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canmom · 8 months

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Das Abenteuer der Canmom in Köln (zur Gamescom)

It's time for canmom to have another adventure! What will that wacky lil porygon do next?

[you may be wondering, whatever happened to the plan to transfer l'aventure de canmom à Annecy to the main site for easier reading? that's still planned to happen, hopefully pretty soon! I've just been very busy.]

So: I work for a small VR games company called Holonautic. I've been working for them for around four months now (time flies)! This week some of us were in Cologne, Germany, attending Gamescom. Until this trip I hadn't met any of them in person, and indeed only had a vague idea what they looked like, because the modern world is wacky that way.

What's Gamescom? It's a major industry expo where game devs show off their games to the public and journalists, and otherwise have various industrial sorts of chats. The event fills a massive convention centre (the Kölnmesse), similar to the Excel Centre in London. Thousands and thousands of gamers enter in massive queues, and once inside, they queue up some more to get a chance to play some work in progress games at massive display booths.

Or maybe they go to the indie room, where there are hundreds of tiny desks just wide enough for a dev to set up a computer with a demo... or the retro games area, where various old consoles were set up for people to play... or one of the zones set up for laser tag or something like that. There was a lot going on!

Even Cthulhu came down to check out the games.

My own experience of Gamescom involved very little of that. With my Trade Visitor badge I could skip the queues, but most of my time was spent in a corner of the Business Area demoing our game to influencers, other devs and members of Meta and Unity, and then heading out to restaurants to have dinner with other VR devs in the evening. I had a good time though! It was great to meet the rest of Holonautic in person, and get to see the sights of Köln a tiny bit. And it was a very rewarding feeling to see other people enjoy the game I'd been working so hard on.

So in this post I'm going to talk about my trip, do a bit of amateur sociology, think about the place of videogames in the world and all that - and also talk a little about how the game sausage gets made - at least as far as I can without breaking NDA. Sadly, the game I spent most of the weekend demonstrating remains under wraps, so I'll have to tell you about that another day. I didn't get to see a ton of games but I'll also talk about the handful of indies I did see!

This time I travelled by train (non-transport nerds, feel free to skip this paragraph), taking the Eurostar from St. Pancras to Brussels, and then the ICE 19 to Cologne. Although it was slower and a bit more expensive than flying, once you factor in the time it takes to travel out to the airport, and the security generally being much more straightforward, I think I much prefer the trains. I spent my journeys drawing other passengers (coming soon to @canmom-art) and reading Osamu Tezuka's manga Ayako (which will be its own post). It was all told very straightforward and comfortable.

[minutiae: I thought I was clever by getting an Interrail pass instead of just buying tickets the usual way, but I didn't realise that you also have to pay for seat reservations, so in the end the Interrail probably cost about as much for a 'there and back again' type of trip.]

By far the most expensive part of the trip was the hotel room. We stayed in a hotel pretty close to the centre of Cologne, but it turned out that its proximity to be about 15 minutes walk from public transport, so we didn't end up saving that much travel time. Since I ultimately spent almost no time in my hotel room, I think if I go next year, the call will be to stay at a hostel. But anyway, let's talk games.

How a game gets released on the Quest

So, Holonautic specialises in VR games. I wrote about our previous games in this very nerdy post, but in brief, there are broadly two major types of VR game: PC VR and standalone VR. For PC VR, the game runs on a computer, and the headset just contains a screen and something that can be tracked. For standalone VR, the headset is essentially a powerful Android smartphone with a custom OS; it uses the headset's cameras for tracking and does all the computing on the headset.

With the success of the Oculus/Meta Quest series, standalone VR became really, really popular - much more so than PCVR ever was. It makes sense: for native games you don't need a powerful gaming PC and there are no cables to trip over or expensive base stations, but you can still play PCVR games if you want to. Almost all of Holonautic's games are Quest-native.

For PCVR games, you can use one of various APIs, such as OpenXR, to wire up your game to VR tracking and input. Moreover, Valve built pretty good VR support into Steam, and since Steam is pretty much anything-goes, it's pretty easy to release a PCVR game in a way people can get it - but marketing is all on you, as with any Steam game.

The Quest is a different story. Compared to other consoles, Meta (which absorbed Oculus a few years ago) occupies a bit of a strange position in this industry, simultaneously the hardware manufacturer, the only publisher, and also a developer of first-party titles.

I don't have any good pictures for this part so here's me in a massive cathedral. Metaphors? No no. It's just a holiday photo...

There are two ways that games can get released on the Quest. There's the store, which is heavily curated: here, Meta acts as a publisher, releasing only games they think will sell, but they also put games through months of QA and handle all the marketing for you (i.e. putting it in front of people when they boot up the Quest). To get on the store, you basically need to have an in at Meta - there's a whole process, I'll talk about that in a moment. There's also 'App Lab', which is much less heavily vetted - but also it's a lot harder to get an audience on App Lab. If a game is particularly successful on App Lab, Meta may end up promoting it to the store. But a lot of games just languish there.

Of course, just because you have a liaison at Meta does not mean you have a free pass onto the store. There's a whole series of stages you have to go through: first you write up a detailed pitch, then if approved (based on what else may be in the works, Meta won't approve two overly similar games), you have a few months to make a 'Minimum Viable Product' prototype of your game and show it to Meta. I joined the company about a month before the MVP was due on our game.

Assuming your contact at Meta likes the MVP, you get a few more months to make a 'Vertical Slice', which is essentially a small portion of your game that's more or less complete. (For example, a single level.) Then, you show this to Meta again. If you make a good impression, they'll give you the go-ahead to finish the game and release it on the store.

Here's another random picture of Köln from the famous Hohenzollern Bridge. Are you saying this wall covered in padlocks is symbolic of something? Overactive imagination, I tell you.

So if yo uwere wondering, the last few weeks of intense work were all about making that vertical slice be as good as possible (and it got pretty clutch at the end). Since we were all going to be at Gamescom, we agreed with our guy at Meta that we'd demo the game in person.

The upshot of all this is that selling a VR game is heavily heavily shaped by Meta, and specifically the individual at Meta who makes the call. Holonautic has a longstanding contact with a laid-back American guy I'll call W.; he has in the past championed some of our games like Hand Physics Lab that left other Meta staff unconvinced. (As it turns out, W. was right and Hand Physics Lab was successful.) But he's not shy about saying that a game doesn't make the cut and should go to AppLab instead. Our game would live or die based on W.'s opinion.

But not just W.; Meta itself as an organisation is also looking for certain things, shaped by its internal politics. They have new features they want to tout - so if you can come up with a game that uses mixed reality, hand tracking and shared anchors that's probably going to count in your favour. And they have certain directions they are keen to push: sporty exercise games are in favour at the moment.

What does this mean for the evolution of the medium? Well, of course people will make the games they want to make, and just because Meta likes an idea doesn't mean it will sell. But Meta does have a lot of power to dictate the general direction of VR games - and if the Apple Vision Pro takes off in a few years, Apple will no doubt end up with a similar role.

It's been interesting to see the forces that shape a game up close: our ideological desire to make things that are new and different and meet our personal tastes, balanced against the need to have successful games to keep the company afloat (good old M-C-M'), and the need to satisfy Meta; all of this leaves its fingerprints on the game.

To not keep you in suspense, I think the demo to W. went pretty well; I can't really say more than that. It was also a good chance to tell the Meta guys about the parts of their APIs that are jank and hard to use - and to their credit they were apparently rather desperate to get feedback and I feel hopeful that they'll make it better.

It's hard to talk about Meta, because it's just such a massive organisation. We can talk about massive erosion of privacy, enabling genocide in Myanmar, and so on - but we're dealing with a small sub-corner of this huge beast, which is less a social media company and more of a games publisher and console manufacturer. But I definitely understand why someone wouldn't want to let a Facebook device loaded with cameras into their house! I could go more into privacy and the Quest 2 but it would be way too long a tangent. Ultimately this is probably a 'no ethical consumption'/'we live in a society' type of deal - one day Meta's domination will erode and we'll have to deal with a different superpower.

Whatever happens, we can continue to explore what's possible in this medium! I think of all the ethical bargains that must be made with the tech industry, I have done OK.

What Cologne is like

On Tuesday, I arrived in Cologne Central Station (Köln Hauptbahnhof) and walked over to my hotel, where I met my colleagues. Most of them looked fairly similar to how they'd set up their VR avatars... but none of them had realised I'm super tall. surprise, bitches ;p

We went out to an Indian restaurant where we all ended up ordering biryani. This being Germany, the portions were massive, so I asked for mine to be in a box to finish later, forgetting that my hotel room had no fridge or microwave and I'd have zero time to eat it (rip). Overall I think I hit it off pretty well, and we chatted for a while about games we liked, the mess that happened at Za/um, movies and the like - it was good to get a chance to interact more casually in person instead of only ever talking about work stuff. Everyone was exhausted from travel so we turned in pretty early, though probably not as early as the restaurant would have liked...

The thing that surprised me most about Cologne is how much it didn't feel strange or unfamiliar. If not for all the signs in German and cars driving on the right, you could drop me in an area of Cologne and tell me it's an unfamiliar part of London and I'd easily believe you. The parts of the city that are filled with business parks and glass-fronted chain stores could exist almost anywhere on Earth.

That said, there are some ways the Germans do things differently! One is restaurants. I visited three different restaurants and two of them worked on a 'self-service' model. Essentially, you order your food at the bar, and they give you a little buzzer device. When it buzzes, you go back up to the bar and collect your food. Nobody would wait tables, there would just be one person behind the bar taking orders and such (though someone would still have to clean your table).

Restaurants also close very early in Cologne. I think a couple of times we put staff in an awkward position of wanting to go home but having to sit around until our party was done. That said, at one point I walked through a riverside area with a few dozen steakhouses, and that seemed to stay open a lot later.

Köln has a decent amount of graffiti, a surprisingly large portion of it in English. Under most bridges there's usually a good number of tags. I didn't manage to get any good photos but shout out to the person who wrote something like 'this world is too damn loud', which is a big mood for autistic girl walking away from a convention centre lmao.

Wednesday: in which our heroine finds out what an influencer is

The next morning we all went down to a German bakery (pictured above). According to my colleagues, the thing to get is a Bienenstich, or 'Bee Sting', a kind of cake with crispy honeyed almond flakes on top and cream in the middle. Here's a really bad photo:

It was pretty tasty!

We scooted over to the convention centre on the metro, and made our way in. I started getting used to navigating the Messe. Our company didn't get our own booth this year, but XR game devs are pretty tight-knit, and Niantic, creators of Ingress and Pokémon Go, there to promote their new phone-based AR Monster Hunter game - lent us some space in their booth to do a demo to the popular VR influencers Cas and Chary.

We headed over to Hall 8 and none of us could find the Niantic booth. Eventually we figured out why: the Niantic booth was outdoors. On a very bright summer day.

The Quest 2 has a bit of a finicky relationship to light. If it's too dark, the cameras can't pick up anything and tracking can fail - hand tracking is especially susceptible. But bright sunlight is also a problem. Essentially, the controllers on the Quest 2 contain small infrared LEDs, which are tracked by the headset's cameras. This works very well, in general - but in the sun, the background infrared radiation can completely overwhelm these LEDs and the controllers become essentially unusable. You also have to be very careful never to let the sun shine through the lenses inside the headset when you take it off, or the focused sunlight can destroy the screen.

So, an outdoor demo was a problem. Luckily, Niantic had an air-conditioned tent in their little zone. We all filed into the tent and started testing the headsets. Even inside a tent, it was too bright for the Quest 2 hand tracking... but we managed to figure out the Quest Pro still worked (since it uses cameras in the controllers for tracking), and rushed to test everything would work. Before long, Cas and Chary arrived, and we demoed the game. Look mum, I'm in a tweet:

Before this convention I had very little knowledge of the whole world of VR influencers, and honestly I still don't, but it seems to be a big thing - a good word from an influencer is a massive boost to a game's chances. I'm still not entirely sure what the difference is between an influencer and a journalist; both are in the business of reviewing new tech and games and rely on a reputation of unbiased analysis for credibility, and both are courted by devs hoping to promote their games. I guess an influencer is like a fully independent journalist? In any case, Cas and Chary were really sweet in our extremely brief meeting, and it was amazing to see the first people from outside the company having fun with our game.

We got word that bHaptics, a Korean company which makes haptic suits and gloves for use with VR devices, had some space in their booth and were willing to let us do some demos there. So we set off back down the entire length of the convention centre to go into the secret Business Area.

Wednesday at Gamescom is restricted to trade visitors, meaning it's much less crowded than the later days. On those later days, that restriction only applies to the three halls designated as the Business Area. Like regular Gamescom, these halls are divided into flashy booths trying to sell you stuff, but in this case it's mostly companies trying to sell services and tools to developers: backend services, special 3D pens, anti-cheat... also a bunch of stands selling merch and figurines for some reason (maybe because they want to manufacture tie-in merch for your game), as well a bunch of national organisations promoting the game development scene in xyz country.

The Belgian stand functioned as a meeting spot, and they were also handing out vouchers for free beer. A strategy that seemed to be quite effective, judging by how crowded their booth became that evening.

We tested our headsets in the bHaptics zone, and discovered DOTS Netcode's prediction/rollback is good enough to make the game feel smooth even on public convention centre wifi, which was rather satisfying - so you know, good job Unity! Unfortunately the Shared Anchors continued to be a pain. We briefly ran into the head of DOTS at Unity and arranged a demo, scooted off to meet W. from Meta who bought us drinks, scooted over to Niantic again to meet some members of XR Bootcamp (a training course in XR game dev, whose cofounders Ferhan and Rahel seem to be the glue that holds the whole XR dev scene together), and at last wandered back to the Belgian zone...

