#not discussing the issue with the driver is already pretty bad but not even informing him prior to/during the miami weekend..... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pickledasparaguss · 5 months

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Virtually all marketing strategies seek to take advantage of human psychology. "Dark Patterns" in web and software designs are no different and need no regulation. - TECH BLOG POST 1

Before this class I would have never second guessed the information I was putting out online. There was one part in Woellner’s Ted Talk where she discussed how sometimes you don’t even have to type out your information when you’re signing up for something, sometimes it just automatically inserts the information in there for you. Allowing ourselves to become easily accessible to whatever form takes place on the other side of our screen has become a normal part of our everyday life in this day and age. I believe this has to do with the fact that digitalization and technology are here to make our lives easier in some capacity, so in order for our lives to become a bit less complicated, there’s a trade, that trade is our privacy. For some reason when I think about this idea the first thing that comes to my mind is Jean-Paul Sartre’s quote

"Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."

I guess the reason why this quote comes to mind when I think about this topic is because although we are free to make our own choices, we are free to have such easy access to online browsers in order to alleviate stress and burdens in our everyday lives. We are also condemned to bear the responsibility of the consequences of these choices. We are condemned to understand that if we do take the risk of putting our private information out there, we must recognize the risks that accompany that.

The article I decided to check out from the list was the one about DoorDash and how the food app is now warning people that if they don’t tip, then their food may be cold. I decided to take a look at this article because I’ve BEEN having issues with DoorDash prior to reading up on this. Although I have always tipped with DoorDash, a part of me wants to order something right now as I’m writing this blog just to see if the apparent “Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered — are you sure you want to continue?” message will pop up if I input a $0 tip.

As someone who works in the restaurant industry though, I understand where they're coming from. Personally, I make my living off my tips. However, I would never make someone feel bad for not tipping me, or deliver worse service. It’s not the drivers I have questions about with this but rather DoorDash itself considering I have tipped well and still have received my food an hour and a half later, on multiple occasions.

This reminded me of what Woellner was saying about how these designers, you know, trick you in a way to make you feel bad or manipulate you. I think this example with DoorDash hits a few, if not all of the 4 points Woellner was talking about when it comes to dark patterns. I would say misdirection and the trick question are the closest ones. DoorDash will add the service fees and taxes after the initial price, PLUS you’ll be asked to tip on top of the already pretty high price. Then the “trick question” being “well are you sure you don’t want to tip? Your foods gonna get cold if you don’t.” So even if you don’t feel bad for the driver, they’re putting the onus onto the person ordering the food.

Returning to the proposition, I would agree that yes, marketing strategies are known for taking advantage of human psychology because at the end of the day that’s what sells, may not be completely ethical, but if you can target a certain amount of people in order to gain profit and you can do that through algorithms and other dark pattern strategies and marketers have that option then it’s going to happen whether we like it or not.

However, I think because we’re entering a whole new space in regards to technology, our world is becoming much more digitally advanced, far more than I think anyone, at least anyone I know, can comprehend. Saying that these software designs don’t require any regulation would be naive, because really, how can we be so sure that something so easily and globally accessible yet difficult to grasp is safe? We can’t. But that does bring up the next question which is even if we could get a hold on everything and create regulations, how would those regulations look? Would it even be possible especially with such algorithmic yet extremely popular websites like tik tok or instagram.

"Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."

We have the freedom to do and say and post what we’d like, but we must be aware of our digital footprint and the complications that may arise with it. I believe regulations, especially with how advanced technology is becoming is important, but the truth of the matter is there’s bad people everywhere that will try and continue to scam, belittle, and manipulate you, and hey, they could be in person or online. The most important thing is to be conscious about what you are viewing, what kind of information you’re giving out, and who there is to trust.

#pickledasparagusout

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johannstutt413 · 4 years

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(requested by forgeworldweatherreport)

“Hey, Liv, are you free tomorrow evening?” Saria, from her work phone, called Silence on hers. “The Doctor invited us out to dinner.”

“She did? Hmm...Did she say why?”

Nope. “She didn’t, no. Can you think of anything?”

“Nothing that would explain a dinner invite.” She sighed. “Well, we’ll find out tomorrow, if nothing else. Have you heard from Ifrit today?”

“She stopped by to ask if she and Eyja could have a sleepover tonight; I told her we’re both working late, so it should be fine.”

Olivia nodded to herself. “Agreed, as long as she remembers to take her medicine with her...Although.”

“Although?”

“I’m only working a normal shift tonight.” A smile crept to her face. “If you’re not too busy, then maybe...”

The Vouivre was grateful she didn’t share her workspace with anyone. “I’ll see you in an hour.”

“Wonderful.”

-- -- --

The next evening, the Doctor was in her room, staring in the mirror, unable to decide which side she wanted her hair to hang down on. She knew her dates probably had no idea why she’d asked them out, or maybe that that was what she was doing, but this was the only way she could think of to ask them this and not have it look like sneaking around. It’d look pretty bad if she just called Silence into her office and asked if she and/or Saria were interested in a side-chick, even if that was kind of where the Doctor was headed with this…

Since meeting the couple not too long after returning to Rhodes Island, she’d wanted what they had, which at some point changed from wanting something similar to wanting to join in. If she had to explain it to someone, she felt like it wouldn’t be hard, but honestly, this “pharmaceutical” company had so many weird relationship sets going on already that Ifrit having three moms might not even be that weird in the long run. Besides, if anyone needed three moms, it was the devil-child herself…

Still, to get that far, the Doctor had to present herself in a way that made it hard for them to say no without coming off too strong, and finding the right balance of “yes, ma’am” and “whoa momma” was harder than she’d thought it’d be. Eventually, as it came down to the wire, she settled on covering the scar over her right eye and leaving the crystal on her cheek visible. No reason for them not to know she was Infected, after all. She stepped out of her room, called for a buggy, and drove to the restaurant she’d asked them to meet her at.

Meanwhile, Saria and Silence were also driving over. Ifrit had asked to make her sleepover a two-night thing, and since they were going out, they didn’t see any harm in it. In the driver’s seat, the Liberi watched her wife play with her feather bracelet from her periphery. “Are you nervous about this?”

“I had a talk with some other Operators today about the reasons why the Doctor might’ve asked us out to dinner.” She finally left it alone, satisfied with the pattern on top. “There’s a chance her intentions are...romantic in nature.”

“That is rather strange. She’s never suggested anything of the sort to me before.”

The Vouivre shrugged. “Likewise, but nearly a dozen Operators said something along those lines. Do you think she means Ifrit?”

“I should hope not,” Silence frowned. “She’s too young for the Doctor by a few degrees.”

“Well it couldn’t have something to do with us, so...Is that her?”

The Liberi followed Saria’s line of sight, and for a moment, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “I’m embarrassed we didn’t dress up to match.”

“Don’t be; we look great as we are.” Saria tensed up unintentionally as she started walking towards them. “Olivia, do you think maybe it is about us, after all?”

“We’ll see.” Frankly, the thought wasn’t unpleasant, but she wasn’t sure how to tell her wife that without making their relationship cheaper somehow. This was uncharted territory, so whatever happened, it promised to be interesting.

The Doctor met them as they exited their vehicle, absolutely resplendent. “There you are! Do either of you object to me paying for our meal tonight?”

“I don’t mind.” Saria looked to Silence. “You?”

“Not at all. Let’s find a table.”

She beamed at them. “I found one ahead of time. Follow me!”

“So, Doctor.” Once they were seated, the Liberi took no time to get to the point. “Saria and I are curious: why did you ask us to dinner today?”

“Well...Man, I was hoping to have dinner at the table before getting into that.”

The Vouivre crossed her arms and leaned on the table. “Come on, Doctor, tell the lady. It’ll make things easier for all of us.”

“Alright, then. I asked you to meet me here so I could talk to both of you at the same time, and so I could make a better impression because my uniform isn’t very flattering.” That got the two of them to share a look. “The two of you are pretty busy most nights, if I’m not mistaken?”

“This is the first time we’ve had two nights off at the same time in a row since...three months ago?”

She nodded. “Do either of you wish you had someone to take care of the house, or Ifrit, or...other things when only one of you is home?”

“...Are you asking to be our maid?” Silence replied, trying to find an answer that wasn’t what Saria had mentioned on their ride to the restaurant. “It seems rather odd, considering you already have a job, but-”

“Liv.”

The Liberi sighed. “We had an idea of why you asked us here, but I wasn’t expecting to be right about it.”

“Ah...” The Doctor shrunk a little. “Is that a bad thing or a good thing?”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Saria spoke up.

The resulting silence was only broken when Silence shrugged. “We didn’t discuss it, but...I do miss being able to come home to someone after a long day in the clinic. Saria and I work on schedules which don’t overlap nearly often enough for us to finish resolving our issues from before RI, and neither of us are exactly maternal in the way I wish one of us could be for Ifrit.”

“Wait, you’re both okay with this?” This immediately perked her up. “Huh. I’m glad I worked up the courage to ask, then. Have you guys seen a waiter walk past this section since we got here?”

“Nope- ah, there’s one. Excuse me, sir? We’re ready to order.” Saria caught the man’s attention, and from there, dinner continued as one would expect - they ordered food, made small talk about work, and enjoyed the rest of what started out as a rather awkward evening.

After the check arrived, and the Doctor had given them her information and a tip (somewhat docked by the late service), she yawned, stretching her arms wide as she did. “Ahh. I love Siracusan food. Do you have anything else going on tonight?”

“We all do,” the Vouivre confirmed, once again catching the other two by surprise. “There’s a tub of ice cream in the fridge that needs to be gone by the time Ifrit comes back from her sleepover, and I don’t want to be in a sugar coma during work tomorrow. Consider it your official welcome to the household.”

“Ifrit’s having a sleepover? With whom?” She asked as they stood up from their table.

Silence shrugged. “She likes to stay over at Eyja’s when we have something going on, or at least when we tell her we do.”

“That’s cute.” The Doctor giggled. “I always thought they were a neat couple.”

“...Couple?” Saria and her wife shared a moment of realization.

Their new girlfriend nodded. “They eat lunch together all the time, and the other day I saw them holding hands after Ifrit started overheating. It was really adorable-”

“New plan.” Silence pulled out her phone. “Saria, do you want to do The Talk, or should I?”

“I’ll do it, sure. Doctor, I hope you don’t mind, but we have some parenting to do, so...rain check on the ice cream?”

The Doctor cocked her head. “I can’t come along?”

“That would probably be better.” The Liberi nodded. “Do you want to talk to Eyja with me, or help Saria with The Talk?”

“Oooh, that’s a tough choice...Saria, any preference?”

The Vouivre blushed. “If you want to, I could use some help. I don’t want her to start burning things we don’t own because I made her angry.”

“Happy to help!” She pulled a ponytail holder off one of her wrists and did up her hair once they’d gotten another buggy. “Operations Three Moms is a go!”

“Operation Three Moms...We’re keeping her,” Silence muttered, passing a feather back to her which immediately went under the ponytail holder.

Saria chuckled at the wheel. “Was that the final piece of evidence you needed?”

“I love you, dear, but she’s cute.” The Liberi gestured to her left at their first turn. “Neither of us are cute. We’ve completed the trifecta now.”

“You are such a nerd...But yeah, we’re definitely keeping her.”

#arknights #saria (arknights)#silence (arknights)#i legitimately have no idea how what is going on #i don't know where this story came from #or if it's a good one #or like anything #i'm sitting here writing the tags and laughing at myself because like...WHAT #so forge you have my earnest thanks #i love when things like this just happen #arknights fic

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gwenbrightly · 4 years

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Redwall Falls: Chapter 1

@faceheightknifefight and I were talking and it somehow turned into a discussion about Brome as a paranormal investigator, which spiralled into me writing the Gravity Falls Redwall au no one else asked for. Please enjoy my attempt at being creative. (the first part is a little on the short side, but the rest should be longer. You know, when I write them)

“You’re sending us away. For the entire summer?” Brome repeated. School had only been out for a few days and his parents were already ruining his life again. It wasn’t fair.

“Seasons, Brome. You make it sound like it’s the end of the world. It’s just for a few months so your father can work on his re-election campaign without the two of you getting under foot. You’ll be back in Noonvale before you know it. And besides,” his mother stared pointedly at the controller he was clinging to like a lifeline, “you need to get out more. Who knows? You might even make a few friends.”

Rose glanced up from her book and winced (probably because it was such a low blow). It wasn’t that Brome hadn’t tried to make friends in the past. Other beasts just… weren’t interested in his hobbies. They usually found his obsession with the supernatural either perfect ammunition for relentless teasing or just plain kooky.

“I… I don’t believe it.” Brome muttered indignantly. He’d thought better of denying his lack of social life. It was a losing battle. Why were parents always like this?

“Your great aunt Polly has been asking if the two of you could come visit her for years. I wouldn’t have agreed to it if I didn’t think you could handle it.” Aryah pointed out.

“She’s not even really related to us. What if she makes us sleep outside? What if she has a secret evil twin no one knows about? Or worse. What if she doesn’t have wifi?!” he protested, anything but convinced by his mother’s attempts to reassure him. She raised an eyebrow, in an unspoken really?

“She’s your father’s godmother. I think we’d know by now if she had a twin. And she owns a tourist trap, so I’m sure wifi won’t be an issue.” she told him with as much patience as she could muster. Having given up on reasoning with his mother, Brome turned to Rose (who was taking this whole thing remarkably well) and asked, “You’re really okay with this?”

“I don’t know, it sounds kinda fun. And there are worse places to spend a summer.” she replied with a shrug. Brome nodded sagely. She did pose a fair point. He could think of at least 10 places that would be worse than Gravity Falls, even if Great Aunt Polly turned out to have a double life.

“Dance camp?” Asked Brome knowingly.

“Dance camp.” Rose confirmed with a shudder.

“Noted,” he allowed, “but weren’t you saying you wanted an epic summer romance this year? What about that?”

