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unproduciblesmackdown · 1 year

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prompted by your tags on my [taylor singing] post, consider this a free space to discuss any and all concepts related to [taylor goes on a road trip], especially those involving them singing

oh hell yes, can go without saying nothing's concrete or comprehensive or like "wow i could present this concept So well at any moment," but when is it ever??? it's always time for the vague or brief or messy ideas and throwing them out there for fun, love A Prompt to do ofc when one can manifest and kind of provide general parameters as a springboard

naturally your quiz bowl au is an Inspiration for this realm, supposing there's a team carpool to events at other schools / locations, and those having to happen early enough to arrive on time, which sure throws [passengers might partake of a car nap] in the mix. like that maybe taylor is the driver and sings quietly to themself for fun when everyone else is seemingly asleep, whether that's accurate or not. or sings a little to help wake themself up more, whether driving or not, hopefully the latter, and perhaps after having had a car nap themself if the latter (and how maybe they're a little more unfiltered if they've just woken up & aren't quite firing on all cylinders yet). or to kind of get themself more In The Moment / shake things off in anticipation of being ready for the event, after perhaps studying/practice that is all well and good but now It's Game Time impends and also being a little more flexible is relevant, never know what you're gonna get out here. or that, being in college, ft. the idea they're still figuring out gender &/or just now abt to put having figured some things out into practice, & everything that they might have to be dealing with now / going forward involving that, and that rather what you might want to shake some stuff off about could stem from events re: that at any time. or b/c imagine something like the team made up some ritual like "oh we gotta sing [xyz song] before every quiz bowl" that isn't actually taken seriously but they reliably do it anyways & taylor gamely participates. or Just Because, Nbd, say, e.g. someone else on the roadtrip to the quiz bowl location sings along to smthing they especially like and taylor does too b/c they also like it, perhaps mild surprise from anyone else but nbd.

obviously another classic scenario, technically non au beyond [as attuned to our tastes & interests], being that like, Taylor Takes A Road Trip To Some Event For Which Winston Is Their Formal/Informal Plus One for practical support, company, emotional support, fun, any/all of these and/or more....like the idea that they take a trip to/through Wherever They're From hundreds of miles from water, and meeting up with / encountering family will occur whether that's the point of the entire trip, and whether or not this is post (probably post) disasters w/douglas that's always going to be a mixed bag / perhaps somewhat fraught at least at times. and they'll bring winston along. just endless possibilities, and singing could happen at any time....take it back to the [quiz bowl au] section and singing to try to be more In The Moment / shake something off, whether that's happening before or after any family time....

and Of Course. of course thinking of [winston is taylor's plus one / helping out on some trip/event] re: anything business and that means thinking of Your Manifestation of such a scene, hate that i'm failing to track down the post rn (unassisted by tumblr's Search of course) (edit: fuck yes this one), where taylor & winston go to a job fair and are checking in at a hotel (where they share a room...) and winston calls taylor comforting, to their surprise....an all-time classic, somewhat in the road trip genre lol

oh and before i forget, tbt the concept of a combo benston/tayston scenario wherein ben agrees to be this quasi chauffeur for the occasion of a Scenic Drive for the purposes of: so taylor and winston can fool around in the back seat =) which can perhaps feature some singing lol, if someone driving might need to partake of a distraction at all / shake some Tension off about knowing this will happen, and then is happening....

back to a Road Trip For Business: supposing that at any time it's possible there might be those trips like, here's a business event to go to, here's more of a vacation but you have to go for the fact of working here, or something in between. and maybe the presumption is like oh everyone simply flies out everywhere zzz, but fuck it, road trip. with any combination of people, but with taylor involved, let's please for all our sakes let the vast majority of ppl be tmc members or team ben (honorary members) or sacker (also honorary enough re: working w/taylor twice (already preceded by the concept that they should)) or philip (straightforward and/or honorary inclusion in any relevant scenarios of course) like others must be outliers here, the vibe / pace / tone must be set by these ppl w/more affinity/proximity re: taylor. any standard Sharing A Journey goings on may proceed. just the idea of the interactions that can unfold in ordinary little situations, pit stops, food stops, overnight stops, sightseeing stops....

though that prior scenario has been more of an axe cap thing....what if at any point there was a tmc trip and it was a roadtrip b/c at any point there's been five at them at most w/names & dialogue capabilities....wherein if it's a tmc event, presumably taylor doesn't have to just hope they're okay with the location and events, and certainly not be dragged along. if anyone else is taking the helm it's so taylor doesn't have to be literally driving things....which kind of overlaps with a particularly nebulous idea of like, people partcipate in a surprise vacation / trip For taylor lol. perhaps in a like "please take a break btw" way somewhat, probably always relevant, but some times more than others....easy enough to think of any and all tmc members getting behind that kind of thing / actively participating. unfortunately re: canon groupings and the way at any given time that configuration is kind of "[everyone else]......& winston, maybe" gotta get extra [the au of one's tastes & interests] to consider him Getting to get in on it at all & not just be stuck in the back listening to his headphones or being ignored, might have to whittle it down. but then you get to classic situations like "he's still kind of '......& winston, maybe'd when it's just him and literally one other person working for taylor" but yknow hey, winston & rian have worked together and talked and hung out all just out of frame, the consideration has always been there like, extra motivation to coordinate re: taylor (& that's somewhat manifested too lol, some of their most [a unit in this one] quantent being built around their alignment on some point vs taylor) like i think they could handle a road trip. and if the [being stuck in the same places / having to keep interacting] of figuratively and perhaps literally driving a road trip leads to any conflicts / negative tension then yknow, hey, feel free to kind of have unspectacular instances of arguing / manifesting that....much less hashing anything out / anyone learning anything for once in our lives lol....unsurprising if canon will have someone never heading in a more constructive direction re: things like [rian apparently having zero thoughts re: power differences besides that it's fine when they're in her favor & assuming they couldn't/wouldn't be leveraged when they're not] but winston is out here as this (accidental?) foil for taylor & tayloresque people who could be very helpful for them lol, he just doesn't get to be talked to / taken seriously / considered to have stakes........But What If He Did. and the thought of taylor gamely chilling in the back seat of some trip while this thread of [brewing conflict] spools betwixt your quants who are ignoring that / setting it aside atm to deal with traffic or a flat or sm shit rn and maybe mafee is also there like well i don't really know what's going on here but what else is new :I ....but there doesn't have to be any dramatic scenes or revelations either, you Will know a little more about each other by the end of some trip, you Will be more familiar w/each other, for better or worse. but so long as everyone manages it you will be rewarded w/the destination and goings on / further flexibility/opportunities there, too. taylor can have the aux especially if some trip is For them to any degree lol. whether that means singing ever or not....noticing the dynamic is weird but you can't walk away and get back to work within the next 50 sec? try going "oh hey, this song" and just....do that lol.

taylor also never has to be accompanied by anyone, like, of course Solo Road Trip is an option, for work, to visit anyone (including that [uh oh: their family] scenario again....), even for other things....and/or of course any one on ones where the other one isn't winston, but for as vague as all my ideas are, of course left entirely to my own devices it's even more like [uhhhh fuckin um. gimme a minute] with those. but considering that, of course, taylor isn't one of the likelier characters to comfortably (or at all) sing in front of others, the more Others there are, the less likely.

it's also fun if they just do it for fun, as Unlikelily as anyone could want; e.g. like, whatever grouping of people, in some unassuming moment, taylor Just sings a few lines or refrain of some song and then everyone can just roll with that like, oh, huh, well okay....they sure do sometimes just have a relatively more spontaneous moment of expressing themself, or, of course, when they put on a bit of a show

less fun but more [anything to say about that] would be like, taking it back to earlier sections, perhaps singing as a distraction from Whatever, where of course [whatever] can be something upsetting, and/or their already being upset. singing a bit as a [i'm busy doing this with my voice, so don't try to talk to me way]

more fun is how, of course, anyone who might feel particularly affectionate towards taylor (a requirement re: working for them (or being Honorarily [tmc] enough)) isn't just going to pay attention / have a Reaction, internal or external, re: taylor singing b/c of like wow how surprising i didn't think you have or would ever [cue things they'd surely have done or would ever do, like, of course] b/c you're so Weird, right, but where "well, i'm Taking Notice Especially b/c it's Them" has a whole different nuance there. tbt full circle to like, that first [quiz bowl au] section and taylor perhaps casually quietly singing a bit b/c any & everyone else is seemingly asleep, but are they really??? no one sitting upright like "whoa omg you're singing" b/c that's not the reaction they'd be moved to based on the experience they're having....anyone conscious perhaps having Been mostly asleep, now still with a leg over in [dozing off], feeling less filtered, w/a more freeform understanding of what's going on in general at all, even if totally alert aware that for one thing taylor's trying to not wake anyone so you'll give it another ten min of award-winning performance at least....

also would be fun if taylor ever like, spontaneously invented / tried out some harmonies. or otherwise followed along some other musical path in a song besides the [lead singer] part. tapping out a rhythm on their knee or a doorframe....neil....

#throwing things at the wall; a classic genre #winston billions #tayston #benston #nothing else mentioned w/enough specificity / granularity but anyone feel free to kiss whoever on these road trips....many combos

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casualotptrash · 3 years

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Why the Persona 3 FES vs Portable Debate Makes Me Want to Fly Into the Sun Pt. 3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Da da da daaa!

Part 3 of this lovely emotional rant is here, for anyone who wants to spend their time reading these. With the last two posts, I have mostly tried to be informative or just complain a bit about why this debate makes me want to fly into the sun, but for this post it’s going to go a little different. Perhaps a bit more subjective than the others.

In this post, I’m going to go over everyone's favorite clusterfuck...a definitive version of Persona 3.

Now, as we established in the previous post, we know that the argument of FES vs Portable is essentially pointless because everyone’s opinion on either game is subjective. However, I have neglected to bring up this topic that puts a huge ass nail into this dusty old coffin: the fact that there is objectively no definitive version of Persona 3.

Everyone can argue all day and night about which version of P3 is better, but no one can deny that either version are “definitive.” By definitive, I mean that the game has the most content that is offered, like Persona 4 Golden or Persona 5 Royal. The reason none of the P3 games are definitive is because base P3 lacks stuff from FES and Portable, FES lacks stuff fro Portable, and Portable lacks things from FES. It’s a gamble of whether you want to experience cutscenes, an overworld, and The Answer, or a whole new route with the FeMC and the brand new option of dating male party members and saving...you know who.

One might be able to say FES is definitive because it has The Answer, which I believe is considered canon according to the Arena games. Another could say Portable is the definitive version because it came out after FES, added the FeMC (who is technically canon as per the second Persona Q game), and removes The Answer (which a lot of people said The Answer messed with the core theme of P3). However, the definition of definitive in this case, and with all of the other games, is that the game offers the most content. Arguably, FES and Portable provide the same amount of content, just in different ways. This is why this whole conversation of which one is better, or which to play first, spawned in the first place.

The reason I am bringing this up in this post, about why this whole discussion physically pains me, is because having a real, definitive version of the game could finally put this discussion to rest. At least, it somewhat would. People would probably still argue that FES is the best for some reason.

Now, the argument becomes...well, what does a definitive version of Persona 3 look like?

I have seen quite a bit about this topic, and people seem to really miss some common sense points. For example, they get caught up in whether it would be considered a remake or a remaster. I know some use those terms interchangeably, but the “official” definition for each is that a remake is a game that is made from scratch, while a remaster is made by updating the existing assets and engine. For example, the upcoming Nocturne HD release is a remaster. Personally I find it difficult to neatly fit the typical persona definitive editions, like Golden and Royal, into either of these categories. It may just be me not fully grasping the differences between the two, but I believe they would fit into more of the “remaster” category. It is true that there are new assets and content being added to the game, but it’s so minor that I’m not sure it could be considered a remake. On the other hand, because new content is added it couldn’t just be defined as a remaster because typically the effects and such aren’t even changed that much. It’s just gameplay and story content that is tweaked.

When people get so caught up in what it would be considered, logic seems to...go out the window? For example, in a debate between a P3 remaster or remake, a person made a comment that if a remake was to happen then people would demand that all of the social links be available to anyone. Now, that just isn’t possible for a variety of reasons. There’s no way we could ever mix and match social links to get a preferred grouping. Another issue with this is that if just a remaster was made, then one of the two games would be left out.

This is why I don’t really think about whether a definitive edition is a remaster or remake, because using such strict labels make it harder to judge what could, or should, be in one. This is why I’m just referring to this process as making a definitive edition. That being said, I would consider a definitive P3 game to be more of a remake (not that it really matters) because my ideas would essentially combine FES and Portable, in a way?

So here we go, into my idea of what a definitive version of Persona 3 would look like. (Warning: This will contain spoilers for all of the P3 story and *gasp* may be a bit biased toward Portable because I like it more)

1. Presentation

In simple terms, I would want the game to essentially be Portable...but with updated graphics, cutscenes from FES, and an overworld. It’s easier to use Portable as a base because it’s already closer to the format of P4 and P5, so then adding in the good parts of FES with the cutscenes and overworld are par for the course. As far as graphics go, I would like the models and environment to look more like P3D (aka whatever engine they used for Persona 5?) because damn did the characters get a glow up.

2. Gameplay

Along with the format of Portable, I would also want the gameplay of Portable to be in this definitive version. That means no jealousy system, no fatigue until after you leave tartarus, the vision quest, and the other changes I mentioned in the first post. Sorry FES fans, but yes...I would still want the option of controllable party members. However, a new change that should be added is backup members earning exp. I don’t think baton passes or anything should be added, we don’t want a clone of P5, and the combo attacks in P3P kind of fill this role anyway. The idea of having social links give certain perks with ranks, like how confidants work in P5, is interesting but I don’t think it would be necessary. I would also say that the soundtrack should be exclusive for each side, like how it is in Portable, and that there should be an option to choose which skills are inherited.

