kudos don't determine worth

Thinking about Oscar buying his gf flowers for the first time (holding back tears)

-🌷(can i possibly be🌷anon?)

he would be determined. thank you for requesting and of course you can be 🌷 anon!

"Can I help you find anything?" the sales assistant asks kindly. She's got an amused smile on her face at the sight of the young man who appears overwhelmed at the selection of flowers laid in front of him. He'd considered leaving - there was too much variety, too many different options - but when he had laid eyes on the small floral store earlier he had become determined to buy a bouquet for you. He'd never bought you flowers before, never bought anyone flowers before. But you'd been together for a few months by now and he wanted to surprise you.

"Uh, yeah, maybe." He replies. "I wanna buy flowers for my girl- but which am I supposed to get her? How do I know what she'll like?" He rambles.

The woman only smiles at his nervous excitement, clearing off her table.

Oscar spends nearly half an hour listening intently to her explanations, taking in all the information as carefully as if he was hearing about the team's new car. He takes notes on his phone, making sure to write down the meanings of the flowers he chooses with her guidance.

He chews his lip lightly as she wraps the bouquet of hydrangeas, zinnias and baby's breath in translucent paper, tying a shiny white ribbon around too.

"Did you want to add a card too?" she asks, offering him a small pink card and a pen. Oscar thanks her, taking the pen and filling in both your name and his in the respective 'to' and 'from' spaces. His mind blanks as he tries to think of a message to add. How could he possibly find the words to explain how much you've become to him in a short period of time? He draws a shaky heart instead, hoping it will be enough to explain how he feels. The shop assistant loops the card onto the ribbon, tying it in a neat bow and handing the bouquet to Oscar who thanks her profusely for all her help.

"Don't be so nervous," she reassures him. "She'll love it, because you chose them for her."

"Hi baby," he calls, pushing the front door behind him. You'd stayed over at his apartment the night before and at his delight you'd opted to stay there all day too, promising you'd still be waiting once he got home from work. Despite it being early on in your relationship the thought of you usually being there when he got home (or vice versa) made his heart skip a beat.

"Kitchen!" you call, stirring a pot of pasta. He follows the sound of your voice.

"Hi," you greet him happily, turning the stove down and turning to give him a kiss. You stop short seeing what he's holding.

"Uh, these are for you." He says bluntly, holding them out. You can't hide the grin stretching across your features as you take it from him, flipping over the card and bringing the flowers close to your face.

"Thank you Oz," you say almost shyly. "What's the occasion?" You're already hunting in Oscar's cupboards for something vaguely vase-shaped. Unsurprisingly he has nothing of the sort so you settle for a clear Camelbak water bottle, filling it and placing the flowers inside.

"I don't need an occasion to get flowers for my best girl." He says, reaching one hand behind your head to press a sweet kiss to your mouth. You kiss him back happily.

"You like them?" He asks between pecks to your forehead.

"Yeah," you nuzzle into his chest and he's happy to just hold you in the middle of the kitchen. "I love them, 'cause they're from you."

🌼Hydrangea - gratitude

🌼Zinnia - constancy

🌼Baby's breath - everlasting love

Max the wag (again)| Max Verstappen blurb

love note: I’ve loved the response to gossipy Max and (y/n) that I came up with this little piece 💘

YOU CAN FIND THE REST OF MAX THE WAG SERIES HERE

summary: a new break up hits the paddock and Max and you are the best investigators.

Canada GP, 2023

Max didn’t mean to overhear whatever was going on inside the four walls of Ferrari’s place on the track.

But if the information came his way, who was he to deny it?

He was mildly bored in between interviews and before FP1, not caring about interacting with people because you weren’t there, too many things to take care of, studying and being an intern didn’t allow you to be there with him. Still, he sent you silly pictures of him walking by himself (metaphorically since fans and workers were all over), he smiled at the WhatsApp sticker you sent him along with a picture of you, papers scattered all over your desk, iPad showing the F1 app.

While walking by Ferrari, he really really couldn’t help walking a bit slower as three engineers were enjoying a cigarette while loudly speaking to each other, motor and tool noises were ambient noise.

I heard she’d forgiven him once, after São Paulo last year.

What happened there? I keep hearing about it but i left to Abu Dhabi right after the podium.

Carlos and Norris contacted some girls and left with them or something along the way, kept it under wraps though but now? I think it was too much for her.

Shame, she was always polite and nice to everybody. She even knew our names!

And Carlos’ sister is getting married soon, he ducked it big time. I heard someone in the garage she decided to not go and his family is pissed.

It caught Max’s attention… he instantly recalled the conversation with you, trying to figure out if Carlos and Isa were still together. Clearly, they weren’t and the entire paddock was aware of it.

Maybe Christian could have more information about it.

But the first thing he did was to text you, announcing he had more information.

Info about what? Was your response, making Max’s eyes roll…

Sainz and girlfriend!

Max didn’t hear it, but you gasped at the simple text message. Max was very selective with the information he actually took seriously, and for him to tell you he heard something meant it was probably real.

Shut up! What did you hear? Who told you?!?!?

Max smiled, a smug grin knowing you were dying for the information, but he’d keep it for later, when he was laying on the hotel bed, fresh out of the shower, white t-shirt and shorts and ready to fall sleep. That’s when he was sharing the information.

He was surprised when you called him out of the blue and he chuckled, his gorgeous blue eyes getting smaller, little wrinkles forming, dimples showing.

“Hello schat, to what do I owe this pleasure?” Max teased, instantly taking in your neat hair, neutral make up and deep red lipstick… oh, what would he give to bite your lower lip and have his face and chest covered in faint red lipstick.

”don’t be coy! What did you hear? I heard the snippet of an interview and she sounded so broken it was so sad, but what did you hear?!” You rambled, making Max’s smile even bigger.

“I told you I’m sharing my discovery later, i’ll have to be in the car in thirty minutes or so,”

“I hate you so much, you can’t leave me hanging! I don’t want to ask her directly!” You complained like a toddler, noticing Max was just staring at you through the screen.

“I love you, I have to go,” Max said after he noticed part of the Red Bull PR team approach him. He was waiting for you to tell him you love him too, but your words weren’t exactly what he was expecting.

“Max babe, try to get info on Shakira and Hamilton!”

Honestly, you and Max were a match made in heaven.

And There You Are, An Ocean Away

Pairing: Trafalgar Law x reader (and a little Nami x Vivi if you squint)

Content: friends to lovers, fluff, anxious/hopeful crush feelings, confessions, long distance relationships, reader is a Straw Hat Pirate, and Law is a little awkward <3

Word Count: 1.2k

A/N: this is one of the first fics i’ve finished and i’m not the best at grammar rules so there are probably a few mistakes! also i might have made Law a little ooc lol, but besides that im just trying to write more to improve! thanks for reading :)

Edited 1/17/23

be-beep. be-bee-

“Hello?” Law cuts off the ringing of his transponder snail. He can’t help but smile to himself upon hearing the voice on the other end of the line.

“Law? Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas, y/n.” He leans back in his desk chair, twisting the cord of the transponder snail around finger “E” while holding the phone in the other hand.

“Sooo,” you drawl, “have you guys started opening presents yet?”

Law can practically hear you smiling, which makes him exhale in amusement before responding. “Yeah, the crew exchanged gifts and opened them earlier this morning. How about you?”

“Mhm, we were up as soon as the sun rose- Chopper and Luffy woke up the whole crew.” You pause, and he can imagine you biting back a laugh while shaking your head as you often do. “Anyway… Did you get everything you wanted?” You sound expectant, almost knowing.

In his usual deadpan tone, he answers simply. “Bepo got me a new coffee blend.”

“That’s nice of him… he’s always so considerate.”Based on your tone it’s not quite the answer you were looking for, but you provide commentary anyway.

“Ohh yeah,” He continues on the other end of the line, feigning the recollection of something important, “and there was this massive box on deck…”

“Oh good!” You exclaim as Law chuckles. “You scared me, I thought you hadn’t gotten it. Did everyone like their gifts?”

