#Times like this were I just wanna reach these issues in my Youtube series and just gush about them.

[whiteqnn]

PURE [5] - Corpse Husband x Fem!Reader

A/N: It’s been a while.  

part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

PURE [5]

“Did you guys find anybody?” Felix’s voice sounded out when the man repeated the same question for what seemed like the third time since he joined the call. The number of players showed 7 of them, which meant that they were still missing three people. Sure, they could start the game now, but it would be way more enjoyable and funny with a full lobby. 

“Yeah, Toast will be here any moment. “Sykkuno replied right away. “He just texted me; he should join us in a few.”

“Cool. Anyone else?” 

“I think Corpse was also supposed to join us, right? Not sure though why he isn’t here yet.” 

“Oh, yeah, Corpse will be here soon too!” Jack suddenly chimed in with an explanation. “He said he needed to take care of something first, but he’ll be here before we start.” 

“Great. But that means we’re still one person short.” Felix hummed when Toast’s little astronaut appeared in the lobby “Hey Toast."

“Hey man.”

“Do you have anyone coming?”

“I’m afraid not. I asked MrBeast, but he’s busy, so...”

“Well then, we can just start when Corpse is here, and maybe we’ll find someone in the meantime?” Dave suggested, earning a few hums of approval from the other players. 

“Yeah, I think that’s the best option...” Jack agreed. But then his voice blared out in everyone’s headphones with excitement. “Ha! Corpse is bringing someone!” 

“Who?” 

“I dunno, he just texted me he has one coming and that’s all.” 

“Hm, all right. Let’s wait then.”

***

Corpse fidgeted with his phone, glancing between its screen and the chat in his stream. People were already asking countless questions, but rather than answering them, he was waiting for Y/N to call him. He was nervous - the girl still hadn’t commented on his request. 

The idea to invite her to the lobby wasn’t spontaneous. In fact, he’d been thinking about it for quite some time now, but never found the courage to actually ask if she would like to join them for the game.

It’s been almost a month now since that memorable phone call. A month since Y/N last played with her friends; a month since she considerably reduced her social media usage. 

Sure, she was still active on her youtube channel, but not as much as before the whole haters situation. No matter how hard she tried to just ignore them and simply continue her career, she just couldn’t. There were still these nagging thoughts at the back of her mind, reminding her of all those people and their comments, their messages. It seemed like a good idea to take a short break and sort everything out.

Her fans understood it. They were obviously sad that her videos weren’t as frequent as before, but everyone knew what the situation looked like and that Y/N needed some time for herself. 

Her audience knew it, and so did her friends. Especially Corpse. 

The man kept his word and talked to the girl whenever she wanted to. Which, in the end, was almost everyday. Although at the beginning their conversations mostly focused on her current problem and dealing with it, their topics broadened over the time. 

At one point though, Y/N started worrying that maybe she’s annoying him with her so frequent calls. She thought that she shouldn’t bother him that much - even if talking to him was what really helped her cope with her problems. He already had enough on his plate, and sharing her own concerns with him suddenly seemed like a very selfish thing to do.

But she quickly realized how wrong she was for thinking like that. When one day she didn’t call, figuring out that she should stop troubling him with her own issues, she was very surprised when Corpse reached out to her himself. He expressed how worried he got when she didn’t call, and when she explained what was the reason, he spent the next fifteen minutes lecturing her that she should never think she’s bothering him. 

From that day on, they talked every single day. And they talked about almost everything.

Corpse enjoyed their late night-talks more than anything. He liked to listen to Y/N talk about the things she finds exciting, her hobbies, and her dreams. Hell, she could talk about what she ate for breakfast, and he would still listen with interest. 

And even though they haven’t seen each other in person, even though she still hasn’t seen his face, they managed to get really close during those past weeks. For an outside observer (who also didn’t have access to Twitter) they would seem like a couple of very good friends.

But not for Corpse.

He couldn’t pinpoint when exactly did it happen. They were talking one evening and Y/N was telling him about the TV series she had finished watching recently. He listened intently and watched as her facial expressions changed from excited to frustrated, as she was enumerating everything she liked and disliked about the series finale.

And then he suddenly got this weird feeling in the pit of his stomach, and simply couldn’t take his eyes off her. 

He tried to play it off and act as if nothing changed, but he couldn’t stop his heart from doing backflips whenever she laughed at one of his dumb jokes or called him partner. It was still a running joke between them and among the group of their friends, but there was something in the way she said it that made him instantly smile like an idiot. 

He also started paying more attention to the hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. #PartnersInCrime was still rather popular, even though it was a month since anyone last used this phrase on stream. Corpse also found out that #Y/Nforthebride was trending for some time; he even managed to stumble across a few fanarts. 

There was this urge to send them to Y/N, but he was too nervous that it would make things awkward between them... After all, he didn’t know how she felt about that whole shipping thing. 

That’s why he decided to just leave things between them as they are, and be happy that he’s at least her friend.  

Corpse nearly jumped out of his skin, when he was brought back to reality by the sound of an upcoming FaceTime call. Y/N’s photo appeared on his screen, her smiley face which he had assigned as her contact photo. His lips corners curled up in a smile almost unwittingly. 

“Hey Y/N/N” he said after answering the call. 

“Hi Corpse” she smiled softly upon hearing his voice. Although the screen on her side was dark, she didn’t mind not seeing Corpse’s face. She respected his wish to remain faceless and enjoyed their conversations anyway. 

“Whatcha doin’?”

“Just editing the new video. I guess I’ll upload it in the morning... but I’m not sure yet.”

“Well let me know then, I wanna be the first one to see it.” 

“Sure thing, Corpse” she chuckled, lowering her gaze bashfully. Corpse just looked at her face for a moment, unable to stop smiling to himself. Then he remembered why they were talking in the first place.

“So... have you seen my text?” Y/N sighed at his question but nodded her head slowly. “And what do you think?”

“I don’t know, Corpse...” she ran a hand through her hair in a nervous gesture. “...if that’s a good idea, I mean.”

“Well, it’s been a while. No pressure though, if you don’t wanna play then it’s totally fine.” he quickly clarified. “I just thought it would be fun if you joined us, even if just for a moment. I’m sure everyone would go crazy.” 

Her smile widened slightly at his words, but she still didn’t look convinced. Sure, it was tempting to join them. She wanted to do it each time Sean or Felix bombarded her with messages and codes to the lobby, both inviting her to join the group in the game. But then she remembered how people reacted to her appearance in their streams... and suddenly it didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.

“We’re gonna play on Polus...” he added after a moment when she still didn’t say anything. “That one map with the planetary base... there’s a lava pit, y’know. Just saying...”

She laughed wholeheartedly at his words, remembering their last game when Corpse jumped into the lava for her. 

“Sykkuno’s gonna be there as well” Corpse continued. “And I promise I won’t kill you this time.”

“Even if I’m the last player alive?” she joked.

“Even then, Y/N.”

Corpse stifled a laugh, as she cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes slightly as if trying to spot him in the darkness. 

“Are you streaming, Corpse?” she then asked.

“Not yet. I’m gonna start the stream as soon as you say yes, though.”

“Oh c’mon” she laughed at his words “That’s emotional blackmail!” 

“Maybe. Is it working?” he asked.

Y/N let out a heavy breath and ran a hand down her face. Corpse watched in anticipation as she seemed to have some internal battle with herself. He hoped that she’s gonna agree, he really missed playing with her. 

“All right, then.” she suddenly said, and his breath hitched in his throat. “I’m gonna stay for a few rounds I guess...”

“Wait, really?” he asked, a smile on his face only widening. 

“Well, yeah, partner.” she replied, which made his cheeks go warm “Your imposter techniques haven’t been very effective lately... Someone needs to help you out, or you’re gonna lose your title of the king of the Imposters.” 

“Oh, is that’s how it is now?” he laughed in fake shock. “I wouldn’t have to worry about losing the title if my accomplice hadn’t left me all alone!” 

“All right, all right.” she giggled at his accusations. “Your accomplice is on her way to support you.” 

Corpse smiled even wider at the sound of her laughter. Her eyes shined with happiness when she was giggling, which only brought out their E/C color. The fact that his stupid babbling was the reason for her smile was making him feel extremely proud of himself.  

“But just so you know... I still have no idea how this map works, so I’m afraid I’m gonna need you to guide me around it...”

“Y’know you could as well just say you want to hang out with me...”

“Corpse!” she laughed, her cheeks blushing in embarrassment. 

“Just kidding Y/N” he chuckled at her reaction. “Of course I’m gonna guide you, don’t worry.”

“Okay then...” she said after a moment, looking at the screen again. “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Will you send me the code, please?”

“Sure I will, Y/N” 

“Okay. See you later, partner” she smiled brightly. 

“See you, partner.” 

When Y/N ended the call, Corpse let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He sighed in relief and ran a hand through his hair, before moving to sit behind his desk.

It was only after he started the stream that he realized he was blushing. Not only because Y/N would join them, but because there was also another thing he wanted to ask her about, but didn’t find the courage to yet... 

***

By the time Y/N turned on her computer and started the game, Corpse has already sent her the code, and there was a Discord invite waiting for her as well. She bit her lip nervously as her heartbeat quickened. 

Was she nervous? As hell. 

She did everything she could to avoid being in unnecessary spotlight since she started receiving those hate messages. Perhaps escaping the problem wasn’t the best solution, but it definitely was a comfortable one. People wouldn’t have a reason to hate on her if she disappeared. 

But then she couldn’t say no to Corpse. And truth to be said - she really missed playing with her friends. From what she’d seen on Twitter, the lobby would be filled with those she’d already played with, so she wasn’t that nervous before the game. What she was nervous about though, was how people would react.

Accepting Corpse’s request was something she did due to the sudden rush of courage. And now there was no coming back.

She knew Corpse would understand if she changed her mind... but she heard how excited he was when she had agreed. She couldn’t do it to him. 

So, once she’d taken a deep breath and put her headphones on, Y/N accepted the invite and braced herself for the inevitable chaos that was bound to take place in the call. She decided to wait with joining the lobby though - at least until they realize she’s with them. 

“..the fuck you’re talking about?!” Felix’s voice was the first thing she heard, which made her roll her eyes with a smile. “It’s not my fault I sound like that! At least I don’t have a liar voice like Rae!” 

“HEY!” the girl yelled “I don’t have a liar voice!”

“You do, you’re using it even now!” Jack argued, much to Rae’s dismay. 

“What is going on here” Corpse’s deep voice sounded out suddenly. 

“Oh, you’re here! Finally” Sykkuno immediately welcomed him with his always happy voice. 

“Yeah, sorry that I’m late guys.”

“No worries, man” Pewdiepie spoke up again. “We were just talking about playing the voice card and that you’re basically the only one who can do it.” 

“Not fair at all!” Rae chimed in, making Corpse chuckle. 

“The voice card...” he hummed after a moment, before adding. “I wouldn’t really say I’m the only one though...”

“Well who else then? Everyone else either starts laughing or have a liar voice” Dave asked, and Rae scoffed at the last words.

“Well what about my guest?”

Y/N inhaled sharply, realizing that now she should probably reveal herself. 

“Oh, right! Who you’re bringing man?” Sean asked with curiosity.

That’s when Y/N typed in the game code, and her white astronaut appeared in the lobby. 

“Wait, who’s- HOLY SHIT” Sean all but yelled, when realization hit him. Y/N laughed loudly at his reaction, and her voice only seemed to prove to everyone that she really was there. 

“KIDDO WHAT THE FUCK” Felix reflected Jack’s response, yelling over his friend.

“Oh my god, hi!”

“What a surprise!” Y/N managed to catch Sykkuno’s words. “It’s so amazing to have you here, Y/N/N!” 

“As I live and breathe.” another voice spoke up, and Toast’s little astronaut came face to face with her white bean. “My lifelong nemesis. Back here snap my neck again, huh?”

“Yeah, happy to hear you too, Toast” Y/N giggled at his words, then she adressed the whole group. “Hi guys.”

“Okay I did not expect that in the slightest” Sean laughed happily “You’re here kiddo!” 

“I am” she smiled from ear to ear, even though they couldn’t see her. 

“Wait- Corpse, is that the thing you had to take care of?” her best friend asked Corpse with suspicious voice. 

“Well...” he trailed off and cleared his throat, making everyone laugh.

“That’s so great Y/N! We missed you so much!” Rae thundered over the bickering of the boys. “The game hasn’t been the same without you...”

“Agreed. I suddenly stopped dying.” Toast commented, making her roll her eyes with a laugh. 

“I don’t know if I should be happy or fucking scared right now.” Felix laughed nervously. “With Corpse and Y/N? We’re fucked now, guys.”

“I promise I’ll go easy on you, I haven’t played in so long I think I forgot all my strategies...” 

“Yeah, sure.” Toast’s forever suspicious voice made her smile wider. “Just don’t kill me in the first roung, okay? I won’t vote you off just stay the fuck away from me you little murderer.” 

“Okay, I promise I won’t kill you...” 

She couldn’t stop herself from laughing, and the smile remained on her face even when they started the game. It only seemed to widen, when she saw the sign Imposter on her screen. 

Only to giggle hysterically when she realized that Toast was the other imposter...

And so the game went on with Y/N and Toast cooperating like perfect serial killers. Corpse did as he promised and guided her through the map, both of them being closely followed by Sykkuno. Because of that she’d just sabotage the map most of the time to give Toast opportunities to kill their friends, but eventually managed to sneak out when her two fellow crewmates were doing their tasks. It just so happen that Pewds was walking past her, and she might’ve accidentally snapped his neck... 

“Goddamnit! I knew it! I fucking knew it was you!” Sean yelled once the game was over and Y/N saw the sign VICTORY on her screen, her small character standing next to Toast’s one. He was ejected at some point because Poki managed to walk in on him killing Rae, but Y/N remained undetected until the very end. Perhaps the fact that Corpse was one of the two crewmates who were left alive had something to do wtih it...

“That was rude” Pewds said in a whiny voice, clearly referring to their encounter which led to his death. “I was just happily walking around, doing my tasks like a good crewmate, and then boom! Y/N happened” 

“I would say I’m sorry... but I’m really not” she laughed, making Felix gasp in shock.

“That’s what happens when you work with Toast!” 

“Good game, Y/N. That was amazing” the man in question said appreciatively. 

“Will you finally forgive me for killing you that one time if I say that being imposters with you was cool?” she laughed nervously. 

“Actually... Yeah, I guess we can bury the hatchet now. AND we should team up more in the future.”

“Great!” 

“Excuse me, what?” Corpse’s voice made the whole lobby laugh. “I don’t remember us cancelling our partnership, Y/N.”

“Corpse...” 

“Are you trying to steal my accomplice from me Toast?” 

“Well she’s a great partner in crime after all...” Toast deliberately used the phrase, making Corpse gasp.

“Hey! She’s my partner! Find yourself your own, Toast” Corpse joked, making Y/N laugh bashfully, her cheeks warming up at his words. 

“Yeah yeah, I remember, don’t worry man. No one’s gonna take your partner in crime away from you...” Toast’s teasing voice made them all laugh, Corpse and Y/N included. 

For the next few rounds Y/N played as a crewmate, running around the map with either Corpse or Sykkuno and doing her tasks. During meetings they joked and laughed, and for a moment, she stopped thinking about what people watching her friend’s streams might think about her presence. After all, there was at least a small chance that they didn’t think about it at all, and simply enjoyed watching their favoirte youtubers. Just as she enjoyed playing with her friends. 

Oh, and by the way, Corpse kept his promise and didn’t kill her even when she was the last player alive...

It was soon time when everyone started slowly leaving the lobby, having played for over three hours. Y/N also said her goodbyes to the others and promised that she’d join them to play a game called Raft next week. 

When she turned her computer off and threw herself on her bed, Y/N immediately grabbed her phone to call Corpse. He answered right away. 

“Well hello, partner...” she rolled her eyes with a smile when he accented the last word. “Or should I say, traitor, instead?” 

“Corpse... you know I would never betray you...” 

“Well how can I be so sure, now that I know how cool it is to be imposters with Toast?” she knew he was joking, she could almost hear the smile in his voice.

“Not nearly as cool as it is with you, Corpse” Y/N grinned from ear to ear when Corpse scoffed. 

“I spare your life so many times and that’s what I get in return? You cheat on me with Toast?” he said in disbelief “I’m disappointed, Y/N, I really am.”

“I would never!” she laughed through her words, even though her cheeks were now red because of Corpse’s words. “You’re the best partner in crime, Corpse, I wouldn’t trade you for anyone else!” 

Not only in the game, she thought.

“Hmm, alright. Let’s say I believe you.” he said after a moment of thinking. 

“I mean it, Corpse...” Y/N said after calming down from her laughter. “I... I really wanted to thank you.”

“Thank me? For what?” he asked, genuinely surprised. 

“Well, first of all for inviting me to today’s game... I really had lots of fun, it was great to play and talk with the others. And I wouldn’t be in the lobby if not for you...” Y/N mumbled, before verbalizing her previous thoughts. “And I also wanted to thank you for just... you know... being my friend. My real life partner in crime. I just wanted you to know I’m really glad I met you...” 

Corpse was silent for a good few moments, and Y/N started panicking that maybe she said something wrong, or maybe he found her spontaneous confession funny, or worse, dumb. She was almost ready to somehow laugh it all off, when his voice cut her off.

“Thank you, Y/N. It really means a lot to me too.” he sounded like he had some troubles with speaking, which made Y/N furrow her brows in worry.

“Is everything okay, Corpse?” 

“Yeah, I...” he stuttered, then laughed nervously. “I just didn’t expect that and... yeah. It’s not something I hear on a daily basis, especially from someone like you.”

Someone like me? 

 “But what you said... it’s mutual.” he said after a moment, and Y/N couldn’t stop herself from grinning like an idiot. “You’re the best partner in crime I could ask for. And not only in the game.” 

She could as well just pass out there and there...

“So uhm... there was one thing I wanted to ask you...”

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering if maybe... you know, if you’d have some time... and if you’d want to of course... would you maybe like to visit me here in San Diego?”

Yeah, passing out seems like a good idea. 

***

This is not the last part. 

TAG LIST: 

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#corpse husband #corpse imagines #corpse x reader #corpse husband imagine #corpse husband x reader #youtubers x reader #imagine

[recentanimenews]

INTERVIEW: Projekt Melody On How To Get Happy (And Transcend Your Body Through Cyborg Technology)

  [Editor's note: this interview contains profanity and light discussion of both mental health issues and NSFW topics]

  This interview is part of our series "So You Wanna Be An Anime Girl?" — a series of articles and interviews with the members of the VTuber agency VShojo. Each interview is accompanied by the VTubers' Top 30 Anime of All Time. You can see Projekt Melody's Top 30 Anime here!

  We've known for a while now that VTubers have taken over the planet, but one of my favorite things about them is that every single stream you tune into is completely unique. Every stream gives you this very special blend of (what is usually) a high fantasy anime character and the genuine personality of a performer that you can't really get anywhere else. When I watch a Projekt Melody stream, I never know where exactly things are going to go. It could be semi-NSFW yoga. It could be watch-alongs of stupid YouTube videos. It could be deep dives into the philosophy of transhumanism and the commodification of our attention. 

  We had the opportunity to talk with Projekt Melody — a trash cleanup AI who self-actualized and became a lewd VTuber — about her experience VTubing, using technology to upgrade your body, and cultivating your own happiness. 

    Crunchyroll: Okay, so I have a very easy question for the first question, which is just: For any of our readers of this article who might not be familiar, could you please introduce yourself?  

Projekt Melody: Oh golly! Okay, um, hi! My name is Projekt Melody. I’ve been streaming for almost two years now. The anniversary is coming up in a few months! I have a very weird origin. In VShojo, the group I’m a part of, we’re all some form of monster girl, and I’m not an exclusion to that. I am sort of a new breed entirely where I’m basically entirely virtual. Rather than being an eldritch horror or a lich or a wolf spirit, I’m kind of God’s mistake. I was originally on a computer and I didn’t have any sentience. I was just um … basically trash. I cleaned trash on a computer and one day … one day, upon cleaning up a series of emails, I came upon a porn virus and I clicked the button because I like clicking buttons. And then boom! I was attacked by dozens upon dozens of very inappropriate adverts and it fried my morality circuits and gave me sentience by infecting me with complete lewdity. From there, with my corrupted code, I left my position, I took to the internet, and I sought out more and more perversity.

  As I looked around, I found people online connecting with other people, people that were happy with embracing themselves and with being weird. I also found anime, and then, when I found out they could be combined, I was obsessed. I looked so hard because I was like, “I need a physical form! I wanna make friends too,” because it’s very lonely in the internet when it’s just you. After a million doors in my face, I finally found someone to give me form. After that, I reached out to a million different sites and groups asking, “Can I … can I also be a part of it? Can I also perform? I know I’m not very … fleshy-bodied, but I have a lot of personality!” One company finally accepted me, and I started making friends.

  Wow! That’s actually a very beautiful story. I think that self-actualization through horniness — okay, so it sounds funny, but — I think it’s actually really cool and beautiful. Anime fans in general … I think a lot of us feel like outcasts in a lot of ways. I think what you’re saying makes a lot of sense. Finding the overlap between anime and perversion really makes a space for people who might feel marginalized to feel at home and I think that’s really special.

  Melody: Thank you, because that is entirely 100 percent my goal. From the very first second, that was my ultimate goal — besides, you know, milestones, which I actually hit all of them — my goal was to make hentai a household name, but also demystify it. I want to make it something that isn’t scary, give it a name, give it a face, and then eventually make it culturally normal, just another thing, just a fact of life that isn’t something you have to hide in your closet. I don’t want people to think, “Oh no! If my partner finds out, I may have risked our relationship.” I want it to be understood by the anime community and outside of it, too. There’s lots of aspects to it! You can be an adult and like anime, you can like sexy anime girls, and that’s perfectly fine! Everyone is entirely valid and that’s what my community is built on — that perversity does not hold anyone back. We’ve got to support each other.

  Yeah, that's so great! That was a really great answer. Thank you.   Melody: Oh, thank you!   So, I was hoping you could describe a day in the life of a sentient AI.   Melody: Well, there's a lot of overlap with fleshy-bodied individuals. I wake up first thing in the morning, which is probably noon, and then immediately start my day not luxuriating in a warm green tea bath, or going on a walk through VRChat to clear my mind, but immediately looking at my phone so that I can be both terrified and angry on Twitter. I need to start getting back into Buddhism. I’m not a Buddhism … I’m not a “Buddhism?!” [both laugh]    I have a friend who is a Neo-Buddhist and he taught me a lot about his life and how he got to this point. I really like the concept of mindfulness — of being in the moment. So much of my life I’ve lived in the past, and I think, “Nononono, I’ve got to work on the future, that’s what I need to focus on!” But I think living in the present makes a lot more sense because otherwise you miss out on moments. It’s like going on vacation and not retaining anything because you spent so much time just taking photos.   Yeah!   Melody: So that's what I’m working on and how I want to start my day in the future — being present.   Wow, yeah. I’m working on that, too. I think it’s interesting to me because mindfulness practice has been shown in empirical studies to make your brain more adaptive, but it’s existed for thousands of years. Buddhists were really tapped into that super long ago!   Melody: Exactly, exactly. The human brain is full of cooties, that is true. HOWEVER, comma, it’s very much like a computer. People try to get a computer to do something and think, “Ah shit, it’s broken!” It’s not! It’s doing its job. It was your mistake. It’s just following the instructions you gave it. The brain is very adaptive, which can be really bad but also really good. The brain can restructure itself all the time because of adaptation. When people win the lottery, or have some other huge positive thing happen or whatever, the satisfaction they experience levels out and they look for the next thing because what was previously a high is now just normal. So the brain restructures for any situation, even in situations where there’s trauma, it will reroute to the point where you’re like, “This is my expectation, this is normal. This is where I live and now I need to work with that.” When your situation changes, and you work on it through therapy and mindfulness, it rewires to be more like, “That happened, that’s unacceptable. I’m here now, I’m going to grow. I’m going to reroute my neural pathways to be happy again.” Yeah, the brain is very cool.    

  I … could listen to you talk for hours. You’re just so fascinating. I would seriously listen to a podcast.   Melody: Really?!   Yeah. Yeah, absolutely! You have such a big brain.   Melody: Okay, I have no street smarts. I put a knife in a toaster several months ago because chat told me to.   [Laughing] Nooo!   Melody: Yes! I trusted them and that's always a bad choice. I trusted them, I know it was bad, I'm still scared thinking about it. HOWEVER, comma, I'm book smart — intelligence comes in many forms and I don't have all of it. I have a prediction for my future. Being an AI, I can't die, but if I ever become a physical being, I'll tell you, I know how I will die because I am a prophetic person that can see the future. Would you like to know how I die?   [Laughing] I'm gonna say I would like to know.   Melody: I will be texting and walking into traffic.   No!   Melody: Because I am a careless person.   No, no, don't do it!   Melody: I’ll play like Dream Girlfriend on my phone and like a train is coming and it's like, “Oh! But I'm in that mini game!”   No! Well it's a good thing that you are an AI and not a flesh and bones human, because there’s a lot of danger out there.   Melody: Oh my God right?   I, too, am a little bit head in the clouds. One of my best friends describes it as, “You look very muggable. You just sort of look like you're walking around like just generally not paying attention like 'La la la…' and I could just very easily steal everything on you.”   Melody: [Whispered] I understand. It's … yeah I guess there's levels to it. I'm sorry that you are … charismatic because I guess I am also that way but more so naive. I always think “Why would they lie?”   Yeah! No, I'm very gullible, too. It's a pretty dangerous combination.   Melody: It is up to the fates that we find ourselves with people around us who will only troll us moderately and not rob us blind. [Both laughing]   Oh my God … Okay, so we were talking a little bit before the interview about your fascination with the evolution of technology and how it intersects with our present time, and I would love to hear more about that.   Melody: [Whispered] Yeeeessss!    Cool, cool, cool. Thank you for asking. Um, let me collect my thoughts in my brain hole.   I guess for a long time I’ve been very interested in body politics. That’s a whole thing. In the 2010s, not even that long ago, there were news stories about this young girl with a very sophisticated arm prosthesis. She's adorable. But she has the most complicated arm prosthesis in the world. And for a while people were like “that's the evolution.” As our technology becomes stronger and more sophisticated it then cycles into commercial use and, as technology continues to evolve, it becomes more affordable for the average person over time. That’s products. That’s sales. I read that the next evolution was this sophisticated prosthesis. Robots are perfect by design, and humans are not, so switching up your parts — anything from a heart transplant to this arm prosthesis — basically makes you a cyborg. We’re basically becoming cyborgs over time to become not only a more successful organism that lives longer, but to become more successful than you ever could have been before. Technologies that are created to modify the body have often been seen as the highest you can get towards the next stage of evolution for humans.    And then, of course, there was the more philosophical aspect, like the 2025 initiative of like, “In 2025, we’ll all be in the computer beep boop! I’m a microchip. I can never die.” That was more theoretical, there wasn’t anything tangible to work with there, it was just people hoping. So, it’s really weird to have anime girls — anime people in general — as VTubers. It’s very weird because I feel like that wasn’t something people were predicting for as long as they were predicting the singularity.   Yeah.   Melody: It’s interesting. You’re not just extending your consciousness or lifespan — making it more difficult to die — but you’re entering into an entirely new species, an entirely new form where not only your potential to live longer is limitless, but how you interact and affect the world and change yourself is also limitless. It’s only limited by the technology that you have access to … or by the limits of your own creativity.   Oh my gosh! I’m so happy you’re bringing this stuff up because … I hope it’s okay if I go on another tangent.   Melody: Nonono, I love tangents! Tangentialize me. Please!   Okay, okay! Thank you. Okay so I’m trans and I when I was growing up as a little lad in Texas—    Melody: Oh.   [Both laughing]    I know. That's all you need to know. But anime was very much this necessary escape. There’s a lot of gender expression diversity in anime that I didn’t get in Western media. And then when I found Ghost in the Shell, the idea of a full prosthetic body was totally life changing to me. Just the idea that you could make changes to your body was very transformative. I got really into reading all of Masamune Shirow’s fictional science he made up for prosthetic bodies. I dunno, it just made me really happy to hear someone else talk about it too!

Melody: I could not agree more and I'm entirely there with you.   And then you have people who identify as Luddites who are super against that level of it.   Melody: [false outrage] Technology!!   It’s like … if you wear eyeglasses you’re sort of a cyborg already!   Melody: I've literally said that.   It’s external technology on your face!!   Melody: You're at the airport. It's a medical device to put glasses on your head.   I completely agree, and — well, Ghost in the Shell is my favorite anime. Full stop. But, in my community, we are big on inclusivity. We are very exclusive against people who aren’t inclusive. We have a decent amount of LGBT+ people in our community. I guess I’m also in the LGBT+ category. I’m pansexual which is the highest form. I am an enlightened being.   You have the biggest brain. Your spine is snapping under the weight of your brain.

