#sometimes I’ll pop in but for the most part I’m just there in the background

[bookwyrminspiration]

I was told you might have information about a kotlc tumblr discord server? Also I really like the name Quil it's very neat.

Thank you! I, obviously, also quite like the name!

And I do have information about kotlc discord servers, five of them to be exact. These aren’t in any particular order, but join and engage at your leisure!

Kotlc Chaos: a casual server of about a hundred people who just enjoy hanging out and share an interest in keeper. a lot of the talk there isn’t keeper related, but it’s still a keeper server. very tumblr-esque

keeper of the lost cities: the smallest group, only a couple dozen basically the people you see in the tumblr kotlc tag on a regular basis (prior to Stellarlune at least, there are new people in the tag now)

KOTLC group chat: a casual group of a couple hundred. It’s composed of fans who’ve been around for a while, though they may not be as active anymore. It feels like a previous generation of the fandom sometimes.

KotLC Chats: this is the biggest one (couple thousand) and is connected to the kotlc wiki, not the tumblr, but it’s worth mentioning. It tends to have younger people and much stricter rules

For the sake of full transparency, of the discords I’m aware of there is a fifth called the kotlcopedia, which is a discord dedicated to creating and compiling keeper headcanons. However, it is maintained and orchestrated by someone who was at the center of some discourse recently. I will not, at this time, be sharing that link on my blog, as I’m still deciding the extent my personal response and am still talking about it privately. There is an associated blog on tumblr by the same name, and I’m sure if you want more information you can reach out there. I just won’t be providing it here.

I hope that helps! I can’t tell you exactly how active all of these servers are (obviously though the one with several thousand people is most active) because I don’t engage with them much, but I hope you find one or several you like!

[thedustyleaves]

Sorry if you’ve answered this before, but I really love how your illustrations have such a cohesive color palette, how do you pick your colors to have a certain theme without looking monochromatic?

(In your breakdown on the saloon/western BP illustration, you mentioned that the overall color was reddish brown so you added blue to the main group to set them apart. But like how did you decide on which reddish brown colors to use for the flats?)

Thank you!! Your art is really expressive and the colors always work so well in the illustration. I’m always in awe of your pics

That’s an excellent question! My drawings actually start out pretty monochromatic because I tend to put most of my effort into the lighting and shading part to help differentiate where I want people to look.

For all of my pieces, I want my characters to be in focus. So no matter what, I always have to keep their main colors in mind and make sure their outfits and the background don’t clash with them (Kain’s red hair tends to be a problem, pft).

For my flats, I generally work with two main colors that tend to contrast each other and then I mix a lot of neutrals around them. (Sometimes the main colors are in the light and shading itself, but I’ll just focus on the flats!).

Sometimes, I will change the hue of their colors. So while Kain has bright orange hair, I will dull it down if it overwhelms the piece or doesn’t fit with the tone - like I did for the cowboy drawing - but never so much that it no longer looks like him.

With the cowboy drawing as an example, if I strip it down to my flats, it instantly becomes very dull and monochromatic. I really enjoy working with these colors because they’re easy on the eyes (or my eyes specifically) and I can see the difference in subtle hues a lot better than if they were very high in contrast. I like working with subtleties when I want background characters to become a single unit but still be separated as individual people.

When I picked the colors for the background, I wanted to separate the characters from the walls. Therefore, I kept the walls red and gold, and the characters brown - they’re still within the same warm-colored family, but they’re far enough away from each other that they don’t become one with each other. I also like to not have clothes from different characters blend together, so overlapping colours can't be the same. I made one coat lighter than the other, the glove warmer than the dark jacket, and so on.

(their coats are also in the same realm as the green/gold colour of the details for the curtains and the frames on the walls)

For the paintings I actually chose to put a bit of blue and green in to help create some interest for the main characters and keep your eyes around that area, as it matches the blue they’re wearing, just a whole lot darker. It also makes them pop just enough so they look interesting against the wall, but not enough to overshadow the main characters

I know, because of the way I work with layers, that when I add my overlays, I automatically brighten and saturate the colors a lot. It’s a lot easier for me to saturate something “dull” and move it into all kinds of hues than saturating something already high in contrast and then trying to force it into a new color theme.

But because of this, I usually have to go back and change the colors I work with constantly while the overlays are on. Since the overlays don’t know what sort of materials they’re laying on top of, everything gets lighter and washed out, so dark skin tones, hair, and clothes have to be corrected one by one afterward. If I were to remove the overlays after I corrected it to make it feel like a dark blue outfit on Raki, it’s basically just a black void now; but with the overlay, it’s a dark blue outfit. Before that, he simple blended in with the background too much and he didn’t feel like he was a part of the group either. 

I always try to put down colors how I imagine they’re going to look like, unaffected by light, but I’m also naturally drawn toward more earthy and warm tones, so all of my color choices will tend to lean that way.

Here’s another example of main colours vs. neutrals; the main colours are red and green/turquoise, with dark browns and greys to encapsulate them, and gold for accents or to make certain things pop (the chair, Dakon’s dark coat, etc.).

I never want them all to wear the exact same color, but I want them to feel connected and be in the same 'colour family,' so Dakon and Kain have nearly the same dark red/brown, and Christie and Raki have nearly the same 'bright'/red.

The blacks and browns, I’ve kept warm as well, so they stay within that realm of red. I also make sure that none of them are too close to Kain’s hair since he’s in the middle of the piece, and I want your eyes to be drawn toward the middle, and his orange hair helps with that.

The paintings I basically do not care too much about, as long as each individual painting has a single dominating colour. I mute them down with a darker overlay and ensure they don’t have strong shadows and light, so they get pushed to the background, so despite being a bunch of different colours, each painting feels like a solid color and they’re still cast in the same light as the rest of the piece, so they feel like they belong in the same room.

I try to help move the eye around the piece as well, so I keep the big painting sort of in the same realm of red and brown as the main characters, because it’s so big it shouldn’t dominate with a new color and force interest toward it. The blue/purple ones melt in with the background as they’re close to the turquoise background, but without disappearing, the yellow ones work sort of like the gold accents and blend in with the frames, and the green paintings at the top give the illusion of a monochrome fade, so everything gets more eerie and green as the image goes up - there’s also a subtle green fade that affects the gold accents from the top down, to enhance that effect.

This is just a few examples, if there are any pieces in particular you were thinking of, and it’s neither of these, just let me know, and I can break those down as well!

Thank you for the question; I hope I answered it somewhat, and thank you for the kind words! <3

[myseungsunglove]

The Art of Meeting | Bc

Pairing: Chan x Reader 

Warnings: angst, fluff to wrap it up

Word Count: 5.4k (whoopsies)

Summary: the reader and Chan are meeting up after their unlikely connection via bubble and Instagram. The reader is heading to LA to meet Chan and the boys. Will this meeting be everything she hoped for or make matters more complicated than she imagined?

A/N: Part 3. For The Master of Flirting - This one really, really got away from me. Sometimes I include so much detail because I just feel like you NEED to know, you know? Anyway, I very much enjoyed writing this part, so I really hope you guys enjoy it. 

◠ ◡ ◠᭚ιαᵕ̈

Feedback Welcome

「© September 3, 2023 by mysweethannie」

Saturday, August 19th 12:15 AM CST

Chan: *received video*

Hey there, beautiful. We are on the plane and about to head out. It’s a long flight, and I’m exhausted. I can’t believe I’m going to see you in a little over 12 hours. I’m literally on cloud 9 just thinking about getting to see you. 

“Is that our lovely y/n?” you hear Han’s voice in the background. 

“Did someone say y/n?” Seungmin quickly interjects. 

It’s not long before both boys' heads pop into the frame. Stupid, goofy grins plastered on their faces. 

“Oh my god, Y/n Hi! We’re gonna see you soon. Get excited because this is going to be the most exciting weekend of your life,” Han practically yells at the screen. 

Seungmin scoffs, a small smirk briefly appearing on his face. He always pretends to be annoyed with Han, but you know the opposite to be true. His eyes don’t lie. He is extremely fond and protective of Han. 

“Seriously, you’re so loud,” he says, shoving Han playfully. “Can’t wait to see you, y/n,” He waves a tiny little wave that makes your heart squeeze in your chest. Han leans up and kisses the camera before Chan can swat them both away. 

“Anyway,” Chan laughs, rolling his eyes playfully. “Seems I’m not the only one excited to see you,” he smiles fondly. “Maybe for different reasons, but still those two don’t shut up about you. Hell, I don’t either,” he laughs at himself. “Now I’m just rambling, but I just wanted to let you know we boarded and are heading out. I know you probably won’t be up for a few hours, or at least I hope you took my advice and got some rest. I’ll text you when we land. Our flights are scheduled to arrive pretty close together, so I’ll see you at LAX,” he smiles at the camera, his eyes becoming tiny slits. 

“Byeom, darlin’” 

The video ends there and you smile contentedly at your phone. You watch the video over again, laughing at the interruption of Han and Seungmin, your heartbeat quickening when Chan admits that he can’t stop talking about you and is excited to see you. You type out a quick response, hoping you’ll catch him before his phone is put on airplane mode. 

Y/N: I’m so nervous and excited, I can hardly sleep. Though, I am getting a little tired now that I know you’re headed out. I can’t wait to see you. I’m not sure words can even explain how I’m feeling if I’m being honest. 

Chan: I was hoping you’d be asleep, but I get it. I’m gonna have to take something to make me sleep. Ah, they’re telling us to prepare for take off. I gotta go. Please get some sleep, baby girl. It’s gonna be busy once we’re in LA, trust me. My life is kind of crazy. See you soon, y/n

Y/N: I’m not sure how one misses someone they haven’t actually met, but Channie, I miss you. 

Chan: I know exactly what you mean. I miss you more, baby girl. 

Y/N: Travel safe, Channie. G’night babe. 

Chan: G’day, darlin’

You lock your phone, switch it over to silent and place it on the wireless charger. Sleep suddenly feels imminent now that you know the boys are about to be in the air. You smile to yourself as you roll over and cuddle up to your body pillow to fall asleep. 

August 19th 4:30 AM CST

Morning comes much more quickly than you anticipate. You wake with a jolt at 4:30 AM. Whoever is taking you to the airport is due to be at your house at 5:30 sharp. You peel yourself out of bed and drag yourself into the bathroom to go through some kind of morning routine. You debate on whether you are going to travel cozy and casual or dress up and actually put on makeup. You settle for something in between the two, a simple tinted moisturizer, a light powder, and some mascara. You have pretty healthy skin and it is glowing this morning despite your complete lack of sleep. Your freckles, one of your more charming features, dance across your round cheeks. Chan has mentioned absolutely loving them, so you decide to let them shine today. 

Your outfit isn’t complicated. You don’t want to look like you are going on a business trip but equally so you don’t want to look like a bum either. It is hot as hell at home, so you grab a purple sundress with white flowers on it and throw on your favorite pair of cons. 

You slip on your jewelry, a simple diamond pendant necklace, a few low statement rings, and your earrings. You assess yourself in the mirror and figure you are about as ready as you’re going to be. Your hair is short, so a little spray and a few tossles here and there do the trick. You look at the clock and it’s near 5:00, so you move to refill your water bottle and double check your luggage. You are a meticulous planner, so the likelihood you are forgetting anything with all the lists you have made is slim to none, but it doesn’t stop you from triple checking everything. 

Your phone rings at 5:30 on the dot, the person accompanying you on your journey arriving at your door right on time. You swing it open and are immediately greeted by a warm smile and a small Korean woman who looks to be about ten years older than you. 

“Y/n?” she asks. 

“Yeah that’s me,” you bow and reach out a hand to shake hers all at the same time, so nervous about the day ahead. She laughs softly and it’s a pleasant sound that calms you in an unexpected way. 

“I’m Lee Jia. It’s nice to finally meet you. Chan speaks of you with the highest regard,” she smiles and bows. 

You blush. “It’s lovely to meet you. Come in, I’ll grab my things,” you say as you usher her in. Lovely to meet you, you ask yourself. Who even are you right now, y/n? A nervous fucking wreck, that’s who. 

You scurry off to gather your things and you return to see Jia standing in your entry, looking down at her phone. 

“Ready,” you breathe. 

“Shall we?” she asks as you pull open your front door. She leads the way to the car and you’re off. The ride to the airport flies by. When you arrive at the airport, a large Korean man joins your little entourage. He introduces himself as Seok-Jin. He explains that he is your bodyguard and gives you a quick rundown of what to expect. Before you know it, you’re in line to board the plane after clearing security. 

“We can chat more on the plane,” Seok-Jin explains, “but essentially, I say, you do. Your safety may depend on that specific instruction especially once we are in LA.” 

You hadn’t even considered this side of your meeting. And suddenly you are starkly reminded that Bang Chan is in fact a world wide superstar. Internationally known. He doesn’t get to just exist like a normal person, and you’re hit with the fact that, from this point on, you may not either depending on the outcome of this trip. 

“Of course. You say, I do. Got it,” you repeat back to him. He gives you a small nod as you move through to board the plane. Chan had booked first class seats and that experience alone is shocking. You settle into your seat, both Jia and Seok-Jin close by, pull out your headphones and open up your phone. You type out a quick message to Chan even though you know he is currently somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. 

Y/n: Settled and about to take off. 

*picture sent* in the photo you have your eyes closed and your face scrunched up in a cute closed lipped smile. You hold up a peace sign feeling like a goober. 

Y/n: Guess I’ll see you in about 4 hours. I can’t believe this is real. 

You turn your phone on airplane mode, listening to the preflight instructions before take off. You look at your watch. 8:20 Everything is going off without a hitch and that makes you a little nervous but you try not to dwell on or overthink it. Things are allowed to go your way, you tell yourself. 

You stick in your headphones and turn on your music, Chan’s soft voice lulling you to sleep as you close your eyes and settle in for the flight. 

