my first ever animatic, I'm not sure what demon possessed me to make this within a week but I ain't complaining!

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numerous issues with “The Aftermath of Seaworld”

When I get time to do so (aka when I’m done with the documentary), I’m likely going to make a video version of this going into the details. 

But for right now, I’ve made this. Both as a guideline for me and so everyone can begin to get an idea of the severity of issues involved.

Researching things is time-consuming and can be very difficult - believe me, I know. But I’m of the mind that if you’re making content with the intent of educating people, you have a responsibility to perform a certain level of due diligence. It IS okay to express uncertainty or doubt if you have it. It is NOT okay to confidently assert things that you do not know with certainty.

The video has an anticap slant, and I’m obviously not disagreeing on that front. But again: if you’re gonna go through the trouble of teaching people something. Bare minimum... please make sure it’s actually correct. *** 1) x ‘founded in 1964 and based out of Florida’ -  ???? Seaworld definitively began on the west coast, in San Diego, CA. And given that the first park opened in early 1964… things came together before that. Uh? 2) x ‘four people founded Seaworld [...]’ For one… it wasn’t originally conceived as a restaurant, it was originally conceived as an underwater bar/lounge. Two… calling the four guys involved in founding the place “frat brothers” is fucking ridiculous and completely overlooks a) how each was actually involved and b) the overall significance of their contributions to the field as individuals. Hint: like it or not, they were important and did a lot! 

3) x If one is going to bring up SWBGCF/rescues while talking about the literal founding of SW, it gives the impression that it’s been around for that duration. It hasn’t.  It’s actually a bit unclear when SW started an organized rescue program, but the Fund itself and all that it did came about much later. The rescue information and how it’s presented is actually INCREDIBLY complex, nuanced, and has a fascinating history (from a “bad company behaving badly” perspective). Oversimplifying this, to this degree and in this misinformative way, does the facts of the situation an INCREDIBLE disservice.  

4) x [assertive statement about what the name Shamu means]  ….Uh actually there’s several explanations for the name Shamu, and the most likely one IMO seems to be the “she-namu” one, not the “friend of Namu” one(? What is this even based on.) 4b) It’s not quite clear if she’s saying “Namu was the first ever orca to be displayed and perform shows” or or Namu was the first to be displayed and, like Shamu, performed shows. Either way, Moby Doll was the first to truly be displayed to the public, not Namu.

5) x ‘Namu died after one year in captivity and you’d think that this might deter Seaworld from doing the same thing again…’ Seaworld truly had nothing to do with Namu. And they leased/took possession of Shamu before Namu died. ‘Again’? What?

6) x “Now, PETA paints a pretty disturbing picture…” [while showing Okura’s artwork] This video segment is, and this is putting it nicely, a pile of poorly-researched BULLSHIT.  -Yes, PETA talks about Shamu’s capture, re: the harpooning of her mother. This Youtuber cannot apparently be arsed to look more than 1 Google search into this, as she proceeds to dismiss the information as potentially fabricated. There are two detailed accounts of Shamu’s capture that I’m aware of - in books - and though they have some slight conflicts, it’s absolutely NOT in doubt that the female who was very likely Shamu’s mother was 1) harpooned, 2) died from her injuries and 3) this had been done to make her easier to catch/locate because there was a fucking buoy attached to the harpoon. Which she dragged around for at least 24 hours prior dying.  So maybe don’t dismiss that as PETA hysteria, maybe TRY to determine the truth of the matter, which would inform one that it is both true and completely horrifying.  -In addition, Okura is an awesome individual who has worked very hard to create a variety of informative artwork for our cause. Okura is NOT associated with PETA and it’s borderline libel in my eyes to use their artwork in this dismissive manner when the primary sources of it can be easily identified online, with full explanations and everything. Do I take special offense to this because of the misuse of artwork? Absolutely. Artists get disrespected enough online. I’m tired of it. This kind of laziness IS NOT acceptable.

7) x ‘timeline is fuzzy about when Shamu died’ …………… it’s…. It’s really not … newspapers are pretty clear about it…..

8) x [complete and utter oversimplification of the lifespan issue, which is not acceptable for anything published in 2020. It just isn’t. If you’re going to bring it up like this, either do the legwork and get into the weeds or stay out.] 8b) [same for reproductive ages. sigh]

9) x if we’re going to talk about when Cornell was involved with Seaworld it’s very important to specify when Cornell was involved with Seaworld and not make it seem like it’s present tense.

10) x “both were rescued by Seaworld” - uh? no. Zero orcas have been rescued by Seaworld. Literally none. The infected-jaw orca was Sandy, whose story is complex and certainly does not involve Seaworld until much later. And many of the orcas in that time period had bullet wounds, often only identified post-mortem because they didn’t seem to hurt the animals much. Also, unflinchingly blending 70s captivity ethics with modern ones is also complete nonsense? 

11) x [tilikum coming from sealand] inhales I am going to make an entire video centered on this fucking subject because it’s one of the single most profound arguments for Seaworld being garbage as assessed by US government agencies in the 90s yet everyone utterly fails to mention this. Why?!

12) x what on earth is this nonsense re: quoting a quote from Zimmerman’s article - which has already been removed from its original context, so the original context is not available - and then penalizing the quote for existing as if Zimmerman’s article were the context? That is offensively disingenuous. I honestly don’t know what the original context is, either - but it’s wildly inappropriate to act as if the Zimmerman article is.

13) x this is relatively minor but ‘Paul Sprong’? You literally have his name on the screen. And then mis-reading his age too? While asserting it from a static article published years ago? Effort? Where is it?

14) x ‘another trainer, Peter’ ….. Ken Peters…. 

15) [weirdly glossing over the widely-available list of orca-trainer injuries/aggressions, despite it being central to the point.] 16) x This pilot whale outrage certainly happened but it was pretty clearly Blackfish that started the cascade of woes for Seaworld. Who has ever asserted this?

17) if you’re gonna just rehash blackfish, tell people to go watch blackfish.

18) x I’ve already gone over the context issue with Seaworld calling out Howard’s statement in Blackfish here (point 23). Which is to say, IN CONTEXT in Blackfish it’s clear what Mr. Garrett is talking about but, divorced from that, it sounds incorrect. But this Youtuber AMPLIFIES the issue by doubling down on the assertion with “no record of a killer whale doing any harm to anyone in the wild.” The surfer event should always be mentioned. Yes, there’s absolutely room for doubt. But there’s also a clear demarcation between an accidental attack (eg mistaken identity, as was likely for the surfer) and intentional one (eg the incidents at marine parks.) Why do people kneecap themselves on this point 18b) please stop acting like Luna represents orcas in general.

19) x “Howard, for all of his research…” … while referring to David Duffus’ b-roll and statements. Uh. 20) x Apparently this Youtuber has single-handedly resolved the dorsal fin issue. You know, the thing that hasn’t been properly researched ever, that has been subject to a ton of debate, that isn’t 100% settled for a variety of reasons, and almost everyone talks about in terms of theories and likely possibilities.  21) x Alexis Martinez wasn’t “torn to shreds.” In a space where even moderate exaggerations are often penalized harshly by the opposition, this kind of blatant nonsense is not welcome. Plus, the reality’s bad enough… you don’t have to make anything up!

22) x *sighs. points at own webpage*

23) Talking about the shows stopping without acknowledging how that’s a bit of a farce is something else. In addition to apparently just flipping to buying what Seaworld’s selling re: its ‘improved image.’ 

*** Tl;dr video is so unrelentingly full of errors ranging from small to egregious it makes me seriously concerned for the veracity of the rest of this person’s content. The maker of the video provided a list of their sources in their video description, which I will have time to look through in detail later. The above is solely a response to the information they present IN THE VIDEO - which, is very important because let’s be real: a lot of people are not going to look at the list of sources. People don’t even do it when citing papers (no really, you’d be surprised, fml.) For anyone who wants to whinge that I haven’t linked or asserted any sources of my own for my claims… well, remember what I said about time-consuming and ‘I’m busy’? Yhea. Getting all of that together will be part of making a video. So if you want to shrug loudly at my list here… you can, that’s your prerogative, I’m happy to say I DGAF if that’s your takeaway. 

What I hope, is that if there’s anything I’ve made clear over the While of running this blog, it’s that I don’t fuck around when it comes to sources and information and do my best to provide what information exists, all of it, not just cherrypicked bits and bobs. Anyways. Here’s step 0 at least. Please don’t share that video. Pretty please.

Welcome to Mod Appreciation Month!

This event is a lowkey one, designed for us to take some time to catch up on asks, rec lists, and other blog pages that happen mostly in the background such as the masterlists, database, and post tagging.

This blog is a lot of work! And we're happy to help out with promoting authors and exposing readers to new and interesting stories based on their interests!

That being said, we need a break!

This is why we are closing the inbox for July.

Please refrain from sending asks for rec lists through submissions. We’re leaving that line open specifically for new authors to submit their projects.

We are going to utilize this time to try and clear out our inbox--we have over 100 messages, most of them asking for rec lists, which take a few weeks at a time to properly curate, tag, and put in the queue.

We will also be working behind the scenes on other projects we hope to show off soon!

We're thrilled y'all are eager to read more, and we'll be back in August for sure. For now, if you need to get in contact with us, feel free to reply to posts, DM one of the mods, or get in contact with us over on our discord.

[Discord] [FAQ] [Ko-fi] [Reddit]

Below the cut are our rules, guidelines, and FAQ for recommending or suggesting games as well as general practice and etiquette.

We'll be back in August! <3

Now, to get into some of the details. (This applies regardless of the event to every ask sent, even if the inbox is currently closed.)

RULES WHEN SENDING ASKS

If you can and it is relevant, please tag your asks with content warnings in the beginning. Such as (cw violence) or (cw death), this is an extra precaution to keep both our mods and our readers safe and well-advised. This will also make tagging easier!

Please keep your asks as brief as you can! Any asks that are more than two asks long may get eaten by the Tumblr machine and/or may not be answered due to length.

If your ask hasn't been answered, it may be because it already has been! Be sure to search the tags and FAQ before sending in an ask.

Please don't spam! We won't respond to inappropriate asks or asks that have already been answered.

Recommendation lists

If you are submitting an ask for a rec list please be aware that these lists take a lot of time and effort to make! In average, it might take us up to two weeks to fully finish and queue a rec list, sometimes even longer. We’re happy to put them together but we ask for patience and understanding.

With that in mind, here are some guidelines:

Please look through the #interact-if asks and #if: rec list tags before sending and ask.

Constantly looking out and keeping track of IF projects takes a good chunk of our time among our other responsibilities as mods. For this reason, we came up with a tagging system that makes it easy for our audience to look through the blog. Unfortunately, it gets overlooked most of the time.

And for this reason, we get repetitive asks, which we ignore and delete.

The tagging system is there for your and our convenience. If you’re not sure whether you’re asking for a rec list of the same theme/genre that has already been posted, please consider looking through the aforementioned tags before sending an ask.

As much as we love entertaining the rec list asks, it does tend to be bothersome having to constantly reblog and link new asks to the posted rec lists, as well as reminding people to use the tagging system.

Please make your ask neither too broad nor specific.

This isn’t to sound finicky we promise! If an ask is looking for fantasy IFs without specifics we cannot properly curate a list of what you’re looking for. Is it modern fantasy? Medieval? Non-Eurocentric? Do you want fae fantasy? Supernatural? Fantasy is one of the most popular genres and asks like this example we cannot properly answer.

This is why we ask for rec list requests to be not too broad.

As for narrow–too narrow an ask will likely return a very short or non-existent list! At the end of the day there are only so many IFs and very specific niches may not be filled. We will try our best to answer, but likely your list will result in games adjacent to your request that we think best kind of sort of fit your request. We’re doing our best with the IFs that are out there.

Please be patient!

We often spend several days working on a single list. If your ask hasn’t been answered yet it may still be in the works or in our queue! If it’s been a long while and it still has not been answered, it may have been ignored for a variety of reasons including: Too broad an ask, too similar to previous rec lists, contains NSFW or offensive materials, etc. Please refrain from sending multiple check up asks

On the topic of NSFW asks/content…

We have received some inquiries regarding NSFW (like smutty scenes) recommendations in IF recently, and believe it best to clarify the stance Interact IF has on the matter.

We will be refraining from answering questions about explicit sexual content in IF. We as a team do not feel we have the expertise to help with this, nor have we been on the lookout for explicitly sexual IFs.

As well, it is not entirely suitable for the blog, as Interact IF is for all ages and there may be minors following it.

We would like this blog to remain as SFW as we can manage, with games properly tagged for their age groups and limiting asks and rec lists to non-sexually-explicit content.

With that in mind, feel free to get in contact with us anytime and we’ll do our best to find what you’re looking for!

Game Recommendations

Before sending in a game, please keep these aspects in mind:

DO

The game must be interactive fiction–the reader plays a character (either customizable or pre-determined) and makes choices that influence the game in some way.

The game can be text-based or a visual novel.

The game does NOT violate copyright (i.e. A published for-profit IF that is using the Star Wars universe. If it is not-for-profit (it’s free to play) then this is fine)

DON’T

If you play a character and can physically move them (walk, run, jump, attack), we consider this a video game and isn’t currently a niche we are supporting.

Recommend a game produced by a company–we are here to support individual authors or games written collaboratively by a group of authors/artists/etc.

Don’t recommend games that glorify violence, sexual violence, racism, sexism, and so on. Or which has (an) author(s) who also have a history of having engaged In aspects like these.

If your rec is good to go, here’s what you have to do! If you are able please provide a link to the post to reblog - this makes it a lot easier on us!If the game is 18+What language/program the game is in (Twine, Choicescript, Ren'py, etc.)If the game has a currently playable demo. If you would like your game reblogged/recc'ed, let us know with the same info/more if you like!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can you recommend games that are finished or complete?

We have a tag for that! Check out #status: complete, though you can also check out COG, Hosted Games, and search for complete games on Itch.io.

I can’t find a game and can’t remember the title, help!

If you’re struggling to find a beloved game and can’t remember the title–go to our Reddit and see if it’s there at the Lost & Found! If not, you can ask our community on the Reddit to help find it, or join our discord and ask there!

I noticed you failed to include x game on a list, so I will inform the author about it.

Please, don’t. The mods here are nothing but human, so we do our best to include as many games as we can remember, and frequently ask other people for help. However, this doesn’t mean we will include every single game in existence. We will forget, things will slip, so the least we ask of you is to leave a reply or send an ask and we will add it in. We promise we always keep a close eye on those.

The extra step of informing the author about this is unnecessary. The only thing you’re causing is either making the author feel left out or having them reach out to us to be added, which is essentially the same thing we ask of you to do. There’s no need to get a third party involved within something that can be easily tackled, so please respect us instead of putting our blog in a bad light.

The only suggestions we ignore and might erase are the ones we realize don’t fit the theme of the ask, or ones that don’t fit the guidelines specified in the question right below this.

What we do not promote.

Trans-exclusive radical feminism

Gratuitous sexual violence (This includes pedophilia, domestic abuse, r*pe, etc.)

Racism, including cultural appropriation, stereotyping, whitewashing, brown face, etc.

Any and all versions of sexism

Religious phobic rhetoric (Islamophobia, belittling indigenous religions, etc.)

And so on.

We also do not promote authors who have aligned themselves with these rhetorics, whether or not they are exhibited in the author's playable content.

Jurdan Headcanon (Jude Duarte and Cardan Greenbriar)

I’ve also published this on ao3 if you’d rather read it there, here’s the link. I’m making this a full series (Cardan in the Mortal World).

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Previous Chapter (Chapter 2.5)

Cardan in the Mortal World (Chapter 3)

Flowery Flour, Beeping Time Bombs and Chocolate Lips

Cardan decides to surprise Jude with a home-cooked meal (he read in a magazine that that is 2nd in the Top Ten Most Romantic Date Ideas! He wanted to choose the 1st but for the life of him couldn’t figure out what Net-flix and Chill meant). Jude has gone out with Vivi and so he has a few hours to prepare the food. He doesn’t think it’s going to be that difficult, there are instructions and tiny people showing the process on the Book of Mac (he imagines Jude exasperpatedly shaking her head and correcting him, “It’s called a MacBook, Cardan!)

