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flutteringphalanges · 11 months

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Adam Warlock x Peter Little Sister!Reader

her realizing that she’s like pregnant again but with a boy this time? I need more of this

Thank you so, so much for the request! Here is the one shot! I hope you enjoy! Also I will make this my author's note so here is the LINK to the master post of all the links to the one shots in this series! -Jen

What's One More

Prompt: When you discover that you are pregnant again while visiting your grandfather on Earth, you and Adam are elated over the news. And Adam's name suggestion makes you realize for the billionth time how much you love him. Word Count: 2,405

You were pretty sure it was hotter than the sun in your grandfather’s house--or, at least it felt that way. When his air conditioning unit decided to quit in the middle of the summer and your brother, Peter, had only made things worse trying to fix it himself, the rest of you were left to suffer the consequences. In the midst of it all, there was something that had been distracting you from the discomfort of it all. Or rather, someone.

Sleeping in the twin sized bed in the guest room by yourself was one thing. Adding your significant other into the mix was another. Throw in your three year old daughter and it was a crowd. Your eyes opened right as a tiny foot kicked you in the face. Carefully, you forced yourself to sit upright and looked over to see the culprit. Aydith, though tiny as she was, had somehow managed to take most of the space. Somehow she had wriggled her way on top of Adam, her golden locks of hair hiding his face. How the guy had stayed asleep, you were unsure. But you were glad both were still lost to the world.

Sleepily, you glanced over at the digital clock on the bedside table. 4:00 A.M. That was just great. Even if you wanted to fall back asleep, you highly doubted you could. Especially with your kid being the early bird that she was. Give her another hour or two, she would be zooming around the room. Literally. Thank Gods Adam came to visit with you all this time around. You sighed and turned your attention to the bathroom door, an unsettling feeling forming in the pit of your stomach.

Back on Knowhere, you had begun to expect something was up. A gut feeling you had only experienced one other time in your life. Part of you wondered if perhaps it was just stressed. You and the rest of the Guardians had been on back to back missions. Between splitting your time on those and raising your child, life was chaotic. But when the exhaustion and mood swings became paired with nausea, you knew there was more at play than just pressure.

The sound of Peter snoring from the couch in the living room follows you as you walk into the bathroom and close the door behind you. Earlier that day when you had taken Aydith with you to pick some groceries up at the store, you had also picked up a pregnancy test box in the pharmacy aisle. The damn thing had cost over twenty dollars, but it was a two pack and the reviews had been great--and you wanted the best when it came to accuracy.

Where are you? You muttered to yourself, fishing around the back of the sink drawer. You knew you hid them well, but not to the point where even you couldn’t find them. Dammit…

Finally, the tips of your fingers touched the glossy surface of the box and you pulled it out quickly. Immediate Detection, 99% Accuracy. Weird name, but okay. You opened it and took one out, studying it carefully. Looked quite similar to what you had used over three years ago, couldn’t be that difficult to figure out…

You and Adam had the occasional talk about the prospect of having more kids. Aydith was a handful and a half, but she was the greatest joy of both of your lives. Her powers were something you were still getting used to and neither you nor Adam had any indication to what extent she had inherited from him. Thank gods for those toddler backpacks with the little harnesses and leashes. But you had always seen children in your future, just not exactly when.

Your mind wandered as you set the used test of the edge of the tub. Three minutes. Three whole damn minutes. This was the 2020’s, how weren’t pregnant test results instantaneous? You bounced your leg as you tried to find something to focus on. Random dark spot on the wall? Maybe mold, probably should point that out to your grandfather. That rubber ducky you really needed to make a mental note of as to not forget. Aydith standing in the doorway…!

Aydith smiled at you from where she stood at the threshold clutching her beloved stuffed toy raccoon, Rocky, that Peter had bought for her as a joke at Rocket’s expense. Without a single ounce of consideration for your privacy, she waltzed in.

“Hi, Mama!” She grinned as you quickly stood up and fixed your pajamas. “Rocky says good morning, good morning!”

You exhaled softly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Good morning, Aydith. Rocky.” You quickly glanced over your shoulder trying to see the test. Still nothing. “You’re up early.”

“Mhm!” She bounced with the energy you wished that you had. “No more sleep! Daddy’s sleeping and Grandpa sleeping and Uncle Pete sleeping, not me though! And not you! Rocky’s not sleepy too.” Aydith held the toy toward you and said in a squeaky voice. “No sleep! Time to play!”

Her smile could light up an entire galaxy. You took Rocky from her and looked him over. Well, if you really squinted your eyes, you kinda did see Rocket… Handing the toy back over to her, you knelt down so you were at her eye level.

“Daddy’s still sleeping, huh?” She nodded vigorously in response. “Mama wishes she could have it that easy.”

Aydith suddenly tilted her head and pointed. “What’s that, Mama?”

You turned your head and your stomach did a somersault. The pregnancy test. When you look back at your daughter, she was staring at you expectantly. And in some strange way, it felt like Rocky was too.

“…It’s a test.” You told her honestly.

“A test?” She inquired innocently.

“Yes, a test.” And you hadn’t realized that you’d been chewing on the inside of your cheek until it began to sting. “Mama had to take a test.”

“Why?”

That was a good question. A very good one. Your mind raced as you tried to think of a decent, but vague answer. How did one respond to something with such importance? By now, the three minutes had long since ended and you were just itching to grab the damn thing and get it over with. Heart pounding, you reached over and picked it up. You looked down at the tiny screen and almost instantly your breath hitched in your throat.

“Mama?” Aydith’s voice sounded distant as you felt her tugging at your arm. “I wanna see! I wanna see!” She pleaded as if she knew what the thing was. “I wanna see, please!”

You didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Or possibly even throw up. The two pink lines were as solid and visible as they could be. You were pregnant again. It didn’t even feel real. Aydith would be a big sister, and you and Adam would have another daughter or son. A baby…Gods, two kids…

“Mama!” Aydith’s voice snapped you out of your trance. You met her stare and noticed she looked worried. “Don’t cry, Mama. Why are you sad?”

You hadn’t even realized there were tears streaming down your cheeks until that moment. You set the test down and wiped away at them. Aydith was still watching you with concern as you took one of her hands in your own and gave her a watery smile.

“Oh baby girl, I’m not sad.” You assured her. “Mama’s very happy. These are good tears. Happy tears.” You paused, trying to decide if it was okay to announce it to her so early on. Would she even understand it? “I’ve got something special to tell you. Would you like to hear it?”

Your daughter bobbed her head up and down. “Mhm! A secret?!”

“Well…maybe not exactly.” If you told her, all of Knowhere would know the moment you all stepped off the ship. “But it is very important.” You ran your thumb across her knuckles. “You’re going to be a big sister. Mama’s going to have a baby.”

Her eyes lit up. “A baby?!”

You gave her a nod. “Mama has a baby in her belly.” Well, not in your stomach, but you weren’t in the mood to give an anatomy lesson. “But it will still be a long time before they’re here.”

“Five days?”

You couldn’t help but snort at her concept of time. Shaking your head, you pressed a kiss to her forehead. “A little longer than that. But I promise you, it’ll be well worth the wait. You were.”

Your daughter seemed to consider this. After a moment, she gave you a firm nod. Sometimes the expressions she made reminded you so much of Adam. She really did take after him. You couldn’t help but wonder if this baby would too.

“Rocky wants to tell Daddy!”

Before you could stop her, Aydith made a beeline out of the bathroom and towards your bed. She was a good foot or so off the ground when she landed right on top of Adam. By some miracle, even in his half asleep state, he managed to catch her right as she began to roll off the bed. Your daughter squealed in delight at his trick and you let out the breath you didn’t realize that you were holding.

“And a fine morning to you as well, my little comet.” Adam yawned, giving her a smile. “Rocky.”

“Rocky wants to tell you something, Daddy!” Aydith practically sang, shaking the stuffed raccoon in his face. “Something veeeeeery important!”

“Oh?” And Adam looked over at you in amused curiosity. “What news does Rocky have for me?”

“Aydith’s mama is having a baby!” Aydith declared in his voice. “She told me and Aydith!”

Adam’s eyes went wide and you watched as he sat up. Aydith clung to her father’s back as you walked over to the two of them.

“Y/N, is it true?” He asked softly. “Are you with child?” Sometimes he had a really odd way of putting things. Just another quirk of his that you loved, you supposed. “We’re going to have another baby?”

You held out the positive test. “According to this, yes. I wasn’t exactly planning on breaking the news through Rocky, but I oh--”

Suddenly Adam’s arms were around and the test dropped to the floor. You couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. His own excitement and joy intermingled with your own as he beamed at you with such love and pride you could’ve melted right then and there.

“So I can safely assume that you are excited then?” You teased, leaning in when he kissed you. Aydith made a noise of disgust at the scene of your affection. “That you’re ready for round two?”

“Absolutely nothing would make me happier.” Adam smiled broadly. “To become a father once more and to give our little Aydith a sibling!”

“I’m not little, I’m a big girl!” Aydith argued as she plopped down onto the bed. “I’m three!”

“My apologies, so you are.” Her father replied, winking at you. “And a wise big sister you shall be.” Adam reached over and took your hand. “I believe this news is cause for celebration. Perhaps a breakfast feast is in order?”

Now that he mentioned it, you really could go for some waffles. Also pancakes. Bacon? Some sausage links? Eggs! Now some berries also sounded nice… Ooh, and a nice, oversized cinnamon roll. Your free hand rested on your stomach. It would be awhile before you showed in the slightest, even longer before you’d feel the first flutters. You longed for those coming days.

“I could go for some food.” You gave his hand a squeeze. “But maybe we should wait until my grandpa and Peter are awake--”

“I’ll go get Uncle Pete!” Aydith declared, leaping off of the bed and zooming out of the room before either of you could stop her. “Uncle Pete! Uncle Pete! Guess what?!”

And from down the hall you heard the couch creak and a loud groan presumably from brother as his niece's body slammed him full force. A wakeup call indeed.

XXX

You stared down at the set of sonogram photos you had gotten when you went to visit your grandfather on Earth. While your pregnancy was being monitored on Knowhere, you still had wanted your grandfather to witness seeing his great grandchild on an ultrasound. So you found one of those places that did that sort of thing and took him along with Adam, Peter, and Aydith. Now as you waited for Rocket to return with the ship, you couldn’t stop looking at them.

“Look at him and tell me that isn’t Aydith’s nose.” You said to Adam, pointing at one of the pictures. “He looks just like her. When we get home, I want to find her ultrasound pictures to compare.”

Adam’s hand rested on the small of your back as he studied the images too. “He does…” He held out his other hand and you gave him the pictures. “We should decide upon a name.”

You looked at him. “Do you have any suggestions?”

He thought for a minute. “Well, Aydith wanted to call him Rocky.”

You rolled your eyes. “Ever since Peter got her that damn stuffed animal, it’s her favorite name. But no, even though I am sure Rocket would be thrilled to be his namesake.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Adam chuckled softly.

“What about Adam?” You suggested, watching for his reaction. “Adam Junior? We could call him AJ for short. That’s kinda cute.”

He shook his head. “I’m not the greatest fan of that.” Adam fell quiet for a moment. “What about Jason?”

“Jason?” You repeated. “Jason as in my grandfather, or as in my brother’s middle name? That Jason?”

Adam gave you a small smile. “I know how important they are to you, Y/N. And it is a family name. It would mean a lot to me to call our son a name that has great significance to you.”

You blinked back tears. Of all the sweet things, and there were many, that Adam had done for you, this by far was the greatest. You rested your hand on the small swell of your stomach, feeling the tiny movements from within.

“Jason…I love it. We’ll call him Jace.” You smiled, resting your head against Adam. “Jason Warlock.”

#adam warlock #adam warlock x reader #reader x adam warlock #gotg vol 3 #adam warlock imagine #aydith warlock #Jason Warlock #Jason “Jace” Warlock

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justchronicallyillthings · 11 days

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I've had some time to think abojt the watcher leaving YouTube thing and here are my thoughts:

I understand the people who are excited for the move and the ones who hate it

I love the ghoul boys and have been watching them religiously since season 2 of buzzfeed unsolved. I've made many friends by bonding over their content. And I want them to succeed more than anything. But I also cannot afford another subscription service same as other people. And that is what is upsetting. We love their content and it hurts to know that we are losing it so suddenly. There are other ways they could have done this: slow shift to subscription, lower subscription price (6 dollars is a lot when you need every penny to survive), or providing more exclusive content through patreon.

I think the build up to the announcement, the silence afterwards, and some of the comments in the video are very ignorant of their fan base and fully believe that it is contributing to the overwhelming anger and dissappintment.

In this day and age nobody is excited about the amount of ads things have or that everything is a fucking streaming service. It's just so damn much and so frustrating. I can tolerate ads for them. But I cannot tolerate adding another subscription to the bare minimum I have. Now if they joined with other youtubers to create their own streaming platform to generate more revenue then I'd be more likely to support them. But to pay 6 dollars for their content alone when seasons are only 4 to 6 episodes long. No thank you. Not to mention building up to that announcement and acting like it's something that we should be excited for is complete bullshit and betrays the trust of the fanbase. The overwhelming negative view of it should be enough for them to realize what a mistake this is. But they haven't walked it back. And I've yet to see such overwhelming disproval of something like this in forever. So the silence from them is extra loud right now.

Lastly, to talk about how much it costs to make shows and keep people employed and to use that as justification is insane.

I don't think anyone would complain if the quality of shows were to decrease. We fell in love with the content in the day in age of buzzfeed 5 minute long, shitty episodes. And the quality has never been the draw to us. It's been the friendship and humor of the boys. And to lose that because of greed/money/whatever other reason that is the justification for it is a slap in the face. It alienates the majority of the fanbase and its a true dissappintment.

I wish the boys the best in this journey. I truly do but I cannot follow them down this path because I can't afford it and even if I could: I wouldn't. It's a stab in the back and honestly I'm so fucking sick and tired of everything being a subscription now a days.

#watcher #watcher tv #shane madej #ryan bergara #steven lim #goodbye boys #ill miss ya #but at least unsolved will always be there for me

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polygonsexual · 8 months

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A whole pecking essay on why I love Garten of BanBan and my perspective on it

____

So I bought and played all the chapters. I did watch the gameplays and Then finished all of them, twice! And Even from the first chapter, I actually never thought the game is bad! In fact, I very much enjoyed it.

I’ll go over three, maybe?.. topics in this silly essay. I’m sleepy, it’s 4 am so I don’t know for sure but I really want to express my opinion:’D

Ps. Spoilers will be outlined with this color, sorry if I left something out, you can let me know tho!

The topics are:

——————————

1. Style

2. Gameplay

3. Character writing

——————————

So Style is the first thing people found off putting and lazy about this game , from the first chapter I actually kind of enjoyed it. Yes it’s simplistic and used some free stock models, but there was something about it..this simplicity is well organised. Starting with the Main cast(BanBan’s friends) they look very simple from afar. But if you look closer you see how many little veins and details they have, and as mutants made out of unknown substance it makes sense! It’s only an illusion of simplicity, they are terrifying biological monstrosities that were made to look like kid’s mascots, adds up , doesn’t it?

