#but yeah the entire monopoly stream was So Good

[skyeet-the-writer]

The Love Among Us

Chapter 1-- I’d Never Snitch On Daddy

so i haven’t seen many corpse husband x reader stories on here, so i decided to upload one myself. i’ve been watching jacksepticeye’s among us videos and when i heard corpse talk for the first time, i was like, “hol up” and now i’ve been obsessed with him. also, go stream his music on spotify, it’s amazing. enjoy! x. 

 corpse husband x female!reader

summary: while playing among us, y/n watches corpse kill felix in o2. when his body is reported, however, she doesn’t tell who killed him. 

 word count: ~3.6k

warnings: swearing, mentions of death (not real death), mentions of murder (not real murder)

EDIT: before i wrote this and after i published it, i did not know that corpse did not like to be referred to as “daddy”. had i known this, i would have not even thought of posting this. and since i know now, i won’t refer to him as such in the future. thank you. (10/19/2020)

EDIT 2: this is the first part to my corpse x reader series. i will be adding chapters as we go!

next>

4 rounds before the incident

“I was in coms with PJ!” Sean exclaims. 

“He is doing the liar voice!” Felix shouts with a laugh. 

“I’m not,” Sean tries to say, but everyone talks over him and the voting time ends. Everyone left alive, though it was only four people, had all voted for him and he yells at them as he gets ejected. 

stinky was not the imposter

2 imposters remain

The round ends and everyone unmutes themselves. 

“Lizzie, you saw Felix kill me and you did nothing!” Roomie yells as soon as the round ends and the imposters are revealed. 

“Yeah, because I was the other imposter.”

“Oh. Okay, well that makes sense.”

Everyone laughs and Ken starts the round again. 

“Wait, can I invite y/n to play? She’s doing her twenty-four-hour stream and she just finished playing Monopoly with Mark, Bob, and Wade,” says Lizzie, looking down at her phone as they all appear back in the waiting room. 

“Yes,” Corpse blurts out and there are a few laughs and chuckles. 

“You were quick to answer, Corpse,” Sean teases. 

“Shut up,” Corpse mumbles and there are even more laughs. 

Lizzie smiles and taps into her phone. “I’m gonna invite her.”

~

“I can’t believe that you actually made that deal, y/n,” Wade is telling you after ending the second round of Monopoly that you’ve played with them. 

You smile and cross your legs on your chair. “Look, I was going bankrupt and it seemed good at the time. Besides, Mark was going to win anyway, he owned half of the board.” Your phone buzzes beside you on your desk and you pick it up. “Lizzie texted me.” There’s a sound effect that plays in your headset and you look up at your screen and smile. “Thanks to _lorieplays _for donating a hundred dollars, that means a lot. Thank you so much.”

“Do you want to play another round?” Marks asks. 

You shake your head, reading the text from your friend in England. “No, I don’t want to lose to you again.” You laugh. “Nah, Lizzie wants me to play Among Us with her and a few others. It was fun playing with you guys.”

“It was even though you took all of my money,” Bob snaps. 

You laugh. “Yeah, yeah. See you guys later.”

“Bye,” says Mark.

“See y--” Wade begins but you cut him off when you disconnect from the call. 

“Oops.” You put a hand over your mouth and laugh. “Sorry, Wade. Okay.” You straighten up and glance over everything, making sure it’s all working properly. “I have to pee and I think my roommate ordered pizza, so we’ll be back after this short break. Enjoy this live feed of my pet rats.” You giggle and switch the stream over to a view of your two rats in their cage where you have a camera set up. You take your headset off and head out of your recording room. 

Every two months, you have a twenty-four-hour livestream where you play games with your friends from all around the world. Despite being only twenty-five, your Youtube channel had grown exponentially in the past three years and you’ve had the chance to meet lots of other Youtubers like Markiplier, PewDiePie, and your close friend, LDShadowLady. 

Currently, you’re on hour twenty of twenty-four and you’re beginning to feel the effects of not sleeping for a whole day. You had been drinking coffee and energy drinks for the past four hours and that seemed to perk you up for two hours max. But your roommate had ordered pizza and that would hopefully wake you up. 

After going to the bathroom and grabbing an entire box of pizza, you return to your recording room and sit down. You put your headset back on and eat a slice of pizza before switching the views back to you. “And we’re back. I hope you guys enjoyed my rats because I don’t. They keep me up at night.”

You read a comment while loading up Among Us and laugh. “No, they’re not dead. They’re sleeping. They do that a lot when they’re not fighting.” 

When you finally get into the game and entire the code, you spawn in. You also quickly join the Discord chat and wince when nearly ten voices hit you at once. 

“y/n!” exclaims Lizzie and the other voices die down for a moment before rising to greet you. 

You wince again but laugh. “Jesus, you guys are loud. Hey, Lizzie.” You move your character to the customize tab and go to try and switch your color. But then you frown and realize that you’re stuck with being dark blue. “Damn, I wanted to be white.”

“Do you want to switch?” Corpse asks. 

Your eyes widen you your stomach flips. You hadn’t noticed Corpse was in this game. Immediately, your chat became flooded with keyboard smashing and lots of “omg my shipp” and “y/n rlly said ‘anna oop-’” 

“Uh, yeah, if you don’t mind,” you manage to stutter out and take a bite of pizza as Corpse’s player comes over and the white option becomes available. You select it and also select the goggles in the hats menu. 

“How’s your stream going?” asks Sean. 

You shrug. “Pretty good. I’m super tired, though. I literally almost fell asleep while playing Monopoly with Mark, Wade, and Bob.”

“You went to college, right?” You’re pretty sure that’s Roomie. 

“Yep,” you affirm with a nod even though they can’t see you. “You’d think that those all-nighters writing papers and studying for finals would make me able to do this.”

There’s a laugh in the group and the round starts.

3 rounds before the incident

You scratch your eyebrow and sigh in relief when you’re the crewmate. You mute yourself and slide up in your chair. 

“I like being the crewmate,” you say, heading towards admin as a habit. “It’s a lot less stressful than being imposter.”

After doing your tasks in admin and fueling the engines, you stumble across a dead body in the lower engine and a vent closing. 

“Oh,” you say, and press the report button. You unmute yourself and begin with, “So I saw a vent close but I didn’t see who went in.”

“Who died?” asks Lizzie. 

“Felix,” says Sean. 

You smirk. “It’s always yellow that dies first.”

“Where was the body?” Ken asks. 

“Lower engine,” you reply. 

“I was in medbay with Corpse doing the scan so it wasn’t him,” PJ says and Corpse makes a noise of confirmation. 

This makes your cheeks heat up and you smack a hand over your mouth. Your chat explodes again but you decide to ignore it. 

“And I was doing wires in cafeteria,” Lizzie says. 

“Sean, where were you?” 

“I was in reactor doing the simon says thing,” he answers. 

You sigh. “I hate that one. What about you, Ken?”

“I was with Roomie in electrical doing the power thing. You know, the one where you have to divert it somewhere else.”

“So do we skip then?” asks Lizzie. 

“No one is super sus, so I’m going to skip,” you answer. 

When no one is ejected, you mute yourself again. “I dunno why, but Sean seems pretty sus. Because I didn’t see him on the way down from upper engine. But I guess he could have gotten there in time.” You shrug and run over to the trash chute in the cafeteria. “RIP to Felix, though.”

After doing the trash there, you head down to storage, running into Corpse doing the wires in there. You wait there to clear him and once you do, you run a few circles around him to get his attention and he follows you over to the trash in storage and watches you do that. After that, the two of you head over to electric together and do wires there. 

Suddenly, there’s a body reported and you unmute yourself. 

“Sean just killed Lizzie in front of me!” exclaims PJ. 

“PJ killed Lizzie,” Sean retorts, flipping the blame. “I watched it, he didn’t realize I was there and murdered her.”

“I watched PJ do the scan in medbay, he’s cleared,” Corpse says and you find yourself smiling for no reason. “Sean, you killed Lizzie.”

“I knew he was sus,” you say, grabbing another piece of pizza. You look at the box and your eyes widen. Had you really already eaten half of it?

“Wait wait, how am I sus?” Sean asks. 

You take a moment to swallow. “Because when I was doing fuel earlier, I was running down from upper engine and didn’t see you in reactor. Sure, maybe you could have gotten there earlier, but it was super weird.” 

The discussion time ends and PJ immediately goes to vote for Sean as well as you, Corpse, and everyone else still alive. Sean ends up getting ejected. 

stinky was an imposter 

1 imposter remains

“You’re such a detective, y/n,” Sean says when he gets ejected. 

You laugh. “I just play this game too much.” You then mute yourself and smile. “I am a genius.” 

You end up finishing your tasks quickly after that and then stand in the cafeteria and eat another piece of pizza and read some of the chat. 

“’ What am I going to do after this?’ I don’t know. I might play some Minecraft. Should I have a poll on Twitter? I’m stuck between public Among Us games, Minecraft, and taking random quizzes on Buzzfeed.” You smile and hear another sound effect and something pops up on the screen. “Thank you to coochie man for donating a hundred dollars, that means a lot.” You laugh at their name. “I love your name, by the way.” 

There’s some rattling in the cage behind you and you turn around to see one of your rats drinking water. You turn back to the chat and read another comment. “’ Do you have a crush on Corpse?’” You blush and smile, biting your lip. “I mean, his voice is hot. I’ve never met him since he lives in San Diego and I live in h/t, but yeah, I guess I do. I’ve been listening to his music for the past few days and it’s really good, you guys should go check it out.”

You look up and unmute yourself when a body is reported. “Who died?” you ask. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Are you already done with your tasks, y/n?” Corpse asks. 

God, even the way he says your name is making you blush. “Yeah, I get them done quick.”

“She does that,” says Lizzie, “She always gets her tasks done quick.”

“Ken is dead by the way,” says Roomie and your snort, smacking a hand over your mouth. “I found him in the hallway by navigation. Where was everyone else?”

“I was in cafeteria doing nothing,” you say, leaning back in your chair and spinning around just a little. “I think I saw PJ downloading while I was in there, but I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Yeah, I was downloading,” says Ken. 

After more discussion, Corpse points out that Jaiden had been following him and it looked like she had been faking tasks. 

“No I haven’t,” she says. 

“That sounds like something the imposter would say,” you hum with a smirk. “That’s pretty sus, Jaiden.”

Everyone else agrees and you all end up voting Jaiden out. 

jaiden was the imposter

0 imposters remain

You cheer as the round ends and a blue victory screen pops up for the crewmates. “Good game, guys,” you say and play again, waiting for the host. 

~

1 round before the incident 

“Oh my god, I’m imposter again?” you groan and sigh when you spawn back in. “I was just imposter, I don’t want to be it again. I’m so bad at it,”

After another short round of you and Felix losing to the crewmates, you all agreed to play two more rounds before Sean had to leave. So you move your character to admin where PJ is and fake the card swipe before moving over to the admin security thing where you could see who was around where. Luckily, no one appeared to be near admin, so you quickly kill PJ and escape through the vent and come out through medbay. 

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” you whisper over and over, running down to storage. “That was clean.” You fake getting fuel and go back up to the upper engine. 

When PJ’s body is reported, you see that your fellow imposter, Sean, had reported it. You stay silent for most of the round and only say that you were in the fuel area when it was reported. 

“Yeah, I saw her run past electrical earlier,” Corpse says. You blush and glance at your exploding chat and shake your head. 

After everyone skips the round, you mute yourself once more and head towards navigation. “I hate this.” You drag the last syllable and watch Lizzie enter the room. You wait a moment before walking towards her and killing her, jumping into one of the vents. You let out a sigh and flex your fingers. “I’m so stressed.” You exit out of the vent into shields and your heart stops when you see someone else in there but you realize that it’s the other imposter, Sean, and you relax. 

You run past him and go to the trash compartments and pretend to unload those. And that’s how the rest of the round goes. You kill someone, someone reports it and you vote someone off. Eventually, you and Sean do a double kill and end up winning the round.

You unmute yourself. 

“Let’s go!” Sean exclaims and you smile. 

“I can’t believe you killed me, y/n!” shouts Lizzie. “I thought we were friends.”

You laugh. “There are no friends in this game. I’m not loyal to anyone in this game. You could be my best friend and I would fucking murder you.”

“That’s cold,” says Roomie as everyone else spawns back in. 

“Yeah,” you nod. 

“Wait, PJ disconnected,” says Sean, and you all end up waiting for him to rejoin. 

In that time, you look at your chat and say, “Hey, do you guys have any questions for who I’m playing with. I’m asking you, chat.”

“I swear if someone asks about my hands, I’m leaving,” Corpse says and everyone laughs. 

You laugh louder when you read a comment and read it aloud, “_Ironlady _says that you should be a hand model, Corpse.”

“Okay, I’m leaving,” you hear Corpse say over everyone laughing. 

“No, stay!” you exclaim, trying not to laugh. “C’mon, don’t leave.”

He sighs deeply and your brain goes fuzzy. “Fine. I’ll stay for you.”

You beam and your tummy turns. You ignore the whistles and remarks from everyone else and stand beside Corpse. You suddenly wish that the little bean characters could hold hands. 

When PJ joins the server again, Ken starts the round and you cross your fingers, hoping to get crewmate. 

0 rounds before the incident

You mute yourself and sigh when you’re a crewmate. “Thank god.” You let out a breath and go over to admin with everyone else. You swipe your card and go to the cafeteria to do some wires there. 

The game turns out to be rather uneventful. A few people die and two people are voted off before the game gets truly interesting. And that happens when you walk in on Corpse and Felix. 

“I’ve had this song stuck in my head for days,” you’re saying, walking from electrical over to O2. “And I can’t get it out of my head. Maybe singing it will help.” You hum the first part. “Don't go in there, you'll become one. Freaky creatures, monster party. Eyes of yellow, scales and feathers, tails in tethers. Turn the lights off. Bend the nightmare, you control it. Artful dodger, easy does it. Shut the closet, get under the covers. Snakes and lovers. Turn the lights off.” You do a little dance for a moment and continue hum the song, glancing at the chat as you go towards O2 after doing wires in storage. 

“Like, I know the song, it’s just been stuck in my head,” you explain. “And it kind of annoys me--”

But you stop as you enter O2 and watch Corpse murder Felix. Neither one of you move and you don’t know what to do. “Uhhh.” 

Then, without thinking, you turn straight around and make your way away from the scene of the murder. “I didn’t see anything!” you shout to no one. “I suddenly can’t see who murdered Felix.” You smack a hand over your mouth and stand in the middle of a hallway. “Oh my god, what do I do? I don’t want to snitch on Corpse, he’s hot.” You scratch the back of your neck and shrug, continuing on to reactor. “I didn’t see anything.”

You’re in the middle of doing the simon says in reactor when Felix’s body is reported. You unmute yourself and fidget with the sleeve of your hoodie. You know exactly who killed Felix. 

“--was in O2,” says Jaiden and you focus back into the conversation. “And I didn’t see anyone around.”

“I saw you heading that way, y/n, but I know it wasn’t you because I saw you do the trash in storage.”

You look at the screen when Sean talks to you and you chew your lip. “I know who killed Felix.”

“Who?” asks almost everyone at the same time. 

You close your eyes and swallow. It’s just a game, why are you taking this so seriously? Suddenly, a song lyric pops into your head and your stomach flips. You imagine yourself saying it and no one knows who you mean except for him. 

You open your eyes. “I’d never snitch on daddy.”

There’s a laugh in the chat and you blush fiercely, your livestream chat blowing up once again.

“I think we know who it is, then,” says Sean, laughing. 

“Yeah,” agrees Lizzie and your eyes widen. 

“Wait, what?” you ask, watching everyone vote almost as soon as the discussion time ends. “Wait, hang on, who--”

“We know who you’re talking about, y/n,” PJ tells you. 

You vote for yourself and your brain goes blank as you see that everyone voted for Corpse. He even voted for himself. They knew. They all _knew _about your feelings for Corpse. 

The round ends with Corpse being voted out and the crewmates win. There’s some talking, but you stay on the victory screen. You’re trying to decide if your mad or embarrassed or both. 

“I didn’t know you’d say that, y/n,” Corpse says, effectively breaking you out of your trance. “I thought you were gonna snitch on me.”

“You heard her,” teases Lizzie and you can tell she’s grinning. “She’d never snitch on you, Corpse.”

He laughs and you feel something in a certain place. “Oh my god, I’m gonna die of embarrassment.” You put your face in your hands, listening to your friends tease you in the chat. You suddenly want to jump out your window and run into traffic. 

“Don’t die,” comes Corpse’s voice through the onslaught of teasing. “I’ll be sad.”

“Fuck!” you shout and slam your hand on your desk, shaking your equipment and scaring your rats. “I’m so sorry, Corpse, that was really weird, I--”

“Stop.” He interrupts you and the chat goes silent and you look up at the screen even though you can’t see him. “It’s okay. It was funny.”

Your eyes widen and then narrow. Funny? He thought what you said was funny? How could he think it was funny?

But then he speaks again and he sounds oddly flustered. “Uh, I gotta go. Um, it was fun playing with you guys. Bye, y/n.”

“Bye Cor--” but then he disconnects and you’re left talking to no one. “--pse.”

There’s a long moment of silence until Felix breaks it. “I can’t believe you just watched me die and didn’t do anything about it.”

There are some laughs and you smile faintly, rejoining the game. “Yeah, uh, sorry about that.”

“Are you okay, y/n?” asks Lizzie. 

You blush and swallow. “I don’t know. God, I’m so weird.” You run a hand through your hair and adjust your headphones

“No, you’re not,” Roomie assures you. “He has a crush on you, too.”

Your eyes widen and you scoot up in your chair. “He does?”

“I mean, he called you pretty once during a game and said that he watches your videos a lot, so maybe.”

You groan and sink in your chair. “I’m gonna go, I need to run into traffic now.”

