"Fabian, do some surgery!" is really giving "Hey Gunnie, you ready to saw this dude's head open?"

Let us never stop making Lou's unqualified PCs perform life or death medical procedures.

Alice in the Madness of Wonderland: The Stygian Fairytale | Walkthrough

↳ Banner and dividers made by @kim-seok-jin​. Thank you ^^. 

✉ Titles:

➝ Alice in the Madness of Wonderland: The Stygian Fairytale

➝ Stygian (the madness corrupts me, and you, my saviour)

Though Alice ‘Y/N’ Liddell is overshadowed, and she doesn’t seem to think much of it, she yearns for a world which notices her- gives her a chance- a part of her wanting for a turn to be on the pedestal. But of course, nothing can change that-

Or can it?

One chance encounter with a boy with bunny ears and a strange hole, and she arrives at the world of Wonderland- a world of magic, mystery and madness. Protecting her life is one thing, but-

What more when everyone seems determined to capture her heart?

Take care, Alice…

✉ Information: 

➠ Pairing: Seokjin × reader, Yoongi × reader, Hoseok × reader, Namjoon × reader, Jimin × reader, Taehyung × reader, Jungkook × reader, OT7 × reader

➠ Genres: Angst, fantasy, alice in wonderland!au, reverse harem, isekai (teleported to a fantasy world), mystery 

➠ Overall Rating: PG-18

➠ Warnings: Violence, suicide, comatose, disturbing scenes, weapons, fights, yandere, insanity, mental illnesses, torture, massacre, serial killers, violent riots, executions, murders, large amount of people die, stalking, people lead other people on, threats, madness (but it’s wonderland so), tea parties and the white rabbit

✉ Character Profiles:

⇢ March Hare ‘ღ’

⇢ Ace of Hearts ‘ღ’

⇢ King of Hearts ‘ღ’

⇢ Cheshire Cat ‘ღ’

⇢ Clockmaker ‘ღ’

⇢ Mad Hatter ‘ღ’

⇢ White Rabbit ‘ღ’

✉ Beta-player [a.k.a. me, blog writer and walkthrough maker!] comments:

Several crashes may occur while playing the game, as the developers told me. This is still a beta version of the game, after all! The game also contains a lot of violence… hrmm, well, you’ll see for yourself. I’ve been told not to give too many spoilers, but the developers hinted to me that as the player, we have a special power!

If you complete a route, you don’t have to continue to the next one. You can pick whichever route you’re on and make it your true end. When that option pops out in the game, and you pick yes, Wonderland will close, and Alice and her suitor will be able to leave! It’s our choices while reading that matter!

Or… at least that’s what they said. Still, I’d warn you guys to be careful in choosing! This game is tricky, and it has several bad ends too… ah, I shouldn’t spoil anymore. This is an online game, so I put the links below if you want to play the beta version too! Careful though~ It links straight to the prologue, so for any players replaying, just choose the route after!

Oh, and one last thing- though all of the main cast are dateable characters; it’s of course, only one character per route though… or is it? Hehehe!

If you go through all routes, you might get a secret ending! Bonus scenes! So complete the full game when it comes out, okay?

No, the developers totally didn’t ask me to say all that to promote the game~

Have fun playing, and I hope this walkthrough helps you!

Reader discretion advised.

✉ Map:

Ah, this is the Wonderland we, as the player, will fall into! Do you see the different emblems across the land? Those are the villages under the influence of the roleholders! Oh… was that too much information? I don’t think I was supposed to reveal the concept of roleholders yet… ah well! You’ll just have to see for yourself.

Putting the villages to the side for now though, you should have a look at the main buildings first.

The little building on top of the mountain on the top left is the Hatter Mansion! It’s where you’ll meet the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and many other questionable friends! 

The place below the teapot emblem - the red state you’re seeing belongs to the King of Hearts. It’s the Hearts Castle! Here, reside the King, and his two faithful followers, the Ace of Hearts and the White Rabbit.

The tower a little way from the middle of the map is the Clocktower. It’s where the Clock Maker lives.

The last, but definitely not the least, place is where you’ll see the Cheshire Cat roaming around. It’s the colorful Amusement Park at the top right of the map! Make sure to go there sometime in your journey in Wonderland.

Now, I’ll try giving an overview of each village. These areas can be visited within the game in the routes, and often, you’ll see an important event revolving around them in the story.

Let’s go over the villages under the rule of the King of Hearts first. 

See the emblem with the two keys? That’s Book End! It’s known for its loyalty to the crown, and the people there strictly obey their king. It’s also treated better than the other town under the rule of Kim Seokjin. Some say it’s because of its size being larger than the other’s, but most argue that it’s the result of his poor administration.

The village just above Book End, with the heart emblem is the town that mostly passes by through the shadows! It’s called Hearts’ Eve, and because of the people not being treated equally, many citizens from here have risen to protest against the king. They went as far as to call the Mad Hatter for help, hence the place is always in a state of political unrest.

The emblem with the teapot on the far left denotes Pekoe Town, so far the only village under the influence of the infamous Mad Hatter, Kim Taehyung. The people here live quite peacefully… if you forget the rare murder of a secret Hearts supporter here and there! The place is very well guarded, if I remember correctly. 

Tulgey Wood Town falls almost in the middle of the map. Its emblem has the green tree to symbolise the priority of the citizens - nature, and side by side, peace. It’s an independent state, but often has its matters overlooked by the tedious Clock Maker, Kim Namjoon, and the mischievous Cheshire Cat, Min Yoongi.

The other independent village is the one with the flower emblem! It’s called Hatter’s North for being north of the Mad Hatter’s state. I vaguely recall many people being in support of Kim Taehyung here, even if the village isn’t under his influence. Its works are still managed by Namjoon and Yoongi.

This was a lot of information to take in, so I don’t blame you if you’re confused on how to remember it! Just try giving this walkthrough a look if you’re puzzled about the general geography of Wonderland, and I’m sure it’ll ease your troubles~

To bring this to an ending note, I must add what I’ve been told about this world by the developers themselves:

‘As silly and nonsensical Wonderland portrays itself to be, some things will truly never change. Over the centuries of generations, the land has survived numerous generations of war and love- and has stayed the same. The edges may have faded, and the map itself may look worn out, but take heed, Alice... for there lies mysteries and secrets in every nook and cranny of this world…’

Good luck, new players and old ones alike!

⇢ Preview the Prologue here.

            ╔═══════ ೋღ 🥀 ღೋ ═══════╗

                       [Would you like to start the game?]

                                 [Yes]           [No]  

           ╚═══════ ೋღ 🥀 ღೋ ═══════╝

✉ Routes:

[Routes are still in development, please visit from time to time to check for a new update.]

✉ Sidestory:

[Sidestories will be available after the release of the full game, please look forward to them.]

All rights reserved © 2020-2021 kimtaejin [bangtan-dreamland | taerseok]. No editing, copying, translating, or reposting allowed.

Ride my thigh

Requested

(Thigh riding)

You licked your lips as you admired Ashley from the other side of the camera, you were currently on the set of her new music video, watching from the sidelines.

The scene she was currently working on for her new music video nightmare, consisted of her in a pair of plaid pants, a white crop t-shirt with a black bandeau underneath that covered her breasts. The outfit was simple, and very typical for Ashley.

You watched as she jumped around a group of people, a corded microphone in her hand as she sung her heart out for the clip.

You always enjoyed watching her while she worked, she got so invested in the delivery of her performance, whether it was in a music video, at the studio or while she was putting on a show for a stadium full of thousands of fans.

Throughout the day you had seen Ashley in a mixture of different outfits that had sent your mind into a frenzy, but with the next scene coming up, you weren’t sure how you were going to survive, seeing her in the outfit she had previewed to you earlier that morning, when she was telling you all of the ideas for the day. It was a latex outfit, bdsm style. You hadn’t ever seen her in anything alike, which was why you were experiencing a mixture of emotions. All day you had waited to see her in it, though you knew you would have a hard time keeping yourself together.

Once the director had called cut for the current scene, you felt a pair of eyes landing on you, you quickly discovered who they had belonged to you, as you looked over at Ashley who was walking towards you. She reached her hand out and grabbed yours in hers, a smile on her face. “I’m so excited to see it all come together. What do you think of everything, so far, y/n?”

You gave her hand a small squeeze, returning her smile. “Great, you look amazing, it looks like you’re having a heap of fun, babe.” You bit at your bottom lip as you watched her agree in the form of a nod. “I’m much more excited to see you in the next outfit though.” You whisper, your words only falling from your lips for her. You move your free hand to the bottom of her crop top, tugging at it slightly to pull her closer to your body. In the process of your bodies lightly crashing against one and others, her hand releases yours and lands on your waist to steady herself. She smirks at you, a mischievous, knowing smirk that sends a chill down your spine.

“Well, why don’t you come help me get into it?” A hand moves, pushing a stray hair of yours out of the way before slowly running down the side of your body back to its position on your waist, her fingers light to the touch, but enough to allow a rush of goosebumps to ignite your skin from the simple gesture. You bite your lip a little harder to prevent the moan that sneaked it’s way to your throat in an attempt to release itself, instead you just whisper “okay.” Though the eagerness is quite clearly visible from the reaction Ashley was giving you.

She steps away from you, but grabs your hand as she walks you to her trailer. You both go in and you see a heap of people waiting there, ready to help her get into the outfit, but she quickly ushers them out, letting them know that you were here to help instead.

Once the rooms clear, she walks over to you, standing in front of you she begins to unbutton her pants. You lick your lips, moving your hand out to help her take them off, but she’s fast to swat them away. “No touching.” She whispers, her tone seductive and teasing.

