#the main content I see there is my own content and ive actively gone out of my way to mute and/or block

[freckledjoes]

Y’know with the amount of reposting of my gifs on twitter, it’s starting to look like I’m curating the (gif) content over there. What I post here becomes the subject over there tomorrow? Such power, how to use 🤔

That’s a rhetorical question fyi :)

[lizzienaut]

leaving the community

oh man, hardly thought i’d see the day when this would happen. i’m not really sure where to start this post to be honest, so apologies in advance for having to read my poorly thought out ramblings.

for those that don't wanna read, the tl;dr = i'm furthering myself from the sfw community, this blog is going on a permanent hiatus, you can find me @buntopiia or @kinkynaut if youre 18+, im just generally unhappy and tired here but im so grateful for all of the support and all the super cool friends i made here <33 its not goodbye forever!!

it’s been a good run, hasn’t it? but then again, it’s not like im going away completely — i'm still gonna be active on tumblr, just not in the sfw side of the tickle community. i'll also be active on my new main, which is @buntopiia, so if you aren't 18+ or just arent comfy with nsfw content, you can still find me there if you ever wish to talk.

so here comes the nitty gritty of it all; i just don't enjoy being here anymore. im sure its super apparent to everyone that the sfw community is always on the brink of tearing itself apart, barely being held together by its seams - and to be honest, i'm just completely over it. it seems that we can't go a day here without someone getting death threats or being told to kill themselves over the way they perceive their interest in tickling, which is such a stupid fuckin sentence to type out, but here we are.

the rampant hatred everyone seems to have for each other is draining. and this isn't about the anons that i've gotten specifically- i found those funny more than anything (i'm still a slut well denizen at heart), but a whole slew of other things as well. the constant drama feels reminiscent of high school, and come to think of it, it's probably because the sfw community is filled mainly with minors. mostly ones who don't know how to cultivate their own online experience and blame the adults for it, but i digress. every callout post is just a reminder of how toxic and shitty the sfw side of the community can be. lots of people hide behind the "sfw" title to seem innocent and approachable. lots of people demonize the nsfw community for everything that happens here. but in all honesty, when's the last time you've seen any big drama from the nsfw community?

lots of people stay in their own little bubble there, curating their own content and reblogging from each other solely. i find that (most) adults are very good at following their dni criteria and keeping minors away, even if they don't listen. and the fact that the kinksters are so harshly spoken about by the sfw community is another major factor as to why i'm leaving.

i have a tickle fetish. i see tickling as something both nonsexual in platonic scenarios and sexual in romantic ones (in my own life, of course). hearing people constantly saying having a fetish is gross or vile or whatever is genuinely upsetting, which is why i was in denial about it for the longest time. i felt disgusting for it. i was so ashamed and terrified of people finding out, because i thought it would make me some kind of "pervert" or something, which also sounds incredibly stupid when i type it out.

like seriously, this is a post about tickling. the fact that we have drama and community politics over here is the dumbest shit i've ever heard lmfao

but yeah. i feel safer in the nsfw community than i do here now. i'll post the occasional fluffy tickle art on my main, but other than that, all of my content will be posted onto my kink account. and you're more than welcome to interact with my main!! you dont even need to be on anon or a main yourself, im more than okay with tickle blogs interacting with me. it isnt something im ashamed of anymore, and being in the nsfw community has helped me overcome that fear. being unabashedly kinky is extremely freeing, tbh.

its been fun and ive seriously enjoyed my time here with you guys <33 again, i'm not gone completely! i'm just distancing myself from the "sfw" brand and moving on to other things. thank you for everything <3

[nefoe-dd]

SO SMT AU AM I RIGHT GAMERS

I mentioned this in the tags of another post and joked about it in Discord but my brain went brrrr during my last class of the day and now I lowkey have a full plot starting to form lol.

Keep in mind the only Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve played myself is the Nocturne remake, plus I only really remember bits of the plot of 4 and whatever we’ve been given so far of 5 so I’m not super well versed in the series.

Also I’ll add this to the tags too but DSMP Spoilers specifically for the contents of Techno’s Will exist in this post, because that is where the idea for this came from. A lot of other JRPGs have similar plotlines but I specifically thought of SMT because its kind of a meme specifically for that at this point how the plot always seems to have the same type ending bosses. 

Also some spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV

ANYWAYS

Now Presenting: An AU where Techno’s Limbo is an SMT Game lol

(Under a ‘Read More’ because it got way ahead of me)

An Introduction to Relevant SMT terminology:

Demons: Makes up a large majority of the characters in the game. They are the enemies that you face in combat, and its possible to recruit them to your team through various means. Some demons exist in the overworld though, and can be talked to normally, they’re chill most of the time, unless you do something to tick them off. ‘Demon’ is not taken literally by the Christian definition, they are based off of various figures in folklore and religion around the world, some are even based on Gods and Angels.

Law vs Chaos: Many SMT games have multiple endings based on these two alignments, along with the neutral alignment. It is usually decided by some important decisions the player makes throughout the game. I’m most aware of the SMT 4 ending, in which the route you are on decides the final dungeon, the character you team with for the ending, and the final boss (its either Satan or the in-game version of God). It’s based off of the traditional interpretation of these two, where Law represents the importance of authority, and Chaos represents the importance of freedom. 

Another note is that a lot of SMT games take place in a post-apocalyptic world of some kind, which, spoiler, is the case here.

General Plot Details and Worldbuilding:

- Techno dies in the prison. The stasis chamber fails and Quackity succeeds in killing him. Permanently. 

- Despite dying, he wakes up again in the main prison cell, but things are different. The lava isn’t blocking the entrance anymore, (in fact there isn’t any lava at all), and he’s alone. Upon peering outside the main cell, he notices a bit of sky peeking through the prison ceiling, like it had been broken into. 

- The drop down to the bottom floor is long, but he’s dead, so he just shrugs and jumps down so he can see what’s going on. Turns out there are several holes in this part of the prison, in fact there are multiple on the ground, likely where the lava had escaped from. (Obviously Minecraft lava specifically doesn’t work like that, I’m pretty sure in the DreamSMP the bottom is all source blocks, but just ignore that bit). 

- He exits from the back wall of the prison, and everything there so far looks normal, except for the fact that there appears to be less trees than normal. Of the trees that are still there, many of them were cut down and never collected, and some appear to have fallen over due to some damage.

- Techno goes around the prison to the front, and that’s when he notices some things that are very wrong. Various parts of the prison, not just the main cell, are also sitting destroyed. Many cracks, scuff marks and full-on chunks are missing on the walls. The usual entrance which houses the nether portal is hardly still standing, and he can see straight into the main lobby where the portal would lead into once you were let through. 

- The surrounding areas are not much better. Tommy’s outpost is toppled over in the distance, only the base and bottom floor are left standing. The tents near the beach are collapsed and destroyed, the only remnants of one of them is a small piece of fabric ripped from the main bit and laying on the ground. Skeppy and Badboyhalo’s mansion is crumbling where it stands, half of the back wall and ceiling are gone. And that’s only what’s visible from here. 

- The rest of the server is also in various states of destruction, the spawn walls are hardly left standing, the main nether portal area is covered in potholes, none of the portals are active. The prime path is rotted and broken in most areas, the buildings along it are not faring much better than the ones he’d seen before. And the further he gets away from the prison, the more the plants themselves appear to be dead or dying. 

- L’manburg’s crater looks much the same as it once did right after its destruction, albeit with more debris at the bottom which had fallen from the sides as they slowly eroded. The flag at the bottom is torn up and discoloured, honestly its hardly recognizable. The nature that had finally begun to reclaim the land has slowly been dying instead over time, and the bridge overtop has completely collapsed. The only thing still standing, is the ever present obsidian grid that looms over it in the sky. He supposes that whatever disaster had caused this wasn’t able to reach that high up, or that it was at least in part done by someone that liked the way it looked. Not that there seems to be a need for the reminder anymore. 

- Something something, he finds out DreamXD is here, and that he might have had something to do with how this world looks. And as much as it shouldn’t matter in the afterlife, he did promise Phil he would be killing God sooooo he goes on a mission to do just that. He can do pretty much anything now that he really doesn’t have to worry about dying, so why not. He has no reason to care about some God, especially when they’re the only ones left.

- Some DSMP people hang around the world and are represented by certain demons, the mostly chill ones that kinda just hang around in the apocalyptic scenery. They don’t recognize him, it isn’t really the people he knows after all, but they are willing to talk to him since they can tell he isn’t human either. He learns little bits of what happened through them, and learns where DreamXD resides, that being one of the strongholds that’s a bit further out. 

- Unfortunately, due to the portals being inactive, and his inability to break anything efficiently, or even at all, he has to travel using the overworld. Along the way he manages to speak to some others, this allows him to better locate where the God is, although it doesn’t seem to be hiding out. He even sees it sometimes flying around, which he uses to follow where its hiding. 

- Some of the random demons he runs into recognize that he’s not supposed to be here (according to them at least), so he has to fight his way through them. Luckily, many of the friendly demons that he talks to end up tagging along in order to help, thus making up a team he can use to get through them instead.

 - There’s probably a demon that seems to resemble Phil somewhere, living alone (alone for so so long) away from everyone in an arctic house perhaps. If I wanted to really up the angst, the demon takes a liking to Techno right away, which is partly how Techno is able to tell its him so quickly. The more they talk, the more Techno realizes how lonely the Phil he knows must be without him there, how upset he’d be once he reads the will and finds out what happened to him. Thus he’s more motivated to, you know, fight God, in an attempt to figure out what the hell happened. (DXD is the only entity existing here that also exists where he’s from, he can guess pretty easily that maybe, just maybe, they are one and the same). Thus, he is given a choice that he knows he will have to make in the future. 

- Eventually he manages to find the stronghold and comes face to face with DreamXD himself. DreamXD is just kinda chillin there, they fight, through DreamXD doesn’t seem to be putting in too much effort, almost like it does not want to win. 

- Techno wins (duh), and he is left with a choice, a choice to finish the job, or spare the god and allow it to go free. And, well, he feels that he doesn’t really have the right to decide whether it lives or dies, and while its possible that DreamXD caused whatever disaster created the current state of the world, but he doesn’t know that for sure. DreamXD has done nothing this whole time he’s been here, and its done nothing to him or his companions.

- He chooses to leave it alone, and DreamXD seems to know that it was always going to end that way. 

- DreamXD disappears, and Techno wakes up in the cell again post-revival, the prison and the world around it is the same as he remembers

(I don’t remember the exact real-world to limbo time difference but I imagine that it felt like, a day, maybe half that, while irl it was only a few minutes to an hour.)

Some other notes/details:

- The other possible ending would have resulted in Techno killing DreamXD and being given ANOTHER choice to take its power over the world, or just leave and stay there forever. Basically DreamXD’s existence is vital to the power of the revival book, and it’s death would have resulted in Dream not being successful in his revival attempts. Obviously we have no idea how the powers actually work yet, but I just came up with an explanation because I thought it would be interesting. You can decide on your own which of these endings fall into Law, Chaos or Neutral because uh, its complicated given the scenario. You can also decide if letting DreamXD live even fits into his character! Idk! But its not like DreamXD’s being oppressive by any means, not that there’s anyone to oppress here anyways. That’s my logic anyways.

- I don’t know what demons would represent specific people, I’d like to use one of the Angels for Phil but the Demons based on Angels usually have an important role in the plot that is in line with the Law alignment and like, protecting god or whatever, so no. There are a couple bird ones but idk if they fit the vibe, idk it could work, I’d have to look at a list if I want to go into this further.

- I kinda want Eret to be an Inugami because it’s body does that thing that ferret’s do when they’re all stretched out :) The only reason I’m hesitant is because Inugami is a dog, and Goose deserves representation.

- The reason I imagined for why Techno can’t break anything is because the mining fatigue lasted throughout this because he died with it, it’d get in the way of fighting too but at least it isn’t weakness, and he’s not alone either.

Uhhhhh that’s it for now I think!

(will potentially add to this if I figure something else out in the future)

[writing-gifts]

datura (moth!bruno x butterfly!reader)

—–

A/N: this fics 30k+ words now and im happy that ive stayed with it this long, but yea thats it lol

First Chapter || Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Reader is gender neutral!

-----

[Late Fall]

You didn't think you'd be meeting Abbacchio so soon--perhaps sometime after Winter. But one day you're taking shelter from the cold when Bruno comes to visit.

These days you never really know for sure when he'll show but this was definitely earlier than usual. Nevertheless, you're glad to have someone to cure your boredom...until you see there's someone else very familiar with him.

You hide partially behind your door trying to slow your racing heart. Was this excitement or fear? Maybe both?

“Er, you’re Abbacchio right?”

When the wasp nods but doesn’t further speak you look at Bruno, but he simply gives you an encouraging smile. You wanted to scold the moth for the nonexistent forewarning, but at the same time with a surprise visit you didn't have time to fret before the actual meeting.

You’ll have to go along with this either way so you put on a polite smile. “You guys want to come in?”

“No, I'd rather stay out here,” Abbacchio replies.

Your brows furrow and your smile becomes more forced. “Uh…”

But it's cold! What the hell, do you two not get cold or something!?

It takes you a moment but then you realize that the wasp was being sarcastic. Probably. But you’re not sure if it’s because he’s trying to be funny or if he doesn’t like you. Or maybe he was messing with you?

Bruno throws him a bemused look. "It would be more comfortable inside don't you think?”

The wasp stares at you in a way that makes you feel like you're being sized up but eventually relents. “Alright.”

You move so Abbacchio can walk in, but Bruno stops next to you.

"Don't be intimidated. He can be like that toward new people and he’s a little grumpy that he had to walk all the way over here," he whispers.

You look over at the wasp already sitting on the daybed remembering his lack of flight and nod. But you weren’t sure if you wanted to deal with a bitchy bug right now.

Bruno goes to sit, but you scuttle to your room with some quickly mumbled excuse so you can collect your thoughts.

What were you supposed to do? Entertain them both? You were far removed from having to actively entertain Bruno when he came over so you felt out of your element.

This meeting should have happened in Spring instead.

You must have been in your room for too long because Bruno shows up.

When he sees you sitting on your bed he raises a brow. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing really. I’m just unsure what to do so I'm hiding. Are we like hanging out?”

Bruno shakes his head. "I don't understand. You don't need to do anything."

"But I feel like I have to since Abbacchio is here though. And he really doesn't look like he wants to be here."

"Well, we aren't going to stay too long if that makes things better. He just wanted to see you. Of course he's too prideful to admit that though."

"Well…He could just be more polite though," you grumble.

"Then he wouldn't be Abbacchio…" Bruno sighs. "Don't worry I talked to him so it'll all work out."

You purse your lips. "...Hey next time just give me a heads up if you're bringing someone over, okay?"

If your unexpected guest was just a little amiable then you wouldn't have cared but that wasn't the case.

Bruno looks a bit surprised that you seem genuinely annoyed, but he gives you the affirmation you want. So even though you're still reluctant, you move off the bed.

“Okay we can go back.”

You walk ahead of Bruno and when you get to the main room you try to talk to the wasp again.

“Uh...Do you want anything to drink?”

"No thanks."

"...Okay."

Instead of sitting down you stand there. Bruno wouldn't lie to you but the wasp's behavior said otherwise. Your friend gently grabs your arm and leads you to the daybed to sit.

"Do you want me to get you something to drink ____?"

"...Sure? It can be whatever."

You realize too late that if he's getting drinks, he’s going to leave you alone with Abbacchio. You squint at Bruno as he exits the room. It shouldn't take long but you're sure Bruno's going to take as long as he sees fit.

So while he’s gone, you sit there quietly sneaking peeks at the wasp trying to figure out how to move things along. He sits, leg spread, looking at nothing in particular.

You had seen the occasional albino insect but this was the first wasp. Which isn’t surprising since you kept clear of any. Until now.

“What?”

You flinch from the sudden break in silence. “W-What?”

“You keep looking at me.”

You try to smile but it definitely comes off more as a grimace from the weird look you get in return.

Sighing, you frown. “I’m sorry. I’m going to be straight forward and say that I feel super awkward right now, and I don’t know what to say or do.”

The wasp crosses his arms. “...You don’t need to say anything. I actually prefer the silence.”

"Oh."

You continue to sit in silence that's slightly less awkward, but again the wasp breaks it.

“How’s your leg?”

Your eyes widen a bit from him trying to start a conversation. “Oh, it’s okay.”

You stretch out your leg, bending it a few times. There was no more pain but a bunch of scars were left behind around your thigh and calf.

“That's good.”

Since he was here you could show your gratitude in person. You hesitate for a moment but remember what Bruno had told you at the forest clearing. And you didn't want to let this possible conversation die.

“Hey, thank you for helping me that day. You really saved my life. And the fact you managed to open that lizard's mouth was pretty amazing!"

You see the stern expression on the wasps face slightly fall, and he gives you a nod. “It wasn't anything--I mean….You're welcome.”

You give your first genuine smile today and Abbacchio looks away looking a bit flushed.

A moment later and the moth finally returns.

"I’m back with your drink ____."

You turn towards Bruno as he walks towards the daybed.

“What the hell were exactly doing in there Bucciarati?” Abbacchio looks over, sounding unimpressed with Bruno's little plan.

"You're not slick Bruno," you add.

He raises a hand in surrender. “Okay you got me. But it worked didn't it?”

You look at Abbacchio.

“...I guess it’s a start,” Abbacchio says.

"I saw you blushing from the kitchen," Bruno says.

