#what I'll usually do is start with a theme for the video but I went in a bit blind for Jay cause I haven't seen most of his career

[piratewithvigor]

Like A Virgin

[calware]

as time goes on my interesting in shipping (for homestuck) (that's really the only fandom i'm in) has just gone down lower and lower because i used to see "shipping" as just "characters who were compatible in some way". for example i would look at karkat and feferi and be like "they didn't interact much but a lot was going on with the two of them in terms of their themes and how those themes intersect. and since romantic relationships are "more complex" or "better" or "more potent" than other relationships the natural progression is to ship them together romantically" but the stuff that would make them potentially interesting as a pairing isn't inherently romantic at all. and i feel like that goes for a lot of if not most of the characters. homestuck to me is way more centered on the idea of friendship (and family sometimes but moreso friendship) than romance and when characters have something important going on between them the interesting part is usually not inherently romantic

even the characters that start dating where their romantic attraction IS very important is based on their initial friendship..!! vrisrezi wouldn't be nearly as meaningful if they weren't friends first, same with dirkjake, etc. arasol is such a popular ship and they only dated once when they were 8 years old…. their relationship from that point on is SO important to who they are but it isn't even inherently romantic after the fact, but people see romance as the "natural progression" from there so clearly they "should" date once they get the chance to do so again. my point is i wish people would pay more attention to some of the non-romantic aspects of relationships in hs because i really think that's what takes center stage within the story most of the time (not ALL of the time of course there are definitely parts where romance is important. but you get what i'm saying)

and then of course to take that a step further and be even more of a hater i'm so tired of people taking stuff and putting it into a romantic context when it's entirely unnecessary…. i made a video with dave and karkat bickering and people tagged it as davekat for no reason. literally that post about dirk and john meeting each other that people kept tagging as dirkjohn for no reason. i'll make posts about the alpha kids being friends and doing stuff together and someone went through my entire blog tagging all of these as "alphacule" for no reason. i'll draw dirk and hal literally just looking at each other and someone will tag it as dirkhal. girl they're just looking at each other. seeing someone liveblog collide and they go "did anyone else think dirk and dave should've kissed >_<??" no i actually don't think they would do that. it's so dark in here

[mokaisathome]

Can you be parasocial with your own boyfriend?

[Might come back to this Streamer AU later but I'm mostly writing to try and fight my writer's block without plans these days so who knows (also this one was written to cope with a certain Vtuber's "graduation" hence the streamer theme)]

   Streaming was only a way to unwind after a day spent poring over obscure ancient texts at his internship, a simple, mindless distraction that Idia encouraged him to try. There wasn't anything serious about this at first, but his livestreams had started picking up steam until he went from one viewer to a sizeable audience always here to watch him play video games in the dead of the night – nothing more, nothing less, even if some of his viewers tried to get him to do other types of content. Jamil was satisfied with simply doing what he wanted, perfecting his performance over and over in different games until he deemed it enough before switching to something else. (His enough was surely most people's perfect, but there was always something to come back to and perfect in his opinion.)

   By now, he knew the ins and outs of streaming – the introductory small talk, how to choose which comment to read from the chat and which to ignore, and, of course, the nicest way to thank people for their donations… However, this remained a problem in the case of a single donator. Perhaps he could be best described as Jamil's most loyal supporter, having watched him since his humble beginnings and religiously sending a SuperChat at the end of every stream without fail. On one hand, Jamil was somewhat grateful for the support but on the other…

“And that's it for today,” he said while readjusting his headphone mic. “I'll go over everyone's SuperChats now–”

   And like every other time before, as soon as these words left his mouth, a bright red SuperChat appeared in the chat. It was all too predictable at this point, a sort of ritual that even his fans had picked up on as they welcomed the donation with their usual cheers of “Finally!” and “I was waiting for this w”. Jamil frowned at the amount of the donation – thankfully, only the bottom half of his face could be seen on the screen and his lips were still curved in a polite smile.

“Thanks for the SuperChat, it's always a pleasure to see you here, OasisMaker.”

   The nickname rolled off his tongue with practiced ease and Jamil even managed to sound appreciative despite his irritation. The remaining minutes of the stream went well, and he shut off his computer with a sigh. Then, he turned on his swivel chair to look at the other person in the room, slumped on the sofa, his head on the headrest, and who had been sleepily watching his back all this time.

“At least make it a smaller amount,” Jamil said, shaking his head.

“Can't do that…”

“That's– Whatever.”

   Arguing with Kalim when he was already half-asleep felt pointless. This argument wasn't even new and neither of them ever budged on their positions. Kalim insisted on being Jamil's number one supporter no matter the endeavor and Jamil accepted it with less reluctance than before – but still, perhaps his boyfriend should stop throwing money at him simply for existing.

[fertilize-my-eggs]

Send to the mha omegaverse Ch.1

Am I dead?!? ch.2 ch.3 ch.4 A03

A/N: This story is a self-insert x shigaraki if you don't like self-insert, y/n and dark theme content this isn't for youuuu!! It's for me personally since I thought about it for a while so I finally wrote about this, I hope y'all don't find me too boring in this story. 18+ no minors or antis, maps interact with my contacts GO AWAY!! I'll post this every Thursday not this Thursday but the next one!! (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠✧⁠*⁠。*edit* I changed my quirk a bit so it's not a touching type of quirk but eye contact means that the reader can't look at people in the eyes so I do apologize for anyone who got confused by it.

✩｡♡ ࣪ ˖❀ ⑅ *✩｡♡ ࣪ ˖❀ ⑅ *✩｡♡ ࣪ ˖❀ ⑅ *✩｡ ♡ ࣪ ˖❀ ⑅ *

Living a boring life as a 26 year old woman, I would wake up to feed my cute dogs as I sat down to watch YouTube on television. It's like a hamster running on its wheel, everything repeats and it's the same. 

My life isn't as perfect as the others, it's like a roller coaster sometimes. I enjoy my time alone by watching anime and gushing over fictional characters online.

Most importantly tomura shigaraki, I couldn't help but smile whenever I see him on screen while I scroll on YouTube. I would gush over his voice and the way he talks in it.

I giggle whenever it's shown a video of him talking in his gaming references.

Man I love him so much, I thought to myself as I scroll away to see crochet Tiktok or tutorials on how to make cute items.

I pouted as I thought about it. Maybe I should crotchet outside and make a cute little bag with flowers, I smile happily.

I get up to walk into my room, I bring my bag that has my material as I went to get the yarns that I want to use.

Once I get a good handful of yarns, I begin to walk outside to look at the sky. It's a bit cloudy then usually as I walk towards a chair with a nice shade underneath my tree.

I begin to crochet quietly and watch the neighbors do their work. It was calm and relaxing weather today.

Suddenly I feel a drop of rain on my hair as I look up, maybe it won't rain as bad.

I continue to focus on my project as I ignore the rain. It was getting a bit bad as I quickly put my project away and started to run towards the door.

A sudden flash of light hit my view, costing me to close my eyes tight and ringing in my ears… Am I dead?!? as I fell over onto a cement… weird, I should feel the hard ground of dirt why is it hard and why am I hearing people talking?!?

I slowly raise my head up to witness a group of people standing around me. What I notice off the bat is that it's not realistic but it's like something that you feel is uncanny.

Everyone looked like cartoon characters and I noticed there was a mall that had a hero merch.

I immediately recognize the hero as it has all might… could this be.. no it can't be, I sat upwards as I began to look around my surroundings.

There were heros rusting in and asking me questions, it felt so surreal and it hurt my brain.

How… Can a simple thunder send me here in their universe!? I started to breathe heavily, feeling like it's a twilight zone.

I grip my hair as I curl into a ball, this isn't happening but this is what you wanted right?

You get to be someone in this universe then your old boring life, I begin to blink a few times to notice my belongings aren't with me.

What the hell? Where is my bag and everything??? Then I hear a familiar voice coming in, he has a concerned gentle voice.

“ Are you alright ma'am? ” I immediately look up to see izuku midoriya standing in front of me. It feels so bizarre, there is no way in hell. I can't look him in the eyes, everything feels and looks weird as I try not to freak out.

I slowly get off the floor, I clean myself off as I said.” I-I’m okay thank you young man.” is this the first season?? because izuku looks like he's wearing a black outfit and golden button as I witness the hero taking down a big villain that has deep brown hair as people were gathering toward mt lady while kamui woods looks a bit annoyed by this.

“ y-yeah you fell over on the ground costing everyone to be worried about you. ” he awkwardly put a hand on his neck as he chuckled as I stood still. Does this affect the story of this universe? It feels so wrong talking to him and knowing what happened in the manga.

“ yeahh… I'm doing fine-.” wait do I have a quirk in this universe, I gotta have a quirk.

Hopefully it is useful, people are more interested in the hero than a random stranger falling to the floor as I try anything.

Izuku tilts his head a bit confused by what I'm doing as I throw hands in the air or something like a power move..

“ What are you doing? ” I stop as I look at him but not directly as I think of something that isn't crazy.

“ uhh… I'm trying to see if I have a quirk but nothing is working. '' his eyes widened in an optimistic way.

“ oh!! Maybe you have something to do with contact kind of quirk?? Are you quirkless? ” I tilt my head as I think, it could be like a normal quirk or it could be like shigaraki's quirk. Where I accidentally hurt someone and that is izuku as I try to stay calm.

“ uhh I'm not sure… to be honest. ” I don't know how to tell someone that I'm not in this world or don't belong here.

“ Uhhm do you have a paper or pencil? ” he nodded his head as he pulled a piece of paper out.

I put my hand out as he put the paper on my palm, nothing happened okay so it's not like decay quirk as I sighed in relief.

“ mhmm how about you use it on me ma'am? ” I tilt my head with confusion as he begins to wave his hands fast.

“ no.. I meant to use my hand. ” I shake my head as I apologize to him, I hold my breath.

“ What if it hurts you? ” I had a worried look as izuku has a hopeful expression. 

“ I mean it didn't affect the paper, it would be-..” he started to mumble as I forgot he does this sometimes as I waited patiently and he started to apologize quickly.

“ oh my goodness I'm sorry miss, I-I tend to have a habit of doing that. ” I smile gently as I said.

“ you're fine, I tend to have it too when I'm hyper focused about something. ” he sighs in relief as he puts his hand out.

“ Whenever you're ready, miss.” I begin to hold my breath as I put my hand on top of his..

Nothing works, alright I'll try looking at him-... As we make eye contact as I pause for a second as I look at midoriya.

He looked at me strangely as he had a doopy silly smile and pulled me close into a hug as I gasped out loud.

What the hell?? Why is he acting like this so suddenly?

“ I'm in love with youuuu ma'am~!! ” oh… does this mean my quirk is.. something to do with love? Or maybe it's a yandere lovestruck type of quirk.

I shake him out of it and he blink a few times.

“ uhh w-what happened? ” I feel my cheeks getting red from embarrassment as I awkwardly laugh.

“ I think my quirk is lovestruck because you hugged me and said that you're in love with me so I can't make eye contact with anyone.”

“ in l-love?? That…” he gasps from this as he writes it down in his notebook fast.

“ incredible!! That quirk sounds so interesting and puts people in a mindset where they can't remember anything afterwards-. ” hearing him mutter about the possibilities of my quirk as I start to feel nervous so I can't make eye contact with others, this is gonna be a challenge .

I start to think about the possibilities as I put my thumb on my lips. A lovestruck quirk sounds harmless to others but I can't imagine if I accidentally look at the wrong person, will it be a dangerous individual or…

I widen my eyes as I pause for seconds since I know shigaraki and every character exists. What if I accidentally stare at him, will he be fully yandere towards me?

No that's possible, this is crazy… Everything feels so bizarre, I need to get home asap.

“ ma'am? ” I don't look directly at Midoriya but with confusion as I noticed him holding his nose as if I smell bad, I don't think I smell… okay now I feel self-conscious about it.

“ you should get patches on your neck, you don't want an alpha to bite your neck..”

Not only I'm in my hero academia universe but it's an omegaverse, this couldn't get any better..

[ateez-himari]

LXST; RECORD TWO

[NEW UPLOAD FROM ATEEZ]

LISTEN TO 'TAKE ME BACK TO EDEN' NOW ON YOUTUBE (until 4:38)

Liked by m.by_sana and 1,203,389 others

ateez_official_ LXST; Record Two

#ATEEZ #애이티즈 #HIMARI #히마리

View all 890,839 comments

sleep_token So glad our fans brought this ethereal song to our attention 🙌🏻 If you're ever looking for someone to collaborate with we'd be more than willing

hynjinnnn i'm so grateful you trusted me to photograph you and bring your ideas to life, it was such an amazing experience 💛the song is so beautiful that i might be responsible for half of its steams right now, save me a seat at the next tour stop🙏

teezify these photo concepts just get more breath taking and the fact that the water is used to portray the emotions of the song...🤌✨️

youremystar an alternative rock/progressive metal song with HER voice, we really are winning guys 🤭 and the creative direction was all her so it really makes those pics more impressive, I can't even explain how I feel looking at them

himarry.me We as a society underestimate just how creative her mind is...she replaced the vowel by an x to make it a series with different themes 🤯Thank you for working so hard our maknae, but please remember to rest 💕

bluebrry she actually performed it at the Toronto concert...I got chills. not only was she acting but she was singing live the entire time, also Mingi as the toxic masked figure from the video?? this stage alone should get an award 🤩👏🏼

08 July 2024 • See Original

Industry Reactions

Mingi made sure his Instagram story was filled with praise for his girlfriend 'from the moment this song started playing in the studio I felt like I was diving into her heart. I'll never grow tired of hearing that angelic voice even in the depth of my dreams so if you won't stream the song, I will 😤Tiny, please show lots of love to my angel, she deserves it especially after the amount of work that went into this track alone. She fell asleep so often in her studio writing everything from lyrics to the music video directions that I had to make her sleep in mine most nights just so I could bring her home later'

J Hope made an unexpected post on Weverse 'I don't usually make song recommendations but I feel like people need to hear this one at least once in their life. We watched her grow up so I was able to see the amount of potential her production had and yet I never thought to hear something so out of the ordinary, she's really advanced to a new level'

American singer Halsey showed fondness for her friend's younger sister on X 'I've only gotten the chance to meet this sweet girl twice yet she's been stuck in my mind ever since and this song is proof of her impact. It goes beyond the restrictions of her industry, it draws your entire being inside the track almost as if under water. I can't properly explain this song so go stream it!'

Woozi surprised fans with news of their friendship on Weverse 'There have been many talented producers who worked with me in the past but Himari instantly stood out to me with the brilliance of her musical mind. We got to talking more as friends and she told me that she didn't take classes until their early debut days, she just watched people like Hongjoong and Yoongi hyung. When producers say that this girl is a genius we really mean it. Take Me Back To Eden is a mix of two different genres yet she makes them work so well together with just the use of her voice, that's a true artist, someone with a creative vision out of what people expect or are comfortable with'

(G)I-DLE leader and producer Soyeon expressed respect on an Instagram story 'Usually senior idols are the ones serving as role models for their juniors, but after hearing Take Me Back to Eden I have to admit that despite being three years older, I really do look up to Himari. What she has isn't just about natural talent, it's hard work, constant learning, harmony in a team, long hours...a lot of us producers admire her work ethic. Her creativity is absolutely mind blowing, she's without a doubt one of the pillars of this generation and I'm sure younger idols will talk about her for a very long time ❤️'

Netizen Reactions

@/bulleobulleooo on X 'That one scene with Apollo when it turns into a man hits so hard...because the sound was beautiful but the chords were cutting her fingers the entire time. Relationship wise that means he was whispering loving things in her ear while destroying her. Omg then the part where she's singing 'Grow back your sharpest teeth, you know my desire' in tears while he's making her look up at him?? This MV is so meaningful'

@/ateenypresent on X 'this is definitely about being lost in someone's corruption 🤔 look at the details, she even has bruises around her eyes like she was burnt by the 'funeral pyre' she keeps talking about being drawn to'

@/himaswife on X 'Hear me out, I think this whole project is about the evolution of toxic love. The first track was about desire for another person, lust, or being drawn in by someone, this one hints to being so blinded by toxic love (of the person she was drawn to) that she loses herself to the point of wanting to go back to previous innocence yet not being able to due to still being trapped by the other. The next one might be called last and talking about the separation from that person.'

