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she-lovesmovies · 11 months

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Sodo × fem!reader

She/her reader

Words count: 2 486

Summary: You have a fight with Sodo and he gives you the silent treatment after that.

Warnings: hurt/comfort, angst/fluff. She throws up at some point but it's short and not details. She also eat less for a short time so TW for ED.

Notes: English is not my first language so some lines may be grammatically incorrect, + typos, sorry.

(Pic coming from Pinterest)

"Mountain I don't know what to do. I feel like he doesn't want to talk to me. At first I understood: he's angry, l'm not gonna talk to him, l'm gonna wait. But it's been hours and I really feel like we need to talk about it... "

"Honestly, I personally don't think what you did was that bad. He's just annoyed by anything and everything. You should try to talk to him."

"Ok..? You sighted.

Rain was looking at you, shaking his head no.

But what could you do, really?

You had walked on his guitar and broke two of the buttons. Not just broke in the he could put them back on way, but you had crushed them.

You couldn't even remember how it happened.

But you remembered how Sodo had looked at you.

How the atmosphere of the room had instantly changed. For the long time you had been with Sodo, or hang out with him, you had never felt that.

It was your fault, clearly. You knew your boyfriend was always leaving his things on the floor so you should have been careful.

After your initial shock, you had fall to your knees and tried to put the pieces back. But he had harshly told you to leave the room. You had quickly complied. And he hadn't talk to you since the incident.

You hadn't even had the chance to apologize...

You trusted Rain. But you had to talk to Sodo.

————————————————

So here you were, in front of his door.

"Sodo ?"

You knocked on the door and opened it. Discreetly walking inside.

He was sitting on the floor, his back to you. His ears and head twitching at the sound of your movements.

His tail was moving violently.

He looked like an animal.

"Sodo ? It's me….. Ijust wanted to say l'm sorry."

"Get out." He growled.

Ok.

So it was gonna be a hard one.

"Sodo, I'm really sorry, can we talk about this ?"

"What about ? You broke my guitar. I won't be able to play it. That's it. Get out.?

"I'm not getting out until you're looking at me. You're clearly not well and I'm not leaving you like this."

He angrily turned around and looked at you dead in the eyes.

He wasn't wearing his mask so you could see his eyes. And now you knew why they were ghouls. Why people thought of them as demons.

"And why would I want you being the one to help me?"

"Because I'm your girlfriend…..?" You answer quietly, forced to look at the floor under his cold scary gaze.

He laughed sadistically and you knew it had been the wrong thing to say and you were both gonna get hurt now.

" You're just a girl I fuck and hang out with. I could do it with any other siblings or sisters. Do you think you have anything special? Because right now apart from breaking my guitar, you didn't do much around here."

He doesn't mean it.

You knew he didn't mean it.

He is just angry.

He loves you.

You knew he did.

After everything you went through together.

But it still hurt.

"You don't mean it. You're just angry.."

"Just angry? Just angry? I could fucking kill you right now! don't know why i'm not doing it. Probably because my brothers would murder me after that. But trust me I would fucking rip you apart if I could. You're fucking useless in the clergy. Copia is being nice to you because that's who he is. He doesn't care about you. I don't care about it."

"No, you don't mean it..." your lips started shaking.

"I- mean- every-words- I- said." He articulated.

At this point your whole body was trembling.

"Stop fucking trembling. It's pissing me off!" He harshly said before turning back to his broken guitar.

"Sorry." you muttered.

He doesn’t mean it.

He doesn't mean it.

Both of you didn't say anything for the next two minutes.

It can't end on this.

This conversation can't end like that.

How can I arrange it ?

How can I fix his guitar?

"Sodo, tell me what should I do...?"

You could hear the tears in your own voice.

You knew his guitar was the thing he loved the most in this whole world.

He always had play with this guitar since he stopped being a bassist.

"Fucking leave me alone and don't talk to me again. I don't want to see your face."

You couldn't just stop talking to him.

Or hang out with him.

Did that mean you both were nothing now.

"Are you breaking up with me ?" You ask with a quiet voice.

He didn't answer.

You were in the wrong.

He had every right to not talk. He had asked you to leave him be and you were in the wrong.

So you turned around, defeated, and walked out of the door.

You were in the wrong.

He didn't answer...

——————————————-

4 days had passed since your fight with Sodo.

You both hadn't talk to each other.

You were trying to reach him but he just kept avoiding and ignoring you.

You had heard from Aether that he was in the studio, talking with Copia.

So you ran to them, knowing he couldn't avoid you if he was talking with Copia.

You entered the studio.

Copia glanced at you but Sodo kept talking not acknowledging you or the sound you made.

He probably heard or smell you coming.

"Sodo...”

The ghoul kept on going on.

Copia looked at you, then Sodo.

"Sodo. Please can we talk ?"

No answer.

“Sodo answer me !” You yelled.

Copia looked at you and opened his mouth to say something to Sodo but the ghoul was faster.

"We can keep this conversation elsewhere if you're distracted Papa."

Copia looked like he didn't know what to do.

The silence grounded itself in the room.

“Please talk to me." You whispered, your voice shaking.

Silence again.

Then Sodo started talking with Copia again, who clearly wasn't listening but just looking at you with pity, extending his hand toward you to reach you.

“My dear maybe if...”

Tears rolled down your face and you whimpered just before running out of the room.

You were embarrassed.

Being treated like that in front of Papa.

Being treated like you were nothing.

Like you were useless and didn't exist.

You arrived to your bedroom and locked yourself into your bedroom.

You ran to your bathroom and toilet.

You started throwing up.

Your mouth and throat were sour because of the vomit.

But the way Sodo treated you had triggered some background traumas you had.

You've been through similar things in middle school.

You had to endure those type of behaviors from people you loved.

And it had leave the child you were, traumatized by some specific things.

You couldn't help the way your body was reacting.

And for the next 3 weeks, you had been throwing up every night.

After your duties. After all the pressure was gone. Your body was letting it all go.

But it hurt you.

Your stomach, your throat, your head was hurting you.

Your whole body was exhausted by throwing up for hours. So after the first week you started eating less to vomit a little less food.

Your body kept trying to vomit something and it hurt, but it wasn't as painful as when you were eating.

You also had sleeping problems because of that. It was not often that you were throwing up in the middle of the night and apart from thinking too hard about everything that was going on, you frequently were woke up by nightmares.

You had learned from Rain that Sodo's guitar had been fixed a week ago. You were glad. But the silent treatment kept going on. And honestly it was almost like you had accept it, it pained you everytime you saw him, but you were getting use to it. It didn't mean you were more happy. Getting use to it didn't arrange anything. You still felt miserable. Wandering in the corridors, doing your tasks like a ghost, you still felt useless.

Right now, you were trying to eat your breakfast. The only meal you had everyday.

Thinking about what you could do today.

You knew how it was gonna go: you were gonna go to your bedroom, lay in your bed, start thinking about Sodo, about your relationship, about everything you did, about how you did the same as when you were young, about your last relationships, about how in the wrong you were. About how apart from the guitar you were just a pain in the ass and uninteresting.

About how you knew Sodo was stubborn but if he really loved you he couldn't avoid you for that long.

About how he had always been right: he was saying the truth and didn't want you.

And you would throw up, and cry. And wish someone was there, but at the same time wished no one would see you like that, and wished to only disappear and die.

"Y/n. I know you want and need some time alone, but we're really worried about you.."

You didn't dare to look at Mountain while eating your cereals.

"Hm."

"He's right, you don't look good." Agreed Swiss.

"So that's why you all decided to sit with me this morning? Then that's really kind of you, for once, to sit with me. But don't worry I'II be able to achieve my duties. So you can tell Copia to stop sending his ghouls because whatever my mood and state I'll do my job. I don't want to get thrown out of the clergy."

You stood up from your chair and took your bowl.

But before you had the chance to walk away, Mountain's tail grabbed your forearm.

"Y/n, you need to talk to him.” Mountain muttered.

You started laughing hysterically.

"He's been giving me the silent treatment for 5 weeks. At this point he just doesn't want me in his life. Plus, last time you told me talk to him and look how greatly it went. It's okay. I fucked up. It was stupid of me to think he cared and loved me. You all don't have to pretend. I’ll just stop annoying everyone."

Cumulus tried to speak:

"Y/n it's not what we-“

You didn't let her finished as you took your forearm back and quickly walked out of the cafeteria.

"We need to do something. Sodo is fucking up all the rehearsals and she clearly is not doing well?”

"I don't care about the fucking rehearsals Aether. She's gonna kill herself if she keeps going on like this." Said Mountain.

"We need to talk some fucking sense in Sodo's ego and brain." Agreed Cirrus.

——————————————-

You were in your room.

In your bed.

Under your white sheets.

Your head below your pillow.

Your head was hurting you so bad.

You didn't know if the pillow was suppose to take the pain away, to cut yourself from the outside world, or just suffocate yourself to die instantly.

The tinnitus in your ears was so loud you didn't hear your door opening.

"Y/n.."

You groaned. Still deaf from the person entering.

"Y/n, it's me, Sodo."

You were on the verge of passing out.

The bucket for throwing up next to your bed was almost full.

You didn't know why tonight was that bad.

"Talk to me, please?

Sodo thought it was only fair that you were giving him the silent treatment back, after what he did to you. But he couldn't stop himself from getting worried at the sounds leavingg your body.

He rushed to your bed when he clearly heard cries.

He pulled the sheets and you shriek.

You curled on yourself even more than before, as if trying to protect you.

Sodo took in the sigh of you.

You were pale.

Really pale.

It looked like you hadn't eat for days.

He kneeled next to the bed, where your face was now resting and caressed it.

"Y/n open your eyes."

You shook your head and he stood up, just to sit on your bed and tried to pull you up so you were sitting.

You were just limbs and as you sat up, your head fell past his shoulder. Your chin resting on it as your chest was laying on his.

"Sodo." you finally whimpered.

You had recognized him.

"Yeah, it's me darling."

"You're talking to me." She sobs.

And Sodo’s heart couldn’t hold it anymore.

It broke on itself and tears started to well up in his eyes.

And a sudden wave of immense sadness and pain washed over him.

He was overwhelmed by sorrow.

It took him a second to realize it was your pain he was feeling.

His arms encircled you and he hugged you like he had never hug anyone.

"I'm so sorry. l'm so sorry. I was being immature. It was never your fault. For anything. I let my guitar lay around. I was an asshole to get angry at something so stupid. It was just buttons. I didn't mean anything I say. Please believe me. I love you. I love you so much. Please."

You closed your eyes from relief.

Your head was still hurting you like hell therefore the need to vomit was starting to vanish.

But then your mind reminded you of those past 3 weeks.

"Why? Why did you do that to me? For 3 weeks. You're lying. You don't love me.."

You tried to get out of his embrace but you were just too weak.

"I'm sorry. I was angry at myself. And then I thought you would never forgive me. That you were just better without someone so immature. I'm so sorry. I don't want our relationship to get toxic. l'll never do that to you again. I'm so sorry. l've never been more miserable. Please come back."

You cried even harder as you heard Sodo's own cries.

"I don't know. I don't know. I'm so tired Sodo. I love you so much. But right now I'm too tired to think."

"Okay, okay don't worry darling. I brought you some biscuits so you can eat and then we'll just lay down and talk about all this tomorrow. Do you want me to go ?”

"Please. Stay. I need you to hold me."

Sodo nodded. He didn't loose his grip on you as you both laid down on the bed.

He hugged you from behind.

"I love you so much. I'm so sorry. So sorry." He sobs quietly.

"I know Sodo." whispered as your mind drifted into unconsciousness.

The ringing in your ears had stopped.

#sodo ghoul x reader #ghost band #shitghosting #be gay do drugs hail satan #sodo x reader #dewdrop x reader #dewdropghoul #mountain ghoul #swiss ghoul x reader #aetherghoul #cardinal copia #cirrusghoulette #cumulus ghoulette #rainghoul #ghost fanfiction #ghost

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a-small-tragedy · 10 months

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And so... Hi!

Usually my name is Korzh, but you can call me Bernard! My pronouns are he/his. You may know me from the Topher art. But recently I had posts written about me with extremely dubious content and I want to refute these disgusting accusations in my direction.

Let's get right to the point, I'm NOT a PROSHIPPER AND I'VE NEVER BEEN ONE.

The first and most terrible is the accusation of pedo content. I've always drawn characters older than they are in the show. I myself am very uncomfortable with sexual undertonesbetween 16-year-olds, so I made them older for my comfort. That being said, the characters both on my nsfw artworks as well as regular ones are OF AGE!

Also, in my defense, I want to show a post that I made the DAY BEFORE.

Context: I drew my favorite characters dynamics, but some people started commenting adult and child pairs, so I made a post.

Translation: JULY 5TH 9:54 Guys, if there is a child or an animal in your ship dynamics, then I may have questions for you... Just a warning, I never thought that it would be necessary to introduce a rule for this, in my group!

I tried to be as correct and gentle in my statements as possible, because I couldn't know for sure with which intent these characters were shown in the first place. But later I realized that it was just a misunderstanding, I did not indicate that it was a romantic relationship, people misunderstood me, so I deleted the post :D

But as you can see, I'm generally AGAINST THIS KIND OF STUFF.

