#u can tell me via my inbox or reply : )

[chlotual-archive]

im v curious how do u perceive me 🎤

[drop--pop--candy]

GAAHHHH it was really silly of me to ask what music you like. it literally slipped my mind that your url is a vocaloid song. i guess i asked because there are so many vocaloid songs, and so many different vibes and sounds, the vocaloid music one likes could differ greatly from that of another. i *do* listen to vocaloid, surprisingly & embarrassingly sparingly, as i'm a proseka fan. but do rule out your prsk-only mutuals. hmm...to give you a hint, my favorite units are mmj and niigo. i have a project sekai url, but i don't talk about it much nowadays >_> mostly because my ipad—what i play on—is on the fritz, and i plan on saving up to buy a new one so i can both play and draw digitally. it has been so saddening, not being able to do either of those things 。゜゜(´Ｏ`) ゜゜。in terms of proseka characters, you give me saki vibes ! she and shiho are my faves from leoni ♪

drop pop candy is such a cute song! and it's clearly very special to you. i remember listening to it for the first time in an undertale animation on youtube. i think my first vocaloid song was triple baka. i also like a wide range of styles, but i, too, love upbeat and energetic songs like you do. i won't right now because in my last ask i recommended you a whole album, but i'll make sure to send over some energetic kpop songs i think you'll like at some point ♡

CHICKEN TENDERS IS CRAZY LOL & it makes for a very funny story, if i do say so myself! the sugar bit is very telling. it's like i can smell and taste them myself just from the way you described it. do you remember what song you were listening to, or has it since slipped your mind? even if your synesthesia is mild, i still think it's cool! does drop pop candy smell like anything to you?

re: your tags I DO THE SAME THING. emojis, kaomojis & emoticons are perfect punctuation ^^ especially in online spaces, i think. i don't use kaomojis a lot in text because they're a hassle to copy and paste, but i love simple emoticons like :3 and ^_^ as well as emojis. also, it's easy to break up separate thoughts into several messages 🌸

+ the game is on !!!!! yay ! i'll be looking out for yellow hearts in my inbox, then. i'm trying to think of hints that don't make my identity obvious LOL. let's seeee...there aren't any dashes in my url & my favorite sanrio character is kuromi.

one last note: you're not the only person who assigned me leafeon via that game :> my friend reblogged with the tag "im breaking molds im shattering expectations . leafeon" which made me laugh a little to myself. everyone else mostly says sylveon!

i'll make sure to drink some water today ૮₍ ´ ꒳ `₎ა you have a nice morning/afternoon/evening yourself . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

♡, sylvie

OOOOOH okay!!! maybe ill make a list of all the hints i have of u some day :3 (maybe ill do it in the tags? idk)

i have been told i give saki vibes lol she was actually my pfp before i made my blog mirabelle themed ☆w☆ i love her a lot!! she's one of my favorite characters from any piece of media ever so i'm glad people compare me to her :D

i do remember what song triggered the chicken tender thing!! it was empurple, the new mafuyu commission. i'm in a bunch of project sekai servers so people were posting it everywhere right after it came out and on my very first listen i was immediately hit with a wave of Very Specific smell. it was super weird!! because up to that point i hadn't really experienced any bouts of synthesasia that weren't subtle enough to just write off as "my brain playing tricks on me" or something similar @-@

drop pop candy smells like cotton candy!! but it doesn't TASTE like cotton candy, it tastes like,,, birthday cake flavoring? i think that's it. kinda hard to tell it's just Really Sweet

yea!!! on discord i usually use server emojis or just send separate messages but you can't do that when replying to an ask so i just use faces :3

the game is afoot!! i'll add those clues to my mental box of em >:D

oo! i was not expecting that someone else would pick leafeon :o guess i am also breaking molds and expectations HAJSGSHSHD

i will have a nice evening!! i hope u do as well :DDD

[t0t4lly-n0t-z4hw4]

⚠️ℙ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 ℙ𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕖𝕕 ℙ𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝔹𝕖𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔸𝕟𝕕/𝕆𝕣 𝕍𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕄𝕪 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕘!⚠️

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh! ◡̈⋆ʜᴇʟʟᴏ(●’◡’●)ﾉ there! My Name is Zahwa, and Welcome to my World Full Of My Imaginations!

⠀ 🌷🌸🌷🌸

🌸🌷🌸🌷🌸

Λ🌷🌸🌷🌸🌷 𝕎𝕖𝕝𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕋𝕠

( ˘ ᵕ ˘🌷🌸🌷 𝕄𝕪 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕘~!

ヽ つ＼ ／

UU / 🎀 \

𝕃𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕌𝕡𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖/ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕖 : 𝓕𝓻𝓲𝓭𝓪𝔂, 09-06-23.

𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕣𝕠𝕕𝕦𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 :

Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh! ◡̈⋆ʜᴇʟʟᴏ(*´∇`)ﾉ There! My name is Alifa Adzra Ezzata Zahwa, please call me Zahwa or Aishi! And Welcome to My Blog! Or I'd like to call it "My World Of My Imaginations (And Halusinations)"! Make urself at home! :)

𝔸𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕄𝕪𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗 :

My full name is Alifa Adzra Ezzata ꧁Zahwa꧂. U could also call me Aishi or Ais.

My online name/alias is AZ (Ay-Zee).

I'm a Girl/Female/♀️.

My IRL Pronouns are She/Her, but Online I prefer to be pronounced as Pink/Moon.

I'm a Minor/Under-Aged(Specifically above 10, under 15).

I'm a Muslim.

I'm an Asian-Indonesian.

I am Moon Aro-Ace, Cupioromantic, and (questioning) Lithromantic. Though, i will NOT be considering myself as part of the LGBT+. /LH

I do NOT support LGBTQIA+ due to my religion (But dw, I respect them! <3) /LH /SRS.

I make Dragon Puppets.

I'm into Paddle Pop!

I'm terrible at art🥲 But i rarely draw an art.

I'm part of the Tickle Comunity! :D

I'm into Upin & Ipin!

I Play & into Cookie Run : Kingdom ONLY. Not OvenBreak.

I play & into Minecraft.

Idefinetelydon'thaveafoctionalcrush.

Just because I don't support LGBTQIA+, that doesn't means I can tolerate with H0m0ph0b3s! H0m0ph0b3s, shoo out of my Blog! Shoo! /LH /SRS

I'm kinda uncomfortable with Romance.

I'm VERY uncomfortable with NS//FW.

My Blog is run by my Gacha Club OC. My Gacha Club OC is a Mythical Creature!

I'm strictly SFW as i'm still a Minor/Under-Aged.

I love every color! But I perfered Pink better! :D

I love ALL kinds of animals(But I disliked pigs)! But I prefer cats better! (=^ェ^=)

I'm fine with ppl who's an adult following me. But for those who are an adult & is an N$//FW acc, pls DNI.

I do RolePlay!

I am a user of Beta.Character.AI! I also make some AIs of Paddle Pop Characters!

ℕ𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕤 :

When talking to me, please use Tone-Indicators. I always overthink when talking to ppl (ESPECIALLY online), so using Tone-Indicators will be very appreciated! /NM I will also be using them aswell /GEN /SRS

Want to be Mutuals/Friends? Chat me VIA Askbox/Inbox! /LH /SRS

Need someone to talk/to vent? I'm always here for u to listen! /LH /NM evenifiprobablydidn'tunderstandtheproblemanddon'tknowhowtoreactandcalmudown- /NM /SRS

I AM uncomfortable with romance. But romantic stuff like dating, marriage, crushing, proposal is fune for me! Stuff like kissing, and s3gg$ makes ne REALLY uncomfortable. /GEN /SRS

I do RolePlays. But i will not do any N$//FW, inappropriate, or romantic RolePlays.

This post may & will be changed in the future. I will make sure to post if there's a big change in my Introduction Post. My Introduction Post will also notify whatdate is the last time i changed my Introduction Post. /SRS /LH

I...actually have multiple nicknames. But, u can only call me Zahwa, AZ, Aishi, or Ais. Please refrain from using other nicknames (Besides my fullname like Alifa, Adzra, & Ezzata) for me, cuz i don't like being called other names- But if you want to give me your own nickname, please tell me about it! /LH /SRS /GEN /NM

You (wether you are my follower or not) are given the permission to Private DM me anytime you want. But please remember; I may not reply quickly due to my heavy study schedule, but i promise to u that i will reply to ur DMs. And please refrain from sending inappropriate texts or images to me, doing so will lead you to getting blocked. /NM /LH /SRS

You (wether u are my follower or not) are also given the permission to send any kinds of asks to me anytime you want. But please remember; I may also not reply to them very quickly due to my heavy study schedule, but i promise that i will still answer them anyways. And please refrain from sending inappropriate, sensitive, or overly private asks to me. If you ask me a sensitive or overly private question, i will guve you 3 warnings to stop and avoid doing it again. If you are given more than 3 warnings, you will be blocked immedieately. /NM /LH /SRS

Anon-Mode is turned off in my blog to avoid h4rr4sm3nts towards me & my followers. If you still send h4t3s to me, my followers, or my friends, you will be blocked. /NM /LH /SRS

You (followers, mutuals, & friends only) are given the permission to vent to me any time you want. I'm not the 'Therapist Friend', but i will try my best to comfort you. I may not understand some words, but i will listen & try to comfort u. <3 /LH /GEN

Every interactions(Likes, RBs, Tags, Mentions, Replies, etc.) you(Anyone at all) made with me or my blog will always be notified to me. I will view any & every blog who just came & interacted with my blog or is new around my blog. If an N$//FW or inappropriate blog interacted with me, i will block them. If an SFW or appropriate blog interacted with me, they will not be blocked (They also have a chance to be followed by me if they had same interests as mine). Every N$//FW or inappropriate blog will immideately be blocked as soon as i found out they interacted with me.

I consider myself as Lithromantic, Aro-Ace & Cupioromantic, but i will NOT consider myself as part of the LGBT+ due to my religion. I am a Muslim, and my religion forbids Muslims to support or join LGBT+, but it's ok to respect LGBT+. I'm NOT h0m0ph0b1c or tr4nsph0b1c, i just didn't support them due to my religion forbidding me to do so. You may block me if you still think that i'm h0m0ph0bic & tr4nsph0b1c, but please remember; I'm NOT h0m0ph0b1c nor tr4nsph0b1c, my religion just forbid me to do so, but i still highly respect LGBT+.