@/secretlyjjoongrami on X 'Wait Eden is the beginning, where everything started, but it also represents perfect harmony. With all the clues in the video I think she's been corrupted by the masked man and broken to the point where everything inside her is in chaos. Maybe that's why her dress when he's around is black and torn, but the reflection in the mirror is wearing white, same thing when she's in the water...'

Min Siblings Updates

Yoongi's private message 'My Himari, please know that I'm more than sorry for everything happening at the moment I promise I'll fix it. This is very unfair to you, I can only imagine how stressed everything must make you right now, how much my stupidity bled onto your life. I wanted you to know how proud I am that you're working so hard especially on this incredibly creative project. Your soul is pure art itself, I hope you'll always be able to express yourself like this. Your big brother is so sorry, I love you, always ❤️'

Hanzo's private message 'Don't worry I streamed your new song the second the notification appeared on my screen, Haneul heard it and won't stop asking for me to 'play auntie's song' ㅎㅎ This is a beautiful project but please remember to rest, Hongjoong says he's worried that you have more nightmares lately. Pretty please send me the next track before it comes out, for your big brother that you love so much 🥺My amazing, artistic little tiger, I love you 💕Remember to send me a message when you land in Rosemont!'

Translated from Korean by Google

[pikxelbit]

Please excuse any writing errors here, I'm kinda tired to go over this whole thing and I don't want to pay a website to check my spelling

Chapter 3: Introductions

Word Count: 6,611 words

Warnings: Not that much, Mentions of death and somewhat near death experiences

Chapter Prompt: Everyone gets a check-up

Turbo x Reader | Chapter 2

It's now the next day and currently you started to practice your skills. Your abilities includes, opening and closing files, self-updating when possible, running diagnostics, coding simple assets into the game such as background items and even simple colouring, you can even try to repair errors and do anything once given enough information.

Your code can work somewhat similarly to a video game characters' code. You can interact with anything that's either a different game or app. However, unlike video game characters though, since you are accustomed to work in a computer, you don't exactly need a door to go inside and interact within the application itself. As long as the file has been opened, you can enter and leave as much as you'd like.

Furthermore though, when a file is opened and a window would appear, showing the contents of the folder or file that has been pressed. Once open, that's where you can step inside and interact with its contents.

Regarding how you do move inside the computer, you just hover and fly here and there. It's much more easier to reach files and do your tasks this way.

...

"Ok, let's start with your simple skills. Start by opening a few files and then organize them in an alphabetical order please," Danny spoke towards you.

Abiding, you opened a few random folders before organizing it in alphabetical order.

"Ok...next, open the file to the background of Turbo Time and right after, try to run a simple test on it."

Nodding your head, you opened the file to the environment of Turbo Time before trying to inspect if anything would break. Looking around, you observed how the background would move when being interacted to. Running through the fields and tracks, you confirmed that it is stable before trying to play the audio. Listening through, it didn't glitch at all like the theme song in RoadBlasters.

After all that, you brought out a notepad wherein you took note of every detail you perceived as important. This notepad could be accessed by Danny as it would automatically be saved into another separate file in the computer.

"Ok... So this is kind of your big day Y/N. To continue your practice for the day, I want you to run some tests on all the characters okay? Don't delete anything, just run a simple 'check-up' and list down the errors you might find. We still don't know how things happened so it would be good to do a check-up on how the characters are for the time being. I already checked the codes but I was way too sleepy last night so I need you to test them for me. I'll come back later to check on what you've done," and just like that, he went off.

By now it was normal for you to do certain things by yourself. Early on, he would usually leave the computer running for a few hours sometimes and try to record what you'd do without him. Danny used to do that, before he would come up with a notepad as a replacement of recording. The notepad would also serve as somewhere for you to journal the things you've done and other important information you might have gathered when he's gone. So sometimes you'd just be left alone in the room.

After sometime though, you did feel somewhat... alone. It's a bit silly to think of, but being left alone by yourself in the house made you sometimes wonder what could be happening right outside this computer. You didn't do anything important, sometimes Danny would accidentally leave the computer open so you'd usually use that time to try and look through files you have access to.

The computer didn't have a lot of games installed into the system, but even then the games that are available were one's without any characters at all. Still thankful though, you would oftentimes play the games just to kill time. But, sometimes, you could just shut yourself down when there's nothing to do.

Using your journal, you would often write simple things and observations. Usually just certain things such as, listing simple actions you did for the day, or listing the many times you've reassembled a few files. A few times though, your entries really do show how lonely you are...

You admit, a lot of the times it is quite lonely. With no one to speak to other than Danny, Kiara, and even their parents, you had a limited range of people to talk to.

But now, right after your encounter with Turbo, you felt somewhat glad to have someone else besides yourself in this computer. Four new people to talk to...

...

Opening a file, you started with the first character on the list, Max..

The racer from RoadBlasters. It seemed she was the only character the developers made for the game. You did somewhat understand, the game did look very polished so perhaps they just didn't have enough money for more characters.

She was characterized as a bit of a vigilante, driving a racecar through different tracks and places. Well, when speaking of the arcade games, disregarding other materials, that's how she is. Not much talking, just the driver of the vehicle to be controlled by the player.

The game is clear-cut, it was a racing game, just like Turbo Time. Danny and Kiara told you about the two games and a few details as well about the characters, so you did know their names and such, but as for the cause of damage to the games, you all didn't exactly know yet.

Sure the theory that has been formed is adequate enough for the outcome. A virus in the game, perhaps someone tampered with both games the night before and managed to do this. But other than that all of you were completely clueless on the possibility of this happening because of malice.

Stepping into the 'window', you went onwards until you're standing right in front of Max. For a moment, you wait as her code slowly started. Like a lifeless husk, she stood still for a solid 15 seconds before waking up. Once she did, she widened his eyes slightly before landing it on you. She was slightly taller than you are.

"Greetings, I am Y/N an assistant in the current repair of your game."

Raising her eyebrows, she nodded slowly, while looking around trying to ground herself to the whole situation.

"Oh...I'm sorry, maybe I should give you some time to process first," you spoke with a small sheepish smile on your face.

She took a while, closing her eyes, she seemed to recall something in the same way Turbo does. Pausing for another moment her eyes gazed at the big rectangle shaped window seemingly the exit out of this abyss. Returning her gaze back at you, she tilted her head in confusion, her brain puzzled with a million questions flooding her mind as she tried to make sense of this, 'Who is this again? Where am I? What's going on? What happened again?' she thought to herself.

"Alright, I assume you want a whole explanation of how you got here, where you are, and what's happening?" You spoke, summing up all the possible questions she might ask as you noticed her quiet demeanor.

Swiftly, she nods back, "Yes, that would really help."

So, you explained how she got here, why she's here, where is here, who you were, and what you do, "...as for why you are currently in this dark room, right now you are separated as a different element to your game. All the other things from your game are separated and are placed in different rooms just like this, so apologies if it looks bleak. Do not worry though, in due time, you'll be transferred into a much more pleasing place."

"Ah...ok..." Max mutters, slightly gaining more insight on how everything currently is. She still looked a bit baffled though, and understandably so, waking up from a near death experience is... absolutely strange.

'That's right... I crashed into someone..? Then the whole game fell apart,' she thought to herself, her mind going on to recall what might have happened before her awakening in this dark, empty room.

She pondered for a while, leaving only a few seconds of silence before noticing that she might have been unnatentive. However, it didn't seem to bother you that much as you took to your own devices. Writing on your notebook, you took note of a few things. In silence, he took this time to try and interpret how you looked. You were a few inches shorter than he was. You looked like an accountant with a notebook, well you did fit the description you gave yourself, an assistant. She thanked you in her mind, Mr. Litwak and the others. Her game was only plugged in a few weeks ago and suddenly a whole accident happened. She thought she was going to die. Although this feels like a dream, she's still glad to even be here right now. After a short while, you stopped writing and placed your notebook somewhere before continuing to speak.

"Sorry about that, just had to take note of something. Moving onwards though, as you know I am an assistant of sorts, and right now I am here currently to see and test if you're working fine. Don't worry, it won't take long. So...are you comfortable with that?" You asked her politely.

Well if it's for the better, you are just going to do this test to know if something's wrong, so she supposes why not. Nodding her head in approval, she lets you start.

Getting tested was strange, although characters might have nearly never got checked-up or went to the doctor, they still did somehow got background knowledge of this because of a few chatterboxes arriving in the arcade. A few kids here and there, speaking about nurses and doctors... The tests went by as quick as you said, you asked her to do certain things and took some notes that's most likely just for reference.

From her vision, to her mobility, and right to her health, she felt like she was she was visiting a doctor. You didn't exactly need to test everything that's included in a typical diagnostics test for humans, you just had to make sure that the assets, in this case, the characters can work well. Questionably, you somehow brought something out of nowhere. And now, the only thing left is her ability to grab objects. 'Most likely some computer assistant thing' she thought to himself.

Grabbing the item firmly, nothing happened, but then, only after a few seconds her hands soon started to glitch. Gasping, she dropped the object. Whatever happened, it made her hands displace without her needing to move it. For a moment she felt her hands disappear.

Catching the item, you held it on your hands and gave her a reassuring smile, "Ok...don't worry we'll get you fixed up in no time," you spoke calmly.

"What was that?!" She asked, understandably perplexed by what happened.

"Well, that was because of something that's not supposed to be in your code. Perhaps it was tampered with..." You spoke, tapping your pen on your chin, "But just as I said, don't worry, I'll make sure you'll get repaired soon."

Nodding his head, she still was confused and a bit freaked out. But with your reassuring words she put his trust in you. She might have met you only an hour ago, but being someone who actively participated on repairing her game was something she can't deny as outright really kind and generous. With that in mind, she managed to calm down knowing she's in good hands.

The glitching stopped as quickly as it happened. She managed to stand up by herself, her hands feeling slightly numb for only a second before turning back to normal. You asked a few things, making sure she wasn't in any pain all the while as getting more information on what happened.

After writing on your notebook, you bowed slightly and thanked her for letting you run a diagnostics test. Max calmed down surprisingly quick after that, it seems your reassurance helped. Before you left though, you had to explain one last thing.

"Before I leave, I'd like to know if you're comfortable with me closing that window?" You pointed at the rectangle opening right in front, "When I close it, you'll somewhat go to sleep... Is that okay? I promise it won't hurt," you tried to explain properly.

Well, she's been alive for this long and you have helped her a lot already. Extending more trust, she replies, "Alright, if it's necessary."

"Well then, see you later. Once more, thank you Max," bidding her goodbye, she waved her arm before you stepped out into the rectangle window and disappeared. Weird. 'Must be another computer assistant type of thing,' she thought.

Leaving the file, you then pressed the [X] button to close it. Clicking your pen, you held out your notebook.

_________________________________________

Ticking off Max's name, you lowered your pen downwards to see the names... Dash and Flash, (I changed their names).

Dash is a side character, he's the youngest of the three. Although, strange, the three are somewhat brothers, with Dash being the last of them. Looking just like a bot of some sort. His outfit was simple like the others, no doubt this game was made with a small budget.

...

Dash wakes up, the bright light of a huge rectangular figure making him squint his eyes. Taking in a breath he realizes it's not game over! He touched his own face, unsure if this was a dream or not. All he could remember was the big yellow poster sign blocking the screen before their game got unplugged shortly afterwards.

Taking in another breath, he closes his eyes for a moment before asking a lot of questions to himself. 'Where am I? Where is everyone? Did someone save me?' Looking around, all he saw was the cold, and dark empty space covering the room. It was a chilling sight to see. So he turns, facing what he guessed was the screen and the only thing that brings light into this room.

Stepping forward though, he soon realizes he's not alone. He stares into your direction, you looked fancy, well somewhat. From what he guessed, you most likely are a doctor or an accountant of some sort. You're most likely are taller than him by the looks of it. Other than that, you didn't look threatening. Though, it seemed like you held something close to your chest... Upon closer inspection it was a notebook.

"Who are you?" Dash asked before you could say anything.

"I am Y/N, an assistant to help with certain tasks," you reply shortly, "You are Dash, correct?"

"Yup, the one and only," he nods his head before looking around in a baffled manner.

"Y/N may I ask, where am I? Why am I here? And do you know where my friends are?" He politely asked.

Just like when you met Max, you did your best to explain what has been happening, how he got here, and why he's here. However, as you were about to continue explaining, he interupts you for a moment.

"Ok, sorry for interrupting... So if I'm getting this right... You're someone who's helping Mr. Litwak's neice and nephew to fix our game?" He paused looking for some reassurance. Right after you nodded your head, he then continued, "So Turbo Time is still busted, and since they wanted to look into the code and fix it they just transferred us here? In a computer?" He paused once more, and you nodded once again, "Ok...what about my friends/brothers? Flash...and Turbo... Where are they?" He asked you with a tint of confusion and concern noticable on his face.

"That's what I was about to explain earlier. You see, all of you are currently saved into different rooms for now at least. We don't exactly know yet what went wrong in the game but for now at least all of you will be separated in order to easily check if there is something wrong in each of your codes," you finish explaining, leading him to nod his head.

"Ok... So, I'm guessing you're here to do a check-up?" Dash correctly guesses.

"Well, if that's alright with you?" You respond back, holding your notebook firmly on your hand.

"Sure, I guess I won't mind," shrugging his shoulders he stepped closer.

Starting from his vision, to his mobility, health, and lastly his ability to interact with other objects, the check-up was happening quite a bit faster than usual. During the start though, he felt as if he was visiting a doctor, and because he did start to feel comfortable after only a short period of time, he was starting to see you in a doctor-assistant role.

...

In the midst of the 'check-up' though, Dash decided to talk. It was awfully quiet at the moment and perhaps he should shed light on something. It might help make sense of the situation, guessing with his gut, he hopes you can keep a secret.

"Y/N, is it okay to call you doc?" He asked.

Looking up from your notebook, you nodded swiftly, "Yes, it doesn't bother me at all."

"So doc, you don't really have any background information right?" He spoke.

"Yes...at the moment, we have guessed perhaps there was a virus of some sort that somehow corrupted both Turbo Time, and RoadBlasters, the only two racing games in the arcade," you replied, placing your pen up to your lips as you gave it a bit more thought.

"Well, I don't really think that's it. You see there's a story here," he scratched the back of his head, becoming a bit unsure if he should say it.

"There is?" You asked, now fully interested.

"Before I tell you though, don't tell Kiara nor Danny or any other human about any of this, it's just between us characters okay? You can ask Flash later about this..." Dash spoke with a tinge of unease in his voice making it clear to you this was most likely a private matter.

You nod, dropping your notebook to the side.

Sighing, he soon starts explaining, his gaze looming to the side.

"Well, a certain person I know kind of went bonkers and tried to do something with RoadBlasters. He went on and on about hating the game before and I'm pretty sure he was jealous or something... I can't really tell you his name for now though," he finished off, with a hurt look on his face, "He went missing after that. I'm not sure where he went, but right after day, an orange poster was quickly pasted on the screen. Me and Flash couldn't really leave the game because the cabinet was quickly unplugged right after, and now here I am."

Nodding your head, you thanked him greatly, "Thank you for sharing this with me, this will really be of great help in fixing things. Do not worry about missing a few details, I'm sure even without it, the information you've given right now is enough to help."

...

Right after the exchange, the diagnostic test was completed quickly. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and he passed with flying colours. There wasn't any bugs, nor glitches, or anything else.