A few people laugh or chuckle and Lizzie asks you if you’re actually going to leave. 

“Yeah,” you tell her. “But not to run into traffic. I’m going to go play Minecraft to soothe myself.”

“Aw.” You can practically hear her frown. “Okay. Bye, y/n.”

“Good luck with your stream,” Ken tells you. 

You grin. “Okay, thanks, bye.”

When you exit the game and leave the chat, you scream. You actually scream and it’s loud. Your roommate even knocks on your door, asking if you’re okay. 

You look at them and nod. “Yeah, totally fine. Probably about to have a mental breakdown, but I’m fine.”

“Okay,” they say and lean on the doorframe. “But I’m not cutting bangs for you again.”

You laugh and nod. “Yeah, okay, fine.” They leave and you turn back to your stream, feeling like you’re about to cry. Corpse knows you have a crush on him. And it seems like he has one on you as well, but now you’re embarrassed because you called him ‘daddy’ on stream.

You rub your eyes. “Well, now I know what’ll be streaming on Twitter tonight,” you tell the chat. 

#corpse_husband #corpse husband #x reader #female reader #corpse husband x reader #corpse_husband x reader #jacksepticeye #among us #ldshadowlady #pewdiepie #fanfic

[astaroth1357]

request: an MC thats very good w playing games or like,,, is proficiently skilled in all game categories or smrhn

alsp hi xander i love ur writing

and can i giv u a kith? if so: mwah 😚

Well I hate to tell ya, sweetie, but I’m not Xander. I’m Jazzy. Hello! I can see why you’d want something written by Xander, though. He’s mad talented (better at this than I am quite frankly) and he’s on the list of people I wish I could write as well as. I guess we can both take a moment to be sad that I’m not Xander… *sigh*... to be Xander… 😔

Oh well, I am who I am and I don’t begrudge that fact. Meanwhile, I’ve wanted to do more shout-outs so everybody go read @sevendeadlymorons! If you’re not… I mean… why not? He’s more than worth your time. In the meantime, I hope I can entertain you despite my not-Xanderness.

Brothers React to an MC Who’s Good at Games and Stuff 

Lucifer

Honestly couldn’t care less about the MC’s game proficiency in most cases. So they’re good at games? Good for them, he’s sure they’re happy.

But when they’re playing against him on the other hand…

Well, Lucifer may or may not be skilled at whatever game you set him on (he’s a very quick learner so never underestimate him), but he’s whole new levels of competitive when he wants to be. ESPECIALLY if he already thinks he’s hot shit at something.

Video games? Not his forte. Table top games? One word for you: Chess.

Lucifer believes that he can and will whip pretty much anyone’s ass in chess. That includes Satan, Solomon, Levi, and even Diavolo. He is at grandmaster level.

So imagine his shock, no, his disdain to have lost a game of chess to the MC… The moment they said "Checkmate" he stared at the board in front of them for a solid five minutes trying to work out where he went wrong…

And he wasn’t having that.

He and the MC now have regular chess matches in which he wins some and loses some so the tally stays pretty evenly tied. Really it’s all good fun... (but if they think he’s going to let them go home when he’s on a losing count, they’re Dead. Wrong. He’ll drag them back to down just to play chess with him until the score is right again. He DOES NOT lose, you hear? 🤨).

Mammon

Guess who’s found his gambling buddy?? 

No, really. He and the MC can make a KILLING at a Poker or Blackjack table! He’s never seen anyone better at poker than they are!! They have nerves of steel and give nothing away, so he’s lost more than a few hands to them before...

Even past the casinos, they’re perfect for making bets on! He once arranged a Devil Cart competition between the MC and Levi and took bets around RAD for who’d win...

Naturally, everybody assumed the Devildom’s resident Super-Otaku would win hands down, but the MC had this insane last minute save with a blue shell and pulled ahead in the last lap!!

He was like, the only person that bet on the MC and he got soooo much money that MC found HIM crying and hugging a bag of Grimm after the match…

Any time they win a game that gets him money, he’ll treat them like royalty for the next week. Man knows not to bite the hand that feeds him!... and creditors at bay... 😬

It may get slightly annoying that Mammon won't stop telling them about gaming competitions where they can get him more prize money, but hey, at least he's supportive, I guess.

Leviathan

Oh they are either his best friend or mortal enemy… Sometimes both in the same day.

Our boy hates losing, can't stand it any better than Lucifer, you KNOW the second he knows there's someone out there who even has a chance of beating him, he gets serious. This is not a "friendly rivalry," MC.

When they’re playing any game against each other, he'll call them by their gamertag/online persona to keep himself focused (yes, even if they’re playing Monopoly). They can't be his MC right now, they gotta be the person he's going to beat...

He's NOT opposed to dirty tactics to win, either. Saying things that will get them mad or flustered mid-match? Check. Using his tail to distract or tease them? Check. Just being a general nuisance/annoyance in game for the hell of it? Guilty as charged!

He's both a sore winner AND a sore loser, so unfortunately MC, you really can't win here... He'll be obnoxious regardless of the outcome.

However… when they’re on the same team, it's really something special. They don't just destroy the competition, they bulldoze over them like an armored tank barreling through rush hour traffic!

These two are legends in the online gaming community and have even started a streaming channel on the side. Sometimes your worst enemies also make the best allies... Who knew? 🤷‍♀️

Satan

Is surprisingly impressed by their gaming prowess. Are they just supremely skilled or incredibly lucky, you think…?

That being said, he's not the biggest gaming man on the planet so he's not too competitive with them one way or the other.

When Satan plays a video game, he usually goes for story-based, single-person experiences anyway so it's not like he could compete with them even if he wanted to.

That being said, they do share an informal challenge of sorts when it comes to puzzle/detective games (a not so guilty pleasure of his). He likes to try and beat the levels first, so when they start playing a new one they'll both compare time spent and scores.

He even enjoys playing those Devildom-style AR murder mystery games with them! It’s pretty cute to watch Satan get into it, he dips into his inner Levi and cosplays as some of his favorite TV drama detectives for the occasion and insists they dress as his co-star (best just go along with him. It’s not a bad time, even if they have to carry around an old tobacco pipe for a few hours).

Asmodeus

Good at games? That sounds dangerously like they're another Levi… 🙄 What about party games? Oh oh, or drinking games??

Actually scratch that. How about ANY game while drunk? That sounds pretty fun doesn’t it??

Like Drunk Truth or Dare!! Oh that's a favorite of his… 🤭

To be fair to the MC, the booze does diminish their skills somewhat (because that's kind of what it does in general) but not by all that much… It's pretty impressive.

He once challenged them to a game of Drunk Twister figuring that they'd be too unsteady to actually win for once, but no. If anything, the alcohol must have numbed the stretching pains because they bent over him like a pretzel!

Not that he was complaining or anything… 😏

He likes to take the MC to parties where he knows a game or two will be played just to show off to the crowd and brag that they’re HIS lovely, talented human! You go, MC, beat that competition to a pulp! 😌

Beelzebub

Sports count as games too, right? Well, they aren't half bad at those either.

Beel found it surprising that he found a human who could actually keep up with him. His brothers rarely want to play practice games with him anyway so it’s pretty exciting to have a sports partner at home!

He likes to ask the MC to help him train with practice matches or to go over certain moves or maneuvers he’s having trouble with. It’s not uncommon for the brothers to come home and find the two of them tossing a ball around in the front yard or something.

And the both of them on the same team? Forget it. It takes the dream team of Lucifer and Mammon (who aren’t just arguing with each other for once) to even come close to a challenge for them.

He also enjoys playing the occasional video game with them, though he treats it a lot like playing with Levi and just assumes he’ll never win unless he gets lucky - which does happen from time to time.

He doesn’t mind losing that much as long as he’s having fun, and if nothing else he can always win against them in an eating contest… He’s got those on lockdown. Come at’em MC, he’ll pack away an entire fridge before you’re done with your first plate. Try him.

Belphegor

So Belphie enjoys a good game or two - video-based or otherwise - it comes with the lazy-bastard territory. He may not be as skilled as Levi, but he can hold his own in some genres.

But he’s given up on beating the MC looong ago.

Do you know how much practice it would take? How many hours that he would have to use?? The hours where he could be napping instead???  Yeah, no thanks. They can continue to be the reigning Super Smash Devils champion for all he cares.

Buuuut even he has to admit, it’s pretty relaxing to watch the MC play something in the background... There’s a certain sort of satisfaction to watching someone who’s good at a game just play it straight through.

If they’re set up in Levi’s room or the Common area then Belphie may come over, set his pillow up on the floor, and watch them play. He may even throw in a comment or two like, “You missed a health pack,” or “Better save now,” but other than that he likes to just let them do their thing.

The MC has had many an all-nighter with Belphie spectating until about 4am or so. Then he’s dead to the world and they have to work out how to get his not-exactly-light demon ass onto a couch…

Or they can just leave him faceplanted and snoring on the floor. Up to them, really cause he did it to himself. 🤷‍♀️

#obey me #obey me shall we date #shall-we-date-obey-me #obey me requests #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me headcanons

[mostlysignssomeportents]

China hamstrings its Big Tech

The Chinese state is continuing its crackdown on its Big Tech giants, banning the use of machine learning to set per-customer prices, control search results, or filter content. As Will Knight and Jennifer Conrad write for Wired, the regulation covers “ride-hailing, ecommerce, streaming, and social media.”

https://www.wired.com/story/china-regulate-ai-world-watching/

This is just the latest salvo in the Chinese state’s war on its biggest businesses. From the start of the pandemic, Chinese regulators kept the Chinese finance sector on a tight leash, freezing debt payments and blocking penalties, foreclosures and seizures of assets used to secure commercial debt:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/29/jubilance/#debt

Likewise, the Chinese state has created sweeping regulations for its runaway property development market:

https://www.china-briefing.com/news/explainer-whats-going-on-in-chinas-property-market/

And the predatory practices of the private tutoring market, which created an arms race among parents and deprived kids of their childhood:

https://www.china-briefing.com/news/china-bans-for-profit-tutoring-in-core-education-releases-guidelines-online-businesses/

All of this is hard to make sense of, from a western perspective. After all, when regulators from wealthy nations train their sights on “our” giant companies, we’re told that these firms are our “national champions,” who will defend us from Chinese soft power projected around the world by its own Big Tech “national champions.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/11/opinion/facebook-nick-clegg-chris-hughes.html

What does Xi Jin Ping know that Nick Clegg doesn’t?

Xi, unlike Clegg, remembers the lessons of recent history (Clegg would doubtless like us to forget recent history, starting with his betrayal of the Libdem voters whom he sold out when he chose to go into coalition with the Tories and then capitulated on every campaign promise he’d made).

For example, Xi surely remembers the lesson of AT&T. AT&T was a regulated US monopoly, a company that enjoyed 69 years of business-as-usual between the first official government attempt to tame it and its eventual breakup in 1982.

https://onezero.medium.com/jam-to-day-46b74d5b1da4

AT&T was the original American high-tech national champion, a company whose every grotesque abuse was “punished” via measures that created powerful allies in the US military and policing apparatus, who thereafter went to bat for the company to protect it from antitrust regulators. These alliances were key to maintaining its privileged position: by the mid-1950s, the evidence of its abuses was so glaring that the DoJ nearly broke the company up. What saved AT&T? Intercession by the Pentagon, who insisted that the US would lose the Korean War if it didn’t have AT&T as a “national champion” by its side.

The myth of the “national champion” kept AT&T intact for decades longer, and was deployed with increasing frenzy, right up to the moment the company was finally split up in 1982. In the early 1980s, AT&T’s shills in the business and national security “communities” hoped that Yellow Peril scare stories would keep the regulator at bay again.

They warned that the entire US tech sector was imperiled by an Asian adversary, an authoritarian state whose economic aggression against the USA was a thinly disguised continuation of its military campaign. This ruthless Asian titan had a sneaky tactic: rather than creating its own tech sector, it would steal American inventions and clone them, flooding the US and the world with cheap knockoffs.

Sound familiar? Yeah. It’s amazing how easily the anti-Japan rhetoric of the 1980s can be swapped for today’s anti-Chinese rhetoric.

But racist dog-whistling is the tactic of large, abusive firms, not the goal. The goal is to forestall regulation by making monopolies synonymous with the national interest (“What’s good for GM is good for America”), so regulators can be smeared as traitors.

Here, it’s instructive to look back at the aftermath of the AT&T breakup and the impact that had on the US tech sector. AT&T, it turned out, wasn’t the national champion, it was the national bully. It had been stamping on the face of US tech for decades, suppressing anything that threatened its ability to extract monopoly rents from US businesses and individuals.

In particular, AT&T had been waging war on modems and the idea that we might use its phone lines to connect businesses and individuals to “interactive services” that wouldn’t give a veto over new products to Ma Bell. Breaking up AT&T paved the way for the demilitarization of the internet, the creation of the web, and created the conditions that today’s US tech giants depended on to create their empires.

Today, US Big Tech crushes technological imaginations of American individuals and businesses just as surely as the Bell System crushed networked services in the 1980s. Investors call the whole set of services dominated by Big Tech — and the services adjacent to those — “the Kill Zone” and refuse to back companies that want to go up against them.

Monopolistic firms collude to steal from advertisers and publishers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/21/paltrow-industrial-complex/#facecrook

They use spyware to discover and neutralize promising competitors before they can grow to scale:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3247362

They structure entire markets and cream off the profits of all participants:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/dutch-watchdog-fines-apple-5-mln-euros-failure-comply-app-store-2022-01-24/

And they use their billions to block the passage of privacy laws:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/02/facebook-global-lobbying-campaign-against-data-privacy-laws-investment

The thing is, monopolies are profitable and powerful. When major firms stop competing with one another and start conspiring instead, they can divide up the market to maximize their profits, come to agreements on which policies they want to lobby for, and then spend their monopoly gains to make those policies a reality:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/starve-beast-monopoly-power-and-political-corruption

AT&T wasn’t ever America’s national champion — the only thing AT&T championed was AT&T.

That’s what Xi understands and Clegg (claims he) doesn’t understand. China’s tech giants aren’t China’s national champions, they are the champions of Tencent and Alibaba and Baidu. To the extent that Xi wants to use them to project soft power around the world, he must keep them biddable — not set them loose to grow to such power and prominence that they can capture their regulators.

Monopolies are profitable. They are swimming in money. Money is power. Power lets you buy policies. Those policies increase profitability. Lather, rise, repeat:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/03/liquidation-preference/#sweet-sweet-corruption

As I wrote this week in my Medium column, “We Should Not Endure a King: Antitrust is a political cause, not an economic one,” the point of competition law is to ensure that private firms can be supervised and disciplined when they act in their shareholders’ interests to the detriment of the public interest:

https://doctorow.medium.com/we-should-not-endure-a-king-dfef34628153

Xi, it turns out, is an ardent trustbuster. The Chinese state is no paragon of democracy and human rights, but some of its interventions in its tech sector are squarely aimed at ensuring tech improves its peoples’ lives. For example, rules that crack down on bad security practices and attacks on interoperability:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-tech-regulator-orders-companies-to-fix-anticompetitive-security-issues-11627304021

Of course, China’s dominant tech policy for decades has been to ensure that the sector help it surveil and censor the population, enabling human rights abuses at scale. Sadly, this is the only part of the Chinese tech regulatory program that the west has adopted, from America’s SESTA/FOSTA to the EU Terrorism Regulation.

It is a huge mistake for democratic states to turn their tech companies into arms of the military industrial complex, preserving their scale and dominance in hopes of using it to spy and censor. It’s an even bigger mistake to cede the idea of regulating industry to autocracies in the name of creating “national champions.”

Big Tech — and Big Finance, other monopolies — are not the champions of the countries that birthed them. They are parasites, working their way into the halls of power and capturing their regulators. The best time to fight monopolies is before they can form. The next best time is right now.

The “national champions” people have a point: we can’t afford a world where only autocracies mobilize technology to serve their national interests. But the “national champions” people are dead wrong about how to make tech serve the people. For so long as tech is too big to regulate, it will place its own interests ahead of the public interest.

Image: Leslie Illingworth/Punch Magazine, ca 1955 (modified)

#pluralistic

[somanyerikas]

Nostalgia sells - or does it? About BBC’s rehiring of a previous showrunner for Doctor Who as a marketing strategy

All, right, this is the one where I deal with my issues about RTD’s rehiring from the standpoint of BBC’s business strategy . Brace for passive agression, swearwords, brief history of british television and numbers. So, so many numbers.

Allright, so I already wrote a post about my problem with RTD’s (re)hire from the creative standpoint (it’s here in case you’re interested), but hey, I can bitch about it all I want, but we all know what caused the BBC to make this decision, right? You’ve heard about it for sure. The Dropping Ratings. You’ve read about it on so many posts, lots of them probably oh-so-gladly conflating this fact with their own opinion about the deteriorating quality of the show. (Don’t worry, we’ll get to that.) So Obviously the execs at the Big BBC Quarters needed to do something about it, and what better way to go than rehire a guy who’s run at Doctor Who is a warm childhood memory for so many in it’s fanbase? After all, it’s what we’re seeing nowadays: from Star Wars return to wave of 80′s nostalgia to every old blockbuster star doing a comeback, there is but a single conclusion - nostalgia sells.

Or does it?

Part One: Moving with the change; or very much refusing to.

Let’s start this off with some facts about the ratings for Doctor Who. (Well, I warned you there’s gonna be numbers, didn’t I. Stick with me, I’m going somewhere with this I promise.) In it’s beginnings, in the sixties and seventies , the series flown high, averaging a viewership from 8 up to 10 million viewers per season. Collin Baker’s series 17 brought in a record of 11.21 milion viewer asses in front of a good ol’ TV screen, real champagne opener here. But, as it happens, things were downhill from here. During the eighties, the rating started dropping steadily, reaching an all-time low of 4.15 milion couch-warming bottoms in 1989, the last season of the classic era. 

