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3liza · 1 year ago

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thank you for speaking rational thought AS AN ARTIST into the ai debate. i get so tired of people over simplifying, generalizing, and parroting how they’ve been told ai works lmao. you’re an icon

some of the worst AI art alarmists are professional artists as well but theyre in very specific fields with very specific work cultures and it would take a long and boring post to explain all the nuance there but i went to the same extremely tiny, hypefocused classic atelier school in San Francisco as Karla Ortiz and am actually acquainted with her irl so i have a different perspective on this particular issue and the people involved than the average fan artist on tumblr. the latter person is also perfectly valid and so is their work, all im saying is that we have different life experiences and my particular one has accidentally placed me in a weird and relevant position to observe what the AI art panic is actually about.

first thing i did when the pearl-clutching about AI art started is go on the Midjourney discord, which is completely public and free, and spent a few burner accounts using free credits to play with the toolset. everyone who has any kind of opinion about AI art should do the same because otherwise you just wont know what youre talking about. my BIGGEST takeaway is that it is currently and likely always will be (because of factors that are sort of hard to explain) extremely difficult to make an AI like Midjourney spit out precisely wht you want UNLESS what you want is the exact kind of hyperreal, hyperpretty Artstation Front Page 4k HDR etc etc style pictures that, coincidentally, artists like Karla Ortiz have devoted their careers to. Midjourney could not, when asked, make a decent Problem Glyph. or even anything approaching one. and probably never will, because there isn't any profit incentive for it to do so and probably not enough images to train a dataset anyway.

the labor issues with AI are real, but they are the result of the managerial class using AI's existence as an excuse to reduce compensation for labor. this happens at every single technological sea change and is unstoppable, and the technology itself is always blamed because that is beneficial to the capitalists who are actually causing the labor crisis each time. if you talk to the artists who are ACTUALLY already being affected, they will tell you what's happening is managers are telling them to insert AI into workflows in ways that make no sense, and that management have fully started an industry-wide to "pivot" to AI production in ways that aren't going to work but WILL result in mass loss of jobs and productivty and introduce a lot of problems which people will then be hired to try to fix, but at greatly-reduced salaries. every script written and every picture generated by an AI, without human intervention/editing/cleanup, is mostly unusable for anything except a few very specific use cases that are very tolerant of generality. i'm seeing it being used for shovelware banner ads, for example, as well as for game assets like "i need some spooky paintings for the wall of a house environment" or "i need some nonspecific movie posters for a character's room" that indie game devs are making really good use of, people who can neither afford to hire an artist to make those assets and cant do them themselves, and if the ai art assets weren't available then that person would just not have those assets in the game at all. i've seen AI art in that context that works great for that purpose and isn't committing any labor crimes.

it is also being used for book covers by large publishing houses already, and it looks bad and resulted directly in the loss of a human job. it is both things. you can also pay your contractor for half as many man hours because he has a nailgun instead of just hammers. you can pay a huge pile of money to someone for an oil portrait or you can take a selfie with your phone. there arent that many oil painters around anymore.

but this is being ignored by people like the guy who just replied and yelled at me for the post they imagined that i wrote defending the impending robot war, who is just feeling very hysterical about existential threat and isn't going to read any posts or actually do any research about it. which is understandable but supremely unhelpful, primarily to themselves but also to me and every other fellow artist who has to pay rent.

one aspect of this that is both unequivocally True AND very mean to point out is that the madder an artist is about AI art, the more their work will resemble the pretty, heavily commercialized stuff the AIs are focused on imitating. the aforementioned Artstation frontpage. this is self-feeding loop of popular work is replicated by human artists because it sells and gets clicks, audience is sensitized to those precise aesthetics by constant exposure and demands more, AI trains on those pictures more than any others because there are more of those pictures and more URLs pointing back to those pictures and the AI learns to expect those shapes and colors and forms more often, mathematically, in its prediction models. i feel bad for these people having their style ganked by robots and they will not be the only victims but it is also true, and has always been true, that the ONLY way to avoid increasing competition in a creative field is to make yourself so difficult to imitate that no one can actually do it. you make a deal with the devil when you focus exclusively on market pleasing skills instead of taking the massive pay cut that comes with being more of a weirdo. theres no right answer to this, nor is either kind of artist better, more ideologically pure, or more talented. my parents wanted me to make safe, marketable, hotel lobby art and never go hungry, but im an idiot. no one could have predicted that my distaste for "hyperreal 4k f cup orc warrior waifu concept art depth of field bokeh national geographic award winning hd beautiful colorful" pictures would suddenly put me in a less precarious position than people who actually work for AAA studios filling beautiful concept art books with the same. i just went to a concept art school full of those people and interned at a AAA studio and spent years in AAA game journalism and decided i would rather rip ass so hard i exploded than try to compete in such an industry.

which brings me to what art AIs are actually "doing"--i'm going to be simple in a way that makes computer experts annoyed here, but to be descriptive about it, they are not "remixing" existing art or "copying" it or carrying around databases of your work and collaging it--they are using mathematical formulae to determine what is most likely to show up in pictures described by certain prompts and then manifesting that visually, based on what they have already seen. they work with the exact same very basic actions as a human observing a bunch of drawings and then trying out their own. this is why they have so much trouble with fingers, it's for the same reason children's drawings also often have more than 5 fingers: because once you start drawing fingers its hard to stop. this is because all fingers are mathematically likely to have another finger next to them. in fact most fingers have another finger on each side. Pinkies Georg, who lives on the end of your limb and only has one neighbor, is an outlier and Midjourney thinks he should not have been counted.

in fact a lot of the current failings by AI models in both visual art and writing are comparable to the behavior of human children in ways i find amusing. human children will also make up stories when asked questions, just to please the adult who asked. a robot is not a child and it does not have actual intentions, feelings or "thoughts" and im not saying they do. its just funny that an AI will make up a story to "Get out of trouble" the same way a 4 year old tends to. its funny that their anatomical errors are the same as the ones in a kindergarten classroom gallery wall. they are not people and should not be personified or thought of as sapient or having agency or intent, they do not.

anyway. TLDR when photography was invented it became MUCH cheaper and MUCH faster to get someone to take your portrait, and this resulted in various things happening that would appear foolish to be mad about in this year of our lord 2023 AD. and yet here we are. if it were me and it was about 1830 and i had spent 30 years learning to paint, i would probably start figuring out how to make wet plate process daguerreotypes too. because i live on earth in a technological capitalist society and there's nothing i can do about it and i like eating food indoors and if i im smart enough to learn how to oil paint i can certainly point a camera at someone for 5 minutes and then bathe the resulting exposure in mercury vapor. i know how to do multiple things at once. but thats me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#ai #asks #blog #this post is bugged and keeps changing itself and moving the Read More around #if you see multple versions thats why

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targaryenrealnessdarling · 11 months ago

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A Little Bit More

25/12: Promise & Phone Sex - Billy Washington Word Count: 1.6k~ | Warnings: phone sex, dirty talk, masturbation (f and m) A/N: this exists in the Every Little Bit universe!

12 Days of Smuff Masterlist

He always knew it was coming around, and yet he always hated it.

Her dad’s birthday was in between Christmas and New Year, that weird time where you don’t know what day it is, never seem to have enough food in and where you’re so disorientated in the post-Christmas haze that it’s like coming down from a sugar high.

It was the few times of year where she went away by herself, wanting to spare Billy from the absolute torture of being around her parents for a few days as she made excuse after excuse as to why they weren’t married yet.

Not that he minded, there was only so much of her mum Billy could take.

He’d seen her off at the train station, her duffel bag looking very much as big as her in the cutest way possible as she skipped off to the platform in her winter overcoat and scarf, the chill nipping at her cheeks.

It was only a few days. It was only a few days. He had to keep reminding himself.

Billy sighed, tapping the remote control against his knee, only half-watching whatever terrible Friday night tele graced his flat. The pizza box was closed shut on the coffee table, having tried to cheer himself up with a takeaway.

His phone buzzed, and he couldn't help the smile that rose to his face, seeing her name in bright white letters on the face of it.

She'd promised to ring 9 o’clock on the dot, after all.

“Hiya, ya alright?” he answered, his voice sounding perkier already, his muscles relaxing once he heard her voice.

“Hey, you sound happy”, she replied low down the phone, and he could tell she was smiling by the way she said it.

“I am now,” he grinned, “just finished a 12 inch on my own.”

She groaned over the line, “Billy.”

“I'm joking, it's because I've heard your voice again.”

“Better,” she laughed breathily, “what you up to? Other than missing me, of course.”

He sighs, “Being a sad cunt, staying in with a beer watching whatever shite is on Channel 4.”

“Ooh dear,” she says unenthusiastically, “sounds dull, babe.”

Billy hummed in agreement, “What about you? What you up to?”

It was her turn to sigh, “fuck all, really. Mum and Dad went to go and see Mum's mate Jill, you know Jill don't you?”

“Yes, babe.”

“Yeah, well they left at five and are yet to be back. Convinced she's got them tied up in the basement.”

Billy laughed through his nose, “That actually sounds better than what she might actually be doing, chatting their bloody ears off.”

“Poor buggers, eh,” she laughed, “so I'm sat here on my tod.”

“What a shame you've got me to talk to then.”

He could hear her smile, “could be worse. You missing me?”

The alcohol had offered him a kind of confidence, and he sucked his teeth, holding back a grin, “You could say that. Missing something anyway.”

He heard her mischievous tone even over the crackle of the phone.

“Are you now?”

The line went quiet for a while, before a notification buzzed and Billy turned her on loudspeaker for a moment as he pulled his phone from his ear to check.

…has sent an image.

With one flick of his thumb, his jaw dropped, the depths of his gut becoming tight and hot by the picture she'd sent him. It was her figure reflected in a mirror, wearing clearly nothing but a large t-shirt (his, he noted) and pulling the spare fabric to one side to show her curves as well as her pebbled nipples beneath it.

“Jesus..”

She giggled over the phone, “is that a good ‘jesus’?”

“I-fuck, yes…”

Another one arrived, with her pulling up the hem of her shirt over her hips and expanse of her stomach, just beneath the shadow of her breasts.

“Christ, babe, what are you doing to me?”

She hummed, “sorry, you said you were missing me.”

Billy sighed looking at the photos, every now and then closing his eyes to will the feeling of her skin onto his fingertips, the warmth of her, the sounds she'd make for him.

His breathing grew shallow as he reached into his jeans, wrapping one hand around his length, to softly pump himself, already half-hard since the moment the first picture arrived.

“Are you enjoying them?” she asked, a teasing lilt to her voice.

“Mmhm..” he murmured.

Another few arrived, in various stages. One where the shirt was fully over her breasts, one where she was wearing nothing at all leaning back to show her full naked torso, and one sat on the bed, the lines appearing where her hips met her thighs.

“Oh fuck…”

Over the phone, she could hear the clinking of his belt as he pleasured himself, “are you touching yourself, baby?”

He could only make a sound in confirmation, his throat closing as he fisted himself to the photos of her.

She sighed, as if her touching herself was expelling a deeply rooted desire, her hands sliding between her legs, the other holding the phone to her ear, “Mm…wish you were here…”

“-ffuck-me too, baby-”

His strained voice was enough to coax some slick between her fingers, using it to pleasure herself, laid back on the bed.

“are you on the sofa?...”

He swallowed, breathlessly replying, “yeah..”

“Do you remember before I left…” she started, and the memory nearly made Billy dizzy.

He was sat right where he is right now, legs apart to accommodate her kneeling there. She'd been annoyed that he was playing Xbox, and so, in an effort to make him lose his game, had knelt in front of him, pulled his sweatpants over his hips and eagerly took his length between her lips.

She'd gotten what she wanted. Before long, his controller was long forgotten and instead, his fingers were threaded through her hair, guiding her pace on him.

He can feel his stomach tightening at the memory of the sensation.

“Do you remember, baby?”

“Yes…”

“Hm..” she hummed, over the phone, while in her own bed began to hasten the pace of her self-pleasure.

"If I were there...do you know what I'd do?"

"What..." he breathed, his hold on his phone so tight without realising.

"I'd get up...off my knees...on top of you..." she muses, sighing at the feeling herself beginning to crest, "...maybe tease you a bit..."

"Fuck-no, baby, don't tease me-"

She let out a breathy laugh, "but why not? It's so much fun."

Her hips canted towards her own touch, her eyes fluttering shut as she held the phone loosely as the pressure tightened in her gut.

"What would you do, baby? If I was right there on top of you..."

His voice came strained, every stroke of his length in his fist drawing him close to fulfilment.

"I would - I'd fuckin' pull you down..."

She could tell he was close by the tone of his voice, and she bit back a smile, knowing he was much too far gone to even form a coherent thought.

"I'd let you fuck me...right there...be your little fuck toy..." She mused in a sort of whisper, "...you could cum inside me...as many times as you want, baby..."

Billy's lips parted, not even realising how his movements had become rapid, needy and quick.

"Oh fuck-"

On the other side she was close herself, and then she heard the prompt and pulled the phone away from her ear to see a request to switch to video call. She accepted without thinking and felt her gut twist at what she saw.

His jeans were pushed around his zipper barely, only enough to free his cock as he pumped it quickly. She was entranced as Billy pleasured himself in real time, her face growing warm at the effect she'd clearly had on him.

And then she heard it, a long shuddered whimper of her name, followed by, "Oh baby-"

She felt her thighs tremble as she came, warmth rushing beneath her hips and a tingling sensation rushing from her toes all the way up her spine, as Billy groaned deeply and spilled all over his fingers for her to see.

Her hand has slowed, overstimulation gnawing as she touched herself with Billy's languid thrusts into his hand continuing to pull a deep arousal from her.

Over the video she heard his laboured breaths, gulping for air.

When the video turned off she smiled tiredly and pulled her phone back to her ear, hearing his tired, exhausted voice.

"Jesus fucking Christ," he breathed. She could imagine him, all spent and limp on the sofa, and the thought made her smirk and press her thighs together with want.

"Mm, you're telling me. Do you feel better now?" She asked demurely.

"Fuck you," he teased, "fuck, I can't wait for you to get back..."

She gave a short laugh, "Oh yeah? What you gonna do when I am?"

He was quiet for so long she wondered if he'd heard her, her brows furrowed in confusion, lips parted to ask him if he was still there.

But realistically, on the other end, a wide smile graced his face, his blue eyes all aglimmer with mischief.

And what he said had the power to shut her right up. Excitement made her stomach flip, wondering what version of Billy she seems to have unleashed. Gone was the shy, unconfident Billy she'd found. Her efforts in getting him to...unwind somewhat shocking even her.

"How did you put it, hm?" he laughed, with a smile so bright like he'd just opened a present, "My little fuck toy?"

General Taglist: @aemondsfavouritebastard @bellstwd @blairfox04 @buckybarnesb-tch @castellomargot @hb8301 @jamespotterismydaddy @mochi-rose @natty2017 @nenelysian @randomdragonfires @risefallrise @thelittleswanao3 @theoneeyedprince @thetrueblackheart @tsujifreya @urmomsgirlfriend1 @valeskafics @virtualsweetsqueen @watercolorskyy @fan-goddess

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unseededtoast · 10 months ago

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Turtle Doves | Joel Miller x F!oc

Part One

Chapter Directory

Series Summary: In which two broken souls connect so deeply, that if one should perish, the other would surely die of a broken heart. (slow burn, timeline changes. After TLOU1, before TLOU2, assumed knowledge of infected, uses elements from both show and game)

Series Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, death, and sexual content.

Also cross-posted on Wattpad and AO3. Link to my masterlist for everything else I’ve posted!

wc: 2.9k

a/n: Thank you for checking out this story! This is by far one of my favorites that I've ever written and I am beyond ecstatic to finally be able to share it with you all. I will be uploading a new part every week, and let me know if you'd like to be tagged! Once again thank you so much!

(use this link for geographical reference points)

Upbeat music sounds through the house, bright sunshine beaming through the open windows. The crisp breeze whips in every few seconds, blowing the sheer curtains and cooling the house. It all makes it seem more real that summer is finally here. I lightly bob my head to the beat, enjoying the first day of warmth and excited for our first cookout of the year. I hear a few of the guests in the back yard already, laughing and clinking bottles together.

