#your most valuable player

[tani-b-art]

A’ja Wilson | 41pts 17reb 2stl 2ast 1blk

[crossbackpoke-check]

yOu'Re gOiNg fOr a LiTeR? | "Habs react to Quebec Maple facts", 10.22.24

[rolandkaros]

i think the thing that’s silliest about the mandatory 0 rule is how it replaces your worst result- so since iga didn’t lose r1 in any tournaments she did play, she’s losing more points than aryna who lost her first match in dubai. obviously it’s not “unfair” because the players know, it is what it is, but i just think that if the rule rewards or incentivizes (for lack of a better word) tanking… it’s not a good rule. i hope next year they make the requirement 3 or 4 500s because 6 is just absurd for top players who go deep in 1000s and slams lol

I don't think it incentivizes tanking though because the ideal is to not drop any of the 1000 tournaments...if a player doesn't get any mandatory zeros then they hypothetically get to include all of their 1000 results, where it's a lot easier to earn more points than in the 500s. Plus, if Iga had tanked in Miami for example and only gotten 10 points, she still would have lost those 10 points, and ended up at the same point total she's at now – it only seems like she's lost more than Aryna because they've only just now decided to apply the mandatory zeros.

I also think we're not taking into account the fact that these calculations are all made in hindsight. No high-level player is going to roll up to a 1000 tournament and decide to tank for the purpose of having a smaller point total to drop, because a) they're probably not aiming to have any mandatory zeros anyway, and b) they'd much rather replace their current lowest point gain. Aryna was only able to drop Dubai because she performed better in later 1000s. If she had lost first round of Wuhan, for example, she would have had to count one of those +10 values. So, I understand the thought process but I don't think that's actually an issue in practice. The players who actually need to worry about mandatory zeros are never going to settle for early exits anyway.

But I 100% agree, 6 500s is too many, especially considering the 1000s are all mandatory now. Even just the placement of the 500s in the schedule makes it difficult to fit 6 in – players are being forced to commit themselves to long stretches of back to back to back to back tournaments. I think it's also even harder for Iga because it was an Olympic year, so no chance of making DC (and ended up missing Canada as well).

But on a much more serious level I think it's just the scheduling issues, again and again and again. The season is too long, 10 mandatory 1000s and 6 mandatory 500s is ridiculous, the way that the mandatory zeros were applied was weird.

[zealousfurykryptonite]

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[kinichval]

pro-valorant player!kinich loves it when you cook him a meal when he's in the midst of practicing for an upcoming tournament. always, he'll kiss you right after you set his plate on the table beside his computer setup. oh, he won't forget to say 'thank you', 'i love you', and a praise or compliment.

pro-valorant player!kinich who likes having you sit on his lap when he plays casually, at times that he's not streaming valorant gameplays just because, he's more than glad to have you giggling on his lap trying to understand whatever is going on in his screen. sure enough you know he's the best player with the straight victories and mvps.

(oh and when he sees the bloody red 'defeat', he instantly hides his face on some part of your body—your neck, chest, back, shoulder, arm—or you'd catch his lowering head with your hands, cupping his face and kissing him. "they suck, babe.")

pro-valorant player!kinich who desperately wants to have you beside him on stage when he's declared to be the most valuable player in the competition. but, of course, kinich respects your preference to not have your name and face out there in public where who knows what fans are capable of scheming?

his eyes would always wander in the crowd as he delivers his speech, his gaze would linger a little longer when he finds you smiling at him with a big banner. his cheeks would flush with the known amount of "go kinich" and "kinich my duelist" banners inside your room. (talk about being his number one fan, no one can do it like you.)

pro-valorant player!kinich who always gets asked about his dating life, oh how badly does he want to just spill it right then and there that he's madly in love with his number one fan. you, of course, who would it be?

"my dating life is personal and private. whether i have a partner or not is none of the internet's business, i will share to the world when i want to."

(oh he definitely wants to.)

pro-valorant player!kinich who gets to roam around the tournament host country's tourist spots with you. he may not look like the type of boyfriend to screencapture each frame per second, but the candid photos of you in his phone argue to believe otherwise.

and it's those (selected) photos that pique his fans' curiosity—who is that hand in his vct champions 2024 in japan post? or those extra snacks because kinich doesn't enjoy those kinds of delicacies on a normal day?

or to who does he dedicate the songs in his instagram stories to? seems like those places in his highlights weren't just a scenery to kinich when the songs are all romantic, is this a glimpse of what it's like to be loved by kinich?

[shaisuki]

can u write smth for sae!!!!!!

“does it bother you that i'm your girlfriend, sae?

the older itoshi glances at his girlfriend below him. he's half-naked. his shirt already discarded moments ago and he's ready to pounce on you and the question popped. his teal colored eyes narrows down at you. a scowl in his face present at your question and you bit your lip. regretting the question. it wasn't intentional and you just blurted it out.

does it bother the itoshi sae that you are his girlfriend. the answer is no. it is that simple. no buts. no what ifs. pure and straight. no. it doesn't bother him that he's girlfriend is big despite his much leaner build than yours. he's all muscles and you're soft. he loves that for you and if it bothers him that much that you are his girlfriend, he shouldn't have asked you to be his in the first place. he got only two things in his mind. soccer and his girlfriend. the rest doesn't matter and his time is that valuable to waste it for something he doesn't want.

“good thing you're adorable.” he deadpans. a faint twitch in his lips while he reach to cup your round cheek in his palm. amused at the musings of his girlfriend below him. “no. it doesn't bother me.” he answers you and he's placing a chaste kiss to your lips and then another until his lips are moving to yours and then kissing under your chin until he got lower and lower.