3. Social Links

The stance I would take with social links would essentially be how Portable did it, but with a slight tweak. No matter how much it would be cool to date Rio or Saori as the Male MC, or vice versa with Kaz or Keisuke and FeMC, I don’t think any mixing of the two sides would really be feasible. However, I would love to see cameos of those characters in the opposing routes. For example, you see Yuko and Kaz in the female route, but in the male route you could see Saori and Rio at school. That being said, and this is probably one of the biggest issues, I would want the male protag to be able to have social links with the entire party, men included. This brings up the issue of what social links you would cut out because you can’t have two social links be the exact same arcana. Unless they want to add more arcanas to the game, which would probably not go over well either, the best option is probably to prioritize the male party members and then have who would usually be in their place just show up sometimes. For example, Kenji would show up in the social link with Junpei instead of the magician social link just being about one or the other.

I know this seems weird, but it does kind of avoid shafting one or the other. If it was too hard to fit the two together (such as Chihiro and Ken both being Justice), perhaps a few more school scenes could be added where the MC interacts with the school friends that are not seen as much (Kenji, Chihiro, etc.) However, and this might piss off 1% of people but whatever, but the moon arcana with Nozomi (Gourmet king dude) could just be completely taken over by Shinji. Nozomi is a meme, but he is not needed in any way. Also, I would prioritize Yuko in the male route over Koromaru since, although he is a very good boy, he is still a dog. Also, please get rid of the option that you’re forced to romance every girl in the male route, and personally I would say keep in the fact that you cannot date Junpei. In a headcanon sort of way, I totally dig the idea of the MC being able to help Junpei through his rough time after Chidori dies (if she dies?) and feelings grow from there, but from a story perspective I think it’s integral to his character that he friendzones the player if they try.

So TLDR; who the social link is about would mainly stay true to the original route (male route with Kaz, etc. and female route with Rio, etc.), however in the male route the party members would take priority (so Akihiko would take the star arcana place and Mamoru (track guy) would just be featured in the link sometimes), and in both routes Shinji would take Nozomi’s place as the moon. Important note that besides including the other character, the main substance of the social link shouldn’t be changed; aka they should not change the format of the social links to operate more like P5 social links where the MC is just solving all of their problems.

(Sidenote: This is imply my idea on how to include party members into the social links for the male route, however if they just decided to keep the social links the exact same as Portable with no male party member social links with the male route then I’d be fine with that too. It wouldn’t really take away from the game as a whole for me, personally.)

4. Romance Options

Riding off of the social link talk...and I know this is like the least likely option of happening, but please make some gay options Atlus? If we can romance every single girl in the male route, why not just add the romance option for the men too? Yes yes there’s the whole argument about the issue of “making everyone bi” (thanks for erasing sexuality that care more about connections rather than gender?), but I say look no further than how Dragon Age 2 did it. Every romanceable option in that game can be romanced be either the male or female main character (barring a DLC character who is only romanceable by females), and it works just fine. Turns out, no one really gives a shit if it’s “realistic” enough (aka only having one or no bi/gay people apparently?) because it’s a video game and people want to romance whoever they want...because it’s a video game. Even if you really, really don’t like this approach there is also the option of going the Dragon Age Inquisition route, where characters are able to be romanced by certain genders and not by others (race also plays a role in this in the game, since there are elves and other fantasy races and such, but this is not applicable to Persona obviously). This is simply a hypothetical example, but how this would work is that like Fuuka can only be romanced by the Male MC, Akihiko and Yukari could be romanced by either MC, and Mitsuru could only be romanced by the FeMC. Obviously social links specific to a run would be a romanceable option to the MC in their route (as in Yuko would only be romanceable by Male MC because she’s only in her run, and social links like Saori could be a romance for FeMC because she’s specific to her route). I have a gut feeling this would cause an even bigger uproar with the fandom, so having any romance option (barring route specific social links for the route they’re not in) be available for either male or female MC is the best option in my opinion.

Take out Ken’s romance option altogether though. I know some of the language is different, so it doesn’t say you “spend a long night together” or whatever, but that doesn’t really make it any better. I do think it’s fine if Ken has a crush on the MC, and maybe has a whole Kenji thing of thinking they are together cause he’s 10 and kids can be like that, but the MC wouldn’t actually act on this and the player could be given the choice to actively dissuade Ken. The only good thing that came out of Ken’s romance option was the fact that him and Akihiko can argue in Tartarus if you romance them both, and I don’t want to lose that hilarious dialogue.

5. Tartarus

Tartarus...uh...to be honest I’m not really sure what to do with this beast. It’s boring and tedious in the first place, probably by design for symbolism in the game, but I’m not sure how to make it interesting without copying the dungeon/palace format. Perhaps the blocks could be restructured to act more like a big puzzle that needs to be solved, like certain sections of palaces in P5, but also have bosses and shadows thrown in. For example, perhaps one block could be more reminiscent of hide-and-seek stealth tactics while another is formatted like a series of arena-esque gladiator fights. Also probably lower the number of floors you need to climb? It gets a bit ridiculous when you realize there are 264 floors of Tartarus and 99% of them are the same but just with more funky music and slightly different decorations. This job is suited for someone with actual video game making experience though, and not me.

6. Awakenings and Pacing

Let’s talk about some quick fixes to awakenings and pacing of the game. Now, since this is a definitive version and not a true remake, I wouldn’t want them to rewrite the entire story or something. Most of the party member’s original awakenings happen off screen, which can be kind of lackluster. The MC’s and Fuuka’s are the only two we really see, and those moments were really cool in my opinion. Obviously we wouldn’t see Mitsuru’s, Akihiko’s, or Shinji’s original awakenings, but that is fine. Yukari and Junpei also fall into this boat because Yukari awakens before the MC gets to the dorm, and it would be hard to show Junpei’s awakening while also having his whole “reveal” moment when he comes to the dorm to live there. I don’t know if it’s ever mentioned when Ken awakens to his persona, but making a scene to show both his and Koromaru’s would be helpful instead of just saying Ken has the potential and he’s joining, and hearing about Koromaru awakening but not actually seeing it. As for the pacing, I’m mainly talking about the summer time where you can’t hang out with a good number of social links. I would just change this so that you can hang out with school social links during this time more readily, like if they’re just hanging out somewhere in town if they’re not at school. Like I said, this isn’t a remake (and I’m not a video game designer) so I didn’t want to get into how to fix the overall pacing of the story, which can be pretty slow until October or so. My one suggestion is maybe adding in a few extra scenes with Strega before October so it’s not like we run into them a couple times and suddenly they’re a major villain.

7. Shinjiro

(Spoilers for after October) I know certain people will definitely not like this point, but I think the option to save Shinji should remain in the game (and Chidori too). I’ll go into this in another post, but my main reason for keeping this in is because some people really do like this option, so it would be kind of unfair just to get rid of it because other people don’t like it. However, I would suggest a change to his social link so that there is the option to save him or not while also being able to complete the social link. Perhaps after rank 10 would be when you could give him the pocket watch, so that people could get the rank 10 and not be forced to save him.

8. Extra Content

(Spoilers for the ending of Persona 3 and The Answer) Each definitive version has extra content in the “third semester” (because Persona 4 and 5 both essentially end after December), but in Persona 3 the natural game ends in January. I am not sure if they would try to add another whole months or so on, but because The Answer already exists, but I assume they wouldn’t add extra content in February or something for the MC. For The Answer, I would keep this in the game as sort of the “extra content” but add a FeMC version of this. Obviously it would be largely the same, except with the FeMC and perhaps the male party members could get more of a focus since the female party members get a larger focus in the male route (ie. Yukari breaking down with the keys. Maybe Junpei or Akihiko could take on this role as the people who don’t want to let go). Also, as a possible new addition to The Answer, Shinji could be a part of it if he is saved during the main game. In the NG+ run of Portable FeMC route, if you romance Shinji he comes to the rooftop for that final scene, so in a way it could be possible for him to recover by the time The Answer happens in March.

Now, if Atlus decided to add a more typical “extra content” thing, I hope they wouldn’t try to cram The Answer in on top of that unless they were able to do it cohesively. It might be a lot to have the whole ending of the game in January, come up with a reason to have extra content in February (presumably with the MC still alive, but also combat would need to be a part so then the issue arises of Tartarus coming back or something?), and then have the answer take place right after near the end of March.

Well that’s the end of that I think. This will also be the last post in this little “series” because I pretty much went over everything about this debate that makes me want to fly into the sun. I know the things I talked about in these posts will probably never stop, but I really hope that if a definitive version comes out at least the discussion will change to saying what is good or bad about each game rather than FES supremacy or whatever. That being said, above all I really hope this debate doesn’t discourage new fans from Persona 3 or the series in general, because that would probably be the worst outcome from all of this. It’s a great game, and it’s a shame that the game itself is kind of held back by being split into two (I’m not counting base Persona 3) different forms.

#persona 3 #persona 3 portable #p3 #p3p #long post #this is the end guys #my rocket is finished and im ready to fly into the sun #thank you to whoever decided to read all of these #you're the real mvp #is there a hashtag for persona fans to stop fighting persona fans #or to at least stop persona 3 fans from having a pissing contest with one another

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myownworldstayout · 5 years

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New Friends Ch. 15

Ch.1 / Ch.14 / Ch.16

(So, I’m thinking I’ll just update these when I write them, ya know? but I’ll try to update at least every week- or every Sunday -if I fall behind)

“Felix, you should’ve seen yourself!” Wayhem exclaimed, practically buzzing with excitement. “You had this weird suit on and your hair was black and, man, your eyes they-”

“They were intense!” Aurore jumped in, flailing her arms around. As soon as school was over, the group was insistent upon giving Felix a detailed play-by-play on what he did under Hawkmoth’s control. Strangely enough, they seemed pretty proud of his work.

“You would’ve loved Lila’s look of horror when she spit out her tongue.” Kagami said calmly, though she held an air of amusement in her tone.

The blond in question nodded along absently, keeping his nose in his book. He didn’t appear to be too interested in learning about his akumatization.

Marinette bit the inside of her lip, shifting on her bedroom floor. She wanted to ask him if he was alright, but they hadn’t gotten a moment alone since they returned to the school earlier. Not only that, she really needed to go talk to Master Fu about their.. Situation.

“Marinette was awesome, as always, talking you down to let Chat Noir catch up with us.” Wayhem added, straightening with pride as he smiled at her.

Felix’s gaze flicked to Marinette at the comment, and she noticed the grip on his book seemed a little tighter than necessary.

“Speaking of which, how did Felix get akumatized?” Aurore asked thoughtfully.

Marinette glanced at Felix, trying to gawk a reaction on how she should respond. He didn’t give her any clues.

“He took the butterfly for me.” She finally said. “He used his book as a shield, but then got akumatized himself.”

Wayhem whistled. “And what an akuma it was! If it weren’t for you, Ladybug and Chat Noir might have never caught him.”

“I know right!” Aurore grinned. “I wonder what would have happened if they didn’t catch him, ya know? Fe as a villain makes a lot of sense, actually.”

A frown tugged at the corner of Marinette’s lips. Felix? As a villain? She didn’t even want to imagine it.

And from the way he tensed up next to her, she had a hunch he didn’t want to either.

“Felix could never be a villain.” She spoke up on his behalf.

Kagami chuckled. “I don’t know, Marinette. He certainly doesn’t seem like the hero type.”

“And look at today! I heard he even got Chat Noir to lose the ability to feel. Do you think Ladybug got hit?” Wayhem said eagerly. No one wanted the heroes to suffer, of course, but now that they knew everything was alright, it was fun to talk about it.

Aurore groaned. “Ugh, I wish you could remember what you did!”

Felix huffed, and Marinette barely caught the reply, “That makes one of us.”

Aurore and Wayhem both took a breath to continue their rambles when Luka cleared his throat.

“Hey, guys, it’s getting kinda late. We should probably get going so we can get our homework done.”

The group glanced out the window, seeing the sun just starting to set over the buildings.

Marinette smiled. She knew what Luka was doing, and she couldn’t be more grateful. How was he able to read them all so well?

“I think that’s a good idea.” Kagami agreed, catching onto the scheme and standing up.

A few extra looks from the two had Aurore and Wayhem on their feet as well.

“Oh, right, yeah. We were definitely assigned homework.” Wayhem nodded awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.

“See you guys tomorrow!” Aurore waved, being the first to open the trapdoor and step down the ladder.

Everyone left single-file through the trapdoor. Until it was Felix’s turn.

“Uhm..” Marinette started, lightly touching his upper arm to stop him. She’d hoped he would pick up on Luka’s message and stay put. That would have saved some awkwardness. “Why don’t we go up to the balcony? For some fresh air?”

Felix looked down at her hand, contemplating her words.

“Alright.”

Marinette leaned on the balcony, feeling the cool metal against her arms. The red sun slowly slipped beneath the buildings, melting into an orange sky. The chatter of their friends grew faint as they traveled to their separate homes. She glanced at Felix, who was leaning on the balcony next to her. He still wouldn’t meet her gaze, choosing to watch the sky instead.

It wasn’t until they couldn’t hear the others talking anymore that she spoke.

“Are you.. Are you okay?” The question felt ridiculous. Felix obviously wasn’t acting like himself. Though she’d never been akumatized herself, Marinette knew how much it can affect people.

Felix didn’t respond at first, lowering his eyes to the sidewalk.

“I could have hurt you today.” His voice was so small, so soft, it made Marinette’s heart ache. It made her want to hold him close and tell him everything was fine, just like he did for her two days ago.

Felix sighed, shaking his head. “I thought I was helping. You.. being who you are..”

Marinette held back a laugh. “Being who she is”? That’s a good way of referring to her alter ego. She’d have to remember that.

“I knew you couldn’t get akumatized, but I didn’t think about what would happen if I got akumatized. All the things I did, all the things I could’ve done. And you were so close to me, I just..” He trailed off, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Who knows what I could’ve done to you.”

She couldn’t help the blush spreading across her cheeks. Even though Felix knew she was Ladybug, He was still thinking about her safety, her protection. He was upset because he could have hurt her.

And I love you for it. Her blush deepened when she remembered his words from earlier. She’d brushed them off because of the circumstances. People say crazy things all the time under Hawkmoth’s influence. But seeing him now… was it possible he meant it? What if Felix did love her? How would she even feel about that? Did she love him back?