English wasn't exactly my first/native language, Indonesian Language is my first & native language. With that being said; my spellings, writing, and pronouncations may be incorrect, i apoligize for that. Not only i may have misspellings/mistyping, i may also have typos in my texts bc i always type quickly, and it'll prolly took a while for me to even realize that i made a typo. I apoligize for that- ;-; /LH /SRS

𝔸𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕄𝕪 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕘 :

This blog is created just so i could enjoy some tickle contents abt the fandoms i'm interested! A few minutes after i created this blog, i thought to myself 'This app is for posting, why not i post a few stuff?'. And now, here i am. Posting dozens and DOZENS of Paddle Pop Tickle Contents due to the fact that i'm into both Paddle Pop & Tickles but theres LACK of Paddle Pop tickle contents! Also, don't expect much from this blog- ;-;

I make Fics & HDCs ONLY. Sometimes I make art, but I don't really felt like making arts. /SRS

I make Tickle Contents! :D So if u know me from IRL, please do not talk about this blog to amyone else unless i told u that u can. And please don't make fun of me for being in the TK-Community- /SRS /LH

In this Blog, u will ABSOLUTELY NOT see any romantic contents made from me. All contents I'll see from me & my Blog will be Platonic. And even if u see one, it'll prolly be a Re-Blog or a request.

U'll also not see any Romantic LGBTQIA+ Ships/contents. And even if u see one, it'll prolly be platonoc or a Re-Blog. /LH

And u'll especially ABSOLUTELY NOT see any N$//FW Contents. /NM /GEN

All contents u'll see in this Blog will all be strictly SFW.

Not only this Blog shows Fics & HDCs (And sometimes art), this Blog is also used for RolePlays aswell! /LH

𝕆𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣 𝔸𝕔𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥𝕤 :

@1m-n0t-3nd3rcl4ud1a : Alternative/Backup Account.

Ask-PaddlePop-And-Friends - Paddle Pop Ask Blog.

ℂ𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥 ℍ𝕪𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕗𝕚𝕩𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟(𝕤) :

Fandom : Cookie Run : Kingdom.

Cast(s)/Characters(s) : Pitaya Dragon Cookie, Royal Margarine Cookie, Tarte Tatin Cookie.

𝔽𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕠𝕞𝕤 𝕀'𝕞 𝕀𝕟 :

BLUE = MOVIES

PINK = VIDEO GAMES

꧁꧂ = FAVORITE(S)

🎨 = Request

📷 = RolePlay

🔁 = Reblog

(🎨, 📷, & 🔁) ꧁Paddle Pop꧂

(🎨, 📷, & 🔁) Cookie Run : Kingdom

(🎨, 📷, & 🔁) Minecraft (Not DSMP)

(🎨, 📷, & 🔁) ꧁Gacha (My OCs Only)꧂

(🎨, 📷, & 🔁) ꧁Five Nights At Freddy's꧂

(🎨, 📷, & 🔁) ꧁Friday Night Funkin'꧂

(🎨 & 🔁) Among Us

(🔁 & 📷) Upin & Ipin

(🔁) BoBoiBoy

(🔁) Robocar Poli

NOTE : I MAKE CONTENTS ABT SOME OF THESE FANDOMS, AND I WILL ALSO NOT MAKE CONTENTS OUT OF SOME OF THESE CONTENTS. FOLLOWING FANDOMS I WILL NOT BE MAKING CONTENT OF (IT WILL ONLY BE REBLOGS) IS : ROBOCAR POLI, BOBOIBOY, & UPIN & IPIN.

ℝ𝕦𝕝𝕖𝕤 :

🎨 : Request

📷 : Roleplay

(🎨) Cannot request N$//FW stuff from me as i'm strictly SFW and I'm still a minor

(🎨 & 📷) Can only request about the fandoms I listed, OR with your own OC (IF YOU WANT ME TO MAKE CONTENTS ABT YOUR OC, PLEASE SEND A REF ABOUT YOUR OC THAT YOU WANT ME TO WRITE ABOUT) /NM /LH

(🎨) Can only request for HeadCanons & Fics.

(🎨 & 📷) Cannot request stuff that's making me uncomfortable (Like 18+, LGBTQIA+ Ships, My personal stuff) (No, LGBTQIA+ did NOT make me uncomfortable or anything. But what makes me uncomfortable is if you think that any of my OC is part of the LGBTQIA+)

(🎨 & 📷) Cannot request Gacha H34t as the Blog owner is a Minor/Under-Aged.

(🎨) Cannot request for arts as i'm terrible at art ;-; /SRS

(📷) RolePlays could be done Publically or Privatly. If you want RolePlay Publically or Privatly, please tell me. /GEN /LH /SRS

ℝ𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕤 :

HeadCanons : Open

Fics : Closed

RolePlay : Open

YOU CAN ONLY REQUEST FOR FICS, HEADCANONS, & ROLEPLAYS ABOUT FANDOMS THAT ARE LISTED OR OCS.

IF REQUESTING FOR FICS, & ROLEPLAYS USING OCS, PLEASE SEND A PICTURE/REFERENCE OF ANY OC USED FOR ROLEPLAYING.

𝕄𝕖𝕖𝕥 𝕄𝕪 𝕆ℂ'𝕤!

𝕄𝕪 𝕒𝕝𝕥 𝔸𝕔𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥!

ℙ𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕖 𝕊𝕙𝕠𝕠 𝔸𝕨𝕒𝕪 𝕆𝕦𝕥 𝕆𝕗 𝕄𝕪 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕘 𝕀𝕗 𝕐𝕠𝕦'𝕣𝕖...

𝕄𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕒𝕘𝕖

𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕤/ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕚'𝕞 𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕥𝕒𝕓𝕝𝕖 𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘/𝕒𝕓𝕥

𝕄𝕪 𝕀ℝ𝕃 & 𝕆𝕟𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕖 ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕟𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕤

𝕄𝕪 𝔸𝕀'𝕤

𝕄𝕪 ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕕

Tysm 4 reading this post! I hope you understand! Tysm 4 stopping by my Blog!

I deeply apoligize sencierly if anything I said bothers/annoys you.

Thank u for stopping by & reading this post! Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh! <3

Love, ~𝑨𝒁

╭━━┳╮╱╱╭┳━━━╮

┃╭╮┃╰╮╭╯┃╭━━╯

┃╰╯╰╮╰╯╭┫╰━━╮

┃╭━╮┣╮╭╯┃╭━━╯

┃╰━╯┃┃┃╱┃╰━━╮

╰━━━╯╰╯╱╰━━━╯

[ruby-whistler]

Small thing- i did my research and as it turns out c!tommy has never stolen dream's chestplate, the only time he took anything remotely like that from dream was when dream died of fall damage once and tommy briefly picked it up and returned it -curious anon (unless u have a vod or something but idk)

hey! this ask has been sitting at the back of my inbox for a while now - and that is because i actually went back and made an analysis of the original disc conflict which is what i was actually talking about.

this is gonna be very in-detail because that's how i do stuff. word-by-word, frame-by-frame.

this is not quite roleplay yet, but the "war" is in minecraft and it's all completely lighthearted, so, i'm saying this just as a disclaimer.

i started analysing tommy's video "So I Started a Minecraft War VS Dream…", not the stream. if anyone knows that the stream has additional, important information, i'll watch it as well.

so, let's start off.

sapnap had a fight with ponk and alyssa - tommy joined in to help sapnap kill them. "however dream doesn't like when people fight on his server" - he already has the reputation of being a mediator. this is very interesting to note for later.

dream logs on after which ponk and alyssa, who have just been killed, start asking him for help.

dream shows up in iron armor, sapnap and tommy fully decked out.

dream is not an idiot. there are two people with stronger gear coming at him, yelling in a stream he has open "LET'S KILL DREAM" at the top of their lungs, having just killed two server members.

the two are charging at him, so he shoots to knock them back. after this he runs while tommy and sapnap proceed to assault him.

they're killing someone who can't protect themselves for fun. dream is the underdog in this situation - funnily enough, this event gets often cited as dream being tyrannical despite the fact.

dream runs himself into a corner besides the fence. sapnap kills him and tommy is mad that he didn't get the kill.

all of dream's stuff is laying on the ground and they pick it up.

[ Sapnap: NOONE CAN TAKE US ]

we can see gold, iron, gapples, food, spare items and materials, which they pick up - and most importantly, dream's crossbow. since his armor and weapons are decent and best, his crossbow is probably his most important item, and tommy gloats about having it.

[ Dream: give me my stuff back ]

tommy responds to this by saying "watch, no, watch this", insulting dream, and then killing him with his own crossbow.

dream has a track record on the smp, that he keeps throughout the l'manberg war as well, of giving people their stuff back if he kills them - this would usually happen to stop them from assaulting someone else. his one rule he enforces is "don't be a jerk", so don't steal things or ruin things people have worked for. this is seemingly why he "doesn't like" conflict.

he doesn't genuinely want anyone to lose the stuff that they've earned, and he expects this same attitude towards himself.

this is why he comes towards tommy with no armor, seemingly completely trusting he would be given back his stuff. this doesn't happen, as tommy wants a dream kill under his belt. tommy chases dream down as he tries to get away. alyssa, seemingly without any items - it's reasonable to assume they were also taken by tommy and sapnap, or maybe she doesn't have anything for some other reason - gets killed again when she runs by tommy and dream. thanks to this fact, dream gets away, and sapnap and tommy start trying to devise a plan to kill dream again.

dream gets punz and ponk to help him, of which punz is the only person with full armor - all three are wearing armor. by this time, tubbo has joined, who has inferior armor to even dream, but the three have much better gear overall. it's unsurprising then, that during this encounter, sapnap and tommy manage to kill all three - sapnap kills ponk and dream while tommy gets punz.

[ Tubbo_: punz wth? ]

during this encounter, tubbo doesn't engage, but watches from the top of the fence.

