#they don't even take your hand and walk you through the tutorial like in most Mario games

[pianokantzart]

Am I crazy or does Luigi's Mansion 2 require more observational thinking than the usual Mario game?

I'm used to the hard part being the reaction time and the hand-eye coordination, but this is that + puzzles.

[armory-rasa]

COUCH POUCH!! Free Pattern & Tutorial

...called thus because they use upholstery-weight leather for the bag body, that in my case was in fact skinned off a couch. 🤣 Turns out they are relatively quick and easy to make, so I tidied up the pattern for printing and took pictures to document the process when I made another five of them.

First off, print your pattern, 100% scale:

The bag shape was a modified version of the pattern I used for the Morpheus sandbag, but sized to fit in the roughly 11" squares that my couch skin came in. It makes a bag that sits very well on a tabletop, thanks to the flat base.

Though it turned out to not be the most efficient use of material, because that plus-shaped pattern tessellates well, if you're cutting them out of a full hide, but makes a lot of waste when you're cutting them out of squares of material. A more efficient design would have a half-rounded front and back, and a gusset between them, like so:

Ah well. It's not like I have any shortage of couch skin, though for the next round I'm going to experiment with a more efficient pattern.

First step, trace and cut out the bag body from your chrome-tan leather:

Like I said, this was upholstery leather, but anything that's flexible and ~1.5 mm thick will do.

The flap and front need to be a stiffer leather though -- I used 7 oz latigo, but veg-tan would work equally well. (And then you could ✨tool it!✨)

Cut them out, and then use the pattern to mark where your holes are going to be. Mark the holes on your bag body too:

The latigo pieces get hand-stitched to the bag body, so I used a stitching groover to carve out little channels for the thread -- it's not strictly necessary, but it makes your stitches lay a lot more neatly:

Punch the holes shown below:

I used a ~5 mm hole punch for those, and a 1.5" slot punch for the belt loops. Some of the holes on the front piece you're not punching yet, because they need to go through both layers.

I put a dab of contact cement on the pieces (circled in white) to help hold them in place when I go to punch the stitching holes:

(Make sure you're not putting glue between the belt loops)

Wait fifteen minutes for the contact cement to dry until tacky, and then line up the holes and the edges and press the pieces together:

Punch stitching holes:

Saddle-stitch both pieces in place (takes 28" of thread per):

Now you can punch these holes:

(I used a slightly smaller hole punch than for the others, but it doesn't really matter.)

Now press the right sides of the leather together and sew up the seams from the inside:

A regular sewing machine should be able to handle this, though you will need thicker thread, a heavy-duty leather-sewing needle, and a walking foot attachment. (If you don't have a walking foot attachment, it is SO WORTH getting one, even if you don't expect to sew much leather. Seriously, I use it for everything -- once you go walking foot, you don't go back. 💀) Because you can't pin leather without leaving permanent holes in it, tiny binder clips can be helpful for keeping your material lined up.

What they look like when you're finished sewing:

Cut 19" of lacing for the drawstring, and 11" of lacing for the toggle:

I use the 1/8" EcoSoft lace from Tandy, I think it's stronger than real leather would be at that thickness. The only important factor here is that you need something with a bit of texture and friction -- a silk cord isn't going to stay closed, it's going to slip open.

MANY BAGS.

For these I used a wooden toggle -- cut another 8" of lacing, looped it through the toggle twice, and then made a tight square knot on the back:

But another option is putting a concho or a large button on the flap. The bag I copied this design from, in fact, uses a concho toggle:

Thread some beads on the laces to keep the ends from getting lost, and you are DONE! 😁

Happy Bagging!

[bonny-kookoo]

Jungkook

𝓘𝓷𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓬 [Drabble]

He's technically well enough to live on his own and, most of all, live his own life. But he's chosen you as his home- and that means he has to learn more about you.

Tags/Warnings: Alien!Jungkook, Human!Reader, mentions of eating raw meat, suggestive, Jungkook's.. interesting way of flirting, mentions of period, small moment of insecurity, fluff

Length: Short

A/N: THERE IS NO TAGLIST. THERE IS NO TAGLIST FOR THIS. THERE REALLY ISN'T. DO NOT ASK.

-> Masterlist

━━━━━━━━━━.~°👽°~.━━━━━━━━━━━

Jungkook has recovered completely at this point.

He's technically allowed to roam free and go live his life again- alone, that is- but he refuses. He's taken on a job at a local supermarket, helping in the warehouses with the heavy goods, and he tells you that it's actually quite fun to him to help the people around him.

He's also still living with you permanently until it's clear whether or not he's gonna stay on earth or go back to his home planet- because It's not all too clear yet, though you're not too worried about the future. If he wants to leave you behind, it'll be sad, sure-

but it's his decision. You've got no right to tie him to your side.

So for now, you'll just enjoy the time you're able to spend with him- from lazy mornings to the routine cuddling session he practically demands every night before bed, like a ritual he has to go through or he just won't sleep at all.

And an odd sight to you is, that you're still catching Jungkook snacking on very much raw meat at your fridge occasionally, just like right now- his sheepishly large eyes all round and caught off guard as he looks from side to side, before he looks at the small cut of red meat in his hand.

He wants to ask you if you'd like to share, but he's learned that humans actually don't eat raw meat at all. It can even make them sick- something that made him worry, so he's since started to look up tutorials on how to properly prepare it so it becomes safe for consumption for humans.

He wants to take care of you properly after all.

So he started learning how to cook proper human meals that have good nutritional value for their bodies. He also began researching how to help you through your monthly cycle, and how to otherwise court you.

Humans apparently really don't court each other- they kind of just send each other messages on their phones, and then they meet up for food or alcohol. They do that once or twice to see if they like each other, and then they start 'going out'- which funnily for some doesn't involve walking anywhere at all.

Where's the proving one's value? He's got to show you how capable he is in providing; whether it be comfort, safety or even physical valuables such as food. How would you know whether or not he'd be a good time investment? It's no wonder so many humans whine and complain about 'wasting time' on the wrong partners when they just choose them on nothing but a 'feel of the moment'.

Humans are truly weird.

Then again, humans are also very emotional beings. They choose a lot of things based on their feelings alone, and they cherish opinions and other people's emotions a lot, even if they don't know each other. They make many friendships quickly, form huge social circles, and some of them even have relationships with multiple partners. Everything a human does is connected to feelings, it seems like. Apparently, they need to check if they're emotionally compatible first before they even think about mating.

Oh god, mating.

Humans are horribly complicated he's come to learn- it takes some of them months and even years of emotionally connecting before they get together for the first time. And when they do, it's sounds so complicated.

Some like certain positions, others have so-called 'kinks', and then some have a favoritism for certain acts that actually have nothing to do with reproduction. Jungkook had been horrified when he read something about 'eating someone out'- until he learned that it had nothing to do with actual cannibalism.

Human beings love pleasure. For Jungkook, that had always been somewhat of a luxury- but here on earth, humans see it as a necessity even. It makes him eager to prove himself as a lover who can match the capabilities of a human one- maybe even exceed them.

"Would you consider me someone you'd mate with?" Jungkook asks as he watches you pout hot water into a cup filled with a little bag. Tea is what you're making.

He doesn't like it- he burned his tongue on it a few days back. Why would you drink something that hurts?

"I- uh, what?" You stammer, having to put the kettle down as you're clearly caught off guard.

"Mating. Sex, is what you call it here right?" Jungkook hums, leaning on the kitchen counter almost innocently. How can he look at you with his stupid round boba-ball eyes while asking you if you'd like to fuck him?!

"I uh- I mean, you're.. really attractive, and I guess we're a couple?" You stammer, a bit caught off guard, and he nods.

"I believe that we are in a partnership at the moment." He agrees, putting the meat away into the fridge, before he washes his hands and dries them off. "And humans regularly participate in intercourse in most partnerships, right?" He wonders, and you shrug, before you nod.

"I mean.. most of the time, yeah." You agree.

"See?" He smiles, looking at you. "We should as well. I heard from a friend that it can strengthen the bond of a relationship significantly." He tells you, and you're caught off guard, as you can't help but stare at his bare arms for a moment, dirty thoughts invading your head as you look at the way his hands move to rest on the kitchen counter behind him.

Great. You're really happy he's making friends, sure- but do his friends have to tell him that he needs to have sex with you to make you like him more?

"Do you not want that with me?" He wonders. "That's fine too. Some only enjoy doing that by themselves.." He shrugs, and you freeze.

"What-" You start, terrified of the truth. "What do you.. mean?" You ask.

"I know you're pleasuring yourself sometimes, mostly at night before you shower. It's hard not to notice it, really- your scent is all over the place." He laughs easily, as if he's just talking about the weather. "I wanted to ask you if you wanted my help sometimes. You seem a little frustrated on occasion." He offers.

So he noticed that. Awesome.

"Yeah I just-.." you cringe at yourself, before you just shut your mouth.

"If you're worried about me not being able to pleasure a human woman, I can assure you- I'm pretty knowledgeable." He prides himself up. "I've only ever received compliments."

"You've had sex with humans before?" You ask, and he nods.

"Yes. Multiple, actually- so I have good experience." He agrees, and now, you feel a bit intimidated. If he has this much experience, what if you bore him? What if you can't provide what he wants? And he clearly seems to sense your distress growing, because he immediately tries to backpaddle his statement. "Though none of those experience involved any actual emotional connection!" He tells you, trying to reassure you that he doesn't want to come off as if sex with you wouldn't be something special to him. "You could almost say that it was practice-" He attempts, but you just sigh, shaking your head.

"You don't have to justify yourself, Jungkook." You say, and he visibly deflates at the fact that you don't use his nickname in your sentence.

"Do my past actions make me undesirable to you now?" He asks a bit softer, and you groan in agony to yourself, shaking your head as you sit down at the small kitchen table.

"No- no that's not it, it's me that's the issue." You huff, laying your head sideways on the cool surface of the plastic tabletop. "I'm just not.. as experienced as you." You shrug, not moving as he sits down across from you. "I'll probably be super lame and disappointing." You mumble.

You can feel his hand reaching out to pet your head, fingers running over your head in a similar way that you tend to do to him. He's probably trying to comfort you, and in a way, it makes you upset at yourself for being upset at him. He did nothing wrong. Why are you being such a bitch?

"You know.." He chuckles softly, and you move your head a little to look at him. "..my friend said that humans can be really confusing and emotional when they're ovulating." He offers, and your eyes widen as your head snaps up. "He was right." He laughs at your shocked expression.

"But I'm not-" You start, because technically, you really aren't. Are you?

"It's really faint but pretty noticeable." He chuckles, and you just sigh, accepting things for now. At the very least, the awkwardness has left for once, so that's a good thing down the line. "Oh!" He suddenly perks up, looking at with excitement.

"I heard that sex helps with cramping though!"

━━━━━━━━━━.~°👽°~.━━━━━━━━━━━

[chordsykat]

How I write action/fight scenes

From a prompt posted by a friend on Discord last night. :3 Just thought I would ramble a bit before getting to work, this morning. If you're a writer and want to know what goes through my head as I come up with combat scenes in my stories, then read on. In this way, I hope we both learn a lot. Because I honestly don't think I've ever laid out my "formula" before...

First, know who you're dealing with.

This tutorial is going to stick mostly to the actual writing aspects, but if you're going to do an action series, you should factor in the combat abilities of your characters as you develop them. This doesn't have to be anything fancy. Keep it to the natural human responses at least. In other words, during a conflict, how will your character react:

Fight: Push back

Flight: Run away

Freeze: Do nothing

Knowing just that will give you enough to start thinking these dances through. And indeed, that's what they are - a dance. If you know more, like, specifically what kind of fighting they do, what their strengths in combat are, etc -- all the better, but know that what I list below goes in order from most to least important, and that stuff won't be on the list until the end.

