#(OK I WAS HOPING THIS ONE Would drop today since it was previewed a Bit ago with Taichi) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

qianoir · 3 years

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IT3D 2 - Galaga vs. ET

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: college students!WayV x Chinese fem!reader

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: non-idol au, college au

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 18+ (Do not interact if you are under 18)

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: heavy cursing (censored), mentions of sex, nudity, love octogon, foreign humor, overbearing parents

♡ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2.2k

𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭: @eggbutnotyolk @d1nne @fanficbitchwhowriteskpop @staysstrays

Preview < 1 < 2 < 3

Your stomach started to churn during the lesson so you pulled out a handful of white rabbit candy from the front pocket of your bag. There was more candy than school supplies in your bag so you generously handed a few each to Xiaojun and Kun, whose empty tummies thanked you greatly. The professor soon closed the lecture and the three of you headed out together.

"I don't suppose either of you guys have dance next?" You ask the two boys with a slight laugh.

Both shook their heads. Kun pulled out his schedule, "I have biology." Xiaojun was searching for something or someone behind you as he spoke, "My next class isn't until 2. I'm gonna go try to find one of my other friends. I'll see you guys later?" Kun and you farewelled Xiaojun’s take off.

"Come on, I'll walk you to the dance studio." Kun offered his arm, which you accepted. "You know where dance class is, but you aren't in it?" Kun shook his head, "One of my friends takes dance, as well. He got so lost this morning, I had to help him find the hall."

"Wow I wish I had a friend like you four hours ago.." You told him, remembering Xuejiao and her useless a.ss. Kun smiled, "He should still be in there. He has like 3 dance classes mixed in his schedule." You took note of this and unlinked your arm from Kun's as he delivered you to the dance hall. "Thank you for walking me."

"No problem. I'll catch you around. Good luck!" Kun waved good-bye as you walked into the studio. Immediately, you were hit with shocking sound waves and saw a few very skilled dancers performing some contemporary urban routine. You walked along the far wall to the back corner of the room to put your stuff down then unpacked your dance clothes and walked into the dressing rooms.

Dressing rooms in China are usually very strictly organized to separate genders. The room you walked into did not clearly decipher what gender it was made for, so you could only hope you chose the correct one. You turned a corner housing unoccupied lockers and.. a man fully clothed in ballet attire.. thankfully. The beautiful Asian man looked up from fixing his tights.

"I'm so sorry I thought this was the women's dressing room!" You stuttered, blushing in uncomfy embarrassment.

The man chuckled at you and stood up straight. "You're fine. Everything on this campus is co-ed." He said with a small eye roll. "Oh.. that's a little.. discomforting.." You said, dragging your eyes to the floor to avoid staring at the beautiful man's beautiful body.

He pointed to your dance clothes. "You're taking ballet?" You nodded. "So am I. The class is about to start.. you should get ready quickly." He walked past you, out into the studio.

The strange encounter gave you chills. You wondered if he was the friend Kun mentioned. After all, he was the fourth Asian guy you had seen today. Am I just like a magnet for cute Asian boys?

Taking his advice, you quickly got dressed and slipped out into the dance room where the instructor was already giving his new term speech. You tried to attract as little attention as possible as you walked to sit in an empty space on the floor, which was a little further ahead from the boy you previously met.

"So enough about myself, let's go around the room and have each of you introduce yourself and tell us about your dance background. Starting with blondie over there." The instructor points to a pretty girl with dyed blonde hair.

"Hi, I'm Hyo Yeon Kim, I'm from Incheon, South Korea and I have been dancing mainly hip hop since I was seven years old."

The class claps and this continues for every student. Then it's his turn. He sits up straight and waves around the room as he introduces himself.

"Hi, I'm Sicheng Dong. I'm from Wenzhou, China and I have specialized in traditional Chinese dance since I was 10 years old."

So Sicheng is his name..

Suddenly, the studio door bursts open with a petite Asian boy panting like he just ran the Great Wall.

"S.. sorry.. I'm late.. I slept through the alarms.. I never set." The boy fixes his dance clothes which were thrown carelessly over his body.

"That's ok, son. Come in and introduce yourself and tell us about your dance history." The instructor motions for him to join the group. The boy suddenly has so much energy and brightly greets us, waving his hand high in the air.

"Hi everyone!! My name is Chittaphon “Ten" Leechaiyapornkul! I'm from Bangkok, Thailand and I have been dancing since the womb!!" Everyone laughs at his personality, except Sicheng, who just rolls his eyes, but still smiles at the bubbly boy. Ten takes a seat on the floor next to Sicheng who offers him a hi-five. I guess all the Asians keep it tight here, huh?

"We're almost done, you there, go ahead." The instructor points to you and you straighten your spine before speaking.

"Hi, I'm Y/N. I'm from Hong Kong and I have been dancing contemporary ballet since I was eight years old."

"Very good, Y/N. I think you will fit in nicely with our ballet class." The instructor nods at you before addressing the whole class, "Right, so we will continue to get into actual dancing in the next class. Thank you all for showing up, even if not on time." Everyone turns to Ten who just smiles cheekily in return. "Class dismissed."

You pick yourself up from the floor and decide to wait until everyone has changed to change yourself, since the idea of co-ed dressing rooms still doesn't sit well in your mind. While you wait in the corner, Ten and Sicheng walk towards you.

“Y/N, right?" Ten asks. "Yes, that's me." You smile. "We should hang out sometime! We have a whole clique of native Chinese friends you could be a part of."

"Actually I think I may have already met some of them. Do you know Dejun Xiao and Kun Qian?"

Ten nods enthusiastically. "Wow small world! I'll add you to a group chat with all of us. Give me your phone!" Ten takes your phone from your hands and starts typing your number on his own. The device is suddenly buzzing with new message notifications as it is returned to your hands.

"I can't be late to my next class- we can meet up later! See you, Y/N!!” Ten rushes out of the studio, leaving you and Sicheng alone in the corner.

"Sorry if he scared you. He can be a bit hyper." Sicheng says with a small grin. You wave him off, "It's fine. You should go change now."

"Are you waiting for me to change so you can be alone in the dressing room?" You stay silent. "If you've been taking dance classes since you were eight, you should learn that going out of your comfort zone is essential." Sicheng teases, but offers another option, "There is a better place to change if you're that uncomfortable with it, come on."

Sicheng leads you into the dressing room where you are met with various colors of boobs and a.ss cracks. You just look up and let Sicheng guide the rest of the way. You hear him giggle at your flushed face. You arrive at a spatial closet that is filled with hi-tech film equipment. "This is one of the theatre storage closets. Xiaojun and I hang out here a lot."

Sicheng looks around the room while you stand there, bag in hand and ready to change. His eyes land on you awaiting awkwardly in front of him and he realizes, "Oh sorry! I'll leave you to change." Sicheng apologizes and rushes out of the closet. You laugh at the quirkiness of the cute boy and start getting dressed up again.

Walking out of the storage closet, you see Sicheng waiting in the empty dressing room. He holds up your schedule as he notices you coming out. "You dropped this and I couldn't help but see you're free for a couple of hours. I was wondering if you wanted to get lunch with me and the rest of the guys in the group chat Ten added you to? My treat." He says, handing back your schedule.

You stuff the paper back into your bag, "I would love to."

"Awesome. Let's go."

The two of you walked around the campus and met up with five other Asian guys by the sculpted fountains, three of them being Xiaojun, Kun, and Ten. Xiaojun and Kun noticed you immediately. "Hey nice to see you again. I see you've met Winwin and Ten." You look at Xiaojun confused. "Winwin?"

"That's my nickname." Sicheng blushes. "You can call me 'Win.' It sounds manlier." He puffs his chest a little.

“Y/N, this is Lucas and Hendery. Hendery is from Macau and Lucas is from Hong Kong, like you!" Kun introduced you and Lucas gave you a hi-five, "Waaah what's up, little Hong Konger!?" You laugh as his hi-five pulls you into a bro-hug, where your face painfully smacks into his hard chest. "It's been a while since I've met someone from my hometown. What are you doing in America?" Lucas asked you.

"My parents wanted me to attend an Ivy League to become the best doctor in Hong Kong, so here I am with painful irony." You answered. "Cool, cool. I'm studying animal biology. I love animals, especially puppies."

"You are a puppy!" Ten calls out and everyone agrees. "We actually have a dog and two cats hidden in our dorm, but don't tell the DA." Lucas puts a finger to his lips.

"GUYS LOOK WHAT I JUST SCORED! THEY'RE GIVING OUT FREE CONDOMS!!"

The annoying, orange-haired, Taiwanese kid from your chem class ran to all of you with like 20 unopened condoms in his hands. All of the guys facepalmed and you just rolled your eyes at more of his immature behavior. Yangyang’s eyes fell on you and hid all of the condoms behind his back as he screeched, "What the hell guys!? Why did you invite a chick to hang out with us?? We can't have a girl knowing our manly secrets!"

"B!tch, you and I both know those aren't going to fit your 5’8” a.ss." You motioned to the golden X-tra large rubbers hiding behind his back. The guys except Yangyang laughed when his face started turning red, proving the accuracy of your assumptions.

"You two know each other?" Asked Xiaojun. "We have a.. history." Yangyang narrowed his eyes at you, stuffing the condoms into his backpack without breaking visual contact. "Get over yourself. We only met this morning." You scoffed. The young boy stuck his tongue out at me like he had done once before.

"Let's go eat. I'm starving." Hendery groans.

The group walks to the dining hall where different restaurants are catered to the students and staff. It was decided to eat at a Hawaiian rooftop grill. You sat near the edge with a great view of Manhattan. Winwin sat on your right with Lucas and Kun next to him. Xiaojun sat across from you with Hendery and Yangyang on his side, and Ten at the front of the long table. You looked over the menu placed in your hands.

"Get whatever you want, ok?" Win told you and you complied with thanks. The guys ordered a bunch of food for the table as well as for themselves; you ordered a simple ahi tuna poke bowl.

Upon the food’s arrival, Kun starts a conversation. "How is everyone's first day going?"

"My professor hit my wrist with a ruler because I said Galaga sucked." Yangyang answered. "You had it coming. You think ET: The Video Game should have made a comeback." Xiaojun attacked.

"None of you fools gave ET a chance." Yangyang crossed his arms and looked away.

"My calc professor ate an egg and bacon biscuit from Tim Hortons, then fell asleep." Win said as he stuffed his cheeks with macaroni salad.

"Did he ever wake up?" You wheezed and asked him.

"No."

"Hendery what's on your neck?"

"He got that good-good on the first day- my man!" Yangyang said with his cheeks full.

"Some kid in my aerophysics class launched a bottle rocket into my neck. It really hurts." Hendery replied, rubbing the sore area.

"D.amn."

...

"This dude in my psych class kinda packing no homo." Everyone groaned at Xiaojun’s comment, Ten just smiled and beamed him up.

Everyone finished eating and you offered to pay for yourself, but Winwin wouldn't allow it. You all walked back to the fountains you had met up. Yangyang, Hendery, and Kun left for their next class together. "What do you have next?" Win asked you. "I have biology." You replied.

"Oh you're with us!" You looked over at Lucas and Ten. Turning back to Winwin, "I'll see you later. Maybe we could have a movie night sometime this week, just you and me?" He proposed. "Sure. That sounds fun. Also thank you for buying me lunch, it was yummy." Win smiled at you. "No problem. I'll text you tonight." You nodded and parted ways with the lovely boy who walked with Xiaojun- the other lovely boy.

You walked off with the three Chinese boys, not looking forward to biology, but glad to spend the hour with your cool new friends.

To be continued…

*DA = dorm advisor

𝘲𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘳

#wayv x reader #kun x reader #ten x reader #winwin x reader #lucas x reader #xiaojun x reader #hendery x reader #yangyang x reader #wayv imagines #wayv fluff #wayv angst #wayv smut #nct x reader #nct imagines #nct fluff #nct angst #nct smut

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omg-im-such-a-masochist · 3 years

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A NEW EXPERIENCE

Prompt: You and Roman have been together for 7 years now,and on the night of your 5th year wedding anniversary,you have a new way to demonstrate your love for him

Word count: Uh girl,grab a snack ‘cuz this one is long!

Pairing: Roman Reigns x Reader

Warnings: +18 smut,cursing,slight self-degradation,fluff(at the end),a lot of intimacy and Tantric Massage(yes,you’ve heard it right 😉)

A little disclaimer,before we continue: Tantra is a middle eastern (more precisely Indian) philosophy and spiritual path,the tantric massage itself is a wonderful experience that DOES NOT involves any sort of sexual interaction such as penetration or masturbation!Yes it does involve yoni/lingam massage(vagina/penis massage) but the whole goal of it it’s not orgasm/ejaculation.It can happen of course,’cuz we’re humans but if it can it has to be delayed/controlled since that’s not a goal to be reached,it’s a full body experience and a deeper self connection and healing journey.So if someday you reach out a PROFESSIONAL for this especific massage,keep all this things in mind,please.The only reason I’ve included sex on this it’s because the characters in this story are married and got carried away(also because,it’s Roman I mean,who wouldn’t?). Also they don’t live the Tantra as a philosophy or spiritual path at all! It’s just a new way of working they intimacy together as a couple.It is NOT my intention to degrade ANY form of philosophy/spiritual path from anyone’s beliefs,this is for entertainment purposes only,and also a new way for me to write about new/different themes(or personal study topics of mine) for my stories. I have a deep love for middle eastern cultures and an even deeper love for studying different types of philosophy/spiritual paths.

Tag: My soul sister @ziasaph

Notes: Y’all know the drill loves,sorry for misspellings,english isn’t my first language (bla bla bla),check out my other stories if you’d like to(it would make your girl here very happy 😊) and if you’re comfortable with it,please let me know what you think? Some feedback is always welcomed and appreciated ❤️You can check out my other stories typing ‘masochist writes’ on the search bar on my page and my newest story as a fixed post.

Okay,now let’s get to the fun part,shall we? Hope you’ll enjoy 😉

Today’s my 5th year wedding anniversary with my lovely husband,Roman.We’ve been together for 7 years now.The first time I met him,I gotta say, I hated him! There was something about him that screamed trouble.He was too good to be true,I mean,he was incredibly handsome,polite,thoughtful,kind,loving,funny,intelligent,respectful(a true gentleman really),the best kiss I’ve ever had and don’t even get me started on this man’s bedroom skills...No man ever fucked me like that,no man ever cared much more about my pleasure than with he’s own,no man could make me feel like a goddess the way he could..you see what I mean?He couldn’t be an honest good man right?!And I knew better!Oh I really did..I’ve always had a “rotten finger” when it came to my men choices.If you putted me in a room with two guys,a truly good man and a shitty asshole,I would’ve had 100% chose the latter.Maybe for the “fun” of it or even just to prove my Freudian fate,who knows?

But when I decided to finally give in to the Samoan’s charm and accepted to finally officially date him,I discovered why he smelled like trouble,because as soon as I found out I was in love with him I knew I had lost my whole heart to that man!And if you came from a emocional troubled background,like I did,you know that that’s the worst case scenario one could ever have.But funny enough,despite my deepest fears,he changed my whole world,he dragged me out of the shit pit I’ve always lived in and pushed me into the light beside him,making me forget everything bad that ever happened to me,transforming my reality into the fairytale I could never had imagined.If you told me,7 years ago,that right now I would be here telling you this same story,I would have have bitterly laughed at your face and asked you to give me a hit of whatever it is that you had.

But here I am,finishing to set up one of our guests room for the surprise I had in mind for my husband.I’m sure that this will never repay him for the way he always made me feel,but at least I hope he can have a bit of a glimpse of how much I truly love and care for him.

I was lighting up the last pair of candles when I heard the front door open,his deep sigh and the loud thump of his bags dropping on the living room floor.

“Y/N,baby girl? You home?” That voice alone could bring the biggest,truthful smile upon my lips.I put the lighter on my jacket’s pocket,carefully closing the guest room door and I ran downstairs to meet my redemption in form of a man.

“Roman!” I squealed while I preceded to jump on his arms and wrap my legs around his waist,kissing him like I would never see him again.

“Wow!” He chuckled “I see someone missed me those 3 weeks,huh?!” Still laughing,he wrapped his big arms around my waist and retributed my kiss vigorously.

“Of course I missed you baby!You’re my Samoan Prince Charming,how could I not miss that?!”I laughed.

“Prince Charming,huh?!”He chuckled “You wait ‘til you see what I wanna do to you...I’m pretty sure you’re gonna change your mind from prince charming to tramp real quick!”He smirks and I can already feel my panties getting damp with excitement.

“Oh really,big guy?! Well I’m sorry,but I’m about to piss in your yard and ruin your dreams!’Cuz I already have a surprise for you,and that took a lot of prep time too,so as much as I would love to see what you have in mind that will have to wait,at least ‘til later.”