August 19th 11:00 AM PST

The flight is uneventful. You sleep most of the three and a half hour journey. Changing time zones always throws you for a loop, but with the difference only being two hours, you’d adjust easily enough. Easier than the boys would for sure. 

“The boys’ flight just landed,” Jia tells you quietly as the two of you settle at a table outside Urth Caffe & Bar. It’s located close to the terminal the boys will be arriving at. You can tell because the amount of people with cameras around is insane. Some of the people are from News Outlets, but others are just regular people, probably STAYS excited to see the boys arrive in LA.

You order a Green Tea Americano, in desperate need of some caffeine. You run to the bathroom while Jia waits at your table for your order. Seok-Jin accompanies you to the restroom, but waits a respectable distance away from the entry. It feels so weird to have someone right there watching every move you make. 

You take a few minutes to compose yourself in the mirror of the bathroom, giving yourself a little pep talk. You are about to meet someone you never expected to meet. Bang Chan still felt a little bit like a fictional character. Your brain can’t fully comprehend that you are about to actually meet him. Not only that, you are going to meet all of Stray Kids. You had formed a quick bond with Han and Seungmin, but your interactions with the other boys had been minimal thus far. That was all about to change. 

“You can do this you idiot,” you tell yourself in the mirror. “He’s just a guy. At the end of the day, he wants normal as much as you do,” you remind yourself. With that, you straighten your hair and dress one last time and exit the bathroom. 

Seok-Jin leads you back to the table where Jia is seated. Your drink is sitting on the table and you snatch it up, eager to have that rush of adrenaline in your veins that the caffeine will provide. 

“Okay, so the boys are clearing security now,” Jia starts.

You stare at her, your mouth agape. 

“Wait, already?” you ask, a slight panic in your voice. 

Jia smiles softly at you and it’s reassuring as you will your heart to slow down. 

“Already,” she confirms. “Your luggage is already on its way to the hotel. Now we just need to go meet up with them. Chan insisted that you would be riding with them from the airport to the hotel, despite my advice.”

“Your advice?” you ask.

“I’m not sure it’s the best idea for your first meeting to be here. I swear he forgets the level of his notoriety sometimes,” she sighs and you can tell she is a little exasperated. “They all do.” 

“Ah,” you nod in understanding. “That he does. Should we just go ahead to the hotel?” you ask, suddenly doubting the plan to meet with Chan here. 

Jia shakes her head. 

“We’ve got everything figured out as best as we can,” she assures you. “Seok-Jin will be right there. If he says…” 

“I do,” you answer with Jia. 

“Exactly,” she smiles. “Let’s move. We are going to head to the meeting place. We will basically meet up with them. There won’t be time for a grand meeting. Essentially, we will simply walk up and join the group. We will head to the cars from there,” she tells you. 

“Got it,” you nod nervously. 

You both stand, Seok-Jin close behind as you throw your cross body bag over your shoulder. You take a deep breath. You can feel your anxiety bubbling up as you take a step forward. There are so many things you hadn’t accounted for. So many factors you hadn’t considered. You briefly feel a little foolish for rushing into all of this, but there is no turning back. Not now. 

The three of you cover a lot of ground fairly quickly and suddenly you are rounding the corner. The noise of the crowd hits you before you actually see it. It feels like there are hundreds of people around you. They aren’t there for you, though, you remind yourself, though that doesn’t entirely help ease your anxiety. But you have a guard. You’ll be fine, y/n you tell yourself. 

“Oh my god, is that her?” you hear someone say, and you turn to look at whoever the voice is mentioning. You don’t stop moving, but when you look, you realize that the eyes are on you. That isn’t right. No one should be looking at you. 

“It is her!” someone else says, and suddenly it feels like the wolves are descending. There is a swarm of people closing in on you. They are shouting questions and pointing cameras in your face. Seok-Jin’s hand is on your back, his other on your arm as he shields you from the crowd, but he is just one person. It feels like the walls are closing in and you instantly feel like you can’t breathe. 

“Y/N! Y/N! Are you working on a collaboration with Stray Kids?” someone shouts from not far enough away. “Do you have plans to showcase your singing soon?” Another shouts. Your head is spinning. How did these people know your name? Why were they talking about your singing? You can feel your chest collapsing in on itself as you become so overwhelmed you aren’t sure you can keep going. 

You haven’t remotely paid attention to where Jia and Seok-Jin are leading you. At this point, meeting up with the guys is the last thing on your mind. You just want to get into a car and drive away from this chaos. Your breathing is quick and you stop, clutching your chest, trying to will yourself to keep breathing. You had not anticipated any of this. 

It’s then that you suddenly feel a pair of strong arms wrap around you, pulling you into their body. The person is too short to be Seok-Jin. 

“Y/N, I’m here. It’s okay.” 

He strokes your hair and gently kisses the side of your forehead. “We’ve gotta move, baby girl,” he whispers in your ear and suddenly you realize it's Chan. You are wrapped up in Chan’s arms and that’s all the strength you need to move again. You don’t know where he had come from or how he knew anything was wrong, but the two of you move together and head for the door which is much closer than you realize. 

What you hadn’t realized was that Jia had been communicating with Chan’s team the second things went south and people started recognizing you. She had been trying to get to the bottom of why anyone even remotely knew who you were to begin with. Chan had been filled in and demanded that he move ahead of the group to come to you. 

Chan’s arms are wrapped protectively around you as your group of five; you, Chan, Jia, Seok-Jin and Chan’s bodyguard, suddenly becomes a much larger group. You haven’t looked up at Chan yet because you are surrounded by people and completely overwhelmed. You finally take a chance to pay attention to your surroundings and you realize that the rest of the group has joined you. The crowd of people now feels further away as there were many people surrounding you and the boys. You take a deep breath and scan the faces. 

Your eyes meet a pair of round hazelnut eyes and he smiles, giving you a tiny wave. His eyes squint up almost closing completely, and even though you can’t see his smile because of the face mask, you know the person is smiling brightly at you. 

“Seungmin,” you breathe. 

You step outside the doors and the bright LA sun hits you along with a nice breeze and you take another deep breath. You feel as though it’s the first time you’ve breathed since you left the caffe. 

Chan’s guard rushes ahead of you and opens the door to an SUV. Chan’s hand is resting on the small of your back. 

“You first, darlin’” he says, guiding you into the car and following quickly behind you. The two of you settle in the back seat and Han and Seungmin jump in the seats ahead of you which are facing backwards so that you are all facing each other. You toss off your cross body bag, and let your head fall against the headrest behind you.  

“Oh my god,” you whisper, your breath coming out in a shutter as you run your fingers through your short hair. 

Chan places a firm hand on your bare thigh and squeezes lightly. 

“Are you okay?” he asks. You can hear the worry in his voice. “I don’t know what happened,” he says, speaking to the situation back in the airport. 

For the first time you look up and your eyes meet Chan’s. He has a soft, concerned smile on his face, his hand staying firmling on your thigh as his round eyes hold your gaze. His skin on your skin is enough to send a thrill through you despite everything that has transpired in the last twenty minutes.

“I’m okay now,” you chuckle a little. “Hi,” you add, not knowing what else to say. 

He laughs then with his entire body, his head thrown back at the gesture. 

“G’day darlin’” he smiles. 

You grab his hand that is still resting on your leg and squeeze it. He turns it over and interlaces his large fingers with yours. His eyes never leave yours except for the brief moment they dart down to glance at your lips. You can feel the heat rising in your chest at that small action. 

“I don’t know what happened,” he repeats again. “I don’t know how anyone even remotely knows who you are or that you are connected to us in any way,” he says. 

“I don’t know,” you echo. 

Just then Han looks up, a nervous look on his face. He’d been fiddling with a rip in his jeans the entire time you had been in the car. 

“I might know what happened. Shit, I’m such an idiot,” he mutters, looking away from you both, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. 

“Han-ah?” Chan looks at him questioningly. 

“I may have posted that clip of y/n singing Iris to our instagram story before we took off,” Han admits, his head falling into his hands. 

Seungmin clears his throat. 

“And I may have mentioned something in a story post after it about meeting you in LA and not being able to wait until I got to work with you in person,” Seungmin groaned, mimicking Han’s motion, putting his head in both of his hands. If it wasn’t so sad to see them beating themselves up, the gesture would have been cute. 

“Oh,” you breathe out. Suddenly you’re laughing. It’s a little bit panicked, a little bit relieved, a lot of bit manic. “You guys are kind of idiots,” you tease as you pull your hand away from Chan’s to rub your hands over your face. “I was so not prepared for this. For any of this,” you admit looking at all three of them. 

“God, I’m so sorry,” Han half sobs. You can see that he is absolutely beating himself up. Seungmin is quiet and you realize that he is crying. 

“This is all my fault,” Seungmin manages, stuttering out his words before looking away. 

You glance at Chan, a desperate look on your face at the despair of your new friends. Chan’s face is unreadable, but you can tell from his body language that he is frustrated. You on the other hand just want to comfort Han and Seungmin. 

“Hey,” you say softly, reaching across you and putting a hand on Seungmin’s leg. “It’s okay. We made it through,” you smile reassuringly. 

Han reaches out and squeezes your hand that is resting on top of Seungmin’s leg, placing his other hand on the shoulder of his friend, rubbing gently.  

“You guys were excited. Hell, I was too. It could have easily been me,” you tell them. 

“Except you don’t have millions of followers like us,” Han groans. 

“Yeah, except that,” you admit. 

“Actually,” Chan speaks for the first time in a while. “Might better check your Instagram.” 

You grab your phone, open Instagram, and have thousands of requests to follow your account. Thousands. Your message requests are practically overflowing. 

“Oh my god,” you whisper, your small hand clapping over your mouth as you sit up and pull away from Han and Seungmin.  

“Looks like the video was screen recorded and shared a shit ton before anyone on our end realized it was on our story,” Chan says scrolling on his phone. “Look,” he says, scooting closer to you, your legs pressed firmly together.

“Holy shit,” you breathe as Chan scrolls through countless posts, all about you. STAYS had quickly shared your video, most of the feedback fairly positive to your singing. They had also put on their mega detective hats and found your private Instagram handle and shared it far and wide. “I can’t believe this,” you admit. 

“We’ll figure it out,” Chan smiles at you. “Together, yeah?” 

You look up, meeting his eyes and practically melt. The frustration that was there before is now replaced with determination. You’re fascinated by how quickly he can mask his feelings in order to deal with a problem. You admire it, but it also concerns you a little bit. 

“I mean, you deserve all this attention. I just wish you had been able to brace yourself for it,” Chan adds. “Obviously we aren’t the only ones who think you’re incredible.” 

You click off your phone, no longer able to look through all the posts. You’re incredibly overwhelmed and so unsure how to handle yourself. You’ve only just arrived in LA and it feels like your entire life has already been turned upside down. You slide the phone into your bag on the floor and bring your hands to rest on your legs as they ball up in small fists. Your knuckles crack at the movement, and suddenly Chan is reaching out and grabbing your hands once more. 

“It’ll be okay. I promise,” he says, holding both your hands in his, his thumb rubbing the top of your hand in a soothing motion. He has moved so that one leg is resting up on the seat between the two of you, the other resting on the floor. 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” you say before you can stop yourself. 

Chan drops both of your hands and moves them so that he is gently caressing your face. A small tear trails down your cheek and he gently wipes it away. He closes the space between you. 

“I will always protect you,” he whispers, his breath now warm against your lips. His eyes search yours for permission and you don’t pull away. He takes that as a positive sign, and closes the distance that remains between you. 

His mouth meets yours in a tender, hesitant kiss. His lips are soft and full. He tastes like sweet mint and smells like fall. The kiss is short, yet surprisingly intimate for a first kiss. 

“Always,” he murmurs against you and you are chasing after his lips at those words, this time the two of you meeting in a much more desperate kiss. Your hands drape around his neck as he tilts your head slightly, his fingers dancing along the nape of your neck. Your head is spinning again, but this time in the best way possible. You knew the two of you were connected, but you couldn’t have possibly imagined any of this. 

“I think we’re almost to the hotel,” Seungmin meekly whispers. 

You and Chan are reminded then that you are not alone and pull away from each other hesitantly. You’ve never felt this immediately bonded with someone before and it’s a little overwhelming. 

“Okay, good,” Chan chuckles, moving to sit up properly in the seat again, his hand finding yours once more. “Guys, we’ll all figure this out. Don’t beat yourselves up, yeah?” he assures the two younger boys across from him. “We’ve got a busy couple of days ahead of us. We’ll come up with a game plan,” Chan says, looking at all three of you. “I’m sure Jia is already working through it all.” 

“She is,” Jia chimes in from the front seat and you all chuckle. None of you realized she had joined the four of you in the car. “Everyone can get settled in at the hotel, rest up and then we can all meet to talk about logistics.” 

“All meet?” you question. 

“Yes, all 9 of you. Everyone needs to be on the same page,” Jia says and turns back around in her seat. 

You had completely forgotten about the other members that weren’t currently in the car with you. This would likely affect all of them in some way, and you could feel your nerves creeping back in once more. 

“We’ll be fine,” Chan says beside you as if he knows the thoughts running wild in your head. He squeezes your hand reassuringly. “We always are.” 

You chuckle nervously as the car comes to a stop. Someone comes out to the car with key cards for your rooms and Jia passes them out quickly. With that, the four of you retreat from the small cramped space and step back out into the sunlight. It seems that people don’t know where the boys are staying because there aren’t throngs of people waiting here for them. As if Chan can read your mind he speaks. 

“Our hotel is always a safe haven. No one will bother us here,” he says with a confident smile. You walk into the hotel and it’s beautiful. Chan leads you to the elevator, pressing the top floor and entering it with you, Han, and Seungmin. Your car arrived before the others, so you have yet to lay eyes on the rest of the members of Stray Kids at this point. 

The bell of the elevator dings and you all step out of the small space. Your room is the last one on the hall, past all of the boys’ rooms. As Han and Seungmin depart, murmuring their apologies once again, and you realize that you are situated across the hall from Han and Seungmin, their rooms adjoined by a door inside. 