Second, (and always) make the audience care about the action.

This sounds dumb and counterintuitive but people won't find an action scene compelling just because it's an action scene. Not to knock it, because it was brilliant for a different reason and a lot of the writing staff's hands were tied... BUT... During my time as a fan of, all the way into my employment with, Archie-Sonic, I can't tell you how many action scenes happened just because some executive at Sega was like "I think X and Y need to fight." So they would, and for reasons that were muddy at best. I think at one point, we had Sonic and Knuckles literally exchanging this dialogue:

Sonic: Yo dude, be cool. Last time we met, we left on good terms! Knuckles: Maybe, but you're still an intruder and just because you did me that favor on the day my daughter was to be married does not mean I owe you anything in the way of kindness.

IDK, my memory may be foggy, but that was the gist of it. Point is, don't do that - and first make sure your audience understands the motives behind the action, the potential stakes, and why it's all taking place to begin with. Else, you can make it as cool as you want and people are going to walk away with a sense of "that was cool" instead of "holy shit I was freaking out through that whole scene." If there's any question as to what you should be striving for as a writer, it's the latter.

Third, plot it out like it's a mini-story.

To the point - figure out the end first, and work backwards, just like so many writing tutorials have said before. Again, keep it simple: Who wins? Does the conflict result in a casualty of some kind? Does a character learn something?

Before you show how it goes down, you need to establish what goes down as the action happens, and what happens afterwards. Keeping the ending in mind as yo write a scene is always a good way of making it feel tighter. And throwing littlte twists for interest (maybe a character has the upper-hand for all but the end of the fight - maybe a character is losing until a specific turning point, etc) is made much easier, too.

Fourth, mind the rhythm.

A little weird to explain this, but the back-and-forth nature of the scene needs to flow well. Generally, conflict follows a pattern of:

Character acts

Opposition reacts

Opposition acts

Character reacts

If this pattern looks familiar to you, it should. This is the basic pattern of human dialogue as seen in stories and, YES, real life. Consider your scene like a dialogue all its own (even if the characters are talking throughout). The twists and turns I spoke about in the last point should be "off beat" because there's an unexpected nature to them. When a twist happens, consider breaking the above pattern.

Fifth, showcase character traits and skills (again, always).

Some characters have a high sense of honor and would put down their weapons if their opponent was unarmed. Some of them would fight dirty and hit someone with a chair when their back was turned. Some characters are scrappy and will jump into a conflict even when they're sorely outmatched. Some are straight up cowards who might run away even when there's a good chance they could win. Some are smart enough to bow out and will not engage -- hiding at the first sign of trouble. Some will throw snowballs at the oppressor and be surprised when they pull aggro and the dude comes after them.

You get the idea -- fights, conflicts and action scenes are great ways to show your characters' strengths, weaknesses, traits, and personality. Times of struggle are going to lay emotional responses raw, and it's a great way of showing "who someone really is" as it were.

Sixth, showcase unique defensive behavior.

Some characters have specific training: military, martial arts, street-fighting, etc... which, if you're aware of those, should come out during combat or conflict. Some characters have access to weapons. Some characters' bodies are the weapon. Etc, etc etc...

Whatever you do, about the only time you're going to show off the fact that your character knows Muay Thai is during an action scene. If you yourself do not practice this martial art, then research what you need to incorporate to make it believable when you write. Watch videos and write down the ways you would describe the movement. If you're doing a comic, then sketch the movement. Use that in your story.

Last, create more interest by tying in and highlighting story themes or disparities between protagonist characters, antagonist characters, and/or the conflict as a whole.

A little trickier, but if your story has a central theme or moral, try showing pieces of it shining through the action. Just as one wild example, if you have a theme of "love conquers all" this might mean your fight will end with the two people falling in love, instead of fighting. Think like a dungeon master. If you rolled a natural 20 on "try to woo the orc" in a combat situation (remember that comic?) what do you think would happen?

Too, if your combatants have something in common, or especially something that they are diametrically opposed on, feel free to show that off in these scenes. It'll leave the audience knowing them better (and set them up for further head-butting... or romance(?) down the line. And that's always fun).

Anywho, that's just a few of my thoughts on action sequences in fiction. If this helped you, or you want me to talk about this even more -- send me a message or a note or something. Always up for discussing this kind of thing.

And your reward for reading this far is an invite to join my discord if you wanna hear me ramble on about this sort of thing, in perpetuity. :)

[fabrickind]

Finding Cosplay Photoshoot Locations Part 5: Logistics and Behavior

📸Discovering Cosplay Photoshoot Locations Part 5: Logistics and Behavior 📸

Final part of my tutorial on finding cosplay photoshoot locations! This portion covers how to plan for your shoot, what to bring, and how to treat the location and anyone at it with respect.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! I have a few more in the works, but let me know in the comments what other tutorials you'd like to see.

Cosplay is often uncomfortable and cumbersome, and needs extra care when going to a location. You also want to make sure you look the best in your photos. This means that you need to take some extra planning into consideration when planning a photoshoot.

​What to Bring

I always bring a small kit with me with necessary or potentially necessary items so I can keep myself and my costume in proper shape. This kit always includes a small makeup touchup kit, which usually has the items most likely to need touching up at the location: eyelashes and lash glue (I put on the lashes once I'm at the shoot), lip products, face glue for my wig, and any cosplay-specific items like nail glue or face paint. This kit also includes wig touchup items such as a comb and bobby pins. I also recommend a small repair kit with items such as safety pins, tape, and a quick-setting glue so you can do any quick repairs on your costume. 

Bring a cover-up item or change of clothes. If you are planning on anything that might be messy, especially dirty, or wet, you may need a full change of clothes (and a place to put these on), but even if not, bring a coverup item such as a skirt or robe in case your costume is on the skimpy side, or something to convert your costume into normal-ish clothes if you need to stop anywhere on the way there or back.

In addition to items for cosmetic repairs, you also will need a few safety items, especially when shooting outdoors and not in a studio space. If your costume has difficult shoes, bring a change of shoes if you need to cross difficult terrain or if the ground is especially dirty or dusty and would ruin the look of your cosplay shoes to walk through. Snacks and water are also always a good item to bring, as well as any medication or items you may need for medical conditions. If the costume is not suitable for your location's weather, you will need to bring items to mitigate the weather: a coat or jacket, handwarmers, hot or cold beverages, hand or battery operated fans, and stick-on cooling patches often sold for headaches, depending on the situation. 

​Planning Ahead

I always check the weather leading up to a shoot, and sometimes, you want very specific weather. In these cases, such as wanting a photoshoot in the snow or on a sunny beach when you live somewhere those conditions happen but aren't especially common, keeping a cosplay on hand to take advantage of the weather when it does happen can help you get that dream shoot.

When planning for travel to your shoot location, be sure to plan for all aspects of travel: what mode of transportation, how you will get from your main transportation to the shoot itself, and how the photographer will get there if they are not coming with you. I highly recommend driving or carpooling if at all possible, since you don't want the hassle of taking public transit in cosplay, and a car can hold more and larger items like props and wings. I also recommend putting the finishing touches on your cosplay at the location -- wigs, false eyelashes, accessories, etc. -- so you don't have to worry about these items getting damaged or being uncomfortable in transit. Also get to know the parking for your shoot ahead of time. I like SpotAngels.com for parking information, since it tells you where parking is, how long the time limits are, when no parking times such as street sweeping are, and how much the parking costs. Know the cost of parking and how far it is from the shoot location itself -- I'd personally rather pay a little more for closer parking while in cosplay, but that's up to your own comfort and ability. 

Also get to know the location ahead of time. Look at user-submitted photos and street views on Google Maps and similar sites, and if possible, visit the location ahead of time. There may be hazards like uneven ground, rocks, stairs, or water that you would not otherwise be aware of. Since some costumes would be difficult at best and dangerous at worst to wear in some locations, such as very high heels when scrambling over rocks or a trailing gown with deep water or thorny underbrush, be sure to bring that change of clothes and shoes for such situations and only wear the final look at the actual place the photos are being taken.

Behavior Towards the Location

Finally, when shooting on location, treat the location itself and anyone at it with the utmost respect. With private locations, such as a rented studio, be sure to treat the property well, and with public locations, be sure to treat both the property and anyone at it well, as you won't have a private, cordoned-off area. Treat your location better than you would treat your own property. This is both for the sake of other people so you do not disturb them or force people to clean up after you, but also for your own sake so you don't get in trouble and also can continue shooting in that location. Studios and other rented locations will give you their rules on their website or when you book, and most public locations will have their rules and regulations on their website or alongside any permits you purchase. If you are in doubt about something, always email to get permission first. This will not only ensure that you actually have permission to do what it is you want, but will also put you in the good graces of whoever is in charge of the location and they will be more likely to welcome you and other cosplayers back.

Always follow the "carry in, carry out" principle. With very few exceptions for properly disposed of small trash items (think snack wrappers, not entire props), everything you bring with you into a location needs to come back out of the location with you. This is most important for outdoor locations, as anything left behind can become an ecological issue, but also in private indoor locations, especially if you are using messy substances like fake blood or confetti. Be sure to clean up any props you use and any trash you generate. If renting a location, be sure to leave extra time to strike the set at the end. This involves cleaning up and removing anything you brought in yourself as well as moving anything that belongs to the location back to its proper place. Many studios have lighting equipment, furniture, and other items you can use, but require you to leave the location how you found it and these items where they belong. 

​Don't make any permanent or potentially permanent changes to your location. This includes digging in outdoor locations, littering, staking items into the ground, or affixing items to walls or other environmental items such as rocks or furniture, even if you use temporary methods such as tape, as these can still damage the location. Also be careful of trespassing into areas that are closed to the public, especially in outdoor locations where these areas are typically closed due to either danger or ecological sensitivity, and stick to public pathways and roads as much as possible. Don't trample plants or pick flowers or otherwise damage the environment. Grassy fields and such are usually okay unless specifically blocked off or closed, but areas like flower fields or otherwise cultivated gardens are generally not. Also be sure to not use dangerous substances or props, especially in outdoor locations. You don't want to release dangerous chemicals in the environment or cause panic over a possible fire with smoke machines, or, worst case, actually start a fire.

​Behavior Towards Others

Perhaps one of the most important things to keep in mind is to treat anyone you encounter with respect. Staying humble and being an unobtrusive as possible will go a long way. Don't take up a lot of space for a long time, especially in popular areas. This goes for blocking pathways, camping in popular features so others can't enjoy them, blocking doorways, and otherwise diminishing other people's enjoyment and also creating an accessibility hazard. Move aside if you see people coming or if you are shooting in a particular spot for an extended time, and then return to it.

Do your best to not get strangers in your photos. While most wouldn't want that anyway because it would ruin the shot, be sure you aren't shooting in a way that could accidentally get people in your photos more easily by angling yourself differently or using different lenses and depth of field, but also make sure it doesn't look like you are photographing strangers. Generally it's obvious what you are doing, especially with a photographer and not self shooting, but it's something to be aware of. 

You might get questions when shooting in a public place, so do your best to answer them kindly. I often don't want to explain the whole ordeal to people, and people generally understand when you say phrases like "art project" and "fashion shoot," but if you get people asking more in-depth questions than that, answer truthfully and kindly. You don't want people who had never heard of cosplay to have their first exposure to the hobby be negative, and most people are simply curious and interested in what cool thing you are doing. Use the opportunity to share that interest! In all my time shooting in public places, I have never gotten a rude comment, but if you do, deescalate the situation as much as possible and walk away if you need to. If you are more comfortable with a friend with you to help deflect, bring one.