[ Sapnap: STOP THIS MADNESS ]

tommy then goes to chase dream down in order to finally get the kill he had wanted. dream combat logs, and tommy boasts about how many diamonds he managed to gain by stealing from the people he killed during the fight.

tubbo comments that he doesn't think anyone's won, because things on the server were destroyed during the battle. tommy kicked him from the call, telling sapnap that he's not on their side.

dream relogs and gets immediately killed by tommy.

[ Sapnap: STOP THIS MADNESS ]

[ Sapnap: WE ALL NEED TO TALK ]

[ Sapnap: you just lost a 3v2 ]

[ Tubbo_: why don't you guys just- (cut off) ]

[ Sapnap: 4v2 actually ]

[ Dream: I had nothing ]

[ Sapnap: we can talk ]

tommy suggests to vc, saying "all war stops now". he tells ponk that they've already won, to which sapnap alerts him to dream's messages that he sent in chat.

[ Dream: I have the music discs ]

[ Dream: and I'm going to burn them ]

[ Dream: unless my stuff is returned ]

here we can see that dream literally only wanted his stuff back - when negotiations failed and he was killed three times over, he decided to retaliate and get his items - which he had, much like tommy with the discs, worked hard for - using another method.

this was not him targeting people's attachments or targeting sentimental value. he knew tommy had worked for hours to get them, which is why he used them as leverage.

tommy is understandably distraught after this.

[ Punz: rekt ]

[ Punz: don't touch dream ]

tubbo and sapnap watch dream walk past them, looking into tommy's chests. they don't do anything besides telling tommy.

dream proceeds to kill tommy as retaliation, probably thinking tommy would have his stuff on him.

sapnap kills ponk and doesn't get the discs back from dream.

[ TommyInnit: Dream ]

[ TommyInnit: Where are the discs ]

tommy then tries to blame sapnap for this happening, despite the fact that he was the one to chase after dream and refuse to return his items. sapnap says that they attacked them, which is also not true.

sapnap and tommy scheme to try kill dream, to which dream kills tommy again to set them back and stop them from doing so.

dream manages to kill sapnap with his bow. he then boasts about winning a 1v2 in chat, seemingly replying to sapnap mocking him earlier for losing a 4v2.

dream joins the call after which tommy begins yelling at him about him killing him and stealing his stuff.

"i was walking down a path when two fully decked out people 2v1'd me and killed me. and then i came back, and i killed both of you, i took all of your stuff."

dream here explains that he was just walking down the path, confirming he wasn't planning to attack them, but they jumped him pretty much out of nowhere and essentially mugged him of the few items he had. he doesn't feel bad for retaliating for this unfair treatment.

he then proceeds to say he was not an idiot; he heard them shouting that they were going to kill him because he had had the stream open.

tommy denies all these accusations, dismissing dream's rightful anger. he refuses to apologize.

dream says that he will return his stuff, but burn his discs as punishment for killing people and not apologizing. he speaks on behalf of not only himself, but also punz and alyssa.

tommy tries to negotiate via tricking dream, but dream says he'll keep the discs specifically so that tommy wouldn't kill him again. sapnap apologizes, saying it was an accident (it really wasn't but dream takes it), tommy simply saying he's on his side now instead of a proper apology. dream steps away from saying he will burn them, returning tommy's gear, specifically his chestplate and his sword.

alyssa comes to ask for items and gets killed by dream, then sapnap. dream asks if anyone has his steak. alyssa complains in chat about having all of her items stolen from her and being killed repeatedly. i really feel bad for her in this because she gets the worst treatment from everyone.

dream says he'll keep the discs safe, but that he doesn't trust tommy.

he leaves the call and leaves the room, seemingly not wanting to engage with the conflict anymore. sapnap gets mellohi from dream and gives it to tommy, who goes to hide it, while he keeps him off.

as the disc war goes, the two are stubborn and continue to battle for the discs. this is however what started it, and it did happen because of tommy's (and to a degree sapnap's) actions. he held the discs as leverage because tommy refused to return the few items he had.

[fictiveheavy-systim]

inbox check? 👉👈

Under the cut! This is just to check if Tumblr ate stuff, so it doesn't include requests via dms and stuff :]

Also just for my sake, Tom's messages are gone be excluded (because bark knows they're all there + some are repeats)

Also a few aren't requests, just messages our lovely followers have sent us so they know we got em <3 and I removed any URLS if they included what account they wanted tagged in case they wouldn't want em there.

A stim board for a system that's collectively wiccan? (Protection jar things, crystals, etc!)

:)! /gen I'd like to request a Slytherin Harry Potter stimboard, with snakes, potions, and, if possible, rings/jewelry. Also, I'd prefer if the middle icon/faceclaim isn't a white Harry. Thank you! -🐍📚

ranbob (from tftsmp) pronouns suggestions & stimboard? (don't tag as kin, this is for a fictroject)

seapeekay stimboard for a fictroject with the colour orange, red and black

lawrence oleander stimboard for a fictroject with plants, cryptid or dark stuff (also no tagging as kin)

HI can we get name + pronouns suggestions for a fallen grizzly fictroject (from slimecicle's hardest difficulty vid)?

hi!! pronouns for a basil introject please!! (also, don't tag as kin!)

could you make a beyblades stimboard please :0 no preferences on colours or anything I just like it when the little guys go spin spin bonk

Could you please do an orange related stimboard with slime and in the middle a picture of ranboo? /nf

could you make a beyblades stimboard please :0 no preferences on colours or anything I just like it when the little guys go spin spin bonk

Heyyy, can I get stimboard for Spinner(BNHA) fictive with pink, green, gamer girl aesthetics, and lipstick cutting(soap is fine too tho)? - @/lameboy-lizardgirl

Hello! Could I please have a stimboard for a factive of a fictive of Spencer Reid?(It's. Interesting lakdndnfkdi) For the stims, I really like brown things and collections if that makes sense? If you need more details please let me know!!! :-]] (@/thinklessofme)

hi!! im an introject of tweek tweak from south park and would love a me themed stim board!! please tag #don’t tag as kin and #don’t tag as irl, i am extremely attached to source :[ pls tag me in the post u make btw!! but anyways!! i would love stims of coffee (or drinks in general), paws (specifically puppy or fursuit paws), space + anything else u want to add!! i would also love a blue, black, brown and/or green colour palette but im not too fussy ^_^ tysm!! art for middle: (cred. impchaos on insta) [included image]

Your cool lemme just *gives you some of my fav gifs* [2 gifs, and 1 still image that multiple people have sat around watching to wait for the gif but it wasn't and it was hilarious, unsure if that was on purpose but this was great ty]

First of all, I hope you have a fantabulous day!!! Could I get a stimboard with leather stims, tangles (the fidget thingy), and hand stims? Thank thank thank you!!!

May I have a Ardyn Izunia(Final Fantasy XV) Stimboard with darkness/corruption/nighttime themes? With dice and resin shakers if you can? And can you tag me?

Could we perhaps get a Tony Stark stimboard? Our Tony introject loves technology, science, and clicking his pen (classmates love that one /s). We'd like this to be posted anonymously and tagged with don't reblog. Thank you and I hope you're all having a good day! /g

You're really cool! All the stuff you but in your boards is very stimmy /pos [thank you! We haven't replied to this because we want to keep it in our inbox, but rest assured it was very nice and we've seen it]

i'm a billy loomis fictive, could i get a stimboard with red/blood looking things, knives, maybe some phone stims and a slight lovecore theme as well? please tag [URL] instead of this blog, thank you!

hi!! :D (also i couldn't really tell if the rules are ok with singlets interacting so if you want me to not interact w this blog its ok!! /g) could i have a stimboard with laundry hampers lined with blankets with animals in them, st bernards, giant animals stuffies, and folded laundry? if its too much to have in 1 stimboard thats okay!! i also don't know if asking two requests in one ask is ok so its ok if you need to skip out on this one if you want!! roller rinks, neon lights, pink roller skates, mp3 players,and disco outfits!! (like pants with the big bottoms and sparkley crop tops!!) thank you so much <3333

could i request a stimboard for a benry fictive with black goop, blues / reds / teals and shiny stuff pls? tyvm

kokichi oma fictant stimboard, peas and tanks! lots of glitter and paint and scribbles, if you'd be so kind

[There's also another one for a Jeremy fictant, but they went into deep specifics about how they formed and I don't want to post that w/o permission. They also specified an image and multiple of us have attempted to go find it to do this request but it's been futile so far :( they did include their @ but dms usually freak us out]

Overall we have 44 asks in THIS inbox, 1 in the system inbox, and 1 in dms

[gra-sonas]

Hi!!! I’m kind of new to the fandom and I was hoping I could ask you something. In 1x10 Michael shows Alex his stuff in his bunker and says “if anyone’s going to destroy me, might as well be you”. I don’t fully understand the implication he’s making here. I know it’s not necessarily romantic but I also know he’s not saying he believes Alex actually would. But I guess I don’t understand why he would say that or feel that way either.

One bummer about coming into the fandom late is missing all the fun posts and freak outs over lines like this. (Although I am grateful to miss out on what seems like a lot of drama from the show and in the fandom.) Alao just wanted to thank you, being new I’m a little overwhelmed in what I need to get caught up in and what to ignore or avoid. You’re very informative and kind and levelheaded so I’m staying in your corner of this fandom.

Hiiii, sweet nonnie, and welcome to the fandom! 🥰

Yeah, I can imagine that it sucks to come in late, but there’s always reasons to flail and get excited, insofar it’s not the worst thing. We should get some news about S3 soon-ish, and then you’ll be right in the middle of flailing with us! :D

Okay, on to 1x10 (sorry, I’ve been flailing about Superman & Lois all day, and it took me a while to write this reply 🙈)

“If anyone’s going to destroy me, might as well be you.” Ooooof, that’s Michael Guerin’s way of saying I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU. At least that’s how I understand it.

Michael’s learned earlier, that the man responsible for his severe injury, and ultimately Alex leaving a decade ago, knows about aliens and that he’s one of them. And just an episode ago, Alex told him “Sometimes the world ends with a whimper, Guerin.” 

So by all means, they are NOT on good terms when Michael learns about Project Shepard, and who’s behind it. Alex made it clear that they are over earlier (even though he kinda said that their love was “the world” 🥺), Michael went to Texas, made out and woke up with someone else in the desert, and only hours after he’s back in Roswell, Alex finds him at the junkyard.