“sae!” you gasped at the sensation of his hot breath fanning the inside of your thick thighs. his fingers cold making you shiver at the coldness of his fingers. “you're starting to ask stupid questions. i ought to shut you up or i get to make a use of your mouth to get it occupied. shut up and let me do my business here.” his voice cold and how could there be warmth on his voice. you ask yourself but you were literally stopped when his tongue took a long lick between your folds. your body jerking backwards and sae grips your thighs to avoid you from running away from him.

it doesn't took long for you to shut up and only call his name. chanting it over and over again while he greedily laps the juices coming out from your fat cunt. your hole weeping with need and sae is skillful with his tongue. you didn't even realize that your legs is clamping his head but sae paid it no mind. too focused and occupied to get more of that sweet juices of yours flowing from your aching hole.

it's hard to belief that one of the most valuable player of real madrid is in between your legs. licking your pussy back and forth when sae can't be bothered to smile at the cameras pointed at him. you have never seen him so satisfied not until he's in-between your legs. a man who's cravings have been satiated.

“sae, i-m cum—” your boyfriend disconnects his mouth to your sticky folds before you can cum earning a dissatisfied whine from you. “this is what you get when you ask me stupid questions.”

“so mean.” you muttered and sae doesn't missed that. “i'll show you mean.” he says and since that you never asked questions that sae seems as stupid. you learned it after being edged. crying your eyes out and begging for him to make you cum.

[cantdance]

hello im sick so tell me about your xiv main. genuinely curious how other people decide in a game where you can play literally everything. my answer is aesthetic reasons (i like rogues)

[leychin]

All of it.

part 2

Tomura is due for his procedure in one week.

You don't bother trying to talk him out of it. Whats the point. His brain is too clouded by his hatred and rage towards heroes, towards his master, towards everyone around him.

It overpowers anything he feels for you.

You want to believe he hates you so it can be easier, but its never easy with Tomura. He knocks on your door at night so gently as if he isnt the most feared man in all of Japan, sits on your bed as if it's a rocking ship, and asks you to hold him like he's made of glass.

But Tomura wouldn't say it, he can't, he doesn't know how. He's lived with this hate for so long that loving you isn't something that comes to him naturally, in the mornings you don't exist. Just another League member with a job to fulfill, so why is he here with you like this?

It's because he's scared. His entire body is going to be ripped apart and then put back together for months, who wouldn't be scared? You're scared for him, he comes into your room at night and you press sweet kisses to tear sodden cheeks as he truly realizes what hes going to do. He knows hes going to leave. Its going to hurt. But it's something he has to do.

Not for his master, but for you.

He could never say it though, because how could he expect you to understand? Would you believe him? He knows you would try and convince him to stay how he is, he doesn't need to he stronger.

But Shigaraki needs to, he has this overwhelming urge to protect you, the one good thing in his life. He needs this power to keep you from disgusting people like master and the heroes. He wants to keep you in this room right here, with the minecraft music playing softly in the background as you ask him for more iron for some lanterns.

Its things like this that Shigaraki is fighting for, His hatred overshadows everything but you've lit a candle in his heart. When you fall asleep with your controller in your hands he's taking it from you and tucking you in, ghosting his lips over your head in his own form of a kiss.

God, he really does love you.

But it's never said, it can't be said. It's too late. Shigaraki will be gone for months and he'll be different, All for One will have everything he's worked for and he'll take your Tomura from you, and you'll be nothing to him as he moves to things much larger than the two of you in this shared space that's littered in old wrappers and empty cup ramen.

Eventually though, you wake up one morning and Tomura is gone, the menu music still playing softly in the background, the pause screen only showing one player showing he's logged off long ago.

Though, you unpause for a moment just to take a final walk around the world you two created. Beautiful cherry blossom trees lining a pathway to the updates village you made, ugly creeper holes Shigaraki didn't bother to fill up. You keep them uncovered, as a way to permanently mark the time spent with him.

You decide to log off and never play this game again, to never let yourself feel this hurt again, to never love again. But theres a spot in your enchantment room you've never seen before, Its hidden by clever bookshelf and stairs placements but theres a button wedged between the blocks, and when you press it you hear pistons whirr and open to what looks like an armory.

Theres an empty armor stand and one thats in full enchanted netherite armor, its his armor. The chest next to it is full of valuable items but one stands out to you; a signed book.

The glow makes you quickly add it to your inventory and open it yourself.

"It's all for you. Everything." -T.S.

That fucking idiot.

[bellawoso]

Enchanted

Ona Batlle x fem!reader

-> Ona being a flustered mess around her ‘cute doctor’

Definition of love at first sight for my darling onita!!

Ona Batlle hated medics. It wasn’t that she hated them as people, she actually really admired people who dedicated most of their youth studying to help others. What Ona Batlle hated was being treated by medics. During both training and matches Ona would go to extreme measures just to hide an injury so that she wasn’t sent away to ‘waste’ valuable time that she could have been playing football as she says.

However, due to the amount of time she has been caught attempting to hide her pain, Ona’s hate for being seen by medics is infamously known by every player in the Barcelona Femeni team.

So therefore when Ona went down due to a mistimed slide tackle which resulted in someone’s studs harshly connecting with her ribs, Alexia’s ‘hawk eyes’ as Ona calls them, immediately noticed the wince that Ona tried to suppress with every step she took in attempt to ‘walk it off’.

“Off now Ona.”

At hearing this Ona’s eyes widened in shock as she realised she had been caught, everyone including Ona knew that it was useless trying to argue with Alexia, who was the most stubborn player on the team. In attempt to show the captain her annoyance, Ona let out an exaggerated sigh, which was ignored by Alexia, who instead shooed the defender off the pitch.

Ona made a point to walk as slowly as possible off the pitch and shoot a harsh glare at the player who injured her. Ona was annoyed. She had been deeply looking forward to the match against Real Madrid, and was excited to assist Barcelona in keeping their winning streak against them, only to be sent off just 27minutes into the game which she suspected she would have been playing full time for.