“Well I-yes, I did say that, but I don’t see why that couldn’t happen just as easily in Gravity Falls.” she told him. Darn. Brome was rapidly running out of valid counter arguments.

“But what about…” he wracked his brains for something, anything, good enough to convince his family this was a bad idea. He couldn’t.

“Please don’t take this up with your father, Brome. You know how it’ll end. Just… try not to ruin this for yourself by freaking out over it before you even get there, okay? I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun.” Aryah said eventually. Brome and Uran Voh were often at odds and their fights almost always turned into yelling matches. Combined with the young mouse’s tendency to over analyze everything, she was probably justified in her concern.

“I’m not freaking out, mom. I just like being prepared for the worst.” Brome replied honestly as he slipped off the couch. He switched off his video game and fled up the stairs to his bedroom. He flung the door shut and hid under his bed where no one would find him. Stupid parents, stupid Gravity Falls, stupid everything. This was going to be the worst summer ever.

////

The bus pulled to a stop. Rose put a bookmark in her copy of Love Amongst the Badgers and glanced over at Brome. He was still sound asleep, undisturbed by the screeching of the brakes.

“Brome.” the mousemaid nudged her brother. He didn’t wake up.

“Brome,” she repeated, louder, “we’re here.”

Still nothing. She tried again, louder this time.

“If you don’t wake up right now, I’ll leave you on this bus for an ax murderer to find.”

“You wouldn’t!” Brome protested, finally reacting. Rose only smiled.

“I don’t know… you have been pretty obnoxious lately…” she pointed out with a shrug.

“I-I’ll be good! I promise!” the young mouse insisted, trying to look innocent. Rose pretended to consider this for a moment before replying.

“Okay. Works for me! Now hurry up and grab your stuff so we can go find out if Great Aunt Polly really is a were-mole – secret agent – alien with a dark secret.” she said, shouldering her backpack and pulling her suitcase out from under her seat. Brome rolled his eyes.

“I never said… you know what? I will do that. But not because I want to see if she’s got a third eye, or anything like that.” he stubbornly relented. He followed her example and gathered his belongings (and a few candy wrappers).

“Of course not,” Rose agreed as she surveyed their seats to make sure nothing got left behind. When she was satisfied, she made for the bus’s exit, Brome in tow.

It took exactly five seconds to locate their great aunt. Dressed in a brightly colored sundress and fez, she would have been hard to miss. Even her cane, which appeared to have a magic 8 ball attached to it, was anything but subtle.

“Who still wears fezzes these days?” Brome asked under his breath. Clearly he didn’t appreciate the elderly mole’s sense of fashion.

“Brome!” Rose hissed, not wanting to make a bad first impression on their host for the summer. Great Aunt Polly grinned and waved them over, oblivious to the siblings’ conversation.

“Hiya, kids! Welcome to Gravity Falls. A completely normal town, where nothing out of the ordinary happens. Ever. Nice to meetcha!” she greeted, shaking their paws enthusiastically. Rose was caught a little off guard by this description of Gravity Falls, but she tried to ignore it.

“It’s nice to meet you, too, Great Aunt Polly. Right, Brome?” she said brightly, elbowing her brother in the ribs.

“Uh, yeah. I, um… like your cane?” Brome jumped in, forcing himself to stop staring at her bizarre ensemble.

“Thanks, kid! All a part of Madam Mystery’s charm!” Polly told him with a wink. Rose raised an eyebrow.

“Madam Mystery?”

“My stage name over at the Shack,” the mole explained, “Your father did tell you about the Mystery Shack… right?”

“Not… not really…” Brome began.

“We know he used to spend every summer here and that it’s a pretty major tourist trap, but he’s usual too busy with his duties as town mayor to tell us much else about his childhood.” Rose finished for him. Her heart sank a little as she watched Great Aunt Polly’s face fall at this news. She hadn’t meant to upset her. But if she’d let Brome continue, the truth would have come out far more harshly.

“Oh. That boy… I guess you’ll just have to see for yourselves. Come on, you two, might as well get going.” Polly told them after a moment.

“Sure. Which way to your car?” asked Rose, trying to distract the mole from her obvious disappointment. She was curious to see where they would be staying, anyway. Polly nodded towards a rather beat up looking station wagon parked haphazardly between a pair of minivans.

“Right over there.”

The two siblings glanced at each other with mirrored looks of horror at the sight of the vehicle. It had quite a few dents in it along with a cracked window. And… was that a bullet hole? For a split second, Rose considered asking the bus driver if he would drive them to the Mystery Shack. Or maybe even all the way back to Noonvale. However, she was pretty sure he’d refuse, and if Great Aunt Polly had managed to make it all the way to the bus stop without dying, then they could probably survive the ride back. Hopefully.

“Are you sure this thing is safe, Great Aunt Polly?” Brome demanded, giving the station wagon a suspicious glare. He'd never been one for risk taking unless it was to spite their father.

“Course it is! Haven’t gotten pulled over by the cops in weeks.” Polly informed him. She popped open the trunk so they could load their things into it. Brome stared at her with the are you kidding me? look Rose knew all too well. It was the same look he gave their father whenever they argued.

“You mean you’ve actually been pulled over?” he wanted to know before getting in. Polly shrugged.

“Well… maybe once or twice.” she admitted conspiratorially. The young mouse stared at her in awe.

“Woah! I can’t believe dad is letting us anywhere near you.” Brome said with a grin. It appeared the eccentric mole had finally won her brother over. Shaking off the last of her reluctance, Rose climbed into the station wagon and sat next to him. It was going to be an interesting ride.

“First thing’s first,” Polly declared as she pulled out of her parking spot, narrowly missing a group of squirrels who were out for their afternoon jog, “we gotta come up with something less formal sounding than Great Aunt Polly. I’m gettin tired of it already.”

#redwall #redwall fanfiction #redwall au #gravity falls #i have no idea what I'm doing #hopefully you find this entertaining folks

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strangerontheotherside84 · 4 years

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Wild Child || Part 4

Warnings: language (the usual)

_______________________________________________________

You were staring at the big clock inside Sam Goody’s, whose neon hands were informing you that it was almost 9 pm. Closing time. Normally you would already be ready to head off, pickup Steve from Scoops Ahoy and get the fuck home. Especially on a nice day like this, where there weren’t that many customers anyway. However, the two guys that had been looking through records for over an hour now, were kinda preventing you from that. You might had seen them at school before, however, they must have either been a few years older or younger than you.

You let out a sigh before finally turning your attention towards them: „Hey guys, if you don’t plan on buying anything I’ll have to ask you to leave. I have to start closing the store now.“

„How about we’ll help you with that princess? I’m sure you’ll find a way to express your gratitude.“

„How about you’ll come over here and suck my dick, princess?“,you quickly fired back. „Woah chill. No need to be this agressive.“,the taller one of the two guys tried to appease you while putting up his hands in defense.

„No need to be this agressive.“ you aped him while grabbing an old magazine off the counter to throw at the two boys, „Get the fuck out of here before I get really agressive you fuckin’ dildos!“

„And that’s supposed to be the hot chick that blows guys in the back of the store?“ one of them muttered under his breath while his friend grabbed him by the arm, indicading that it might be a good idea to leave before discussing this topic any further.

„Get lost, assholes!“ another voice echoed across the room,causing the couple to run away as quickly as they could.

„Thanks for defending my honor Steve but I’m able to take care of myself.“ „I know that and I could see that. You’re in strikingly good shape today.“ „Always.“

„What makes these jerks think that they can just come in here and talk to you like that? Is that the new thing now?“, Steve muttered through gritted teeth while taking a seat on the counter, watching you count todays revenue. „Oh haven’t you heard? I’m the new town whore. Always at your service.“,you replied with a smile while giving him the thumbs up, your voice was drenched in sarcasm.

„No you’re not.“ „I know I’m not. But still, apparently somebody has been talking shit, since this was about the tenth time that something like that has happened this week. Pretty sure it was Carol and Tommy H. or one of their friends. I hate those bitches.“,you were getting yourself into rage as you slammed the register shut, hid the keys under the counter and began to slowly move towards the entrance door. Indicating that Steve better follow you if he didn’t wanna spend the night at Starcourt.

„You’d think that now that High School is over they’d finally get a life.“ Steve muttered while shaking his head,“ If I’ll find out it was really them who did that I’m gonna-“

„No Steve it’s fine.“ you waved off,“I really don’t care what anybody in this shithole thinks of me. They’re propably still mad that you’ve kept hanging out with me after ditching them. You know if I was a guy they wouldn’t care about rumors like that. Hell, they’d propably be all over me!“

„See Billy.“

Billy. This must have been the first time in weeks that you had heard somebody say his name, let alone actively thought about him. Since that far from pleasant visit you had had at his house- shoutout to Mr. Hargrove, your cheek had been bruised and swollen for over a week- Billy had been more than actively avoiding you. And that was putting it mildly. He had even started hanging around his dipshit friends from school again. Which might even be the reason for the towns sudden interest in your sex life.

„What’s wrong?“, the voice of Steve suddenly ripped you from your thoughts, right back into reality. Which in this case, were the gloomy premises of Starcourt Mall, the whole scenery only being illuminated by several colorful neon signs.

„Huh?“ „Don’t huh at me y/n y/l/n! That’s your worried face. Don’t see that too often but when I do then there’s always something bothering you… a lot.“

„Ok you got me Steve Harrington.“

„Is it mullet boy?“ „Why don’t the two of you just cut it with the cute nicknames and fuck already?“ you mumbled while pulling down the grid in front of the entrance and locking up the store.

„Y/n! Focus!“

„Alright, alright, chill!“ you gave in,“Yeah it is mullet boy.“

You had to give Steve his due, that was a pretty good one.

„And what about him?“ „Well he’s been ignoring- well avoiding me since my wonderful encounter with his trashbag of a father and I kinda have the feeling that I might have gotten him into trouble… like… big trouble, Steve.“,you kept your eyes on the rather dirty tile floor as the two of you made your way across the food court, towards the employee exit.

„Don’t worry about that y/n. I mean yeah you’re pretty snarky and yes sometimes you really don’t know when to keep your mouth shut an-“ „Steve! Focus!“

„Sorry.“ Steve mumbled ,while swinging open the door that lead onto the parking lot. „So what I was actually trying to say is that, as far as I know, that guy was pretty pissed because his son is a whore and you told him that you’re not involved in that issue. What else could you have done?“

„Maybe been honest or just shut the fuck up.“, you shrugged.

„You told him that you haven’t been messing around with Billy, why wouldn’t that count as being honest?“

You had arrived at Steve’s BMW by now, a fresh breeze was blowing through your hair and you felt as if you had to confess that you had run over the neighbors cat.

„Well…because…it’s only partly true, Steve.“

„How can you partly screw someone?“,Steve chuckled, obviously very unaware of the situation. „Partly, because I clearly wasn’t with Billy that night…or any other night of that week. But that doesn’t mean that I never…you know….“ you were fumbling with the collar of your leather jacket, while turning towards your best friend,resting your back against his car, “Steve please don’t make me say this out loud.“

„What? You and Hargrove?“- Now he go it. -“When? How?- Oh no wait don’t answer that last part!“

„The hell I will answer that, Steve!“ „But…why? I mean…no! Ew!“

„Yeah, yeah I know. You may reproach me with that for all of eternity!“

„I will! So you guys are like…don’t make me say it y/n… datin-?

„Fuck! No! Steve! Definitely not! Gross!“

„Thank god. At least something about this talk that won’t haunt me forever. So why did you hook up with him then? Is that some new type of friendship bonding activity I don’t know about?“ „As it turns out we’re both equally bad at dealing with being angry or drunk..or both. That’s all. Nothing more. Also it was just a few times.“

„A few times?“

„Well you do know how often I get angry,Steve. Jesus I really should stop talking from time to time.“

„Yeah okay enough with that and back to the real issue here!“ „What? That the earth can’t just magically swallow me and I’ll have to actually endure this talk?“

„That you feel guilty for maybe getting your friend in trouble. And that you would really like to keep him as a friend.“

„Yeah enough with the mind-reading already! I know what the issue is. But what do I do about it?“

„I don’t know. Talk to him? With actual words for a change.“

„Screw you Steve Harrington. But you’re right. Thanks. I appreciate it. Really do.“

„You’re welcome! And I really hope you used protection!“

„Mostly!“, you quickly answered while storming off towards your car. „Jesus y/n are you fucking kidding me?“,Steve yelled after you across the empty parking lot. „Nothing happened!“, you yelled back, while opening the drivers door.

„Well good because that would have been the most stupid baby in the world.“

„I know! Goodnight, mom! Love you!“, you slammed the door shut and drove of while waving at Steve who was shaking his head at you as he entered his own car.

Ok so talking to Billy could be a bit more complicated than it first sounded since A: he didn’t seem like he wanted to talk to you, at least not for the past 4 weeks and B: you were more or less banned from his house. But since it was 10 pm on a staurday night and you didn’t have anything better to do, you’d might as well give it a try.

