading and looking at my work! Much love yall! /pos

(Also here's the poster with the swimwear in question-)

Also one more thing- It is absolutely HILARIOUS to me that Doc is in his 100% normal gear/outfit when going to the beach. No swimsuit- sunglasses- or even just like a flower lei; no, he's in his black (p)leather jacket, black jeans, an arm wrap, black boots, a black hat, and (the only extra thing) a black umbrella. Hopefully Tombsonas can't have a heatstroke lmfaooo

Okay I'm done yapping I swear lmfao

TLT MASTERLIST

[quohotos]

Okay so there are some things I really miss about reddit...

You don't really miss it until it's gone, but (at least using a third party app) it was really easy and immediate to control exactly what you saw. The process of blocking a tag on tumblr is a little bit clunky. I have to go into a sub menu in the settings and then type out the tag I can't just right click and filter it out.

It's really difficult to modulate how much horny content you want to engage with here. I don't think reddit users were any more or less horny than tumblr users, I just think it was easier to keep the separated. Obviously everyone's experience is different, but it was really easy to feel out the tone of a community and sort them into categories of horny and not horny. When something was a little risque or inappropriate it was very easy for the poster or moderator to mark it as such. I felt safe browsing reddit on my laptop in class because I knew that as long as I didn't click on anything marked as such I wasn't gonna get any weird looks from the person behind me. I'm not trying to be puritanical about the morality of horny content or anything like that, I just liked being able to very clearly chose how much of it I wanted to engage with. If I wanted to seek it out, it was easy to find, but it wouldn't come to me when I wasn't asking for it. Maybe with time and experience I'll figure out how to do that here, but it's still something I miss.

The third party app that I used didn't render profile pictures. I thought it was pretty neat to not have much of an identity. Idk, I'm a shy jealous person and seeing all these pretty talented people is very intimidating. I didn't mind being a nobody when it felt like everyone else was a nobody.

I do not know where to find the good memes here. I'm sure they exist, but I don't know where they are. There were just some amazing injoke shitpost subs that I really vibed with and I haven't found out an equivalent here.

I thought of some more things so I've edited them in

I miss having an easy distinction between NSFW blur and spoiler blur. It made discussing media so much safer, I felt like I could participate in am evolving discussion without risking ruining the surprises. You could also use it creatively for memes, like making osha violations be tagged as NSFW and blurred so you'd click on it expecting to see some ass but instead it's like dude standing on a swivel chair.

Putting tags (well, they were called flairs, and you could only have one) up front on a post was so nice. When talking about a show I could immediately see what seasons were being discussed before even reading the title. It could also serve as a hint about what was actually behind a spoiler/NSFW blur. The tags on tumblr are so much fun, and are very versetile but I feel like they're an addendum to the actual post content, whereas reddit flairs were a heads up.

On the whole though, people have been nice and helpful here, and I'm really grateful for that. Hopefully I'll learn to adapt and feel as at home here as I was there... but man I just keep staring at my dash and thinking "you're not my real dad".

[potteresque-ire]

A very young Stanley Kwan 關錦鵬 (right) directing Leslie Cheung 張國榮 (left) and Anita Mui 梅艷芳 (middle) for Rouge 胭脂扣 (1987). Kwan would win the Best Director title for the film at the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Stanley Kwan 關錦鵬 is not only a famous director from Hong Kong, but also the first well-known openly gay figure in Hong Kong entertainment. He came out of the closet in 1996 (before Leslie Cheung, who did so in 1997), in the documentary he directed for the British Film Institute named Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema 男生女相：華語電影之性別. His works had garnered accolades for their in-depth portrayal of female characters, at the time when women in local movies often did little more than being pretty and screaming a lot.

(Under the cut: Director Kwan's own words on one of his most famous works and a gay film classic in Chinese-language cinema, Lan Yu (2001), in 2022 after BL culture has entered mainstream)

Most BL fans know Director Kwan via his gay-themed film Lan Yu 藍宇 (2001), about the eponymous Bejing university student falling in love with a wealthy, closeted businessman, Chen Handong. The film, based on a popular online novel Beijing Story 北京故��, has remained censored in mainland China for its queer content and its mentions of the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Its fate of being perennially censored was never a surprise—the film was shot in Beijing in secret, with the crew pretending to be shooting commercials around the capital. Digital filming also didn't exist then, and so the 100,000 ft + of film had to be smuggled out of China later to be developed.

