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nectar-cellar · 2 years

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Reminiscing about The Sims

Share how you discovered the Sims franchise & the very first sims game you played (e.g ts2).

Thank you for tagging me @nocturnalazure !

Long, meandering post ahead 😂

Have some spicy pictures of Amir to make up for it. He’s thinking. It’s on theme.

@thesimperiuscurse you are responsible for pic 1 btw

The very first Sims game I ever played was The Sims 3, on the Xbox 360 console, when I was a teenager. Back then, TS3 was one of the bigger and newer EA games of the time, and it was everywhere. I spent hours in front of the TV, playing my households with no CC or DLC, wrapped up in my own imagination, no consideration for picture-taking, nothing! Just pure self-indulgent fun. I wasn’t a PC gamer and I had no idea CC or Simblr even existed. It was a much simpler time.

I think it was around the final year of high school when I first stumbled across sims CC somewhere on the internet. (Someone had posted screenshots of their very attractive male sim, that I do remember. Explains a lot doesn’t it?) I can’t remember the exact time. It might have been on my personal Tumblr account (all my friends had one and we thought we were so cool) or even Google Images lmao. My mind was blown. I never knew you could make hot sims. I immediately bought a Sims 3 CD and installed it on my Dad’s laptop. The PC version of TS3 was so much better. That was also when I started a Simblr, to follow others and share my own pics... this very same one!

After I discovered CC and Simblr, I never played the game the same way ever again. My interest shifted to character creation and ~fashion~ I guess. The endless amount of simspiration and CC spoiled me and ruined my appreciation for the game in its untouched form. I wanted my sims, my builds, my pictures, everything to look perfect, and I was never satisfied. I viewed my game and my content through other people’s eyes, not my own.

I remember being so in awe of everyone else on here. At the time, I only had the base game, I didn’t know how to torrent anything, my Dad’s laptop could barely run the game, I didn’t have money to buy dlc, and I had no idea how to make any kind of CC other than the simplest graphic edits. All I really did was make sims and pose them for photoshoots. Obsessively downloaded a shit ton of other people’s CC. Wrote a little bit here and there. Played my household once in a blue moon. Everyone else, with their cliques and fun legacies and bachelorette challenges and CC creations and intricate builds and amazing editing, seemed so much cooler than me. There were so many different websites and forums and blogs. The TS3 player base was huge. I was amazed by all of it. I couldn’t believe we were all playing the same game. I couldn’t believe people were so creative and talented. It was an odd mixture of admiration, envy, and feeling like an outsider compared to the “big” Simblrs of the time.

I made some simple cc here and there to contribute to the community, but I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t take it seriously. I wanted to create better things but it all seemed so complicated, and I didn’t think I was smart enough to learn.

Then, I went off to university. Away from my Dad’s laptop, I lost interest in the game, and became preoccupied with other life things and other console games. I wasn’t really around for the release of The Sims 4. I was busy, and it just didn’t have the same magic. For a few years, I didn’t even log into this Tumblr account. I didn’t pick up TS3 again until right before the pandemic happened, on a nostalgic whim.

When I first started posting again in 2019/2020, I didn’t expect much. A lot of my previous Simblr mutuals/friends were no longer here. Every post on my dashboard was about TS4. Most of my followers from years ago were no longer active. There were only a few familiar faces left. It was lonely, coming back here only to see how everyone had moved on, and I was nobody. But still, the game was just as fun as I remembered it, with years’ worth of new CC to check out, so I kept playing and posting and catching up on all I had missed, and slowly I started finding community again.

Now that I’m a bit older, I find myself appreciating the game a lot more, in ways I couldn’t before. The beautiful scenery. The open world. The Create-a-Style tool. The maxis-match aesthetic. The humor. The dated yet charming look of the clothes and the townies and the worlds. The time in my life when the game was still new.

I also feel like it’s easier and less stressful to participate in the community now that I have a little bit more maturity than when I was 18. It feels freer and more fun. When I read posts by simmers talking about how they feel like their content is not good enough, or comparing themselves to others, I feel sad. I used to feel the same way. But being “good” at Simblr/social media, and having fun with the game (in whichever way you define fun), are two very different things. I hope that makes sense. It took me some time to learn how to not let comparison steal my joy, and give myself permission to just do what I wanted to do, regardless of whether other people might like it or not. When I look back on my older posts, I feel like I’ve grown so much, both as a simmer and a person.

Well, maybe I haven’t changed that much. I still love my hot pixel men.

I’m so glad I came back to Simblr. My simming hobby has turned into a much bigger thing than I ever thought it would. I mean, I learned how to make CC that other people like? I’ve made so many new connections? My sims have become OCs I’m attached to? I see the TS3 community being revived again as EA drives TS4 into the ground more and more each day? Who would’ve guessed 😆

I love this game, I love the creativity it inspires in me, and I love the wonderful people that make up this little corner of the internet. ✨💛

#sim spice #the sims 3

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millenniumblog · 3 years

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[ID: A chart describing the core values of each of the nine Enneagram personality types with YuGiOh characters correlated to each of the types.]

YuGiOh Enneagram Analysis, Part #1

Please note that this is the “boring” informational post about Enneagram with the Types listed and explained as well as a few other things. The next post is what has the actual, in-depth character profiles promised!

Introduction & Motivation

Over the past several months, I have been trying to analyze my strengths and weaknesses as a writer and learn more. I have been writing fanfiction since I was a little kid, making my first FF.net account in 2003 when I would have been twelve years old. Even before that, I was a lurker and wrote fics to share with my childhood best friend on paper or floppy discs.

YuGiOh came into my life at some point shortly thereafter. I know this, because I spent my thirteenth birthday in a comic book shop, mostly watching some of my male friends play the trading card game. I had some of the cards, but I was never much of a player, unable to keep up with the seemingly rapid rule changes. Besides that, I was always way more interested in the story and characters than I was in the card game. I remember I even wanted to call “YuGiOh cards” “Duel Monsters” instead to make it seem a little closer to tween-y LARPing.

Eventually, I gave up on collecting cards or trying to ply the game. I felt that while my male friends didn’t mind me being around when they played, they weren’t extremely interested in helping me learn or keep up. I felt I had other strengths, so I started carrying around a notebook even more than I already did. I started my fledgling forays into online fandom. And YuGiOh was a big part of the beginning of that.

I can’t remember posting any YuGiOh fic in particular, and I’m sure that if I had it would make me cringe now. What I do remember is reading some and also spending a lot of time lying on my bed, headphones plugged into a small purple stereo, listening to the first of the two American-released CDs with YuGiOh-inspired music on them. In particular, the last three tracks were pieces of music from the original score composed for the 4Kids dub, which is - for some reason - different from the original Japanese music.

During that time, I would fantasize and conjure my own YuGiOh plots in my head, most of which were focused on the Ancient Egyptian and more spooky, spiritual, and horror themes in the show. I was really fascinated with the reincarnation angle, though my understanding of and opinions on how that works have grown with time.

Years went by, and I didn’t think about YuGiOh much at all. Then, something happened in 2018. I don’t know what got in my head, but it was like all the joy I once found in thinking about the YuGiOh characters came back in a giddy conversation with my childhood best friend. Then, for a little while, it wouldn’t leave me alone.

I started writing for the fandom then, and after several detours, I’m trying to get back in the groove of it.

My approach to the tone of YuGiOh-fanning is that it’s a bit serious, but it’s also with a tongue placed in my cheek because of how incomprehensible or silly the plot can be on a meta level. Sometimes, it almost brings tears to my eyes by being so over-the-top about something that, in the real world, would make no sense at all. But the drama, in the context of the universe, somehow rings true.

I think that’s all owing to how most of the primary characters are just... really freaking great characters.

It has often puzzled me. Like, did Takahashi do all this layering on purpose? Is it really there, or did earnest fanon just make it seem like it? And, as a person, I am always here for a good fan-and-canon symbiosis.

This post is going to be, from here on, an effort to match the YuGiOh characters to the 9 Enneagram Personality Types. I am writing this for my own benefit as I continue to work on my pet YuGiOh fanfiction project, It’s Always Sunny in Domino City, which is a mixture of YGOTAS-vibes-and-concepts taken seriously and a sincere take on fanfiction for the actual canon. It’s dramedy about a sizeable chunk of the main cast a few years post-canon with some canon divergence such as the Memory World arc not yet and possibly never-happening. If that sounds like something you’d like, I would humbly request you check it out!

Either way, this will be an in-depth character analysis cheatsheet for all of the characters above, based on my observations, opinions, and feelings. I invite discussion, but it’s fine if we need to agree to totally disagree!

If you are interested and enjoy what’s below the Read More and in the coming second post, then you are welcome to utilize the character analyses to aid you in your own fanwork!

Enneagram

What is Enneagram, and why am I using it?

Enneagram is a personality categorization system that one might compare to the somewhat better-known MBTI. However, in the words of excellent writing-advice YouTuber, Abbie Emmons:

MBTI shows us how we behave.

Enneagram shows us what we believe.

I will be referencing Abbie’s video Using The ENNEAGRAM To Write CONFLICTED CHARACTERS and her free Enneagram-cheatsheet, available in the description of the linked video. Whether it’s before you continue reading or after, if you’re interested in writing, I would highly recommend you check out her channel!

The Enneagram system has nine basic personality types that overlap and interact in really interesting ways. It is not a hard science, and it’s not a horoscope. Instead, it’s supposed to be “based on conventional wisdom and modern psychology.” All I can say is that with every set of characters I’ve tried it with, it works! Once you get the hang of it, it feels kind of like ~✰~magic~✰~!

Below, I will list Abbie’s simplified definitions of each of the personality types, in order:

Type 1: The Reformer

The Rational, Idealistic Type:

Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic

Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective

Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced

Key Motivations: Want to be right, to strive higher and improve everything, to be consistent with their ideals, to justify themselves, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.

Type 2: The Helper

The Caring, Interpersonal Type:

Generous, Demonstrative, People-Pleasing, and Possessive

Basic Fear: Of being unwanted, unworthy of being loved

Basic Desire: To feel loved

Key Motivations: Want to be loved, to express their feelings for others, to be needed and appreciated, to get others to respond to them, to vindicate their claims about themselves.

Type 3: The Achiever

The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type:

Adaptable, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious

Basic Fear: Of being worthless

Basic Desire: To feel valuable and worthwhile

Key Motivations: Want to be affirmed, to distinguish themselves from others, to have attention, to be admired, and to impress others.

Type 4: The Individualist

The Sensitive, Introspective Type:

Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance

Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an identity)

Key Motivations: Want to express themselves and their individuality, to create and surround themselves with beauty, to maintain certain moods and feelings, to withdraw to protect their self-image, to take care of emotional needs before attending to anything else, to attract a "rescuer."

Type 5: The Investigator

The Intense, Cerebral Type:

Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated

Basic Fear: Being useless, helpless, or incapable

Basic Desire: To be capable and competent

Key Motivations: Want to possess knowledge, to understand the environment, to have everything figured out as a way of defending the self from threats from the environment.

Type 6: The Loyalist

The Committed, Security-Oriented Type:

Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious

Basic Fear: Of being without support and guidance

Basic Desire: To have security and support

Key Motivations: Want to have security, to feel supported by others, to have certitude and reassurance, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to fight against anxiety and insecurity.

Type 7: The Enthusiast

The Busy, Variety-Seeking Type:

Spontaneous, Versatile, Acquisitive, and Scattered

Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain

Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

Type 8: The Challenger

The Powerful, Dominating Type:

Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational

Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others

Basic Desire: To protect themselves (to be in control of their own life and destiny)

Key Motivations: Want to be self-reliant, to prove their strength and resist weakness, to be important in their world, to dominate the environment, and to stay in control of their situation.

Type 9: The Peacemaker

The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type:

Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent

Basic Fear: Of loss and separation

Basic Desire: To have inner stability, "peace of mind"

Key Motivations: Want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.

Now that you’ve seen all those, what do you think your favorite character is? In YuGiOh or anything else! It works great for original characters and even yourself and your loved ones.

The actual Character Profiles will be in coming post(s), but continue reading if you want me to explain more about how and why the Enneagram is a great personality typing system. #nonspon, or whatever.

The Enneagram Chart

Now, you could just go to the Enneagram Institute’s page on How the System Works, but below I’ll cut it down to only the parts I’m interested in and explain those in a way that helps me.

Unlike in astrology or MBTI, which are both more restrictive in different ways, the relative position of each type matters a bit on the Enneagram chart, because it can be used to visualize a lot of things about a person!

The Basic Chart

The Types are shown in a clockwise fashion with “1″ in the 1 o’clock position on an analog clock. The interior lines mean things, but I have trouble reading it without further delineation.

Centers of Response

Below are two small charts, displayed side-by-side. (If it’s too small, try right-click, open in new tab!)

The chart on the left shows the three “centers.” The “centers” indicate the first ‘processing language’ a person would use to respond to stimuli.

Type 8, Type 9, and Type 1 respond first based on instinct (primal, gut-feeling). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the id.

Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 respond first based on feelings (social or personal desires, the heart). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the ego.

Type 5, Type 6, and Type 7 respond first based on thoughts (analytical rather than emotional, the head). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the superego.

Remember that, of course, every single type and person engages their instincts, their emotions, and their thoughts at different times and to different degrees, and some of these are learned or changed behaviors. This is about what their innate drive toward that would be.

Likewise, the same “centers” can also be used for the chart on the right. You will notice that all three of these are defined by what is typically considered a negative emotion. This is because this is about a person’s instinctive, not particularly conscious emotional response when they are backed into a corner and deprived of something that is core to the needs of their personality type.

Type 8, Type 9, and Type 1 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with anger/rage.

Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with shame.

Type 5, Type 6, and Type 7 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with fear.

Stress vs. Growth

We all know that there are times when a person isn’t acting like themselves, for better or for worse. Usually, “You’re not acting like yourself,” means that a person is behaving badly. Of course, it’s way easier to withdraw and bristle and defend rather than growing in the midst of adversity. However, it is certainly possible to experience character growth in response to experiences, good and bad. Unlike a lot of other personality typing schemes, the Enneagram has a way to display and predict what stress and growth do to a person.