Marinette drew in a breath to calm herself, hesitantly touching his forearm.

“For the record.. I don’t think you could ever hurt me. Even when you were akumatized, you didn’t touch me. Not as Marinette or Ladybug.”

She remembered the way he spoke to her, the way he looked at her so tenderly despite being filled with hatred and vengeance. No, Felix would never hurt her, would he? He actually cared for her, however hard that may be to see.

Felix finally met her eyes, and Marinette stared back. She hadn’t noticed the blue specks in his silver eyes until now.

Her heart skipped a beat when he carefully placed his hand on hers.

“Well, at least I had some sense about me during.. that time.” He murmured, turning away from her again. It was like he didn’t think he deserved to look at her anymore.

Marinette glanced down at their hands. The others always joked about it, but she never realized how protective Felix really was of her until now.

“I want to help.” He had said. He didn’t want her being Ladybug alone. He’d proven how serious he was about keeping that promise today.

“Felix, I want to take you somewhere, but it’s kind of far. How do you feel about heights?”

~~~~~~

Lila still found herself shifting her tongue in her mouth even hours later. Stupid Felix. Marinette was supposed to be the one akumatized! Not him! But of course he ended up taking the hit, huh? He just had to be her loyal lap dog till the end, didn’t he?

“I’m surprised we had to finish our classes today. That akuma was brutal.” She heard Nino sigh as she walked into the Clair De Lune cafe. Adrien, Alya, and Nino were having a study session to finish homework and talk. Naturally, she was invited as well.

“I know right! I couldn’t even get good footage of Felix because of that stunt he pulled.” Alya complained, swiping on her phone. Try as she might, Lila could hear the uneasiness in the reporter’s voice clear as day.

“Oh, that stinks. Maybe I can help you clear the footage later!” Lila joined in, sitting in the empty seat next to Alya. She ignored the way Nino switched looks with Adrien.

“Really? I didn’t know you could edit videos.” Alya said gingerly, also ignoring the boys’ reactions.

Lila scoffed, holding her head high with a smile. “Of course! How else do you think I helped Jagged Stone with his concerts, or got that charity event over the news?”

“Hey, Al, I thought you said you weren’t inviting Lila.” Nino suddenly whispered, lightly nudging his girlfriend.

Lila’s smile faltered at that. She almost had to look away to avoid glaring at him. Why was Nino getting skittish all of a sudden? She thought that offer to get him a solo act on TV had pulled him in for sure!

Alya rolled her eyes, setting her phone down on the table. “I already told you. It was a misunderstanding!”

“Uh, what was a misunderstanding?” Lila asked hesitantly.

The two turned to her, Nino with a frown and Alya with a sigh.

“Nino thinks your lying.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“Yes you did!”

“Lying? Me?” Lila gasped, dramatically putting a hand to her mouth and batting her eyes.

“Yeah!” Alya answered before Nino could explain himself. “He says that since Felix said you were ‘spreading lies and filth’ that you’d lied somehow. I told him it was crazy, of course.”

Nino huffed, shifting his cap. “Felix was a truth akuma! Those kinds literally can’t lie!”

“He was a punishment akuma. He could have easily bent the punishments to fit his own delusions.” Alya shot back, crossing her arms.

While they were distracted with each other, Lila blinked several times, then widened her eyes as much as possible. She used up all of her eyedrops earlier so this would have to do.

“Guys, please, you don’t have to fight!” She cut in, flailing her arms a bit.

“It’s..it’s really okay. I understand why you’re upset, Nino. It only makes sense you’d think I’m responsible for the horrible things Felix did. He was akumatized because I outed him as a bully, after all.” Lila lamented, eyes wide and teary as she traced circles on the table with her finger.

Alya gasped in disbelief, sending a quick glare to Nino before grabbing Lila’s shoulder in comfort.

“Of course it’s not your fault! Felix is the one to blame here. That man’s a villain whether he’s akumatized or not.” She said bitterly.

Lila nodded, standing up nonetheless.

“Thank you, Alya. you’re so sweet! I wouldn’t want Nino to be uncomfortable, though..” She smiled sadly, hanging her head a bit and gesturing towards the capped boy.

As expected, Alya immediately turned to Nino, giving him a look. The DJ appeared to be disgruntled by it, but only sunk in his seat and put on his headphones.

“No, it’s not a problem. You can stay.” He grumbled.

Upon hearing the words, Lila immediately straightened and sat back down in her seat. Good. She still had Alya. Adrien didn’t say anything at all during the exchange, meaning she also still had him. Now, about getting Nino back..

~~~~~~

Ladybug held Felix tightly in her arms as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop. She thought he would be nervous when she suggested they travel in this manner, but to her surprise, he seemed completely calm. Actually, she could’ve sworn she saw a faint smile grace his lips when she made a particularly long leap. His arms hung loosely around her neck, unbothered even when she became unbalanced a few times from extra weight. He trusted her.

The thought warmed her heart. Felix trusted her. She vowed to show him that his trust wasn’t misplaced.

“Alright, We’re here.” She announced, landing in front of Master Fu’s massage shop. “I’m gonna go detransform real quick. Don’t go anywhere.”

Felix nodded, tentatively studying the building before them, and Marinette ducked into an alleyway nearby.

“What do you think Master Fu’s gonna say when you explain things to him?” Tikki said eagerly, taking a bite of the macaroon Marinette gave her.

“Hopefully he says ‘Yes’.” Marinette muttered to herself, signaling for Tkkki to hide as she walked out of the alleyway.

“Are you ready to go inside?” She asked Felix, situating her bag on her shoulder.

He nodded, stepping towards the door. “Yes, but why are we here?”

Marinette smiled, a certain eagerness reflecting in her eyes. “You’ll see.”

~~~~~~

Breath in.

Then breath out.

Breath in.

Then breath out.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Things were getting a little out of hand as of late. They still didn’t have any leads on Hawkmoth. Ladybug seemed to be getting more anxious, and Chat Noir.. he’s a steadily growing problem. Their dynamic as heroes was fine for the time being, but as civilians-

“Master! Ladybug is here!” Wayzz suddenly called out, right before a knock sounded on his door.

“Master? It’s Marinette. I came to talk to you about something.”

Unsurprising. She wouldn’t come to him if that wasn’t the case. Now, to decide exactly how important that something was. Perhaps she wanted to vent about Lila again, or maybe give some development about Adrien..

“Of course, of course. Come on in. you are always welcome here, Marinette.” He said warmly, standing to open the door for her.

A few whispers came from the other side, and when he pulled the door open, he noticed a blonde-haired boy accompanying her. The blonde looked to be around her age and had a strange resemblance to Plagg’s holder. They were probably related somehow.

Marinette smiled, giving a small bow. “Thank you, Master. Let’s talk in the room, if you don’t mind.”

Fu nodded and stepped to the side so she could pass. “Will your friend be joining us?”

She spare a glance to the boy. “He’ll come in later.”

“Someone found out my identity.”

Fu tried not to look panicked at the statement. Identity reveals cause a lot of problems, especially when they’re created on accident.

“The boy outside?” He assumed.

She nodded. “But it’s not what you think.”

A slight sense of relief. Maybe the reveal was on purpose then? Or something else caused him to find out? Either way, it was good to see Marinette so composed. It meant she had control of the situation.

“He wants to help us.” She then added.

..hm..interesting.

“Go on.” Fu prompted, lightly stroking his chin.

She quickly explained from the beginning, how she met the boy, their growing friendship, the reveal, his akumatization. Everything.

“I know we don’t normally do this,” Marinette said, subtly playing with the carpet on the floor, “but I think Felix has proven himself.”

Fu didn’t respond at first, considering her words.

“Permanent heroes can be risky. Are you sure he’s ready for this responsibility?”

“Absolutely.” Her tone was confident and certain with a clear determination blazing in her eyes.

Fu smiled. “Then I trust your judgement. Please, bring him in.”

~~~~~~

Felix shifted on the floor in the hall for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. He still had no idea why they were there, or why Marinette decided to become so cryptic all of a sudden.

Speaking of cryptic, who was the man that she greeted on the door? Why did she call him ‘Master’?

The doorknob turned, and Felix scrambled to his feet. The door swung open, revealing the old man from earlier. Marinette stood behind him, a bright smile on her face.

“Master Fu, this is Felix Culpa.” She introduced.

The man narrowed his eyes, looking Felix up and down. It felt odd being on the other end of a scrutinizing gaze.

He then smiled. “Nice to meet you, Felix.”

“Likewise.” Felix replied shortly, sparing another questioning glance to Marinette. Her smile didn’t waver.

The man- Master Fu, apparently? -waved his cane towards the room.

“Come in. There is much to talk about.”

Felix found himself following without much resistance. Something about the man’s demeanor told him there was no need for paranoia.

“It’s my understanding that you would like to help out.” Master Fu inquired vaguely as they sat down.

Another quick glance to Marinette.

“Yes, as much as I can.”

Master Fu gave a satisfied nod, then gestured to the ravenette next to them. “Ladybug’s made quite a vouch for you.”

Heat rose to his cheeks. She.. vouched for him?

“And I trust her judgement.” Fu continued. “Now it’s up to you.”

Felix didn’t miss Marinette’s small gasp when the man took off his turtle shaped bracelet and handed it to him.

“Felix Culpa, will you take the miraculous of protection and accept the responsibility to stay by Ladybug’s side in times of peril?”

Felix didn’t respond at first, turning it in his hand. It was hard to believe such a mundane object could hold so much power.

“Yes. I will protect her.” He finally answered, meeting Marinette’s gaze. “With my life.”

~~~~~~

Marinette practically skipped out onto the sidewalk. That went so much better than she expected!

“So what do we do now?” Felix asked next to her, still studying the miraculous on his wrist.

“Now, we train.” She answered, turning into the alleyway she de-transformed in earlier. “You need to get used to your new powers. So we’re gonna go on a small run through Paris, but be careful. I don’t want anyone finding out there’s a new turtle hero yet.”

The sun had set while they were inside. Therefore, they could use the night as a cloak for now. She didn’t want Hawkmoth getting wind of another permanent hero.

Felix didn’t bother asking for her reasons. “How do I transform?”

“Just say, ‘Wayzz, Shell On’!” Wayzz spoke up, flying up to Felix’s side. It had been a special surprise for Marinette when Master Fu gave up his miraculous. She supposed it made sense, though, with Felix being so protective.

Felix said the magic words, and a shimmering, green light washed over him.

His costume had similarities to Carapace’s. He still had the shell shield on his back, the same goggles, and color scheme, but there were also differences. For example, Felix’s hood was down, resting on his shoulders instead of his head. Dark green patches stretched across his elbows and knees, emphasizing the mini turtle shells strapped wrapped around them. The last difference was the dark green rings around his wrists and ankles. Overall, he looked..

“Impressive. What’s your name?”

Felix hummed, running his hands through his hair, which looked about the same in and out of costume.

“Buclier.” He decided, nodding to himself in silent confirmation. “Yeah, Buclier.”

Ladybug smirked. “Alright, ‘Buclier’, ready to show me what you’ve got?”

~~~~~~

Alya blew out a sigh as she opened the cafe door. She couldn’t believe how long it took to finish their homework. It was already night time!

“What did you guys get for number five again?” Nino asked behind her, holding his notebook with a confused expression.

Alya playfully groaned, looking up at the clear, starry sky with a smile. “Nino, for the hundredth time, it’s-”

A shadow passed over head.

“Did you see that?”

“See what?”

Another shadow passed.

“That!” Alya shouted, grabbing Nino’s arm and pointing to the spot she saw them. The first shadow definitely had a bit of red in it. Maybe it was Chat Noir and Ladybug on patrol again!

“Alya, I don’t see-”

Nino was cut off by a yank from Alya, who was dashing in the direction the shadows went. She didn’t see Ladybug during today’s akuma, and Felix got in her way the time before. There was no way she’d pass up another opportunity like this!

They wound through the streets of Paris, Alya fumbling to take out her phone and Nino shuffling behind her.

“I don’t think we should be doing this.” Nino mumbled uneasily.

Alya waved him off. “Why not? Ladybug obviously doesn’t mind. She even- oh look, there they are!”

She felt Nino bump into her when she suddenly stopped, but Alya was too focused on the pair ahead of her to mind. They stopped on a rooftop together and seemed to be talking. She wished she was close enough to hear them.

Raising her phone, Alya focused the camera on the two. Thanks to the city lights, She was able to see their figures, but nothing more. She started recording anyway, about to begin her usual greeting when something stopped her.

“Wait, who is that?”

“Who is who?” Nino responded, leaning around her to get a better view.

A third person, one with a tail and a familiar pair of ears. It was Chat Noir, but that didn’t make any sense. If that was Chat Noir, then who’s the other person that Ladybug’s talking too? A new hero? There weren’t any akumas out though..