Chan opens the door of his room and pulls you in behind him. You notice a door inside other than the bathroom door and closet door and realize then that your rooms must be joined as well. In fact, the door is open. 

“That room is yours,” he says with a smile, gesturing to the open door. “I didn’t want to have to be caught in the hallway every time I wanted to come see you, so I figured requesting a set up like this would be easier,” he admitted sheepishly. 

“Smart,” you chuckle. 

You walk into your room and see that your luggage is all safely there, just as Jia assured you it would be. You throw your cross body bag on an empty chair and retreat into the bathroom. You take one look at yourself in the mirror and realize what a mess you look like. You glance down at your watch and it reads 1:00 pm. You hadn’t realized so much time had passed from getting off the plane, the whole airport disaster, and the car ride to the hotel. Traffic must have really been crazy, but you were so caught up in your own world with the boys, you had had no time to notice anything like that. 

You wet a hand towel down with cold water and dab your face gently. You decide that you can refresh your makeup later, after you’ve rested. You use the bathroom and exit the room. You immediately notice Chan laying on the edge of your king size bed, an arm draped over his eyes. 

“Are you as tired as I am?” you ask as you sit down gently beside him. 

He chuckles and it's a low pleasant sound that sends a thrill through you. Sitting here with him feels so natural. Like it’s something you’ve done hundreds of times. It feels safe. 

“That’s the understatement of the century,” he says as he moves his arm away from his face and softly smiles up at you. 

You suddenly stand, holding out your hand to him. 

“Then I propose a nap,” you say, offering your hand to him. He takes it without hesitation and stands, his free hand landing on your hip and pulling you close to him. 

“That’s a proposal I don’t think I could possibly refuse,” he smiles down at you and damn it if you don’t go completely weak in the knees as his eyes lock with yours. You can see that he wants to kiss you again, but he hesitates this time. Something about being in a hotel room makes a kiss feel much more intimate and you both know you aren’t ready for where that could lead. Not after a day like today. 

“I’m gonna change real quick. I don’t want to sleep in my travel clothes,” he laughs and steps away and back into his room. 

“You’re too right,” you agree, moving to your luggage. 

You open it up and the urge to unpack everything like you usually do is strong, but you’re also completely exhausted. That type A OCD trait will have to wait, you tell yourself as you search for an oversized T and a pair of shorts. You find your shirt that reads, “President of the Big Tiddy Committee” on it and burst out laughing. You had entirely forgotten that you had packed this. You throw it on and slide on a pair of black shorts. 

You turn around, moving towards your bed and Chan is suddenly in the doorway between your rooms again. He is wearing a black tank top that sticks to him like his skin and a pair of loose black basketball shorts. 

Suddenly he laughs out loud, his head falling backward as he laughs with his entire body. 

“Oh my god,” he giggles, his hand going over his mouth. “Your shirt.” 

You look down at it with a proud smile, pulling it away from you and reading it as if you’re reading it for the first time. You shrug, a smirk spreading across your face as you look back at him. 

“Iconic, right?” you smile at him with a cocked eyebrow. 

“That’s one word for it,” he laughs, shaking his head at you. 

You wink at him and he blushes, a red tint spreading across his chest and face. 

You pull back the comforter on the bed and crawl in, turning on the lamp beside the bed and grabbing the remote that closes the curtains, pressing the button. The room goes practically dark as night despite the fact that it’s 1:30 in the afternoon. 

“You coming or what?” you ask, like you’ve done this with him a hundred times. 

“Yeah, okay,” Chan responds nervously, but doesn’t hesitate to crawl into the bed from the other side. He quickly scoots close to you and wraps his arms around you, pulling you close to his chest without hesitation. You melt into him and suddenly feel ten times more tired than you had just moments ago. You feel him sigh contentedly and you can’t help but look up at him. 

He is smiling down at you, his arm rubbing up and down your back gently. 

“This is gonna be the best nap I’ve ever had in my life, I can feel it,” he whispers, pressing his lips against your temple. 

“Hmm,” you hum in agreement and drift off to sleep, the chaos of the day on the back burner of your mind.

“Sweet dreams, darlin’” Chan whispers against your head before falling asleep too. You aren’t sure what you will have to face when you wake up, but in Chan’s arms, you feel like you can tackle just about any issue that comes your way. 

< Pt. 2: The Mystery of You |Pt. 4: The Complication of Life Connecting >

MoF Tags: @hoeinthehouse @drhsthl @chrizzlaptop @dna-black-and-blue @lynlyndoll @hufflepuffanddurinsdaughter @amararosesblog @flirtyskzbutterfly @spearb-99 @jascurka21 @colorguardlover14 @bangchansbiggestfeet08 @vxllxnsworld

[aheathen-conceivably]

I really want to start my own legacy challenge and post it here! But idk how to make it look as pretty and as good as you, do you have any tips?

Nonny, first and foremost, thank you! 🥰

While I am usually very happy with the way my posts look now, it wasn’t always that way, and I think the biggest part of this is the process. If you go back and look at my early story posts (and even before that, to my first builds that I posted here) you’ll see that the style and techniques I used then are very different than what I do now.

All too often I find simblrs (and creators in general) will delete or redo their early work. As a perfectionist myself I totally get and share that instinct, but simultaneously I think that looking back helps remind me that it takes practice and discovery that’s still ongoing. I’ll try to help with a few tips I’ve learned along the way, but I truly don’t think there’s any better answer than trial and error!

1. Camera tips and tricks:

First and foremost, always take your photos in tab mode. Even if it’s just gameplay shots, this allows you to get creative with angles and go closer/further away for those detail shots or sweeping landscape ones. On that note, don’t be afraid to take the same photo from multiple angles so that you can look back at them and choose the best one.

Something I read very early on that helped me was to zoom in as close as possible to the shot that you want, and then back away using the S key rather than zoom out. Likewise, avoid zooming in and out and then in again in tab mode, as it can cause distortion in the background. However, there are also times when that distant background looks great, so this is just a good place to start that you can play around with over time. And have fun! Get those detail shots and low angles and things that might not seem like the most obvious shot but somehow work really well.

2. Take time on the details:

Now this is an overarching one because I mean all the details, from the world, to the builds, to interior decorating, to sim details, to their outfits. Now you may only enjoy a handful of these, and by no means do you have to jump in with all of them at once. For me, I really enjoy interior decorating so I put a lot of energy into my sets, that way when I go to take photos the backdrop work is already done. I really try to ensure that the backgrounds of photos are never empty (which is sometimes just clever angles) so this goes a long way to making a post look good and gives the viewer lots of little cues about the sims in the scene.

Likewise, I spend a lot of time on sims outfits. Usually this is in tangent with their personality and where they are in their story, but you’ll also notice small things like characters will not always be wearing shoes at home or an apron/hat will be taken off at an appropriate point in the scene. Small details like this ground a character in their setting and help relate your writing and/or unwritten details to the viewer.

3. Editing:

This is one that I think is really mutable to your personal tastes and goals. I’ve seen some simmers really go above and beyond with unique templates or text while others (ahem, me) will just brighten up or increase the contrast of a shot. I know others will often use photoshop for more detailed editing, but I stick with an online service just to make the brightness and colors pop. Even still, those few extra steps can really balance out the in-game lighting or make a photo even more pleasing to look at, so I really recommend finding something you like if aesthetics are important to you.

4. All the extra things:

Simmers, I think you already know where I’m going with this. Sometimes this game isn’t exactly the most pleasing to look at, so things like lighting mods, swre, or reshade really help you as a creator and can take your screens to the next level. As I’m sure y’all know by now I fought the reshade train for a long time, and even still I can see how this process can be over involved or overwhelming; however I won’t deny that the addition of it to my game is by far the biggest step I’ve taken to making my photos look as good as they currently do, and it has saved me a lot of time on manually editing. But I do not think it’s by any means necessary, and lighting mods are a good place to start for these in-game enhancers.

5. Trust the process

Yes, I’m ending this ramble by reiterating the point I stated at the beginning. I cannot stress enough that it takes time and practice to find your style and the techniques that work for you. I would really encourage you to go back to this post compared to recent ones and look at how different the camera angles and ideas behind the shots are. Changing is okay! Find what you’re really excited about in your images (which for me, y’all may be able to tell from the beginning, was the outfits and set design) and really enjoy that process. It comes through in the images, I promise!

Most of all, don’t feel like you have to perfect your visuals before you start posting here. Community feedback and just the joy of engaging can be such a motivator to continue, and quite honestly, if there is a place to grow your style and content as you go it’s here. People are so willing to help and answer questions as you encounter new roadblocks or ideas, and so starting that network and gathering that inspiration is pivotal to making your content look the way you want it to.

I know that I for one hope you post your legacy, Nonny! I always love seeing new people come aboard and I hope this could be helpful to you 💕

[starwarsbean]

Love Against the Odds

Warnings: Fake Dating. Alternate Universe. Smut/ Fluff. Sexual tension.

Pairing: Tech x F! Reader

A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a good day! This is the second chapter to this series. I’m still unsure of how many chapters there will be. If there are mistakes so sorry it’s late for me. Just let me know. Please heart and share. <3

Summary:

We see Techs part of the storyline. Understanding his part of the story.

Chapter 2

Tech was sitting at his office. Typing a way on his keyboard. Taking small sips of his black coffee. He was setting long term plans for the company making sure the company reaches their goals. Techs intelligence, dedication, and determination made him succeed in his role. His analytical skills helped him guide the company in the right direction. Tech always thought things logically and rationally. His mind was focusing on work most majority. The other half of his mind was on his brothers and Omega. Tech always cared for them deeply. He had his own way of showing it. His head was always typing away on the keyboard working on a new project. Tech knew he was a critical boss and can come out as harsh. He never intends to be so critical, but it’s common knowledge to him. He is blunt on his employees. Articulating what he wants done. Most majority of his employees did not enjoy being around him at any events or even enjoy working on a project with him. They would all walk away when he walked into the room. Even small talk would lead to them excusing themselves awkwardly. Tech felt like an outsider regardless if he was in a high position. Sometimes he would get rather lonely.

“Sir, your phone is ringing it’s your brother Hunter.” Techs assistant walks in to inform him.

Tech nods his head and picks up the phone. Techs assistant quickly walks out the office room.

“Hunter, what is it?”

“Good to hear from you too tech.” Hunter says sarcastically.

“What is it? I’m currently working and I have an important dinner tomorrow.” Tech ask a bit annoyed.

“Yeah you’re always working tech. How about you come swing by for a game tonight. Wrecker and Omega really miss you.” Hunter says.

“Well I’m really busy and I don’t know if it’s certain I’ll be done by the time.” Tech looks at the time.

“Well how about you take a break for your family and just come by. Bring your work with you.” Hunter says. Omega is in the background begging for tech to come.

Tech hears Omega wanting him to come by. He sighs.

“Alright I’ll come by just for a few minutes.” Tech says giving in.

Omega grabs the phone away from Hunter and thanks tech for giving in. Hunter grabs back the phone and laughs.

“See you then Tech.” Hunter hangs up

Tech looks at work realizing he’s almost finishing his work. He continues to concentrate till it’s time for him to go. Tech packs up his stuff when he’s finished. He heads to hunters place. He stretches his long arms and his neck. Feeling a bit stiff from typing all day. Tech arrives at Hunters place. Omega opens the door before tech can even knock.

“Tech! You came!” Omega says happily. Her blue eyes full of joy from her brother visiting her.

“Well I don’t think I had a choice.” Tech says with a little smile.

Wrecker pops by the door and punches tech shoulder playfully. Making Tech roll his eyes at his brothers action. Wrecker laughs while he teased him. Tech walks inside and goes to sit on the couch.

“Good to see you too Wrecker. Didn’t think you’d be so excited to see me.” Tech says while pulling out his work from his bag.

“Oh come on you brought work with you? We’re suppose to play a game!” Wrecker looks at tech confused.

“Yeah Tech we want you to play the game with us. You’ll like the game. It’s very strategic.” Omega says while sitting next to tech on the blue couch.

“Sadly, as much I want to beat you both at this game. I have lots of work to do.” Tech says while typing in his keyboard.

“Come on Tech.” Omega pleads.

“Omega…Wrecker.. I told you both Tech was busy. As long as he’s here. We get to enjoy his company.” Hunter says coming from the kitchen with some homemade nachos.

Wrecker walks over to eat a chip. Omega rolls her eyes in defeat. She groans as she sets up the game. Tech notices the changes in Omega. Realizing she’s getting older. Her blonde hair grew out a bit more. She was a bit taller too.

“Tech! Do you want some nachos?” Hunter ask while placing the nachos on the table.

“Not right now.” Tech says.

Wrecker and Hunter shrug, eating their nachos.

“When are Echo and Rex coming back from their double date?” Omega ask giggling.

“Look at you being nosey.” Hunter says smiling at Omega.

“I’m just asking that’s all. Maybe they will want to play since Tech can’t.” Omega says with a smile.

Tech looks up from his work. He pays attention to what they’re talking about.

“Rex and Echo went on a double date?” Tech ask getting amused at this conversation.

“Yeah Tech something you should be trying.” Wrecker says while laughing.

Tech rolls his eyes and shakes his head.

“I have no time for romance. Or any sort of relationship. It is not something I want to try.” Tech says firmly.

Hunter and Wrecker sigh. Omega pops a nacho in her mouth.

“Tech.. maybe you could try dating out. You’re always caught up in work. Sometimes you don’t realize what’s out there till you try.” Hunter says while scratching his neck.

“Yeah you’re so caught up in work. You hardly see us.” Wrecker buts in

“Nonsense. I do not need to try. I’m busy and that is all.” Tech says sharply

“Maybe if you found someone you love you would be a lot happier. There’s more to life than just working your life away.” Hunter chips in.