He opens up the list of ingredients and copies it down onto a sheet of paper. Then he sets off for the nearest market, Walmart (Cardan nobody calls Walmart a market!). The door opens without his pushing it open. Hmm, maybe they have pixies to open it here.

The air is cool inside, conditioned by another Mortal device. He roams the aisles, searching for all the ingredients on his list. He’s making Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting, he doesn’t understand most of those words but it is a cake so he thinks it’ll be alright. He finds most of the ingredients quite easily (although he’s still a bit confused what flour is and if it is indeed grounded up flowers). He’s only has milk left from the list.

He knows that they usually use the milk from cows in the Mortal World. He’s wondering where they keep the cows in this place. He stops a man with the word, Walmart tattooed on his shirt (he must be the head of this market).

“How can I help?” the man asks, turning to him.

“Oh yes, I will require your assistance in determining where the cows are kept.”

The man looks befuddled, “Sorry sir. We…don’t sell cows here.”

“No, I do not intend to purchase the cows, I desire only the milk,” Cardan clarifies.

“Oh! You want milk? Okay then, follow me.” The man sets off and Cardan follows. He then leads him to a glass case of packaged bottles. “Here you are.”

Cardan looks closely at the bottles and sees some labeled ‘milk’. “Will this suffice for Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting?” he asks. He wants to make sure he’s using authentic ingredients (Jude would kill him is he mistakenly poisoned her).

“Yeah sure, dude,” the man replies.

***

Cardan is following along with the little lady on the U-Tube. It’s going perfectly. He’s even put on the right attire, a pink apron that says ‘Kiss The Cook’. He likes this idea, to give clear instructions for what to do even on the clothing. Maybe he should have some such thing sewed onto his kingly robes too (he thinks of Jude kissing him every time she reads it and grins happily. Oh yes, it is certainly a wonderful idea.)

When the lady, her name is Rosanna Pansino (he thinks this is quite a distinguished name and can’t understand why she would shorten it to ‘Ro’), says to whip the cream, he pauses. She didn’t ask him to purchase a whip. He checks the shelves, (maybe this is a normal kitchen tool?) and still doesn’t find one. He watches the video and realizes that she doesn’t use a whip at all, just some metallic contraption that he has in the kitchen too.

It takes him a few tries to crack the egg correctly (after this ordeal, his respect for his cooks has gone up drastically). Eventually the batter has been successfully transferred to a pan and placed inside the heating box (Oven). He sets the time on the dials and sits back to wait for it to be done.

In the mean time, he wonders at the bliss he sees on Mortals’ faces as they talk about chocolate. He decides to try some cocoa powder to see for himself if it is as good as they say. He picks up a spoonful of the powder and puts the whole thing in his mouth. His face shrivels up and he starts coughing madly. He drinks some wine to get the taste out of his mouth and thinks that Mortals have very strong taste buds to be able to not only endure that but to also enjoy it.

When the timer on the heating box has finally come down to 10 seconds he watches it carefully, unsure what is about to happen. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then…beep, beep, beep! He startles and tries to figure out what to do. Ro did not show this part at all. He tries to remember what he’s seen in those moo-vies he and Jude sometimes watch. Beeping means…time bomb! The heating box has overheated or some such and is about to explode.

He runs out of the house and crashes into someone. No, not someone, Jude.

“Cardan, what are you- what’s happened?” she asks, holding his flour covered arms and staring into his panicky eyes with confusion.

“The heating box is about to explode!” he blurts out.

“The heating box? Oh, the oven. What did you do to it?” she asks, raising one brow.

“I tried to make a Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting and I followed Ro’s instructions perfectly. But at the end of the timer it started beeping like a time bomb!”

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Jude says and bursts out laughing. He loves this sound and his eyes go dreamy for a moment, all his panic forgotten and his body relaxes.

“What is it? How are you not worried?” he asks, when he’s finally regained his wits. She pulls him back into the house and opens the heating box and takes the pan out after putting on gloves (Cardan understands the importance of looking good but is this really the time to be accessorizing? But since he knows nothing about this, he stays wisely silent).

“That’s just the sound it makes when it’s done baking,” she informs him, smiling fondly.

“Oh. Well, that is bizarre and unnecessarily alarming. A tinkling of bells would have worked just fine,” he says petulantly, crossing his arms and frowning (Jude thinks this is simply adorable, even if she’ll never tell him that).

***

They continue the decorating together. He likes this a lot better. He’s gotten many many kisses. The apron is definitely working. They finally eat the chocolate cake. It takes a lot of persuading on Jude’s part (maybe even some bribing). She doesn’t understand why he’s glaring suspiciously at it. When she finally feeds him a piece, his face relaxes.

“Oh. Oh.” He says reverently. “I understand now.”

Jude is expectedly puzzled but forgets all about it when he kisses her. Mmm, Cardan hasn’t wiped his mouth properly and he tastes like chocolate but she certainly isn’t complaining.

Tagging, @jurdanhell @nee-naw-nee-naw-beepbeep

Let me know if anyone wants to be added to the tagging list (or removed).

Next Chapter

Also this whole trend of recipes on TikTok (that wasn’t started there, the fucking Tasty channels and others had been doing it first) just makes me frustrated. It acts like they’re making cooking easy but I think that ignores that there are so many people and chefs and writers out there publishing recipes EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! Like recipes aren’t hard to find— you search “lemon pie recipe” and a hundred will come up. TikTok recipes exist to make cooking look like this breezy no effort beautiful aesthetic thing when sometimes you do need to put in time. Learning to read a recipe isn’t hard but it’s important. There have always been videos on YouTube to show you how to do basic skills (I remember learning how to cut an onion properly with the help of one of those) but you need to learn how to read recipes and understand basic cooking terms otherwise you will never get better. You just won’t. I’m sure there are people on TikTok doing that work but the majority I’ve seen have not, and I watch them knowing I would get frustrated to hell when things don’t turn out right because they’re not being taught!!!!

hello! i haven't talked to you before, but ron said that i could ask you for some advice on writing eds? (i'd like to know things to avoid/common things that could come up in everyday life that would be good to mention/the sort of aids and stuff they'd have maybe?/anything else you think is relevant)

Hi! Sorry this took so long, a combination of ADHD and chronic pain slowed me way the fuck down. Thank you for being patient! 

EDIT: WEIRD HEEL THINGS I FORGOT!!

So, before I get into this I should probably say I technically haven’t been diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS for anyone reading) because it’s one of those syndromes that takes forever to get diagnosed with (it took a friend of mine’s mother over 30 years to get dxed). Many doctors, and everyone I know who does have EDS agree with me that it’s probably what causes my chronic joint pain and some of my other chronic issues. But just because three separate doctors have said “Yeah Probably” doesn’t mean I’m diagnosed!! Only a geneticist can do that!! And they had two-three year waitlists BEFORE the apocalypse happened.

I am diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Small Fiber Neuropathy, and potentially misdiagnosed with Fibromyalgia (once I get properly tested for EDS I might get undiagnosed with this because I don’t have most of the main symptoms of Fibro, but I got diagnosed with it anyway because it’s what doctors misDX you with when they don’t know what’s wrong with you and don’t want to do more tests).

All that said, I’ve done a lot of research about EDS (mainly because it’s the only thing that explains all my symptoms since doctors seem incapable of doing so), and know a few people who have either confirmed or suspected EDS, so I’ll link to some stuff, talk about the symptoms that often come with EDS, explain how the symptoms I have affect me, because just because someone’s not diagnosed doesn’t mean they aren’t having symptoms, and probs elaborate a bit about writing physical disabilities and chronic pain in general because it’s super important to me! 

So RESOURCES aka how to make sure your post never sees the light of day because you’re linking things and tumblr hates it when people give other people information!!

Youtubers! If you want to know about the day to day of living with EDS or any disability or chronic illness I super suggest finding a youtuber that makes videos about their life. My EDS favorites are

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard

Annie Elainey

Amy Lee Fisher

Websites! If you’re asking random folks on tumblr I’m assuming (and hoping) you’ve already done the basic WebMD google searches and looked over the seemingly ridiculous lists of symptoms and related conditions, so here are a few websites that are made more for people than for doctors.

The Ehlers Danlos Society

OhTWIST (That’s Why I’m So Tired)

ChronicPainPartners (the fact that they have an entire section of articles called “Dealing with Doctors” should really tell you something)

Books! If you feel like doing actual reading! I suggest reading books written by people with Ehlers Danlos, to get a feel for how they portray themselves. I’m not saying steal, but it’s probably a good point of comparison to see how your portrayal feels. (haven’t actually read these b/c my ADHD doesn’t let me read)

Ria Ruse by Morgan S. Ray (a superhero book with a disabled super MC!!)

Mysteries of Maybelle by Imani Benfell (Imani is still in high school and has already written and self-published a book cause she didn’t have enough representation for herself how cool is she!!)

Bodies in Motion by Liana Brooks (tw for pregnancy problems and miscarriages in the link, because it’s a blog post talking about integrating EDS symptoms into the story without explicitly naming them as such)

OKAY, now for some rambling about EDS SYMPTOMS!!!

Ehlers Danlos is one monster of a genetic condition in complexity and variety. There are THIRTEEN different identified types of EDS, it often comes with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and/or POTS, and can lead to various other conditions like gastroparesis, chiari malformation, craniocervical instability, and/or bad teeth. So if you’re going to be writing a character with EDS consider what other comorbid conditions they might also have. I’m mainly going to be talking about Hypermobile EDS (hEDS) because it’s what I probably have and what I’m most familiar with. That said there is a lot of overlap in symptoms with the other varieties.

I started typing this section and realized I was going to have to break it down even more so we’re going to talk about Chronic Pain, Unstable Joints (Dislocations and Subluxations), Skin Things, Mobility Issues, and Other Weird Shit and how those things get addressed separately.

Gonna get the Other Weird Shit out of the way first. Because EDS is a malfunction of connective tissue it can fuck up all sorts of random things. For instance, I and many other people w/ hEDS have trouble swallowing. Shit gets stuck in my throat, I sometimes choke on and have to cough up food, and pills can be hard to swallow, which sucks cause I take A Lot Of Pills. If it doesn’t cause full-on gastroparesis it can cause IBS or other digestive problems b/c the digestive tract is mostly made of connective tissue. It can potentially cause heart problems even if they aren’t as big of a risk as in some other forms of EDS. Premature osteoarthritis is common because what you need is more joint pain. And Fatigue OH BOY THE FATIGUE. And of course the headaches, can’t forget those pesky migraines can we!

AND piezogenic papules!! I completely forgot!! Piezogenic papules are little white bumps that appear when you put weight on your heel. In some people they hurt, but in others they don’t. They’re technically tiny little herniations of fat peaking through the fascia in the heel. They were added as part of the diagnostic criteria for hEDS in 2017!

Now for Skin Things cause it’s not as big a thing in hEDS as it is in other forms. Basically, in a lot of forms of EDS, the skin is extra stretchy and extra delicate. It bruises and tears easily, people with the extreme versions of this can accidentally scratch something into an open wound if they aren’t careful. My skin is pretty soft and sensitive, I def have the typical velvety skin, and as is pretty par for the course of someone with hEDS my skin is a little stretchy, and sorta delicate. I’m not as tissue-papery as some people get, but I almost always have at least one mystery bruise or scrape b/c existing is hazardous. Most of scars are also pretty normal, unlike the extremely papery and atrophic scars (though I have a few tiny acne scars that are atrophic) that are common with other kinds of hEDS. Something that I DO have is Lots of Stretch Marks, all over my thighs, and even down to my calves. Which wouldn’t be abnormal, except for the fact that I’ve never been over 145 lbs and I’ve never been pregnant. Having a lot of stretch marks or striations in the skin without due cause happens because the structure of the skin isn’t as strong as it is in people with a normal amount of connective tissue.

I don’t have to worry as much about my skin but people that do are usually very careful with adhesives because they can irritate or tear the skin, which sucks when you need a lot of bandaids cause your darn skin won’t do its job.

Now on to the meatier stuff and since I’m mostly working backward let’s do Mobility Issues!! These can happen in loads of ways, but a lot of what causes these in people with EDS are the other two things I wanna talk about. Unstable joints lead to increased risk of injury when doing stuff people with fully functioning joints can do.

For context, I’m an ambulatory wheelchair user, meaning I can walk, but a lot of the time it’s better if use a chair. Mine is mostly for my POTS symptoms, but the fact that my legs aren’t also in absolute agony is a big plus. I use a custom manual wheelchair with a SmartDrive (b/c I’m very fucking fortunate and have good insurance) whenever I leave the house and have to be “walking” for more than a few minutes at a time. I can’t fully self-propel in a manual chair because it would be damaging to the joints in my arms and hands, but the smaller chair is easier to maneuver in less than accessible spaces (like almost everywhere). There was about a month-long span where I used a very cheap and very bulky electric chair while I was waiting on the ideal set up I have now. Before that, I also briefly used, and sometimes still use, an up-right posture cane.

People with EDS have widely varying mobility issues because of how uniquely it can manifest. My cane only gave me a little help with balance because if I used it in any prolonged capacity any pain it took away from my legs was relocated to my arms, and as an artist, my arms are more important to me!

If you’re going to write a character with EDS having mobility issues as a result of their EDS the best thing to do is to narrow down their specific needs. Are their knees complete and utter garbage but their shoulders and wrists strong? Maybe they can get away with using a cane. Can they not stand for longer than 5 minutes because of the vertigo from their POTS? Maybe they need a manual wheelchair. Would propelling themself damage their back and arm joints? An electric chair might be necessary! Plenty of people with EDS use all sorts of combinations of these aides to get around their life, consider how your character’s good and bad days would be. Do they have back up plans if they overestimate themselves? There can be a lot to manage, but don’t let it scare you off! Sometimes I try and make it into a resource management game (because I’m a game designer and that’s what I do), to make evaluating my energy and mobility needs more fun!

But now let's tackle some of the reasons those mobility aides might be needed. Unstable Joints.

Ever stepped wrong and rolled your ankle? It hurts for a few steps and then kinda fixes itself, or maybe it bothers you for the rest of the day and you put it up and ice it when you get home? When I was walking around outside my house that would happen AT LEAST once a month, usually more. Some times I’m sitting wrong and when I get up my knee isn’t a knee anymore and decides to just give out from under me. My knuckles are made of unruly popcorn and they Don’t Want To Stay Home!! Oh! And my shoulder is more often out a little out of its socket than it is fully in.

Unstable joints lead to Dislocations and Subluxations of varying intensity, and some people get them more frequently than others. Some can be severe enough to necessitate hospital visits and even surgery, some subluxations are so banal (like my fUCKING SHOULDER) that you just learn to live with the pain.

If a character is going to be in high action, combat-heavy scenarios, chances are they’re going to be popping out joints left and right. Hell, depending on the severity of their joint laxity they could be doing the same sitting at a desk. Again, it’s incredibly varied. I’d suggest setting some sort of baseline for yourself, of what a character’s joints can and can’t stand up to, and maybe do some research on which joints are most likely to pop out in general (hips and shoulders are big culprits being the wacky ball and socket motherfuckers they are). Then maybe have something pop out or hold up every so often when it shouldn’t cause hey! EDS is kinda just like that! Unpredictable!

Some ways people manage joint laxity is with braces, KT tape, and physical therapy. Braces come in many different forms, since I’m currently getting pretty much no treatment for my shitty joints I use mostly compression braces made for sporty people. It really is amazing how much a bit of tight fabric can do to keep my wrist in place.

More specialized braces often have solid parts to prevent the joints from hyper-extending (bending the wrong way) and causing further damage. If you ever see someone with what looks like diamond shaped rings around a bunch of their finger joints, chances are those are Ring Splints, and are there to keep the finger shaped like a finger. I want to get my hands on some and get some on my hands Very Badly, because my fingers hyper-extend SO MUCH when I type, and it makes my hand pain way way worse.

KT tape is another thing people often use. It’s stretchy tape you put on your skin and it basically functions kinda like a second ligament as well as reinforcing the joint and keeping the bones mostly where they’re supposed to be. The problem with this is a lot of people with EDS have very sensitive and fragile skin like I mentioned before, so KT tape can cause allergic reactions, chronic skin irritation, or just straight up take the skin with it when someone goes to remove it. Hence a lot of folks are really careful with it.