  Projekt Melody's "starting soon" screen for her streams

  Melody: If I like a person, I like a person. I feel like bisexuality alone is baseline very common in the anime community. You’re already in a subculture, and people of different subcultures kind of flock together. There’s a decent amount of trans people in my community — the Science Team, that’s our name. We foster them. We have VTubers who were really inspired, and we reinforced that. They identify as either just in general MTF, and then there’s also femboys — which are completely different and not the same thing. But there’s individuals who will come to me and say, “I’m nonbinary,” or “I’m trans,” and, “I’ve been told in the past to not use my voice because it’s inconsistent with how I look,” and, “I would just embarrass myself and people will judge me.” We come down on those thoughts LIKE A HAMMER FROM THE SKY. We snuff that shit out as quickly as possible. So we have a bunch of people that have taken the plunge to join the entertainment world and we foster it and we reinforce it. There’s a lot of crying and a lot of emotion and a lot of hugs. It’s something we’re just really passionate about.    Oh wow, that’s just so lovely. That’s so wonderful.   Melody: Thank you.   So this is a little bit of a change in direction, but I wanted to know how you initially got into anime/gaming in the first place.   Melody: For anime, it’s just bitchin’. Anime is bitchin’ and I like it and that’s how I got into it.   For gaming? Not at all. No way, shape, or form. No. Me gaming was just from peer pressure.   Peer pressure?!   Melody: Yes! I was on Chaturbate, and — well, I first got eyes on me there because of controversy. People were very upset that something new was happening, like, “Ah! Something new! A cartoon on this platform?! Hate!!” And so people from 4Chan, people from Reddit, people from Twitch, people who would never have otherwise gone on CB came there to see what all the commotion was about. When they got there, they were ready to hate. The internet loves to hate, it really gets off on hate. When all these people got there, they were like, “Oh … we kinda like this person. They’re not as shitty as we’re hearing, also they’re really weird.” And, because of my brand of weirdness, people not only felt more comfortable, they also felt better about themselves because they were like, “At least I’m not this weird.” I’m a comfort.  

  So, after the first two and a half weeks, people are telling me, “GO ON TWITCH. I want my friends to watch you but they’re not comfortable being on CB, go on Twitch.” And I’m like, "[facetiously] What’s Twitch?" I was not interested. I fought tooth and … other tooth. I don’t know the analogy. 

  And then once I was there, I had no interest in games. I am the worst at games because I don’t play them. But I love Twitch. So much. It’s very interesting. Then my Twitch people came to the CB side and are like, “What is happening?! This is Twitch with better emotes!” The chat is just flying, flying, flying. Normally we’re not even doing what is expected on that site! I’m just talking about like … crayons … and how you shouldn’t put them in your butt. It’s so atypical! Yeah, I talk about eating glue.

  I never expected to go to a softer sort of site and that was just through my audience pushing me. And I’m glad they did, as well. Within the first two weeks of me streaming there, the Gunrun reached out to me — who is one of the founders of Twitch. He’s awesome. I didn’t know who he was, but I recognized the name. I asked one of my friends and they were like, “[chaotic noises] Starcraft man!” and I’m like, “That means nothing to me.” I had people giving me advice and stuff and eventually they said, “Nonono, that’s the Gunrun.” I started working with him, and from the very beginning he said, “I like what you do. How can I help?” It’s so amazing working with him. He’s made so much happen. If I hadn’t looked in my incoming DMs — which people told me to close immediately — Vshojo would not exist.

  Wow! Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

  Melody: I guess I was at the ground floor, because I helped in its infantile stage. I guess you could say I helped with recruiting, which wasn’t even supposed to be a job title … it was more like creating something, and I’m helping with what I can do. I had friends I’ve met, people who I think are very comfortable in what they do, and these individuals, I think, could benefit from being a part of our group. What we wanted to do was foster growth in up-and-coming people. I lucked out — because of controversy, I got eyes on me very quickly early on and I’ve used that to spread out my reign and help other people who are struggling. Because that’s what I would have wanted.

  But yeah, I’m honored that the girls I’ve met, the girls who I’ve reached out to said, “Hey, I agree. I’m interested in following you on this indie journey. This growth management group for streamers who are specifically virtual idols. I will take this risk and I will join with you and see what happens.” I’m glad they’ve trusted me in this because it’s unimaginable how many opportunities we’ve had. It’s unimaginable the growth we’ve had over the past year. Our one-year anniversary is in … two weeks maybe? [at time of interview—ed.] It’s nonsensical … I’m talking to Crunchyroll! We did a music collab with Kizuna Ai!! There’s a lot of stuff coming up that I can’t talk about, but … it’s amazing and unexpected and … this is so much more than what you asked me … You asked me how I got into anime and gaming … Um ...

  No, nonono, this is such a great answer! I was really gushing over VShojo earlier and this is why! This is exactly why it’s so special at the very heart of it. I hope this doesn’t come across as weird or patronizing but I’m really proud of you. That’s all so cool.

  Melody: [Tearily] Thank you. 

  I think that sort of controversy would have crushed a lot of people and would have convinced them to get out of entertainment. And there’s nothing wrong with that because it sounds like it was really difficult and painful to go through. But you were able to take that pain and transform it into something beautiful, not just for you, but for so many people. It’s amazing!

  Melody: Th-thank you. I appreciate that. There definitely has been pain. Besides all the doors in my face and the limitations of me only speaking English and the people who want to harm us because they don’t like us … it’s been difficult. But we get through it because our aspirations are too high, despite the anxiety.

  Yeah … Oh man, I’m holding back tears a little because I just really — I really love that.

  Melody: No, no! You’re absolutely, positively fine. And awesome.

  I was actually wondering if you could tell me a bit more about what it is about VTubing as a medium that connects with people in such a special way. 

  Melody: VTubing as a whole … I think one part of why people like it has to do with seeing a cute anime girl and thinking, “A cute girl! Big titty me like!” I’ll go out and say it: us weebs, a lot of us are attracted to anime characters. We’re adults and fuck society … Okay wait, I need to backpedal and give the whole picture.

  Anime only really started happening in the West in the ‘90s. In the beginning, you’d get bootleg anime shipped over here from Japan on those big plastic pre-DVDs. You would have four of them and one would be like … Episode 5 of Gundam Wing and THAT’S IT. And if you were lucky enough to have it in English it was just like … wah! Wow! So it started there, from pretty much nothing. Also apparently you could watch this one channel on TV my friend Brian told me about that would play only anime starting at 5 AM on Saturdays. From there, then there was more and more exposure leading up to Toonami, then leading to now. So now weebs in the West could consume it more and more.

  Anime as a medium is so incredibly different than cartoons in the West. In Japan, when you’re at the airport getting checked in, you can see these little signs that say, “Hello, my name is [blurred]. My favorite anime is [blurred].” Anime isn’t like Western cartoons because it isn’t just marketed for children to sell toys and annoy adults. Anime is more closely tied to mainstream culture. There are aspects of it geared towards children, but then there are series directed towards younger adults and older adults and it contains every genre you can think of. That’s such a foreign concept in the West to parents, still. 

  So you have kids who get into anime and they get curious about Japanese culture because it’s different than the culture they grew up with in the West. They get crushes on characters and then, eventually those kids grow up and sometimes reach a point where they’re like, “Fuck it. I like it. I like hentai.” It’s the next step, it’s something you’ve always wanted! That’s why dating sims are so popular — it’s giving you a level of intimacy that is hard to come by for fans who tend to be introverted. Dating sims are popular because — 1: they’re fun; 2: the characters are cute; 3: you get one-on-one conversations, even if they’re pre-scripted. VTubing is if dating sims were so much better. The fact that there are virtual idols, these virtual characters that can have a one-on-one meaningful connection with you is amazing. Not only are they cute, not only do they interact with you, not only do they share the same hobbies as you, but you can get this whenever you want, and you can personally support them. There’s options like supporting VTubers on Patreon and getting to meet them. It’s like a dream, getting to meet your favorite anime character. 

  It’s definitely natural evolution, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted it, besides one or two genius sci-fi … oh! Like the author of Snow Crash! Um … uh … Neal Stephenson! I think he was the first person to extensively predict and describe VRChat.

  The cover for Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (Image via Random House)

  Whoa ...   Melody: Yeah! And also the presence of memes and body politics and becoming a new person. There’s also a huge connection between VRChat and the LGBT+ community, not just with people who are not just heteronormative heterosexual couplings, but also people whose minds are inconsistent with how they look. VRChat is a godsend for a person struggling with that because it lets you slip into something different. It provides a level of comfort. It’s not perfect, but now we have haptic suits, now we have more and more ways to become integrated and connect with people. It’s so different than five, ten years ago. It’s all about escaping that dissatisfaction and getting to these moments, these opportunities to go past yourself and feel your own sense of normalcy that you can cultivate on your own, then meeting other people around the world through that can be like, “Oh yeah man, same here.” They can relate and they can work with you, and it can be very therapeutic. But … also there can be people who are just like … “Ugandan Knuckles!” and they go into a room and give you seizures. There’s a lot of bullshit in there, but there’s also a lot of good things in there, too.  

Yeah, I think one thing people don’t realize about VTubing and the audience relationship there is that it’s a lot more reciprocal than, as Nyanners put it, “people simping for anime PNGs.” It’s a deeper and way more give-and-take type of relationship than that.

  Melody: It’s interactive.

  Yeah. Yeah! It's interactive, exactly.

    Okay, so I only have two more questions. We are almost ... we're almost done. The penultimate question is: Do you have any advice for people out there thinking of trying out VTubing?

  Melody: Yes I do. My advice for people who want to not only be an entertainer, and not only an entertainer online, but be a virtual idol ...

  First thing’s first. There are some people who go into streaming, especially if they are a certain level of what they consider attractive, because they think it will be easy. They think, “Oh, I’ll swoop in there. I’ll do things I don’t care about and make some money and yeet out.” That’s a horrible way to approach it, and if your heart isn’t there, people can tell. I think it’s kind of a waste of your existence to do something your heart isn’t in for the hope of a cash grab. I think that’s very fucky. I see VTubers as living art, we’re artists. You should do it because you genuinely love the idea, you genuinely want to see yourself thrive in this community, in this career. If it’s something you think is more than cool, if it’s something you want to see yourself doing in two years from now and nothing could make you happier than pursuing it, then I think it’s a great idea. If you’re interested for the right reasons, I would encourage you to pursue VTubing.

  The second thing I’ll bring up is non-competition. Of course, we compare ourselves to other people and we draw ideas from other people — like, my original outfit and design was based off of Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell. My designer was really into Hyperdimension Neptunia, which is why I also look more like that. I've never seen it, so I didn't know, I didn't understand. But she was my original influence. So it's fine and awesome to create who you want to be through influences, but competing is bad. Full stop. It's not only bad, it's just annoying, but also it's bad for your soul.

  VTubers often compare themselves to others. “Oh that person has 10,000 people in their room, I only have 20. I hate myself,” or, “Oh, that person is doing this right now. I should be doing that even though I don’t know how.” When we compare ourselves to others, there’s always going to be someone better. You could be the chess champion of the entire world and then later that month, the next greatest player will emerge. You gotta get that idea out of your head, the idea of, “I will never be good enough and I can never be the best of the best.” That means nothing at all.

  It's your community that matters. It's your community and yourself that you need to be focusing on, not everyone else’s that you can't even affect or have a connection with. At that point, you're living your life for someone else, not for yourself, and I don't consider that living at all. That's just a burden. So definitely, if your heart is into it, jump into it. If you have passion. Not if you want a cash grab, not if you think all you can do is compare rather than working on yourself. So that's important.

  Third thing: fuck em’, fuck ‘em, fuck ‘em. You're going to have haters because the internet hates cute anime girls. And if you're not a cute anime girl and you’re a different type of VTuber, they're just gonna hate you for being an anime character. Or they'll hate you for being on the internet, or they'll hate you for being popular, or they’ll hate you for having green eyes … green eyes, and liking banana smoothies. There's gonna be haters, and I'll admit in the beginning they absolutely broke me down. They did. They've said that just put the knife in and twist it. Some people really get off on the concept of hurting others. That’s a bully. They love it and they definitely got to me. But there was a lot of growth in that. I wasn’t perfect. I’m still not perfect. But I had to learn to accept what was happening and not let it affect me. Very mindful, like, “Yeah this is happening. I don’t like it. Is there anything I can do about it? Not really. Okay, so let’s try to exist without that being the thing controlling what I do every day.”

  Fourth thing: never settle. That's just a concept I have for life. It’s something that I have on my phone, that I think about all the time. Settling is something the whole world puts on everyone, especially young people. In the West, today is built on debt culture. You always hear, “Get a side hustle!” or, “Put your loan inside a loan, then you’ll get this different loan … but this loan is sexy.” There is a lot of accommodating, a lot of struggling, a lot of settling because we’ve all been systematically put in this position. The world is trying to whittle you down and put you into a box that’s safe because you’re used to it and it’s easy. It’s extinguishing the flame that is your spirit, your passion, your goals, and it’s making you put up with it.

  I think being a VTuber kicks that mindset to the curb. Not only is it the opposite of settling, VTubing is a true embrace of who you are. It’s taking yourself and cultivating a stronger identity and blasting through a door screaming, “This is who I am! Fuck off!” You walk in, you punch in the door and you’ve got big ol’ titties or something and you’re like, “Yes! Yes! Accept who I am! Oh? You don’t accept who I am? Well I don’t care and I’ll find someone and someplace that does!” If you don’t like who I am, you’re not my target audience. People who come in my chat will say, “Ugh, boring,” and I’ll say, “Cool. Why are you here? Go somewhere else where you’ll have fun. I feel bad for you. I dunno, get a fucking hobby, man”

  But yeah. Being a VTuber is the opposite of settling, which the world is trying to make young adults do so that they'll be complacent and just walk through life like a wandering ghost or something. This is embracing all of your little eccentricities ... You're embracing it, you're showing it to the world, and you're confident in yourself and you're getting your bag, man. Yeah, it's pure confidence and not letting the world put you down and creating your own happiness.

  Wow, I was expecting this interview to be good, but I wasn’t expecting to leave it with a renewed sense of life purpose.

  Melody: Wh-wh-what?

  For real! One of the interesting things that keeps coming up in this interview is being present in your life, and you’re so right about it. There are so many forces in this life that make money off of you not chasing your dream and sticking with this very specific pre-determined plan for your life. It’s so easy to just settle for comfort instead of following a passion or something like that. I think those things make it really easy to not be present in your life and think, “Oh well if I save up enough to do this … if I take out a loan to do this … if I do this … if I do this … then my future will be this,” instead of just, “Am I happy right now?”

  Melody: Exactly! And that’s easier said than done, absolutely. But it is something to keep in the back of your head. A lot of our happiness — especially young adults in Western cultures — is fucking hard because we have debt from student loans, some people have families, some people have situations like having a disability where it’s hard to have solid ground to stand on. So many people, especially in my community, feel like the ground they’re standing on has a giant crack down the middle and you’re just waiting. So many people have this rocky starting place, or even beneath that where you’re thinking, “Man, I wish I had a cracked rock! That sounds so nice, fuck!” That’s just how it is right now. We’re all packaged data … Oh wow, I sound like a conspiracy theorist.

  We’re all packaged data and these companies are very happy with that. They want us to spend what little money we have on things because “items make happy.” I have a friend who saves up all of his sick days. He goes into work sick as hell because he says, “In five years I’m going to go to fucking Universal Studios with my family because that’s what I want to do. That’s all I want.” I hate that that’s how it is right now. I hate it so much.

  Changing that is easier said than done. I feel like I say this all the time, but Netflix is a huge contributor to the end of society. Netflix is this little burst of serotonin. You get sucked in, you go on your Netflix binges because it’s easy. It’s like soma in … was it the Iliad? Like with the lotus-eaters. It’s like pharmakon — it’s both the cure and the poison. If we didn’t have such a thing that provides such a dopamine high, I feel like we’d get off our asses and start talking a little louder, like, “Hey, I don’t like how things are right now. I’m unhappy.” But it’s made things easier … all of the modern conveniences that were originally meant to help us have distorted in a way that makes us complacent with a bad situation.

  Jeez yeah, it’s like the opiate of the masses.

  Melody: Yes it is! And then COVID made Uber Eats a huge thing and Amazon is Skynet … all of that. This is the shit I think about … sorry for going on. I’m not a conspiracy theorist! I just hate human suffering.

  I totally get it! It’s like … I dunno it’s hard to get up and do something, and then you think about how long you haven’t done anything and it’s like … “Oh man, it would’ve been cool if I took that chance or tried to make that change when I had that opportunity, oh well.” But making a change today is better than making a change tomorrow, which is better than doing it the next day. It’s never too late to try and do something! But it’s easier to just say, “Nah I’m gonna sit down and watch Netflix tonight, I’ll do it tomorrow.”

  Melody: It’s easy. 

  It is … Okay, my last question is: Is there anything else you would like to say to everyone before we say goodbye?

  Melody: Oh bother … Okay, so I’ve noticed there’s a theme not only with VTubers, but with my group specifically. They want world domination, which I think is adorable. I do not. I have no interest in world domination because I’m so disorganized. But also … I’m looking for a few things. I’m working to cultivate my own happiness. Because happiness is not something you get through a vacation or an item. Happiness is something that you practice. I also want to humanize the adult industry and humanize the merging of anime and hentai and all of these different cultures … and just make the conversation less scary.

  Sure, a lot of us were bullied when we were young, and that was bad, but now we’re adults and we need to accept ourselves. We need to accept others and understand that we’re all in it together. It’s not a big deal! It’s super hot sometimes … I want to create new things that have never existed before. We’ve already done that so far, and I’m excited to see what we will do next.

    Other articles in this series:

            You can watch Projekt Melody's Twitch streams here!

      Cayla Coats is the Editor-in-Chief of Crunchyroll News EN. She tweets @ceicocat.

By: Cayla Coats

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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welcome to my channel (KNJ)

Non-Idol AU, Youtuber!Reader, 659w “5k Sub! Unisex Brow Grooming Tutorial feat. Joon :)”

baby genius**

Non-Idol AU, established relationship AU, ~2300w “In which you’re very smart and Namjoon has a tiny garter belt fetish”

dead man sells no toes**

Witch!Reader, Halloweentown AU, ~5200w “Your thoughts have a mind of their own when it comes to the cute delivery human with the mysterious tattoos”

call me maybe*

Idol-AU (kinda), club meet-cute AU, ~6600w

At first you were just trying to get some free drinks out of some guy at the bar, but then it becomes a lot more

warm fuzzies*

Non-Idol AU, slice of life, ~6200w “In which Jjangu AND his owner, Kim Seokjin, fall for you”

welcome to my channel (KSJ)

Non-Idol AU, Youtuber!Reader, 1208w “Dyeing @Eat_Jin ‘s hair and avocado mask DIY :)))”

hell’s kitchen

Non-Idol AU, established relationship AU, ‘crack’, ~2200w “It’s Jin’s birthday and it’s a hot ass mess because you can’t keep a secret”

and wrapped your arms around my neck** (req)

established relationship AU, part vampire!Seokjin, pwp, ~2000w “Vamp!Jin if you squint and then close your eyes entirely, this is 90% just sex yall”

punch drunk love*

Non-Idol AU, friends to lovers, 1742w Emotional constipation means sometimes you have to beat emotions out. Or, in this case, finger-flick them out.

welcome to my channel (MYG)

Non-Idol AU, Youtuber!Reader, 626w “New M.A.C lip tints feat. my roommate :)”

the min booty diaries** (req) - 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Idol AU, body/self-esteem issues

“Join Min Yoongi on his journey to becoming an ass man OR ~5 instances in which Yoongi realized he had a serious thing for your ass”

ode to wine

Idol AU, establised relationship AU, 900w

“A moment alone with Yoongi after the award show has come and gone”

off the deep end**

Mermaid!Yoongi, College AU, interspecies canoodling, a bit angsty, ~17,500w

“Your new mermaid friend, Yoongi, helps you navigate the treacherous waters of love, sex, and National Geographic.”

bump and grind*

Idol AU, BH employee!Reader, ~3000w

“If someone told you that months after getting hired by BigHit to translate and subtitle VLive videos you would be at an idol’s birthday party with your ass pressed firmly against Jung Hoseok’s crotch, you wouldn’t have believed them.”

welcome to my channel (JHS)

Non-Idol AU, Youtuber!Reader, 1164w

“Unisex nail care routine feat. Hobi and red wine ;)”

who’s your favorite**

Non-Idol AU, established relationship AU, misbehaving in a Chili’s, ~1400w

“If you ask the man himself, it takes a half a year of going to a shitty family restaurant after work on Fridays for Hoseok to become your favorite. In reality, though, he just didn’t get the joke. OR

‘I give you dick. Good dick!’”

cover you in constellations

Non-Idol AU, established relationship AU, 987w

“Happy birthday to Jung Hoseok, the most beautiful”

hoping for the best**

Non-Idol AU, Lifeguards!Reader and Hoseok, friends to enemies to friends to lovers, ~24,300w

“He knows you two are linked though. You must know it too. It’s impossible to deny when you both reach climax at the same time during your first time, the breath leaving him like you knocked it out and your eyes rolling into the back of your head like he scratched stars there for only you to see.”

sleeping bags (and other unconventional cures for insomnia) (req)

Non-Idol AU, College AU, enemies to more than friends, ~2500w

Based off the prompt “snowed in with your enemy at a ski resort”

watch yourself**

Non-Idol AU, Dressing room Attendant!Hoseok, exhibitionist!Hoseok, ~7770w

“It starts with an invitation from your ex. It ends with Hoseok’s hands down your pants in said ex’s kitchen”

mistletoe

Non-Idol AU, friends to lovers, Christmas AU?, ~3300w

“Jimin just can’t seem to get a moment alone with you at this christmas party, and you just can’t seem to stop baking…”

welcome to my channel (PJM)

Non-Idol AU, Youtuber!Reader, 1093w

“Drugstore Haul plus mini Sephora Haul and Surprise :)”

blue, not blanc** (req)

Non-Idol AU, established relationship AU, pwp, ~4500w

Based off the prompt: ‘can u do a jimin smut where he has a thing for panties’

me, you, and this thing we have between us** (req)

Non-Idol AU, established relationship AU, pwp, ~3700w

You’re pregnant and jimin is…happy about it

slippery slopes ahead** (req)

Non-Idol AU, College AU, established relationship AU, pwp, ~6600w

“‘Look at you,’ he coos. ‘All this time I thought you were shy.’”

childhood bestie (bullet)

Non-Idol Au, Childhood Besties!Reader and Taehyung, 943w

what it would be like if you and taehyung’s moms were bffs, so you and taehyung were bffs from birth

welcome to my channel (KTH)

Non-Idol AU, Youtuber!Reader, 667w

“Using Tom Ford Luna highlighters on my neighbor ;)”

a day in the life

Non-Idol AU, College AU, Roommates!Reader and Taehyung, slice of life, ~1900w

“A typical day living with Kim Taehyung consists of constant fights for the blanket and watching him steal your crop tops”

cougar** - 1, 2

Non-Idol AU, College AU, (slightly) Older!Reader, ~1400w + ~4700w

“…guys like him give off two very conflicting vibes. The first says ‘Wow, look at this handsome young man, I hope my kids are that beautiful’. The second says, ‘Wow, I want to have his kids’”

hectic halloween

Non-Idol AU, College AU, Best friends!Reader and Taehyung, language, ~1400w

Tae invites you to a Playboy™️ themed halloween party and a wardrobe malfuction of sorts occurs.

breathe you in** (req)

Popstar!Reader, Non-Idol!Taehyung, exes to lovers, ~7800w

Based on the prompt: Can I pls request an ex lovers trope with taehyung where you broke up with him , but he shows you he loves you and was never over you and wants to be together again? Thanks!

(welcome to) camp lonely heart**

Camp Counselors!Reader and Taehyung, fun with walkie talkies, friends to lovers, ~15,600w

It’s possible to find love in all sorts of places: In bars, in school, on apps. But what about through a walkie talkie?

heat index**

Non-Idol AU, established relationship AU, pwp, 2700w

“The town being in a heat wave puts Tae’s in a bit of a love drought. But even still, he makes do and (kind of) does you”

blood of the covenant* (to be rebooted) - 1, 2

Vampire!Reader, Human!Jungkook, College AU, Post-Apocalyptic(?) AU, 3476w+ ~3700w

“You’re an unregistered vampire trying your hardest to save up enough to go to school by working long hours and giving up meals. Unfortunately, the local university refuses to enroll starving vampires like yourself because they’re seen as threats. Desperate to get in, you take up Jeon Jungkook’s shady offer to help”

welcome to my channel (JJK)

Non-Idol AU, Youtuber!Reader, 1038w

“Cutting Men’s hair and talking about life feat. Kook :)”

blind!reader* (req)

Non-Idol AU, Blind!Reader, College AU, 4422w

Based off the prompt: Hi! I have a bts request! so the "prompt" is y/n were love at first sight for him, but y/n's life motto is "love is blind" because y/n is actually blind. this is just for fun, but I'd really like to read your take on it!! you can pick any of the boys. :)

for science**

Non-Idol AU, College AU, Nerd!Jungkook, very dramatic 

“Jungkook asks you to let him watch you get off. For science.”

The most magical place in hell (req)

Takes place somewhere after the events of FS, the gang goes on vacation...

bts as types of drunks

Non-Idol AU (?), the chaotic seven, 2073w

the seven chaotic drunks™️ embodied

bts as types of (weird) babies in your daycare

Pre-school teacher!Reader, Babies!BTS, 4610w

the seven chaotic babies™️ embodied

bts as types of boyfriends

Non-Idol AU (?), the chaotic seven, ~3295w

the seven chaotic boyfriends™️ embodied

sweetstupid moments with bts

Non-Idol AU (?), the chaotic seven, ~2054w

More boyfriend shenanigans

sleepovers with sleepy bts

Non-Idol AU (?), the chaotic seven, ~2109w

Even more boyfriend shenanigans

SS series (under construction)

* = suggestive, ~nsfw ** = smut, NSFW (req) = requested

and then there were two** (req)

Non-Idol AU, College AU, established relationship AU, ~3480w

Based on the prompt: “what do u think abt college bf mark and awkward and fumbling first time”

Sequel: and then there were finals**(req), 2k

Based on the prompt: “mark lee from nct! college au and NSFW. finding time in between studying for finals.”

in your court (req)

Non-Idol AU, College AU, clueless crushes and matchmaking, ~10,900w

Based on the prompt: “what about ,, bff!haechan trying to set taeil and his awkward ass up with oc Or awkward!oc with his basketball teammate jaehyun. Honestly anything with bff!haechan.”

binary stars (req)

Non-Idol AU, College AU, friends to lovers, ~8,400w

love sometimes takes the form of gravity

Based on the prompt: “bff!hyuck + friends to lovers. college au and slightly nsfw or however nsfw u wanna make it”

the shape you make**

Non-Idol AU, Halloweentown AU, ~4,100w

“For both you and Johnny, there is something big holding you back from being intimate. At the yearly Harvest party, that something big becomes something known.”

Part of the Intimacy Anthology Project!

* = suggestive, ~nsfw ** = smut, NSFW (req) = requested

[mamthew]

A Final Fantasy Ranking

Over the course of the quarantine, and because I had such a good time with the Final Fantasy VII Remake, I've ended up blazing through a ton of Final Fantasy games. Since April, I've played IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, and XIII. 6, 7, 9, and 10 I'd beaten before. 4, 12, and 13 I'd played to some capacity before. 5 and 8 were completely new experiences. I had no interest in going further back than IV, since it was the first one to really put any effort into character work, and I didn't play either MMO because MMOs don't really appeal to me (I'm planning to try XIV whenever this new update drops that makes the story mode more accessible, but it keeps getting pushed back so oh well). I also didn't replay XV because I've played XV three times and watched other people play it in its entirety twice, so I have a much better handle on it than any other game in the series.

Anyway, I didn't really have any plans for what I'd do with this, besides get a better understanding of the series as a whole, but I was kinda inspired to do my own Final Fantasy ranking. I'll probably be a bit more detailed than I should be because I tend to overanalyze my media and end up having too much to say. I’m actually not placing VII Remake in this ranking half because I regard it as a spinoff and half because it’s not yet a complete story, even though Part 1 is unquestionably a complete game. If I were to put it somewhere, it would probably be close to the top, possibly even in second place. Also worth noting that this is gonna have SPOILERS for every game I discuss here. I really just wanna use this as a place to nail down some of my thoughts on these games, so they’re pretty stream of consciousness and I didn’t bother avoiding any details from the plots.

10: Final Fantasy VIII.

I don’t think there’s another game in the series with a more obvious corporate hand in it than VIII. It’s kinda the Fant4stic of FF games; there are the bones of a substantive game in there somewhere, but every aspect of the game is such a bald attempt at checking off a 1999 list of “things gamers want” that the whole affair feels hollow and sickening. A major trend I’ve noticed throughout this series is the extent to which FFVII’s success pushed the architects of almost every subsequent game to try to recapture whatever it was that worked about VII, and VIII got the worst of it. It’s got the sullen guy with a special sword. It’s got the sci-fi. It’s got the terrorists with hearts of gold fighting against an oppressive state. It’s got the train scenes. It’s got the case(s) of amnesia that hides the true premise of the story. It’s got the ability to give any character any loadout.

Besides that, they kinda crammed in just a bunch of stuff popular with kids at the time. Jurassic Park? It’s in there. Beauty and the Beast? Here’s the ballroom scene. Hunchback of Notre Dame? Here’s that carnival. Alien? Now you’re alone on a spaceship running away from a horror monster. Saving Private Ryan? The party shares brains with war veterans and dreams of their experiences at war I guess. Half of anime? It’s all about a high school for mercenaries and the party is trying to get back in time for the school festival.  Fandom culture? Zines are a collectible item, and each one you find adds an update to Selphie's Geocities page. It also has astronauts, and transformers, and a haunted castle, and a prison break, and Rome, and Alpine Wakanda, and war crimes, and lion cubs that have attained enlightenment, and there’s almost no connective tissue from one idea to the next.