Years passed, 16 of those years to be exact, and here comes our saviour RTD. Under his wings, the revived series premiered, bringing in over 10 milion viewers to the premiere episode of season 1, Rose. A viewership this high did not last for long, but still, RTD’s seasons averaged between 7 and 8 milion viewers per season, which seemed pretty respectable. But then, as the story likes to repeat itself, not unlike the bbc execs just did, along came the decline again. Ever since 2010, the ratings began steadily dropping again, from 7.95 in 2010 to 5.46 in 2017. Then DW experienced an unexpected peak in 2018 with the premiere of Jodie Whittaker’s first season, which averaged 7.96 viewing asses, but then continued the dropping trend on the next season, averaging 5.40 viewing butts.

So what went wrong?

You see, part of the reason that Doctor Who was bringing in such great viewership numbers in the 60′s and 70′s, was that, to put it simply, BBC did not have much competition. Or, to be exact, only had one competitor. ITV was literally founded in order to break BBC’s monopoly over British television. But in the 80′s, with the launch of Channel 4 and Sky, the british viewers had more and more options to choose from. So logically speaking, they no longer had to watch BBC’s programming just because there was nothing else on. There was more and more new programes to boredom-watch. And here’s something y’all need to know about the tv industry: the boredom-watchers, the casuals? That’s the most important demographic. As hard as it might be to swallow, us hardcore fans, forum dwellers and Ao3 gremlins, we’re not as big of a group as we’d like to think. Loving fans are important to the tv execs as providers of word-of-mouth advertisment, but the real numbers come from the casual, everyday viewer who will just put on the next episode cause the other one was kinda fun I guess. Or more fun than the other options, anyway.

And this is why, by the way, when someone is conflating low viewership with the show Dissapointing The Fans, they’re full of shit. I’m sorry, but we’re really not that much of a force here, definitely not enough to make such a big impact on the numbers. Another factor, that some of you probably noticed already, is that the numbers I’m quoting are from british tv only, while the online fandom is very much international, so our opinions matter even less to the british execs, I’m sorry again, hard pill to swallow I know, but true nonetheless.

But I digress. So, to sum up the previous paragraph, Doctor Who’s viewership decline in the 80′s was the effect of the changing landscape of the TV industry, with which the BBC struggled to come to terms with.

Sound familiar?

Let’s move on to the 2010′s, shall we?

2010 was is actually a good marker of a year to choose, because it marks one important thing that begun a big change in the industry. This was the year in which Netflix expanded their services overseas, from being a DVD rental company to providing VOD services. Over the next decade streaming services grew in importance, from being an add-on to your cable TV that you didn’t really want but they were throwing it in for cheap, to very much self-sustainable media services you might very well buy instead of buying the cable. And if you look at the numbers for Doctor Who viewership declining over the last 10 years, that’s precisely what’s been happening. It’s not that people don’t want to watch Doctor Who on tv, they don’t want to watch tv in general. Do you know what was the most popular channel in Britain this year? Can you guess? Fucking Netflix that’s what. It’s just slowly-yet-steadily ceasing to be the way we use home entertainment anymore. Again, not much to do with the audience approval, because for that matter, let’s see about the specific episodes that saw the spikes in viewership. 

Rose, which i mentioned at the start of it, was for the longest time the unquestionable queen when it comes to viewership, at 10.81 milion. The next episode, The End of the World, pulled in 7.97 - almost 3 millions worth of lost viewer-butts in one week? Is it because it was so much worse than it’s predecessor? No, it simply did not have the smell of Newness, the Event You Must See, and as such brought forth less of the casual viewers who were simply curious about The New Thing. The next season followed the similar formula, peaking at the premiere, when the marketing was at it’s strongest, going down during the season, sometimes rising slightly for the finale, sometimes not. The most popular episodes are, of course, the specials - yet again, the vibe of The Event To Be Seen worked here, but one more thing working to their advantage is they often aired in spaces between seasons, serving as both a long-waited Crumbs of Content for the fans, and the basically stand-alones for the casuals. Do you know what the single most watched episode of revived DW is? No, it’s not Tennant’s goodbye with the role (yeah I know, I thought it had to be that as well). It was Voyage of the Damned, between seasons 3 and 4. The perfect standalone for the casual watcher. And last but not least, you know one more special feature that brought, maybe not as much, but definitely more than expected? The 1996 movie Doctor Who, with 9.08 million. Again, a perfect standalone.

But the standalones aren’t the only way to grab the viewership. The currently-highest viewing non-special episode of DW? The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Jodie Whittaker’s introduction. In 2018 no less, in the year when the streaming was the ruler supreme, this episode brought a whooping 10.96 million buts to the good ol’ TV again. Let me reiterate: this episode brought in more viewers than Rose did in 2005, while having WAY more competition and way less favorable circumstances of release that RTD’s debiut did. Not only that, it managed to bring on some numbers for the entire season as well, not as good of course as the premiere (because again, the Event vibes faded), but still brought a better average than the last six seasons did. (Again, let me reiterate: more than the last SIX seasons. More viewership than any series since 2010, since the Streaming Wars.) So clearly, this must be the way, right? Catering to this Weird New Trend, that saw directors notice there do in fact exist other actors than white men, that surely brought in some profit, even Marvel does it now, right? Out with the old, in with the new!

Part 2 The Deceitful Charm of Nostalgia

Well, it turns out the whole Doing New Things deal didn’t work out that well after all, now did it? The second season penned by Chibbnal averaged 5.40 milion, that’s 2.5 million drop from the previous one! It must mean it didn’t work, right? Well, yes and no. As much as the refreshment of the formula as simple as Let’s Put A Woman In It absolutely worked for one season, it very visibly did not hold up for longer. An Event-Episode is something that can still happen on TV, Event-Series? That’s pretty much reserved for streaming now, if you think about it, and it’s honestly kind of a miracle that Series 11 did as well as it had. Two consecutive Event-Series on network tv? Flat out impossible. 

So how to make those ratings great again? How to get those butts in seats of the Good Ol’? Well, the execs of the BBC have a plan for that. They brought in a devouring beast, and it’s name is: Nostalgia.

Without a doubt, there is a number of people who feel nostalgic about RTD’s era of Doctor Who. It’s a lot of people’s fond childhood memory, or the series they started with, and judging by the numbers, there should be quite a lot of them. So the new plan, as it appears, is to get to those who maybe lost interest in the show and lure them with the promise of the thing That Is Totally Like The Thing You Used To Love, Remember? (This is why I don’t actually think that RTD will be allowed to do anything new and interesting, that’s not what they hired him for. And that’s why I think this is bad from the creative standpoint.) So there are two questions here: One, will the people be lured? And two, for how long?

Nostalgia as a marketing strategy is something that you’re probably sick of seeing already (I know I am). But it has very much been effective on many levels, especially the eighties-baiting, Stranger Things style, can bring a new IP up to relevance. But what about old IP’s that want to have a comeback? 

It’s kind of dificult to find another TV show that I could compare to Doctor Who. Most series that have been running for that long are mostly soap operas, that operate on slightly different rules, and are also targeted to a different audience. So as much as the movie series is still not exactly the best comparison, when I think about a big IP, campy sci-fi, family-oriented (at least in theory) on its path back to relevance, I think about Star Wars, obviously. The Force Awakens gambled on that nostalgic feeling and won big, but the next two movies, while still financially successful, were nowhere near the astounding success of the first one. And that’s because - you guessed it - it created the Event You Must See again, The Great Comeback, but merely two years later, the comeback became old news. So what we can gain from that is that nostalgia can create an Event as well as a new trend, if not better. But the question remains: how long will that last?

That is, after all, the main difference between a movie franchise and a TV series in the traditional, network TV sense of the word: movie franchise must bring in the viewership every year or two, and TV series must bring in viewers every week for at least two months. Is RTD’s Nostalgia Vibes enough to provide for that?

I’ll say this: I’m absolutely certain that the 60th anniversary will be very popular. I still don’t think it will break any records because, as I’ve been trying to explain for this whole post, it is not 2007 anymore no matter how much the tv execs would like it to be. But ironically, the almost-certain success of the special is the very thing that could undermine the effect of bringing their precious Nostagia Boi back onboard. Remember, the first Event Episode is The Big Oof. That’s the one that gets asses to the Good Ol’, if anything ever does. After the first big event one, that’s the point when things start going down. They’re wasting their Special Event Boi for something that already would be an event, dear fucking gods, I hate your plan and I would still execute it better. Either have RTD be the Anniversary Guy and then hire someone new, use that hype and keep it going, OR have RTD come in after the anniversary, then at least you get the Event Effect for the premiere of his first return season. Fukin’ amateurs.

But even if they did that, here’s the thing: do you think that the people who departed from the show years ago actually want to watch another three to five seasons of The RTD Show? I mean, I’m sure the thought warmed some hearts, for sure. A number of people will definitely gladly watch the anniversary, probably the first few episodes of the first return to the basics, but after that? In the world when, due to streaming, they have an easy way to revisit the actual thing they’re nostalgic towards? I honestly don’t think so. And you’re not really gonna get many new people by going back, if that nostalgia factor isn’t there. And then there’s casual viewers, the backbone, as we established. And here’s the thing: lots of those people don’t even know who the current showrunner is, cause they’re not Terminally Online like we are, and the second thing? Lots of those people ARE JUST NOT WATCHING NETWORK TV, IM SORRY GARRY. They’re just. They’re just not. I don’t know how to spell it out better. Even my mum has netflix now. Your biggest base is in another castle mate, gotta get moving and gotta get moving quick, cause here’s another thing: all the nostalgia in the world will not do SHIT for you if your target, people who were kids/teens when the RTD era was airing, PROBABLY DON’T EVEN HAVE A FUCKING TV ANYMORE CAUSE THEY MOVED OUT OF THEIR PARENTS FLAT AND LOTS OF YOUNG PEOPLE JUST DON’T BOTHER. Just. I’m sorry but you’re trying to resuscitate a decade-deceased corpse there buddy. It just won’t work. The times have changed and you gotta swim or drown, and it’s just not gonna be 2005 again, no matter how hard you pretend it is. It’s not your content it’s your business model. Just push more marketing for your iplayer or whatever, focus on streaming as your primary not your secondary cause that’s just what it is now, and maybe don’t rely on the viewer-counting systems of the yesteryear to evaluate your business. Or else you’re gonna get stuck sacrificing the creative growth of your show for a marketing strategy that probably won’t even fucking WORK.

There, I got it of my chest. Feel free to reblog, and also: you somehow got to the end of this, congrats! I’ll make numbers nerds out of y’all yet.

#it's like. my sister and I were #watching a movie lately. the one with multiple will smiths and the de-aging tech #(don't recommend it it's real boring) #but when Youngened Will Smith appeared on the screen my sister got my spiting my tea laughing by innocently saying: #"oh i don't know this actor. it's nice that they're giving opportunities to the young actors. great to see a new face in the biz'' #and u know what #this rehire is the same fucking vibe to me #some cunts from marketing plastering make-up to an old man's face and pretending its 2005 still #anyway #doctor who #i guess.

[leia-imogen]

aaron & the family he's found all by himself; vol. 1 // vol. 2

( ft. the first meeting & the first family game night )

okay, rundown of his first meeting w the vixens!

the vixens don't really like the foxes. they cheer at their games and all, but outside of that, they mostly stick with the football players

bcs, well, the foxes are,, intimidating and most of the vixens don't get how or why katelyn started dating one

especially one half of the terrifying duo that is the twinyards. like these tiny blonde angst goblins have absolutely zero chill, and this is the backliner one, the one that shattered the nose of a dude basically twice his size

they may be short as fuck but they're scary, and the vixens are worried that he might break katelyn's heart

but katelyn's sure about aaron minyard, and when cleo softly asks, "is he worth it?" she knows her answer is a yes

savannah and the rest of the girls aren't convinced tho, so she asks aaron if he'll meet them for one of the afterparties they have after games

he agrees after seeing the hopeful look on her face

and surprise, surprise, it isn't a complete disaster!!

see, aaron has a habit of mirroring the nature of the person he's with. in the book, we mostly see him as an asshole bcs it's from neil's pov, and neil, as much as i adore him, is an asshole

i think that when he's with nicky ( someone he loves and trusts ), he's like, nicer. it's not in his nature to be cheery or anything but he's less,, hostile? and way more relaxed

and katelyn's been nothing but sweet and polite to him, bcs katelyn's sweet and polite till you give her a reason not to be

so he's sweet and polite back, or at least, sweet and polite as aaron minyard can get.

yeah, he's definitely interesting enough, clever and quick-witted enough, respectful and loyal and insanely talented enough, that katelyn decides he's worth it. doubts he'll ever get boring

and yes, she knows this is a big risk, bcs she knows the foxes' rep, knows how fucked up he must to secure a place on the psu foxes, notices how aaron flinches when she makes any sudden movement

but you know what? fuck it

so when aaron tells her his strange, twisted little deal with his brother, katelyn's willing to fight for him

and after nearly 2 months of this, she drags him to the vixens with their fingers interlocked and a hope in her heart that they'd play nice like she's asked ( practically begged ) them to

aaron's buzzing a bit with nervous energy. it's very endearing, how his eyes had lit up at the sight of her, then how she felt her anxiety about the night melt away into excitement

sav tries, bless her, tries to engage aaron in half-hearted conversation about exy ( which she hates ) and aaron tries back, but that fizzles out bcs for someone on a full-ride exy scholarship, aaron doesn't like exy at all

thank god that marissa, who's been trying to be less of a bitch all night, bless her too, lets it slip that sav detests exy

"okay, i can't anymore. minyard, savannah actually hates exy and she hates the foxes too, but we're hoping that you're an exception."

aaron, holding back a laugh: honestly? same.

sav: oh thank fucking GOD we have something to talk about then

"yeah, the entire sport sucks, doesn't it? i literally play it at college level and i still have barely figured out the goddamn rules."

"exactly! and my entire family's fucking obsessed for some reason, it's so annoying! ugh and the foxes suck even more, they're all so goddamn rude for no reason. except maybe the cute goalie."

". . ."

"eww not your brother, i meant renee walker,, and maybe you're not too bad either, minyard."

"you flatter me."

katelyn watches their exchange with more than a little amusement. aaron's not smiling, but his features have softened and he's flushed from the alcohol he'd had and she can't rly believe that this is the boy who they all thought would break her heart

bcs later when aaron comes up to her with a cookie dough cupcake ( her favourite ) she didn't even know was served at the party, leans into her so his face is buried in her neck, whispers "thanks for taking me", when she takes in all her friends laughing and chatting and waving at her, when sav gives her a thumbs-up and nods to aaron, she's never felt more whole

like she was part of something bigger than herself

then aaron starts hanging around them more! yeah he saw the look on katelyn's face and he was going to TRY for her or so help him- usually just with katelyn, sav, and cleo

she invites him to the "family game night" sav is making them have, and he's like "sure why not."

he knocks on the door of sav and cleo's dorm and sav lets him in

"yo, minyard! glad you make it, katelyn's out on a donut run but she'll be back soon."

okay,, okay. so he'll,,, what? interact w people?? hell fucking no

then he realises that it's only cleo in the dorm, plugged into her headphones, playing mario kart, and thanks katelyn for ensuring there would only be ppl that like, he didn't mind

the other vixens were okay, but way too LOUD, and aaron wasn't rly up for spending a whole night w them

cleo hands him a controller, an invitation to play, and he takes it gratefully. he and cleo hadn't talked that much at the party, but she was perfectly tolerable so far, which was a good sign

and mario kart was a part of his childhood, one of the only few that nicky's parents had owned, so he and his cousin had spent hours curled up in front of tv trying to beat each other

even tho he beats nicky most of the time, cleo absolutely destroys him. he mentally tries to brush it off as him being rusty ( which he definitely is ) but damn, cleo's good. still, she brushes off the compliment when aaron blurts it out

okay so then katelyn comes back with like way too many donuts and they start playing monopoly gathered around the coffee table

sav insists on putting on some music. wannabe starts playing. she winks at aaron and aaron winks back, still not smiling. cleo snorts and katelyn kisses his cheek

listen, cleo is a monopoly master. soon, she owns over half the board and it's pretty clear she's gonna win, someone ( savannah riley jameson, everyone ) flips the board

"jameson, what the actual fuck."

"shut the hell up, minyard."

"come on, sav, i was winning!"

katelyn's trying to pick up all the pieces and aaron bends down to help her, shaking his head at sav, who pouts and joins them while cleo grins, headphones slung around her shoulders while she perches herself onto the arm of the settee and hums to wake me up before you go-go

next, sav begs them to play twister. cleo's great at most games, but she has a particular dislike for twister, so she's out quick

katelyn is super bendy, bcs she took gymnastics for years, and aaron holds his own surprisingly well, considering the fact that he's short as fuck

sav: katie, right hand red

katelyn, ending up right on top of a blushing aaron: okay, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?

sav: i stopped spinning like 15 turns ago, i'm surprised you didn't notice sooner

eventually aaron collapses and katelyn is hailed as the queen of twister and they spend the next 10 minutes just calling out random spots for katelyn to try

she gets all of them, and aaron is actually smiling now and it doesn't matter that it's only a tiny quirk of his lips, it's something and katelyn cherishes it

they play some sort of surgeon simulator thingy next, and aaron "gonna be a future neurosurgeon" minyard is awesome at it, bcs duh

katelyn's not very good at this. her hands get SHAKY okay

cleo also sucks at this, bcs she keeps getting nervous and having muscle spasms. sav's just doing the dumbest shit bcs it's bringing aaron closer to the edge of cardiac arrest

aaron: jameson holy shit what are you DOING

sav, slicing open the spinal cord: okay so what if i take out the lungs through the back haha

and now sav is sulking over the fact that she hadn't absolutely murdered the others at a game

so she brings out the ultimate game. the game of bastards, one that tears families apart, sets friendships on fire, starts wars too gruesome to be started by anything other than this wretched, cursed artefact. . .

s c r a b b l e

aaron's already having war flashbacks. katelyn groans and goes to make popcorn, bcs this shit's gonna take FOREVER and she knows it. cleo, an english major, is preparing herself for battle with the force of nature that is savannah

"the fuck do you MEAN fergalicious isn't a word???"