When she got to the sidelines the physios told the young spaniard to head to medical room 5 for a scan to check for broken ribs making the brunette internally groan at the possibility of having to miss any more time playing football due to some broken bones.

———————————————————————

When Ona eventually arrived at medical room 5, she had a mental battle while staring at a spot on the floor whether she should stay and get checked by a professional or go back to the locker rooms and get a long relaxing shower while it was quiet. However, her train of thoughts was interrupted by the door suddenly clicking open and a soft voice grasping her attention.

“Hello, can I help you?”

Ona was about to reject your offer and return back to the locker rooms, but as she looked up to match a face to the voice, her future words of dismissal died on her tongue.

“Oh- uh, t-the physios. My ribs.”

Ona internally cursed herself at her unusual nervousness and flustered state. She wouldn’t admit it but she also cursed you for making her feel like there were a million butterflies in her stomach, and she prayed that you mistook the blush on her cheeks for a visual of the past half hour she had spent running around the pitch.

“Of course, if you’d like to come in? What’s your name?”

Ona however had stupidly decided to try act casual by taking a large gulp out of her water bottle, but had hurriedly swallowed it in order to not leave your question waiting, which resulted in the brunette entering a coughing and choking fit. You quickly sprung to action and rubbed soothing circles onto the spaniards back until the coughing subsided, and Ona felt the tips of her ears burn as she looked at the ground.

The silence didn’t last for long though, as it was almost instantly interrupted by laughter that filled the air. Ona hated it. Ona was used to making girls laugh after a sarcastic quip she made in a bar, when she flirted her ways into someone’s bed, however Ona was definitely not used to a girl laughing at her, after she had almost basically died due to how much of a blushing mess you reduced her to.

However, as much as Ona hated your laugh, she could not resist the tugging of the corner of her lips at the soft giggles that you emitted. Ona was down bad instantly.

“Hola, soy y/n.” You said with a cheeky grin adorned on your face which made Ona swoon.

The brunette couldn’t help but chuckle at the heavy northern accent coating your words.

“Your pronunciation is terrible.” The defender replied with a smirk of her own.

“As is yours.” You said, but the truth is, Ona’s pronunciation was practically flawless, but she didn’t need to know that.

“No it isn’t, my pronunciation is perfect.” Ona said.

“Arrogance looks good on you.” You replied as you looked into her eyes. As cliché as it sounds, Ona’s eyes were beautiful, a gorgeous deep brown with specks of gold and green littered near her pupils. Little did you know Ona was also admiring your eyes aswell.

After sitting her down on the examination bed and taking some quick x-rays of her ribs, you ruled out the possibility of them being broken, and instead decided to feel the area to see the extent of the bruising.

At the sight of her abs up this close your breath hitched, and you prayed that Ona didn’t hear, on any other day Ona would have noticed and would make an effort to tease you for it, but today Ona was fully focused into trying to not let you see the effect you had on her this close.

At first, Ona relished the addictive feeling of your cold finger tips trailing around the area, but as the gentle touches faded into harsh prodding at the people and blue tinged skin, Ona’s wince became apparent for you.

As soon as you noticed Ona’s discomfort, you were quick to mutter a soft apology, and while Ona thought about her embarrassing first encounter with you, she realised something that she felt like kicking herself for. Ona had forgot to tell you her name.

Of course you knew who Ona Batlle was, your studies the entire team after you scored the job as their personal doctor, but you hoped that asking Ona her name would help you two get to know each other on a personal level.

“Ona.”was all the spaniard uttered quietly.

“What was that?”

“My name. My name is Ona.”

As you looked down at her, you couldn’t help but notice the dozens of freckles littered on her nose, and couldn’t help but smile softly at the defender.

You placed an ice pack onto the bruised area, strapping it to her skin with a bandage, then tugged her shirt back down and Ona took this as her que to sit up and wait for your diagnosis.

“Well Ona I’m happy to say that you have no broken ribs but you do have severe bruising in your ribs so I would recommend sitting out the next match to prevent further injuries, okay?”

Normally Ona would have freaked out at the idea of not being able to play the next match, and would have probably argued with the doctor until they told her she could play. However, with you Ona wanted nothing more than to listen to and respect your judgement. Ona knew she had fallen for you.

As you followed her to the door, the spaniard turned around to see you a last time before she left.

“Bye y/n”

“See you around Ona” You said with a grin.

———————————————————————

As Ona walked into the locker room she was shocked to be met with her teammates emerging from the showers and going to get dressed. How much time had she spent with you?

As her teammates noticed her arrival, Ona was immediately faced with questions about her change of opinions on medics, its safe to say that no one actually thought Ona would actually go to the medical room.

Patri immediately came over to her and bombarded her with questions.

“Why did you go to the medics?”

“Are your ribs broken?”

“Why are you happy after returning?”

Fortunately Ingrid came to Ona’s rescue and led the brunette over to where Alexia and Mapi were sat. The two best friends stopped their conversation as soon as Ona neared them, also confused at why Ona actually went to the medic.

“I can’t believe she actually went” Mapi said under her breath.

Unluckily for her, Ona heard.

“I went because they told me to” the defender said with a scowl upon her face. To which Alexia raised a brow in disbelief.

The questioning was soon interupted at the sound of the locker room door bursting open, making the multiple conversations stop.

But upon seeing who entered, Ona wished the ground would open and swallow her whole to save her from the relentless teasing she is bound to receive from the team after this.

There you were, stood at the doorway looking around the room until your eyes made contact with Ona’s and you offered her the same reassuring smile that Ona fell in love with.

You rushed up to the spaniard, only to hold out your hand.

Dammit. Her water bottle.

“Here you forgot this, but try not to choke this time” you said with your signature cheeky grin, before saying “adios” and turning to leave.