“I--Leave me alone.”

You hold back your laugh lest you want to be scowled at by the wasp next.

Bruno hands over your drink and you thank him and relax back into the daybed. Maybe it's okay if they decide to stay longer.

----

For the first time this season, you can't fly. Even after trying to warm yourself up with all your blankets, you'd only be able to stay off the ground for a short time before your wings would give up. And unless you were planning on climbing up the stems of the flowers near your home there was no way you were getting any nectar.

So over the next couple days, whenever you couldn’t fly, you were content with spending most of your time sewing, knitting or sleeping. Even the days where you could fly you'd find yourself spending most of the day inside anyways.

But after a while you start to feel confined in your home, and you suppose you need to do something different. So you finally gather the courage to venture a good distance from your home by yourself.

You decide to use this opportunity to visit a neighbor--a self-proclaimed “vegetarian” spider--so you can get started on Bruno's 2nd gift.

Before you were hesitant to go, even with the gift on the line, but after everything that's happened with Abbacchio you were more at ease with the idea.

Once you actually see the spider's small home, you notice there's no webs for you to get stuck in.

With the spider's help, you hope to learn how to create sheer cloth or lace as he called it. In return, you're willing to part with the rest of the honey you had sitting around.

There was the option to trade for already made lace but you were hellbent on making this gift all on your own. When you tell the spider, Ilyas, this he seems even more excited to share his passion.

“Rarely anyone likes to visit me!”

You smile feeling a bit sad for him. Now that you actually had met him properly you can tell the "rumors" about him being completely harmless were true. He only seemed to use his webs to make lace. How it wasn't sticky was a mystery to you though.

After trying for the first time, Ilyas tells you that you're a natural but that feels like an over-exaggeration. You decide to visit more often though because of his enthusiasm.

He encourages you to practice with small squares first before doing any complicated shapes, and to also experiment with different lace patterns.

When you try to practice on your own, you struggle with making the lace without the spider's help, and the strange tool they had to speed up the process. All you had was your needles, threads, and your inexperienced hands.

There were many times where you would miss a stitch and not notice until you had finished the square. It was frustrating but you would keep at it, trying to finish at least one square a day.

You stare at your most recent square. You didn’t miss a stitch this time so that was good, but you didn't really like the pattern the threads were forming.

You rest your head in your hand, absentmindedly tracing your scars as you study the intricate web-like lace.

The sleep schedule you had somewhat managed to fix at Abilene’s house had slowly drifted back to the way it was before. Along with the days becoming shorter, you felt like you spent a good chunk of the night wide awake. So even though it was pretty late, you weren’t tired at all.

You guess you could start another square with a new pattern but even with your lantern, making lace in the night was a strain on your eyes.

You pull the covers sitting around you on the ground over your shoulders and rest your head on the table.

I wonder if Bruno will show….

While you stare at the lace, you somehow manage to fall asleep. You're not sure how long, but you're woken up by a knock at the door.

Knowing it's Bruno, you quickly get up to answer.

He greets you with a smile. “Did you just wake up?”

“Yea, I didn’t even feel like going to bed at all so I don’t know how that happened."

“Too bad I woke you up then.” He pulls out 3 canisters. “I brought you nectar though.”

��I don't have any to trade though? I stayed in today."

"Don't you think we are past that point in our relationship? I’m just giving it to you as a friend."

"I guess you're right. I’m so used to trading...” you trail off and take the canisters.

"Are you okay?"

"Huh?"

"You just seem down."

You open one of the canisters to see what's inside and avoid Bruno's analyzing gaze.

"Honestly, I guess I do feel strange? I want to go back to sleep but I don’t really want to at the same time. Maybe I slept weird…"

"I know you probably don't want to hear this right now but maybe you should go out. It might make you feel better."

You shrug. Other than walking to Ilyas's and sometimes getting nectar close by, you spend most of your day inside. Maybe your body wasn’t used to being inside this much. Even during Winter you'd try to go out when you really shouldn't.

“Maybe you're right.”

"Do you want to go to the lake, obviously not near it of course."

Bruno seemed to be trying to tread carefully with you. It was appreciated but at the same time you want him to treat you like usual.

You huff out a laugh. “I know that, but sure let's go.”

You were already dressed in a sweater but invite Bruno in so you can go find a scarf.

While wrapping one around your neck you remember the moth's sweater and see no better time to give it to him.

You grab it off the chair you left it on and walk into the main room.

"Bruno, I finished your sweater!"

You hold the off white sweater out to the moth and he gently takes it from you.

"You finished it that fast?"

You nod.

The moth unfolds it and holds it out. You made it so it would be on the baggier side so he wouldn't feel constricted.

You watch as he turns it around and pulls it over his head. Once he puts his arms through the sleeves he pats down his hair.

You watch as he fiddles with the buttons on one of his sleeves until it comes off allowing his forearm to be free.

"Feels comfortable?"

He nods as he rebuttons the sleeve. "Yes, thank you! I don't even want to take off the sleeves either."

You grin, pleased that he likes it that much. "That's great! Honestly this looks quite good on you..."

"You think so?" The moth strikes a subtle pose.

"O-Obviously! Honestly I think you'd be able to pull anything off."

This gives you even more motivation to make that lacy top for him.

"Okay, let's go before I say anything else embarrassing," you say.

You both head outside, but you find yourself struggling to get off the ground. Apparently the temperature had dropped slightly too low.

"Do you need help?"

"No, no I got it."

You flap your wings a couple times hoping for the blood to finish circulating and with a little more struggling you're off the ground.

“Oh this sucks!”

You couldn’t help being jealous that Bruno could still fly so easily.

"You really don't need to push yourself."

“It's fine. I just needed to stretch out my wings. You do the vibrating thing to warm up and fly right?"

"Yeah."

"So lucky,” you say with a sigh.

"Have you ever tried doing it yourself? It'll get you in the air quicker."

"Hmmm…"

You momentarily stop flying. Clenching your fists, you tense your whole body and try to vibrate, but it’s literally impossible for you to reach the speed Bruno is capable of.

You notice Bruno is covering his mouth as he watches your sorry attempt.

"Are you laughing at me?"

"I’m sorry, the look on your face was cute."

You open your mouth but actual words struggle to come out.

"You--! Don't….Let’s just go already."

While the two of you make the flight to the lake, the moth insists on holding your hand 'just in case your wings give out'. Even though flying so close to someone can be a pain, his hand kept yours quite warm so you don't complain.

The lake feels so much different when you arrive. Without all the insects around, singing, dancing and playing, it felt somewhat lifeless. Even the lilies from before were shut.

“It’s so quiet…”

“Yea but it can be nice like this too. Sometimes I prefer it.

You both sit at the same place you did last time. Even though the rock's surface is cold, you already feel better. You had been nervous stepping out to places that weren’t busy, but with Bruno that nervousness was almost nonexistent.

You wish you had taken the time to come out more often like this with the moth, because once Winter came you wouldn’t be able to see him. You look over at Bruno. He seems lost in his own thoughts.

“Are you ready for Winter?”

He glances at you. “I suppose so…I won’t be able to visit you anymore though. It’s going to feel quieter.”

You hum in agreement. "Why does Winter have to exist? It's like Fall's terrible older sibling."

That gets a chuckle out of the moth. "That's the first time I've heard some describe the season like that."

"Well it is…"

"I guess you could say that."

Silence settles between the both of you but you move slightly in your spot from the restlessness you were beginning to feel. An idea had come into your mind and you were nervous to try it.

Holding your breath, you lean against the moth, but keep your eyes focused on the lake too afraid to make eye contact. If your time with him was going to be limited then maybe you should send even more hints.

A tense moment passes before you feel him shift against you. Your heart jumps when you feel a hand brush against your hip.

"Is this okay?" Bruno’s voice is low and it makes the action feel more intimate.

Don’t panic. This is a good thing!

“Y-Yes.”

You take a moment to calm down and continue speaking. “Is the sweater still comfortable?”

"Definitely. I think you’ll be happy to hear that I don't want to take it off.”

There was a weird sense of pride within you from getting the moth to willingly wear clothes.

"Then my work here is done. Well I'm going to make you more stuff though.”

You cross your arms and snuggle more into Bruno’s side when a particularly cool wind blows through. The moth's hold on you becomes more secure as he brings another arm to your side.

“Too cold?”

“Definitely underestimated it.”

As much as you wanted to stay in this position, you didn't want to stay out here any longer.

“Let’s go back,” you say.

Bruno gives your side a gentle squeeze before removing his arms. He helps you to your feet, but he doesn’t let go of your hand.

With that you're ready to go. But when you try to take flight, you can’t, no matter how hard you try.

You look at Bruno unsure what to do.

"I can carry you, if that’s okay with you?”

You didn't exactly have another choice so you agree.

He places his arms on your back before he bends down to lift you behind your legs.

You immediately wrap your arms loosely around his neck as soon as he’s off the ground. This was the first time you had been in a situation like this before so you're kind of nervous.

The air passing by as he flys gives you chills. When you shove your face into the fur on his neck to protect your face, you feel him pull you just a little closer.

"You okay?"

"Cold!" The word comes out muffled. Your tolerance to the cold was almost nonexistent.

"Don't worry, it shouldn't be much longer."

You pull your face away just an inch to peak up at the moth “I'm not making you uncomfortable am I?”

"Of course not. We should actually do this more often."

“Flying together?” you ask confused.

"No. Me holding you."

That has you sputtering and you shove your face back in his fur.

Was that...flirting?

It couldn't be anything else but you still try to convince yourself otherwise.

You try to think of other things but just end up thinking about Winter again. Soon you wouldn't be able to spend time with him like this so casually. You wouldn't get to see him for a whole season!

You frown and your arms tighten around his neck.

When you reach back home you feel reluctant to let go of Bruno. Partially because he's so warm.

"____? We’re back.”

The moth lowers your feet to the ground so you can stand but you still hold on.

"____?"

You finally pull away and look at him.

"It’s--Don't you think It’s gonna suck not being able to see each other everyday?” Your voice wobbles. “I don’t want to wait that long...”

Your only option during Winter was to walk but you’d be dead before you even reached Bruno’s home.

It wasn't forever but if you ever messed Abilene she was a short walk away. Maybe you just weren't used to this.

“What if you forget about me?”

“You’re exaggerating. I wouldn't forget you that easily and Winter will pass before you know it.”

"You say that but you’re frowning! What...What if I stayed with you?"

Any shame you had in your body was dwindling away the longer you stayed up apparently.

"I mean...Isn't it weird that you’ve visited me so many times and I’ve never been over to your home once?"

Bruno seems surprised by your sudden suggestion but not displeased.

"I'm not against this but are you sure you’ll be comfortable staying there all Winter? You won’t be able to come back for some time."

You haven't been away from your home for that long ever, but you can’t think of any heavy cons to being away other than not getting to see Abilene.

You sigh, Winter really was cruel.

“...I’m actually already looking forward to it. The next time the temperature increases I'd better fly over there! Or you could just carry me if that doesn't happen soon enough.”

Bruno is unconvinced though. "You don't look completely sure."

"Because I don't want to be seperated from Abby for that long either..."

You look at the moth hoping for him to solve your predicament for you. "What should I do?"

"I have no problem taking you with me, even if it might upset Abilene, so I don't feel right making this decision for you."

You groan. It was definitely a commendable answer but it still left you with a tough decision. But after some pacing you come to a conclusion.

If you're struggling this hard to just stay at home then it would be best to go….Right? And Bruno wants you there too...

You nod to yourself. "I'm going. I don't want to regret staying here. Even if I have to say goodbye to Abby for some time."

"Okay. I know it's selfish of me but I was actually hoping you would still want to come."

At least someone here wasn't conflicted.

You immediately start mentally making a list of the stuff you need to take over. The biggest hill would be your necta.

“Um Bruno…”

After you explain the situation and show him how many jars you have stored up Bruno looks a bit perplexed, but you both accept that you'll have to just start moving things now. So that night Bruno takes bags of your jars home with him.

The next time you’re able to fly, you make sure to head over to Abilene's to tell them where you plan to spend the Winter.

You expect them to be disappointed, and they are, but they mostly end up teasing you.

"What if you guys are dating by the end of Winter?" they ask with a smirk.

You shake your head at the ridiculous statement, but was it really that improbable? A hopeful part of you said no. Bruno obviously didn’t mind being close to you so maybe...

Abilene touches your arm taking you out of your thoughts. “But seriously, I’m happy for you.”

“But will you be okay by yourself?"

They put their hands on their hips. "It will definitely be more quiet but I'll be okay."

You purse your lips but nod. You wish that the distance between here and Bruno’s home wasn’t so far.

"Do you have your stuff already packed?"

"Actually I kind of need your help, if that’s okay. I need to move a good chunk of my nectar over to his home and it’s a lot."

Abilene shrugs. “Yea, sure.”

"I’ll definitely make it up to you!"

"You don't need to make it up, I want you to get to spend time with your little boyfriend."

You almost deny it but know that you’d be reacting just how they want. “Whatever, let’s just go and start moving everything!"

You, Abilene, and Bruno spend the next several days making multiple trips between you and the moth’s homes. With the help of Abilene, the work doesn’t take as long and helps make up for the days you can't fly.

However with Winter getting closer and closer you decide to leave some of your stash behind. You would just have to be extra careful with how much you drink. Bruno reassures you that he has extra nectar just in case though.

You also make sure to bring all your sewing, knitting and lace equipment, AND all your blankets and pillows!

By the time you finish your last day of moving, it's already night and you and Abilene had said goodbye way before the sun set. You were already planning on making them an extra sweater for all their help. Or maybe a hat?

When you finally get to properly take in Brunos home you already feel at home. It was embedded in a tree stump. And the surrounding area had way more trees than your own home. You could tell sunlight struggled to get through even on the hottest of days.

The thing that amazes you the most is that the inside of his home is lit with multiple lanterns.

Bruno drops the last of your blankets on his bed. "Since you’re diurnal we can just switch out sleeping here--well until it gets too cold."

“Where are you going to stay then?” You had already been reluctant to take up his bedroom but he insisted. Not sleeping in a proper place would start to affect you negatively so it was probably for the best.

"There’s space in Narancia’s room."

You nod before yawning, today was a long day and you wanted to put everything away quickly so you could get into bed.

“You're still up?”

At first you think that Bruno’s talking to you but then you see he’s looking behind you. You turn and see a very young insect walk into the room from behind the wall at the entrance.

Your eyes widen slightly. You had expected to see a squishy baby caterpillar when you first met Narancia but what you see instead is a bumblebee already growing out of grub stage. He was a long way from growing out his wings though.

He wasn’t the same as Bruno?

Still you see the messy, random tufts of yellow and black fur on his small body and can't deny how adorable he is.

“I was but ____,” he says.

The youngling then runs towards you and stops in front of you shifting from foot to foot. You smile down at the energetic little bee.

“Hello, Narancia!” His energy was almost infectious.

“Hi! Papa talks 'bout you. A lot!” His small hands raise out and above him.

You grin at the slightly embarrassed look on the moth's face. He was doing his best to hide it though.

So this whole time I wasn’t the only one.

"Narancia--"

“What type of stuff does he say?”

Bruno deadpans at your interruption.

The bee tries to explain but part of it comes off unintelligible. You nod along though to the stuff you can understand like 'nice' and 'flowers'. You think you catch something about your wings too.

“Narancia, it’s bedtime,” Bruno says after his son seems to run out of words.

“Why? I’m not sleepy."

“I know, but we need to fix your sleep schedule.”

Looks like you weren’t the only one struggling to sleep at the “proper” times either.

The bee huffs. "I wanna stay here..."

Bruno holds out a hand to him, which Narancia pouts at but grabs.

“I’m going to go put Narancia back to bed and I’ll come back to help.”

“Goodnigh’,” Narancia says to you.

“Night. We can play later, okay?”

The bee nods obviously still not wanting to leave.

Once he and Narancia leave you use this chance to properly look around his room. Other than the bed and the small table next to it, there's a small dresser (where he probably kept some of the clothes he never wore) a floor length mirror, and a shelf.

This room was also lacking in lanterns compared to the others. You take notice of one of the lanterns sitting on the shelf in between some books and get the feeling the moth put them in here for you.

Other than that, the room was quite neat and the furniture looked elegant and costly. It was definitely a bedroom that said ‘Bruno Bucciarati’.

You decide that's enough investigating and go back to organizing, and soon after Bruno returns to help.

The both of you work, talking about small unimportant things but you finally ask what has been at the back of your mind since you saw Narancia.

“Um...why is Narancia living with you?”

A bee usually lives within a community of other bees of their type their whole lives--kind of like ants or wasps--so you were curious, but almost not surprised since Bruno seemed to have a penchant for gathering deviant insects.

“...I found him alone in a dead hive and I took him in.”

Bruno seemed reluctant to go into it and honestly you didn’t think it was your place to intrude, so you accept that answer with an “Oh”.

Bruno stops stacking jars in his closet to look at you. "I should have told you he was a bee sooner, yea?"

"Hmm, not really. Does it really matter?"

"...I guess you're right,” Bruno says but he doesn’t sound too sure.

Maybe some insects told him it was weird.

“Well it’s great that you found and took in Narancia. Nature isn’t exactly patient with larvae.”

The moth nods. “That’s true. The only problem is our different sleep schedules and the feeding. Well it was until you told me about how honey can be watered down."

“So you gave the honey I gave you to Narancia?”

“Well I might have eaten some too.” He smiles a bit. “But I got more ‘straight from the source’ so it’s fine. And Narancia doesn't go through the supply as quickly anymore now that it's better quality.”

