#the quality is shit but i knew if i put it off i'd never post it

[noianoranoia]

There's a lie that I told to you.

Circle, Mitski // Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, AMC (2022, -)

[koalaphoenix]

I was going through my art folder on my phone and realized how far I've come with how I draw Shay (and her different forms).

Way back in 2021 I drew her for the first time. She effectively came from a dream I had, where I lived her life in one night. But the struggle was I never actually really saw what Shay/I looked like in the dream. I knew what I was, who I was, but not what I looked like, beyond my hands. One of the most spectacular dreams I've ever had, by the way.

So early on when I was streaming, I decided to take a crack at drawing the dragon woman I'd been in the dream. I couldn't even really remember my/her name, although with help from my friends it came to me.

The first sketch was... Rough, at best. I had no clue how to draw an anthro creature, which Shay effectively was. I used multiple references to even sorta rough out what I wanted, and the result was not spectacular. But it was a start.

Then I was memeing with my friends about our D&D characters. I fully intended to RP as Shay when we began a campaign. It led to the version above - the first proper drawing where I was mostly happy with her overall design.

Late 2021 and I tried to push myself a little further, although I still didn't know what I was doing.

Art block hit me like a truck for a few months. When I finally managed to get drawing again, the results were initially really, really bad. But it wasn't too long and I drew what would end up being a far more finalized version of her design, the template for many future works. She was a more agile figure than her design sketch. I adjusted her horns to make more sense anatomically, and to fit better with her hair.

And also I drew abs on her.

Then there were several more drawings. I touched on alternate versions, put her in some fun situations as self indulgence, tried to experiment with difficult poses. There was a lot of struggle, as I still couldn't quite get her head shape consistent.

Then I found some new resources, and on a whim I drew what's becoming my favorite alternate version of her: Shayaa.

(Flat color iteration shown)

Shayaa was born out of two thoughts. I wanted a version of Shay that was a little thicc, and I wanted a version where she hadn't been abandoned. This ended up with her in armor, and was a leap forward in terms of quality and some design cues. The softer snout, more defined mouth, and thicker horns ended up really helping me draw her more consistently.

I was worried that it was one of those cases where I went beyond my actual ability and wouldn't be able to replicate it, but I was mostly wrong.

I decided I wanted to adjust "prime" Shay's design a bit, to improve her visibly aging and to widen the gap between her and Shayaa to emphasize their differences. I thinned her up a bit, made her muscles more lean, and rounded her features to make her appear more youthful - she's in her early 20s at the start of Godbreaker, but I saw her design as more in her late 20s or early 30s. She was always intended to be more lean than I'd drawn her, but skill issue. I also kinda hated parts of her default outfit, they seemed off and weren't the easiest to draw.

And now? I'm pretty satisfied with her design. She looks younger and more lean, and ideally a little less "civilized." Her hair got spikier to make it easier for me to draw - I suck at floofy hair. She's still pretty big, at 6'7" tall, but she doesn't look like a brick house anymore (nothing wrong with that, I love brick houses, she was just not intended to be that).

But yeah. Going through the old art, a lot of which I can't add to this post, it really hit home to me how much in such a relatively short time she's changed since the first real sketch, how much I've changed...

...And how much has stayed the same.

Aaaand to not end on any sort of deep moment, holy shit her old feet were HUGE.

[ilkkawhat]

Feel free not to answer if you don't want to, but why cringe at your own Sorjonen fic? I loved the short one you posted.

If you feel beta readers/someone to bounce ideas off might help, there are willing volunteers out here 👀 myself included

i'm sure it's mostly just me being hard on myself and just my low confidence in myself, but I'm mostly worried I'm not writing the characters well enough, not being descriptive enough, and that it's not as long as it should be--like i'm going through it too fast almost and maybe that's on me for expecting more out of myself and equating quantity with quality (a fic like this? i'd target maybe 5-10k and so far it's at 2.5k)

and idk back when i was in the peak of my fic writing a few years ago i feel like it'd just be so easy for me to write and now it's just...not. like i'm dragging the words painfully out of me--but i want to write and it's just not happening fast enough i guess

if you or anybody else is interested in reading what i got so far, here it is below the cut--i marked gaps with brackets of what i want to put between:

He just wanted to check on them, to make sure they were alright. Kari would never admit if he was bleeding, though Niko knew he would immediately tell if his wife or daughter or Katia were. 

In hindsight he should have just listened and gotten out when Taina told him to. He shouldn’t have pressed his luck. He should have listened to his instincts telling him he didn’t belong in the field. He hated fieldwork. Shit like this was why. 

Perhaps it was the trick of adrenaline that made him think that he could walk out of this unscathed, a foolish thought that he could be a hero, sneak up behind one of the assailants and take them hostage. 

Hard to do that with his back up against the wall, staring at a mirror; a deer in headlights and suddenly his muscles seize causing the rush to both rise and sink in and out of his body. 

Katia emerged from a room and stood there, and she looked terrified. He’d be more concerned if she wasn’t.

He gave her a look, hoping she would take the signal and walk away but just as he was, she was frozen to the spot giving ample time for her reaction to become suspicious. His eyes were on Katia and not on the pair of shoes walking swiftly into frame, offering no warning and no time for Niko to react even if he wanted to shoot the man in self defense—

He crumpled like a ball of paper, shrinking into himself until he realized that hurt more, moving in such a way that pressed the bullet further into his body. He wedged himself into the corner of the stairwell, feeling stupid for being so exhausted by such a simple action. 

The pain seared through his bloodstream, synapses pulled and snapped causing eruptions in his head. He kept his eyes closed, his body still as he felt the sting of each sizzling spark. 

He held his hand against the wound, the blood trickled out between his fingers. He thought he could maybe scoop the burning lava pouring out of the hole in his abdomen and shove it back in, but instead he just felt the rhythmic throb of pain that rejected the notion of healing himself. 

“Niko? Niko!” 

Kari’s voice. Kari. Kari. Kari. 

That’s who he came here for. To make sure he was safe. He wasn’t safe. None of them were. 

Kari lifted Niko’s hand away from the wound, quickly examining it before hovering his other hand against his cheek. 

Niko was only dimly aware of what was being said and done around him, using all of his concentration to focus on Kari in front of him, but the man was called away—“I have to answer it and tell them no one died. Niko needs a hospital”—the thought of which shocked Niko, because he was certain that he was dead and this was just his lingering thoughts before fading away for good—

Kari stepped away, and Paulina took his place. She was uncertain of what to do, hesitant to touch but wanting to do something, anything, and Niko wanted to tell her he’s okay. This was fine. He’d be okay, just give him a couple minutes.

Paulina looked away, watching the shooter walk trudge back up the stairs after checking that nobody was behind Niko. Niko tried to point to his gun which had fallen out of his hand when she looked back.

Fortunately, she got the message, but out of confusion or fear or maybe a mixture of both, didn’t use it herself, or directly hand it to him. She hastily, clumsily shoved it back into his holster before the brothers could see it. A good call, he had to admit. Shooting now with a hot piece in the taller brother, Nikolai, could just make the situation worse. More casualties.  

Above him, Kari was negotiating for his exit. The other brother, Valdek, was insistent that he could get himself out and Niko wanted to laugh at the thought…but understood the reality that he might have to, the thought of which seemed impossible. 

Raised voices resulted in Katia being allowed to take him. The others were held back, ushered into one of the bedrooms away from sight. The brothers seemed to start arguing while Katia hopped down the stairs two at a time, pulling Niko up though she couldn’t move him even an inch. 

“Niko, come on, we gotta get out of here!” she whispered hurriedly, scared that the brothers might change their mind and finish the job. He was afraid of that too, but the second he tried to stand up, he felt as if something tugged hard, fishing for the bullet that ricocheted against the inner walls of his body, tearing the wallpaper down by peeling and ripping it apart. He couldn’t stifle the pained shout, almost a scream that pierced his ears, making every single cell inside stand on edge, an army of goosebumps pushing out, pressing themselves to get away from the eruption in his abdomen. He wanted it to end but instead had to take a step forward that was worse. Searing water coated his eyes while part of him fought every command from his body to just fall back down, to fall into the alluring void of consciousness. 

Katia attached herself to him, propping him up. His legs felt numb, but he took another step down, Katia took it with him. It was an awkward journey down the rest of the stairs but they made it after what felt like an hour. Katia kept looking behind them every so often, the brother with the loaded gun looming above them. Pacing back and forth eyeing his prey. 

The numbness dissipated by the time they made it down the stairs, he held his breath in and focused on moving forward. They could see the flashing lights outside. The ambulance. They were almost there, and then he could rest. Katia’s hand was almost on the doorknob—

A bullet whizzed past his ear faster than he could hear it. The most motion in his body since they started walking, a sharp gasp and flinch of sheer terror while Katia screamed out at the sound of the gunshot. He yelped as she dropped him and he fell to the floor, but he still reached out to her, wanting to pull her down so he could protect her, keep her safe.

Even though he could hardly protect himself. 

Niko tried his best to sit up, interpret the mixture of screams and shouts from everyone in the household. He could barely understand Kari shouting at the brothers, could only hear Katia next to him. He wanted to ask her if she was okay but all that came out was a long, pained groan. 

“You were letting us go!” Katia screamed to the blurry shadows on the staircase. 

“You’re not going anywhere, except back up here!” Nikolai shouted back. “And you leave him there!” he added, as Katia stood up and tried to take Niko with her. 

“He needs a hospital!” he could hear Kari, begging once more. “Valdek, please, see reason here—!”

“What he needs doesn’t matter. You solve this, fast, or he bleeds out.” 

Katia looked down at Niko with wobbling lips. Her eyes shone with an unspoken apology as she ran up the stairs, the bedroom door was slammed shut. The final nail in his coffin nailed along with it. 

Kari pushed through the bothers, ran down the stairs despite their protests. 

“You leave him down there!”

“Get back up here or we kill one of the girls!”

Kari didn’t seem to care, calling the bluff for the moment, he returned to Niko.

“I’ll try to get something to help. I need you to hang on, stay awake,” Kari held Niko’s hand against the wound. 

“Too…tired…” Niko moaned. 

“I know, Niko, I know. I’m going to get us out but please, promise me—”

“Get up, now,” Valdek grabbed Kari by the back of his shirt, pulled him up and forced him back up the stairs. Niko’s eyes drooped, but didn’t close entirely. He tried to focus on something, anything, but all he could think about was how tired he was…and how much it hurt. 

The strobe of the emergency lights blinked through the window panes of the door. Niko blinked with the light, and when he opened his eyes again the staircase was vacant. The house was eerily silent again, just as it had been when he entered. This was his chance to leave the way he came, silent, unnoticed. 

He breathed in and out as quietly as he could, but as deep as he needed. The bleeding wasn’t stopping, his fingers sheathed in a sticky crimson glove. He raised his other hand up, eyes still transfixed on the stairwell as he blindly fumbled for the doorknob. He found it, twisted it, then started to twist himself to pull it open. He bit down on his lower lip, stifling the rising scream as he stretched his body—

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Niko froze, his nerves vibrating the buzzed hairs on his head to rise as high as they could. He swallowed hard as a blinking shadow grew larger and larger on the door before his hand was lifted and removed from the knob, and then dropped carelessly causing his body to tip over onto it. His face fell onto the shoe of the man stopping him, a soft cry escaped his lips. He tried to lift himself up but his body was a rag doll after his attempt at escape drained what little energy he could muster.

“Just…let…me…go…” Niko shuddered, his voice hoarse and strained. Every word was a challenge, he was losing composure with every syllable. “Please.”

“Told you before, pig, you’re not going anywhere. You’re the one who wanted to join the party,” it was Nikolai, who jabbed the side of Niko’s head with his gun. “Try it again, and I’ll blow your brains out…and theirs, too.” 

A shove of the gun thrusted his head against the door, for a split second he heard a spike of chirps in the radios outside. Niko was reminded of his loose earpiece, once Nikolai leaves he can try to put it in, call for help.

“Nikolai, quit playing around,” Valdek called from upstairs. 

Nikolai spat on Niko’s face, and walked back up the stairs. 

[gap, niko agonizing before kari tries to check on him?]

“Niko!” Kari called down. “Can you hear me?”

“What…?” Niko groaned, too low for anybody upstairs to hear.

“Stay awake. Okay? Promise me you’ll stay awake.”

“Wh-why…?” 

“I know it’s the last thing you probably want to do, but we need to keep your brain active. I could use it right now.” 

Are you fucking kidding me, Kari? I’ve been shot…what use am I at all?

But he understood the point. If Niko fell asleep…he might not wake up.

“Stay awake.”

He blinked, and Kari was in front of him. Pointing to Niko’s brain. 

“You don’t need my help,” Niko murmured. “Already tried to and look where it got me.”

“I do need you. Stay awake,” Kari repeated. 

“Yeah, got the message,” Niko tried to sit up, paying for it immediately with a harsh spike of pain in his abdomen, before he slumped back down again. Kari was gone. Was he ever there to begin with? He squeezed his eyes shut, swallowing back a wave of terror that he was losing his mind. His head felt heavy, lolling in all directions with a dizzying lag. The slam against the door must have given him a minor concussion. Or it was the blood loss. Or both. 

“You quit playing around, too, old man. Get back to work.”

[niko waiting for the dust to settle, maybe fading in and out before he tries calling taina. calls her and then feels guilty, he has to give his gun to somebody to even the odds, making the same mistake that got him hurt in the first place]

“Tuh-Taina…” he whispered into the mic. 

