#the key to hitting your money goals

[luiscagreen]

Setting Your Money Goals

[friendlyneighborhoodshark]

"How to Life" Masterlist

Cleaning and Tidying

Make your bed in the morning. It takes seconds, and it's worth it.

Reset to zero each morning.

Use the UFYH 20/10 system for clearing your shit.

Have a 'drop-zone' box where you dump anything and everything. At the beginning/end of the day, clear it out and put that shit away.

Automate your chores. Have a cleaning schedule and assign 15mins daily to do whatever cleaning tasks are set for that day. Set a timer and do it once the timer is up, finish the task you're on and leave it for the day.

Fold your clothes straight out of the tumble dryer (if you use one), whilst they're still warm. This minimises creases and eliminates the need for ironing.

Clean your footwear regularly and you'll feel like a champ.

Organisation and Productivity

Learn from Eisenhower's Importance/Urgency matrix.

Try out the two-minute rule and the Pomodoro technique.

Use. A. Planner. (Or Google Calendar, if that's more your thing.)

Try bullet journalling.

Keep a notebook/journal/commonplace book to dump your brain contents in on the regular.

Set morning alarms at two-minute intervals rather than five, and stick your alarm on the other side of the room. It's brutal, but it works.

Set three main goals each day, with one of them being your #1 priority. Don't overload your to-do list or you'll hit overload paralysis and procrastinate.

If you're in a slump, however, don't be afraid to put things like "shower" on your to do list - that may be a big enough goal in itself, and that's okay.

Have a physical inbox - a tray, a folder, whatever. If you get a piece of paper, stick it in there and sort through it at the end of the week.

Consider utilising the GTD System, or a variation of it.

Try timeboxing.

Have a morning routine, and guard that quiet time ferociously.

Have a folder for all your important documents and letters, organised by topic (e.g. medical, bank, university, work, identification). At the front of this folder, have a sheet of paper with all the key information written on it, such as your GP's details, your passport details, driving licence details, bank account number, insurance number(s), and so on.

Schedule working time and down time alike, in the balance that works for you.

Money

Have. A. God. Damn. Budget.

Use a money tracker like toshl, mint, or splitwise. Enter all expenses asap! (You will forget, otherwise.)

Have a 'money date' each week, where you sort through your finances from the past seven days and then add it to a spreadsheet. This will help you identify your spending patterns and whether your budget is actually working or not.

Pack your own frickin' lunch like a grown-up and stop buying so many takeaway coffees. Keep snacks in your bag.

Food and Cooking

Know how to cook the basics: a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and a sauce.

Simple, one-pot meals ("a grain, a green, and a bean") are a godsend.

Batch cook and freeze. Make your own 'microwave meals'.

Buy dried goods to save money - rice and beans are a pittance.

Consider Meatless Mondays; it's healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

Learn which fruits and vegetables are cheapest at your store, and build a standard weekly menu around those. (Also remember that frozen vegetables are cheap and healthy.)

Learn seasoning combinations. Different seasoning, even with the exact same ingredients, can make a dish seem completely new.

Misc

Have a stock email-writing format.

Want to start running, but find it boring? Try Zombies, Run!.

Keep a goddamn first aid kit and learn how to use it.

Update your CV regularly.

Keep a selection of stamps and standard envelopes for unexpected posting needs. (It happens more regularly than you would think!)

[arienai]

While I'm talking about writing I do want to rec two INCREDIBLE writing apps that have helped me immensely as a writer with ADHD

Stimuwrite is a little program that you can customize with all sorts of really rewarding instant tactile feedback, for example sound effects every time you hit a key, emoji notifications and balloons when you hit your custom goal (which can be as low as you want for low energy days), and neat animated backgrounds.

4thewords turns writing into an RPG and you can kill monsters via word count in order to complete quests and progress through what I personally find to be an interesting and fun storyline. It comes with all the RPG trappings like loot, gear, even custom housing (win more stuff for your house by writing).

I cannot stress ENOUGH how amazing both of these have been in terms of my writing productivity as someone with pretty severe executive dysfunction issues. Usually I use Stimuwrite for the instant feedback and then copy and paste those over into 4thewords for the gamification.

Both are small indie projects, Stimuwrite is pay-what-you-can-afford and 4thewords is $4/month but they are very good about helping people who genuinely can't afford it.

and AS THE CHERRY ON TOP, Stimuwrite's programmer is a trans woman, and while I'm not sure about the 4thewords team in specific, the game is FILLED with really great rep, they are literally having a lesbian wedding global event going on right now as I type this. So like. I like giving money to them more than giving money to a lot of other projects lol.

Anyway no neither of these projects have told me to write about them or anything I just want to spread the love. Go check them out!!

Stimuwrite

4thwords

[insolentgod]

reminder extremely tough and maybe a little harsh.

a lot of folks gotta work themselves to death just to have a halfway comfortable life, some don't even have the basics. many will have to do crazy stuff for money and others dream of giving their loved ones a good life but can't. some will only be able to see luxurious lifestyles on phone screens or in other people's TikTok accounts. and others don't even have the money to pay for internet to see that.

lots of people will spend years hating themselves, hating their appearance, personality, social life, social status, skills, everything about themselves. many live with insecurities, feeling like a supporting character in their own story, some have things that bother them but it's "impossible" to change them so they'll just have to live with it. others spend a fortune on surgeries or treatments to change something about themselves, and many die because of it.

many people will have to live trying to recover from traumas and bad things that hit them, without knowing how to simply erase them from their lives, and unfortunately, some prefer to end their own lives so they don't have to live with those burdens.

many people will have to face horrible diseases, some they simply can't get rid of and others that are incurable. suffering, waiting for a miracle to free them from this torture.

some folks may never achieve their personal goals and dreams, out of fear, lack of opportunity, lack of means, or because they think it's impossible for them. so consequently they will have to surrender to a mediocre life that they hate.

many people will have to spend years in shitty relationships without knowing how to get out, others will see the love of their life being happy with someone else, others will think that love only serves to deeply hurt them, and others will accept horrible things from their partners because they think they don't deserve anything better.

a lot of folks unfortunately live out there lonely, without love, without a good social circle, without friends, with an abusive family, with people who don't want the best for them, with people who only hurt them and make them think that's what they deserve.

you might think I'm a jerk for talking about such harsh examples and I'm sorry if I hurt anyone, but damn..

all these examples I mentioned are really sad and they leave us with a heavy heart thinking that a lot of people go through this. I think everyone deserves a dignified and happy life, you deserve a dignified and happy life. you don't deserve to be like those people in the examples I mentioned, and you're not. because you have a key in your hands. it's like life is a damn game and you have all the hacks and cheats to simply WIN and do whatever you want, while other people don't even dream of that or are too skeptical to try.

but you know what's funniest about this? it's that this shit ain't just any game, it's your life. it's literally your damn life and you're there playing with the law? saying "oh I can't" "oh persisting is too hard" "I think I'll never have my desires".

girl, I'll kill you if you keep thinking like that.

there are folks who just don't take the loa seriously, and that's why they never fulfill their desires!!!!!!!!!!!! and they won't have anyone to blame for their failure but themselves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the LOA community is very small, discovering about it was extremely lucky. so tell me a good reason why you know about it and simply can't manifest? exactly. there isn't one! you can and you should.

I'm not here to judge your difficulties in manifesting (even if I judge everything and everyone), because having difficulties and keep trying is one thing and simply giving up and saying "I can't manifest" is another.

it was a blessing from the universe, God, higher power, whatever you believe in. you discovering LOA was the damn greatest blessing of your life, don't you see that? don't you really see how blessed you are? maybe in the past you've been through hell, but now, my love, the sun is shining for you, you just have to want to shine. unfortunately a lot of people will never have that luck, there are people who would kill to be blessed like this. so please, I beg you... use this tool and have the damn happiest life you can, enjoy it and stop playing with the law.

tell me what do you really want? a true and light love? have a look that would never make you feel insecure again? being the pride of mommy and daddy and having their love? having that beautiful house and a happy family? finally healing from depression or other mental disorders and finally being able to live to the fullest? friends who really care about you? want to meet that idol you've been a fan of for a long time and that everyone thinks your passion for him is silly? want to live in that country far away from everyone? want to stop feeling that guilt or any other bad feeling that has been tormenting you for a long time? want to be truly happy for the first time in your life? want to be rich, a millionaire, billionaire, trillionaire? or just have enough money to lead a comfortable life and never have to work again? go ahead, tell me what you want. you can have it.

stop suffering, you don't deserve to suffer. enough torture. take what's yours and move on. you're strong enough for that. the game ain't over for you, you can't just give up like that. the game is yours, it obeys you, and it ends when you decide. take freaking control.

i suffered a lot in life, i hope one day i have the courage to tell you about my success here. and I simply don't know what I would do without finding out about LOA, just thinking about it fills my heart with gratitude. I feel like a winner. you deserve to feel this peace of having won too.

God bless you. take care of yourselves and put your head to work.

i ain't that selfish. if you need some backup, im here for you, babe. I wanna see you win. 🌟

[ncis-yp]

may i request sugar daddy!gibbs? <3

Money, Money, Money (Sugar Daddy! Gibbs x Reader)

Late night, black coffee, handsome man, all alone. Third time this week, 5th week in a row you’ve seen him. You flirted often fishing for bigger tips, trying to pay bills you couldn’t even afford to have. You lived on your own. 18 years old, last 2 months of high school, and barely a plan and money to plan life with.

“See you’re here again!” You say happily topping him off.

“Hey! Rough week” he sighed, eyeing you gently.

“You work at… don’t tell me” you say trying to remember. “NCIS!” You exclaim.

“Good memory” he smiles. “How are you (y/n)?” He asks.