I turn around and open the freezer door, grabbing the ice tray off the top shelf and breaking up the frozen water inside, so that I can dump the cubes into the glass pitcher sitting on the kitchen counter. The ice clings as it falls to the bottom of the pitcher, and I go to fill it with water to finish the lemonade. With another gust of wind, the smell of grilled burgers floats in, making me all too excited to get back out there.

The doorbell rings out and I quickly turn the water off so that the lemonade doesn't overflow into the sink. I set the pitcher off to the side and dry my hands on the towel laying on the counter. Quickly, I make my way to the door and open it, greeting the next arrivals with a wide smile on my face.

"Thank you guys for coming, please make yourselves at home! I think the burgers are just about done out back." I say and close the door behind them, grabbing a dish from my friend's full hands and placing it on the counter. Her daughter toddles through the house, mumbling about something that's apparently very important to her. I smile softly at the little girl and turn my attention to my friend, who I haven't seen in forever. Her husband quickly finds his way to the back yard with the other guests.

"Sorry we're late, someone did not want to wear shoes today." She breathily laughs, setting down a diaper bag as she watches her daughter walk around the house.

"I understand, shoes are a pain." I joke with her and open the fridge to grab a chilled bottle. I hand the wine cooler to her and she pops the cap, taking a sip. I look at my friend, who I notice looks tired and stressed, more than usual. There are dark circles under her eyes and her hair is haphazardly thrown up into a bun. Her appearance is out of character for her, she's typically always primped and dressed for the occasion.

"Tell me about it. I was half tempted to just let her come barefoot. How's Lucas?" She asks about my son, taking another sip. I turn my head to look out the back door, seeing my son being held by my husband.

"He's loving all the attention out there, that's for sure. How are things going, Lisa? I feel like I haven't seen you since last year." I inquire, casually grabbing the lemonade pitcher and setting it beside the veggie tray I took from her. She sighs,

"Things have been better. John has been working more hours lately. Which is fine, it's just that I feel like I never sleep anymore." She tries to joke, but I can sense the exhaustion in her. Her husband works as a physician at a local hospital, and has been on call for the past two weeks. I offer her a small smile and put a hand on her shoulder,

"You and little miss Amelia are welcome here anytime. Lucas would enjoy the company and I know you'd enjoy the rest. I mean it, I don't mind watching her." I tell her, knowing that she will likely never take me up on the offer. Lisa doesn't like to impose on people, though she wouldn't be imposing at all.

"I appreciate it Noelle, thank you." She nods gratefully. Amelia finds her way to the back door and puts her slobber-covered hands on the glass, mumbling nonsense but making it clear she wants out there with everyone else. I laugh at her silliness and balance the veggie tray in one hand and grab the lemonade in the other.

"I think Amelia wants to get out there. Feel free to just relax, we can watch over her. Enjoy yourself, mama." I say and make my way to the backdoor and expertly open it with my elbow. Amelia squeals and runs out onto the grass with the other kids.

Lisa goes to sit on the couch, taking another drink, and I close the door behind me. I set the veggie tray down on a foldable table where the other side dishes are and place the cold lemonade beside the other beverages. The burgers smell amazing and I can't help but glance over to the grill to see if they're done yet. To my disappointment, they're not ready, so I walk over to my husband Ryan, who has Lucas in his arms.

"Do you want me to take him?" I ask, knowing that even though Lucas is a small kid, he gets quite heavy after a while. Ryan nods and hands him off to me, kissing me on the forehead before he goes to grab a beer out of the cooler. Lucas lays his head on my shoulder and I can tell he's ready for his afternoon nap.

I go back in the house to find Lisa chilling on the couch, her drink empty in hand and her head resting back on the cushion with her eyes closed. Quietly, I make my way to Lucas' room and lay him down in bed. Of course, as soon as he's on the mattress he's starts to throw a fit, because he's so obviously not tired.

"Shhh, it's okay." I soothe him, running a hand through his short hair and tucking a light sheet around him while he curls his tiny little hand around my fingers. He always likes to be holding someone's hand as he falls asleep, I think it must be some sort of security thing for him. And thankfully, he's out in just a few minutes. Skillfully, I wiggle my hand from his grasp and close his door softly, hoping he'll sleep for at least an hour or two.

Lisa is now sitting up on the couch, her elbows resting on her knees as she leans forward, listening intensely to whatever is on. Something on the TV must have caught her attention.

I go to the fridge and grab a drink, wanting to indulge a little since Lucas is down for a nap. The words on the TV pique my interest, and I go to sit beside Lisa, who only glances at me out of the corner of her eye.

"Los Angeles is the latest city to be placed under Martial Law. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed two hundred. And according to a leaked report from the World Health Organization, recent vaccination attempts have failed." The reporter seems uptight and rigid as she speaks. Absentmindedly, I take another sip of my drink, feeling uneasy about what I'm hearing. The upbeat music from the yard starkly contrasts the severity of what's on the television.

The news broadcast switches to a helicopter view of Los Angeles and shows a temporary military camp being set up. Large armored trucks line the streets and soldiers instruct people where they need to go. There's smoke in the air from fires that have been set, and it looks like some foreign, war-torn country.

"What do you think of all this?" My voice is unusually hoarse as I take in the images before me. There have been reports of some sickness going around, mainly in the bigger cities, far enough from here to make us feel safe, for now. But seeing the devastation and panic of those in New York, Detroit, and now Los Angeles is making me more uneasy about the whole thing.

"I don't like it. John says we shouldn't worry about it. Whatever it is, they'll find a cure for it soon. He says he hasn't seen anything come through the hospital yet and that we're okay. But I don't know, I can't help but worry, you understand." Lisa's voice is soft, but serious. She tears her eyes away from the screen and looks to me as she finishes her sentence, and I nod my head.

"I understand. Ryan says the same thing. But we aren't that far from Detroit, really. I mean what, a few hours by car? I told him we should at least stock up on some canned goods, just in case." I say, knowing that we share the same anxiety about this mysterious sickness. The back door slides open quickly,

"Burgers are done!" Ryan's voice calls out into the house, snapping Lisa and I out of our contemplation. I clear my throat and take another drink before standing and offering Lisa my hand. She takes it and I help her up as well, and we both go outside, trying to forget what we just saw on the screen.

We join the others in the back yard and Lisa makes quick work to fix Amelia a plate. I urge others to get a plate before I do, feeling unnerved from the news report. After everyone goes through the line, I grab a plate as well, but can only bring myself to put some fruit on it, and that's just for show.

I join Ryan at the patio table and he's tucking into his burger with all the fixings. I take another drink and try my absolute best to act perfectly normal and unperturbed. Ryan swallows and looks between my plate and my face, his eyebrows scrunching together.

"Only fruit?" I nod my head, knowing it's out of my usual to not load up with a burger, chips, and some type of sweet.

"Just not feeling too well." I passively offer as an explanation and take a strawberry into my mouth. He takes another bite of his burger, keeping his eyes on me. I know he can see through my lie, but I know he won't push it in front of people. He puts a hand on my thigh and gives it a squeeze, and I place my hand on top of his.

I take another strawberry and look out into our back yard, seeing Amelia happily nibbling on a bun Lisa gave her. Another little kid sits beside Amelia, Ethan is his name, and he is content with his bowl of chips his mother gave him. Ethan's mother, Rebecca, met Lisa and I at a birthing education group a few years back and we all clicked together instantly. Rebecca's husband, Tim, fit right in with our husbands as well.

Others mill about the yard, associates of Ryan who I don't know very well, but they're friendly enough and I don't mind them. I've never been able to connect with them too well, seeing as there's a sizable age gap between me and the majority of them. Plus, they're all lawyers and I'm a florist, there's not much common ground between the two. Sometimes I wish I had more in common with Ryan's friends, but over time I've accepted that it's okay for us to have differences.

My eyes drift from the people to my flower beds, which are all manicured to perfection. Luckily, all the flowers are vibrant and full, adding more life to the yard it sometimes lacks in the colder months.

After a while, I go about collecting plates and cleaning up the food as the sun begins to disappear behind the horizon. Ryan is entertaining a newly energized Lucas as Lisa and I pack away the leftovers and hunt out the s'mores supplies. No Allen family cookout is complete without s'mores.

I turned the television off as soon as we started bringing things in, not being able to bear the words and images that were sure to be there. If I can just push those thoughts from my mind for another couple hours and make sure people enjoy the cookout, then I can worry about it for the rest of the night after they leave.

Lisa hands me a platter of leftover burgers to put in the fridge and breaks the silence,

"Your flowers are beautiful this year, I really like the tulips you have here." She compliments my fresh pink tulips on the counter. I had picked them this morning before everyone got here so they looked their best. I smile, appreciating the compliment.

"Thank you, I tried to pick the best ones. You can take those with you if you want. I have plenty." I say, motioning to the backyard. It's true, I have an abundance of flowers to choose from, and I want Lisa to have something nice for herself, she deserves it.

"Oh no, I couldn't. You worked hard on those." She dismisses with a wave of her hand, but I give her a stern look.

"Lisa, please take the flowers or I will make sure John takes them." I say, pushing the vase across the counter to her. She knows she's not going to win this argument and concedes, taking the vase in her hands.

"Thank you, Noelle." Her voice is quiet, and I give her a nod.

"Don't mention it. Now let's get these kids full of sugar before bed!" I laugh and hand her some of the s'mores ingredients to take out.

A few of the men had started the fire and have it at a nice height, it should last us long enough to get the s'mores made and for people to say their goodbyes for the night. I hand out the skewers and place the ingredients on the foldable tables, allowing people to help themselves.

Lucas waddles over to me with a marshmallow in his tiny hand, and I smile, knowing he wants me to toast it for him. I grab him in my arms and take his marshmallow, placing it on a skewer before sitting us on a chair close to the fire. Lucas is on my lap as I watch the marshmallow to ensure I don't burn it, but toast it perfectly for him. Lucas is kind of a marshmallow snob, he won't eat one that's been burnt or under-toasted, he only wants the golden-brown ones.

After rotating the marshmallow with patience, I think it's finally good enough for his standards. I grab it off the skewer and blow on it so that he doesn't burn his mouth on the hot sugar. His hands reach towards it, but I lean away to cool it off as much as possible. I can tell he's getting frustrated, and so as soon as I'm sure it's an acceptable temperature, I give it to him. He wastes no time in shoving it in his mouth, a wide, gummy smile on his face with tiny little teeth barely visible.

I watch him lovingly, enjoying seeing him so happy with something so simple. As Lucas finishes his marshmallow, some people begin filtering out for the night. I wave goodbye to them and take Lucas inside to clean him up before bed. His hands and face are sticky with marshmallow fluff, and the last thing I want is for him to touch everything in his reach and get everything coated in stickiness.

I set him up on the counter beside the sink and grab a fresh rag, wetting it lightly so I can get the gross off of him. Rebecca, Tim, and Ethan are the next ones to leave, and I wish them a safe drive home, and thank them once more for coming. Lisa, John, and Amelia are the last ones to leave, and I make sure Lisa takes the tulips with her despite her protests.

After Lucas is cleaned up and Ryan has tidied the back yard, I'm ready for bed. My eyelids are heavy with sleep, and I can't wait to get underneath my warm covers. Lucas fights his bedtime as per usual, but finally lays down for me after minutes of whining.

I close his door and turn off the main lights in the house and ensure the night lights are on, just in case Lucas gets up in the night and needs to get to our room. I rub my eyes as I enter my bedroom and go to the bathroom to do my nightly routine. Ryan is already in bed, flipping through channels to find something.

I rush through my routine and get underneath the covers, sighing with relief as I feel my spine decompress from the day. Rolling over into Ryan's side, I rest my head on his shoulder and look at the television screen. Immediately, I'm displeased with what I see. A bold headline is front and center and it reads 'Death Toll Rises, When Will This End?'. Luckily the TV is on mute so I can't hear what the news reporter is saying.

"I think we need to stock up on things tomorrow. I don't like how this is looking." I say, standing my ground this time. Ryan can believe whatever he wants about this sickness, but I won't risk Lucas going without food or any necessity if things get bad.

"First thing in the morning we can go." Ryan's voice is raspy, and he turns the TV off, not bothering to watch anything else. He adjusts his position and pulls me into him, kissing me goodnight before he rolls over to turn off his bedside lamp.

I cuddle into his side, enjoying the safety I feel in his arms and close my eyes, ready to fall asleep. As I feel myself drifting off, I hear muffled sirens in the distance.

Part Two

#joel miller #joel miller series #joel miller x oc #joel miller fluff #joel miller smut #joel miller tlou #joel the last of us #joel tlou #the last of us #tlou #joel miller romance #slow burn #angst with a happy ending #angst #severe angst #pedro pascal

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kazoosandfannypacks · 6 days ago

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summary: ezra bridger has been following online microcelebrity spectre_pheonix for years. although her online identity is shrouded in mystery, he may be closer to her than he realizes. word count: 7309 (7974 counting alt text) co-authorship note: the video game sequences featured in this fic were written by my co-author, shadow-ninja-13, who also helped me figure out a few plot things and what video games to include where. he's also my teenage brother, known by some on this site as skyguy, and he's the coolest kid on the planet!a/n: After so, so, so much time working on this fic and talking it up IT'S FINALLY FINISHED!!! Shoutout to my tumblr follows for helping me out with a couple ideas in this fic! Some of this fic is told in embedded images. I have added alt text, so it should be accessible via screenreader as well. I can probably make a pdf copy of a full plaintext version of the story available if anyone needs it! taglist: @laughingphoenixleader@accidental-spice@kanerallels @piraterefrigerator @jedi-nurse@dootchster @lucasbridger@redroverrider @light-umbra @commander-tech @jedimandalorian@notanodinarygirl {if you’d like to be added to or removed from my Sabezra taglist, let me know!}

also on ao3!

need a player 2?

No, that definitely sounded insincere.

Ezra backspaced the message he'd typed into the livestream chat, then typed something else.

Duh. Too obvious. Try again.

Perfect.

Ezra hit the send button and waited for a response. It was very rare that spectre_pheonix responded to any of the hundreds of thousands of comments she'd get on her streams, but that didn't stop Ezra from hoping.

Ezra watched as the player found the Warthog, and perfectly drove, splattering the Aliens that got in her way. Nearby there was a small opening, he watched the player take the truck through, by driving on the stone wall. If she flipped, it’d be all over. If not, she’d be more awesome than usual. The landing was about to happen, the anxiety was building, and then… a hand got in between him and the phone, blocking his view entirely.

"Hey," Ezra said, pulling his headphone off of one ear so he could yell at his roommate, whose hand covered his phone.

"Hey yourself," Jai said, "we gotta get going; we're gonna be late."

Ezra hadn't looked at a clock since the stream had started, which was apparently three hours ago. Somehow it was already fifteen minutes before the dining hall stopped serving dinner, and it was at least a ten minute walk down that way.

"Shoot," Ezra sprang to his feet, "I must've lost track of time again."

"Because you were watching that gamer girl?" Jai asked, leaning on the doorframe.

"Maybe," Ezra said, as he reached for the nearest matching pair of shoes he could stuff his feet into.

"What's so interesting about watching someone game, anyways?" Jai asked.

"I think it's about loyalty now more than anything," Ezra said, "I've been watching her stream since before she became popular. It just wouldn't be right if I didn't watch her gaming sessions, especially when it's a game I love. Besides, she just has this way about her. She's so cool, so collected, so…."

"....hot?" Jai attempted to finish for him with a smile.

"I wouldn't know," Ezra said, "she's very good about keeping her personal life personal. I've never seen her face. No one has."

"So she's a mystery girl."

"She's just like any other celebrity," Ezra defended.

"So you mean she'd be way out of your league even if you knew who she was?" Jai asked.

"More like I haven't even considered it," Ezra said, "I'm one of millions of fans."

"Isn't her follower count only…"

"Enough talking," Ezra said, pulling Jai out the door of their dorm room, "I heard a rumor it's pizza night in the dining hall."

And with that, both boys were off on a new quest: Obtain Pizza.