“B-bye y/n” Ona said, her flustered state returning at the realisation that her whole team had found out what convinced her to go to the medic, you turned around to shoot her a smile until the sound of the door clicked behind you.

“Because we told you to, huh?” Alexia said with a teasing smirk.

“Shut up, she was cute”

———————————————————————

A/N : There will be a part two to this, and hopefully I will have it written by the end of this week! Feel free to send in requests for your favourite footballers! 🤍

[ataleofcrowns]

I feel as if this is a misconception I've seen more and more as of late, likely because of the role the main character takes on as the Crown, but for new players and others that want to recommend this game to their friends:

AToC is not a power fantasy.

The Crown's title is rooted in very meaningful political dynamics. All their actions and decisions have consequences. There's no such thing as one individual being able to singlehandedly change centuries of power structures embedded into society; that is a fundamental misunderstanding and a naive view of how the world works. Political victories will be hard won, and even when you make the best decisions for every situation, there will still be downsides because your Crown is not a god and cannot control every aspect of every situation.

If you go into it with the mindset that your Crown is the most powerful person who should be able to bulldoze their opponents despite having never set a single toe in any political arena before, you're going to be very sorely disappointed, and this is not the story for you.

What AToC does do is for you to follow and shape the journey of your Crown from the beginning of their reign, and witness their growth over that period of time.

If you don't have the patience to watch your main character learn and progress and gain experience over time, and get upset that they aren't perfect from the start or that their love interests (who are better educated, better trained, and more experienced in every facet) are equally influential and valuable in their own ways, then you're going to have a very bad time with this story 🤷🏽‍♀️

[maikissed]

the day I saw your eyes, I stayed

jude bellingham x reader

warnings: none, just a tad of sexual tension, yeah

note: there is going to be part 2! I planned to write the whole story in one shot but I gotta go to sleep now and was too excited about this rubbish (jk, I love it tbh). And he scored today, whoop sorry for any mistakes!!!!

Rose got herself a new boyfriend. The name brought up in presence of your girlfriends caused much of a fuss. It was a grand revelation and as much as it surprised you as well, you did not share the enthusiasm as every other girl in the room. Not because you felt envious, jealousy was never your thing, you rather grew worrisome. The excitation over the fact that Rose secured herself a football player of such range – famous, a hot topic, high quality player, one of the most valuable characters in the England national team, highly payed, and to add to that: uncommonly gorgeous - absolutely knocked your friends of their feet, but to you… To you it was a sign of massive trouble. People like him belonged to a world where individuals had their impeccable ways to draw from their fame, money and phenomenon as much as they could, despite the morality or ethics. Rose always mingled among various groups of people, there were musicians, actors, even politicians. She was a lovely girl, very pretty, her modelling career developed quickly, spectacularly. But she still haven’t made her name the way she aimed to. You suspected the boys she chose were always an occasion, a special addition to make her reach for more, to be seen, to feel special and unique. She was determined, regardless of the consequences, regardless of the fact how many times she has suffered and burned herself even almost to the point of absolute destruction. It felt awful to even reminisce it. But that’s how it’s been so far, it was the path she has chosen. Although this time this whole situation felt much different, there was a spark in her eyes that could tell you many things. But you would define it this way: she intended to hold onto him, she wanted to keep him. He seemed like the greatest prize. But who would have thought that the massive trouble you feared from the very start would be your burden to deal with?

Jude Bellingham.

Girls were over the moon when the time has come and Rose invited you all to join them in a private lounge in one of the most exclusive clubs in London. You scoffed when you heard the name of the place, you remembered the time when you and Lucia tried to sneak in there, but the bodyguard was too smart to fall for your theatrics. Only precisely selected people could party there. It was one of those grand and fancy places. So you found yourself invited, at last. Yet you weren’t very thrilled about the way you were about to spend your Saturday night. It turned out you would be the only single person there.

And him? The man, the hot topic himself? He was taller than you envisioned, maybe the hair added to that? His smile truly was bright, he was well built, broad shoulders, but not too muscular, well, he was an athlete. The Brummie dialect annoyed you at the start, but the itch seemed to cease as you payed attention to the tone of his voice, there was nothing particular about it, it was just right, good, not screechy, not too deep just… pleasant. He was an amiable guy, you thought to yourself, polite and friendly at the first contact. You realised you were a careful observer until he turned to you to greet. Now you were very much noticed, now you had to act as a part of the events, not a shadow and analyser. And situation very much changed. Time seemed to slow down so suddenly, you found yourself in the strangest state of unconsciousness, like a scene in a movie where the background blurs and any noise is muted, when the spectator is deprived of any other senses despite the sight to notice those specific details that are supposed to made him feel the sublimity of a given moment. And the source of it was in his eyes, you realised, and the way he smiled softly as he extended his hand to you. It was strange and disturbing, his eyes seemed to be the darkest ones you’ve ever seen, but you most definitely had seen eyes like his before, no doubt about it. You took a breath, blinked, fought to not fall into this depth that almost sucked you in. He was smiling, now something slightly impudent about it, and you realised he truly was stunningly gorgeous. Strangely, insanely attractive. Just a simple look into his eyes made you stumble into a realisation that there was something different about this man. And it frightened you.

You did say your name back, did you?

As the night went by you decided to stay in your attentive observer state. You felt safer there, although decency inquired you to engage in few conversations with your friends. Tonight you felt tense, carefully sipping the wine, you tried with all your might to relax and stop examining so intensely the boy seated opposite you. Few new conclusions you came into in the last hour was the fact that he was a great interlocutor, he listened as well, and his smile was one of the most pleasurable things you’ve experienced in your lifetime. You just couldn’t take your eyes off. And another conclusion was that him and Rose was nothing of exclusive. No lingering stares, no secret touches. After all, they met quite recently. She wondered if she bagged him already. And if so, would they all be there if she did? He did not seem like the kind to make such effort to get himself a girl he was not seriously interested in. Rose was not the type to act restrained and unavailable. She crawled into many beds the first night she met someone. You kept yourself far from casual hook-ups and one night stands, just a simple thought of it made you uncomfortable. But for her it was a common thing, if you could use such words. So, was he really interested?