Lan Yu was a project about love. Of love.

The poster of Lan Yu in Cannes Film Festival (left), Hong Kong (center), Taiwan (right), at the time of its original release.

In 2022, Lan Yu celebrated its 20th anniversary with a 4K remastered version. Among the interviews of Director Kwan made for the celebration was one by The Initium 端傳媒, during which Kwan shared some of his views on Lan Yu, in the context of how public reception of queer media has changed over the years after the film's release.

These views may deviate from what some fans, especially those in BL circles, would expect. Precisely because of that, however, I'm posting them here. After all, maybe, hopefully, Kwan will collaborate with Dd (and Gg) one day. Maybe, fans like ourselves will interact with Kwan on social media spaces one day.

I hope Kwan's views will be kept in mind, considered and respected. Due to the length of the full interview **, I'm only translating the two parts that are relevant (lazy turtle here 😊):

1.

《藍宇》 雖為華語電影同志片的經典，但過去廿年，關錦鵬卻在不少訪談中提過，電影改編自當年於大陸風行一時的網絡同志小說《北京故事》，而最初他其實並不喜歡那篇小說。

「原著基本上是用偷窺角度去看一段同志關係，特別是集中描寫男體的情色關係，有很多露骨的性愛場面。作者本身是知道這些描寫會令小說受歡迎。」關錦鵬接著說：「但在拍這部電影前，我在 1996 年已經出櫃。而我覺得作為一名同志導演，就更不應該去消費這個題材，所以當我看到原著小說將情色描寫，譬如肛交、口交的過程放大，當時我便跟製片人說，如果要原封不動將小說內容拍出來，我就不做了。」

Although Lan Yu is a classic Chinese-language gay film, in many interviews in the past 20 years, Kwan has mentioned that the film was adapted from the online gay novel Beijing Story, popular in mainland China at the time, and that he actually didn't like the novel at first. "The original novel basically looks at a gay relationship from a voyeuristic point of view, especially the erotic relationship between male bodies, and there are many explicit sex scenes. The author (of the novel) himself knows that these descriptions will make the novel popular."

Kwan continued, "But before making this movie, I had been out of the closet since 1996. And I thought, as a gay director, I shouldn't exploit this subject, so when I saw the original novel expanding, zooming in on the eroticism -- the processes of anal sex and oral sex, for example -- I told the producer at the time that if the novel's content is to be filmed without changes, I won't do it.”

2. 在《藍宇》面世的年代，電影確實意識大膽。但二十年後，當電影得以重新修復，社會氛圍其實亦有了翻天覆地的轉變。近年不但多了同志題材的作品，甚至大行其道，人人消費，成為一種時令的商業元素。譬如人氣男團會拍 BL 電視劇，而過去幾年的華語電影節，最快售罄的場次，都一定是同志電影。 此情此景，在《藍宇》剛上映的年代簡直不可思議，電影當年在香港的票房談不上亮眼，普羅大眾對同性戀故事有所抗拒，而本身就是同志的觀眾，想看卻不敢購票入場，怕被旁人標籤。二十年後世界變了樣，甚至總會看到「腐女」在 BL 電影的宣傳海報前打卡拍照。關錦鵬笑說：「是呀，前陣子的確有朋友跟我說，她其實是一名腐女。腐女族群喜歡看男同志電影，但到底喜歡看什麼呢？她某程度上都承認，想看的就是身體，是兩個好看的男人身體如何做愛。」 然而，這恰恰就是他當初對執導《藍宇》有所卻步的顧慮。當同志題材今日已走入主流，變成一種受歡迎的商業元素，關錦鵬則仍然有所警惕，跟潮流保持距離：「可能有些腐女都會喜歡《藍宇》，但我想未必完全是她們那杯茶。它真正要說的是兩個男人從色情買賣演變成一段感情關係，尤其是魏紹恩替我改編劇本之後，陳捍東這個角色，在我看來不一定是男同志，而是他在藍宇身上找到一些連自己都不知道的感覺。」 但關錦鵬也承認，從好的方向去看，在 BL 作品蔚然成風的助力之下，至少令同志以及 LGBT 性少數族群，相對容易被今日的大眾主流接受：「這是令人開心的。近幾年，特別是年輕人，確實會用比較開放的態度去對待 LGBT 族群。」稍頓，關錦鵬解釋道：「換個說法，關於 LGBT 議題的重點，現在就不再放在色情之上，而更多是感情關係，甚至是性少數族群認清自己身份之後，於生活上如何面對社會。那起碼是朝著一個正確的方向。」 In the era when Lan Yu was released, the film was indeed bold in its ideology. Twenty years later, however, at the time when the film gets its restoration, the social atmosphere has actually undergone earth-shaking changes. In recent years, not only have there been more gay-themed works, they have even become very popular and consumed by all, becoming a kind of fashionable commercial element. For example, popular boyband members are willing to make BL TV dramas, and in the past few years of Chinese-speaking film festivals, the fastest sold-out shows have all been gay movies.