You feel pleased that you had managed to help the moth, even if it was unintentional.

By the time you, Bruno, and Narancia--who wouldn’t stay in bed--finish finding spots to put all your jars, it’s well into the night.

You lay in Bruno’s bed under numerous covers and among all your pillows. It smelt faintly of flowers, ones you would usually smell on the moth. It’s almost like you're shoving your face into his fluffy fur.

For once you’re ready to go to sleep the moment you’re in bed. You shut all the other lanterns in the room but kept yours open. At this point, sleeping with it was necessary for you.

As you feel yourself drifting off, a knock on the door pulls you back.

“Come in…” you say through a yawn.

Bruno slowly opens the door and walks in.

“Did I wake you up?”

“Not this time but you tend to show up when I am.”

“Sorry, I’m not doing it on purpose I swear.” Bruno comes over to sit on the edge of the bed.

You smile at him feeling even more relaxed under your covers.

“It’s okay, seeing you is better than sleeping, “ you say through a yawn. “Thanks again for letting me say. I’m really happy I'll get to see you everyday.”

"Me too. I know I tried to act like the Winter would go by quickly but...I was actually dreading it.”

You feel relief and almost happy that Bruno felt the same way.

"Why'd you come?" you ask.

"I...I just wanted to see you."

The both of you stare at each other in the dim light for a moment, you mostly confused. Then for some reason Bruno leans over closer to you, but you don’t move away.

"Can I kiss you?"

Maybe you're too tired to overthink but you feel surprisingly calm. You don't trust your voice though so you nod instead.

When he closes the space and his lips press against yours you’re unsure if you’re dreaming or not.

You feel his tongue brush against your bottom lip and you think he'll deepen it, but his hand caresses your cheek and he pulls back.

You stare into his faintly glowing eyes as you struggle to speak. "Was...was that a goodnight kiss?"

Bruno’s finger traces your bottom lip. “Do you want it to be?”

"I um--Maybe it can be more?"

His stare feels so intense and you struggle to keep eye contact but you don't want to look away either.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the moth presses a soft kiss to your cheek before standing up.

“Goodnight ____."

“N-Night Bruno.”

Even though your body feels warmer, you pull the covers close. The fatigue you had was practically whooshed away. So you stare wide-eyed at the lantern--the only thing keeping you company.

-----

A/N: I made art for narancia! anyways im gonna make the next 3 chapters as fluffy/domestic as i possibly can (the next updates might be a little slow tho, kind of stressed with real life stuff so please bear with me)

[aprito]

hello <3 since i got these asks at the same time i decided to combine my thoughts on them in this post. yet another annoying sjw essay from yours truly on this blog 

before i get into these i think i need to preface why im like. i guess overly hyperfocused on a certain unproblematic base (same age au / platonic canon) for them and avoid the ped0philic content like the plague lol

tw for pedophilia ment, rape ment if that makes you squicky. ALSO THIS IS LONG AND RAMBLY

as i’ve mentioned a couple times already, ive been into the ship since i was 12, back when it was very very common to not only post untagged (nsfw) canonverse content of the two in writing and in drawing but also non con and the like, so you can imagine how bad my first impression online was. thinking back on it ...as a child i found it disturbing but didnt really register how problematic it really was?? (i know, but i also lived in the middle of nowhere and had no one explain this to me) 

skip to 2014 aka me coming back to naruto at 17ish and i had kinda become hyper aware of the fact that there was an increasing amount of people online who had come forward with explaining how fictional problematic content, mostly pedophilia, had been used to groom them into starting relationships with adullts. it was also a time where a lot of people didnt believe these victims, not registering how common it was for minors to be online friends with adults who had no boundaries and no qualms exposing them such content. not gonna get into my personal life here but i was lucky to not having gone through this myself. like... it kinda was my first time truly realising how fiction can EASILY be used to manipulate others irl (and yes i will not argue this, if you dont think fictional media can form and manipulate people’s opinions on attitudes, countries, cultures and virtues, pick up a book about the effects of propaganda media at least once please) 

i, being young, still liking the dynamic but not really the romance, would point this out here and there in the fandom and get into fights with grown adults in their mid 20s who assumed i automatically hated the ship(s) and tried to restrict their freedom of speech or whatever, heard everything from the “age of consent doesnt exist in naruto” to the “sasori looks like a child what does it matter” despite people clearly playing on him being older and experienced. it made me so upset that people were just consuming all this content uncritically and exposing children to it tbh?? not really just sos but a lot of minor/adult ships in naruto in general. and thats where i sat down and thought, i do not want to be a grown adult talking down to children that point out how unsafe the fandom is. theyre absolutely right in drawing these boundaries and calling out adults who defend the uncritical consumption and creation of this content. i do not want to consume or create content that predators could use to groom minors, and i absolutely do want to let younger people in fandom know that i am respecting their comfort zones and want them to have a safe and fun experience. after all, naruto is not an adult show and i think a lot of people forget that!!!! i am not perfect in that regard but its something that i, at the age of 23, am very passionate about and strive towards to.

and i guess thats where same age au was born for me and i have been sticking to it ever since. 

so finally we can move to the first question 

aside from the fact that we both dont like canon sos, i dont think it would work out even if i wasnt prejudiced to it anyways. in all honesty, 35 year old canon sasori is not a redeemable character to me, given the fact that he’s easily amongst the cruelest villains in naruto (torturing and killing and taxiderming people for his own fun personal gain, never for a goal that served anyone but himself. how do you redeem having over 300 corpses in your backpack that you felt absolutely no remorse for killing). sasori was legit one of the only cruel villains that didnt had someone else pull the strings, which sends a clear message on kishi’s part, who absolutely loves to redeem villains LOL.

being that old, he obviously had already been very manifested in what he believed in, even if it was shakey, to the point where the first crack in that world view (sakura and chiyo protecting each other) immediately had him give up on his life all together. that, in my opinion, is not a man who’s going to know what healthy relationships would look like, regardless of it being romantic or not. 35 year old sasori to me has the same appeal as an expired can of tuna and he’s probably very happy 6 feet under. he’s supposed to be a failed gaara in that sense that he had no one to look out for him and therefore was never going to experience anything but a bad ending in life. its fine that hes dead honestly, it wraps up his short character development the best IMO.

adding to that, seriously, sakura was obviously interested in knowing why he was that way, and called him out for being seriously fucked in the head, but it’s weird to me that people assume she had any interest in actively rehabilitating him, let alone starting a serious romantic relationship with him. sakura who’s not only very, uhm, immature and straight forward when it comes to her romantic viewpoints also, as a big bootlicker, wouldnt soil her standing in the village by starting anything with a disgraced and far too gone criminal like sasori. shipping that version of sasori with sakura intimately is still going to set her up for a huge power imbalance that would be difficult to handle imo, even if she was the one in the fight ultimately exerting her power over him. i would still look at it and think damn she deserves better than having to play therapist for man like that lol.

additionally, even if you ignored all of this, you cant really ignore that sasori had already known her as a child, and that had been his first and most impactful impression of her. i dont think that sasori would look at 35 year old sakura and see her as a grown woman and not the little green girl she was in the fight. plus, you easily fall into predatory comparison territory between the “childish” and “womanly” and i have seen way too often in fic just being boiled down to her now being fuckable. a lot of of ships do this and i would just like to remind yall thats it not normal for adults to want to start relationships with children they have seen grown up or known as a child when they themselves were fully grown adults. therefore, maybe if sakura hadnt met sasori before it would be less of a problem? but that also obviously defeats the point of the dynamic and the reason he died in the first place. so yeah, it sounds kind of doomed especially if you were to make it romantic. 

WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE SECOND QUESTION

let me preface this that im not fundamentally against age gaps, even if im not super interested in it. after all, colorblind had a 5 yr age gap (with sakura being 21), even if, say, i wrote similar fics today i probably would make it smaller lol. i think it can be handled well if both parties have enough life experience to deal with it, and the author is cautious of where the age gap starts, i think a 10+ year age gap would be fine in a scenario where the younger party (i guess sakura) was at least 25-27ish, meaning she has completed most of her most formative life stages and probably had been in relationships before, meaning she would be able to handle it without having to fear a huge power imbalance. the older the younger party is the less the age gap is going to matter tbh .TsukiHoshino and AngelOfDeath10 both handle age gaps in their fics really well imo, so i do not mind reading about them.

unfortunately, a lot of people in this fandom think making sakura barely "”””legal””””” (18, not even 20 which is hilarious to me because the source material is obviously japanese) because they both cannot stand her being past her “prime years” of being young fertile and fuckable to much older men as well as thinking a 20 year old is automatically old enough to handle that type of relationship. ive seen a lot of unironic takes that believe it will absolve them of callout posts if they throw around age of consent and “shes 18 now suckers!!!” enough lmfao. absolutely hilarious. aging a minor up without aging the adult down seriously reeks of predatory “cant wait until youre 18″ narratives and thats why i find it similarly disturbing as straight up pedo shipping.

ultimately, sasosaku is and will always be a inherently problematic ship in canon, which is why i think it should always be handled a little more responsibly in fandom spaces, ignoring or outright excusing the main problem factor, which is sasori, isnt going to convince anyone that the dynamic in itself is well written and interesting enough to explore in aus, like giving sasori the redemption most of us wanted him to have by aging him down to a point in time where he was still realistically going to allow being positively influenced, similar to gaara. 

so really, what i think is well handled age gap and how most people handle age gap in the naruto fandom are two different worlds at times lol 

tl;dr

canon shippers have never been anything but gross when i was younger and i didnt wanna be like that, even if youre “smart”enough to differenate, actual creeps dont really care and might use your content to blur the lines, sasori isnt rly redeemable so romantic canonverse realistically wouldnt make much sense and is still iffy, age gaps are fine if they are handled well, but given that the dynamic doesnt really need the age gap to still work im not that invested on making that an essential part of my shipping experience.  

thank you for reading and hope this makes sense!

[seijch]

ANNOUNCEMENT: NOT A HELLO, BUT NOT A GOODBYE EITHER

omg hi ... im like . ashamed to come back after saying brief hiatus in october and then disappearing off the face of the earth til FEBRUARY but under the cut i will be explaining myself and the following, if youre interested (and a tl;dr at the very bottom if you don’t wanna scroll thru this obnoxiously long post):

the reason(s) i was gone for so long

what i was doing during that time (its just a personal account yall can scroll past this idrc)

the status of those um . halloween requests

the future of this account

i. so . Hiatus .

i know. i know . i probably mentioned it when i made the announcement post, but my mental health likes to go on one of those rides. yknow the ones where you go like up rlly fast then down maybe and then up then DOWN .... its like that. i needed a break and every time i wanted to come back or thought about it, something would happen and i would get stuck in my own head.

a big reason for getting stuck in my head was (and i hate to admit this ... i hate to admit that i have Insecurities On The Internet) my feelings of inadequacy regarding my writing. i love to plot fics, i love concepts and characters and making little headcanons but i dont ... know if i love writing rn. and i thought for the longest time that like . whatever ill just push thru it its fine ill be fine but it kinda wasnt lmao you can kinda see it in my halloween reqs and what become of them when i get to that but i began to feel like nothing i had put out or would put out would hold up prose wise (and normally i dont feel like this im much more “idc its my life im living it” but thats not a rant for tumblr LMAO). i still feel like that -- like im better as a reader than a writer. but . You Know :-)

tl;dr: mental state go brrrrr

ii. anywhere here’s wonderwall

when i left, i was in a steadily decreasing mental and emotional state, made worse by a situation at work that really was a case of petty jealousy on my end and rlly isnt very consequential now despite how much pain and resentment it gave me when it Was a problem so i wont get into it. the tl;dr of november and december was me using work as an crutch and distraction -- i know my job, i do it well, it helped me not think about my responsibilities and obligations and inadequacies. of course, as the holiday season grew busier n busier i was scheduled so often that i moved 88 or so miles (according to my apple watch, which i ONLY wear at work since im never anywhere else outside my house) and fell into a cycle of showering n sleeping at my house before going back the next day. (theres definitely something to be said abt capitalism and “grind culture” here but once again its not the time or place snsjkdfds)

at the turn of the new year, i happened to remember a birthday card i hadnt filed away for safekeeping from a friend of mine that id been horribly out of touch with til that point. i started crying because i realized how out of touch id been in general up until that point. the month of january was great for me: i was focused, happy, and in a much better place than i had been before. the end of it brought me down focus wise and im hoping that enough time away from my distractions will refocus me bc i ... need it LMAO and though ive burned out from that level of productivity and gotten distracted again im ... trying to stay positive which i think is the most i can do 😁👍🏼

media wise, i got real into stardew valley (but burned out bc i played it extensively as a way to wind down after work), the pokemon platinum romhack renegade platinum (still havent finished it bc of school n i played it w the intent to see if i could nuzlocke it ... bitch its so hard but its so fun bc of it), briefly assassins creed: odyssey (im one of those ppl who completes an entire region before i move to the next so you can tell i burned out of that one + wouldnt have the time to properly devote to it even if i didnt), got back into genshin impact after pulling for xiao (after not touching it for like . months), and danganronpa. yes . danganronpa 😐 i Know. i stopped playing it after the second trial of the first game bc i was so hurt by the outcome and picked it up in late january only to get sucked in (thank god i had the foresight to buy the second and third games during the steam winter sale). rn im at the start of chapter 4 if anyone wants to come in my asks and um . talk to me abt danganronpa

tl;dr: I’m Into Danganronpa Now

iii. you realize halloween was three months ago right

i mentioned this in the first section, but i love to plot things. every request is plotted or at least has a solid foundation. i had fun detailing what concept i wanted to go with considering what i was given, and there were some bangers i might touch up in the future. but heres whats going to happen to the requests themselves:

there are two finished requests. one will be posted tomorrow and the other will be touched up (just bc i finished it doesnt mean its good 🧍‍♂️) and scheduled for next saturday. as for the ones i never got around to ...

i will not be finishing those requests. i hate to be That Person, but i feel like we all expected this 🧍‍♂️ what i will do is post all of my notes for each request in batches -- requests that have an @ to go with them will be mentioned in the post proper, but anon asks will be pictured. (there are some asks that came from blogs who are now deactivated but i wrote down all the prompts and remember most of those askers so ill cross that bridge when i get there) there will most likely be an excerpt or two simply bc i think i mightve written a few plot points or interactions in the form of bullet points. i rlly am sorry about doing this but i remember looking at my notion doc with all the prompts and feeling ... like i wasnt measuring up n it wasnt just to myself or to some intangible concept of “other” id constructed but it was instead to those who requested n actually WANTED to see and hear and read my writing and i ...... im gonna admit thats another big reason i avoided this site.

regardless, youll definitely get what i have (and likely more than just my bullet points and illegible handwriting).

tl;dr: im sorry. what i have in terms of plot, concept, and interaction for every request will be posted, but i cant say ill ever complete them and mean it.

iv. so what now?

well i mean . im not entirely sure how sold i am on haikyuu in the content creation department (as a creator n to a lesser extent, as a consumer). as mentioned previously, its no longer my primary focus. it doesnt mean im not into haikyuu anymore; i have a lot of love for those boys but i cant rlly say im even caught up w recent fandom activity and also havent even finished s4 pt2 LMAO thats on my to do list

and despite all that, i still want to share my plots n concepts and snippets and maybe even fics. it wont happen anytime soon. it might not even happen. but i mean . its better than me saying i wont write ever again shjdkfs but either way ill probably use this blog as a personal blog w the occasional ask game for dialogue prompts (those are always so fun i love making up aus to fit like . the most mundane prompts)

as for my works (past and any potential future), ive opened an ao3 acc here n ill be editing n possibly expanding on my old works to post there. tumblr, to me, is The x reader hub, but i figure more x reader fics on ao3 is never a bad thing.

ill be deleting/posting drafted posts to the queue since they were all meant to be queued anyway as well as (sorry again 🧍‍♂️) deleting or answering asks in the inbox. (moots if you get a notif from me saying i rbed your post from months ago ... mind your business) im very hard to get ahold of and its ... a problem. expect an overhaul of the nav n shit to reflect my new direction n also because i feel like i cant tell if my passion for carrd is shared by the majority HSDKLFS maybe its better to read my info in a normal post ykwim .......

and of course . if youve read all this n decided im no longer worth the follow, i sure as hell cant stop you. thank you for wanting to, at some point, hear what i have to say -- it means more than you think.

tl;dr: writing will be edited and reposted to ao3, this blog will be a personal blog with a hint of writing (sometimes)

the tl;dr to end all tl;drs:

im back! i wont be as active as i used to due to a lessened interest in haikyuu in general, but i have an ao3 acc now where all my past work will be edited, possibly expanded, and reposted. any future work will also find itself there. my halloween requests will be posted in batches as incomplete concepts, plots, and snippets of scenes; i wont be promising to finish any of them.

there are still fic concepts im attached to and want to finish, but i cant promise any more writing on my end. this blog will be a personal blog with maybe writing, not a writing blog with my personal thoughts all over it.

regardless if you stick around or not, its been crazy sexy cool (equal emphasis) being on haikyuu tumblr even tho i wasnt around for long ... even tho its not my main focus anymore, im still excited to see what the future might hold 🤝

love, ari 💌

[vlfgrim]

The Pandemic Story That No One Expected...