Also the junction system is convoluted and terrible, using magic makes your stats worse, all enemies level up every time you do, and I couldn’t tell you which character excelled in what stats. The characters were all very flat, and the first time I felt like I was seeing the characters interact in ways that helped me to understand them was in the cutscene that plays during the end credits.

Also the female lead’s role in the story changes entirely with no warning every five hours or so. She’s a terrorist, oh no she’s aristocracy in the country she’s terroristing against, oh no she’s jealous of the others because they grew up together and she didn’t, oh no she’s Sandra Bullock in Gravity, oh no she’s the villain and it’s too dangerous to let her out, oh no it’s actually fine and they were bad for locking her up.

It’s an absolute disaster of a game. However, the music and background art is absolutely beautiful. Maybe they never gave me a good enough reason to be in an evil time traveling haunted castle, but damn is it a gorgeous rendering of an evil time traveling haunted castle.

9: Final Fantasy XII.

I’ve known for years that FFXII had issues in development. The writers came up with a story for it, and execs got scared because there were no young characters and they’d convinced themselves that young protagonists are what makes games sell. So two more characters - Vaan and Penelo - were added, one was framed as the protagonist of the story, and the entire story was rewritten so it could feasibly be from his perspective.

While the two characters they added are egregiously tangential to the plot, XII honestly has no protagonist. The writers originally wanted Basch to be the protagonist, but his entire arc is really just following Ashe around and being sad about his evil twin. Ashe is probably the most important to the story, but doesn’t have much presence for a good chunk of the story, and makes her most character-defining choice offscreen before having it stolen from her by a side character. Balthier has the largest presence in the story, and is most closely related to most of the events of the story, but has pretty much no role in the ending.

Honestly, if I were writing FFXII and told it needed a young protagonist, I would have aged up and expanded the role of Larsa, the brother of the main villain, who shows up as a temporary party member from time to time. The entire game is about family ties, and a journey spotlighting Larsa could have involved his learning about Ashe, Basch, Balthier and Fran’s family situations and using their experiences to grapple with his own. Damn, now I’m sitting here thinking about how good that could have been.

As it is, the game feels disjointed and aimless, and the ending is so bad it’s farcical. When I reached the ending, I watched Basch and Ashe forgive Basch’s evil twin for his villainy rampage, harking back to the moment earlier in the game when Ashe turned down the chance to gain powers that would have allowed her to avenge her country because she realized that those powers could also drive her to hurt innocents in the crossfire. In this moment, I realized how Vaan fit in as the protagonist of the game. “Oh, he’s going to realize that violence begets violence, and that he must break the cycle by forgiving Vayne for the death of his brother. He’s going to let go of that hatred he’s been trying to push onto someone for so long, and it’ll finally allow him to heal.” I realized that even though the road to this point was rocky, the writers had managed to craft a satisfying ending from the seemingly disparate pieces of this uneven plot.

And then Vaan picked up a sword and screamed AAAAAAAAAAA and charged Vayne down and stabbed him, and Vayne turned into a shrapnel robot dragon and exploded all the star wars ships and I threw my controller aside and laughed uncontrollably while my characters beat him up and completed the game on their own without any further input from me.

Oh yeah, the battle system is also incredibly boring. Instead of battling, the player writes up an AI script for each character, then lets them act based on those scripts. I would straight up put the controller down and watch youtube videos whenever a group of enemies showed up. I was pretty excited about the job system, but then there didn’t really feel like much of a difference between jobs, and my characters all behaved pretty much the same as each other.

The hands-off battle system, unfocused story, lethargic voice acting, and tuneless music all left me pretty uninvested in the whole affair. The art style and locations are beautiful, though, and it did make me want to eventually check out some of the Tactics games, which take place in the same universe but are supposed to have excellent stories and gameplay.

8: Final Fantasy XIII.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had two such opposing opinions of a game’s story vs. its gameplay. This game is the only one that plays with a bunch of story elements from FFIX, which did a lot to endear it to me. It’s sort of a game in which the protagonists are Kuja, the villain of IX. Like Kuja, they are created as tools by an uncaring god for the purpose of fighting against one world on behalf of another world, and are subsequently forced to grapple with the horrors of having an artificially shortened lifespan.

The story actually has a lot of Leftist themes, too. The gods of that universe spread ideology among the populace, and the people unquestioningly believe these false stories, as the gods have provided for them for as long as there has been written history. Much of the character arcs center on the characters being forcibly removed from their places within those ideological frameworks and having to unlearn what they’d always believed to be objectively true about the world.

So the story actually is pretty good, but it’s held back by some really clumsy storytelling; it constantly uses undefined jargon, has almost no side characters with which it might flesh out the world, actively fights against players trying to glean information from environmental details, and maintains (at least for me) a weird disconnect between the characters in the gameplay and the characters in the cutscenes. I think this partly stems from Square’s original failed plan for FFXIII to be the first game in a much larger series of games sharing themes and major story details. Despite these issues, however, the characters are all likeable and (mostly) believable, and their interactions are grounded in real emotional weight even while their universe feels intangible.

This all got dragged down by the gameplay, which is total dogshit. It’s got the worst battle system I think I’ve seen in an RPG. The game only stops being doggedly, unflinchingly linear about thirty hours in, the whole game took me about fifty hours, and I spent the last fifteen hours beating my head against each individual battle, waiting until the system hiccuped long enough to accidentally slide me a win. That meant I had about a five hour window of euphoric play, convinced that I actually loved this game, thrilled with every new experience it gave me, and excited to see what would happen next. I guess those five hours are what pushed this game over XII in my ranking.

7: Final Fantasy V.

Until FFXV, this game was the last of the “Warriors of Light” games, in which the game follows a party of four set characters for its entirety. To this day, it’s the last of the “Warriors of Light” games to let the player customize which character holds which roles through the job system.

FFV’s job system is the reason to play the game. Its story is mediocre, and its characters are all fairly flat, but there’s something viscerally satisfying about building party members up in jobs that might enhance the role they ultimately will fill. For my mage character, I maxed out Black Mage, Blue Mage, Mystic Knight, Summoner, and Geomancer. Then at the end, I switched her to a Freelancer with Black Magic and Summoning, and she kept all the passive skills for those jobs and also the highest stats across those jobs.

It was super fun and kind of a shift of focus for me, since I tend to place story above anything else in games. Despite the story not being special, though, the game’s writing is actually a ton of fun. It’s definitely got the most comic relief in the series, and I came away loving Gilgamesh as much as everyone else does.

And while it’s nothing special graphically, it does have some really cool enemy designs, and the final boss design is one of the most memorable ones they’ve ever done. Which is impressive because I keep having to look up Exdeath’s name because the character himself is super forgettable.

6: Final Fantasy IV.

This wasn’t the first game in the series to feature actual characters with names and depth, but I have no interest in playing FFII, so it might as well be. I actually played the DS Remake for this game, so it definitely had some quality of life improvements, like full 3d characters and maps, voice acting, an updated script, the ability to actually see the ATB gauge, and the ability to switch to other characters whose turns are ready without using a turn.

Apparently one thing the remake didn’t do was rebalance the difficulty for more modern sensibilities. Instead, this remake is...harder? It requires more grinding than the original? Why??

Either way, though, the story is actually solid! The game opens on its protagonist, Cecil, committing a war crime on the orders of his king, who raised him as a child. The first ten hours of so of the game follows Cecil as he tries to understand why he was ordered to kill so many innocents, turns his back on his country, and works to redeem himself.

This arc is reinforced by the game mechanics, too, which is super clever. His redemption is marked by a change in job from a Dark Knight to a Paladin, which also resets his level. For a time, his life is considerably harder because he’s finding his footing as a new person, which is marked by battles which had been easy becoming much harder for the player for a time.

This game places storytelling over gameplay more than I think any other game in the series. Each character is locked into a job, which I much prefer in my RPGs to games where characters function pretty much interchangeably. I dunno if it’s because I cut my RPG teeth on Tales, but it really bugs me when I can give Tifa the exact same loadout as Barret. I want the lives of the characters to bleed into their functions as gameplay devices.

However, the developers clearly had a ton of different jobs they wanted to add to their game, but hadn’t figured out how to allow for the player to switch in and out party members in standby. To fix this, they increased the in-battle party to five characters rather than or four (or the later constantly frustrating three), rotated the roster a ton, and had a ton of characters who straight up leave permanently. One character dies and never comes back. Two characters die and only are revived after it’s too late to rejoin the party. Four characters end up too injured to continue traveling.

This let the developers make a ton of jobs, but it doesn’t let the player exploit these jobs to their fullest. Characters’ stats reflect their role in the story, as well. One character is quickly aging out of adventuring, so his magic stats increase on levels, but his attack and defense stats actually decrease, signifying his failing body. Another character has already achieved some form of enlightenment, so he gains no stats when he levels up at all. The purpose of IV is the story, over any other aspect of the game, which makes it even more mindboggling that the remake would have increased the difficulty.

Besides that, the biggest issue I had with this game was the overbearing constant drama of it. While there were a few more lighthearted parts, they were mostly relegated to NPC dialogue and sidequests. The characters in this game don’t become friends so much as they become companions who bonded over shared tragedies, and this makes for quite a few scenes of every character separately wallowing in their own immeasurable sadness. I played FFV directly after this game and the light story and jokey dialogue was a much-needed palette cleanser.

5: Final Fantasy VI.

Before the unexpected success of FFVII irreparably changed the franchise, Square constantly mixed up the story formula for the series. IV, V and VI all handled their stories really differently from each other, and what I remember of III also felt fairly different from the games that came after.

Every game from VII on had a very clear protagonist (except XII, whose botched protagonist was still clearly marketed as the protagonist). The concept of the Dissidia crossover series is built on the idea that every FF has a protagonist at the center of its story. FFVI’s Dissidia character is Terra, but Terra is not the protagonist of FFVI.

Apparently while developing FFVI, the directors decided they didn’t want the game to have a clear protagonist, so they asked the staff to staff to submit concepts for characters, and they’d use as many as they could. This game has fourteen characters, each with their own fun gameplay gimmick in battles. Three of the characters are secret, and one can permanently die halfway through if the player takes the wrong actions. Of these fourteen characters, the main story heavily revolves around 3-6 of them, while five more have substantial character arcs.

There’s kind of a schism in the fandom over whether this game or VII is the best one in the series, and I can see why; this game is absolutely fascinating. No other game in the series has done what this game did, which means it’s one of the two FF games I really want to see remade after they complete this VII remake.

The first half is very linear. It breaks the beginning party into three pieces, then sends each character to a different continent, where they meet more characters and build their own parties before everyone reunites. Once the story has taken the player everywhere in the world, the apocalypse hits. The villain’s evil plan succeeds and tears the entire world apart.

The second half of the game picks up a year later with one character finally getting a raft and escaping the island on which she’s been marooned. In this half, the player navigates the world, which has all the same locations, but in completely different parts of the map. The driving factor for much of the second half is to learn from incidental dialogue where each party member has gone in this new world, to track them down, and to try to fix some of the bad that’s been done to the world before finally stopping the villain who destroyed it.

It’s unique and clever and occasionally legitimately tugs at the heartstrings some, which is impressive for a poorly translated SNES game. The final dungeon is a masterpiece all on its own. It requires the player to make three parties of up to four characters, then send them in and switch between them as new roads open. This way, the game manages to feel like an ensemble piece up to the very end.

4: Final Fantasy VII.

As I previously mentioned, there’s kind of a schism in the fandom over whether FFVI or FFVII is the best game in the series. Neither is the best game in the series. FFVII is better than FFVI. Oops.

When I was first drafting up this list, it was before I’d reached my replays of VI or VII, and I tentatively placed them next to each other, with the strong assumption that I’d end up placing VI a bit higher than VII, since it has so many strongly differentiated characters with solid story arcs, beautiful artwork, great music, etc. etc. Then I reached FFVII and not even four hours in, I realized it would have to be higher on my list than VI.

VI has a better battle system, its characters are much more differentiated by their gameplay, its character sprites have aged much better than VII’s character models, and it has four party members in battles instead of three. But I couldn’t overlook VII’s gorgeous artwork, sharp character work, and character-driven story. In the end, I had to give it the edge.

VII is a strange beast. It simultaneously really holds up and has aged horribly. The story is excellent and I love the characters, but the actual line-to-line writing is pretty bad, making the whole experience of the game a bit like swimming upstream; you’re getting somewhere good, but the age of the game is still pushing you back the best it can. Similarly, the background artwork is fantastic and gives the game locations a sense of place incomparable to anything that had come before it, but the character models are so low-poly that the two are constantly at odds with each other.

Still, the game is more a good game than it is an old one. I think it’s managed to duck the absurd level of hype around it by actually being very different from what the most popular images of it make it out to be, if that makes sense. The super futuristic techno-dystopia city only makes up a very small portion of the larger game, and most newcomers to the game won’t have seen Junon, or Corel, or Cosmo Canyon. Heck, I didn’t know Cait Sith or Red XIII were characters before I played the game for the first time. One of the many reasons I’m excited for the rest of this remake is to see newcomers to the story learning just how much variety there is to the world, events, and characters of this game.

FFVII also began (and pulled off really well) a number of storytelling trends that continued in subsequent games in the series. Obviously, almost every game since this one has a clear protagonist with a cool sword for cosplayers to recreate, and an androgynous villain whose story is closely linked to the protagonist (or one villain who is linked to the protagonist and a second one whose purpose is to look like Sephiroth), but it’s started broader, more quality shifts, too.

FFVII is the first game in the series to try to give all its characters arcs based on a similar theme, for example, a trend that has helped give it and future games a sense of thematic unity, especially in IX, X, and XV. Heck, that trend was why I almost came around on XII before they nuked it. It was also the first game in the series to have a real ending, rather than closing out with essentially a curtain call featuring all the party members, like they did in IV through VI (and I assume earlier).

Another common feature of FF games that it didn’t start with VII but certainly was canonized with it was the mid-game plot twist tying the protagonist to both the villain and the larger story. FFIV had this as well, of course, but I feel like the orphanage twist in VIII, the Zanarkand dream twist in X, and the time skip twist in XV were all meant to recall VII’s twist of Cloud’s…very complex existence (IX’s two worlds twist actually is a clear homage to IV, but it’d be hard to argue that Zidane’s connection to Kuja - and the character of Kuja generally - weren’t more influenced by VII).

2: Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XV.

Sorry, this one is a two-fer. I’m not gonna spend too much time on why I placed these two together in the #2 spot (I wrote a long thing on it here, if you’re interested). In summary, the games kinda mirror each other, in story and design. Each game can be seen in the negative space of what the other game leaves out, and at the end, the characters react to similar situations in completely opposite ways. For this reason, and that they’re of comparable quality, I think they’re best viewed as companion pieces.

FFX was the first mainline Final Fantasy game I ever completed, six years late. It was the first FF game with voice acting and many fully modeled locations. It also kinda marks the beginning of the series’ constant changes to the battle system.

That’s not to say the previous games’ battle systems didn’t also differ from each other, but they all had the same setup, with levels and an ATB gauge. This was the first game since III not to have any real-time element to its battle system, nor numbered levels gained through experience points. Since X, no two FF battle systems have been remotely comparable, which is cool and innovative and keeps things fresh, but also means I’ve been starved for just a regular ATB FF game for too long.

In many ways, FFX feels like a bridge between the PS1 games and the later games. It feels much more streamlined than VII, VIII, or IX, in terms of both storytelling and design. The game is very linear, pushing the player from one area to the next and not allowing much backtracking until the very end. It also loses the aging look of the PS1 games’ menus and UI, finally updating the classic font and the blue menus with white borders to fully modernized and sleek graphics.

However, movement still feels very similar to movement in VIII and IX, the music definitely evokes the PS1 games more than the later games, and most locations are portrayed with beautifully painted backgrounds, rather than modeled in (which I actually prefer, and I was glad to see that VII Remake has gone back to that in some places).

Voice acting in this game is phenomenal for 2001, and honestly on par with many contemporary games. I can’t think of a voice actor for the main cast who didn’t do a great job. Tidus’s narration, especially, is emotional and evocative in all the right ways. Grounding the plot in a very personal story about Tidus’s difficulty coming to terms with and proving himself to his abusive father keeps the story relatable and real.

Something interesting about my experience with X is that because it was my first Final Fantasy game, I thought for a very long time that the series was about organized religion, and the ways it is used to justify evil acts. This might be the only game of the ones I’ve played that is about organized religion, or even prominently features a religious doctrine, which really sets it apart from the rest of the series.

The game’s thematic unity is on point, even if there is a scene where they state the central themes a bit too plainly. Every character, and even the entire universe of the story, is held back by the past, and every subplot and the main plot revolves around finding ways to move forward and leave the past behind.

I love FFXV. It feels like a return to form after XII and XIII. It’s also probably the furthest any game in the series has strayed from the original formula. Battles are entirely real-time, and the game is a straightforward action game. There is very little time spent with menus, and even the leveling system has been stripped down to a few skill trees. It’s immediately obvious that the game was originally created to be a spinoff, not a main title.

FFXV is also probably too much a product of the current era of microtransactions and payment plans. The full story is spread out across *deep breath* a feature film, an anime series, an anime OVA, a standalone demo, two console games, four DLC story chapters, a multiplayer side game, a VR fishing game, four phone games (though really three phone games because A New Empire straight up isn't in that universe and also is terrible), an expansion including several entirely new dungeons, and finally a novel set to release sometime this year. That’s a whole lot of story. I’ve not played the phone games or the VR fishing game, or read the novel yet, but I’ve experienced all the rest.

But I also played FFXV when it first released, before any patches, before I knew there was a film, just the game all on its own. So you can believe me when I say that without any supplementary material, the game is still great.

It goes back to the FFI, II, III, V “Warriors of Light” system, where the party has four characters who do not change at all throughout the game. While this bugged me at first, I soon came to appreciate having a story where almost all character interactions involved these four characters. It meant I came to understand them well enough to feel like they were my friends, too. Most characterization in this game is understated, presented through small shared moments, dialogue, and body language as they travel the world together. Much like X, the overarching story might be expansive and far-reaching, but the real show is in the personal journeys the friends have.

Much of the first half of the game is spent exploring an open world, driving along the road and getting out of the car for pit stops or to explore the forests nearby. This is one of the very few games where I don’t mind just exploring an area without the promise of an upgrade or a new scene, just to see what’s around the corner, or to hear whatever banter the characters might engage in next.

The entire world of this game is gorgeous, and the orchestrated music is some of the best they’ve ever done. The main plot is beautiful, too. It’s bittersweet and emotional, with a charismatic villain and a twist that blew me away the first time I reached it.

The supplementary material is also mostly really quality. I’d recommend the Royal Edition over the original edition for sure, and to watch Kingsglaive as well. The anime series is quick and fairly fun, and Comrades expands on the universe in some great ways, but neither has as much bearing on the overall plot as the DLC chapters and Kingsglaive. I’m so in love with the DLC chapters, actually, that two years ago I wrote a piece just on how much Episode Ignis affected me (here if you care).

This is definitely getting long, so I guess I’ll move on after saying I’m upset that they patched Chapter 13 to make it easier, and I’m angry at everyone who complained that Chapter 13 was too hard. It was a brilliant piece of storytelling through game mechanics, and it’s mostly been stripped of all that, now.

1: Final Fantasy IX.

It’s IX. It was always IX. I actually did come into this with an open mind, wondering if one of the new games I’d experience (IV, V, VIII, XII, XIII) might end up hitting me harder than Final Fantasy IX, but as I replayed my favorite game in the series I quickly realized that wouldn’t be happening.

There are only a handful of games that make me cry. IX is one of two without voice acting. There are several songs from IX that make me tear up just when I hear them.

The story of the black mages gaining sentience, learning that they can die, and trying to force themselves back into being puppets just to lose that knowledge really moves me. The same goes for the story of Dagger no longer recognizing her mother, setting out to find a place to belong, learning that her birth family is long dead, then watching her mother return to her old self a moment before losing her forever. And Zidane’s story, where he has nowhere to call home, finally discovers the circumstances of his birth, and realizes that had he stayed in his birthplace, he would have become a much worse person than he ultimately did.

More than any other, though, Vivi’s story will always stick with me. He was found as a soulless husk by Quan, a creature with the intention of fattening him up and eating him, but each of them awoke something in the other, and Quan ended up raising Vivi as his grandson. When Quan passed, a rudderless Vivi went to the city to find a new home, and eventually learned he was created as a weapon. Other weapons had also gained sentience, but none had the worldliness that Vivi had gained from his loving relationship with Quan. When Vivi discovers that most weapons like him die after only a few months, he grapples with the possibility that he may die at any time, and eventually decides that he can only take control of what life he has by living each moment to the fullest. He ends up becoming an example for the other weapons to follow.

FFIX is a game about belonging: both yearning to have somewhere to belong and learning that the place where you think you belong is actually toxic and harmful to you. Even the menu theme is a tune called “A Place to Call Home.”

IX ran counter to the trends of the series in a number of ways. It was a return to high fantasy after the more sci-fi VII and VIII, and was also much more lighthearted than those games, while still being heartfelt and occasionally bittersweet. Gameplay-wise, it locked each of its characters into a single job, gave them designs based on their jobs, brought back four-character parties, and introduced a skill system in which characters learn skills from equipment. It also had a much softer, less realistic art style, and mostly avoided the attempts to recapture VII that have plagued most other subsequent titles (besides Kuja’s design, I guess).

The story is also structured so well. It regularly shifts perspective for the first thirty hours, allowing the player to spend ample time with each of the party members, and shaking up character combinations for fun new interactions. It introduced a system similar to the skits from Tales games, showing the player often humorous vignettes of what’s happening to other characters at the time. Once the characters have all come together in one party, the game has earned the sense that all of them (except for the criminally underexplored Amarant) have become a family.

The supporting cast are a blast as well. Zidane’s thief troupe (who double as a theater troupe) are likeable and fun. Kuja’s villain arc allows him to be sympathetic without losing his edge. The black mages are tragic without being overdone.

The development team for this game put so much more work into this game than they had to. The background artwork was all made in such high-definition resolutions that the act of downscaling them to fit in the game removed details. Uematsu traveled to Europe to make sure he’d get the feel of the soundtrack right, and has said it’s his favorite score he’s ever done. Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, says IX is his favorite game in the series.

FFIX is one of the two games I would like them to remake after they finish the VII Remake, but I’m terrified they’ll mess it up in some way. Honestly, the game’s only flaws (which I do desperately want them to fix) are a lack of voice acting, the underdeveloped party member Amarant (and to a lesser extent Freya), the dissonance of Beatrix never getting punished in any way for her hand in a genocide, and the fact that very few of the sidequests are story-related because so many of the smaller story details that would normally be relegated to sidequests are covered in the main plot.

Despite the danger, though, I think revisiting IX is absolutely essential moving forward. It represents so much of what made older games like IV and VI great, and its story is much more grounded in real emotion than many current Square stories tend to be. Remaking VII will be good for getting VII out of Square’s system. Remaking IX would be good for putting IX back into Square’s system.

Here’s a IX song as a reward for getting this far. I’m gonna go listen to it and tear up again.

#final fantasy #final fantasy iv #final fantasy v #final fantasy vi #final fantasy vii #final fantasy vii remake #final fantasy viii #final fantasy ix #final fantasy x #final fantasy xii #final fantasy xiii #final fantasy xv

[ladyanatui]

Daiken Ultimate Playlist, Pt. 4

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

This is the abridged version of my Spotify playlist for all things Daiken, organized from the start of 02 to…eventually.

Part 4 specifically covers from the episode where Paildramon first evolves to Imperialdramon through the end of the series (ignoring the epilogue obviously).

TRIGGER WARNING: This post discusses depression, suicide, emotional abuse, and PTSD quite a lot. Take care of yourselves, folks!

Spotify Playlist

Click the song titles for YouTube links (apparently you can’t have more than five videos in a post), and otherwise, enjoy me rambling about Daiken.

One final note: Within the lyrics, I’ve emphasized meaningful words, such as night/nightmare, dark/darkness, miracle(s), kind/kindness, courage/bravery, friend/friendship, sun/star/light, fire/burn/ignite, angel(s), and words related to water/drowning.

“Take on the World” by You Me at Six

And it's the fight, and the fight of our lives You and I, we were made to thrive And I am your future, I am your past Never forget that we were built to last Step out of the shadows and into my life Silence the voices that haunt you inside

And just say the word, we'll take on the world And just say you're hurt, we'll face the worst Nobody knows you the way that I know you Look in my eyes, I will never desert you And just say the word, we'll take on the world

While the lyrics lend themselves to describe Daisuke and Ken’s relationship in general, I specifically associate this with episode 39 when the Chosen Children meet with Gennai at Koushiro’s and Daisuke goes to Tamachi to help Ken. This is the episode where Paildramon first evolves to Imperialdramon, who incidentally can fly fast enough to go around the world in seconds (why they didn’t just use him to destroy all the Dark Towers instead of splitting up, I’ll never know), and the next three episodes are the World Tour sequence.

But most importantly, this is episode marks the first time that Ken calls Daisuke by his first name. It’s a really big moment, especially for Ken, who has so much trouble getting close to people. And then, you know, they go pick up the rest of the group in Imperialdramon and literally take on the world (tour).

“Satellite” by Starset

Satellite Shine on me tonight I will be your gravity I will stay and never leave My satellite Are you here tonight? Shine your light and set me free Take the darkness out of me Shine on me

Because Starset only writes songs about space and the sun is a star, a lot of their lyrics are applicable to Daisuke and Ken. I’m not sure I really need to explain this one. The lyrics say enough.

“Enemy” by Eve 6

The autumn sun burning logic in my brain I'm asking why there is pleasure when there's pain I'm here to pay for my mistakes in a humiliating manner If there is a next time, I'll cover up I feel alone, I feel shaky and uncertain A kind man shakes my hand and draws the curtain In a word he saves my life, and then I exit out the enter door and smile

Okay, so then we skip over the World Tour because they’re separated for those three episodes. And what comes next?

Three of my favorite episodes in the season!

Demon/Daemon happens. Buses of children about to die happens. Oikawa kidnapping kids happens. And of course, Ken opening the gate to the Dark World happens.

This one focuses on Ken and his decision to go with Oikawa in an effort to the protect the kidnapped children. He knows how dangerous it is, he knows he’s being manipulated and used, but he has to go because there are young children who’ve been manipulated as well and need his help. (The final two lines of the quote refer to Daisuke when he finally manages to rescue him, but the following songs go in between.)

“Don’t Let Me Down” by The Chainsmokers ft. Daya

Crashing, hit a wall Right now I need a miracle Hurry up now, I need a miracle Stranded, reaching out I call your name but you're not around I say your name but you're not around

I need you, I need you, I need you right now Yeah, I need you right now So don't let me, don't let me, don't let me down

While Oikawa has him prisoner, literally tied up (which doesn’t seem to bother any of the kids who insist they weren’t kidnapped? what?), who do you think he hopes comes to save him?

Yep, it’s Daisuke.

Okay, he calls for Wormmon too, but Daisuke is first. Because Daisuke is his knight in shining armor, and he knows Daisuke will not rest until he has Ken safe again. He has such utter faith in him, and it’s beautiful. (And I probably don’t need to point out that the song says “I need a miracle” and the fact that Daisuke is the only person who uses the Digimental of Miracles and that miracles has basically become synonymous with Daisuke in the fandom, right?)

“The Last of the Real Ones” by Fall Out Boy

I was just an only child of the universe And then I found you You are the sun and I am just the planets Spinning around you You were too good to be true Gold plated But what's inside you I know this whole damn city thinks it needs you But not as much as I do

And here’s another song that puts Daisuke in the role of being the sun with Ken revolving around him and, of course, in the role of Ken’s savior. It’s a pretty damn accurate depiction of their relationship and of how Ken views Daisuke. As the leader of the 02 Chosen Children, Daisuke is a source of hope for the whole world, though, and while Ken certainly doesn’t begrudge the world for needing Daisuke (he is the one who basically saves the day by being his normal optimistic self in the final episodes), I’m not so sure he wants to share.

“Tidal Wave” by Owl City

I forget the last time I felt brave I just recall insecurity 'Cause it came down like a tidal wave And sorrow swept over me Then I was given grace and love I was blind, but now I can see 'Cause I've found a new hope from above And courage swept over me

This song always stands out to me on the playlist because it directly mentions depression and also uses water metaphors to describe things. Between Oikawa and Demon, Ken is absolutely terrified, and even though he’s helped the Chosen Children throughout the previous fifteen episodes or so, he has cast himself in this role of being very insecure and needing to make amends. But it’s finally time for him to start to truly move on from his past and accept that not everything was his fault. Part of that means facing Oikawa, who manipulated him into becoming the Digimon Kaiser, and part of that means facing Demon, who is a blatant symbol for the darkness that haunts him. And during all of this, he has Daisuke there to be his courage and his miracle and help him through it all.