“Niko? Niko, what’s going on? Kari said you’d been shot.”

“Yeah…it’s not good. Listen, I don’t have a lot of time. I’m at the front door. I just…need someone to—”

He heard a worrying commotion. Paulina cried out. Heard a man in pain. 

“Niko? Niko, are you there?”

It had to be Kari, as the brothers shouted. His heart sank. He had to go back up there. If he could hold his gun steady for just a few moments, or somehow give it to Kari or the others, the table could turn in their favor. 

“Niko!”

He ripped the ear piece out of his ear again, leaned himself forward on his good side with one arm cradling his wound while the other reached out, pulled his body ahead.

[niko climbs and then gets kicked in the face and falls down the stairs]

As he reached the top he could see the giants looming above him, Kari with his hands tied behind his back. A bleeding forehead. The punishment he received earlier…for helping Niko? Or something else? 

Finally, the last step, a surge of adrenaline helped him to almost stand up—

For the second time, he missed the pair of shoes that came too fast for him to react. He lifted his head just in time for the shoe to come in contact, the tip lifting his chin up before it retracted, then the bottom of the shoe pushed against his face, shoving him back, he tumbled, his spine bumping hard against the railing behind him, he slid and twisted down, fumbling for something to stop him from pinballing but his head kept getting knocked around, disorienting him, the world was shaken like a snowglobe and he was trapped inside of it—

The hardest impact came when he fell into the same corner splattered with his own blood. Under the flat tone that pierced his eardrums, he could hear women’s screams and a man’s desperate pleas.

“Niko!” Kari shouted, the name having been said so many times in such a short period that it almost felt foreign to him now. Didn’t even feel like his name anymore. Felt like it was the name of a dead man. 

[niko passes the gun to katia so she can shoot the one dude]

Niko grunted, unable to get a word out. He stared at Katia with the most seriousness he could focus into her. He didn’t want to do this, he didn’t want her to have to do this, but it was the only way. 

He led her hand to the holster, and when she realized what she wanted him to do, her eyes widened. But she didn’t protest. He saw Lena’s fire rise within her. 

[ending of the hostage situation. Stretch ending to hospital?]

Eyes fluttered open. 

“Niko!’ Kari’s voice again, this time with less fear and more relief.

“You can go to sleep now. It’s over.”

Thanks for the permission, Niko thought bitterly, but felt the corner of his lips twitch that must have given Kari some more peace of mind. He held his hand up against Niko’s cheek, once again uncertain, before quickly nodding his forehead against Niko’s while gripping his shoulder. A warm wave washed over Niko, if he had anymore blood in his body he’d blush at the gesture. 

[20dollarlolita]

A follow-up to this post: "But I want to make this for the sake of making it, and I'd like to get paid to do the thing I want to do so that I'm not forking out of pocket or collecting a huge number of made things with no purpose!"

Okay, friend, I knew you were going to ask this because I also like making a ton of things but don't always want the things that I made. I make things, sometimes, because I NEED TO MAKE, not because I want to have those things. This is part of why cool handmakers get stuck way undercharging for quality labor. We all spend a ton of money on a thing we love doing, and if we could just get someone ELSE to pay for the thing that, then we could MAKE THINGS FOREVERRRRR.

And yes, that's completely valid.

So I'm going to introduce you to my personal rule for that:

2.5x the cost of materials is the minimum you should sell a handmade thing for, and anything less is insulting. You spent $10 for yarn, those gloves cost $25.

That does not mean that you only charge that much. That means you never charge less than that much. If you sell the gloves at the cost of the materials, you're valuing everything you did as completely worthless.

I read the 2.5 number in a book once (I think this one but I can't remember anything else in the book) and I've found that it's a really good basic number for when someone I like wants to buy my stuff that I make. Generally, it doesn't feel like I"m asking too much, but it also is more than my brain that values my work so little wants to charge. $25 for a pair of gloves is reasonable to ask your friend to pay, but my brain always wants to be like "oh i paid $10 for materials so you can have them for $8" because I apparently don't value my work.

It's also great because 1) I don't like keeping track of how long things take me to make and 2) I don't keep good track of how much things cost.

I'm making a skirt right now. The fabric was $20. The elastic was 80" off a 100 yard spool that I bought two years ago. Most of the trim is harvested off of a skirt that I got on accident two years ago and then deconstructed. I broke two needles working on this project, used 1/8 of a spool of thread, put 18 minutes of sewing time onto my sewing machine and made a nick in my serger blade that required me to replace it. How much was my materials cost? I don't fucking know. But I know that if I ask $50 for it, all of those things will probably be covered, and I don't need to do a ton of math.

So yeah, when you're giving stuff to people and they ask how much you want for it, if you don't like math and you don't like counting hours or logging work, 2.5x is a pretty solid budgeting and isn't at all asking too much.

Also, one of the most fun things I have noticed about having a job where I'm not constantly counting every penny, is that I can just chaotically give people gifts for no reason. You want to know how much fun it is to just make shit and keep it in your car and when someone says something and you can just bust out a "well I do actually have a size 24 petticoat if you want one," reach behind your driver's seat, and summon the very thing they were discussing? I get crap for having a car that looks like a hoarder's car, but there's so much fun in summoning a bag of headbows from the depths of the inside of the car and handing them out like candy. I got into this because I will make things regardless of if there's a purpose for it or if I can actually afford it well, but the social element of selling or giving things away got really draining. And if you want to be an Agent of Positive Chaos, get a box, put your stuff in it that you made but don't have energy to sell, and keep a mental log of what it is. Someone's cold and your'e like BOOM, FUCKING GLOVES! It's like the Big Comfy Couch except that you're the couch. If you have the energy to manage your own business then congrats, but I have a limited amount of energy and I want to spend all of that making what I want, when I want, and figuring out what I'm going to do with it later. Having a job stresses me the fuck out and I decided to have a stressful fucking job because inflicting my handmade things on my friends for no reason is absolutely worth the stress. My friends live in a constant fear that I'll have made them a thing. They cannot escape it. It is always present and no one knows where it came from or where it will go. What man fears most is the unknown and i'm a big fucking ball of you-don't-know-what-i'll-make-you

Art isn't about why. It's about why not. Why are so many of our crafts dangerous? Why don't you *degrades into just quoting Portal for 4 hours*

[lovecolibri]

Can I just say that I love the addition of "ABC, you know what to do!" to your recent asks 🤣 I think that we can all agree that if the finale by some miracle turns out to be a great episode that isn't Lucy and Buck getting 90% of the airtime, it's because someone else intervened. Did Timmy come home?? Speaking of him, I love (sarcastic) how he JUST chose to randomly post a Buddie BTS that he acknowledged in an interview as being a specific nod to the shippers and the fountain shooting up being a "metaphor" and open to audience interpretation 🙄 That man has always been *SO* ridiculously online that I'd ordinarily say that he knew exactly what he was doing by posting that at this time, but since deleting his Twitter, maybe he lost some of that online-ness and it really was just out of the blue. Idk. The lizard part of my brain wants to think that he saved the finale and there will be a different Buddie metaphor at play (ahem, the couch) but the other part of my brain is preparing for an Eddie/Marisol date in a montage 🤮 And maybe Buck with the baby and Kameron on his couch 🤮🤮 Wishing us luck, because we will need it!

Look, I just think ABC could pull off some really funny shit when they take over but that's only if the do the right thing and put their foot down about who is planning the arcs on the show. I'm not expecting a huge announcement out of it, *maybe* if we're lucky there will be something about her stepping down by HER choice due to *insert PR nonsense here* but I'm moreso going to be looking at the episode quality and pacing and arc because the show has had a markedly different feel since she took over. At least ABC will be promoting TF out of it to try and keep up viewers with the network switch so we might get more information that way on what to prepare for.

I'm also not going to pretend Tim is the greatest either since he handpicked KR to take over and LS has been a mess pacing and arcs wise too this season so IDK what was going on in those early 911 seasons, if there was someone else involved or if LS's issue is something RL related. But no matter what something has to change because this show deserves to go out with more than a fading whimper over its last few seasons.

Also, I have to say I'm fine with Buck getting a lot of screentime and taking charge during the big rescue because regardless if the writing earned that for him over the season (they didn't), it's something I WOULD like to see for Buck and I am HERE for some firefam feels after we were robbed in 6x11. I do NOT want to see L at all so I'm already bracing for that nightmare but hopefully the renewed backlash means they won't waste too much time on that. As for the rest of Buck's stuff, I'm prepared to be disappointed by all of it but hopefully it also won't take up too much time. And maybe if we luck out ABC will just handwave away anything too egregious and ignore it like it never happened.

Also, I could be totally wrong and we'll get something super amazing for Buddie which would be great! I love being proved wrong when I was pessimistic about something! But I'm not gonna get my hopes up, that doesn't work for ME personally. Good luck to all of us and good luck to ABC who are inheriting a hot mess and an absolutely rabbid fanbase.

[mastermindenoshimaalicia]

can i? (selfship post five)

summary: geto takes his quiet girl out for a late-night date on the beach.

pairing: geto suguru x me

warnings: smut, beach sex, teasing, oral sex, flirting, size kink (if you squint), and other mature warnings I might have missed

taglist: @happygoluckyalexis @simpingforwakasa04 @maydayaisha

an: i just thought of this last night tired as hell. enjoy.

The house was eerily silent for once. I was still wearing a light pink t-shirt and black sweatpants as I lay on my bed, relaxing as I checked my phone for the time. 10 o'clock, huh?

The next thing I knew I felt someone else sit on my bed.

"Hey, baby."

I looked up to find a very familiar raven-haired man with his shirt off, hair down, and grey shorts that showed off his dickprint.

"Hey." I sat up, hugging him from behind. "What is it?"

"Well, while I was doing some yoga in the living room, I thought about something." He mused, rubbing my hands. "I figured while it's nighttime, I take you somewhere special."

"Where are we going?" I pulled away from him, moving to sit next to him. "Hopefully, there's not too many people there…"

"How does the beach sound to you?" He smiled.

I looked at him. "That sounds great but…"

"I know you're nervous, darling. But it'll be fine." He rubbed my shoulders, giving me a peck on the cheek. "I promise you."

I gave it some thought for a moment. "Well, alright. It couldn't hurt one bit."

Geto chuckled. "Good. Once I get my shirt on, then we can leave. I'll make sure that you enjoy this." He kissed me on the lips before getting up. "I just have to get a few more things."

"All right. Anything you want me to change into?" I asked, stretching as I stood up.

"Something comfortable." He winked before walking out of my room.

I yawned before walking to my closet, looking for something to wear on this late-night date. I changed into a short-sleeved black sundress that I'd never worn whatsoever and tried it on.

"Oh my…" I muttered to myself, seeing the dress fit me like a glove when I stepped in front of the mirror. "Holy shit."

"Alicia, I'm ready when you are!" Geto called from the living room.

"I'll be just a minute!" I replied, throwing on my white sneakers before grabbing a change of clothes, and putting them in my duffel bag alongside my phone. "Okay, I'm ready." I left my room and walked downstairs, grabbing my keys as I slung the bag over my shoulders.

"Don't you look amazing this evening?" Geto mused, now wearing an unbuttoned black shirt and simple white slip-in sneakers to go with his shorts.

"Thanks, darling. I could say the same." I giggled. "Alright, let's go."

Geto opened the door, slinging one giant black duffel bag on his shoulder and carrying the other one in his hand as I stepped out behind him, closing and locking the door to the apartment.

After taking a 20-minute walk, we eventually made it to the beach where nobody else was there to my relief.

"Oh wow…" I was taken aback by the beautiful scenery, Geto having walked around, and found the perfect spot for us to relax. Even the sky was beautiful with the stars and moon out.

"Babe, you okay?" He called out. "Alicia?"

"Huh?" I shook my head before walking over to him in the middle of the beach. "My bad."

He chuckled, having laid out two oversized beach towels as four huge beach umbrellas were angled behind them in a half circle formation.

"Sure, sure." I put my bag down next to his, helping him set some pillows down around the beach towels. "Did you bring any food? Snacks? Something to drink?"

He let out a chuckle, setting down some heavier towels before taking off his shoes. "I have my snack right beside me. And she's looking exquisite." He winked, taking a seat and holding out his hand.

"Seductive as always, aren't you?" I took off my shoes before grabbing his hand as he pulled me into his lap. "Geto, what are you planning?"

"I'm planning to spend some quality time with you. That is…if you want to get naughty." He slowly rubbed my legs, looking up into my brown orbs.

I hummed softly, feeling his hands move up my thighs and find their way to my ass, grabbing it. "Mmm, Geto…"

"You know you want all of me." He whispered in my ear, flipping us over so I was looking up at him. "Don't deny it."

"I'm not denying anything whatsoever." I adjusted my glasses, chuckling. "I want all of you. Besides, you look sexy from this view."

He then pulled away and sat the both of us up, taking off his shirt and throwing it to the side. "How about now?" He smirked.

"Oh my." I ran my hand up his toned six-pack, making my way up his neck before slightly choking him. "Fuck me." I cupped his chin, pulling him into a passionate kiss.

"Sure about that, darling?" He laid me down on my back, making sure my head was on a pillow before deepening the kiss.

I hummed, breaking the kiss. "Yes." I looked down at his shorts. "But first…" I flipped us over, getting off his lap and pulling off his shorts as his dick was dripping with precum.

"Come on, baby." He cooed, rubbing my hair as I slowly licked the tip. "Mmm-!" He groaned, my head bobbing up and down his thick shaft. "Fuck, Alicia…."