"savannah, please."

"no, here, listen to this."

"sav, we were listening to that!" katelyn complains. sav sighs and switches the song back to her "90's bops" playlist, then changes it to "hell yeah feminism" which instantly starts playing run the world ( girls )

katelyn happily starts singing and aaron's not even reluctant to hum along

sav and cleo are still arguing. this has been going on for so long. sav looks ready to flip over the board again, so cleo does it first

katelyn: cleo what the heck

cleo, the tired mom friend: don't fucking curse

aaron is also tired, but in a good way, in kind of that soft lazy droopy way

he falls asleep leaning against the sofa and katelyn's shoulder, with god is a woman playing in the background while sav and cleo continue arguing. cleo is standing on the coffee table. it's true anarchy

he wakes up on the sofa with a blanket thrown over him and sunlight streaming in through the lacy curtains and katelyn making a complete mess of the kitchen in a futile attempt to make breakfast. sav and cleo are draped across each other on the floor

katelyn, struggling to pick up burning toast: morning babe, how did you sleep?

aaron, calmly using a pair of tongs: pretty well. who wants pancakes?

sav, instantly shooting up: DID YOU SAY PANCAKES

so he makes pancakes! nicky taught him as soon as he'd gained custody of the twins, so he's pretty much an expert. he tries to teach katelyn, but then just gives up bcs she's clearly not listening in favour of staring at him

and they all gather around the coffee table and cleo's humming along to the song on her headphones and wow these pancakes are rly good omg

while aaron is chatting to cleo about what video games they should play next, sav whispers, "kate finley, if you don't marry this boy just for his god-tier pancakes, i will."

"sav, you're a lesbian."

"not anymore, i've decided that i am pancake-sexual."

aaron hears all of this btw, bcs cleo stops when she hears them talking. he blushes, and smiles, just a little bit

( if anyone actually cares about this, tell me! shoot me an ask if there's any particular ask you want to see with these characters, or just the foxes! )

#aaron & the family he's found all by himself #yes i’m aware that no one cares #and that this is horribly written but i’m exhausted so. . . #i pinky-swear the next one will be sort of better #hopefully #aftg headcanons #aftg #all for the game #the foxhole court #aaron minyard headcanons #the vixens #aaron minyard #andrew minyard #twinyards #nicky hemmick #katelyn aftg #katelyn finley #sav jameson #cleo magdalene

[bbrandy2002]

Wacky Drabble #17: Liam’s Smut

Part 3

Masterlist

Part One Part Two

“Riley’s” Fic/What Happens In Fydelia

This is part of @emceesynonymroll ’s #wackydrabbles. This weeks prompt is: There is a certain taste to it.

Liam x Riley and Liam x Hana x Maxwell

Word count: Lets just say, the limit doesn’t exist. So Sorry Enna😲 ……2143

A/N: Its been a hella crazy, hectic week and Im Not too thrilled with how this turned out but it is what it is.

Chapter Summary: In an attempt to get Riley to understand how he feels, Liam writes his own smut with shocking results.

**Special Note: @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore did not write any part of this, therefore, this drabble should not reflect on her far superior talent. I had no plans to write this when I wrote the previous drabble or I would have never drug her name into it…but, ya’ll just had to see what Liam wrote 😂 Thanks Bleakmore for being such a good sport!

This is MY attempt to write a story within a story, that includes smut (not my forte), in Bleakmore’s writing style, with a fictional character as a contributor, while also switching back and forth in my own writing style….God have mercy on all of you!!!!

MY READ MORE DID NOT WORK AGAIN...tagged as long post

————————————-

Riley’s eyes flitted at the screen as she scanned the words written before her. It was quite obvious by the content and plot of this story, one person in particular was meant to read it-her, and it had Liam written all over it. If those two things didn’t make it clear enough, the username, @inyourfacerileybrooks-love-liam, was the biggest indicator her husband had bested her.

A sea of crimson rippled across her face and heaving chest as she shifted onto her side, adjusting the laptop to lay on the bed next to her, full of resentment and outrage. If she was being honest with herself, she felt more guilt than anything.

If he wanted to “out smut” her, she’d be damned not to see what she was up against. She sighed heavily as she began to delve into his-little story.

________

Liam Fucks Hana Five Ways From Sunday With His Enormous Dick”

A new collaborative drabble by @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore and newcomer @inyourfacerileybrooks-love-liam

NSFW 🍋🍋🍋

Summary: This takes place in Fydelia, during the engagement tour, where Liam had caught his girlfriend, Riley, having sex with Drake in the courtyard.

(Liam)

“Bastien!”, I yelled, “arrest these two for treason, indescency in public, and…”, upon seeing the little Hershey bar wrappers scattered on the ground from Drake’s smores, “….litering”.

Seeking my forgiveness, Riley sobbed and pleaded for her release, citing temporary insanity, as her reasoning for betraying me in such a manner.

I did not care.

As my head guard took them both away in shackles and chains, I stopped him momentarily, “Bastien?”.

He turned to acknowledge me, “Yes, Your Majesty”.

“Throw away the key”.

I never wanted to see their sorry faces again. They both will spend the rest of their days in the palace dungeon, in misery, never to see daylight .

Riley rolled her eyes, “real subtle, Liam”, she murmured, before continuing….

I left the scene of their sexual crime feeling hurt and destroyed. Everything I had done since my coronation had been to protect her….Her! When I spoke those three words in the hedge maze before we made love for the first time, I meant them….I loved her.

Truth is, I never stopped.

I never will.

I would have gone to the far reaches of the universe to love her and show her love. I would have given her anything, do anything she asked, gave her my very own life to protect her, yet, it wasn’t enough to keep her. She didn’t think I was man enough to be those things for her, a lover, a protector, a soul mate, a confidante…my best friend.

She wanted Drake Walker for that.

Shame…there is a certain taste to it. Extremely spicy? Maybe. If so, Riley’s mouth was on fire. She pushed herself up from lying down on her side and gently tossed the laptop onto the bed. If there was anything she was ever sure of in life, it was that Liam loved her and always had. Those words she just read, were meant for her, in the here and now.

Her stomach began to twist and turn, a sour taste rising in the back of her throat. She eased herself from the bed to stand, wiping away the steady streams of hot tears that moistened her cheeks.

She ran to the bathroom, shutting the door and fell to her knees before the cold porcelain, emptying the foulness of her betrayal inside of it. Feeling miserable for hurting Liam and causing him such pain.

“Mommy?..daddy?”, Nikolas called out as he sleepily entered his parents empty bedroom.

Without a reply, he stepped in further, his little, beady blue eyes darting around, seeking to find his mom and dad, his ears perking up at hearing the shower running.

Nikolas decided to wait for them to come out of the bathroom, not knowing Liam had stayed in his study last night. Grabbing onto one of the large wooden posters at the foot of the bed, he placed one foot on the frame and hoisted himself up, crawling playfully to the center.

He rose to his feet and jumped up and down several times before landing on his backside with a high bounce, giggling with pure delight. Riley’s laptop caught his eyes, resting on her pillow, open wide with the screensaver of a half naked, Ryan Reynolds bouncing around consistently. He perched himself on the edge of the bed, his short legs swinging freely over the side, as he laid the laptop in his lap.

He knew he wasn’t permited to use electronic devices without adult supervision, however, in his mind, that was not something he was concerned with. His tiny finger ran over the touchpad as his ears listened intently for the shower to stop. Nik’s eyes narrowed on the words that flashed before him, his hand cupped over his mouth….“daddy did what to Aunt Hana?”…..

Returning to my room at the estate, wounded and dispirited, I pour one drink after another, drowning my sorrows. My ultimate goal was to feel nothing, to forget the love of my life ever existed….if only for this night.

Soon, the dizzying effects of the alcohol begin to take its hold on me. I shed my suit jacket, feeling warmth, tossing it absentmindedly on the bed. I began to roll up the sleeves of my dress shirt, when a gentle knock alerted me to the door. I stumble haphazardly across my suite to see who it is at this late hour.

Hana and Maxwell stood opposite of me with looks of concerns and disappointment.

(Hana)

Maxwell and I stand before Liam, who looks like he has spent the evening wallowing in what Riley and Drake had done to him. By now, the entire court and press had gotten word of their very public display of affection….if thats what you would call it. When Maxwell and I were made aware of the situation, we thought he could use a friend, a shoulder to cry on, and-The Game.

The King invites us into his lavish executive suite, lit only by the moonlight’s glow through the clear glass of the balcony door. A near empty bottle of scotch sits on the coffee table in front of the sofa with a pack of cigarettes and a full ash tray.

“Liam”, I wrap him in a warm hug, “we are so sorry for what happened. Is there anything we can do?”.

“Yeah, buddy”, Maxwell said with an encouraging smile, “we came to cheer your up”.

Liam crosses to the center of the room and slumps down onto the couch, grabbing the bottle of scotch, “I appreciate that, but…I don’t think anyone can help me tonight”.

I look to Maxwell, who gives me a knowing look and a nod. We avert our attention back to the King who is lighting up his next cigarette and falling back into the couch.

I wink at Maxwell. It’s time.

Maxwell and I move to the sofa. He plops down on the end opposite of Liam and I settle myself in between them; there was only enough room for the three of us.

(Liam)

I’m grateful that Maxwell and Hana are so concerned for my wellbeing, however, I really just want to be left alone.

Hana shifts next to me and places a delicate hand on my knee. If I weren’t so inebriated, that act alone would seem almost inappropriate for a lady of my court. I take a quick draw and exhale the toxic fumes towards the ceiling.

“Your Majesty”, her voice sweet and low, “Maxwell and I would like to play a…"game”..with you.“

I smile at her and lightly squeeze the hand she has resting on my knee, “I’m not really in the mood for games..maybe another time”.

“Come on daddy, play the game with Uncle Max and Aunt Hana”

I catch Maxwell’s hand moving just below the hem of Hana’s knee length dress, gliding under the fabric as he caresses her thigh, inching higher and higher. I quirk my brow, curious at to what this knucklehead was doing.

Hana closes her eyes, appearing to melt into his touch, soft moans escaping her lips. I scoot further away, unclear as to what the hell is going on.

The intricate lace of Hana’s light pink panties become visible as Maxwell’s finger disappears under it. Her usually, elegant hand, pressing him further and deeper into her. I avert my eyes and begin to whistle uncomfortably, wondering if these two came to cheer me up by…fucking in front of me?

Hana’s sultry voice beckons for me. “I dare you to touch me too, Your Majesty”, an inviting grin appears on her face as Maxwell removes his fingers from her. To say I am baffled would be an understatement, yet, my cock starts to harden with anticipation.

“Do it, do it, do it”, an oddly subdued Maxwell begins to pressure me with a shit-eating grin.

I shake my head insistently, “I..I can’t touch Lady Hana like that”, I wanted to, she’s gorgeous and talented, and by the looks of Maxwell’s glistening fingers, fucking soaked. I lean forward and put out my cigarette, planning to get away from whatever the hell kind of game these two are playing. I’ve played Monopoly, I’ve played checkers, never have I “played” Stick a Finger in The Pussy.

My heart races as she grabs my hand and pulls it towards her. I hesitate, but, dammit, I’m only a man. My fingers roam over the wetness of her panties, I can smell her essence and it completely overcomes me. I make my way under the lace; she is warm and slick. I begin to move with precision through her folds and she groans my name. Hana’s giftedness never fails…I can honestly say, I do feel a little more cheerful afterall.

Through her moaning, she dares Maxwell to suck my dick. I laugh, oh the Hana…she’s such a jokester, until that son of bitch gets up and kneels before me. In my drunken state, I don’t move as my lifelong friend unbuckles my leather belt and slowly unzips my pants. He releases my cock from its confines…is this really happening? Hana squirms under my touch and I can tell she is close to the edge, as Maxwell’s hot tongue curls around my shaft.

“Nikolas!”, Liam’s voice booms disapprovingly as he stands at the doorway, “are you on your mother’s laptop?”

A panic-stricken Nikolas, jolts from being caught, then squints his eyes as he watches his father approach him.

Liam towers over his young son, hands on his hips with a displeased glare. “Well…what do you have to say for yourself?”

Nikolas remains quiet for a moment before Liam presses him again for an answer. Without warning, he cries out, “You are a bad man daddy! A very bad man!”. He jumps off the bed, pushing himself past Liam, wailing and sobbing back to his room, where his door could be heard slamming shut.

The bathroom door opens and a towel clad Riley slips out, “What was that?”

Liam scratches his unkempt hair, perplexed at his son’s outburst, “I’m not sure. I caught him on your laptop before he told me I was a very bad man and cried himself out of the room”

Riley swiveled the laptop he left on the bed towards her, leaning over it in search of what caused her young child to explode. Her lips moved quietly as she read until, “YOU HAD A THREESOME WITH HANA AND MAXWELL?!”, she blinked wildly, “…my baby is gonna need therapy for life”.

Liam grabbed the device from her, “I most certainly did not”. He read the post for himself, gasping at each sentence, nodding his head incessantly, “No…No…animal sounds?…golden shower?…Hana milked our prostates? Drake escapes the dungeon and kills me with marine life?…I didn’t write this, I swear. I only wrote the first part and Bleakmore assured me she would give it a loving ending”.

Skeptical at his story, Riley points to the screen, “Look”, her eyes focus in as she points to the screen, reading aloud, “Never ask a Drake stan to betray him…You’ve been… Bleakmored”. She bites her lip to control the urge to laugh.

“Bleakmored?”, he sighs, “Bleakmored?…I hope she knows she has traumatized our son”, he closes his eyes in disbelief before Riley wraps her arms around his waste and draws him closer to her.

She stares up at her husband with a loving smile and sincerity, “I’m sorry you were Bleakmored…and…I’m sorry I wrote that story about Drake. You are the only man I want, My King”, she trails kisses across his neck and palms his hardened groin, “maybe you can finish your smut where you left off, with me”.

Liam shudders under the intensity of her hands moving in perfect motion, “Only if you let me… milk you, My Queen”.

Riley lips curl into a devilish grin “I’ll get the Vasoline and rubber gloves”.

Wacky Drabblers and Permatags: @emceesynonymroll @burnsoslow @jessiembruno @sirbeepsalot @dcbbw @romanticatheart-posts @stopforamoment @katedrakeohd @pedudley @of-course-i-went-to-hartfeld @drakesensworld @ao719 @janezillow @eileendannie @texaskitten30 @glaimtruelovealways @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore @hopefulmoonobject

#liam x mc #the royal heir #choices trr #king liam x mc #wacky drabbles #liam x riley #bbrandy2002 #long post

[polar-stars]

Hi! I have a question about you next gen: how would your Oc react to quarantine? Would they be happy staying at home or extremely annoyed by the company of their siblings? Apart from cooking (which is obvious) what would they do with their spare time? You can choose any of your Oc you find more interesting to talk about in this situation. Thank you in advance! Stay healthy!

Hey anon! 

First: I hope you stay healthy as well 🍀 Second: Thank you for the ask + giving me a chance to talk about my kiddos 🙏 That’s always a joy for me to do

Kimiko would certainly struggle with quarantine. The fact that she can’t work in Yukihira-Diner upsets her and she feels her life lacks a lot of excitement during those days. She’d still try to make the best out of it and would most likely put on YouTube tutorials and the likes to teach herself some new things to try. Also she would help her father clean the house every second day. Her brother Hiraku in the meantime actually gets some E10-related tasks and such from Noboru additionally to the school-work that Totsuki would possibly give out for their students to do over quarantine. He barely does any of them. Rather he spends most of his time with texting and YouTube/Netflix, aside from experimenting dishes. He does miss the drill and excitement from Totsuki and all the parties where he is the center of attention.

-

Hiroshi does find his enjoyment at staying home. He helps out his mother a lot, plays with his younger siblings and also gets pretty crafty. The entire Aldini-Tadokoro-Family handles the situation rather well and is good at giving themselves distractions and things to do. The only major thing that specifically Isami is anxious about is how long it might take till they can see their relatives form Tuscany again. 

In Tuscany, Mika is scared of possibly getting bored. She spends a good bunch of time with either working out with her mother (they have a work-out-space in their mansion) or binge-watching romance-series on Netflix. But she definitely longs for outside activities and hopes it will be over till her favorite season summer kicks in. 

-

The Hayamas have a really big garden at their house and of course, Kaori therefore spends most of her time gardening. If not outside with her flowers, she either reads or watches a vintage movie with her mother. Akio, in the meantime assists his father had experimenting with fragrances for a possible new perfume or makes some photo-albums with pictures from past travels. Overall, the Hayamas don’t get much time to relax normally and try to make the best out of having to stay at home. 

-

The Nakiris live in such a big mansion and probably, out of all the characters, have therefore the most moving space of all. The fact that they can’t either visit the Yukihiras or their family in Denmark is certainly a drowner though. Both Lola and Mona distract theirselves mainly with working out with their father, Netflix (with Lola watching shows like “Gotham” or “American Horror Story” or idk what and Mona watching Slice-Of-Life stuff and even getting into K-Drama) and listening to music (Heavy Metal for Lola and Techno for Mona ofc).