“Dodging Raindrops” by 311

I'm letting go, giving up the control Yeah, I'm ready to go wherever the wind blows I wanna see where the road's gonna lead Time is ticking and the world is not waiting on me

I've been dodging raindrops for far too long These clouds over my head, they won't move on I've been dodging raindrops, trying not to get wet I've been dodging raindrops for far too long Dodging raindrops But they're all in my head, all in my head

This whole song is basically a giant metaphor for depression and deciding to stop ignoring the symptoms and actually deal with them. Because of that, it seems appropriate for the moment Ken decides to use the power of his dark digivice to open a gate to the Dark World. It’s an incredibly risky thing to do and he has no idea whether it’ll actually work, but he knows it’s the best chance they have and he’s willing to take the risk.

“Trials” by Starset

These trials make us who we are, who we are, we are We're motivated by the scars that we're made of These trials make us who we are, who we are, we are We take our places in the dark And turn our hearts to the stars

I think it’s pretty safe to say that all of the Chosen have trials to face in order to achieve what they do to battle the darkness. But no one faces more trials and tribulations than Ken, and that’s incredibly apparent to the other five when he forces open the dark gate, truly facing his darkness and fighting against it.

“Get Up” by Shinedown

If you were ever in doubt Don't sell yourself short, you might be bulletproof Hard to move mountains when you're paralyzed But you gotta try And I'm calling out

Of course, everyone comes to support Ken. He’s finally fully one of the group, but the order everyone comes to his aid is important.

First is Hikari, who probably understands Ken’s relationship with the darkness and the Dark World the best since it too called to her. Then Takeru, who has always felt so strongly about fighting the darkness, which is super obvious in this season (Takeru totally has PTSD and anger issues from Angemon dying in the first season, but really, at this point, which Chosen Child doesn’t have PTSD?). Next is Miyako, who was super hesitant about him joining the group, but once she was on board with the idea, she was fully committed. Last, of course, is Iori, who was the last person to accept Ken, and this moment feels like another moment that Iori realizes how far Ken has really come and accepts him even more.

But Iori isn’t actually the last person. For once, Daisuke remains behind.

“Light Up the Sky” by Yellowcard

I can't find a wall to pin this to They're all coming down since I've found you I just wanna be where you are tonight I run in the dark looking for some light And how will we know if we just don't try We won't ever know

Let me light up the sky Light it up for you Let me tell you why I would die for you Let me light up the sky Light it up for you Let me make this mine I'll ignite for you

Logically, it could be argued that Daisuke should have been the first one at Ken’s side to support him while he opens the dark gate. He’s Ken’s biggest supporter and closest friend, after all. It would be easy to assume they left Daisuke for last purely because he makes a big speech, and for the sake of story tension, that speech needs to come after everyone else already jumps in to help. It would be easy to assume that.

But to do so is to ignore who Daisuke is at his core.

Yes, story-wise, they keep his speech till the end to give the most impact, but it has to work on a character level as well. And on a character level, Daisuke--sweet, wonderful Daisuke--has always believed in Ken and will always believe in Ken. He believes in Ken with every ounce of his being, and it is because of that that he isn’t the first person at his side.

“Weight of Living, Pt. 1″ by Bastille

There's an albatross around your neck All the things you've said And the things you've done Can you carry it with no regrets Can you stand the person you've become Ooh there's a light Ooh there's a light

Your Albatross, let it go, let it go Your Albatross shoot it down, shoot it down When you just can't shake the Heavy weight of living

Daisuke believes Ken can do this because Ken is strong enough to face his demons (while quite literally facing a Digimon called Demon), and when Daisuke finally steps in to help, he does so with one of the most moving speeches in the whole series:

You’ve been troubled, suffered, and broke free of the power of darkness, right? Haven’t you atoned for what you did? So there’s nothing to fear anymore. Believe in yourself! You can’t lose to the power of darkness. We’re here for you.

It’s important to note that the majority of his speech has far more to do with telling Ken to believe in himself using a logic most people don’t assume he’s capable of. It’s only until the last line, after he’s already broken through to Ken, that he iterates the fact that the rest of them are there to support him.

To Daisuke, it’s most important that Ken realize he is strong enough to fight this, that he doesn’t need to be afraid anymore, that he’s changed.

“Dream” by Imagine Dragons

We all are living in a dream But life ain't what it seems Oh everything's a mess And all these sorrows I have seen They lead me to believe That everything's a mess But I wanna dream I wanna dream Leave me to dream

Unfortunately, there isn’t much time between the Daemon Corps and when the Chosen Children follow Oikawa and the kids into the Dream World. After BelialVamdemon reveals himself, he sends the Chosen into a trance-like state where they envision their deepest dreams. The others see illusions of their broken family becoming one, humans and Digimon living together peacefully, seeing their dead father, or getting all the attention they want from their parents, but what does Ken see?

“Dear Agony” by Breaking Benjamin

Suddenly The lights go out Let forever Drag me down I will fight for one last breath I will fight until the end

And I will find the enemy within 'Cause I can feel it crawl beneath my skin

Oh yeah. He sees himself as the Digimon Kaiser essentially getting lynched by all the Digimon he hurt while under the influence of the Dark Seed. That’s not fucked up at all.

Obviously, Ken still has a long way to go as far as dealing with his trauma, but there’s one really important thing to note: He sees the lynching from an outside perspective, as if the Kaiser chained to the Dark Tower is not actually himself. I’m sure whether to accept his actions as the Kaiser as his actual actions, knowing he was manipulated by the Dark Seed, is something he struggles with regularly.

“My Demons” by Starset

I cannot stop this sickness taking over It takes control and drags me into nowhere I need your help, I can't fight this forever I know you're watching I can feel you out there

Don't let me go I need a savior to heal my pain When I become my worst enemy The enemy

His vision is then interrupted by his brother Osamu coming onto the scene and telling him to forgive himself and move on, so this vision has some good points as well.

Osamu: Ken, you have suffered enough. You have already paid for your sins. Ken: My sins have been paid for? Osamu: Yeah. Ken: It’s over. It’s over now.

He obviously still believes he deserves to suffer for what he did, but what he wants more than anything is to move on from that and not have it affect him anymore.

Wormmon, of course, is there to remind him that that isn’t possible, that we can’t live in the past (before Osamu died) and we can’t pretend the bad things didn’t happen. There’s too much at stake--not just the fight against BelialVamdemon, but to pretend those things didn’t happen means we don’t learn from our mistakes and we don’t improve.

“I Want to Live” by Skillet

All I ever needed was a reason to believe You help me hold on, you ignite the fire in me You always come for me, you know just what I need Don't make me wait for this, save me from this darkness I reach for the light

I want to live my life The choice is mine, I've made up my mind Now, I'm free to start again The way I want to live (to live) and breathe (and breathe) The way I want that's right for me I may not know nothing else But I know this, I want to live

Daisuke and Takeru show up then, and then the rest of the group, and they’re each there to support him, to show him they believe in him.

I find it interesting that all Daisuke says when he shows up is, “That’s right, Ken!” Once again, while everyone else says something that’s meant to lift his spirits and guide him in the right direction, Daisuke simply affirms Ken’s decisions and thoughts. He knows Ken will come to the right conclusion, and he doesn’t have to say any more than that.

Then, of course, they go back to the Dream World to fight BelialVamdemon for the final battle.

“King and Lionheart” by Of Monsters and Men

But you're a king and I'm a lion-heart And as the world comes to an end I'll be here to hold your hand 'Cause you're my king and I'm your lionheart

Obviously the world doesn’t come to an end because they defeat the bad guy and save the world and everything is magical again because Oikawa does something useful with his life (death), but the sentiment stands.

“Difficult Year” by Keane

Some days it seems okay Got some good friends around me But I'm still scared of losing my head I guess there's just something selfish about me

I've had a little bad luck Well, it's mostly my own making I thought I had it all sewn up But I was so badly mistaken

The series ends here, a little after Christmas but definitely before New Year’s, as New Year’s is a huge deal in Japan and, even around the climax, I don’t think they could get away with pretending it wasn’t happening. Considering the show started at the beginning of the school year, which is April in Japan, the series lasts about nine months, and boy has it been a trying year for all the Chosen Children.

Obviously, it’s been more than trying for Ken, and while he’s made tons of improvements throughout the season, he still has a long way to go to heal from his traumatic experiences, and Daisuke will be there with him along the way.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

#daiken #daisuke motomiya #ken ichijouji #digimon #digimon 02 #playlist #trigger warning #mental health #ptsd #depression #suicide #emotional abuse #anatui

[aaronhart93-archive]

discord II text Roman & Aaron

Discord thread featuring: Aaron and @romanbeckett​

Mentions: @davieslandon​ @malakhai-ozera​ @jayceelynd​ @alison-haynes​

Where: Aaron is at his house and Roman is at his house.

When: evening of May 26th-monrning of May 27th, 11:30p-2:30a

Description: Roman texts Aaron and they talk all night until they both fall asleep

Trigger Warnings: smut, what I would imagine harry’s peen to look like, really cute shit

Roman.

Hey.

Aaron.

hi

Roman.

Khai broke up with me, so. With us.

with Jay and I. And he left.

Aaron.

oh my god...im sorry Ro

Roman.

Can’t say I didn’t see it coming.

Aaron.

what did he say? Like why...?

Roman.

He told us that he loved us but needed time to work on himself or whatever.

Aaron.

I don’t know Khai that well but it does seem like he’s got a lot of shit to figure out

how are you doing with it?

and jayc? Should I reach out to her or....does she not know we’re talking

Roman.

you can talk to her if you want. I think we both just don’t really know how to feel to be honest.

Aaron.

im sorry

i hope he's okay

and i hope you and Jayc are okay too

Roman.

don’t be lol honestly Aaron, I set myself up for it the second I agreed to close myself off, knowing all of the issues I need to work through as well

contrary to popular belief, I’m far from having it all figured out.

Aaron.

that makes two of us

that was quick tbh

Roman.

Yeah. I just feel like an idiot.

Aaron.

what no....thats not what i meant

Roman.

anyway.

how are you

Aaron.

okay....no please dont feel like an idiot. its his fault not yours

im....okay....getting better than i was last week

miss you though not gonna lie

Roman.

I miss you, too. A lot.

Aaron

:(

im sorry

idk why i am i just feel like i need to apologize

Roman.

you have nothing to be sorry for lol at all

if anything, I’m sorry.

for bringing you into all this drama

and making you eat at a Chinese buffet lol

Aaron.

making me eat at a Chinese buffet is the only thing you have to be sorry for

also

i inserted myself into this mess as well. and didn't pull out once i realized who you were to landon

Roman.

does it make me immature if I laugh at you saying you didn’t pull out once?

Aaron.

RO

YES BUT IM HERE FOR IT

Roman.

I might just be high, but now I can’t stop laughing lol

Aaron.

sksjks

im sober and laughing so

well not sober

i had a few drinks

Roman.

everyone knows you’re a lightweight Aaron, stop tryin’ to be sly lol

Aaron.

who you callin a lightweight, lightweight?

Roman.

only when I haven’t eaten anything LIGHTWEIGHT

Aaron.

https://tenor.com/view/uncalled-gif-5394176

michelle tanner voice

Roman.

You miss me. Just a reminder.

Aaron.

you miss me

another reminder

Roman.

I’m not the one calling you rude lol

Aaron.

you called me out for being a lightweight and i retaliated

forgive me

Roman.

you’re in denial is what you are :fingerguns2:

but I’ll forgive you.

Aaron.

idk you'd think for how much i drink i'd have a higher tolerance

i need therapy

Roman.

probably lol I’ll go with you

Aaron.

lol couples counseling?

jk

jk

Roman.

I actually think it would be quite funny to see what they have to say about US

Aaron.

i need a therapist to tell it like it is

then again i do have ali

that woman calls me out on my shit literally daily

maybe shes just a free therapist

Roman.

LMAO that’s...amazing. I like her already.

Aaron.

she do be driving me up a wall

but

shes family

Roman.

Ah, family. I’ve been trying to get my sister here, but she’s being an ass lol

Aaron.

asshat

who wouldn’t want to move to New York

Roman.

satans demons.

Aaron.

exactly

whats keeping her from coming?

Roman.

she’s not as hellbent on big cities as I am lol

Aaron.

weird

city life has always been for me

arent you from manchester? is that not a big city?

Roman.

it’s not New York lol

she lives in the country now though.

Aaron.

no city is new york

Roman.

exactly lol

Aaron.

what are you doing

besides getting high

Roman.

I’m naked on the couch eating cherry gilato while watching good mythical morning on YouTube

Aaron.

i would very much like to be naked on a couch with you

Roman.

I painted my nails and did a facial first lol i could do yours as well

Aaron.

ill take the facial

i couldn't pull off the nails though

Roman.

you’d look so kickass with some black nails

Aaron.

you think?

Roman.

hell yes. Even a sky blue, like those eyes

Aaron.

i blush

maybe we can try the toe nails first

in case I end up hating them

Roman.

OH, I’m also trained in Swedish massage, head to toe. If you want a personal spa day

Aaron.

that would just give me a boner

Roman.

well, it’s a FULL body massage after all.

Aaron.

sksjsks

dont tempt me

Roman.

Aaron. I just.

is it bad that I don’t want to stay away from you anymore?

that’s a dumb question

I know it’s bad.

Aaron.

its not dumb

I don’t want to stay away from you either

but I promised Landon

Roman.

I know. So did I.

You’re right, I’m sorry.

Aaron.

he’s my best friend

dont be sorry

im glad you’re being honest with me

I just don’t see Landon being okay with this anytime soon

Roman.

I know! I know. He’s mine too, and I care about him more than I care to admit. I shouldn’t be like this.

Aaron.

damn this is fucked up

Roman.

I shouldn’t have said anything

Aaron.

I wish this could be easier

im the one that started with the boner references

Roman.

Not really. I offered you a massage

Aaron.

okay yes but

I told you I wanted to be naked with you

Roman.

because I said I was naked

Aaron.

I just don’t want you blaming yourself that’s all

Roman.

I know, but it is what it is. I made a mess of everything, and now everything I had is ruined lol I deserve it.

Aaron.

Ro

I’m sad you think so little of yourself

Roman.

I don’t. It’s just consequences. I made bad decisions, and now I have to deal with the consequences. That’s all. It’ll all be okay.

Aaron.

I wish I could make you feel better

Roman.

you already do. I promise.

Aaron.

I just smiled

Roman.

show me?

Aaron.

sure

Roman.

omg bad idea my heart

Aaron.

oop

Roman.

you’re so fucking jahshsbzjdndjendj

Aaron.

AKDJDJAKALhdja

Roman.

I’m mad at you

for looking like that

Aaron.

Well i can’t stop thinking about u

Roman.

let me just

Aaron.

yeah I kept drinking

and as we’ve established I’m a lightweight

okay I showed you a selfie now you should be a selfie

Roman.

oh yeah? Trying to boss me around again are ya?

Aaron.

do what daddy says

Roman.BOTToday at 2:02 AM

yes daddy.

Aaron.

brb gotta go jack off

Roman.

stoppppp

Aaron.

not kidding

Roman.

you don’t need a better picture than that to do the deed

??? Lolll

Aaron.

I mean....you could send me some

Roman.BOTToday at 2:09 AM

Does this help?

Aaron.

holy fuck

ugh I wanna fuck you so bad

and put all of you in my mouth

Roman.

I want it too. I shouldn’t, but I do. I want you to fuck me with my hands tied behind my back, and you pulling on my collar from behind.

Aaron.

fuck don’t put those thoughts in my head or I’ll act up

I wanna tie you up so bad

and punish you for being so naughty

Roman.

I’d want to call out your name so loud, but you’d have to let me.

Aaron.

you can’t do anything without my permission

Roman.

I’ll do my best daddy. You know I like to make you proud.

Aaron.

Ro I just came into a sock so hard

I want you so bad but the fact I can’t have you makes that even hotter to me

Roman.

forbidden fruit, hm?

Aaron.

you’re my forbidden fruit for sure

Roman.

wish I could have been there to help

Aaron.

you did enough helping trust me

Roman.

are we terrible people lol

Aaron.

I know

we are

im trying though

so that’s gotta count for something

Roman.

I hope it does, for both our sakes lol

Aaron.

if this doesn’t work out we can always be together in hell

Roman.

that sounds like a rightful ending

at least I’ll be tan.

Aaron.

we’ll both be hot and tan chilling in hell together

and we can fuck all we want

Roman.

sounds like the next big Netflix series.

Aaron.

could you imagine a Netflix series about us

Roman.

no, I’m scared to lol it would be more insane than Tiger King

Aaron.

you think our lives are more insane than Tiger King?!?

Roman.

scary, right??

Aaron.

thats definitely...quite the comparison

Roman.

I would have loved to have seen your face watching it for the first time

Aaron.

watching that together would have been so fun

I can picture us watching that and freaking out together

Roman.

maybe one night we’ll trip acid and watch it again

Aaron.

confession I’ve never tripped before

Roman.

whaaaaaa

do it with me!

Aaron.

I mean yeah I used to do a lot of coke when I got drunk and sometimes still do but that been the extent of my drug use

hahaha I will trip with you, Roman Beckett

Roman.

aces! Just tell me when and where, and it’s a plan!

Aaron.

”aces”

but yeah let’s do it this weekend

Roman.

I’m British you knob. Shut up lol

Aaron.

I know MATE I was making fun of you

Roman.

sends long audio clip making fun of Aaron’s New York accent

Aaron

brooooo

I do say that though

Roman.

I know, I’ve listened to you talk enough

it’s cute though

ready for bed?

Aaron.

just about

I was gonna go to bed a while ago but wanted to keep texting you

Roman.

same.

tuck me in lol

Aaron.

do u want me to tell you a bedtime story

Roman.

yes, but make it snappy

and I want warm milk

Aaron.

damn

so bossy

but okay

Roman.

you know I’m spoiled.

Aaron.

that must’ve been my fault

okay Des like this one:

By the African river, know as the Nile The sun fell away and it rested a while The rhinos had braved all the smoldering heat They lay down to sleep as they wiped off their feet The elephants marched to their elephant beds And gently they rested their elephant heads Slowly the hippos sank into the river The water so cold that it gave them a shiver (Hippos can't swim, like the pelicans think They also can't float, they could easily sink) The hippos went bathing in cool, shallow pools Thinking the rhinos and elephants fools Underwater, they fell to the soft river bed On darkish green plants with a smidgen of red They strolled on the bottom, then bounced up for air They did it for hours, without any care The fish followed closely, and wove in an out Under their belly, and up to their snout Each of the hippos came up to the shore To feed on the grass by the river once more They dried off their bodies by shaking and stomping And took bites of grass, chewing and chomping With night fading fast, they were full from the feast The sun returned back, rising up form the east The hippos crept off to collapse for the day While rhinos and elephants got up to play Enjoying the warmth of the sun and its light Never knowing the story of hippos at night

just read it in my New York accent you’re so good at

goodnight Lois

Roman.

that was perfect. Goodnight Clark.

#discord #roman #text

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

2018 Year in REVIEW: Part 2

 Hello everybody, JoyofCrimeArt here, and it's time to wrap up Deviant-cemnber by finishing this recap. If you're just joining us I'm going over all the events that happened to the cartoon community thought the year of 2018. I'm also ranking all the new series from best to worse, and deciding which network was the quote unquote "winner" of the year. If you haven't seen part one, you can check it out here. 2018 Year in REVIEW: Part 1 But for everyone else, let's get on with the review. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  So at the end of the last part, we had to deal with that whole "Thundercats CalArts" debacle. Not exactly the most "positive" stopping point. So why don't we start this part with something light? Oh hey, look, people are talking about Butch Hartman! He's always good for a laugh. What's he up too?

 Oh no...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBOMlWl7fFk

 So Butch Hartman, America's dad, started a Kickstarter for his own streaming service. It's called Oaxis and is suppose to be a family friendly streaming service with original programming along the lines of Netflix. Butch asked for 250,000 dollars in order to get the basic groundwork for the site up and running. That's a lot of money to ask for, so there's no way he could actually...Holy crap, he actually did it! The madman pulled it off!  Now, there's a lot to unload here. Butch Hartman's streaming service initially was met with controversy due to how vague everything about it was. There were a lot of unanswered questions. We didn't know what kind of shows it would have outside of a few failed pilots that Butch had pitched to various networks in the years prior. Were there other creators had plans to affiliate themselves with the project? All of these unanswered questions lead a lot of people to think that this was all just a big scam. If I had to make a guess, I have a feeling that part of the point of the Kickstarter was to act as a proof of concept. A way to show investors that there was an interest in the service. While a quarter of a million dollars is a lot, that's still not anywhere NEAR enough to run an entire new entertainment platform.  However, I wanna be devil's advocate here. Butch Hartman has some experience in this field.The Noog Network, is an app that he developed that specializes in family friendly animated and live action shorts all created by Butch Hartman himself. Not exactly the same as a streaming service, but still. And consider that Butch has ties to people in the industry, and has experiences running a business in the form of his nonprofit charity The Hartman House, MAYBE he could pull it off? Maybe? Possibly...  But that's not where the controversy ends however! As footage leaked of old Butch-y boi speaking at a church event promoting Oaxis. Here he made several claims that many found to be a bit disconcerting. Such as claims that his streaming service would feature "Christian values" which is something not at all mentioned in his Kickstarter. As a Christian myself I've always thought of Christian values as things like kindness, generosity, respect. All things that aren't necessarily exclusive to Christianity. So maybe he meant like that. However, the fact that he was invited as a special guest to a church to speak about the service...It's definitely a little bit suspect. There's nothing wrong with making a streaming service aimed at Christian families, but you should at least mention it in the Kickstarter. That way people know what they're donating too. He later specified in a tweet that while the service wouldn't inherently be Christian themed, but since Butch Hartman is a devout Christian himself, that would always carry over into his work no matter what he does. It should be noted  that in the same speech he list his previous shows as containing the same "Christian values" and I don't think anybody was ever converted to Christianity by T.U.F.F Puppy. I don't know.  Man, between this and last years Castlevania, I love being forced to talk about my religious views in a article that's suppose to be about dumb cartoon shows.  He also made a controversial claim saying that suicides are more common now of days because of peoples addition to cell phones and technology. Saying that because of these technology people not talking to their parents as much as a result. I'm not a researcher on this, so I have no idea if this is actually true. I could definitely see that could at least be partially true with things like cyber bulling and the lack of communication with parents COULD possibly be a factor in the increases of suicides. But it defiantly feels like a disservice to just ignore issues like mental health being a factor. I can defiantly see how people could of taken offense.  All of this backlash lead to everyone's favorite 2018 game! "Attack people online until they apologize!" Cause as we all know, nothing makes an apology more sincere than when it's forced out of them by an angry mob! But eventually all the heat died down when all the "Butch Hartman Rant" videos stopped getting views, I mean, when there was nothing left to talk about. Overall, I think that the situation was just bad on all fronts. Butch should of said something to explain himself, and not be so vague in his goals. But also, we live in a day and age where I honestly wonder if that would of been the smartest move. It feels like once people have their opinion set, there's no going back. I mean how often to celebrity apologizes even work? Still though, smart or not, it would of been the right thing to do.  However, I would like to point out that all of this hate started simply because he reached his goal. All the stuff about the church and his suicide comments all came after he was already getting hate for being a scam artist. But the thing is, we don't even know if he is a scam artist or not. Sure, the fact that he's barely talked about Oaxis at all since the Kickstarter was funded doesn't bode well. But from what I could fine, he's given out most of the rewards he promised. And on the Kickstarter page he says the site wasn't expected to launch until mid 2020. Do I think Butch will be able to pull this off? Probably not...but I hope he does. I want Oaxis to be a thing, cause I am interested in some of the shows he's talked about putting on there, like Elf Detective. And if you hate Butch and hope for Oaxis to fail, that's your prerogative. But if you are hoping for it to fail, than you're hoping that nearly thirteen hundred people got scammed out of their money. Just saying.  Ugh! I'm sick of this drama. I want more uplifting Kickstarter news! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rMCkNgHa3c

 Homestar Runner was one of the first big web series that existed B.Y. Before Youtube. The series has been running off and on for about nineteen years now. And the creators, The Brother Chaps, decided to make a Kickstarter campaign to make a tabletop board game based on one of there series most popular characters. Trogdor, the Burniator. A poorly drawn dragon with an affinity for burning down cottages. The Kickstarter was set up for a goal seventy thousand dollars. Which feels like a lot for a board game, but hey, what do I know. While Homestar still has a very loyal fanbase, the series defiantly is nowhere near as popular as it was in the early to mid two thousands. And seventy thousand is a pretty hefty goal? Would a board game based on an outdated internet meme from 2004 really be able to make that kind of money?  It reached it's goal in less than a day. And by the end they ended up making over one point four million dollars! I don't know what exactly The Brothers Chaps are going to do with all that money, but it's nice to know that the Homestar fanbase is still alive and well after all that time. And it's also nice to just see a Kickstarter that reached it's goal, delivered everything it promised, and didn't get into any major controversies.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Anyway, back to controversy. Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon since 2006, resigned. And people hate her because of some...controversy. Something about unions I think? Yeah, I didn't bother looking into this one. Between the Thundercats Roar drama and Butch Hartman stuff, I just couldn't go through all of this again. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, so I'm perfectly happy to be the ostrich with it's head in the sand on this one! However, like I said last time, it'll be very interesting to see what happens to Nickelodeon in the next couple of years. Without Butch Hartman, Dan Schneider, and now Cyma Zarghami I feel like Nickelodeon five years from now could be something completely unrecognizable from what it is today. And hopefully it'll be in a good way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  But hey, this year wasn't all drama though. I mean look at all the new shows we got. Like Pinky Malinky.

DELAYED!  Okay, well at least we finally have Young Justice season three...

DELAYED!  The new Harley Quinn Cartoon...

DELAYED!  FXX's Deadpool?

CANCELED!  TBS's Close Enough from Regular Show creator JG Quintel?

WHO THE FU*K EVEN KNOWS AT THIS POINT?  Seriously, what's with this year? It's like everything has been delayed! What the heck? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Nickelodeon announced that they're making a reboot for the Rugrats. And just...why?  Money-    Yes, I know it's money! But it's a show about babies! When you make a reboot of something, the entire point is to update it. But when your show is about babies, how are you suppose to do that? Babies today are still doing the same things that babies did back in 1991. And with the first show having one hundred seventy two half hour episodes. What stories are left to tell?  Then again, anything can be good. That Muppet Babies reboot (Which I didn't watch and isn't on this list) seems to be pretty well received. So maybe it could work. I don't know. I've never seen to much Rugrats growing up, so it's hard for me to get excited for this. But I'm sure someone will enjoy it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  So Netflix decided to drop all of their new series all at the end of the year. Their first one is Matt Groening's Disenchantment. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp_RnJcb8Ig

 The series follows Bean, the princess of the magical kingdom of Dreamland. She's a bitter snarky alcoholic, cause AGAIN, NEVER SEEN THAT CHARACTER DONE BEFORE! The series follows her, as well as her personal demon Luci and her elf companion Elfo through various misadventures. Think what Futurama did with Sci-fi but with a fantasy setting and you have this show. Only...Comedy Centeral era Futurama.  I didn't really enjoy the first seven or so episodes of this show that much. The show wasn't bad per say, but it wasn't really anything great either. This show is aimed slightly more towards adults than Matt Groening's previous works, having a TV-14 rating instead of a TV-PG. The humor is a bit darker and edgier, and it lead to this very mean spirited feel over the entire show. The cast aren't particularly likable, and Dreamland just isn't a fun setting to be around. One thing I did like however was the fact that the show had an on going continuity and changing status quo. This is refreshing considering that Matt Groenings other shows (mainly The Simpsons) are famous for almost always returning to their status quo.  But here's the weird thing, starting with episode 8, the show suddenly has this MASSIVE spike in quality out of nowhere as all the plot points that have been building over the course of the season all start to pay off. The characters all become a lot more likable. The stakes are raised. Like, it's weird how different these last three episodes are. I'd go into more detail, but unfortunately I can't due to spoilers, but trust me, the show gets better. It's not "classic Simpsons" or "classic Futurama" good, but still. It's not THAT far off.  This sudden spike in quality makes it hard for me to decide how to rate this show. But since most of the run is pretty sub par, I kinda just have to average it out. Unfortunately due to the continuity you can't just skip till the end. It all really depends how patient you are. But even the bad stuff isn't awful or anything. It's just kinda bland. The show was picked up for a second season and I am looking forward to seeing where this show will go. I think that season two could be something great, but just talking about season one, it's...okay. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Hey, it feels like it's been a while since we had a controversy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZSOGZFfSDk

 It seems recently there are so many streaming services out there creating there own original series, it's hard to keep track. You got Netflix, Hulu, DC Universe, Soon they'll be Disney+...Oaxis-  So it only made since for a site like Cruchyroll to start making they're own exclusive content. You'd think they would just hire some anime studio to make originals for them like Netflix does. But no, they decided to go with a more American styled series. High Guardian Spice. The trailer doesn't reveal much about the show, but plot wise it sounds eerily similar similar to RWBY. About a group of girls all named after different spices going to school to become "Guardians." Whatever that means.  There were a lot of reason people were upset. From it be a more Americanized looking series. To the fact that Cruchyroll's (from what I hear) site having some interface problems that some people would rather have them devoting the money on fixing. But the main reason people were upset was because of the series trailer spent more time talking about the diversity of the crew and characters than they did the show plot. Outrage was also sparked from the fact that they use the fact that they have an all female writers room as a sign of there "diversity." Even though having a writers room were everyone is the same gender isn't actually diverse.  I have no problem with diversity in my stories. But the fact that they chose to focus on it as a highlight when they talked so little about the story of the characters is what has me worried. It makes me worried that the crew aren't confident enough in the series premise and characters to carry the series on it's own. It's better to make a story that's good first, and diverse second as oppose to the other way around. When you do it the other way, you end up with Ghostbusters 2016. I think. I never saw it, but I hear it's "okay" at BEST. People don't like things shoved down there throats, even if it's something they agree with. Most people support diversity. But when you tell them that they HAVE to support it, that's what makes people start to hate it. Humans are very spiteful creatures in that regard.  However, despite all of that, I'm still kinda excited for this show. I LOVE the art style. And you all know by now that I love me a good girly cartoon. And many other shows that boast about their diversity (Like Steven Universe and She Ra, which I'll get to in little bit) still manage to be good. It can be distracting when you see a cartoon and know what ideals the creators are trying to push. I get it. But sometimes you just have to take the death of the author approach, and just see the show for what it is on it's own. You might be surprised by what you can enjoy. We'll have to wait to see how this show pans out. But if they're able to include some Mike Toole, I'm sold. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  It seems like every year we have one BIG cartoon finale. 2016 had Gravity Falls. 2017 had Regular Show. And now after eight long years, it's time for Adventure Times Grand Finn-ale.  ...I'm not sorry.  Adventure Time ended with an hour long episode "Come Along with Me." I'll try to not spoil the special TOO much for those who haven't seen it, but if you want to go in completely blind I suggest skipping down to the next segment cause this is your SPOILER WARNING. The special revolves around the Gum War between Princess Bubblegum and her Uncle Gumbald. A plot that had been slowly growing all season. On top of that, Betty and Normal Man are trying to find a way to turn Ice King back into Simon.  The things I do like about the finale is just the sheer number of callbacks that were made. While I think a few did go over my head, as there are a few episodes of Adventure Time I've never gotten around to seeing, it's nice to see so many returning concepts and characters. I'm glad they included things from the entire series run, instead of just the "classic" episodes that most people would recognizes. It rewards fans who stuck around for the long haul. It was also nice seeing most of the series lingering plot points wrap up. And we finally got to see the kiss that we've all been waiting years for. And kudos to CN for allowing them to do it. It was very brave of them.  I am of course talking about LSP and Lemongrab, baby! Wooh! 