The Enneagram never suggests that any Type is an island unto itself. Every person contains multitudes, but a person’s Type is likely to remain relatively stable throughout their lives, once they have had a chance to develop any personality at all. This means that when a person is stressed or growing that they do not become the type they emulate. Rather, they are more highly expressing that aspects of their personality that reflect those drives and desires but in a way that is either fraught, sickly, or unwell (in the case of stress), or aspirational, flying-high, and incorporating the hard-lessons into who a person is going to be going forward (in the case of growth). The latter, especially, isn’t a sustainable mode, while a stressed person can become more entrenched in their bad habits and defensive coping mechanisms.

Stress

Note the white, directional arrows. Each number has an arrow point pointing to it and an arrow leading away from it. The point indicates that this is the stress manifestation for the Type at the origin of that arrow. The origin of each arrow indicates the Type being described.

Confused? Let me finally give you a YuGiOh example.

When I was trying to identify the Types of the characters, defining Marik was difficult, because he has a “Yami,” or Dark Side, which has its own personality and will but which is not its own separate soul or person than Marik himself. Rather, it’s a kind of fantasy/magic-assisted personality splintering where Yami Marik is a full manifestation of the negative traits Marik needed to embody to survive.

So, for reference:

When stressed, Type 1 behaves more like Type 4.

When stressed, Type 2 behaves more like Type 8.

When stressed, Type 3 behaves more like Type 9.

When stressed, Type 4 behaves more like Type 2.

When stressed, Type 5 behaves more like Type 7.

When stressed, Type 6 behaves more like Type 3.

When stressed, Type 7 behaves more like Type 1.

When stressed, Type 8 behaves more like Type 5.

When stressed, Type 9 behaves more like Type 6.

Alternatively, you can use these sequences to follow the stress lines:

1-4-2-8-5-7-1

9-6-3-9

Growth

Think of the above-explanation in reverse.

The sequence:

1-7-5-8-2-4-1

9-3-6-9

As a Type 1 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 7.

As a Type 2 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 4.

As a Type 3 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 6.

As a Type 4 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 1.

As a Type 5 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 8.

As a Type 6 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 9.

As a Type 7 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 5.

As a Type 8 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 2.

As a Type 9 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 3.

Wings

The final thing to know about the Enneagram chart for my purposes is about wings. The wing of your personality traits accounts for the complementary and contradictory aspects of your personality. They are the inconsistencies that make you human, predicted and jumped in. Typically, a person is not thought to have both possible wings but one or the other. A wing is one of the two adjacent Types to yours, the number before, or the number after, and it is annotated, for example:

Type 1, Wing 2: 1w2

Type 1, Wing 9: 1w9

Link to Part 2 Here!

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cryoqi · 3 years

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in this timeline and the next.

“if you could re-do one moment in your life, what would it be?”

with oikawa tooru.

in 2.1k words.

tags time travel au, gn reader, angst to fluff.

For your fifteenth birthday you were gifted with a CD player along with one disc labelled “In This Timeline And The Next.” It sounded like the name of a movie, though you couldn’t put the title to a story. It sat in your closet untouched, until one day, several years into the future, you had the sudden urge to jump up out of your bed after wallowing in it for several days and open up the door of your closet to dig through the old clothes to uncover your old CD player. After a few minutes you were able to find the disc, thanking whatever was up there that it wasn’t scratched.

With dry hands you placed the disc inside the player and pressed the “play” button. Though you could see the disc turning in the transparent cover of the player, you couldn’t hear anything. You stared at it for a bit, never moving your head away from it, until you grew bored and turned to sit back in bed. When you turned to view the crumpled sheets and the littered water bottles spewed about, they were nowhere to be seen. All that was on your bed was a neatly-made blanket that you remember using back when you were fifteen years old, along with the pillow you remember crying on after Oikawa Tooru told you he didn’t have feelings for you. Maybe, if you looked closely, you could see the tear stains that remained.

After peering at the pillow to see if there were actually tear stains, the phone that sat quietly on your desk buzzed. Turning around to see what the notification said, you realized that the room in which you were standing was your bedroom from back when you were fifteen years old. Everything that you had placed in your room, even the anime poster you put up as your other birthday present, was there for you to see, as if you hadn’t removed any of it when you were sixteen years old. You rushed to your mirror, the one with the terrible finger marks and ripped-off stickers placed in the corners, and you audibly gasped. You were you, but back when you were a premature fifteen-year-old who had no sense of style.

You turned your head towards the CD player, the cause of the mess you were in right now, and pressed on the “pause” button. Nothing had worked. You pressed it multiple times, only for nothing to happen. You tried pressing everything on the player, and nothing worked. Groaning out loud, you brought your knees in to hug your legs and began sobbing. You couldn’t go back to the present; you were currently stuck in the past.

Footsteps from behind your bedroom door grew louder, and upon hearing them you jumped up off of the floor and into your bed. You tucked yourself underneath the sheets as you sneakily checked the clock hung up on your wall. It was almost 6 AM, and you weren’t sure if it was a school day, or if you were currently even in school. It could be winter vacation, for all you know, and you couldn’t tell by looking out the window, for the curtains blocked your view. Your heart raced, and you felt like you were fifteen all over again (which you were, but you didn’t want to admit it just yet), not wanting to get caught sleeping in on a school day.

“(Y/N)? Happy birthday, love. Are you still sleeping? Get up, honey, you have school today.” It was your mother. Your chest warmed at her sweet voice. “Make sure you hurry before Hajime and Tooru come so you could walk with them to school.” You jumped up at her notion, completely forgetting about how Iwaizumi and Oikawa used to walk with you to school every morning since they lived nearby.

Opening up your closet, you marveled at how different it was compared to your closet now, as a college student. You wanted to say it even smelled different, the scent of your clothes becoming prominent as you sifted through your clothes to find your junior high uniform. You went to a school close by Kitagawa Daiichi, where Iwaizumi and Oikawa attended as middle school students, and they always felt the need to walk you to school as if they had the responsibility to look after you and protect you, despite being the same age as they were.

As you struck a pose in the mirror, you laughed to yourself. You pointed at yourself in the mirror, looking yourself in the eye, saying, “You’re gonna have the biggest glow-up in the future. Just you wait.” You made your way out of your bedroom, and you looked all around your house. It shocked you at how much the decoration around your house hadn’t changed, which was a stark contrast from your completely different bedroom. As you entered the kitchen, where your mother cooked her own breakfast, you gave her a side hug, to which she gasped in amazement.

“Oh! Well, this is something different. Are you feeling ill, love?” Your mother asked.

You shook your head. “It’s nothing. Just wanted to greet my mom a good morning.” She chuckled at your response. You turned and grabbed the first thing you could find on the counter of your kitchen and made your way out the door, bookbag in one hand with your food in the other. “I’ll see you later; good bye! I love you.” She called out an “I love you, too!” as you exited the house.

In perfect timing, you saw Iwaizumi and Oikawa, walking side-by-side towards your house. Iwaizumi raised his hand, waving at you, while Oikawa kept his in his pockets, looking away from you.

It was the same scenario several years ago, when the night before, you had called Oikawa on your phone, whispering into the microphone so as not to wake up the other members of your family, telling him that you were possibly in love with him, and that you were afraid you might fall even more deeply than you already were. You had hoped, on that night, that he would say yes and become your boyfriend, as it would have made the best birthday present you could ever ask for. However, he said that he didn’t have feelings for you, breaking your heart for the very first time. You cried yourself to sleep that night, and woke up with swollen eyes. It was not a good day to start your fifteenth birthday.

The following days, Oikawa and you stopped talking and soon enough, the two of you fell apart as friends. Your mutual friend was Iwaizumi, who read the room and decided not to plan or do things with the two of you together. Your high school life was also awfully awkward, as you three went to Aoba Johsai together, so you saw Oikawa often. You had to admit it was painful for you to see Oikawa being the icon of the boy’s volleyball team, always having girls by his side. By your third year, though, the two of you had grown so distant that whatever he did passed through you like old news. When you graduated, some remnants of Oikawa remained in your mind, but he left for good when he moved out of the country to continue volleyball professionally.

So now here you were, once again reliving your past. Perhaps it was for the better; for you to change your past and create a future that could have happened. You caught up to Iwaizumi and Oikawa and greeted them both a good morning. Iwaizumi cheerfully greeted you back, and the other remained silent.

Usually the three of you walked together, side-by-side with you in the middle, but today Iwaizumi walked in the middle, understanding why without having to ask. It was an awkward walk, but as you arrived at the crosswalk where you part your ways from Oikawa and Iwaizumi, you grabbed onto Oikawa’s wrist before he could leave your sight.

“Wait, Oikawa-chan. Can I say something?” you asked. He stayed and listened intently, silently letting you continue. “I’m— uh, I’m sorry about last night. It was something unlike me to do, and I hope we can continue to stay friends even if I have feelings for you and you don’t for me.”

Oikawa smiled, and embraced you. You hugged him back, breathing in his scent. When the two of you pulled away, he kept his hands on your arms as he promised you, “I’m really sorry about last night as well, (Y/N)-chan. We’re always going to be friends, no matter what.” Before you left for your school and he left for his, Oikawa turned to you and added, “Oh, and happy birthday, (Y/N)-chan. Sorry I didn’t say it sooner. I hope you have a good one today.”

You parted ways with him, and a strange feeling never left your chest for the rest of the day. It kept a smile on your face, and butterflies rose up a storm in your stomach. It was entirely different than how your fifteen-year-old self handled the situation, but you were glad that you were able to make amends with Oikawa.

When you arrived home from school later that day (which, you weren’t going to lie, was a little difficult as you forgot most of the material you learned), you noticed that the CD player you were given was no longer on the floor but now sat at the corner of your desk. Perhaps your mother had placed it there. You sat on the chair, pulling yourself up to view the player again. You observed it all over, and when you checked the bottom of the player, you saw words scrawled hastily with a black permanent marker.

“IF YOU COULD RE-DO ONE MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD IT BE?”

The message was an eye-opener. You had just re-done one moment in your life that you regretted, and maybe it was going to change your future. You pressed the “play” button of the player and the disc began turning underneath the transparent cover. A couple seconds later, the phone on your desk buzzed, and as you looked over to see why it was buzzing, you noticed that your desk had changed back to how it was in the present. Everything was back to normal, you thought as you looked around your room. Turning your head back to face your phone, you picked it up to see something you would have never expected to see light up on the screen in front of you.

“Tooru is calling…”

You answered the call, and from the other end came Oikawa’s sleepy, raspy voice. “(Y/N)-chan, is that you? Good morning…”

Your chest grew tight and your stomach was doing flips. Did you really change the future? It couldn’t be true. “Good morning…” You weren’t sure whether you should refer to him as Oikawa or Tooru, but your contact name for him made it seem like you could call him Tooru. “Good morning… Tooru. Did you have a good rest?”

“I did. Isn’t it the afternoon for you right now? I… I think it is. Good afternoon to you, (Y/N)-chan. I miss you. I think I’ve said that too many times now, hahah…” He chuckled a little bit as you sat in shock. He missed you? Even after years of no communication with him? Or perhaps you actually did change the future, and you were able to start a relationship with him.

“… I miss you too. I’ve missed you for the longest time,” you replied.

“I’m glad, (Y/N)-chan. I miss you so much. Well, I have to get out of bed now. Practice is in a bit. I’ll call you back when I’m free. Bye. I love you.” He hung up before you could say anything else. The two of you were in a relationship, and you couldn’t help but plant yourself down on the desk in front of you and let your face warm up at his words.

He loved you. After what you had done that seemed like only hours ago, he finally had feelings for you.

You opened up the player to look at the disc labelled “In This Timeline And The Next,” and you picked it up out of the player to observe it carefully. You noticed that grooved into the disc there lay almost invisible words that made your mouth open slightly.

in this timeline and the next …

… i will continue to love you

reposted from my old blog, @/lnarizakis.

#haikyuu x reader #hq!! x reader #oikawa tooru x reader #oikawa x reader #hq oikawa x reader #oikawa fluff #haikyuu fluff

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dustedmagazine · 3 years

Text

Listed: Colin Fisher

Photo by ilyse krivel

Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist Colin Fisher is on a constant quest for the ecstatic through sound. His journey has taken him in many directions, from the math-rock inspired group Sing That Yell That Spell, to the fiery free improvisation duo Not the Wind, Not the Flag. As a band leader, his free jazz quartet released the white-hot Living Midnight for Astral Spirits in 2020, about which Derek Taylor wrote, “Passages of ruminant restraint alternate with excoriating blasts and outbursts, but the means always remains intelligible and momentum driven whether full-steam or incremental.” Solo, Fisher has recently wafted in a more contemplative direction that might see him associated with the new age revival, but this work is as exploratory and engaging as his most spirited improvisational outings. Here, he lists some of the pieces within which he experiences the sublime.

Jean-Pierre Leguay — Chant d’Airain

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Some of my first experiences with the sublime in music were in church. I abhorred being in church (and would even attempt to hide to avoid attendance) but at the end of service the organist played as the congregation filed out. The selections were usually secular and I can remember my rapt attention. Not because of some aesthetic taste but because I was having a physical/biological response to the sounds. Being in the resonant chamber of the cathedral provided a fully immersive experience. Rather than suggest whatever music was being played at the time I’m going to fast forward to my mid 20s… While in the same church, I heard the principal organist of Notre Dame improvise with some Messiaen-symmetrical ideas that lifted me out of my corporeal form and left me sobbing in a church pew at the very church I would have done everything in my power not to be present in as a child. The organist was Jean-Pierre Leguay.

Ravi Shankar — At Monterey Pop

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An early transmission from what seemed like outer space at the time, as a young child I heard the sounds of Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha live at Monterey Pop (my parents had this and the record with Yehudi Menuhin.) Ravi is far from my fav Hindustani musician or sitarist, of which I have innumerable favorites now. But I’m particularly enamored with Vilayat Khan after reading his biography, The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan, a couple of years ago. Pandit Pran Nath is also a huge inspiration.

Polvo — Cor-Crane Secret

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Without sifting through the rubble of my punk/hardcore teens (which was totally legit inspirational beauty, from Minor Threat and straight edge to grunge, etc.) I want to highlight a band that literally changed my life in my mid to late teens. When I first heard Cor-Crane Secret by Polvo, I didn’t realize that music like this existed. It gave me permission to go on long wonky improvisational explorations — endless melodies and whammied chords that would go on for hours sometimes. I also got to see them on the Today’s Active Lifestyles tour when I was 18, totally life changing.