And Alex pretty much makes a U-turn from what he said earlier in the episode (that things are over). He tells Michael he wants to get to know him [better], he wants to be friends [not just friends, but building a friendship as a foundation for something more - whether Michael understands Alex’s words that way’s a different question tho], and he admits, that there’s always been something “bigger” between them, even though they didn’t actually know each other that well.

Michael defines their connection as cosmic, and yeah, for lack of a better word, that’s what it is. Michael then asks whether Alex wants to know who he is, or what he is. And Alex says YES. To both.

When they talk, Michael’s basically vibrating out of his skin, he’s been dying to share his secret with Alex, he’s so tired of keeping that part of himself hidden, and he’s even more tired of all the lies.

He’s taken aback, when Alex doesn’t want to know about all the “cool alien shit” and instead asks about Michael’s childhood. I think Michael doesn’t realize that Alex is way more interested in getting to know who Michael is, that what he is.

Michael’s trying to move their conversation back to the topic of aliens, but Alex doesn’t seem to be overly interested in that. So Michael decides to pull out the “big guns”. He shows Alex his secret lair, and while that’s pretty cool and kinda Bruce Wayne-esque (minus being a billionaire), Alex still doesn’t seem to be too interested in the alien thing.

So Michael reveals his secret project to Alex, a project not even Isobel or Max know about. It’s something Michael’s been doing for almost a decade - finding and buying parts of the console in an attempt fo fix it. 

And while I’m sure that Alex is intrigued, he also seems to be a little horrified that Michael confides in him with something that important. And that’s when Michael puts his cards on the table. 

“If anyone’s going to destroy me, might as well be you.” meaning “I trust you with this knowledge, but if this revelation is ever going to bite me in the ass, then I want you to be the one who comes after me”. 

It’s kinda twisted. Michael knows Alex is a Manes, and I think he still has this lingering fear that Alex might turn out to be (or become) a Manes man (even though deep down he knows that’s not who Alex is, or ever will be), not because Alex is evil incarnate, but bc of Jesse.

Jesse who had so much power over Alex for basically his entire life, who very likely had a hand in Alex joining the military, who - to Michael - is at least in part responsible that Alex “broke up” with him in episode 1x03, Jesse, who’s running Project Shepard and might be able to “recruit” Alex in some way or other for it (not bc Alex is an evil killer or alien hater, but bc Jesse always had his way of getting what he wants from his sons).

So yeah, I think Michael’s kinda afraid that Alex could get roped into this alien hunting operation, but he trusts Alex, and even though confiding in Alex and letting him in on all his secrets might be his undoing eventually, he wants Alex equipped with all the knowledge.

Imo this is Michael’s way of telling Alex “I love you, and I trust you.”

Alex on the other hand, has a somewhat different conversation. He understands very well that Michael’s letting him in on a huge secret, and I think he would’ve preferred not to know (possibly bc he’s afraid of Jesse and worried Jesse might find out via Alex somehow?), but what’s even bigger for him is the fact that Michael’s telling him, that he’s been trying to leave the planet for a decade, and that once he has all the pieces, he might give it a try. 

And just a couple feet above their heads Alex’s car is parked, where - hidden in a backpack - one part of the unfinished alien console is waiting to be handed over to Michael.

AWKWARD. Also the realization for Alex, that it’s up to him whether Michael will ever be able to leave bc as long as Alex has the console piece, Michael won’t be able to finish rebuilding the console. 

Alex then cuts the entire conversation short and leaves. He has to process what Michael just told him (and imo it’s not about the fact that Michael’s an alien, Alex has known that for a while, I think he’s shocked to his core that Michael’s been trying to leave this whole time, and now it’s up to him whether Michael can).

So, Alex leaves to process, while Michael just sees a familiar thing happen: Alex is leaving. Always leaving. Leaving him behind. Leaving him alone. Leaving because Michael told him what he is. Only that’s not the case, Alex doesn’t care that Michael’s an alien. 

Ugh, these two. 😩I really hope they finally start TALKING in S3, and they’ll speak the same language while doing so.

I’m not sure whether any of this makes sense (my brain’s all over the place today), but that’s how I read this whole thing.

As for you trying to navigate the fandom: there are plenty of kind and really awesome people part of this fandom. I’m sure you’ll figure out fairly quickly which people are “your” people. Stick to them, and I’m sure, you’ll have a great time. 

My inbox is also always open (also off anon btw, I usually reply to off anon messages privately, or you can just put a “pls don’t publish” in your ask to make sure I don’t publish it), in case you want to chat. 

Hope you’re having a great time with us! ❤️

[quinnybee-writes]

Title: Fire Meet Gasoline

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia

Rating: T+

Part: 6/?

Story Summary: A chance encounter between a villain and vigilante leads to an unwise deal made between unlikely allies; an unwise deal made between unlikely allies ends in a final stand neither would have ever dared to take on alone. Together, though, they just might have a fighting chance.

Part 6 Summary: Favor number two tests the patience of one and the mettle of another, leaving uncertainty about both in its wake.

Part 1 on  Tumblr / AO3

Part 2 on Tumblr / AO3

Part 3 on Tumblr / AO3

Part 4 on Tumblr / AO3

Part 5 on Tumblr / AO3

Part 6 on AO3

I swear to god if if I have to sit through one more meeting where I get voluntold to pick up another department’s slack in the same sentence as management trying to cut my intern’s hours I’m going to chug a two-liter of Surge and burp so loud I bring this whole mfer down with me.

Shouta stared at his phone, his sleep-addled brain trying to make sense of whether Yamada meant the text as a threat or not. He’d been catching a quick power nap in the back of his truck during his lunch hour and had been most of the way asleep when the rattle of his phone on the metal floor jolted him awake again. Not helping his attempt to dissect the meaningless hyperbole was Yamada’s follow up text of lmao it u along with a gif of a cat trying to jump from a bed to a dresser and falling halfway with the caption “parkour!”. He wouldn’t put it past Yamada to be the type to threaten in one breath and quote a meme in the next, but he couldn’t wrap his brain around why Yamada would be sending him incriminating evidence via text message during work hours.

Two new messages came in quick succession as Shouta was trying to puzzle things out.

Oh my god

Those were supposed to go to my sister holy shit

So not an admission or a threat, just an idiot with a cell phone. Shouta groaned, eyes rolling back in his head in disgust at how much energy he had wasted on taking Yamada seriously yet again.

forget it Shouta sent back.

Cute cat pic for ur trouble? Yamada replied along with a picture of a gangly black cat with bright yellow eyes. The cat was sprawled on its back in a pile of kibble and the shredded scraps of a cat food bag. Shouta snorted, grinning a little in spite of himself at the self-satisfied look on the cat’s fuzzy little face.

cute he texted, trying to distill as much exhaustion and disinterest into the single word as possible.

That’s Ai-chan. She’s a monster, but she’s my monster <3

So what are you up to? Break from work?

Shouta sighed, rubbing his temples. It was impossible to freeze out someone who was so willing to keep the conversation going without outside input.

trying to catch some sleep before afternoon deliveries Shouta replied as pointedly as he could.

Oof. Busy night?

do you need something? Shouta asked, stabbing the send key a little harder than he really needed to. There was a short, offended pause from Yamada’s end of the line; Shouta could picture him looking down at his phone with that little not-quite-pouting moue he always made when things weren’t going his way.

I guess not.

The curt punctuation seemed to signal Yamada had finally gotten the point, just in time to exhaust the last of Shouta’s free time before he had to get going again. Shouta put his phone into his pocket and made a point to not check it again until he was walking home. Waiting for him was another gif, this time of a pair of hands vigorously shaking a bottle of Surge, followed by a message that just said Oh goddammit. Shouta rolled his eyes and deleted the thread without replying.

The perceived slight only kept Yamada at bay for a short time, however. Now that he’d gotten a taste of the man’s texting habits Shouta had to wonder how Yamada managed to get anything done. No matter when his breaks were during the day it seemed like Yamada always had some new meme or gif or general workplace complaint to gift him with in the meantime, whether it was before dawn or after dark or occasionally both.

do you actually have a job or do they just pay you to bother me? Shouta finally asked as he waited at an interminable red light several days later. Yamada had been on a spree that morning, flooding his inbox with an illustrated play-by-play of Ai-chan’s newest misdoings while Shouta had four straight hours of back-to-back deliveries.

Excuse you, Yamada texted back loftily, I am an integral part of station management! Who occasionally may or may not take extra long bathroom breaks to avoid getting roped into being more integral than I already am.

my bad. clearly you’re just doing your part to prevent asahi radio from being razed via belch Shouta replied, snorting out a laugh before he could stop himself. He paused, frowning. That was both new and unwelcome.

Yamada sent back a long line of laugh-crying emojis followed by Look who grew a sense of humor just in time to drag me!

don’t act like you know me.

Yeah, yeah. Scout’s honor, I won’t tell anybody you’re actually funny.

Shouta scowled, dropping the phone onto the seat next to him and pulling through the light as it finally turned green. Despite the chilly weather he rolled his window down to get some airflow on his face. He hadn’t turned on the truck’s heater yet but his cheeks already felt way too warm.

Shouta spent his next day off drinking too much coffee at the cat cafe while he tried to reign in the chaos that his computer desktop had become. His phone buzzed on the table beside him and Shouta swiped in the passcode with one hand while the other was dragging a huge load of defunct backup files to his computer’s trash. He’d sooner walk into traffic than admit it to Yamada, but having a passcode on his phone was turning out to be less of an inefficient hassle that he’d always thought it would be and did make him less anxious about putting it places that weren’t his pocket or his hand.

As if waiting for the thought to cue him in, the alert was for yet another of Yamada’s early-morning memes. This time it was a gif of a kitten trying to stay awake before it wobbled and flopped out of frame. Yamada’s accompanying caption read That midweek feeling hitting hard today along with an emoji of a sleeping face with a snot bubble.

it’s monday Shouta texted back.

When you work 24/7 it’s always midweek, Yamada replied.

implying you work at all. still not convinced.

I resent that, Aizawa. It takes a lot of skill and determination to shovel this much shit and still have spare time to be a full-time pain in the ass.

