#expect some content from me this week or in the next 10 days <3

[lamnwar]

Why is it that when I get drunk my mind goes foggy and I think abt these 2d men that live rent free in my mind? Anyways, in this sacred month of Kinktober, I'll try to publish all nsfw requests that I've received, so it'll make stuff more interesting to y'all 🥰🥰🥰

#bc I've looked into it and apparently there's not much knb content publish during this #kinktober #i wanna change that #not this year #but maybe next year for sure I'll give y'all a proper knb kinktober #my basketball babies deserves it #anyways #expect some content from me this week or in the next 10 days <3 #love all your requests too! y'all are feeding me as well <3 #knb #knb x reader #knb smut #kuroko no basuke

[lookingformoondrop]

OMG FINALLY SOMEONE WHO WRITES ABT THE COFFIN OF ANDY AND LEYLEY AAA

Honestly I'd take any writing about Andy LMFAO whatever you want to write, I'd just love to read something, be it headcanons or some short story <3

Absolutely! I was shocked when I tried finding content for TCOAAL, and there was none💀. For the sake of fluff Andy, the reader is the closest thing Andy has to a sister!

*Leyley doesn't exist*

P.S. Hopefully, this isn't OOC. This is also not proofread, so

I hope these meet your expectations <3

Andrew Graves x female best friend! Reader

TW: Everyone has a filthy mouth (swearing)... N/M = Nickname ♡

♡925 WORDS♡

Ever since Andrew was a kid, he was treated more as his parent's friend than their kid.

This often meant that Andrew was forced to miss out on childish routines like throwing a tantrum, making a mess, having fun the loud way, and making mistakes, simply because "he was so easy."

If he were to add to his parents' load of problems, he wouldn't be able to live with himself, let alone sleep.

But that was all before he met you.

Every Friday, Mrs. Graves would give Andrew money to go on a snack run for the weekend.

But no matter what he did, no matter when or how he entered the grocery store, this little girl (no less than five) would terrorize Andrew.

"She's so annoying, mom! She always snatches the snacks I go for and then bolts for the next aisle. Then she just giggles and runs away with MY TOMATO SOUP."

Mrs. Graves sighed and turned around to face her son, "Andrew, just because a little five year old girl is taking some of the same snacks as you DOES NOT MEAN I am letting you shop at a different store! 'Shop Shop Shop and Shop, with more Shop' is the best for low-deals and prices. Please don't be difficult."

With no other choices, Andrew was forced to continue shopping.

Every week, she did the same thing. She'd sneak up behind him when he wasn't paying attention. She'd snatch the poor snack out of Andrew's hand and would bolt out of the aisle.

And everytime she did this, Andrew would grow angrier and angrier.

Finally, when the little girl stole the hundredth can of soup from his hand, Andrew turned around and grabbed the little girl's hair.

"AHH! Get off of me asshole!"

"You little shit! Give me that can back!"

They'd fight over the can of soup in the middle of the aisle for the next 10 minutes before the store owner kicked them out for "public disturbances."

Now, without his can of soup, sitting at the curb outside the store, with new bite marks along his arm, Andrew was more pissed than ever.

"What the hell is your problem? Do you just find malicious torment funny, you borderline psycho?"

Andrew turned towards the girl. She turned her smile towards Andrew, "Nah, just you."

Annoyed and exhausted, he put his face in his hands.

She thought for a moment , "No one plays with me, so I figured I should play with someone who looked as miserable as me."

Andrew looked at her through his fingers, "What about me screamed misery?"

She put a finger on her bottom lip, deep in thought, "You just have this face,"

Andrew scoffed at the girl, burying his face in his knees. She giggled.

"You just naturally look like an asshole"

"Watch your language, you fucking shit!"

Andrew went to grab the girls hair, "You dont even know my name, and yet you're calling me an asshole!? No wonder you dont have any friends."

She slapped Andrew's hand before it could reach her, "Well, what's your name?"

Andrew hesitated, "It's...Andrew Graves. What's yours?"

The little girl smiled, "Y/N L/N, your new best friend, Aaaaandy."

Andrew sat lazily with Y/N, laying on his lap. He cringed when he thought about their first meeting.

Of all the things they could've fought about, it was a can of soup... God, they're fucking stupid.

Since that day, Y/N would beg Andrew for attention and fun. She'd stalk him when he was out and about and would drag him away from any errands he was requested to run on.

"Leave me alone, N/M"

"Make me~"

"Please?"

"Lame. Now I have to come with you! With that bitch ass attitude you'll get beat up."

"Great."

And when Andrew accidentally reveal his address? Andrew was permanently stuck with Y/N.

Every Friday, she'd follow Andrew home, and even when Mr. and Mrs. Graves questioned the foul-mouth girl Andrew would never offer an explanation better than, "Some stray I picked up that won't let go. I have to keep her."

"Aaaaandyyy, can you change the channel? I don't want to lift my eyelids."

Andrew sighed, "The remote is right by your leg, dumbass"

"So?" She scoffed, "reach it for me."

"It's closer to you than it is to me!"

"Andy change the goddamn channel!"

"i'm not getting up just because your ass wants to be lazy!"

"ANDREW"

"Y/N"

Even if that meant pissing each other off with meanless schemes.

Despite their bickering that has made local pedestrians' ears bleed, they still were there for each other in everything.

"Whatever, you dumb bastard," Y/N mumbled to herself.

Andrew played with Y/N's hair as he stared at the mindless TV.

"Veronica Steveson asked me out to the date."

"Aw, poor hussy"

"Ouch, you think so lowly of me?"

"No, I just assumed you said no," Y/N continued to watch the TV.

"Why would I...?" Before Andrew could finish his sentence, Y/N sat up and stared at him with intense eyes.

"Do you like her?"

"W- Well no, but it's not like any other girls are crawling to date me"

Y/N scoffed at Andrew, flicking his forehead, "That's because you're stupid to notice."

She laid back down on his lap, and Andrew secretly smiled to himself. "So...who aren't I noticing?"

"Your mom."

"Y/N GROSS!"

And even if no one admitted it out loud, and even if you blushed one too many times around each other, you belonged with each other.

"But seriously, Andy, pass me the remote"

"Eat shit, N/M"

Thank you for the ask <3

#the coffin of andy and leyley #andrew graves #andrew graves x reader #andy graves #andy graves x reader #x reader #y/n #y/n fanfic #headcanons #drabble #cussing #dem kids swear up and down #tw swearing #ooc #maybe idk #ughhhh #sorry

[hedwyn-here]

I still see people obsessively hating on Hello Games for the launch of No Man's Sky, saying they will never trust them, never buy a game from them etc... A very ambitious game made by (for most of it's development) less than 10 employees had to cut some of it's planned content before launch. They were (reportedly) pressured into announcing the game before they were ready, their studio flooded, they had to borrow internet from their neighbours by running ethernet out of the windows, they had a huge company suddenly advertising it as the next big AAA release despite the fact the studio was running out of money...

They aren't blameless, but it doesn't take a whole lot to see how a small group who were incredibly passionate about their work (and without a PR team) could get caught up in this situation.

But you know what? They've spent the last 10 years continually working on that game. Adding more and more content, getting it to where people expected it to be and even beyond in ways nobody could have predicted. Every single trailer they've released since has shown nothing but precicely what the game will offer. And we still see people treating them like industry villains.

There's a particular reason this bothers me so much, and it's name is Randy Pitchford.

A few years before No Man's Sky was released, Gearbox advertised the game Aliens: Colonial Marines with fabricated trailers, gameplay and screenshots. Not just things that had to be removed from the game for budgetary or time reasons, but literally just things they faked purely to advertise the game. What can only be construed as an intentional attempt to lie to the audience so they would buy a game. They were accused of using money SEGA had given them for the development of the game to fund their own proejct, Borderlands. Not only did Gearbox never try to fix Colonial Marines, to my knowledge they never even acknowledged any of the shitty stuff they did. Pitchford routinely attempted to slide that blame onto others (and if I remember rightly even said some pretty unpleasant stuff abotu Steff Sterling for daring to criticise the game on multiple occasions). Yet people are still more than happy to jump on Gearbox games uncritically. Even though they reportedly treat their staff like shit. Have very questionable means of paying their staff that afford them the opportunity to deny them bonuses even management (like Pitchford) are taking home huge bonuses of their own.

This is an example of a large developer very intentionally and maliciously lying to the audience and nobody seemed to give a shit about it even as little as a year after release.

For my money, Hello Games have proven themselves. I'll take an over-ambitious passionate group of artists who can't quite deliver on their promises over a malicious and predatory corporation any day of the week.

Fuck Gearbox.

<3 Hello Games.

I can't fuckin wait to play Light no Fire, I will buy that shit day 1.

#hello games #no man's sky #Light no Fire #game developers #Gearbox #borderlands #randy pitchford #randy bitchford

[sgkophie]

A Man's World - Now a Book <3 (Interested in a free copy?)

Hi! Wow, it has been WAY too long since I have been on Tumblr posting fics... and I miss it so much! A lot has happened since I've last been on, but I have a few fun updates.

"This Is A Man's World" is officially a book! (Launches October 6th!)

Man's World, my Carlos Sainz fanfic that I posted all last year, is now officially a book on kindle unlimited + kindle pre-sale (soft cover coming soon!)! I knew I loved the story so much that I wanted to post it somewhere, and finally my friends (and several of you!) convinced me to re-write the story with original content... and I finally did it.

So really this is a post to say two things...

THANK YOU. A million times over. All of your comments, likes and reblogs kept me going through some tough times last year – and I can't appreciate it enough. Your feedback and love of this story made my day over and over again, and words can't express how much I love this community. You guys just rock.

As a thank you from me... I would love to give you the new book! So, would you like an Advanced Reader Copy? I can't think of a better group of people to read the book, and I'd LOVE some feedback honestly! The bulk of the story is the same, but there's definitely a lot of fun updates. I've of course redone the names and teams, but the characters are the same... if not better <3

If you are interested in getting a copy, then send me a quick Tumblr message or an email @ [email protected] ! I'll happily email over a copy to you in kindle format or PDF, whatever you would like.

And if you're feeling wild enough to leave me a Goodreads or Amazon review (or a cheeky social post!), then this independent, indie author would eternally grateful!

A Man's World - Goodreads Link

If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can get the book for free HERE. (Pre-sale also available if interested!)

My Author Instagram -> Follow me for some fun Georgia/Luca (formerly Carlos... but still Carlos) memes, reels, videos+ my dog reviewing books. ;-)

----------

My second update is that now I am done Man's World (and that chapter is closed)... we can FINALLY get back to Lily's chapter. (And thank God caused I missed her.) Expect Hate To Love You Chapters to resume posting next week!

------------

@ihearttheoriginals​ @lightsoutseb​ @starxqt​ @zoobabystation​ @ashf1 @musialasbae​ @kashee-h​  @oyesmendes​  @hnmaga-blog​ @opfire​ @alina-starksov​ @localfreckle​  @gingerxarmy​ @bands-messed-me-up​ @troybolton-14​ @she-shines-bright​  @xscorpioxmoon​ @whosays75​ @j-brielmalfoy​ @ohthemisssery​ @felicitydameronren​   @alternativemadchen @starlightoctavia​ @monte-carlando @kodzuskook

@desperate-and-broken​ @xheera​ @panicforspec​ @guardians-ofthe-lastyoungkilljoy​  @writing-about-current-obsessions​ @m1glena​  @amulhermaisfelizdomundo​ @avalanchechick29​ @layne-10​ @c2-eh @dan3avacado​ @lovee-rosiieee @earfquak3​ @formula1-bichyslut16​ @finalkru  @pukklv @c-tangerine​ @pulpfixion​  @speechlessxx​ @heavengirls111

@lhamilton-44​  @vamoschilli​  @itsrogersstuff​    @messyblondsblog​   @thotalert4u​   @expcteverything​  @noeesd19​   @booksarebae2000​  @aedeluca​  @mpolarisblack​  @xaftertastex​   @pierregaslyyyyy​  @piceous21​  @bbbruins15​  @auawdo​ @startgirl36​  @franx3sxa​ @a-certified-whore​ @jeanneblanche​ @alireads27​ @hdbjdnsh9282​ @teamspideyman

 @pierre-gasllllllyyyyyy​  @groovy-slytherin​  @e456ertyptn-blog​ @dontforgetplusc​  @opfire​  @asmallhobbitruinedmylife​  @olafsfriend​  @khadijahisham​  @kidlnthedark​  @vendy021​  @multifamdomfan12​ @pleasantducktimetravel​  @xx-randomshit-xx17​  @haunteddeputymugpersona​ @sugacoatedtoughcookie​   @hockeyunits​ @lwstuff​  @xeniarocks  @lovingdennishauger​ @softiecaro​  @giuseppeyuki​ @0-0h0-0​ @lecsainz55​ @asmallhobbitruinedmylife​​  @angstyturtlewitch​  @smoooothoperator​ @damonsalvawhore1 @irmpyrz​ @imnotcryingyouare1​ @noncsi87​ @lissimountf1​  @stas-0​ @miniminescapist​​ @sgkophie-writes

Anything Tag list:

@ccloaned​  @canadian-girl87​ @tita010​ @idkiwantchocolatee​  @sava207​  @organasith​ @elixiann​  @carlito55​ @valureads​ @myescapefromthislife​ @burntrubber-dirtyair​  @loverboysainz​  @cubedkiwi​  @expcteverything​ @the-scarletbitch​  @hungryhungariann​  @vita-di-moda​ @ferrariital​  @valureads​ @enn-j​  @amerainne​  @thelightnessofthebeing​  @hewinsinmonza-16​  @perriexed​  @bangtanxberm​  @eitak-t​ @perriexed​  @bangtanxberm​ @jpotterdilf​ @altheahuf​  @chiliwhore​ @dutifullyyoungdream​   @a-certified-whore​  @its-lilla-my-dudes​  @charles-dimple​ @forzaferraris​  @bradfordbantams​  @aedeluca​  @alternativemadchen​  @esserenorris​  @questionslostinmoments​  @writing-about-current-obsessions​ @downinroma​  @ferrarifwendvale​ @ancient-darling​ @hoodpankow​ @ccrobbs​ @sammy0908​  @starxqt​ @ifancycharlesleclerc​  @lightsoutpierre​  @altheahuf​  @gogmf1​  @ohthemisssery​ @raaaaabzzz​​ @icecoldtires​ @iloveturbosa​ @dr3lover​ @ellethewitchbitch​ @sophierose463​ @running-colourful​ @ricsaigaslec​ @rebelwrites @internetgremlin @internetgremlin-writes @mickcedesamgf1

Carlos Tag List -

@24joan​  @troochtvivel​  @glame​

#f1 x reader #Carlos Sainz x reader #f1 imagine #Carlos Sainz Jr x reader #formula one x reader #f1 fluff #Carlos Sainz x you #Carlos Sainz imagine #Charles Leclerc x reader #carlos sainz #f1 fanfic #f1 fanfiction #formula 1 fanfic #f1 fic #formula 1 imagine #f1 x you #f1 imagines #man's world #x reader #formula 1 x reader #formula 1 #formula one imagine #f1 fandom #formula one #Carlos Sainz fluff

[xoxiu]

my house of stone, your ivy grows

chapter six table of contents masterlist

join the taglist

summary: yoongi carried himself with a sense of pride within himself and his belongings. he worked hard to get to where he was- ethically or not, it made him the man he is today. his latest toy, a young college girl from america, will become his magnum opus. he just needs to work out the kinks.

tags/warnings: mafia au, kidnapping, daddy dom!yoongi, smut, autistic!reader, spanking, stockholm syndrome, little!jimin, vminhope, drug mention, namjin, fluff, domestic discipline, age gap

Kiwo was doing better, Yoongi thought. As the days went on, she fought less and talked more. She still avoided Yoongi at all costs, refusing to go to bed with him or sit anywhere near him, but she was less hostile. Sometimes Yoongi would even catch her soft and curious stares towards him.

