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punkscowardschampions · 5 months

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Java Pt.2

Ava: [biting his lip because it’s one place you really can with no fucks and you gotta because the feels are too damn high now, making a grumpy noise into his mouth because life is so unfair]

James: [moaning her name into her mouth with all the !! because it’s the first chance he’s even had to say it cos couldn’t be namedropping to Jay when Teddy has already namedropped her to Chlo and there’s no telling when he’ll get to chance to say it out loud again because of this bloody holiday, PULLING her hair out of his way and her jacket collar too if needs be, going over the lovebite he gave her again v dramatically because never letting that fade whether she’s wearing his shirt or not]

Ava: [DIGGING your fingers into his shoulders because feeling like you could fall despite both your efforts to be as close together as possible because you’re so turned on you cannot sit still in the slightest, breathing into his neck at the pulse point, breath only getting more erratic however hard you try to calm it down]

James: [such a noise at the contact and how hard it is because it’s the most she can really do and you both know that and fully appreciate that she’s doing it, stopping what he’s doing with his lovebite so that it isn’t muffled, however quiet he has to vaguely keep it for this setting and sleeping Jay’s sake, so she gets to hear and remember it fully, doing the absolute most to let her feel how turned on he is because in no world is he staying still either, the movements getting more insistent and !! as her breathing does, maintaining EYE CONTACT by cupping her face like she did his earlier except it’s much more an intense hold ofc]

Ava: [yes, can’t be waking this baby, also don’t want to be caught by anyone, so we have to have some level of decorum about this, so we’re biting our own lip here as our eyes are rolling to the back of our head for a hot sec before attempting to refocus back on his as we also make a more concerted effort to make our movements rhythmic and in time with his, getting as close as we can without initiating anything here ‘you promise you’ll write?’]

James: [‘I already have’ looking over at wherever the bag he gave her is so that she will too, not at all casual spoilers there but we can’t help giving them considering the decorum he do have to have in other areas which is gonna be proving a difficult task now that y’all’s movements have synched up how they have and it’s making you feel a type of way ‘but I’ll write more’ emphasis on that last word because never over when she said it so we gotta be indecent about it, touching the lip she was biting down on with even more !! than before when he was lingering hardcore pre-kiss]

Ava: [adorably darting your eyes from him to this bag because you can’t look away for long enough the first time to take in exactly what he means, when you have, shaking your head at yourself like get it together ‘I’ll read them later’ speaking against his fingertips with such solemnity because need to give them serious concentration which you are incapable of currently]

James: [a nod like yes you absolutely should, as seriously, because THINKING about her doing that is almost as much fun as he had writing the letters lbr ‘we should order a car, savour the journey taking triple the time in comparison to the route which brought you to me’ because throwback to what she said earlier when shading Teddy lol, because fr, he’s the sort of bear that would give her a lift home even if it wasn’t a shameless ploy to spend more time together with slightly more chance of privacy, which we know it is, guiding her hand to his trouser pocket so she can get his phone out because why do it yourself when it’s saucier that way duh]

Ava: [opening your mouth to make a NOISE but staying silent and grinning at him with the energy you wanted to expend there ‘you can’t possibly be expected to take public transport twice in a day’ like this is FINE and your wife would approve tbh, staying looking for this phone for far longer than is necessary before eventually handing this phone to him like there you go, so helpful, resting your head on his shoulder]

James: [an amused smile of his own at her grin and what she said like mhmm so true bestie and his own lip bite obvs when she is taking her time looking for that phone cos dying about it, has never summoned a car quicker in his life I’m sure whilst on the other hand making no effort to move or move her yet, soz not soz gotta play with her hair very softly for a moment and give her big heart eyes]

Ava: [kissing along his neck to his ear but having to give him the softest lovebite just behind his ear when he bites his lip, it probably won’t leave a mark but right now there is and you’re not okay about it, pressing it slightly harder than you did it like !! doing a faintly shaky sigh too ‘there’ like there we go, that needed to be done]

James: [SQUEEZING her leg the way she did his hand earlier, definitely hard enough to leave a mark himself because he’s as !! about everything she’s doing and her sigh and how her voice must sound, not okay either and can’t decide if he wants this car to hurry the fuck up or if he never wants to leave this bench rn, both are true honestly]

Ava: [this leg grab making you arch yourself into him involuntarily, so you’re face to face again, LOOKING at him before you simply have to launch a full makeout attack because otherwise the sounds you are about to make will be too unhinged and you just gotta, putting both your hands back in his trouser pockets to do the most]

James: [thank god for the makeout cos you need to shh as well sir and there’s no chance you would otherwise with everything that’s occurring and how high your feelings are, she’ll be lucky not to be missing a button herself on her jacket, either that or have a broken zip depending what she’s rocking, because he is PULLING at it with feral levels of !! trying to get her closer to him and moving again and his hands into it to be able to touch her body more without fully undressing her in this park simultaneously]

Ava: [‘I want you’ as something you are incapable of keeping inside, the force of which those words strain out of your mouth as you’re trying to grit your teeth and ride through the feeling, the way we really don’t care right now and can’t be reasonable or sensible]

James: [‘I’m yours’ because he has yet to say it, it’s always that she’s his, and this is the perfect time to, once again everything coming together in that peak romance oh my watch has stopped kinda way for this to be the first time he does and for there to be the level of feeling behind it that there clearly is]

Ava: [will let your car turn up to stop you just fucking in this park because absolutely would now and we’re not thinking of any reason not to, despite the obvious ones, literally all we can think about and care about is that he just said that]

James: [agreed, y’all are welcome for that convenient yet very necessary timing because he totally would too and you don’t need to be caught doing that on this day, get your sleeping child and all the bags in the car sir even though you’re shamelessly LOOKING at her the entire time, doing the most LINGERING touches ever when he shamelessly helps this gal in as well even though she does not need help]

Ava: [you have enough time here to sober up into realising that wouldn’t have been a good idea, even if you still know you would make the same choice given another opportunity lol, soz not soz, am soz how long it takes to get your pushchair into a car seat and into this car though, not an easy task even though you should be pro by now ‘is she asleep for the night?’ almost mouthing this because gotta be quiet because it probably is that sort of o’clock by now, peeping at her like hope you stay asleep even though it won’t be our problem ‘cos just that sort of bear]

James: [I know you’re the sort of bear who’ll make it look easy even though it is very much not because you are well practised and your wife has literally never lifted a finger to help you at any point in her life so you’re essentially a single parent when it comes to tasks like this, giving her a smile back in response as a yes because baby Jay should be and you’d be glad about that even if you weren’t busy af in this moment for the looming holiday moments that have to come after, follow it up with a very relieved big breath when everyone is in this car and you’re all set because this is the most alone java have been and thank god, LOOKING at Ava again for what is a second but would feel like an age because the intensity of it]

Ava: [me worrying about the seating arrangements and whether there’s a baby between y’all or James/Ava has to be in the front but I’m sure you got one of those big cars/the kind that’s almost giving limo but is more a boujee minivan moment so Jay can be facing y’all but not cockblocking so aggressively like that lol, doing the inverse and taking a deep breath in you’re not letting out for again what would feel like forever]

James: [I love that you’ve thought about this long and hard boo, oh the perks of being rich because we simply cannot do a love actually child dressed as octopus moment and cockblock java THAT bad haha, imagine, but no, instead catch this boy taking her hand and holding it while they both dramatically breathe lol, silently asking her if she’s okay and if everything they both shamelessly wanna do in this car rn is]

Ava: [exactly what I was picturing lmao, not today, not when there’s a goodbye to be said without the need for the word, circling his palm the same way you did his cheeks earlier with your thumb, as if you’re doing the thinking you aren’t and don’t need to do before you lean further into him to kiss his cheek indecently yourself ‘it only becomes more true’ as a whisper because feelings have not changed from a hard yes to a no, of course]

James: [touching the lil lovebite she did behind his ear as she kisses his cheek because that’s the only thinking he needs to do about it too, nothing has changed for him either, hence undoing her seatbelt (because I imagine her putting it on automatically when she got in, as I do) and pulling her closer to him, initiating the kind of soft and romantic makeout sesh that the bench one couldn’t be, it goes without saying it’s as intense as that though in its own way]

Ava: [when your hands end up either side of his face so you can press on this lovebite again, though coincidentally, insistently because we would love to cover you in them for all the reasons, lowkey getting so comfortable/into it here you’re laying down on him]

James: [doing a GASP that turns into a soft and quiet NOISE the more she presses on that lovebite herself because not okay about it, taking off her jacket because he could not on that bench and the need to touch her more is as real, being !! and almost rough about getting under however many layers of clothes she has on rn on her top half in contrast to these deep af but still soft kisses because NEED to as well as your bodies also staying as close as they can possibly be, his hands running over every inch of her, memorising again how they do, but also pressing insistently against her skin himself in a mirror move he isn’t even aware of]

Ava: [TORN between trying to help him and enjoying the contrast here and thus letting him continue to be rough about it, getting distracted by the need to try and reach your bag to get a condom because going to need to initiate this hookup immediately, that’s for sure, obviously you can’t actually get in your bag though so this is just a losing battle]

James: [it doesn’t take a genius to work out what she is trying to reach for but cannot because you’re thinking the exact same thing so once again guide her toward your pocket, this time to reach for his wallet instead of his phone because they are always there and slightly easier to get hold of whilst continuing to be this extra]

Ava: [SQUEEZING his thighs, half as a thank you and half because you wanna ‘we can take it slow’ said into a makeout that is proving you absolutely cannot and we both know it]

James: [a noise of agreement like mhmm yep also into the makeout while he’s undressing the bottom half of this gal not at all slowly or casually and starting to touch her, stealing the thumb trick to use indecently on her here, soz not soz it’s gotta be done]

Ava: [when you’re trying SO hard to stay quiet that the only acceptable next step is putting this condom on with your mouth because you literally cannot, getting on your knees on the floor of this car like remember when because all the memories are necessary]

James: [STARING at her exactly like he did when she first did that, not even intentionally echoing it we’re just that !! again that we cannot look away, but reciting something to her because he could not get his words out that day to read anything we all remember but on this occasion he has gotta, I like to think it’s the last line he has written in his fancy notebook, as she’ll find out when she reads it all, because this is a goodbye but not really, it’s only a goodbye for now, a whisper not only because they gotta be quiet but also because his voice is hoarse]

Ava: [when you can’t help but keep LOOKING up at him with big eyes because you really do love listening to him and especially when it’s something he’s written, which just hits different to whenever it’s a quote from another author; trying to concentrate though because you wanna do this properly but also as hot as possible]

James: [aw how adorably blushy he will be from her looking at him like that and from saying something that feels the most finished of any of the stuff he’s told or read to her so far because it’s made it into the fancy notebook, love that for you sir]

Ava: [all the encouragement you need to be honest, out here forgetting that you’re meant to be hooking up because you’re just enjoying watching his reactions and only getting to make your own out of view of this driver/quiet in comparison to how you would]

James: [we love when anyone forgets a time limit or where they are, what a mood, especially for y’all rn as you’re gonna have to go the longest you have since you got together without seeing each other when that time limit hits, live your best lives, including this man once again pulling her hair and PRESSING on the neck lovebite he never leaves alone]

Ava: [not wasted time when you are SO about giving this boy pleasure and seeing him get to lose control, even if you must maintain some here, as much as you can get away with]

James: [he is eventually gonna have to drag her back to him though if only to avoid being LOUD and losing it more than y’all can get away with, I say as if a brazen hookup isn’t about to ensue here lol and clearly in a much more extra position than her just being vaguely subtle in his lap because there’s no chill to be found, he’ll be here throwing this girl onto the seat on her back with her legs raised so dramatically that she’s basically folded in half, nothing casual about any of it, her ankles are as close to her head and shoulders as possible, thank the lord for a privacy screen and a list of car sex positions calling this one the seashell haha]

Ava: [well that’s very appropriate, you sea witch, about that for you, entirely about how shameless it is because you so rarely get to be, at least for now, so have at it lads, lose yourself over it]

James: [he will be trying to run his mouth because feelings are too high, giving her in the moment poetry basically as per, but you’re both welcome that you’re gonna have to kiss so much to shh because I’m not dropping an ILY on this day]

Ava: [we all know y’all are being the most extra, we’re here saying everything but, just all the whispered sweet nothings right now]

James: [you both gotta do what you gotta do rn and we gotta let y’all, within reason, but the driver and sleeping baby Jay are both welcome that you’re somehow managing not to be screaming crying in this car and that it won’t last forever because of how worked up you already were]

Ava: [baby Jay gonna have to sleep through a lot, I’m sure, so you’re safe, we’re allowing that, just like we’re allowing you to both die here without anything stopping y’all, it’s the least we can do considering]

James: [mhmm, they need it and they need the recovery time snuggle he’ll be pulling her into immediately afterwards lying here on this car seat because don’t wanna be separated and it’s getting closer and realer]

Ava: [can’t even think about it because crying is not an option when he already feels bad enough going for all the reasons he doesn’t want to himself, so probably just here being quiet, holding him to us like someone is trying to snatch him right this second]

James: [tea, we all know he wants to cry himself too, for all the reasons, and that there’s so much he wants to tell her about how his entire fam not just his wife suck but cannot bring himself to because where to even start with that and what a miserable convo to have, so here sad as hell, trying to write on her like she’s a piece of paper and his fingertips are a pen but still not knowing what to say so it’s just a few half finished words she wouldn’t be able to decode before he gives up and is just holding her as tight as he can as well]

Ava: [it’s coming but definitely not one you can fit into the now as we sadly redress ourself because can’t get out of this car semi-naked, nor can you put this task off forever when you’ll be there before you know it]

James: [helping her in that effortless like a dad way, so lovingly, whether that’s doing a zip up or some buttons or straightening the clothes, whatever the vibes, just being soft and tender about it, same goes for her hair that he’s really messed up, gently smoothing it off her face and clothes and then tying it up for her because he can, he’s a girl dad (hate that phrase had to use it to make myself lol at the cringe because the vibes are sad atm) passing her the bag he packed for her so even if she doesn’t look in it yet she can hug that to her for the added comfort and reminder she has all that to look forward to]

Ava: [do hug this towards you and also bring your knees up to your chest, resting your head back on him and reaching to find his hand because you can’t verbalise anything right now but you need to be with him for every second you can steal here]

James: [hold her hand and do a lil kiss on her head when she rests it on you, using his other arm to pull her in even closer to him somehow and keeping it wrapped around her, whispering her name with all the feeling ever, savouring the fact he can still say it for now even if there is a massive tinge of sadness in his tone here]

Ava: [shaking your head, slowly so you cut down on some of the drama but you’re like I truly will cry, you can’t do this to me boy lol, hiding in his chest like nope]

James: [letting her hide there because he wouldn’t be able to deal with seeing her face rn, they are both too close to crying, saying ‘I wish I’d picked [insert a flower here that is seasonal and maybe grows in the park they were in]’ because what he’s saying is that if he had they could’ve used it as a countdown for when the flower blooms/she could’ve picked the petals/any of that kind of nonsense, saying this as if he was SUCH a fool not to think of it, despite how clearly distracted in all the ways he was]

Ava: [‘you will have given me a way to count the days’ quiet because of how you’re laying but he’ll be able to hear despite the small voice ‘I’d like to stop until you get back’ like you can just be frozen in space and time and not deal]

James: [‘yes, but’ not finishing his sentence because it doesn’t need to be said that nothing he has given her feels like enough for how big these feelings are rn, besides which he’s then distracted by how much he HATES the idea of her being frozen waiting for him when he feels like he was before he met her, waiting for his life to be less shit and what he loves most about her is how she’s brought him to life and we’re not trying to switch places/drag her down to that, SUCH a frown because cannot express all of this ‘oh’ as small but so no no its tone ‘I’d hate to think of you akin to my broken watch’]

Ava: [giving him a little squeeze, the pressure incomparable to what it usually is, ‘sorry’ still entirely sincere though because we’re trying so hard not to do this, to make it worse ‘I’ll try’]

James: [making a comforting sound to go with the touches he is doing like shh it’s okay ‘don’t be, darling’ as sincerely because gotta feel how we feel ‘you are trying, very hard, I know that, I feel that’ emphasis on the word feel, touching her chest like there]

Ava: [hugging him truly like a child now, sorry about that, digging our fingers into your arms now with a different but still intense as hell energy, the dad energy got to us ‘I’ll be good’ and we really mean it]

James: [we’re not soz, hug it out lads, a nod like I know you will be ‘of course, you’re my good girl’ the first time we’ve ever said my instead of a, because gotta in this moment]

Ava: [🥺 x a billion as we’re making some effort to actually look at you again because can’t not in this moment ‘what do you want?’ in a I will give you whatever you want energy]

James: [‘this’ because she is all he wants and it cannot and will not be overstated ‘you’ as if he needed to make it clearer because the 🥺 are forcing him lol]

Ava: [nodding even though your face is an inch from his right now and you could say it or just kiss him but you need to do the most with this movement and the way you can use it to brush your lips against his because so serious]

James: [me here like don’t you DARE say ILY rn because I nearly typed it then haha, instead brush your cheek against hers with identically slow almost tortuous energy, blowing away a strand of hair that has escaped his updo he did for her already with his !! breathing]

Ava: [my boo says shut your whore mouth, sir, your feels are so dangerously high lads, this is not a safe space rn lol, here fixing his hair with shaky hands because you can’t deal]

James: [honestly, I say not yet bitch it is simply too soon, you will wait goddamn it, not him taking her shaky hands and kissing them over and over like he can fix it, I’m fine]

Ava: [smiling at him, genuinely even if it’s one of those almost crying kind of smiles, shaking your head like you can pull yourself together, ‘when we get to mine, you should just let me go, let this be it’ because you are gonna have to RUN inside your house to not be sobbing on these streets and begging him not to go, you know it]

James: [holding her head so gently in both his hands for a sec, tucking that tricksy strand of hair behind her ear like oh you behave yourself, opening his mouth to disagree but knowing she’s right, a look over at his sleeping child like true because can’t just leave her in the car forever with an unknown man driving it while you scream and cry, reaching to similarly stroke baby Jay’s hair with all the love like okay yes, my mind is made up, that’s what we shall do]

Ava: [doing an even sadder smile because it is what needs to be done, doesn’t mean we’re happy about it]

James: [looking at her like but you aren’t home yet because true, before he’s kissing her again, trying to put all the emotions into it that they don’t know how to/we won’t let them verbalise]

Ava: [literally just passionately kiss until you get to her address because there is nothing else you can say or do lads]

James: [agreed, it’s the mood and it’s the moment, open her car door for her like an old fashioned gentleman when y’all do get there but you gotta just stand there and watch her go inside then you’re not allowed to follow however tempted you are to walk her to her door, those are the rules]

Ava: [sorry to not let you be a full gentleman but we really do have to run, no looking back allowed, praying you can avoid your parents and get to your room before you have your meltdown]

James: [baze like hello??! You sir you get back in the car and you be driven the short distance home, you’ve avoided it for as long as you can unfortunately]

Ava: [me like do I let you message him the minute you’re going through this bag or do I make you wait because you think that’s the right thing to do lol]

James: [I say wait because you’re trying to do the right thing, it feels real]

Ava: [okay, so this is giving the next day, we’ve had a night of being the drama, pining, the full nine yards, he should be there now and thus it’s ‘appropriate’ to check in]

Ava: Have you had chance to check out the spa facilities yet?

