#like we get it u get attention from a bunch of strangers online but u could atleast front a nicer persona | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ziracona · 3 years

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I don't think that anyone has asked yet, so how's Ace, nea and Min doing after the events in ILM? What do they choose to do??

Really well!

Ace has a lot of money in gold, so he basically retires. Invests some, saves some, does some charity work, and also finds and cons rich people into paying exorbitant money for realm collectible souvenirs so he can have more money to put to a good use. Looks after the girls, visits his family and gives them money, travels a lot. They keep the Indiana house, but I think end up with one or two other small homes in other countries. Usually them out cheap to college students or people in need whenever they aren’t living there.

Min goes back to pro esports for a year, but decides she’s kind of over it. Starts a twitch channel instead, and a patreon. Gets hugely popular off existing fame from gaming and the realm, and is known for her wild commentaries and agressive playstyle. Twitch streams a bunch of stuff with Nea too. Takes her money to buy her friends gifts and go places, but also uses some of it to help people and causes she cares about. Nea does art, and gets some of her murals into a gallery and is super happy. Even with fame, it’s not exactly what should be a life-sustaining job, but Min and Ace don’t really give a damn and pay for homes. Nea feels bad about this, but Min is like “Brah like. You get how wack it is that you spend hours doing labor and hard work to make paintings with spray paint, while I get on Twitch and play Witcher for two hours and make more than you do a day, right? You’re not lazy shits just fucked, and we can’t change that but like, fkn don’t feel bad economy is what it is. I’m not doing anything more valuable or hard than you are, and I love your stuff, and I make you do Twitch with me so you should get a cut of that too anyway. Never feel bad people don’t appreciate art as much as they should. Get mad if you want, but if you stare thinking you suck because I can make a shit ton by having name recognition and wearing a cute top while I shoot zombies, I will smack you and then make you go on a romantic trip to feel better for a whole week.” And she feels a lot better, and decides to try to branch out and learn more and improve herself as an artist and find what exactly she might want to do with it.

Both girls get pretty invested in trying to help programs for girls, and then just teens in general, with bad home lifes, and helping them to safer situations and more opportunities for the future. Ace has a lot of money, Nea some, and Min quite a bit, but they’re not like, /loaded/—like, Park-Family loaded, so, they have quite a bit to spend, but still have to think and pay attention too. And they try to. They splurge on trips and fun times, but buy cheap stuff at home and Ace forced himself to be responsible with a savings account, and all three hate the idea of having to learn to do money responsibly, but they do. And, with that, figure out how to sustain and plan and still have plenty they can donate where they think it’s needed. Nea and Meg have a conversation one night about how weird it is to have /some/ money when they were both dirt poor before, lose their minds over an idea they get, and then spend the next week tracking down online friends and old pals irl, and people who like, were kind to then when they were younger, or helped out Meg’s Mom when she needed that, and give each one a thousand bucks. Which should have kinda cleaned those two out a little, but David is like *coughs inconspicuously, hides money in a drawer so they can think they just had more all along* and gives them some in support of how sweet that is and becuase while he is a rich boy, he’s a real decent man and he’s doing his best. (They pick almost 30 people between them, so give away 30,000 dollars as thanks for being a friend or kind, sometimes to nearly complete strangers. This is paid for with their supply of cash from their realm gold, which Ace helped both sell for more then face value to collectors. For several survivors, it’s like winning a baby lottery and suddenly having a couple thousand to couple hundred thousand Gs, and for most of them that’s like, buy a house, pay off my parents’a mortgage, lose my student loan debt, plus some left over for future life, hella life-changing kind of money. And so Nea and Meg are like “Yooo! We could actually kinda help old friends like we always used to want to! And it turns into this. So like—Lots of people on like, Meg’s ancient Percy Jackson RP forum getting “hey u got PayPal?” PMs for a chick they were tight with fifteen years ago and are like “?? Scam huh.” And take some real convincing, then live out a great but surreal next week. Min gets in on this too, but she only had like one friend, rip.)

In a lot of ways, both girls and even Ace are still find in themselves though. Regrettably I don’t know what anyone from ILM does after the first like 5-10 years, so I’m not sure how it ends up—yet anyway—but they’re a solid support system and loving family, and I think whatever direction they end up choosing, they’re gonna do just fine.

#ask #anonymous #in living memory (fic)#in living memory #ILM spoilers #dead by daylight

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monstaxperiments · 4 years

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Monsta X reaction to being jealous of your male friend (pt. 2)..~

Wonho:

..~ You and Wonho loved the club. Even though it was always filled with dozens of people you two always ffelt that you were the only two people in the room. Wonho loved it because he loves showing you off and loves grinding and feeling on you where others can see. You loved it for the same reason but reversed, you loved to show Wonho off and you loved when you grind on each other ina room full of people who wish they could either be you or with you. In this case, someone wished to be with you. Badly. He was sitting upstairs in one of the VIP sections getting a lap dance from one of his groupies. He was a well known up and coming idol named X and noticed you as soon as you walked in. He had to have you. He wasn’t going to let you go again. Wonho excused himself to the restroom and you decided to wait for him at the bar. X saw his chance, you were alone. You were sipping on your drink when you felt a tap on your shoulder. You turn around to see a tall, bulky guy with a serious look on his face. “Yes?” you ask nervously. “Mr. X has taken a liking to you and would like to invite you to his VIP section.” The guy sounded like a robot. “Whose Mr. X?” You asked confused. The bulky guy gestures upstairs towards one of the balconies. You see a handsome young man raise his glass to you and you immediately recognized him. “Oh my gosh! Xavier!” You excitedly following the bulky guy upstairs. You knew Xavier from college and was one of the few people who supported him when he wanted to become an idol. His parents did not approve and some of his friends turned their backs on him for wanting to pursue the idol life. You follow each other on Instagram and Twitter and text occasionally but lost touch as his life became more hectic with the idol life. Xavier never stopped thinking about you though. When he finishes his schedule for the day he scrolls through your feed for hours. Even when you haven’t posted anything new. One night he sees another man on your feed. Then the man kept appearing on your feed as time went on. He later learned the man’s name was Wonho. Now seeing the both of you in the club, he felt it was the universe giving him a sign, that you should leave Wonho and be with him. “Wow I can’t believe this is happening right now!” You say as you finally reach Xavier’s section. “I know it must be fate” X says as he outstretches his arms to hug you. You two sit and catch up when you felt your phone buzz in your purse. It was Wonho, ‘where r u?’ You completely forgot about your poor boyfriend, he was probably so lost like a puppy when he couldn’t find you. You message him to look upstairs and you flash the flashlight on your phone to get his attention. He spots you leaning over the balcony with a stranger standing next to you. A handsome young man, but definitely not as handsome as me Wonho thinks to himself as he makes his way up the stairs. You introduce them to each other and explain to Wonho how you know X. “Hey lets get this party started shall we?” X suddenly says getting up out of his seat. He bends down to your ear and asks you what song do you want the DJ to play. Wonho sitting on the opposite side of you watches as X whispers something in your ear. Don’t get too close pretty boy Wonho thinks as he subtly tries to lean in closer to hear what X was saying. X gestures to the DJ to change to the song you suggested. You stand up and start to dance. Wonho is entranced by your body and gets up to dance behind you but X swiftly cuts in front of him and dances with you instead. Wonho scoffs and moves around X to dance in front of you. You smile at each other and dance until the next song comes on. “Shots!” You hear someone yell as trays of shot glasses are set down on the bar counters. “Y/n lets do shots together” X says handing you a glass. “Maybe just one” you say taking the glass. X wraps his arm around yours and you both down the shots. “Whooooooo!” X yells while grabbing two more. “Another!” X says handing you the glass. “Nooo! I’m good! I’m a light weight remember!” You yell back. “C’mon y/n! Don’t be a party pooper!” X yells insisting you take the glass. Wonho steps in front of you “She said no. Don’t make her have to say it again.” Wonho says firmly. X decides to back off, for now. A few songs and people taking more shots later someone yells “Jello shots!” and trays of jello shots are on the bar counters now. Wonho flashes you a sexy smile as he takes a jello shot. “Body shot?” He wiggles his eyebrows at you. “Why are you so bad?” You ask as Wonho places the shot glass between your breasts. You’re not worried about your white dress getting ruined since you knew Wonho was an expert with his mouth. He takes the shot from your breasts with his mouth and downs the drink. He turns to get another glass and places it between your breasts. Just as he’s about to go down he’s shoved to the side by X. You feel yourself stumble back in surprise but feel a hand behind your back keeping you balanced then you see a mop of bleached blond hair dive into your chest. It couldn’t have been Wonho since his hair was currently black. The only person that was in the VIP section that had that color hair was... the person lifted their head, shot glass in their mouth, it was X. He spits the shot glass out to God knows where and looks back at you with a slimy smile. Before you could do anything, as if in slow motion you see a fist connect right to X’s cheek and he goes down to the ground. The VIP section is in chaos for a few moments as onlookers witness the scene. Wonho climbs on top of X and starts to punch him some more. The bulky guy, whose name you learned was Rick, grabs Wonho and starts to drag him towards the exit. You hastily follow behind them. You hear X yelling after you about how he’s always been in love with you and for you to come back to him. Once outside, Rick tosses Wonho onto the street and he stumbles a bit but doesn’t fall. You run up beside him and grab his arm, “Are you ok?” You ask looking him up and down to make sure he wasn’t hurt. “I’m fine babe. I just wish I could’ve punched that guy some more before getting thrown out. No one touches my girl like that” He says as he wraps his arm around your waist. “C’mon the night is still young. What do you want to do next baby?” You take a few moments to think “Let’s go get ramen.” Wonho looks down at you and gives you the biggest smile “I love the way you think”

Kihyun:

..~ Thursday afternoons have become Kihyun’s favorite. Lately that was the only time out of the whole week he was able to see you. His schedule had become so hectic with the group promotions he had to go to your workplace during lunch breaks. Kihyun tapped the steering wheel of his car as he happily hummed to the song playing on the radio, excited to see you. The days couldn’t go by quick enough. He’d always rush to get his work done so he could arrive at your work on time and spend as much time as possible with you.