His hums and moans were music to my ears as I pulled away, giving us both a few moments to breathe. "You know you can do better than that." He then pulled me on top before flipping us over and kissing my neck, his hot breath giving me goosebumps.

"You know you want to, love." I teased, rubbing his hair.

"Must you be a tease?" He whispered in my ear, his hands going down my sides and up my dress. "Hm?" He rips off my panties, planting kisses on my pussy before moving to my inner thighs.

I hummed. "You are just as much of a tease-" I gasped, feeling his tongue licking at my clit. "G-Geto…"

"What's wrong? Can't speak?" He wrapped his mouth around my bundle of nerves, gently sucking on it.

"A-Ah…!" I cried out, feeling two of his fingers inside of my pussy, pumping in and out. "G-Geto…"

"Yes, baby?" He pulled away, adding a third finger inside my drenched cunt as his thumb rubbed my bud in circles.

I arched my back, moaning before feeling his lips crashing on mine. "F-Fuck…" He slipped his tongue inside my mouth, dancing with it. "I need you…" I whined, shutting my legs.

"How bad?" He forced my legs open with his free hand, the pace of his fingers quickening inside of me.

"I-I'm gonna…" I felt something build up inside of me. "G-Geto…please!" I yelped, his thumb still running my clit. "I want you so bad!"

Those five words were just enough for Geto to get in between my legs, grinding his hard dick against my sopping pussy.

"Fuck, your moans are pretty." He groaned, helping me take off the dress and the lacy black bra I had worn before teasing my nipples.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, looking at him. "Give me your fucking dick…" I begged, panting.

"As you wish." Geto rubbed my bottom lip, slowly thrusting inside. "Mmm, fuck…" He groaned, kissing my chest.

"Ha…so good…" I muttered, slowly seeing stars as he went harder. "O-Oh, Geto…fuck…" I panted and moaned.

It wasn't until when his fat cock kissed my cervix was when I was truly gone. I whined loudly, gripping his hair tightly as he put me in a mating press.

"Fuck, darling, you're so fucking tight for me…" He grunted, looking at my fucked out face as I was reduced to a babbling mess, my cunt clenching around his shaft.

"A-Ah…I'm gonna cum…" I babbled, feeling his hand toying with my clit and his lips on mine. "Geto…please…!" I pleaded.

After one last thrust, I moaned loudly as I came hard and threw my head back. Geto let out a grunt, filling up my pussy to the brim as his strokes slowed down.

"Suguru…" I dropped my legs from around his waist as he wrapped his arms around my tired body to hold me. "Fuck…."

He peppered kisses up and down my neck, pulling out. "You did so well…" He then kissed my forehead, holding me in his arms as I rubbed his back and kissed his chest.

At that moment, I might have heard something or someone. I wasn't sure but I didn't care. As long as I was in his arms, I was safe.

After taking a while to come down from our highs and putting on a brand new set of clothes and shoes, we eventually packed up everything and made our way back home.

"Hey, Geto?"

"Yes?"

"You're lucky we didn't get caught."

[tedturneriscrazy]

Uh, I'm running out of ideas for how to introduce these things...

Anyways, Any Sport in a Storm!

May my Huntlow dreams come true

From denial to acceptance in record time, impressive!

Also, tape? My dude, I know nothing about sewing, and even I can tell that's some clown shit

"Consider this a test" consider my foot in your ass, Phil

The way Raine looked back at Hunter...now I'm curious about their previous relationship

Also, not liking the way Terra is leading Raine around...

Good to see Darius again, if only because of Keston John's voice😍

Ooh, Golden Guard lore! Seems like it's a legacy position, which makes sense

Hunter desperately seeking approval and validation while Darius is clearly sick of his shit

"You're very good at doing exactly what you're told" That's gonna come back later

Shortened title again? Not sure if they're making more time for longer episodes or putting off having to change the title sequence again...

Hell yeah, more Willow working out!

You got this, Willow!

Oh, shit! That's her dads! I bet that's how they met!

Where did her new glasses come from, though?

Also, lol at "Eye of the Liger"

Ah, so it was an errant locker

I also love how they both knew that Willow could save them

Important information, Gus

Oh, the way Luz fluffs Willow's hair❤❤❤ (Yes, I multiship, what of it?)

Azura Book Club real?!...Wait, I knew that already, I saw the promos lol

"I am so excited to hear the next words coming out of your mouth" Bruh, stop giving me Willuz fuel /hj

Hyping up badass Willow so far, so I'm definitely loving it

I wonder if Gus carries around confetti now, as well, thanks to Luz

I think I saw a comment about it elsewhere, but the whole club fair premise is so anime, and it's great

BABIES♥🥺

This show really likes to say "Ages 6-11," doesn't it?

Uh oh, here comes Boscha

Luz is nerding out so much here, I love her

Hermosa ❤❤❤

Hey, I'm allowed some Lumity marking

The author of Azura? Luz seems confused

Human or demon? Interesting...

Also, lol at Boscha wanting attention

Love the way they just excitedly run off

"You guys aren't cute! I still have more friends than you!" Quality, not quantity, Boscha. You're just jealous you don't have an awesome girlfriend

Oh, this is gonna go swimmingly for golden boy /s

Great job selling your cult, buddy

Oh, hey, it's Barcus!

"Banish card" lmfao the disrespect

Oh no, critical thought that runs counter to his indoctrination! His one weakness!

(Also, good on you, Jerbo)

Bruh just get off her tail wtf

So we finally have a name for abomination professor: Professor Hermonculous!

This guy's kind of a dick, huh

Well, Willow, you're about to find one, at least

SNATCH!

Scary, then sweet. Classic Willow

Very enthusiastic handshake

Caleb Jasper Bloodwilliams...First rule of lies: keep it simple

"Fly doobie" not in a TV-Y7 show

That all sounds...intense

"I don't feel sick" has the same energy as "I'm not putting anything down," change my mind

Aw, Gus is looking out for Willow❤

LUZ AND AMITY ARE LITERALLY LISTING THE FAN THEORIES I FUCKING CAN'T SHHDJDJJEI

I'm also glad to see that, yes, Amity is just as dorky as Luz

Canceled? Oh, no!

The fruits of the recruitment drive

...not the best first impression

Oh, no, are we in for a crisis of confidence for Willow?

"Half a witch" Hmmmmmmmm

Oh, never mind, Willow is persistent

Loving that face

Ooh, Skara's smart, too! That one post of mine still holds up!

"Now I'm only scarred emotionally!"

I actually really like how Gus and Hunter bounce off of each other, surprisingly

And Willow is an effective leader and good at recognizing where everyone's strengths lie

Now we have context for that one screenshot

The chase is on!

The bird phone just flying into the window lmfao

Looks like Darius' Me Time is being interrupted once again

BETRAYAL

Game on!

Okay, yeah, Gus and Hunter camaraderie is good, actually

Even got the Gatorade dunk

I'd knock "Emerald Entrails," but it seems rather fitting for the Boiling Isles

Luz and Amity are gonna see that group selfie and have...a reaction

Damn, Viney, that's cold

Oh, here's actual betrayal

Dammit, blondie, you had a good thing going and you fucked it up

Also, way to show your hand so abruptly

So Darius sent the scouts, huh?

Prime usage of Steve

Man, Hunter is really just describing all kinds of awful shit with zero self awareness or introspection. Apparently critical thought is just not a thing in the Emperor's Coven

Ah, there's the crisis of confidence

"Can you?"

(Let me just take another opportunity to praise Keston John's voice acting. So good)

Oh I don't like that about the palismen

"Steve is beginning to regret his choices" Why is this such a mood?

The way they're still bringing up theories while chasing that author, holy shit they're such nerds ❤

Tiny Nose?! Tinella Nosa?!?!

Tibbles....

And Mattholomule? Who else is in on this?!

Bro Amity is the only person on the Isles buying the Azura books I fucking

Yeah, punch 'im! And may this be his last appearance

Mmm, yes, casually rest your head on Amity's shoulder. I mean, sorry about that whole thing, but at least y'all can be cute together

Those Penstagram posts are 💯💯💯

Well, valiant attempts, but Darius is a coven head, after all

I was gonna say something else, but we're still on that previous point

Starting to get Horde Prime flashbacks

Better late than never on doing the right thing, I guess

A small blush, I'm sure this won't be totally overanalyzed and possibly blown out of proportion /j

(That said, my Huntlow brainrot will take what it can get)

Buh?!

Huh, well then, Darius, I guess you get this:

I did not have "Darius as a good mentor figure" on my nonexistent Bingo card, I am pleasantly surprised

They gon write fanfiction together this just keeps getting better

"I am really digging those outfits" Damn, Luz, be more bisexual, why don't you

Their reactions to Hunter remind me of the end of Hooty's Moving Hassle (God, that seems like a different show entirely at this point)

Well, that was a nice, light episode! Drama! Flair! Facepaint! But nothing too plot heavy or angsty.

I think the Flyer Derby plotline stood on its own quite solidly, and it was definitely apparent that it was the main attraction here. Some more development and confidence building for Willow, and Hunter got a brief taste of actually being a kid for once.

Also, I feel the Lumity part managed to avoid overshadowing the episode, unlike in Through the Looking Glass Ruins. Their interactions were cute and sweet, yet casual and understated. Clearly girlfriends, but not too in-your-face about it, and the storyline was cute enough, even if it did have Tibbles.

[smol-nevi]

I don't generally make this kind of thing a habit, but I think if you happen to be on the Crystal RP Discord, aka @crystal-rp-ffxiv, you should probably be aware of this kind of behavior, so here goes.

If you're on Crystal RP and the admin team decides they don't like you, you're going to be living under a microscope while they wait for you to mess up, if not bait you, probably while making up conspiracies about you as well. As for how I know this, I was a moderator for about a week's duration and saw it first-hand.

Unapologetically lengthy post. Receipts in the link above, long version below the cut.

From the first time I looked in the mod chat I knew something was wrong. I read backwards in the channel, thinking I'd acclimate myself and see what kind of rules precedents had been set and that sort of thing. I mostly just found out that they had it out for a particular member (at the time using the name Jericho) for not much reason. They'd spent a troubling amount of time over the past few months watching him and another member like vultures, believing them to be the same person and waiting for them to make some kind of mistake that would justify banning both of them...despite keeping different schedules, having different personalities and typing habits, and visibly being two different people. The admin team had come to the conclusion that Jericho was a troll who wanted to make them look bad, and anything he said or did was scrutinized to a ridiculous degree for evidence that would corroborate their belief.

Except none of the things they believed at all were true: he'd had a minor argument via DM with the head admin Benjimir Thursby's wife, Tessariel Aerlinn, who had made an overly broad statement about anime and Asian culture. Jericho had told her that overgeneralization about 'Asian culture' is potentially racist, and she became extremely angry, saying that because she's Asian, she can't be racist against Asians. After that, it seemed that Jericho was considered fair game for whatever retaliatory actions the two of them could justify.

Even a cursory glance at actual racism in Asia pokes Tessariel's statement entirely full of holes, and having personally read the conversation I didn't see anything actually inaccurate in his statement even if she believed it didn't apply to her. I asked what he had done that would merit such a response, because it felt very disproportionate to anything I'd ever seen him do publicly, and that was what I was told. The exchange via DMs had been screencapped and kept in a channel for evidence, and while I didn't get a copy of it, I did read it, and I said that I thought it sounded awfully one-sided and punitive and would have been much better as an actual conversation. I also expressed that I was concerned how much of the channel had been solely devoted to what was basically a witch hunt, considering that some of the server members had over the course of the past couple of months commented that the admins' behavior towards Jericho seemed biased.

I basically got a pat on the head and told that my opinion was "valued" but wrong. This would happen a lot over the course of the week.

Shit continued to escalate. Their favorite punching bag, who was acutely aware of the grudge by now and probably trying to be nice and discuss something that he thought they could all talk about, brought up some articles that stated that LOTRO might be having a graphical overhaul. This actually ended in him being put into some kind of time-out mute, because "everyone knows those articles are debunked already" despite them still being hosted on reputable games news sites. Back-channel, the admin consensus was that he was in fact trying to bait Benjimir and Tessariel into somehow looking stupid in public, because [paraphrasing] 'he knows how important LOTRO is to them.'

Benjimir in fact went off publicly about how he knows the dev team and they sent him 'personalized swag' for 'being himself' and that everyone should just listen to him because he's right. Someone else made a reasonable request for sources on statements that Benjimir made about the LOTRO improvements not happening, and they immediately became the team's private #2 punching bag.

The whole time I reiterated that this was really uncomfortable and I had serious concerns about the way they were handling Jericho. And as always I received a pat on the head and was told to not worry about it, there were really good reasons for it, really. He was 'bringing down the quality of discourse' on the server somehow. Benjimir decided that the only way he would unmute Jericho is if Jericho talked directly to him, and that Jericho tried to talk to any of the more level-headed members of the team first was taken as obvious evidence that he wanted to evade rules and create problems. I asked when we planned to unmute him, and Tessariel immediately jumped to the conclusion that he had messaged me, which wasn't incorrect but the way she worded it felt highly accusatory and I was beginning to feel that I was also in trouble somehow for not agreeing with the rest of the team.

Things came to a head quickly when I woke up and looked at the mod chat and they were having an animated conversation that started with Benjimir asking if it was 'bad that he was laughing at Jericho' and most of the rest of the team talking about how he was stupid, uninformed, a troll, etc. for the sin of having some misgivings about cryptocurrency, of all the things. One of the mods self-described their behavior as bullying. I said that this was extremely unprofessional and that I thought they should keep conversation to actual moderation matters, and if they had a personal disagreement with a server member they should handle it in a personal venue, not via official server moderation channels.