“Ah I’m alright. Just trying to get off work as soon as possible, you know” you shrug. “Later it gets the scarier it is outside.”

“Well, what time do you get off?” Gibbs asks.

“12” you sigh, looking towards the clock. Only 9:45. “Got about 2 hours left”

“Yeah, remember the goal kid.” Gibbs smiled. “Say, what college do you plan on attending? I remember you saying you were a senior and it’s almost the end of the year.”

“Oh, college.” You say quietly. “I can’t afford it, so I won’t be going. Maybe in the future” his phone began ringing. He clicked it silent before turning to you,

“Ah I see… well (y/n) have a good night. I’ve gotta get back to work” he stands.

“See ya around, Jet” you saluted him.

“Jet…” he said thoughtfully. “I like that!!”

Time skip~

The clock hit 12 and your shift was over. You walked out to see a familiar face leaning against a car. You smiled as he approached you.

“Hey Jet! What’re you still doin out?”

“Driving you home” he shakes his keys. “Scary out here” you can see a smirk.

“Coming from a guy who’s packing” you roll your eyes as you approach the car. You were gonna let yourself get a ride with a man who had a gun… a lot safer than walking an hour without a gun. That was how you justified getting into that car.

“Oh shut up” he opened the door and you got in.

When you arrived at your shitty apartment that you could barely afford you saw Gibbs eyes search the perimeter.

“I’ll walk you in… I don’t like the looks of that guy on the corner” he motions with his head.

“It’s really alright. Thank you for the ride!” You say opening your door. Jethro reached across and shut it before you could step out. Silently he got out and walked around the car. Opening it.

“Let’s go” he grinned sweetly. You caved and bring him up. His eyes fell on your small apartment. Clean, organized, your life could fit in a box. He made notes of things to buy you.

“Well since you’re up here” you say as you take off your coat. “Coffee? Tea? Might actually have a bottle of soda in the fridge…” you trail as you thought about it.

“Coffee’s great, yeah” he accepts. The two of you stayed up talking late into the night before he left. Your insecurity of what you could afford present in the back of your mind.

A few days later~

You woke up to a knock on your front door. You opened it to see a delivery guy at your door.

“Delivery for a…” he looked at his clipboard. “(Y/n)(l/n)”

“Yeah, yeah that’s me” you say. “What is this?” The man shrugged.

“A car? If you didn’t order it, not my problem. I can’t take it back.” He said as you signed the paper. He handed you the keys. “Beautiful car by the way” he walked away. You closed the door behind you, walking downstairs. Outside you eagerly clicked the key, looking around for the car, your eyes finally settling on the black dodge challenger sitting in a parking spot a few meters down.

“Oh my god” you say nearly in tears. You ran back upstairs and hurriedly got dressed for work, hoping to see Jethro there. And sure enough when you pulled up in your new car, there was Jethro, leaning on his car again.

“You fucking bastard” you run and hug him, you cry happily into his shoulder. He laughed as you did so.

“Wait wait, I get you a car and you call me Bastard!!!” He exclaimed. “I got something else for you…” he digs his hand into his pocket, another key coming out on his finger.

“Jethro…” you say looking at it as a bright green address tag danced in your eyes.

“Coffee first. Key later” you nodded as you lead him inside.

Time skip~

You ended your shift early to go with Jethro. You blindly tailed him into a nicer apartment complex in a better part of Quatico. Your heart began to flutter as you parked.

You walked into a nice apartment on the 3rd floor. Beautiful black granite kitchen tops, newly installed appliances.

“So…” he says. “What furniture were you thinking you wanted for your new apartment?” He says handing you magazines.

“Holy shit.” You whisper. “This is mine?” He nodded. “This place is mine?” You gasp.

“All paid off. So is the car. And so is your degree.”

“Degree?” You ask. “No you didn’t”

“Yes. I did” he smiled.

“Shut up” you tear up as he passes you a folder. The big words ‘WELCOME TO VIRGINIA TECH’ inscribed. “How did you-“

“Pulled some strings… I think your 1560 SAT score and perfect GPA helped a lot…” he said.

“Oh my god” you cry out jumping into his arms. “I will pay it all back” you say.

“Nope. No need. Just keep being a good girl and I will give you the world” he says.

“Thank you so much!!”

“Of course! You deserve it” he winked. “Now pick out some furniture. It’s your reward for getting into Virginia Tech” you kisses your cheek.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Cover your eyes! Announcing the Gorgon Initiative for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

(promotional art by @theblackwarden, one of our team artists)

Okay so, we had a bunch of stretch goals in the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Kickstarter, and we actually did hit more of them than expected, but there was one of them we didn’t hit, the playable gorgon.

The gorgon being a playable monster type was stuck at the very back of the stretch goal list, mainly because we thought of it way later than all the other stretch goals, but honestly it was one of the possibilities that I was most excited for, and apparently, so were a whole lot of our fans. The gorgon monster type would perfectly round out Eureka’s roster of playable supernatural creatures, and we would really like to make it happen, despite not really having the budget for it since we didn’t hit the stretch goal.

Here are a few of what the gorgon’s key features would have been:

>Anyone who makes direct eye-contact with the gorgon turns to stone.

>A venomous bite, making them gorgon the second playable monster type to be able to inflict a poison effect.

>Cold-blooded. Won’t feel great in low temperature environments, but won’t show up on thermal sensors either.

>Scaly skin.

>Snake hair optional.

>Claws.

>Eating people like a snake.

And all this wrapped up in Eureka’s unique humanity-focused approach to monsters. How will your PC cope with their power to instantly kill anyone who looks at them wrong, whether they want to or not? That’s the kind of character development you can look forward to with a gorgon in the party.

So here is what we are going to do to make it happen despite the budget not accounting for it. It’s going to be a patreon initiative.

(promotional art by @qsycomplainsalot, one of our team artists)

If we can get up to 50 total paid patreon subscribers by the end of June, we will put the gorgon in the game. Currently, we have 33, so if y'all can manage to make that climb to 50 by July 1st, we will promise to make time and budget to add the gorgon in to the rulebook before final release. Ultimately, even 20-ish more patreon subscribers is less money than the stretch goal would have been, but we feel that it would be a good enough addition to the game to justify, especially because it's what the fans want, and because long-term patreon support is very valuable. You get regular Eureka rulebook PDFs as a part of the patreon, and even though there is also a free demo, the more more-updates copies or Eureka floating around, the better. We want people actually playing this game, and playing better and better versions of it. We’d release it all for free if we didn’t need the money to “earn a living.”

Supporting us on patreon isn’t pure charity either. At the $3 tier, you get access to our patreon discord server where our team discusses development of the game and gets feedback from fans, as well in a vote on which projects we tackle next.

At the $5 tier and beyond, you get that, plus regular PDFs of the most current and up-to-date version of our projects. In addition to a version of the Eureka rulebook with many more features than the current free version, there’s stuff you currently can’t get anywhere else, like Eureka adventure modules, short stories, and even a novella, all unreleased anywhere else.

So, sign up to our patreon, it’s only a few dollars a month, and help out with the gorgon initiative. At the time of writing this, we have 33/50 paid subscribers, and I’ll update the goal as we go.

And below the cut, I’ll show you the current changelog for the Eureka rulebook, so you can see what all $5+ patreon subscribers are going to get in the next big patreon update coming Thursday, June 6th. This changelog isn’t even fully conclusive, as work will continue on the rulebook throughout the week to make it even better before Thursday. That's a whole lot for just $5! I will also post the rough notes that exist for the gorgon mechanics as they appear right now.

(A new version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy will be coming to $5+ patreon subscribers on the first Thursday of the month every month until final release, and after that you'll start getting the beta versions of whatever our next project turns out to be.)

CHANGELOG

CHAPTER 1

Have started working on replacing the examples of play with updated ones that actually fit the current and slightly more stable version of the rules. These will be found in various chapters. You can see them in the table of contents.

Added a Foreword, a section on other media to offer you inspiration when playing eureka, and a section on some of the subtler themes of eureka

Copy-edited Foreword

A few minor clarifications in the Making Rolls section

Added a chart explaining the percentage chances of failures, partial successes, and full successes for modifiers from -7 to +7. 

Added Heat optional rule. A whole new set of mechanics for tracking how much police attention the investigators may be drawing, as well as how law enforcement will respond. Currently a work-in-progress, but mostly functional already.

CHAPTER 2

Added the Forgery skill to write-in skills

Many new snoops have been added. 

Removed the “Seating” stat for vehicles, you know how many people can safely fit in a car

Removed the placeholder boat entries from the item list because we did not hit that kickstarter stretch goal

Added Skateboard to item list. 

Added four-wheeler to item list. 

Added Acceleration values to all vehicles in the vehicle list. Acceleration is a new stat used with the new way that Speed is calculated for Chases.

Adjusted the Driving bonus of motorcycles and dirtbikes.

Changed Large Mansion cost to 25 Wealth Points in character creation.

Started copy-editing this chapter.

CHAPTER 3

Added vehicle crashes to irregular forms of damage section

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

Completely revamped the way that Speed is calculated. 

Added a mechanic to determine how many nodes ahead a fleeing character starts.

Added an optional rule for bringing an end to chases 

Added vehicle attack rules for use during car chases

Added more guidelines for how to make your own obstacles

Added recommended numbers of nodes for chases and recommended distance between obstacles 

Added the work-in-progress random obstacle tables

On-Foot Urban Chase Obstacles table is finished but not edited

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

Increased capacity of an unfurled thing from beyond’s ‘stomach’ from three to fourteen.

Thing from beyond can now more easily attempt to engulf more victims after already containing one or more. This now prompts an escape attempt by victims inside rather than automatic escape.

Thing from beyond can now get a bonus to mimicry attempts by consuming a sample of the intended mimicry target’s DNA. 