Speaking of misunderstandings.....I was also accused of Transphobia based on a deleted post.

Probably not everyone knows, but I am trans myself! It was very hard to accept, because I was constantly faced with transphobia in my address from people in reality and the Internet.

As for the deleted post, it really looks terrible. The fact is that unfortunately, while writing, I mixed two ideas at once( The first one was that I can't really imagine Topher being in a relationship with a girl. The second one was supposed to tell about the ideas for an art with T Joan and T Topher.

But in the process of writing, I couldn't formulate the idea correctly, and it turned out like THIS... IT WASN'T UNTIL A FEW MINUTES LATER THAT I REALIZED WHAT I HAD DONE AND I WAS REALLY SORRY, SO I DELETED THE POST SO AS NOT TO UPSET PEOPLE. My trans friend reassured me that it didn't hurt her, but I still felt terrible, so I completely refused to implement that idea.

I'm really sorry about that post, but I didn't think that people would just take it out of context and want to cancel me without understanding the situation. Now I understand that I should have apologized for it right away. But what happened happened.

Also I tried to contact these people just to talk, but the only person who knows their contacts refused to help.

Addition: Some people on Twitter pointed out my nationality, yes, I am Russian and do not support the authorities in my country. WELL, APPARENTLY, NOT EVERYONE KNOWS THAT 2 OUT OF 3 PEOPLE WHO WROTE THE POST WITH THE CANCELLATION ARE RUSSIANS THEMSELVES. AHAHAHAHAHAH Addition 2: Already at the time of writing, the authors of the post compared me to a real terrible person and began to blackmail me by setting conditions. I can't describe how disgusted I am with this whole situation. Shall these words and actions be on their own responsibility, if they have any left. To the rest, thank you for reading and taking the time! Your support has helped me to deal with this. Special thanks to everyone who helped translate this text ahahah, I'm really not very good at this... If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments or an anonymous ask! Bye!

#clone high topher #clone high abe lincoln #clone high #topher bus #tophabe #I'm really sorry that I'm clogging up the tags(((

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skullwillow155 · 3 months

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Fanfic Draft - Sanji x oc (+More than likely Zoro) Sanji and oc had a sort of relationship before the time skip was fully official and depending how I go zoro develops feelings for oc. The split starting that up. This is post time skip and only the first draft so I may rewrite this slightly. Its no means finished and there will be more adventure with everything happening.

I hope its not too bad. I haven't wrote fanfiction in years and I haven't wrote for one piece before. So it may not be brilliant yet until I get my writing groove back on but I had a small idea and wanted to start something. Inspired by a chat I was having.

Story is also on A03 if anyone wants to follow so they don't miss any updates

Part 2 is up

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It had been two years since The Strawhat’s all saw each other after the incident on Sabaody and now the whole crew were finally reuniting back where it started. Jeshika couldn’t contain her excitement and if she was honest her nerves. Two years was a long time to be apart from everyone and she wondered if everything would be the same.

The anticipation was killing her as she stood on the Thousand Sunny with Nami and Robin. That had already been an emotion reunion, only just finishing hugging and crying with each other. Well the crying was mostly her and Nami but Robin was smiling. She had changed so much from when she last saw her. Her appearance was so much different but she would deal with everything later she was just grateful that she had her friends back. It was too surreal and she honestly never thought this day would come. How 3 months had turned into two years, that had broken her heart when Luffy told them to stay away but in her heart she understood that they had to get stronger. She never liked it but she trusted her captain that it was the right choice.

She got stuck in her thoughts of the last two years that a few hours passed and the sky began to get darker. She didn’t realise how long she had been in thought until Nami and Robin were sorting things out on the ship, calling to her to come with them and sort things out. She snapped out of her thought and refused the offer, not wanting to move until she saw them; instead she stood waiting impatiently for Luffy to return with Zoro and Sanji.

She wouldn’t leave the deck, waiting for her captain to return, almost wondering if they would. She didn’t to lose them again not when she was this close to having everyone back together again. She bit her lip and sighed, feeling the anxiety bubbling up. She knew things never went to plan with them but she hoped this was one of the days where she could just have a little bit of peace. Waiting on the ship was agonising. She kept tapping her feet on the ground and biting her nails, feeling herself get more frayed as the minutes turned to hours. All she wanted was to be reunited with everyone and she wanted to see both Zoro and Sanji. Her heart aching at that thought.

After what felt like hours she finally heard a light holler in the distance before seeing Sanji wave her way. His eyes going wide as he looks over. “Ahhhh~~ Jeshika – Swan” He hollered and waved happily, a pool of blood leaking from his nose, he goes to cover that and his eyes we’re bright. The blood, excitement and movement caused him to fall off the small ride the three were on and being thrown onto the ship near your feet.

She sees them coming back and smiles as she waves back at them, letting out a squeal. Luffy hops off the boat with a wide smile and Zoro making his way behind Luffy onto the ship; not before looking at the chef in disgust and taking a step over Sanji’s body.

Jeshika took in the sight before her and couldn’t help the wide smile on her face. Luffy was talking fast and loud almost bouncing over the ship which took her attention away briefly before seeing Zoro in the corner. She immediately goes to Zoro first giving him a long hug as she took in his scent and appearance for the first time in two years. It was similar but also different and that made her feel a little sad at the thought he seemed different but she let that thought slide trying to revel in the here and now. They were here that was all that mattered. Zoro was quite stoic and rigid at the hug but she did feel him give a small squeeze back. That was more than she needed. Just to know he was happy to see her, he had a small smile on his face which he tried to hide but Jeshika saw it. She smiled back not needed to speak. There was no need for words between them, she could still feel the connection they once shared and let out a small almost inaudible sigh of relief. Maybe things could get back to some normality now.

She let out another smile at Zoro almost getting lost in the feeling of having him back that she almost forgot everyone else. Just for a moment that is until she felt movement by her feet and realising Sanji was still on the floor. She let out a chuckle before pulling away from Zoro and bending down to pull Sanji into a tight hug.

She saw the blood coming from his nose still and let out a small chuckle. “Same old Sanji” she whispered in glee. She was grateful that there was some familiarity after all these years. The blood going on her bikini top but she didn’t care, almost pulling him into a much tighter hug. Two years was too long. She pulled him even closer to her chest and hugged him tight. Just letting all her emotions wash over her.

She could feel his body trembling against hers, His grip on her tightening, as he knuckles almost turns white. She could feel him digging into her skin but she didn’t mind. It made it feel real.

Sanji had been yearning to feel Jess’ warmth again so badly for a long time, being stuck on that island made him yearn for her touch more than he would like to admit. He could see Zoro raise an eyebrow at his behaviour but he didn’t care. They were both over the moon to see you and neither were going to ruin this moment even if it was tempting to snap at the other.

Blood had covered Jeshika’s chest from his nose as he tried so hard to stop it but the sight of her was too much, she had changed too but it wasn’t in a bad way. Her figure and her aura just made him want to soak in everything about her once again. He was embarrassed beyond belief but he just couldn’t stop himself. He doesn’t want to move away from fear of her not being there anymore.

He continued to hug back with all of his strength and leans his head into her before pushing his face against her breasts. It was done without thinking but the scent of her and the softness was all he wanted, craved even. He needed the warmth and the comfort only she could give him and he was going to be greedy and take it all. Relief also washing over him at being in your grasp again.

Zoro felt a hint of jealousy run through him at the two of you hugging, a flash going though his eyes but he didn’t make a move to stop it. He could feel the tension, knowing they both needed this, even if it was killing him to not be able to touch her. He wouldn’t let Sanji win and show what he was feeling. He had thought long and hard throughout the two years as he was training with Mihawk. Thoughts of Jeshika always staining his mind in the quiet moments of day. The thoughts became more and more as the years passed by. Almost wondering what would happen if and when he finally got to see her again. He couldn’t pinpoint those feelings gnawing at his chest at the sight of the idiot cook and Jeshika hugging but it pulled him into his thoughts. Zoro was lost in thought just taking in her appearance realising how much she had changed but there was still the same old Jeshika underneath the change in appearance and it made him twitch his lips a little; grateful no one saw that. He couldn’t stop looking at her.

Jess lifted her head to look at Zoro almost expecting him to have disappeared with the captain, usually first to follow when Luffy was to leave, when she noticed him staring. She felt a light blush creep on her cheeks and looked away bashfully before holding onto Sanji tighter, burying her nose into his blonde hair; one to avoid Zoro’s intense gaze and two to try and remember the scent she has missed so dearly. Zoro caught Jeshika’s glance and cleared his throat before turning away and pretending to inspect his swords.

Jeshika didn’t know how she had coped in those two years. Being away from her captain and the crew was bad but being away from both Sanji and Zoro had almost broken her. Many a nights she thought of her crew, wondering what they were doing but each and every night the thoughts always came back to one of two Strawhat’s; Sanji or Zoro. Her and Sanji were close, probably the closest she was to any of the crew, before they had separated and her and Zoro’s relationship was complicated but there was always an undeniable bond between those two that they had; even if Zoro never voiced anything they both cared for each other deeply.

She was pulled out of her thoughts at the feel of wet on her chest, She looked down to see the blood pouring but didn’t care that she was covered in it. All that mattered was the man in front of her. With shaky breaths she kissed the top of his head and lets him soak her presence up like a sponge.

She had a warm feeling in her chest knowing she was back with the two most important people in her life and felt a calm wash over her.

As they hugged Zoro teased Sanji at his behaviour trying to cover his own thought’s and feelings. Sanji’s head snapped up to give Zoro and glare but was brought back to Jeshika’s presence quickly. The words he wanted to say to Zoro dying on his lips as he tried so hard to stop the blood from flowing. “Stupid moss head” He whispered but there was no malice to it.

In the background the rest of the crew were laughing and talking and all Jeshika could think was she was home. Everyone were all so happy to be together again. Everyone had changed in someway she could tell but the bonds they had seemed to just fall back into place and that was all that mattered. She was just happy that Sanji was still Sanji no matter what else may have changed in the two years apart. She was sure there was some change in him but this, this was still the same man she knew.

“I missed you...” She whispered with shaky breaths; a couple of tears staining her cheeks. She looked at both Sanji and at Zoro as she said those words. Zoro’s heart swell but didn’t move, wanting to say he missed her too but the words got stuck in his throat.

She felt Sanji pull his head back from her chest and wipe his nose one more time not noticing how much blood was stained and wiped away the tears with the pad of his thumb. “I missed you too suteki na” He said intently as his nose bleed started to dry up.

It was true. He had missed her terribly. He took in her beauty and her smile and fell in love all over again. Her hair had grown longer and she had grown a tan since she had been gone but she was still beautiful to him. “My god I’ve missed you so much” He pulls back and stared into her eyes Intently, feeling like he was finally home.

Now he had pulled back she finally took in his appearance and noticed how much he’s changed just by glancing at him. His blue eyes had come more intense, his hair had grown, covering his face a little bit more. She noticed his fringe changing sides on his face and the stubble he had grown and looked him up and down drinking in his appearance. Both the men in front of her had different auras about them but she couldn’t help feel soft inside at the two men in front of her. This wasn't an entirely new feeling but she was glad the last two years could now finally be ended. She didn't have to be lonely anymore.

Part 1? Might change some of it not too sure.

#fanfiction #fanfic #one piece #zoro #sanji #zoro x reader #zoro x oc #sanji x oc #sanji x reader #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji #nami #nico robin #robin #chopper #franky #luffy #monkey d. luffy

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jacksgreysays · 5 days

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Extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of the Watcher situation, (2024-04-24)

So this is a relatively belated post — several days after the initial “Goodbye Youtube” and one day after the “An Update” videos — and surely by this point there are more interesting/insightful op-eds (both in written form and video form, especially penguinz0’s fairly objective POV as, essentially, a YouTube expert) but there is something about the Watcher situation that made my brain itch. Thus, I wanted to write about it in order to make sense of it all as well as get into a philosophy that seems to be haunting me in recent years and which I think applies greatly here.

This may seem completely out of left field considering 1) definitely not fanfiction and 2) about Watcher Entertainment, a YouTube channel which—as far as this tumblr is concerned—I’ve not engaged with whatsoever, but I don’t know where else I would put this, and weirdly enough I think the general tumblr response to this whole predicament is maybe the… if not objective… then at least, most thoughtful?—or, perhaps, least immediately reactive?—amongst the various social media platforms, that I think some people might appreciate this anyway.