Ava: I’ve read [the letter that’s most appropriate for your emo mood], thank you

James: No, thank you for your continued prioritisation of my well-being, unfortunately, I regret to inform you, I haven’t

James: soon perhaps

James: I’m sorry you felt so [however is letter appropriate] last night

Ava: It’s the only appropriate way for me to feel, however comforting the jumper is, it can only give me so much

Ava: I can’t trust anyone else to prioritise it, I could book you in for treatment myself, I’ve checked their website

James: Jay made me read [the book Ava got her] to her [an insane number of times, idk I don’t have a child I read bedtime stories to], if that’s any consolation

Ava: I am pleased she likes it

Ava: sorry that I did not have enough time to get you a book that’s a bit more challenging though

James: Apologies aren’t necessary, it was a thoughtful gift and the reading of it reminds me of you

Ava: You’re the thoughtful one, I can only aim to be a lacklustre second

James: Your aim would have to be woefully off not to be first in everything, and it isn’t

Ava: That does remind me, are you the second or the third of your name?

James: The third, why?

Ava: I have to know what to call the bear, of course

James: I see

Ava: It would feel wrong to give him another name

James: I can’t argue with that, he was deliberately chosen in my image

Ava: I’ll cover his fuzzy ears if I call you cuter

James: You must, I insist

Ava: How is it, is it okay?

James: My sister didn’t come, which whilst it feels unjust to me personally, being given no such out, her absence will prevent numerous arguments

Ava: What excuse did she come up with?

James: Her husband-to-be has to work and she can’t possibly holiday without him, especially with us

Ava: Hmm, I do appreciate her sentiment

Ava: I’d love to have an excuse like that to hand

James: As do I, alas none of mine carry the same weight

Ava: Doesn’t your sister work for your dad too? I feel like Teddy has said so before now

James: Yes, she went to King’s before that as well, naturally

James: it’s all an enforced family affair

Ava: Wow, that’s all very… close

Ava: Is that how you feel, close to them?

James: My father’s approach to everything is too coercive to feel anything but contrived, be it a career path or what should be legitimate family ties, I’m afraid

James: I keep trying though, to form bonds in spite of him, or perchance to spite him

Ava: That’s clear, I would say you’re where you are now not just for your wife, by any means

James: Thank you

James: but enough about them, which letter are you in the mood to read currently?

Ava: [a happier one because getting to talk to you has made us feel slightly better is the vibe]

James: I’m relieved you’re feeling a little better too, I’ll admit my own mood has been transformed after hearing from you

Ava: I don’t wish to keep you, well, no, I absolutely do but if you have to go, at any point, feel entirely free to

Ava: I don’t know what the rules are here

James: I think the rules are ours to create

Ava: Isn’t that a nice thought

James: It’s a pleasant reminder that freedom does still exist

Ava: This is freedom, to be, textbook definition

Ava: no logic or rationale can be applied to how much I need you

James: It’s not a nice thought how scarce my opportunities are, and will be, to take care of that need for you

James: I’m sorry, I wish I was more available

Ava: Me too but I’ve always understood that you won’t be, so it’s okay

Ava: I don’t entirely hate the idea of being driven mad by the desire, really

James: No, there are worse things to be driven mad by, that’s a good point

Ava: Loneliness and boredom spring to mind, all too readily

James: Yes, they’re determined to be at the forefront

Ava: I’m going to trek to [another obscure bookshop, assumedly] today, on the authority of [the man at the bookshop you sent us to before you left], but that’s as busy as I can bear to be with anything that isn’t related to you and what you left me

James: [nerd out about that bookshop and any others that are nearby because you’re that sort of bear and it’s cute + a good way to show how easily you lose track of time when talking to this gal/don’t wanna be on this fam holiday]

Ava: [likewise join in and tell him how little you’ve read of the book he left for you because can’t concentrate yet for lovesick reasons]

James: [talk to her too about the chapter he read aloud to her because he would’ve sent her that last night/v early this morning as he does every night without fail even though they didn’t have a chance to talk or anything then and always wanna know what she thinks of it]

Ava: [have your little book club, try not to die too hard about how into it you are whenever he reads to you]

James: [it’s deserved while you can cos he’s gonna be killing himself trying to keep his child vaguely entertained on this not kid friendly hol]

Ava: [catch your father inevitably working from the bar/seeing if he can have his own extramarital affair as per, your mother and Chlo having all the spa treatments and Teddy trying to entertain himself any way he can as per, thanks guys lol, at least her parents are helpful]

James: [you’ve nailed it there boo, thank god for Chlo’s parents and the fact she can’t get as wasted as Teddy and his mum will because of being preggo, we take what silver linings we can get]

Ava: [unlucky slag, I’m sure you push your glass of wine to a very big glass undoubtedly but no one wants you fucking with this child so you will not be enabled to be worse than you are]

James: [you could get away with it when nobody knew and I’m sure you did hun but everyone is aware now, except Ava, soz girl]

Ava: [oh the unfortunate drama of it all, would you like to do someone else now, as we’ve got this vibe set?]

James: [I’m down to, lemme just have James leave the chat and then we can decide what we fancy doing]

James: Excuse me, but with the heaviest heart and sincerest apologies imaginable, I have to go

Ava: Ah, not at all

Ava: Perhaps I will get to speak to you tonight?

Ava: Good luck

James: I hope so

James: enjoy [the bookshop and the others he mentioned] until then

Ava: 💙

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dumbbitchenergy17 · 3 years

Text

Extra Part 9

U.A. a school for students to learn how to become the best Pro-Hero. When young Y/n Midoriya returns from her traveling to be accepted through recommendation. What awaits her when she meet the explosive blonde Katsuki Bakugo

Words- 3062

Katsuki Bakugo x Midoriya!Reader, Izuku Midoriya x Cousin!Reader

Warning-Spoilers from show and Hero license Arc, and fighting scenes.

Series Masterlist

You had followed Bakugo around the city-like district for a while with no encounters with any other examinees. “Bakugo you shouldn’t just run off.” You called after him as he began climbing up a ladder to a highway.

“Hey Kaminari why did you follow us?” Kirishima asked right behind you as you all climbed.

“I dunno. Cause you guys started running then Y/n followed. I didn’t wanna end up alone” Denki answered. “Where are we going?”

“SHUT UP.” Bakugo yelled not wanting to be with you all.

“Why you always gotta be so mad?” Denki complained.

“I told you to chill out Bakugo.” Kirishima scolded the blonde, “Looks like there’s a lot of people up there.” Bakugo was the first to get onto the street with you following and Kirishima and Kaminari behind you, “So I think the four of us should work together.” Kirishima states.

“Go die.” Bakugo huffs

“Come on man.” Kirishima groans.

You sigh following the blonde “We just need to find someon-”

“LOOK OUT!” Kirishima yells as he pushes you forward out of the way of an attack. He grabbed by some flesh like blob

“Kirishima!” Denki cries out you watch in horror as he is smushed up into a ball of goop and that’s when you see that you're not alone. In front of the three of you is a student from Shiketsu holding the Kirishima blob surrounded by more blobs of other students. ‘I think his name was Shishikura’ you thought “What the crap. Did that really just happen?” Denki looks at the blobs of students.

“All I know is that bastard looks like he’s to blame.” Bakugo growls out stepping forward, “So I’ll kill him.”

“I’m from Shiketsu. Please notice my school keeps our hats on when we’re working,” Shishikura stated, holding the blob of Kirishima that twitched and moved every so often. “Why’s that because each and every one of our movements is crowned by the legacy and honor of our school.” He drops Kirishima, him falling, lying with the other blobs. “This is a demonstration. Proof of the difference in level between my peers and your vulgar class. We value obligation and dignity things that appear to be sorely lacking among you.”

Bakugo smirks back at the student in front of you three “I really hate your type.”

Kaminari pales and glances at you “He’s hard to follow. Makes me feel kinda dumb.”

“He said his beady eyes are full of tears, so he can’t see how strong his opponents are” Bakugo mocks him making you chuckle.

“My eyes are dry and handsome, thank you!” He yells

“Hey. Maybe don’t provoke this guy?” Kaminari tries to warn Bakugo, “Look what he did to Kirishima!” A ‘tch’ comes from Bakugo as both him and the Shiketsu student glare at each other.

“U.A High I have respect for your school. I take pride in the fact that our institutions are treated as equals.” He leans forward flesh coming from behind his back, “But your class is shameful, you act in ways that disgrace heroes.”

“He’s attacking again! I don’t wanna be gross!” Kaminari hides behind you as you watch to see what Bakugo is going to do.

“Bakugo don’t do anything reckless.” You warn him

“Shut up! ‘Obligation?’ ‘Dignity?’ you just like to hear yourself talk. I don’t see any proof. Show us with your actions, not your cheap words. If you can.” He taunts him a grin on his face.

“Beast. You’re worst of all, Bakugo!” He yells kneading five fingers out of thin air and launches them towards you all. You get ready to defend a red haze surrounding your hands, while Bakugo uses one of his special moves.

“AP Shot. Auto-Cannon!” Little explosions are sent flying towards the fingers destroying the flesh some of the explosions hitting Shishikura. “I had to make a weak version so I didn’t kill anyone.” Bakugo smirks as Shishikura gets back up

“You know what, this is why everyone’s terrified of you- you’re way too hardcore!” Kaminari watches his friend in fear. The flesh that Bakugo had destroyed started floating back to Shishikura’s arms.

“So those weird flesh things just float back to him?” You question as his arms go back to normal.

“I see now. I’ll teach you a lesson by breaking you.” He calls out more flesh leaving his arms surrounding him.

“Uh Bakugo you better think of something or we’re gonna end up like Kirishima.” You called out ready to fight.

“This will show you what it means to be dignified and behave like a hero!”

“What is up with this disgusting dude?” Kaminari shivers grossed out by this whole situation.

“He thinks he’s better than us,” Bakugo rushed towards him, “But I bet he’ll shut up when I-”

“Hey, wait don’t forget we’re in the middle of a test!” Kaminari calls out as you both watch as the blonde goes to attack,

“That’s exactly why I’ll kill the guy!”

“Bakugo stop, we have to focus on the task at hand.” You yell out.

Flesh shoots out towards Bakugo as Shishikura yells, “Absurd!” You and Kaminari both rush to fight as you use your quirk to hold pieces of flesh while Bakugo explodes them.

“Ugh let’s get this fight over with,” Kaminari puts some projectiles into his new gear and fires towards him, “Maybe this’ll speed things along.”

Shisikura dodges. “You should work on your aim.” He comments sending an attack towards Kaminari but you stop it sending the flesh back to him creating a shield in front of you and Kaminari as more flesh heads towards the two of you. “And your look. Maybe I can make you something more appealing.”

“Enough talk. Die!” Bakugo yells, sending another AP Shot towards your opponent. A huge explosion happens, smoke covering your field of vision clearing to show him covered with flesh in front of him as a shield.

“You’ve left yourself open.”

“Kacchan!” You yell but are too late when there is a lump of flesh on his shoulders.

“What the-”

“You weren’t paying attention. I had a piece of flesh sneak beneath us. You saw Kirishima earlier once I touch you, you’re my plaything.” Bakugo struggles to free himself as he begins to get smushed into a lump

“Bakugo!” Kaminari and you both rush to his rescue.

“Hey! Idiot! Fix this!” Bakugo yells at you, tossing something to you, and you both have no choice but to watch him turn into a lump of flesh like the others.

“Pathetic. You must be remade from scratch.” You both look at the blob that is Bakugo that squirms.

“No way!” Kaminari eyes widened and you look at Shishikura with disgust.

“This is a demonstration. The test has an unusually low passing rate at first this seemed counterintuitive given our current world. With All Might retired, wouldn’t it make more sense to flood the streets with heroes? And so, I must assume that their goal is to weed out the riff raff. We can surmise that they’ve starting to be more selective in order to bring the profession of hero to a higher level. And I agree with this way of thinking so I decided to thin the herd myself.” Shishikura rattled on about the reason he was here.

“You’re not even focusing on the test.” You frowned.

“You’re ignoring the test because you think you’re superior? What are you, a crazy person?” Kaminari looks at the guy across from the two of you in confusion.

“I’m simply separating the mediocre and extraordinary,” He brings his foot up pressing down against the lump of Kirishima, “By the way, your comrades here still feel pain in this form. Your untamed electricity will torture your friends if you use it.” He points out and he was right Kaminari quirk can sometimes go out of control when he uses it.

“Ugh you’ve been doing nothing but hurling insults at us this entire time. I’m kinda starting to take it personally, ya know.” Kaminari sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Then perhaps you are more self-aware than I thought I’d take time to reflect on your failure.” He sends flesh fingers towards the two of you.

“How about you reflect on this!” You yell, throwing the object Bakugo had given you a explosion happening, sending his attack halting.

Both you and Kaminari dodge a piece of flesh heading towards you, “Those ugly-ass gauntlets of his aren’t just some kind of fashion statement. He can use that gear along with his nitro sweat to create simple grenades.” You replied, getting ready to retaliate.

“That’s it! He tossed it to you.” He put the pieces together. You and Kaminari both stood fully a red haze surrounding your hands as the same red followed your eyes.

“By the way, big shot.” Kaminari called out holding out his hand that had sparks coming from it, “You stumbled into a really killer spot.” Shishikura tries to run away but you use your quirk to keep him in place as Kaminari fires electricity at him. He falls down sparks coming from him, it all made sense with Kaminari new gear he would be able to attack without hurting his teammates. That was the same thing with Bakugo; he had used smaller explosions not because he wanted to test out a new move, so he wouldn’t hit Kirishima, Kaminari, and you. He actually had you all on his mind.

“Listen up. Bakugo might seem like a total jerk on the surface, but he’s actually trying really hard to be a pro hero.” You defend the blob of a friend in front of you and you could see that Bakugo was slowly going back to normal. “He threw that grenade to me while being attacked. That was a result of calm judgement and planning and Kirishima is a such a good dude that he rushed into enemy territory for his friends, even thought it was a totally stupid thing to do.” you continued on as Kirishima started going back to normal. “You only know bits and pieces of these guys. Don’t insult what you don’t know!” You yell a ball of red energy forming at your hand and Kaminari readies his electricity.

“I’ll teach you both to be more aware of your place. You degenerates!” He yells and you both get ready to attack but a punch to the gut by Kirishima stops him followed by an explosion sends him flying back.

“The more damage he takes, the more people get released.” Kirishima points out.

“No wonder he was only using long-distance attacks.” Bakugo replies and they both turn to the two of you.

“Thanks for the save you guys.” Kirishima nods.

“You idiot. What took so long?” Bakugo yelled, flicking your forehead “Oww I just saved you guys.” You rubbed the spot he flicked.

“Why are you so mean?” Kaminari cries, “No one’s ever gonna like you if you act that way! Woah, look behind you!” Kaminari points behind you three. “Those other flesh balls are all waking up.” You watch as the other capture students turn normal getting up. Bakugo licks his lips looking at the multiple students

“We’ve got targets.”

The four of you standoff to the new opponents. One opponent looks and sees the four of you standing across from them. “Hey! They’re from U.A.” They yell and everyone else notices as well and gets ready to fight.

“So game plan?” Kirishima asks, hardening one of his arms.

“We fight.” You yell running past them going straight into fighting, knocking down a few students with a blast of energy using hand to hand combats mixed in with your psionic energy.

“You heard her.” Bakugo smirks rushing after joining in on the fight. You and Bakugo work in tandem you using your quirk to weaken them physically then sending them Bakugo way to finish them off with his quirk. You also used your quirk on the defensive stopping people from hitting your friends targets and you own as well. Bakugo and Kirishima were able to get their two targets with Kaminari following right after. You made you way over to one of the students that were knocked out going to get your final person.

“Y/n watch out!” Kaminari yells and you turn just in time to see someone rushing towards you trying to hit your target. A red haze surrounds their body as they almost touch you but you bend backwards, one of your arms going to the ground as the other flings over your head. The person follows right as you bend back flying right over you hitting one of the walls getting knocked out. You stand upright getting your final person the target on you lighting up blue and you turn to look at the three guys all of them shocked. Some are better than others at hiding it, Kaminari’s jaw is on the floor as you go over to them.

“That was so cool Midoriya.” Kirishima compliments you and you smiled.

“Cool! That was so badass you were like woosh and then that guy went right over you. How did you even do that?” Kaminari was fanboying over what you just did making you laugh and Bakugo huff.

“Relax Denki, I’ve just been training a lot now that’s all.” You patted him on the shoulder heading off toward the designated area for people who passed. Kaminari turned to the other guys

“She called me Denki.” He freaked over a girl calling him by his first name,

“That is your name though Kaminari.” Kirishima pointed out.

“Yeah but she didn’t call you guys by your first name huh.” Kaminari pointed to the two other boys.

“Shut up Spark Plug.” Bakugo growled explosions popping from his hands.

You had finally made it away from the city area and was heading towards the anteroom when an announcement went off “Oh. 4 more one after the other our total’s at 83.” The voice droned off continuing to announce.

“Whoa, this entire arena’s going insane.” Kirishima said as you could see fighting happening off in the distance.

Kaminari looked forward before pointing “Hey, look, some of our classmates.” You could also see that Izuku, Uraraka, and Sero had passed as well. “Aw, yeah! Class-A represent!” Kaminari cheered heading over to the three of them.

“Oh you know it! Our class is amazing! We did it!” Uraraka smiled and her and the three other boys began to dance leaving you, Izuku and Bakugo on the side.

“Hey Izuku! What happened to your face?” You rush over to your cousin looking at the cut on him, coddling him making him turn red. You both saw Bakugo making his way over to you two.

“So you passed, too. How’d you manage that, Deku?” His face showing hidden anger

“Kacchan. Hey!” Izuku greeted him and you could see he was getting nervous.

“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised with that Quirk you got.” He grumbles walking past the two of you and you hear Izuku gasp and begin to freak out. “It looks like you’ve made that borrowed power your own.” Bakugo said, walking off to the anteroom.

You look over to your cousin and he seemed deep in thought at what Bakugo had said. “Izuku does Bakugo know about your quirk?” You both begin to make you way out of the arena with the others following behind you.

“Uh that’s complicated.” You both enter the anteroom seeing more of your classmates there.

“Oh, hey! What a relief. I was starting to get so worried.” Momo smiled as you guys walked up to her.

“No need to worry about us, Yao-momo.” Kaminari answers, “What’s up? When did you guys pass? You been here long?”

“We just finished as well. Todoroki beat us.” Shoji pointed over to where the bi-colored boy was sitting.

“I was kinda shocked Bakugo wasn’t here already.” Jiro added seeing him arriving with the group. “But I get it now. It’s because you were with him.”

“Oh come on! Why is everyone dragging me today? Y/n and I actually helped them!” He cried out in frustration.