“Piss in my yard?!Oh baby girl,always so delicate with your words!”He laughed

“What? I’m expressive,you know that!Also if anyone here is the well mannered,polite and posh one that’s you,I’m just you know,rough street trash”.I bitterly said

“Hey!Don’t say that,please.You know that I don’t like when you degradate yourself like that.You’re not trash,you’re my everything!And let’s be honest here baby, I love your rough side..”He squeezed my ass,to prove his point.

“If you keep doing that, I’m gonna get all worked up,and you’re going to ruin my surprise...” I whispered

“Ok,ok.I stopped!”He chuckled,then gave me a light peck on the lips before lowering me down to the ground.”So what do you have planned?”

“You know it’s called surprise for a reason right?!”I said.

“Oh c’mon Y/N! Not even a little preview baby?” He gave me those beautiful puppy eyes,and the bastard knew that I would give in.

“Argh,you’re the worst!”I faked an annoyed face,but he knew I was pretending so he just smiled and I couldn’t help but smile back.”Ok the only,ONLY thing I will tell you is that it involves a large amount of intimacy..I’ve never done that to anyone before..and it’s an incredible experience.That’s all I’m saying!”I proudly huffed.He stared at my face for an eternity before he slowly smirked at me saying “You do realize that you said you were going to tell me just ONE thing about it,but you ended up telling me THREE instead,right?!” He started laughing when I poked his broad chest saying “Shut up! You know,you’re lucky I love you,because otherwise I would just kick your ass right now.”I tried to hold back my laugh,but that soon was forgotten when he kissed my lips so slowly and sweet and said “I don’t have a doubt you could kiss my ass at anytime baby.” He lazily smiled at me,before his expression turned more serious. “I love you Y/N so fucking much!” He caresses my face before continuing “I’m so happy I could take a few days off to be with you,to celebrate the 7 years we’ve been together..and the many more years yet to come” He pecked my lips lightly “I could never have asked for a better woman,wife,best friend,lover,supporter..my own personal safe harbor.” He shyly smiled at me and pressed our foreheads together,and I couldn’t help the tears escaping through my eyes.

“Oh baby girl, I didn’t meant to make you cry!” He said

“Those are happy tears I promise!” I sighed “Besides,I feel bad that I can’t say such beautiful things to you,I’m sorry baby,that you got the product made with a broken mold” I sadly sighed.

“Hey,I already told you to stop saying those bad things about yourself! Also you don’t have to apologize,I know everything you went through and it’s normal for someone in your position to be a little careful when showing your fellings,and trust me babe, I don’t need your words to know that you love me,your actions already do the job!” The smile he gave me was so sincere that reached his eyes.And I really hope that my actions tonight will prove his statement to be right.

“So,when do you plan on giving me my surprise?” He asked with a sparkle in his eyes.And I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Well the first thing I need to know is if you’re already fed?”

“Yep! I stopped by a cafe on my way home and ate something light,like you asked me to”. He responded

“Good!Now I’m gonna need you to take a shower so you can wash away the tiredness of your flight,towel yourself dry,but don’t put any clothes on I’m gonna need you naked for this.” He maliciously smirked at me.

“You need me naked,huh?” He licked his lips “Ok,sounds like a great surprise so far..”

“Yes it is! And if I were you, I would hurry up..”

With that he ran off to the bathroom like a little boy,and a few seconds later I could hear the water running.

As soon as I finished stripping the last piece of clothing off my body,I heard the bathroom door open and Roman call for me.

“I’m in the guest room.The one near the stairs.” A few seconds later, I see him entering the room.

“Wow,this looks beautiful!” Since we never used that room as a guest room,it didn’t had a bed(which helped a lot) I just cleaned the hardwood floor,placed a big extra thick(about 40mm) yoga exercise mat in the center of the room,a lot of candles(some were sandalwood scented,but not many,so it doesn’t get too nauseating.Just enough to give that relaxing feeling),some rose petals around the floor, a few cozy cushions around the yoga mat and a little low table with one massage candle and a large thermical water bottle(to keep the water cold and fresh).It wasn’t much but it did look cozy and spa like.

“Did you like it?”

“If I like it?Baby girl it’s perfect!”Then he looked at my naked body and added “Perfect indeed” as he slowly lowered down to catch my lips in the most romantic kiss. When I broke the kiss(‘cuz if it was for him,we would stay there for hours) I begin to explain to him what my surprise was.

“I was thinking what I could give you for our 5th year anniversary that wasn’t bought from a store,but had more of a deep sentimental value” He slowly nodded

“I was talking to Sarah and she told me that Lisa,her new girlfriend is a Tantric massage therapist and had given her a tantric massage one day,she said it was the best experience she’s ever had.So I got curious and decided to make an appointment with her and babe” I sighed “I’ve never had in my life,such an amazing experience! The feeling is...I can’t describe,you have to feel it to understand it. My point is,Lisa told me that tantric massage can be used by couples as a form of bonding,like a deeper connection. It can be used to strengthen they’re intimacy.” When I saw the confused look on his face I said

“What I’m trying to say is that I love you so much” He smiles “I love you too baby girl” I smiled back,continuing my explanation “And I know that you’re the best man I could’ve ever had asked for myself!Even too good for me,but my point is that,it makes me upset that I don’t tell you as often as I would like to how much you mean to me,so I asked Lisa for some advice on how to perform a tantric massage on you and thought that,maybe it would be a nice way to show you how I truly feel,through this” I pointed out to the set up in front of us,smiling shyly.

“I-I..baby girl, I don’t even know what to say...This is all so beautiful, I mean, you didn’t need to make all this to show me that you care or love me babe,I know that regardless” he touched my face softly and quickly added “But that doesn’t mean I’m not curious about your surprise..In fact I’m quite excited to see what this is all about” He has a evil sparkle on his eyes and we both couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ok big dog,I gonna need you to lay down on your stomach for me,okay?”

He smiled and did as I asked.

I kneeled down on one of the cushions beside the yoga mat and said

“Alright baby,now,I need you to close your eyes,relax and just focus on my touch upon your skin ok?” When he nodded I grabbed the massage candle and started by dripping some of the wax into his ankles and calves,lightly spreading the melted wax up,until it reaches his back thighs.

I remembered that Lisa told me that this should not be a relaxing massage,in the sense of quizzing in the muscles to bring relief,but it was more focused on the touch it self,so I had to keep a very lightweight touch and make sure that only my finger tips(and occasionally my finger nails if I wanted to) touched his skin lightly.

When I reached his back thighs I notice Roman shifting his weight ever so slightly.

*Oh thank God,I’m doing this right!* I thought to myself relieved.

I dripped more wax,now,onto his perfect round ass and lower back.As I begin working out the wax and spreading it I heard a deep,low,almost inaudible,growl leave his lips and I couldn’t help but smile to myself.I let my finger nails just lightly roam his ass,lower back and side hips.I was so lost in the action that I was caught by surprise when a loud moan left Roman’s lips.

“Y/N..”

I grabbed the candle again and repeated the same process but now on his middle and upper back,shoulders,in the back of his arms and forearms,the palm of his hands,his fingers,neck and ears.

When I reached his head,I lightly dive my finger tips through his hair so I could reach his scalp and begin lightly massaging it,as if I was washing his hair,when I very lightly scratched his scalp I heard a very familiar sound

“Mmmmm fuck,oh shit...Mmmmm”

*Hold on..did he just? Oh I know THAT sound,I think he came!* I thought to myself

I lightly tapped his shoulder twice(a sign for him to turn onto his back) and when he did I could see that I was right,as there were evidences of his cum not only on his stomach but also on the yoga mat,and his deliciously thick erection resting on his belly.

I placed a cushion under his hips and one under the back of his head before I repeated the same previous actions.Starting from the soles of his feet,working my way up his shin,knees,thighs,lower abdomen,hips,abdomen,ribs,chest,nipples,side of the neck,face,front shoulders,biceps,forearm and the front of his hands.

Once I got up and placed myself on the mat,between his legs, I looked at him and I could swear that in 7 years,I’ve never seen that man with such a wild,primal,raw,luscious look on his face.

“Ro?”

“Hm?” I’ve never heard his voice so rough before

“We’re going to the last step now,ok?”

“Mhmm” was all he answered with his gaze glued to my face

I dripped some wax onto my hands and rub them together to spread it.

I took his length into my left hand,lightly squeezed the base of his cock and started to pull my hand up towards the head until my hand slides off,just so I could grabbed it with my right hand and repeat the same steps.

“Oh my fucking God” He rolled his eyes to the back of his head “ Sweet fucking Christ,Oohhh fuuuck” He moaned with a raspy voice.

I took the opportunity to massage the head of his cock in a orange juicer motion.

“Argh” He deeply growled,snapped his eyes open and look at me with a deadly look on his face “Fuck me Y/N! I need you to fuck me right now! Come here and ride me nice and hard baby”

“But Roman,I’m not done ye-“

“I don’t give a fuck!” He gritted “I need you,and I need you right now! Just come here,and put my cock inside that sweet tight pussy baby” He smirked in an almost demonic way and I immediately straddle his hips.

Once I lined his cock to my entrance he quickly thrusted inside of me,making me gasp.

While he gave sometime to adjust he said

“Oh it feels good to be home!” He chuckled

“Baby girl, I don’t know what you did or how,but we’re definitely gonna be doing this more often!” He smiled deviously before he holded my hips in place so he could fuck me like a maniac.

“Oh Ro,fuck”

I’ve never felt him so thick,so deep and so hard inside of me.He was fucking me at a pace so brutal that it was almost deliciously painful.

He grabbed my wrists from his chest and rapidly tugged me down so our chests were glued to each other’s,he took the opportunity to ferociously kiss my lips while he preceded to fuck me brutally.

“Ro,baby,I’m gonna-“

I couldn’t even finish my sentence,because my orgasm hit me so hard that I couldn’t even breathe properly.

“Oh fuck me baby! So fucking tight...so warm...” He gritted “So insanely wet”

With that I could feel his cock throbbing and the hot spurts of his cum inside of me.

When he released his last spurt,we look at each other’s eyes and shared the most passionate loving kiss.When we broke the kiss I said

“I love you Ro,so much”

“With your heart,body and soul?” He lightly smiled,remembering his own words said to me on our wedding vows.

I smiled back before answering without a doubt

“With all of my heart,my whole body and my only soul”

And it was in that moment that I knew I couldn’t have picked a better surprise for the owner and of my heart,body and soul.

#roman reigns imagine #roman reigns smut #roman reigns x reader #roman reigns fanfiction #roman reigns one shot #roman reigns #wwe imagine #wwe one shot #wwe fanfiction #masochist writes

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high-functioning-lokipath · 3 years

Text

SH - Sherlock & Mycroft Friendship/Brotherly Bonding - Prompt: Holmes brothers as kids, Myc being a good brother, playing the deduction game. - Words: 1,715

WARNING: MYCROFT IS A BIT NOT GOOD AT THE BEGINNING. THIS IS NOT MYCROFT HATE THO! ALSO, DEVIL CHILDREN WHO DON'T LIKE SHERLOCK MAKE AN APPEARANCE. IT DOES END WELL THOUGH.

That being said, I guess I should add a Trigger Warning for bullying.

I do hope you enjoy the story! Let us know!

"You simply are not trying hard enough, Sherlock! It's quite obvious!" Mycroft yelled. The Holmes brothers were standing in the living room in 221B. Mycroft had decided to pay his brother an in-person visit rather than just turning on the security camera he'd installed. Sherlock had decided to ask Mycroft to play the deduction game with him over a cup of tea. Sherlock was rarely so cordial with Mycroft thus Mycroft was, not that he'd admit it, concerned that something was wrong. He realized he'd miscalculated greatly (again, he'd never admit that) when, only an hour later, a shouting match had ensued.

"Really? Obvious? You're bloody insane, Mycroft! That solution is simply not possible!" Sherlock yelled, dressing gown swishing dramatically as he waved about.

"Look at the facts little brother. We've eliminated the rest. And what do we say about what remains?" Mycroft attempted to bring his voice back down to it's normal, placating, patronizing tones.

"Must be the truth," Sherlock replied, hanging his head low as he finally came to rest on the couch. Mycroft briefly, and rather guiltily, pictured Sherlock as a whipped puppy tucking its tail between its legs. He hadn't intended to hurt his brother so, but the damage was done.

'Nothing worse than past fights,' Mycroft thought. 'He'll recover in a few hours.' He decided not to reconcile at the moment as that could quite easily be taken as caring. 'Sherlock knows I care about him, I just don't want to appear too soft,' Mycroft justified mentally.

"Very good, Sherlock," He said aloud. "I understand you couldn't see it my way today. Perhaps one day you'll be able to think clearly about things." Mycroft turned to walk away. "Perhaps once your brain recovers from your last overdose. Maybe then it will return to acceptable functionality."

'Why did I tack that last jab on?' Mycroft wondered. 'Perhaps I really am becoming too calloused.' He shrugged off the thoughts for the moment as he got in his usual black limousine for the ride home.

Back in 221B, Sherlock sat crying on the sofa for some time. Soft whimpers of "Myc" fell from his lips occasionally. Eventually, he fell asleep, although not a restful one.

"William! Come outside! It's a perfect day to explore!" Sherlock's mind palace had conjured up the memory he was trying so hard to forget. He saw everything so clearly though. Mycroft, still as proper as ever, yet this Mycroft was more free, more innocent. About 14 years old and just under 5' 7", Mycroft had already adopted most of the personality that would stick with him for the rest of his life. Sherlock was seeing his memory as though it was a movie he could walk through. He didn't see it from his 7 year old point of view. Rather, he watched on the sidelines. He looked around and found himself in the backyard of their childhood home. Mycroft was examining a particularly bright patch of flowers by the corner of the house. Some of them had been crushed, others torn up.

'The old tabby cat,' Sherlock remembered fondly. 'Mrs. O'Malley did always let that cat wander too much.'

"I'm coming, Mycie!" Sherlock heard behind him. Turning about he saw himself, right at 4' tall, running out of the house to join his brother.

"Tell me, William," Mycroft said. "How do you think these flowers were destroyed?"

"The old tabby cat, Mycie! That's easy! Find me something harder!" His 7 year old self exclaimed. Mycroft smiled approvingly and patted little Sherlock's shoulder.

'I can't seem to recall why he ever stopped calling me William,' Sherlock thought. Shaking his head in his dream, he chuckled silently. He knew he would remember, but his mind was attempting to fool him.

"Timothy Lexington," Mycroft called out, tossing a frisbee to young Sherlock. He caught it absently, brows drawn together in thought.

"Blond and blue, 19, 5' 9", science class, held back a year," Sherlock replied, throwing the disk back with a smug grin.

'The original deduction game!' Sherlock thought with an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. Sitting on the grass, he settled in to watch.

Mycroft had gotten into the habit of having Sherlock deduce his classmates to the nth degree.

"Why was he held back?" Mycroft quizzed, returning the frisbee.

"Cheating," Sherlock replied, about to throw it back. "Wait," he paused. "Cheating and skipping class." With every throw, Mycroft would ask a question or name a person, and with every catch, Sherlock would answer.

"Samantha Hanshaw."

"Red and green, 17, 5' 5", fairly intelligent. Moved ahead 2 levels over the summer." Mycroft was just about to catch the returning disc when Sherlock added, "And she has a crush on you. She likes your intellect." Mycroft completely froze. The frisbee hit him squarely on the forehead, snapping him out of his trance. "Mycroft! Are you ok?" Sherlock yelled, all deductions forgotten.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Mycroft assured him. "Let's go up front." The two Holmes children ran around to the front yard and Sherlock hurried to catch up. As he was about the round the corner, he noticed a group of boys, about his younger self's age, bicycling down the road.

'Oh,' Sherlock remembered. 'This was it.'

"William! Want to come and play with us?" One boy yelled, coming to a stop in front of the house.

"Can I, Myc? Please?" The younger Holmes asked. Sherlock could see the love and care in Mycroft's eyes. But also the sadness.

"They're no good for you, Will," He whispered, kneeling down to his brother's level. The younger's face dropped, tears welling up in his eyes. Mycroft hesitated briefly, hoping with all his heart he was making the right decision and that his initial readings of those boys were false, and added, "But if you want so badly, I suppose an hour or so wouldn't hurt." Sherlock lit up and hugged his brother around the neck.

"Thanks, Mycie! I'll be good! I'll be back in 1 hour!" Sherlock then ran across their large front yard to the road to meet up with the other boys. Mycroft began to walk into the house when he heard yelling.

"Where's your bodyguard now, William? Think you can just use your brain to get out of this, William?" Mycroft's heart sank. Those scumbags were holding Sherlock down on the pavement, kicking him. "Freak! Weirdo!"

"Leave him alone!" Mycroft bellowed. Sherlock had been struggling, trying to get away from them, but there had simply been too many. The bullies quickly scattered, grabbing their bikes and running off. Mycroft pulled Sherlock onto the grass immediately.

"I'm sorry," Sherlock whimpered.