Monday came around, and Yoongi noted that Kiwo had class today at 10:30 am. This week, Yoongi himself would escort her to class and wait until she had finished ensuring she would behave. Next week, Jungkook would be with her (if Kiwo decided she wanted to continue courses). 

"So, Kiwo," Yoongi looked over at the more petite girl in the passenger seat. "When are all of your classes time-wise?"

Kiwo kept her eyes glued to her feet, "Uh, today I have Ethics from 10:30 to 11:30. Then I have Writing from 3 to 4, and Korean classes from 4 to 5."

Yoongi gave her a small smile, "Now, would you like to take a nap during your break or go out for lunch?" Yoongi was giving her a chance to behave in public. He would take her out to a nice, casual place for lunch if she chose. But, he understood that Kiwo was shy, and, just like Yoongi, appreciated any chance to sleep. A small 'I don't know' brought Yoongi out of his head. The two continued the drive in silence.

They eventually pulled into a parking lot outside of the building where Kiwo had her class, and Yoongi placed a gentle hand on Kiwo's knee. She pulled her knee away and brought her knees to her chest after unbuckling the seatbelt. Yoongi looked at her with curious squinted eyes, wondering what made Kiwo so anxious and shy all of a sudden. 

"Do you want me to walk you inside?" Yoongi asked, and Kiwo shook her head frantically. While Yoongi couldn't see her face behind her arms, he could hear her shaking breaths and sniffles, indicating that she was crying. 

Yoongi sighed. He had absolutely no clue what was going on with the young girl- he assumed she would be happy to leave him. This left him emotionally torn between the pain of seeing her so upset and the joy of knowing she wanted to be with him. Kiwo's cries turned into loud sobs as she spoke.

"I just wanna go home!" She yelled as her cries and sobs escalated. Yoongi placed a hand on the top of her head, gently stroking her hair as he softly shushed her. 

"We'll go home, baby. Just put your seatbelt back on."

"NO!" Kiwo screamed, and glared at Yoongi, "I wanna go to MY home!" Kiwo turned her back to Yoongi, curled up on the seat, and tried her hardest to open the car door. Yoongi had yet to unlock it. He stared at the girl with sadness in his eyes- this wasn't what he expected. 

The two aimlessly drove around Seoul until Kiwo had calmed down. Eventually, Yoongi pulled into the parking lot of a small park with a pond and waterfall. At some point, Kiwo had unfurled herself from the fetal position and was sitting normally in the passenger seat, staring out at the pond. They sat in silence, enjoying the sounds of nature. It was a much more welcoming environment than the busyness of the rest of Seoul. It felt peaceful. Yoongi looked over at Kiwo.

"Do you want to go sit by the flowers?" He asked. Kiwo simply nodded, and Yoongi clicked the unlock button on the car. Opening the car door for her, Yoongi grabbed her hand and led her over to the small patch of tulips by the water. They sat down on the soft grass, Kiwo still avoiding Yoongi's lingering gaze. She stared blankly out at the pond and the overarching trees. After a moment, she spoke up quietly.

"Why me?" She asked though Yoongi could barely hear her. Why her? There were a million reasons why it was her, but the rambling would just overwhelm Kiwo. Yoongi sighed and grabbed Kiwo's face, forcing her to look at him. 

"Because you're beautiful, and I want to keep beautiful things happy and safe," Yoongi said, "I'm the only one that can do that for you."

Kiwo avoided eye contact the entire time. Nevertheless, Yoongi continued.

"You needed someone. You needed assurance, safety, and security. I can give you that. I could tell you were struggling, just begging for someone to save you."

"What did I do?" Kiwo asked, barely audible above the sounds of the waterfall. 

"Nothing, dear. And everything. You did nothing and everything at the same time." It didn't make sense, Yoongi knew that. But it was true. Just her mere existence meant everything to Yoongi- she could just sit in his office corner for years and he would be the happiest man in the world just knowing Kiwo was his. 

Only his. 

They sat in silence again, taking in the relaxing scape that was the park. Kiwo rested her head on Yoongi's shoulder. 

#bts fanfic #yoongi x reader #min yoongi #mafia au #bts little space #kim namjoon #kim seokjin #jung hoseok #park jimin #kim taehyung #jeon jungkook #bts #vminhope #namjin #my house of stone your ivy grows

[rainiishowers]

Welp more Mammon's Crows Content is something I'm in!

Can I request Mammon's Crows [Or the Corvadea Army as I like to call them] having a hivemind/connected consciousness? Like they can talk to Mammon and Mammon only unless someone tried to interfere with Mammon's consciousness [Belphie]. They act as his mental guardians and troublebringers, preventing anybody unauthorized and keeping Mammon awake from weeks.

They could go to like "Father we want gold" to "Father we crave for slaughter."

Imagine the faces when Mammon's Crows exhibit such bloodthirsty looks and Mammon literally is used to it like "Yes yes, I'll feed you some human villages soon let me finish this *Tired Father sigh*"

Idk Chaotic Father Mammon and Chaotic Children Crows/Ravens/Corvadea.

A/N: These are going to be a 3 n 1 story since I don’t know how to keep a consistent plot lmfao Some sassy Mammon, as a bonus <3 Summary: Adventures of Crow Father Mammon and Chaotic Crows! Genre: Fluff Warnings: Not proofread, Mammon x MC on the the last story --- Currently, Mammon was in the planetarium with his crows. This was a meeting spot of theirs when his crows wanted his attention. Mammon fully expected them to of done something that made them come to the planetarium and want him to come there as well. "So, what did ya do?" 'We committed violence.' "Not surprised. On who?" ‘A lesser demon who we heard had bullied Leviathan.’

He tsks, leaning back. He didn’t take too kindly to demons bothering his brothers, nobles or lesser. Either way, it’s best if they don’t end up on Mammon’s bad side. He knew his crows were expecting a reward so he flicks a coin in front of them and pet ones head. He felt like a father to these crows, and his brothers make jokes about that. Mammon didn’t mind of course, but man can the squawking get tiring.. ---

The brothers were walking to RAD, and Belphie was staring at the crows, wit them staring back. You see, it was a harmless thing. The brothers wanted to see what was going on in the second born’s mind, money and wealth, they assumed. But when Belphie tried to sneak into his mind, he was met a force violently pushing him back and preventing him from entering.  The youngest assumed it was Mammon’s crows, so now he was glaring at them for giving him headaches so bad that he can barely sleep, only doze off until the pain hits.  Belphie goes up to Mammon and taps his shoulder, getting his attention. “Yea? What’s up?” “I think your crows fucked with me somehow, can you tell them to stop whatever they’re doing?” Mammon looks at the crow on his shoulder, who looks back. They stare at each other for a second before Mammon turns to his brother and shrugs. “Ya shouldn’t of tried to invade my dreams.” And he just walks off, leaving Belphie flabbergasted.  --- Mammon was in his room, writing a letter. He heard squawking from the window and looks over, seeing a murder of about 8 to 10 crows.  ‘Father, we want gold and violence.’

Mammon turns over and crosses his arms. “Usually it’s only one of the two but now it’s both?” ‘...Please?’ Mammon sighs and turns back to his letter. It was a love letter for MC that he wanted to give, but was too embarrassed to.  He suddenly had an idea. “How about-” He turns to his crows. “I finish this letter, ya deliver it to MC and I’ll give ya both.” The crows seem to be in agreement, so Mammon finishes his letter and hands it to the crows. -- The next day, Mammon was giving gold to his crows in the garden, planning to give them violence later today. “Mammon!!” He hears a familiar voice and turns to see MC, who was smiling. They sat beside him. “So, I got your letter that your crows so dutifully delivered and I feel the same way..” Mammon sat there, jaw open as he searches for the right words. “Really?”  “Yes, really” ‘Are we getting a new parent?’ Mammon glares at his crows, earning a puzzled look from the human. “Did they say something?” Mammon rubs the back of his neck with a small grin. “Well, would you like to become a crow parent?”

#obey me shall we date #obey me! mammon #obey me! mc #crows #crow father #fluff #mammon x mc #gender neutral mc

[royallyprincesslilly]

Title: Forever & Ever & Ever & Ever---But Not Right Now **

Lewis Hamilton x Reader

Warning: Heavy, Heavy, Heavy angst, 18 + Mature Content, NSFW, Mild Smut, TW: Possible Toxic Love

Words: 5.4k

Summary: You and Lewis have had an on and off relationship for the last 3 years. You’re never together for too long before one or both of you initiate “taking a break”. However, the breaks never last long and you always end up right back in each other’s arms.

Note: Inspired by a song by FLETCHER; “Forever”. This has quite a bit of angst, but I hope you enjoy. I tried my best with British slang (I think I failed LOL; I apologize) 

Note II: Any Italic Text after the first/opening line is conversation from a memory. Hopefully that’s clear. Also, I’m trying a different way to incorporate text messages. Lemme know what you think. Also don’t come for me if you hate reader...I kinda do too.

 Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this, please, LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG!!