“Oh I know she probably had to watch over the three of you to make sure you passed but surprised you did something.” Jiro looked over to you.

“They were completely helpless.” You tease them and Bakugo is ready to beat you up will Kaminari cries feeling dumb. You head over to where Izuku is and there he was talking to Todoroki.

“Looks like only twelve from our class have passed.” Todoroki gets a headcount of the people you’re with.

“So nine more to go.” Izuku states and Momo walks up to the group. “And the announcement said only 17 spots left.” You all look at the tv where it was showing live footage from the arena. Come on guys you can do it.

Ms. Joke and Mr. Aizawa watch from the bleachers as the fight continues on. “Wow. seven people just passed at the same time. That leaves only ten open spots.” The announcement goes off. Ms Joke laughs standing up seeing the people heading towards the anteroom.

“Ha! Those seven were all from my class! See e’m? They’re heading into the anteroom.”

From inside the anteroom you see more people come in all not from your class.

“Looks like our class,” Momo trails off.

“Still has nine people who haven’t passed.” Jiro finishes for her as the time begins to run out, “I hate to say it, but it’s not sounding good for us.”

“Come on guys you can do it.” You whisper to yourself watching the tv. You all watch as UA comes together taking out a swarm of examinees and then you hear the alarm go off.

“The last students passed! Every stop is now filled. One hundred students will advance! The end is finally here! Wah-hoo” The announcer yells excitedly.

“Yeah!” Kaminari and Kirishima cheer as you class freaks out.

“Our entire class passed the test, I’m so excited!” Uraraka beams, throwing her hands up

“Aw, man! I am so proud of us!” Sero cheers.

“We all made it!” You smile looking around at your other classmates.

“We really pulled it off, you guys.” Izuku sighs out in relief as your classmates on the field begin to join you all. A step closer in getting our licenses.

#bmha #mha quirks #mha x reader #mha x y/n #mha bakugou #Katsuki Bakugō #katsuki bakugo x reader #bakugou x reader #bnha bakugo katsuki #bakugo x midoriya!reader #katsuki x reader #katsuki x you #extra series #izuku x cousin!reader #x midoriya!reader #katsuki x midoriya!reader #katusuki bakugo x midoriya!reader #my hero academia

35 notes · View notes

melwritten · 4 years

Text

“temptation”

𖤐 - smut

☽ - angst

♡ - fluff

𖤐 3,672 words

𖤐 warnings: hardcore/unprotected sex, swearing, 20 year age gap (harry’s 38 in this au)

𖤐 prompt 42/43:

“Make me.” / “Don’t tempt me.”

Harry’s day started off the same as any other and would continue being as normal as it usually was, but today his daughter’s best friend Y/N was spending the night.

He had an inhuman hunger for that girl; he knew how wrong and inappropriate it was, but there was a part of him didn’t care at all. Y/N was built like a model, not those skinny ones you see on runways, a curvy model. Which made sense considering the 18 year old was Colombian. As Harry thought about the young woman’s body, and what he could do to it if he got the chance, his visions were cut short due to the sound of a door shutting. It was his daughter Iris and Y/N.

“Hey girls.” Harry greeted them both with a smile and threw a small wave their way. His posture changed from slouching on the couch to sitting up straight looking at the two ladies that stood not far from him.

Iris took a few steps towards her father, embracing him in a hug as well as pecking his cheek. The two had a very close relationship, she was always a daddy girl and nothing could change that.

“Hey papa. What’d you do today? I see you clearly didn’t get a haircut. I miss your buzzcut.” She smirked before letting out a laugh. Harry continued to tell his daughter he’d cut his long-ish hair but he simply couldn’t part with it; it was a part of his charm. He definitely was not letting her give him a buzzcut again.

“Hey, why don’t you concern yourself with your own hair you little shit head. Everyone loves my hair.” He said as he ran his fingers through the curly brown locks.

Iris shook her head before she went back over to Y/N who was still standing at the front door, waiting for her best friend to return to her side so the two could go up to Iris’s room. Y/N was so attracted to Harry it was unholy. Then again, who wouldn’t be? But it’s not like she could do anything about the fact because why would he get involved with an 18-year-old, who was also best friends with his daughter. Although the two did have an interesting relationship; that was for sure. It consisted of what seemed like hatred, but they were both just ultimately frustrated due to the fact that they can’t get what they both desperately wanted.

“Y/N, can you grab some drinks and some snacks while I go upstairs and get shit tidied up? My room’s a disaster.” Iris flashed her puppy dog eyes at her best friend which released a chuckle from the other female’s lips.

“Yeah, sure.”

Iris smiled and rushed up the stairs with both of the girls’ bags as Y/N passed Harry who watched her walk into the large kitchen that was the focal point of the home’s first floor. He got up from the couch and followed her, leaning against the kitchen’s marble island as she looked through the pantry and fridge, searching for some snacks as well as some drinks. He looked at her up and down, his eyes full of lust and longing before he licked his lips and rested his thumb on his chin. She turned around after getting that feeling that she was being watched, and lo and behold, she caught him checking her out. He tried to play it off but she raised her eyebrow at him and gave a slight smirk before she closed the fridge and placed two bottles of coke next to him, along with some Ritz crackers and cheese.

“Can I help you?” She asked, a glimmer in her eye and a ribbon of sarcasm lacing her tone of voice, the smirk staying plastered on her face. All she could think about right now was how she saw his jaw clench while he stared at her and how badly she wanted to be taken by him right there right now.

“Sadly not.”

He replied before walking away, his eyebrows furrowed as he felt his cock twitch in his sweatpants which caused him to groan quietly. The brunette went back to the couch, slouching once he sat, getting comfortable and covering his crotch with a pillow that previously rested on the empty spot next to him.

Y/N giggled quitely, biting her lip before she shook her head and snapped out of the perverted visions that wracked her brain. She grabbed everything she’d retrieved from the kitchen and started walking towards the staircase.

Once she got to the wooden stairs, she placed one foot on the first stair and looked back at the man on the couch before she winked at him then walked up the rest of the stairs.

‘Oh god what are you doing Y/N?!’ The young woman thought to herself as she made her way to Iris’s room.

Harry’s cock grew in that moment, watching her walk up the stairs after she basically just teased the shit out of him. He placed his hand on his mouth and grabbed the aching inches in his pants.

“Fuck Y/N, what are you doing? This isn’t a game.” He mumbled quietly as he then bit his finger, trying harder to muffle his words.

Several hours had passed, which meant it was currently 12:35 am.

Harry was still lounging on the couch, watching Game of Thrones as he usually would. Voices from the television filled the room, although it wasn’t obnoxiously loud so that he wouldn’t bother the girls who were upstairs; doing whatever girls do.

The thought of Y/N hadn’t left the man’s mind and was driving him slightly insane. He couldn’t stop thinking about he wanted to teach her a lesson. As soon as he finished that thought, he heard light footsteps and saw a familiar figure, followed by a voice that he couldn’t handle hearing right now.

“Hey, can I come watch tv with you? Iris passed out while we were watching a movie and I’m not tired.”

‘Shit, no, please go back upstairs Y/N’ Harry thought before he turned his gaze to her, his eyes widening slightly when he realized what the female was wearing. A white tank top; with no bra underneath which made her nipples and the small balls of silver from her nipple piercings clearly visible, as well as a pair of very short shorts which barely covered her ass at all. To tie it all together, her beautiful dark brown hair was down and grazed her lower back. It was like Harry was being cursed and blessed at the same time.

“Yeah, feel free.”

He finally responded as he watched her walk over to the couch and planted her large ass on the spot next to him. He looked back at the tv, trying his best to keep his eyes off of the female next to him. A jolt of energy made its way to Harry’s cock, causing it to turn rock hard. The man quickly grabbed the pillow from earlier and covered himself before Y/N could notice. Little did he know that he was too late.

Y/N smirked and made a rather quick and probably stupid decision, but she was unbelievably horny so she decided to make a bold move, not thinking it through fully.

She moved the pillow from his lap, throwing it onto the floor before she got onto Harry’s lap, straddling him with her breasts flush against his chest. His hard-on poked her clit but she tried her hardest not to let out a moan.

“Why’re you hiding from me, huh?”

Harry chocked on his words before letting them escape his lips as a stern quiet-yell.

“What the actual fuck are you thinking, Y/N? We can’t do this, Lee’s right upstairs and you’re 18.”

“Exactly. I’m 18, meaning this is legal.”

“I’m her father, do you not understand that? I’m also 20 years older than you, you’re a child.”

“Age is just a number, Harry. Plus, you clearly need me, and probably have for a long time.”

Y/N giggled as she rubbed herself against the man’s aching cock. Harry clenched his jaw and quickly stood up, throwing her small body onto the couch before he crawled on top of her, his arms and hands next to her head as he held himself up to stare down at her. His aura was dark, so were his eyes which seemed to turn black instead of their usual green shade.

“Don’t tempt me. You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

He stated before being silent for a moment just to look at her, then he continued.

“Go back upstairs, now.”

She let out a small squeak after she was placed in her current situation but she was enjoying every second of it and couldn’t help but to play along. Y/N then wrapped her arms around the man’s neck and brought his face closer to his before leaning in, whispering into his ear.

“Make me, daddy.”

She added the pet name at the end to rile him up even more, and god did it work.

He swallowed hard before he lifted her up, throwing her body over his shoulder and heading towards the basement which was where his bedroom was located. There was a bedroom next to Iris’s that could have been his but he turned it into a guest bedroom so that his daughter wouldn’t have to hear what went on when he had women over; it was perfect in this case. If Iris knew what was happening, he would be dead. Harry opened the door quickly but quietly, closing and locking it behind him. He made his way down the stairs and towards his bed and when he reached it he threw the female onto the duvet, causing her to release a small squeak, same to the one she let slip out earlier. Harry shirt was quickly removed from his body and thrown onto the floor somewhere. His large hands grabbed Y/N’s hips and brought them towards him as he flipped her so that her ass was facing up. The man quickly swatted at the plump mound in front of him, repeating the motion a few times while listening to Y/N whimper and moan at the same time. Harry proceeded to flip her back over and moved so that he hovered above her, grabbing her face with one hand and staring into her brown eyes.

“You’re a terrible friend, seducing your best friend’s father…”

He breathed out, removing his hand from her face and making his way to ravage her neck and finally claiming her as his. He continued to speak as he searched for her neck’s sweet spot.

“I’m going to give you the punishment that little sluts like you deserve.”

A moan escaped Y/N’s mouth as she tilted her head to the side, allowing Harry to get access to more of her neck which he was exploring quickly and roughly, leaving dark bruises all over the surface of her beige skin. These marks would need some serious explaining and made up cause if Iris happened to ask her about it. He soon lifted himself back to stare down at her before his large hands gripped the top of her white tank top, completely tearing the fabric and throwing it somewhere off to the side. Her double D sized breasts were revealed and her nipples hardened due to the sudden feeling of cold air that grazed them. Soon enough, the man’s tongue made its way to the small buds on her chest, releasing a louder moan from the female underneath his large body.

“Harry, s-stop teasing…”

She managed to breathe out as he nibbled on her perky nipples, disregarding what she was saying. He moved on from her nipples and decided to plant more bruises all over her beautiful breasts. She belonged to him in this moment, and soon enough, she wouldn’t want anyone else but him.

“You’ve been teasing me since the moment I first met you. Now it’s my turn to return the favor.”

He smirked proudly as he lowered himself planting kisses on her stomach and soon enough completely ridding her of her clothes once he tore her shorts off of her, preparing himself to tear off her panties but thankfully she wasn’t wearing any; causing his smirk and length to grow. He grabbed her legs and threw them over his shoulders and placed his mouth in front of her dripping cunt. Inhaling her sweet scent before he completely ravaged her. He blew air onto her clit which caused her to squirm before he brought her as close to him as possible.

“No no, you’re mine now.”

Harry then slowly started swirling his tongue on the female’s bud of nerves; soft moans filling the air. He increased his intensity and speed while also inserting a finger into her dripping hole. The man pulsed his finger into her, adding another finger after a few seconds. At this point, Y/N was a moaning mess. Her fingers tangled themselves in Harry’s hair, tugging at his beautifully tangled curls.

“Fuck, Harry!”

She exclaimed as he went to town on her heat for about 5 minutes before he realized she was going to cum any second, so he simply stopped his actions. Harry lifted his face from her as well as removed his soaking fingers, inserting them into his mouth and cleaning them with his tongue. The female stared at him, her breath shaky. She furious that he stopped when she was so damn close.

“What the hell?! I was so fucking close.”

She yelled before he placed his hand over her mouth and quickly shut her up and he simply chuckled before his face grew serious.

“Shut your mouth.”

He scolded and removed his hand, he then stood up and removed his sweats, along with his boxers. The man’s aching cock sprung out of its cloth prison and he let out a sigh of relief before taking a couple steps back, moving away from the bed.

“On your knees, now.”

Harry demanded as his eyes were fixed upon Y/N and nothing else. The female was speechless when she saw how large the man’s cock was; it was better than she could have ever imagined. His orders were obeyed and she got off the bed, moving in front of him and on her knees. She took him her hand and examined him for a second before sliding his thick length into her mouth, taking what she could and stroking the rest with her hand. She heard him cuss under his breath and that made her want him even more but she knew she had to make him want her even more. Harry then grabbed a handful of Y/N’s hair and started face-fucking her, she gagged every now and again but it just made him go crazy.

“Shit...”

He moaned out as he looked down at her only to be met with her staring right up at him. He inserted himself deeply into her mouth, causing her to gag one final time before he removed his cock from her mouth, a string of saliva still connecting the two. He couldn’t take it anymore. He needed her right now or else he would lose his damn mind. Lifting her up into his arms, and holding her legs against his waist as he pinned her against the wall. She held him tightly, her arms slithered around his neck and her thighs constricting around his abdomen. Harry moved one of his hands and placed it on his cock, guiding himself to her entrance. Once he was there, he pushed his full length inside of her, the sudden action caused him to moan deeply and caused the female in his arms to scream with a mix of pleasure and pain. He allowed a second for her to adjust before he started pounding into her.

“Fuck!”

She screamed his name as she dug her nails deep into his back, as well as throwing her head back while she was being fucked mercilessly. He wasn't going gentle on her whatsoever but it just made her feel even better. Harry’s fingers dug into her hips as he roughly pounded into her tight walls, he then clashed their lips together and kissed the female passionately. The pain in his back due to her sharp nails was causing him to groan every now and again, it was more pleasure than pain. The pace he was going at only increased every minute, causing Y/N to cum multiple times, but that didn’t mean they were going to stop any time soon.

“Y/N, you’re so fucking tight.”

He breathed as her walls only continued to hug his girth. Stopping himself for a second, he moved them both from the wall and placed her back onto the bed, her limbs still wrapped around him as she stayed a moaning mess. It wasn’t long before he started moving again, faster than before; if that was even possible. They stayed in the missionary pose for quite a while, the room filled with their moans.

“Who do you belong to?”

Harry asked, his voice raspy and demanding an answer. Y/N struggled to get an answer out due to the fact that she was an absolute mess in this exact moment.

“Well?”

“Y-you, Harry! I b-belong to you!”

She managed to scream out, her voice laced with lust and passion while her breathing continued at a rapid pace.

“That’s right.”

The man chuckled as he pushed himself into her as deeply as he could, staying there for about a second while he went back to Y/N’s neck which seemed to just be covered in one giant bruise when it was actually just tons of individual love marks. Soon enough, he went back to thrusting in and out of her, letting a groan out as he knew he was coming close to his release. The female below him had her share of releases and she knew that by the end of this, she would not be able to even take a step without collapsing.

“Get back on your knees, Y/N. I’m close.”

Harry had no intention of getting an 18 year old pregnant. He was clean but he didn’t want to risk releasing his load into her, regardless of the circumstances. He pulled out of Y/N and she quickly got back onto her knees, starting to suck him off and play with his balls as she did so, which caused Harry to purr.

“Fuck, yes baby, finish daddy off..”

He moaned out as she deep throated the man in front of her, taking him as well as she could before she finally felt his hot seed spill down her throat, all she could hear was Harry groaning as he held onto her head, making sure she took all of his seed. Y/N swallowed every last drop before she was able to move her head and look up at him, sticking her tongue out of her mouth so that he could see that she did indeed take every last drop of him. Harry stared at her, eyes filled with lust before leaning down and kissing her passionately, not paying much attention to where her mouth just was. Pulling back from the kiss and turning his head to look at his alarm clock that rested on his wooden bedside table which read 3:00 am. They’d been at it for a couple hours and the grown man wouldn’t take back any of it.

“Now don’t forget what you said. You belong to me now.”

Y/N nodded before she pushed herself up off the floor and sat at the end of the bed, looking at herself in the mirror across the room. How was she going to explain all these bruises to Iris? She’d probably have to leave before she woke up.

“Thanks for all the bruises, you jackass.” She snapped, causing Harry to laugh as he was putting his boxers and sweatpants back on.

“Oh please, have you seen my back?” He asked before he turned his back to her, a giggle escaping her throat before she bit her bottom lip. It looked like she drew blood on some sections of his back. She was quite proud of that actually.

“We need to get you home. I’ll tell Iris there was an emergency or something. She can’t see you like, that.”

He pointed towards her neck and breasts before she nodded and was about to get dressed, then realizing Harry’s actions of desperation earlier caused her clothes to be completely ripped and unwearable so she stood up and grabbed the shirt that the man was wearing, sliding it over her head and letting it drape over her small figure.

“I need to go get my stuff, I can’t leave in just this.”

“Oh but you’ll have too, otherwise you’ll wake her.”

Y/N groaned before she felt two large arms wrap around her body, Harry’s chin rested on her shoulder while they both faced the same direction; looking in the mirror. The large man then started nibbling on her ear before whispering into it,

“Think of me fucking you while you wear my shirt as you drive home. I’ll bring you your things in the morning, if we’re lucky and you’re home alone, we can have some more fun.”

so that’s the first smut i guessss. i hope you guys liked it. I might write some more in the future depending on the feedback i get from this one. the other ones may be shorter though, i’m not sure yet. also sorry if there's some mistakes.

(i have a different version of this on my wattpad but i decided to post it as harry on here)

#harry styles blurb #harry styles au #harry styles fanfic #harry styles one shot #harry styles angst #harry styles smut #harry styles fluff #harry styles x y/n #harry styles

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tog-resources-archive · 3 years

Note

Thank you fan!anon for sending me such a long, detailed message! Never apologize for writing me an essay since I always seem to be writing essays for other people in return lol. Also sorry it took a while to get to! This required a bit of preparation. You’ve given me a lot to respond to. I’m going to be putting the entirety of the ask under the cut and the tl;dr because this one is very, verrrryyyy long.

Tl;dr- fan!anon talks about the history of top/bottom discourse in TOG and the issues of racism in our fandom. My response: my own feelings on the history of the top/bottom discourse in TOG and the current state of it. General issues I’ve observed in this fandom and the current discourse. Also, we shouldn’t ignore fandom racism, but I don’t think we should be looking at it through the lens of top/bottom, AND I think we should be focusing on misogyny, homophobia, etc. in addition to racism. Not ignore one for the other.