...and then I went back to bHaptics to have a go at their gear. I didn't take a photo (rip) so here's a photo by CNet showing the full bHaptics getup, which in combination looks... kind of like you're the member of the SWAT team on washing up detail...

(source: Scott Stein/CNet)

I had never gotten to try any sort of haptic suit before this, so it was quite novel. Essentially the vest contains 40 (or 16) vibration motors; the gloves contain further motors on the tips of each finger, and there's another motorised ring between you and the headset. There are also motorised wrist bands, motorised ankle bands...

The first demo was designed to showcase the features of the suit and wristbands, so you could try out various actions like shooting guns or putting stuff in a backpack with and without haptics. A second demo focused on manipulating objects: no wristbands, just the glove and hand tracking.

Of the various devices, the most convincing was probably shooting with the haptic suit. Vibration motors are well-suited for brief, intense pulses, and firing guns definitely felt more impactful with the suit on - not a perfect simulation of impact, but a strong effect. The backpack demo was especially impressive: it really felt like dropping heavy objects into a backpack. You also got to shoot at your own mirror image and feel the bullet/laser impacts, which felt like a rather roundabout way to give myself a back massage, but I could see it being effective in the right game.

The hand demo convinced me less. The problem is that vibration is a poor simulacrum of pressing against a solid surface, so it just felt distracting to have a vibration pulse when i grabbed an object - and you still had the usual physics jank associated with manipulating objects in VR using hand tracking. The final section of the hand tracking demo was social interaction: you were faced with rotated clone avatar, and you could shake your hand, punch or slap yourself, or give yourself a hug. As someone who lives half a world away from most people I love, I think giving someone a hug in VR would be a fantastic use of the technology, but sadly this hug was... not entirely convincing. It is very hard to simulate a steady touch with vibration motors.

Ultimately I think the best use for this haptic gear may not be simulation fidelity, but more abstract: similar to the haptic suit used in certain public demos of Rez Infinite, pulsing in time to music. Such uses are mentioned on the bHaptics site, and I'd love to have been able to try that kind of demo. (And yeah, I'm sure you could hook it up to the other kind of remote-controlled vibrating devices if you so desired, though you'd probably have to do a bit of work to wire everything up.)

It was really cool to finally get to experience haptics, and I was very grateful to the bHaptics members for taking the time to show me their gear.

After I'd satisfied myself, I caught up with the gang; we went out to dinner with other XR devs at a Turkish restaurant called Bona'me near the river. (The food was tasty and had a decent amount of vege options, once again in huge portions but this time we split them between the table. ...and once again we were the last table to leave by a long way, and I feel bad for the staff who had to sit around waiting for us.)

There, I met a solo dev called Ben Outram, who's spent the last three years working on a game called Squingle, a fascinating psychedelic game about manipulating bubbles in a world of DMT-core abstract visuals. (Honestly, check this game out, it's nuts. Meta are sleeping on it, it should absolutely have a full store release.)

Thursday: chaos reigns

On Thursday it somehow ended up that in the space of an hour, we would be demoing our game to the head of DOTS development at Unity (whose name I somehow never managed to catch), demoing our other game Cybrix to Cas and Chary, and then doing the big important demo for meta. Then it turned out that our metro line was blocked by an accident up ahead. We hurried out to get an Uber, and our driver gave us a rather... exciting ride; he rolled down the window to argue with another driver and dropped us off in the middle of the road while we waited in traffic. Rather harried, we arrived back at the bHaptics corner and set up for the demos in an unused area of floor nearby.

I'm not sure if I can say too much about how our demos went, but unfortunately we ran into some versioning issues and were not able to show Cybrix to Cas and Chary before they had to rush off (we weren't the only one to face transport issues that morning). Lesson learned: test everything, not just the part you're worried about. It's not the end of the world, though, and we all headed over to W.'s hotel, into a swanky suite with a nicely laid table for the most important demo of the week. We had the room for maybe 20 minutes, then we were out the door again to the lobby of another hotel to talk it over.

After that... suddenly the afternoon was free, ish. We went back into Gamescom and ate some very expensive ramen. Then, word came that some more influencers wanted to try out our games, so it was back to bHaptics and well, the story gets a little repetitive at this point :p I can't say much more than that without talking about our game, so I will just have to say that the demos went well.

This was my view for most of Gamescom.

At the end of the day, I had a couple of free hours to scoot over to the indie games area and try out some games before everyone went home. At this point my social batteries had run very dry indeed so I was glad to get some time to just play games.

The indie zone was divided into lots and lots of small booths, typically just wide enough for one computer. And even late in the evening, it was very, very busy...

This is just one small corner of the indie area.

Not really knowing almost any of these games, my 1337 MLG Pro Gamescom strat was to wander around until I spotted an empty chair and then play whatever game was going and chat with the dev if they were around. This worked out pretty well! I'll write up the games I played in a moment, but first I'm overdue to wax philosophical.

What was really striking about walking around the indie area is just how many games there are. Wandering around you can pretty quickly spot patterns and influences just by glimpsing at screens (here's a combat tutorial, there's a crafting/survival game, and yonder a narrative game that's borrowed the entire interface of Disco Elysium).

I've seen, up close and personal now, just how much fiddly effort and dedication it takes to make a game. There's something kind of strange and alienating to me about encountering all this creative output in a massive aggregate, where you can only give it maybe half an hour in a noisy room, surrounded by a dozen more or less similar games, in a way that kind of demands you rapidly assign it into a broad, combinatoric category: x art style, y core mechanic, z emotional register. Presenting this game this way really seems to file them all down to Content, which can be boxed and tagged and matched to a consumer with the appropriate set of subculture flags.

One thing that is distinctive about games as a medium to me is the very strong separation between 'mechanics' and 'presentation'. To produce a game you don't just need a system to manipulate, but also associate it with a narrative to make it comprehensible and lend it some sort of affective impact.

So you could theoretically make a game with the exact same mechanics as, say, Half-Life 2 - the same movement, the same enemy hitboxes, the same collision geometry and shooting mechanics and progression - but a completely different presentation style and telling a completely different story. Indeed, a typical early stage of game development has placeholder 'programmer art' and 'greybox' levels.

Equally, you could lift the iconography of a game and drape it over a completely different mechanical substrate - and indeed, it isn't at all uncommon for major franchises to launch spinoffs in different genres.

So games as a medium consist of all these different pieces which you can attach in various ways to define a game which you can name. And once this is done, that game becomes in a sense 'concrete': we act as if Half-Life 2 is an object with a distinct existence. It's a powerful social construct. Then, a successful game is then one which manages to unify all these disparate elements into some sort of whole that feels coherent. Game development sees all the possible elements of a game gradually collapse into whatever gets released. It's highly stochastic: an arbitrary decision by a tired dev, or even a glitch, might later become fixed as one of the core icons of the great 'Franchise'.

When there were less games around, and it was a lot harder for people to get their hands on dev tools, it made sense to think of games as solid, discrete things. Whatever you got on the cartridge or disc was pretty much immutable. Now, though, most major games operate as a 'service' that is constantly modified, and it is not uncommon either for players to mod a game, on a continuum from small changes like injecting shaders or changing music, to total conversion mods that are a 'whole new game'.

And indie games, then... you've got a subculture which heavily emphasise sharing techniques, and it's just as beholden to genre as AAA games. The existence of all these games side by side, even though each one has its own name and identity, seems to further break up "games" into combinations of pieces. When I encounter a new third-person action game, it's as a variation on a kind of broader, abstracted super-game. My first task is to discover the particular quirks of this manifestation of the third person action game. The days when we had a shared culture of 'games everyone has played' are basically already gone, but we still have a certain degree of shared context, because each game is a probe into that constantly evolving game-space, which someone has gone to the trouble to fish out and decorate...

I suppose this is all coming back around to the otaku database thing, isn't it? Or just semiotics in general...

Anyway, here's what I found on Thursday:

I played an FPS called Serum, in which the core conceit is that you inject big syringes into your arm to give yourself powerups. Otherwise, it seems to be a game about gathering and crafting. Sadly the demo computer didn't have headphones, so I was missing sound, and seemed to be a bit underpowered for the game. Nevertheless, I walked around a bit, manufactured a healing serum, and shot some wolf and rabbit monsters with a bow and arrow.

I feel like I was rather ruder than I intended to be, because in talking to the dev afterwards, the first thing I mentioned was the performance issues and he had to apologise like, yeah, we're running it on a laptop (it sounded like he said with a 3070? but I must have misheard him, unless he has very high standards for underpowered), it does run better on a proper computer. The environment design in this game was definitely really strong. Not quite sure how the serum mechanic would work in practice - it sounds quite like Bioshock's plasmids, but the demo didn't really give the opportunity to try out the different options.

I played Dead Pets Unleashed, an adventure game about a demon girl in a struggling punk band. One of the devs was hanging out with this one and generally had a great vibe, joking about how almost nobody picked a certain option and suggesting the route that would get the most out of the demo.

The game uses a sidescrolling perspective with hand-drawn sprites. The art style is very consciously flat, its population of monster people allowing an impressive variety of colours. It broadly alternates between conversations with choices that adjust stats (e.g. +punk, -social) and a variety of minigames - there was a music minigame of course (the conceit being chasing away intrusive thoughts), but I also washed a dildo, constructed a hot dog, and waited tables. Generally it oozed style, absolutely nailing the punk vibe, and had a bunch of cute features like changing your character's outfit. You can play the same demo on Steam. I think this is one I might well get when the full release comes.

And then I played... a game I can't even find now! I really should have made a note or taken a picture or something. It was a kind of Amanita-like point and click game in which you play a tin can person, manipulating objects as you try to rescue your can dog, descending into a city made of cardboard boxes. The puzzles were occasionally a bit obtuse, but the cute style really carried it. The devs weren't on hand for this one, but they did have a wall where you could leave postit notes with your comments on the game, including one with a fairly essential hint for the first puzzle. It was called something like 'can world' or 'box world', but at this point, I can't find it anywhere. It's a shame because I thought it was neat.

That was all I had time for on Thursday: I zoomed off to another restaurant by the river to eat some more falafels. Someone let off some fireworks for some reason.

We started to make our way back, across the famous Hohenzollern Bridge, which is one of those bridges with a tradition that lovers will attach a padlock to the fence to symbolise how long their relationship will last.

At this point the padlocks have started to resemble kudzu, hanging down in strands of linked padlocks, or even growing up onto the superstructure of the bridge on chains. Questionable symbolism or not, it all makes for a fantastic textural effect, especially since it maintains the sheer density of padlocks for the entire length of the bridge.

While we were crossing, a boat passed under the bridge carrying some kind of a party. From a distance, all you could really see was a mass of glowsticks, and all you could hear was the ghost of the beat. It was a cool sight.

At this point I was pretty much completely exhausted so while there was some kind of industry party I definitely could not handle the crowds and walked home past the cathedral for an early night, eager to head in early to Gamescom tomorrow with a good night's sleep...

Friday: just like in my Bloodbornes, amirite gamers?

Predictably I overslept. Since I'd only get a few hours at Gamescom, I decided to visit the famous cathedral. I took that photo that I posted earlier, where somehow my little phone camera absolutely nailed the lighting, even if the cathedral is severely out of focus...

I headed inside the building too.

Cologne Cathedral (Kölner Dom) is a bit of an oddball, historically. While it wasn't uncommon for cathedral-building projects to last a century, after working on this thing from 1248–1560 they downed tools, leaving the city with a half-finished cathedral for about 300 years.

They had the front and back of a cathedral, with a big crane on the front part.

In the 1800s, the middle ages were in and the state decided it would be a good idea to have a big cathedral - both to make their new Catholic subjects happy and a symbol of THE NATION. After raising a stonking amount of money with one of the world's first NGOs, they built the rest of this thing, which briefly became the tallest building in the world. Hooray, said Emperor Wilhelm I. I love being a big strong nation with a big cathedral dick.

The cathedral survived the first world war, but got hit by a lot of bombs in the second - though the towers remained standing. After the war, they put it back up again. Now, it's a tourist attraction. Transsexual atheists can walk in and turn their phone to funny angles to try and capture the ceiling...

You can call this a Deutsch angle, because... ok whatever guys they can't all be winners.

They've got some old school Christian-style guro in here.

The interior is pretty cool: huge vaulted ceiling, massive stained glass. The stained glass unfortunately photographs really poorly on a phone, the colours washed out pretty much no matter what. They did have this funky ladder contraption, which I assume is probably used for maintaining/washing the windows...

After a little while in there I decided this was pretty neat but I'd go to Gamescom, to say goodbye to everyone and maybe get a glance at some of the mainstream game zones. As it turned out we had another demo lined up, so we went back to The Corner Near BHaptics and did the routine. This time the audience was mostly other VR devs so I got to have some nice technical discussion.

At last, I had about an hour before my train. I thought about exploring the indie game zone some more, but decided I should really at least take a glance through the other halls. What I discovered was... queues! Many many queues. And various elaborate dioramas.

Sometimes they had actors to go with them. I decided to include the people taking the photo because... I don't even know what I was going for with this one to be honest, it seems kind of banal.

Here's a queue of people waiting to play Rogue Trader, which boldly tells you it's the first(!) CRPG in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, hopefully not also the last. 'Warhammer CRPG' is a concept that 16-year-old Bryn would have gone completely insane about. 31-year-old Bryn was still a bit curious, but not enough to wait for a sitting down queue with less than an hour left at the con.

I didn't take a lot of photos of the Extremely Gamer Shit, but for a taster, this lady was DJing a set on something called the 'Leet Desk', which appears to be a desk with built in RGB lighting, billed as 'the desk for gamers', because we can no longer contain the rainbow puke. When I walked past, she was playing an EDM remix of a tune that I vaguely recognised from a movie or a game but couldn't place specifically, which felt about right. Maybe it was Skyrim?