“I am happy. I finish my work and I go to bed. My routine is on schedule.” Tech looks up at Hunter and Wrecker annoyed

Hunter and Wrecker look at each other and sigh knowing that they tried.

“We just care about you tech. We just wanted to see you try something out besides just work.” Hunter says.

Omega looks at them. She frowns then looks back at the game. Hunter noticed Omega starting to look down. Wrecker and Hunter sit on the floor with her and begin playing the game.

Tech sighs softly as he looks at them. Why would falling in love help him? It only leads to disappointment from seeing his brothers past relationships. Dealing with relationship issues was not worth it. Just because you love someone? It didn’t make sense to tech. Then again he never tried falling in love or meeting anyone. Work was his main focus and his life. No one could possibly change that…

Rex and Echo walk into Hunters place. They both are extra happy. Rex had a certain smell of perfume. It was so strong it made Tech nose clench. Echo had a smile on his face.

“Guessing you both had a good time on your guys double date?” Hunter says with a smirk.

“It was pretty nice. She was a great women. Most definitely will be seeing her again.” Rex says.

“I’m doing the same thing. My date was kind and understanding.” Echo says while cleaning the table of leftover nacho cheese.

“Glad you both had fun. Maybe you guys can bring them over so we can meet them.” Hunter says happily for his

Tech listens to their conversation. Feeling a bit annoyed. He was truly happy for his brothers dates going well. He just wanted the whole dating conversation to get out of the room. He notices an error in the dinner menu. He messages one of his employers annoyed. Due to his irritability from his brothers he was being a bit critical on Heras error. She was one of his best employees, but he was in no mood for errors. After finishing the messages. His brothers call his name. Tech looks up.

“Tech, are you almost finished?” Wrecker ask.

“No. One of my employees made a mistake for tomorrows dinner event. Now I have to make sure they correct their error.” Tech says firmly.

“Will there be single people at the dinner event?” Wrecker says with a laugh.

“I am unaware and do not care. That is not my main objective at tomorrows dinner event.” Tech says sternly

“I wasn’t asking for you. I was asking for myself.” Wrecker looks at Rex with a grin.

“In that case I do not know.” Tech looks at them.

They all just nod and get back in to the game. Echo and Rex try out the game with Omega. Everyone expect Tech was screaming in fun. Hunter laughs as Echo loses to Omega. Tech looks at them feeling a bit left out. He packs up his work to head home. Not wanting to ruin their fun.

“I’m going to get going. I have lots of work to do.” Tech says.

Everyone waves bye to Tech. Before Tech leaves Hunter pulls him to the side.

“Tech, from what we said. We’re just worried about you. We just want you to experience other things besides just working.” Hunter says putting a hand on techs shoulder.

Tech looks down and thinks. He knew his brothers were worried about him working all the time. Tech thought nothing of thinking it’s part of life. His honey eyes behind his goggles look around the room. Avoiding eye contact with Hunter.

“I understand your concern. I must get going.” Tech says while shutting the front door behind him.

Hunter sighs as he watches Tech leave. Omega and Echo call Hunter back over to play the game.

Tech gets to his own place. Placing his work on his table. He goes to look what’s inside his fridge and cabinets. Realizing he forgot to go grocery shopping. Not having much food nor was he in the mood to cook. His stomach grumbling. He makes a reminder to send his assistant to pick up his groceries. Tech grabs a granola bar and a cup of vanilla yogurt. He eats it fast from how hungry he is. The crumbs of the granola bar falling down his shirt. Feeling annoyed of the mess he made. The crumbs falling on the kitchen floor. He finishes his snack and cleans his mess. Finally receiving a email on the correct forms from Hera about tomorrows dinner event. He goes over the details and list of names. He sees a brand new name he’s never seen before. Thinking of how nice the name is. Wondering if he’s met this person before. Techs alarm goes off for him to shower and get ready for bed.

As Tech lays in bed he starts thinking of what Hunter said. Did he really need to date? Why was it so important to experience? He pulls his blankets over his body. Tech did not understand the concept of dating. How dating works is not logical and super complicated. It was odd to Tech to think of love. He never thought of the idea of him dating. The questions continue to wonder his mind. Did he even need the experience? Yeah, it would be nice for him to find that person to spend the rest of your life with. Even start a family with. But, Tech knew he none of that would happen. His work was his purpose, not love. An idea pops his mind. Fake dating would work. He wouldn’t have to fall in love and deal with the reality complications of dating. His brothers would stop nagging him. Tech could continue his work while tricking everyone. It was a brilliant idea for him. Something he should’ve done years ago. Tech slowly writes down his idea. After, he finishes he lays back down. Wondering who would even agree with this idea. Tech drifts off to sleep.

[blackwidownat2814]

That's a No From Me Dawg (J.Seresin)

Pairing: Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x plus size!reader, Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x librarian!reader, Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x Garcia!reader, Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x latina!reader

Word Count: 935

A/N: Got inspired by this post from @wildbornsiren & @a-reader-and-a-writer-for-all and just had to run with it. Thanks once again to the great @jobean12-blog for being my sounding board and an awesome friend. Established relationship from my first Jake story, Pride & Prejudice & Partridges.

Trigger Warnings: None, unless the dog-earring of pages causes you pain.

‼️⚠️I do not give permission for any of my work to be copied, translated or reposted anywhere else but on my own blog.⚠️‼️

Masterlist

Sometimes, you liked to think of yourself as a dragon.  Dragons lived in caves (aka the library, in your case) and protected their hoard of gold (the books).  For the most part, you kept your inner dragon asleep, ready to pounce only when someone messed with your hoard.

So far, since moving to San Diego to live with your brother and starting work at the library on base, the dragon had been in hibernation.  So when the one person you didn’t expect woke the sleeping dragon, you were just as surprised as he was.

“GOOD LORD.”  Your ears perked up at your fellow librarian’s exclamation.  

Smiling, you slid your new bookmark into the book you had been reading.  Jake had given the bookmark to you, ‘just because’ he said, after finding out that The Mummy was your favorite movie.  One side had the quote “Hey, O’Connell!  Looks to me like I’ve got all the hor-ses!” and the other had “Hey Beni!  Looks to me like you’re on the wrong side of the ri-ver!” over black background.  It was simple but you absolutely loved it.  You loved him.

You took a deep breath and pushed thoughts of your naval aviator out of your head as you walked up to see Cass leaning on her desk with her forehead resting on her hands and grumbling.

“Are you okay?”

“No!”

“Um…why?”

“Look at this!”  She didn’t even lift her head, just pointed to a pile of Clive Cussler books and Spiderman comics.

“They look fine.”

“Open them!”  You picked up a copy of Cussler’s The Sea Wolves and flipped it open.  The pages fell open to a spot and that’s when you noticed it: the top right corner of the right page was folded down.  Someone had dog-eared multiple pages throughout.  You snapped the book shut and immediately went to another.  Book after book was full of dog-eared pages.  You picked up What If…Miles Morales and sure enough, more dog-eared pages.

“What in the-”

“Exactly!”  Cass lifted her head from the desk.  “I haven’t even checked which one of these flyboys returned these.  When I find out, I’m going to make sure their commander grounds them for a day or something because this is sacrilege!”

“Hey, don’t worry, okay?  I’ll take care of it”, you replied.  Cass looked up at you with relief in her eyes.

“Really?  You’d do this for me?”

“Of course!”  You grabbed a book cart sitting nearby and placed all the offending books on it.  “Go get your lunch and I’ll do this.”

Cass popped out of her chair and pulled you into a tight hug.

“Thanks for saving me from the Brig for punching a naval aviator.”

“Relax Cass, they wouldn’t have sent you to the Brig.”  She laughed and smiled before leaving to grab her things for lunch.  

Your rolled the cart back to your office and sat down to scan the first book’s barcode.  You clicked on the record and then on LAST BORROWER.  The disappointed look on your face morphed into one of anger as you glared at the name on your screen:

Lt. Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin

Cass was going to have to bail you out of the Brig.

Jake was in the air, running dog-fighting exercises with Phoenix and Bob against Maverick when he heard voices over the coms...and one sounded very familiar.

“Mickey, give me the thing.”

“Hermanita, what are you doing here?”  You must of had a Look on your face because Jake could hear the fear in Fanboy’s voice.

“Hondo said I could when I asked if I could come by because it was important.  Now, GIVE. ME. THE. THING.”  Jake smiled at your tone, letting out a small laugh…which was the absolute wrong thing to do, since Fanboy had remembered to let go of the button that allowed Jake's voice to come through coms.  He heard a crackling sound and then you.

“JAKE SERESIN.  I WOULDN’T BE LAUGHING IF I WERE YOU.”  

“Um, h-hey sweetheart.”

“Don’t you ‘sweetheart’ me, Seresin.”  Jake could hear the others laughing quietly in the background.  He even heard Mav, Phoenix, and Bob all let out an ‘ooooh’.

“What’s up?” he asked, audibly swallowing.

“I saw the books you returned today.”  Jake wracked his brain, thinking over the books he’d returned.  He couldn’t think of anything that happened to them, but maybe he just didn't notice?

“Did I spill somethin’ on ‘em darlin’?  I’ll pay for it as soon-”

“No.”  He heard you let out a ‘hmph’.  “And don’t try to butter me up with darlin’ either!”

“Dewey, what is goin’ on?”

“Jake, what is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to books?”  He knew it, he really did.  Except, in that very moment, it evaporated out of his brain.

“Um…I know, I swear I do.”

“Mickey!  What is my pet peeve?”  Jake heard Fanboy clear his throat.

“Dog-eared pages.  When it’s someone’s own book, you don’t really care because it’s theirs and they can do what they want.  But if it’s a library book, or one of yours, well…”  That’s when Jake remembered.

“Oh no.”

“Oh no is right…sweetheart.”

“You’re in trouble Bagman!”

“Shut up Mickey.”

“Sorry hermanita.”

“Jake?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“I’ll see you tonight.”

He heard a door slam shut, signaling that you had left the room before the others were teasing Jake with another drawn out ‘oooooooh!’.

Jake felt himself start to break out in a sweat.  He gulped before clearing his throat and called out to Maverick.

“Hey, Mav?”

“Yeah, Hangman?”

“Remind me, how long does the gas last in these new FA-18s?”

A/N 2: Do I know this is a ridiculous way to react to something so simple, like dog eared pages in a book? Yes. Do I care? Not in the least. This was written for fun, so read it with that in mind.

Don't forget to leave a comment and reblog! It would be much appreciated!

A/N 3: And many many many thanks to the one and only @notroosterbradshaw. You know why.

[fetchen]

i’ve been getting a little fixated on xo kitty so for a small fandom, here are my opinions and such :3

- i don’t like minho that much and, frankly, i’m not sure why so many people do. he has his good moments but i don’t find him all that endearing. certainly not the best character in the show.

~~ the only thing i really like about minho is the fact that he’s a somewhat feminine guy that’s never made fun of for being feminine. he does stereotypically feminine things: he cares deeply about skincare, being well-groomed, fashion, and being romantic. unlike many other shows and movies, minho is never made the butt of a joke for being, pretty much, the most feminine guy in the show. not only that, his sexuality as a straight guy is never called into question, which is something that often happens with feminine men. i do like that.

- i actually really like madison! i don’t find her all that annoying. a lot of people cited her as really exemplifying the “koreaboo-ish” nature of the show but i actually don’t mind her at all.

~~ i think a lot of people only hate madison because she’s “cringe.” in reality, she’s a cool character who fulfills her purpose well. plus, if we’re talking about her as if she were a person, she’s actually just really nice. at the end of the first season, she’s essentially kitty’s only friend. she never acts as if she’s forced to be kitty’s friend- in fact, when kitty pleads her case, she cheers and claps for her. madison could’ve easily spent her time with eunice and mihee and whoever else, but she chose to support kitty instead. she’s also very communicative with minho. she makes it clear that she’s more interested in hooking up than being in a romantic relationship and lets him down gently. she never “played” him, she just thought they were on the same page. in short, madison is absolutely goated and people just hate her because she’s kinda cringe sometimes.

- i don’t really care about the use of k-pop in the show. it doesn’t bother me and never has. k-pop is a special interest of mine so i am a k-pop fan, but i never felt very pandered to by the show.