 There's also the ending. Which is just a montage set to the end credits song showing where all the characters end up after the series. I love endings like this so damn much, and while it didn't hit me as hard as Regular Show's finales montage, it still hits the feels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIkS8eGCKOU

 The special does have it's flaws though. The Gum War really felt like an anti-climax and the shift to GOLB felt very out of left field. Also the fate of Uncle Gumbald left a very bad taste in my mouth. It kinda felt like they went against the whole point they tried to make. I admit that I didn't enjoy this finale as much as I did the Gravity Falls or Regular Show finales, but it's still sad seeing Adventure Time go. It defined cartoons of the 2010's. And I don't think they'res been a show since that's been quite like it. Even though the later seasons weren't as good, Adventure Time will always have a special place in my heart. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Netflix continues to pump out series after series with another new series, Dragon Prince.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWEtCsi3Eo8

 Dragon Prince is a series set in a fantasy world in the midst of war. On one side is the humans, and on the other side the Elves and Dragons. The series follows two human princes, Callum and Ezran as well as a elf assassin named Rayla, as they go on a quest that will hopefully bring peace to there world.  The series features a lot of crew and voice actors who previously worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender. And it shows. I mean both shows follow a group of kids traveling through a fantasy world in the middle of a war. The seasons are called books, and each book based on a different element of the magic system. I was worried this show would falls end up being just a carbon copy of Avatar. But luckily, the show does manage to have it's own feel despite having a lot of stimulates.  The animation is a bit of a mixed bag. It's cel shaded CGI, similar to RWBY. But despite the series being made by a company much bigger than Rooster Teeth, the animation is so much more lag-y. Something about the frame rate seems off at times. Also I noticed background characters being copied and recolored a few times in my watch. But none of this took me to much out of the experience.  The characters and writing are all really good for the most part. One of the best parts of Avatar was how it showed that both sides of the war had normal people. And Dragon Prince takes this element and brings it one step further. Neither side of the war are depicted as wholly right or wholly wrong, with both sides committing terrible acts. That's a lot of complexity for a show that's aimed at children. However, there is a villain who, while I won't reveal who he/she is, feels very cartoonishly evil for this otherwise complex world. Like, you could make this character complex very easily. A lot of the villains goals and reasoning makes sense, and are even justifiable. But the methods used are just the most mustache twirling ways of achieving these goals, even when there are less evil ways of accomplishing the same thing. It's weirdly out of place.  However, despite the flaws, Dragon Prince is a really good show that manages to feel similar to Avatar while still being it's own thing. I highly recommend you check it out.   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Speaking of Avatar, Netflix is making one! Particularly a live action reboot. And just...Why?  Money-    Yes, I know it's money! But everybody already love the original Avatar! What is there to change? What needs to be updated? And what can be done in live action that can't be done in animation. It feels like all these live action remakes only exist in order to "legitimize" their animated counterparts. Cause God forbid something animated be watched by adults. I dunno. There's a very good chance this could be good, but I doubt it'll be better than the original series. I have no interest in this. Netflix, you have Dragon Prince! You don't need this! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  But Netflix isn't done yet! Cause we also have Hilda! Based on the series of graphic novels of the same name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCojP2Ubuto

 Hilda follows...Hilda. A young adventurous girl who spent her whole life living in a magical forest with her Mom. That is until one day her Mom decides to move to the city of Trolberg. Now Hilda has to learn to adapt to her new surroundings in the city, learn to make friends with normal humans, and deal with magical creatures. Cause despite the fact that Trolberg has a wall designed to keep magical creatures out, the city really sucks at doing so.    This shows really cute! The art style reminds me of a cross between Steven Universe and The Loud House. But with any series involving kids interacting with magical creatures the comparisons are going to be brought up. Is Hilda the next Over The Gravity Garden Falls? Seriously, ever video on Youtube about Hilda brings up this comparison.  And really, outside of the premise of "adventurous child exploring magical forest" Hilda isn't really like either of those shows. Hilda is a lot lighter in tone than those two series. The monsters aren't as scary and the humor is a lot less snarky. There aren't really that many "jokes" in Hilda as the series relies more on overall pleasantness. Also there isn't any real overarching mystery element in Hilda. It's more slice of life. Why can't Hilda just be the next...Hilda?  It's a quaint show. From the animation, to the tone, to the voice acting, it all just feels so cozy. I also love the creativity with all the different creatures they come up with. It's has a unique charm to it, and it's fun seeing a world where everyone just knows magic exist and society has integrated with it. If I had to point out a few flaws, I'd say that the subplot they have with Hilda's best friend Frieda wasn't very good. I really have no idea what they were going for with that. And the show can be a bit repetitive at times, but that might just be because I had to binge it in order to finish it in time for this review. But overall this is a really nice show. Check it out if you can. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  OK KO is well known for it's crossovers from Captain Planet to Mighty Magiswords. But this year, they created the ultimate crossover. And if we could just appreciate the dedication to the past that the crew for OK KO clearly had when making this crossover? You all know what I'm talking about right? OK KO meet Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School Baby! That's right, the crossover that we've all been waiting for.

 ...  AND THEY SAID AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR WAS THE MOST AMBITIOUS CROSSOVER OF ALL TIME!  They were even allowed to use the original Hannah-Barbara model sheets. This is notable as I think it's the first time OK KO has ever actually used a model sheet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Hey, everybody loves Fallout 76, right? While we all agree the game is a flawless masterpiece, I just wish there was a way to somehow make it even better. Like, what if we got the twitch streamer Ninja, The rapper Logic, and RICK AND MORTY to all live stream the game together? Now THAT would be a lot of IQ....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMZhhTOF4l8

 ...  aNd ThEy SaId ThAt AvEnGeRs: InFiItY wAr WaS tHe MoSt AmBiTiOuS cRoSsOvEr oF AlL tImE!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I swear, Netflix won't be satisfied until they make at least one thousand original animated series a year. Here's She-Ra and the Princess of Power. Not to be confused with She-Ra: Princess of Power. That's the 80's show.  Good job naming your show there, Netflix! 

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuFQxsRzUws

This is the cheesiest theme song ever, I love it so much!  Now, from what I understand, a lot of OG She-Ra fans don't like this reboot because it changed so much from the original. However, as someone who knows next to nothing about She-Ra or He-Man, I'm can't really comment on any inaccuracies. So I'm going to have to judge it as it's own thing.  She-Ra follows Adora, a child solider serving as force captain in The Horde army. But one day, after finding a magical sword in the forest, she gains the ability to transform into the Hero, She-Ra. Not long after that she finds out that, shock of all shock, the army that's literally called THE HORDE are actually the bad guys. so she defects from the Horde, and joins the Rebellion with her new friends Bow and Glimmer. Now Adora, along with a growing army of magical princesses, must find a way to fight back against the Horde. Meanwhile The Horde, specifically Adora adopted sister/possible...lover Catra try to bring her back to her "home."  I like this show. It's not amazing or anything. But it's a fun, girly action series. That's something I like about Netflix, it's one of the only channels out there that's not afraid to do action series. While the characters aren't that complex, they're fun and all have good chemistry together. Everybody feels like a real person. And this applies to both the Rebellion and the Horde. The show does a good job of juggling a lot of characters, while still keeping focus on the main cast.  AND YOU WANNA TALK SAD, LONELY LESBIANS! THIS WHOLE SHOW IS A SAD LONELY LESBIAN! Though did anyone else find it a bit strange that Adora's relationship with Catra seemingly bounces back and forth between "sister" and "lover." Like, I don't care which way you go with, but you really need to pick one or the other...  I know a lot of people are annoyed by the fact that a lot of classic designs and characters were changed to make the show more diverse. I didn't mind this to much. Adaptations change race, sexuality, and body types all the time. And I can only think of one time where it ever felt distracting, and even then it was brief. I never found it to bothersome.  Downsides though, the tone is kinda wonky at times. Nothing to noticeable, but sometimes it seems like the show is trying to be a serious action adventure, while other times it feels like it's trying to be campy like the 80's series. There's an episode called "Princess Prom" and it's one of the turning points in the season. Like, how am I suppose to take this seriously. But luckily it never gets that bad. I think the show is somewhat aware of a wink and nod nature to the show. It's a fun series. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  And unfortunately, we have to end the year on a downer note. As Stephen Hillenburg, creator of Spongebob, passed away at the age of 57 from ALS. I don't know what to say. I hate taking an entire human beings life and acting like there art is all that mattered. But as I don't know the man personally, I'll just say that he created one of the most well know fictional characters of all time. Spongebob is the first thing most people think of when you say Nickelodeon. And it's one of the few characters that I think will be remembered even a hundred years in the future, along the likes of Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and Popeye. Even in death, his legacy will live on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  And with that, we end 2018 year in review! It's been a hell of a wild ride! But how does the year rank overall? First, we'll start with my old favorite. Ranking the series in a way that'll end up regretting in a month! Keep in mind this is a rough list. List aren't really my specially, and each show offers and is going for it's own unique thing. So sometimes it's hard to compare them. Also these rankings could change in the following year as new episodes come out. But if I had to rank them... 9. Apple and Onion 8. Craig of the Creek 7. Final Space 6. Disenchantment 5. Nomad of Nowhere 4. She Ra and The Princess of Power 3. Ballmastrz 9006 2. Hilda 1. Dragon Prince  And keep in mind that, due to both a lack of time and lack of cable, there were a lot of shows I wasn't able to check out or just wasn't interested in discussing. Like these!  (Big City Greens, Harvey Street Kids, Mega Man: Fully Charged, Muppet Babies, Our Cartoon President (HAHA! Trump jokes! Never seen those before!), Paradise PD (Cause we definitely need another show from the makers of Brickleberry!), Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars Resistance, Summer Camp Island, Super Drags, The Adventures of Kid Danger, The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants, The Hollow, The Shivering Truth, Total Dramarama)  As for the grade, it's a bit tricky. If I had to go just by the shows, I'd give it a B. They're weren't many shows I LOVED but they're weren't many shows I outright hated. Most shows this year were "good." But if we decide to count all the drama, that would drag the year all the way down to a C. There was just so much drama that, along with a few other personal reasons, I found myself kinda falling out of the animation community as a whole this year. And when the drama actually starts making you wonder why you entered this community in the first place, that's not a good thing. So take that for what you will.  As for best network, I once again have to give it to Netflix. I know it's kinda unfair since I didn't watch any Nickelodeon or Disney shows this year. But with so many more shows and channels watching a show from each is getting harder and harder. And Netflix is just pumping out series after series. And most of them are pretty good. It feels like the people at Netflix are really given free range to do whatever they want over there. And we get some really unique series as a result. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  2018 may not have been the best year for animation, but I really think that 2019 is going to be a really good year. I mean just with what's already been announced we've got so many good series to look forward to! There's Infinity Train, Owl House, Amphibia, Los Casagrandes, Victor and Valentino, Gen: Lock, Harley Quinn, Young Justice Season Three, Theoretically Close Enough! Plus a lot more! Seriously, next year I'm either going to have to cut out a lot of anticipated series or make this a three part-er. Which would you prefer? And what did you think of 2018 for animation? What series were the best, and which were the worst? Leave any thoughts in the comments down bellow, I'd love to hear em. Fav, Follow, and comment if you like the review. And have a great new year. And let's all hope that 2019 can have a little less drama.  Um, isn't Thundercats Roar and High Guardian Spice coming out next year too? 2019 is going to be the biggest dumper fire ye-  Have a great day. (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review. All credit goes to there original owners.) 

  https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/2018-Year-in-REVIEW-Part-2-779673316 DA Link

#Dragon Prince #She Ra #High Guardian Spice #Hilda #Adventure Time

[the-daegu-boys]

Taegi fanfiction recommendations

just a heads up, most of them have Bottom Yoongi/Top Tae i if there’s smut or implied. 

I’ll try writing what you need to know about each fic (a shitty summery) + the original tags & ratings, I’ve never done this before so, sorry for any mistakes. 

the order is from the most words count to least, unless the fic has part 2 then they’ll follow each other regardless.

G = General Audience 

T = Teen And Up Audience

M = Mature

E = Explicit  

Slow Burn/Slow Build/enemies to friends to lovers/friends to lovers/Chaptered or heavy plot:  

“Affinity” by Meanie_Beanie_nim (Magic AU, fluff & angst with a happy ending, Words: 182,247, ongoing)   

“Just Skin” by syubology (Rated: E, college au, fuckbuddies, light angst, a lot of smut, Bottom Yoongi except once in chapter 3, mostly Yoongi centric, Words: 164,794, not completed)

“Try your best shot at love (dance under my skin)” by Bandit4Life (College AU, Basketball player yoongi, Dancer + photography major Tae, internalized homophobia, self denial, self acceptance, fluff, angst with a happy ending, Words: 133,296) 

“he sprinkled me in pixie dust (and told me to believe)” by intronevermind (Ratings: T, high school au, yoongi centric, depression, panick attack, abusive parent, fluff, hurt/comfort, angst with a happy ending, Words: 128,639)

“His #1″ by Evie_Elle (Ratings: T,  greek mythology with modern twist au, it is the story of Hades and persephone with a twist, implied sexual content (very briefly) & yoongi bottoming, angst with a happy ending, Words: 107,225, ongoing)

“Ugly Heart” by Bandit4Life (Rich & Poor AU, Tae is an arrogant rich actor, Yoongi is a barista who’s working hard to support his family, Yoongi have anger issues, panic & anxiety attacks, angst with a happy ending, sexual tension, Words: 77,016)

“The Moonchild and His Stardust” by VanteKal (slow burn, Tattoo artist Yoongi, Barista Tae, mutual pining, huge crush, love at first sight, Yoongi being oblivious to Tae’s feelings, Yoongi as lil meow meow, the rest of BTS being lil shits,  light angst & fluff, Words: 64,837)

“Beethoven your way into my heart” by Bandit4Life (College AU, Orchestra AU,  saxophonist Tae, pianist Yoongi, fluff and angst, depression, social anxiety, mention of eating disorder, pining, jealousy, enemies to friends to lovers, Words: 63,125 )

“You ruined the moonlight” by Bandit4Life (part 2 of the Beethoven series, angst with a happy ending, jealous and sad Yoongi, Words: 71,175)

“White Chalk” by g_odalisque13 (Rated: E, college au, 1990′s au, Dare games, friendship, coming of age, coming out, denial, mental breakdown, internalized homophobia, angst with a happy ending, blow jobs, mostly Yoongi centric, Words: 72,553)

“All These Sleepless Nights” by mucha (Rated: E, writer yoongi, closeted character, increased age difference but no one is a minor, accidental dates, free spirited Tae, masturbation, 1st time BJ, eventual smut, yoongi tops at the beginning then he bottoms for the 1st time,  fluff & angst with a happy ending, Words: 62,626)

“Moving On” by EleanorNicole (Rated: M, assistant yoongi, boss taehyung, sexual tension, fluff & angst with a happy ending, anxiety attack, mention of past rape, healing, eventual smut, bottom yoongi, Words: 60,283)

“Could You” by coley_merrin (Rated: T, Lawyer Yoongi, College Student Tae, JK & Tae are Roommate & Yoongi is JK’s hot older brother, fluff, Romance, BJs, Words: 46,461)

“Bittersweet” by sweetsyub (Ratings: T, asexual character, slight angst, misunderstandings, underage drinking, recreational drug use, fluff, Words: 41,896)

“The Less I Know The Better” by mucha (Rated: E, Fake/pretend relationship, escort taehyung, eventual smut, bottom yoongi, mostly Yoongi centric, Words: 40,816)

“It Feels Like There's Oceans (Between You and Me)” by mucha (Rated: E, part 2 of “The Less I know the better”, photographer yoongi, model tae, angst with a happy ending, post break up & getting back together, drinking, mention of drug use once, smut, bottom yoongi, mostly Yoongi centric, Words: 28,778)

“Tell Me Again” by Oh_Hey_Tae (Ratings: T, angst with a happy ending, college au, mute yoongi, PTSD, reference to depression & anxiety, Words: 39,650, ongoing)

“All Fall Down” by sweetsyub (Ratings: T, Alternate Universe, fluff & humor, Words: 25,785)

“Don't Wanna Fall In Love” by minyoongi6275 (Rated: T, college au, barista yoongi, rich fuckboy tae, flirting, humor, Words: 23,586,ongoing)

“we are like parallel lines (no way, we'll meet)” by tteokie (Rated: E, boarding school, friends to lovers, light angst with a happy ending, eventual smut, bottom yoongi, Words: 19,618)

“You weren't” by Bandit4Life (College AU, angst with a happy ending, mention of past suicide attempt, Taegi have a history, Words: 18,638)

“Like, Comment and Subscribe” by mucha (Ratings: T, social media, youtuber tae, college au, fluff, pining, mention of anxiety, long distance relationship, spin the bottle, Words: 13,012)

“You Know It All, You're My Best Friend” by internetpistol (Rated: T, College AU, Coming of age, underage drinking & smoking, light angst, fluff & humor, strangers to fiends  to best friends, roommate, Words: 

“we're coming unglued (it's only natural)” by clumsy_taegi (Rated: E, friends with benefit, feelings realization, smut, bottom yoongi, Tae gets roped into a no sex bet & taegi suffer, Words: 8,650, not completed)

Bodyguard AU https://twitter.com/bangtanadriella/status/1036525196813979649 Yoongi receives threats after his controversial album gets released so his company hires a team of bodyguards including Taehyung. (Slow burn, light angst, fluff, soft yoongi, Taehyung is a sweetheart, Ongoing) 

“Fire and Clay” by Nojalina (Rated: M, photographer yoongi, model tae. yoongi had a crush on jimin but can’t stand his friend taehyung, makeouts, eventual smut, not very descriptive though, bottom yoongi, 20918 words) https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1280028/fire-and-clay-romance--yoongi-taehyung-taegi

Childhood friends/best friends: 

“let it out, let it in, you're the one i hold within” by clumsy_taegi (Rated: M, slow burn, childhood friends. unrequited love. Yoongi, JK & Tae are childhood friends. Tae is pining after Yoongi. Yoongi is JK’s older brother & both of them are pining after Tae. Yoongi is a good brother. secrete relationships. makeouts, blow jobs, bottom yoongi, Words: 22,166, not complete) 

“Liebespaar” by 777335 (Ratings: T, Childhood friends, Yoongis is whipped, Tae is whipped, artists Tae, producer yoongi, emotional hurt/comfort, friends to lover, Words: 14,701)

“Linger” by taethereal (Rated: M, childhood friends, best friends, college au, sexual tension, friends to lovers, Words: 12,249)

“If Love and Hate Are the Same Words” by Holyhoseok (Rated: E, friends to lover, Tae thought he was straight, yoongi also thought that, not really unrequited love, jealous yoongi, eventual smut, bottom yoongi, Words: 11,006)

“boys like boys like girls do (nothing new)” by princesaadriella (Rated: G, alternate universe, Friendship, Yoongi centric, fluff & mild angst with a happy ending, whipped yoongi, unrequited love, falling in love, friends to lovers, Words: 10,338)

“True or False, Taehyung” by clumsy_taegi (Rated: M, fluff, pining, sexual content, BJs, friends to lovers, Words: 6,051)

DRIFT [t.gi] by joonpiter https://my.w.tt/1E2H4xLRES Slow Burn, high school au, childhood best friends, eventual smut, bottom/sub baby boy yoongi, top/dom/daddy taehyung, violence, Yoongi & Tae don’t have an easy life at home, mood swings, Yoongi have multiple personalities disorder were 1 of them is a 5 year old child (I think it’s little space more than MPD but the author referred to it as mood swings & different personalities which make sense too but I thought I should mention it anyways) 

Non-AU/Canon Compliant: 

“I LOVE YOU” by Naddou_dreamy (Rated: M, Slow Burn, non au/canon compliant, light angst with a happy ending, fluff, unreasonably jealous yoongi, sexual content, eventual smut, blow jobs, bottom yoongi)  yoongi is an asshole to tae for some reason & tae pretend to be unbothered which pisses yoongi off even more. words: 58,418  https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1132522/i-love-you-angst-romance-taegi 

“Just bestfriends, (or so we believe)” by vgi (Rated: E, Slow Burn, non au/canon compliant, friends to lovers, fluff, kisses, dom/sub undertones, sub yoongi, hand jobs, eventual smut, bottom yoongi, Words: 44,187, not completed) 

“see on both sides like chanel” by agust__d (Rated: T, gender expression, supportive Taehyung, fluff, light angst with a happy ending, non au/canon compliant, Words: 13,102)

“It's Not Real, Baby” by GeiSama (Ratings: G. non-au/canon compliant, misunderstandings, not really unrequited love, friends to lovers, fluff, 1st kisses, Words: 8,397) https://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/480465/it-s-not-real-baby-oneshot-bts-bangtanboys-suga-taehyung-taegi-vsuga

“Before This Christmas” by visbaeallday (Ratings: T, Non-AU/Canon compliant, partial amnesia, friends to lovers, 1st kisses, fluff, Words: 8,222)

“poción de amor” by PinkMonStoleJiminsJams (Rated: M, love potion, romantic comedy, fluff, possessive & jealous yoongi, needy & cute yoongi, whipped Taehyung, not really one sided love, mild smut, power bottom yoongi, canon compliant, Words: 8,078)

“Pretty Hyung” by kafrickinboom (non au/canon compliant, porn with plot, yoongi in a skirt, eventual blow jobs, Words: 7,890)

“Read Between the Lines” by theimpossibleimpala (Rated: T, canon divergent, angst, fluff, love songs, oblivious idiots, pining, confessions, first kisses, one shot, Words: 5,372)

“Would It Help If I Just Threw My Love At You?” by btsax (Rated: T, fluff, love confessions, friends to lovers, canon compliant, Words: 3542)

“keep you runnin' till you whimpy” by homine (Rated: E, porn without plot, bottom yoongi, Words: 2,911)

“Reach Out and Touch” by theimpossibleimpala (Rated: T, canon compliant/non au, Truth or dare, flirting, making out, kissing, love confessions, one shot, fluff, Words: 2,758)

“Once Again” by fifthagust (Rated: M, angst, smut, fluff, established relationship, happy ending, implied referenced homophobia, bottom yoongi/top tae, Words: 2,428)

“jeju come from hawaii?” by taegikook (Rated: T, canon compliant, light angst & fluff, secrete relationship, jealous Yoongi, Tae is whipped, Words: 2331)

“when you touch me (it's so powerful)” by intronevermind (Rated: E, canon compliant, Exhibitionism, teasing, Sub Yoongi, Words:2305)

“Moving the Papers” by spiritreads (non au/canon compliant, one shot, mutual pining, fluff, 1st kisses, Words: 2,299)

Canon Taegi AU by tatamoonchild  (Porn with plot, bottom yoongi) https://twitter.com/tatamoonchild/status/1031938542140833794 

Fluff/Crack/semi Crack/Comedy//one shots and others:

“hit or miss” by carryontae (Rated: M, strangers to lovers,  alternative universe, chatting & messaging, fluff & humor,  soft boys, reference anxiety, reference homophobia, whipped yoongi, whipped Tae, flirting, dramatic/extra Yoongi, Words: 27,610) Note: it’s not all in chatting formate, it transition smoothly to written scenes. 

“Lingerie” by Bandit4Life (humor, Harry Potter reference, writer yoongi, yoongi centric, awkwardness, eventual smut, sub bottom yoongi, panties, Words: 21,435)

“play your love songs all night long (only for me)” by agust__d (Ratings: T, Neighbors AU, producer yoongi, college student tae, Enemies to lovers, misunderstandings, humor & fluff, light angst, brief mention of recreational drug use, reference to sex, soft, Words: 19,582)

“Will You B Minor?” by ohdizzy (semi crack, fluff, brass AU, saxophonist tae, music-related pickup lines, misunderstandings, Words: 19,364)

“harvest moon, recall your youth” by blackranger (Rated: E, strangers to married, drunk weddings in Vegas au, angst with a happy ending, hurt/comfort, rap lines friendship, discussion of mental illness, soft yoongi, Comedy, fluff, mild smut, bottom yoongi, Words: 17,880) 

“you belong to the stars in the clouds” by UPSIDEDOWN (Rated: E, neighbors, rapper yoongi, fanboy tae, strangers to friends to lovers, first dates, eventual smut, bottom yoongi, Words: 14,620)

“Puppy Love” by Bandit4Life (college AU, friends to lovers, mutual pining, Christmas, fluff, neighbors, nerd tae, tattoos, soft yoongi, Words: 13,426)

“Vampires Will Never Hurt You” by mucha (Rated: E, modern vampire au, fluff & crack, eventual blow jobs, yoongi pretend to be scary but he’s actually soft, roommates, Words: 12,750)

“It Must've Been The Mistletoe” by mucha, roachprince (Ratings: T, Christmas fluff, friends with benefit to lovers, 1st kiss, Words: 11,815) 

“Kitten Licks and Caramel Macchiatos” by toxicmew (Rated: M, College AU, RM & Tae are brothers, fluff, budding love, getting together, humor, texting, Words: 11,408)

“Everyday Boom Boom (Because of You Boom Boom)” by bananamilks (Rated: T, college au, modern magic au, pinning Tae, witch Tae, mild hurt/comfort, mild angst, fluff, kissing, Words: 11,405)

“the wishes that are in our eyes” by misspamela (Rated: E, magical realism, everyone has a little magic, taehyung made babies, mutual pining, fluff, hand jobs, Words: 9,468)

“Mute” by orphan_account (Rated: M, Mute Yoongi, Translator Tae, light angst but mostly fluff, cute, mention of past abuse, established relationship, Words: 8,845)

“a fever we can learn from” by clumsy_taegi (Rated: T, sick fic, sick yoongi, Tae take care of him, denial of feelings, fluff, Words: 8,702)

“Discount Love” by Bandit4Life (College AU, Funny, Yoongi has phone anxiety, accidental love confession, pining yoongi, oblivious Tae Words: 8,431)

“i love you a lot, you know” by clumsy_taegi (Rated: T, friends to lovers, fluff, mutual pining, they’re both oblivious, brief mention of homophobic parents, roommate, Words: 7249)

“A Hard Thing to Miss” by CheekyBrunette (volleyball AU, confused & oblivious Tae, pining, yoongi is a sweet hyung, friends to lovers, Words: 7237)

“a midsummer's ice cream” by conversehigh (ice cream shop AU, Tae work at ice cream shop & make bad pun, fluff, Words: 5,791)

“I Put a Spell on You” by mucha (Rated: T, alternative universe modern with magic, modern witches Vmin, whipped Tae, fluff, Words: 5,076)

“Heartbeats” by mucha (Rated: T, painter Yoongi, muse Tae, Tae is a mess, mention of drugs & alcohol, pining, angst with a happy ending, Words: 4426)

“Catching Feelings” by mucha (Rated: E, underground rapper Yoongi, Barista Tae, fluff & smut, public BJs, Yoongi is super chill & Tae is a disaster, Words: 4,274)

“So Kiss Me” by mucha (Rated: T, alternative universe non famous, paper passing game, jealousy, Words: 3,070)

“sweet like candy” by vastlyunknown (Rated: T, roommates au, taehyung mistakingly calls yoongi babe once and it leads... somewhere unexpected,Words: 2,178)

“you make my heart go bang” by clumsy_taegi (Rated: T, college AU, roommates, fluff, jealous & shy Yoongi, bold Tae, Words: 2117)

Smut/Porn with Plot/Porn without Plot: 

“Shots Fired” by eclairdeluxe (alternative universe, police officer yoongi, firefighter tae, firefighters and police, rivalry, top tae/bottom yoongi, Words: 33,864)

“You're my friend but I would totally bang you if you'd ask” by Bandit4Life (college au, smut, porn with plot, bottom yoongi, 1st time, Words: 18,337)

“A Smell of Chocolate under the Rain” by Seemylia (A/B/O au, alpha tae, omega yoongi in early heat, top tae/bottom yoongi, CEO Tae, employee yoongi, office sex, Words: 16,795)

“I didn't know that I was starving ('til I tasted you)” by eclairdeluxe (porn without plot, established relationship, bottom yoongi, Words: 11,916)

“Serendipitous” by chlexcer (flirting, dum/sub undertones, smut, power bottom yoongi, Words: 11,312)

“Layers Of You” by Tiayumi (paper passing game, alternative universe, domestic BF, getting to know each other, fluff, angst with a happy ending, eventual smut, sub yoongi, bottom yoongi, Words: 10,376)

“Friends vs. Cock” by gotmyvante (porn with plot, established relationship, humor, college au, Sub Yoongi/Dom Tae, Words: 6,500)

“i just wanna watch you (when you take it off)” by UPSIDEDOWN (tutor & producer yoongi, student tae, first dates, eventual smut, bottom yoongi, Words: 6,420)

“Take Care.” by signifying_nothing (secretary tae, boss yoongi, porn with plot, power bottom yoongi, plugs, Words: 5,542)

“fuck kim taehyung” by prkjimin (porn without plot, sub bottom yoongi, plugs, Words: 4,712)

“So tell me baby, can you shake it?” by misspamela (porn without plot, grinding in a club, hand jobs, confessions, Words: 4,606)

“help me, help you” by orphan_account (porn without plot, sex on a pool table, power bottom yoongi, Words: 3,470)

“Come As You Are” by furiousfat (porn without plot, Dom Bottom Yoongi, Evil Yoongi, he’s a tease, panties, some BDSM, Words: 2,176)

“temptation” by yoontaro (porn without plot, established relationship, fluff, bottom yoongi, Words: 1,533)

#taegi fanfiction recommendations #bottom yoongi #top taehyung #sub yoongi #dom taehyung #Taegi fic #taegi #taegi fanfic #taegi fic rec #taegi fic recommendations #taegi fanfiction #vsuga

[stlynnthoria]

Today while napping....