Shouta almost allowed himself a laugh at that, but the air caught in his throat at Yamada’s next question.

So, do you do all of your important hero research on the public wifi at kitty cafes, or is today a special occasion?

What do you mean? Shouta asked warily.

Behind you.

Shouta turned slowly, dreading what he knew he was about to see. Yamada was standing on the sidewalk outside, grinning at him over the top of his cell phone. He gave Shouta a little wave before sauntering in and up to the counter. He chatted amiably with the baristas as they made his order. Shouta frowned to himself, trying to work out the quickest way to pack up his belongings while disturbing as few sleeping cats as possible. The moment came and went too quickly, however, as Yamada came over with two cups of coffee in his hands.

“Black with one sugar, right?” Yamada said. He slid one of the steaming mugs in front of Shouta. “That’s what they said anyway,” he added, nodding up towards the counter.

“What are you doing here?” Shouta asked coolly. Yamada frowned at him.

“I was on my way to the post office to mail a couple things and empty the station P.O. box and saw you in the window,” Yamada said. “I figured we could sit and chat since we both have a minute.”

“You just kind of assume you’re welcome wherever you decide to be, don’t you?” Shouta said.

Yamada snorted. “If that’s the worst thing someone tells me about myself today, I’ll count it as a win,” he replied, toasting Shouta with his coffee cup. He invited himself to sit down in the only chair not currently occupied by cats. “Wait, is that a spreadsheet with my name on it?” he added with sudden interest, arching his neck around to peek at Shouta’s screen. Shouta slammed the lid of his laptop shut, feeling his face heating.

“Do you need something?” Shouta asked, trying to redirect the conversation and get Yamada back on his way as quickly as possible.

“Just caffeine and conversation,” Yamada shrugged. “Is it illegal to ask someone about their day?”

“Implying you care about whether or not you’re doing something illegal,” Shouta replied curtly. To his annoyance Yamada just chuckled and shrugged.

“I mean, you’ve got me there,” he said. “So, what are you working on?” Yamada added, lowering his tone just slightly.

“Catching up on some things,” Shouta said, intentionally vague. “Organizing research. It takes longer when you’re doing it on your own.”

“I bet,” Yamada agreed. “Would probably save you some time and effort to have a permanent back door into places you’re not supposed to be, huh?” He said it with a too-even speculation that set Shouta instantly on edge.

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” Shouta said.

“I know people who know things,” Yamada said with a broad, conspiratorial grin over his coffee mug. “Keeping your friends close and your enemies closer is a lot easier when you can tell which is which.”

Shouta felt a frisson of discomfort run up his spine at the implication of where Yamada considered him to be on that spectrum. “I think I liked it better when you were threatening me,” he muttered. “Don’t make more of that than there is,” he added quickly as Yamada’s smile grew cheeky and he opened his mouth to comment. Yamada did his annoying little not-quite-pouting pout and let out a quiet “hmph” at his joke being preempted.

“In any case, you probably don’t need me to tell you how to crack a secure password,” Yamada said. “Even when they’re clever they’re usually related to either the one who sets them or the thing they’re locking up, or they’re something pseudo-random cooked up by a number generator. Sometimes they get stupid-clever and try to do all three.”

“Mmn?” As bored as he was trying to sound, Shouta couldn’t help taking mental notes on what Yamada was saying. Yamada was a flippant trouble-maker from the word go but there were moments where he displayed actual talent for the things he claimed to be an expert in.

“Oh yeah,” Yamada said. “They’re trying for layers of security, but too many moving parts makes passwords way easier to out-think. Codes are only as smart as the people who write them, y’know?”

“And you know how smart they are?” Shouta asked, trying to keep his tone casual as he goaded Yamada into staying on a roll. Yamada caught his drift a little too well, however, and the sharp, meaningful grin came out again.

“I know people who know things,” he said again. “I’d be willing to let you in on a few trade secrets for the low, low price of a certain five-letter word beginning with ‘f’.”

Shouta snorted. “Hard pass.”

“Well, I tried,” Yamada said, shrugging. He checked the time on his phone and sighed. “That’s about my lot, I’m afraid. Gotta get back before the world ends.” He stood and stretched with a groan. “We should do this again sometime. Maybe talk less shop.” The offer seemed oddly genuine and Shouta wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that.

He tried to get back to work after Yamada left, but his concentration had been thoroughly broken. He bought another coffee and turned on some neutral background music; his brain, however, was no longer in the mood to stare at a screen and try to riddle out what his new sub-folders should be called. Finally Shouta dislodged the many cats who had taken up residence in and around his lap and packed up his laptop to see if fresh air on the walk home and a change of venue might help get him back on task.

Shouta nudged his apartment door closed with his heel, scooping the mess of envelopes out of his mail bin. It was mostly the normal jumble of junk and bills, but amongst the shuffle was a thin white payroll envelope with his name and address on the front in too-familiar spidery handwriting. Just going to empty the station mailbox indeed, Shouta thought with a groan. Yamada was way too fond of theatrics. He tossed the envelope onto his sofa without opening it and delayed paying it any attention until he’d put everything away, showered, and had a lengthy play session with his cats. If it was unimportant enough for Yamada to not just hand it over when they were in the same room together, Shouta told himself, then there was no need for him to bend over backwards to pay attention to it the instant he got home.

Finally his excuses ran out and he tore the envelope open. Inside were two pieces of paper folded separately into sharp thirds. The first was a handwritten note on Asahi Radio letterhead that read:

Aizawa-

I need a favor. I have a line on something but doing it alone might be tricky. You’ll just be the go-between, nothing dire. Meet me Friday, 9pm sharp.

-M

Also included was another of Yamada’s meticulously notated hand-drawn maps, at the other end of which was a complex of storage units bordered on all sides by a spike-topped chain link fence. Shouta peered into the dark, abandoned-looking guard booth, wondering if the first step to tonight’s goings-on was having to find his own way inside.

“Hey, you made it!”

Shouta turned to see a dark-haired man slouching up towards him from the other end of the sidewalk. He eyed the man warily, about to say he had the wrong person, but stopped as he stepped into the light and raised his sunglasses with a smirk. Yamada had stuffed all of his hair under a short, spiky black wig and a black and green snapback, slicked down his mustache and covered it in a thin layer of skin-colored makeup to blend it in with his face, and buried himself in baggy jeans and a jacket that made him look both heavier-set and a few inches shorter than he actually was. The only things that gave him away were his sharp too-green eyes and his unmistakable grin, full of crafty smugness at Shouta’s open surprise at his appearance. Yamada did a full turnaround of the odd costume, ending the twirl with a dramatic pose.

“Not a bad look for me, huh?” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Shouta snorted. “You look like a washed-up pop star who’s trying to pretend he still has to avoid the paparazzi,” he replied flatly.

To his surprise Yamada let out a burst of full-throated laughter at the remark. Shouta wasn’t sure he’d ever heard Yamada laugh in genuine amusement before now, only the occasional mocking chuckle or triumphant snicker. He had a loud, whinnying kind of laugh that tapered off into short bursts of wheezy, hyena-like giggles behind his hand as he remembered himself and tried to tamp it down.

“Okay, cynical,” Yamada said, still coughing through the last of his laughing fit. “Everyone’s a critic.” He rolled his eyes and gave a flourishy “well, what are you gonna do” kind of shrug. Shouta scowled at him.

“What are we doing here?” Shouta asked, doing his best to ignore Yamada’s grandstanding despite the growing burn of annoyance creeping up his face.

“Just a quick jaunt into my evil lair,” Yamada said cheerfully. He punched an entry code into the number pad next to the guard house, then pressed his thumb to the scanner underneath. The keypad flashed green and beeped an affirmative, and a small portion of the gate swung inward. “C’mon,” Yamada said. He motioned for Shouta to follow him as he led the way through the rows of squat cinder block units to one in the very back left corner of the lot.

“People with money can afford secret basements and underground boltholes wherever they need them,” Yamada said over his shoulder as he bent down to unlock the door of the unit, “but the rest of us have to make do with what we’ve got.” He lifted the door just high enough for himself and Shouta to duck under, then set it back down with a clatter. The unit was pitch-black and humid inside and smelled like a mixture of burnt-out electrical parts, solder, and partially cured epoxy glue. “I’ll get the lights, one sec,” Yamada said. Shouta heard him scrabbling along the wall to find the light switch, then a click. A fluorescent shop light flickered and buzzed to life above them, flooding the unit in intense blue-white light. Yamada turned to Shouta and spread his hands wide. “Taa-daa! Welcome to the inner sanctum.”

It looked more like a high school shop room that had sublet space to a thrift store. The left wall had been covered in a cluster of flat-pack bookshelves, their shelves bowing under a jumble of storage boxes labeled things like “radio parts-LIVE”, “speaker wire”, “tape--sticky”, and “tape--magnetic”. The back wall was one long anchored shelf divided into slots that held overstuffed file folders bundled together with rubber bands and binder clips. The only wall not covered in shelving or projects was taken up with a butcher block work table and a cork board with scribbled notes and schematics pinned to it.

“Kind of rinky-dink, but it gets the job done,” Yamada said fondly. “Anyway. First things first, did you happen to wear the stab vest I gave you?” he asked over his shoulder as he ducked under the work table and retrieved a box marked with today’s date.

“Yeah.” The assurance that his part in tonight would be “nothing dire” had put Shouta on high enough alert that he’d forced himself to put pride aside and opt for personal safety instead.

“Thank god. So, basically what I need is for you to be my stand in while things get underway tonight,” Yamada said. “I’d go on my own, but the meeting place is kind of a...no-go area for me right now due to certain people who frequent it.”

“And you’d rather send me in looking like you instead?” Shouta asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Yamada stared at Shouta like he’d started speaking French.

“What? God, no, what gave you that idea?”

Shouta sighed, silently counting to ten in his head as his patience frayed. “You just said I’m supposed to be your stand in.”

“Oh. Okay, yeah, poor choice of words. Think stunt double, not body double,” Yamada explained. “I just need you to be a good-faith warm body, I’ll be handling the rest with this.” He reached into the box and pulled out something that looked like a cold weather mask had been extruded into a large funnel shape at the bottom edge. Shouta looked from it to Yamada, who was beaming in obvious self-pride.