Physical Therapy is kinda the best (and only) treatment for joint laxity aside from Very Invasive and sometimes Highly Experimental surgery. It focuses on strengthening the muscles around the joints so they can do the work all those bone ropes made of body glue can’t. The problem is finding a physical therapist that 1) knows what EDS even is, 2) knows you have it, and 3) knows how to treat it without doing stuff that’ll Phucking Hurt You Worse!! Because exercising wrong with EDS can do Permanent Damage!!!

Again most folks use a combination of all of these things, or have next to no access to them b/c healthcare sucks.

Anyway, on to one of my favorite topics, Chronic Pain!! One of the reasons this post took me so long!!!

Chances are if your character has chronic pain as a result of their EDS there are gonna be some things they hate, including stairs, rain, thunderstorms, stairs, hills, uneven terrain, oh and did I mention stairs??? It’s going to vary person to person, but almost everyone I’ve met with pain from EDS has complained about their knees. For me the most debilitating pain is in my fingers and wrists. They’re by far my least stable joints but I use them constantly for stuff like drawing, typing, and sewing.

Because my joint pain is so wide spread, like most people’s with hEDS, it effects every single part of my day to day life. I can’t carry a heavy ceramic plate, open a bottle, or even use my computer without pain. It’s practically impossible for me to get comfortable in any position be it sitting or laying down, and as you can imagine that makes it hard to sleep a lot of the time. Moving too much hurts, but so does sitting still. I’m constantly taking braces on and off or cracking/stretching my joints so they pop back into place and hurt less.

Also being in pain makes everything else That Much Worse. I get tired way faster than I did before my pain was this bad (I had chronic pain for a while before actually realizing it wasn’t normal to not be able to walk down the block without feeling like your foot bones are trying to escape). My sensory issues and anxiety disorder are more easily aggravated because my base level of comfort is way worse. It fucks with my depression. And OH BOY does it make my ADHD worse because being in pain is fucking distracting as hell and makes it harder to make decisions and switch tasks. Also my ADHD often makes my other symptoms worse cause I forget to take my meds, don’t drink enough water, or can’t find my fucking braces because the item eating black-hole that comes with ADHD stole them. The intersection of mental and physical disabilities is probably a rant for another time though, so back to chronic pain.

Does it suck? Yes, undoubtedly. Is this incredibly debilitating? Of course it is, I spent the last several months unable to feed myself without assistance because there was a staircase between my room and the kitchen and I could only manage to climb it once a day. Is it overwhelming? Definitely, I’ve frequently broken down crying from a combination of pain and frustration because I’m having a bad day and there’s no relief to be found. Am I able to predict when it’s going to rain with uncanny accuracy because any change in barometric pressure makes me feel like every bone in my body is trying to kill it’s neighbors? You bet your fucking ass I am!! Does it sometimes make me irritable, angry, and occasionally dismissive of when abled people get cold or a temporary injury because the stuff they’re complaining about is my life every single day and all avenues of treatment and recovery I have could take years and still not entirely solve my issues? Yeah, and while I deserve a little extra patience I also have to be sure to check myself because I don’t want to turn into someone who’s nasty to be around. Do I sometimes need to sleep for 17 hours straight because it’s raining, I have migraine, and I’m in too much pain to be conscious? Yup, sometimes a few days in a row. Does living in constant pain mean I’m unable to do all the things I want to and does that sometimes make me wanna curl up in bed and never leave? Yeah, it happens.

But! And here’s the big important but, that’s not everything! I still write, draw, and talk to my friends!! It might take me a little longer but I get there. I’m still happy and excitable and make the time to write out five page long posts about EDS because it’s something I’m passionate about! My chronic pain doesn’t stop me. I refuse to let it. I never really wanted to go mountain climbing anyway, so I’m perfectly happy being able to make it up and down the six steps in my house, even if sometimes I have to sit and bump down them on my ass, or crawl up them like a cat. Chronic pain isn’t all I am. It isn’t a fate worse than death. It isn’t the only thing your character should talk about (though I do talk about my pain a lot cause I’m a complainer about almost everything). You can have your character be hindered by their pain, realistically they would be. You can have them seek comfort, support, and relief. Other characters can commiserate and be sympathetic, but it doesn’t mean their whole life is going to be one big pity party, that would be incredibly fucking boring. I know I’d be bored out of my mind.

All that said dealing with chronic pain, especially from EDS, is Complicated. Physical Therapy is the gold standard, but like I said before it can be a long and difficult process, and isn’t always accessible. Stabilization methods like I talked about before can help prevent pain, or reduce it by keeping bones mostly where they belong. Heat and cold help joints, relax muscles, and reduce inflammation but keeping them applied is rough and the relief doesn’t always last. Doctors prescribe anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, and sometimes even anti-epileptic medication to help manage pain, but everyone’s mileage with those varies. And I’m not at all qualified to talk in-depth about narcotics or other heavy duty pain-meds, but suffice to say the war on drugs fucked shit up for people that legit need that kind of help BIG TIME.

Now for my closer/bonus rant about EDS and Disability Writing in General!

Everyone always says write what you know, so if you really want to do disabled people justice, get to know disabled people! Make friends with disabled people, get involved with advocacy groups, consume content made by disabled creators both about disability and not! Disabilities are so fucking diverse, even EDS is such a complex disorder, and comes with so many potential co-morbidities, that practically everyone with it has a unique experience. There’s no way I can fully explain everything in a tumblr post. Hell, even if I could talk to you for hours probably couldn’t give you enough info to answer all your questions (especially since I’m still in diagnosis hell :,) ), so talk to a wide range of people with EDS and other disabilities!! I know it sounds like a lot of work but trust me, disabled people are some of the strongest, raddest, coolest, people you will ever meet that it won’t feel like it.

And don’t be afraid either, the fact that EDS and other disabilities are so wildly varied means that you have a little bit of wiggle room with your character’s experience. There’s so little disability rep out their I think people are WAY to scared to try their hand at writing it. So long as your character is a fully developed person in addition to being disabled, you give some logical thought as to how it would affect their life, and you don’t make their disability the butt of any joke it isn’t difficult to avoid ableist writing. PLEASE WRITE MORE DISABLED PEOPLE AND PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC PAIN/CHRONIC ILLNESS!!

Okay that’s it, again sorry it took so long for me to get back to you! My fingers were being little pests about it, and my ADHD (which is honestly more disabling than everything else a lot of the time lmao) was being an asshole! Hope this helps, and feel free to ask me more questions if you need clarification! It might take me a bit but I do love talking about this stuff.

Friday Special #14

March 19th, 2021

Hello friendos, and welcome back to another Friday Special!

So with the recent announcement of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl for the Nintendo Switch as well as Pokemon Legends: Arceus, for this episode, we’ll be taking a look into the original titles of Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum for the DS and how they forever changed the Pokemon world.

The year is 2004.

The Pokemon movie Destiny Deoxys was just released in Japan and it’s the newest Pokemon movie to be released at that time. The Pokemon anime would  still be in Gen 3 (Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald) for a few more years. 

The film features a new Pokemon that was never seen before: Munchlax, who was the first revealed Pokemon for the next Generation, Gen 4 (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heartgold, and Soulsilver).

Munchlax wasn’t the only Pokemon teased before Gen 4′s release, however.

That following year in 2005, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew was released and it prominently featured several new Pokemon to the gaming public such as Lucario, Weavile, Mime Jr., and Bonsly. This now was five new Pokemon revealed to the gaming public. 

Then came 2006, the crunch year.

Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea was released and it introduced more new Pokemon in the forms of Mantyke, Buizel, Chatot and the Legendary Manaphy. Also revealed that year were the first of Gen 4 Legendaries Dialga and Palkia for the new games’ box art. 

In the end, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were officially released in Japan on September 28, 2006, in North America on April 22, 2007, in Australia on June 21, 2007 and in Europe on June 27, 2007. Diamond and Pearl would also be the very first Pokemon games to be released in South Korea on Valentine’s Day in 2008, setting the precedent for future Pokemon games to be released in the region. 

Diamond and Pearl were the first Pokemon games not only to begin a new Generation but also on a brand-new console, the Nintendo DS. In order to capitalize on the new system of choice and its capabilities, Diamond and Pearl were the very first Pokemon games to utilize 2.5D graphics (the effect can best be seen in various objects like buildings and the train in the Great Marsh in Pastoria City). Speaking of sprites, new and never-before-seen trainer sprites were added as well to ever-growing list of types of trainers. The list of Pokemon expanded as well, thanks to the addition of 107 new Pokemon exclusive to the Sinnoh region. 

As the introduction goes for both games, you are greeted by Professor Rowan and you have the choice of either going as Lucas or Dawn, though the player does have the option to create their name for their chosen character. Their rival, Barry, also can be named by the player like in previous versions. 

The game starts with your character watching a broadcast about Johto’s Lake of Rage and its elusive Red Gyarados. You then meet up at Barry’s house, who is also your best friend in addition to being your rival, and the pair go off to Lake Verity to search for Legendary Pokemon. There, you are greeted by Professor Rowan once more along with his assistant and they accidentally leave behind their briefcase and before the pair can retrieve it and return it properly, they are attacked by two random Starly and the player has to pick one out of three Pokemon to fight them with and succeed. Once the battle is concluded, the assistant comes back to retrieve the suitcase, aware of the Pokemon being used and leaves the pair with their new chosen companions. Back home, the player’s mother gives them a pair of Running Shoes to traverse faster across the land and instructs them to meet with the Pokemon Professor in Sandgem Town. Upon arriving, Prof. Rowan bestows upon you the Pokedex, sending you on a quest to retrieve data for the Pokedex of every Pokemon in Sinnoh. 

Thus, the Adventure begins.

In the games, you face Battles, attain Gym Badges and work your way to defeating the Elite Four as well as the Pokemon League Champion. Along the way, you have to defeat Team Galactic, an evil organization who want to erase the entire universe in order to create a new, more perfect universe, and they need the power of the Legendaries in order to accomplish this massive and frightening goal. By defeating them, your home region of Sinnoh, and the universe at large, will be safe. 

Some of the features to make a comeback in a newer fashion was the day/night system first introduced in Gen 2 (Gold, Silver, and Crystal), Pokemon Contests from Gen 3 (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Leaf-Green and Fire-Red) and even a new battle system which allowed for a more versatile set of moves for a Pokemon but ran into trouble with older fans as the attacks were now labeled as either physical or special instead of just by type alone. 

The pair of games were met with commercial and critical success upon release with particular praise being given to the soundtrack, story, the inclusion of Wi-Fi, the voice chat function. Unfortunately, it landed criticism with the graphics with IGN being quoted as saying “everything still has that Game Boy look to it” (Which in retrospect made the games more appealing as they still appeared timeless without looking too dated). Famitsu gave it a 35 out of 40. 

With this massive success, there was a growing need to continue the Generation.

In response, Game Freak created Pokemon Platinum, an enhanced version of the Diamond and Pearl. 

Pokemon Platinum was released in Japan and Taiwan on September 13, 2008, in North America on March 22, 2009, in Australia on May 14, 2009, and in South Korea on July 2, 2009. Like its predecessors, it also received high praise, and was both commercially and critically successful.

There were a few notable differences between the original Diamond and Pearl versions and Platinum:

On the TV in Twinleaf Town, instead of a special about the Red Gyarados, the special instead talks about Prof. Rowan’s arrival back to Sinnoh from Kanto. 

The outfits of the main characters change to be more suited to a colder environment.

Instead of recovering a suitcase in the forest and fighting Starly, you meet up with Prof. Rowan and receive your Pokemon at that time. 

The sprites of important Trainers (like Gym Leaders or the Pokemon League) have their own individual animations like the Pokemon do.

Instead of facing either Dialga/Palkia depending on the version, your Legendary Battle will be with Giratina instead and it will be down in the Distortion World (more on that in a moment).

Platinum also expanded on previously introduced features such as:

Allowing up to 20 people at one time in the Wi-Fi Plaza (it was only a few people before)

Allowing your starter Pokemon to be admitted into Amity Square in Hearthrome City (in Diamond and Pearl, only a select number of “cute” Pokemon were considered)

Players can now challenge other Trainers in certain Pokemon Centers (first game in the mainline series to do this)

Faster animations with HM Moves such as Surf and during Battles

to name a few.

In regards to new Pokemon, 59 Pokemon were added to the Sinnoh Pokedex, rounding the number of entries to 210, including Legendary Pokemon. Legendary Pokemon like Shaymin were also added and other Pokemon like Rotom were enhanced either with new abilities or new forms. 

So about that Distortion World bit from earlier...

For those unfamiliar, the Distortion World is only available in Platinum and it was how the player fought Giratina. The Distortion World level in particular was considered impressive at the time for the Pokemon community as it utilized 2.5D graphics that almost looked 3D.

How did they do this?

They allowed the character to move up walls in order to complete the current level as there were multiple levels. 

Here is a video of the entire Distortion World walkthrough (the video is a little gritty as it was published way back in January of 2009 and it’s the original Japanese version):

At this time, this was considered insane for Pokemon in 2008/9 and it was one of Platinum’s biggest selling points. Although it may look a little dated with today’s newer titles, this the was bridge that connected GBA-styled graphics to more modern 3D ones. 

So with that, Generation 4 was well underway and these games, as well as the ones that followed by the names of Heartgold and Soulsilver (a topic for another time), are still remembered fondly by fans to this day. 

Thoughts From The Head

When I first got into Pokemon, I got into Pearl, making me a Gen 4 kid. I have very fond memories playing this game with my friends back in elementary school as they either had Pearl like I did or Diamond. When Platinum dropped, it was the hottest game to get on DS and I remember everyone and their mother clamoring to get a copy of it. I never did because I was broke at the time, so I wound up having enough to get a copy of Soulsilver, which I just rediscovered the Pokewalker (remember those?). 

I remember the Distortion World bit like it was yesterday. A friend of mine had gotten far enough in the game to get to that point and I remember all of us crowding around behind him and glued to the screen as he traversed into this strange, new world. 

We were blown away to say the least. 

We also utilized the crap out of those Action Replay devices (which I used to max out both the Sinnoh and the International Pokedexes as well as the inventory), making the Champion Fight with Cynthia almost a breeze with the maxed out Rare Candies we had to boost the levels to Level 100 for the entire party. Now a couple friends of mine had managed to even hack the Platinum game to not get the special event Pokemon like Shaymin and Arceus without the special event in question, they were even able to clone Pokemon as well as steal other Trainers’ Pokemon outright with no issues (still not sure how they pulled those off). 

Thanks to the announcements of the Gen 4 remasters and a mutual of mine playing Pokemon Diamond for a YouTube stream via Desmune emulator, I rediscovered my Pearl game and now I’m currently playing my second run! As of this post, I am about to take on Fantine of Hearthrome City so wish me luck!

Here’s the photos of my copy of Pearl!

I was in the process of leveling up my Chatot so she ain’t looking too good right now.

So do y’all think about all of this? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Thank you for reading!

When is it Time for a Website Refresh?

You’ve heard the old adage… You have 6 seconds to convince a website visitor that your website is the website they’ve been searching for – before they hit that back button.

So keeping your website up-to-date is no longer a matter of preference, it’s a matter of survival.

If it’s been a while since you’ve updated your website, it might be a good idea to consider updating the elements on your website like the content, the design, adding new content or completely overhauling your website as part of a major redesign.

Does your website need a refresh?

So What’s a Refresh?

A business changes as it grows. The same is true with your website. As you create your website, make sure it reflects the business it represents.

Your website’s design will become outdated over time, that’s just how it goes. What was popular 2 or 3 years ago, can feel painfully outdated now (remember keyword clouds?) So refreshing the design is necessary to remain competitive.

Does Your Website Need a Refresh?

If your website has been up for a while, it may be a challenge to know when it’s time to update it. But here are some signs it’s time.

The design of your site is not appealing anymore

Conversions are low

Nothing is interesting or exciting on your website

Ineffective communication with website visitors

Leads aren’t coming in like they did before

Bounce rates are high

Recognize any of these? If so it may be time to make some minor updates or revamp your entire website. It just depends on your situation.