"No, no, William. You don't have to be-"

"Don't call me that!" He yelled. "Never again! If I'm to be a freak, I'll be named as such. Never call me by that name again. Call me Sherlock from now on." Sherlock's face had turned adamant, a preview of his future personality.

"But-"

"Please?" Sherlock begged, face softening once again. Mycroft silently nodded and pulled Sherlock in for a hug.

"Come on inside. Let's get you washed up and have some cake together, hm? Sounds good, Sherlock?" Mycroft asked, the name feeling strange on his tongue. He certainly did not think the name sounded freakish, nor was his brother a freak, but he would, at least for now, make his brother happy.

"Yes, please."

"And Sherlock?" Mycroft continued, pausing his steps. "I'll always love you and I'll always take care of you. I will never hurt you. Never forget that."

Sherlock woke up with a start, gasping and still sobbing a little. His face was sticky with half-dry tears.

"I will never hurt you." Those words echoed in Sherlock's mind. It seemed that these days all Mycroft had done was hurt Sherlock.

'Not that it was really his fault,' Sherlock thought. 'I'm really the cause of it all. Maybe if I could find a triple homicide I could finally make him proud.' Sherlock shook his head. He'd already solved those types of cases. He really didn't know what to do to make his brother happy. Turning over on the sofa, he looked to the abandoned mugs on the coffee table. No doubt, the contents were far past cold so Sherlock got up and took them to the sink. Hearing the door lock click, he readied himself for an intruder since no one else he knew should be coming in at this time of day.

"Sherlock?" He heard a voice call out.

'Mycroft?' Sherlock wondered. 'Why is he here?' Slowly, Sherlock walked out of the kitchen.

"What do you want?" He spat, unintentionally angry.

"I wanted to apologise. I'm sorry," Mycroft said, absolute sincerity showing on his face. Sherlock was surprised beyond words. Mycroft quickly took in his brother's appearance and realized he was responsible for it. Mycroft sighed lightly before continuing, "Lately all we've done is fight. That's not right for brothers. Even arch-nemesis brothers," He said with a smirk. Even Sherlock chuckled at that. Turning serious once again, Mycroft continued, "Please believe me when I say I'm sorry. I-" He paused for a moment, deciding he may not have another chance like this for a while. "I'll always love you, little brother, and I'll always take care of you. I will never intentionally hurt you. Never forget that. I may be harsh sometimes and say things I don't mean when I'm especially frustrated but I'll try to say 'I'm sorry' a bit more."

"I love you too, Mycie," Sherlock replied, hugging his brother tightly. Mycroft smiled fondly at the man who, at the moment, was burying his face in Mycroft's suit jacket. Mycroft hugged Sherlock back.

"I'll always care, William," His brother's name finally felt right again after all these years. "You're never a disadvantage."

"Neither are you, Myc," Sherlock replied with a smile. "But you know you're not allowed to call me that around anyone else. Not even Mummy and Daddy." Mycroft nodded. "Good. Now why don't we stop this emotional madness and finish what we started," Sherlock commanded. To the average person, it would seem Sherlock had gone back to normal. But Mycroft saw the glint in his eyes. "Chocolate cake with whipped icing?" Sherlock offered.

"Of course," Mycroft smiled, taking the plate and sitting again in the living room. "Cluedo?"

Sherlock BBC Taglist

@lucywrites02

@delightfulheartdream

@bartv21

@another-crazy-fangirl

@ladylulu143

#sherlock #sherlock bbc #sherlock holmes #sherlock imagine #sherlock fanfic #sherlock oneshot #mycroft holmes #mycroft & sherlock #young!mycroft #teen!mycroft #young!sherlock #kid!sherlock #tw: bullying

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2manyfandoms2count · 3 years

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I love you (not) - Chapter 12

Today on I love you (not), Adrienette makes an appearance and our dearest protagonists have feeling epiphanies. We're only halfway through the fic though, so everything isn't solved. After the mutually unrequited half, we're about to enter the pining half. Hope you enjoy!

@marichatmay

First | Previous | AO3 | Next

---

Chapter 12: In which youuuu can feeeeel the loveeee toniiiight

Marinette’s gaze wandered around the room as she sipped on her sparkling apple juice, her foot absentmindedly tapping to the beat of the music. The party was in full swing, and so far, everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

Her classmates were laughing, even Chloé and Lila (separately, of course), hanging out in small groups around the buffet, or showing off their moves on the dancefloor. No sign of an Akuma anywhere. Everything was perfect.

A slight frown creased Marinette’s forehead as she realised that there was one person whom she hadn’t seen yet, and she was starting to wonder what was keeping him when she sensed a presence behind her.

"Hey, Marinette." Adrien almost managed to sneak up on her, but he was less discrete than Chat Noir. She turned around, a bright smile gracing her lips. There he was.

Adrien's breath caught as he took in exactly how pretty Marinette looked in her dress. He’d known she'd been bound to look good in it; firstly, because Marinette was always pretty, it was an undeniable fact; secondly, the dress had been very pretty on the mannequin, too, so really it would have been a feat for it not to be nice when worn.

Yet nothing could've prepared him for the synergistic effect of both, the garment falling gracefully on her, hugging her in all the right places.

"You look... Amazing, did you make that dress yourself?" He blushed as he averted his gaze to meet her eyes. He noticed she was wearing her hair half up, which really was a lovely look on her.

"Thanks, and yes," Marinette's cheeks pinked as she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I was aiming to not be overdressed, but..." Her eyes went back to the open space. Adrien saw that even though a couple of their classmates had thrown on a blazer, most had showed up in their usual attire.

"You're perfect." He smiled, before tutting. "The others are underdressed. We had a planned party for once, and yet... Really, people could have made a bit more of an effort."

Marinette turned towards him. Adrien’s hands were casually buried in his pockets. He wasn’t wearing his usual jeans, but a suit, darker than the one she’d always seen him wear. "At least you seem to have gotten the memo. New suit?"

"Good eye. It's part of Father's next collection." He grinned.

"We're so lucky to get an exclusive preview." Her hand hovered midway between them, hesitant to touch the fabric.

"It's not entirely benevolent, though. I'm supposed to crash test it, to see if it withstands being worn." He adjusted his cufflinks. "Actually, would you do me the honour of dancing with me? Purely for experimental purposes, obviously." He bowed before her and winked.

"Of course." She giggled at his antics, an odd feeling of déjà vu nagging at her. She knew she was talking to Adrien, and yet… There was something about him tonight that made her think of a certain someone else. She brushed the thought away, blaming it on the dark suit, as she put her glass down and took his hand, following him to the dancefloor.

Adrien caught Nino's eye, and the latter nodded at him with a wide smile. He made an ok sign before changing the track.

“Time to shake things up in here, time to get a little rock’n roll!” he announced in his best DJ voice.

“Up for the challenge?” Adrien asked Marinette.

She nodded, mentally thanking Chat Noir for the refresher course he’d given her. He really had her back whatever the situation, huh?

They started swinging their arms to the rhythm; she remembered to trace hearts in the air to show professionalism. Then the rhythm picked up, and the show really started.

Adrien picked up the pace and Marinette smoothly followed, starting with easy figures; twirl in, twirl out, half-waltz, yoyo, hand exchange, double stroke. People looked on curiously as Marinette cocked an eyebrow at Adrien, daring him to level it up.

He smirked and lifted her briefly, resumed a couple of simple passes, then, as she spun back into his embrace, he dipped her. Somebody (probably Alya), hooted in the crowd.

“Ready for a flip?” He was slightly breathless, his hair a little dishevelled.

Marinette’s heart was beating quite fast and although she was flushed, she knew it was just from the exercise. The thought rattled her a bit.

“Show me what you got, Agreste.” She put on her most confident smile and he pulled her up. His hands dropped to her waist and he lifted her, throwing her in the air. Her flight lasted a couple of seconds, during which she didn’t hear their audience’s gasps, and then she was back in Adrien’s strong arms, cushioning her landing.

Cheers erupted around them as the song faded out, and they remained embraced, slightly panting from the dance.

“That was amazing, Marinette,” Adrien whispered in her ear, with a slightly disbelieving chuckle. He’d managed to catch her without the Miraculous suit’s help. The doubt had invaded his mind just as she’d left his arms, and he hoped she never knew how terrified he’d been of dropping her.

“Yeah,” she panted.

Suddenly the guitar solo of Toto’s Won't hold you back now echoed through the restaurant.

Adrien’s eyes met Nino’s, and his friend winked at him. A crazy idea crossed his mind. He’d enjoyed his time with Marinette so much over the past months. Dating her as Chat Noir was definitely a bad idea and he definitely had to put an end to it, but what if… What if he asked her out as Adrien? Yes, there’d still be that massive secret hanging between them, that he moonlit as one of Paris’ superheroes. But being on the other side of the mask, the one that got to talk to her every day without having to make up excuses as to why he was at her balcony, that could just turn around in his seat to tell her how beautiful she was, would make things so much easier.

If she’d fallen in love with Chat Noir, she’d technically already be in love with him, although he’d of course pull all the stops to make sure she felt as cherished as she deserved, and do his best to conceal the fact that her ex and her present boyfriend were actually the same person. He couldn’t deny that he’d thought about Marinette more than he’d had about Ladybug lately. This was the perfect opportunity to move on from his partner.

"Hey, it's our song." He commented, feeling his heartbeat pick up.

"O-our?" Marinette stammered, pulling away slightly from him.

"The one we danced to at Chloé's last party, remember?" He felt his cheeks warm up at the thought that he might have spoken out of turn, or worse, that she might have forgotten, when the memory regularly invaded his dreams. She’d seemed almost shocked at his choice of words.

"Oh, right." She gave him a small smile before moving a little closer to him.

It wasn’t exactly to snuggle up to him, although she supposed it probably looked like it, given Alya’s enthusiastic thumbs up she caught as they danced; she just needed to hide her face from him. Adrien led their steps, which was just as well since her overthinking brain was too busy trying to compute his words.

Was he... Making a move on her? She looked up and their eyes locked, his gaze softening as they did. He twirled her before catching her, holding her a little closer than before. She didn't mind.

Then he unexpectedly dipped her, and looked as if he was about to say something to her. His eyes were full of affection, like hers in almost all of the pictures of her looking at him that had been taken before a couple of months ago. She could almost feel the virtual pink bubbles that surrounded her.

She paled.

Maybe she was finally getting what she'd wanted since the first real conversation they'd had. Maybe this was it . But then why did it feel so… wrong? Why did her heart tell her to bolt? Why did she want to be in Chat Noir's arms at that precise moment?

"Marinette? Is everything ok?" Adrien pulled her up, a worried frown creasing his brow.

"It's just a bit warm, I haven't eaten much today. I'll just go and grab something from the buffet." She waved in its direction, putting up a brave smile to conceal her rattled state. What was it with Chat Noir invading her thoughts tonight? She needed to get a grip.

"Want me to come with you?" He really looked concerned, and she felt bad for worrying him.

"I’ll be fine, thanks. Keep testing out your suit." She patted his shoulder gently before heading off.

He watched her walk away, slightly disconcerted. He'd felt so confident that he'd be able to reproduce the unadulterated joy his friend had displayed when they'd danced in her room, yet somehow he seemed to have gone a step too far.

But then again... Maybe it all boiled down to who she'd been with then (well, who she’d known she was with).

He knew it wasn't a good idea. But he had to check his theory. His heart commanded it.

---

Marinette tried her best to act like a wallflower next to the buffet, something that might have worked better if she hadn't undisputedly been the prettiest girl in the room, and if she'd been standing near an actual wall and not a bay window. Those were Chat Noir's thoughts, anyway, as he watched her from outside, perched on his baton, holding back from knocking on the closest window just to see her sway gently to the rhythm of the music.

Then he saw her nibbling at her nails, confirming that something was troubling her.

She must have sensed that she was being watched, because she turned around before his fist could tap on the window. Their eyes met, and for a second she looked slightly surprised, a little taken aback, even, by his presence, before a smile bloomed on her lips. He could have sworn that she was relieved. He wished that he could've taken a picture of her at that exact moment.

“You really felt like you needed to patrol tonight?” She asked as she opened the window for him.

“Well, I know they say that the mice dance when the cat’s away, but this cat felt like it was missing out.” He pointed to himself and pouted.

“Poor kitty.” She scratched his neck. He almost let out a purr, but managed to hold it in.

“Anyway, I see a mouse that isn’t dancing, and I’d argue that’s a criminal offence.” He shot her a pointed look.

“It’s not like I haven’t danced already.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ll have you know that we were quite a success.”

“I know, I was there.” He winked.

She looked at her feet sheepishly, and he regretted his choice of words. He cleared his throat. “I was thinking, I think the rooftop’s empty, would you like to get out of here, maybe?”

“Please.” She grabbed a chair and helped herself up, climbing out of the window after checking nobody was looking. Chat pushed the window pane shut after she’d gotten on his lap and extended his baton upwards, letting go of her when they’d reached the top floor.

Marinette took a deep breath as she leaned on the railing, looking at the view. Dark, warning clouds had gathered on the horizon, but she only saw the full moon, standing unobstructed in the sky and reflecting in the pool.

The music was faintly audible from below. Marinette shuffled around to face Chat Noir.

“So… Since you were complaining about this mouse not dancing… How about you right that wrong?”

“‘Twould be my pleasure, princess.” He took her hand and guided her out.

“A waltz?” Marinette raised an eyebrow after the first couple of steps. “I thought they were passées .”

“I wouldn’t want you to have practised for nothing,” he said softly. “Plus, nobody’s here to judge us for being old-fashioned.”

She let out a content sigh as he gently pressed his cheek to her temple (they couldn’t dance cheek to cheek even with her kitten heels). She closed her eyes and revelled in the moment.

Gently swaying in the moonlight, Chat humming along to the music ( La vie en rose, probably a request from Juleka), it was like time had stopped, and she wished they could stay in this perfect bubble forever, one where she didn’t have to question her feelings, where she could just enjoy the moment.

Marinette felt something light land on her shoulder. Then on her nose.

Chat must have felt it too, because they both looked up. The moon was gone, hidden by stormy clouds. The rain’s pace picked up. They looked at each other, Marinette’s gaze questioning what they should do.

Chat Noir purred, afraid she’d let go of him. Marinette let out a crystalline laugh, an exquisite sound he knew he’d never grow tired of hearing.

She held him closer, eyes fluttering shut once more as she smiled, her cheek pressed to his chest, enjoying the gentle vibrations.

This was it. She was right where she wanted to be.

#marichat #miraculous ladybug #the miraculous tales of ladybug and cat noir #ml #miraculous fanfiction #miraculous fanfic #marichatmay2021 #marichat may #marinette dupain-cheng #chat noir #adrienette #adrinette #adrien agreste #day 15: moonlight #day 16: purring #elle writes #love you (not)

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kristoffxannafanatic · 4 years

Text

The Happiest Place on Earth

Happy Kristanna in July @artnerd2003. I am your Secret Santa and I hope you enjoy this little fluffy modern Kristanna AU. This fic was inspired by a Tik Tok video.

A huge shoot out to @michaelakuntzmann for giving this the once over and correcting my boo-boos. And thank you to @lukin08 for previewing it as well.

Anna stood there in complete disbelief…how did this happen? They were always super careful. It just did not make any sense. How was she going to tell him? The knock on the bathroom door startled her back to the present.

“Anna? Are you going to come out and tell me the results?”

Anna unlocked the door to let her sister in. Elsa walked over to the little pink stick sitting on the counter and looked down to read it…. PREGNANT.

“Are you ok?”

“NO! How can I do this now? I am 22, just graduated from college and no job! And Kristoff is only 25 and working for his Dad’s construction company.”

“You aren’t alone in this…you have me and don’t sell Kristoff so short. That man loves you with everything he has and would go to the moon and back for you.”

“Sure, he loves me, but we have never talked about having kids or about the future. Now he is going to be tied to me for the rest of his life because I seemed to have messed something up with the birth control.”

“Now wait a minute…it takes two to make a baby. He is just as responsible for it as you. I really do not think you have anything to worry about regarding Kristoff. I mean it is not going to be easy but if anyone can do it, you and Kristoff can. Are you going to go tell him?”

“No, not yet. I do not want it to ruin our trip to Disney World. It may be our last chance to be happy together.”

“Don’t wait too long. He has the right to know. Why don’t you tell when you are in Disney?”

“Wait, what?”

“I don’t know…I’m sure we can look up some cute ways to tell a dad to be on Pinterest.”

“Do you really think I can do this? Do you think I can be a good mother?”

Elsa walked over to Anna put her arm around her and wrapped her up in a tight hug.

“If anyone can do this, you can. You were born to be a mother.”

The girls spent hours on the internet looking for memorable ways for her to tell Kristoff that he was going to be a dad. Elsa could sense Anna’s frustration at all the ideas they saw.

“I wish it could be like the wedding proposal ones.”

“What do you mean?”

“I would love to do it in that spot with Cinderella’s castle in the background and have someone capture the moment on camera. But it isn’t like I can give him a ring.”