Now for the free samples, I don’t know if there’s much of them in the chapter 3 or 4, as those two are where the quality really starts to rise, but I can excuse it for the first two chapters, each chapter costs like 3 dollars , considering there’s only two devs working on the game and they also have college. I respect the prices and don’t regret spending my money, after all, it’s not that much and helps them make each chapter better then last one, considering that, they did start using less free samples with the 3 and 4 chapters, You can correct me if I’m wrong, but I can tell that I didn’t notice anything that felt out of place in those two chapters and that’s what makes a difference.

Overall surroundings are more polished now too, it’s a mix of a facility and kinder Garten, they worked with children but they had to keep it professional with the huge void under the facility. It can explain the amount of bottomless pits in the game and odd mix of professional and childish ornaments in the rooms. Also the safety hazards can be explained too! BanBan did talk about “we should have spoken up sooner” and that really makes it seem like the heads of the facility didn’t really care for safety of their workers, so much they ignored the countless containment breaches of the specimens , death of facility workers and maybe even children..

Im getting a bit sidetracked with the lore here, but with such simple yet memorable style, I think they did a great job. It doesn’t fit well with the established mascot horror quality, but it has it’s charm and I think a game about a scientific facility turned into a kindergarten wouldn’t feel the same with some complicated high budget textures.

Talking about high budget textures.. I don’t really like what the two weeks remaster of Garten of BanBan did with the game, maybe yeah it added more detail to the surroundings, but it stopped giving away this too polished and deeply fake childcare center feeling, and man, Opila bird does look much better in the original, mutants don’t even have blood and are supposed to look like cartoons, not whatever this guy did to them.

—————-

Gameplay

[Puzzles]

That’s something I heard complaints about a lot, but In my opinion, I didn’t see anything wrong with the gameplay, it’s easy yes, but that’s what makes it good, you can easily fly through the game without getting stuck on some task you just can’t figure out(Except snail hall we all suffered there at least for two tries). In fact, the tasks are actually enjoyable, specially in chapter 4! They are more fast paced and give you more to work with, but I can go as far as to say that I liked puzzles even from the second game, as Yet again, they are simple but still make you think a bit, which gives you a satisfaction of solution without getting stuck in one place for hours. The simplicity of the puzzles fits with the overall kindergarten style, in fact some of the tasks were made as entertainment for the workers, which explains why they are supposed to be more entertaining then difficult, obviously Chapter 4 has the best puzzles, specially when you have lil beak around and can take her everywhere. But looking back at the older ones, they were neat too!I liked the first puzzle in chapter 2 where you have to press buttons depending on the worker’s rate on the board, it’s extremely simple but satisfying non the less, plus I kinda failed it..twice on my second run because I was rushing.

[Drone]

The drone is a nice puzzle tool if you get the hang of it, people rush a lot when using it and usually that’s what makes it an annoying experience, (Drone is indeed good mental support, you can’t prove me wrong>:)) Maybe you could call it a useless unreasonable problem maker, but those are not more then another puzzles you have to solve, maybe you don’t like to solve so many puzzles, well that’s your opinion I don’t judge, but it’s kinda a base game mechanic that devs wanted to space out the main events and puzzles with. And I think it works quite well, with all the different tasks you have to do here and there, getting back to a mechanic that you recognise and is used to is a good thing to keep you busy but not overwhelmed. It was kind of unnecessary in chapter 2 but I think devs did a great job on the new ones, they don’t use it to open each door and manage it quite well with other more differing puzzles.

[Chase sequences/Boss fights]

I must say the chase sequences in this game are quite boring most of the time, the main issue is how extended and slow paced they feel, sprinting doesn’t really feel like sprinting and there’s not much dynamic in the chase, it’s a quick time event, but even for how simple BanBan is, those are just too simple, it would be nice if the boss fights had more to them then dodge or run away and stuff, I must say, if you know what to do in a kittyzaurus fight, it’s quite enjoyable! But the chameleon-turtle one is just meh, it’s just too long and doesn’t have much going on, main focus is only the attacks that happen very slowly, kittyzaurus fight is good because it gives you less time to prepare for the Kitty’s dash into your direction, so you actually have to constantly move and keep focus on the boss. For good side, the snail hall(chapter 2) nabNab chase in the werehouse (chapter 2) and bird riding(chapter 3) were a highlight, they had a challenge in them, an additional task that makes the running away process much more entertaining and I hope that the devs will do this more in the future!

[additional thoughts]

What I also hear people complain about is how spaced out and long the backtracking is, and sadly I have to agree here, as I said before sprinting in this game doesn’t feel like sprinting, and you become quickly frustrated by going through so many hallways over and over again, like the distance between Queen’s lobby and elevator is painfully long, it didn’t had to be so big. I hope there will be shortcuts in the next chapters so players could skip the long walks in the empty hallways:’) Also want to leave a thought here that chapters 2 and 4 final chases felt meh, but the build up on the 4th is something worthy talking about! That’s what next topic is about.

—————————

Character writing

A LOT OF SPOILERS stop reading here and go straight to conclusions if you don’t want to get spoiled

BanBan

That’s probably going to be my favourite topic, as Chapter 4 really opened my eyes on the character’s situation, relations and interactions, and again I really hope they’ll do more in the future! Let’s begin with Banban, as I see his storyline as the most interesting one. It’s said in the notes that BanBan is “the devil” who believes to be a human and completely ignores his mutant appearance, in chapter 4 we get his inside oh now his friends betrayed him, looked at him like he’s a monster and didn’t talk to him at all , leaving him when all in the facility started to crumble. First, BanBan’s DNA is mixed up with a DNA of one of the workers, which could very well explain his tired , careless and very human voice. BanBan believes he is human, he acts like one, cares for others like a human, feels betrayed because he always thought he is one. His friends looked at him like at a monster because he was created one, but he never realised that, thinking they turned their backs on him for no reason, as he still thinks he’s one of them. That could also explain why he is the only one who’s actually willing to help us find our children outside of Queen and Sheriff..maybe he’s willing to help, I can’t really tell. But if you think about it, BanBan’s situation is frocking sad and very much understood, with his sudden switches to devilish hunger and thirst for organs, he is trying to get out of the facility and help the mutants at the same time, maybe he sees them as humans too?… He surely tried to fix NabNab, as he said several times, he’s genuinely trying to help and bring back senses to them , refusing or just not knowing it’s impossible. It can explain his trauma when he killed NabNab in chapter 4, it’s his snap and finale , he tried to save them , but ended up hurting with this “devil side” , and it’s obvious he regrets every time it happens, he was very sorry when we meet him in the hospital and he even wanted to help us again , he finally felt like he can hold it and be useful, he said this himself. Be there for us in person!..but yet. It happened again. And this time with someone who he was always finding excuses and ways to help for. In chapter 2 he acts selfish and fishy, but you can see how he starts to care for NabNab, seems like his human senses come back to him more with each chapter, and it breaks my heart to just leave him in this room with dead NabNab alone with his did, I hope there’s a way to help him out, and I can tell that this is a good character writing, maybe Im not a professional. But with all of this I said just now, he does seem more attractive as a personality, doesn’t he?

It reminds me of Stinger Flynn’s dream sequence in chapter 4, surely the ending was..crazy and out of place , but what happened before it made me chuckle and wonder about the other characters too, it’s kinda cute and very natural of BanBan to say lIm not good with this stuff” when Stinger Flynn needed comfort with his.. endless sorrow. His “not again” really made me chuckle, relatable man…

Stinger Flynn

Despite being the most deep sounding and biggest in all meanings character of the game, his goals are very simple, to be a normal jellyfish and aimlessly swim in the real sea. I could understand his exhaustion with all the knowledge he somehow got, and it seems like he struggles to control the most unpleasant emotions there can be, anger and sorrow. No wonder he wants a life where those can’t exist at all! Did you know that Jellyfish is like the simplest organism there is? Peck they can live forever but they have no brains, that’s the life you would definitely want as a huge mega mind depressed jellyfish. He is aggressive often , but he seems to keep us alive for some purpose, from that many encounters he didn’t even once actually hurt us, but instead we had a glance at his beginnings with every dream sequence he gave us, maybe there’s something he tried to tell us? In his dreams we also can have a better look at other characters, know them better and see them actually interact, they are chaotic but I must say that the dream from chapter 4 is really good at giving us insight on him and BanBan, even NabNab(rest in peace lil bud) as NabNab actually shows us a kind gestire, which could be a hint at the fact that NabNab actually has potential in being “fixed”. I hope he’s alive and there’s still a chance….

Bittergiggle , sheriff Toadster and the Queen

Well well well, I can say that chapter 4 had the best character showcase in comparison to all the previous chapters. Bittergiggle is simple in his nature, yet he just clicks with those two. All three are playing their roles, they are the caricatures given life and their purpose is their life. Toadster protects his Queen and the Queen rules her kingdom of one, something they were made or believe they were made to do , but Bittergiggle wasn’t satisfied in his need, as he couldn’t make the Queen laugh, something he was made to do. When there were humans around, maybe he was satisfied but now there’s none, and without making someone laugh he didn’t feel like he’s living, he wasn’t doing what he was made to do, then what is the point? He said himself that he desperately tried to prove himself that there’s things more important then laughter( said it himself) but the existential crisis couldn’t make him keep his mouth shut for long, it’s unfair that everyone get to play their roles but he can’t, and it’s a good motivation, maybe one we won’t understand fully, but it makes him am reasonable villain of our story and when he finally gets what he wanted, oh did it hit hard. The chase sequence after the escape of “naughty ones” was not living up to the build up, but I’m surely invested in what will happen in the next chapter

And I feel very bad for lil beak, hope we’ll get to meet our kiddo some time soon…

Also some additional stuff I like, BanBan hides his horns under the party hats, maybe when they go off he automatically gets into his satanic side? I’m really curious on how Stinger Flynn managed to make him evil for that moment and how he turns back, but maybe that will always be left out of scene, still, that’s a cool ahh detail for the little amount of details that they have!

Other characters are simpler in their nature, but I must say that Snail, Banbaleena, NabNab and Sheriff are good to, I can’t really do the analysis here as this essay is huge already, sorry:’)

———————-

CONCLUSION

All in all, Garten of BanBan is not for everyone, but it surely doesn’t deserve to be called the worst mascot horror. If you take a look at the game from the inside and not from the perspective of those who keep listening to how shit the game is, you really can find it very much entertaining and interesting if you throw all this rumble away!

I don’t make you go and buy the game or praise it, it has it’s flaws and I’m a bit disappointed in Dev’s complaints about people refunding the game , people should do with their money whatever they want. But I hope the devs learned from backlash and won’t do this again:’D

———————-

The game is becoming better and better with each chapter, Devs are good at choosing on what to improve and it’s respectable, I wish them to keep doing what they’re doing and please restock the Plushies or make new ones Im 😭😭😭😭😭 for them. Thank you for the game too<:3

And thank you for reading this! Hope my rumbling gave you an interesting perspective, I’m terrible at essays and is often flying in the clouds and getting sidetracked, but I really wanted to share my thoughts and put them out in this world,,, Get well BanBan, I’ll be waiting for the next chapters and putting them all on my shelf so they’ll look pretty 💗

#garten of banban #gob #BanBan

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cindylouwho-2 · 2 months

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Etsy Fourth Quarter Earnings 2023 - Still Banking on Improving Marketplace Sales, But Not Revealing Many Plans

Slide 23 from Etsy's 4th quarter 2023 earning report, © Etsy. it shows what percentage of sales each major category has, with performance in the quarter.

Etsy’s fourth quarter results for 2023 were as uninspiring as expected, but despite revealing few plans, the corporation is convinced it can increase gross marketplace sales through its gifting and other initiatives. There was a lot of interesting information for shop owners, though, so let’s get right to it.

First, here are the resources that you should read/watch yourself, if you want to know more:

the press release

transcript of the conference call

slides from the conference call

video of the call (click on “Webcast” under “Latest Quarterly Results”)

my summaries of the fourth quarter 2022, and the third quarter 2023 for comparison

Then, the basic numbers (covering October to December 2023, compared to the same period in 2022):

Sales on Etsy were $3.6 billion, down 1.4% year over year

Total sales for all 3 marketplaces (Etsy, Reverb, and Depop) were $4.0 billion, down 0.7%. [Elo7 was officially sold in mid August; its numbers were still included in the comparison totals of 2022]

Etsy’s revenue (including all 3 sites) was $842.3 million, up 4.3%

Seller service revenue was up 9.4% to $226.5 million, while marketplace revenue was up 2.6% to $615.8 million

Net income was $83.3 million, down 24% (mostly due to the layoff costs of $27 million in the quarter)

Active buyers on Etsy alone stand at 92 million, a third consecutive all-time high

Active sellers on Etsy alone are now 7 million, the fourth large jump in a row compared to the previous quarter; numbers had been stagnant through the end of 2021 and all of 2022 [Note that “active” means one charge or transaction in the past 12 months; many “active” shops currently have nothing for sale.]

Sales where the buyer and/or the seller was not in the United States were 45%, up from 44% last year, but down from 47% in the previous quarter

Sales on mobile are 68%, up from 67% last year [this includes both the buyer app and mobile browsers]

As always, I am reporting what Etsy’s representatives said in the main text, with my commentary in square brackets.

Etsy Search

At the moment, Etsy’s search algorithms aim to show shoppers things they are most likely to buy. They are currently working on changing that to showing what buyers are most likely to love after the purchase. They refer to items that consistently get high reviews, have good photography, and whose shop owner provides good customer service, has quality return policies and ships on time, as “quality” items, or, “the best stuff.”

This is all a work in progress, so search may not change drastically any time soon. Past calls and interviews have related this to the increase in Etsy Picks assigned in the past few months; they plan on using those Picks to train the algorithm to find “quality”, especially quality photos. The items staff identify as “quality” convert twice as well as other listings, so there is obvious benefit to Etsy showing them higher up in search results.

Etsy has added some of the features in its “neural ranking model” to non-US searches; previously it was only in the US searches.

Advertising

Offsite Ad spending was down 4% in the quarter vs. 2022, in part due to competition bidding higher than Etsy thought was worthwhile. At the time of the call, that spending was back to normal. Per slide 21, money from Offsite Ads fees covered about 35% of what Etsy spent on the ads during the quarter.

CEO Josh Silverman explained why the performance marketing (Offsite Ads) spend can be unpredictable.

“So performance is dynamic on a, really, hour-to-hour basis depending on the ROI we're seeing on every dollar we're spending. And we've got pretty sophisticated algorithms that work on, is this bid -- is this click worth this much right now and how much should we bid. And so to the extent that CPCs rise, we naturally pull back, or to the extent that CPCs lower, we naturally lean in. The other thing, by the way, it's not just CPCs, it's also conversion rates. So in times when people are really budget constrained, we see them actually -- we see conversion rate across the industry go down. We see people comparison shop a lot more. And so we are looking at all of that. And not humans, but machines using AI are looking at a very sophisticated way of what's happening with conversion rate right now, what's happening with CPCs right now.”