Thing from beyond can now attempt to mimic a person they have never seen or heard by consuming a sample of their DNA, but narrator makes a hidden roll about it, so accuracy of mimicry will be unknown.

Gave acceleration value to witch’s brooms and other flying transportation

Gave Acceleration of +6 to Superhuman Speed trait

Gave vampire small bat manifestation +2 Acceleration

Gave vampire wolf manifestation +4 Acceleration 

Gave vampire massive bat beast manifestation +4 Acceleration

Gave wolfman wolf form +4 Acceleration

Gave lycanthrope wolf form +4 Acceleration

Added ability to resist curses to fairy and witch

Added ability for fairy to transfer curses to different names as a means of protecting themselves from curses. This gives them more of an incentive to collect names. 

Added a tiny bit about the fairy world

Added Monsters Eating Monsters section to provide rulings for some edge cases where monsters might eat other monsters and what would happen if they did

ROUGH GORGON DESIGN NOTES

[Notes: Turn people to stone by looking them in the eye. Definitely not a power that the Gorgon can turn on and off, they will have to cover their eyes somehow, such as dark sunglasses or a veil, to prevent it happening to everyone they make eye contact with. Also works the other way around so you could protect yourself by wearing dark sunglasses. Still works even if the Gorgon is dead, like in the legends. Does not work through cameras, reflections, images, etc. Turning to stone is permanent, basically instant kill? Works like the witch curse except with infinite duration unless a witch undoes it like a curse. If there is no eye protection, could be a reflex roll on the gorgon’s part or on an aware victim’s part to break eye-contact quickly enough for the curse not to take effect. Also, they could have some kind of bonus to Threaten because all the legends say that they look particularly frightening.

Have claws and maybe scaly skin or scales in patches, maybe snake-like eyes and snake tongue that can taste air? Sharp teeth and maybe venomous snake fangs? People will really really want their gorgons to have snake hair even though in the legends, it was only Medusa herself that had snake hair. Compromise by making it an optional rule agreed upon by narrator and player that they have snake hair. Snakes may have venomous bite attack but the trade off is that it makes it way harder to conceal the gorgon’s identity as a Gorgon.

Gorgons do not regain composure points from turning people to stone, all other monsters regain composure points by *consuming* their victims in some way, except for fairies who regain composure from playing mean pranks because it makes them happy. Keeping with the rule of monsters eating people and also the fact that the legends always describe gorgons as having snake-like trait, maybe they swallow victims whole like a snake? Great horror concept but takes a long time. Could mechanically work very very similar to thing from beyond’s composure restoration where they gain 1 composure point each day for however many days. Could advise loose and bulky clothing to cover this up. Cannot really decide how to codify this because the most obvious way would make it pretty impossible to hide for a very long time. Could probably make multiple optional rules that regain composure at different rates and digest victims at different rates. One option that gets a lot more composure over time from a single victim like the thing from beyond but is very conspicuous that entire time. Other option that digests the whole victim extremely fast so they are only conspicious for a short time but ultimately less composure from a single kill. No option to regain composure from victim without killing them, like thing from beyond. No composure restoration from normal food but can eat it to stay alive, like the thing from beyond?

Do they have proper weaknesses besides just the normal things that everybody is weak to, like sharp objects? Probably should not have the Unkillable trait, but need to come up with at least one weakness that does not stray too far from the legends. Maybe they are cold-blooded, following the snake theme? Makes them very vulnerable to cold temperatures, and jackets and blankets don’t help because they don’t produce their own body heat. Big Physical skill penalties when they are in cold environments?

What is their second mandatory monster trait? They don’t *need* one but every other monster has their powers split across two monster traits.] 

Actually it would be pretty good if they had to make a Monster(fear) Composure check if they saw their face in the mirror

Their blood is either healing or poisonous depending on if it is from the left or right side. left side kills, right side heals. Make it  veinous vs arterial blood.....  But this would have no effect on vampires 

We have GOT to get the gorgon in if we have time, it’s such a good idea

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[izvmimi]

our time - izuku x reader

cw: minors dni, fem!reader, reader implied to be a hero & high school sweetheart, oral sex (fem receiving), penetrative sex, public sex, hot tub sex, shower sex, sex toy use, safe word use, rapid shifts between humor, smut, and hurt/comfort, lots of cheesy jokes tbh, deku is a little bit sassy, bakugou and shinsou have unnamed female partners, baby mention. summary: you and izuku share a yearly tradition. a/n: i'm reposting this hella self-indulgent selfship fic because i can!

“This is a lot of packing for a two day trip,” Izuku teases, as you hand him your overstuffed suitcase, the same dark green typical of his merchandise. He places it next to his noticeably lighter one, which coincidentally is a deep purple and has your Hero name plastered all over it.

“Yeah, but I’m guessing you want to see me in as many outfits as possible in a 48 hour period, right?” you tease back, tapping him gently on the nose. He leans in as he presses the rear door close button to the SUV, then grins. 

In a low voice, he whispers, “that’s quite a bit of clothing for me to tear off. Are you sure?”

Your face warms and you hate that you never win at this game, but try to come up with something quick to say. 

“I’ll be swiping your card indiscriminately to replace anything you ruin this year,” you add, eyes lowering to where your finger is prodding his chest. His eyes seem to twinkle.

“Sounds like I need to make more money then.”

He’s won this round. The warmth spreads to your ears and reflexively you hit his shoulder. His grin widens and you slip from his gaze to run to the passenger side of the car. No more time for banter.

“We’re gonna be late, Izuku!"

Bakugou has given you clear instructions to pick up the keys to your shared vacation home between 6 to 7 pm and will give you absolutely no room for tardiness. You anticipate that he’ll make all manners of disgusted facial expressions when you show up to his place, given that he knows exactly what you’ll be doing for the next 48 hours, and you are still trying to decide whether or not you should play along and double down or admit that you’re a little embarrassed ever since you started this tradition.

Or at least that you’re embarrassed your closest friends are aware of what exactly this tradition entails.

Izuku, on the other hand, never has any shame it seems. If anything, he’s a little overeager for this “retreat” this year, and it’s almost certainly because the past few weeks at work were nothing short of a nightmare for him. Catastrophes that seemed to only prop up as far as humanly possible from you seemed to be the order of the day recently, and you hadn’t had time for dedicated physical intimacy in a while, let alone even see him between missions. The only thing that made it easier to tolerate his absence was that you fell asleep so fast these days due to exhaustion that you barely noticed his side of the bed stayed empty the entire night. 

As he drives, possibly a little too fast and somewhat recklessly (frankly unexpected for a person like him), he holds your hand with varying levels of tightness as though he’s playing with the feel of your hands in his - remembering it, reacquainting himself. He doesn’t say much yet but you can tell by the look in his eye and the twitch in his lips (controlling his urge to talk under his breath), that he’s daydreaming. You have an idea what of.

Pervert.

“What are you thinking of, Izuku?” you inquire after a moment. The goal of the statement is to disarm him which only works half the time.

“Sex,” he replies, bluntly. He doesn’t turn to look at you, focusing on the road carefully, but his fingers tighten again around yours as you pull away indignantly.

“Stop!” you hiss and he laughs loudly. Every time he sneaks a glance at your flustered expression for the next few moments, he breaks out into another bout of laughter and you can’t help but smile too.

“People need to know how ridiculous you are sometimes,” you murmur. “I should expose you, honestly. Let them know who their hero really is.”

“I thought you hated sharing me with everyone,” he says. You meet his sideways glance as he turns, hand over hand, into Bakugou’s driveway. You consider his words for a moment, then sigh. 

“I guess you’re right. I do.”

The car slows to a stop and he parks then faces you in the car for a moment. Sometimes you wonder how he manages to do this - look at you every so often like it’s truly the first time he’s ever seeing you, even if you’ve known each other since you were high-schoolers. He places a hand on your knee as you turn towards him. 

“I’m yours, okay? Not just during our birthday vacation but all the time,” he reminds you. You twist your mouth to the side. There’s something about Izuku that indulges the more immature parts of you, and he handles them all the same.

“Understood?” he insists.

You nod, pretend-reluctantly, and he whispers, “Good girl,” before pressing a kiss to your forehead.

Things have been hard recently, you think, but when he’s close to you like this, everything you go through feels worth it. There’s another kiss that makes it to your lips, and perhaps your arms make their way around his neck and-

“I swear to God if you guys start to fuck on my property, I will tear both of you a new one.” 

With Bakugou’s irritated voice calling out to you, there’s a flash of the driveway lights that nearly blinds you, as though you are teenagers being caught getting too close in the driveway of your parents’ home.

Izuku steps out of the car first and Bakugou throws a set of keys at him before flashing you an annoyed look. You give him a cheeky raise of the eyebrows to acknowledge him similarly, pretending not to notice the fact that he’s not wearing a shirt, and look around him to see one of your favorite people make her way out of the house from behind him. 

She’s wrapped haphazardly in a shawl and you laugh as she hugs you, able to tell she clearly just threw those clothes on ten seconds ago, if the breathiness in her voice and the flush in her cheeks is not enough to make it obvious.

“Please do not poke my eye out with your titties, I’m begging you love.” She grins widely as she squeezes you tighter.

“You don’t need your eyes to suck cock, do you?” she whispers into your ear. You roll your eyes.

“Can you ever be civilized?”

“Good question,” Bakugou asks, but not before slapping his wife’s ass on the way back into his house. “Don’t crash on your way there, Midoriya, I don’t want to pick up your shifts.”

“That’s his way to say ‘drive safely’!” your friend translates as she gives Izuku a quick, slightly more chaste hug, then jogs backwards back into the house where Bakugou is waiting. “Happy birthday! Let me know when you guys get there!”

“We will! Thanks!” you wave.