Ornette Coleman — The Shape of Jazz to Come

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The next stage I’ll focus on has a little more girth: my introduction to jazz/free jazz/improv/fusion. I think I first discovered this music by accident. I remember seeing a clip of Monk on the news the day he died. I was much younger, and I thought to myself “this music is like an alien transmission!” But I put that away in the vaults for a couple of decades. I also remember seeing a clip on TV of a soprano player at a jazz fest in Toronto, playing the craziest shit I’d ever heard (once again on a news program,) but had little-to-no context. The clip lasted probably 10 seconds but felt longer and I remember thinking something like “this is more punk rock than punk rock!” hahaha. So, there was a hunger there that I needed to satiate. But I had no access to any recordings where I lived. I remember reading books at the library about jazz history and the only CDs I could borrow were Manteca or big band music. I had to imagine what Song X sounded like for the time being. Ornette’s The Shape of Jazz to Come was one of the first albums I actually bought, and it was more magical than any description could possibly illustrate. As pedestrian as this may seem to everyone now, it was another life changer for me. I can remember late nights sitting by myself, probably super high on good weed, listening to “Lonely Woman” and weeping.

John McLaughlin — Extrapolation

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In my early days of discovering jazz, I also came across the music of John Mclaughlin, initially via Mahavishnu Orchestra. His whole profile as a guitarist was incredibly inspiring for me — someone who had an equal footing in jazz, Flamenco, Indian classical music and fusion — a model for what I could become as a player (although I don’t think our styles are really even that comparable.) One of his albums that I think is maybe overlooked in his career is Extrapolation which has an incredible lineup and the compositions are incredible.

John Coltrane — Interstellar Space

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In considering this list I’m realizing there’s no way I can touch on all the music that has shaped me. But there is an album that’s shaped a great deal in terms of how I play and in what seems to be my favorite type of collaborative setting — the duo. Interstellar Space is an absolute masterpiece. Everything feels raw — the intensity, the interplay, the emotion. As much as I love so much of John Coltrane’s music, there’s something about this record that was akin to hearing punk music for the first time. There’s an immediacy to expression and interaction. And it was something that felt available to me (certainly not his virtuoso chops, which felt otherworldly — an unscalable monolith.) The direct communication between two people was a revelation and the content of this music felt like something I could mine for the rest of my life.

The Ivo Perelman Trio — “Cantilena”

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Fast-forward another few years or more and I had travelled with some good friends to NYC for I think it was the JVC Jazz Fest. We wanted to see MMW play (of whom I still think Friday Afternoon In the Universe is a perfect album.) While we were there though, we saw so much beautiful music that blew me away. The most significant for me though, was catching the last 10 minutes of a set by the Ivo Perelman trio in Tribeca somewhere (the trio was with Jay Rosen on drums and Dominic Duval on bass, who I played with several years later. RIP). It was electrifying. I was moved enough to go and talk to him after and he gave me an unmarked demo tape of Seeds, Vision and Counterpoint. There’s a track on the album called “Cantilena” and it really drops into this heavy space for around 10 minutes that gives me the chills every time I hear it. There is this free lyricism that is still absolutely elating to me. I love his playing and he’s still probably my favorite living saxophonist.

Marilyn Crispell — Vignettes

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Masabumi Kikuchi — Out of Bounds

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Using lyricism as a segue it brings me to the music of Marilyn Crispell, especially her albums Amaryllis,Nothing Ever Was Anyway, Vignettes and many others. She has a mode of free ballad playing that is absolutely transcendental. I will also mention Masabumi Kikuchi in the same breath. I find the desire more and more to play with a similar intention even though I rarely find myself in the context to do so.

Jute Gyte — Birefringence

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A total shift from this narrative of discovery and development is metal music. Something I’d been listening to since my teens and getting hip to some cool thrash music through Canadian band Voivod, particularly the album Dimension Hatröss. I've continued to follow the music and all of its various subgenres and have so many favorite picks, but I’ll choose just one and it’s a total mindbender. Jute Gyte’s Birefringence actually eclipses easy category and you really just need to experience it.

Giacinto Scelsi — “Uaxuctum”

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Catherine Christer Hennix — “Blues Alif Lam Mim In The Modes Of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis”

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My last pick is another double pick (I know I’m cheating) because it relates to the power of music and ties it into the first selection. Another current, among many, of musical obsessions is “new music.” But when I heard Giacinto Scelsi’s music for the first time it surpassed all of my previous notions about what was possible with composed music — it felt like music from an ecstatic vision. Even as I listen to the track now, it immediately accesses some occult realm of sublimity that feels similar to the music I first heard in church but with an unbridled intensity and depth.

Another more recent selection that fits into this category — but that is different in that it embraces a sort of stasis rather than dynamic movement — is the music of Catherine Christer Hennix. If you don’t know her, she’s a deep well of musical/mathematical/spiritual inspiration for me. Another music without a real equivalent in this day and age — something that echoes ancestral currents as well as the vibration of the cosmos itself. Thanks for reading/listening. Peace be with you. xoxo

#dusted magazine #listed #colin fisher #Jean-Pierre Leguay #ravi shankar #polvo #ornette coleman #john mclaughlin #john coltrane #ivo perelman #marilyn crispell #masabumi kikuchi #jute gyte #giacinto scelsi #catherine christer hennix

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chayacat · 3 years

Text

Devil’s Sweet Star (20)

Fandom: Dead by Daylight

Ghostface x Female Reader

Rated M for Violence, Language and Smut

***

All artists have a muse. An inspiration. Motivation, unwavering will. A signature of their own. It’s impossible to copy the work of an artist, because he always leaves a part of himself, a small detail, whether in the choice of shapes, lines, colors, etc., which allows us, little observers to recognize his work. We could take the example of Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Sandro Botticelli, Michelangelo, Andy Warhol and finally Salvador Dali. All these artists had a particular signature, a little something that made their works unique, inimitable. Yet many have tried to reproduce them in order to make money. And even if some of them succeeded, they quickly found themselves behind bars.

But Danny is an... Particular artist. His works are particularly... Bloody. Certainly, he’s an assassin, but an assassin who wants to leave behind a trace of his passage, a piece of him in this vast world. Something that will remind everyone that he existed. At least Ghostface existed. But if every artist has a muse... What's Danny's muse? To tell the truth... He's got two. The first is simply envy. His insatiable urge for blood, to hear the gentle howls of his victims and to see the authorities tearing their hair out in the face of the lack of clues, is the reason he does this. As for his second muse...

Well, his second muse is you. For him, you are a precious jewel that he must protect at any price. No one should approach you and he won't let anyone near you. Of course, you will have the right to have friends, but don't plan to spend too much time without him. Besides, he feels frustrated that you prefer Jed to him. His alter ego is so boring compared to him! And yet how many times did he tell you? How many times did he tell you to think carefully?

And yet you chose Jed. But what happened that night ... He will remember it forever. Those little chills he felt on your skin when his tongue ran through your belly, your chest. And your little moans...A twisted smile appeared on his face just thinking about it. He's going to make you languish, but he's going to enjoy himself. And if you change your mind... it is beyond the seventh heaven that he will take you.

But for now, he has a more urgent matter to deal with. Because tonight is the big night. Everything was ready. Hoggins had brought charges to McKellan, who of course had retaliated strongly. How does Danny know? It's a journalist don't forget it. During one of his nightly visits, he had spied on a conversation between the two men and judging by McKellan's tone, the exchange was muscular.

“it's been so long that I've been waiting for this moment ... You dared to attack my angel in front of me. It's time for you to pay. I'm going to make you the best masterpiece ever created." He said, looking at McKellan house.

He had checked everything. He knew everything by heart. The round of the guards, the presence of the camera, McKellan's habits... absolutely everything. No surveillance camera.... humph, he thinks he's so untouchable that he doesn't feel the need to have security cameras. Poor fool. You're going to bitterly regret your arrogance. And Hoggins is going to pay the price.

It does not enchant Danny to attribute this murder to another, but if it is to see Wilhelm go round in circles, the game is worth it. He had parked his van in a place well out of sight. McKellan's villa is a staple, isolated from the city. No neighbourhood, no one to see or hear anything except the guards. Danny will never understand the rich and their desire to get away from people. Even if in a way, it feels good to have nothing around you, except the birdsong and the rustling of the leaves. But for these people, it's mostly a way not to mix with the "plebe".

He put on his mask and proceeded to the villa discreetly. It's time for the show. It's time for the massacre. From the bushes of the rear terrace, he watched the guards stationed. He knows that in a few minutes they will move to the sides and go around up to him. He must therefore move forward without being spotted to the building. And indeed after a few minutes, the guards moved. They always start at the inside of the terrace before returning from the outer sides. It was therefore cautiously but without concern that Danny advanced, not without paying attention to the flashlight that often came in his direction. Once near the walls, he glanced inside.

As expected, it was impossible to get in from the back as the number of guards was too large. But he knows where McKellan's office is, and he knows that in exactly 20 minutes, he's going to go to his office and lock himself in and listen to music. He always puts the volume to the fullest, a significant advantage since so no one will hear him scream. He will be the only one who has the privilege of hearing it. Perfect. Once he's dead, Danny will have exactly 1 hour to make his masterpiece and leave because the guards will start suspecting a problem because of the music. Obviously, their boss listens to it every day for the same time. So, if it goes beyond the usual time slot, it's not normal.

Danny passed on the right side of the villa, on the side of which McKellan's office should be. And indeed, the second window of the office is open, surely to ventilate the room. He climbed to the gutter and clung to the balcony to enter the room. And the least we can say, is that this was to be the richest room in the house. He had something in common with Hoggins.

The walls were white marble making the room brighter. The many decorations in gold and red, as well as carpet flooring of the same color, recalled the time of ancient Rome. The few sculptures also for that matter.

“A passionate man of Ancient Rome... that will make my pleasure even more... Living. He will not only be my best masterpiece... but also the masterpiece of this room. It would almost bother me to soil this place of his filthy carcass and pig's blood. But he has to pay for touching and insulting my little angel...my precious love.” He said looking all around the room.

He saw multiple objects that could be used for him, including multiples knife that look much sharper than his own. He could steal them but Ghostface is not a thief. He had taken a rope that he had found in the garden shed a few nights earlier. Like all the strings he took... this one will help him keep his "work" still.

He had the diagram of his artistic project in mind, with every little detail, of what he was going to cut to what he was going to leave whole ... Nothing much. He looked where he could hide and wait to strike. The cabinet in front of the desk will be the ideal hiding place. As soon as he will be close enough... he will catch him. Suddenly he heard footsteps. McKellan is on his way. Danny hides in the cupboard and waited. McKellan entered, furious as ever.

“Hoggins asshole... after all the services I have rendered to you to enrich yourself like a fat pig, you dare to accuse me?? I should cut your balls off... And this little whore and her damn coffee... not only has it not closed but it also gains in reputation! I'm surrounded by fools.” He said heading to the CD player. “Maybe I should kidnap her and torture her...or sell her as a prostitute...I’m sure that she can make a lot of money...”

Danny's blood was boiling. How dare he imagine for a second making you a toy for filthy fat pigs??? For a bonus profit??? He wanted to jump on him now, he wanted to slit his throat, butcher him, tear him to pieces... But if he goes out now, the guards will hear him and his whole plan will fall apart. He's got to stay calm. He's got to stick to the plan. As soon as he's at the cabinet level... he can attack. McKellan set the music on and turned the sound loud enough for the guards outside the room to hear it. Either he's deaf or he's crazy. Or both.

He stood for a few minutes in front of the reader before starting to "waltz" with his eyes closed. He reached the level of the cabinet and once in his line of sight, Danny went out to knock him out with a blow. He used the rope to tie him to the chair. He knows that from now on, he has 1 hour to do what he has to do. And he intends to take advantage of it. McKellan awoke after five minutes, trying to get away. The music was too loud for anyone to hear, so he looked at the knives but was quickly attract by a sinister sneer.

“Well, well... You finally woke up. You have a beautiful office. In fact, you have a very nice house, I would almost be jealous if it were not yours. Such a beautiful home for a rotten man like you... It's a shame.” said Danny, playing with his knife.

“You...I should be honoured by your presence... but unfortunately, I'm not very friendly with psycho like you. Hoggins sent you, didn't he? he's just a bastard.” Said McKellan with disgust.

“Sorry to tell you, but I'm not a man you can hire... I am acting and I will always act on my own. See if I'm here... it's because you and I have to settle.” Replied Danny before sticking his knife in McKellan's leg, making him scream.

“YOU LITTLE SHIT!!! I’M GONNA CUT YOU HEAD OUT!!!!

“You see... You attacked someone very precious to me... and if there is one thing, I hate more than anything in this world... is that a rotten man like you, touch on what belongs to me. I'm sure you're wondering who I'm talking about. The "whore" as you like to call her, the boss of the Nebula... No luck for you... She's mine. And I'm going to make you regret every word you say. I hope you enjoyed your last musical moments... But don't worry... I intend to make you the masterpiece of your collection. And my best signing. Let the show begin.

He cut off the leg where he had planted the knife, with a dry blow, recovering it before it fell to the ground. He did the same with the second and put it all on the desk. He stopped for a few seconds to listen to McKellan's delicious screams about the "tragic" loss of both legs. What sweet music to his ears... But unfortunately, he can't enjoy it very long, he has a countdown to respect.

“Oh... It hurts? I'm really sorry... I should have gone more slowly to lengthen the pleasure. But don't worry... I still have material. And limbs to cut you up. It's too bad you can't see that.”

“Please please ! I... I will give much more If you kill Hoggins for me! I can make you the richest and the happiest man in this pathetic city! All the women will fall at your feet! You don't need that little slut! She's good for nothing! Just a little whore who thinks she's going to make a career!”

" I don't think you understood. I'm going to tell you one last time. One...” Danny started, planting his knife in one of McKellan’s arms. “I don't work for ANYBODY. If you think I'm just a puppet, I want you to know that I'm just for myself. I'm only doing this for my one and only pleasure. Never, and I say NEVER, would I work for anyone, even less for a rotten man of your kind. But if it makes you feel any better, Hoggins is going to come and keep you company in hell. Two...”