~~ i think the show being set in a korean boarding school is a big part of the marketing. k-pop fans are quite the large demographic and for the show to appeal to us is a viable strategy to make it successful. that being said, i’m very neutral about the fact that k-pop is used really prominently throughout. i think it’s actually kinda nice. i enjoy recognizing songs i like in a show i also like. it’s as simple as that. i think there’s something to be said about the fact that the show’s setting is very appealing to me. i love the concept of students of different backgrounds attending this international school while struggling with love, sexuality, culture, and heritage. something about it is incredibly appealing to me. i absolutely love the show despite its flaws.

those are some of my xo kitty opinions :3 i have more so perchance i’ll start posting about this show more since i really like it

[shoheiakagi]

AUs i’m not sure that i’ll ever write, so i’ll make a post with headcanons part 1: rockstar!abc boys:

hmr is an entertainment company with ceo mikoto, manager kusanagi, soloist totsuka, hip-hop duo yata and kamamoto, and the abc boys forming a rock band (anna is a trainee who isn’t set to debut yet). the agency is originally small and at the verge of bankruptcy. their artists and trainees would have to share cramped dorms, stuffy studio rooms, and aggressively promote their music via social media and sometimes even handing out flyers advertising their concert in the busy streets of shizume

i am being biased but i can see shouhei as the lead singer. he just has a very charismatic and outgoing personality that fits as the frontman of the band. although eric is definitely not the type to sing, i like to think he offers some vocals only because his japanese va has a nice voice lmaoo. chitose can also fill the role of the sub vocalist, but i like the idea of him being the playboy main guitarist. fuji is the drummer, bandou and dewa are the bass players, while eric also plays the guitar

the abc boys originally start out as an underground rock group with a small, but loyal fanbase. slowly but surely, they see a growth in their popularity with them doing numbers on their newer music, tickets selling out in big arenas, being invited to multiple award shows, and even winning some big awards.

thats not to say the boys end up becoming this squeaky clean, bubblegum pop boyband. a good chunk of their popularity comes from their rebellious, bad boy image. vulgar lyrics and music videos, multiple controversies such as rowdy parties that end up destroying whatever hotel room theyre renting, chitose (accidentally) scorning indie singer maria, diss tracks about other artists, getting into fights and other scandals, etc.

the boys are two years in their career when one of their rival companies debut a pop girl group. and unlike the boys, this girl group’s debut is highly anticipated since they’re from an established and rich company with other popular artists as their predecessors. so its no surprise that the group’s first mv and pre-release track debuts with high numbers

the girl group is composed of four members. each member is inspired from celebrities/characters from different media based on physical character traits or personality traits:

miyako: the eldest and the lead vocalist who is known for her ice princess like visuals. off camera, she is the easy-going mom friend of the group who comes from a wealthy family with a background in business. inspo: jisoo from kpop group blackpink, donna troy/wondergirl from dc comics, and kuchiki rukia from bleach

izumi: main rapper and self-proclaimed leader of the group. blunt and aloof, izumi is hard to impress and has a fondness for punk fashion and music. inspo: dinah lance/black canary and artemis crock from dc comics/shows, nana osaki from nana, with a little dash of jennie from blackpink (jennie’s onscreen personality during music videos)

kaoru: main dancer and lead rapper. a tomboyish girl who loves to have fun, but has a bad temper and can be kind of a bully. inspo: buttercup from powerpuff girls, lisa from blackpink, artemis crock and raven from dc

sakuno: the center and the main vocalist of the group. as the youngest and most soft-spoken of the group, she learned how to use her girlish charms and looks to get what she wants. inspo: nana komatsu and a bit of reira from nana, bubbles and blossom from ppg, jennie and rosé from blackpink.

despite the genres of both groups being completely different from the other and the girls being a newer group, it doesn’t stop the media and their fans from constantly comparing them, with the boys being one of the biggest groups around and the girls rapidly gaining popularity.

at first, the boys don’t pay that much attention to the girls. they’re hot girls doing pop music, of course a lot of virgins are gonna eat that shit up. but the more comparisons they see by fans and the media, the more articles they see about the girls possibly surpassing them and being better than them, the more it gets to them. like wtf? why the fuck are they always getting compared to this group of privileged girls who gets everything handed to them on a plate?? unlike those snobby little princesses, they actually worked hard and earned their success. they actually write and produce their own fucking music, instead of sitting in the studio room and looking pretty, while someone else writes their lyrics for them

the girls weren’t too sure on how to feel about the guys at first. while they admired the fact that the boys were able to pave a path for themselves to stardom despite being from a broke company, they’re a bit wary about them. the boys have been involved in a lot of feuds, which got them on the bad side of the general public here and there. and sure, they don’t always start shit, but they always play dirty in response. some of the members don’t even have the best reputation with women, which doesn’t help their case

It also doesnt help that even though their fans are always beefing, theres still a large portion of them that ships members of both groups with each other. This helps to be a great marketing strategy by the girls’ company, making sure to have the boys name dropped frequently in articles or bios about the girls, comparing their success and labeling them as each other’s counterpart, which boosts their engagement.

but despite all the constant comparisons, both groups avoid the hell out of each other whenever theyre in the same public setting (i.e. music award shows). the guys think the girls are talentless posers who trying to ride on their dicks for fame, while the girls just want to avoid accidentally creating any dating rumors cause god forbid they accidentally glance at one of the boys or sit near them

it doesn’t take that long for the girls to sense some sort of animosity from some of the more vocal guys like bandou and even chitose to some extent, so the resentment soon turns mutual and the girls start to think that the guys are a bunch of lowlives

me being me tho, the tension between both groups soon turns into sexual tension between some of their members lmaooo

i envision the four girls to get with shouhei, chitose, dewa, and bandou, but if anyone is actually reading this and thinks differently, please let me know!

dewa/miyako: on the surface, they seem to be the most similar, with both of them having the more serious/strict image of their group. dewa thinks otherwise since miyako is way more outgoing and lenient with her members. he initially looks down at her for being part of an ‘artificial’ pop group, and thinks of her as an airhead, but is surprised to know that she does have a few things in common with him, such as their rich and smothering families. both are also 100% done with their friends’ antics.

chitose/izumi: far from the shy type, izumi is no stranger to promiscuity, having her share of partners in the bedroom. but between the scandals with her friend maria and many other female celebrities, and the way his group looks down at her group, izumi wouldn’t really feel bad if she wakes up one day to headlines about chitose catching std and his group being forced to disband. but after multiple attempts of flirting from chitose’s end, both form a superficial friendship and party together, which slowly turns into late night private conversations with cigarettes in their hand and a bottle to share.

bandou/kaoru: a hate to love dynamic, these two clash the most out of them all and are the last couple to hold hands, let alone get together. from their first meeting (which is coincidentally when they both caught shouhei and sakuno together), kaoru tells bandou how much of a loser he is and that he should pursue another career since his music is not it. bandou calls kaoru a dyke and that theres a reason why she’s the least popular of her group. both are quick to press each other’s buttons, unknowingly hitting some sore spots.

shouhei/sakuno: the romeo and juliet of the groups, they’re the first couple to get together tbh. although they both knew of each other and would attend the same music award shows, they formally meet each other through a mutual friend. although there was a mutual attraction, sakuno tries to bottle her feelings and keep her distance while shouhei tries to pursue her. they initially start off as friends with benefits since both have busy schedules, but the feelings are too strong and next thing you know, late night hookups at the other’s apartment slowly turns into secret late night dates at reserved beaches and restaurants. their interactions start the domino effect of the other members’ interactions.

other couples include fujieric who are in a slowburn ‘will they’ situationship, and mikototsu who are in a secret relationship

[lalalian]

Y’know those little icons u have on ur notion like

The one with kuromi (I think that’s who it is lol)

how do u get them? 😭

hihi (again)!

These icons are actually pretty simple to make! Just search for an icon on Pinterest, use these types of search terms:

“[insert color name here] icon”

“[insert color name here] png”

Find an icon you like! I’ll be using this white teddy bear bag for today’s example:

Once you find an icon, try to crop the photo closer to the subject. If your image is already big enough, then you can skip this step! Not doing this with an image like the one I’m using here can result in the icon looking too small on notion!

It’s important to make sure that the photo is completely square! Otherwise, parts of the icon will be cropped from notion.

Once that’s done, go to this website.

Click the big blue “upload image” button, then press photo library (for Apple users, definitely press ‘photo library’ for my android/other phone girlies, click the one that directs you to all your photos)

Upload the photo of the icon, and then press the blue ‘download’ button. Don’t press download HD unless you’re willing to watch an ad for it— it’s honestly not really worth it at all.

For Apple users, this will pop up:

Just press ‘save image’ to save it to your photos app. If you don’t own an Apple phone, choose the option that saves the icon to your photos app 😭

Then tada, you’re done!

Here’s the finished icon (without the white background)!

For reference, let’s look at the cropped version and the non cropped version.

1st= non-cropped

2nd= cropped

The icon looks smaller than the one on the right, plus to me it looks super weird on the menu screen… like look at how small the icon is:

😭😭😭 anyways if you do prefer the icon to be small, that’s fine too!

Another way to find icons is to just search up PNGs on tumblr, I believe that’s how most script makers find icons(?) it’s easier too! You don’t have to go through this whole process if you just find them on here.

Sometimes I use xiaohongshu for photos and icons, so many icons on xiaohongshu are super cute and unique 😭💕

[just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi]

Hey! Asking various artists and writers, do you have a Playlist or specific songs you gravitate toward to help you get in the right headspace while creating whump?

Anon I'm so sorry but I wrote you a 1500 word essay on one specific album. I literally have no explanation for myself. Take Pity On Me.

TLDR: Listen to "The Draw" please it's my favorite for any type of turmoil, and just "Overjoyed" in general. Also this album is good for semi-dramatic dialog and ~vibes~.

Why ‘All This Bad Blood’ by Bastille 2013 is the best album to write to: 

Oh my god it’s 10 years old. 

This has been my go-to album for writing since I got a laptop and started writing. I’m 100% serious. Part of it is most probably because it’s nostalgic for me, but I’ve completed a full essay on why this is the best album (for my style) to write to. 

Part 1: Just a couple reasons 

The Accent. 

This is 100% also just My Brain because when my formative creative years were incredibly BBC/British heavy. We’re talking Chronicles of Narnia on audio books, Dr. Who, Sherlock, Merlin, Robin Hood, Adventures of Sara Jane. I’m honestly probably missing some but you get it. To the point where there was a period when I was around 15 or so I’d use british words/cadence with an American accent. (I still do it sometimes it’s weird). 

Honestly part of my writing process to this day is to speak dialog out loud, and more often or not it’s in a british accent. 

The Aesthetic

It’s pretty piano heavy, along with a main singer and some background singing that’s very easy to get lost in. There’s this nice kinda ethereal filter for many of the songs, so it just kinda slides into your brain and into the background. It’s listed in the alternative section but it’s very pop so it’s very common denominator. 

“Songs Write My Story” 

I literally put this album on shuffle once and made a plot based off of the vibes of each song. To my recollection there were some pretty decent parts. I’ll see if I can find it. 

Part 2: The songs.  

My absolute favorite reason to write to this album is the fact that so many of the songs have these wonderful, dramatic dialogue lines. When the music rises to the surface long enough to catch the words, they’re often good for like, semi-dramatic plot points/dialog lines. 

As requested by literally no one, in fact I believe they’re all begging me to literally write anything else, I will now go through each song and pull out some lines that I find specifically “semi-dramatic” that I would either want to or have used as inspiration for my writing, as well as rate them and give them vibes.

Pompeii -  6/10 Writingness. Good but Tik Tok kinda ruined it. However the concept of Pompeii itself is Very Vibes and helps save it.  Oh where do we begin, the rubble or our sins? 

Things We Lost to the Fire - 8/10 Writingness. Great Vibes. Very “our world collapsed and we’ve been living in the rubble and are numb to it.”  We were born with nothing and we sure as hell have nothing now. 

Bad Blood - 5/10. A bit too specific to be multifunctional. Great ‘Sarcastic Reunion with Adversarial Side Character.”  And you said you always had my back Oh, but how were we to know? That these are the days that bind you Together, forever And these little things define you Forever, forever

Overjoyed - 10/10. Perfect semi-dramatic vibes. Is your character, sarcastic, genuine, dazed, prophetic? Resentful? Longing? This song works for all of them. Just the word “overjoyed” is not used enough.  Oh I feel overjoyed. 

These Streets - 7/10 another nuanced one, but not quite as wide a range as Overjoyed.  I won’t show my face here anymore. 

Weight of Living Pt. II - 3/10. Too good of a bop. I wanna jam I’m not writing. Do you like the person you’ve become? 

Icarus - 8/10. Like a combination of Pompeii and Overjoyed. The concept of Icarus is such a rich creative one that it makes up for how much of a BOP it is (the “bop” index is a negative in this evaluation because it distracts me). This one is perfect for the “mentor trying to warn someone else of MC’s downfall.  Icarus is flying towards an early grave.  (also these are words but the vocal sections are just really inspiring on this one for me) 

Oblivion - 5/10. Good, I was waiting for you to be great. It can be in the background but it’s not going to inspire anything.  Are you going to age with grace? 

Flaws - 7/10. I kinda can’t listen to this one without mouthing along to it like I’m in a self-righteous argument, which is great for my writing style. The more I can inhibit a character the better and more I can write for them. So it’s a little narrow of inspiration but it always gets me there.  There’s a hole in my sole, I can’t fill it. Can you fill it? 

You have always worn your flaws on your sleeve, and I have always buried them deep beneath the ground. Dig them out, let’s finish what we started. 

Daniel in the Den - 9/10. Again, Daniel in the lion den is a great creative concept, gets me into the character, has emotion, it builds but i don’t find it fully distracting. Again not as broad as Overjoyed but I use this one often.  Felled in the night by the ones you think you love. 

Laura Palmer - 9/10. Another great general go to. Conviction. Motivation, direction. Feels multi-functional to me because of the variety from the verses to chorus to bridge.  What a year and what a night, what terrifying final sights. 

Get Home - 6/10. Honestly see “Oblivion”. Only got a little higher rating because the repeated “how am i going to get myself back home” is really good for inspiration. Still on the list, still great but nothing to write something home about (lol).  How am I going to get myself back home? 

Poet - 3/10. This is probably one my favorite “adoration” songs but I just don’t find it particularly inspirational - although that’s probably because I don’t tend to write love stories or the such.  I have written you down, you will live forever. 

The Silence - 4/10. Like Poet, a little too directly “adoration”, but I do appreciate it reminds me to use the term “my dear”.  My Dear, it is not enough to be dumbstruck. 

Haunt - 8/10 Yeah we’re back babey. I need the reminder to make my characters more ominous. All of your characters should haunt the reader (good or bad lol). It’s not like I’m above you. 

Weight of Living, Pt I - 8/10. There’s something solemnly hopeful about this to me. Are they regretful as they counsel the MC? Do they believe they can find happiness or are they resigned to their fate? You get to decide if this song is encouraging them or is someone giving up. I’m also a sucker for songs that set up a premise and evolve it through the song. It good.  Your albatross, let it go. 

Sleepsong - 7/10. Feels dangerous. A little evil, perhaps? What are their intentions? Are they trying to help? If so, why?  It scares you, being alone. 

Durban Skies - 5/10. See Oblivion. Probably a little better vibe, but not wildly inspiring like some of the others.  (honestly there’s isn’t a lyric that stands out to me in this one but I still like writing to it.) 