💜.🎮.🧡

"I wonder how they'd react if they knew who was in the room with them," Sabine thought, sitting alone with her sketchbook in a corner of her college's student center.

Across the room, a group of boys were having a heated discussion over their game of Smash Bros. She didn't try to eavesdrop, but she'd always been aware of the world around her, and definitely heard the words "spectre" "phoenix" and "most influential gamer of our generation."

"You must be trippin'," one of them said, "her 'let's plays' are nothing more than a halfhearted follower grab."

"Oh, like you'd know," another said, "your youtube channel has, what, seventeen followers? Oh, and you just came in last place, again."

Sabine looked back up at their game to see that the fourth-place gamer had been playing as Bowser, then watched Diddy Kong deal a crippling blow on Captain Falcon.

Then, she glanced at the players, all of them laughing and roasting each other. One wore a t-shirt that said "official spectre spectator," and another had a hat on backwards with spectre_pheonix's logo on it. Sabine would recognize that merch anywhere— after all, she was the one who designed it— as merch for her own shop, and she couldn't say she was disappointed by how much praise its wearers spoke of her with.

"If only they knew who I was," Sabine thought, but she quickly reminded herself she was glad they didn't. Though she was thankful for her followers and their merch money paying her tuition, she wasn't prepared to have toxic dudebros hounding her everywhere she went. And once word got out at college that she was spectre_pheonix, there would go any sense of normalcy she had. Besides, if word about it slipped back home to her parents, she'd be deeper trouble than she already was.

So before she could do something regrettable and talk to them, she packed up her stuff and moved to a different study spot.

💜.🎮.🧡

The Flood surrounded her. In an unexpected turn of events, the creepiest enemy in the entire Halo saga had been introduced. She fired her assault rifle at the hoards of Flood crawling on the ground. The salvo was effective, but costly. She had forty rounds plus one full clip, but that wouldn’t be enough. As she walked the character up some stairs, she found allies, and promptly borrowed their ammo. At the end of the swamp, she encountered the monitor, and watched the cutscene at the end of 343 Guilty Spark.

"Sorry guys, gotta stop the stream for the night," Sabine said, "it's well past midnight here, and I've got an eight a.m. class."

She watched the comment section flare up with responses.

💜.🎮.🧡

Ezra stumbled into class a couple minutes late, but he was sure his professor would understand. It wasn't his fault that spectre_pheonix had been streaming late last night, right? As long as he quietly slipped into the back of the classroom, no one would notice anyways.

"Mr. Bridger," Professor Syndulla called to him as he tried in vain to hide his late entry, "so glad you've decided to join us this morning."

Ezra turned around and tried to hide his guilty expression.

"Of course, ma'am," Ezra said, with a dramatic salute, "I'd never miss out on one of my favorite teacher's classes."

"Flattery gets you nowhere in my class," the professor said, "take a seat, and we'll continue."

"Yes ma'am," Ezra said. He took a seat as close to the back of the room as he could and pulled out his laptop to take notes.

Ezra tried his best to pay attention, but the lack of sleep was getting the better of him as Professor Syndulla's lesson dragged on.

"Maybe I could get dad to sit in on class and take notes for me sometime," Ezra thought, "he could listen to her talk for hours."

It was, admittedly, a little weird that his adoptive father was dating his psychology professor, but at least her letter of recommendation helped him get into this school— on the condition that he "applied himself diligently to his studies" and didn't "discredit her influence by trying to coast on it" and all that other stuff they'd told him when she'd suggested he attend Atollon Alliance University.

"But I'm definitely not 'diligently applying myself' if I fall asleep in class," Ezra thought, the notes document before him blurring before his eyes, "and I need to do something to stay awake."

So, he turned to the one thing he'd never be able to sleep through— one of the many videos in his "watch later" tab on youtube. After double checking to make sure his laptop's sound was off and muted— you could never be too careful— he clicked a video titled "spectre_pehonix's top FIFTY EPIC saves!!!" and watched along as he listened to Professor Syndulla's lesson, finding that all that boring stuff about psychology was a lot more interesting when he also had spectre_phonix’s abilities with some grenades against Wraiths, Hunters, and Banshees to focus on.

💜.🎮.🧡

Class wasn't the only time Ezra used gaming videos to focus. He'd never been one for focusing on one task at a time, and usually found that if he sat down to study, he'd end up pulling out his phone and watching videos on YouTube anyways, and that it was better in the long run to start out with some gaming recap video in the background— except on days when spectre_pheonix was streaming during his study sessions, of course, and he'd watch it live, streaming Twitch in one window on his computer and whatever essay he was nearing the deadline on in the other.

Today, for example, he had her stream of Halo in the background of a rousing essay of the themes and morals of The Octopus.

The clock was ticking. 4:23 seconds left to go. The clock only counted down. She drove the Warthog through the groups of retreating Aliens and Flood. 4:07 seconds left to go by this point. She was told to stop, but she knew that that evac point wouldn’t help her. She’d played before, and she knew that the evacuation Pelican was shot down. She kept on driving. At max speed she used an odd floor detailing as a ramp, and jumped a whole group. The stress and tension of the final level made normal players stressed, but not Sabine. 2:25 left on the clock. The point was only about one kilometer away. She kept going, and going, and going. Nothing could stop her now. 1:22 left on the clock, she was within one kilometer away. She would make it! Unless she flipped by mistake. :44 seconds and counting! She saw the Pelican, and started running. She could take the Warthog no farther. She jumped in the Pelican at the last second. Barely beating Halo: Combat Evolved.

"It's like my teacher always says," spectre_pheonix said, "when things are at their worst, I feel like I'm at my best."

Ezra had only been half focusing, but this statement warranted his full attention. It wasn't as though the statement was profound or original— in fact, he'd heard it before. Abandoning his book report for the moment, Ezra expanded the Twitch tab across his whole screen, and ran it back ten seconds, thinking maybe his brain was playing some cruel trick on him.

"When things are at their worst, I feel like I'm at my best."

"That's exactly what Professor Syndulla said in psych class today." Ezra thought, "Is spectre_pheonix in my psychology class? Does she go to Attalon Alliance University too? No, that's crazy. Isn't it?"

His thoughts soon became a cluttered and jumbled mess, so he pulled out a notebook, flipped to random blank page, and after forty-seven minutes had constructed a list that looked something like this:

His results were inconclusive, but he suddenly remembered the book report due in less than an hour, and the two-thousand seventy-three words short he was from the word count.

💜.🎮.🧡

The last decade or so had gone pretty much exactly as Hera had planned. After realizing how important it was to her to help guide young people to their place in the world, she'd set her sights on a philosophy PHD so she could teach at Attalon Alliance University. She'd graduated with honors, and soon began teaching, and it was just as fulfilling as she'd planned it would be.

But what she hadn't considered in her plans was falling in love. When she was in college, she'd been too focused on her studies, and later on her duties as an RA in her dorm, to even consider pursuing a relationship, and by then, well, she figured there weren't a lot of single men in their late twenties interested in dating philosophy professors, so she poured herself into her work instead, and building good connections with her students as much as she could.

But, apparently, she hadn't been entirely correct in her assessment of her prospects. There was, apparently, at least one single man in his late twenties interested in dating philosophy professors— a man by the name of Kanan Jarrus, one who'd figured there weren't a lot of single women in their late twenties interested in dating the kind of guy who'd adopted an eight year old at the age of twenty-one and now had a sixteen year-old son who spent most of his time either playing video games or watching other people play them.

Hera had met Kanan in a chance run-in at a Wisconsin cheese festival, and though there was no denying the spark between them, it took a couple more chance run-ins before she'd agreed to a date. Their relationship progressed slowly, with Hera's career and Kanan's delicate balance of providing for and raising his son, but they'd had more time to see each other over the past year, since his son had enrolled at Attalon Alliance University.

"Morning, Professor Syndulla," Ezra grinned, walking into class one morning.

Though all of Hera's students may as well have been her children, she had a special fondness for that one— and took extra caution to make sure she didn't give him special treatment. Though he hadn't fathered Ezra, Kanan's influence on his life was evident through his actions. Ezra shared a lot of mannerisms with his dad, including an answer or an excuse always at the ready, and a charming smile he seemed to think would absolve himself of guilt. However, there were a lot of qualities they didn't share, and one of them was Ezra's propensity to be late.

It was this propensity for lateness that made Hera do a double-take. Class wouldn't start for another five minutes, and Ezra was here, in class, early.

"Good morning, Mr. Bridger," Hera said, "is there any particular reason you've shown up on time this morning?"

"Maybe I'm finally taking this whole 'education' thing seriously?" Ezra suggested.

"Mhmm," Hera nodded, "and maybe a certain gamer wasn't streaming last night."

"Well, there's that too," Ezra rolled his eyes and headed for his usual seat, towards the back of the classroom.

She watched as the rest of the students made their way into the classroom, and another one caught her attention, and not just because of her brightly colored hair.

"Miss Wren," Hera said, "I enjoyed reading your paper last night."

"Thanks, Professor Syndulla."

That was the entirety of their interaction, but Hera could tell by the smile on her student's face that she had taken it to heart. One time during Sabine Wren's first semester, Professor Syndulla had complimented something she said in class, and from the expression on her face, Hera could tell that kind of positive affirmation was foreign to Sabine— and she made it her personal mission to make sure it wasn't foreign to her anymore. Though their conversations rarely went further than a compliment on the student's hard work and a thank you for the professor, Hera could tell that Sabine appreciated it, in her own way.

💜.🎮.🧡

Ezra had had his own reasons for coming into class on time, and not just to improve his education. He hadn't abandoned his spectre search (or "wild ghost chase," as Jai had called it when Ezra explained it to him,) and his biggest evidence pointed to this class. Maybe if he actually showed up on time, he could get to know his classmates well enough to find out if one of them was her. Instead of listening to her in his headphones as their professor taught, he listened for her in his classroom as their professor took the students' questions, which didn't increase his focus on the lesson at all, but it did give him something to do in class other than watch YouTube recaps and pretend to be taking notes, so it was a nice change of pace.

After class, he hung around a little longer than normal, standing by one of the classroom doorways to see what he could overhear.

When only a few students remained in the classroom, Professor Syndulla approached him.

"Alright, Bridger," she said, "what's your angle?"

"Angle?" Ezra asked, "why do you assume I have 'an angle?'"

"You came to class five minutes early, and instead of making a break for the door as soon as possible, you're hanging around after class is dismissed. Pardon me for being suspicious."

Ezra didn't respond.

"If there's ever anything you want to talk about, I'm here," she said.

"Look, it's nothing," Ezra said, "don't worry about it."

Ezra decided to turn heel and leave before his dad's girlfriend started psychoanalyzing him again.

What Ezra hadn't counted on was someone else walking through the doorway at the same time, and him running into her.

"Watch where you're going," she grumbled, as a textbook and a few notebooks fell out of her arms.

Ezra had seen this kind of scene in movies before, so he figured he may as well pick up the textbooks for her.

"I'm so sorry," he said, crouching down and grabbing the books off the floor, "I didn't…"

She sighed. "It's alright."

Her voice almost seemed familiar— no, it did seem familiar.

"Here you go," Ezra said, getting up and handing her the books, "I, uh…."

He stumbled over his words, because not only did he recognize her voice as one of his favorites in the world, but when he looked up at her face, he saw rich brown eyes, and hair the same color as spectre_pheonix's logo.

"You're good," she smiled as she took the books from him.

"I, uh," he scratched his neck, "I like your hair."

"Nice shirt," she said, and winked as she walked away.

He looked back at her as she left, then back down at his shirt— his favorite shirt he'd ever gotten from his favorite streamer's online shop.

💜.🎮.🧡

Even when Sabine got back to her dorm room after class, the boy who'd bumped into her after class was still on her mind. There wasn't anything exceptional about him, but there was some kind of awe that sparkled across his blue eyes that almost made her feel special.

So, as soon as she got back to her dorm room, weird as it sounded, she decided to draw him— not his whole face, just those eyes that had been fixed on her, tucked between a shaggy crop of hair, and those mysterious scars underneath. It wasn't abnormal for her to draw inspiration from people she'd seen around campus like that.

She also could tell that he must've been a longtime fan of hers. She hadn't sold the "spectre spectator" shirt on her merch site for a couple years, but he had one, and he wore it proudly. She tried to remind herself that there was no way he could've known it was her; she'd been so careful not to leave a trace of her real self online.

Still, as she saw the awe on this fanboy's face, she wondered if that's how all her followers would respond to seeing her. Her follower count was just a number, but she wondered if that number was all awestruck and loyal followers like that one.

So, once she finished the sketch, she went to her Twitch profile. Six-hundred, seven-thousand and eighty-three followers. Six-hundred, seven-thousand and eighty-three people, people just like the one she met today, who appreciated her with an awestruck wonder.

She scrolled through the list of names, and noticed one near the top of the list— spectre_6, whose username she'd seen in the comments of many of her videos over the years. The notification said they were streaming Terraria, and, out of curiosity, she pulled up the stream and decided to check it out.

💜.🎮.🧡

It wasn't very often that Ezra found himself with free time. When he wasn't watching spectre_pheonix's livestreams, or doing homework, or attempting to do both at the same time, he was usually sleeping or hanging out with his friends.

However, today after class, he found himself with free time enough to do a little digging, and add a new page to his conspiracy:

It seemed like a good enough list for now, so he decided that, since spectre_pheonix wasn't streaming right now, he may as well pull up Terraria and do a little streaming of his own.

He was crawling through the pink blocks of his dungeon. Wielding his trusty Horseman’s Blade, he walked through the rough stones of this monster-ridden dungeon. He jumped down a shaft, relying on his jet pack to keep him from dying on the ground. He used the melee/range sword to promptly cut down a nearby Necromancer. He kept running through, and quickly slew several Blue Armored Bones.

Ezra heard the blip of activity in his comment section, and glanced at the sidebar on his screen. It wasn't unheard of for him to get comments on his streams, but it also wasn't very common either.

He glanced at the comment, then did a double take and a triple take. The color of the name was familiar. The username was familiar. There was a checkmark next to her name to show he was following her.

Ezra's heart skipped several beats, like when your teacher calls on you in class, but in a good way, like when you're prepared for it— but he wasn't prepared for this at all, no matter how much he'd dreamed it would happen.

Spectre_pheonix had commented on one of his livestreams.

"OH MY GOSH!" he yelled into the mic, not noticing The Paladin behind him until it was too late. Quite frankly, he didn't care that his “Incompetence was put on display by Paladin’s Hammer” because at least being dead gave him a chance to respond to her comment.

He tried to get back into his game, but couldn't focus, especially when she responded.

She didn't reply to that, and he wondered if she was still even watching. Rather than just check in a normal way, he instead blurted, "spectre_pheonix, if you're still watching, wanna do a collab sometime?"

He was mentally kicking himself in the shins for asking such a foolish question, but was excited when he saw a reply in the comments section:

💜.🎮.🧡

The past week had pretty much been the best week of Ezra's life. Spectre_pheonix rarely collabed with anyone, but the past week they'd joined in together for Minecraft, LEGO Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Dust: An Elysian Tale, the latter of which, being single player, was just spectre_pheonix playing and spectre_6 giving commentary. Not only was this a dream come true, but it also boosted his meager follower count, and Jai had even stopped picking on him for his fantasy fanboying, instead jokingly referring to Ezra's collabs as "the closest thing he'd ever get to a date." Ezra didn't care.

He'd also been on the lookout more and more for that girl he'd run into, Sabine. Whether or not Sabine was spectre_pheonix, he had yet to decide on, but that didn't change the fact that she was still a pretty girl who'd smiled at him at least once, which definitely kept her in the forefront of Ezra's mind.

💜.🎮.🧡

Sabine rarely shared any information about herself online, but it was hard to plan collab information via Twitch, so she'd exchanged discord handles with spectre_6. Admittedly, he would've been as great a gamer as she was, if maybe he'd had a little more practice playing instead of just spectating. Still, collabs with him were enjoyable, and his sense of humor turned even Dark Souls into a hilarious adventure.

As she took notes on Professor Syndulla's class on her laptop, she kept discord open in a separate tab.