 ***NOT Edited/Proofread***

***Interactive***

 ~~~~~~~~~

-Lewis-

 This is—you know who this is, Y/N. Sorry I couldn’t pick up, I promise it’s not personal, leave a message and I’ll call you back. Text me if you want a reply faster. Kisses.

 Beeeeeep.

 “Hey poppet—sorry, old habits. Y/N, it’s Lew. Um—I—I thought you’d pick up. Guess I was barmy for that. uh—I’m back in town for a spot. I know Mart said he was having some sort of thing tomorrow night and I wanted to know if you’re going. Give me a call—or text. Whatev.”

 He sighed then ended the call and tossed his cell phone onto the table in front of him. Part of him felt as if she shouldn’t have called but the other half that made him call felt disappointed. He didn’t know why he’d expected you to pick up. In the last month, you’d probably picked up forty percent of his calls then called him back ten percent, however you always texted him back. The contents of those texts weren’t exactly stress free most of the time.

 Thinking back to the last text exchange from a few weeks ago, he gripped his head then raked his fingers through his freshly loosened hair that still held the crimp from the braids. Groaning, he dropped back onto the lounger couch and stared at the abstract chandelier above him. as if he needed to refresh his memory, he grabbed his phone then found the messages.

 Thursday, July, 13

MSG Poppet: Sorry didn’t see this till today. (10:00pm)

MSG: Funny, I saw you’d read it when I sent it. 3 days ago. (10:05pm)

MSG Poppet: 🙄 Really? I must have glanced it and forgot to reply. I was really busy. (10:30pm)

 Friday, July, 14

MSG Poppet: Are you mad now? (12:15am)

MSG: Poppet: You are, aren’t you? (12:25am)

MSG: Why would I be mad Y/N? (12:27am)

MSG Poppet: Because whenever we talk you always get mad at me. It sucks. (12:30am)

MSG: Seriously? I wonder why I’m always getting mad at you. Like really Y/N, do you think it doesn’t suck for me too? You think I want to be mad? (12:31am)

MSG:  😩 I’m sorry. (12:45am)

MSG Poppet: No. Don’t apologize, I know it’s my fault. I know I’m horrible for what I’m doing. 😔 (12:50am)

MSG: Then stop. God, I don’t want to do the beating each other up bit. (12:51am)

MSG Poppet: Me neither. It just always happens when we talk. (12:53am)

MSG: Poppet, I want things to be different between us. (12:59am)

MSG Poppet: I gotta go. Talk later. 💋 (1:00am)

 Re-reading it only made him see the hopelessness of your relationship. Anytime he began to get serious with wanting to address the problems you disappeared. When he disappeared, you reemerged with texts and calls only for when he reciprocated for you to fall off the face of the Earth again. When he tried to bring up your relationship you always found a way to change the subject and inevitably the subject was dropped until the next time. With you for the last three years everything had been one roller coaster.

 Thinking back to the start of your relationship, he could officially call it a whirlwind romance. The night of his victory party was epic. The DJ was playing banger after banger, the drinks were strong, and the women beautiful. He’d only planned to stop by for an hour or two because he was exhausted after everything he had to do after the win. However, when he was sitting with his friends just enjoying the good vibes you caught his eye from across the room making a killing at a pool table with each impossible trick shot.

 From the minute he saw you sitting at the edge of the pool table with your fishnet stocking clad legs crossed and the bright red stick in your hand that matched your bright red lips, he couldn’t take his eyes off you. He watched you egg everyone on making them place higher and higher bets on the odds of you making a successful shot sequence that you called out then proceed to hit every single shot. From afar, he couldn’t tell one thing about you but from afar he was sure he’d fallen in love with you right then and there.

 From then, one or two hours turned to three or four, then five, six, until he was watching the sunrise with you on the hotel penthouse suite’s balcony, both of you wearing absolutely nothing. It was a night to never forget, a night where he laughed more than he’d ever laughed, flirted heavier than ever and felt the tightest connection he’d ever felt. A connection that led to soulful kisses and the most night of sex he’d ever experienced. When the sun began to rise, he didn’t want his time with you to end. You felt the same and that one night led to an impromptu two-week vacation for two in Mallorca where the only activities done were eating, swimming, and fucking.

 From that two-week vacation, things between you took off literally and figuratively, where he went you came along, when he was racing you were in the stands in the family section. In between work, you were there to make sure he made time for play, and it was through him you’d experienced may of your firsts. He was having the time of his life and each day he fell deeper and harder for you. The number of deep conversations you had over the first year blew his mind, he felt you knew him better than most and treasured you like the queen you were.

 He'd been so deep that he didn’t see the flip side coming. At the sixteen months mark of your relationship, you’d started to act differently. His calls went unanswered, and his call back took longer and longer, his texts went hours without a reply and then the way you were with him felt as if you were trying to put distance between you. When the words came out your mouth “I think we should take a break”, he actually felt his world stop. He was right about to get in his car for a race. He’d called you because he wanted to hear your voice before. It had been a big mistake. Not only did he lost that race by coming in third, but he’d also crashed which led to him placing third.

 As for the reason for “the break”, “We’ve been together so much that I’ve pushed my life and goals to the side. We need to focus on ourselves.” Did it break him? Hell yes it did. He was completely blindsided by it and what made it worse was you dropping off the face of the Earth for the next three months. If he wanted to find anything out related to you, he had to see it on social media. You were having the time of your life and none of it looked goal oriented, unless your goals were all about living it up. You were at parties, events, modeling gigs, afterparties and even on the arm of a few other celebrities for a night or two. That was what hurt him the most. You’d begun to act like a new person, someone he didn’t recognize. That made him want to turn back into who he was before you. To dull his pain, he did revert. He woke up beside a different woman nearly every morning, sometimes two or three. He couldn’t remember a name to save his life and all their faces blended together after a while. However, nothing really helped.

 When he’d bumped into you a few months after the breakup at the same restaurant, he could feel something was there between you. The pull to you was as strong as it ever was, not a damn thing had changed for him. He still wanted you—still loved you. Throughout dinner he tried to keep his eyes off of you but failed. Every time he looked over to your table, he found your eyes on him and that little bit of contact broke open the gates that he’d built around his heart the last several months. You smiled and he knew that you knew you had him right where you wanted him.

 That night, you showed up to his hotel room and like the idiot he was he invited you in to talk but there were no words spoken—not with your mouths. They say make-up sex was the most incredible thing ever. He could attest to that but that hadn’t turned out to be make-up sex. It was I miss you; I love you; I need you sex for him but for you though he wanted it to be the same, and though it felt like it was the same, he feared it was something else.

 “I think I could love you forever and ever and ever and ever.” Those were the words you said to him when he’d told you he loved you. His heart skipped a beat when you’d said them, then it plummeted when you said, “As long as forever and ever and ever and ever don’t start right now.” He didn’t know what the fuck that meant, but he did. It all boiled down to not wanting to be with him. Not wanting him.

 “You know I think you’re perfect. It’s timing. You’re the type I’d want to spend my whole life with, but you won’t be the one I’ll spend tomorrow tonight with.”

 Your words felt like a professional punch to the gut. He had to actually bend over to catch his breath from that one. It cut deeper than he could admit. That was when the argument began.

 “What the fuck kind of shit is that to say to me after you just spent tonight with me?!”

 “We’re just in two different places.”

 He was stunned. It was like speaking to some embodiment of you, an embodiment who hadn’t experienced the last year and a half.

 “So, what the fuck was the last eighteen months about? What place were we both in then? Different places too?”

 You’d sighed like this was stressing you out, but he didn’t care. He needed an answer.

 “Answer me!”

 “We were but—I just—I can’t—uugh. I want to be young, Lewis.”

 “How am I stopping you from being young? I know I’m a few years older than you, but I’ve never tried to shame you for it.”

 “Uuuugh, I wanna be young and party every night, I want to act dumb with my friends, meet different people, live free and carelessly without thinking of anyone else and worrying if what I am doing will hurt or if I have to say sorry for it. I want to have experiences and know what it’s like to be shameless with my body. You are the third man I’ve slept with. You’ve slept with tens of women and feel no shame over it.”  You were shouting now as if by raising your voice the shit you were saying would make sense. It didn’t—not really.

 “So, you came home with me tonight to fuck me and what disappear again and fuck someone else tomorrow and the night after that and on and on? What the fuck do you really want, Y/N? What!”

 The silence in the suite suddenly became deafening, a drastic change from the shouting match from seconds before. He watched two tears roll down your cheeks and his gut twisted. He hated fighting with you, hated what was happening and half of him wanted to comfort you but the other half couldn’t bring himself to cross the space between you. It was much vaster than it appeared to be it was a chasm that couldn’t be crossed with a few strides.

 “How am I supposed to feel, Y/N? Have you thought about that?”

 “Of course! I just—I don’t think we should--.”

 Unspoken words hung in the air between you.

 “We should what? Don’t bite your tongue now!”

 “Be together—right now,” you finished.

 He stood there staring at you. There was so much turmoil bubbling within him, so many conflicting emotions, so many unspoken words, unspoken hurts. You must have seen it through his eyes because you took a step to him but without even thinking he stepped back. The action made you stop in your tracks and another set of tears rolled down your cheeks. Unable to help himself, a tear steaked his cheek.

 “Lewis--,” you began taking more steps to him. This time you didn’t stop, you crossed to him and cupped his jaw then swiped his tear with your thumb.

 “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

 “You’re not.”

 Your eyes met and the interesting part for him was he saw the same turmoil in your eyes, saw pain. It only made him angrier though. You lifted your other hand and cupped the other side of his face, and you stood there not speaking though he wished you’d say something—anything to wipe away the last ten minutes. He silently plead with you to do just that but the longer you remained silent the more pieces his heart shattered into. Someone had to walk away first or else he would say or do something else and made a further fool of himself.

 Lifting his hands, he gripped your wrists then pulled your hands away from his face.

 “Lewis—don’t—please--.”

 He sniffled then cleared his throat. “You should go—go be young, go party every night, go be dumb with your friends, go meet different people, go live free and carelessly without thinking of anyone else or worrying if what you’re doing will hurt them or if you have to say sorry for it, go have your experiences and know what it’s like to be shameless with your body--,” he had to pause them because the emotion in him clogged his throat stopping the next words.

 Clearing his throat, he held your eyes and fought against you fighting to put your hands back on his face. He knew if you touched him again, he would brush this under the rug. He was too close to playing your fool again. Clenching his jaw, he forged ahead, “Go fuck as many men as you want to and don’t feel not an ounce of shame. Go live your life Y/N, go live it—without me.”

 You scrunched your face and a river of tears streamed down your cheeks.

 “No, I don’t want to lose you though,” you feebly replied.

 Ignoring you he continued, “I wish you every happiness and I hope you find exactly what you’re looking for.”

 He pushed your hands down once and for all and only held your eyes for a few more seconds before he turned away from you and walked off.

 He couldn’t fight the emotions that the memories brought on. If only that had been the last time, you’d seen each other or been entangled in each other’s arms. What followed was a year of back and forth. You would claim you missed him too much and wanted to try again and you’d try but five or six months later you both took turns on who was the one to end things. The last time eight months ago was you. he didn’t know why he just hadn’t moved on already. It wasn’t the sex, he was sure of it, and it wasn’t him being out of options, he had plenty and it wasn’t because he was a masochist, he preferred the Dom roll.

 Deep down he knew the reason. He saw a future with you. his family saw a future with you. He knew your deepest secrets, you knew his, he knew the reasons behind everything you did and knew that you past played a greater role in your present than you let anyone believe. He saw you and you saw him and no matter what he was sure you were tied to his life for a greater purpose. Maybe you were meant to teach him love and real pain, maybe you were his test in life, maybe you were sent to really make him inspect himself and his life to make real changes. His father had always said before every man settles down for the rest of their lives, they’ll all have an enlightened moment to show you real love and he’d had that moment with you years ago. The only doubt he had was that he was uncertain that if love hurt if it was in fact real love or infatuation.

The next night he walked into Mart’s party a few hours late and put on the front of being the life of the party. An hour or so into it he’d faked it till he made it. He’d had several drinks and his worries were miles away. All he wanted to do tonight was drink, dance and have a good time, he’d earned it. He didn’t know if you were there but by the time he was huddled in a dark corner with a gorgeous ebony goddess with long legs and hypnotizing eyes he’d forgotten you—for the most part. He didn’t know how long he’d sat there and talked to her, or how long he’d avoided other women at the party who’d been showing him attention. What he did know was that he felt you before he saw you.

 Fuck, he thought before his eyes moved off of the beauty he was sitting beside and slid across the room as if a south magnet attracted to its north. When he found you, your eyes were already glued to him. God, you were beautiful, he thought to himself before he tried to look away. However, he failed that attempt. It was like you were commanding him and you willed his eyes only to be on you. A slow smile spread your lips and the only reason he was able to look away was the buxom beauty beside him who placed her hand on his jaw and turned his head back to her.

 “I prefer your attention here, lover.”

 Her smile was seductive and mysterious all at once and that only intrigued him further. That was where his attention remained until he went to the bar an hour later for refills on their drinks. As he waited, he scrolled through his phone catching up on any work-related missed messages or emails.

 “Ignoring me now?”

 The hairs on his spine went up at the sound of your voice. When he looked beside him there you stood in your low-cut dress that complimented your shape and complexion so fucking well. He hated that his instinct was to look over your body, hated the fact that the look over your body was not a quick glance, hated that the look over your body elicited a reaction. His cock pulsed painfully and hardened.

 His eyes scurried to your face and the mischievous smirk on your lips said you knew the effect you had on him. Goddamn you, he thought, turning his face back to his phone.

 “Aw, come on don’t be that way.”

 “What can I do for you, Y/N?”

 “Y/N? I was Poppet last night.”

 He clenched his jaw at the reminder of his slip up on his voicemail.

 “You actually listened to my voicemail, wow. Do you want a cookie?”

 He looked at you, your smirk hadn’t faded. Placing your hand on your hip he fought the urge to look at the fullness he knew was there.

 “Nah, cookies are for little girls. Big girls prefer better rewards.”

 You gave his body a once over as you sank your teeth into your plum painted bottom lip.