"...and that's all," you spoke, closing your notebook.

"So how did I do doc?" He asked a bit nervously.

"Well, good news, you did really well," you smiled, "No glitches and everything is working fine. No repairs needed as far as I can tell."

He smiled back, jumping in happiness as you both share a good laugh for a moment.

"Well that's a relief, I thought there's something bad..." He sighed.

"Nope, nothing at all. And might I say, thank you for letting me run a diagnostic test."

"No problem doc."

A few minutes after though, soon you did have to go. Bidding him goodbye, he wishes you farewell as well. But before you did, just like last time, you explained how closing the window might make him "sleep". Although a bit spooked, he trusts you and accepts right after you promised it will be painless and that absolutely nothing bad will happen to him.

So just like that, another check up was done. Ticking another box, your pen went lower... Up next was... Flash.

_________________________________________

As you were about to continue, Danny was just in time to catch up on what you've done so far.

"So how's it going buddy?" Danny asks, sitting down.

"It went well. So far I've detected an error from Max, but Dash did really well on the check-up," you answered.

"Oh, well I'll make sure to fix it up sooner or later, but good work," he replies with a smile.

"Shall I...continue?" You asked, hovering close to another file.

"Uhh, no, it's okay," he responds, his attention now towards the time, "It's getting late so let's continue tomorrow yeah."

"Alright," you agreed, fixing up your things.

"Goodnight bud," Danny spoke as he turned off the computer.

...

The very next day, Danny woke up early and booted up the computer. He instructed you to continue with the check-ups before going to school.

Nodding, you do as he says. Before anything else though, you refreshed yourself before taking your notebook and pen. Now ready for the day, you opened a file.

_________________________________________

Just like Dash, Flash is another side character. With the same design, anyone could mistake them as twins. He's the eldest of the group, a bit more low on the energy, but still, manages to beat Turbo a few times in a race.

...

Gaining sentience once more, he opens his eyes, heaving a sigh from his mouth. Looking around, he tries to take in where he's at. Strangely enough, he's in a dark empty room, akin to an abyss.

He's...alive? Looking down at his hands, his face reflects an expression of extreme confusion and wonder. But if he's alive then where...

"Hello?" He jumps slightly in surprise, turning around, he gets flashed by a the bright light behind you. You step in the way of the light, shading his face from the bright rectangular figure.

"Apologies, the light from outside hasn't been adjusted," you comment, staying still for him to properly take a good look on you.

_________________________________________

Just like the others, you went on once more to explain how he got here, where is here, who you are, what you do, and why he's here. He didn't interrupt all that much, he didn't speak all that much either, just nodding a few times, humming as well for you to continue.

He was silent, but attentive. Although, still looking a bit baffled right after the explanation.

"Ok, so, you're a computer assistant of sorts helping out on repairing our games. Right now I'm in some kind of room separated for you to check up on me?" He asked, clarifying.

You nod, agreeing to his summarization, "Are you alright with me running a diagnostics test?"

"I mean, I guess I won't mind," he responds, shrugging his shoulder before approaching you.

"But first though... Did you meet the others?" He asked, his voice showing signs of worry.

"Yes I have. So far Dash is alright. I conducted a check-up on him before meeting you and nothing is out of the ordinary," you spoke while checking your notebook, your words easing him slightly from worry, "Turbo though..." But right as you said 'Turbo', his gaze turned ever so slightly bitter but it still was tainted with concern. Flash may be upset towards Turbo, however he can't really help but still feel some sort of distress for him.

"Last time I encountered him, he glitched a bit uncontrollably... But nothing too much for me to handle. I'll help him get better as soon as possible. He's the next person I'll be checking up on," you spoke, flipping a page from your notes.

'Dang it Turbo, look at this mess,' Flash thought to himself. Flash knew Turbo was jealous of RoadBlasters, but he didn't have to do all this. Honestly they're so lucky to not be shipped to a local hardware store right now.

"Ok, is it alright for you if I conduct the check up now?" You asked politely, bringing him back to reality.

Nodding, he huffed out another sigh before once more settling himself in front of you. And so, you conducted another check-up. Doing your best, you managed to go through half of the required tests. During it, you managed to make some small talk and discussed a few things with him as well.

"So, how'd your meeting with Dash go?" Flash asks suddenly, as his hands played with the makeshift rubix cube you gave him for testing.

"Oh, well it went fine. He was polite and cheery all the way through," you replied keeping track of a few things.

"Ah so he's polite with other people...interesting," Flash spoke once more, this time with a slightly smug face.

You chuckled, "So it seems..."

"However...he did say something a bit odd," you spoke, gaining his interest.

"Dash told me there is a story that happened before the incident, regarding someone he knows?" You spoke, looking back at him curiously, "Do you know anything about this? Knowing the cause may help fix the games quicker."

Flash sighs, nodding his head, "Well, I'll tell you what I know..."

Flash contemplated if he should say or not, but deciding that it should be for the best, he confessed who did it.

"You see, Turbo Time was by far the most successful game in the arcade and let me tell you, Turbo loved the attention," Flash spoke, smiling slightly as he explained, "But when RoadBlasters came in a few weeks ago, the popularity of our game started to dwindle. So Turbo got jealous, and he grew more... aggressive," he continues, his smile disappearing, "And well, one thing led to another, he took his kart and started to drive out of the game, leaving me and Dash behind. Through our screen, we saw him drive and crash into RoadBlasters."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," you answer, now becoming the one who's perplexed.

"Ah well I should've seen it coming. Even though what he did was really terrible, I think there's something more to the way he acted." Flash, spoke, turning his attention back to the rubix cube, "So, what are you gonna do now?" He asked.

"Now...at least I'll eliminate a few other theories I've had regarding the reason for this whole incident," you answered.

"Oh yeah? Let me hear one," Flash spoke, turning the conversation around.

"Well one is about a virus getting a hold of both games for some reason," you spoke.

"Yeah I can see that," Flash responds back.

...

The check up went smoothly right after. With new information currently at arms length, it helped you analyze further that Turbo most likely had the most damage than the of the three... Well perhaps both Max and Turbo took the most damage.

Clicking your pen, you refused to write this information down and just finished up with Flash's check-up. Finishing another entry on your notebook, you closed it back up.

"So, what's the matter with me Doc?" Flash comments right after you closed your notebook, it seemed that nickname will not be going away soon.

"Nothing's wrong at all, just like Dash you are perfectly fine," you conveyed with a smile.

"Well at least that's good," he replies back.

"Ok well, now that we're done, I'm afraid I'll need to leave now," you spoke, giving a slightly sorry look as you both began to walk towards the bright rectangular figure "I truly am sorry to cut this short."

"Don't be... The sooner you'll meet Turbo, the sooner you'll get to fix him," Flash spoke, shrugging his shoulders slightly in a nonchalant way.

"Well, I suppose that is true. Do you want me to pass a message to him?" You asked, stopping your tracks.

"Nah, the message I want him to hear is something I'd rather deliver myself," Flash replied.

"Ok well, if you say so," right after you were about to leave though, you once more explained that he might go to "sleep" when you leave as the rectangular window will close. He only nods for a moment before shrugging it off, "Don't worry, it's okay," he respond before both of you bid farewell to each other.

Being left in alone in the dark, he wished you luck on handling that little gremlin. Flash gazes into the screen for a moment before feeling his whole being shut down.

_________________________________________

Finally, after some time, you ticked off Flash's name. Now for the last but not the least, Turbo was next for check up. Taking a breath, you closed your eyes for a moment. This task is quite a bit tiring...

Turbo had a different set of colour pallete. It was typical, he is the main lead of the game after all so it was understandable. However, he may be shorter than Dash, he's absolutely much more older than he is.

Before continuing though, you sat down beside Turbo's file for a moment. You had to think about something first.

The possibility of this happening because of jealousy wasn't what you'd expect. Although you might not be very knowledgeable to how game cabinets work, you did know characters like Turbo and the others could gain enough sentience to have enough complexity driven in their code in order to feel strong emotions.

Your talk earlier with Flash and Dash brought light into the situation. With Turbo standing right in the middle of the spotlight. Both Dash, and Flash didn't exactly know why he did this so that's something you plan on searching an answer for...later. It did explain why only Max and Turbo was the only ones to glitch the first time you've met them, and why Dash and Flash are completely fine.

With the knowledge that Turbo caused all this, you didn't exactly feel unease or worry as you remembered what Flash said, there's something else happening inside Turbo. Perhaps he's not that mentally well, however that's what check-ups are for right?

Standing up, you felt ready to continue. With your notebook on hand, and your pen on the other, you opened a window headed to Turbo.

_________________________________________

Slowly, just like the others, Turbo gains consciousness in the same void room he's woken up to yesterday. Breathing heavily, all he could remember was a faint "Goodbye" in your voice and a memory of the screen shutting down.

He's back, and alive once more. Holding his face, for reassurance but suddenly he glitched. Gasping in surprise, he recoiled. Ah yes, that. Recalling all that has happened last night, he remembers your name. "Y/N..." He mumbles under his breath.

Gazing into the the bright light before him, he sees you.

"Greetings Turbo, we meet again," you spoke, as you hovered close to him.

"It's...you," he mumbles once more.

"Yes it is, I hope you didn't get too surprised last night," recalling the sudden end of your conversation, a sheepish smile crawled up your face, "I'm sorry that our interaction the last time was ended prematurely."

"Eh, it didn't spook me at all, nothing too much for someone like me," Turbo smiled smugly.

Chuckling, you nodded your head, "I see...well I suppose I don't need to explain a few things other than where your brothers/friends are, Dash and Flash."

Right as you said their name, he felt as if his heart skipped a beat. His whole demeanor seemed to change quickly.

When he drove outside Turbo Time, he recalls them screaming for him to come back. When he crashed right in RoadBlasters, he thought that was the last time he'd seen them. And honestly, he somewhat hopes so. He hopes that they got out and stayed in Game Central Station, he hoped they would never meet again, because as much as he hates to admit it, he knows how badly he messed up. He didn't want to face them. He didn't want to-

"They're currently fine, I checked up on them recently and it's safe to say that Dash and Flash are not injured nor are they defective," you continued.

"They're...here?" Turbo asked, his voice drained from it's charismatic tone.

'Interesting...' you thought. "Yes, perhaps after you're fixed from your current state, you'll be reunited with them."

Right after you said that, he suddenly glitched. Gasping, he couldn't control it for a moment.

"Whoa there... Calm down," you spoke, holding out your hands to grab him at the right second when he stopped glitching, "Take a breath, it'll help," you calmy spoke.

Breathing in and out, he slowly calmed down.

"There you go," you spoke in a lower tone, your hands on his shoulders.

'That was even worse than the last time, it's even worse than Max's... Oh dear...' you thought to yourself.

"Ok...I'm fine alright," slightly panting, he took your hands off him, "I told you, this is nothing," he insisted, looking a bit pale.

"Uh huh..." Nodding your, head you took out your notebook.

"What's that?" he pointed towards your notebook.

"It's my notebook, I just need it for journaling," you respond.

"What like a diary?" he asked, his smile slightly returning.

"Well, somewhat yes. It's to list important observations and for me to keep track of a few things," explaining, your hands firmly grip the notebook as you show it to him.

"What you're going to journal what just happened? It wasn't even anything important at all..." Slowly gaining more energy, he scoffs at you.

"Well, even so, there is something else I'll journal for this interaction," bringing out a few things out of nowhere, you flipped your notebook open.

"And that is..?" Confused, and now in a stable condition, he asked.

"Well, I am here to run a check-up on you. It's to check on a few things and it will also help quickly pinpoint what may be wrong and how it could be fixed," explaining, you clicked your pen and wrote something down.

"So what, I'm your little test subject now?" he asked, looking up at you.

Returning his gaze, you replied, "What? Not at all," shaking your head, you continued, "Remember what I told you last time, I am an assistant, and I'm simply here to assist."

For a moment, Turbo thought about it. He doesn't exactly like the feeling of being vulnerable. But thinking about it, does he really want to deal with this stupid glitch and possible deformities he might have caught right after the crash?

Sighing, he agrees, "Alright, alright..."

_________________________________________

Holding up an object from a distant place, you tested his vision first. Slightly squinting his eyes, he managed to answer correctly each time. Doing the eyes test was also something you conducted, pulling up the Snellen chart, he managed to get a good score.

Moving forward to his mobility, you made him walk and run a few times. Panting, by the end, you rewarded him with a bit of a break afterwards.

Sitting down he panted slightly as he took his well deserved rest. Taking a seat beside him, you took note that he's doing well for now. As for his voice, he didn't seem to have that much trouble speaking so you decided to skip that part of the test.

Looking up from your notebook, you asked him, "You ready for the next one?"

"Yup, just give me a minute..." He answered, taking one last breath before standing up.

"Ok..." Looking back down at your notes, you held out your hand.

Something was supposed to appear on your palm. He gazed at you for a moment, feeling slightly confused, but going through what he considered was a strange check-up so far, he let out a sigh and didn't question further.

Then, you felt something on your hand. Raising one of your eyebrows, your eyes quickly averted from your notes and saw his hand holding yours. Noticing your reaction, he returns the same confusion you felt.

"What?" he asked raising his shoulders.

Well...that's one way to test his abilities to hold objects. Then, the rubix cube he was supposed to interact with appeared on top of your intertwined hands. He stared at the object, before it fell down. "Uhm..." You muttered quietly.

Quickly realizing his mistake, Turbo felt his cheeks flare up because of embarrassment.

Quickly removing his hand from yours, he spoke, "I thought..."

"No, no it's alright," you spoke, shaking your hands as you smiled awkwardly.

"Let's just... Forget that happened," he muttered quickly, his cheeks still noticably red.

You agreed and went onwards with the test, picking up the rubix cube, you handed it to Turbo. It was awkwardly quiet for a while. You wrote on your notebook, and he just aimlessly played with the cube.

"You're doing quite well," you spoke, breaking the ice.

"Of course, you shouldn't even be surprised," he responds, trying to sound confident.

Smiling, you replied back, "Well, so far you hadn't glitch so fa-" His hand suddenly glitches. He was surprised, but he didn't drop the cube immediately.

"What...a comedic timing..?" You spoke.

He chuckled slightly, and you followed suit. Inspecting his hands, he responds, "How'd this even manage to happen?"

Thinking back to the crash, you shook your head and explained, "Most likely because your code might have been mangled slightly. It's not enough to change a part of your appearance long-term, but it still isn't all that stable enough to avoid that."

"You're kind of a smarty pants Y/N...or should I call you doc?" Turbo spoke, his playful demeanor starting to appear.

Letting out another chuckle, you reply, "As long as it's appropriate, then any nickname is fine," it seems the nickname 'Doc' is common among Flash, Turbo, and Dash.

...

Since the test has been finished, there was nothing left to do. Everything has been finished and all that is wrong with Turbo was currently his glitching.

"I'm guessing we're finished Doc?" Turbo asked.

"Yes, we are. You've done well for the most part. But don't worry I'll make sure you'll get fixed up in not time," you spoke, making your notebook disappear somewhere, "Which means..." you muttered, gazing outwards the screen.

You didn't really have anything else to do for the day. Danny left the computer open for you to finish this job, but you didn't exactly have any plans for the day. Loneliness...wasn't something you ever were prepared nor ever will love, but now having all these people to talk to, you wanted to honestly spend time with at least someone while the computer is left open.

Noticing you were quiet for a while, Turbo stared at you with confusion. Your eyes looked empty, thinking about something most likely.

"Hello..?" He asked.

"Ah... sorry, all of a sudden my mind pondered somewhere else. Anyways, as I was saying, we are finished so I suppose I'll leave," you replied, retracting your eyes from the screen.

"Uh huh..." nodding his head, still somewhat confused by the quick turn of your emotions, you both stood up.

Slowly approaching the exit, your mind started to think of how quiet and lonely it will get once you exit this window. Although it will only be for a few hours, it wasn't something you were looking forward to. Then, you felt something tug at you. You don't need to go yet... Right?