Bottom line though, don’t harrass people, block people if you need to, focus on what you love, support fan creation and let’s try to be a better fandom.

Okay, time to dig in!

Hello fellow fan who has been here since the beginning! I come from the “other side” I suppose, in that I do think the top/bottom discourse is worth talking about. It has to do with the elephant in the room which I haven’t seen anyone touch on – self-identified top!joe fans (in contrast to simply fans who enjoy or prefer content where joe tops). I remember the original top/bottom discourse coming out of a more general conversation about trends in fic (1) wherein Joe was more violent, less empathetic, often not religious, more aggressive in sexual scenarios, and also most often topping. People asked the fandom in general to simply consider, if that is how they perceive Joe, to reflect for themselves about implicit biases that could be colouring that interpretation. The self-identified top!joes used that conversation as a starting point to argue that the above interpretation of Joe, (2) and writing/drawing Nicky as smaller, almost twink-like, demure, more feminine (or writing fic where he was de-aged) was justified by canon (if you recall the multi-day argument about the approximately 1 inch height difference between Marwan and Luca) and connecting those ideas to top!joe just “making more sense” to them. In the hands of a good writer (of which we are blessed to have many in this fandom!), which character tops in an explicit fic is of no consequence to me. (3) But the concept of top!joe has, in my mind, become so closely tied with those fans who, a) interpret these characters and actions in a way that seems influenced by racial stereotypes and tropes and b) use that characterization as “justification” for top!joe. All this when I thought we all agreed that position preference has nothing to do with personality? (4) If someone sees Joe as a very masculine, aggressive, dom-type character (which is a bit of a one-note characterization to start, but I digress), that shouldn’t be related to him being a “top”, correct? Yet that is the interpretation and connection that the top!joes themselves make. So that’s why to me, the top/bottom framework continues to have some value, eve though in an ideal world it wouldn’t: (5) because some fans connect what should be a neutral sexual position preference to an interpretation of Joe’s character, an interpretation which I think doesn’t do him justice. I understand if you don’t want to publish this but I’m hesitant to talk off anon due to how heated this whole conversation is. I also don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or make them feel bad about how they are participating in the fandom, but I do think self-reflection in terms of how we engage is valuable. (6) And just to fully reiterate in case it wasn’t clear, my above points are specifically referring to who I think of as “top!joe only” fans as opposed to fans who enjoy or prefer content in which joe tops – only the former of which I am wary of. Anyways, sorry for this long message, and I hope I've been able to explain my reasoning. If we continue to disagree, thanks for reading this anyways and continuing the dialogue. Thank you also for promoting femslash events and content! (7)

So....I did say in a previous post that I’m not a big fan of hearsay, and I’m sorry but… that’s kind of what you’ve given me. A lot of “this is what Top!Joe Only people have said” and “this is what the rest of the fandom has said back.” I have to ask, who are these “Top!Joe Only” people that are on the other side of this fandom war? Who are the people representing the “rest of the fandom”? The only names I could really come up with myself are the Top!Joe Server mods as top!Joe only fans, and they haven’t exactly been active recently. Not to mention the Top!Joe server mod @karanoidandroid was the focus of the Art Theft and Bullying debacle a while back (here) which even if you disagree with her… that’s not the way you treat people. Full stop.

But anyway, to break this down, you’ve said that top!joe only fans wanted to interpret Joe in a way that was “more violent, less empathetic, less religious, more sexually aggressive, and topping (most of the time)” and that Nicky is “smaller, more twink-like, more demure and feminine” and that the hardcore top!joe stans are using this interpretation as a reasoning for liking top!joe explicit fics (and for underage fic?)

Er, honestly, I’ll have to disregard the “less religious” comment in this one. Lucyclairedelune has talked about it very eloquently here. As for the rest, let’s say these opinions were expressed on tumblr in July, just when the fandom was getting started. However, after personally going through all the Explicit July fics, I gotta say, the overwhelming majority of writers are focused on romantic Malta sex vacations lol.

From my personal observations (I started reading fic on ao3 in August), I’ve seen some stories that cater to very… specific tastes (mostly kinkmeme fics so I’m not going to touch that) and some that have…. been written in poor taste perhaps. But, honestly, the majority of fics (aka G, T, M rated) that I’ve seen? I would say that they were written with care and concern for the character’s portrayal.

Now, some fans (usually older fans) are very focused on “your kink is not my kink” and other fans feel this is an inappropriate way to view “racist, homophobic, islamophobic, etc” fics. And I agree with that. If people are using kink to excuse racism, homophobia, islamophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, misogyny, etc, in fics: Fuck that. But I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding flying around when people react to ‘ykinmk”. This fandom likes to assume the worst of their fellow fans imo, and I honestly don’t think that when a person defends kink that they’re trying to defend racism. They’re trying to defend their kink community which, historically, has been attacked and misunderstood by the purity police. Look into the Livejournal, ffnet, and even the Tumblr purges if you don’t believe me.

For the record, I don’t know anyone on tumblr personally. We’re all effectively strangers talking to each other on the internet, so I’m not going to make assumptions about people from stories they’ve posted on AO3 or the kinkmeme. If you want to talk about the issues those fics represent, that’s cool, but don’t harass people whose life stories you don’t know (and don’t vagueblog about them). (This is just a general statement, not saying this about you anon! I feel really strongly about this.)

Now you say, “some fans connect what should be a neutral sexual position preference to an interpretation of Joe’s character” and I hate to say it, but there are ALWAYS going to be some people who have awful opinions. Ones that are either truly terrible, or kind of in poor taste, or maybe you just don’t vibe with them. Personally, I don’t have enough time in the day to address every weird thing that a person spews on the internet. I won’t judge if you want to take them on, but, personally, I haven’t seen any recent militant top!joe only posts that are calling for racist portrayals. I see people referring to past conversations, for sure, but again, I can’t do anything with hearsay.

And honestly, we keep bringing up the top/bottom discourse of early TOG fandom, and we’re just not the same fandom we were then. SO MANY people have left the fandom in that time-- a lot of big name (or simply well known) fans and a lot of MENA fans. Regardless of what “side” you’re on in this, we all lose by focusing on the positions, by dividing everyone by “top” or “bottom” or “switch” fans, and by bringing up what people said in July, or August, or September. It’s exhausting, especially because I think a lot of people have done exactly what you said. Many authors HAVE self-reflected, they’ve thought about trends, the implications, and are contributing/interacting with the fandom as best as they can. Do I think we should stop focusing on self-reflection? That we should stop being careful about writing potentially damaging portrayals of our favorite characters? NO. Let’s keep at it! Let’s encourage others to do the same… but not with top/bottom discourse.

Let it be known that I don��t think racism is a topic we should disregard to focus on other things. Honestly, I would be happy if people gave some of the energy they have for “top/bottom” discourse to talk about the portrayal of Nile Freeman or Lykon or Copley or Quynh… the other POC representation in TOG that usually gets ignored. You may interpret this as me going “but what about??” and that’s fair. I just think that we talk about Joe ALL THE TIME in this fandom. There is an avalanche of conversation and content for this man (who I love, don’t get me wrong) and it just feels really disingenuous (to me) to talk ad nauseum about racist portrayals of Joe, but then to ignore Nile Freeman and wlw fics when Nile is the rare Black Female Action Protagonist and Andy/Quynh is an extremely rare interracial canon lesbian couple. And I’ve been trying to use my blog here to bring attention to this, think of me what you will because of that. (Again just a general statement anon! Not directed to you XD)

And from what I’ve seen in this fandom (and many others to be fair) is that we care about racism SO MUCH…but only when talking about how a man has sex. It speaks of a lack of intersectional understanding of these topics, disregarding the misogyny that IS ALSO inherent in fandom, and disregarding the homophobia of overfocusing on the top/bottom dynamics. BUT I’m not asking you to ignore racism; all I’m asking is for you to focus on the other issues too.

Bottom line though… the discourse is not what it once was. A lot of people, on whatever side, have left the fandom, or have taken a break, or are vocally tired of “top/bottom” discourse. Personally, I think we should talk about racism… but not through the lens of explicit mlm fic sex positions. Let’s talk more about race, gender, sex and sexual orientation, but not in a way that divides the fandom, in a way that makes people sick of being here, in a way that kills our content creator’s passion. Honestly, I think it can be done! But only if we work toward that goal together.

I would like to focus on encouraging events in our community, such as the ongoing Old Guard Big Bang 2021 event and the upcoming Femslash Fortnight Spring Solstice Edition event. If anyone is organizing other events, let me know and I’ll hype you up! But as for the rest, I’m tired, you’re tired, we’re all tired. Let’s try and work harder to be a kinder, more inclusive fandom in the future, for everyone’s sake.

#tumblr is a nightmare #the formatting issues i had with this one...#the old guard #my post #my ask #reply #loooooonnnnng ask and loooooong reply #sorry guys #this will be the last one for a while i think #the old guard discourse #old guard discourse #tog discourse

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blazehedgehog · 3 years

Note

Sorry to ask this, but what are your thoughts on Dunky's "I'm Done Making Good Videos" with regards to content you aspire to author vs what the average joe actually searches for

I don’t know if I’m the best person to be asking this, really.

Let’s get fully inside baseball here. Let’s pull the curtain all the way back. Actually, let’s burn down the curtain. I’m going to overshare like hell right now. Get ready for the most stream-of-consciousness rambling ever, because a lot of this has been boiling in my head and dying to get out.

For the entirety of my Youtube channel, I’ve pretty much only ever done what I want to do. Very rarely do I chase trends, or do what’s hot, or even do what people want me to do. I do whatever I feel like doing.

I have paid the price for that. My Youtube channel is 15 years old as of this year, and only now am I slowly inching towards 25,000 subscribers. I am incredibly inconsistent. What’s my channel post? Well, a couple times a year, maybe I put together an edited essay/review for a game. But I also sometimes post random, unedited, uncommentated gameplay footage. Maybe it’s a fan game, maybe it’s a gameplay demo, maybe it’s Fortnite. Sometimes, I also post remastered video game music. Every Halloween, I dump a bunch of one-off horror Let’s Plays on to my channel. And then, there’s the podcast.

I know exactly what my problems are. I don’t specialize enough, and I don’t put content out fast enough. Because most Youtube channels are, like, “shows”, right. The Did You Know Gaming show. The Markiplier show. The Angry Video Game Nerd show. And you can point at those and say exactly what they are in two sentences or less.

Did You Know Gaming specializes in informative videos uncovering obscure facts you might not know about popular video games.

Markiplier is a Youtuber that does Let’s Play videos for video games, primarily horror games, but he also focuses on general comedy skits and things of that nature.

The Angry Video Game Nerd is about one guy’s over the top reactions to bad video games.

What does BlazeHedgehog do? Well, he does a lot of Sonic fan content, but sometimes he does horror let’s plays, and sometimes he does multiplayer compilation videos sort of like Criken, but he also does music, and sometimes he makes video games and puts out videos of that, and in general he’s really low energy and sometimes there will be three or four weeks between uploads. Also he sounds like Booger from Revenge of the Nerds Snot from Family Guy (apparently).

If you come to my channel for something specific, you have to put up with everything else I upload. I could start separate channels for that content, but the barrier to entry on Youtube is so massive now that I would effectively sending those channels to their death. Videos that get 200-500 views on my main channel would get 10 views or less if they were on their own self-contained alt-channel.

So I languish. I struggle. I suffer. Youtube shows me red down arrows to tell me just how much worse I’m doing now than my last flash-in-the-pan success.

I’ve tried to chase success. It just makes me sad. I have a sense of humor, but I don’t think I can make “funny videos” like some people can. My Sonic 06 glitch video did gangbusters ten years ago, but I don’t often like kicking games when they’re down. It was a struggle to make that Sonic Boom glitch montage and that’s the reason I never followed through with Part 2 like I said I would.

My only wish is that people appreciate honesty. My Youtube channel might be a scattered mess, but that’s who I am. And more than anything, I think that’s what Dunkey’s video was about. His whole joke was about switching from thoughtful or funny videos to becoming a content farm for whatever is currently popular.

I’ve brought it up a few times here and there over the last few months, but I’ve had several brushes with the Fortnite side of Youtube recently. And there are so many dudes over there who are what I would generously call “grifters.” I follow Hypex on Twitter and routinely check Firemonkey and ShiinaBR because they datamine future Fortnite updates and often have the scoop days, weeks or sometimes months in advance.

Near the end of season 3, all three of them mentioned they had datamined “the next season” but wouldn’t say what it was because they didn’t want to spoil what was coming (the marvel season). They mentioned there were “others out there” that were spoiling things, but wouldn’t say who. I wanted to spoil myself, so I turned to Youtube.

And Youtube was a nightmare. Over and over and over, I would encounter tons of people downright thriving on the same grift. It’s an open secret that Youtube prioritizes longer videos, so if your video is under ten minutes (or I think now 8 minutes), the algorithm isn’t going to be as nice to you and won’t promote your video as well, and you aren’t going to get as much advertising money because fewer people are going to sit through a video advertisement that’s a quarter of your video’s entire length. Longer videos are more profitable for Youtube, and by extension, for the user uploading them.

So it was video after video of these guys making big bold claims about how they had all the answers on what the next season of Fortnite was, and you’re thinking, “oh wow, it’s a 17 minute video, they’re going to spoil everything!”

You load the video up and it’s some guy in his streamer man cave, he’s got his webcam on, and he loads in to a match of Fortnite with his squad. Keep in mind, this video was pitched as a news report of sorts, a big spoiling of future content... and it’s just a guy playing Fortnite with a crew. In the few seconds between matches as he queues for the next one, he stops to deliver a single shred of information, most of which start with “Hypex said...”

The one thing you came to this video for and it’s scattered like breadcrumbs across a 17 minute video of a guy just playing normal matches Fortnite to fill time. It’s not information they acquired for themselves, they all just regurgitate what Hypex said, or what other channels reported Hypex saying. 17 minutes of padding for scraps of second-hand leaks. And I found dozens of these channels, all repeating the same format, all repeating the same specks of leaked information, and all of them had 150,000 to 200,000 views on each of their videos in less than 24 hours. That’s hundreds of dollars per video on a format to scam the system.

But that’s a content farm. Those dudes are vultures. I have a hard time believing their hearts are really in it. I know it’s not a term that’s really in vogue anymore, but I see that as “selling out.” They know what they are doing and it’s to make money, not to make a community better. I mean, one of those videos was a guy who was reading Marvel comic hero profiles off of Wikipedia because it sounded like he literally did not know who guys like Iron Man, Thor and Wolverine even were. How are you in touch enough with pop culture that you’re cranking out factory-fresh Fortnite content for Youtube but you don’t know who Thor is? Answer: because you don’t really care and you’re in it for the money. Gotta hit that 15 minute threshold and put in six mid-roll ad breaks.

I could be that guy. That’s kind of what I was hoping “This Kinda Sucks” would turn in to, which would be sort of a rant video series like The Jimquisition or something. But I did not have the interest or energy to keep that up. So you get a playlist with two videos on it.

I’m sure Dunkey was just funnin’ around. Dude has 6 million subscribers. But for me, like... what he said in the video is mostly true. Following your heart and making thoughtful content you are personally interested in won’t pay the bills. I mean, as I predicted, that Jurassic Park video launched to the sound of crickets chirping. My most hardcore fans and a few curious onlookers checked it out but that was it. I’ve been working on that video since August, and it’s something my viewer base did not care about. But I cared about it, and that’s important for the long-run, I think.

The other problem, sort of a disconnect, is that I’m lucky to be in the position I’m in. I think guys like Dunkey probably make all of their money from places like Youtube and Twitch and Patreon and that’s their career. That work pays all of their bills.

My work does not pay my bills. Or it does, but it’s not enough to pay all of my bills. I am lucky enough right now that I am in a living situation where I can make fractions of money in intermittent spurts. That won’t always be the case. But for now, I get to be honest, and I get to follow my heart in whatever random, chaotic direction it feels like going that particular day. Dunkey faces a different sort of pressure than I do.

All of this is to say I have no idea what I’m doing, I guess. I make the content I want to see.

That being said, I increasingly think about something I heard Woolie say early on when he went solo for his WoolieVS channel, and that was the idea of “One for you, one for me, one for us.”

Because I’ve had more than one friend burn out doing, like, Twitch streams and stuff. You hear about Youtubers who get sick of being shackled to new releases or whatever’s popular. At some point these people wake up and realize they’ve had this struggle, maybe made some money in the process, but they’re miserable because they don’t get to do what they want to do. They’re always being pushed forward by the fans that are behind them.

The “One for you, one for me, one for us” mantra does at least keep you a little more sane. Balance in all things, right? So that Jurassic Park video, it can flop. It’d be nice if it didn’t flop, given what time of the year it is, but it’s a video for me. I have other video ideas in the chamber that I know will be for my audience, or “for us.”

I just have to stay true to myself, and to my messy brain.

#questions #dunkey #youtube #inside baseball #behind the curtain #long posts #spilling my guts #Anonymous

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bthenoise · 3 years

Text

Hometown Heroes: These Are Destroy Boys’ Top 10 Favorite Bay Area Bands

Photo by: Ash Gellman

Whether you’re looking to discover your next favorite punk rock group or rekindle your connection with Bay Area artists such as The Cramps, Dead Kennedys or Primus, you’ve come to the right place.

Today, to help learn more about emerging Hopeless Records act Destroy Boys, we’ve asked the talented trio to let us in on their musical mindset and show off some of their favorite hometown heroes from the Northern California community.

To check out which ten artists vocalist Alexia Roditis, guitarist Violet Mayugba, and drummer Narsai Malik picked as their favorites from San Francisco to Sacramento and everything in between, be sure to look below. Afterward, for more from the punk rock powerhouse Destroy Boys, head here.

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ALEXIS RODITIS

Burd

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Burd is this awesome duo from SF. I don’t remember the first time I saw them, but I went to every single one of their shows that I could get to. The guitar rips and the drums are so creative. Their two instruments combined with the vocals put me into a trance state where all I wanna do is spaz out and yell along. I feel very inspired by Burd’s hard, melodic, and clever guitar riffs. So sick.

Rituals of Mine

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Rituals of Mine is another one of my favorite Sacramento bands (Sacramento is not the bay, but Sac is where my roots lie. Don't @ me). Terra puts on an incredible performance, taking the crowd on a journey with them through the songs. Their music is very intricate and emotional, something I try to emulate in my own way in rock music.

The Cramps

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Gosh, I love The Cramps!! Another Sacramento band. They were one of the first local rock bands I got into when I first started going to shows. I couldn’t get enough of the sexual energy that comes through their songs, I hadn’t heard anything like it! I love they they’re proud freaks. Their music makes me want to dance and contort.

VIOLET MAYUGBA

Tørsö

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Torso (stylized as Tørsö) is an absolutely ripping hardcore band based out of Oakland, CA. I heard them for the first time when I was 17 and still living in Sac. They completely changed my vision of hardcore, and influenced me to add a bit more power to some of the riffs I was writing.