Finally reaching your workplace Kihyun pulls into the parking lot, grabs the food from the passenger seat, and heads for the side door. He punches in your key code that you’ve given him months ago and enters the building. You worked for a very popular online fashion magazine. The building was huge and was like a maze. It took Kihyun around 10 times to navigate his way to your office without having to look at the cute little hand drawn map that you had made for him. Getting off of the elevator Kihyun went through more twists and turns until he finally reached your office. The wide smile on his face quickly disappeared as he sees that you’re not in there. Strange. Normally when he came he’d often find you staring out the window looking down towards the parking lot, anxiously awaiting his arrival as if you could see him from this height. Kihyun enters your office and sets the food down on your desk, looking around confused. He finally decides to pull out his to call you until he started hearing loud yelling from down the hallway. Even more confused Kihyun pokes his head out and listens to weird noises and realizes that it’s laughter. Coming from the shared break room. Curiosity overcomes Kihyun and he makes his way to the break room to see what’s all the commotion about. Turning the corner he sees a bunch of employees gathered around with loads of food and drinks and a cake. Scanning the crowd he locates you, cheering along with the crowd. Only now was Kihyun realizing what the cheering about. It was a welcome back party for one of your coworkers. The assistant manager to be exact. Your face lights up when you see Kihyun walking towards you. You two hug as you greet each other. “I’m so sorry I completely forgot about lunch. Forgive me?” You bat your eyes sweetly at him and he smiles back. “Fine. But just this once.” Kihyun sits at the table you were standing by and watches as everyone mingles with each other with small plates of food and plastic cups. After some time Kihyun got up to go get the food he brought along with them to eat in the break room. Returning from your office his pace slows significantly as he sees the assistant manager sitting in his chair, feeding you cake. Kihyun stares at the scene completely dumbfounded. He stood there, mouth agape for sometime until someone accidentally bumps into him, knocking him out of his daze. You two were laughing and talking as Kihyun walks up to the table. You stand to introduce the two and Kihyun learns that his name is Terrance. Kihyun shakes his hand, a bit too firm as Terrance winces and gives him a strange look. “Sorry. I don’t know my own strength sometimes.” Kihyun says with an exaggerated laugh. Before Terrance could respond, one of the coworkers start to rapidly bang a plastic fork against his plastic cup so he could grab everyone’s attention. Rolling his eyes, Kihyun took the seat next to Terrance, since Terrance sat back down in Kihyun’s original seat. “I have a few words I’d like to say in regards to how happy and relieved everyone is thanks to Terrance’s return.” As the coworker and several others shared a word or two, Kihyun learns that the assistant manager had been on leave for a few months due to contracting an illness and have just been cleared by the hospital last week. Upon learning about the assistant manager’s hardships Kihyun felt bad about being slightly rude earlier, but only for a moment. Terrance stands up to thank everyone for their kind words. “I’d also like to thank y/n for stepping up and taking my place while I was out. I know without her this place would’ve probably burned to the ground.” He got a a lot of laughter for that one. “And that is way I’d like to give y/n this.” The crowd waits in anticipation as Terrance rounds one of the corners of the break room. Kihyun squirms in his seat as he watches everything unfold, the way Terrance walks with unwavering confidence, the way your face showed excited and curiosity. Terrance returns with a huge bouquet of flowers, a huge teddy bear, and a huge box of chocolates in the shape of a heart. What the fuck is this? Valentine’s day? Kihyun thinks to himself as he watches with a calm look on his face but on the inside he is completely disgusted by this guy lack of shame. Everyone in the office knows that y/n has a boyfriend and this was rubbing Kihyun the wrong way. Deep down he knows he shouldn’t feel this way. It was a kind gesture of appreciation, but he just couldn’t help but feel a bit of jealousy looking at how your face lit up at all the gifts. “Tulips! My favorite!” You said sniffing the flowers. “I thought daisies were your favorite?” Kihyun asks bewildered. “No, no. It’s tulips.” Terrance responses before you could. Before Kihyun could reply the crowd of coworkers start to gather around to take a closer look at your gifts, pushing and bumping Kihyun until he was the only one of on the outskirts of the group.

An hour or so later when lunch break is over, you realize that you haven’t seen Kihyun in a while. The bag of food was still on the table were he left them, so where did he go? You take the bag of food to place in your office. Opening you see a figure standing by the window. “Kihyun there you are! I was wondering where you ran off to.” Kihyun doesn’t respond. He looks down at his wrist watch and shakes his head slightly. “I may have a little time to stop at a drive through or something”, he mumbles to himself. “Why didn’t you eat the food you brought us?” You ask setting the food on your desk. Kihyun turns to look at you. “Because I wanted us to eat together like we always do but you were too busy with your little friend and his obnoxious gifts.” You look at him confused. “Obnoxious gifts? They were nice gifts of gratitude.” Kihyun chuckles dryly, “Gifts of gratitude? He wants to go to bed with you y/n. You’re so cute when you’re naive.” You feel yourself getting annoyed “Wow I didn’t know you were the jealous type. It’s not a good look on you.” Kihyun lets out a another chuckle but this one was more genuine “Jealous? Of that head of hair grease? That obvious clip on tie? Those clear lenses that are too small for his face? Those mix matched socks that he probably thinks make him edgy? I have absolutely nothing to be jealous of.” You smile and tilt your head at him. “No not jealous of his looks. Jealous that I was giving someone else attention instead of you.” Kihyun fixes his face after that statement. An ever so subtle tint appears on his cheeks, but of course you notice. “Tulips aren’t your favorite flower right?” “They’re nice but daisies are my favorite.” Kihyun couldn’t help but smile widely at your answer, “I knew it. So not only does that guy have no sense of style he’s also an idiot.” You couldn’t help but laugh at his statement. “Yeah he can come on a little strong sometimes. He also got me dark chocolate. I hate dark chocolate.” You said with a disgusted face. “You love white chocolate.” Kihyun says with a self assured smile. “Bingo.” Kihyun wraps his arms around your waist and kisses your forehead. “Sorry. I was being a jerk earlier. Maybe I was just a tiny bit jealous. I just want all of your attention is that so wrong?” Kihyun says pouting like a baby. You wrap your arms around him, “Just a tiny bit? And of course it’s not wrong baby.” Kihyun giggles, “Ok. Maybe a little bit more than a tiny bit jealous.”

Minhyuk and Shownu coming soon..~

#monsta x #monsta x imagine #monsta x imagines #monsta x reactions #monsta x reaction #kihyun #wonho #kpop #kpop reactions #kpop reaction #kpop imagine #kpop imagines

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dvp95 · 4 years

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quiet on widow’s peak (6)

pairing: dan howell/phil lester, pj liguori/sophie newton/chris kendall rating: teen & up tags: paranormal investigator, mystery, online friendship, slow burn, strangers to lovers, nonbinary character, trans character, background poly, phil does some buzzfeed unsolved shit and dan is a fan word count: 2.9k (this chapter), 19.7k (total) summary: Phil’s got a list of paranormal experiences a mile long that he likes to share with the world. Abandoned buildings, cemeteries, and ghost stories have always called his name, and a particular fan of his has a really, really good ghost story.

read this chapter on ao3 or here!

Hope my friends and I didn't make things weird for you yesterday. We're heading to the city around noon if you're still up for helping us with the boring part.

noon?? fucking alright i guess i gotta put pants on

lmao yeah, sorry. My parents woke us up at EIGHT like that's a normal time to be awake????

desgostang

What?

ill send u the link later and also no i didnt feel weird yesterday you guys are nice

That's good! And hey I wanted to ask. You were kind of put on the spot with introducing yourself, would you rather we called you Dan or Winnie? I just wanna make sure we aren't making you uncomfortable at all lmao

no its all fine you can call me dan idc and actually its best if you do call me dan when youre in my work lmao

Are you totally sure?

why would i lie abt this. dont be an idiot it isnt a good look on you

haha okay. I’ll see you around noon.

“Christopher is a nice boy,” Phil’s mum is telling him as she helps him with their fancy new coffeemaker. There are so many buttons and Phil is so, so tired. “And Sophie is lovely, such a soft-spoken thing. Why haven’t we met them before, dear?”

“Dunno,” Phil says instead of the truth, which is that he’d had no idea how he was supposed to introduce them. “You have now, though.”

His mum laughs and reaches up to pat his cheek. “True enough. I’m so happy that you’ve got good people around you, Philip. I’ve gotten quite worried about you down there by yourself, you know.”

“I’m not by myself,” says Phil. “I live with, like, thirty people.”

“Bunch of strangers, I’ll bet,” she says, because she knows him. “Aside from those three.”

The thing is, she’s not wrong. Phil’s obviously exaggerating about the number of people under the roof of the creaky Brighton house, but the truth is that he can’t keep track half the time. A lot of the rooms get sublet out randomly, or a significant other will start spending so much time around the place that they might as well pay rent, and Phil really isn’t good with new people. He gets along fine with Holly and Dave, but they’ve been there as long as he has and the closest they’ve ever come to a heart-to-heart was comparing anxiety meds over burned pancakes.

Chris and Sophie were there when Phil moved in, and they’d taken one look at him and decided to just keep shoving into his space until he liked having them there, like they were on a mission to adopt PJ’s sad, ghost-obsessed friend from the internet.

“You might be right,” Phil says, feeling a smile tug at his lips for the first time all morning. He’s already had a coffee - and a half, when PJ declared that not even Kath could make coffee taste good and shoved the rest of his Phil’s way - but he still doesn’t feel fully awake. “I’m only really friends with Chris and Soph because of PJ.”

“PJ is a good friend to you, isn’t he?” his mum hums. That slightly pointed tone doesn’t get to Phil the way it usually does, because he knows that she’s just trying to understand him.

It doesn’t escape Phil’s notice that he’s looking into a mirror whenever he sees his parents watching him carefully, waiting for him to tell them something he hasn’t explicitly said, because he’s been doing the exact same thing to his housemates for nearly two years.

Maybe he’ll tell his parents when he’s got someone serious or even, like, semi-serious. Longer than two dates would be a record at this point. But right now he already feels like he’s been one misstep away from disappointing them, and he doesn’t want to take the gamble that his sexuality will be that misstep.

He’s not up for this conversation, though, isn’t sure he’ll ever be, so he just says, “Yeah, he is.”

Dan is late. They’re so late, actually, that Phil’s wheel of worst case scenarios has been spinning silently and getting faster and faster the more caffeine he chugs. They roll in with flushed cheeks and a jacket that looks too thin, apologies on their shiny lips that Phil doesn’t even hear for a couple of seconds because he’s too busy staring at them.

“No worries,” Sophie says, interrupting their rambling before they lose another half hour to it. “You want something? I’m getting a refill.”

“No, no, let me,” says Dan. They shrug off their jacket and hang it on one of the empty chairs. Phil and his friends have co-opted the largest table in the place so they can spread out with their laptops and notebooks, and it doesn’t escape Phil’s notice that Dan has decided to sit next to him when they’ve got a couple of options. “I get free drinks if Gabe’s in a good mood. Anyone else need a refill?”

“Me,” Chris says, not looking up from his screen. “Not Phil. He’s cut off.”

“Hey,” Phil protests weakly. His heart rate really has picked up since they sat down, so he knows Chris has a point.

Dan grins, their soft cheeks giving way to the dimples that Phil is very quickly growing obsessed with. He just wants to make Dan smile and laugh constantly, to hear them cackle and see all the lines in their round face deepen with happiness.

Right. Phil watched a horror movie with PJ instead of unpacking this fluttering start of a crush last night, and now he’s just got to deal with it for the rest of the day.

As if it’s a compulsion, Dan clears the empty mugs from their table before heading up to the counter. Phil focuses on the EMF readings so he doesn’t get caught up on Dan holding four mugs by the handles with total ease.

PJ has got headphones on and his eyes closed, so he might not even have noticed that Dan is there. He’s been going through Sophie’s footage and his own audio recordings to try and find some anomalies while Chris looks for the weird visual stuff - they’re a great team at that, and it makes Phil feel like he’s not doing enough. Sure, he could find those things on his own, but not as quickly as they can when it’s a team effort, and they’re on a bit of a tight schedule here. Well, his housemates are. They’ve got actual jobs to get back to once the weekend is over.

Allegedly, Sophie is doing research on sigils, but it looks to Phil like she’s just doodling. Not that he really blames her if she is. He’s barely been paying attention to the chart he’s making of spikes in electromagnetism because he’s been so busy watching the door for Dan.

And Dan looks… good. They’re wearing chunky boots and a shirt that falls to their thighs - a dress, maybe, but it looks like a regular black t-shirt that got extended at the hem - with tight white jeans. The only colour on them is the plaid shirt around their waist and the shiny red product on their lips to match it. Phil watches them lean against the counter and grin at the older barista, and he’s so distracted by looking at their profile that he startles when a foot connects with his under the table.

“Stop staring,” Sophie says, quiet and smiling. “He’s going to notice.”