"Miss Wren?" Professor Syndulla asked, "is there something humorous about my lesson on how having traumatic experiences as a child inhibit our ability to make connections in the future?"

"No, ma'am," Sabine said. She hadn't realized how much of a mistake it would be to message spectre_6 in class until now. Usually, the people she'd chat with in class didn't have nearly as great a sense of humor as he did. Surely that was the only reason his conversations had her giggling in the middle of psych class.

💜.🎮.🧡

Ezra had done just enough research in class to find out everything he needed to know about Sabine. He'd positioned himself where he could see her, notice the deep gray of discord in the side corner of her computer next to the class notes. She typed in response to his messages. She laughed in response to his messages. When the teacher called her out for giggling in class, the same thing apparently happened to spectre_pheonix. She closed discord and payed attention in class at the same time spectre_pheonic did.

Ezra was convinced now more than ever: spectre_pheonix's real name was Sabine Wren, and she'd been in his psychology class this whole time.

She was a very private person, and someone finding out who she was definitely wasn't on her radar with how careful she'd been about personal details, so he knew if he brought it up, he'd have to breach the subject very, very carefully.

💜.🎮.🧡

"I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!"

Sabine looked up from her notebook with a start, intending to stick around after class so she could apologize to Professor Syndulla, not so that some random peer could slam his hands on her desk and yell ungrounded accusations at her.

But to her surprise, and in some ways her delight, the student she saw in front of her was the boy she'd bumped into last week, with the same soft blue eyes, the same dark, shaggy hair, and the same purple and orange shirt she'd once sold on her shop.

"What do you mean?" Sabine asked, beginning to pack up her things in an attempt to make a hasty exit.

His voice lowered. "I know you're spectre_pheonix."

She tried to keep a cool head, not to show her abject terror. She knew of a lot of bad things that had happened to celebrities when a crazed fan found them, and couldn't let this one know the truth.

"Who?" she asked, "I'm sorry, I, I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do," he said.

"What makes you so sure?" she asked, trying to stall just a moment as she quickly slung her backpack over her shoulder and turned to leave.

"Because I'm spectre_6."

She stopped dead in her tracks and turned back to look at him, sizing it all up in her mind. He'd clearly been a longtime fan of hers, just like spectre_6 had. Now that she thought about it, his voice sounded familiar, too. He'd also mentioned sitting in class, right when she was, and that the same thing had happened in his class that happened to her.

Still, she needed confirmation.

"What?"

"You started laughing in class today because of my joke about tax evasion," he said, "and then decided to 'sign off and lock in' so you could keep your grades up. Last night after you finished your collab with me, I messaged you a gif of Master Chief saluting and saying "goodnight," and you called me a total dork— that was a high honor, by the way. And then the day before that…"

"Okay, okay," she said, a little quieter, afraid of the few students still in the room overhearing, "I'm convinced. But how did you find out it was me?"

"You quoted Professor Syndulla in your stream a week and a half ago," he said, "and then you complimented my shirt last week, the same shirt I'm wearing now— and yes, I have washed it between then and now— and your hair matches your logo, and, I was watching you today in class— not, like, watching you, watching you. Like, not in a stalker way— oh kriff, am I a stalker? I am so sorry, that's really creepy now that I think about it. Anyways while I was hopefully maybe definitely not stalking you, I noticed that you reacted to every message I sent spectre_pheonix, and my suspicions were confirmed."

And Sabine's suspicions were confirmed when she heard him ramble, the same way spectre_6 always did when he was nervous in-game.

"Nice deduction, spectre_6," she said, feeling so much more comfortable now that she knew that this stranger was a friend she'd already met.

"Call me Ezra," he said, extending a hand to her, "Ezra Bridger."

"Sabine," she said, taking his hand and shaking it, "it's nice to finally meet you."

"You have no idea," he said.

💜.🎮.🧡

Being roommates with Ezra Bridger meant you had to be prepared for anything. Walking into the dorm room and thinking you're alone only to find your roommate under his desk, watching vines, and claiming both those things were for "emotional support." Listening to the most insane rumors and conspiracy theories about your teachers and classmates. Helping hide that stupid orange cat he'd smuggled in. Waking up at 2am to the beeping of a microwave and the smell of pizza rolls. All of this came with the territory, and Jai was professional in handling the insane force of nature that was Ezra Bridger.

But none of it could prepare him for what he saw when he walked into his dorm room one day after lunch and found Ezra cleaning. For someone whose laundry was piled higher than his loft bed, and who acted like he'd never seen a bottle of windex in his life, Ezra sure seemed to have purpose as he rushed around the room, putting away clean clothes while also tidying up the cluttered pile of papers and funko pops that he claimed were hiding a desk.

"May I ask what the occasion is?" Jai asked.

Ezra didn't even turn to look at him as his tornado of tidiness swept across the dorm room.

"Surprise."

"Surprise what?" Jai asked, "like, 'you can't tell me' surprise, or 'you wanted to surprise me by cleaning our room' surprise or 'your dad is coming for a surprise visit' surprise?"

"The first one," Ezra said.

"I'm not even gonna ask," Jai said.

"Good," Ezra said, "because you wouldn't believe me."

There were a lot of things Ezra could do that were unbelievable, but he was pretty sure just cleaning up the room was enough to suspend his standard of disbelief.

Jai sat down at his own desk and pulled out his laptop, figuring he may as well work on his history homework while he waited for the inevitable Bridger surprise.

About ten minutes later, Jai thought he heard a knock on the door, followed by Ezra yelling out "I'M COMING!" and bolting for the door, picking up the last bits of trash off the floor on his way.

Jai watched his roommate fumble to open the door with the trash still in his hand, then toss it into a corner where it wouldn't be seen and pull the door open.

"Sabine," Ezra said, "come on in."

"Alright," a girl's voice said.

A girl?

Ezra Bridger had never talked to a girl in person in all their time at Attalon Alliance University, so naturally Jai was surprised when a beautiful girl followed Ezra into their dorm room.

"Oh, Sabine," Ezra said, "this is my roommate, Jai."

"Nice to meet you," Sabine said, with a smile.

"Pardon the disbelief on my face," Jai said, "I didn't know Ezra even knew how to talk to girls who weren't on his computer."

Ezra looked a touch embarrassed, but his new friend spoke up for him, with half a giggle.

"We met through his computer," Sabine said, "he may have mentioned me. Spectre_pheonix?"

"You mean the Wild Ghost Chase wasn't just another ungrounded conspiracy theory?" Jai asked.

"Wild Ghost Chase?"

"It's called The Spectre Search," Ezra defended, "and yes, as I predicted, spectre_pheonix is, in fact, another student in my psych class."

"I came over to do a collab in person today," she said, "it's a lot better than trying to voice chat over Ezra's grainy mic setup."

"Hey!" Ezra said.

"She's got a point," Jai said, "and I guess my prediction was right too."

"What prediction?" Ezra asked.

"I told you if you ever met her she'd be way out of your league."

"Hey!" Ezra said again. "Don't you have a history report due?"

"Relax, I'm just messing with you," Jai said, "besides, this one's an easy A."

And with that, he turned back to his computer and let Ezra and Sabine have the illusion of privacy for their first in-person edition of "the closest thing Ezra would ever get to a date." Jai put on his headphones and went to his favorite research material: opening Spotify and resuming where he'd last left off in Hamilton: An All American Musical.

💜.🎮.🧡

It wasn't uncommon after that for them to stream in Ezra's dorm room, or in Sabine's when Jai was busy with homework he couldn't risk interruption in. This time was one of those days, because, as Jai cited, "Lin Manuel Miranda didn't write us a musical about algebra," so Ezra found himself on the floor in her room, leaning his back against her bed, while she sat on her bed, her legs dangling off the side next to him.

While they waited to connect on their college's laggy internet, Ezra filled the silence.

"So, how do you think you'll do on that psych test next week?"

"Not too bad, I hope," Sabine said, "you?"

"I just hope dad has room on the fridge for another D-," Ezra said.

"Maybe I can put in a good word with the professor for you," Sabine said, a bit of a laugh in her tone. "She and I have a fairly good rapport."

"If only you knew," Ezra thought.

"Unfortunately, this is one area where I think I do have you beat," Ezra said.

"Are you crazy?" Sabine asked, leaning over the edge of the bed so she could see if his expression was sarcastic, "she's clearly got it out for you. I've never seen her go so hard on any student."

"And why do you think that is?" Ezra asked.

"Because you don't apply yourself in any of your classes and she thinks you're wasting potential?"

"Well, yeah," Ezra said, "but I'm not the only one who does that, and she singles me out anyways."

"And why do you suppose that is?"

Ezra sighed. Professor Syndulla had never mentioned having a boyfriend, at least, not in any of the classes Ezra had been in, and if she had, no one besides Jai would've known it was Ezra's dad. It was a touchy subject for him, so he didn't bring it up much.

But somehow he could tell Sabine would understand.

"She's dating my dad," Ezra said.

"She— what?"

This wasn't normal information for students to know about their teachers, so he understood her confusion.

"How do you think I even got into this school, what, with my grades?" Ezra asked, "if not for her glowing letter of recommendation, I wouldn't even be here right now."

"So your dad is dating your professor so you can get into college?"

"What, no?" Ezra said, "They've been together for years, and I wasn't even thinking about college until long after they met. But dad always thought college would be good for me, and Professor Syndulla offered to help me get in and found me some scholarships."

"So our psych professor is hard on you because she's dating your dad?"

"Yeah, lots of psychology to unpack there." Ezra said.

"How do you feel about it all?"

Ezra paused. He hadn't answered that one honestly in a while, not even when his dad asked him last saturday.

"Do you really wanna know?" Ezra asked.

Sabine slid down off her mattress and sat down next to him, and her presence was already familiar enough to inspire honesty.

"Yeah," she said.

"It's weird," Ezra said, "I guess I never really grasped the idea of having a mom again."

After a moment of silence, Sabine asked another question. "Can I ask what happened to your mom?"

"The same thing that happened to my dad," Ezra said, "my real dad that is— I mean, my birth dad. I don't wanna say Kanan's not my real dad. He raised me for more than half my life, anyways, after my parents went on a missions' trip and never came back."

"Oh."

"It's alright," Ezra said, not letting her waste time on awkward sympathy. "No, no it's not, and to be honest it really sucks, but there's nothing any of us could've done to stop it. And Kanan, he was always there for me, even before my parents left."

Sabine didn't answer, but it felt nice to talk to her about it anyways, so he hoped she didn't mind that he continued.

"They're getting married," he said.

"What?"

"Professor Syndulla and my dad," Ezra said. "Well, she doesn't know it yet, and maybe she'll say no again, but I don't think so. Dad's proposing at dinner on Friday."

Sabine nodded again, clearly trying to process everything he'd said.

"I'm sorry," Ezra said, "I didn't mean to make this a pity party."

"Don't be," Sabine said, "this is what friends are for."

"Friends?" Ezra thought, with a smile. Two months ago he'd been her fan, and she hadn't even known he existed. And now they were friends? He could get used to this.

"But just so we're clear," Sabine said, "I don't pity you."

"What?"

"You have a dad who thinks the world of you," Sabine said, "and I'd kill to have a mom like Professor Syndulla."

"Why?" Ezra asked.

"Because I know what it's like to have a mom who's not like her," Sabine said, "a mom who's not proud of you. A mom who doesn't compliment the sketches you draw in the margins of your notes. A mom whose biggest dream is for you to drop out of your art major so you can join the family business instead."

"I, I'm sorry," Ezra said.

"I don't need your sympathies either," Sabine said.

"You're getting them anyways," Ezra said, "do you want to talk at all?" "What's there to say?" Sabine said, "that family business always came before family? That even my own brother thought it was more fun to game with his friends than his sister? That my parents wouldn't give a single dime for my tuition, and if it wasn't for my merch money and some massive scholarships I wouldn't even be here?"

Ezra put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, trying to find the words to say. Someone whose whole persona was built on a mask of online secrecy had just shared something so personal with him, and he didn't know what to say.

"Do you wanna come to dinner on Sunday?"

"What?" Sabine asked, apparently shocked out of her despair.

"I always go to my dad's for a family dinner on Sunday afternoon after church. Professor Syndulla does too. We're probably gonna be celebrating the engagement, and then she's gonna beat us in our weekly game of Ticket to Ride. It's incredibly boring, but if you wanna join us anyways…"

"I'll be there," Sabine said with a smile.

And instead of returning to her normal seat, she stayed next to Ezra as they remembered why they were there in the first place and began their game together.

💜.🎮.🧡

Sunday ended up being one of the most enjoyable days Sabine had had in a long time. She ended up tagging along with Ezra that morning when he went to church, so he wouldn't have to drive back to the school to pick her up. It was a new experience for her, but he didn't seem to mind. Afterwards, they went back to Ezra's dad's house— Ezra's house, technically— for a family dinner, along with Professor Syndulla, who was absolutely beaming as she showed off her engagement ring. Another one of Kanan's family friends, whom Ezra referred to as "Uncle Zeb," was there as well, along with the professor's cat, Chopper, who couldn't be trusted to stay at home alone for a whole afternoon without destroying the place. The game of Ticket to Ride that came out after dinner only had enough pieces for four players, but Ezra and Sabine teamed up so everyone could play— and even with their combined mental resources, they were still no match for Professor Syndulla.

As they drove back to school, Sabine reminded herself why Ezra had done this. Not a single person at that dinner was related to each other— and yet, they were family— and Ezra wanted Sabine to be part of it too.

Maybe this "friendship" thing wasn't so bad after all.

💜.🎮.🧡

Spectre_pheonix and spectre_6 had been doing collaborative streams for most of the past month. Her fans really enjoyed his commentary on her skills, often leaving comments about how well her dry wit complimented his whimsical sense of humor, and how well they worked together. Both of them gained more followers because of it, which Ezra thought was almost impossible, because how could there have been people on Twitch who weren't already following her?

"You ever read the comment section?" Ezra asked one day as they were playing Minecraft.

"Not often. Why?"

"Look at these," Ezra said, then read a few of them out loud.

"That last one is true, at least," Sabine said, and it would've been harsh if he hadn't seen the twinkle in her warm brown eyes.

"That last one was my roommate," Ezra said, glaring across the room at Jai, who smiled innocently.

"Oh, but this one isn't," Ezra said, reading off the latest comment:

He smiled at Sabine.

"That's a great question," Ezra said, into the mic so the commenter could hear. "Hey, spectre_pheonix, wanna go out on Friday?"

Sabine looked at him and smiled. "Sounds like a date," she said.

"Great," Ezra said, then turned back to his mic, unable to hold back an enormous grin as he said, "Yes, yes we are."

💜.🎮.🧡

By all accounts, it should've been weird for them to go out on a date instead of just hanging out and playing video games. It should've been weird when Ezra showed up at Sabine's door, wearing a nice button down shirt instead of her merch, holding a bouquet of purple and orange roses instead of his custom gaming controller. It should've been weird as they sat down to eat something nicer than dining hall pizza or a bag of doritos that ended up half-strewn across the dorm room floor as they blasted away at each other in Halo. It should've been weird when Ezra put on a playlist in the car of the cringiest but most endearing love songs she'd ever heard, and even more so when they found themselves singing along, and it should've been weird when Ezra put his arm around her during the movie and she leaned in closer, and it should've been weird when they walked out of the theater and he put his coat over her bare shoulders without her even needing to tell him she was cold. It should've been weird when, instead of ending the evening with, "so, Terraria tomorrow?" it ended with a couple "I had a great time"s and a delicate first kiss.

It should've been weird, but it wasn't. It wasn't weird at all that they had more in common than their love of video games. It wasn't weird at all that conversations with him came naturally and being in his presence felt like breathing. It wasn't weird at all that, as soon as she was alone, Sabine found herself leaning back against her dorm room door and sighing dramatically like the heroine of a cheesy romcom.

It wasn't weird at all. In fact, it was perfect.