Here are 7 ways you can refresh your website

1. The Basics

Let’s start with the basics. The look and feel of your website can be dramatically updated simply by choosing a more modern fonts set to revamp its overall look. Even small changes can significantly impact transforming an old site into something new and impressive. Google fonts is free, and offers many great options.

2. Consider a redesign – when you need more than the basics

Your website plays a big part in the identity of your business. The way your website looks will have a big impact on the way your visitors feel when they land on your website. What will their first impression be? Are they going to want to do business with you? You are not doing yourself any favors by still using outdated stock graphics and imagery.

Your brand’s identity is shaped by elements like layout, fonts, colors, etc. To keep your website looking crisp, determine which sections have aged gracefully and which areas need improvement.

Replace your outdated images & graphics with a mix professionally taken photos of your staff and business along with some carefully curated high end stock images.

Choose a simple, clean font will make your site look sleek and modern. For example, Google Fonts offers many free typefaces.

An updated color palette can also improve the experience of your visitors.

3. Improve Your Communication

We’ve talked about the 6 seconds you have to grab your visitors attention and keep them on your website so it’s not a surprise that there’s little time for you to get your message across.

Regardless of what you sell, the customer is primarily interested in how you will help them solve their problem. It’s always about them, whatever you say. So make sure visitors can find the content they are looking for without a lot of clicking around.

Speaking of communication it’s a good idea to sprinkle in a variety of compelling and relevant CTAs on your site. Believe it or not, your visitors aren’t mind readers so you need to tell them how they take the next step. CTAs provide various options for the visitor to take action, such as:

“Call Now”

“Book Your Appointment Today”

“Join Now by clicking here,”

“Get started Today”

“Connect with us Today”

“Get your free ______ today”

“Signup today and get ________ “

And don’t forget about social sharing buttons.

The most important thing is that your CTA’s should be well-designed and strategically placed in areas where clients can easily see them.

Pro tip: Make sure that your CTA’s contrast well with the rest of your design but don’t get blend into the rest of your content. CTA’s are most effective when they look like buttons.

4. Improve Your User Experience

You must design your website so that the customer can navigate through it quickly. Your site will attract more visitors if it is easy to navigate. Just a few changes to your menu and checking that every link works can make a massive difference in the over all user experience.

Your navigation consists of links connecting your website’s pages. Carefully examine all your website pages and make sure they are still relevant and organized.

Test your links. Make sure that they don’t lead to 404 Error (Page Not Found). This makes your website appear not maintained and sloppy. Take a look at all the links on your site, including internal and external, and ensure they’re taking your visitors where you want them to go.

5. Analyze Your Website Content – And See Where You Stand

It’s not only about looks when it comes to refreshing a website. Your site must be considered current. Ensuring that what you are saying is valid, helpful, and readable to your visitors. So how can you determine whether your content is new, high-quality, and up-to-date?

By conducting a content audit.

A content audit is intended to assess which links get indexed by search engines, which need to be refreshed and no longer exist. Here are some basic steps you need to follow:

Compile all your databases and sitemaps. The sitemap is a document that lists your site’s pages, videos, and other files along with their relationships. Data from your website is organized into your website’s internal database.

Your site’s URLs are indexed by web crawlers who collect content throughout the Internet. An algorithm can be applied to web crawler data to find relevant links in response to specific search terms and keywords. We recommend using Google Analytic, Google Webmaster Tools, and Screaming Frog for crawling website content.

Content auditing can go beyond essentials: You can use titles, descriptions, and word count as primary criteria for content auditing. All of your content entries should contain these elements.

Check organic search, conversions, publish date, time-on-site, page views, load speed, and mobile-responsiveness, too.

The number of conversions divided by unique visits is the conversion rate. By measuring this metric, you can determine if your website traffic is profitable.

Time-on-site is pretty self-explanatory: it’s the amount of time your visitors spend on each of your pages. Content audits can benefit from this metric since you get a clear idea of the performance of your online content.

A page-per-visit measurement indicates how much content is viewed per visit. In most cases, it is presented as an average, which is calculated by dividing the total number of visitors by the total number of page views.

The slower your page loads, the fewer pages search engines can crawl, affecting your search engine rankings.

Take a good thorough look at your content: Identity what content no longer reflects your current business and goals and delete it. Do you need to rewrite or update anything? Is there anything that needs some attention?

Note: It is essential to perform two separate content audits if your website has Desktop and Mobile versions as their codebases are different.

6. Competitor Analysis

You should also examine how your competitors’ sites can be improved while evaluating the same areas where yours could be better. Are they doing anything new on their website that is working? Is their website more responsive than yours? Have they made updates to their website recently?

Aside from seeing what your competitors’ websites look like, it would help if you also figured out which websites link to them. Is it possible to obtain links from these same websites, or can you get links from other high-ranking websites? This is authority backlinking 101 & makes a huge impact on your rankings.

7. Make Sure Applications Are Maintained

Now that you have updated your contact information, added some fresh content, and checked for broken links, make sure that all of your web apps are functioning properly. For your tech to keep pace with your business growth, it must adapt and grow along with it.

App management practices include testing and debugging software, enhancing technology and site functionality, updating and maintaining existing security protocols, maintaining new browser versions, creating and maintaining 3rd party integrations, and more. It is very important to maintain your website’s modules, code, plugins and integrations to avoid various issues.

Honorary Mention: A Mobile-Responsive Website

This one is obvious and goes without saying. But nobody is surprised when I say smartphones are the most popular way people access the web. And a lot of them never use anything other than their phone so to say mobile responsiveness is important would be an understatement.

Plus Google favors mobile web-optimized websites in its search rankings and penalizes those that aren’t.

In conclusion, keep it simple. Think marathon, not a race.

A website refresh can be as extensive as you want to make it… Just like any renovation. Although we’ve covered many small changes you can make to your website some will make a much bigger impact than others. But do not under-estimate the end result.

So what now? evaluate your needs and make a plan of attack – and then get started on it. There’s no time like right now.

DOWNLOAD YOUR DIGITAL STRATEGY PLANNING TEMPLATE

Survey #383

“the big bully try to stick his finger in my chest  /  try to tell me, tell me he’s the best  /  i don’t really give a good goddamn ‘cuz i got my lunchbox & i’m armed real well”

Ever had a friend online for a long time without seeing a photo of them? Well yeah. Most of my friends are online, and while I've seen pictures of most at least once or twice, some I still haven't. The last time you threw up, what caused it? It was a side effect of a mood stabilizer I started. Any foods from other countries you would like to try but haven’t yet? I'm sure there's something, idk. Do you think the world would be more peaceful without any religion? Yes. Have you ever had a stalker? No. Does it hurt your feelings when people talk shit about things you love? It makes me self-conscious way more than anything. I start to obsess over whether or not the person things poorly or weirdly of me for liking what I like. I just feel judged for liking it, but that's my problem. Do you like it when people give you nicknames? I do, actually. It feels kinda affectionate to me. Do you often find yourself checking out people’s butts? Haha I'm not gonna say it's never happened, but it's not something I make a habit out of for sure. What fandoms are you in? MEERKAT MANOR IS BACK BAYBEEEE, Markiplier, Silent Hill, Shadow of the Colossus, World of Warcraft, Spyro, Wings of Fire, and lots more, honestly. I'm into a lot of stuff, and I don't love in moderation, haha. Are there any fandoms you used to be in, but left? Yeah, like Supernatural, Good Mythical Morning, or Warriors, but it wasn't out of "I don't like it anymore" or anything, I just drifted away. Anything the fans in your fandoms do that pisses you off? World of Warcraft if particular has one of the most toxic fucking fanbases. There are so many goddamn elitists and people who whine about "boohoo WoW is dying" and "omg this game has been trash since Wrath" and yada yada yada and it's annoying as hell. They always find some shit to complain about. Then Silent Hill... ugh. I think people just hop onto the "the series sux after 1-4" bandwagon to fit in with a certain crowd, but that's not the main thing that annoys me; rather, it's the fact the former main admin of the SH wiki made a fucking joke out of us there. He was clearly having personal issues and made a HUGE and utterly ridiculous deal of Silent Hill 4 having heavy symbolism to the main character being obsessed with the bullshit idea of him being circumcised, and it led to a maaaassive thread of us members trying to talk some damn sense into him as he abused his power. He was finally banned by the Wikia staff, but not in time for some gaming websites to publish "news" stories about it because it was just that ludicrous. Now, YEARS later, we still get trolls coming onto the site to try and revive the drama by inserting absolute rubbish into pages or making new ones. Nowadays I'm the main administrator there, and it's fucking embarrassing sometimes. I'm supposed to keep the wiki under control and respected, you know? Ugh, I'll stop. I could rant for a very long time about this. Do you prefer ruffly or regular potato chips? Ruffly. Do you write down your own recipes, or just commit them to memory? I don’t cook. What color do you want to dye your hair? My top three are pastel pink, lilac, and a light creamsicle orange. I REALLY want to dye it SOMETHING. :( How do you like your chicken? Of course breaded (like nuggets, tenders) is my favorite, but I also enjoy is broiled and seasoned well. There's other ways, but because I don't cook, I, uh... don't know how a lot are made lmao. Do you enjoy cheese fries? UUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH YES. Do you eat refried beans? I absolutely hate beans, so no. What is a food you enjoy, but don’t have very often? A whole lot because a lot of it is from restaurants and we don't eat out all that much. As well, my diet is very narrow just because of how picky I am. Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn? Why? I mean, what are we comparing them for? I think Audrey is fucking gorgeous, though. Marilyn is also beautiful. Favorite fictional world? Uh, I dunno. Do you use lint rollers often? No. Do you carry pepper spray? No, but I want to. Has your power ever gone out for more than a day? I think so. Other than a dislike button, what’s something you wish Facebook had? Hm, I dunno. What time do your parents normally get home from work? Mom can't work right now, but I think Dad gets off around 5PM. Are you afraid to ask people out on dates? Yep. Do you think it’s better to look for love or let it find you? Both can work, but I definitely prefer to let it find me. I feel that *in general* that usually has better results. Have you ever found yourself worrying about commitment? No. I'm a very committed person romantically. Would you get involved with someone if they had a child already? No. Have you ever had a rash from poison ivy? I don't believe so, no. Do you have any chairs in your bedroom? No. Did you watch Elmo as a child? Some, yeah. Do you know anyone who doesn’t eat meat? I don't think so, off the top of my head. When you throw up, do you cry? No, but I'm a whiner and will also shake from fear because I have such a phobia of vomiting. Doing it totally turns me into a baby. Who was the last person to carry you? I couldn't tell you the last person to full-on carry me, but back when I tore a ligament in my foot, my mom kinda had me lifted when she would help me walk. Is it easy for you to accept loss? Absolutely not. I handle it very, very poorly. Have you done anything sneaky lately? No. Have you ever had a rolling back pack? Yes. Who knows you better than anyone else? My mom, probably. Would you ever want to go to Brazil? Sure, if the opportunity came up. Are there any medical conditions that run in your family? A lot, mostly heart problems. What band has the best guitar solos? Metallica imo. Who is the biggest jerk you've ever met? She was somehow my former best friend. Have you ever swerved off the road to avoid hitting an animal? I've never been in that situation, thankfully. What's a charity you would never donate to? I'm really not familiar enough with charities and their practices to know which ones are sketch or not. Have you ever grown your own herbs? No. Do you have any exes you'd consider dating again? Yes. What were some of your favorite classes you took in high school? Art and German. Mythology was fun, too. Do you know anyone with a profession in law? Yeah, I have a cousin that's a lawyer. Have you ever Googled yourself? Yeah, outta curiosity. What's the shortest amount of time you've had between relationships? Like, two days. Part of the reason I left Girt was because I liked Sara. As a child, what comfort foods did your parents make for you when you were sick with a cold or flu? Chicken noodle soup. What's a movie series where the sequel was better than the original? Ha, for some reason Inspector Gadget came to mind. I guess from mentioning my childhood. I was FUCKING OBSESSED with that movie as a kid. The first one's fine, but I love the second one. Does your car have heated seats? Mom's doesn't. What is the strangest pizza topping you've ever eaten? Nothing strange, really. Describe your hometown. What’s it like there? Small and dangerous. Lots of run-down areas. A gang nearly broke into our house once, if that helps you get the picture. What was the last video game you beat? I replayed Silent Hill 2 forever ago. What did you learn from your last failed relationship? It really just taught me that you need to take care of your own mental health before you can effectively handle another's properly and strike a healthy balance. What country does your favorite band hail from? Britain. What’s something on your to-do list that never actually gets done? Finish decorating my room. -_- Have you ever been really passionate about something but then lost interest? If so, what was it? Good Mythical Morning, I suppose. I used to be OB-SESSED. I still adore Rhett and Link as people, they are fucking wonderful human beings and excellent entertainers, I just drifted away from their content. I don't really know why. Do you sleep with the TV or the radio on? No. What’s the worst thing about being male/female (whichever you are)? Menstrual cycles, I'd say. It affects your mood so much, and as someone who's bipolar, it can be very confusing. I like to know why I'm feeling a certain way. What movie has the best special effects? /shrug How many work hours per week is too much for you? I wouldn't know, I've never really worked long enough to figure this out. Can you remember your first day of school? I think I have the faintest memory of it. I know I was very scared to leave my mom (I had absolutely awful separation anxiety from her) and I MIGHT have cried, but I don't really recall with certainty. Have you ever entered a modelling competition? Would you? No thanks. Did you keep any drawings/stories from when you were younger? Most, no, because the level of cringe is LITERALLY unbearable for me. Do you have a safe? Mom does somewhere. What’s the scariest thing to happen to you so far? The breakup. That night was just fucking terrifying. I was so certain my life was over, like the situation was so, so impossible in my head. What was your last dream about? (or your daydream if you don’t remember) My memory's faint, but I just remember I had a nightmare where a LOT of my bones were totally snapped in half. When was the last time you saw a relative? Excluding my immediate family, I last saw my now-departed grandmother and my uncle a while back at a hotel as they were passing through. Have you ever been in a TV audience? No. Are you in any way close to reaching a personal goal? Not really... Do you prefer crosswords or word searches? Word searches. Do you like making collages? Not really. Do you remember any inside jokes from childhood? No. What would you love to learn to do? Digital art, like drawing on a tablet. Do you prefer monkeys or lemurs? Lemurs. Do you watch movies based on the actors or the movie plot? The plot, 100%. Are you more shy in real life or on the internet? I am WAY more shy irl.

Scars You Can’t See - Chapter 5

Chapter title: Ready to explode

Word count: about 3800 words (whoa)

Author’s Note: I think it’s about time I gave a shoutout to @teamxdark! Their comments have gotten me to start planning out some of the later chapters (and giving me a lot of inspiration), so I figured they deserved some credit!

And thank you to everyone who’s read this fic so far- every note I get is incredible and I hope you’re all enjoying the ride :)

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Sonic stared blankly at his phone screen for the fifth time this morning. The old texts and the name at the top of the messaging app blurred slightly as his eyes unfocused. He was waiting for...something. What, he wasn’t sure.

That was a lie.

Truthfully, he was hoping that the three little dots showing that someone was typing would appear like a miracle. He knew that wouldn’t happen, though. The hedgehog on the other end of the messages had turned off his phone entirely. Heck, Shadow was literally in hiding. There had been exactly one post on Chatter (which he and Tails totally hadn’t read over and over searching for hidden messages) and that was from Omega.

But chaos, how Sonic wished for just five minutes to talk to him. He hadn’t even realized before now how much he normally texted the hybrid in a day. The hero honestly just messaged whenever he saw something or found a funny joke that he thought Shadow would like. In dealing with his new absence, though, Sonic had come up with an idea to write down whatever it was he’d seen that he figured Shadow would enjoy and save it for later.

He was forced to stop this when he wrote nearly two thousand words’ worth of moments in half an hour.

Sonic cursed all the times he’d taken Shadow’s near-constant presence for granted. The hybrid had always been a punctual texter, despite Rouge’s repeated attempts to convince him that he didn’t have to answer right away. Even when the other hedgehog had been off on a mission, Sonic still had an idea of how long he needed to wait before he could start texting. But now, it could be days, weeks, or even months before he could talk to Shadow freely again.