In terms of my relevant background: I majored in Management Science (which is just a fancy way of saying Economics + Business + Accounting because they are, weirdly enough, separate things) and minored in Film Studies in school, I am currently working in the stage tech industry (which, I know, is obviously different from film/video industry), and I like to think I am a fan/consumer of a wide variety of independent creators, some of whom I am lucky enough to be able to afford being a patron/subscriber. I won’t go into all of them—because it is a lot—but there are four in particular whose business models I want to analyze in comparison to Watcher’s admitted blunder:

A) RocketJump (known for Video Game High School and Anime Crimes Division; the core group which turned into the podcast Story Break, then became Dungeons and Daddies) B) Dropout (formerly College Humor, we’ll get into their discography later) C) Drawfee (previously an offshoot of College Humor, now fully independent) D) Corridor Digital (used to be mostly behind the scenes of how VFX studios work, have since become a mostly original content creator)

I will say, right off the bat, I am a patron of Drawfee as well as Dungeons and Daddies, and I am a subscriber to Dropout. I am not subscribed to Corridor Digital’s streamer, which I will get into why later. I understand that being able to sustain those two patronages and one subscription is a luxury that not everyone can afford and so my point of view is already skewed by being such a person who could theoretically afford another streaming service if I so chose. I also acknowledge that many fans of Watcher are not in similarly financially secure places as I am and that regardless of the business model, any monetization that comes from fans would have been a rough ask. However, I wanted to go into this essay in a way that accepts Watcher’s statement—that they needed more funding—in relatively good faith rather than assuming the worst (although that is another point I’ll get into later, largely related to the philosophy I brought up earlier.)

All four of the above listed content creators started or, at least, hit their stride on YouTube:

RocketJump and College Humor were, if not household names, then the digital equivalent of it in the “early days of YouTube.” They were part of the wave of content creators that made YouTube seem less like a bunch of eccentrics with cameras making videos on the side and more like a viable way to support yourself/your team with the art you create.

RocketJump’s Video Game High School went from short (less than 10 minutes) minimal location episodes in season one, to 30 minute plus episodes with full on fight scenes and car explosions by season three thanks to a Monster Energy brand deal. They also had two seasons of Anime Crimes Division, a literal TV quality show, thanks to a Crunchy Roll sponsorship. Unfortunately, RocketJump shut down not long after (their videos are still up on YouTube but they obviously don’t add anything new) but the core creative team behind that have been involved in several projects outside of YouTube (Dimension 404 on Hulu being one of the biggest ones so far) including the podcast Story Break (part of the Maximum Fun network) and now the independent podcast Dungeons and Daddies, the episodes of the main campaigns which are free with ads or, for patrons, ad-less along with additional mini-campaigns and other benefits.

I will say, during RocketJump’s decline, they did try their best to keep going. The partnerships with Monster Energy and Crunchy Roll were the big swings to get the funding to make those TV quality shows they wanted. I believe they lucked out with those brands in particular, or, at least, those brands didn’t seem to inhibit the creative process or ask too much of them that it felt like “selling out” but I also don’t have insight into why they didn’t pursue this model of, essentially, very weird but interesting season long commercials. Maybe they just couldn't find the right brands or maybe they did feel like it was too stifling. Regardless, before they shut down completely, they did also downsize—moving out of the actual city of Los Angeles over to Buena Park. Which is in Los Angeles county, and basically counts as LA still, but is way cheaper than literal Hollywood real estate. (I should have added to my relevant background that I’m born and raised LA county, and have relatives and friends in the film/movie industry, so trust me when I say literal Hollywood/city of Los Angeles is so overrated and unnecessarily expensive. There is a reason why LA traffic is the worst and it’s because everyone is commuting INTO the city. Respectfully and with affection, no one should live there. No one’s start up should be located there.) Obviously the downsizing didn’t necessarily work for RocketJump, but they also didn’t have multiple successful revenue streams the way that Watcher currently does.

In contrast, College Humor was acquired by InterActiveCorp and was turned into CH Media which was three pronged: College Humor, Drawfee, and Dorkly. In 2018 they made Dropout, which had exclusive content separate from their YouTube videos which involved all three prongs. Then some financial shenanigans happened early 2020—IAC withdrew their funding—and there were a bunch of layoffs right before the pandemic which extremely sucked. It has been stated by multiple people involved that it was basically a miracle that Dropout survived through all of that, but there were definitely some sacrifices along the way to make that happen. Currently, Dropout seems to be thriving with mostly exclusive content with the occasional “first episode of a season” posted to YouTube, OR if Dimension 20 is doing a “sequel season” in an already established campaign they will put the entirety of the previous season on YouTube.

IAC withdrawing their funding did put CH Media in a bind. They had to layoff a lot of people right before pandemic and, understandably, a lot of trauma was had. There were also weird issues with who controlled certain IPs/brands/digital assets (I mostly come at this from a Drawfee POV, it took several years for them to own the Drawga series and be allowed to host all of the episodes on their YouTube, and there was also something about the sound file for their opening animation?) but mainly the difference is what kind of content they generate. Originally Dropout had multiple scripted shows with high budgets and pretty cool effects/animations/stunts (Troopers, Kingpin Katie, Gods of Food, Ultramechatron Team Go!, Cartoon Hell, and WTF 101) whereas now almost all of their shows are variations of improv comedians being put into different scenarios or given different prompts. I’m not just talking about Game Changer and Make Some Noise, because Dimension 20 and Um, Actually also technically fall under that description as well. Which is not to say that these shows are worse than the scripted shows—I subscribe to Dropout, so clearly I’m a fan of their current shows—and the budgets for them have since increased to resemble, if not match, those early shows, but it is a noticeable shift in their content creation strategy as a response to the lack of IAC funding. And I will say: Dropout releases at least three videos a week if not more and at least two of those are long form at 30 minutes plus (Dimension 20 being the longest, of course.)

So, these first two business models are not really the most applicable to Watcher Entertainment considering their origin was to get away from Buzzfeed—they’re probably not keen to be partnered with or purchased by a larger company—but there are some aspects to both that I believe are valuable in at least showing the strategy in how these former YouTube creators could successfully extract themselves from YouTube or how they still utilize YouTube even if it is not their main hosting platform or revenue stream.

Then there is Drawfee and Corridor Digital, both of whom are currently—if not primarily—on YouTube, whose situations are more comparable to what I believe are Watcher’s goals.

Drawfee had to rebuild themselves like a phoenix from the ashes of the CH Media layoff during the beginning/worst of the pandemic. Side note: I’m happy that Nathan (one of the four main artists of the current Drawfee team) at least has forgiven(? or let bygones be bygones) Dropout enough to be on an episode of Game Changer (although I will say that this happened after Drawga was “returned” to Drawfee, and after Dropout officially split from College Humor as a brand.) All that being said, Drawfee was a team of four artists plus their editor who wanted to stick together but basically had all of their support system taken away from them. They took a bit of a break to assess their goals and options, announced a patreon with several tiers with great perks, and stuck to their upload schedule. In addition to two videos a week, they also stream on Twitch weekly, have a patron only stream once a month, and a draw class (for one of the higher tiers) once month. After asking their patrons on the relevant tiers if they were okay with it, they began releasing the patron only stream and the draw class to the general public for free after a month. The patreon perks also include things like merch discount codes, high quality PNGs of the final rendered art, access to the draw class with live interaction/critique, and a commission from the artist of your choice. The only “ads” they run are for their own patreon and merch store and, even then, they’re usually at the end of the videos with a credit scroll of the patron names during their exit banter.

Admittedly, they only have MAYBE eight employees—that’s including their video editor(s?) and their discord mod(s?)—with the main four artists doubling/tripling up duties as additional video editors, CFO, and marketing/merch leads. It’s a very streamlined crew and their production costs are not very high since it’s mostly screen recording of their drawings with their audio recording overlayed onto that footage. Although the video editors do sometimes have clever cuts to relevant images depending on their vamping. Sometimes they will have a guest artist but, again, since it’s screen and audio recordings, there’s no travel/housing costs. So, very minimal expenses due to low production costs and small crew but, again, their only revenue source is the patreon/merch, they don’t do outside ads and they very rarely do live shows.

Corridor Digital is, I think, the most applicable to what Watcher would ideally do, which I suppose is somewhat ironic for this essay in particular considering they’re the only one of the four that I don’t financially support. They have two YouTube channels: their main one being where they show the “final product” videos, but I believe their Corridor Crew channel which started primarily as behind the scenes type of videos is where most of their views come from. Especially their React series (VFX artists, Stuntmen, and Animators React etc.) On Corridor Crew they usually upload two videos a week — one which is a React and the other which goes into fun projects/challenges (involving VFX or not) or using VFX to explain scientific concepts — as well as the first episodes of their exclusive content on their streamer. Also behind that paywall are longer and ad-less versions of the videos on YouTube. They also have merch. All of them have merch, I don’t know why I’m stating that. They don’t have a patreon as far as I know, but I also don’t know if their subscription to their website comes with similar perks like discounted merch or something similar.

Anyway, their studio seems to be about 15 to 20 people — not all of them are VFX artists, of course. I believe they have higher equipment costs than Watcher since, understandably, Corridor has to be on the cutting edge of video editing technology. They do occasionally travel for shoots, but it doesn’t require big teams, and that’s only when the local locations available to them don’t match the requirements for the “final product” videos. Otherwise most of their videos are set in the studio or in the alleyway outside their studio in Los Angeles (the city itself, not just the greater county, though they are in a rougher and thus probably cheaper part of Los Angeles). I personally don’t subscribe to their website primarily because their exclusive shows don’t appeal to me—either they’re too technical or a little too dry; to be fair, most of them are VFX artists first before they are performers—and I don’t particularly feel the need to see the extended cuts of the videos uploaded on YouTube. Also I sometimes get a little bummed out by their lack of diversity.

All of this to say, from these four different business models, a bespoke Frankenstein business model for Watcher could be cobbled together. But also, even with that bespoke Frankenstein, there are some changes that Watcher would have to make: primarily their upload schedule. As of right now, I think they do MAYBE one video a week if not, perhaps, one video every TWO weeks. If they want a monthly subscription model, their rate of content generation would ideally be higher to double/quadruple their current upload rate. Obviously they want to create videos with higher production value, but at that rate of generation, something’s got to give: supplement their TV quality shows with either a behind the scenes type series or an increase of “we get four episodes out of Shane and Ryan get increasingly drunk in someone’s backyard” or something similar. Leaning into shows like Worth A Shot (the first season in which Ricky Wang makes cocktails based on a random ingredient, the second season threw in some competitive aspects which I didn’t really find necessary) or the Beatdown which has relatively low production costs (no travel, one location, maybe two cameras at most therefore smaller crew requirements) but a higher polished look. Otherwise, for a separate streaming subscription service, 2-4 videos a month is not going to cut it.

As of right now they probably can’t back out of the separate streaming subscription service because those set ups usually require some level of contract/paying for servers for the website and whatever is hosting their videos for a set amount of time. However, what really strikes me is that I literally didn’t know they had a patreon until I scrolled through the comments of the first Goodbye Youtube video. Maybe it’s been linked "tactfully" in the descriptions of videos, but considering they claim to be lacking in funds, the fact that they weren’t plugging their patreon at the end of every video is not just strange, but also irresponsible considering they do have 25 employees that they don’t want to layoff.

Additionally, I understand artists needing to be in a space that promotes creativity, but there are cheaper places that must be comparable that aren’t in literal Hollywood. It’s an unnecessary expense. On top of that, other people have already brought up that it was fairly crass to introduce this paywall, attributing it to the increased production costs, when the next planned “new series” is a reboot of an old Buzzfeed series in which people travel and eat expensive food. I’m not even talking about the personal expenses of Steven, Shane, and Ryan; what kind of car they drive or the cost of their wedding venue doesn’t matter on a business model basis.

But getting back to the patreon: again, I literally didn’t know they had one. I’m looking over their tiers— they have $5, $10, $25, and $100 — and for the most part they seem okay, although I think they have more to offer that wouldn’t necessarily cost them more. Ie, something that has baffled me for a while: the fact they don’t sell the mp3s of the Puppet History songs; they already exist and it doesn’t cost them anything additional because they don’t need to put it on physical media. Or maybe they do and they’re not marketing it similarly to how they weren’t overtly marketing their patreon?

And, okay, maybe they didn’t want to seem desperate — in the early days of Dropout and independent Drawfee, they both were very blatant in getting people to subscribe/join their patreon. As they should be. Desperation maybe doesn’t look cool and sexy, but it is earnest in a way that conveys equal effort that fans who can afford it would want to see. The fact that we weren’t getting rotating ten second clips of Steven, Shane, and Ryan asking people to join the patreon at the end of every video — even if its the same clip every three videos — is wild. And yes, the $25 tier includes a shoutout every 3 months on Watcher Weekly+ (which I don't quite understand what that is,) but the fact that they weren’t doing a quick post movie credits scroll of all the patreon names is, again, wild. Once you have that initial list, it’s not too difficult to add any new names that join and put that title overlay on top of, again, those nonexistent ten second clips of the three.

As others have already stated, it seems like an extreme mismanagement of their existing successful revenue streams, if they are actually struggling to pay all of their employees. Which goes into the philosophy part of this essay: don’t assume malice when it might just be incompetence. It’s something that I have to remind myself of often because I do get paranoid about people’s intentions sometimes and I have to check myself. Am I being overly suspicious of what might be just an honest mistake? Am I assigning ill will to an action just because it inconvenienced me?

Yes, of course, a lot of this situation could be misconstrued as straight up greed. But, also, Watcher is a relatively young company, helmed by three people who certainly don’t have experience running their own company:

They like to travel. They like to bring a full crew around with them. They’re renting out a shiny office in the heart of Hollywood where everyone knows is where real show biz happens. They’re adding more employees to the team because surely more people means better. And they want better productions values because the prettier the videos the more people will like them right?