#sabezra #the sabezra gamergirl au #sabine wren #ezra bridger #fanfic #sabezra fic #modern au #college au #gamergirl au #kanera #hera syndulla

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ghuleh-recs · 3 months ago

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It was our beloved Bee's (@da-rulah) birthday yesterday! To celebrate I've made us all a mixtape of some of her greatest hits... which ended up being almost everything she's written. Whoops. The only reason I left anything out was to save some for next year! Bee is such a kind, lovely, generous, TALENTED soul and I'm so very lucky to have befriended her. So go forth and read some top tier papa (and Mary!) smut. Leave Bee some comments while you're at it—as a lil' bday gift. ♡

recs under the cut.

Rituale Septem - Terzo (and everyone else) x Reader - 74k

Your faith is shaking; 16 years at the Ministry, and what did you have to show for it? You'd never even heard the Dark One's voice like your Siblings… But what could you do? Well, you could ask the advice of the one person chosen to guide his flock through adversity; Papa Emeritus III. And he has an idea that might work…

Rubenesque - Secondo x Plus Size!Reader - 7.8k

Retirement had its perks. For Secondo, one of those was being able to spend much more time on the things he enjoyed. And there were only two things he truly enjoyed these days; art, and you. Although if you asked him, he’d insist that they were one and the same. So how would he react when he learns that your peers are mocking your sinfully gorgeous body, and you're struggling to love yourself?

A Personal Ritual - Copia x Reader - 2.1k

"With an expert flick of his wrist, it unfolded, a glinting silver blade unsheathing itself from the brilliant red of the marbled handle. When he leaned forward, he stretched his neck with a lean to one side, lining the blade up against his skin and in one quick, clean motion he’d swiped a stripe up to the sharp edge of his jawline. The blade was wiped off on a cloth draped over the sink, then brought to do the same thing again next to the already created strip of clean, smooth skin. You'd never seen him do this before, but you were enraptured – privileged, even… It was you and you alone that had the honour bestowed upon them to watch the man you loved in his most humble and domestic of moments, to see the parts of him that nobody else in the world got to see just because they were usually saved for him, and him alone. While you’d spent many an intimate night in his bed, sharing your bodies and souls in every way a lover can, these were the moments that felt truly intimate."

The Mayor's Daughter - Mary Goore x Reader - 72k (WIP)

Mary knew the entire town hated him; the metalhead with the freaky make up and fake blood dripping down his face. He was the local menace, the town vandal, the cliché trouble maker. He played up to that image, enjoyed the havoc and the chaos, revelled in it. He loved pissing people off. And so, what better revenge to get on his beloved town, than to fuck around with the Mayor's daughter…

In Cold Blood - Terzo x Reader - 19.4k

Solitude had always appealed. Perhaps that’s why you took on this project… The thought of transforming a dilapidated old Victorian farmhouse into a sanctuary of your own, to live in peace and the romanticisms of a gothic home you fell in love with. After the structural integrity of the house is replenished, you fill your days with DIY and decorating, bringing to life a house that had been frozen in time and left to rot for decades. You could enjoy the solitude of the land already, a few miles outside of a town plagued by disappearances and a fear of the dark. But you couldn’t escape the news of more missing people, nor the strange occurrences happening around your new home. Were you imagining things? Or was there indeed a shadow haunting your sanctuary?

Confessional - Cardinal Copia x Reader - 22k

As a sister of sin, it was your duty to confess at least once a month, to have your sins praised by a higher up member of the clergy. But you only ever chose Thursday nights, when you knew he was on duty. And tonight, you were working up the courage to confess your darkest sin - the dreams you had been having…

Learn the Ropes - Secondo x Reader - 2.4k

Secondo likes to be in charge. He likes to be in control. But you'd always wondered what he might do if one day, you decided to flip the script, and take charge for him…

Copia gets Bullied - Copia x Reader - 2.2k

"I know this trope for Cardinal Copia is over done but I would love, love your take on it. I would like a sister of sin who Copia have had a crush on, come and comfort him after witnessing him getting bullied and embarrassed. But the poor Cardinal is an emotional crying wreck that the sister decide the only way to comfort him is by being sexual with him for the first time🙈"

𖤐 you know the drill--bookmark, read, and leave kudos/comments!

Did I forget your favorite? You've got a standing invitation from me to add your own rec and reblog ♡

#happy belated bee-day :)#yes every post i make is a belated bday post don't @ me #there will be more #*side eyes delullu*#fic rec!!#my fic recs #birthday mixtape #reader insert #the band ghost fanfiction #ghost band fanfic #copia x reader #terzo x reader #secondo x reader

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lunarsights · 10 months ago

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𝙉𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙞'𝙨 𝙆𝙖𝙧𝙢𝙖: 𝘼𝙣 𝘼𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙏𝙖𝙠𝙚

since this entire "situation" has occurred i've been curious about nicki's chart and made some observations about pluto aquarius and all the karma she's been building up will be affecting her career and legacy in the long run. i got tired of just having the ideas in my head, so i thought why not make a post?

i could also do a reading on this if people want, but i didn't do one just because the astrological part of this will already be so long. i examine a few planets and objects in nicki's chart and in four people who she has "beef" with, and my observations are as follows...

𝐀𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒 𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆

being an aquarius rising means nicki is seen as very innovative and original. i wouldn’t be surprised if people from her childhood said things like, “it was always expected she would be famous for something. she always stood out”. she might have even been a trendsetter in the areas she frequented, and that idea of being someone who brings something new to certain areas can also be seen in her career. her ascendant is at a taurus degree, so she could also be seen as someone who has money and material things that no one else can get their hands on. her rising is making positive aspects to her sun and fortuna, so this amplifies her uniqueness in her overall personality and also explains her virality when it comes to her fame.

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𝟏𝟎𝐇 𝐒𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐏𝐈𝐎

nicki has her saturn, asteroid fan, medium coeli (MC), and jupiter in scorpio in her tenth house. she has other planets and asteroids too, but they aren’t important for what i’m looking at. her saturn is at 0° which means it is the pure embodiment and energy of the sign it is in. saturn is the most important planet in this astrological interpretation because it deals with responsibility, structure, and karma. with that, scorpio saturn is actually a very powerful, intense placement. it gives the energy of forcing its natives to deal with their responsibilities head on or else they can expect extreme, emotionally painful transformations and repercussions. as for karma, it ensures those who cross them can expect swift and mysterious consequences that have long lasting impact, but these types of consequences can also turn around on the native if they don’t learn from their mistakes or do wrong to others. with her saturn in the tenth house, when nicki does wrong to others it directly impacts her public reputation and career.

her asteroid fan is at 19° which is a libra degree. this explains the obsessiveness of her fan base because of the scorpio elements. barbz are overly protective of her and could feel an unexplainable connection to her and her achievements. in a sense, they could see what she succeeds in doing as representative of them; they could have thoughts like “those are our accomplishments too; we helped her get those”. these ideas are not in a “she owes us” way though; barbz could see themselves as extensions of nicki in a way. this asteroid is conjunct nicki’s MC, so it also explains why a large part of her image and public perception is tied to her fandom.

nicki’s MC is at 22° which is the “kill or be killed” degree which is associated with capricorn. i always talk about how this degree can entail great success and attention for someone, but it can also be their greatest downfall if they aren’t careful. i always think of this degree indicating a possible fall from grace which seems to be the energy nicki is in right now. the 22° will always bring about destruction in some way. when nicki was first starting out her reputation involved destroying the older state of the female rap game and creating something new that was more popularized with the general public; now, her reputation is being destroyed because of the reckless ways in which she’s been acting. with her MC conjunct fan, her own fans can also bring about her destruction because of their feverishness.

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𝟏𝟏𝐇 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒

nicki’s uranus is in her eleventh house in sagittarius at 5°. i found this interesting because 5° is usually considered to be a short-term fame indicator in comparison to other leo degrees like the 17° or the 29°. nicki’s career has existed for ten long years - especially when taking into account how fast paced the music industry is alone (let alone if you’re a woman in the industry). her time of fame seems to go against this idea of short term fame, but i’d argue it indicates her legacy not being long term which i feel we can already kind of see. nicki was a majorly respected figure for a very long time before the prospect of a viable new female rapper came into play via cardi b. when that happened, the switch from people being fans of nicki to fans of cardi or even haters of nicki became very clear. not only is there a generation of people who do not know the strength of nicki at the highest point of her career, but she is creating a divisive public image which puts her legacy at stake with even those that grew up with her. overall, i feel this makes her public reach in the long run volatile and unsustainable.

nicki also has asteroid icarus in this house and sign at 11°. asteroid icarus is another indicator of where someone can cause their own downfall if they aren’t careful. with this, nicki could cause her own future to crumble because of the eleventh house influence. she could lose influence over a generation of people and/or over her own friend and work group. the eleventh degree is directly connected to massive wealth, so that could be an indicator her downfall could come with a lot of financial restraint; going from having tons of money to struggling to maintain a lifestyle one has gotten used to.

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𝟐𝟖° 𝟏𝟐𝐇 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐒

i originally wasn’t going to talk about this placement because i didn’t think it was all that important to what i was going to look at, but by the end you’ll be able to see how it is. mars represents one’s drive, desire, and strength. with a capricorn mars, nicki is very headstrong and structured in her drive and strength. she could be the type of person to plan her actions and goals. she could be very hardworking and undeterred by outside noise. she could be driven by the idea of tradition and her work ethic could be heavily reliant on her emotions and her emotional state - this is even more so true with this placement being the twelfth house.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐒

𝑳𝒊𝒍 𝑲𝒊𝒎

𝟗° 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍

lil’ kim’s birth time is unconfirmed, but according to astrotheme, her saturn is at 9° in cancer. this means kim’s cancer works undercover and makes not only kim but also those who cross her end up doing some introspection on themselves and makes them reconcile with how they see themselves as a person. those who cross kim could also end up having a fragile emotional state, and their home life could be tumultuous afterwards. additionally, this saturn can be deceiving; one could think they’ve gotten over the worst of their karma, but saturn will come back and be like “actually, i was just planning more on the down low. I decide when i’m done”.

lil’ kim’s saturn is in nicki’s sixth house, so it would directly impact her work habits, health, and ideas of self-improvement. so, nicki crossing kim could result in nicki eventually thinking long and hard about who she is as a person and what she’s done to people as her life has gone on. i would even venture to say at its worst it could present nicki with inexplicable health issues that take a while to discover. this placement could also result in nicki having unstable emotional health and regulation; it could also indicate making nicki’s home life tumultuous enough that it becomes incompatible with her work habits.

𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒚 𝑴𝒂

𝟐𝟎° 𝐕𝐈𝐑𝐆𝐎 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍

remy ma’s birth time is also unconfirmed, but astrotheme says she has a 20° virgo saturn. virgo saturn could impact one’s habits, the way they spend and get money, and the help they receive. so, if saturn were to teach remy ma lessons when she needs them, she could want to be more controlling over her work and life situation than she would otherwise usually be. she could end up working or spending too much, and could find that she’s burned a lot of bridges which makes it harder for her to rely on others for necessary help. the 20° also indicates jealousy, so those who are jealous of her could get the upper hand if karma was to come her way.

remy ma’s saturn is in nicki’s eighth house and conjuncts her vertex, so all the karma that a virgo saturn carries could be enacted onto nicki because of her beef with remy ma. the eighth house deals with finances, and merging assets (so like what one could receive as an inheritance or what one could gain from their spouse). this makes me think the karma nicki receives from remy ma’s saturn could be directly tied to her financial status. she could find herself jealous of others’ resources; she might even be spending beyond her means. she could be working very hard for very little return. additionally, this karma would impact how much help nicki gets from other people in the industry. by now, it’s very obvious she does not seem to have the hold on people she used to have, so we can see these consequences manifesting very easily now, but the eighth house does move sneakily, so this could’ve been a long time coming and more could be uncovered on her financial state and on how many bridges exactly she’s burned and how.

𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒊 𝑩

𝟏𝟏𝐇 𝟏𝟏° 𝐀𝐐𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍

cardi b appears to have an aquarius saturn at 11° in the eleventh degree. if cardi were to cross someone, she could struggle with her community and those around her. she could lose her status in her friend group, and with the 11° she could lose money as a result of her friend group.

this placement is in nicki’s first house which started my initial observation when i looked into this situation. cardi b is the only person from the four people i’ve chosen to look at whose saturn is in one of nicki’s public houses which explains why nicki’s public image was most affected when she disrespected cardi. nicki did in fact struggle with the community at large when she crossed cardi; the public perception of her faltered, and people felt she was not friendly with new women artists because she was scared they would overtake her unique lane in the industry. i wouldn't be surprised if nicki lost out on a lot of money as a result of the whole fiasco with cardi.

𝑴𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏

𝟏𝟏𝐇 𝟏𝟐° 𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍

megan thee stallion has her pisces saturn at 12° in her eleventh house. megan’s karma could have long-lasting effects on her - in general and spiritually. she could feel disconnected from her friend group and focus more on introspection and her own spirituality. her saturn could lead her to be more daydreamy and ignore certain warning signs about others that she might’ve otherwise paid attention to. the karma she encounters could lead to some kind of spiritual rebirth or insight once she’s learned her lessons.

this placement is in nicki’s second house which means with nicki crossing megan, her money will be directly affected. i feel this is another indicator of nicki having money problems as a result of all the people she’s crossed and been disrespectful to. megan’s saturn has double piscean energy because of the degree it’s at - this magnifies the intensity of the karma nicki will receive. like i said earlier, three out of four people’s charts i looked at indicated their saturn working undercover, but i would say megan’s saturn will be most impactful because of the sign and degree. it will also cause a lot of people on the outside to be confused about why all the karma is coming so suddenly and why it sticks as opposed to the way other people’s saturn does. megan’s saturn will be most personally destructive to nicki out of the people i’ve looked at in my opinion.

⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡

𝟏𝟐° 𝟖𝐇 𝐒𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐔𝐒 𝐉𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑

megan’s sagittarius jupiter is in her eighth house at 12°. megan could be someone who is very open when it comes to understanding and bonding with other people. this could also entail her luck being out of this world and working in mysterious ways or as a result of having some sort of strong spiritual team behind her. she could have luck when it comes to whom she marries and decides to merge finances with if she decides to do that. it could also entail her being very lucky spiritually.

this placement is in nicki’s eleventh house, and it conjuncts her icarus and sun. with this conjunction, nicki’s downfall (that’s caused by herself) could benefit megan a lot. this gives, the “bitch, i still win” energy megan talks about a lot. it could also reflect back on nicki in that any time megan is gaining a ton, people’s attention to nicki could fade. this loss of attention and resources/luck could cause nicki to get frustrated since the light of her sun is being overtaken by the expansiveness of megan’s jupiter.

⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡⋆. ⋆ ˚｡⋆🎀༘⋆ ˚｡

𝟐𝟗° 𝟗𝐇 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍 𝐌𝐂

megan’s capricorn MC is in her ninth house at 29°. capricorn MC at a fame degree makes me think fame was always in the cards for megan. the 29° is also a long-term fame degree in comparison to the 5° nicki has with her uranus. The 29° also indicates clairvoyance which makes sense when looking at megan’s come up. if i remember correctly, megan really spoke her fame into existence and other people could tell she was going to blow up when she was in high school. this could also be an indicator megan always knows where she’ll be going in her career; she’ll always have a plan of success or a way to be sure she’s set for the rest of her life.

this placement is conjunct nicki’s mars in her twelfth house, so megan’s fame and public reputation could impact nicki’s drive and ambition. when both megan and nicki are focused on their craft, they gain success, but nicki seeing megan gain so much success over her could impact her work habits and routine (along with all the karma she’s building up from others over the years). this could create a situation like megan says where “every time i get mentioned, one of y’all bitch-ass niggas get twenty-four hours of attention”; nicki could get so caught up in seeing megan rise that her work falls to the wayside in terms of its structure which can be seen as she’s been yappin’ for like three days now just to release a “response diss” that isn’t very good.

𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

in short, nicki has built up a lot of karma over the years, and the reason why it's worse is because most of the karma built up is hidden or works behind the scenes until it decides it wants to go public. even then, a lot of the saturn energy is powerful and intense which will cause her to go through many transformations.

the karma she's been building up has been and will continue to affect her public image, but it especially affects her finances in ways that won't be understood by the public until late.

if you needed a reminder that what's done to you will always come back to haunt to you can look to nicki's rise and fall to serve as a warning.