“What if we combine a couple of ides. Like you said in front of the castle but instead of getting on one knee with a ring, hand him a baby onesie that says I Love My Daddy.”

Anna loved the simplicity of the idea and decided this was her best option.

“Let’s go shopping for the onesie but first call your doctor and make an appointment for when you get back from Disney.”

Looking at all the baby things changed her outlook on the situation. Maybe she could do this and just maybe this could be the start of a new adventure.

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

Kristoff wanted to make sure this trip went off without a hitch. They were leaving in 3 days. He made a list of everything he needed to pack. He also knew how Anna was and that she would be packing ten minutes before they had to leave for the airport.

He decided that he should call his feisty girlfriend and see if she had thought about packing for the trip.

“Hi Baby…how are you? I wanted to know if you have thought about packing for the trip ahead of time?”

“Ummm….” Anna fiddled with the tiny onesie in hand and started to panic. “Kind of…I bought a few new things.”

“Oh good…I was afraid you would be packing as I pulled up to pick you up for the airport.”

Anna let out a nervous laugh because he was not 100% wrong.

“Do you want to come over tonight and binge some Netflix?”

Anna knew if she saw him, she would blurt out that she was pregnant and had to think of a reason not to get together for the next three days.

“I would love to, but I should really spend some time with Elsa because she is going to miss me when we are away.”

Kristoff was confused by Anna’s answer but who was he to question sister time.

“Alright but promise me you will take some time to pack. I want you to have an unforgettable time on this trip. I want it to be something talk about for years to come.”

“Oh, I will be.”

“What?”

“Nothing, honey…just saying that I know this will be a trip full of all kinds of surprises!”

Kristoff was worried that Elsa had told Anna about the surprise he had planned for the trip.

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

Kristoff had not seen her in four days. Every time he suggested they hang out; she had a weird reason to stay home. He chalked up her wacky behavior to excitement for their trip. The night before the trip, she was not answering any of his call, so he decided to text her.

‘Hey Baby…just checking in to see if you are all set for tomorrow morning. I will be there at 6:00am for our 8:30 flight. I hope you are as excited as I am to see Mickey Mouse & Co.’

‘Hi Handsome…you would be proud of me…I am all packed AND my bag in by the front door. I just need to pack my last-minute stuff in my carry on.’

‘I am proud of you! Get a lot rest because it is going to be a busy 10 days! I love you!’

‘Good night, Kris! Love you too. xoxo.’

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

Kristoff was surprised to see Anna sitting on her front step with Elsa when he pulled up. He jumped out of his truck and walked up to the sisters.

“Well, well, well. This is certainly a surprise. Did you have to drag her out of bed?”

“No, she dragged me out of bed.”

“I guess only Mickey Mouse can get her up and moving.”

“Yeah, yeah…keep joking you two. I don’t have a chance when the two of you gang up on me.”

Kristoff grabbed her bags and headed for the truck. Anna took this quiet moment to look to Elsa for one last bit of advice.

“Are you sure about this Elsa? I don’t want to lose him.”

Elsa took both of Anna’s hands in hers and kissed them.

“I promise this will all work out. Have faith in Kristoff and yourself.”

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

Once Anna was with Kristoff she settled back into their normal groove. She had made up her mind and was going to tell him today.

Their flight was on time and did not encounter any problems. Anna had never traveled so smoothly. Their bags were among the first to come out on the luggage carousel. She took that as good sign of things to come.

They took the shuttle to the Grand Floridian and arrived a short time later. The moment they entered Disney World, Anna forgot about all her worries and started getting overly excited.

“Settle down Feistypants…we still need to check in and correct me if I am wrong, but I remember someone wanting to go buy us some Mickey Ears.”

“Oh, my goodness…I almost forgot all about that. How am I going to decide which ears to buy?”

“You can pick out any ears you want as long as I can have something plain.”

Anna lunged over to him and hugged him tight. “You are such a good sport! I know it is not your favorite thing to do.”

“Anything for you, my love.”

They got checked in, dropped off their bags, and freshened up. Anna was pulling him all the way to the shop she read about online.

“So, you don’t mind if I but a whole bunch of these headbands because I can’t decide on just one?”

“Whatever you want princess. I will get those simple Mickey Mouse ones and the Captain America shield ones.”

“That’s it?”

“Well in all fairness, I won’t be wearing anywhere but here. You will be able to wear them in your classroom whenever you want.”

“That if I get a teaching job.”

“You will, I just know it.”

He leaned down and kissed her temple and grabbed the classic Mickey ears and the Cap ears. She decided on the sequined Minnie ears to match his Mickey ones.

“Hey Anna, can we go do that couple thing that everyone does?”

“What couple thing?”

“Can we go to that spot where the castle is in the background and t-take a picture.”

A million butterflies erupted in her stomach. He did not usually want to do such cliqued things. He was never one for pictures, selfies or public displays of affection and he seemed nervous. She was beginning to get cold feet but then she put her hand in her small backpack and felt the baby onesie and decided that this was it.

“OK…I guess since I have you wearing Mickey ears we might as well go all in.”

“Milk it for all you can because you know I won’t be wearing a headband all week for you to get these pics.”

They walked hand and hand until they arrived at the spot. They both took a moment to enjoy how beautiful the castle really was in person.

“It is funny how they did that optical illusion thing to make it look taller than it is.”

“I was so shocked when I saw that too. I am so glad you are planner and made us watch all those YouTube videos about it.”

“Ma said it was the best way to find all the tricks and ins and outs and get the most bang for our buck. OK…I think this is the perfect spot. Let me just find someone to take a picture with my phone.”

Kristoff walked over to a Disney World and asked them to pretend to just take a picture of them in front of the castle but hit the record button and not to stop recording until he said so.

They set up next to each other and posed for the photo.

“Alright look right here and smile. Perfect.”

Kristoff pulled away from Anna slightly and got down on one knee and took her left hand in his. Anna turned to him confused.

“What are you?”

“Anna, will you marry me?”

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? OH MY GOD!”

He pulled out the ring and started to put it on her finger and Anna start to tear up and covered her face with her right hand. She had to take a deep breath and get through this. She looked up at the woman and realized she was recording a video and held up a finger.

“Wait one minute.”

Kristoff finished putting the ring on her hand and Anna started to pull something out of her backpack. Kristoff was confused and just waited. Anna looked over again and said, “wait, keep recording.”

Kristoff was so confused. What could she need in her backpack at this moment?

Anna pulled out some fabric and unrolled it and held in front of her and it said I Love My Daddy on it. After a minute he finally gets it. All he could hear was the crowd cheering all around them. One guy even yelled out, “She hit him with the reverse Uno!”

He looked up at Anna and said. “Really?”

All she could do was shake her head yes. He ran his hands down his face and started to tear up. Once he composed himself, he got up and wrapped his arms around Anna and pulled her in for hug.

It really was the happiest place on Earth, and it would be a story for them to share with future generations of Bjorgmans!

#kacij2020 #kristanna christmas in july #my attempt at writing

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gurguliare · 5 years

Text

Dumb ageswap preview since today is a no self-restraint day

There was a stray cat who frequented the convenience store. Actually there were several, but this one came very regularly at or around dawn, because the cashier who worked nights put out milk near the end of his shift. The first time Keiji saw it happen, he was fascinated, not by the cashier with his oversized T-shirt and apron but by the cat, who was dead. He wanted to know more.

Regular breakfasts of milk and attention soon gave the stray a bit of solidity. Not enough grow back flesh and bone, but enough that—on the darkest winter days, when the sun stayed down and simmered through the morning—the cat just looked like a cat, though a cat with holes for eyes. It got to the point where even an ordinary person would be able to tell that it was there, if only they knew what to look for. Keiji lost interest, not wanting to be caught squinting at a ghost when he should have been on his way to campus. But he thought about it. Somehow it always came before the living strays arrived, and drank without lowering the level of the milk… but the milk grew duller, more blue-white, and lost its smell. The other strays, when they came, were getting the dregs.

Most food, spirits couldn’t enjoy. In their dead mouths it turned to ashes. Offerings were an exception, but could a bowl of milk be an offering? If set out with the correct intent, perhaps. Or prayed over beforehand. It was hard to imagine the night manager praying.

Who was the night manager? He looked boring. He had a sloping bowl-cut, so long it covered his eyebrows and the tips of his ears. The grooves under his eyes shrank his eyes until his face was mostly frown and nostril. Not really a frown—a nonexpression gravity had sagged. He knelt like someone with bad knees, but he couldn’t be old, with that unwashed baby face. If Keiji closed his eyes and concentrated briefly, the cashier appeared as a person-shaped gap in a thick field of color. Most things, viewed in this way, bulged with pockets of spiritual energy, like food that looked delicious but could be halved to show the spotty mold. Even a powerless person had their life, that grew through their body in veins. The cashier was alive, but his life-force gave off neither energy nor colored light—Keiji had to hold open his mind’s senses to detect it, a dark river of “something” concealed in nothing, a life-river spilling downward so slowly it was easy to suppose that he had made some mistake: that the nothing flowed upward, instead.

It would have been too conspicuous to stand in front of the convenient store with his eyes shut, especially after the cashier went back inside. So he pretended to pace. After a couple of passes he walked into a stop sign.

“Oi, Mogami,” said a voice right behind him. “Are you sick?”

He turned slowly, in part because turning made his head swim. At the last minute he also remembered to open his eyes. Vice President Reigen Arataka, terror of blowoff clubs, stood with arms folded and so close behind that Keiji almost clotheslined him. Or would have done, if Keiji had been more like Reigen—waving his hands around at the start of every speech.

Arataka took a prim step back and didn’t relax his hold on his own elbows. “You look sick,” he accused.

“I’m not,” said Keiji pleasantly. “I’m just late. I’m afraid I’m letting down you and the president.”

“Not much to let down. You’re always late.”

“I’m sorry,” said Keiji, staring at his smeary storefront reflection with what he hoped was a sincerely mournful air. Behind the glass, the cashier was putting out new stock. “I didn’t think my student council duties would interfere this much with my preferred sleep habits.”

“That’s a real shame.” No one ever sounded less threatening than Arataka imitating a gangster, or perhaps the rough-cut hero of the movie who drove off the gangsters at the end. He was the sort of person who did it to put people at ease, raising his eyebrows and sneering to shake a laugh out of his victims. “Let’s walk together. I’ll make your excuses, if you like. ‘Mr. President, a thousand apologies. I got lost between the convenience store and the convenience store—’”

“That’s right”—Keiji mimed surprise—“you’re late too, aren’t you?”

Arataka gave him the uneven smile that Keiji often saw in friendly upperclassmen. Something about his sense of humor soured them after a while, though they liked his sarcastic deference. After all, it was still deference.

The president didn’t show up. Keiji enjoyed listening to Arataka fudge the agenda, though.

In homeroom, Ms. Kurata showed an unusual appetite for combat, striding jerkily to and fro and barking questions at the dozers in the front. The bands of dim light from the blinds made their way floating up her jacket, higher but less sharp every time she passed the windows, like she was being batted between a pair of ghostly claws. It was hard to say what had her so worked up. Kurata was an inconsistent teacher; funny and harsh when the subject didn’t interest her, but barely comprehensible when it did. Keiji didn’t mind either way. He took diligent notes and made copies in the time left over, which could sometimes be sold, and he watched the clock for sudden movements. Sometimes he lost time, but when that happened his hand usually had the decency to go on writing without him.

At lunch, he happened to see her outside, talking on the phone. “Eh, Mob, you’ll never guess… I woke you up? Sorry, sorry, forgot you’re back on the graveyard shift. Well, but you’re up now, right?”

“I saw ‘that’ spirit again. Oh, come on, you know what I’m talking about. That spirit! The one I can see! With the blushy face?”

“What do you mean, I should call your brother? You’re the esper, aren’t you? OK, OK, but I don’t even know the name of his agency—”

She dropped her phone in her bag and shook out her fingers as if it had burned her. “‘Spirits and Such’?” she said to herself, and gave a low chuckle. “Straight-laced as ever, Ricchan.”

“Hello,” said Keiji politely.

Kurata jumped and dipped forward like a drawbridge, arms akimbo. He had been standing in front of her for almost a minute; it wasn’t his fault she didn’t pay attention. “Mogami?” She straightened again and tightened her scarf self-importantly. “You weren’t eavesdropping, were you?”

“No, but I couldn’t help but overhear you discussing something that might impact the safety of the school. As a student council member…”

“Hey, that’s too bold, isn’t it? Could it be you’re going to blackmail me? We’ve got another two years together, sonny. I heard what your president did to Mr. Koga.” But she was smiling, cheek twitching a little, like she couldn’t select between amusement and real happiness that someone had heard her. Clearly she had seen something. She sat on a low ceramic wall and patted for him to join her. “Do you believe in the existence of the paranormal?” She had a deep voice which deepened especially for heartfelt performances—in the classroom, almost always heartfelt disappointment.

“Maybe,” said Keiji. “It depends. I can’t rule it out, since I’m not old enough to have really experienced such things. Does teacher believe?”

“You suckup.” She propped her chin on her interlaced fingers and sighed so hard it made her hair flip up. “I used to. I really used to, it was practically all I thought about at your age. I thought I was going to find aliens.”

“….UFO?”

“You don’t have to say it like that. Extraterrestrials are still a statistical near-certainty, you know. Fermi’s paradox, the Drake equation… Humanity’s brightest minds see beyond this low horizon!”

“I might have to finish eating lunch now, Ms. Kurata.”

“No, wait. I’m aware that you’re not interested in aliens. You heard me mention a spirit, right? Well, it’s true. Aliens might still give our species the cold shoulder, but evil spirits certainly don’t. This one—” She lowered her voice. “I first saw him over fifteen years ago. He’s green and he glistens, like snot. I don’t remember his name, but… Mogami, is it true you sold curses to other students in elementary school? Are you a spiritualist?”

“Not true at all,” Keiji said. “I sold charms. They weren’t effective, though. If I have any spiritual powers, I’m below average.”

“I didn’t see the spirit on campus,” she mused, leaning her face to one side in its cradle of fingers, which was slightly disturbing. “So it’s no concern of the student council.” Suddenly her hands sprang apart to wriggle in mid-air. “I tell you what. I give you details, and you make me a protection charm.”

“No, but you can have it for ¥1000.”

Tome whistled and put her hands away. “Cheap!”

#broccoli looms in the backdrop of every scene but it hasn't been mentioned yet bc not relevant to keiji's journey #mp100

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jq37 · 5 years

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oh my GOD the new ep!!!! like!!!!!!!!! SO MUCH happened but then also the preview for the next ep looks SO GOOD

**spoilers for first kisses and last words**

Hoo boy this was, as I predicted, a BIG one. Not that I needed to be an oracle to figure that out since there’s only a few eps left but man did it deliver.

I still think that Cool Kids, Cold Case had the most off the wall nonsense happening in the shortest period of time but this ep I think was overall the most consistently wild ep.

So let’s take it from the top.

I think I forgot to mention it before but Adaine’s, “I go into a rage,” hardcore cracked me up.

“I have hold person.”/”I stuff a sock in her mouth.” Insult to injury Adaine.

The entire group dunking on Aelwen, forgetting that Riz is literally bleeding out, half dead.

“sausage festival”

Adaine really was dead serious about her snitching threat huh?

Ally miming a boom mic.

I love how everyone including Siobhan mess up Aelwen’s name or mix it up with Adaine’s half the time.

And speaking of, wow. What a rise and fall for her in 3 eps (and about an hour in game time). She’s queen of the nerds. She’s not even cool at her own school. And terrified of whoever she made whatever shady deal with. I know she literally tried to kill the whole party last ep and that she’s the worst but I almost feel for her.

Almost.

“This is not on you. This is on the world within which you inhabit.”

I love Adaine’s semi-indigent, “We’re not going to kill you,” because Alwen was 100% ready to murder them which, side note, imagine how much on an international incident that would have been.

Lol at the group tag team bullying Aelwen about going to Mumple and Adaine using her magic jacket for super petty BS.

“Hey mom!”/”GodDAMMIT honey.”

The parent/kid relationships are so good in this show.

Everyone but Kristen parkouring off the roof when Sklonda specifically set up a ladder.

“The put a girl in a palimpsest,” followed immediately by, “She went to a party,” as if those are on the same level.

Sklonda Gukgak DUNKING Aelwen into the squad car with a technical assist from Adaine. I knew she was gonna be my fave parent from her intro scene and I love her even more than I thought.

“With all due respect, (A/N: Which is none), suck my dick, fuck you.”

“She tried to murder me.”/”BE THAT AS IT IS.”

“Eh, you carry a gun.”

“No one who’s detecting maidens is a maiden.”

I feel like I’m quoting a lot today but there were so many money lines this episode.

Everyone always loses it when Brennan starts doing the Identify spell voice and I love it.