It’s naive. It’s a level of inexperience combined with giving responsibility to officers whose main priority is to entertain. And if that means entertaining themselves and their staff, then they might not know the difference. It’s the kind of mistake that first time managers make—trying to prioritize fun over getting the job done. Prioritizing making friends with their employees rather than making sure the work the employees put in is equal to (or greater than) what you spend on them whether that is in paycheck or bringing them to cool locations for fun shoots. It’s a mistake anyone can make, it's just unfortunate that they made this mistake in front of millions of people. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s solely a greed induced cash grab.

But then comes the catch-22 of the philosophy—is it worse to assume incompetence than it is to assume malice? Or, in this case, greed. Especially for the heads of a company that holds the livelihoods of 25 employees in their hands. At what point does it not matter if it’s incompetence or greed if the end result is the same?

Is it better to think that Watcher knew about the various other business models of independent creators and just ignored the efforts put into achieving those successes or is it better to think that they didn’t know and just stumbled into one of the worst moves they could have done. Again, other people have mentioned that Great Mythical Morning—which Watcher has had multiple collaborations with—has managed to make the YouTube subscription/tier system work to the point that they can sustain themselves as well as spinoff channels. Is it incompetence or greed that led to Watcher thinking they could bypass that completely in less time and with less content?

I’ve been at this mess of an essay for several hours when I should have been asleep. Ultimately I want to say, regardless of incompetence or greed… yes, Steven is CEO and yes he is ultimately the one who makes the final call but it is disheartening to see the pointed vitriol at Steven specifically and the infantilizing of Shane and Ryan in comparison. Either they’re all silly uwu boys who are messing around not knowing how to run a company, or they’re all complicit in a crass cash grab in an extremely busted economy.

I think what’s most frustrating to me in all this is that there were so many other channels and creators who have literally walked this path before them and, again, whether through incompetence or greed or arrogance, for them to just ignore it… It’s not betrayal because I don’t know them and so there’s no relationship to betray, it’s just so inefficient and convoluted that I don’t understand. Or, no, even if it was greed, it’s an incompetent greed because at least pure greed would have been pushing that patreon every second they could. Their ratio of YouTube subscribers to patreon members is less than 1% and I bet that’s because a lot of their audience, like me, literally didn’t know they had a patreon. I probably would have become a patreon member of theirs had I known earlier, ESPECIALLY if it included access to those Puppet History songs. Drawfee has half as many YouTube subscribers and nearly double the patreon members as Watcher. I’m just baffled, is all, and maybe by this point sleep deprived.

Anyway. That’s my extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of this situation.

Edit (several hours later after some sleep): I forgot to mention, because they did walk this back almost immediately, even before their "An Update" video, but I believe the original plan was to put EVERYTHING behind that paywall and pull their content from YouTube entirely. Which is, again, extremely baffling, because if ALL of their content is behind a paywall, how would they possibly gain new fans? Even if all of their current fans were able and willing to pay for their separate subscription streaming service, how would a brand new person even stumble on their content enough to want to subscribe if there wasn't a significant amount of "proof of value" free content on YouTube? Again, extremely baffling, and a level of incompetence that overshadows a "cunning" greed. But, like I said earlier, they did walk this decision back almost immediately. If I've misunderstood this and that was never their plan, please let me know, I don't want to be spreading misinformation in a situation that is already so convoluted.

#jacksgreyson #writing #nonfiction #essay #watcher #op-ed #youtube #drawfee #corridor digital #dropout #rocketjump #dungeons and daddies

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diseaseriddencube · 3 months

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My Hazbin Song Rankings

Sometimes I only enjoy small sections of a song, but if those sections are good enough it can still rank higher than a song with a high percentage of decent sections.

Hell’s Greatest Dad: there's parts I don't like much but the song still gets 10/10 from me. The beginning segment for Lucifer and Alastor are my absolute favorite. After that it gets a little eh? I wish that fiddle moment went on for a second longer. Alastor's second section is more like 7/10. Mimzy is...yeah

Poison: 10/10 perfectly solid, no parts I dislike, while I prefer Angel's pilot va more in general, this guy does a good job especially for the songs. The song's catchy, no interrupted or talking sections, the animation for it is also very nice.

Hell Is Forever: 7/10 I like this one, Adam's chorus is absolutely a banger. the sections in between the chorus are more like 5/10, this one's in my playlist

Stayed Gone: 4/10 for the song as a whole, but the actual singing segments get a 7/10 for me, it just bothers me that half the song is talking rather than actual singing. I like Vox's voice, and Alastor plays well in contrast. The tune is nice and catchy, and the ending is perfectly sinister. That's the tea~ (this is in my playlist, with cropped out sections)

INSIDE OF EVERY DEMON IS A RAINBOW: the better beginning song from Charlie, 6.5/10. it's fairly catchy actually but it's not my favorite by a mile

Respectless: 6/10, Carmilla's got a nice powerful voice but Velvette's sections are the part I enjoy, it's a decent song but it won't go in my playlist.

Finale: the majority of the song gets like. 3/10. don't love it. the 25 seconds from the Vs get an 11/10 why couldn't the entire song be this good 😭 Alastor's part from a song perspective is maybe 4/10, as a scene it's a 10/10, but we're ranking the music alone here.

Loser, Baby: 6/10, I like the older style, the beginning part doesn't have appeal but I like the swing of the chorus. Husk's voice in general ain't my favorite but it's alright for this genre. Angel doesn't sound great in this one. Not going in my playlist but I like it well enough.

Happy Day In Hell: solid beginning song, very disney princess. It's not quite my thing, but it's catchy enough and doesn't bore me. 6/10 it ain't bad. wouldn't go in my playlist but I like it well enough

Inside of every demon, is a lost cause: a pilot song, any Alastor song may get a biased ranking, this gets like 5.5/10 though, it never really got my attention much as a song.

Out For Love: 5/10 eh, nothing about it I particularly hate, but it's forgettable and not doing anything for me. didn't need to be a song.

You Didn’t Know: the beginning sucks so bad, stop saying Sera you're pissing me off 😩 Sera's voice ain't doing it for me. Lute's beginning is where it starts getting better. maybe because they're reprising the much better Hell Is Forever. Charlie and Emma's duet is quite badass though. 5/10

Welcome To Heaven: 3/10, catchy but forgettable. didn't need to be here.

More Than Anything: put it away please. 3/10, it's fine I'm just really bored of it, if it wasn't 3 whole minutes long maybe I'd be more okay with it

More Than Anything (Reprise): just put. it. away. please!!!!

Ready For This: 3/10 I'm just bored, nothing wrong with it. forgettable. 5/10 for that little alastor/rosie section, I love their little dance too.

It Starts With Sorry: ugh. 2/10 I wouldn't put this on my playlist at all. it's slow and sappy and uuuuggghhh this did NOT need to be a song, bad viewer experience

Whatever It Takes: 2/10 put this shit away, this didn't need to be a song, it's so boring ahhhhhhh, Carmilla doesn't even sound great in some parts of this. it just goes onnnnnn and oooooonnnn. Vaggie's singing voice bothers me because she doesn't sound like herself, I honestly though she had a separate singing va

#rave ramblees #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel spoilers #long post

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etherrreal · 1 year

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“creep(er) into my heart”

Pairing: kenma x gn!reader Genre: fluff, friends to lovers Summary: two gamers walk into a fancy restaurant and it goes as well as you’d think. WC: 4,220 Warnings: N/A A/N: This is part 2 of “would you be mine(craft)?” with an even cornier title. You can probably read this without reading the first, but maybe read it for context? (also, i joke that applebee’s sucks but their “bourbon street chicken and shrimp” lives rent free in my head everyday) -Luna

Dates are meant to be anxiety-inducing, whether it’s a stomach full of butterflies or ruthless tornadoes.

So, it’s an odd feeling to be so calm and collected during the days leading up to a big date, especially one with Kenma. You assume it’s because the stakes are so low, knowing that if the spark isn’t there, you’ll still see him on Minecraft, probably that same night, to help with his iron golem farming idea like nothing ever happened.

What’s even weirder is that both of you have continued to not discuss the date at all since he asked you the weekend before. You don’t know if it’s because it’ll be awkward to break the ice of the discussion or if he’s procrastinating figuring out the plans for that night, but you both continue to play games and watch anime together during the week without even grazing the topic.

If it wasn't for the Google Calendar invite reminding you 48 hours before Saturday that your date was in fact coming up, you would still believe that him asking you out was something you happened to imagine during your post-date funk.

Thankfully, come Thursday evening, not long after you get the notification, he sends you a text letting you know that he’ll be taking you to a restaurant in the city. It’s one you’ve passed several times before, which is how you know, without having to check their Instagram tags, that it’s a semi-formal, if not fully formal, dress code and dining experience. It’s an abnormal choice for Kenma to willingly select a place where he’d have to wear anything that buttons, let alone a full suit, so you have to imagine that the place must have glowing reviews for him to settle on it.

Now all you have to do is find a whole entire formal outfit with only two days’ notice and minimal time after work to shop. No biggie.

But you manage to do it in time—although barely since you had to rally together the group chat to help—and by the time Saturday comes, you’re actually feeling a bit of nerves start to pool in your stomach as you’re getting ready for the night. Although it all dissipates when you get a series of texts from Kenma, minutes apart, realizing that he may be experiencing the same kind of jitters that you’re feeling.

‘I dont know how to tie a fucking tie, time to cancel the date’ ‘This is harder than finishing Dark Souls’ ‘I got it, but Kuroo made fun of me and is a terrible teacher and now my feelings are hurt’

You zoom through getting ready, and with about 30-ish minutes until your 7PM reservation, the 25-minute Uber ride leaves you with just enough time to be early. And you’re given quite the shock when you step out of the car and you already see Kenma in front of the restaurant, head hung low as he scrolls through his phone. As you get closer, you notice he cleans up nicely in his smart black suit with his hair pulled back into a bun except for a few face-framing pieces. You make sure to call his name to get his attention, his head snapping up when he hears your voice.

“Wooow, look at you, Mr. Snazzy,” you comment, reaching up to straighten his tie. “I’ve never seen you so gussied up before. Must be quite the date for you to dust off your one and only suit.”

“I have a second suit,” he says defensively. “It’s gray because Kuroo says that’s a better color to wear for the daytime.”

“When did Kuroo become your fashion stylist?”

“When my publicist politely said that I looked like a scrub in all my other clothes during meetings.”

“...She never said anything about your hair, though?”

Kenma glares at you, definitely offended by the implication that his excessively grown out roots are unprofessional, to which you offer a small smile, hoping that he knows you meant it with love.

“Let’s just go inside before I get insulted again tonight.”

He pulls the door open for you—like the gentleman that he pretends to be—and steps up to greet the host before you can say anything.

“Hello, I have a reservation for 7PM. Kozume.”

Normally, you’d joke about him finally being able to speak to a server by himself, seeing as he still has to hype himself up sometimes before asking for extra ketchup when you’re eating out. You remember there being a time when he ordered marinara sauce with his cheesy bread from Domino’s and when it wasn’t included, he was fully prepared to leave and eat his bread dry to avoid talking to anyone. You ended up having to take the receipt up to the cashier and fixing the mistake so you didn’t have to see him somberly eating his sauceless bread.

The jokes slip your mind, however, as you take in the decor of the place. A few chandeliers hang from the high ceiling, sparkling under the low light from the sconces on the wall. Each table is decorated with a crisp white tablecloth and set with dark green trimmed plates, long-stem wine glasses, and folded cloth napkins around a simple floral centerpiece.

You’re observing the attire of the guests, feeling a bit underdressed, but also overdressed considering how effortless and chic most of the outfits are. The meals they’re eating look especially small, probably only a few bites on the giant plates. It’s a place definitely out of your comfort zone, one that you’d think would be nice to attend, but probably never would because it’s so bougie and you’d feel out of place.

Kenma’s hand on your lower back startles you out of your thoughts, and suddenly, you’re being guided toward the middle of the restaurant, a server in front of you to lead the way.

The server pulls out your chairs, providing menus and telling you that he’ll be back when you’re ready to order. Polite smiles and thanks are given as you settle in, draping your coats over the backs of your chairs and picking up the menus.

If you thought you felt out of place when you walked in, you’re definitely feeling it now. You scan the menu, trying not to look too stressed when you see the prices and can’t recognize or even read the foreign names of certain dishes, but from what you can read, nothing is sparking joy. You’re trying to get a read on Kenma, glancing up to see if he’s also having trouble picking something from the menu or if he’s confident about what to order, but his stoic face gives nothing away.

In an attempt to put out some feelers, you clear your throat before saying, “I’m not really sure what to pick. How about you? See anything you like?”

“I’m still looking, but nothing so far,” he responds, trailing off at the end as he watches a server bring some morsels of food plated on a bowl of rocks to the table next to you. It’s only then that can catch his eye and in them, you’re seeing the same feeling of bewilderment and unease from being in this setting. But it’s gone in a second, back to his normal flat expression.