#astroblr #celebrity astrology #nicki minaj #nicki minaj astrology #megan thee stallion #megan thee stallion astrology #remy ma #remy ma astrology #cardi b #cardi b astrology #lil kim #lil kim astrology #astrology #lunarsights #SoundCloud #Spotify

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jupiterswasphouse · 4 months ago

Text

WASP REVIEW - THE HIVE (and more) (HOLLOW KNIGHT)

[Image ID: The official artwork for the Hiveling, Hive Soldier, and Hive Knight, followed by a second image for the Hive Guardian, from Hollow Knight /End ID.]

Now this is one of my favorite bug games! I'm sure almost all of you are familiar with it, being the lore-heavy indie hit and highly prevalent, much deserved bugblr fan art fodder that Hollow Knight was. This is a very good one, and takes inspiration from many different species of terrestrial arthropods as well as other invertebrates and fungi. However, many of them are much, much different from their real world counterparts, in part due to their design style as well as the infection which has taken hold in Hallownest, which certainly calls into question how The Hive and its honey bee inhabitants fare.

First, as always, let's take a look at them visually! All the bees that you fight generally seem to share many of the same features. Black and yellow stripes, a generally darker upper half, and fuzzy bodies, as found in real honey bees (although you tend to be able to see more of the exoskeleton through the setae of a real bee), but they also are all missing the middle pair of legs (Which I've noticed is shockingly common in fictionalized depictions of bugs). Most of them also have somewhat accurate antennae that bend forward with an 'elbow' (the pedicel, which sits between the flagellum and scape, allowing greater movement control of the antennae) in the middle, the antennae not present in the Hiveling, and a pair of wings, as opposed to a real bee, which has two pairs, the wings not present in Hive Knight. Another thing I find notable about these guys is, they all have a fairly round body, fatter than the average honey bee, with no discernable waist nor separating point between the head and mesosoma.

[Image Sources: Jupiter's Wasp House, ie Myself, and Wikimedia Commons, Tanner Smida | Image IDs: Two photos of different, black and yellow honey bees, one on a light-skinned human hand and the other on a wooden surface /End IDs.]

Another two things that these bees lack, which real bees have, are ocelli (the three simple eyes on top of their heads), and a pair of mandibles (and seemingly other typical mouthparts). It is, at the very least, shown that the Hive Soldiers and Hive Knight do have mouths, although they're more like mammalian mouths but with a sort of sharp, angular outer edge. Also, strangely, the Hive Knight is also shown to be capable of spitting out Hivelings, which raises a few questions.

[Image IDs: Two in-game screenshots that show both the Hive Soldier and Hive Knight opening their mouths, the Hive Knight spitting out Hivelings rapidly /End IDs.]

The Hive Soldier specifically also has one big difference, as its metasoma splits apart into seven stingers. One in the middle, and six that spread out radially, seemingly partially retractable into the mesosoma. Whether or not the others have stingers is entirely unclear, as the Hivelings and Hive Guardians attack with their bodies, and Hive Knight (Already predisposed to lacking a stinger, being a male honey bee) attacks using some form of blade or lance.

[Image ID: An attack sprite of the Hive Soldier /End IDs.]

There is one more bee in this kingdom, which you have already seen in a previous screenshot, that being the Hive Queen, Vespa. She looks very different from the rest of the bees, having a more realistically (although far from perfect) segmented body, which sort of resembles that of a paper wasp's body moreso than that of a honey bee queen, although she maintains the fuzz, specifically around her neck in a way that is reminiscent of a fur coat or a rabbit's dewlap. She also has a teardrop-shaped head, an extra pair of (presumably compound, although they could be simple) eyes, and a notable lack of wings.

[Image Source: Wikimedia Commons, Scott Bauer, USDA Agricultural Research Service | Image ID: The artwork of Hive Queen Vespa as viewed as a spirit, followed by a honey bee queen, artificially marked with pink paint, surrounded by other honey bees /End IDs.]

When she appears as a spirit, she's not too much taller than the Hive Knight, however, her carcass lays just in the background of the room in which you fight her dear protector, who does not yet seem to realize she's gone. In this form, her final physical self, she had grown too large to leave the hive, easily 5 times her original size or more. Again, honey bees do not get this big in real life, but it is true that queens are generally larger than their "subjects" by way of their longer abdomen.

[Image Source: Carolina Honeybees | Image IDs: An in-game screenshot of Hive Queen Vespa in the background of the room in which you fight the Hive Knight, followed by an illustration that shows the difference between a drone, queen, and worker honey bee /End IDs.]

Now, I've posted about this before, so I won't go on about it for too long, but I do have to call into question, out of curiosity, the naming of Vespa, given her name is not one that is entomologically associated with honey bees, but instead, their distantly eusocial relatives of the family Vespidae, genus Vespa, the hornets. Something tells me I have an idea as to why she was named this way, but we'll get to that later! It certainly doesn't make the species discrepancy any less confusing.

Finally, there is one more resident of The Hive, although this one is not a bee, but instead, a Hive-specific variation of an enemy that reoccurs all throughout the game. The Husk Hive shambles through the halls of The Hive, surrounded by and/or fused with a structure that is, itself, a miniature hive. The Hunter's Journal describes this enemy as follows: "Cowardly husk, its body colonised by hivelings | Did the hivelings build their nest around this sorry bug, or did the bug squeeze its body into their nest? Either way, they seem happy enough together."

The relationship between the Husk Hive and the Hivelings seems less parasitic and more symbiotic, as the Hivelings protect the Husk Hive and the Husk Hive flees from danger, attempting to remove the Hiveling's living space from locations which may prove to be dangerous.

[Image ID: The artwork of the Husk Hive /End IDs.]

With all the residents of The Hive out of the way, let's discuss The Hive itself.

Now, of course, being part of Hallownest, The Hive resembles something that's less like an actual hive and more like a human community, or, perhaps more accurately, a town or village built of one continuous building, containing mostly wide open areas, but also including areas of rest, with tables and chairs, and a locale or two that resemble the shelved rooms of a library.

[Image ID: An in-game screenshot of an area of The Hive which contains a table, chairs, lights, and shelves that contain tablets /End IDs.]

One thing you'll notice, passing through, however, is that the hexagonal structure that makes up The Hive, outside of the shelves pictured above, doesn't seem to resemble the cells of the prototypical honey bee hive. Not only are they elongated in a way that resembles the Rupees of The Legend Of Zelda series, they appear filled in and crystalline. Some of this unusual material glows, which appears to be what the lights of The Hive are filled with, as opposed to the lumaflies used in other areas of Hallownest.

It's possible that a lot of this is built of crystalized honey, as it is shown that the honey of The Hive can become very hard, very quickly. This is perhaps showcased best in the room, in which you find a bench encased inside of a large, already cracked glob of honey, hanging from the ceiling, which The Knight has to smash open as if it were made of glass. Several other objects in The Hive act the same way.

[Image ID: An in-game screenshot of the bench room of The Hive, in which the bench hangs up /End IDs.]

One thing that's completely unclear, is how brood spawning occurs in The Hive, with seemingly no cells that contain eggs or larvae. Furthermore, it's unclear how long it has been since the queen died, so depending on the time past, it may be implied that it's not just Vespa who held sole responsibility over populating the hive.

Perhaps, as is the case with a few Hollow Knight characters species as they mature in this universe, they don't follow the same lifecycle as a real honey bee, emerging as something close to their final form and molting into later stages should the hive need Soldiers, Guardians, or Knights. It can also be inferred that, maybe, the cells in which the young live in their initial stages are themselves living creatures, such as the Husk Hives and the Hive Knight.

Finally, I find it interesting that The Hive is walled off the way it is, in a similar way to how the nest of a colony of hornets would be, as opposed to the open, tree-hanging slab nests of real world honey bees, seemingly with multiple entrances apart from the ones entered in the game, and also partially subterranean, as evidenced by one of the lower entrances of The Hive.

[Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, Michael Apel, and wildalongtheway | Image IDs: A photo of an empty paper European hornet, Vespa crabro, nest on the inner part of a human-built structure of some sort, another photo of an empty honey bee hive hanging from a tree branch, and two in-game screenshots showing the upper and lower entrances of The Hive /End IDs.]

With all that said, it's safe to say that Team Cherry really respects their bees, but doesn't mind making them too inaccurate in the name of cool lore! It also provides a lot to think about. I know I've gone on a bit long, though, so I'll get to the point and give these g-

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER! - MANTIS YOUTH

[Image ID: The artwork for the Mantis Youth /End IDs.]

Ok, this one's outside The Hive, and by its name, not even a wasp, but I wanted to give these guys a quick mention. I always found these guys confusing, but it wasn't until it was brought up in conversation by Rev that I truly thought to question what they had going on.

For one, Mantis Youth? Mantises rarely fly in the first place, but their young don't even have wings in the real world. On top of that, they have a stinger, being literally described in the Hunter's Journal as delivering "stinging attacks", a stinger being a modified reproductive organ only found in wasps (if you haven't gotten the memo by the rest of this post, bees and ants are included in that). Plus, they don't have the same almost scythe-shaped forelimbs as the adult mantises, as well as all stages of real mantises, do.

If anything, minus the specialized forelimbs, with that sort of neck, they moreso resemble Neuropteran mantidflies. But otherwise, I'd say they're the closest thing to non-bee wasps we have in Hollow Knight!

[Image Source: Michigan Nature Guy | Image ID: A photo of a wasp mantidfly, Climaciella brunnea, on a green leaf /End ID.]

My only guess for why this happened, considering the mantises are unaffected by the infection, would be interspecies mating, but the mantises are, in lore, known to detest outsiders, as evidenced by the fact they completely disapproved of the love between the Traitor Lord's daughter and the Grey Mourner for the very reason of the Grey Mourner being an outsider.

But maybe this happened a long, long time ago, before they became their own long-standing and wholely independent tribe. I mean, having interspecies children with varied features isn't unheard of in Hallownest, the Pale King and Herrah The Beast had a child together, that being-

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER! (... AGAIN) - HORNET

[Image ID: The artwork for Hornet /End ID.]

Yeah, remember when I said earlier that the whole weird naming thing would come up again? This is it. The sibling of all the vessels, the half-Wyrm half-Spider, the gendered child (The White Lady's words, not mine), and the probably-still-canon-but-it's-unclear trainee of Vespa after she was thrown by the wayside by the Pale King in his neverending quest to win a Worst Father Ever Award.

Now does this explain why Vespa is called that? Honestly, not really? It's still confusing as to why they decided to name the bee hive queen after a very distant relative and our dear hopefully eventual Silksong protagonist after an insect genus that isn't on either side of her family. But one, certainly, at least, explains the other, as stated by a Team Cherry member here, Hornet and Vespa share a related name on purpose! So one of the two was named first, and they gave a related name to the other.

Now that THAT'S out of the way, though, it's safe to say I can't give either Hornet or Mantis Youth a proper rating due to the fact neither are true wasps, but I can absolutely give a rating to those this review was about in the first place, the bees of The Hive!

... Also please let there be actual non-bee wasps in Silksong.

Overall: 5.5/10

Leave your wasp review suggestion in the replies, tags, or askbox!

Next week's wasp has not been chosen yet!

#Wasp House Review #WHR: Wasp Review #Bugblr #Wasps #hollow knight #hive queen vespa #hive knight

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austinslounge · 1 month ago

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I've been wrong about everything else, so I probably am wrong about my theory but here we go:

So I believe Austin broke up with her in late August. Right after the Canada trip. I think he was trying to make it through the summer and my guess was he didn't want to ruin a trip that was already planned.

But him missing her birthday wasn't that weird. For me it was all her family and friends rallying around her that seemed kinda sus. Like they were trying to make her feel better. Not to say her family wouldn't be there for her birthday but something seemed off. Like she was upset. She could've easily spent her birthday in NY with Austin if that's what she wanted. He wasn't filming yet and it's not like she isn't rich. But that ties into my suspicions that he broke up with her. So it wasn't an option.

Something was off with her at TIFF. I don't know if it was nerves or she was on something. But her need to hang onto Corey was weird. Deumoxi was at the afterparty and said Kaia was being protected that night. Like she was upset and her friends were rallying around her. Again, something that often happens when a break up occurs.

Then out of the blue comes these two L&S articles. Speculating about them having problems and Austin essentially wanting to end things. He's outgrown the relationship. Very similar to the article his team had put out there in May about them not having anything in common.

They hadn't been seen together in over a month. Kaia was in NY a few times but wasn't with Austin at any point. She was with Marcello. She was all over him. Two different occasions, she was with Marcello. She was acting like a single woman.

Then more articles come out speculating their relationship status. I'm sorry where there is smoke there is fire.

Austin had been busy working. Minding his business. Then he was needed for a pap walk to keep the break up rumors at bay. I think he'd be fine with the news coming out. but at the same time he's filming, so he doesn't need the stress of the break up coming out. Kaia did a lot of damage to her image and how people viewed her relationship with Austin the last few weeks.

Also the fact that nothing has changed in their demeanor either. If they had shown up together after a month and break up rumors soaring, looking happy and in love maybe people would buy it. But Austin is so done. He's just doing what he has to do to break away.

Just from what I've seen in past celebrity break ups. Often they've split before speculation even begins. But will go along with whatever plan their PR teams put in place. Austin and Kaia wouldn't be the first couple to be broken up and still have to act like they are together to keep up appearances.

Just a theory. Again where there is smoke there is fire. Saturday was way too much of a coincidence.

You know what girl? This is a good theory. You're not the only one who's had this theory. It does kind of make sense.

Also, the weight loss thing is very important to note as well. I don't think it's from the stress with Presley either, because he looks fine now, and I've heard that he's even been going to rehab.

We first noticed that Kaia was losing weight around July. It's now October, and she still looks frail. It's the thinnest she's ever been since dating Austin.

Idk about others, but I lost a ton of weight when going through a major relationship heartache and heartbreak.

Not to mention, they still look miserable with each other.

These things by themselves might not say much, but when you put all of these little things together, they do seem to paint a certain picture.

The fact that their teams haven't really said anything is very interesting.

Also, like you said, most celebrities have already broken up long before the official announcement comes out.

Many times, people can even just look at a couple and tell when it's on its last legs. I agree with you, where there's smoke, there's fire.

I'm just going to eat my popcorn like the rest of you all, and will see what happens btwn now and the end of this year.

All I know is, I don't think I can take another Gerber Family Holiday Trip in Cabo at the end of this year again. 😩

#asks #austin butler #Kaustin

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genericpuff · 1 year ago

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Can’t wait for someone to make a copy of RS’s coveted “signature” stamp and just buy a few dozen books, stamp them, and sell them as “autographed” at a huge markup, and goofballs will buy them all.

I mean seriously, that stamp will be incredibly easy to copy if it’s not already been copied, it’s the polar opposite of exclusive or personal. Why anyone would pay $20 for that is beyond me but it proves that RS is a shrewd business person by any means necessary and will be richer than I ever will be. No wonder Hades is her idol.

No joke, there are pictures of Rachel using the stamp at SDCC and-

That stamp is literally just a standard one that you could order through any custom manufacturer. It's not a roller in any way, there's no unique cut they're working off of, it's just a round press stamp.

And it shows because this is the quality of the actual ink when it's on the paper-

Basically low grade printer ink on glossy paper. It's not gonna last at all, and it turned out exactly how I was expecting - there's too much solid color with too thin empty areas so the ink is bleeding into what's supposed to be 'white' (we deal with the same concepts in tattooing so I knew this was gonna happen as soon as I saw the stamp design).

Anyways so that's my long-winded way of saying that I took the stamp that was on Rachel's IG from her promotional posts, desaturated it, added a tone curve layer to adjust the sharpness/clarity, and threw it into VistaPrint. Just for science, and because I'm an asshole trying to prove a point.

Would literally only cost me $20-$30 for the stamp after shipping.