Ok, this was quite a very long chapter. I've never written this long before so it took me quite a while to get this thing wrapped up.

Take note btw that I'm not really all that experience with writing long fics so bare with me on this one lol

Still haven't finished the storyline inside my head too so...I'll most likely edit the chapters even if it's unfinished as I try to work up a few things as time goes by

[daceydeath]

Cigarettes and Cliches (Part 1)

Pairing: Lee Felix x Reader Word Count: 4.3k Genre: college au, slow burn romance, Warnings: 🔞, 18+, minors DNI, swearing, alcohol use, sexual themes,

He was the most impractical guy for you to be interested in, the incredibly handsome cliché bad boy who collected girls like trophies. As hard as you wanted to hate him his persistence and hidden softer side just could be your undoing.

It had been a month since that stupid party where Seungmin had managed to get himself injured, albeit a minor injury, and you were still feeling a bit protective of him. He never told you what the fight was about aside that some guys were being a bunch of dicks about a girl he knew so he stepped in to get them to stop, you never asked any other questions because you could tell he didn't want to talk about it. He had stayed home with you over the weekends for the 3 weeks after that letting Jeongin go and have fun while you made the both of you dinner and either studied or watched a movie together. That changed however on the fourth week.

"Are you going with Jeongin? you asked from the kitchen as they played video games in the lounge, Friday evening had rolled around once again too fast for your liking but you had a shift tonight that you needed to get ready for so you snacked as you finished up a few things.

"Yeah, everyone will have forgotten by now" he grinned back toothily while keeping his eyes focused on his character.

"Boys" you chuckled going around the kitchen island to get to your room "you do remember I'm out tonight yeah?"

"Oooh have a hot date?" Jeongin squealed excitedly pausing the game to look at you hopefully.

"Yeah with a coffee machine you twat, it's Friday night I'm working" you laughed as you shut the door behind you to change, as you did you could here the game not restart like you assumed it would.

"She needs to get out, she needs to date" Jeongin whined softly "There is more to life than her just studying and working".

"I know but you know how hard her parents are on her she got yelled at for over an hour when she told them she moved in here, we can't tell her how to live" Seungmin hissed as you continued to listen at the door.

"I just want her happy, she deserves to be happy and accounting is not going to make her happy it is going to make her parents happy. She will graduate, get a job, sit at a desk and never have a chance at life again to keep people who just run her down all the time happy" Jeongin was arguing getting a little louder as he went.

"Keep it down fuck wit she will hear you" Seungmin scolded "I want her to be happy too but we can't tell her she's making a mistake it isn't our life its hers". After a moment or so more the game unpaused and you could hear the sound of the game filter through the closed door as you rushed to get dressed and go.

"I'll see you guys later" you called as you rushed to the front door and out into the hallway.

Work was busy as always Friday nights usually started quiet and ended up a bit chaotic as people came in for coffee to sober up again, you and a few of the girls called it the witching hour as a joke since pretty much anything could and would happen. Not that you cared Friday nights paid well and you were always happy to have a little extra to spare in the bank if you could manage it. During your break you made yourself an iced tea and sat at the far end of the counter so you were out of the customers way and played on your phone. You could feel eyes on you but you were determined to ignore it you were about to go back on and witching hour was almost beginning, clearing your things you walked back around the counter and put your apron back on pulling in place over your head you noticed him, that pretty Felix guy that helped Seung home that night. He was on the far side of the room watching you with a strange look on his face, the girl hanging off of him hadn't noticed that he wasn't paying any attention to her but his friends had. Taking a breath you got back behind the coffee machine and started on the orders occasionally flicking your eyes to him to see if he was still looking at you which he was every single time.

"Excuse me miss" a honey smooth voice murmured to you making you startle slightly as you turned to him, he was taller than Felix but equally as stunning to look at, like a sculpture come to life.

"Can I help you?" you smiled politely trying not to look dazed.

"I hope so" he almost purred looking you over "I'm Hyunjin" he introduced himself seamlessly.

"Pleasure Hyunjin, but you haven't told me how I can help" you replied tilting your head.

"I was wondering what time you are getting off tonight? I thought you might like to join us" His voice was almost hypnotizing and you were sure that with the combination of this and his looks he could speak to any woman in the cafe and get them to follow him home.

"Who is us?" you asked zeroing on his words not his voice making him chuckled softly.

"In truth it would be you, me and my friends Minho and Felix he gestured behind him where you looked to see Seung's friend glaring at Hyunjin and another handsome guy laughing at him while the girls hanging off of them looked pissed Hyunjin was speaking to you at all.

"I don't think some of your numerous girlfriends would be that happy about that" you smiled politely before turning back to your orders not noticing Hyunjin's slightly baffled expression or how hard Felix immediately started laughing.

Two and a half hours later you were finishing up and saying goodbye to your co-workers when you noticed that Hyunjin, Minho and their gaggle of fangirls were no longer sitting in the back corner of the room however, Felix was still sitting there looking at something on his phone. He hadn't noticed you staring but he seemed to be conflicted about something as he typed then waited then typed again. You knew you should leave it but he was sitting alone in an fairly empty coffee shop on a Friday night which considering his other options seemed odd to you.

"Can I get you anything" you asked casually standing in front of him making his eyes flick up at you prepared to roll his eyes but he stopped as soon as he realized it was you.

"Have you finished for the night?" He asked smiling faintly "you aren't in one of those stupid aprons anymore".

"Yeah I have, thank you for the uniform critique, but I can still get you something if you wanted me to" you smiled awkwardly pressing your lips together.

"I'm good thanks" he nodded as he phone seemed to continue to chime nonstop with notifications.

"Alright then sorry to bother you" you nodded adjusting your bag and starting to turn around.

"You haven't bothered me and it's Felix, I forgot to introduce myself that night at your place after we got Seungmin and Jeongin back" he blurted out seeming every bit as nervous as you which was impossible since he was infamously attractive and had made his way through more girls than you even knew.

"I thought you were hanging out with your friends, at least that's what um...your friend said" you felt your face heat up not being able to remember the name of the handsome guy from earlier.

"Hyunjin" he chuckled looking genuinely happy "Yeah they have gone to party Hyunjin was a little deflated after you shot him down"

"Shot him down?" You yelped your eyes widening at the implication.

"I'm just kidding they were only wanting to tease you anyway, word got around the Seung and Innie have been hiding a cute roommate so Hyunjin just wanted to make them squirm about which one was hooking up with you" he chuckled looking back to his phone to silence it.

"Right...well have a good night then Felix" you mumbled feeling stupid for thinking that they were actually being friendly or that Felix might have hung around for another reason since you had definitely heard him say you were cute that night before he left. You walked towards the door not hearing him call out to you until he grabbed your elbow a few feet outside the café making you jump your heart pounding in your chest.

"You aren't walking home alone are you?" he sighed "It's not safe for girls to walk home alone at night".

"I always walk home alone" you snapped annoyed that he had embarrassed you and now scared you.

"Let me walk you this time then" he replied sounding irritated.

"Why would you even bother, just to give me shit? No thanks I already know that's all I'm good for thanks" You ground out utterly pissed at how handsome he looked but how much of a dick he apparently was. "Besides you didn't care when I was getting chucked out into the night so you could get your dick sucked why start caring now?" You pulled your arm from his grasp and walked away as calmly as you could leaving him as far behind as you could.

When you got back to your apartment you found only Seungmin was home, well his shoes were home but he wasn't alone so you crept passed his door hoping to not disturb him as you made your way to the kitchen to grab some water and painkillers to dull the headache you now had. For a moment you thought Seungmin and Jeongin had been right maybe you did need to date but Felix and his friends showed you just how untrustworthy some guys could be so maybe it was better to just stick to what you knew. As you stood in the kitchen contemplating your non existent love life you heard very familiar voice in the hall, Seungmin was obviously finished entertaining his 'guest' and he was seeing her out with an excuse that the other roommates couldn't know she was there. Sighing you waited to see if Seungmin made his way into the kitchen or back into his room.

"When did you get back?" he asked as he rounded the corner seeing you standing there staring off into space.

"A few minutes ago, I didn't overhear if that's what you're worried about" you sighed not feeling like you could do the normal back and forth with him tonight.

"No, I was just wondering, are you alright?" he asked leaning his back against the counter so he could see your face.

"Long shift, annoying customers" you nodded trying to mask your annoyance.

"You seem sad that's all" he pressed a little making you more irritated.

"I'm fine Seung, I'm just tired" you smiled tightly "I'll see you in the morning" you left him standing there knowing he would ask more questions in the morning hopefully not in front of Jeongin.

Morning came and you had been correct more questions followed though annoyingly Seungmin seemed to have filled in, the not as hung over as you had hoped, Jeongin.

"Do you feel better this morning?" Jeongin welcomed you from the kitchen as you left your room.

"Yeah I do thanks. How was the party? you seem pretty chipper this morning" you smiled hoping you could just have Jeongin spill the tea for the next hour to keep your from having to explain anything.

"It was amazing, Hyunjin and Minho arrived late without Felix which is strange but apparently some girl turned Hyunjin down, like who turns down Hyunjin honestly, anyway that probably isn't true but who knows maybe it is and Minho was giving him shit about it since apparently Felix has a crush on her but that has to be shit Felix doesn't have crushes he fucks his way through campus" Jeongin began which instantly made you annoyed again why would he be so invested in the lives of fuck boys even if they are his friends "but that helped us all hook up though after they picked who they wanted the others just always gravitate towards us since we're their friends, Seung picked up some girl who was devastated that Felix wasn't there so good for him".Jeongin continued to babble and you tuned out continuing to nod like you cared until Seungmin interrupted.

"You have that look on your face again, the one from last night" he called you out easily.

"I'm fine I just had a weird conversation with some friends of yours and one was a jerk that's all" You sighed hoping you could play down everything.

"Which friends?" Seungmin asked seeming surprised.

"Not important Seung was back when I got in from work but you weren't Innie" you prodded "spill".

"Oh yeah so after Seungmin left with that chick Felix did show up and he was pissed, I don't know what happened before he got there, but Hyunjin and Minho were giving him shit then these other guys decided it would be fun to chime in and Felix lost it so he punched one of them and he and Minho ended up taking on like four guys, Felix will probably have a black eye but they are always in fights so it's not like that's never happened before" Jeongin continued loving that your were interested but again Seungmin interrupted.

"Which of our friends were rude to you?" he asked again with far more authority making you frown.

"Hyunjin and Felix, apparently I turned the mighty Hyunjin down even though he only wanted me to hang out with him to give you two shit about which one of you was fucking me and then Felix was a prick about it all, it was nothing really" you sighed.

"Hold on you're the one who turned down Hyunjin?" Jeongin's eyes widened in disbelief.

"I didn't turn him down he came over while I was working and introduced himself then he asked if I wanted to hang out with them after I finished work. I told him that the girls that were all over them didn't seem thrilled with that idea then went back to work" you explained, mainly to Jeongin who was looking like he was too shocked to speak.

"And Felix?" Seung asked softly looking like he knew more than you did which confused you.

"They left, Felix stayed when I finished I asked him if i could get him anything and he told me they only asked me to hang out to give you two shit and then scared the shit out of me on the street when he grabbed my arm, he offered to walk me home. I declined. End of my super exciting story" you tried not to sound fed up but honestly you were not only had they made you feel insignificant, Jeongin couldn't believe they would waste their time on you and Seungmin had slept with Nali, not that he knew that you knew.

"I'm sure he didn't mean to scare you but we have both told you not to walk home after your night shifts and get an cab instead" Seungmin chastised you slightly.

"Did Nali take a cab home after you fucked her then Seungmin?" you snapped looking his dead in the eyes making him flush pink his mouth falling open "Yeah that's what I thought, I think maybe the no dating and no men thing is something I'll stick to for now but thank you for both spending your time worrying that I'm wasting my life" you seethed as you turned walked back to your room to get ready to go out. You had no idea where you would go you just needed to be away from them, it was irrational for you to be angry with them it wasn't their fault that Felix had made you feel like a fool but the fact that they defended him over listening to what you had to say had pushed you too far.

When you reemerged from your room both of the guys looked guilty since they must have realized that they had been overheard their conversations about you at some point but you didn't speak you just scooped up your bag and walked out needing time to calm down before you spoke to them again and apologized for being short with them. Just wandering you found yourself in the public gardens beside the university, you hardly ever took time to wander between your classes, studying, working you didn't actually have time to do much else. The gardens were beautiful in the quiet of the morning, still a little too early for the party goers to have emerged, it was still and quiet which made you feel calmer. Slowly making your way around the pathways you came across no one so you decided to just sit and think. Seungmin and Jeongin were right in a sense, you did live your life to meet your parents expectations and you did do everything you could for them to be proud of you but you were missing out. Maybe you weren't missing much in the way of dating morons or one night stands, which weren't your thing, but just the mere fact you had never even taken the time to actually wander the gardens that were so close to where you spent so much time did prove that you were missing out on really living your life. Sighing you knew you were going to have to apologize to them but only if they were willing to not dismiss you so easily.

"I didn't think gardens were your thing? they don't have anything to do with studying" his deep voice drawled from somewhere to the right of you, shaking you from your thoughts.

"You don't actually know anything about me Felix" you frowned looking towards him to take in his appearance. He wasn't in his trademark leather jacket and black jeans, just blue jeans and a grey hoodie, looking suspiciously young and innocent with the exception of the purplish looking bruise blooming on his cheek.

"I know, but maybe I want to" he shrugged walking over to you and sitting at the opposite end of the bench from you.

"Why bother I'm not going to be another conquest for you so I doubt I'm very interesting to you" you sighed trying not to sound annoyed at him and failing since his face fell slightly.

"Do you think I can't have friends? I don't have sex with every girl I know" he smirked as you looked over his face finding yourself drawn to try to count the freckles on the bridge of his nose.

"From your body count I doubt that very much and that wasn't there when I last saw you" you gestured to his face.

"No I got this later" he murmured looking sad for a moment before schooling his face.

"Want to talk about it?" you offered softly not knowing why you would even ask him, he kept giving you mixed signals and you couldn't decipher them.

"It was just a fight nothing important?" he shrugged fiddling with the cuff of his hoodie a bit. "I'm sorry I scared you last night after you got off work, I called after you but you obviously didn't hear me, I shouldn't have just grabbed you" he smiled at you this time.

"No you shouldn't have, grabbing a woman in the street at night is a dick move, but thanks I guess" you relented.

"Seung said you're doing accounting, do you like it?" he continued still smiling.

"Not really but it's what I'm supposed to do" you admitted reluctantly "I was interested in other careers but accounting is more stable I guess" you explained "What department are you in?".

"Arts" he smiled examining you closely "I'm doing English Lit, is it your parents wanting you to do accounting?".

"Umm... yeah" you nodded slowly now watching him as closely as he was scrutinizing you.

"It's hard to make your parents proud" he breathed sadness flashing across his eyes.

"Yeah it's almost impossible" you agreed clearing your throat awkwardly "I have to head back Felix bye" you half smiled standing up quickly you didn't like how unbalanced he was making you feel.

"You too Choi" he smiled leaning further back on the bench and closing his eyes. Your eyes lingered on him for a few more seconds before you left feeling less annoyed in general but still frustrated by everything.

The walk back to your shared apartment felt longer than it had on the way out this morning which you figured was probably the difference between annoyance and guilt. You could hopefully smooth everything over with Seung and Innie, after all it wasn't their fault you hadn't really explained the situation or how you had felt, you had tried to minimize it which of course would leave to misunderstandings. Plus you liked the boys they were easy to live with so you hoped they wouldn't ask you to leave. Keying in your code you slipped off your shoes and padded towards the kitchen where you assumed they would be to be once again caught in a situation where you were snooping.

"Chan, we didn't mean to make her upset" you could hear a voice whine over the phone.