What if you’ll never hear from him again? a nasty inner voice whispered. What if that call was the last time you got to hear his voice?

Sonic felt his stomach fall through the floor at that idea, before swallowing the sensation and shaking his head. He couldn’t doubt Team Dark like that! They were guaranteed to pull through, and kick G.U.N.’s butt in the process.

Speaking of which…

The hero was pretty angry at G.U.N., and that was actually a big deal for him. Sonic didn’t get angry, except sometimes at Eggman. Even when a bitter detractor had posted a lengthy essay on Chatter explaining exactly why Sonic was (supposedly) a terrible person, he hadn’t reacted in fury- or even close. He’d had his friends’ support, and honestly? He’d pitied the person more than anything. Anyone who was trying to tear others down had probably been hurt pretty badly themselves.

Sonic had even made a meme out of their misspelling of his name- “Sanic” was now a worldwide joke with a hilarious drawing to match.

But now, all he really wanted to do was beat someone up- some robots, some evil agents, whatever- and trash the whole organization until they were all falling over themselves to apologize. The fact that G.U.N. had dared to treat Shadow’s obviously painful past with no kindness whatsoever really got on his nerves. The hybrid had suffered a hundred times over, lost his memory, and even died to save the world, yet he still didn’t get the respect he deserved.

“Uhhh, Sonic? Is everything okay?”

The blue blur jumped, startled out of his spiraling thoughts. He heard a growling noise, and his eyes widened when he realized it was coming from him. Sonic could feel his lips curled back into a snarl and quickly straightened his face out, blinking and clearing his throat. “Yeah! Sorry, Tails…” he said, embarrassed at having been caught in that kind of state. The fox eyed him skeptically. “Really, I’m fine!”

“Are you su-”

“Yeah!” Sonic exclaimed, grinning reassuringly. No point in upsetting others with his own problems, after all. “Everything’s good here, buddy!”

“If you say so…” Tails muttered. He didn’t seem convinced, but accepted it despite this. “Anyway, what I came over to say was: we’re out of groceries- can you head out and get some? I made a list of everything we need, it’s right here!”

Ordinarily, Sonic would’ve complained loudly and with much drama about having to do something so menial as a grocery run when he was a hero, for chaos’ sake. But that wasn’t the case these days. “Sure thing!” Sonic agreed, feeling better already. With a distraction to keep his worries and negative thoughts away, he’d be back to normal in no time. “See ya soon!”

The blue blur dashed out the door- before returning a second later, a sheepish grin on his face. “Forgot the list,” he explained, rushing out again.

With the wind in his quills, it was almost too easy to forget everything that he’d been thinking about just moments before. Sonic grinned properly as he raced across fields and through side streets. This was his element, after all!  He made his way to his and Tails’ favorite grocery store, bounding over obstacles and pulling a few awesome parkour tricks he’d picked up over the years. Shadow had always gotten on their case for not supporting a more local store- this one was a big name, after all- but Sonic had--

He shook his head, walking into the building. No more thoughts like that! There was only so much ruminating on bittersweet memories a guy could do in a day.

His presence here was relatively common, so he didn’t do much more than turn a few heads as he stepped through the automatic doors into the air-conditioned halls of the large grocery store. Sonic forced himself to walk through the aisles (instead of sprinting through them and accidentally whipping half the items off the shelves in his wake). As he did so, though, he began to hear people talking. And they weren’t just talking about the latest viral video, or boring politics, or any of those things, either.

They were talking about them.

Of course, everyone would always change the subject when he walked by, chatting loudly about their dog or their kids or whatever. It was almost as though they were saying, “Don’t look at me! I didn’t say anything about your friends! I’m just here, minding my own business!” But of course none of them really had been.

He recognized that he was spiraling down the path of thinking about it again, even though there was nothing he could do. And now no matter what, the thoughts of some of his closest friends were tainted. Which totally didn’t frustrate him at all. 

It didn’t help, he thought irritably (not noticing the mild scowl that had appeared on his face), that G.U.N. was basically screaming in all the op-eds and information releases the organization could get their hands on that they weren’t in the wrong. They didn’t say that specifically, of course- that would be too obvious. Instead, they just published the same old news over and over again: Team Dark had stolen classified files and then run away. 

This had all begun to grate on Sonic’s nerves a little, particularly when pundits and newspaper writers alike began to spout wild conspiracy theories about Team Dark having been spies for ‘the enemy’- whoever that was- or that one of them had finally lost it...or even all three at once. The most frustrating, however, was when once avid supporters of the former G.U.N. agents completely disavowed them and distanced themselves from the team as much as possible. It made him want to pull a Knuckles and punch a wall- how could people turn on the team so easily?

The hero pulled himself back to reality to realize that he’d been staring at a can of soup for the past few minutes. And were those dents where his fingers had been? He put the can in his shopping cart, took a deep breath, and continued on, giving himself a little ride on the back of the cart as a treat. Normally, he’d remember his various accidents and restrain himself, but lately the hero had needed to clear his head. He deserved this.

A few minutes later, a chime on his phone let him know that Tails had sent him a message. Sonic opened it up and read the text: 

milesperhour: Sonic, I think you need to see this. Take a close look at paragraph 5. https://www.centralcitynews.com/team-dark-update

Sonic clicked the link, sighing, and began to scan the article. Another one? Really, he’d had enough of-

Oh boy. Oh wow. Okay.

They’d made a move. G.U.N. didn’t release much in the way of information- all they’d done was declare an official alert asking people to keep a lookout for Rouge, Shadow and Omega. And to tip G.U.N. off at a hotline that they’d provided for this purpose.

Sonic had learned how to read between the lines over the last few days, though, and on his second read-through, he saw what most would not. 

...are in possession of multiple classified files…

So they’d stolen more info? That must’ve been what Omega’s post was about! Sonic began to squeeze his phone hopefully. Maybe this was it, maybe soon this whole nightmare would be over!

He practically flew through the rest of the store at the thought. Team Dark would give G.U.N. what for, the organization would apologize, and then everything would be fine!

Sonic checked out in a hurry, rushing home as fast as he could. Slamming open the door, he yelled out, “Tails! Did you see- oh right, you sent me the article. But still! Things are looking up, buddy!”

Tails had a slightly lopsided grin on his face, making the hero’s heart sink. “What’s that look all about?”

“I don’t know- it’s probably nothing! After all, Team Dark can handle any situation they come up against...just, G.U.N. has a lot of resources, you know?”

Sonic’s smile returned in full force. “Sure they do, but they also owe me for saving the world, like, a million times over! Once we’ve got the Edge Gang back with us, I’ll go talk with the commander and get them to straighten everything out!”

“That sounds like corruption, Sonic…” Tails said, a wicked smirk appearing on his face.

“Dude, what?! No! I’d never-! I just meant I was gonna see if I could talk some sense into them- hey, get back here!” Sonic screeched, seeing Tails run off with the groceries...including the donut he’d bought for himself.

…

Later that afternoon, Sonic was in the middle of finally enjoying said donut after wrestling it from Tails’s (evil terrible Sonic-and-sugar-hating) claws. It was a little squished, but it was still great- he wasn’t complaining!

That was, of course, when he heard a loud, sharp knock on the door.

He jumped up and zipped over to the entry hall, pastry still in hand. Whipping open the door, a shocking sight greeted him- one that made all of his battle-honed senses immediately scream danger danger danger. Two impeccably dressed G.U.N. agents stood before him, a human and a barn owl. The human seemed pretty awkward, wearing slightly rumpled slacks and overall looking a little messy. The owl, however, despite being about the same height as the blue blur, exuded an air of steely discipline that would make everyone she faced feel about two inches tall.

Everyone except Sonic, that was. He was secure in the knowledge that his friends were not wrong, and he maintained his usual relaxed demeanor without a hitch. The hero smiled fake-pleasantly at the two agents, ignoring the fact that he had sugar glaze at the corners of his mouth and all over his glove. “Sorry, guys, I wasn't really expecting guests.” He gestured to himself as an obvious example. “Anything I can do for ya?”

He didn’t offer to let them inside, though. These agents were hunting down his friends, he was absolutely sure of that. Sonic refused to help them in any way, not when Team Dark was still out there and being threatened by their organization.

The barn owl gave him a look that nearly pierced through his very soul. “Sonic the Hedgehog. I am Agent Toya, and this is my colleague, Agent Jones. We have a few questions that we would like to ask you. Inside.” Her voice was cold and clear, with no trace of an accent.

Sonic felt a chill run down his spine, but kept his smile up regardless. “Sure thing!” he chirped, despite very much not wanting to let them in. “The living room’s right this way- make yourselves comfortable, I’ll be back there in a sec.” He honestly didn’t think he could have refused them entry without...complications.

The hero zipped over to Tails’s workshop, flinging open the door with a little more force than he’d intended. The fox jumped up in a fright when it smacked against the wall, staring at Sonic. “G.U.N. is here. Two agents.” he said quickly. The imminent sense of danger in the back of his head wouldn't leave him be, despite the fact that he was one of the most powerful people alive.

...Despite this, don’t let G.U.N. take you or anyone else anywhere. You might not come back…

...These people aren’t crazy geniuses- they’re ruthless destroyers…

“Oh, chaos.” Tails breathed. “I’ll wait nearby, okay? Then I can do something if they start getting too intense.”

Sonic nodded, before speeding back down to see the agents sitting on his couch. “Hi! So whatcha guys want?” he asked perkily, burying his thoughts for now.

“Hello to you too, Sonic.” Jones said politely. “How are you?”

The hero tugged slightly at the cuff of his glove. “Pretty good!” he lied through his grin. “Been chilling around the house for most of the day- how ‘bout you?”

“Not bad,” the human answered. “Work is work though, you know?”

“Yeah, sounds pretty rough.” Sonic said, a little unconvincingly. Before he could stop himself, he thought of all the late nights Shadow and Omega had spent working on paperwork and various odd jobs for G.U.N., and the times when Rouge had to cancel her dates with Knuckles because she was just too exhausted from work to do much of anything. His smile became slightly strained as he worked to keep his frustration on Team Dark’s behalf under wraps.

The owl gazed at him silently for a moment, having watched this whole awkward transaction with a calculating look in her eye. Then she spoke. “I’m certain you have seen the news lately.”

“Uhhh...kinda, I’m not big on newspapers, but I try to keep up, yeah! Always nice to see an article about yours truly, hah.” He played it off, deciding to act dumb for now.

Agent Jones shifted in his seat, looking cautious. “Yeah…” he said, offering up an incredibly fake smile. “I’m a bit of a fan, myself.”

Sonic knew exactly what was going on. It was almost so classic he had to laugh- the old good cop/bad cop scenario. The human was clearly trying to play the good cop, and not enjoying it either. The hedgehog had to wonder, though, was he just a better bad cop or uncomfortable because he was helping grill a hero?

Oh, right- Agent Toya was talking again. “We know that you have seen the articles published about the betrayal of Team Dark. Even if you do not read the news, one of your friends will have told you by now.”

The hedgehog’s eyes narrowed a little. “And what’s that supposed to mean? What do you want outta me?”

“You. Know. Something.” she said sharply. “That team- in particular Shadow the Hedgehog-” He tensed at her flippant use of his name, as if they weren’t hunting him down like he had legitimately gone bad. “-trust you. You are very close with them. They would not have left you with nothing.”

Sonic shook his head, trying one last time. “I don’t think so, lady. I know about as much as you- if that. It’s not like we’re besties or anything.”

Agent Jones shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know- it looks like you guys are pretty close to me. Not that that’s bad, I mean-!!” he amended rapidly, realizing his mistake. In addition to having blown his role as the ‘good cop’, he was now being stared down by a very irritated pair of green eyes. The look he was being given contrasted sharply with the grin plastered across the hero’s face, and the agent began to sweat slightly and avoid his stare.

Meanwhile, Sonic turned his attention back to Agent Toya, sitting up straight and squaring his shoulders in preparation for more. He was a fighter, after all.

It seemed that the barn owl came here ready for a fight as well, because her own eyes flashed and she straightened her G.U.N. uniform. “Sonic. We need information. Our organization has been compromised. Twice. We are in a crisis and we are ordering you to tell us what you know.”

That did it.

“As if!” the hero exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “You think I’m the kind of guy who’d sell his friends out and watch them get carted off to jail- or worse?! I don’t know as much as you think I do, and if I did, I wouldn’t tell you!” He had probably blown any semblance of ignorance up now, but Sonic couldn’t find it in himself to care.

The owl agent stood as well, glaring at him. “If that is the attitude you are going to take, then we have no choice but to take you into custody.” She began to reach for the Taser on her belt at the same time as Jones grabbed the gun from his holster. Sonic’s eyes flickered between them both- the human he could take on, but he wasn’t completely sure about Toya’s skill with the Taser.

Could he get around them? Sure, but not without breaking something...and he hated to bust up his house just because a couple of agents showed up on his doorstep and pulled weapons on him. He’d handled worse odds, hadn’t he? But then he and Tails would constantly be on the run, and that was no way for a nine-year-old to live…

A loud crash resounded in the kitchen. Jones shouted and jumped up, Sonic’s head snapped around so fast he tweaked his neck, and Toya took a step backwards.

Rubbing his neck and wincing, Sonic yelled out, “Everything okay in there?”

Tails dashed into the room out of nowhere, crying out, “Sorry! Sorry! I was just working and wanted a drink- and I heard- I heard-” 

The fox then began to cry, sobbing and clinging to Sonic’s chest. “You’re not gonna take him away, are you? I need my big brother…” he sniffled. “Sonic, everything’s gonna be okay, right?”

The hero was trying his very hardest, meanwhile, to keep his jaw from hitting the floor as he watched his brother, a brave, intelligent sidekick and someone he was proud to fight beside, put on the most incredible show he’d ever seen. “I…I dunno, buddy…” he said honestly, uncertain about how to react. 

This seemed to be a pretty good move, as Tails immediately began to bawl harder and gasped, in between sobs, “Please don’t take him away from me!”

It appeared that Toya would not feel comfortable using force against Sonic (or even resuming her interrogation) when the young fox was around. Instead, she gave him a very pointed, piercing look, before declaring, “We will be back at a later date to continue this conversation.”

She stalked out the door, Jones shoving his gun back onto his belt and following sulkily behind her. As soon as she had gotten into her car and driven off, the hero sagged into the couch and let out a loud sigh. “Welp.”

Tails flew out of the room immediately afterwards, whispering a quick “Wait there and chill for a second I’ll be right back” before he exited. Once he returned, the fox crawled around on the couch next to Sonic before letting out an “Aha!” and holding up what appeared to be a tiny piece of metal.

“It’s a shame to have to do this, but…” he muttered, before vanishing with it. A couple minutes later, a very loud noise boomed from Tails’s workshop and made Sonic panic before blasting in there at top speed. 

“What was that?!” he shrieked. 

“Just destroying this camera that human agent left in our couch.” the engineer replied lightly.

“Wait- what??” Sonic gasped. “He did what?”

“I thought they’d be crazy to leave without planting one, so I checked the camera feed, and it was pretty obvious! He must be a new recruit.”

“Wait- you have a camera? In our living room?” the hero asked, feeling slightly creeped out.

Tails shrugged. “Well, I didn’t until recently, but I figured that G.U.N. would have to show up at our place eventually, so yeah.”

They both stayed there in silence for a minute, before making their way back down to the main house. 

“Well, what do we do now?” Tails wondered. 

“I dunno- you’re the smart guy, pal.” Sonic replied quickly. “I just don’t want to have to escape from them! I like running, but not away from people. Especially bad people.”

“Well...does it count as running if we’re hanging out with Knuckles?” the fox suggested hopefully.

Sonic sighed. “I guess not...it’d be cool with him, too, since Angel Island is a pretty safe place and all. I still hate the idea of hiding from them, though.”

“Maybe you won’t have to!” Tails said, trying to be cheerful. “After all, I don’t think people will buy it if G.U.N. says you’re a...traitor…” He trailed off, remembering a particularly eventful moment from their past.

“Yyyeah.” the hedgehog said dryly, having thought of the same thing. “That’s exactly why I didn’t have to ride through the streets of Central City on a piece of helicopter.”

“Let’s not think about that for now though, okay?” Sonic asked. “ I don’t like the idea of being scared all the time.”