He thrust his knife deep into MacKellan’s arm to keep him awake until he finished talking to him. He drew his face closer to his.

“I only need one woman and that's her. I won't let anyone.... ANYONE, treat her like a good-for-nothing. You threatened her, assaulted her, you even sent someone several times to kill her. She is mine and only MINE and I will not let anyone near my angel, you fat pig!”

Danny pulled his knife out of Mackellan’s arm before repeatedly stabbing McKellan's skull. He recoiled inwardly at the sight of this bloodied, lifeless skull. He cut off his arms, then cut off his tongue and cut off his belly like a pig. He took out all these innards, cut them to a certain length and used them to tie his victim once again, one end ending deep in the throat, like a snake coming out of his mouth. He made sure to hold his arms and legs on the top of the skull, like deer antlers. How can he do that? A magician never reveals his secrets. Once his work was finished, Danny took out his camera.

“Look at you, you’re a masterpiece....MY masterpiece! You get exactly what you deserve you Motherf*cker. Now my little angel is safe...Almost if we count me in the lot. Well! Smile for the camera!” Danny said before taking a picture. “Oh, I almost forgot the message! It’s necessary to give a lead to this dear Wilhelm ... even a fake one. Hoggins... You might not like the next few days.”

He wrote a bloody message on one of the walls of the office, leaving the policeman and the guard thinking that Hoggins was the author. One way or another. Then he quickly but discreetly left the premises before the guards were alerted by the unusual extension of the music. He returned to his van, changed, put his Ghostface outfit and mask back in the bag before heading home. On the road, he couldn't help but stop and burst out laughing, a laugh as he thought about what he had just done. The adrenaline was still running through his veins, he could not calm down.

He took a few minutes to calm down, then take the road again and went home. He parked and looked at your window. Everything was off and given the time, it was normal. Everyone was asleep, no one to testify anything to the police. Everything is always perfect. He went up to his apartment, entered, closed the door and walked to his office with his bag in his hand. He put it all down on the couch and looked at his hunting board, a satisfied smile on his lips.

He took his red felt, which was still working despite the rage of the last time, and bared McKellan's face with a long cross. That's it. He's finally dead. And there's more to kill. Hoggins is next on the list. But Danny will let time pass before attacking him. For now, he's going to focus on you. His sweet little star, his precious love, his angel. He looked at his bag, perhaps a little visit is necessary? Anyway, you sleep then ... you're not likely to say much.

A light cool wind entered your room, but it didn't seem to bother you. You were warm in your duvet with a radiant smile on your lip. Danny, or rather Ghostface was above you, a big smile behind his mask. He stayed for a few minutes without moving before lifting his mask slightly to kiss your cheek delicately.

“You can finally sleep easy, my angel. That fat pig won't do anything to you anymore. But never forget that you belong to me. Sleep well my love, hoping I'll be in your dreams.” he whispered so you don't wake up.

He put a small piece of paper on your nightstand to warn you of McKellan's death. The word is simple: "He's dead." He knows you will understand who it is. He left as discreetly as he had come, to go to bed as well, despite the little adrenaline he had left. It's going to be a long night.

But Damn it was so delicious.

***

(I'm practically about to pass my code exam! I'm so happy! hoping we won't be confined to the date where I'll pass it. I want to thank you all as much as you are, you are almost 40 to follow the poor little French potato that I am! In the meantime, I hope you will love this chapter as much as the others! they all deserve to be appreciated so much! Have a great weekend to you all! See ya!)

#dbd fanfic #dbd #dead by daylight #ghostface #danny johnson #jed olsen

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taww · 3 years

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Review: Furutech DSS-4.1 Speaker Cable & DPS-4.1 Power Cord

Furutech DSS-4.1 Speaker Cable & DPS-4.1 Power Cord

The Audiophile Weekend Warrior (TAWW)

TAWW Rating: 5 / 5

Attainable ultra-high-end performance.

PROS: Incredibly quiet, transparent and open-sounding; powerful and resolving frequency extremes; pure and organic midrange; fast and unfettered dynamics; remarkable sense of space.

CONS: Only sold in parts form, so you'll need to figure out termination; power cord can put some strain on jacks.

My first couple decades as an audiophile were relatively frugal. I bought a pair of used Merlin TSM speakers out of college that I used for 16 years. I rolled my own DIY speaker wire and bought $400 Sony and Onkyo CD players that I modified. My amplifier was a defective review sample that I repaired and got for pennies on the dollar. But after years of self-restraint, I started to slide down the slippery slopes of system upgrades. It started innocently enough with some used pieces... an Ayre integrated here, a Cambridge Audio streamer there... then came DAC upgrades, followed by nicer amplifiers, which naturally necessitated a better preamp. But things really took a turn for the crazy last year (I blame pandemic cabin fever) when speakers were upgraded to Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté, which then led to the Gryphon Essence preamp and amp. Along the way I picked up the excellent Audience Au24 SX cables which, combined with Audience powerChord SEi's and a hodgepodge of other wire from Cardas, DH Labs and Mogami, have held me over. But with the system now scaling new heights of resolution and realism, the cable upgrade itch needed scratching... which leads us to the Furutech DSS-4.1 speaker cables ($395/m bulk; $3,138 as tested) and DPS-4.1 power cord ($480/m bulk; $1,458 as tested). While that might seem pricey for wire, they’re positioned to deliver the kind of ultra high-end performance associated with far more extravagant products. Could they deliver on that promise in the new TAWW reference rig?

DIY Ultra High-end??

Furutech is a Japanese cable and accessory manufacturer known for their fanatical attention to material and construction quality. Their AC power components are particularly acclaimed, and the distinctive NCF-series AC plugs and outlets can be found on the finished products of many other high-end marques. Similar to how manufacturers like Dynaudio used to sell raw drivers to other manufacturers while also building complete loudspeakers, Furutech seems perfectly content with anyone in the industry using their parts while they also sell finished products. The enterprising audiophile looking to construct or upgrade their own gear can find Furutech components readily available for purchase, though be warned - there are apparently a large number of knock-offs being peddled as genuine Furutech on eBay and other online marketplaces, so you'll want to stick to an authorized distributor. Fortunately for us in the States, we can turn to reputable online stores such as Music Direct, The Cable Company, Douglas Connection or any number of authorized dealers. The very friendly Scot Markwell of Elite A/V Distribution, Furutech's US distributor, provided the units under review here.

The DSS-4.1 speaker and DPS-4.1 and power cable represent the very highest-end Furutech wire you can buy in bulk - anything fancier requires factory termination. The two are effectively the same cable design, with the DPS version adding the requisite third conductor for grounding. I got a heads up to the remarkable properties of the power cord from my late friend Marty DeWulf a couple years back. Marty had been quietly consulting with an electrical engineer specializing in high-voltage power line transmission to construct his own power cords from scratch, and had reached a point where he felt his DIY concoctions outperformed the dozens of pricey high-end cords he had tried over the years. Marty sent me a number of development prototypes and I can attest that the cord was indeed superb and elevated the performance of most every amp I had at my disposal. Marty was feeling pretty happy with his effort until Scot @ Elite AV sent him some Furutech samples to try out, including the DPS-4.1. Sure enough, the DPS-4.1 performed at a different level from anything else Marty had tried before, including his own creations, and recalibrated his expectations for power cords - it was that good.

I later picked up the DPS-4.1 cable myself, along with the Furutech e-TP80 power distributor he praised, and confirmed their high level of performance. My appetite was whetted and I got in touch with Scot about kitting out the new reference rig with Furutech speaker and power wire throughout. This includes DPS-4.1 power cords on everything save the DAC, a GTO-D2R power distributor (review forthcoming) and DSS-4.1 speaker cables. All my samples were terminated with Furutech’s top-shelf rhodium-plated connectors - NCF plugs on the power cords, locking bananas and spades on the speaker cable. For the Gryphon Essence power amp, I had a 1.5m DPS-4.1 power cable made with 20A connectors. Since the Audiovector SR 6 speakers have tri-wire terminals, Scot also provided bare-wire jumpers made from the same PCOCC copper employed in the finished cables.

Using Furutech's PCOCC wire as tri-wire jumpers

Buying the Furutech parts and assembling the cables oneself can yield a considerable savings vs. finished cables, and most enterprising DIY'ers should be able to manage the job. However proper termination is critical to performance and safety, especially for the power cord, so if you're in any doubt, ask a dealer such as Douglas Connection to terminate them for you. Excluding any such labor, the retail cost of my 2.5m set of DSS-4.1 speaker cables with CF-202 bananas and FP-201 spades is $3,138. The 1.5m DPS-4.1 power cable with the FI-50/50M NCF plugs runs $1,458. High-end prices to be sure, but as you'll see below, I'd have no hesitation using these in systems that many would kit with far more costly wire.

The massive IEC connector is gorgeous and fits surely, but will put some stress on your jacks

Handling-wise, I'd call both on the lighter end of "garden hose," neither supple nor particularly stiff. At 19mm (0.75") thick for the speaker cable and 17mm (0.67") for the power cord, they're substantial but manageable. They'll bend easily enough into gentle curves, but the power cord will put strain on the chunky plugs if not given a good amount of clearance so don't expect to cram it into tight spaces. The speaker cable comes with an attractive woven sheath; the power cord has a purple PVC jacket, but my cables were clad in a silver Techflex sleeve for a more finished look. Both have 11AWG conductors which should allow for plenty of current flow in a typical run, and the speaker cable's capacitance is rated at 51.7pF/m (15.6pF/ft) @ 1kHz. This is an exceptionally low figure - for comparison, Kimber Kable 8TC is rated at 346pF/m, while Cardas Clear is a whopping 912pF/m - nearly 18x the Furutech! The tradeoff is a higher inductance of 0.7µH/m, but at typical lengths the effect of this should be benign.

Furutech DSS-4.1 Speaker Cable

Before we begin: since it’s impossible to say what any one component sounds like in isolation, I made most of my comparisons of the Furutech DSS-4.1 to my current reference cable, the excellent Audience Au24 SX ($3,300/2m pair). I also had Cardas Clear Light, DH Labs Q-10 Signature and a few other things on hand, but given that the Audience is the best of what I had available and is closest in price to the Furutech, most of my comments are relative to the Audience.

The best way I can describe the sound of the Furutech cable is "wide open." Compared to other cables I've had at my disposal, swapping in the Furutech sounds equivalent to the visual effect of renovating your living room from normal-sized windows to floor-to-ceiling glass. Suddenly everything feels more open, airy and illuminated. Notice that I didn't say "brighter - there’s a difference. The Furutech allows more sonic light to pass into your listening room, so when the music is brilliant and luminous, your room is suitably illuminated. But once the sun sets, that wall of glass becomes as pitch black as the night sky - and so the Furutech can be quiet and dark when called for.

In less fanciful terms, the Furutech gives the feeling of extremely wide bandwidth with no attenuation of energy or dynamics across the frequency spectrum, particularly at the extreme highs and lows. This helps it unlock more of the capability of my recent system upgrades - the top-to-bottom dynamics of the Audiovector speakers and ultra-wide-bandwidth of the Gryphon separates. In the lower frequencies the Furutech is a big step up in bass energy and resolution, transmitting more of a recording's energy and tone in the bottom three octaves. Note that this is different from having “big” or “warm” bass - similar to my illumination vs. brightness comment above, those denote colorations that constantly tilt the perceived spectral balance in a certain direction. There is no lower frequency hump or resonance here that could sound favorable on first listen but get a little monotonous in the long run. The Furutech simply allows what’s present in the signal to be transmitted more unimpeded than I have heard before in my system. This gives music tremendous “surprise” factor - it can go from ethereal to thunderous in a heartbeat. And this applies not just when used on the big Audiovectors; it's also a quality I heard on a scaled-back system with the Silverline SR17 Supreme 2-way monitors.

The top end has a similar level of transparency and dynamism, revealing all sorts of harmonics and textures as well as the air and ambience of the venue with striking transparency. Triangle, cymbals, trumpet, violin, and harpsichord are a few examples of instruments with complex high-frequency structure that sound exceptionally realistic via the DSS-4.1. At first, I felt the treble of the Furutech was a bit coarser vs. the Audience, which I have always found to be notably smooth and natural. I initially ascribed this to break-in, and gave the wire a couple hundred hours with a 4 ohm dummy load to try to burn it off. It improved, but it still had a bit of lingering grain. With time, two things became apparent: this cable takes a REALLY long time to break in - things kept getting smoother and smoother over the next couple hundred hours - and the Furutech simply refuses to cover anything up. Once I made the substantial upgrade to the Gryphon Essence combo I realized that grain was mostly endemic to my previous components, which were no slouches themselves - we’re talking all Class A discrete electronics from Pass Labs and Valvet. That just shows you the level of resolution the Furutech brings into play.

Once integrated into a system of even higher caliber, the Furutech sounded close to invisible, with great openness, clarity and detail from top to bottom and little discernible artifact. That said, at some points I did adjust the top end a bit by moving the Furutech's connection to the Audiovector speakers from the tweeter terminal to the midrange terminal. When connected to the tweeter terminal as per Audiovector recommendation (and my standard practice with other cables), things could get a hair bright, and some of the aforementioned coarseness would pop up now and again. Again, the Furutech was just telling it like it was, because later after further improvements to the system (a dedicated 20A power line, IsoAcoustics Gaia feet, breaking in the latest firmware on the PS Audio DAC), the top end sweetened and I was able to return the cables to the tweeter terminal for best transparency. In my system's current state, the Furutech brings out a top end that's wonderfully sweet, extended and natural.

A few other standout aspects bear mentioning. One is the sheer size of the soundstage, both in width and depth. I'm not sure exactly how components that have no effect on actual channel separation can affect the perceived width of the stage so much. Maybe it's a phase thing, maybe it's low level resolution that helps with ambient retrieval, maybe it's dynamic capability to bring out instruments that tend to be at the edges of the stage... whatever it is, the Furutech is able to convey a stage of substantial depth, width and dynamism. Another standout is the Furutech’s ability to convey dynamic contrasts. This is a quiet and fast cable that responds adroitly to the most minute changes in dynamic character, conveying both the undulations of a quiet melody and the surge of an orchestral climax with great color and intensity. Finally, the midrange is wonderfully dense, pure and harmonically complete, with great solidity in the lower range. Unlike many audiophile cables that provide lots of detail and speed at the expense of fullness or balance, the Furutech can better most comers in the "hifi" aspects while bringing out all the natural warmth of a great acoustic recording. Baritones, grand pianos, french horns and celli have never sounded better.