I was, for the final time, patted on the head, and told that this was not something they would consider, because the moderation team 'needs to be able to vent for their mental health' (never mind that the job was not stressful except for the rest of the team committing worse behavior than the server members) and that maybe I was in fact too sensitive for the job. Benjimir heavily implied that I had become too close to Jericho and was being manipulated, managed to misgender me somehow despite my having used solely male or neutral pronouns the entire time I'd been on the server, and after relating a story in which a couple of years ago a well-liked moderator left after having the same complaints as I did (which he saw nothing at all troubling about), suggested that I should be demoted to babysitting the lore channel.

So I took some time to collect receipts, which are linked at the top of the post, and told him where to shove it.

Since that time, things have actually somehow gotten worse on Crystal RP. Benjimir posted an entire page screed vaguely talking about "rampant negativity" that stated anyone with questions should DM him.

Upon DMing him with questions, Jericho was banned, the only reason given being that he was a 'poor fit' for the server in some vague way. I was immediately banned afterwards for calling out this decision as being driven by a personal vendetta in the feedback channel and let him know afterwards via DMs in no uncertain terms that I had logged everything I needed and would be building my case (and that he is an asshole). Jericho was reinstated, though I'm not sure what the conditions of his return were as that was after my ban and I didn't ask since I didn't want to stress him out further. Benjimir also reprimanded someone for discussing asexuality, stating in a DM to them that the conversation was somehow ERP related. I called him out on this via DM as well. Tessariel was not much later caught posting my last DMs to Benjimir in an entirely unrelated server, though she didn't include the part after that where I brought up his aphobia (during Pride Month, in a server with a rainbow icon no less). Benjimir for some reason decided to suddenly start following my FC's Tumblr well after our falling-out.

And as of today (6/24), Crystal RP now has seven pages of draconian rules, because it wasn't micromanaged hard enough before or something. Notably, a lot of these rules describe behaviors that they wanted to punish Jericho for but couldn't at the time justify, or that they'd like to punish me for but have nothing they can do to me. Or they exist to justify their own behavior, as now seen in the very beginning of the channel:

"This approach also provides our volunteers with leeway to act in good faith without the burden befitting a professional occupation."

"So we afford them the means to speak openly, vent, lament, candidly and yes, sometimes crassly and raw about everything and one."

Not only did they behave unprofessionally and shit-talk before, they have now encoded in the rules that this is acceptable and even good moderator behavior, because they saw someone else do it so it's fine (a lot of this wording is very similar to what I was told when I protested it). So rather than address anything I ever said past or present, Benjimir is choosing to double down and giving himself and his team explicit permission to be shitty, right in the opening paragraphs where you'd have expected a mission statement or at least some sort of welcome.

Which is about all you need to know about that server and its owners, in my estimation. I'd considered not even posting to Tumblr about it, but given that it's only getting worse, I think it should be generally known that this is how you can expect to potentially be treated.

[silver-wield]

If you don't yet have an analysis of when Cloud saves Tifa from the collapsing staircase, I'd like to hear it!

Sorry this one took awhile, Nonny, I was gonna do it yesterday, but I got super tired and then I was gonna do it earlier but I got pissed off and had to walk away from the internet before I threw my computer through a window.

So, the collapsing staircase aka the cloti hand grab. Bring it!

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven’t played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it’s gonna be long and awesome! Because I saw things and I have suspicions!

Also, this is one person’s interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that’s cool and we’ll agree to disagree.

You’re also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I’m grabbing them from Youtube and it’s frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Please check my master post to see if I've already covered your question, thanx

Let's mosey!

Recap time!

Let's backtrack a tiny bit first. Cloud's making his way up the pillar, had his bro moment with Biggs – damn you Square – and he's heading up to where Barret is on the top level.

Reno and Rude are in their chopper, throwing shade at Shinra while doing their jobs. I love how idgaf Reno is during this bit. Like, honey, you not even trying.

As Cloud comes into view on the staircase, Reno spots him and it's time for revenge! Nothing personal, bitch!

Ok, nothing very special here. SOLDIER!Cloud taking a look about for whatever resources he has to hand – none – and we've got Reno in the background waiting for him to get in range. (Yall also almost ended up with my gif of Nyx Ulric loool he pretty but Cloud’s prettier)

Reno's impatient. He fusses with the joy stick, drums his fingers, then puts his arms behind his head. The fact he's done this last move suggests he has no doubt he'll be gunning Cloud down sooner or later. We can see Rude keeping his eyes front – you can just catch the direction of his gaze behind the left lens of his sunglasses.

HOLY SHIT! Rude blinked! Like several times in quick succession! (gotta slow the frames down to 0.25 to catch it btw) Now, this could be nothing since Rude is very hard to read and has even smaller micro-expressions than Cloud does, but when someone blinks like that it usually means they recognise the person they're looking at. He's seen Tifa running up the stairs. I don't know why he might recognise her, aside from having a headcanon about it, but I'm telling you, I saw him do several rapid blinks when he caught sight of her, then draw Reno's attention to her. His eyes behind those sunglasses are ever so slightly wider than usual btw. It's really hard to see, but there seems to be a definite look of “I know you” about him.

Reno shooting at her might have been a mistake on Rude’s part. He could have forgotten himself in that moment of recognition and didn't mean to direct Reno to a new target. That would explain why he pulled away from the attack and made up an excuse about his hand slipping.

This makes me excited to find out if Rude knows her and what the deal is with that OG crush. My headcanon? He's a former student of Zangan too and helped get Tifa to Midgar when she was injured. She doesn't remember it since she was at death's door for most of the trip. I saw a bit saying Zangan had to use a lot of healing materia on her and she stayed in the hospital too, so it's reasonable she wouldn't recall Rude. But, we don't know for sure yet, which is why headcanon.

Still exciting though!

Cloud's heard footsteps on the stairwell, so turns to see who it is and you can just catch a glimpse of Tifa appearing through the metal slats. This is the first time Cloud spots her. The camera then pans up to the helicopter again where Reno prepares to shoot Tifa.

I don't wanna say for sure that Rude's jaw clenched here. The lighting is suspect because of the angle it strikes his face. He did something. I noticed something, but it's so utterly subtle I can't tell what. He either clenched his jaw for a brief second or his lips firmed, again for a brief second. It's probably easier to catch if you slow the frames down then don't look at Rude and rely on your peripheral vision to see it. That's how I end up replaying things a million times because I saw something and then have to spend half an hour trying to find it again lol

Reno definitely smirked, I caught that no problem.

So yeah, moving on from Rude's super micro-expressions, before Reno's even finished speaking he's pulling the helicopter away from Tifa. Like, Reno's still saying “bullets” when it happens. That's a very snap decision, especially with how fast Reno talks usually. And the entire time Reno's speaking Rude is looking at Tifa. I mean, he's expressionless – he could give Cloud lessons – but there's also emotion coming from him. I kinda feel a bit sad looking at him in this screen.  

Guess we'll get more Rude backstory in part 2!

Reno bangs his head and I always laugh at that part. Get rekt!

Cloud's all da fuq? since it's so very obvious Reno was lined up to shoot and then suddenly not. But there's no time to think about why because Tifa's still running up the stairs.

Omg I'm so good I even impress myself sometimes! Check either side of the screen. Tifa at one edge and Cloud at the other, already in motion to save her as the first bullets from Reno's miss start destroying the staircase. You could not get closer to the start of this catch!

Tifa's foot is on the second step here. That's not even a second after the last screen. Her sub isn't even fully solid that's how soon she yelled for Cloud. Going by common sense, the staircase is collapsing to her right and she needs to get up another 12 steps? In a couple of seconds? Yeah, she knew that wasn't happening. She needed him. I question how she knew he was there. She couldn't see him from where she was. Maybe she guessed the chopper was shooting at him, but it could've been anyone from Avalanche. She's not looking up the stairs, her eyes are at her feet.

I think she yelled for Cloud because that's who she wanted. Like Aerith said to follow her heart, Tifa's heart cried out for Cloud when she was in danger.

Well, if that isn't a look of surprise right there. She really didn't expect him to be right there at that moment. She was screaming for him, hoping he'd save her and there he was. Her face goes from this tense “I'm about to die” look, to this wide eyed shock that there he is, right in front of her, reaching for her. Right when she needed him most. If he wasn't there she'd have been shot and the last thing she said would've been his name. That's how important it is that she screamed for him there. It wasn't that she knew he was waiting for her. She didn't know he was there at all. She just wanted him to be the one to save her so desperately and he came through.

So I bet a lot of people have looked at this so romantically that he's reaching for her. Hell yeah in a way, but what makes it even better is when you remember you're looking at Cloud through Tifa's eyes. This is how she sees Cloud looking at her in this moment, all heroic and brave and just right there for her. That confident stance, totally out from behind any kind of cover, just waiting and reaching for her. It's funny she never calls him a hero in the game, except as a motivator at the end when he's dangling off a building, because he absolutely is pulling off the hero moment here. She called his name and he appeared to save her. It's exactly how she said during their promise.

He is taking her hand. That's his fingers wrapping around hers, while hers lay open against his palm. She is the passive party in this hold, while Cloud is the active one. She could've mutually grabbed him, but she didn't. This is him saving her. This is not an equal grab. This is Cloud grabbing Tifa. Only after his fingers close over her hand do hers do the same back.

Cloud backs up, dragging Tifa up the last of the stairs to safety, while keeping himself safe as well. There, he spins her around and puts his free hand on her back, while keeping hold of her other hand in his. He doesn't let her go at all during that move. In fact, you can also see that Tifa now has both hands on Cloud. The one he took is still holding his and she's put her other hand on his arm. She was likely very scared during that moment he saved her and she's holding onto him as an anchor to feel safe. Cloud saved her and she feels safe with him.

Cloud's expression is wary and alert, since he's focused on the danger, while Tifa's is scared. Just because she can fight, doesn't make her a fighter.

Cloud lets got of Tifa's hand so he can lean out from behind their safe spot and check on the danger, but he's left his other hand on her back. During this moment, Tifa actually leans back which would increase that contact.

Her face is quite blurred since we're focusing on Cloud in the foreground, but her expression seems to hint at a “thank god I have you” look.

Oh look, the camera refocused. Definitely a “thank god I have you” look, not to mention the tears in her eyes. She was terrified.

Also, that hand is still on her back.

But, she can't be weak in front of Cloud. She wants to prove she's his equal, that she doesn't need a hero. She just wants him. I mean, before he turns to look at her, she's staring at him like he set the stars in the sky for her.

As he takes his hand off her back and pulls out his “what the hell?” line, which is clearly him mad at her for being so reckless and almost dying on him, she gives him a brave smile and puts on her own persona as someone who can totally handle all this chaos. Scared? Tifa? Noooo.

She says “nice catch” all casual like she wasn't petrified and screaming his name less than thirty seconds ago and he is not impressed by this one bit. He's unconvinced Tifa's as blasé about this as she's acting, which is why he continues to challenge her. Which isn’t the first time he’s done it. He doesn’t let her bullshit him.

Basically, she's trying to be brave and support him, but he doesn't want her to put herself in danger because he wants to protect her. They're both trying to prove they're worthy of each other and doing stupid shit in the process.

This is actually a very good moment for them because we know Cloud pretty much does whatever Tifa wants because he wants to make her happy, but this shows he's not above arguing with her or challenging her when she's being reckless and endangering herself. He's not got her on a pedestal. She's not some unobtainable dream woman. She's real to him and he feels comfortable getting mad and showing negative emotions to her. That's why he can call her crazy without worrying it'll sour her opinion of him.

Remember, Tifa is non-confrontational by nature. She doesn't like fighting and will usually agree or let things go for the sake of an easy life. But, she disagrees with Cloud or tells him off several times throughout the game. This shows she's comfortable having confrontations with him. She's not worried about upsetting him and being rejected during a typical interaction. She worries about scaring him away when she’s unsure he’ll stay, but once he’s said he’ll stick around she relaxes and doesn’t seem as worried about him leaving her. It was only when she tried to move their relationship from friendship to more during alone at last that she worried about rejection. 

Tifa accepts Cloud's feelings, even the negative ones and deals with them in a mature way. She doesn't dismiss him or ignore how he feels. She just relates her feelings to his and points out that he's still going up the pillar, so she will too. She wants to stay by his side. Her heart led her to him. If he's going, then so is she. Her expression is earnest here. There's nothing more than what she says. She's not leaving. Nothing can change her mind.

OK WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, RUDE?! DO YOU KNOW TIFA?!

He swallowed! His mouth tensed and he swallowed! Lips pulled down. Behind those sunglasses I caught movement. There's definitely something going on with Rude here and it's something that Reno doesn't know about since he doesn't recognise Tifa and he has no idea why Rude did that.

Ok, one last quick shot of yet more unnecessary touching between Cloud and Tifa. Why is he doing that? Literally to keep her within arm's reach. She said she's not leaving, so he's gonna keep her safe no matter what. To do that, he needs to know exactly how far away from him she is. Also, he wants to touch her lol

Conclusion

Well, there was lots of good stuff hidden in there and I'm even more convinced that Rude knows Tifa after I caught some of his micro-expressions. I'm excited to see if it's true in part 2, but more so the fact that we're gonna get the Turks characters' fleshed out compared to OG. We've already learned that Reno while not giving a fuck, also actually really gives a fuck. I love him. He's such a snarky butt.