When you turn, Izuku is already getting back into the car. It doesn’t take long for both of you immediately to burst into laughter.

“Kacchan is such a hypocrite. As if we don’t see the bite marks all over his chest.”

“And __’s neck. Embarrassing.” 

You tease but it’s cute to see them so happy. Of all your friends, you think they’ve been stable the longest, and their relationship simply fell into place. It helps you believe that perhaps things will be good for you long-term as well. 

As if Midoriya can read your wistful thoughts, he picks up your hand and kisses the knuckles idly for a moment as he continues to drive, the highway tapering off into a smaller paved road as night settles in. Both of you are tired from the week, and opt for peaceful silence and music played at a low volume. After all, you will have plenty of uninterrupted time shortly.

---

You’re not sure when you dozed off exactly. 

Izuku nudges you gently to wake you then carries you out of the car with one arm and produces a couple dark tendrils from Blackwhip with the other to pull the luggage behind you. 

“I can walk,” you murmur, although you like the idea of being carried, and hope he insists, which he does, and you nuzzle closer into his chest, taking in the scent of his cologne. 

There’s a small gate outside of the cabin that is truly underestimated by the word; rather, it is a large and lavish three-winged property, U-shaped, and fairly secluded in the forest and trees. A section, the rightmost one, belongs to you and features the name ‘Midoriya’ on a welcome mat in front of the entryway. 

Izuku takes in an exaggerated deep breath as he opens the door, and excitedly exclaims,

“Finally. Peace and quiet.”

You try to stifle a laugh as he sets you down, and stretch out a hand for him to toss you his phone and drop in a special safe hanging from the side of the wall along with your own. There’s a preset timer set for 48 hours (except for emergencies) on its display that you contemplate before confirming.

“It’s silly that we do this!” you call out, feeling the disconnection to the outside world immediately the second the safe beeps to signal that it’s locked. Yet it’s necessary, because both of you are bad at blocking out the outside world and simply relaxing when needed.

Izuku steps out of the master bedroom, completely undressed aside from a pair of boxer briefs which he is also actively in the process of shedding. You take in his body, impressive in its shape and decorated with scars and freckles, and almost miss what he says.

“What’s silly is that you’re fully clothed when it’s hot tub time.”

Your eyes widen and you blink a few times in succession as you watch him strip to nothing, and suddenly you forget that you’re exhausted. Swallowing hard, you make your way towards him, but really past him, towards the room where your packed clothing lies, and he intercepts you on the way there, grinning widely as he towers over you. 

“I need to get my bathing suit,” you pout, knowing very well you’re not getting past him. 

Wrapping his arms around your waist, he lays kisses on your neck that immediately disarm you. You can feel your body sink into him, as you make soft sounds of protest but soon you’re in his arms again and he’s carrying you to the hot tub, lips connected with every step.

…

The night continues and you sink deep onto Izuku’s cock, heat rising around and inside you. Your fingers cling to his broad shoulders as you slide onto him repeatedly, half-lidded eyes gazing down at him. He aids your descent, gliding you onto him as he worships your bosom with his tongue, laving a different wetness along your nipples and the curve of your breast, sucking at the sensitive skin. 

“God, I needed this,” he whimpers as he buries his face into your neck. He cums, holding you tightly, filling you for the first time that night. The splash of water as he moves you so that your back presses against him and he can kiss the nape of your neck is somewhat soothing to your ears, as is the sound of his breathing as he holds you close. 

You need him more - always, really. You revel in the way he plays with your hair and runs his calloused hands along your skin.

You also revel further in the way he dives deep between your legs, after you’ve sat together in the tub and let stress melt away, and after you’ve fucked a second time in the shower, your back pressed against the warm tile, and his hands supporting the weight of your thighs, steady despite the slippery water running over your bodies. He sucks your clit and blows softly against your folds, excited by the tensing of your thighs against his head and the relentless moans.

“‘Zuku, it’s too much…”

It’s never too much, because you can always handle more of him, and he eats you out till you cry and cum all over again, messy on his face, wrists in the palm of his broad hand. He kisses your belly as you practically convulse and come down from your high.

“Wanna rest, baby?” he asks. It’s hard for you to speak as your head spins, so instead you curl up against him. He takes it as a yes.

You fall asleep in his arms, beating hearts pressed close together. There will be more in the AM.

---

The smell of breakfast wakes you before a gentle ache in your thighs. As you shift and reorient yourself from the unfamiliar surroundings, you can hear Izuku make his way in the room with an impossibly loaded tray of breakfast foods he sets precariously on a coffee table across from the California King bed.

“Rise and shine, love.”

Before you can shift, Izuku makes his way on top of you, laughing as you wriggle under him.

“You’re so freaking heavy,” you hiss, but your arms make their way around his bare chest and you inhale his scent. His natural smell is comforting in its familiarity and despite the fact that you’ve been skin to skin nearly all of last night, you crave more closeness. His voice rumbles against your skin as he holds you tightly. 

“Did you sleep well?” he asks.

“Like a baby,” you reply. 

“Perfect. We should have breakfast,’ he insists. “We could go on a short hike and watch some of the birds in this area.”

“Mm, definitely.”

You kiss his forehead and satisfied, he rolls off of you too quickly for you to reach and slap his ass. He gives you a cheeky look and you crinkle your nose at him first before you decide to get out of bed.

You slip your feet into warm fuzzy sandals and head to the bathroom to brush your teeth first. A blanket is wrapped around your naked body, because you don’t like how the floor-to-ceiling glass windows make it easy for anyone (anyone who dares to anyway) to peep at you. Izuku is at the second sink at the far end, rubbing day-old stubble on his chin to decide if he wants to shave.

“Keep it,” you ask him as you press toothpaste onto your toothbrush. In response, he scratches his chin against yours as you bat him away.

“Maybe I will.”

Breakfast is filled with chatter and laughter, realizing you haven’t had enough time to really speak to each other in the past few months, despite living in the same house. You hold his hand as you walk up higher and higher up the mountain, clad in shirts and cargo shorts and too much sunscreen, bellies full but not heavy. 

Izuku has a guide in his hand that you cannot fathom when he had the time to read that identifies more than a couple of creatures that soar above in the early morning, and you get surprisingly good pictures, particularly when Izuku uses his Quirk to get you high into the treetops for a better vantage point.

You do some foraging as well, of different fruits and flowers to add to your scrapbook, petals to press later - 

Much like you find Izuku pressing into you shortly after, shrouded in the denser part of the brush, away from the shy fauna. All you can feel is him, all you can see is him raised above you, and the caws of birds that are probably embarrassed to witness how easily you drip like sap around him.

“..h-harder, Izuku,” you demand, scratching at his neck, his chest, his back, anything to communicate your feral desire. He bites your shoulder as he grunts in response, driving as much cock into you as he can muster, and you get what you asked for.

---

“I can’t believe you convinced me to roll around in the dirt with you.”

You gently admonish him with a kick of your leg, sending bathwater splashing at his face. He grips your leg and straightens it, laughing as you give him a slightly surprised look.

“As opposed to everything else you’d be willing to do for me?” he asks, pressing a kiss to your ankle. You can feel heat spread to your neck as he kisses further but stops just short of your knee, and then wades from his end of the bathtub to yours, pulling you to his side.

“When did you get so cocky?” you flick more water at him with your fingers as he grins. Your bodies shift in position, until your back rests against his chest and he’s holding your breasts in your hands, grazing your nipples with his thumbs.

“Way back when I finally got your attention.”

You turn suddenly to kiss him then pause. His lips are parted and soft and he looks somewhat surprised by your sudden movement. There’s something that’s said between you two without words, something that whispers I’ve missed you despite the fact that you and he have always been here. 

“Do I still have it?” he whispers suddenly, as his lips ghost yours.

“Always.”

The scent of rose and jasmine fills your nostrils and love fills your heart.

---

“I’m surprised even though this is the third time we’ve been here, I never get tired of this place,” you say as Izuku lays his head in your lap. Izuku might as well be something like a cat or a bunny at this rate - you can practically feel him purr with the gentle scratches of your nails against his scalp, and his hand squeezes your thigh gently whenever you stop. “I still don’t think we’ve seen everything,” you continue.

“Probably not,” he agrees. His wavy hair is slightly damp still, and the rise and fall of his chest is slow and steady. He’s staring up at the ceiling and you can tell his mind, for once in a long while, is almost completely clear. 

Almost.

You can’t lie that you haven’t been a little worried about your phone messages and other updates you’ve been missing while you’ve been engrossed with Izuku, and you can tell he feels similarly, a little bit of guilt settling in. It’s the same for you. Work, work, work. That’s what life has been like between you two as you’ve climbed your respective career ladders, trying to save the world as best you can. Times like this are rare and need to be protected as something as precious as people’s lives.

“Oh my God, do you remember the last time we were here and your nosy self thought it was a smart idea to start exploring the other wings?”

Izuku’s eyes widen as he recalls.

“Fuck.”

You start to laugh and kick your legs and he gets up, shaking his head. 

“Shinsou told me the next time I trespassed he would have me shit myself in public. I hear him in my nightmares sometimes, honestly.”

You laugh even louder, doubled over as the image of Izuku, suddenly dangling from the ceiling by his ankle the second he passed through one door too many.

“The way you called my nameeeeeee!” you cackle as he pouts. “You were swinging there like a trapped animal!”

He purses his lips at you but you’re too busy laughing your ass off to notice, and eventually he ends up laughing too, falling back into your lap. His hands reach up to press your cheeks together.

“You know, it’s weird how many ropes and traps and harnesses are just littered around… Your friends are into some kinky shit,” he points out. Remembering many a midnight conversation about Shinsou and your friend’s ventures into shibari, you simply have to agree.