By comparison, the Audience Au24 SX is still a wonderful if more midrange-centric cable. Its slightly laid-back perspective and silkier treble are appealing for a variety of systems, particularly those on the forward side of neutral. There's a roundness and sweetness to the midrange, but at the expense of sounding a hair more congealed, bunching instruments together on a narrower stage. It also isn’t quite as responsive to quick and subtle dynamic contrasts, and the top end isn't as realistic and extended. Prior to hearing the Furutech the Audience was actually one of the best cables I had heard in many of these regards, so we're already talking about a very high level of performance here. And compared to something like the Cardas Clear Light, the Furutech was far more resolving while having a warmer, purer midrange and a sweeter treble.

The DSS-4.1 is an exceptionally transparent, balanced and complete speaker cable that can bring greater levels of realism and naturalness to a commensurate system. It delivers the type of detail and energy one would expect from an ultra high-end wire, but in an honest and unforced manner that draws one to the qualities of the source material and music without distraction. The net musical result is music has wider variation in color, texture, nuance and ultimately emotional impact - or as another reviewer put it, "expressiveness is their strong point."

Furutech DPS-4.1 Power Cord

Remarkably (or perhaps not?), virtually all the qualities that the DSS-4.1 exhibits as a speaker cable also shine through with the DPS-4.1 as a power cord. My longstanding reference is also an Audience cable - the moderately priced powerChord SE-i ($930/6 ft). It’s an incredibly consistent performer that imparts greater body, dynamics and life to most any component vs. a stock cord, not to mention a good number of aftermarket ones.

Compared to the Audience powerChord, again, the Furutech felt wide-open, more transparent and better balanced. The powerChord was a bit meatier in the mid bass and slightly sweeter on the top end - certainly more forgiving, but a little filtered compared to the Furutech. The Furutech also had a much wider and better-spaced soundstage; I won't say "twice as wide and 3x as deep" or anything with such false precision, but it certainly felt significantly bigger, with a lot more air between instruments and a stage that consistently spread beyond the width of the speakers. On pop mixes, this exhibited as stereo reverb and hard-panned effects that popped much more distinctly. Compared to the Audience and anything else I had on hand, the Furutech allowed whatever was plugged into it to transmit more recorded nuance with a sense of effortless transparency, particularly at the frequency extremes.

But like any cable regardless of quality, the Furutech wasn't the best match for everything I had on hand. I found the Audience cable more competitive with the PS Audio DAC; the Valvet A4 Mk.II monoblocks have a bit of upper midrange shine that was slightly prominent with the Furutech; and with the Class D Legacy i·v2 amplifier it was actually the very affordable Audience Forte that clicked better than the rest. But otherwise, the Furutech really shone with the majority of preamps and amps I tried, especially anything Pass Labs.

With the Gryphon Essence preamp, switching from the Furutech back to the Audience wasn’t a huge let-down by any means. And at first blush, the Audience sounded a bit more dense and focused than the Furutech, particularly in the lower midrange. But a few notes into Billie Eilish's "iomilo" [Qobuz] I realized what I was hearing as density was actually a bit of congestion, and the soundstage was quite a bit narrower than with the Furutech... everything sounded a bit more congealed around the center image of Eilish's voice. With the Furutech, the Gryphon preamp was able to eerily float effects around the entire space of the front of my living room, with percussion flourishes sprinkled throughout the track twinkling in ethereal fashion. With the Audience, everything lost some luster and became more confined between the speakers, and the frequency extremes lost some speed and impact. The DPS-4.1 cable really unleashed the wide-bandwidth capabilities of my system, maximizing both the epic bass depth, power and control of the Gryphon electronics as well as the purity and extension of the Audiovector's AMT tweeters. None of this is meant to beat up on the Audience, which costs about half as much as the Furutech and remains one of my favorite cords, but rather to elucidate how a cord like the Furutech can further elevate the performance of a system. At some point, I'll have to get around to trying Audience's latest models, such as the Studio ONE powerChord (closer in price) or the FrontRow (though that one costs 3x as much as the Furutech).

Testing the DPS-4.1 with the Gryphon Essence stereo amplifier was a bit trickier due to the need for a 20 amp IEC connector, so I special-ordered one for this purpose. Once set up, the Furutech rewarded me with incredible detail, an ultra-wide and deep soundstage that extended far beyond my walls, deep and impactful bass response and a heightened sense of purity - the "blackness" between the notes. Transients were immaculate, with perfectly clean attacks and decays - not excessively sharp, not softened, but just natural and energetic. This helped create the sense of greater macro and micro dynamic range; lots of subtle shadings and nuances in the music became clearer, while sudden transients were more explosive. There was a greater sense of both calm and energy with everything, where quiet moments felt finer and more delicate, while pops of energy in the performance burst forward with an effortless impact more akin to the live event. Separation, pitch, and articulation of bass notes were made more exceptional as well. It brought out the more rarefied capabilities of ultra high-end gear like the Gryphon - that ability to hear every element of a performance distinctively, yet perfectly integrated into the overall fabric of the music. All these qualities came to the fore listening to complex, dynamic material such as Strauss Don Juan [Qobuz]. I was struck by just how much clearer a window the Furutech gave into the dense, at times cacophonous orchestration, while making tranquil moments such as the idyllic oboe solo even more delicate and nuanced. The overall performance of the Gryphon + Furutech pairing was exceptional.

One combo where the Furutech power cord worked even better than the speaker cable was with the Pass Labs XA30.5 amplifier. With the DSS-4.1 speaker cable, there was a bit of a tradeoff where the enhanced resolution revealed some of the shortcomings of the amp vs. the more refined (and expensive) Gryphon Essence. However the DPS-4.1 power cord was dynamite with the Pass, helping maximize its dynamics and balance out its midrange warmth with bottom-end impact and top-end extension. The Pass Labs XP10 line stage also never sounded better than with the Furutech cord, with improved dynamics, soundstaging and clarity. The lack of noise and grain further strengthened the quietness, purity and sweetness that many find so endearing of Class A gear. The outstanding synergy with the Pass Labs components makes the Furutech DPS-4.1 cord about as no-brainer a recommendation as I can make for any Pass owner.

Conclusion

The Furutechs were remarkably consistent in their sonic impact. Both the speaker and power cables impart a wide-open feeling, with striking resolution at the frequency extremes, powerful low-end response, highly agile dynamics, super low noise floor and no readily-discernible coloration. They are extremely fast and clean without curtailing any sweetness or richness intrinsic to the music. Both cables are a tad more forward than my Audience reference wire, the Au24 SX speaker cable and powerChord SE-i power cord. There’s a hair more upper midrange energy and treble resolution that will require care with some systems, though it’s less prominent than, say, something with silver or silver-plated conductors such as DH Labs Q-10 or Nordost Valhalla. And the power cord in particular took the extension and resolving power of my system to a different level. They both strike me as reference-caliber cables, exacting enough to round out a tweaked-out $100k system, yet balanced enough to elevate something more modest, with plenty of headroom to grow into more ambitious gear. In particular, if you have a system with significant extension at the frequency extremes, they’ll help extract the most out of those capabilities. And as well as they work with my reference Gryphon separates, I absolutely love how they elevate Pass Labs gear, enhancing their intrinsic warmth and musicality with greater clarity, dynamics and precision. They'll be staying in the system for the long haul as a TAWW reference cable. Very highly recommended!

#review #hifi #audio #audiophile #furutech #speaker cable #power cord

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meadow-dusk · 3 years

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Another Song Shuffle Tag Game

Put your music player on shuffle, and instead of just listing what comes on, you get to personalize it a little bit. If you enjoy, tag some others to keep it going!

SONG #1: Join Together - The Who

1. How old were you when you heard this song for the first time?: ~19? It was around when they played the Super Bowl halftime I think

2. What album is it off of?: I think it was a single..?

3. What genre is it?: classic rock

4. What’s your favorite lyric from this song?: The biggest band you'll find, it's as deep as it is wide

5. Does it remind you of any certain person or event?: Yeah when they played the Super Bowl halftime show

SONG #2: New Blue Moon - Traveling Wilburys

1. Which of your friends would most likely enjoy this song as much as you do?: my sister for SURE

2. Is this band your favorite, or at least one of your favorites?: I love the Wilburys but not a favorite. However, I rarely change them when they come on.

3. What do you think this song is about?: Some lyrics that sounded nice together with some nice guitar licks

4. Have you ever blasted this song in your car?: No but def in earphones

5. Do you own it on CD?: nope

SONG #3: Straight On - Heart

1. What language is this song sung in?: English

2. Have you heard this song on the radio?: Of course

3. How did you discover this song?: on the radio

4. Would you mind if this song was played at your wedding?: Nope

5. Does this song have any cursing in it?: I doubt it wow these were boring questions for this one

SONG #4: You're Not Alone - Big Time Rush

1. How often do you listen to this song?: Like 2x per year? Enough to be like "oh hey I remember this!" but I don't go looking

2. Do you have it on any of your online playlists?: no just liked songs

3. Does this song have a music video?: Probz cause they were a TV boy band

4. Is this a popular song from the band?: idts

5. Is the band popular at all?: unfortunately not

SONG #5: Ladies of the Canyon - Joni Mitchell

1. Have you seen this band live? If so, did they perform this song?: nope but I would not turn down that opportunity! I don't think it's likely tho.

2. Is this a very well-known song? Was it played on the radio?: Not very but that's no excuse for how long it took me to discover it

3. Do any of your friends like this song?: Probably do not know it despite my explaining how relatable it is that one of the characters "may bake some brownies today" and later gathers flowers for her home

4. If you could pair up one historical event with this song, what would you chose?: I mean just the entire Laurel Canyon legacy?

5. Just going by the title, what do you think this song means?: sry you couldn't be there but imagine if you could

SONG #6: I'd Love You To Want Me - Lobo

1. How long have you been listening to this song?: Since 2014?

2. Is this song from the band’s newer or older music?: I have no concept of the Lobo discography

3. Ever heard this song on MTV/Fuse/etc.?: What the heck is fuse

4. If you went up to a random person in the street and mentioned this song, what are the chances they’d know what song it is?: No but I'm that person that's like "it goes like this:.."

5. Are the vocals male or female?: Male

SONG #7: Give Me Love Give Me Peace on Earth - George Harrison

1. What’s better in this song; the vocals or the actual music?: music I think but only barely

2. Do you have this song on your iPod/Zune/MP3 player/whatever?: when is this survey from

3. Do you have this song downloaded onto your computer?: No but I have the album

4. How old is the person who sings this?: Would've been 78 now; he was 30 when this record was released.

5. What instruments are featured in this song?: Most prominently, guitar

SONG #8: You Better Believe It - Small Faces

1. What memories does this song bring back?: learning about the Small Faces and not understanding how they didn't get as popular in the US

2. Was this song produced earlier than 2005?: very much so

3. Is this song leaning more towards rock or rap?: lol THAT's a fun thing to imagine

4. What’s a song that sounds similar to this (think of a band that sounds similar)?: It reminds me of "Cry Like a Baby" by the Box Tops

5. Do you own a band shirt of this band?: No

SONG #9: Return to Sender - Elvis Presley

1. What mood does this song put you in?: a sing-y one

2. Did you ever reference this song for a school paper or in your diary or anything?: every SINGLE time that mail comes back undeliverable bc I am only human

3. How can you relate to this song?: Not literally but who cares

4. Do you know all the lyrics to it?: A good proportion

5. Who got you into the band that sings this song?: Probably from watching the Beatles Anthology

SONG #10: Girls on Film - Duran Duran

1. What country does the band who sings this originate from?: UK

2. Ever heard this song live? How does it sound compared to the CD version?: I think so actually! It was mediocre

3. One instrument that really stands out in this song?: That lens cap soundbite that drove my first dog ~crazy when it came on once

4. Can you play this song on any instruments? If so, which ones?: I can sing it

5. Do any of your family members know this song?: all of them bc this CD got played a lot on the way to swim meets

source: surveyjunkie

tagging @chrysochromulina, @moptopper, @rick-s147, @ratherbewithmydog and as usual anybody that sees this can join in!

#music survey #This was stupidly fun #tag game

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theageofsims · 3 years

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More Sims 4 Asks

I TAG ANYONE AND EVERYONE! ---------

What’s your favorite sim death?

These days I haven't got any, but way back in my Sims 1 and 2 days? Drowning and setting off the rocket in an enclosed space to ignite fire.

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Before Sims 4 I wouldn't even know what this meant, but Maxis Match. Sims 4 the only Alpha I use is an eyebrows default replacement.

Favorite Mod? For storytelling Purposes: Mc Command Center For Gameplay: Food/Harvest mods and such by IceMunMun and BrazenLotus as well as the UI Extension Cheat by weerbesu

First expansion / game / stuff pack?

The Sims: Livin' Large

Have you ever made a selfsim?

Yes... I think it was just in Sims 3. In sims 2 I made my mom based off a picture of her when she was like 20 years old. It came out just like her so that was a lot of fun. I also made myself in Sims 4 and thought it looked just like me until my mom saw it one day and was like... you don't have that nose. I didn't know what to do with selfsims so I just made them on whims and then deleted them -- pretty boring playing yourself, in my opinion I think, at least!

Builder or gameplay or storyteller? All three these days (Sims 4), but once upon a time I was just gameplay and TERRIBLE builder in Sims 1 and 2. In Sims 3 I was more of a World Builder with the World Tool (why can't we have this for Sims 4? Okay, I'll stop complaining, but seriously -- why can't we do this?) and a gameplayer... stories sometimes started, but then were left incomplete.

Are you a CC creator? Nope. I can understand a little of recoloring/retexturing, but that's about as far as I can go. I've been trying to make CC since Sims 2... and I just never could wrap my mind around Blender and all the stuff that goes with it no matter how many times I've tried.

Do you have any Simblr friends? Nope, but there are a lot of nice people that I've interacted with on simblr these days which is a whole other world compared to what I used to run into during the Sims 1, 2 and even Sims 3 days -- that's for sure!