You’re referring, of course, to the comically large box that the Straw Hats had shipped to the Heart Pirates. It was packed to the brim with gifts for every crew member. After all, what was the point of having tons of berries from “stolen” treasure if not to use it on your friends? Or at least, that’s the reasoning you used to convince Nami to rearrange some funds for gifts to the Heart Pirates and other allies of the Straw Hats. Though, maybe it was just because you had mentioned sending a gift to Vivi back in Alabasta as well…

“They all really liked it, a lot. Was it your idea?”

“No,” you explain with a playful cadence, “it was a group effort.”

“Sure thing, but the bows and wrapping paper has you written all over it. And the handwritten card…”

“I have the best handwriting on our ship! Besides, we all signed it so, its from all of us.”

The only part that 100% was not from all of the Straw Hat Crew, was a box with Law’s name on it at the bottom of the much larger box. Inside the present addressed to the “Captain of the <3 Pirates” was a neat little coin display with places for 25 coins, as well as a card tucked in beside the display.

“Well, it was nice of all of you then.” He concedes with a snark in his voice. “And, uh… I like what you got for me, y/n.” Law’s voice comes out a little quieter, and maybe even a little deeper towards the end. He sounds hopeful, not 100% sure if it was you that had chosen his gift, yet knowing that only you could have selected something so sentimental and- ugh, perfect. His tone makes your stomach do flips.

“Yeah? Good, I’m glad.” Your voice, now a bit softer, replies. “I was worried you might have already had-“

“I-I didn’t. I’ve just been storing my collection in boxes...” He trails off, now tracing the edges of the coin display you’d gotten him. It was nothing exceedingly special or expensive, but it meant a lot knowing you had thought of him- just him- and went out of your way to send him a gift. The thought that you cared about him as much as he did you had his heart beating faster already.

You only knew Law was a coin collector because he chose to tell you. Thats how it usually was with him- he only shared the parts of himself he wanted to share. (Though you did also have a knack for “catching his vibe” as you liked to say.) Anyhow, you also knew his office was painfully tidy and there was little to no decoration, despite having ample bookshelf space. And so, a display for his not-so-secret hobby seemed like a perfect gift!

But, that wasn’t the only thing you’d added to his present. There was also a card, in which you’d written something along the lines of “I’m so glad I met you…. You deserve so many great things, but hopefully this coin display will suffice for now… I have feelings for you…. Merry Christmas! xxx, y/n” You had sort of just slipped in the confession between other clauses.

“And did you read the card…?” Your face suddenly feels a little warmer. Not that there was anything scandalous in the card, just some very honest words about your feelings for Law. Words you hadn’t ever been bold enough to say out loud and in person, and still hadn’t been brave enough to write without lots of other thoughts and well wishes surrounding them.

“Card?…” You hear some shuffling on his end, “I’ll read it now.”

“Mkay.” Your short response is a telltale sign of your own nerves, which makes him curious to find out what you could’ve written.

There’s a prolonged silence as he reads, and Law’s heart skips a beat as he nears the end. His eyes go back over and over 5 specific words: “…I have feelings for you.” He feels nearly giddy with excitement, but it comes out as pure anxious energy. He never thought this would actually happen; a scenario where you reciprocated his affections had only ever happened in his imagination up until now. Usually in these scenarios, he’d have worked up the courage and audacity to tell you how he felt in person, and not only would you accept his confession; you’d also return his feelings. But now that it was actually happening? He found himself at a loss for words, heart beating in his ears and probably blushing like some lovesick idiot.

Law wants to say something perfect for you, something charming and witty, but all he can think of in the moment is, “… I read it.”

His throat feels dry, like he doesn’t know what else to say. Law likes you too of course- how could he not? Ever since you’d met back in Saobody Archipelago, though the interaction had been brief, he’d thought you were beautiful, strong, and somehow a little different from the other Straw Hat Pirates. Then he’d gotten to know you; really know you, beyond your fighting capabilities and the information on your bounty poster. You were kind, witty, selfless, hardworking, and so much more. And alas, absence only makes the heart grow fonder.

Sure, you’d started off as allies, but that quickly became friendship, and a close friendship at that. He liked you because of your acceptance for nearly anyone, so long as they seemed a good person. Even more so, your ability to understand his emotions despite his usually reserved nature (he secretly thinks it’s some sort of sign, but in reality you’re just emotionally intelligent.) And you like Law because of his obvious (though he tries to hide it) love and passion for so many things: his crew, his work, etc. This, along with his witty, albeit odd sense of humor, made you enjoy his company quite a lot. The two of you took most every chance you had to be in each others company, since they were few and far between. Sometimes you’d chat, with you doing most of the talking and Law being content to listen and only add comments where he thought them necessary. Other times you’d follow each other into battle to provide support for the other, though neither of you had ever really needed help in those situations.

You swallow the lump in your own throat and continue, “You don’t have to have an answer or anything right now, I just want you to know how I feel.” Law doesn’t say anything, and so you continue while trying not to sound disappointed. “Merry Christmas, Law.”

“…”

“Law?”

“I like you too.” his words come out sort in a rush, like he had been holding his breath.

“Y-you do?”

“Yeah.”

You can’t help but smile.

“Well, uh, I have to go now, but… Can I call you tonight?” He asks hesitantly, even though you’ve already confessed that you feel the same way he does.

“Yes, that’s fine! I… I was worried that you didn’t feel the same way for a second.” You laugh, light and airy.

He scoffs, but you know it’s not meant to sound mean when it comes from him. If anything, it’s endearing. “Of course I do.”

You giggle again, “Bye, Law.”

“Bye, y/n.”

As soon as you hang up, his nervous frown turns into a small smile, and it grows and spreads across his face until he’s grinning like a fool and hiding his face under the brim of his hat.

🪞ᑭᗩᑕ🪞: ᗯᕼᗩT ᗪO YOᑌ ᒪOOK ᗷEᔕT Iᑎ?

🪩🪄✨📸

ᑭIᒪE 1

Chaotic Art Academia/ Trendy Dark 🧲💣

Lol your style is the complete opposite of your selection of image which is the red necklace. It’s funny but let’s talk about what you look really good in. Ok so you are my simple 90’s minimalist chic girlies.

You look best in black but your other wardrobe faves could be denim, white, tan, grey and light blue. Your black/tan statement flat or mules go with just any outfit so keep wearing them. I see you have the masculine boss look to you which is again ironical with the pic you’ve chosen (I’m sorry, i don’t want to sound like a broken tape recorder but you get it, right?). Your black bodysuit looks really nice with tan trousers. Your oversized blazer enhances your style even more. I get that people love your choice in handbags, sling bags etc. You can still wear your white shoes everywhere, it goes with everything.

You accessories your outfit less, one ring , a bracelet and a watch does the job on most days for you (which is a lot for you ik). Your hair looks best when you leave them as they are and don’t fret over it being perfect and neat from all sides. You look tamed even with wild hair so don’t stress about it.　

ᑭIᒪE 2

Colourful trendy/ oh so miss perfect 🧸🛍

You like solid colour outfits and co-ord sets. You have a light and warmth to your fashion. It’s breezy, flowy and one feels bright when they look at you. You have a thing for light shades.

You look so hot if you wear turquoise liner to your eyes. You have a good sense of eye make up. You look your best in off-white and cream coloured shades. Coral, rust, latte and peach; shades of sunsets at a beach kind. You look feminine and in your power in midi dresses or tucked tops and midi skirts. Turtle neck tops and parallel trousers/ short skirts with belt accentuates your lean figure and you look taller.

You should wear heels often, it looks good on you. I don’t feel you are much of an accessory fan may be just a classy earring, also I think you don’t need accessories since your make up holds all the glamour. Instead I get you are more into hair accessories like hair scarves and hats. You understand your style very well so I don’t need to say anything more.

ᑭIᒪE 3

The hippie baby/ colourful vintage 🎨 🗝

Colourful butterflies or should I say vibrant chameleons ( not in a bad way,I just feel whatever you wear , that colour looks good on you). I get aquatic kind of neon colours, something that catches the eye. You wear colours related to water, wellness and nature.