“I don’t know, I guess she likes being tied up.”

Izuku shoots you another glance, and you can see the glint of mischief in his eye.

“Do you want me to tie you up more?”

You tap his forehead with two fingers. “If I were into that, you’d know by now.”

He pretend-bites your fingers the next time you poke him. “Things can change.”

“Fair,” you reply. You pause, and then you look at him suspiciously. “You have ropes in your bag, don’t you?”

Izuku laughs frankly at the accusation. “I actually don’t, but I’ll keep that in the back of my mind… Plus Blackwhip is always handy.” 

You can feel your face grow hot and he pats your face teasingly.

“I have other things packed, though.” Izuku grins.

That’s how you end up, spine curled into a C and legs raised with ankles by your head, panting and trembling as Izuku intermittently presses a vibrator against your clit. 

“Come on, one more for me, baby,” he pleads, kissing the sweat on your brow as he holds your wrists above your head with one hand and torments your pussy with the other. Your voice comes out in soft cries as you try to recover from muscles clenching around nothing every time he makes you cum, swallowing the noises that slip out of your throat in orgasm with a kiss.

“I d-don’t have any more!” you cry, tears at the corner of your eyes. He gives you a long look and switches off the vibrator, and the last few pulses threaten to send you over the edge again. You’re too tired to wriggle out of the position and he doesn’t move you, keeping you in place.

“Temperature?” he asks. 

You consider for a moment despite your lust-filled haze.

“Hot,” you finally decide. He smiles then bites your lip before switching the vibrator back on. 

---

“I don’t want to leave,” you say first.

The two of you watch the stars around a small bonfire and share bites of cake that is slightly too sweet for his liking and slightly too heavy for your liking but somehow neither of you can get enough of. He says nothing but nuzzles into your neck more as you cuddle. 

It’s surprisingly quiet and melancholy now, as if just a couple hours ago you weren’t screaming his name, as if his thumbs weren’t just dug in the spaces where you back and your glutes meet as he gave you relentless backshots.

“I wish we could stay forever like this,” you continue, then you laugh. “But you’d get sick of me, wouldn’t you, Izuku?”

“Never.”

You turn to look at him. He sounds a little bit too serious. He’s not looking at you but at the fire ahead and you worry that he’s worrying about facing tomorrow yet again. Izuku has once told you that it’s not that he’s no longer nervous, but that the anxiety is less and less able to prevent him from acting the way his heart tells him to as time goes on. 

His legs move first. Always. And yet, it doesn’t mean the fear is no longer not there. It creeps when the rush of adventure is no longer able to drown it out.

It creeps when he holds you like this.

“You’d get tired of me first,” he adds as he fixes his gaze onto you.

“You know that that’s ridiculous,” you giggle. But he isn’t laughing and the crackle of the fire is suddenly too loud. 

“It isn’t. There’s a lot you can have that I can’t give you all the time.” He says. Your heart starting to race, you pull away from him just slightly and his hold on you releases just enough for you to turn and really face him.

“I don’t want anything else,” you insist.

“You should,” he says. The tone of his voice is a little quieter now, and then he repeats himself louder. “You should want someone who is present.”

“I want you.”

He doesn’t say anything else because he knows you will argue away anything he tells you. So instead he sighs, not wanting to ruin the last few hours of vacation.

“Someday, it’ll just be this,” he says, “and it’ll be more than enough.” He kisses the top of your head. “I promise.”

You believe him. You know what he means by this intrinsically, as though you were in his head. A space for just the two of you and nothing to worry about. Where you can grow old together, where you are no longer weighed down by what you have yet to achieve and what you have already accomplished.

---

“I love you,” he whispers into your ear.

You know he does. You know, and if for even a second you forget, he will tell you over and over and over again.

Your fingers intertwine with his and you sigh, back arching as you open up for him. You fit together perfectly, again and again and again. Forever. 

There’s a deep flush in his cheeks as he whispers words of praise into your skin. Another year passes and your love only continues to grow, tended to or not.

“I love you too, Izuku. Happy birthday.”

---

“The second my phone turns on, she’s gonna call me, watch,” you joke, as you open up the phone safe. 48 hours are up, and yes your legs are wobbly, but the red string of Fate that ties you two no longer frays. As expected, there is a flurry of texts that blow up your phone, and as Izuku prepares the car, you try to see which one you can respond to first.

I set the timer by the way 👶🍼. May the odds ever be in your favor.

gtfoooooo 💀, you text back to Shinsou’s favorite rope bunny. But as you watch your husband disappear into the distance, you think that it might not be so bad to have a little one.

“So how many?” 

The expected phone call arrives while the two of you are back on the road.

“How many what?” you ask suspiciously. Izuku glances at you with curiosity.

“Orgasms? What else?” she clarifies, and you’re immediately flustered, practically able to see the mischievous smile on her face. Izuku hears it through the end of the receiver and laughs, his hands gripping the steering wheel.

“Izuku, do not answer-”

“Whatever Bakugou’s capable of plus one,” he says loudly, leading in.

“Bullshit!” your friend shouts back, and you can hear her already shuffling to tell Bakugou and you sigh.

“I’m hanging up,” you announce before an argument begins.

“Why babe?” Izuku whines, but the phone clicks off and he laughs even louder. “He’s gonna be thinking about that all night.”

“Don’t pick up the phone,” you say, but a smile forms on your face. You look forward and the sun is setting on the horizon as you drive next to Izuku. 

It was a nice weekend. You’ll have many more to come.

Together.

[featguler]

Hiii!Can you write some fluff featuring Fede Valverde? Maybe when it's like reader and fede's anniversary (or something like that) and he surprises reader with something! (Idk what)

(Sorry for not really explaining my idea better <3)

Btw I love your writing!!!♡

love is fast asleep ────── no thing defines a man like love that makes him soft.

♡ ────── pairing : federico valverde x reader ♡ ────── tags : reader's gender, ethnicity, nationality, and appearance is not specified. pre-established relationship with fede, cute banters, fede is in looooove with reader omfg ♡ ────── wordcount : 1,232 ♡ ────── notes : i've been waiting for someone to request fede omfg he's sooo cute! and thank you so much, hope you enjoy this one, anon!! this is lightly based on noah kahan's strawberry wine, that song is so sweet and i feel like it describes him so much. sorry that this took so long, i was trying to think of what kind of surprise he would give reader. posted this just in time as my timeline fills with captain fede <333 ♡ masterlist.

Federico has got to admit that he is not usually one to simmer in hesitance.

You don’t get to where he is, after all, with self-doubt. You need strength, perseverance, confidence. Not everything that he has in life has been handed to him, but everything that he has in his life has been within his rights. He deserves everything that he has. He believes this.

Not everything that he has in life has been handed to him—yes, not everything. You, however, seem to be an exception. He can trace back all his accomplishments with his finger—the cause and reaction of every single goal he delivered, every single lap he ran, the contracts he signed—but not you.

No, no. 

You were handed to him, by some invisible hands, strung along with destiny that had led you to where he is.

His hands grip his steering wheel.

The moon is particularly bright tonight—on the car stereo, softly hums the love songs he carefully curated over the years, the ones you would mention that your parents would play as a child. Nostalgia is the best sort of romance; old school is where he bets his money at.

“Are we there yet?”

Federico didn’t make you put on a blindfold, but as he opens the door of the car and holds your hand as you step in, he insists that you have to close your eyes the moment he says so. He trusts you that you would keep your eyes closed. He trusts you enough.

“Close,” he says, glancing at you to drink in the way the moonshine reflects on the features of your face, and grins to himself, his face muscles aching in excitement.

It’s been three years since a mutual friend introduced the two of you, and two years since you got together—even so, Federico feels as though you’ve known him for all his life, as though you watched him grow up into his football jersey, into the man that he is.

Though at once, sometimes he wishes that he had met you sooner. You love him for all his scars and brittle parts, he is aware, but part of him figures that you would enjoy getting to know him when he was far gentler too.

You hum along to the melody of the song decorating the silence in the car. “You’ve been saying close for the past 30 minutes—I’m beginning to think that this is a kidnapping scheme, Federico.”

“Thirty minutes?” He repeats with a laugh, the car slowing down into a stop as he parks on a spot he had scouted for in the previous days. The moon slowly rises, and for a moment, Federico drinks in the sight of the kind crashing waves on the beach below them. “Only two songs have passed since you asked me the first time.”

“We stopped,” you ignored his response, eyes still shut. You press your palm against the dashboard, suddenly tense. “We’re here?”

“We’re here,” he laughs, “calm down, tiger. I’ll come and get you.”

The car keys lay flat in his pocket as he closes the car door behind him, walking over to your side.

“I smell salt,” you say the moment the sea air hits your nose as you extend a hand for Federico to gently grab. “And I hear water.”

“Aren’t you the smart one?” He chuckles, leading you out the car, for a moment placing his lips on top of yours as he shuts the car door.

You kiss him back, your other hand on the soft stubbles on his jaw. “Beach?” You ask.

He nods, as though you can see him, and places his forehead against yours. “Beach.”

Despite the way he longs to stay in that position, Federico eventually moves away, shifting his hand so that his fingers would intertwine with yours. He leads you to where the top of a short flight of stairs is carved out of natural stone and turns.

“Come on, darling,” he whispers, his grip around your hand tightening. “You’re closing your eyes, right? You gotta keep ‘em close.”

“Yes, baby,” you laugh, and for the thousandth time since he met you, he feels knots in his stomach.

He carefully leads you down the stairs, whispering encouraging words.

“Almost there,” he looks behind him for a moment, “aaand, there we go, the last bit of stairs.”

Excitement rushes up his spine as you try to balance your stance on the sandy ground, his stomach churning in nervousness.

“Baby,” he calls out, suddenly.