#Billy Hargrove #stranger things #steve harrington #billy hargrove imagine #billy hargrove x reader #billy hargrove x y/n #wild child ||#wild child || part 4

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chouhatsumimi · 4 years

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[Reposted from the KESENNUMA - BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE facebook page] “To us, March 11 is a day of great sadness. At the same time, it is a day to remember all the warmth, support, love, and encouragement you have given us in various ways. Thank you, world! Here’s how Kesennuma is doing nine years after the disaster. First, the bad news. Our biggest issue is the problem of population decline, which many cities share in Japan. The population of Kesennuma, which was about 75,000 before the earthquake, dropped to 62,000 by the end of January this year, a loss of about 13,000 residents. In the fishing industry, which is our key industry, the landing of fish has slowed from about 130,000 tons before the earthquake to 65,000 tons last year, and that has greatly affected the city’s economy. The number of tourists has also decreased, from 2.54 million visits before the disaster to 1.5 million last year. But here’s the good news: In the Land Readjustment Programs to elevate the land by 1.3 to 5.5 meters above sea level, Shishiori District completed this construction work in September of last year. This is the area where the large ship, No. 18 Shotokumaru, was swept inland by the tsunami. The ship was dismantled and removed in 2013, reflecting the residents’ vote against preservation. As for the three remaining Land Readjustment Programs in the areas MInami-Kesennuma, Sakanamachi/Minamimachi, and Matsuzaki-Katahama, the construction work and handing the land over to the owners will be finished by the end of March next year. All house-rebuilding for those who lost their homes to the tsunami will be completed by March 2021 as well. The city is determined to support the house-rebuilding to the very last person. The temporary housing that remains in two locations will then be disassembled and removed. The city will continue to support community building efforts and provide consultation and support services for those trying to adjust to new neighborhoods and ways of life. Our fish market has been renewed, and has operated under top-quality hygiene standards since last May. An innovative shipbuilding facility, created by the merger of four tsunami-stricken shipyards, was also completed last May. We remain the number one port for bonito catches for 23 years in a row—a piece of good news amid the worrisome record-low catches of saury and salmon. On our Oshima Island, the long-awaited Oshima Bridge opened last April to connect the island to the mainland, and a welcome terminal has just been completed on March 8 to serve as a new tourist information center and local specialty store. The adjacent restaurant-and-shop zone has been operating since last July. The access to the top of Mt. Kameyama is still under discussion. Before the disaster, a chair lift took visitors for a ride to the beautiful view from the top. This will not be easy to rebuild, due to funding and maintenance problems. In the meantime, occasional shuttle bus service takes passengers to the stunning panorama at the summit. We celebrated the reopening of Koizumi Beach last summer. Come and join us this July as we celebrate the opening of Oisehama Beach in Hashikami District! All four of these gorgeous beaches had been named among the 100 cleanest beaches in Japan, including Kodanohama Beach on Oshima Island, which reopened one year after the disaster, and Oya Beach, whose restoration is set for completion within the 2021 fiscal year. As for Oya Beach, a drivers' rest area called Michi-no-Eki, like others found throughout Japan, will be relocated in March 2021 on an ocean-view elevated Route 45, welcoming visitors with a local specialty store and eat-ins. The opening of the beach and the Michi-no-Eki will mean so much to us, and especially to the Oya residents who worked so hard in changing the original seawall plan to the present one to preserve the beautiful white-sand beach. The Memorial Park overlooking Kesennuma Bay will be completed this fall with a monument called Sail of Prayers, thanks to support given through crowd funding. For people to understand a tsunami and be prepared for any that may come, we opened a Memorial Museum last March, with a part of former Koyo High School preserved as it was right after the disaster. An impressive and extensive record of tsunamis is also found in our Rias Ark Museum. You have already seen on this Facebook page our entries about the opening of the Sanriku Expressway between Kesennuma Central and Kesennuma Port. The remaining Sanriku Expressway sections in Motoyoshi are planned for completion this December, bringing Sendai to a one-and-a-half-hour drive from us. The Karakuwa section including the Kesennuma Bay Bridge (its temporary name) will be completed by March 2021. The whole 360km between Sendai and Hachinohe in the northern part of Japan (Aomori) will be connected by the completion of the bridge. City Hall is scheduled to move from the inner bay area to the Tanakamae area where the city hospital used to stand. This was just announced in February; the timing has is yet to be determined. A BRT bus station may be built at the present city hall site, to allow easier access to the inner bay area where a new shopping zone opened last year near one already opened in 2017. Beer lovers, we now have a beer brewery in the area! We are participating in 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the Miyagi starting point for the torch relay in June. We are proud to be the host town for our friend, Indonesia. Well, that was pretty long to read, right? Although our struggle continues, we are happy that we have so much to report to you, and so fortunate to have people who care for us to read this all the way through. So let us repeat again loud and clear: THANK YOU, WORLD! This will be the last year of the city’s 10-year reconstruction plan. The city of Kesennuma will move forward so that we can proudly say, "Thanks to you all, we have become again the wonderful town you knew and loved ten years ago—and even better!!" Photo of the Kesennuma Bay bridge under construction by Masao Kumagai”

#Kesennuma #3.11 #fukkou #reconstruction #Tohoku #ALT

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venus-says · 4 years

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Kamen Rider Gaim Episodes 01-20

Also known as Kame Rider Fruits Salad edition.

It's time for more past rider action as I start my fifth season in this series. I honestly don't know how I'm still doing this, but I'm glad that despite my schedule problems I'm sticking with this journey because this season is a good one.

I was very excited to see this, not just because my experience with Wizard was very positive, but also because I've seen images and gifs being retweeted in my timeline and everything seemed so ridiculous I couldn't wait to experience all of that by myself, and I gotta say, they delivered! (different from that other season I saw people being so passionate about but that I disliked with passion)

And this is something funny because I have quite a lot of things about Gaim that bug me and that should make me dislike it, but even still I can't help but like this season a lot. Gaim has a certain magnetic charm to it that I don't know how to explain, putting in terms of the show I'm like the Inves and Gaim is the evil fruit of the forest taking control of my brain. This show is so entertaining that if I was able to sit down for 72 hours without being interrupted and not needing to do my physical necessities I'd definitely spend those hours watching Gaim, I'm not joking, I had to force myself to stop watching it a couple of times because if it was up to me I would sit down in front of my laptop and leave after the show ended.

And I feel like a huge part of what makes me so interested on Gaim is this mystery feel it has to it, I wanna know where all of this is gonna go so it makes me more interested on watching more and more to see the secrets being revealed and all of that. Add a whole lot of great cliffhangers and the fact this series doesn't seem to follow the "2 episodes, 1 story" format and you make for a show that has a very good pace and that makes it feel like no episode here is filler or unnecessary.

But this is a double-edged sword because while the mystery vibe is great I feel like the show held a whole lot of information at the beginning which made it hard for me to understand this world, and understand these characters. Why is dance so important here? Why do these dance teams exist and why are they fighting each other? When did those lock seeds start appearing? And why are they in the kids' hands? What's Kouta's relation to this dance crew? Why is there a ranking for dancing crews? Why is all of that so important for these characters I'm gonna follow? I watched 20 episodes, still, I feel like I don't know any of the characters very well because neither of them had a very good base for me to have a feel of who these characters are. Which makes it harder for me to connect because I don't feel what the characters are feeling, my experience with Gaim is a very "external" one, I'm watching it and I'm enjoying it a lot but I'm not emotionally invested, I think that's the best way to put it.

Speaking of characters, another thing that I feel like it makes it harder to know all characters is the fact that THERE ARE A LOT OF THEM. No joke, I don't know any of their names and the only Rider name I have memorized is Gaim because of obvious reasons, the way I have to connect the characters to their faces is by their main fruit, which solves things for the characters that are Riders but the side characters that don't they literally have no name for me, any given name you see in this post is because I opened the wikia and went to look for the names. This is a very crowded season.

Kouta as a protagonist gives me a lot of mixed feelings. I overall like him, but that are times where the show makes me want to hate him, but I guess that's just how teenagers so the show has perfectly hit the nail on him. I like how he starts as a good kid trying to get a job to help support his family, but then he becomes a rider and that gets up to his head and he becomes an overconfident prick just to have his ass kicked down and throw him on a downward spiral where he "refuses the call" to then have a moment where he slowly rises again, and even in this escalation he gets doubtful in quite a lot of times showing that he's a very interesting character. I only wish we knew more basic stuff about him, or at least have glimpses of his past, to know where did he came from and be able to have an estimative of where he's going to.

Sadly the other characters aren't anywhere near being this interesting. Kaito is just the hot-blooded rival, they decided to give him a backstory about he being anger at Yggdrasil for taking over the city but I think it only made him look more like just a teen with anger management issues rather than a compelling character. Mitchy had potential with the whole thing of being a kid from a rich family that has no freedom in regards to his future, but he more or less always followed the things I expected him to do as a character in his position so it was just a little boring. Near the end of this batch, Zack became a rider too but he's such a background character I have nothing to say about him. Junouchi and Hase lacked in personality because they were sold as a duo and they barely did anything on their own, Hase at least got more interesting things going for him since he eventually ate a fruit and died as an Inves what made him interesting where Junouchi just ended up being the keychain of another rider... and oh boy, Oren... it's kinda hard to talk about him. I'm not sure if "gay coded" is the correct term for him, probably not, but the thing is he's very problematic. First, because the show kinda sits in with Kouta's point of view and since the first meeting Kouta already showed signs that he didn't like him and that it was weird for him to see a flamboyant man with feminine trajects and he was always negative towards him. Then the show makes him be a Team Rocket villain where his character gets downed to a single goal and objective and every time he gets up on the screen is for him to be made fun of and it just makes me wanna hit my head on the wall. I know I shouldn't be surprised since last season they had the manager of Hungry Donuts that was also an LGBTQ+ character being used for comedic purposes, but at least in there, there was no portrayal of any character of the cast being uncomfortable or hostile against her so she was never seen with bad eyes or had any negative association to her (they also had a trans actor play her role which is an added bonus even though she wasn't out yet during the time of filming).

The show also has a "second set" of riders that are the adults on Yggdrasil's side. I feel like I don't have a lot to say about them because they were in the backseat a lot during the season and only started to have a more active role on screen now so I still don't have an opinion on them. Takatora seems bland, Sid was the one of this team that had more screen time but I also don't have an opinion on him, he's just like a drug dealer there's nothing special about him other than he uses one of my favorite fruits in his rider form. Ryoma and Yoko are probably the more interesting characters from this team and I'm really excited to see more of them.

There are more characters of this cast but I don't like any of them all that much so I won't spend more time talking about them, I'll talk briefly about the Riders' designs because this post is already long enough.

To begin with, I think it's a genius idea of mixing fruits with samurais for the main motifs of the riders, it's such a ridiculous, wild, and creative idea I wish I could be friends with whoever imagined this concept. I pretty much like all of the suits, I think the only form I don't like it's the Jimba Lemon one because it's not very aesthetically pleasing, it doesn't match very well with Gaim's basic design so it doesn't look as good to me, but I also don't like the giant watermelon suit, probably because the CGI looks weird, but I still don't like it. I love how the belts are very simple, it's a good contrast with the overly designed suits, I wish they had kept that simplicity for the genesis drivers as well. If I had to choose my favorite designs they are Gaim's strawberry, Baron's mango, Zangetsu's melon, Duke's lemon, and Marika's peach forms.

Before I wrap up this post I have two final complaints about this whole thing. The first one is the fact I don't know what's the message the show is trying to convey. Right at the beginning, I thought it was about growing up, but that was never touched again so I'm not sure if it's that, you know? The show feels a little lost in this aspect. It is a nice story, don't get me wrong, but all stories so far had a theme and I couldn't really find the theme on this one yet. I hope that after the reveal that the forest is like a parasite they'll bring up discussions that'll highlight what this is story is about.

My other problem is how against adults the show is. Maybe if I had watched this in my teenage years I'd be more in synchrony with the point of view of adults are liars and they're a problem, but now as an adult, I know that things aren't so simple. While I agree that using kids to gather data for their experiments wasn't the right course of action, I don't like how the protagonists are always so keen on being against adults and everything. Maybe they're like this because of how Japanese society is and to them becoming adults is like losing the sense of their own identities so to them adults are really like villains, but I still think that they hit too much on this key and it's kinda hard to watch without rolling my eyes at certain points.

With that being said, I still enjoyed the hell out of this show and I'm very excited to continue. So, what are your thoughts about Gaim, let me know down in the comments. I'll catch up with you folks later.

#Kamen Rider Gaim #kamen rider

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werewolfdays · 4 years

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Ask Her Out - Snippet

of course I had to write Jayde being a disaster bi trying to ask Nadya out on a date for the first time. Probably my last writing post for this year! it’s been a really really good one for this blog and for my writing so I just wanna thank everyone who follows me and reads my stuff (and sometimes actually enjoys my stuff?? still a weird concept for me) and fingers crossed for a good 2020! -

Okay, I can do this. I thought to myself for the hundredth time today. I can do this. It’s not like I haven’t asked someone out before. Well, not someone like her. And not necessarily in this kind of context. For the first time I was actually nervous about doing this sort of thing. I just wish I could get it the fuck together and act normal because that’s what Nadya deserves. Normal.

That made me second guess this. Maybe I shouldn’t ask her. Maybe she doesn’t even like me the way I liked her. Maybe when I kissed her it was only me that wanted it… No. This wasn’t one-sided. I felt it when she kissed me back. But it did little for my confidence because Nadya could do a lot better than me.

The fact that this wasn’t one-sided made me realize that it couldn’t be all my decision. My feelings for Nadya were growing every day. I wanted her in the purest sense and it was becoming impossible for me to ignore unless I wanted to torture myself more than I usually do. The best thing I could do, for both of us, was to be straightforward with her. Ask Nadya what she wanted. If she didn’t feel the same, then I could let it go and that would be that.

Of course that was what I was terrified of…

I found her sitting at a table outside of the Den, studying her medical textbook like she usually does during her alone time. She was so engrossed in her work that she didn’t even hear me approach. The pen in her hand was busy scribbling notes, her eyes scanning the paragraphs and diagrams in the book and double checking whatever she had open on her laptop. It was a fascinating process to watch. I could only imagine all of the information she was absorbing.

Not wanting to make her feel cornered, I sat across from her and not beside her. Only when the table shifted slightly from my weight did she notice my arrival. Nadya’s head snapped up and her expression brightened in a smile, made all the more adorable by the glasses resting on the bridge of her nose.

“Hi, Jay.” Nadya gave her usual greeting with a slight blush. The chilly breeze blew some strands of hair in her face and she brushed it behind her ear with the hand holding the pen, unknowingly leaving a small streak of ink on her jaw.

I smiled half to myself, “Hey, Nadya.”