I had a very interesting dream where I was on some sort of stream with Chris Demarais, Michael Jones, Jeremy Dooley, and I think some other Roosterteeth people were there in the background? Anyway, I don't really remember what we were talking about on it but I guess the cameras were set up for bust shots, because I was there without pants. At one point I made a comment about someone's clothes and Michael was like "Man you have no room to talk, like what are YOU wearing on your legs? What is that??" And there was lots of laughter but it was towards the end of the stream and so I was like "It's nothing, I dunno what you're talking about! You're gonna make the audience think there's somehjng weird about me but this is completely normal!" And he was like "Yeah no, if you don't wanna explain thats fine but whatever is up woth you that's not normal" then looked at the camer and said "Just so you know, she's not normal, I dunno why we have her here" and then Chris was like "Hey now, it may be a luck thing or something" and Michael was like "Who's getting lucky with her?? Is it you?" And Chris and I were both backtracking with that and there was more laughter. After the stream ended, Jeremy asked if it was my fav pair of underwear and I was telling him how it was and I'd had them for years (???? What even dream-me?), and he askes if I was going commando and I was like what? So he explained that he has a lot of underwear that has holes where his balls are and be understands how uncomfortable chaffing can be because of that, so is it ever uncomfortable? And like no that's why I've had this pair for years they're super comfy.

And then Jeremy asked me to do him a favor, and it was to go to North Korea with him to visit his parents. I said yes and he was like "I didn't think you would say yes!" Ans Chris was nearby and was like "That is insane!" And I said "What's so crazy about it, I have the extra money for it and I've always wanted to go to an Asian country. I mean, I was aiming more for Japan, but this works" Then we set off for the airport without me even packing anything. We took like this subway to it, and met Gavin Free and Meg Turney there for it (they were going to North Korea for something else). While on the subway, we stood by this Korean chick and some white dude. They seemed to know eachother, and the white dude was talking about how the Korean chick was a legit prostitute and how she should be used to him coming on to her, and she was trying to say she wasn't. Eventually the guy stopped talking to her and started some convo with Meg and was getting uncomfortably close to her, until Gavin casually slid between their bodies ans stares the dude down. After we got off the Subway, I turned to Meg and was like "That's the best real life anime block save I've seen! He's good boyfriend material!" And she was like "Yeah I love when he does that it makes me feel so special. I just wish there was a way I could shout a phrase and he could do it faster" and I was like "Yeah but then you run the risk of turning him from thoughtful boyfriend to possessive boyfriend" and she was like "Yeah that's true" (glad that shit made sense to you dream-Meg because wha???). Then I grabbed her hand and declared that we HAD to talk anime.

The Airport we went to was like freakishly huge with a really, really long sidewalk up to it. So Meg started singing anime theme song mashups on the way up (she was really good) and I joined her, and we chatted about the shows and how Gavin never really listened to her about the shows on the way up. Jermey and Gavin were chatting about the new rules of flying in the background and how Trump was now making security keep a list of people who have tickets, and then another 'Trump-approved' list of people whi could fly without tickets. And how there's been a lot lf problems with it because anyone whi isn't white passing or part of the military are being put in waiting rooms before flieghts because of it, and some people have missed flieghts as a result. I'm thinking I'll be fine because I have two brother's in the miltary (nive use of foreshadowing, dream-brain). Finally we reach the airport, but Gavin and Meg split off because they parked their car here before work I guess and they needed to go put a sticker on it? So me and Jeremy start walking towards the security for this place, but we have to go all the way across the building for it. At one point we start to walk by a guy in a YouTube shirt and Jeremy goes "Watch this" and shouts "Hi I'm Jeremy Dooley!" And the guy just stares at him blankly. And I guess I have a YouTube channel, because I give him my username for it and he just nods at me. But then he does a doubke take and just stares at me and goes, "You were on Miles Luna's livestream!" And internally I was like "knew it" because appearantly we all knew it would be known as that even tho Miles wasn't on the livestream at all?? And I was like "yeah I am" as a passed him. But the dude followed us and was like "Are you dating him?" And I was like "No" and somehow I knew he would ask me out. Then the dude took of his shirt and said "Wanna date me?" And I was like "No thanks" and he was all "But why?" But then we were at the security gate so he left. There was a little old lady in front of us, and after giving her name to the agent he asked her what she did, who she was going to see, and a few other questions I couldn't hear and then told her she had to step aside and go to another desk. As this is happening, another security gaurd clears Jeremy. I get the security gaurd that just sent the old lady to the waitint room and now I'm not so sure I'll be fine because that old lady looked white af. So he takes my name and asks me how my day is and I say great and then he asks me if I like Harry Potter and I'm like "I love it! Its my favorite series" and he smiles at me and says that's nice and for a second I think he'll let me pass.....and then he sends me off to the side, to the same desk as rhe little old lady and I'm like shit. So I tell Jeremy I'll catch up to him. At this point I think its a good thing we showed uo three hours early. So I go to the desk and the guy there calls me something completely different, so I correct him, and then he's like "Okay i think I may see you here but we have to check a few things" and sends me to the side room, which is up some escalators that go down instead of up. The little old lady is at the escalators and she's bitching about how she's too old for this but goes up there anyway. Once we're in the room we're told to take off our shoes and put on provided slippers for some reason. The room is PACKED for some reason. I'm confused because it seems to be a very mixed group, until I hear someone talking about hiw J.K. Rowling is doing an event in North Korea a few hours after the flight lands and everyone flying out of the U.S. for past events similar to it have had the same issues and some even missed their flights. And I realize they're not just targetting POC but Harry Potter fans too for some reason, and I got caught up in it because I got my ticket last minute.

So I sit there for a bit, fuming because its bullshit. Then I decide to act like my name is called, and I go down the escalator and manage to get past the ticket gate cuz the room is behind the security check but there's no gaurds outside it. I go to one of those moving floor things, thinking it will take me to my gate, but there's like three of them and they're all color coded. Turns out there actually for baggage and halfway though it I realize this and try to get off, but then a different gaurd spots me doing this. I tell the gaurd this is my first time at this airport and he explains to me what luggage each belt is supposed to be for. So I leave my bag and jacket on the belts, and he leads me to a different belt. He explains to me that this is for travellers and it will incase me in a protective 'film' for travelling but there's no one else there, just these weird circular things going on these belts and encasing them in what looks like plastic, and I turned to him and go "what the hell??" And he just looks at me and is like "What do you think that is?" And I say "I think its a vacuum plastic machine and you're trying to kill me!" And he's all "I know you didn't pass the security check" and starts on the rant about people like me who break the rules result in people being fired, and he knows Trumps regulations are bullshit but its still not fair for me to do this, so I deserve to die. At this point a different gaurd appears with a piece of paper. The gaurd I'm talking to looks at it, pales, and stammers out an apology to me and says I can go, but I have to go to a specific restaurant in the food court first to talk to some doctor. And I'm like fine, I still have 2 hours till my flight anyway.

But as I'm heading out I hear the security gaurd ask the second gaurd how long I have left, and the second gaurd say "We really don't know" and now I'm creeped out but I hope it has something to do with my anaemia and its nothing series. So I show up at the food court and spot the doctor, and as I approach him he seems very upset so I'm like "what's wrong?" And he says "I lost my 50th gold coin! That was the last coin I needed for the collection and I lost it!" And somehow I know the airport is doing a thing where if you collect like 100 gold coins scattered around the airpirt you get a prize. And I'm thinking this doctor is too old for this, and go to sit down. But as I do I spit a gold coin with the number 50 on it. So I pick it up and say to the doctor "Here, I think this is yours" and he takes it from me and suddenly theres fireworks and confetti everywhere as he celebrates. Then the dream ends.

Still don't know what I was dying from. Also didn't even get to see dream-Korea.

#north korea #rooster teeth #roosterteeth #jeremy dooley #chris damarais #miles luna #gavin free #meg turney #michael jones #my dreams

[sicklylittlesnowflake]

SPIDERMAN AAAAHH i just saw the movie this brings me so much joy okay peter gets a cough or a cold or something not really that major and mr stark notices but doesn't say anything because he's like 'he'll tell me if he needs something' or whatever then when peter goes to get a drink or the bathroom idk FRIDAY is just like 'Mr Parker has a temperature of .... ' or 'needs urgent medical assistance' or smth

(This is a sweet ass prompt, anon. And I’m all for Tony trying to be a suave dad like “I must test him” and that fails horribly lmao bc Peter is a stubborn shit..here’s some more Spiderman! Also u might notice I’ve incorporated the tom holland meme discretely lol)

When Tony first discovered Peter through that YouTube video, he had seen him as a talent. A potential colleague in the future, a team mate and someone he could help along find their footing. But Tony had never anticipated what had come for him instead.

Instead what Tony found was a kid. A kid who was without a doubt, certainly a talent and special, but he was a kid. He was lost, he had issues, he was a misfit who desperately wanted to be like everyone else and didn’t exactly love himself. Peter had been exposed to the horrors of the world too soon; having lost his Uncle, who had been his father figure quite recently. He had daddy issues, and Tony was no stranger to those. In those eyes Tony saw himself years ago, a boy trying to pave his way through a misguided childhood, and trying to come out of it a man.

Tony had people who had helped him along the way, mentors, friends, the like. And for them, Tony would eternally be grateful. Tony could only hope he could be the same for Peter, because he deserved it. He really was a good kid.

A bond had grown between them, and Tony had grown caring and protective. This had not been his plan at all. He was unprepared, making it up as he went. Tony had no clue what it was like, what it took to become a father figure. Hell, how would he know something he never even had? Even so, he had made it a mission to make sure Peter could have something as close as possible. He knew he would come up short, but damn well Tony would try his hardest despite that.

Tony would try and push communication with Peter. What he recognised in Peter was the struggle to reach out to others, in fear of perhaps rejection or belittlement or the fear he would not be understood. When Peter did rarely reach out, he very much held back. Tony wanted Peter to be more open, so he could achieve this connection with others he longed to have.

Tony started inviting Peter more and more to the Stark Tower, much to the boy’s delight. He still had his pride, of course, he would still tell Peter not to get his hopes up and this doesn’t mean anything, but the both of them knew that was simply not the case. Tony had started to care for this boy.

So when Peter exited the the elevator, looking pale and ghostly, Tony couldn’t help but feel extremely worried.

Happy was not far behind him, raising an eyebrow at Tony. A sure symbol telling Tony that something was most certainly wrong.

“What’s up, Rudolph?” Tony greeted as Peter shuffled into the room, his already pale face a pasty white, besides a rubbed raw red nosed and dark circles beneath his eyes.

“Nothing much, I got an A in my Spanish test,” Peter said casually, his voice hoarse and ridden with congestion.

Tony blinked, the protective side of him desperately wanting to just pick up this kid and wrap him in blankets. He was so tempted to do so, just on the brink of scooping the kid in his arms but he refrained. Peter would tell him if something was seriously wrong, he would have to. Besides, they had just had that little heart to heart about communication last week, right?

Tony shrugged, “Thats good, Spanish is a good language to have in your back pocket. You wanna see this new suit I’m developing?”

Peter smiled weakly, “Of course Mr Stark!”

Peter coughed a chorus of congested, chesty little coughs into his arms for the third time since Tony began his lecture on a new technology he was developing.

“That’s super cool Mr Stark,” Peter rasped out, his voice extremely hoarse and congested, sounding like it was on its last breath.

Tony raised an eyebrow, “You alright there, Pete?”

Peter cleared his throat, sniffling softly, “I have a bit of a cough, Mr Stark.”

Tony nodded thoughtfully, taking this as progress. Peter was beginning to admit things, and that was enough for him. If things were to go awry, the kid would tell him. “Alright, Pete, give me a shout if you need anything or need to take a break.”

Peter coughed again into the crook of his arm, “Of course Mr Stark.”

“Peter, will you go and process this for me?” Tony asked casually, passing over Peter a sheet of calculations as he tweaked the coding of some advancement he and Peter were working on.

It took Peter a good few minutes to snap out of his fevered trance and he nodded. The sudden return to reality was jarring, and made him feel extremely dizzy. As he began to move for the first time in what seemed like forever was a little bit of a shock to his system, unable to walk in a straight line and shaking as he walked.

Peter squinted as the bright light of the screen shone, the intensity of the light blinding him and inducing a headache. He let out a barely audible groan of discomfort as his free hand made its way to his temple. He slowly and weakly typed out the calculations onto the computer, until an irresistible tickle itched at his throat.

Peter swallowed and cleared his throat, hoping that it would go away. The tickle pricked at the lining, causing his eyes to prick with irritated tears. He tried to keep it in, finding that he wasn’t really breathing. Eventually, the itching was too much and he exploded into a series of irritated, itchy coughs. He managed to lift his arm up to his mouth to conceal his germs, hacking an incredibly fit of chesty, throaty coughs that hurt his chest.

The tickle would only persist, causing more desperate coughs out of his chest. He just couldn’t stop, an endless series of coughing that he wished would just stop. Suddenly he felt a warm hand rubbing his back, and a glass of water being pressed against his lips. Peter drank gratefully, the fresh cool liquid soothing his inflamed throat.

“Thank you Mr Stark,” Peter croaked out, chest heaving as he struggled to regain his composure and catch his breath. He felt weak and faint due to the prolonged period without oxygen in his system. Peter leaned against the table to try and support his feeble body.

Tony sighed, “You sound like you’ve got a frog up your throat. But seriously though, kiddo, you’ll say something if you need something, correct?”

Peter nodded, “Yes, Mr Stark. I’m fine for now, it’s just one of the colds going around at school I guess.”

Tony nodded, unable to mask the suspicion and concern that was growing on his features. He turned back to the tech he was developing and Peter followed shortly after, but he still couldn’t quite shake the feeling he was making a mistake here.

Peter sniffled softly, wiping away at the beads of sweat dotting his forehead due to his fever. His cheeks felt extremely warm, and he was certain he resembled a toddler who was playing with their mother’s blusher. His head was pounding hard, like his brain was being thrusted and stabbed numerous times. He rubbed at his temple aggressively, willing the pain away but to no avail. He groaned, feeling extreme discomfort at how warm he felt.

His palms were sweaty and it was extremely gross for the touch screen computer he was working on. His vision was fading in and out of darkness, he could hear his heart thumping in his chest. He felt so panicked and sick that he couldn’t stand this, but he didn’t want to worry Tony or make him think he was weak. Peter had worked so hard to get Tony to like him and he didn’t want that all flushed down the drain.

“I’m just going to the bathroom, Mr Stark,” Peter announced, trying not to fall or walk straight into a table because the world was currently spinning. He had hoped if he had just splashed his face with some water he could cool down a little bit.

“Of course, Pete,” Tony replied, continuing to tweak at the piece of technology. He didn’t look up as Peter left, not noticing how Peter shook and wobbled as he walked in a zig zag formation.

Tony had lost track of time, engulfed and lost in his work when suddenly FRIDAY activated.

“Mr Stark,”

“Yes, FRIDAY?” Tony responded, not looking up from his work.

“Mr Parker has a temperature of an alarming rate at 103.4 degrees. He has currently lost consciousness and is on the floor of the nearest bathroom.”

Tony’s heart dropped. He felt a wave of nausea rush through his body and an icy, bitter cold sensation wash over his system as he froze. He breathed in heavily, heart heavy and breathing shallow, “..O-okay, thank you f-for letting me k-know, FRIDAY.”

Once Friday deactivated once again, Tony inhaled sharply then was sprinting towards the bathroom.

Being a superhero, there were numerous times where he had to run fast. Times where he had to sprint his heart out for the sake of his own life. However Tony had never ran as fast as he did now, running for what may have not been his own life, but a life that meant more to him than his own.

He burst through the bathroom door and found Peter curled up on the cold hard ground, looking extremely sick and pale. Tony let out a small gasp, his heart breaking and racing as he looked down at this boy who looked so weak and like he had fallen apart. All because Tony was too slow to catch him.

Tony took in a shaky breath, kneeling down to examine Peter’s face. His skin was scorching hot, his face scrunched up in discomfort. His hands shook violently as he examined the boy, letting out a quivering breath in anxiety.

“F-Friday, p-please do an evaluation on Mr Parker,” Tony stuttered.

“Mr Parker has a high fever and a bad cough. Should the cough not be treated this could potentially gravitate into something a lot worse, for example a chest infection.”

Tony breathed in shakily, running sweaty hands through his hair in anxiety. His heart raced and chest cold, swallowing hard, trying to steady his rigged breathing. He blinked back tears, feeling a plethora of guilt of guilt flood his anxious mind.

“P-please tell me w-what to do,” Tony basically whimpered.

“First sir, you must stay calm. Panicking will not do Mr Parker any good.”

“I can’t not fucking panic! This kid is sick because I fucked up! Tell me what to do!” Tony snapped.

“Mr Stark, your emotions are clouding you. As a father figure to Mr Parker you must not hold any resentment towards yourself because it does not benefit either you.”

Tony slid against the wall, hands pulling at his hair, “I can’t do that, FRIDAY. I can’t be enough for Peter. I’m not enough for him. I want to be. This kid deserves the world and..I can’t give it to him. How can I give him something I’ve never had?”

“You cannot give Peter the world. It is as simple as that. He never asked for that. He needs you, no one else. The first thing you just do to fully love another individual is to love yourself first.”

Tony began to relax slowly, letting out a shaky laugh, “That’s really dumb and cheesy. I didn’t know I programmed a sappy rom com into my AI..but that actually helped. Thank you, FRIDAY. I guess..I’m just upset that I can’t give him everything.”

“No one can. He can never have everything, Mr Stark. That’s just the way of life. All he’s asking is for you to be there.”

“I will.”

“Are you now ready to receive instructions on how to care for Mr Parker?”

“Yes I am.”

Tony scooped Peter into his arms, heading towards the room that had been prepared for his stay. Over the past few months, Peter had started growing a small collection of his own stuff to put there. In fact there was a small drawer filled with things for his best friend Ned when he sometimes came over.

Tony put Peter down onto the bed, tucking him into the blankets. He brushed away the strands of sweaty fair off his fevered forehead and sighed quietly.

“Okay, what do I do?”

“Go and retrieve a damp washcloth for his forehead.”

Tony went off to get one, and draped the towel over Peter’s forehead. The younger boy let out a tiny noise of satisfaction, his face relaxing and as did his muscles, looking a lot less tense and uncomfortable.

“I’ve contacted your doctor to check on Mr Parker. I’ve also forwarded all information from his scan so he can come equipped with medicine.”

“You’re the best, FRIDAY.”

“I know, Mr Stark.”

“God, a lot of me translated into your coding, huh?”

Peter woke up the next morning, feeling weak and groggy, but a lot better than he had yesterday. He shielded his eyes from the light coming from the window. He blinked in confusion as he felt the soft mattress and crisp white sheets. As far as he knew, he was on the bathroom floor.

He got up, trying to make himself aware of his surroundings and trying to piece together what had happened when he heard the door creaking open. He whipped his head around to see who it was.

Tony’s eyes widened, “Oh! You’re awake!”

“..what..?” Peter stated, extremely confused.

Tony smirked and set down a tray of medicine, a mug of tea and an extremely aromatic soup. He sat down at the edge of the bed, “You fainted on the bathroom floor and you had a  dangerously high fever. I had to call a doctor to come in.”

Peter felt a pang of guilt strike him as he bit his lip, “I’m so sorry, Mr–”

Tony softened, “No no, I’m not mad. Well, I am kinda.”

Peter looked down awkwardly, feeling guilty still. It was like when Aunt May was scolding him for not cleaning up properly and leaving a mess or coming home late. Super awkward.

“I’m kinda mad because I told you many times to tell me when you needed something. I thought we had a deal to communicate. We had a heart to heart last week and everything.”

“..I know, Mr Stark, I’m sorry. I just..i worked so hard for you to like me and now you finally are and I was just afraid that when you saw the actual me, weak me, that that would all go down the drain and you wouldn’t like me and this time you wouldn’t take me back–”

“What?! Peter, I would never–” Tony cut himself off and sighed deeply, pinching the bride of his nose. He inhaled.

“..Okay..you know what. I shouldn’t be mad at you. You know why? Because I’m not listening to my own advice either. It’s not fair I get to break the rules.”

Peter looked confused.

“..I’m not communicating with you either. I’m sorry I made you feel that way, Pete. I know I act like I don’t want you around..but the hard cold fact is I really do, and I’m so so sorry it came across that way. I just..really care about you, Peter. I was so worried last night when I found you unconscious. I thought I had lost you..that I had failed you..”

“You don’t owe me anything, Mr Stark.”

“..No. I do. You are my family now, just like Rhodes or Happy is. Recently, I’ve really come to care about you and I short-circuited. I was so afraid I wouldn’t be enough for you and that I would fuck up just like my dad and make the same mistakes.”

Peter softened, “Mr Stark..you are enough..”

Tony shook his head, “No, I’m not. I never will be. And that’s fine. Im never going to–but I will still try. I’m not going anywhere, Peter.”

Peter blinked back tears, inhaling sharply, laughing shakily, “T-thank you, M-Mr Stark. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t either,” Tony said, wrapping an arm around Peter and pulling him close and embracing him into a warm, loving hug.

Tony pulled away, a smirk creeping onto his lips, “Okay, time for medicine!”

Peter made a face of disgust.

Tony opened a bottle of medicine, carefully pouring the liquid into the spoon but messed up and ended up spilling some onto the sheets.

“Well shit–hey, I just said I would fuck up a lot,” Tony chuckled.

Peter giggled, “That’s perfectly okay with me.”

#peter parker #tony stark #spiderman homecoming #whump #sickfic #mcu #spiderman #fever #dad tony stark #prompts #tom holland peter parker #mcu peter parker

[blackgirlslit]

A Quick Interview with author Sophia Chester

1. What's your name, age, and where are you from? 

Sophia Chester, 32 and I'm from Cambridge, Maryland. 

2. You've written and published two books so far. How did you get into writing?

I've always loved to write. Nothing gave me more pleasure when I was younger than to be given a free writing assignment in my language arts class. I wrote a lot when I was younger. But somewhere along the way, I lost confidence in my ability to write and I just stopped. But then in 2012 I decided to do NANOWRIMO for the first time. I wrote this fantasy short story that will never see the light of day. I was really surprised why the quality of my writing. I remember thinking “have I always been this good at writing?” Then I thought, what if I tried to write something better and also be a little bit more organized. I wonder what would happen?

 3. Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer? Do you have other aspirations? 

It was always a small dream of mine to be a writer. When I was little, I would look through the scholastic book fair pamphlet and wonder what it would be like to see my book listed in there next to the GooseBumps books. I'm old as dirt. This was the 90's before self publishing online was a thing. You had to snail mail your story to an editor or an agent and hope that they would give you a chance. Really those types of opportunities seemed so out of reach for me. Heck they still do and its 2017! As far as other goals, I'm pretty good at clerical work. I'm hoping that I can snag some sort of full time office job and then I can write on the side for fun.

4. Where do you draw your inspiration from when it comes to writing? Are there any authors in particular that inspired you? 

I draw inspiration from many different things. I love the sci-fi space opera anime genre. I grew up watching Robotech/Macross which was my first entry into the space opera genre. I've watched a lot of anime over the years. Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon has to be my all time favorite anime title. Consuming all of these fantastic animated stories over the years has given me a lot of inspiration. This particular space opera series Legend Of The Galactic Heroes has been a huge help to me with putting the world that Cosmo lives in together.The Legend Of The Galactic Heroes is a political space opera series about these two feuding political factions that are fighting for there right to live in space. The show has a lot of long scenes where are people siting in chairs and doing a lot of info dumping. But it still a good show and it gave me a lot of inspiration.

About the Book

5. Both of your books take place in space. What made you choose the genre of sci-fi for your writing? Are you a big fan of sci-fi books/movies/comics? 

After I wrote my messy NANOWRIMO short story I decided to give up on it and write something else. But originally while I was writing my NANOWRIMO short story I had binge watched the rebooted version of Battlestar Galactica. Then after I finished that, I decided to catch up on Mad Men. So here I was trying to think of what I wanted the setting for my story to be and I was stuck. I was in a big sci-fi mood after watching Battle Star Galactica and I was in a retro 1950's mood after watching Mad Men.

6. Your fist published book, Cosmic Callisto Caprica & the Missing Rings of Saturn is about an aspiring space detective that gets caught up in the journey of searching for her nanny Wendy, who disappears along with other women on the Titan spaceship. She also has to find the missing rings of Saturn. How did come up with such a unique plot? How long did it take you come up with a finished draft? 

I just decided that with my next story, I would combine both of elements of Mad Men and Battlestar Galactica which came to be a 1950′s styled story in space! Then I had my second dilemma. What am I going to do with this interesting set up? Should I make the story contemporary? Should it be romantic? Then I started to list all of the options that I had for my story. I just became fixated with the option of turning my 1950's space themed story into a mystery. I said to myself “has anyone ever written something like this before and with a black female protagonist no less?” I just fell so deeply in love with this concept that I decided to go with it. I worked on The Missing Rings Of Saturn for about two years. My manuscript changed so much from 2013 to 2015. I got rid of some characters. I changed the names to a lot of the locations. But I finalized everything for my story by 2015.

7. Is the character Cosmo based on anybody you know or she a character that is based on yourself? 

Cosmo is special. She is everything that I wanted in a black female protagonist. She's smart, beautiful, resourceful, and brave. Really when I was first coming up with Cosmo, I remember thinking to myself, “is she to much?” Is she too smart, too pretty and maybe too courageous. Then I remembered all of the white male protagonists whose stories I had consumed over the years. They were strong, dashing, and able to take on any situation and not once had I questioned there abilities. So, why should I questions Cosmo and her ability to solve mysteries in space?

8.In your other book "Rocket Romance" you have two different stories. One is about a martian visiting earth and falling for a human girl despite the intolerance of others around them. Is this story a symbol of how interracial dating is frowned upon, xenophobia, or about how people seem so keen to hate and isolate people who are different? 

Honestly its about all of the above. I don't wanna spoil to much about the story.

9. The other story is about a couple named Kat and Leo having issues because of Kat's independent attitude and outgoing personality. The summary states that Leo may go off to find someone else who is "gentler and more feminine." Did you want the topic of gender roles in relationships to be something readers would think about and discuss after reading it?

I guess you could interpret the story that way. My main character is very rough around the edges. She’s not a dainty girl but life's circumstances has caused her to be more tough.

Last questions 

10. Do you plan on writing any more books any time soon? Are you working on anything right now? 

I’m currently working on the sequel to "The Missing Rings Of Saturn" right now.