[Pie note: The reporter was unlikely to be referring to Gg and Dd with their mention of "popular boyband members". Instead, they were probably thinking of Edan Lo and Anson Lo from Hong Kong's local boyband MIRROR, who starred in the BL drama Ossan's Love.]  

This phenomenon is unbelievable in the era when Lan Yu was first released. The box office of the film in Hong Kong couldn't be said to be impressive. The general public resisted gay stories [Pie note: Hong Kong hadn't decriminalised homosexual relationships until 1991, 10 years before], and the audience who were gay wanted to watch it but didn't dare to purchase tickets, for fear of being labeled by others. Twenty years later, the world has changed -- BL fans can be seen photographing themselves in front of the promotional posters of BL movies.

Kwan smiled and said, "Yes, a friend told me a while ago that she's actually a "rotten woman" (Pie note: = woman BL fan, translated from the Japanese term fujoshi). The "rotten women" group likes to watch gay movies, but what do they like to watch? She admitted, to a certain extent, that it's the body. It's the body, how two good-looking men's bodies make love."

And yet, this was precisely the concern that made Kwan hesitant to direct Lan Yu at the beginning. As gay themes enter the mainstream and become a popular commercial element, Kwan has remained vigilant, and has kept his distance from the trend: "Maybe some "rotten women" enjoy Lan Yu, but I don't think (the film) is entirely their cup of tea. What the film really wanted to express was how two men evolved from a transactional sex relationship to an emotional relationship, especially after Wei Shaoen adapted the script for me. The character of Chen Handong, in my opinion, didn't necessarily have to be a gay man; instead, he found on Lan Yu a feeling that even he himself couldn't understand.”

But Kwan also admitted that, from a better perspective, with the aid of popular BL works, it has become relatively easy for gays and LGBT sexual minorities to find acceptance in today's mainstream: "This is a happy thing to see. In recent years, especially young people have indeed treated the LGBT community with a more open attitude.” After a short pause, Kwan explained: “In other words, the focus of LGBT issues is now no longer on salacity, but more on emotional relationships, and even, on how sexual minorities face society in their daily lives after recognising their (sexual) identities. At least it's moving in the right direction.”

** None of you see this footnote, but a copy of the interview without a paywall can be found here. 😊

[simulation-machine]

SIMS RELATED PROJECTS/UPDATES

My spring break is coming up in a week and holy crap do I have plans on plans on plans, especially since my summer is gonna be full of school + internship + HOPEFULLY friggin' graduating with a BA in Psychology so that I can start applying to grad schools.

Read more iffin' you'd like! It's long! Here's a picture of my golden retriever napping on her brother's food bowl to entice/entertain you:

god she is so precious i would literally kill for her

GOAL 1: MASTER GSHADE/ReSHADE

I know that some people are sticklers for this but my thing is that I had no gee-dee clue what I was doing with ReShade, whereas Gshade just kinda clicked and worked for me? That said I have a bunch of resources for learning ReShade so I might end up moving back to it at some point.

My main issue is figuring out the order of all the different effects. It obviously matters, I'm sure people smarter than me have tried to use presets only to be like "why tf does this look absolutely nothing like the baller screenshots this one cool Simblr has?" Annnd it turns out it's order + remembering to turn off certain graphic settings. Also photoshop, but that's gonna take a lot longer for me to figure out lol.