“Do you need something?” her brow furrowed just a fraction in worry, probably picking up on my anxiety.

“No,” I shook my head, definitely too quickly, “Well, yeah, actually. I wanted to ask you… uh, what kind of food do you like? Or drinks? You know, maybe a special coffee or tea or something… like that.” Jesus, I’m embarrassing myself. The desire to crumble into dust was overwhelming in this moment.

Nadya, completely oblivious to my deeper meaning, asked, “Are you going to the store?”

“I wasn’t really planning on it… unless you needed something?” Well, this was falling apart a lot quicker than I thought it would. At least Nadya didn’t seem aware of how badly I wanted to kick myself.

“I actually might need a few things.” Nadya said apologetically, “We don’t have to go now, but-”

“No, we can go now if you want.” I agreed eagerly. Maybe this would give me some time to pull myself together and regroup my thoughts.

“Great.” Nadya lit up, gathering all of her work and putting it in her bookbag. “Let me just drop this off in my room.”

“Of course.” I got up to follow her.

The entire walk to her room was silent. I spent most of it lost in my thoughts, trying to think of a better way to phrase the question I somehow failed to ask, but became increasingly aware of Nadya’s presence. We were walking side by side, every now and then our gaits would brush our shoulders together and I couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it would be to reach for her hand. Wondering if she would like that. Or if she would even want it.

Nadya unlocked her door when we got to it and pushed it open, “I’ll only be a sec, but you can still come in if you want.”

“Thanks.” the last time I was in her room was when I kissed her last night. Obviously nothing has visibly changed, but it somehow felt different. Just like we did.

I watched Nadya hang her bookbag on the back of her desk chair and rifle through one of the drawers. Watching her do something so simple made me want to kiss her again. Hell, everything nowadays made me want to kiss her. But I wanted our second kiss to be in a different setting where we put everything out in front of us. I didn’t want to kiss her in the limbo of not knowing what we are to each other. And it was a topic I wanted to discuss over something normal, like a dinner date.

Nadya pocketed a folded piece of paper and put her glasses into a smaller bag that she threw over one shoulder. “Okay, I’m good to go.”

Our journey out of the Lodge fell back into silence again. That is until I felt Nadya’s hand brush against mine. The sudden touch made me flinch away like I was somehow responsible for an offensive act.

“Sorry.” I said quickly.

“Oh, it’s okay.” Nadya replied just as fast, “It wasn’t you.”

That answer dwelled in my head for the rest of the walk. Was she… reaching for my hand? Did she want me to reach for hers? Was it a genuine accident? That wouldn’t be too far-fetched considering how closely we’ve been walking together. I don’t think I have ever spent so much effort overthinking such an insignificant moment before. This girl was driving me crazy. She threw me off so bad that it was a wonder I haven’t forgotten how to walk.

Once we got outside, I led us towards the truck, but Nadya hesitated when I went to the driver’s side. My brow furrowed in confusion as I looked at her expectantly, thinking there was something wrong. Maybe she realized what I was trying to ask earlier and it made her uncomfortable. The thought made my stomach drop.

“Can we, um…” her eyes drifted over to my motorcycle parked right next to us, “Can we take the bike?”

I smiled in relief at the suggestion, turning around to look at the motorcycle with pride. “Sure,” then I raised an eyebrow at her, “You ever ridden one before?”

“No,” Nadya answered. I fished in the bed of the truck for the only helmet I had and handed it to her after brushing it off, “But it always looked fun.” she put the helmet on with an excited grin that was infectious.

“It is fun.” I told her, settling on the bike and waiting.

She didn’t move to get on. “Where’s your helmet?”

“You’re wearing it.”

“Jay,” Nadya sighed, raising a hand to undo the strap. “I can’t take your helmet.”

I chuckled a little, reaching up and grabbing her wrist to stop her, “Nadya, it’s fine. I never wear it anyway. It’s yours.”

“You don’t wear a helmet?” her voice sounded incredulous.

“Not really.” I shrugged, letting her go. Nadya glared at me in disbelief, “My head’s still intact.” I pointed out, knocking my knuckles against my temple.

“Yeah, it’s called dumb luck.” she couldn’t have been too mad because she gave me a playful shove.

“You gonna get on or not?” I laughed and tied my hair up in a messy bun.

Begrudgingly, Nadya climbed on behind me. “You really need to work on that self preservation instinct.”

Logically, I was prepared for it. But mentally… When Nadya wrapped her arms around my waist, it sent my mind spinning through a hurricane. Being this close to her again threatened to overwhelm me. We were outside where there were thousands of scents and sounds, but my senses zeroed in on her to be immediately consumed. It both excited me and calmed my nerves at the same time. I had to fight not to be completely lost in her proximity. It was a miracle that I even thought of a reply at all.

“Whatever you say.”

I felt her heart begin to gallop when I revved the engine and I wondered if it was because of me or the bike. Knowing that I had at least some of the same affect on her that she had on me would be reassuring, but there was no way to tell. Not unless I asked. I wasn’t exactly ready to bring it up right now.

The trail out of the Lodge’s grounds was a few miles of windy road through the dense forest that the property rested in. Some stretches of it became too narrow for more than one car to drive through it at a time, but it was no issue for the bike. Still, I kept a relaxed speed to be safe. After all, I did have precious cargo with me now. I could feel Nadya looking around at the gorgeous scenery we were travelling through, watching the trees and what little sky broke through the branches. If I wasn’t focused on driving, I would’ve done the same. I still smiled at the sighs of wonder that Nadya breathed out against me.

It was already pretty cold out and the wind from driving made the weather’s bite all the more sharper. Nadya shivered when I picked up speed during a straightforward patch of trail and she held onto me tighter, resting her chin on my shoulder. I knew it was because I was warm, and I certainly didn’t have any problem with that, but it couldn’t stop my heart from singing with hope. Maybe she liked being close to me like this. I would let her know that she could whenever she wanted to.

We eventually made our way into town and I parked in front of the general market.

Nadya chuckled when I turned the engine off, “Okay, you were right. That was pretty awesome.”

“Motorcycles aren’t always death machines.” I replied while she got off.

Nadya ran a hand through her hair after she took the helmet off and it made me stumble when I dismounted the bike. As if it was instinct, Nadya reached out and grabbed my arm to steady me. That was all it took for the nerves to return. The familiar tingling sensation numbed my arm where her hand made contact and lit the rest of my body on fire.

“You okay?”

“Um, y-yeah,” I nodded, nervously tucking loose hair behind my ear while I scrambled for an excuse, “Yeah, my foot got caught, I think.”

She seemed to have accepted that excuse, much to my relief, and we continued on into the store. I followed Nadya past several isles, rehearsing my second attempt in my head. Then I rolled my eyes at myself. Could I be acting any more like a stupid teenager? What, am I on some stupid romance movie? That idea made me cringe and I wanted to forget this whole thing for a frustrating moment.

Nadya was still oblivious to the crisis I was going through, her eyes scanning the shelves in the medical section with that cute concentrated frown that she does. After a minute, she pulled out the piece of paper that she put in her back pocket before we left and put her glasses on to read whatever was written on it. I waited, somewhat transfixed, as she picked out a few bottles and medical supplies, dumping them in the handheld basket I was carrying for her.

“What do you need all of this for?” I finally asked.

She casted me a playful side-glance, “For you.”

“Me?” A crooked grin appeared on my face, “What makes me so special?”

“The fact that you can barely go anywhere without getting yourself hurt.” she stated nonchalantly while studying the back of a pill bottle.

“Okay, that’s an exaggeration.” I snatched the bottle out of her hand and placed it back on the shelf.

Nadya raised her eyebrows at me, as if to say Really? and picked the bottle back up again. “It happens about seventy percent of the time.”

I scoffed, “Forty.”

“That’s wishful thinking. Sixty.” she fired back.

“Fifty.”

“Fifty-five if you’re behaving.”

I never really thought about the statistics, but her math was probably correct. So I switched tactics, “What about you miss goodie two-shoes? With a disposition and a face like that, it’s a wonder you haven’t gotten mugged.”

“What does that mean?” Nadya asked through a giggle.

“You know,” I felt the confidence that had built up from our banter start to crumble, “Kind eyes… gorgeous smile…” I couldn’t tear my eyes off of her as I waited for her reaction.

A deep blush colored Nadya’s cheeks when she realized the compliment was genuine. Her eyes dropped down sheepishly to the paper she was still holding. After a long, terrifying pause, she handed it to me. It was a list of words that must’ve been medicine related because I only recognized a few of them and couldn’t pronounce many more than that.

“They like the idea of me joining the clinic.” she explained and I pushed away the sinking feeling I felt from her changing the subject. “When I went there earlier today, I saw that the place is pretty barren as far as supplies go, so I made a list and Toby’s father gave me his credit card to buy everything I think we might need.”

“Nadya, this is great.” I told her honestly. Just because I didn’t know how to take her silence at my blatant flirting didn’t mean I wasn’t happy for her.

“Well, it’s really all thanks to you.” her blush returned as she beamed at me. That made up for the dread in the pit of my stomach. “You put in a good word for me.”

I felt my own cheeks grow hot and I handed the list back to her. “Anytime. Anything you need from me is yours.”

We stared at each other for what felt like forever, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. The gentle look in her enchanting brown eyes made the rest of the store completely disappear. Nadya’s silent gaze spoke a thousand words that I couldn’t decipher in this moment where I was lost in her. Then I was distracted by how far I was from her. Maybe it was only a foot or two, but it felt unbearably like miles. There was a voice in the back of my head begging me to move closer. Begging me to kiss her again.

“I’ve always known I could count on you, Jay.” Nadya told me softly.

I slowly reached for her. My fingers had just barely made contact with her forearm when a loud crackle from the store’s loudspeaker made me jump. An employee called for someone’s assistance on aisle three and I couldn’t care less, but the echoing monotone voice brought me back to earth. Not here. Not yet. The voice in my mind spoke. So I pulled my hand back.

“Did you get everything you needed?” I asked in a somewhat hoarse tone.

Nadya blinked like she just came out of a trance too and looked at her list for a few moments. “Um, yeah. Everything that I can get here.”

I noticed while we were waiting in line to purchase our items that Nadya had grown uncharacteristically quiet. She didn’t speak to me or anyone else except for the cashier when it was our turn. Even her glances were brief. It wasn’t until we got back to the bike that I realized it was definitely something that I did because she didn’t wrap her arms around me this time, she only lightly placed her hands on my sides to hold on.

That heavy sinking feeling filled my gut again. It made me regret every stupid decision I’ve ever made. My mind ran through every single thing I’ve done to cause her offense and I spent the rest of the ride silently reprimanding myself for it. Rehearsing an apology instead of a way to ask her out now. All of it coalesced as one phrase inside my head, She deserves better than me.

Once we got home, I was eager for a turn. Wanting to run and banish all of these feelings from my mind. Or at the very least, try to. Pretend like I can. Maybe if I pretend hard enough, it will actually happen.

I said a quick goodbye while Nadya returned the helmet to the bed of the truck and started to walk away, trying not to look at her because of how painful it was. How painful it was that I already messed this up before it even started.

“Jayde?” Nadya called.

My steps halted and I half turned to look at her. “Yes?”

“What were you really asking about?” she hesitated for a second, her feet shuffling in place like she wasn’t sure about where she wanted to go, but then she tentatively came towards me. “Earlier.”

I knew exactly what she was referring to. And the fact that she suspected was even more surprising considering she had been oblivious up to this point. I suppose I should’ve known that she would put it together. Nadya is too smart to not figure it out. Well, I couldn’t avoid it anymore. More importantly, I didn’t want to. Now was the time to leap into the unknown.

“I was…” the words were still hard to get out. My hands started to shake just like they did when I went to kiss her last night. “I was trying to ask you out.”

“On a date?” Nadya asked, completely bewildered, “Romantically…?”

She sounded so baffled that I let out a half-amused, half-nervous breath, “Yeah, exactly like that.”

There was a long moment before she said anything else, “I didn’t think…”

“Didn’t think what?”

“Well,” Nadya started to fidget with a ring that she was wearing, “I felt something when you kissed me, but… today you were acting weird and I was starting to think that maybe you changed your mind.”

It was my turn to be baffled. How she could think that I would ever change my mind was an impossible concept for me to grasp. My head shook with disbelief and I took a couple step towards her, “I want to be with you. I want you so bad that I’ve been freaking out about it, trying to figure out the best way to tell you. And even then I wasn’t sure you wanted me.”

Her voice was barely more than a whisper, “Of course I want you.”

The relief I felt at her soft spoken words was so profound that I actually felt my eyes begin to mist. I released something between a sigh and a laugh, trying to rein in the emotions that were threatening to get away from me. I felt utterly ridiculous for all of my worries, but in the best way. “Then what’s stopping us?”

Now that we were finally saying it, now that we finally admitted what we wanted, the energy in me was making my skin tingle as though my very soul was trying to break free. Nadya’s gaze remained locked on mine for a handful of charged beats. Her eyes scanned my features carefully like she was looking for any sign that I might be lying. She would find none, of that I was certain. When her warm eyes settled back on mine, a small, shy smile crept across her lips.

“Can I kiss you?” Nadya asked.

It took everything in me not to immediately pitch forward, but I wanted this to be all her initiative. “You don’t ever have to ask.”

Nadya’s lips met mine for the second time and it was just as breathtaking as the first. Just as comforting and fulfilling. Only now there weren’t any doubts between us, only a certainty that was powerful and strong. I felt it in the passionate kiss she gave me, in the way her hands went to my hips at the same time mine reached up to cup her face. It ignited my body and drew me closer to her. My thumbs lightly brushed her cheeks, still careful and not wanting to come on too strong, but I couldn’t not touch her. It didn’t seem to scare her. Nadya actually leaned into me more, wrapping her arms around my lower back to pull me even closer. If I could have this every day for the rest of my life, I would die happy.