 “Bigger—rewards,” you added, eyes glued to the front of his pants.

 He was sure you could see your effect. Knowing it would be worse to try and hide it he stayed where he was but cut his eyes.

 “Boo, you’re no fun,” you said with a whine in your voice. “Don’t tell me little miss long legs took all of that and left none for me.”

 He could hear the saltiness in your voice. He smirked then turned to you. He had the upper hand right now even though you knew that his body wanted you.

 “So what if she has? What business of yours is that?”

 You stared at him bit didn’t speak.

 “Think she wants to take more than fun from me,” he said lurching his hips forward for emphasis making sure you got his gist.

 It was then your smirk slipped, and he knew you were grinding your teeth.

 “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you—poppet.”

 You flared your nostrils, rolled your eyes then turned to the bar placing yourself shoulder to shoulder with him.

 “Jealous, that’s laughable. I doubt I have anything to be jealous about. Yes, she’s gorgeous but beauty doesn’t tend to hold you for long.”

 Your voice was dripping with cockiness. Shaking his head, he scoffed. “As if you would know what holds me for long.”

 “I think I do—me.”

 Your eyes met again, and the fire, electricity and pull were still there. Fuck he was stupid, he thought. Shaking his head, he looked away. It was then the bartender slid him the two drinks he’d ordered but he also placed four shot glasses in front of you. They smelled familiar.

 “See you around, Y/N.”

 Before he walked off, you slide two his way then raised your eyebrows. “For old time’s sake?”

 You waited but you didn’t look in the least bit worried he’d turn you down. This confidence was one of the many things he loved about you. In the beginning, it was endearing and sexy, now it was sexy but rubbed so wrong. Sighing, he took up one of the glasses then held it up ready to knock it back.

 “No toast?”

 “What do you want to toast to?”

 You smirked and took up your own shot glass.

 “To tonight.”

 He quirked his brow confused by your meaning but shook his head and knocked it back. A second after he put the glass onto the bartop he grabbed the other and waited for you. Your smirk was wider, and he watched you cross to him pressing your body onto his. You went to his ear.

 “And you getting to bury that bone inside of me in that dark corner behind the bar.”

 Your lips grazed the tattoo on his neck before you pulled back to slowly down the drink never taking your eyes off of his. He hesitated for a few moments then drank it down. Once finished, he leaned to you and felt victory when your eyes dipped to his lips and angled your head back ready for his lips. Passing them, he went to your ear.

 “Oh, I’ll bury this bone inside of someone in a dark corner tonight, but I doubt it’ll be you who gets the pleasure, poppet.”

 A once sweet and loving nickname between the two of you was now used as a weapon and he knew you knew the difference of its usage every time he did it. With that, he moved from you with drinks in hand and walked off. It took a few moments, but your reply came just as he expected.

 “I look forward to making you eat those words.”

 Giving himself credit, he scoffed he may want you, but he wouldn’t give in. Two hours later it was apparent he’d given himself too much credit because he was currently behind the same bar, in the dark corner you’d alluded to, balls deep inside of you with your legs wrapped around his waist and your back pressed against the wall. The loud bass of the music had the wall shaking throwing off his thrusts just a little but thankfully drowning out your screams, moans, and squeals. He didn’t want this in the tabloid rags the next day. He didn’t need the entire world knowing how stupid he was. He felt it.

“Yes, yes, fuck Lewis! Right there, right fucking there!”

 He groaned then pistoned his hips into you enhancing his speed. With each thrust forward, you grabbed onto him while your head banged into the wall. It didn’t seem to hurt because upon every collision you smiled. Perhaps you were the masochist and perhaps he liked that a little bit.

 “Fuck you’re gonna make me cum all over this big dick,” you whined as you began rocking your body like a wave and using him as your anchor.

 ”Fuck—lemme feel it. Lemme feel you.”

 You both moaned and panted. He was chasing the pleasure that only seemed right with you, you hit different. When you bit his earlobe and dug your nails into the back of his neck, he knew just how close he was and by how tightly you clenched around him as if you were preventing him from disappearing, he knew you were too.

 “Fuck me papi, fuck me so good I never forget who I belong to.”

 He didn’t know if it was the use of his pet name, a name he hadn’t heard from your lips in over eight months or if it was your words.

 “Fuck me so good I never forget who I belong to.”

 Pulling back, he looked into your eyes and even in this dark corner he could make them out perfectly. His fast movements slowed and changed. In the blink of an eye, he’d moved from fucking you senseless to making love to you in this dark corner of this club. In a matter of seconds, he’d gone from a drunken desperate need for release to the chains on his heart rattling threatening to break apart. Your jaw dropped, and your hand cupped his jaw. Fuck he thought, his weakness.

 “Only you papi, only you,” you whined.

 What the fuck, he thought. Were you so drunk off your ass that you didn’t know what you were saying or was he fucking you so right that this was the pleasure talking?

 His brain struggled to catch up to his body and the need to cum washed over him like a tidal wave.

 “Fuck, your pussy feels so good.”

 “It’s your pussy,” you instantly screeched.

 That was all he needed to hear before he was cumming with the force of a heard of angry bulls. He came so hard that he almost pummeled you through the wall. You screamed in his ear and held him close as your body shook. Neither of you moved for several long minutes. Neither of you spoke. It was like in this moment in time everything was stilled—paused and the past hadn’t happened, and the future was still this optimistic beautiful dream that was within reach. A happily ever after was still possible. He was reluctant to let that go. Even when fatigue attacked his body and limbs, he still clung to you, even when he could feel his seed seeping out of you and down his still hard dick, and even when he felt the shake of your body subside but another tremble begin. This was the trembling of crying.

 It felt like the time was persistently nudging him fighting against his will to keep it stopped. It was a battle between his three-year desire for nothing but you and time who wanted his eyes to open to reality—or perhaps his destruction. Time was a relentless fuck and like a barreling train his surroundings came back. The loud music attacked his ears and the beating against the wall became impossible to ignore. Another thing that was impossible to ignore, was the wetness on his shoulder, the shoulder your head was draped over. The protector in him knew what was happening and he wanted to make everything right, wanted to help you. When he started to pull back, you held him there.

 “Stop, wait. Don’t look at me.”

 Your voice was clouded. It was the last confirmation he needed that you were crying.

 “Poppet--.”

 “Please don’t call me that. It’ll only make this harder for me,” you whispered against the shell of his ear.

 Harder for you? You held him tighter, though he expected you to push him away. He waited for you to continue but you didn’t automatically. It felt like hours before you spoke again.

 “Fuck your timing. Oh god, why.”

 Your body shook again, and he heard your sobs over the music. Burying your face into his neck, you muffled the sound but the force of which your body shook rocked him to his core. Trying his hardest to remain strong, he held you not daring to move one muscle.

 “Po—Y/N,” he began.”

 “I wish—I wish so fucking bad--. If I could love you then I would love you. You don’t even fucking—understand.”

 You sniffled as you spoke through your tears then buried your face into his neck again. You breathed him in at the same time he breathed you in. The strength he’d been clinging to so desperately was gone. A tear slipped from his eye, and he clenched his jaw hoping to prevent any more.

 “Y/N--,” he began but you cut him off.

 “I can’t—I--.” You groaned then took a breath.

 “I’m letting go—and even though it hurts—fuck it hurts so fucking much papi.”

 The usage of his pet name again didn’t miss him and that was what ruined him.

 “Poppet.”

 “Close your eyes. Please.”

 Clenching his jaw, he listened. Slowly everything drowned out, the throng of people rubbing up against each other around him, the music, the scent of the different drinks being made that was mixed with the scent of weed, and everything in between. All that was left was you and him.

 “If I could love you and dear god I want to, I really, really want to love you right. But right now—I’m letting you go. I have to. Fuck—I have to.”

 You sounded like you were trying to convince yourself. He was barely hanging on at this point.

 “You have to let me go. You have to let me let you go. Can you do it?”

 He shook his head and held you tighter at the same time you held him tighter.

 “I can’t—but I have to, or you’ll hate me more.”

 “I love you.”

 “You deserve more.”

 With that, you released him and unwrapped your legs from around his waist. He pressed you into the wall more refusing to do what he knew he had to do. It had come to the point where holding on was more painful.

 “You can’t love me for the both of us.”

 Those were the words that broke through. It dawned on him now that he had been doing just that this whole time. It wasn’t about if you loved him or not. You weren’t there. Reluctantly, he stepped back allowing himself to slide from the warmth of your body. Though your feet were back on the floor, neither of you moved. His arms were still wrapped around you as yours cocooned him. Neither of you met the other’s eyes, both avoiding things and each other. You pressed your forehead into his chest right where his heart was currently shattering.

 “Forever & Ever & Ever & Ever,” you said. He didn’t know how he heard you above the music and loud chatter, but he heard you loud and clear.

 “But not right now,” he replied.

 You released a soft sigh then hit your forehead on his chest three times then walked around and away from him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

***I don’t have a Lewis Hamilton Tag List. Just tagging randomly. If you’re interested in him lemme know via Asks if you want a tag in future fics.***

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TagList:

@chaneajoyyy @caramara3​ @valkryienymph @babyflowa07 @est1887  @halfrican-heat​

#forever & ever & ever & ever one shot #lewis hamilton #lewis hamilton fanfiction #sir lewis hamilton #sir lewis hamilton fanfiction #lewis hamilton x reader #lewis hamilton x you #lewis hamilton x black reader #black fanfiction #angst fanfic

[ukittyu]

Jack In The Box!

Summary: You never seen it's face but you've seen it's silhouette. You've heard it's laugh and sometimes it calls your name. It's always been this way but it was always at the back of your mind, until, due to a series of unfortunate events that led you to a mental hospital for a couple weeks, things started to get trippy.

Part 3

TW: Yandere themes, traumatic childhood, substance ingest, Imaginary friend turned sleep paralysis demon!Hoseok AU! Slow-burn. This episode contains violence, leave if you're sensitive. TW will be updated if needed.

As expected, you didnt get any sleep thst night. You tried everything to keep your mind busy with other things. you wanted to sleep, you didn't wanted to give up your rest for a nightmare but the fear was swallowing you whole. Your neck hurted and you spended quite the time trying to cover them up with make up, sunday. Today its the day you must do something for this.

The night was warm and despite being in the middle of the city, there wasnt much noise. It got on your nerves, you hated this silence, in silence you could only hear your thoughts, so you played music, watched some mvs on your tv. 3:00am on your clock your eyelids felt so heavy, your body was fighting to stay sat and straight. Everything was so boring and this dread on your stomach, you knew it well.

You felt lonely and even though you considered yourself the most independent person, you wer afraid to be alone, to feel alone. You found it weird that none of your friends responded through out the day, it led you to overthinking. "Maybe they still sleeping?" "Or maybe the just got tired of me." Am I just the party friend? Do I even have real friends?" You did, you were certain of that until yesterday. You felt like when you were little.

When you will ask the kids from your block to play with you and they gave you bad faces or straight up told you to get lost. Same in some parks, same in the school. You weren't the most introverted but also not that outgoing, you felt like it was a good amount of both. You always tried to make people laugh, talk about intresting topics, anything to be accepted because most of the time you didn't feel like being enough.

Two tears scaped your eyes as you reminisce, you held your knees up to your body and hid your face in them as you sobbed. Seems like you've never got over that awful moments. Your mind recalling all your sad memories. Like when you told your parents that you wanted to dance, be a professional dancer one day and they just laughed, when a little girl pushed you out the playground claiming your were a crazy weirdo and your teacher laughed from afar.

These and many more, they still hurted and you cried like you haven't done in a while. You were to busy getting your life together, hanging out. You felt like your real life begun after 14. People approached you willingly, people wanted to be your friend as if it was magic, as if that gloomy cloud raining above your head disappeared.

You felt accepted, content with this people who became your family, you kept 3 of your first teenage friends til this day and you were so grateful. You wished them the best always. That's when your phone beeped. Your group chat had like 10 messages, you smiled relieved.

They always got your back, it was as if they sensed everytime you felt bad but they coming up and responding in the middle of the night was far from comforting today. They said that one of your friends, Misa hadn't picked up her phone nor responded since the night of the party. The rest, Max and Syd your guyfriends were asking if you knew something. Worried as hell you said no, that it was the same with you, she never responded.

The 3 of you made plans to meet the next day to look for her. This was beyond odd. Misa was always a responsible girl, she always texted back, she always made sure her people know where she's at, what she's up to. If you were worried before this got even worse. The sun rised up again and you were still awake, eyes puffy from all the crying and tiredness.

You got up from the bed and had your breakfast. 2 hours lattee you hear a banging in your soor you open up to see both of your friends. You received them with a smile but their faces were the exact opposite. They looked kinda like you, dark bags under their eyes, they were looking pale and mad. You let them in and Max speaks first.

"Do you have any idea of where she could been?"The air got thick and there was a couple seconds of silence as all of you recalled the last time you saw her."I never saw her leave the house, I left first and said goodbye. She was here with you "

"Yes, she was but she left in the morning, after everyone left. She was heading home."

"She never answered our calls, her phone seems to be off. Her family is looking for her already."

There was this silence again, you looked down, feeling a sorrow. This was all wrong, your friend, she cannot be lost, you tried to be positive and think maybe she lost her phone and it's out with some other friends, maybe, even if it didnt make sense. "What's on your neck?" Max pointed out and you panicked, you forgot it and you quickly covered the marks." Hey what's happening? Who did this to you?" Syd was agitated, raging at the thought of someone hurting you.

"It's nothing, I swear. I just..." You couldn't make up any explication at the moment and sighed."

"Does it have to do with Misa? Did someone did something to you and her? Where is she?!"

The situation was getting out of hand as Max grabbed your arms as he shouted every question into your face. Tears spilled from your eyes and you said "I...I can't explain." He let go of you and run his hand into his hair as he sigh.

"Listen, I'm sorry. I'm just nervous with all of this. Misa suddenly vanished into thin air and you, you appear with marks on your neck. You know you can trust in us, just tell us what happened!"

He screamed last sentence and broke down in tears. Syd was shaking, the pressure of the conflict was to much to take.

"L-let's just calm down. She's going to come back...anytime." That was all Syd said during the evening. Max just cried with you and apologized like a thousand times. They left a couple hours later and promised to stay tuned to any update or news.

As they were living Syd stood at the door for a second and turned around to you.