What was going on?

~~~~~~

Buclier did his best to keep up with Ladybug. Knowing this hero of Paris was also his clumsy classmate helped him not to feel too embarrassed when he slipped on a few rooftops every now and then. It didn’t help the mini heart attacks, though. You’d think the shoes to this suit would have more friction.

“Hey, you’re doing pretty good.” Ladybug complimented, stopping on a random rooftop to catch her breath.

“Well, I’ll certainly need more practice.” Buclier sighed, reaching up to fix his turtle shell. There was nothing wrong with it. He just felt a bit awkward having something on his back. The shield was surprisingly light.

For convenience in battle. He reasoned.

Ladybug shrugged, straightening to look at the night sky. “I think you’ll pick it up easily. You’re already really flexible, for some reason.”

“My mother didn’t put me through ballet for nothing.”

Ladybug blinked. “Wait, you take ballet?”

“Since I was six.” Felix confirmed.

“How did I not know about this?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but a certain alley cat interrupted him.

“Okay! I’m here!” Chat assured, landing between them and holding his staff at the ready. “Where’s the akuma? Or emergency or whatever? Why didn’t you call me, Bugaboo?”

Something about Chat calling Marinette ‘Bugaboo’ didn’t seem to sit right with Felix, but he ignored it. They were going to be a team now, after all. They needed to learn to work together, for Ladybug’s sake.

“Uh.. because there isn’t an emergency.” Ladybug replied. “Chat, this is Buclier. He’s going to be a permanent hero, now.”

Chat frowned, confusion spreading across his features as he put his staff away. “Permanent hero? I thought we didn’t do that. And what happened to Carapace?”

Ladybug winced. “There were.. Difficulties.”

Felix wondered what she meant by that. “Difficulties”. Although he knew her identity, Marinette had yet to reveal the other miraculous secrets to him that she knew. He didn’t mind. She would tell him when she- or he -was ready.

“Anyway, I talked with Master Fu. He agreed that this was a good course of action. If we have another hero behind the scenes, we might be able to defeat the akumas faster and find out where Hawkmoth is hiding.”

Chat glanced between Buclier and Ladybug, not appearing to be fond with the idea.

“I guess..” He finally relented. “So we keep this a secret then?”

Ladybug nodded. “Yes, for now.”

Chat Noir nodded as well, shifting to get a better look at Buclier.

“Well, welcome to the team, but just so you know,” He wrapped his arm around Ladybug’s shoulders, “LB and I are super close. So don’t get too comfortable.”

Yeah, that definitely didn’t sit right with Felix.

“Chat!” Ladybug scolded, slipping out of the heroine’s grasp.

“What? It’s true.” Chat Noir defended, crossing his arms like the petulant child Buclier decided he was.

“Thank you for the welcome, but I believe Ladybug was trying to ‘show me the ropes’.” Buclier spoke up, subtly stepping more between Chat and Ladybug like Chat had done moments earlier.

“He’s right!” Ladybug agreed, effectively cutting the cat off. “We should get going. See you later!”

She threw her yo-yo out and swung away before anyone could object. Felix followed, not acknowledging Chat’s glare as he left. It appeared this team-up was going to be a bit more rocky than he had hoped.

Tag List: @unabashedbookworm @bluerosette23 @minightrose@kuroko26@im-here-for-the-content @angstyrastuff @clumsy-owl-4178 @fanboy7794@choaticneturcl @bigcheeseyboi @burntnugget-tae @ayuchan07@honorisfortheweak @knightrose15 @mjisntme@rhub4rb @simplythebestbug@wilhelmares@zebrabaker@dargeon-lissa @kristycocopop @alumneia @kaydenth3gayden @thornangelic727 @flirtshobi @whatamessofwords @offically-over-it @flashflashitsash @thewingting @aegyobutpsycho2 @zoeytheweeb @zeyheartstaylor @friedchickening

#Felinette #Felix Culpa #New Friends AU

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random-esfp · 4 years

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FACING INTUITIVE BIAS AND MBTI STEREOTYPES: ESFP EDITION

Hello, some already know my blog since it attracted attention for being one of the few MBTI blogs run by a sensor, especially an ESFP. I have always claimed to be pretty different from ESFP stereotypes, though I enjoy MBTI stereotyped memes and shitty posts. But there is one thing I can’t cope with: ignorance towards our type.

I am a strong Se (extraverted sensing) function defender, and I keep finding shallow and over stereotyped descriptions on how we use it and how do ESxPs portray and represent it. This originates a blurred vision of ESxPs in particular (all sensors are badly perceived in general) which affect us, especially because the most common believing among the MBIT community it’s that we are the dumbest.

First thing you have to learn about MBTI: IT CAN’T determine the IQ or cleverness of ANYBODY.

Fine, with that being clear, let’s continue.

I have been posting little call outs and statements about ESFPs being wronged as other types when being perfectionistic and having leadership skills etcetera but I think the time has come for making an appropriate post of how a non-stereotypical ESFP can be. I know my case it’s not common, since I am an ambivert and that affects my behavior but I’ll try to be objective.

Usually, ESFPs in fiction are portrayed as the flamboyant hero or the funny sidekick. Anyway, we are always seen as the bright, carefree, funny, attractive and badass characters, but in real life, we are more complex than that.

HOW ARE HEALTHY AND NON-STEREOTYPICAL ESFPs IN REAL LIFE:

Because of Dominant Se:

The first thing you have to think regarding Extraverted Sensing is experience and engagement. Sure you have already heard about this but it doesn’t mean we crave every day to be high or to hit all the parties. Life is beyond physical pleasures. Even for us, who feel comfortable with sensorial stimuli the most because we need them to create our safe and accurate visión of the world around us.

An ESFP will most likely say yes to everything. That’s, in part, because many of us are insecure and indulgent or pleasant with people. ESFPs can struggle a lot with assertiveness, swinging between being extremely obliging or aggressive-reactive (usually ESFP enneagram 2 o 3 are the first ones, while enneagram 6-7-8 are the last ones). But a healthy ESFP will eventually address this tendency to “say yes because of FOMO” (we have A LOT of FOMO) and will start seeking out what’s more convenient for them.

Se encourages us to live in the moment and take any opportunity or experience we can, but let’s remember we have another three functions. So a balanced ESFP knows when to engage with the flow and when to keep away from it. Of course, we are more willing to take risks but that doesn’t make us reckless in any way.

Instead, we use Se to manage our time and energy efficiently, and this is very important. You know how it is said that INxx types are the most likely to procrastinate while Te types are the ones who “get the shit done”? Well, ESFPs are somewhat in the middle. That’s because ESFPs are impatient. Our Se hurries us to take the task and finish it as soon as possible to engage with something else sooner than later. That’s also why it is said we “only care” about the present. It’s not that we don’t care about the rest. It’s that we are ENGAGED with the present.

ESFPs like to economize time. We’d rather lose money than time. Because time means experience. But we don’t concentrate that easily. Stimuli chase us and beg us to pay attention to them, not to the task. Still, we want to maximize that time, so manly this tension reflects on us as being very capable of working under pressure. When we are given little time to do something, we somewhat get more relaxed because that means maximizing time to the fullest. And THAT is also Se.

Of course, we are also all that beautiful descriptions we find over here: aesthetically selective and sensitive, very observant, can notice when the mood changes in a room, we are very sensitive to the lighting and the sounds etcetera. I’ll drop over here some Se posts very accurate and flattering because trust me, Se is not about jumping off a cliff or fly off from a bullet. That’s fiction (or you have mistaken us for ISTPs lol)

https://random-esfp.tumblr.com/post/140982329002/se-is-not-a-shallow-function

https://random-esfp.tumblr.com/post/141091312137/building-blocks-of-personality-type-extraverted

https://random-esfp.tumblr.com/post/142229288882/entj-girl-personalityplop-what-stereotypes

Because of Auxiliar Fi:

Fi can be a very upsetting function especially when Dominant. We aren’t “that idealist bitch” but we usually have a full sense of what is wrong and what is right for us (well, that is literally Fi). This means we can be reactive and susceptible when feeling attacked (and trust me, we DO feel attacked easily). We come across as social butterflies but being with insensitive or negative people can use up our energies. However, healthy ESFPs are usually more realists than optimistic rays of sunshine. Let’s not forget we are truly sensors, we crave for outer stimuli and although we can have our mystical believings, usually we trust what we see, touch and hear. What we can prove. The tangible.

We are people-oriented so these observations lean mostly on those who surround us. Making us empathic and, somewhat, INTUITIVE. Yes! ESFPs are very intuitive when it comes to interpersonal intelligence. In my group, I am the most likely to realize or notice when someone is a little more upset than usual, or when someone has changed anything on their image.

We engage the moment, the action, and that includes voice tones and gestures of people, which we use to complete our vision of the world, make conclusions basing on those observations and take action on it as sociable beings. (Gosh this point it’s the most confusing. We can come across as ENFJs).

INTERESTING REMARK: Why Se+Fi sometimes seems like Fe?

I have been struggling with this for months. I was so sure I use Se and Fi. I am individualistic and I don’t care if my opinions go against the crowd. I always say what I think. Sometimes I’m brutally honest. I don’t personally seek harmony. I’d rather be honest with myself. So… why do I sometimes feel extremely empathic to the point to think I am using Fe?

I think it’s basically because of what I have said earlier. The vivid observation makes us both sensitive and intuitive about people’s emotions, moods, and thoughts. ESFP’s minds can be very quick analyzing external stimuli to get to a conclusion. Basically, that is Se, and when it gets in touch with our emotional patterns, we spot the change, we comprehend it, and then we decide how to act based on our mental outline. Sometimes we won’t feel anything for them; sometimes we will feel exactly as them, and THEN is when Se+Fi looks like Fe, but we are just empathizing with people. And Fe isn’t exactly that. Fe users are known for their empathy BUT they also project other people’s emotions, suffering with them even with no clue that people may be actually feeling that. This post (by an xxFJ type) explains if perfectly, it made me realize I have mistaken my empathy with Fe for so long.

Because of Tertiary Te

Healthy ESFPs are real pragmatists, down to Earth people. They are those who in a brainstorm may not participate the most but will show support and excitement for those ideas that seem feasible. But with those who don’t… well. Let’s say we have already reached a decent assertiveness point… we’ll tell you when your thoughts or ideas are unviable, out of context or unnecessary. Sorry but that’s it.

As I said, we value time, we value DOING, not eternal thinking (Se again). So, why do I have to waste 3 hours of my time discussing this fifteen surreal ideas for our project if we don’t have even put into action at least ONE of the plausible ones, Brenda??? (Brenda is ENxP sorry)

Oh, gosh, I REALLY love Se+Te healthily used. It’s!!! So!!!! Useful!!!

Let’s say it straight: we can be very efficient CEOs. I’m kinda into that at the moment actually. The difference between ENTJs and ESFPs (there are A LOT of differences but I mean in the CEO context since they share all 4 functions) is that ESFPs aren’t used to Te as primary function, and Se will always take the lead, so ESFPs may think less of the consequences of their decisions because they lack that Ni “vision”. Also they have a more “soft” leadership style that can lead them to stressful situations who may end up in loops or grips that aren’t funny at all.

Anyway. Realists. We put things into action. We are quick at decision making and enjoy dynamic jobs where we can train this trait. ESFPs may not have 100 ideas per minute but they will have 2 o 3 that actually are possible and they will just get the shit done.

BONUS POINTS If they have overcome their insecurities and reached assertiveness.

Oh, does it seem like an ENTJ to you? We don’t have that “vision” because Ni is our frenemy, but what is real is that a healthy Te use, especially in mature stages of life, distance ESFPs from that “dumb party animal look-who-just-broke-the-table-dancing to-Beyonce” type of persona and it makes them effective leaders. Real doers. (Without losing their flamboyant temperament!)

Because of Inferior Ni

I can only think about shitty Ni grips at the moment but I’ll try to be objective.

Healthy inferior functions. This is a very good post about it. It says that inferior Ni: “May display delusional and grandiose thinking” and “Can turn gloomy when life circumstances don’t go their way”. Well, yes, that’s me. That’s ESFPs. Inferior functions aren’t funny. And because of that, the not-so-funny side of ESFPs relays here.

ESFPs can be pretty gloomy even when healthy. As very emotional types, ESFPs project their dark thoughts about the future on Ni. As I said, they naturally engage with the moment and like to take action, but Ni is that subtle but insistent voice in their head that goes like: you should think about this… and that… and what are we gonna do about this thing? Where are you gonna live in ten years? Who are you gonna name your baby after?

We refuse to think about the long term but when we are forced to do so because of #adulting ESFPs can take two ways:

Keep refusing thinking long term. Which can lead them to immaturity, dissociation of reality, avoidance and some other mental disorders.

Keep it serious and do it. We will complain about it. We will refuse to talk about what we haven’t made up yet, but we’ll try.

A healthy ESFP who decides to confront Ni and try to use it becomes more focused, serious and driven. Of course, we will have our mental breakdowns because we aren’t comfortable with it, but that is part of life.

ESFPs who are private about their lives, who are hesitant and reflective… are struggling with Ni. Because we know we need it. And it makes us feel uneasy because Ni requires depth and details and we prefer to improvise and get-by-doing. Ni also demands using all the time Se don’t wanna “waste”. But it’s not time wasted, it’s invested (although too dilated in time for us to appreciate it). However, when we see our goals reached we appreciate the effort we’ve made.

TO SUM UP:

How are ESFPs usually defined: dumb, reckless, shallow, overly-sensitive, can’t think in detail, bubbly, too much sociable.

How are ESFPs non-stereotypically: observant, doers, quick-minded, leading to action, perfectionist, efficient.

Well, that was almost 2k words about ESFPs in depth. And I could say much more, but for now, I think it’s enough.

I invite any underrated or extremely stereotyped MBTI type to do their Edition. Or to make some feedback.

Hope this was useful and/or revealing for you.

Thank you!

#mbti #mbti stereotypes #mbti cognitive functions #cognitive functions #se #extraverted sensing #fi #introverted feeling #ni #introverted intuition #te #extraverted thinking #esfp #estp #esfp stereotypes #facing intuitive bias esfp edition #important #personal

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supergenial · 4 years

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Cindered Shadows was pretty decent

I recently finished the Cindered Shadows DLC and decided to once again write about my impressions, don't worry though, this one isn't as long as the previous ones. Spoilers: I think this is as good as fire emblem is gonna get for a while.

1) No Agarthans, thank GOD

A story as old as fire emblem: There's an interesting human villain with down to earth motivations or obsessions, but in the large scale of the story they're overshadowed by a supernatural being who wants to destroy the world for no reason other than "they're just evil". This is Edelgard and the Agarthans, Arvis and Manfroy/Loptous, Rudolph and Duma, Ashnard and Ashera, Walhart and Grima... you get it. This shit sucks to put it bluntly. Having these stereotypically evil bad guys who are clearly evil is one of the main things that brings down the plot of any fire emblem game. I'm of the belief that they should kick out these supernatural villains and just leave us against the human villains, the one's with actual ideals and beliefs other than "hurr durr, destroy the world".