We broke away to regain breath and I took the quiet moments to let her fill my erratic senses. The intensity with which I felt her was starting to fully dawn on me. How much I cherished having her in my arms. The fact that I knew there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her if she asked. I knew I was falling for her, but somewhere between that realization and now, I had fully fallen. It took me so long to recognize it because it felt different in a way that was hard to describe. But I knew it was the best feeling I’ve ever felt. It gave me hope. It gave me warmth. Most of all, it made me feel safe, and I haven’t felt this safe since I was a kid with my family.

I felt Nadya smile against my touch, “You were freaking out, huh?”

When I opened my eyes, I saw her smile was a little cocky. It made me laugh and I dropped my hands to hold hers. “Yeah, uh, I promise I’m not usually so awkward about this sort of thing. It’s just… different with you.”

She tilted her head slightly, “Why is it different?”

“I don’t know, it just is.” I saw her grin grow wider, so I continued through another laugh, “Don’t make fun of me, I’m trying to be normal!”

“If I wanted normal, I probably wouldn’t have kissed a werewolf.” Nadya giggled.

“Excellent point.” I agreed with a slow, amused nod.

“You don’t have to try to be anything other than yourself with me.”

That meant the world to me. My right hand came up to rest on her cheek again and she leaned into it, looking at me with such a fond gaze. “Let me make you dinner tonight.” I begged softly, caressing her cheek, “And take you somewhere pretty.”

She cradled my other hand close to her chest and started to play with my fingers, “You want to make me dinner?”

“Whatever you want, I’ll make it.”

“Surprise me.” she turned her head to place a kiss on the center of my palm.

My smile was so broad that it was starting to hurt my cheeks. “You got it.”

Nadya’s eyes brightened even more with my promise. “Then it’s a date.”

#ocs #original characters #original story #original writing #My writing #they gay n cute n dumb #thats all I have to say for myself #one last holiday surprise from me to you #also yes I do recognize the whiplash of posting smut and then posting this beginning of relationship #I have no sense of chronological order #no rules just GAY #and yes I will write and post their first date #also FINALLY featuring Jayde's bike #thats like one of the most important objects to her so idk why it took me so long to write about it #I need to put more of it in my writing #my ocs #Jayde #Nadya #Jayde pov

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depressed-sock · 5 years

Text

Reveal AU Part 12

A Fallen Hero Fanfic

This series will have spoilers! I also tried to make sure this chapter didn’t need any tag warnings but if you feel it needs some kind, message me so I can add them.

This is also the last part for the time being. There are some other works I want to work on right now but I may come back and add more to this series later.

Unexpected

Steel present:

You feel like you could strangle him the moment the words leave his mouth and he rushes out the door. This was not a part of the plan that the two of you had discussed. He was definitely hoping to use this as a distraction but neither of you would fall for- "YOU'VE HAD A CRUSH ON ME!?" Of course... Of course, Ortega falls for it hook, line, and sinker. You sigh pinching the bridge of your nose. "This isn't really-" "All the times I've tried to set you up…." Realization dawning on his face, "Fuck! I thought you just weren't interested in relationships. Oh my god, you've-" "Kiyo just left. On his own. I think that issue is more pressing," you try to move past him but he steadfastly blocks your way. "He can handle himself," he crosses his arms in agitation, starring you down, expecting some kind of truth. You don't understand why either of them are pushing an issue that won't change anything. You find yourself shaking your head in disbelief at him. He's the one that insisted someone stay with Kiyo, "You're the one-" "I know what I said and he can definitely be an idiot on his own but he can take care of himself long enough for this to be addressed first," he remains unbudging. Stubborn as always. "I know he can handle himself, I told you that, but he also has a stab wound. If anyone takes him by surprise-" "He's a telepath," more confidence. You really do not want to discuss who you definitely do not have a crush on. So you use a piece of information you’ve been holding onto for when Kiyo was more recovered and you could all start planning your next move, "Hollow Ground knows he's a telepath. When we went to rescue you they had telepathic dampeners that Argent accidentally took out." You watch as his face turns immediately to worry. "…Fuck," he hesitates, sighing in frustration and turning towards the door only to swing angrily back, "This talk isn't over." His face turns from anger to contemplation before he shakes it, turning back and heading out the door.… without shoes.

Goddamnit, why do you feel like the only adult here? You sigh hand wiping down your face and finally looking down at Spoon as he runs up happily to you. You lean down to pet him, before standing back up to head into the kitchen to double check that he has food and water and to grab your keys.

“I need you to stay here for now,” you murmur, scratching gently behind his ears. He responds with a happy bark before trotting off to his bed. You smile softly and rise to your feet as Ortega walks back through the door.

“Not a word,” he reaches down and grabs his shoes, heading back out the door. You shake your head in response, following him down the stairs. “He’s probably heading to his apartment,” he comments struggling to get his shoes on as he walks.

“Do you know where that is?” You snort unintentionally as you try not to laugh as he almost falls over. He glances back at you with glare, stopping to fix his left shoe.

“Yeah, where’s your car?” he steadies himself back upright, looking at you to make sure he sees you point out your car. You vaguely point in the right direction and he turns to move towards your care. “Just drive straight ahead, I’ll tell you when you need to turn.”

You unlock your car, taking note of the empty space in front of it, and you quickly fall into the driver's seat, with Ortega already slamming his door shut. You start the car, following his directions. A quiet settling between the both of you, causing a nervousness to itch between your shoulder blades.

“I can’t believe you never told me,” it comes unexpectedly as he glowers out the window, refusing to meet your gaze. You sigh in response, maybe the car was a bad idea.

“There was nothing to tell,” you respond because you know you’re not getting out of this conversation now. You could pull over and walk but as tempting as that is, this is the only fast solution of finding wherever Kiyo ran off too.

“There was apparently plenty to tell if Kiyo thought it was worth knowing,” he crosses his arms leaning back into the seat.

“He was using it to distract both of us.”

“Wei,” he finally looks at you even though you can’t, too focused on the street ahead, too focused on avoiding his gaze. “Why didn’t you say anything.” you can hear the hurt in his voice, can see the way his lips frown when you look at him from the corner of your eye.

“I thought you were straight,” a simple safe statement but you know he won’t be satisfied with just that, “And then Kiyo showed up and you…. Well, I realized I missed my chance,” you’re still not sure with who though. Memories of Ortega’s bright smile and how he did everything with reckless confidence. Kiyo young, brash, but always so fascinated by simple things others would have taken for granted. Both of them are so different now... No, you should say all of you are different now.

He’s quiet, studying you before shifting uncomfortably in his seat, “Why didn’t you ask after...” It’s said so softly you almost miss it, and it hurts more than it should that you both know exactly why you didn’t ask after Heartbreak. That he wants an answer he already has.

“You were mourning,” you respond just as softly, “we both were.” He remains silent in response, looking back out the window. “Which way?”

“Take a right at the next light,” he murmurs, lost in thought. You can almost understand Kiyo’s frustration with not being able to read his mind. “I don't think I ever expected you to say you mourned for him,” you turn to look at him almost offended but he matches you with a roll of his eyes, “Don't look at me like that. You never made an effort to make people think you could even stand him.”

You turn your gaze back to the road, a frown on your lips, “I mourned him, and I regretted the way I acted...I admit I fucked up. Maybe things would have been different if I hadn't acted the way I did but we can't change the past,” you can’t change what you did or what you didn’t do.

He huffs out a laugh, shaking his head demeanor shifting as a smile creeps onto his face, “...Sooo, if Kiyo and I weren't-”

“Do not say what you’re about to say.”

“Come on, it’s a hypothetical question.”

“It’s you trying to stroke your ego.”

“Wei, I’m sure you know I can stroke more than that,” he grins at you, arching his eyebrows suggestively, “Next building on the left is our stop by the way.” You curse, willing the heat to leave your face as you pull over into the next available spot. You try to ignore him, unbuckling your seatbelt only to pause as you move to get out of the car.

“I wouldn’t have pursued you,” you stress the last part, getting out of the car with a smirk.

“...Wait...What???”

…

The door is ajar when you finally reach it, with you still steadfastly ignoring Ortega’s questions and only talking to him to demand the room number.

“Seriously, what did that mean-”

“Ortega shut up,” you motion to the door and he immediately quiets. You flex your hands, belatedly remembering they're your civilian hands. Maybe you should have come more prepared just in case.

“I’ll go first, wait for my say,” Ortega whispers, hands sparking as he pushes past you, falling easily back into being a Ranger, a leader. He gently opens the door, peering inside and signals to you that the room is empty. He slips inside, moving with quiet determination. You wait, listening carefully but all you can hear are Ortega’s soft footsteps. A moment later he opens the door with a frown, “It’s empty but it looks like someone tore through here looking for something.”

Peering past him, the room is a mess, items thrown haphazardly around but nothing looks purposely broken, “Kiyo maybe?”

“How would he have beat us here?”

“I’m pretty sure he hotwired the car that was sitting in front of mine. It had been sitting there for weeks untouched,” you cross your arms entering the room. It’s smaller and more rundown than what you would have expected. You remember in the past, he had been living in where ever he could find shelter. This place is probably his first proper home.

He moves towards a table picking up a picture frame that had been knocked to the ground, “Why would he have left the door open then?” You watch as he frowns, setting the picture face down on the table.

“He’s already in a rush avoiding us,” you do one more glance over, “And most of this just looks like someone hasn’t cleaned in a while. Is this what it looked like when you came over?” Maybe you’re just seeing things this way because you’re trying not to worry. He doesn’t respond and you turn to find him rubbing the back of his neck. “Ortega,” you sigh.

“I found it on accident… looking into another lead,” he shrugs, crossing his arms defensively.

“Do I even want to know?”

“Probably not,” he shrugs again, “If he’s already been here we should look elsewhere.” He looks around before his gaze settles back on you, “So what do you mean you wouldn’t have pursued me?”

You cross your arms matching his stance, eye’s narrowing on him, “What lead were you following that led you here?” He pouts as you look at him expectantly, before throwing up his hands in surrender.

“Fine, we won’t talk about that. Where else do you think he would go?”

“I have a few ideas.”

…

Five hours later and no lead to tell where Kiyo went or if he was alright. You pull into your parking spot, sighing tiredly. You’re not sure what to do other than wait for a sign from him.

“Is that the car you were talking about?” Ortega sits straight in his seat and you immediately notice it too.

“Yes,” you're both out of the car without a second thought, heading straight for your apartment.

Ortega already ahead of you, way faster than you could ever hope to be. He takes the stairs to by two and you find yourself slowing down. If Kiyo's back you may as well give them some time together. Let Ortega worry over him.

So you climb the stairs normally, holding back the urgent need to know he's okay. Kiyo has always been able to take care of himself… maybe that's another problem though. You remember seeing the scars that marred his arms. Wounds hastily stitched together by his own hand.

You shake your head, another thought for another time. You reach the door, it easily opening and the sound of Kiyo laughing feels the room. You enter to find them both on the ground spoon happily laying next to Ortega as Kiyo holds….

“You didn't,” you pinch the bridge of your nose in frustration. Kiyo looks up at you with a smile, holding a bundle of fur that looks far too large to be the puppy you know it is.

“I told you I was going to get one,” he shrugs as the puppy barks happily, trying to escape to play with Spoon.

“Please tell me you didn't steal it,” this is a complication no one needed right now.

“Hey! I bought him!” he looks at you offended as he hugs the dog closer to his chest.

“With stolen money,” you cross your arms looking at him disapprovingly.

“Chen,” Ortega stands up, a mischievous smile on his face, “Lighten up,” you don't register what he's doing until his mouth is pressed against yours. You open your mouth ready to tell him off and your hands ready to push him away but he takes advantage adding tongue to the kiss.

You can feel a blush creeping into your cheeks, and when he finally pushes away you feel like you've been punched in the gut. Fucking Ricardo Ortega.

He has the gall to wink at you, “That's for not telling me.” You stare at him even as Kiyo breaks into a fit of laughter.

Kiyo breathes hard trying to catch his breath long enough to speak. “Holy fuck, Chen feel free to punch him.”

“Hey wait a sec-”

You don't even hesitate.

#fallen hero rebirth #Wei Chen #Ricardo Ortega #Kiyo Basri #spoilers fallen hero #my writing

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writehardwhumpharder · 5 years

Text

Suits fic.

So this ended up pretty long, I got a little carried away. I’m not even sure if tumblr will let me post it. I hope you guys like suits as much as I do. Prompt: Okay can I see, like, early Mike just started working at the firm and he's trying to keep up with Harvey's almost non-stop schedule and ends up sick but tries to keep going? Cue "annoyed" (but actually worried) Harvey?

Mike eyed himself in the mirror subconsciously wearing his too-cheap suit, and too-skinny tie. His first couple days had gone well enough, but now he knew what was expected of him and boy was he out of his depth. Sure he could recite the Harvard law book by memory, but that didn’t help much with all the little nuanced details each draft needed. He slipped his files into his bag and slung it over his shoulder then grabbed his bike to lug down the stairs over his head.

By the time he reached the Pearson Hardman building his heart was racing, and not from the 3 miles he just biked through traffic. What the actual hell did I get myself into? he wondered. Mike had made sure to get to the office 40 minutes early in hopes that he’d have time to review the files Louis requested to be done by this morning, but when he got to the office every other associate was already at their cubicles. Only the senior partners weren’t there yet and even they got there a fashionable 15 minutes early. Mike had hardly sat down when Donna came bustling past the cubicles.

“Harvey wants these by lunch but if you’re pressed for time, do this one first. He needs it for a client meeting at 1:15pm which you should attend by the way.” She was gone before he could say good morning. She winked at him as she walked away, making him feel a little better about the cut and dry work of a major law firm. Thank god Louis had taken one good look at him and deemed him capable of only the simplest of cases. He meant it as an insult but on a day like this, he took it with a genuine smile. Before getting buried in his work, Mike opted to take a quick trip to the coffee machine, knowing that for the next few hours he’d be glued to his work station.