"If she doesnt show up...and you don't explain what happened to your neck, I'm calling the cops on you." Then he left. You couldnt understand how your friends switched this way. They were never rude to you, never had this demeanor, you understood, you felt scared too and you knew that you'll freak out in their position but mever this way.

There was never a dull moment beside them and now that Misa was gone, everything went downhill. Once again you didnt sleep, you tried to find your old therapist number. You remember her name, the last time you met her she worked at your school but she didn't work there anymore. You searched for her name online but there was no phone number, hopeless you threw yourself on your bed, as you looked up you saw your plushie fall from behind your pillows.

"Hey, where you've been little doll?" You held it above your face to examine it well. It was grey colored, his head was like a skull, x-cross were it's eyes and it had little pants and gloves like the old cartoons. Your mom never liked it, she said it seemed like it was dead and it creeped her out.

You never felt afraid of it, it comforted more than any person has, it was there in your worst and best moments. As if it was your first best friend, but somehow you knew it wasn't, you didnt remember how you got it either. You just know you had it since you were like 11. Once again you felt the sting of your tears in your eyes, you wanted to go back to where good things started to happen to you, you knew that life its a cycle and everything need to balance itself but you wanted to be tranquil. You hadn't felt this bad in a long time.

A feeling of emptiness, feeling like you disappointed your friends and now they doubt of you. In a sense they're in their right, one of their friends is missing and the last person to be seen with her has her throat marked up. Still it hurted you that after all these years of friendship, they turned into your chosen family and this was the first breaking point in which you felt like everything could end terribly wrong. You hugged your plushie as your tears ran down your face, slowly you drifted off.

A/N:Hey! Sorry for taking so long to upload this one, I wasnt really satisfied with the result. It's much like a filling chapter? If thats the right expression? Im working on the next but hope you can understand the character a lil nore now. As always thank you for waiting and reading!

#yandere #yandere au #yandere aesthetic #yandere moodboard #aesthetic #moodboard #bts #yandere bts #bts x reader #hobi x reader #yandere hoseok #yandere jhope #jhope bts #jhope x reader #jack in the box #jung hobi #jung hoseok #yandere bangtan

[rebelrebelwrites]

Fic Friday! ❤️ Rebel’s Weekly Fic Recs

++ Dark Fic Edition ++

A quick note about this week’s rec list — all fics listed are considered “dark fic,” i.e. they include dark themes and content. It’s therefore as important as ever to mind the tags and curate your own reading experience and remember the cardinal rule: if you don’t like, don’t read.

I wanted to do this special edition of Fic Recs Friday to support the writers on this list and all who write dark fic in general. I personally have greatly enjoyed expanding my reading horizons thanks to their deft ability to explore these darker themes with thoughtfulness and sensitivity, all while crafting some truly amazing, compelling stories.

Finally — please be kind, respectful of others’ reading and writing experiences, and remember that creators of fanworks do what they do for free, and are entitled to write whatever they want. They owe me/you nothing except some tags to provide a heads up on what we’re getting into. I do not condone any kind of fandom harassment, least of all based on story subject matter.

Without further ado! As always, this week's recs are...

As always, please mind the tags on any recommended story for your own personal preferences.

+++

The Classic You’ve Heard Of But Somehow Haven’t Read Yet: The Greatest Slavery by @demonscantgothere

What you need to know going in:

Another @demonscantgothere classic! I’m obviously a fan, and I remember reading this early on in the fandom. Previously complete at 3 chapters, it’s recently been expanded/continued beyond the initial conclusion, and is now currently a WIP slated for 10 chapters! The premise: Sauron has Celeborn prisoner, and the only way he’ll return him to Galadriel is if she accepts his terms… without knowing what they are. 👀 I don’t want to spoil the first half of the story, so I’ll leave it at that, but I will say to expect possessiveness, fiery smut, and a heaping helping of anguish and angst for all parties. This one will make you heartsick in the best way; the way only a great classic, even a tragic one, can do.

WIP, Explicit

Read the story.

Follow the author on Tumblr and AO3.

+++

The AU You Need to Immerse Yourself In Because, Well, Wow: the shark in your water by @bad-surprise

What you need to know going in:

I recently got caught up on this modern AU from @bad-surprise in a bid to speed through my list of their fics to read, and OOF. Unsettling, but in the best, most compelling way, this fic features an underage Galadriel playing with fire by being intrigued by, then getting involved with her new stepbrother, Halbrand. The tension of their dynamic in this story is razor-sharp; every moment, you’re wondering what’s going to happen next, whether you’ll witness tenderness or another taste of horror, and you can’t tear your eyes away. Darkly captivating… don’t miss it.

WIP, Explicit

Read the story.

Follow the author on Tumblr and AO3.

+++

The Complete But Never Forgotten Masterpiece: To the End of Days by @scriberated

What you need to know going in:

Another favorite from the talented @scriberated, and the first part of a WIP series I’m 👀 to see how it ends. In this first installment, Galadriel returns to the Southlands, believing she’s “saving” Halbrand after he mysteriously disappears in the fight against Adar. Let’s just say that she’s in for a surprise when they re-meet; I don’t want to give away any more than that. In short, be ready to be consumed by flames because the betrayal, desperation and domination, and smut all burn. 🔥🔥🔥 And burn good.

Complete, Explicit

Read the story.

Follow the author on Tumblr and AO3.

+++

The WIP That Will Wreck You (In the Best Way): My Loathing Star by @myrsinemezzo

What you need to know going in:

Full disclosure, this story from @myrsinemezzo was gifted to me so I’m a little biased, but damn if it ain’t gripping as hell. A continuation from a larger, smut-tastic series where Galadriel and Halbrand get close and then closer after Galadriel agrees to have her body painted by a celebrated artist in Eregion (which, yes, I definitely recommend reading all of what came before!), this story is in its infancy, but holds so much promise for what’s to come. It begins with even more scintillating smut before taking a darker turn that I won’t spoil. Prepare for another possessive and preening Sauron, and a Galadriel just starting to come to terms with what she’s gotten herself into. Where they go from here, I don’t know, but I’m excited to find out.

WIP, Explicit

Read the story.

Follow the author on Tumblr and AO3.

+++

The Can't Stop Consuming No Matter What Time It Is Fic: made of skin by AlterMortem

What you need to know going in:

It’s the Severance AU! If you’re unfamiliar with the Apple TV show, oh boy, definitely add that to your list — but even if you aren’t, while seeing it does provide helpful context, you can definitely still enjoy this mind-bender of a story, which sees Galadriel voluntarily becoming “severed” to solve the mystery surrounding her brother Finrod’s death. In other words, there are two Galadriels—who she is at work, and who she is at home… and neither have the freedom or autonomy she thinks she does, particularly once she meets Halbrand, her supervisor at Lindon Industries. As a fan of the show and trippy, sci-fi (ish) fare, I binged the heck out of this this week after hearing amazing things and it did NOT disappoint. Equal parts engrossing, electric, and unnerving.

WIP, Explicit

Read the story.

Follow the author on Twitter and AO3.

+++

🤩🤩🤩

Me at all these fics:

Don’t see your story on this list yet? Keyword: yet. Please don’t fret! I can only recommend so many each week, but I am always looking for more stuff to read, share, and generally shower with love, so please feel free to reply with your own fics or your personal faves. I have plenty more to recommend… ❤️

Until next week!

#saurondriel #haladriel #saurondriel fic #saurondriel fanfic #haladriel fic #haladriel fanfic #galadriel x sauron #sauron x galadriel #galadriel x halbrand #halbrand x galadriel #galadriel x mairon #mairon x galadriel #saurgal #sauriel #galadriel #sauron #halbrand #mairon #artanis #trop fanfiction #rings of power #rings of power fanfiction #rings of power fanfic #fanfic recs #fic recs #fic rec #positivity towards trop fan creators only please

[greetingfromthedead]

Creative Update aka The Great Yappening

Update 1: I have happy news! I am glad to announce that my series Tempest Wind is out now in all it's glory on AO3, Quotev, and Wattpad! Since I don't want to send everyone on Tumblr into a coma by posting the remaining 33 chapters at once, I'll simply increase the upload rate to 3 chapters a day.

I am very proud of myself for this one. 84 chapters, and nearly 166k words born and edited over the course of the winter! It is literally more than all the other fanfiction I have written in the last 10 years combined. It is insane to me and I have learned so much and I think the beginning and end chapters are worlds apart when it comes to quality.

Update 2: So what's next? Well, according to the poll I did a week ago, there is a very clear desire for Knives content. The clear winner is an enemies-to-lovers story with Knives so I will tackle that as my next big challenge (ironically I nearly forgot to include it in the poll). Never written something like this before, but I do find the cliche prompts very fun so I'll try to cram some of those in there and try to focus on the chemistry. I am aiming for an explosive slowburn with a very antagonistic Plant reader who will be the pain in Knives' ass with their merciless banter. Will probably try to keep the main story SFW and GN, but I make no promises. And knowing me, there will probably be more explicit pwp extra chapters for those who want that. The working title currently is Kiss With a Fist, but it might change. So when to expect it? I have no clue. I did like writing the whole story before publishing (I did so with TW) because it gave me the option of changing and adding things, but it was also a pain. So we'll live and see, but you can keep an eye out for it! I have a little sneaky oneshot of it up already called Sanctuary. Will also post some polls soon to pinpoint what yall want to see in the story.

Update 3: So if Tempest Wind is done and the enemies-to-lovers is some ways away then what will be happening in the meantime? Well, the Knives' pals and gals are still thirtsing and the second place in the poll went to a sequel for Shepherd + it has seen so much love in the past week (thank you all!), so I will be expanding on it, probably not just with smuttiness, but actual plot and lore (I have so much lore for it). But expect more different oneshots from me as inspiration hits and perhaps a Fairy!AU with little short stories much like Shepherd.

Thank you for indulging my rambling, hopefully you found some interesting information. Until I pump something new out, feel free to check out my MASTERLIST and I'll see you on the next project!

Love & Peace!

#trigun #trigun stampede #tristamp #trigun maximum #trigun 98 #fanfic #fanfiction #x reader #sootyyaps #sootyrambles

[bottlecaprabbitgames]

Weekly Update for 27 March, 2023

Howdy, folks! Welcome to the last update of March! Time really has flown, jesus-

Mind Games: Trepidation

Onto our favorite subject! If you guys haven't seen, there have been multiple edits pushed for mostly Chapter 1 and 2 this week! These edits have added new options to some dialogue choices, some customisation choices, and some variation to certain spots where I saw I favored sarcastic MCs over others. There have been a couple of grammar fixes pushed in Chapter 3, 4, and 5, but I have not done a more thorough editing of those chapters; after putting in some achievements, my brain kinda just. Flat-lined and needed a break, lol!

I have gotten LOADS done on Chapter 6! I am actually in Scene 3/4 for the rough draft, with about half of Scene 3's rough draft completed. Again, the rough draft is just me going through and picking one option for each branch and getting through the story so I know where it'll go when I go back to flesh it out! However, that's still a LOT of progress!!! The whole chapter is at about 5,600 words, and before doing the update I had started editing Scene 1 for a bit to start fleshing out so it's not so much work later.

A few things with MG:T:

In case you aren't aware, MG:T is only expected to be 9 Chapters, NOT including Interludes and the Epilogue. We are over 50% done with the game! VERY EXCITING!!! (Especially as I am ITCHING to get to book 2, lol!)

Chapter 6 is expected to be out in April. I will be releasing it in full as I'm expecting it to be a small to average size chapter.

I am always open to feedback and suggestions! Honestly, I would REALLY LOVE for you folks to tell me where you think improvements could be made or where you'd like to see more choices/what kind of choices you want to see more of. Be the change you want to see, lol!!

Remember: Every time an update is pushed, your saves will be corrupted! I try to push things all at once, but I never know how much I'll get done at any one time so sometimes I push smaller updates over a course of a day. If you aren't seeing anything new, it might be because your save is before the update was pushed!

I am still checking this Google Form! I am considering making one that is all about feedback and suggestions, and I DO check the one that's listed there daily! I actually have an active list of suggestions and stuff people have given me, and I do try to take the stuff you guys tell me needs fixing and put those fixes into the game!! Those of you who have answered the feedback section have been amazingly helpful and I appreciate it so much!!!

In case you missed it, I do have a page up now that has a list of all the free scenarios I've posted in the past and present, at least, the ones I could find! It also has a list of sneak peeks from Patreon I've posted! Some of them are a bit outdated as they're from, like, when I first started writing the game back in 2018-2019, but they're still enjoyable!

There is a poll up on Patreon right now that ends in 2 weeks! It's letting Patrons vote for which RO(s) will 100% be featured in April's scenarios for Patreon, and as a special treat, one of the 2 chosen ROs will be available to the lower tier as well! And, the lower tier can always vote in polls. The tier prices are $3 and $10, with $3 opening up polls, a sneak peek, discord benefits, weekly update+ content, and credits mentions (I will be putting every Patron I've had in the past in the credits of the game(s) they were supporting me during development!), with occasional monthly bonuses. The $10 tier opens up EVERYTHING I have, and everything that gets posted monthly!

I think that's all I got to tell y'all this week! See you at the next update! (Where I can hopefully confirm being done with at least one of the scenes in Chapter 6, hehe.)

#weekly update #mind games: trepidation #mind games #interactive fiction #if #interactivefiction

[lucius-the-sinful]

15 Lines of Dialogue

15 Lines of Dialogue Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

I was tagged by @omgkalyppso thank you!!! <33

tagging @mr-orion @achilleancryptid1 @the-lady-auri and you!!!!

I couldn't find enough dialogue despite the amount I write to meet 15, but here's some from Zafir and some from Gale <3

Zafir

1: “I have little interest in the basic knowledge every witcher should know,” Zafir muttered, firmly corking his potions before Lambert could cause real harm. - "Feather Fall", Part 2 of Witcher, Poet, King

2: "Seems you made quick work of it," That was the guard captain, who I figured out to be quite lazy over the last couple days. "Hopefully not sloppy work." 

"I don't do sloppy work," The witcher scorned. - Unpublished rewrite of Feathers & Flower Petals

3: “So you chased it, attacked it?” Despite his chiding tongue, Zafir’s touch was delicate. He poured the vial’s contents directly on the wound. Nikita hissed at the pain. - Unpublished, from my original series currently titled Evervale

4: “That doesn't erase the fact that you are injured, and a single potion won't heal it as fast as you want it to. You need one of the alchemists.” 

Nikita glared at him. “Do you always have to be so fucking arrogant? Even when you're right?” 

Zafir gave him a cocky smile. “You’ve known me far too long to be asking such redundant questions.” - Unpublished, from my original series currently titled Evervale

5: "I warned them that if it wasn't dealt with in a timely manner, the vampire would infect or slaughter the whole area. I scouted it two weeks ago, the entire village is either dead or turned. I estimate about fifteen feral vampires." 