Laughter Lines - 3/10. I am. Seeing a pattern. Songs that have a strong “love” element to them get lower ratings from me lol. (Again, not a lyric but the section talking about carving on trees inspired me to write a character who was illiterate but kept her “diary” by carving her emotions into a tree trunk. Her world didn’t have a lot of light, so she would often run her fingers across the carvings to relive memories.) 

Previously on Other People’ Heartbreak - NA, it’s kinda a non song it’s just an intro to part II. 

Of the Night - 3/10, See Weight of Living Pt II. Too fun, too boppy. I am bouncing I am not writing. 

The Draw - 10/10. This one. This is one of the ones that I turn on if I’m having trouble writing anything. It just oozes conflict, specifically inner termoil which i just fucking eat up. I love it. This is my best writing song. So so so good. 

(Oh my god just the entire song please just listen to it. Just this one). 

What would you do - NA. I actually kinda skip this one for just Reasons. Again it’s a good song and I would write to it but I just don’t. This song has a TW for sexual assault and just. It’s kinda a lot to chew on. 

Skulls - 8/10. This one escapes the “too good to write to” because oh god. The attitude of this song. It’s possessive. It’s threatening. It wants something… but, what? (However it is absolutely a bop which is why it’s not a 9 or 10) (Again it’s just the whole song)

Tuning out - 6/10. It’s a haunting rendition of Silent Night? So Lyrically it’s not too impressive but the vibes are good for writing. 

Is this what you asked for? No not even a little bit. I did enjoy doing it tho that’s all that matters ...eheh....

[writingforevren]

WIP Song Tag II

Thanks for the tag @mjjune! sorry for the late response I mentally said “I’ll do it later” and then adhd said “haha no you won’t” but It’s always fun seeing my own tag games getting around :)

The one I did for my WIP Roadnoise

Rules: Pick 5 songs that you feel represent your WIP and describe how they do so (or don’t and just leave it at the song) and then tag as many people as you’d like

Tagging: (forgive me If I’ve already tagged you recently my brain is chaos)  @mr-writes @elijahrichardwrites @heymacareyna @cryptid-s-wips @velvethopewrites

Doing this for my WIP Rainclouds (intro here) there’s so many songs I’ve found that fit it’s difficult to narrow it down to five but here we are (honestly I just shuffled my playlist and picked a couple that worked.)

You’ll see that the more pop/folk songs tend to relate more to Sylvia while the more rock/alt songs fit River more. (don’t worry I’ll post their character intros sometime soon, if you’re interested lemme know)

All Of This Will End - Snarls

Forget me, leave me be Forget I ever said anything I won't mind if it’s time To drop everything we had and leave it all behind

I am lost and here we are again Someone say when all of this will end

Fits the whole vibe of the WIP following the journey through identity and mental health. Specifically River who feels like she’s lost and trapped in her life wanting nothing more then to escape and be able to start fresh and have everyone forget her.

Youth - Daughter 

And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones 'Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs Setting fire to our insides for fun Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong The lovers that went wrong

We are the reckless, we are the wild youth Chasing visions of our futures One day we'll reveal the truth That one will die before he gets there

Once again targeting River with this one, she’s given up on feeling and decided she no longer gives a fuck about the world. She just wants to be young and not have to  deal with the troubles she’s been put through. She blames everyone but herself yet she refuses to accept help. Yet she’s bitter towards those who are happy and those who do feel free to be themselves.

October Birds - Flower Face

Where'd the October birds go? I used to watch them from the window When I had eyes to see When I was more like me Where did your rosy face go? When did your cheeks get so hollow? Just a reflection of me Did I hurt you so badly?

I actually shared an excerpt that I based on this song here, this song makes me think of Sylvia and Ivy. Ivy starts to seem like a shell of herself and Sylvia blames herself calling herself selfish and putting herself down for someone else’s struggles. She feels as if it’s all her fault for leaving her.

Cursive - Billie Marten

I'd walk the corners Of my empty mind But I'm full of darkness With the loneliest of light And I will never be I will never be myself I will never be I will never be too well

Thinking of Sylvia with this one, one of her main antagonists in this story is her inner darkness, an internal reflection of herself which fills her with loneliness and self-doubt but while it takes some work there is another part of her that promises that “she’ll be fine”

We Could Live Near A Beach - Flatsound

Finishing it off with an instrumental song, I feel like the soft piano with the waves in the background really fits the bittersweet and calming vibes of the WIP. It almost feels like a dream and there are quite a few dream scenes within this story.

{ Rainclouds Taglist}

@zoya-writes | @letsgetsquiggly | @words-after-midnight  ask to be +/-

{ General Writing Taglist }

@weirdfishy | @wannabeauthorzofija | @annlillyjose | @radiomacbeth | @opes-magnas | ask to be +/- 

[twomanyfandomshelp]

This comic is sadly very relatable to me, especially as someone who loves reading and loves watching movies and loves being part of fandoms and loves listening to music.

But all of those are full of allonormativity and amatonormativty.

I mainly read fantasy because I want to get away from my daily life and escape to a magical world and ignore my problems for a bit. And yet, in nearly every book I try to read, there is always a romance subplot at the very least, if the whole plot isn’t based on romance in some way. And a lot of books also have spice. I’ve noticed that, trying to get involved in things like Booktok, it seems the books I try to buy and read always have some level of spice. It’s like a book just won’t be considered good without sex.

My mom and my sister love to watch romcoms together, and it makes me sad, because I know I’m missing out on quality time with them, but I just can’t force myself to sit through a bunch of cheesy love stories that make me incredibly uncomfortable. We love watching movies as a family, and we watch a lot of action movies specifically. But in pretty much any movie we try to watch, oh look, there’s a romantic plot of some sort. And not being out to my family makes it so much harder, because I don’t know how to explain that to them without outing myself.

And don’t even get me started on fandoms. Shipping culture? The exclusion? It’s a nightmare. And I love being in fandoms. My blog is literally all about how I’m in way too many fandoms. But it’s just so hard. If I headcannon a character as aspec in literally any way, I know that I probably won’t find content for that headcannon and I’ll be the only one who sees the character in that way and if I post content about it I’ll probably get backlash. Because shipping culture can be so incredibly toxic and frustrating. Especially when they try to ship canonically aspec characters. Occasionally, I do enjoy reading about certain relationships.

But sometimes it all just feels too isolating and I have to step away and go look through the asexual, aromantic, and aroace tags to try and make myself feel better. But sometimes I can’t even do that because of the stupid bots! WHY ARE OUR TAGS THE ONES BEING BOMBARDED WITH FUCKING PORN AND ADVERTISING BOTS?!?!

And music is the worst. I love love love listening to music, I always have some kind of music playing in the background because I hate silence. But it’s so hard to find songs that I like that aren’t about love or sex. I mainly listen to pop music, and most of the pop genre is love songs. And, yeah, those can be fun, but there are so many other beautiful things to sing about. This is honestly part of what helped me realize I was aroace because I would listen to love songs and just be like… “people actually feel like this?!”

Our society is just so focused on romance and sex and it’s so isolating and exhausting and frustrating and repressive.

"Allonormativity and Amatonormativity"

[skylarmoon71]

Bumblebee (Transformers) - Oneshot

You’ve always had this bad habit of sticking your nose where it didn’t belong. Maybe it was the reporter in you. You needed to get to the bottom of every mystery. Most times that wasn’t so bad. The first was the school weirdo Sam Witwicky.

Overnight it seemed like he became somewhat desired, at least to Mikeala. He’d somehow managed to snag the hottest girl in school. A part of you thought he paid her, but sometimes you would catch the look she sent him. It was different, almost warm. Then there was his cousin who popped up like a ghost and no one asked questions. You even did a background check, but you couldn't find anything on social media.

It was like he didn’t exist.

Bee Witwicky.

What kind of name is Bee, did his parents really want him to get bullied on a daily basis?

Your adventure begins.

“Witwicky! I’m really glad I caught you.”

It wasn’t a coincidence. You memorized his schedule. A good reporter always covers their bases.

Bee stumbled slightly at the sound of your call. He’d been attending the school for roughly three weeks.

“O-Oh, hello again."

You could tell that you made him a bit nervous, which just made you that more intrigued. You knew there was a good story here. Your instincts had never been wrong. You’ve printed a number of articles for the school paper, most of which received a bit of recognition. This was your calling. That’s why you couldn’t let this one go to waste.

“Care to answer a few questions? You're still a mystery to the school. I’d love to do a piece on you. Help the students to get to know you better. Like I did with Sean Jeffery.”

“Oh yes, I read about him. He helped the team qualify for the state championship on July 22nd, Dallas Texas.”

“Exactly! I love showing off talented students, you could be one of them.”

It was a little weird the way he recited it like he was a computer.

“That’s nice, but there really isn't anything interesting about me. I’m just a plain old human.” You raise a brow.

“I-I just do regular human things you know!” He was laughing as he backed away.

“A-Anyway I really should get going.”

“Wait I haven’t even-”

“Bee!”

Sam’s voice called from down the hall. When you saw him you frowned. He wore a similar look as he approached.

“Still trying to put my cousin on display so people could mess with him.”

“That’s not what I do, Witwicky. I’m just trying to write a story. Are you worried he might get more popular than you?” You taunt. You can see he’s pretty agitated.

“Hey Sam!” Mikeala’s happy voice sings from down the hallway. When she walks up she looks curious.

“Oh hey, you’re (Y/N). Bee never stops-”

“Telling them about how much you love stories!!” Bee interrupts.

He’s acting weird again.

“I’ll see you later Bee.”

You pull your books closer, walking off to your next class. If only you could get ten minutes without Sam in the way, maybe you could score a great story. As your body fades into the crowd of students, Sam turns to Bee.

“You have to be careful, if people start asking too many questions it’s going to be bad for you.” Sam looks worried.

“She won’t find out anything, trust me. We took precautions. Besides, wouldn’t an article help to prove that I’m normal. “

“He’s right Sam. (Y/N)’s not going to stop. It’s been weeks. I think she likes the chase.” Sam groans.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

~

After school, you’d packed your stuff and set off for your new mission.

It’s become apparent that Sam was going to continue being a thorn in your side, only proving the fact that something was amiss. Like any regular person, you thought stalking them would be the way to go, normal right?

Except this time, you cursed your curious nature, because in this scenario, it would indeed be the thing to kill the cat.

“AAAAH SHIT!!!”

You were pedaling as fast as your feet could take you, but the yellow camaro was still following you down the street. A part of you was praying that it had all been a crazy nightmare. You’d trace Bee back to some weird abandoned building. You found a comfortable spot too. Even Sam and Mickeala were there. At first you assumed they were just delinquents messing with some stuff, but one second they were talking as usual, then the next a blue and red peterbilt pulled up.

Right before your eyes the truck changed, and shortly after, so did Bee. One minute he was human, then the next his skin was replaced by machinery that looked like it was from another universe. He stood upright, blue glowing eyes and all.

Like most teens in such a situation, you screamed. Alerting all of them of your location. You’d almost dropped your phone. But the second you willed your body to move, you jumped on your bike and sped out of there. It’s only when you got back on a main road you saw a car following you. It didn’t take a genius, its patterns were the exact same as Bee’s.

You’d turned down an alleyway to gain some ground and maybe lose them behind the many buildings. For a while you thought it worked, but a large hand came down right in front of you and you were pulled right off the bike. Now you were in a much more secluded place. It placed you on your feet, and as you opened your mouth to scream, Sam rushed over grabbing you and placing a hand on your mouth. You bit him, and he yelled out as you tried to take off in a run.

“I’d advise against running again, human.”

The stern voice of the blue and red robot makes your blood run cold. You fell back, staring up at both aliens.

“Y-You’re gonna kill me. You’re gonna scramble my brains and dump me in some ditch!!”

“Quiet down.”

It sounded a bit angry now, and your mouth slid shut as you trembled.

“We're..not…gonna hurt you…sport..” The radio of the camaro’s car slipped between stations, and you just stared. Bee’s blue eyes blinked, and you finally pushed your way upright, backing away.

“W-What are you….”

Sam looked annoyed as he nursed his hurt hand.

“If you hadn’t gone on a rampage, maybe we wouldn’t have had to get so rough.” He glowered.

“Aliens!!”

Bee pointed to the sky, and the word that came out this time from his station was something you’d heard in a movie.

“Aliens…”

“Yes, aliens!! Are you happy!! You spent the last few weeks poking your nose into our business, now you know. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee here are freaking aliens from another planet that came here to stop other evil aliens that tried to wipe out the human race. We’ve been protecting them as thanks for not letting us go poof into dust!!!”

Sam was huffing angrily from his long speech.

“Calm down Sam.” Optimus said.

“I’m going to take a walk.” He grumbled, sending you a spiteful look as he walked off. Mikaela followed, not before sending you an awkward smile.

“I’m sorry about that, just give us a few minutes.” She walked with him, patting his back. Now it was just you and the two huge aliens. You swallowed.

“I assure you that we mean you no harm. Our only job is to protect the human race from Megatron’s followers. We are allies. That is why it is imperative that our existence in this world stays between very few. We’ve already been exposed once. We cannot run that risk again.”

You clenched the phone in your back pocket.

“P-People deserve to know the truth!! What happened in Mission city, it was all real!! The government covered it all up, lied and said it was some futile attempt by another country. T-This whole time it’s all been a lie!!”

“Sometimes the truth poses more harm than good.” Optimus stated.

You couldn’t believe this.

“Why should I even believe you, this could all be a trick. What if I release what I have right now to the entire internet, would you kill me?” You were treading on dangerous waters, you know that.

“Believe what you will, I cannot stop you from making a decision. Nor will I hurt you.” He sounds almost sincere. Bumblebee takes a step, and the ground gives a little rumble. He kneels to your height, and you hold your breath.

“We’d never hurt you (Y/N).”

Those blue eyes look so innocent, and his voice is the same. The same Bee you’d been dogging for the last three weeks.

“Please (Y/N).” Your hands shake, and reach into your back pocket, gritting your teeth.