You give her a pout, her smirk turning into a smile, the small character break she gives you on the odd occasion because she simply couldn’t help it when you looked so adorable to her. Her lips quickly peck yours in a tender but soft kiss, before pulling away and nodding her head to the sofa. “Go sit for me, kitten.” She smirks. You follow her instructions, taking your place on the couch.

Her hands move back to their previous position, unbuttoning her pants before slowly sliding them down her legs, she removes them completely, leaving her bottom half in nothing but her panties. Your eyes land on the lace material that’s covering the very part you want your lips attached to. Your snapped back when her fingers wrap around the lace, slowly and teasingly pulling them off her body. Her voice is quiet when you hear her speak, but you can hear the neediness she’s trying to hide. “Talk to me baby, tell me what you want.”

You let out a small moan as you sit up in the seat, your eyes looking at her now bare core that’s on full show for you. She slowly steps forward, her shirt coming off in the process, leaving her in only the black bandeau as she awaits your response.

“I want to taste you.” You whisper, letting your eyes look up into hers pleadingly as she approaches you.

She clicks her tongue, her hands moving forward to grab yours and wrap them around her body. You take the chance to pull her close, your head burying into her stomach, your lips attaching to the skin as you begin to kiss your way down between her legs, your hands moving to lightly rub her inner-thighs. “Need to taste your pretty pussy.” You whisper, your tone obviously needy, but you didn’t care as you bent your head down to wrap your lips around her clit.

A small breath falls from her lips, her hands moving to your hair, tangling themselves as she holds you against her. “Tell me how much you love to taste me.” She groans, the pleasure your tongue is giving her, flicking and sucking at her clit, making it hard for Ashley to keep her tough exterior.

You moan against her, causing an encouraging hair tug from her. You let your finger run up between her folds, drenching it in her juices. You slowly pull your head back, looking up into her eyes as you let your finger now tease her entrance, a smirk on your lips as you speak “so much, you taste so good, baby, so sweet. Why don’t you try it yourself?” You lick your bottom lip, pulling your finger from her core and bringing it up to her lips. She’s quick to wrap her lips around your finger, a moan falling past her closed lips as she licks your digit clean.

It’s such a pretty sight, you couldn’t ever imagine getting use to it. The heat between your legs intensifies just from the sight of her leaking core, her lips parting as you slip your finger out of her mouth, an unimpressed groan slipping out also. You giggle at her. “You’re so addictive.” You whisper before burying your head back between her legs, your tongue lapping up her folds before slipping inside her. A loud moan slips past her lips as she feels you inside her, her hands tugging roughly at your hair, pushing you further against her core. Your nose rubbing at her clit as you bob your tongue in and out of her core.

You move your hand around her body, wrapping your hand up in her ass, squeezing it tightly then kneading it softly. You continue your actions, her moans getting louder as her core begins to tighten around you, you can tell that she’s close, her head falls back, and you look up from where you are, continuing to curl your tongue inside her as you watch her short, panting breaths fall past her lips. You moan against her, “gonna cum for me, pretty girl?” You coo, your voice sending vibrations against her body, causing her to whimper from the feeling, sending her over the edge as she moans out your name, her hand in your hair tugging harsher as she comes down from her high. Your name slips past her lips multiple times as she tries to catch her breath. You smirk against her as you lick her clean.

You slowly pull away, only now realising that she’s began to look at you, a look of admiration for you across her features as she slowly lowers herself atop your body. You smile at her as she runs a hand through your hair. “That was not what was suppose to happen.” She giggles. You raise your brow questioningly at her. “I was suppose to help you out.” She finishes with a whisper.

You smile as you lean forward, pressing a soft kiss to her lips. “Later, we have to get you in that outfit.”

She nods and quickly jumps up from your lap. You follow suite, making your way over to where the outfit is laid out for Ashley. You take off her bandeau, your eyes admiring her breasts for just a moment, before helping her begin to slip into the outfit.

Once she’s finally dressed, a small groan falls past your lips, she looks so much better than you had imagined.

The sound doesn’t fall deaf, Ashley’s features sparking from your reaction. “You know, they’re going to have to cut me out of this when we’re done with the scene.” She raises a brow at the huff that escapes your lips. “So it would be silly to wait until after, especially since it’s got you so worked up.” She smirks, your eyes trailing down over her body again.

You nod in agreement. “I thought I’d be able to deal with seeing you like this, but ash, you look so good.” You groan as you step closer, “I need you.”

She grins, her head nodding as she takes your hand again and leads you back over to the couch. She takes a seat and pats her lap for you to sit on, you begin to do as she says but when you’re about to wrap your other leg around her waist, she stops you and guides you down so your only straddling her thigh, your dress bundled up around your waist. You quirk your brow up at her, she’s looking at you smugly. “Can’t wreck my outfit baby, you’re gonna have to ride my thigh instead.” She whispers seductively. “Think you can do that for me, pretty girl?”

You nod your head furiously. This was something you both hadn't even done before, but you were willing to do anything at this point.

She smirks and lets her hand slap your ass gently. “That’s not an answer, use your words or I’ll put you over my knee.”

You whimper from the slight sting, not from pain, but from shock. Your bottom lip is captured between your teeth as you speak. “I can do that.”

The answer seems satisfying enough for ash as she starts to move your hips, guiding your core down against her bare leg. Whimpers past your lips from the action, your hands holding onto her shoulders to keep her steady as you match her movements. You feel your clit rubbing against your panties, whimpering at the rough friction it’s causing. You need to move them, to feel your skin against hers, but when you try to push them to the side, her hand stops you in your tracks. “Did I say you could do that?” Her tone is firm as she wraps her hand around your wrist, her head shakes and instead wraps it around her throat. She gives your hand an encouraging squeeze before realesing completely. You keep your hand there, choking her slightly as you grind down on her a little harder. You can feel her eyes watching your face as it scrunches in pleasure, eyes squeezed shut tightly as you start to chase your high that’s coming along fast. You start to moan, the sound of your voice filling the room around you, her name falling past your lips occasionally.

“Ash, baby I’m so close,” You whimper, feeling yourself clench. You attempt to steady your motions, but she’s quick to continue them, her hands moving your waist faster as she encourages you to reach. “Shit, ash, baby I’m coming.” You moan loudly as you reach your high, your head rolling back as you feel yourself release against her leg. She continues to rock you until your too sensitive to continue, your body squirming as you beg her to stop.

Your eyes open, your breath faltered as you come down, seeing her looking up at you with a smirk. “Fuck baby, you’ve drenched my leg.”

A small hum leaves your lips, followed by a smile when she presses a kiss to yours. “Feel better?” She whispers, her voice now soft and sweet as she runs her hand through your hair soothingly.

You nod your head, sighing as you fall against her chest. Your head buries into the nape of her neck. “Much.”

She giggles and lets you stay like that for a few moments. After they pass, her hand taps your ass gently. “Y/n, I’m gonna need to go out there. They’re gonna wonder where I am.” She chuckles at the sound of your groan. “I’ll be back for round two when I’m done.”

Your ears perk up at that, a wide smile as you speak. “Promise?”

She nods at you. “Just make sure, you’re waiting for me.” She leans closer, her lips tugging lightly at your lobe before continuing. “Wearing nothing.”

Your brows lift at her forwardness, but by all means you weren’t complaining as you watched her flip you off her leg and place you on the couch. She stood up, leaving you watching after her as she made her way out the door. “Try not to think about how much louder I’ll be making you scream my name later.” She finishes with a wink, before leaving the trailer, and you behind, with nothing but the thought of her lips devouring your body when she returned.

hi kath!!! congrats on 1.5k wow!! you deserve every single one of them + thousands more love! can i have ☁︎ & *? (ill send the creations & question in a pm since its easier) so i started following you 2 years ago for your gorgeous sw content. you reblogged, and posted the most gorgeous graphics and i was immediately drawn to it! i also really loved the aesthetic of your blog, everything matched and looked so nice!!

Hi, Tippy ♡ Thank you for joining my celebration, I’ll gladly answer both of these, I love your creations so I’m expecting some fun time analyzing them. JOIN MY CELEBRATION

☁︎Reviewing/commenting on creations of your choiceTHIS GIFSET -Aw, gifsets always amaze me simply because differently than other kinds of creations they require a lot of attention ( ooking for good scenes, coloring, setting everything in place etc.) I do earnestly like this exact one, especially because it’s not completely bw and has that bluesih hue. I love the combination of dark and bright scenes and especially this exact gif, I’m simply in love with “object in background” gifs. I personally like a little slower gifs that that but it’s not too disturbing. Overall I’ll give it ★★★★/★ nevertheless. (4.5 stars)THIS GRAPHIC - AW YES! I don’t even need to look at it as I’m commenting simply because I remember it so well from the first time I saw it! I truly like it, especially because of the dirty rose color. You chose appealing textures for the background and I especially like the brush one for the bottom one. As for my favourite detail it would be something seemingly silly but the text bacgkround in the second graphic (pink kind of border or whatever) really gives me that aesthetic vibe. I’ll rate it a strong ★★★★★.THIS GRAPHIC -Aw, to be completely honest, this is one of my favourites. I haven’t seen the show itself so it’s hard to say if it’s character accurate but in terms of PS skills it’s an absolute masterpiece. My secret pleasure is this kind of graphics. They are so misc and aesthetic and just- simple at the same time, great job there. Also the font is honestly pretty, I can’t tell which one it is but it is often used in graphics and it gives me that look of completeness. A good choice for sure. I personally would have played around with this one but that’s just my inability to enjoy color hah. I do love this one A LOT. The fact that you made more than two and had inspo to make evn 6 and also A GIF is an absolute miracle uwu. LOVE IT! A big big ★★★★★. 