“Which is…?” Shouta prompted.

“Which is your half of a two-way radio with a built in broadcasting speaker,” Yamada said, turning the top edge inside out to show Shouta the wiring and speakers sewn into it. “At first I thought maybe I could just have you memorize a script and I’d step in if things got too off-book, but you’re not very good at lying under pressure so I wasn’t sure that would fly,” he continued. Shouta wasn’t sure if that was meant as an insult or not. “So instead, we have this to work with. I can use this--” Yamada pulled up his sleeve to show a tiny microphone taped to the inside of his wrist-- “to talk to you or talk as you, depending, as long as I stay within ten or twelve feet of you at all times.” The last part he said in one of his uncomfortably accurate impressions of Shouta’s voice.

“And that’s why you’re dressed like that?” Shouta said.

“Exactly. I’ll have to be close enough to you that the receiver can pick up the signal, and it’ll be way easier to read the room if I’m, y’know, in the room.”

“If you were going to put on a costume and go anyway, why didn’t you just do that and go on your own?” Shouta asked.

Yamada frowned and waved a finger at him like he was scolding a child. “Eh-eh-eh. No questions asked, remember? You know as much as you need to know, and you don’t need to know any more than that. Now stand still so I can get you wired up.”

Shouta grudgingly stood with his arms straight out from his body as Yamada turned him into a human switchboard. With a combination of strategic placement and gaffer tape Yamada ran a long wire with an audio jack on one end and a battery connection on the other from Shouta’s waist up his left side to just under his collar bone. Another wire ran the length of his inner arm from shoulder to wrist and ended in a loop with a switch on it that fit over the first knuckle of his thumb. All he had to do, Yamada said as he taped it all down, was press the switch when he needed to talk to Yamada and let it go when he was finished. “Y’know,” Yamada said, “like those cheap walkie-talkies you used to play with as a kid.”

“I ended up making this a lot bigger at the bottom so that we can hide all of our crimes under it,” Yamada muttered as he slipped the mask over Shouta’s head. He was back in the extreme focus mode Shouta had seen him slip into before, attention laser-focused and the corner of his mouth between his teeth as he connected all the wires and power sources underneath. He pulled an earpiece up under the mask by its wire and stuck it in Shouta’s ear before reaching up to fuss with Shouta’s hair and make sure it was hiding everything sticking above the mask. Shouta shivered involuntarily at the touch, barely resisting the urge to pull away. “With the right top layer all of this should be more or less invisible,” Yamada went on, frowning appraisingly as he took a step back to examine his handiwork. He rummaged through a few things in the box and surfaced with a heavy black zippered jacket. “I had to guess sizes, but I think this one should be close enough.”

Yamada unzipped the jacket and held it out so that Shouta could shrug into it. Shouta eased the jacket on, trying not to disturb the network of wires all over him. Yamada zipped it up almost to the top, open enough to seem casual but still high enough to cover all but the face portion of the mask and its contents. It wasn’t a terrible fit other than being slightly short in the sleeves and restrictive around the shoulders. Shouta bent and twisted his arms, trying to stretch it out without doing damage to the electronic infrastructure. Yamada untied the audiojack end of the main wire from Shouta’s belt loop and stuck it into a small cheap-looking disposable cell phone.

“This should have enough battery to keep a recording of the whole thing,” Yamada said. “Can you give me a quick mic check to make sure everything’s hooked up?”

“Uh. Testing,” Shouta said.

Yamada seemed to like what he saw in the waveforms on the phone’s screen. He smiled in satisfaction before stretching a piece of tape around the back of the phone and carefully taping it into place in Shouta’s pocket. “If we head out right now we should get there early enough to do a few on-site checks,” Yamada said, checking the time. “Shall we?”

The two of them walked a few blocks from the storage unit to a cramped, dim little pub. Yamada walked at tailing distance behind Shouta the whole way, testing the range on the homemade gear by giving Shouta directions to where they were going. The audio was relatively clear if they stayed within Yamada’s estimation of ten or so feet; after they hit closer to the twelve-foot mark it got fainter and fainter until dropping out completely as they reached about fifteen feet. Again Shouta had to wonder why, if they were essentially going to be handcuffed to one another anyway, Yamada couldn’t have just gone undercover by himself.

“Grab a drink at the bar and go sit at one of the high-top tables,” Yamada said as Shouta opened the bar’s door and made his way in. “That’s where he’ll be expecting you.”

“Any advice on how to recognize whoever I’m supposed to be meeting?” Shouta muttered back under his breath.

“No idea, he said he would find you. That’s pretty standard for a meeting like this,” Yamada added before Shouta could protest. “Nobody wants to get jumped outside before negotiations even get underway. Think of it as a blind date, but nefarious.”

Shouta sighed loudly, making sure he hit the switch so that Yamada would hear him. Yamada’s never-ending supply of bad metaphors was the last thing he needed right now.

“Calm down, Aizawa,” Yamada said. “Remember, all you have to do is sit there and look pretty, I’ll handle the talking.” There was a short fizzle of static as Yamada entered the pub and made his way to a secluded booth in the back corner. “Still read me?”

“Yeah.”

“Excellent. What’s your poison?”

“Pardon?”

“Beer? Wine? Shot of whiskey to settle your nerves?”

“You really want alcohol anywhere near all this equipment?” Shouta asked, bewildered.

“It’s just for show, who goes into a bar and doesn’t order anything? You shouldn’t drink anything they serve here anyway, their bartending is a bad joke,” Yamada said dismissively. “I just need to test the audio output and make sure we’re good to go before the main event.”

“Then just do it,” Shouta said shortly. “Didn’t you just say you were going to handle all the talking?”

“Everyone’s a critic,” Yamada muttered again. His usual flippant chill had gained an undertone of cranky tenseness that was less than reassuring. “Can I get a bottle of Sapporo?” Yamada said aloud in Shouta’s voice. Shouta just managed to turn toward the bartender in time for the question to seem natural. The bartender, a smirking woman with long brown hair held back in a red ribbon, gave him an appraising once-over. She seemed to be unimpressed with what she saw.

“Sure,” the bartender said. She reached into a cooler under the counter and came back with the bottle of beer, popping the lid off before placing it on the bar in front of Shouta.

“Thanks,” Yamada said, far more cheerfully than Shouta had ever said the word. Shouta nodded his own thanks and went to go sit at one of the high tables in a cluster near the front. He drummed his heel on the bottom rung of the bar stool. The bar was basically empty and silent other than the bartender’s phone playing lo-fi swing music from a speaker dock behind the bar. Otherwise it was just Shouta and his undrinkable beer killing time.

“Ohshit.” The words came out as a single noise hissed violently in Shouta’s ear, making him jump.

“What?” he hissed back, avoiding the curious look the bartender was giving him.

“Remember how I said there were some people who made this place a no-go area because they want to kill me?” Yamada said, sounding like he was talking through his teeth.

“Yeah?”

“That’s them coming in. Don’t look at them! Have you never been undercover in your life?” Yamada whisper-shouted as Shouta turned to look over his shoulder at the door. Almost immediately he snapped his head back around, trying to be as casual as possible about pulling the jacket’s hood over his head as he saw Takeshiro and his wife coming in and sitting a few tables away.

“You know them?” Shouta asked, hopelessly hoping Yamada actually meant someone else who was still outside.

“Ye-ep,” Yamada said, distaste drawing the word out several syllables longer than it needed to be. “They’re still kind of sore about a certain scene in a certain alley you might be familiar with.” He scoffed, then hissed, “Wait, you know them?” as Shouta’s tone dawned on him.

The alleyway. Shapes in the dark played back in Shouta’s head, fuzzy from time and panic but falling into clearer place with the new context. A short, stringy figure barking orders and bailing when things got complicated; the other taller and stocky and silent with a plant-based Quirk protecting him. Shouta gritted his teeth, annoyed by how clear the connection seemed now that it was right in front of him.

“Takeshiro works on the night crew in package processing. Takes a lot of sick days now that I think of it. I’ve never actually spoken to his wife but I’ve seen her at office parties before,” he said quietly.

“His wife? Ew,” Yamada said.

“You’re telling me they’re villains?” Shouta asked, ignoring him. Yamada snorted.

“So-called. They work for an egomaniac middleman called Seguchi. Hebiko is Seguchi’s left hand, and Takeshiro’s hers.”

“What did you do to make them want to kill you?”

“Their boss did something stupid with information that wasn’t his and got busted. I had nothing to do with it,” Yamada retorted tartly.

“Right, sure,” Shouta said. “Is this going to be a problem?”

“Nah, shouldn’t be,” Yamada said, though he didn’t sound entirely convinced. “This is why I planned things this way. No reason to bail out before anything happens.” Shouta was about to protest that it made a lot more sense to leave before there was a problem rather than scrambling when they were in trouble, but Yamada spoke first. “Heads up, you’ve got company.”

“So you’re Null.”

Shouta turned to see a lanky man with brownish hair and a narrow, rattish face standing slouched behind him with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his grubby jeans.

“Potentially,” Yamada replied. “You’re Raimaru?” His impression of Shouta’s voice was dead-on, which was bad enough on its own, but there was something just slightly off about his intonation that made Shouta’s skin crawl.

“That’s what they call me,” the man said. ”Getcha a refill while we talk?” he added, nodding at Shouta’s obviously untouched beer.

“I’m fine, thanks.” Shouta fiddled with the neck of the bottle to make it seem less like a static prop on the table in front of him. Even if Yamada had been against the idea of giving him a script to follow, some guidance on what to do in general might have been nice. He felt stiff and awkward, like a puppet whose puppeteer only had a vague idea of how natural movements worked.

“Suit yourself,” Raimaru shrugged. He ambled off to talk to the bartender, seeming to be doing his best to chat her up as she mixed his drink.

“‘Null’?” Shouta muttered to Yamada.

“Short for ‘nullify’, like your Quirk. Get it?” When Shouta just sighed in reply, Yamada added defensively, “Well, I had to call you something, didn’t I?”

“Did you?”