“Damn it!!”

You dropped the phone on the floor, smashing it under your feet. Optimus’s optics blinked in surprise.

“Are you happy now?”

Bumblebee knew it took a lot not to follow through with that story. He did a little dance, and you almost fell over. He caught himself, waving his hands in apology. You just released a heavy breath.

So much for your juicy story.

~~~

“Hey (Y/N)!!”

You jump at that voice, and you grab your bag. You’ve been so distracted that you haven’t realized you’re the last one in the classroom. Bee steps inside and he closes the door. Moving backwards, you watch him carefully. He looks like he does a full body scan of you.

“I’m not trying to hurt you, so you can calm down.”

How does he even know you’re panicking? Your face was completely neutral.

“Are you…reading me?”

He looks to the side.

“I’m not exactly human.”

He says it like he’s sad about it. It’s weird, you spent so long trying to read him. Now that you know the truth behind his happy go lucky nature, you aren’t sure what to do with it. More than anything, he should have hated you. All that time chasing him around digging for a story. They could have easily gotten rid of you. Yes it would have raised some red flags, but if the government covered up an entire alien invasion, burying one person would be a piece of cake.

You finally loosen your grip on your bag.

“B-Back at the alley, why didn’t you just take the phone. You guys are super robots.”

It would have been so easy to take what they wanted and threaten you.

“I guess I was kind of hoping you’d keep our secret. I also..” He’s shifting on his feet.

“You also what?”

“I really wanted us to be friends.”

When he looks at you, there’s so much innocence in that gaze. Your first thought is that he’s messing with you, but you don’t read that at all. You aren’t sure what to think at this point.

“Are you pulling my leg?”

Bee’s eyebrows scrunch up in confusion, and he looks down at your legs.

“No I’m not. Y-Your legs look fine to me.”

He looks generally lost, and despite yourself you smile.

“You really are an alien.”

So, it’s possible that you won’t be taken out to keep their secret, that’s good to know.

~

“What about this one?”

You hold out your closed palm, and Bee looks at it.

“It’s an eraser.” You open your hand, and sure enough it’s an ice cream patterned eraser.

“So that’s mad strength, super hearing, crazy hacking skills, and some bionic type vision.” You make a mental note and Bee smiles.

“I thought you were giving up the story.”

“I am, doesn’t mean I can’t still gather data for myself.”

Sam and Mikaela are sitting in his backyard. Now that you know their secret, you were never shy to stop by. Try as he might, Sam couldn’t get rid of you, and Bee liked your company. It’s obvious at this point that he has very little say in what happens. Mikaela laughs at the small frown Sam has.

“Sooner or later you’re going to have to trust her.”

“She bit me.”

“Are you really still mad about that?”

“She never apologized!”

He was a child sometimes.

You and Bee are seated under a tree, and he’s playing with Sam’s dog. You steal a glance at him. If you hadn’t seen it yourself, you wouldn’t have believed it.

“Do you miss it, your home?”

He nods.

“I do, all the time. Everything on this planet is so different.” He looks down, flexing his fingers.

“I used to wonder if it would have been better if we all just perished. Maybe then this world would have been spared of our war. There would be peace.”

Of all the things he could have considered, that’s not one you thought would cross his mind. Everytime you see him, he’s always smiling.

Happy.

“This world was messed up way before you guys came. I don’t think a few alien robots can do much more than what people have already done. “

He smiles, but it doesn’t truly reach his eyes.

“I’m glad you’re here.” He looks over at you, and this time it seems like you’ve finally gotten through to him. Bee just stares, and you jump when a spark bursts from his hand. Mojo jolts, jumping back and running around barking aggressively. Sam starts chasing the poor pup down, and you look back at Bee concerned.

“Are you alright?!”

He nods a bit nervously.

“Y-Yeah I just had a little short. It’s no big deal.”

He’s moving a bit fidgety, and you know something’s up, but you decide against asking. The last time you went poking it landed you in a hairy position. He is an alien after all. You can’t hope to understand everything.

~~~

Whenever you just needed a break from the world, your go to activity was a little walk or jog. This particular afternoon you’re walking through the woods on a path. The quiet was therapeutic.

Or so you thought.

“Move move, shake shake, now drop! What your momma said!!”

The blaring speakers from a car makes you turn. You’re a bit stunned at the car that comes speeding down the trail. Expertly dodging trees and fallen branches. You jolt when it jumps a particular log. As the camaro is airborne, Bumblebee transforms. When he lands, he’s standing upright, hands now on his hips. You’d fallen onto your butt at the harsh landing. He looks down, shoulders raised a bit apologetically.

“Sorry sport.” His radio spits out.

You rise, dusting your pants as you glare at him.

“I asked you to meet me, not crush me.” You lecture. He puts his hands together in what you assume is an apology. You just chuckle, shaking your head.

“What do you need, soldier?”

It’s so funny how he manages to pull dialogues from so many stations.

“I just wanted company.” Bumblebee points to himself.

“Yeah, who else is here dummy.” You giggle at the cute way his optics blink.

“Come on, there’s a really nice spot up ahead that we can chill at.” You reach for his mental hand, grabbing one of his fingers as you pull him along. Bumblebee just follows, his engines revving just a smidge.

Twenty minutes later you pull up to your spot. It’s a little clearing. The trees provide a decent cover, yet he can still see the expense of greenery up ahead. The view was beautiful. You take a seat on a log that looks perfectly shaped into a seat.

“I come here all the time, it’s my secret spot.” You explain. He sits beside you, knees tucked to his chest awkwardly.

“Relax Bee, no one comes here except me.”

It takes him a minute, but he stretches his legs out.

“It’s nice here.”

This time he doesn’t use the radio. You grin.

“Sure is. I’ve been coming to this place for years. It’s my stress relief ball. When things get crazy or I just need a break from life this is where I am. You’re the only one that knows about it now.”

His head turns at that, and you just send him a smile.

“Now you know my secret too.”

He’s not sure how to respond to that.

“She’s so cute.”

So far he's been doing a decent job of keeping his inner feelings to himself, but it’s hard when you keep sending him those smiles. He doesn’t realize until he’s already reaching out. His finger brushes the side of your cheek, and your expression changes to one of surprise. He holds your stare for a few minutes before he processes what he’s just done. Bumblebee practically yanks his hand back.

“I’m sorry!!”

He waves around frantically,

You still appear a bit dazed, and you take his hand, seizing his crazy movements. He stopped altogether.

“It’s okay Bee, I don’t mind.” Your voice sounds so soft. Warm. You shift your position, moving closer to his seated form.

“Bee, is it okay if I..” Your hand is outstretched and he gets the message. He nods, because words have failed him. It’s not done all at once. Your movements are a bit slow, precise. Now standing much closer, both your hands extend, and you cup his metal cheeks in interest. Bumblebee is almost afraid to move. Because he’s terrified that the second he does, then your touch will be gone. His eyes closed, and the sound his engine makes is almost a purr of content. Your smile widens as he leans into your hands.

“Wow…”

It’s crazy, a few weeks ago you thought he was probably some kind of monster. Now you feel almost ashamed for making that assumption. This being was far from a monster.

He’s an angel.

Your curiosity gets the better of you and you accidentally stumble into his lap. To steady yourself, you brace your hands on his plated chest. His hand moves to your waist on instinct. You look up at him sheepishly.

“S-Sorry about that.”

“No problem at all!”

This wasn’t the worst thing to happen. He thinks for sure you’ll pull away now that you’ve gathered yourself, but you lean up, wrapping your arms around his neck as you hug him. Bumblebee grows a bit stiff.

“I’m really glad I met you, Bee.” You breathe against his neck. His optics close, and he does his best not to give off too much of a reaction.

“I’m overheating!”

He is a bit alarmed. Did you really have no idea what this was doing to him? He pats your back stiffly.

“S-So am I.”

You pull back, and when you stare at him, he’s so adorably confused. You grin, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

That’s the last blow.

“Systems buffering.”

You hear from his radio. It looks like he’s stopped functioning.

“B-Bee!!”