"Not the point Hyunjin, Seung and Innie have potentially lost a housemate because you guys thought she was an easy source of amusement" Chan groaned and you just stayed still thinking about how to fake that you weren't overhearing another private conversation.

"She seems real nice too" another voice that you didn't recognize said.

"She's better than nice" Seungmin replied dryly "She's kind, sweet and always helpful, not to mention easy on the eye which helps".

"She is cute, is that why you decided to play her? she's the only cute girl one of the three of you hasn't fucked?" Innie almost spat sounding more annoyed that you had heard him before.

"It's not like that" Hyunjin instantly answered "It wasn't about teasing her it was about pissing off you guys and Felix, you should have seen the way he was looking at her she has him whipped and she doesn't even know".

"I highly doubt that" Chan sighed skeptically "Felix doesn't want a girlfriend he wants to stick his dick in every girl he can".

"She's too good for him anyway" Seungmin grumbled "too smart and too steady for the guy who can't date someone for longer than a fortnight".

"Damn Seung savage" one said but you weren't sure who as you crept quietly back down the hallway hearing them laughing, jamming your feet roughly back into your shoes to make nothing suspicious you loudly open and shut the door taking your shoes off again.

"Seung? Innie? you home?" you called down the hall knocking on each of their doors as you passed them.

"In the lounge" Innie called as you made your way into the kitchen and opened the fridge to grab some water.

"Alright look I'm really...Hi" you pretended to be surprised that there were other people in the apartment.

"This is Han" Innie smiled at you like he was actually thrilled you were home "I can't remember if you have met before and of course you know the others".

"Hi all" you waved from where you were standing "Han and I have met, I think I have met all your friends but one now" you poked your tongue into your cheek.

"Who haven't you met?" Seung tilted his head looking at you.

"I think his name is Minho, he's apparently glued to your mates Hyunjin and Felix" you smiled "I mean he waved but you have never introduced me to him, although same could have been said for Hyunjin".

"Yeah we did try to keep you away from them" Innie admitted as you walked around the kitchen island to move closer to the group lounging around on the sofas.

"I noticed" you chuckled "It's fine Innie I get it".

"No it's not because we think you need to stay away from them it's just that we know they aren't your type of person so.." Innie tried to explain quickly.

"Innie, it's fine I don't need to know all your friends I'm not your mother" you laughed rolling your eyes at him before retreating to your room.

"She seems fine guys I don't get why you were so panicked" Changbin chuckled as you shut your door.

"I get Felix's interest now she is pretty cute" Han whisper shouted making you roll your eyes as you heard Seung and Innie protest loudly and they all began bickering.

"Look we both get that she's cute but back off she's like super innocent the last thing she needs is any of you fuckers messing her around" Seung whispered back.

"When you say innocent?" Changbin asked softly.

"She hasn't hooked up with a single guy since she started collage, I'm pretty sure she's a virgin" Innie blurted like he was spilling some kind of tea which made you put your face in your hands embarrassed that they were discussing your sex life.

"How would you even guess that kind of information Innie, bloody hell if she overheard you know she would be mortified" Chan scolded.

"Trust me she is" you yelled through the door hoping that it made them cringe at the whole idea because you were mortified that it had been so obvious to Jeongin that you had pretty much no experience in that department, outside of a few sloppy make out sessions and the moment you lost your virginity which you hadn't enjoyed so you had never bothered to go back for seconds.

"Her bedroom walls are thin" Changbin laughed awkwardly as you flopped down on your bed hoping to not have to face any of them ever again.

a/n: Thank your for reading my lovliest loves I hope you enjoyed it and please know that any likes, reblogs, comments and amazing tags are loved and enjoyed xx

Taglist (open): @christopher-bangnaldoskzz, @armystay89, @damnyouficc, @roamingpolar, @bakedlilgoonie, @shiy, @is2cb97, @beautifulixr, @skyhold-tara, @army-stay-noel,

[admirange]

Mcl style contest outfit dump pt. 4

Spectral waltz

I didn't know what spectral meant lol, pinterest gave me ghost artworks so I guess it's just ghost waltz? IDK. Used all white & pale colors and the usual black hair because that's all I have. I WISH I could relive my prom when my whole class waltzed together. My dress was all white and pretty and princessy and it perfectly fit me the first time I tried it 😭 AND HOW IT MOVED WHEN I DANCED okay I'll just go watch the video of our dance. Used music related elements and went for this barouqe/victorian type of vibe with the room. Taki is Queen Charlotte.

Got low ranking with it.

Alien abduction

My first thought was the sims. My second was the woman from that movie Mars Attacks! TRAUMATIZED me when I was a kid lol. Then I thought just fuck it we ball and went to do the outfit. Saw this red shared item shirt and I thought it looked so weird, I just had to use it. I basically built the whole outfit around it. Tried to give off this thight one piece clothing vibe? Idk how to describe it, similar to what superheroes have. Then gave her this health thingy that comes with that sportswear basic outfit, a clock, things like that. At this point I was starting to give her some lore. No way this woman was abducted like this. Maybe this is the alien doing the abducting? Wanted to use the green face mask but I don't have that one. So I gave her a notebook, maybe this is a scientist that got abducted and eventually became part of the alien society? And she's studying them while living on their spaceship. The aliens accepted her as their friend and let her do her stuff while she's also helping them. GOD an Alien cosplay would've gone hard with this theme! I tried to create a sort of hightech environment with the room. Taki got this rabbit suit because she was abducted with this lady and they experimented with her, creating the first ever rabbit goose (no goose were harmed while making this story).

Got low ranking with it. Sad, I really liked this one:(

Underground kingdom

I was thinking really hard what piece of media has this similar kingdom. Recently got back into lotr/the hobbit and I thought a dwarf would go so hard! But dwarf women have beards as well and we don't have that in the game (yet?). So I made the boring choice and made a black fantasy-like outfit. Tried to make a little I'm rich and in the castle just underground vibe with the room. This kingdom is not in a mountains but in the deep oceans! Okay this just gave me a great idea for a fantasy world, I'll write it down. Taki has similar jewelry like I have on my character, just not that dark.

Got well ranked with top 30%

Poisoned garden

Using green was a must, also for the poison idk? Black seems obvious since in movies dying plants often turn black/grey, but in reality when they die they're just brown. Unfortunately I had more black stuff than green & brown lol. The first lore was that this character is a poisoned & dying plant/flower in the garden, then I tried on this white dress accessory thingy and I thought oh! This lowkey looks like a wing! This is a bug! This is a bug in the garden! Maybe this bug IS the poison after all. Anyway this is a lame lore it didn't really move my imagination. I don't have open areas for backgrounds so went with the only (?) green I have. Put some plants in and called it a day. Mushroom Taki is part of the garden as well.

Got low ranking with it. Not surprised, not the best.

At the stake

Another witch theme! I saw some people did almost the same outfits as the witching hour, but this is different. This witch won't do peaceful witchy things in her cottage, this witch is going to DIE today. She is SUFFERING. Her lore is that she isn't even a witch but the people still treated her like one. Put witch jewelries on her and stuff just to prove their point. This girl just wanted to tend the farm animals but NO. They TOOK HER AWAY. The black dress is a shared item btw, can you tell I'm obsessed with it? But chains on her to show she is not free anymore. She is a PRISONER (as I said I don't have open area backgrounds so this is what I had to came up with). Anxiously waiting for the sun to rise because then the townspeople will take her to the stake. But she'll finally be free. They even took away her emotional support goose!!!

Got low ranking with it.

Night court

Ah yes, the theme where half of the contestants make outfits from the show, the other half from the book. But since it's "halloween themed" I guess it refers to the book? I'm not familiar with ACOTAR, since I usually (always) borrow books from my sister and she doesn't have those. Also they don't print them at the moment in my country & I don't like reading online. But I'm a big fan of ToG! So I'm familiar what types of clothing the writer likes to give characters. Honestly have no idea if I nailed it or not, but I like it and that's what matters. Read the fandom wiki about the night court, but didn't help much.

Got well ranked with top 19%

Goth princess

I'm getting bored of my black clothes ngl 😩 I had a friend when I was still at school who dressed similar, SO COOL. Lowkey that was my inspiration. Didn't want to just recreate a similar outfit as the night court because the theme also had 'princess'. Also I know goth people not only wear black, but my candy's wardrobe only has white, blue, black, and some other colors scattered around. Also there's a lot of different goth "subgenres" (??) so I don't know, I tried doing something based on my memories of that friend I had. I just hope people won't stick with the sexualized e-girl "goth" outfits, so much wasted potential. • (Yes I'm writing this before the rankings were done. Future me are the podium outfits good?) • (Yes they're fine dw about it past me) • Such an interesting style, also the music is amazing!

Got well ranked with top 16%

Grave digger

Well it's more of a grave robber but anyway 😬 I had two inspirations but both of them were only from my memories, didn't feel like looking up references. The first one was that grave digger from that old online game bloodmoon if anyone knows that? It was a "waiting game", we could go help the grave digger to have money when we were out of energy for the day from missions. The second was from the second episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities where the robber found huge rat monsters in graves. Tried to do older vibe, feel like the theme fits more with that than today's.

Got well ranked with top 28%

Killer

So much possibilities... so much ideas... and I still went with Jeff the killer... just hear me out on yassified Jeff the killer PLEASE. No actually I think it's a disaster LMFAO. Didn't know what I was doing. Maybe a killer clown would've been more succesful. I have no hope for this outfit. Please forgive me for creating this 🙏

Got low ranking with it. NOT surprised (although at least it's not a butterfly sparkle killer. Seriously people, why can't you stay on theme for ONCE?)

Zombie

Well I love The Walking Dead and overall zombie movies. Thought about cosplaying a survivor but nah, the theme is zombie, let's do a zombie. Just dressed her in basic clothes that can somewhat be considered messy and put "blood" on her. Taki is a normal civilian as well, in civilian clothes. I was trying to do something messy, kinda bunker-like with the room. Overall a simple theme, nothing much to say about it.

Got low ranking with it (why do the podium zombies sparkling tho... do they know... zombies are literally rotting flesh... and they don't sparkle... it really annoys me when the outfit is so good and then they put sparkles and butterflies over it for no reason)

Some bonus infos

Saw complaints (not just on tumblr) about "white candies cosplaying for black candies in style contests" and how it's so offensive. While I agree it's icky when someone only uses them in "dark" themes, I don't consider my outfits problematic, since I used them randomly. Still I rather stayed with my newcrette's skin with the last 10-15 entries I made because fueling this in any way is not on the table for me. I really wanted to use different skin colors but I guess it's safer to stay with the default I have.

This is not a complaint nor a conversation starter (although I'm always open for that), I just wanted to clarify why the same skin color every time from now on. It's not because I don't want to use the other ones. And no I am not mad in any way. Spreading that emotion is the last thing I want to do, that's why I made this decision in the first place.

Thank you for reading and/or looking through my creations<3

[active-mind-15]

I was playing Sky: Children of the Light recently and thought about the Teiko gang + Kagami playing it together

Before I start with my headcanons, I'm sure some of y'all don't know what Sky: Children of the Light is, so I'll explain briefly.

Sky is a social adventure game where you play as a child from the now-desolate Sky Kingdom. Through exploring the seven realms of this kingdom, you restore the light back to the remaining spirits while unraveling the lore of the kingdom and figuring out what happened to it and where all the people went. You can play this game solo if you want to, but it's best played with friends. You can also play with up to eight friends on one server, and the Teiko gang + Kagami is exactly eight people, which works out perfectly! So this post will be me talking about the type of players I think all of them would be on Sky and what type of hijinks I think they'd get into if they decided to play on the same server. The rest will be under the cut. Enjoy!

KUROKO

Very diligent about playing Sky on a regular basis but doesn't play super long sessions unless he's playing with other people. Totally fine with playing by himself since he likes to wander the maps and find quiet secluded places to sit.

But sometimes he also "people watches" in the game and categorizes people based on how they play Sky. Ever since he started people-watching for basketball, it translates into pretty much everything he does, so social video games are no exception.

But when he's taking a break from solitude, he's helping moths (a term of endearment for newbies in Sky) navigate their way through the game and complete quests. There are probably a few he befriends and sees from time to time when he opens Sky, and he kinda feels like a proud parent each and every time he runs into them and sees how much they've leveled up.

Since he's an avid reader I would think he'd be a big fan of worldbuilding and lore and so I think he'd really like exploring the lore of Sky. He follows the official Sky pages on Twitter and YT to keep updated.

In terms of what Kuroko would look like in Sky (since you can customize your Sky kid's outfit and hair), he would dress very simplistically. His fit would almost always be something from the regular accessory constellations. Nothing flashy or out of the ordinary. The only non-default accessory he consistently wears is a pair of sunglasses he got during one season (a season is a period where you can do limited-time themed events and be able to get special cosmetics and emotes). He's pretty frugal in-game, so even though he has a fair number of candles (the in-game currency), he doesn't spend it that much. And the things he spends it on are small accessories and other trinkets.

Somehow, his Misdirection translates into Sky as well because most people really don't notice him, so it's pretty difficult for him to open special doors that require the help of at least two people. That's why he always befriends people who notice him. He knows that they've got his back and he's got theirs.

In Sky, you can also leave messages for other players to read. They usually take the form of paper boats or cranes you can place in any body of water in Sky, and you can write whatever you want on them (within reason of course). So, I can imagine Kuroko would always leave encouraging messages for others like "Don't give up!" and "You can do it!" Those messages always get so much attention, but nobody ever knows who writes them.

KAGAMI

Is almost never on by himself. Most of the time, he's online when Kuroko is online and they do quests together.

Since he's more of an infrequent player, he's often confused about certain aspects of the game and will need Kuroko to help him out.

He likes the game for the pretty scenery and nice music but doesn't really engage with it on a deeper level since he's not super informed about The Lore™. As a result, he's constantly asking Kuroko for explanations as to why certain things in the game are happening.

The rare times he is on by himself he's kind of awkward in navigating the maps and making friends. I would say he's more of a moth than anyone on this list, which means that whenever he's by himself, other players feel more inclined to help him out, which is how he kind of gets adopted by multiple different players. He would log into Sky and check his friend constellations to find that multiple people have gifted him light (you need light to be able to forge hearts which are a more valuable type of in-game currency that buys you more extravagant cosmetics compared to candles).

I would say he often gets sidetracked while doing quests. He'd see somewhere that he hadn't explored and drop everything to go check it out.

The way his Sky kid is dressed is a mixture of regular and seasonal cosmetics that he's managed to snag. He always tries to make himself look cool on Sky, so he cares a little bit more about his appearance because of that.

He is perpetually broke on Sky. Almost always less than 10 candles to his name. So when the time comes for him to buy a cosmetic that he really likes, he's constantly having to hustle last-minute and collect enough light around the kingdom to forge candles.

KISE

Either plays by himself or with the rest of the gang however he much prefers company and is not above pestering the others to come online and play with him.

Also a regular player because the game is cute and fun for him. He probably plays it a lot while he's on break during a modeling session or during lunch breaks at school.

He knows the basic lore of Sky but doesn't go any further. He's not one to create theories like that because he also kinda takes it at face value.

He's the type to unlock all the nodes in his friends' constellations so he can do cute things with them (unlocking friendship nodes means you can initiate gestures with friends like high-fives, hugs, piggyback rides, and more).

Because he's so used to being followed and chased by fangirls due to his modeling career, he likes the anonymity of Sky because it gives him the freedom to approach and chat with other players as an equal.

He is the flashiest Sky kid out of everyone. If he's not grinding to get all the seasonal cosmetics, he's using real money to splurge on some of the cosmetics you can't buy with in-game currency. The others sometimes are embarrassed by how much he sticks out, but Kise never lets that deter him from being the most fashionable person on the server.