"Tell me they at least commissioned the chain." 

Zafir looked up at Finnegan, and he was smirking like a cat, as if it were a game to him. For a split second, Zafir tensed. "An entire village died of negligence and you're cracking jokes?" - Unpublished D&D short story that takes place around forty years before the campaign titled "Lemon Tree"

6: "Once again, I don't know what you expected of unseasoned, dry meat," Zafir washed it down with water from his canteen. 

"For it to at least not be overcooked," Despite Finnegan's complaints, he ate half of it. 

"You undercooked the one from last night." - Unpublished D&D short story that takes place around forty years before the campaign titled "Lemon Tree"

7: “Ignore it,” Zafir finally said. “They're idiots. You're brilliant.”

Valentine nodded, internalizing the advice. “Could I confide in you more?” 

The jaeger's shoulders relaxed. “Of course. You never need to ask.” - Unpublished, from my original series currently titled Evervale

8: "Dammit... Why didn't we do anything?" Faewynn glared at her father.

Zafir remained stoic. "The dragon was likely hungry and angry. By my estimates, it may also be very old. We would not have stood a chance." - Slightly edited from post campaign roleplay

9: Just as Zafir went to pull away, Finnegan bit down on his lip. The temperance cursed, touching his glove to his bleeding lip. 

"Fuck you," Finnegan was grinning like a cat. 

"Was the biting really necessary?" Zafir growled. "I was trying to conceal us." 

"Like I fucking believe that." - Blurb titled "Red Water Dream"

10: Kaidan sat down next to him. “It feels so long ago when Saren was our biggest worry. We didn't know how lucky we were.” 

“Lucky?” Zafir’s lip twitched upward. “We were ostracized by the council.” 

“Only because you kept hanging up on them,” Kaidan smiled, too. 

“They were full of shit,” he set the book on his nightstand. “I will admit, though, I was volatile.” 

“I kinda liked that. You were always riding a thin line. They couldn't cast you out because you get results, but you were very much a thorn in their side,” he leaned his head on Zafir’s shoulder. -WIP titled "Harder They Fall"

Gale

1: The man snorted, he leaned back against a full trash bag, he held something in his lap just under a ragged blanket. “I’m not fucking stupid, leave me the fuck alone.” 

Gale’s brow furrowed. “You look pretty fucking stupid to me, right now.” -"I Was Just A Kid", Part 2 of Bend & Break

2: “Is that what you want to do? Beg for me?” The words passed through Rarzal’s lips nonchalantly, the same lips Gale had been watching this entire conversation. 

Gale considered the proposition, or what he hoped to be one. Rarzal was a tricky individual, able to hide his outward emotions with ease. The smile on those thin lips told Gale it was an advance, but his narrowed eyes suggested it was a test. The tiefling’s tail flicked in contemplation, a sultry smile settled on his lips. “That's a very delicious thought.” - "Cold Cold Man" (nsft)

3: Gale’s eyes flicked down, he brushed past the elf. He grabbed his violin’s case from just within his tent, and put the instrument away. “I wish you would have just told me, but I understand why you didn’t.” 

Astarion swallowed, taken aback. 

Gale stood again, glancing down at him. “But you still tried to fucking bite me.” - Unpublished WIP titled "Sinking of the Teeth"

4: Gale shrugged. “I've been very well fed. I don't think about blood more than I think about food.” 

“Really? So if I cut myself right now you wouldn't start drooling?” 

Gale snorted. “Depends on your blood type.” - Unpublished WIP titled "Dawns"

5: Gale parked crooked, rolling down his driver's side window and allowing his music to pour out. He grinned at Gavin as his friend approached. "Hey, pookie. Thought I would find you here." - Out of session roleplay

6: Gale nodded. "Now onto what I have for you."

Zavra's mouth pressed into a flat line. "I hate to say it, but you are starting to sound a lot like your father. Asking for seemingly small things."

He paused, losing a bit of his composure. He tried to reel it back in, not willing to lose it in front of his mother again. "You've told me that twice now." - Mid session roleplay

7: “I have… I know its been five or six years for you, but its only been a few days for me. Its still settling in that this is real. That you’re… different.”

“Bad different or good different?” Gale froze.

Mitch sighed. “Just different, Gale. I haven’t decided if its good or bad yet.”

“Gavin’s different, too.” 

“Yeah, but I feel like I can still go get a beer with him like we used to. I don’t know how I feel about going out with you. You can pretend all you want that you haven’t changed, but the lines blurred between you and Ace. At least you have the decency to care, or pretend to.” 

“I keep hearing that.”

“Well, I don’t hear you denying it.” 

“I don't know what to say, he was my father. He had a lot of influence over me for my entire life.” 

Another pause. “I gotta go. Thanks for calling.” 

Gale realized his claws had dug into his palm, he unclenched his fist and the bleeding stopped. His skin started to close. “Yeah. Say hi to your mom for me.” 

“I will.” The line went dead, Gale pulling the phone away from his ear. He replaced the phone and wiped the blood from his hand. - Blurb titled "Everything That Dies"

#oc: zafir #oc: galethor #oc: mitch #oc: rarzal #oc: valentine #oc: finnegan #my writing #the witcher #mass effect #bg3 #astarion #kaidan alenko #long post #sorry this took so long i wanted to do 15 for both and then some #but things and stuff happen

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 16/12/2023 (Dave/Jack Harlow, Fred again../Baby Keem, Christmas Garbage)

Content warning: Some language, brief references to abusive sexual relationships and ho-ho-ho, merry Christmas

Once again, “Last Christmas” is at #1, as anyone would really expect - Mariah’s at #3, the Pogues are at #5 and filling in the gaps we have “Lovin’ on Me” by Jack Harlow at #4 and Noah Kahan’s “Stick Season” at #2. It’s Christmas again, so excuse the shoddy structure, but there’s actually a lot more to this week than one may expect. I guess welcome back to a semi-festive episode of REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

It was an odd week, this one. A lot of Christmas songs actually decreased in chart position although obviously remained actually stable, and there’s not really much at all there to replace these songs, and most gains or falls weren’t at all substantial. So it’s like a liminal space of a week, in preparation for the Christmas #1 next week. There are more new arrivals than the usual Christmas week… they all kind of suck though. We have Tate McRae, a disappointing album from Nicki Minaj and Jack Harlow, as well as the dregs of The Idol, Baby Keem and… Cher? I mean, we’ve covered the Christmas stuff really, there are actually no songs making their first top 75 entry this year this week. Hell, three of the songs that re-entered last week have actually dropped back out though obviously they’ll be back next week or the next. We do have some… secular gains, I suppose, with “Surround Sound” by JID featuring 21 Savage and Baby Tate at #64, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims at #59, “On My Love” by Zara Larsson and David Guetta at #54, “exes” by Tate McRae at #39 thanks to the album - again, more on that later,  and then new peaks for the Amazon originals: Jorja Smith’s “Stay Another Day” cover at #20 and Sam Ryder getting his second top 10 with “You’re Christmas to Me” at #10 - for God’s sake.

In terms of our notable drop-outs, songs exiting the UK Top 75, which is what I cover, after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40, and I didn’t need to say all that because the only notable songs to bid adieu to this week are “Liquor & Cigarettes” by Chase & Status and Hedex featuring ArrDee and I suppose “Standing Next to You” by Jung Kook. Again, take Christmas-week drop-outs with a grain of salt.

NEW ARRIVALS

#60 - “One of the Girls” - The Weeknd, JENNIE and Lily Rose-Depp

Produced by The Weeknd, MIKE DEAN and Sage Skolfield

I still haven’t seen The Idol - I mean, why should I watch that show? - but for whatever reason, TikTok has latched onto some of the soundtrack cuts which, to my knowledge, are Weeknd leftovers with guests tacked on, though at least JENNIE and Lily-Rose Depp are actually cast members, with Rose Depp being the second main character after The Weeknd’s… “Tedros”. Sorry, I’m just learning these characters’ names, “Tedros”? Alright, well, is the song good? Well, it’s a pretty unsettling one, with JENNIE’s airy vocals soon rendered void by a stodgy bass beat and grimy, flickering percussion that sounds pretty terrible, especially with singers who have such high, careening falsettos, or just straight can’t sing that well like Rose Depp here who feels a bit out of her depth attempting to be all that convincing. She sounds a bit bored and stretched thin, which makes some sense for this song about rough, emotionless sex, but doesn’t make it any more appealing. In fact, there’s an ugly lack of passion or seduction here that I think does the song a lot of good for the most part, largely because, well, this doesn’t sound like a healthy relationship at all. It is a shame that JENNIE’s parts just… don’t fit, they almost feel off beat and Tedros over here has very little chemistry with either woman, though with JENNIE, to be fair, there’s not really much chance for him to even harmonise with her, she’s reallly set apart. It’s a pretty ugly, slow dirge with a sprinkling of 80s synths, very typical for The Weeknd, and it’s not exactly bad, but it also doesn’t feel all too special

#58 - “Needle” - Nicki Minaj featuring Drake

Produced by Boi-1da, YogiTheProducer and 40

Alright, big story of the week: Nicki Minaj debuts at #3 on the albums chart with the sequel to Pink Friday - the first instalment reached #16 over here, surprisingly low - and she debuts two new songs, both with features, and I’ll refrain from saying too much because I’ve expressed my first impressions and opinions on the album on my RateYourMusic log and I don’t see much point going further into it here, especially since the tracks we get aren’t fully representative of the album, but I do think this is particularly sad of an effort, even if I generally like Nicki quite a bit. The trend-chasing, the samples, the odd level of sincerity that seeps in only to create a cynical product, it’s almost pretty depressing, especially when this is a bloated, rushed album serving as a sequel to perhaps her most iconic and important project. It’s… unfortunate, though I find it difficult to say that Nicki is at fault for most of it, though she definitely doesn’t help on this one, which is mostly a Drake song. I don’t particularly like Drake in his dancehall or Afrobeats mode, but his singing isn’t bad and whilst the mix feels a tad messy, the subtle synth pads and little vocal samples in the chorus lead to a pretty solid foundation for the groove, though the percussion loop is a bit incessant for four minutes. Nicki is… here, though not with a particularly impressive verse, in fact a pretty awkward one, and her cascading vocal mix in the backing vocals, sometimes harmonising with Nana Fofie, and the final chorus, feels very tacked-on and honestly kind of gross, especially since Drake couldn’t sound any less engaged, and the instrumental outro is a tad lengthy for a song that is purposefully not doing much of anything. It’s really far from the worst on the album though… we’ll get to it.

#55 - “run for the hills” - Tate McRae

Produced by Ryan Tedder and Jasper Harris

Tate McRae’s new album THINK LATER debuted at #5 on this week’s albums chart. It’s Ryan Tedder’s vessel of manufactured pop writing wherein Tate McRae is a vehicle for regurgitated fluff that Tedder probably has a team of people deciding to include. I’m usually not nearly this cynical about pop music but there just really isn’t anything on this one that redeems it, or feels all that human, especially not McRae herself, but it’s not like the floaty algorithmic production helps at all. This is far from the album’s worst but is also probably one of its most derivative, given that lower on this week’s chart, we had a song by The Weeknd debut and I’m getting deja vu. The drums even sound just as clicky and awful, if not more, and McRae doing her half-rap thing on the chorus to fill in all these lyrics rapidly with little care for the song actually functioning as a coherent whole is just embarrassing. The album is a microcosm of all recent pop trends and this is one of the more egregious attempts, especially because God, she cannot pull off alternative R&B to save her life, and the OneRepublic guy shouldn’t be making her try.

#53 - “Everybody” - Nicki Minaj featuring Lil Uzi Vert

Produced by DJ Smallz 732 and Tate Kobang

You’ve got to be kidding me. Okay, so I fully expected Lil Uzi Vert to show up on a track, even if they actually aren’t on the CD version, much like over half of the album apparently. Nicki often collaborates with Uzi so I expected a phone-in verse. I also expected Nicki to include several awkward nostalgia-bait samples because that’s been her thing this era, and I also expected Nicki to experiment with a Jersey club jam because she did it on “Barbie World” and this album needs all the audience it can get. However… sigh, “Move Your Feet” by Danish duo Junior Senior peaked at #3 in 2003, whilst Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” was #1. And here it is, completely butchered on “Everybody”, which is a pretty manic track, stripping the song of its tight grip on the groove, and flavourful sound palette, by drenching it in the mysterious Jersey club allure that comes with an odd level of angsty-feeling percussion, and stop-start rhythms, that whilst expected with the genre do not fit this sample at all, which itself struggles for space in the mix against Nicki, who whispers along to its hook and uses the iconic “Everybody!” refrain to fill in her own bars, but doesn’t even do the full chorus because of course she doesn’t, even though she is heavily relying on that chorus because these verses are minimal and the pre-chorus is ridiculous. She even references the Kanye leak she refused to clear her verse on just yesterday, and that’s before the song feels like it even starts, which for the record, is when Lil Uzi Vert comes in with some incoherent intensity. They’re just doing their “Just Wanna Rock” schtick again, but it will always work for me, even if just for their brief appearance here, especially when they say the beat is so hard that they just might die. Sadly, it returns to the state of limbo it was in prior and just fades out lazily instead of making use of its Uzi-addled climax, not that the song wasn’t dead on arrival in the first place. Again, this is embarrassing.

#41 - “DJ Play a Christmas Song” - Cher

Produced by Mark Taylor

In the darkest days, at least there’s Cher. This is the long-term entertainer and greatest-of-all-time Twitter account’s first hit this big since around 2013, and I always wondered why Cher had never tried her hand at self-inserting herself into the Christmas canon, or at least why she hadn’t done it before Mariah or Kelly, who are in some ways the Chers of their respective generations. It turns out she released an entire Christmas album, with covers and original songs, and duets from Stevie Wonder to Cyndi Lauper to Tyga. It also turns out she also did a Christmas duet in 1999 with comedian Rosie O’Donnell, who also did a Christmas duet with Macy Gray on that same album for “Winter Wonderland”, which we talked about last week. Christmas music is a small world, and it’s all connected through one comedian, clearly. As for the song itself, it’s completely serviceable, using the same Auto-Tune warble that she made iconic with “Believe” over a synthscape that kind of blends its way from 80s synthpop to 90s Euro-trance, but doesn’t sound bad at all. The percussion is a bit rote though, and doesn’t really fit the looser feeling of Cher’s older, slower vocals, even if she does display a lot of pure joy and expressiveness that you just don’t hear that often nowadays. There’s also a lot to be found in the request to just play that Christmas song that gets you dancing, as a temporary escape from everything else in life. It’s cute, innocuous, I could even see it making itself into the canon eventually, but I can’t say I’m a massive fan, at least not for now. Still better than everything else so far, but this next one might give it some company.

#30 - “leavemealone” - Fred again.. and Baby Keem

Produced by Fred again.., Alex Gibson, Benji Gibson, Four Tet, Loose, Sid Stone and Skrillex

These next two songs are actually quite similar: both would-be top 10 hits without Christmas featuring American rappers, penned by acts who don’t contribute vocals, containing one artist I quite like and one I… am weary of to say the least. This one does have the edge a bit because it’s stacked with seven producers, with Fred seemingly bringing his brothers into the mix alongside his common collaborators Four Tet and Skrillex, who pretty much always help Fred make some magic so even if it has Kendrick’s SoundCloud rap cousin on it, it could still be good. Hell, Keem’s artist credit isn’t as much of a feature as it is just using chopped-up vocals from his album cuts, 2021’s “south africa” and 2019’s “BULLIES”, so this could be a shining light in this week and… it’s drum and bass. If you’ve read any episode of this show, you’ll know this is a cheat code, and yes, I think the song’s great.