My life is a series of events where I beat the odds that the most unreasonable, outrageous things possible could happen to me. (The Story of Getting Hit By Lightning Twice and The Mystery of the Phantom Seizures are also members of this saga.) With some autoimmune issues of my own and a co-living situation that has me interred with someone who is severely immuno-compromised obviously set the tone that I would be sticking to a quarantine pretty militantly. (Standing TW for medical content- injury, infection, vomiting, blood etc etc.)

Which, with my main job being completed from home, has really affected my life very little. But at the end of June I somehow managed to create an entire scenario that includes infections where they shouldn’t be and illnesses that haven’t seen prevalence since 1930. (My own research has made me feel better in realizing that this may just be a sign of the times but for about a month I thought I had gone back in time.)

I fell into a sheared off chain link fence at the end of the month of June and ended up with a laceration on my arm. My vet-tech, nursing school educated self cleaned myself up, bandaged the wound and resolved to keep an eye on it just in case- I even made sure my tetanus shot was still valid.

Suddenly I developed a severe fever, chills, body aches and cyclical vomiting that made us all afraid that I had SOMEHOW contracted COVID with no way to even come close to tracing it. The nightmare of finding a test in a town that had THREE open test centers that didn’t require me sitting in the sun for 4-5 hours with a 103+ fever was a lot. But I did manage a quick test after about a week of symptoms and was told (thankfully) that I tested negative. 

Here’s where it gets ridiculous.

Since my entire focus was on all of my other symptoms and that discomfort, it didn’t occur that my arm was either a cause, symptom or indicator of what was wrong. But with the COVID fear gone, we realized that my arm was swollen to almost twice its normal size and was so red and angry that it was hot before you even touched it. 

So off to the emergency room I go with my negative COVID test, where I get tons of blood taken for blood work that never gets sent off, a culture of the wound and then forced to deal with infection debridement with no pain management due to a nurses concern that “I may be a drug addict” since I came in sick, alone, tattooed and showing signs of self harm. (Additionally I was threatened with withholding of care if I refused a pregnancy test.) 10/10 most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. -Important to note that I (at this time) am not a drug addict, suicidal or without a support system, so this is an issue of stereotyping and not over-cautious care.

Obviously I don’t want to get admitted and I’m already fighting them trying to check me in on suspicion of self-injury- a doctor sees me crying and finally gets me some pain medications that I turned out later to be allergic to. I was allowed to go home with the promise to return the next few days for checkups and IV antibiotics. 

With the ERs blessing I transferred to a local doctor who then began the debilitating process of dealing with what now amounts to an actual HOLE in my arm, that appears to still be actively infected and moving around my body. And he gets concerned about the infection settling in my joints because of where the injury is. And why is he concerned? BECAUSE IT’S A STREP INFECTION. And apparently they’re almost impossible to stop once they’re in the blood or bone.

So here I am, nearly a month later, after 6 rounds of antibiotics and still having issues healing- with the added complications of a red rash, more fever and eventually peeling hands and feet. What I found out was that it’s IMPOSSIBLE to determine if a reaction like this is to the antibiotics I’ve been on, or if it was scarlet fever and indicative of continued infection.  I’ve now been on antibiotics for 45 days, and realizing that in the middle of a global pandemic- I managed to get a strep infection from a fence.

[kinktae]

The penultimate part🥺 I’m not ready to say goodbye, Bitchin!Jungkook has definitely been one of my fav characterizations of him that I’ve ever read. Thank you so much for sharing your work with all of us💖

bitchin 9 asks bc i suck

sapphireprinces5 said: bitchin’ pt9 was just so beautiful?? the way you explained the emotions and interactions between the characters was just amazing!! I felt myself hanging on every word wow excited for the end but will miss bitchin’ so much 🤧

Anonymous said: TAEHYUNG AND YARA SIGN ME UP GURL!!!!

Anonymous said: Like I just feel like if Jk really liked y/n he wouldn’t have slept with Kiri, you know? It shouldn’t matter that he didn’t know how y/n felt. And it’s obvious that he has feelings for y/n so I just hope that’s something y/n addresses when she talks to him. Don’t settle for less girl! Get you a man who will fight for you regardless 👏 (btw this is not me criticizing how you wrote it in any way! I’m just so invested in the characters and am thinking about how I would feel in this scenario :) )

Anonymous said: I KNEW SOMETHING WAS GONNA HAPPEN WITH YARA AND TAE I FELT IT SO DEEP IN MY BONES IM SO HAPPY FOR THEM 😭😭😭

Anonymous said: Hi! I just binge read bitchin in a day and can I just say that I loved it! I really love the female characters as well, you’ve written them so beautifully 🥺 if I was y/n I wouldn’t be concerned so much about Jk not sleeping with Kiri if he knew the way y/n felt, but rather the fact that if Jk didn’t want to sleep with Kiri, he wouldn’t have, regardless of y/n’s feelings or not. IMO y/n’s feelings shouldn’t be the issue here, but Jk’s should! If I was y/n’s bff that’s what I would tell her LOL

Anonymous said: OH MY GOODNESS! YES !!!! YESSSSS Y.E.S Muchas graciaaaas!!!

Anonymous said: tae and yara are my new ship)

unknowntalesx said: okay but like tae and yara thooO they got me all smiley being like oh yeah bayyybeEE das what im talking about 😏 ALSO OKAY NOW THAT I AM MORE LUCID KIRI GOT FUCKING WRECKED I LOVED THAT SHE GOT A DOSE OF HER OWN MANIPULATIVE MEDICINE I AM 😤😤😤😤😤

Anonymous said: im not ready for bitchin to end )):

Anonymous said: I SCREAMED WHEN Y/N TOLD KIRI THE TRUTH. YES QUEEN. STAB AND TWIST THE KNIFE!

Anonymous said: ROSE AHHSHSJSKSD FUCK U I’m all hot and bothered with anticipation for pt 10 now 😩😩😩🥵

sydney--chan said: We really stan y/n for using her big ol brain to rock kiris world oh my god I yelled also I say what's your damage all the time bring that shit back

Anonymous said: a tae x yara spin off series or one shot...... haha jk..... unless..... 👀

Anonymous said: Fuck kiri's scheming ass. I'm glad YN ripped her a new one

Anonymous said: AAHHHHHH once again, I love this chapter so much!!!! I was screaming at Yara and Tae part. Seriously!!!! I am SURE she felt that spark when he kissed her. Is she going to be the one falling for the guy while he wants something casual now? Or maybe Tae will fall for her as well? Ahhhh so cute! I feel like that would be a nice spin off yk (no pressure, I swear). And Erik, woah I didn't expect him to be like that. To be so nice and wise. Great character development indeed! It was really nice (1/2)

Anonymous said: To see their interaction and the way he opened her eyes (for some reason I couldn't help but picture him as Namjoon). Ohhh the Kiri part tho!!!! I felt really petty but in the best way lol. Anywaysss I am really excited for the last chapter (really sad too) and I am sure it is going to be the best because you are a genius! Thank you for sharing another amazing chapter with us! ♥♥♥ (2/2)

Anonymous said: OKAY I absolutely adored Bitchin part 9 😻 I always thought that it was also OC fault for what happened between her and jk, he obviously was the main jerk but she never actually admitted her feelings to him and he doesn't read minds so??¿¿? Really loved that she came to understand it. And I was rooting SO MUCH for yara and tae MAN I AM CRYING THEY DESERVE IT 🙌🏻

Anonymous said: you came through with the tae x yara content we all needed omg thank you!! if anyone’s gonna make yara fall in love it’s tae lol

Anonymous said: I honestly lowkey hate bitchin’ jungkook right now. I thought I’d get over it but I just can’t imagine how hurt and disgusted Y/N was when she found out that jk and kiri were together just hours before they were like ugh. It doesn’t help that I’m also really interested in Erik’s character development now so it would’ve been really interesting to see how he’d fit in Y/N’s life. 🥺

Anonymous said: jungkook and y/n wANT what yara and tae have

Anonymous said: TAEYARA YES FINALLY OUR WISHES HAVE BEEN ANSWERED 😍😍

Anonymous said: just want to let you know you’re an absolute angel and all you create is nothing short of perfection. *sends you all of the love*

spring2787 said: I jus came from a 4 hour long class and it's finally here... Thank you so much dear 🎂 💜

Anonymous said: Is yara me ? Like when she said that boy act like they understand the no string involved but then fall in love , dude I felt that , that's literally the story of my life lmaoooo Like the number of time a dude told me yeah I'm okay with that and then acted shocked when I told him I didn't feel anything for him is impressive lmaoo Anyway I'm so eager for the last chapter!!!! you did an amazing job!!

kuhweenbri said: The way I already finished but anyways girl I absolutely loved this part and now I’m excited for the next part 😭😭 will we be seeing more of T-ara??

Anonymous said: OMG YARA AND TAEEEEEEEEE. NOW I UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MEANT BY FANSERVICE. JSJSJSJJSBXBSBSB But on a serious note, this fic just keeps on getting better. The fact that there's only one chapter left still hasn't come home to me 😭 but thank you so much for blessing us with this!💜💜

Anonymous said: YO! bitchin is flippin brilliant! you have done so well! jungkook broke my heart in part 9! im emotional but also so ready for part 10! please take your time. have a lovely day

Anonymous said: i don’t normally talk to writers on here but bitchin is really bitchin, i haven’t read a fanfic in so long that makes me excited to read the next part and maybe it’s because i’m so used to all of the aus being recycled but bitchin is truly a breathe of fresh air to me for some reason, maybe because you fleshed out the right hand mans for both characters idk or the it being a different time period, but i just wanted to say you are smashing bitchin dude and i love it!!

shy-kpop-girl said: BITCHIN': I just caught up on 8 & 9. Shocked & angry at JK. Because regardless of whether he knew y/n' feelings it was a dick move to sleep with Kiri one night and y/n the next morning. And it wasn't like he came over to talk/tell y/n about Kiri & things escalated because he went right at it as soon as she let him in. Even tho it was hot. 😳 But Erik. I wanted to hate him but dude surprised me with his reasoning. I loved that dialogue! Once again your writing is amazing & I love this story!

Anonymous said: Bitchin is the best fanfic on tumblr. And no one can change my mind. You’re doing amazing!! Much love xoxo

Anonymous said: “Think of life as one big puzzle and everyone you meet is shaped differently, right? Yet somehow… they fit. We find those that complete us. And they’re not necessarily opposites but—“ MAAM that part hit SOOO different omg your brain!?! Outta this world! Like this is whole ass literature!!!! I stg Bitchin’ is the best thing on this app and I meant that w my whole chest.

Anonymous said: I'm not ready for Bitchin to end. It's soooooo good 😍😍😍

kmultifandom said: Since there's a cast for bitchin I wanna audition for y/n because i wanna be a biologist and I have some similar personality traits *mic drop* Also great work, I seriously love it. No other fan fiction I have read was so close to my actual self and that impresses me even more and make it like it 10 times more djksksks

Anonymous said: how will I live when bitchin ends agghhh I haven’t even read 8-9 cause I’m waiting for the happy ending before I’m heartbroken and left waiting for the last part

Anonymous said: you know what would be super fun and crazy 😛😛🙈🙈 if you dropped bitchin’ pt 10 right now 😳😳 haha just kidding .... unless 😏😏

Anonymous said: lets gooooo!!!!!!!!!!! bitchin pt 10 better haunt me for the rest of the year

Anonymous said: I feel like I’m going to get so emotional once Bitchin’ part 10 is released. It’s like I’m sending off my non-existing kids to university because I won’t be able to see Bitchin!Jungkook anymore 🥺

Anonymous said: I can’t believe Bitchin’ is for real ending 😩 it’s soo gud 

Anonymous said: Can’t wait till bitchin PART 10 Probably gonna fall asleep before u post but I’ll try to stay up for it 🥺

Anonymous said: i love your writing honestly and i just really want you to be happy. your writing is immaculate and i really want you to know that you are talented and skilled so yeah. sorry if this is out of nowhere but i just really want to show appreciation to writers because they don't get enough and you are definitely my favorite writer:)) hope you have a good day!!

Anonymous said: okay but if Bitchin' goes on for 50 chapters that would be good too.. just sayin'.

tpo-quinn said: Bruh, I can already feel that I'm gonna cry from the last chapter of bitchin'...I CAN'T WAIT!

leojjeon said: so i've re-read bitchin ready for chapter 10 an I am feeling all sorts of emotions. it's fair to say it's my favourite series I've read!

Anonymous said: y did i forget bitchin would have an end like 😳😐we’ve been on this bitchin journey w u for so long i’m sad it’s over

Anonymous said: What what what?? Bitchin is ending??!!! Didnt it just fucking start like all the drama and tae&yara!!!! Omg girl!!!

Anonymous said: ur the absolute fucking GODDESS of writing angst, ive never ever waited for a ff to be updated before as if it was a new episode of my fav show coming out. thank u for writing and be so active, muah ur amazing

Anonymous said: a moment of silence for our loved bitchin who will die soon 😔 gone but not forgotten, she will always be in our hearts. all the best rides come to an end 😭

[ultsracha]

Idol!Changmin (Q) x Model!reader Fluff

Anon:  Yes! We need more the boyz writers! If I may request, could you write a bulletpoint piece model!fem reader and idol!changmin/q meeting and falling in love? ❤️ A/N: Ahhh thank you for the request! changmin is my bias and so i would absolutely love to write for him so im glad this was requested. *disclaimer* this is the first thing ive written in a very long time and im sure it’s not the best, im sorry for that but hopefully i made up for it with adding other members cracky content as well <3 

being a model was never what you intended to do when you grew up but you started posing for photography students during school and from there more and more people want to take your picture 

now, 3 years later it’s a whole career and you get to work alongside some amazing brands and creators to promote stuff 

one week, you were sent to seoul for a shoot with numerous other people to promote a clothing brand 

usually you didn't mind flying out to new places, in fact it was the best part of the job once you got over the language barrier 

but this time, you were completely alone, your manager couldn't come due to family problems and all of your friends had work

so you were completely alone going to this event

and little did you know it wouldn't just be a small shoot, tons of people were there from all over the world 

they had actors, singers and models from tons of different places and companies 

and most of them were older than you which made things more stressful

so, first day there and everyone’s being told their schedules and what they need to be doing 

when you’re given your schedule you see you’ve been put on the same shoot as a boy group and a handful of other models 

not that you minded because maybe you could make some friends seeing as you’d be there for a while 

luckily your shoot wasn’t for a while as they didn’t choose you as one of the major people involved with the project so you ended up in a backroom with a few other people minding their own business

it was reasonably quiet in the room, people chatting away and on their phones until the door burst open and a group of boys walked in

all of them were, well

very very very very cute

its uwu time

no wonder they’d been picked for this project, who wouldn't want something modelled by them 

They walked in together, one following behind the other. The final boy to walk in looked around at everyone until his eyes met yours

and when i say awkward eye contact, i mean awkward eye contact for about 6 seconds before he accidentally walked into his group member in front of him

followed by some profuse blushing and apologising 

they proceeded to disperse into the room and sit down

the one who made intense awkward eye contact lingered for a second, looking around before settling into a seat opposite you 

Now there were around 18 people all sat together, not really talking very much

and the air was, awkward. 

Until the organiser of the event came in to introduce himself and explain what you were all meant to do

The whole time he was introducing himself you felt someone looking at you, but whenever you searched everyone's faces no one was looking 

everything was going fine and dandy until the guy explaining the concepts and the activities you guys would be doing for the shoot asked everyone to introduce themselves one by one 

it wouldn’t usually be a problem, you’re a confident person and modelling has certain helped that but when surrounded by so many beautiful humans it’s scary as hell 

so, they all introduced themselves. one of the members called Hyunjoon even threw in a cheeky wink at the end of his introduction 

like who ??? let you be so cute 

but then it came to the one who held the awkward eye contact

he seemed dead set on never looking at you ever again after that first moment up until the second he stood

he looked right at you as he introduced himself 

explaining that he didn't mind being called Q or Changmin 

what a freaking cutie pie 

when it was your turn you felt the most amount of butterflies in your stomach since probably your first kiss back in primary school

introducing yourself as calmly as possible, only looking up from the floor briefly to see Changmin staring into your eyes with keen interest 

oof that was enough to set your heart on fire 

Finishing your introduction of where you’re from and how old you are, you sat down quickly feeling the heat in your cheeks increase when you saw two of the boys whispering together 

once the man was gone it was a lot easier for everyone to chat and discuss how they thought the project would turn out, excited to be part of such a unique shoot 

Changmin was glancing your way every few seconds, looking like he was having an internal battle with himself 

You decided to just be a bad bitch and go speak to him yourself 

he was with Hyunjoon anyway and you needed to congratulate him on winning the best introduction of the team award!! 

when you got there they both abruptly stopped talking and looked at you, waiting with wide eyes for what you were going to say 

“so you’re part of a boy group yeah?” you ask

might as well ease in gently yanno

they both looked at each other before Hyunjoon answered and began explaining their roles in the group

he explained in great length that Changmin was the main dancer 

speaking very briefly of the other members in order to explain that Changmin can sing and dance so well and he’s super amazing with fans 

Changmin all the while stood there blushing and trying to disagree with him 

honestly a sweet but strange interaction 

until finally Hyunjoon was called away by another member of the group 

leaving just you and Changmin alone 

you’d moved to a couch nearby by now so for a few moments you sat there admiring him as he watched Hyunjoon walk off 

when he turned back he rushed to say “I’m sorry about him, he loves to hype us all up. I’m not really that cool’ 

“No, I think you’re pretty cool...” You shrug, trying to pass off the compliment slyly which didn’t go unnoticed by him. 