-

Suzume (and her father) understand theirselves as valuable sources of entertainment in these days. Suzume gets pretty active on social media with video-clips and tons and tons of memes. While she definitely longs for the outside and more social activities, Suzu is not one to get bored easily. She works out a lot (She actually does Aerobic every morning ahdsh yeah in her 80s-Aerobic-Costume), practices her calligraphy, entertains her family with occasional dance-numbers and so on. Takayuki in the meantime mainly plays WoW or works out with his big sister. Their father also subjects them to a lot of family games and activities though, so there’s also lots of movies watched and lots of charade, Monopoly and what not. 

-

The Mimasakas are generally one of the closest families in terms of spending time together and affection. They find a lot of activities to do together and are also the most open to compromises (like in terms of which movies to watch and such). Ran also offers some advice to students of Totsuki online, who might be more stressed out by the quarantine (and it’s Ran, so she more or less knows exactly who those students are). She also sews a lot, alongside Ayano. Ayano also plays a lot with her dolls and hosts an afternoon tea-party everyday, to which sometimes Subaru, Kazuo, Nao or Ran also join. Kazuo meanwhile watches a lot of romance movies and shows, writes poems or practices his dancing to impress Mika. 

-

Yasu either cleans up, carves some wood or assits his mother in one way or the other. Occasionally he will also just play some video games or watch some documentaries on Netflix.

-

Chieko !! READS !! She reads it all: Books, E-Books, Essays, Poems, the product-list on her milk-tea….etc. She also plays a lot of chess with Zenji. At times she gets really annoyed by Takahiro’s pranks and such but she does well overall.

-

Hideyoshi expands on his social media presence during this time and actually posts videos with updates and such everyday and on how he’s doing and he occasionally even streams reactions to YouTube videos or playing video games.  Him and his family also just have their own little karaoke nights at times. But in the end, Hideyoshi is one of the candidates who just wants quarantine to be over since he misses the excitement of parties and the likes. 

-

Daisuke and his family actually have a movie marathon going on. They go through all kinds of vintage movies from Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart to classics of the 80s like “Back to the Future” (Funfact, that’s Daisuke’s favorite movie) or “Ferris Bueller’s Day-Off”. Occasionally Daisuke also uploads videos of him playing guitar, as he does spend a lot of time practicing it during these days.

-

Masashi mainly either works out or practices calligraphy aside from sharpening his cooking-skills. Albeit he also practices some other Japanese customs here and there. He also puzzles occasionally! Mainly after arguments with Kei! (And the two argue a lot in the end….quarantine is rather difficult for this family being honest). Kei meanwhile shuts himself in his room for the most part and plays video games, like he’d also do on holiday days. He does get dragged out of his room a lot in the end, mainly by Nene, being the concerned and family-oriented mom as ever, who sees this as a chance to get some family-bonding time done.  Often argues with either Masashi or his father during these days. Shigeo kind off just attempts to use this as a chance to engage more in the hobbies he usually has little time for, although the feeling of being unproductive certainly irks him a little. And so he reads quite a lot of crime-novels, plays Sudoko on his phone or watches something on Netflix. As I said, Nene also tries to use these days to get everyone closer together and often tries to come up with activities for all of them to do together. They often end up arguing on whichever movie to watch.

Generally, they’re all not really used to just…that much free time and even if they don’t have to stay at home…this family surely can be difficult a lot of times.

-

Kiyoko would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little upset about not being able to go shopping and all of that. She keeps her Instagram and other social media active though and posts something everyday, often including suggestions on what to do throughout the quarantine (as a rich girl in a large mansion she does find some things to do). She also spends a lot of her time with her sisters actually. Mainly dressing them up (Yoshiko is annoyed). Moe watches some recordings/movie-versions of her favorite ballets or plays Animal Crossing New Horizons some cute-enough game with Kei thanks to the internet connection.

-

Noboru keeps himself busy with administrative work as first seat even from home and when he does take a break from it: he mainly paints of course. He looks up pictures of landscapes on google and draws them. It’s not the same as being outside and painting to him, but its good enough as distraction. He also reads a lot. 

#Gofer answering to stuffz #Shokugeki no Kimiko Stuffz

[yvaquietdays]

On giving up on all your unrealistic dreams.

There’s a rumour going around that I’m gonna give it all up. 

The rumour is only in my head. But still.

Entirely expectedly at this time of year, I’ve been experiencing some introspective anxiety. Namely, noticing that when I think about my music, my anxiety starts peaking. Ugh, I know. So boring. The streams of panic, sending whirly moments of fear through my gut; I’m not good enough, I haven’t done enough, I don’t want to do enough. If I don’t want to do enough, then I mustn’t want this.  I’m going to escape, move to New Zealand, sell books.  You see where I’m going with this.  The slow, maddening, endless descent into spiralling negative thoughts. Let me just lie down.

Firstly, I have to be very careful that I don’t take my reluctance to do something as a sign from the universe that I’m on the wrong track. The universe, sometimes, doesn’t know shit about it. I put too much stock in the universe and all its power at the dawning of 2019 and look where that got me. Alright, all the way out to LA, but I came back, didn’t I? Quite clearly something (that I’m not going to talk about, because it doesn’t actually matter, honest) didn’t pan out as it was supposed to.

But I set my intentions! I rode the wave of acceptance! I was grateful! 

Come off it. Nah. Sometimes shit doesn’t pan out and you either fall hard or get on with it. In the end, I was glad that thing didn’t pan out, because I felt like I’d been freed. Freed from an industry that felt fake and vacuous, freed on my own trudgey path, to do whatever I want on it. I could kick some stones for a while, make some moves. Or, as it happens, stand completely still. But here’s the rub. I’ve been entertaining thoughts of doing other things. I wrote a book a year ago and sat on it for another year, picking it apart, editing, sending to my beta readers. It reawakened a very simple, undemanding love for reading and writing. It doesn’t always make me feel bad when I do it. It is a pure and unadulterated mode escapism. Excuse me while I jump off the world for a sec. Of course, there are days I have no ideas, I can’t pull together any words, and on those days, I feel like a steaming hot pile of turd. But generally, I lie awake at night imagining scenes, characters. I’ve realised I see the world through a writers eyes, always creating stories for people, craving seeing inside someone else’s life, figure out their quirks. Everyone I meet is a character I analyse and flesh out in my head.  I couldn’t quite believe I’d buried this part of me for so long. I challenged myself to finish a novel in a year, and I did it. I finished the thing, just to prove to myself that I had it in me. I can’t tell you how freeing this is. So I started wondering if music had led me down a certain path, because from a young age, I had also craved attention and being on the stage, to perform. In my head, I imagined myself on red carpets and at award shows, even though I learned in my late teens how childish and silly this was. But in the back of my mind, always, I had pictured my life playing out away from Newcastle, away from London even. I guess I existed in a different world than the one I knew, even the one that looked real. It meant if I didn’t make music, or get played on Radio 1, or play the big festivals with the other big guys, or be the one to watch... I would fail. There was nothing else. It was this, or nothing. 

Obviously that mindset had repercussions in the end. So. I’ve given up on all those unrealistic dreams. 

I have no desire to be part of the music industry. Not now, after everything. It’s like I can see through the veil, and on the other side, all I see is poor mental health. I honestly love my life, my little flat, a hot brew after hot bowl food, wasting my life on Netflix but being held by a person I love. That’s all there is for me. Everything else is a bonus. I’m not giving up. I’m just, sort of, giving in. Letting go of the things that don’t make me happy. That includes those dreams, those expectations. The way I see it is, we live in a world that tells us to want more, get more, be endlessly unsatisfied and in a perpetual state of craving. I have wanted this idea for as long as I remember, but the reality is, the idea doesn’t exist.  It’s kind of like planning for a holiday. You’ve booked the flights, the transfers, you know you can get by with the bikinis you already own, but in the back of your mind you’re thinking, I could do with a very specific vest top or skirt or shorts for this holiday, otherwise I’ll be really annoyed not wearing the right thing when you’re climbing the steps from GoT in Dubrovnik, and you’ll have to look back on those pictures knowing that vest top was cropped when you didn’t want it to be. Or you’ve suddenly got a long list of items you need for this holiday, even though you know deep down, it’s about the memories and the respite of being on the actual bloody holiday, not the new travel wallet you bought from Liberties because Marie Claire told you it was a must-have for the holiday season. We’re always being sold stuff, only valuing ourselves through the lens of how everyone else perceives us, and what’s worse is that social media knows exactly what we’re thinking, what we’re tempted by. Instagram reinforces the need for a new cross-body bag for the holiday because you googled it or searched or it on ASOS. So you think, yeah, you know, I do need all that stuff. I need to fulfill my dream version of the holiday otherwise it won’t count.

That’s life. If you boil it right down to a lovely little jus, and drip it down on your unrealistic expectations, you’ll realise you’ve been spending years berating yourself by wanting more, wanting the goal, even wanting more while you have it, while doing everything to forget to be grateful or appreciative to yourself for the work you’ve put in to achieving it already. You’re missing it all while you set your sights ahead.  Dreams about how your life is going to look are a waste of time. Dreams are full of stuff we don’t need. Spend your days with your head in the clouds and you forget how to walk in the street without being hit by a cyclist.

Look, if I can release music and write a book, while being able to go to the pub for a pint and a game of Monopoly cards, and think about the possibility of having a family one day, then I’m happy. Family, people, connections, meaning, that’s what human beings need. It’s what I need, anyway. 

I don’t want the guilt that comes with never quite achieving that perfect version of my life. My life is perfect. It might not look like how I imagined it when I first got my passport, imagining where I’d be in ten years time, but if I spend one more day looking years ahead to that perfect moment, I’d completely miss it. Miss now. I’d miss the fact that my actual life, today, right now, is better than I could have imagined. 

So fuck that, pet.

I’m still recording, and I’m releasing very, very soon. But I’m just going along with it. I’m nervous about playing live, about the music world opening it’s doors to me again. Not sure if I want to step through. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. But what I’ve realised recently is that I can, as a woman, as a person, have it all. I can make my own music, release it, perform it live. I can do session work, I can tour the world with Nitin Sawhney and perform to crowds of thousands, and I can clock out. I can write a book, I can work on a second. I can work in a coffee shop and enjoy it. I can audition for shows. I can stay at home on the PS4 on New Years Eve with my love and have the best time, and not think about how there was no huge monumental moment for me at the end of the decade, only the realisation that I have all I could ever really need. 

There isn’t one line that I have to follow. There isn’t one line you have to follow! Do what makes you happy, and remember what you really need to be so.

Thinking that music was the only thing that I was permitted to do was the worst mistake I’ve ever made. I felt that trying my hand at anything else was pushing my luck. Nobody would take me seriously if I spread myself too thin. Jack of all trades, and that. I didn’t even let myself explore to find out how good I am at any of it. I told myself no. I allowed myself to cradle that silly dream of making it (I honestly don’t know what this means any more), for years, and it held me back. There is no making it. There is only work, and today. 

And, anyway, I really don’t make enough money in one of those fields to warrant me only trudging through one. At this point, I have to think realistically, financially. 

I have to hike through them all.

#unrealisticdreams #zeroambition #determination #gratitude #mentalhealthawareness #peakanxiety #mentalhealthblog #mentalhealthblogger

[siriuslyarrogant]

So I've been watching a lot of Polygon's videos recently and got the idea of the check please gang having a gaming (playing & information) YouTube.

Okay so I had a hard deciding if Jack would still be in the NHL or not and finally I decided that no he wouldn't . So instead of him being a guest star , it would Tater an Kent. The falcs are the local team and Tater became of the channel after he found during a late night YouTube session. Kent still knows Jack from Juniors and thought 'hey we're friends again , I like board games , we're both competitive as all hell , let me play with you on your channel'.

Anyway .. Ransom and Holster have a live stream that kinda similar to that of the Gil and Gilbert ones - which just means that they do random challenges while playing video games . However Rans and Holster will only play really shorty games with horrible graphics- at first they found it ironic and now they actually enjoy playing them while shoving food in their mouths. Their live streams are regarded as one of the funniest thing on the channel as they keep up the terrible jokes for over an hour.

The funniest video + most viewed however is titled MY SHEEP EMPIRE IS NOT CRUEL , originally that wasn't the name but when Bitty was like 'don't we have to be semi professional' Johnston was just like 'yeah, but this is better and will get more views' and so Holster was allowed to keep his video title

The longest video(s) is a three different six hour long videos of the gang playing monopoly . There wouldn't be more videos if Jack hadn't gotten really annoyed that no one had won in the 18 hours they had played and he half decide we need to get back to work/ oh fuck if we keep playing I'M going to lose first and flipped the board . Holster - well on he way to dominating the entire board - didn't talk to him for a solid week and a half.

They have a similar series like Unraveled where Shitty will spend like twenty minutes talking really in depth about very unknown video game stuff but instead of finding out stuff like the zelda timeline , Shits will either point out gamesscluld 1) be more diverse or 2) he will spend like days researching how many video characters go against the laws of physics - despite being human.

Lardo will bluff her way through every and any board game but will usually lose heavily in the end. She is better at talking about how video game should sell better/ what makes them better.

Jack most of the time just does research/ films the video instead of being in them . The only time he makes an exception is when guests(Tater/Kent) come on, the monopoly videos and also when him and Lardo decided it was a good idea to play together on a team against bits and shits on some game.

Bitty makes a video ( like polygons zelda recipes) where he recreates all the cooking mama recipes - with help form Dex.

The frogs all have a series together and it really well liked because of all of their different personalities blending well together. Dex and Nursey fight over small things and Chowder rolls his eyes. And when Chowder gets really into beating the game , Dex and Nursey look terrified. Nursey whoever they play a car game when always end up crashing straight away.

This got too long, too fast.

#check please #omgcp #eric bittle #jack zimmermann #shitty knight #lardo duan #derek nurse #chris chow #will poindexter #kent parson #alexei tater mashkov #dex #nursey #chowder #video game au #youtube au

[heathendolan]

How do you think Ethan from lemon boy that you wrote would propose ?

It’s U | Part 3½ of the Lemon Boy Series

Summary: About fucking time he proposed.

A/N: Thank you so much for asking this, whoever you are! I love love love love love love love LOVE love that you let this idea sprout in my head cauuuuse like. it’s about time right? mmk, moving on

word count: 1.7K+ || masterlist || PLAYLIST

SERIES | 1 Lemon Boy | 1½ Banana Bread | 2 888 | 3 Boys Will Be Bugs

College was fun. It was great, it was exciting, it was stressful. What college wasn’t: the best years of your life.

You’d heard the expression time and time again, and as you’d edged the end of your final April in university, panic had begun to rise in your throat.

College was amazing! God, college gave you Charlotte, your best friend, your platonic soulmate. College gave you Charlotte and Hera and Marcy and Jihyun, it gave you uncountable memories and the best inside jokes, it gave you a family so different than the ones back in rural New Jersey. 

And college gave you the best side of Ethan you’d ever seen.

You would think, after knowing Ethan for five years, you’d know him down to the bone. But as sophomore year kicked off and you finally settled in your shared apartment, the one packed with best friends and off-brand cereal, you realized there was an entire Ethan you’d never met. The one that you lived with. 

Only then did you realize that you loved Ethan wholeheartedly. Sleepovers every night with your best friend? Heck yeah.

You couldn’t see how life could get better than 2AM runs to Rite Aid or getting obscenely drunk in the living room on Thursdays and playing half-jokingly hostile games of monopoly with your best friends. Isn’t that where you peak? When you found people you could cry with, either from laughter or heartbreak? When you made memories that make you smile like a goon just from a reference?

That’s what worried you, a lot. You didn’t want college to end, ever.

-

College ended with a lot of tears. So, so many tears. 

And Charlotte was moving to Newark to start her job as a magazine journalist, and Hera was traveling abroad for a year in Spain, and Marcy was moving to fucking Miami with her fiance, Carlos, and Ethan and you were headed over to Manhattan for your internships at Penguin, and you know that Manhattan’s only eight miles from Newark where Charlotte is, but the traffic’s crazy and apparently you have to wear ‘nice clothes’ and you really hate pencil skirts and turtlenecks just rubbed you wrong and-

“Hey,” Ethan mumbled from beside you, elbowing your side with a frown. “You good?”

Were you good? No, not really. Everything was moving so fast; graduation was in four days and then, then things just moved from there. Everything would shift, all over again, and you remember begging high school to just end. 

You hated high school. Well, not all of it, but you hated the people, the ones who treated Ethan like scum but always smiled at you in the hallways–as if that was some trade-off. You hated the coursework, you hated being cramped in a building for seven hours, you hated the food and the food chain. Graduation was a gift. 

This was not high school. People didn’t bully Ethan and they didn’t fake friendliness to you–nobody cared about the two of you, and that was just how you liked it. Ethan found a family here at the university. He had Gray and Collin and Baasim, he had Christian and Rocky and you. He had you still. Would that change after graduation, in the ‘real world’? Would there be a time where you didn’t have Ethan?

You didn’t want that for Ethan. He loved you.

You didn’t want that for yourself. You loved him.

“Hey, talk to me,” Ethan cooed beside you, and you’d hardly realized that tears had begun to stream down your face or that you’d never even answered him. You snuffled a few times before throwing yourself onto him, wrapping your arms tight around his neck and burrowing yourself in his lap. He dragged your bed’s duvet around the two of you, slipped his hand beneath your cotton tee and thumbed at the wing of your shoulder blade, the one with the tattoo, and just let you cry.

Ethan never pushed. Ethan just let you cry.

And you did, for hours, and just wailed and whined and sobbed, stained his shirt with crocodile tears and smudged his shoulder with snot. It wasn’t the cute kind of cry, if you’re wondering. 

Ethan didn’t really care. Ethan didn’t care at all, in fact; he knew what this is about. He had seen your eyes well up with tears in the middle of laughing at Charlotte’s jokes, he’d watched you sit lonely at the kitchen’s island and eat Reese’s puffs with a slumped curve in your back. He’d seen the way your hand shook when you crossed off another day with an X on your calendar. He knew why ‘Graduation’ was written in such a tiny font on your schedule. 