But you definitely saw it, so now that you know the feeling’s mutual, you feel less bad about feeling it yourself. You let a few moments pass, with the menu held in front of your face, high enough that only your eyes peek out from over the top before you let out a suggestion.

“....You know we passed by a Domino’s on the way here, and now all I can think about are their wings.”

Kenma nearly slams the menu onto the table, eyes wide and ravenous for some food. “I want some of their cheesy bread so bad.”

“Wanna make a run for it?” You’re trying to be low-key when looking around for anyone that could be watching, gently setting the menu down and grabbing the collar of your coat, looking back to Kenma for confirmation. He’s already shoved one arm into the sleeve of his blazer and is scooting back his chair to stand, making sure to give you a nod so you know that it’s go time.

You’re not as graceful as Kenma is in your escape, nearly spilling someone’s drink while putting on your coat on the way out. You pick up your pace, ignoring Kenma’s glance and snickers. He reaches the door first, holding it open for you while you finally get your coat on. There’s a beat while you stand there before you both burst into giggles, nearly keeling over with laughter and tears in your eyes.

Finally, standing up straight after a few minutes, you gesture behind you. “Ready to go get a gourmet meal?”

With an excited nod from Kenma, you walk side by side down the streets. You use the time to clown him for not knowing how to tie a tie, even suggesting that you’ll gift him a clip-on for future uses so he doesn’t hurt his little gamer hands trying to tie a knot.

To which he responds with, “And I’ll light your Minecraft house on fire using my little gamer hands if you don’t shut up.”

Suddenly, you’re silent.

The Domino’s is a bit farther than it seemed while in the car, but eventually, you see the glowing blue and red symbol high up on the square building, rushing ahead to rip open the door so you can quickly usher Kenma inside and order as soon as possible.

Too much money later, you’re skipping out of Domino’s, wings and cheesy bread secured along with other impromptu boxes of goodies to take home. You’re both waiting at the corner while you pull open the Google Maps app to figure out the best place to catch a cab when you notice a spot nearby that piques your interest.

“Did you know there’s an arcade around the corner?!” you nearly scream, shoving your phone in his face to show him Google Maps.

“No, I didn’t know that,” he says, moving your phone at least a few inches away from his face. “Want to go there?”

“Won’t our food get cold though?”

“That’s what microwaves are for. Duh,” he jokes, grabbing your hand to guide you down the block to the illuminated storefront. You run in like children, making a beeline to the token machine. You begin reaching for your wallet when Kenma lets go of your hand, shoving your wallet away and aggressively pulling out money from his own.

You stare down at your palm in the meantime, feeling little tingles spread throughout it, flexing your fingers and no doubt looking like a weirdo.

Kenma has done his fair share of dragging you away from places, usually when you're glued to the glass window of a store that has anime knick-knacks you want but have absolutely no damn space for, but usually he just grabs your elbow or wrist. You could be overthinking it, but he must've grabbed your hand on purpose. Or you're just that desperate for physical affection.

He shoves a handful of tokens into your open palm, putting his own into his pockets. The arcade suddenly feels so overwhelming, with lights and noises all around you. Should you try the crane games first? Or maybe some skee-ball? You could probably dominate him in that…

“Want to start with some air hockey?” Kenma suggests, pointing over to a free table in the corner.

Yes. Air hockey. An easy win start. “Oh hell yeah, let’s do that.”

You shouldn’t have been so confident. It’s not turning out in your favor, not in the slightest, and you should’ve guessed that, going up against a guy who was the brain of his volleyball team. In your defense, you did win the first game, rubbing it in Kenma’s face and doing a dance like a sore winner. Then he absolutely demolished you for the next three rounds and had the gall to be humble about it like he didn’t just embarrass you in front of the many elementary school kids around you.

You would’ve kept going, being stubborn as hell and telling Kenma, “Best 5 out of 6?” until you got into double digits. But suddenly he has to “go use the bathroom,” which sounds like an excuse to you.

“I’ll be right back. Don’t go too far,” he warns you.

And, to be fair, you don’t go too far. You only walk about twenty feet away to the anime crane game that’s hiding behind a row of other crane games that would be blocking Kenma’s view to you if he comes back the same way he left. He has a phone that he could use to text you if he really can’t find you.

It’ll be fiiiine, you think as you slide in a token and get ready to win the anime figure.

The time passes quickly, not that you notice it. All you know is that you’ve gone through maybe half of your tokens while trying to get the figure to fall between the two bars, only asking the staff to help you reposition once because you managed to mess it up that bad.

It’s funny to think that you were more worried about sticking out like a sore thumb at the fancy restaurant than you are now at the arcade, surrounded by people of all ages in sneakers and jeans while you stand there at the claw machine in dress clothes with your nose nearly against the glass. Maybe they’ll think you’re an important business person coming by to decompress after a very long, busy day at work.

Then you squawk when you finally score the prize after only several more dollars worth of coins, and the facade promptly sails out the window.

It’s only after you have the box in your arms that you decide to check the time, realizing you’ve spent at least ten minutes straight playing. What’s weirder is that Kenma still hasn’t returned yet, and you have no messages or missed calls from him asking where you’re at, which means he's either still in the bathroom–and if that’s the case, you’re deeply worried for his bowels–or he got distracted on his way back from it.

You’re almost at the bathrooms when you see Kenma walking towards you from the corner of your eye, definitely not coming from the bathroom as you’d expect.

“Where were you? I thought you said you had to go to the bathroom.” You notice he’s holding an overstuffed plastic bag. “What did you get? When the hell did you even have time? Or are you just that lucky?”

“Oh. This is, uh..” Suddenly, he’s sheepish, opening the plastic bag where you can see something fuzzy and pink in it. “I didn’t actually need to go to the bathroom. I saw a Kirby plush in a crane machine when we walked in and knew I had to get it for you.”

Before you could even say anything, he’s pulling out the plush and you notice it’s not just a regular Kirby, but one with a chef hat and pan. You make grabby hands at it until he hands it over, trying to hold it just with one hand and squishing it against your chest and face.

“I love him so much! Thank you, Kenma.”

Like a lot of things tonight, it’s different from your normal friendly interactions. Instead of your usual hugs where you go in at a diagonal or the lazier times when it’s just a side hug, your arms are now wrapped around his neck with his around your waist. It feels weird. A good weird. Like you’re feeling the subtle change from friendship to something a little more. It’s hard not to get your hopes up because although you’ve told yourself that you’ll be good with being ‘just friends,’ throughout the night, you find yourself quite hopeful for the chance to explore something romantic with Kenma.

You part slowly, him shoving Kirby back into the bag and insisting on holding it for you after you reach for it, which you suppose you could allow since he’s been such a gentleman tonight.

“Great minds think alike because I got you a gift, too,” you announce, handing over the box you worked so hard for. “I don’t remember her name, but I know you have a few that look like her in your room, so what’s one more to add to your waifu collection.”

“Thanks for the gift, and also, for saying that so loud. I’m sure the whole arcade liked hearing about how much of a weeb I am.” He gives you a smile, somehow managing to stuff the box into the already full bag. “Want to spend the rest of our tokens then head to mine? I only have a few more.”

You pull your sad six out of your pocket. “Yeah, me too. That crane game wasn’t kind to me.”

You have a blast with the remaining tokens, staying away from crane games and sticking more to the classics. You learn that Kenma’s strategic thinking in volleyball does not translate over to basketball when you watch him miss every single basket of the game except for his last one in which he threw the ball against the back wall in frustration and landed right in the net.

Even when ordering the Uber minutes later, he still has a frown etched on his face from losing, and as much as you want to rub it in his face that now he’s feeling like you were after air hockey, you leave him to sit in his feelings.

It’s a silent ride, at least on the outside. Internally, you’re an anxious, overthinking mess with your inner thoughts going a mile a minute. You spend the whole ride back to his place wondering if it’d be too forward of you to hold his hand that’s sitting on the seat between you two. It’s not like he didn’t hold your hand earlier tonight, even if it was only to drag you toward the arcade. Once you finally convince yourself that it’d be okay to try, the ride is over and his hand slips away to open the car door and you sigh as you lose your chance to be brave.

When you’re home, Kenma’s tie and shirt undone and your dress shoes thrown haphazardly by the door, you finally get to discuss your thoughts on the restaurant. About how stuffy it felt in your formal clothes and how ridiculous the plating looked for the meals because you didn’t know what they’d even be able to taste with a portion size that small. Kenma even thanks you for breaking the ice by bringing up Domino’s because if you never did it “you’d still be in that restaurant having your 12th course of the meal.”

You swallow your bite and take a quick sip of your drink. “Why did you even choose that restaurant in the first place? Doesn’t feel like a place you’d be at.”

Kenma shrugs, brushing off the crumbs from his hands. “I don’t know… I guess I didn’t want our first date to be just like any other night we’d had. I wanted it to stand out from the rest so you can know that I’m serious about you.”

Your heart just about bursts hearing his gentle voice say that. “That’s… So sweet. I don’t know what to say to that besides thank you. Never knew you could be so charming.”

“Don’t expect it too often,” he jokes, to which you respond with an elbow to his ribs. “I know today didn’t go as expected, so maybe we can try again with a different restaurant.”

“Maybe—and this is me just spitballing here—we should work our way up to the formal dress restaurants by starting with something simple like… Applebee’s.”

“I feel like Applebee’s is somehow a worse starting point than a place like McDonald’s.”

“Fiiiine. Since you have so much to say, then you pick where we’re eating for our next date. Just make sure I can get away with wearing sneakers and jeans, is all I’m saying.”

“Who said we were actually going on a second date? I don’t know if I want to date someone who eats wings like a toddler.” He reaches over with a napkin to wipe the corners of your mouth which you begrudgingly allow.

“Well, I don’t know if I want to date someone who waits until 48 fucking hours before the date to tell me that I have to put together a whole formal outfit for a restaurant.” Kenma looks away abruptly, but not before you see his shameless smirk. “Why the hell did you even take so long?”

“I had to use some connections to get a reservation there within the week, and they didn’t get back to me until Thursday, so you knew when I knew!”

“Hm… okay. I’ll let that one slide then. For now.”

“So, I can get a second date?”

“If you insist.”

Kenma puts what’s left of your food in his fridge with the promise of leftovers tomorrow. You help him tidy up a bit, taking your sweet time because it’s finally dawned on you that the date will be ending soon. You’re hit with a wave of disappointment, realizing just how much you enjoyed his company all day. And maybe it’s silly, but you don’t want it to end just yet.

When you’ve thrown away the last napkin, you slide in next to him in the kitchen, bumping shoulders with him before hooking your arm with his. “Wanna finish watching that anime you showed me? The one with the long title?”

He lets out an amused chuckle. “Glad you enjoyed it so much that you remember the name, but sure.”

He lets you guide him to the couch by his arm, plopping yourselves down on it while he grabs his remote to pick the show from his ‘continue watching’ section.

Halfway through the episode, you scooch even closer to Kenma so you can lean on him, your head gently resting on his shoulder to test the waters. He lifts his arm up to grasp you tighter, fingers trailing up and down your upper arm without looking away from the screen. You peer up at him to see a little smile on his face—hoping it’s because of your current position and not because of the atrocities happening on the screen. You’re rarely this close to Kenma. The closest you get to him on the daily is him leaning over you to fix some computer issues or you peering over his shoulder to watch him play on his Switch.

You’ve never paid attention to his warm amber scent mixed with something floral, probably from his conditioner he told you he overpaid for because he thought it was on sale. How plush his hoodie is and how you’re definitely going to be “borrowing” it as a partner tax in the future. Or how the ends of his hair that’s tickling your face are really soft, no doubt because of that expensive conditioner, and you fight the urge to play with a few pieces. You could get used to being with him if this is what you’d be getting every day.

You manage to last another episode and a half before his soft touch lulls you to sleep, a smile mirroring his on your face.

You have a funny dream that night; you and Kenma are at an Applebee’s, both dressed in your grubbiest hoodies and sweats, while the subpar food sits untouched in front of you. He’s holding one of your hands on the table, stroking his thumb back and forth on the back of yours, the other hand keeping his head propped. You’re telling a story, laughing and waving your free hand around as you delve deep into it. To everybody else, you’re sure Kenma looks bored out of his mind, probably waiting for you to stop talking or at least get to the good part. But you know him better than that.

You can see the affection in his eyes as he doesn’t break eye contact with you, humming in acknowledgment wherever necessary so you know he’s actually listening. He’s squeezing your hand every now and again just because he can. His phone is face down on the far end of the table, most likely on ‘Do Not Disturb’ because you don’t hear a single vibration against the table.

You’ve got his complete and undivided attention until he decides to get off his seat to lean over the table. You quiet down immediately, unsure of what the hell he’s going to do until he tilts his head and gently kisses you on your lips, lasting only a second before promptly sitting down and telling you to continue your story as if nothing happened.

Non-dream Kenma would never do something so bold in public. At least, you don’t think so.

But, goddammit, even if it means writing a script and playing director, you’re going to try your fucking hardest to make sure it happens exactly like your dream during your second date.