Tails nodded in agreement. “Besides, we’ve handled them before! We can cross that bridge when we come to it anyway.”

Sonic grinned. “How about we watch some TV for now, take our minds off things?”

“Sure! But I’m definitely gonna tell Omega- or whoever calls us next- about this. They deserve to know.” the fox answered.

“Okay…” the blue blur said. He felt a little guilty that he could just turn on a movie and forget about G.U.N. for a while- Team Dark didn’t have that luxury. Quickly, though, he added, “Anything on there you’ve been dying to watch?”

Tails smiled happily, and Sonic decided that this was totally worth it. “Well, there is this one documentary…”

COURSECUBE Reviews | Scam Or Does It Really Works?

What Is Called CourseCube?

The worldwide eLearning market is projected to be worth $398 billion by 2026 and it’s NO secret that courses are the hottest thing going! Now is the perfect time to get in and profit from this kind of explosive growth!

(Buy now) Get your hands on CourseCube from its official website at some exclusive rates

In order to do that, you obviously need things that you can sell… and Danny & his team have got you MORE than covered with 50 plus DFY courses in 25 skill niches you can start with right now! This is the world’s easiest tool to create your own incredible e-learning website with the potential to earn billions of dollars within minutes

Here’s a Sneak Peek!

· University & School Programmes

· Yoga

· DIY Makeup Tips & Tricks

· Weight Training & Fitness

· Digital Marketing

· Dance

· Gardening

· Photography

· Accounting

· & So Many More…

(Buy now) Get your hands on CourseCube from its official website at some exclusive rates

You don’t need to just stick to a particular niche. Here’s your chance to become the Jack of all trades and Master them too!

You don’t even have to set any of them up, they’re all ready to go in a matter of minutes and with zero set up time on your part. Of course you can adjust them, add your own or others as well!

CourseCube is an all-in-one solution for creating online education marketplaces like Udemy, Skillshare, Coursera, etc.

This platform is packed with lots of awesome features like online courses, live classes, quizzes, and an advanced certification plugin based on real business needs so you can start your online education business right now.

You Are A Few Clicks Away From Launching Your Own E-Learning Empire

· Build your own fully designed & hosted E-learning website within minutes…simply pick a domain name to begin

· Access fully loaded authentic guaranteed-to-convert courses along with a dedicated lesson manager

· Pick from 50 hot-selling courses across the top 25 trending niches

· Host live courses by instructors, add advanced quizzes & distribute certificates to maximize engagement

· Interact with students in real-time using LIVE classes feature using Zoom, Google Meet & Jitsi integration

· Built-in marketplace with 24X7 support to earn the top dollar for every enrolment

· Video & banner ad selling for extra mileage and commissions.

· Increase customer satisfaction using personalized gamification badges to reward users

· Build you list on-the-go using optin forms & ranking high on search engine thanks to daily auto-curated blog content

CourseCube can be purchased at discounted prices from the official store

CourseCube is a cutting-edge software that creates Udemy like sites packed with ready-to-sell HD im training videos, dfy sales funnels & support desk in just 7 minutes… no course creation, no hosting, no monthly or yearly fee.

It’s a cloud-based software with tons of ground-breaking features that requires no training creation, no technical hassles and any recurring cost. Its’ bigger & better… comes with 40+ im training video courses to sell as your own.

So don’t hesitate to check he next parts of this Course Cube Review as I’ll show you how powerful it is!

CourseCube Review – Key Features & Benefits

For more information about this product, click the button below: ⇒ QUICK-START

CourseCube’s interface is incredibly easy yet brilliantly advanced, you can get started within minutes, you don’t need any prior experience or skill!

Inside this package, it takes longer to think of a name for the domain than it does to create your own E-learning website using CourseCube.

⇒ FULLY LOADED CONTENT

You will no longer need to wait for even a moment before you publish your site. Simply select the niche of your choice from the top 25 niches once you login. Pick from a range of 50 hot-selling courses and hit publish instantly, each course has multiple video modules for you.

⇒ DFY CREATION & MANAGEMENT

This all-in-one platform not only creates and hosts your website but also makes it a money magnet. It takes care of the selling, payment collection, and maintenance.

In-built marketplace, support system, lesson manager, and other incredible features are game-changing. Also, enjoy enormous flexibility when you add your own course, you can also customize the design & layout of the site!

⇒ MAX ENGAGEMENT

CourseCube gives you the chance to engage with your audience like no other platform, it supports advanced quizzes and the distribution of certificates.

You will be able to add live courses using the seamless integration with popular video conferencing platforms like Google Meet, Zoom & Jitsi.

⇒ REWARD SCHEME

This feature helps you to increase customer satisfaction or increase your commissions using gamification badges that are designed for various metrics like sales, registration days, courses, purchases, ratings, etc.

With each milestone a user reaches, you can reward them with personalized badges, you can also charge users for these badges and make additional profits.

⇒ ADDITIONAL REVENUE STREAMS

Use advertising as an effective means to multiply your profits inside this CourseCube. You are able to insert ads pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll and charge advertisers accordingly. Rent out your web banner space for the top dollar too!

⇒ FREE TRAFFIC GENERATION & LEAD CAPTURING

Don’t invest a single penny in promoting your platform, this CourseCube generates blog content daily to help you rank higher on search engines.

Thus, enjoy free traffic flooding your site, capture leads on the go using in-built opt-in forms.

⇒ BEGINNER FRIENDLY

CourseCube has been designed to make beginners and experts profit alike! So you don’t need any experience or special skill-set to begin. Everything is ready for you, all you need to do is count your profits!

CourseCube can be purchased at discounted prices from the official store

Who Should Use It?

From what I have experienced, CourseCube is the perfect choice for anyone, whether you are a beginner or an experienced person, you will still need it because of the much more outstanding features compared to other products.

This product is designed for:

♥ Business Owners

♥ E-com Store Owners…

♥ Product Creators

♥ Content Creators

♥ Freelancers

♥ Bloggers

♥ Affiliate Marketers

♥ Vloggers, eCom Store Owners

♥ Social Media Marketers

♥ Agency

♥ Freelance Designers

How Much Does It Cost?

Please Check The Funnel & Each Upgrade Details Below:

CourseCube can be purchased at discounted prices from the official store

♥ Front End: CourseCube ($17)

♥ OTO1: Coursecube Pro ($37)

With this CourseCube Unlimited Edition you get…

· 25+ DFY HD Video Courses To Start Selling Immediately

They are serious about giving you every single thing you need to capitalize on this booming eLearning industry and make the most out of it. That’s why this Pro upgrade pack includes 25+ Fully Done-For-You HD video courses in sizzling HOT niches that will help you make more sales which means more revenue for you.

It’s no secret that videos are one of the best formats for teaching and learning almost anything. This is an entire library of video courses PRE-loaded in your CourseCube platform, so you can start selling them immediately. Not just 25 videos, but 25 entire courses containing many video lessons!

· Build UNLIMITED Course Academies

With this Pro Upgrade, you can create unlimited academies for your every project, niche or business, or client… and once again they are all fully hosted for you.

Just imagine if ONE Academy makes you $100 a week, with 100 Academies you could MULTIPLY that by 100…. Turning a decent $100 a week income into a mind-blowing $10,000 a week.

Sure, you may want to start with just one academy, but why limit your future potential? Who knows what ideas you may have in the future and how many niches you may want to pursue?

There is no limit on what you create and generate with the CourseCube – Pro Upgrade.

· Upload UNLIMITED Courses

Remember… having more courses means more students, more sales and more profits. This PRO upgrade pack gives you the power to create unlimited courses with unlimited lessons for any audience, in any niche, for each of your academies without any hassle or extra cost.

With the ability to create unlimited courses in unlimited niches, you can cover the things that people want to learn about in a changing world, and continue to add new courses as trends develop.

· Get Unlimited Sub-Domains

With the PRO upgrade version, you aren’t limited to a small number of academies and subdomains. You will get unlimited personal sub-domains for your unlimited academy sites.

Choose a new sub-domain for every academy site you create, for every niche, for all your students. It will instantly build your authority and credibility and also give you a better exposure in search engines

· Attract Unlimited Students

And many More Incredible Features..

♥ OTO 2: Done For You ($97)

They’re giving 43 Action Takers the Opportunity To Do All The Work For You Setting Up Your Course Platform. With the “done for you” upgrade, you won’t have to do a single thing yourself. They will do literally everything for you.

Here’s What You’ll Get…

· CourseCube E-learning Platform Account Setup: There’s no need for you to stress out over properly setting up your CourseCube account, as they’ll do it for you with this upgrade…

· 6X Faster Results: They will dedicate 6x more server resources towards the users of this upgrade.

· Special Profit Boosting Tweaks Added To Your Account: They’ll add on simple yet powerful tweaks that are proven to boost your profits & sales even more…

· FULL BLOWN CourseCube Business Set Up

· AND for anyone who upgrades to “done for you” today: They will EVEN give you special one-on-one skype support throughout the whole Done For You access and for as long as you use CourseCube

♥ OTO 3: Agency License ($67)

With this, you’ll be able to start offering people access to CourseCube under your branding. It’ll look like you worked hard and invested thousands, when all you did was invest in CourseCube Agency. They’ll never know

You’ll get access to CourseCube account license keys you can revoke, sell, and create new accounts with. Do whatever you please with them. To reward those who take action, they are offering the customers of CourseCube the chance to upgrade to the agency version for a massive discount…

After this limited time discount expires, the price will rise to $297. If you wait any longer, you could end up paying more for the same thing. Remember… CourseCube Agency pays for itself.

You’re getting access to CourseCube license keys you can revoke, sell, and create new accounts with all under your own branding. All it takes is the sale of a few accounts, and BAM, you’ve paid for your investment. And there’s no risk, because…

They Take Care Of All The Support. You don’t have to do anything, just collect your 100% profit and find a way to spend it. This is amazing for you if you do not have a product you sell online and EVERY ONLINE MARKETER WANTS for their business.

♥ OTO 4: Traffic Club ($67)

· They’ll Do The Setup For You

· They’ll Select Products For You

· They’ll Drive Traffic For You

· They’ll Drive Sales For You

· Finally Leave Your Day Job

· Only 25 Spots At A 1-Time Price

· 250-Day Guarantee

♥ OTO 5: CourseCube Whitelabel ($297)

This opportunity Its for the biggest action takers ONLY Because what I’m offering you is a complete White label license to

So you’ll get your own version of the CourseCube E-Learning software, but with your own name, your own branding, AND your own domain.

You’ll be able to create accounts, sell the software to others, giveaway accounts, and even launch your own rebranded version of the software on JvZoo, WarriorPlus or anywhere you want.

Not only that, they will even HOST the software for you. They will update it for you, They will handle all the support and they will even buy you a domain and set everything up for you too!

All you’ll need to do is choose the name you want for your new software and they will take care of the rest.

They will even design an all new logo for you, and help you out with setting up your sales pages and videos for your new rebranded software.

Conclusion

That’s all what I want to share with you about CourseCube. I hope that my review can give you a helping hand in deciding what is best for you.

Patch Notes

UPDATE: 11/12/2019 - PC 1.58.63.1010/ Mac 1.58.63.1210 Happy Fall! We have a few new Holiday items available for you in Create A Sim to celebrate the holidays. Along with that a new Multi Story Column feature to help you build tall columns for a grand entrance or interior. UI Scaling is also available in the options panel to give you more options with our UI configurations. Want to know what Sims 4 content is out there? New Main Menu Message is now avail on load to easily help you find the latest and greatest content from The Sims 4. In addition, we’ve fixed bugs and community concerns to improve your Sims daily lives. -SimGuruSteph NEW & IMPROVED FEATURES Multi Story Columns I’m not sure calling them multi-story columns is accurate. They are more like multi-height columns. Just go into the build catalog, place a column, grab the handle at the top, and drag it up and down to re-size. Some have a maximum size, others however... I think I topped out around 100 feet. UI Scaling Now available in the Options menu - UI Scaling! Are you a 4k player with tiny user interface issues? Do you prefer your interface to be readable at distances greater than fifty feet away? Have you a desire to customize the scale to your personal preferences? Now you can! From the Options panel, open up Game Options, and choose Accessibility. Stay away from the red parts of the slider to keep things in the safe range for your display. But, if you are feeling adventurous, give it a try, go crazy! If for some reason you find yourself in a bad state, you can always reset - either from the options panel, or by using Ctrl+U to reset the scaling back to default! Main Menu Messaging We know you want to know EVERYTHING about what’s going on, so we’ve added the ability to show you the latest and greatest Sims content on the Main Menu. You’ll be able to learn about free content, check out the latest updates on upcoming releases, pore over the newest blog posts, and more! New Clothing We have updated the Holiday Celebration Pack with some new children and toddler clothing! If you haven’t already added the Holiday Celebration Pack to your game, click on the icon at the Main Menu, and download the free pack! From there, head on in to Create a Sim and select the Holiday filter to find the new assets! Children have a new male top, female top, and winter boots! Toddlers have a new outfit for males, a new outfit for females, and some shoes! Or open up the Styled Looks, where SimGuruMorgan created some great new looks with the content! Music We have made the Hip Hop Radio Station available for everyone! This means that it is no longer exclusive to Get Famous. However, Get Famous specific music will still need Get Famous to be played. We added the following songs as part of this update: “BMO” Performed by Ari Lennox Written by Courtney Salter, Damon Coleman, Ron Gilmore, Jr., Anthony Parrino and Galt MacDermot Published by Ari Lennox Publishing Designee (BMI), Damon Coleman Publishing Designee, Ron Gilmore Music (BMI), Kobalt Music Services America o/b/o Elite That’s Me Publishing and Third Side America o/b/o MacDermot Music Contains a sample of “Space” by Galt MacDermot Recording courtesy of Dreamville/Interscope Records under license from Universal Music Enterprises and Third Side Music o/b/o Kilmarnock Records “Big Moe” Performed by Beau Young Prince Written by Jaimy Lageweg and Beau Young Published by Jailo Music and Rough Trade Songs Recording courtesy of Def Jam Recordings under license from Universal Music Enterprises “Dumbstruck” Performed by Ceraadi Written by Emaza Gibson, Saiyr Gibson and Troy Johnson Published by Emaza Gibson Publishing Designee, Saiyr Gibson Publishing Designee and Sony/ATV Tunes o/b/o Margetts Road Music/Noni Zuri Music Recording courtesy of Roc Nation under license from Universal Music Enterprises “Good Life” Performed by RDGLDGRN & Daniela Written by David Lichens, Pierre Desrosiers, Andrei Busuioceanu and Marcus Parham Published by Songs of Kobalt Music Publishing o/b/o Fungai Music (BMI) and Warner Chappell Recording courtesy of RDGLDGRN “Block List” Performed by Rico Nasty Written by Maria Kelly and Mark Nilan Published by Kobalt Music Services America o/b/o Artist Publishing Group West (ASCAP)/Artist 101 Publishing Group (BMI) Recording courtesy of APG/Atlantic Recording Corp. by arrangement with Warner Music Group Video Game Licensing “Litest” Written and Performed by DJDTP Enjoy! FIXES & UPDATES The Sims 4

Sims that dislike Fruitcake no longer react negatively to all other food. On the other hand, Sims that like Fruitcake no longer will react positively to Poor Quality foods.

Grab Meal or Give Food for all ages will now fulfill the hunger needs completely. Hopefully it will help with the 100 baby challenge :)

Spoiled visual effect now will go away on servings from coffee and tea pots.

Sims will now place grilled food on the table appropriately instead of their inventory.

Terrain Manipulation brush and eraser cursor is now visible for all terrain tools in 32 and 64 bit mode on PC.

Fresh drinks are now available on the drink tray (for those who own Spa Day and/or Backyard Stuff). “Grab drink” from drink tray functions and will no longer give you an incorrect message.

Households populated in the “Other Households” tab in Manage Worlds can no longer be composed of just a Child.

Idle Sims will no longer drink water excessively.

Skin details no longer go away when randomizing Sim features other than the "Face" or "All" categories.

NPC Sims that are not Gardeners will no longer remove Wild Plants from lots autonomously.

Rare and uncommon harvestables will now be produced at higher rates when splicing.