But, this was about Cloud and Tifa, not Rude.

Yeah, she literally couldn't see him at any point when she was running up that staircase. She screamed his name because that's who she wanted in that moment to appear and save her. The surprise on her face is genuine. She didn't know he was there. Cloud's in full “I must save Tifa” mode, so it's real!Cloud motivating SOLDIER!Cloud to do what he doesn't think he's capable of. They then have a lover's spat about Tifa being reckless and show the healthy disagreement side to their relationship by not screaming and shouting at each other or being sarcastic – like Cloud is with someone else. While Cloud might not like Tifa going with, he understands her need to. She's also put it in terms that he can understand, but part of him is very unhappy about it, which is why in that last shot we see him with his hand on her arm ready to protect her at a moment's notice. He's not letting her out of sight or arm's reach.

It's some damn good solid relationship building from them during a tense moment.

[kachulein]

It's just Felix's voice is on another lvl and everytime his part comes in a song it's like "I knew it was gonna happen but I still feel attacked thank you" and ya I'd love to get some help in knowing who they are like, I recognize them most of the time but a guide to who's who wouldnt hurt mostly abt their personalities you know?

Oof I feel you so much with this. In the new album 아니 (Any) is my favourite song and I especially like Felix's part. His voice isn't as deep there but god, the tone of his voice is just so pretty?? It had me hooked from the start.🥺

And I'm really sorry for only answering this ask now, granted, I have to admit I felt very grumpy after tumblr deleted the whole guide I was working on but I finally finished the new, and definitely better/more organized one, so I hope this will be of help and that you'll enjoy reading through it~

A Guide to Stray Kids' Personalities

I'll put this under a cut as it got extremely long. :3

Bang Chan:

Chan is literally the biggest sweetheart and I keep referring to him as 'emotional support kpop boy'

he is so kind and caring - I mean he even hosts a weekly vlive broadcast to help stays fall asleep, he really cares about us/our problems and truly wants to help us feel better with his music and his words

truly does not have one bad bone in his body- he's super sweet and caring but when it comes down to business -music- he gets strict, maybe a little cold? but that's just because he wants everyone to do their best

he used to be (too) strict with Felix in the past but that was because he had a special bond with him/he liked him so much, so I assume he's the type of person who wants to see his loved ones succeed and do their best and so he might end up being a little too strict to them since he wants them to improve

he used to get more angry at the members when something didn't work out in the past but nowadays, he rarely loses his temper and he tries to stay away from them when he's really angry - he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings

he actually really likes acting cute!! he used to be the youngest member at jype and he used to hang out with older peers, so he got a habit of acting cute and giving hugs to others and now he does it to the members, haha so precious

he gets super shy and flustered when he's being complimented - he starts giggling and looking down, it's literally the most precious and he deserves to know how amazing he is because he truly is so humble

his humble self is what makes him a great leader as well since he's never greedy or selfish and always puts the members before himself - the members are his top priority and he definitely sacrifices some things for the team

but he also said he can't talk about himself well or he gets nervous when he's got a schedule by himself (like when he recorded his dance cover of 2pm's my house), so he really seems like someone who gains strength and confidence from having his team around him

he's very selfless and very supportive and encouraging but he can also be very funny and teasing

he's very genuine, sincere and nice and he's got an extremely strong sense of responsibility (vvv good trait for a leader ofc), he may seem a bit scary at first/in the past but the more you learn about him the more amazing you will find him and the more you will fall in love with him tbh

in general he's honestly top notch boyfriend material and also just a very wholesome and high quality human being

he also likes to lead and set the mood, he enjoys entertaining others and making them feel satisfied - he hopes that everyone can be happy, he wants to make people happy and then he will be happy, too

and ofc we can't forget how talented he is, music production/composition, making arrangements, writing lyrics, translating lyrics, speaking multiple languages, beautiful singing voice, amazing dancer (he's actually done ballet in the past), and also a great rapper

like tbh, what can't he do??? but believe me when I say, we're going to be asking ourselves this question quite a few times in this post

Minho:

Minho is the definition of a tsundere personality - even the members said so - at first glance you may notice that he can be quite savage and funny and maybe there's even a chance that he seems cold to some-

however, he's truly a sweet person and has a very warm heart and he selflessly cares about others without trying to make a big deal out of it - like, he'd never boast about helping others or doing someone a favour, he's the type to quietly take care of others

he doesn't like admitting to it but he truly cares a lot despite acting nonchalant most of the time - like one time Changbin asked him to get him something,,, and he shrugged it off as "nah dude, I'm not getting this for you" but he kept searching for it for 30 minutes when he couldn't find it - so that really shows it all (Changbin that dork asked Hyunjin to get it for him and then when Minho finally came back and said he couldn't find it, Changbin was like "oh shit sorry, I already asked Hyunjin to bring it to me." 🤦🏻‍♀️ #justiceforminho)

anyway, I don't want people to view him as just a pretty face who's an amazing dancer and a savage guy because he's soooooo much more than that, like there's a lot more to him below the surface -

DID YOU KNOW HE MAKES THREADED BRACELETS IN HIS FREE TIME??? THAT'S THE ABSOLUTE SOFTEST THING EVER BUT ALSO WHAT CAN'T HE DO??? SO MUCH TALENT IN ONE PERSON- (he wore one in his recent solo live and he said he made 7 in total and gave some to others, I wonder if some of the other members got one since I saw Hyunjin wearing a bracelet like that-)

he's a cat person which I love but he also resembles a cat so much?? a true kitty boy- he's very independent and self-reliant, he used to live by himself (I read that once), so he knows how to get around

he also enjoys things such as the smell of gasoline/gas stations or the smell of new buildings or even the smell of cat paws??? it's really odd but also really funny and his reason for it is that smells leave behind memories and I think that makes so much sense then-

he cares a lot about the wellbeing of animals and people and he even sponsors a child in Africa through UNICEF - my heart melted when I found out about that, he also can be seen wearing safety pins on multiple occasions and that just makes me feel like you'd be very safe with him

he can be a bit of an enigma though, even the members think he's "weird"/hard to understand as even they don't fully get him but I think that's his charm! he's not like everybody and he doesn't shy away from being himself

also, he never makes the younger members do stuff for him, on the dance team(s?) he was on predebut, he always used to be one of the youngest members so he said he never learned how to treat people younger than him (he's also an only child), so he's just comfortable with the younger skz members and I feel like they really appreciate it since it makes them feel as if they're all the same age

he also reads a lot and he's said that he reads many self-help books so that he can gain knowledge and help stays out there/convey the message of these books to them

with Minho it's really about the little things, he doesn't make grand gestures and that's why I think some people may overlook his kind and caring nature but if you really look closely, you can see it and it'll warm your heart

He's also very diligent and hardworking, albeit he seems to be someone who gets bored here and there ("I work out to kill time") he really has his goals and ambitions and he works hard for them.

His dancing is freaking amazing (@ jype pls he is a main dancer why is he rarely in center spot????) and his vocals and rapping have improved tremendously! He's got such a beautiful and angelic falsetto tbh you will fall in love with it-

So all in all, you can totally appreciate him for his wit and his savage comments but honestly, his kind and caring heart is what really made him my bias wrecker. I truly believe that he's a very caring and protective person and I find that so beautiful.

Changbin:

Changbinnie oh god, I have so much love for him and I can relate to him a lot. First of all, he always makes sure to be a good listener, so others tend to go to him with their concerns and he tries to take everything in that they say and then give them comfort

he cares a lot about other people's feelings and he puts a lot of importance on his relationships with other people - he wants others to feel comfortable around him and he is very thankful that the younger members also feel comfortable around him

he's a very honest person and doesn't pretend or fake anything, however, if his truth/his feelings would hurt someone else's feelings, he's not going to be honest. That doesn't mean that he's going to lie but he just cares a lot about not hurting other's feelings.

he said even if someone else's feelings are just a little bit hurt, it drives him crazy and he also said that he might be like that since he's sensitive and gets hurts by others easily (this is all so relatable😭)

anyway, Changbin is known for liking to joke around and also is one of the member who get teased by the others a lot, but fear not, he said that he actually enjoys when others tease him because that means they're comfortable with him and that makes him happy

how precious is that omg-

he makes jokes a lot but he is serious when he needs to be, he tends to be more fun around others/with others but is more serious when he's on his own, that's why he actually prefers to be around friends since it helps him forget about his own concerns

I guess he'd be an overthinker and to stop himself from overthinking he spends time playing around with the other members but in a way, I also feel a bit worried since he doesn't open up a lot and I hope he doesn't bottle up his feelings too much since I know how difficult that can be :c

on another note, Changbin is very focused on his health, he apparently works out every morning even when he's tired, he also cares about healthy nutrition and he takes supplements so that he can be healthier

apart from wanting others to feel comfortable around him, he also wants to be seen as a reliable person and it feels good to him when he can help someone/give them comfort

he's truly such a sweetheart and despite seeming so confident, I always feel like he might harbour a lot of insecurities underneath - but that's just my personal opinion, so take that with a grain of salt

the members also said he's the scariest when he gets mad but the sweet thing is that he always apologises to everyone after getting mad

even if he didn't get mad at everyone, he still apologises to them all, and it just shows what a good heart he's got-

and pls can we also talk about how talented he is as a producer, composer, lyricist, main rapper, and vocalist?? His voice is so beautiful and I hope he gets more confident in it and tbh he's also a really good dancer, so I hope he can get praised for his dancing more often as well (before he became a rapper he actually tried out dancing first)

so in conclusion WHAT CAN'T HE DO AND CHANGBIN BEST BOI GIVE HIM LOTS OF LOVE

Hyunjin:

"sexy boy" Hyunjinnie here is actually so much more than just a pretty face with great body proportions and amazing and sexy dance moves/skills

Hyunjin is the biggest soft boy, he's truly a sentimentalist - he gets hurt easily, Seungmin compared him to a snowflake that breaks when it touches the ground

he first thought of himself as mentally strong since that's what helps him overcome all the difficulties but later on (in that video) he felt like he was more mentally weak

he cares a lot about other people's opinion of him and it's really hard for him to ignore hate comments, he gets really sensitive about those (pls for the love of god, what a**holes are sending this precious angel hate?!?!?!?! I WANNA FITE (ง'̀-'́)ง)

with that being said, he's a very emotional boy, he tries to control his emotions or hold them in but he gets influenced by them quite often

he's also very honest with his feelings, so when he expresses them and when he breaks down, they all just burst out of him and he ends up spilling everything he's held in for a while

he doesn't really express his emotions skillfully (don't @ me, Changbin said that) so that can make you feel a bit sorry for him or it can make you feel like you want to take care of him because he's so innocent, naive and trusts easily

like really, he is, he almost got abducted by a cult once- SOMEONE PROTECT HIM PLS-

he also gets immersed in things very easily and boi do I feel him on this one; especially when he watches dramas, he gets so immersed and feels like he's living through the drama as if it happened to himself, he puts himself in the shoes of the male/female main character and the storyline just affects him so much that he often ends up crying (same same😭)

it also happens when he reads webtoons or so, he's also a huge fan of reading - ever since an acquaintance recommended him some books when he was going through a hard time and those books comforted him in a way that words never could - that was the start of his interest in reading

from the outside, we also know him as a bit of a drama queen which actually makes for so many hilarious moments - this impulsive/emotional side of him is just so authentic and he said that there's no side of him that he hasn't shown to stays

he can also be quite critical tbh and he's got his own standards for his likes and dislikes, so when something doesn't meet his standards he breaks down akdksksoals but when there's something he doesn't want to do or thinks doesn't serve him, he's got no problem cutting it off

despite that, he can actually get swayed by other people quite easily (hence, him being trusting and naive), when others make suggestions, he often agrees to them but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have his own opinions whatsoever, because he does have those as well

it's just easy to sway/persuade him, even when it comes to things like shopping - he rarely goes shopping tbh, despite dressing so well - but when he does, then he'll go get the things he finds pretty but when someone points something out and says "that's pretty" he'll buy it (so in conclusion, I really wanna go shopping with him now)

so yeah, Hyunjin is amazing and he's so compassionate and emotional and empathetic and I love him so much wtf and he's so hardworking and talented and his dancing is so amazing and his rapping has become so damn good, like his voice is loud and stable like good job baby🥺, I'm so proud of you🥺, and his singing voice is so soft and lovely, and he's also great at taking pictures- and aaaah seriously what can't he do??? he is a full package imo and you cannot escape his charms even if you try-

Jisung:

okay so Jisungie is seriously such a precious and shy bean and you don't really see this at first glance because he's so sociable, outgoing and cheerful when he's with the members

but that's the thing: he's close to them and they make him feel comfortable and confident, so he feels at ease and can show a more talkative side of himself - he's even the one who usually leads the conversation

he's extremely funny, has a lot of wit, is great at doing acrostic poems and in general, he's just such a creative person with many amazing ideas - some may call him a genius😌

but coming back to that shy side of his; he's actually a very introverted person; he doesn't like to leave the house and and hates moving in general - Jisung in bed is Jisung in his natural habitat tbh

on days off he prefers to stay indoors, lay in bed, and just watch youtube videos or tv shows or something - he doesn't like to go out or do outdoor activities and his eyes are always glued to the phone (relatable)

even when he's eating with the members he's having his earbuds in and watches something on his phone and then he gets really creative and uses all kinds of things to mount his phone (again, so relatable hhhh)

his routine is something like watching youtube videos/cartoons etc., falling asleep, waking up, spacing out and then repeating the whole process-

he sleeps really well and he can actually fall asleep in the weirdest places, it really shows how he can fall asleep everywhere but maybe he also seeks special hideouts to nap because he doesn't like being woken up and if the members can't see/find him, they also can't wake him... you get it hahaha~