What are your favorite Sim games?

Sims 2 is just... it's just great and Sims 3's Open World ability and color wheels is just incredible.

What expansion/ game/ stuff pack do you want next?

Farming. I mean -- it's the first thing that came to mind because I have a friend (@ in mind who loves the Sims (we met because of Classic Hollywood films, she just happens to be a Sims fan :P), and she wants farming SO BADLY. I wouldn't mind it myself though because it would be such an outdoorsy/country/cozy kind of vibe which I just love. At least I hope it will/would be something like that.

I'd look forward to possibly having more gardening/harvesting, recipes, and chickens/pigs/cows... I mean it sounds like a real long shot, but that's what I'd like to see. I'd totally go for that!

What’s your favorite expansion/ game/ stuff pack?

Sims 1: Hot Date -- let me explain... my thing as a teenager was getting sick with the flu every Christmas vacation and the year Hot Date came out, it was under the Christmas tree for me. I was SO ILL... and I remember the older we got my brother and I were allowed to open a few gifts Christmas Eve instead of having to wait until Christmas Day to open our gifts and I just remember opening up the album I wanted which was Ludacris "Word of Mouf" album and The sims 1: Hot Date.

I remember having like a fever of 101.5 and just sending my sims out to dine like I was in perfect health as Ludacris played on my yellow Sony CD player for hours... lmao, priorities...

Sims 2: Night Life, Open For Business, and FreeTime Listen to me... I COULD NOT STOP MYSELF from going "downtown" in Night Life to look for Dracula. I would seek him out like he owed me money and let him bite up my sims like CRAZY... and then I'd take them back home and make them bite EVERYBODY lmao. I can not HELP myself with Vampires... I go freaking CRAZY. I turn the whole goddamned town! I don't even know what it is... because I'm not even into vampire stories or films so ???

Open 4 Business... God, how I wish the "retail" of Sims 4 was like Open 4 Business. That pack is FLAWLESS.

FreeTime because it was so cute having your Sims have more hobbies. I love to see my sims involved in their hobbies.

Sims 3: World Adventures and Ambitions Jungle Adventure is NOTHING compared to World Adventures. I could not get enough of World Adventures. I played a great deal of it before I stopped playing Sims 3.

Ambitions -- we all know how much I like sending my Sims to work with the ability to join them. When "Get to Work" came out for Sims 4 I bought it in a heartbeat! Rabbit holes be gone! (Well -- not entirely, but oh wouldn't it be nice...) Sims 4: Since Sims 4 is still on-going this might change, but honestly... I was SOLD for two pack so far, practically immediately. Spa Day being one of them and the other being Jungle Adventure (because I literally had an Indiana Jones made before I even knew the pack was going to be a think).

#blurb

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ridemedaddyjames · 5 years

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Split - Part IV

Split - Part III

Pairing: Kevin Wendell Crumb x reader

Warnings: angst, cursing, stockholm syndrome

Words: 2,100

“You mean you don’t wanna leave?” Hedwig questioned, completely befuddled by your response, his attention span dwindling again. “Okay, I’ll show you my room,” he shrugged, taking your hand in his as he led you through the complicated maze. When you finally found his room, it seemed to be a well organized mess. Of course, you could never find anything in here, but he had no trouble at all.

“Hedwig, this is your room!?” You exclaimed, smiling widely at how much it truly represented his mind and personality. With everything strewn about, it made it difficult to maneuver through the mess, but he managed to get to the CD player and turn up the music.

“Do you like it? Miss Patricia gets kinda angry when it’s a mess, and Dennis refuses to come in.” Hedwig said, wondering how you’d feel about all of it.

“I think it’s amazing, it really represents you,” and, just like that, you couldn’t stop yourself from grinning like a child. Hedwig always had that affect on you, to make you happy no matter what the situation may be.

“Wanna dance to some Kanye West?” He asked, grabbing you and showing you how to move as he twisted his body into different directions. You tried to mimic him, turning yourself in the same way, but, instead of dancing, you’d just ended up tripping on a pile of toys and clothes.

Hedwig laughed, bending over to help you up. Being the deviant you are, though, you decided to pull him down with you instead. He landed on the pile of clothes, rolling with laughter. “You’re the bestest friend ever,” he said, finally catching his breath as the two of you got up.

“Well, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you,” you reminded him as you wrapped your arms around him, comfortingly. He held you close, and you could feel him playing with your hair as you giggled.

“Okay, we gotta get back before Mr. Dennis comes, or he’ll be really mad that I let you out. Etcetera,” Hedwig nodded, walking with you back to the room where you were supposed to be being held.

The two of you exchanged one last hug before he disappeared, leaving you alone with your thoughts once again. This time you imagined what it may be like to have kids. Patricia would be the aunt that would spoil them rotten. Hedwig would look at it as having a new friend and twenty-four hour playmate. Dennis would probably see it as a nuisance, and would ask that you keep it contained, and Kevin...Kevin would be the happiest he’s ever been. He would want to prove that he could do it; raise a child without all the problems he had to face growing up. That in itself seemed reason enough to do it, but it was all a fantasy made up in your head, and you realized that when Dennis opened your door and let himself inside.

“I brought you something,” Dennis fidgeted, awkwardly, as he did his best to hide whatever it was behind his back. “Close your eyes, and put out your hands.”

If he’d have said those words to Marcia or Claire they would be screaming with fear, but you could hardly contain the excitement that was coursing through your veins. When you opened your eyes, you found a book resting in your palms. ‘Frankenstein’ you read, feeling an immediate attachment to him as a person with this inanimate object. You ran your fingers over the cover. The pages looked as if it had been read a thousand times, but the binding was so perfect that it seemed to be brand new. This represented how well put together he seemed on the outside, and the story behind those walls; his beautiful disguise. Your eyes lit up at the gesture, your heart racing in your chest.

“I thought you might like something to pass the time. It’s - um - it’s my favorite. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to, though.” Dennis stated, his Boston accent thicker than usual in part to his nervousness. Tears swelled in your eyes, but you did your best to blink them away, still so awestruck that he had given you something that meant so much to him.

He was being so gentle, and, without even thinking, you leapt from your spot on the small cot to throw your arms around his neck. His hands rested against your waist, taking in the smell of your hair. Dennis was falling for you, and it absolutely terrified him, but you were just as broken as he was, and he couldn’t help but find some sort of comfort in knowing that.

“Dennis, will you dance with me?” You whispered in his ear, feeling his muscles tense at the feeling of your breath on his skin. It had been a weakness of his, and you’d known it from the start. That day he brought you here, asking Marcia to dance with him, you still burned with jealousy that it hadn’t been you in his arms. At first he was hesitant, his fingers landing stiffly against your sides, and you prayed to no one in particular that he would loosen up.

Finally, he moved with you, slowly at first, before the steps had taken on a life of their own. The two of you seeming to follow the same nonexistent rhythm as you danced to nothing at all. By the time you’d finished, you were entirely out of breath, arms around his neck, beaming widely up at him as you felt his chest against yours. You hadn’t realized how close the two of you had been, or how natural it all seemed.

Your insides fluttered, dying to say what was on your mind, but there weren’t enough words to speak how this man made you feel. Which is why you broke the nonexistent barrier, and, without warning, leaned up on your tiptoes to press your lips to his.

Dennis stood there, awkwardly, letting it happen, eyes wide in horror before slowly easing into it. You felt his hand slowly move up your back before holding you closer to him. His other placed, softly, against your cheek. Your eyes fell shut, enjoying every second. Your gut told you that this was wrong, but Gods how it felt so right. This was absolute bliss. This was love.

Suddenly, Dennis pulled away, taking a step back as he put his hands on his hips and stared at the ground. He was thinking, and you wanted to know what went on inside that beautiful mind, until he said something that cut you to your core.

“We can’t,” he realized, breaking the silence. “I shouldn’t have done this, it was a mistake. I can’t get close to you, it’ll only make things harder than they have to be.” He seemed to say it more to himself than to you. Finally, Dennis reached for the door to slam it shut, but you stopped him, taking hold of his thick, bulging, arm, and pressing yourself against him once again.

“Please, please, don’t go. I just,” you stopped, trying to find the words. “I dont want to be alone.”

The hurt in your eyes made him hesitate, and it was that split second of worry that told you he really did care. Before you could stop him, he’d rushed out of the room, leaving you in silence.

Feeling defeated, lost, and alone, you through yourself down on the cot before breaking down in tears. To your surprise, and after what felt like an eternity of sobbing, a soft voice came from the other side of the room. “Y/N, why you cryin?” Hedwig muttered, coming to sit beside you on the tiny bed. You had pulled your legs up to your chest, and, although you hesitated at first, you couldn’t stop yourself from falling into his arms. Hedwig didn’t know how to react, his body going limp compared to the stiffness of Dennis. You rested your head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Ultimately, he opted for the safe route as he ran his fingers through your hair, soothingly.

“Is this because of Mr. Dennis? Was he mean to you?” Hedwig finally asked, mustering up the courage to talk to you. “If it is, I told him we’re dating, and that he doesn’t have a chance.”

“Hedwig, I need to tell you something,” you muttered, feeling your heart break once again.

“Wait, wait! Do you like Mr. Dennis?!” Hedwig gasped, unable to comprehend what was happening as he pushed you off of him. “But - but I thought you were my girlfriend?!” He stammered, looking at you like a lost puppy.

“You’re my friend, and I care about you in a different way than I care about him.” You confessed, trying your best to clear up this whole entire situation. “I love you both, just in different ways,” saying it out loud meant finally coming to terms with it, and it only made it hurt worse. Maybe you’d been wrong; maybe Dennis didn’t care about you at all.

“He didn’t pick you! He wanted them. The other girls! You’re mine!” He shouted, bringing you back to reality as your breath caught in your throat. This nine year old had found a way to pour salt in an open wound, and you could feel it eating at you from the inside out.

A heart wrenching sob pulled from your throat, echoing off the walls as you tried to stop yourself from falling apart in front of him. Fuck this, fuck all of it. What made Claire and Marcia so perfect?

Hedwig sat there, fearing what you might do next as the truth soared through your veins like a venomous drug. Your eyes were bloodshot, your throat burned, and you felt like you could never shed another tear, but they still came. “Y/N...do you want me to talk to him? I mean, he doesn’t really listen to me, but I can if you want me to,” Hedwig offered, seeing how hard this was for you. As much as he wanted you for himself, he couldn’t help that he also wanted to make you happy.

“You would do that for me?” You whimpered, wiping the tears from your eyes. There wasn’t a doubt in your mind that you didn’t deserve Hedwig as a friend, he was too kind hearted.

“Of course I would, but, I don’t know what you see in him, I think he’s creepy,” Hedwig shivered, making a disgusted face. It was enough to make you smile, leaning in for a quick hug before he took off.

Part of you hated yourself for what you were about to do, but the other half convinced you that it was okay. So, instead of shredding the book that Dennis had given you, you’d decided to read it instead. With every turn of a page you found yourself falling more in love with him as a person, and understanding why this book mattered to him so much. As your eyes grew heavy, you pulled the book against your chest, cradling it in your arms; which is exactly how you’d fallen asleep.

When you woke up, Dennis was standing over you, arms crossed, breathing heavily. It seemed as if he were contemplating how to go about this whole ordeal. Looking up at him, you were sure your eyes were bloodshot, and you realized your appearance must have been questionable.

“Speak,” he finally ordered, making you jump at how dark his voice was. This was a side of him that you’d rarely seen, and it was starting to make you nervous. It should’ve absolutely terrified you, made you cower beneath him. No, this voice did something entirely opposite. It awoke something in you that you’d never felt before; a burning hunger in your gut that was completely alien to you. You needed him like a moth needed a flame, and like an addict needed a drug. He was your drug. Dennis never made it feel like love, though. No, this was cat and mouse to him. Just another game, and, with your head in the clouds, you couldn’t help but let your mouth flow freely with how you’d been feeling from the moment you were brought here.

“I think I love you,” you muttered, giving it everything you had as you threw all caution to the wind. This was your chance to get exactly what you wanted, pain, and lies, and chaos combined. If he didn’t kill you, the adrenaline of your love for him would.

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blissfulalchemist · 3 years

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“What’s wrong?” + “Don’t push me away” CatRaf 😘😘😘

Hello Jo! Please enjoy this little scene of comfort for the chefs (.❛ ᴗ ❛.)

Cat wasn’t always the quietest when it came to walking through the woodlands, she’d like to think her legs would have been able to memorize where the noisiest parts were by now, no such luck though as she made her way through the dark. The small blessings came in that she wasn’t in her daytime dress, the night allowed her to wear converse, jeans, printed t-shirt, and a knit sweater to stave off the chill of the night, that she pulled closer as she neared the ladder. She steadied her breath shifting the backpack to ease the weight on her shoulders, tugging on the rope ladder, it stayed put as she smiled. Climbing always was the scariest for her, it was unsteady and she always feared falling alerting the wrong person that may have been hiding or passing through, but it was the safest option, that’s what Raf had told her at least.

She hoisted herself up the metal landing wrapping around the tree, pulling up the ladder behind her, setting it on the ledge quietly. Cat walked around towards the south end of the ledge, pushing through the branches finding Raf already sitting in the small clearing, back against the trunk. “Hey stranger,” Cat whispered, shrugging the backpack off, he turned to her smile on his face, making some more room for her next to him, “You weren’t waiting for a long time were you?”

Raf shook his head, “Would it really matter if I was? You still showed up,” she sat next to him, thankful for the dark hiding the blush in her cheeks. He reached for the bag, “What did you bring us tonight, Conejito?”

“Some pasta,” she helped him in unpacking their late night dinner, “Used your pesto recipe, never really had it much before you made it for me.”

He took a bite, laughing, “You did not use my version.”

“Okay so I tweaked it, sue me,” she rolled her eyes laughing, “I had a vision of something a little more citrus-y to match with the chicken.” She watched him take another bite, “But since we’re on the subject, what do you think of my bastardization of your pesto?”

He looked down to her eyes, “I never said it was a bastardization.”

“You don’t have to,” she pointed to him with her fork, “I know you’re thinking it. Friends tell each other the honest truth, Raf.”