*Answering an and all editing questions/consulting personally Q: How to erase background when making screencap graphics and add textures instead? A: First of all, let’s begin with what’s best for removing background and having only the characters visible. If you are lucky, by googling a characters name +the word png you’ll find some pretty pictures and will be able to use it for your graphics. And if you need a specific scene to cut, I recomment using the quick selection tool. It’s easy to use, simply select the object you wish, and if you want to deselect something click this and work around it the same way. When everything is selected, before cutting it out I recomment clicking here and playing around with the smoothness and edges when setting the background opacity to 0. It will give you a preview of what everything will look like. Then right click on the object and “layer via copy”. That’s it, delete the background layer and enjoy your png!Now, set the background color to whatever you wish it to be. Have your psd on top. Simply paste/add manually the texture/pattern you need and then play around witht the blending modes. Which one the texture requires to look a certain way can depend on what it is. For example a texture like this  will likely look good with darker color, multiply, darken as it empahises the dark spots of the image. The opposite with the ones that have light patterns then use lighten, screen, soft light etc. It’s a game, play around, there is no rule! And that’s it, feel free to ask more if it’s still unclear ♡ 

Overrated [m] || PREVIEW

summary: notorious bad boy, dong sicheng, was never one for attachment. well, not until he met you. surprisingly, there was more that met the eye of the reckless bad boy—something outrageously… pure.

❀ pairing: “bad boy”!sicheng & reader insert || university!AU

❀ includes: humour for the peek; fluff & smut when the whole thing is out

❀ wc: 2.3k for this preview :)

❀ note: Due to my lack of uploads lately i have decided to upload a preview of my (most likely to be) next fic! The estimated word count for this seems like it will be around 15k, but who am i to judge my own word counts at this point ;; anyway, this will probably be out in a week and a half or two—ill do my best to finish this sooner! I hope you enjoy what i have of it so far :) Sorry it doesnt reveal too much! ^~^

Dong Sicheng had a tarnished reputation that was effortless for him to maintain.

Sicheng wreaked havoc day by day, practically stirring an immature calamity on university campus. He carried a storm wherever he went, his footsteps equivalent to a roll of thunder. From his sour persona to the sharp way he talked; his words were bullets to those he aimed them to. Yet, girls flocked around him mindlessly and praised him like none other, falling for his recklessness without a care. On campus, students were either irked, found his personality rebarbative, or completely in love with the idea of him.

Sicheng was stellar in his own way, a star in the worst way possible that managed to outshine the rest. Men had ached to be him while girls craved to spend a night with him—just one, enough to see what he truly, dutifully packed. But that was where Sicheng would expeditiously draw the line, austere and grim, and leave them. Like rain battering down on a scorching pavement, his trace disappeared within seconds.

It was not because the spark of attraction towards the girl was absent, nor was it because he wanted to bring all of them to the edge only to leave them hanging, adding each to the list of rejected individuals. It was due to something else—something borderline shameful to his existence and reputation.

And it was because not a single soul knew that Dong Sicheng, notorious bad boy and ruthless heartbreaker, was a virgin.

Dong Sicheng was not always a scandalous “starboy”. Rather than being known for the negativity that surrounded him to this day, he used to be quite popular for factors of good. He had grades on the top tier, a miraculous talent in dance (and he still does to this day), but now he made choices to never exhibit such favorable qualities. It was as if the tarnished name of “bad boy” stuck to his being like an annoying bur.

Everything started back in high school, his breakthrough of reckless tactics. One accident led to another, like a perfect cascade that built him into who he was today. Impregnable pillars that held him up to his prominent standing had crumbled down to rubble, and soon his pristine title was blighted.

All because Sicheng made the silly choice of dating.

Surprisingly enough, and as cliché as it can get, she was a member of the cheer squad. It started off simple: occasional dates to the cinema and unmitigated walks to the park. Though, despite those activities that might be seen as tedious, he developed genuine feelings for her and cherished every moment. Clearly, it was not him who diminished the relationship, dragging it down to nothing. It was due to her impatience. She was restive to win; to be more specific, a bet with her friends to get into the boy’s pants, and when Sicheng found out he was utterly heart broken at the least. So, the night she was ready to initiate and play her careful cards, facing the false belief she would win the bet, he left her—hell, he never even showed his face to her since then. Of course, she spat out angry curses at how he was gone like the win.

Unwanted results were a consequence for him, for her sour tongue spread negative comments about Sicheng, and the fragile display of his innocent life fell apart like a poor house of cards. But rather than having those unwanted occurrences to run and take over his life, enveloping like an abrupt darkness, he took charge and swore that it would never happen again. Sicheng built himself up, never allowing anyone to cross his path or get close to him, and those who tried were given the cold shoulder. Physical contact was a virus for Sicheng, and he swatted individuals away left and right. The comments that spread around him were too much for his pure soul to handle at the time, and he skipped out on school. But of course, others claimed he ditched for the hell of it. Word even went around that he was dating an older woman—which was more than false, but who was out there to listen to him?

Sicheng maintained his stellar grades through the calamity, keeping everyone at a perceptible distance away. As much as he wanted to avoid making contact with others, spreading his name around the school, the opposite result had occurred and he was helpless to it.

Brushing this off to the side, high school was also where everything had started for you too—not that there was a prominent shift in your name to begin with. You heard word of Sicheng messing around with girls and breaking hearts like it was the news of the century, but you never paid mind, always focusing on your studies.

It was how things always were for you, and how things would forever remain.

After all, at the end of the line, you and Dong Sicheng made it to one of the most prestigious universities out there—with a purpose.

Sun was beating down the slip of Sicheng’s neck as he lingered with his friend, Jaehyun, around the university parking lot. The two of them were cracking jokes about meaningless things, conversing about trivial topics, and laughing the day away. It happened so often, practically daily, to the point it was a fixed part of their routine. Sicheng and Jaehyun would typically wait for their other friends to come by, to which they would all converse for a short while before driving uptown for a bite, or crash at one’s place.

Speaking of Sicheng’s friends, they were making their way towards him right then. One of them, recognizable as Taeyong, had their eyebrows crossed together in a frustrated manner; he appeared to be spitting curses to the other individual who graciously listens in—as much as he wanted to sleep.

Jaehyun’s and Sicheng’s conversation withered into silence as they watched the two boys approach them. After Taeyong indignantly raked a hand through his hair, Sicheng asked him what was wrong.

His friend laughed, informing the other boys of the news of the year. “Our boy, Lee Taeyong, just got rejected.”

Jaehyun’s eyes widened, startled to the core at the information. “Whoa, Yuta, are you serious? Taeyong got rejected? That’s a first.”

“Well why do you care so much?” asked Sicheng. “You can get anybody in this university except for one girl. Well, any sorority girl that is.”

Taeyong chuckled lightheartedly, annoyed by his friends’ words. “Tell me about it. I’m just as shocked as you are.” Taeyong turned his head to Sicheng, a sour expression painting on his face. “And Sicheng, I care because I got rejected—for once! The tables actually turned here.”

Sicheng chuckled, acknowledging his point. “Right, right. Sorry.”

Taeyong huffed in vexation, still disbelieved—and he would continue to remain that way for a good while. It was amusing to Sicheng, a surprising turn of events to see one of the guys in his sacred group get turned down by a girl. Each of them was captivating in their own way, and he knew it entirely; at least one of them would fit into the standards of members of the opposite sex. Occasionally, Sicheng wondered how he placed himself in such a group of charming individuals—and cocky, if he must say. It was as if the life he had tried to hard to orbit away from had made its way towards him with might, impressioning on Sicheng’s being for the rest of his life.

Sicheng did not feel like his whole self whenever he hanged around the rambunctious group of boys, but the fun that was frequently stirred made the wasted time worth it. Oh, and hearing all sorts of dish about their lives. That was just on the surface though. Surprisingly enough, beneath each of the boy’s outer shell of superiority and arrogance, was a softer, gentler version. Perhaps that was why Sicheng remained; it was how he got closer to each one of his friends. And after two years they still remained together like peas in a pod.

Though, within those two years, Taeyong had never gotten rejected.

“So what’s the story?” asked Jaehyun, his arms crossing over his chest.

Yuta’s eyes flashed in delight, excitement running throughout his body as he cleared his throat. “Well, Taeyong—”

“Why are you the one telling the story?” Taeyong asked, sourness evident in his tone. “You’re going to add all these extra details again.”

Yuta shrugged, smirking at this friend. “Fine, I’ll get straight to the point”—Yuta took a step towards the two boys, almost like he was ready to exchange confidential information—“but don’t laugh at him. We gave him enough shit for this today.”

Jaehyun laughed and assured Yuta of his light worries. “Don’t worry, just speak up.”

Yuta smiled. “There’s this girl who always stays at the bleachers during baseball practice, probably ‘cause her friend drags her around, but she doesn’t even pay attention to us. In my opinion, the girl’s friend is pretty cute herself.”

Jaehyun raised an eyebrow in skepticism. “Okay, I don’t see the problem yet.”

“And this hotshot”—Yuta nudged Taeyong with an elbow— “thought it would be a fun idea to make her interested—in him, and not our practices. So out of nowhere, Taeyong started to talk to her, but she was never interested. He said the girl looked easy to get, and then—”

“Come on, dude!” Taeyong groaned, cutting his friend off. “She had her nose in a book constantly and I swear when we locked eyes for the first time she wanted me.”

Sicheng shoved his fists into the pockets of his sweatshirt, stultified by the story. “Are you sure it wasn’t the look of ‘leave-me-the-fuck-alone’?”

“Hey!” Taeyong stomped.