This has been a fan favourite at his shows for a while and I can see why with the looming sub-bass that is panned excellently, and a glitchy rendition of Keem that morphs him from his usual nasal mumble to something almost resembling a jungle MC, and Fred has a lot of fun teasing the audience with its long, stop-and-start build-up that uses a lot of mechanical clashes, almost IDM-esque, to establish the reckless paranoia that Keem actually contributes to through what you can make out of the lyrics, and whilst it isn’t exactly the most detailed or heavy breakbeat that comes in, it’s a whirry and industrial drop that hits in all the right places with tiny little details because I mean, of course, it’s Fred, Skrillex and Four Tet, it’s going to be intricate. I’d also like to say it’s one-note, but there’s a bridge where the bass becomes a static fuzz amidst some new sampled vocals from Sabrina Benaim, “I don’t want to go”, that push Keem further into restless isolation. That last build with what sounds like a fan getting closer and closer to Keem’s mantra of “everybody, everybody…”  before the clearing off point, interrupted by a growling bass, before the drop comes back in and in full force this time, is absolutely brilliant. I know that half of what I do on this series nowadays is lush over detailed EDM tracks, so I will actually give some critique here: I want to hear what happens next. Don’t just peter out at less than four minutes: it goes into what sounds like a racket of a half-time drop by the end and I want to hear it get even noisier of a thrash. Maybe that’s what happens in the DJ sets where he plays this, I don’t know, but either way, an extended cut would be kind of sick, even if as it is, it’s already fantastic.

Also, yes, I do have a degree of chart nerd detail to note that the additional vocal from 070 Shake in the drop is most likely sampled from Ye’s “Ghost Town”, which peaked at #17 in 2018 - I remember reviewing it - whilst “One Kiss” by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa was #1. The sampled Baby Keem tracks have not charted, and neither did Fred’s own track “Sabrina (i am a party)”, which is where he took Benaim’s vocals from, though they originated from a poem of her own that of course did not chart. I like these connections though.

#29 - “Stop Giving Me Advice” - Lyrical Lemonade, Dave and Jack Harlow

Produced by Hollywood Cole, Rascal, Daz, Matthew Tavares and Angel López

Oh, yeah, the other similarity: they have way too many producers. Anyway, for our final song, we have music video director Cole Bennett getting his DJ Khaled on by curating an album under his YouTube channel and production company’s name but contributing minimally to the music itself. At least maybe he can get some good, unique collaborations going, and I wouldn’t really expect Jack to make a song with Dave otherwise though it makes actually more sense than you’d think. They’re in some ways outsiders to the globally Americansied rap mainstream, they’re incredibly popular not because of but more in spite of their conscious leanings, and a lot of the time, they’re less interesting than they think they are, and I never want to hear what they have to say about women.

This could absolutely still be a good song though but sadly, most of it is Jack Harlow over this rattling Timbaland-esque beat except the groove just stutters instead of pulling itself forward or going into any interesting directions, kind of just letting the awkward bed of samples spread into a funkless beat. I zoned out of Mr. Harlow immediately when he asked me “have you ever raised the value of anyone around you?” and… the whole first verse is directed, arguably, to the haters, but it’s not like those haters are the only people who want to live Jack Harlow’s life, and it’s an entire verse of condescending hypotheticals and rhetorical questions that make him even more punchable than before. Sure, the rhyme scheme is nice in the second verse but by that time, he’s directing me to the chorus - which barely exists - and talking a lot of substanceless bars about his rapping ability which he’s yet to actually prove much of.

In fact, this is actually pretty terrible. This beat just becomes more incessant over time, especially with the added filtered vocal sample and Dave… well, he starts by seemingly dissing - or at least dismissing - everything Jack Harlow said, by saying his fans are nuanced and that Dave shouldn’t be unimpressed by everyday life, which is something that he actually aspires to have, but as soon as this verse picks up into pretty interesting territory with a great rhyme scheme, he… stops rapping… for seven straight seconds, in the middle of a bar, for no reason, and the man never picks that momentum back up, mostly because he adopts the rhetorical question BS that Jack did, except he’s spelling out his elementary “alone” / “a loan” wordplay, calling himself a feminist because of how he pays women in spending sprees for sexual favours, comparing how the people on death row eating their last meal just can’t compare to his seven-figure deals - maybe you’re forgetting all the gang violence you use to sell records, Dave - all the whilst painting himself as the “tortured artiste”, and this is simply the life of an artist escaping darkness… oh, and the super models he has sex with are so skinny they sound like skeletons. Delightful. I hope this pisses off the charts as soon as possible.

Conclusion

Yup, as predicted: really rough week, and honestly, though one song may be a tad more egregious in its sound, I’m still giving Worst of the Week to Lyrical Lemonade, Jack Harlow and Dave for the utterly degradable “Stop Giving Me Advice”, just a complete spit in the face of their own audiences with one of the most raggedy attempts at a 2000s throwback beat I’ve ever heard. As for the Dishonourable Mention, it’s easily going to “Everybody” by Nicki Minaj featuring Lil Uzi Vert, though Tate McRae wasn’t as far off as one may think. There’s not much worth in an Honourable Mention, considering the only good song here is miles better than anything else, so Best of the Week goes to “leavemealone” by Fred again.. and Baby Keem. I know, what a surprise. It’s the Christmas #1 next week - kind of, since the tracking week doesn’t include Christmas but this is what will be promoted as the Christmas #1 because it’s the chart three days before. That’ll be exciting, I’m sure, but as for now, thank you for reading and I’ll see you then!

#uk singles chart #pop music #song review #nicki minaj #pink friday 2 #drake #lil uzi vert #lyrical lemonade #jack harlow #dave #baby keem #fred again #tate mcrae #cher #the weeknd #jennie #lily rose depp

[reliablejoukido]

Life and Project Updates March 2023

Hello friends! Now that Daikeru Day is over, I just wanted to give everyone some updates on what’s going on. I’m pretty burnt out as far as writing Digimon stories goes, so I’m going to be taking a well-needed writing break/hiatus from now until May. I’m still going to be checking out all the lovely stories that everyone has been updating the past few weeks, which I’m really excited about. Anyway, the rest of this update is under the cut.

Fanfic projects: Once my hiatus is over, I’m going to work on the latter half of “Flying Hope”, then chapter 3 of “So Come and Dance with Me”. Updating “Somewhere Only We Know” may not happen until August 1st rolls around.

Fanart/other projects: I’m going to either make a fanart or gifset for Daisuke Week in April. Also I’m 10 (non-bot) followers away from reaching a fun milestone, so I wanted to do something for that, whenever that occurs. But other than those things, I probably won’t be active making content until late spring.

Fun life updates: I have 2 anime conventions coming up in the next 30 days, so I’m working hard prepping cosplay. If anyone is going to Zenkaikon, I’m going as Ken Ichijouji. And if anyone is at Anime Boston this year, I’ll be (hopefully) debuting my Daisuke Motomiya cosplay (as well as cosplaying Ken on Sunday probably). Please come say hi if you see me!

Stressful life updates: And of course, as I previously stated, there are renovations going on in my house through the rest of March and probably into April. The carpet on my main level is being replaced with flooring, and I’m getting my basement finished. I don’t have the ability to work from home very much, so I’m expecting to be really anxious while I leave my cat alone locked in a bedroom while people are working in my house without me there. I know it’s common for workers to be in houses without the owner there, but this is my first time experiencing that, so it’s going to be challenging.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who supports me in the Digimon fandom. I love having friends here and talking to people on tumblr and discord. Even though I’m going on hiatus, I will still be active on both platforms.

I hope everyone has an amazing next couple of months!

#about the mun; #life updates; #project updates;

[whentherewerebicycles]

I am soooooo sleepy still but god I feel so much better physically and emotionally. the swelling isn’t totally gone but it’s not as noticeable and it doesn’t hurt anymore so massive improvement over the last couple days. I have a feeling the anxiety will come creeping back in as it always does but I’m going to try to really savor the post-healthy scan reprieve and I hope that the next time it surges I’ll be better equipped to handle it (more data, therapy, etc).

I also feel better having gotten through that workshop! there was a small group of boys in the back who talked through the entire thing—I was kinda shocked the prof whose class I was visiting didn’t say anything to them?—so I had to do a lot more classroom management than you typically have to do in a college class, but idk when I sat down with them in small groups and facilitated the activity they did a decent job with it. the other two groups (all girls lol) were super engaged and had a great discussion. so whatever lol. I get the sense that students here are very used to being talked at and then when they do small group activities some of them view that as like, well the teaching has stopped so I can do whatever I want now as this obviously doesn’t matter. but it was fun to think on the drive home about how I would tackle that challenge if I was their long-term prof. I think in my past classes we tend to do a lot of activities upfront that are tied to content but are really geared towards teaching students how to be in this type of class (where there’s only brief bursts of lecturing and most of the actual work is hands-on or student-led in their groups). so then you get practice and you learn the expectations and hopefully also you get to experience how much more engaging/useful it is to learn that way so there’s more buy-in from the group as a whole. anyway much to think about. I hope they let me teach soon!!!!!

okay. I have two workshops left this week but only one of them requires more prep (and even that one won’t be too bad—I just gotta find a bunch of specific examples and add a few more slides). today is a campus day but it’s a super easy one. here goes:

6:30-8 can do some mindless scrolling but also brainstorm for slides, answer faculty emails, etc.

8-9 shower/get ready

9ish leave for work… I will let myself buy a nice coffee and a breakfast burrito again if I want. I am giving myself lots of little treats this week as it has been a kinda rough one lol.

10-11 CJ mtg

11-11:30 brainstorm troika problem (I think use the DS program/summer programs issue)

11:30-12:30 lunch with KA

1-2 faculty mtg

2-3 team mtg (troika)

3ish drive home so I can walk the dogs before it gets dark maybe?

3:30-4:30 take an actual long walk with the dogs these poor creatures have been trapped inside for days.

watch hockey game but remember therapist is calling at 6 to schedule. maybe put the game on the TV and then try to finish slides on my laptop while watching

6:30-9:30 choir

collapse into bed zzzzzz these “late nights” on thursdays kill me lol I need to be tucked into bed by 7 these days

#soooooooooooo close to the weekend #and then SOOOOOOOO close to thanksgiving break!!!!!! #daily processing

[thetrueshan-blog]

My long winded thoughts on TOTK, aka I just beat the game so let me write this up

Just a fair warning this will include full spoilers for TOTK. You have been warned. What lies below are some of my rambling (long winded) thoughts I collected after beating TOTK for the first time. Some would be stretched to call this a review. I personally would just prefer to call this as my own ramblings I can refer back to in a digital sense. I’m trying to in corporate a lot of my thoughts into this piece, but as I am writing it I am finding it harder and harder to talk about everything. So I will probably leave something out on accident and I apologize for that. Again: Warning if you want to avoid any spoilers don’t read past this point.

Also just gonna apologize right now for the length of this one. I had a lot to talk about, but had to cut some stuff out and even then this is an extremely long post.

Table of contents:

0. Intro: we gotta start somewhere 1. The Voice Acting Pre-ramble 2. The Tears of the kingdom (or in other words: the story) 3. The return of the rushed and unrewarding ending. 4. The Disconnect between BOTW and TOTK 5. List of complaints that were improved on (?). 6. Who knew Nuts and Bolts had good ideas? (Or the new powers in TOTK) 7. Rapid fire list of new things I liked 8. Conclusion

0. Intro: we gotta start somewhere

So, here we are. TOTK came out exactly 2 weeks ago from this post. And I just beat it. Took about 72 hours over 2 weeks. So, what do I think about TOTK? After all I was quite harsh on BOTW in my write up for BOTW on May 5th. And it has been three weeks since I posted that write up. So how did TOTK live up to my expectations?

Well, I’m not gonna beat around the bush. I loved TOTK. It’s not a perfect game, and shares a fair amount of flaws from BOTW. But I had an absolute blast playing through TOTK.

I mentioned in my last write up that I don’t like to give out numbered reviews. That’s mostly because I tend to flip flop my scores around. It’s kinda one of those things that the score I give for something really depends on how I feel that day. But if I could retroactively give BOTW a numbered score, it would be a 6/10. It’s not a bad time overall. But there’s a lot of room for improvement since it can be quite rough.

So what about TOTK? What score would I give that game? I’m thinking an 8/10 right now. It’s almost a perfect game for me. But there’s some parts that are really rough. Plus it still shares some flaws from BOTW, and biggest for me of all is there is no post-game content. That last point also makes me want to give this game a 7/10. It’s that disappointing to me that once again we are not given a chance to explore a peaceful world that we helped to create. It’s so baffling to me that Nintendo thought that was a good idea again. Give me some rewards for beating the game, besides the petty star sticker next to my save profile. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here. Let me try to describe this game in a similar format to how I described BOTW.

1. The Voice Acting Pre-ramble

Yeah, the voice acting returns with a vengeance in this game. But I knew from my recent play time with BOTW that I couldn’t stand the EN voice acting and that would probably hurt my time with the game. So the moment I got the chance to (as in the first five seconds of hitting play on the game) I switched over to the JP voices. And, thank Hylia for that, I am so glad I did that. It massively improved my opinion of the game and the story moving forward. I think there’s a disconnect from how the EN VAs are trying to convey the characters and how the JP VAs do it. EN Zelda sounds like a pompous upper class princess that wants to be treated with respect but still doesn’t under stand why the lower classes of Hyrule may distrust her. Meanwhile JP Zelda sounds like an innocent girl told to take on the weight of the world and doesn’t quite know how to deal with that heavy burden.

I don’t know, this might just be my hate for the EN Voice acting coming out but I really just don’t like Zelda’s characterization in the EN side. It might some kind of cultural language barrier when trying to translate the game into English.

But enough about voice acting. I played TOTK with JP voices on the whole time and I enjoyed all the voices and thought they fit their characters nicely.

2. The Tears of the kingdom (or in other words: the story)

So, one of my biggest gripes of BOTW was the disjointed and lack luster story. The story focused on how Zelda failed to live up to the expectations thrown at her. Which is a tragic tale, yes. However it got very stale and eventually annoying when every single piece of the story linked back to this point. The main issue I had was that there was no major wrap up point for that tragic tale. Well until the end of the game that was. But then we see the conclusion for like a minute or so and then BOTW ends and tells you to play TOTK if you want more. So going into TOTK I had some very low expectations. And honestly that might have helped. Because TOTK’s story compared to BOTW is actually one I care about.