Finally, keep yourself safe in interacting with others. Don't brandish weapon-like props in ways that can look like an attack, and I would advise leaving anything that looks realistic for private locations where you won't be putting yourself at risk if anyone mistakes the prop for being real. Even if a prop looks like a fantasy weapon, be careful not to brandish it in a potentially threatening manner. Also, if someone in a position of authority asks you to leave for any reason, cut the shoot short and do so immediately.

Thank you for reading, and happy shooting! :]

Links to other parts: 1 Location Types, 2 Discovering Locations, 3 Indoor vs Outdoor Locations, 4 Location Permissions, 5 Location Logistics

[liviavanrouge]

Love

"A dangerous plan, just this time"

Haruka: *Stares up at Hawks, her arm in a cast*

Endeavor: Your face is scaring her, Hawks...

Hawks: *Perks up then smiles* Sorry kiddo...

Haruka: *Flinches, her eyes wide*

Hawks: *Holds his hand out* Shall we go?

"A stranger's hand clutched in mine"

Haruka: *Stares hesitantly, grabbing his hand silently*

Endeavor: I don't think she likes you

Hawks: *Chuckles* You like bullying me, huh?

Endeavor: Just stating what I'm seeing

Hawks: Come on, Haruka, I got your room all ready back at my place!

Haruka: *Blinks, walking after him*

"I'll take this chance, so call me blind"

Hawks: *Looks down at her* You wanna fly? You might like it!

Haruka: *Looks down silently*

Hawks: *Rubs the back of his neck, looking forward* I know, kid, it's kinda awkward and strange for me too...

Haruka: *Looks up surprised*

Hawks: I just took you in on impulse...

"I've been waiting all my life"

Hawks: *Looks down at her* You remind me of myself..

Haruka: *Reaches up towards him* Please don't scar this young heart, just take my hand

Hawks: *Stares in surprise, then carefully picks her up*

Haruka: *Stares as he lifted into the air*

~~~~

"I was made for loving you"

Hawks: *Looks at a hair tutorial, his eyes narrowed*

Haruka: *Sits still, watching TV*

Hawks: Alright *Smiles at the two low buns with braids around them* I think I did it right!

Haruka: *Looks into the mirror, her eyes lighting up*

Hawks: *Laughs* Yeah, I did it right~

"Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through"

Haruka: *Smiles widely* Pretty...

Hawks: *Stares down at her surprised* Oh...

Haruka: *Looks up at him* Thank you...

Hawks: No problem, Haru

Haruka: *Blinks in surprise*

Hawks: Aha! Sorr-

"Every bone screaming, I don't know what we should do"

Haruka: Can I call you dad?

Hawks: Aha...I don't think the time is right yet

Haruka: *Looks down* Okay...

Hawks: You can give me a nickname though! Anything you can think of!

Haruka: Birdie...

Hawks: *Coughs, muffling his chuckles* Okay, Birdie it is!

"All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you"

Hawks: *Stands up and walks away* Hungry, Haru?

Haruka: *Nods, standing up and following him*

Hawks: I'm a mediocre cook, but I hope it's to your taste

Haruka: I can take some spoiled food, rotting bread is the most edible for me..

Hawks: *Looks sharply at her alarmed* What...

Haruka: *Stares up at her*

Hawks: *Turns away* I'll make something, go play

Haruka: *Walks away* Okay...

-----

"Hold me close, through the night"

Hawks: *Lands on the balcony and walks into his home*

Haruka: *Stares at the TV, a blanket wrapped around her*

Hawks: *Walks over, frowning* Why are you still up, kid?

Haruka: *Looks at him then looks down* I couldn't sleep...and you weren't here...

"Don't let me go, we'll be all right"

Hawks: *Takes his jacket off and sits beside her* Movie?

Haruka: *Nods, looking at the movie playing* It comes on every night..

Hawks: I see...

Haruka: *Rubs her eyes, yawning*

Hawks: *Picks Haruka up* Bedtime

Haruka: But the movie...

"Touch my soul and hold it tight"

Hawks: You can watch it another night

Haruka: *Stares as he carried her away* But-

Hawks: You need to sleep

Haruka: Okay...

"I've been waiting all my life"

Haruka: *Perks up, noticing this was his room*

Hawks: *Sets Haruka down in his bed, perking up when she fell asleep* That was quick...

Haruka: *Wraps herself up in her blanket fast asleep*

Hawks: *Sits beside her, his eyes widening when Haruka grabbed his hand*

Haruka: *Smiles* Birdie...

Hawks: *Smiles slightly, laying beside her* I won't scar your young heart.....just take my hand

-----

"'Cause I was made for loving you"

Haruka: *Stares, her eyes wide*

???: HARU!!

Haruka: *Shields her head, feathers pinning the kidnapper to the wall*

Hawks: HARUKA!

Haruka: *Runs over to him*

Hawks: *Catches her when she leaped forward*

"Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through"

Endeavor: *Looks at the kidnapper* You knocked the guy out

Hawks: *Hugs Haruka tight, staring the kidnapper down*

Haruka: ..dad..

Hawks: *Perks up, looking down at her* Yeah, Haru...

Haruka: I was scared..

Hawks: I know...

"Every bone screaming I don't know what we should do"

Endeavor: I'll take care of this guy

Hawks: Then I'll take Haru home..

Endeavor: You alright, Haruka?

Haruka: *Nods, gripping Hawks jacket*

Endeavor: *Nods and turns away*

"All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you"

Hawks: *Lifts into the air, carrying Haruka*

Haruka: I'm sorry...

Hawks: No, it's fine, I should've paid closer attention

Haruka: *Looks up at him, feeling his hand pat her back*

Hawks: I'll pay closer attention this time...

~~~~

"Please don't go, I've been waiting so long"

???: DAAD!

Tokoyami: *Looks away from Hawks as a girl with white hair that had a lime green streak and baby antlers ran in*

Hawks: *Smiles, chuckling as the child leaped into his arms* Haruka!

Tokoyami: Who's this?

Hawks: *Chuckles* My adopted daughter, Haruka! Haruka meet Tokoyami!

Haruka: Hiiii~

Hawks: *Sets her down on the couch*

"Oh, you don't even know me at all"

Tokoyami: She has little antler stubs

Hawks: *Turns to him, one of Hawks sidekicks bringing the child cookies* Her quirk is Nature Energy, we're still learning about it and training her little power, so far she's able to do some minor healing!

Tokoyami: She's cute...a little beam of light in the vast darkness...

Hawks: Yep! Hey Haru, wanna patrol with us!

Haruka: Is Big brother Toko coming?

Hawks: *Chuckles at Tokoyami's surprised expression* Brother claimed

Tokoyami: ..I shall come

"But I was made for loving you"

Hawks: *Takes his jacket off and picks her up*

Haruka: *Beams, Hawks placing her on his back*

Hawks: *Hands her a pair of flight goggles* Always be what?

Haruka: Always be prepared!

Hawks: *Slips his jacket back on, making sure she was securely in it with him* That's right, we go!

-----

"I was made for loving you"

Hawks: Almost verything she needs is in this bag

Presrnt Mic: *Nods as the other civilians entered the U.A. premises* She'll be safe here

Hawks: That's good

Haruka: Dad...

Hawks: *Kneels down, smiling at her* We're gonna be separated for a little while but I'll come back

"Even though we may be hopeless hearts just passing through"

Haruka: *Stares up at him, then looks down* Okay

Hawks: Hey you'll be with Big Brother Toko and Big Sis Abby! It'll all be okay

Hawks: *Smiles, placing a hand on her head*

Haruka: *Looks up, hugging her stuffed cat*

Hawks: All for one and Shigaraki will be defeated in no time

"Every bone screaming, I don't know what we should do"

Present Mic: Let's get you to the others, Haruka

Haruka: Okay

Hawks: You be good and listen to everyone, alright kiddo

Haruka: *Nods and waves to him, walking after Present Mic

Endeavor: Hawks-

Hawks: It a shame that things got cut short for her

Endeavor: *Stares at him then looks down* ..I agreed.

Hawks: *Watches Tokoyami carry Haruka away on his back* I hope I can see her run around and be careless again one day..

"All I know is, darling, I was made for loving you"

[creepy-crowleys]

((Probably going with Demolisher for Crowley's class. Which is... actually the one I think I started her on. The in-game classes don't do much beyond determining your starting weapons - and you can switch from them pretty much once you've finished the tutorial - but I think it works for her. :d))

Demolisher

Responding to cries for help from the alley behind the convenience store, the schoolgirl slips off her uniform jacket, folds it, and stuffs it into her backpack. There will be blood—lots of blood—and she does not want it stained. She slides a ball-peen hammer out as she puts the jacket away and goes off to crack some skulls. The swordsman pivots, opening his soul to Gaia’s will as he slices upward at the looming ak’ab. His blade meets the insect’s carapace with a crack of thunder, nearly deafening the swordsman even as it hurls the ak’ab upward to splatter against the limestone walls of the tomb. She moves faster than the strike team expected. The Orochi sergeant in charge gasps as the old woman they’ve been sent to liquidate instead cuts down two of his men in a single slice. She seems to shrug off bullets and tasers, laughing as she crashes through them. She toys with them—holding back the fire and lightning that course through her—just to enjoy the thrill of battle again. The zombie crouches over its kill, ripping oversized handfuls of steaming-hot flesh from the first hiker’s body. Long has it roamed these backwater hills, growing in might and size as it devoured man and beast alike. It doesn’t even notice the lithe young man in the rainbow shirt until the youth knocks its head clean off with one swing of his blazing golf club. Demolishers channel divinity through implements of war, imbuing their weapons with heavenly radiance and striking like the thunderbolt of Zeus.

Like a Wrecking Ball

Demolishers burn with an inner fire. This wellspring of power is the blessing of Gaia at its simplest and most primal, like a primitive hominid cracking skulls with a jawbone. They smash things and they smash them good. More than any other, the demolisher class includes Bees from all walks of life: athletes, doctors, homemakers, mechanics, musicians, soldiers, students, and more. It is not physical strength that marks a demolisher, nor is there any special training one needs to take a stick and hit things with it. There is only the accursed gift of Gaia. Demolishers may be blunt instruments, but that does not make them incapable of finesse. Besides channeling anima into explosive melee attacks, they also have a natural capacity for protective magics. They can learn to see the invisible, make their skin hard as steel, and surround themselves with mystical barriers. If they live long enough, demolishers can learn to be as adept and subtle as any assassin or punisher.

Property Damage and Noise

Demolishers fight in the front line, leading charges and taking on whole armies by themselves. They’re loud and destructive, and they’re often sent into the field to act as diversions for more discreet operatives. Sometimes, though, the best defense is a good offense … and nothing says “offense” like a one-person wrecking crew.

Where They Fit in the Secret World

... In the Secret World, demolishers could be anyone from anywhere. They manifest their power as walking siege engines, channeling anima to wreak destruction in the most direct way available to any class. ...

Why the Secret Societies Want to Recruit Them

Secret society leaders aren’t immune to the raw, charismatic power of demolishers. Every society wants to find its own modern Hercules, someone who can trade blow for blow with oni and giants. Demolishers often serve an almost symbolic role within societies, representing the epitome of Gaia’s might—and that of the faction for which they work. In the field, demolishers provide excellent support for … squishier … team members. A demolisher in full tactical gear with a breaching maul is a better bullet stopper than a reinforced concrete wall, and much better prepared to smash a draug in the face. Play a demolisher for a simple but effective gameplay loop. Choose this class if you want power by way of channeling tremendous and explosive energy into melee weapons. There’s nothing subtle here.