A lot of people walked around with the Hoyoverse bag, Hoyoverse being the collective term for the games of Chinese developer miHoYo such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact. Their slogan was 'tech otakus save the world', which thanks to their cunning move of handing out large bags, was soon paraded all over the convention. I feel like the jury is still out on the impact (ha ha) of tech otakus on the world...

In the end, the last hour was spent briefly walking around to see the halls and then I left to say my goodbyes and hop back on the train. The journey back was totally straightforward. I finished reading my manga and drew some more train passengers, who were generally pretty happy to be drawn.

Cosplay

It's a con, there's gotta be cosplayers right? Sure enough, the crowd was peppered with stormtroopers, kitsune, army men, luffies and various spooky skull guys... I didn't get many photos but here's a couple.

Obligatory stormtroopers. Luckily, the inside of the con was airconditioned, those suits look toasty.

These three kindly stopped to pose for me. I don't know what game they're doing, Dead by Daylight maybe? DbD girls, tell me ^^'

This robot-girl cosplayer's costume is neat: when you look close you see it's made of old PC parts. Or at least the casings of them. I spotted a graphics card and an old VR headset. She also has built-in stilts so she towered over everyone, big respect. She was hanging out in the hall on Wednesday, so she might have been there in an official capacity, but I didn't get a chance to talk to her.

Observations of demographics and stuff

It's been a good long while since I've been to any sort of nerd convention. Mostly I've been to scifi/media fandom cons like Nine Worlds and Worldcon, or general nerd-shit cons like MCM Expo, and in the old old days, Warhammer cons like Game Day. But this event being specifically a gaming expo was pretty new to me.

Predictably the demographics skewed male (but not overwhelmingly) and white/East Asian (almost without exception). The various national organisations present were primarily European (which tracks for an event in Germany) but there were large stands e.g. promoting Korean game dev or the Guangzhao region of China. In the indie zone, there were a good handful of Japanese devs, and I spotted one game that was fully in JP. Here and there, you'd spot banners promoted other gaming expos - a lot in Europe, but also there is apparently a Gamescom Asia in Singapore, and a Tokyo Indie Games Summit which sounds pretty fun. By contrast, while I don't have any real stats to substantiate, I would say I saw very few organisations were promoting game devs from South America, Africa or Oceania.

Beyond that... this is very definitely a place for nerds, but there's a lot of different varieties of nerd you can be now. So sure, T-shirts with slogans and cargo shorts for many, but equally you could dress super goth, you could show off all your tattoos, you could go in your colourful coordinated kitsune cosplay or just wear some bright hair die. I'm confident I saw a few other girls from the isle of 🏳️‍⚧️, but 'hello I clocked you let's be friends' is not the best introduction even from another trans girl lmao - in general I didn't really talk to people besides the group I had arrived with. I think if I'd gone alone, it would not be the sort of con where you make a lot of friends, but who knows?

All in all, a solid adventure. I'll probably go again next year, if I can find somewhere cheaper to stay. I never did get to see the chocolate museum.

ok, story over - thanks for reading, nerd ;p

#gamescom #computer games #adventures of canmom

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animehouse-moe · 1 year

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Heavenly Delusion Episode 4: Kuku

Let the broken record repeat once more, Production I.G and Hirotaka continue to kill it. Adding new scenes, moving the order of them around to create even stronger connections and foreshadowing, and even trimming some of the fat of the manga. The team and studio continue to prove their unrivaled ability in delivering an incredible adaptation, as we dive deeper into the core themes of the story.

So I think I'll start with where I finished that introductory paragraph: the core themes. There's mystery, and monsters, and a myriad of other things. But this episode helps viewers grasp what lies beneath that. Connection. Reaching out to connect with another, to fall in love, to find a brother or a sister, to not be alone in this world, to be understood or hold onto your sanity.

Whatever form it may be in, connections are what drives this story. Tarao reaching out for Tokio above, or a baby and Tokio reaching out to each other. It cuts to the core of our existence and speaks out on the loneliness that inhabits us as individuals. And the direction grasps that wonderfully. Through the use of closeups on the hands of various characters they're able to appeal to that aspect of connection, through a literal one. Of course, they're also sneaky and add their own pieces of foreshadowing through it, so keep an eye out.

How about I touch on that subject next? The foreshadowing of this episode (and the series at large) continues to be expert. They fully use that 20+ minute time slot to their advantage, and change around the order of events to create a different but stronger experience than the manga. They're not limited by chapter here but rather episode so the amount of content they can cover differs. Thanks to that, they're afforded a lot more freedom in how they approach things. Alongside that, how they display them is changed as well. It's a natural extension of the manga in that sense, in that it picks up on those queues from its source, and finds a way to extrapolate and improve upon them with sound, color, and movement.

Alright, back to the realm of commentary where I can actually show stuff. We'll head for overall direction I guess. It's really incredible and does make full use of the suite of tools at its disposal, the quality of work on the action or fluid sequences is really quite incredible, with shots like this from the Hiruko in the episode being absolutely stunning.

But, the character expression in this episode is out of this world. Hardly as "important" visually to the average fan, but the work they put into how the characters move, react, and fidget throughout is absolutely incredible. It fits so perfectly with Hirotaka's overall vision it's like a match made in heaven (and sometimes produces funny ones like these first two).

Anyways, back away from the character expression, Hirotaka and Ootsuka Takashi (who directed this episode) are working magic through their understanding of the theme of connection, and produce cuts like this one. Of course, we get the visual information beforehand in a series of scenes where Tokio runs away from Tarao, as she shes everybody else around her has someone. But this is Tokio talking about herself, putting it through her lens is a great idea to sell her character and ensure that viewers are aware of Tokio's own understandings. And I love that they end the sequence with a cut showing Tokio all on their own, just adds to that feeling of isolation and loneliness so well.

And you know what else is crazy? During the earlier scenes featuring Tokio during their conversation with Kona, you can actually see that their eyes remain puffy/red from the crying. Such a small detail that they bothered to put into the moment to just pile on the perfection.

I've said it every episode so far, and I'll say it again: the use of visual information outside of pure exposition is insanely well done. Stuff like seeing a robot clean the ceiling before Tokio uses it to climb into the vent with Kuku, or being shown that Kuku and Tokio aren't showing up on the cameras before that intruder alert goes out. There's a world of content that they apply to the background and tertiary scenes in this series, and it makes the experience so full. Every frame, every movement within this anime has a purpose, a reason for doing what it does. Like walking across the boxes while running from the Hiruko. Kiruko themselves don't say anything until after the fact, but viewers with a keen eye are aware. You get to see the veggies spill out of the boxes on the first floor, and then the weed on the one below it. It's incredible awareness of what's going to happen to be able to express things like that without making it "obvious" or too in your face.

Alright alright, last few pieces, home stretch I promise. Just a few scenes that I really want to gush about. We'll start with the one that I was almost at with my previous spiel. Kona's VA does an incredible job in the conversation with Tokio. Their tone and approach have such a degree of maturity and understanding that lend incredible power to what he says to Tokio. It's a vibe you just can't get in the manga, and his VA has perfectly capture his personality here with just a couple of lines.

Next up, this wonderful awareness of association. Maru and Kiruko are wandering around an abandoned building to find food and other scavenge-able items, and it comes off very cute and heartwarming as they crack jokes and enjoy good food for the first time in a while. What puts it all together though is the soundtrack. It's the same one that was used in Haruki's flashback when he was remembering his sister. It's re-used here, and that association does wonders. It paints a picture of Kiruko's fondness for Maru, and the bond that they now share after their time travelling together. It's a moment that they'll remember and look back on with a smile, and it's so beautiful to see music of all things inject that understanding into it and tie it all together.

And the last thing is the scale of it all. It's hard to really explain or show the size or breadth of things in manga due to limited space, but each scene in an anime has the entirety of the screen to work with, and Hirotaka takes full advantage of that once more. Wide shots that show the scale of the world and the people within it really help explain all sorts of things. Like how high up the vents are at the institution, or how big some of the spaces within it are, or even just how big a building Kiruko and Maru are staying in.

And as if that wasn't enough, the direction goes above and beyond to make these scenes look incredible. The framing, layouts, and blocking of the characters within them fill the scenes and create really satisfying stills. Like in this first image we get to see the chairwoman speaking down towards the people that rush into the room after the alert, but the camera remains high and on a steep angle to show that even though the Chairwoman is high up and away from the people in this big room, there's even more space to it.

Then there's the second image which uses a low angle from near the chairwoman to sell the sheer size of Mina in comparison to your average person. And then the final image of the trio that shows the massive scale of the room in full. It's like a gradient, showing how small people are in the room, to how small people are to Mina, and then to how small Mina is in the room as well. Really creative work that gets used in all sorts of places.

So that's about all I have to say for today (though not really, it's just that any more and I'm liable to start spoiling stuff). This series is really just like Bocchi The Rock for me. It's so ridiculously good, and so insanely consistent that all I can do is repeat my praise in various manners and break down some of the aspects/choices of the episode. It's so incredible that there's just no way left to praise it. In 4 or even fewer episodes, it's exhausted all possible unique praise for animation, direction, art, character acting, music.... just kind of everything. So uh yeah, Anime of The Season hands down, and unless some sort of miracle happens with the Fall season, Anime of The Year.

#heavenly delusion #tengoku daimakyou #天国大魔境 #production i.g #mori hirotaka #kiruko #maru #anime recommendation #anime review #anime and manga #anime #horror anime

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mackeydoodledoo · 1 year

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The Florals: Chapter 5

Pairing: Wanda Maximoff x (Fem MC)Reader

Summary: You and your best friends are one of the most popular local bands. After a gig you meet the bartender, who has caught your eye and interest.

Chapter Warnings: Sad Chapter Ending

A/n: None

Chapter Key: Italics = Thoughts, Bold/Indent = Text Messages, [Bold/Italic] = Singing, +*+ = Time skip

Chapter Theme: Anywhere You Go - Clubhouse

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you pull into work the next morning, you walk into work, expecting to just go through a normal day of working. However, you look up and see your bandmates hanging around the register, where Roy was the only one on the other side.

“Guys... What are you doing here?” You ask

“So, remember how we had an overly successful show last Saturday?” Lark reiterates the night to you

“Yeah?” You ask

“Well this kid that has super rich parents has personally asked us to be the main event for their party!” Lark explains to you

“When is it?” You ask, now feeling fully awake

“In a couple of weeks from this coming Saturday,” Rose explains

“Shit I’m practically working all week,” You groan

“That’s why we’re here,” Pine says, “We’re trying to convince Roy to give you vacation time for that specific week.”

“I told them I’ll put it through,” Roy chuckles

“I still don’t know,” You continue to contemplate

“This person is also very LGBTQ+ friendly, better yet, they’re in that community,” Poppy adds, “It’s kind of like a pride party they’re hosting.”

“Say less,” You immediately say, “Tell him we’re in.”

“One condition, the kid wants Wanda to come as well,” Lark adds

“I’ll pull some strings,” You say

“Go get your woman's,” Lark teases as your four friends make their leave from your workplace

“They’re such an interesting bunch,” Roy smiles

“You have no idea,” You smile

+*+

By the time your lunch break came around, you bring over food like usual and wait for Wanda in the patio.

“Hey, sorry I’m a little late,” Wanda sighs sitting in the opposite chair from you

“No worries Wands,” You say, smiling

When Wanda looks up from adjusting herself, she notices the undisappearing smile on your face.

“What’s up, you’re overly in a happy mood today,” Wanda says

“So, apparently there’s this LGBTQ+ friendly family hosting this real cool party in a couple of Saturday’s from now and I guess they noticed your performance last weekend and they asked for you to also be there. Not sure to perform or as a guest.” You explain

“They... Want me there?” Wanda asks

You nod.

“I’m in,” Wanda doesn't give it a second thought

“Great!” You smile

The both of you share lunch like every other day you two spend your lunch breaks.

+*+

You finish rolling the sleeves on your flannel as you hear your phone go off.

Hey, I’m prepared but I don't know if my outfit is... Bi enough.

Why not ask Vision?

He... I... Didn’t tell him.

Oh... Okay shoot, send me a photo

You wait for your phone to ‘ding’ once more and you open your phone. Almost immediately you dropped your phone onto your tile bathroom floor. She showed that she was matching your aesthetic, but instead of ripped jeans and a flannel, she was wearing a skirt and a crop top.

Looks perfect to me. Remember, you aren’t impressing anyone (other than me of course)

Right ;) Are you heading over?

Yeah, just about to leave my place.

You grab an additional jacket and any other essentials and head out the door.

+*+

When you texted her that you were waiting, one of the songs in your setlist for tonight came onto your radio from the queue. Instinctively your hands and feet began following the rhythm. However, was short-lived when you see Wanda opening the door to your car.

“I wasn’t interrupting a session was I?” She asks, getting into the passenger seat

“Not at all,” You chuckle, beginning to input directions to the kid’s house

Just before you pulled out of the lot driveway, you couldn't help but hear the continuous rustling from Wanda.

“You okay?” You ask

“Sorry,” She says, “It’s my first time wearing a skirt like this and... I’m having a hard time adjusting to it...”

You shift the car to park and reach into the backseat for your additional jacket and drape it over Wanda’s legs. She looks at you as you shift the car into drive, beginning to follow the directions.

+*+

You turn onto a dirt road, no other houses in sight other than the ones from the previous road you were just on. Out of precaution, you drive slowly.

“Does this give horror movie vibes to you?” Wanda asks

“One hundred percent yes,” You reply

However, as soon as you turn the corner, loads of cars packed the driveway and the house...

Oh man that’s a huge ass house...