You look best in pink-orange colours and light blue- dark blue colours, shades of sea and candy pink. You look best in patterned clothes which have a boho edge. You look elegant and put together in skirts with crop tops and even an oversized jumpsuit. I don’t get any specific styles that you look best in because you have many styles, your mood reflects in your outfits and you like to dress accordingly. Though you could look great in floral patterned clothes, beach prints and abstract arts.

You are into accessories, you match your bags, footwear and glasses accordingly. You could like to wear rings in all fingers and if you don’t then you should try it, I feel it will make you more chic even if you choose to dress lazily.

ᑭIᒪE 4

Boss chic/ Flashlight on you 🔦 📸

You have Capricorn placements? A prominent mercury or a moon sign. You are a fashionista and have the model look,no matter your size, right, colour or hair texture. You have a look that turns people’s head. Your colours are silver, gold, purple, blue , yellow and red.

You look best in striped tucked button up shirt and dark blue jeans. You can have shoulder length hair and it looks exquisite. You can even wear a gold pendant or chain frequently or always which make you look dapper and elite. Your aura is really surreal with specs of silver and gold making you look beautiful.

You should wear boots often because that will accentuate your outfit. Try a kimono if you haven’t or leave your shirt unbuttoned and wear a vest underneath. Also a crystal ring or crystal bracelet covered in some metal will suit you. You look hot in two piece sets too.

ᑭIᒪE 5

Travel beauty/ ‘Who is that charming girl ?’ They say 🤳💅🏼

You are a true beauty even when you feel you look homeless. You have the, ‘who is that girl?’ Look, especially at airports and in grocery stores or even the girl who just passed by. You remind me of the meme where a guy who is with a girl has turned his head to look at the other girl lol. Your social media got many stalkers too haha.

You look the best in all white but if you want colours then wear a black top and red skirt with pencil heels. I also see that you look best in brown and black. You have an air of innocence in your dressing style which is draws in people like bees to honey.

For accessories your would look nice in caps, sunglasses, a watch but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to wear jewellery, you can wear earrings and necklaces but I just feel you look pretty in simple styles with light make up and branded high quality clothes.

ᑭIᒪE 6

Ancient witch / mythological goddess 🪄

You have a traditional look to you. You look gorgeous in your ethnic clothes or from the culture you belong to. I feel when you dress up in your social standings, you stand out. Then when you wear casual clothes for regular days people are taken aback by your transformation because one minute you looked so transitional and next you look like a model posing for brands in pictures.

You look best in traditional outfits as mentioned before, besides that you look really cute like kittens in dresses. You look pretty in sleeveless tops and relaxed fit straight jeans. Even a beach resort shirt with a sports vest and cargo pants. You look best when you have a sporty vibe to your personality.

You should leave your hair open mostly and a pair of earrings in accessories will accentuate your outfit enough to make you look just enough. Colours like orange and yellow look good on you too.

ᑭIᒪE 7

Fairy in the forest 🧚🏻 / Invisible crown Queen 👑

For some reason I feel that people find you unreal and unique in your fashion. You give off the severity vibes with the way you dress that people feel they’ve encountered a beautiful garden where there are many flowers and greenery.

You look best in pastel/nude colours and especially floral prints. You should wear the nude pink dress with little floral prints, even I feel enchanted by your presence. Even fur clothes make you look attractive.

For accessories, you should wear pearls because it will give you the moon glow and go well with your pastel outfits. If you have been feeling like colouring your hair then take this sign as a yes you can and also don’t cut your hair short. Your hair holds all the beauty.

ᑭIᒪE 8

Mermaid around the corals 🪸 / Angelic Baby👼

You look so sweet and dreamy. You look beautiful in shimmery clothes or see through tops. Crochet knit tops, trousers and skirts.

You should incorporate more of shiny pinks and turquoise colours in your wardrobe. Also purple is your colour. Clothes with shells or accessories with shells will enhance your personality

Stop being shy and dress as you wish girl. I feel you hesitate a lot in dressing authentically. Embrace your ethereal beauty, stop being the mermaid who hides in the abyss of darkness to protect herself from intruders. You can look beautiful and still be in limelight, please don’t shy away.

ᑭIᒪE 9

Bad bitch who is all money 💰/ luxury femme fatale

You dress expensive. You have all the trendy high brand clothes which most people can only eye. You have all luxe accessories and make up products.

You look best in everything because all your clothes screams money and let’s admit, expensive clothes look good on everyone. Your silver dress, silver boots with silver earrings will look best just in case you ever felt confused about what to wear.

Don’t forget to paint your nails red because you are the classy and elite chickkkk. Always and I mean always wear necklaces and a heavy ring because they are meant to be shown off and not to be kept in drawers.

Thanks for reading. Have a lovely day or night wherever you are. Sending you love and healing energy:)

Lust for life ❤️🎸

Pairings: Hobie Brown x Reader

Warnings: VERY Very suggestive towards the end, but not smut, One dirty joke, Hobie is probably ooc, I did not portray his accent, Hobie uses nicknames like love, sweetheart, and dear, I projected heavily, Reader is implied to be afab (they wear a bra, that’s it), Gn pronouns.

Summary: It's 3:00 pm and you and Hobie are sitting in his neat but cluttered apartment bored out of your minds.

“Hobieee let’s do something I’m bored” you complain. “Like what, love?” His full attention is now on you. You start to think about what you could do, and in the end your head always comes back to one idea- shopping. “Let’s go to Target, we can use a few new items righttt” you say knowing damn well you don’t need to spend any more money. “By a few items you mean the whole store?” Hobie retorts with a smirk painting his lips. You roll your eyes at his antics, “no, I promise to only get a few items this time.” You try to convince yourself more than him, but he agrees nonetheless because how could he resist you? “Okay, fine, get dressed, we can go. But only for a few items, remember?” “Yeah yeah I remember.”

You and Hobie have now arrived at Target and you happily step out of the car ready to go shopping at your favorite store. “What exactly do we need to get?” Hobie asks curiously as you guys walk into the store. “I don’t know, maybe some new sheets, laundry detergent, and toilet paper.” You respond unaware of the way Hobie was looking at you suddenly. With the same sly smirk that he always wears, but this time it’s enhanced even more as he says “we definitely need more sheets don’t we darling?” Your eyes widen in embarrassment as you feel yourself trying to look anywhere but him. “Hobie less talking and just go get the shopping cart you perv.” Hobie chuckles at your noticeably rushed words as he gets the cart and you both make your way to get what you need.

After getting what you needed, now was the time for your favorite part. Spending your money on things that you didn’t need (but it feels like you do). “Okay so do you wanna check out the vinyls? I hope they have the ones I want” you ask Hobie as he hovers around you comparably to a tree. “Mhm maybe in a little, I actually have to look for something so I’ll come check in on you later, alright sweetheart?” He looks down at you. There he goes being so attractive without even having to try you think to yourself, but quickly snap out of it to answer. “Yeah, okay, I’ll be there.”

After he leaves you go to check out the vinyl selection and you see just what you were hoping for, Lana Del Rey “Ultraviolence” and Mitski “Be the Cowboy.” (Or anything you want). Happy with your find you go into the self care aisle to look for things so that you can restock on your favorite products. After this, you quickly head back to the vinyl section to call Hobie and tell him that your done. He picks up the phone and explains to you that there’s gonna be a change in plans, which your kinda confused about because why? But in the end you make your way to the front of the store to go pay for your items, even though Hobie would encourage you to shoplift the small ones. You see Hobie waiting at the door with two bags already in his cart. You raise your eyebrow and walk over to him “hey, what did you get?” “Oh me? You’ll havta wait to see what’s in the bag, love” he smiles at you. “Why? is it a surprise or sum?” Now you’re really wondering. “Maybe, don’t worry your pretty little head about it, now cmon let’s get outta here.”

You and Hobie make it back to his apartment and you excitedly pass through the door with your bags in his hands (he’s a gentleman). “You excited for your surprise, dear?” He grins at you holding the bags in his hand protectively. “Yeah, of course, let’s put our stuff down first and then we can reveal the ‘big surprise.’” “Sounds like a plan.”