Alright warning again about story spoilers. Skip to next section if you don’t want to read this.

The first thing that happens in TOTK is that Ganondorf wakes up. Yes that Ganondorf. But a new version. His hatred and malice was spilling out creating the “great calamity” from BOTW. But in this game he wakes up and immediately attacks Link and Zelda. Shenanigans ensue: Link looses all hearts and stamina; Zelda falls down a pit (but time warps herself); Link looses his right arm; and the master sword is shattered. Basically starting from scratch all over again. I won’t do a full summary since I think that would take up like 2,000 words. And I kinda wanna spare my hands for doing that. But needless to say I already like this premise way better. There’s a definitive goal: Find Zelda. There’s a definitive villain: Defeat Ganon. And a decent explanation to why Link looses all upgrades from the first game. All in all a pretty great start to a game. But wait it gets better. Turns out this game has the seven sages. Yup, the seven sages from OOT. When I saw this I was so excited. It’s not exactly the same sages from OOT. But it’s the idea of seven sages helping Link to stop the great evil that is Ganondorf.

TOTK also starts by explaining who the Zonai are. Which were barely hinted at in BOTW. I don’t think I even mentioned the Zonai in my BOTW write up. But not only does TOTK explain stuff about the Zonai, it turns out the Zonai play a huge part of the story. Since the Zonai’s Secret Stones are the MacGuffin that gives who ever holds them great power, turning them into sages. But the stones only amplifies power already there. It’s not gonna awaken a new power in you all of a sudden. But there’s also one more note, don’t eat them. If you do you will become an immortal dragon and loose all sense of self. Which is a neat extra side note for lore purposes on explaining how the giant dragons like Farosh exist in hyrule.

So yeah, I massively enjoyed this setting way more than BOTW’s story. I don’t know if it’s because I already knew so much from BOTW that hearing new things in this story really ended up helping. But it certainly didn’t hurt.

3. The return of the rushed and unrewarding ending.

I kinda spoiled this earlier, but yeah the ending to TOTK is similar to BOTW’s. It ends, rolls credits, quick cutscene, and then reload back to the title screen where you can then reload your save file right before the final boss with a new star sticker icon next to it. I know this is a trend with Zelda games. Once the evil is vanished the story is no more. But with huge open world games like this, especially since I enjoyed the setting of TOTK more than BOTW, I think it’s a huge wasted potential to not reward the player by seeing the world in a peaceful state. Or to see how people react. What the next things would be like. Like imagine if the end of BOTW was to finish the shrines, koroks or whatever but along side that you start working with Zelda to establish a reconstruction of Hyrule. But that doesn’t happen in BOTW. Nor does it happen here in TOTK. There’s this kind of disconnect between the player and link about what happened in BOTW to TOTK.

Which speaking of...

4. The Disconnect between BOTW and TOTK

I know it’s a hard challenge to even build such huge games like BOTW and TOTK. But I am disappointed by some of the lack of continuity between these games. I wonder how much of the game actually depends on your save from BOTW and how much is a mirage. In BOTW you can help foster a new town called Tarrey Town. In TOTK, Tarrey Town exists and has expanded. But does this mean this action is because Link, being played by me, helped Tarrey Town? Or does this happen no matter what and Tarrey Town always exists? I think it’s the latter. And frankly I don’t blame Nintendo for not creating systems that check every little thing like that from BOTW to TOTK. But at the same time there are some other times that this “disconnect” irks me.

The main disconnect is a question that remained in my head the entire game. “Where are the guardians and divine beasts?” Like no seriously. Where are they? They’re just gone in TOTK. Did they get repurposed and destroyed? What happened to the sheikah towers? The only evidence I can even spot of the old sheikah stuff from BOTW in TOTK is the guardian that sits up on the Hateno Research lab. But that’s it. Maybe I missed some important diary log where this is explained. But I just couldn’t find a reason for this. Link probably knows what happened. But since he’s mute we don’t get to hear that side of things. Though I am definitely not trying to say that Link should have had voiced lines or anything. If anything I am really glad he doesn’t speak. But he just doesn’t communicate to us the players in any way.

And honestly that is something that is bugging me. With so many characters having so much dialogue and even some having voiced lines, it’s baffling to me that we know so little about Link himself. Link acts as an avatar for the player, until he doesn’t and does stuff on his own. Like we, the player(s), don’t know exactly what happened between BOTW and TOTK. But Link sure does. So there’s a weird disconnect there where you could draw a ven-diagram that showcases the difference in what Link knows and what we the Players know.

Like a good example of this is how Purah’s first appearance is treated in TOTK. To us the player it is a shock that the once child looking researcher now looks like a mid 20 something grad student. So the cut scene plays out to be a surprise to that fact. However the cut scene really just showcases how surprised Purah is to see Link is alive and well. Link isn’t shocked about her appearance and there’s no mention of it. But we as the player are vastly confused on why Purah looks like she aged very rapidly. And in my case I was trying to judge how big of a gap between BOTW and TOTK was* so when I saw Purah for the first time I was wondering if it had been like 15 years or so. But I found out later in a diary she hid that she aged herself up to 100 and then back down to 20 because she was sick and tired of being treated like a child. (*Side note: I think it’s somewhere between 5-10 years of a gap. Probably around 6 though. The only indication is the child of Hudson and Rhondson, Mattison being taken away to Geurdo town as she has reached the age of maturity. However Mattison didn’t exist in BOTW so it depends on when Rhondson got pregnant for the time gap. End of Side note)

Which wouldn’t be a problem if the info Link knew was also shared with us the player. I don’t know, maybe something like Link having a journal or something that we the player can read through as we journey along so we can keep up to date? Or maybe a journal left by Zelda as she’s trying to keep track of history for new history books? Something like that would have helped a lot with this issue. Especially when there’s something like Link’s house in BOTW in now Zelda’s house in TOTK. What happened there? Are they living together? Did Link give the house to Zelda? Did Link not buy the house but Zelda bought it? I don’t know, because the game won’t tell me anything except for the fact that this house is now Zelda’s.

But enough of this, let’s talk more game mechanics now.

5. List of complaints that were improved on (?).

Alright so for this next section I am going to refer to this list of complaints I had for BOTW in my previous write up:

   1. Durability system is wack. I get what they were going for, but it does seem weird that weapons can break so easily and fast.    2. Rain stops all exploring if you need to climb. It’s just not fun.    3. Combat feels slow and clunky. Never really got a hang of it.    4. No passive upgrades to anything except to health and stamina.    5. Dungeons are neat. But way too small and I wish the guardians didn’t speak during them. Just let me bask in a cool place nintendo. Stop talking my ear off.    6. Shrines all feel the same. Also randomly the walls aren’t climbable in shrines? Just put barriers to stop link from climbing on them.    7. No themes in shrines or dungeons. They all look the same. At least the music is different in the dungeons at least.    8. There is no way to see the durability of weapons until it is about to break.    9. You cannot get a full set of hearts and stamina. You will always be missing one. (this might have been fixed in the DLC?)    10. If an enemy can guard your attack then you can’t damage it until you break their stance. Even if they are facing away from you.    11. Koroks... so many koroks... but eh kind of a pro/con situation. Don’t need to worry about getting them all, but at the same time feels so boring getting them.    12. Blood moons. Freaking blood moons. They appear at the worst times.    13. Thunder blight fight. I have no idea why this one fight is so hard compared to the rest. Each blight and including the final boss I beat all on the first try. With thunder blight I died like 15-20 times on. It’s just tough as nails. You need to dodge instantly otherwise you get hit so badly. Like here’s a link to me beating it: click here. It’s by far the hardest boss in the game for me.    14. If something needs to re-charge (master sword, or guardian powers) it needs to fully deplete before re-charging. Which is a bit annoying.

So let’s see what I think about these in TOTK since TOTK is very similar to BOTW.

Immediately numbers 1-4 are basically the exact same. They are issues in both games. But number 5 is interesting. When I played TOTK there are 5 dungeons*. Which is 1 more than BOTW. But the difference is that while BOTW’s dungeons felt like big shrine puzzles. I would say TOTK dungeons feels like proper Zelda dungeons. Heck these are called “temples” in this game too. They might not be the greatest dungeons mind you, since they’re still pretty open and easy to complete. But there are some tougher puzzles and they feel much more Zelda like to me. (*Side note: though I don’t know if there’s another sixth dungeon since I didn’t complete the depths. If there was another one I would think it would be the “shadow temple. But I didn’t find any “shadow temple”, which might be in the depths(?) but honestly that’s a pure shot in the dark, hehe. End of side note)

Number 6 is also still true.

Number 7 is half no longer true. Shrines have the same music and look but are different from BOTW. Meanwhile the dungeons or Temples are very different in themes both visually and musically. They all incorporate some level of “Find X number of things to unlock the boss door”. But they at least look and sound different this time around. They also incorporate different music and you complete different parts of the temple.

Number 8 is still true.

Number 9 is something I can’t tell. The beginning of the game showed Link with a full set of hearts and stamina but that’s not something I know if you can also get in this game. I would assume so. But I have not done that yet so I can’t say for sure.

Number 10-12 are all still true.

Number 13. I had an easy time with all the bosses in BOTW except for thunderblight ganon. But in TOTK I can’t really say I faced the same hardships. Well except for the 2nd Master Kohga fight. But for main bosses I really didn’t have that much issue. That was until the final boss. Ganondorf third phase kicked my ass. But in a good way. It was still frustrating since it forced me to dodge perfectly and then parry to even damage him (which actually makes it a bit worse than thunderblight). But it was the final boss. So it was a nice challenge. (Side note: I found some cheese starts for Ganondorf. If he does a big two-handed attack that you avoid with the paraglider. Use bullet time and arrows on him. Does a decent amount of damage. In his second phase ignore the phantom Ganons. Just go for the big guy himself. In the third phase, try to pinch him near against a wall. When he backflips he doesn’t make a much a distance from you and him and you can get some easy hits in. It was the only way I was going to beat that third phase. End of side note)

And Number 14 is also still true.

So TOTK improved a few areas but it still has a lot of the issues of BOTW.

6. Who knew Nuts and Bolts had good ideas? (Or the new powers in TOTK)

Alright let’s get this one out of the way. Link has new powers in TOTK. I was thinking he would retain the old powers and get some new ones. But nope. He got a whole new bag of tricks of his sleeve this time. Which honestly is a bit shocking to me because I was thinking he was going to at least keep the bomb ability. But even that’s gone. What’s in it’s place is a new plant called a Bomb Flower you can pick up and store in your inventory to later fuse with. Which is really nice to see the bomb flower return in another Zelda game like this. But let’s talk abilities:

   1. Ultrahand: Basically the new magnesis of this game. This one is a bit weaker and can’t push stuff around as much, though it can rotate objects. However that’s not all it can do, because it can also attach objects together. This combined with the new Zonai devices creates the possibilities to create vehicles, automated battle bots, and basically anything you can come up with. It’s really the main crux of new exploration and puzzle solving for this game. And I really like it. Though it does raise the bar for how complex some of the puzzles can definitely be.

   2. Fuse: So this ability allows you to fuse basically any object to your sword or shield that you have equipped. Because of story reasons involved with Ganondorf’s Gloom, all weapons are now weaker. But you can fuse objects on top of other weapons to make them stronger. At first I didn’t use this ability that often. But as time went on I really saw the benefit to using something like this. At the end I was able to make really strong weapons out of boss materials to make weapons in the 30-60 damage range.

   3. Ascend: This ability allows you to ascend throw any solid surface above you that also has a solid surface above it. This allows for a lot of vertical movement.

   4. Recall: This ability allows you to rewind an object’s path up to a certain point. Think of this as TOTK’s version of stasis. But it move’s stuff backwards.

   5. Auto-build: This ability you don’t get in the tutorial area but have to go deep into the depths to obtain it. Basically it’s a recent history of your latest builds using “Ultrahand” or some schematics you have unlocked that you can build using either parts on the ground or by consuming a new resource called zonaite.

So yeah that’s the end of the new abilities. And I really like them. I was expecting the old power and some new ones but I didn’t expect only new ones.

7. Rapid fire list of new things I liked

Alright my stamina for finishing this rambling list of things I want to mention is dwindling so I’ll just rapid fire a numerical list of things I enjoyed.

   1. New sages abilities and they join you in fights after each temple. With the exception of maybe the last sage and Sidon’s abilities. I really enjoyed having the sages by my side as I jouneyed around Hyrule. Even if they got in my way.

   2. Lady Yona. Thank you Nintendo for bringing some new fish love. Honestly I love Lady Yona’s design. It’s so great. Her face is so wide yet so lovable. The fact that she’s also married to Sidon as well is great too. Though I will mention when I first saw Zora’s Domain I went back and forth so much about whether or not I liked where the story was going that I might have caused a small tornado in my apartment.

   3. Purah’s new design. I love it. And so does the internet.

   4. Zelda and Link seem to share way more of a bond in this game than they did in BOTW. So that definitely helps sell me on their romance. Since I definitely didn’t buy it in BOTW.

   5. Ganondorf’s design. Just a great evil tyrant that you want to stop and face against. Such a good villain.

   6. New house building was neat. You can now buy rooms and build a house yourself in anyway you want.

   7. Geoglyph memories. Honestly the memories in this game were so much better for me. Maybe because they all weren’t about how a girl is worried she is going to fail and you already know it. Honestly the big reveal from the memories was pretty shocking to me. I won’t say what it is here, but know I was pleasantly surprised by it. The Geoglyphes were also way easier to find in TOTK since you are given a map early on, if you go looking for it.

   8. Caves are neat and cool to explore through.

   9. The Depths are both a challenge (almost too much) and a sight to behold at times.

   10. The new sky layer of the map is giant as well, though sparse.

   11. TOTK is much more “Zelda Like”. It has bomb flowers. Like likes. Gibdos. It’s little things like  these that were missing from BOTW but make this game feel much more like a “Zelda” game to me.

8. Conclusion

So yeah. Lots of long ramblings. I know I complained a lot in this. But hopefully I still got the point across that I really enjoyed TOTK. It definitely isn’t my favorite Zelda of all time. But it’s definitely up there now. BOTW feels so much more like a prelude or tech demo to this game now. It still has charm to it, and playing it will definitely help you feel more attached in TOTK.