He also likes leaving messages in paper boats, but they're usually generic messages like a "hi!" with a bunch of emojis. Anyone in the gang who finds his messages will screenshot them and send them to Kise via text to let him know that his messages have been spotted.

MIDORIMA

He plays this game on and off, but when he's on, he's on.

He usually plays with other people since he's more likely to play if there's a group session, but it's not uncommon to catch him doing quests by himself or simply just exploring parts of the map he's never been to before.

He strikes me as someone who'd be super deep into Sky lore and making his own theories. But his tsundere ass would pretend like he's not into it and swears that he only got this game because Kise and Momoi begged him to, even though there are too many occasions of other people in the gang asking if he wants to join them to do daily quests and Midorima responding that he's already done them, and everyone wises up that he likes the game far more than he lets on, but they don't call him out on it.

He only bothers playing with actual friends. He doesn't really interact with other strangers on the server. So, if he's on Sky by himself, he's truly just doing everything alone. Any nodes unlocked in his friendship constellation are unlocked by other people in the gang. He'd rather die than use his candles to unlock a hug emote with any of his friends.

Since there's a set limit to how many candles you can forge per day (there's a limited amount of light you can collect across the seven realms to forge candles and it refreshes daily), he takes note of where the biggest/most candles are and remembers that if he needs to forge a bunch of candles in a hurry but doesn't have time to collect every single fragment of light across all the realms.

In terms of what Midorima's Sky kid would look like, he'd be dressed very smartly. No matter what outfit he has on, he always seems to look like a scholar of some sort. Even his hair is well put together. He's not one to shy away from seasonal cosmetics, but they're not the over-the-top outfits like Kise would have on. He dresses a lot more modestly like Kuroko but not in that "default setting" sort of way.

He sometimes hoards spells (in Sky, you can purchase/be given spells that can allow you to give your Sky kid temporary boosts or powers like recharging your wings faster, making you taller or shorter, or even giving you a different outfit. These spells can also be shared with friends if you hold their hand while activating them.) He sometimes uses the outfit spells as a test run to see if something looks nice on him. And if it does, he'll save up enough candles to buy the real thing.

AOMINE

Very infrequent player. He'll log on once to wreak havoc all day before disappearing for weeks at a time.

He never plays unless someone else in the gang is also online. Especially if it's Kuroko.

Doesn't give a fuck about the lore at all and because he plays so infrequently he never has any idea what goes on.

He also doesn't have that much winged light (the more winged light you collect the more energy you have to fly) but somehow he manages to explore just as well as everyone else in the gang. It's kind of impressive.

He has no problem charging into the more dangerous areas of Sky. In fact, it would be better to say he likes to get himself into danger on purpose for that sweet, sweet adrenaline rush.

In terms of what his Sky kid looks like, I would say he also has very default accessories like Kuroko, not because he prefers them but because he's so infrequently online that he never earns enough seasonal candles to buy specially-themed accessories. However, trust and believe he will still make do with what he has. He seems like the type of person to prefer all the goofiest-looking cosmetics like beards and bushy eyebrows. It almost annoys the others how unserious his Sky kid looks at all times, but he never pays them any attention.

Sometimes when he's bored he'll try and exploit glitches in the game to see what they do or to try and get into an inaccessible area of the map.

MOMOI

Another frequent player. She loves this game DOWN. After school, she likes to get cozy in her room and hop online.

She enjoys playing both by herself and with the rest of the gang, she's not biased toward one or the other.

She really enjoys the lore of Sky and does things like analyze the appearance of each realm so she can make theories. I bet she has a notebook where she keeps track of all the lore and her interpretations of it. She exchanges theories with Kuroko a lot. Also Midorima, too, but he'll pretend like he's not interested in it.

She mainly likes to play with the rest of the gang but she's not opposed to making friends with a couple strangers on the server here and there. Sometimes if nobody from the gang is online, she'll do daily quests with these other players and sometimes add them to her friendship constellation.

You will never catch her broke on Sky. She does regular candle runs to replenish her earnings (going on a candle run means you travel through all the realms and collect all the available light so you can forge it into candles. You can typically earn about 20 candles in a day if you do a full candle run). She is probably the most consistent with gifting friends light and hearts, too. She's also the best person to ask about upcoming seasons and other Sky-related info since she follows the developers and the official Sky page on YouTube and Twitter.

Her Sky kid is the prettiest out of everyone's. Since she's such a frequent player, she has a bunch of seasonal cosmetics that she loves to alternate between. Every time the others see her, she's in a new outfit. She's just constantly decked out to the nines. She and Kise sometimes coordinate their outfits.

She has accumulated a lot of placeable props in her inventory (placeable props are decorative or functional items you can place on the ground in Sky. They could be anything from a cushion to a swing set.) She also loves to make shared spaces (shared spaces are little shrine areas that you can create and decorate as your space using props you have acquired. These spaces can also be accessed by other players). Her shared spaces are always cute and well-decorated. She likes to create them in secluded areas of the map so she and the rest of the gang can just hang out in those spaces together away from everyone else.

MURASAKIBARA

Not a super frequent player but more active than people expect. I peg him as a fan of cozy games.

Most times he prefers to play with other people, but sometimes he will have days where he'll just go off by himself and get up to God knows what.

He loosely follows the lore but doesn't really care about theories the way some of the others do. He doesn't really play Sky to think too hard about anything. He mainly just plays it to take his mind off other things.

Candle runs are so much work so sometimes he waits for others in the gang to come online before doing them for the sole purpose of holding onto their hands in-game and letting them do all the work on his behalf.

He loves accepting gifts of light and hearts but almost always forgets to return the favor. Kise complains about it the most.

His Sky kid is surprisingly well put together. When choosing hairstyles, he'll always go for the longer-haired ones out of habit. He sometimes likes wearing the pigtail hairstyles, too. In terms of cuteness, his Sky kid is second only to Momoi's. You will never catch him lacking when it comes to outfits.

He likes to antagonize Kagami when Kagami shows ignorance in something related to Sky. A simple "Huh? You didn't know even this much?" would be enough to send Kagami spiraling for ages. It's a very hilarious sight to see walls of text above the head of Kagami's Sky kid as he argues with Murasakibara through the in-game chat function.

AKASHI

Another unexpectedly frequent player. It's a refreshing change of pace from his busy life.

He has fun playing solo and playing with friends, and it astounds the others what he can get up to when left to play alone. He could probably tackle some of the more dangerous realms singlehandedly.

He is another person big on lore and exchanges theories with the other lore fans of the squad, focusing on even the most minute details of the map and the characters to make inferences. Sometimes he'll think of theories that the others hadn't even remotely considered. He also follows the official Sky page for updates, too and will (along with Momoi) be one of the first to know about new Sky-related info.

He has the best control of his Sky kid while flying out of everyone. He's just really good at maneuvering tight spaces or windy currents. Also really good at diving. The others never have to worry about him if they're traveling around the map. It's actually them who have to keep up with Akashi.

He's not one to officially befriend a lot of other players per se, but he does use the common areas scattered across the map to talk to people sometimes. He enjoys the idea of being able to approach whoever without worrying about people being intimidated by him. Being able to just be treated as a regular person feels nice.

His Sky kid is always dressed so stylishly. Not too flashy like Kise but not too proper like Midorima. Akashi lets himself get creative with the outfit coordination. He especially loves the different masks you can wear and loves collecting those the most.

You can also have instruments in Sky that are actually playable, so during group gaming sessions, he likes to sit down and play songs for the squad. You can either go buy the sheet music you can unlock through constellations or you can just play whatever random notes you like. Either way, Akashi finds a way to entertain his friends.

HOW WOULD THEY ALL PLAY TOGETHER AS A GROUP?

First of all, Akamomo as the canonical activity planners of their friend circle would be the ones to reach out to everyone for availabilities so they could arrange a group gaming session.

Most of the time they do full group sessions during new seasons where maybe new parts of the map are unlocked and they all get to discover it together.

Aomine is usually the one who puts everyone else's safety at risk in the more dangerous realms. There are a few realms with dark dragons that knock winged light out of players if they spot you, and Aomine sometimes deliberately provokes them. Most of the time he isn't able to dodge, which leaves everyone else to grab his winged light for him after he gets knocked out.

Sometimes Murasakibara disappears mid-game to go grab snacks so you'll see his Sky kid just snoozing while he's inactive.

Kuroko, Momoi, Akashi, and Midorima have fixations on cave paintings in Sky and will sometimes spend several minutes going back and forth on theories and interpretations of lore.

On occasion, after all of their daily quests are done, they like to find secluded parts of the map to just chill and talk. They like utilizing Momoi's shared spaces for that specific purpose.

Sometimes Kise manages to convince everyone to coordinate their outfits,

Kagami constantly has to be saved by the Teiko gang members when he runs out of energy to fly, and it humiliates him to no end. Especially if Aomine ends up saving him because he hates owing Aomine favors.

Kuroko loves using the high-five emote a lot, especially with Kagami and Aomine.

Kise refuses to go into scary parts of the map unless someone holds his hand in-game.

Aomine will sometimes break off from the group and come back holding a crab that he picked up from who knows where.

Akashi is the one who scopes out an area for potential danger first before letting the others start wandering around. If he feels like somebody in the group is about to be in danger, he'll start calling out to them to come back.

Midorima is constantly shepherding the others whenever they get distracted from doing their daily tasks. He will always make his annoyance known whenever the rest of the group is not doing what he thinks they should be doing. He sometimes enlists Momoi for help.

All in all, they're chaotic as fuck when they play altogether, but they admit that it makes everything all the more fun.

[sehetep-shenwer]

Ammut Meditation

As some of you know, every night I pull a card from my netjeru themed oracle deck to invite that deity's wisdom and insight. I just so happened to pull Ammut twice and after seeking out advice in a kemetic server I'm in, I was advised to meditate with Her. Here's how it went:

So what I did was I got my Anubis statue which depicts Him holding the scales. I figured I would place Ammut's card before Him as well as some fake candles around. I invoked Her epithets and sat with Her. She was honestly prowling around in Her usual form while I was preparing so I felt pretty intimidated. Once I sat, She came to sit before me and was the size of a fucking triceratops.

She firmly assured me I had too much shit wearing my heart down and that I needed to open myself up to things that lightened it. She spoke like Sekhmet but twice as sternly. Then Her form changed into a more humanoid version, Her crocodile head becoming jet black with golden wadjet marks around Her eyes. We talked about how I also needed to remove shit from my scales that weighed me down, shit that either wasn't mine to control or wasn't mine to even worry about in the first place.

Ammut proved to be a deity that drained a shit load of my energy just from meditating with Her as I nearly fell asleep where before I started I was more than awake. I need to continue the meditation sometime as I was about to pass out so I went to bed early that night.

Then I had a dream and usually I don't associate dreams with stuff, but I think this one was a representation of what Ammut was telling me. I'll keep to the relevant stuff cuz some other weird shit happened lol. One part involved my mother intentionally pissing me off and talking shit about me which enraged me so I shut myself off in a room. Another part involved me being in a video call with the person from my recent Hathor-UPG and we were making each other laugh.

I woke up and during my shower I pondered this dream and came to the conclusion that in a way, we have our own scales connected to our hearts as cheesy as it sounds. We put stuff on that either burdens it or lightens it. Some stuff we have to deal with like work, mental health, etc that is heavy but there are things that weigh us down that doesn't need to be there like things that aren't in our control, events from our past that we need to move on from. If we remove the excess crap, obviously our heart becomes lighter but we can also add stuff to make it lighter such as time with friends or for ourselves.

So yes our hearts are weighed in death but there is stuff we can do while we're alive to make sure our hearts aren't heavy and know that there's stuff to do lighten our burdens and our loads. And mentality can play a huge role because if you focus on all the shit that's weighing you down, congrats that's all there's gonna be. But Ammut advised me to take inventory of shit that weighs me down and shit that lightens it up. And consider if some stuff is really worth leaving on your scale, like for me I can't worry about my mom's bullshit anymore so I gotta take that off. But I can lighten it too with allowing myself to feel attraction rather than beat myself up for it. (like Imma be real, I love myself but being loved by someone else would skyrocket my scale in the right direction ;_; )

Hail to Ammut, your jaws will devour all that spreads isfet.

[panqueen]

The Other Mayfield

Part 3: Shitty Parents

Steve Harrington x Fem Mayfield Reader x Eddie Munson

Warning contains themes of: Substance use, Strong language, Neglect, Mention of death/injury.

☽——☽——☽——☽——☽——☽——☽——☽

Y/n’s Pov:

I drive back to the trailer after dropping Max off at school and talking to the Party. To get rid of the silence I turn the music up louder tapping the steering wheel and bobbing my head to the slightly static music. When I drive up to the trailer I see a Red pickup truck that has a broken back window and a side mirror hanging on by a thread.

Great it's Nick my mom's shitty new boyfriend.

I sigh turning off the car and getting out walking up to the front door. I would usually just drive away when he's around but I need my work uniform since I start in about 30 minutes.

I twist the front door knob taking a deep breath and open it walking in. There in the living room is my Mom sitting on the couch with bottles of liquor on the coffee table and Nick sitting on the beaten up lazy boy drinking a beer.

"Mom it's 9am" I tells her sighing.

My Mom goes to respond but Nick raises his hand to stop her from talking and I roll my eyes at how shitty he is, yeah married to an abusive asshole and on to the next.

"Listen sweetheart your Mom can do whatever the fuck she wants" he grits out scoffing and taking another drink.

"You sure about that?" I ask glaring at him looking at his still raised hand.

"Listen you little bitch I don't need to take this shit from you you're not my kid" he raises his voice.

"Yeah you're right but my Dad is just as much an asshole as you are" I glare back.

Before I can say anything else I feel a sting on my left cheek where he slapped me. Normally someone would be horrified that a grown man hit them but not me, Neil my mom's ex husband smacked me around a few times and my Dad was the exact same. As you can see my mom has terrible taste in men. Max's dad Sam died a year before our mom married Neil and my dad Bill was a real piece of work who left and got a whole new family leaving his old one behind but we're better off. If you ask me Sam was the nicest man my mom was ever with, the man was a saint compared to the assholes after him.

And instead of saying anything about her shitty boyfriend hitting her kid my mom just sits there like usual. When Neil was around and beat on Billy my mom did the same thing, I was the only person who stuck up for him even if it meant getting some of Neil's anger taken out on me.

I just walk past him going to my bedroom to grab my uniform which consisted of a blue vest with Family Video stitched onto it. After grabbing my vest I grab a joint and put it in my pocket. I close my bedroom door behind me and walk into the living room.

"I'll be at work and then I'm spending the night at Robin's and Max is staying at the Byers" I tell my mom.

Without waiting for an answer I walk past them and out of the door to my car. I start the car driving to Family Video while the stereo plays static music.

I walk into Family Video smiling when I hear Robin and Steve having an argument about their love life per usual.

"Let me guess Steve went on another unsuccessful date and you won't confess your undying love for Vickie" I smirk towards Robin walking closer to them.

"About right" Steve nods with a sigh.

"I'm not in love with Vickie she's just amazing" Robin sighs.

"Sounds like love to me" I shrug smirking at her.

"Ugh whatever" Robin rolls her eyes blushing looking away.

Robin walks to the back to grab more tapes and I continue to put tapes onto the shelves when I feel someone looking at me, I look up and see Steve watching me closely.

"What Stevie?" I ask looking at him confused.

"Are you okay?" he asks walking closer.

"I'm fine" I answer turning back to the shelves avoiding his unconvinced stare.

"Your cheek is red and it's starting to bruise" he says softly pointing at my face.

"Um...it was just Nick you know how he is" I respond shrugging.

"Need a place to stay tonight?" he asks with a small smile.

"Thanks Stevie but I'm fine" I smile at him before looking back at the shelves.

"Oh uh yeah no problem" he replies nodding and walking back to the front counter.