“What did you want me to say, ‘oh by the by you’ll be meeting my friend Shouta Aizawa, he’s thirty, single, a Scorpio, and lives in a single-occupancy uptown with three cats’?” Yamada retorted.

He technically had a point and Shouta hated that the most out of all the things he hated about this evening so far. Yamada had no time to gloat over the win, however, as Raimaru came back and dropped onto the stool across from Shouta.

“Kind of a hassle, having to be the face of cleaning up all of your boss’s bad behavior, huh? From what I’ve heard he’s got plenty to go around,” Raimaru said. Shouta privately agreed with the sentiment, but Yamada snorted instead.

“I get paid to go where I’m told, not to pass judgements,” Yamada replied stiffly. Shouta resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the defensive bluster. Raimaru laughed for him.

“I dunno about that. There’s plenty of judgement to go around if you want some,” Raimaru said. “Seems like the only books he can get into these days are peoples’ bad ones.”

“You think he gives a damn about anyone’s books other than his own?”

“I’m just saying I know a glorywhore when I see one. He spends all of his time making deals and playing nice and then suddenly people higher than him start going to jail,” Raimaru said. “Happened to Fukawa, happened to Seguchi, happened to Iwata. Hell, everyone knows he snitched and got Hanajima back in the day but Hanajima got shanked in prison and all his men scattered so nobody talks about him anymore.”

Shouta squirrelled the names away to research later, though other than those names Raimaru had said precious little to convince him that he knew much of anything besides Yamada’s surface reputation. So far his assertions had been vague at best and his “work, am I right?” tone was suspiciously chummy, like he was trying to nudge “Null” into letting something incriminating slip out.

“Why is any of this relevant?” Yamada asked. He sounded equally short on patience with Raimaru’s unsubtle attempts at currying favor. Raimaru gave a slightly passive-aggressive shrug.

“There’s a storm coming. A big one, one that’s gonna hit hard and rewrite a lot of rules about who’s in charge and who’s got a boot on their necks. You’re not gonna be in a great spot if you’re working for the Bird, so I thought you’d wanna know there’s better options,” he said. It was the first thing he’d said that sounded like he actually knew what he was talking about and it was not a reassuring change. Yamada, however, seemed unfazed.

“What, some new jumped-up ‘super’ villain with big plans for a criminal utopia?” Yamada said, unimpressed. “Seen ‘em come, seen ‘em go, nothing of value was lost. You asked me to come here because you had something valuable you wanted to trade. Is that still the case, or should I head out and stick you with the tab for wasting my time?”

“So, that’s a ‘no’ from you?” Raimaru asked, still grinning like someone had wired the corners of his mouth behind his ears.

“I didn’t hear a question being asked, but…” All of a sudden Yamada’s voice trailed off in a fizzle of static. Shouta tensed. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Yamada, who met his eye with a look that was not quite panic but was very, very close to it. Yamada tapped his ear questioningly. Shouta twitched his head to the side in a negative. He saw Yamada mouth “Shit!” before his attention snapped back to the problem in front of him as Raimaru let out a short chuckle.

“Never a good idea to use radio signals around me,” Raimaru said smugly. “They usually end up a little...dead.” He casually brought the hand that had been under the table to rest on its surface. It was holding a large pocket knife, which he casually flicked open and closed as he spoke. All of the plastic had been stripped off of the knife, leaving behind just the blades and metal guts holding them together. As Shouta eyed it, the blade began to glow a smokey orange around Raimaru’s fingertips.

“I think we’re done here,” Shouta said, trying to match the off-cadence way Yamada had been using his voice all night.

This only seemed to egg Raimaru on, however, as he cranked his Quirk up another notch. Shouta felt a static prickling like the kind before a huge lightning strike setting the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck on end. A tinny shrilling feedback noise whined through his earpiece, making him jolt and hiss in sudden pain. Shouta gritted his teeth and set his own Quirk on Raimaru instead. A hasty decision, it turned out, as a sudden crash of noise hit him all at once. Yamada’s voice half-shouting in his ear was interlaced with loud snaps of static as the equipment reconnected. Shouta winced at the onslaught, clapping a hand to his ear before he could stop himself. The moment of distraction was all Raimaru needed.

“So the Bird’s doggy wants to bark, huh?” In one fluid motion Raimaru threw what was left in his glass in Shouta’s eyes and hooked a foot under the bottom rung of Shouta’s stool, yanking it from under him. Shouta toppled to the floor, landing hard on his ass and elbows as he futilely tried to catch himself as he fell. He blinked hard, tears streaming as his eyes burned with whatever had been in that glass. Raimaru grabbed him by the front of his shirt and dragged him partially upright.

“Things could have gone better for you, but it looks like the Bird just likes making things difficult,” Raimaru said.

Shouta dug his fingers into Raimaru’s wrist, trying to wrestle himself free. Raimaru smirked, a violent shock sparking off of his skin and into Shouta’s arm. Shouta let out a bark of agony as his entire arm below the shoulder seized and went numb. Someone else’s hand, large and thick-fingered, ripped his back by the forearm, twisting his hand back and up between his shoulder blades. Shouta stiffened. He hadn’t heard Takeshiro or his wife approaching during the scuffle but it was obvious now they had him surrounded. He thought of the alley and the way they had closed ranks around Yamada, accounting for every avenue of escape except for a one-in-a-million outside intervention. Shouta darted a look over to Yamada. Their eyes met for a split second that lasted an eon. Yamada’s eyes were wide and his face had gone deathly pale as he took in the scene in front of him. He was frozen half in motion, caught between breaking cover to come help and his desire to steer clear of Takeshiro and Hebiko. Shouta’s stomach sank as Yamada dropped his gaze, hunching in on himself and pulling his hat down farther to hide his face.

“Last chance, doggy,” Raimaru said. “That signal was too weak to come from very far away. Point us in the right direction and we’ll let you go, no hard feelings. Otherwise we send you back to your master in pieces.”

He leaned in as he threatened, and Shouta took the opportunity to show him how close was too close. Shouta reared back, then rammed his forehead into Raimaru’s nose at full force. As Raimaru reeled back, Shouta slammed himself back into Takeshiro, sending the man spine-first into the edge of a table. Takeshiro grunted in pain and Shouta twisted away from his grasp as Takeshiro tried to catch himself. Raimaru sank his fist into Shouta’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him, but Shouta managed to activate his Quirk again before Raimaru could shock him. Shouta retaliated with a sharp hook, jamming his fist into Raimaru’s solar plexus with as much force as he could muster. As Raimaru doubled over Shouta grabbed a fistful of his hair and slammed him face-first into the table.

“All right, ENOUGH!” the bartender yelled. She was floating above the bar with a warning look on her face, a thin metal pipe leveled at Shouta’s head. Shouta looked from her to Takeshiro and Hebiko, who had backed off behind their table again, to Raimaru, who was staring up from under his hand with undisguised disgust as he bled onto the table. Shouta took a moment to catch his breath, then released Raimaru. Not bothering to see if Yamada would follow, Shouta took the moment of peace to walk out of the bar.

The night air was cold and made his face feel closed in and sticky under the mask. Shouta jerked it down under his chin, sucking in a hard breath. The adrenaline in his veins felt like a cloying, choking compulsion to just run, escape, flee as fast as he could in any direction that would count as away. His lungs burned nearly as badly as his eyes, every new breath feeling like a sharp stab in the chest. A strange itching slightly farther down his abdomen joined the pain in his chest as he half-sprinted down the sidewalk. Shouta looked down and froze mid-step. The bare metal handle of Raimaru’s knife stuck out of his stomach at an almost perfect perpendicular angle, jammed in so far that the tip was pressing the rough kevlar of his stab vest against his flesh.

“Ho-ly shit that was a whole bunch of something.” Shouta didn’t look up from the knife almost in his gut as Yamada’s voice crowed out behind him. He felt Yamada digging in his pocket and retrieving the cell phone. “Could have gone better for sure, but also could have gone worse.” Yamada gave Shouta a cheery smack on the shoulder. “You and I make a pretty good team, huh? C’mon, let’s go find a nicer place to grab a bite and hang out until things die down.”

He paused like he fully expected Shouta to agree and follow after him, but Shouta was barely listening. His mind was still trying to process the knife handle sticking out of his stomach. The night “could have gone worse”? Raimaru had almost made good on the threat to send Shouta home in pieces while Yamada cowered in a corner booth, more worried about being seen than being helpful, and Yamada was congratulating himself for a job well done.

“Aizawa? Earth to Aizawa? Hey, are you okay? You’re shaking.” There was a note of real concern in Yamada’s voice as he reached out a hand to steady the trembling in Shouta’s body.

The idea of Yamada making any kind of physical contact snapped the last bit of sane civility Shouta had left in him. True fury, hot and fast and scraped raw by everything that was running through Shouta’s head, boiled over in his chest. He swung wildly at Yamada, hoping to make contact but hoping more just to fend him off as violently as possible. Yamada yelped and jumped backwards, hands coming up to protect himself.

“Whoa! What the hell--?” Yamada began, but Shouta was already swinging again. He wanted to make Yamada bleed, make him feel even half as agonized and afraid as he did right now. Yamada stumbled away from him, eyes wide in shock and confusion. His back hit the brick wall of a building and Shouta got right up in his face, Quirk blazing and teeth bared in a hateful snarl as he spoke.

“Let me be clear with this, so maybe you’ll hear it over the sound of your own voice,” Shouta said between clenched teeth. “We are not partners. We do not make a good team. We are sure as fuck not friends who hang out. You are a problem in my life that I am trying to solve. Get that through your thick skull and stop acting like we’re in this together.” He pulled the knife out and threw it violently at Yamada’s feet before turning on his heel and striding away as fast as his legs could carry him.