Etsy also does testing twice a year where they stop running ad such as Google Shopping ads in part of the country, and then compare with the areas still advertising to see if the buyer still would have bought. Silverman admitted that the data shows “often the answer may be yes.”

Overall marketing costs went up 7% in the year.

The Gifting Initiative

Etsy is now aiming to brand itself as the place to go to buy gifts. Gift Mode is just the start of this campaign. Their surveys report that more than half of US gift giving is based on personal occasions that occur year round, such as birthdays, or “just because”. People in the US spend an average of $1600 a year on gifts, but Etsy’s US buyers only average $38 spent per year on gifts from Etsy. They estimate that less than half of Etsy buyers in 2023 used the site to buy at least one gift. There is obviously an opportunity to do better.

The percentage of US residents thinking of Etsy as a good place to buy a gift is now down to 10%. [Previously, the company reported it was 12%, and I commented last quarter that I’d like to see a more recent survey to judge if they have used this knowledge to improve.

“Only 12% of buyers will name Etsy top of mind as the place to shop for gifts.” They don’t seem to have any updated numbers showing how they’ve been improving that situation. [It’s time to go after that “enormous opportunity”, Josh!]”

So despite wanting to grab a bigger gifting share before now, Etsy has managed to lose ground. This is my biggest fear about the gift push: the market was there before now, and Etsy’s own research demonstrated that. Are they only going all in now that they have run out of other ideas?]

There were 6 million visits to Gift Mode in the first 2 weeks. [I am not really impressed, given that they promoted it very heavily, and I was personally responsible for over 100 of those visits while researching my Gift Mode blog post.]

Other plans to bring in buyers

Silverman stated “[o]ur focus will be to make Etsy even more Etsy”, and to differentiate the marketplace from sites that sell everyday needs. The following quote deserves to be read in full:

“Most other players are competing head-to-head to sell the exact same merchandise, focused on selling at $0.02 cheaper or shipping it two hours faster, and this has resulted in the commoditization of the entire experience. But that's just not Etsy.”

[This seemed to be a completely unironically-intended comment, with no recognition of the fact that he actually discussed speeding up shipping times in the same presentation, nor of the well-known fact that so much on Etsy these days can usually be bought cheaper on Aliexpress or Shein.]

He also said that the “special” aspect of Etsy is what sometimes holds the site back, as buyers might consider Etsy limited to specific items, or might “worry about the post-purchase experience”. Bringing people back more often is a goal. [They’ve been saying that for years now, though.]

The company is currently doing buyer loyalty program research, but gave no further details. He also cited “shortening our estimated delivery dates this year by at least 2 days” as something that buyers should like, but it is unclear to me reading this if the work done last year (the year discussed in this call) already shaved 2 days off of delivery dates, or if the statement is this year’s goal. I think it is the latter [but the only ways to do that are to improve the accuracy of their tools - and I am not sure that they are currently 2 days longer than reality on average - or to pressure sellers to ship faster. Since Etsy is once again updating shop settings to add weekends to shop processing times without notifying us, I guess we can assume the latter? UPDATE (Mar 19): Silverman clarified at a recent talk that "we think we can cut shipping times on Etsy by at least two days this year."]

Other things sellers need to know

Etsy Ads now involve some localization outside of the US, which increased conversion rates. [If your ad performance changed in non-US countries during the quarter, this is the most likely reason.]

Neither sales or Etsy’s revenue are expected to increase until the second quarter, and they expect revenue to grow faster than sales this year. [Revenue is almost certain to increase, as the corporation has been surveying sellers on what they would be willing to pay more for.]

“In 2023, we removed approximately 140% more listings for violations of our Handmade Policy than in 2022.” [No word on how many of them were removed erroneously, though, as we know the “Temu” bots pulled a lot of truly handmade items that had photos stolen and listed on other sites.]

Silverman promised “innovation planned to improve the predictability of shipping costs for both buyers and sellers”, but provided no details. [I am not sure what would make my personal costs more predictable, given they change every single week with Canada Post’s fuel surcharge right now. Is it going to be forcing people to use Etsy Labels with calculated shipping? Or is this more calculated shipping options for countries outside of the US, and for new carriers? Restricting the amount a listing can charge for shipping? I really have no idea, but I hope all those people they hired for “fulfillment” jobs a few years back are coming up with something that is actually useful.]

Miscellaneous

Depop had a decent quarter in sales and revenue.

Reverb sales were flat. “The Reverb team made some organizational changes late in the year” which are expected to be profitable [i.e., they laid off over 30 people in October].

The Etsy layoffs in December were referred to by CFO Rachel Glaser as “our recent workforce realignment”. [At least she didn’t call those former employees churn.] The call provided no details on the restructuring they previously said would be done by the end of this quarter.

October sales were not good, but November and December improved. January “was a little bumpy.”

Outside of the US, sales in Germany were mostly steady, while the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria improved.

The upcoming $15 fee for newly-opened shops will largely go to paying the costs of the technology for vetting sellers; it is not expected to result in much profit.

My thoughts: this is going to be a rough year for many Etsy sellers

As I discussed last quarter, Etsy’s upper brass didn't seem to think they were responsible for the lackluster sales performance of their marketplace, and this quarter that extended to not admitting they overhired since early 2022, and not acknowledging that Etsy’s reputation as a gift site actually dropped over the past few years. The last one is particularly galling. Why keep talking about how there was great room for improvement in Etsy brand recognition for gift buyers and then fail to improve even a tiny bit? What were these folks doing the past 2 years?

It’s clear they think bravado will get them through this, including the bold move of claiming everything will improve in the second quarter and throughout the year without revealing any real details. No wonder the stock dropped yet again.

That said, they likely have some reasons for thinking that revenue will pick up at least, if not sales. As mentioned above, they have been extensively surveying sellers about raising fees and/or charging us for things we currently get for free (or mostly do not want). Possible downsides for Etsy include the fact that the Indie Sellers Guild and the Artisans Cooperative (among others) are likely to get more negative press for Etsy if fees are raised yet again, just as happened in 2022. It does not help that Etsy didn’t really follow through on improved services the last time they raised fees.

And the more I think about the comment on shipping costs, the more I believe they are considering making Etsy Labels compulsory for at least some in the US, with set shipping charges sellers won’t be able to change. Bonanza did this last year, charging its US sellers $2 per order extra if they didn’t use Bonanza labels and didn’t get an exemption from the program. Most Etsy sellers using the labels and being forced to show that price as the shipping cost for buyers is the only way I can think of making shipping prices more predictable for buyers, other than capping shipping charges outright (and that sounds like a nightmare to implement). eBay does it, though. Am I missing something? [UPDATE Mar. 5, 2024: Etsy is surveying buyers about how much they like cheap shipping.]

Perhaps more importantly, the planned search changes have the potential to disrupt the status quo a great deal. We know that Etsy frequently takes a lot longer to develop these types of technologies than they expect, so it may not happen this year, but the work on promoting “quality” listings will continue, and that is already affecting some shops that used to do better in Etsy search. Do everything you can to make sure your images are "high-quality". If you rely on internal search to get most of your Etsy sales, this is a very good time to follow my usual advice and diversify your traffic sources.

Etsy’s branding pivot to being the place to get gifts could also have a big impact on some shops and categories, if it is successful - and that is a big “if”. I’m not thoroughly convinced Etsy can manage this change in consumer consciousness, considering that the site’s reputation continues to be hammered by controversies around scams and non-handmade items. Kitkats, anyone?

Many other comments do not bode well for most shop owners: a continuing push for discounting, emphasis on faster shipping times, and financial restrictions/impositions on “newly-opened” shops all indicate that traffic may flow away from small business owners who choose not to comply, or are unable to comply.

Last quarter I said “[d]on’t be surprised if there are major site changes in 2024”, and I appear to have been correct. But really, anyone reading these reports over the past few years could have seen it coming.

Stay well informed, everyone! It’s the best weapon we have.

Reminder that you can sign up to receive my Tumblr and website blog posts via email.

UPDATED March 19, 2024

#ecommerce #EtsySellerNews #etsy #microbusiness #cindylouwho2

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pants-magic-pants · 3 months

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heyy, hope you doing good! and sorry to keep bothering you lol

so you got me really curious

idk if this is something you would share, and it’s totally fine if not, but i was wondering how much went into the costume? both time and money -wise

Hello! I'm... surviving! I hope you are as well.

I am also curious about this question, as I certainly didn't keep track of it. Initially, I did save some receipts, but this project was so long-term that work on it became scattered. Scattered in terms of when I was able to find the right materials, when I was well enough (mentally, physically) to work on it, when progress was actually being made vs. me searching and bumbling around unsuccessfully...

When there was any sort of momentum, it was almost like a part time job, where substantial amounts of hours were put in on all or most of my days off (which I have three). I spent many days hyperfixating on it all day with just a few breaks, so maybe 12 hours in a day, for 2-3 days in a week, so 24-36hrs in a week. But not all my weeks were like that. I went a couple months not working on it at all because it was stealing my soul.

If we were to say that on average there was just one day a week from September 2022 when I began the project, until November 2023, that I worked on it all day, it'd be one day (12hrs) x 4 weeks in a month x 15 months... That means a minimum of 720hrs went into it.

As for the costs? I was very scared to tally this up, but it's not terrible?... If you consider what some cosplays cost? Some of it is ridiculous, like the fact that I probably spent $100 on beads.

I had to look up what some things cost roughly, and sort of guess, but here's my tally:

MATERIALS -- $143 $90 in various beads $10 sea glass $9 aquamarine crystals $9 blue/mirror crystals $10 hot glue sticks packs x 2 $3 black acrylic paint $6 button bases x 2 $6 blue cabochons for buttons

FABRIC -- $146 $65 velvet x 4yds (but mine was free) $13 cuff lace x 1yrd $13 upper coat lining x 1yrd $13 lower coat lining x 1yrd $5 interfacing x 1yrd $12 thread x 4 $20 swatches x 3 $5 felt for padding

TOOLS -- $80 $8 french curve and other curved rulers $15 rotary blades x 3 $30 rotary cutting board (not even a big one) $23 pattern paper $4 microtex needles (Not included $20 walking foot that was useless) (Not included I had to get a whole goddamn new sewing machine, $500)

A few notes about the spending and amounts:

As you can see! The materials COST AS MUCH AS the fabric. hahahahahahahaahahaa It adds up, it seriously adds up. You keep needing more and more, and honestly I bought it all at such spread out intervals that I wasn't aware it was adding up. It could have also been less because there were a few sales at the craft store. hahaha

I did not have to pay for the velvet because of the issues the company had in getting it to me. Overall, you may notice that regardless of that my yardage is pretty low. It won't be the same for everyone. This was what was needed to produce a garment that is roughly a children's size large, or a women's XXS. It's one way that being a miniscule, little pipsqueak is an advantage... for one's wallet. Not much else good to say about it.

Anyway, tools. Tools is an important category. The fabric needed for this project was finicky and troublesome, and it required not only study on how to handle it, but the right tools and a worthy machine to handle it. I literally could not finish the coat without getting a new machine which was actually gifted to me... as I could not afford it in a million years... There is also no way to cut velvet without a sharp rotary blade and board, and you'll go through several blades in very short time.

So I guess that comes to about $370...

Not terrible... right? And it was free velvet. And I was gifted a machine, and I also had a couple patrons who donated over a hundred dollars, bless them. On the other hand, this was only the cost of the coat, and NOT the cost including the dress shirt, cummerbund, wig, etc.

Needless to say, I am dirt poor this year. No sort of spending like this will be occurring any time soon for further work (to make the pants, to get new boots, to go to events, take pictures) unless I'm able to pick up freelance work or earn more patrons. Yeah.

#this post ought to go with the master post #thanks for asking and for donating!#it's so sweet I may have to do something about it #ballroom costume #coat construction

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polyhexian · 1 year

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Nate ranks every transformers thing ever

What:

- Eugenesis

i have no idea how i can ethically rank this as good or bad. its good. its bad. its canon. its fanfiction. it is what it is. dont read eugenesis. please read eugenesis.

God tier:

- Rescue bots

i am not joking. i am not memeing. rescue bots is the best thing to ever come out of the transformers franchise. its the only series to break the three season curse and get a fourth season. it has more episodes than any other series, over 100. it didn’t get cancelled because it wasn’t popular, it ended because they ran out of stories they wanted to tell. then they dropped a sequel series with TWO more seasons. they gave nicole duboc a mainline series for this.

- Mtmte/lost light

life changing. incredible. ruined my life. saved my life. jro is my enemy. jro is my best friend. jro is my dad. i met him once. i showed him my hard copy of eugenesis i paid 150 dollars for and had him sign it. he probably thinks im insane. he DID sign it tho. i think about whirl and cdrw every day of my life

- Cyberverse

I LOVE CYBERVERSE SO MUCH... I don't think any series has captured the pure unbridled chaos of the entire franchise so well. It has so many characters and all of them feel RIGHT. I love the art style. I Love this unhinged soundwave. I LOVE the fresh and interesting new ideas if brought to the table. Season 3 was incredible. The season 4 specials destroyed me. TARN??? TARN IS HERE???

- Rescue bots academy

- Rise of the Beasts

I think that Bumblebee is an objectively better film, I just had more fun watching ROTB lol

- Bumblebee movie

BABY GIRL MY BABY DAUGHTER BABY GIRL BABY BABY

- Earthspark

- Botbots

Yes I am in fact putting botbots this high. This show was so unrepentantly funny. The goof at the beginning show us like oooh space ENERGON crashed to earth the war... Anyway none of that matters lets go to the mall. That is SO funny. They did a chopping mall parody and a Hamilton parody. The protagonist is an unhinged megalomaniac burger.

- Beast wars

don't worry about the visuals you get used to them so fucking fast. beast wars is incredible. the storytelling has so much depth. tigatrons big episode about the cost of their war against the planet and defining what protecting the planet even means changed me. theres an entire episode about farting and rampage and depth charge wanna hate fuck SO bad its fucking unreal

- Recordicons

you WILL acknowledge david willis’s contribution to lgbt history and you WILL laugh at his very funny memes

Great tier:

- Transformers Prime

- Transformers Animated

waspy baby.....

- Idw shattered glass

IM UNHINGED ABOUT SG STARSCREAM AND SG STARFIRE IM ABSOLUTELY UNHINGED

- 86 movie (Bluray remaster)

-the five minutes at the end of earthrise when cog became the main character for some reason

This was the funniest shit I've ever seen. One of the worst most boring shitty tf shows I've sat through with characters I truly care nothing for suddenly lurched sideways as out of fucking nowhere and for no reason at all a random background character suddenly took over the plot and gave the most harrowing performance I've seen in awhile in this horrifically tragic death scene that had my jaw on the floor. And then we just moved on and never spoke of it again ckdhzhcjof. WHAT WAS THAT.... LITERALLY WHAT WAS THAT AND WHY DID THAT HAPPEN....