☽——☽——☽——☽——☽——☽——☽——☽

Word Count: 784

Wattpad: Graywrites06_

[crystalelemental]

Crystal Lore: Final Fantasy X was the first Final Fantasy I played to completion. At the time, my friends at school who had Playstation consoles were all big into FF7, and insisted I should try it. Well as fortune would have it, my step-brothers had a Playstation 2, so there was hope. But by that point, FF7 was hard to specifically find, and it would take a while before I got ahold of it. FF10, however, was current, so my father got me that. It was the second RPG I ever played, after Grandia 2, which was part of a Dreamcast bundle game my dad got. The fact that both games heavily featured an evil church and defeating god with a group of teenagers meant that I assumed every RPG was just like that.

Anyway, all this to say I actually really like FF10. It's a fun game! It's goofy, but in a way that felt sincere! The specific dialogue is awkward at times, more a matter of direction than anything, but but I loved this game. So unlike the PS1 era, my recollection of its main story was very strong, and I went into this kinda knowing I'd vibe with it. Still, much to talk about.

Usual disclaimer going into this: a lot of my desire to replay the series as a whole stems from playing the Pixel Remasters, then watching Professor Bopper's analysis videos on the games. He has one out for the PS2 games now, and as usual, the assessment of game's themes is deeper than anything I would've come up with on my own, so I'll be trying to stick to personal thoughts or anything I can add while shilling his videos. I like them a lot.

Shortly after the era in which I played this, we had that era of the internet where reviewers would kinda tear into everything for sport. FF10 was, of course, caught in the blast, for being kind of bizarre in a lot of its framing and stilted in its voice direction. Of particular harm was Tidus, a protagonist who is cringe as hell. His dad is a major star sportsman who became a legendary guardian, turning around his shittier ways for the sake of saving a world he barely knows. Comparatively, Tidus is often seen as a whiny braggart who acts petulant about most things. I'm not here to say that Tidus is not those things, but I am here to say that's kind of why I vibe with him.

A major takeaway of the Bopper video is that Tidus, as someone external to Spira who doesn't think like its inhabitants, is the only one capable of looking for solutions outside of the cycle of abuse, violence, and death. Examining Tidus through that lens does offer quite a lot, pretty much from second one. The blitzball angle is played up a lot, and one of the earliest scenes around it is Tidus agreeing to play for Wakka's team. When he asks Wakka about his goals, Wakka expresses he just wants to do his best with no regrets, to which Tidus (correctly) goes "no, absolutely not, if you're gonna play you play to win." The idea of actually winning at the sport he plays never even crossed Wakka's mind. It just never seemed like a possibility, and thus wasn't something worth pursuing. How could there be anything outside of his belief?

This continues all the way through their confrontation with Yunalesca in Zanarkand. They're told the Final Aeon is bunk, they're told that Yuna and one of the guardians must die to see it through anyway, and start lining up to volunteer. When Tidus presses his objections, the others call him childish, and he has to ask "then what would an adult do? Just let Yuna die?"

What I wound up really liking about Tidus is that, while his visions of what should be done seem loftly to the point of absent idealism, he's grounded in material outcomes. You play the sport because you want to win. You fight Sin because you want it gone for good, and no half-measures will cut it. No one should die for something that won't fix a problem. Any fight that's lasted hundreds of years means something is being done wrong. It's an interesting angle, having your petulant, childish protagonist actually be the most materially sensible person here. It also makes for a strong contrast with Seymour, who is similarly about material ends. He signs off on the Operation Mi'ihen plan to destroy Sin with machina, not because he thinks it'll work, but because it's worth trying a different way, and everyone is doing this for the right reasons. Tidus even comments that while it's not something he's supposed to say for his station, what Seymour says there made sense to him.

But their differences are the thematic heart of the story. While Tidus seeks a way to fully defeat Sin, Seymour, like the rest of Spira, cannot see beyond what they know. Seymour's only perceived solution is to accelerate the cycle until it can no longer replicate. When everything is dead, nothing can die, and thus we have defeated Sin. He embodies the defeatist attitudes of the world at large, and the depressing acceptance that things just have to be this way.

The other angle I think is interesting is the dynamics of power and those at the top. There's the obvious in Jecht's braggart nature and constantly putting down his son, but you also have things like the Luca Goers being poor sports and getting away with it because they're favored to win, Biran and Yenke being assholes to Kimahri because Biran's the strongest of the Ronso, or the maesters of Yevon doing whatever they want because you know we need proper leadership so we'll twist the teachings for ourselves while the rest of you sacrifice yourselves. There's a constant sort of bullying going on in the foreground, and wild abuses of power within the structures that govern the world.

But it's important to remember that in his world, Tidus was at the top. He was the best player of the best team, and from his position at the top...he's willing to teach kids how to play, engages more casually with his fans, and builds up Wakka's team of losers so bad they've never won a singular game by insisting any of them could learn the Jecht Shot with enough practice. Tidus is unique in Spira, in how he refuses to really abuse his position. It's a huge point of pride he has, and it's something he throws around a bit to show why he's able to back up his claims, but he's never hostile toward others about it.

This leads into the bigger aspect: everyone in Spira is really bad at love.

Auron makes a point of showing Tidus that no, Jecht really did love you. He cared deeply, but his means of showing that were atrocious. Similarly, Biran and Yenke torment Kimahri, with the belief that if he holds to shame, he will improve as a warrior like they'd want for him. This doesn't work, Kimahri can't overcome them until he finds someone he's willing to fight and potentially die for, but the point remains. In Spira, love is shown in the manner you think is best for them, and it...does not go well.

Yuna's arranged marriage to Seymour really hammers this in. Lulu talks about how sure, she would want Yuna to marry for love, but she can't. Yuna is destined to sacrifice herself, and thus there is no place for her feelings in the matter. The love she must endure is what others want for her, and only Tidus really calls this out as incredibly messed up. Seymour's ambition here is to become the Final Aeon and jump to Sin, which is fully explained when you meet Yunalesca and understand the process. Yunalesca explains the Final Aeon as an "act of love," be it between partners or friends. The willingness to sacrifice yourself for another is the act of love that can defeat Sin.

...except we know that doesn't work. Lingering in the background the whole game is Chappu, Lulu's fiance and Wakka's brother, who became a Crusader to fight Sin. In his passed-on words, he believed "Keeping your girl close is good, but keeping Sin far away from her is better." With that belief that the way Lulu needed to be loved was by him fighting...he died. Uselessly, he died, and the trauma of his loss continues to hurt Lulu and Wakka even now. By loving them in the way he felt best, rather than in the way they would have wanted, he caused more harm than good. This is a microcosm of the cycle of Sin. The Final Aeon is born from an act of love - the love you believe is best for others. But this act causes others harm, and it contorts, recreating Sin in an endless cycle.

(Quick note I can't fit in anywhere else: this is also why Seymour is the way he is. His mother sacrifices herself to become an aeon, anticipating it will make him strong enough to live on his own as he needs to being half-human half-Guado, but loving him like she thinks is best fails him entirely and he falls into a sense that death is the only way out, so whoopsie.)

This is, again, where Tidus is unique. He alone loves others as they would want. He cares deeply for Yuna as a person, and engages her at a personal level, never once deciding that self-sacrifice is a viable option. He connects with Wakka over blitzball and resolves to help Wakka, but pushes Wakka to remember why he picked up the game in the first place. He encourages Kimahri to push back on Biran and Yenke's abuse. For all his whining in Luca about "Why did I have to know, why did it have to be me?" He's right. No one ever really considered his feelings in the matter on...well, anything. And in his position as a star player, in what capacity he can, he's determined not to inflict that same pain on anyone else. He loves deeply and earnestly, but most important, he loves others in the way they would want, and doesn't impose what he believes is best on anyone. I dunno, I...really liked Tidus, actually.

By gameplay, the game is excellent. Characters feel distinct from one another, but notably, the system allows for a fast-paced rotation of characters in and out of battle without consuming a turn. By setting up enemy encounters with a sort of "X beats Y" mentality, you rotate your party around frequently, giving everyone ample play, in order to make the most of your characters. At a basic level, Tidus can beat the fast wolf and lizard enemies, Wakka beats fliers, Lulu beats elementals, and Yuna summons for the major HP blobs like Ochu. What this culminates in is boss fights where you have a machine weak to Electric attacks, but it has a flying magic-suppressant, so you lead with Wakka and Kimahri to take out the suppressor then swap in Yuna and Lulu to dish out heavy damage. It's a great system.

The level up system is also replaced with the Sphere Grid. You actively move your character along a line of progression toward stat boosts and skills, and it's...okay, it's a little too heavy on micromanagement, but it's not much of a problem, and opens up options for customization. Kimahri is the poster child for this, being your Blue Mage who can take any given path to copy another player's stats and skills. I went with White Mage because healing good, but I made sure to grab Steal and Use too for utility. I was also able to double back and get Lulu Lancet so MP was never a concern, and had Yuna (and Kimahri) cross over into Lulu's grid to pick up -aga spells late-game. The grid works out okay.

There are smaller systems, like powering up your Aeons or applying custom effects to equipment, but I never used them. Much like FF9, equipment determines additional effects and skills, but unlike FF9, you're kinda at the mercy of whatever skills drop on items, as customizing takes rare items and quite a lot of them to apply. It's also meaningless. I never bought any equipment, and I rarely swapped things around. Armor for immunities or resistances, sure, but weapons? Not once.

*sigh* At this point, I do need to consider something. It's a question that's been eating at me for nearly two weeks now. When assessing the quality of a game as a full experience...should the optional post-game content count against it?

Because if yes, oh my god does this game fall apart. FF10's postgame is, bar nothing, the worst postgame experience I have ever endured. I finished the main game in like 22-24 hours. My save file is currently sitting at 69 hours, and we have way too many more hours to go. We're frankly not even close to done.

See, the postgame goes through multiple phases. First is monster catching. You're introduced to this early, but the short is you eventually go back and catch 10 of every monster in the world. It's super tedious because there's always a rare one, and you need special equipment to do it. Hooray.

Second is getting the Celestial Weapons. These are infuriating, because they required you to engage with some of the worst minigames known to man. Dodge 200 lightning bolts with precision timing! Race a chocobo that barely listens to you without getting hit by obstacles that swerve a full 90 degrees to hit you! Play Blitzball for like six hours, resetting the league at least twice and starting all your progress over! It's painful, but somehow, at least the pain is a sensation.

Step three! From the captured monsters, you can now fight really strong fiends that are frankly too strong for you, hope you found Anima and/or Magus Sisters, because now you have to farm stat boosting spheres to apply to the sphere grid to cap stats! This involves also farming a billion activation spheres, which were never a problem in the main game but are a massive roadblock now, and dealing with exceptionally slow fights like Jumbo Flan, who takes several minutes to beat one (1) time. You will farm it at least 10 times. All of this is to cap everyone's stats and get all skills on the sphere grid, which has the side-effect of removing the sense of unique attributes each character had, in favor of "Everyone is max speed and attack, and just spams Quick Hit until Yuna summons to block an instant kill death attack." It sucks.

But wait! That's just to beat Nemesis, the strongest fight in the old NA version! The Remaster is international, which means my childhood self can fulfill its desire to beat the Dark Aeons and Penance! You know! Once you farm 300 HP spheres because Break HP Limit feels goddamned mandatory on these fights, and also 53 luck spheres from the worst fight known to the series. Because the Dark Aeons involve fights that can dodge every attack if you didn't cap luck. Yeah, turns out no matter how high your accuracy is, if your foe is even just kinda evasive, you'll never hit. You need to cap luck. But that also means farming Fortune Spheres from another awful monster arena boss. See, both Luck and Fortune spheres are dropped by monsters that counterattack every move you make with high animation time spells. They have 1.5 million and 1.1 million HP respectively, which if you hit damage cap each swing, is 16 and 12 attacks respectively. Oh and the former casts Ultima, which is 12 goddamned seconds of animation. That fight lasts 5 minutes on a good run, and like 80% of it is watching its goddamned counter animation. And you do all of this...so your Quick Hits will connect, and you can tank their counterattacks. Provided you made equipment that has Break HP Limit (farm Nemesis, other Dark Aeons, or fight Shinryu 25 times for one (1) character), Ribbon or Stoneproof because they all inflict petrification that instant shatters removing the party member entirely, and Auto-Haste, which requires a shitload of cash to bribe an encounter enemy, which sucks because you also need a ton of cash to even fight these arena fights (the asshole charges you to deal with this) and then over 3 million to remove the worthless sphere grid nodes with Clear Spheres. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: the sphere grid is cluttered with useless +1, +2, and +3 stat point nodes, and all HP nodes are +200. Remove literally all of them, undoing all your progress and replacing them with the farmed stat boost spheres, or you don't have enough room to get your stats where they need to go in order to participate in the postgame fights. Anyway, you beat all the Dark Aeons with this and then find out Penance doesn't even use status, it just uses big damage so you want Auto-Protect to cut that down and Auto-Regen to recover BUT WAIT! Skills can't be overwritten on equipment in this game, so while you need Break HP Limit and Auto-Haste, you don't need Ribbon, and that earlier equipment is useless, so you have to start that process all over again! Isn't that fun?! Hahaha! HAHAHA! HAAAAAA! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Fortunately, I didn't count postgame against 7 or 8, so I won't count it against 10. 10's really good, I liked it a lot. I think 5 and 9 outrank it just on preference for gameplay, but this might be #3. Just do not look at postgame. Ignore it. There is nothing worse. Engage with the really nice story and snappy gameplay and live freely and beautifully. Don't even think about the Celestial Weapons, they're not important. Just keep moving forward. Do get Anima, though. Such a cool summon.

[yoonyia]

👀 🛒 🎶 💖 ✅!!

👀:

I DO! They're on tumblr as @charlee0915 and I show them my art for both lighting, texture and most important anatomy advice. I also send it in my friend group chat for their general feedback seperate from the indepth constructive criticism of Charlie to try and figure out the priority for fixing things or trying something different.

🛒:

I usually only do a person standing in the middle looking pretty so I often don't include themes or visual motifs or a message, but I often do spend a lot of time working out both the values and hues. I am a big fan of the triangle color skeme but will usually go for complimentary colors (any, most common is yellow and purple but red and green or blue and green and pink and blue and orange are all pretty common) I also tend to lean towards a more dramatic lighting situation regardless of the intended tone, so all my art is usually darker in setting. There's not a lot of thought behind my art really I do it mostly from vibes I'm feeling that day and instinct. (and if it's funny or fun to do I'll do it)

🎶:

Yes and reccently I've been putting on Drawfee and PricklyAlpaca youtube videos while I draw (both wonderful art channels we would love it if you checked them out if you haven't already) and songs I've been listening to reccently are you gotta die sometimes, villainous thing and the dismemberment song (I have an odd sense of song taste, a lot of bust your knee caps and torture tango and maschochisim tango and why are there so many tangos here) if anyone has recommendations in songs that are similar in style to these of a similar subject matter please tell us we would be delighted and incredibly grateful

💖:

this is actually a really simple question to answer

my hero academia

done

(I got into anime in late 2020 and wanted to draw deku that's litterally it)

this is what I drew on the day I decided I would start doing art

✅️:

hmmmmmm

no idea actually

I went to charlie for identification and came back with guitar pick faces and murder weapon eyeliner, so yea my faces always looks like a guitar pick and my eyes usually has wings that can kill people because they're so sharp or long

they also said it takes an optical illusion to try and copy my eyeballs so take that as you will

[imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs]

MxN Week Day 2: Stars

@senshixshitennouweeks this one's got some spicy themes in it but nothing too bad. anyway, enjoy.

She first sees him in a club, up on a stage and moving to the music of Caviar. She isn’t even sure why she’s there. Maybe she’s just needy and wants to alleviate the feeling by taking in some of the saucier sights.

For a heartbeat, their eyes meet and she doesn’t know why, but she can tell it affects him by the way his movement slows. Then, it’s over and he slips back into time with the song. Only now, he seems to stick to one part of the stage, right in her line of sight.