This is the moment you’ve been waiting for since you’ve seen him with the bags. You and Hobie are sitting on his bed as he keeps the bags between his legs. You wait patiently for him to give them to you. And then he finally does so you can open it. You hurried up and opened the bags and inside was new gaming headphones, led lights, a mouse and keyboard, and also a $50 Starbucks gift card (I’m manifesting). You are positive that your smile could not have been brighter as you look at all your stuff. “Wow Hobs, you didn’t have to do this for me, this is so sweet, I didn’t even know.” “No stress, dear, you deserve it, I know how long you’ve been wanting better equipment to play the Sims 4, and the gift card was just a plus for you being so kind to me.” (I’m doing it again). “Thank you so, much I love you.” “I love you too, sweetheart.” “But Hobie if I knew you were getting me a surprise, I woulda got you one too” you say worried about not doing enough for him. “Relax love, I wanted to get you this outta the kindness of my heart, you don’t have to repay me- but you can.” Annnd he’s back. The same old non consistent Hobie with a smirk on his face, maybe you should make him eat his words you thought.

“I think I know a way” you say moving to get on top of him as you put your legs on either side of his waist. Your faces are so close, but yet you both feel as though they’re not close enough. His eyes widen but then quickly change back into their original shape. “And what do you think you’re doing, darling?” He asks with a teasing tone showing in his smooth voice. “Your gift” you briefly respond as you lean in closer to him. He accepts your answer as his hands wrap around you and stop at your lower back, keeping you steady. Hobie really wanted to kiss you, but he also found joy (read: arousal) in you making the first move. So that’s what you did. You leaned in to kiss him firmly but slowly. Hobie enjoyed this and began to kiss you more passionately once you found your pace. And after you guys both got real comfy, with hands exploring one another and moans passing through each other's lips, he suddenly flipped you over so that you were on the bottom laying with your back against the bed and he was on top. You let out a soft squeak at this, but continued. Hobies hands felt up and down your thighs, rubbing leisurely as he let out a deep moan into the kiss. Hobie was starving for more his desire for you was animalistic, and he expresses this as he pulls you closer so that now your chests are connected. You were both nearly out of breath but decided to continue kissing like your life depended on it, like you were each other's breath, like nothing else mattered. Because it didn’t as long as you were in the comfort of one another. Your hands run up and down his back underneath his distressed band t-shirt that you love so much before you both pull away to catch your breath. Hobie keeps his face next to yours as he breathes heavily with you, chests heaving up and down. He keeps this lustful look on his face with dazed eyes and wet, swollen lips. It’s the same way that you looked right now.

“You're a good kisser, you know that?” You say breaking the silence (why would you do that?). “Oh really? Well I think that we should continue just to make sure” he chuckles, but this time it’s more strained and low. He then again leans in to make out with you but this time it was different. It was more aggressive. It was like your lips were moving on their own to chase after something that you couldn’t pinpoint. The kiss was hard and deep and to make matters worse (or better) Hobie pins your hands above your head as the kiss gets more intense. You wrap your legs around his waist so you can feel him closer. His hands continued to feel up and down your thighs but this time with much more force behind them. You tug at the bottom of his shirt to let him non verbally know that you want it off. Hobie smirks at this and he couldn’t resist commenting. “You want to see me naked that bad, do you?” “Shut up” you say quickly as you watch him take off his shirt. His muscular chest was then exposed to you on full display and you made sure to not miss a single detail. His skinny waist, the shape of his pecs, and the scars that littered his abdomen that only made him look more attractive. Hobie displays a wide smile before he leans back in and kisses you with tongue. The kiss was wet and sloppy but neither of you stopped. Neither of you wanted to stop. Hobies hands move slowly down to your waist as you feel your shirt rising. You lean up against him so that he can better take off your shirt and bra. Now you take a much needed moment to look at each other, both shirtless.

Hobie moves back in and starts to squeeze your bare chest and rub against your nipples in a way that makes you crave more and your back arch. Hobies lips then press back against your neck as you feel his strong pelvis begin to grind against you, causing you both to let out a strangled moan. The tension was suffocating and you're pretty sure you both were throbbing by now. Apparently Hobie felt it too as his long and rough fingers started to unbutton his jeans. You look up at the ceiling, hoping that it will tell you a magical answer to keep your heart from racing and your eyes from wandering down to see his long length. You’re needy and waiting for the next move. Aching to get out of the confines of your jeans to feel him in his entirety. But then he suddenly stops and looks at you, he stares straight into your eyes and says

“Keep your eyes on me sweetheart, I want to show you just how much I appreciate you.”

.50 Caliber 3D Platformer Post #5

(Flashing Lights Warning near the bottom of the post)

UI UI UI UI UI:

I've been working on UI mostly the past couple of weeks. It has been, as usual, both very cool & fun but also hell and evil. To be more specific, I really like designing the visual aspect of UI, but implementing it is always so horribly tedious and boring that it is really hard for me to focus on doing it. Without fail, I always end up getting UI done very slowly because of this. I am really happy with what I've got so far though, and it has brought me one step closer to getting to the point where I can just start hashing out levels.

Making the Health UI:

The health UI was something I was extremely excited about implementing, so I eagerly decided to decide that it was time to make it. Let me step u through the process 4 fun.

For me, it always starts with sketching out something crudely in pen. I've had this sketch done for months now, so it was p cool to see it finally come to life in game.

Next I hopped into blender and began trying to make some kind of cool y2k-era greebled out shape, but making detailed machinery (or details in general) is not my strongsuit, so I ended up with this kinda neat smooth shape that I wasn't entirely happy with. It looked cool, but I really wanted to challenge myself to make something closer to the windows media player skins I was inspired by.

More Specifically, I referenced this Half-Life 2 windows media player skin heavily, and started with a ring that I could build little pieces and wires off of. I hope u can forgive me if I maybe made it too similar lol, but I tried to get creative and put my own spin on it. I think the shapes on the top left are the most similar to my reference, and those are not-so-coincidentally the first bits that I modeled. This is my first time modeling something in this style, and I suspect that I'll get better at it if & when I do it again.

Finally, I slapped some materials on, made a texture for one of the faces I had sketched out, and rendered out a few frames of it gently(ish) flashing. I then went into affinity photo and made little speedometer components to slot into the small circle in the top right and programmed some functionality to it. The plan is to have the face represent the player's current health, so I am going to need to make a few more and then animate it rotating into a different face. But yeah, I am super happy with it, and I think it is lookin p sick!

Other Stuff What I Made:

Other than the health UI, I also added in functionality and UI for completing a level and selecting a level.

I was very much inspired by killer7 for the sequence that plays when you shoot your target, and I am addicted to intense flashing lights, so I included a lot of that. There are already accessibility options to turn that off, so if it's something that could harm u or if you just hate it (coward????!!!11) you can disable them. I've always found intense effects like that very cathartic, so I'm probably gonna include similar visuals in a few different things I make. That being said, I do also always want to make the alternative visuals (when the accessibility options are enabled) to also be cool af and get the point across. The level select screen was also really fun to make, I basically just slapped together some textures of warn-out paper into a little files situation and placed that on top of an abstract background that I made in jwildfire.

Conclusion:

I have honestly really loved working on this so far, but there has been a lot of anxiety about money in my life lately, so I really do hope to get this out in a reasonable time. I feel like I say that a lot about this game, but it is because it's always on my mind unfortunately. I don't want to make it sound like I am making this game entirely for money or w/e though, it is definitely a labor of love. Anyways, I hope to get to a point where I can get some environment art done soon, and I cannot wait to show off whatever this game is gonna look like. Have a nice day every1!

July 13: Barbershop Music Appreciation Day

Luigi would not call himself a connoisseur of music, but he knew enough about it to form a respectable opinion about it.

With the exception of certain songs he will not name, he is also fairly sure that his tastes could be described as ‘eclectic’.

Ludwig, on the other hand, is known to be a bit picky (read: snobbish) with his musical tastes- preferring classical music or genres that expand on instrumental expertise.

So, when he realized what day it was, he took every scrap of sheet music dedicated to the day’s genre, compiled selections on a E. Gadd-Made phone, and took them to the Room of Instrumentation.

Luckily for him, his timing had him walking in while Ludwig was doing maintenance on his favorite piano- an indicator that he was off from composing and, therefore, free.