[thatonespawnling]

Starfield & The Importance of Beginnings

SPOILER WARNING FOR STARFIELD!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS ON THE BEGINNING

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Looks like we're good to go! Okay, so I've recently been dumping a steady amount of hours into Starfield. It's been fun, how they've evolved their character creation is fantastic, I've had a decent amount of positives. Throughout the six and a half hours I've played, there is only one thing that I have a problem with. That problem? The beginning of the game, particularly the first two hours. I understand that Bethesda games often have mediocre main storylines with characters that lack deep characterization. However, one thing about the main story that Bethesda writers usually do well is that beginning.

Skyrim is a notorious beginning. A decade after its release, the first two minutes of that game is still remembered. It is still celebrated through memes and video edits, references by other media. It does a lot of things right for an RPG! It provides just enough worldbuilding to give the actions of those surrounding you meaning, it gives you a purpose of being there without defining your backstory, and it provides an easy way to get the player from point A to point B without making the player feel dragged around. Oblivion works in a similar fashion. It doesn't work nearly as well as Skyrim's beginning, there is too much of it that relies on happenstance. However, it is still a rather solid beginning. Even Bethesda's Fallout games has some nice beginnings with Fallout 3. What matters the most with these beginnings and why they function is that, ultimately, the player feels like they're involved in what's happening. This is where I feel Starfield fails.

Starfield starts us off by putting us in the position of a miner riding an elevator down to the mines with a humorous veteran known as Heller and the stoic leader of the operation called Supervisor Lin. They seem to give you words of encouragement as you are carried down, dropping mentions of some of the more prominent factions of the Settled Systems along the way. For the next thirty minutes you're mostly following NPCs as they talk to you and order you to do tasks without much agency. This all goes until you touch the Artifact, an odd rock that is almost magical in nature. When you come into contact with it, you are almost blinded. Your vision is ejected from your body, flying through very matter itself until the whole universe is revealed to you. Then you are called back, told it was a hallucination, and provided the character customization menu through your employee file meant to remind you of who you are. After that you accompany the operations leader to hand the Artifact off to Barrett, a space explorer part of a legendary exploration group known as the Constellation. After the initial conversation and an unsuccessful raid from pirates, he invites you to join the Constellation on account of you "seeing what he's seen". He gives you his ship, his robot, and walks off.

After that, you run into some pirates, are lead to take down a pirate outpost, and the first quest ends there. That is considered your tutorial. There is a main story after that which can act as introductory quests, but the game lets you explore and accepts quests as you wish from this point. There are issues with this beginning, issues I have. First off, there's the more obvious problem of you not really being in control of what happens. There's no small choices you can make that give you that sense of agency. You are brought from story beat to story beat with no real care for investment. Even in terms of your "decision" to accept Barrett's invitation, there's no negotiation there. If you refuse, Supervisor Lin tells you that this is your purpose now and you should go along. There's not even really a way to ensure Barrett can get back home, you simply take his ship and fly off. That also runs into the issue of why Barrett would even lend you the ship.

He could fly you back and through him we could be provided important information on how the galaxy works. We could be informed what all these terms and factions being thrown at us during the tutorial and character customization even mean. What are these religions we can choose to align ourselves with? What are these places we can choose to hail from? What are the factions and how do they defer? We could've been told all this through Barrett and even have someone that could vouch for us to the Constellation. As the game is now, the Constellation accepts you immediately with no real resistance. If Barrett were to come along with us, it could provide an interesting dynamic where the Constellation is initially unsure of if you should be welcomed into their ranks. You along with the praise from Barrett could convince them to let you join, allowing the beginning to break from the "Chosen One" narrative it falls into far too readily.

I could go on about what Starfield could've done, like how being one of the Crimson Fleet Pirates taking Barrett's ship the "Frontier" would've provided an interesting hook and give you a more realistic route to get the ship and run off with it. Simply being there when Barrett was killed and escaping the planet as the mine is overrun with pirates would work much the same way and even provides minimal changes to how the story plays out in the next few hours. However that's not the point of this little rant here. The point is to showcase the flaws of the game's beginning. The game's story shows a nice amount of promise so far, being opted as an explorer gives you sufficient reason to run off and interact with the side content that often defines these Bethesda Game Studios games. However for any work the beginning is the most important. It is the first impression of your game. If that first impression is lacking in any way, the player could be made to feel like the rest of the game will follow its example. The beginning is the easiest time to lose your player and it deserves care. Starfield's beginning lacks care. It feels like it's almost treated as a second thought, which is such a travesty in a big budget game.

[gamerism]

1000% percent all this. The video is highly entertaining and a fun watch and I owe it knowing about pathologic as many english speaking fans do but ! So many people have walked away from that video letting it shape a whole set-in-stone view of what pathologic is and what its protagonists are like. Which is just like...extremely depressing. Hbomb would be disappointed in you all, I'm tell you that now.

I've never been able to figure out why he emphasises the "the game hates you" myth. The game does not hate you, it takes your hand and explains everything you need to know if you care to pay even a bit of attention to the tutorial (yes I know we're all trained out of doing that but please please do for pathologic you will not regret this) and the game gives you outs! It is trying to give the player an emotional experience to heighten the tone of hopelessness/desperation/ect/ect but its not supposed to be a miserable slog.

To give an example of an Out pathologic 2 (haruspex route) gives the player, and p2 is the harder game here, on day 5 you might be really tight on food on your first playthrough. You don't really know going in just how critical hoarding food on day 1 & 2 is. I know I was getting close to starving around day 5/6, and the game knew I might be in that position then. And it gave me the bull sidequest! You go cut a bull for the Kin and they give you some of the meat, which is the most filling & most expensive food in the game. That saved my playthrough pretty much! And the game has dozens of things like that.

Pathologic Classic is just like, an easier game. I have no idea where the "so so hard you'll be miserable" thing ever came from. Its just...Not. Its a bit janky at times in a way that can end up being frustrating, but that's relatively minor, and the game's overall base difficulty is much lower than pathologic 2's. (I haven't compared classic to p2's lowest settings, and as you said, 2 added the ability to change the difficulty which is a very good thing.)

You mentioned Daniil not being an irredeemable jerk in p2 since that's what you've played, as someone who has also played (most of) classic bachelor route, and marble nest.... The guy is even Less of a jerk when you play him. Like he is not a saint but this imagined version of him that is just The Worst is deeply strange. Dankovsky is just A Guy. I haven't played changeling route and maybe he's an asshole there I'm not sure. (I know he's fighting with Artemy, but I think he's also kind to Clara?) But each route views the other protagonists through distorted lenses. Like when not playing Clara we clearly learn that she sees malevolence towards herself and goals in some of Artemy and Daniil's actions that simply isn't there. (And from Daniil's eyes we see Artemy a bit more how the town gossips about him to be, ect ect ect) So I wouldn't take the version of him that exists in changeling as more true than the versions we play as in classic bachelor route & in marble nest.

Have you seen hbomberguy's video? Curious re your thoughts on it.

god I'm so sorry sddfgfdsj I meant to answer this 1000 times today but I kept falling asleep due to The Sunday Sleepies.

Overall I think it's a good into to patho, I think it's great how much attention it brought to the game, and I think overall he gets the main themes of the first game. I've seen better essays / video essays that delve deeper into its influences specifically in the context of what european / russian texts and theatres it's drawing from for dankovsky, and stuff that REALLY tackles how it fucks up colonial/imperialism themes despite how earnestly it wants to engage with them. But overall, as a video that introduces an obscure game to a wider audience, yeah it's great.

But oh my god the RESPONSE to it? Has not been great.

There's this great long post, I forget where, about how you can't just watch a video essay on a text and come away expecting to be an expert on that text. How the video essay is one person's experience and interpretation of a text intensely filtering it and passing it on to you, and to you that then becomes The Text, even though it is fundamentally a DIFFERENT text. It's not a complete game, it's a video from one guy's perspective focusing on certain aspects. I think this is ESPECIALLY true for hbomb's video because the way he emphasises how the game hates you personally and wants you to die puts people off of playing it for themselves.

In a lot of ways, in the public / internet consciousness, Hbomb's patho video has BECOME Pathologic to people. They're not thinking of the game, they're thinking of His Video. Which is fucked because like. Ugh.

For example: The video doesn't give Changeling Route the attention it really deserves. There's a reason for this - Changeling Route is the route the devs had the least time to develop. So, the more polished routes of bachelor and haruspex naturally took up more of hbomb's attention. That's fine! It's a natural response to the game! What's not fine is how the internet has taken that Response To The Text as being The Text, and now discussion about the game, because it's a Response To A Response To The Text like a game of telephone, is so heavily centered on Daniil. With each new iteration of response, Daniil becomes more and more central to the audience response until suddenly we're in a position where Daniil Dankovsky IS pathologic.

What I ESPECIALLY hate is that. Pathologic 2 is a totally different game, in more ways than I could possibly get into. The story is different, the characters are portrayed differently. But Pathologic 2, despite being infinitely more playable than patho 1 and even coming with accessibility difficulty options that can turn it into a borderline walking simulator, is IGNORED because "oh we saw the hbomb video we know what patho is about!" Which means I now have people who admit to not playing patho 2 telling me "daniil is a PRICK he's a PRICKLY PRICK HAHAH" when that is not the case in patho 2. I played pathologic 2! I know who Pathologic 2 Daniil Dankovsky is! I met him! You watched a VIDEO about Daniil Dankovsky that exaggerared his traits in a different game for COMEDY!

Sorry I got super off track there. Anyway to sum up: I think the video itself is great, but I wish it wasn't treated as The Text. Hbomb shows a lot of love for The Actual Text in that video and it's a shame that people don't want to actually experience it because they think they already have somehow.

[mypoisonedvine]

the martyrdom of st. valentine (and other romantic stories) || dark!Bucky & dark!(stepbrother?)Steve x reader

summary: you wanted to surprise your boyfriend on valentine's day, but he and your foster brother have a surprise of their own.

word count: 2.7k

warnings: smut (heavy dubcon to the point of pretty much noncon), kinda stepcest (as per summary, steve is the reader's foster brother), bondage, a lil touch of degradation

2/14 to-do list

get waxed

get Steve out of the apartment

pick up chocolate-covered strawberries from bakery on 6th

blindfold and handcuff myself to the bed

be waiting for Bucky naked when he gets here

You sighed as you looked down at the paper, crossing the first and third items off the list. The second was going to be a bit harder, unfortunately; your foster brother had a habit of hanging around and cramping your style as much as he could manage. He felt like a real brother in that way… okay, maybe he felt like a real brother in most ways, a consequence of knowing him for most of your life, but he was definitely not your real brother. You remembered that each time you caught yourself staring too long when he was shirtless, or returning from the gym all veiny and glistening with sweat.

But you also remembered that he was still the closest thing to a real brother you'd ever had, and you scolded yourself internally for ever acting differently.

It didn’t matter now— you had Bucky, and he was the most amazing guy you’d ever met.  No, Steve was definitely not happy that introducing his best friend to his sister led to a relationship forming, but he couldn’t stop either of you in spite of his efforts to keep you apart.

Bucky had once expressed his suspicions that it was at least in part due to jealousy, if subliminal.  But you denied it unilaterally— he’s basically my brother, you told him, though it was more of a reminder to yourself than anything.