After a while all of your friends decided to use the night to the fullest as the alcohol finally kicked in, rushing to the dancefloor and you truly couldn’t find the spur to join them. You were seriously thinking about taking a French leave. And you almost succeeded.

“You’re not enjoying yourself much, are you?” a well known voice reached you from behind and you turned your head in its direction.

Something in your gut jumped as you spotted Jude. He took a seat beside you. You smiled as his scent reached you, fresh, citrus with addition of something stronger and… alluring.

“I’ve had a long day. Tired, I guess” a safe and simple answer.

His full attention was on you, no one here to accompany you. It begun to feel overwhelming because you did not expected his gaze to be so intense.

“I know the feeling. Find myself in a constant state of weariness lately, cannot get rid of it” he played with his glass, the liquid looked like orange juice.

“Well, you live quite the fast and exciting life” you noted, observing as the corner of his mouth rose a little at your comment.

“Where are you from?” he asked, not continuing the subject you just raised.

“Here, London, born and raised” you smiled again before lowering your gaze, finding the glass of wine interesting “Became as gloomy and morose as this city”

“I wouldn’t describe you with such words” his voice was soft when he said it, something itched in you to ask what words would he use to describe you, but raising the glass of wine up to your lips saved you from that. You hoped you didn’t blush.

“My grandmother always says that I’m an old soul. Emphasizes it like it’s a virtue” you continued.

“That’s a very interesting thing to say about someone. Mine says that I’m a lovely companion although I use way too foul language and it’s scandalous” he frowned funnily and you laughed at the information, he quickly accompanied you.

“Well, I haven’t yet got the occasion to hear some of that tonight”

“I’m trying to be a gentleman” he murmured “It would be improper to throw fucks around in presence of a pretty girl” a lively glint in his eyes as he looked at you.

Now you definitely blushed.

The conversation flowed from there, and you realised you grew more comfortable with each passing minute. He truly was a great listener, and a good companion. He made you laugh many times and suddenly you stopped regretting leaving your apartment for this night out. He was not daft or arrogant as you might have presumed before you met him, being smothered by all this money he had and a name he’s gotten himself at such young age. The complexity of his persona could be spotted in his eyes as you payed closer attention, but it was his words and the way he picked on any subject you brought, that expressed his maturity and wide perception. You haven’t met a guy like him in a long time.

“What are you guys doing here? Come on down, join us!” it was Charlotte’s comment as she came to the longue after a while.

You haven’t even realised how much time has passed and how much alcohol you have already poured into yourself. You only picked on that as you stood up, dizziness hit you like lighting but you composed yourself, agreeing on Charlotte’s and then Jude’s proposition. As soon as you joined the dancefloor, Rose spotted you both, throwing her hands around Jude, guiding him deeper, keeping him closer. He kept his eyes on you as she did it and a strange feeling stroked you as you kept his gaze. Charlotte grabbed you by your hands, singing the words out loud, the song was energetic and lively, you laughed at your friend. Others from your pack nowhere to be seen. So you loosened up and tried to keep up with your drunk companion. The dancefloor became quite chaotic, people jumping around, your eyes landing on Jude from time to time and to your surprise he was looking your way as well. There was a lean and tall guy that jumped in front of Jude, almost stumbling over him and you laugh at that, seeing that Jude laughed as well, his attention still on you. You wanted to share this fun with him directly, but it was forbidden since the realest fact of this night was that he was not yours to have.

“I need to pee!” Rose shouted near you and you turned, watching as she grabbed Charlotte with her, leaving the dancefloor.

You stopped and decided to follow your friends but felt someone’s presence behind your back before you made any move.

“Now I can tell you’re enjoying your night!” Jude called next to your ear, this way you could hear him well despite the thumping music.

When you turned around you noticed how close he stood, you had to raise your head to look at his face, his big and dark eyes gazing down at you, full lips twisted into an amused smile. You returned the smile.

“You are a terrible dancer” you shouted back to him, your voice filled with laughter.

“That’s a fact” he nodded “But you’re quite good, show me more” he reached for your hips to draw you deeper into the dancefloor and you laughed out, throwing your head back as he lead you with him.

You have not payed much attention to the closeness of your bodies as long as the songs were quick and your movements kept rapidly changing with the rhythm. Still, you haven’t realised the sound slowing, a more sensuous song sounded from the loudspeaker, you knew this one. If the reason could break through the basses that reached your ears, you would finish your dance right this moment. But the fact was that it did not. So you continued, with your hands placed at his shoulders you begun to move your hips. Your eyes closed as you turned around, your back to him, he was not touching you, not directly. He took your hands in his and you started to raise it up in the air, you smiled when you felt his breath on your ear. Your joined hands stayed up longer, his on the other hand slowly trailed lower and lower, down your forearms, then your shoulders, then down your body. His touch sure yet lenient and soft at the same time electrified you. Carefully and attentively, making sure to not touch your breasts on the way, he rested them on your hips, feeling the rhythm you kept on. You were not sure if it was him that pressed on you or was it purely your movement, but your back met with his front fully, and a sharp intake of breath stuck in  your throat at the realisation. His hands still rested on your hips, making your body move with no pause. You were close, too close, you could already feel too much. But you found it difficult to part with him, to stop it and call it improper. Your eyes wide open but blind. You only focused on the sense of touch, feeling him moving with you. Your hands fell down to reach his head and then levelled on his nape and you kept them there. Feeling something growing inside of you, along with a rough shot of adrenaline that made your heart beat strongly against ribs. Once more his breath landed on your ear, close, closer. A strange sensation squeezed your throat and you realised you swallowed back a moan. It was like a rough strike, you turned around to face him, with intention to take a step back, but he held you closer, pressing his palm against your back. You sighed and met his eyes. Dark, darker. You wanted to run.