- Armada (the starscream and Optimus parts)

It is UNREAL how good the starscream and Optimus bits are in this show. When the rest of it is pretty terrible. I would say after starscream dies it's pretty meh but not outright bad, just sort of nothin. The first couple episodes tho are so funny because they're so bad they had no script and were all but ad-libbing the whole thing. They couldn't go two minutes without getting a characters name wrong. Incredible. Anyway this starscream is legendary for being such an interesting and dynamic character with the best design ever. And just like. The coolest character arc.

Okay but also just like do not watch this show in English. The English version is awful and it is More than just a dub!! The Japanese version was finished AFTER the American version despite being animated in Japan!! Because the show! Was not! Done!!! The Japanese version of the show is called micron legend and it's practically a different show. Do yourself a favor and watched micron legend subbed.

- Victory

STAR SABER IS MY DAD OK

also the plot hinges around the premise that current autobot commander star saber found a human infant floating through space and legally adopted him. That's incredible come on

- IDW windblade mini

saren stone could kill me with a brick and i would thank them

- Transformers RiD15 IDW comic

Good tier:

- IDW2

- MMC mnemo/notif comic *

- Transformers go!

FUCK YEAH DRAGONS

- Funpub shattered glass

- Beast Wars uprising

DID YOU KNOW EJECT HAS A FUCKING SON?

Okay Tier:

- Wfc: Siege

- Zone

homosexual

- Challenge of the Go Bots *

Bad tier:

- The rest of IDW1

- G1

I'm not sorry for this. I don't like it. Boo

- Japanese headmasters

- Armada (the rest of it)

- Energon

- American headmasters

- Robotix *

im fucking unironically convinced when this flopped they just reused the plot for headmasters

- Wfc: earthrise

- Super god masterforce

- Beast wars 2

- Beast wars neo

- Beast machines

- RiD 2001

- 86 movie (pre bluray remaster)

- Cybertron

- Vanpires *

the wildest shit ive ever seen. ive watched every episode. imagine the cgi of beast wars season 1 with integrated live action. theres vampire cars and they "drain the gas from innocent cars" when cars??? not sentient???? the human children got irradiated and now they can turn into fucking horrible car beasts. why was this fucking made

- Bayverse

- Machinama’s Prime Wars

You know a series is bad when the first thing I want to complain about is the sound mixing

- Go-bots (transformers branded)

- Wfc: kingdom

Elite one my beloved I am so fucking sorry

Burn in hell tier:

- Rid15

Copaganda to rival paw patrol

- Exodus

This book called me a slur

- Hayato sakamoto’s Transformers Legends

- Kiss players

The worst thing transformers has ever done

??? (I still havent read/watched these) tier:

- Robot Masters

- Devastation

I played twenty minutes of this

- WfC

I’ve actually played a few hours of this but i got bored and didn’t finish so I don’t feel like i should rate it, but ultimately i just found it kind of generic and it didnt grab me

-FoC

-Wings Universe

-Unite Warriors

this is illustrated by hayato sakamoto and ive seen enough of like, the horny bathtub art and oversexualized female characters to assume its most likely shit tier, but i think he also brought breakdown back to life and canonized kobd? I do legitimately want to read this eventually

-Transtech

-Marvel comics

-GI Joe transformers crossover comics

-Dreamwave comics

-new energon universe image comic

-Q transformers

I have actually watched the subbed episodes of this but, there’s so few of them and its so clearly not intended for me since this is like a little silly flash cartoon specifically for japanese fans of transformers that its like, of course i dont really get the jokes or anything so even though i found this kind of boring i dont think its bad and i dont feel comfortable putting it on a tier

- TFP tie in games

- Bayverse tie in games

- Earth Wars

Energon enema though

- IDW MLP crossover

- Nezha

Nezha is lost media but it has toys and I have one so uhhhh I guess I'm acknowledging it theoretically exists

* don't act like this doesn't count, once you're deep enough to make a list ranking every transformers thing ever made you have to start counting this type of shit too

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genuinelyjustjd · 2 years

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DO NOT GET THE SIMS 4 FREE RELEASE

For those of you who do not play the sims 4, there’s a massive scandal hiding under EA’s belt.

The company has been lying to all the active players in the game.

To say it simply, the game has been officially broken for a long time now. There’s reports of many game-breaking bugs, many disgusting items, and far too many cash grabs.

They have been releasing new content left and right without even bothering to fix the broken content. You know who is fixing this content? Sims’ unpaid modding community.

These amazing individuals are doing all this work, for free, because they love the game. At this point, I wouldn’t imagine playing the game unmodded. These brilliant creators pour in time to fix things that the own developers haven’t even addressed. They are the best of the community, ESPECIALLY those who offer their services for free.

But EA? Maxis? They’re full of shit right now. There’s threats of a “battle pass” being added to a game. What do I mean, “Battle Pass”? You know, that thing in mobile games that won’t let you access the whole game unless you’ve paid money for it. THE SIMS 4 IS CONSIDERING PUTTING IT INTO THE GAME. Though you’ll be able to get the base game packs, chances are, there will be MORE locked in game that you can only get through money. Expansion packs cost 40$. And yet, MOST OF THEM ARE STILL BROKEN. They will not bother to fix their mistakes and instead keep offering cash grab after cash grab to boost money.

You don’t hear from outside the community how dangerously this game has broken. You all remember the legend of No Man’s Sky? That one supposedly amazing game that got rushed and ended up failing miserably because of bugs an the like? Imagine that, but on a bigger scale in an already established community. Base game is broken. You can see your toddlers morph into disgusting creatures before your eyes, with no semblance of continuity. Your game can take forever to load, up to five minutes to get into Create a Sim. Your sim will sometimes actively ignore you. These are the minor things.

Other things that can happen in game is a whole shutdown of the game if it doesn’t like an action you made your sim do. It can and will corrupt your save. That cute family you spent 3 months grinding on? All gone.

Now, the company behind the game has made it a typical money grabber. They do not hire playtesters anymore, making content creators and us, the players, being the ones to say, “Hey! This is broken!” And they take weeks to fix it, if they ever do.

A good voice of complaint comes from Pixelade’s channel on youtube, as he has been very, VERY vocal in letting the community know that the sims 4 doesn’t care much about the players anymore. A comment under his video “MANIPULATION TACTICS?!...”, by user “You like Krabby Patties, don’t you, Squidward,” has brought a lot of weight into a true perspective into this argument.

> “ oh i absolutely agree that this is just a publicity stunt and distraction tactic. if they cared, they'd address the elephant in the room, which at this point isn't even us complaining about the bugged-to-hell, barely-playable-if-playable-AT-ALL mess of a game TS4 has become: it's literally just asking for any kind of acknowledgement of our problems. if a company won't give you something that should not only be the bare minimum, but is the single most important part of ANY company - transparency - then you know you can't trust them even the tiniest bit. this was just the last straw for me. i didn't trust them before. now, no matter what they do, they can never earn that trust back. 6+ weeks of some players unable to play the game at all, a game they could have paid hundreds or even over a thousand dollars for (and not even as a result of DLC they chose to purchase but from a free basegame patch!!) and SILENCE from EA...it's unacceptable. and if they think a free kit is going to make up for that (free basegame doesn't count for anything, because simmers experiencing problems with the game clearly already own that. this is them trying to dupe new players into thinking "wow, the basegame for free AND a free kit! what a great company!") then they're sorely fucking mistaken. and then, the cherry on top - some can't even download the free kit! “

I truly think that this game, something built with love in the beginning, has turned into a flaming pile of dogshit. They do not care about the players, anymore. The shareholders are the only thing keeping the game going. They have lied to us, bribed us, and to make matters worse, hurt a whole community whose main monetary source comes from making this game better. If I had knew this would be the fate of this game, I never would’ve bought it. Never. Please, those of you considering to get this free version, please reconsider. Look into the problems. If you decide that you can live with them, no fault to you. But do not expect the game it was back in 2018. Do not expect transparency. Let these companies, EA and Maxis, finally understand how they’ve fucked up. And if they don’t change it?

Let them burn.

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tittysuckersworld · 1 year

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okay doing smth i am anxious to do but am gonna try yes! yeet opening small comissions!

these are the two different complicated styles i can do, both of them are priced at 15 dollars per person. is mostly just sketch with ink here. if you want a digital line art will probs add like 10 dollars to total but it very much depends- if want anything drawn very much will most likely discuss it a lot cause im v e r y new to this- dont even have way to get payed yet- but you know gonna figure that out once more yes!! idk-

can also do some simpler stuff with this super duper simple style for like just 5 dollar per character? again still dont know stuff fully-

if digital lined depends on how long it would take me same with flat colors. im not comfortable enough with online drawing to do complex colors but like hypothetical here, a drawing like this would cost about 80 dollars mabey?

again very loose but minimum wage is about 17 dollars per hour and this picture took me like 3 hours? mabey more 4 but i dont know again- then the aditional 2 people added 15 each but if that is bad then idk! this is try out to advertise myself and see if anyone would actually like my art-

also, if youd like me to help design a character with you id be so down! but would take a lot of work and be very variable with how much costs with how many drafts and research until you happy but i really like designing characters and helping figure out how parts of character design could work practically and all that stuffs. again, if things not best pls negotiate things!!!

lastly, i am a full time student and my studdies come first so if theres inportant tests or inportant projects i will prioritize that and not take commissions.

p.s. im still gonna make lots of fan art and do drawings that others in general want- plus if your my friend i will draw for you to show affection. this is not a negotiation, i will gib you art. thank you for reading this far if you have!!! have a nice day :>

p.p.s. if you wanted some spooky body horror art i can also draw that ;)

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otppurefuckingmagic · 1 year

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In light of the final chapter release I've been rereading my way through ITSB for the past week. Am I understanding correctly – when in the ending author's note of chapter 23 you mentioned finding some way to get ITSB into paperback – that you're going to attempt to publish ITSB?? Because throughout this entire read through I've been thinking on loop about asking whether or not you plan to change a couple names and publish ITSB as an original work of fiction. I would love to own a paperback/hardcover copy of this book.

nope. no filing off the serial numbers for this fic and publishing it. it's owned by the malec fandom and will stay that way.

(and let's be real, as much as i love itsb it would make a *terrible* published book lol. if i were to publish it, there would be heavy edits and cutting out like 350k of the words 😂 i indulged hardcore in fandom tropes, added in scenes cause they made me happy, and lingered over things that would have been glossed over in published fiction. i've written enough books to have a pretty good handle on what works!)

what i was saying with that note is that i really, really, really want a paper copy of itsb on my shelf and wish i could find a way to make that a reality for everyone who wants it too. at this point though, i don't see how i could make that happen besides providing a master file for y'all to use as you please.

logistically, a printed version of itsb would need to be 3-4 volumes for it to be readable in terms of font size and physically holding it (without straining muscles lol). and in all the research i did, that would likely cost each person over $100 USD. ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. *sigh*

soooo, yeah. i would love a printed version but it's probably going to up to each of us to decide how badly we want it ;) check out this ask for a few more thoughts on that ♡

#answered #itsb print #itsb #i wish there was an easy way for all of us!#thank you for the itsb love regardless

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clementine-kesh · 6 months

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What the...!

I'm finally watching more Prodigy (just started ep 4) and something Dal said struck me as odd, something about them all being kids or something to that effect and while I did previously think that most of them were kids, I just kinda assumed Jankom Pog was like... in his 30s or some equivalent? The grizzled engineer vibes combined with the voice I guess.

I actually thought it really added to the show's humour that most of them were teens or under and then there's just this 36 year old man who probably ran a garage or something before he got captured, but I looked it up... Jankom Pog is supposed to be 16!!! That's even younger than Dal! What?!

And while I'm still not sure if Medusans even have anything resembling traditional ageing, Zero (whom I had assumed would be some kind of "old sage" at first and I guess my brain just kept thinking of them as close to senior citizen lmao) is also supposed to be teen or under coded. They're literally just a gaggle of toddlers loose in outer space huh 😭

(Sidenote tho, I gotta say: while I was only mildly whelmed by eps 1&2 when I watched them a while ago, I'm really starting to like it. It's a good show!! The fight scene in the vehicle replicator in particular also really made me see the potential of the medium, even compared to Lower Decks since Prodigy is both 3D and much richer in visual detail.)

(It defo still feels like a bit of a departure from other treks, in part because they're not part of a starfleet crew, but that might actually be in the franchise's favour since it widens the scope of the kinds of story trek shows are allowed to tell. And especially with Academy in development that means it's really Paramount's loss for ditching the one show setting a precedent for anything other than the established "starfleet crew lives on starfleet vessel and has adventures" formula that even Pic eventually fell back on, though I don't know how quickly as I couldn't even stand half an episode.)

-Levi

lmao i can totally see how you’d assume jankom’s older especially cuz he’s voiced by jason mantzoukas who’s like 50. there is something so funny about having this gruff grizzled 16 year old tho it’s very charming to me and i love his and dal’s sibling relationship. prodigy has its limitation but it’s still a huge breath of fresh air into the franchise in a lot of ways (and i say that while also thinking what discovery did with its later seasons was really cool and interesting). a lot of that comes from the writing and premise of course but a lot of that also comes from what they can do with the medium since it’s animated, so it’s actually possible to do all the cool alien designs and epic shots that would cost a million dollars and take a ton of extra time to do in live action

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architects-hidden-archives · 1 year

Text

Solo Leveling Chapters 11-16 LN and Manwha differences + other facts [Part 2]

*Edit: so apperantly Volume one ends at chapter 22 and not 16 so youll have another post until I cover volume 2 , which, that one would still be long...

*chapters 12-17 in manwha*

Index:

Things or facts not mentioned in the Manwha

Skipped scene

■ Added in the Manwha.

◇Change from the Manwha.

Chapter 11:

The sensation of being healed by the system felt the same as those of when Ju Hee always used to heal him.

◇ The box from the Daily quest rewards appeared on or next to his hospital bed instead of just popping out of nowhere.

The active skill [Dash] and passive [Tenacity] were both gained during the penalty quest.

We are introduced to runestones early on due to the fact that the only way people can acquire certain skills is by a runestone, only found very rarely inside A rank monsters or above.

The runestones cost are extremely high [one of the rarest came at the cost of 70 billion won or 62 million dollars, and the anonymous S rank Healer that purched it had spent all its life savings for it [the ability was regeneration, and works much like the recovery status for Sung Jin Woo. So a pretty useful thing honestly.]

To see if the status points actually works, Jin Woo lifted his hospital bed, but couldn't see any difference— you are supposed to lift before AND after putting the points in, he only lifted after— . He does it again with the 3 more points from his daily quest and gets happy as he notices the change. Eventually his enthusiasm gets a hold of him as he start trashing the room trying to grab as much things to prove his strenght. It isn't until the chief nurse hears the commotion –and berates him for it– that he stops.

Jin Woo at the end starts researching through documents, websites and even forums about reawakened hunters but none of them had the same reawakening as he did. I think this is quite interesting really because it says that there are some websites which only hunters who have a license can use, not awakened people, but those specially working in the field. He also resorted to paying for information about this, (so I guess he got a subscription on Scribd/j. ) and yes here it finally confirms that Jin Woo has been in a VIP room.