Now for obvious reasons I'm not saying anyone SHOULD do this, like... I'm showing you this for science but really, don't go making counterfeits because of this LOL This is really just to demonstrate how easy it would be for anyone to make a convincing replica, which is the unfortunate drawback to using stamps as your "signature" - and with a very low quality printer shop stamp to boot - because it makes it pretty easy to copy. Not to mention showing off the stamp design beforehand through social media means that people (like me, oop-) can rip it out of your image posts and reverse engineer it into something that can be uploaded and purchased. I get she wanted to make sure that people knew what they were getting, it would have been a HUGE piss off to go see her for a signature just to find out she was doing a stamp, but like... these are the risks that come with stamps.

Don't get me wrong, you can just as easily forge a signature, but it's a little harder to nail someone's personal signature vs. a stamp and you can usually find ways to make it more unique (like what Junji Ito did by giving out little doodles on each signature). It also doesn't help that that stamp is made so cheaply that a poorly done replica would probably be on the same level of quality as the authentic one. And of course she added insult to injury by deciding to sell ACTUAL HAND-SIGNED BOOKS WITH ONLY ONE BOOK THAT HAS ONE CRAPPY DOODLE INSIDE AT ONLY ONE SPECIFIC BOOKSTORE A WEEK AFTER SDCC WAS OVER THAT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR EVEN IF IT MEANS YOU'RE GONNA HAVE AN EXTRA COPY OF A BOOK YOU ALREADY OWN-

sigh This isn't an uncommon thing to do, it's not unique to Rachel, but it gives me grifting gacha vibes and it feels like such a fuck you to the people who travelled all the way out to SDCC and paid for the ticket prices just to get a shitty printer ink stamp and then find out a week later after they've undoubtedly gone home that one bookstore in San Diego actually has hand-signed copies. I've seen Youtubers pull this kind of shit with vinyl printings and Youtooz figures and it's equally tacky.

If she had done it either with handwritten signatures or at the VERY least a better quality stamp design and higher quality ink, then yeah, it would be harder to make it seem legit for anyone who's not privy to creating things like lino cuts or using roller ink and thus make it a much more valuable collector's item. But the books at SDCC were literally made with a stamp that anyone can replicate for $20 and then the hand-signed ones were offered at only one bookstore after Rachel had already flown home. It feels so impersonal and cold to the audience that has supported her through all the bullshit she's pulled in the last year.

#anyways does anyone want my totally real signed copy of volume 1 #$100 or best offer #for legal reasons this is a joke #insert sarcasm here #lore olympus critical #lo critical #antiloreolympus #anti lore olympus #ama #ask me anything #anon ask me anything #anon ama

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dreadsuitsamus · 7 months ago

Text

U Got It Bad | Kensei Muguruma x Reader |

author's note: i'm testing the waters here. this is a modified version of one of my personal selfship writings i've done, and i've changed it up into a reader insert rather than the kensei x ellie story it originally was. i am very tentative about this lol but i figured i should at least try it. this is an au, and if you have any questions feel free to ask! it's based heavily on my own imaginings, obviously, and there are many details not mentioned as this is part of a series of events i've already written. it's inspired by the song u got it bad by usher, as that is mine and kensei's song

pairing: kensei x fem!reader

warnings: au, first date, mentions of sexy selfies but that's as nsfw as it gets, fluff

When Kensei wakes up on an early Saturday morning, he begins his normal routine of breakfast and prepping his protein shake. And as he sits down to eat, he checks his text messages and snorts softly as there's a new one you sent to him just a few hours ago. That alone is the difference between you both, he thinks. He's up early at five a.m., and you were up late at three a.m.

He likes you, he truly does! How could he not? You're mischievous and witty, not to mention quite cute, an extreme flirt, and sexy too! He hasn't seen you since that night at the bar when you ‘met’, but he turned on just a bit of his charm to get a picture of you to ‘refresh his memory' the day after he got that napkin with your name and number scribbled onto it.

Now, did he use it with intentions of maybe getting a sexy picture? Yes, yes he did.

He's not exactly proud of it, but he did get what he wanted! Your mirror selfie of you in a tiny robe had Kensei's mouth practically watering at the image of your gorgeous legs, and the cleavage naturally drew his eye as well! Your friends chided you when you showed them the picture that you'd sent him, but with the encouraging words of a particularly wonderful friend, there was no room for any shame in your heart. Plus, Kensei’s opinion and returned selfie certainly boosted that confidence. He was at the gym at the time and took a perfect picture just as he finished his shower! Towel around his waist and no shirt to be found, with that silver hair all mussed and that wet body—

Though that's when you admitted to him that you are, in fact, a virgin, and God if that didn't shake Kensei to his core. Beyond the how the hell has nobody ever fucked you senseless part of it, it's a stark realization of the maturity difference between you. You may only be four years apart in age, but when you were fourteen, Kensei was eighteen! He was in the military for a year at that point! It makes him feel weird.

Twenty-one and twenty-five is different than that, though the playing field between you still isn't exactly even. He's a grown man with the PTSD to show for his military tenure, and he's in college with a full time job under his belt. You're a young college girl who still has her bright eyes!

Gorgeous, glittery eyes that is…

Kensei shakes his head and opens up the text, snorting at the contents.

stop being stubborn and give me your saturday night!!!!! 😤

He can't fight the smile that pulls his lips. You've been talking for about a month now and have been prodding him to take you on a date for weeks. Kensei's been on dates, but he's never really been on one he liked or ultimately wanted to be on. To say he's had girlfriends in the past isn't a complete overstatement of the relationship status, but they were ultimately never anybody he'd consider taking home to his mother.

He thinks it's cute how badly you want to go out with him though. And he's run through all of his go-to excuses by now, and if he wanted to he could probably find another… But he doesn't find himself wanting to do all that. It's been a while since he's had some fun and his classes and job keep him busy and stressed, so why not take a pretty girl on a date? It'll certainly only be the one date, that's for sure. You're far too precious for his usual tricks, and he's not sure he should be the one to take your virginity. You should save yourself for someone special, like you said you wanted to when he asked why you hadn't taken that step yet.

Send me your address and I'll pick you up at eight o’clock tonight.

Kensei laughs out loud when you text him back within a handful of seconds, quickly typing another message out. Get some rest. You want my Saturday night, you're getting the whole night.

fiiiiiiine. but tell me this first— what color dress should i wear?

Ken hums thoughtfully. That black dress you wore at the bar was so sexy... But he'd really love to see you in something red.

And the thrill that runs through him when he picks you up and lays eyes on you has him lit up from head to toe. Not even his wildest dreams could have prepared him for just how good you look for him. Red dress, as requested, matching stilettos, and a fresh gel pedicure with shiny red nails, gold jewelry and shiny lips that just scream vanilla cupcake lip gloss…

You have so much fun together that the night’s come to a close before you've even realized it. You had dinner, took a walk, bar hopped… And Kensei can't keep himself from willing the clock to slow down, just a bit. This is your one date he agreed to… But as he watches you sing Mr. Brightside with a vodka cranberry in one hand and a chicken tender in the other, he just can't stop thinking about more.

More time together. More dates. More… Everything.

Two a.m. rolls around and the last bar you stopped in closes, and Kensei takes you back home then. The ride to your apartment building, which isn't too far away from his own, is the quietest it's been between you the whole night. You've sobered up quite a bit, thanks to Kensei ordering regular cranberry juice for the last three drinks you asked for. Humming along to the music on the radio, soon Kensei’s parking the car and coming around to the passenger side. He's slow, savoring the final moments of the best date he's ever been on. Casually yet boldly slipping his hand in yours as you walk inside and to the elevator, you carefully rest your head on his arm as you head up to your floor.

Glancing up at him and smiling warmly, your eyes sparkle. “Thank you for tonight, Kensei. I had so much fun.”

God, he's melting. “Me too.”

“I told you you would! We could've done this weeks ago!” You laugh, and Kensei just shakes his head. It wouldn't have been this perfect any other time but now, he thinks.

You gradually approach the door to your apartment, and you stop before him and squeeze his hands. “Goodnight. Get home safe, okay? You better text me!”

“I will, I will.” Kensei murmurs. How the hell does he cut this one off? Can he?

Your hand gently slips to the back of his neck as you get on your tiptoes to place a sweet kiss on his cheek, your red lipstick leaving behind a perfect stain, the gloss on top making it shiny and even more obvious. Swiping your thumb over his jaw, you go to turn towards the door to unlock it. Kensei cups your face, though, with one of those large palms, pressing a soft kiss to your temple first. And next thing he knows, he's in the car that smells like your perfume and is on his way home.

The first song to play as he leaves the parking lot feels like a bullet to his chest, and he finds himself looking in his rearview a little too often, just to see that gorgeous proof of your kiss on his skin.

You got it, you got it bad.

#kensei muguruma x reader #kensei muguruma x you #kensei x reader #kensei x you #bleach imagine #bleach x reader #x reader #reader insert #fic

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arcadiabaytornado · 10 months ago

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idk if you’ve done this before and i missed it, but if you could rewrite the entirety of Before The Storm what would you do? i know it’s a loaded question but i’m curious.

Oh wow, this is a loaded ask. Which is fantastic because those are my favorite kinds! Not to write a book (I say, fully knowing that I am going to write a book), but I would personally:

Change Chloe's Dynamic With David:

A: David and Chloe ending Before The Storm on semi good terms (if you make certain choices) has never made a ton of sense to me considering what we see in Life Is Strange. So I would start Episode 1 with David and Chloe on mostly negative terms, and then end Episode 3 with them on bad terms. I would also have David be already living with them for a few months by the time the game starts. For an example of how I would show their relationship deterioration:

More Undercut (And by more undercut I mean I went all the way to M. This is one of those "I'm having a stage ten autism event," posts.)

B: In Episode 1 I would have them make small talk about the music to show that their dynamic isn't at the point where they fight constantly. However, then Joyce makes David drive Chloe to school, and when he drops her off he tells her not to worry Joyce by sneaking out. Then in Episode 2, Chloe would be called to the office for skipping school with Rachel. In the parking lot, David's controlling side would show and he would be angry that the she "disobeyed his orders". They get into an argument that leads to Chloe storming off. Then in Episode 3 when she (Spoilers for a later section) comes back from her failed escape attempt with Rachel, David is fucking livid that he's told her something twice and she hasn't obeyed. They get into a fight where Chloe says that David isn't her Dad and David responds by grabbing her arm and trying to force her to listen to him. They have a small scuffle, but Chloe gets her arm free and leaves the house.

Change Things About Rachel's Parents:

C: Rachel's Dad being an overprotective DA doesn't line up with what we're told in Life Is Strange about him not looking for her. So, I would personally change Rachel's parents to be people who really care about their image, but not their daughter. They would want Rachel to be seen, but not heard. Which obviously puts them into conflict with Rachel, who is very defiant about that idea.

D: Instead of Rachel seeing James kiss Sera under the tree, Rachel would be set off by a an ugly text from her Father. He'd get onto her after learning that Rachel rebelled by skipping school with Chloe, and Rachel would talk to Chloe about how she didn't realize how bad her family was when she was younger. This conversation is what lead's to the tree being set on fire. (I'd also have the fire be smaller and more contained so it would make more sense why Rachel and Chloe presumably never got in trouble over it.)

Remove The Sera/Damon Plotline:

E: I hate this plotline, so I would remove all of it. I've said before that I would remove the drug plotline entirely, but on further thought I think I'd actually use this plotline to explain more of Chloe and Frank's dynamic and how it got to where Chloe can kill him in Life Is Strange.

F: Chloe would call Frank early in Episode 2 and ask if she could borrow some money from him. She would have the intention of using it to escape from Arcadia before Frank could get it repaid, but Frank says that he won't worry about the repayment if Chloe will steal the money Drew owns him.

G: Instead of staying with Mikey or confronting Damon, Chloe would be caught by Mikey, who would ask what she was doing in Drew's room. At this point, she could lie and steal the money or come clean and return it to him.

H: If you return the money or pocket it for Chloe and Rachel, Frank will be pissed and say the only reason he isn't loosing his shit on Chloe is because Rachel is around and she's a "good kid." (I will not let y'all forget that Rachel was 15 and Frank was 28.) But he'll say he'll be willing to give her another chance with his cash if she's willing to add finical interest to what he loans her. If you give Frank the money then he'll thank Chloe and say that he's open to giving her more cash in the future, but he expects that it'll be paid back to the penny.

Explore Why Rachel And Chloe Never Left Arcadia Bay In Episode 3

I: Since the drug plot's mostly gone, Episode 3 would have a different plot. I would have Chloe and Rachel leave Arcadia Bay at the end of Episode 2 and open Episode 3 with them in some diner in a small town outside of Arcadia. Rachel would be giddy and talk to Chloe about everything they were going to do now that they're out of Arcadia.

J: However, Chloe is struggling being in a diner that isn't the Two Whales. She's worried about leaving Joyce despite their tense relationship since she's already lost one parent. She's also worried about the truck because she's never fixed a car before. She's realistic enough to know that it might not make it all the way to LA. Chloe talks about her fears and Rachel is too desperate to leave to really take in the worries Chloe has. Though reality does get to her a bit when the waiter brings the bill for their big breakfast and they realize how much it costs just to eat.

K: At this point Chloe has realized that this isn't sustainable. At least, not right now. They don't have anywhere to go. They don't have enough cash to last for long. The car they have barely runs. She tells Rachel that they should go back for now, and Rachel spirals a bit. She accuses Chloe of giving up on their dream when it's in their grasp, and Chloe has to backtalk her down. If she wins the backtalk, then Rachel will realize that she's right and solemnly agree to back. If Chloe loses the back talk then Rachel is furious with her, but agrees to return with her simply because she doesn't have the resources to go to LA alone. However, if Chloe loses the backtalk, the Rachel is notably colder to her for the rest of the game.

L: Chloe would drop Rachel off at her house, and then would go back home to face Joyce. This is where the confrontation with David would happen. Chloe would go back to the junkyard afterward, and would call Rachel to ask if they could meet up. Rachel would agree to meet with her once it got dark since she was grounded for leaving.

M: This is the final scene. Chloe would try to make everything up to Rachel by projecting stars on the ceiling on the junkyard hangout. Rachel would be amazed that Chloe made such a sincere effort to cheer her up, and the girls would spend a moment watching the stars before Rachel turned to Chloe. She would ask "Chloe. Do you think we'll ever really get out of Arcadia Bay?" and Chloe can make her final choice in the game...she can tell Rachel either "I don't know" or "I hope so." The choice holds no consequence because their ending has been decided. It won't change no matter what Chloe says in the moment. Yet, fate spins along, and Rachel accepts what Chloe has to say. The game closes with them watching the fake stars together, contemplating their fake future.

So uh...sorry for the entire book, but that's what I would do personally!

#life is strange #lis #before the storm #maxthesillyy

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destiny-smasher · 7 months ago

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JuliNemo Week - Day 4: Rest

The only thing I have to share for this event is an excerpt I've written from an unposted fic featuring Nemona and Scarlet Koito (PokeSpe manga) remixed into SV's game plot. I think it fits the theme well enough... Though my take on this ship is a little complicated... ^_^;;

Enjoy this excerpt/preview from Operation: Comet Punch!

-- (Author's note: the following scene is a flashback directly based on a scene from the book きみと雨上がりを ['After the Rain With You'] by Ayano Takeda, remixed for the purposes of this narrative.) --

The air was chilled by the falling rain, and Nemona's skin was clammy and damp. Her clothes were heavy, stuck to her skin—the added weight was making each step more difficult. Her waning strength was pitiable, and she was already out of breath after only a few minutes of wandering in the rainstorm, desperate to find her crestfallen friend... her crestfallen future Rival, she hoped.

The visage from earlier that afternoon of Scarlet's face when they'd lost to Larry... it was affixed to the back of Nemona's vision. Seeing Scarlet so shaken, so disappointed, so frustrated... That image was even heavier on Nemona than all of this Arcdamn rainfall. It had been the first time Nemona had seen Scarlet actually lose. And they'd been so pumped to get their fifth Gym Badge, too... Nemona, in truth, hadn't lost against any of the Gym Leaders in her rise to the top. She'd cared too much about looking cool to come to any of them unprepared. Maaybe-... Maybe this was her fault? Maybe she'd pushed Scarlet too quickly, made the Gym Challenge too pressing, rushed them to complete it... Nemona knew she could be a little reckless sometimes... Maybe her advice, her eagerness, was instilling a hasty nature in Scarlet?