Phil considers correcting her, but then he remembers that he probably doesn’t have to. Dan had said any pronouns, that they didn’t care how they were referred to, so it would definitely be weirder to act like he knows better than Sophie.

He knows he won’t be able to use masculine terms for Dan. Not because they aren’t true, because he’s pretty sure they’re no less accurate than neutral or feminine would be, but because thinking of Dan as a maculine person is only going to allow Phil’s brain to fall into the familiar traps of gender in ways he doesn’t want to allow.

Gay monkey brain doesn’t need any more leeway in finding Dan attractive, that’s for damn sure.

“So, what are we doing?” Dan asks, interrupting Phil’s thoughts, and, wow, four mugs is a lot more impressive when they’re full of hot liquid. Phil marvels at Dan’s ability not to trip and spill it all as they dole out the coffee and teas.

“I’m doing the boring part,” says Phil. He turns his screen so Dan can see the Excel spreadsheet and laughs at the face they make. “Yeah. It's not glamorous, but it's the easiest way to find patterns in the EMF readings. Honestly, most of my job is just staring at things and finding patterns in them. Like, uh, what's that guy? With the butterfly splotches?"

"Worcestershire," Chris suggests.

"Rorschach," Dan corrects him, lips twitching like they aren't sure if they're allowed to laugh in Chris' face or not.

“That’s exactly what I said,” says Chris.

“You know EMF meters don’t have anything to do with ghosts, right?” Dan asks, ignoring Chris completely and leaning a bit closer to Phil to get a better look at his laptop. “I mean, none of this has anything to do with ghosts, really, but you’re more or less just measuring electricity.”

Phil is aware of that. He wonders if Dan thinks he just stumbles into haunted houses with equipment he hasn’t researched and waits to be spooked. He’s too distracted by how close Dan is and how good they smell to work up to proper offense, though. “Yeah,” he says simply. “But don’t you think it’s weird that the place still has electricity to begin with? Who’s paying for that?”

“A Wilkins, I’d imagine.”

“But why? If they’ve forgotten about the property or abandoned it on purpose, surely they wouldn’t still pay the bills.”

“Maybe they don’t handle their own finances,” Dan suggests. “How rich were these assholes?”

“I honestly don’t know,” says Phil. He taps his fingers in an erratic pattern on the edge of his laptop, trying to spark something in his mind.

It’s almost disappointing when Dan pulls away to dig out their own sleek Macbook out of their messenger bag, but Phil is also glad for it. He can think a lot easier when the warm scent of spice and mint isn’t clogging his brain.

Dan slots into the work as easily as if a space was left for them. They’ve got dozens of tabs open already and they start to go through them, cross-referencing magic things with Sophie in quiet tones and digging deeper into the Wilkins family than Phil ever would have thought to. Every so often they tap Phil on the arm and drag him into whatever rabbithole they’ve fallen down, chatting animatedly.

Phil knows, objectively, that Dan is a fan of his and that Dan is weird about research. It’s another thing entirely to watch it happen in real time, to see Dan pull up local census PDFs from the eighties and explain why chaos magic is bullshit in the same breath.

An hour or so goes by like that, all of them working on their own things with minimal words exchanged by everybody but Dan, and then Chris shouts loud enough to make the barista jump. Nobody else is in the coffee shop right now, which is lucky, because Dan’s got a hand over their chest and Sophie has slopped tea down her front. PJ, with his headphones on, simply cracks an eye open.

“What the fuck was that about?” Phil asks, putting his own palm against his chest to feel his heart race. Dan raises their eyebrows and looks at Phil, seemingly distracted from the startling, wordless exclamation.

They don’t get a chance to say whatever they’re thinking, though, because Chris is turning his laptop to the rest of the table and grinning wide like the Cheshire Cat. “I found something.”

Everybody gathers round, PJ getting up to lean over the back of Phil’s chair and Sophie getting so far into Dan’s personal space that Phil is certain they’re uncomfortable with it, and then Chris presses play upside down. It’s part of Sophie’s footage, Phil standing in the dim foyer and looking frustrated. Even without sound, Phil can tell that this is when he was arguing with Sophie about going upstairs. He squints, but he can’t see whatever it is that’s got Chris being so loud.

“What am I looking at?” PJ asks when the short clip ends, and Dan hums an agreement. Chris makes a frustrated noise like they’re being obtuse on purpose and rewinds to the beginning.

"There," Chris says, excited like he hasn't been since they got to Manchester. He taps his finger against the laptop screen. "D'you see it? D'you see the shadow?"

Now that Chris has pointed it out, Phil does see something. He moves his own laptop and notebook out of the way to pull Chris’ closer with a frown. Chris lets him do that, bouncing in his seat a little bit.

“That’s straight up a person,” Phil says slowly, tracing the outline of the shadow with the mouse. It’s behind him, in the entry to the kitchen, and it looks tall. Quite a bit taller than Phil, anyway, if he’s remembering that doorframe correctly. He decides to measure it next time they go so he isn’t going off memory. “I knew we weren’t alone in there. Like. I’m not crazy, that’s a human being.”

“That’s what I thought,” says Chris. “But press play.”

So Phil presses play. He watches the shadow stay perfectly still in the kitchen doorway until, suddenly, it’s not there anymore. He blinks, rewinds, and watches it disappear again.

Phil’s caffeinated brain is firing on all cylinders now. He grins and shoves his sleeves up to his elbows before he starts fiddling with the clip. The lighting gets played with until the shadow is more obvious and then he slows it down to 0.25 times speed to see if the shadow really just vanishes.

He presses play again. This time, with a very slow-motion Phil talking in the foreground, he sees the shadow move. It runs sideways, further into the house.

“What the fuck?” Dan breathes.

“We are not going back there without some serious protection,” PJ says, even firmer on the topic now.

“What, like sigils?” Dan asks, their pretty eyes wide even as they scoff. “You’d be better off with a fucking, like, baseball bat, mate. That doesn’t look like something that wants to be your friend.”

“I’ve got a crowbar in PJ’s trunk,” Phil says, absent-minded as he plays with the clip some more.

“Excuse me? When did you put that in my car?”

“Couple months ago.”

“Huh. How have I not noticed?”

“You’re not the most observant person I’ve ever met,” says Phil. He looks up at Chris, who’s got the same exhilarated look that Phil is sure he’s mirroring. They don’t get evidence like this very often, something so clearly there that it’s even got a skeptic’s mind racing. Phil exports the edited clip and then the original, putting them both into the Cloud and emailing them to himself. “Was this the only time you saw it?”

Chris nods, accepting his laptop back when Phil is done with it. “I’ll look through everything again, now that I know what I’m looking for and all, but I think that’s it.”

“Okay, cool.” Phil looks around at his friends and Dan, beaming. “Something weird is happening. I love it when something weird is happening.”

“I hate it when something weird is happening,” PJ says, which is a blatant lie.

“Well, we can’t go snooping around until it’s darker out, anyhow,” Sophie reminds them.

“Wait, we’re snooping?” Dan asks, their voice going up an entire octave in disbelief. “Like… you just saw that someone is there and probably not happy about people sneaking around, right? Don’t you have enough for a video already?”

“We’re spending the night,” says Phil. “It’s what we do.”

“It’s what you do,” PJ corrects him.

“Okay, yeah, you guys don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’m coming,” says PJ.

As if she can’t hear them bickering, Sophie turns to Dan with a sweet smile, her eyes twinkling with the same excitement in Chris’. They love this, just like Phil does. “What about you, Dan?” she asks. “Are you going to have a ghost sleepover with us?”

“There’s no such thing as ghosts,” Dan says, their eyes still glued to the back of Chris’ laptop like they can see the shadow through it.

“Guess you don’t have anything to be afraid of, then,” says Chris.

“Uh, axe murderers, maybe?”

“We know what we’re doing, Dan,” Phil reassures them. He reaches a hand out to pat at their arm, feeling a bit awkward about it. “But you don’t have to come with us if you’re scared.”

That makes Dan’s gaze shift. Suddenly, those brown eyes are staring right into Phil’s soul, defiant and beautiful and impossible to look away from.

“Who said I was fucking scared?”

#phanfic #phanfiction #dnp fic #words words words #quiet on widow's peak #this chapter is a little short thanks to me prioritizing my mental health BUT i am still happy with it #so i hope you like it too #even if you might think the plot is slow!

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unproduciblesmackdown · 4 years

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you said random number so.. gimme 5, 17, 24, 26, 38, and 43

#epic thank you!!!! sorry this is so long, gang, but you know me. press J if you have that keyboard shortcut option

5)favorite fics?

soph nothingunrealistic’s!! click the link & peruse any of the dozen gifts to this world on ao3. also just go right to her writing tag

17)a fandom you wish more people were in/you had more people to talk to about?

well i don’t Really have an answer for this one, but just yesterday it was once again time to talk abt how jaclyn moriarty’s 4-book ashbury/brookfield YA series is a lot of fun and unusual in good ways, but like, i guess what with being published throughout the aughts and like, not being super obscure but also not being explosively popular, and idk maybe they were also more Known in australia than the US, and, idk, but there’s not exactly what you’d call a Fandom online, or even very many traces of one. and i just like to mention the series as Fun To Read because they are very lively and focus on girls and have a real variety of Girl Characters (and also some boy characters who are also varied and fun but that’s just a bonus) and in particular i like to talk about how the third book has a really Unusual Choice Of Protagonist (the unfun unpopular Best Grades by-the-book overachiever etc etc etc nerd girl, kinda having the personality that ppl misinterpret alana beck’s personality to be lol, like something of a killjoy goody-two-shoes lol, but also with that earnestness and drivenness that alana has as well)......and the format of each book is Epistolary, but in different and creative ways each time, and it’s fun how like, the characters who are telling the story (the ones whose letters are used and etc) rotate with each book [tho emily and lydia are Storytellers in the 2nd And 4th books] and it’s very neat how like, you do get that sense that just b/c someone’s not being Focused On as much from different people’s perspectives doesn’t mean they aren’t still existing and present and doing stuff and having their own story, even when that’s not being mentioned by whoever’s writing down the events that we’re reading. we love that sentiment. anyways i just like to always Promote them.