■ Chapter 12 in manwha: The Nurses see the boy running and start talking about Hunters having the ability to regenerate much faster so it shouldn't be a problem for Jin Woo to run even if he looks dismayed.

◇As of now there have passed only two days since he woke up and five since the Double dungeon. In the Manwha chap 12, most of that is skipped and actually says it's been 4 days since he woke up.

Chapter 12:

Jin woo got blasted back on a subreddit thread about hunters. And I DO remember that someone had picked up on it later and gathered evidence to Jin Woo being a hunter that levels up, but for now it was left out the manwha.

Jin Woo gets a ball point pen and a bandaid as presents from the system. With this he managed to find the existence of the Inventory.

Jin Woo finds Mr Kim's sword on his inventory.

[At this point is where we see most of his thoughts morphing into what he wants to become: Someone who a) is strong and b)does not waste time with unnecessary kindness. The novel states on how he feels guilty that he couldn't do anything to save the choir boy[and I guess others from the dungeon] or to stop Mr Kim from incriminating Mr Song Chi-Yul(Double ouch, baby boy I wanna give you a hug). So now his moto is quite literally "Give and Take".]

So! Choi Noora(the nurse) moment here that was cut! In the scene she was talking to friend in a Pojangmatcha and asking if there where hunters who can regenerate really fast, because in chapters back she had seen Jin Woo doing such a thing. Her friend dismisses it and is like "No only S rankers would be able to do so?" Which makes Noora question if Jin woo is an S rank. So she looks at the files of hunters (open to public) and finds that he is an E rank, making Noora think he might have reawakened. With this double info she decided that she will befriend Jin Woo as fast as possible because—Hello? S rank? You rarely see those much less befriend one!

Pojangmatcha btw:

The first mention of Baek Yoon Ho turning into a beast is also revealed here. Thought that was neat (like, someone reading this for the first time will probably forget, but as you reread it you start noticing all the details made to point out future events and you are just like ohohoho!)

◇ Timeskip to a week since he has started the daily quests, Jin Woo's body has changed drastically and when I mean this boy is awkward about it, I mean he even feel embarrassed in checking himself out in the mirror. Many nurses also point it out and he hear them gossip due to the heighten hearing ability of his.

Chapter 13:

Jin Woo doesn't like being the center of attention after becoming so beefed up and wanted to be discharged of the hospital as soon as possible so that he could level up in peace.

The hospital also wanted him to leave please! Mainly because he was using a VIP room and was in a healthy condition.

S ranks hunters have their Health related expenses covered by the goverment (oh come on and they are getting peid the most! Frankly i think all hunters should have some sort of health coverage considering they are fighting for their lifes there.)

Jin Woo found out that he can just think of something he needs from the Inventory and it will appear on his hand (I think that was like explained much much later on).

The random box sometimes gave him useful stuff like a Raincoat before it was about to rain or a cup before all the paper cups ran out, and more bandaids...which were pretty useless honestly.

Another scene cup is where Jin Woo goes to the Assosiation Headquarters in the district of Guro (in Seoul) to get a new phone since his first was smashed to bits[those phones are made from special components too]. The association tells him to wait one week, so he does (he doesn't try to use a loan phone because it cost 50K won=44$ and he doesn't have that much money.)

If the Assosiation can't contact a hunter then they will call their house.

The rank of the object Jin woo gets from the system reflects the difficulty in acquiring said item.

Jin Woo's memories with an E rank dungeon was that he had been hurt so badly he stayed in the hospital for over a week.

Extra info on the low ranked monsters is that they tend to use more hidding abilities since they don't have much stenght.

The fight against the Steel Fang Lycans goes differently from the manwha but IG they both look good in their own right: He begins fighting one wold first by drawing it out of its hidding spot and then slacing it in half. Suddenly two more come and he punches one of them(his sword was stuck to the ground) which leads to the wolf's head exploding(w.t.f) also, Chugong the author has a few words about why the sword was hard to pull...

Chapter 14:

■ In the manwha chapter 15

Chapter 15:

More over the take that the fight with kasaka felt... too fast? It only took like one to two pages for the fight to finish, with the same tactic as before but it also made it feel as though he didn't have as much as he did in the manwha. Either way you can still picture the fight going on insde your head.

Jin Woo finishes the dungeon at 10 pm and says that it took him 9 hours to finish everything.

■The Flashbacks and dialogue were an added bonus:

Chapter 16:

Unlike in the manwha, the whole place where D rank dungeon break occurred was deserted with only a few soldiers out there and a dozen hunters.

■ There was no Lee Ju Hee moment in the LN.

■ Sidenote: There is a character that appears in the manwha which becomes playable in the SL Arise Game.

Quote: "Of course, the weapons of soldiers didn’t work against the monsters. However, in order to facilitate the evacuation of civilians, someone had to be offered up as sacrifices. In other words, they were to become cannon fodder. A role someone had no choice but to perform had been saddled on the shoulders of this nation’s youths." --202 chap 16

... Ayo... yeah I did know about the military being used as canon fodder but I didn't think nor remember the gov explicitly stating this as fact, which hurts so much more knowing that most of the military is in its youth age as stated in the LN. I'm guessing some could even be the youths that have to do military service [which speaking of! Jin Woo is 24 now so he could have had a 2 year gap between 18 to 20 where he could have done some military service if anyone wanted to write about his backstory before the double dungeon or his awakening. I know I certainly had some angsty thoughts :) ]

The D rank tanker's name is Lee Hahn Soo/Lee Hansoo. There was a part where he vomited blood from the slam the golem had done to him.

After the defeat Jin Woo had to run away in order to not contest over the winnings since he was an E rank so no one would believe he killed the golem. In turn he managed to know that he could level up outside of instant dungeons. I don't really remember if the manwha explained why he noped out but yeah.

Sung Jin Ah skipped scene aww!

◇ Next day Jin Woo had woken up earlier than Jin Ah, surprising her. He also wore sportswear instead of the pajamas shown in the manwha.

Jin Ah is usually industrious at her age. (Likely due to her parents not being there for her so both Jin Woo and Jin Ah grew up more matured.)

#solo leveling light novel #solo leveling manwha #solo leveling #sung jin woo #lee ju hee #song chi yul #sung jin ah #SL change catalogue by AHA

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brasskingfisher · 1 year

Text

Twitter Implosion

Ok, so the news from twitter and the fallout from elongated muskrat's terrible management just keeps getting better and better. Not only is the ENTIRE SITE likely to crash tomorrow (big events like the world cup always put a strain on sites like twitter and they're now trying to manage with somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of their staff to the point where journalists are relying on the twitter feeds of muskrat and former workers for information since there's now no PR team) and even if it survives, it's likely to become a wasteland (a lot of trends make it seem like its only going to attract right wing extremists like former president fart and his red hat wearers).

But, and this is where it gets good, its also going to completely ruin the space karen. Twitter was losing money anyway (it's posted a loss 10 out of the past 12 years), BUT, muskrat has accelerated things so much that a collapse that might have taken years is now likely to take weeks.....

AND, HE'S GOING TO BE PAYING THROUGH THE NOSE!!!!!

No, seriously. Even before he took over and advertisers stopped buying ads Twitters annual revenue was around $5bn. Now that means that (given the interest on the loans he's taken out) muskrat would need to own twitter (and not spend anything to keep it running) for at least 12 years JUST TO BREAK EVEN!!! And that's before factoring in the severance payouts, fines, and legal costs he's likely to incur. Now, the only way he can make up any shortfall is going to be through his own fortune, most of which is in the form of things like his shares in Tesla, the prices of which are dropping like a stone thanks to the debacle at twitter.

So this "business genius" has wrecked a multi billion dollar corporation (he overpaid for) in a matter of weeks in a really high profile way that only demonstrates his own incompetence!

#twitter exodus #hahaha #lol #fuck billionaires #elongated muskrat #fuck capitalism #this sounds like an anti capitalist plot #how to lose billions

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roseserpentpress · 1 year

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Hey 😊 I'm very interested in getting into fan binding, and I love your work! I wonder, how much does it normally cost you to bind a book? I see you made quite a few in 2022 and I would love to hear about the average amount you normally spend :) best of luck on your future projects!

Aww thank you for the compliment! ❤️ I'm also really terribly sorry for how long it took for me to write out this response--I've been really busy lately, and properly calculating what actually goes into my books is something I haven't really done previously, as I typically engage in fanbinding as a hobby, and I don't usually keep track of how much is going into my books. It's also a bit difficult to exactly calculate materials wise as often things I buy end up going a long way... so breaking down the prices can be difficult as you'll see below.

Anyhow! Fanbinding is a really lovely hobby, and highly encourage you to get into it when you have the time and energy! If you are interested and haven't yet joined the Renegade bindery discord (18+ however!) with all the lovely fanbinding/bookbinding enthusiasts, I'd highly recommend you do as they have a bunch of resources for beginners and are an absolutely lovely community.

To properly answer your question, what one spends on making books can really depend on the materials you use. Hell, there was a document from Renegade on how to make really low cost book out of materials you just have lying around at home, which I unfortunately can't find right now. Personally the cost has also varied depending on where I'm getting my resources, and as you become familiar with whats in you area, you can also minimize cost for certain resources. Below the read more I'll actually give a break down of what generally goes into a 100 page (about 100k) A6 book. Everything will be given in CAD as I live in Canada.

Basic A6 100 pg Book:

Paper: 1.7$ as 100 pages would be 50 sheets of paper. It's 17$ for a ream (500 pages) of cream paper. I'm not sure the exact price for the printer, as that I own my own printer. I know that for just plain bright white and black and white text you are charged .20 per page at Staples, which for a 100 page book would be 20$.

Bookboard: .80-3$ I've had quite a variety of bookboard I've bought; currently am getting 9$ for a pack of 6 chipboard which makes about 12 a6 books; so about .79$, but I've previously bought chip board that is much more expensive (15$ a pack for about 4 books, which would be 3.75$ per book). I've also used the back of old sketch books, stiff and flat shipping envelopes for prints,and I've recently seen that someone recycles old books from library sales where the books are just going to go to the landfill.

Endpaper: I like coloured end and cover papers; per one sheet, it is usually about $5-10. Depending on my use of the paper, usually I can get about two A6 book worths out of the paper, which means about per 1 a6 its 2.5-5$ for the end paper.

Cover paper: For cover paper I often use a mix of paper. I also usually use the same type of fancy papers as the end papers, so thats an extra 5-10$, which can be halved. However, I often mix this with simple single coloured cardstock paper for scrapbooks. Normally, since I'm cheap, I buy the dollar store paper which is about .75$ per sheet. So about cover paper goes from 3.5-6$.

Ribbon: I like to make my books with ribbons so they are not just supported by sewing. Again, I'm not fancy so I use micheals/dollarstore polyester ribbons; a roll costs about 1.5-3$. For spine ribbons, getting a white or neutral colour is best as that in-between the signatures the colour isn't obvious. However, for adding ribbon bookmarks, it's nice to have a colour that matches the colour scheme of the book. The rolls obviously end up being used for more than one book project, so it's somewhere in the cents for the ribbons per book. I like silky polyester for ribbons as for those used as a bookmark, you can easily ensure the end doesn't fray by using a lighter to melt the very edge.

Thread: I just use sewing thread that I double when sewing the signatures together. It's about 3$ for a roll of white, and will last a very long time. I do like to add beeswax to the thread, which is somewhat optional. You could probably also use other soft waxes such as those used in candles if you don't specifically have beeswax. That cost will be under beeswax though.

Backing cloth - I purchase micheals squares of linen fabric, which you can buy for $2-3 for the cloth backing of the spine. Again, you can get quite a few cloth backing out of one square of fabric. You can also choose to use cloth instead of paper for a book cover, which then you would swap the coverpaper to the price of the cloth. Again, purchasing a neutral cream-white for the cloth is the best for the backing for the cracks between the signatures. I also know people will use misprint paper for backing, which would be even cheaper.

Paste: Personally as I'm cheap, so I like to make bookbinders paste at home; this is made by boiling a flour-water mixture. However, bookbinders paste takes long to dry, and for the first time or two might be more damp then you want and can leave your pages a bit wrinkly; as well, I'm not sure how acid free it would be considered in the long run, and its not a strong bond if it's not a large surface area that's paper-paper. Lots of people like to use ph-neutral PVC glue instead, which an art store near me sells around 10$ for 8oz, which is definitely pricier in comparison, but you'll end up using it for many books, so it can pay off. I've also however used simple Elmer's glue a couple of years ago in my first bookbinding forays, which is also cheap.

Head bands

Twine: lots of people use different types of cores for their headbands, but something that can remain an even width is good. I use this type of twine, which costs about 12$ per roll. The one I use is one I already had at home. Obviously you can get a quite a few headbands out of a ball of twine.

Embroidery floss: about 1.5$ for two different colours. Again, you'll only be using part of the whole embroidery floss for the endbands.

Beeswax proofing

Beeswax: 7 oz for 7$. Again, a fraction of one of these bars is used per book.

Mineral Spirits: also a fraction required for the a single book. A bottle however is about 11$ for 4.2 oz.

So if you are going by the bulk items, without anything at home including everything and going middle of the road for prices, that would be about $84... however, most of these costs are negligible in the long run per an individual book, plus often you may have some of these lying around already, which can significantly cut into these costs. As a result a more accurate cost of materials per a single individual book would be about maybe $30.50 on average, and going by middle of the road for some prices, and utilizing the 20$ for the text block via staples. The heaviest cost will always be printing out your textblock, which can be minimized if you have your own printer at home (but then you need to invest in one...).

However, cost again can really quite vary, depending on what materials you are using! Starting off with things you already have at home significantly cuts into material costs, and starting on smaller projects will make the material cost cheaper. Plus, some fancy paper can be bought in packs for cheaper then they type of paper I tend to purchase. I hope this was at least somewhat informative, even if it took forever for me to write this up for you, apologies again about that!

#rose serpent bindery #rose serpent press #asks #bookbinding materials #rsp asks #rose serpent press asks #renegade bindery #also u can tell ive been busy because zero books have been made in the past few months...

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queeniebee6 · 2 years

Text

No Love Lost Between Rock and Pop (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson)

5th instalment of the ‘Eddie Munson the Rockstar’ series

Part 4

WARNING: contains explicit content, please read at your own risk

Words: 9,335

Ao3

Dublin, Ireland: 6pm | Hawkins, Indiana: 1pm “This phone call is costing me a fucking fortune,” Eddie groaned into the phone hanging on the wall of the Point Theatre. Steve just chuckled in response as his fingers ran over the edge of the kitchen counter.

“Well then, why don’t you just call every couple of nights instead of every night?” Steve asked; he prayed Eddie didn’t go for it, but he didn’t want to put Eddie out of pocket.

“Don’t be stupid! Miss out on talking to you? No thanks,” Eddie replied brashly but with sweetness sung through the phone line. “Besides, I don’t mind that this place's payphones cost a whole fucking dollar… their beer is fucking phenomenal.”

Vienna, Austria: 6pm | Hawkins, Indiana: 12pm “Daaaad!” It was Mike’s voice that Eddie could hear screaming into the phone. “Mom won’t let us sneak into the movie theatre even though we know that the back door is unlocked and that we won’t get caught.” Mike’s tone was now much calmer but didn’t leave Eddie with much more of an explanation.