Perverted concerns about Steve’s motivations aside, Bucky was a great guy.  A bit of a sweet-talker for sure, and not exactly known for his ability to keep a long-term, serious relationship, but he was adamant that you had changed that and for once you were beginning to believe him.  You’d said from the beginning that you didn’t need this to be the proverbial ‘it’ for either of you but that you didn’t do hook-ups— especially with your brother’s friends, and extra especially with your brother’s closest and longest friend.  It only took a brief speech and two shots to convince you, now six months later and you were still going strong.

Days like this made you so happy you’d given in to his advances.  But they also made you regret giving in to Steve’s idea to be roommates in college.

“Stevie!” you yelped as he walked in, stuffing the to-do list into your backpocket.  “Just the man I wanted to see.”

“I doubt that,” he scoffed.  “It’s Valentine’s Day, I bet you want to see Bucky.  He’s coming over, right?  And you want me to fuck off so my best friend can go to town on my sister?”

You frowned, crossing your arms.  “I wanted to see you because I have a gift for you.”

“... you do?”  His eyebrow raised and you hoped your smirk looked just as smug as it felt.

“So do you want your gift or do you want to be an asshole?”

“Do I have to pick just one?” he joked.

“Just come over here,” you instructed, waving him closer.  He seemed hesitant, but eventually did as you’d asked.  From your other back pocket you pulled out two tickets.

“Rangers, center ice,” you beamed.  “For you and a date.”

“And this isn’t just an excuse to get me out of the house?”

“No, it’s a thank you for being such a great brother.”

“So, if I wanted to take Bucky…” he trailed off, already calling your bluff as you rolled your eyes.

“Okay, that’s just sad.  There’s no reason you can’t find a girl to take— god knows Bucky hasn’t spent a Valentine’s Day alone since the fucking eighth grade.  And you’re just as cute as he is!”

“Well, if you could alert the rest of the female population to that, that would be great,” he scoffed, “but until then I’ll take the tickets,” he decided as he took them from your hand.  “A Rangers game might be the only thing distracting enough to keep me from thinking about what you and Buck are gonna do while I’m gone.”

You were hoping for a little more enthusiasm considering how much the tickets had cost you, but at least he was going to go and give you the apartment to yourself for the evening.  “You’re welcome, by the way.”

After stripping and sprinkling rose petals on the comforter, you'd actually found a YouTube tutorial on how to blindfold and handcuff oneself, and it was a little odd that enough people had this problem to merit its existence but it was still very helpful: turns out the secret is to blindfold yourself first but keep it folded up with one eye able to see until you do the handcuffs, then use your arm to slide the blindfold down into place.

It was tricky, and a little bit extra awkward while naked, but you figured it out and smiled proudly to yourself as you completed your last task on your to-do list.

Now, for likely the most difficult task of all: waiting in darkness and silence for Bucky to arrive.

Apparently it is, in fact, possible to be slightly bored yet titillated.  The thought of what Bucky would do to you when he got here was exciting, but it only made you crave his presence more which enhanced your quiet loneliness.  It wasn't like you could read a book or listen to music to kill the time, so you settled for humming to yourself as you waited.

Don't go changing, to try and please me, something something before, hmmm

I just want someone that I can talk to, I want you just the way you are...

But that grew tiresome quickly and you resorted instead to planning exacty how angry you would be if Bucky was late when you were waiting for him in such a compromising and inconvenient state.  For a moment you imagined he'd really gone to the Rangers game with Steve and became briefly livid over a hypothetical situation.

The crackling roar of Bucky's motorcycle outside was distant but undeniable, making you smile in anticipation.  You worried for a moment that you might have locked the top lock of the front door by instinct, but thankfully Bucky and to make it inside alright since next thing you knew, your bedroom door was opening.

The rattle of the doorknob made your breath catch; you opened your legs slowly in time with the quiet creak of the hinges.  “I’ve been waiting for you…” you purred.

“Hi there, babydoll,” Bucky’s voice answered back huskily.

The heavy steps of his boots made it clear he hadn't taken his shoes off at the door, a habit that had driven you crazy since he was your annoying brother's also-annoying best friend.  Was this the real reason he'd chained you up, so he could freely irritate you?  What next, was he gonna put a cold drink on your nightstand without a coaster?

"You really went all out for me, sweetheart," he noticed, his voice closer than you'd expected; it was fun to not know exactly where he would be, it made you squirm under the gaze you couldn't see but could somehow feel.

How weight joining yours on the bed was a good sign to his location though, along with his hands sliding up your legs.

“Look at this pretty pussy,” he cooed pridefully as he dove in suddenly and licked a thick stripe through your folds.

“Fuck,” you shivered, tugging on your handcuffs unintentionally.

“Feel good, babygirl?” he pressed, chuckling when you nodded.  “You want more?”

“Please,” you whimpered.

He didn’t get back to it right away, the weight on the bed shifting slightly, and it made you fear that he planned to make you beg more before eating you out— but finally his lips returned to you as his tongue explored your sex.

“Oh god,” you moaned, your back arching of its own volition.  It was a little different than he normally did this— less confident and measured, more cautious yet hungry.  Typically he teased you a lot more, knowing exactly the spots that drove you wild and intentionally leaving them understimulated until you begged him to let you come, but now as soon as he found them he was targeting them— perhaps a rare show of mercy from the guy who was normally happy to leave you on edge for hours.

You could feel his moans vibrating into you when he slid his tongue inside and against your channel; it instantly made your back arch as the handcuffs quietly clinked above your head.

He stopped just a little too soon, pulling your hips up until the back of your legs were resting on the front of his.  Being manhandled by him turned you on enough to make you bite your lip.

"Fuck, put your cock in me, wanna feel you," you moaned your plea as you heard the rustling of clothes; your mouth watered when you imagined Bucky stripping, with that insane body of his.

His thick head glided over your entrance and you were preparing to beg some more when he suddenly pushed in, giving you what you wanted so much faster than normal.  Not that you were complaining!

He was also much quieter than normal, which you were actually willing to complain about but didn't.

"Oh god," you groaned at the feeling of him stretching you open, gasping when his cock brushed right over your spot— it made your body jolt each time he pulled back and hit it again.

"Feels good, huh?" Bucky asked and you nodded happily.

"So good," you whimpered.

"I wasn't asking you."

Before you could question it, Bucky’s calloused fingers pulled up your blindfold— but it was Steve’s face above you, Steve’s body on top of yours… and, much to your horror, Steve’s cock inside you.

“What the fuck?!” you yelped, trying to squirm away as you tugged at the cuffs but failing completely.

“Fuck,” Steve winced, “you get really tight when you struggle like that.”

“Don’t act so surprised, babygirl,” Bucky cooed playfully as you turned to stare at his devilish grin.  “You wanted this… you just didn’t want to admit it to yourself.  And Stevie here always wanted this, too, and aren’t you so glad he told me?”

You shuddered as Steve continued thrusting, pushing his cock so deep it made you feel a little nauseous.  "Steve, you've gotta stop," you begged.   "If you love me, you'll stop."

"That's the thing: I love you too much to stop."

He moved faster, paying no mind to your confused whimpers, holding your hips tight as his head fell back slightly which brandished his thick neck and bobbing Adam's apple.

"There's no point in pretending," Bucky reminded you coldly, watching the whole thing with crossed arms and an expression that almost looked… bemused?  "You already showed us how much you love it, so don't waste your time acting so disgusted now."

You regretted more than anything saying that it felt good, literally asking him to fuck you before you really understood what you were asking for: you thought it was Bucky, yes, but that didn't mean it was an act.  It did feel good, and that must've been obvious to everyone since you were so wet already.  You could hear it each time he pushed all the way in, that telltale squelching noise that was somehow disgusting and hot all at once.

Steve wasn't so quiet now that he didn't have to be.  "God, you feel so good," he whispered, grabbing the backs of your knees and pushing your legs up.  It forced his cock even deeper and you choked on your own suppressed moan.

You heard Bucky opening his belt, and turned your head to see him pull out and stroke his cock while he watched Steve fuck you.  It was hard to imagine what he was getting out of this; he never seemed like the sharing type, if anything he sometimes became too possessive.  But clearly there was a lot about him and Steve that you didn't understand.

"Play with her tits," Bucky instructed, voice a bit deeper as he pleasured himself, "makes her come so fast."

Steve dropped your legs to rest on his shoulders so his hands were free to grope your chest, thick fingers twisting and tugging your nipples.  Annoyingly, Bucky knew his way around your body well by now, and so it was difficult to pretend that Steve's touches weren't sending shocks of pleasure right down your spine and to your core.

You had been biting on your lip so hard to stay quiet that you feared you would break the skin, until Bucky leaned down and gave you a little slap on the cheek— not very hard, but enough to make you gasp which in turn released the moan you'd been holding back.

"There it is, honey, don't be quiet for my benefit," Bucky encouraged.  "It's okay to like it, I'm not gonna be jealous."

As if that was your concern; angering your boyfriend by enjoying being fucked by your foster brother.  

"You really overestimate my interest in your— fuck— in your feelings," you panted as you glared up at Bucky where he was grinning down at you with a look that almost indicated pride.

"You're gonna come, aren't you?" he asked, ignoring your resistance entirely.  Whatever chance you had at pretending he was wrong was lost when, just for a moment, your eyes widened at his question.  "Yeah, thought so.  I can tell by that dumb look on your face.  I'm close too, babydoll, betcha wanna taste it…"

His free hand roughly held your jaw open as he stroked himself desperately, his weak groan coinciding with the moment you felt his hot seed spray into your open mouth, his taste familiar despite the entirely surreal circumstances.

It was purely coincidence that you came in that moment, your walls bearing down on Steve while you tried to stay silent so you wouldn't choke on Bucky's spend.

"Fuck, that's it, gonna fill this pretty mouth— god yes, you'd better swallow it all," he sighed as come painted your tongue and the inside of your cheek.  Maybe it was more than normal or maybe it was just that he was tightening his hand around the head of his cock to get every drop in your mouth, but either way it was enough to give you quite a mouthful to swallow, which you did without much question due to force of habit.

"M’close too," Steve warned as Bucky stepped back, "I'm gonna come."

“No, Steve, not inside,” you whimpered, hearing the way your voice had weakened after your orgasm, “you can’t…”

“I can,” he disagreed, “Bucky said so.”

Once again, Bucky's will was more important than your own, and your desperate pulling at the handcuffs was only another reminder of the way you'd guided yourself into his trap.

"Don't," you stammered one more time, but it was hard to focus when he was filling you exactly how you needed, when his thick hands gripping your waist felt just as perfect as you'd secretly imagined so many times… 

Denial is a powerful drug, but so is two orgasms in a row.

"Fuck!" you yelped as you felt a gush of warmth drip from your entrance, even further wetness spurring on Steve's fast and brutal thrusts into you.

"Knew you'd love it," Steve mumbled, growling slightly as he slammed into you.  "Knew you'd take it so well, make a pretty mess all over my cock— fuck I can't wait anymore, gotta fill you up, oh my god... gotta give you my load, honey, you want it?"

"Yes," you sobbed, "Steve, yes, come in me…"

He didn't need much more encouragement than that, groaning loudly as you felt his cock flex and pulse against your walls, his release overwhelmingly hot inside you.

You sighed in time with Steve as he finally stilled, and it was hard to know where to look when Steve and Bucky were both staring down at you.  “What happens now?” you found yourself asking, not so much a literal question about the next task but more about what the three of you were going to do with all the unfortunate truths that had come to light in less than half an hour.

“What happens now is I take my turn,” Bucky informed you sternly, pushing Steve aside.  “Did you really think I wasn’t gonna fuck my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day?”