The morning went by quickly but Mike managed to finish the file Harvey needed and the easy cases Louis gave him. Despite a few things he had to do for Harvey, he was pretty proud of what he’d been able to finish. It was 1pm the next time Mike looked up from his work, almost time to go meet Harvey. Reading the small print for hours on end was starting to make his eyes sore so Mike was grateful for a short break from it, even if it is just to talk to a client. Mike rubbed his eyes as he crossed the room holding the stack of papers he had prepared. Harvey emerged from his office and wasted no time flipping through the papers.

“Um, good morning. Or afternoon…” Mike mumbled.

“Yeah okay, these are fine but they could be a little cleaner.” Harvey commented, clearly distracted. Mike felt his shoulders sag in mild defeat. For his first week of work “fine” was pretty damn good, but he couldn’t help but feel like he was slaving over files only to stay invisible. Harvey looked up long enough to read his associate’s face. “You know you’re doing really well competing against a bunch of people who actually went to law school.” Harvey teased in a low voice so no one might overhear them. Mike trailed after him towards the conference room already rehearsing in his head what he would say to the client if he had to speak.

Turns out he didn’t. Harvey introduced them both and Mike shook the man’s hand but apart from that he was mostly there to observe and supply information. Mike would hand Harvey a paper with the most important details highlighted every so often as they discussed legal concerns over a faulty product.

“Don’t worry Dave, we’ll stay on top of this. We’ll find a way to cover this long before anyone can file against your company. It’s not my area of expertise but I would suggest issuing a press release with this information as soon as possible.” Harvey said, handing the man a summary of what their plan was in simpler terms. Mike flexed his aching fingers under the table, trying to rub away hours or rather days of hard work. As much of a relief as it was to be able to sit for 30 mins and do next to nothing, he caught himself glancing at his watch multiple times, anxious about every second he didn’t spend working.

After the meeting, Mike dropped off Louis’s files and got to work on the other things Harvey had left him. These would take some research, great, off to the file room it is then. He gathered his things and sat on the floor, scanning through bins of information. If his eyes didn’t hurt before they certainly did now. Words were starting to blur together and he kept sagging more and more out of tiredness until he was basically laying on the ground, propped up on his elbows just enough to be able to read the paper.

—-

At first he wasn’t sure what woke him, a sharp knock, maybe someone was calling his name? He blinked slowly and looked up to see Rachel staring down at him disapprovingly.

“Odd time for a nap don’t you think?” she said.

“Oh my god, Rachel, what time is it?” Mike asked suddenly alert.

“Almost 4pm.”

“Shit, shit, shit. Harvey wants these by the end of the day.” Mike stammered combing through the files to see just how much trouble he was in. If Harvey stayed late today he had a chance of finishing them but he probably had more work for him to do by now anyway. Rachel gave him a sympathetic look.

“Fine,” she huffed, “I’ll help you.” Mike grouped up the documents for her, pairing the papers he was going to use to prove precedent to the sloppy drafts he’d started. Luckily for him she didn’t comment on how bad they were and got to work on rewriting them entirely. Having her there was a welcome distraction to how run down he was. He crossed his fingers hoping that these hellish past few days were some kind of trial by fire and things would settle down soon.

“Okay, these two are done. But that’s all I can help with. You better hurry if you want to catch Harvey on his way out.”

“Mhmm.” Mike responded without looking up, “thank you for the help.” Rachel paused by the door.

“Don’t get used to it.” She said in a tone that was both serious and lighthearted. When Mike finished a few minutes later and leapt to his feet to go find Harvey, he found that both his legs had fallen asleep and fell rather ungracefully back down to the floor. He banged his elbow on the shelf on his way down.

“God damn it.” Mike cursed to himself before trying again, much more successful this time. Harvey’s office was empty but it was just past 5pm so with any luck he’d still be in the lobby. Mike took the stairs for lack of time and scrambled down each floor to the building’s main lobby. Despite going downhill the trip sapped up a surprising amount of energy and he was left panting, one hand leaning on the wall before exiting the stairwell.

Yes! Harvey was still here, he probably only stopped to flirt with the receptionist.

“Ha- Harvey.” he said still a little out of breath, “I’ve got those files you wanted.” Mike said. Harvey took them and shoved them in his briefcase, only to pull out an equally large stack for him.

“Thanks Mike, I was going to give these to you earlier but Donna said you weren’t at your cubicle. I need these by 9am at the latest. And do get some sleep Mike, you look like shit, and we have court tomorrow.” Harvey replied. Mike had completely forgotten about their hearing tomorrow. He ran a hand through his messed up hair and straightened his tie in an attempt to look more professional.

“Sure, Harvey, no problem.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” Harvey said before taking off, leaving Mike standing stupidly by the receptionist’s desk. He offered the girl a sheepish smile before heading back up to the office to grab his things in addition to the new assignments Harvey just gave him, this time taking the elevator.

—-

When Mike’s alarm dragged him out of a restless sleep he felt.. bad. Not in any particular way, just bad. And he had a feeling this was the kind of tired coffee couldn’t fix. He’d been up all night, getting only about 2 hours of sleep, which on second thought was more like a glorified nap. After a few more minutes of sulking Mike dragged himself out of bed, hoping a cold shower could perk him up. He grabbed a dull, dark grey suit from his closet and a crisp white shirt, he had to be in court later so now wasn’t the time to be taking fashion risks. He picked up the navy blue tie his grandma got for him when she heard about his fancy new job. The thought put him a little more at ease despite the worsening headache he had. Mike took one glance at his bike on his way out before deciding to just take a taxi. He’d probably puke his guts out trying to bike to work when he felt so crappy.

Mike threw a $20 at the taxi driver before jogging up to the building, he hadn’t planned for the extra time he’d spent stuck in traffic so now he was borderline late. It was clear Harvey was in no mood to deal with his associates lateness. He tried to go easy on the kid but with his schedule, lightening his workload just wasn’t an option. Jessica was already skeptical of his choice so when Mike showed up to his office looking pale and sweaty he had his lecture already planned out, for appearances at the very least.

“Shut the door, Mike.” Harvey said in a clipped voice. “Want to tell me why you’re 15 minutes late and look like you just ran a marathon?” Mike adjusted his tie subconsciously.

“I rode my bike, it’s pretty warm out today.” Mike lied. Harvey was tempted to make a remark about how if he can’t afford a taxi maybe he doesn’t belong here but he knew better. Mike didn’t belong there, and that’s exactly why he chose him.

“Sorry Harvey, I’ve been working really hard to finish these and it’s still before 9am, I- I hope that’s okay.” Mike said. Harvey sighed visibly, looking reminiscent of a disappointed father.

“It’s fine, Mike. Just plan better next time. Be back here in twenty minutes, Ray will drive us to the courthouse and for the love of god, do something to make yourself presentable.”

Mike took that as his cue to leave. At first he headed towards his cubicle but a sinking feeling in his stomach had him walking towards the bathrooms instead. He almost felt hungover, the ache spreading through his body from lack of sleep gave him the distinct feeling of being poisoned. Mike barely managed to keep his composure until he got to the men’s room where he ran the last few feet and collapsed on his knees in front of the toilet. He dry-heaved for a moment, using his brief second of relief to lock the stall door behind him. This time he actually brought up the small bit of breakfast he had. It’s just nerves right? Mike rationalized to himself. He just had to get it together. He didn’t want Harvey to regret hiring him, after all he did try to fire him once already.

As soon as Mike was confident that he was done, he exited the stall and made for the mirror to “make himself presentable” per Harvey’s request. Though Mike had to agree with him, his skin was a dull almost greyish color, which his glistening layer of sweat only helped make more visible. His cheeks were flushed a sickly pink. There wasn’t much he could do besides take a few deep breaths and splash some cold water in his face.

When he met back up with Harvey, he looked and felt worse than he did when he came in.

“Mike I thought I told you to do something about-“ he made a vague gesture to Mike, “that.” Harvey scolded, though Mike thought he detected the slightest hint of concern.

“I did…” Mike said, lacking the energy to make a better argument for himself.

“You know that? Why don’t you sit this one out. It’s not that important, I’m sure there’s plenty of stuff for you to do here.” Harvey said. This was his chance to back out, but Mike was too stubborn to quit just like that.

“No, I’m fine. I want to go, really,” he insisted. Harvey gave him a disbelieving look but he didn’t have time to argue with the kid.

“Fine, let’s go. Ray is waiting outside.” Harvey grabbed his briefcase and walked ahead, leaving Mike to try to keep up with him. He couldn’t help but notice the way his associate leaned heavily against the elevator wall, lacking the youthful energy he always had. He should have his earbuds in right now, listening to some ridiculous playlist to psych himself up. The doors opened before he had a chance to comment on it.

Mike felt truly awful at this point. He was starting to doubt whether or not he’d make it through the hearing. As long as he could stay sitting, everything would be fine. He all but fell into the seat next to Harvey and lazily reached up to grab his seatbelt. Harvey saw his minor struggle and opted to just grab the seatbelt and click it for him.

“Get it together, Mike. I’m serious. ‘Cause if you can’t, I’ll have Ray drop you off at home.” Harvey said.

“No!” Mike whined, “I’ve got it.” he said. They continued the rest of the ride in silence, luckily the courthouse wasn’t very far away.

Harvey strode into the courtroom with his usual confidence and grace. Mike on the other hand stumbled a bit, gripping the edges of the rows of chairs to steady himself. No turning back now. It was a simple case, all they were doing was filing a motion to allow them access to a rival companies records, but you could hardly call any case of Harvey’s simple. He was representing some of the wealthiest businessmen in New York. They quickly took their seats and waited for the judge. Mike could practically feel the sweat seeping through his shirt, he was uncomfortably hot now and the nausea was coming back despite his stomach being completely empty from earlier. He stared down at the desk in front of him and tried to focus on breathing.

“Are you okay?” Harvey asked, no longer trying to hide his concern. Mike just nodded in response, not trusting himself to open his mouth. He started shaking his leg impatiently until Harvey told him to knock it off.

“All rise.” A woman said as the judge entered. Mike forced himself to stand but he kept his hands firmly planted on the table. Harvey walked up to the stand and started talking. Okay Mike, just relax, everything is gonna fine, you’re- oh god. The dizziness was pressing in on him from all directions and his vision started to tunnel. He looked up to watch Harvey, though he couldn’t hear much of anything. He pressed a hand to his stomach and closed his eyes as the dizziness and fatigue made his stomach churn. He was pretty sure he was dangerously dehydrated at this point as well since he’s been running on coffee the last few days. Without Harvey next to him to stop him, he started tapping his foot again and used his other hand to rest his head. Mike knew how he must look but nothing could distract him from of primary goal of not throwing up right there in the middle of the courtroom. Harvey kept looking back to him anxiously but couldn’t disrespect the judge by interrupting him to go check on Mike. Turns out, he didn’t have to. Mike swayed slightly in his chair, his head was too foggy to know up from down and before he knew it he was sliding towards the floor, helpless to stop it.

Harvey heard a thud and whipped his head around to see Mike in the floor, struggling to get on his knees.

“Mike!” he called out to him. He knew he should have sent him home, but Mike was trying so hard to impress him he worked himself to his absolute breaking point. “What’s going on?” He asked, trying to sound calm as he moved the chairs out of the way so he could get to him.

“I- I’m fine.” Mike muttered weakly.

“You’re a terrible liar.” Harvey said as he grabbed Mike and hauled him to his feet. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

“But… but the case.”

“Already taken care of.” Harvey said. Which turned out to be true when the judge’s assistant ran up to them with the signed documents on their way out.

“Feel better.” she smiled. If Mike wasn’t so out of it he would be absolutely mortified right now. The last thing he remembered before drifting to sleep was Harvey helping him up the stairs to his apartment, taking off his jacket and shoes before letting Mike sleep this off. Despite how terribly the day had gone, Harvey knew he made the right choice.

#mike ross #whump #sickfic #sickmike #igotalittlecarriedaway #oops #suits #harvey specter #sleepdeprivation #overworked #exhaustion #wheredidthelast3hoursgo?

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theartofmedia · 5 years

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Kotaku and the Art of Game Leaks

(Full disclosure: this piece was commissioned by a friend. The topic has changed from the initial pitch, but still. I don’t know how that may or may not affect your view on this piece, but I still feel it’s important for me to be transparent about this.) On May 30th, 2019, Laura Kate Dale announced her departure from Kotaku UK. Dale is a controversial figure among the games journalist community for... multiple reasons (please note the latter link lacks any actual evidence and how she apparently didn’t report this Uber driver for ‘nearly kidnapping her’ despite posting it publicly on Twitter, hence the controversy around it), but that’s not what we’re talking about today. What we’re going to be discussing is what she is known for the most: video game leaks.

LKD is most known for leaking video game information prior to their release, from information about Dark Souls Remastered, to unboxing a PS4 Slim before Sony itself even announced its existence, to Switch software. It got to the point where LKD was blacklisted by Nintendo UK, most likely for leaking so much information.

Now as I was researching LKD, there was something I noticed. A lot of people supported LKD’s leaks, calling it “real journalism,” and commending her for doing her job so well. As shown by the link above, many people mocked Nintendo UK for blacklisting her for “doing her job too well.” People are always scrambling for new leaks, new information, though in many cases, this can lead to fake leaks, misinformation, and confusion among players.

And it got me to think: how do leaks really affect both the devs and the consumers of games?

The conclusion I’ve come to about it is: it does more harm than good on both sides, but especially to the devs.

Here we will be defining four categories of leaks (three of which are explained here by Griffin Vacheron of Game Revolution), though our main focus will be on two.