“Hm?” You tilt your head, looking at the direction you think his voice is coming from and he chuckles at how slightly off you are, tilting your head with his thumb on your chin.

“Listen,” he says, “don’t open your eyes.”

“Fede,” you whine, hands reaching to feel his forearms.

“I know, I know,” he laughs, leaning down to kiss your lips, then your forehead. “I just…” He blows out a breath, “...oh, I’m nervous.”

“Why?”

He smiles at your furrowed eyebrow, your hands cupping his face.

“I don’t know,” he admits, not letting his nervousness shine through his words. He closes his eyes, bracing himself. “Alright, you ready?”

“When have I not been?” You jest, drawing out a laugh from him.

He touches the hand on his cheek. “Alright,” he says, as though trying to convince himself. “Open your eyes.”

Federico blows out another breath, stepping back and away from you as your eyes flutter open, taking in the scenery before you. A picnic blanket on the sand, far enough from the shoreline to be weighted comfortably with four pieces of round rocks on each corner. He thought about the lighting, mulled over it, but the moon ended up enough candlelight for the both of you. In the middle of the blanket is a large picnic basket—inside, Federico has compiled his favourite food, your favourite food, and a good bottle of wine.

You gasp, hands on your chest, and while you are taking it in, Federico rocks on his feet, his palms are getting sweaty so he has been rubbing them dry against his pants for the past few seconds or so you’ve opened your eyes.

You look back at him, eyes watering, for some reason neither you or him knows.

“H-how?” You stammer, and Federico steps closer, brushing his thumbs against your cheeks.

“Why are you crying, baby?” Panic begins to fester in the pit of his stomach, “a friend helped me— baby, are you okay?”

You shake your head, laughing, and as you laugh, “No— no, no… I just love you…”

Federico pauses.

“...so much. Did you know that?”

“Oh,” he murmurs, hugging your head into his chest, “my love. It’s just a picnic, darling. We’ve done this a billion times, haven’t we?”

The corner of his eyes begin to blur, and he strokes the back of your head, this time rocking the both of you.

“This is different,” you sob against him, “two years, dear god, we’ve come a long way haven’t we?”

Federico rests the side of his head on top of yours, the harsh evening wind acting like it can carry you two away from the ground. He turns to kiss your temple, then your cheeks, then the side of your head, anywhere he could get his lips on as the tears fall freely on his face.

“We have, my love,” he whispers, “we have.”

[homestuck-archive]

HOMESTUCK: BEYOND CANON 6/12 NEWS POST

Hi, James here. Happy American Karkat day. European Karkat day, of course, being on the 6th of December. That’s how birthdays work. Don’t look it up.

Some of you may have noticed I am going to be on a stream with a “Virtual Tuber.” Depending on when exactly this goes up, that might actually be going on right now. If you are coming from over there it is very likely you are just now learning we are still doing Homestuck in 2024. Welcome back. You missed a lot but don’t look any of that up either.

What news for the birthday boy? As you may have seen across various platforms we’re partnering with Makeship, and launched a petition for a Highly Marketable Karkat Vantas Plush! The way this works is, they gauge interest by seeing if we can get 200 people to pledge they’ll buy it before the company commits to producing anything. Their business model allows them to do this at no up-front cost to us which is good because it takes a lot of money to manufacture and ship things. Once we reach our initial goal they then move forward with production and do design revisions, prototyping, etc. They send us a little sample and once we’re all approved and on the same page they do a limited pre-order run. For the first 399 pre-orders we get a 10 percent revenue share, which then changes to 30 percent once it hits 400. You might be thinking “Hey man, that's not very much!” and you’d be right, but they cover all manufacturing and fulfillment and shipping costs. And I don’t own a warehouse. So. This is fine with me.

I did promise to try and be more transparent with what's going on behind the scenes, even when it is boring. The thought process here is that, while less lucrative overall than producing and shipping ourselves this will allow us to try out more merch options. We’ve designed some apparel, and are working out something with Andrew and the usual merch guys. This might take a while, I am still new to this. That Vinyl is still on the back burner as we wait for a few holdouts that sort of make or break things. (There are people who are notoriously hard to get in contact with, so it is taking a while and I overestimated my ability to get this done in a timely manner while in poor health. That's on me.)

The whole idea here is to get you guys some cool stuff, and to pay my team more. Right now the Patreon is doing alright, and we’re trying out some new exclusives over there. Music previews, merch previews, and things like that for paying members. Nothing required to enjoy the comic, and things people will all see eventually. Since I’m trying to pay my team as fairly as possible I split everything we make evenly. Right now, for each team member it comes out to a few hundred bucks each per month which is pretty nice for getting to work on Homestuck, but isn’t exactly a liveable wage. And you see how much work they put into it. I want to give them the world, short of that at the very least a fair wage for all the work they do. Also I don’t know if you’ve noticed but a sandwich costs $19 now for some reason. That in mind if you are a company or private individual and want to pay me to promote your product let's talk. We can work something out. I will put it in Homestuck. I will make Rose Lalonde say she loves the bold refreshing taste of Diet Mtn Dew G’raha Tia Blast. I am not joking. This is my solemn vow. Maybe it's time to bring back the “Your Fantroll Gets Put In Homestuck” deal.

Anyway, two updates this month. I Like this schedule, so it looks like we’ll be keeping it up for the near future.

So to Summarize the key points so there’s no room for confusion:

Karkat Plush Makeship petition (the pre-pre-order, even) is now live

Trying out this style of limited run merch to see what's possible

Apparel incoming, not sure when

Still trying to work out details with musicians, sorry.

Fun new Pateron exclusives, including music and merch previews. Maybe more?

Open to more collabs

Sticking to shorter, more frequent updates for now.

Ok, thanks everyone have a good one.

[haru-dipthong]

I'm a big fan of localisation. I believe the goal of a translation should be to keep as much meaning and nuance as possible from the original. Localisation is key to this. Language and culture are inextricably linked, which means you must engage in cultural education and/or localisation to successfully translate. Cultural education is preferable, but in many cases it is not appropriate (not great having to pause every few seconds to read a translator note when you want to turn your brain off and watch a show). However, I think sometimes, translators take the wrong approach to localisation, and I want to talk about that here.

There was an example of "bad" localisation given by a twitter user in this Sarah Moon video: the example was anime characters subbed to use zoomer slang like "sus" and "cringe". I actually think that is an example of good localisation. I am not talking about that kind of thing.

This scene from 深夜食堂 (Midnight Diner) made me want to write this post. パチンコ has been translated as "pinball". I'm sure there are people reading that translation and cringing, just like I did! I tried to put my finger on what irked me so much about it and I realised: this localisation is localising the wrong part of the meaning of パチンコ.

Part of localising is choosing the closest cultural equivalent of a concept. This inevitably means losing some of the specific details of the original word, but usually those details aren't important (if the whole cultural concept is important, you should probably just use a translator's note IMO). For example, the word パチンコ has lots of bits of meaning in it: "gambling" "played on a machine", "time killer", "uses small metal balls", "generally played by older men", "big flashy lights", "money sink", and so on. In this context, the character is talking about "winning money" from パチンコ, so you'd expect at the very least that the localised word would preserve the "gambling" and "money sink" bits of meaning. However, instead they chose to preserve the "small metal balls" and "big flashy lights" bits of meaning (まさかの！). This is a very silly choice because those bits of meaning don't have a shred of relevance to this scene, or any other scene in this story at all. I can see a context in which "pinball" is the best possible localisation for パチンコ. But this was not it, and not even close. I've never heard of anyone winning money from pinball.

I think if I were a translator, my process for localisation would be to break down the word into those bits of meaning, then rank the bits of meaning in terms of relevance to the line/scene/story, then pick a localised word that hits as many of the higher ranked meanings as possible. In this case, there are many better localisations (read: localisations with meanings more relevant to the scene). If I were localising it, I would probably do this: "He took all the money I won from the pokies." but I am aware that pokies is an Australianism. Assuming I was localising for a global english speaking audience: "He took all the money I won from a slot machine".

(TBH though, I don't think パチンコ needs to be localised because the english equivalent loanword, pachinko, is already well known enough to be used in english subtitles imo)

[mcromwell]

Ayo! New follower here. I love your art and your mind set of just messing around to make cool stuff. but I’ve also seen you love been to at least one convention (I didn’t scroll far enough to see more about conventions) and I wanted to ask. How you did it? I really enjoy making art and I would love to make it a career so this boils down to :

how did you do it? And how can I do it too?

not just like first steps but what happens after that? I’m young enough that if this doesn’t work out I have plenty of time to look into other careers before worrying about paying for rent or necessities with money from my future occupation. I know that everyone’s experience is different but I still hoping you can give me a somewhat clear answer.

thank you for inspiring me

(sorry this ask was so long)

Hello there! Thank you for your message.

These questions are large and hard to answer. Being more specific in your questions helps. "How I did it" is very... large in scope. That question could be answered just by saying, "I did it by never wanting anything else and never losing sight of my goal." But that doesn't help you much. So I'll just try to touch on some key points and contexts.

I'm 32. Only in the last couple years has my practice been enough to make a living doing it. I've always wanted this and literally everything I've done in my life has been to get here. I've worked two jobs my entire working life (age 19-now): retail/customer service and art stuff on the side. Because of the pandemic, I got double unemployment and stimulus checks, which became my initial investment into merch and savings safety net to get started. I started therapy to address my fears of asking for help, my negative self-talk, and catastrophic thinking. (Therapy has helped me with my art so much.) Then I was laid off for real in 2020 and hit the ground running with art. I split rent with roommates, I live very very cheaply, and art is my passion. If art for a living is what you want to do and you're happy to make lots of concessions to get it, this career works. It takes a while to get momentum and regular sales/attention-- just don't quit. The more stuff you do the more people will recognize you and like your work.