“Anyway,” Yuta continued, “when someone’s reading, Taeyong, you’re not supposed to interrupt. Oh, not when they’re talking either… In short, she rejected him pretty harshly by saying—”

Taeyong flinched, grabbing onto Yuta’s sleeve and pulling him back. “No! Don’t tell them what she said, I—”

“‘You? And me—on a date? I had hopes in you being bright, but you must be horribly stupid to think I’d go out with someone like you. It’s one to annoy me, but another to actually ask me on a date while I’m here with my friend. Oh, are you expecting me to hold your hand that has been up other girls’—”

“Okay, Yuta! That’s enough,” Taeyong badgered, hanging his head low. Shame dawned over his being like gargantuan waves, dragging down the last of his dignity. The laughter that poured from the boy’s lips appeared endless, like a never ending waterfall of jocularity caused by Taeyong’s embarrassment. Taeyong’s ears tinge with pink the longer they kept up their fits of chuckles, commenting about the utter failure.

Yuta continued feeding the details to the two boys, as if the riveting information would satisfy them for an entire week, and Taeyong welled in his own congealing ignominy. After Yuta concluded the entire story, talking about himself amid, the boys let out a sigh in relief. Until, of course, Taeyong opened his mouth.

“She was bound to crack,” Taeyong hissed. “But not with me. I want to get back at her but I don’t know how.”

Jaehyun shifted his weight and crinkled his nose, his mouth twisting into a confused smirk, “Tae, how petty can you get? We’re in uni now.”

Sicheng let out a chortle, leaning in closer to Jaehyun. “Very petty, apparently.”

Sicheng’s gaze veered from Jaehyun to the older boy who was boring in his desolation. Taeyong stared at Sicheng for a while, almost scrutinizing him from top to bottom, and soon his lips quirked into a sly smirk. Sicheng raised his eyebrow, dumbfounded to his friend’s change of expression, and questioned what was wrong.

“Sicheng, want to do me a solid?” asked Taeyong, desperation leaking onto his tone. Each word that left his mouth appeared to be leading into the next thread of ideas that ran against his mind; all Sicheng had to do was pay more mind to decipher what he was saying.

Sicheng remained silent for a while, unsure on what to say. The other boys exchanged curious glances and waited for Taeyong to continue.

“Get her back for me—for rejection, please?” Taeyong requested.

Sicheng laughed out of pity, unamused by his question. “Taeyong, we’re too old to play games.”

“Seriously!” Taeyong persisted, walking up to the younger boy. “Just lead her on, get her on the edge, and leave her hanging—you know, what you usually did with girls back then.”

Sicheng clenched his teeth in disgust when he heard his reasoning. Back then? Right, he completely forgot that Taeyong, and his other friends, were aware of his prevalent title and the actions he had “done” to achieve it. Sicheng laughed, a disguise of how repulsive he found the entire situation. “What the heck? You’re kidding me.”

“No, I’m not,” he insisted. “Come on, go pick her up in your nice car or something. Take her out for a ride—then take her out for a ‘ride.’”

The thought of Sicheng witnessing a member of the opposite sex wholly naked made him sweat profoundly, and he shook his head, brushing aside Taeyong’s idea. Shit, Sicheng never had evocative imaginations of any woman before and he refused to start right then and there. “N-no thanks,” he denied, his eyes averting from Taeyong’s.

“But—”

“Enough of this, I’m starving,” announced Jaehyun. “We’ve been waiting for you and Yuta for a while, can we just get something to eat already?”

“The billiards hall?” questioned Yuta, fishing in his pocket for his keys.

Jaehyun nodded in response, and seconds later all of the boys separated into two vehicles, driving right on over to their local hangout.

Sicheng, situated at the passenger seat, wondered who Taeyong was referring to. Sicheng was lost to why he was inquisitive to the girl’s identity. Maybe it was the fact there was a student out there who was withstanded by Taeyong’s overflowing charms. He slowly closed his eyes as he remained deep in his thought; maybe it was not much and he was overthinking it. With that, he waited to arrive at the billiards hall patiently. The second he stepped out of Jaehyun’s vehicle his momentary peace was disrupted by the calls of his friends.

Replies!

For @tamtam-go92, @simcat81, @lady-silverwolf, @kayleigh-83, @eulaliasims, @fuzzyspork, @cindysimblr, @blackswan-sims, @celebkiriedhel, @nimitwinklesims, and @ddeathflower...

Very good looking, boy!

Yeah, I think he’s a good combination of his parents. His dad got all of the extremes of Goopy and Sandy’s faces and so was very extreme himself. Andrew got some of that but softened by his mother’s smaller, more delicate features. I think of their three kids they had together, he’s the one that’s the most “blended” in terms of combining the parents’ facial features.

simcat81 replied to your photoset “This is something that I wanted. Not sure how wide of an appeal it’ll...”

What is that sc4 terrain in your preview pics? It looks pretty!

Well, there are several different ones there. :) My testing neighborhood is the Desiderata Valley terrain. GilsCarburg is on Phaenoh’s “Sand Simoleon Point.” The Air Force Base (the most heavily-decorated one) is on this one. And the other one is this one. I tend to fiddle with terrains using the modifyneighborhoodterrain cheat, though. I did a lot of “custom sculpting” in the AFB neighborhood, especially.

lady-silverwolf replied to your photoset “This is something that I wanted. Not sure how wide of an appeal it’ll...”

Looks Fabulous! I love CuriousB's set as well, but I think I like this one much better for a modern hood. Almost looks like a true lush green.

Yeah, it’s kind of like “suburbia green,” the kind you get when you have a group of neighbors who are all obsessive about landscaping and mowing their lawns and stuff like that, all in order to keep up with and/or out-landscape the neighbors. Or, it’s like “sod farm green.” I confess that I looked at some images of sod farms online when I was fiddling with the color. It’s still a little blue-r than that, but that’s kind of what I wanted. I was tired of the yellow-green of CuriousB’s textures -- and Maxis is even worse in that regard -- so I erred more on the blue side of green. Maybe it’s all Kentucky bluegrass! :)

kayleigh-83 replied to your photo “While his mother was…somewhere…Owen teened up. He’s Fortune/Pleasure,...”

If all your Sims want to become Criminal Masterminds, I think it's clear the universe is telling you that their family is forming into some kind of mafia! How excellent!

Yeah, it’s pretty awesome. But also kind of ridiculous. “Let’s be crime lords of this tiny town of, like, five houses! So big time!” *laugh*

eulaliasims replied to your photo “Ghost-of-Steven makes himself useful. I think we’ll keep him.”

Cleaning ghosts are the best ghosts! Much better than the whiny ones. :P

Generally, I have a policy of packing ghosts off to a cemetery after a few hauntings, but I confess that I’ll let cleaning ghosts stay right where they are. :)

fuzzyspork replied to your audio post “So here’s something completely different! A friend of mine, a luthier,...”

So pretty! The Enya song that always gets stuck in my head is Sail Away. And somehow this got it stuck in my head. D: I'm not even an Enya fan! Fun Fact: the last apartment we lived in before we bought this house had an elderly woman and her middle aged daughter living next door. They played Enya constantly. And I know this because they played it at TOP FREAKIN VOLUME. I kept imagining them over there languidly head banging.

LOL! I dunno, I tend to think that if someone’s blasting Enya, they’re probably not head-banging. They’re probably attempting to float ethereally around their house in flowing white dresses with big bell sleeves. :) (All that reverb and overdubbing, oy!) Sorry for sticking Enya in your head, though. It very well might have been that “Sail Away” song that got stuck in mine. It was just, like, 10 years ago, so I don’t really remember anymore.

cindysimblr replied to your photo “Ghost-of-Steven makes himself useful. I think we’ll keep him.”

What? I've never seen them do something like this!

They’ll do it if they had a lot of Cleaning points in life. And I think they need to be happy, too, not grumpy. So, like, their bed still has to exist. (I dunno why that’s so important to ghosts, but...Well, it is.) Steven not only mops up cat pee that didn’t make it into a litterbox, but he cleans all the toilets in the house, too.

blackswan-sims replied to your post “Music Shuffle Meme”

Yaasss, Within Temptation! *high fives* Symphonic metal's a major weakness of mine too.

Yeah, it’s very operatic. And since A) I like opera and B) Opera was the heavy metal of its time, that’s only fitting. :) I’d kind of like it if there were some bands with male singers, though. I mean, I know the whole “thing” (if it’s not instrumental like a Trans-Siberian Orchestra sort of thing) is “operatic” soprano + metal band, but it’d be nice if there were, say, “operatic” tenor + metal band versions. :) If such exists, I don’t know about it...

celebkiriedhel replied to your audio post “So here’s something completely different! A friend of mine, a luthier,...”

I love harp music. When I was young (a child) it was the instrument that I wanted to learn.

I learned it a bit later in life, actually. I was never really interested before, but I was doing some teaching at a folk music camp for a couple summers in the early 90s, and at the beginning of the first session, the faculty got together for a meet-and-greet/jam. At some point, we ended up exchanging instruments, and I found myself with a lever harp and kind of fell in love with it. I rented a harp and took the classes at the camp, and when it was done, I bought a harp, found a teacher, and took some lessons and...Yeah, here we are. :) It’s fairly easy to learn if you already have a piano background, but even if you don’t it’s not bad. You just need strong fingers. The hard part is actually finding a teacher. Well, that and harps are pretty expensive. :\ Here in the US, a decent-quality one of a decent size (36+ strings) will run you about ~$3000, used. (That’s for a lever harp; pedal harps are more.) But I like lever harps a lot better, myself. I prefer their more folky/Celtic sound.

nimitwinklesims replied to your photoset “Can you see the edges of the terrain? Can you tell what’s actually...”

Ooh, nice! Although lot view does look a bit silly. But hey, I guess with that default I linked to it would look better, as it uses the same texture there!

Yeah, it probably would look nice with @an-elegant-simblr‘s Realistic Grass. I haven’t put that in my testing game yet to check it out, but I probably will at some point.

ddeathflower replied to your photo “Tryin’ to put some mountains more in the distance. Not sure how...”

One small criticism would be that the horizen should be lighter. Otherwise it looks great!