Dead Kennedys

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Everyone knows this one. DK's Give Me Convenience Or Give Me Death was the first record I had ever bought for myself at 13 (2 years before we started the band). I couldn't stop listening. The urgency and the anger of this band completely painted a picture to me of the kind of music I wanted to make.

RAD

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RAD were a thrash hardcore band from Sacramento that Alexia and I used to go see all the time. Completely consuming hardcore that would bust through 15 songs in close to 15 minutes. They were the first female fronted hardcore band I had ever seen, and I NEVER went back.

Deftones

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My favorite Sacramento band of all time. Around The Fur helped me create a higher expectation of my guitar parts, and influenced me to add darkness and character to our songs. Also, just the sickest band ever.

NARSAI MALIK

Juicebumps

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The best current band in San Francisco, hands down. Their debut album ‘Hello Pinky’, which came out in July of 2020 is a top to bottom work of freakish genius. Recorded on tape, this album is all over the place in the best way possible. From tracks that consist only of samples, to full on timeless bangers, to music made by and for computers, there’s something for everybody. I’m sure in another dimension, Juicebumps formed because Devo and Nirvana met in a club in Berlin and had a naughty one night stand, and they were the spectacular creation that popped out nine months later. Their range in style is truly inspiring because I always strive to be stylistically diverse, and I never want our band to be stuck to one sound. Listening to Juicebumps and seeing them live always leaves me thinking, grooving and laughing my ass off which is the perfect trifecta of emotions when I’m listening to music.

Primus

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My older brother’s hand-me-down iPod Nano had many nuggets of wonder in it, many of them heavily contributing to the music that now embodies who I am as a person. One band on the iPod was Primus and the only song saved under their name was “Harold of the Rocks”. Because I had enjoyed the rest of what was in my brother’s music library, I remember putting it on and thinking nothing of it, but I couldn’t make it past the verse because it was way too advanced and non-traditional rock for my lower school brain. Many years later when I had gotten into Primus’ other hits like “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver” and “John the Fisherman”, I revisited the fabled song and had a revelation that Primus was one of the most important bands to ever come out of San Francisco. At this point in my life, as opposed to when I first found out about them, I had started playing drums. Something I take away from listening to Primus even to this day, is how their drummer Tim Alexander fits in notes where you would have never imagined playing them in a million years. He opened my eyes to the fact that there’s more than just on-beats and off-beats, and that there’s way more room to throw in flurries of hi-hats or whatever, tastefully of course.

Sly and the Family Stone

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I honestly didn’t know that Sly and the Family Stone were from San Francisco, until I did a quick search for bands from here, but I’ve always loved them! My mom grew up in Chicago in the 70’s, so funk and soul have always been a part of her. It was played in our house and on road trips but I never fully appreciated it until much later. What I like about Sly is that he has the charisma of James Brown, but a down-to-earth, not so untouchable feel to his music. Before I listened to Sly, all l knew about funk was the flashy, ‘show-biz’ side of it, but Sly and his band made me feel like I could play this kind of music too. I love funk music because it feels so open and freeing, and it’s just really fun to play on drums. It has a sense of candidness and inclusivity that draws you in, even when you’re just playing along to songs in your headphones. It’s the only type of music where I can completely shut my brain off and just play. I’ve always tried to apply that unrestricted feeling to my drum parts, and Sly’s songs are the epitome of that for me.

#Destroy Boys #Hopeless Records #Sly & The Family Stone #Primus #Juicebumps #Deftones #RAD #Dead Kennedys #Torso #The Cramps #Rituals Of Mine #BURD

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dirtychocolatechai · 4 years

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well I hope you do hear back from them and that it's the news you want! ♥♥ side note: my periods back and my cramps suck but i'm still hardcore thinking about a soft, tender thor to tend to my whims and said cramps so i'm gonna go reread your thor fics (let's be real, all your fics) for the hundredth time cause they're so damn good -tn

Thank you bby!! I hope this helps and you feel better soon 😘 No smut, all fluff 👀 Aydgsagfdsfkhsudkghus you’re too good to me 😭

saeta = sweetheart/sweetie

When you get woken up at 4 am by sharp stabs of pain that feel like they’re hooking deep, shredding up your insides and a suspicious squish between your thighs, you know the day’s already ruined before the sun’s even up.

One poor attempt at clean up later, blurry-eyed and sour, you curl beneath the covers and resign yourself to the fact that you won’t be getting back to bed anytime soon.

Behind you, Thor continues to slumber away unaware, blissfully deep beneath the throes of sleep. You’ve never been more jealous of a man, specifically his lack of ovaries, in all your life. And it’s childish and petty but you’re in agony and all you want to do is go back to bed but your body won’t let you.

Your foot may or may not have kicked out at his calf, a dark spark of satisfaction blooming within your chest when he startles awake with an inelegant snort and mussed hair, his gaze darting about the room.

“Hn, wha’z it?” His eyes are heavy, lids drooping. “Wha’z w’ong?”

You frown, digging your toes into the top of his foot.

His brows furrow, his large hand groping for your body in the dark. “Y/N?”

You smack him away when his presence gets too close to your back, the pitch of your voice strained and deep, saying, “Don’t touch me.”

“Why…”

He pauses, the last dregs of sleep disappearing as his ocean eyes regain clarity. He tracks your body through the darkness, darting from the side of your face to the hunch of your shoulders, the tilt of your hips, how tightly your legs are tucked to your chest, your arms protective.

“Is it that bad, Saeta?”

The big dummy.

You bite down on the urge to be snide, to vent all your irritation out on your boyfriend. The vindication it would bring is annoyingly tempting. He’s only being kind, asking after you, checking in.

You’d find it sweet if you didn’t want to turn around and snarl, “What the fuck does it look like?” You’re just spoiling for an opportunity to start a fight. Inhaling, you close your eyes and breathe deeply for several long moments until the urge passes.

Your skin is crawling.

Too tight.

Ill-fitting.

He shifts closer, his body heat sinking into your rigid back. His hand caressing the side of your head, Thor kisses your crown tenderly as his fingers gently comb through your hair.

“Is there anything I can do for you, Y/N?” he asks.

So earnest, so bright that all the will to be petulant gets sucked out, leaving you feeling hollow and tired. You stubbornly ignore the prickling gathering at the corners of your eyes, sniffling.

Thor tsks quietly and scoops you gingerly into his arms, keeping you close to his chest. “Oh, Saeta,” he sighs, nuzzling your shoulder, “Don’t cry. Let me make it all better.”

His hands are gentle, his touch soft and feather-light as he drags the tips of his fingers between the bloated swell of your hips.

The smell of petrichor. The low hum of electricity.

Thor directs gentle currents into your skin, energy licking across your overactive nerve endings. Tingles zip down your spine, the pain being swallowed up by every pass of his fingers.

You whine, sigh, slump into the plush mattress in relief. The ever-present spikes of pain fade to the background, a low-level white noise barely noticeable on the edges of your consciousness.

Thor hides his smile in your hair, his thumb tracing the tender arch of your hip, the skin of your lower belly as you relax back into him fully.

“Is that better?”

Without the cramps, your exhaustion doubles back tenfold, a bone-deep weariness washing over you. You burrow down into the bedding and tangle your legs with his, your feet stroking over his in apology.

“Thank you.” You turn and lean back to kiss Thor, his lips rolling over yours pleasantly. “I love you.”

“And I love you.” His eyes crinkle at the corners, besotted smile and all. “Saeta, go back to bed. I will keep you comfortable.”

#asks #thor #thor x reader #thor x you #thirsty nonnie

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sad-boy-mono · 3 years

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Character and Relationship Backstory and an update from me

Hey y'all! I have an update on where I've been at the end of this post for those of y'all who have been following Highschool Casualties and are wondering where I went, but if you've just stumbled across this I don't want to throw a long and random explination at ya!

Haven’t read the main story yet?

Heres the Tumblr Masterpost and the Ao3 link!

The characters

Damien Haas

16, sophomore in high school. Hardcore musical theater kid from grades 4-8. Loves to sing and shit. Got quite a few bigger roles early on. Things got busy freshman year, so he had to put things on hold.

(Favorite musical is probably falsettos or something idk I'm not a theater kid.)

(That's a lie, I'm just a bad theater kid XP)

Fucking loves superhero movies and shit because haha irony.

Favorite class is Drama, least favorite is math. Because math is hard and temporary but Shakespeare is forever.

Has an irrational fear of doctors, dentists, and needles due to some surgical mishaps that occurred when he was young. Also has a fear of the ocean.

Deals with anxiety and frequent panic attacks.

Shayne Topp

15, sophomore in high school. Really fucking loves football, but not on the team. He wanted to be, but he use to be friends with some of the people on the football team. And they... weren't the best to say the least. They were bad influences and caused Shayne to do bad things. He's no longer friends with them, but still goes to the games with Courtney and Damien to cheer on Courtny's brothers who are on the team.

Favorite class is probably woodworking, least favorite is math. Because math is hard and temporary but birdhouses are forever.

(Though he's actually really good at math, like he has the capability to take honors and do well. It just isn't fun.)

Doesn't know how to ride a bike and can't swim. Deep water freaks him out.

Has a huge fear of hurting other (because haha irony) and always puts his friends before himself.

Courtney Miller

14, freshman in high school. Loves writing and art. Has a lot of sketchbooks, but most of them are half filled. At this point she just collects cool sketchbooks.

Also love film/acting/drama but has a lot of anxiety around performing, so she ends up being on her school's tech crew. She's really good at editing, and has a passion for behind the scenes work around productions.

Favorite musical is Heathers.

Favorite class is her painting and art history class, least favorite is math. Because math is hard and temporary but art is forever.

Struggls a lot with school. Doesn't have many friends outside of Shayne and Damien, even when it comes to her tech crew. Generally on bad terms with "friends" (bullies) from middle school.

Doesn't enjoy the other people in her class. A few of them are former (or current) bullies from middle school.

Relationships

Damien and Shayne

Met in the first grade, became friends in a very first-grader-like manner.

Shayne: Hey I like your pokemon shirt

Damien: Oh thanks, you wanna play with trucks?

Shayne: Yeah sure.

They’ve been best friends ever since.

They had a bit of a falling out from mid 7th through 8th grade because of the guys Shayne hung out with. They were your average middle school douchbags but a lil worse.

Things got sorted the summer following 8th grade.

When they started high school, Shayne’s older brother would pick Damien up and give him a ride to school every morning; even though Damien was in walking distance.

But a month-ish before their freshman year, Shayne’s family ended up moving closer to Damien’s, because a tree fell through Shayne’s house during a terrible storm that hit their town. Even though it hypothetically could've been fixed, the house was old so they took it as a sign to just move.

Shayne is the only person who knows about Damien's anxiety outside of his family, and is who Damien goes to when he's having heighted anxiety or a panic attack.

They also bond over their fear of water strangly often.

Shayne and Courtney

Courtney’s family moved across the street from Shayne’s family when Courtney was in the 7th grade and Shayne was in the 8th. And after the initial family intoductions when the Millers first moved in, Shayne never talked to Courtney. Until about a month later, when he was home alone and Courtney knocked at his door.

After Shayne asked 'what's up?' Courtney asked if they could be friends.

“Do you know how to play smash?” Shayne asked.

Courtney sighed and let out a defeated ‘no’ and began walking away from the door.

“Ok, I’m gonna teach you how to play.”

They would hang out quite a bit until Shayne moved, but they still talked a lot.

Shayne later found out that Courtney would go door to door asking for friends. Shayne was the first and only person who had actually said yes.

Most people mistake them for siblings and when they find out they aren’t related, they assume they’re dating.

Shayne treats Courtney like a little sister and is very protective of her.

Shayne was fucking LIVID when he found out Courtney was being bullied. As much as he wanted to fight them, Courtney talked him down from doing so.

He still did the whole 'don't fuck with Courtney or I will fucking kill you' big brother thing. It did the trick for a while. When you're a very athletic 15 year old, it's easy to intimidate people that are younger than you.

Courtney hasn't told him about... the current bullies though.

Courtney and Damien

Met through Shayne. He made a group chat with the 3 of them that Shayne named “Operation Friendship”. Since Shayne and Damien weren't on speaking terms when Shayne and Courtney became friends they never had a chance to meet.

But they didn’t meet in person until Courtney’s first day of high school, where the 3 of them had their first class together, conveniently...

Anytime they play video games, a conversation along this happens.

"Courtney where did you learn to play this game?"

"...Shayne"

"Explains why you suck"

"HEY!"

(Shayne) "HEY!"

------

Hey! Thank you so much for reading! It's been awhile hasn't it. Yeah, I'm sorry. My life has been all over the place for the past few months and I've been struggling to find the motivation to write. I don't want to specifics because it's not only very personal, but a long story.

But to summerize why I sorta dissapeared, I had a lot of personal issues going on with both school and home and as my mental health was on this steady, but consistent, decline, it was at its very lowest in December. My home issues had reached their peak, and with the end of the quarter coming up after Xmas break and my weeks worth of late work coming back to bite me, I was too stressed to work on anything I found enjoyable without losing motivation immidiently.

Things didn't start getting better for me until some time early in semester 2 of my year. My school was transitioning back into fully in person with covid rates at their lowest in my area and things were finally feeling consistant again, but I was still getting my bearings. School still felt draining, though much less than before, and I didn't have much energy to work on things I was passionate about. I don't think I even made a new document for chapter 6 until mid-ish March.

I'm very nervious about coming back to this story after so long for many reason. First being, although I am feeling better mentally, things feel very off with writing this story. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of passion to write this story and want to see it to completion, I've just had a fluxuating interest in smosh aswell. I enjoy the channel, just not as much as I use to. And my hyperfixation on Smosh was a big drive for me writing the story. Second being that I have so much writers block around the sixth chapter of this story, and I'm worried that as soon as I try to work on it, that block will make me lose my motivation again and I'll put it off for another 6 months.

This "chapter" (idk what else I'd call this) has probably been fully finished in my drafts for about a month now, and I've been putting off posting it because of those listed anxieties, but I really want to continue writing this story so I hope you enjoyed!

Also sorry if this explination was all over the place, I just got my first covid vaccine today and am feeling kinda bleh.

#smosh #damien haas #courtney miller #shayne topp #my smosh fic #Highschool Casualties

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derenger · 3 years

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Growing up, parenting and gaming - Longread on life, computer games and finding yourself

This longread is dedicated to and written for all those current and former kids, who had or have troubles growing up, taking decisions, finding themselves in the world they live in, who play games independently of age and – perhaps – have not lost their love for a good game, good times and good buddies.

Perhaps it will help someone in their life. If that happens – I shall think of this writing as useful and my time writing it as not completely wasted.

The ideas have been on my mind for over 2 years now (they started getting very clear when I started doing therapy) and I have to put them on paper now.

Here it goes.

I grew up in the 90s in Eastern Europe. After the USSR collapsed millions of people found themselves without work, perspectives and means of existence. We were lucky that my dad had a good job that was paid in hard currency, however he was barely home – and by that I mean like seeing him 2 or 3 times a month.

We had good living conditions compared to others and my mom did the best she could too take care of my younger bro and me.

The first time we were exposed to computer games was when I was like 7 and my bro was 5 – in the office where the boyfriend of our aunt has been working. We played Dangerous Dave, Scorched Earth, Socoban, Digger, Civilization, The Incredible Machine and some others I do not recall the names. And of course, we liked it and it did not take long for our dad to install them on his PC at home. 2 years later my best buddy got Doom 2 installed on his PC and that was the absolute blast. We spent weeks trying to figure out how to get through level 2 and it was a big holiday when our buddy finally did.

My dad tried to restrict TV and computer time per week, so we always opted for the PC. Over time I learned to turn it on by myself and play when there was no one at home. My dad did not know.

A couple of our friends had 8bit consoles - soviet bootlegs of Super Nintendoes, with TMNT and Chip n Dale, but that was probably it. After all, we were living in a small village with not that many possibilities to make money.

When I was 10 we moved to a bigger city into a 1 room apartment. All 4 of us. This was 1996. 2 other very important things:

We started going to a far bigger school than before, where the mood was totally different from what we were used to. We were bullied and beaten, could not get along with other pupils and teachers and no one actually cared.

Father was home every day.

I mean, father was present home every day. It is not like he spent time with us doing sports or whatever. He just had any idea what to do with us as this was his first long time exposure to kids in the 11 years we were a family.

He was more of an authoritarian guy – we were not supposed to waste time in gaming clubs, listen to stupid music (Prodigy, Beastie Boys), we should have studied well, read books, have been doing sports and in general act like good kids.

We were doing some martial arts sports cause mom brought us there. We were taking music classes cause “everyone has to”. We were supposed to help out at home. We were not supposed to hang out with “bad” kid or stay outside till late hours. We were not supposed to smoke, swear and simulate illness to miss classes. We were not supposed to get into trouble.

It is not like we were putting a lot of thought into it. We just moved to the city from rural area and frankly speaking were absolutely not happy about. I guess we just went with the flow.

This was also the time when the first “gaming spot” in town opened – they had 2 Sega Mega Drives II and 1 Sony PlayStation. MK3, MK3 Ultimate, Contra Hard Cops, Golden Axe, some samurai fighting games for the Sega. SPS – Red Alert, Twisted Metal, Duke Nukem, Doom and of course – an incredible breakthrough for its time – Quake 2. And that was a revelation. I recall mom giving us money from time to time. To go play. Sega cost like 1 buck and hour, SPS – 1,5 bucks – far more expensive, so we played mainly on Sega.

At the same time we did have some games at home – Doom, Power Formula 1, Lines, the same Civilization, Lion King, Alladin, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Gods and Dune 2000. Dad did not want to allow us play games. Like, at all. Don’t ask me why he never deleted the games. The PC was mainly used for him to work. So when he left home, he took the power cable of the monitor and closed it in his spare suitcase. What we did was to unplug the cable from the printer and use for the monitor. Later on he hid both cables – from the monitor and the PC in the suitcase. I found a way to open the suitcase with a very fine flat screwdriver. Mom hid the fact from our dad for a while until he noticed the suitcase was “broken”. I believe they did not speak with each other for a week. But I am still proud of the fact of cracking that suitcase! Fuck yeah!

Things started getting worse when I transferred to a lyceum - 1998. I was 12. This was like a gymnasium for hardcore science-kids, where they went deep into math and natural sciences. I was hysterical the first 2 years as I was barely making the program. Even my dad had troubles solving the math they gave us. Music classes turned to shits. I had no time nor mood for sport. But I had to keep doing it all. Just because. There were a couple of bullies in class, whose parents bribed the management of the school so that their kids would have fancy graduation papers at the end and frankly speaking no one could get a grip on them. That had me very depressed.

Around 13 I started stealing money from my parents and missing classes to go to computer clubs – their number was getting bigger every week, consoles started to disappear. Half Life, CS 1.6, Age of Empires 2, Q3, D2 1.07, Black and White, SimCity 2000, NOX, StarCraft Brood War and many other games had our full attention. The biggest part of it was the fact you could play with or against your friends! That was so fucking awesome! At the same time I started discovering sci-fi and rock music, but that is a different story.