“That’s very true,” he nodded, “It’s not bad, could use some improvements but not bad.”

“So I win this point,” Cat threw her fist in the air above her, “Yes!”

Raf brought her hand back down laughing, “More like half a point.”

Cat’s jaw dropped, “That’s not fair. I always give you a full point, since when did we start doing partial points?”

“Since it was my recipe that was the base,” he moved to pull out the wireless headphones along with the CD player, “Make something of your own creation and then it's a full point.”

She rolled her eyes as she took one of the ear buds, “Most recipes start with the same base ingredients so what’s so bad about putting a spin on yours.” Raf looked away from her, looking through their music selection, “It’s not like you’d have enough for a legal case anyway. It’d be like Queen verses Vanilla Ice.”

He gave a snort, “Someone’s been talking to their lawyer husband,” he settled on a classical music mix, “You okay with this tonight?”

She gave a shrug, “It’s your night to pick,” Cat met his eyes, seeing his smile wasn’t reaching them the same way it normally did, “I brought dessert too for us.”

Raf got the music playing, “Now that sounds perfect. What did you make tonight,” he settled himself back in his spot, earbud in place.

“Cobbler,” she pulled out the tupperware, “Well okay it was strawberry pie but I uh forgot somehow to put the bottom layer of crust.”

“You didn’t make enough for two circles, again,” he gave her a bright smile, laughing as she nudged his shoulder, “No judgement here.”

Cat took another bite, “That’s a lie. You are always judging my cooking. But it’s okay because I judge yours and it's all fair.”

“That’s very true, Cat,” she looked up at Raf, his hair creating shadows on his face, “Still can’t believe you figured out how to get these to work with the cd player.”

Cat gave him a small shrug, He hardly ever uses my name, “Bluetooth works with bluetooth you know.” They ate in silence for a while, Cat noticing his fingers not moving in time with the beat. Cat placed her pasta down, “Raf,” she waited for him to look at her before continuing, “you don’t seem like yourself tonight.”

His smile returned to his face, “Just a little tired,” he chuckled, “Nothing to worry about.”

“Raf,” she pleaded, “I know you well enough to tell when something’s up.” She turned to face him, “You know I care about you,” she inhaled grabbing his hand, “so you know if something’s wrong you can tell me right?”

He placed his hand over hers, “I know. I know I can Conejito, but I’m fine really.”

Cat looked into his eyes, seeing the sadness there she always saw in herself and Wes, eyes that said you hated or disliked yourself in some way. She moved herself closer to him, fingers interlacing with his, “What’s wrong, Rafael? I know the look in your eyes, something happened.” She ran through a list of anything he could have been a part of in the week they had last seen each other, it was harder to do given how secretive Jacob could be and how much quieter Raf’s plans were compared to Wes’. He didn’t say anything, just sat there next to her, she wrapped her arms around him resting her head on his shoulder.

He patted her arm, “I think I’m ready for some dessert now,” he reached over her easily to the “pie” taking a few bites. He smiled turning to face her as soft piano music played in their ears, “Despite it being not its intended form it’s really delicious, Conejito.” Cat gave a small smile, heart racing as his lips became dangerously close to hers. In any other moment she’d want nothing more than for him to kiss her, or she break that gap herself. Tonight though there was something wrong and she wanted to take care of him first and foremost.

“Thank you,” Catlina started to rub circles around his back looking up at the moon, the song starting to change. She only needed to hear the first few notes to know that it was Debussy, which seemed fitting considering how they sat here at night under a full moon.

Raf stood, pulling her arms away from his body, extending his hand out to her, “Care to dance a little, Catlina?” His smile was so bright and reassuring, she took his hand with little hesitation, maybe she could catch him off guard. He spun her easily into his arms, swaying to the music, keeping them from the edge with grace. He hummed to the tune his smile never leaving him, how she wanted so badly to match him in his smile. Enjoy and savor this moment with him, how close their bodies were and how it seemed that things were starting to change between them, surely, the possibility that he started to look at her as more than his friend. Her body burned while her heart warned against acting on it, calling to the pain that he seemed to be hiding from her.

If only she could just figure out what it was that was wrong, what happened to bring about the subtle hints of pain. She knew most of his drive to succeed and do what he could came from a place that feared failure, feared being a disappointment, not living up to the expectations that were thrusted upon him that he seemed to meet with such ease. Considering all that went on in the Whitetails there had to be some relation between the two. “Raf,” she said softly, “something bad happened in the mountains didn’t it?”

He gave a slight scoff, “Always something bad with Jacob up there.”

She shook her head, “More than that.” He stopped their dance looking down on her, “Did a mission go wrong?”

“Conejito,” he cupped her burning cheeks, “I know how you like to worry, like to think I’m like Wes, but I’m not. I’m fine, really I am.”

“You’re not above feeling hurt, sad, or in pain,” she countered, “At the end of the day you’re human, just like me and Wes, and it’s okay to rely on us for the bad moments.”

“I don’t need to. I know how to take care of myself,” he kissed the top of her head, “I appreciate your concern though, Cat.”

“Please tell me what happened,” she asked, “I promise I leave it be once you answer me that.”

He let out a slow breath, eyes searching her face, “Just what always tends to happen in wars. People go out and don’t always make it back.”

Her eyes widened slightly, “I’m so sorry Raf,” she ran her fingers through his hair down his jawline, “That’s not nothing, no matter how much it seems to happen here. It’s still losing people.” She watched as his shoulders slumped down, exhaling. “Let’s sit down and you can talk about it with me?”

He shook his head, “No, it’s okay really.”

“Rafael, I can see it's weighing you down,” she looked down to his hands, her thumbs running over the top of them, “Please, just this once,” she looked up to him, “let me help you carry this.” He started to shake his head at her freeing his hands from hers, “Raf, don’t push me away, please. I love you and care about you,” he turned to sit back down, “You didn’t want me to push you away, so please don’t start making the same mistakes as me.”

Cat joined him once he sat down, “I know you can’t understand though,” he argued, bringing a knee to his chest.

“You’ll never know unless you try,” she assured him, “You were out trying to take down a smaller outpost, someone there had information or supplies you needed right?”

He nodded, looking straight ahead to the night sky, “Yeah, should have been easy.” She latched onto his arm, grabbing his hand giving a light squeeze, “Then that song, that damn song started to play.” He let out a sigh, “I had someone that left Jacob months ago, thought they were going to be okay, the smaller ones never have it playing or anything to play it and then Lance’s tricks….,” his words trailed off, but it was enough for her to figure out the ending.

“Raf, there was nothing you could have done,” Cat noticed the slight clench in his jaw, “No one knows how deep his conditioning goes and even then it differs from every single person. It wasn’t your fault.”

“Tell that to his wife,” he muttered, “Or to the person he killed, try explaining that it wasn’t my fault to their partner. No one else is going to see it that way. It was my plan, my responsibility to bring them home and I didn’t.” Cat listened intently waiting for a break to say something, “People count on me, Cat, I can’t keep failing them like this.”

“You’re not failing them,” she started, “People know the risk that comes with being in the line of fire and they know that not everything is going to go to plan. Things happen and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

“It could have been prevented if I hadn’t brought him along,” he gave a small shrug, “Or just listened to Tammy in the first place, never tried to help lost causes.”

“That’s exactly why you should keep doing what you’re doing,” Cat moved to face him head on kneeling between his legs, “You have a belief that they can be saved, that they are worth saving because no matter what people are capable of change.” She placed her hand over the left side of his chest feeling the scarring underneath his shirt, “You know because you’ve seen it before, people that are said to be lost causes are the ones that need you most. The people Jacob has, the way his methods dig their claws into people’s minds it's-it's impossible to not have a few failures, ones that are not your fault. If anyone is at fault here it’s Jacob, it's his methods that are causing this.”

“That’s part of the problem, I should know better by now, but I keep doing it,” he argued, “I keep getting people out just to send them back into a losing battle. That’s not fair to them and I’m to blame for that.”

“Raf, I know you. I know that you would never force a person to fight if they didn’t want to,” she took a deep breath, “This isn’t the first mission you’ve done that’s gone awry and if people thought so little of you they wouldn’t still choose to follow you. They follow you because you persevere, you never leave a person behind if you can help it, you have heart, you care, and most importantly, you don’t put yourself above them. You’re not just ordering them around, telling them what to do from afar, you’re out in the trenches with them, fighting by their side, you’re a leader and being a leader comes with its failures.” She sat back grabbing hold of his hand tracing patterns on the back of it, “I know you don’t want to hear that but you need to know that. ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts’ and that’s what people look to, that’s what matters the most.”

“That doesn’t help get rid of the feelings that come along with it,” he said softly looking away from her.

“Then mourn,” she said simply, “Mourn, feel sad, angry, grieve, just be human and then once you do that you get back up and keep going. You continuing the fight and not giving up gives them peace and meaning to their deaths. No one is asking you to never feel when something like this happens, only that you don’t let it sit in your heart to a point that you start acting in extremes.” She turned his face towards her, “You being able to feel and seeing everyone as people and not a means to an end, it makes you better than him and that’s what you have to hold onto in these times. Your humanity.”

Raf looked at her a moment more before encircling his arms around her, Cat wrapping her arms around him tightly, stroking the back of his head as he buried his head in her shoulder. He didn’t cry or even say much of anything as he held her, her heart falling for him as she tried to find the right words to say, nothing seeming to fit other than the music playing in the background. Raf’s hands clutched onto her one last time before he released her, resting his forehead against hers, “Thank you,” he whispered, “It really means a lot to me.”

“Of course,” Cat said breathless, her heart fluttering, “I’ll always be here for you. No matter what, Rafael.” Her breath hitched as his hand moved up to push some of her hair back behind her ear, how wrong it felt to expect his lips to meet hers in that moment. Did his heart beat as fast as hers was right this moment? Was this really all one sided? Was she okay with this being the way it was? All questions for another time, not right now though. Not as he pulled away taking a deep breath.

His smile returned, not as big as he normally wore but still there, “That line you said about success not being final,” she nodded, “Did you come up with that all your own?”

She laughed as she found her place again next to him once more, pushing all her other feelings towards him away, “Nah. I’m not that smart,” she took a bite of the dessert, “Winston Churchill said that, or at least according to the internet.”

“Of course he did,” Raf moved to switch out the CD, “Clever work though in your placement of it.” He pulled out a soundtrack, “Shall we listen to some of your favorites while we enjoy the rest of the night? When do you have to be back?”

She gave a shrug, “Could stay out all night if you want, no one ever thinks to look for me,” her head starting to move to the sounds of a guitar playing, “Besides, day off tomorrow so I normally sleep in. What about you? How long do you have?”

“Same as you,” he turned to his own smaller bag, “Which works out cause I have a book of poems here that I’ve been wanting to show you actually, Conejito.” She looked over to it, “I know it's in Spanish but I can teach you some more if you want.”

“I’d like that,” Cat smiled up at Raf, pressing herself closer to him, “very much so.”

#x: top chefs #brains and disaster #i actually really love this like :')

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mguelrvera · 4 years

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( diego tinoco, cis male, he/him )╰ ✧ ˔ ⭒ magic is in the air ! oh wait - that’s just my old friend, MIGUEL RIVERA, the NINETEEN year old SHOE MAKER. they’ve lived in rome pines for ages, so everyone knows that they’re DETERMINED and DEFIANT, just like MIGUEL from COCO. they may not have any magic in them, but the neighbourhood sure knows them from their CALLOUSED FINGERTIPS & STARDUST EYES. apparently, they are CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC about meeting these magical citizens from pastoral city, so let’s just hope they will get along with their new neighbours…⭒˔ ╮

❁ THE STORY

on the evening of august the 13th, 2001, there was much cause for celebration in the rivera household: a new baby boy, born with one single dimple and wailing as if he needed the whole world to hear what he had to say. miguel rivera was the first child of proud new parents enrique and luisa - but he was far from being the first child of the rivera family, and there was absolutely no way he would be the last.

a family of historic shoemakers, the riveras have been running their little shop in the bustling streets of new costa luna since before anyone currently alive can remember. the site’s pretty much gone unchanged since the foundations were first put down: and thus, neither has the adjoining house. it’s not the smallest piece of real estate in rome pines, especially when compared to, say, the nearby studios, but it’s far from being big - especially for a family of, as of nineteen years following miguel’s birth, just about 13, excluding the few more relatives who would come by to work and eat just about every day. although it admittedly made rivera get-togethers much less a logistical nightmare than what many other families would have to go through, sharing a room with three cousins on a floor with one plus a sister more never made privacy a real option for miguel, and it made being the closest thing the current riveras had to a black sheep rather difficult growing up.

he didn’t want to stand out - and, if his abuelita was the type to cut even the tiniest bit of slack with any family tradition, he likely wouldn’t have at all. aside from how close-knit they are and how long they’ve been around, there’s one other notable thing about the riveras - their attitude towards music. it’s the one piece of family history miguel’s never been fully clear on, for whenever he tries to raise the subject, or hell, even mentions even the word music at all, there’s a slamming of whatever’s been held by his abuelita against whatever surface is closest and a quick changing of topic by whichever other family member can manage to string the words together first. his whole life, miguel has been led to feel he’s the only one who has an issue with not knowing why the ban’s there - but then again, as far as he knows, he’s the only one who’s ever had a problem with the ban being there at all.

there was a time, long ago, when miguel would’ve been perfectly happy to follow in his family’s rivera-made boot steps. when he was little, he did all he could to sneak next door into the upstairs workshop, and it wasn’t an uncommon sight to find him making toys out of whatever leather and canvas scraps he could get his tiny hands on. he was resourceful, and even at that young an age, he had a mind for putting things together, one that his family all knew would do well for him once it actually came time for him to join them - though his plans all changed once he got to school.

up until then, he’d had pretty much no idea what he was missing - though he may have been enchanted by the odd busker or tried to make his parents linger around shops longer so he could finish hearing whatever song was playing over the loudspeaker, for those first few years of his life, he’d been content not having music as a part of his life, a thought that baffles him now. it wasn’t until his year got a lesson playing with some instruments as a teamwork exercise that he realised what he’d been deprived of - though at first, he’d been embarrassed into the realisation when he couldn’t tap out a tune of a song everyone else seemed to already know. once he’d had the song played to him, though, he was pretty much instantaneous in picking up the melody, and that shame quickly turned to not just pride, but a feeling he couldn’t quite place with a six-year-old’s vocabulary - a sense that, for the first time, he was... complete.