Fixed an issue in which typing in the search field in Build Mode made the phrase “Text Field” appear erroneously.

Sims will no longer leave the dining table after they’ve started having their meal when using the “Call to Meal” interaction.

Fixed an issue in which Sims were not able to wash dishes or use the dishwasher if there were shelving units above the sink or the dishwasher.

Child Sims will not longer have their eyebrow color changed to Brown when they are set to Blonde.

Fixed an issue that made Adult Sims constantly change outfits while Taking a Shower, and then giving a Bath to Toddlers.

Fixed an issue where capturing screenshots with the Capture UI option enabled didn’t actually capture the UI.

Fixed an issue which made the option “Put here” not available when holding Pets and Toddlers.

Fixed an issue which made Paying Bills via Phone not be fulfilled if Simmers queued any other action before it would complete.

Simmers playing in Laptop Mode will now see improvements on the in game lighting.

Moving a wall will no longer delete objects on a separate shelf when bb.moveobjects cheat is used.

Fixed an issue in which Toddlers that had maxed out their skills were not receiving the Top Notch Trait when aging up.

Toddler Traits are no longer visible after aging.

Success Lineage Aspiration can now be completed once appropriate conditions are met.

Terrain Paints now persist when placing a lot from the gallery.

Assets yfBody_EP06DressFur_GoldGreen, yfBody_GP07DressWestern_FlowerOrange & yfBody_EP03TankStrappy_ElephantAquaCream were updated to look better with various shoe styles.

Vendors will no longer use your Sims’ fireplace as an imaginary portal to mysterious places.

Emotional sculpture thumbnail in sims inventory and world appearance are now visually the same.

“Get Married to..” whim now complete when you actually get married. Achievement Unlocked!

Sims now are more diligent in putting back their books in the bookshelf and/or bookcase.

Focused Sims can now go back to hacking work process when they reach level 6.

Sims that randomly decided to cosplay and have pointy ears have now revert back to their normal selves.

Nature’s Welcome Arch gate will no longer have metal gate audio.

Catching fish with excellent quality will now count toward the “Make 6 Great Catches” task of the Angling Ace Aspiration.

Creating stairs to the second floor of a raised block will no longer need a drop wall to support it for Sims to be able to route on it.

Sims are now able to route into their home after using terrain manipulation tools in their home lot.

Sims are no longer collecting items in their inventories without your permission.

Alien Disguises and Vampire Dark Forms uploaded to gallery are now properly flagged for packs and custom content used.

Sims will now autonomously interact with each other if one is sitting down and the other is standing.

Move lot will no longer inadvertently unhide stairs, specifically stairs above the first floor.

Updated Muslim inspired assets so clipping is not apparent below the Sims’ chin.

Updated Apron tops to look smoother.

Sims are now less considerate and do not congratulate their romantic partners when they find a new romantic partner.

Send Geo Council for collectables will no longer require you to send your computer with it.

Glass roof created on the ground should now be routable (as long as there is an entryway built into it).

Randomize Twin in Create-a-Sim will carry user-manipulated ears and nose over to the twin.

Fixed an issue that would cause interactions to get stuck in the queue.

Selling Normal quality Mystery novels will now give you money in return.

Copy interaction is now available on Cookbooks and Mixology books.

Sims that despise each other and have no romantic relationship will no longer greet each other with a passionate kiss. Seem normal to me?!

Child sit-to-stand transitions for toddler bed and lounge chair exhibit less clipping.

Perk and trait buffs will now persist through travel.

Drop walls from stairs will now fill in when terrain is manipulated below the stairs.

Sims’ Inventory will no longer reset and jump to the top while in use.

Hover Tip for Electrified Artist updated to proper text.

Fixed an issue in which railings were clipping into the walls.

Railings on extended landing do not have missing posts or different looking sections.

Drawn on eyebrow thumbnail will no longer show incorrect swatch.

Music artist names in the Music Game Options are no longer cut off.

Collared jean jacket will clip less with various hair styles.

Fence posts are now updated when terrain manipulation occurs.

Sims are now able to do Check Toddler interaction while swimming.

Steps in enclosed courtyard will no longer auto delete a part of your staircase.

Take a Vacation day and Call in Sick are no longer available options when Sims are already on vacation.

Teen Sims will no longer get adult Woohoo buff.

Park Cub table can now be put in the inventory.

Wall Height icon in the description text in Build Mode will now the appropriate wall height.

Fixed some issues which may cause Error Code 102 or Error Code 139 to appear during gameplay.

You can say the Fruitcake was the culprit, jury is still out on that one.

Objection! Maybe not…

They are now properly supervised.

They will now hydrate appropriately.

It was haunting.

Now both eyebrow and hair color will match as set by Simmers.

Though we would love to hold them forever.

Get to Work

Patient Sims that are referred to the surgery table will no longer leave in the middle of surgery.

Sims can no longer simultaneously have two occult types. Specifically Vampire and Aliens.

Get Together

Steam will no longer accumulate in rooms above indoor swimming pools, or natural pools, built with vents.

Book Covers do not change when you place them on retail display.

Club panel text field size has been increased to accommodate longer text.

City Living

NPC Sims that attend Festivals are not longer seen in not festival appropriate outfits.

Fixed an issue that Simmers with Outdoor Retreat and City Living didn’t have the “Ask to Cloudgaze” interaction available in San Myshuno apartments.

Fixed an issue that didn’t allow the camera to zoom in properly when looking at lots at their basement level.

Updating the pricing of counter and cabinets to be more consistent with the rest of the Build Mode catalog.

Updated rental options to not exist in Sulani..

Promote Cause Daily Tasks will now be fulfilled with the Promote Policies Interaction.

Cats & Dogs

Fixed an issue in which all stray dogs were large dogs. Now they can be all sizes.

Lighthouse Woohoo spot is back in business.

Sims are able to complete crafting pet medicine with Marketable trait.

Quickly Update your Dr. Magi-Heal’s Surger-o-matic 3000 with an instant upgrade.

A jacket blazer now layers better with bottoms

Dogs will no longer try to put the cat wand away when they can’t and stretch into a mystical form.

Clipping issues were improved with a pair of shorts and various tops, specifically the asset yfBottom_EP04Shorts.

Turning on view distance in option panels will no longer make a brick fence in the world completely white.

Seasons

Child and Teen Sims are now spawning to knock on doors during the holiday season with trick or treat.

It's less likely to rain at GeekCon festivals now, which should help keep those computers safe!

Fixed an issue in which Sims were able “Rake Leaves” in their Home Lot while Sims were far from leaves to rake.

Mix breed cat function in Create a Sim now works again. Yay!

Social events put in calendar are now functional and will trigger.

Simmers playing with Low Graphics settings can now see improved textures when Sims are wearing Scout uniforms.

Fixed an issue in which rewards from the Scout after school activity were not being awarded properly.

The reward will now appear in the Sims’ Inventory, instead of being unlocked in Build Mode.

Get Famous

Sims employed in any career will no longer be prompted to miss work, or end their shift early, when work hours coincide with visits from Sims that were given a residence key.

Have Sim Dance at the Same Time goal at the Fan Meet and Greet Event can now be completed when you have your Sims and other Sims dance at the same time.

Talent Showcase events will no longer sometimes occur on an invalid location.

Text was updated to hover tip for Action Vol 3 purchase book picker.

Tooltip text for Quality description of videos created by the video station is now colored purple.

Sims Radio too loud? You can adjust the radio volume now after listening to the music you created on the Mix Master Music Production Station.

Consistency!

Island Living

Uninvited Sims will no longer appear when attending Kava Parties on lots with the “Private Dwelling” Lot Trait.

Beach Venues lots can now be selected for Sims to go on dates.

Fixed an issue in which samples taken from Sulani to fulfill Conservation career tasks were disappearing from the Sim Inventory after analyzing said samples.

Fixed an issue in which the “Dried Scales” buff would not disappear after Mermaids fulfilled their hydration needs.

Fixed an issue with Mermaid Children that did not allow them to Take Baths INSIDE bathtubs.

Traditional Sarong asset will not clip with tops as much.

Fixed an issue that made aged up Mermaid Teen Sims have their Mermaid Tails disappear in Create a Sim and while Swimming.

Career Promotions for Conservationist can still occur after reaching level 10.

Bulldozing waterfront lots in Island Living will now not remove terrain paint.

Goggles no longer create an awkward shadow that does not make sense.

Sims can now store coconuts away in the fridge. Woot woot!

Human Sims no longer will think they are Mermaids by swimming like them when swimming laps.

Promotion task is marked completed when Sims have a diving knife.

Sims can now release the fish back into the ocean.

Sims with Master Chef Trait do not make spoil food anymore.

Sunkiss buff will now have the appropriate icon.

Rounded blocks will no longer have missing stilts

Blueprint placement for lots with floor lights will no longer place them underneath structure and float. Gravity is more realistic.

Stilt foundation shadows now appear properly.

Game will no longer crash when placing particular lots from The Gallery.

A TV stand missing in search bar will now appear. You didn't know what you were missing out on when using search… or you did know and now it’s fixed!

Penthouses from The Gallery will now place all available items properly.

Some furniture items that did not appear on the cursor from Build Mode will now appear.

Claiming a bed is now exclusive to one Sim. Now Sims can sleep in their own bed without disturbance or worry about another Sim using their bed.

Selected tattoos in Create A Sim will no longer automatically reapply clothing.

Hot and Cold outfit categories will no longer filter tattoos upon re-entry.

Jet visual effect will now display properly when streaming from a drone.

Burnt visual effects no longer appear on lot terrain when there is fire on homes with stilt foundations.

Configuring a U shape staircase to another floor will cause the stair cause to lose some steps no more!

Mermaid Sims will do their special swim idle when performing Mermaid interactions.

Mermaid Sims that have been turned into skeletons can now take a bath. Keep those bones clean.

Set favorite watercraft will now set correct one to favorite.

Plants placed on Suspended Modern from gallery will no longer place plants in odd places.

Island Welcome Wagon will now continue to hold Kava bowls to give to your Household instead of placing it on the ground when it rains.

It’s my party, and I don’t invite you if I want to.

Romantic!

Being used to the vastness of the Ocean, Mermaid Children were not happy being limited by a bathtub.

Dine Out

Fixed textures for a few Experimental Dishes.

Restaurant signs no longer have an odd bounding box shadow around it. It’ll be well rounded.

We apologize, our Glazed Heirloom Bamboo Roll, Space Taco with Pearled Egg Core, and Free Range Sixam Pit Beast did not look quite like what you actually ordered.

Vampires

Vampire Sims will no longer get scolded if they drink plasma from Sims even though they had been granted permission to do so.

Options from the Face category in Create A Sim are no longer missing for Vampire Sims when using the Change Sim interaction.

Vampires have adjusted to daylight savings now and are awake when you invite them to hang out.

Vampire Dark form uploaded to gallery are now properly flagging CC content and packed used.

Parenthood

Adult Sims are less likely to autonomously watch Kids Network if Toddlers/Children/Teens aren't nearby.

Realm Of Magic

Spellcasters with the Bloodline trait will no longer have their rank reset if they reach the Virtuoso rank.

Potions can now be sold for Simoleons.

Fixed an issue which allowed the Emotional Stability Potion to remove certain buffs from Sims unintentionally.

Fixed an issue where the Spellbinding Tile wall pattern was displaying duplicate swatch colors in Build Mode.

Cooking and Brewing in cauldron will no longer change sell price in build mode.

Drinking animation is performed by Sims when Sims drink potion of curse cleaning to remove curse.

Animation for the teleport is no longer getting cut off.

Orb Familiars will not pop and jump from their locations while following their Sims out of water.

Two necklaces were updated to improve capability with other Create a Sims assets.

Trouser texture will no longer appear on the top of a pair of boots.

Bicep bracelet is now shown properly in Create A Sim thumbnail.

Profit!

Cool Kitchen Stuff

Removed “Get Leftovers” option for ice cream since it was never intended, and who leaves ice cream for leftovers? Not me :)

Spooky Stuff

Spooky Party will now count towards the Party Animal Aspiration.

Moschino Stuff

Fixed an issue in which in some cases the game would freeze while in Photo Mode.

Sims that you have not met will no longer appear in the Sims selector when triggering Take photo of.

Out of the Void || BTS

↳ Summary: The one where the boys stumble upon that one fic and they all end up reading. (This is a crack fic inspired by @btssavedmylifeblr’s Void, because my own words are not enough to describe how an amazing story Void it is, and what a outstanding writer Bee is).

⇢ Warnings: BEWARE OF SPOILERS!! This things should be full of them so I suggest you to read all of Void before reading this just in case. Also, for those entitled rude anons: stop demanding updates from the fan fiction writers like they owe you shit, cause they don’t! And stop coming at them to complain about their publishing schedule. This is done for fun and for free, if you can’t be patient and respect their creative process then fuck off!

A/N: Also, I had so much fun writing this. I wanted to keep adding and adding stuff. However, since english is not my mother language i had some trouble describing the scenes the way I pictured them in my head. Therefore, I decided to leave it like this for now. 

(TT-TT) Im sorry, Bee! I did try my best, I know it doesn’t do Void justice. But I still wanted to write it for you because Void is such an amazing story! 

That’s it! Please,enjoy!

→ 01

[...]

He shouldn’t be doing this.

Hoseok checked over his shoulder again before turning back to the phone in his hands. It wasn’t like if someone were to come into his studio right now and catch him watching porn.

Hell, this was so much worse.

Especially considering how he was supposed to be working on the rap arrangement for the new song, and not checking out a piece of fan-fiction... If Namjoon were to catch him he was going to give him hell for days.

He had strictly advised the six of them against it several times, but to be honest Hoseok was to eager to find out what happened next to actually acknowledge the suggestion. Besides, he was he eldest of the two and it wasn’t like he had to listen to his band member. Joon was only the leader when the cameras were out. Inside their dorms he couldn’t even remember to wash the dishes when he was supposed to or take the clothes out of the dryer so they wouldn’t end up a crumble mess the next morning.

Also, it was all Jimin’s fault.

His dongsaeng had sent him the link without any explanation last week. It was a silly thing they did to each other trying to make the other cringe with whatever weird-ass story they could find, mostly on Twitter. It was all for the laughs but they had stopped doing it when Hoseok had accidentally send Seokjin a rather explicit piece that involved Jimin and Yoongi in a threesome with some kind of catgirl trying to get her pregnant. It was meant for the young boy, of course and that slip of hand had resulted in a hysteric Seokjin exposing them right in front of the others.

Hoseok has been so embarrassed after that he couldn’t even look at Yoongi in the face for a whole ass week. Even though his hyung had said it was fine. It didn’t help that Taehyung and Jungkook wouldn’t let the topic die either. Those rascals, he made sure to make them wore their asses off in the following dance practices.

But anyways, he and Jimin had agreed to stop.

So it was a surprise to receive a new link from him after a couple months. He’d ignored it at first, being too busy with practice and rehearsals to bother with checking it up. But yesterday while waiting for his appointment with the cupping therapist, he’d absentmindedly opened it and was actually surprised with what he’d found. Written in English, it was a space story... and they were astronauts!

At that moment he been too oblivious to care and read the warnings or summary on top of the post. For a moment of innocent wonder he actually got caught up in the first scene. He was a scientist in space, it couldn’t get any cooler than that! But of course, he had soon realized what type of story it was.

The problem was that it didn’t start right off with the porn part like most stories he’s found while browsing the darkest depths of the ARMY’s fandom. He’d read some weird shit himself, demons, half-animal people, male pregnancyㅡHell! even tentacles once. The kind of things his fans could come up with was exhilarating, and it blew his mind that the weirdest and kinkiest were for some reason the best well-written of allㅡ.

But this story was different.

It had a storyline, an actual estructure, inciting incident, clear stakes, the whole pack. Years listening to his father reviewing novels and short-stories had resulted in him developing an appetite for well-written stories. And even though the main character was that Y/N type their fans where so keen about, she wasn’t plain at all. She struggled, and that was nice to read. Besides, all that astronaut stuff sounded so legit that he almost consider the possibility of the author being an astronaut herself. He’d always been a fan of fantasy and sci-fi since he was child and his father brought him the entire collection of Jules Verne’s novels for his eleventh birthday. Stories about voyages to far and unknown places were his guilty pleasure, so of course he got hooked up with this piece faster than he’d ever with any other he’d read so far.