“What?” The rockstar asked with a breathy chuckle. Steve reciprocated the laugh before he butt back into his chat with Eddie that has been so rudely interrupted.

“They have this joke where they call me mom… and we’re like, together… ish… so they think you’re dad now.” The line went quiet, save for the crackling of the international connection, and Steve started to worry that maybe the joke had been too far for Eddie.

“Kids,” Eddie spoke in the sternest voice he could muster. “Listen to your mother.” Eddie erupted into sweet laughter and Steve couldn’t help but titter back, his heat fluttering right there in his chest amidst movie night. “We’re like 3 minutes from curtains up, babe,” Eddie added, bringing their conversation back to reality and Steve back down from the clouds. “But tomorrow, the first thing we’re talking about is this whole ‘together-ish’. I don’t like the sound of that one bit.”

Minsk, Belarus: 6pm | Hawkins, Indiana: 11am “Oh, hey Buckley. How’re things?” Eddie’s smile was wide, the remnants of hearing Robin’s voice on the other end of the line.

“Hey, Ed. Yeah, we’re good!” She replied brightly. “Steve’s at the video store today if you want me to hang up so you can call.”

“Nah!” Eddie brushed it off, waving his hand even though Robin couldn’t see. “I’m all yours tonight, Buckley. Tell Steve I called.”

Athens, Greece: 6pm | Hawkins, Indiana: 11am “Give me the phone!” It was Dustin, and Eddie could hear the clamouring that he was clearly doing.

“No!” Steve’s voice was bitchy, and Eddie would have been lying if he said he didn’t like it just a little. “Just wait. You’re being a shit, Dustin.”

“You talk to Eddie every single night. You’re being a hog,” Dustin screeched, Eddie giggling at their fight on the other end of the phone.

“Yeah, because he’s my boyfriend,” Steve sassed, and Eddie gave him the quietest ‘I love you’, almost as if the mention of the word boyfriend left him unable not to.

“Yeah, well, he’s my dad. Give me the damn phone!”

Sydney, Australia: 6pm | Hawkins, Indiana: 4:30am Eddie’s call was on its sixth ring when it never took more than three. Had Steve forgotten to mention plans that would stop him from taking the call? Had something bad happened? Eddie toyed nervously with the phone cord, feet moving incessantly.

“Hey.” The grogginess cut through the static ringing like butter. “Hello?”

“Stevie!” Eddie said brightly, his tone the antithesis of Steve’s. “Oh shit, what time is it where you are?” Steve looked at the clock to see it was just past 4:30am.

“It’s early,” he admitted, resting sleepily against the counter.

“I’m so sorry, baby. I’ll call back after the show,” Eddie whispered as if trying to lull Steve back to sleep with gentle words.

“No, no,” Steve assured quickly, standing back up from the counter. “I’m already up. I’m going to make a cup of coffee… you tell me all above your day, babe.”

Vancouver, British Columbia: 6pm | Hawkins, Indiana: 9pm “Oh, I’m so close, Steve,” Eddie groaned, phone tucked against his shoulder.

“Me too, Ed.” Steve had stretched their corded phone all the way to the bathroom, very glad that Robin was on the closing shift at the video store. Eddie was moaning through breaths with his hand down his pants, and Steve had discarded his bottoms completely. “Are you just jerking it in whatever hallway you’re in right now?” Steve asked through an airy chuckle, Eddie’s response a frustrated - but still turned on - groan.

“It’s called a cordless phone, I’m in the accessible toilet, and you sir, are killing the mood.” Steve just chuckled before allowing his hand to continue moving and for his whines to echo back through the phone.

Alberta, Canada: 6pm | Hawkins, Indiana: 8pm Every couple of weeks, when Eddie was sure he could get the timezones right and knew Max’s mum was working late, he’d give Steve a call to let him know he was okay and then phone Max for a chat. They’d swap menial pleasantries and she’d ask Eddie about the tour. Once that was over Eddie would just let Max talk. They’d talk about the trailer park and her mum, and school, and how even though she had her permit, she’d much prefer to skateboard still. Eddie joked that she should teach him how and instantly regretted it because Max thought that was too great of an idea to pass up. Eddie would always try his best to weave into their conversations that if she ever needed anything - financially or otherwise - that Eddie was ready and willing to help; Eddie had no tact though, and Max would always shut him down.

New York City, New York: 6pm | Hawkins, Indiana: 6pm “How many tickets do you need for next month?” Their reunion was only 3 weeks away, and both were itching with anticipation. Eddie was getting more fired up with every show they played, the adrenaline pumping through him as Thanksgiving neared.

“Umm…” Steve muttered, leaning outside the counter of the video store. “Our friends will be down from California for Thanksgiving, so…” He counted quickly on his fingers as he gave the customer walking through the door a welcome nod. “10?”

“Easy,” Eddie replied brightly, fingers tapping rhythmically against the phone booth. “We’ll get into Indianapolis at about 2… so if you guys wanted to drive down early, you can chill backstage or whatever,” Eddie offered, desperate for any amount of minutes spent with Steve.

In addition to the daily phone calls, Eddie sent Steve, Robin and the kids care packages at least once a month, full of things he had been collecting from all the cities he had been to.

He had sent them a bag of coffee from Italy that he absolutely fell in love with, and a crappy drawing of a dinosaur that he did on a napkin in Germany - he had to ask someone next to him how to write ‘miss you’ in German so that he could make it more cultural. He sent them fancy flavoured tea from in England, attaching a note about how he thought they all tasted like ‘the ground’, but that maybe someone would enjoy them.

He sent them a silly hat that someone gifted him in Spain; the kids sent back polaroids of them all wearing it. He bought them buckets of stickers for the kids to put on their walkmans and patches from anywhere he could find them for Robin’s jacket. He’d always send t-shirts from various countries with corny slogans… Dustin was the only one who wore them not as pyjamas.

He would write them all letters telling them about all the things they would love if they were there. Steve’s letters were always on the naughty side, with secret pictures and stories about the burlesque dancers in Paris

”Not really for me, but if you want to put on the feathers and panties, I’d happily reconsider.

Eddie always made sure to label everything so that all the kids knew he got them something special.

Steve and the kids hadn’t sent Eddie a package, but only because they had to mail it about five cities ahead to make sure it was waiting when he arrived, and because the international mail was very much out of their budget. So instead, they were going to give Eddie a box for Thanksgiving, the kids coming into the video store at least once a week to drop off things to put in the box.

“If we tried to post this, it would cost us the house,” Steve chuckled, throwing the items into the overflowing box of things for Eddie.

In Eddie’s box was loads: Nancy had brought back some cool patches from Boston for Eddie's jacket - her favourite one was the strawberry because it always made her giggle when Eddie called himself ‘fruity’. Dustin had packed some books and dice from this new game the kids had discovered called Dungeons & Dragons. They had become obsessed and Dustin just knew that Eddie would too… even if Steve called it ‘silly’. Robin has collected a few cassettes from local bands that had come through Indiana so she and Eddie could discuss them when he got back. Will had mentioned on the phone that he had done a drawing of Eddie based on his latest magazine cover, but given that they hadn’t met yet, Mike had to reassure him that Eddie would love it. Steve had been keeping a diary of everything while Eddie was away… it was more like a scrapbook, really. It was filled with diary entries and stories of what they’d done each day, complete with pictures and little stick-figure drawings to keep Eddie informed. Lucas and Max had kept a diary too, but theirs was filled with stories of all the things Steve had done while Eddie was gone - both stupid and sweet - they lived to snitch. Max also slipped in a letter to Eddie; it was sealed and then sticky taped, and she hadn’t even signed it Max. But, she was sure her words of thanks and her admissions of admiration would be enough to let Eddie know it was her.

~~~

Three weeks came agonisingly slow, spent the same as the last four months. A daily - or nightly - phone call and a quickly teeming box of crap that Steve knew Eddie would love.

When November 21st finally came around, the electricity could be felt from Hawkins to Indianapolis. Eddie was waiting out the front of the theatre when he saw the three cars pull up, a barrage of bodies filtering out. Dustin ran up to hug Eddie first, and Eddie was glad because it made it look way less suspicious when Steve lifted him off the ground in a vice grip. Once Eddie had delivered hugs most of the way around, he stopped at the group he hadn’t met, assuming they were ‘friends from California’.

“Ed, this is Will, El, Jonathan and their mom Joyce,” Steve explained, gesturing to the people in front of Eddie. “We needed the extra car and Joyce hasn’t been to a concert in ages… hope that’s okay…” Steve grinned, hand tentatively touching Eddie’s back in the most heterosexual way he could think of, given they were in broad daylight.

“Of course!” Eddie replied straight away. “The more the merrier,” he grinned, clapping in front of him. Eddie gave a wave of his hands, gesturing for everyone to follow him inside. Eddie gave them all a tour since they had now upgraded to playing arenas instead of theatres and Dustin asked a million questions, all marred with sass. God, Steve really had an influence on him. Before the doors opened, Eddie ushered them down into the pit, in an area sectioned off and full of cameras. “This is where the press will be. Stay here unless you want to get trampled.” Steve just chuckled, knowing the first time Robin had dragged him along had been an experience in that department for sure.

With that, Eddie disappeared and the crowd began to filter in. Anticipation rose as the lights dimmed and smoke billowed from the back of the stage. When the show began, the noise was deafening; tens of thousands of Indianans screaming the lyrics to songs his boyfriend has written. Steve looked back at his friends to see that Robin and Jonathan has disappeared into the moshpit that was forming, eyebrows raised and eyes wide as he made eye contact with Robin and she gave him a thumbs up. He looked back at the kids to see the younger boys jumping along in their own space, laughing with each other and singing along. He looked to see Joyce with a protective hand on El’s shoulder, but even then, both of them had beaming smiles and were jumping along to the rhythm. Steve was watching Eddie with heart in his eyes; hidden by the cameras, Steve blew him a kiss - Eddie caught it and slipped it into his pocket.

After their seventh song finished, Eddie put down his guitar before moving to address the crowd.

“So, who here loves a bit of soft rock?” He asked, receiving roaring screams from the crowd. “Love it - love you guys!” Eddie said enthusiastically, dripping with his decadent frontman persona. “Well, this song is a sneaky, secret new one. But, it’s called ‘Back to Indiana’, so what better place to preview it than right here, am I right?” Another thunderous applause. The song began with a crashing fill from Gareth and a deft melody from Jeff and the crowd was mayhem. Steve was so caught up in the atmosphere, that he almost missed the lyrics.

I've played guitar each night for the finest kind / I've left a whole lot of chance on the road behind / I don't believe in fate, I call it destiny / And if I'm lucky yet, she'll keep a place for me.

I'm going back to Indiana now / To see my baby in her button-down / And even if the world is burning down / I'm going back to Indiana now.

I've got a photo of her standing near an orange tree / I keep it hidden in the pocket of my old worn jeans / I told the driver of the bus that he had a deal / And by the morning I'll be with her in the golden fields.

I'm going back to Indiana now / To see my baby in her button-down / And even if the world is burning down / I'm going back to Indiana now.

Steve's eyes were so fixed on Eddie that he didn’t even notice the way his friends were staring; he didn’t notice until he saw the lighter enter his vision and he turned to see the thousands of lighters swaying in the air. Even then, he couldn’t take his eyes off Eddie for more than a second, turning back to see the rockstar’s eyes glued to him as he sang the last chorus. When the song finished, the crowd exploded into applause, Mike giving his a nudge and a wink.

The rest of the concert went on as usual, but Steve felt like he’s been sucker-punched in the best way, to the point that Robin had to guide him up the stairs to get backstage. Eddie, running hands through sweat-soaked locks met them in the wings, a bottle of water attached to his lips. He was being showered with thanks and congratulations from everyone, but Steve was still drifting in a state of disbelief.

“That was amazing,” El said softly, Eddie ruffling her hair in response.

“The staff here gifted us some candy and chocolate and there’s no way we’ll get through it all,” Eddie said to the kids, gesturing to his illuminated dressing room. As they dispersed, Eddie finally turned to Steve, putting the bottle down and pulling him into a gentle kiss.

“What’d you think?” He whispered, lips still ghosting over Steve’s.

“I- Was… was that about me?” Steve asked coyly, cheeks already a crimson red.

“Nah, dude. It was about my wife here in Indianapolis. Of course, it was about you!” Eddie chuckled, pecking Steve’s lips as he laughed. “Did you like it?” he asked again, a little more apprehensive than before. Steve nodded quickly, looping his free arm around Eddie’s waist and pulling him in for another kiss.

~~~

Once the van had been packed and the venue vacated, they all stood on the footpath, thankful that the street had cleared out enough that Eddie wasn’t swamped for autographs.

“You guys got a hotel, or…” Eddie trailed off, doing a terrible job of trying to figure out whether he was getting Steve for the night or not. Robin was unable to contain her loud laugh as she stepped into Eddie’s space.

“We’re all driving home to Hawkins tonight, but we brought three cars so that Steve could drive himself home tomorrow,” she whispered, giving Eddie’s arm a reassuring squeeze. Eddie gave her a thankful smile as the kids came to say their goodbyes. Joyce stepped up to Eddie with a look that made him a little nervous.

“I’ve agreed to let me kids come with the others to see you after Thanksgiving…” she said quietly, eyeing him narrowly. “Steve’s assured me that they’re going to be safe, but I need you to promise me that you’ll take good care of them, understand?” Joyce was stern, but with a softness that suggested she’d had to worry about her kids too many times before.

“Yes, ma’am,” Eddie said shakily, his southern roots bleeding through strong. Usually, it bothered him, but tonight, he thought it might be the best approach. “They’ll be taken care of - I swear on my life,” he added, hoping to convince her. Joyce gave him a small nod, hand brushing against his arm before pressing against it completely, her tight face softening completely.

“Sweetheart, you are freezing!” She said with exasperation. “You better get yourself inside; you’re going to catch a nasty cold,” she added, leaving Eddie unable not to smile as she walked away. Despite her threat on Eddie’s life just seconds ago, it had been a long time since Eddie had been mothered, and it warmed his insides just like it did when he was seven. “You were lovely, by the way, Eddie,” Joyce called over her shoulder, resulting in a courteous nod from Eddie. Eddie had invited his own mother to plenty of shows in the early days, none of which she ever made it to, so he was glad to see what it was like to have a real mom come to watch him.

Eddie and Steve watched as the kids drove away before getting into Steve’s car as inconspicuously as possible. Eddie directed Steve to their hotel, having gotten upgraded this tour to all the luxury venues. Steve carried Eddie’s bag inside under the guise of being his assistant, the pair of them laughing at the act once they were safely inside Eddie’s room. Steve put Eddie’s bag down before pulling the older man into his arms to press their lips together.

“I think talking with you on the phone every night makes me miss you even more,” Steve whined against Eddie’s lips, fingering already toying with the hem of his shirt.