As soon as he staggered into his apartment and secured every lock and deadbolt on his door Shouta stripped down, dumping everything he’d been wearing in a heap in the entryway. Ignoring his cats’ cries for attention, Shouta went straight to the bathroom and ran the shower as hot as he could stand it. He could feel himself shaking now, the dregs of adrenaline making his legs weak rather than holding him up any longer. He sat down in his tub with the scalding water beating against his back, arms wrapped around himself. He looked down and saw a long irritated scratch rising on his stomach where the knife had dragged against him through the vest. Shouta let out a long, unsteady breath and closed his eyes. He’d been a vigilante for long enough to know that it meant going without any kind of help when things went from bad to worse to potentially lethal; until now not even his worst cases had shaken him like this. But those times he’d known the risk going in and taking it on had been his choice, which made all the difference. Yamada had known, though. Yamada had known they should have bailed as soon as their worst case scenario walked in the pub’s doors and he’d used Shouta as a human shield to try to get what he wanted anyway. Shouta gritted his teeth, nails digging into his palms as his hands balled into fists. He shouldn’t have expected anything less from someone like Yamada.

Never again, Shouta thought as he roughly toweled off. Yamada could keep his favors and his trade secrets and all the rest of it. He’d need all the help he could get, because as far as Shouta was concerned Yamada was on his own from this moment on.

[smashingatsonicspeed]

SMASH BROS. FOR SWITCH CONTEST!

Hello everyone! If you’ve known me for even a little while, you’ll know I’m always been a huge fan of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. And if you were around about 2-3 years ago you may recall I did a contest for the final Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS presentation

Well, I’m happy to announce that I will once again be hosting another contest like that one. This time much longer lasting and more likely to have multiple winners. As this will last from today, to all the way until Smash for Switch has had it’s final DLC character

For those who need a reminder of how it worked last time or any new people that weren’t around for the contest. Here’s how it works: Either send an ask in the inbox (I don’t care where you send it, whether it’s through my mod blog, this Smash Bros. blog I have, or even on my pony-focused blogs they’ll all count), a live chat message through tumblr, contacting me on Discord, or replying to this post telling me one (and ONLY one) character that MUST be either a potential newcomer or a veteran that was not in Smash 4 (Otherwise there’s a strong possibility a good majority of Smash 4’s roster will be back. And I don’t want to end up possibly doing 50 requests because of everyone picking the safe picks) that you think will get in or at least most support for the upcoming Smash Bros. game

As with last time, it is first come, first served. You cannot pick the same character as another person if they beat you to them. If you do, I’ll simply reply back via Tumblr messages or private message that you must pick someone different. I will keep a constantly edited list on who’s been taken so to make it a little easier. So maybe there won’t be too many conflicts of this type. (BTW also as last time, Anon character claims not allowed. I need to have an actual person’s account to contact more easily)

If the character you chose turns out to be announced you will get a free sprite art request from yours truly as we negotiate what I can do that’s possible and what they want sometime after the announcement.

Though unlike the last time I did this contest. This won’t be completely over after E3, I will keep it open to as far as when the final DLC character drops. So don’t fret if your chosen character isn’t announced at E3 as there will still be plenty of chances later! You also have the choice to switch characters anytime you wish. That does come with a risk that someone else could end up winning with your earlier character (But as with last time if the character was unclaimed when you dropped them and they made it in I may make you a winner anyway. Reminder that mcbrewster had Bayonetta listed first in a multiple list, changed to Ice Climbers because I told them only one. But I decided to grant them a victory anyway because I felt bad that it seemed like it screwed them over. I can be lenient when it comes to that) if they take it. But it is totally your choice to pick someone you think has suddenly become likelier in your mind that no one else picked. After each new character announcement time, I will ask if you want to keep your character choice for the next announcement

BTW if a character you picked turns up playable in the game, that will mean of course you can’t send another. No one should be able to win twice.

Also there won’t be a host’s pick this time. So feel free to pick Tails if you want (Though know I will want to brofist you, be your buddy, and certainly hope you do win because he is still my most wanted Newcomer heh)

The first deadline of what will be sure to be a long contest will be a day before the presentation. June 11th at noon. So plenty of time to choose and/or switch characters if you’re getting cold feet with your choices. (Note: If any leaks turn out legit during this time. Certain characters may be locked. I will keep an eye on this so people don’t end up possibly cheating by picking someone who leaked. If someone has picked a character before the leak they will still win, but I will wait until the official announcement or if they message me that they know the leak is real too and claim their request early if they so wish.) In any subsequent announcements they will also have a deadline of a day prior to whenever the event happens. I’ll keep you posted as each new Smash announcement gets scheduled.

Thanks for reading, good luck to all, and let’s get this hype train rolling for the coming month and beyond! ^^

[makeitwithmike]

How to Master the Art of the Professional DM

By Kaylynn Chong

The familiar sound of a Twitter notification echoes on my phone. I’ve received a direct message from another user.

“Thanks for the follow! Click this link to learn more about me,” the automated words populate on my screen. This is the written equivalent of a pre-recorded voicemail and they’re asking me to drive traffic back to their site.

Aren’t we past generic messages and overly self-promotional content?

A direct message (DM) is a private message sent to a user on social media. They’re often used for getting in touch with a prospect, contacting a hiring manager, or simply establishing a business connection. They show up in a user’s personal inbox—so shouldn’t they be personable?

At Hootsuite, our human resources and sales teams are constantly reaching out and being contacted over social media. We spoke to the experts—Cassie Loewen, our global employer brand specialist, and Mike DeCastro, an enterprise development representative—who gave us the 411 on sending professional DMs.

4 tips for sending the perfect social media DM

1. Reach people through various touch points

Recruiting expert Cassie Loewen has a theory about connecting with people on social media.

“It’s kind of like dating,” she says Explaining that it’s better to have built a rapport before asking someone on a date so that the interaction is as seamless as possible.

Thankfully, social media is designed for socializing—built on likes, shares, replies, and comments. It’s not strange to engage with the same user multiple times—and on different social media platforms—before reaching out to them directly.

Could you imagine doing that over email? It’s more acceptable to receive five retweets from the same user than it is to receive five emails.

When developing a strategy to get to know someone over social, try using a layering technique. Find the person you want to reach out to on different social networks and interact with them in different ways., You could share one of their LinkedIn articles and then give them a shoutout in one of your tweets.

Mike DeCastro, one of Hootsuite’s sales experts, likes to tweet at potential prospects on Fridays with a simple, “Have a good weekend!” He combines this with liking and commenting on a few of their social media posts. Only then does he follow-up with a request to connect.

The key is to reach that person at different touch points so that when you send a DM, it feels like a natural progression of your relationship.

2. Be strategic with your message

So you’ve commented on someone’s tweets and you’ve shared a couple of their articles on LinkedIn. Now you’re ready for the next step in your relationship—crafting that pivotal direct message. This is your shot at making a good first impression.

Tips for planning your attack:

Make it short and sweet. People are busy and don’t have time to read a novel. Keep it simple and don’t overwhelm them with information.

Be professional. Avoid spelling mistakes, skip the jargon, and don’t use internet slang. “Wassup? Hey how r u?” doesn’t exactly translate to “I’m a qualified professional.” Especially on a platform like LinkedIn, using too much slang or jargon won’t get your message the respect it deserves.

Be clear. State why you’re reaching out and give them incentive to respond. If you’re contacting the hiring manager at your dream company, be clear that you’re hoping to land a position, explain why you’d be a great fit, and suggest a means of connecting offline.

Don’t make them do extra work. You already want a reply, so think about what you’re asking on top of that. Do you want the person to comb through your resume and then to match you with available positions at their company? Asking for too much might turn the person off from responding to your DM.

Include a CTA. Have a call-to-action that provides actionable next steps. Without a CTA, your DM might go unanswered. What are they supposed to do with the knowledge of your existence? Try, “Let me know if you’re interested.” Or if you want to get specific, “How about a call on Thursday at 3 p.m.?”

3. Know your audience

Loewen and DeCastro are both huge fans of personalized DMs. They demonstrate effort and care.

Getting to know your audience is necessary to separate yourself from the crowd. If you’re reaching out to a sales lead or an HR person, there are probably hundreds of other people doing the same.

How you can personalize your DM:

Do your research. Take a least five minutes to scan the contact’s profile and gather information on them. Check out their bio, what kind of content they’re posting, and what might be top-of-mind for them at the moment. Is it their favorite sports team? A book they’ve been reading? Use that intel to add a personal spark to your message.

For example, one look at Loewen’s Twitter profile will let you know exactly what she’s interested in. (Hint: it’s donuts.)

Image via Cassie Loewen on Twitter.

Tailor your message to their communication style. Do they use emoji? Do they share a lot of jokes? Do they refer to themselves as something other than their real name? Incorporate some of those details into your message.

For example, if you’re thinking about contacting Hootsuite’s SEO specialist—Zak Ramdani—you might want to refer to him as The Great SEO Owl instead.

Image via Zak Ramdani on LinkedIn.

Avoid templates and automated messaging. “Once I notice a template, I immediately unfollow them,” DeCastro tells us. People want a well-thought-out message, not something generic. Nobody wants to talk to a robot and nobody wants to be subscribed to a bunch of broadcasted messages.

Sending out a professional DM is a give-and-take process. If you don’t put in the work to get to know them, why should they put in the work of replying?

4. Tailor your message to the platform

Each social media network caters to a specific kind of interaction and a different level of privacy. When connecting with someone you’ve never met before, be mindful of the nuances of the social network you’re using and the expectations for privacy on that platform.

Networking approaches best suited for each platform:

Twitter. Best for casual interactions. It’s where you can do some mingling by liking and retweeting a few of their posts.

LinkedIn. Best for professional interactions. LinkedIn is meant for business networking, so it’s also where you’ll find the most competition when trying to connect with someone directly.

Instagram. Getting personal. People are posting pictures of their personal life, but might also be looking at branded content. Although Loewen prefers to have met someone in person before letting them follow her on Instagram, she also finds it great for sharing what #HootsuiteLife is all about.

Facebook. For personal use. People use it to connect with family and friends, so it’s not the best place to reach out to a potential business contact. Keep in mind there’s also a chance that someone might not receive your DM, as Facebook files messages from outside your “Friends” list in in “Other” inbox.

Snapchat. The most personal. Cassie says if she’s met someone in person a few times, exchanging Snapchat handles seems appropriate. If you’re trying to connect with a sales prospect or potential candidate, it’s can be a great way to showcase some of the behind-the-scenes of your brand.

Even though social media is a public space, it’s important to remember that everyone has their own personal boundaries. Some good rules of thumb are to avoid digging deep into someone’s social media activity and commenting on their personal lives.

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