“Thank you for the dance” you said innocently and he watched the movement of your lips as you spoke.

A daring smirk appeared on his mouth and you shuddered. Were you trapped now?

You had to run. So you did.

[lackadaisycats]

Hi, I was just wondering if you were aware of this or not.

Although I get it from a money point of view, the 'opt out' thing is still disappointing for me.

I wish it were an 'opt in' thing instead.

Yeah, I'm aware. But it's probably worth it to spread this around so other people here know that there's an 'opt out' option. This isn't something new, by the way. Just about every other major social media platform has already sold / is actively selling your data for AI training and for other purposes. The bigger players are training their own AI models on the data/activity/content of their userbase too. And whatever existent information could be scraped by external parties without the permission or knowledge of you or the platform's parent company has also already been gathered up. So, that this place is on board too is par for the course. Disappointing? Yes. But surprising? Not really. Oh boy, we humans sure are the hot commodity of our time. Hooray. We're the MVPs of capitalism (most valuable products).

Anyway, this is bleak, and I have to go make some cat animations.

[zealousfurykryptonite]

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[healpimp]

#FixTF2 Masterpost: Important Information Regarding the Movement

As promised, here is a comprehensive post about the #FixTF2 movement, the issues it tries to bring up and where to find more information and follow developments.

It is now day 7 of the protest with no response form Valve. Either this is them trying to wait for this to blow over or waiting for the signatures of the petition to be printed out and brought to their office, or they are still preparing a proper response to the movement. Regardless, this protest is still ongoing.

❓What's going on with TF2?❓

I'm sure everyone and their grandma knows by now, but TF2's most popular game mode, Casual, has been plagued by bots for several years by now. This is in fact not the first attempted protest and you may have heard of the one conducted two years ago named #SaveTF2. The movement wrested a response from Valve, which since the first protest has earned infamy and a status as a blatant lie among the game's players.

However, this task has seemingly been abandoned entirely. The last time in recent memory with no bots was when the game upgraded from 32-bit to 64-bit, which seemed to break the bots for a while. This was something the bothosters remedied a few days later, and no steps to remove them from the game has been made ever since.

It is worth mentioning that TF2 has had updates to battle the bot issue many times after #SaveTF2. They did indeed move to make TF2 a bot-free game for a while.

❓Why is this even bad?❓

Now, this might seem like a non-problem; TF2 is a video game and no more than that. People could simply move on and play similar games, like Overwatch, Paladins, Splatoon, etc. This would certainly be an easy solution but this has roots much deeper than simply playing a game.

For one, this game has been around for about 17 years by now. Ancient by FPS standards, but that the game is still played and talked about to this day stands as a testament to the love and passion the playerbase and general fandom has for it. The playerbase is loyal, the potential for content is seemingly endless and many are willing to pay money for the game. And therein lies some issues.

TF2 has millions of dollars invested in it by the playerbase. Loot boxes, MvM tickets and any sale made in the community market all gives Valve a steady and reliable revenue stream. This is significant, because you will have to make the assumption that this money will come back to sustain the game from imploding in on itself and remain functional. In the case with MvM, the PvE mode (that has not been updated in QUITE a while), the chances of receiving valuable loot from the missions is actually so small that there is no way to feasibly make any of your money back.

Additionally, any content updates added to the game every event (Summer Update, Scream Fortress and Smissmass) is community made. This means Valve picks and chooses cosmetics, emotes, unusual effects, warpaints and maps made by fans in the workshop.

While the creators of these items are compensated for their work, Valve naturally profits from these content updates.

In shorter terms: Valve profits off a game that has been in a near-unplayable state for more than 5 years by doing next to nothing.

And that isn't even the end of it. This is just the general negligence of Valve. It gets a lot uglier when delving into the punishable crimes conducted by the bothosters.

This video by TheWhat Show talks about this in depth, focusing on a particularly important case that involves MegaScatterBomb, who was harassed, doxxed, impersonated and swatted for trying to develop a working anti-cheat for casual.

This video is also in a document form for those who would rather read.

A more recent development with the bots has been their blatant advertising and promotion of CSAM, which you may better know as CP.

After #FixTF2 started, bots have been found spamming links in text chat that they claim is CSAM, while micspamming disturbing audio into the voice chat that is either edited to sound like or is legitimately CSAM. Valve has yet to respond to these reports, but good amount of players on Twitter/X have already started notifying FBI about this situation.

Another thing worth noting is that the bothosters have actively attempted to take down the petition website by DDoSing it and by filing a fake DMCA claim, both which are punishable crimes.

So to summarize:

It is wholly unsafe to play the game due to the bothosters and their willingness to commit crimes in the name of ruining the game experience.

Valve is profiting from keeping this broken product running, yet refuses to put any meaningful effort into fixing the bot problem.

The community actively contributes to the game by designing cosmetics and maps, and while they are compensated for their work, Valve are the ones who profit the most from their contributions.

Real people have been and are being harmed by the bot problem, and as far as we are aware, no one has been held accountable.

This is wholly unacceptable, both from a professional and unprofessional standpoint. If Valve fancies themselves a corporation worth using money on, their choice to simply ignore the problem speaks volumes of their priorities.

As Valve is releasing their new game Deadlock, there are serious concerns about the security of this game. TF2 is far from the only game that has bot/cheater problems. CS2 has had a similar problem for a long while as well and there is a clip of a Chinese bot farm that has been going around and which has even breached into the #FixTF2 movement.