when he got home, he was able to keep practicing tapping out the tune for all of five minutes before his abuelita heard him, and it was at dinner that night that it was announced he was going to be joining his cousin rosa in getting new shoes sorted out in their shoeboxes, the first step to becoming a proper member of the workshop. if he’d been told even a day before, he would’ve been bouncing off the walls with excitement - but it’s hard to find a step in one direction something to be happy about when you’ve just found out you’re on the entirely wrong path.

though he did dutifully get to work when he was in the rivera house, he made it his mission to find as much music as he could whenever he was outside of it - a challenge that was difficult at first given he was hardly let out into even the back garden on his own, let alone the whole city, but one that quickly grew easier with age. whenever he was sent out to run an errand, he’d dawdle as much as he could in the hopes of even picking up a note that he could follow, and if he was ever at a friends house and saw any sort of instrument or cd player, he’d not-so-subtly hint that he wanted to listen to something.

though he was never known for his brains, it was still at school where he really thrived musically - once he was old enough to take proper music classes, he was always the most attentive student in the room, and it didn’t take long for his teachers to take a shine for him. it was one in particular who saw his potential, asking him to stay back one lesson for a chat - and though miguel had been terrified he was about to get into trouble, instead, he was played a song, handed a guitar, and told to repeat it as best he could. it took him a few tries to get it down, but within the hour, he was able to pluck out the closest sounding notes even without knowing their proper names or orders - and though he technically shouldn’t have been allowed to join the middle school band for at least another year, he was given an invitation right then and there. he wasn’t able to practice at home, not even with the vague mockup of a guitar he’d once made out of a scrap of leather and some string as a kid, but he was able to catch up fairly quickly in rehearsals despite it.

at the end of each year there was a concert, and it soon became the thing he looked forward to most in the world save his own family holidays. given all the band members had to do was just hand a written invitation to their families, it was easy for miguel to throw his out on his walk home and just lie on the night and say he was at a friends house - though it was a ruse that would be discovered in his second to last year of middle school. at rosa’s graduation just a few nights before, his music teacher and band coordinator had spotted miguel and came over to talk to him about some final adjustments for the song he would be playing, and when he noticed the rest of the family beside him, he’d casually asked whether or not they were coming - it took all his abuelita’s strength to not explode right then and there.

miguel was grounded the second they got home, and the next morning his father had to ring up the school and say he’d very suddenly come down with the flu and wouldn’t be coming in for a few days, including the day of the concert. from then on out, all of miguel's classes and extracurriculars were checked off by his abuelita, and he was promoted from just packing and arranging to properly working the register of the shoe shop, a job that would take away all his free time and hopes of properly getting outside. he was devastated.

since then, miguel’s been hard at work keeping up the family business, going between his familiar position at the register to starting on actual shoemaking upstairs whenever the business day’s been quiet. he’s still as close to his family as he’s ever been, and he knows he’s not working the worst job in the world - but that doesn’t stop his heart from aching for the chance to play music again. unable to join any more bands or take any more music lessons, he spent his highschool years just watching from the sidelines and hoping, as he did as a kid, to stumble into the playing of any sort of song whenever he was out of the house. when he graduated, he’d had a faint dream of going to axiom university to study music composition, but he knew it was one that wouldn’t come to fruition - the business was successful, yes, but with almost two dozen people to support financially, there would never be enough for him to go, let alone go undetected.

he hasn’t let himself be fully deprived, however - though it’s certainly never been easy, he’s more and more regularly started sneaking out or taking detours to the jazz club and karaoke bar, and though he hasn’t really been able to perform, it’s filling the gap he’d only discovered was there back when he first tapped out that quickly-learned tune as a first grader. it’s one of the riskiest things he’s ever done - but for music, he’s learned, he’d take any risk in the world.

❁ THE PERSONALITY

miguel is, above all else, a determined kid. never doing anything by halves, he’s a hard worker, with no dream in his mind being unattainable - though he may be overly ambitious, he wouldn’t be pursuing his goals if he didn’t think he was able to, and is willing to put up with the most menial work just for those fleeting moments of progress down the path he actually wants to follow. though he is devoted to his family, he seemingly has no problem lying to or hiding things from them, much less breaking their rules, but in his mind he only does it because it’s the only way he’ll ever be able to do what he’s supposed to do - play music. though some may call him arrogant in his self-confidence, he’s not so sure of himself that he’s entirely reckless or impulsive - not usually, anyway. more often than not he will try his best to think things through and stick carefully to his own plans and alibis, there are times where he’ll just do something on a whim, though it’s usually in times of stress. he has been known to be stubborn, and it takes a lot to change his mind about something. while he is very self-assured and tries to be realistic about his plans, he is somewhat idealistic and can be let down by his own nerves when reality smacks him in the face. aside from his being goal-oriented, miguel is a very caring soul - though he doesn’t always agree with them, his family is the most important thing to him, and he’s just as devoted to his outside friends as well. it’s not just people he cares about - his hard working nature is just an extension of his general passion, and none of the passion he holds leads him to being a particularly stoic kind of kid. on the contrary, he has no problem displaying how he really feels about something unless he’s actively trying to get away with something, and even if he doesn’t vocally say it, he’ll usually be unable to stop himself from expressing with his face - he feels with his whole self, and it shows. he can never just let something go once it’s brought up, and he’ll do whatever he can to see any problem resolved if he knows he can do something about it.

❁ HEADCANONS

growing up, miguel’s favourite person in the world was his mamá coco - though he wasn’t massively excluded, his four cousins were able to be more connected to one another on the basis of being siblings, so until the birth of his baby sister socorro, she was the person he’d spend the most time around

although he loves all music, guitar is absolutely the thing he’s most drawn to and excels at - it’s his dream to properly own one, though it’s likely not one he’d be able to achieve until he’s able to move out

though he is practical, miguel was never really known for his intellect like some other kids are, and pretty much the only reason he enjoyed school was because he got to hang out with his friends and occasionally pass by a music lesson. with that being said, he has a brilliant memory, and though even with music he’s not that great with things like sheet music or the names of notes, he’s able to learn very quickly by just looking and listening, something that’s also translated into how he learned to make shoes

❁ MISC

pinterest & wanted connections zodiac: leo sun, gemini moon, & scorpio rising myers-briggs: enfp (the campaigner) enneagram: 7w6 (the enthusiast) alignment: neutral good

#actually my name is miguel ( ABOUT )#fantasiafalls:intro #if you saw me accidentally post this a few minutes ago when it wasn't done no you didn't <3

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ranger-report · 4 years

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Review (In Progress): THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT (2015)

The third and final (so far) game in The Witcher trilogy is big. Very big. Massive. Supermassive. Maybe I’m just a little intimidated by the depth and width and density of the game, but as of this writing, I’ve clocked in 62.4 hours on the game. That’s compared to the 48.1 hours of The Witcher and 31.5 hours of The Witcher 2. I’m closing in on the point where I’ve played Wild Hunt more than the first two games combined. From where I sit, there’s no end in sight, either; I have yet to complete the story, in addition to multiple sidequests, witcher contracts, and treasure hunts, not to mention the jawdropping expansion quests Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine, which combined supposedly equal the length of the main story quest itself. Throw everything in a blender and pour it out, and I’ll be surprised if I eventually finish everything I’ve a mind for in under 150 hours. This is a big game. This is a dense game, packed with content every couple of miles or so, in a world where you can’t walk into a town without stumbling onto someone -- or something -- in need, and that’s ignoring the contracts on notice boards. People walk, talk, argue, cough, stumble around drunk, and get into fights with you. Oh yes, run afoul of local gangs, and they will come for you. Meanwhile, the vast open world is teeming with monsters to battle and loot, from the continual presence of drowners to the new griffins and basilisks. An overwhelming amount of content in a series that already packs plenty of content into each game. It would be far, far too much and monotonous if it wasn’t for one thing: developers CD Projekt Red write compelling material, and they know how to write a damn good story.

When the game opened up, it looked just like any other open world game I’ve ever played, and immediately I felt a pang of disappointment. I’ve done Far Cry 3, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Grand Theft Auto V, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, and like many of my gaming generation I get what to do. Seek out loot, checkpoints for fast travel, towns, fight things to get xp, ignore the “pressing” main story in favor of side quests for cool shit, yadda yadda yadda. Considering the first two Witcher games felt like original experiences in what they were trying to do, to walk into such a generic open-world framework was such a let down.

At first.

But then, something strange began to happen: I settled in. Two random quests twisted and convoluted into a connected thread, which was followed by a third main quest which circled back to this thread and elaborated on it. Suddenly a character who just seemed off her rocker was now a fearfully sympathetic human being, now seen in the light of someone else’s story. CD Projeckt Red hooked me, hooked me bad, and now this wide wide world was no longer a series of performances, it was the lives of people in this world and how Geralt affects them -- just like in the previous games. Only here, it’s bigger and wider and seemingly less connected, but it still all comes back together. Choices matter. People matter. The world itself twists and winds according to you, the witcher, and who you side with/fight for. Every other open world game I’ve played has had Things To Do, and this is no exception, but now suddenly it feels like everything matters. Before, everything I did felt like it was to further a progression percentage, to get trophies and upgrade items and simply arcade my way through a sandbox which promised “openness” but really was just all the levels of a video game laid out side-by-side so you could see them all at once instead of having to press through to get to the next one. This is the first time where I’ve really, honestly felt like I was walking through a living world, and to say that it’s captured me is an understatement. Where once I would have rolled my eyes at sidequesting in the face of a main quest where the point is to track someone down or save someone because it is incredibly important, now it feels like the most natural thing because the main quest requires you to go through some shit first. Every contract and quest met along the way furthers the main quest in some way or another, particularly when you open up new quests AFTER helping old friends, friends who now desperately need your help again, and what would happen if you weren’t there? Combine all of this with exceptional voice acting, talented writing, detailed animations, and we have compelling content literally around every corner. And that’s even when you’re just out searching for treasure or diagrams to make better witcher armor! Stories pop up everywhere, all of it interesting, even the slightest of things, and it truly crafts a distracting world to be enveloped by.

A living breathing world would be one thing all on its own, but thankfully Wild Hunt features the best-looking graphics in the series to date. I was genuinely worried that my old rig wouldn’t be able to handle a massive open-world game from 2015 without some tweaks (my desktop is old, shut up), but for the most part I’m running everything on high and it is breathtaking. Weather effects, god rays, BLOOM jesus christ I’m appreciating bloom in a video game for the very first time and I hate that I am but god fuck the first time you see the moon behind clouds in this game with bloom on, and I’m talking a full moon so it is BRIGHT and BEAUTIFUL and just. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Detailed textures and character models, the best in the series so far, a wide palette of colors (which sometimes makes the game look like a living painting, in the best of ways), absolutely masterful work. There’s the odd object-poking-through-something-it-really-shouldn’t, or the glitchy human being moving/acting/dying in ways they shouldn’t be, but that’s also a staple of both open world games and this series in general. Jank happens, especially in a game this size. It’s not as breaking as it has been in certain aspects of the first two games, and it’s mostly Bethesda-level charming. What matters though is that it doesn’t kill the experience, nor does it happen so often that it feels like the game is bugged or broken.

Combat, meanwhile, is still not perfect but it’s the best it’s been in the trilogy. Fast and furious, yet rewarding for those who have more patient skills, swordplay is easy and comfortable and versatile. Similar to the second game, one needs only turn the camera towards whichever enemy they want to attack and Geralt automatically goes for whichever monster or human is highlighted. Sometimes this can be fraught as the game will erratically highlight a different character than the one you’re facing, or will transfer the highlight to a different enemy if the one you were facing dances out of sight due to a roll or dodge or other maneuver. But it’s only frustrating sometimes; this was a flaw far more prevalent in the second game than here, and the lock-on mechanic is a godsend when paired against high-level creatures. With patience and tactics I’ve been able to competently square with beasts far too high level for me to tackle, and actually come out the victor, an idea that would be absolute suicide in the first two games. But now strategy versus simple number rolls can prevail, provided you are prepared and/or willing to have the patience to chip away while dodging for your life.

Wild Hunt is one of the few game worlds I’ve entered that feels stunningly alive. Whenever I start up the game, I am transported. Taken away. Breathlessly in awe of how real and vibrant the physical presence of the visuals on screen are. What a strange gift to behold. And, yet, aggravatingly, it frustrates me that most opinions I have encountered are that players don’t need to play through Witcher 1 & 2 in order to play this game. You certainly can, but so much context is lost. Geralt’s relationships with Triss and Yennifer and the struggles between them (that is, should you decide to romance Triss); the nostalgia and heartache of coming back to Kaer Morhen and revisting the other witchers; the friends and former alliances who pop up under vastly different circumstances; the paths taken and decisions made which impact where and how you begin this story. Wild Hunt is the culmination of a near-decade’s worth of storytelling, and the rewards for having played through the previous two games are plentiful. Nilfgaard’s invasion has extra oomph knowing where they were before, and walking through Vizima’s capital now occupied by Emperor Emhyr is especially chilling and devastating. I have no doubt that someone could pick up this game and play it and get the jist of what’s going on without playing the first two games. But will it mean as much? I daresay no. It is absolutely essential to play the first two games to truly feel the depth of impact that this story -- this world -- has to offer.

At this point in time it seems I’m coming upon some kind of resolution to the story. I’m off in search of allies to help combat a vicious foe, meaning it’s time to wrap up any side quests I still have in my ledger. There’s a lot to do. Once I’ve reached the conclusion of this game, this story, I’ll provide a wrap-up review. For now, this deep and still ploughing through, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is not only the best of the trilogy, it makes me want to go all the way back to the first game and play through the whole series again with different choices, for different outcomes, if only to see the roads I did not take and who was left behind. This is an amazing experience with literally hours of content to take in, and I am eager to devour the remainder.

Score (So Far): 9/10

#the witcher #wild hunt #blood and wine #hearts of stone #geralt of rivia #Yennefer of Vengerberg #Triss Merigold #CD Projekt RED #pc gaming #rpg #review #ck burch #ruby ranger #ranger report

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