Written by: Luna

we’ve got a taglist if you’re interested 👀

#kenma x reader #kozume kenma x reader #kenma kozume x reader #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu imagines #kenma kozume #kenma imagines #haikyuu!! x reader #haikyu x reader #haikyuu #hq kenma #hq x reader #hq imagines #haikyuu!!#our writing #luna writes

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mintmechs · 1 year

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why the knuckles prologue was perfect

( + my ramblings and analysis of his character as a whole ) in just six minutes, this short animation was able to show off each and every one of the main characteristics that make knuckles KNUCKLES. six minutes of phenomenal writing did arguably more than (without counting the movie, which did so much to restore honor and respect to our favorite echidna) two whole decades of being pushed to the sidelines, made into a punchline and pulled away from where he should be in the first place! and we start with the obvious: 1) HIS ROLE. KNUCKLES IS BACK ON DUTY, PERFORMING HIS FATED ROLE! he's guarding the master emerald and not only do we get to see him standing at the altar again, but we also get to see him introspecting about his responsibilities in a manner very reminiscent of his story mode cutscenes in sonic adventure (1998), yet building off from their foundation:

knuckles is tied to a responsibility without a clear reason, a fated one. he doesn't know the answers or the reasons behind why things are the way they are, only seeing things as objectively as possible because it's all he can truly be certain of; he's had to grow up accepting that no matter what, he will continue to stand guard by the emerald, because it's what he was chosen to do. he's alone in the present, as he always has been, and he's grown used to that independence. he prefers it over anyone's help or company, in fact. that doesn't mean that he doesn't question it, even while seemingly powerless in the face of his destiny. i think having knuckles reflect upon his duty is an excellent service to his character and a necessary one to really have the chosen one trope and its full potential shine. recent years have shown us countless fanon (and canon, thanks to SEGA!) misconstructions of knuckles as dumb, stupid and laughably clueless when that couldn't be further from the truth. he's ignorant, yes! naive and gullible and ignorant but only because of his years of isolation, clueless only because he lacks the knowledge as someone who's been, for the greater part of his existence, firmly dedicated to fulfilling his sacred task as a guardian to angel island. and there is a WORLD of difference here. his ignorance shouldn't conflict with his intelligence. his introspection shows just how much of a deep thinker he is, how curious he is by nature, being born into a land and a civilization enshrouded in mystery. with so much time to oneself, who WOULDN'T question the status quo? 2) KNUCKLES EXPLORING HIS OWN ISLAND! expert treasure hunter knuckles who, thanks to his curiosity and the endless hours of solitude confined to his island, is always seeking to learn more about his home. he's shown to be highly in touch with his surroundings, going above and beyond to perform as its guardian and gaining some knowledge along the way. he may not have all of the answers, but each day he knows more than the last. he's so familiar with angel island, while having so much in it left to uncover.

3) HIS EMPATHY. knuckles has ALWAYS been meant to be empathetic, driven by a heart of gold to help others fulfill their own goals in a very selfless manner and seeing the best in everyone, EVEN when they choose to act upon their worst. this is part of why he's tricked over and over by eggman! he can't deny someone in need a helping hand, and eggman, knowing this, takes advantage of him. he's one of the most selfless characters in the entire franchise, and his selflessness is once again put on the spotlight:

when he sees someone in distress, the empathy is written all over his expression! he's highly sensible to people's emotions and emotionally aware of them, perhaps more than he is of himself. he cares so much and so deeply about others! in spite of having nobody to care for him while he watches over angel island, he doesn't think twice about being there for everyone else.

his tenderness is more important than i can put into words. he's a sweetheart, through and through. power comes from the heart. and speaking of power... 4) HIS PHYSICAL STRENGTH. not only do we get a glimpse of his mind and his heart, but the power of his fists. the rough, brash, badass knuckles we all know and love is BACK full force, and this short makes sure to highlight once more, right along with his mental fortitude and the force of his kindness, just how STRONG he is on a physical level:

these images speak for themselves. knuckles means BUSINESS. and his fists are NOT to be meddled with! he is NOT here to be underestimated! he breaks off a significantly large portion of a CLIFF with just one punch. this fight scene was AMAZINGLY choreographed, 100% serious knuckles, rougher than the rest of them and hard as nails as he always has been. this side of him shouldn't conflict with his introspective side, his inquisitive spirit or his golden heart—they are ALL essential parts of him that can and should exist in TANDEM. exaggerating one or another would be unfair to representing his truest form. a big part of knuckles' character is about keeping things balanced, outside of himself as well as within, and though his temper can flare when provoked, though he can be impulsive and ruthless, he is just as calm and collected and merciful. and if you ask me? this short achieved just that. it struck a PERFECT balance between these traits and in doing so gave us such a careful and true picture of knuckles being knuckles. i hope that frontiers will be the start of a new era of sonic fans, old and new alike, appreciating knuckles' character like he deserves to be appreciated, starring in all of his glory and developing beyond the broken image of him that many people were left with for far too long.

to everyone who worked on this animated short, you have my highest kudos and respect—with just one week before the release of this game and such stellar writing on display ALREADY?, i have such high hopes that this story will deliver something great.

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catelismo · 3 months

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THE LOVE ALBUM ♥︎ 004. THIS IS HOW IT FEELS wc: 680

"Hey, are we doing this karaoke live or not?" Mari yelled after being released from Leni’s deathly grip, pleading for her twin to remove her makeup and hair extensions in exchange for buying her favourite snacks for the week.

Leeyeon being tired as ever, collected the necessary microphones and arranged the settings to the group's preferred likings: "Yeah, what songs should we sing?" she raised her voice for the whole dorm to hear her overpowering voice.

Kitana paused her game on her console while suggesting her favourite music artists: from kpop idols to r&b singers, the list became quite endless as Y/N deadpanned in response with animated yellow birds full of dizziness with their eyes having the resemblance of a tornado.

But as a matter of fact, Y/N still held on tightly to her phone, which displayed nothing more than the conversation with Kohane earlier — she's certain that her, An and maybe Toya might join the mini party, but Akito? it's only a matter of time for her to find out.

Did anxiety overfill her to maximum levels? You bet!

It’s been years since the pair last saw each other; time only knows what the hell happened to each other. Both the pair could've changed completely for either the best or for the worst.

Those memories of the past still tasted brand new in her brain; she still remembered chasing after that impossible feeling that she once believed was unachievable, how she recalled the grey clouds of uncertainties hovered over her day and night like an alarm that never snoozed away.

But the doorbell rang its chime, playing vividly one of their song's instrumental replaced its typical and traditional ring by the hour. Y/N slid across with the help of her silky socks while carrying the camera, which held the long awaited instagram live of CUPiDZ, something that held dear to both the CUPiDZ members and LOVEiRS (the fandom's name) and when the door opened, a smile that she's sure that could never be taken away from her was drawn on her detailed face.

"Y/N!" Kohane exclaimed with her backpack arranged neatly with snacks for the night: a beaming An that laid one hand on Kohane’s left hip with thousands of laughters, half-smiled Toya who delicately waved and a glittery eyed Akito whose gaze did not leave yours.

Oh! fate just seemed to be on your side this time.

Akito’s eyes tracked Y/N's every move; the way her grin mirrored his mouth to do the exact motion discreetly melted his insides without him knowing. what does he have to say after all these years? strike up a conversation? what if she forgets who he used to be?

Ah, that would be quite a problem now, would it not?

Despite of all of this time, Y/N couldn't help but recreate the enthusiasm that the blonde vocalist threw in the air: "Kohane! oh my god, how are you?" the dancer copied her excitement as her smile can never fade away; occasionally bashing a few giggles that were deep-embed in her throat.

VBS and CUPiDZ stood admiring their valuable gem (that had the guts to engage a talk session... outside...) but returned to their senses to finally start the live.

but before all of this, Akito just needed to say at least something to avoid any misunderstandings.

Y/N was shocked for the majority when she reached for her microphone to find a hand stretched towards it as well, and what do you know? Akito wouldn't miss out on an opportunity like this now would he?

Deeply, he just wished that he could run up to her and wrap his arms around hers as the sound of comfort travelled in the presence of the 2 peas in a pod.

although the conversation may seem completely normal: "Hey Y/N... Haven’t seen you in a long time…” the male vocalist couldn't help but flinch at his introduction because respectfully — his choices of words started to piss him off.

And just like that, time stopped for a minute.

THE LOVE ALBUM ♥︎ PREV | NEXT

notes. IM EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!!! (i didn't eat yet) and idk if ppl alr knew this but whenever i type the character's names, i capitalise it and make it bold to make it stand out! i actually don't know why i did this but it looked nice so i kept it lmao‼️

taglist. @starry-sky-melody @akitofixated @akitosheart @akitokisser @mizu-nights @kitorin @luhvashh @miya-akane @lunavixia @aki-pancake @layviyu

synopsis. music is life; music can be either contain the most depressing feeling that you've ever felt in a long time or the most heart-warming thoughts to think about. akito, a member of internationally known vivid BAD SQUAD, is a big sucker for music and when the hit korean-japanese group CUPiDZ suddenly pop in akito's head, he couldn't help but wonder that one of the members look like his childhood crush.

PROD. CATELISMO; any actions of plagiarism, distribution and tracing any of my works is strictly prohibited.

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monarchisms · 9 months

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so, with rt having their anniversary on april 1st, they decided this year to celebrate for 20 whole weeks for their 20th anniversary. with one episode a week on fridays starting in march and ending in july, they've released one-off mystery episodes of their shows and products that have been cancelled, put on hiatus, or otherwise ended naturally. the exceptions are on the spot and camp camp, the former of which is coming back later this year, and the latter having a new season premiere later next year in 2024, both having been confirmed at rtx 2023.

it makes sense for rt to build up such a major milestone by teasing what they're doing to celebrate, but i think the way they've done it is...

not great.

that's why i'm just gonna put what each mystery video is, with links to youtube because the rt site fucking sucks for convenience!

week 1 (march 17th) | ahwu week 2 (march 24th) | rage quit week 3 (march 31st) | million dollars, but... week 4 (april 7th) | achievement h.o.r.s.e week 5 (april 14th) | on the spot (was originally streamed live)* week 6 (april 21st) | master & apprentice week 7 (april 28th) | rt docs (at least, a ~15 minute parody of one from funhaus) week 8 (may 5th) | AH gta iv: cops and crooks week 9 (may 12th) | AH: theater mode (the youtube version got cut down from around 1 hour 40 minutes to close to 30 minutes, which is cringe) week 10 (may 19th) | rt recap week 11 (may 26th) | rt shorts week 12 (june 2nd) | music video: dusk boys: u.f.whoa week 13 (june 9th) | chump (was originally streamed live)* week 14 (june 16th) | immersion week 15 (june 23rd) | p.a.n.i.c.s week 16 (june 30th) | hard mode: uncomfortable guess who?* week 17 (july 7th) | lazer team: boot group (animated video) week 18 (july 14th) | [trailer] a simple walk into mordor: part 2 week 19 (july 21st) | camp camp week 20 (july 28th) | [prologue] red vs blue: restoration (series finale)

an asterisk (*) means there's bonus content for the labeled video that's unfortunately exclusive to the rt site, with hard mode's bonus video being behind a paywall, for some reason

note: the rvb restoration prologue came out on youtube on july 8th, but i chose to keep the date as the 28th because that's when it was supposed to come out. i didn't know it was released earlier on purpose until i was lucky enough to see an explanation from an rt employee on reddit, of all places:

#rt and failing to communicate news on more than one website. name a more iconic duo #achievement hunter #rooster teeth #roosterteeth #funhaus #camp camp #red vs blue #rvb #okay that's enough tags #dates are based on when each respective video came out for everyone #since first members got the videos a week earlier #i would've been tempted to just. upload the bonus content under a cut in this post #excluding the first-exclusive one #but alas... the videos are over the maximum of 10 minutes 😔

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sidecharactersdomatter · 2 months

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Thoughts I had during TGCF Season 1 the Recap!

Basically, I recap the First Season of TGCF with my reactions, before my Season 2 binge watch!

Ep 1

-Don’t go out there… don’t go out there… don’t go out there… don’t go out there… *Bride gets snatched* Okay, maybe you should’ve gone out there.

-Right after XL ascends, Lan Hai and Qing Tao then go, “Huh, Who is that?” Then everybody yells at them, “PRINCE XIE LIAN!”

-So much Property Damage…

-Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!

-Fu Yao, *Is sarcastic and rolls his eyes* Basically me: He’s just like me fr!!!

-Hehehehehehe Dick joke XD

-Sees Bride!XL: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’m Sorry XD!

-Yeah right a few alterations, she totally fixed his make up calling it.

-*Sees Bridesmaids NF and FY like* W H E E E Z E XD XD XD XD

-So that’s how he was able to last longer than the previous bride

-Pass me the Aux cord! You better not be playing mainstream garbage! *Turns on One Flower and One Sword and vibes like there’s no tomorrow*!

-I now pronounce you both husband and husband! You may now kiss the gro- I mean, bride!

Ep 2

-Honey, He looks a little too good looking to be the Ghost groom

-That temple looks abandoned, and the animation camera for walking inside

-There’s the ugly mob

-Hehe Xie Lian’s aggressive kindness

-When the mob scooched away from Bride!Lian I freaking lost it XDXDXDXD

-And Nan Feng and Fu Yao inch away instead of defending him!