Ethan was not sad about graduation. He was ready for his internship. He was ready for the real world. He was ready to marry you. 

He stroked the back of your head and kissed your puffy, puffy cheek and whispered in the shell of your ear, “I can’t wait for the rest of my life with you.”

Your breath hitched. God, how did Ethan know? How did he always know what to say, how did he always know what you were thinking, how did he always know what was bothering you?

You just nodded and let your cries draw slowly to an end, falling asleep on him quickly after.

Ethan snuggled you into your respective side, and then hopped from the bed and crossed off another day on your calendar. Three more days. 

-

Ethan walked across the stage at graduation with a very familiar smile. Of course, you cried.

You cried, but you got really, really drunk with your friends and you were happy, even if only a little.

Two days after graduation, you found yourself snuggled into Ethan’s side in bed and realized that not much had changed. Not in anyway that mattered; you still had a lot of student debt, the best boyfriend ever, and a group of friends you’d die for. Now you just have a really expensive piece of parchment to prove it. 

“Can you read to me?” Ethan mumbled beside you. “We never finished the last Harry Potter.”

You smiled to yourself. You had read the series to him over the course of a few years, pausing and picking it back up every so often. So, you wormed your way lazily to the edge of your bed and stretched to grab the hefty, thick book resting on a shelf above your bedside table. 

You cracked the spine, leafed your way far into the book, and said, “"How do you-”

“Don’t forget to read the margin notes,” Ethan interjected, nibbling on his lip. “You know those are my favorite.”

You snorted and rolled your eyes. “I would never. Now,” you cleared your throat haughtily, grinning. ““How do you feel, Georgie?“ whispered Mrs. Weasley.George’s fingers groped for the side of his head…”

Again, hours passed and passed and passed and you were dumbstruck that Ethan hadn’t fallen asleep by now; your voice was typically a lullaby for him, especially this late at night.

“Alright,” you mumbled through a yawn, jaw stretched wide. “There’s one chapter left, and it’s basically just the epilogue, so I can finish that in the morning or-”

“No!” Ethan cried, grabbing your arm. “No, you have to finish the book, it’s so interesting!”

You stared at him in bewilderment. “Are you serious? It’s like, five in the morning, I’m surprised you were even awake enough to grip all this stuff,” you snorted, shaking the book in your hand.

“Just love you- just love it,” Ethan corrected, pinching his eyes shut. “Just love the book so much. Definitely my favorite Harry Potter.”

You scoffed. “Are you kidding? Nothing tops Goblet of Fire. Well, there’s Order of the Phoenix, too. That one is so fucking good, like all the-”

“(Y/N)!” Ethan breathed, anxious and pushy. “I really wanna just finish the series, I can’t wait to hear about it.”

“Alright, alright!” you giggled, situating yourself back into his arms and splitting open the pages.

You had flicked to the last page when Ethan began squeezing his grip around you uncomfortably tight. “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well,” you muttered, with finality.

The words were highlighted. You did not highlight those words. 

You followed the ink to the margin where, in Ethan’s chicken scratch, the words ‘Will you marry me?’ were scribbled.

“Will you marry me…?” you said out of habit, reading the words aloud.

You turned to Ethan to find him with tears in his eyes and fidgeting hands.

“Yeah,” was all he said.

“You’re- I’m- what? Ethan,” you gushed, your hands flying to your face. 

Ethan squeezed his eyes shut, the tears rolling down his cheeks. “God, I’m so fucking in love with you,” he breathed, shaking his head. “It doesn’t hurt anymore, (Y/N). Nothing hurts anymore. It’s like, eighth-grade year, I hated everyone and I hated myself so goddamn much. And it hurt. Everything hurt until I met you and you- you opened up this whole world of happiness, one with books and ice cream and tattoos and a weird obsession with, with Harry Potter books!

“And I don’t ever want to not be with you. I don’t need a ring to prove that I’ll stay with you for the rest of my life. This ring doesn’t tie me down, you tie me down. You’re fantastic and amazing and so fucking smart. You’re stunning. You are jaw-dropping and honestly, I almost proposed on the spot five months ago when you wore that red dress to Formal. You are it for me, (Y/N).

“I know you think everything’s changing. It’s not, (Y/N). I am still yours. You are still mine. And I know that there are other variables; I know you don’t want to be more than a minute away from Charlotte. I know you’re devastated that you won’t have Hera or Marcy. I know it feels like you’re diving head first into the deep end but (Y/N), we aren’t changing. We are not changing. I just want you to have my last name,” Ethan finished, crying guiltlessly.

He reached into his pocket and dug out a little black box. He popped open the velvet case and displayed a ring. It was Lisa’s, you knew it.

You said yes.

All was well.

#ethan dolan imagine #ethan dolan #ethan dolan fanfiction #ethan dolan imagines #grayson dolan imagine #grayson dolan fanfiction #grayson dolan #grayson dolan imagines #dolan twins #dolan twins fanfiction #dolan twins imagines #youtube #writing #blurb #masterlist

[supergirlfics]

Please write one where Reader has crush on Lena but so is Alex. R is poor and she's aware how Alex is rich (duh). So she thought she shouldn't pursue Lena since Alex is richer than R and she can give what Lena wants so she decided to just sit there and try ot move on while she watch Alex make move on Lena. She decided to move on and date someone who is on her level. Until one time Lena got drunk and her why she never made a move on her when she's all Lena wants and not Alex. Thanks!!

Every time you saw Lena, your heart skipped a beat. She was so beautiful, graceful, gorgeous So kind, so smart, so caring. Whenever she spoke to you, you could feel your hands become clammy and you had to look away or she would surely see the very prominent blush on your cheeks. 

You desperately wanted to make a move, but there were a few problems. Lena was way out of your league. She had a real job, a real life, and way more money than you. If you went after her - she would probably just think you were using her. Lena deserved better than that. And, Alex had a very obvious crush on her as well. She was constantly flirting and Lena flirted right back. You concluded that the best thing you could do was just let it go. Let Alex and Lena be together and happy. Alex was better for her anyway.

It was during game night that all these thoughts streamed through your mind. You watched as Alex sidled up to Lena during Trivial Pursuit. You watched as Lena laughed and momentarily placed her head on Alex’s shoulder. You wanted to be happy for them, but you were insanely jealous. You couldn’t focus on the game, which Kara definitely noticed.

“Hey, Y/N?” Kara asked. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure,” You said, absentmindedly.

“Everything okay?” James asked.

“Yeah,” Kara said quickly. “I just want to go over strategy for monopoly.” She grabbed your hand, dragging you to your feet and away from the group. 

“What’s really going on?” You asked. “I know you didn’t bring me over here to talk about strategy.”

“I could ask you the same thing. I see the way you look at Lena. You’re sitting there with heart eyes. Just ask her out.”

“I can’t.”

“Of course you can. There’s nothing stopping you.”

“Everything is stopping me. Alex likes her, too. Not to mention she’s an heiress who can buy an island with pocket change. I’m nobody, Kara. I grew up in nowhere Wyoming with nobody but my grandparents and not a penny to my name. I work as a waitress. I can barely afford my rent. I’m just not good enough for her.”

“That’s not true,” Kara said. “Lena doesn’t care about that.”

You stared past Kara where Alex and Lena were hugging. “But she cares about Alex. I’m not going to get between that.”

Alex and Lena made it official only a week after your conversation with Kara. 

They were dating. They were happy.

And you were not. 

As difficult as it was to accept that Lena was with Alex, you tried so hard to be happy for them. Eventually, you simply forced yourself to move on. You even started dating someone. She was great, but she wasn’t Lena. 

You didn’t have to worry about money or status with your girlfriend. She was on your level. You were equals. And she made you happy. Nothing was more important than that. 

Right?

Still, every time you spent time with Lena, your stomach dropped. There was still an ache to be with her that wouldn’t - that couldn’t ever be filled. It was difficult, but you hung out with her anyway. 

You were the last two at the bar one night. Alex had to be to work early the next morning and Kara had to rush off. But you and Lena decided to stay and drink out the night. Actually, Lena decided to drink out the night, you were still quite sober.

“You know,” Lena said. “You’re a great friend. You always stick by my side.”

“Thanks,” You said. “You’re a great friend, too, you know. I couldn’t ask for a better -”

“Friend? That’s the thing, Y/N. I never wanted to just be a friend.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at you. You’re so  … Pretty. With that hair and those - those eyes. And the cute little dimple.”

You weren’t sure how to respond, so you just let Lena continue. 

“You’re the best person in my entire life. I should be with you. Not with Alex.”

“Lena -”

“Shhh. You used to flirt with me, but then you just stopped. Why didn’t you make a move and ask me out? That’s all I ever wanted. Because you are just so pretty.”

“Lena,” You said again. “You’re drunk. We should get you home.” You blinked away the tears that threatened to fall from you eyes. Is that really how Lena felt? Had she just been waiting, hoping you would stand up and tell her your feelings? Did she not care about the differences between you two? Did she really like you more than she did Alex?

“I’m serious. You’re the one for me. I can feel it in my soul.”

You heaved a sigh. As much as you had been longing to hear Lena confess her love to you, this wasn’t right. You were both in relationships and she was very much drunk. You weren’t going to take advantage of her vulnerability. “Come on, Lena Luthor. I’ll call a cab and take you home. I think it’s time you go to bed.”

#Supergirl #Supergirlfics #Supergirl Fics #Supergirl Imagine #Supergirlimagines #Supergirl Imagines #Kara Danvers #Alex Danvers #Agent Danvers #Director Danvers #Lena Luthor

[filmcave]

Not the Same

There is an unusual battle going on right now in the world of cinema. But it also acts as a microcosm and sort of shard of a hologram for other battles happening.

Like every battle there plusses and minuses to each side and naturally the other side sees each other as a kind of threat.

At its core is a philosophical question: Does size matter? The Sophomoric and silly undertones of sexual innuendo aside in this question, it is entirely genuine.

When Louis and Auguste Lumiere screened the first public movie ever in 1895, at the Grand Cafe in Paris, certainly the size of the screen was not the fascination. How could it be? The magic of the moment was seeing flickering light and shadow images dancing on a plain surface transporting the audience to another place and time.

Employees leaving the Factory (in Lyon)

What an incredible moment and experience this mst have been for this audience. Even if they could not have sensed the economic and cultural impact, they were seeing something no one had publicly seen before.

The “moving pictures” were the attraction. The fascination, fear and amazement they felt must have been palpable. This was not an innovation in cinema, it was the creation of it!

From that point forward changes in the production, distribution, performance and experience of cinema are all that was left.

And we know that those changes have proliferated and in many cases advanced film. With the exception of one area - film analysis and discussion. This area has languished in the scrap heap of literary criticism. This is not to say people don’t have or choose not to 'advertise their opinions (far from it). As a conglomerate of disciples of film critics commentary has de-evolved and been reduced to a range of thoughts that can be best described as the binary “I liked it” / “I didn’t like it” dialectic. Yawn, how uninteresting.

When this is typically combined with a lack of understanding of that “that on the screen” came to be the discussion becomes an exercise in auto asphyxiation. Straining and stressing under the weight of its own limitations.

If we begin to look at the individual components of “how its made” we can chart a path towards understanding better the purpose and mission of the film. Most people depart the cinema soon after the final shot of the story. But even as they leave they are well aware there is a very long line of credits. In so e simple sense they probably understand that each one of those people played a role in the creation of that film. But a movie is Spam in a can, if it never gets shown.

This is the point where the evil genius of Netflix enters. Over the 120+ years that cinema has been made public. Many advancements in the movie going experience (and dubious ones) have been cauterized by a single ethic of the social contract. A movie goer needed to get off their fat ass and find their way to an actual physical theatre, buy a ticket and watch the movie in the temporary co-habitation with strangers.

At one point in time the cinemas who screened these films figuratively had a captive audience. There was one or two cinemas in town. They showed one movie for an entire week and then it was gone. Limited supply (number of seats, days and films) made for high demand. People dressed up and went in droves. The film studios owned the theaters, production equipment and the actors were “under contract”. It was an oligarchy of the wealthy. They had immense power and influence.

This power began to fade as independent distributors and cinemas began to crop up. Like in professional athletics actors became free agents where they could take their skills and reputations where they wished. Unions formed and the power dissipated. The website statista estimates the global film industry will be $50 billion dollars in 2020. Thats a pie a lot of people would like to stick their snout into.

Enter Netflix et al. Otherwise known as the Satans of Silicon Valley. Before I pontificate on SVS it might be helpful to philosophize on the question of what kind of value they bring to this world to begin with.

To begin with they are a society. An insulated, top down culture presided over by people with certain kinds of brilliant intellect and intelligence around a few extremely limited things. On top of this there is a self perception that is also pointed outwards as a marketing message cum “social good”. For them to see themselves as valuable parts of society at large they must perpetuate and proselytize this ethic/message. It is a nearly completely corrupt mentality especially devoid of emotional intelligence and a genuine sense of greater good. For many of the FANG stocks (a prescient acronym for Facebook, Apple (Amazon), Netflix, Google) the trick is to write some code, give it to a “user” for free and then have that user do all the work to build a successful revenue generating business. Its genius and entirely immoral. The users are the product, they develop and refine the product, allow a given company to take or steal their information which that company can then use to sell shit right back to them In the words of Karl Marx, the workers are the means of production AND the product.

Allthe company needs to do is continue to convince the users they need to keep working. They fo this by “engaging them” in things that touch in fears, dreams, hopes and deficiencies.

Ok, so a bit of a deviation here but the core point, relative to our topic of screen size, is to examine what value (if any) Netflix is bringing to the movie game.

Lets start with their motivation. First, middle and last Netflix is a growth and consumption machine. But if we look at the content they “recommend” it is created, design and directed to appeal to YOU. Their business wet dream is to have you intravenously fed chemically and neurologically customized euphoric content. Like the masses in The Matrix they need you to have a stable income and an all you can eat mentality. Why else would they continue to push new movies and episodes having them start before the last has finished.

So, how about the quality of said content. Well, financially speaking, they are agnostic on that. However, to steal your attention away from other content (including real life) they need to convince you its better.

This is where awards come to play. Any kind of award will do but of course when you’re talking about insatiable appetites, you’re talking the big awards. Golden Globes, Grammy’s, Oscars. And winners from the elite festivals. And when you’re taking in obscene amounts of cash, there’s lots to spend..and spend they do. For many years Amazon was a money losing venture. Not any more.

According to Statista Amazons Q4 revenue in 2018 was $72.38 billion

Apple - $62.9 B in the same period

Netflix - $4.19 B

Google - $33.7 B (reported for Q3 as parent company Alphabet)

Those four quarterly revenue streams combined (over $173 billionj is more than the annual GDP in Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire.

So, yeah...its all about the Benjamins

Right. So no surprise there. Its not illegal to make money.

But this is the kernal of the issue for chain cinemas. Netflix is taking revenue from them.

Lets look at the core matter regarding quality of work. At this point the poster chold for this is the astounding and impressive film: Roma.

Its is the brainchild of Alfonso Cuarón and it is making waves (if you’ve seen it this is a pun) because of the awards and recognition is has garnered but also by the way Netflix has accomplished it. They have a brilliant beautiful film on their hands the credit to which needs to firmly given to them. They are exploiting the opportunity to attract filmmakers by giving them broad artistic license and backing movies studios shy away from or don’t support due to a personal beef with the artists.

So far as this empowerment to the creators I say “good for you Netflix”. It is certainly their right to distribute it in whichever wsy and to the degree they wish. Its their toy. Obviously it gives them a monopoly in who sees it when its not in cinemas - their customers. This cultural shift might be upsetting or off putting to many for many reasons. But the notion of adopting technologies that already exist comes to mind.

Some credit does need to be accorded to Netflix. They fully funded the vision and sensibility of a Director, cast and crew and single handedly provided access to an extraordinary mvie to millions of people who might not otherwise have access to see it. Kudos.

However...

I first saw Roma on my large screen TV and loved it. I begrudgingly gave credit to Netflix for this coup. But...it haunted me and got me to thinking. The “what about” questions began to creep to my consciousness. It was too good and I wanted more. But the “tiny” 45” screen and schmaltzy TV speakers were incapable of delivering the full, Director intended experience.

But I was stuck. Netflix had cleverly rigged the game. To qualify for the Oscars, the film needed to be shown on a movie house screen in a minimum number of locations. Netflix complied - but barely.. And so, under carefully controlled limited release it was made available. But if you have the misfortune of not being close enough to a legitimate movie screen, you were out of luck. Nay, this lack of good fortune extended further when I learned there were a few 70 mm high definition sound copies out there.

For a cinephile, large screen format is nirvana. Seeing a movie conceived, shot and meant for a large screen is an experience irreplaceable. It can’t be recreated anywhere else.

So sticking this instant classic into a small screen is like telling a great writer they can only use half the alphabet. A musician half the notes. Or a chef food but no spices. Whats the point of trying?

If Netflix wishes to keep its toys to itself, so be it. But really how much farther do they think they have advanced cinema beyond Employees leaving the Factory. Not very far to me.

And watching an epic film like Roma on anything other screen than a large cinema screen, with stereo sound...not the same.

[starlitesymphony]

Novel Snippet #2

I was really tickled by your response to the first one (thanks again, you guys rock!) Here’s a much longer one, featuring grand-theft starship--and also some of Quin’s abilities. Space station security? No biggie!

You can read the blurb for Ark of the Timelost and the 1st snippet here.

@lady-redshield-writes, @ally-thorne, @toboldlywrite, @writeontheedge, @writerray, @hklunethewriter, @danceny, @loveiseldritch (please let me know if you’d like off the list--or on)

The shuttle hatch splits open and Maddox steps out like we’ve just arrived in Gallanthius’s Central Promenade. A loose swarm of people fill the cylinder-shaped concourse, emerging from and stepping into airlocks on all sides. The shuffling of footsteps is nearly louder than the sparse conversation. 