It would be dishonest to not address my privilege here, too. My parents have always emotionally supported my practice, my friends too, and I got to go to art school with no debt. I did outside of school art mentorships. My art education experiences taught me a lot of art techniques and self-employed skills and that only happened due to the support of my folks. I had resources a lot of people don't. (Which is why I want to help new artists learn this stuff as much as I can; not everyone is as lucky as I am.)

My advice for you if you want to do what I do, which is being self-employed making and selling art and art merchandise for a living:

Get used to making concessions right at first. Your art career will probably not start out gangbusters, so get used to low sales and saving money and working hard. Make things within your means and grow from there.

Fuck around and find out. Try making merch, try making videos, try things you see other artists doing, try everything and see if it works for how you like to make stuff. I learn so much from YouTube, to be totally honest. Artists are good sharers.

Follow a shit ton of artists and see what works for them. Join artist groups and ask thoughtful, specific questions to learn from those already doing it.

Learn how to write about your art. Write about why you make it. It helps make it more compelling to others. "How to Sell Your Art Online" by Cory Huff is a good book to read for tips on this.

Develop a healthy relationship with art-making. If you sit down at a blank page and it terrifies you: address that first. Don't try to start a business if you're still struggling with making art regularly.

In fact, don't start a business until you're really ready. Art comes first. You can easily do art and build skills and do commissions and run an online shop along with working a job that pays bills reliably while you grow into the artist you're meant to be.

Don't pigeon-hole yourself into only one channel: don't JUST apply to cons, try street fairs too. Don't JUST sell online, get your work into cafes as well. You'll see which routes are more profitable/worth the time as you try them out. Eggs in many baskets, you know.

There's probably a whole essay I could write on this. And you're right--mileage varies between person to person vastly. The part of the world you live in, your access to transportation, education, your mental health, what type of work you like to make, etc. Art careers almost never look the same 1:1 even in fandom spaces like furry/anime. If you're self-made, it will reflect that.

I recommend the YouTube channels Rafi Was Here, Robin Sealark, Cat Graffam, and the website The Abundant Artist (again by Cory Huff) for more resources.

Don't be afraid to take leaps of faith. Try everything. Be true to what works for you and what doesn't feel sustainable. Be authentic with your art and stay true to your interests. And good luck.

[stevesjockstrap]

kinktober day 12: Steve/Eddie

& competence kink

read on ao3

MDNI - rated: E

Eddie shoved his van into park and grabbed his keys. Then he turned to stare back at the vision in front of him. He had to be higher than he thought, or maybe he’d gotten in a car accident on the way and this was heaven. He rubbed his eyes and smacked himself in the face. Closing and reopening his eyes again, the sight remained the same in front of him. 

Steve Harrington, covered in grease and grime, wearing his tiny Hawkins-gym-class-issued shorts, bent over the engine of his BMW. He wolf whistled as he approached, unable to pull his eyes away from the vision in front of him for a moment until an even better view took its place. Steve stood and turned, showing off his hairy chest and the slightly pudgy belly that had been forming now that Steve wasn’t doing school sports or chasing monsters. Eddie wanted to bite it. Or rut his hard- 

“Hey, Eds.” Eddie ripped his attention away from the source of his impure thoughts and up to his eyes. Well, there was a detour first to his sinful lips and then to a smear of dirt across his stubbled jaw that his fingers itched to touch. 

“Hey yourself. What are you getting up to here?” 

“Oh, a mystery squeak,” Steve frowned and waved a hand behind him at the open hood. “I’ve already greased everything I can find, all the belts are fine. Changed out the water pump pulley’s bearings. Added some power steering fluids. I can’t figure it out.” He rubbed more grease from his hand across his brow. 

Eddie’s jaw dropped. His pants were tighter than he remembered them being. He had never gotten hard listening to someone talk about cars to him before. Wayne had shown him small things here and there, he could change the oil on his van so he didn’t have to waste precious money on taking it in, he’d watched Wayne change headlights and the battery. Steve’s level of knowledge seemed way above that. 

“Uhhh, that sounds great, Stevie. I didn’t know you knew this much about cars.” 

“Yeah, I’m good with my hands,” he winked. Eddie almost hit the ground. 

“Fuuuck, I bet you are,” slid through his lips before he could stop it. They eyed each other for a moment, Steve rubbing his hands on a towel that appeared out of no where. Eddie chewed on his lip, waiting to see what was going to happen next. 

“I could take a break, get a drink… or something.” Steve stepped forward slowly, Eddie taking steps backwards, letting him direct them to his front door.

Eddie pulled him to straddle his lap on the couch. He couldn’t wait. He slid his hands up his thighs and under the tiny shorts. 

“Oh fuck, baby. No underwear?” He groaned. Steve shook his head and leaned down to meet his lips again. Eddie teased the seam of his leg, inching closer to his goal. He desperately wanted to rip these infuriatingly small shorts from his body. But he needed Steve in them again, maybe bent over some other surfaces. He pulled his hands out of his shorts, grabbing onto his hips instead, using his hold to encourage Steve to rock them forward. 

“Oh, oh shit, Eds.” Steve broke the kiss to pant against his lips. 

“You gunna come in your little slutty shorts, honey?” Steve shook his head but continued rubbing himself against his belly. Staring unseeingly as he grabbed his shoulders for more leverage. 

“Looked so good out there. Showing off for me, huh? All hot and dirty and competent. Knew I was coming over, Stevie. You think you had to go through all that trouble for me? Like I’m not always ready to bend you over any available surface any second of any day?” Steve whined and he pulled his hips faster. “C’mon, make a mess for me.” 

Steve bit his lip, muffling his little noises as he chased his climax. Eddie pulled on his chin so he released his lip. “Uh uh, let me hear you. That’s it.” Eddie traced through his chest hair, pinching his nipple then scratching his nails across that little roll of fat under his belly button. Steve’s thrusts got wild and he made the hottest little grunting noises as he spilled into his shorts.

Eddie washed off all his dirt and grease marks after he fucked him into the shower wall. 

@lighthousebeams

[lowkeyrobin]

i need some more badlinu love can you do a fic where freddie is busy with editing but the reader wants him to give her attention? :3

- thank youu 🎧 anon

YES OF COURSE I love writing for badlinu omgndnsndnsns ; and welcome to the hotel 🎧 anon! hope you enjoy the stay :) (also yes I've remastered the "family" into a hotel, I feel like it fit the vibe better idk)

BADLINU ; editing attention

summary ; he's trying to edit but you're desperate for attention

warnings ; language, super short

word count ; 301

masterlist

Freddie sits at his desk, editing another video for his YouTube channel. You, Freddie, and Tommy went out to a zoo, and he was editing that vlog at the moment. He was halfway through, aware of you sitting next to him on the floor, wanting attention.

For the past two hours, he'd been sitting at his computer, editing away on OBS. He'd had this goal to post regularly, once a week, throughout the year. He'd already been having a bit of trouble with ideas and editing burnout, but you'd been helping and reassuring him.

Every half hour, you'd ask how things were going, if he needed anything, etcetera. Every time, it'd be a few word answers. He was alright at least, just focused.

No matter how much you tempted him with food, money, adventures, affection, he wouldn't budge. He was hard at work and wouldn't stop.

You groan, setting your phone down. "Freddie, I need attention"

"A couple more minutes" He replies, hitting the backspace key a few times.

"You said that twenty minutes ago" You complain, pulling at his dark green sweater. "Please, you can take a break. Your fans understand if you need a day or two to chill out instead of hitting your upload goal every single week"

He lightly sighs and nods, then mumbles a little "Yeah"

You throw your hands into the air with a smile, having won his affection this time around.

You quickly wrap him in a hug and place a few kisses on his temples and forehead.

"Well, good morning to you too, darling" He jokes with a light chuckle, standing up to embrace you and share the hug.

It was noon, no longer morning, but the rise in your energy had caught him a bit off guard.

"Morning to you too, Freds"

[lancer-the-blue]

Going to finally watch the full Ninjago Dragon's Rising season 1 and 2 since everything's out rn and live blog throughout the experience

1.30 in and man the animation is crazy, Arin is already pretty compelling. Really good vibe so far

*"Jay the Lightning Ninja!" nooooooooo, not this foreshadowing!

Kais voice was weeeeeird there for a sec... ohhh that's Arin my bad

Oooh as someone who is obsessed over the map of ninjago ngl that's a sick map of the Merge, I need a copy as a map nerd

OMG THAT SEAGULL WAS A REFERENCE TO ZANES FALCON

Arin with Lloyd's hood is so cute! *i need to draw that*

I need those rottweiler dogs as fig accessories

"It's called having money, which isn't exactly our situation" moood Sora mooood

"Wannabe ninja go!" Damn the writing this season is snappy af

Just noticed how fucking gorgeous the backgrounds are in this season like damnnnn

"Who doesn't like pie?" Feels like a reference to Cole and cake but that might be me looking waaay to much into it

Kingdom of Imperium smashed up against Ninjago does looks snazzy I agree Arin

"And the perfect chance to meet me" dawwww that's so cute

Ooooh it's called the crossroads, nice

"My bff, my fam" ☠ never did I *ever* expect that from Ninjago

I agree having your own penthouse is pretty cool, damn Sora is so relentlessly shsmeless I fucking adore her

Noticing again how *clean* the animation looks, the inside of the room is so highly rendered wow

"Whennn we win" gods damn it Sora you fucking rock!