We stole a lot of money from our parents in those times and missed a lot of classes and of course after 3 or 4 months it all got revealed. Boy oh boy our dad smoked us. That was very very tough for a kid when all the things he actually liked were taken from him. Dark times when we were seriously asking ourselves what the hell our parents wanted from us as aside from the stuff they told us to do they never really told us what was it for. Everything else was useless, stupid or waste of time.

Somehow my marks at school got better closer to graduation and I graduated almost with a medal, went to university. I remember they had this PC club with like 200 PCs and from time to time we skipped one or the other lecture to play Starcraft or CS, but very quickly boozing with buddies became the major leisure activity and pushed gaming to the back. I did pretty well at the university, made my master with excellence and that was it – 6 years flew by in a blink of an eye.

I got my own PC during the first year at the uni, played a bit of Warcraft 3, HOMM 3, Quake 3, Lineage II but it was not like I was deep into that. I remember after defending my master I spent like 3 days playing Crysis without anyone saying a word. I mean, I was through with the university. I was free!

Soon after that I went on to work abroad as a project engineer in the chemical industry.

At the moment I am doing sales engineer for a good salary in Berlin, I am married and except for the Corona and all the restrictions it brought life seems ok.

During the last 10 years of my “adult” life I have been in many different situations. I have been very sick a couple of times, running on the edge of life and death. I have been in some useless relations that only drained energy and nerves from me. I also have been diagnosed with depression and burnout at some point, did therapy and consider myself fully recovered from both. I’ll be summarizing it all below.

When I look at my life it did occur to me that gaming was far more important than just the sheer desire to shoot buddies and skip school.

Growing up under the conditions where everything is predetermined one does not really get the chance to expose your own wish. After all, my parents both come from very unhappy families and did not have the exactly best examples of parenting.

It occurred to me that they never really cared about anything we achieved – whether in school, music or sports. I recall a couple of times when I did really good, like winning the City-contest in English language or getting my first “good” in algebra in 7th grade as that shit was extremely tough. I do not recall any reaction. In fact, mom and dad put their close attention to us only when things started getting really bad, like when we were skipping classes or got arrested for setting up fireworks in a crowded place. We never really got any positive feedback for anything we did because our parents just had no idea how to do that. I do not blame them – they were trying their best from their own experience.

And gaming was the absolute opposite to all of that.

Going to computer clubs we knew exactly that we were surrounded by like-minded lads. We made some good friends along the way – lads, who were always ready to jam on de_dust or bring their D2 chars to share some loot. One of the owners of the club had a daughter who was really good in Q3 – I remember everyone has been looking at her like she was some sort of demigod. The games gave us the space and playground we needed so much – clear even rules for everyone. If you frag – you win. If you don’t – you lose. If you suck – the older guys would always help with a couple of tips. Games also gave us control. I really liked the games where you went on an adventure, like NOX or Will Rock or serious Sam. Gaming also gave us the space to take our own decisions and suffer the full consequences if these were wrong – getting overrun by zerglings or getting fragged with rocket launcher with QUAD DAMAGE.

Gaming clubs were our safe space. At some point our dad did raid the computer clubs and did bust us a couple of times. Sure we got beaten on those occasions.

I recall my bro being very proud on getting 1st in the national 2v2 ladder in SC:BW later in the uni. He also used to game the whole night long at my parents place. This was over 10 years ago and they still do not know. He is still very good in SC though he does not play anymore.

I do play sometimes – currently grinding D2 and refreshing my knowledge in chess. I do not have more time for any other more or less serious game.

I am slowly approaching the point where I should write a conclusion – it is going to be quite simple. Gaming was the first opportunity to take my life into my own hands. It took me 32 years of my own life to find the power in me to take responsibility for myself and not to rely on someone else. My decision – my choice – my consequences. It took a lot of trouble and turmoil for me to get to this point and finally embracing the power within feels great. It was also the first surrounding of dudes just like me, which was a very good feeling back then.

During the last 6 months I switched to a job that pays almost the double of my previous one, my wife moved in with me from abroad, we have a nice apartment and are looking forward to vacations in the Alps. I still have to find a way to approach my parents though I am not sure the old hive is worth disturbing. I guess time will tell.

Whenever I am down or things do no go according to play – I do turn to gaming occasionally, just to get back into the world where I am in full control. It gives me power and I guess hope that everything will work out. If not now – then over time. You just have to keep practicing. And ask for help when it is needed.

I hope you found this read interesting.

#life #gaming #adulthood #friends

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stratamuzak · 4 years

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Interview with Voltagehawk

STRATA: What artists in particular you are drawn to (alive or deceased) that you listen to for particular moods? Such as happy/sad/contemplative/etc… Explain why you might listen to one artist for a particular mood.

CHASE AROCHA When I want to feel inspired I listen to a lot of the different projects of Mike Patton. Be it Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, Peeping Tom, or Tomahawk, the range of styles of music is so diverse that I’ve been listening for like 15 years and I haven’t gotten bored yet, haha. When I want to relax or chill, I love BadBadNotGood, an amazing jazz artist doing incredible arrangements all in a hip-hop context. It’s great! Or Ray Lynch, I really love his writing and use of counterpoint melody. Then if I’m getting hyped I put on something like Dying Fetus or Vitriol, or Maximum the Hormone. And any other time I’m blaring Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper and Sturgill Simpson.

DAN FENTON I think a lot of the time music finds my mood. Sort of more a spiritual or cosmic connection. When I was a kid my mom would make us watch musicals if we stayed home sick from school. Jokes was on her because I hated school but I loved learning musical scores and how to write dynamic parts and movements. The fact that people like Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra or Marlon Brand were also amazing actors only added to that unlikely education. I learned how to really feel music between that and the intense very bloody hymns we had to sing in church. I understand the sentiment but that shit is harder than a lot of black metal. “Are you washed in the blood of the lamb”. Hard core shit. Sorry, I digress. During the making of our most recent record which is called Electric Thunder and set for release later this year or early next (hard to navigate releases with all this pandemic shit) I listened exclusively to film scores, classical music and radio evangelists. I am not religious but I grew up in a preacher’s home and when I needed to get my creative push and anger at its peak, I listened to preachers who were clearly greed driven and motivated by the lust for power. It made my adrenaline rush in anger and it came out in the recording for sure. I am a huge fan of Hans Zimmer and Vangelis. Each of these artists move me in powerful ways. The juxtaposition of darkness and light both in traditional instrumentation and experimental synth based work. Just musical giants. When I am feeling frustrated about the social issues I see everyday in my East Nashville neighborhood I listen to KRS-One, Kamasi Washington, Outkast. A lot of protest music. I am in love with band IDLES from the UK. Such powerful lyrics tackling issues like the need for male vulnerability, equality for all and the seemingly ironic brutal beat down of toxic masculinity. That band is great if you’re happy, mad, sad, whatever.

STRATA: Do you have a process you go through prior to writing, playing, and even performing?

CHASE AROCHA I do a lot of breathing exercises like the Wim Hof techniques. I have generalized anxiety disorder and I used to get horrible debilitating panic attacks, it helped me get into breathing and meditation. Anxiety will never go away but you learn ways to live with it and push through your panic. I think about how much this means to me and how long I’ve spent doing it, I try to see that I value myself as a person and then from that thinking I can just let go and play music. Only approaching it with love and not worrying about mistakes because that’s how we learn.

DAN FENTON The entire thing is one process. Like a heros journey of sorts. I listen and meditate everyday, I believe in a cosmic river of inspiration that flows from an energy that is and has always been. I believe if you listen hard enough and give yourself to the music the muse will send your mind transmissions that may only be a section of a song, or perhaps they are an entire album, but everyday I show up. A few years ago I read this book called The War Of Art, by Steven Pressfield. In this book he describes the invisible force he calls the Resistance. The Resistance may be things both “good or bad”, but they are anything that keeps you from showing up for your art. So I show up everyday, you can ask the dudes in the band, they receive a work tape maybe twice a week with new shit to try out. If I don’t feel that muse working I don’t force it, but I instead wait on further transmissions from the cosmic womb. All sounds crazy, but my story is crazy, so crazy makes the most sense. In the studio I have many processes. I found while recording vocals I perform better in complete darkness, I have realized how much I live inside my head and how active my imagination is and equally ADD my eyes are. So when I can’t see it brings to life the imagery and the passion of the song. I can see all those people I write about, all the landscapes, the love, lust, joy and pain. I also do some method stuff, keep things in my pockets pertaining to a character I may be portraying in a song. Wanna be Daniel Day Lewis shit.

STRATA: Your own current project, discuss the process your music went through as you built each layer. From beginning to the end of it.

CHASE AROCHA This all started with our drummer Jarrad having a vision and going through trials and errors of finding the right people to execute that. Along the way Dan, Tyler, and I all came into the picture and that vision morphed into something we all felt was not even from us. Like we were an antenna receiving a signal and these riffs and lyrics quickly meshed into something I haven’t heard before. Part hard rock, part jazz, part punk and hardcore. All with this message of love and truth being the reason for living. To end the ones controlling our thoughts and dividing us or tribalism and greed. I feel like we made something worth listening to and that’s all I feel like you can really hope for.

DAN FENTON The self titled record that we have available now on all streaming platforms was two different profound stages in my life all in the making of one record. When we began, Jarrad and I partied a fuck ton, and I was descending into some serious personal shit with alcohol. It was bad, I couldn’t get through a day without way too high of a blood alcohol level. Before we finished vocals on the record, I stayed up one night working and drinking, perhaps I had never stopped from how many nights before, who fucking knows. Anyhow, I died for 9 minutes on the side porch of my house. Fully shut down, fucking dead. Mind you, I didn’t want to die, I just didn’t know how to lay off the bottle. Woke up in the ICU surrounded by my band, my wife and what few friends I had left. At that moment Voltagehawk became a complete family to me. I spent a stint in rehab (Jarrad drove me) and that was several years ago now. When I got out I went back to finish the record, make some amends and chase this thing out for real. So that was some info on the first record. The new Album which is a 13 song space odyssey named Electric Thunder, after our beloved Electric Thunder Studio owned and operated by our resident space wizard producer Geoff Piller, was not so dramatic. After I got my shit together and my mind cleared up I began to write everyday like a mad man. Song after song after song came like never before. I think we cut 15 songs out before we settled on the final 13. Our process as a band is often for myself or one of the other dudes to present a bare bones or often finished idea to the band and we run it through the Hawk Filter. The Hawk Filter is just the decomposition and reconstruction of every rough idea till it fits us. Which is silly to say because if we like, it we do it, not a matter of genre worship. Shit’s good, do it. Always do what’s best for the song.

STRATA: Can your music personally be an open door to breath and bend in the world of artistic exploration? In Other Words… how comfortable are you as an artist exploring other types of music and creating projects that might be totally different than what you are creating now?

CHASE AROCHA There is so much great music in the world in so many styles, why shouldn’t we try to explore them all! I’m always trying something I haven’t done before, not always as a challenge, but I would hope it’s natural for people to do in art. We shouldn’t be the same people we were 2 years ago, let alone 10. I love jazz, Death Metal, and country music. If you can find a really fun and genuine way to blend those then that’s absolutely what you should do! Don’t be tied down to what kind of music you’re making and just make music.

DAN FENTON That’s all we do all day. Everything on this planet, and above it, and in it’s majestic seas and mountains, all these people of all the cultures of all the world and their energy and their culture all influence and musical inspiration is welcome. Our philosophy is never say no, and jump off the cliff, and pull yourself back up. Meaning: try all the musical options then settle on the one we believe is the most amazing. So much of our influence is from cinema and books, video games, you name it. I’ll pluck a support cable on every bridge I see ‘til I am dead just to see if it speaks to me. Sonically there are no fucking rules, and if you impose rules, fuck your rules. We love to create, to talk about creating and then to birth something new is beyond amazing.

STRATA: Are you open to change your style, genre even, and approach to how and what you create every time you enter a studio? Or do you find once you have a formula in place do you find it best to stay with what you know? Many times artists will change how they approach their songwriting and even their recording staff/producers.

CHASE AROCHA

Like I said before, I believe that you should just make music and with that should come constant experimentation. When we record we find sounds from all over the place. From children’s toy instruments, to skateboard wheels spinning to imitate rain. Our writing is kind of always evolving and changing. Dan is an amazing writer who literally has lyrics and melodies pouring out of his hands and face. Everyday he has new ideas and records and sends them to everyone. Jarrad is great at taking those riffs and making suggestions on how the structure could be of a song along with feel. I am obsessed with adding layers of guitars however I can, but I also write a lot and send tracks as well. Tyler is a tone junkie on the bass, filling in the bottom end and has such a great approach to being independent from the guitars with his lines. We send tracks back and forth to each other then we get in a room and flesh them out. The whole time in the process the songs are constantly changing and evolving into the sound we have. We are always open to change and never believe in the word No when discussing music and art. You try every idea and see what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes when one member has a vision of how a song should go and is trying to communicate that, you should respect his idea and see it through. If it doesn’t work that’s okay, we tried!

DAN FENTON Voltagehawk is ever evolving. As it stands, we spend way too much time trying to pigeon hole what people will refer to our sound as. I don’t care what you call it as long as it moves you. I listen to everything from John Coltrane and Tom Waits to Napalm Death and Motorhead, Antonio Lucio Vivaldi to Kamasi Washington. IDLES and Bad Brains. If you refuse to evolve as an artist, experimenting, growing, trying new methods, all these elements then you cannot grow as a human being. Too many people are happy where they are, just okay, making the same music that their dads made and trying to cosplay some kind of yesteryear. We don’t do that shit, we’re us, that’s it. We grow, when you hear the Electric Thunder for the first time you will understand everything. If you burn some sage next to a photo of Carl Sagan while you listen to Electric Thunder, you will see the cosmic river in your minds eye. The world is full of people with a blockage in their brain. They cannot see that this bullshit we call a life is just a series of labor for hire gigs that leave us rapidly in the middle. We’re trying to break away from it all and follow our feathers, our truth, our search for enlightenment on our hero’s journey. I’ll leave you with this. Know Thyself.

#voltagehawk

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thcyer · 5 years

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hello!! ah I’m so excited to meet and get to know every single one of you even though I’m a SNAIL!

I’m just gonna hop right into it and introduce you all to my lil french dumbass. :’))

i also lob this boy’s face

THE TOURIST

name: samuel thayer. age: twenty-two major: art history and philosophy gender: cismale clubs: campus media — photographer

HISTORY:

allow me to introduce you to the sole child of a belgian diplomat and a french politician. samuel thayer was born in gousainville, france with a silver spoon at the ready. he’s always had a very strong connection with his mother and he often insisted on joining her whenever she had to travel some place new for work. that’s not to say he disliked his father. In fact he looked up to him greatly as he seemed to hold an important role as a politician. sam always thought he’d grow up to make a difference in the world. he wanted to work with people to make the world a better place. it wasn’t until he got older and understood more that he realized what his father was doing, the government that both of his parents participated in, wasn’t actually helping anyone. rebellion ensued throughout his teenage years. minor acts at first. things that were often quelled by his mother’s sporadic work schedule and her insistence of his company. it was when the two were alone, away from france, away from the politics that she’d attempt to steer him on the right path. to remind him of his goals as child. her advice had only gotten him so far for a short amount of time. he allowed them to shape him into a air of sophistication suitable to continue in politics. however, by the time he was 15 civil unrest in france was on the rise. he learned that he was not alone in the discontent of the family “business”. it only took his participation in a riot turned violent for his world to turn upside down. his father shipped him out of france immediately as means of punishment and a veil for his reputation. it’s an act that’s forced the young male to hold a certain distaste for his father. now he uses travel as an act of rebellion against his parents. a crumbling family image and his unknown whereabouts are their punishment.

except at some point he actually began to enjoy traveling again. he regained that youthful feeling of wanderlust and longing for adventure. once he got past the idea of running away from his issues back home he began to truly relish all the beauty the world had to offer. he’s never in one place for too long, yet he makes sure to give every location he’s visited and all the friend’s he’s made his all. in fact his time spent in st. ettienne might be the longest he’s ever remained in one place as he enters his senior year with everyone else. perhaps he’s just trying to finish college. perhaps he’s made some great connections here that he can’t see disappearing in the wind just yet....

PERSONALITY:

sam is very headstrong, but compassionate. he is extremely amicable. there is no better feeling for him than being surrounded by a good group of friends. making solid connections is hard for him primarily because he knows one day he will leave them, yet he makes them often. it’s something he battles with all the time. he is fully intent on getting everything out of life that he can. He hates the feeling of having to conform to specifics just because someone else says its right. he’s not overly confrontational and he doesn’t have that much of temper but it’s best not to bring out either sides from him. he likes to have fun. sometimes that also means stirring up a little bit of trouble. charming and quick witted. the subtle life of the party that you wouldn’t suspect by just looking at him. can totally be an utter goofball one day and perfectly groomed well mannered politician personality then next. it’s a struggle. sometimes the chaotic aries energy wins I can’t help it.

EXTRA:

he is currently double majoring in art history and philosophy. art in all of it’s varying forms has always been a great passion of his. to him art is freedom and expression. philosophy is his key to understanding the world. there are certain systems in place that he’d like to understand in order to ultimately help bring them down in place of something better. his childhood goal of aiding the world is still there in some part of his mind.

he’s a great cook!

he knows at least five languages being: french (1st), german, english, italian, and he’s currently learning spanish!

he can play the piano very well.

he’s 110% a cat person.

hardcore art lover.

video games are almost frickin foreign to him. he wasn’t really allowed to play them growing up and they never really sparked much interest once he gained freedom. he knows names of games and stuff but don’t try to ask him to play anything.

PLOTS:

ayyye I actually have two party related plots tht I’d like to point out bc I think they’d be cool 👀

001. the tourist and muse a met the night of daisey’s disappearance. they did not chat for long before the tourist was pulled away by muse h and they do not know each others names. this is a plot that will include the muses meeting and getting to know one another organically.

008. hours after the party the night of daisey’s disappearance, the tourist and muse h somehow found their way to each other. the pair hooked up. this happened long after the party had ended and they are currently each other’s alibis.

annnnnnnd I have more plots here that I’m still adding to but like I WANNA PUT THIS UP but pLS HMU AND PLOT I LOV IT

and um...yknow...that’s...it about him..... 👀 yup

#veritasintro #woooooooOoOoOOoOooOoOOooO!!!!!!!!

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miniminisb · 5 years

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ˢᵒ ʷʰᵃᵗ’ˢ ᵗʰᵉ ᶜᵘˡᵗ ˢᵗᵒʳʸ

okay bUCKLE UP FUCKERS IT’S TIME FOR THE DUMBEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE. I preface this by saying, I am a dumbass. I am a complete, irrevocable, plain dumbass. Do not do this at home. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 dollars. Heed my warnings. also technically not a cult but basically a cult you’ll see just sit tight.

It was a nice sunny day in September 2017. The seasons were beginning to turn. I had just gotten out of my Intro to Logic class. I felt good. I thought to myself, “Man. Such a nice day. I think I’ll do my homework outside today. Enjoy the weather before it goes to shit.”