I stride after him, resolving to mimic his professional air. Every color of uniform streams around me. The occasional floral dress or casual top break up an otherwise very official crowd. All of them with hair cropped in a practical manner. All of them at least a head shorter than either of us.

|Not to worry,| Maddox messages. |Here, the more you stand out, the fewer questions they ask.|

I catch a few sideways glances in my periphery, but soon focus on his back and the art of walking casually. By now, security is watching, perhaps even following. I haven’t spotted anyone yet. I bet Maddox has, though.

It’s odd. All of these officers, all of these middle-aged and even elderly people, all of them traveling alone, with no apprentice in sight. I know the Imperian military is entirely unlike the Troika. But it still feels more foreign here than I thought it would. And they just seem…so old. Maddox is old, really old, but he doesn’t resemble them in the slightest.

We board a sterile trolley with a somber group in burgundy and silver. Their eyes are too busy with glinting cortex feeds to pay us much mind, other than sideways glances from two younger women with matching jeweled insignia on their neck scarves.

Almost everyone files into the hall on our first stop. Maddox and I move toward the front. Soon, after the next stop, we find ourselves alone, whisking along increasingly rusted and mossy tunnelways with only the occasional blocky hatch on either side. Moments of darkness pass where lights have broken. This may be a space station, but it feels like a derelict mine, left to decay long after its ores had been extracted.

|What is this place?| I tap. We couldn’t have missed our stop. Maybe we’re going to some forgotten security terminal.

|The Imperia has to keep its decommissioned starships somewhere, in case a new prisma deposit is discovered, although that particular hope is roughly six centuries dead.|

|Couldn’t they grow more ships, though? If more prisma was ever found.|

Maddox smiles darkly, and sighs. |Growing a fleet would take years. And imagine if a sizable prisma deposit was discovered. If the Imperia didn’t outright crumble, they would have multiple rebellions on their hands, across at least a dozen star systems. Hale would probably be first in line. The Imperia’s power lies more in its monopoly on prisma than anything else.|

|So when the Collective ordered the missile strike on Vassra’s base—when they called it preemptive—|

|They’ve been challenged by organized pirates before. Not in a long time, but they don’t want to take their chances, clearly.|

I glance at my feet, eager to change the subject but unable to stop thinking of Mother, and what if she’s somewhere in that base? Only a slim chance, Maddox said. But he could have been hiding the truth. He could have lied. He might know she’s there for sure, but would he even tell me?

No, no. This is no time for that. I’ll watch the windows, try to blank out my growing alarm.

Meanwhile, Maddox is a picture of tranquility. Perhaps weathering an internal storm, or as unworried as Ash accused him of being, there’s no way for me to know. As if the conversation I’d overheard never happened. He suspects his own mentor of betraying us, yet watches through the trolley’s spotless windows with resignation, eyes glinting blue.

We slow to a stop, and the doors slide open, almost tentatively, as if our transportation is having second thoughts about dropping us off in such a remote location. A wide platform awaits us when we step through. The tiles, arranged in what must’ve been a spectacular mosaic, lie chipped and fragmented and overgrown with moss and creeping vines. Lichen-speckled reliefs cover the walls. Towering statues guard the outer bulkhead. The Navigator, with her signature third eye, nothing but a blank divot where a sapphire should be. Beside her, the Mariner, the second-in-command who braved the first warp journey. Some of the gold leaf is still visible in her hair.

I crane back my head, gaze wandering up the length of the diamond bulkhead, taller than Ash’s shuttle.

Maddox slips back his sleeve and presses his seal against a corroded sensory bar. Low rumbling fills the tunnel as the trolley whisks away, leaving us in the glimmering light of a thousand pinpoints in the rafters. Broken glass twinkles along the base of the walls and at the feet of the deities. The picked-over remains of offerings from a thousand years ago.

Maddox pulls back from the bulkhead as a burst of stale air vents from the bottom. “Rather humbling, isn’t it? I wonder if they could’ve guessed that one day, it would be merely the two of us standing here, not even paying reverence.”

I nudge some pottery shards with my toe. “I think they would’ve been more appalled to see their holy site turned into a military base.”

Once the bulkhead grinds open enough for us to duck through, we emerge into a great cathedral of a vestibule, so overgrown with foliage that almost all of the lights have been blocked out. Orchids spring from defaced reliefs. Glass and wood and Mariner-knows-what-else crunch underfoot. A pile of brown bones lies off to the side of the next bulkhead. Animal, or…? Perhaps better not to look closely.

Another press of Maddox’s seal, and machinery protests and grinds far below. Like we’re breaking into an ancient crypt.

|This next passage is where I need you to wait. Find a place on the ceiling. You can’t interrupt me until I finish with the codes, so if anyone comes, it’s your job to neutralize them.|

We duck through into darkness. A rotten, nostril-burning stench washes over me. Insects…I hope insects…scuttle at my ankles, and the buzzing of flies makes a perfect compliment to the hideous smell. Luckily, it only takes a few moments for my olfactory system to recognize and block out the molecules. My visual feed ever-so-helpfully identifies their source. |Chupher’s corpseflower approx. 45 blooms detected.|

“If the whole ship is like this, we’re taking a different one,” Maddox grumbles.

I follow his faintly glowing outline. “It’s not so bad once the scent’s blocked.”

“I won’t have you breathing poison for the length of the trip. This ship’s environment must be severely unbalanced to allow an infestation like this.”

My eyes haven’t fully adjusted to the dark, only enough to show monochromatic foliage and the flat, gargantuan surface of the primary bulkhead. Maddox rips back a few vines to reveal a control array sitting cockeyed on a pedestal. He sinks his hands into ports on either side, with a lot more indifference than I’d be able to muster. Imagine how many insects have found their way to the tactile jelly within, if there’s even still enough to make a neural connection.

“Now,” he says, hands working tentatively, the glow of his skin intensifying. “I’ll be unresponsive for only a few minutes. Off you go.”

I glance up once more. I don’t see any movement, but…am I really going to stop and check for centipedes? Creepy-crawlies dart up my arms. I squeeze my hands into fists. What would Maddox would say if I told him I was more afraid of bugs than security guards? It’s not even a very good joke.

Shadowy armor tendrils rise from my shoulders and attach in the depths above. My senses expand with them—I feel the touch of warm dew, followed by the papery flick of leaves, and the squish of layered moss. Then, the rough stone lining the passage.

Once my nanoarmor has shooed all the insects away, I sail up into darkness, leaving Maddox staring resolutely ahead, eyes bright with data streams.

I anchor myself with a few tendrils from my calves and back and hang like an upside-down spider.

This chamber would have been a sort of inner sanctum, back in the Age of Pilgrimage. Starship captains weren’t just pilots. They were practically disciples, chosen to lead congregations in the Navigator’s footsteps. While the captain initiated boarding sequences, like Maddox is doing, the room would have been packed with the most privileged followers, chanting the same low, breathy prayers heard in cathedrals all over Imperian worlds.

The only ones doing any chanting now are toads croaking off in the far corner.

A message snaps through my visual feeds. It’s from Ash.

|Docked. A lot of shuttles just entered the tracks above us. No definite ID on them until their next orbit, but you should probably hurry.|

|That was quick,| I tap against the carbon black of a nanoarmor tendril.

|Yeah. And four security guards just got on the trolley, headed in your direction.|

My stomach jolts. Four of them? Why couldn’t it be just two? |Carrying plasma rifles, I suppose.|

|Didn’t look like it. No masks, either, so just put them to sleep. And yeah, you should really hurry.|

Tense, silent seconds tick by, stretching into minutes, or possibly years. My breath is perfectly measured but it makes no difference to my flailing thoughts. We already broke the law by leaving Gallanthius. Still, I hadn’t exactly planned on adding assault on Imperian security to my records, too. At least, not all in the same day.

Maddox’s eyes are still glazed when the soft whirring sound of the trolley echoes through the passage, followed by four sets of cautious footsteps. Judging by their disjointed movement, they’re carrying rifles of some kind, but not with much sense of authority.

A woman’s voice rings out. “Navigator’s breath, what is that smell? You there! Turn around. Now.”

She uses a surprisingly diplomatic tone, considering that Maddox’s silhouette must look taller than a willow tree, stillness matched by the stone in my armor’s grasp.

The guards shuffle into view, hefting ordinary projectile rifles. Bars of light blink from their meandering spotlights. They truly must have no idea who they’re dealing with. I’m going to keep it that way. They’ve only seen Maddox’s back so far.

With the ease of a thought, my hair twists into a web of armor tendrils and whips out to a new anchor point. I slip silently into position just above the guards’ heads.

The woman speaks up again. “Sir, we would be happy to escort you to the proper concourse. We just need to scan your military seal and we can all be on our way. Turn around, please.”

My visual feeds light up with new information from my armor. |Mapping scent receptors of (4) individuals—Grade 6 tranquilizer available—(3) seconds for Grade 7 availability.|

“Shh. Look at him. He hasn’t moved.” A male voice this time, a bit shaky. “He’s locked into boarding sequences.”

“Boarding sequences?” the woman scoffs. “For what? One of these old heaps? Come on.”

“No, but look.” One of the spotlights settles on Maddox’s back. I focus on the four helmeted heads below. I extend my hand, nanoarmor tendrils trailing from each fingertip, obsidian points sharpening to microscopic needles.

At last, all four of them exhale at the same time.

Armor tendrils dart beneath their nostrils, release a puff of odorless tranquilizer, and whisk back into my hand in the space of a blink. Even grade seven takes a few seconds to knock someone out. Hopefully, with their adrenals rushing as they are, it’ll work faster this time.

“You smell something dead, madam?” It’s the male voice again, hitching on some of the consonants, slurring almost imperceptibly on the m’s.

“How many times do I have to tell you, call me Sergeant Nathine.”  She takes a few determined steps forward, only to stumble on a broken tile and pitch forward with gurgling growl.

“What’s the matter with all of you?” she mutters, and passes out on a rough-looking root mass.

The other three crumple down without another coherent word. Pulses beat steadily in my visual feed, and their brain waves fluctuate rapidly toward REM sleep. Those will be some interesting dreams.

I lower myself to the ground and withdraw my armor, returning skin and uniform to their usual appearance, and pause to straighten the hem of my jacket. I glance over the security guards, reduced to a sullen, humiliated heap in this dank cell of a boarding passage. It’s not like I killed them, but a knot grows in my chest anyway.

It’s not like I even harmed them. Even so, I, a Troika, laid hands on Imperian guards, sort of. Will that get me a mere wrist-slap when all of this is over? Or will Maddox insist on taking the blame, for this and everything else?

“Quin.”

I whirl around. Maddox pulls his hands loose from the control array, and gives them a firm shake. He nods toward the bulkhead, which hasn’t so much as budged. “We have to move quickly now. I’ve received a message from Aneke.”

Clicks and whirs of machinery grumble far below us. My ankles vibrate with the first groans from the overgrown bulkhead. I wait for him to continue, but he merely tucks away his hands and stares ahead with a thoughtful tilt of his head.

“Let me guess.” I hug my arms to my chest. The bulkhead ticks unenthusiastically upwards. “Aneke does not approve.”

“Worse.” He grits his teeth a moment before continuing. “She’s been sent to convince us to cease and desist. And she’s in orbit now.”

He crouches beside the bulkhead, watching the gap widen. Crystalline black nanoarmor glints at his brow and temples, and licks out from his fingertips when he touches the ground.

“Our only chance is to outrun her,” he says, with typical finality.

“But you were her apprentice. Ash, too. Would she really stand against you? She can be a bit cross at times, but I don’t think—”

“Forgive me, Quin,” Maddox interrupts, tone dropping low, “but you don’t know the first thing about Aneke. She’s going to stop us, if she can. She has no other choice.”

He slides his arm under the bulkhead, pokes and prods with a narrow-eyed glare, and sinks into a shadowy black pool before vanishing altogether through the narrow opening.

I kick out at an upturned tile. It breaks off with a crack. If he’d only tell me. The truth about himself, his mentor, anything, ever.

“Are you still coming?” Maddox calls.

“Well, yes—”

“Then get in here, because we have to run. Hurry!”

I drop flat and jam my way through the opening, teeth clenched all the while.

((Thank you so much for reading!!))

#my novel #looong snippet more like excerpt #writing science fiction #writeblr #my ocs #trying to share a bit more instead of sidelining lol

[musingsofonehuman]

I didn’t want to write about Epic and Apple, I didn’t, but it just made me so angry I had to write something.

Very briefly, for those that haven’t heard, Epic introduced cheaper microtransactions (mtx) within Fortnite to circumvent the 30% cut that Apple take, they introduced these new mtx across all platforms, including iOS, and Apple weren’t happy about it, so they removed Fortnite from the iOS store. In response, Epic filed a lawsuit, not seeking any damages but seeking to change the “anti-competitive restrictions” and posted a video similar to Apple’s 1984 video against IBM. Fortnite has also been taken off the Google Play Store and Epic are also suing them, however this seems to be a battle against Epic and Apple, so let’s just focus on those two.

I hate this, just this whole situation overall, it just stinks of money, because that’s all this so about in the end, it’s about money, Epic aren’t happy that they’re not getting enough money from Apple and so are trying to change it, and while they are “fighting to change restrictions”, the real game here is Epic want a piece of mobile, they even state it in their own lawsuit.

But for Apple’s illegal restraints, Epic would provide a competing app store on iOS devices, which would allow iOS users to download apps in an innovative, curated store and would provide users the choice to use Epic’s or another third-party’s in-app payment processing tool.

The Epic Games Mobile Store, that’s the end goal, Epic are not only seeking to take away from Apple’s cut from Fortnite, they’re also seeking to take away Apple’s cut altogether. Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games, even stated it in a tweet.

Truly, Apple has no right to take any percent of any company’s revenue just because they made the phone people use to access the stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I can understand why Epic are furious, it is annoying that Apple lock down their phones and tablets and then charge 30% just for the privilege of putting an app on their devices, as well as abiding by their rules. I use Apple devices, and I’m annoyed that I won’t be able to access xCloud streaming through them, so much so that I might switch to Android. And yet, isn’t this the same with all tech companies? Don’t all tech companies charge to put things on their platform? Look at that statement from Tim Sweeney again, that statement could easily read:

Truly, Epic has no right to take any percent of any company’s revenue just because they made the software people use to access the stuff.

Yes, Twitter is not the best place to have a discussion, and that statement is overly simplified, but the point still stands. Every tech company charges to be on their platform, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all do the same, why aren’t they being targeted? I wear a Fitbit, that doesn’t mean I have the right to put whatever I want on that Fitbit. Epic are no different, they pay for exclusives on their platform, with suggestions that they don’t want games on their platform if they’re not exclusive, and they take a cut of every sale, a smaller cut, but it’s still a cut. This isn’t just an Apple or Google problem, it’s a problem across the entire tech industry, it’s how the tech industry has been built, if Epic truly cared about “anti-competitive restrictions”, they would open up their platform and go after the entire industry, but no, the real aim here is to get Epic on mobile and take a piece of the mobile pie.

Besides, how is this any different from PCs? “Smartphones are everywhere, they’re universal”. Yeah, and so are PCs, and yet companies try to lock that platform down every day with their software, just because it’s a universal platform doesn’t stop companies from trying to gain dominance. It’s all a bit ridiculous, but that’s not the main point I wanna talk about, I wanna talk about the video Epic put out.

The video in question is a parody of Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial, where they showcased themselves as underdogs against IBM, fighting against the oppressive system by throwing a sledgehammer through a giant screen, telling people that 1984 wouldn’t be like “1984”, the George Orwell novel. Epic’s take on it is pretty much the same, only done in Fortnite, but at the end, there’s a quote.

Epic Games has defied the App Store Monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices. Join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming “1984”. #FreeFortnite

This is disgusting, Epic is essentially using the audience of Fortnite to help them win a corporate battle, most of this audience consists of young children who can be easily influenced, which is what Epic are probably betting on. This is sickening, we all remember what happened during GamerGate, and still happens to this day, death threats, rape threats, attacks on people for no good reason, all because “gamers are angry” and “don’t want politics in their games”. Now, Epic is looking to use that same audience to help bring Apple down, which for the record, won’t make any difference, Apple are far too big to fall to a bunch of “gamers” complaining about Fortnite, this is purely a publicity stunt. However, I would like to move away from Epic and Apple for a bit and talk about self expression.

Self expression is when you express yourself as an individual, be it through music, dance, art, fashion or any other creative form, it’s something I’m currently going through, it’s why I started this blog, I find it’s a good way to express myself, I’ve still got a way to go, and it’s taken me a long time, but I am slowly finding myself as an individual, and I think we all should be. Self expression is what makes us human, we are all individuals with our own way of thinking, our own behaviours, our own passions, and we should be allowed to express those, that’s what makes us individuals. Why should we listen to other people or companies about what we should do, how we should behave, what we should wear, we should be allowed to make out own free choices. Obviously, practice self expression within the rules of the law, don’t go rob a bank or murder someone because of self expression, that’s not cool, I’m talking about wearing the clothes you want to wear, listening to the music you want to listen to, being who you want to be.

I hate when influential people have names for their communities, like Lady Gaga’s “little monsters” or Taylor Swift’s “swifties”. The problem is if you start calling yourself one of those names, it becomes part of your identity, it becomes part of who you are. Let’s say someone insults Taylor Swift and they say “Oh Taylor Swift is rubbish, she doesn’t make good music and doesn’t dress right”. As a “swiftie”, you feel personally attacked, because part of your identity is being attacked, and so you retaliate in response. Why? Why do you feel the need to retaliate? Why do you feel the need to give yourself a tag or identify with someone else?