Yeah, normally I put a bit of a glow on the top of edge of horizons. It lightens it and softens the transition between horizon and sky. But in this case, the tops of the mountains are too close to the edge of the texture to apply a glow! So, I’m experimenting with slight transparency, instead.

Prompt : what if effie had a tattoo somewhere? haymitch has seen it plenty of times but never realized it was about/for him.

Here it is! [X]

The Tattoo Mystery

Sleep was evading him.

His body was exhausted but his mind wouldn’t turn off. He kept mentally reviewing the attack plans for Four over and over again. They had been working on it for forty-eight hours now and it consummated Haymitch’s every thought. It beat thinking about anything else anyway.

Peeta and his high-jacked memories…

The demons he couldn’t quite ignore without a bottle…

“You are thinking far too loud.” Effie complained, burrowing a little against his chest, probably seeking his warmth.

She had developed a habit of using him as a portative heater system. She stole his clothes, borrowed his woolen sweatshirt in the middle of the day and never handed it back, only sighed in contentment at night once he was draped over her like an additional blanket…

Although to be fair, they were naked and sweaty.

And the blankets were scratchy – as she hadn’t failed to grumble about.

“It’s to compensate for you thinking so little.” he shot back a beat too late, running his fingers from her shoulder down her arm.

They were on their sides with his back to the edge of the mattress and the emptiness separating them from the floor while her knees were brushing against the wall. Why those bunk beds had to be so small, he couldn’t figure out.  And it wasn’t even because they didn’t have a family compartment. He had seen the beds in the Everdeens’ room and they weren’t any bigger.

He would have enjoyed some freedom of movement. He liked sleeping on his stomach better. Or on his back. His side wasn’t really a favorite position of his. Spooning Effie had its perks but he liked it better when she snuggled against him instead.

There was no really getting comfortable in those beds.

“I do not know how I can still marvel at your insensitivity.” she huffed. “What a thing to say to a woman whose bed you are sharing…”

“You dragged me to your bed, remember?” he snorted. “Come have dinner, Haymitch. Look at me sucking on that coffee spoon full of yoghurt, Haymitch. Walk me back to my room, Haymitch… Real subtle, you were.”

He could almost hear her roll her eyes.  “I am fairly sure I did not make any remark about the yoghurt. In fact, if I had made a remark, it is more likely I would have told you about how vile that thing they call yoghurt is.”

“I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I know your spoon number by now.” he mocked. She had perfected it over chocolate cake. There wasn’t anything she couldn’t turn into a sexy display when she wanted to.

“Fine.” she sighed. “I might have tricked you into actually getting into bed with me. It certainly wasn’t to think.”

“Pretty sure you made that clear.” he chuckled. The yoghurt show had given him  a good preview of what she had had in store and he hadn’t been disappointed. Then again, he never was.

She refused to be distracted though. “How long had it been since you slept?”

“Too long.” he admitted. He nuzzled her nape because it was right there. “Can’t shut off my brain.”

“I did a very good job of shutting off your brain.” she retorted. “You had to go and make it work again. You can be so annoying sometimes.”

Her tone was entirely teasing and he smirked, pressing an open mouth kiss against her neck, letting his tongue poke at her skin. She tasted a little salty and he kind of wanted more. His hand ended up on her belly, his thumb running distracted circles…

“Cause you’re a walk in the park, yeah?” he taunted right back.

“I am indeed, thank you.” she grinned. His hand drifted south and easily found her leg… “I do not have any trouble shutting off my brain…”

“You don’t say.” he chuckled, wedging his hand between her thighs.  

“You are nowhere near ready for a second round and I am tired, Haymitch.” she stated more plainly.

“By the time I get you through round two, I’d be up for round three.” he tried even though nothing was less certain. Since he had stopped drinking… They had given him meds that he regularly forgot to take because the side effects were actually worse than the shakes and the headaches. Like the fact he didn’t seem to be able to get it up for very long and not exactly at the firmness he was used to. He wasn’t sure he would be able to get hard again that night.

Still, if he wasn’t going to sleep…

“As tempting as the offer is…” she insisted, squeezing her thighs together so his hand was momentarily trapped before giving him back his freedom by shifting a little. It gaven him better access but he could take a hint and be a grown man about it.

“Fine…” he surrendered. He didn’t move his hand away though. He drew silly patterns on her skin, just because he was bored and he liked touching her, until he felt the familiar rougher patch under his fingertips. He smirked against her skin again as he retraced the shape of the tattooed butterfly on her inner thigh from memory alone. Perspectives made it look as if the blue butterfly was about to take flight from the flower it was on. He wasn’t a fan of tattoos or physical alterations but this one he had long reconciled with. She had had it for as long as he could remember, a secret next to her most private parts. “You never told me how you ended up with a butterfly next to your…”

“Language.” she muttered before he could finish. “Try to sleep. It is late and, no doubt, that thing around your wrist will beep and summon you back to Command any minute now.”

“Come on.” he whined without shame. “There must be a story there… How old were you when you got it?”

He had known her pretty young. She had been twenty-two when she had started as his escort although she had been twenty-five by the time they had started sleeping together and twenty-seven by the time they had bothered to properly remove clothes. After that… Well… After that he had become really familiar with that butterfly.

“Sixteen.” she sighed. “Tattoos were all the rage. My friends all wanted one, I went with them and once there… Let’s just say peer pressure is a terrible thing.”

He couldn’t see Effie Trinket being coerced into anything she didn’t want. Sixteen or not.

“Why a butterfly?” he asked.

It suited her though. Butterflies… They were good animals for her. Beautiful, delicate and yet a symbol of rebirth… Of hope. Of death – but that one he didn’t want to linger on.

She shifted awkwardly. “We should really sleep.”

His fingers danced on her skin, teasing.

“Got a boyfriend who was into butterflies?” he taunted with blatant amusement. “Thought you were going to keep him forever and it would be really romantic to have a symbol of undying love on your skin?”

She let out an annoyed sigh. “Something like that.”

She sounded a bit brisk and he couldn’t help his chuckles. “Good thing you didn’t get his name down there. Awkward for other guys.” She remained resolutely silent. He bumped her with his hips. “You have to tell now, Princess. Who was the guy? Some jerk, yeah?”

“He is certainly a jerk.” she snapped.

“Is?” he repeated, something dangerous now stirring in his chest. “You still see him around?” He tightened his hold on her and it didn’t escape her notice. Of course, it didn’t. She knew better than to call him out on his show of jealousy but she still grinned with satisfaction. Haymitch really wasn’t satisfied. “He’s that important to you?”

“Oh, I think at this point we can safely ascertain he is the love of my life.” she answer casually, as if they were still discussing Thirteen’s yoghurt. “I was twelve when I fell in love with him, thirteen when I swore I was done with him and sixteen when I fell in love again… Then, of course, I properly met him at twenty-two and decided I wanted nothing to do with him anymore because he can be so irritatingly rude… I was twenty-five when we slept together for the first time and I had to wait to be thirty-five for him to merely hint at having some semblance of feelings for me that weren’t linked to his penis. So, you see, it has been a long and eventful story.”

Haymitch wasn’t dense.

He could take a hint.

“I’m confused.” he frowned.

“Isn’t that role reversal refreshing?” she mused, moving his hand from her leg to her waist and forcing him to hold her tight. “Sleep now.”

He curled up a little around her, hooking his leg over hers when she folded the other one between her chest and the wall to roll a little more on her stomach. He ended up propped against her back but he didn’t mind. There was actually more space for him that way.

“But I don’t get it.” he protested against her nape. “So you had a crush on me when you were a kid…” That was more or less public knowledge. “What has that got to do with your tattoo?”

“It is embarrassing.” she grumbled. “Won’t you drop it?”

“No chance in hell.” he scoffed. “You know you’re gonna tell me or I’m gonna find out anyway…”

She sighed. “If you make fun of me, I am kicking you out of bed. Let this be very clear.”

“Fine.” he accepted without thinking twice about it. Her chances of succeeding in kicking him out of bed were equal to him dropping that line of enquiries.

Again, she let out a sigh. The reluctance was obvious in her voice. “When I was sixteen I met you in a club once. I tried to seduce you and you were not at all receptive. You were drunk, I believe.”

That would have made him twenty-one. He tried to remember but… “Got no memories of this…”

And why would he? Capitols had been flinging themselves at his head since his victory. He wouldn’t have made the difference between her and another one. Faces blurred, all the more so with the make-up altering their features so much. And Effie… Chances were he would have dismissed her outright as soon as he would have realized how young she actually was. He had been despicable, still was to some extent, but not to the point of taking advantage of younger girls. That had been the Capitol’s ploy, not his.

“I did not expect you to.” she confirmed. “Nevertheless… You were not… You were quite charming actually. Some idiot was bothering me, dancing too close, not taking no for an answer… You told him to leave me alone. It was quite the dashing rescue.”

He frowned, trying harder to recall… “You’re sure it was me?”

“You were with some other victors.” she said and although she was careful not to mention anyone by name, he supposed she meant Chaff. And, given the timeframe, probably Alina and Seeder. Maybe Beetee if they had managed to drag him to a club… Thinking about his friends… It made his heart clench. He hadn’t had time to properly grieve for them yet. He hadn’t had time to… Effie squeezed his hand. “You would not dance with me. Or have anything to do with me really. You called me a baby. I was quite vexed.”

“I bet.” he snorted. He didn’t have much on her in years. Five years was a nice difference in his opinion. Now. At twenty-one, five years younger would have been unthinkable.

“You were not mean about it though. You were more amused, I think.” she hummed. “To me, it was all very lovely and romantic… You said… Well… You said I made you think of a butterfly with my blue dress.”

He was sure she was blushing.

For his part, he contemplated that and snorted. “Yeah, I was probably wasted.”