"And invite everyone else who lost their parents to live with us" noooo gods noo the feels, jesus these kids are putting me through it

Damn I'm sensing potential arc tension between Arin and Sora after that earthquake exchange

First time actually seeing Lord Ras on screen and not through fanart he's giving me Chima reject /lh

Golden helm horn guy with the autism yeeeees relatable

*Omg gimmie frog faced minifigure it's a whole mood will be my sigfig*

Quick serious question tho, is the frog person and Ras' spieces from Chima tho? Lord Ras is giving me Sir Fanger vibes

I LOVE LABO, will not ask about mom noted tho

OMG THAT SCENE PAYING WITH THE PIE DIDN'T HAVE TO HIT *THAT* HARD

Ngl love seeing the random Hypnobrai walk around is peak

Dawwww baby riyuuuu

"Labu avoids hazards" awwwww

Sora being peak again about money

RIYU AWWWWW

"The things they'll do to him" oh gods what does that say about jay...

"What would the ninja do?" "LET'S SAVE THAT DRAGON"

OH NO NOT LUBO GIVING A RESENTFUL MOTHER SPEECH

The scene with Riyu giving Sora powers is sick. Need to draw that

That grey haired raz goon is pretty, funny top 7 ninjago evil side bitches

Need to draw Arin doing Spinjitzu like that that was also sick

Damnnnn Raz was intense, "hunt down your entire family" I don't think ninjago ever got *that* explicitly threatening

"Runs on dragon power" ngl that's a little bit too goofy for me

Arin hyping up Sora is goals ngl

Uuuuh Sora roasting the ninja that's funny

Lloyd coming in that last second was low key kinda unexpected, was thinking it would happen in part 2 but still cool tho

Annnnnd we're done with Ep 1 S1, on to Ep 2!

Rating solid 8/10, writing and pacing was cleannnn. One of the best season openings

[slvttybvys]

Top two plots i'm craving for each muse

Anton:

1- Anton books an air B&B to get some time to write but oops it was double booked. We'll make it work till things get sorted but... Only one bed.

2- We broke up but we still keep having booty calls and wow this is making moving on difficult

Bryce:

1- Muse owes Bryce Money, offers a payment plan in the form of sex

2- Patching Bryce up after he got hurt in a brawl

Caleb:

1- Classic bodyguard and client falling for each other

2- Caleb is super over protective of your muse (sibling, friend, ect) and is constantly low-key ruining your relationships. But only because they're not good enough for you... No other reason.

Dylan:

1- Let him blow a guy while he plays video games!

2- Dylan is really anxious about an investor pitch he has coming up so gets a hookup off an app and has mind blowing sex. Goes into the pitch feeling confident... Only to see his hookup from last night.

Everett:

1- Just wants to be fucked by his boss tbh

2- 'My friend and I signed up for a sugar baby website on a drunken joke and now that I'm sober I go to delete it and... Holy shit that's a lot of messages'

Fabian:

1- For being such a hermit Fabian REALLY likes public sex so... Public sex please.

2- Fabian is so caught up with his newest project and his lover is feeling neglected so is pulling all the stops to get his attention.

Gale:

1- Rival Politician he has major sexual tension with.

2- His PA or Receptionist and just someone getting fucked over a desk.

Hamish:

1- His ex wife's kid

2- Let him be your muses sugar daddy

Ishan:

1- We constantly bicker with each other but it's really just foreplay

2- For someone who doesn't really drink you sure are at the bar Ishan works at a lot....

Jayden:

1- Your muse and Jayden are long time best friends and he has an art exhibition your muse of course goes to support and... Is this entire exhibit a love letter to you???

2- Want the plot of 'made a sculpture and it came to life' type plot

Kyu:

1- 'What do you mean we've been dating for like a month??'

2- Kyu is trying to seduce your muse but for him that translates to just feeding them a lot? So message not being totally recieved.

Logan:

1- We made out as a dare/spin the bottle/seven minutes in heaven and now I can't stop thinking about it.

2- 'Look Logan... Babe... I know you're an adrenaline junkie but I don't even think some of these wild sex scenarios your pitching are possible??'

Mickey:

1- Mickey and your muse been hooking up for a long time and your muse wants more but Mickey is not getting the hint since he doesn't think anyone would want him for more than sex.

2- Mickey hit his subscriber goal meaning he had to get a maid outfit for his next stream and... Wow he looks unfairly good in it.

Noah:

1- Your muses ex was a cheating asshole and Noah is offering to fuck it better.

2- Noah confessed his feelings for your muse ages ago and got gently turned down. But now he's on a date with someone else and... Fuck you think you fucked up.

Owen:

1- His kids teacher or babysitter

2- There's a glory hole in the strip club Owen works at and after a shift one night... Look it's been a long time for him okay?

Pierce:

1- Pierce and your muse have been on and off again for ages and you're broken again. For good this time! But you know... Maybe one last romp to get it out of our systems?

2- You may or may not be purposely minority fucking up your car so you have an excuse to ask Pierce to fix it.

Quinn:

1- Sweet anniversary thread

2- 'I bet I can go longer without jumping your bones than you can go'

Reese:

1- .... Did my best friends brother just send me a dick pic on purpose or....

2- Reese has been in love with your muse for years and in a night of being upset over a breakup the two of you sleep together. And in the morning Reese is so excited and-Oh your ex just texted he wants to get back together?

Sebastian:

1- Someone Sebastian is investigating seduces him

2- Look everyone told you not to bring Sebastian to an escape room for date night but you didn't listen.

Tyson:

1- One of his students parents

2- We always run into each other at the dog park cuz apparently our dogs have crushes on each other or something... I may also have a crush on you what.

Uriah:

1- Maybe it's weird but: One of the antiques in my shop has a ghost attached to it???.... Aaaand I'm falling for said ghost. Great.

2- Our muses got set up on a blind date and.... Holy shit I had SUCH a crush on you in high school

Vik:

1- Apartment walls are thin and Vik's neighbor is pretty consistently being kept up with sex noises. Which would be annoying if it wasn't so arousing.

2- Hey babe your friends hot... Threesome?

Warren:

1- Warren discovers someone close to him (Nephew, Best Friend, Best Friends Kid, ect) has an extensive collection of his films

2- A newbie to the porn world gets very flustered to discover their first scene is with favorite porn star.

Xander:

1- Doctor/Fellow nurse fooling around in the room people on overnights use to rest

2- He wants to be woken up mid getting a blowjob/being ridden/being fucked

Yates:

1- Lots of sexual tension between Yates and a client and has trying to be professional but they end up fucking mid the event he was hired for.

2- First loves reuniting and instantly realize there's still attraction/feelings

Zain:

1- A neighbor plot where Zain's neighbor has always been a little intimidated by him cuz he strikes an imposing figure and has a big case of RBF but then catches him doing something sweet (helping a stray animal? Being cute with a kiddo? Endless possibilities) and now has not scary but now the problem is they're smitten

2- Someone got a tattoo from Zain and wants to ask Zain out but keeps choking and so just... Keeps getting tattoos? And they honestly can not afford to keep this up at this point!

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

how do you make mashups

heres what youre going to do. First you need to have a really good ear. I don't have perfect pitch or anything like that, which I imagine makes my quality suffer as a result, but I listen to 10,000 songs a week, and as a result I'm pretty good at identifying BPM. That's a must- you can slow down or speed up a song a little bit, but if you do it too much to make it fit, it just becomes slush.

Once you've got an idea, listen to the instrumental, and try to sing the desired acapella over it a bit. Do it multiple times, testing to see what lyrics go where and how the instrumental bends to it. Pull up the lyrics and recite them in your head if you don't know them all, see how it feels.

Then comes the hard part. You gotta find the instrumentals and acapellas, and the more obscure the song, the harder its going to be. Not all of them are gonna work out. Those AI sites that handmake acapellas for you? They're bullshit. Only use them as a last resort, and only for songs where the music is quieter than the lyrics.

I use audacity, everyone tells me i should use another software, but these are the same people who tell me i shouldn't draw with a mouse, and look where not using a trackpad got me. My goal has always been 'spend as little money as possible'. Make of that what you will.

Slap both the instrumental and the acapella in, try to keep the instrumental whole. The acapella is what you're going to want to be chopping up and dissecting. take that first verse, line it up where it needs to go so the first word hits the note running- make sure to keep in mind what the original artists wanted, they probably know better than you. See that little gap of empty space in the provided picture? I left the opening to the song untouched, and only brought in the new lyrics where the original lyrics came in (with a little bit of guesstimation, given one is Daft Punk, but thats the general rule of thumb.)

Now start listening, and hard. Music that's out of sync instinctively sounds wrong. Listen to that instinct, and listen to it closely. Speed up or slow down as it demands, until you can listen to it all the way through and nod your head in rhythm the whole time. Experiment, see what instrumental breaks you can fill, and what goes where.

Sometimes the instrumental or acapella are longer than the other track. It's okay to flub it once or twice and copy-paste a verse, but don't rely on it too much, or you start to sound like a hack. If you need to, cut out pieces of the instrumental, but be careful and make sure the transition is seamless. Keep an eye on how long the distance is between those big spikes- those are the key beats that form the BPM.

This is just my personal tip, and a lot of artists dont follow it, but I usually suggest keeping the pitch of the lyrics as close to the original as they usually were. Speeding up or slowing down is gonna make it sound like a bullfrog or a chipmunk is singing it, and that just sounds ugly to me. @chongoblog doesnt bother with that, god knows why, but I imagine he knows better than me.

If you cut up a vocal track, watch the end of it- make sure the syllable fades naturally, and doesn't just suddenly cut. Nothing will take the listener out of the track more than an abrupt lyric cut.

Listen. Don't publish it immediately. Take it on your walks, to the gym, wherever, just keep listening to it, and working on it until you're sure you've ironed out every kink, because as soon as you put it out you'll notice one more problem and want to kill yourself.

Export. Release. Don't profit, usually. Et voila.

Here's your homework: can you tell me the mistake I made around 2:14?