[the-aggro-crag-car]

"You're really okay with doing this? I can manage myself I think, if you don't-"

"Lake, it's fine. The tutorial I looked at online didn't look too hard," Jesse said, trying his best to assure his friend and not show the nerves he felt holding the electric razor. He'd never cut anyone's hair before, let alone shaved it all off.

This hadn't been how he'd planned on spending the evening either. He hadn't thought much of it when Lake had texted asking to come over, but he probably should have. Lake didn't usually have to ask after all. He was pretty sure his family had just accepted at some point that there was just a non-zero chance of Lake being in the house at any given time.

So the fact that they had asked should have been a warning that something was wrong. He hadn't picked it up then, but he definitely had when they immediately made a beeline for his bed, hiding under the covers without a word.

It didn't take much to figure out what was wrong. Setting the blanket up as the world's worst fort had managed to break through their dismay enough to get a laugh, and then an explanation.

Another fight with their parents, which spilled over into a fight between their parents, which meant more arguing with Tulip until eventually Lake had stormed out and started stomping down the familiar walk to his house.

Apparently, the start of it all was that Lake had wanted a haircut. Things had just spiraled from there.

Jesse didn't know if the arguments and miscommunication would get better or worse if Lake actually came out to their family, but that was their choice, not his.

He couldn't fix everything like he wanted for them, but he could look up some videos and offer to steal the razor from his parents bathroom to cut Lake's hair himself.

"Okay, I'm ready when you are," Lake said, and Jesse nodded. It really had been just sort of, set the razor to the length you want and try to not miss any spots or take off an ear.

It didn't actually end up taking all that long. Lake's hair was usually pretty short already, but it had gotten near about down to their shoulders now. Even still, Jesse was kind of surprised by just how much hair was coating the bathroom floor by the time they were done.

"Okay, lemme know what you think and I'm sorry if you hate it," he said, stepping back and shaking the last bit of hair out of the razor.

Watching their face as they inspected themself in the mirror, Jesse could feel his stomach twist and flutter as a smile broke out on Lake's face. It was- people always made comments about how angry and irritated Lake was all the time, but that wasn't true at all. Jesse got to see them smiling plenty.

They had a really, really nice smile.

"Dude, it's perfect," they said, running a hand over their head and sending more tiny bits of red hair falling down and clinging to their clothes. Jesse's first instinct was to try to brush it off, but it was kind of everywhere.

"You might want to get a shower, unless you want to be itchy forever," he said, and Lake nodded, still not looking away from the mirror.

"Yeah, fair enough. Uh, do you have-"

"I'm pretty sure there are more of your clothes in my drawers than mine at this point," he said, which was only a slight exaggeration. Lake snorted, rolling their eyes.

"That's because you throw all your clothes in the bottom of your closet," they insisted, which was maybe a little fair.

"I don't throw them, they just fall off the hangers," he insisted, already heading out to grab them an outfit that wasn't covered in hair to change into.

When he came back Lake had managed to sweep up most of the floor hair into the trashcan. It was still pretty obvious that someone had been more or less sheered in there, but it was better than nothing.

Lake wasn't in the shower for too long, bursting into his room and collapsing down on his bed again. Unlike last time though they were smiling, a confidence solidified in them that Jesse hadn't even realized wasn't there before. He couldn't resist reaching out and petting their new buzzed hair when they laid down right in his lap. He was pretty sure they were trying to be annoying, but it didn't really work.

"Fuzzy," he commented, and Lake snorted at that.

"I know, right?" they said, their mood such a stark contrast to when they first showed up. "Seriously though, how's it look?"

"Super cool," Jesse assured them, because it did. "You look a lot more comfortable? It's,- I don't know, it's just really good," he continued, pausing some before adding with a wince, "even if this is definitely going to make your mom hate me even more than she already does."

"Eh, my parents hate everything that makes me happy," Lake said with a shrug, simple as anything. Jesse kind of wanted to argue, to tell Lake that probably wasn't true.

The casual way Lake had just admitted to Jesse making them happy though kind of distracted him. After a moment he managed to huff.

"Man, Lake you know how bad I get when I know people don't like me," he grumbled, getting a snort from his best friend.

"Well, you could stop doing so much for me. That might get my parents to stop being all dumb about you," they suggested, and he knew it wasn't a sincere option.

"Yeah, that's not happening," he insisted, becauseit wasn't. "Maybe a cake?"

"Worth a shot," Lake said with another shrug. It had been a bit of a joke, but he might actually need to get some sort of apology gift after this. He could only imagine the fallout that was sure to come when Lake actually went home.

They could put that off for a while though. This sort of thing had happened before. Lake's family probably wouldn't be expecting them back until at least morning.

"Thanks. Again," Lake muttered, and Jesse couldn't help but smile as he continued to run his hand over short buzzed hair.

"Hey, i told you it's fine. Worth it to see you so happy," he said, which was maybe more straightforward than he usually would be, but it was true.

He could deal with some people being mad at him for his part in this, if it meant seeing Lake so happy.

[rainofaugustsith]

On group content and FFXIV

So since I started FFXIV I've joined a guild, I've done a few raids (with a lot of ex-SWTOR players!), run a lot of dungeons with a friend (so much fun) and jumped into shared tagged Fates in the open world. All of which would have been completely unthinkable to me in SWTOR. What's the difference?

The major issues with why I am not a huge fan of group content remain, namely that when there's a group of players all converging on screen I can't see what is going on, I can't target anything, and I find it very stressful. It's really not fun for me to try to pick an enemy out of a huge moving group of NPCs.

That's true for the solo duties where there are a lot of NPCs on screen with you, too - I've ended up failing them and having to try again sometimes simply because I can't even see where to fight. I picked up the astrologian as a second job, which is a healer, and I'm actually finding that a hell of a lot easier - simply because I don't have to really look at the fight, I can just look at the health meters of the party members that are helpfully shown right on screen for me, and click on those to target and heal. 

ARR has more dungeons in one patch than SWTOR has had in ten years of life, and a number of them are required for the MSQ. I'm going to be straight up, if FFXIV's required dungeons were handled like SWTOR's I would not have touched this game, and I certainly would not have continued playing. I still am grateful that after ARR they made a decision not to have raids be part of the MSQ. Having said that there's a hell of a lot of good reasons this works in FFXIV as opposed to that other game.  And there's also a reason I see the dungeons and trials in FFXIV as fun and not chores. 

First, foremost and most importantly: Yoshi from FFXIV has said straight out that he knows that the multiplayer content turns off some prospective players. But instead of trying to beat them into submission and force them into content they hate, he's taken steps to make it more welcoming, including retooling 10 year old content to make it soloable.

1. In later expacs they introduced the Trust/Duty Support system, which allows one to complete trials and dungeons for the MSQ with a slate of NPCs, instead of other players. They recently expanded it to ARR, and it's been announced that they intend to bring this to the other expacs, too. So you actually don't need any other players to run this content at level. 

2. "At level" being the keyword - that isn't necessary. They allow you to run the dungeons and trials without level sync. So you can do these dungeons when you are really overleveled and stomp through solo. Or bring a single friend that can speed run you through even 8-person trials and stomp everything, the way I did, and you're done in ten minutes and it's super fun. You don't get XP in that case, but you still get the treasure chests and the credit for having done the dungeon so you can move on with the MSQ. 

3. Squadrons. You can run some dungeons synched to level with your own squadron of NPCS from your Grand Company, which is like Duty Support but more hands-on in terms of actually training and leveling up the NPCs who accompany you. So look at that, they've provided three different ways to make these dungeons soloable and/or able to be managed with two players instead of a huge group. Additionally:

4. They seem to have greatly cut the number of dungeons required for MSQ overall. There were several solo fights in Heavensward that I was sure would have been dungeons in ARR. 

5. Oh, and one more thing: they actually take the time to explain what the player is supposed to do in group content. There are very well done tutorials where they walk you through the role your job has - DPS, healer or tank - and specifically point out how you're supposed to play that role, what you need to pay attention to, and where you are supposed to be. There's a series of these tutorials so you can practice. So they don't expect players to come into the game, or group content, knowing how it works.

And the duty support helps here too - frankly that's how I've practiced my astrologian, in the duty support dungeons. So when she actually recently went out and tried healing people in Fates, she overall managed to keep them alive (or *cough* revive them quickly, and FFXIV devs, PLEASE let healers heal the fighting chocobos some time?)

6. The dungeons and trials are short. Even if you are doing these synched to level, you're likely going to be in there like 20 or 30 minutes at most. Likely less time. So you're not spending hours slogging through stuff like Spirit of Vengeance. The one duty that was really long was recently divided in three recognizing it was too long. 

7. it isn't mob after mob after mob! Imagine that. So the issue about not seeing where to target generally doesn't apply; you don't have huge mobs of enemies descending on you. 

8. If you are defeated in a duty, they give you the option to make it easier and buff your character when you go back in. If you get defeated again, the buff increases. They apparently want you to be able to finish this stuff instead of rage quitting from frustration, and they recognize that some players need the easy mode - no shame in it. 

9. They keep old content more relevant. Like there will be a hard, higher level version dungeon that is physically set in a beginning dungeon, but the story and NPCs in it have totally changed. 

10. The game is way, way story based, and if you honestly don't want to do any of this there are ways to find fun things to do in the game aside from the dungeons. 

11. Oh, and last but not least: from what I have seen, FFXIV players are by and large really nice and don't act like assholes. The culture they've established for the game is specifically not to be an asshole, especially to new players. They take specific steps to cut down on asshole behavior out in the open world, such as requiring players to be level synched to Fates and making it more or less impossible to steal someone else's gathering node or boss. You can keep general chat open because it isn't an endless stream of hate. The game rewards you for being nice and helpful, down to having a mentorship program for veteran players to help new ones. You can turn off effects from other people's weapons/etc. so they don't bother you, as well. 

So- yeah, it's not rocket science - but perhaps in FFXIV people enjoy group content more because it's more enjoyable, can be handled multiple ways, and is presented in a culture that is friendly and not toxic. Imagine that!

[barsformars]

Tricky

//

g - fluff, slighttttttt angst, suggestive

p - san x reader

w.c - 1.9k

t.w - san touching reader's naked body

c - san takes care of you when you get injured and are left all alone at home. the catch is? both of you obviously have feelings for each other but.....san

a.n - uusjsjjs this was requested through private message! im sorry it took so long lmao uh, this is just 1.9k of plotless words nothing will be solved by the end of the story so its almost like word vomit???

t.l - @closer-stars @jeongyunhoed @fairyofdusk

//

"It's not funny," you snarled at the pink haired boy who seemed to be overly amused at this situation in which both your arms were put in slings. You had slipped over a puddle of water, and that had sent you flying down the small flight of stairs right outside the taekwondo dojang, resulting in two dislocated shoulders. San pressed his lips firmly into a tight line to stop the corners of them from quirking up. On one hand, he does feel really bad, but if he said you didn't look ridiculously hilarious right now, he'd be lying. "I wonder who was on the verge of tears earlier on."

"That's because you were in so much pain I felt so bad for having asked you over for a sparring session!" San defended himself, a small pout forming as he did so. "At least the body and shin guards saved you from breaking your bones."

Once the elevator reached your floor, San pressed on the button to hold them open while keeping a close eye on you as you slowly exited. You've never noticed how much arm or shoulder action happens when you walk, until now.

It was only when you stepped through your front door and noticed your roommate's house slippers still sitting on the bottom of the shoe rack do you remember that they were out on a business trip. Being alone at home right now wasn't an option for you when you couldn't do anything by yourself, but your roommate wouldn't be back till next week. You didn't want to burden any of your other friends so late in the night, you had no choice but to rely on San.

But things...are always a little trickier with him.