“It meant the world to me.” she admitted, not sounding very proud of herself for it. “Anyway, when my friends dragged me to the tattoo parlor and time came to choose a design…” She shrugged. “I almost had it removed a few times when I decided you were more trouble than you were worth but I never could go through with it in the end. I like it. And I like the memory.”

It was almost beyond his understanding how she could treasure a random night he couldn’t even remember that much.

But…

“So the tattoo on your inner thigh is meant for me.” he smirked.

“That is all you would take out of this.” she sighed as if he was being insufferable.

“It’s on your inner thigh.” he snorted. “It’s so close to your…”

“I fancied myself in love with you.” she snapped. “And my mother would murder me if she knew about this. Obviously it is alright to have your breasts remove but get a tattoo?” She shook her head. “Where else did you want me to put it?”

“Ain’t complaining.” he denied. “Like it just fine where it is.” He tightened his hold on her waist a  little. “I like that it’s mine.”  

She hesitated for a second before breathing out. “Everything I have is yours. Haven’t you understood that yet?”

It was saying something without saying it.

Haymitch wasn’t sure he was ready for that Pandora box to open. He liked how things were right then. Easy despite the hell they were in. Being with her was a breath of fresh air in that place. They were less careful about hiding it, true, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for everyone to know either.

As for actually discussing his feelings… What was the point when they were so obvious? He had put her on his list, had made it very clear to everyone of importance in Thirteen she was under his protection and that he would get very, very difficult if anything happened to her…

“Maybe I should get a tattoo of my own.” he mocked. “Could get a clown painted on my ass… Oh… What about a parrot, sweetheart?”

“Horrid man.” she huffed but he suspected she knew he was only trying to lighten the mood. “I should have my name tattooed on your forehead. Perhaps that would keep those women away from you.” He rolled his eyes at that, more amused than annoyed by her repeated claims that some of the female refugees were very interested in him. He couldn’t see it. He didn’t even care to see it. She was the only woman he tended to notice. “Can we sleep now?”

“Yeah.” he surrendered at last. At least he could let her sleep while he tried to stop thinking about Four and the rebellion. Not that he was thinking about that now. No. Thanks to her, he was thinking about what she meant to him and why it had taken so long for him to admit it to himself and where they would go – could go – from there. It was at least fifteen minutes before he came to a conclusion on that front. “Sweetheart?” A sleepy hum was all he got in answer. “You don’t need to brand me with your name, you know? I’m kind of yours anyway…”

He was pretty sure she was asleep.

Mostly asleep.

He pretended he didn’t hear the three words she mumbled in her pillow.

Those words were too scary still.

...In which I thoroughly (yet naively) survey Metallica.

More than a month ago I finished reading Masters of Doom, which in addition to being an interesting history of PC Gaming’s pioneering id Software and stirring nostalgia about the halcyon days of 90s first-person shooters, made frequent and compelling reference to the influence of heavy metal on the aesthetic sensibilities of John Romero (though he’s ultimately more of a Dokken fan, which I can’t speak to.) Listening to the actual soundtracks of Doom, Doom II, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D led me straight into a curious survey of Megadeth, then Metallica, briefly Slayer, Anthrax, back to Metallica, Exodus, Sepultura, Suicidal Tendencies, Overkill, back to Megadeth and then back Metallica, over and over Metallica. I am listening to Metallica now. 

Can’t say I’m sure why. Without meaning to sound condescending, I’d always assumed if thrash metal appealed to me, it might have happened when I was a teenager. Perhaps environmental factors were at play, but at my most susceptible and angst filled years, the garage rock revival was in full swing, as was something of a (perceived? I will never know if this was a widespread thing. I wasn’t nearly as online then) grunge renaissance. Grunge was locked in as tonal and aesthetic sensibility and my friends’ bands were grungy pop punk with a bit of emo sprinkled on top. As I said, the questionable excesses of youth, complete with pretension about what is good (The Stooges, The Pixies, The Strokes and NIRVANA) and what is silly and ridiculous (Nu-Metal’s relative strength and the silliness of bands like Korn and Slipknot did not help Metal’s esteem.) A respect but low level of enthusiasm for Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden didn’t manifest anything serious any time in the last fifteen years. Thrash’s underground roots put some doubt in the mind re: whatever vague supposition my teenaged peers and I had about the opposing forces of punk and metal (though I do remember actual arguments with a fan of what I described as ornate but soulless arpeggios who thought PJ Harvey’s oeuvre was unsophisticated and boring.) There’s a lot of grunge’s DNA in early Metallica. Which kind of makes it all the more bewildering that I haven’t been here before. All that wasted time listening to Mudhoney! Also, not to spoil the ending, how bewildering it is that Metallica absolutely fell to pieces in the 90s.    Kill ‘em All is a stupidly exciting record. Had I been around to hear it in the 80s, it would’ve melted my brain. I assume if I heard it in the 00s it would’ve done the same. I think part of the issue with Metallica is that when I was a precocious kid/tween they were not nearly at their best and the only second hand exposure you get to a well-established but no longer thriving band is their hits, and even post-survey I don’t particularly care for ‘One’ or ‘Enter Sandman.’ (Then again, at the height of Metallica v Napster you’d think young Zaq would’ve been a little more curious... and those mp3s would’ve be right there...) Anyway, Kill ‘em All: devastating and fun. Imagine if Mötley Crüe was ever any good (were they?) No, that’s insane. And gives a person very little to go on. High energy from the jump, utter shred. Reminiscent only of a slower, hopelessly outclassed version of the same thing, which is to say I think if you slowed a track like The Four Horsemen down you’d end up with a dreary sounding Sabbath number but why would you want that? (A different day perhaps.) Definitely the sexiest of the Metallica albums, just a little bit of the electricity of hair metal bleeding in at the edges, though the most wicked excesses are in flurries of virtuosity. “Bass solo, take one” -- much as I enjoy ‘Hit the Lights,’ ‘Jump in the Fire,’ ‘Seek & Destroy’ (and other imperative calls to action,) I think the bass solo ‘(Pulling Teeth)’ that splits the album is my favourite bit. Ride the Lightning -- actually, speaking of Cliff Burton, he of the improbable bass solos -- supposedly he planted the seeds of music theory/actually thinking about the music in his bandmates’ heads, leading to acoustic guitars, curious instrumentals and harmonies winding their way into the sophomore album. This probably also led them to getting way ahead of themselves and veering out of their lane, but in the meantime, Ride the Lightning is a lot more varied to listen to than their debut. Yes, it continues to wail, but it wails in new and exciting ways. ‘Creeping Death’ and ‘Trapped Under Ice’ are the choicest tracks. ‘Fade to Black’ is a pretty good song by the standards of a power ballad and is a nice dimension to add to the album but I’d point out that it portends Metallica’s inevitable doom.  Master of Puppets is considered (nearly anywhere I’ve looked) the undisputed champion of thrash metal albums. I would kinda love to have a dissenting opinion here, but it feels impossible to deny. It is stunningly heavy and loud and kinetic. It’s definitely a twin to its predecessor, they share a layout, right up to track 4 being a power ballad. As a set they’re the Pokemon Red/Blue of Thrash. Anything other than the subtle evolution in the playing and production would’ve been weird as hell -- album number three and they nearly perfect the genre. On the subject of Metallica’s power ballads, I’d make the point that ‘Welcome Home (Sanitarium)’ is the pinnacle of their efforts -- gorgeous and grotesque in equal measure. And like Ride the Lightning follows ‘Fade to Black’ with an extra-heavy track, ‘Sanitarium’ is followed by the vicious gatling gun of ‘Disposable Heroes,’ as emphatic an anti-war song as one could imagine. Again special mention to a Cliff Burton feature -- ‘Orion’ is an oddity in the Metallica canon, can’t imagine there’s anything else like it that I’ve missed. It’s the most appropriate space marine soundtrack I’ve ever heard, it previews a much nerdier version of Metallica that starts writing about horrors from outer space. My impression is that long after I’ve moved on to another passing phase I’ll retain a fondness for their instrumentals, all five of the main ones are excellent.   ...And Justice for All just isn’t as good as the previous two. This is becoming less about Metallica and more a tribute to Cliff Burton, but fact is -- his phenomenal bass lines are the secret sauce, and in the absence of Burton (and apparently due to Ulrich’s hearing loss?) the bass is often lost in the mix. It still wails, though relying more on arpeggios and prog-y tempo changes and layered arrangements -- with ‘loud’ as the governing principle in the mix, the instruments all have a bit of a unnatural synthetic quality, the effect is much more processed than the earlier albums and it occasionally sounds like a flat wall of sound... which is about to become a theme, oh boy. Though it does convincingly sound like a mutant off-shoot of the Ride the Lightning/Master of Puppets aesthetic, just a shaggier and excessive cousin prone to wild mood swings. Seven of the nine tracks are at least six and a half minutes long. At 9:48, ‘To Live is to Die’ is the first song in the catalogue that I would consider straight tedious (Though the title track is about the same length and it’s quite good!) At the end of the album, ‘Dyers Eve’ appears as a great redeemer, probably the best expression of what they were trying to do here. Oh yeah -- ‘One.’ Honestly it gets there. It’s a very pretty song. I think what I don’t like about the ballads is Hetfield’s voice when he’s singing (as opposed to when he’s growling, yelling, barking) may as well be someone trying to do a Brad Roberts impression. Though maybe that’s not the issue, I always enjoy The Crash Test Dummies. Metallica/Black Album. I don’t like this. Or, I don’t like it very much but I recognize it’s pretty good. Definitely has its moments (’Of Wolf and Man,’ ‘Through the Never.’) Seems like an odd stumbling block. This was a massive hit. ‘Enter Sandman’ is a classic rock song. Of sorts. It ain’t thrash, though it’s definitely still a heavy metal album in the vein of Black Sabbath and the like. Reading about the composition I understand they were tired of what they had been doing, they felt like impostors and wanted to strip it back some, and in that sense it’s an accomplishment. It’s dark and heavy and somber and pretty sad in parts. I feel like if Metallica had collapsed into the sea and never been found afterward/gone their separate ways this would’ve been an interesting finale, but as it stands, through the lens of history I have to reckon with the fact that this is the first of four albums produced by Bob Rock and it’s easily the best of them. It’s going to get worse before it gets... less worse. Which is not to say I don’t appreciate the orchestra and the cellos and a bit more variation in the compositions but... whither Thrash? ‘Holier Than Thou,’ silly as it is, captures a bit of the lost spirit, Maybe it’s exhausting to be that band for too long. It’s a perfectly natural thing to want to progress and not make the same album over and over again, but I can’t help but feel like they abandoned their perch atop a style where they were the greatest of all time to be (at first) a pretty good metal band and then a ‘hard rock’ band. This is Jordan switching to baseball and then for some reason trying ice hockey. I’m reasonably sure ‘Nothing Else Matters’ sucks pretty viciously, though Metallica writing a love song has a conceptual appeal and I could understand people liking it. Load. Gosh, what an appropriate title. I think if you asked Chad Kroeger what his favourite Metallica album is, he’d absolutely say Load. Metallica skipped over grunge and went straight to post-grunge. It’s also so long! There’s so much of this very mediocre album.  Reload. What the fuck is this. It starts off with the Soundgardenesque (well, Rusty Cage-esque) ‘Fuel’ with its fun but asinine chorus, it doesn’t do anything particularly interesting after. Just like its sibling, it’s almost eighty minutes long of sluggish, middle of the road 90s rock.  Garage, Inc is amazing by comparison to anything else put out by Metallica in the 90s. Two discs, the second compiling covers from as far back as 1984, 1987′s Garage Days EP and the b-side to some awful Load song that’s just four Mötörhead covers. ‘Whiskey in the Jar,’ of course, but also ‘Am I Evil?’ Sabbath’s ‘Sabbra Cadabra’ and an exuberant cover of Queen’s ‘Stone Cold Crazy.’ It’s not solid gold but there’s a lot of stuff to like. S&M (Symphony and Metallica, but... you know.) Definitely has it moments, particularly with the older stuff -- ‘Call of Ktulu,’ ‘Master of Puppets,’ ‘The Thing That Should Never Be’ with symphonic accompaniment is very cool.   St. Anger is the big ‘comeback’ album that came out when I was 15 and thus acutely aware of big music releases. I feel like I could’ve skipped the opening paragraphs of this essay and just written that as explanation of why I didn’t care about Metallica. I’m sure there was some good heavy metal happening around the turn of the century but at the time this was happening, Limp Bizkit, Saliva, Staind, Kid Rock, Godsmack, Sevendust, Slipknot, Drowning Pool, Korn, Trapt and Linkin Park (probably the best of the bunch? right?) were the biggest things in metal. Hence, in 2003 we are gifted... Nu Metallica. The title track is very bad. There are no guitar solos to be found. There aren’t any ballads to be found (that’s mostly fine.) I’ve done three tracks. I’m not listening to the rest of this. It’s just not worth it. Death Magnetic was a big surprise as a I soldiered on. Bob Rock is gone, Rick Rubin is in. Say what you will about Rubin (another time, perhaps) but for whatever reason, after a twenty year hiatus (1988-2008,) the thrash is back. I was beginning to grapple with the idea that Metallica had been past their prime my entire life, and while that’s still probably true, here they are at least dabbling with the style that made them such a big damned deal. Which is not to say this is an amazing album. It’s good though! But you can hear, even on the opening track, how exceedingly compressed the sound is. Everything is loud on this album! Without exception! All the time! It’s all peak! Consequently it’s a tiring thing to listen to all the way through. Apparently there are different versions available that turn down the mix a bit, but the Spotify version is evidently the original, as it is just a brutal onslaught of noise. It’s not a great album to sit through, but individual tracks are welcome. There’s even an instrumental for the first time since ...And Justice For All. Lulu (with Lou Reed) -- Laugh all you want, I don’t think this is as bad as Load and Reload. It’s really god damned weird, sure, and it’s not ‘good’ by any conception of (what is ‘the good,’ etc) but it’s at least interesting here and there.  Hardwired... to Self-Destruct suggests a certain inevitability to the path. With or without the play-acting in the 90s (Hetfield has speculated that Ulrich and Hammett were interested in being a U2-sized band complete with the frivolous and monolithic pretensions) they might have ended up here anyway, a bunch of dudes in their 50s making a heavy metal record that is doomed to be nowhere near as vital and electrifying as the groundbreaking stuff of their youth, but is practiced, professional and what the fans have come to expect. It’s pretty good, but there’s no chance it’s their best work. Read a review that called it their best work in 25 years, which is... damning with faint praise, but definitely true. Anyway they’re in the zone. ‘Moth Into Flame’ is a pretty good example of what we’re dealing with here -- thesis, antithesis, synthesis, in this case, arriving at ‘generic Metallica.’ If there’s more Metallica on the way it’ll be pretty much like this, chugging along like Springsteen or the Rolling Stones. It seems super unlikely they’ll ever surpass their first five albums, but I think that’s true of just about every band ever.  In conclusion, I’m not doing this same process for Megadeth. :P