And then there’s our villain for this DLC. Now yes, it feels like they recycled a certain professor from the Harry Potter series, but I like that he is "The" bad guy for the DLC, he's not being controlled by anyone. He's obsessed with Byleth's mom and in-game this makes a lot of sense. If Byleth, who is incapable of communication, can drive people crazy for them just by existing then just imagine a Byleth who can actually talk. Her "waifu" charms must be off the charts, so I can't blame this guy for being obsessed. More importantly he's not being controlled by the Agarthans, he's not being played by anyone. He's a man who's lived a righteous life, he took care of a lot of people who all love him but ultimately decided to use them for his own gain and his own obsessions. As far as FE villains go... He's good, honestly, great job Intelligent Systems, I expected a lot less.

2) Reduced avatar wanking

Shots fucking fired

Sure, Byleth's mom is a main focus of the plot, and Byleth is the one who sets the plot in motion, but rarely does it feel like the game is going "gee Player, you're so great, you're our god, we all love you and want to marry you". Byleth still plays a large role sure (unfortunately) but it still feels like this is the story of Yuri and his gang with Byleth being their strategist which is, idk, way better than the idea behind the main game? The one where Byleth turns into a literal god, gets every achievement of the army attributed to them only, has every other conversation remind us how glorious Byleth is, etc.

In fact the dlc goes as far as having Hapi constantly belittle Byleth and even make fun of their communication skills by calling him Chatterbox (good job to the localizers, she doesn’t say this in the japanese audio). Get that teacher’s ass girl, destroy them. (Obviously I would hate this behavior if it was directed to someone else, but in this case I'm willing to make a concession).

3) Yuri's backstory

Ashe: I admire and love this man who is my only parental figure but Rhea said he's kind of bad so I killed him Yuri: Church ordered me to kill a bunch of thieves and delinquents and I refused

You have no idea who much I love the fact that Yuri is someone who protested his orders and got kicked out of the church for refusing to kill civillians. This instantly sends him very high in my rankings. Playing through the first half of the game all I wanted was to stop and say "No, Lady Rhea, fuck you. I don't think it's very cash money for the most powerful military force in the continent to eradicate a lightly armed militia of farmers (with popular support in their locality!)" this is what true imperialism is all about! But there is sadly no option for that.

Just by telling us that Yuri is someone who was punished for saying "No, these orders are inhumane, I refuse to carry them out" that is enough for me, the game is saying "yes, we know, have your compensation price". In the end Yuri is extremely loyal to Rhea which is unfortunate but hey, at least they lampshaded one of the most glaring issues I have with the main game, so that's at least something.

4) "You've obtained all information. Proceed with the story, NOW"

Rather than wasting time forever thinking up which activity I should carry out, abyss is simply a place where you talk to the abyssal denizens to get some plot information or speculation, and boom, you're done. No running around forever, no quests, no doors that take ages to load. You can perfectly skip the abyss parts and at most you'll miss out on Edelgard's conversation with Dimiri (which is fucking hilarious) and a few rusted weapons that can be forged but that's it. Upon talking to every resident of the abyss the game will actually say you’ve acquired all information and will prompt you to go into combat rather than assume you want to dilly dally for a while.

I actually rather like this and would not be opposed to it being the philosophy behind future in-between segments between chapters. I can understand IntSys wanting to load in a ton of features like a sauna and fishing to rack up excitement for the game, I know I was excited for fishing, but when these activities have rewards tied to them, replaying becomes kind of a chore, "aw geez, I have to fish 69 fish to reach professor rank A+ AGAIN" (I actually had to when trying to get the piss screen from clearing maddening). Getting only some conversations and a bit of context for the story, that's... pretty good honestly, I liked this better than the monastery and better than My Castle. Throw in some skits with multiple characters at once and I’m gold

(seriously how come there’s no scenes with the three of the bros, Dimitri, Sylvain and Felix all hanging out together, the fact that a third character never shows up in support conversations is fucking bad)

5) Sometimes less is more

I've extensively complained about three houses already but bear with me. Yet another thing that infuriates me about the game is the extensive amount of work it required. I truly do think that if they had released only the blue lions route and left everything else in the plot as mysterious and unexplained loose ends left entirely up to speculation, that'd be a great game on it's own. Instead I have to see all the hard work that went into making the other routes only so that, in the end, they just had me going "well it was ok I guess". Every scene in the game requires work, many hours of coding, writing, voice acting, sound editing, making sure the models don't look too messed up, bug testing, etc. The amount of work that went into three houses was brutal regardless of what you think of the final product, yet a lot of people didn't even bother playing through all of that. So yes, I honestly wanted less, give me a more concise game rather than spreading too wide and ending up thin.

Cindered Shadows on the other hand is concise to a fault to make up for that. The story is pretty straightforward and leaves no loose ends to itself, there's no anime cutscenes, no supports (within abyss, you can support them all in the main game). There's even that very awkward sacrifice scene where some characters are having their life and blood drained from them yet the visual representation we see is just them standing around like normal, with Yuri even doing that hand pose he does all the time instead of squirming in pain or something. It's very awkward looking, objectively not good, but it gets the point across and doesn't make me go "wow you put in all this effort for nothing" because the whole thing is also fairly short (5 to 10 hours in hard mode).

I know, it sounds like I'm shitting on the dlc, but the point is I'd much rather get something short that leaves me satisfied than something like the main game that makes me go "this could've been so hecking gooood if they changed X" for the rest of my life.

6) The gameplay

Chapter 4 is my favorite mission in the whole game

They made Hard Mode good. I previously said maddening was the one difficulty where this game made sense, but this one achieves perfection with just hard mode. This is because the team actually knows what you have. In the main game there's all sorts of variables to account for due to the large amount of player expression that is possible, you can reclass anyone into anything and throughout many lucky or unlucky level ups, maps can be entirely different based on that rng and choices. Here though, your characters already have solid bases starting at lvl 20, and you can't reclass too much so the devs know exactly what you're working with and can plan accordingly. Beating the maps feels incredibly satisfying not just because the objectives have more variety now, but also because you feel like you found the right way to use the tools you were given. This is why the first few chapters of any fire emblem game often feel so good, because the devs know exactly what you have.

Not that I think player expression is bad! It's very satisfying to warp skip chapters and to use broken units like battalion vantage+wrath Dimitri as these things make you feel like you've truly subjugated the game, but it takes some time for those things to really take off. There's a time to reap and a time to sow, and the sowing time can get pretty dull sometimes but that's what makes the payoff feel worth it. Still, for a short experience like cindered shadows is, this style just fits perfectly, plus chapter 4 has quickly become one of my favorite chapters in the whole game, along with chapter 6.

7) In The End

Idk folks, I just like it. If you just want more adventures with the three lords, this is it.

If you’re looking for any excuses to avoid this I'd say the better ones are: maps are reused from the main game (they work much better here though), it's 10 hours at most so it's price-to-cash ratio isn't very good with the expansion pass being $30, and also the Abysskeeper feels a bit TOO winkwink nudgenudge to me, especially since Gatekeeper was popular enough to make it into Super Smash Brothers. Like yeah bro, we get it, we all love Gatekeeper, you didn't have to do this.

I also like that they finally gave Dimitri a semi-problematic quote where he says he kinda likes the idea of poor people living underground out of sight, I think it’s a very rich-white-boy flaw to have and not entirely awful given his life experience up to that point. And yes I do think he has no flaws and is entirely unproblematic in the main game, “feral” as he may look it doesn’t seem like he goes around killing civilians or doing anything other than busting up imperial troops which is kind of justified since they started the invasion, on top that he’s the strongest unit in the game and the most chill and honest ruler once he calms down, so little dent in his record that’s irrelevant in the large picture is indeed welcome.

Overall though, after being so massively disappointed by the Fates DLC, so much I didn't even bother with the ones for Echoes, I certainly like what I'm seeing here and that's a good sign, bravo Intsys.

#fire emblem #cindered shadows #spoilers #review #deep analysis

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tjkiahgb · 6 years

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Episode Recap: 2.24, “We're on Cloud Ten”

Boy, we’re really getting a lot of Andi and Bex cold opens.

This episode, Andi tries to make Bex coffee, but it’s bad, so Bex uses it to kill a plant. Andi intends to make Bex coffee every morning from now on. If I’m Bex, I’m making a heavy investment in flavored creamer. There’s no coffee so bad it can’t be fixed by dumping half a canister of hazelnut creamer into it.

Over at The Spoon, Buffy and Cyrus eat lunch. Cyrus works in an old planner. Buffy wants to know what it is and Cyrus says it’s a “philo-stax.”

And I’m thinking, “Hmmm, that’s interesting. Never heard of that before. Let me Google that.” And it turns out Google’s never heard about it before either.

I’ve tried like a dozen different spellings, too, in case the closed caption was wrong. (philostacks, filostax, filostacks, file-o-stacks - like a stack of files? Nothing makes sense anymore.) I have no idea what Cyrus is talking about. It seems like he’s invented a word so he doesn’t have to call his notebook a planner.

(Edit: A brilliant anon came through with some knowledge.)

Why is Cyrus using this thing and not a phone, Buffy wonders. It’s a good question which Cyrus never answers.

Amber brings food out to Cyrus and Buffy. She’s warm and fuzzy with Cyrus and surprisingly cold towards Buffy. I really didn’t know those two were in a feud, but, well, there you have it...

Buffy wants to know why Cyrus is being friendly with mean people again. First TJ, now Amber.

Cyrus thinks it’s unhealthy to hold on to such animosity, which is a good point, but then he makes a pun, saying they should call it Amber-mosity, which is awful. How can he be so wise and so foolish at the same time? Thus is the duality of man, I suppose.

Outside of Cloud 10, Bex and Andi hand out pamphlets about the new business. Bex tries out some potential slogans.

Maybe don’t do that. Feel free to pull back and give your slogan some more consideration. You don’t think “Plop Plop, Fizz Fizz. Oh, what a relief it is.” was an improv, do you?

The two head back inside where a potential customer asks them if this is a place to get makeovers and Andi says yes, but in two weeks when they open.

I guess I’m not entirely sure what they’re doing here. You want to promote the business before it opens, fine. Set up on the sidewalk and hand out your free samples and water bottles and pamphlets.

But why are you inviting customers in to walk around a mostly empty store that’s still filled with tools and such?

Why do you want people to see this? Ladders out. Paint rollers everywhere. There are probably loose nails lying around just waiting to get stepped on by someone. Exposed wiring waiting to zap someone.

“Yes, it’s an awful, unfinished mess now -- you know, when we’re making our ever-important first impression on you, the customer -- but just imagine what it’ll be like to get your makeup done here in a couple weeks, when it will probably be much nicer!”

You think this is enticing people? You want people to see your potential paint schemes and your unused wood molding and your... power generator? I don’t know what that is in the bottom left corner, but I will say, I guess it does put me in the mood to come back in a fortnight and get my hair done.

On the plus side...

Oooooh, they got the arches! Just like in the diorama! They look great.

Anyway, enough about interior design.

Celia is in a funk because Ham is on another continent somewhere. Bex wishes for a way to snap her out of it and, as if on cue, Bowie magically appears holding flowers. Bowie and flowers? That’s like catnip for Celia.

Bowie makes Celia feel much better, at least temporarily.

As the sneak preview of Cloud 10 continues, Buffy and Cyrus aggressively make themselves over.

Jonah stops by to ask Andi her feelings on trampolines. She is pro-trampolines.

Cyrus and Buffy walk by in the background and all I can think of is what kind of impression it’s going to make on potential customers out on the sidewalk when two children step out of Cloud 10 looking like they just left a European nightclub.

“What the hell is happening in there?”

Jonah invites Andi on a date to trampoline nirvana.

Bowie asks Celia if she’s heard from Ham and she says he sent her a bowl.

Andi tells Bex that Jonah’s taking her on a date. Bex gets excited that Andi’s moving on to that portion of their relationship. Then she tells Bowie to get him excited, too. Bowie determines that he must be there when Jonah shows up so he can be a stern father figure, you know, as you do.

So later, as promised, when Jonah shows up to pick up Andi, Bowie stares him down menacingly.

Which, it’s great that you want to play father figure dress-up, but you are well aware that this small child in front of you is a little ball of anxiety. You’re the one who desperately tried to help him deal with it! Why are you attempting to make him uncomfortable now?

Thankfully, Andi comes in and pulls Jonah away from this before he can start to panic and they leave.

Bex asks Bowie to stick around and make her lunch. And how could he refuse an offer like that?

Jonah and Andi head to trampoline nirvana and just... trampoline the day away.

They jump into a big foam pit and Jonah asks Andi how she’s so good at the art of the trampoline and Andi says everyone’s good at trampolining. Pfft. Tell that to the kid in my high school who tried to do a backflip and broke his neck and then the ambulance had to come and take him away and he had to graduate in a neck brace. I’m sure he’d love to hear your theories on the ease of trampolining!

Jonah and Andi are having a great time and Andi starts thinking about what they could do for their 2nd date next weekend, but Jonah can’t do next weekend. And the weekend after that? Also a no.

See, Jonah’s going to film Shaz-- er, he’s going to camp. For eight weeks. Starting tomorrow.

Andi needs to process this and she leaves Jonah in the foam pit of shame.

Jonah tells Andi he decided to go to camp a few days ago. He tells her about how he failed to make the Ultimate team but then he heard about this frisbee camp and thinks it can improve his game so he can make the next team.

I’m trying to figure out the timeline again and my brain is starting to leak. I should know better than to go down this road, but... it seems like Summer now? I mean, doesn’t it sort of have to be? Jonah can’t really be leaving in the middle of the school year to go to frisbee camp, right? That can’t be allowed as an excused absence. And frankly, it’s negligent parenting. But Andi was just planning dates only for the coming weekends, like they’re still in school. Also, everyone is sort of dressed like it’s Summer now, too, even though last episode -- which was like, a couple of days ago? -- everyone was dressed like it was very much still Winter (or a brutal cold early Spring). It’s like they live in the Twilight Zone. Time doesn’t exist in this town. This isn’t like trying to narrow it down to specific dates, or even weeks, anymore. I legitimately can’t tell you what month this is even supposed to be. I’m going to let it go, though. One, because it’s hurting my head, and two, because I have bigger complaints.