"I can only stay for tonight," San sighed as he placed his phone down on the coffee table. You don't know if it was a sigh of relief or one of frustration; he had pleaded over the phone for ten minutes. "But my manager said that they can send someone over to help you out for the next few days."

"It's alright, I'll ask Jimin for help tomorrow. If they aren't available, I'll let you know, yea?" San nods, though rather reluctantly. He trusts that you'll be able to take care of yourself, except physically for now at least.

San holds you by the waist to support you as you got up from the couch, keeping an arm wrapped around it as he brought you to the bathroom. "Please tell me you have a bathtub."

"I insisted on having one, glad it's finally of actual use."

"Oh yeah."

As you soaked in the warm bath that San had ran for you, you couldn't help but think of everything that has been happening between the two of you. The lingering touches, the jokes with double meanings, the way he gazes at you so softly, and the sudden tension that fills up the atmosphere following all those. San hasn't put a title over what this relationship was, and you've been too afraid to take the lead even though you knew that friends don't act like that towards one another. You didn't want to pressure him, he already has a lot on his plate. But he ought to give you an answer soon if he's about to see you in your most vulnerable state, right?

There comes another knock on the door, the tenth one in the whole duration of your bath. "I was being serious when I said don't try to act tough and do everything alone." The knocking continued on non-stop until you replied.

"You're an impatient one, aren't you?" You joked. "I'm done, I need help getting out."

"Not impatient, just worried." You hear his back leave the door for a moment as he stood up from the floor. And as politely as he could be while intruding into your private space, San pushed open the toilet door gently and stepped in after informing you first. You couldn't stop the giggle from escaping your throat when you took sight of him, his eyes shut close in consideration that you might not want him seeing you naked.

"Oh, you're laughing? At me?" San asked in disbelief as he pulled his arms that were searching for the wall back and rested his hands on his hips, a playful smile growing on his face. "Why are you laughing?"

"Because you're cute," you cooed, much to his dismay.

"I'm not cute!" San argued, his eyes now open and glaring at you, still rather adorably. But before you could tease him any further, San practically stomped his way to the bathtub, leaning down to your eye level as his arms gripped onto the sides. "Don't mistake my manners for cuteness, I'm not." He said, almost with a growl, as he reached into the water and wrapped his strong arms around your torso, pulling you up so that you could stand. Taking pride in the way your eyes widened in surprise, San couldn't help but smirk before giving you a quick peck on your forehead. "You're cute."

Once he got you out of the bathtub, San tried his best to not look at your body as he dried you up with a towel while you stood there blankly, still at a complete loss for words. "You're so rude," you told San after finally able to process whatever just happened a minute ago. The boy merely raised his eyebrows, his lips pursed. "Taking advantage of my injuries to show off your strength when you know how I feel about it."

"Well, you're not stupid, you know how I feel about you. It's only normal I act cool a little," San replied nonchalantly but you could tell that he was too afraid to look you in the eye. "Come on, let's go get you dressed."

"Also, just thought that you should know...." San paused for a moment to make sure that you dried your feet properly on the mat before continuing. "I almost patted your bare ass earlier on." You can't even blame him. With how touchy he and his members are, you aren't even surprised that touching people's butt has become their second nature. But even then, he really didn't have to tell you.

"TMI dude."

San had been watching YouTube tutorials on how to put on shirts with a dislocated shoulder while waiting for you to wash up earlier on. You wouldn't have known either if he wasn't showing off all the knowledge that he had learnt less than half an hour ago by trying to convince you quite passionately, and with demonstrations, about why a dress shirt would be much easier to put on than a t-shirt, especially in your case.

"I will. I will wear dress shirts until my shoulders recover," you sighed heavily in defeat. "But just for tonight, can you help me with a t-shirt? I want to sleep comfortably even if it's just for tonight."

This time it was San's turn to sigh as he reached out to pinch your cheek. "I already told you that it will hurt."

"Make it not hurt then." You shook your head so that he would let go.

"Just sleep naked then," San mumbled under his breath but loud enough for you to hear, causing you to scowl at the boy. He catches your expression and sticks his tongue out at you. "Am I wrong?"

"T-shirt," you stated firmly, refusing to comply even when you knew San only had the best intentions for you in mind. You already don't think you could sleep with two injured shoulders, much less with your crush staying the night with you, and definitely even much lesser with an uncomfortable sleeping outfit. "Or I'll bite you." Those words becoming a reality became much more probable when his dimples makes an appearance once again, resembling the dent on a mochi when you press into it with a finger.

"I don't think that's a wise idea right now, maybe next time-" he gave you a gentle boop on the top of your nose with his finger-"now, your majesty, may I help you put on your gold thread shirt made from silk of the finest quality on so that both me and you can be spared from getting ourselves into a tricky situation?" If you could throw a punch at San right now, you would, but all you could do right now was to sit on the bed quietly and accept the teasing. And also whatever San was about to do to help you put on the shirt.

You wonder if it's too late to change your choice of clothing after San kneels down behind you on the bed, his chest and toned abdomen almost plastered onto your back as he reached over your shoulders to grab your forearms. "I need you to put your arms a little closer together, we'll have to try to get both through the sleeves together," he explained clearly and waited for your nod before he moved your arms as cautiously as he could, his eyes studying every twitch of your facial expression to check for discomfort or pain. "Tell me if it hurts okay? Don't act tough, I keep telling you that but please, please don't act tough."

All you could manage was a soft "mhm", your throat feeling too tight for proper words to come out of your mouth. You wonder if San, like how you could feel the warmth of his hands and body, could feel the heat radiating off your cheeks too. "I'm going to pull both sleeves up now, it may hurt a little," San warned, one hand coming up to pat your head affectionately before he gripped onto the sleeves again. Even with how gentle he was being, a wince still manages to escape from you, putting a pause on San's actions as he tilt his head to look at you. "I'm sorry, it will be over soon." You nodded, fully trusting him.

Though there were still a couple more times your shoulders hurt before the sleeves were fully through, the little apology he makes every time that happens comforts you, and also, makes your heart beats embarrassingly fast. Getting your head through the hole was a much easier feat and it didn't take long before your shirt was on.

San got off your bed to fetch his backpack and for a moment you thought that he was going to pull out the painkillers that you were prescribed with but instead, he took out two boxes of shoulder brace. "When did you even get that?" You asked, amused and touched at the same time. The shoulder slings the hospital had put you in was terribly uncomfortable and while the brace may not be way better, it was still better than the sling.

"When you were getting your x-ray done," San replied with a proud smile.

"Aw, I would give you a pat on your head if I could."

Upon hearing that, San practically shoved his pink hair into your face as he bent down. "You can kiss me on my head."

"I will bite you."

[carruth00]

The Vault - Breakers by Ade Rahmat - A Review Video Download

This is the Ad Copy:

A playing card, key, coin, or even a borrowed credit card melt right through a solid deck of cards!

After doing a card trick with a regular deck of cards and with no switches you offer to show them an amazing optical illusion. You borrow a key or credit card, drivers license etc. and make it melt right through your solid deck of cards.

As soon as you show the illusion you can show them every card in the deck one by one and they can see the cards are real and that there are no holes in them.

The gimmick is easy to load on and off the deck which allows you to hand the deck out for examination if you would like, or to continue with other effects using the same deck of cards.

Easy to build. Fun to perform. Download it today!

My Thoughts:

I have a soft spot for pocket illusions. If I can take an illusion that fits in my hands.. and fool you with it.. there's room for it in my repertoire. Since my principle performing venue is a restaurant, BREAKERS is an ideal effect.

I also have a real appreciation for inexpensive magic that works. BREAKERS is very inexpensive and does everything advertised..

Ade Rahmat has created a very functional illusion. You can seemingly pass a selected card completely through a deck of cards. Actually, you can apparently pass any small, flat object through the deck.. including keys, coins, business cards.. and whatever else inspires you.

Notice the key word is 'apparently'. That's where the illusion portion comes into play.

Ade's effect is a download. That means to create the illusion, which in this case is another word for a prop, you'll need a bit of DIY. Although the prop is reasonably complex.. it's not complex to construct. Ade uses almost the entire sixteen minute tutorial carefully constructing the prop/gimmick, and walks you through each twist and turn in real time. All you'll need is a sharp razor and clear double-sided tape. You'll also need a straight edge (ruler) to assist with accurate cuts and a pencil. That's it…

You're taught the basic handling and positioning. There is a bit of angle required.. but your hand should conceal most of the gimmick. Ideally, perform BREAKERS straight on and you shouldn't have a problem. The gimmick is designed to, basically, fold flat to aid in concealment and ditching.. although you don't have to ditch it.

The video tutorial is well filmed and wordless. The video image is quite sufficient to construct your gimmick..

For eight bucks.. you can't beat the price. Go watch the demo video and see how it looks. If this is your type of magic.. you'll appreciate all the effort Ade put into BREAKERS.

$8.00 .. Available from Murphy's Magic and their Associates..

Review by Rick Carruth

[breakfast-cereal]

Stupid For You (2) -Johnlock

← ← MAIN MASTERLIST

← PART ONE

PART THREE

!¡Trigger Warning¡! DO NOT IGNORE!: mentions to drugs and addiction, alcohol use, vomiting, hints to declining/poor mental health.

Rosie's hair was in a slightly dishevelled braid that reached just above her shoulder blades

"Youtube seems to be helpful for tutorials. Slightly inaccurate, though." Sherlock looked as if he was about to write down notes.

"It's YouTube, Sherlock." John looked at Rosie who had a massive grin on her face

Rosie rushed to Sherlock and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you, daddy!"

Sherlock didn't seem to protest and accepted the role of a father figure to Rosie. John was confused by this. If Sherlock was a father figure to Rosie wouldn't that insinuate that he and John were together? Does that not bother Sherlock?

"No problem." Sherlock ushered Rosie back to her room and then sat back down to work on the case.

John sat on the couch, sneaking glances at Sherlock while watching some sports game on the telly. He reached for his phone on the table and scrolled through it while watching the telly and concentrating on Sherlock. John was hoping this would have some distraction from his headache. The light from his phone just seemed to make the headache worse. John had opened google and was staring down at it. His headache was horrible and those confusing feelings had returned to plague his thoughts. Without thinking, John entered "John Watson and Sherlock Holmes" into the search bar and entered it. He looked around anxiously as if someone was going to pop out of any corner and catch him looking at this. The worst would be Sherlock. Results popped up raging from "Johnlock" blogs to articles describing their relationship. John clicked on the first article and skimmed it until reaching a part that specifically piqued his interest.

Sherlock Holmes and his partner John Watson's relationship is obviously less than platonic. Relationship expert, Tiffany Laines has confirmed multiple theories with her video "Debunking 'Johnlock'." Laines stated in her video that "Holmes and Watson are very close for just roommates. It seems it's Holmes&Watson rather than just Holmes and Watson. Based on body language queues, like the leaning in from Watson, and the way Holmes' colleagues described him as brash whereas it seems John does not find him that way. Can this mean Holmes treats Watson differently? Of course, we can never be sure with their limited interaction, but my speculation is something is going on."

John read over that paragraph multiple times. He read it for what felt like hours. He stared and analyzed it wanting to know what they meant. What the secret meaning could be even though the truth stared back at him. He wanted to throw his phone. Launch it across the room. Find whoever wrote that article and beat them. Instead, John put his phone down and made his way up to make some tea.

"Tea?" He asked into the air, hoping Sherlock would maybe answer.

"Yes, that'd be nice."

John prepared two cups and watched while the water boiled in the kettle. He listened to it fizz and at some moments John wondered if it would boil over. John could be compared to a kettle. He would fizz and bubble until he reached a point where he would just stop or boil over completely. John believed he was a calm individual, though he wasn't. It's hard being calm when you're rather vigilant all the time.