Like I'd been struggling to figure out why @gunthermunch's gorgeous Lithium preset wasn't looking as sexy as it did before annnnd it's because I forgot to turn Edge Smoothing off when switching to it. Jesus wept at how dippy I am sometimes.

Eventually, what I would like to do is maybe make my own preset at some point? I would be kind enough to show the effect order too if I did so. But this requires so, so much more shader knowledge than I currently have.

FUN FACT: My first ever degree was in art, I even went to a very fancy and private art school (School of the Art Institute of Chicago if you're curious)- I dropped out after one semester because uhhh that shit is expensive. Ended up finishing my degree at a much cheaper location in MN. That said, my art was 100% analog and 2D, and it turns out it did not translate super well into trying my hand at graphic art.

It's funny because I've been gifted really neat stuff for graphic art (like a really nice Wacom tablet and Adobe subscriptions), like people just expected my mixed-media ass would know what to do with it. NOPE! But yeah, Sims is sort of my excuse to try my hand at this stuff again, especially since I have a bit more energy now that my soul is not regularly being drained out of my body by customer service and tech support jobs.

GOAL 2: GET CRACKIN' ON ANOTHER DOOR

This one is hard because I am only on Gen 2 of the Orsons and it's sort of hard to justify starting up another story while that one is less than 1/5 of the way done.

THAT SAID, I don't plan on posting Another Door until I have a decent chunk of it done. Since it's not a casual gameplay story nor a legacy challenge, I plan on editing the bajeez out of the screenshots for it, really honing in on the aesthetic. I want it to look and feel very different from my random legacy challenge.

Fortunately, this story has been fucking up my sleep schedule for *months* now and I have a lot of the writing for it done. The hard part is translating that into the Sims, making sure I get the right poses and stuff, maybe even learning how to make some super easy CC (like, posters and stuff), and stuff related to GOAL 1 above.

What I'm saying is that it's going to take a bit. But I'm super serious about sharing it because it's my obsession and honestly the first time a story of my own design has possessed me in literal years.

Also, I want to make sure I have a significant backlog of the Orsons before I start seriously simming for it, because I don't want to screw over my favorite little pixel babies. This legacy challenge is going to be the one, I have done so much to keep my save files to keep it safe from harm (ask me how many backups I have of the save files. JK don't, the number is frankly silly).

GOAL 3: START YET ANOTHER MASSIVE CC PURGE

Y'all, my CC folder for this game is honestly an embarrassment. I go so hard on CC shopping because this community is stupid-talented and I like giving my pixel babies nice things and cool looks. When I'm bored and not quite in the mood for gameplay, I just like making neat-looking sims that I do absolutely nothing with because I love fucking around in CAS.

I have built my own PCs since I was 17 years old, and when I first built COMPUTERMACHINE (current rig) back in the autumn of 2018, it was with the goal that it would run Sims 4 flawlessly no matter what I did to it. It's got ridiculous amounts of RAM, I religiously update parts for it. And to be fair, even with the current 6,907,907,890 TB of CC I have atm it runs better than Sims 3 ever had with a measly 50 GB of CC.

But for me, it comes down to finding all the stuff I wanna use. Making myself get rid of the stuff I don't wanna use. Straight up yeeting the CC that I thought was going to look incredible that uh, didn't deliver.

I do CAS CC purges about once a year but have literally never done it for Build & Buy stuff, because OMG some of this shit I've had since 2014. Like when Sims 4 first came out. YIKES. My CAS CC obsession is notable but it's honestly nothing compared to my Build & Buy. Even before For Rent made building lots slow af, my PC was starting to take a solid minute to switch to different buy categories.

It would take a long af time so I want to make sure I have a bunch of content in the queue before I do it. It's gonna be a whole ass thing and be so, so boring to do. So I'm putting it off for when I have a ton of time to do it. Like, oh, my entire Spring Break?

GOAL 4: MAKE A FRIGGIN' RESOURCES LIST ALREADY

This would obviously need to wait until after GOAL 3 is completed, but I wanna make sure the awesome creators whose stuff I use get credit, and that people know where they can grab neat stuff. It would include not only CC but mods, Gshade/ReShade presets, and maybe even lots and sims I've downloaded from the gallery?