A faint blush was working it’s way up his neck when the organiser walked back in with 3 sheets of paper 

“I can see you’ve all got to know each other more and now, I want you to divide yourself into teams as evenly as possible. I don’t want all the girls put in one team though because there are less of you” 

He then leaves the sheets on a table and walks off again leaving you to find the courage to ask Changmin if he’d want to be in the same team as you

Because I mean you’ve only known him for about 45 minutes but he’s already showed how sweet he is and you can’t help but feel excited at the idea of spending the next few days working with him

“So would yo-” 

“Hey could w-” 

You both tried to ask each other to be on the same team in the exact same second

Both of you burst into laughter and write your names on the paper one under the other still giggling the whole time 

The rest of the morning goes by just like this, giggling together and gradually getting to know one another more and more

by the time the afternoon rolls around he’s basically your best friend

You both love the same movies, same books, enjoy similar music 

Even as hair and makeup is being done you don���t stop talking and giggling

Lets be real here, a crush was growing 

It’s like within the space of 4 hours you’d become inseparable 

When the photos were being taken your teams connection together was so genuine

Working for a brand that’s entire concept is friendship and having fun together it was hardly surprising that the laughter didn’t end there 

The rest of the time you were there your cheeks never stopped hurting from how much you smiled and laughed 

Not just from Changmin but also from all of his groupmates too

Such a wonderful, fun group of people to be around 

You truly felt like one of them by the end of the shoot 

but lets not ignore the lingering glances you and Changmin exchanged, or how he always managed to find an excuse to be stood with you and how whenever he’d walk you to your hotel room door he would try and make the conversation last as long as possible and always, always end the night with a hug 

okay lets be real again, a crush had definitely formed, grown up, moved in and was now decorating the kitchen in your heart 

Like you couldn’t get enough of his happy energy and humour 

At the end of the final shoot when you’re all stood around talking and laughing Changmin grabs your arm and pulls you away

Clearly you don’t resist because like anyone would accept some alone time with Changmin 

Gently he leads you to a couch in the corner of the room and sits down

His cheeks are already rosy when he starts to speak, his hand starting to get clammy against your own

“y/n, will you go on a date with me?” he blurts out quickly and then opening his eyes wide as if he was surprised he said it

and in that moment 

your heart

burst and stopped and did a trip round the globe 

“Of COURSE” you literally scream

His face lights up immediately and he jumps up hugs you quickly and darts off back to the others

you hear them all cheer and see them start hugging and pushing around a very, very blushy Changmin 

Later that evening he arrives at your hotel room door, still wearing that same red hue on his cheeks 

You go to the arcade together and the whole evening is wonderful

it’s no different than how you guys have spent time together the last few days but this time Changmin insists on holding your hand every second 

As well as hugging you from behind when its your turn on the claw machine

Unfortunately you claw machine skills are... 

Limited 

But of course, your knight in shining hoodie and jeans swoops in and wins you the stuffed animal you really wanted 

After you’d played every arcade game and taking endless amounts of cringey pics of each other you walk home slowly still hand in hand 

“You know, I’m really glad I met you” he states out of the blue, still looking ahead of him

“Me too, I feel so complete with you around me” you reply back, swinging your joined hands slightly 

From then on, you were never apart

Literally like the brand you did the shoot for hired you permanently for big moneys and a promise of a successful modelling career a few weeks after your first date with Changmin

Which you graciously accepted for only that reason

Not the fact the love of your life happened to live down road from your new apartment 

and all you wanted to was hold his and forever 

plus the rest of the group fully accepted you as one of their own 

like seriously it was hard to find any moments alone with your boyfriend when hanging out at the dorms because hyunjae liked to ask what you’re doing every 3 minutes 

as well as father maknae line demanding your attention every second you were there

not that you complained about any of it 

because who would complain about a family like that 

and a boyfriend like Changmin 

really out here living your best life huh

[weartirondad]

And You Would Smile (And That Would Be Enough) 3/6

5 times Tony helps pull Peter away from an anxiety built cliff and the 1 time Peter is on his own. (part i, part ii, part iv, part v,  part vi)

FF.net I ao3

Peter couldn’t sleep.

He’d been lying in bed for almost an hour now, tossing and turning, and he was still wide awake. His mind wouldn’t shut up and with every scenario it came up with, his heart started beating faster.

Rolling over onto his back, he pressed his index and middle finger to his neck, finding his pulse point with ease and mentally willing it to slow down.

Deep breaths, Peter. Just even out your breathing.

To no avail. His breathing continued to come out in sharp gasps and he didn’t seem to be able to control it at all. For a moment he pressed down harder on his skin, his nails digging into his flesh, but almost immediately he let go and let his arm drop down uselessly next to his body again. He clenched it to a fist instead, beating down on his mattress in frustration.

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His eyes fluttered open for what felt like the hundredth time that night and he stared at the glow in the dark stars on his ceiling he had helped pin there when Tony had first introduced him to his own room at the Tower. Of course he had started looking up constellations and had carefully chosen one that included Ursa major and minor and the North Star. It was the guiding star, always helping him find his way back home. And home, he had learned long ago, didn’t only have to be one place. It didn’t even have to be a location in the first place. Home for him was his family – Aunt May and Tony.

It calmed him down just a little bit to see the reminder of his home directly in front of him but it didn’t last very long. The doubt came back with a force that knocked the breath out of him and instinctually his hand reached to his frantically beating heart. Desperately he tried to distract himself by taking stock of the rest of his room.

Without his mind forming the command, his hands reached out to tug his Ironman plushy to him, burying his chin in the fabric that had long since started to smell like home while his fingers played with the intricate details. He sat up in his bed, hugging his knees to his chest with the plushy on top, and leaning against the collection of pillows on his bed with his back, and tried to concentrate on the small little details Tony had helped him put up in his second bedroom.

The shelf right across from his bed held all his favorite books and some scientific journals Tony had gotten him that he was still working his way through, in alphabetical order of course. On the top shelf stood all Star Wars movies in order of release and he almost smiled at the too much that was his mentor. He already had all those movies at home with May and when they watched them they usually only let F.R.I.D.A.Y. play it from her database. There was no reason for Tony to get him another copy of the movies except for Peter being ridiculously excited when confronted with the purchase.

The same had happened to his wardrobe. The first time he had opened the closet he hadn’t been able to stop his mouth from falling open. There was an entire new wardrobe, complete with both science pun shirts and fancy suits that he didn’t even dare to ask the price of. A little off to the side, in front of the full-length windows overlooking the city sat two bean bags, one red and one dark blue, still littered with the action figures Ned and him had played with last week.

And there was the huge desk standing under one of the big windows that was covered in his unfinished homework, as well as a few blue prints of a robot he was working on with Tony and the cause of his current panic – his project for this year’s Science Fair.

He felt the familiar panic rise in his chest just by looking at the half finished thing.

It was the main reason for him to be spending the second weekend at the Tower in a row – so that Tony could help him finish it. And he was helping. His mentor was doing everything exactly right, he was always letting Peter do the actual thinking and only butted in when the boy was stuck or on the wrong track. He made sure that this project was actually Peter’s and not Tony’s while never leaving him alone with it. The teenager was immensely grateful but it was the same reason that had him so worried.

How good could something that Peter Parker made actually be?

He buried his face in the plushy, trying to calm his beating heart by listening to the recording of Tony’s but he knew himself well enough by now that it wouldn’t be helping much. He was too agitated already and his thoughts running too fast and too far for him to be able to tame them on his own.

Carefully he slipped out of his bed, his naked feet hitting the soft carpet instead of the cold floor but he didn’t have the emotional capacity to feel grateful for Tony’s thoughtfulness like he normally would. No, his mind was too occupied with pointing out all the flaws on the small battery he had built that was supposed to run completely on renewable energy.

The teenager stopped for a moment, suddenly uncertain where he wanted to go in the first place. He just felt the need to get out of his room, away from the nightmare that was his own incapability, and just like that his feet started carrying him towards the elevator.

His plan was to go down to the lab and maybe look over some of his web formulas, the one thing he truly felt he was doing a good job at, but that was thwarted when he got to the living area and found his mentor sitting on one of the loveseats, staring straight ahead at a dark TV screen.

The image made him halt and curl his hand more firmly around his plushy. It was in this moment that he saw the dark rings under the older man’s eyes and the lines creasing his face telling of the weight of the world he was continuously carrying on his shoulders. He looked tired and broken and Peter hated seeing him like that.

“T-Tony?” he asked, his own voice sounding foreign in his ears and oh so quiet.

With the reaction he got, he might as well have been screaming. Wide eyes finding his with a look of terror before his mentor realized who was standing just a few feet away from him.

“Pete?” His voice was hoarse from not being used in a good hour and it had Peter make his way to the couch without a second thought. “Can’t sleep?” Tony asked as the teenager curled up next to him and reached out so he could tug himself more comfortably into the billionaire’s side.

He hummed contently when rough calloused fingers found their way into his hair and started rubbing soothing patterns onto his scalp. His face was buried into Tony’s t-shirt and he was still hugging his plushy to his stomach. In that moment he felt incredibly small and taken care of.

Instead of vocally answering he shook his head and leaned into the calming touch. “You?”

His mentor let out a harsh laugh but never stopped with the motion, “When can I ever sleep?” he asked without humor and it really told Peter a lot about his state of mind. Tony never admitted to his weaknesses in front of him. Not if it could be helped.

They were quiet for a moment after that, both basking in the feeling of not being alone, and the teenager could feel his heart rate returning to a pace at least somewhat akin to normal. He felt comfortable enough to let his eyes drop close and was surprised when it was his mentor who broke the silence.

“The Accords have been nullified for now until we can work out something that guarantees enhanced individuals basic human rights,” he told him in a quiet voice that was, even in its softness, laced with something Peter couldn’t quite identify but that called to some deeply ingrained instinct in him to protect. He did the only thing he could think of and buried his face more fully into his mentor’s chest and threw one arm, and his plushy, onto his stomach, hugging him. He felt the chuckle vibrate through his own body and it made him smile, having accomplished a reaction that wasn’t dread.

“Does that mean they’ll come back to New York?” he wanted to know quietly and almost wanted to take the words back when he felt the arms around him tighten almost painfully when Tony nodded.

“I mean the Avenger’s Compound kind of calls for the Avengers to assemble there, don’t ya think?” He tried to make light of it but the teenager had spent enough time with him to know when he was faking it.

“Are you going to move there, too?”

“Nah.” And for the first time that night there was a smile in the billionaire’s voice as he pressed a kiss to the top of Peter’s head. “Can’t leave you here all on your lonesome, can I?”

He grinned. “Nope. I don’t think your heart could take it.”

“Oh, really?” Tony huffed in amusement, “My heart would be fine if you would be more considerate of the unnecessary danger you’re always looking for. Speaking of,” he turned in his seat slightly and pushed Peter a little off of him gently, “Why are you out and about? Did you have a nightmare?”

He shook his head, trying to lean back into his mentor’s side and scowling when he wouldn’t let him.

“I couldn’t fall asleep. I kept- uh- thinking,” he settled on eventually.

His hero didn’t seem too impressed, giving him a scrutinizing look but let him settle back into his embrace anyway. “And what were you thinking about?”

“Stuff?” he tried, his voice sounding muffled with how he tried to hide in the other man’s shirt.

Suddenly the fingers that had been carding through his hair the entire time were gone and he let out an involuntary whimper prompting them to return to their former activity.

“Just- I’m worried,” he added silently after a moment and already he could feel his anxiety returning, although a lot less vigorously than before. “The Science Fair is less than a week away and there’s so much I still need to get done. And, I mean, even if we do get it done in time I still have to present it and there’s so much that could go wrong a-and I-,” he stuttered, “I don’t want to disappoint anyone, least of all Aunt May and you. A-and I don’t want to make a fool out of myself. I just wish I wasn’t so scared of the dumbest shit all the time. I hate it.”

“You could never disappoint anyone. Least of all your aunt and me,” Tony told him seriously and so solemnly and honestly that Peter couldn’t help but believe him. “We know exactly what you’re capable of and we know how hard it is for you sometimes. But you know what? You still go and do the stuff that scares you and that’s why we couldn’t be any prouder of you if we tried. You’re the bravest kid I know, kid.”

“That’s because you don’t know any kids,” he replied sniffling, “You wouldn’t know that there’s anyone better out there.”

“I do, though. I know you’re the best kid.” Peter felt his mentor’s smile against his head and shrugged half-heartedly.

“Everyone says that about their kid.”

It said a lot about their relationship at this point that Peter didn’t even flinch when the words left his lips.

“Yeah, but you’re my kid so that’s gotta mean something, right?”

The teenager nodded, too tired to reply and comfortable enough to let his eyes fall close and snuggle a little closer still. His mentor seemed to realize it, too, because he pulled him a little bit closer and lowered his voice a notch.

“We’ve got the entire weekend to work on your battery and I promise you, we’ll get it done in time,” he whispered in his ear, “It’s gonna be the best thing out there simply because you made it. And we’ll go through your presentation at least a hundred times before you have to do it and you’ll be fine. I will always have your back. And so will May. And so will Ned. You’re never alone, kiddo.”

“Got your back, too,” he mumbled barely coherent as he let Tony’s words lull him to sleep. “’We’re a team.”

“Damn straight we are.”

Tony let the teenager fall back asleep on him, reassured by the steady thumb-thumb of his heart against his own chest. They had adverted yet another crisis and from the looks of it his kid would get a good night’s sleep at least today and he’d take it. Every achievement, no matter how small it might seem, that improved Peter’s wellbeing was an achievement he would always thank the heavens for and that he’d celebrate loudly and for everyone to hear.

When he was sure that the boy was fully asleep he picked him up in his arms, carefully adjusting his hold on him so he wouldn’t jostle him, and carried him back to his room. Thankfully he had made sure Peter was always close by so he didn’t have to go too far.

“Love you, bud,” he whispered softly when he had successfully managed to set him down on his bed and tugged him in, brushing away a few loose strands from his forehead without waking him up. “You’re the best, no matter what your anxiety keeps telling you.”

He stood up quietly, suppressing a groan at how the joints in his knees and back creaked with the motion, and turned around to look at the almost finished project.

It was a huge task Peter had set himself but so far the kid had risen up to the challenge and had surpassed even his expectations. There was literally no reason for him to worry about it not being good enough. Still, he knew him too well to hope it would just go away once the thing was finished.

Tony had never known a pain like this. An ache so visceral that it spread from his heart into even the most secluded parts of his body because his kid was hurting.

He sighed again, wishing once more that he could take all the pain from his boy and shoulder it himself. But he had learned that he couldn’t do that the hard way. The only thing he could do was be there for him whenever he needed him, to support him and hold him up when he couldn’t stand on his own.

Picking up one of the post-it notes Peter’s desk was covered in, he started scribbling a few words of encouragement and a tiny doodle on it that he knew would lift the teenager’s spirit as soon as he woke up. He stuck it to his night table and smiled at how he had already managed to curl his entire body around his plushy, before he left.

Peter would be okay.

[lia-nikiforov]

Spring 2018 Anime Watchlist

THERE IS TOO MUCH ANIME THIS SEASON I HAD TO BINGE 37 EPISODES IN THREE DAYS TO CATCH UP

Dropped

Mahou Shoujo Site: Although I originally intended to irony watch this one, expecting something like MahoIku or King’s Game, its sadistic reveling in the main character’s suffering was impossible to stomach. I felt physically ill at the end of it. I’m not, in principle, opposed to gory stuff, y’all know I sat through the whole stupidity that was King’s Game, but MahoSite doesn’t even reach the level of ridiculous over the topness to make it funny, it’s just a cascade of misery porn with not a single moment of levity or triumph for the heroine. I think I was done the moment that gratuitous “if you punch my stomach my period won’t come” line, because apparently some dudes get off on the idea of a woman being so brutalized she stops menstruating??????

Kakuriyo Yadomeshi: I was willing to give this one the three-episode trial after the first episode in spite of the godawful main love interest and the fact that the grandfather sold the MC into literal slavery wtf, because the main girl seems proactive and independent buuuuuuut fuck I hated episode 2. Not only does she seem to quickly forgive her grandfather for SELLING HER OFF, the men around her keep speaking over her and making decisions for her and she turns out to be just independent enough to not be a complete doormat, but not enough to appear defiant and I hate it. Thanks but no thanks, I ain’t here to see a romantization of being literally sold into an arranged marriage.

YOU THINK?!

Cutie Honey Universe: Before this, I’d had zero interaction with any other iteration of Cutie Honey, so I wasn’t sure of what to expect beyond knowing this was from the creator of Devilman. Certainly blatant homophobic jokes and jokes about physical abuse wasn’t in my list of thigs I expected to see, yet here we are. I ain’t here for “hyuk hyuk look at these fat/butch/ugly lesbians, aren’t they ridiculous” jokes either.

Butlers x Battlers: I completely forgot I watched this one. I don’t remember anything about it except being confused

GeGeGe no Kitaro: This one didn’t do anything wrong, but I was never gonna watch it. I just checked out episode 1 because I heard it made a dig at Logan Paul. I wish they’d gone all the way through and killed that character, but I guess you can’t have it all. It was actually a pretty decent episode, and in a weaker season I’d probably keep watching it, but there’s just too much stuff coming out. And I have watched previous Kitaro anime and it’s sometimes too meanspirited for me.