Adaine’s dad is T R A S H

Adaine’s mom on the other hand…I’ve been wondering about her for a little while because usually the outright emotional abuse has been from her dad while her mom is either not there or not saying anything. So I’ve been wondering was her deal is and we finally got the start of an answer. I know we only have a few eps left but I hope we go a little deeper into what exactly is going on there. It seems like Adaine’s parents are gonna be a big factor in whatever endgame is planned so fingers crossed,

Everyone cracking up as Emily backs Fig into a corner talking to Penelope.

I love Gorgug so freaking much. Just his good natured, lumbering self. EVery time Zac opens his mouth gold falls out.

Emily MAXED out her deception huh?

I think Siobhan must have forgotten that she took the crystal with Ostentasia away from Aelwen at the end of last ep. Either that or they willingly gave it to the cops and I forgot (but I think it’s the former because she said in this ep that it was in Aelwen’s pocket when at the end of the last ep she def took it).

My autocorrect keeps wanting me to type Ellen for Aelwen. I WISH.

I knew it! He’s a PIRATE. Suck it Fabian. (lol at Adaine stirring the pot. That was like Adaine being sincerely polite and Siobhan trying to cause problems and I love mixed motive player/character decisions).

I wonder if the banker is named after John Hughes.

I can’t believe the dumb bank is actually a huge plot point.

Yikes, re: Bill and Fabian. That got tense. Though I’ve kinda been waiting for some kind of blowout for a while. His dad runs very hot and cold and I figured it would only be a matter of time before we saw some of the cold.

Also, Lou breaking character in the middle of that very intense moment to clarify a plot point.

Sidenote: For a hot sec after reading the title of the ep and remembering how Sklonda is competent to the point of (probably) breaking the original plot, I was so concerned she was gonna eat it this ep. So glad she didn’t.

Anyway, the idea of swinging sadly on a rope is so freaking funny.

Fig: Can I offer you a sad song in this trying time?

Huge portrait of Bill Seacaster in Fabian’s room.

Adaine is gonna bring up him kissing her sister very time she needs to get out of something w/ Fabian for the rest of her immortal life.

Another sidenote: This is a little thing but I always think it’s interesting when fantasy worlds have the same months and days as us when they’re named after like Norse Gods and Roman statesmen that wouldn’t exist in their world. Same with Roman numerals and Irish coffee.

“Am I allowed to smoke in here?”/”Of course.”

I really like the character detail that Adaine is always really polite to everyone, including/especially people like Fabian’s maid and Basrar. People that she wouldn’t necessarily “have to” be polite to, you know? It’s like she’s trying to make up for the fact that her family is a bag of dicks.

“Fantasy Google”

The whole bit with Fabian’s porn stash was so good. This group is so good w/ yes-adning each other.

“Privateer me a new one.” Emily is so good.

“Special investment” Suspicious

I was thinking “I can’t believe looking at a bank’s FAQs is part of this game,” right as Brennan said it.

So I went back and watched Siobhan’s face from when Emily first mentioned Kal Vaxis to when she got the connection to KVX and it took her 22 seconds. I also missed the quick cut to Brennan when Gorgug asks, “What is Kal Vaxis,” and you can tell he knows they’re so close to breaking it with the little grin on his face. I wish we had gotten a reaction shot right after she got it. Anyway, great team solve w/ the MVP trophy to Siobhan/Adaine.

I loved when Zac, Emily, and Siobhan all whipped out their laminated maps in tandem to figure out what was happening.

The hard mood change from Adaine dropping the bomb about Riz’s dad and to forming a committee to help Gorgug flirt with Zelda was wild.

Kristen telling anyone to be suave is hysterical.

What a DISASTER of a committee Gorgug’s friends are. Well meaning but so trash

Fig: Tell her you got a SICK tattoo

Adaine: Bring her to see art in the middle of the night

Fabian: You cannot date this person (Kristen: You absolutely have to)

Kristen: Actually not garbage advice but she is in no position to be giving dating advice to anyone

Riz: Having a literal existential crisis

“Who else is he gonna date?” WOW, savage Adaine.

I meant to say this before but I love how Adaine’s go-to is immediately ice cream and she’s always on board to go to Basrar’s. Like how when she texted everyone 2 eps ago she was like, “Let’s get ice cream now.”

Mmm, don’t love that Gorthalax isn’t answering his phone. I have been waiting for a significant adult to die for a while now.

OK, look, the whole thing about Penelope and Dayne being eternal prom king/queen. Is it wild? Yes. Is it implausible? No. No it’s not. Even Murph, most veteran player, was kind of like, “Wait, does that make sense?” Because, in this setting, it kind of would? I’m not sure it fits within the story so far and I’d have to go back and listen to the more lore-y stuff again but the conceit itself is like the exact right amount of crazy to fit in this setting? And they never cut to Brennan like I wanted so I could judge his face for any kind of tell. But anyway, you guys know I’ve been predicting a prom finale and this would fit right into a prom finale.

The girls giving Gorgug a pep talk before his date was ADORABLE.

Gorgug having to check his phone to remember three words, “You look nice.”

“Your friends are popular and loud” True

Zelda’s a BARBARIAN! She’s a MEGA BARBARIAN!

I know they mean ecstasy like intense emotion but I kept thinking, like, molly.

Hmm, so Penelope wanted to know if Zelda had hooked up w/ Gorgug, ie: if she was a maiden. Can they only palimpsest maidens? Or (as we will get to later) does nice guy Biz only want virginal maidens for his creepy reverse Weird Science arcade setup?

Zelda listing off every type of metal and then Gorgug’s, “Same stuff,” was perfect comic timing on Zac’s part.

Imagine the Hangman screaming down the road on fire, Zelda completely terrified.

I love the Hangman so freaking much.

“DO NOT GIVE TREATS TO MY MOTORCYCLE.”

I can’t believe everyone is living at the freaking crappy apartments. I knew they were all gonna end up hanging at one persons’ house but I kinda figured it would be Fabian’s house or Gorgug’s house.

I”m also concerned about Bill. I feel like we keep getting reminded that he’s mortal a LOT.

Did Gorgug’s parents have indoor fireworks on tap for Gorgug’s first date?

Oh my God the whole docking conversation. Never play chicken with Brennan because the dude will not blink.

“We didn’t do that.” That’s his other best comic timing moment of the ep.

“Polishing my axe”

Kristen this episode

I really wish they’d made the roll to find Ragh later in the ep. Fig is so ride or die for Gilear now and I love it.

“I fall asleep.”

Adaine almost making her parents dunk on Gilear but then pulling back.

But also, Adaine and Gilear going off the the oracle together.

“Fig pack it in.”

Affirmations with Fig and Gilear.

Fig, do you really think platonically cuddling with Kristen is the move?

Riz setting himself up for a dramatic entrance is so fantastic.

Hmm, so Biz and Zayne were attacked at the same time. That’s why that cold pill detail was in there way back. I’ve been trying to figure out what was always planned and what was quick re-working but Brennan is so good I can never really tell.

Are multiple unrelated groups just getting into palimpsests at the same time? Or mostly unrelated groups tied to one person?

“We are not gonna get our security deposit back.”

RIZ’S DAD IS JAMES BOND! YES! I didn’t know I wanted that to be the case until it happened and now that’s the only acceptable option.

Riz didn’t get the 20′s he needed when fighting Aelwen but man he got it at the best story moment this week.

Oh man that home movie

The pearl is grey. Interesting.

“Mom our family is so awesome Mom we’re all so badass, I thought it was just us but Dad is awesome too, why didn’t you tell me Mom?”

Sklonda: Internally screaming.

Man he went full Inigo Montoya.

“I’ve got nimble escape so…”

“I guess we have a two bedroom,” I think was a really underrated funny line.

Did Riz ever tell his mom about the time of death thing.

Everyone inundating Gilear with overlapping chatter.

lol the Hangman likes Zelda’s family

Ally’s panicked, “FUCK” is always hilarious.

Why are all the adults in Gorgug’s life trying to get him laid?

OK so the elementals were conjured by Aelwn’s magic Brennan said. He said by Aelwen’s magic, not by Aelwen. I wonder if that turn of phrase was specific or arbitrary. Like, we were told where Aelwen is but we don’t know. Was she forced to do it (either by threat or by magic)? Clearly someone (Biz?) is pulling her strings to at least some degree.

“It’s probably about marriage.” “WAR HAS BEEN DECLARED.”

That happened fast

Fun fact from my International Law class: When a government kidnaps someone, it’s called rendition.

“There’s a war, fuck school.”

Yeah it is wild that Adaine’s parents didn’t call her.

OK so did the Elves get Aelwen back but also go, “But you still need to go to jail.” Because they cut Brennan off before the end of that sentence which might have had more clues in it.

“I text my mom k”

I also wanna know who gave Kristen a slushy marg (It’s war times. I bet things are looser now)

Murph’s face when Brennan said, “Lucky Stones” was so good. That was so Riz.

S/O to Ally for pre-casting Guardian of Faith. Good instinct.

AHHHHHH BIZ

As I said in an earlier conversation s/o to Adaine for DUNKING on him at every opportunity because he DESERVED IT. Also, her instincts for who sucks in this game have been spot on.

Another s/o to Riz for having the presence of mind to not pull a Star Lord and to pretend to be on the bad dude’s side for long enough to gain some kind of upper hand.

OK, wow was not expecting that twist. I feel like I need to go back and rewatch some stuff to get a better handle of the timeline and stuff. Like, when exactly did the girls start going missing again? And what year is Biz? Has he been masterminding this whole thing? I feel like no but I feel like he’s masterminding his own thing which happens to a puzzle piece in something bigger? BUT IT’S A PRETTY DAMN BIG PIECE. Who opened the new arcade? Is it connected to the bank? How did Biz get involved? Who’s his supplier? Did someone hook up Biz, Daybreak, Penelope, and Aelwen with Palimpsests to do their own separate things, hoping that at least one of them would succeed which would somehow be good for the mystery person? I am so excited to find out and I really hope Brennan and the cast do a Q+A sesh after S1 is over to hash some stuff out.

Siobhan’s face when Biz said he was going after Adaine.

ALSO, you’re just gonna TELL RIZ and you wanna PUT ONE OF HIS BEST FRIENDS into a MAGIC CRYSTAL???? AND YOU THOUGHT HE’D BE ON BOARD? Like, even if he was, what about the 4 other people who are there?????

(sidenote, wild Gorgug’s parents just left them alone, no questions asked)

Theme-wise, this is the fight ep I’m most excited for. It seems rad as hell.

All that yelling in the promo for next week. Either the raddest thing possible happened or there was a TPK. There is no other option.

Wow, that was a stellar ep and this is a really long post. I really can’t wait for next week’s!

Edit: I meant to say before, is Penelope’s FB album like…a hit list? Like does whoever’s doing the actual dirty work (Biz? S/o else?) know that whoever she takes a picture with is who they should target?

#fantasy high #fantasy high spoilers #asks #anon #Anonymous

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mss4msu · 6 years

Text

Here We Go Again

Summary: A proudly Swedish girl, you were happy to be paired with Thor on Post-New York appearances. To help de-stress him, you introduced him to Mamma Mia and the music of ABBA. Little did you know, after the Infinity War, Mamma Mia would be the only thing that could calm him down.

Pairing: Thor Odinson x Reader

Words: 2415

Warnings: This includes plot from Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, AND Avengers: Infinity Wars. IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS DO NOT READ THIS. Also there are a lot of tears and emotions.

A/N: I literally sobbed while watching Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again in theaters today because it was emotional and I’m so proud of my heritage, so here’s a fic about ABBA and crying.

“Hey,” you called, knocking on his hotel room door. Tony had thought a hotel would be more incognito than everyone staying in Avengers’ Tower. “You ready to go?” You heard a small whimper from inside the room. “Thor? Please at least let me in if you aren’t going to come out.”

The door cracked open and half of Thor’s face looked out at you.

“Are you ready for the interview? Tony has us slated to go and say a few words to explain Loki’s actions and the repairs that will be done to New York and then we’re done.”

“As Prince of Asgard, I politely decline.” He closed the door in your face.

“Thor, I’m not leaving. You can either let me in or let me sit in the hallway, and the latter isn’t very polite.”

“Fine, you may enter,” he pulled open the door to allow you to enter his room.

“Thank you, ‘O Mighty Thor,” you curtseyed to him.

“Välkommen, (Y/N).” He sat on the edge of his bed, facing away from you.

You took in the state of the room. A pair of jeans and a sweatshirt were thrown on a chair. Thor’s armor was strewn across the floor, and it seemed as though he had been using his cape as either a blanket or a pillow, as it was crumpled up on the bed.

“Hey, Thor, I can call Tony and have him move the interview.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Or have him cancel it entirely?” He shrugged his shoulders with a bit more effort.

You walked over and took a seat next to him.

“Talk to me, please,” you looked at him, hoping he’d turn and meet your eyes.

“My brother, God of Mischief, just attempted to annihilate Midgard and I am tasked with explaining to the people of Midgard, who would be extinct if he succeeded, that he’s very sorry, which he isn’t. Even if he was, I have no ounce of belief that Midgardians would accept the apology. Even worse, I don’t think that they should. He is my family, I have to forgive him. You and your people d not.”

You just blinked at him. He was right, the apology really meant nothing. The wounds were too fresh and the threat was too recent.

“Give me a sec?” You asked him, he nodded, and you went into the bathroom and closed the door. You took your phone out of your pocket and dialed Tony.

“Hey, boss, it’s (Y/N). I’m so sorry, I’m feeling so nauseous and light headed and all hot and then cold, and it’s either flu or lady troubles. I think we’re should cancel the interview today. There’s no way I’ll get through it without puking on the interviewer. Thor is here to take care of me, so count him out too.” You mock gagged a few times to give added embellishment to your story.

You heard Tony gag a bit too, “Shit, (Y/N), ok, that’s disgusting. I’ll put Clint and Nat on clean-up duty today. Please don’t puke.”

“I’ll,” you fake gagged again with a huge smile on your face, “try.”

“Take care of yourself,” Tony said before hanging up.

You walked out of the bathroom and rejoined Thor on the bed.

“Thank you, (Y/N).”

“Välkommen, Thor. Now tell you what, since we now have a sick day, I’m going to introduce you to one of my favorite movies I watch when I need to express emotions, but regular words just don’t cut it. Plus, it has music of the Swedes!”

His face lit up at this. Though you had only been working together for a short while, Thor had loved getting to know more about a culture that somehow knew about how he and his family were gods.

“Tell you what, the movie’s in my room down the hall and I have bread and a jar of lingonberry jam and container of pickled herring in the fridge. We can have a Swedish meal too!”

“Excellent. Let’s depart!”

You led your way to your room, placed Mamma Mia in the DVD player, and got out the food. Thor awkwardly stood by the door while you did all of this.

“You can sit down, Thor,” you laughed. He did and you sat next to him, handing him the jar of pickled herring.

“Not a lot of people have the stomach for herring, but I think you’ll like it!” You skipped through the previews on the movie.

Thor opened the jar and took a big whiff of the herring. “This smells absolutely delicious! I love the Swedes!” He happily popped one in his mouth and moaned his approval.

“Alright, Thor, here we go, a crash course in one of Sweden’s most popular musical groups,” you told him, hitting play.

“Huzzah!” he happily replied with herring in his mouth.

By the end of the movie, Thor was in tears. He turned to look at you.

“(Y/N). Thank you for this experience. That music understood what I am feeling. I feel that Loki has been ‘slipping through my fingers all the time’ and every time I’m in a fight, it’s like ‘Mamma Mia, here we go again!’ And you were ‘near me, darlin’ and you heard me, ‘S.O.S.’. (Y/N), ‘thank you for the music’,” he winked at you.

“I hope you’re feeling better,” you hugged him.

“I feel mighty again,” he replied, getting up to leave.

That week you and Thor went through interviews with ease. Anytime a tricky question was asked or Loki’s love for Thor was brought into question, you could hear him humming ABBA to himself to calm down before answering. You set up an old iPod with the Mamma Mia movie soundtrack as well as all of the original ABBA you had and sent it with Thor when he left back for Asgard.

It had been a few years since you had seen Thor when you reconnected at the party at Tony’s.

“(Y/N)!” He bellowed from across the room, scooping you into his arms for a hug.

“Thor! How have you been?” you asked him smiling so hard it hurt.

“Fantastic! Thank you for the small listening device you provided me last time we were together. I use it every day,” he beamed at you, taking it from his pocket to show you.

“I’m so glad! So, how is Jane?” you asked.

“She is great! Off doing research somewhere advancing knowledge. You know, I told her about ABBA and she told me she wasn’t a fan,” he had a horrified look on his face. “I asked her to ‘take a chance, take a chance, take a chance,’ but she said no. What have you been up to since I have been away?”

“You’ll never believe it, but I was dating a guy named Fernando for awhile!”

“Was ‘there something in the air that night?’” He put his arm around you.

“Yes and ‘the stars were bright’!” You began swaying back and forth with him.

“Oh, ‘Fernando!’” He sung out.

You both laughed and continued to catch up. Unfortunately, you had to leave early as you had a secret assignment from Fury.