24)who are you at the end of this decade?

hmmm!! i mean in many ways i am who i have been the whole time but yknow, 2009 - 2019 was a tumultuous period. i was always furiously trying to think through Who Am I As A Person for various reasons, even though like, when you’re in ur mid-teens that’s always In Progress rather than there being a really set answer to be discovered, and for a while it was a lot of frustration with myself all “why are you like [this], why can’t you do [that] right,” etc etc. but eventually i had like, a better frame of reference for a lot of what was going on, and even why i never quite felt like i had a great sense of Who I Am and What I Like and etc in the first place, and more understanding and respect for myself lol. even now it’s like, yknow i’m ~self-consious~ in ways often lol and i’ll sometimes Use that to be like, okay try to improve [this thing] about yourself!! and yknow on the one hand i feel like stuff i’ve been Working On for years Has paid off in ways, but then recently it’s like......okay hang on but like, it’s not a bad thing to like, have some traits that maybe aren’t gonna be seen as “perfect” or might be annoying or yknow, your Demeanor and Vibe isn’t always like, the most important thing to focus on lol or something where like, oh being sweet & saintly & coming across as utterly pleasant to everyone always gets to be The Objective Ideal. like, i’m opinionated and can be argumentative and sometimes impatient?? like, there’s a balance here between “good to be trying to Improve Yourself always or whatever lol” and “but also everyone is People with Traits and Different Personalities and everyone doesn’t have to just sand themselves down into an edgeless smooth sphere” and like, sure it’s like “haha i’m a bit more temperamental than i’d like still” but also i sure sympathize w/ the fact that like, oof, depression makes it tricky sometimes! and i do pretty okay at like, being Aware of when my mood is cursed and trying to be as chill about it as poss! or like, “haha wish i was better at conversation lmao” but yknow also understanding that like.....i’m just kinda Not great at it and that’s what’s Natural for me and like, again, a balance between “trying to be easier to talk to, lol” and “being okay with the fact that i’m not super easy to talk to and most ppl aren’t very easy for me to talk to either, lol”

im trying to be a bit less cagey lol which i guess might not be the first word someone might use to describe me for a variety of reasons, But......and but then also, i just like, for me there is no simple Be Yourself, Just Talk Naturally As U Would conversation mode lol, but you know. it’s hardly a pressing issue, and at the same time, like, sometimes when i find it hard to talk to people it’s like “well this is just you needing to Be Nicer” or whatever, or like, well you’re just not used talking to Anyone so like, push through it, and then it takes me a while to realize like, well no you just don’t love talking to them, lmao......and at the same time i’m Really slow to realize when people *do* actually enjoy talking to me, lmao, i am just not used to it And used to people like, not really being super interested in interacting with me even if they think i’m alright lol. lord! so i’m still slightly surprised whenever Anyone likes me, but also like, then again there’s sort of always these repeated scenarios where it’s like [Glum Trombone Noise] i’m also the recipient of various ppl’s various contempt for various reasons........which like, i sure don’t Absorb that as like “way 2 go, you deserve that” but also like, sure also never is the most fun experience of your life. but i have a way more solid sense of the fact that like, i don’t inherently deserve that, and an understanding of Why people will be Like That sometimes, and that’s all been acquired knowledge from the whole journey of this decade lol

also like, i have always been and continue to be like, Basically A Cat lol.....cats-sonas for everyone, ___ the ___ cat, But Seriously Folks........like, oh, there’s a lot of ppl and/or noise around?? unless i have chosen to put myself in that situation for fun, i’m probably gonna be finding whatever quiet / distant corner to hide out in and try to remain as undetected as possible.......kinda wary about interacting with people sometimes, though then also, i like to be friendly w/ strangers (if they’re friendly with me) and won’t necessarily mind spontaneous interactions but only if it’s Plausibly Expected in the situation, and even then, i might just prefer that Nobody Talk To Me......and i’ve yet to be Really comfortable in a group of ppl if i’m there *with* that group lmao, like, i don’t like to take the lead or compete for attention or anything and just kinda will try to do my own thing on the outskirts, whereas if i’m by myself it’s just like, i feel a lot more comfortable and like i can just do whatever lmao..........and also i don’t like to make noise lol. unless again, it’s deliberate, and it’s Fun. like at a concert? i will be the death of whatever nerd like, wants it to be like a solemn “listening to a record” occasion or wants everyone to yell out complete sentences if a performer asks an Arena full of people How Are You Doing 2nite or whatever. i’m gonna yell!!! anyways. idk. i am always like “oh i am Very Much [this way], except for all the times i am totally [the would-be Opposite way]”........i can’t really opt out of having Anxious Qualities and that’s alright, even though it does get in the way of things sometimes for sure. like, c’est la vie!!! i understand why i am like this, and that like, while for my own sake i can try to hold my own hand here and encourage myself to be a little bolder, it’s totally fine that like, i have Problems and Difficulties.

i’m also at like, maybe the lowest levels of Impending Dread that i’ve had since i was like, 8 or some shit lmao............like again kind of a Wild Decade and one where like, it was totally all like “wow am i even gonna make it to [a few yrs in the future] -> [a year in the future] -> [half a year from now]” aaand it hasn’t been a full year yet since i was last thinking like “lmfao oof i might not be alive by __, who knows!!” but even while that was going on it was at least an improvement from the times i thought i might like, hmm hope i don’t off myself. and like, this is probably the first Start Of A Year in like. well possibly the past decade lmao, where yknow, it hasn’t felt quite as dire. i mean im not really out here a cockeyed optimist about anything, and like, i’m aware that things are always a little tenuous and there’s other factors i’m always nervous about, but That’s nothing new, and i’m kinda more like, neutral about the future rn lol? feeling less Dread and Doom is new-ish lmao and like, allowing that yknow, despite how crappy the past decade has been re: how i felt in my Outlook, there’s been a bunch of surprising Good Things to come along, and i totally allow for the fact that that could easily continue to happen. having Less(ened) Bad Feelings about Things might not = Absolutely Thriving but i appreciate it!! i also try to be appreciative lmao. like, what with the dread and doom & (hope i don’t die this year, i guess,) feelings, it’s wildly hard nowadays for me to like, anticipate stuff in a ~fun~ way or at all, but yknow when anything nice, even a really small / unspectacular / ordinary moment and/or detail, is being experienced by me, i try to enjoy that. i like to be Appreciative. and i think i’m also sort of like, sharing more of myself than i’ve probably gotten to or felt capable of doing in the past, and i appreciate that a lot too. like, it can be really Depressing for sure to think of like, hmm i haven’t had the chance to like, feel in control of things and like things are Totally Fine and i feel Totally Okay & like i’m enjoying everything, and i can choose to pursue [things i might enjoy], and maybe i Won’t have that chance? [another glum trombone noise] but like. i appreciate the good experiences that i Do and Have gotten so far. and the fact i’ve ever been in situations to connect with people and enjoy things the ways that i can and like, it’s really nice that My Presence in other ppl’s lives, even as just like Some Online Rando re: some ppl lmao, has had some positive effect for them or even just been enjoyed is like, wow, this is pretty great lol.........not sure where i was taking this tangent but like, i am someone who appreciates this a lot.

hmm i am also a passionate person at the end of this decade lmao!!!! that has definitely always been true. i am Of That Temperament. it is funny b/c like, the fact that i am A Motormouth Actually But Often Not Saying Anything In The Least To People, they think i’m like, of this very mild disposition and Not someone with strong opinions that they will launch into, or else i would have been doing that already........but you know!!! here i am online, fully able to just dive into things and start talking about whatever for one million years. and i sure latch onto stuff in a Big Way sometimes, which is why anyone follows me at all lol, b/c if you like [whatever particular content] and i am just all about that too, it’s a beneficial situation for us both i guess lmao. i can get really excited and focused about stuff, obviously, and i sure Also Obviously like to explore the emotional aspects of things. which is a vague thing to say lmfao but you all know what i mean!!! it continues to be the only reason i draw lmaooo like i draw so much and like, Making Fanart And Sharing It Online has i think also been a journey of this decade for me, and i really only draw a) exactly that fanart that i feel like making, and b) what i feel like making is always also probably abt Feelings somehow, like the Three Emotions: kissing (aka gay), crying (sad), and angry (angry)........great news if you want to see the stuff i already happen to be drawing lol!!! bad news i guess if you were hoping i’d draw anything but whatever i end up wanting to draw. i cannot be diverted. and i don’t even draw for its own sake lol like, i’ve always doodled for fun and all that, but like, ive never been a “wow i want to make my own __ someday” or whatever, and if i’m trying to draw something which is anything other than [the exact thing i might feel like drawing] it is Such a chore that like, i just don’t do it except for like, total Exceptions. except exceptions lol. don’t ask!! anyways why did i get on that drawing tangent there........yeah it’s definitely lucky that i’ve been giving myself that Drawing Experience so that i can connect w/ ppl that way, cuz i’m godawful at like, necessarily providing other stuff lol Or at being the one to Make Connections Happen otherwise......and also of course sometimes it is easier to convey/communicate something via drawing. woohoo!!

anyways yeah i’m a bit excitable lol and i sure guess i’ve got that Chaotique energy at times, for better or worse lol........like sometimes my Contribution can be like, just an absolute wild card thrown into the pile, or just like, maybe adding some Boost to a situation that other people can run with if they so choose. just throw things out there sometimes and enjoy when other ppl find that fun lmao

what else is there about me??? lol.......oh yeah i’m always sort of an Office Goofaround (not actually in an office ever, though). like, when ppl Don’t have that sense of Collaborative Humor where like, if someone does something a bit silly u just roll with that bit, or if god forbid they have Exhausting Cishet Guy humor where they think everything is about Dry, “Intelligent” Sarcasm and that being “funny” is about making yourself look like the coolest or cleverest person there who Wins the Center Of Attention spot?? it’s like, eff that, where are my Get Silly gang. also puns are funny but also only b/c they are silly. you have to really lean into it lol.

well anyways!!!! and when i am asked to talk about myself i can be very extensive and yet not necessarily cover everything. here we are

26)favorite look you had?

my look hasn’t changed too much! Tees n Jeans (or shorts? or jorts? lol) are pretty much my thing altho you Know i have at times added in A Layer, or even accessories.......as always, part of the first few years of the decade for me was the whole “aha, yeah okay i’m trans” process, but before that i wasn’t ever really trying to be more “””””””””fashionable”””””””””” than the tees n jeans type of look anyway lmao, and even nowadays like, i have some Wardrobe Items that like, ppl might consider ”androgynous” or whatever when cis dudes wear them, like leggings or a v-neck sweater........really some of the only significant Changes was getting binder/s eventually (by 2012?? ugh idk) and also like, by 2011 i cut my hair relatively short, and from there on i just like, every year went “ugh god i need it to be shorter” and even now i’m like, hmm, do i want it shorter or is this fine?? but also i’m somewhat limited styling-wise b/c i just continually cut it myself in a bathroom mirror, true chaotic. and! i’ve been like, god i wish i had a baseball cap that’s just like, solid [my fave blue] or yknow, black or something, or idk. one that i like. and also someday it would be nice to like, not only have an updated prescription of lenses but also Multiple Glasses Frames to choose from, even though my current ones are alright still lol.......this is me just talking abt my past looks and how i’d like to potentially update my look lmao i did Not answer the question but, as usual, i also don’t have a great direct answer lol

38)a prediction you had for this decade that came true?

lol this was not a decade where i was ever looking ahead to 2020 and making any assumptions about this Block Of Time as a whole.......i mean like, i was Really starting to suspect byyyy 2012 for sure that like, i could not like, be able to exist And have my parents be in my life at all lol and by 2013 it was just like. increasing confirmation of that. and i last saw / spoke to them prior to me just effing out of there at the end of 2015. snaps for me

43)an important relationship (of any kind) you had?