(Hey, to the anon who asked me why I was angry after the last episode: brace yourself, son. You ain’t seen nothing yet...)

Namely...

FRISBEE CAMP?! EIGHT WEEKS OF FRISBEE CAMP?! Who are the con artists who are putting this on? You can learn everything you need to know about frisbee in an hour and a half! Can you throw a frisbee? Can you run? Do you have enough basic motor function to catch a disc that’s floating softly through the air? Congratulations. You’ve mastered the frisbee. I can’t deal with this. I can’t! Jonah and a bunch of other kids going out into the woods, to a secluded spot by a lake to just throw frisbees at each other and say things like “Gnar gnar catch, brah!” What are you doing in week three? What could you possibly be doing in week three? Setting the frisbees on fire? Blindfolded frisbee catching? By week five, there’s no way you aren’t digging into nonsense metaphysical frisbee concepts, like, “Can one become the frisbee they seek to catch? Let us meditate on this.” There are master’s degree programs that don’t go on for this long. Frisbee camp goes maybe a week. A week! And that’s if you include like, some talent shows or something else to fill the time. But TWO MONTHS?! TWO DAMN MONTHS! I’m dying. And not like, crying laughing face emoji dying. I’m dying. This has broken me and I’m dying. TWO MONTH FRISBEE CAMP IN THE WOODS! Lord help me!

Anyway, Andi hears about Jonah’s frisbee camp plan and says it makes sense.

I politely disagree.

Andi’s mostly just sad about this whole time apart thing.

At Cyrus’s house, Buffy shows up. She thinks she’s there to play a game with Cyrus, like the one they used to play where they made up crazy phobias like Cyrus’s one about puppets. Cyrus says that’s a real thing. I’m with him. You know why they call it ventriloquism? Because it sounds much nicer and more quaint than calling it what it really is: using witchcraft to make inanimate objects speak.

But that’s not really the game they’re playing. The game they’re really playing is “Surprise Amber.”

Bowie and Bex hang out at her place and watch TV. Honestly, who says Bex and Bowie need to get married? They’ve already moved to the “Watch Netflix on the couch all day” portion of their relationship. That’s considered common-law marriage in a lot of places.

Jonah and Andi return home. Or at least to Andi Shack. Andi’s in need of some late night stress crafting. The two are very sad they’re going to be apart. The show seems even sadder about it than they are. This scene is being played like Jonah’s getting shipped out to the Eastern Front.

My dearest Andi.

Morale is low. Some fellow soldiers and I have taken to throwing around a decommissioned land mine and pretending it’s a frisbee just to pass the time. The Winter is bitter cold and the Germans are closing in on our position. I fear this may be my last correspondence for some time. Things at this moment, by my humble estimation, are most certainly not, docious magocious.

Give my fondest regards to the family, and don’t forget to feed Gus. He’s helpless without me

With warmest regards and love,

-Jonah “Weird Yearbook Picture” Beck.

Andi heads into Andi Shack and is scared by Celia, who’s doing well.

Sorry, did I say well? She’s doing... welp. Just... welp.

Celia was feeling lonely in the house without Ham, so she opted instead to sleep in the small, uninsulated shack in her backyard. Celia tells Andi there’s no need to worry, but I don’t know that I would say no need. Celia’s having trouble sleeping since Ham left. Andi feels like she, too, will have trouble sleeping because of Jonah leaving. The two very sweetly console each other over their missing beaus.

At Cyrus’s house, Cyrus completes his transformation into his parents and holds a therapy session between Amber and Buffy. It takes most people 40-something years to become their parents. Cyrus did it by 13. Every teen’s dream!

Also, it’s nighttime now, so he’s kept these two trapped in this room for several hours. That must have been fun.

Cyrus wants to help the two become friends. He first asks Buffy how Amber has wronged her. Buffy talks about what Amber has done to Andi, but Cyrus wants to know how Amber has wronged Buffy, which... Buffy can’t think of anything. Cyrus asks Amber the same, and Amber doesn’t like Buffy because Buffy doesn’t like her. Cyrus feels they are holding on to their dislike of each other and that feeds their dislike of each other. This reasoning is... let’s say, shaky?

But then Cyrus flips out and starts looking for his file-o-stacks to write down something and Buffy and Amber just start roasting him for it and begin to bond. No better way to grow close to someone than coming together to make fun of the person who was trying to help you. Cyrus says pencil and they lose it.

So, maybe Cyrus isn’t a full blown therapist yet.

At Bex’s, Bex has fallen asleep on Bowie’s lap. He tries to sneak out without waking her. He sets her head down on a pillow, and checks to see if she’s really sleeping, then says, “I love you.”

It’s a sweet moment, but also, dude, weren’t you just in another serious relationship like a day ago? Guy moves fast.

Bowie leaves. Well, first he pretends to leave to see if Bex was awake, but she’s too smart to fall for that and doesn’t move even though she’s awake. So then he actually leaves. And I’m not sure he locks the door behind him. Careless.

The next day, Andi tells Bex about her date. She says her relationship is like a Dr. Seuss book. Brightly colored and often nonsensical? Here, I’ve got a Dr. Seuss rhyme for you:

One fish,

two fish,

red fish,

JONAH’S GOING TO FRISBEE CAMP FOR TWO MONTHS! WHAT?!

Andi and Bex talk about things they could do to hang out together. Andi talks about going to Adrenaline City. Bex says they could go tubing or she could marry Bowie. Andi asks if that’s before of after tubing. And Bex asks Andi if she heard her. Andi wants to know if she’s being serious. I’d like to know more about going tubing, though. Please answer if the proposal will be before or after tubing. Please.

Bex confirms she’s going to marry Bowie. Andi freaks out but then asks if Bowie proposed without her there. Bex says no, she’s going to do the proposing this time. Then the two freak out together and do bee-yah bee-yah bee-yah bee-yah bee-yah bee-yah starfish! from like way back in season 1?

I’m amazed they still remembered that choreography.

#Andi Mack #Bex Mack #Cyrus Goodman #Buffy Driscoll #Amber #Celia Mack #Bowie Quinn #Andi #episode recaps

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emblemevents-newyear · 5 years

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A Look At the Winter Event, the Future For Us, and Another Farewell Until Next Time!

Hi everyone! Mod Morgan here! Well, here we are again. It’s always such a pleasure. Remember when you tried to kill me twice?-...wait, no, get out of here GLaDOS, Fire Emblem isn’t even your game! Another solstice passed, and another event finished. And it, ah, certainly was an eventful week, wasn’t it? I mean, aside from the event itself obviously. There were a lot of things that we weren’t prepared for, a number of them that were out of our control this time, but we had even more participants this time around than during the last Solstice! I hope this event seems like as much of a success to you guys as it does to us!

Before we get into our expressions of eternal gratefulness to you guys, however, I would like to preface this by getting a couple of things out of the way first. First of all, a short apology on my end. Between finals, trying to buckle in and work really hard to put this event together, and tumblr’s awful sense of timing, at least for us, among a few other things, we all got frazzled and a bit exhausted, and I think all that exasperation it seeped into a couple of my posts, more than I would’ve liked it to. If you didn’t notice it or didn’t think that it was that big of a problem, I’m glad it didn’t bother you, but I’m sorry for those that it did, because I know that it didn’t go unnoticed, and letting it impact some of my posts was really on me. I hope you don’t think any of you guys caused any of that exhaustion though, because it’s just the opposite!...speaking of which...

...Tumblr sure picked the worst possible time, didn’t it? We don’t blame any of you for participating in the log out event, and honestly, had we not prepared this event’s schedule ahead of time, and based it around...you know...the solstice...because it’s the solstice event, there’s a good chance at least some of us if not all four of us would have done the same. I’m just glad we had the insight to poll you guys and that we managed to come up with something to tide everyone over until the next day, when we had to reschedule the sled races to. Thanks for sticking with us despite what happened, really, and to make another proper segue since I’m on that point... Seriously, thanks to all of you, once again. for sticking with us and taking part in this event. As I said, I’m pretty sure we had even more people participating than last time, which means this event and the community it’s building is growing, and that’s a good thing! We want people to feel welcome and comfortable here, above all else, and meet interesting new people...and have fun event-based interactions with those you already know of course. Maybe next summer, Tumblr won’t do something to add on to the stress for us and we’ll be 110% prepared ahead of time without a hectic pace in the last couple of weeks leading up to the event! I’m definitely going to try to adopt Morgan’s optimism as I often do with these events and use that to drive me next time around. Anyway, you know the drill! I’m rambling on way too much, and we still have three other mods that wanna talk to you guys, so it’s time to let each of them have their turns!

Mod Eliwood here; while I’d like to keep this short, there are a few things I want to acknowledge. First, as short notice as it was, I want to place a huge shoutout to mods Lyn and Hector, who together did the lion’s share of coming up with the mechanics and numbers for the Yggdratrail. Secondly- yes, it was short notice. I’m sure many of you noticed that the mechanics seemed too complex, our writing was rushed here and there, and everything went up... late in the day. Part of that last bit was us noticing a lack of activity on the dash and accommodating the afternoon hours instead of the morning one, but poor time management and panic on our part also factored in.

That said, several of you have approached me in person and told me you were enjoying the event, and that made it worth it. I genuinely enjoyed being part of this one, and with activities and ideas that were our own, it felt more satisfying to run than the Summer edition too.

We don’t yet know if we’ll be doing a Summer Solstice next year- we’ll have to discuss schedules with the Scramble Squad first. But if we do, I definitely hope to see a good few of you there!

// yooooo Mod Hector and just gonna make this one brief if my fellow mods have already expressed what I wanted to day. As before, I wanted to thank everyone for the support along the way as we hosted our second event for the community. Coming from a personal view, it still is a lot to manage so I’m always thankful for having my fellow mods to give advice, and of course the participants for contributing as much as they can.

I do want to apologize too bc I know my activity’s staggered after the Yggdratrail and I wanted to do a lot more to involve myself in all the activities going on. It’s certainly something I want to work on for the next time, especially knowing that my current job plays a factor in it all. Again, thank you for bearing with me here and my multimuse too!

Sooooo I’d be repeating myself here but I can’t say thanks enough for helping make this event what it was in the end, and looking forward, I hope to meet new people and see what else others have in store!!!

And here’s Mod Lyn! I got way more caught up in school stuff than I expected, so I want to thank Mod Eliwood for being the one to get the ball rolling and poke everyone about everything this time. I wish I could have been around more for the second half, but real life struck...in any case, I’m glad to see people enjoying and participating in the event, especially new faces.

....And although I know the Yggdratrail was probably super confusing when I was braindumping it all out, I’m glad that we managed to turn it into what it was (and it was soo much more complex before the current iteration too oops), and glad that the other mods could put up with my jumbled thoughts and rambles until we came up with something. I hope you all enjoyed the writeups -- though I admit there were some points where I was struggling, on the whole it was still fun to come up them!

And despite the hiccup that was our friend the Community Guidelines update, I like to think the rest of the event went fairly smoothly! I won’t say too much, so I’ll wrap up with a similar message -- I hope you all had fun, we couldn’t hold this events without you guys’ support, and see you next time!

So, I guess it’s back to me to wrap things up. First of all, much like everyone else, I want to thank Mod Eliwood especially for helping keep us in gear and really getting us kick-started, and I also want to thank Mod Lyn for coming up with a system for the Yggdratrail that wound up working surprisingly well, though hopefully if we do this again, everything will be a bit-better ironed out and streamlined for everyone. But I want to also thank Mod Hector so much for helping pick up the slack and being there when I needed someone else’s support when everyone else was busy. I really wouldn’t have survived this event without you, for sure. And while I’m sure the message has gotten across well enough by now, seriously, I want to thank all of you for taking part and making this community grow a little more with this event. I will never, ever be able to express my gratitude enough, and hopefully you made some new friendships or strengthened some old ones through our humble little corner of FE community.

So, that leaves the question of what’s next for the Solstice Celebration blog? Well, we’re already looking ahead to the next Summer Solstice, and so long as the schedule of events lines up similarly to how it did around our first event, we’re definitely going to have our next event take place around then. However, the main event will certainly be a lot different. Whether we’ll consolidate the Obstacle Course down into a more compact version of what existed or build a new event, we’re not sure, but we’re gonna start brainstorming ideas once this event is wrapped up and we’ve gotten all your feedback-...and do keep an eye out for that feedback post, that’s coming up next. One thing we’re definitely going to do with the Summer Solstice event, however, is keep ourselves better prepared this time so it all comes out looking a lot cleaner, with less of a rushed panic, and less exhaustion for all of us, not to mention we’ll have a lot more time to work with, what with it being the Summer.

So, once again, we all love you guys, and we hope you had fun being a part of our event! Take care of yourselves! We’ll still see you around the RP space as always...and sorry if we flood your dash with all the threads we need to catch up on. Until next time, welcome to the new season, and we hope you enjoy yourselves until the Solstice is upon us once more!

#season segue ;; winter solstice #announcements ;; winter solstice #Mod Morgan #Mod Eliwood #Mod Lyn #Mod Hector #See you next time!#which will hopefully be during the summer solstice!

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thegreatmexicanotaku · 6 years

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Persona 3 FES: Part 1 (Game Review)

Backstory: The major reason I chose Persona 3 FES was due to a friend of mine, Allan, pushing off Persona 5 multiple times. I made a deal with him, I would go through Persona 3 FES on hard, as its his favorite of the series, if he beats Persona 5, and so he agreed. Because I am already playing through it, I decided I might as well review it in parts about my experience.

This part will establish important details to understanding the game, before I discuss plot. The Pictures used for the review(all parts) come from the Shin Megami Tensei Wikia Site, http://megamitensei.wikia.com , this is due to simplicity.

Gameplay: If you never played a persona game, then this section will help explain everything that is major to the game. The game is a Turn-Based JRPG, with elements similar to Pokemon, with enemies and allies being weak to specific attack types and the collect them all style for the personas, but that is where the similarities end. The player character has the ability to wield multiple personas at once, and switch through them, while the rest of the party members lack this ability. The best feature in battle is the once mores and all out attacks. By hitting an enemy with an attack they are weak to or by landing a critical hit,they get knocked down and you or your party member gets to attack again.