W H E E Z E!

-The fact they both agreed to not explain anything XD!

-Xiao Ying is a real friend

-And hurting the injured is a real low for the mob

-They have enraged the ghost groom

-KO! Flawless victory!

-Zombie brides!

Ep 3

-Didn’t know it a zombie apocalypse happened in Ancient Feudal China (I need to brush up on my history)

-Welp, now they’re grateful

-Wait a minute, he was an acrobat??? Xie Lian Pre 3 ascension life spinoff when??? (That’ll prolly never happen)

-Man here comes the Bride Pun count: 3

-Now that is an Azula level breakdown

-They are not merciful with the body count in this whole series

-Woah saved by literal divine intervention

-Geez, Pei Ming this is why we don’t Ghost our Exes, Pun Count: 4

-Man, Xuan Ji, maybe you should’ve heard of the phrase, “Plenty of Fish in the sea”

-The way Xie Lian blinked when he realized he was still in the wedding dress XD!

-Restoring faith in Ming Guang

-Oh no Trauma

Ep 4

-He’s so distraught he couldn’t follow

-The telepathic matrix, is basically the world’s first discord server

-Thank you Ling Wen

-Aw he likes Hua Cheng’s name!

-That explains the fall of Xianle and the Moldy Face Plague

-Let’s be honest, Bai Wuxiang is totally responsible for Covid-19

-Woah Hua Cheng has made his mark on Heaven

-Aww he thinks the Butterflies are beautiful!

-Honestly, smart move Mu Qing and Feng Xin

-Oh she is so burnt out

-Yeah, who was the Prince of Xianle anyway?

-WHY IS EVERYBODY’S EYELINER GAME SO ON POINT?!?!?!?!

Ep 5

-The way he blew off that maple leaf

-Oooh that subtle hinting later on and symbolism with Xie Lian

-The way he moved in closer *fangirls like no tomorrow*

-I freaking love the instrumental version of Hong Jue

-Is he touched starved? He is touch starved

-I love that when San Lang scared the Ghosts shitless they ended up running like no tomorrow, Ghost 1: Book it guys our lives depend on it! Ghost 2: But we’re already dead! Ghost 1: Well it’s just an expression!

-And there was only one bed. Oh my gods there was only one bed!!!

-Aw he caught him staring

-I believe you Ox cart man

-Heck with how popular TGCF is right now, Xie Lian would be worshipped today by fans like us

-His luck did rub off on you and you should take it all Xie Lian

-Welp time to go start the next arc

Ep 6

-Woah, that old man is traumatized

-Of course being a martial god, he has experience in combat. Have you seen him in a sword dual at Yinian bridge? (Subtle Phineas and Ferb quote)

-Yep called it, and the gong noise when the door opened!

-“How did we get out here in the middle of the ocean???”

-Awww look at San Lang’s emo hoodie!

-You know what’s better than one evil Daoist? Two evil Daoists!

-And he drank the whole thing like a boss

-Now Nan Feng’s acting like an NPC from a fantasy video game

-The woman in the teal cloak saw him

-He’s touched starved again!

-Best chemistry ever!

-And after Rouye grabs San Lang and Xie Lian says, “I didn’t mean San Lang”. Rouye goes: “Really? Ok!” And then lets him go, that’s just the hypothetical dialogue I’ve got for the silk band

Ep 7

-It’s official! Xie Lian is shorter than San Lang people!

-I’ve heard of a close knit unit but this is just insane!

-There’s so many people

-Ooooohhh That poor poor general

-SO MANY COBRAS!

-Oh no and 4’s an unlucky number in China

-He is sucking the venom out like a G! Get yourself a man like San Lang people!

-You know we’re all thinking what Xie Lian’s thinking about how he’s going to clean San Lang’s bloodied lips (I’ll let you share your answers in the comment section)

-And Fu Yao’s stuck with merchant sitting

-Really lovely desert travel music!

-Yeah he does know an awful lot

-Uh oh the woman in the black cloak spotted them

Ep 8

-Thank you San Lang for protecting your man like a champ!

-Ooooh cool more Ban Yue lore!

-Ooooh his poor, poor head

-And San Lang’s expression, is worried if he hurt him, but it worked!

-Yeah but our faces don’t stick out of the ground like a fresh tater!

-Aw no they’re gonna need sacrifices

-Zhao’s fight response kicked in

-Eeenie meanie meinie that kid (probably Kemo)

-“Sully not thine honor on innocent blood” That almost sounded like a bible quote…?

-Dude Xie Lian was royalty

-Trust fall! (You’ll see next ep peeps!)

-Oh and Xie Lian’s scream! Kind of needed more raw emotion though

Ep 9

-He’s gonna jump into the pit, he’s jumping into the pit, he jumped into the

-Xie Lian’s like: Well I am going down there, but I won’t go down alone!

-The pit’s entrance is sealed!

-Trust fall! TRUST FALL!

-He touched his throat!

-There’s your answer Xie Lian

-Dance fight! Dance fight!

-You’re just gonna excuse the mass murder San Lang committed in the pit?????

-Let me just find somewhere that isn’t covered in blood

-Oh yeah you’re grateful for San Lang carrying you

-The faces they made when he called them out for jumping into the pit XD Xie Lian’s eyes are wide and blank while San Lan has a cat face! XDXDXDXDXD

-She came down!

Ep 10

-She saw Xie Lian and San Lang

-So many fallen Ban Yue soldiers

-Hi Fu Yao

-I wasn’t kidding when I said Fu Yao isn’t great at crowd control

-Thank you Fu Yao

-She’s holding his hand and he’s patting her head my freaking heart!!!!

-Oh No! Vomit trigger warning for this episode people

-Xie Lian raised her more than her Yong’An father did (and to some extent her late mother)

-It was still a good choice after all Xie Lian

-Take it easy with the ‘Bad Cop’ routine Fu Yao

-Oh no a scorpion snake

-Well that’s bad

Ep 11

-Aiaigasa! It’s Aiaigasa again folks AAAAAHHH!!!!

-Scorpion tailed cobras why’d they have to be Scorpion tailed Cobras?!?!?!?!?

-That explains the sandstorm

-Ooooh Pei Xiu army backstory

-Ugh Classist general

-No Ban Yue!!!! She was so young!!! T - T

-Yeah where will Xie Lian go from here?

-Oooh Yizhen got name dropped too!

-Uncle Jiang is cured!

-And the way he’s running away from the duo XDXDXD!

-Here’s why Fu Yao left early, as they healed Uncle Jiang he contacted Nan Feng through the telepathic array and Fu Yao’s reason is: Come on, you know how horrifying his highness’ cooking can be. This is just my theory, and I’d love to hear your possible ones in the comments!

-And the way Hua Cheng moved in closer and just preferred to be called ‘San Lang’ my freaking heart!!!

Ep 12

-We are back in Puqi village folks

-I freaking love how Xie Lian says ‘The Crimson Rain Sought Flower’ Howard Wang’s voice could act as my new sleeping aid

-Oh yeah San Lang does treasure you dude

-Ban Yue deserves all the head pats!!!!

-Ban Yue, I think you should keep living despite all the mistakes you’ve made… other than that I also don’t know the answer like Xie Lian

-Aww Xie Lian will love him no matter if he’s hideous or a monster he really does have the best standards!

-Awwww He’s hot when he’s mad!

-Another Reason why Hualian works so well is that San Lang also Respects! Xie Lian’s! Boundaries (Yep still not getting involved with the Helluva Boss drama folks)

-It’s official! That looks like an engagement ring people!

-Dude pass me the Aux cord! Ya better not be playing mainstream garbage *Puts on Hong Jue at full blast and vibes like no tomorrow!*

-It’s like they’re running towards each other AAAAAHHH!!!

-Welp, see you guys later for Season 2!

Season 2! Here I come!!!!

#my post #My reaction #episode reaction #heaven official's blessing #tian guan ci fu #tgcf #season recap #Tgcf season 1 #xie lian #hua cheng #san lang #hualian #nan feng #fu yao #pei xiu #ban yue #ling wen

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youredreamingofroo · 2 months

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For those awaiting an answer on one of my more recent posts, and whether I'll be leaving, here it is. .....Under the cut, as it, in my usual fashion, gets lengthy, you can skip to the end for a TL:DR :)

I'm not going to leave tumblr/simblr, I'll be floating around and still liking people's posts, I'm probably gonna unfollow some people (not my mutuals ofc ilya) just because it's hard to keep up with my dash when I get over 10 notifications every 2 minutes or so especially when if I'm not going to primarily consume Sims 4 content. I'm going to put my mods folder into my external HDD, in order to preserve them ykwim, and I'm going to uninstall TS4, I'll try to make one more sim before the sims 4 gets poofed off my laptop, although as it stands even after freeing up 20 GBs of space, my space went back down to 400 MBs so 😭😭 I will probably be posting variety content, even though I know all my followers are primarily Sims content consumers (some of ya'll do other stuff, but I mean as a whole, my audience tends to be more Sims 4 related), I might play and share some of my Sims 1 content, which is not story oriented, it's just a little gameplay of Roo in the Sims 1 :) I'll also probably post Baldur gate stuff (if I can free up the storage for it LMAO), I'll post witcher content maybe, and plenty of other things, and like I said, I'll continue to float around, and I'll continue to reblog any Sims content I see and enjoy... as well as other things. .... So what about W.A.S? Yea. I dont know, while W.A.S IS supposed to be a fleshed out story, and while I know I AM leaving sims 4 behind, completely limiting what I can and cannot make story-wise (just cuz I don't know how to make scenes and stuff lmao), I will ATTEMPT to make W.A.S content, I will still make and post the Official teaser, and I'll probably introduce the characters myself sometime after the teaser (I'll take screenshots in CAS and just hope my storage doesn't dip TOO low). I may release some of the story in just text form, as I do really want to continue to post about the story. I'll try to come up with something tho, don't worry :)

I may also start getting back into art, I still need some hobby to preoccupy my time that isn't gaming, I will still do blender stuff (since I have a bunch of my Sims' DAEs) and I will maybe make more edits, but regardless, I still enjoy art and Sims 4 kinda consumed the time that I wanted to spend doing art, soooo yeah.

For the unrooleased tag, I have a bunch of sims that I've never posted, as well as renders that I've never posted, and I may, as Sims 4 filler, post those to fill the void that will become my Sims 4 content

and FINALLY. LAST THING I promise :) I know all of ya'll LOVE Roo, and I do want to reinforce the fact that ROO IS NOT A SIMS CHARACTER, I did NOT make him originally from the Sims, if you were at any point worried I would stop posting about him, I will not be, I will continue to share about Roo, probably with a lot less pictures considering I really only used TS4 as a visual assistant for his story, I do have his DAEs, so I can make SOME Roo blender content, albeit limited with Scenes and stuff. Roo is a character that I will continue to be passionate about, I never mentioned this but I LOVE to make Roo in pretty much every game I play (besides Skyrim................ and ofc games where u dont have customization), like Animal Crossing, I made a variant of Roo there, and in Stardew! You get the point, he will always be a prominent figure of my content. I may also bring back some characters I made from TS4, like Nirvana, I LOVE her character and would LOVE to continue to post about her, as well as Roo's family, I love posting about his family members and sharing their own story and what importance they are to Roo.

WOW, okay that was a lot, if you're skipping here for a clear answer, or a sort of TL:DR, here ya go, I don't want to leave tumblr, so I won't, and I won't necessarily leave the Simblr ring, TS4 is going to be uninstalled, but I WILL preserve my TS4 mods in my external HDD, and be on the look out for the last sim I make in TS4 :)

#not a goodbye to tumblr but a goodbye to sims 4 🫡#yapping

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withlovefromsimtown · 3 months

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Lifa's Life Update (+Sims Progress)

Well it's been a minute, but We're still here & I don't mind.

Things roughly in order:

I fully remapped onto a custom SC4 terrain & rebuilt an entire Sims 2 BG neighborhood to update it to UC (any guesses?), started working on clothing defaults for the aforementioned neighborhood.

Started 2 huge TS2 projects that I may someday finish, completely unrelated to all of that, because I was in Milkshape & I can't control myself.

Had my partner's friends over A LOT, like it seemed like every couple weeks for awhile someone would be crashing in the guest room. (They're my friends too they just... started off as partner's friends lol.)

Barbecued & grilled a lot, because friends & food.

Went to a VNV Nation show with my friend (things that are on the Elder Goth Bucket List lol), made a whole Yeet Weekend outta it & also went to Ikea, Fivebelow, Spirit Halloween, a local outdoor market, & a snowcone stand.

The fucking holidays.

Got sick, part 1.

Surprise, my cat has diabetes & needs 2x daily insulin shots!

More of the fucking holidays.

Got sick, part 2.

2x/month cat checkups to check blood sugar & adjust the dose, for like 3 months.

TX freezes, local friend doesn't have sufficient insulation or central heating in their home to deal with the temps, because TX, & comes to stay with me (with their cat) for a week because I have central heating.