Totale Finsternis: Costuming “Tanz der Vampire,” Part I (UPDATED)

As noted, I made an error in attribution in my previous review of the Vienna revival. While the analysis is the same, the name of the designer (Kentaur) has been updated along with removing my commentary on Sue Blane. For an analysis of the Blane designs of the Paris production, stay tuned for tomorrow’s post!

Welcome back, everyone! As promised, we’re going to be diverging quite a bit from the shows and costumes I’ve looked at in the past in order to try something completely different. There are a lot of costumes here, so I’m going to structure this a little differently and try to look at a whole production in each of the two posts, rather than splitting them up by character. There’s a simple reason for this: the costumes are so detailed and so original, that they either need to be taken as a collective, or else each costume needs a full post…and I don’t think I could manage that!

But what I can manage is to look at the overall Vienna production and give my thoughts on this über-eclectic production with its classic camp, gothic horror, and rock musical elements. I’m really glad to have been turned onto this musical, because as those who follow the main blog know, one of my other hobbies is a vampire-themed RPG. I admit that I had never seen the original Roman Polanski movie upon which the musical is based, but the musical is apparently a pretty good take–and for good reason, since Polanski himself created and directed the original production.

I linked the plot summary Sunday in the preview post, so I’m going to just jump in to some of the amazing costumes that were conceived by Kentaur, a Hungarian costumer who has worked on a number of European productions (many the equivalent of off-Broadway, but quite a few mainstage), with inspiration from the original Vienna designs of Sue Blane. Let’s take a look!

Where to even begin with designs like these! To start with, I absolutely love that the 19th century inspirations are on full display: we’ve got hoop skirts, we’ve got riding cloaks, we’ve got morning coats, we’ve got (in the background) large and decorative hats, and on the main character (Graf von Krolok as played by Thomas Borchert) at stage left there is what appears to be a hybrid of leather and brocade on a waistcoat. In fact, let’s take a little closer look at our main character in another scene:

This entire costume is spectacular, and shows the characteristic mixing of styles that makes a production such as this so utterly fascinating to analyze. The waistcoat definitely has a combination of fabric and leather, giving the Graf a hard-edged appearance that even the pale makeup and prosthetic fangs wouldn’t have accomplished on their own. The pants/trousers are leather-esque (I doubt they’re entirely leather; as I’ve mentioned before, stage costumes need to be able to breathe a little bit because of the heat of the stage lights) and give off a very masculine feel. The riding cloak (more commonly a cape, but as I recall, a cape generally doesn’t have as much luxury put into it) is simple in a way, but the rich crimson satin folds and bunches to create a mixture of light and shadow that is absolutely necessary in a dark production like Tanz der Vampire.

I also love that the color of the cape’s interior is so dark a red; remember that this is a production about vampires first and foremost. The crimson puts one in mind of the blood the creatures are compelled to drink in order to stay alive, and that’s a good choice in costumery; playing on what people expect to see is not always a bad thing, especially when you want your production to have an element of pastiche, that is to say, an element of mix-and-match that you do not necessarily find with traditional theatre. The color also provides a fantastic contrast to the rest of Graf von Krolock’s costume, which is done in shades of black (and black does have shades…try matching a set of black socks for proof!), deep purples, and a few hints of very deep blue on the waistcoat.

The waistcoat itself is quite different, and I like it. Rather than a simple, straightforward cloth cut, Kentaur has added a bit of beadwork that you might not otherwise expect in a male costume. Everything about this costume is designed to have a bit of a wow factor; it may not be the most visually appealing costume, but it will be the most visually stunning costume on stage. While this may be an homage to Sue Blane’s original designs, I have no doubt about the originality of Kentaur’s work here. It’s sophisticated and smart while still being a bit whimsical and fun!

It would be wrong, however, to say there is no overall theming and that the costumes of the Vienna production are simply a pastiche of vampire tropes. The costumes for the vampires fit that mold, but I think there is a good reason for this: in dealing with a dark subject and trying to make it a bit humorous (this is a Roman Polanski production, after all), it is important to inject that humor into the costumes as well. None of the vampires look ridiculous, as the first still shows, but they are visually different. It’s an effort to make the macabre into the mundane, and it’s done spectacularly well–all the while maintaining the Graf’s look as intimidating and frightening.