“Should I stop calling?” Eddie moaned back, walking them towards the edge of the bed as he pulled Steve’s shirt from his toned body

“Shut up.” Steve’s snarky words were punctuated by the ‘oof’ that left his lips as he was pushed back onto the bed. Eddie, still upright, pulled his shirt off before working his belt from its loops. Steve was doing the safe, lifting his hips to wriggle out of his pants before shimmying up to the head of the bed.

“Running away from me are we?” Eddie teased, pulling his boxers off as he crawled to straddle Steve, whose erection was already making itself known against Eddie’s cheeks.

“I gotta tell you something, Ed,” Steve whispered, a gentle smile on his face.

“It better be that we’re about to fuck,” Eddie replied obnoxiously, already grinding against Steve’s clothed cock. Steve let out a chuckle before gripping Eddie’s thighs to still him.

“I… I got an internship at the hospital, so I’m not going to be unable to talk on the phone every night anymore,” Steve whispered, trying to maintain his smile despite feeling like he was ripping Eddie’s heart out. Eddie’s eyes widened, and Steve was instantly worried that he’d killed the mood he’d been waiting for, for four months. “I’m so sorry.”

“Sorry? Are you kidding me, Steve? That’s amazing!” Eddie said loudly, connecting their lips with passion. “I’m so proud of you, baby.” Eddie always said those words in a way that was like perfection to Steve. He didn’t give them away like bad Halloween candy, but he said them just enough to slowly get Steve to believe it. “News like that deserves a reward,” Eddie said cheekily, ever the master of contorting the mood back to intimate. “Whatever you want to do tonight, we can. Tonight is all about you,” Eddie grinned widely, drawing his words out dramatically. Steve let out a small giggle, his cheeks red hot and his cock twitching against Eddie’s ass at the thought of it.

“Well…” Steve whispered, unable to make eye contact with Eddie. “I’ve kind of been trying to figure out the best way to ask you…” Steve trailed off again, eyes glued to where he was tracing the pattern of the comforter.

“Steve,” Eddie chuckled, gripping Steve’s chin and forcing him to look the rockstar in the eye. “Whatever it is, you can tell me,” he grinned, pecking Steve’s lips for support.

“Would you ever consider letting me top?” Steve asked the question so quietly and quickly that Eddie almost missed it… he didn’t though. His eyes widened a little, trying to contain his shock for Steve’s sake. “Nevermind!” Steve said, almost immediately. “It’s stupid… I shouldn’t have-” Eddie cut him off with a kiss, but it didn’t hide the grimace-laced smile on his face when they pulled apart.

“I’ve only ever tried it once…” Eddie mumbled, now the one unable to hold eye contact. “It just… it didn’t go very well.” Steve saw the way Eddie practically shuddered and his heart broke, hands come up to run soothing touches over Eddie’s side. “And it’s not that I don’t trust you,” Eddie blurted out, wriggling with discomfort atop Steve. “I just…” Eddie groaned, releasing a sigh so loud that Steve wasn’t certain that Eddie wasn’t angry. “I’m scared, okay?” Steve hadn’t been pushing for Eddie to admit anything, really. He would have been content for a ‘no thanks’ and for Eddie to fuck him senseless, but he was going to comfort Eddie regardless. Except… it came out in a small chuckle, causing Eddie’s brows to furrow and his mouth to frown.

“I’m sorry, Ed… I didn’t mean to laugh but… we’ve been doing this for a while and… well… I know you’re a big softy,” Steve explained, warm hands now gripping Eddie’s sides. “You might pretend to be a big, scary rockstar on stage, but I know you’re actually a loser.” Steve was pleased to see Eddie let out a soft chuckle, even if he was rolling his eyes.

“Shut up!” Eddie groaned, pushing his chest with a shaky hand. The room fell silent, Eddie’s hand on Steve’s chest, and Steve’s on Eddie’s waist. They just watched each other with sweet smiles before Eddie let out another sigh. “I wanna try.” Steve smiled widely and connected their lips again, allowing his kisses the meander down Eddie’s neck and onto his torso and nipples. Eddie moaned, unable to stop himself from grinding his hard cock down on Steve’s.

“See you already know what to do,” Steve teased before his tongue went back to flicking Eddie’s nipples. Eddie gave him a frustrated groan and Steve took it as a sign to keep going. “Go get lube, baby,” Steve whispered, pulling his mouth away from Eddie’s chest. Eddie climbed off of Steve to fish through his bag as Steve pulled off his boxers, his cock rebounding out of his clothes with a bounce. Eddie returned, holding the lube in shaky hands. “You say the word and we stop, yeah?” Steve assured, Eddie, nodding with clear nerves. Steve squirted a generous amount of lube onto his fingers before allowing them to crawl beneath Eddie’s cheeks. “It’s just like my tongue, yeah baby?” Steve was so gentle and reassuring, that despite Eddie trying to maintain his confident bravado, he was melting. Steve ran his finger over Eddie’s hole, causing the rockstar to grip Steve’s shoulders.

“Steve,” Eddie whispered, head thrown back with an agitated pleasure. “Please don’t hurt me.” Eddie’s words were so delicate that now Steve was the one with shaky hands. He reached up to pull Eddie’s head back to neutral to connect their lips one more time.

“I would never hurt you,” he said with serious confidence. “I love you so much, Ed.”

“I love you too, Steve.” Eddie gave him a sweet smile and pecked his lips as he pressed himself down against Steve’s finger. Steve gave him one last reassuring smile before he pressed one finger in. Steve had eaten Eddie out enough to know that this much, the rockstar could take; he was proved right by the way Eddie moaned, sinking down a little further than Steve had pressed in. Steve pumped his finger in and out, Eddie’s tight muscle contracting whenever Steve was all the way in.

“Can I put another one in?”

“Yeah.” Eddie was already a little breathless, but the way he was bouncing on Steve’s finger made the younger man think that it was simply in anticipation. Steve pulled his finger out, sinking back into Eddie slowly with a second digit. Eddie stuttered through moans, thighs tight and grip on Steve’s shoulders even tighter. It didn’t take long for Eddie to move above him, still somewhere in the realm of Steve’s tongue. Steve could have moaned at the sight, watching Eddie with locks pressed against his sweat-soaked forehead. If someone had asked Steve the first time he and Eddie met whether this was somewhere in their future, he would have laughed in their face; but the Eddie atop his fingers at that moment felt like a completely different person - a person who had finally felt love on their skin, who was willing to risk pliability because they felt safe… a person Steve could spend eternity with.

“You can do another,” Eddie groaned, voice projecting into the air around them. Steve obliged, pushing his third finger in and pushing in slowly as Eddie whined with the essence of an ache.

“You’re okay,” Steve said soothingly, waiting knuckles-deep for Eddie to situate himself comfortably. About a minute passed before Eddie’s breaths slowed and he began to lift himself up and down on Steve. Eddie moaned obscenely with every bounce, Steve unable not to touch himself at the sights and sounds.

“Please.” The words escaped Eddie’s lips before even he was ready to say them, but once the floodgates had opened, there was no stopping them. “Please, please, please,” he whined with every bounce.

“Please what?” Steve whispered, sitting up a little to run wet kisses over Eddie’s writhing chest, still stroking himself impatiently.

“Please…” Eddie moaned again, hand coming up to knot into Steve’s hair. “Please fuck me, Steve.” Steve didn’t need to be told twice; he removed his fingers to the sound of a filthy whine from Eddie before slathering his leaky cock with more lube and lining it up against Eddie’s hole.

“You go down when you’re ready, baby,” Steve whispered, running his free hand along Eddie’s inner thigh. Eddie lowered himself slowly, eyes squeezed shut and mouth contorted; Steve stayed still despite the vulgar desire to buck up into Eddie. Eddie bottomed out on Steve with a shaky exhale, steadying himself with hands on Steve’s chest. Steve brought his hands up to cup Eddie’s, running his thumbs over the backs of the rockstar’s ringed hands. “You’re doing so good, baby.”

“You’re good,” Eddie whispered, assuring Steve he could continue.

“I know I’m good,” Steve smirked, receiving a wordless slap from Eddie. Steve pressed up into Eddie, closing the almost non-existent gap between them and causing Eddie to let out a choked sob. Steve stilled for a moment, worried he had gone too fast, but was quickly comforted by the way Eddie began to bounce. Eddie bounced atop Steve in silence for a moment, the man beneath him nearing concern until Eddie began to whimper softly

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Steve whispered gently, hands moving to grip Eddie’s ass.

“Yes!” Eddie moaned, holding Steve’s forearms that were outstretched on either side of him. “Fuck me,” he continued, cracking his eyes open to look at Steve with a need that the younger man had never seen him wear. Steve happily obliged, bucking his hips up into Eddie every time he sat down on Steve’s cock. Eddie was still quite tight, the grip his muscle had on Steve causing him to moan loudly with Eddie. “I’m close,” Eddie whispered through a sob, his cock leaking down on Steve’s pelvis with every thrust.

“Me too, Ed. Keep going - you’re doing great,” Steve choked out, jaw clenched and face red as he reached up to pull Eddie forward, knowing from his little experience outside of Eddie that he would be able to hit Eddie’s prostate that way. As soon as it hit, Eddie let out something akin to a scream, but it was soaked in pleasure, and the reaction alone had Steve finishing there and then. A few more bounces hit Eddie’s sweet spot and the older man was finishing too, cum spurting between their chest before Eddie collapsed onto Steve. Steve reached down to slowly pull himself out of Eddie, the tired man above him wincing at the sensation. Steve ran his fingers over Eddie’s hole ever-so-gently, trying to soothe him. Eddie recoiled slightly with every stroke, Steve trying to relax him with forehead kisses. “I’m sorry, baby,” Steve whispered. “I’ll go get a cloth and clean us up.” Steve rolled Eddie off of him and ventured into the swanky bathroom - he almost felt bad using the extravagant towels to clean up their mess.

When Steve returned from the bathroom Eddie was already well on his way to asleep. Steve crawled carefully onto the bed, running the wet cloth between his thighs and over his hole, Eddie murmering blissfully in his slumber. Steve smiled contently, wiping himself off and chucking the cloth on the floor as he climbed back into bed and entangled his limbs with Eddie’s

~~~

Eddie and Steve parted the next morning following gentle kisses, a rather sensitive shower and their customary hotel room breakfast. Standing by the door, Eddie ran his hands up Steve’s clothed sides.

“I’ll see you in three days,” Eddie grinned, unable to stop himself from leaning up to kiss Steve. Steve nodded, pressing forward to deepen their kiss. With their forehead still against eachother, Steve pushed a piece of hair from Eddie’s face as he spoke.

“We’re gonna drive over the day after Thanksgiving. We should get there by 11.”

“Sweet. I’ll organise lunch,” Eddie grinned, the pair discussing belated Thanksgiving plans like a married couple. They shared one final kiss before Steve slipped out the hotel room and Eddie went back in to pack for Chicago.

~~~

Corroded Coffins played their first show in Chicago ahead of four days off for Thanksgiving. The crowd was amped and Eddie was even more so. He jumped from big bass amps and moved around the stage with carelessness. Something about having his little family around made it even easier to do the job he loved.

The day after Thanksgiving, Eddie was looking out the window onto the street below when he saw the cars pull up; he scampered downstairs to let everyone in, saving hugs for once they were upstairs. Eddie had requested a suite, meaning the eight beds total made for plenty of space. As soon as they were inside, the kids began ‘dibsing’ beds, the yelling and squabbling filling the rooms. The other adults were rolling their eyes, but Eddie couldn’t help but smile at the chaos he had deeply missed. Once the kids had tussled over sleeping arrangements, they returned to the main living space and began greeting Eddie.

“Good to see that I’m less important than the beds,” Eddie teased, hugging the kids one by one; lifting Max off the ground, tustling Dustin’s hair and grimacing at how tall Mike had gotten. “Well, I ordered room service for 12:30; it’s not exactly Thanksgiving food, more whatever crap I could get,” Eddie chuckled, moving to sit on the edge of the bed that he had clearly already slept in. “But, fill me in on everything.” So, they did. Steve sat beside Eddie, with Nancy, Jonathan and Robin on the other bed. The kids pulled around dining chairs and their all sat in a big clump as they shared stories of the last four months. Eddie really liked getting to know the guys from California; Jonathan seemed pretty cool, El was the sweetest little thing he’d ever seen, and Steve had told him about his theories on Will, so the way the kid looked at him like he was a god, made his heart melt just a little.

An hour and a half went by so fast that Eddie was grateful they had two whole days to spend together; the half-hour phone calls were great, but nothing beat actually being with everyone. The knock on the door prompted Eddie to get up and answer it, the bellhop pushing in a cart full of cloches. Eddie gave him a nod of thanks and pulled a hefty tip from his pocket, the bellhop thanking him graciously before disappearing. Eddie spread out all the food; like he’d said, nothing was traditionally Thanksgiving, but it looked delicious nonetheless. There was pizza and sandwiches, salads, ice cream, cake and all sorts of potatoes. Eddie looked around a little confused before turning to where everyone was still gathered around the foot of his bed.

“I asked them to leave some cutlery in here, but I can’t see where they put it. I’ll go check the other rooms,” Eddie announced before disappearing into one of the adjoining rooms. Max and Nancy both got up, looking around like Eddie was. Max pulled open one of the dresser drawers, mostly trying to make herself look useful, only to be met with a small tray full of what she was certain were drugs. There was a pipe that kind of looked like the one she knew Jonathan smoked weed out of, and a small bag of powder that she’d seen in Billy’s room a few years ago - she grimaced at the thought. There was also a needle, and Max felt her arms go a little slack, and her face go warm.

“Steve,” she mumbled, knowing the older man was right behind her. Steve stood quickly, moving to glance over her shoulder, wordless even after he saw the contents of the drawer. “Did you know about… this,” Max mumbled, eyes still glued to the tray of substances.

“Max…” Steve whispered, hand moving to her upper arm. “He’s a rockstar - don’t stress.” Max whipped around to look at Steve, murder in her eyes.

“He’s not some 50-year-old rockstar ready to piss his life away, Steve!” Max spat her words out with disgust. Steve had never really thought about it before; Eddie had had drugs on or around him everytime they’d been together and he’d always just thought it was normal considering his profession. But, when he glanced at the tray, he did feel a little sick the more he thought about it. “He’s 24… he’s gonna… he’s gonna end of dead, Steve!” Everyone was now looking, save for Eddie who was somewhere in the massive suite.

“Max, it’s none of our business,” Steve whispered, just trying to calm Max down. “Just shut the drawer.”

“It absolutely is! He’s your boyfriend!” Max yelled, looking about ready to fight Steve. Luckily, Robin stepped in, placing calming hands on her shoulders. It was at this point that Eddie returned, cutlery in his hand and confusion on his face.

“What’s going on?” He queried, eyes flicking from the obvious tension between Max and Steve to the drawer beside them. Max gave him a sharp look before slamming the drawer shut, shrugging Robin off and moving to sit at the dining table.

The start of Thanksgiving lunch was awkward to say the least, everyone too afraid to say much. Fortunately though, El decided to share with everyone that she had recently gotten full marks on her geography test, and then no one could maintain the tense air. The conversations began to flow after this.