During that week that my friend was here, Mr Diabetes Cat decided to a) eat all the dry kibble out of every bowl, b) refuse wet food at shots time because he was full of dry kibble, & then c) throw up kibble & turn around & pee all over my carpet right after throwing up, which resulted in him not getting his shots that night--they have to be given with food---& getting scheduled an urgent vet visit in the morning. (He's fine, just expensive.)

On the day it actually warmed up outside before it went back to 20 degrees, friend & I did a mini-hike together. We also had food from the Generic Asian Cuisine place (yeah I know, it's Texas though) where we got Pho, Lumpia, & a tofu stir-fry.

I regret having to work during the freezy times, unfortunately.

Partner obtained me a uhh... knockoff Steamdeck handheld? Rog Ally? so I can keep Win7 on my monster computer & also play my dumb ancient murder-aliens 4x RTS game on Steam that I like, but I haven't fixed my mods for it to play it, because I...

Got sick, part 3.

While sick, took Mr Diabetes Cat to his very last 2-week checkup; we're on 3-month checkup schedules now! Because he's stable! Yay!

The entire house is a disaster & I'm still not 100% but I'm back to cooking/cleaning a bit between work at least.

Working on more of the necessary clothing defaults for the TS2 neighborhood I redid.

Planning for March when the entire zoo needs to be vetted again for vaxxing, just gonna wrap the diabetes checkup into that & do everyone's bloodwork at that time also unless something drastic happens. (We do like 2-3 cats at a time over the course of 2 weeks, & then the dog on her own, we're not like... hauling a van of animals to the vet all at once...)

Need to get some of the soft mesh transportation prisons for the cats before then, because the big crate with the lid is about to disintegrate.

#sort of sims related #life update

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dulcegyaru · 1 year

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🌺 Low Spoon Gyaru 🌺

Gyaru is one of those lifestyles that isn’t necessarily focused on luxury brands or bougie stuff but is high maintenance to some extent. High maintenance can be several things: effort, time or money. Here are my tips on doing gyaru with minimum effort for those who are low on energy.

Keep in mind for some things to be effortless the price may go up.

Gyaru has 5 “pillars”:

Tan:

Not every gal has to be tan, theres sub-styles that don’t require it such as hime-gyaru. The tanning in gyaru was developed to fight beauty standards in Japan. Depending on where you are maybe tanning is the beauty standard maybe it isn’t. To me the important part is having healthy skin you feel confident in so I’ll twist this pillar to hygiene instead.

If you’re low spooning opt to do the pit stop:

Basically one shower for everything:

- clean your body, wash your face, brush your teeth and wash your hair (if it’s hair wash day)

Some people may find it gross but honestly it’s convenient. You’re already there, water is already running. Instead of having several steps you can just do everything in one place.

After wards it’s just treating face, body and hair. Start by your face so you don’t have to rinse your hands whenever you change products.

You may find yourself a bit more energized and happy for once you’re all clean and ready for the day.

Clothing:

Personally clothing is relatively easy if you already have a gyaru closet going on however if you don’t thats fine. Stick to a couple of safe and easy outfits: comfy and sexy are two words that should be in your outfit. Gyaru isn’t really a clothing focused style and almost everything can be made gyaru as long as the hair and makeup are top notch. Choose your favorite feature in your body and exploit it.

Personally, to me my legs are my best feature. So I base my outfits around that. Shorts, skirts, socks and leg warmers are my favorite accessories. Notice how these outfits look gyaru but there’s no heavy accessorizing and nothing gets in the way? Thats what you should strive for

If making outfits is something you struggle with go to Pinterest and check some outfits out, look for regular outfits and see how they can be gyaru-fied. Everskies is an amazing app where you can create outfits as well. Try to create stuff there. Theres groups in apps like amino where you can get crit and ask for tips.

Keep the clothing you like at an easy access place, maybe the front of your closet, maybe a rack outside. Repeating items and outfits is ok.

Makeup:

Here’s where it gets a but more complex. Some gals say no make no gal, others say it’s completely fine. To me even though makeup is a huge part of it, gal is about lifestyle and ideals.

Personally I’ve managed to reduce my makeup routine from 1-2 hours to 5-15 minutes. Obviously makeup requires skill and practice so maybe what takes someone a minute may take you 5 (such as eyeliner or lashes)

To reduce time select that which you don’t enjoy and remove it. Heres a list of things I don’t do:

Foundation: I have acne, I used to hide it by wearing foundation but im not embarrassed by it anymore. I really don’t use it unless I want to have like a seamless moment for an activity or if im posting on social media. Most of the time I wear foundation im not really doing Gyaru makeup anyways

The nose contour: Im black, my nose doesn’t look good with the whole stripe contour moment. Plus it looks odd from the sides. If i do wear foundation I follow my natural line to bring definition back to the face but i try to avoid if

Contacts: not really makeup but I hate them

Basically most of my makeup centers on the eye area. And even then you can avoid some steps.

If you color your eyebrows you can be up to 3 weeks with color so technically you can avoid doing your eyebrows besides from brushing and grooming (if necessary).

You can get eyelash extensions, now days lash techs are posting their lash maps and some pf them are creating anime/manga themed lashes which match the appearance of some daiso lashes.

You can half line your eyes instead of trying to do a full line eyeliner look. This is easier put visually but hopefully y’all get the gist. I might do a tutorial in the future. Honestly makeup is the only thing you really need the spoons for and even then removing some aspects that do not serve you can reduce it by a lot.

Nails:

Get press ons. Seriously there’s a bunch of people on Instagram making beautiful sets and they’re relatively cheap. You only have to prep your nail a lil and put them on.

Hair:

Hair is a bit complex as it kinda depends on the sub style you’re under. However for most (excluding hime) you only need layers. To me gyaru hair is very similar to scene kids once they’re leaving the style. The layers are a bit long, there’s some nice facial framing, color and cute bangs. If your hair meets these, you can just leave it as it is honestly.

Braids are a low maintenance option as well as wigs. Or simply having your natural hair texture theres not a lot of images of gyaru hair outside of straight and wavy, but hair is hair you don’t need a certain texture to pull it off just the main features. Curly hair can have bangs and layers. You can do layers and bangs with braids + add any color you like.

Worst part about braids is having to sit at the chair for hours but if you have the spoons for it, do it, you can be up to 3 weeks (more or less) with braids so that’s something you don’t have to worry about for quite a while.

For wigs, I recommend wigs that already have bangs in them, you just need to plop your hair in a cap and pop it on. It takes practice but once you get the hang of it it takes no time. Also it’s best to divide it in 2: put your wig cap at night, put your wig on the next day, that way it’ll be less exhausting

For straight hair, get one of those hair drier brushes, takes less effort than a blow drier + brush. You can skip the iron and you get volume so you can skip any extra steps.

For those with wavy and curly hair, work on finding the right products for yourself. The diffuser is your friend tbh in this case is just technique and good products. +++ remember to put your hair on a pineapple and bonnet to retain the curls.

For easy hair styles:

Pigtails

Twin claw clip tails

Half up half down (with claw clips)

Half up, half down pigtails

Space buns (low space buns are easier)

Literally almost anything involving one bug claw clip is a massive go to hair style

#2000s fashion #gaijin gyaru #gyaru #gyarucore #fashion #japanase subculture #gyarustyle #jfashion #japanese fashion #gyaru fashion #low spoon guide #low spoon gyaru

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centaurianthropology · 8 months

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Late on the train to 'Midst'

Hello all, and it's time once again for me to try to infect you all with my weird niche interests. In this case, it's a podcast that was recently(ish) picked up by Critical Role, which is how I heard about it. But I can say right now that those folks who still follow me from the Magnus Archives day are probably going to enjoy this one. Hell, I think a lot of my followers might, so let me pitch 'Midst' to you.

The Podcast

'Midst' is a narrative podcast with three narrators. So rather than a strict script, it's three people with great voices telling you a story, narrating actions, slipping into and out of different character voices, all set over a really well-engineered sound-and-musicscape. The episodes are loosely outlined, but the actual scripts are improvised between the narrators, weaving in and out of each other's narrations and 'yes and'ing their way into a greater whole. It may sound a little confusing, but I found it surprisingly easy to follow along with. And each episode ranges from 15 minutes to a half-hour, so it's an easy listen. The second season has just begun to release over at the CR YouTube channel (there were 2 seasons out before CR picked it up and is releasing remasters, so beware spoilers if you go to the tag here).

The Setting

Okay, unless you're a nerd like me, the technicalities of the podcast might not mean quite as much to you. But the setting is where things start to get really interesting. This is a space western. Classic, but definitely also not classic. While the vibe is pure space western, with a feel that's vaguely akin to 'Firefly' or 'Trigun' or 'Cowboy Bebop', the actual setting isn't so much space as it is the Un.

The Un is somewhat liminal, a vast sky filled with light from an undetermined source, filled with clouds and glittering mica shards which defy gravity and can slice through almost anything in their way (though they can be deflected). On the largest of these shards some people have set up homes. And elsewhere in the Un are islets, tiny planets that make up the habitable universe of 'Midst'.

There doesn't seem to be a proper central authority in the Un, but the closest thing they have is the Trust, a cult based around the worship of what seems to be a space western stock market, in which all of its members have their deeds (and themselves) weighed and judged. And those people in the Trust, the Trustees, wear their morality literally on their sleeve. Those deemed 'good' either from good deeds or (far more often) from inherited goodness or goodness based on their position in society, have white Valor beads adorning them. Those deemed immoral, or (again more often) in debt have Caenum, black beads denoting how much they owe the Trust. Those Trustees in debt seem to exist in something close to slavery, constantly having to do more and more work to try to break even. And the entire Trust society is built on their backs.

Below the Un is a velvet black fog so thick it lays like an ocean at the bottom of this universe, its surface an obsidian mirror. This is the Fold, a place where a dark mist can penetrate through anything and bring with it Tearrors, events in which the fabric of reality itself seems to tear itself apart. People and things die or go horribly (or sometimes not horribly) wrong thanks to the Tearrors. These Tearrors can be kept at bay with a weird sort of lightbulb, which is how folks can stay alive in the Fold without completely coming apart at the seams.

And there, at the Meridian, half in the Un and half in the Fold, rolling through both to create perhaps the only place in this universe with both a night and a day, weird as both are, is Midst. A small islet of red dust and weird plants and animals. A place where people live and work and die. A place that feels a lot like a western.

And with that, we have our setting. And within this setting are vast array of characters, but for this particular story, there are three protagonists. Each of them is solely narrated by one of the three narrators, and it is around them that the story and the world of Midst unfolds.

Lark

Lark is perhaps the protagonist we know the least about, but she's also the protagonist who feels the most classically western for this space western. She's a monster hunter living on the outskirts of society on Midst. She sells hides, and she has few friends and fewer words. She's gruff, dangerous, and has lived long enough that she's got a dark past and has seen some shit. She also has a red glove that apparently kills anything it touches, which is cool.

Lark is intelligent, grounded, but is also largely a mystery at this point. She's also got a hound dog named Landlord, who is the best, and is the only character who is apparently guaranteed not to die.

Phineas Thatch

Look at this wet cat of an armored man. Everything about him screams try-hard, wannabe, senpai-notice-me energy. If Lark is the western character, Phineas is the space character, hailing from the Trust. He is in debt, but also the Adsecla (second in command) of an elite group of cop-soldier-celebrities. The media follows them everywhere, which is something of a problem for a guy who is terrible with people and the media in particular. Phineas is a decent guy, fairly good at his job, but nothing he ever does is good enough, and all his best instincts are being systematically squashed by the cult he has fanatically devoted himself to. There is no one who believes in the Trust more than Phineas, even as it's griding him down to nothingness.

If you like a character who is pathetic even when he's doing cool things, who never wins, whose struggles all seem to come to nothing, and you can't quite figure out if the universe just hates him or if he's his own worst enemy (it's probably both), then Phineas is the character for you.

Moc Weepe

Look at him. Just look at this weird, alabaster, spidery guy. I know that I and many of my followers love a bastard man, and Mr. Weepe is a grade A bastard man. He is a co-owner of a cabaret on Midst, and he oozes his way through every scene he's in with some of the best lines and worst actions of the podcast. He has the power to be both alluring and repellant, he's got an absolutely delightfully bizarre voice and and even weirder laugh (and yet is also part of a really cool musical number), and he is both terrifying and pathetic all at the same time. This asshole contains multitudes. And a lot of those multitudes revolve around screwing someone over for his own gain.

He should be the least sympathetic of the protagonists. Lark is a cool and aloof badass. Phineas wants to be a good man. Weepe? He wants to be rich. He wants to be powerful. He is also constantly plagued by a mysterious medical condition that seems to have been brought on by exposure to an extremely severe and almost-lethal Tearror. He is somehow, weirdly, sympathetic, at least up to a point, and not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. What can I say? I am predictable, and Moc Weepe is definitely my favorite of the protagonists, even if he's demonstrably the worst.

I won't spoil the plot, as that's part of the fun. I can at least spoil the first scene, which is also the finale of the first season (they loop back to explain how they got to this event throughout the run of the first season): we are on Midst. All three protagonists are there.

And the moon has just exploded in the sky.

#midst podcast #an introduction to tempt others to get into this thing with me #join me!!#Lark #Phineas Thatch #Moc Weepe

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