The work on the costumes for the human characters is no less impressive and visually appealing. Take, for example, the red dress worn by the female lead, Sarah (Marjan Shaki). It’s a hoop skirt that flows and bends and is in a shade of crimson that is rather similar to the cape worn by her captor, the Graf. It’s not an exact match, however, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s intentional; by making the dress a bit lighter, there’s a slight sense of innocence granted to the character that isn’t present in the vampire holding onto her. There’s a closeup from another perspective, this time of the dress resting on a chair, that lets us look a bit more in-depth (adapted from a still from the production company):

While the stage lighting here gives us a more rust-color, the image from earlier does show that it’s a bright, vibrant red. The dress overall is in satin, which is quite appropriate for the era in which the musical is set, and it has a flowing effect as a result. The bodice/bust is decorated with quite a bit of beadwork, though not much in the way of jewelled adornment There’s also a bit of fringing available, which I think is Kentaur’s way of giving a subtle nod to the stage productions of the era Tanz is set in. Early theatre’s easiest way of making a gown look fancy was to add fringing to the external portions of the dress, and in this case we see a bit of it on the hoop skirt/bell of the dress, as well as earlier on Ms Shaki’s arms where the dress is supported. I’ll have more on the Red Dress when I do the Paris review because it’s an even more spectacular example, but I thought it important to give some attention to the Vienna original as well!

There’s one more group scene I want to take a look at from the Vienna production. This one showcases quite a few of the human characters and it’s interesting to look at for a couple reasons. One, there doesn’t appear to be quite as much pastiche as there is in the costumes for the vampires that started out this review, and two, Kentaur has done something to the costumes here to give them a very muted appearance:

For those who are familiar with classic 19th century-set musicals like Les Misérables, many of these may look a little bit familiar. The common tropes of underclass clothing are present here, but through her use of color and design, Ms Blane is making quite clear just how ordinary these people are. There is little to no adornment on any of the costumes, and they are presented as they come: there are wrinkles in the barmaid’s apron, the jackets on the men appear to be dusky and dusty at the same time, and everything is just so much more simple than the costumes for the vampires or the Sarah character. That’s by design; when you want to draw a stark contrast, you need to do that through your use of color and fabric choice. Notice I didn’t say any of these costumes look cheap because they absolutely do not. Rather, they look simple by comparison, and that’s a positive. These aren’t designed to be the more memorable pieces, and indeed that helps us to remember the pieces on Sarah and the vampires. The one exception here is the Alfred character (played by Lukas Perman) in the red coat; it’s still a relatively simple, muted design, but it does stand out and ties in to the red theme we saw earlier with Sarah’s dress and the Graf’s cape.

Also, I really dig the strands of garlic that are being worn by about half the ensemble members in this shot. It’s a nice hat-tip to the classic trope of vampires being unable to stand the smell of garlic, and while it may be a part of the book of the musical, for Kentaur to somehow make them appear even more silly than the idea of garlic as vampire-bane itself is really an accomplishment.

Tanz der Vampire is a campy, raucous musical that has a costume designer and set of costumes to match. I like that the vampiric costumes are a pastiche of different designs, while for the most part the mortal designs are quite a bit more subdued. In some ways, it makes me long for the Austrian production reviewed here to do a national tour in the United States; the English translation of Tanz spectacularly flopped on Broadway, but that had more to do with the timing (it debuted scant months after 9/11 when the theatre was already seeing reduced sales) and the controversy surrounding the casting and design (read a bit on Michael Crawford’s role if you want more detail).

But I think that the musical as costumed by Kentaur could do quite well here if ever given the chance. I know any number of people in the theatre community who got their start doing Rocky Horror midnight showings and paying homage to Kentaur’s costume designs in the movie and original stage show. There is real potential for this to become a cult classic in the States if it were put on by the right people and used the right costumes–preferably an updated version designed by Kentaur himself.

That about wraps up my Vienna review. Later on this week, I’ll take a look at another of the successful productions of Tanz, this time the Paris production entitled Le Bal des Vampires, and this time costumed by Sue Blane, the costumer of the original Vienna production (but not, as I thought, the revival!). It got mixed reviews from the foreign press, but Paris Match certainly enjoyed it and heaped praise on the costume design, so I’m pretty sure it’s going to be an interesting review!

Stay tuned!

So there you have an updated review. Like I said, much of my commentary stands, but I wanted to be sure to get proper credit and attribution out to Kentaur. If you’re reblogging my Tanz der Vampire post, I’d appreciate if you also reblogged this correction, and I’ll edit a link into the original post as well!

Free Social Media Icons: Always Updated with Current Logos

The most meticulously updated and accurately crafted minimal social media icons on the internet. Now includes the new Instagram icon!

I have a pet peeve.

Okay fine, I’ve got more than one of them.

One in particular has to do with social media icons. It may be silly, but I just can’t stand seeing outdated social media icons. It bothers me–and I’ll talk about why it should bother you as well further in this post.

However, in an attempt to save the world from outdated social media icons I’ve created my own social media icon set and you can download them for free!

Not only that, but I’ve not got a bonus set of icons thanks to my friends over at Vecteezy who have created an additional set of social media-related icons just for my audience. And they’re all one-hundred percent free!

How cool is that?

So before I give you the goods, allow me to explain why this is actually such a big deal if you’re trying to make your mark online.

Why Updated Social Media Icons Matter

In a world where visual appeal is associated with authority and credibility, it never ceases to amaze me how many times I come upon outdated, ugly social media icons.

This is what I refer to as an “icontastrophe.”

I’ve stated before how important it is to make your social media presence prominent. Your readers, customers, fans, and followers need to know that you are active on the social networks they would follow you on.

What kind of impression do you think it makes when you’re using social icons that have been retired? Let me give you a few typical opinions:

You’re outdated

You’re not paying attention

You’re irrelevant

You’re not really active on the platform

While this may or may not be true, the impression that it gives is negative. No matter how awesome you are on those platforms, a savvy user (the people you want on your side) will recognize an outdated icon right away.

“Trust increases when we get the details right. Customers judge online credibility by evaluating the visual design, copywriting, and interactions. If trust matters to your business, then design details should matter too.” – Braden Kowitz

Here are a few examples from real life outdated social media icons:

Now, the goal is not to make fun of these people, businesses or brands, but to raise awareness that it’s time for an update.

I know, I know– total first world problem, right? Well, honestly, some of these businesses or brands simply don’t know that the icons are outdated. What’s worse is that they don’t realize that most Twitter users don’t even know what that old lower-case “t” icon is.

Most often, it’s the Twitter and Google+ icons that are messing everything up, with the occasional old Stumble Upon icon. So be on the lookout for those usual suspects.

Updated Social Media Icons FTW!

Whether it’s a blog, business site, or just a cool infographic, one outdated social icon can totally ruin it.

I can understand though that it’s not easy to stay on top with how often some of these sites change their icons. So I’ve made it my goal to not only keep myself updated but to help keep you updated as well.

For me, this is one of those small details that can communicate volumes about your digital presence. Staying on the cutting edge keeps you relevant, reinforces trust, and helps you achieve social media rockstar status.

If you’re going to build and design a blog worth following it is essential that your social media links are both visible and current. That’s why I created this free icon set for you to download and use at your leisure.

What is in the set?

I’ve hand-picked the most popular social media networks and apps and created six different styles.

I’ve created a square icon version and a minimalistic (isolated) version (without the square). Both versions come with 3 different color schemes (color, black, and white).

Additionally, I’ve created them in .png at 32×32 pixels and also included the vector versions for those of you who want to scale them up or down as needed.

The social networks included are:

Google+

Twitter

Facebook

Pinterest

Instagram

LinkedIn

Ello

Snapchat

Reddit

YouTube

Vimeo

Periscope

VK (New)

Flickr

Tumblr

Blogger

Medium (Updated again)

WordPress

6 sets of 19 icons, that’s a total of 114 free social media icons that I’ve created for you!

Needless to say, it took some time to craft all of these. Being a full-time husband and daddy, I just can’t maintain icons for every single site out there. However, I am open to requests if you have any specific icons you’d like for your set– just leave them in the comments below.

The goal is to stay as current and accurate to each social network as possible to ensure brand consistency but also have a uniform look and feel.

I will be keeping these social icons as current as possible. Every time one of these social networks changes its icon– you can bet I’ll be updating these sets as soon as possible.

Bonus Icons for Your Graphics Needs!

As I said previously, the good folks over at Vecteezy have agreed to create a special set of social media related icons for my audience! These are exclusive Dustn.tv graphics that you are free to use on any and all of your projects!

Here’s a preview of what’s in the bonus set:

There are 35 icons in total, and they come in .ai, .eps, .png, and .svg formats. Wah-hoo!

Download All Social Media Icons

Just add your email below, and you can download this free social icon set instantly! You are only entering your email so I can notify you whenever there is an update of this icon set.

Download the Social Media Icons

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By adding your email, you also get access to my growing library of downloadable resources for all your social media and online marketing needs.

You may also be interested in downloading my free official social media logos for larger scale use. That resource includes high-resolution versions of official social network logos for when a 32x32px icon isn’t enough.

Latest Update

Included in this most recent update were some updates, one new addition, and several removals of social networks that are no longer with us.

Medium updated their company logo (again) and so I definitely wanted to include that in the new mix.

VK, the popular Russian social network has been added to the list by popular demand. With nearly 100M users worldwide, it was definitely time to add it to my free icon set.

And last, but certainly not least, there have been a few social networks since the last update that have either gone the way of the dodo, or they’re slowly being shut down. The following social network icons have been removed from the set:

Blab

Vine

Meerkat

As always, I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for any network updates, changes, or shutdowns. As long as you stay subscribed to the email list, you will always be in the know!

Are there any sites that you think I should have included in the set? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

The post Free Social Media Icons: Always Updated with Current Logos appeared first on Dustn.tv by Dustin W. Stout. If you are reading this on a website that is NOT dustn.tv, it is STOLEN.

Free Social Media Icons: Always Updated with Current Logos posted first on http://ift.tt/2qbaJ0t