You were shocked the next morning to hear about what had happened with Ultron. As you were skilled in hand-to-hand combat, but most excelled behind a camera, you were tasked with working behind the scenes. You hoped Thor would be ok against this new threat.

Ultron was dealt with, and Thor made a stop to say goodbye to you before having to leave again.

“(Y/N), that was awful,” he sighed next to you, gulping down a herring. You had made sure to stock your fridge in preparation for his visit.

“I have Mamma Mia in the DVD player, ready to go if you have time to stick around.”

“For Sophie and Donna, I always have time,” he replied, getting comfortable on the couch.

He sang along to every single song, not missing a beat or a lyric. You wondered how often he had had to listen to the iPod to calm down and it made your heart ache. When the movie ended, he hugged you goodbye and disappeared into the Bifrost.

You had been with Fury when the news of Thanos’ attack on Wakanda was like the shot heard around the world. You were sitting in the car waiting for he and Maria Hill so you could all go to the airport to get to Wakanda to bring the team supplies and help where you could. You had been absorbed in crafting a brand new Spotify playlist filled with ABBA and other Swedish singers on a new phone you had gotten for Thor when you heard the sounds of crashes around you. It seemed as though people were disappearing at the snap of a finger. You turned around to look out the rear window and couldn’t see Fury or Maria anywhere.

Fuck….he did it. You drove in a panic to the airport and boarded the small jet, thanking the Norse gods (you had begun praying to them since your first meetings with Thor) Steve had taught you how to fly years ago. You flew as fast as the jet would take you to Wakanda and landed on a field filled with blood and what looked like ash. You ran out of the jet, yelling the team’s names.

“THOR??? STEVE??? BUCK??? NAT??? TONY??? T’CHALLA??? ANYBODY???”

“(Y/N)??” you heard Steve yell from the distance. You ran to him and found he, Thor, and Bruce sitting on the ground together. All of their eyes were wet and you knew they had just been crying.

“What the fuck happened?” you asked them all, unsure if you were ready to actually confirm what you already suspected.

“Thanos,” Thor spit.

“Fuck,” you muttered under your breath. “Ok, everyone, to the jet. I’m taking you all out of here.”

The M’Baku and Okoye wanted to stay in Wakanda in order to mourn their fallen and rebuild what they could. Nat and Bruce asked to be dropped on a tropical island, hoping that somewhere a bit less populated would help with Bruce trying to reach the Hulk. Rhodey asked you to drop in in New York. He wanted to check in on Pepper and Happy, or at least see if Pepper and Happy had survived. Steve didn’t have a specific place in mind he wanted to go, but knew he didn’t want to be with anyone. You left him in the midwest outside a Harley Davidson with enough money for a bike, gas, and food for months.

“Where shall we go, (Y/N)?” Thor asked you, “The Rabbit comes with us!”

The sad Racoon, whom you’ve heard was named Rocket, had been curled into a ball in the back of the jet and you had heard his stifled cries.

“We are going to my home,” you told them. You flew into the O’Hare International Airport and had never seen it so empty. It sent shivers down your spine. You found the spare car you always kept there for visits and drove into the city, heading north of the skyscrapers.

“Where are we going?” Rocket Racoon asked you.

“We are going to Andersonville, home of the Swedes of Chicago,” you told them. “Thor, I had hoped we would be watching it under better circumstances, but there is a new Mamma Mia movie coming out, it’s called “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again” and I got an advanced copy after calling in some favors.”

He had tears in his eyes, “Thank you, (Y/N),” he choked out.

You arrived at your small apartment and welcomed the two in. What a sight you must have been, a Swedish woman of short stature, a Norse god, and a racoon. You showed them both to the living room and sat them down. You quickly grabbed food from the kitchen and brought it in to them, turning on the tv and DVD player.

“Rocket, I don’t know if ABBA is a thing in space, but Thor and I have found that it works incredibly well for conveying emotions.”

“It is quite good, Rabbit.”

“Oh! One last thing!” You ran out of the room and grabbed three boxes of tissues from the bathroom. “I watched it once already and cried the entire time, so we will need these, especially after today.”

You watched the movie from start to finish and heard Thor trying to sing along to the songs through tears, eventually giving up and just humming. Rocket’s ears perked up and you thought he enjoyed the movie too. When it had finished, you had to go to the bathroom to grab more tissues, as both Rocket and Thor had used up all of the contents of their boxes.

“(Y/N),” Thor looked at you through tear-filled eyes, “Jane and I broke up, and they’re right ‘breaking up is never easy’.” He began to cry, “And I was trapped on this plant called Sakaar, and it was like Waterloo, ‘I couldn’t leave if I wanted to,’ although I eventually did get help and did leave. And, (Y/N), Thanos he,” Thor began breathing heavily and you moved to rub his back, “Thanos killed Loki. Watching this made me feel like I’m living my life as Sophie and Loki is Donna.” You pulled him in for a hug.

“That’s how I felt about Groot! Groot is Donna!” Rocket cried.

“Come here, Rocket,” you pulled him up and brought him in to a group hug. “Guys, I’m so sorry. What can I do?”

“Can we watch it again, (Y/N)?” Thor asked you, his breathing starting to regulate.

“And can we have more herring while we do?” Rocket asked, wiping a tear from his eye.

“Of course! Let me go get more provisions.” You went to the kitchen and cleared the fridge of herring. You then restarted the movie, and had Thor leaning on one shoulder and Rocket leaning on the other. You had your arms around both of their shoulders.

The second time through Thor sang along more and even Rocket had caught on to some of the words. You spent the night switching between Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. After all the two sitting beside you had been through, you were prepared to watch Mamma Mia every day for the rest of your life, so long as it brought them a small piece of comfort.

#marvel #fanfic #avengers infinity spoilers #infinity spoilers #thor odinson #thor x reader #rocket racoon #abba #mamma mia #mamma mia here we go again

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theinsanecrayonbox · 2 years

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i’m a tad more cohesive today....ok, well i’m conscious not really cognitive, but whatever. and the march previews dropped on the marvel comics app

so that Judgement thing is Avengers/men/Eternals, ok. i wasn’t sure about the third logo yesterday, thus why i cut my ramble there for comedy. but uh yeah...just has Avengers vs Xmen/Inhumans vs Xmen vibes to me right now, and those were just...yeah...

but the synopsis for Lives #5...Arkady is time traveling?? huh...ok...i was hoping for flashbacks, but sure...however, he’s time traveling to ruin things? *sigh* i was kinda hoping they were gonna try to keep him trying to be good, since one could argue the Dracula plot was him being manipulated (because really WHY would you let him stay on the island of stupid after you defeated drac knowing he was going to betray you? or was he in the Pit, and this tie travel bit is his escape from it? i could get on board with that...).and him traveling back makes circuit Wolvie?? um...hm...idk. i guess you could say i’m more intrigued now, but like with most of the island of stupid saga, it’s morbid curiosity, not excitement for something good that i’ll love and enjoy

(i wonder if Olinka will show up though, between the time travel and mentions of AIM in another spot...since we like reviving obscure chars these days...)

#kp rants about comics

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canaryatlaw · 6 years

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ok, so today was overall not too bad. I woke up to my alarm at 9:25. I tried to vary my alarm wake up songs a bit last night, because I have different alarms for different days, so I changed the days to different ones. So I got up and went to PT, though I was very tempted to stay in bed, I did make myself get up and go. Not gonna lie though, when I was like doing the child pose with my head against the mat and then while I was lying on the table I was really fucking tempted to just like pass out, but I did resist. it went better than the last two sessions being that I didn’t have to leave early because my body couldn’t handle any more exercises. I think the tremors in my hands are getting worse, they’ve just been really common lately and not doing well. I just had that thought because a lot of my muscles have been getting shaky at PT when I’m probably overdoing it. Oh well. I went to school afterwards, decided to walk even though it was getting cold, but oh well. Made it there and sat in the PAD office for a few eating my yogurt, then going to civil rights. class was fine, I knew I wasn’t gonna get called on because I got called on last class, so I didn’t read the entire case that was assigned, but oh well. It was our second to last class, Monday will be the last one. that definitely snuck up on me. After class I went back to the PAD office and didn't really do anything productive I don't think, as far as my legal drafting assignment I basically said fuck it because I’ve spent enough time stressing out about it and if she’s not even going to give me a fucking good grade anyway even though my arguments are fucking flawless, so fuck it. Around 3 I headed out to go to my haircut appointment, took the bus up Michigan Ave to where the Ulta is. I got there a little early so I looked around a bit, urban decay has this new mascara that I got a mini size of that I really liked but when I wore it when we were going to see Love, Simon I discovered it was not waterproof because I cried so much and it was all over my face, lol. So I wanted to see if it came in a waterproof version, but sadly it didn’t. And like, I’m really liable to burst into tears at any given moment, so I should really always be prepared for that. But I got my hair cut, kept it a bit longer in the front because I’ve been digging the longer bangs look, but took it short in the back because I don’t like it getting all shaggy back there. As always I had a pleasant discussion with my hair lady, I like her a lot for both her hair skills and her personality, we’re like legit invested in each other’s lives at this point lol. We talked about her cousin for a while, she had just gone to see him over Easter weekend and had talked with him for a while. He had attempted suicide twice over the past year and my hair lady knew I was sort of a mental health advocate so she had been asking me about the situation for a while now. It was definitely a hard conversation for her to have with her cousin, he’s definitely gone from being actively suicidal to passively suicidal, which is an improvement, but it’s still not a sustainable state that someone can stay in for any significant period of time. Basically it sounds like he needs to find something to live for, because that seems to be what’s lacking at this point, so I just said if you can find even one thing, no matter how insignificant it is, take it if it gets you through the day and worry about tomorrow when it happens. We also talked about Serial and Adnan because she always wants updates on the case so I happily told her the new trial was upheld, but then I had to tell her Brendan Dassey’s new trial had been reversed, and that sucks. But yeah, it was a good discussion and I’m digging how my hair looks. I spent a little while looking around Ulta afterwards because I needed to grab a few things, a tiny bottle of hand sanitizer for my purse, more mascara since I’m out of the waterproof stuff, and I was running out of concealer. I had been using the Sephora store brand concealer, but obviously at Ulta I couldn't get that, so I wandered for a bit before checking out the stuff they had at Mac, and ended up getting some help from one of the ladies that worked there with a concealer and foundation because I actually did need a better quality foundation because I can never find one that actually looks good on me, they always end up looking too yellow or too pale, but I figured someone else’s judgment who actually knows what they’re talking about would probably be helpful. I ended up picking up a mascara I had previously had and liked pretty well. I dropped a fair amount of money on the items, but I mean, I know they’re good quality and they’ll last me a while so it’s worth it. I hopped on a bus back to school (it’s legit just a straight shot down the road) and then ran to starbucks and got one of my basic white girl venti pink drink because I was gonna have a salad for dinner so I at least deserve a starbucks drink. I returned to the PAD office to find my friend there, so we chatted while I ate the salad I brought from home, one of the ready to go kit things, and it was fine I guess. Went up to secured transactions, and probably paid more attention than I had in any class period for that course up to this point, which is a good thing because it was the last class period we had, just the final in a few weeks left. It’s the first class I’m finished with, I’ll be done with legal drafting tomorrow night and then civil rights and remedies on Monday, and then I’ll be done with classes for...ever? God I hope so. I don’t want anymore schooling in my life, I’ve really had enough, 20 years with only one year off is just too much for any sane individual. It was lightly raining when I got out of class and I was debating switching to the brown line from the red line where it intersects, but then we got stuck in the red line train for a while because there was somebody having a medical emergency on the train which had us waiting for at least a solid 15 minutes, so then to try and reset the schedule they went express from that stop to one 3 before mine, which is pretty nuts, but it helped with timing at least, though I obviously couldn’t switch to the brown line now, so I was stuck walking home in the rain. It wasn’t awful, the rain wasn’t very heavy, but by the time I got home my sneakers were pretty much soaked through so I was glad to get out of the rain. I got home around 9:20 or so, so I turned on Designated Survivor. Lot of complicated feelings about this episode. I’m used to their plots largely being self-contained in one episode, it normally resolves itself before the episode is over (not the larger ongoing plots with Hannah and stuff, just the present stuff they’re dealing with) so for the whole thing to be largely leading up to next week felt kind of odd. I have mixed feelings about Michael J. Fox joining the show, and I fully admit this is mistaking the character for the actor, but I just hated him on the good wife so fucking much and this character actually seems very similar so I’m already like, sending mental hate daggers at him lol. I was not at all happy to see in the preview that it looks like they’re setting up Andrea to be the leaker and they’re going to ruin the beautiful budding romance between Kirkman and Andrea, my Jack and Audrey from way back in the day, because why can’t we have just one nice thing dammit?!!!??!! I love them together too much for them to get torn apart by something this stupid. So I wasn’t pleased with that. But yeah, we’ll see what happens next week. After I finished the episode I watched the news for a little then the beginning of Jimmy Kimmel before getting ready for bed. I showered but didn’t wash my hair because it was washed earlier today, then did the rest of my normal routine which led me up to this moment. It’s a bit past 1, thankfully I get to sleep in tomorrow so that isn’t too terrible. Tomorrow is gonna be dedicated to making final edits on this stupid legal drafting assignment before I have to turn it in tomorrow night at class, so let’s hope that works out well. And yeah, that’s it. Sleep now. Goodnight babes. Stay wonderful.

#daily journal #April 2018

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boushh2187 · 7 years

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My longer thoughts on Once’s 7x01...

I watched it twice today and I think it’s a pretty good sign that I wanted to watch it a second time. It wasn’t great, but it was mostly entertaining, and there wasn’t anything in it that made me not want to watch.

In a lot of ways this is like a pilot of a spin off. This ‘pilot’ was not as good as the original, IMO. There was a charm to the original pilot that I don’t think this episode manages, and maybe it’s because the original cast had more chemistry in their dynamics that this group does, or maybe it’s just because the premise was more original then. Maybe a bit of both.

IMO, I don’t think Alison Fernandez is as strong or as endearing as Jared was in the first season. She’s doing a fine job, but I was one of those people that really loved Henry, and thought he carried the show a lot of the time. I don’t get the same kind of vibe from her. Maybe she’ll grow on me.

I really like Andrew J. West as older Henry. He manages to capture a lot of Jared’s Henry and yet make the role his own too. I definitely believe this is a grown up Henry. He also has great screen presence.

Dania Ramirez is OK so far. She isn’t grabbing me. I didn’t think she and Andrew had a lot of chemistry in their first scene together but later on at the ball and in the bar I could see it. I hope they build on that. It would be a tall order to match Josh and Ginny so I am not going to expect that of them.

With her tiny role I loved Tiana. I hope that she’ll end up being an enjoyable character on the show.

Lady Tremaine isn’t as good of a villain as the Evil Queen was, but she’s satisfactory. I actually kind of hope they don’t give her a more sympathetic angle.

Alice is intriguing. I’ve had a million thoughts in the past of who/what she could be as we learned more about her. Is she a portal jumper like Jefferson? Is she Jefferson’s daughter? Then she’s hanging out with Rumple. Is she an informant? Is she his kid? Is she some sort of new version of the Dark One that is still connected to Rumple in some fashion? Is she CS’s kid since occasionally her expressions look like Jennifer Morrison’s and her clothing is similar to young Emma when she and Neal were together... Is she some street urchin that Rumbelle take in and that’s why she seems connected to Rumple?

She’s definitely playing a bit of the Rumple role in this story in that she is mysterious and you’re not sure what her deal is. I don’t know if she was trying to help Henry or not. She could just have been name dropping with Rumple’s name and wanted him to avoid Cinderella for her own reasons. She could be working with Rumple and they were trying to avoid Henry causing a chain of events that hurts their family by cursing them all again... Maybe she’s working for Lady Tremaine for all we know and she’s playing Rumple. We shall see if any of the theories that have gone around are correct.

I wasn’t thrilled with Roni at first, but I did like how she stood up to Belfrey and more and more hints of Regina came through.

Hook as a good cop is OK, but I can’t help but think it’s the writers trying to get people to forget what he was and have him be the hero as opposed to Rumple’s bad cop. Though seeing the preview makes me wonder if he’s even real Hook and not some timey whimey double.

Rumple/Weaver... well there’s probably more there than meets the eye. Who knows if he’s cursed or awake. If he’s really a crooked cop, or if there is more to it all. Is he just the type to break the rules if he’s got someone that will look the other way? Either way it seems like the other cops think he’s cool, and like to listen to his stories. I think that’s why Hook looked so flattered when he was introduced as his partner. Rumple must be highly regarded. That’s what it seems like so far anyway. I’m looking forward to episode 4 and wary too. Adam and Eddy tried to reassure the fans at NYCC today that they weren’t going to take away the happy endings that we got because that would be mean to do... We’ll see...