well a couple i appreciated that might not be obvious were pretty brief and fairly impersonal lol. so in 2015 i had this Nightmare Job for five whole months which was obviously miserable in most ways, but there was this other guy who wasn’t even a Coworker, we just had the same job and had similar routes of Stores to go to, so we would run into each other a lot of mornings, and he would talk to me and i’d talk to him and he was totally good-humored about everything and that was helpful lmao b/c it’s great to have Someone you enjoy seeing. i also struck up a rapport with a baked-goods stocker at one particular store, and that could be an enjoyable 14 seconds. it was a godawful job lmao and like, Any pleasantness at all / decent treatment from other people was very helpful

also at this other job the next year which was a lot less hellish, there was this customer lady who like, i can’t remember at what point she started talking to me but yknow it got to be that if we’d run into each other she’d kind of update me on her life. and she would be like “sorry i’m talking to you, a stranger, about all this stuff all the time, but my life is a mess and i don’t really have anyone to talk to” and i would be like, lmfao mood, do not even worry about it, and yknow this was someone i only ran into usually once every few weeks at my job, and could only listen to for however long, but she was Going Tf Through It all the time and as much as i am a chatterbox who will go on for a century about myself b/c i can’t be concise abt anything ever, i’m also decent at being in Listening Mode lmao or yknow, i was like No Truly i don’t mind you venting, and also yknow, i’m like well i know how much it sucks to have Nobody to talk to about Big Problems. and i am this random restaurant worker and if i’m one of the only people this lady can talk to, you can bet i’m going to listen lol.......and she was really goin through it all One Thing After Another and yknow i’d catch her two weeks later and she’d be all like, well [this situation] has gotten worse, or This One Problem is over but now New Problem has replaced it, etc, and a whole issue that i got updated on was like lol. she had this boyfriend who she’d kinda mention early on when she was talking abt trying to find a job, or losing a new-but-terrible job and once again being back in that Job Hunt Stress, and idk like. i just sort of have decent Relationship Instincts lmfao of like “hmm this doesn’t sound great” but like, a month or two later she’s straightup Married to this dude, and i’m like oh congrats :) and then when a month or two after That she’s talking about how like, she’s maybe having Job Probs again and her now-husband is really giving her shit for like, not having found a new one yet, i’m like internally all [ :)))))) Not Surprised :))))))) ] but i’m like. yknow you Sympathize n Validate but if you just up and tell someone who’s being treated real bad like “you are being treated terribly, this person is acting terribly” then they might just want to defend them like oh it’s not That bad, or minimize it, and blame themselves for making their terrible partner “look bad”.......and by extension when she once was in our restaurant With said husband and introduced us i was like, just getting further confirmation abt this dude’s shittiness from his Immediate Vibe lmao like....whenever i feel uncomfortable enough in someone’s presence in a [not just universal level of Anxiety] way, it’s like, that instinct is pretty reliable & accurate lol.....but i had to pretend Not to hate him or act too standoffish towards him lmao cuz like!!! i figured i could “get away with it” but yknow, this lady had already said how isolated she was and the husband sure seemed Controlling and like, yknow, if you act like you don’t Like the shitty partner or said shitty partner catches wind of you maybe telling this person that “hey your partner is being shitty” then it’s all, them telling their partner “don’t go around that person who is so obviously Against me >:(” and like. yknow i figured as Random Restaurant Employee this dude wasn’t about to be super on guard about me but i still was not wanting to risk it but luckily i only met him the one time and only had to casually pretend i didn’t think he was shit that one time. and anyhow! soon enough the lady is talking to me about how she thinks getting married to him was a mistake but like, again, she was real isolated and didnt have family or friends or ppl in the area to talk to, and like, yknow she would be pretty sure her husband was cheating on her but of course He was the one all like, wanting to be controlling and invade her privacy and accuse Her of cheating on him, and i’m like, internally screaming but again yknow, i’m just letting her vent to Anyone (me) and sympathizing. and iirc her talking about her “uh oh my husband sucks” was like, i had come back from this delivery so we were in the parking lot lol and she was so upset about all of it and like, “sorry i’m just this random person talking to you for twenty minutes in a parking lot and crying lol” and i’m like. i mean yknow if the only person you can vent to about this terrible situation is me, this random person in a parking lot, absolutely i am glad to do it, even though i would’ve done it anyways lol...........and i was so mad at our General Manager this one time lmao b/c. yknow it’s a couple weeks later and wouldn’t you know it, The Lady is really stressed b/c her husband was yelling at her and broke a window in their apartment, and the Cost Of Repairs added to their monthly rent meant they might not be able to make that rent, and she was in that crappy situation that gets pulled on Tenants Who Probably Don’t Have Much Money, where you’re supposed to get 5 Days Notice or whatever when they’re like “get out b/c your rent is overdue” but you get that Notice on like, friday afternoon when your Last Day is supposed to be the following monday, and nobody is at the office all weekend, so obviously that’s not five days and it’s really only One Day and that Last Day that you’d even have a chance to talk to anyone, which is also a monday when you’d probably have work, and yknow, good luck finding help over the weekend, when probably ppl will just want to spend that time rushing to just pack their shit up and leave anyways.....ANYHOW it’s just some particular heinous bullshit and it was like, the saturday after it had happened to her, and i sympathized entirely b/c that had happened to me and i now lived in my car but i figured i wouldn’t bring that up lmfao.......and anyways i was sitting down with her to listen to her b/c it’s an Insanely Stressful Situation and again like, whenever she’d show up i’d let her talk to me abt her Problems for however long she felt like. and anyways of course eventually the one By-The-Books manager gives me shit all like “what are you doing daring to Sit Down and Not be doing restaurantly actions, ugh” and i’m like. i mean, unsurprising lecture to get lol, of course, but i was just so impatient like. well this person was having a crisis so i prioritized that above keeping the coffee stirrers fully stocked at all times, bite me. ENNYHOW and i didn’t see her for a minute after that and i Was a bit worried b/c like. of course i had every reason to be and she was just always looking so completely exhausted but then like, actually the last time i saw her she was actually more upbeat than ever b/c like! turns out that during an argument her husband had assaulted her and had been arrested. which is of course like. i was like oh i am completely sorry about that trauma but congratulations at this person being separated from you!!! and like, i wish i could have kept up with her beyond that, but i couldn’t, but like, that was the first Improvement in her life that i’d heard since i met her, and it was a way better last-thing-to-hear-from-her than her stressing out abt eviction thanks to her abusive husband breaking shit. and like, weird relationship lmao but!! idk i did feel lucky that i could be The One Person This Lady Gets To Talk With b/c like, god forbid she have absolutely nobody to talk to about this shit or treat her with any sympathy, even if it was just me, the rando she only got to see on occasion. and i hope she’s doing okay still! wish i knew for sure of course, but i’m glad i at least got to be there for her in a tiny way for a period of time and did eventually like, Know that she both knew that this was a bad person to be with, and got that Reason to be separated from him.

#imsocatastrophic

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momestuck · 5 years

Text

Let’s read Hiveswap Friendsim volume 2!

So each volume of this VN is semi-self-contained, it seems. There’s not a continuous route through every chapter, or at least if there is, there’s no like persistent state beyond unlocking a little icon for befriending each troll.

The last couple of chapters seem to be bugged, since I have the achievements unlocked already, even though this is my first time playing the game.

Anyway last time our options were to get mind controlled by a twitch streamer, or steal loads of hot dogs with a homeless kid... or accidentally straight up fucking murder him, that can happen too. What are we up against next?

Beginning volume 2, it does in fact seem to be set chronologically after volume 1. Presumably Diemen won’t feature, since he may not have actually survived the first chapter!

So this time we have an indigo blood troll (same as Equius) - and a yellow blood (same as Sollux). So in each case, we’re basically one rung up the hemospectrum from the last game. Let’s go from left to right again.

Amisia

According to the credits, Amisia is written by Aysha U. Farah.

Amisia’s typing quirk seems to be that she doubles up the letter ‘u’. She finds us cute. Or rather, cuute.

She lives in a classy part of town.

Our first choice is whether or not we’re an artist. Going off pattern, saying we’ve never had a knack for art is the rejection option.

...turns out not. Apparently friendships with artists can be ‘frauught’. She’s very happy to have us along, and the narrator seems to be very happy to find someone not a ‘maniac’.

The narration calls attention to the paint on her smock. Which ‘doesn’t really look like paint’.

Oh.

Ooooooooooh.

Yeah so remember the Grand Highblood who liked to paint his judgement chamber in the blood of various trolls? Yeah I’m pretty sure I can see where this one is going.

She puts our arm in a ‘medicalizer’ which heals our injury. The narration mentions we have a sling so... does that mean the branch where we killed Diemen is canon? Probably shouldn’t assume so. Maybe we got a sling in another branch. Then again... those other branches seem kind of final, so maybe this does follow killing Diemen, and ending up friendless.

We get the choice to be chill or dance around the room. Always dance, I say. Not surprisingly, we end up falling on our ass.

We fall on our ass a lot in this game. But the result is that we get a cut and that makes - shocker - Amisia really excited about our bright red human blood.

Lucky she never met Karkat, I suppose.

She takes the opportunity to be Space Racist.

Then she pulls out a huge axe. I guess if Equius’s thing was a huge bow, her thing might be a huge axe.

Whereas if we don’t flop around, we will surely remain unhurt. So I think we’re on track to become a kind of artistic blood donor.

The narrator finally gets a bit of a clue. But noo, she just wants to show us the axe... and somehow it slashes our wrists.

Sure is Hussie writing.

We get a reveal... she’s not a real painter. She’s ‘really good at the other parts’...

But now she’s inspired, and unlike her other contributors, she’s not gonna just murder us.

So instead we get kept on as a permanent muuse.

We really know how to pick ‘em in this game huh!

So now we have a couple of branch points to try. First, let’s say we’re an artist ourselves...

Amisia is not impressed.

The second branch we can try is to be chill about it when she heals our broken arm.

Ardata gets a mention. Technically this isn’t inconsistent with the route where Diemen dies, but I think it’s more likely this is a kind of ‘floating canon’ where you’ve implicitly tried all the routes, even if it doesn’t make strict logical sense. But if we want to construct a consistent timeline... either an Ardata route happens after Diemen dies, or we injure Ardata’s lusus and then do one of the Diemen routes.

In this route, you tell her you have red blood, and she assures you she has plenty of burgundy. How convenient.

This sounds healthy!

So some troll cops show up with a troll for Amisia to exsanguinate. (Oh it’s good when I get to use a word like “exsanguinate”!)

She tries to get us to do the axe murdering honours, but our ribs give out. We learn that, like Equius, she is STRONG. I recall that wasn’t supposed to be a general indigo-blood trait, but whatevs. So she gets us to hold the troll while she kills them instead.

It goes poorly.

Amisia briefly mentions another troll named Chahut as she kicks us out for messing up her hive.. I presume we’ll meet them later. We get another ending:

Honestly, this seems like a better ending for us. We’re alive, our arm’s repaired and we haven’t lost loads of blood, and we’re not trapped in a ‘friendship’ with Amisia.

Speaking of which... the narration hinted at some kind of supernatural cause behind our obsessive need for friendship, I think. That’s probably worth noting.

So now...

Cirava

I can’t find who wrote Cirava in the credits. Maybe I’m just not being observant!

I kinda like Cirava’s music actually. Feels cyberpunky.

Cirava’s typing quirk seems to be using the word ‘lmao’ a lot, and similar abbreviations. I’m kind of imagining that as saying ‘ell em ay o’ out loud.

We reveal that we’re an alien. Cirava seems chill.

Ohhhhhhh my god this is the vaporwave troll??? And there’s like... a troll bong there?

Also who’s that on the screen? Is that Ardata’s torture stream? ...no, those horns are different.

Cirava, it turns out, is also a streamer, whose viewers are into aliens.

So far... this seems kinda... not horrific? When’s the other shoe gonna drop lol

That’s a little real!

So, in Alternia, instead of vaporwave we have ‘moisturewave’. Which, I’m gonna say, we’re hella into.

Incidentally, the narration seems to be using ‘they’ pronouns for Cirava, so that’s neat.

So I guess we’re making fun of those music youtube channels too? Also trolls have anime, apparently.

The effects of chasing online fame are like, our Theme here I guess. Cirava mentions an ‘incident’ that made them less trusting...

A little on the nose huh.

Cirava, apparently, won’t be our friend unless we get a better aesthetic and a ‘chittr’ account. I’m pretty sure Homestuck already had a Twitter parody, but that was in the whole dream bubbles thing so I guess it wouldn’t extend to Alternia.

Our second choice is whether to let Cirava do our look, or do it ourself. Let’s try doing it ourselves.

Next stop, Harajuku. Cirava, luckily, is into it.

The narration seems to be pretty clear that the generic MSPA reader figure is a guy, alas.