“Ludwig?”

“Hm?” And the child briefly glances up, offering a small, warm smile before focusing his eyes back on his task. “Hello, mother.”

“Hello, mio bambino!” Luigi is careful in setting down his load on an empty table. “After you’re done, will you help me in my project?”

“A project?” Something in the piano shifts slightly, and Ludwig’s visible fiddling stops with a sense of finality. “And of course! I assume it’s musically related?”

Luigi hummed in affirmation. “Hopefully, I can get it done by this afternoon.”

“Well,” The Koopaling sets aside a tool that Luigi honestly thought was a hammer for a second. “You can start by telling me what exactly you hope to accomplish.”

And Luigi does, spending the next three hours watching Ludwig’s face light up with interest as they slowly pieced together his project.

…

One of the perks of being a mechanic is that he understood enough about software to not only make his own speakers, but to have them connected to a Luigi-made intercom system that will blast sound across the castle evenly.

Hopefully, he won't cause any bursting eardrums.

"What exactly are you trying to do anyway?" Turning, Luigi realizes that Ludwig is poking around the currently uncovered 'radio'

"Well, today is a special day- at least in the human world." Luigi finishes off the final bit of wiring connecting to Bowser's office, letting it fall into the rest of the wire clump as he checks on the playlist.

"What makes it special?" And Luigi doesn't blame Ludwig for his skepticism- after all, Luigi felt similarly when he first discovered the holiday's existence.

"Well, it's a day people can appreciate a musical medium that has been around for centuries- something that has been a cultural phenomenon because of its unique sound. I'm... not quite sure of the details, but it seems neat to have a day dedicated to a musical genre, no?"

Ludwig's expression shifts into something thoughtful, but Luigi paid more attention to how he seemed to brighten at the concept. "...Yeah."

And Luigi couldn't help but smile when he hears the intercom turn on with minimal feedback, hearing the beginning of one of his favorite barbershop covers.

'Oh, oh, oh,'

'For the longest time,'

'Oh, oh, oh,'

'For the longest time...'

And they both listen to the chorus, they could faintly hear the sounds of commotion within the castle-

"Want to see how everyone is reacting?"

"Of course!"

[This part is just a recommendation list- you don't need to read it, but I would definitely encourage you to give them a try!]

For the Longest Time -Barbershop Quartet

Mr. Sandman -The Chordettes

Hello My Baby -The Newfangled Four

(EVERYTHING from the 'Sweet Adelines', honestly)

What a Wonderful World -Storm Front

Somebody to Love -Signature

As Time Goes By -The Buffalo Bills

Sweet and Lovely -Forefront

A Quick Break -StudioMDHR (from Cuphead)

God Only Knows -(That barbershop quartet in 'Bioshock Infinite')

How to use GameMaker's filters for lighting!

Got a new lighting system for ProtoDungeon 3. Take a look!

I had a similar effect in 1 and 2:

The difference? Now I'm using GameMaker's new filter system, and it seems to make things run much more performantly. I wanted to share with you how it was done!

First, a little on how the effect works:

Behold a daytime scene from ProtoDungeon 3!

For a cool nighttime effect, instead of just making things darker, let's employ a Hollywood trick and shift everything blue:

Okay and now the fun part: lighting! For that we just don't do the blueshift in a particular area (if you've tried this before, you know it's easier said than done)

Here's how it's done!

Part 1 - The Filter

ProtoDungeon and The Waking Cloak already use palette shifting to represent nighttime thanks to Pixelated Pope's excellent palette swap shader, (which I still highly recommend for individual layers or sprites!), but there are some limitations when trying to apply a palette swap effect to the entire game, and I kept bumping up against those limitations.

Cue GameMaker's new filter layers! Filter layers are basically just built-in shaders that apply to everything below them.

There's a lot of kinds of filters. Here's an example of a Contrast/Brightness filter (which I will eventually be using to replace my existing janky shader):

So how did I get Night_Filter working? What I've got above isn't an out-of-the-box filter

I tried a few methods here. Color Balance, Color Filtering, and Colorize all do neat things and are more than capable of making a nice "blueshift" (and I may still use them for tweaks later). However, I wanted to stick strictly to my palette, meaning when I blueshift the daytime colors to nighttime colors, all those nighttime colors are also in my palette. Very recently, the LUT Color Grading filter was added to GameMaker, and this provided a perfect opportunity.

Okay, so what is LUT Color Grading? LUT stands for "lookup table." You have an image, the LUT Texture, that contains a HECKTON of colors--in this case our table is 512x512 pixels = 262,144 colors. Each color maps via its RGB values to a specific location on the table.

There are a lot more than 262,144 colors (RGB supports 16.7 million), but the filter's shader handles the "in between" colors too. It looks up the color's position on the table and changes it to whatever color is actually there. If we used the table above, it wouldn't actually do anything, because when it looks up the position of each color, it finds... that color. What we need for a palette swap is something more like this:

This is what I made by taking the original LUT image (which I found in a secret GameMaker folder), opening it up in Aseprite, selecting the colors I wanted to change, and then doing a color replace at about 30% tolerance:

And then did that for all the colors!

You could use any image editor if you wanted to do a simple palette swap this way. (Also, technically, it doesn't have to be at 30%. It can be much lower, but I found it could be a little finicky for some colors.)

Once you're done, you add it as a sprite in GameMaker, then select that sprite in the LUT Colour Grading filter, and voila.

Part 2 - The Lighting

Okay, so that works! Now for the lighting! Remember above where I mentioned not doing the blueshift in a particular area?

Well, the issue is... you can't punch holes in layers for the lighting (I tried). I also tried a similar method to what I had before: each light is an almost-invisible, translucent circle that alters the colors just enough to not trigger the palette swap. Unfortunately, with the color lookup table, this was finicky and unreliable.

The answer? Don't do any of that. Use surfaces instead! (It's always surfaces, somehow)

So the basic idea: copy the lighted (unfiltered) areas below the LUT Color Grading filter layer to a surface before the filter is applied, then paste that surface after the filter is applied.

I know that sounds wild but bear with me.

We'll need a few things for this.

2A - Light Objects

Mine are a fair bit more complicated since I have a state machine and all kinds of activation/deactivation code. The main thing we'll be using for this is pretty simple though: keeping track of a radius and having a position (with x, y position being built in, of course).

I called it obj_light. If you wanted, you could just have the Create event do "radius = 16;" (or whatever number) and just put one of them wherever you want light to show up.

For an extra flicker effect, I use random_range every five frames between radius - 0.5 and radius + 0.5, but I'll let y'all figure that out.

2B - Light Manager

Next, we'll create an object to kinda just set stuff up. We'll call it obj_light_manager. I made it visible and persistent. In its Create event, we'll create two surfaces, one for lighting and one for masking (I'll explain that in a bit). Initially, I just made them both the same size as my base resolution (320w, 180h).

global.lightingSurface = surface_create(320, 180); global.maskLightingSurface = surface_create(320, 180);

Then we'll add a few cleanup events (always clean up your surfaces so you don't have memory leaks). I put this in both Room End and Game End events:

if (surface_exists(global.lightingSurface)) surface_free(global.lightingSurface);

if (surface_exists(global.maskLightingSurface)) surface_free(global.maskLightingSurface);

Now for the magic part: in the Room Start event, we'll hook into the layer's events with layer_script_begin and layer_script_end.

var _nightFilterLayerID = layer_get_id("Night_Filter"); layer_script_begin(_nightFilterLayerID, lights_surface_create); layer_script_end(_nightFilterLayerID, lights_surface_draw);

2C - Layer begin/end scripts

Alright let's make those scripts now, lights_surface_create and lights_surface_draw. I'll drop these in pastebins with some comments since they're a bit lengthy and tumblr's code formatting is nonexistant:

lights_surface_create

lights_surface_draw

The explanation for how they work is all in there. Basically, we'll copy the light areas (not filtered yet) to a surface before the night filter takes effect in lights_surface_create, and then in lights_surface_draw we'll paste them on top of the night filter, and voila, lights!