#ouat spoilers #ouat s7 spoilers #ouat 7x01 #my ouat thoughts #ouat criticism #long post #text post

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blaurascon-kzk · 5 years

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KZK Discord Digest [Week of May 30 - June 7 Pt.1]

SUMMARY: There's a big thing we're doing that I'm gonna split off into its own post so people can directly reference that. Plus this post is gonna be enormous. Pt.2 should be up shortly after this one. It’s been a busy week!

After months of trying to land a rental and a job in VA so they can move, Kat and April have decided, fuck it, they're going - some generous friends will be having them stay there until they're able to find a place of their own. The PODs are already being loaded. Kat will likely not be able to make / release new things for 2-3 weeks while they move and get settled. On top of that, he has to put his cat Ishizu to sleep soon - she's developed kidney failure and the only treatment would involve dialysis and subq fluid injections, so the difficult decision was made to let her go.

To help fund the move, we've put up a lot of our old LEs and plushy avatars, including things like the Darastryx, Mana Machina, and Murk Beast that haven't seen the light of day since their release. The sale will run for a few weeks, minimum. Check it out here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Okarthel/181/81/50

The Direwolf plushy is still WIP. See below for a sneak peek (with a lot of color) Direwolf freebie devkit is finished, barring documentation and instructions. Paid devkit will be getting a v1.2 update soon as well. No ETA on their release given IRL circumstances, but rest assured they are coming as soon as possible! Direwolf update is still WIP pending the move. We apologize deeply for the massive delay with this, and want to thank you all for your patience.

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May 30

Kat05/30/2019 @everyone Another quick teaser for the Eastern Dragon coloring page: Noodle derg!

Kat05/30/2019 @everyone Last teaser for today, as this one took me all day to finish, but here's the final result for the Eastern Dragon coloring page. The PSD for it, as well as the Northern will be made available once they are both complete. And a quick reminder, You have until tomorrow night to contribute to my patreon at the 10$ or more level if you want to snag a cool resin crystal! I've got another batch of mail going out in a couple of days to fill recent orders so now's your best chance! https://www.patreon.com/darkecokat

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May 31

Kat05/31/2019 @everyone Amazing how much quicker something goes when you've got less detail to contend with! The Northern and Eastern Dragon pages are done, as per the votes on the most recent Coloring page Poll. You can download all the available pages here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PfjTfO0M2a47arowNzhXD7MWxEDeNfgI And here's a preview of the Northern Dragon coloring page! A lone Dragon emerges from its den to greet the emerging spring as the final snowfall starts to melt.

Kat05/31/2019 @everyone Keeping the productivity train rolling. Decided to pick up the Direwolf plush today to break up the monotony of setting up devkit stuff and arting. Here's a preview of one of the steps of making a 3D model. This color vomit is not just awful to look at. It actually serves a very important purpose. Once I've finished the low poly model, I will bake these colors onto it, and my software will be able to use these very distinct colors as a 'Color ID' Mask. It'll save me a bit of time later setting up all the markings during the final baking/texturing phase. Stay tuned for more updates.

Kat05/31/2019 @everyone Been a busy day for announcements the last couple of days. Apologies for nuking your notifications. So update on the job situation.

As of this moment, my fiance and I are on the brink of burning one of our last few bridges with no way of going back. Her job has failed time and time again to work with her on scheduling for travel, and through no fault of her own, could be jobless by the end of tomorrow. Monday she flies up north for an interview, and if they don't hire her, we're out of options. She'll be jobless and we'll be stuck in Louisiana for at least the next six months which is far from ideal.

I say this because I need to start looking forward toward new projects. I'd intended to get the Direwolf update out before I started anything new, but this move has already caused so many delays and problems, that things are now piling up and I need to keep my income stable if I have any hope of qualifying for a place on just my income alone. So I will do my best to get the plush av out, get the freeby dev kit out, then I will be moving forward with production on a new avatar, while simultaneously working on the remaining bug fixes, missing features and general QoL improvements for the Direwolf.

I promised the update, and as usual, I've dropped that ball. For that I am sorry, and I can only hope for your forgiveness and support as my Fiance and I try to transition through this exceptionally difficult time in our lives.

I hate this state. I hate the people here. I hate being alone all the time. This move is supposed to help fix most of that, and putting out new content is the only way I can make that happen. I hope you all understand. Thank you.

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Jun 1

KatLast Saturday at 7:08 PM @everyone Update on the devkit progress: The Paid devkit will be getting a 1.2 release to address some minor issues bugging me, but that's not happening just yet. The freeby kits have been finished. Now I'm penning up the documentation and usage instructions. Those should be available once I get back from Dallas.

Speaking of Dallas, I will be gone for Sunday, monday, and tuesday. Its cheaper for us to book a hotel room and stay two nights to wait for her return flight than it is to drive back and forth (a total of 12-15 hours of driving for two round trips to dallas) so I'll be camping out in my hotel room with my switch and laptop xD. Hopefully I will have some good news on monday.

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Jun 2

KatLast Sunday at 11:13 AM @everyone so.. I will not be going to dallas, as originally planned. Last night my eldest cat ishizu got very sick. I'm sitting at an emergency clinic right now and wont be home in time to join. So please.. do me a favor, send @AprilsaurusRex words of encouragement for her interview. I'm not able to be there to support her on this trip and its tearing me apart.

KatLast Sunday at 1:07 PM @everyone At home now, waiting on news of the blood test results. Doctors had to sedate her to draw blood because she was fighting back so badly. Normally i'm there to calm her down but the clinic was exceptionally busy and I desperately needed food in my stomach. Total costs are already up around $400 for the IV(sever dehydration from constant vomiting), blood work, and the exam fee. that, compounded with the expenses to book the flights for this interview have taken a bite out of my savings so.. expect some sort of sale or something soon. I'm going to use the unexpected next few days home to focus on work. Thank you all for your support, patience and understanding.

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Jun 3

KatLast Monday at 3:01 PM @everyone Going to try to keep this brief today. Lab results came back early yesterday for my cat(I spent all day just.. processing, and... preparing myself for whats coming.). I've been reviewing her bloodwork and doing my best through research to interpret the results, along with the information provided by my vets. Her kidneys are in bad shape, and the only 'treatment' now is dialysis and weekly subcutaneous injections of fluids to combat dehydration. I can barely give her a syringe of chicken flavored medicine, let alone get her to sit still long enough to give her a shot. They had to mildly sedate her to even draw blood so... I've made the soul crushing decision to.. stabilize her for now, make her comfortable, and set a date. She will be buried next to my other animals.

As for moving... My fiance and I decided 'fuck it'. Job or no, we're leaving. Thanks to some generous friends in the area, we've got a place to stay while we find a place to live or while she looks for a job should the worst happen and Geico fall thru. I've already ordered the pods and i h ave 15 days to load it before city officials fine me for the pods overstaying its welcome. That'll arrive on the 6th so.. basically everything's on hold at this point while I move and prepare myself to say goodbye to my beloved Ishizu. I got her as a freshman in highschool. I'm going to miss her. so much. I dont want to put her to sleep but weekly injections, stress, and constantly being dragged to a vet where its cold and sterile and constantly stinks of fear is not how I want her final days to play out. I didn't come to this conclusion easily, and even now I wish there weer another way.

KatLast Monday at 3:08 PM @everyone All I ask is that when you get home, or if you are home.. give your cats, dogs, brids, lizards, snakes, turtles.. whatever animals you share your love with, please just.. give em a hug for me, ok? Let em know they're loved, even if they dont understand it. Thank you all for your kind words.

KatLast Monday at 9:58 PM @everyone As mentioned before, I've opted to put up a bunch of retired stuff for sale. Some of the stuff was sold recently when our car broke down, but some of it, like the freeby will o drakes, the murk beast, and the mana machina, haven't seen the light of day since their initial release. Also available is the darastryx, the winter hunt freebies (wings, horns, tail, ect), and a bunch of LEs released for the Sergals, Fennecs, Raptors, Central Dragons and Rift Dragons. I hate that I have to do stuff like this but I will have no time over the next 2-3 weeks to produce any new content, and this is my best chance at staying afloat financially while the move happens. Thank you. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Okarthel/181/81/50

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Jun 4

KatLast Tuesday at 11:07 PM @everyone We've been having some major issues with our host, so if you have any issues with a purchase, PLEASE let myself or @Blau know. I will do my best to respond and resolve the issues.

That said, by popular demand I've set up 4 new sets of avatars out that were previously exclusive to preorder or hunt events: This is the LE Fennecs, LE Ferox, LE Kaori, and the Hunt exclusive Rift Dragons. This sale will only go on for a few weeks.

A fond thank you to everyone for their support and kind words. It means the world to me. Ishizu is home with me now, and has spent the majority of today relaxing and resting. She's yet to eat anything, but she's drank a bit. Hasn't used the restroom yet though which has me really worried.

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Jun 5

KatLast Wednesday at 11:08 AM @everyone If you or someone you know has had any issues with deliveries, please drop me a message in SL. I know the alloy was a bit issue (entirely because of a mistake I made), so just drop me a message mk?

KatLast Wednesday at 12:32 PM @everyone If you're wearing a Kirin Alloy and your neck/spine guards attach to your HUD, this is a bug with Firestorm, not the avatar. I've just tested a freshly unpacked copy on the Default viewer and it works just fine for me. So make sure your viewer is up to date, and if it is, send a bug report to the Firestorm devs. Thank you.

#kzk-dd #kzk

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contradictoryenigmas · 5 years

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2018 Postmortem: 10 Questions

Hi there. It has been quite a while since I last wrote anything on Contradictory Enigmas.

*Looks at Tumblr dashboard, sees it has been over five months.*

Yeah. I would like to say the lack of posts is due to me being busy with life and moving on up. But it turned out that 2018 would be slightly worse than 2017. I’m not going to fully dive into the reasons why, but let’s just say that uncertainty played a huge role during the year. Still, I wouldn’t say that the year turned out to be a complete trash fire. I had to do some deep looking and thinking to find the bright spots, but they were there.

To cap off the year here on the blog, I’m going to revisit an exercise that I did last year: Looking through the past year through the lens of ten questions. You can check out the one I did for 2017 here.

What made up your body of work this year? Which parts are you most proud of?

The majority of my work on the freelancing side of the fence was mostly news and new car reviews/previews. I didn’t write much in terms of feature and opinion pieces as I was lacking the creative urge and energy. Looking at my list of ideas and drafts on my computer, most were either blank with the title or had something written before running out of steam.

There was one piece that did make it out of this drought. Last month, I published a piece talking about how I drove a 707 horsepower Grand Cherokee Trackhawk somewhat efficiently. It was something that I hadn’t done in quite a while; taking a vehicle out of its element and see how it would fare.

Here on Contradictory Enigmas, there are a few pieces that I’m quite proud that I was able to get out.

Barnes & Noble Pre-Postmortem allow me to look at a place that I enjoy shopping. Seeing the local store in the somewhat poor state when I wrote the piece in late winter was quite depressing. It has been slowly getting slightly better, but there are still various issues with the main office. This is a topic I would like to revisit in the coming year.

#QuitFacebook allowed me to put on my devil’s advocate hat on and consider a different angle on the mess that erupted in the spring. The piece really helped begin the process of stepping away from the platform.

I got to talk about my weird fascination with watching old Weather Channel clips on YouTube. It was surprising how much of a retro trip this was as I told the story of how I used to watch it while sitting in the back bedroom of my Grandmother’s house. I still do watch those old clips from time to time or put it on in the background to provide some ambient noise.

Dealing with a World on Fire is a piece I look at time and time again. It is a reminder to me that it is ok to step away from the world at large and take care of yourself - something I have been a doing a lot since the summer.

What were your top 5 moments of the year?

This is the hardest question for me to answer this year as at first glance, there wasn’t much that I would be considering being a *Top Five* moment. But doing some deep thinking brought forth some.

Finally finding and seeing a psychiatrist

Going out to various dinners to try new foods

Being invited to two automotive press events towards the end of year

Publishing some blog pieces that started from a writing journal

Working to give me more space to relax

What are you really glad is over?

Aside from 2018 in general? I know I said that last year, but I feel that it still stands.

As I mentioned in the beginning, uncertainty played a huge role. It felt like I was getting all of these various issues with work, money, health issues, and life beginning to stack up like a Jenga tower. I kept waiting for the one piece to cause the tower to topple over. But somehow, this tower somehow stood tall.

As the year is coming to a close, the uncertainty I’m been dealing with has come down a fair amount. Not to point where I can put it behind, but at least it isn’t front and center like it was for the majority of the year

How are you different today than you were 365 days ago?

Like last year, it is a mix of good and bad.

On the bad, I wasn't able to accomplish many of the goals I had set out to do. I wasn't trying to accomplish anything big or impossible*. Many of the goals were small such as trying to mediate, eating slightly better, getting out of the house more, etc. But various factors that were out of my control would conspire and cause me not to accomplish many of these things.

It has also been tough to sit down and actually watch a movie/TV show. I can't remember the last time I was able to relax and focus on something that wasn't on YouTube. Nothing against YouTube, but I've been trying to figure out why it was possible for me to binge through a number of videos, but cannot do the same with Netflix or what I have on my media server.

For the good, I have been re-diagnosed** with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). That may seem a bit strange, but it helps explains some of the issues I have been dealing with such as not being able to focus on one task, having my mind wander, forgetting various things - the list goes on. I've started to see a psychiatrist and been put on some medication to help me get various aspects under control.

Another good point is how much I have been trying to push myself out of my comfort zone. I have been trying to say yes to doing more events. Recently, I went to a special dinner with my parents that featured a fusion of Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine. The food was amazing and I was shocked by how much I enjoyed. Calling myself a picky eater is an understatement and something I've been trying to work towards over the year.

Is there anything you achieved that you forgot to celebrate?

Somehow I was able to keep applying to jobs. Doing this is very stressful because you don't know if you will hear anything; begin second-guessing whether or not everything is just right; wonder whether if its worth the time and effort being put in, and dealing with rejection. That's before the madness of the interview process.

I made a lot of progress in how I write my resume and cover letters; expanded my searches, and become somewhat decent in interviews. Hopefully, this pays off in 2019.

What have you changed your perspective on this year?

That it is ok to let things go. Whether it be ideas for possible stories, a book that I’m not enjoying, or someone on social media that is annoying me, you can put them off to the side to either revisit another or just put down and walk away. This has been tough as I’m one of those people who tries to see things through the end, which can result in something in disappointment. But I’m slowly making progress on this.

Who are the people that really came through for you this year?

My therapist has been a big help throughout the year. Without her encouragement, I wouldn’t have gone out and get psych evaluation to determine whether or not I had ADHD. This has also been the place where I have I spilled my guts on various thoughts and events that have happened. Seeing her helps me get a better understanding of myself.

The other people are some close friends that I try to talk on the phone every month or so. One of the downsides of working at home is the lack of interaction with other people. I wish I could get out more, but various issues and other stuff prevent me. The calls with the small group of people help me feel somewhat connected to the world

What were some pieces of media that defined your year?

Ni No Kuni 2: I spent so much time playing this RPG, over 80 hours during the fall. Everything about this game from the story, characters, and music just clicked with me. The Studio Ghibli art style really makes the game stand out. I cannot wait to dive back in once the DLC comes out and sink more time into it.

The Nakano Thrift Shop by Hiromi Kawakami: Delving into the lives of workers in a thrift shop may not seem like a good starting place for a book. But Kawakami makes the characters from the store owner that is reflective and philosophical about the about the world to the clerk who is just trying to figure out who she is. Reading through this book, I felt like I could sit down and enjoy the conversation going on while looking at the various goods.

Hammer Head: The Making of Carpenter by Nina MacLaughlin: This book made me want to get out and build/fix something because of the pleasure of doing something physical. Being able to see something to come life before your eyes that you created.

What will you be leaving behind in 2018?

Trying to feel responsible for everything. This has been brought to the light by all of the various uncertainties that 2018 has decided to drop on my head. I know that my personality likes to have control and know what is happening to give me some ease, but life doesn’t work like that. I’m slowly accepting that a lot of things are just out of my hands and it is ok.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2019?

My focus for the beginning of the year is to get myself back on track and get things in order. This includes some financial, health and personal stuff. Once I reach a point that I feel everything in order, then I will return to something that I mentioned last year.

The big goal for 2018 is figuring out who the hell I am. In 2016, I felt that I lost the knowledge of who I was. Sure I am a human who is in their late 20s and writes about the auto industry and other bits. But other than those pieces, everything else about myself seemed to fade into black.

This past year has seen me pick up the various bits and pieces of myself in an effort to figure out who I am. It’s a complicated puzzle where I have some of the pieces and trying to piece them together. There are a number of pieces that are missing - they could be somewhere else waiting to be unearthed or have faded away.

Next year is where I begin to put the puzzle together by working with the pieces that I have and also creating new ones to help fill in the gaps. I know that I will never be able to complete the puzzle, but I want to feel like that I have made some significant process, not starting at a giant pile and wondering what should I do.