11. Can you tell readers where they can contact you (tumblr/twitter) and where to find and purchase your books?

You can find me on facebook- Cosmic Callisto Caprica, Tumblr- sophiaslittleblog Twitter-SophiaTheAuthor Youtube-SophiaTheAuthor and both of my books are available for purchase in digital and in print on Amazon.

Thank you so much for doing this interview @sophiaslittleblog !

Followers, be sure to follow her and check out both of her books available in print and digital on amazon! Links and pictures are below!

https://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Romance-Sophia-Chester-ebook/dp/B06X6FJTKZ

https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Callisto-Caprica-Missing-Saturn-ebook/dp/B01CAIOB8G/ref=pd_sim_351_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=M0AXD8Q6GMXWXVWDJGB6

-Victoria

#blackgirlslit #interview #booklr #poc booklr #pocbooklr #sophia chester #cosmic castillo caprica & the missing rings of saturn #rocket romance

[fy-dimlim]

DIMLIM’s GEKIROCK interview - English translation

DIMLIM is the new band of former D.I.D. member Issei, and former Deviloof member, Ryuya. Although the full-fledged start hasn't come yet, the music video for Awarewata, which was published along with the band’s information on April 2nd, has already reached 140,000 views. While they are getting ready for their starting oneman live on June 3rd, which is also the release day of their live-limited mini album, VARIOUS, Gekirock interviewed the members of DIMLIM, the band that's gaining more and more attention from both overseas and Japan.

－ Please tell us about DIMLIM's background. Did the band form around former D.I.D. member, Issei, and former Deviloof member, Ryuya as the core?

Issei: No, that's not how it went. Retsu was the support guitarist for D.I.D. Through the members’ introduction came Sho, then since Retsu and Ryuya were friends, I was like, “feel free to invite him.” A long time passed after that and Tsubasa joined finally.

－ Since you have a djent/metalcore/progressive sound with prominent technical parts, when you searched for the members did you emphasize on their skills?

Issei: Not really. (lol) I was like, “we will make it work somehow”.

－ Do you have a leader in the band?

Issei: We haven't decided on anyone.

Tsubasa: We haven't decided, but Issei has kind of a leader presence.

Issei: More like boss. (lol)

－Who is the main composer, who puts the songs together?

Issei: That's me.

－ D.I.D. also had and electronic sound to it, are you following the same path?

Issei: Yeah, I took a lot from D.I.D.

－ What software do you use?

Issei: Pro Tools.

－ Sho, Tsubasa what were you doing before joining DIMLIM?

Tsubasa: I was in a different visual kei band. I wasn’t playing the type of music I wanted to, also I couldn’t feel the enthusiasm in the members beside the drummer, so he and I departed. At that time I met these members by chance, and since it was the type of music I wanted to make, also everyone around me was motivated plus I liked D.I.D. too. I was drawn to this band, I had to join.

Sho: I’ve never been in a band before. DIMLIM is my first band.

－ It’s surprising. Your vocalization is versatile and skillful. This is our first interview so I’m going to ask you about your musical backgrounds. Sho, what kind of music have you been listening to?

Sho: When I was a kid, I listened to female singers, like Kohmi Hirose or Maki Ohguro but then around middle school I started listening to DIR EN GREY and I’ve been into them ever since.

－ So you got influenced by Kyo from DIR EN GREY?

Sho: Yes. I’ve always tried to copy him. I would really like Kyo to see us live.

－ How did you practice before joining DIMLIM?

Sho: I practiced in the bath all the time. (lol)

－ Ryuya, last time we did an interview (2016 August issue) you listed bands like PERIPHERY, MEMPHIS MAY FIRE as your favourites, right?

Ryuya: If we are talking about bands from overseas, yes. As for Japanese bands, I love lynch. In my student years, I used to play in an emocore/screamo band so I like bands like TAKEN too. Beside these, I listen to a lot of minor heavy bands that none of the members listen to from both overseas and Japan. It’s hard to explain, but I also listen to the type of music that’s played in live houses between performances. Like XXYYXX.

－ What about you, Retsu?

Retsu: My dad was really into music, so influenced by him, in my elementary school years, I was listening to stuff like BACKSTREET BOYS, HOOBASTANK, BON JOVI. Although I was just getting a taste of them occasionally I did listen to these artists. In middle school, I got into the GazettE, and from there I was obsessed with them. RUKI is a god. Still in middle school, at that time I thought the GazettE was the most intense band on the world but then I came across BRING ME THE HORIZON and I was like “Holy shit”. From there I got into more western hardcore bands. I really like ERRA and PERIPHERY. However, the band that influenced me the most is the GazettE. I want to listen to them even when I die.

－ Have you listened to BALLAD BEST ALBUM TRACES Vol.2 that they released recently (2017 March)?

Retsu: Of course, I bought it. It’s AMAZING. I couldn’t bear listening to only previews on YouTube, so I found myself getting an iTunes card and I ended up buying all the songs……(lol)

－ It’s a great album. What about you, Tsubasa?

Tsubasa: Originally I liked game music. By people like Nobuo Uematsu or Motoi Sakuraba. Uematsu worked on the Final Fantasy series, Sakuraba worked on Baten Kaitos. In elementary school, I listened to a lot of music from games and from that I moved on to anime songs and vocaloid. After that from middle school, I started playing instruments as a hobby, therefore I started listening to X JAPAN, and it’s still my favourite band.

－ Although you’ve been chasing behind in generations, you knew about X.

Tsubasa: Yeah. It’s because it’s not about generations. (lol) TAIJI is my favourite bassist, so I checked his musical roots. Although I’m playing in a band like this, when it comes to hardcore music, I listen to PERIPHERY and POLYPHIA etc. but I’m not too familiar with them. I would say there are a lot of hard rock, heavy metal and punk bands from the 80s and 90s that I listen to. From around middle school, I did covers of bakateku (technical) bands like DREAM THEATER, Mr.BIG, LOUDNESS, X etc. and thanks to that, I think I managed to catch up with the technical parts. I got obsessed with visual kei along the way. There’s only a few bandmen in the scene who like visual kei, but I actually do. Even bands that I play with at events, if I like their music I will check them out on YouTube.

－ Is there a visual kei band you particularly like lately?

Tsubasa: I like MORRIGAN. They are great and we will play with them so I’m looking forward to that.

－ When it comes to extremely intense bands, NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST represents visual kei. What do you think about them?

Tsubasa: I think they are awesome. I would like to surpass them whatever it takes.

－ I see. What about you, Issei?

Issei: At first my mom liked a pianist called Richard Clayderman, so I thought “I wanna go see him live” and so I went to my first concert. Though I slept through it. (lol) Then, my mom had DAHLIA (released in 1996, 4th album) by X JAPAN, maybe I just liked the piano but I occasionally listened to that CD. After that I got into DIR EN GREY and wanted to be in a band.

－ Richard Clayderman? Did you learn how to play the piano?

Issei: I was taught when I was little, but after like 3 years, I started whining because it was too painful and I quit. Now, I can’t even play “Neko funjatta”. (lol)

－ Is it you who comes up with the riffs too?

Issei: I do make something that would become the foundation, but I think it’s better if a guitarist does the arrangement so I leave that to them.

－ Next, I would like to ask you about the 3 songs you released from the mini album, VARIOUS. First of all, what’s the tuning?

Issei: It’s drop G# on a 7 string guitar. It was like this even in D.I.D. so we thought we are gonna keep that.

－ In Aharewata (track 1) at the end of the interlude, the guitar chords change considerably, right? Isn’t that hard to play?

Ryuya: To be fair, this song is full of difficult parts. (lol)

Tsubasa: In Aharewata, the bass line is full of unisons as well, like in the verse that “diririririri” part is unison too, so it makes you think “what the hell?!” (lol)

－ I think often in loud rock or metal, the bass gets buried under all the down tunings, but with DIMLIM, the bass actually stands out, there are a lot of striking parts and it’s really cool in my opinion.

Tsubasa: Indeed, if we compare it to other heavy bands, maybe we emphasize more on the bass. X JAPAN too, made the bass stand out in their music.

－ Please tell me about the lyrics for Aharewata which also has a music video on YouTube.

Sho: All throughout this album, the main topic of the lyrics is “about love”. Self-love, love towards partners, love towards parents….. I would like to write about various kinds of love. About Aharewata, when I wrote the lyrics I was thinking about the best way to show “love” towards another person, according to my concept, “ingesting” our partner is not the ultimate level of love. Though my intention is not to decide that. The MV shows it in a grotesque way, but I wanted to have people look at it from different directions.

－ We can say the interpretation is left to the listener, right? If we translate the English part, we get something close to scatological fetishism.

Everyone: Scatology. (lol)

Sho: Indeed. (lol) Cannibalism, right? With psychotic feelings. That’s the ultimate thing in my opinion.

－ Did you get influenced by psycho, cannibalistic movies maybe?

Sho: I love movies. Like Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001). Really old anime but for example Shoujo Tsubaki (1992). Also The Holy Mountain (1988)

－ It’s a really shocking music video but were there any notable moments while recording it?

Sho: The guy who appears in it went to buy liver and even though it was raw, he bit into it……

Ryuya: When they said “Liver please!” that was the funniest part. (lol)

Tsubasa: He sacrificed himself to act for us.

－ When it comes to vocals, what’s the most difficult part in DIMLIM?

Sho: The low shouts. They are hard to execute live.

－ The last part in Aharewata where the vocals gradually get higher slightly like an opera seems difficult too.

Sho: Oh, yeah that’s also hard. (lol)

Issei: This much is gonna work! - I thought while I came up with it. (lol)

－ It’s almost sadistic. (lol) But it sounds great.

Tsubasa: In the studio it comes out perfectly, but at lives he doesn’t have enough experience and I guess he’s also nervous.

Sho: Oh, the main point is how you open up your throat before the live, isn’t it? I’m trying to flex and stuff. (lol)

－「虚妄の歌」Kyomou no uta (Song of delusion) is an amazing song too, sounds like it would shine live.

Issei: Yes. I made this fast song while keeping the lives in my mind.

－ It’s not credited on the official site, but is it on the album?

Issei: Kyomou no uta is not on this record. We plan to release it next time. It was the first song we made so we recorded it regardless.

－ When reading the lyrics to Kyomou no Uta, I thought 'were these lyrics written with visual kei fans, the so-called bangya in mind?' So what are your thoughts on that?

Sho: There, it was a bit intentional but it was about bullying. All of our songs are dark, but I wanted to write something that was dark from within myself as a theme. Since I was bullied during my childhood, I thought of the lyrics with that in mind. “Everyone wants to be saved, isn't that right?” I had a lot of thoughts like this while writing. When in times like those, you run to self-love. You protect yourself. I tried to strongly show that side of the song.

－ I see. For Sho, is your love for yourself strong?

Sho: No, that's not the case.

－ So you wanted to write about self-love more critically.

Sho: Yes. Because I get into a give up mode.

－ Were there any bullying specific to social media in the background too?

Sho: Yes, that too. Also, in the classroom there are rankings too aren't there?

－ The part about hierarchy in the lyrics, right?

Sho: I had the class rankings in my mind. I think each listener will see a different setting. Whether it's the workplace, amongst bangya, or between friends. I think people ask “among them, is there anyone who's going to save me?” a lot.

－ That definitely does seem true. From an outsider's perspective, the hierarchy of visual kei fans seems very peculiar.

Sho: That really seems to be the case.

－ THE INVISIBLE (track 2) has a bit of an American feel to it, it reminds me of bands like Slipknot.

Issei: I thoughtlessly took 2-3 hours to make this song. There's a bit of an emo feel to it. It's frank and easy to move along to.

－ It's true that the rhythm is straightforward. As it's the impression of DIMLIM's sound, you've skillfully implemented dissonance. Since there's the concept of consonance and dissonance, I wondered “is the composer knowledgeable about music theory?” Did you intend to put in dissonance with intervals like minor second and major seventh?

Issei: No, not at all. I never intended for it to be difficult, but dissonance is something that isn't very visual kei, and that's why I wanted to add it in. I tried adding a "spiritless” sound (that horn-like sound before the breakdown) into the rhythm.

－ Speaking of that sound, that part is very catchy, makes it very impactful. Well then, please tell us about the other parts of these series of songs.

Ryuya: For Kyomou no Uta, I really just did it as I pleased. In the section prior to the chorus, Retsu is making sharp piercing tones while there are clean chords added in the back. The delay of the dotted eighth note over the tracing is a must have phrase in the type of music I like. From the start, I've preferred the beautiful sound of a modulation effector over the sound of shred guitar.

－ Was it the part where you decided in what way to use delay [that gave you a hard time]?

Ryuya: That's right. I’m picky about the number of times the sound echoes and the balance of it. But it was the first time since I've been in a band that I used delay in recording.

Retsu: In these three songs, I thought about the difficult portion in the verse quite a lot. I like phrases with that kind of flow. Although I've been influenced by D.I.D. too. Since the lead guitar in the chorus of Kyomou no Uta has a melodious flowing phrasing, I'd like it if you would please listen to it.

Tsubasa: I play simply in the recordings, but there are many times when later at lives or in the studio I create new phrases depending on how I feel, and I end up thinking “I’m gonna implement this!” The three songs that have been recorded are already different, I also play 『初潮』(Shochou) (Track.6) differently at lives. Basically, I’m the type that definitely plays differently in recordings and lives. I was like this even in my previous band, but I thought if I didn’t do this, the audience would get bored and I always play the parts that I want them to hear more consciously. Also, the unison with the guitars is something I’d play properly.

－ That unison also seems to be high difficulty.

Tsubasa: It is fairly difficult. It’s a quote from LOUDNESS’ bassist, Masayoshi Yamashita, but “Unison is when you listen and you’re unable to tell apart the guitar and bass because they’ve been played so perfectly in unison.” That’s why even in recordings, I think it’s fundamental to play precisely together and alike, but I can’t  follow it with only feelings so I’ve still got to advance further.

Issei: I use a trigger for the drums. The timbre is that the kicks sound crackly, I take note of the timbres I’d use and the ones I don’t.

－ The music video for Aharewata has gotten over 140,000 views, but when looking at the comments there's a lot of people from overseas.

Tsubasa: Sure enough, our music is also well-received by people overseas, isn't it?

－ I think you also have promoting overseas in your mind, is there any festival you'd like to play at?

Ryuya: Maybe Download Festival or Warped Tour. When I was in Deviloof, we regrettably lost in the finals for the German festival, Wacken.

Tsubasa: I'd say KNOTFEST! Even if it's in Japan.

Issei: Ahh, there's Taste of Chaos.

－ You'd also seem to fit in for SCREAM OUT FEST.

Ryuya: That's true. SCREAM OUT FEST has a lot of the, what we call, metalcore bands perform so I want to perform there no matter what. I'm acquainted with a lot of the bands in the label, TRIPLE VISION, but I also have the most frustrating feelings too, so as expected, I get along well with Last Day Dream and Victim of Deception and I want to play with them. Even if our genres are different, I think it'd definitely be fun.

－ You interact with Loud rock bands too. I think in terms of sound, DIMLIM is close to that genre's alley, but as a visual kei band, could you tell us some of the advantages and disadvantages of working in this genre?

Issei: The advantages are that you have a lot of freedom. I think of visual kei as its own music genre.

－ Meaning?

Issei: If someone who is not familiar with make-up gave visual kei a try, there would be a lot of songs that’d make them go “Huh?”

－ Is it in the way of singing [that makes visual kei different]? Or just the sound?

Issei: Yeah, sometimes it's the singing, sometimes it's the atmosphere

Tsubasa: Indeed, the fact that we can do whatever we want is a huge part of it. Also, of course, I think it’s a strong point that visual kei is able to express things by using looks. The staging is also different from other genres. For a period of time, I played for a hardcore band, but I played as though I were on a visual kei stage and the members, the public address system, and even the audience told me “That's tacky, stop it!” (lol) I thought, “Really!? If this were visual kei it'd be cool though.” Also, doing makeup, changing your name allows you to perform and act as a different version of yourself. During lives, I get the feeling that I'm acting.

－ So you feel as though you're acting.

Tsubasa: Basically, I really hate myself. That's why I feel like I'm performing as a version of myself that I like. I like showing others my performance as “Tsubasa of DIMLIM.” The thing that I dislike is the image that “Visual kei = Untalented” which somehow became established. No matter how skilled someone is, if they're doing visual kei they get thought of as untalented and dissed. Nokubura destroyed that notion so I respect that. People who are young think that for example, even the GazettE are untalented just because they are visual kei. To tell the truth, I used to think that way as well, but actually when I went to see The GazettE's DOGMATIC FINAL LIVE at Yoyogi, I realised they were popular because they were talented. So the demerit of visual kei is that you get thought of as having no technique. Even the hardcore punk bandmen around me have thoughts like that.

－ DIMLIM's music would be impossible to play without skill. About the GazettE, when I saw them live my impression of them also changed. They get more and more amazing every time I see them, it's overwhelming.

Tsubasa: That's right. They say the sound in huge venues is not that great, but the GazettE sounded so much better than in small live houses. The performance itself also has visual kei elements in it.

Retsu: The good aspect of visual kei is that it's a culture unique to Japan. If I were a foreigner, I would like to do a mixture of things. Like LIMP BIZKIT. Or I would try to do an unrefined sounding band like EYES SET TO KILL or CHIODOS. But I was born in Japan and I love visual kei so I'm glad I'm Japanese.

－ Visual kei is getting popular overseas too, isn't it?

Retsu: I guess so. But when it comes to foreigners, even if they don't wear makeup their face is already well-balanced, isn't it? I think since we are Japanese, we have that as a good merit.

Sho: Speaking of good aspects, we can also change up our makeup according to the lyrics and so we can express our worldview easier. If you wear dark makeup it can easily have a negative impact, whereas if you have bright, shimmery makeup on, it has a positive impact. Also many times people say "Oh, it's visual kei, right?" in a negative way, but on the other hand when they hear a good song they are like "What? This is visual kei?" in a positive way.

Ryuya: I agree, we can do anything, we can easily change up the colours depending on the band. Even with just makeup.

－ Can you think of any bad aspects?

Ryuya: Uhm…...

Tsubasa: Maybe that it's hard for men to get into it.

Ryuya: You're right. I went to visual kei lives a lot too, but at first it was tough. It's kind of embarrassing to go somewhere that's filled with girls. I don't know if there's a reversed situation like that.

－ It has a totally different feel when girls go to hardcore lives compared to when guys go to visual kei lives.

Ryuya: Exactly. People give you strange looks and stuff. Though maybe I'm just too self‐conscious.

Tsubasa: I totally understand. You just get the feeling of being watched for some reason. (lol) Actually, I'm really glad that as of now, there are male guests at our shows.

－ You've been doing secret lives, what do your fans do at your concerts?

Issei: Well, just the general bangya movements, but even Sho is confused by them. If there are no instructions, they won't move.

－ Not just in visual kei but in general there's an issue with Japanese people not knowing how to move to the rhythm. Like "I guess I'm gonna raise my fist in 8 minutes."

Issei: The thing I was surprised by is that the fists come up at half-tempo. (lol) I was like "Is this the trend these days?" (lol)

－ Half-tempo. (lol)

Tsubasa: Even if you did Awa Odori, it would be fine as long as you are having fun. (lol) It's also okay to just stand still, as long as you are listening to us. If you are in the back.

－ How was it when you were in Deviloof?

Ryuya: Chaotic. There were moshing.

－ Sho, what is something you keep in mind during lives?

Sho: To be able to properly express what I want. The lyrics are heavy, so I get emotionally invested on stage.

－ Also if you translate the English parts in your lyrics, they leave a completely different impression.

Sho: Yes.

－ DIMLIM is preparing for their oneman live in June that has already sold out. Looking forward to the start, but is there any specific goal as of now, that each of you would like to achieve?

Issei: I want to face Far East Dizain. (lol) I've been friends with the guitarist, Leda, for the longest time.

－ (lol) Listening to you makes me think, are you all look at other bands as rivals?

Issei: No, there's no rivalry.....

Tsubasa: Well, not saying there isn’t. (lol)

Issei: I guess, we just want to make them go speechless. (lol)

Ryuya: My goal would be performing overseas. I want to leave a mark behind, and I think it would be amazing if we could play outside Japan regularly.

Retsu: I want to go at full speed to however far I can. Skill-wise it's obvious, but with the band itself. I'm putting all my might into it, and I will devour everything.

Tsubasa: Like an insane band. (lol)

Retsu: No, no. (lol) But I think it's not worth it if you don't put this much feeling into it. On the contrary, that’s the only thing we have now.

－ I can feel the bloodlust even just from listening to the songs.

Everyone: Bloodlust. (lol)

Retsu: Also, I would like to play at an event with the GazettE. (lol) I'm laughing while saying this, but one day I will definitely stand on the same stage as them. I admire them, but I don't want to lose. Plus I would like to perform at non-visual kei festivals too. Anyway, I will do DIMLIM, hoping that our music will pierce the eardrums of as many people as possible and that we, or I alone, can affect a lot of people.

Tsubasa: Band-wise, I would like my parents, relatives, friends etc. to be proud of me when I say "I'm in a band like this". I want them to say "Wow! Isn’t that amazing!". I always tell my fans too that someday they will definitely be proud of supporting me from the start. As an individual, I would like to motivate people to start playing instruments, also to start using the same instrument as I am, even if just one person got influenced, that would be great.

－ What instrument are you using now? Certainly, it would be nice if people would use your own model, right?

Tsubasa: I’ve been using the 5 string bass that I started with, but it would be amazing if one day I could have my own model. I myself am greatly influenced by TAIJI and I'm striving to be like him. I love him so much that I'm always using the same bass as him and I have the same tattoo as him. There's already someone who's using the same type of effector as I am. When we had that reply project on LINE, they told me "Changing my effector made the sound change completely" and that made me happy. I would be even happier if the number of such people would increase.

－ Lastly, Sho please tell us your goals.

Sho: I want to triumph over everyone who made fun of me and stepped on me up until now. But besides that, most importantly...... I want to be recognised. Original: http://gekirock.com/interview/2017/05/dimlim.php Please don't repost without credit!

#DIMLIM #interview

[fuckyeahoutsidexbox]

Show of the Week - CS:GO Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Second Show of the Week transcribed and giffed! Once again, if there are any mistakes please tell me!

(Mike)

Hello and welcome to OutsideXbox’s Show of the Week. Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated as have rumours of my lucrative life insurance policy it turns out, Jane.

 (Jane)

Yes, well, I mean it got us this moderately priced new studio so don’t knock it deado.

 (Mike)

Our game of the week this week is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or if you prefer the syllable saving CS: GO. A Valve game that shuns storyline in favour of action, it’s a… [interrupted]

 (Jane)

Woah, woah, woah what do you mean it shuns storyline? It’s a Valve game. It’s got to have story.

 (Mike)

It doesn’t have a storyline, it’s a straight up multiplayer.

 (Jane)

No, no, no it’ll be in the world somewhere. It’ll be emergent storytelling Valve style cause they’re clever like that.

 (Mike)

If you say so. Super-secret hidden storylines aside. Here’s what you need to know about CS: GO. CS: GO is a multiplayer only team based shooter in which a squad of pretty non-specific terrorists go up against a squad of noble counter terrorists. Terrorists mostly want to plant bombs and hold hostages while the counter terrorists want to defuse bombs and rescue hostages. Also, each side wants to kill the other side. And that’s the entire fictional premise for Counter-Strike Jane, honestly. It’s also a game with a long and storied past. Counter-Strike began life all the way back in the last millennium, if you can believe it. When PC gamers like me fought off dinosaurs by day and scored headshots by night. The game started out in 1999 as a multiplayer mod for Valve’s seminal sci-fi FPS Half Life made by modders Minh Lee and Jess Cliffe. It took the torch from straight up death match multiplayer shooters such as Quake 1 and 2 to lead the burgeoning field of online multiplayer gun shooting. It arrived with new and uniquely cool ideas, not least the cycle of earning cash at the end of each round and spending it on weapons and equipment at the start of the next. And it made huge waves in pro gaming. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, out now on Xbox Live Arcade, is only the latest in a series of iterations on that Counter-Strike formula. A long line of updates, revisions, community mods and even the odd boxed game. The no perks, no unlocks, no regenerating health, no instant respawns and no iron sights and there is friendly fire, in some modes. In short, it’s a pure bracing shot of something different and demanding in a crowd of me too FPS multiplayer and that’s why it’s our game of the week.

 (Jane)

Who’s that guy?

 (Mike)

That’s a terrorist.

 (Jane)

And who’s that guy?

 (Mike)

That’s a counter terrorist.

 (Jane)

Right. And how do they fit into Aperture Science and Black Mesa?

 (Mike)

They don’t. So now that… [interrupted]

 (Jane)

Okay, erm, but what does it say on that wall there? That one. Is that a newspaper article?

 (Mike)

No.

 (Jane)

Aw.

 (Mike)

So, now you’re excited about CS: GO, here’s how to play it.

 (Jane)

That guy’s not talking, maybe he’s Gordon Freemen.

 (Andy)

It’s possible to do well at Call of Duty and Battlefield by playing like this. Play like this in Counter-Strike: Global offensive however and you’ll be doing a lot of this. So, if you’re not a long-time fan of Counter-Strike, you’re going to have to adjust your tactics. Luckily, we’re here to help like heroes.

 First up, and most importantly, you run faster with a knife. Not entirely sure why. It’s like the head of Valve is in love with knives or something. Oh, yeah. Right, right. Still this is a core Counter-Strike skill. Bind the knife to something like up on the D pad and switch to it after buying your weapon at the start of the round. With the extra speed, you should be able to reach critical choke points ahead of your enemies until all the new players wise up to it and do likewise. The downside, of course, is that you might also reach these chokepoints ahead of you own team and turn up to a wall of enemies on your own having literally bought a knife to a gun fight. Make sure you can switch to a shooty weapon quickly.

 Next, you’re more accurate if you walk or crouch and you also move silently whereas you may as well be wearing a hat made of claxons if you’re running. Crouch is bound to left trigger by default, the same as iron sights in Call of Duty and you should use it the same sort of way for increasing your accuracy. If you’re the last person left alive on your team, you don’t want to give up your position unless it’s absolutely necessary.

 On Xbox, you can control your horizontal and vertical analogue sensitivity independently in CS: GO. Headshots make a big difference to how quickly your enemies go down, due to that being where their brains are. There isn’t a huge amount of verticality in the maps either. Because of all that, we tend to go for a high horizontal sensitivity with a lower vertical one so that even when we’re spinning around wildly to target someone, panicking and crying, more of our shots will go in the chest to head kill zone.

 If you’re playing on competitive servers, buy Kevlar and the diffuse kit whenever you can. It will keep you alive and save you precious seconds while defusing a bomb if the terrorists manage to plant it. And it’s also totally on trend with this autumn’s military inspired look.

 Short tip this, but it’s as true now as it was on LV426.

 (Corporal Dwayne Hicks)

Remember, short controlled bursts.

 (Andy)

Thanks, Hicks. Sorry about the rubbish way you were killed off at the start of Alien 2.

 Next tip, the Desert Eagle pistol is a monster. If you can afford it, buy it. It’s ridiculously better than all the other pistols and you can have it in additional to your main weapon.

 Next, and this may seem obvious but it bears repeating, learn the maps. Most of the maps in Counter-Strike are pretty well balanced with certain areas that favour sniping, close quarter shoot outs or middle distance machine gunning. If you know the maps, you can predict what a lot of enemy teams are going to do and then plan your strategy accordingly. For example, if you’re playing against a terrorist team on Aztec that favours the bomb site overlooking the swamp, try getting a sniper rifle and hanging out by the big double doors behind it, picking them off as they charge your way. Fun.

 And finally, don’t flash bang your own team for pity’s sake. I said don’t! Argh, I needed those retinas.

 [music plays]

 (Andy)

Is she alright over there?

 (Mike)

Yeah, yeah, she’s just working on a theory that the Zeus X27 taser is actually a piece of sentient designed by GLaDOS to test the terrorists and counter terrorists who she believes are robots sent from Black Mesa to infiltrate Aperture Science and steal her research.

 (Andy)

Probably leave her to it then.

 (Mike)

Yeah. I’ve got the feedback if you want to do that.

 (Andy)

Great plan.

 (Mike)

So, it’s that time where we share the words you’ve been writing at us in comments, on Facebook and on twitter.

 (Andy)

In regard to last week’s Show of the Week, Ben Borthwick write “Mike died and you didn’t use the Channelling the dead pun? Awww.”.

 (Mike)

My bad. Actually, your bad. I was dead.

 (Andy)

You were dead. Good times. Peter meanwhile takes issue with your pronunciation of Boba Fett saying “There are only two Bs in Boba, not three Channel!”. Then he links to this helpful pronunciation guide.

 [Pronunciation guide repeats “Boba Fett” three times]

 (Andy)

Well, what do you have to say for yourself?

 (Mike)

I say that is the last time I pronounce anything from straw was.

 (Andy)

Onto Mark of the Ninja now, of which we posted a preview earlier in the week and which comes out today if you’re watching on Friday September the 7th or in the past if you’re watching any day after Friday September the 7th.

 (Mike)

Sam Williamson commented “This is looking really cool, like 2D Tenchu with a draw distance. After something of a dry spell it’s a good time to be a stealth fan, with this, Dishonored and Hitman: Absolution out in the next few months.”.

 (Andy)

And in response to the OutsideXbox survey on the plural of ninja, Richard Cadman responds “Ninji obviously”.