Note: since I'm using subpixels, this method produced non-subpixel lights, which was pretty jarring. In order to make this work with subpixels, I made the lighting surface the base resolution multiplied by the zoom factor, 1280x720 with a 4x default zoom. When I draw the mask surface to the lighting surface, I have to use draw_surface_stretch. Finally, instead of using layer_script_end, I had to draw global.lightingSurface stretched in the Post-Draw event after the application_surface is drawn.

Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!

Hi! I saw the posts wondering about how to put together the polls, and as an aspiring data analyst and current PhD student myself, i had some contemplations to share!!

Unfortunately i think the BEST way to go about it would require 64 options, as you would need to account for all the combinations of:

Know Character A (yes/no)

Know Character B (yes/no)

Opinion on Character A (Love/Hate/Both/Indifferent)

Opinion on Character B (Love/Hate/Both/Indifferent)

Which would be a 2×2×4×4 poll.

HOWEVER i had an idea. Accounting for the pollgoer knowing character A or B is pretty much non-negotiable if you want to preserve the quality of the data. So in a 10-option poll, that means we only really have room for two options past "which character are you more familiar with".

HENCE, i propose something similar to the following setup:

Two polls per pair of characters. A round 1A and round 1B if you will.

Round 1A: (for the purpose of determining strength of opinion)

[More familiar with A; Stronger feelings about A]

[More familiar with A; Strong feelings about both]

[More familiar with A; No strong feelings about either]

[More familiar with B; Stronger feelings about B]

[More familiar with B; Strong feelings about both]

[More familiar with B; No strong feelings about either]

[Familiar with A, or equally familiar with A and B; Stronger feelings about B]

[Familiar with B, or equally familiar with A and B; Stronger feelings about A]

[Familiar with both/neither; Strong feelings about both]

[Familiar with both/neither; No strong feelings about either]

.....just barely squeezed that into 10 options. I condensed "Familiar with A, or equally familiar with A and B" and vice versa into one option because i felt that having an opinion on Character B while knowing neither, both, or the opposing character better, was basically the same.

Point being, that poll would tell you who has the strongest feelings surrounding them, since you could take ratios to determine the true percentages of votes from people familiar with the character. I think this could be good for elimination; maybe you could do the bottom 50% or bottom 25% of people that got opinionated votes. Then after that maybe you could have a second set of polls that were individual to the characters that weren't eliminated, like a qualifier, again dropping out the lowest X% of characters that had too many indifferent votes.

Sorry for the ramble i just. I love data and polls and i majored in math and . Yeah. I hope literally any of this is helpful or sparks some ideas?? I just thought it would be neat to have each round have a matchup half and an individual half, honestly, because i love both of those ideas. It does sound like twice the work though. Whatever you decide, i am definitely looking forward to it!! Best of luck!!!

-sincerely, a fellow data freak (?) that literally would just clean and preprocess and analyze data for ages recreationally

Holy shit this is awesome. In a perfect world I would absolutely love to do a 64 option matchup tourney. But unfortunately I think this ideal solution shows how a matchup-style tournament with a maximum of 10 options will be inherently biased (in addition to causing scroll fatigue, which is something I, as a poll fanatic and accurate data lover, forgot that most people WILL stop reading past the first few answers if every poll is super long like my and your proposals. Thank you to all my followers who pointed this out- working in this field can make me lose sight of that lol).

So in that sense, thank you for helping me come to the conclusion that the best way to do this IS to have individual polls! Maybe in the future I’ll set up several hundred google forms and link to that for voting, so it’s not limited by tumblr polls. And that way people could even select multiple options! I would seriously consider running that if after this tournament people are still interested in a second one that’s matchup style instead. But for now individual polls seems the most fair way to go about it that complies with tumblr’s limited poll options!

slightly strange question, feel free to ignore if it's too weird/makes you uncomfortable in any way.

hi i'm also a mobility aid user who loves character customization and also video game design. i kinda. collect? posts ppl make where they talk about how character customizations have excluded them or failed to account for the true range of human experience (ex, weight sliders that go from thin to not-quite-as-thin, lack of black hairstyles, lack of mobility aid options, no limb difference options, no hearing aids, etc). and i know that no character customizer could ever TRULY cover the entire range, but i also am fueled by spite and don't like assholes telling me what is and isn't possible.

so. with that as the background, i would genuinely love to know 1, what kind of mobility aid you use, 2, other grievances you have found with character customizers in the past, 3, other things you don't think are included often enough even if it's not something that applies to you/that you would ever use, and 4, anything else you don't see enough of in terms of video game accessibility

no pressure to respond, of course, and feel free to only respond to some of these (again, zero pressure at all!) but i love collecting data from ppl who don't see themselves in character customizers, and i love knowing what can be done to help 💖

I don't mind answering, at least the basics!

At the moment I have a cane and a rollator, though I'm hoping to get a wheelchair for prolonged outings; I mainly end up just using the cane when I go out for transport convenience, to the chagrin of future me

I don't think I have any unusual sentiments on character creators. I don't usually try to make myself or specific characters, so I'm usually just messing around with what I'm given rather than trying to replicate options that don't exist. Don't like that eye patches usually take up the single head accessory slot, even though you can stack them with other things in real life, including other eyewear.

The ones you mentioned are definitely ones missing a lot. I don't think I've ever seen a game that lets you have a service animal even purely cosmetically, like a seeing eye dog. Not a lot of options for facial asymmetry. I think it would be neat to be able to select the amount of facial expression your character does in games where that's shown, like Dragon Age or Fallout, or to be able to select sign language for your character rather than speaking.

Is "everything" a sufficient answer for missing accessibility? Honestly, there's not a lot that's in there to start with. Flash / strobe toggles, distortion filter toggles, particle effects toggles, UI and caption font + scaling options. Hmm. Button mapping obviously. Motion controls or one handed controls when possible. Sound cues for collisions with walls / objects, or sound cues to indicate you're on the right path to a destination or something important is nearby (Nirnroot, for all of the jokes about it, makes a good example). Color / contrast adjustments beyond just overall brightness scaling - being able to darken the backgrounds so objects and NPCs stand out more, for example. Spoken UI options. Sound effect + directional captions. Saving at any time and pausing at any time. Volume scales broken down into sections instead of just one master volume slider. Ui dark / light modes. Icon-heavy UI having text along with the symbols. Warnings for anything that might have to be toggled (like flashing) so it doesn't come as a surprise later. UI for accessibility settings being clear and accessible in itself - if I can't find the settings for limited vision because I have limited vision, it's not accessible.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head; hope it's useful to you!

finished side order. compiling my thoughts and impressions on it but not going too in depth, maybe later when the experience has settled a little

spoiler warning just in case

overall, i enjoyed playing through it. i did go through it all with every palette, including Eight's. the different weapons were fun, and im impressed how they managed to make it so that all of them are not only viable but fun - i was dreading the brush and sniper, but i even ended up enjoying them, which was pleasantly surprising.

some of the kits were frustrating, but they could be swapped out, so that's... fine, i guess. as well, some of them have biases towards chips that don't feel helpful or useful at all - the splatana's luck and drone bias was devastating - but you can turn off the bias so i guess thats also just. fine. but i wish we could just choose the bias we want. there are some builds i want to experiment with, but im gonna have to end up rerolling the floor for ages with that, which is irritating. i also wish there was a function to remove chips - maybe just a recycler or something at vending machines, it just gives a handful of membucks or something. there isnt really a lot of ways in terms of directing where you want your build to go and i wish we had just a tad more for that.

the chips themselves im also a bit mixed on. some chips feel like they do nothing, while others feel like one or two completely flips things. and some you need the full set to notice, but getting the full set is a pain, and by the time you have it it's barely useful anymore. some chips i also question whyre they're there - ink attack size never felt necessary (though that could totally be me - i want to eventually max all the chips so maybe i'll change my mind after putting it through it's paces) and the fact that the splatana's charge is a chip felt questionable, too. then there's the fact that there are SO MANY chips for damage that are all separated - rush damage, near damage, far damage, bomb damage, sound damage, and then the nine chips of regular damage. just... why are there so many? im not entirely bothered by it, near and far damage is neat in how it can change your playstyle, but. that just feels like too much

also not entirely happy with how the pearl drone is a little useless unless you have a bunch of chip upgrades + hacks for her, i understand not wanting to flood the selection pool with drone chips, but it still irks me a little

stage designs were fine, was a bit worried how well the 'complete x objective' mission style would mesh with a roguelike but it ended up fine. i also like the difficulty levels, you could choose how much risk you want based on how confident you are in your build and be rewarded or just play it safe to get that clear. some level designs were absolutely egregious though (looking at you, sisyphus) they don't feel challenging in a rewarding way, they just feel bad.