Before you could find a parking spot along the driveway, someone knocks on your window, nearly scaring you shitless.

“Invitation?” He asks

A whole fucking valet person?!... How much money does this family have and what or who do they work for?!

“Apart of one of the main bands tonight,” You say, showing him the email that Lark had shared with you and your bandmates

Instead of allowing you to continue up to the driveway, he gestures off into another direction.

“Oh shit a whole parking space just for the entertainment?” You ask yourself, beginning to drive carefully into that direction

You immediately spot a familiar car and park next to it.

“You ready?” You ask, turning to Wanda

She nods as she takes your jacket and puts it on her as she follows you out of your car. You take her by the hand unknowingly and begin making your way through the party to find your friends.

“About time you showed up!” Lark comes up to you, “Opener bands are going on right now!”

“You must be the fire-head drummer that’;s seemingly cutting it close,” A kid comes up to you

“I’m notorious for cutting things close,” You chuckle

“Glad you brought Wanda,” He greets himself, “I’ve seen the video, glad you agreed to sing with them.”

Wanda turns to you, panic setting into her face.

“Hey Wanda, I’m messing with you,” He smiles, “I wanted you here as a guest. By all means if you want to perform with them go right ahead.”

He walks away to greet other guests as Wanda sighs in relief.

“Well, would you want to perform with us again?” You ask her

“Strel, that time was to fill in for Pine,” Wanda sighs, “But... I did have fun with it.”

“Your choice babe,” You chuckle, “I’m gonna go to the bar, you want anything?”

“No I’m good thanks,” She answers

*Wanda’s POV* You watch as Strelitzia walks off to the outdoor bar.

“So, you and Strel huh?” Lark teases

“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” You clear your throat, trying to keep your gaze off of Strelitzia who was still at the bar

“Come on,” Lark chuckles, “I've never seen Strel go the extra mile for a girl unless she-”

“Lark what did we tell you about teasing Wanda about her close friendship with Strel?” Rose sighs in annoyance

“Officer Hill,” Lark greets the woman behind Rose

“Maria outside policing hours,” Maria corrects her

“Wow is everyone bringing plus ones except for Poppy, Pine and I?” Lark sighs in frustration

“Save the flirting for after our gig Lark,” Strelitzia comes back over

You nearly jump out of your skin as Strelitzia’s arm hauls itself over your shoulders. You look into her other hand and see a smoking red drink in her other hand.

“You wanna try some?” She offers the glass

A smile creeps across your face as you slowly take the drink into your hands. You swirl the drink once before taking a small sip through the straw.

“Sweet?” She asks

You felt her lean into the side of your head, her lips hovering over your ear.

“Sweet as you,” She whispers

Your face flushes as you process Strel’s compliment.

“You hungry?” She asks

You nod slightly. She straightens her body out as she looks around for anywhere that involved food. She was about to walk right over to a spotted food table, you see the kid gesturing you over to the stage area.

“Maria can you get Wanda food?” She asks her

“Yeah, leave her to me,” Maria says

*Strelitzia’s POV* You gesture to your bandmates to the host as they began getting the hint.

“Let’s rock,” Lark fist bumps the air

+*+

You pull the sticks out of the stick bag attached to your floor tom as you wait for Poppy and Rose to finish tuning. Your set didn’t even start and you hear the crowd go absolutely nuts for you guys.

+*+

*Wanda’s POV* Watching from afar, rather than from the bar, you began developing an appreciation for live music. Well, you’ve always had that. But, this time, it was different...

Being friends with a band... Getting that all access exclusive... Even getting close with the drummer... I can truly see why live music is better than just simple in-studio experimenting...

When Vision used to bring you into his studio when you first began dating, he would show you how he created his music, both in the booth and on the mixing board. You vividly remember how there were barely any instruments that he played. He had the money to hire people to do the instrumentals for him... But for a group of friends to actually put in the effort to learn instruments...

Hell... Learn each others’ instruments, it’s a one-of-a-kind type of music...

“You’re really keeping that gaze of yours on Strelitzia,” Maria teases you

Your gaze finally escapes hers as it changes to Maria; a clear smirk swiping across her face.

“How about you and Rose huh?” You make a comeback, “You were eyeing her up AND down.”

You’re the one smirking once Maria hides herself in her drink, trying to hide the blush on her face.

“Got ya,” You chuckle, taking a big drink out of Strelitzia’s drink

*Strelitzia’s POV* “Hey where’s my...?” You come back over to Wanda and Maria

You were gong to have more of your drink., long forgetting you gave it to Wanda to hold onto just before you went to do your set.

“Oh,” Wanda hiccups, “I drank it... Are you mad?...”

“Why you;d I be mad?” You smile, “You just look drunk right now.”

You take her glass and place it on a nearby table as she stumbles into your arms.

“I gotta get her back home before Vision begins questioning why Wanda is out so late,” You say, “And drunk...”

“Didn't you drink too?” Lark asks, chuckling

“Hours ago Lark, I didn’t even finish it,” You state, “I’ve been sober for awhile.”

You help Wanda into your passenger seat as you buckle her in like a child.

“You’re super pretty,” Wanda giggles

You slow your pace as you look at her.

“Well,” You clear your throat, “Have you seen yourself?”

You shut her door as you make your way around to the driver’s side.

“Can we get food before you drop me off?” Wanda asks

“Girlie, you had food in there,” You chuckle, beginning to drive off into the night

“But I want fast food,” She pouts

You jokingly sing at her request, knowing it was quite late. But, it was Wanda. For her, you’d do anything.

“Okay,” You cave

You tell your phone’s navigation app to input the nearest fast food place.

+*+

You shift your car into park as you allow Wanda to finish up her food.

“Hey how are you feeling now?” You turn to look at Wanda

“A lot less dizzy,” She answers, “But, I’m not ready to leave just yet though.”

“More than valid, take your time,” You tell her

Within the awkward silence, Wanda looks up at you. The both of you lock eyes and you can easily see her pupils dilate and the lights from your control panel reflecting from her emerald eyes; the blue light making her eyes look like a blue-green color. She leans toward you as you lean in at the same time and softly. Oh so very softly, your lips meet hers. Her eyes flutter closed and she returns the kiss.

Her lips are soft...

You kiss her again, and again, and again and again before she abruptly pulls away and gasps.

"I-I’m sorry I need to go," She says as she hastily opens the car door and shuts it

"You still love him, don't you?" You ask, rolling down the window "Regardless he hasn’t taken you out in weeks, he didn’t pick you up from work. Not to mention he didn’t show with you to our show...."

Wanda looks away...

"When was the last time he told you the three words?" You ask

Wanda still doesn't respond... her back is turned to me...

"Wanda..." You say, trying to get an answer out of her without demanding it

"Ages," she finally answers, "I’m not sure exactly how long but he is still good to me."

"Sure sounds like it’s been a long time if you don’t know exactly when the last time he’s told you he loves you" You state, “Which is probably true.”

She looks at you finally though kind of pissed off. But you also hear her sniffle before she turns her back again to you and begins walking again... She opens the door and closes it... That entire time she had her back turned to you. You growl under your breath and “punch” the gas. After rounding the corner you abruptly slam on the brakes. You let tears run down your eyes and land on your pants and pinch the bridge of your nose…

*Wanda’s POV* You stand in the elevator, waiting for the goddamned thing to reach your floor. Your face falls into your hands as you sigh in frustration, contemplating on what you just did...

I kissed Strelitzia... But... Was I... Drunk? Don’t think so but, I... Liked it... NO! We can’t think like that... We have Vision, we love Vision and Vision alone...

Chapter 6

#wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda x reader #scarlet witch x fem!reader #Scarlet Witch #Elizabeth Olsen #marvel #female reader

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spnfanficpond · 8 months

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Weekly Pond Newsletter

This weekend is Fishing For Treasures weekend here at the Pond and we're celebrating all of those fandoms that are not normally part of the Pond! So, check out our queue to find fics from Marvel, Doctor Who, LOTR, and more!!

Old Business:

It's been quiet in the Pond this past week, with just a couple of Manta Rays chats in the discord server. However, we have reblogged a couple of writing challenges and lots of tools for writers from other blogs. Check out our #writer resources tag to find all kinds of helpful links!

Last week's #TweetFicTues prompts were:

Jensen brings Danneel and the kids to Rome for JIB, maybe? Be sure to tag us and let us know if you write something based off of these prompts!

New Business:

Manta Rays in the discord server. - Manta Ray Dean and Admin Marie will both be spending time in the Discord server just hanging out and being available to chat about anything. Look out for announcement posts coming soon, or check out our Google calendar for dates and times!

Zoom concert with Billy Moran and Paul Carella - Next weekend, Billy Moran and Paul Carella, aka Tricky MC, will be having an online concert via zoom! Click here for more information and to buy tickets.

Have you seen our Monthly Prompt? This month's prompt is Apple Picking!

(Divider by @glygriffe!)

That's all for this week! To see all Pond events, and also other SPN-related things like conventions and online concerts, check out our Google calendar! We try to keep it as up to date as possible. If there's something you want to see on the calendar that's not there (maybe a convention we missed, or cast birthdays, or something similar), send us an ASK and let us know!

Hope you have a great week! - From your Admins and Manta Rays, @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @princessmisery666, @thoughtslikeaminefield, @katbratsupernaturalwhore and @heavenssexiestangel!

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shrimp-library · 1 year

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The CV Guide for Girlies

Disclaimer: Most of the advice does not apply for ATS scanners. Still don't know how those work.

Let's say you've just been laid off unexpectedly, or you finally decided to put an end to your comfy NEET days, and you need a piece of digital paper to show someone because you wish to get paid. It's so overwhelming, where do you even begin? Well, you're in the right place, because this article right here is all you need to make a CV and actually land a job.

Before we start, there is a difference between a CV and a résumé. Curriculum Vitae (CV) is basically a your entire life, all your achievements, certificates, degrees, experience, all of it compiled together, while a résumé is a quick rundown of relevant information for the job you want. This is all completely irrelevant, because no one says résumé anymore, and no one except academia will expect your entire life course so far, but for the sake of brevity, the term CV will be used from now on.

Describe yourself in a thousand words

Firstly, sit down and write your academic achievements and all the work experience you have, in a single document. Try to be as detailed as possible. Mention everything, from fetching coffee for your slightly misogynistic boss to taking photos of university events. Anything that comes to your mind, just jot it down. Much like a lot of aspects of a job, it's easier to remove unnecessary fluff than to add it on the spot.

Next step is to translate your plebeian plainspeak to corporatese. You didn't stand in queue for 20 mins because your boss forgot his morning cuppa, you procured vital resources to ensure the team's success. You didn't just post some selfies from that boring conference, you created content to help boost the popularity of X university. It's mindboggling why humans have to communicate to each other in this way, but we live in a society.

Put aside that document for now, and browse jobs that are sort of within your expertise. As an example, we will be pretend that your desired position is that of Administrative Assistant, because it's a broad term that means literally anything and your dear author is not nearly as creative as HR. Administrative jobs can include the very general Assistant, Receptionist, AccountantLite, you name it. Then it branches off to specific establishments, like offices, hotels, spas, etc. It is all similar, but not quite the same, like how synonyms work in the English language.

Now we go back to your original document. Separate the experience you have based on the jobs you've scoured. There are customer-facing jobs, like a Hotel Receptionist, that also force you to deal with money and guest reservations, which is quite different than having to deal with social shenanigans in an office environment. Keep the original document intact, and create new documents for this step.

Designing yourself in a one-page document

Alright, the most daunting part is done. Good job! Pat yourself on the back, and follow this link to Canva, type "CV" into the search bar, and window shop for the one you like the most. Highly recommend these new sleek and modern ones, they are comfortable to look at for more than two seconds and people in HR won't discard them immediately. Choose a template or make your own from scratch, but keep in mind that people actually still use printers and will print out your application, so the contrast between the background color and the font color has to be high enough. Can't fail with a black-on-white approach, though a slightly darker white (#F4F4F4) and a slightly lighter black (#212121) work great and don't strain our eyes as much as the tried-and-true does.

Eye strain happens because of how our iris contracts with a lot of light being received, which is not a hard task for these miracles of nature, but then having to look at and actually read black words is a little bit hard for them. Absolutely demolished by simple text.

Pro tip: One page of CV = 10 years, or less, of experience. Do NOT go over one page. Make it fit.

The reason for the One Page Rule is simply because attention span of a person who is looking at potentially hundreds of CVs in a day is limited, and their patience might be thin. If a CV is unreadable, or looks absolutely horrible to read at first glance, it will be discarded. The point of a CV is to get an interview, not to get a job immediately. You want them to look at your pixels, actually read them, and give you a call.

There are a few good rules to keep in mind when designing a CV.

Make sure your name is clear, bold, and visible, in upper left corner or in the middle of the document.

Your future employers won't remember the exact details, but they will jot down your name as a potential new recruit. It should be visible, even from a thumbnail.

Contact information should be separated into a different "box", and should include phone number and e-mail address.

In case they wish to contact you, do not make them look for your information for more than a second, they will not bother with that. Adding a home address depends on where you are from, and the kind of job you want. If you are only looking for remote work, home address is not needed, but adding your address nowadays is usually redundant. Better to keep your sensitive information to yourself if you can, as you never know who's watching.

Bullet points are a great way to summarise previous experience, and they never end in a full stop.

Attention to detail and knowledge of proper text formatting etiquette is imperative in a lot of jobs nowadays. Show them you know what you're doing right off the bat with your wonderful CV. In case you are adding slashes (/), there should be space before and after the slash if there are two or more words on each side.

Example:

Peaches/Bananas

Ripe peaches / Spotty bananas

The order of all points should be in reverse chronological order, so the first point should be the most recent work experience or academic achievement, then go down the list with the second, third, and so on.