Uma Musume: I didn’t expect much from this show and was pleasantly surprised by the double-length first episode. Special Week was a nice, fun protagonist to root for and although the world-building was weird as heck, it was fun and positive. So I’m not exactly sure of what happened with episode 2/3 that it left me feeling completely dry. The pacing was super rushed, the characters all felt horribly flat, and the races weren’t super exciting because rather than any strategy or strong emotional realization, Special Week just has to start running even faster and faster in the final leg. It was also kind of implied she had gained weight? But then never brought up? And it’s not made very clear why she lost in the end? Was she supposed to learn humility and not getting too complacent? Seems too early for her to learn that when she’s supposed to be an underdog. I don’t know, it didn’t really work for me and I don’t feel like I care to watch more of it.

Because this post is long af and has a lot of gifs some folks were having trouble loading it on mobile, so you’ll have to read under the cut to know which are the shows I’m actually watching oops

Chopping Block: 

There is too much anime and I’m near the end of the semester so I’m gonna have to cut at least one -preferably two- of these shows

Sword Art Online Alternative: This was another one I intended to hatewatch? But rather than offensive or idiotic it’s so far been pretty boring. Episode one was a slog. The first half of episode two was a horrendous spectacle of hating your own body. The only think I liked was the friendship between LLENN and Pito (btw Pito meand ‘dick’ in Spanish and every time she says “call me Pito” I die). Then episode 3 was more boring exposition. FPS games are the least interesting I could think of, and I’ve never been into Let’s Play, so this show is hitting all the right notes to make me bored out of my mind. I also don’t appreciate the big dude not telling Llenn the plan and just kind of being condescending to her. If next episode is just 20 more minutes of the dude explaining things to Llenn, I’m out. (Also, Pito is 100% Elsa Kanzaki)

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Not feeling this reboot at all. It’s all very dry and just dudes expositioning strategy at each other. Also there are 30 characters in the Ending and only 2 of them are women???? I’ll give it one more episode, but tbh I’ve had problems even paying attention to 2 and 3, it just doesn’t grab me.

Libra of Nil Admirari: Although I like the heroine and she might be one of the strongest reverse harem heroines I’ve seen, the plot itself is very... eh. The guys are also very uninteresting so far. There’s also the fact that Tsumugi claims to have no interest in men or love, but this being a reverse harem with a bevy of men starved for her attention makes me worry this’ll end with her being “fixed” by an actual nice guy who is worthy of her or something. But the OP is very cute!

Hatewatch

Darling in the Franxx: Boy oh boy, the otaku have been creaming their pants and tearing their clothes off for the last three weeks, but “Don’t call it Fucking, It’s Making Love” in the Franxx’s greatest achievement in my eyes is going for idiotically offensive to just bland and clichéd. A recent AMA on reddit with the producer seems to imply that none of the themes of sex, gender and heterosexism that have been at the core of the show were even properly thought out, nor were their implications even remotely considered. I don’t know if the show’s heterosexism would be worse if it was active propaganda rather than what it seems to be: a bunch of ideas the producers thought would be “cool” and “titillating” with no particular meaning to them. Also we’re 15 episodes in and all we’ve achieved is Palurdo has finally tamed his beast waifu who is Not Like Other Girls. Oh, and I guess the monsters actually had humans in there, what a shocker, never seen that before, never expected such a clever twizzzzzzzz....

Mid Priority

Tokyo Ghoul: Re : I thought I was done with Tokyo Ghoul after trying to read the manga and being bored shitless by all the unnecessary exposition, but this one, while not quite excellent, managed to pique my interest. The conceit of Kaneki losing his memories and joining the Doves and helping in exterminating ghouls I’m super not interested in, but his encounter with Nishio has made me curious enough about what has happened with the rest of the characters to keep watching for now.

Rokuhodou Biyori: The iyashikei show of the season I guess. The guys’ personalities are a little bland, so I might bump it down to the chopping block, but it’s only been two episodes, so I want to give it a fair chance

Persona 5: My history with Persona has never been good. Episode 1 of P4 made me sleep, and I watched the first P3 movie THREE TIMES and never managed to parse wtf it was about. This show shares some of the same problems in making me struggle to pay attention, but at least so far the plot seems interesting, the visuals are creative and striking, and I really like the main character’s design. I’m also more inclined to keep watching because Sayokan directed the OP for the videogame.

Hisone to Masotan: There’s a cynical part of me that watches this show and feels like I’m watching a commercial for the JSDF. Yvan eht nioJ, come join us, we have cool dragons!!! I also don’t love the fact that the dragon turns into a plane :/ BUT the characters have a lot of heart, the dynamics so far between Hisone and Masotan and Hisone and Kanzaki have been very touching. A part of me though, wishes Hisone had stuck with Otofu because it’s such a cute name and she sounded really funny yelling “OTOFU!!!”

Safe Sequels

Although some of these sequels would go in higher categories, I was unsure about how to rank them -especially the 2-cour ones- compared to some of my top premieres of the season, so I’m just putting them all together because there are A LOT of sequels.

Yowapeda Glory Line: FINALLY SOMETHING POSITIVE HAPPENED FOR SOHOKU. I was starting to feel exhausted with all the gloominess, especially for seeing Teshima punished, HE DESERVES EVERY GOOD THING. Now we can get back on track and hopefully have a fun race without Teshima brooding all the way through the episode. ALSO THANK YOU FOR THE EXCELLENT TESHIAO CONTENT

Nanatsu no Taizai: FINALLY ESCANOR SHOWED UP. It’s felt like the first half of the show dragged a lot compared to the manga, so I’m happy we’ve reached one of the coolest parts. Though if memory serves, the rest of the season will be spent floundering around, but damn, the Escanor vs Galand battle is very satisfying to watch.

Lupin III Part V: So this time around they’ve added the social media factor into Lupin’s adventures, and so far the result has been quite interesting. I don’t have a lot to say, the artstyle looks closer to classic versions of the franchise and has lost some of the edge from part IV, but the comedy and Lupin’s plans are still creative and fun to watch, even adding a unique spin to the social media component, so I’m excited to see where they take this. But we need more Fujiko yesterday pls

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Boueibu Happy Kiss: A soft reboot of this magical girl parody franchise, with frillier costumes and even more ridiculous attacks and transformations, and I’m here for it. I do wish we’d get at least some cameos from the original gang. I also feel that so far, apart from the Red guy (Kyotaro?) the others don’t seem to have much of a distinctive personality. It’s only episode three, so hopefully that’s something we’ll see developed as the show goes on.

Hozuki no Reitetsu: It’s the same as it’s always been, a brilliantly dry workplace comedy. If you haven’t watched the previous seasons, you’re missing out on one of the best comedies of this decade.

Boku no Hero Academia 3: After the recap first episode, the series has gone back full gear ahead into the next story arc and so far it looks pretty cool. Although I’m never a fan of “regular MC activity gets interrupted by villains”. Idk why it bothers me a lot -a prime example being the S Class exam getting cut short in Fairy Tail and the concept of S Class mages completely ditched thereon after. But anyway, I have faith in the writing that they’ll make this villain interruption cool and worth it. I do however wish they’d let us meet the Class B guys better.

Steins;Gate 0: You know, I was 100% ready to be disappointed and abandon this one right away, but damn, damn have these first two episodes been brilliant. The nuances in Okabe’s characterization, the portrayal of his grief, and his more mature attitude seem like a mirror of the watcher who has grown all the same in the seven years since the show’s original season. I’m hoping the teases about Maho as a potential love interest are a red herring, but other than that, I’m blown away by how good it has been so far. Just delete Daru please.

Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card: Things have started happening! We’re starting to see that Akiho’s mysterious book is somehow having an effect over the events of Sakura’s life. The episode with the animals was particularly strong, with a new card that had a nice renovated design, and a really emotionally effective scene of Sakura and Syaoran embracing to help Sakura regain confidence to save her friends. It’s one of the strongest episodes of the series so far, so hopefully we’ll have more of those and less of the “finding a card that only minimally makes 10 cm from a bookshelf disappear” type. As a sidenote, I find Akiho’s obsession with Sakura’s play a bit offputting.

High Priority

Mahou Shojo Ore: Given how little I knew about this series going in and how excited I was about it in spite of it, I’m pleased to report the show has lived up to my expectations in one way or another. The weird comedy is on point and also everyone is fucking gay. I’m rooting for you Blue Girl! Easily the superior show with Mahou Shoujo in its title.

Hinamatsuri: You know, I didn’t have super high expectations for this one, but it’s turned out to be a very nice surprise. It has that charming paternal relationship between Nitta and Hina that is cute and hilarious. I have to say I’m not super into the classmate-forced-to-become-a-bartender storyline and I’m not sure how that even fits with the rest of the show, so I hope there won’t be a lot of vignettes about it.

Piano no Mori: Wonky CGI and occassionally questionable character design choices (Ajino was so BEAUTIFUL in his youth, why does he look so ridiculous in the present?!!!) aside, this has been one of the strongest premieres of the season. I know fans of the manga have criticized it, but as someone unfamiliar with the original, I’m definitely intrigued by this story.

BESTEST

Megalobox: This one wasn’t on my radar at all. It’s one of those numerous cases of me seeing a title that sounds stupid and deciding to ignore the show based on that alone. I’m glad I stumbled on all the praise the premiere episode received because damn is it good. The story behind the cameras is that this is a 50th anniversary project for Ashita no Joe, and it was meant to be a reboot, but the director couldn’t find a way to make it work, so he created something entirely new, and aren’t we glad about that. It has a unique retro look and although the plot beats do call back to Ashita no Joe, our Joe feels like his own person alright. I think my only nitpick is that I’m not entirely sure of what is even the point of the additional gear. Also, I know how Ashita no Joe ends and I hope this show won’t end like that too :’D

Golden Kamuy: How long has it been since the last time a multi-awarded manga not only wasn’t disappointing but ended up being one of the most promising anime adaptations of the season? Yes, everyone’s seen the ugly CGI bear, moving on, this is a captivating and unique historical show with a so far excellent portrayal of Ainu culture and a kickass lady coprotagonist.  I am really excited to see where this one will go. Also, it was really exciting to hear characters actually speaking ainu language. I’ve done some research on Ainu history (and kickass Ainu women) for school, so I’m very pumped about this one.

Otaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: By far my favorite premiere of the season. So far, two episodes in, it’s all I ever hoped it would be and more. The characters are charming, Narumi and Hirotaka’s relationship feels natural and effortless -both the romantic aspect of it, and the way they easily become comfortable with one another-. Narumi is delightful and very well-rounded, being as cheerful and optimistic as she can be cynical, and her quick-developing friendship with Hanako is so violently relatable I was screaming. I really love this show. ALSO THE OP IS SUPER CUTE

I FINALLY FINISHED WRITING THIS IT TOOK FOREVER BECAUSE THERE IS TOO MUCH ANIME

[sage-nebula]

tailsimp replied to your post: me thinking about the future of Pokémon:

Oh shit did he open his freakin’ mouth again???

He most certainly did. TL;DR:

He either doesn’t remember or never knew anything about the original games (/later games in the series) despite working on them. For instance, he said this: “But in terms of things that we've been able to do this time that we weren't at the time, so, you know, we couldn't have everyone coming together playing the game in the living room, you had to kind of play it individually at the time of the original games.” While Pokémon has always primarily been a single-player game series, the entire reason why the two-games-per-release format was introduced was so that players could trade and battle with each other using the Game Link Cable. The Game Link Cable necessitated that you were in the same room as one another, since the cables were not long enough to stretch very far away. Co-op, at least to a degree, has been in the series since its inception, thanks to the Game Link Cable idea provided by one Miyamoto Shigeru. Masuda went on to say later: “It's not really like a technical issue that we have with these it's just like you know, if you teach a pokémon Surf, and then you go out to an island, and then you have your pokémon forget Surf, and then you're stuck on that island.” There are numerous things wrong with this statement:

Surf is an HM, which means that you can’t just randomly delete it. You have to see the Move Deleter in order to have it removed.

Even in games where you could sell or throw away TMs, you could never do the same with HMs. So even if you forgot Surf somehow, you could just teach it to your pokémon again to get off the island.

If you somehow released your only water-type pokémon, you’re on an island. You can just fish for a new one.

All of this also insinuates you wouldn’t have a boat back to the mainland, or HM02 Fly. (I remind you that Surf is HM03.) He either forgot how these games that he works on operates, or he somehow never knew in the first place. Either way, he proved that he has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to Pokémon. Unfortunately, it gets worse.

He more or less stated that there will not be puzzles (e.g. rock sliding puzzles) in Let’s Go, which could imply there will be none in future games. More specifically, the interviewer flat out asked about puzzles: “Are there still puzzles and challenges, things like Strength puzzles in caves, or have you moved away from that entirely now?” and Masuda answered with: “So when we tried to think about how kids these days generally play games, what came to mind was mobile games really. Games which you play for a short time, and perhaps you'll be moving between various games pretty quickly, so if it was a game that kind of takes about two hours to get into, we thought that perhaps people might get a bit bored and then decide to move on to a different game. [. . .] And in this age with so many games to choose from, we thought that we'd rather make something that was easier to progress through, and kind of tailor that playstyle to how we think that the playstyle has evolved over the years and how children are playing games now.” He never said “yes, they’re gone,” but he also never said “no, they’re not” which is worrying. Also, he talks about kids playing mobile games, but earlier in the interview he said: “So actually it was more that one of the main targets of these games is kids, who haven't had the opportunity to play Pokémon Go, because you know, they don't have a smartphone [. . .]” So which is it, Masuda? Are kids obsessed with mobile games, or are they not able to play them? Get your story straight.

When asked what he’d say to adult fans who have been fans for 20 years / want more of a challenge, Masuda said to just be content with what Let’s Go is offering. Specifically, when asked if we should wait for next year’s game, Masuda said that he would tell us about “combo capturing” wherein you capture the same pokémon over and over again to get bonuses (i.e. what Pokémon Go already is and what we don’t want), and also about the “151 Masters” postgame content, wherein you battle a “master” of each individual pokémon species to take their title. I.e., tedious, boring, filler that isn’t actually satisfying content.

He thinks players have about half a brain cell a piece. Going back to the topic of Surfing before, he tacked this onto the end of his answer: “So if that were the case then the player would just have to be swimming across the ocean themselves carrying their pokémon---and you're like, well, am I the pokémon? Or is my pokémon the pokémon? It would get confusing.” There are no words.

He doesn’t like it when people put effort into the game mechanics that are already there, like breeding. Specifically, when asked if he was thinking about making another Let’s Go game but set in Johto this time, Masuda answered that he might, depending on how these ones do (please, please let them fail), but then went on to criticize players who like to breed pokémon: “I know that a lot of people and fans have spent a lot of time hatching eggs, they've hatched . . . a lot of eggs, but we want them to kind of discover new ways to enjoy Pokémon games, you know I'd be really sad to think that for them, Pokémon is hatching eggs, so with this one we're trying to show them a different side of the game.” i.e. “Stop having fun, guys!!!”

This man not only not only seems to legitimately not understand how these games work, but he also seems to have actual disdain for those who like to dig into the core mechanics and make the most of it. Those who enjoy EV training can no longer do that since wild battles were taken out. Those who enjoy IV breeding can no longer do that since breeding is out. And while the excuse could be simply that these are Gen I remakes and as such breeding isn’t in because that wasn’t a feature in Gen I:

These are Gen I remakes in Gen VII, there’s no reason why the daycare couldn’t have a breeding function, and

He straight up, without provocation, insults those who like breeding all on his own.

All of this came about because the interviewer decided to ask why pokémon such as igglybuff and magmorter weren’t included, and then went on to ask about Johto. They didn’t even specifically mention breeding. But Masuda still felt it pertinent to say that he doesn’t like it when people spend a lot of time carefully breeding their pokémon, even though breeding is a core mechanic that has been in the games since Gen II. He seems to actively dislike those who take these games seriously and play them as such, and wants to instead turn them into nothing but gutted, pseudo-mobile garbage that doesn’t hold your hand so much as it pushes your stroller.

I earnestly wish he would leave Game Freak and go work somewhere else, on a different series. I’m sure he’d get hired. He’s got an extensive enough resume. I just want him to stop ruining something that has been a core part of my heart and soul for the past twenty years. Please. 

[thisgirlsays22]

Ereri Creator Interview: Erericultist

Hello friends! Thank you all for your support with this project. If you’d like to complete the interview, you can do so here: https://goo.gl/forms/lUpTjm0NFeYYzXGy1. The form will remain open indefinitely.

You can enjoy past creator interviews here.

A special thank you to @fluffymusketeer for making the wonderful section banners!

Kurt (@erericultist​​ ) is a writer, artist and cosplayer who has been in the fandom for about five years. He started off as a Levi fan and then slowly made his way into Ereri hell with the rest of us. “I began to grow obsessed with speculating how EreRi could work along side the canonverse storyline, how Eren admires Levi so greatly, how Levi finds Eren impressive and consistently praises him for his valor(and cleaning).” and “What I really love about EreRi is how I grew with it, how it helped me cope with my PTSD and depression, how the ship can be loved by anyone in so many ways. I'm fascinated with all of them, I love to explore everyone's ideas for them, and make my own.” 

Read on for more!

What kind of content do you create? 

Fanfic, Fanart, Cosplay

Please link us to your content so we can send you some love! 

http://archiveofourown.org/users/erericultist/works

How long have you been in the fandom for?

About five years!

Why did you start shipping Ereri? 