speaking of just bad, i really did not like the danger levels. at first i thought it was a fun little modifier, but over time my feelings on them really just soured. i liked the concept but hated it in practice - "danger" could be anything from no item drops, which is negligible, to not being able to use a primary mobility mechanic, which is awful. taking a danger level never added any extra difficulty in a way that was fun, but in a way that made it hard just because.

which, i think that's my problem with side order - things dont get more difficult in a way thats fun, they get more difficult just because. it doesnt feel more rewarding to beat it in hard mode because it just isnt fun anymore.

side order is fun, i beat it, im planning on playing it more, but it still just left me wanting some more. i dont want to say it feels shallow, but i wish there was just a touch more to really finish it up. because it is good, i do like it, but that's it. it's just... good. but i wish it could be pushed just a bit further to be great.

anyway im done rambling now, maybe i'll come back in a week and look at this and be like "actually, that's all wrong" but who knows. most of my gripes were minor but all together it just weighed my experience just enough. the story was fine, kinda irked that marina went "oh if i use cucumber phones as a terminal anyone could get pulled in against their will" and followed that up with "oh better warn the phone company" instead of. just making a dedicated terminal?? like that feels like a huge oversight but ok whatever. love acht love their extra dev log letters about marina glad they're joining the off the hook found family and wish we got more of them other than i push the elevator button. also agent 4 too what happened with them. what do you mean they were supposed to be head of security where are you. are you there. hello

9 for the kyalin microfic!

(prompt: discussing the possibility of MAYBE getting married one day) (omg the FLUFF ty)

Lin leaned her head against the door of their apartment, trying to find the energy to slide the key into the platinum lock. Before she could, and much to her surprise, the door swung open, and in an instant she was sliding back into a defensive stance before she realized who was standing on the other side. "Kya." She sighed, pressing fingertips to temples. "You scared me. I thought you were working late at the clinic."

"Would you believe me if I said that I managed to get through my paperwork earlier than I anticipated?" Kya asked, leaning against the door frame.

"Not really."

"Good instincts Chief, because I didn't. I just had a feeling you'd need me here tonight."

"And why is that?"

Kya guided her into the apartment, closing the door behind them. "I heard on the radio that there was some kind of bust up on the east side."

"There was."

"Are you alright?"

"Stop staring, I'm fine," Lin replied, waving her away. "A few scrapes and bruises, nothing serious. I'm just tired."

"Good thing I got takeout, then." Kya nodded towards the counter, where a selection of white boxes were stacked in a neat pile. "I didn't know what you'd want, so I got a little of everything."

Lin bent her armor off, sending it to the closet with a soft clatter. A soft breeze fluttered at the sheer green curtains, and she gave a satisfied shiver as it crested across her skin, drawing goosebumps. "You're wonderful," she said, and meant it. "You should stay tonight, I know you have an early shift."

"I was meaning to talk to you about that, actually."

"Oh?" Something about Kya's stiff, nervous movements sent a barbed spike to twist in Lin's stomach. She'd heard similar words, once. It hadn't ended well.

"Rumor has it, the clinic is going to ask me to head a new program."

"That's good, right?"

Kya nodded, dishing food onto jade earthenware plates, rounded at the edges. "Yes. At least, it's what I'd like."

"So what's the problem?"

"It would mean more frequent erratic shifts, at least for a while."

Lin took a plate from her, sitting at the table. "It feels like you're either going to break up with me or tell me that you're leaving again." She sat, trying to ignore the fact that her breath was still catching in her throat.

"What? No." Kya sat across from her, chopsticks poised above the plate. "I was going to ask if you'd be okay with me staying over more."

"Oh."

"I know you like your space to yourself, and it would only be for a little while until I find a place of my own in the city, it's just that the ferry schedule doesn't--"

"Move in," Lin said casually, popping a fat dumpling in her mouth.

"What?"

Lin shrugged. "Move in. You're here enough anyway, it doesn't make sense for you to be paying rent on another place."

"The rent isn't exactly my main concern here, Lin."

"Then what is?"

"I don't want to..." Kya trailed off, interrupting her thought with a bite of food. "I don't want to ruin this. Whatever it is."

"I thought it was pretty clear what this is."

"And what is that, exactly?"

Lin set down her utensils, considering just how much to tell her, how much was too much, too soon. It had barely been six months. "Girlfriend feels a little juvenile, I thought," she said carefully.

"Okay. Then what?"

"Partner?" Lin asked, scrunching up her face.

Kya laughed, and the sound of it was like music against the distant sounds of the city streets outside. "We can call it whatever you want, I just don't want to, you know, encroach on your space."

"Encroach away. I like having you here."

"You might change your mind, once--"

Lin picked up her chopsticks again, pulling at some noodles. "I'm not going to change my mind."

"I'm messy."

"I'm aware."

"You don't like it when I smoke lilyweed," Kya countered.

"I'll get over it."

"So you really want me to move in?"

Lin nodded. "Yes."

"That's such a relief, I was already dreading having to look for a place when work is already so busy. Chief Beifong, I might marry you, just for that." Kya reddened, looking down at her plate. "Sorry, I mean--I was just joking around. Don't take that so seriously."

Lin raised an eyebrow before turning back to her food. "It wouldn't be so bad, I don't think."

It was quiet for a moment, the only sounds the streets, slick with rain, the crest of air at the window, and the soft scrape of chopsticks against plates.

"I didn't know you wanted that," Kya said finally.

"Hmm." Lin looked up at her, searching her face, expecting fear or panic but finding neither. She nodded. "In time, maybe. If it's right." She cast a glance at her desk, knowing that the nearly finished betrothal necklace lay inside the locked drawer.

She'd bought the materials after their second date.

Request Kyalin fics from this post if you like!

while i'm here: i have been on sort of a mild classical musical kick since seeing tar, which was great and which also reminded me that classical music is good, which led me to the subsequent revelation that i can listen to classical music including opera while doing kinds of work that are too demanding for me to listen to english-language pop [meaning all non classical not just like top 40 and the electrosad spotify girlies] music (and if the kpop explosion has taught me personally one thing it's that lyrics are a MUCH bigger part of my pop listening experience than i thought they were - i've never listened to a kpop song i managed to find memorable or distinctive in any capacity and i have to assume that's because what the words say is actually a major part of how i engage with songs - to my own surprise!!!). it's totally possible this phase will extinguish itself before i run myself out of the small staple of things i already like because i have some kind of personal experience with them that let me get to know them (playing them badly on the piano, singing them badly in high school, stage managing them mediocrely in college) or in some cases because they are just Super Fucking Famous and have Penetrated. but in case i don't! i am open to suggestions any classical heads would have. but like suggestions for the basic bitches of the classical world, please. suggestions for the girlies whose favorite arias are still "un bel di" from butterfly and the queen of the night area from magic flute. girlies who are like, wow have you heard about this guy VERDI? (the main thing i have been listening to in these moods is really just the last ten or so minutes of act three of otello - from right before he strikes desdemona to the ground - if you know you know!!! the greatest ten minutes in music history maybe). girlies who still go wild for rachmaninoff's prelude in c-sharp minor and think the first movement of the moonlight sonata is exactly hyped enough. (my choral faves are i think a little more eclectic although equally Basic at heart, since they all come from the set of "things selected by a moderately ambitious music department at a private high school but not one with like a famous performing arts program or anything": faure's requiem, haydn's te deum, the famous parts of messiah, anything palestrina. in the two months or so the chamber choir spent learning our way around britten's five flower songs i did eventually come to appreciate it - we had a conversation, several of us, towards the end actually, where we realized somewhere in listening to recordings and plucking out our parts over and over our ear-brains had adjusted and it actually sounded to us like music now, and when i listened to a recording a year or so later i truly could not recall what i had once and for a prolonged time found so strange and off-putting about them, and was really grateful to have gotten that experience because i felt like it taught me something important about like, how music works and how art changes and that some things are made to be appreciated by people who have some visceral even if inarticulable sense of the boundaries they're pushing at, who know what a certain type of music sounds like for example enough to be surprised by the specific ways this doesn't sound like that, and how if you have enough music in you that surprise can go from "wrong" to "neat," and how that applies to everything probably and it's both ok for people to make stuff that can only be liked by people already in love to some degree with the form it's playing around in and also ok for me to not be sophisticated enough to enjoy it, which is why there are many movies in particular where i'm like This Simply Seems Engaged In A Project Best Assessed By Someone Who Has Watched A Lot More Movies Than Me - but, like, i wouldn't listen to britten on purpose, because i like it when classical music is pretty. basic!!!)