He needed some time to get his processes to return.

~~~~

You hand the document to Bumblebee and his eyes lit up as he scanned through the article you’d done on him. When Sam approached you a week ago concerning a piece he wanted you to do on Bee, you sort of thought he’d gone crazy. Then he explained that rather than spilling all of his cybertronian secrets, you present a column on his experiences in life.

“This week’s paper.” you explain.

Bumblebee provided a lot of insight considering what he’s been through. His views and expectations for the future actually made for a good read. It also helps to reinforce his human cover. In a way, you’d gotten your story and Bumblebee’s secret was still safe.

“Wow…that’s me!” He pointed at the picture of himself excitedly and you can’t help but laugh.

“I think this is some of my best work. You’ve actually drawn in an audience. The principal congratulated me this morning. A few of the journalism departments were actually interested in having me for a summer internship.”

“That’s great!”

It really is.

This was the first time you’d held back the punchline for a story and still felt unbelievably fulfilled. Not because of the opportunities that were now being presented, but the unlikely friendship you’ve gained.

“So is this why you were always chasing down a story for Sam and I?” He placed the paper at his side on the porch and you shook your head.

“No, not entirely. “

Bumblebee tilts his head curiously.

“With you it was more instinct than anything else. As for Sam and Mickeala, I guess I was so interested in them because deep down I wanted the same thing they have.” You pull your legs to your chest, and Bumblebee looks over at you.

“It would be nice if I could find someone to look at me like that.” You murmur.

You let out a sigh, shaking your head as you turn back to him with a little laugh.

“Sorry that I’m getting all mushy.” He doesn’t say anything, and you tilt your head.

“I think you’re amazing (Y/N).”

You think maybe he’s just saying that to make you feel better, but his brown eyes are glowing now, a blue hue and you sort of just gape.

“Bee your eyes…”

He blinks, then turns his head.

“Sorry about that! The human body is a lot more complicated than I thought. It’ll pass. I didn’t mean to freak you out.” He’s massaging his eyelids and muttering something under his breath.

“It doesn’t freak me out.” Bumblebee still won’t lift his head.

“Can I see?”

He shakes his head.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

You place your hand under his chin gently, tilting his head back in your direction.

“I’ve literally seen you change from a walking, talking robot to a human. I think I can handle some glowing eyes. “ He finally opens his eyes, and you swallow. It was amazing the way the lights circled his iris. That topped with his innocent nature and boyish charms, there was no way you could truly be afraid of him.

“See, that's not so bad.” You grin, and a small smile makes its way on his face. You move your hand, but neither of you have looked away. Bumblebee is still looking at you, and when he starts to get closer, you take a breath and pull back. You can see the instant regret on his face.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to… I don't know why I..I..” He’s rambling, similar to the way he does when he’s communicating through the radio.

“I-Its fine Bee don’t worry.” You mess with your shirt.

This is terribly awkward.

“Y-You know it’s normal for boys your age to be interested in that stuff.” Why the hell do you sound like a sex ed teacher.

“W-With the new body you just want to test that stuff out and it’s fine. I just think you should do it with someone you actually have feelings for you know.”

“Someone I have feelings for…do you mean like Sam and Mikeala?”

So he does understand.

“Exactly. They care about each other, so it’s normal. So when you find someone like that, you should go for it.”

“I’ve already found someone like that.”

Your guts twists at that.

“Y-You have.”

Why did you sound so disappointed, of course he found someone.

“Well that’s good. You should probably tell them.”

“I have feelings for you (Y/N).”

You pause, hell your entire body froze. Some part of you thinks it’s a joke, but when you look over at Bumblebee, his eyes emit so much hope that it makes your heart hammer.

“Me..?”

You whisper.

He smiles awkwardly.

“I just think you’re so confident and driven and kind. When you found out about me you could have told the world, but you kept my secret. You protected me even though you didn’t have too. Also sometimes you make this face when you’ve just snagged a good story. And when you accidentally eat spicy foods your face scrunches up and it’s so cute!”

He’s actually gushing.

You can hardly believe this.

Bumblebee takes in your speechless expression, clearing his throat.

“A-Anyway that’s all I wanted to say.”

Now he looks bashful, and you want to interject and tell him that he’s the one who’s absolutely adorable in everything he does.

“If there is someone else that you-”

“There’s no one else.” You interrupt.

You weren’t sure it was possible, but the light in his eyes shine brighter, and you smile.

His cheeks are a bit flushed now.

“S-Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

You’re the one who moves a bit closer now. Bumblebee looks your way, and your gaze trails to his lips.

“Before..were you trying to kiss me?”

He nods, partially in a trance.

“Yeah…”

“Do you mind if I kiss you instead?”

“Please do.” He hums. You release a little giggle, hand resting on top of his as you move in. He’s nervous, you can see it all over his face. The closer you get, the faster your heart beats. Bumblebee’s eyes slide shut slowly as you both begin to meet in the middle.

“Bee you ready to go.”

Sam walks out onto the porch, and you both turn.

“Y-Yeah I’m ready.” He stands, and so do you.

“Damn you Witwicky.” You growl. Sam sends you a look, backing up.

“I’ll take that as my que to leave.” Sam says.

Bumblebee sends you a look that adds to the already erratic beats in your chest.

“Guess I’ll see you at school?” He says softly.

You nod.

“Definitely.”

[yuikomorii]

I agree there are darker games than DL but Yui compared to those heroines is nothing if we’re going to look at it from not a subjective point of view.

I’ve played a bunch of otome games too and although I like Diabolik Lovers and your blog, I really can’t view Yui as a good heroine. People compliment her mental strength but little do they know all heroines share that trait, it’s a must in an otome games. The fact that she survived was not because she is “mentally strong” but because of plot armour. I’m pretty sure there were a few times when she wanted to k*ll herself but didn’t because the vampire she chose saved her.

Besides, this is a very popular opinion as far as I’ve seen in this fandom, but she’s respectfully an idiot. I was expecting her to be smarter than in the anime but she’s even more stupid in the game. I’ll give her credit in the manga though, they really did her justice here. There is a thin line between naivety and lacking brain cells, but Yui crossed that line already. She seems someone thoughtful in her monologues but then she opens that mouth and says or does such bullshit that makes me be scream. If the brothers were as villainous as they are said to be, I bet they would have wrecked her long before.

I remember that time when Rejet confirmed none of the Diaboys r*ped her in HDB because they pulled the dub-con card and made Little Miss Church girl like having sex in her monologues instead of hating it because wtf they were literally assaulting her but she was happy!? I don’t get why they’d make her act this way but r*pe is presented in most otome games and there are truly heroines who are disgusted by it, who I find way more relatable than her.

Feel free to delete or ignore this ask if you want, I just wanted to tell you my opinion. It’s probs not important at all but I just felt like taking this off my chest.

// But I've never claimed that Yui is the best heroine or anything like that. She's middle-tier because such a heroine won't appeal to everyone, which is understandable given that DL isn't your typical otome game. I agree that they are all mentally strong, particularly Haruka from Moshikami, who is literally the queen of this.

It’s true that if the Diaboys really existed, they would have slayed her the moment she said or did something wrong because vampires are monsters; they have no mercy for humans, who are merely prey in their eyes. Yet, it's just an otome game, they can't just kill her off because the story can't continue without a heroine.

Alright, let me tell you why Yui is stupid sometimes. Basically everyone is aware of that, Rejet intentionally writes her lacking brain cells from time to time, but let me explain why:

According to Japanese otome game polls, players don’t like when the heroine is better than them. While they do like a heroine with her own design and background, they don’t want her to be smarter, more skilled, cooler or more interesting than them.

I remember these Japanese fans on Twitter discussing about heroines, and one of them said, "Yui-chan is a little foolish, but she's so cute!" and someone else responded, "True, she's so kind too!" As you can see, Japanese players don't mind if Yui is dumber than them; they acknowledge it, but they focus on her positive traits more. Japan has never had a problem with “stupidity” in media, characters who are occasionally dummies but also sympathetic or emotional supports are frequently fan favorites.

Yui, in my opinion, is not that stupid; in fact, none of the DL characters can be called that. I'd rather call her dense and slow-minded because she acts before thinking and doesn't always consider the consequences. Still, because we all come from different countries and have met different types of people, we can’t perceive stupidity identically.

I know Rejet confirmed that they didn’t rap€ her in HDB in one of the cg books, but as you stated, that’s because of dub-con.

Fyi, dub-con(dubious consent) is part of Japanese pop culture and is considered something very attractive there. It basically means a fictional situation in which the consent is not clear, the character can cry and scream but they admit liking it in their thoughts. The situation may not be real-world levels of consenting, but the victim is not perceiving themselves as a victim because they desire the sex act, which is indeed true in Yui’s case.

You can notice that in Kanato’s HDB lake sex scene, Yui says in her monologue that what he’s doing to her is not undesirable. Another scene is in Ayato's HDB route, where Yui clearly states that Ayato's genuine smile and his "You're mine" declaration go straight to her heart, essentially giving her a hint that he likes her back.

Yui's dream was to become a nun, but the moment she has sex, she abruptly changes her mind and genuinely enjoys it, so I can't get her carnal desire. I know some faithful heroines too but yeah, they disliked the thought of losing their virginity, and the love interests were really manipulative there too. If she hadn't been a church girl, I wouldn't have had anything against it, but I must confess that they made her far too horny for someone with a religious background and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Sure, hormones are typical at that age, and it can be amusing seeing her act like that, but literally getting sexually-frustrated because your vampire lover doesn’t screw you or suck your blood anymore is already way over the top. But whatever, she’s just like that in the bad endings. I mean, she still gets horny but at least not that bad. xD

I guess these are some of the reasons why DL shouldn’t be localized; it presents themes Westerns will find unsettling, while the Japanese audience will consider those hot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[writernopal]

How the hell do you maintain your work life balance? 

You don’t because it’s not a balance, it’s a loop. 

This principle only works if you understand that creativity is tank, like the kind in a car. It can be refilled, it can be emptied, and even if you don’t realize it, you probably already know when it reaches either of those states. (ie, “my inspo disappeared as soon as I sat down to write”, “hi hello, no that’s not blood, it’s the battle scars of a quick writing session— why is it dark outside?”)

If you want to be consistently creative, that tank must be replenished regularly. But here’s the thing, unlike a car, the engine attached to this creative tank just starts driving when it’s too full. ON ITS OWN. I promise I’m not pulling your leg on this one because it happens to me all the time. That’s how you get hit with flow state, that’s how you can consistently hit your word count, or look at a creative project with the almost delusional levels of confidence that you can do anything.

And what fills that tank? Art, of course, but that’s just part of it. You also need to make sure that tank is primed to absorb art. Get in there and scoop the gunk out! Most of the time, that’s what’s missing because art is all around us. We just have to know how to perceive it. This could mean taking walks every day, reading a few chapters of a book, finding a cool little spot at work to take your breaks at, taking yourself to the dollar store after work or going window shopping some place. These are little things that you can put bits and pieces of into your day that will help you clean out your creative tank, fill it more easily, and also be able to access it when you’re ready to write. 

Here are some of the things that I do to get the gunk out (you don't have to do these btw, these are mostly to illustrate my point):

Journal first thing in the morning, especially if I’m cranky. It’s mostly stream of consciousness gibberish but it’s the equivalent of screaming into a pillow without scaring my cats and also prevents me from feeling like I’m carrying the bad energy around with me for the rest of the day.

Wake up early. I know, it sounds like propaganda but I swear it's helped a lot. Adding a buffer between the start of the workday and my actual day gives me time do stuff like skin care and actually wake up before I started getting bombarded with stuff. Also it makes it feel like I’m a guy who works and not a worker who guy’s on their free time, you feel?

Instituting recess. I give myself 30mins a day to just fuck around and find out. It’s great. 

Making my food look cute. Listen man, I could just make a sandwich and eat it, but if I cut it on the diagonal. MAMA THE GAME HAS CHANGED.

Pretend I’m a Sim, especially if I’m cranky. If I’m in a Mood chances are I probably haven’t been taking care of my Sim bars. A nap and a snack fixes almost anything tbh.

Putting on movies in the background while I work. I have a desk job so this might not work for some folks but I’ll start a movie on my phone, pop my headphones in and just listen to it. It sounds silly and its a little weird sometimes because there might be no dialogue or whatever, but its fun when I’m working on something and I just start mouthing a whole string of dialogue to myself at my desk. 

RUNNING. My beloved! That’s basically the Nopal reset button. Doesn’t matter what I’ve got going on, I always feel better after running and I’m ALWAYS itching to write something afterward. 

You’ll notice that most of this isn’t anything special. It’s just stuff I do on the daily but what ends up happening is that I’m not letting things settle in my creative tank. It’s the first thing that goes when we’re trying to hold it together because its open space that we can just put things in and since we already have a collectively weird relationship with creativity, most of us don’t notice its getting blocked up or that we should be cleaning it out. 

In short, close the loop between cleaning the creative tank and putting good stuff in there. Once you do, I promise, you’ll be bursting with creative energy without feeling like you have to resort to sledgehammering your life. 

Question for any writers out there who work full time…How the hell do you maintain your work life balance?

I am one more bad day away from throwing in the towel on ToL. I woke up this morning feeling inspired for the first time in weeks, but work has been so busy and after I get home all my motivation is gone. On my days off, my brain is so fried that it takes both days to decompress before going back in.

Leaving this job isn’t realistic for me until I’m done with school next year, so I’m really hoping someone has some advice because I’m so, so, so frustrated with my brainpower being sucked away.

[girlblogger666]

Ok I’m obsessed with dad!eddie and I love your blog and here’s some dad!eddie ideas-

- like 100% he would practice EVERYTHING. Chrissy would wake up with her hair carefully braided and swaddled in a blanket because he wanted to make sure he could do both.

-He would watch My Little Pony with their daughter (and suddenly realize after 10 years where Erica got the name Lady Applejack lol).

-He’d obsessively vet any babysitter who came near his kids and give them the most ridiculous questions in interviews (“If my daughter is being kidnapped by Van Halen, where do you shoot him?” / “Umm… his leg so he can still play music?” / “Absolutely not, that’s a trick question- you don’t shoot him anywhere because you can’t bring a gun around my daughter. And you better not let her be kidnapped either. But thats not relevant anyway since you definitely don’t get the job.”). Ultimately, Chrissy makes him settle for either Hopper and Joyce or Uncle Wayne, or Murray when he’s in town.

-Also Wayne would definitely be their daughter’s favorite grandparent. He’d totally get her anything she wanted and spoil her completely. He’d research all the trends shes into (because he doesn’t know anything about these Backstreet Boys until she mentions it).

-Also Chrissy is definitely the one to teach their daughter to drive because Eddie the speed demon hasn’t driven above the speed limit since their daughter was born and is one of those parents who panic-holds the door handle and is like “BREAK!!” whenever you come within 30 ft of a stop sign.

-On that, their biggest fight was when Chrissy was in labor and he wouldn’t drive a mile over the speed limit because it would be too dangerous for them

-I love the idea of one of their daughter’s friends kinda having a similar background to his- like parents always working or neglectful or living with an extended family member and whatnot. Just never having the support they need. So Eddie and Chrissy become like their second parents and even though the friend’s kind of a trouble maker sometimes, they’ll listen to Eddie if he talks to them and gives advice and they spend all their time at the Munson house.

-also always, but especially in a Chrissy survives Vecna au, they definitely have music as a big part of their house and it almost kills Eddie when their daughter goes through a pop boyband phase in middle school (“but I love her, I love her, I’ll always support her… nomatterwhat😭 no matter if her music taste is completely mainstream… iloveheriloveheriloveher”) and by the time NSYNC or whatever starts growing on him, she switches over to heavy metal

OMFFFG TYYY MY DEAR FOR THIS!!! THESE ARE ALL WONDERFUL….🌸🤍

Okay so now to discuss hehe:

- 100% absolutely Eddie would definitely be super super super like cautionary in everything he does bc he just like wants to be a perfect dad?? Probs bc he didn’t have one growing up but his uncle taught him well enough!! (We stan Wayne anywaysss) but also Eddie is a lil insecure when it comes to his bab bc he doesn’t wanna do anything wrong and Chrissy is just there to be like… “baby, it’s okay nobody is perfect!”

-MLP YESSSSS I literally love that <3 I think Eddie would take inspiration and call his lil girl pinkie pie or something bc that would be her fav pony and then he’d also mentally smile bc he’d think of that one campaign where Erica literally saved the day bc of her very important appearance as Lady Applejack

-babysitters??? Pshhhh nope Eddie, even being the proper adult/father that he is now, would literally loveeee the idea of interviewing some teenager who’s willing to watch his kid just to mess with them! He thinks it’s hilarious to watch their reactions turn from neutral to concerned after he Interrogates them with his outrageous questions….and then there’s Chrissy who’s like “Eddie, they’re just teenagers who need a job, give them a break” and he simply argues with the fact of “so?? We were once annoying teenagers” but rlly Eddie doesn’t trust anyone who’s not an adult to watch over his precious being

-OKAY…..I’m literally an uncle Wayne stan till I die 🥺✋🏻 HE JUST SEEMS SO SWEET AND PURE and knowing that he took Eddie under his wing makes me like melt! So naturally after he found out that he was gonna be a grandpa, he was like rlly happy like hugging Eddie and telling him how proud he was that he turned around his life and how much he loves him with Chrissy blah blah blah so when they finally had their bundle of joy he helped them out as much as he could bc face it….I can imagine Eddie and Chrissy to be those scared first timer parents! So from birth, their little girl was also watched over by Wayne. They’d literally grow to be besties and to the point that when she could start to speak SHE WOULD BE BEGGIN to go to grandpas and honestly they’d be grateful bc they also love their child free nights

-so when their Girl is finally old enough to drive Chrissy wouldnt even bother telling Eddie that she’s gonna start driving bc that man would def want to be the one to teach her and Chrissys explanation to why he won’t be present EVER is obviously the story of her labour 😭 which brings us to….

-Chrissy giving birth yeah? CRAZY absolutely not planned at all so that kinda left them in a state of panic cuz they thought they would have at least 2 more weeks to prepare BUT NO!! So here’s Eddie literally driving in his shitty ass van with a very pregnant chrissy who just wants to push that tiny human out, but Eddie’s behind the wheel freaking out and driving sooooooo slow which leads to Chrissy yelling “Eddie Munson, I swear to whatever God there is up there that I will chop off that dick of yours If you don’t drive any faster!!” And then he just literally bolts it bc he knows how crazy she is especially when she’s pumping out those hormones </3 but they make it all in one piece and the birth goes smoothly and Chrissy starts crying bc she’s so sorry for yelling at him and Eddie thinks it’s adorable

-YESSSS their daughter is super social, thank you Eddie for raising your babe to be just as animated as u are 🙏🏻 so obvs the little gal has tons of friends at school because one, she’s super polite, and two, she’s extremely friendly!! When Eddie and Chrissy hear her constantly begging to bring home a new friend theyre kinda shocked bc they feel as if their home has become a daycare??? Not in a bad way of course, but that fact rlly helps one of their daughters friend because that friend doesn’t come from the best home, so they take them under their wing and treat them as one of their own!! I also imagine Ed and Chris to not like want anymore children bc let’s be real…..accident baby 😔 so it’s nice for their daughter to have someone else her age around her all the time

-MUSIC YESSSSSSS like Eddie would raise her on all his fav stuff but he’s a little heartbroken when she’s into all the generic pop (spice girls 😹😹) but When she’s older she grows to appreciate everything daddy has introduced her to and all the memories attached 💕

THANK U FOR SENDING THESE I HAD A LOT OF FUN DISCUSSING!!!! Everything you said 100% true and for anyone else, reqs and discussions are open ily my babies 💕🌸🌸🌸