Makoto feels her face heat up as he peels the flimsy t-shirt off to reveal rippling muscles and tosses the baseball cap he was wearing off his head into the crowd, much to their delight if their shrieks are anything to go by.

Long brunette curls fall around his shoulders and adds to the wild allure he seems to radiate.

Makoto swallows when the pants come off and she sees the incredibly tight pair of briefs he’s wearing as he moves to the lyrics “Mr. Tangerine Speedo.”

Before she knows it, the bit is over.

“And that, people, was Nat Mustang,” the announcer says, “give him a big hand why don’t you.”

Nat Mustang. The name sticks with her.

When she gets home, too wound up to sleep, she types in his name in Firefox and feels her face burn with what she finds.

HeavenlyKingz. It’s an adult site, catering predominantly to clients who enjoy the male physique.

No harm in just searching, she thinks.

She types “Nat Mustang” into a search and watches a few free clips.

While Makoto hasn’t watched a lot of porn over the years, she can honestly say that this is a little bit better than most.

The acting isn’t as wooden and it helps that most of the stars have some level of charisma. Nat seems to radiate an easy confidence, even when the plotlines of the short are utterly ridiculous.

But her heart stops the moment she starts a male-on-male video featuring Nat and another star named “Tux Shields.”

That luscious black hair. That voice. She knows it! Even through the mask he wears, from that time she went on a double date with Usagi and her husband, back when he was only her boyfriend.

“You can’t tell anyone!”

Makoto cringes at Usagi’s cry, hoping no-one in the café is looking at them.

“I wasn’t going to tell anyone,” Makoto said, huffing, “you can’t think I’d ever do that to you.”

Usagi collapsed back into her chair.

“Oh, thank you,” she said, “It was just something Mamo did to pay for medical school.”

“And I bet you watched every video,” Makoto said slyly.

Usagi’s face lit up with embarrassment.

“So what if I did,” she said.

Makoto laughed and took another sip of her coffee.

“Well, I can’t say I’m not in the same boat,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

Makoto took a deep breath, fighting the heat that built in her face.

“I was at that one club, you know…”

“D-Point? The Strip Club?”

Once again, Makoto looked around. In spite of the fact that there now seemed to be less people in the café than before, she still felt embarrassed to admit she’d been there.

“Yes,” she said, barely above a whisper.

Usagi’s face lit up with a gasp and her expression took on a devilish sense of knowing.

“Oh, you found a hot piece of ass, didn’t you?”

“So what if I did?”

Usagi giggled.

"I saw him in one of those old videos Mamoru was in."

Usagi shushed her again.

"I'll keep in quiet," Makoto said, "just... can Mamoru get me in touch with... Nat Mustang?"

For a moment, Usagi sipped her hot chocolate, the silence stretching too long for Makoto's tastes, until finally, she replied, "I'll ask Mamo."

It's been set up as a blind date, at a restaurant with a fancy Italian name. Makoto swallows when he enters in a suit with a wine-colored vest, somehow looking more drop dead sexy than if he had his clothes off.

Makoto smooths the forest green cocktail dress she's wearing, her nerves acting up again. She wonders if she should have worn her hair in a bun instead of in her usual ponytail.

Nat sits down and he fixes her with a smile. She's expecting something like in one of his videos, but instead the grin is tinged with an emotion she's currently familiar with.

"Hey," he says.

He's nervous. This beautiful, mysterious man is nervous to meet her. Tension eases out of her and she smiles.

"So, is Nat your real name?" she asks.

He flounders cutely for a moment, before answering yes, Nat was his real name, short for Nathaniel, but Mustang was just a stage name. They get to talking about astrology, cooking, and gardening, hair care, just about anything under the sun.

Soon, they're leaving and he's putting his jacket around her shoulders.

"So," he said, you wouldn't be interested in doing this again? Next week? With me?"

Makoto smiles and kisses his cheek.

"Love to," she says.

[browneyes-issac]

Hellos everyoneeee!!! 💞👋

Sooooo I'm coming backkkk!! Finally!! 🙈💞😆

Warning This is super longgggg!! 🤣🙈

So I deeply apologize for dropping off the face of the earth back in February... I really had full 100% intentions of staying up to date with ready and writing... I just... I really think I overwhelmed myself working and trying to keep up.. Which that's nothing against anyone. I'm just super slow and I was still getting used to working evening being there five months. So I was sleeping more then my usual napping. So I think that's what started me backing away.

Then the housekeeping boss... She was becoming more and more of a bully to us and one of the ladies in laundry finally had enough and went to HR. She ended up getting fired. My aunt ended up taking the position.. Which yeah that was the logical choice but some stuff happened with her which I'll get into later on. But yeahhh, original boss lady strained on my mental health a lot...

And I am big on saying heyy blow up my phone if you need and or want to for whatever you want.. But I feel bad doing it to others so getting behind on my reading.. It kinda messed with me. Because I feel really bad for not staying up to date but also I just... I was getting burned out I think... 🥺🥺

~

A positive note ----

Biketok kinda consumed me on tiktok... 🤣🙈 gotta love the masked men love that Mando started for meeeee!! 🤣🤭

I have no words.. They all are so amazing and badass and I just... Yeahhh 🤭😍 I used to really hate sports bikes... But idk tiktok showed me they can be absolutely beautiful and their riders are so amazing... 🥺

I got a whole list of them that I follow and love but there is this one... His name is Angel. I don't even know where to start with him. He's so amazing, precious, dorky, idkk I just love and adore him. 💞

When I started following him it kinda started out as a crush.. Because ya know a booktok themed video of his popped up.. 🤣🤭 But once I got to know him through his lives and his more personal posts.. My love for him turned more into a comfort love. He brings me so much joy and comfort.. Like his fourth live I watched, I passed tf out. And I'm big on the saying; you fall asleep faster when you are laying next to someone you feel safe with. And it's the same thing with him. His voice just... 🥺💞🥰 Even when the dork is screaming and yelling at his games on live.. Still pass out and stay asleep. 🤣 he's really helped me heal a lot... 🫶

^^^^ this is the stinker in question. 🤭🤣 he did a face reveal, so I feel it's ok I am posting it on other social media. 💞 He's so stinking handsome I cantttt!! 😍💞🥰

I may still do thirsty comments on his posts.. But my teasing love and comfort love for him over powers that.. He just knows how to get under my skin with the spiciness.. 🤣🙈

He does have a girlfriend, which I'm endlessly happy for him.. He deserves endlesssss happiness!! 💞

If you would like to check him out... All socials are Outrunangels. He also has music out under that name. 🥰 he has music out under another name too, but not gonna promote it.. Not gonna type it out, if you'd like to listen to it after you've checked out the angel stuff.. Let me know and or I'll do a post about it too.. 🤣

~~~~~

Ok back to the annoying soppy stuff.. Enough of me gushing about my Angel baby.. 🤣💞🤭

So when I was pulled into biketok.. I found this one guy. He followed me back on tiktok and one day we started talked and he asked to move to snap, because tiktok didn't send him notifications good enough.. Which is fine, I had no problem with that. We started talking more.. Kinda... Kinda ended up being more of a spicy relationship. Which I was fine with. Because I've never been a relationship or had any romantic anything.. I know I've never shared this on here, but I've grown a lot and I'm not that ashamed of it anymore. I'll share about what helped me later on.

Anyways. This guy... I confessed I started developing feelings for him and that I'd love to start to get to know each other better. His response was I'm sorry I don't do relationships because I move around a lot. Ok I get that completely, but long distance can work and it doesn't hurt to at least have friends.

So I kinda started stepping back.. Because that hurt and as time went on it did more and I had some good days. Then around the middle of August, maybe the week after my birthday (it's the 6th ), he posted a few videos with a girl and I believe one said it was his girlfriend. Sooo yeahhh that killed me a bit. Like ok you could have been a decent human and said hey I don't like you anymore so let's stop talking, because I found someone.

I stepped back completely then.. I kept him on everything and just slowly deleted him off of everything. A few weeks ago a video of his popped up, he ended up breaking up with that girl.. I kinda laughed, because karmaaaa! 🤷‍♀️

Angel came into my life at a really good time. It was right before the crap with this guy got really bad for my mental health. And just like his name he was an angel and saved me. 🥺💞

Back to work stuff... Ya know how I said my aunt is my boss? Yeah kinda sucks now... So my dad is the manager for the bowling alley in town. He hired my cousin, my aunts son. He's been slacking a lot.. Dad has tried talking to him a lotttt... Fought to get him a raise... And then the Monday after my dad's birthday he fired him. Because he went behind dads back to the GM.. What's the point of dad being manager if he's gonna go to the GM?? Some other stuff happened too that caused dad to finally fire him.

My aunt is a childish person... So of course when my dad tried to talk to her calmly when she was there with her bowling buddies... She blew up at him talking about this isn't my problem blah blah.. And some other stuff that is family stuff.. Don't wanna get into it.. Been dealing with that mentally too much...

So she's been acting annoyingly at work.. Some other reasons too, but it irritates me too much so not gonna get into it.

Back in September one of the CNAs on my Hall was making fun t-shirts for all of us to wear for Halloween in October. She asked me to come help her and just hang out.. She only had mine left to do, pay day was the following week.. So I assumed that we were gonna wait to wear them until I had mine done. Which awesome, I'm fine with waiting.. Get to work Tuesday.. And all of them are wearing their shirts... It crushed me, but I didn't say anything because I've never been like that. But my mom, the protector she is... Did say something to Chrissy (aunt/boss) and a CNA she's friends with.. She talked to her in confidence as friend and fellow mom... Well this girl went to the nursing boss about it... So boss lady chewed the nursing saffs butts about it...

Mind you. Two of the CNAs I've known most of my life.

I think it was the Friday that this happened... When I got back upstairs from break, the girl that did the shirts asked if I was upset about not having my shirt yet. I said yes, but once I thought about it I was fine with not having it yet because I'm the housekeeper and the youngest, and my shirt is a different picture... And then mom got upstairs too because the CNA that actually cared about me out of the two I know, she had asked for mom to come talk to her... Because she knows how I'd react about the situation..

Mom and her walked away and I was still talking to the shirt maker one.. Boss lady and the other one I've known forever both said idk why we have to deal with right now and in the middle of the hall... Um excuse me, this is how we always talk.. It's not my fault you guys don't do your job properly so you gotta race to do things when state is in the building... So I walked away crying...

This killed me a lot.... Then the CNA that is mean that I've known... She keeps singling me out and setting me up for crap...

Mind you, she started doing this the week my mom was puking her brains out.

Oh and another thing I'm gonna share with y'all finally... I still live with parents.. We all aren't in a rush for me to move out and I help with bills, which is why I wanted a job...

We didn't know what was wrong with her.. She couldn't stand up really without feeling dizzy and puking... So no work for her.. I was having to worry about helping get her stuff done plus my hall. So I was slacking a lot. Because my mom is never sick. So I was freaking out and struggling a lot... She ended up going to the doctors and found out she has verdigo.

And this woman decides to start doing this crap that week and telling my boss.. I'm gonna leave this and see how long it takes lotus to pick it up... Like wtffff???

So yeah this all has been straining on my mental health a lot... I'm finally slowly getting bsck to being better... I'm gonna be switching to deep cleaning soon.. I'm training the new girl. I'm hoping she won't freak out and quite. 🤞

~~~ two postive things again.. 🥰

First.. The thing that had helped me not be ashamed of being single all my life and have no romantic background at all... I found this audio erotica app called Quinn. They have Voice actors that do spicyyy audios. It's such a wide range of stuff on there. Very sex postive. And their social media team posts so amazingly with helping us understand the positivity that goes with sex. They have helped me a lot with being ok with how I am not having experience. And I follow a few of the ones I love.. And ahh they are so sweet and awesome.. Have helped a lot too. Also, Quinn is only $5 a month.. 👀👀

Second... I got my first tattoo!!!

The meaning ---- this is a mental health tattoo.🫶

no I didn't get the lotus out of cheesiness of it being my name. I got it because I love the symbolism of it. Lotus flowers grow through the mud. So I have always said; you have to push through the mud of life to blossom into the beautiful lotus flower you are.

The words. I have always said that to my friends and myself.. And ya know I don't really cuss unless I'm really mad and that is how I always type out that cuss word.

It is also in honnor the people we have lost to suicide. 💞 I've had some family friends, famous people I adore and just in general for people we've lost to it. 💞

It's still super weird I have one. I never thought I would be able to do it!! I'm so scared of pain, but this pain.. It hurt but not really.. My mom and I keep saying, it's the perfect pain that doesn't hurt like other pain. I so calm during it that my hand went cold from keeping it still.. 🙈🤣

I can't wait to get moreeeee!! 🤭🤭

Ok will post this with some tags and then reblog with tagging people and some more to write. 💞

[elizabethplaid]

Tired after a long day - April 23, 2024

Woke to morning greetings around 7ish, then fell back asleep before 9. Had specifically set my alarm to 10:30. Snoozed a few times but did wake. But then, I was having anxiety shakes - specifically, the kind that are like my muscles seizing involuntarily, like doing stomach crunches. Did my best to breathe and talk myself through it. Sometime after noon, I was able to get out of bed. (Moscow helped a bit, too. I fought harder against the shaking, so I wouldn't squish her.)

Lots lots lots of talking myself through each step. I got through it all okay, but it felt so rough. More play-by-play commentary below the cut.

Took meds at home; got food at the gas station; was right on-time. Breakfast-lunch was decent, though not ideal: cinnamon bun-twist and a blueberry scone, plus a bottle of Dunkin iced coffee and my usual soda.

Put on this video of ADHD music (uses isochronic tones) as soon as I started up my computer. It's a strong but soothing rhythm, without being too harsh. Very good for regulating myself, setting a steady pace.

I had Since (my bear) and my Woolrich sweater with me, so I spent a lot of the day just hugging her and trying to resist doing stomach crunches. (It's very rare that I do those while not in bed, if I get them at all.)

The fluorescent lights were harsh on my eyes. After I was able to calm down, maybe after 2 hours-ish, I was okay to have my eyes open.

Managed some limited small-talk with some folks. LL-J is always easier to talk to, though she gave me space to calm myself. Nearly tripped on my laptop's power cord, as I got up to shelve some books, oops.

LL-J went home not long after 4, and I said I'd be good til closing (6pm). Well, I made it to just before 5pm, and my body said it wanted me to go home, like I said earlier. (I don't like being in the bathroom for a long time if there's no one else in the library/building.)

Got home and got settled. Had to lay down after, because I felt so unnerved and tired from earlier in the day. Texted a couple friends to tell them what happened. Said I was getting my "socialization quota" (paraphrased) by checking in with them, which is true.

I kinda wanted to "brag" about how well I weathered the anxiety, though I wasn't ready to post to tumblr yet. I'll be bragging again tomorrow in counseling. I scheduled -that- for a phone appointment even before I left the house! Woo! LL-J joked about giving me a gold star sticker for my accomplishments, but I really did feel good about weathering it all today. It's still tough to appreciate it when you're -right- in the middle of things, though.

So yeah, laid in bed for a couple hours, mostly reading alien romance novels. Finished one and started another (the 3rd and 4th in the series). I love how each book focuses on a different couple that is aboard this space ship. So they all know one another and interact with each other. The ML of the 4th book was a close friend of the FLs in the 2nd and 3rd books (sisters), and now we get to see him shine. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, that they're interconnected but not completely blood-related.

[I don't know if there's an over-arching title for the series, but it's by Nancey Cummings, on the Readict app. The titles are Paax (1), Kalen (2), Mylomon (3), and Vox (4). I think #5 goes back to Paax, and then there's 5 other dudes' stories. They're usually about 20-25 chapters. The stories are set in war, with the continuous themes of medical experiments, eugenics, and human-alien... *ahem* "relations". Vox is my fav so far, because he's an otaku for human culture and very friendly.]