Soon we’re being hit on by strangers. Next up, we’re vaping out of a bug’s ass.

So we get high on alien vape juice hell yeah. Time for THE INCIDENT.

Like a lot of trans girls (come on, vaporwave musician here? blatantly trans), Cirava got in a bunch of twitter chittr fights and started getting fake reported. Only on Alternia getting reported as a psionic means getting enslaved, not just banned off Twitter. This social media fight resulted in Cirava’s friends abandoning them to avoid being targeted (...yeah, that’s real), until Cirava removed their own eye to avoid being used as a psionic battery.

And now... they stay quiet, try not to get in fights, or get close to people.

Help I care about a fucking vaporwave troll now

So yeah that’s like... well of all the endings it’s the least awful one? god ><

Anyway what’s the other route? First, if we say we’re not into moisturewave... predictably, they say this isn’t going to work and kick us out.

Second, we get Cirava to dress us up.

hell yeah

Unfortunately Cirava gets kind of Chidi about the whole ‘making decisions’ thing. Eventually they dress us up...

Exactly like them.

Unfortunately this proves a bit too popular and Cirava freaks out that we’re going to steal their fame.

And as a result of stealing their look and popularity...

As a result, you straight up... kill yourself? With a gun that you find under a stump, because of MSPA memes?

Honestly?

Those wacky kids and their callout posts, am I right? This isn’t exactly a hot allostatic load level critique of disposability and social media mobbing here.

eh. whatever. this definitely feels like an outsider critique... but it feels more personal when I’m vaguely adjacent to the subculture getting mocked lol. (not that i smoke weed and work on vaporwave and make callout posts - but like Cirava’s whole thing is like ‘trans memer’ stereotype, you know?)

Anyway, that’s the outcomes available to us. Chill and smoke space weed with Cirava, be a living blood bank for Amisia, fail to murder someone, or die.

Fun times in Alternia!

I’m not sure if all of these episodes are gonna be like... ‘meet troll, hijinks, backstory dump, suffer’ or if there’s going to be more of a plot later on.

#lets read hiveswap friendsim #suicide cw #death cw #momestuck

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nova-nox · 2 years

Text

A single text post thrown into the void because I want to say this somewhere but if I do it in rl I'm afraid it'll come off rude or wrong or attention seeking. So. My blog I use only for reblogs.

I wonder if I am on the autistic spectrum. Because it seems like half of everything is a yes ans the other half is a no with some overlap in sometimes.

But in rl the ppl I know, only a few are on the spectrum and they're not close friends. I'm afraid of saying anything and being lumped into faking it or doing it for attention. One time I brought it up it was mentioned that I'm too good in convos with ppl and that I make eye contact so I can't possibly be on the spectrum.

But. Convos (except with close friends and family) are HARD and my social anxiety is awful and I'm jittery and nervous and embarrassed and awkward feeling the whole time. But I guess it doesn't count if I can look mostly normal on the outside to the strangers I'm talking with??

I don't know how these things are judged.

I have adhd. They say it's got a high comorbidity rate with asd.

There's a few ppl I love to watch on tiktok that have adhd. Some of them have both adhd and asd. One of them did a video trying to do an asd assessment and showed their asd and adhd sides warring against eachother providing conflicting answers. That's exactly how I felt for half the questions when I took the test.

I got a high score. They say for this last test that if u got above a 65 you most likely were on the spectrum. I got 134.

But a lot of the questions I wanted to put "sometimes" for instead of always or never. Or i wanted context.

Not everything bothers me 100% of the time and sometimes I do things sometimes but not never.

I feel like a fraud. I got to the end and saw the numbers and thought. "What if I misunderstood? What if I lied?" I have a terrible fear of me somehow subconsciously trying to alter my responses and answers to the test to get the outcome that gives me asd.

I don't know why.

Any time I take an online test or see people on the spectrum talking about things specific to them, I relate. Or i score in the asd range. But every person irl I talk to says I can't be for x and y reasons.

((Why does this matter so much to me?? I just want to know. I don't know why I just want to know.

But I don't want to say I'm on the spectrum if I'm not and give people who do have asd a bad rep. I don't want to say I have it and look like I'm pretending or doing it for attention.

I just want to know for me. If it would explain some things. If it wouldn't.))

But the problem with tests too is that ppl say u can be Masking. We learn it growing up.

And like.

Aren't we always masking?? Like u have friends u can be yourself around and everyone else u have to be more toned down for. More reserved. Less emotional.

And like. How would I be able to tell the difference? Isn't everything just a bunch of social rules anyways? What's considered polite and what's acceptable? Like. U learn as a kid you can't run around a room where adults are having a serious convo. So as an adult u don't do that either.

If you're at a meeting you're not allowed to get up from the table and pace around the room even though you're super anxious and have a bunch of restless energy. So you just suffer quietly through it because that's socially acceptable and moving around the room isn't.

I hate hate hate meeting new people but apparently I'm "good at it" despite feeling like a complete idiot the whole time and super anxious and like I failed by the end.

Gosh I don't even know where I'm going with this.

I just want to know. But I keep getting conflicting information.

Maybe it's just my adhd.

I dunno.

I'd be fine either way. If I had asd or didn't have asd. I just don't want to give a bad rep to anyone or be accused of claiming it when I'm not or anything else.

I just. It was liberating getting confirmation that I had adhd. I've started finding answers to all the weird stuff I do. How I react to things. And now I can look up adhd tips for diff things I struggle with and find answers.

I just want that. For if I'm on the spectrum. Answers. Help. Not anything else. Just. Answers and the ability to use this information to help me with things I need help with.

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thyrideneverends · 3 years

Text

(2017)

Escritos que encontre del año 2017 . Y conversaciones conmigo desde el año 2020 ([]).

____________________________ AAAHGH IM SO FUCKING SAD. I cant help but feel that im rotting. I dont want pity; people helping; people empathizing. FUCK YOU. I can do better than you. I DO. In fact. I havent been blinded, and hate everything around me as an excuse for giving my life away for what it was supposed to be. [this could be missunderstod since i was clearly angry 4 something i dont recall, I was refering to people in general, how they put themselves above the others, how they always wanna get "there" first, how they talk trash about their relationships, the anger, the hate that breeds out of them when they are wronged(even if there`s no purpose or whatsoever to cause them, specifically, any troubles), the screaming, the violence, that kind of hate..]

I dont want to just 'be happy' because I have to; so I reject happiness. But I want to feel it like something real and not made up.. does that makes sense? Thats a paradox i cant escape lately. [thats deep man, fortunately we figured that out. Have we figured that out? Happiness now is closed for manteinance ^-^ ]

I cant find pleasure in anything.. I destroyed everything..[you had to start somewhere, right?] I cant find meaning in anything.

I just need someone, i just need not to be alone. But I am; Even surrounded by everyone. I know I am. I know you are too.. I hope you are strong enough to endure it.

[hablabas de otro tipo de soledad, lo se, pero vos todavia no lo sabias, o si?]

_______________________

Sometimes I feel like I forgot an important part of being alive. I remember a different version of myself from a few years back. I feel like I'm just existing; nothing pushes my happy button. And when I'm not strong enough to think that it's fine; that I don't need that.. I will just panic questioning myself why, the reason for me not belonging. I know it's fine; I know I can just spend the rest of my..50years left? just doing this; living this eternal circling hell. You might say it's a choice.. That I don't put that much effort into it. That I'm just playing this part. Complaining my ass off. And to that.. I can only say I'm sorry.. I'm doing the best I can. [I know you were.. truly; and u did a great job never letting me down] _________________________________________

Why are we even here right.. What powers you? You wake up, work or study, ingest food, sleep. Repeat. To finish your career and become something.. To earn enough money to become someone.. Be better in what you're doing or you'll be out. You'll be useless. You'll be garbage. We[the system] won't need you.. And then we have to be happy about it.. We have to function collectively happy and there's no room for the outcasts.. And IM to blame for it.. I could be happy like all of them.. But I'm just sitting my ass here thinking what else I can sabotage, in order to understand why it's unnecessary and wish to be also capable of that... Just capable maybe of.. not be weird; not be me.. And sometimes thats all that matters. That Im me.. And I love not being a part of them. I just can never get a hold of that moment and make it last.. I will feel alone just a moment after. [Im so glad we worked our loneliness, I mean, we have such fine moments in silence..]

____________________________________________

Aah... I was just given advice by a hot girl on tinder about how should I type, express and resume myself so the person on the other side of the screen won't stop replying thinking I'm an idiot.. She basically said :- "hey, you're an idiot but maybe a cute one. Here's human help. Just stop being you and people will like you" Y'know what? that's bullshit... It makes me so anxious that it happens all the time. There's always someone judgin. Not only online; real life is the worst. I just don't fit in here I guess. I'll keep talking with the tinder girl, maybe and get emptynessly laid, why not? But I think I hate this.. I hate that everything craves for a definition and people just won't LOOK; Im hidden among them... God how I wish to know who's there ravaging their brains with questions while walking in that empty crowd. I wish I could find you and ask just what you were thinking there. At that unique moment. You are not alone... But if you feel like I do; I wonder if you also wonder. I wonder if we're just very far away from each other.. I wonder if it`s true that there can only be one of us by this cosmic rule that goes: only one 'you/me' for every thousand people. Or.. maybe it's just me. Too old to be an idiot... Too idiot to fully be himself around smart well adjusted people. I guess it's a matter of perspective. isn't it pretty much all? Have a good night stranger.. [Not so stranger.. my dude.. U didn't get laid btw, you couldn't pull through with that. And then you promised you wouldn't lie about who you are.. You wouldn't ever play another role other than the one you are. Well, it was more like a statement than a promise, to yourself. I was there.. Best decision you ever made. You mutated loneliness into a condition, a simple symptom of your choice of living; instead of a disease on itself.. Very clever.]

_____________________________________________

You don't have to read but if you wanna unload please write it down. Everything u hate.. or love; This I wrote on my personal account but it makes me anxious to open myself to judgy people, so I erased it.. We live to judge because we love fixing things that didn't go right with us. Never understanding each perspective is unique. Well Im gonna paste it here because I don't want to lose it.. I don't want something I really meant to be just a deleted thing..(even if it is)

Have u ever felt like you're unique or different? But then just analyzing, we all just walk towards and objective. We don't do things just because. You don't get up every day to just go to work.. to just have breakfast or go shopping, idk; people set goals. We follow patterns. We repeat the same exact thing to strangers of the streets. The same exact things other strangers reply to us.. We are the same NPCs to others. And then realizing this I just wanna scream PLEASE GET ME OUT OF THIS. Please look at me! I don't want this. I don't want to be aware of this.. I don't want to feel I'm just to you what you guess I am. What's the point of everything? How do I get to know who I am if I'm always this self-centered stupid attempt of somebody? Nobody wants that. Sometimes I am glad to be "awake". To be different from the other people in their bubbles... But most of the time I'd give EVERYTHING to be exactly like that. Because I feel lonely. Because I have so many friends, but we can't communicate. Because I've lost the ideal of love because at a certain point I was scared of being a problem and it hurts so fucking much. I don't think I am special.. or more intelligent or cultural, I just feel I have a different degree of "profoundness" than most other people. It's not something I talk about or show, most of the time i pretend to fit in, but I don't. I can fool myself for periods, I've fooled myself for so many years now, but in the end it always comes back, I can't hide it forever. it hurts so much. I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse and I feel like a fucking show-off that just wants attention..

[I felt that.. dude. You write beautifully..]