Chapter 1- Part 1

By the way- since Tumblr has a limit on how many images someone can put on a single post, I’ll need to be splitting these updates into multiple parts. No worries, though- I’ll make sure to keep all posts corresponding to specific chapters linked up with each other.

So now, let’s boot up the game! If you wanna download it yourself and give it a try, you can find the download on the official website.

I gotta say, just looking at this title screen with my own eyes is getting me excited already. Starting a new game always does that for me- a fresh new experience, new adventure!

Also can I just say this title screen music goes so hecking hard, like this is a jam, holy crud- 

Okay enough waiting around, let’s actually get this started...

And by that I mean mess around with the control scheme for a moment-

Would it have been easier to just leave the controls at their default? Maybe, but I just prefer using WASD to move around, yell at me in the notes for my setup if it satisfies you.

Ah, and here we are at our character selection! I like the ticket styling here, and from the first look the sprites look good. Though- is that the Gen 3 style of spritework? All tiny like that? I probably shoulda expected that when they said it was “Emerald-styled”, actually-

It also doesn’t look like any of them have a set gender at default, I think? It seems like it’s just split between “black hair, blondie, or white anime hair (affectionate)”- either way, everyone here looks GNC has heck and I love that for all of them. 

Still, none of these really match what I really look like, so…I’ll go with the white-haired one at the end, just to see what happens when I pick them-

Ah, you can pick your gender regardless of which avatar you choose! Neat! I’m gonna look edgy and no one can stop me-

Also, as you can see, my character’s name for this playthrough will be “X”- that’s the name I typically choose for myself when naming characters in games like this, and Reborn will be no different.

Also, you guys can’t hear this because it’s just images, but like- I think this ticketmaster is doing all of this on a typewriter?? Because when all that other stuff (ARR, Seat Number, etc.) was being inputted, the audio was typewriter sounds?? I thought the ticket UI was just for the aesthetic, but- is this station actually that old???

Hello??? Sir??? We have technology, you know that, right????

The old fence post that is your workspace apparently-

You know, I’m a little curious about that myself- why are we going to Reborn City? Is the player character gonna have a backstory of some sort? The regular Pokémon protagonists have backstories, even if it’s usually as simple as “you’ve lived in this town your whole life, you turn a certain age, now take this starter and go forth and fight Trainers to become the very best”, but it’s there still. 

What’s this character’s motivation? Is that something I’ll have to come up with for myself? Audience surrogate taken to the max? Because I can do that, I can work with that-

Ambition- is that our true motivation? Or is that merely the perception of the ancient ticketmaster? Questions to be answered later, I'm sure.

AW YEAH, TRAIN SOUNDS (and the background is doing a moving effect too, but again you can’t see it through the screenshot, alas)

Oh honey we viewed them quite closely not too long ago, I think we’re good-

Nice animation with the train we got going here, interesting to see that multi-colored emblem from the title screen on it…again, implications to be answered later.

Oh? Those are the other avatar characters we could have picked. Are they going to be NPCs or something? You know, like in Gen III with Brendan/May or Gen IV with Lucas/Dawn or Legends Arceus with Rei/Akari?

Also, this BGM for being on the train here slaps, the music is pretty good so far.

Man, lots of white-haired folk around here, who’s this now?

Ah, a recruiter- so the others are more Trainers, like us. Again- are they going to be NPCs since they aren’t the player character? They must have canon names or something, but there’s definitely a lot of them- eh, we’ll just have to see.

Next

101. The Sunbearer Trials, by Aiden Thomas

Owned: No, library Page count: 401 My summary: It’s time for the Trials. Ten semidióses will be chosen today to compete for the title of Sunbearer. The winner will gain the crown - and the loser will have the honour of being sacrificed to keep the Obsidian gods at bay. Teo didn’t expect to be chosen - he’s the son of a Jade, not a prestigious Gold - but he and another Jade are selected by Sol to compete. Now they’re fighting for their lives to keep out of the bottom spot, but is something strange happening at these Trials? Why are the other competitors acting so out of character? And just what was Sol thinking in all of this? My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

The Sunbearer Trials! I'm always down for a bit of LGBT+ YA, and I've liked Aiden Thomas' previous work, Cemetery Boys. Though I thought that book suffered from being not particularly subtle at times, overall I enjoyed the world, setting, characters, and plot, and so after reading the summary for this one, I decided to give it a shot. And, overall, I'm glad I did. While I still had some of the same problems with Thomas' writing, the world and characters were expansive and interesting enough to engage me, and when the sequel to this comes out, I'm probably going to give it a read. What can I say? I'm a sucker for YA fantasy.

Our main character is Teo, the trans son of the goddess of birds, Quetzal. He's a Jade (more on that later) so he didn't expect to be chosen for the Trials. Unfortunately for him, he's the protagonist. He's joined by Niya, his friend who is the daughter of the Earth god Tierra, and Xio, the youngest competitor, fellow Jade, and son of Mala Suerte, god of bad luck. Niya is fun as hell, she’s a boisterous lass who acts without thinking roughly 110% of the time. Xio is shyer, more retiring, and very out of his depth. And Teo himself is bitter about being a Jade (and about his relationship with Aurelio, a Gold, dying) and fighting to keep all of his friends safe. He’s less worried about Niya than himself and Xio, however. Teo’s a good YA protagonist - he’s got a strong sense of justice, finds himself leaping into danger rather than listening to caution, and has a good instinct when something’s wrong. His voice is compelling and I found myself very much liking him. In general, actually, all the characters here are pretty well-defined - despite there being ten semidióses and a handful of gods as well as auxiliary characters to keep track of, I never struggled in remembering who everyone was and the short version of what their deals were.

And the worldbuilding here is so cool! This is a sort of alternate Mexico without so much of the colonialism - the gods are clearly inspired by Aztec mythology (like Quetzal) and a lot of the world is based on classic Mexican iconography, such as the alebrijes. Thomas has put a lot of thought and creativity into how the cities of Reino del Sol work, and the various powers and blessings gifted to the semidióses. And much of the language is Spanish-inspired rather than English-inspired; semidiós instead of demigod, TuTube instead of YouTube, Mexican candy rather than white American candy. It’s really neat, very much in line with the worldbuilding of Cemetery Boys.

Now, I do have a few criticisms here. As I said with Cemetery Boys, the writing here isn’t exactly subtle. Teo’s wings are the best example - he keeps them bound under his shirt at first because they’re the brown of girl wings, not the green that boys have. But when he stops hiding his wings, they change to green dramatically. Gee, I wonder what this is a metaphor for? It’s not like the writing’s bad, it’s just not keeping its subtext...sub. Xio and Teo have a heart-to-heart about being trans that sounds like it came straight out of a ‘how to talk to your trans friend’ handbook. The Golds missing out on normal lives and childhoods because of their Gold status is hammered home again and again. I just feel like this could have done with another draft to make it that much less overt, you know? It’s also notable that there are fair few transmascs in this book, but no (mentioned) trans women. None of this stopped me enjoying the book, but it did keep me from completely loving it.

Next up, some short stories that are allegedly horror, and prove once again that I should stop judging books by their covers.