I started off being a hardcore Levi fanboy, reading Levi x Readers day in and day out, until I stumbled across a riren oneshot. It surprised me at first, but as I continued to read it, I ended up really taking a liking to it and wanting to read more. One thing lead to another, from exposure to fanart, edits, cmvs and mmds. I was new to anime in general, so discovering doujinshi was pretty exciting for me, too. I remember my first time finding bottom Levi, it also surprised me, but hey, the more ereri/riren to love, the better. I began to grow obsessed with speculating how EreRi could work along side the canonverse storyline, how Eren admires Levi so greatly, how Levi finds Eren impressive and consistently praises him for his valor(and cleaning). In about 2014, I wrote a really poor "theory" thing for wattpad, pretending as though EreRi was just behind the scenes, and showing what we may not actually see. It's long gone now, but I was really proud of it back in the day. What I really love about EreRi is how I grew with it, how it helped me cope with my PTSD and depression, how the ship can be loved by anyone in so many ways. I'm fascinated with all of them, I love to explore everyone's ideas for them, and make my own. I adore Levi and Eren's personalities, I often compare them to yin and yang dynamics in my writing, how Levi is more subdue, Eren is haughty, fiery, and Levi is what grounds him as Eren sparks more within Levi. There's so much more, a lot more, a lot more that I can't put into words. Perhaps no words are worthy of it. I've been through hell and back for this ship. 

Thematically speaking, what kind of content do you most enjoy making?

I really love to write! I've been writing since I was really little, and it always made me so happy to share it with others. Even just to fabricate my own little world, my own rules, as bizarre as I want. I can't explain why writing for EreRi/RivaEre makes me so happy... it's fulfilling, in way, and I started because I wanted to create things for them in my love and style... I was really inspired by other writers in the early fandom as well!

What is the work you're proudest of and why?

I'm unsure! Although—I'm really proud of finishing my first, large fanfiction called "Concealment". It took me over a year to finish, and is a story that's very personal and dear to me. I received a lot of mixed reviews on it, but that's okay. At the very least, I hope to say that I've improved throughout writing it!

What inspires you to create?

Hmm... I don't know. It gives me a sense of purpose. The need I have to make things of my own, to get my ideas out, to just express myself, I think those are very important to me. I really love dark, gothic themes, though, and I have a very strong inclination for that. When I was little, I would try to write the goriest and most horrifying stories to read to class, just to see everyone's horrified expressions. (A little off topic, but I really do have a soft spot for somber, fluffy, deep, passionate EreRi as well... I've made my fair share of works for it.)

Is there any work you'd like to share that inspires you?

I wish I could say. Lots of fantastic creators out there... there's this fanfiction called "Pearls", it dabbles in a whole lot of dark themes and the author, RememberingEmbers, isn't afraid to be blunt with what's ugly and vulgar. I hope they get to finishing the fanfic, it's very well done. I envy being able to be so blunt, after being bullied so much for my writing, I've began to filter myself or even fear backlash. I'm slowly trying to shake that off and do what makes me happy, again.

What projects are you currently working on?

A story called Nightshade! https://erericultist.tumblr.com/post/168032004435/d1sorteds1lver-nightshade-ive-been-doing-a-lot https://instagram.com/p/Bcs4VU8nWyH/ I haven't wrote horror in years, and was really aching to give it another shot after my completion of Concealment. The story is gothically themed in the Victorian Era, handling in gruesome themes. However, it is a pure, and platonic "childhood sweetheart" relationship that Eren and Levi will share. :)

What are your strengths as a writer/artist?

I think slowing time, I'm unsure how to explain it, but when I write I always think of breaking down the moment, capturing every important element that I can possible to convey the exact picture in my head.

What is an area in your work which you're trying to improve on?

Everything, a lot of things. I want to expand my vocabulary, I want to improve my grammar, my passive and active voice, epithets, the intensity I deliver with, everything. I want to do my best.

What advice do you have for other creators?

You will get hate, you will get bashed, you might even get banned or gain stalkers who obsessively hate you. You might not get a lot or much support, you might put yourself down plenty already... You'll meet bullies, you'll have a random asshole who will compare you to others, they will try to put you down and tear you apart. Sometimes, they get to you, and more unfortunate times, they might even seem like they're winning. Through it all, remind yourself why you enjoy doing what you do. Why you started, why it all matters to you now. Sometimes, you may not even have a reason and you just do it. That's okay. It doesn't matter if you're not the best, we all are improving and sharing what we love. Don't stop doing what you love, your creativity is YOUR creativity, no one can take that from you.

Do you have any pets?

A lot of cats!

How do you relax?

Writing, videogames, EreRi doujinshi

Tell us about your dream day

Getting to explore a really beautiful forest, alone, unable to hear the chatter of civilization and focus only on the sounds of nature.

What music are you into?

A lot! I enjoy listening to classical music when I write for Nightshade. I think it would be predicatable my main go-to is rock/heavy metal. Some of my favorite bands are Tool, Nine Inch Nails, In This Moment, Rob Zombie, Korn, The list can go on for a while.

What are some of your favorite tv shows?

I love Vikings!

What are some of your favorite films?

That's hard to think of, I like a lot. Thor Ragnarok is a newest favorite of mine.

What are some of your favorite books?

Varjak Paw was my favorite book as a kid.

[celestialallstars]

Episode #3: "Make me look like fucking Doofenshmirtz when I’m trying to be like Maleficent" - Mo

So first off WOOOOO! The vote happened exactly as it was supposed to. I'm hoping that means I'm actually on the pulse of this tribe. I've gradually been getting closer to Jared, and I think he trusts me probably more than I trust him.

Second off, this challenge my god. I hate it, like it's a good challenge but for me... oof. Doing this, it's like I have facial dyslexia or something. Like all of the mouths and eyes start blending together and it just starts to look nuts.

I'm hoping to keep trudging forward, if we somehow pull a win out of this, even better if Cyrena goes to tribal again given it was basically unanimous. Alternatively Orfeo to balance things out. I'm tired though and it's been a long day, so it is now time to sleep.

I’m conflicted because I so badly want to be a bad bitch and create an over the top plan but there’s such a high chance that it will flop and make me look like fucking Doofenshmirtz when I’m trying to be like Maleficent. So I’m going to try to create my own kinda of genius that only applies to me. It sounds stupid but it’ll work. I’m being bold by saying it’ll work cus if I get eliminated I’ll look like a Doofenshmirtz. We’ll see. I’m already making charts to help me see who’s good and who’s not so good at comps. Comparing teammates to eachother and comparing the entire cast to eachother. Wish me luck. (Also I love everyone in this cast.)

So like I have so many mixed feelings about this cast. In terms of talking a lot of them are BORING or LEAVE ME ON READ, and like maybe for some it’s cause I’m not in their tribe but like, some people on my tribe still make me want to hit my head against a rock. So like that’s what I’m feeling.

Also think we’re gonna loose this immunity which I’ve hardly done anything for. So go me.

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Just a small update Mitch and I are chatting so that answers that question

"What's going on?" Well I shall tell you Anna Jane exactly what is going on. I need to get back into therapy that's what.

Apparently everyone is stressed about results and then there is me who does not care cause I want bodhi gone cause he legit doesn't talk to me so meh.

ALSO ALISSA FOUND AN IDOL QUEEEN. so we now have an idol between the 3 of us which could come in handy very much later down the road which we love! I have 100% trust in jack and alyssa now, with mo as my number 3 on this tribe. As much as i love tobi personally (hi tobi reading this post season) but like idk something is still off. he hasn't spoken much game to me at the moment so idk where his head is really at..

god help us its results this challenge was hard woo go cyrena!

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we lost by 1 point. oh my god. 1 point. that makes me wanna cry. dear god let this be a simple vote or i will actually start crying

WHY MUST I ALWAYS BE ON THE SHITTY TRIBE WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY IS THERE SOME SICK SATISFACTION OF ME ALWAYS GOING TO TRIBAL????? FUCK

I am SO pumped! I do feel bad for the people on Cyrena, but where it stands now, them going to tribal I feel is best for my game just relationship-wise for me. Still, I can only hope I am making few bonds over on their end while maintaining the ones I have on my tribe and Tuatha as well. I do really hope Mo at least makes it because he helped me this morning when I was getting bummed about all the winner talk. I'm quite optimistic for right now!

I Wrote Alexis Maxwell But I Erased It

Well we won the challenge (BARELY), a bit annoyed that we submitted before I got another chance to take a crack at the photos. I feel like I could've maybe found 1 or 2 more before we submitted. Granted we'd need to have found either 3 more or beaten Orfeo to the punch if we had wanted the reward.

I think so long as Bodhi doesn't go on Cyrena I'm pretty indifferent about them losing. They're the people I talk to the least relatively. Ideally I'd probably want an Alyssa, or Matt boot, but I have no influence so we'll see what happens.

I'm just trying to be social and relatively unimposing right now. It's Day 8, now's not the time to be doing glaringly bold things.

um so we won wooh but still no 2nd idol im sad i want one. um wanted green tribe to go tribal but blue going again i hope bodhi/jack/alyssa leave cuz they dont talk to me ever um ya thatd be cute or maybe tobi cuz hes a snake but maybe he not a snake this time? my stan list atm is jared > zach = rhys > loris = chloe > everyone else. my unstan list is: sharky jack alyssa mitch <3 um yaa hope i can do sth. chris so good gotta always watch out for him jared asked who i wanted to go to f3 with and i said def not chris and he was like oh i wanted chris in end so like hes def a threat also he likes zach so um that needs to stop real quick.

I think it should be Bodhi or Tobi to go. Am I gonna say anything? Not right now, no. Will I say something later? No clue it depends. But Bodhi isn’t as active as the others and doesn’t participate all that much. Tobi is semi-active but isn’t great at challenges. I remember him being good at challenges so idk if he’s just distracted or not putting that much energy into this. I think a swap is happening after this potentially but if it ain’t it’s still best to vote out the weakest link. It might be me and I might just be super cocky rn but I don’t think it’s me.

hi! yesterday was a monumental day. I tried to mend my social game with those I hadn’t talked much to, which resulted in me having a lengthy conversation with jack, and making me feel a bit more secure in my tribe/in the event of a swap. the people I don’t talk to keep getting voted out which I’m very much a fan of but that’s probably because they were inactive so that trend might not continue :(. also I lied in my last conf I’m now in an alliance with Chris Jared kori and Bryce? I didn’t expect it but i didn’t feel too close with kori so that should help me solidify something there!! :) I’m thriving. don’t call me ANGEL!

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don’t call me ANGEL! (in case of task challenge :p)

So we won the challenge. Again. It’s really nice to be able to just sit back and relax in the game and watch people struggle but I’m really nervous about it because we’re all so kumbaya on the Oreo tribe that I don’t fully know who I can trust just yet. Another piece of tea is the fact that Alyssa has an idol which is great for me because it shows Alyssa trusts me and I can trust her for the time being. However I’m worried about Alyssa because we keep promising each other merge which tells me she won’t want to go to the end with me just yet so I gotta keep her close and we’ll see how much damage we can do but i think I’m thriving bc I actually know where an idol is compared to last time when I had no clue.

so previously on The Adventures of a F*g, i had a small breakdown about the game. i dont know if true, but bryce informed me of an alliance between kori/jared/bryce/loris/chris, and the last two named are super close allies of mine (the closest on my tribe). they like.. didnt tell me shit about it and idk i guess i just feel excluded and it sucks that im in legit 0 (real) alliances. ive been doing good socially i thought and i dont know but i feel like i really sucked.

meanwhile, i sat down with a bag of salt and vinegar lays chips and talked to myself. why was i doing bad? why was i in 0 alliances? why no one like me?

then it hit me... like boom.

i realized that a typical flaw i had this game was caring too much. i pride myself on my ability to read situations (barring paranoia) and i know myself very well. like, i realized that since i was too concerned with doing good and proving myself, i kind of lost the fun of it all and probably come off as fake or forcible to other people. that isn't authentic.

BUT MY EPIPHANY increased even further. how? i dont know!! my brains so fucking big. i just had to be goofy. yes, i want to do good. i really do. but i played once before in this series and got RU pots and 5th. i know i am capable of being a good player and im content with that, and now that im moving into that mindset where this game wont no longer dictate whether im good or bad, im going to start having fun.

i know this isnt about game really but its like... #selfdiscovery

but ya i just wanted to update yalls on that. i won immunity though so im f18 and probs in swap. woo. finna get fucked. anyway, thank u.

and since i want like attention on this post im going to put tags.

#selfdiscovery #justgirlythings #l4l #follow4follow #gay #faggot #0alliances #disney #anime #weeb #lgbt #survivor #bigbrother #celestial

After we won the face morph challenge, it has been pretty slow. I still have a solid group with me Stephen Z and Jared. Kori and Bryce are close, Jared and I are close, Rhys and Jared are close, and Stephen and I are close. Those are the allegiances I know of right now, but things could change. Lucky for the alliance of 5, they all get to stick together. If there is a swap though, I won't hesitate to flip on bryce/rhys/kori if the opportunity presents itself. I am also kind of worried I am not keeping up socially. I have had a busy week, so my availability is limited, but I try to talk to as many people as I can when I am available. If my predicitons are correct, we should expect a swap soon. I'd love to meet up with Michael, Bodhi, Alyssa, Chloe, Drew, and Mo just to name a few. I feel like I have been able to connect well with everyone except Matt H.

So, as per my last confessional we are at tribal. And I'm conflicted. As said before I have an alliance with jack and Alyssa and they are my main 2 at the moment like love them both. We helped Alyssa find the idol and we now have a vote steal which I found. However I am feeling kinda conflicted over this vote. Jack and Alyssa want to get rid of Tobi but I personally want bodhi gone. He doesn't talk to me like at all and like he's not the best at challenges. I wanna keep Tobi as well for like a laugh because I genuinely love him. We all agreed to keep mo thank god but still, a lil conflicted. AGH. I have found a vote steal tho woo. I'm not going to be happy but I'll swallow my pride and just go with the alliance, because I'm not out here trying to make waves and be unloyal at the moment. That's for later LOL

I think there is a relatively high chance that i'm going home here, considering its 1 and a half hours till tribal and people "still haven't heard anything" so i'm assuming that i'm getting the chop here which sucks... I tried pretty hard considering i've been pretty busy and like they're not giving me much to work with here and it feels like im trying to break through a wall. I'm trying to get the target on bodhi but no one is fucking online to even try to talk to about it so i'm at  a lost for what to do here... I want to stay but i just don't know how to do that when no one is talking to me... i could just be extremely paranoid and i sound delusional right now but idk something feels off here... its so annoying when I enjoy talking to other tribes more than my own NNNN like i really wish things were different but they're not so i'm just gonna try my best and see what happens

Woo we win again. Im trying to step up socially with my tribe, although who knows how long it's gonna matter bc we're prob swapping tonight. Apparently people were saying mo's name, let's pray it doesn't happen bc he's a good fucking kid.

Well it's been a slow couple of days for me. In game I can't really speak much to anything that may have happened. I feel like Tuatha has had a bit of a kumbaya casual flow going on. Which isn't necessarily bad but it makes it hard for me to know how I'm really doing.

Tobi was messaging me worried it might be him, which admittedly wouldn't be the worst thing given how we ended our last game. I was kindof an ass which I kindof leaned into after essentially throwing that game, but I still wish I'd found a way to end things better with him. While there are others I'd rather see go, his boot is one I can probably accept.

If it isn't him then oof who knows then. So long as it isn't Bodhi from that tribe. Overall I'm feeling ok, but I don't want to get complacent, it's just so early that I really don't know what to make of things. One world still isn't really helping since I'm still struggling to try and make conversation with EVERYONE. I really should consider just narrowing it down to some instead of all.

I’m sure hoping this works out for me if there is a tribe swap like a suspect, I think I’ve built some strong enough connections but without going to tribal it’s just not possible for me to be 100%

I've never been on a tribe with a winning streak I feel like I'm in the upside down hahaha. I'm having a great time and getting to know everybody and not having the stress of tribal is great. Sucks for the other tribes OOP

Nothing much is happening! I am still set up perfectly on my tribe and Bodhi has informed me that either Mo or Matt might be going. That was at the beginning of the round so it could really be anyone. I just hope it isn't Bodhi Alyssa or Mo.

Ok this past round was ok. I just kind of let us lose immunity and then we voted out Tobi. I didn’t want to vote out Tobi but that fucker voted for me so I don’t really care at all fuck him.

So not very much has changed on Tuatha as far as I can tell. My tribe winning the immunity challenge has helped me delay any confrontation between my 2 alliances which is great, as it should theoretically allow me to maintain relationships with all 6 members of the tribe. Still, it's going to keep being important to win immunity or pray for a swap in order to keep these groups from clashing.

Jared and Rhys are still a ? for me. I don't know why/how Rhys was able to convince Kori to invite Jared to the alliance of 5 instead of Mitch, and it worries me that those 2 may have a stronger bond than I immediately suspected. Hopefully I'll have an opportunity to deal with that when the time comes.

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Tobi is voted out 5-1. We swap!