And now, Scarlet wasn't answering Nemona's calls, wasn't texting back... even though they'd said they would after they'd fought Larry. It made Nemona's stomach sick—a real possibility with how cold she was in this rain. Stupid, stupid... forgetting an umbrella on a trip across Paldea. But Nemona didn't think ahead if it wasn't a Pokemon battle; she only focused on the present. And right that moment, the very pressing, suffocating present was screaming at her like a flustered Noibat: 'Your friend is hurting, your friend is in pain, they need you, they're alone and cold and damp and probably really down on themself!'

So Nemona kept pushing on, despite her pounding heart, despite her aching feet, her burning thighs, her trembling hands, and the steadily crushing weight of the rain against her being... Her Pawmi had rounded a corner, meeting up with her after scanning a few blocks in the time it took her to cover one. She could tell the little guy was getting impatient and a bit confused by her gasping and whimpering in this rainfall. His ears were flopped downward, letting the rain roll off, and the tuft of fur on his head was soaked flat against his skull.

He made a concerned chittering noise as Nemona trudged to him, wiping rain out of her eyebrows. Her ponytail slapped against her back when she rolled to a stop, its water weight stretching at the skin on her scalp.

“Y-...You-... Oh, Arc...” She gasped, needing to take a second to catch her breath. Sniffing and wiping rain off her upper lip, she asked him between huffs, “You... see them... anywhere...?”

Her Pawmi shook his head, flinching when a heavy water drop plopped right onto his head. He shivered, and Nemona sighed. Poor guy had run practically the whole length of the town by now, he'd done his part and then some.

“H-Here...” she croaked, her breath still short as she pulled out Pawmi's pokeball. “Take a break, I'm... I'm sure I'll find her, Bud...” She wiped at her mouth with a groan, uttering out, “Thanks... for looking...”

Pawmi gaped at her with some concern. He could tell this situation was really getting to her. She lamented than she'd spent time brushing and tending to his fur just a half hour prior, only to have that work ruined by this storm. The same could be said for her own hair... But just because something got messed up over and over didn't mean you gave up on ever cleaning it. It was why you had to be vigilant in tending to things.

With Pawmi back safe in his pokeball, Nemona assessed her situation. Maybe... Scarlet had just left? But... they'd agreed to meet up for the fireworks that evening. So they had to still be around, right? They wouldn't just... ditch Nemona, would they? They were becoming best friends so quickly and everything, or so Nemona had thought... For the first time since she'd met Scarlet, Nemona found herself questioning if she was getting ahead of herself, fated to drive yet another potential friend away... It was an eerie and familiar fear that gripped at her heart, but she was eager to cast the doubt aside.

Nemona shook the feeling off for the time being and pressed on, advancing to the last few blocks of the town she presumed were unexplored. After a couple minutes of rain-drenched drudgery, she saw irregular movement out of the corner of her eye, coming from an alleyway. The spindly legs of a familiar Spidops were gesturing at her, sending her childhood born fight-or-flight response off... But she suppressed her instincts, as she often did when bug Pokemon appeared unexpectedly. The Spidops' other two legs were weaving at... some kind of net? Or-...?

Oh! It was Scarlet! Their Spidops was tending to a makeshift 'tarp' between two wall of the alleyway Scarlet was sitting at the edge of – an attempt to protect them from the rain. Scarlet was pitched against the alleyway wall, barely visible from outside due to the setting sun. They looked... asleep? With a book in their lap.

“Leh-... Letty!” Nemona coughed out, using the appointed nickname she'd given her weeks-old friend. She hustled to the alleyway and cautiously scooted herself beneath the cover Spidops was providing, making sure to not let it detect any semblance of fear from her. It seemed to recognize her presence despite her soaked state and welcomed her beneath its webbing, a bit of rainwater trickling off and nearly splashing into her.

“Letty,” Nemona pressed again, her voice a bit lowered as she knelt above her no-doubt disappointed companion. “Hey...”

“Mmrgh...” Scarlet moaned, coming to fairly quick. Their sunken, dull eyes stared up at Nemona like piercing daggers, rusted over by their loss that afternoon. “Nemona? The hell're you doing here...?”

“H-Hah, I could... I could ask you that!” Nemona chuckled nervously, suddenly self aware of her wet clothes stuck to her body, and her soaked bangs clinging to the side of her face. She probably looked extremely un-cool... Good thing Scarlet was the only Academy student around to see her like this.

“Damnit,” Scarlet sighed, closing the book in their lap and pulling their Rotomphone out of their pocket. “Must've conked out,” they grumbled with a “Tch,” shaking their head. “Missed call from you. Sorry 'bout that. Didn't miss the fireworks, though, right? Nah, 'nother half hour... What, uh-...” Now Scarlet was looking confused, having noticed the messy state their new 'Bestie' was in. “Somethin' happen?”

Nemona's brows raised as she blinked dumbly. Scarlet... actually seemed less fazed than Nemona had anticipated. Part of her was actually a little disappointed—she couldn't be a shoulder to cry on if... no one was crying, after all. She realized in that moment how weird it was that she'd been looking forward to being a shoulder to cry on...

“Wh-... I, uh...” Nemona untied her ponytail, and the cascade of dripping jet blackness slid down her shoulders and back. She flicked her head a little, shoving it all behind her shoulders. That was something you were supposed to do in a situation like this, right? All wet, hair down... You showed that off a bit, tried to make it look, like, 'attractive', or whatever, instead of lame. Yeah? That was totally what her Big Sister would've advised she do...

Scarlet didn't seem impressed by the gesture too much, though.

“You look like crap,” they cited flatly, reaching for their pack. “Heh, I feel like it, too,” Nemona eked out, unsure if the remark was teasing or discouraging... Scarlet pulled out a small towel and chucked it over without another word.

“Gosh, thanks,” Nemona cooed, a nervous giggle spilling out.

Scarlet had made a kind gesture! For her! A smooth act of kindness! Ahhh~!

Nemona tried to contain herself as she dried her hair off. Before she could think of what to say, Scarlet explained what had happened—though it wasn't new info to Nemona.

“Oh, erh... Tried my luck against that doofy Gym Leader.” Scarlet snorted a laugh. “Larry? Man. Just a... guy. Love it. Tch. Anyway-... ” They ran a hand over their forehead, brushing some stray raindrop-laden bangs off their skin. “Got my ass handed to me, so...” Letty fluttered their lips in a disparaging sigh, gazing downward.

“A-Actually, I saw,” Nemona revealed, her voice muffled a bit by towel. Shaking the tips of her ponytail off, she specified, “Isn't he great?” She recalled how Larry was actually a member of the Elite Four, on top of a Gym Leader, but didn't want to spoil the surprise. “He's, um... He's tougher than he looks,” she added cheekily, eyes squinting with a smirk.“I've got a sparring match with him tomorrow, jeje. You rolled up right after I'd sealed the deal, and so, well... I just had to spectate!”

“Ugh, you watched that match? Seriously?” Scarlet's gaze drifted sideways, flat and dull as usual as they hugged their knees. “Total shit show. Can't believe I lost...”

Nemona didn't know how to process Scarlet's phrasing. Swear words were so not her thing, too 'unbecoming' or whatever, like Big Sis would say.

Holding a rain-dampened towel in her hands, Nemona awkwardly offered, “I'll, um... get this washed, and return it to you!”

Scarlet's lower lip propped out as they shook their head indifferently, reaching an arm out for it.

“Nah, 's fine.” They took the towel back and shoved into into a wrinkled up grocery bag inside their pack, tying it up tight. As they stuffed the tome they'd been reading into the bag, as well, they asked, “So... Why're you here? Anyway?”

“W-Well, I saw how badly you lost,” Nemona spat out, instantly regretting her phrasing. ('Thank Palkia, they don't seem to mind...') Nemona began fiddling with her largest, green bang, its wet texture slick against her fingertip. “You, erh, looked pretty down on yourself when your left, and... and then you didn't return my call? So, I, umm...-”

“Thought I was upset, or somethin'?” Scarlet said, brow raised. “Tch. As if. Sure, got lil' pissed off when it happened, but, like... Enh.” They shrugged, glancing away from Nemona's intent staring. It made Nemona self conscious that she was looking too hard... Scarlet went on, “Just needed to cool off. Gotta get used to losing at some point, yeah? A loss is still a win, long as ya learn somethin'.” They looked back at Nemona, crossing their legs and crossing their arms. “Now? I've got info on what team he uses. I'll come prepared next time.” The pair of them shared a knowing smirk for a fleeting moment.

Nemona's heart soared at their conclusion. And they'd arrived at it all on their own! Yes, yes! This was exactly the kind of mentality she'd been looking for in a prospective Rival!

Clasping her hands together abreast, Nemona nodded, bobbing up and down once on her toes.

“Totally~! You so get it! Aw, man, just-... Yes. I could-! I could help, y'know? I'm fighting him tomorrow! Haven't had a match with him in like a year or so, but I could analyze his strategy when we battle, and-... and I could so put together a list of ideas to counter him. We could meet up for dinner, maybe? Go over my findings? Put together a plan of attack and stuff!” She pumped her fists. “Augh, Arceus, I'll make sure you destroy him the next time you battle!” She shadowboxed a little in her anticipation. “Like, just, wipe the floor with him!”

By the time Nemona let her over-excited ass come back up for air, she noticed Scarlet was staring, slack-jawed a bit, eyes narrow as ever. She couldn't tell if Scarlet was... interested in this plan, or not...

'Shoot! I'm doing it again, huh...?'

“Tomorrow?” Scarlet replied after a silence that made Nemona feel queasy. “'Mona, we're hanging out today. Met up yesterday, too, for ice cream and stuff? I got... things to do, y'know? Besides the Gym Challenge. Gotta make cash to pay my way n' stuff. Tomorrow, meetin' up with Arven. Gotta help him hunt down the next Titan Pokemon.”

“O-Oh, sure.” Nemona tapped at her cheek, gazing sideways as she made a sheepish offer, desperate to come off as casual. “Tsh, yeah, y'know, I wouldn't mind lending a hand, if you think-” “Nah, we're good. Got it handled.” Oof. Had been worth a shot, anyway...

“Hah. That's my Rival-In-The-Making, for ya.” Nemona swiped a hook at thin air. “Takin' on giant, crazed Pokemon like it's... no big deal.”

“It's kinda not. You'd think it would be, but... Engh,” Scarlet shrugged, trailing off. “And, erh. Between all this Gym training crap, it's... kinda nice to just... spend some time in nature. And whatever.”

“Oh, for sure! Paldea's got so much to offer, doesn't it?” Nemona pumped her elbows down to her hips, trying to keep the mood up.

“It-...” Scarlet blinked off to the side, then back to Nemona. “I mean. 'S got a lotta... hiking trails, I guess... Not even well kept ones, to be honest. With how much money rolls through some o' these towns, you'd think they could at least keep the damn roads functional...” At Scarlet's blunt critique, Nemona felt herself shrink a little bit. She supposed it was easier to see the flaws when you hadn't grown up here. Scarlet kept ranting, “Big surprise, there, not like I couldn't find miles of hiking trails where I came from... Tons of open space, sure, but... nothing much to do in Paldea, huh?” Nemona was feeling dragged down by Scarlet's mood, here, and opted to keep maintaining the optimistic approach.

“Wh-?! Sure, there is! You can battle to your heart's content, for a start!”

“Rrrright. Pick fights with strangers just moping around in the middle of nowhere? I'll pass. Mainly, though, just need to keep finding as much treasure as I can. Don't really care where it comes from. But the stronger my team is, the easier it'll be to find more. So. Yeah.” Scarlet bobbed their head sideways and pinched some water drops from the little tuft of bangs they had.

“Of course!” Nemona encouraged. “So you can graduate some day—fulfill the Treasure Hunt and everything?”

“Uh... Sure.” Something about the way they'd said it made Nemona suspect something else was up. When it came to the Treasure Hunt, they'd get real cagey, though Nemona couldn't figure out what kind of secret they had to hide about it. She knew better than to pry—she'd hate it if Letty was prying into her personal life, after all...

Nemona tried to push things onward, this was giving her such a bad vibe... She felt like something was off but was too scared to draw attention to it. It stung a little, knowing that Scarlet, brand new to Paldea, was already making all these friends and stuff, going off on trips and whatever? Meanwhile, Nemona was so wrapped up with keeping up her grades, maintaining her reputation, handling Student Council business, and training up her multiple teams... She just didn't have, like... people? Individual, specific people, that she wanted to spend time with?

Why and how did Scarlet become this exception to the rule? She just needed to keep spending time with them, regardless. That was all that mattered, really. She wouldn't bother putting much thought into it until she needed to. The excitement, the buzz, that was all she could focus on for now.

“What about the day after tomorrow?” Nemona offered. “To meet up and dish Larry strats. I mean.”

Scarlet's eyes did a weird, uncertain thing, looking at Nemona as if some unspoken rule had been broken somehow. Then Letty shrugged, glancing out at the dissipating rainstorm, not making eye contact.

“Uh, look, Nemona, I'm not sure how long this trek with Arven's gonna take, so... Why don't I just... call you?” They finally looked back with a small smirk. “When I'm ready to rethink Operation: Kick Larry's Normal Ass?”

Nemona burst out a giddy giggle. She loved Scarlet's little 'operation: etc.' bit. Sounded like they'd picked it up from this Cassiopeia person—who Nemona was still way suspicious of... She wished she could insert herself into that mess, help bring Team Star down, and make sure Scarlet didn't get in over their head... But, then again, their loss to Larry besides, Letty was holding their own super well, here, all things considered. Which, naturally, was all the more promising regarding their prospects as a future Rival. “Sounds, uh, sounds good!” Nemona complied, ready to re-tie her hair into a ponytail. Pumping her fists with resolution, she assured, “I'll write up a detailed plan for us to go over when you're ready!”

“Cool,” Scarlet said with a simple nod. Nice! Yes! Nemona was so looking forward to it. People never wanted to dish detailed plans or strats with her...! UGH, this was just the best. Oh, yeah, and the fireworks were about to happen soon! That was a total bonding moment opportunity!

“Can't wait,” Nemona put out there, unable to contain herself. Fluffing out her still drying hair, she wondered, “So, uh... Any word on the fireworks show? You think it's still on?”

“Oh. Good question.” Scarlet checked their Rotomphone. Nemona was in suspense for a few moments. She desperately wanted to experience fireworks together with Letty. It was something special she'd never gotten to share with anyone outside of her family... Letty replied casually, “Huh. Yep, still on.”

“Nice!” Nemona cheered quietly. “It's gonna be awesome, just you wait.”

As Nemona bobbed on her toes with anticipation, Scarlet tucked their phone back away and gazed up at Nemona with a slightly amused, quizzical look.

“Gettin' hungry,” Scarlet said, rubbing their stomach a little as they shoved themselves up. Strapping their pack back on, they summoned their Spidops back into its ball. “Gonna go grab something. Uh... Wanna come with?”

“I'd love to,” Nemona belted out, having hoped they'd offer. “I know you're strapped for cash, so let me cover you!”

“Enh, but you did yesterday when we had lunch...” “It's so not a problem, seriously. 'Sides, you had a rough battle, you deserve a treat to cheer you up!”

Nemona knelt over and extended a hand down to Scarlet.

“Heh...” Scarlet smirked in this timid way at Nemona, a way that Nemona had only ever seen reserved for her. A softness, a vulnerability, was briefly revealed from beneath those rusted shields for irises. Their eye contact lasted just long enough to make them both flustered, until Scarlet at last replied, “Yeah, all right...” Scarlet reached up and gripped Nemona's arm bracer tightly, and Nemona pulled Scarlet up, beaming with giddy warmth. “C'mon, Letty. Let's go!” "Guh-...! Slow... Slow the hell down...!"

#julinemo week #scarnemo #julinemo week 2024 #julinemo #pokemon nemona #pokemon scarlet #scarlet koito #pokemon special #pokespe #fanfic #pokemon fanfiction

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