Chan thought that maybe Jisung watches all these things on his phone as a way to escape reality and to relieve stress but Jisung also said that he gets a lot of inspiration from cartoons and videos to write lyrics - due to watching all these videos he actually harbours a lot of random trivia knowledge, which fits the genius description~

however, despite this outgoing side when he's with his close friends, he actually gets scared easily, may it be heights or dark places or meeting new people - protect him omg - especially with strangers he's extremely shy -> the introvert showing

he actually doesn't talk at all when he has to meet new people, he gets very nervous and awkward and scared - when they're at music shows and there's a lot of people around, he gets very nervous - he said he's never been good at making friends and he only keeps a few close friends

when he gets close to people, however, he becomes extremely talkative with no limit, he's also very affectionate and warm-hearted, his sentimental, soft and dreamy side really coming through

so basically, he's very cheerful on the outside but thoughtful on the inside - he's actually very mature despite the goofy and silly/playful side he usually shows us -> Changbin once said that Jisung feels like an older brother to him because of how mature he is, he really is a deep thinker and I guess that's also a reason why he's so amazing at writing songs

Jisung also got something we're all envious of; he can eat lots of unhealthy things without gaining weight - he loves sweet things (but also chips) and he frequently eats late night snacks and luckily for him, his face rarely puffs up despite those late night snacks, there's only been a few occasions during which that happened (and I think I got a picture of one of these instances hahahaha he really looks different with a puffy face, so cute!!!🥺😂)

he's also just such an adorable person and it's so soft and cute and fun to watch him get excited and he absolutely loves to receive praise and he's just such a baby boy tbh :(( jisung protection squad where ya at?? and well, of course, we can't end this without talking about his endless list of talents like WHAT CAN'T THIS MAN DO??? producing songs, composing, writing lyrics, amazing rapping, amazing vocals, amazing dancing, drawing, voice imitations - he's seriously one of the most talented all-rounder out there and god I love him so much and you seriously can't escape his squirrel/quokka charms🥺

Felix:

if you need a definition or a personification of the word pure, it would be Felix, like seriously, this boy is so soft and precious we need to protect him at all costs

he's literally so nice, so sweet, so kind and so creative - he's often referred to as the "romanticist" in stray kids and yeah that really fits because you know what? he once surprised Seungmin for his birthday in the cutest way. He called him on his birthday and asked him for help (as an excuse) and when Seungmin came down, Felix was there with a birthday cake with Seungmin's nickname on it - he basically organized this little surprise and Seungmin tried so hard not to cry🥺🥺🥺

Felix is so considerate and cares a lot about the other members, he's usually more of a quiet person but when he feels comfortable around someone, he can get really talkative

but him not talking doesn't mean there's nothing going on inside of him - he's literally got so many thoughts running around in his mind and he's truly an overthinker - he talks to himself in his mind a lot

he also loves playing games and he can seriously go on playing until 6am, the members said that he is very good at concentrating (for example when he studies Korean) but especially also when he's playing games

Felix said that playing games is something that helps him relieve stress or it's what he does when he's tired - playing games is a distraction for him, so he can avoid thinking of whatever's troubling him

however, recently he wants to focus more on his concerns and worries, he thinks it's not something he should avoid, so now he tries to focus on these worries and talk about them/express them more since he thinks it's important to do so

something that's really cute about him but also worrisome is that he gets sleepy easily, especially after eating, so whenever they got dance practice, he tends not to eat in order to avoid getting sleepy :(

protect him pls and pls lixie don't avoid eating~ especially when having dance practice you need your energy and it's not good to have an empty stomach and fill it with coffee and sweet beverages instead of food :(

anyway, Felix is winsome and cute and an absolute cuddle buddy, he says he doesn't really know what it means to act cute but I suppose he's just naturally cute and adorable- I MEAN C'MON-

whenever Felix talks about serious matters, it's like he needs some sort of comfort afterwards so he requires a lot of cuddles (but the members said that after a while it gets too hot (I guess because of his body heat??) so it can be hard for them to cuddle him for long periods of time :'))

Felix is also known as our sunshine, he always wants to give a positive and happy impression to others/us stays even when he might be dealing with negative thoughts, it's too precious but I hope he also takes care of himself

but trying to be optimistic and think positively instead of letting the negative thoughts consume you is already a good start and I feel like Chan also helped him a lot with this, Chanlix best soulmates ever

Felix has high expectations (it seems) and he always wants to do better and do well, he's working hard on improving himself and it really shows!!

his singing voice improved so much (as well as his rapping!! and I mean H I S  V O I C E in general oof😭🥺) and his dancing is freaking amazing!! I hope he can become confident in himself because he deserves to be happy with the person he is since he's such a huge inspiration to so many of us!! SERIOUSLY WHAT CAN'T HE DO?? he shows us that we can achieve anything with practice and hard work and that's so inspiring PLS EVERYONE LOVE OUR FELIX SUNSHINE

Seungmin:

I think the first words that come to mind when thinking of Seungmin is how diligent and clean/organized he is. He was one of the only (if not THE only) trainee who never missed a day of writing his trainee logs

he's not just diligent but extremely hardworking overall and he describes himself as serious and a bit funny - he's got very strong willpower tbh

he may also be known for teasing the members, especially Jeongin, or for nagging when someone (looking at you, Jisung) leaves behind a mess at the dorm but he is truly a sweetheart and he doesn't mean any harm

and in turn, he's also one of the members who gets teased the most- when that happens he becomes upset but he recovers very quickly as he often thinks it's not worth getting mad over

like honestly, he is a puppy, he can't do no harm :< but yeah, Seungmin is actually extremely soft, emotional, empathetic and supportive!! I've been keeping an eye on him recently and whenever something happens to a member (on a variety show - for example when one member shows off something and embarrasses himself or so), he's always there to give them a hug, comforting them

he also always tries to cheer other members up when they feel down, then he may act silly or he does/say something that's supportive because he truly cares about the members and doesn't like seeing them in pain

he's also someone who cries very easily, showing how he's truly an emotional baby but don't be phased, he's actually very emotionally strong and it's something very admirable about him

he has God sent vocals, his dancing is amazing and omg have you heard rapper!Seungmin?? Tbh I dig it!! He strictly takes care of his voice since his vocals and recording songs is very important to him - he dresses warmly when it's cold, always wears a mask and tries not to get sick

he's also very good at taking photos and he always brings his camera to official schedules and takes photos of the members. SEUNGMIN BEST STRAY KIDS FANSITE!!!!!

if you ever hear a weird noise, especially something sounding like "GAAAH" or "DA", it's probably Seungmin. He's truly a puppy, he's so cute and adorable, I feel like he's the type of person you can't get mad at

he also manages himself well, from getting up early, to cooking food for himself if there's none, to taking care of his body and health - it's really admirable and he also practices his singing so diligently and it just s h o w s- he's so good

also, he actually wanted to become a baseball player when he was a kid and we're still waiting for him to show us how he plays-

but also!!! he is a very smart and logical person (he wanted to be a prosecutor if he wasn't in stray kids) so he's got both the logical and also the very loving, empathetic side since he's also very considerate of the members - he seems to be a really good listener to them, this is just a personal observation from watching two kids room episodes- and he's actually the only member who thinks before he speaks- THANK YOU SEUNGMING I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE DON'T JUST BLURT EVERYTHING OUT-

so really ???? WHAT CAN'T HE DO HE IS A FULL PACKAGE- and fun fact, he brushes his teeth around 6 times a day-

but anyway, Seungmin is the type of person who appreciates the small things in life and finds happiness through those. I really like that attitude and he's truly someone worth looking up to. Our multitalented dandy boy- you can only love him~

Jeongin:

Jeongin here may be the youngest - and granted he is absolutely cute and adorable no matter what he does - but he's actually also a very mature person and I feel like that can be overlooked since he's the youngest of the team

while it can be hard for him to share his struggles as there's no one else his age in skz, he's also generally a person who doesn't want to burden others with his hardships so he keeps a lot of stuff to himself (so relatable)

but recently his mom talked to him about him not sharing his feelings and he's trying to open up more and share a bit, when the other members ask him if it's been hard, he often bursts into tears - god, protect him pls

even though he doesn't talk or show that much there's these moments - one time he was eating with Hyunjin and just broke down in tears since it's been hard for him - I suppose he bottles stuff up and then it comes out all of a sudden

however, his mature side is still there and the members, especially Hyunjin or Chan really enjoy sharing their feelings with him

Jeongin is a really great listener, he doesn't try to give solutions, he just listens to the other person and then shares his own experiences - it's what makes him seem mature

though he also has a bit of a mature and even cold look, so usually the first impression he gives off is different from his actual self and he said he enjoys seeing how people get surprised when they get closer to him and learn about his true self

he's also extremely clumsy and causes trouble often - from breaking doors, to accidentally hurting members, to spilling stuff, he's a clumsy boi

and he's also really forgetful, he tends to forget when he orders something online and gets surprised when it suddenly arrives or he forgets where he put his belongings (like his airpods jajdjskdks) and then he just buys new ones and then loses them again after a few months- aish that boi-

but these things are also what makes him even more lovable, like yes, he definitely has a mature side about him but you just want to protect and take care of him when you see him, amiright???

the members also said (or more like Hyunjin said) that he doesn't know anyone who's kinder and nicer than Jeongin

and on top of that, he's also a very hardworking member and his dancing and his vocals have improved soooooo much, and I'm so so so proud of him, like his voice is so beautiful

and he's been getting into working out recently, so now he's also trying to take good care of his body and wow, he's been doing a really good job even the members commented on how his back/shoulders are becoming broader

all in all, Jeongin is the cute and adorable maknae of Stray Kids but he's also so much more than just the youngest member and he's got so many things going for him and he always pushes through even when it's hard and never gives up

it's truly admirable like what can't he do right????? pls show our cute baby lots of love uwu

[novelistash]

Wattpad & Twitch?

I saw the term Writeblr. Am I a Writeblr? Is Writeblr a page or a person? Well, this Jon Snow has been dipping their toe into the wide world of Wattpad. Any other writers on there? Drop your links! I've been reading stories live on Twitch, and it's been a lot of fun! There's a lot of lost talent there, as with all writing spaces, but it definitely needs some help finding air to breathe.

Why did I decide to read Wattpad stories live on Twitch? Read more. (I hope I'm using this feature right.)

About two and a half years back, I decided that it was time to stop dragging my feet and get traditionally published. (Well I try to get trad pubbed.) I knew that Twitter would be the place to promote and Wattpad would generally be the place to share, but I also knew those places would be full of competition. November was coming up so I thought, "why don't I live stream Nano? That'll be fun." It wasn't.

As much as people don't want to read, they definitely don't want to read while an author is writing. Twitter had a very small writing community then and I haven't seen it get any more popular. Which isn't to say it couldn't get popular, but I don't think it works as a way to GET an audience. I could talk about those who've found moderate success, but if I'm going to do that I'd like to talk to them and maybe interview them. Something I've considered putting on my ghost town of a YT channel.

Regardless, I was on Twitch for about a month. I never gained any kind of following and every viewer I saw on those channels were people like me, those who were trying to promote their own writing. So, yes, I could gain followers of other writers, but I couldn't build a brand that way. I had too much experience with similar platforms to think otherwise. If I wanted to get readers, I needed to be on the platform that readers were using.

That lead me to more or less wasting two years on Twitter. I mean, I met some cool people while on there and had good interactions. But was it good for my brand? Did it help me find readers? I'd say a resounding "no" on both parts. The funny thing about Twitter is that it's great at making you think that people care about you. Shit post about a bad day? Hundreds of replies. Link to a blog going into detail about that bad day? Now you're starting to see how little people actually care. At some point I can go into the nuances of my time in the trenches of Twitter, but the point is that it didn't help my writing career.

For me, the biggest problem with Twitter was the same problem with all writer-centric spaces: we are sellers without customers. I like to describe these spaces as towns of vendors. We each have our vendor stall set up, and see lots of people walking. This is great! That means there are customers! Except all of those people walking on the street are also vendors. They're only there to sell their own wares. Yes, there's mutual inflation and reciprocal commerce, but writers make a poor basis for a readership. If someone is selling eggs, they want to sell to bakers, cooks, and the common man, not their fellow ranchers.

Regardless of fame and fortune, I want a readership. I write for myself, yes, but once those words are on the page, I want someone to read those words. I've been writing for over twenty years by this point and during that time my perspective has almost always been, how do I get readers? It's a natural question to ask, but it's driven by selfish desires at its core. I think for the writers of today, the bigger question might need to be, "how do I get people to read?"

The larger problem with readers, is that there aren't that many of them. If there are ten billion eggs in a town of a hundred, most of those eggs are going to rot. And even though most everyone knows that the general public doesn't habitually read, there seems to be this stigma against talking about it. Ever since I started writing, the talking point has always been "people thought comics would destroy the novel, but it didn't."

Okay, so, there are still readers, but could you say that a majority of the people read? Comic books, television, movies, and video games all offer more senses than the written word. They offer experiences that books never can, so why would anyone choose to read a book when they could instead watch that same story play out on screen?