However, this also happens when you or a party member gets hit with an attack they are weak to. Once more’s DO NOT happen when using a multi targeting attack. Missing a target also downs the attacker. All out attacks happen when the entire enemy team is downed and it deals massive damage to all downed targets, but it requires at least one party member to be up and have no status affects

Without either of these core features, Persona 3 FES would be near unplayable, so its best that you work to use them and try to hit an enemies weak point. I do feel spoiled by the other games, as the all out attack and once more system gets improved a ton in the future installments, simply due to how the party changes work. In Persona 3 FES, you do not have direct control over party members, and to some, this is a deal breaker. I would not recommend hard for the first time player, even if you beaten other Persona games, but as stipulation for the deal with my friend, I am. I found that because of the lack of complete control of party members, you must rely on your own character and the ability to have multiple personas. Your party isn’t dumb, they are rather smart and due attacks that make sense, but you must control them by using the Tactics commands that are part of the command menu. It sucks that they done stay the same, but at the same time, its useful for boss fights or other tough fights to tell the party exactly what you want them to do, but its still no supplement for self control, and to the games credit, its the first of the series to be in this fashion so I can give it some slack. Personas and enemies have an Arcana, based upon the major arcanas of the tarot deck. This matters because of Social Links. Social Links are the way the main character levels up his personas. Social Links are bonds of friendship between characters of the main over world who represent each of the Arcana, some are given to you by game progress, like Fool, while the majority are gained by spending time with people, like Magician. This is another aspect that may turn off players, as they are “forced” to spend time with other characters. I like this idea, and looking at the game for when it was released, it was a risk move, but it payed off, as the sequels use this mechanic to flesh out their characters, FES being no exception. Some Social Links or S-Links as I will be referring to them in the coming parts, can be quite dull, but I can once again give it slack as its the first game to do S-Links. S-Links is also how your character can date, but some require certain conditions to be met, like your personal stats need to meet specific levels. Personas can also Fuse, which is how you make personas typically, as it adds your S-Link level bonus to the fusion. By fusing personas, you can give the new persona attacks or abilities the old ones had by having it inherit them. I am not going to explain how the likely hood can be manipulated, as it would make the review go even longer, but its semi-complicated. To get what you want however, back out and select the personas again til you get what you want. The arcana also helps determine what role the persona will fill once fused, and there are plenty of online calculators for finding what persona fuse into what. The last two mechanics are Player Stats and Fatigue. The three player stats that you will be trying to increase is Courage, Charm, and Academics. The player stats matter, as they determine your school grades, yes being a high school means you have tests, social links and even specific lines of dialogue. Balancing Social Links, Dungeon Diving and Player Stats is the players bane, but enjoyable once you find your nice balance. But the thing that likes to mess with the balance is, FATIGUE. This is one thing that I feel ruins this game. You want to dungeon dive, well too bad your party is too tired or sick. Want to study like a normal student, too bad you studied your worst subject and wake up sick the next day, it really frustrates me. Well it did, until I discovered the bathroom. No joke, your best friend is the bathroom, it can cure fatigue, but only at a chance and the first time that day,so if your are using an emulator, save state before it, and boom you’re good. At least the one thing fatigue can give you is a courage up for free, from the school “nurse.” Now that I covered all the major mechanics, next part will be part of the actual story. And I will give you a death counter at each part, because, I did die, alot.

EDIT: I just found out you can set tactics to save in config from the system menu in the pause menu. Huh, the more you know.

#game review #persona #persona 3 #persona 3 fes #otaku #otakugamer #video games

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funkymbtifiction · 7 years

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yo yo yo dysfunctional entp here. i've been in a weird, non-creative, funk for the past week or so, i believe largely due to some very well ignored and internalized negative feelings. what is the best way for me (or any Ne user really) to get back into the idea-generating, novelty, creative swing? (im a writer working on a second novel so the whole 'tired of a single project' thing isnt helping either) thanks hot hot hottie

(Gif: Claudia, Warehouse 13. ENTP.)

Uh, well first there’s this: i believe largely due to some very well ignored and internalized negative feelings.

Have you dealt with those yet? Because as a Fe, until you get them out of your head and into the world, you cannot move on and the intense internalization of something that NEEDS made public (Fe) is going to cramp your muse. So, expel those feelings. Share them with someone you trust. Shout them into the void. Express them. You will feel better.

As for getting your Ne-dom mojo back – it’s simple.

Ne needs external stimulation to work. It does not exist in a void. Your Ne bounces off objects, ideas, and stories in the external world. This is why you watch a television show – you get ideas. Better ideas than they used. Or you read a book – and you get more ideas. Or you listen to a song – and you get ideas. Or you talk to someone and… you get the idea, right?

Being in a non-creative funk for a Ne-dom means your creativity tank is drained. Why? Not enough external stimulation. Not enough new stuff to bounce off of. Not enough exposure to things related and unrelated to your current writing project. You need new material going in your head. Start reading someone else’s novels. Start up a television show you’ve never seen before on the side. Read someone who is FULL OF IDEAS, who makes YOU full of ideas, someone EXCITED about their ideas.

Here’s some personal writing advice from a fellow Ne-dom, who quite often experiences temporary creative slumps (since I pretty much work on a novel and/or writing project anywhere from 1 to 8 hours daily, about 10 months out of the year… yeah, I don’t “do” hobbies and I don’t “do” idle time… and it kind of sucks).

If you hit a creative slump, you have two choices:

- Take it back to where your creativity was flowing, and take the plot in a new direction (write a different ending to that scene, or cause something unexpected to happen that you did not see coming)

- Change the setting of the scene (it’s quite possible the setting is boring you; whenever that happens, I go, “What will my reader NOT expect? Okay, the last interrogation scene took place inside a dim cell in the Tower of London. What if THIS TIME Henry VII decides to interrogate someone above the Tower’s lion pit, and dangle him over the side?”)

Here is something vital to remember, as a Ne-dom: you figure it out too far in advance, you’ll get bored with your own ideas.

Every time I have lain out an entire book from start to finish, and drawn up lists of what happens in what chapter, the creative spark dies. I have now started keeping an abstract concept in my mind (this is vaguely where it’s headed / what the climax will be, and what I should introduce next) and then leaving myself questions when I stop writing for the day, to trigger ideas for the next day.

So instead of writing: Heledd meets Alfred on the road and they discuss X, I ask, What does Heledd see that makes her suspicious? How should I introduce doubt into Meg’s mind? What should happen with the ring I introduced in the last chapter? How can I make the big reveal more dramatic?

Leave lots and lots of room for improvisation, too. When I sat down to write the other night, I knew I had to take my heroine through her fears up a road lined with her enemies – people who months before had tried to hang her. So, I knew I had to deal with PTSD trauma. What I did NOT know is that superstition would surround a myth of faerie lights to accuse her brother of murder (the murder, I had planned) and that other people would turn up in support of her, and sing an old Welsh tale to calm her down. But that was nice.

Ne’s delight in the unexpected, in allowing ideas to flourish and spring forth with just enough forewarning to lace together into the rest of the story; you must leave room in your novels for this to happen.

(Gif: Jo March, Little Women. ENFP. My soul sister.)

I’ll be honest here, in the hope it’ll inspire you. I started in on a sequel right after finishing my last book. I was excited about it, I wrote about 20 thousand words, and then I had to stop and do some line editing on the original novel. When I went back to my sequel, my creative spark had DIED. I was distraught; where had all my excitement, enthusiasm, and ideas gone?? So I put that draft in a folder, and tried another. It went on for about 15 thousand words just fine, and then it DIED. More distress. More staring at a blank page. More clueless pondering. More angst. So I delved into it from yet ANOTHER angle. I changed all the POV’s. I tied it back into London in addition to Wales. I invented an entirely new subplot. I wrote about 20 thousand words.

And it DIED. I lost the spark.

I spent one day utterly frustrated, near tears, anxious that maybe I’ll never be able to write another book (low Si paranoia :P) … and I opened up my original draft, the one with 20 thousand words, and skim read the first four chapters… and then sat down and carried the story forward. I’ve kept bits and pieces from each draft, and a lot of that writing can go in this book; but my forward momentum is back. The original idea WAS INDEED the best, or at least, the one my Ne is most passionate about – but it had to explore other options first, before it could settle down to tell THIS story.

Okay, the last bit of advice – you can take it or leave it.

Many high Ne’s benefit from working on multiple projects at once. You should consider, yes, working on your book; and writing a short story or a fan fiction on the side in a totally different genre, to keep your mind active.

I, however, have never been able to do this without losing focus – so I am a “one project at a time” kind of girl, to the extent where if I have an amazing idea for a different book or character in the middle of working on THIS one, I write it down on a slip of paper, stick it in a jar, and forbid my mind from thinking about it further, in order to remain focused.

Finally, write yourself a quick deadline. Given the amount of time you have to spend on this novel, and what else you have to do which might detract from it, and how fast you can write, figure out a rough estimate of how long it will take you to write this book. I spent two years on the last one and it literally almost killed me and drove my family insane (though, technically, since it went through about 14 drafts / rewrites / completely changed focus 4 times, and started out as a novel covering 20 years, went to a novel covering a decade, and wound up being a novel covering 6 months… I was working on more than one novel). This is NOT GOOD for a Ne-dom. We like to see PROGRESS. We like to see a point in our future when we are FREE to pursue OTHER THINGS. So, give yourself six months to write a rough draft. Or four months. Something doable, that keeps you motivated, because:

When I get done with this, I can write something else!

You are verbose. You are creative. You are ideas-driven. And if you’re a Ne-dom, you can turn out an incredible amount of words in a very short time.

You can do this.

Hope that helps,

- ENFP Mod (who tomorrow goes back to writing her sequel, because she did NOT write fiction today and was so bored she could hardly stand it)

#question #entp #enfp #infp #intp #mbti #writing #enfp writing #entp writing

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bts-love-sweat-tears · 7 years

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(Ice) Princess, Part 4

Title: (Ice) Princess, Part 4.

Pairing: Taehyung x Reader

Type: Fluff, minimal angst

Rating: PG

Word Count: 2,277

Links to: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

A/N: Hope you all have been well! Sorry I’ve been a bit less active this week- I was traveling for the long holiday weekend here in the U.S. I’m expecting to write one more installment of Ice Princess, but fear not! I have a couple of other fics in the works, including a Yoongi fluff I’ve started, and a Memekook story (already written) that I’m not sure what to do with. Why does he have to be like that?!? I also have notes and brainstorms for a Jimin gang!au fluff/comedy (gang fluff? not sure how this will work) so that’s further down the road. Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy Ice Princess Part 4, and as always let me know if you have comments, feedback or just want to chat ❤️. I know literally nothing about farming, so hopefully my untruths aren’t too jarring 🐴🐮🐷

A/N Note 2: It’s 1AM but I wanted to post. I will update with edits as needed. Sorry in advance for any mistakes- I wanted to be on schedule for all of you lovelies!

It was your second full day of the week in Daegu, and if the producers had been planning for drama or to make you a caricature of a city slicker, well, then they were going to be sorely disappointed. The “rise with the sun and set with the sun” mentality of the farm was nothing compared grueling schedule that you had been keeping for the company forever. And while it was true that you weren’t the strongest physically, having been at a desk most of your life, your work ethic made up for the lack of upper body strength. Working on the farm was practically a vacation compared to your days at home. The first day had been the camera crews filming scenery shots, basic introductions, and generally just getting settled in. Tae also gave you a tour of the city proper of Daegu, the camera crews of course zooming in anytime his hand rested on your shoulder or he leaned in closer than was strictly necessary to “whisper” some little known fact in your ear. You felt yourself warming to him once again (honestly, it was impossible not to), while berating yourself internally. You didn’t want to “be fooled twice” as the saying went, but you also couldn’t fully deny the spark of hope that you two could be friends (or maybe more).

Whatever your complicated feelings were toward Tae, his family was nothing but hospitable and kind. While it was true that their family was a bit more traditional, they treated you like a daughter and welcomed you with open arms. Luckily, you had refined your etiquette from years of business meetings, and meeting his parents went off without a hitch. They knew it was for a show, and were perplexed by the ever-present cameras, but it didn’t change the welcome that you had received. His mother kept offering you more food, and his father kept telling cheesy jokes and reminiscing about Tae as a baby. You could see so much of Tae in each of them-it was clear that he had absorbed so much of each of their personalities and loved them dearly. For their part, they were overjoyed to see Tae, and kept asking him questions about his life there-whether the other members were treating him well, how they were all doing, whether he was eating enough. You were happy to sit back and just watch their interactions. Even though your family had come from a different background, his family reminded you so much of yours that you felt momentarily homesick. It was true that you were gone most of the day for filming or work, but you were always home at night. You couldn’t even remember the last time you traveled without them.

Those feelings passed and you were brought back to the present by one of Tae’s many small cousins. You were still learning all of their names, but this cousin in particular you remembered. Jeong Hwan, or Jeong Hwannie, as you were already calling him. He was a spitting image of the picture of baby Tae his mother had shown you the other day. And somehow more than twice as energetic. His mother, Tae’s mother’s sister, was more than happy to let you take him off her hands in the afternoons, after you had finished your farm “chores.” You doubted his family would have let you do anything, but the producers insisted. Of course.

Jeong Hwan tugged at your leg, playing with the frayed edges of the denim around your kneecap. The four-year old, impatient as ever, began talking at the speed of light. And he hadn’t even had any sugar yet today.