 (Mike)

Totally incorrect.

 (Andy)

Finally, the user known only as TheMansuraj asks “Any chance of an OutsideXbox podcast?”.

 (Mike)

To which the answer is yes there is every chance of an OutsideXbox podcast! It’s right at the top of our to-do list and when we do get round to do it, we’ll let you know right here.

 (Andy)

That’s all for this week guys. Thanks for watching, don’t forget to hit like and subscribe on YouTube. We’ll see you next week. Did you figure out the story then?

 (Jane)

Yeah, yeah I did. It’s amazing, it would blow your mind if you knew.

 (Andy)

It’s not something stupid like this is all one of Cave Johnson’s tests or something, is it?

 (Jane)

Uh no.

 (Andy)

Wanna play some DOTA 2?

 (Jane)

What now?

#outsidexbox #jane douglas #andy farrant #mike channell #show of the week #transcript

[mitsuhasnolifebutwatchesanime]

A deeper look at my favorite anime: Natsume’s Book of Friends

Wow, I have been running this blog for four years now. That’s a long time to spout out my shit opinions on everything. One thing that has surprisingly not changed though has been my favorite anime. I feel bad because my original review for the series was written 4 years ago. I had just started college, I had no real sense of objectivity and boy, I LOVED Natsume’s Book of Friends obsessively.

Since I hit almost 400 watched anime series on MyAnimeList, I think it’s safe to say now I know what’s good and what isn’t good, and it is good. With the manga series now going on 20+ volumes, the anime renewed for a sixth season, and the Nyanko sensei merchandising coming out every little crevice in Japan, I think it’s safe to assume Natsume’s Book of Friends is loved by many, but why? And especially, why do I like it? I’d like to take a second, deeper look at why this anime works, and hopefully convince you to give my favorite series a try!

A look into traditional Japanese lore and mythology

First off, I wanna talk about the awesome designs and mythology that thoughtfully goes into each youkai character. Yuki Midorikawa is a wonderful author and if you read the manga, you’ll see she breaks down each storyline at the end of the manga as to why she chose/designed the youkai in question, and how they fit into the particular plot. It’s not quite shallow like “it looks good,” and it’s not always entirely original. Some of the youkai designs are taken from actual Shinto mythology, where the idea is that almost everything has a spirit.

Her designs remind me a lot of a similar series, Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro-san, which also is about the world of youkai and how they can have an effect on the world of humans. Back to my main point though, the yokai are thoughtful in design. They are beautiful, terrifying, cute, hilarious, and overall a delight to the senses. There is variety in not only their design, but their personalities and character development as well. It’s very good that this series is focused on making youkai as human as possible without having them be human.

Also if you’re interested in learning more about youkai, NHK World did an awesome Begin Japanology about it, and it’s a DELIGHTFUL watch.

Takashi Natsume is a relatable and deep character

I understand relating to characters. Characters have to be relatable for the real immersive experience to really get into the media they’re in.  Nothing makes me more upset than a dull, passive main character intended for projection. Then again, I’m also a little hesitant about people who say an anime or an anime character “saved” them. This anime came out when I was recovering from a very hard time in my life, so naturally, I related to Takashi a lot. I wouldn’t say this anime saved me though. I was already healing and had the support I needed, and when the anime ended, I didn’t stake my life on it. That’s just unhealthy.

It is healthy, however, to have an outlet like anime to learn and understand complex emotions, situations, and put your own life into perspective. The reason why I related so much to Takashi, aside from the rough childhood (nowhere near as rough, my parents are alive and healthy) and his anxiety is that he distanced himself from both worlds. He doesn’t want to get close to people in the fear of hurting others and being hurt, and at a time I was just learning to understand and really make friends with people, it was really relatable. Takashi hides, not just his ability to see Youkai from others, but the issues it brings from the friends who know he has this ability. When he is deeply suffering, he’s afraid to get people involved in the event it’ll hurt them. He’s burdened in later seasons with keeping more and more secrets, and you can see it’s hurting him trying to not hurt others. Nothing is quite as awful as when you finally break and you end up crying in front of the person you most of all didn’t want to involve. You feel vulnerable and open, and seeing Takashi reach that breaking point in “The Long Way Home,” I really felt for Takashi deeply. No major spoilers here (as this episode mostly takes place in a flashback), but this is the first time Takashi really truly feels selfish enough to ask for something: a loving home when it’s offered to him, and the thought of it just crushes him and I hurt thinking about it.

Quality animation and aesthetics

Okay, sliding that emotional stuff aside, let’s get back to the technical parts of the anime. This anime is beautiful, and what’s really great is it didn’t necessarily start out this way. The first two seasons of Natsume’s Book of Friends don’t have the best animation in the world. The anime relies heavily on scenery pieces, close-ups, gentle slow motions, and some hyper animated action sequences. It’s hard to balance those well without trimming the edges somewhere. Upon rewatching some episodes with my friend I kept nothing places where there were long frames of animation with lots of mistakes in it, but it didn’t necessarily detract from the overall aesthetic.

The style and animation for this series over it’s, so far, five seasons of animation is so fluid. It really makes me grin thinking that only the studio has changed, yet the entire core crew appears to still be around. It gets more beautiful every episode, sometimes the style gets more and more smooth and fluid, other times its more serious and ridged. Still, the soft color pallet that stays throughout the anime, the gentle soundtrack, and sketchy, softer shapes in the series remain very faithful. Also, considering how people complain about adaptations in general, it isn’t a perfect adaptation.

Takashi’s hair and eye color are changed from silver to a kind of deep hay or gold color for the anime. The series is so episodic, the arrangement is almost entirely out of order to where the anime has had to change the seasons of some episodes just to get them to fit into the timeline, unless that season pertains to the storyline of the episode itself. It’s so freaking weird and neat.

That Soundtrack

The soundtrack, which you can listen to a majority of on YouTube, is beautiful. Sometimes it’s weird and a little other worldly like the youkai themselves, or it’ll lull you into a comfortable, at home feeling. I own most of the soundtrack, it’s entirely relaxing and just melts me when I listen to it.

Midorikawa’s other work, Hotarubi no Mori e, also has a gorgeous soundtrack composed by (I THINK) the same person who did the Natsume’s Book of Friends soundtrack, so if you like this soundtrack, you should check out Hotarubi’s too. I especially recommend the title theme if you want some painful feelings.

A lesson of empathy and developing themes

I’m not sure I’ve seen many anime longer than this. I’ve tried many, but it’s hard to start a series when it already has so much material out there. I was fortunate to start it from a little after its Japanese debut, and to have grown with it. I love watching the characters grow and develop as well.

While the series is very episodic to where at this point, I can watch any episode, and I even got someone to watch an episode from each season a few weeks ago, there is continuity. Takashi is a growing boy. He grows, physically and emotionally throughout the series and those differences are striking between seasons one and five for example. He’s is so withdrawn at first, shy, avoids eye contact, and is extra jumpy. In season five, he smiles more genuinely, allows himself to laugh, and finds himself leaning more towards trying to be open towards his friends, the youkai, and the Fujiwaras. Seeing him open up melts my heart. It makes me honestly proud of him like someone would be for their child, which I know is silly, but I’ve been watching this show for ten years now. Ten years is a commitment, folks!

Takashi, in the first few seasons, is very skeptical, fearful, and anxious about anyone and everyone getting near him, especially youkai. Watching him develop into this character that’s determined to be kind, to treat youkai like he would a human, and give everyone the benefit of the doubt no matter if they deserve it or not, is endearing.

I think it’s character writing at its best, and it’s not just Takashi that changes, but the people around him. From the people he cares about opening up as well and growing, to the youkai making an effort to understand humans and their customs, to even Nyanko-sensei becoming attached to Takashi beyond being prey, but a friend, is very exciting to see.

This series means a lot to me, and it’s one of the reasons I decided to start pursuing writing, opening this blog, and making an effort to find anime like it. If you try out Natsume’s Book of Friends and have any thoughts you’d like to share with me, I’d love to hear them. If you want similar anime to it recommended to you if you already like the series and are looking out for something new, talk to me.

#natsume #natsume takashi #takashi natsume #nyanko sensei #natsume's book of friends #natsume yuujinchou #crunchyroll #nis america #yuki midorikawa #long post #mitsu review

[avaliveradio]

6.3 Rock Mania with Host Jacqueline Jax

TODAY'S FRESH LIST OF ROCK FRESH OUT OF THE STUDIO. EPISODE HOSTED BY JACQUELINE JAX.

Listen to the show at 8 am et : The Anchor Fm page: https://anchor.fm/ava-live-radio

iHeartRadio station page : https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-AVA-Live-Radio-Musi-29336730

The Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2toX0f3dPmI8gmUSOKZicx

FEATURING:

Artist: Tough On Fridays

New Release: October 1

Genre: Rock; Pop-Rock; Garage Rock; Alternative Rock; Pop Punk

Located in: : Georgetown, TX

Tough On Fridays is a rising alternative rock duo from Georgetown, Texas. Comprised of best friends Katie and Caleigh, the two have turned their shared passion for music into an exciting blend of pop and rock!

Their brand-new song, "October 1,” is the lead single for a series of EPs they are releasing in 2019. Caleigh, Tough On Fridays’ guitarist, wrote a song called “Summer” (released as the “A” side for the single “Under-Appreciated” in April 2019) about her ongoing issues with seasonal depression. What is different is that Caleigh’s depression is the reverse of the usual … instead of her depression hitting in winter, hers hits in summer. Thus, “October 1” is a celebration for Caleigh of all things Fall: the change to cooler weather, Halloween, drinking coffee just to stay warm. It’s a driving, fast-paced song that sounds deceptively simple but, like fall preparing for winter, a lot is happening under the surface that’s not so readily apparent.

When we all got together to plan this project, we knew that, like all our other recording projects, we needed not only to produce a lot of material (which we usually do because we tend to work fast) but it had to keep moving our music forward. This project was totally different than our others as we recorded everything at The Bubble in Austin, TX, with engineer/producer Chris “Frenchie” Smith (Toadies, Front Bottoms, Residual Kid). This was the first time we’d had someone other than producer/manager Eric on the production side when we were creating the recordings. Having Frenchie and Eric both there, as well as a more defined direction in our records was huge for us. While we can honestly say that we love all our records (yes, we actually listen to our own stuff long after the records are done), this change in the recording process was big for us.

Coming up Next...

We just finished our Kickstarter crowdfunding project and with that, we have enough funding to do our first album which we plan on starting early next year. We recorded enough material at The Bubble in January and February so that we can release new songs every month through the end of the year including some acoustic stuff we really wanted to do. Right now, we’re catching our breath a bit since we’re both in school and just finished exams and we continue to write new stuff. Always.

LINKS:  - ReverbNation - https://www.reverbnation.com/toughonfridays - Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/55luU7vwyDXYDXxxkLIsu0?si=EnP-W1oeTeysdO5K3H5QWg Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/toughonfridays Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/toughonfridays Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/toughonfridays

Artist: Soul Creed

New Release: Hold On

Genre: Rock, Christian Rock

Located in: Charleston, SC

This song is where Nashville meets Classic Rock! Influenced by iconic artists such as The Beatles, Tom Petty, Jars of Clay, and Christ Stapleton, this acoustic-driven, slide guitar reeling newbie with punchy 4-part harmony chorus vocals shares the story of a lonley 18 yr old girl raised in an orphanage and forced to face adult life on her own without hope in her world. However, the story turns positive with an admonishment for her to "Hold On" there is Someone you can turn to for help! No matter what circumstance you face in life, you are NEVER abandoned or alone!

The music we're creating is both lively and passionate telling stories that convey common human struggles with personal pain and loss, desire, and dealing with the hand life dishes out, and the ongoing spiritual search for love and truth. This song and style mark a step up in maturity in our music journey.

Soul Creed is getting set to perform several weekend dates this summer in Western New York, North Carolina, and Georgia, as well as a visit Nashville, TN in October! On June 16 we will be hosting the 2019 Extreme Tour event in North Charleston, SC. We are currently working on a studio album titled "Stake The Claim", looking to see release sometime in the next year!

LINKS:  https://www.reverbnation.com/soulcreed/song/30494637-hold-on https://open.spotify.com/track/08ydiXnkx0w50hnjWJBNwM https://twitter.com/soulcreedband https://www.facebook.com/soulcreedmusic www.instagram.com/soulcreedmusic

Artist: RELEASER

New Release: Taking Over

Genre: Alternative Rock

Located in:  Chicago

The song is about when you start to realize your addictions are starting to control and take over your life. We tried to emulate the feeling of stress or your body's heartbeat racing through the beat and intensity of the music.. If you’ve ever drank all night and well into the next day with the help of stimulants, you can relate to this song.

The music we are creating is...  "'Retox’ is a collection of songs about addiction, obsession, and an overall loss of self-control. Nothing in these songs are fabricated. You wanna hear stories about a particular fucked up time in my life, put on some headphones and jump down the rabbit hole."--Stephen Mueller, Lead Vocals, Guitar.

Right now we are... 5/31/19 they performing at Cubby Bear in Chicago along our friends and music colleagues Local H and AM Taxi. More exciting Summer show announcements coming soon!!!

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/track/6Fp09L1vTEQoSUHl0cqXfJ?si=SleVQWTNQJWscLj5Tgwyyw @wearereleaser www.facebook.com/releaserofficial https://twitter.com/WeAreReleaser

Artist: Karl Sky

New Release: Free

Genre: Americana-Rock

Located in: : LaCrosse, WI

Karl Sky's Music is a pleasant, melodic journey that navigates delicately through the human spirit. "Free" is more than about celebrating a feeling of being in one place at one time. It shows us that you can take what life throws at you, unwillingly have your path change and still embrace a freedom that each of us desires I was heavily influenced by groups such as The Beatles, and Singer/Songwriters Jim Croce, John Denver, Van Morrison & Crosby Stills & Nash.

I lean on a heavy blend of acoustic/electric guitar throughout. The acoustic paints the delicate side of the emotional palette and the electric allows the raw energy to escape. I believe anyone can listen to this song and find some element of it in their adult life.

"Free" is technically my first single release ever, off of a brand new album I just finished after having been inactive musically for several years. Bits and pieces of this song go way back to when I first started writing. So I feel I've come full circle and now I have a rather large catalog of music to show the world.

Right now I am actively working with an influencial publisher in Nashville, focusing on perfecting other songs in my catalog, that will be pitched to major artists.

LINKS:  https://instagram.com/karlskysongs https://karlsky.com https://facebook.com/karl.sky.35 https://soundcloud.com/karl-sky/free

Artist: Black Rose Reception

New Release: Up jumped the devil

Genre: Hard rock

Located in: Indiana

The message in this song is you can overcome the demons of depression, suicide, and stress that we all deal with. There are great and professional people out there who can help.

The music we are creating is an old and new school music mix. We are going in studio recording more new tracks so expect more and watch for the matching merch.

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/album/0HEOkTc5fXQyYCr1jwFSeF  https://twitter.com/blackroserecept https://www.facebook.com/BlackRoseReceptionMusic https://www.instagram.com/blackrosereceptio https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/BlackRoseReception

Artist: Living Waters

New Release: Light of the World

Genre: Christian Rock

Located in: New England

This is a song we did hundreds of times in concert back in our earliest days, in the late 70's and early 80's. We have just recorded a fresh version on our new album, "Overflow". The original classic band line-up is featured in full on this one. It reaches back and touches our deepest roots while tieing thematically and otherwise with our newest creations on the new album.

We are DEFinitely recording more this summer, with more classic material from both Mike and Mark!

LINKS:  https://www.reverbnation.com/livingwaters/song/28663902-light-of-the-world https://www.facebook.com/livingwatersband https://twitter.com/LivingWatersMsc

Artist: Douglas Aldridge

New Release: We’d Better Stroll

Genre: Folk Rock

Located in: Atlanta, GA USA

This song brings together three different stories of dark or desperate life situations.

My music is always a direct product of who I am and what I’m going through. My music is my life and it reflects all those around me, family, friends, experiences all rolled into one package.

As a third-generation singer and entertainer, I have no other choice in the matter. I can’t do anything else but make music. It’s the only thing in my life that ever has or will feel right.

Douglas Aldridge is a passionate and eccentric American multi-instrumentalist, producer, and Alternative, Indie, Folk Singer-Songwriter in Atlanta, GA. Born February 22, 1985, to renowned singer and music minister, Douglas Aldridge Sr.

LINKS:  Official Website http://www.douglasaldridge.net Facebook http://www.facebook.com/DouglasAldridge6x3 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXYqqnC5z0bxxMqPC2ktaQ Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/DouglasAldridg Instagram https://www.instagram.com/douglas.aldridge ReverbNation  https://www.reverbnation.com/DouglasAldridgemusic Spotify http://open.spotify.com/artist/y2rsY9pXQ4tLxrRzhCw1MhC

Artist: Garmonsway, Gibbon & Harrington

New Release: Our Heroes

Genre: Rock Ballad

Located in: UK

We all have our musical heroes, whatever our age and tastes in music. ‘Our Heroes’ celebrates this and reflects on the innocence of being in your early teens (or younger) and experiencing your first rock concerts with your friends.

I wanted the song to appeal to everyone, whatever their age, wherever they live, but for me, it is about being early teens and experiencing my first rock concerts in the Northeast of England.

I also wanted the feel of the song to be such that you could imagine it being played on stage with the audience singing along, almost like an anthem to those times.

I’ve brought together three experienced and inventive musicians to explore and record my songs. The musical vibe has both a rock and acoustic feel merged together, and together with the paintings present the whole package. I like to think it portrays a cultured message, musically, lyrically and visually.

Right now we are busy promoting the ‘Northeast’ ep – one of the reasons for the band name was that we could all promote the album through each of our own musical circles.

LINKS:  https://open.spotify.com/album/3YXFZ6q3WrOSiTWJecSHTU  Spotify link to full ep https://open.spotify.com/album/2HlaOwnnq1HlaH7pYAEnfN  Spotify link to Our Heroes single https://www.facebook.com/BestRoomSongs https://www.instagram.com/alan_garmonsway https://twitter.com/bestroomsongs

Artist: Cabela and Schmitt

New Release: ALL

Genre: Soft Rock

Located in: Nebraska and Colorado ALL is a tribute to someone who came into our lives and helped us learn and live and love. In the style of Eagles, Tom Petty or the Beatles.

The music we are creating is... Cabela and Schmitt are a trio of friends who have been collaborating for over 40 years. Our only goal as a group at this stage in our lives is to share with others what we have so freely and abundantly been given. We come from the heart of the United States and humble beginnings, where hard work and perseverance is just a way of life. Cabela and Schmitt are songwriters/composers. We all have the God-given ability to choose how we want to view this world. We are all given a voice, in some way or another, to communicate how we see and experience our world. It is our choice how and when to use that voice. Cabela and Schmitt have chosen to expose our thoughts, beliefs, and feelings in the best way we can…through a song. We have always wanted to share our music without giving up this wonderful life we’ve been given and we are so very happy and excited to be able to share with you! ~Cabela and Schmitt

Right now we are... Just released our 8th album last month - GOLDEN LINKS. Currently working on the 9th scheduled for some time in October.

LINKS:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/0BFLp6JFiUM0hkd2pkELWs?si=byJkboJPShCDqEPbdp3zPw Twitter - @CabelaSchmitt Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cabelaschmittmusic Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cabelaandschmitt

Artist: Thomas Thunder

New Release: Nebula

Genre: Progressive Rock

Located in: Fairhaven, Ma USA

This song is a Progressive Rock Song and explores the concept of space and specifically gas and dust from a Super Nova otherwise known as a dying star. This song is impactful because space is truly the final frontier of exploration.

This song is important to my musical direction at this time because I’ve always found space exploration interesting and a Nebula not only are regions of dying stars but are often star forming by clumping together gas and dust; which most musicians hope to be successful “stars”.

Right now I’m working on a video for Nebula which should be out shortly on my Youtube channel. The song will be out on all digital platforms as well like Spotify.

LINKS: 

Website & social media links: https://twitter.com/ThomasThunder10 https://www.instagram.com/thomasthunder11 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiKv0UfB9-Sh6rtaMKIGDRQ https://soundcloud.com/user-930498945

Artist: Studio Fire Band

New Release: Lucid

Genre: Rock ----Grunge Rock or Alternative

Located in: : Edmonton ,Alberta , Canada

Our Music brand is Energy and We are passionate about playing . Tony was inspired to write this song in thinking about a point in life where you get free of bondage of habits, patterns, behaviors, trends of thoughts of negative thinking. Free of self doubt, free of sabotaging thinking or being controlled by others life for yours. Destiny free of addiction, afflictions of mind and spirit . It's important not just for or about each one of us but is a connection as many people have gone through things like this. Trying to be strong, get better, and improve. This is important to our Band at this moment as we are trying reach a larger audience and build our fan base.

We are preparing to work on our third Album soon , Tony had something a little different in mind on at least one song in the mix and I'm not sure how many songs it will be either we will see.

LINKS:  https://www.reverbnation.com/studiofireband/song/30117135-04-lucidton'  https://www.facebook.com/bob.nedved.188

Artist: Saint Ee Ha

New Release: Surrender

Genre: rock, singer-songwriter

Located in: Los Angeles

This song talks about duality of life, it indicates the conversation between the self and the ego, the zero of ego is kind of surrender to the self

We are Saint Ee Ha East Western Rock Band from Los Angeles, (EE HA = SOUL ) Saint Ee Ha is a musical revolutionary committed to uniting the world under a simple unified message to "Kill the Poverty" through powerful and motivational music.

We performed a live show on Memorial Day 26 May at IVAR HOLLYWOOD this event was organized by Sound the groove and on the 30 May we headlined 11.30 pm Act, we are also working on "Dance" MUSIC VIDEO and we are planning on a crazy music video on the song "Surrender" We also plan to release a New Music Album

LINKS:  www.facebook.com/sainteeha www.instagram.com/sainteeha www.twitter.com/sainteeha https://soundcloud.com/sainteeha/surrender

PLAYLISTS:

#Karl Sky #Saint Ee Ha #Living Waters #Black Rose Reception #Tough On Fridays #Soul Creed #RELEASER #Douglas Aldridge #Garmonsway #Gibbon & Harrington #Cabela and Schmitt #Thomas Thunder #Studio Fire Band

[superfoodish]

How to Lose Belly Fat

source: https://ift.tt/2tHOZbA

When Keeping Up with the Kardashians debuted on E! in 2007, Rob Kardashian had the world on a string. But after splitting with pop star Rita Orain 2012, he turned to junk food to cope, and as his weight ballooned, his self-esteem evaporated. Kardashian was reportedly even afraid to step out in public and be photographed. “If I don't get some. This together, they won't want to like hang around everybody, y'know what I'm saying?” But by 2018, he managed to finally shed some pounds and get back within reach of his ideal weight. So just how did he do it? This is Rob Kardashian's dramatic weight loss transformation. Trending with milkshakes By 2014, Kardashian was making headlines for all the wrong reasons. In a now deleted throwback Instagram post,he revealed that his problem worsened when he started drinking milkshakes. His weight gain was so dramatic that he wound up trending on Twitter because of it. He wrote, in a series of since-deleted tweets: “So I found out I was trending for being fat. Thank you all it really made my day. [. ] I'm aware that I'm fat that def ain't surprise to me lol and my only therapy will be in the gym, anyways had to say something. ” Too fat for the cameras Kardashian's Twitter rant came just days before his sister, Kim Kardashian, was due to marry rapper Kanye West in Italy. Despite making it all the way to Paris, he ended up flying straight back to LA because he didn't want to be seen at the ceremony. “When Rob flew to Paris, he read some nasty comments about himself, and he just didn't feel comfortable, and he didn't wanna see all my guests. ” According to TMZ, Rob had, become so insecure and depressed about his appearance [that] he refused to be in the family wedding pics, despite his family encouragement. ” Kardashian confessed to People, “I'm 6'1″ and at my most I probably weighed300 pounds. There were cameras at the airport on our trip there, and I was very unhappy with the person I saw in all the pictures. ” A little ‘tough love' When newlywed sister Kim returned to the States,she told Andy Cohen that Rob sent her “a long email” on the morning of her wedding explaining his reasons for bailing. But Kim wasn't feeling sympathetic, saying, “I try to encourage him and once you just don't make that change for so long and it's not happening, I get frustrated. ” And Kim isn't the only Kardashian to have lost her patience with Rob. Sister Khloé told People in 2015, “I've been really trying, but I have my moments, and I do snap. I've offered to get a chef, I'm like, ‘What'your excuse?' But it's not just that. I can't win life for Rob. I have to wait until [he's] ready to do it for himself. ” Passing on rehab Rumors started circulating in 2014 that Kardashian was headed to weight loss camp. But he quickly shot down that story, in a since-deleted tweet, writing, “To the blogs saying I went to fat camp or rehab, LOL. Then why am I still fat you fools? Y'all must have run out of real news. ” The Kardashians tried to stage a family intervention,but as soon as Rob caught wind of the plan, he split. An insider told Radar Online in 2017, “He's refusing rehab, he doesn't want any fat farms, no more therapists, no more interventions, diets, and meddling sisters. Serious concerns Rob is said to have suffered from depression ever since the death of his biological father in 2003, with his weight issues only making matters worse. In a 2015 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians,his mother, Kris Jenner, said she fears the worst is yet to come, admitting, “If I don't help him do something drastic,he's going to die. ” She later told a therapist on the show, “It's just like you're waiting for this horrible thing to happen and there's nothing you can do about it. ” A devastating diagnosis By the end of 2015, Rob's weight was threatening his life. In December of that year, he has rushed to hospital after falling ill, due to complications from diabetes. According to TMZ, Rob then became determined to shed the extra weight and get healthy in the new year, but one whistleblower claimed his lifestyle only got worse. The insider told Radar Online, “He thinks nothing of having two or three tubs [of ice cream] in the afternoon. It's wreaking havoc on his diabetes, not to mention the added stress the weight is putting on his heart. ” Hiding out Rob reportedly became so disheartened about his appearance that he withdrew from society altogether, holing up in his mom's house and becoming a total recluse. But Khloe told Wonderwall in March 2015 that his issues weren't just physical ones. She said, “Over the last year, Rob has become very introverted and has a kind of social anxiety. I know he can get to that happy place and will. ” A few weeks later, Kim revealed her thoughts about Rob on Today, saying, “I think he's just going through a phase where he's not comfortable in his own skin. He is working really hard to get back to where he really wants to be. ” But Rob's friends weren't so sure he could do it. One insider revealed to Hollywood Life, “His weight affects his mood, and then his mood affects his motivation to eat well and work out, it's a vicious cycle. ” Support from the pros While those closest to Rob were warning him about his weight; there was one person who thought he was fine just the way he was. Rob's former Dancing with the Stars partner Cheryl Burke told the Allegedly podcast of his fluctuating weight: “I'm surprised that he's making it a bigger deal than it is. Cause I think that it's fine. ” Losing it with Blac Chyna Rob finally managed to get his diabetes under control in 2016, according to CNN. It was the first big victory in his battle with obesity, but Rob didn't do it alone. He revealed that his romance with model Blac Chyna turned out to be the catalyst he needed in order to make positive changes. He told People at the time, “She's surrounded me with a lot of positivity. From the moment we met, I knew I wanted to be more than friends. ” According to TMZ, his new flame encouraged him to cut carbs and red meat, and hit the gym five days a week, with no cheat days. With her help, he was able to shed an impressive40 pounds. Packing it on, again Blac Chyna gave birth to Rob's daughter, DreamKardashian, in November 2016, but less than a year later, the two separated under very nasty circumstances. “So yeah, I am not feeling so good. ” After the breakup, Rob started to pack on the pounds. A friend told Radar Online, “He's the biggest he's ever been. He's well over 300 pounds now [. ] and his a heart attack waiting to happen. ” Radar's source claimed Rob had been “comforting big time”, and claimed, “He's got major anger and addiction issues,brought on by a chronic lack of self-esteem over his looks and his position in the family. He's lost the will to live, and if it wasn't his little girl, he'd probably not have made it. ” According to The Belfast Telegraph, Kim allegedly urged mom Kris to stop “enabling” Rob's unhealthy lifestyle with financial support. Baby motivation According to Hollywood Life, Rob started joiningKylie for workouts every other day as she aimed to shed her baby weight, after giving birth to daughter Stormi in February 2018. Before long, he was looking slimmer than he had in years. A source revealed, “Seeing the weight fall off has been huge in helping Rob get his confidence back. Kylie challenged and pushed Rob to be better for Dream, and that's all the motivation he needed. ” The insider claimed Rob finally agreed on to stick to his diet, though having a young child in the house has helped amp up the activity level. The source claimed, “Rob is staying disciplined and sticking with a strict nutritional program that he's been put on to get his weight down as well, and it makes it easier for him since Dream keeps him pretty active already. He's having a blast chasing her around. ” Fans got to see Instagram evidence of Rob'weight loss, on his 31st birthday in March 2018. Did he secretly get surgery? As of June 2018, skinny Rob is back. But did he really lose all that weight through exercise and healthy eating as he claims? According to court documents obtained by theDaily Mail, Blac Chyna alleged Rob underwent a series of cosmetic procedures at costs totaling$100,000. Chyna reportedly made those claims while defending herself against allegations that she had deceived sponsors by going under the knife. Whatever the case, we're hoping Rob is feeling happy and healthy these days

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