❓What should we do?❓

Sign the petition while it is still up. At the time of this post, the petition has reached 270k+ signatures. The website has more general information as well.

Add to the #FixTF2 tag on mainly Twitter/X. Tag your posts with it, retweet and like posts in the tag and put the focus on the bots and ONLY the bots. One of the issues of the last movement, #SaveTF2, was that it wasn't focused enough on any particular problem and Valve could get away with making no promises. So, post clips, fanart and rants to your heart's content, so long it is specifically about the bots.

Watch youtube videos with #FixTF2 as the subject. Here are some good places to start:

4. Boycott any transactions in TF2. While Weezy was against this method in his video above, he has since changed his opinion. It has been established that Valve is very unlikely to shut down TF2, since the TF2 community market has millions of dollars invested in it and shutting down TF2 would render all items useless, thereby fully taking away any and all investments any players have put into the game. This would not just be devastating to the general economy of Valve's marketplaces, but a huge blow to their reputation if they want to remain reliable in the eyes of consumers.

5. Don't interact directly with bothosters. This includes harassment and any attempts at doxxing/swatting. These individuals are bigoted and some are even criminals. They have no remorse for their actions and talking to them would be a fruitless endeavor. Refrain from mentioning their names/aliases, as they are fond of attention and are getting just about enough of it since #FixTF2 started.

6. Don't give up.

❓Where can I keep up with any news?❓

Here are accounts to start with if you want to follow any important proceedings regarding #FixTF2:

Weezy (One of the biggest voices for #FixTF2 and spearhead of the protest):

Weezy's Youtube Channel

Weezy's Twitter

TheWhat Show (Similar to Weezy, outspoken supporter and spearhead):

TheWhat's Youtube Channel

TheWhat's Twitter

Shork (Outspoken supporter and generally active in the fandom)

Shork's Twitter

MegaScatterBomb (Creator of the TF2 cheater database and attempting to make a working anti-cheat for casual)

Mega's Youtube

If you discover new information, inconsistencies, broken/repeated/wrong links, etc., please speak up! Use the comments section, reblog with a comment or DM me!

[anim-ttrpgs]

Re-Introducing the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club & FAQ

Alright, so, we have this discord server called the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. A discord server, run by the A.N.I.M. Team, for reading, analyzing, and playing TTRPGs. It’s free to join, and at the time of writing this it has a community of nearly 200 members.

Also at the time of writing this, for a limited time, you can get a FREE PDF of the July 11th update of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy just by joining the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club! This is a huge upgrade over the free May 10th version!

Here’s how the book club operates:

Nominations. Members nominate RPGs they wanna play.

Voting. After we finish the current RPG, we vote on what the next one will be. You can vote for as many nominations as you want, and nominations with the most votes wins.

Reading. We encourage you to buy the winning game to support the developers, but if you can’t for any reason, we will find a way to get you a PDF. A rough deadline is set that will allow everyone to read the rulebook at a rate of about 10 pages a day, though reading faster or slower is okay.

Playing. We assign GMs on a volunteer basis, and players are assigned to groups with GMs based on schedule compatibility. Each group plays the same adventure module, so each group will have commonalities in their adventure that they can talk about and compare their experiences with, even with different GMs, players, and characters.

Repeat. Voting begins anew with the nominations that we have accumulated in the mean time.

A.N.I.M.’s current Patreon goal is also tied to the Book Club. If y’all can raise our Patreon income to $310/month, that will allow us to set aside manpower to carve out and organize a small additional space within the ANIM TTRPG Book Club server for other games which do not fit the nomination criteria for the main book club! At the time of writing this, it sits at $259/$310. Signing up to the patreon grants you access to monthly rulebook updates as we continue to finish the game, adventure modules, short fiction, and our patreon discord server.

Below is a bit of an FAQ as an attempt to quell any concerns or hesitations

“The Book Club games probably don’t fit with my schedule.”

They might! Because we assign multiple different groups based on schedule compatibility, the book club games are actually very very schedule-flexible! You might be surprised!

And if they still don’t, even just reading the rulebook and joining in on discussions is a valuable form of participation!

“I’m afraid to play with strangers.”

They won’t exactly be strangers if you hang out around them in the book club long enough! Yes we do get what you mean, but there’s nothing to worry about. The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club is a safe community, and we have rules and, more importantly, procedures designed to make playing with relative strangers as smooth an experience as it can be!

“What if I don’t like the RPG that wins the vote?”

While we encourage you to step a little out of your comfort zone, participation in any given round of the book club is not mandatory, there’s no punishment for sitting out! It’s cool to just hang around in the discord server and discuss virtually anything if you want to.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[flem17ng]

Oblivious: Mapi Leon x reader

note: this is for the anon who asked for mapi leon fic! I hope it’s what you had in mind xx

Summary: Reader is absolutely infatuated with mapi and she has no idea. Luckily some friends decide to help out.

content: mild age gap but not really

word count: 1.4k

“do the drill y/n! you can drool over leon later!” Patri sighed as she watched you, yet again, get distracted by the older player. This had been happening more and more frequently: everyday it seemed you were found gazing at Mapi from across the field. today was no different as you watched her sprint forward, tap the ball with her toe into the air and volley it across the field. 

clàudia slapped your arm with a grin. 

“one of these days she’s going to notice how in love with her you are hermana” 

“shut up” you grumbled, turning back to the drill. It was true that you made it pretty obvious. It seemed like the whole team knew about your crush on mapi except mapi. It’s not like you had a chance anyway! she was older than you, more experienced and probably the single most attractive woman you had ever seen. So yeah, you didn’t think you really stood a chance. 

“don’t be silly Pina, we both know Mapi wouldn’t recognise y/n’s crush if it slapped her in the face” Patri laughed with a shake of the head.