_____________________________________________

Hi person reading this. Be nice, life is full of shitty people. Make a tiny difference; someday we're all gonna die so its cool. Dont hold grudges ^^ . [^^]

______________________________________________

We are all just internet jesters shitposting to fill the void Even if you're just taking selfies and being beautiful while loving life, smiling to nothing and eating healthy shit while showing off the new place you just visited to a bunch of strangers that doesn't give a fuck about you .. (actually those are the worsts) yeah.. (Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's bad. I do that too ! we like showing ourselves to others..) Screaming... I exist. Notice me sempai. We just are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

________________________________________________ *draw of myself* [couldnt find it anywhere, where did u put it D: . i remember the sad expression] I know It has a lot of imperfections but so do I. I guess this is how I see myself.. Maybe I just wanted it to be like that. To express something to myself. I still feel like a little kid sometimes even tho I'm 25; "I just can't play with the other kids because I feel different and they make me feel different." Now I can't play with the adults, they're too adults. They make me feel too adult; i need to act up every move to become like them. And then alone, I can be at peace being who I wanna be; But it gets lonely from time to time; Not being able to understand who are you really; where are you really above the necessity of impersonating this other dude to get laid, get the job, get the money. And for what?.. Just to keep doing it because there is really no other choice.. How sad. But anyway. Ever tried to draw yourself? To see what's the image of you that you hold in your head.. if u truly do it; it doesn't matter if you know or not how to proyect yourself.. Every trace you make on that paper is a creation this world has never seen.. your chance to make a difference; it doesn't have to be trendy or impact in mankind. I suppose that's what I call art. And that's why art is everywhere.. Everything that can never be repeated.. Anything that comes from you; or life itself. A random amount of dirt.. Sunlight getting through the leaves of a tree.. Pieces of a broken cup and the stain of coffee in the carpet.. I'm not an artist myself tho; never considered myself even close to one.. I haven't drawn in years.. This is my first one in a long time; I just felt like it.

________________________________________________

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connected-perspective · 5 years

Text

Stranger Things on Social Media

Stranger Things is a Netflix original that was released in 2016 (a little bit more than 3 years ago!), and the hype for this series has not died down, even with the fact that the watchers and fans of this series (including myself) would binge-watch the series within the first few days that a new season is released. This series, in my opinion, is like a combination of and is inspired by The Goonies and Super 8. However, we are not going to talk about how great this Netflix series is in this blog post; we are going to discuss how well they engage with their audience on their social media (it’s a pretty fun topic, don’t click away yet!).

Their Social Media Platform

In today’s digital era, it is important - and simply necessary - for brands to have presence on social media. Obviously, this does not only apply to brands; this also applies to other entities, like TV shows. With Stranger Things in particular, their presence on social media is highly active. One of their top-performing social media sites is their main series account on Twitter, with the handle @Stranger_Things. As you can see below, they have a little more than 6,500 tweets and a little more than 2.8 million followers. Although we cannot see how many likes that they have received from other Twitter users, this is a significant audience considering only starting their Twitter account from a little more than 4 years ago.

Other than their main Twitter handle, Stranger Things has another Twitter handle specifically for the writers. This Twitter account, @strangerwriters, has a little more than 4,000 tweets and almost 500,000 followers. Although this is not as popular (i.e. it does not get as many followers or attention in general from watchers and fans of Stranger Things), it is much more active than their main Twitter handle. For instance, in the past few minutes that I have been writing this post, they have posted 3 more tweets, in which one of them is interacting with a Stranger Things fan.

The content strategy pursued by two of these Twitter handles are different. With the main one, the social media marketers are trying to promote the show as much as possible right before a season airs on Netflix, and would continue to promote the show within a few days or weeks after it airs. With the writers’ Twitter, however, the content strategy is different in the sense that their main content is posting what audiences want to see. Their main focus, from what I can see from their tweets, is to engage with their audiences. This could be the smallest thing like saying hi to their fans and acknowledging that they exist. In Daniel Evans’ Social Media and Customer Engagement piece, there is a quote from Esther Dyson that says,

“As people take control over their data while spreading their Web presence, they are not looking for privacy, but for recognition as individuals."

In the case of the Stranger Things’ writers’ Twitter account, many of the individuals that interact with that account want to be recognized, much like individuals who interact with many other shows that they are fans of or even celebrities. Acknowledgement, in these situations, is significant because it allows Stranger Things to connect to their audiences in a way that they do not with their main Twitter account.

As well as they are doing on Twitter, however, their main Instagram page beats their follower metrics by about more than 6 times. As you can see in the screenshot below, they have almost 14 million followers on Instagram with only a little less than 450 posts. This indicates that most of their fans are socially active on Instagram in comparison to Twitter, which gives certain implications on how they can manage their social media postings on this social media website.

Stranger Things is also on Facebook. Interestingly enough, although I would not think that their demographic would be on Facebook, it still has more than 3 times the followers that their main Twitter account has. However, it is also important to consider that Facebook has about 2.4 billion users, so it was smart of social media marketers of Stranger Things to be present on this platform (Statista).

Most of these social media platforms are used by the marketers of Stranger Things mainly to promote the series when a new season is airing. However, what is different with their Twitter - specifically with the writers’ account - is that they are able to engage with their consumers more through daily interactions and unique posts about the characters of the show, the plot of the show, etc.

The Social Feedback Cycle

Shown above is a diagram that Daniel Evans puts in his piece, Social Media and Customer Engagement. This cycle shows the ways in which a purchase/consumption decision is impacted by other consumers forming opinions of that specific purchase/consumption.

In the case of Stranger Things, the social feedback cycle is clearly applied because they use their interactions with consumers to show other consumers, potential consumers, as well as non-consumers that they are open to any types of comments about the show. The way they do this is they post content that is “relatable” to consumers on their writers’ Twitter handle. This is significant in terms of their social feedback cycle because they successfully portray themselves as a cool and friendly brand that wants to interact with their fans.

When looking at the components of the cycle step-by-step, the social media presence of this brand clearly uses this cycle effectively. In terms of awareness, they make sure to release consistent content in all of their main social media accounts (i.e. their main Twitter handle, Instagram, and Facebook). For example, to raise awareness about the release of their fourth season, they released this content (shown below) on all of their main social media accounts.

In order to consume their content, consumers would need to have a Netflix account, as this series is only available on that site (unless they choose to stream it in another way *cough cough*). The “purchase” section of this cycle, therefore, represents the conversion of consumers actually clicking on the show and watching it. Once these consumers have “consumed” the product, it is most likely that they will turn to social media to talk about what they think of the newest season or any sort of content released by Stranger Things. When talks between consumers and the brand are occurring, though, the interactions that occur within the brand itself are simultaneously occurring. In the image shown below, for example, the two Twitter accounts for Stranger Things are interacting in a way that consumers can laugh at. Furthermore, by doing this (i.e. replying to each other’s tweets), they are not explicitly promoting the show; the way they interact makes it seem as if they want to relate to the consumers, and not to rub their promotional content into consumers’ face.

The “user-generated” part of the social feedback cycle is definitely a step that applies to the way Stranger Things brands themselves. One of the examples for this is shown in the image below. It shows a thread of tweets written by @strangerwriters asking their followers to send pictures of their Stranger Things Halloween costumes. When this tweet was posted, a bunch of fans and followers started sending their Stranger Things-related Halloween pictures, which essentially generated content for Stranger Things without them actually releasing any new content themselves.

The Engagement Process

The engagement process is a four-stage process that Daniel Evans explains in his piece. From consumption all the way up to collaboration, these are levels ranked in an ascending order of how well brands are able to engage with their consumers. I believe that Stranger Things have successfully reached the “collaboration” stage of the engagement process. The reason for this is because they have integrated all of the stages preceding the “collaboration” stage, which includes consumers watching and/or downloading their content (the series), consumers sharing and reviewing the show, and consumers creating content on the social media pages of Stranger Things accounts, like the example that I have shown previously about their Halloween costumes. In the “collaboration” stage, consumers can interact with the brand of Stranger Things, as mainly seen through their writers’ Twitter handle. Additionally, they have essentially helped create an online community among the watchers and fans of Stranger Things. On Twitter alone, there are multiple Twitter fan accounts and other accounts that post content related to Stranger Things, as shown below.

Stranger Things fan accounts are also prevalent in Instagram, as seen in the image embedded below.

These online communities are significant for any brand to exist in today’s digital era because not only does it show the amount of support that there is for a brand, but it also shows how dedicated followers are in building an online community for other followers. Stranger Things has been a brand that is successful in maintaining support from consumers through consumer engagement, specifically through interactions that they have on their social media accounts. Recognizing the support and dedication from consumers is an important way to show them appreciation for what they have done. Without consumer engagement, I believe that Stranger Things would not have gained the same success as they have today. Without consumers and social media in general, Stranger Things would have been stuck in the u p s i d e d o w n.

#social media

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forkanna · 7 years

Link

[AO3 LINK]

It took me all night to stop feeling embarrassed about the scene Knives caused. Maybe deep down, I really did feel flattered that she cared this much, but it was buried under so much shame and annoyance that I couldn't even feel it accurately. Where did she get off inserting herself into my life as some weird kind of protector? Especially since I didn't need any protecting. At all. That was just some random crap I made up to make it clear that I wasn't interested in her hanging around and making me feel better. Not my fault she was too dense to realise.

A few days later, I saw her again. Just enough time to forget that the whole incident happened before I was freshly reminded because she came barging back into my life. Great.

"Are you stalking me?"

"What?" Knives asked, trying to casually drop down from the tree branch. She landed with a quiet tmp against the little patch of grass around the trunk, a would-be innocent smile playing across her lips. "Noooo… not at all."

"Because it feels like you're stalking me. And what's with that?"

"Nothing!" Her hand whipped to one side, throwing the binoculars so hard that they disappeared into the sky with a brief gleam. "Nobody was watching you since you left the house this morning, don't be silly!"

Sighing, I continued walking down the pavement. She kept pace with me; now that I'd found her out, apparently she had decided there was no point in keeping a low profile anymore. My hands clenched into fists in my hoodie pockets. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Well… I'm trying to do surveillance."

"Yeah, I got that."

"For the challenges? You know… see if I can tell from the outside anything more about what I'll face on the inside. So far, nothing obvious. But I wanna be ready!"

"For the imaginary challenges? Wow, quelle surprise."

"Are they imaginary though?" she breathed with a slight squinting of her eyes.

"Dude… you are so weird." For some reason, that made her grin at me, and I rolled my eyes. Didn't seem to be any point in trying to get rid of her anymore, so I just said, "I'm going to work. You won't have anything to do there but watch me watch old movies."

"I love old movies! Like, like… the first Harry Potter!"

Inwardly, I died a little.

~ o ~

This manic chick actually came with me to the video rental store. I shouldn't have to tell you that in this millennium, especially after the first decade of it, there's really no point in even having a video rental store anymore, so we had no customers. It was literally hours of sitting around and watching movie after movie, while maybe one guy came in and asked where 'the good stuff' was kept. My glare sent him packing.

"So was it that bad wherever you went for uni that you ended up slumming it back here again?"

"Not bad," Knives told me as she sat on the counter, spinning the orange she had gotten from a convenience store on the way in her hands. It was the last thing either of us had to eat after we made our way through some cheesy Nineties rom-com. "Just not home. Toronto is just, you know? Like… everything's so cool here."

"Yeah, it's freezing."

"Not right now. Summer in Toronto is like, the best. Plus my friend Tamara lives here, I was hoping I'd see her."