Well, the written word can actually offer things that other media can't. In general, novels are closer to the emotional landscape of the story. Books invite the reader to be a part of the creation process, rather than a passive observer. The lack of a spoken word or portrait lets the reader construct whatever voice or face they desire. Beyond all of that, readers tend to spend more time with a book than any other media. (I'll hold off on a thorough debate of the narrative quality of iterative gameplay loops in video games for the time being, but I'd be hard pressed to find someone who enjoyed Preston Garvey's procedurally generated missions more than any of the designed quests in Fallout 4.) The point is that the written word is not without value, simply that its qualities are losing appreciation.

That's where the idea of reading stories came about, not as a way to increase my visibility, but as a way to increase the number of readers in the world. Opera single handedly created a boom in book sales by doing little more than talking about books. I think that modern entertainment can take interest in reading farther. Podcasts and Twitch streams are filled with content that is actually dead air, but people will tune in and listen. They connect with the player, the streamer, the speaker, and they are content to be apart of somebody else's discovery. A big part of what makes Twitch successful is simply watching these personalities react.

Wattpad is literally an endless supply of new stories that are available for free online. For some, anything that isn't traditionally published is a book not worth anyone's time. But there are hundreds of thousands of people submitting entire novels to literary agents every single year. Statistics alone supports the idea that great books are not going to get the representation they deserve. What are those thousands of unpublished authors supposed to do with their novels, wait patiently for exterior validation?

I don't think there's any shame in self publishing a novel and Wattpad and platforms like it are a perfectly reasonable way of putting out that content. Is there under edited content on Wattpad? Of course, but can anyone in good faith say the same isn't true of all published works? Yes, some writers are just starting out, and they dump their content onto Wattpad, but I don't understand why that's immediately a reason to balk. The writers liked the idea enough to bring it to life. Sure, finding a way to manifest those ideas is complex and difficult, but I honestly believe that a first body of work can still have an unironic entertainment in them.

I've been streaming on Wednesdays from 10am-noon pacific time. I might change that moving forward, but right now it's looking like I'm only going to be adding more time. If you're interested in joining me for story time, check me out on Twitch.

https://www.twitch.tv/ashnovelist

[bigscaryyanderewriter]

Frosty Fear and the Fury of Flames (Dragonshifter! Shouto x Reader) Part 3

Part 2 ^

Hahaha, a part 3 for you??? It’s more likely than you’d think. This is actually kinda fun to write in parts, although it takes me a while. I have a few requests waiting to be answered still and that kinda bums me out still. Gonna be getting a lot more of Todoroki though. Haha… I like fire boys. Also, if you can’t tell. I really want to play dnd.

Tw: Yandere, Nightmares, Slight Gore

2.1k Words

“Bakugou, are you sure about this? I mean-” 

“Did I ask for your opinion, Shitty hair? Come on, get that damn wimp ready to go. We’re going to need to get out of here if we are going to get them away from that damn dragon.” The grimace on his face as deeper set than usual as you were forced to pack up with the others yet again.

They were going to abandon their mission, since there were other things they could do. That was what Bakugou told you at least, you had a feeling that none of the jobs in this tavern were worth half as much to the group as the one involving Shouto was. Still, you were grateful that they wanted you to stay and that you could be useful to them.

You couldn’t stop the sinking feeling though as you knew that getting farther away would be good, but also… They had to do something like give up the goal they had been working towards to assist you. 

The morning was still dark, no sun peaked on the horizon as the birds only just began singing their morning songs. The bags were packed and soon you were all ready to go by the time the sky began to lighten. You would be heading east and down the mountains a good ways until you got to the plains, travelling for about two weeks before stopping in another city called White Fields. Something was said about dangerous rock formations that would cause small landslides and magic folk you couldn't talk to. Not much rest would be allowed, wanting to get as far as possible from the mountains and desert. If luck was on their side, they would be out of reach by that point, since Shouto was still unable to travel that far from what you have learned. Something about territory disputes and bad blood.

That was the plan and you were praying to whatever would listen that it would work. 

"Are you ready, (Y/N)? We had better get going." Mina spoke from the doorway of the little room of the inn. Her face showed a bit of concerned and you realized you had been scratching a bit at your arm. You hurriedly covered the scratches and grabbed the sack with your more material belongings, the golden jewelry, things you had taken from the cave. Following her out to the boys, you all got moving as you walked out of town. 

The place where the sun rose was your destination. Going throughout the day. The further day the mountains, the darker the forests and the colder it was. It was a bit misty out with the morning still being new. The winter would hit quickly this year and you could tell. At least it would here. The cold air from last night seemed to be cradled here. Your arm hairs prickled as you all walked. 

It was as you pulled your arms closer to yourself that you heard Denki speaking, "Hey, you look… like you might want this." He pulled off the warm yellow cloak he had worn throughout the time you had seen him and offered to hand it to you.

"Oh- It's nothing. I'll be fine… The sun will warm me up soon enough. You know I'm not a princess though, so you probably shouldn't call me that." You said with a tiny fake smile. "I appreciate the offer though."

"Aw, maybe I shouldn't call you princess then. No princess holds a candle to you anyways! You have to be the product of some goddess of beauty." He laughed as you couldn't stop the heat rushing to your face, "Don't be so shy. I'm just teasing you. Though you do make a cute face when you're embarrassed. Still, you should take it. I'll be fine without it for a minute."

"Kaminari, I swear to all the gods that I will shove so many rocks into your mouth, if you don't stop flirting. You'll be shitting so many rocks that you could put it on a resume." Bakugo was throwing nonsense threats and this just resulted in some laughter as you had never heard a threat more ridiculous. It was like it was written by someone who didn't actually know how to properly threaten people or something. 

Ah yes. That is me. The narrator, who cannot narrate without getting sidetracked. Now, watching you and the group laugh… The tension of impending doom is nowhere to be found as you all walk the beginnings of the mountains' autumnal scenery. The yellow cloak draped on your shoulders as you continued and Denki at your side, chatting idly with you. His presence and the conversation taking the pressure of the situation away. It seemed he was an expert, being a bard. Something told you to be careful though. The stereotype with musicians and their unfaithfulness… 

There was more time to mull over the prospect later, but you also just found him so jolly. It was a real treat. Going through the day, nothing happened. It was painfully boring event-wise, tiring, but you made progress. You had begun to feel uneasy, despite Kaminari distracting. Something was lurking in the forests, in the trees. Everything seemed about as turned around for you as a spinning carnival mirror maze. 

Sero, Kiri, and Mina seemed to have had no problem as you were led by them. The group was much closer together now and the laughter began to cease. Night would come and the wish to leave these mountains was becoming louder within your head. It was eerie.

No one spoke much while the dark branches of nearly black barked pines hung above with their ruddy red leaves. The silver of the wood beneath was visibly upon some broken branches and on the stumps that you would sometimes pass on the thinning path. They looked unpleasantly rough to touch. Small barbs lining the branches and serving as more than a small warning to be careful around them. 

Soon the light would go, so Kiri found a spot around where some trees had fallen and sat up a fire for the night, while you picked up anything on the ground to make it less rocky. It was also handy for you to get more sticks for the fire. These trees burned infamously easy. A single mistake with a fire and it could go up in minutes, but it would burn for a long time. It was not usual for anyone to cut any down due to the inhabitants though and the consequences. You didn't know what they were and you weren't about to try to find out by harming the forest. 

Dinner was easy, still being able to have some good leftovers from the inn. You had to eat them all today, but it was still going to be fuel until the next time you went to eat fresh food, cooked by someone else at least.

Denki couldn't help lightening the mood as he pulled out his stringed instrument and started playing a lovely song… It was familiar, somehow. You struggled to think of what it was called, but you knew the words. It was peaceful and it definitely seemed to help Mina perk up again as she began talking with Sero. Bakugo seemed less irritable as he ate, the music must calm the beast. You couldn't help the smile that came on your face at that thought.

Singing along probably wouldn't keep him calm, but you oh so wanted to… It would be a little embarrassing, but others might join in.

So you did. It was time to have some fun.

You hummed along and started singing, 

"How much is love worth?

Yet, we're giving it for free.

Didn't cost a penny, but

I've gained everything.

I'd do anything to make her smile

My darling

My darling

Darling~

If only she would look out

Of that dreamy little world

She would then see

That while I am no prince

And will make her crazier than me

I would never quit to admit I'm wrong

I'd always get on her nerves,

She would hate the way I eat

And only then it's worse.

I'd complain about her mother

Even though she's quite alright

I won't stop til I see her blush

Red in the dead of night.

An immoral proposition

If not only for a tease

But I have some qualities

that put her mind at ease.

I love her more than the sea does a shore

As the sun does the horizon,

Unafraid to come back home

And get her blood arising 

Kiss her face and hold her hand

I'll never let her go.

I'm lucky that she loves it

Where I'd be without it, who would know

That she likes to feel the spite

That even though I mess around

I'm in her bed tonight 

Of my darling,

My darling

My darling

Darling

Not doing as the birds and bees 

But holding on her hand,

Kissing at her face

And saying things for show

Her pretty crimson blush

Cause when I see it, then I know

That the hand life dealt

Was a royal flush."

Denki sang with you as the others watch, some la's and humming as you got up with a spin. The swirl of your dress and body as you sang out each part with more confidence. Mina laughed when you would dance and Kirishima was keeping the beat.

After a while, the singing stopped and soon the group started to settle in. 

Bakugo took first watch with Kirishima, Sero and Denki. Then Mina and you. Only because of practicality. It was to be in three hour shifts. It was when you laid down on your bed roll and cover yourself with a blanket you had been given. The night would be cold, but the fire was big enough to warm you as you sleep. As soon as you eyes closed, you were out. A day of travelling made you more than ready to sleep. It was a wonderful thing to sleep with good dreams, but you seemed to lack any dreams lately.

Not tonight.

You woke up in an ashen forest. Smoke choked life as blue flames rose in the distance. It snowed. You could hardly distinguish the ash from the snow until it would either burn you or melt on your skin. Getting up was impossible, the burning branch crushed your legs.

The acrid smell of burnt hair and smoke. It stung your eyes as you tried to tears away while coughing. You just couldn't stop coughing. "Please! Please! Denki?! Mina!" 

You were crying and struggling. The wood was too heavy and you could see the blood on the snow. You were bleeding heavily. It hurt. It hurt.

"Somebody help me! Please! I don't want to die." You couldn't stop the tears as you thrashed about. Soon you stopped though. A growl sounding above you. Blue eyes and blackened scales, injuries beyond counting.

El diablo azul. The shivering continued as you looked up, nothing short of full blown trembling as he snorted hot air over you and knocked the branch away. Draconic was spoken to you as you scrambled back from him. It was deep and grumbling, not hissing or growling like the words spoken by Endeavor or Shouto. 

"I don't under- understand. Thank you though…" You couldn't look away from those blue eyes as they seemed to glint with amusement before the great black wings beat against the air. Smoke and snow getting caught up as he was off again and soaring over the burning forest. Lying in the snow though, you wouldn't be able to get up. Maybe he wanted to give you a chance to survive. So you pulled yourself up and began to walk through the blizzard, blood oozing from your thigh and ash caked on your skin. You weren't going to make that help mean nothing.

Though, you were confident. You looked up to see something far worse than the fire ahead. Red and white scales. Shouto was coming for you. 

Blinking your eyes open as you were shaken awake. Sweat coated your body while you panted, "Stop- Stop! Please."

It was as you jolted up, you saw Denki looking with fear at you. His hands had been shaking you awake and scrambled away. Out of breath as you looked around frantically. "Shshshh, You need to be quiet. You're attracting too much attention. You were screaming in your sleep. What in the world were you dreaming about…?"

"Nothing, it was nothing, Denki… Just a bad dream. I um, I'll take the rest of your shift if you want to go back to sleep. I don't think I can…" You murmurred. 

[glowwormsmith]

There's so many good prompts to choose from! I think I finally chose one though. I'd like to request #9 “You’re safe now. I’ve got you.” with John Seed x Fem!Deputy please! Thank you! :D

Thank you, anon! I hope I delivered on what you asked for! CW for: mild blood/gore, some suggestive talk (if you need tags let me know)

I’ve had shitty daysbefore, Rook thought, but this one takes the cake for sure. 

If she ever got out of thissituation, this would be one hell of a story to tell her kids. That is if shedidn’t bleed out all over the forest floor first.

It had started whenshe had been marked by John after blowing up his silos all over the valley. Shethen led the cult on a fun goose chase (well, fun for her at least) before she ranheadlong into a very angry grizzly. She barely escaped and found herselfstaggering away into the woods clutching her torn shoulder and ruined foot asher pursuers dealt with the beast. After limping past trees and losing blood,she found an abandoned home where she could recuperate. After all, there was still work to do and people to help.

She tripped upon theentrance-way and nearly fell face first, only catching herself clumsily on a nearby bookshelf that had certainly seen better days. A pained cry escaped her throat as her ankle twisted, but she kept it together. Grimacing, shepulled herself up, wincing and groaning as she found her sight blurring at theedges from the pain. Her chest was tight, and even breathing was beginning to be a struggle.

Stop…being weak…Head to…couch…She found herselfflopping onto the couch, leaning back against it as she gazed at her shoulder,foot forgotten. God…don’t let…that bebone…

While she was able to useher meager medical supplies to perform some field medicine, Rook knewthis wasn’t enough and she pulled out her radio to contact anyone out there.

Wished I…had brought someone along with me…no one knows… “H-Hello? An..yone outthere? I…I need some help.”

After some silence, avoice she really didn’t want to hear came on. “Well, Deputy, it seems your in a bit of a situation. Ready to come tome and confess?”