Font choice is extremely important.

Sans-serif basically means 'no decoration', and is generally perceived as friendlier and more relatable, but is often also more readable (which is why we're using it for this website).

'Serif' fonts have tiny little decorative ends to each letter, and are seen as more formal and professional.

The best design choice is to combine both font categories. Use 'serif' for job titles you've previously held, and the additional information about them, like the company you worked at and the time that you spent there (with the time span being in italics so it doesn't look too uniform and stands out). The bullet points should be in a 'sans-serif' font of your choice, as they usually mean more text, so it's easier to read.

There are many font families to choose from, and most people default to Times New Roman for 'serif', and Arial for 'sans-serif'. Switch it up a bit, and use Garamond instead of TNR, and Calibri instead of Arial. It's the little things that matter the most, and you want to stand out among the crowd, so min-maxxing like this is a good idea.

Keywords should be found, and they should be bold.

First impressions are everything, as often times, the only chance you'll get is a quick glance, unless you pull them in. Words that are bold seem more important, and people will look at them before anything else, so use the bold to highlight the things you want them to look at. A good trick is to bold up the keywords that the employer used in the job description. They mentioned one of the responsibilities is scheduling office meetings? You bold that stuff right up in your CV.

Finding the keywords in job descriptions is basically the same game as bolding them in your CV. There's a lot of corporatese fluff they use in these descriptions, same as we have to, so it's a tug of war from both sides to figure out what the hell everyone's talking about. Here's an example of the first job that popped up on Indeed!

This is a highly effective method, because it works in real life as well. Mirroring gestures and repeating back slightly different words to people we're talking to makes them subconsciously kinda like us. They think we're cool, because they usually think they themselves are cool. Also, it makes sense that if an employer is looking for these specific things, you'll want to mimic them to get a call back. You want them to look at your CV and say "Yes, this is exactly who we need!". It really is that simple, though it will take a little bit more time upfront, but it pays off in the long run. Rather spend 10 minutes on this, than send out hundreds of applications with no results.

Most jobs within a field have very similar responsibilities, perhaps just worded a bit differently. Create a few different versions of your CV to apply to these slightly different jobs.

An important note to all the above is to keep an eye out for any big names. HR loves knowledge of industry-standard software, so if you are proficient in MS Excel (god bless), you put that in and you bold it. Same goes with numbers. Any "increases in volume", or "saved the company X amount of money through this unique special trick of knowing what you're doing", and they will drool at your CV. Big name software and actual quantifiable numbers should always be included and always be bold.

FAQ

Should I use a photo of myself?

Probably not. There are a thousand different biases that people have, and you want to avoid that like the plague. You might be too blonde, too brunette, too skinny, too pretty, too . A photo catches immediate attention, and you don't want them to be looking at you, you want them to look at your words.

I don't have any work experience, what do?

First of all, do not lie outright. If you went through university/college, did you organise any study groups? Did you write any articles for the school's newspaper, or publish any killer essays? Were you a cheerleader? A leader of a book club? Include that. Fluff it up. You probably did something, even if it's having awesome grades. Include professor references, too!

I'm not sure if I should apply to this job.

Apply to literally any job that you feel you can do. On average, women seem to be very shy in applying for jobs they are not at least 90% qualified for, while men don't seem to overthink as we do and just apply to anything that resembles a job description. The worst that can happen is be ignored. Enjoy the rush of euphoria as you hit that Send button!

I'm an American and we are prompted to disclose our very personal information that is usually illegal in other countries.

Disclosing your religion, sexuality, and race can be a double-edged sword. There are many diversity quotas that companies are dying to fill, but if you're unsure about sharing this information, do some stalking of the company's website. They usually have a page dedicated to all their employees, and if you notice a staggering lack of women in there, it actually might be a good idea to apply. Women often offer unique perspectives to problem-solving that men just don't even think about until it's too late. If the company's website mentions any of the new buzzwords, you may fluff up your personality a bit, but make sure the info you provide is not verifiable or outright questionable. You want to go for plausible deniability.

I have large time gaps between jobs.

That is nothing to fret about, unless you're applying for some high-rolling intense corpo job we see in movies. One way to minimise the initial impact of the gaps is to only state the month and the year you spent at a job (August 2019 - March 2020). When you land an interview, and they ask about it, you have three options.

Option A

Claim family issues. People are generally more lenient about this when it comes to women, which might seem like a cool life perk until you realise they are lenient because women are expected to take care of family members. This option also allows for mental health breaks from working, and you wouldn't technically be lying because you are someone's family.

Option B

Claim travel. If you claim you went abroad to volunteer at animal shelters for a year, they will ask you why haven't you put that down in the CV, and that is just an awkward situation. But, if you claim you went abroad or to another state to protest against testing on animals because you feel strongly about the cause, they might even be impressed by your passion. Travelling to see family abroad also works. Make sure your social media accounts are private.

Option C

Claim NDA. The very nature of Non-Disclosure Agreements is that you cannot talk about whatever you did. Can't put it in CV, can't talk about it, that's that. This option requires very good lying skills and a good delivery. If they stay silent after your claim to try to get you to talk, do NOT break the silence. Stare into their soul and wait until they break first.

If you are still worried about the gaps, you can try to fill those with completed certificates and courses that are somewhat related to your field and will help you in the long run.

This is already very long, so take all of this advice, create some gorgeous CVs, and go get that bread.

You can do it!

#cv tips #cv writing #for women #shrimp library #how to

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24-7-testing · 1 year

Text

I posted 1,180 times in 2022

25 posts created (2%)

1,155 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@24-7-testing

@enrichment--center

@humanwheatleyslefttoenail

@the-dangerous-mute-lunatic

@ratt-core

I tagged 1,180 of my posts in 2022

#aperture science - 1,170 posts

#aperture laboratories - 1,170 posts

#portal 2 - 1,047 posts

#chell - 498 posts

#testing queue - 346 posts

#wheatley - 329 posts

#glados - 326 posts

#portal - 270 posts

#companion cube - 157 posts

#caroline - 67 posts

Longest Tag: 116 characters

#this unlocked a deeply repressed memory of me playing petz in my grandparent's basement on an old macintosh computer

My Top Posts in 2022:

"Welcome, gentlemen, to The Aperture's Fortune. Aristocrats, soldiers, bilge rats -- you're here because we want the best, and you are it. So: Who is ready to plunder some gold? [laugh] Now, you already met one another on the dinghy ride over, so let me introduce myself. I'm Captain Johnson. I own the ship. That eager voice you hear barking orders is the lovely Caroline, my First Mate. Rest assured, she's stashed your excess gold with the rest of our loot. Isn't that right, Caroline?"

"Yes, sir, Cap'n Johnson!"

"Hardest working deckhand, Caroline. She's the backbone of this ship! Pretty as a postcard too. Sorry scallywags, she's married; to the sea!"

I've been playing a lot of the game Sea of Thieves with a good friend lately (highly recommend it btw) and we got talking about what a Pirate Portal AU would look like. Surprisingly enough, there doesn't seem to be any fanart of Portal characters as pirates at least that I've found.

So, thanks to an art commission done by the amazing @sapient-nes , this new multiverse now has some content! Here's Captain Cave Johnson and his First Mate Caroline sailing the seas on their ship, The Aperture's Fortune, looking for adventure, plunder, and any crew members brave enough to accompany them on their voyages!

I'm very happy with how the artwork came out. The artist did a wonderful job and was great to work with too! Go commission them if you like what you see!

Also, if anybody out there has seen any other Portal-themed Pirate content, send it my way!

138 notes - Posted June 28, 2022

I've been seeing a lot of people slightly confused by it, so I thought that I would point out that Aperture Desk Job is not part of the main timeline of Portal and Portal 2.

From the Steam page for the game:

It's a story in the expanded universe of those games, ie the Multiverse! That being said, it's extremely fun and should definitely be played!

Hopefully everyone can keep this in mind while developing fan theories about the content of the game. 😊

258 notes - Posted March 2, 2022

The end of the year gets tough for a lot of people, especially the last few years. Because of this, I am once again excited to announce the return of…

The Portal Holiday Spirit Initiative!

To try and lift people’s spirits up this year, I will be making and sending out FREE Portal-Themed Holiday Cards to anyone who asks for one! The cards are customized to match any December Holiday of your choice and mailed to you physically or emailed digitally!

This will be the fourth consecutive year I have run PHSI, and features the return of the nifty Postcards from last year! But don't worry: All physical cards will be mailed in themed envelopes this year, so your postcards should arrive in much better condition! :)

These postcards are are also special and unique, because they feature new artwork made by eight different artists from the fandom, specifically for this event! The design of the postcard you receive will be based on what you select in your Card Request. I can’t express the amount of thanks these artists deserve for volunteering their time and talents to make PHSI 2022 special!

If you would like to receive a Portal-Themed Holiday Card:

Visit bit.ly/portal-holiday-spirit-initiative …

Answer the questions on the form…

Wait for your card to be made and sent!

It’s that simple! Card Requests are now open, and close on December 20th in order to give me enough time to make and send all the cards before the end of the year. Please submit sooner rather than later so I have time to finish them all!

Also, please don’t be afraid to request a physical card if you don’t live in the US! It might take a bit longer for you to receive your card depending on what country you live in, but they do get mailed to whatever address you provide, whether domestic or foreign. Last year I mailed/emailed a total of 141 cards to Italy, Australia, Canada, Colombia, The Czech Republic, Germany, England, Finland, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Russia, The US, The United Kingdom, and Vietnam!

I’m glad to be a part of the Portal Fandom and hope to bring a smile to others in the Fandom this year! While not a requirement to receive a card, please visit ko-fi.com/247testing and click the Donate button if you’d like to give $2 to cover the cost/postage of your card and someone else’s too. Thanks!

Answers for common questions and concerns under the cut:

Worried about providing a mailing address, for whatever reason?

PHSI has an eCard option! All you need to provide is a name for me to call you by and an email address to receive your card!

Worried about requesting a card because you don’t live in the US?

PHSI mails to any address provided, whether domestic or foreign! However, please wait patiently for your card, due to the current global rate of shipping.

Worried that you can’t give $2 to cover the cost of your card and someone else’s?

Requesting a card from PHSI has been and will always be FREE! However, giving $2 to the initiative helps me buy card supplies and postage to mail physical cards (visit ko-fi.com/247testing if you’d like to contribute). I gratefully appreciate any contributions received, even if it’s just a comment saying thanks!

Worried because you don’t know how to support the artist of the card you received?

Each artist's social media are listed on the back of every card featuring their artwork. Look them up, commission them, reblog their art, and support them however you can!

Worried because you haven’t received your card yet?

Double check your email inbox and junk folders. I send everyone an email that either confirms your Holiday Card has shipped or includes your eCard! If your physical card fails to show up after the first of January, please reach out to me and I’ll send you a replacement eCard!

Worried because you received your card and don’t know what to do now?

Make a post about it! Include pictures, videos, or anything you’d like, and tag me in the post (@24-7-testing) so I can reblog it! If you don’t want to show your card off, that’s ok too!

274 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

A Study Of Lies, by yours truly.

460 notes - Posted April 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

!!!

From the article:

"We've gotta start Portal 3, that's my message to you. Anything you can do, let's do it, let's just make it happen. Because yeah, I am also not getting any younger like we are reaching the point where it's crazy to think, literally gonna be too old to work on Portal 3 so we should just do it," said Wolpaw.

Wolpaw went on to say that Portal fans should make their appeals known to Gabe Newell, though the writer was quick to point out that he doesn't think these appeals will help the game materialize. However, if Newell and Valve see an interest, it certainly couldn't hurt!

632 notes - Posted April 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #aperture science #aperture laboratories #portal #portal 2

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witchthewriter · 2 years

Note

Hello! I really enjoy your headcanons and what you write! You're very talented! I was wondering if I could request a ship for Merlin, Harry Potter, and Stranger Things? Thank you! Im a straight woman & a Virgo! I'm a Gryffindor and an ambivert! Physical Description: I'm 5'2, with pale skin, long brown hair, 20 years old, curvy, and have sun freckles! I also have chronic pain and deal with it often! Personality: Outgoing, friendly, passionate, responsible, gentle, loyal, loving & brave! 1/2

Want one? Here be the rules 🦋🌈

𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒐𝒏:

✧ Gryffindors ✧ Bold ✧ Passionate ✧ Brave ✧ Caring

𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Arthur Pendragon! Sorry King Arthur Pendragon. I have this feeling that you would do well as an advisor, not only just a wife. He would value your opinion and feel right in his decisions because of your assurity.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・He always encourages you to talk during meetings and will shush anyone who is talking over you

・He'll squeeze your thigh when the meetings are going on too long

・Lots and lots of banter/teasing

・You fix up his clothing before entering a gathering or an important event

・Whenever you're not with him, he's constantly asking Merlin where you are/when you'll be here/why are you taking so long/Merlin go and check on her/Merlin NOW

𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Harry Potter because I think you would have a confidence that Harry loves. He doesn't go for women who are too meek, but someone who can stand up for themselves and others.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・Meeting during your time at Hogwarts and always defending him against people who try to tear him down. He doesn't know you do this, because as a Gryffindor, you don't expect others do praise you.

・Being great friends with Hermione and you've helped on different adventures

・It wasn't until you graduated from Hogwarts that Harry saw you in a different way. In a more romantic one

・You'd probably be an auror or work at the Ministry (the new and improved one). And that's how you and Harry saw each other

・He would have secretly admired you from afar (mutual pining) as you did the same

・Having to be married on one of your missions. Queue sharing a room, a bed and forced proximity.

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

I ship you with Steve Harrington! I think his noble nature would suit well with your Virgo aspects. You're brave, virtuous, and noble in your own right. Which impresses Steve - especially the fact that you know yourself.

𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑛𝑠

・He would look at you like you were the Moon. With such admiration and love that when you notice, you instantly blush.

・Steve always remembers things that you tell him; he locks them away in his mind palace because he knows that it's important to you

・Randomly saying "I love you," because he feels it so much

・Always taking his jacket off and giving it to you. Even if it's not cold. Also he has sunscreen in his car, and he's like:

"Babe! You could get burnt EVEN IF THE SUN ISN'T OUT OKAY? LET ME PUT IT ON YOU!"

・He loves having his arms around your shoulders, he likes knowing you're close

#ship #match ups #open

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unitedwestand23 · 1 year

Text

ChatGPT I’m stuck take me home

I will never forget the time I was stranded in Denver over the weekend as Jet Blue struggled to reschedule my Boston bound flight, that was originally cancelled due to a snow storm. Incredibly long wait times and a chat bot that just wouldn’t work, added to the frustration. When I finally got on an outbound flight, the time spent on the tarmac waiting for ground staff, exceeded half of the flight time. I finally got to Boston after 3 stops over 14 hours from Denver.

In light of the above, it was refreshing reading about Singapore Airline’s consistent commitment towards better customer service and prioritizing customer experience over everything else. The airline industry where not a lot separates most airlines, a good customer experience can be a real differentiating, creating sticky long term customer relationships.

With the advent of ChatGPT, there is room to significantly improve communications with customers through chat bots. This could be useful when customers are stranded, or are looking for alternative trip routes.

Similarly, airlines can employ smart nudging strategies to encourage individuals to check in online via apps to reduce wait times at airports OR introduce kiosks to encourage customers to print luggage tags themselves to reduce check-in wait times. To avoid boarding queues, customers could be nudged when they need to board. Nudges could be a great way to also collect digital feedback during the flight after specific events - such as after meals, or before landing - to ensure airlines have accurate data on performance.

#2023MITSloanBrandingSB

0 notes

scfrozenover · 2 years

Text

How is it Sunday already? Luckily there’s lots of great fics and a pod today to help distract us all from the weekend ending. Enjoy!

Following along? Don’t forget to copy today’s fics from the master spreadsheet to your own!

Snow Angels Among Us

[David/Patrick - E - 15,132]

Upon hearing David has never made a snow angel, Patrick is determined to get him to make one while on a winter getaway.

To David Rose - The Richest Man in Town

[David/Patrick - T - 10,179]

David Rose had big dreams...but after a series of events, he thinks he's lost his chance to ever make them a reality.

Then again, maybe he already has.

Time to pour your mulled wine (heavy on the cinnamon, light on the cloves)...it's an "It's a Wonderful Life" AU

and we'd swear to remember it (all too well)

[David/Patrick, Stevie & David, Alexis/Ted - E - 9,650]

“Come with me,” he’d said, hands tracing along Patrick’s shoulders. “We can go to New York together. My family has money now — we can do whatever we want, go wherever we want.” He’d moved his hands to cup his face, thumbs gently brushing against his cheeks. “You’re too good for this town.”

Patrick had recoiled at David’s words like they’d been some kind of heavy accusation, rather than a compliment. And that’d been it: the beginning of the end. Though David never would’ve guessed that’s where the conversation had been headed at the time. If David had known, he would’ve slammed on the brakes before they’d careened off the track. He would’ve pulled the lever to change course. He would’ve done anything, if he’d known then what he does now.

When David returns to his hometown for the holidays, he reminisces about his first love and where things went wrong. He doesn't expect to, y'know, hook up with that ex, be mistaken as 'back together' by that ex's mother, and end up faking a relationship for Christmas Eve. That wasn't really the plan, but 'tis the season, amirite?

Same Old (New) Traditions

[David/Patrick - G - 6,505]

It’s Christmas with the Brewers! David goes home with Patrick for the holidays. Maybe it’s the first time, maybe it isn’t. Maybe he hangs out with Patrick’s cousins, cooks with Marcy, has a heart to heart with Clint while building bird houses or something (doesn’t Clint seem like he has a side hustle and is skilled at like making things??), etc etc. Queue all the domestic fluffy goodness with the sweetest in laws!

Patrick gets a cold just in time for the holidays, and David takes care of him. All the fluffy sickfic feels.

There's Only One Cart

[David/Patrick - T - 5,300]

All alone on Christmas Eve, David makes a last minute trip to the store for some much needed wallowing supplies. What happens when he meets a kind stranger with warm brown eyes, also alone for the holiday, and - gasp! - there's only one cart?

Tidings of Galapa-joy

[Alexis/Ted, Alexis & OC - T - 5,004]

Dejected by the prospect of a solo Christmas, Alexis heads to the Galapagos with a friend for their vlogs, reuniting with Ted. Told mostly in script format. (Think The Lizzie Bennet Diaries meets Schitt's Creek.) Includes cameos by way of adverts!

The Polar Bears of Schitt's Creek

[David/Patrick, Alexis/Twyla - T - 4,620]

"What the fuck is a polar bear dip?"

a gift from someone's heart

[Alexis/Twyla, David/Patrick - T - 2,692]

"When, exactly, were you planning to do it? And how?"

"I'm still considering that." Twyla tucks the ring box back behind the flour, double-checking that it's covered up, then turns back to him. "I thought that over dinner might be nice?"

"No," David says, settling into this part of the conversation with relish. He shakes his head. "As your eldest almost-brother of an unspecified age, I have veto power, and I say no. You have dinner all the time. It has to be more special than that."

While David and Patrick are visiting Alexis and Twyla in New York, Twyla confides in David about her proposal plans. David reflects on his own proposal experience and offers a few... tasteful... suggestions.

Cocoa

[David/Patrick - G - 1,938]

Patrick regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. The dawning look of horror on David’s face was a common one - Patrick often had ‘wrong’ opinions about the store, that wasn’t new - but this look…

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” David asked.

When David finds out that Patrick is meh at best on hot chocolate, he makes it his personal mission to create the mix to both finally make Patrick fall in love with it and become a best seller at the store.

[Podfic] Must Have Been Some Magic

[David/Patrick - G - 1 hour, 11 minutes]

Eight-year-old Patrick Brewer doesn't believe in magic, rule-breaking, or best friends. But that all changes the day he builds a snowman.

(A fusion with the children's book and animated film The Snowman.)

Podfic of sunlightsymphony’s fic “Must Have Been Some Magic”

CREATORS: If your works were released today, please don't forget to update your posting date!

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arknights-imagines · 2 years

Text

Exe Update Post 💕!!

Hiya everyone 🥺!! I hope you guys are well svshsg

Anywho, this'll just be a short announcement to let everyone know what I've been up to regarding the blog ✨!!

If you're interested, then please keep reading sgshgs 💕, but otherwise I hope you have a great day~

(important bits are highlighted in bold!)

I'm still working on the next piece for the blog which will be headcanons for Blitz and Ash 🥳! Blitz's section is all finished and I'm working hard on Ash's section!! I want to do my best with this piece so it's taking a little more time sgshgs 👉👈 I thank you for your patience and I hope lots of you will look forward to this piece!

Here's a small sneak peek from Blitz's section in the meantime 🥰:

･ Perhaps on the surface it seemed that being in a relationship with Blitz meant dealing with his constant playfulness, however that wasn't completely the case.

･ Truthfully, towards you, Blitz was abundantly intimate.

･ While such was against many expectations and caused surprise-filled faces from others at Rhodes Island, as for you, you weren't incredulous; it very quickly had become common knowledge to you that the man was never out of surprises, even long before you two had became a couple.

I've also been organizing my queue and requests 🥺! So here's a few things that'll I'll be working on next 🥳:

As I receive more requests and go through old ones, my queue will continue to be updated 👍!

Other than that, myself and other people who help out with the blog have been discussing about future events for the blog svshsg 🥳!! (I want to hold one during this summer aaa 👉👈)

If any of you have any ideas for events, please let me know either through DM or ask 🥺👉👈!! I'd appreciate it lots vshsgs 🥰🥰 even the slightest idea would help v much 💕

I've also recently started on an endeavour to find more Arknights x reader writers so I can support them svhss 🥺 So if you happen to be one or happen to know one then please do come let me know 💕 And once again my DMs are always open and I like making new mutuals (or even new anons svshsh 🥺!!) so anyone is welcome to come chat with me whenever 🥰!!

Okay, that's all avhshs 👉👈! I'll get back to work on what's next for the blog 🥺 Tysm for your time and please have a good day 🌸

Yours truly,

- A feeling-good Exe 💞!

--------------------

Taglist (for News!):

@zone10-8

#arknights #arknights imagines #not an imagine #arknights x reader #announcement #important announcement

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missameliep · 2 years

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I posted 3.735 times in 2021

165 posts created (4%)

3570 posts reblogged (96%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 21.6 posts.

I added 3.688 tags in 2021

#not choices - 1507 posts

#long live the queue - 473 posts

#choices fanfic - 390 posts

#writing inspiration - 271 posts

#desire and decorum - 246 posts

#quotes - 194 posts

#lol - 155 posts

#desire and decorum fanfic - 155 posts

#choices fanart - 152 posts

#writing tips - 145 posts

Longest Tag: 104 characters

#all the other pants probably left the stores embarrassed by these ones and we couldn't find regular ones

My Top Posts in 2021

Do u play VIP books? Like The Unexpected Heiress, Ms Match, Slow Burn etc...

or Not VIP books like The Royal Romance, The Royal Masquerade, A Courtesan of Rome, Big Sky Country, Laws Of Attraction etc...

also can u suggest to me other Choices's blog to follow?

Hi, Anon! 😊

I don't have VIP, so I've only played the books that are available to all the players.

I've played the first chapter of The Unexpected Heiress and I really enjoyed it. Historic books are definitely my cup of tea, and the mystery revolving around MC's sister is really something that got me hooked, so I plan on keep on playing as soon as I get some free time. I've played the first chapter of A Very Scandalous Proposal and it was interesting too, though I'm not sure if the plot will be enough to keep me interested (I don't particularly liked the LI Simon). As for the other books you've mentioned, I don't know if they are available to non-VIP players.

I've played all the non-VIP books you've mentioned, and A Courtesan of Rome is def one of my favorites; I love the MC, the plot, the dialogues. A very enjoyable book.

Of course, I can suggest other Choices blogs.

I have to say most of the Choices blogs I follow are because of the fanfics (the fandom has some amazing talented writers), but I don't know if that is exactly what you're looking for... So I'll list after the cut a few of my favorite blogs, some of these blogs post amazing fanart (some of them may not be very active lately or post about content other than Choices):

@lorirwritesfanfic @princess-geek @noesapphic @itsbrindleybinch @thefirstcourtesan @boneandfur @ritachacha @takingcourage @brightpinkpeppercorn @cashweasel @choicesarehard @kinda-iconic @thequeenofpixels @storyofmychoices @misadrawss @theo-oface @ellezelindraws @lizzybeth1986 (has the most interesting analises of TRR and it's characters) @lizeboredom @homeformyheart

I'm definitely missing a lot of great blogs, but I hope that helps, Anon.

Thanks for the ask and I hope you have a lovely day/night! 😊

42 notes • Posted 2021-09-12 23:50:45 GMT

The Sweetest Melody - Mr. Sinclaire x Lady Clara (MC)

Book: Desire and Decorum Pairing: Mr. Sinclaire x Lady Clara (MC) Rating: G Word count: 4k

Summary: Music has always been Lady Clara's favourite companion, and during a storm night, she reminisces about some important events in her life.

Notes: * All characters belong to Pixelberry; * English is not my first language. And sorry for any typos; * This time, @princess-geek was not my beta, because this fic is a birthday gift for her. Débora, I hope this time I have the date correct! Happy birthday, my dear friend! 😊🎁🎉

* This is aso my submission to @choicesaprilchallenge2021 - Day 9: The Smell of Rain

Ledford Park – march, 1819

Lady Clara’s soft voice silences and her eyes flick from the page of the book in her hand to her surroundings. At last, nothing but the gentlest sound of deep inhales resonates at the children’s chamber. A satisfied smile curls her lips, and she closes the book, returning it to the spot over the nightstand, and leaves quietly to not wake Percival and Beatrice.

Walking down the stairs, the lady rubs her belly fondly.

“And at last, only the two of us remain, little one,” Lady Clara says caressing the roundness of her bump, still too small to be perceived by anyone else underneath the layers of clothes and loose waist. By her counts, she is almost halfway through the pregnancy and her bump seems bigger than when she was carrying her Beatrice, and much livelier. Perhaps a big boy is coming this time.

“I hope you are in the mood for music.”

Her feet take them to the only place she wishes to be in a quiet evening like this.

At the drawing room, the pianoforte calls to her. Her mother Mary filled their world at Grovershire with music, her singing was a constant companion while doing chores together and sitting by the fire at evenings as quiet as this one. It is undeniable that she passed on to her the same love. Luckily, she was blessed with a voice equally angelical, and with the years, at Edgewater and later at Ledford Park, she has learned to enjoy music in different forms.

The perfect atmosphere set at the drawing room; every little detail prepared for her, just like she enjoys. The fire crackling, casting a gold glow; the illumination cosy and inviting and two of the large windows half-opened allowing the breeze inside. The wind carries the fragrances of the incoming spring, and the moist of the incoming rain.

Carefully, she removes the shawl and folds it, before adjusting the long skirts and taking her seat by the pianoforte.

Her fingers touch the keys and deftly glide, drawing the sweetest melody. After a few minutes, she is startled and stops playing, surprised by the little dance performed by the tiny being on her womb.