There was something about how genuine Knives was that reminded me of Scott when we first met. That could probably play a role in why they were attracted to each other in the first place, and I might be more certain of that if I were some kind of TV pop-psychologist. As in, Scott saw something of his younger self in Knives, the way he was before he broke my heart and Envy broke his in turn. Yadda yadda.

Maybe that's why I hadn't thrown her out yet. Nostalgia.

"Kim?"

"What?" I snapped, since I had been snapped out of my stupor.

"The movie's over."

"Oh…" Ducking my head, I reached over to pull the DVD of 'The Mystical Head' out of the player. "Shit…"

Head tilted to one side, Knives asked me, "What would you be watching if you had to pick? Right now?"

"Zombie Corpse Mutilator IV: The Zombining."

"Really? Is it any good? I don't watch very many scary movies…"

With a long sigh, I stood up and stretched my arms over my head. Knives tried to balance the orange on the bridge of her nose, failed, and caught it before it fell very far. "You probably just want me to put on some drivel like 'Let's Hope There's A Heaven,' don't you?"

"No," she laughed easily. "What about… 'Seven Shaolin Masters'? I like action, but not like, just a bunch of stuff blowing up. And I heard that one's supposed to be pretty authentic, it was done by a Chinese director."

The way she looked all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed reminded me of a squirrel spotting a nut it hadn't cracked yet. Maybe I was the nut. Who knows? But for some reason, her excitement and complete disregard of whether or not I crapped all over her good mood was getting past my defenses. So much so that I said…

"Sure. Think we have a few copies."

We watched it. Not a bad flick. I guess I like it about as much as I like anything, really. Not high praise, but you get the picture. Knives was eating it up. Really… the weirdest part is that she never complained about having to sit there on the counter, just hopped down once in a while to stretch her legs and lean against it instead. Like we had been doing this for years: her coming to hang out with me while I 'worked'. Felt like the plot of some low-budget indie film, shot in black-and-white to be 'ironic'.

About halfway through, she did go to the lavatory, and when she came back she stayed behind the counter. I started to tell her she wasn't allowed, but decided I didn't care enough. Maybe I'm getting soft at the ripe old age of twenty-four.

"Hey," I suddenly asked, during a boring part in which the main character was meditating.

"Hm?"

"What are you doing?"

"Watching a movie."

"No… I mean like, going to uni. What's your whole deal?" I cringed; that was a pretty crappy way to ask the question. But, as usual, Knives didn't seem to mind.

"Not really sure. Just want to figure out what I'm doing. My mom wants me to be a doctor, but that is so not happening. Like… I kinda want to found a martial arts school. Super cliché, but I've never really been good at anything else, except fangirling. Which isn't really a 'job' I can get."

"Sure you could. Rent yourself out as a professional fangirl."

Her eyes went round. "You can do that?!" But for once, she seemed to get that I was teasing and smiled. "Aww, silly Kim. But… actually I wonder if there'd be any interest in it… maybe I could start a whole new thing!"

"Weirdo."

"What about you?"

That caught me off guard. "Huh? I'm a drummer."

"Yeah, but you aren't really in a band right now, right? You said you and Neil's sister are just kind of trying stuff."

"It's none of your-" But I cut myself off. This wasn't an interrogation, and Knives wasn't trying to pry. Wasn't trying to. "I just… am trying to figure that out. My life got kicked in the butt by a few events and I need a rebuilding year."

"But it's already been a year since your last band-"

"Knives…"

She fell silent, turning away to finish the movie. She looked guilty, which wasn't really what I wanted; I just wanted her to take the hint that it's not the most fun subject to bring up for me right now. But I didn't know how to tell her that without getting all sappy and feelsy, so I didn't try.

When Comeau came in to relieve me, we split, and she followed along behind like a good puppy. A good stray puppy. One I never wanted, but for some reason, I didn't mind her there. We did start getting along toward the end of Sex Bob-omb's career, I guess.

"You wanna get some food? It's about dinner time. Or you probably have plans, huh?"

Shrugging, I managed to mutter, "Eh." I didn't have any plans. I never had many plans anymore; met up with Stephen once a week, or less. Steph wasn't so much a friend as a colleague… which I guess was where both of them stood with me. Where did everybody go?

"Cool. Wanna get Sneaky Dee's?"

"Ugh… too noisy. Not in the mood."

"Poutine? Sushi?"

I started to make a very vaguely racist joke about sushi being the wrong food for her, but decided it would be more hurtful than funny. Especially to Knives, who only seemed to get the most obvious jokes. "Poutine works. I could use some gravy-laden goodness."

"Cool. Let's do it!"

She skipped off down the path, hair bouncing on the breeze. I didn't notice before that she was still keeping it short, I was so focused on the fact that she stopped dyeing it in the front. Kind of a compromise between who she had been before Scott and who she was after, maybe.

Not that I knew why I was noticing now. I must really have been bored. "Wait up, you dumbass," I grumbled under my breath as I trudged after her.

~ o ~

Somehow, grabbing dinner with this almost-a-stranger was fine. She gushed about college life, about some group of friends she found online and really connected with or whatever. I was only half paying attention while I chewed. Between bites she was drinking a ginger ale, and kept setting it down so hard that a few droplets would fly up and land on the table, or even on her face. That annoyed me, but it was also kind of… cute somehow. Maybe I needed therapy.

Once we finished up, we walked to the bus stop that would take her back in the direction of her house. It was awkward. There was no real reason for it to be awkward but it was; she looked down at her boots, rocking back and forth with her hands in the small of her back.

"U-um… do you mind if I drop by more? You seemed kind of unhappy to see me at first. If you really want me to leave you alone forever…"

"Yes. I do."

"Okay. S-sorry, Kim."

Now I felt like I was kicking a puppy. She wasn't really that bad; I just hated being forced to endure the company of anyone besides myself and my inner demons. "Ugh… just don't make a big deal about it, and shut up if we get too busy, alright? God."

Her mopey face turned into a wide smile over the course of the following five seconds. "YAY!" No seriously, she said 'yay'. And meant it. What the fuck was she even? Her arms sprang forward, and before I could tell what was about to happen, she had me caught in a crushing hug.

"Let GO. Dude, seriously! Off!"

"I'll see you tomorrow! Oh man, this is gonna be a great summer!" Without any further ado, she pranced over to the bus stop, walking backward so she could wave at me the entire time. Anybody could have predicted that she would trip over the old man's dachshund, but she picked herself up right away with a light giggle, apologising to both of them before waving again.

Our definitions of "great summer" don't have much overlap.

To Be Continued…

#kim pine's precious little knives #forkanna writes #kim pine #knives chau #scott pilgrim vs. the world #forkanna the writer

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oneddashone · 6 years

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Games of the Year 2017

What follows is a post I wrote on New Years Eve, 2017. Like in previous years, I wanted to document the games I played that year, but when I got to the winner I couldn’t find the right words to write about it. So it stayed unpublished on my desktop for eight months. I’m posting this now because I’m starting to think about my 2018 list, and want this for posterity.

Good Games (Non-Switch) Destiny 2 Cuphead Everybody’s Golf Nier: Automata

Only four games not on Nintendo’s newest platform truly caught my attention this year, which admittedly probably says more about me and my current preferences than the quality of releases on non-Switch devices. Nier never quite got its hooks fully into me, but I could appreciate it for what it was nonetheless. Everybody’s Golf provided a lot of fun multiplayer, and Cuphead was probably the most hands-down beautiful game of the year. But nothing else got to me quite as much as Destiny 2, which, even after swearing off the first, came back in a big way. Everything felt addressed in the sequel, and everything seemed to value my time just a little bit more. I’m still checking in and playing every week or so, and the new DLC is fantastic so far.

Best of Switch eShop Golf Story Mighty Gunvolt Burst Blaster Master Zero Picross S Snipperclips Sonic Mania SteamWorld Dig 2 Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove Tumbleseed Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap

These games were all a little too slight to be in the GOTY conversation (my bias is showing), although Golf Story certainly felt close. A wonderful combination of GBA Mario Golf with the charm and aesthetics of something like Earthbound, I really dug this simple golf RPG by two guys from Australia. Sonic Mania was the first Sonic game I ever truly enjoyed, and Picross S was a wonderful break from faster-paced games when I needed it. I also loved the trend of new games either remaking or at least referencing Famicom-era design principles—Master Blaster Zero, Mighty Gunvolt Burst, Shovel Knight—to create something new in 2017.

Good Games (Switch) Puyo Puyo Tetris Fire Emblem Warriors Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Pokkén Tournament DX

TBD: The End is Nigh Xenoblade Chronicles 2

The End is Nigh and the new Xenoblade only recently came out, but it’s safe to say that once I get more time into them, they’ll be at least this high on my list. MK8 Deluxe and Pokken DX maybe technically came out last year, but both got new life on the Switch this year (also I never played Pokken on the Wii U). Fire Emblem Warriors is a remarkable amount of fan service, and a very good Musou game to boot—I need to put more time into it, but it’s always a good thing when you can pop into once in awhile and just dunk on hundreds of enemies in seconds.

Puyo Puyo Tetris was easily my favorite of this bunch though. The concept is simple enough, but what really put this over the edge were my experiences in multiplayer. Whether it was online with friends or on the couch with my daughter, playing competitive puzzle games remains one of gaming’s finest experiences. The difficulty settings made playing with my six year old an actually engaging and challenging prospect, and I think it actually taught her the finer points of trash talk as well (come to think of it, the same could be said of Pokken DX).

Best of Switch Runners-up Super Mario Odyssey Arms Splatoon 2 Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Mario + Rabbids made a late-year push from the previous category to this one—after a little time off with the game, my daughter became culturally aware of Rabbids and asked to see this game, so we played it and something clicked this time and now it’s one of my favorites. Turn-based strategy games are a long-time favorite, but Kingdom Battle really whittles the formula down to its essence, stripping away needless mechanics and even adding a bit of puzzling in between battles. I scoffed at this when it was announced (Rabbids? Mario? Guns??), but it’s safe to say it became my biggest surprise of the year.

As the first real new IP since Splatoon, and one of the first batch of new games for the Switch, I immediately had a lot of interest in Arms. That it was an approachable yet deep fighting game just made it all that much better. Local Vs—whether with my daughter or friends—is fun, and there is a competitive Online Ranked mode; but for me, Party Match is where this game shines. Sure, some of the games are goofy (literally dunking your opponent through a basketball hoop, for example), but it all comes together as a not-too-serious and fun but also just-competitive-enough way to spend time with strangers online. The constant free updates of new characters and stages helped keep this in my rotation all year long.

Splatoon 2, unlike Mario + Rabbids or Arms, was not a surprise at all—the first was one of my favorites, and the sequel was more of the same. Salmon Rush is a nice addition, but the real draw here is simple—it’s Splatoon on a platform with a bigger install base. Splatoon 2 has also been another nice bonding experience with my daughter, who really took to the game’s unique characters and fashionable setting. And just like Arms and the original Splatoon, Nintendo supported this all year long with new weapons, stages, modes, and gear—all for free. This one will stay in the rotation for the foreseeable future.

In most (all?) previous years, Super Mario Odyssey would have easily been #1. It’s not a stretch to say that this might be my favorite Mario game of all-time—blending the accessibility and delight of the first games with the depth and breadth of the 3D games that followed, all wrapped up in the tightest controls the series has had since the SNES era. The stages are straight out of the Galaxy playbook (which had the best stages, imo), but instead of self-contained little worlds, they are smashed together to create big areas with an amazing amount of things to do. And when you combine a near-endless amount of things to do with the fact that just moving around and ‘doing’ nothing feels great, you have a recipe for a classic. Which reminds me...

Game of the Year The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Whoo boy.

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