(Since I am super anti-paywall and very unapologetic and rude about it, I will also share where one could perhaps get some of these CCs without paying some dip a Trenta Starbucks Unicorn Frappucino amount of $$$)

It's ambitious as hell because *gestures vaguely at GOAL 3* but it would make things like doing WCIF asks and lookbooks so much easier.

Somewhat relatedly, I wanna make a navigation post, especially once Another Door starts getting posted. That story is gonna be a bit huge with multiple arcs that take place over the course of like, 14 years. Plus once the Orsons get to the 4th+ generation, it would be easier to track things down.

IN CONCLUSION...

I have been having so much fun sharing my silly little Sim adventures on Tumblr, so much more than I ever thought I would! You all have been so great to me, and all of this stuff is sort of a way for me to repay that. Ever since I stopped being able to be artistically creative ever since a really nasty depressive spell in 2017, Sims has been my #1 artistic outlet. And having people who are even somewhat entertained by my pixels is incredibly motivating.

Basically, if you read all of this, DAMN would you have been a rad livejournal follower of mine circa 2007. On the seriousness, however, thank you all so much for being rad and encouraging and sweet. I promise to do you all, if not proud, then at the very least not disappointed.

Time to hit the bong and take some pictures of Lou and Tatertot before taking my IRL doggos on a walk~

[asliceofzosan]

Make the Yuletide Gay!

Hey, everyone! This year, I wanted to challenge myself and post one (or more) fics per day leading up to Christmas in my first 12 Days of Zosan Christmas Special! I have fallen in love with these idiots and also the lovely community who has been nothing but kind and welcoming to a newbie 💚💛 So this is my way to give gifts to all you wonderful people!

All the fics will be posted to my new AO3 account of the same name — asliceofzosan. Which is why you are seeing some repeat fics from tumblr here mainly the Dirty Rice Ball series. Other than those three, I will be posting 12 new fics from brainrot sessions that consumed my waking thoughts every night.

And as a super special treat, the lovely, gorgeous, and MOST talented @inoreuct and I are collaborating on a fic together for one of the days! You genuinely do NOT want to miss that.

(written schedule below the cut)

Schedule

December 14 - The Rice Ball Incident

Part One of the Dirty Rice Ball Series now cross posted to AO3 with an extra scene that is not on the original tumblr post!

December 15 - Debt and Doing Dishes

Part Two of the Dirty Rice Ball Series cross posted to AO3 + A surprise fic

December 16

Part Three of the Dirty Rice Ball Series cross posted to AO3 + Another surprise fic

December 17 - By any other name

Being labeled as "Roronoa Sanji" on the newest Wanted Posters doesn't bother Sanji as much as the rest of the crew thought it would.

December 18 - 2 left feet (2 hearts beat)

Espionage, fake wedding rings, and a vintage well-fitting tux is all it takes for this night to either be labeled a complete disaster or the greatest miracle to ever happen.

December 19 - if i loved you (like i'm capable of)

After his heart was broken by a man he thought loved him, Sanji finds out that he is loved by someone he is not worthy of.

December 20 - promises, promises

Even as the golden band around his finger symbolizes their eternal love, not seeing a third earring on Zoro doesn't feel right. Sanji's anniversary gift changes that.

December 21 - a royal disaster

Nobody told Zoro that the supposedly tyrannical prince to inherit the doomed kingdom is actually the most beautiful man he will ever meet in his lifetime.

December 22 - rough hands, soft heart

Sanji thought Zoro wasn't good with kids. It wasn't until Chopper joined the crew where he realized he was sorely mistaken.

December 23 - in another world, i'm yours

Sanji switches places with a man who plays him in a TV show about his crew. He discovers many things about himself and his relationship with a certain mosshead in the process. (Collab with inoreuct)

December 24 - when you dream

There's something about the way Sanji gushes about his near impossible dream that makes Zoro root for him. And maybe unknowingly fall in love in the process.

December 25 - becoming a decent best man for dumbasses

Nami asks Zoro to be her best man at her and Vivi's wedding. Zoro's problems cover so much more than just coming up with the best speech...

Teasers will be posted leading up to December 14! The two extra fics on day two and three will be a surprise instead 👀 Feel free to send asks about any of these stories as well 😚

Super excited to post all of these, ya'll have NO idea!! Hopefully, I'm able to reach my goals while also making the zosan community happy 💚💛