”So, Ed…” Steve began. “I was thinking of coming to see your Boston show.” He glanced from Eddie to Nancy. “Maybe you could save two tickets and Nance could come?” Nancy’s eyes widened, having assured everyone that as much as she liked Eddie, his music was not her vibe.

“I’d love that,” Eddie admitted, looking at Nancy with excited eyes. She rolled her eyes playfully before giving a small nod, much to the cheers of everyone at the table.

The scrapping of plates and excited conversation didn’t falter.

”So, I tried to tell those bitches on the volleyball team that you were basically like my dad, and they didn’t believe me!” Max complained, sticking a forkfull of mashed potato in her mouth. Eddie chuckled, glad to see her less angry than before.

“I wonder why, Red?” He teased, causing Max to also playfully roll her eyes. “I’ll tell you what… I’m going to be on Johnny Carson next week; how about I shout you out?” Eddie offered, causing Max to nod eagerly.

Eddie hoped that was enough to quell her previous anger… and also help her forget what she was angry about.

”It doesn’t matter than Elton John’s gay; he makes music for gay people!” Eddie said loudly, food still in his mouth. They had been discussing Eddie’s thoughts on coming out, an idea he had vehemently shut down.

“Hey!” Robin butt in, previously quiet on the matter. “I’m gay people and I like your music.” Eddie chuckled and quickly moved the conversation along.

After everyone had finished, they all helped to pack up, putting the trays and dirty plates back on the cart before dispersing amongst the rooms, all citing food comas as a good reason to have a nap. Eddie agreed, stretching with a yawn, Steve watching as his shirt rode up just enough to admire his little full tummy and the way the band of his boxers poked out. As much as Steve was happy to be spending time as a family, he didn’t like the idea of not being able to jump Eddie whenever he felt like it. Just as Eddie was moving to sit beside his and Steve’s bed, Max appeared next to him.

“Can I talk to you… alone?” He whispered, loud enough that only Steve and Eddie heard. Eddie nodded seriously, placing a hand on her upper back.

“Let’s go out on the balcony?” Max nodded and the pair made their way out, sitting on the outside chairs. “I’m sorry, Max,” Eddie began, as soon as they’d settled. “I shouldn’t have put that somewhere you guys could find it. I should have hidden it better. It’s not approp-”

“Will you stop?” Max cut him off with a stern but emotionally charged tone.

“What?” Eddie said softly, feeling so small next to how deliberate and severe Max was.

“Will you promise not to do that stuff anymore?” Max elaborated, shifting in the chair so that her legs were tucked against her chest and she was facing Eddie.

“It’s not that easy, Red,” Eddie said with a small smile, taking Max’s request as naive but well-meant.

“Then do whatever you need to do to make it that easy, Eddie.” Max’s words were sobering, genuine but calculated and they hit Eddie like a punch to the stomach. Eddie opened his mouth to respond, but Max beat him to it. “My mum… my actual mum, not Steve… she drinks… a lot… and I might not know much about drugs, but I know that all that stuff that was in that drawer, is way worse than some beer and cigarettes.” Max was tried to maintain her willful tone, but she had dropped her chin onto her knees and Eddie could see her tears, even though she couldn’t look him in the eye.

“Red, I’m a big boy…” Eddie whispered, trying to soothe her. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and… you don’t need to be stressing about me.”

“Then don’t give me a reason to!” The words escaped Max with a volume it didn’t seem she could control. Eddie couldn’t take his eyes off her, although his shame was begging him to. Eddie had never felt so needed by someone - so important to someone; he realised now why Steve was stuck to these kids like glue. “Please?” she added, finally flicking her eyes to Eddie, her tears making her blue irises iridescent; Eddie could feel his own lip quivering.

“I’ll try… okay, Max?” Eddie whispered, and he thought it might be one of the most earnest promises he’d made in a long time. Max gave a short nod before she lifted herself from the wire chair and shuffled on the tiled balcony to press herself into Eddie with a hug. Eddie held her close, a protective hand holding the back of her head. They stayed like that for a little while before Max pulled away, wiping her face with her sleeves.

“Tell anyone about this and you’re dead,” Max said brashly, causing Eddie to explode with a loud chuckle.

“Got it,” he smirked, standing to meet her as they both went back inside. Eddie crawled his way into bed beside Steve, the younger man, as well as everyone else in the room, peacefully napping. He pushed him under Steve’s arm, stirring him just enough that he let Eddie in and pulled him close. Eddie couldn’t wait for the many more Thanksgivings to come.

~~~

They all awoke a few hours later, coming to from their nap-induced haze. Eddie laid lazily against Steve’s chest as he sat against the headboard, eyes slowly fluttering open and close. The kids came bounding into the adults’ room, clearly awake and scheming.

“Gross.” Lucas jokingly scrunched up his face, Steve flipped him the bird as Eddie’s eyes opened properly this time. He made eye contact with Will, whose eyes were flicking between the two men, so casually close. Eddie gave him a genuine smile, before pushing himself to a seated position.

“What do you guys want?” Eddie asked, his tone teasing, as if he knew they were up to no good.

“Can we have a movie night?” Mike asked, Eddie smile growing wider.

“And have breakfast for dinner?” El added with a bright smile; Eddie knew he liked this one for a reason.

“For sure,” Eddie grinned, ever the fun dad. “Remotes on the entertainment unit. Why don’t you pick some movies and we’ll order them.” The kids nodded and disappeared to do so, only Will staying at the foot of Eddie and Steve’s bed. Eddie stood to move towards him, giving him a reassuring smile and directing him towards the other kids.

The kids picked The Breakfast Club, The Neverending Story, Annie - El’s current fave, and Teen Wolf. Eddie demanded Star Wars despite Steve teasing him about Sixteen Candles, and Nancy had to step in when the kids wanted to watch Cujo. Eddie suggested pulling the mattresses into the living area because there was only one couch and an armchair, and the kids thought that was the greatest idea known to man. By 4 o’clock the whole family were nestled in their makeshift fort watching the opening credits of The Breakfast Club. As it ended and The Neverending Story began, Eddie ordered their breakfast-dinner: pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and some fruit. It arrived halfway through the movie and they all sat around picking at the trays. Steve was feeding Eddie slices of banana, receiving a whispered ‘thank you’ between each bite. Steve was also using the loud movie and dark room as an excuse to pepper Eddie with silent kisses and whisper the occassional ‘I love you’ into his ear. It had happened about seven times before Nancy shuffled to lean towards them.

“Steve, I think I’ve heard you say I love you more in the last hour than the entire time we were together.” It was said in jest, but it had all the kids erupting into a chorus of ‘oohs’. Steve and Eddie turned a bright shade of red before everyone went back to the Neverending Story - but not until they’d filled Eddie in on that time Dustin and his girlfriend sang a few years ago.

They moved onto Annie, some people beginning to doze off, but only until the songs started to kick in. El sang along without hesitation before realising no one else was singing. Immediately, Eddie began to belt out ‘Tomorrow’, receiving a chuckle from El who joined back in. The other kids chuckled at his display, but when by the time ‘Hard Knock Life’ came around, Eddie had gotten all the kids to join in, acting out the sweeping and scrubbing. The other adults were lounging on the couch and armchair laughing and enjoying the show, clapping after every song. At the end, Eddie and El did a duet to ‘I Don’t Need Anything But You’ to rousing applause and a standing ovation. When Eddie sat back down while Dustin started the next film, he was sticky with sweat and giggling. Steve moved to make space for him again.

“Sixteen Candles and Annie, babe?” Steve teased. Eddie gave him a shove, rolling his eyes. “But, if we’re being serious, babe - that was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen and I think I’ve fallen even more in love with you… if that was even possible,” he whispered, leaning up to give Eddie a kiss. All the kids became an ensemble of disgusted noises, but Eddie, knowing they were in jest, just gripped the back of Steve’s head to kiss him deeper. Eddie felt as Dustin threw a piece of food at him, the older man just pulling away to pick it up and eat it before giving the kids a look that suggested he didn’t care how grossed out they were.

Eddie could tell by the end of Teen Wolf that El had fallen asleep, and Nancy and Jonathan had vacated back to their room, but everyone else seemed to still be kicking, so they moved on to Star Wars. By that time, they were pushing well past midnight and most everyone was asleep or dozing. Eddie could feel Steve’s wait atop of him getting heavier as the younger man fell asleep. Will, who was sitting in front of the couch, turned to look back at Eddie.

“Eddie…” he whispered, his voice shaky. Eddie gave him a reassuring smile and nodded affirmatively. “I think it’s really cool that you and Eddie are together.” Will turned back to the screen before Eddie could say anything, but the unsteady words had told Eddie everything he needed to know. It wasn’t long before everyone had dozed off, the end credits of Star Wars playing as they slept.

~~~

The next morning, Eddie woke at about 10 o’clock to find Steve was no longer on top of him and all the kids were no longer on their mattresses on the floor. He sat up and turned towards the dining room to see everyone sitting around a large box. He stood and stretched with a small groan, given he’d been scrunched on the small couch with Steve on top of him, and moved to where everyone else was. The kids looked over at him with wide smiles as he looked at Steve with confusion.

“What are we doing?” He queried as Steve gestured to the box.

“This is your care package. We really appreciate all the things you send us, but the kids just collect too much shit to mail to you, so we thought you could take it with you,” Steve grinned widely, and Eddie couldn’t help it as tears pooled in his eyes.

“Guys, this is so sweet,” he whispered, peering into the box and beginning to look through it. Eddie’s eyes lit up at the DnD stuff, glad to have something to read on the road; he chuckled at Nancy’s ‘fruity’ joke and tried not to cry when he saw the scrapbook from Steve. When Eddie pulled out the rolled-up paper, he was careful not to tear it, unravelling it to find a handrawn picture of him playing his guitar - the same one that was on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine a few months ago. Eddie couldn’t help the tears that he could see dripping off his face. “Who did this?” Eddie whispered, looking up to see all eyes on Will.

“Umm- I did,” Will whispered. Eddie rolled the drawing back up and moved around the table to wrap his arms around Will.

“Dude, this is the coolest thing ever - thank you.” He loosened his grip as he continued looking through the box, having to hold back his tears almost the whole time. Once he was done and had put everything back in the box he looked at everyone around the table. “You guys are the best,” he whispered, worried if he said it any louder that his voice would quiver and he would start sobbing. “What do you guys want to do today?” He asked quietly, everyone looking at each other.

“I think the first thing we need to do is put all the beds back,” Nancy chuckled, looking at all the mattresses still laid out on the living room floor. Eddie chuckled back and nodded, gesturing everyone up with ringed hands.

Returning the room to its original state took longer than anticipated, turning into a series of pillow fits and wrestling matches once they stacked all the mattresses on top of each other. Steve pushed Eddie onto the mattress with so much force that he flung backwards, but not before Eddie gripped Steve’s shirt and brought him flying with him. Steve bounced on top of Eddie, causing the older man to guffaw as the wind was knocked out of him. Steve laughed down at Eddie before connecting their lips sweetly, hands on either side of Eddie’s shoulder.

“Guys! Mum and dad are being gross… again!” Dustin groaned, tugging on the leg of Steve’s pants. Steve just shooed him away, trying to finish giving Eddie a sweet kiss before the kids interrupted. As a means of stopping them, Mike and Lucas jumped onto the mattress, forcing Eddie and Steve to bounce with their lips connected. Both men laughed as they parted, the rest of the kids trying to fit onto the mattress stack as Eddie and Steve sat up. Now, with the eight of them balanced on the queen mattresses, Eddie decided their seat was a boat, pretending to be the captain and occasionally rocking and bouncing the stack to emulate rough waters. All the kids played along - as well as Steve - pretending to spot pirates and sharks. The bit carried on for a good 20 minutes before there was a knock on the door and Keith came in, brows furrowed at the sight, but with a smile on his face.

“Just checking in to make sure you’re all good,” he grinned, barely a step in the door. “But you seem perfectly fine.” He shut the door without another word, and Eddie scooted off the mattress, forcing everyone to finish putting the beds away. They worked through lunch to put the room back together, Eddie letting the kids order whatever they wanted while he lounged in his now-made bed; Steve moved to lay beside him.

“Hey, Ed…” he whispered, the kids occupied with the glories of room service. “About that drawer with the drugs,” he began, hand coming up to draw soothing patterns over where Eddie’s chest stuck out of his tank top.

“It’s okay. Red already gave me the lecture,” Eddie interjected, his hand reaching to weave into Steve’s free one. Steve looked at him warily, Eddie looking back at him with a gentle smile. “I’m going to try and do better… but… you don’t have to worry about me,” he whispered, rolling forward to connect their lips.

Once the kids had eaten lunch, complete with a few more objections everytime Steve and Eddie kissed, they filled the day with some board games, a few more movies, more room service for dinner, and the crazy stories about Eddie’s life on tour. They were all spread across Steve and Eddie, and Jonathan and Nancy’s beds; El and Max had fallen asleep and come midnight, Steve and Eddie moved to take them to bed as gently as possible. Eddie realised as he watched Steve effortlessly put El in bed that he was nowhere near as strong as his boyfriend. Eddie returned to the other room, shooing Mike, Lucas, Will and Dustin back to their rooms before squeezing into bed. Steve nestled himself into Eddie’s chest, pressing his lips against Eddie’s exposed collarbones.

“I love you,” Steve whispered, the vibrations against his skin making Eddie all fuzzy.

“I love you too,” Eddie responded, letting his eyes flutter closed with his chin atop Steve’s head.

~~~

The next morning was a little more rushed than anyone would have liked. Corroded Coffin had a television interview at 2pm, and Eddie felt like a father trying to get all the kids showered before their three-hour car ride back to Hawkins. Despite the rushed panic, Eddie was kind of sad when the time came to usher the kids out of the door. He hugged each of them tightly, tears in a few eyes.

“It’s all good, guys - I’m only gone for another 4 months. We’re already over halfway there,” Eddie grinned, ruffling hair and giving fake knocks to the chin. Eddie hugged Robin and thanked her for putting up with Steve, hugged Jonathan and told him it was nice to meet him, and hugged Nancy and told her he was excited for her to see the show in Boston. Eddie hugged Steve tightly and let out a shaky breath in his ear.

“I love you,” he whispered, before pulling back and giving Steve a peck, this time without disgust from the audience.

“I love you too,” Steve responded sweetly, smiling widely at Eddie, not even caring how much the kids were going to tease him on the ride home.

“I love you guys, too,” Eddie mumbled, looking back at the kids with a frown that was only half a joke. He received many ‘I love yous’ back, as well as a few more hugs before Keith’s knocking forced him to escort everyone out. Eddie waved them goodbye with a, “call me when you guys get home,” before Keith corralled him into some fresh clothes and into the car.

Eddie felt a little solemn, having to say goodbye to everyone, but he’d survived the first half of the tour, and he knew the second half would be even better, knowing the sweet sight of a few months in Indiana would be enough to get him through.

That afternoon, on Chicago TV, when they were asked about their Thanksgiving, Eddie was practically beaming when he said he spent it with his family.

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