"I've got it!" John spun to see Sherlock pacing around the house frantically. "It was so obvious how could I have not gotten it!",

"What?",

"It's objects! The numbers were words and the words were objects. I've got a lead, John.",

"How did you manage to get that out of a sheet of numbers?" John was impressed. Well, not impressed, because Sherlock could solve a murder with his eyes closed and hands tied, but his skills were always impressive.

"It became quite obvious with hints. The necklace the woman had is a precious object so at first, I thought it could be something expensive, but there's nothing expensive in our flat. Yes, I'm assuming it is in our flat, as the woman left these papers in our flat rather than taking them to Mrs. Hudson, or some other person. Of course, maybe it's just because she was one to visit us, but with the pieces of paper originally the coordinates seemed to also have directions that were rather similar to the way to get into our flat. To sum it down simply, there's clues in certain objects in our flat." Sherlock seemed so animated when he talked about these things. He always strived for perfection and clarity on his cases and when he got it, it's like it sent him into a high. "Don't drink the tea, by the way.",

"What's wrong with the tea?" John felt overwhelmed with this information. There were hidden messages all over the flat. What if he stepped on one? Or got it wet?

"You added milk to yours. It's expired. Strange you pour the milk before the water." John looked at the milk in his cup that had small chunks in it and dumped it down the sink, sugar swirling down with it.

The kettle finished as John was there and he poured it into Sherlock's cup. He waddled over to Sherlock's desk and placed the tea, noticing the messy state of affairs. Sherlock's desk had papers all over it. The papers in the centre focus were the ones from the most recent case. One paper had computer, Jane Eyre, heart, written on it, while all the others remained blank.

"Heart?" John felt a strange feeling when Sherlock looked panicked. Sherlock looked like that word wasn't supposed to be written.

"Likely mistake. I don't know why that word is there. Stupid mistake." Sherlock quickly flipped over the paper and overemphasized the grab of the cup. "Go watch telly or something. I'm busy." John hated the way Sherlock would brush him off so easily. Even with living with him all these years he still couldn't brush off the hurt it caused. He wanted to get his mind off this, but his mind immediately went to drinks. With what John remembered happened last night, drinking was the last thing he wanted to do. So instead, John left the flat.

He walked the opposite way from the pub. His mind thought of one thing and one thing only; Sherlock. He felt like one of those articles as he speculated what heart could be. Does Sherlock have a secret photo album of Irene Adler? John was sure that Sherlock didn't have any human organs (they had cleaned all those out after John screamed at Sherlock over the fact that if Rosie ever found them she'd be terrified.) Was heart meaning that Sherlock's heart had been taken? Was he in love with someone? John felt a spike of jealousy and resent for whoever this person was. How dare they have Sherlock's heart. Why can't it be John? John paused internally. Why was John so jealous? He didn't like Sherlock. He never liked Sherlock. Sherlock was a friend, but friends don't get jealous over their friend's relationship because they want it to be them. Maybe John wanted Sherlock as a little more than a friend, but he only liked women. His brain was just being weird again. It's because he hadn't been with any women in a while. He just missed Mary, and Sherlock was the only person around that he could be with, so his brain was just skipping to conclusions. John needed to meet someone. There was one person that came to mind, the woman he had met on the bus. He had always wanted more and now was the time for that. He could unblock her number and text her. It would be something that has no strings attached. It will help John get his mind off Sherlock. He'll be able to realize his feelings were stupid.

When John was back at the flat he felt strange guilt. Like sending a text to this woman would be cheating on Sherlock. Sherlock wasn't romantically interested in John at all. John stared at his phone and the text that was sitting and waiting to be sent

Would you maybe want to meet up sometime this week?

John shut off his phone, he needed time to consider. He wasn't sure what he wanted. He wanted something. He wanted someone, but this just didn't feel right to him. She didn't feel right for him. He felt like he would be using her. He would use her to distract himself from his own problems. He didn't need a distraction he needed advice. He really needed advice. Who was he supposed to get advice from?

John sat at a small table with a pink linen table cloth on it. The chairs were rickety and felt as if they were going to fall apart any moment, whereas the table cloth looked pricey and was clearly good quality. It had ballerinas dancing on it, and could definitely be used as a small blanket.

"What are you here for, John?" Mrs. Hudson asked,

"I need some advice." John expected Mrs. Hudson to be the last person he went to, but there he was, sitting in her flat.

"Aw, did something go down between you and Sherlock?",

"No, no, that's not it. Well, I mean. I don't know." John wanted to smack his head into the desk. "I need advice on feelings."

"Oh, John," Mrs. Hudson sounded genuinely caring. Or maybe John just wanted her to care.

"I'm not in love, before you think I am. I'm just confused and I want advice.",

"Is it Sherlock?" Mrs. Hudson knew before John. The articles knew before John. John realized with those words, that he was indeed stupid for Sherlock. He had to admit it to himself. He can't deny it all.

"I don't like men." Denial, denial, denial. All he did was deny. He had realized, but he wasn't going to acknowledge it. He may know, but if he ignores it, it's not real.

"I may be your landlady, but that doesn't make me oblivious." ,

"But I'm not-"

Mrs. Hudson interrupted him, "my advice is to stop denying it."

John pushed up from the table, shocked the chair didn't crumble. "I think that's enough advice for today." He hissed as he left the flat.

TAG LIST: @johnlocktrashsblog @ephemeraljimin @artefo @love-j0y

[jayjaydawn]

love is in the hair

Summary: Where you love playing with Jeonghan’s long hair until he cuts it.

Pairing: Jeonghan x Reader

Genre: Fluff

Words: 1271

A/N: I don’t know what went through my mind when I wrote this xD (Sorry for the title, I just had to 😂)

"Life is too short to have boring hair" 

It was a sunny day, the perfect weather to go outside. But you were lying down on your bed, your laptop on your chest, watching stupid videos on YouTube. The chips you were munching on was everywhere, some even sneaking down your t-shirt. But that's okay, you could just pull it out of your bra and eat it. 

You were so comfortable but so bored. You sighed as you paused the video playing and started looking for something else to watch; 'Different hairstyles for medium length hair' 

Oh my god, you really wanted to learn how to do these hairstyles. 

Before you knew it, it was already getting dark outside, your position hadn't changed at all. It was high time you got out of your lazy position and took a bath. So you did exactly that. 

°°°

The bell rang and you rushed to go open it. 

"Hello handsome" you said jokingly as soon as you opened the door. Before he could say anything, you pulled him towards the living room, forcing him to sit on the couch. 

"Where did all this energy come from suddenly?" 

"Today was so boring, I wanted to be productive but at the same time I didn't want to do anything. Ughhh the pain" you said in an exaggerated manner. 

Jeonghan chuckled as he got up to go to the kitchen. 

"Are you hungry? There's some food in the fridge if you want." 

"Okay, I'll just get fresh and come back down" he said as he came out of the kitchen. He looked at you and found you smiling at him creepily. Your white teeth on display. It was all very suspicious. He slowly walked towards the room while also looking at you from the corner of his eyes. 

"You know I really love you right?" you said before he could enter the room. 

"Hmmmm" he made a noise as he went in, he knew you were planning something and he didn't know how to feel about it.

°°°

When he came to the living, he found you still sitting on the couch, but this time you were fiddling with something. 

"Why are you fidgeting so much ___?" 

You suddenly sat up straight and looked at him with slightly wide eyes. "Nothing."

He looked at you for 20 seconds and went to the kitchen. He came back out with the noodles and sat next to you. 

He was focused on the TV when he felt you staring at him. Without turning around he said, "Just tell me what you want." 

You were surprised that he noticed you were trying to ask him something, "uhmm, can I braid your hair? I want to try something." 

"Okay." He replied nonchalantly and sat down on the floor in front of you. 

And so it began. You grabbed his hair and you went crazy with it. Poor guy. 

"Ouch" 

"Stop moving so much!" 

"What do you mean? You're pulling out all my hair. I'll go bald at this rate."

You made a regular braid and then a french braid. And then pigtails. And space buns. And a fish plait. You experimented to your heart's content and it was so much fun. Let's not forget all the pictures and selfies you took.

You threw your hands over his shoulders and hugged him from the back. Kissing his cheek multiple times you said, "Thank you for letting me do this." 

He swiftly turned around and pushed you on the couch, climbing on top of you. He kissed you everywhere on the face and you couldn't stop laughing, especially him doing this with pigtails on each side of his head. It was just so funny. 

"I love that your hair is so much prettier than mine. I would like it to remain long forevveeerrr" 

"Oh! Is that so? So you can try all sorts of things with my hair huh? Maybe I'll cut it tomorrow" he smiled down at you. 

"No you won't" you pouted at him. 

"Okay I won't. Don't look at me like that." He laughed at you and picked you up to take you to your room. 

°°° 

This became a very normal thing you both did. When he used to do his own thing and you were bored, you'd sit behind him and start playing with his hair, watching YouTube tutorials and trying new hairstyles. 

Till that one faithful day. 

°°°

Jeonghan and you were supposed to meet at a cafe that you frequently visited. You were getting ready when you received a call from him. He told you he might be a little late and to leave the house accordingly. You were suddenly worried because you could hear the nervousness in his voice but you couldn't think of any reason for him to be nervous to meet you.

You arrived at the cafe and sat near the window, at the far end. This was where you both sat whenever you visited the cafe. Taking out your phone you dialed Jeonghan's number. 

"Hey, I've reached. Are you going to take some more time?"

"Uhmm- No no, I'm 5 minutes away. You can place the order for us." 

"Okayy, see you soon." You hung up and called for the waiter. Placing your regular order, you played games on your phone till Jeonghan reached. 

"____! I'm so so sorry for keeping you waiting!" You heard Jeonghan frantically say as he pulled out the chair for himself. 

"Its ok--" you looked up at him before you could complete your sentence. 

It felt like you froze for a moment. You were absolutely gobsmacked. You reached your hand forward and touched his hair. 

"YOU CUT YOU HAIR?!?" 

"Shhhh, we're at a public place ____" jeonghan laughed. 

"Oh my god! I can't believe this! Why didn't you tell me you were going to cut your hair?" 

"The company informed me today. I'm supposed to have short hair for the next comeback. Honestly, I feel quite free. Do you not like it?"

"Huh? Of course I like it. I love whatever you wear and however you choose to keep your hair. But I just feel sad."

"Why? You know it can grow back right?" 

"I'll really miss your long hair." You said frowning. 

"Hey! Turn that frown upside down will you?" Jeonghan said pointing finger guns at you. 

You gave him a questionable look, "Yuck, where did that come from?" "Can you please appreciate my corniness sometimes?" Jeonghan laughed at you as he pulled your nose gently. "Nope" you shook your head. Just then the waiter came with your food. 

You both continued eating while still throwing comments about his hair here and there. 

°°°

Jeonghan and you held hands, as you walked along the sidewalk, with masks over your faces. 

You turned towards him while walking and put your hand out to touch his hair again. 

"I don't know how I feel about this."

"I have an idea actually." "What is it?"

"Why don't we find a new hobby? Maybe you can do my nails instead of my hair." He said while looking ahead. 

You suddenly stopped walking, he turned and looked at you. 

"Really? You'd let me do your nails?" You looked at him with the most innocent expression ever. 

"Whatever makes you happy baby." He said. You burst out laughing and jumped on his back. He instinctively caught your legs, pushing you up to give you a piggy back ride. 

"You're the cutest ever. I love you so much you know that?" You said and you both made your way home.