“can we change the conversation please” you whined suddenly finding the drill a lot more interesting than before

“change what conversation?” 

You whipped around only to find yourself face to face with the very girl you’d been looking at only seconds before. Mapi smiled at you (a sweet lopsided grin that made your heart speed up). 

“oh nothing! Just y/n and her big, ga-“

“my dead grandma” you almost shouted causing a few people to look at you in confusion. Mapi raised her eyebrows. 

“we where talking about my very dead grandma! that’s all!” you gave Patri a stern stare. 

“oh…” Mapi looked between you and the two other girls. “oh i’m sorry I didn’t know. um… well it’s water break now” Mapi backed away a few steps before turning and walking towards the drink bottles. 

“y/n what the fuck” Clàudia muttered. You looked at her, mortified. you needed to pull yourself together. 

***

It took you a whole 2 days to embarrass yourself even further. So maybe you weren’t able to pull yourself together like you told yourself you would. 

The game was a stunner. 9-1 to Barcelona. It was no secret that Mapi was the most valuable player on the pitch that day either. She was everywhere she needed to be. The final goal was something you knew you would never forget: Playing attacking mid, you raced into open space managing to lose your marker just as you neared the box, a second later you could see Mapi weave past the opposing striker and boot the ball towards you. Time slowed down as you jumped, letting the ball hit the top of your head, giving it the slight redirection it needed to skid into the top corner of the goal.  

You wasted no time turning at running towards the tattooed defender who’d assisted you. Her smile in the moment was better than the whole crowds cheering put together. When you crashed into her with a hug, you didn’t even think before kissing her cheek. 

“Mapi! I did it! I swear I could kiss yo-“ you cut yourself off when you saw Mapi’s eyes go wide. The awkward silence didn’t last long as the team descended on you both with loud cheers and slaps on the back. 

***

“you what!!” yelled Patri when you where safely in the car home.

“don’t make me say it again” you groaned, sinking further into your seat, covering your violently pink cheeks with your palms. 

“no i’m going to make you say that again! You said you could kiss her? Jesus y/n!”

Patri shook her head while Clàudia laughed from the backseat. 

“what did she do!” Pina laughed, clearly finding your embarrassment very amusing. 

“she just stared at me! god she’s going to think i’m a freak” you sighed. You could brush it off as heat of the moment, but you know it wasn’t. You could kiss her. Hell you wanted to, everyday you wanted too. 

“you guys are friends! she’s not going to think you’re a freak” Patri laughed

You just sunk further into the leather of the car seat, hoping it would swallow you up. 

***

Mapi was pacing the change-room the next day after training. The thought had been grating on her mind all day. Ever since you avoided her in the car park that morning. Usually you arrived at similar times, chatted about your morning, music, life, but that morning you had parked as close to the building as possible and practically ran inside at the sight of the older player. 

Mapi had shrugged it off but then during training you seemed to be making a visible effort to avoid her. It made her gut twist to think you were upset with her. hell, it made her feel sick to think you were upset at all but no one needed to know that. 

“god it’s just painful to watch at this point” Patri groaned to Alexia as she entered the change-room, only to stop short when she saw Mapi staring at her. 

“hey Mapi! I thought you would have gone home by now” Alexia smiled, much better at playing a poker face than Patri. 

“oh uh, no. I wanted to check on Y/n” she muttered. 

Patri smirked, “oh and whys that?” Alexia slapped her arm to be quiet. 

“she just seemed weird today. Like she avoiding me or something” Mapi groaned. It was weird seemed her like this, so unlike her usual bubbly self. 

“you really have no idea?” Alexia asked. Not teasing, but a genuine, gentle question 

“no idea about what?”

“she likes you Mapi! she has for a long time. If she’s acting weird around you maybe it’s because she’s losing hope.” Patri explained, watching mapis mouth fall open into a little ‘o’. 

“i didn’t realise” she whispered. Inside she could feel her heart speeding up like a kid. she smiled excitedly, “she really likes me?”

“oh god your oblivious sometimes leon” Alexia laughed. 

***

Anger couldn’t even begin to describe how you felt when she told you. embarrassment, mortification, rage. You didn’t even have the energy to yell at her when you got the text from Patri telling you that she had told Mapi about your feelings. You simply sent a text to your coach telling him you were sick, locked your phone and cried. 

You knew people would try to get in touch with you, hell some even tried calling your landline but you ignored it all.

How could you show your face at training again?

after a day or so you unlocked your phone. 

4 missed calls from patri, 3 from alexia, a large paragraph from clàudia and-

one text from Mapi Leon. 

You tapped the notification. 

today, 10 mins ago. 

mapi 🦁:  I wanted to kiss you too. 

You almost dropped your phone when you read it. and then you re-read it. and then you really did drop your phone when a loud knock came from the front door. 

“please y/n. It’s me” you heard her voice float through the hallway. Her tone was pleading and you could picture her expression: soft but with a wrinkle in her brow that only appeared when she was worried or upset. 

When the door opened, she stepped inside without hesitation. 

“y/n” she said breathlessly. Her cheeks were pink as if she’d been running and, just as you had imagined, her brow was crinkled with worry. 

“mapi? how did you-“

she cut you off with her lips, cradling your cheek with her hand causing you to gasp. 

she pulled back, looking from your eyes to your lips for permission to kiss you again. 

“Mapi…”

“i’m sorry i didn’t realise sooner. I’m an idiot i know”

You smiled at her and shook your head, finally giving in and reaching up to smooth her worry lines. 

“just kiss me again león” you laughed. and she did just that. Pulling you closer by your waist and kissing you deeply right there on your doorstep. 

Maybe you were an idiot, maybe she was oblivious, but hell she was a good kisser. 

shit, You needed to thank Patri.