So there I was, barbecue sauce on my titties doing some, i dunno, categorical reasoning? Just, sitting beneath a tree, enjoying the day, when two girls walk up to me. They say they’re trying to start a club on campus, and they wonder if I have some time to talk real quick. I have some time before my next class. I’m pretty much done with this homework. I say sure.

Mistake number one.

They sit down and ask if I have ever read the Bible. My stomach immediately sinks. I don’t necessarily have things against organized religion, but… American Christians make me nervous. They really do. Growing up, you get a lot of people at your door and you get a lot of crazies telling you you’re gonna go to hell. They can pick pick the weak out of a crowd and target them for their schemes.

I am the weak.

So I chuckle nervously. I’m in danger! I say no, not really. Kinda. I grew up in a small town and would go to church with friends sometimes hahahahahahaha. They seem alright, kinda. They pull out their own Bible and start flipping through it for certain passages, giving the schpiel of “oh God loves you, Jesus died for our sins, yada yada” and I’m like, yeah, cool. Whatever.

Then it gets weird. They start talking about the end of the world, Armageddon, the apocalypse, whatever ya wanna call it. They say this time was prophecized in the Bible, snatching on weird passages to claim that North Korea is gonna drop nukes. They say that this will happen where the four corners of the earth meet, and are adamant to say that it’s referring to our area (I go to college at the Four Corners Region in the US of A).

They say how, because it’s gonna happen, it’s more important than ever to save your soul, get baptized, whatever. They ask if I have been baptized. And I say haha no, not yet, like I said I’m not really Christian, hahahah-

Mistake number two.

The girl in charge of the situation nods in a sort of understanding manner. They continue their schpiel, really starting to hit home that saving your soul and accepting the big J is important. They also said jesus was married to the city of jerusalem? For some reason??? Idk man if you’re christian can you explain this to me?

Same girl then goes, out of nowhere, “would you ever consider getting baptized?”

Listen guys. I know I put off big chaotic energy, give no fucks, can’t mess with me persona on here. But in the words of Kim Namjoon, who the hell am i? I am, without a doubt, a spineless bitch who doesn’t know how to stand up for herself when faced with the smallest amount of conflict and no outward reason to refuse people. Y’all, as I write this, I am shaking and my heart is pounding because yes, you can probably see where this is going. And yes, I am that dumb.

I chuckle nervously, fiddle with my hands, and go “haha maybe if my friend would want me to idk” just like, full on passive avoidance shrink-into-yourself of someone who desperately wants this shit to end but really can’t find an out.

And the girl looks me dead in the eyes. “Well, that’s good. But you would have to do it for yourself. Would you ever get baptized for yourself.”

“I mean, maybe? I guess? Hahah I dunno, yeah, maybe.”

MISTAKE NUMBER THREE.

The two bitches perk up. “We can do it now!” bitch what. I have like, maybe 20 minutes until class at this point. I’m shaking. I’m like, man, I just wanted to do my logic homework. And now, I get into fight or flight mode. I can’t miss class. I feel scared. These girls think north korea cares about fucking new mexico and arizona enough to nuke a place which, objectively, has little to no people living there. Like, what, you’re gonna bomb aliens? Whatever.

I really start to say. No. can’t do it. I have class. I really have class, it’s soon, can’t do it. No. And they keep pushing. “It’ll only take five minutes. It’ll be fine. You’ll be okay. Only five minutes.”

Now, what should I have done? I should have picked up my stuff and said “thank you, but no. I need to leave.” I should have said “you women are making me uncomfortable. I said no. Leave me alone. You are crazy.” I should have raised my middle finger to them which, conveniently, has a pentacle ring on it.

Instead, I caved and said fine.

M͏̤̤I̩S̖̙͝T̯̕A̧̗͙K̩͕̺̕E҉̞͙̞̮ ̤̙͕͔N̷̗͙̙ͅU͚͇̯̦͙M̩͙͖B̵̬̝̤̪E̪̺̟͙ͅṞ̼ ̩͉͍͎͎̼͘F̩̦͔̩O̘̭UṞ͉̯͍

The other girl who has remained relatively quiet, jumps up. “Great! I’ll call our minister, he’ll pull up the van!”

The what.

I don’t say anything. I should have. Listen, I don’t know how I was supposed to get baptized in the middle of the day on a Wednesday but fuck, I did not expect to get taken off campus. We have a fucking non denominational chuch on campus. So, who would’ve thunk? Not me!

“The what?”

The girls jump up and seem super excited. I am shaking as I pick up my bag and follow them to the parking lot. Meanwhile I’m screaming silently to myself what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck. You know, like a normal person. So at least I wasn’t completely insane.

“We’re just taking you to our church, don’t worry.” And for some reason, that does put me at ease a lil. Cuz, like, I may be a stinking heathen who’s gone to church so many times that she can count it on one hand, but I do have the belief that nice pretty churches are save havens. So, I do feel a little okay.

I still get into a fucking car tho so there’s that I guess.

The dude pulls up. He is… idk he looked like one of those creepy religious fucks from like a horror movie. Dead behind the eyes. We all pack into the car. I’m trying not to cry, honestly. I’m really trying to keep this light cuz it is pretty funny when you step back but keep in mind I was terrified and I don’t know how to say no.

It is only after we pull away that I have the dawning thought. I’m basically getting kidnapped. They could take me fucking anywhere and no one would know and I wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it. Three against one.

As we’re leaving my fucking campus I check the clock. I have, like. Five minutes until my next class. I am a dumbass.

The girl shows me like… an apocalypse video??? for some reason??? Like wow thanks bitch but you already told me the world was gonna end but aight.

I’m hardcore like, astral projecting at this point. Full on dissociation. I do not exist on this plane anymore.

We pull into a fucking starbucks parking lot next to some town homes.

“We’re here!” Where’s the church? Where’s the steeple? Bitch I just see modern condos what the HELL is happening. We get out of the car and go up to one of these fucking apartments basically. Fucking Youth Pastor John unlocks the place and.

Guys.

The church was just a fucking townhome. I’m like. Just. Guys the area where the congregation met was a fucking living room with like maybe six chairs and a podium. On the bright side, lovely open floor plan.

They guide me upstairs.

To the bathroom.

They hand me like… a fucking robe and say I can undress and put that on. They give me a moment but even then i’m like FUCK that. Undressing in a strange house? That’s where I draw the line! Nope, no disrobing for me, thanks! I still put on the robe because apparently it’s like, ritually significant?

Got into my new swanky clothes and they come back in. They start filling up a shitty plastic bucket with water in the tub. At this point, i’m just like:

They tell me to kneel in the tub and raise my hands in prayer. I follow orders, trying to ignore the fact that I am in a strange place that is very much not a church, that I am currently wearing weird periwinkle robes, knowing that people are in class right now just. Learning about fucking Mesopetamia or some shit i forget what the class was about.

The Hannah Montana from Hell Squad prays over me as they pour cupfuls of bucket water over my head. My underclothes are now drenched. My hair is wet. My knees hurt because I’m kneeling in a fucking bathtub.

“Congrats! Your soul is saved!” I have to get to class!

They give me a moment to take off the fucking robes and I collect my things. I step out and i’m like “great I’m late for class, take me back!”

“Oh, but you still need to have passover.”

Passover is a Jewish Holiday practiced in mid to late spring. It’s September. Y’all are christian. But I literally cannot leave, so I follow them into the kitchen where they put a veil on me. The other two girls put on veils as well. I’ve fully surpassed crying and reached silent resignation to my fate as the guy prays over some fucking communion wafers and some grape juice. I take the lil bits of food, luckily too since i fucking missed lunch because of them but at least I have some grape juice to fill me up.

“Now, we know that this is not the correct time for passover, but we needed to do it to save your soul. Now, practice Passover every year from now on to make sure you show your dedication to God and make sure your soul is saved.”

They do take me back to campus. I am in soaking short shorts and a red flannel. It is, to say the least, very moist and uncomfortable as I start to stick to the faux leather seats of this mini van.

I’m like “cool great thanks for having me!” as they pull up to my building, and as I try to get out, the quieter girl (who, genuinely, seemed to be fond of me) asked if she could have my number.

HEY YOU KNOW HOW THIS STORY STARTED? WITH ME LACKING THE ABILITY TO SAY NO TO PEOPLE? YOU REMEMBER THAT? HUH!?

But this time, ohhoho, I have a plan. I’ll give her a fake number! That’ll teach her! So I punch in a few random numbers really hastily because I am still in this fucking van and I am twenty five minutes late for a fifty five minute class.

“Cool can we test it real quick to make sure we have the right number?”

And, like a dog with my tail between my legs, I very quietly go “yeah uhm i think i put in the wrong number hang one second” and fixed it to my actual number. Like a goddamn moron.

I sprint out of the van. Walk into my class soaking wet with my head down at my professor is in the middle of a lecture. I find my seat in the back of the classroom on the other side, so everyone has seen me. My friend leans up to me as I sit down, and asks me where I have been. I tell her that I got lost during a hike and fell into a creek.

Now, what is the moral of this story, children? If anyone asks you if you want to get baptized on a Wednesday in the middle of September, simply say

#get to know me #answers #anon #recounting this was intense emotional labor

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ryanmeft · 5 years

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No, Nintendo Does Not Hate Metroid

Nintendo, a company that makes video games, recently announced that after almost two years, they were scrapping all current work on Metroid Prime 4, taking it from whatever mystery studio was working on it, and giving it to the hallowed minds at Retro Studios to start over with, hoping to get it right.

This was greeted with rapturous applause by Metroid fans, who almost universally recognized how good Nintendo was being to them, and were highly appreciative of the fact they’d be willing to write off all the resources they’d spent so far, just because the game wasn’t up to snuff.

I am of course kidding. That up there was a joke. Metroid fandom contains the whiniest, most entitled, hardest-to-satisfy fans of any Nintendo property, and while the majority of fans were cool, the loudest ones were typically the whiners. Most notably, a not-insignificant section of the fandom has gripped, with an unshakable hold, the idea that Nintendo doesn’t respect or even dislikes the franchise. I’ve listened to this particular whine for years and years, ever since there was an unimaginable eight-year gap between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. Never mind that other beloved series of yore, from Mega Man to Final Fantasy, have also gone similar periods without a new game. Never mind that non-Japanese fans of Nintendo’s own Earthbound are still denied the chance to play the final game in the series, and probably always will be. Never mind that Sonic fans suffered under a notorious drought of good games lasting two decades before Sonic Mania finally happened. None of that means shit: Metroid fans are the most persecuted, victimized, and unfairly treated fandom in video games.

Now, I’m the last guy to feel I need to defend a massive company like Nintendo, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Because just like Ghostbusters fans who can’t figure out their particular obsession just isn’t as relevant as they want it to be, Metroid fans need to grow up and start appreciating what they have gotten, rather than what they haven’t. Below are the three reasons why Metroid fanboys aren’t even the least bit as ill-used as they think are.

Almost Every Metroid Game has Been Excellent

The nature of video games is such that many more entries in a successful series are usually produced than in other mediums like film. Even a series like Metroid, which has been iterated less often than Nintendo’s other properties, has had eight fully fledged games since 1986, and 10 if you count the heavily re-worked upgrades of the original game and Return of Samus. Of those, only a single one, Other M, has been poorly received, and there’s no indication that’s what Nintendo expected. After all, fans were excited when the series got handed to Team Ninja; the idea that this was callous on Nintendo’s part, for not developing the game themselves, is something that only took hold retroactively, and you know what they say about hindsight. The original Metroid, Super Metroid, Fusion, and two of the three Prime entries are among the more critically lauded games in history, and excepting only Other M, all of the others have received highly positive reviews. The Metacritic average for the mainline Metroid games is an 89 of 100. Boy, look how much Nintendo hates this franchise, going out of their way to make good games for it and crap like that.

The Bad Spin Offs are Nothing Compared to Other Series

One of the big pieces of evidence Metroid fans like to roll out to prove Nintendo loathes Samus like unto the heat of a sun is that they’ve spent some of their time on it making poorly received spin offs, like Blast Ball and Federation Force, that don’t capture the spirit of the series. “Look!” they shout, from atop the Tower of Cluelessness high on the Oblivious Cliffs, “They aren’t doing what a bunch of us fans who have never programmed a game or made a decision about a franchise think they should be doing, so they clearly don’t care!”

You might already see the flaw in this thinking. By this standard, nearly every company with a long-running series hates that series. Capcom has inserted Mega Man into soccer and allowed him to be licensed out for extremely shitty PC games, and have pooped out almost as many crappy Resident Evil-themed spin-offs as there are main Resident Evil games. Square has pimped Final Fantasy out to every possible genre, from racing to fighting to freaking tower defense, all while taking ages to finish the next main entry in the series. Nintendo themselves have slapped Mario on every possible thing they can, and despite strong sales to dumb people, Mario Party is notorious for being a bunch of slapped together mini games for people who like their games to be completely random.

If bad spin-offs proved anything about what Nintendo thinks of Metroid, the fact they’ve spared it from as many as other series get would actually support the idea they are more protective of it.

Metroid Doesn’t Deserve as Much Love as You Think it Does

Economics 101 is now in session. All right, children: why does a company make things?

“To make their fans happy, Mr. Eft!”

Wrong, little Dingleberry! They make things to---say it with me---MAKE MONEY!

See, companies like money. And this is especially important for an industry with relatively low margins and high costs like video games, because folks like the evil satanic Metroid-hating demons at Nintendo need games to sell well not only to justify further games in that series, but to fund further games in that series. Unlike, say, Disney, they don’t typically have the option of busting out an Avengers and making 1000% profit. Unless it is something really massive and popular and guaranteed to sell, like Call of Duty or Pokemon, most franchises live entry to entry, relying on the previous one being profitable to decide if the next one will ever be made.

And here’s some economic reality for you: almost from the outset, Metroid has failed that test more often than it has passed it. Yes, the series has sold decently---for a minor franchise. The fact that it is legendary among gamers and highly influential among designers has not traditionally translated into the kind of money it needs to guarantee the entries keep rolling out. One of the most frequent desperate cries of the Lesser American Hardcore Metroid Fanboy plays out something like this: “If only Nintendo put as much effort in as they do for Mario and Zelda, it could be a real blockbuster!”

Except it couldn’t. And it has proven that time and again. It has sold, it is often said, respectably. That’s a business term for “We didn’t lose money…but it didn’t exactly pay our salaries, either.” Metroid’s critical and fan status is simply not reflected in sales, where Samus is holding at the 14th overall spot in Nintendo’s history. She’s managed to scrap together around 17 and a half million units moved in three decades, compared to just over a hundred million for Zelda and hundreds for Mario (that’s including every Mario game of any kind, but if you only include platformers, the series is still on top).

Simply put, Metroid doesn’t get the same attention as Mario and Zelda for the same reason Luke Cage or Cloak and Dagger don’t get as much love from Marvel as Spider-Man and X-Men: financially speaking, it doesn’t deserve it. No one argues that means Marvel hates Luke Cage; the sales just aren’t there to justify an equal amount of time, energy and resources.

Given all that, fans ought to be grateful the series is still around at all. Nintendo has tossed all of the Prime 4 resources spent so far down the crapper and re-started it just to get it right, when they would have been fully justified with just abandoning it. As a big fan of many minor characters and series, take it from me: when your preferred fan obsession is far from being top dog in the overall culture, sometimes you gotta stop whining and take what you get.

#Metroid #the legend of zelda #nintendo #Final Fantasy #video games #resident evil #Super Mario #Mega Man #call of duty #marvel #spider-man #X-men #luke cage #metroid prime 4 #ghostbusters

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fullmetalirin · 6 years

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Fullmetal Alchemist: Episodes 50-51

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 50: "Death"

As zeppelins rain bombs upon London during World War I, Edward and Hohenheim flee the city. As they watch the attack from a distance, Hohenheim explains that in this world, on the other side of the gate, the science of physics has developed instead of alchemy but, because Edward's soul was transferred over without his body, the Gate of Truth within himself can be used to return to Amestris. Meanwhile, with Hawkeye's help, Mustang has sneaked into the Führer's mansion to confront him and avenge Hughes. Gluttony, moping over Lust's death, is forced by Envy to begin gradually eating Alphonse's armored body to complete the Philosopher's Stone within him so Dante can use the stone to switch bodies with Rosé. Annoyed with Gluttony still mourning the loss of Lust, Dante alchemically destroys his mind so he can be nothing but an eating machine just as he begins gradually eating Alphonse. Wrath, still moping over Sloth's death, tries to intervene by using alchemy so he can use Alphonse to revive Sloth, but Dante has Edward's original limbs removed from Wrath's body so he can no longer perform alchemy in doing so. After repairing his relationship with Hohenheim, Edward returns to Amestris and tries to stop Dante's plans and set Alphonse and Rosé free, only to be distracted by Envy, who begins tormenting him in battle. When Edward angrily demands to see Envy's true form, Envy gleefully obliges, transforming into Hohenheim and Dante's deceased son, causing Edward to hesitate in sorrow. Dante reveals that Envy was the first ever homunculus, created when Hohenheim attempted human transmutation to revive his son who died of mercury poisoning. As Envy admits this is the reason why he hates Hohenheim for abandoning him to start a new family, the homunculus instantly transforms his arm into a blade and heartlessly kills Edward by piercing him through the heart while a horrified Alphonse, Rosé and Wrath watch.

Hm, I forgot he transferred to WWI London. I thought Amestris was equivalent to Nazi Germany.

Ed is impressed by zeppelins and airplanes. Hohenheim says their mechanical engineering is better than in their world, but Amestris has pretty sophisticated manufacturing too. Trains are apparently about a century old, which is about on par with our timeline. I guess you could presume that technology hit a plateau as people figured alchemy was better for more advanced applications.

Bradley keeps his remains in his house. He's read the Evil Overlord List! Selim saw the safe, so Bradley entrusts him with the key. That's pretty smart, since it's unlikely Mustang will think the kid is relevant.

Riza has dispatched Bradley's guards and is at his door. I presume this is a diversion, because we cut to Mustang sneaking in by… jumping over the wall? I'll presume that was alchemy-assisted.

Archer is still not dead.

We cut to Ed and Hohenheim and get my other favorite scene. Hohenheim explains conservation of energy, explicitly drawing a comparison to our very first example: Al fixing the broken radio. The souls of the dead from Earth pass into their world and provide the fuel for alchemy. This makes perfect sense: we already know the Philosopher's Stone, which amplifies alchemy, is powered by souls, so it's only logical that regular alchemy work the same.

Hohenheim explains he really did love Trisha, but left because he didn't want them to see the rot. I think this is a flawed but reasonable explanation. The rot represents more than just itself: it's a mark of his sin, a reminder that this body is not his own and that he's committed atrocities to obtain it. I see this more as him being unable to bear the answer to the inevitable question, "Why are you rotting, Dad?" It's horribly selfish and cowardly of him, but at the same time, it's understandable. Humanity is flawed.

Back in Amestris, Dante needs Gluttony to eat Al to complete the Philosopher's Stone. Apparently Dante designed him to refine red water. However, Gluttony is still BSODing over Lust, so Dante destroys his mind by removing his ouroboros tattoo.