Accidental leaks are just like they sound: they’re accidents. Something happened, something went wrong, and people got a hold of information before they were supposed to. Like when Capcom put all the pictures of the roster of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 on their website when a good portion of the roster hadn’t yet been announced, and the unannounced characters could be found via a small URL change. Or when Walmart’s Canadian site revealed around 40 unannounced titles due to a(n alleged) glitch in their system just weeks before E3 2018. Or when Bethesda accidentally streamed their E3 2015 rehearsal which ended up confirming the existence of Dishonored 2. Yeah.

The main component of accidental leaks is just that--accidental. Someone did something wrong, something in a system went wrong, someone didn’t think through the consequences of what probably seemed like a good idea at the time--it happens! Nothing is perfect, people included, and shit happens. But the key part is that it’s not intentional. Someone may (or, really, will) be reprimanded, punished, or even fired depending on the leak, but there was never any intention to reveal this information.

Company leaks are... not entirely proven, from my research. This is the idea that the developers themselves leak information in order to draw attention to their game and hype it up. Often, this will be the other determination of certain leaks--was it an accident, or a PR stunt? There’s no real definitive proof and seems to simply be rumor, but the possibility still exists, as there’s no real way to disprove it, either.

Ethic leaks are generally the exception, not the rule. These are leaks of working conditions, such as an employee from NetherRealm talking about the toxic work environment, or Rockstar employees opening up about how they were mistreated and underpaid and burned to ashes, or Blizzard’s layoff of 800 employees. (Further reading here on the abuse of game devs, as well as what can be done about it.) These are things that need to be talked about, because these relate to the treatment of actual, real people. These aren’t issues then of game content or development, it’s an issue of ethics in the workplace. Same with the leak of this document that details how AI can be used to encourage microtransactions, though that is an issue related to the consumer rather than the workers. Shady tactics and the maltreatment of workers is something that needs to be shown and discussed and talked about, because these things affect the actual workers, as well as the quality of a product and the company’s integrity in relation to the consumer. (Basically, if you intentionally make your game in such a way that players have to use microtransactions to make any significant progress, you’ve ruined your integrity as a company by trying to drain your player base of more money, regardless of the base price they paid for the game anyway. It’s a scummy business practice, and that kind of thing should be revealed to the public that you’re going to try to bleed dry.)

Intentional leaks are just as they sound: they’re the intentional leak of information. This is when people outside the company hack in and reveal secrets, or when people inside the company reveal information (whether directly or indirectly via being sources for journalists) before they are to be officially announced. The information given is given with the knowledge that yes, someone is going to reveal it to the public.

So let’s talk about the ramifications of intentional leaks on game devs.

Remember Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle? The cover image had been leaked before the team had a chance to actually showcase the game. Nobody knew anything about the game other than the cover, and universal reception at the time was: “This is going to be terrible.” Because of a leaked image, the public already had a strong negative opinion about it. However, the showcase that showed off actual gameplay was well-received, and the Metacritic score is 85. So the game itself was pretty damn good, according to the critics. An unlikely crossover turned out well! But the initial reaction was incredibly demoralizing to the team. It’s one thing to have criticism given to a game based on a trailer or gameplay showcase; it’s another to get criticism based on a single image and the concept alone with no other information given. As the director and music composer explain, the dev team was very worried and stressed not just about the game reception but about the showcase, as they were afraid that the reception to the showcase was going to be bad due to the already-negative opinion on the game.

Let’s also talk about how CD Projekt Red had demo gameplay and audio of Cyberpunk 2077 leaked by a journalist (who later complained about not being credited, about how his relationship with CD Projekt Red and the PR person he was friends with) after being asked not to. The company had their trust in the journalists--someone who they had a fifteen year relationship with--used and abused, leading to secrets being leaked. The devs had politely asked the journalists not to do so, but one did, and apparently saw nothing wrong with leaking private information and posting it to the public.

Or let’s talk about how, way back in the day, the entire source code for Half-Life 2 was revealed to the public and Valve (allegedly) lost $250 million dollars. The article actually states some of the effects of the leaked source code: “Meanwhile, the team at Valve, which had been in crunch mode for months, was left reeling by the leak. The game was costing the company $1 million a month to build and the end was still far from sight. The leak had not only caused financial damage but had demotivated a tired team. One young designer asked Newell, "Is this going to destroy the company?" (found under the heading “A Red Letter Day”).

Or we can talk about the Sm4sh leaks back in 2014 and how it led to an employee (allegedly) being fired and sued due to leaking this information. Now, this can very easily be viewed as justice being served to the leaker, and I would agree. But what is the issue here can be summed up by PlatinumGames producer JP Kellams:

The people working for years and years on a project suddenly have parts of their project--that they wanted to surprise players with, this particular instance being the Sm4sh roster--given out to the public before they wanted it to be. Imagine working for years on your life on a project, and then having someone reveal your work to the internet without your knowledge or permission. I know I would feel dejected, exhausted, hopeless, hurt, regardless of any positive reception to what was revealed. You, as someone who has worked so incredibly hard--and, in many cases in the game industry, been thoroughly abused--apparently don’t have the right to reveal the thing you’ve been working on the way you want.

I want to make this clear: I am not talking about “the Big Corporation” here. I don’t care about the higher-ups who put the pressure on the workers. I care about the workers, the little people that are being trampled on and forced to work in abusive, toxic conditions in order to meet a deadline and the outrageous demands of the higher-ups. They are the ones suffering.

Case in point: the Blufever leaks for Final Fantasy XIV. The details are a bit murky, as is with most leaks, but the story as I understand it is: user Blufever is/was an employee at Square Enix who leaked massive amounts of information on upcoming expansions/patches for FFXIV. Then, their account went dark, as they apparently feared for being found out by Square Enix. Vergeben, a known reputable leaker within the Smash community, had this to say about the situation:

Now, of course, there is no way to truly verify these claims. However, due to Vergeben’s reputation as an accurate leaker (and the fact that he was right about one of the upcoming DLC characters being from Square Enix) leads me to believe him. Assuming that his claims are true, someone leaking all of this information to the public put a lot of innocent people in the line of fire--and it’s very possible that these

So, what does this have to do with Kotaku?

Here’s something interesting.

When known E3 leaker WabiSabi was given a cease & desist warning from Nintendo for leaking information, take a look at some of the top replies. (Note that a lot of them are ninja gifs, here’s a sample so I don’t have to do it for every one.)

Not all of the replies are against WabiSabi, however, though a majority seem to be:

(About the above: I can’t really find anything suggesting that LKD was leaking things for “customer advocacy,” other than confirming that the next gen console (now known as the Switch) was not using the Wii branding like its predecessor did, thus easing some fears because of the bombing of the Wii U. Other tweets about that are here, but don’t really sway me in terms of “consumer advocacy.”)

As shown, the replies seem to be pretty divisive on whether or not it was a good or bad thing that WabiSabi got hit with a cease & desist.

However, let’s have a look at some of the replies to LKD’s tweet about how she was blacklisted by Nintendo.

And again, not all are supportive of her:

I actually had to look quite a bit to find any negative comments. Many were supportive of her.

(I would like to take this moment to get unprofessional for a second and unleash my full opinion of this: NO FUCKING SHIT YOU GOT BLACKLISTED, SHERLOCK. THEY TRUST YOU WITH THEIR SECRETS AND THEN YOU DISRESPECT THEM BY REVEALING THEM BEFORE THEY DID. I DO NOT FUCKING UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE WOULD SAY IT’S A COMPANY BEING “SHADY” WHEN IT’S JUST INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING PRODUCTS. NOTHING ABOUT ETHICS OR CONSUMER TRUST OR PRODUCT QUALITY. anyway,)

Now, you can say, “But Sakra! That’s a three-year difference!” And I rebuke with: people still support her to this day in spite of this. Kotaku UK kept her on though all of this and then some. It wasn’t until a kerfuffle happened in April with the “Persona 5 OST Has A Disability Slur” thing happened, and soon after, LKD left. It seems that the immense backlash with that was what fully pushed her off. (Now whether she was forced to resign or legitimately wanted to leave, that’s something only Kotaku UK and she know for sure.) The point is, her departure from Kotaku UK seems to have been completely unrelated to her leaks.

And why would it when Kotaku themselves--not just the UK chapter--are clearly very supportive of video game leaks of this nature?

Just have a look at their recent posts. All I did was put “leaks” in the search box. You may say “they’re just reporting the news of leaks!” But they put some of the leaked information IN the articles. The one on Watch Dogs Legion even confirmed the leaks. “Kotaku can confirm that this one’s real, as we’ve heard the name from several sources plugged into the company.”

Oh, and let’s not forget this lovely fucking article from 2015 where a Kotaku writer apparently speaks for the site and basically victimizes themselves for being blacklisted by Ubisoft and Bethesda. In fact, we’re going to dissect it, just because there is so much bullshit in here from the author, who is clearly speaking for Kotaku as a whole!

Buckle up, kids, your local Sakra is about to get fucking pissed.

The author describes how the Bethesda blackout came after “we reported insiders’ accounts of the troubled development of the still unreleased fourth major Doom game. In May of that year, we reported that Arkane Austin, the Bethesda-owned studio behind Dishonored, would be working on a new version of the long missing-in-action Prey 2 and that some at the studio were not pleased about that. When top people at Bethesda started making statements casting doubt on our reporting, we published a leaked internal e-mail confirming that those statements had misled gamers and that Arkane had indeed been working on a version of Prey 2.”

However, Kotaku at that time had also posted “our December 2013 report detailing the existence of the then-secret Fallout 4.” Reporting on troubled development isn’t an issue. Leaking emails just to confirm a game when Bethesda was desperately trying to preserve their secrecy that you had broken (probably not first, but Kotaku has a lot of mainstream reach) is an issue. I don’t like Bethesda, don’t get me wrong, but they were trying to salvage the secrecy of a project. Do I think trying to lie to the audience in order to keep the existence of a project secret is okay? No, not really. But I understand what they were trying to do. And whether you agree with their choices or not--no shit you would be blacklisted, especially if you have insiders as described here! You can’t go crying victim and martyr yourselves when you do this kind of shit. Especially if you were reporting on Fallout 4, a major fucking entry in a popular franchise!

As for the Ubisoft blackout...

“The current Ubisoft blackout is actually the second in as many years. The company tried a similar approach in the spring of 2014 after we published early images of the then-unannounced Assassin’s Creed Unity—images that had been leaked to us by an independent source. That article confirmed news about the company’s extraordinary plans to release two entirely different AC games in the fall of that year, one for new consoles and one for old. Ubisoft had warmed back to Kotaku by the summer of 2014, several months after the Unity report, but has cold-shouldered us since the Victory story one year ago. It’s possible other articles angered them, too. But that Victory piece is a safe bet.”

Ubisoft actually gave Kotaku another chance after leaking Unity, and the Victory (now Syndicate) story was, guess what, more leaks. You broke Ubisoft’s trust once, then you broke it again. Frankly, it’s fucking disgusting, knowing about how these leaks really affect devs, that Kotaku would dare to turn itself into a “journalism martyr,” as it were, because they were ignored by the devs whose trust they broke.

Now, you can say that maybe they didn’t know the information of how it affects devs--but a) the Sm4sh leaks and the fallout had already happened by then (it was 2014) and the Half-Life 2 source code fiasco had happened in the previous decade. Also, if they had insiders, wouldn’t they know just how serious leaking this information was and how it puts their sources and other devs at risk? Maybe Ubisoft and Bethesda aren’t as strict on their leak policies as Square Enix and Nintendo are--we don’t know. But I can’t imagine that they like it at all.

“I’m sure some people will sympathize with Bethesda and Ubisoft. Some will cheer these companies and hope others follow suit. They will see this kind of reporting as upsetting, as ruining surprises and frustrating creative people. They will claim we are “hurting video games,” and, as so many do, mistake the job of entertainment reporting for the mandate to hype entertainment products.

“We serve our readers, not game companies, and will always do so to the best of our ability, no matter who in the gaming world is or isn’t angry with us at the moment. In some ways, the blacklist has even been instructive—cut off from press access and pre-release review copies, we have doubled down on our post-release “embedding” approach to games coverage. We’ve experienced some of the year’s biggest games from street level, at the same time and in the same way as our readers.”

No.

It isn’t just about “spoilers” and “ruining the surprise.” In some cases, yes, a lot of people don’t like or actively avoid leaks because they do want to be surprised. But that’s not the only thing.

By “serving your readers” and trying to dig for this information, you’re putting devs at risk. You’re putting your “sources” at risk. Now, if you were reporting on development or shady tactics or awful work environments or specific negative incidents behind the scenes or things that should be talked about, I would absolutely agree with you that you should continue digging deeper. But that’s not it. The companies trust you not to reveal something until a certain time, and you go and do it anyway.

By claiming victim and demonizing the “big bad corporation” for blacklisting you, you minimize the actual stress and hardships it put on the smaller guys in the company that the entire company is built on. You completely brush it aside and paint the entire company as irrational. You completely neglect the plight of the actual people working on it, and disrespect them by revealing their information before they do, when they have worked for SO LONG on whatever project it is. Like JP Kellams said, devs earn the right to talk about their product because they worked on it for so long. You haven’t.

And then... this paragraph.

“Too many big game publishers cling to an irrational expectation of secrecy and are rankled when the press shows them how unrealistic they’re being. There will always be a clash between independent reporters and those seek to control information, but many of these companies appear to believe that it is actually possible in 2015 for hundreds of people to work dozens of months on a video game and for no information about the project to seep out. They appear to believe that the general public will not find out about these games until their marketing plans say it’s time. They operate with the assumption that the press will not upend these plans, and should the press defy their assumption, they bring down the hammer. We make our own judgments about what information best serves the news value of a story, and what our readers would prefer not to know—which is why, for example, we omitted key plot details from the Fallout 4 scripts that were leaked to us. We keep covering these companies’ games, of course. Readers expect that. Millions of people still read our stories about them. The companies just leave themselves a little more out of the equation.”

I never thought I’d see the day when video game companies were being victim-blamed.