Smiling, she caresses her stomach and muses, “Do you like this one, my darling? That is your father’s favourite as well. Tomorrow, God willing, he shall be here with us and you might witness an extraordinary occurrence: a duet. He shall never admit it publicly, however whenever we are only the two of us, he sings. Do not tell anyone,” she whispers.

A gush of wind invited the curtains to an impromptu dance and the flames in the bronze candelabra sitting over the pianoforte flickered and almost faded. An earthy scent invaded the parlour. The rain was most certainly washing the fields beyond the estate. Raising from her seat, she moves to the closest window.

Resting her elbows at the windowsill, she inhales deeply, rejoicing at the pleasant smell that brings countless wonderful memories to her mind, including her favourite one: the evening she almost had her first kiss with her now husband at the Westminster Bridge four years ago.

The way his eyes rested upon her face and gazed at her lips caused her breath to hitch back then and are etched in her mind. A glimpse of the flames burning behind those blue eyes and his stern façade. Not even his fancy tied cravat could disguise his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down when he swallowed hard staring at her. How could she forget that or every tiny detail? His half-closed eyes. The sound of his breathing. His scent mixed with the smell of rain. His lips oh-so-close.

For weeks, her mind, her body, her soul had already been conquered by him; however, he did not know, he could not see that. But the skies did, they did see that and envied what was blooming between them.

The gates of heavens opened, and the rain poured down over them trying to extinguish that fire. Cold large drops, countless, washing him and herself and the entire world around them.

The downpour surprised and interrupted them, and his lips fled from hers like a defeated army withdrawing; nevertheless, not even if an entire ocean poured down their heads that night and every other night could put out the flames that were already burning. Every trial and tribulation on their path have showed that they could last and survive any storm. And ever since he has proved her over and over the intensity of the fire that lays inside of him…

Despite the wind that kissed her face and tousled the braided hair falling to her shoulder, freeing a few brown strands, an intense heat creeped its way to her cheeks, causing them to burn beneath her cold hands. She smiles a nervous smile, and fans herself with her hands.

How can a simple memory of him be so intoxicating?

The first droplets of rain hit her arms and face like ice shards, and she closed the two large windows before it damped everything inside, including herself. Were she at Edgewater, Lady Dominique would have had a servant close every single window of the manor hours ago at the first indication a storm was coming, and certainly would admonish her about the dangers of a draughty room to one’s health, specially to a woman in her condition.

A slow smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. Her Ernest sounds like the elderly woman sometimes – protectiveness and worry dripping from every word, every gesture. If he had his wishes, she would only leave the house after the baby were born and would not be allowed to use the stairs to not risk tripping and falling.

Too much concern for her safety and sometimes too little for himself.

Staring at the starless sky, now covered by the dark blanket of the stormy clouds, she hopes for once her dear husband does not succumb to his customary stubbornness and stay put and safe at the London’s townhouse. Stormy nights are not made for travelling.

Not that she is particularly thrilled to spend the night without him. On the contrary. Had she been granted her wishes, after enduring months apart and countless hardships, they would never spend a single night apart, and his steady heartbeats would lull her to sleep.

Sometimes, however, life does not grant one’s wishes. That is one of those occasions.

See the full post

49 notes • Posted 2021-04-08 07:59:43 GMT

pinterest aesthetic tag game | the first nine pictures when you open pinterest are your aesthetic!

Thanks for the tag @lorirwritesfanfic and @princess-geek 💗

See the full post

54 notes • Posted 2021-09-27 22:27:45 GMT

rules: tag 9 people you want to get to know better!

thanks for the tag @stars--above and @lorirwritesfanfic

favorite color: blue in all its shades

currently reading: right now, too many academic articles and I'm trying to catch up on my reading list

last song: I Still Do - The Cranberries

last series: i’m watching never have i ever, mr robot and lupin (i have several series on my list... and so little time)

last movie: maybe luca? i cannot remember

sweet, savory, or spicy: spicy or savory. i like both

currently craving: my covid's second shot? lol and also to visit the botanic garden in my city. i miss it a lot. the smells. the green. i haven't been there since before the pandemic... so... probably that.

coffee or tea: both. i'm enjoying a nice vanilla and cinnamon tea right now, but can go on without my morning coffee.

currently working on:

* i'm working on a Desire and Decorum AU in collab with @noesapphic;

* finishing a fic for RODAW (Colt Kaneko x MC);

* trying to channel some of my inspiration these past days to write some original works on the side...

tagging: @noesapphic @princess-geek @dianalend @i-put-the-sin-in-sinclaire @ezekielbhandarivalleros

58 notes • Posted 2021-08-18 23:47:21 GMT

Link to the MASTERLIST

You can also read my fics on AO3

(Books: Blades of Light and Shadow, Desire and Decorum, Perfect Match, Ride or Die and The Royal Romance)

If you wanted to be added or removed from my TAG LIST, just let me know.

See the full post

86 notes • Posted 2021-01-23 01:37:46 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #my longest tag lol #i assure you it made sense when in context #long post

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askaceattorney · 2 years

Text

Dear Anonymous,

Mod Edgeworth: No. We will treat any letter written to the AA characters with the Japanese version of the names like any other letter, but it will be answered in the English dubbed names.

Co-Mod: Someone went back in time and changed everything, Back to the Future-style. That’s the best I can come up with, anyway.

(Previous Letter)

(Video in Letter)

Dear Antixanthomonas,

Mod Edgeworth:

Yeah, I really shot myself in the foot there. I did fix the letter, so it will reference the Seven Days of Sin Special for The Great Ace Attorney. It’s available in the Special Features, if you preordered the game or on YouTube.

Speaking of the DLC cases, neither will be considered canon. While I do believe that Japan’s side was intended on being canon, I have also discovered that the Masked Apprentice was originally supposed to be a different character and Kazuma was supposed to have remained dead. Combining the two characters was something only brought up in the second game. As a result, there are a lot of inconsistencies in the DLC Case on Japan’s Side that contradict the events of the second game. It was a good DLC game and it’s a shame that we have to not consider it canon, but... alas, it must be done.

So yes, the DLC cases of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles will officially be treated as the Asinine Cases. In other words, not canon. The Escapades, on the other hand, are under reconsideration after some thinking. We’ll let you know in the future around January.

Dear siacatgirl,

Mod Edgeworth: I don’t think so? We do tag major characters to make it easier to find the letters.

Dear dawsongfg,

Co-Mod: That happens a lot here. You can make a lot of money fixing or replacing desks in the Ace Attorney universe.

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: I’d guess Apollo, since he’s one of the younger members and has a bit more of a temper than the others. Not to mention an “unreliable streak,” according to Phoenix, according to Maya.

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: There’s only one problem with that...

We delete the spammy letters we get anyway, so don’t worry about clogging up our queue with them.

Mod Edgeworth: If you’re Dawsongfg, then we shall gladly delete them.

Dear Anonymous,

Mod Edgeworth: Actually, I am considering deleting all of them, since we got an anonymous letter asking us to delete their spam letters. That would be the letter above this one. I suspect it’s from Dawsongfg and, if that’s true, then we’ll delete all of them. If not, oh well.

Dear pojofi96,

Co-Mod: “Stuff” refers to letters to the characters, or to one of us Mods. I’m not aware of a second inbox, so if you’ve seen one, please point us to it.

Mod Edgeworth: Submit Letters here is likely the ask box like what you’re using to submit that letter right now.

(Previous Post)

Dear dawsongfh,

Co-Mod: If you’re referring to the Rick Roll in this post, I was just returning the favor. One good roll deserves another, right?

(Previous Letter)

(Links in Letter: Personal Favorite, Mod Edgeworth, Co-Mod, Mod Justice)

Dear Gumshoe “Letty” Fan,

Co-Mod:

(A little something I made for my sister’s birthday one time.)

And congratulations on the 1-year anniversary! I’m super glad we’ve been able to keep someone entertained for that long, and hope we can keep it up for a good, long while. And thanks a bunch for giving us gifts for your birthday! You guessed right about my favorite character, but the backflipping Apollo GIF made me crack up. I can maybe see Trucy doing something like that, but not Apollo, so that was hilariously unexpected.

That’s a nice icon, by the way. Who wouldn’t want to give poor Gumshoe a pat on the head?

Mod Edgeworth:

Happy birthday and love the Miles Edgeworth gif. Him and Kazuma are my two baes, so anything with them is good in my books XD

Mod Justice:

(What... the... [CENSORED]?!)

*SNRK* I... guess my time watching SMG4 videos wasn’t enough for me to not react like that... heh heh.

(Come on, Mod Justice... You’ve dealt with worse.)

Happy early birthday to you, “Gumshoe Letty Fan.” Hope it’s filled with fun and exciting memories!

(Previous Letter)

Dear Honest Friend,

Co-Mod: You’re welcome, and thank you for your kind words! It may not be possible to find a place where you’re completely safe from discomfort, arguments, and people with bad attitudes, especially on the internet, but it’s always good to find something that can unite people of different beliefs, values, and walks of life, even if it’s just love for a video game series. Thanks for reminding us of that truth.

Have a pleasant day yourself! We can all use one every now and then.

Mod Edgeworth: Thank you and I was pretty upset with Co-Mod’s personal account being out in the open like that. Not to say he’s never revealed his face or anything before, but it was the fact it was done through a private email that bugged me.

I was truly afraid they’d dox me out as well, even giving away my true gender. It might be something trivial, but even revealing my true gender is something personal to me, including my sexuality and race. Luckily, they didn’t reveal anything else and called me by they/them pronouns to keep my gender a secret, so I am grateful for that. They also don’t know my race, but not sure about my sexuality. I don’t think they know that either.

Mod Justice: I’m glad everyone can agree on that.

Although I think this is another one of those incidents that proves the age-old adage regarding political discussion: “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

([CENSORED] Hell, I hate politics.)

Regardless, thank you for your generosity. I just hope we can move on from this incident with no other problems.

-The Mods

#Anonymous #antixanthomonas #siacatgirl #pojofi96 #gumshoe letty fan #Mod Post #Mod Edgeworth #Co Mod #Mod Justice

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goingmorry · 3 years

Note

Hi this is more of an inquiry. I was just wondering if you’ve finished your positions event. Like you not going to post anymore of it . I also thought it was a great event and your writing is amazing so keep it up xx ❤️

Hello, Anon!!! 🥰 Thanks for reaching out! I appreciate that you enjoy my writing enough to ask.

First, I want to alleviate your concerns and say that I am still in the process of writing for the positions event! I'm not giving up on it! In fact, I've written a few today. I just need to proofread and then I'll queue or post.

Real life has been a bit hectic, so my posting will be sporadic. I hope you'll understand. THANK YOU again for supporting me on my writing journey. It means a lot. 💖💖💖

#luxi asks #thank you for supporting me!!! 💖💖💖

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casual-eumetazoa · 3 years

Text

so uh, idk who would even care about this update (does anyone even read anything i post anymore? i’m not complaining lmao i’m just not on social media much this days and not sure if anyone following me is and cares what i post about at all) but um

i’ve done about 3 months of querying with the book i finished editing this year, overall around 20 or 25 emails sent to literary agents. all are either copy-paste form rejections or non-responses. i also did the twitter pitch event thing back in May, no likes from agents. sent a couple letters to small publishers as well, no responses yet. so right now the publishing industry reaction to this book is a resounding

idk if there’s even a point in trying any further, i have a long list of agents i could try but apparently the industry is now more on fire than ever and the competition is enormous and there’s more and more people fighting for an increasingly smaller piece of the pie, as in, now the advantages of being traditionally published are really not good

it is possible the situation will improve somewhat in autumn/winter, in which case i’ll try to query again. if it doesn’t improve though, this novel is getting shelved for a bit (there’s no way i can do it justice in self-pub on a shoestring budget). i am working on a different novel anyway and after all the shit i’ve heard about the industry, i’ll be honest, i am not so sure i want to have anything to do with publishing a book now or in the near future. writing books is great, publishing seems like a choice between one very shitty option and another very shitty option

apart from working on a new novel, i am also very much into the new YT channel, and i want to keep making video essays cause that is a lot of fun. i might also potentially do some novel-length fanfic projects in the future, specifically i have two things that, i feel like, will haunt me forever if i don’t do them at some point:

1) the OSBD sequel / Dirk Gently S4 [the core idea for it i’ve already had at the time i was finishing OSBD and it was intentionally left with a loose threat at the end]

2) a dark academia esque new adult pre-canon thoschei fanfic - which i already had a full outline and detailed plot and everything for, including an opening chapter, back in 2018, and then dropped it to work on “Enlightenment”, actually (the book i am unsuccessfully querying)... oh well.

both of these would be a ton of work, not just because they would be novel length (i am talking 100k words ish) but also because they are tricky projects. a Dirk Gently season requires a shitton of planning and outlining because of the mystery and separate elements that all have to come together in a satisfying manner. the dark academia thoschei thing needs to have an enormous amount of worldbuilding done behind the scenes, both in terms of studying the DW “canon” and going over dozens of mostly EU rare items, and my own headcanon stuff - it just wouldn’t work otherwise the way i see it in my brain. so don’t expect any of these to be touched any time soon, definitely not this year / not until i finish the first draft on the current original novel

(i also have another original novel lined up in the queue, but that one requires a lot of real life exploration and note-taking and so on, so again, that one goes firmly into the 2022 if not later realm)

but yeah, in case anyone cares, these are my writing update and plans, for the rest of this year and beyond. in terms of any shorter works like short stories and one shot fanfics, i doubt i will be putting much effort into that department cause my heart lies firmly in longform. doesn’t mean i won’t get swept by inspiration at some point but yeah. unlikely. i do also write poetry occasionally but i am too embarrassed to share any of it sorry.

and that concludes my unprompted writer ramble. feel free to ask anything i guess. and cheers <3

#paradox nerd post #for my 2.5 'fans'#i love y'all

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footballxixstars · 4 years

Text

Day 9 ~ Joshua Kimmich

Cookies, Hot Chocolate, Best Friend

Countdown to Christmas 2019

Joshua was at training and you were home alone. You had done a lot of the main housework that needed to be done and you had also caught up on the series that you had been watching. Searching through the house, you couldn’t find anything to do so after some long thought you decided to go to the shop which was about a 10-minute walk so you could buy some things to do baking. You took a slow walk to the shop just enjoying the quiet and the fresh air even though it was quite chilly outside. It was nice just to have the cold air on your skin especially since it wasn’t raining so better take advantage of the dry weather whilst it was still here. When you made it to the store you slowly walked around looking at everything making sure you didn’t forget anything. The silence was nice since you don’t get a lot of that now since you live with Joshua. You got everything that would be needed to do some baking plus some other little bits to treat yourself because you do deserve it having to deal with Joshua every single day. Since it was just after 2 it didn’t take long to get through the queue because a lot of people were in work. As soon as you took a step out of the supermarket you took a deep breathtaking in all of the fresh air before you started the walk back home. You eventually made it back home after a long and slow stroll back home. There wasn’t anywhere that you needed to be so you decided to take a leisurely stroll. You weren’t home alone though for a long time because Joshua can back from training shortly after you made it back.