Hohenheim confirms that Dante can't create a Philosopher's Stone on her own.

Hohenheim leaves us with the bright side of Dante's philosophy: you can gain something for nothing too. When a parent loves their child, he says, there need be no cost or reward.

But Ed still clings to equivalent exchange, admitting his only argument is that he doesn't want to believe a sacrifice could go unrewarded. He believes he just has to keep trying.

And then a zeppelin falls on him! He returns through the Gate just in time, but the poor boy he was inhabiting is still certainly dead.

Back in Central, Riza tells Bradley Mustang is after him… why? To get his family out of the way? Bradley goes into the wine cellar to fight Mustang, and the door is alchemically sealed behind him.

Bradley gives basically the same speech as Dante, saying really he's helping people by keeping the Philosopher's Stones from them.

Bradley explicitly says Mustang's fireballs will be less effective in an enclosed space. Thank you!

The Gate takes Wrath's arm and leg, but not the rest of him.

Ah. Ed realizes he used Earth!Ed's life to make the jump.

And now we get confirmation Gluttony killed Marcoh way back then.

Envy has a lot of fun running through forms to taunt Ed.

Alchemy can't be used because the activation of the Philosopher's Stone makes it too reactive. What does "activating" it really mean, though? We haven't seen alchemists need to do anything special to use it before.

Seeing Envy's true form stuns Ed, but… it doesn't look that recognizable? Ed says it looks like Hohenheim, but Hohenheim had a beard, and we just established he was willing to punch his mom's face. I remembered it as him looking like Ed, which would have made more sense. Still, it's a neat reveal. I've heard Brotherhood fans say it's a worse motivation than the one he has in Brotherhood, but, eh, his Brotherhood motivation was clever in theory but felt totally contrived and out of left field. Daddy issues might be cliché, but it's fitting for the more human homunculi, and it makes for a powerful parallel with Ed – further emphasized by them both being his children. I still think it'd have been stronger if we didn't learn it earlier, though.

Also, I do like that Envy violates talking-is-a-free-action to shank Ed while he's distracted.

Dante says Envy was the first homunculus ever created, so I guess Dante and Hohenheim were the first alchemists?

Rose appears to break out of her trance upon seeing Ed die.

Let's update our homunculi list real quick before the last episode:

Greed is wasted.

Lust defects, and is killed out of vengeance for a loved one.

Sloth is paralyzed.

Gluttony refuses to eat, and is made a slave to base desires.

This one is actual irony. He's spent the whole series only caring about eating things, but now, when he's actually ordered to, his human emotions get in the way. He's killed by an absence of gluttony, and becomes the embodiment of gluttony – a slave to base instincts. I find that a lot more clever than "Gluttony is eaten" – that is just so utterly trite and banal, you don't get points for that.

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 51: "Laws and Promises"

Alphonse breaks free and attempts human transmutation as he sacrifices himself - using what's left of his Philosopher's Stone within him to revive his brother. Envy appears at the Gate of Truth, having failed to stop Alphonse, and encounters Edward's soul. Learning that Hohenheim is still alive on the other side, Envy gleefully decides to head through to kill him against Edward's advice, disappearing into the distance as a green, serpentine dragon. Edward reawakens to see his body fully healed as well as his right arm and left leg are now flesh and blood. However, Alphonse has been taken by the Gate of Truth as a consequence. After having Rosé take an injured Wrath with her and flee to Resembool, Edward attempts human transmutation, offering his own life, allowing Alphonse to return to his body, albeit his memory is recalled up to when the brothers tried to resurrect their mother. Meanwhile, Mustang successfully kills Führer Bradley with the help of his son Selim, who unintentionally weakens his adoptive father by bringing him the remains of the human from which the Führer was originally based. The Führer responsively strangles his son to death out of anger before Mustang takes his advantage. As he takes Selim's body and leaves the mansion, Mustang is confronted by Archer, who apparently shoots him in the left eye. Hawkeye arrives in time to save Mustang's life and kills Archer. Dante escapes into an elevator to find the Führer to help her exact vengeance, only to be devoured by Gluttony, who fails to recognize her. Alphonse is back in Amestris now and Edward is pulled through the Gate of Truth and is currently in Munich. The brothers both resolve to reunite again someday.

Dante snarks that maybe Ed just didn't pay enough to deserve survival – "We always come just a little short of the price."

We actually see Mustang drawing the transmutation circle with his blood. So much cooler than him doing it offscreen!

Al destroys Gluttony's jaw. Gruesome.

Mustang successfully destroys Pride. Since he didn’t use a sealing circle, I’m guessing he really did exhaust all of Pride’s lives. See, that’s acceptable to do once as a climactic cool moment. Notice also that we skipped straight to the end instead of watching him use fireballs for two minutes straight.

Riza saves Mustang by being the only person smart enough to shoot at Archer's human half.

Envy jumps into the Gate in pursuit of Hohenheim, and even manages to shake off the souls trying to eat him. Hardcore.

After the scene with Dante and Gluttony, we see the elevator open to an empty chamber. Creepy.

Ed's lost limbs are restored when he's resurrected, but it costs all of Al's Philosopher's Stone.

Sheska says Amestris is no longer a military dictatorship, but the current wars will still continue. However, they've become more tolerant towards Ishbalans.

Roy has an eyepatch. Just like Bradley! Riza said her outing him and then doubling back was part of the plan, but I'm not sure how or why.

How did Hohenheim get to Germany? The year is 1921, so he somehow survived 7 years even though his body looked to be at its limit.

Ed thinks Einstein's theories are bunk. Heh.

Ed says he planned to offer his life as the price for restoring Al. The fact that he didn't makes him wonder if he got something for nothing.

The ending spiel is a twist on the standard opening spiel: Al recognizes that equivalent exchange is not the law of the world, but he still hopes that hard work will pay off, and that one day they'll be reunited: a promise, not a law.

Conclusion

I think this is a good finale. The cutting around is a bit disorienting – it perhaps might have been better to resolve Mustang's side of things earlier? – but not uncalled for. I like how Mustang is actually challenged and injured in his fight scene instead of just effortlessly coasting his way to victory; he's cool without being overpowered. The final boss fight with Envy is a bit meh, but huge fight scenes were never what I was watching for in the first place (and Mustang vs. Pride kind of has us covered on that front). In terms of how this interacted with and resolved the story's major themes and questions, I think it was excellent. We learn what is behind the Gate, we learn the truth behind alchemy, we get discussion on the theme of equivalent exchange, and the protagonists' driving motive, the restoration of their bodies, is resolved. It's an open-ended finale, but not an unsatisfying one. The villains are defeated, the characters have learned important lessons, and they're going to keep on living.

Mustang's side is probably the weakest part here – Cyborg Archer is really weird and random and seemingly just there to add more tension and battles. His fight with Pride feels a bit truncated since we keep cutting away from it. I'm still not totally clear what his plan was or if it made sense, and it was very dumb of Ed not to tell him how to fight homunculi. I do like that Riza saves him in the end, though.

Ultimately, this is again the rare OG arc that I feel could have been better spread out over more episodes. Getting all the characters into position is rather rushed and relies on a bit of contrivance, and the finale itself feels like it's trying to say more things than it really has time for. But I'm still happy with what we got.

Now, this is more subjective, but I find the dual sacrifices way more emotionally meaningful here. I plan to do an ending comparison post where I will discuss this further, but for now, I think it's very powerful that Al finally has his moment of triumph. He's spent the whole story as a damsel in distress, even getting literally turned into a MacGuffin for this finale, only ever watching helplessly as people make horrific sacrifices for him while he can do nothing to save them. So here and now, he says screw it, for once he has the power and he's going to use it to save the person he loves more than anything in the world. It's so strong that it's an absolute mirror of what Ed did for him, and extremely meaningful that in a series that started with and revolved around the impossibility of resurrection we end with a true one.

But Ed, stupid, stupid Ed, can't be content with what Al gave him and refuses to learn his lesson, so he puts them back where they started. I'm not sure how I feel about that – it makes him into a very stagnant and stubborn character who refuses to learn the narrative's lessons even when they've been so firmly pounded into his skull. The point of Dante's speech, to me, was that you cannot keep throwing good lives after bad – Ed has hurt himself and so many others on this journey, justifying it to himself with sunk cost fallacy. The correct option is to cut his losses and go home, to be happy with what he still has instead of throwing away even more. Even the very fact he planned to kill himself to bring Al back shows he's still ignoring him – Al has said over and over again he doesn't want Ed to do that. Are these brothers doomed to be trapped in an endless spiral of self-sacrifice for the other? But… I gotta say, Al staying dead would have been too much of a downer. They've been through so much that they do deserve a miracle. (There's that stories-as-just-worlds striking again!)

I actually have never seen the movie, so maybe it resolves some of these things! I shall see. But for now, let's complete our list…

Greed is wasted.

Lust defects, and is killed out of vengeance for a loved one.

Sloth is paralyzed.

Gluttony refuses to eat, and is made a slave to base desires.

Envy kills himself out of jealousy.

Pride is killed by his son.

Wrath outlives them all.

An ironic pride death is easy – hoist them by their own petard. This show takes it a step further, and has Pride undone by his namesake. I'm pretty sure it is said somewhere that Selim is his biological child in this continuity, and that the capacity to sire children was one of Pride's human traits. That makes it deeply ironic that the son is the reason he dies.

I never bought Wrath's Brotherhood death as "irony". Wrath being killed by wrath… I don't even know if that's poetic, it just kind of… is. We say those who live by the sword will die by the sword, and for good reason. Wrath dying to wrath isn't unexpected or at all clever. The volatile, self-destructive sin being the only one to live, though? That's irony.

And oh my god you guys Brotherhood!Envy kills himself out of PRIDE not jealousy, he could not have been more explicit about it! Know your sins if you're gonna be smug about what deep symbolism they are!! This one is still a bit of a reach – wrath is a closer fit – but there is a case to be made that he is doing this out of a desire for the connection and satisfaction that other children have yet was denied to him.

Lastly, I think you could make a case that Dante embodies all the sins and is undone by all of them simultaneously. She believes herself above humanity, yet she is easily frustrated, slothful in her attitude towards the homunculi, envious of others' bodies, and greedy, lustful, and gluttonous for life and power. Wiping Gluttony is an act of impatience, frustration, greed, and arrogance in the assumption she could still control him.

Even aside from that, though, this is such a fitting end for her. She's spent her whole life plotting in the shadows, never allowing herself into a position of personal harm, and just as she tries to slink away to do it again she's undone by her own tangled web. Work behind the scenes, die behind the scenes.

#fullmetal alchemist #fma #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fma 2003 #liveblog

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harrimir · 6 years

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Upgrading Your on-line Gaming Setup With Netgear Hardware: Is It worth It?

Over the final 12 months, I’ve been looking to drastically improve my on-line gaming setup. It’s no longer that my normal connection speeds were especially slow or my remote interactions rather laggy. Multiplayer suits of Overwatch and Sea of Thieves ran well ample, and most video game downloads chugged alongside at a more than applicable tempo except i used to be on the psnetwork—why the insistent statistics cap, Sony?.

however here’s the thing: For a small while, i used to be buying 250Mbps internet service and not ever even getting near that marketed velocity. Most connection checks petered out at a measly 140Mbps, which isn’t anything else to scoff at, but I wasn’t getting what i used to be procuring. After dealing with that minor frustration, I knocked my plan right down to 150Mbps and, to be fairly sincere, nothing in reality changed. speed checks nevertheless reported a max of round 140Mbps.

bottom line became this: I just knew that my hardware became surprisingly out of date and that definite improvements can be made that might alternate my cyber web experience for the enhanced, so I reached out to Netgear in an try and are trying a few of their extra enjoyable gaming-connected items. They were kind ample to send over three compelling items of hardware, and what follows is my honest event with each and every gadget.

CM1000 ultra-high pace Cable Modem MSRP $169.ninety nine

As i discussed above, I’ve been getting around 140Mbps down load and 6Mbps add on a comparatively out of date Motorola SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 modem. I feel I’ve been using that equal piece of hardware for around 10 years now, supply or acquire, so I’d say I’m due for an improve. Enter Netgear’s DOCSIS 3.1 beast, and what the field reproduction dubs as delivering the “World’s quickest Cable cyber web” at “up to 6Gbps downstream and 1.8Gbps upstream”. if you’re unique with what DOCSIS three.1 is, here’s an outstanding video describing the technology. In a nutshell, it’s an up to date protocol that allows for fiber-caliber internet speeds over current cable web infrastructure. Granted, your web provider issuer needs to present that form of lightspeed option, after which you certainly deserve to be paying for observed speed.

That talked about, I’m not currently procuring gigabit information superhighway I wish!, so i will be able to’t verify that selected tier of provider on this new modem, unfortunately. however after tinkering round with things, what i will say is that, strictly out of the field, the machine definitely looks to have stronger my network condition vastly. without even touching my historical router, I conveniently swapped out my SURFboard modem with the clean CM1000, had the cable enterprise activate it, and right away administered a wired ethernet velocity test. With simply the modem trade on my own, my clocked velocity went from 140Mbps to round 180Mbps—dazzling damn fantastic. add velocity still hovered surprisingly low, round 6Mbps, though I suppose that’s extra of a controversy with my frequent service area.

The CM1000 allows for some critically speedy cable internet speeds.credit: Netgear

on the grounds that installing, the CM1000 has delivered constant connection and speeds with none deserve to be rebooted, all whereas staying mostly cool to the touch. For journalistic functions, I bumped my carrier tier back up up to 250Mbps just to see how the modem would react, and now I’m getting a whopping 300Mbps ! download. The upload velocity doubled marginally to round 12Mbps, which I’ve study is more than satisfactory for many excessive nice gameplay streaming. I’d say this is all an awful lot proof that Netgear’s hardware will increase whatever thing speeds you’re currently paying for.

So the question turns into here: Does the standard gamer need this cable modem? It pains me to say it, however probably no longer. which you could fully nevertheless get through with more run-of-the-mill hardware, primarily in case you’re most effective purchasing lessen-tier internet speeds. but if you have Xfinity from both Cox or Comcast and wish to supercharge your connection with more moderen gigabit cyber web which you’ll want the blanketed DOCSIS 3.1 to permit, or in case you’re without problems trying to future-proof your getting older home network, I’d wager it’s value the just a little high asking expense. The CM1000 is in reality the caviar of cable modems: A tasty luxury.

XR500 Nighthawk pro Gaming Router MSRP $299.ninety nine

I have to say that my trusty Netgear Nighthawk R7000 has treated me smartly through the years, and honestly, it’s no shabby router via any stretch of the creativeness: A swish design, three adjustable antenna with impressive wifi signal energy and a bunch of normal firmware updates left little or no to complain about. however now that I’ve tried Netgear’s personal Nighthawk seasoned Gaming XR500, it’d be basically problematic to head again, as I suppose like I’ve graduated to the networking massive leagues.

The Nighthawk pro Gaming router has all of the commonplace instant community facets we’ve all come to predict, together with 2.4GHz, 2.5GHz and visitor networks. There’s even a sensible connect function that unifies and intelligently sorts all incoming device connections beneath an single, automated SSID in reality easy, in fact. Don’t overlook Quad circulate and MU-MIMO for sooner all-around connections, and fancy beamforming technology that provides additional-stable wireless indicators. also, there’s 4 antenna as a substitute of my general three, which managed to enhance my wireless connection speeds by using about 20Mbps. Then there’s the further gaming stuff, which is what makes the XR500 in reality stand out.

Netgear’s XR500 is a very strong choice for hardcore gamers.credit: Netgear

first off, the main UI browser dashboard DumaOS allows you to display screen literally everything occurring in your community in real time: ordinary download endeavor, normal add exercise, ping, as well as the bandwidth utilization of every connected device. that you can then go past that to the QoS, or quality of provider, and dictate which gadgets ideally gaming consoles or PCs get to use essentially the most bandwidth at any given time. i will be able to see this coming in handy for large households where on-line gamers should coexist with heavy-usage Netflix and Hulu streamers. that you would be able to moreover utilize the Geo-Filter, which draws up a global map that lets you control the gap of online connections to multiplayer servers with a purpose to curb lag. It’s a very amazing set of features that presents some critically customizable options for dedicated game enthusiasts.

yes, it’s an expensive—and extreme, some would argue—networking accent geared nearly fully towards the hardcore gaming market, however I consider that it hits the bullseye in terms of what that demographic desires. It’s additionally a superb choice for anybody who with ease desires greater authority over their home network. It’s having comprehensive agency over the Handmaid’s tale binge happening within the living room while Fornite and Overwatch rages upstairs, all while somebody is watching outlandish ASMR movies on YouTube in the basement and a kick back-out Spotify mix plays within the backyard. My biggest criticism is that it doesn’t consider like it prices $300; i might have favored a pleasant metal casing as hostile to the low-cost plastic Netgear selected to go along with. perhaps it turned into for overheating causes.

SX10 Nighthawk seasoned Gaming change MSRP $299.ninety nine

Rounding out the trio of premium Netgear hardware is one severely pricey networking swap. searching suspiciously like the spaceship from ‘80s Disney sci-fi traditional Flight of the Navigator, the SX10 in contrast to the XR500 fully seems like an elegant piece of package for your palms. With foremost steel housing, it weighs in at just over three pounds, so we’re talking particular doorstop fabric right here. You recognize, some thing that looks like it might effortlessly outlive the cockroaches. Such solid fabric may come throughout as overkill for whatever as purposeful as a swap, however I appreciate the attention to aspect. Makes it more durable to by accident tug the device off a desk or entertainment center.

blanketed onboard are 2 10GMulti-Gig ethernet ports, eight 1G ethernet ports, a whole bunch of customizable RGB LEDs and a physical button to manually flip the lights on and off. just like the Nighthawk professional Gaming router, the SX10 has an attractive in-depth interface that lets you fully customize your network experience. you’ve got the power to manage each and every of the 10 ports, so the rest wired without delay to the swap is commence for bandwidth allocation. that you could also alternate the hue of any LED gentle to your liking, whatever thing specially positive for determining certain video game consoles or PCs at a glance. keep in mind that one of those 10 ports is reserved for connection to a cable modem or router.

The SX10 has a number of ports and LEDs for total customization.credit score: Netgear

regardless of some salt-of-the-earth reliability, the SX10 is possibly the hardest Netgear contraption to recommend on its own, and never most effective because of the steep fee. It’s without doubt a high quality piece of hardware with quite a lot of alternatives game enthusiasts curious about their wired ethernet have a great deal to be enthusiastic about right here, nevertheless it feels much extra like an augmentation to the XR500 than any kind of standalone product. That’s not to say you couldn’t spend it absolutely independently of the aforementioned router and find a ton of great use. I’m easily seeing the SX10 as an unbeatable partner piece to an already rocking XR500 setup. probably that’s nitpicky aesthetics, however there it’s. besides the fact that children, if you do should extend your wired ethernet alternatives and choose to fork over the money for this swish little manage container, you gained’t be upset, not in the slightest degree.

Netgear provided complimentary evaluation product for insurance purposes.

#gaming

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