It is a very ambitious goal, but my plan is to break this up into small pieces. Trying new hobbies, getting out of the house more, putting myself in somewhat uncomfortable situations where I have an easy way out, etc.

That’s my 2018 in a nutshell. A bit of bad, but there were some good parts.

*You can make the reasonable argument that trying to figure out who I am was a bit ambitious for 2018. My plan at the time was to do various small things over the course of the year that would build up towards the overall goal. **Re-diagnosed? Yes. I was originally diagnosed with ADHD when I was about three to four years old.

#2018 #postmortem #reflection

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sailorrrvenus · 6 years

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I Bought the New iPad Pro So You Don’t Have To

I’m no stranger to the iPad. In fact, it once caused me not to get a job at an Apple store shortly after college. I was asked in an interview, “What do you think of the new iPad,” and I answered honestly (mistake number one in a job interview I would learn).

“I’m not sure how I feel about it, it doesn’t really do what I would want it to do.”

I didn’t get a call back for a second interview. Little did I know this would be the start of my rocky relationships with tablets.

In 2012, I bought refurbished a 32GB “New iPad.” With its retina screen, I told myself it would be the perfect portfolio alternative, and I could make myself look so cool by bringing a digital device to a client meeting, instead of a printed book.

“Who prints photos anymore? Clients will see me as cutting edge!”

That device currently is sitting on the floor next to my bed, unable to be updated past iOS 9, with a dead battery. I rarely use it anymore because of how slow it has become. And it certainly didn’t win me any clients. I think I may have used it professionally once or twice to have someone digitally sign a contract or a model release.

When the first iPad Pro was released I found myself holding it and thinking, “Well…it sure is big,” before using the newly launched apple pencil to crudely draw a penis on it and handing it back to my friend. I still didn’t see a good use for what was essentially a laptop without a keyboard.

Flash forward to 2017, where I found myself standing at the counter at my local Apple store looking at the three size options in front of me for “Pro” level iPads. I was sold (or so I told myself). I just needed to know what size fits me best. After a few hours of going back and forth with the demo models, I eventually decided to walk away. It just didn’t hold up to the experience I was getting from my laptop.

When the 2018 Apple announcement of the new iPad Pro came through, I once again found myself enamored with the idea of getting a laptop replacement. I studied the keynote, watched every review video, and made an appointment with myself to visit the apple store as soon as possible to play with one myself.

The idea that now this tablet was “more powerful than most PC laptops” and (would be) capable of running a “full” version of Photoshop really intrigued me.

The Tech Specs

To be fair, a lot of this section is pulled directly from Apple’s sales literature on the new iPad, and I will try my best to keep things brief here. This isn’t anything you can’t find for yourself with a quick Google search.

Liquid Retina display

11 or 12.9-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Multi‑Touch display with IPS technology

2732-by-2048-pixel resolution at 264 pixels per inch (ppi)

ProMotion technology

Wide color display (P3)

True Tone display

A12X Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture

Neural Engine

Embedded M12 coprocessor

USB-C

10 hour battery life

New Apple Pencil with magnetic charging

I sent this photo to several people who knew how much I was dreading this purchase.

After another agonizing hour going back and forth with price and specs, I decided to pull the trigger on the 12.9” model with 256GB of storage, with the new Apple Pencil. $1,380.24 retail after estimated Atlanta taxes.

To be fair, I had a friend hook me up with an Apple Friends and Family discount, which brought my price down to a little under $1200 after tax. Even with the discount, this is a pretty large chunk of change to throw down on something that I didn’t even know if it would fit into my workflow properly.

Once the device was delivered to me an hour later, I rushed home and completed the setup process and began playing with my new toy. I was determined to make it work for me.

Pros

Just about everything with the design of the device

The 12.9” screen is gorgeous and, combined with the True Tone Technology and night shift, I found it very easy to use in a variety of lighting conditions. Never did it blow out my eyes when used in the dark.

The new Apple Pencil is very responsive and feels great in hand. The new magnetic charging system makes it a great way to store and charge.

Battery life is pretty good. Apple rates it at 10 hours, and with moderate usage, I was able to only drop down to around 50% before it was time for bed.

The refresh rate still makes me very happy. It feels snappy when I swipe between pages on the home screen, or between pages in a book or magazine. I am impressed at how smooth everything is.

All of this packed into a device that is a great size that fits comfortably in my hands.

And I’ll be the first person to say I have tiny hands.

iOS 12

For the most part, I am very happy with the latest version of iOS. When used on the iPad Pro it does a great job at coming VERY close to a desktop-class OS. For the average user who is looking for a laptop replacement or substitute, it makes for a pretty good argument against competing products.

USB-C (Kinda)

Apple choosing to move to a standardized charging/syncing solution is super smart. No more proprietary cables (for the most part), and if you are ok with dongles of varying sorts you can basically connect this device to just about anything (even if that connection can’t exactly do anything…more on this later). Even though I didn’t get a chance to try it, the ability to mirror to a 5K display was an impressive demo.

Cons

Price

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room straight away. This thing is not cheap. And for a similar price point, you are already into 13” Macbook territory. This makes the decision much harder when comparing side by side. Yes, technically you get more storage with the iPad, and that new processor supposedly is nothing to laugh at. But what you lose is RAM, and a FULL operating system (And at least for me, Capture One).

USB-C

For all the great things that the iPad pro can do with its new port, there is one HUGE thing that it can’t do. At the time of this writing, the USB-C port cannot be used to interface directly with an external hard drive. This is a huge bummer because, in order to be competitive with a traditional laptop, I can’t really get around needing expandable storage.

But, you say, “The cloud! Can’t you use the cloud?” And my response to this is a decided “Yes and No.”

I downloaded the WD MyCloud app onto the iPad. It’s the same app that I use to manage my personal cloud from the go on my phone. And while I was able to eventually download a file into the iPad for editing, it was far from an elegant experience.

Wait…where are my thumbnails?

While iOS 12 can support plenty of different RAW files, it can only read them while in the Photos app, unless specifically coded into each individual app. Even in the Files app, you can’t see any thumbnails by default.

I sure do hope I remember that SPECIFIC file name for the file I want to edit.

Now, once you download the file to your device, you can see a thumbnail just fine.

Too bad I’d have to import all of these into my camera roll first before I can see them.

Now I suppose this could be solved by a product like a Gnarbox or the Lacie DJI Co-Pilot since they have a computer of sorts built in for processing (RAW previews), and generally can interface with other apps nicely. But by that point, you are spending ANOTHER $299-$499 on top of the storage you already spent which further makes the argument for a traditional laptop.

The one thing I didn’t try was Tethering.

But unless I’m using the Lightroom app I don’t think this will work for me as intended as well. From what I have seen, connecting a camera basically just opens up the photos app and downloads files from the SD card on the camera. Not a direct tethered shooting solution that I am used to from Capture One.

I suppose you could also use the USB-C SD card reader, but then you are once again having to load every file directly onto the internal storage of the iPad itself. And then moving them back off for long-term archiving brings up a whole other conversation.

I think that the lack of USB-C mass storage support is something that Apple could (and hopefully will) fix in an upcoming version of iOS. This two-way data movement and storage would change a LOT of my feelings about the iPad Pro as it stands today.

Lack of “Desktop Strength” photo editing solutions

This is one “con” where I think things are ALMOST there. A “full” version of Adobe Photoshop will be coming next year, but Lightroom CC already has a large user-base and supposedly does a pretty good job. I’m still not sold, I don’t like Adobe’s charge per month model. It’s just not for me. And all of it adds to the overall cost ($120 a year). There are some cheaper (and single purchase) options available, however.

Affinity Photo has long been the Photoshop analog that many photographers have fallen in love with. At the time of this writing, however, Affinity Photo hasn’t been updated in over a month, and likely hasn’t been optimized for these new processors yet. I fully believe that the next version of Affinity will work just fine and will be a very speedy piece of software.

But for me, I found it to be a touch clunky and certainly when I was doing some basic retouching there were several times I had to wait 15 seconds or so while the app crunched the data.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Affinity Photo UI

Affinity isn’t a bad option at all, and I think that part of my problems with it was just in learning a new piece of software. And once I got rolling I feel that things went rather smoothly. With the exception that it took me over an hour to retouch the above file, and even then I’m not 100% happy with the results. But I’ll let you guys judge for yourselves.

Backup and Archiving Workflow

My final gripe comes after you export the files out. By default, most of the apps I have played with wanted to export everything back into the camera roll of the iPad itself. Which then, of course, leads to duplicate files and space being eaten up by final deliverables.

I found a way to move things manually back to my WD Cloud, but it wasn’t elegant and took some experimenting with to move everything over. Then I was still left with having to delete the file manually to free up space on the device itself.

Conclusion

I like the 2018 iPad Pro, I really do. But I’m not IN LOVE with it.

Ok, I’m lying. I do love it. I think it’s designed well, I think the screen and pencil are both great, I think the audio on it is some of the best I have heard across any device. I like the idea of having iOS on a larger screen, that is still light enough to carry around one-handed. I like all of the potential that comes from multitasking.

From an Apple fanboy perspective, I really do love this device.

I even used the Squarespace blog app to type some of this post!

But from a photographer standpoint, it falls short. For me. My workflow just can’t accommodate the iPad Pro as it currently stands. But it’s so close!

With a few simple changes (USB-C Mass Storage, RAW Support in the Files app, and more Pro “Desktop Level” Apps from the likes of Adobe, Capture One, etc) all of which could potentially come at a software level without the need of additional hardware.

For day to day web surfing, email, notes, and other media consumption I love what has come from this latest generation of iPad. This makes me excited for what is to come with lower-spec devices that I would likely use more frequently.

I was at a meeting today and loved using the iPad to take notes on, and I loved being able to quickly surf the Web and find info I needed. I really want to have this device in my life, but unfortunately…I’m probably going to return it.

I’m going to give it through the weekend to grow on me a little more, maybe do some more playing around to see if I can better fit things into my life. But at this moment right now, I just can’t justify paying $1200 for something that I can already do (arguably better) on my already paid for MacBook Pro. Thankfully Apple has a 14-day return period, because I would hate to have to try and re-sell this on the open market.

Maybe I’ll just wait a while and snatch up one of these once they hit the Refurbished section of the Apple store, or maybe grab one of last year’s models at a killer deal.

Or there is always next year’s model…

About the author: Blake Griffin is a photographer based in Atlanta, Georgia. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Griffin runs UNEXPhotography and has his Bachelors of Arts with a concentration in film and photography, from Montana State University – Bozeman. You can find more of his work on his website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This article was also published here.

source https://petapixel.com/2018/11/13/i-bought-the-new-ipad-pro-so-you-dont-have-to/

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blaurascon-kzk · 4 years

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KZK Discord Digest [Week of Feb 21 - Feb 27]

SUMMARY: The Direwolf devkits are out! These are free, and include pretty much everything you need! No signing, no payments - just drop by Okarthel and hit the orange crystal by the Direwolf vendors. To celebrate the release of the new devkits, we're holding a weekly community spotlight on new Direwolf creations! If you're making something neat for the Direwolf and want to get featured, contact me (blau.rascon) or Kat (sylver.bu) and let us know! We'll be sharing submissions weekly! We’re also running a sale on the Direwolves! Individual sizes are 1900L, and the fatpack is 5000L! Sale and event will run until March 27!

To more serious news: Kat's older brother passed away unexpectedly Thursday morning. He may be slow to reply for the next few days. Please go hug your loved ones.

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Feb 22

KatLast Saturday at 3:31 PM @everyone So, had to go back to the table on the rigging/animation files. It was brought to my attention that because of how far behind the files were behind, version wise, that it was starting to cause issues, so thanks to some help from the find folks over at the Avastar team, I'm getting the files updated and working, to ensure they're compatible with the current stable release (2.79.6). Not sure if I'll get em working with 2.8, but for now this'll keep everything more in line with future content.

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Feb 24

KatLast Monday at 11:04 PM @everyone It is with great excitement that I announce the Public Direwolf Devkit is NOW AVAILABLE. To obtain it, you must first already OWN a Direwolf of any size. Included in the kit is up-to-date blend files compatible with Avastar 2.79.6, made in Blender 2.79b. The PSDs are included (with all detail and shading layers intact). Included in the Drive is 3 Blend files for the small, medium and large ANIMATION and WEIGHT COPY dummies--Great for making clothing or accessories! (If you need the weighted UV Dummy, Please DM me!)

To celebrate, we're also hosting a SALE on the Direwolf. The individual sizes will be available for 1900L, while the Fatpack is only 5000L.

We're also looking to promote our talented community content creators by rounding up NEW content made for the Direwolf each week to feature HERE in announcements, and in the Kinzart Group in Second Life. We want to see this avatar grow, and we want to see your businesses grow with it!

Just remember to read the EULA included with the Devkit in the Drive folder!

PLEASE Tell your friends, your parents, your siblings, or your neighbor! Help us make this Devkit a huge success!

@everyone Forgot to mention: How do you get the devkit? From the main store of course!

Simply tp in, and poke the orange crystal near the Direwolf vendors. Remember, you MUST already OWN a direwolf, and if you plan to produce content to sell, we STRONGLY ENCOURAGE you to buy the Fatpack! (Or whichever sizes you're missing).

Also, we understand that some of you likely just recently bought a Direwolf. I will happily reimburse any purchases made in the last TWO WEEKS (February 10th to February 24th), if you or a friend paid full price! I like to do this because this sale was not announced, so no one had any way of knowing.

KatLast Monday at 11:38 PM @everyone One last announcement as a final roundup of information for the evening:

Clothing! The basic direwolf clothing I'd teased a bit ago is now on sale on the main store for 250L, includes a link to download the PSDs so you can customize it to your hearts' content!

Preorder bonuses! I'm working on them! The plush has been nearly ready to go for a while now, but a LOT has gotten in the way. I appreciate everyone's patience. Not to worry, I haven't forgotten about the Hellhound and Frosthound skins I promised as well!

Thank you all for your continued patience and understanding. Its been a long, emotionally challenging road. Years of depression and burnout have crippled my motivation and drive, but each day I find myself standing taller and finding the energy to get shit done. I can't thank you all enough for having my back through all of this. I know I say it a lot, but I mean it--seriously.

Let me know if you encounter any issues with the devkit, clothes, or sale prices on the Direwolves. Love you guys! :heart:

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Feb 26

KatYesterday at 2:38 PM @everyone Been a couple of days since the devkit went live, so I'm curious to see what everyone's been working on! Is it a custom skin to finally capture your fursona, or are you working on a bad ass mod that's gunna be on everyone's must-have list?

If you've been on the fence about picking up the direwolf, now's the time because We've discounted the Single sizes to 1900L(down from 2500L), and the Fatpack** (typoed) down to 5k from 6k.

Once you own the Direwolf in any format, you're immediately given access to the Devkit, which contains an Animation dummy, a weight copy dummy, and the PSDs, with all shaders and detail layers intact. There's also posed UV dummies, so you can preview your progress directly in Blender, and some inworld ones if you want to preview them using local uploads.

Once you've got the devkit, you're golden! You're welcome to sell whatever you make, as long as you're not just reuploading what's in the kit--your creations must be transformative in some way (new colors, markings, heavily modified geometry, ect).

If you make something, be sure to let myself or @Blau know! We'd love to see it! You can also share it in #traders-forum and let everyone know what you've got coming!

I know its a year later than it should of been, but I can't wait to see what everyone creates for the Direwolf. I'd envisioned so much more for it and I'm deeply sorry for how I handled it. It's been a humbling and sobering experience, and I only hope to improve as time goes on.

Each week we'll promote upcoming new direwolf mods, right here, and in the KZK group in SL! Deadline to be included in this week's promotion is March 2nd! (Direwolf sale ends around a month from now, so you've got time to think it over!)

KatYesterday at 10:56 PM @everyone Please forgive this interruption to your evening.

I'm posting this tonight to ask for help--A family friend is currently going through the battle of her life--Her mother-in-law, who is devoutly conservative, has taken advantage of the court system to take custody of her two daughters--claiming that because she's polyamorous, she's unfit to be a mother--which I know personally to be wrong. Kia is one of the most loving, supportive moms I've ever met, and her daughters are her world.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/u5t7a3-help-keep-this-family-together?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link-tip&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

If you're able to spare a few dollars to assist them in retaining a lawyer to fight the court and get her daughters back, It'd mean the world to them.

Thank you all for your time and understanding.

______

Feb 27

KatToday at 2:51 PM @everyone TW// death in the family

Just got word from my father that my older half-brother Ronnie was found dead this morning. No cause of death just yet. Police is investigating and they're still doing the autopsy.

I'll be attending the funeral, when I get word. Ronnie was a huge catalyst in my life, helping to ignite my love of gaming and encourage my art. He was always so uplifting and happy. he had a history with drug abuse and drug related crimes, and would often send me art he drew in prison. and now hes gone.

Just.. take today to call your loved ones. Tell em how much you love them. ok?

I might be slow to answer over the next couple of days, i hope you all will understand.

-kat

#kzk #kzk-dd

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