You can enjoy someone’s music, you can say you like someone’s music, but you don’t have to identify as one of their fans if you don’t want to, but then someone might say in response “Oh, you don’t love her music? Are you not a true swiftie?” You don’t need to be a “swiftie” in the first place, just enjoy the music and the artist, it’s the same with any influential person, enjoy what they do, don’t identify with them though, if you wanna do that, if you’re happy to identify as a fan then fine, I’m not gonna stop you, but ask yourself, is this truly making you happy? Or are you simply identifying yourself with this brand because you haven’t found your own identity yet? It’s ok if you haven’t, it took me years to find mine, and it will probably change over my lifetime, but that’s ok, because that’s what makes us human, we evolve and change over time, our priorities become different and so do our passions, it’s ok to change if you’re not happy with who you are.

I also understand the argument against this, people will tell me “Well that’s pretty selfish, looking out for yourself but not looking out for others, so you don’t care about others then? You only care about yourself. Are you just a selfish person then? Is that it?”. I get it, I get the argument, but I’d like to pose this question in response. How can you criticise other people when you can’t criticise yourself? How can you judge others when you can’t judge yourself? If you can’t love yourself, how can you love others? Yes, it’s a selfish way of looking at things, but you have to put yourself first, because in the end, you have to learn to be comfortable with who you are. You can’t just ditch your body, this isn’t a game where you can go into the character creator and change who you are, you are who you are, you need to accept that, it won’t be easy and it will take time, but if you can learn to love who you are as an individual, you can learn to love others are they are. Learning self expression can help with that, just try it sometime, please.

To wrap all of this back into the Epic/Apple situation, you can play Fortnite, you can enjoy Fortnite, but don’t feel like you have to defend it, don’t let it define who you are, you are an individual who can make their own decisions, if you want to weigh in on all this, then fine, but these are giant corporations which have more than enough money to throw at all of this, this is a corporate battle all about money, don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. Now, go practice some self expression, step away for a bit and think about who you want to be, about what makes you happy, just try it, please.

#gaming #music #technology #epic games #apple #google #fortnite #selfexpression #freefortnite

[crumblingautumnleaves]

Too Far

Requested by: Anonymous

Summary: The boys unintentionally hurt the reader’s feelings after making some careless jokes.

Pairing(s): MET x Reader

Warnings: Swearing, a lil bit of angst but ultimately a happy ending (spoilers).

“What would grandma find disturbing, yet oddly charming?” Mark asked the three of you, waggling his eyebrows in a comical manner.

You scanned your cards before sliding your best into the centre along with Ethan’s and Tyler’s. Kathryn was watching from the sidelines, desperate to get some extra work done, whilst Amy was in bed ill. That just left you and the troublesome trio to record the entire live stream; not that you were complaining, they were your best friends after all.

“Okay,” Mark announced, picking up the cards in front of him. “A big, black dick. Geese. Or...” He trailed off and you suppressed a smirk as you watched his face scrunch into a grin at your card. “Mark’s unquenchable thirst for Jacksepticeye’s delicious asshole.”

The boys roared with laughter and, in turn, you laughed at their reactions. Mark had one hand clutched to his chest as he tried to control his giggles, whilst Ethan was slamming his fists on the table. Even Tyler had one of those rare, toothy smiles on his face as he chuckled alongside them.

“That’s obviously the winner.” Mark managed to get out after his laughing fit, holding up the card for someone to take it.

“Thank you, although it was Mark-luverrr-number-one-xxx that wrote that card.” You declared, plucking the black card from his fingers and adding it to your growing pile of winnings.

“Your turn to pick one, Y/N.” Tyler told you, pushing the cards across to you.

You chose another fan written one and groaned. “What does Y/N do to stay in shape?”

“Y/N? In shape? Please, I saw them get a stitch from running down the stairs too fast.” Ethan laughed and you playfully hit him on the shoulder.

“Just gimme a card so I can judge it.” You nagged him and he stuck his tongue out in retaliation, finally handing you a white card. Tyler and Mark played theirs and you spread them out in front of you. “Ethan’s dying YouTube career. Vigorous jazz hands. Or projectile vomiting.” You studied the cards before picking the ‘Vigorous jazz hands’ card and handing it back to Ethan.

“Yay, I won!” He hollered. “Although I didn’t appreciate the dig at my channel.”

“Ethan, you have three hundred thousand subscribers. That’s great, man.” Mark reassured him, placing a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “And only about ninety percent of them came from me, be proud.”

“You fucker.”

“Ethan’s right,” Tyler cut in. “He got a few from Jack too.”

“At least I have a real channel, Tyler.” Ethan shot back. “Go on, what else were you gonna mock me for? My acne? The fact that I’m copying every major YouTuber ever? That I moved from Maine to work here?”

The other two boys sat in silence, trying to think of something else to say.

“It could be worse,” Mark said after a while. “You could be Y/N. How many subs have you got, Y/N?”

“Forty thousand.” You grumbled. YouTube was always a sensitive topic between you three, the amount of subs you had compared to your best friends was slightly insulting and you kept finding yourself wondering why your channel was so much more insignificant.

“Now, aren’t you grateful that Mama Mark got you so many subscribers?” Mark asked Ethan.

“I’m clearly not the one who needs help.” Ethan remarked, nodding towards you.

“You’re right!” Mark cried, facing the camera that had been rolling the entire time. “Whoever is watching this, go subscribe to Y/N, they’re not that bad at making videos. Well, they are, but their ideas are original. Expect the gaming, the commentary and the overall theme of it. But yeah, check it out.”

“Gee, thanks Mark.” You mutter sarcastically, trying and failing not to take it personally.

“Sorry, that was uncalled for.” He admitted. “I didn’t mean to insult your channel.”

“Right, he was just wondering why he’s friends with you when you don’t get him extra views.” Tyler joked.

“Exactly. Why do you think Ethan hangs out with me?” Mark agreed, nudging the blue-haired boy playfully.

“Go ahead, you’ve made so many jokes about my career and acne that I’m immune to it.” He challenged.

“Crap, he’s right.” Mark said. “But if we really want to make jokes about physical appearance then we can just rip on Y/N again. Their whole face is one big joke.”

Shock consumed you as you struggled to blink back the tears that were fighting to escape. You couldn’t believe that one of your closest friends had gone there, especially after you had confided in him about your insecurities.

“What’s wrong, Y/N? The weight of reality finally setting in?” Tyler asked, commenting on your silence.

“Dude, not even the weight of reality can compare to Y/N’s weight.” Ethan laughed.

That did it.

“Excuse me,” you whispered, standing up and practically running out of the room. You covered your face with one hand so that neither the camera nor the boys saw the tears flowing down your cheeks.

Locking yourself in the bathroom, you let out a loud sob that triggered several more until your throat hurt and your eyes stung. You glared at yourself in the mirror, scrutinising every part of yourself that you hated. Finally, you wiped away any traces of tears and took a deep breath before exiting the bathroom. However, you got the wind knocked out of you when you immediately walked into something solid on the other side of the door. Looking up, you realised you had crashed straight into Tyler’s chest as he and the other two stood waiting for you with concerned looks on their faces.

“Hey, Y/N, you okay?” Ethan asked softly.

“We wanted to check on you but decided to wait until you were finished in there to apologise.” Tyler added.

You glared at them, hurt sketched across your features. Mark stepped forwards slowly and wrapped his arms around you cautiously, as if you could shatter like glass at any second.

“I’m really sorry about what I said,” he apologised. “We all are. We realise we shouldn’t have made fun of you, even if it was just a joke. It was tactless and we want to make it up to you.”

“You know, I normally wouldn’t care if you make jokes about me,” you admitted. “But what you said is true. I’m constantly afraid that you’re going to cut me out because I’m not as successful as you. And what you said about my looks, well, that just hurt.”

“Are you kidding? Y/N you’re our friend, we couldn’t care less about how many subscribers you have.” Mark reassured you. “And as for your looks, you’re the only one that sees anything besides the smoking hot piece of ass you really are.” He paused before grimacing at what he had just said. “I kinda regret saying that, but you see my point.”

“Thanks, guys,” you mumbled, a small smile tugging at your lips. “I’m sorry I left in the middle of the live stream.”

“Don’t worry about it, you are our main priority. We turned the microphone off as soon as you walked out. Right now it’s just showing Chica sleeping in her bed, the viewers love it.” Tyler told you with a grin.

“So do you want to continue with the stream or should we wrap it up?” Ethan queried.

“No, let’s carry on. I’ll be fine.” You told them, walking back to the table and scratching Chica behind the ears as she woke up from the commotion.

Mark switched the mic back on and apologised for the brief intermission before explaining that you were okay and everything had been resolved.

“And I just want to say in all seriousness that you should check out their channel. I have never known anyone more dedicated to their work, or as passionate about the community as Y/N. We’re all extremely grateful to have them in our lives.” He concluded.

You beamed at him, silently thanking him, before announcing that you should get back to the games.

A few hours later, you had quite possibly destroyed your friendship with the boys in Monopoly as you counted their money and stacked it into neat little piles.

“This is ridiculous, Y/N has all the good spots.” Ethan whined after landing on your square again.

“What can I say? Taking money from men is my speciality.” You say with a smile.

“That makes you sound like a hooker.” Mark laughed.

“Nah, hookers can get laid.” Tyler joked with a wink, resulting in a rude response from you as you struggled to hide the smile that had formed on your face.

“And there goes the last of my cash.” Ethan grumbled.

"Dolla dolla bills, y'all." You cheer, making it rain with their money. “I win, bitches.”

“Congratulations,” Mark drawled. His phone buzzed and he read the notification on the screen. “It’s Amy, she says to check your YouTube account.”

You frown before pulling it up on your own mobile. Everything looked normal except... wait.

“Holy shit!” You cried, clapping a hand over your mouth in shock.

“What is it?” Tyler feigned ignorance, but the smirk on his face suggested he already knew what was going on.

“Four hundred THOUSAND subscribers! I have four hundred thousand subscribers!” You screamed, grabbing the boys and pulling them into a group hug.

“You have more than me? Ouch, that hurts.” Ethan joked, holding a hand to his heart.

“Shut up, Ethan.” Mark scolded, turning back to you. “You deserve every single one of those subs and more. I just wish it didn’t take all this for people to figure that out. Including us.”

You beamed at him, tears springing to your eyes again, only this time you were crying for a different reason. “Thank you, I love you three idiots so much.” You told them. “But just so you know, once I’m Internet famous, I’ll have no use for you.”

“Ouch.”

“Rude.”

“So true though.”

#met x reader #x reader #youtube x reader #crankgameplays x reader #ethan nestor #ethan nestor x reader #tyler scheid x reader #Tyler Scheid #apocalypto_12 #markiplier x reader #mark fischbach x reader #mark fischbach

[deborah-kim-blog]

Sequoia Camping Trip 2017

August 23 - August 25, 2017

Daniel invited Christiana, me, and his best friend, Frank, to go camping for two nights and three days in Sequoia.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

We dropped Dena off at Union Station at 5:30 in the morning, and slept from 6:30 to 7:30, until Daniel and Frank arrived at Christiana’s (an hour later than planned due to traffic D:). After hours of driving, we first stopped by the General Sherman Tree (the largest tree in the world :O) and took some pictures (the tree was so big, we had to take the pic using the panorama mode but up and down and not left to right lol). 

Then, we finally arrived at Lodgepole in Sequoia. While we were unpacking, we noticed some thundering sounds and gray clouds above the mountain to the right of us…  And less than an hour later, when we were seated around the not-yet-lit campfire, we noticed the clouds drawing nearer and nearer. Then, Daniel screamed as he felt the first drop, which made us get up and start shoving everything inside our tent, bear box, and car. So we spent the next hour and a half of rain in our tent resting, and playing Bananagrams and Monopoly Deal. It was actually a pretty nice experience listening to the rain fall on our tent hehe. 

Once the rain stopped, we went outside to prep our gogi partyyy (samgyupsal and chadol). We were actually supposed to have the gogi party on our last night at Sequoia, but we realized the meat would spoil unless we get a bunch of ice for the entire day while we were out hiking the next day. So good thing Daniel and Frank thought about that. :) So the guys ended up cooking the meat and serving us hoho. That was very nice of them. :) 

After dinner, we ended our night with some campfire time, making s'mores and conversations. Christiana even made a molarmellow #직업병 HAHA 

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Christiana and I woke up to a campfire and a breakfast already prepared by the guys, who woke up an hour in advance (thank you!!). Then, we got ready to go hiking! We found a parking spot super easily and started the hike up the Hump Trail. 

Omg. This trail was hard af. It took us three hours just to go up. And on the way, the guys (who know their way around here) kept saying, “We’re almost there!” Turns out, we were "almost there" TWO hours later ! -o- lol 

But wow I’ve never seen this much plants in one place. It was so beautifulll. 

This pic was taken on the way down, but it was so shady because there were so many tall trees. 

We took many many needed breaks on the way up because it was exhausting. Thankfully, I didn’t feel like I was going to faint (how I usually feel when I go hiking). BUT I was very very tired (heart racing and out of breath). 

But the view once we got there was amazing. The pictures don’t do justice, but man… It was so so so pretty.

After taking the beauty in and lots and lots of pictures, we made our way down towards the lake. 

Here, we (the guys lol) put the fishing gear together to try to catch some fish! Sadly, my fishing line kept getting tangled, and at the end of the day, Christiana and I did not catch one fish… D: Daniel and Frank, on the other hand, caught a whole bunch… no fair… We didn’t eat the fish we caught or anything though. The guys just released them back into the water. One of the fish that Frank tried to release actually turned into a sad story: 

So he caught a fish and then removed the hook to throw it back into the lake. So he chucked it towards the water, and then BAM! it slams into a huge boulder and lands in the dirt… So by this time, we were all O.O / :O, and Frank makes his way down to the dirt where the fish landed, picks it back up, and actually throws it into the water this time. And then… the poor thing just floated back up to the surface… T.T So sad. :(

So yeah… After some fishing, we made chicken sandwiches and PB&J for lunch and then tried to fish some more. 

Then, around 3:30, we headed down the mountain after taking this picture. 

We took the Watchtower Trail going down because Daniel and Frank knew that this trail had a crazy view (like going down, there was a crazy view). A good chunk of the top half of the mountain, we were walking on a ledge. O.O

This was preeeetty thrilling. hoho 

Poor Christiana and Daniel were getting pretty nervous. >< 

So while going down this scary part of the mountain, we came across this cliff-looking thing that one of Daniel and Frank’s friend supposedly climbed up. 

So Frank wanted to try it himself too, and I decided to follow because when will I ever climb up to the end of a cliff, you know? But Daniel and Christiana decided to stay behind and take pictures of us once we reach the edge of the cliff. Unfortunately, the thing was impossible to climb up because the path was extremely narrow and too risky try to go passed that tree sticking up in the middle of the ledge. So we just sat as close to the cliff thing as possible and snapped a pic there. haha

So the place Frank and I were sitting on was actually not too scary because it was wide and had places for us to sit. So Daniel and Christiana joined us! :D Look at us livin’ life on the edge. hehe

After spending a lot of time taking pictures going down the mountain, we continued our way back down the mountain, through the foresty part again. This time, I think we only took two to three breaks because it was so much easier going down. But towards the end, we were very very tired for we had a looong day… When we had around thirty minutes left, Daniel shouted, “Car!” as in, “We’re almost there because I see the parking lot!” But when we approached it, it turned out to be a huge white boulder…! L O L. It was so sad but so funny haha. So eventually, we reached the bottom of the mountain two and a half hours after we left the lake (so this includes our two breaks and the many many picture breaks we took lol). 

For dinner, we each had two hot dogs: one pineapple sausage and one spicy sausage. We even added grilled onions and garlic from the gogi party. It was a good thing we had the gogi party the night before because we were super tired. The hot dogs were so much simpler to make and eat haha. 

And the rest of the night was just cleaning up and more eating. We had the campfire going again, and we ate some corn, goguma, and s’mores. 

Friday, August 25, 2017

The next morning, I got up at 6:30 because it was cold + I was uncomfortable sleeping on the ground + I was paranoid about leaking since my time of the freaking month started Wednesday night in Sequoia -_-. So I washed up and everything and just waited on the bench outside because I didn’t want to wake the guys up since they were sleeping towards the side of the door. Then around 8:30, I hear the tent zipper unzip, followed by a loudass fart. Of course, it’s Daniel, who has been ripping farts with no shame the entire trip lmao. So he started a fire as soon as he woke up, and the first thing I ate that morning was a giant marshmallowwww hoho. 

So once everyone woke up, we ate the leftovers for breakfast and packed the car. We then walked over to a lake across the street from our campsite. That was pretty niceee. 

By the time it was time for us to check out, we finished up our games of horseshoe and made sure everything was in the car. 

On the way down, we stopped by Moro Rock and some more giant trees. 

Turns out this Moro “Rock” was a 20-minute climb up. -_- lol Man… my legs were burning…  

They should seriously rename it as Moro Mountain… This is a pic I took of Moro “Rock” on the way home:

But in the end, the view was amazinggg haha 

After we made our way back down from Moro “Rock,” we visited some more giant trees.

A giant fallen tree:

The side of the giant fallen tree:

The bottom side of the giant fallen tree:

In front of a giant, mushy tree:

And thennnn we made our way back to LA with just one stop and concluded our trip with BCD. 

 ————————————————————————

Twas a very very fun and exciting camping trip! Although I was disappointed that I didn’t see any bears or catch any fish, it was exciting since there was a lot of firsts for me - first time camping (not glamping lol), first time learning how to cast a fishing rod, first time playing horseshoe, first time hiking for three hours and not feeling like fainting, and first time seeing and admiring the beauty of nature (trees, mountains, sky FULL of stars, sight and sound of lakes/streams), I never realized how much I loved the beauty of nature. I always thought trees were trees and mountains were mountains, but mannn. Nature is so beautiful! lol

Thanks Daniel for planning and inviting me to this awesome camping trip to Sequoiaaaa.

#personal