“Noona, what are we going to do today? We could build a fort, or play tag, or go exploring, and then later tonight WE CAN CATCH FIREFLIES!!!! And then you can read me SEVEN (!!!!) bedtime stories,” he said, holding up all ten fingers. “Don’t tell the adults, but secretly we won’t go to bed…” He looked at you, waiting for a scandalized face.

You laughed and scooped him up, nuzzling your nose into his fluffy hair. You weren’t generally this kid-oriented, but Jeong Hwan was just TOO cute. Maybe you hadn’t spent enough time around kids.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” you said, as the other cousins ran over. You set him back down, and a game of tag began. You tried to run slowly and tumble around, to give the kids a chance. As you looked over your shoulder to make sure the kids were still following you, you made the mistake of continuing to run forward and barreled straight into Tae. He staggered back from impact, but was able to remain standing, and his hands settled naturally on your hips.

He smirked at you. “Someone should watch where they’re running. You’re setting a bad example for the kiddos,” he joked.

Before you could come up with a witty response, Jeong Hwan was there, coming to your rescue. Oh how you loved that child.

“HYUNG,” he shouted “ARE YOU PLAYING TAG OR NOT? Because if you’re not, Noona is busy,” he said, puffing out his tiny chest authoritatively. Tae laughed at that, and the famous boxy smile made an appearance. Before Jeong Hwan had time to escape, he was experiencing a tickle attack for the ages. Both boys were laughing, and you stood there feeling uncharacteristically warm. The sun must be getting to you, you thought to yourself.

Jeong Hwan managed to escape Tae’s clutches for a brief moment, and both boys took off around the field, with Taehyung animatedly falling further and further behind. Running and smiling with his family, Tae was absolutely ethereal. There was no other way to describe it. It wasn’t a cold perfection, but something earthy and glowing. You couldn’t tear your eyes away, or at least you couldn’t until a cameraman stuck a camera in your face.

“A penny for your thoughts?” He had an inquiring look on his face, but you knew you had not choice but to answer. It was amazing that they had left you alone for that long. You sighed and turned to face him, mask falling back into place.

Later, after tag, building a fort, firefly catching, and, yes, bedtime stories (though it only took two until Jeong Hwan was asleep, much to his mother’s awe and eternal gratitude), you were exhausted, and collapsed into bed. You woke after what felt like minutes, but looked at your clock. 7:30 AM. You couldn’t remember the last time you had slept peacefully through the night. It was Day 3, and you knew that today would be a long day of work. One of the fields needed tilled so the soil could aerate, and the machine was broken, meaning the whole family was going to go out and do it manually. You saw clothes laid out at the foot of your bed. Your routine was much easier, since you were supposed to look “natural” during the Daegu trip, but you still felt it was weird that the producers were coming into your room at night, and laying out clothes. Did they know no boundaries? You pulled on an oversized white t-shirt with not-so-accidental holes, and a pair of light wash jeans with ripped knees again. What exactly did they think you would be doing today?

You walked out to the field where the others were already waiting. The producers had arranged it so that you and Tae would be on a “team” off by yourself. You weren’t sure if they were hoping for a fight or romantic *liaison* but you knew neither would happen. Tae was dead serious and extremely dedicated when it came to the well-being of his family, and you knew that you couldn’t distract him even if you tried. This newfound serious side was something that you found even more attractive-while you were perfectly capable of providing for your family, you admired someone who shared the same goal and who showed it in a tangible way. You sighed, but before long all angsty thoughts left your head as you settled into a companionable silence and routine. An hour passed, and then two.

Tae didn’t look up until he passed you his water bottle. He let you drink first, and then took a long sip himself. Viewers would just love that, an indirect kiss. He paused before taking another sip. As he lowered the bottle, he stared at you some more, and then asked,

“Is there a reason you’re wearing my shirt?”

And here you thought that maybe, just maybe, he had been checking you out.

Rather than rat out the producers, which you knew would get cut anyway, you smiled sweetly, and came up with some lame excuse, which was probably what they wanted. “I didn’t want to get any of my shirts dirty. You should know how hard it is to clean Gucci,” you said tartly.

He gave you a strange look at the dig, and before you could say anymore, you got back to work. One step forward, two steps back. He settled in next to you, a little further away than before. As you both continued to dig, the sun rose higher in the sky, and before you knew it, you were slumped against your shovel/hoe/ or whatever the heck this item was. You had no idea. Before you could fully grasp what was going on, a wave of dizziness hit you and you collapsed into the dirt.

You awoke slowly, realizing that your head was against something soft and fluffy. It was the pillow in your bed. You could feel the cool touch of the sheets against your arms and legs, but your left side was over-warm. A small, muffled voice stopped your movements as you realized there was someone else in the bed with you.

“Noona, you’re too hot! It makes me scared” Jeong Hwan whimpered. You blinked and saw that he was curled up next to you.

“He’s been here the whole time,” a deep voice indicated. “A feat of strength for him,” the voice said, the edge of a laugh making itself known.

You blinked a few times and brought Tae’s face into focus.

“What happened?” you rasped. Your throat felt as dry as sandpaper.

“Too much sun exposure, and possible dehydration. I should have realized that a city slicker like you wouldn’t be able to keep up,” he said, teasing gently.

You rolled your eyes, and coughed a small cough. Before you could even ask, Tae held a glass of ice water to your lips. You took a small sip and laid back down. Your head was still spinning, and the room was tilting at multiple angles all at the same time, somehow.

“You sure know how to work the cameras,” you sighed, too disconcerted to be polite.

A hurt look crossed Tae’s face, but he didn’t say anything else.

“Noona, he locked the door right away! It’s only been me, him, and the family in here since you fell over!” Jeong Hwan shouted. You winced, mostly out of guilt. But also at the tiniest sense of betrayal that Jeong Hwan had taken Tae’s side.

“I’m sorry,” you mumbled. “I shouldn’t have assumed. You’re just always so perfect and know what to say.”

That earned you the box smile. “You think I’m perfect? It must be more serious than I thought-you’re having delusions,” he joked.

“Maybe. It feels seriously delusional. I wanted to hate you ever since I took the fall for you six months ago, but it seems that I can’t.”

“What do you mean? I avoided you, thinking that it would eventually die down, but when I came back from tour it had been so long, and you had become some kind of cool, untouchable celebrity.”

You snorted at that. So much for the mood. “THE Kim Taehyung of BTS thinks I’m unapproachable? This is an interesting development. Well, while we’re laying it all out there, I didn’t actually want to be a celebrity-it just sort of happened. The reality show was the price I had to pay for covering up the photos, and it ended up just blowing up. Do you really think I wanted to be the Korean version of the Kardashians?”

Tae stared at you, a blank expression on his face. “I thought my company took care of the photos, which was another reason I kept my distance. They were pretty pissed after we got caught that day…. I had no idea.” He looked truly shocked, and your hear clenched at the months of misunderstandings. Why hadn’t you confronted him sooner and hashed it out then? All this time between the two of you, wasted.

Tae leaded over you, his chocolate eyes never wavering from your own. The two of you were cut from the same mold, and you knew that he understood, and appreciated, the sacrifices you had made for his career. Your hands became clammy, and you could feel your pulse everywhere. You knew what was about to happen, and were in denial until the very last second. Six months of missed connections were coming to an end. A millimeter from your face Tae froze.

“EWWWW, HYUNG. THIS IS SO GROSS! DON’T KISS!!!! NOONA, DON’T! I thought you were my girlfriend,” Jeong Hwan whined. Where did he even learn about these things? He was way too precocious for his own good. Both of you cracked up, and you knew the moment had passed. But there would be many more opportunities to come.

#bts #bts scenarios #bts fluff #bts angst #bts fanfic #bts fanfction #taehyung #taehyung x reader #taehyung x you #bts taehyung #ice princess

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airadam · 7 years

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Episode 98 : Straight Ahead

"I'm at the back of the wake, fe' re', selling my tape"

- Rodney P

Managed to pull myself through a busy, somewhat trying month to bring you another selection! We have one new release, some 80s soul picks, a Mobb Deep feature, and a bunch more - I'd be surprised if anyone, even the DJs, knew every single record. Let's get into it...

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Skitz ft. Rodney P and Supanatchlus : The Killing

A very downbeat few bars to begin the episode, with Skitz basing this track from "Countryman" around what sounds like a version of Chopin's famous "Funeral March". Rodney P was settling into his solo career right around this time and he gives us some of his trademark style here, mixing the London with the Caribbean, elevated even further with Supanatchlus on the intro and hook. As far as I can tell, this is Supanatchlus' only credited recording, but it's a good one!

Hexsagon : La Buena Memoria

Big shout out to Hexsagon, friend of the show, for giving us gems like this beat from the "Beat Flip Tuesdays Volume 4" tape!

Rah Digga ft. Mobb Deep : High Speed Chasin'

Super dark cut from Dirty Harriet herself, which I got on a white label 12" but is now available through the magic of digital distribution, on the formerly unreleased album "Everything Is A Story". Tone Mason's crackly, low, insistent beat is actually very reminiscent of something Havoc might have done, but here he stays on mic duty for the closing verse. Rah slays the second verse, and of course, the familiar voice of the late Prodigy opens proceedings.

Above The Law : L.A. Vibe

Love this, a personal favourite from the "Legends" album. It's a very minimal beat from Cold 187um, but not as minimal as you think at first. Listen carefully and hear a number of different keyboard and pad touches come in over that spare, gritty bass and unpretentious drum pattern. It's always nice to hear the voice of the late KMG, and his low-key style as displayed on the first verse suits the track down to the ground.

Kankick : Say

Another one of those respected producers out of Oxnard, California (think Madlib and Oh No), Kankick has been quietly working away for years. This is an all too short track from his second LP, "Acid Massive Musical" which can't help to hook you in with the backwards lead sounds and neck snapping drum and bass combination.

Ty : Knock Knock (DJ Spinna Remix)

Great combination. On the third release in Ty's "Kick Snare And An Idea" series, he spits with his usual clarity and intelligence and this track is no exception. DJ Spinna remixes the cut with some classic Beyond Real flourishes, bringing synths and keys in from all angles underneath a solid kick-snare foundation. Appropriately.

Fat Jack : Try Ta Test

Dug this one out this month, going back to the "Beatology Vol. 2" compilation; Fat Jack is a producer from the underground Los Angeles scene who you might have heard working with heads like Volume 10, Aceyalone, and Abstract Rude, and getting respect across the board. This cut has a nice little wobble in the bottom end, nothing drastic, just enough to add that extra something.

Kev Brown & LMNO : The Cause

I've only just discovered this 2008 track this month, which speaks to how much material gets released nowadays and how easy it is to miss quality needles in the musical haystack. Kev Brown always brings the funk, and this is no exception - classic boom-bap with his own particular aura. It's easy to forget he's an MC too, and his more natural tone is my preference over LMNO's flow - but they both get it done. This is from the "Selective Hearing" album, which also has a follow-up which I'll have to check too!

Method Man & Redman : 1, 2, 1, 2

One of those combinations that seems obvious in retrospect but seismic when it happened, Method Man and Redman's coming together has been a source of joy in the artform. Their debut "Blackout!" had a number of big tunes, but this is probably one of the less-played ones. DJ Scratch gives the MCs a nice funky beat with some bounce for them to swap bars over. There's always room for a track like this.

7L & Esoteric ft. Inspektah Deck : Speaking Real Words

I wigged out the first time I heard this, and it's one of those tracks I have two copies of on vinyl - in fact, that's why you may just detect a dip in volume near the start, it's that dreaded cue burn! Big tune out of Boston from that late 90s independent scene, with Deck from the Wu of course stealing the show lyrically. 7L is usually responsible for their production but on this track he hands the reins to fellow Bostonians Vinyl Reanimators, who do a bang-up job. The horns make me think of a choppy, Hip-Hop version of "Sledgehammer"!

Rakim : When I B On Tha Mic

Apologies for the audio glitch in this one! While "The Master" LP might not have made as much noise as other Rakim releases, this single was pretty universally lauded. A trademark DJ Premier beat right here! It's not Rakim's most complex writing, but still a cut above most and for a track like this, pitched just right. I do love his tribute to the DJ in the second verse, along with matching turntable manipulation - an inspired bit of post-production.

[Madlib] Madlib & Freddie Gibbs : Real (Instrumental)

I'm not actually much of a Madlib fan but he turns it out on both parts of this beat from the "Piñata" LP!

Geechi Suede : Mahogany Mami

Clearly on a burst of creativity right now, Geechi Suede follows "Fishnet Skyscrapers" with the "Purple Suede" mixtape, made up of tracks sampling Prince. The groove for "Kiss", as used here, is always one to give you that energy.

Steve Arrington's Hall Of Fame : 15 Rounds

Very much of its time, we have here a track from the former Slave frontman's 1984 "Positive Power" LP. Not especially subtle lyrically, but not putting it all the way out there either! The growling, stereo-spread keyboard bass on this is a beast.

Midnight Express : Danger Zone (Extended Version)

Apparently this style is now referred to as "boogie" - for me, this is just what soul records sounded like when I was a kid :) This is an absolute bomb out of Rock Island, Illinois, originally released in 1983. The video very much gives the impression of the guys in the edit suite just pressing every button available, which makes it worth the watch at least once :)

Ronnie Hudson : West Coast Pop Lockin'

Rounding out the run of 80s heat, we have a 100% classic that is likely to give some of you a sudden gasp of recognition! Yes, this 1982 track is the origin of the hook of 2Pac & Dre's "California Love", which came out fourteen years later. It also incorporates musical and lyrical elements from Zapp's "So Ruff, So Tuff", which was a big record at the time. (Actually, it is easily one of the greatest records of all time). Ronnie Hudson was a singer and bassist out of Washington D.C. who moved to Los Angeles and met some pretty rugged characters while doing the research for this track! This is a real California anthem.

Miguel Migs : Do It For You (Bump The Tech Dub)

Hip-Hop is rarely up around this speed, so I had a dig into my house crate to come up with this remix. The original vocal version of this cut, featuring Li'Sha (aka Lisa Shaw) is well worth picking up if this is a style you enjoy!

Little Shawn : That Girl

I got "The Voice In The Mirror" a year or so back purely to get this song, which up to that point I'd heard only once - when I was about 14. It didn't sound quite like I remembered, but that Madonna sample being played up and down the keyboard (I thought they were pitch-bending it somehow) had stuck in my head for all those years! Little Shawn (later Shawn Pen) is on that light flow here as he is on most of the album, which is interesting because for those that know...nothing lightweight about him! Hitman Howie Tee is on production and it sounds very much like something targeted toward the radio of the time. It's not like this is my favourite record or anything, but it is one I was glad to find and am happy to share.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

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