Frankly, by leaking information, it ruins the relationship between the companies and the journalist, because then the company will start to make generalizations about journalists and not trust them, thinking that they will reveal whatever information they give them, which makes journalists like this press harder for information, and can you see where I’m going with this? It’s a cycle of mistrust, perpetuated by journalists like these who go against the wishes of a company that just wants to keep something a surprise until a certain date.

And then this motherfucker has the audacity to frame companies blacklisting reporters that leak information as bad! “They operate with the assumption that the press will not upend these plans, and should the press defy their assumption, they bring down the hammer.” Why are companies wrong for trusting journalists? Are you implying that all games journalists are untrustworthy, because they won’t respect the wishes of a company that gives them the information in good faith that they won’t leak it? You do say that “it is nearly unfathomable to me that a reporter would sit on true information about what’s really happening in gaming, that we would refrain from telling our readers something because it would mess with a company’s marketing plan,” so I don’t know, maybe you DO think that all games journalists should immediately report on confidential information that the game companies are going to eventually reveal anyway and while only really receiving clout in return. Oh, whoops, got a little bitter there.

“They appear to believe that the general public will not find out about these games until their marketing plans say it’s time.”

Maybe because people like YOU are the ones who leak it! You can just as easily, you know, not fucking do that! This feels more like an excuse to not accept responsibility/deflect criticism, because ‘the companies shouldn’t have expected us to stay quiet!!!’ This is just straight-up victim blaming. Like it’s actually kind of scary.

It’s this ideology that Kotaku seems to stand by, as LKD once stated that higher-ups look over the written articles to approve them, and to my knowledge, Kotaku hasn’t redacted any of these statements, so I’m assuming that they still stand by it. Them spreading this ideology is what perpetuates the idea of game leaks (of the non-accidental, non-ethics-related kind) being “good journalism,” and with how much reach Kotaku has, it has the power to be legitimately damaging.

“They have done so in apparent retaliation for the fact that we did our jobs as reporters and as critics. We told the truth about their games, sometimes in ways that disrupted a marketing plan, other times in ways that shone an unflattering light on their products and company practices. Both publishers’ actions demonstrate contempt for us and, by extension, the whole of the gaming press. They would hamper independent reporting in pursuit of a status quo in which video game journalists are little more than malleable, servile arms of a corporate sales apparatus. It is a state of affairs that we reject.”

And here it is: Kotaku was just the humble, underdog reporter just doing their job, and the publishers show off contempt for the entire industry (rather than just Kotaku itself, I guess blacklisting one site means you hate all of games journalism) for Kotaku simply doing their jobs!

No, you ignorant twat, you broke their trust, so they don’t want to talk to you anymore. You don’t get to play victim when YOU were the one who blew the whistle.

Now, I cannot stress this enough: I am only talking about leaks related to game announcements, content details, etc. that are deliberately leaked to the public from an inside source. I am not talking about leaks related to ethical violations or troubled development or other negative things within companies. Those are things that should be reported on. But that kind of thing isn’t primarily what Kotaku is talking about and promoting; they are promoting the reveal of information because it’s “just good journalism.”

Except, as shown above, it has some very dire, very real consequences for the people you don’t see, and maybe that’s why Kotaku is so adamant about defending themselves in this regard. Maybe they don’t see the living, breathing people who get affected by their leaks, and so they think they’re fighting against the Big Bad Corporation when, in reality, it’s much more complicated than that. It doesn’t feel real to them. Or, maybe they do and they just don’t care. I genuinely cannot say so one way or the other.

I really, truly hope that by reading this, you the reader have a new perspective on how leaks of that kind affect the industry, and the little people whose backs the companies are built on.

As for the article and Kotaku as a whole...

“Kotaku readers always deserve the truth. You deserve our best work. It doesn’t matter which company is mad at us today, or which companies get mad at us in the future. You’ll continue to get it.”

Fuck yourselves.

#kotaku #video games #games #games journalism #hooo BOY this one got angry #but!! it's done and i like it

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kaelin-bct-blog · 5 years

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Data Objects - First Attempts Within the Group

As I have not posted in quite a while, I shall be making one very long post in relation to the Data Objects assessment. So please bear with me while I do my best to explain my thought and iteration process.

First of all I would like to address my perception of this assignment. I have really struggled to DO anything with it as it has taken weeks for me to come to any kind of real understanding of what we are doing and why we are doing it. The introduction to this assessment was pretty vague and trying to find examples of Data Objects proved pretty pointless as there seems to be a lack of them out there in the world. Perhaps I simply did not look in the right places, but this made me even more uneasy about the project and it's lack of solid direction or ‘rules’ so to speak. Furthermore, the examples provided to us in the briefing seem to me to simply be reinterpretations and physical representations of graphs and various other methods of viewing data (which are fundamentally better for visualizing and communicating this kind of information). For the past three weeks the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” has been popping into my head. Why try to reinvent a more complex, less efficient method of interacting with data? The whole thing comes across as a bit of a ‘You obviously don’t understand ART my dear’ gallery owner, who then turns around wafting some awful perfume into your face and flouncing out of the room. Again, maybe that's just me seeing it through my own filters. Regardless of how I feel about it I must press on, quietly suffocating my frustration and annoyance with a pillow of anxiety as the due date draws ever closer.

Initially, my Data Object (DO) when I was working solo was oriented around video gaming. Specifically I was interested in the differences between male and female gamers when it came to the reasons they played video games. I found a data set that looked at the primary drivers for male and female players (exploration, destruction, competition, etc) and started to think of an object that might suit such a set. After speaking with several people in the class there was the suggestion of dice, and I figured this fit in with the data set nicely. I set out making a ten-sided die that had different symbols on it, each one a representation of a primary drive for male or female gamers. The idea behind this was to create an object that would change how you approach video games, by using the die before playing something it would dictate whether you played the game with a focus on exploration, or on competition, etc. This I tested on games ranging from things like Batman: Arkham Knight and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which tend to be more open-ended in terms of player approach, to see if the DO did indeed change how I was playing and experiencing these games. In something like Skyrim it's very easy to see how focusing on exploration rather than destruction can very much alter the experience, but it becomes difficult to find elements such as community or competition seeing as it's a single player experience. After talking with Charles about ways in which to test the DO he suggested something like Minecraft as this has online play with community servers focused in different aspects of play (such as community building servers, or player versus player environments). Unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to test the object using this game as we had started the group phase.

I joined a group comprising of Callum Healey, Gohanne Galletes, Jarem Cabamongan, Khai Gan, Alyssa Kerrigan and Liam O’Reilly-Givert. Together we wanted to bring a mixture of people interested in technology, diet and fashion to see if we could make something truly unique. After much discussion we ran through a few ideas on how to combine our interests and talents. We discussed interactive fashion, or the idea of combining digital tech like LED displays to show information relevant to our data sets. There was even discussion about placing a clock on a shirt and seeing if we could somehow use that as almost a sort of pie chart. Or using the fabric of the shirt itself as a way to show different data. After struggling to find a connection between our interests we did some brainstorming, and after writing down all the key aspects of what we were looking to dissect we saw the underlying theme that we all agreed on, consumerism. Through consumerism we could touch on the fashion industry, fast food and diet (and there for things like BMI which was what Liam had been hoping to focus on) as well as technology and the role it plays in consumerism in the modern day. This seemed like a great way to have everyone in our rather large group of seven focusing on a singular theme in order to work on something as a unit.

We then needed to find a method of communicating our data as well as specific data sets related to consumerism as it manifested in those three spheres (technology, fast food and fashion). We decided to focus on a garment of some kind, as we believed it would give us a fair amount of creative breathing room so to speak.

In order to simply get started we used a dataset that had already been used by a team member for their original DO (Jarem). This was to do with technology usage in teens. This is where we started going back to ideas surrounding the shirt with a clock on it, or different fabrics to represent different parts of the data. My issue with this stage was the relevance of the data set to consumerism. It seemed there was a general panic involving this project and how little anyone seemed to understand it, so the reaction was to try and make something as fast as possible regardless of its relevance. While members of our group discussed these aspects I started brainstorming other ideas, with a heavy focus on interactivity. I realized that if we could make something that causes someone to have to interact with our DO it may do a better job of communicating the data set, or at least making it more interesting and memorable. I had a few ideas surrounding things like the use of temperature to communicate data, there was even the concept of creating our own data set using the graphs and info that most OS on peoples smartphones now record in relation to app usage. For example on Android you can go into your phone information and see the amount of time you spend on specific applications. Although it wasn’t a bad idea it again did not seem to connect very strongly with our desired focus on consumerism.

We were still struggling to gain traction on this project, so I decided to create a Statement of Intent in order to give us a better idea of what we wanted to achieve. Something we could compare our ideas to and make sure they were falling in line, so as to retain focus and direction. (PIC OF STATEMENT NOTES HERE). After breaking down the main components of what we all wanted to focus on I managed to come up with this.

“Our intent is to use a DO to communicate the harmful impact if fast paced consumerism on both the planet and ourselves as a species. In specific, consumerism as represented by the fast food and fast fashion industries, as well as the effects of modern technology on us socially, physiologically and/or mentally.”

#ctec501 #dataobjects

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loadlonestar494 · 3 years

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Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple Ova 12 Release Date

Kenichi The Mightiest Disciple Ova 12 Release Date 2

Kenichi Ova Episode 12

Shun Matsuena's Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Kenichi manga already inspired TV anime

This year's 47th issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine is announcing on Wednesday that an original video anime (OVA) project of Shun Matsuena's Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Kenichi (History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi) manga has been green-lit. The anime studio Brains Base will produce the project. More details and the release date information will be provided in future issues of Weekly Shonen Sunday.

Hey has anyone heard any news about Kenichi: History's Strongest Disciple ova getting a dub or if there will be anymore, i have done a little looking but found nothing on the matter and really don't know where to look. I just finished 1-50 and it was soooo good and i want more haha, so is there any news on 51+ or the the ova getting a dub. Short Special bundled with the Fourth and Fifth OVA episodes. History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi: Specials Special 12 (0) OVA Special 1. Just announced History's Strongest Disciple OVA 10 coming soon. Shogakukan will ship the limited edition bundle in Japan on May 16. Kenichi the mightiest disciple ova op full - Duration: 3:52. Mar 14, 2012 OVAs of History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi bundled with volumes 46, 47, 49, 53, 54, 55, & 56 of the manga. Alternate Titles: 史上最強の弟子ケンイチ, Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi, 'History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi' Genre: Action, Comedy, Martial Arts, School, Shounen, Sub Type: TV(Fall 2006) Status: Finished Airing Number of Episodes: 50 Episode(s) Views: 1370 Views Date: Oct 7, 2006 to Sep 30, 2007 MyAnimeList Score: 8.16.

The manga already inspired a television anime series that Funimationreleased in North America.

(Via Manga News)

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Kenichi Ova Episode 12

Kenichi STORY:ShirahamaKenichi is an average 15-year-old high school student who has earned the nickname 'Weak Legs' fromalways getting bullied. One day he meets a cute girl named Furinji Miuwho helps him build the courage to begin training at a mysterious dojowhere she lives. Here Kenichi faces intense training from masters of manydifferent martial arts styles as he attempts to become stronger. Kenichi eventually becomes a full disciple of Ryōzanpaku, and becomes enamored of Miu. Subsequently, Kenichi's daily routine is divided between training under the six masters of Ryōzanpaku, and his fights against the members of 'Ragnarok', a gang of bullies trying alternately to recruit or to vanquish him. After Ragnarok is disbanded, Kenichi andMiu are targeted by Yomi, a group of disciples personally trained by a master of an organization rivaling Ryōzanpaku, Yami. While the masters of Ryōzanpaku and their allies follow the principle of always sparing their opponents' lives (Katsujin-ken), the members of Yami believe that any means of defeating an opponent is valid, including murder (Satsujin-ken). In the struggle between the two factions, Kenichi, Miu, and their allies fight the members of Yomi, while his mastersconfront the members of Yami.

A pretty snazzy character selection screen, that is.

ABOUT: ShijouSaikyou no Deshi: Kenichi (literally translated asHistory's Strongest DiscipleKenichi) is a 3D fighting game developed and published by Capcom, based on the manga and animeseries of the same name. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple began as a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Syun Matsuena. The first tankōbon was published in August 2002. An anime adaptation made by Tokyo Movie Shinsha aired from October 2006 to September 2007 and had 50 episodes. The Kenichi PS2 fighting game was the first ever videogame based on the Kenichi series, releasing only in Japan in March 2007.

Kenichi features 12 selectable characters, each representing their unique fighting styles seen in the original manga and anime. Modes include Story, Versus, Practice, Score Attack, Time Attack, Survival, Mission, and Gallery. For each character,you can choose two battle styles 'Quiet' and 'Motion'. Quiet focuses ondefense and counter attacks, while 'Motion' focuses on attacks and explodeanger (super combos). During battles there are 3 types of attacks: shockskills (strikes), truth skills and return skills (counter attacks). Shockskills are stronger than Truth skills; Truth skills are stronger than Returnskills; and Return skills are stronger than Shock skills.

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Where have I seen this stage before?

In more ways than one, Kenichi resembles Capcom's well known 3D fighting game series starring high school stereotypes, Rival Schools. From the cel-shaded 3D graphics style of Kenichi to the stylized anime characters, Kenichi is an attractive looking PS2 game for the time. The fighting stays mostly on a 2D plane, but there are somesidestepping techniques as well. The gameplay is comparable to several Capcom fighters, but focuses more on martial arts techniques and less on projectiles. The gameplay isn't nearly as solid or deep as comparable fighting games of 2007, but features plenty of fan service for those familiar with the manga and anime series.

Page Updated:January 29th, 2020Developer(s):Eighting Co.Publisher(s):CapcomPlatform(s): PlayStation 2 Release Date(s): March 2007 Characters: Kenichi, Takeda, Miu, Ukita, Siegfried, Hermit, Nijima, Valkyrie, Thor, Loki, Freiya, Berserker, Odin, 20