But he couldn’t finished the chapter that time because the masseur was already calling his name. The scrolling bar told him he wasn’t even half way through it, so he’d copied the link for later and went to the therapist office. So now there he was resuming his reading with renewed eagerness.

The main character had just arrived at a green house inside the ship. And there was Yoongi.

Hoseok huffed and raised an eyebrow when he realized this scene focused all on his elder. Wasn’t he supposed to be the main character here? Not that he complained, though. Yoongi’s fingers where indeed nice after all and wouldn’t blame the girl for obsess over them. But in most stories he’d read there was always a lead, and he assumed by the first scene it was going to be himself. Maybe this was a threesome?

He quickly scrolled back up to the story information, searching for the pairing section where he knew his questions would be answered. /OT7 x reader/

He flinched.

“All of us? What...?”. Did that mean everyone was a love interest? Or that the main character was supposed to screw all of them at once? How was that supposed to work if there was just one woman in the whole crew?

Oh wait...

The realization hit him. Of course, that was the whole plot. Seven guys and one girl, and they had to fight for her love? It was something like that for sure, wasn’t it? She would pick one of them and then they’d have sex. He kept reading—

«Your deepest darkest fantasies- the ones you always turned to on your most stressed and anxious nights - were the ones involving the entire crew. The idea of them finding out what a slut you were for them and passing you between them filled you with an embarrassing level of arousal. You would imagine them taking turns filling you until all your thoughts of loneliness and emptiness had been fucked out of you. And you would sleep like a baby.»

—or not...

He scratched his chin, a little confused now. Was this actually going to be gangbang? Or more importantly, was he actually going to read this till the end? He did like threesomes, not that he’d been in one... Yet. Their schedules hardly ever allowed them to properly date someone, and hooking up with a random stranger was way too risky with the level of fame they’d reached at this point. But the idea of threesomes was very appealing, although he’d never actually consider having a gangbang with all his members. However... he wasn’t going to cross off reading about one just yet.

Just as he was about to resume his reading, the door flew open and Jimin‘s face appeared. “Hyung!”

Hoseok jumped in his seat, his phone fell on his lap.

“Shit...!”, he took a deep breath and glared at his band member. “You almost gave me a heart attack, Jimin!”

A sly grin appeared on the youngest face.

“Why? What were you doing?”

Hoseok cleared his throat. Had he been discovered?

“Nothing”, he lied so poorly he wanted to smack himself on the face.

“You were totally reading it, weren’t you?”, Jimin chuckled. “Did you get to the video part already?”

“No, what video part?”

Jimin raised both palms.

“Sorry, not going to give you any spoilers”

Hoseok rolled his eyes. “Anyway... Why did you send it?” He asked, retrieving his phone and unlocking the screen again. “I thought we agreed on not doing that anymore”

“Yeah, but Taehyung send it to me”

“What?” Hoseok frowned, and turned around in his chair to face the boy. That was a surprise. “Why would he...?” He shook his head, sometimes Taehyung needn’t a reason to do the most random things.

Jimin simply shrugged.

“He also sent it to Jungkook and Namjoon-hyung”, Jimin ran his hand through his hair and giggled. “I think everyone is reading it now”

“Wait- What?!” Hoseok chuckled and raised an eyebrow. “Are you for real?”

“Haven’t you checked the group chat?”

“No, I was...” Hoseok pressed his tongue against his cheek. “-reading”.

“Huh”Jimin wiggled his eyebrows. “Is cool isn’t it?”

“Well, it’s ... interesting”, he conceded. Jimin let himself in and plopped down on the spare chair he kept in his studio in case he needed to work with the senior producers.

“Who do you think she’ll choose?”

“For what?”

“Come on, hyung.” Jimin snickered, “You know what I mean”

“Are you sure she is supposed to choose one of us?”

“What-? Obviously...”, Jimin shifted on the sofa, his face stared confused at Hoseok for a moment. But then he gasped, suddenly realizing what he mean. “Do you mean-? All of us?!”

“Why not?” Hoseok shrugged. “It’s just a story, anyways. You know some of our fans like kinky stuff and there’s nothing wrong with that”

“I mean! I know that! Its not-”. Jimin’s face turned a bright shade of red. “W-we shouldn’t be reading about that. What if they get... ideas!” He brought a hand to his forehead and looked back at him with a worried expression. Hoseok spluttered in a laugh, but it soon dwindled when he realized Jimin was actually serious about his concern.

“Jimin...”

“Goddamnit...!” Hoseok observed as his younger member stood up and facepalmed himself “I’m an idiot! I bet that was Taehyung’s plan all along”

“Taehyung’s plan was to have us... read fan-fiction?”

“About a gangbang!”

Hoseok rolled his eyes.

“It’s just fan fiction, Jimin. Not a proposition”, he said, but Jimin wasn’t paying attention to him anymore.

“The others can’t read that. I have to stop them”, and he was about to storm out the door, but Hoseok had to stop him.

“Hey, hey!”, he grabbed him by the elbow. “Now you’re just exaggerating”

“No, I’m not”, Hoseok couldn’t comprehend why Jimin was so scandalized. “We can’t have a gangbang, hyung!”

“No, no, no!”, he “First of all, no one is having a gangbang. Second of all, why does it bother you so much?”

“It doesn’t!”

“Really?”

“I just don’t want to be... I don’t want to share a partner with the six of you”

“Why, you’re worried she might like it too much and dump you?” Hoseok teased. However, upon seeing Jimin getting all self-conscious, the smile was erased from his face.

“Jimin, come on. You don’t really think that would happen”

“I don’t know, you are all good looking and mature, and more talented that-“

“Stop it. You are not less than us, stop beating yourself so much specially over a fictional situation. Do you forget who has the third largest fan base among us?”

“It because ARMY likes when I act all cute and pretty, and want to baby me like a child. I’m the cutie, the tiny one...”, his voiced turned into an almost whisper at the end. “I’m never the big... manly man...”

“Jimin...”

“What?”

“This isn’t about the story, is it?”

“No... yes- well, not this one...”, he paused, looking at his feet, bashfully. “It’s just the other stories...”

“What other stories?”, Hoseok asked, but Jimin just shrugged. “I don’t get it...”

“Ugh- hyung it’s nothing really”, he was quick to reply, standing up again. “You are right, I’m so over-reacting... it’s just a story”

“Okay...”, Hoseok leaned back in his chair and looked again at Jimin who was standing next to the door. Hands behind his back, like a child waiting to be scolded. “You sure that’s all?”

“Yep”, that extra ‘p’ sound at the end was enough evidence that he was lying. But he was also aware of Jimin’s uneasiness so it was probably better to let him off the hook for now.

“Well, then...”, Hoseok rubbed his neck. “I really should get back to work then”

Jimin gave him a short smile and left without saying another word. Hoseok turned around in his chair to face his computer and actually get some work before the day was over.

But maybe...ㅡHe glanced at his phone next to the mouseㅡ, just maybe... one more chapter wouldn’t hurt either.

[...]

It was past three am when he arrived back at the dorm. He usually wasn’t the one to stay overnight at the studio like Joonie and Yoongi-hyung. But time flew from his grasp like an oiled rope after he finished the first chapter and he had to stay late to finish his assignments. He didn’t want Pdogg-hyung to yell at him in their next briefing. However, the pull of the story was too strong for him to resist.

He had gone to sleep right away, and with the first light the next day he was already reaching for his cellphone and logging into the Tumblr account he had created just for this. He needed to know what happened next, story-Jimin had to be out of his mind to give the main character a video of him masturbating. It was a risky move, he wouldn’t think Jimin was capable of it in real life... Maybe Seokjin-hyung was shameless enough to pull that one out, and Taehyung...

“Yeah, probably Taehyung...”, he mused to himself as he propped himself down on his elbows.

“Probably Taehyung what?”, Jimin’s sleepy voice asked from his side of the room.

“Oh! Jiminie, did I wake you?”, Jimin shook his head and asked again what he meant by ‘probably Taehyung’. Hoseok sat on his bed and stretched his arms. “Nothing, it’s just this story...”

“Why do you keep reading it, hyung?”, Jimin groaned and covered his face with both palms in exhaustion. Hoseok simply chuckled, Jimin’s concerns where silly. Plus, he wasn’t going to deny himself the pleasure of a good story just because his roommate thought his best friend was trying to get them to have an orgy.

“We are not having a gangbang, just relax”

Jimin huffed but didn’t argue further.

A sudden nasal shriek shattered the morning’s quietness and reached their ears through the door. Hoseok almost jumped off his bed to Jimin’s, what on earth was that? It sounded like some kind of hysteric bird .

“First you send me that porn thing and then you wanna talk about gangbangs?! Gangbangs!!”

Okay, that hysteric bird sounded like Seokjin now. And by the volume of it, it was coming from the kitchen.

“It’s not like that, hyung! You don’t even listen!” And that was definitely Joon’s.

Hoseok exchanged confused glances with Jimin that soon turned into curious ones. As if on cue, both of them got up their beds and ran into the kitchen to check on their band members.

Namjoon was leaning on the kitchen counter, a cup of coffee in one hand, the other scratching his forehead. Meanwhile Seokjin was beating some eggs in a plastic bowl, ranting about how much porn was acceptable in a household.

“It’s not porn! It’s basically literature!” Namjoon sounded as much fed up as he looked embarrassed. Seokjin let out a sarcastic chuckle.

“It’s porn! And you are a pervert!”

Namjoon rolled his eyes.

“If you could just read it-!”

“I have enough with the viruses that keep popping on the computer because of you shady search historial!” It was hilarious just listening to them arguing back and forth like and old married couple. But Hoseok was more curious about whether they were talking about what he though they were.

“Is this about the space story?”, he chimed in, resting his elbows on the marble island across Seokjin’s cooking station. Jimin climbed on a stool next to him.

“You too, now?”, Seokjin huffed, giving him and Jimin disgusted look. “Not that I’m surprised, considering your fascination with breeding cats”

“It was a cat-girl! And that was a mistake!” Hoseok’s ears suddenly burned. “But whatever...”

“Wait- So did you read it, or not?”, this time Namjoon was the one to speak.

“I am reading it, I’m on chapter two”, he replied and Jimin nodded along.

“Did you get to the video part right?”, Joon asked and before Hoseok had a chance to speak, Seokjin’s loud huff cut him off.

“Can I cook in peace without having to hear about how much you want a gangbang, pleaaaaase?”

“Com’on, hyung! I never said I wanted a gangbang!” Namjoon shot him a glare before turning back to Hoseok. His hands came to fondle with the fruit bowl in front of him.  “What I was trying to explain to this hyung is that I do think it’s an interesting guessing exercise for figuring out the extends of human behaviour in such adverse conditions”

“But you said you wanted to do it!”

“No! I said to explore it as in talk about it! WITH WORDS!”, Namjoon glared at their hyung, as a faint blush covered his cheeks. It was clear that “If you could’ve just listened for a moment instead of acting like a scandalized prude!”

“Yeah, hyung. It’s just a story, you are over reacting”, said Jimin, taking Hoseok by surprise considering all he had to say about it last night.

“Well, forgive me for not wanting a gangbang!”

“No one’s having a gangbang, for God’s sake!”

“I wouldn’t mind”, a fifth voice joined the conversation out of the blue and all the heads turned in the direction of the hallway.

Yoongi-hyung was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and messy bed hair. A slight frown hardening his features. He’d most likely woken up because all of the noise.

Seokjin let out a sarcastic chuckle.

“You too, Yoongi?”

“How long have you been standing there?”, Jimin asked. Yoongi shrugged off a yawn and walked over to grab an apple from the bowl Namjoon was holding. 

“It’s hard to keep sleeping with this hyung nagging so loud this early in the morning”, he pointed to his eldest and bit on the fruit.

“You know what?!”, Seokjin scoffed, and put aside all his cooking implements. “Y’all can make your own breakfast! Seriously...”

And walked away.

“So noisy...”, Yoongi mumbled as he munched on his apple.

“You read it too, hyung?”, Namjoon asked. Yoongi turned to him, leaning on his elbows. Hoseok’s eyes betrayed him as they followed Yoongi’s movements and the way he arched his back, lifting his ass in the air so subtly.

“Since Tae shared it in the group chat I figured I should give it a try”, he shrugged seemingly desinterestedm, but Hoseok knew him better than that. Yoongi liked to pretende he didn’t care about stuff other that making music, but it was clear to him by the way he was behaving, that the older rapper had enjoyed the story a little bit too much. “It was good”.

“You’re only saying that because you are not the main character”, said Jimin.

“At least I’m not the character that gave the girl a video of me jerking off”

“First of all, she asked! and second, you messed up big time keeping that memory card, hyung!”

Yoongi sneered at the younger boy. 

“I got her off, you didn’t”

“Wait, what are you-?”

Jimin’s face turned a bright red, his nosetrils flared. Namjoon just chocked a laugh, almost knocking off the fruit bowl. For a moment, Hoseok only stared in confussion at them. He couldn’t recall something like that happening in the story yet and he realized they were probably far ahead of him. 

“Hey! Don’t give me any spoilers! I haven’t reached that part yet”.

But Yoongi and Jimin just ignored him, continuing their teasing banter.

“I don’t think she’ll forgive you. EVER!”

“She was thinking of me while fucking you”

“At least I got to- to... be with her!”

“You can’t even say fuck without blushing. Space-Jimin is lightyears ahead of you”, a smug grin appeared in Yoongi’s face, clearly pleased with his joke and Jimin’s fuming face.

“That’s a bit rich coming from you, hyung”, Namjoon said with a smirk. “I mean, last time I checked you couldn’t even look at Halsey in her training clothes without turning red as a beetroot”

“That’s-!”, Yoongi coughed, a bite of the apple going the wrong way. Suddenly matching Jimin with his red cheeks. “That’s different!”

“Neither one of you would ever dare to act like the way the author portraits you. Just admit it”, Namjoon snickered. “You don’t have what it takes”.

“Oh, and you do?”

“I’m just saying if the seven of us where trapped in a spaceship and there’s just one woman for miles and miles...”, He crossed his arms, chin raised proudly. “I’m guessing you’d be too shy to get her attention”.

“It’s not a competition, anyway. It’s a story and it has already been written”, argued Yoongi. “And I was her first choice”.

“Technically it was Hobi”, Jimin pointed out. “She was so ready to throw herself over him in that lab scene”.

“Well Hobi doesn’t count here because he did nothing”

“Excuse me?”, Hoseok scoffed. “Clearly I’m the best character, unlike others I’m actually being professional”.

“Yeah, right. Professional until Yoongi-hyung tells you he screwed the main character”, Taehyung popped up from behind him making Hoseok shriek in surprise, followed closely by a sleepy-faced Jungkook.

“You little-! You almost killed me!”, Taehyung only laughed, joining the his chuckling hyungs.

“And he didn’t screw anything- anyone!”, said Jimin.

“Well, his fingers did”.

“Stop talking!”, Hoseok shoved Taehyung aside and shook his head. “You’ve already spoiled the story for me enough as it is! At least let me finish the chapters before we talk about this”.

“Yeah, maybe we shouldn’t talk about it before breakfast”, Namjoon scratched his chin. “Gguk, go tell Jin-hyung he can come back now”.

“Why, was he here?” asked Jungkook. 

“He left because he didn’t what to have a gangbang”, Yoongi answered, almost offended, like he was telling Jungkook his hyung had turned down some fishing trip.

Jungkook’s eyes where suddendly wide open.

“What-?!”

“It’s the story, nevermind!”, Jimin waved a hand in the air in dismissal.

“Wait, so we can’t have a gangbang?”

“Are you serious right now, hyung?”, Jimin gave Yoongi the side eye. His hyung response was simply shrugging.

“I like to keep my options open”.

“Yeah, maybe one thing you shouldn’t keep open is your mouth”. 

The group erupted in laughter at Jimin’s witty comeback. Yoongi raised the hand that held half an apple and pretended to throw it at Jimin’s head, only to join the laughter when the dancer fell from his chair by his motion.

Hoseok chuckled and shook his head. 

What a way to start the day.

. . . .