“Y/N, I’m back!” Joshua shouted as soon as he opened the door. You finished putting the stuff away as Joshua could come to find you in the kitchen instead. You were about to open your mouth to reply but another voice started to talk before you could.

“Oh Y/N” Leon shouted as he walked in as well. So you were guessing that Josh and Leon were just going to hang out. You walked into the hallway from the living room rolling your eyes at Leon. You would always joke about how loud Leon was so now every time he would walk into yours and Joshua’s house he would make as much noise as possible to annoy you. He always knew how to get on your nerves and he definitely always tried to annoy you as much as he can.

“Oh great, he’s back.” You said jokingly to Leon. You and Leon were good friends and this was the point at which your friendship was at just annoying each other to no ends. Leon just smiled at you not even bothering to say anything back to you.

“We’re going to play some FIFA,” Joshua said kissing your cheek before turning back to the living room to go and set the game up for him and Leon. He would usually kiss you properly but because Leon was with him he didn’t. Leon watched the exchange before jokingly copied Joshua. He kissed you on the cheek before going into the living room. You could hear both Joshua and Leon laughing at the look on your face. You were in some sort of shock at what just happened it’s not like it hasn’t happened before because it has. When there was a big event with cameras he would kiss you on the cheek for a polite welcome but he’s never done it when there were no cameras around so that was why you were in shock.

“Idiot.” You shouted after Leon once the shock left you. Joshua and Leon didn’t say anything back they just started laughing harder. This just made you laugh as well at hearing them laugh. The two of them together were a lot of trouble so you knew that you would have to keep a watch on them. If you didn’t watch them they would probably set up traps in your house and play different pranks on you. The amount of times Joshua has played different pranks on you since the two of you got together was unbelievable and even though you sometimes got him back there was a lot of times that you didn’t. When Joshua and Leon were together they would plan pranks together not only to play on you but also on the team. There were some times where you would join in with the pranks but not a lot. The pranks were never too extreme but just really annoying.

“I’m going to make some cookies.” You said to them just letting them know where you would be but you got no reply from them. You just guessed that there were already too far into there game to actually care. That what’s your thought anyway. Unknown to you they were actually planning to do things to annoy you they just put on the game so you would think that they were playing that. They did put on a game and start playing it though so when you walked into the living room they were actually playing the game. Since the two of them were to busy playing the game you decided to put on some Christmas music so you wouldn’t have to listen to the music that came from the game. The first song that came on was Little Mix’s new Christmas song ‘the one I’ve been missing’ and you did enjoy this song.

'Cause I've been gone so long

But I kept holding on

'Cause I need to show you

Just how much I love you this Christmas

Is it the lights in your eyes?

They never shone so bright

I've waited all year to be near

To the one I've been missing

This Christmas’

You started to sing as the chorus as it came one and you turned away from the dough to make sure that the oven was on and at the temperature, it needed to be on for the cookies. When you turned back around you saw Joshua putting his finger in the dough of the cookies. You just watched him do it for a couple of seconds before you actually realised what Joshua was doing. You thought that the dough was slowly going down but you kind of thought that it was just your imagination playing tricks on you.

“Stop sneaking in here to eat the dough or I’ll smack you with the spoon.” You said to Joshua and Leon who when you weren’t looking we’re putting there fingers in the dough to eat some of it. You even went to jokingly hit him with the spoon just to put emphasis onto what you said to them. They were meant to be playing their game but no they decided to annoy you. Joshua and Leon both stood there with smirks on there faces. Joshua looked at you in the eye as he put his finger into the dough and put it in his mouth. Without hesitating you grabbed the spoon and hit him in the arm. Hard. The slap of the spoon against his arm was loud but you didn’t care you warned him and he continued doing it. You could see out of the corner of your eye that Leon was trying to hold back his laugh probably scared that you would hit him with the spoon as well which you obviously wouldn’t. Unless he ate some more of the dough then you would have to.

“Ow, that hurt,” Joshua whined rubbing his arm from where you hit him. The red mark was really showing against his pale skin. You quickly looked over at it but it didn’t look too bad there will defiantly be a mark but no bruise or anything and it was his own fault. You warned him and he didn’t take the warning so you hit him.

“Don’t test me.” You said to him. You turned to Leon to see if he would try anything but he just put his hands up in surrender. You just stared at him not believing that he wouldn’t touch the dough but you left him slightly trusting him but you wouldn’t take your eyes off the dough. Since the dough was all made and the oven was warm enough you started to put it on the oven tray so you could place them in the oven. With the amount of dough that both Joshua and Leon ate the cookies were smaller then you expected them to be and there wasn’t as many. You just shook your head and placed them in the oven and set a timer on the oven so it would go off when the cookies were done. Joshua and Leon moved back into the living room whilst you were doing this so that they could actually play a game of FIFA. You could hear them shouting at the TV so when the cookies were in the oven you just stayed in the kitchen sorting out all of the little things not wanting to be in the room whilst the two of them were screaming and shouting. There wasn’t a lot that needed to be done so you were just watching the cookies to make sure that they didn’t burn that was until you decided to make a hot chocolate. When you were at the shop you brought some and some whipped cream and marshmallows to put on it so you knew that you definitely had some unless Joshua messed with it when you weren’t watching.

“Do you guys want hot chocolate?” You shouted in the direction of the living room. You were only making a hot chocolate because it gives you something to do whilst the cookies are still in the oven. You waited for a response but you never got one. You just shrugged your shoulders not bothering to go into the living room. If they didn’t hear you then they weren’t getting one. You checked the cookies before probably starting the make the hot chocolate and you suddenly realised how long it’s been since you last time you had a hot chocolate. It had to be around Christmas time last year. The hot chocolate didn’t take long to make and as you were putting the whipped cream on top the timer for the oven started going off so as soon as the hot chocolate was fully done you went and took the cookies out so that they could cook down before eating them.

“Josh, you and Leon want any food?” You shouted to Josh. If they wanted any food you would bring it to them since you were about to go in there and if they wanted something later you wouldn’t be moving unless you wanted something. You heard Joshua ask Leon if he wanted anything before he shouted back to you.

“Can we have some cookies?” Joshua shouted back to you. So he heard that but not when you were asking if they wanted a hot chocolate. You mumbled under your breath how he shouldn’t have any since he ate the dough.

“Yeah” You ended up replying with putting the cookies that were now cool enough to move onto a plate so you could carry them into the living room. Before you did you grabbed a candy cane and opened it and popped it into your mouth before deciding to take everything into the living room. Carefully you picked up both the cookies and your hot chocolate walking slowly into the living room and placing the cookies on the table as soon as you could. You were shocked with yourself that you didn’t drop either of them whilst walking into the living room because you are clumsy. You sat down next to Joshua with the hot chocolate in your hand as you were watching the FIFA game that was happening on the screen. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Joshua sneaking his hand over and swipe a bit of the whipped cream off of your hot chocolate. You saw his hand come back to do it again but before he could you moved your hot chocolate out of his reach.

“Try stealing the whipped cream of my hot chocolate again I will stab you with a candy cane.” You said taking the candy cane out of your mouth which was sharp at the end from the way that you had been eating it. You kept it in your hand whilst you ate some of the whipped cream off of the top of the hot chocolate. You also took a sip of your hot chocolate to see if it was still too hot to drink which it was so you put the candy cane back into your mouth. You also placed the mug down onto the table so that it wouldn’t burn your hands since the mug was still burning hot. Once the mug was on the table you sat back on the sofa next to Joshua just watching there FIFA game which was currently at 1-1 and you couldn’t care less about who would end up winning.

“She’s crazy Leon,” Joshua whispered to Leon. Well, it wasn’t really a whisper because it was quite loud. You turned around and hit him with your hand which made both Leon and Joshua burst into laughter. He was lucky that you didn’t stab him with the candy cane in your mouth because it was tempting. Very tempting but you didn’t. You just hit him with your hand on the spot where you hit him with the spoon and his arm was still red from that. He was laughing too much to complain but you could see him rubbing his arm from where you slapped him.

“You could’ve offered us one,” Joshua said to you. You looked at him in shock since you knew that you defiantly did offer. You may have shouted it so they may not have heard you but you defiantly did ask them.

“I did. You both were too engrossed in your game to pay attention to me.” You said gesturing to the game that Leon had unpaused when Joshua was laughing to try and score another goal so that he could win without it going to extra-time or penalties. Joshua quickly noticed this though and picked up his controller and began to play to stop Leon from scoring. They were both too competitive for there own good. You sat back and just enjoyed watching Joshua and Leon jumping out of there chairs when they nearly scored but slumping back down into it when the goalkeeper saved it. You were actually really entertained by the game as you didn’t know who was going to win. You picked up your hot chocolate and began drinking it watching intently the game. In your head, you started making bets to yourself about what the score was going to be and who was going to win.

“Let’s go,” Joshua shouted as he watched whoever he was playing with place the ball into the back of the net. It was literally the last minute of the game when the ball went into the net and he started dancing and celebrating around the living room rubbing it into Leon’s face. Taking a glance at Leon you could tell he was annoyed. You didn’t know whether he was annoyed that he was losing or if it was because Joshua was rubbing it in his face. Probably a bit of both to be honest. Joshua did eventually sit down and won the game. Joshua at the end put his hand out for Leon to shake and he just hit it away but pulled Joshua into a hug saying how he better be leaving.

“See you tomorrow in training,” Leon said to Joshua and they did there handshake which they do every single time that they see each other and every time they leave. It always seemed to change as well every time you saw them do it. It was like they could never remember what it was so decided to change it on the spot.

“Bye Y/N” Leon said once he eventually let go of Joshua. He went up and gave you the biggest hug which you gave him back.

“See you soon Leon.” You said closing the door once he left. Joshua instantly grabbed you from behind as soon as the door closed. He pulled you against his chest obviously missing you from this morning because he couldn’t do this when Leon was here. Joshua was always really cuddly and needy when none of the guys was around just wanting to be around you constantly and would hardly let go of you. However, when the guys were around it was a completely different story and although he was still near you a lot of the time he wasn’t as cuddly. Alone Joshua would just randomly grab you and hug you tightly and kiss you and you had to admit you did like that Joshua. He pulled you into the living room and straight to the sofa where he collapsed onto it and pulled you onto him.

“Can you get some food for us please?” Leon asked you since he couldn’t move. He couldn’t move but you just didn’t want to move you were too comfy laying on Joshua.

“Get it yourself.” You said to him kissing the side of his neck. His hands were on your back tracing shapes onto it. It was really nice but it wouldn't make you go and get the food for him. If anything it would make your stay on Joshua for longer because of how soothing it is.

“I’ve had training all day I’m hurting,” Joshua said like it’s an excuse to why he can’t get up and off of the sofa to go and get the food himself. Like that’s a good enough reason. How is it your fault that he’s had training all day? You never told him to be a football player. You could also work all day and then go home to cook and make food for both you and Joshua for when he comes home. You would also do the housework after coming home from work and he was complaining about going to get food when he doesn’t even have to cook it. If he generally thinks that you will move to go and get him food that you don’t even want he is kidding himself.

“Poor you.” You said laughing not moving an inch off of him. You were too comfortable just lying on him talking so you didn’t want to move. To be honest you didn’t want him to move either because that would mean that you would have to move but you wouldn’t have to get off of the sofa. You heard him sigh deeply but not moving.

“Leon would” Joshua grumbled to himself but you clearly heard him.

“Go and marry Leon then.” You retaliated. You couldn’t help but smile at the thought of Joshua and Leon getting married it would be the best thing in the world.

“Maybe I will!” Joshua stated. This made you let out the laugh at how determined he actually seemed to make this happen. You knew it was a joke but to someone who didn’t, they may actually think that he was telling the truth and was determined to do it.

“Who said I would be marrying you anyway?” Joshua said after a couple of minutes of silence like he just properly realised what you said. There was nothing about you said that indicated that you and Joshua would get married but that’s what he took from it.

“Everyone we meet.” You said to him smiling brightly. There were times when you would just think of the future and you could actually imagine you and Joshua getting married with all of your closest friends and family around you sharing the moment. Joshua smiled back at you like he knew what you were thinking of.

“One day... one day I will,” Joshua said. He was making a promise and you knew that. The two of you were pretty young and you just wanted to enjoy life at the moment so you knew that was a promise for the future. You lifted your head up and kissed him like you were sealing the promise with a kiss. ‘One day’ you thought. ‘One day this man will be your husband and you will have your own family.’

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