“Fuck…me…’course ithad to be…you,” she said, gritting out the words. “No, I’m…good, you canjust…gahh, fuckin’ ribs…”

“You don’t sound good. Where are you?” It may have been becauseof the blood loss, but she could have sworn his tone had become a bit lesssmarmy. More strained.

“A bear…attacked me. Gotmy shoulder, every…thing hurts…went into a house, no people. There’sa…cute piggy sign out front though…cute piggy…” She felt her eyes closingas she turned to look at the out-of-focus sign out front. “Fuck…guess I’lldie…good for you and your family, you…won…”

She thought she heardhim calling her name and angry, tense shouting coming closer, but it was harderto focus when she wanted to just close her eyes and drift off.

It’s better this way…no more cult, no more Seed’s, no moreresponsibility or guilt or being everyone’s hero…

Rook’s eyes eventuallyopened to an unfamiliar ceiling, sight still blurry. She felt sore, but not in overwhelming pain like previously.Her body was heavy, but comfortable and it took her cloudy mind to realize shewas on a bed in a relatively dark, small room. As her senses were coming backto her, she realized her arms were tied together to the bed post and her ruinedfoot was bound in a cast.

God really is cruel, huh? As soon as she was putting two and twotogether, the door opened and she felt her stomach churn when she saw thefamiliar face strode in.

“Ah, Sleeping Beauty hasfinally awoken,” John said, approaching the bed with a smirk. He was way toocheery about all this. “Here I was worried the Bliss concentration given to youwas too much, but the Lord truly delivers.”

As Rook tried to pullherself up, wincing from the pain in her shoulder and chest, she felt himgently push her down.

“Don’t push yourself.You have at least three broken ribs, a damaged shoulder that needed severalstitches, and a sprained foot. You’ll just end up hurting yourself even more.”

She tried to mumble outa “fuck you,” but her tongue felt like lead, so she simply opted for a raised,shaky middle finger, barely formed from her tied-up hands.

“Charming. You should bethanking me for saving your life, you know,” John said, letting out a wistfulsigh. “That wrath of yours will be the death of you if you continue acting thisway.” He then walked over to a table and pulled out a small box.

Shit, here it comes. Rook did her best to move away from John as he camecloser. “D-Don’t…”

“Stop squirming. I’m simply changing your bandages. Or do you want one of the followers whose family orfriends you slaughtered to actually do the treatment?”

Rook looked to see thatit was a medical kit and John was holding bandages. He helped her sit up and shereluctantly agreed. Upon realizing she was only in a white cotton bra and plainshorts (definitely not her ruined, ratty one), in front of one of her greatestenemies, she attempted to pull the sheets over her.

“Don’t tell me the greatDeputy is too coy to let anyone see her like this?” John said, smirk returningas his eyes trailed a bit over her body. A sharp glare from Rook caused him tolift his hands, his manner softening. “I’m hurt you’d think I would do anythingunseemly. I am just trying to help; may I proceed?”

She sighed, realizingshe wouldn’t get better quicker and escape if she put up too much of astruggle. She nodded and allowed herself to relax, though her gaze was stillwary. As John tended to her injuries, the only sound being his soft hummingthat Rook did find (reluctantly) soothing, she cleared her dry throat andasked, “Why?”

“Hmm? I do have someexperience with patching injuries up and I don’t exactly trust others to dothis job right…”

She shook her head. “No,I mean…why help me? You could’ve let me die. Get rid of a huge problem. WhenI get better, I’ll just go right back into stopping you and your family’splans. So why…you in love with me or something?” she added the last partjokingly.

John scoffed indignantlyas he finished up his task, but Rook could have sworn she saw his cheeks turn abit pink. He’d almost be dashing andsweet if not for the whole insane cultist gig.

“Don’t be absurd;falling for a hellcat like you? Ihave standards, and Joseph would never allow it. But if you think you canescape your atonement for all that you’ve done through death, you have thewrong idea. And don’t think I’ll let you leave now that I have you. Once youget better, the confession will begin. I think you’ll be more…willing as wespend some quality time together as you heal. I believe you’ll be begging to embrace the Power of Yes inno time.”

It was Rook’s turn toscoff as John stood up, med kit in his hands and still smiling smarmy. Shecould feel her throat tightening once more as she cursed her currentpredicament. “And here I thought you actually had a shred of human compassionand decency. Too bad, and here I might have grown fond of you.”

A small snort oflaughter came from John as he laid a hand on top of her head. While she tensedup from his touch, she didn’t shake it off as she held eye contact with him,trying to be tougher than she felt.

“There’s nothing toworry about, Deputy. You’re safe now. I’vegot you,” he said, an odd glint in his eyes that made Rook gulp.

Yeah, I feel safer already.

[ronracer]

Yo,

I have never doubted my feelings towards anyone I have told I love them. And outside of going a little beyond my means to make them smile I've never had to prove how much I truly love them....

But I've been dealing with this company BasicInvite.com

Screwing up our Save the Dates... And watching my fiancee tear up enraged me to a level I never knew... Like I love her so much and on such a primal level that just half tears in her eyes

Let's back up a bit.

Wedding Planning Pt2: invitations

I'm kinda jumping ahead of a bit but im pissed rn so we'll circle back around to the cute fun stuff of this topic. I'm sure by now you all have seen our bomb ass engagement photos. We loved them so much we wanted to use them as our save the dates!

We ordered our save the dates through this company. Being the life-long procrastinators we have chosen to be admittedly we sat on this longer than need be. So we Paid extra for the faster shipping. We get all giddy and excited because it's just one more step towards our new lives. Of course she goes to check on it first ... But the tracking number we received was not working. Called customer service and TREVOR explained that somehow our save the dates were lost!!

Some shit about the post office not scanning the box or something. Now they are a small business, probably have one person taking mail. Part of me felt like they just forgot to put the box in the mail. None of that mattered though. We NEED these save the dates ASAP.

He assured us he was print us new ones and they would be shipped out immediately and they would refund me The extra shipping cost. I lightheartedly tell him The misses will kill me cuz The was my task so don't worried about refunding the money and if we have to pay more to get same day shipping we'll do that. Apparently they can't do same day shipping which makes no damn sense but whateva. The next morning the original package mysteriously  gets an update on the tracking number. Interesting... But regardless Trevor said he would send us a new set. Then we get an email. They TOO have noticed movement on the package and now will WAIT and see before they send a new set.

Um..

..No. We explain to them that we could not afford to wait, which is why we paid extra for the shipping anyway. I asked again for Trevor. He said they understood and would go ahead making the second batch. They were just "letting me know"... Ok... A day goes by and we reach out again because we havent got a tracking number for the second batch. They tell us that the second batch did not pass its quality control inspection and now they have to print a THIRD batch which would take another 3 days!!! They said the good news was that it looked like the original batch would be there the next day anyways. Upon hearing this my sweet little future wife begins tear up off pure frustration. Because honestly, and tell us if we wrong, but it really felt like our original assumptions about them just forgetting to mail the first box was correct. And now they are dragging us along until it shows up so they don't have to make a new box...

Am I wrong?

At this moment my patience had worn out.

I demanded to have this new batch made and shipped the same day because at this point we had wasted too much time to get a refund and go anywhere else. They gave me some b.s. about having a contract with USPS and can't do same day. I demanded to speak to a higher up which i was denied.

Fuck that.

You see the unseen problem small businesses have is that They rely too much on their own social media. So finding the CEO was only a click away.

And I sent him a lengthy FB msg

After that They assured me I would be getting my package that day and give me a full refund. Of course I had heard this three times already. I told them I would NOT get off the phone until my packing is literally in the hands of the postman and I get an email SAYING it was shipped. I'm not kidding you guise. I put the phone on speaker at work at say there with them for 5hours.

They actually sent a picture of the box on the truck and then tried to hang up on me! Hold up. No. I said I needed both the picture AND update on the tracking. Not just being a dick about the situation but if we all remember in the beginning how this all started was them saying "the mail man must have forgotten to scan it..." So you will WAIT with me as I refresh until it says on the way. But I felt bad for the poor girl on the phone, syd I think her name was. So I said this is Trevors fault put his ass on the phone.

There was a strange silence then she says he's out of the office... I really hate when people try and play you like we haven't all worked customer service and managers have given us the I'm not here face

I asked when he would be back and she says she can't give me his schedule. I then tell her if I have to call back for him the civility of this interaction, which was already at a low point, will be null. Further more I have enough sky miles to fly to Utah in the morning if I have to.... By this time the tracking has updated... She tries again to get off the phone. I say where's Trevor.. Oh he has magically reappeared.

Sounding annoyed by having to talk he immediately goes into this bland ingenuine corporate apology. BUT instead of apologizing on behalf of BasicInvite.com this foo says he stands by the quality and service of BasicInvite.com and he apologizes for USPS!?

Bruh...

How you gonna be so self absorbed you gonna blame the Untied States government.

Even if it's true they messed up the first box, which I still don't think they did. What about the 2nd box? Why did I have to curse two poor customer service reps out for you to figure out how to do same day shipping? He then tells me he thought maybe we were trying to get something for free

I went ALL the way off.

I said several times I didn't care about the money for these cheap ass save the dates I wanted the save the dates! I even suggested paying extra. So where in the fuck you get the idea I'm trying to get over?.. He hung up. I called back and got poor syd answers. I say put Trevor on the phone she again says he's not taking calls. I told her I will call everyday for the rest of this year until Trevor or Brock takes my call and gives me a real apology.

They truly had no idea who They just crossed.

I called everyday And only saying hello can I speak to Trevor til They blocked me. I then used the website chat. They blocked my IP from going to their website, then gave me a refund. I went to Starbucks used two pcs and vpns til they had to install a new chat service that could block instantly. Still all I said was hello I need to speak to Trevor. Finally getting a formal cease and desist email I stopped.Trevor you should thank your god that my god put a woman in my life with some sense because I was really prepared to torture you for the rest of my living days.

So now I have double the save the dates and nothing to do with them. If It were up to me I'd burn the whole lot of them post the video on IG and tag BasicInvite.com

Anyone out there listening please do not use these people. I should have known from the name they some basic bitches.

[cosmicyachi]

Fuck that guy, i hate people like that! Stay strong! It's hard when you're not as talkative, people don't get it, or any of the reasons why you might not speak? Tbh I'd be wary off speaking to an asshole like that! Also, no pressure to post this at all. Hope you're alright, feel free to rant!

I feel like ranting so I’m going to put it under a read more but thank you!  

I work in the inspection room and a lot of people go in and out of the room all day/night. This guy, we’ll call him Ed, is new to the department he’s in (quality control), which also uses the inspection room, so that of course means he’s the one forced into going back and forth all night. 

It’s about 4:15pm when he first comes in yesterday with the usual “Hi, how are you? How was your weekend?” small talk. I was talking to him, like normal, along with the other lady I work in the room with, we’ll call her Lucy. Everything was fine, I figured it was going to be another boring day like usual. 

He comes back in at about 7ish? He says hi again, but he doesn’t hear me say it back because Lucy started talking as though she was across the room, even though she was right next to him. Complete 180 after then. 

He starts with the “Wow, [birthname], you never shut up, do you?” The usual ‘this person is quiet, so let’s fuck with them’ line. I knew what he was doing, since my family does it with all the time, but I was so confused. He had never said that to me before, and he’s normally pretty patient with me about talking. So I start with the forced fake laugh ‘cause I have no idea what to do and I’m already starting to feel a little anxious. 

They continue talking to each other in Spanish so I can’t understand them so I knew they were talking about me and I hear him saying my name a few times. I looked at him and he goes quiet, so I looked at Lucy and she said that he was trying to get me a boyfriend.  I told him I don’t want a boyfriend didn’t tell him I’m into girls though, ‘cause they’ve made themselves very clear on their stance on “the gays”.  So he goes “Yeah, that’s for the best. I feel bad for the poor guy who has to try to figure you out”, then pretends to ‘imitate’ me with “where do you want to go?” *shrugs shoulders*, “what do you want to do?” *shrugs shoulders*, and stupid shit like that. 

At this point I’m pissed off, my anxiety is through the roof, I can feel myself getting very frustrated, and my selective mutism has kicked in. And I’m trying to say something to get him to shut the fuck up but I can’t. And he can tell I want to say something because he goes “you can defend yourself you know.” I just want to scream at him, or throw something at him, anything to get him to stop, but I can’t and it’s frustrating. 

This is all within the half hour that he was in the room.

To make matters worse, he had to come back again at 10. And he continues with the “wow, it’s like being with some mute freak” and other bullshit like that after I ignored him. I was on the verge of tears. I had to hide in the bathroom for 20 minutes just to get the hell away from him. 

I can’t even say anything about it either, otherwise I’m just another “dumbass kid with imaginary problems” or I’m “over reacting ’cause it was just a joke”. I can’t go the bosses about it ‘cause who are they going to believe? The person who has been there for 5 years (Ed) or the person who has been there for 9 months (me?) It’s not like they would have done anything about it anyway, there are people there that have a lot of sexual harassment charges against them from various people but nothing’s been done about it. So this wouldn’t be any different. 

It really pissed me off how Lucy could tell I was getting annoyed with him, and didn’t do anything to try to stop him. Then they both had the audacity to get pissed at me when I shut down and starting ignoring their presence. 

I didn’t even know I had selective mutism until earlier this year. I didn’t know there was a word for what I was going through until earlier this year. And all of the shit that I’ve been trying to deal with, all of the friendships that were ruined because I couldn’t explain why I couldn’t talk, all came crashing down at once, and I felt like a complete piece of shit. 

I’m so exhausted because of this and it’s only Tuesday.