[tiktok883-blog]

Musical.ly Has Merged With Tik Tok an additionatik tok tiktok tiktok followersl Chinese video app

"Do it for the Vine" was the unofficial slogan of the now-defunct, as soon as hugely preferred short-form video app Vine. You would certainly listen to individuals shout it from behind their phone cams as they shot their friends dance, planking in public, or blowing big vape clouds. The Chinese application Tik Tok offers mainly the same function that Vine satisfied till its closure in 2016. Its tagline, "Make every second matter," is like "Do it for the Vine" for the "wellness" period. As well as if you're over the age of 18, you have actually probably never ever heard of it. Just recently, Tik Tok combined with an additional Chinese video clip app called Musical.ly. The last launched in 2014. By 2015, it was currently reeling in millions of international users with the United States teen market as its centerpiece. This year, four years after its inception, Musical.ly flaunted 100 million month-to-month active individuals-- whose accounts have actually been transferred over to Tik Tok's the same system-- showing growth at about the same rate as Instagram during its first 4 years. By comparison, Spotify remains in its tenth year as well as records 180 million regular monthly active users. You can boost your followers and likes count by using Tik Tok Likes Hack Tik Tok harmonizes the significantly visual social networks landscape. Yet what sets it apart is its main focus: lip-syncing. Tik Tok's homepage suggests an electronic playground, largely comprised of tween ladies performing viral dance moves and mouthing verses to Top 40 tunes. In what appears to be an effort to draw in as well as keep young individuals, Facebook and Instagram have just recently introduced brand-new attributes that simulate Tik Tok's version. Instagram's "music stickers" allow users to include music to their pictures and videos. Facebook's "Lip-Sync Live" is exactly just what it seems like. These new enhancements could very well capture on, but they do not have the gripping result crucial to Tik Tok's charm. Tik Tok's no-frills user interface gets right to the point, nearly boldy so. Immediately upon opening the application, trending miniature video fill your phone display for 15-seconds to a min at once-- an endless stream of quick, commitment-free ruptureds of dopamine. Tik Tok has 3 fundamental functions: watch, search, and create. It's easy to browse. A retreat path, nonetheless, is tougher to carve out. The web content feed is oddly addicting, like an IV drip of effortless amusement. You don't even need to scroll: as soon as one clip surfaces, an additional plays instantly. There's something practically corrupt about these hand-held efficiencies. Twelve-year-old kids flex their preadolescent biceps. Women belly dance in full-face makeup and sporting activities bras. Tik Tok's typical customer drops within the 13 to 18 age variety, a constantly-entertained and easily-distracted generation whose needs, national politics, and also tastes govern the future of social networks as well as, for that matter, culture. The platform is developed to nurture the habits of today's young people. It echoes and also informs their way of living-- the shortened hit tunes, Kylie Jenner-inspired outfits, viral dancing steps-- like a 24/7 teen publication. Unique designs as well as trends establish across the application. One of the most enduring as well as widespread technique sees users quickly rotating electronic camera angles and miming in addition to sped-up tracks. There are "difficulties" to take part in. Some include lip-syncing a particular line or carrying out a preferred dance. Others are much more puzzling, like claiming the floor is lava and also attracting acnes on your face. The "area" is shaped by these shared activities. There are typically a couple of tracks that reign supreme among lip-syncing videos. As I compose this, the #InMyFeelingsChallenge, which entails dancing beyond an auto to Drake's "In My Sensations," is among the top hashtags, yet that difficulty and also its coming with tune will soon be replaced with an additional and discolor right into irrelevance. In his publication Just how Music Functions, David Byrne purports, "Background and society can't actually be preserved by technology alone." Without a doubt, when decreased to trending clips, music leaves a fleeting influence. Any emotional or experiential relevance amassed from a performance's social environment, or the perception left after listening to a cd from front-to-back, is lost in this digitized "social" sector. We experience music extra frequently, delicately, as well as passively than before. A document isn't limited to the home; we could pay attention to it on the commute to function or at the fitness center. Not just that, we could browse through and download thousands of documents. We can also videotape our very own record. The downside of this endless digital grab bag is how it can minimize the music itself. Listeners are encouraged to take in as much music as is humanly feasible. Tik Tok's bite-sized snippets, made to consume one-after-another, see this growth in its most extreme, crystalline type. Tik Tok distills the ongoing meme-ification of music, cut and also squeezed to fit our focus periods. Injected into social media sites's communion of performance as well as self-involvement, music is merely fodder for content. Tik Tok's most-used audios loosely correspond with Signboard's Warm 100 chart. The remainder of the clip library responds to just what's hot as well as reproduces it. Take 2018 It Girl Ariana Grande, for example. Along with her hits, blurb from Grande's character on the 2010 Nickelodeon show Triumphant flood the platform. Bazzi's chart-climbing solitary "Mine" is among the best tracks on Tik Tok. So prominent that its universality exceeded the track itself: the opening notes have been recreated as wacky AutoTuned squeals in a brand-new viral blurb. Tik Tok resembles a post-radio maker where you're perpetually skimming networks and they're just the same. The branch of pop music as soon as geared towards radio plays-- the appealing ones intended to hit a nerve hyper-specific to the current moment-- flourishes under this system.

Exactly what we're entrusted is an ouroboros of recyclable pop stars, a comments loophole in between the possible pop celebrities utilizing the application as well as the megastars whose music is being lip-synced. The equation for success in this overlooked competition doesn't make up musical skill. Music, in a feeling, is repurposed for customers' individual brands. However, prominent customers-- frequently revered for the attitude, sense of rhythm, trendy closet, as well as face balance they offer already-existing songs-- have actually gone on to rack up record offers. On the planet of Tik Tok, risks are low, yet the benefits are high. A Tik Tok customer plays both candidate and judge on this figurative game program, carrying out from a platform and also deciding that of their equivalents to support. It's American Idolizer, yet nobody is vocal singing and also the program isn't confined to a regular hour-long time block. Contestants have just a few secs to stand apart as well as for a little while stop briefly the unlimited scroll they're competing with. First impressions are whatever. Top place owners win a foot in the music and entertainment industries, together with the successful benefits of being social media influencer. Seventeen-year-old Ariel Rebecca Martin, called Baby Ariel, signed with Innovative Artists Company in 2016 as well as launched her debut solitary "Aww" the list below year. It's not bad; it has the familiar circulation of a generic 2010s pop song and the music video, which has actually been seen over 44 million times, features adorable youngsters, charming animals, as well as Infant Ariel sporting fashionable clothing. This previous January, she shared her next solitary "Perf," followed by "Gucci On My Body" in June. She won the Teen Option Award for "Selection Muser"-- "Muser" was the portmanteau term for Musical.ly individuals-- in 2016 as well as 2017 and also is amongst Time's a lot of prominent individuals on the web, as well as Forbes' 2017 list of top enjoyment influencers. The iHeartRadio Music Honors additionally has a "Muser of the Year" group, for which Infant Ariel was nominated. She has over 26 million followers on Tik Tok, 8.8 million on Instagram, as well as greater than 3 million subscribers on YouTube. Signing Up With Baby Ariel on the conveyor belt to fame is 16-year-old Loren Gray Beech. The recent Virgin Records signee's only publicly documented attempt at producing music is an Auto-Tuned cover of Dua Lipa's "New Policy" on YouTube. At the same time, 3rd as well as second area Tik Tok users are recruited to content production companies like Flighthouse and Picture Studio. Flighthouse's Chief Executive Officer is 19 years of ages. He collaborates with the media brand's moms and dad company Produce Music Team and also their Chief Executive Officer, who called Flighthouse "this generation's MTV as well as Nickelodeon." Along with pop songs, these teams generate funny illustrations, dancing tutorials, and vlogs. To call music a mainly irrelevant facet of "this generation's MTV" would be both exact and stark. Today, home entertainment relies on its viral possibility. The genuine MTV has also refocused its programming with this in mind. "The means we are thinking about TRL is not as a one-hour program, [yet], preferably, 10 viral moments," MTV president Chris McCarthy told Rapid Business in a meeting. Yet traditional success has constantly been linked to some kind of virality-- an artist's capability to reverberate with a broad target market. Traditional charm and also sense of rhythm typically aren't new consider this formula. Tik Tok simply amplifies the equation with "improving" face filters, streamlined video editing, and also pitch-shifting. The product is a new kind of pop star, shaped by net trends and crafted for online consumption. The rise of playlists anticipated the once-crucial beginning factor in an artist's ascent to fame: a launching album. A punchy appeal a popular Spotify playlist suffices to place you on the map (see: Cardi B's "Bodak Yellow," which exploded after appearing on Apple Music's curated playlist The A-List: Hip-Hop as well as Spotify's RapCaviar). Victor Luckerson sums this for The Ringer: "Music fans are progressively opting to arrange their paying attention around ear-catching minutes, in playlists, as opposed to sifting through hr long cds to excavate their favored tracks." Tik Tok's limitless scroll presses the playlist right into a stream of these hit-making moments. The playlist pop star led the way for the Tik Tok pop star, that-- in addition to passing up full-length albums-- price cuts one more characteristically crucial element: making music. A Tik Tok-bred artist could be compared to the old-time industry-plant pop star. That's to state Britney Spears was born with even more skill compared to lip-syncing Child Ariel? The longstanding industry-plant objection is the assumed insincerity of a musician molded to generate income from. However Tik Tok users are one action ahead: They have actually been honing their star high quality because they downloaded and install the app. A Tik Tok individual is a content designer, a social media influencer. And the influencer-pop star crossover was unpreventable. Instagram is loaded with lovely preference manufacturers trying to find their next job. The shift is even more seamless, and also anticipated, on a "music" application. This isn't really to disavow the ability and creativity involved in creating viral content. At its best, Tik Tok provides a room for youngsters to reveal themselves. Aspiring professional dancers as well as artists can construct followings as well as seek what delights them. The concern is the area this particular sort of aspiring pop star occupies within the already-saturated music round. Under contemporary industrialism, lots of talented musicians are devalued, discouraged, and evaluated of a sector that significantly favors the star over the artist and also revenue over creative thinking. Jazz shed its mainstream momentum decades earlier, and rock gets on its final legs. This isn't really a bad point, necessarily. The styles continue to thrive within their particular niches. Still, when internet candy is packaged and marketed as music, it's simple to picture a future overrun by brainless, homogeneous pop. Individuals desire pop celebrities they can project themselves and also their wishes into. The Tik Tok pop star-- airbrushed and existing on your display-- is the excellent solution, one action listed below cyborg.

[italicwatches]

[Legacy content] My Hero Academia - Episode 08

You know, I’m not so much mad that there was no sandwich bread in the house this morning. I’m mad that the mini donuts I had to get at the gas station instead for breakfast were so fucking shitty. …Anyways, it’s My Hero Academia, episode 08! Here we GO!

-We see, that scene we’ve seen so many times before. That time in the forest, between Katsuki and Izuku…And then…The Detroit SMASH, the one where Izuku tanked his opponent’s attack, to throw his teammate an opportunity to claim the victory. And Katsuki seeing, up close, what Izuku’s power, what taking that fire, did to his body. And then, seeing those eyes…That damned determination in the face of everything…

-As Izuku’s body shuts down…Katsuki’s brain basically cracks like a fuckin’ egg.

-Opening!

-And the hero team is declared victorious…As Izuku passes out, and Ochaco is fighting to keep lunch inside of her. (Also to Tenya’s credit, he breaks character immediately to help her out. You’re a good man, Tenya.) And everyone in the monitoring room is just staring, really seeing what this kind of thing means. The kind of stakes of even something like this…Izuku has to be carried out of there by robots. While Katsuki…Katsuki is really not taking things well. But it turns out I gave him far, far too much credit.

-See, I thought he was freaking out at the extent of Izuku’s injuries. I thought he was seeing the kind of injury that came out of his effort to be the big scary bully, and had his eyes opened to how he can’t fuck around like that anymore. A crisis of conscience as his heart grew three sizes that day. Hahaha nooooooo. This fucko just is freaking out because little Deku won through his head. And then as he’s in total freakout mode…That’s when All Might tries to calm him down, telling him to come back and see the results. Whether you win or lose, seeing what you can do to improve is an important part of life.

-Episode 08! Bakugo’s Start Line.

-And it’s in the monitoring room…Where All Might declares Tenya the MVP of the match! Who can tell him why he made this decision, hmm?

-It’s…Skimpy-outfit-girl, who figures it out. Tenya adjusted his plans actively and on the fly based on the actual goal he was given(that is, “protect the bomb”), doing his best to achieve his actual goal. He also took into context his opponents’ abilities, doing his best within time and circumstances to tilt the playing field in his favor by removing the miscellaneous debris that Ochaco could have used with her powers.

-Contrast Katsuki, who actively pursued Izuku over a personal grudge, using unwise and massively destructive techniques for the context…And then Izuku, while he did better, still ended up having to use an incredibly rash and unwise plan that left him completely out of commission. And then Ochaco let her guard down in the thick of things, and also made use of strategies that, quite frankly, only worked because it was an exercise. Her wild strategy to get to the bomb only worked because her goal was only to touch the bomb. Had she needed to, say, solve a puzzle to defuse it, she’d have been screwed.

-Tenya’s only mistake, in sharp contrast, was playing within the context of the training exercise’s fiction, as opposed to operating around the strictest, most game-like interpretation of the rules. …God DAMN, she caught everything. Meet Yaoyorozu Momo, one of four students who got in on recommendations alone…

-And now it’s time for the next groups to go at it! Keep in mind the specifics from this first exercise, whether you are in the field or monitoring from here. And so it’s Team B up on the hero side, and Team I on the villain side…Team I, which includes…

-Ah.

-An invisible girl.

-Who cannot make her clothes invisible.

-Well then.

-And it’s up! Bat-guy Shoji Mezo, with his arm wing things, starts by gathering extra data…And pins them both on the fourth floor. So his comrade, an ice man, steps up and starts to just freeze the building out…Where he’s able to lock down both villains, then just walk on in! It’s a bit of an overkill technique…But it also works. Especially because he undoes it as fast as it happened, melting all the ice and turning the place into a sauna. He’s Todoroki Shoto, one of the other four to get in on recommendation.

-So that was one quick match, as it’s soon review time…And Katsuki is losing his cool bit by bit.

-Then it’s the third match, where we see some of the odd tricks of Team J’s duo…When our bird man and frog girl of Team H go right in…And otherwise, it’s general quick flashes of power. These range from some of the classics like super strength or electricity, to odd things like a girl who can plug into the surface of the building and pull sounds…

-And when it’s all done, the tests are done, with only Izuku injured out of the lot. Which All Might is quite happy about, as now he has to go check up on the student and pass the results on to him. He shall see you all soon, children! And then he’s off in a flash…Already trying to figure out how he can help Katsuki from going over the edge…

-And then he’s got to race into the staff elevator, where he locks himself in just in time for his powers to fail. Fuuuuck…

-Commercial break!

-And we’re back! Recovery Girl is tearing into No Might for how this kid has been in here like three times in the first week…His body literally cannot take her healing powers this much. She had to just rapidly get him through the worst of it, and now he has to heal the rest by staying here overnight on an IV. Also, she knows the nature of One For All, as well as No Might and Izuku’s secrets. And thinks they’re both being utterly ridiculous. Because where she stands, of course, she doesn’t do the whole “acting like a symbol” thing. She tries to fix problems. That’s what she’s done ever since she was a plucky young thing back in the day. And if you’re going to be a symbol…You got to know what it means to guide this kid, to make him grow into someone great…Because in the way he’s going, he’s going to be a mess of scar tissue and pain meds before he’s old enough to drink.

-And eventually, Izuku comes to…And realizes it’s well in the evening by this point, as Recovery Girl decides he’s well enough to at least get home. Go home, rest in your own bed, and be back here first thing in the morning, young man.

-So Izuku heads back to the classroom to get his things, already expecting a talking-to from any number of teachers…But instead he finds like half the class has been there waiting for him, and they think he did awesome! You’re fuckin’ cool as hell, man! We get names, but I’m not keeping most of them in my head. I’m not not.

-And then Ochaco gets back and she sees the poor injured Izuku and you poor thing! But there’s only one thing that Izuku wants to know. Where’s Katsuki? He…Just went home a few minutes ago, as soon as he heard they were letting you out…

-So Izuku bolts, catching up to Katsuki out in front of the main campus…And Izuku…Reveals the nature of his Quirk. It was given to him by someone else. A hero saw what he did that day, with the slime thing that nearly killed them both…And chose Izuku to inherit power. He spent the entire last school year training his ass off just to be able to handle it…And he still barely can even survive using it. Everything that happened to day, was because he didn’t want to rely on that power he got from someone else, this power that tore his arm apart…

-But Katsuki doesn’t believe a word. He thinks Izuku is just fucking with him, that he’s been messing with him…And all Katsuki can think, is his fury. His rage, at having gone from the big fish in a small pond, to being in the fucking ocean, where the whales swim in the deep…And with tears in his eyes, with his rage turned inward more than anything else, Katsuki swears he’ll rise to the top again. He’ll be number one when they leave. He’ll, fucking, beat, you!

-And that’s when All Might finds the two of them. And he takes up Katsuki, and reminds him of something. To be proud of yourself, is a fine thing. But you must not let it blind you, or let it cause you pain when you are still young and inexpe—

-Katsuki demands he let the fuck go, now. Because he’s not interested in a lecture. He’s going to be somebody. He’s going to push himself, he’s going to be stronger than even YOU, and he doesn’t need your damn lectures to make that happen! All Might, too shocked to properly respond, can only let the kid go…

-As everyone’s watching…And Ochaco is continuing to get fired up about fated battles between men. She really does wanna just see Izuku get all sweaty and shirtless, doesn’t she.

-Credits!

-Aftercredits! A few days later, they’d all find out, just how terrifying and cunning villains can be…As in a bar, back in the Now, a few villains are talking about the fact that All Might’s in town, now a teacher at UA…

…Fuckin’ hell, Katsuki. You’re a real piece of work, you know that? Anyways, we’ll see how his ego keeps getting him in trouble next time, in episode NINE of My Hero Academia! Wait for it!